tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30206652009-09-20T06:29:19.307-07:00Foie Gras and ChocolatesThere is no decadence that is not pleasurableColinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.comBlogger560125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-14063038788936830512009-09-18T07:04:00.000-07:002009-09-20T06:29:19.318-07:00All Quiet on the Western FrontI received a comment in my last post, asking me to please continue blogging. In honesty, I hadn't decided whether or not my blog was to be put to rest for good, but certainly my posts are becoming increasingly infrequent. It used to be that I would update my blog with random flights of fancy, thoughts that had entered my mind unbidden, or perhaps, with a little Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-66526673370951869752009-08-02T19:18:00.000-07:002009-08-02T19:27:14.902-07:00My WayRegrets, I've had a few; but then again too few to mention. I did what I had to do, and saw it through without exemption.Sinatra knew what he was talking about, and he didn't turn out so badly.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-22574515703714643752009-07-21T02:51:00.000-07:002009-07-21T03:15:27.505-07:00The more things changeIt is a curious thing, how a single instant changes lives irrevocably. Much has happened since I returned; waves of change have swirled around me with alarming rapidity and intensity. Who would have thought it would come to this? Increasingly, my foresight fails me. The future is obscure and pellucid, murky and dim as a slow-flowing stream. Ought I ford the water without Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-91145986316388447232009-06-15T15:01:00.000-07:002009-06-15T15:29:15.439-07:00Lust, CautionHow do you know just by meeting a person that you don't like him or her? Might it be the clothes they wear; but if so, what is it that provokes such distaste or even revulsion? Perhaps the cut of his suit and his out of place necktie, or her neckline which plunges half an inch too far.Or perhaps it is his manner of speaking; the way he squints and contorts his eyebrows, making his Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-1380251109837735692009-04-07T23:35:00.000-07:002009-04-07T23:36:09.839-07:00Not Dead, Just Lying Down For a WhileI'll be back in two months.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-74005622637191072132008-12-16T14:34:00.000-08:002008-12-16T15:02:37.039-08:00We, The PeoplesASEAN launched the ASEAN Charter today. Apparently it was signed last year, so I've clearly been out of the loop for a while.I remember being asked not too long ago whether I thought ASEAN would ever develop into a political and economic entity like the EU, an outcome I was very sceptical of. So I was slightly surprised when I read about the ASEAN Charter, which serves to confer Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-4990161691167829372008-12-06T07:29:00.001-08:002008-12-06T07:34:25.314-08:00Perchance to WakeI've been plagued by dreams almost every night for the past week or so. They're never the same, but they're never very pleasant. Last night it had something to do with me being taken captive, yet strangely all my captors were contemporaries from secondary school, who I managed to guilt-trip into treating me better than was normal.Other dreams have included me having to do ChineseColinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-1744088009360255762008-11-13T14:47:00.000-08:002008-11-13T14:58:23.911-08:00Feed the BirdsIt was a drizzly day, gloomy and wet, but surprisingly not that cold. My route to the law faculty takes me past a little church, and its churchyard always attracts a number of pigeons. Today, because of the rain, they were all puffed up, heads tucked into oversized fluffy necks, and wings swollen with ruffled feathers. Why, I wondered, did all the pigeons puff up in the same way? Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-67890736912614887242008-10-25T13:31:00.000-07:002008-10-25T13:41:05.635-07:00Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrateThe seven deadly sins are thought to be lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. But doubt is by far the greatest sin of all.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-91418585195379164312008-10-08T09:49:00.000-07:002008-10-08T10:05:39.526-07:00The End is NearThe rate at which my mental faculties are deteriorating is truly astonishing. Already I cannot remember what Raz had to say about the normal justification thesis of authority and what von Hirsch had to say about the institution of punishment.And don't talk to me about what McKay wrote about the requirement of certainty of objects.In about nine months I'll be taking the most Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-65359590258651060052008-09-27T09:49:00.001-07:002008-09-27T10:06:14.832-07:00Talk is CheapA number of years ago, I felt as if I was becoming slowly estranged from someone who, at the time, was a good friend. Despite my best efforts, and assurances on that person's part that we would remain close, we drifted apart and now we haven't spoken in years.It is remarkable how fragile are the bonds that bind us to each other. At times, they fray and unravel glacially, but like Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-15594829626282338242008-08-16T14:59:00.000-07:002008-08-16T15:12:27.981-07:00TransubstantiationWe are a mercurial lot, variable in our temperaments, varying in our ways. We grow, and shrink, as life pulls us hither and tither. Remember the jovial and slightly chubby fencing teammate you had in school? He's now lost twenty pounds, sports five different piercings and is addicted to online poker.You think you're mistaken, but no, that is the obnoxious and arrogant boss you Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-22630809882005041472008-07-29T19:07:00.000-07:002008-07-29T19:26:01.114-07:00An Inconvenient TruthI was supposed to go watch a New York Yankees baseball game this evening. Without thinking it through, I brought along my backpack, which had my laptop in it, because I wanted to do some work on it after the game, back at my hotel. The reason my laptop hadn't been left at my hotel is that my hotel is not exactly the Hilton. Even if it were, my laptop is too