It's good to be free! And might I add, with nothing to do and, furthermore, nothing to write, this blog will once again depart my normal writing style...
Summer officially commenced the best part of 46.5 hours ago, at the time of writing, and although my first day off was weird to say the least, mainly because I came home to sleep after Criminal Law and I was just drained from all the studying! As I initially couldn't grasp what to do with, well, nothing to do, things have now started falling into place slowly slowly and the routine of having full days without studying is sinking in.
Surprisingly, I haven't been waking up half as late as I expected to be up. In all fairness, I found it easier to procrastinate in bed and get back to sleep when I needed to study as opposed to doing that now - no matter how early or how late I'm sleeping! The mind boggles, I guess...
I'm a tad disappointed because I got my official start date for work yesterday afternoon, and I end up by starting on July 14! That's a month from now... oh well, blame it on the credit crunch, I guess. This is what happens when you need cash so much because, well, you're so devoid of it... dramatic irony to say the least!
Yesterday was fantastic :) Got myself out of the messy, rugged look that I had with a three-week old beard and hair that hadn't been cut for two months, so now I'm once again a skin head and clean shaven. You could say that I look like a normal potato as opposed to a hairy potato now :) Then went to Lanf for a while because Lanf is Lanf and it's always worth going to his place :) and then headed off to Ghadira in the afternoon for some fun in the sun with friends! Needless to say; actually, as is always the case, I had to encounter some kind of adventure while on the road and yesterday was no exception - traffic in Salina at the weirdest of times, 10 past 2 in the afternoon, as well as me allegedly nearly crashing into Drea's mother. I'll say this for the 5th or 6th time now, when you're turning a roundabout - and I was when Drea's mother was driving up to it - then it the car who is turning the roundabout who has the right of way! The drive home from Ghadira was also a class act ;) And everyone seems to agree with me on this apart from Drea :p And insomma, then Nicola's 18th in the evening was superb, thanks Nic :)
Before I go, a shout out to Becky from here as she's either just off or about to jet off to Cambridge as I type :) Enjoy it and make the most of it Bec!
I now know what I will be writing about in my next blog; a more serious topic naturally, but I will not reveal until I start writing!
God Bless You all!
Matti
Showing posts with label Lanfranco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lanfranco. Show all posts
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
A Lack of Reflection
Well, it's been practically a whole week since my last blog, which generated quite a debate to say the least; a debate that I was very pleased about. In the meantime, a whole host of students have finished their exams and are already enjoying the fruits of not doing anything academically-related for a while as their summer has started, and that also means that my entertainment during these dragging times, such as Lanfranco's vlogs, will probably be no more as of the latest installment today... Anyway, as of the time of writing, 5 days, 12 hours and 35 minutes are left until I too can start to enjoy my freedom!
Tomorrow is the day where, according to estimates, around 62% of eligible voters will head to the polls for the second time in 15 months, this time to determine who will be representing Malta in the European Parliament. And while today we're meant to be "reflecting" on how the electoral campaigns have developed and who should be getting our votes, I'm still blogging about it because I don't abide by the rules. Oh, and by the way, some of us - myself included - have Local Council Elections to contend with as well, but I'm not very bothered about those because Councils do jack. When the Council magazine pops into my mailbox once every two months and I open it up to see what projects the Council has undertaken in this period of time, I practically want to start crying when, for instance, they say that they created a "traffic management" scheme in Triq Salvu Bonanno by literally painting a white oval line in the middle of a massively asphalted area. Pathetic.
So, back to my point. Tomorrow, we will be voting for five candidates who we believe are ideal to represent us in the European Parliament for the next 5 years. Or, alternatively, for any amount of time as they may wish, provided an opportunity to become Leader of one of Malta's main political parties arises due to death or simply the incapability of those running the show at either end of the political spectrum at the moment in time. I'm not one to normally show political apathy, but in this case, I can't help but do so. The Nationalist Party know that they're heading for a heavy defeat at tomorrow's polls, and the Labour Party know that they're heading for a landslide victory, just as they did in 2004.
