I'm planning a musical ! :-)

Of course, I'm not expecting it to be done as soon as possible, I'm thinking of staging this after my LLB is over.

But take a look anyway :

http://carnetduservicenational.blogspot.com/

Layout is mine. Almost all pictures are mine. I modified a classic HTML layout and I'm proud to say that this is the first ever layout of mine that turned out nicely ! Though I'll have to do some serious redesigning soon.

The musical is loosely based on my National Service journal, though the plot elements are more detailed here and I believe that the story is told from the third person's point of view.

Interested in singing ? Dancing ? Writing lyrics ? Composing ? Designing costumes, logos, flags and other props ? I'm not gonna do this instantly but if you're interested, drop me a comment - I'll put you in the list of potential candidates !

The impossible dream

You want to sing in the college prom night, but all the slots have been taken.

You want to sing in the shower, only to realise that someone's out to get you.

You want to play the drums on your return from college, only to find the rest of the condominium asleep.

You yearn to choose a musical path, when everyone around you yells out the ideas of practising in court and joining a corporate firm.


I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.

In today's class...

Teacher : Now, tell me, what is the remedy for innocent misrepresentation ?
Student : Damages and rescission ?

Laughs from the whole class.

Teacher : I repeat : what is the remedy -- stand up, I can't see you. What is the remedy for innocent misrepresentation ?
Student : Royscot and Rogerson ?

Even more laughs from the class.

Teacher : The first answer was "Damages and rescission". That was the first dagger to my heart. The second one was "Royscot and Rogerson". Let's hope there isn't a third one !
Student : What am I supposed to answer now ?

By now all the members of the class who were asleep were awakened by the guffaws of the whole class. I remember I was looking at him and I just couldn't bear it anymore ! I turned to look at the familiar faces - those of my friends - and all of them just couldn't stop.

Teacher : Okay, to avoid further damage to my health, I shall dismiss the class now.

Note : The actual answer is "Rescission or damages in lieu of rescission".

When we say misrepresentation, we refer to "false statements of FACT which induce you to have a contract with the person giving the statement". It must not be opinionated, like "I think this is so-and-so or such-and-such".

There are three types : fraudulent (the person is lying), negligent (the person was careless), or innocent (the person believed his statement to be true). For fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, you can get both damages and rescission (this means that you can put yourself in the position before you entered into a contract - so say if you bought a purse for RM400, you return the purse and you get a refund). But not for innocent misrepresentation : you get either one.

Royscot v Rogerson is a case relating to misrepresentation, but I am yet to read my case material (I know the fundamentals by heart though).

We were all engaged in this quiz-thingy towards the end of class, where the teacher would give us several random questions on contract law. Today being my first week in class, I was automatically exempted from all chapters except Misrepresentation (today's chapter). I would've loved to answer a question on Misrepresentation as all the work seemed familiar - all the work from A-Levels was all coming back to me. :) But it just had to be spoilt, didn't it ?

Truly, it's already my first week in LLB and I'm enjoying myself. Yep, no matter how harsh the journey may be, it's gonna be a fun ride.

My voice for SEACHANGE

Pardon the video quality ; this thing is best listened to instead of watched. Winners of places in the YES Summit 2009 are encouraged to make a vid about their cause/their excitement of going to YES 2009, or ask questions to the speakers who will be coming.

I talked about my cause.

Note : Not all winners of the YES Summit 2009 submitted videos, nor were all the submitted videos put up on SEACHANGEtv (yet).

An idea which might win hearts all over the world

Remember how I was yearning to turn the National Service Journal into a musical or a game ? I can start the musical part, because I am adept in this field. But for this, I'll need people to work with me. See, there's a difference between counting one's chickens before they are hatched, and being plain visionary.

The story is similar to that of the actual National Service Journal, but it contains more fantastical elements. Brace yourselves for Le Carnet du Service National : La Comédie Musicale !

Of course, I'm not planning to launch it immediately ; I'll probably do this after my LLB, but it'd be great to note it down here so that I'll never forget it. After all, the world needs its daily dose on why some of its plans always fail. So, here are the remaining plot elements, which are currently under development :

Characters
Note : The colour of the name determines which company the trainee is in. Red stands for Alpha, blue for Bravo, yellow for Charlie and green for Delta. Spoiler warning : Plot or ending details follow.

Aimée Duchemin - Protagonist of the story and writer of the National Service Journal. Her story is almost like mine - she was once elected as company head but after the other company heads conspired to kick her out, she was removed from the post... and fell from grace. However, her chivalry and desire to change the order of things stood out among the others and she was ultimately made Best Trainee for the session.

