Super Freakonomics

Hey guys! Hope this doesn't surprise you. I'm gonna pen one entry here before anticipating Ken's slamming and perhaps a share of that from Malf (think Malik & Gandalf.. minus the mouse-keyboard-slamming). :)

Before I actually begin, make sure you have some good 5 minutes to read on.

Well, I've been reading lots of books on the train to work cus the train gets ridiculously crowded from Admiralty all the f*cking way to Raffles Place in the morning... Yes.. it's all the f*cking way and it's not funny. If I am feeling more positive about the situation I'd probably try to imagine it as clubbing without music.. but -10 times the joy derived from clubbing.

So yeah I've read books like the Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson and he writes it really well to provide noobs like me a very good idea of the evolution of money; the undercover economist by Tim Harford explains very well some principles of economics and now.. I'm on my third book, Super Freakonomics which well, just uses econs to explain other things which are quite interesting.

By now, I'm pretty sure you have already heard of these books (or at least 1 of them) or have chanced upon them while exiting the bookstores. Currently I'm on this chapter about prostitution and why prostitutes don't really earn as much as in the past. They reason it with the rising trend in premarital sex. So people become less likely to pay for sex in that sense. Well, so far it has caught my attention and I bit the bait to continue with the reading. I really would like to take this opportunity to share this book with you guys, knowing that you guys are probably the only few friends I have who appreciate books.

In case you're wondering what the f*ck i'm doing now, I've started my job (which ain't no kick at

the moment) at PwC. I'm filing expatriate taxes for those mother-f*ckers in banking and finance and other industries who earn insane amounts and their annual taxes actually triple what I can earn 5 years. It's just their TAXES. So one colleague of mine just told me not think of it as just numbers.

There are 2 very stark observations I made in the office.. 1) The office is severely gender imbalanced and 2) f*ckloads of foreigners.

Let's touch on point 1 (and yes.. this is the beginning of my ranting).. why the f*ck does HR hire so many girls? There are currently like 8 asian males in my office and 3 Brits. The total headcount is slightly above 50. Seriously WHAT THE F*CK is going on...

Point 2: f*ckloads of foreigners... since now you know that there are 8 asian males.. out of this 8, 3 are Singaporeans and out of this 3.. 1 indian and 2 chinese. The rest of the asian males.. are from Malaysia and 1 from Sri Lanka.

The next thing to know is that there are f*ckloads of Malaysians and Indonesians.. it's really crazy.. it got me thinking.. where have all the Singaporeans gone? Are we that rare today?

So anyways.. before I end this entry.. just wanted to let you guys know that I've submitted my resume to a French bank by the name of Credit Agricole.. it's not big in Singapore, but it is quite popular in France. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

-El from Hell and not even Hell wants you Ken.

Pakistan flood

What up guys.. When I was buying something on ebay, I was asked at checkout whether I wanted to make a donation to the Pakistan flood victims. I read up a bit about it and it seems that the amount of aid the people have received is very low compared to what is normally received for such disasters and what is needed.

Maybe it's because people think it is a nation breeding terrorists and hungry for nuclear power etc etc. I don't think it matters at all. The people dying aren't the ones making the nuclear bombs.

Anyway if you guys wanna donate, they accept paypal and credit cards, the link is here http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/pakistan-flood/

I'm sure even $1 can help someone. Ken and I were discussing that Christmas is coming. It's not too early to get in a good deed or two. Maybe it will lead to some big time presents =)

Last day of winter

Finally.

Practical Law Course Update

Like todays negotiation class, I found advocacy last Saturday to be a rather unnatural and awkward experience. Dealing with a mock case generally inhibited me from making inspired and havoc lines. However, I decided to make a change on the spur of the moment while making my arguments to the court. This situation would be elaborated below.

I had to show to the Court that the husband in question exerted undue influence on his wife to sign a guarantee. Given that we were not provided with any evidence on that issue nor could we cross examine anyone, most people were unable to convincingly persuade the Court to believe their story. So when it came to my turn, I suddenly got inspired, abandoned my script halfway and told the Judge that "it is not uncommon for a husband in any marriage to have an emotional hold on his wife.. and therefore I urge your honour to consider the possibility that unfair pressure could have been applied". The mock judge seemed receptive and laughed quietly in amusement as opposed to mocking cynicism. I was contemporaneously intrigued at how one sentence alone could have affected his opinion or demeanour at least.

Although such thrills are trivial in the grand scheme of things, these provide me, in part, with the sustenance to develop and advance my litigation career. I truly look forward to being a litigator because unlike most jobs, it is adversarial and there are so many real time challenges which I must overcome. Plus, these challenges are dynamic - I would have to constantly deal with different facts and people. Just ruminating about it makes me genuinely enthralled. While adapting to these challenges (which is far from easy) is a major aspect of practice, I also hope to be a vehicle of change and one day contribute to the evolution of litigation and the law. Influencing and conquering the hearts and minds of those in the legal domain would provide me with the ultimate career satisfaction. This is because I am not prepared to die without leaving my footprints on society in general or at the minimum, this strata of society which I will soon be intimately involved in. This coincides with my ideal that our generation should create history by being the hallmark of progress and have its unique defining traits.

Having defined my idea of success, I shall start studying for my Bar exams which is a proximate checkpoint in my lifelong project. I really want to do something useful in/with my life as there're few things that I have attempted to do properly. Failure, in the short and long term, cannot be an option at all.
-Kenough

Home visit

Blog has been suffering from some underactivity lately.. You all should stop being such lazy bastards... Especially the mailman who makes the fewest entries by far. Anyway I thought I would just share an experience I had today with you all...

I had a lesson today which involved me going to a patient's house with a social worker to observe how their home and personal ability/disability was assessed for future action by other government subsidized social services. An example would be if an old person was falling down in the bathroom often, rails along the bathroom walls might be offered to reduce the chance of severe injury..

The main thing I took away from this experience though was that it can be quite shocking how people live. As I entered the house, I was immediately greeted with spiderwebs on the walls that looked like they could have accumulated over months to years. There was an able bodied 50 plus year old living in the house with his two parents whom he cared for.. The house was an absolute mess. For some reason there were at least 6-8 full loaves of bread on the kitchen counter. The furniture was all really old and dirty with unidentifiable bits of grime scattered about. In general the entire house was extremely messy and dirty. Boxes of medication were everywhere. A piece of paper was taped to the wall with green tape to write phone numbers on.

In short, it felt really fucked up being in there and I just wanted to get out. It is surprising that people can tolerate being in a place like that 24/7.

Woke up early

Woke up early, showered early, changed early, took tram in opposite direction, reached late.
Sent via BlackBerry® from Vodafone