Human cyborg?

It all started with http://202.186.86.35/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=/2005/5/13/nation/10943441.asp&sec=nation

So I did a search and unearth plenty of information about this man who wants to be in one (sync, harmony, ) with his computer.

The scientist in me tells me that I should be both excited and sceptical about this. The wanting to realise the pomo (oops, I mean postmodern) dream of syncing the human as being a gentic makeup of ideas with the greatest human creation (well, maybe not that great) sounds like a wet dream to all hardcore nanotechnologists. But of course, there are many sceptics, and I wonder that if he really is a step closer to finding the ultimate cure for Parkinson, why isn't this being shared more widely?

Remember the 'Bad Science' column run by The Guardian? Well, I do wonder if anyone has posted anything on this. Here are some news from Wired


Anyhow, you can always google for it (see, a trademark that has become a ubiquitous verb) yourself. I have captured a link for you under note it. Also, check out http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id174/pg1/

Have to be careful as to what I do at work today as many big-wigs are around (not that they wear wigs anymore. We need to find a less cthnonic word).


A lot of work out there, both discussing the merits of popularly written science books and badly written science books.

Can someone tell me how I can be a freelance science writer? I've got a degree in science! Anything to get out of this place where everyone above production seems to think that they are doing such important things that the world will come to an end should we fail to satisfy their highnesses requirements, when all of them, up to the highest boss, are merely slaves to the monied beings..called THE CUSTOMERS. Yeah, they pay my salary too. Bleah.

One lesson I learnt from my job... Forget about climbing up the ladder to reach for that eponymous carrot. Trust me, the higher you go, the more likely it will be moved up. Work for your own money and for yourself. Be rich. Then you can dangle everybody's weenies. Yes, even that of the big big big obese boss you once worked for, and do sexist and politically incorrect things.



From a disgruntled employee

It has been a long week until today...

With three different deadlines, and the dissertation I did not manage to start revising, it had been a very long week.

Managed to complete the first two deadlines, and also migrated my website onto the new server, which has more funky features. As you might notice, the look for the blog has changed slightly. Meaning, there is now an archiving feature for my personal blog. This is to streamline the look and make it less chunky and more searchable. As the year goes on, there would be some changes here and there made to the look of the site. But being the busy person that I am, I can't be bothered to do too much tweaking at a time.

Work is both fine and boring. Have to deal with a lot of administrative and human problems. As well as technical problems. Consolidating amending acts into legislation publications is no fun way to spend the best part of one's day.

I'll write more when I feel less cranky.

NAM women's meeting

Taken from The Star, 9th May 2005

A good turn-out

DELEGATES from more than 76 countries who have confirmed participation in the NAM Ministerial Meeting on the Advancement of Women (MMAW) in Kuala Lumpur from May 7 to May 10 began arriving on Friday.

As delegates began to converge for registration, security at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), where the meeting is being held, was tightened.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, as host minister, said she was pleased with the good response from NAM member countries towards the meeting.

The main objectives of the two-day meeting, themed “Empowering Women in Facing the Challenges of Globalisation”, are to share experiences among member countries on best practices, achievements, and gaps and challenges in empowering women; and on achieving gender equality, peace and development.

It was preceded by the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), which was held on Saturday. Chaired by Women, Family and Community Development secretary-general Datuk Faizah Mohd Tahir, the SOM met to draft the Putrajaya Declaration on the Empowerment of Women in NAM countries.

The declaration will be considered for adoption on the second day of the Ministerial Meeting.

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I hope that something good will come out of this meeting.

long weekend

It begun with me falling ill on Thurs. However, I still had to prepare for a presentation which I had to give on Saturday morning. Hence, between long drowses, I managed to scrap up a rough draft of the paper. Helps that I took half day off

Fri morning. On leave because I had lots of admin to take care of, including going to the police station to get my road accident case decision, and have them posted back to the workshop for insurance claim. It was a rather busy Friday. At night, finally managed to get my butt into the hotel where the seminar was going on, with a former lecturer of mine giving a talk on a paper which I had to comment on the next morning. Had to do a lot of fact-checking on what he said, and spent the time flipping through my reference book. After much problems, managed to get a room to stay for the night so that I need not make that arduous journey from home in the early hours of the day the next day.