valuable to be Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-86374301942447906242008-07-25T10:15:00.000-07:002008-07-25T10:32:12.665-07:00The Invisible ManI feel this blog dying a slow and agonising death. Even in my current torpor, that troubles me. My thoughts are being leached dry, and life is becoming an unfamiliar bed I've woken up in but don't remember climbing into. Having just completed a three week internship, I'm not sure if I'm any better informed than I was three weeks ago. Somewhere along the line, not "fitting in" andColinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-19146181912359623152008-04-19T17:17:00.000-07:002008-04-19T17:37:26.570-07:00On the Horrors of WordPressSo I've finally been seriously toying with the idea of moving my foodblog to WordPress, after hearing how wonderful and convenient it is. Instead of finishing my notes on Jurisprudence, I spent the past hour or so signing up for a WordPress account, importing my foodblog over and fiddling around with the WordPress functions. Unfortunately, not only did WordPress fail toColinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-17910844198032813842008-04-12T10:38:00.001-07:002008-04-12T10:51:59.059-07:00The Honourable Judge JessupSo the inevitable critical reflective attitude begins. After the triumph of the national rounds, our performance in Washington was slightly disappointing, and I leave with mixed feelings.On the one hand, just making it to DC and facing off against competitors from around the world was a fantastic experience in itself, and has sharpened my mooting skills immeasurably. Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-6973141985863731982008-03-04T10:02:00.000-08:002008-03-04T10:18:47.805-08:00Top StoriesChannel News Asia is the arm of Mediacorp that is responsible for reporting and disseminating news. Their website proudly proclaims that they are "Hitwise #1 for the second year running". Makes you wonder how a website can be #1 in hits but not readership, and today I found out.Under its 'Singapore' section in the 'Top Stories' segment, the very top headline reads: "Survey ranks Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-558431025674475052008-03-01T05:22:00.000-08:002008-03-01T05:54:44.766-08:00PrescienceI can't remember if I've touched on this subject before, but I've often wondered what it would be like to be perfectly self-aware; to be cognisant of every atom and fibre of your being, to have a sense of every scintilla of reality that touches and impinges upon you.In the Watchmen by Alan Moore, there is a character called Dr Manhattan who, due to his unique makeup, is such a being. Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-27808668296318297012008-02-25T10:17:00.000-08:002008-02-25T10:26:46.880-08:00Potomac PrimaryWhat an odd thing it is that in the UK finals of a nation-wide mooting competition three of the four speakers are not British, and that the two best speakers of the competition are Polish and Singaporean. Hopefully our good fortune will continue to last across the Atlantic.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-51306226632462912572008-02-06T10:53:00.000-08:002008-02-06T12:14:59.902-08:00Croydon LegalI was going to write a thought-provoking post to do with some deep, pseudo-philosophical topic, but upon spotting the tabloid headlines in Sainsburys I decided to go low-brow instead.After looking up the sordid facts online, I was amazed to discover a rather depressing place like Croydon could be the scene of a crime worthy of one of David E Kelly's plots on Boston Legal.A teenage Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-54379313394179202862008-01-27T15:31:00.000-08:002008-01-27T15:47:44.783-08:00Check, mateSo I was being interviewed last week, and it was a 'case study' interview: I was given half an hour to read some material regarding a business deal and form an opinion on it, highlighting the positive and negative aspects.As I spoke, the interviewer ticked off pre-determined checkboxes on her checklist, corresponding to the various issues I was pointing out. Potential public relations Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-69788218430037098142008-01-21T16:15:00.000-08:002008-01-24T00:20:43.715-08:00Screaming TiresOxford is a remarkable place, an anachronistic and intellectual solipsism where it's easy to lose yourself in the work, the endless reading and the constant air of scholarship and tradition that permeates the place. Every once in a while though, life, and death, intrude rather rudely into this city of dreaming spires. That occurred last year when someone I knew was killed while Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-41006719314014979452008-01-02T08:10:00.000-08:002008-01-02T08:22:14.037-08:00PFOOver lunch this weekend, a family friend had just come back from a family holiday in Las Vegas. Having a soft spot for gambling, he was pleased to announce that his winnings paid for the entire family's holiday, as well as the kids' college tuition fees for the next year. For shopping money, two nights of poker netted in excess of ten thousand dollars.With avuncular good nature, he explained Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-45672405386412804192007-12-17T07:10:00.000-08:002007-12-17T07:41:17.391-08:00Christmas spiritBeing a lawyer, paradoxically, sometimes means suspending belief in justice and charity. No one can succeed at land law without nodding, unconcernedly, as retired parents get swindled out of house and home by money-grubbing children, with rapacious banks taking possesion simply because they have a legal right to do so.I'm amused when some of my coursemates start going on about Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020665.post-79645212763613236212007-11-19T08:37:00.000-08:002007-11-19T10:38:04.645-08:00I can, therefore I doRecently I read an intriguing hypothesis regarding why we want what we cannot get. The author predicated his analysis on an evolutionary instinct, which probably has more than a grain of truth in it, though I'm not entirely convinced it's that reducible.The logical corollary must be why do we not want what we can have? Why does the Harvard graduate spurn the pharmacist? Why, Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00823213477578592583noreply@blogger.com0