desperate housewives: a good show with bad moral

I thought Desperate Housewives was a good show. After all, they received good ratings and publicities (including the interviews on Oprah and even the First Lady Laura Bush said she watched the show). No doubt the show was well-scripted and not to mentioned the amazing casts especially Teri Hatcher (Susan) and Felicity Huffman (Lynette).

However, the recent episodes made me realized why Desperate Housewives was knocked out by Everybody Loves Raymond in the 2005 Emmy Awards. It was simple. Everybody Loves Raymond is a good show with good moral values while Desperate Housewives doesn't.

Not enough with murders, suicide, infidelity, abuse and various taboo issues (s&m and homosexuality) at Wisteria Lane, I found that the most disturbing character in this show is Andrew (Bree and Rex's evil son). This boy not only escaped (thanks to the parents) from the law after knocking down Carlos' mother, he hates his own mother so much that he would kick and spit on her. This evil kid, who confessed to Reverend Sikes that he doesn't believe in god, said he will be good and one day when his mother is least expected, he's going to do something really bad and rock her world. For godsake!

I hope this show is only watched by adults and not young kids. This is definitely a bad show for them. Bad bad show....

should I pay for the token of appreciation every end of the semester?

Currently I'm pursuing my master in educational management and by the end of each semester, the leader of each class will ask us to pay between RM5-10 to buy gifts for the lecturers. I'm not sure if this is a norm in other faculties or universities. It's not that I'm a cheapskate but I really believe that this is not really a good practice. I'll tell you why.

There are these class 'leaders' who are usually government officers or teachers who collect money from between 20 to 100+ students in each class. The money collected will be used to buy expensive stuff like branded accessories, batik shirt and even gold bracelets. Imagine, I'm attending one particular class of about 120 students and we are asked to pay RM10 for a gift and dinner (just outside the classroom). Okay, let alone the dinner and the token of appreciation. What I'm really dissappointed was when the leader announced to us about the collection, he mentioned, "Bayar RM10, mana tahu, kita dapat A ke..."

Some government officers and teachers bring along their negative habits into the university. For example, there's one senior officer who is about to retire. Instead of bringing his assignment, he brought in duku and langsat for the lecturer. However the lecturer was smart. The lecturer did not accept it but instead asked him to share the fruits with all of us and reminded him to pass up his assignment on the following day.

Sometimes we just blame entirely on the management or lecturers for the poor standard of our local universities. Perhaps, it's the attitude of its students that should change as well.

working freelance

Oprah Winfrey Show keeps me awake until 6 a.m. when I'm rushing deadlines.

Lately I'm missing my working days. I miss the normal working environment whereby you have friendly colleagues and cruel or nice boss. I miss the free lunch and training sessions. I miss drinking milo-kaw three times a day and making free phone calls back to my family in Kuantan.

Not that I'm not working now. I've been working on freelance basis for 6 months already. I enjoy the total freedom and I do not need to wake up early in the morning. I can work at my own pace (not really when you have deadlines to catch). Every week I get to meet up with publishers and editors but the feeling is not the same (not as good as meeting up with friendly colleagues unless you meet them to receive your paycheck).

It's not just about the lonely bugs. There are also a lot of time whereby I have to continue to work without sleeps for days. Things is even more challenging when you are studying: assignments, exams and work projects all in one at the same time! Thanks to Astro I manage to keep myself awake every night to work on my projects and assignments.

any MPs or MCA leaders with a blog?

I've been a regular reader of Kit Siang's blog ever since he started one in August. Although I'm a pro-government, I think his blog is very informative and sometimes rather controversial. In fact I do buy some of his ideas and comments based on his intelligent arguments. However there are also times when I felt his arguments are merely his own propaganda.

Whatever it is, there is no doubt that the blogosphere is a good place for politicians to buy votes and gain support from the public. How I wish local MPs or MCA leaders will start their own blogs too so that I can slam them back with complaints. Maybe they don't need a blog because there is nothing to mention about.