Saturday was a long day. Talk went well. Many things happened. Shan't talk too much about it now as I am supposed to be working. It resulted on me being sleep deprived on Sunday because I couldn't get enough sleep on Sat ..arrgh

Anyway, now I have to settle down to sober work and earn my keep. Good news is, my univ has reimbursed some of the money I have spent on my dissertation research, which helps to ease the expenditure (especially since reimbursement is not in full). I wish I can get a nice part time job in publishing. Anybody wants to hire me? :/

Also, here is a link to an article I did on philosophy, in Malay. I have the English version. If anyone is interested to read or publish it elsewhere, in English, let me know.
Here is the Malay version Wittgenstein dan Popper: Benarkah Falsafah Mereka Berselisih?


Orite, back to work

Cheers!
Clarissa

A man who does not believe in magic

Erm, hope you can read Malay as I have no time to translate to English.
http://www.geocities.com/ummahonline/wawancara/050427uolteam-fathi.htm

Read an interview with Fathi Aris Omar on liberalism vs fundamentalism (or should it be read as extremism?) and about the man himself.

A day for crime

In between reading Lacan, I decided to listen to some music on the net. In powering up my
Realplayer , I came across an ad for a new movie about the infamous madame, Heidi Fleiss. Which of course led to some googling (not that I don't know about her already), which brought me to the crime library and an afternoon spree of reading through all the stories on criminals. This is not the first time I've been to this site, the last time being last year and an entire night spent on going through all the historical scums of the earth. However, after reading the brief story on Fleiss (what a coincident that a psychoanalyst mentioned by Lacan in his Ecriture I was reading is a Dr Fleiss, I decided to look at a few on child criminals, and one which caught my mind was one who used to be labelled "Long Island Lolita". However, she is now a far cry from the wild and troubled teenager, and has her own column. It is always heartening to read how someone who has fallen to the lower most pit of darkness has risen up and made something of her life, and now fight for causes that most people can't be bothered with. Here was a former juvenile murderer, a victim of statutory rapes (read her story in the Crime Library) and an unrelenting press who could not get enough of demonising her. Her column is defnitely NOT trying to vindicate herself of her follies, unlike the memoirs written by many adult criminals.
I wonder in a small country like Malaysia, would you have a chance to escape your demonic past?

Today is a public holiday in Malaysia. I am supposed to be home relaxing. I am home, relaxing (whenever I fall asleep) but reminding myself that I've got many deadlines. Sometimes I feel so very alone. Sometimes I feel sad. Sometimes, I just want to leave everything and disappear, to write and create without all these problems I am faced with. Give up all my responsibilities.

car batteries

I was just wondering today how to top up the electrolytes for my car battery, which is the flat-top Yokohama type.. And I found this site
http://www.tkyoko.com/eng/modules.php?name=products&file=yokohama-automotive_battery-flat_top

Looks like I don't have to use them saline watter anymore. :P

I think I should always ask about specs whenever I try something new. But I keep forgetting. :( Thank the good Lord for the Internet. :)

I appreciate comments from my car-geek readers out there.

women's careers and slate

I feel the need to share this article
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/04/08/summers_displays_new_understanding_of_womens_careers/

And I suppose some of you might already have encountered slate.msn.com? I think it is a cool way of utilising blog-style to create an online magazine. There is a vibrancy and cutting-edge feel to it.
What salon.com used to be like

A weekend to remember

Despite being tired out for most of the weekend (perhaps due to a grueling schedule of work and dissertation), I wasn't entirely in the mood to meet people. However, I was glad that I did and dragged my bum out to a nice little watering hole in KL to see some of the coolest women in town, some old friends, some new to me. It was a great night with much camaderie and fun. Though there were 2 men present, it didn't spoil the bond with women have with each other (sorry guys).

As someone coming from an all-girls school, I used to detest the site of coteries of the female sexes, not because I detest women, but because I had to put up with cattiness and pettiness from some members of my sex, an inevitable consequence of spending most of your mornings and a small part of an afternoon, 5 days a week, with members of your sex, except for the welcomed vacations. Hence, I often preferred the company of the other sex (not for reasons of boyfriends/partners) but because I found them a refreshing change. But, I soon discovered that boys (especially those in an old boys school) do have their form of prejudices and are not above belittling members of their own sex in front of the other sex.