And quite frankly, I couldn't care less. All we've heard - generally - is that these candidates, be it from whatever political tendencies that they might have, are definitely the best to represent us in Europe because of a plethora of reasons, some of which don't even have anything to do with the European Union. My opinion is that all these candidates are going to be there to represent the best interests of their pockets come the full implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, which will see the five (six) elected representatives pocket a cool €400,000 a year, excluding all the perks, expenses, accommodation etc. That works out to a salary of €8,333.33 a week; you could be mistaken that these people would be playing football for a professional club with such wages. So yes, we're essentially voting, first and foremost, for these people to pick up a big pay cheque.
I don't really see the European Parliament as an institution that works. Fine, its power will be increasing with the ratification of Lisbon, but what has really affected Malta via the European Parliament since our entry into the EU? Simon Busuttil might have presented an incredibly important report on irregular immigration, but Frontex has hardly helped solved our problems. On the contrary, they seemed to increase. Italy, on the other hand, seem to have really got the message across by sending boatloads of immigrants back to source, because unless I'm living in dreamland, I haven't really heard of any incidents involving the arrival of such immigrants since the last boat that was sent back to Africa. Further to that, the only important piece of news is that Busuttil was the most active MEP, and David Casa attended most plenary sessions. Otherwise though, there's practically no news regarding Malta that comes out of the European Parliament, whose function, it seems, is just to give their assent to newly-promulgated European Law and approve the European budget.
To conclude, as I don't want this blog to be too long, I'll just say that I will nonetheless be voting tomorrow despite these factors that I've mentioned, added to the fact that these people are going to be elected nonetheless even if I don't vote, so I might as well have my say as long as democracy permits me to do so. Furthermore, despite how arrogant the Government has become and how lacklustre the last 15 months have been for Malta overall, I will still be voting for the Nationalist candidates based on their European track record over the last 5 years, and nothing more than that. It's been difficult for me to consider European issues over national ones, but that's exactly what has to be done in such a circumstance. While the EP is a bit of a big joke, at least the PN seem to treat less as such as opposed to the PL. And I'm not even going into the merits of whether they are still anti-EU or not, I think that now this is a consideration that should be dropped once and for all, albeit still valid in a sense. Anyway, as long as idiots like Glenn Bedingfield don't get elected once again...
God Bless You all!
Matti
Tomorrow is the day where, according to estimates, around 62% of eligible voters will head to the polls for the second time in 15 months, this time to determine who will be representing Malta in the European Parliament. And while today we're meant to be "reflecting" on how the electoral campaigns have developed and who should be getting our votes, I'm still blogging about it because I don't abide by the rules. Oh, and by the way, some of us - myself included - have Local Council Elections to contend with as well, but I'm not very bothered about those because Councils do jack. When the Council magazine pops into my mailbox once every two months and I open it up to see what projects the Council has undertaken in this period of time, I practically want to start crying when, for instance, they say that they created a "traffic management" scheme in Triq Salvu Bonanno by literally painting a white oval line in the middle of a massively asphalted area. Pathetic.
So, back to my point. Tomorrow, we will be voting for five candidates who we believe are ideal to represent us in the European Parliament for the next 5 years. Or, alternatively, for any amount of time as they may wish, provided an opportunity to become Leader of one of Malta's main political parties arises due to death or simply the incapability of those running the show at either end of the political spectrum at the moment in time. I'm not one to normally show political apathy, but in this case, I can't help but do so. The Nationalist Party know that they're heading for a heavy defeat at tomorrow's polls, and the Labour Party know that they're heading for a landslide victory, just as they did in 2004.
And quite frankly, I couldn't care less. All we've heard - generally - is that these candidates, be it from whatever political tendencies that they might have, are definitely the best to represent us in Europe because of a plethora of reasons, some of which don't even have anything to do with the European Union. My opinion is that all these candidates are going to be there to represent the best interests of their pockets come the full implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, which will see the five (six) elected representatives pocket a cool €400,000 a year, excluding all the perks, expenses, accommodation etc. That works out to a salary of €8,333.33 a week; you could be mistaken that these people would be playing football for a professional club with such wages. So yes, we're essentially voting, first and foremost, for these people to pick up a big pay cheque.