Sybil Fran­çaix - One of Duchemin's best friends. Hailing from a humble background, she teaches Duchemin many of life's simple lessons. She stands up for what is right and if she is pressed between saving her teammates' skins and telling the truth, she always tells the truth. Her creative soul is tapped by Duchemin herself in the middle of the story, and she opens up and becomes ready to contribute creative ideas. She and other like-minded people drove Duchemin to establish the fraternity of Propriété Intellectuelle.

Dyane Lalique - The company commander for Bravo in Duchemin's place. However, unlike the other head honchos of almost every company, Dyane is not a conspirator. She stands up for every member of the company, but chooses not to protect them when they land themselves into trouble. Dyane considers Bravo as a sorority, and treats all members of the company like flesh and blood. She is more level-headed than Duchemin, who had shown emotional bursts during her time as commander. However, her level-headedness only comes to a certain extent......

Alix Sauveterre - The company commander for Charlie. She conspires against many things - particularly anything which involves Duchemin - just to give her own company a good name, and just to reap all the profit. She soon becomes a member of the infamous Disturbed Souls (Âmes perturbées) gang, and she uses that membership to prey on seemingly weaker people, notably Lilin, Duchemin, Myra and Lareine.

Tatienne Delacroix - Another of Duchemin's best friends. She extends beyond the boundaries of social convention by having friends of the stronger sex, by working in the police force, by running to the aid of her friends. She was once company commander for Delta, but soon stepped down and was replaced by Shirley. Tatienne describes her hard life : she became a mother, though not through her discretion. She decided to keep her son (whom she calls Thibaut) and raise him with all her love. Duchemin views her as "pure in my eyes", and helps brush off the destructive criticism of the Disturbed Souls. Tatienne later teaches Duchemin to master the drill routines.

Sylvain Dieudonné - A rebel with profound percussion talents. He starts off as cocky, conceited and rude, and despises anyone who poses a threat to him. He initially hated Duchemin when he discovered that she, too, had a natural talent for percussion. He competes with Duchemin to see who would perform on stage, as well as for the opening rites of any function. However, when Sylvain finally sees that he and Duchemin cannot outdo each other, he decides to work alongside her. His brazen personality melts away to reveal a caring, sentimental boy.

Still more to come !

Second idea for CDSN album cover

See the first album cover I ever made.

Then, see this.

The katakana here reads "Conscription". The idea was that I needed to post a picture of a company head on the album cover, but I wasn't sure of how Duchemin should look (which is better, short hair or long hair ?) The staff in her hand bears one of the "flames" on the National Service logo (see the left side of the blog for a hint). And behind her, an entire batallion follows.

I'm not sure what message I'm trying to spread here, but what I can say is that everytime when we enter into any competition or activity, we treat it like we're going for war. You decide the fate of your company. And since the cover's red, black and white and corresponds with my "emancipating women" post, I guess it might also speak of the young girl who strives to find her place in society... and eventually succeeds. It could speak of fairytale endings, like the way my National Service stint ended.

Demain

I haven't been writing much of late.

But I remember my Public Law lecturer asked for me back when I still wasn't in college. Because there was this French term that everyone found difficult to pronounce. And for some reason, I'm always associated with the French language.

Tomorrow's my first Public Law lecture.

Just so you know, I got back into college this Tuesday and yeah, it's good to be home.

I guess I'll officially announce my return just before the Public Law tutorial, when the lecturer comes into class.

Yes, I'm back, and feeling more confident than ever. I remember back in A-Levels I was plagued by uncertainty. I just wanted to be myself, but I felt like there were constraints everywhere I went. Dealing with the ogres of my past, being a leader and an inspiration to others at least for three months helped me to overcome that problem to a great extent. I am well aware that I'm taking a degree in law, of all fields, and I've no intention of practising in court. But I know for sure that it's going to be the ticket to the career and life of my dreams. So I made it clear to myself that I'll be aiming for the best - first class honours, and nothing less.

Amenez-vous.

Well, right now, there's another francophone in the class : I'm simply gonna call him Yannick. He's the authority when it comes to the French language now, not me (because he IS half French). So I guess I save myself the embarrassment of having to get everyone to follow me in the pronunciation, though I wonder if the lecturers are actually going to let me off stock-free.

SEACHANGE here I come !

I can't believe what just happened. ^_^

I won a place in the SEACHANGE summit ! (click link to find out more. Name blanked out for privacy reasons, though if you do go to the site you'll end up finding out my real name anyway.)