Hence, all that we've learnt about the real world begun at school, if not from home.

But, I am glad that there were no exhibition of malicious behaviour in this gathering I attended, and everyone was supportive of one another. One to the girls (and the two guys)

Off-topic, the deadline for my dissertation is nearing, so you might find me posting here even less than I do now. Plus, I've got some other projects ongoing.

Take care, y'all

Dance Music

I am not much of a club goer but the following site entices me enough to want to go to such a club should I be near a place with such a site. (:

http://www.soxan.co.uk/about.html

More later. Back to work

Off-Day

Despite taking a break from work yesterday to sort ouf some problems at university, I found myself running around and busier than if I had been at work. The upside to it, I managed to get myself a traditional treatment massage that leaves my body feeling simultaneously sore and relaxed. And got my MyKad application done. Imagine the wait involved. I could have written an article during the wait. (:

So, back at work today, waiting for a product to come in for me to work on. Boring tax stuff, but then, the longer it takes to come, the more likely is it to interrupt my vacation plans in April. Anyhow, I am taking off for the entire final week of that month, whatever happens. Need to get a few overdued things sorted out. Like making that long-delayed trip to Singapore.

Today, I find myself multi-tasking as usual, simulltaneously reading postings about the effect of anaesthesia on conscioussness and Sohn-Rethel on Marxist theories. Talk about interconnected schizophrenia.

This is for the math and physics geeks out there (I am still a bit one of one, despite having defected over to the humanties).

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/sym.html

How do I ever end up in dead-end work. (:

Day of Torture

It always seems fun when you look at requirements for a job listing and one sees on it "Bloggers are most welcomed to apply" (:

Alright, back to topic. I chanced upon this site while looking through all the mails that come into my inbox. This is the American version of the Malaysia's Internal Security Act. However, as the former is a much bigger player that everyone is paying attention to, their (mis)conducts in their homeland garner great interests. Especially for a country with free speech guaranteed in its constitution.

Here it is
http://bad.eserver.org/editors/2005/Document.2005-03-15.0801901098

I haven't have time to explore the other links in the site but if you do, be prepared for merciless information bombardment of the abject kind.

And why am I even looking at this on a nice Saturday...:]

Project management

This might be helpful to anyone who works on any projects, personal or otherwise. I sometimes wish that people are more farsighted when planning for or working on anything. :)
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=369224

Marriage is in..

Do you think it is possible to establishmarriage as a complimenting partnership between two forces who have decided to seek their fortunes and fates together, to merge resources and strengths as opposed to an institution that oppresses, represses, suppresses and depresses? There are so many conflicting and schizophrenic arguments going around about the value and problems of the marriage institution that it does require a strong constitution to remain sane.

another plain day for plain Clare and when books are called products....

I have been trying to settle into the daily grind of a day job and off-hours spent researching and writing up my dissertation. Hence the lack of posts. However, I am please to announce that I have gotten at least half of my dissertation done, with another half to go. Phew. I must say that having to discipline myself for work has helped in disciplining me when it comes to writing. I have never worked as fast in the past 6 months, since July last year, when it comes to anything to do with my dissertation. This could perhaps stem from the desire to get it done with and to move on with my life.

There isn't much to blog about work since I am still under training, with another 6 days to go. Perhaps I will have more interesting stories about work-place antics, deadlines, schedules and the various people I work with once I actually start working properly. When I look back, I realise that my life has changed so much from the time I was a pre-University students, doing things I never thought I would end up doing. I haven't achieved my dreams completely, but I do intend to head towards that direction. The only difficulty is in determining which dream I want to achieve, since I have so many different ambitions that go down so different routes. :P


On a different note, I am glad that I have done of the things I chose to do, though I sometimes regret the things I did not do. Yet, it has been a great life, challenging and always giving me something different, and many exciting things had happened to me these past few years . I am sure not everyone has the privilege to say that about themselves, since most complain that their lives are so dull. But I believe that it is up to you to make or break your own life.

Even though I am working in publishing now, it is not the kind of publishing that I see myself doing long-term. Firstly, this is quite entry-level (even if they do hire some more senior members of the press for this position), the products are of little interest to me (beyond the need to know a few things in order to get my life in order), and the work, from the sound of it, is pretty repetitious, mechanical and almost lifeless. Not only that, we are basically hired to put some poor souls from the first world out of work, as part of the cost-cutting enterprise. I doubt I need to expound on the merits of 'cheap' labour. But, I see it as a way of breaking into what I plan to do in the long run, as well as giving myself work experience. At least I can say that I have worked a number of years (inclusive of freelance, part-time and full-time positions) by the time I get my MA. (;

On a lighter note, reading this guy's blog reminds me so much of the work I am 'trained' to do. Welcome to the publishing sweatshop! Basically, my end of publishing would be the 'sharks' referred to.

http://11d.typepad.com/blog/2004/12/publishing.html

Cheerios

A day at work

This is officially my third day at work. While the first day (Monday) saw me at the new office in Cyberjaya, we (the new people) were asked to go to Raja Chulan as part of our training between Tues to Thurs, so here I am, in the heart of a very congested city. This is going to be my first time going to work on public transport (a bus and a monorail service).

So far, training has been just ok, with a lot of emphasis on the company's products. While I am not all that gungho about what they produce, it is nevertheless an interesting insight into what a non-traditional publishing business does. My nights at home are very boring, as one usually feels drained by the end of the day and at this point, I am still trying to get use to waking up so early everyday and being at work between 0900-1730 everyday. While not engaged in anything too taxing at the moment (beyond stealing time to complete my dissertation), being forced into a certain environment 5 days in a week can be depressing. I know that I will start appreciating the weekend more, especially after having had everyday a weekend for the past 2 1/2.

Anyway, I better go check what is in for today. If I feel like it or have time, I will blog later today. (:

To donate or not To donate

When disaster strikes and relief funds are set up all over calling for donations for those affected, you sometimes wonder how many of these are done genuinely to help the people and not a scam to reap money off gullible people. Perhaps the best thing to do is to give directly to the victims themselves, but sometimes it is not possible to do so, and even if you happen to be there, conditions is such that one would find oneself in a state of chaos and there will be difficulties separating between victims and quacks.

Perhaps it is in human nature to take advantage of others, that being the law of the jungle. Why should we be surprise to hear reports of criminal activities and malice whenever a disaster of massive scale happens, whether natural or man-made?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4145591.stm

I pray that the victims of trauma would be able to rebuild their lives and look forward to better things, though life is very bleak at the moment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4145359.stm

Anyone with the expertise and ability to render help should give a hand as lots of hands are needed.

And hurray for the debt relief
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4147277.stm

Back in Malaysia

Looking back at my previous posts, I am struck by their insipidness, especially in view of the subject I was writing about. For the past two weeks, I have been lacking in inspiration and slack in my writing, hence the dearth of imagination and scintillating arguments. Nevertheless, I will stem the tide of such unwarranted mediocrity and will spur myself on to provide my readers with more delectable semantics, that is if I still have any more readers. (:

I came back the week before, and took 4-5 days to recover from my jetlag (exacerbated by my lousy personal habits). In between trying to sleep and being extremely irritable, I managed to complete reading Georges Battaile's On Sensuality and Eroticism as well as Jacques Lacan's On Feminine Sexuality, the former being a book i borrowed and the latter bought from London. These two are required readings for myself since my dissertation utilises ideas from these two thinkers, and I believe that Malaysians too should read them, even if they do not agree with some of the ideas propounded, for in reading them, I could see bits and pieces of the Malaysian psyche and attitude within the extremities of some of the views. I know that it would be difficult to just walk into a bookstore to get them (after all, these aren't easily obtainable stuff even in the so-called enlighten nations), so I will suggest paying Amazon.com or Kinokuniya a visit and order them. As I do not have much time, I will not venture to review these books for you, though at a latter date, I will discuss some of the ideas in my blog. Suffice to say that Battaile is known for his obssessive interest in human sexuality and eroticism (having written fictional materials that seem to border on pornography for the less exposed or more uptight), with a unhealthy interest in the Marquis de Sade (from which the word sado-masochism is derived) whereas Lacan is much pre-occupied with his conceptualisation of jouissance, which suspiciously is about sexual pleasure. For more on them, don't be lazy and try Google.