It falls on the 16th and 17th of September at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre. I hope I can bring more than just myself... I'd like to bring Rin along too. She'd be pleased ! :D

So how did I win, you ask ? I answered three questions. And I stressed on the mission that I'm embarking on : 1) to carve smiles on people's faces, 2) to remove the community traits of Malaysians - that we are ignorant, or that we are scared. I was initially unsure of whether I'd be picked, but I told myself, "hell, yeah, if I don't get picked, I understand why. This mission is unfathomable."


But praise the Lord, I'm in the pitch ! :D


So, what're you waiting for ? At present they have almost 200 names. If you'd like to be part of the pool of selected youth, then join the movement at http://youthsays.com/seachange/my !

Prototype album cover

This idea might be put to good use someday. If I can manage to turn the National Service Journal into a film, game or a musical. Preferably the latter two, because I'll have all the time in the world to explore boundaries that I've never explored before (by the way, have you realised that film soundtracks don't go to more than 2 discs usually, but game soundtracks can reach up to 4 ?). And the songs that I've written in the Journal won't go to waste either.

I'm assuming that these four are gonna be the company heads (female division). Red denotes the Alpha Company, yellow denotes Charlie, green denotes Delta and blue denotes Bravo. I had long intended for the main character, whom I'll call Aimée Duchemin, to take her place as company head on the album, even if not in the main story. I'm yet to name the other four.

Like the title states it, it's just a prototype. I might come up with better covers pretty soon. Also, can anyone give me an idea for a logo ? It has to reflect youths going into conscription. A message that perhaps the authorities are trying to spread. DO NOT use the current NS logo (and yes, I know how it looks like, and I've drawn it several times). Because the setting of the story will not take place in Malaysia.

EDITOR'S NOTE :

* À l’abri des arbres = In the shelter of the trees

* Le Carnet du Service National = The National Service Journal. I'm intending to keep the French title as the official name, since that was actually what I named the two volumes of my NS Journal.

Animal alert.

Author’s note : This article is a response to several articles, including the campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and reports in several Malaysian newspapers.

On one side, people are screaming their heads off, telling others to boycott zoos as for the animals, it just isn’t entertainment. They are not allowed to carry on with the things they usually do in the wild, and they are confined to a mere few hundred square metres. Many of the animals have been seen driving themselves crazy, knocking their heads on the grilles of their confinements – a condition known as “zoochosis”. Yes indeed, whenever people see animals performing stunts and being tame with the caretakers, people think they're super-happy and should be kept that way...... but if they ever had voices to speak like we do, they'd probably be screaming like a slave would after abacination.

And on the other side, zoo caretakers are saying that these animals should be kept in zoos as they are safe from becoming victims of poachers, they are given enough food and shelter.

I have read all sides of the story (the campaign, the conflicting reports, everything) and I have learnt that Zoo Negara has 24 tigers. I only have one question to ask :

Just what percentage of the tiger population are you keeping safe from harm ?

Point is, like it or not, tigers are an endangered species. Leaving them in the wild might put them in the risk of being hunted, but putting them in captivity is an even greater abomination. There is no “ideal number of tigers” to be kept in a zoo at all. It’s either too few or too many. If you keep, say, just one tiger in captivity, you’d definitely admit that you’re not contributing to the safety of the tiger population as a whole ; and if you keep twenty-four, how are twenty-four tigers ever going to roam the way they naturally do… ever ?

0.5 square kilometres is just too little space for so many animals.

Just what is the purpose of chaining elephants ?

We all know that elephants are reserved beings who won't pick fights. Hardly ever. The only things they're scared of are mice. Unless they're being bred at Zoo Negara, there's absolutely no reason why we need to chain them. They need to move freely, hello !

Now imagine a human being were to be chained up in a small room, with much ventilation, a lot of food… but the room is just too damn small. You and I obviously wouldn’t wanna live in such conditions, right ? So there’s no point justifying why we should chain up animals. If you say the animals might run amuck, look no further – we humans are classified as animals, and we are capable of running amuck too. We have looked upon ourselves as the most supreme of God’s creation, the ones chosen to rule over all living things under our care, and this is what we do – catch them, chain them in cages and give them a life of squalor. We, however, get all the space we ever need.

I have visited Zoo Negara only once – that was when I was three years old – and though I was fascinated with the animals, some of them just couldn’t move. I remember that. At age three I was like any giddy kid who just wanted to see animals as they really are. But right now, the times and tides have changed. If Zoo Negara ever gets closed and its animals repatriated to the wild, that’ll be a happy day for many Malaysians… and many others who believe that animals too, have rights, just like we do.