Next week, I start work, so I better enjoy all that is left of my holidays, while trying to work on two chapters of my dissertation and start on the third. I wouldn't have much time for anything after this week *sob*. Last week, I posted a piece on the Tsunami under the News and Updates section (perhaps I should have posted it here instead) so if you haven't read it, go check it out here

That's all for now folks.

news from abroad part 2

Dag Alle,
I know that it has been some time since I have blogged here. A number of reasons, among them; inertia, illness, being out most of the time and plain laziness. I have been feeling all these since I got to The Netherlands from the UK. For some of you who have not experienced flying from London to Amsterdam, a tip for you all at the customs is that there is no such thing as freedom of movement between these two countries, so you have to go through the entire rigamarole at customs again, unless of course you have an indefinite entry pass or something equivalent, or have been in and out of the country often enough without incident.

Weather is usually blustery, and temperature can drop low enough to leave frost lying on leaves, grass and rivers the next morning. I saw hail only once in my two weeks here, but it was enough to keep me indoors the entire time. Hence the lack of blog. Not much to write about when you are stuck at indoors sleeping, reading, reading emails. surfing the net and doing all that one does back home (:

However, since I am currently living in a village at the outskirts of Central Utrecht, I managed to pay the town a visit, as well as Amsterdam and Delft. Unfortunately, I have not been able to go around as much as I like, due to bad weather and transportation prob (I live in a village and have no car). Life would have been simpler if I have rented a car, that would put me back by 300 euros per week, and the fact that everyone drives on a different side of the road would have limited my car-induced mobility. So I make do with freezing walks, buses, cabs(highly expensive) and trains. But since I can't go out as much, it isn't too bad.

Amsterdam is a charming city, interspersing old and new, sleaze and calvinism. Streets are much dirtier than other parts of the Netherlands I have visited, but it is a colourful place, and it has a Chinatown located in the red light district (albeit a tiny one). Trust the Chinese to operate from dodgy parts of European towns. It is also in the red-light district (the map will tell you where it is and the Dutch actually name that part of town Red Light District) that you can get really charming and interesting stuff, especially big second hand bookstores (*drool*). Utrecht and Delft on the otherhand are very Dutch, though one see some Indonesian-Chinese and Surinamese restaurants around, the way one would see HK and Indian/Pakistani restaurants in London. If you know a little German and a lot of English, you might be able to understand a few simple words here and there. Learning Dutch isn't too difficult if you are a German or English speaker, though I am told that it is harder to learn to pronounce in Dutch if you are a native German speaker. Oh yeah, did I mention that this is a place where you can buy cannabis biscuits and marijuana sells rather cheaply? If I ever stay here long enough, I'll invest in a bicycle and cycle around, carrying it on the train whenever I have to move between cities. Oh, clock towers are ubiquitous around here. You know you are at the centraal part of town once you see one. And the lovely canals.

I will write more later. Weather has turned for the better, so am planning for another outdoor excursion.

Tot ziens

New from Abroad Part 1

From the first day I arrived, this has been my sixth day in London, with around six more days to go. Most of the time has been spent getting things done (like posting letters, getting a mobile simcard) and orientating myself around (with a number of misses of course). I am beginning to learn more about this city, being forced to go around on my own since most friends are not availble a majority of the time. I discovered some interesting shops, streets and museums. Some quaint and some look like what you would see in big cities in Asia.

I've also managed to get a British Library reader's pass, which is valid for a year, so that means I can go to the Library anytime I want between now and early Dec next year, subject to possible renewal. Despite the fact that it is now housed in a building quite a distance away from British Museum, it has a nice scholarly ambience, even if it lacks somewhat in history.

In between shopping and sighs-seeing, I am please to say that I managed to get some research work done. Well, four days spent on sightseeing and shopping, and all the other days (except this Sunday and the next Mon when I will be flying off to the continent) will be spent in BL (though I can still go shopping after closing time (:, or maybe take in a museum of two, if they aren't close by then. Most public places tend to close, early, with the exception of libraries.

Cheers