I don't really see the European Parliament as an institution that works. Fine, its power will be increasing with the ratification of Lisbon, but what has really affected Malta via the European Parliament since our entry into the EU? Simon Busuttil might have presented an incredibly important report on irregular immigration, but Frontex has hardly helped solved our problems. On the contrary, they seemed to increase. Italy, on the other hand, seem to have really got the message across by sending boatloads of immigrants back to source, because unless I'm living in dreamland, I haven't really heard of any incidents involving the arrival of such immigrants since the last boat that was sent back to Africa. Further to that, the only important piece of news is that Busuttil was the most active MEP, and David Casa attended most plenary sessions. Otherwise though, there's practically no news regarding Malta that comes out of the European Parliament, whose function, it seems, is just to give their assent to newly-promulgated European Law and approve the European budget.
To conclude, as I don't want this blog to be too long, I'll just say that I will nonetheless be voting tomorrow despite these factors that I've mentioned, added to the fact that these people are going to be elected nonetheless even if I don't vote, so I might as well have my say as long as democracy permits me to do so. Furthermore, despite how arrogant the Government has become and how lacklustre the last 15 months have been for Malta overall, I will still be voting for the Nationalist candidates based on their European track record over the last 5 years, and nothing more than that. It's been difficult for me to consider European issues over national ones, but that's exactly what has to be done in such a circumstance. While the EP is a bit of a big joke, at least the PN seem to treat less as such as opposed to the PL. And I'm not even going into the merits of whether they are still anti-EU or not, I think that now this is a consideration that should be dropped once and for all, albeit still valid in a sense. Anyway, as long as idiots like Glenn Bedingfield don't get elected once again...
God Bless You all!
Matti
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Of Countdowns and Observations
While the build up on my MSN nickname has been intense as ever in the last 14 odd days, today, the official countdown to the end of exams - and eventual promotion to LL.B. III (already!) - has now started with the completion of exam one out of four. At the time of writing, us law students are precisely 1 week, 6 days, 11 hours and 45 minutes away from freedom! Anyway, I'm happy to announce that Commercial Law remained as predictable as the past papers indicated it would be, and I'm also happy to announce that that will probably be the easiest 10 credit exam that I sat for in my life. Seriously. Let's now hope that the Commercial honchos aren't the worst or strictest of markers out there, to the extent that they have to get off their high horses to appreciate that with studying, the student can produce some good answers in an exam.
Onto this afternoon's happenings, where I was drafted into EF for Teaching Observation. To be honest, I didn't go in with many high hopes because I thought it would be a waste of time, but I actually ended up by realising how much one can learn from others with a certain amount of experience, no matter how short the sessions at hand are. This doesn't mean that I will not be adopting my own teaching style come when I settle into the job at the end of June, despite my inexperience, but it did help calm my fears about teaching being a real hard ordeal. When one has textbooks at his disposal, the ordeal automatically becomes a hell of a lot easier, and then it's simply up to the teacher to be in control of the class. At least, that's how I felt it.
And in a blog that is bereft of ideas, I might as well fill up another mini-paragraph with one common sentiment: for the one time that I went there to study; last Thursday, to be precise, because of the presence of the maid at home; I actually miss Room 101! Okay, maybe not the room itself, but the company that is associated with it. Seeing that I feel capable of getting more content done at home, this has kind of left people like myself a bit socially deprived during the week due to the fact that, well, I'm staying indoors! On the other end of the scale, however, I really am thanking God that I didn't take Architecture as a course at University... while I, and other law students, might be going bonkers over Administrative and Criminal Law now, our 'bonkers' is simply nothing compared to that suffered in Architecture. I actually pity the people there... and a clear example of what they're passing through can be seen and illustrated clearly by none other than the ever-increasingly popular Lanf! ;)
God Bless You all!
Matti
Onto this afternoon's happenings, where I was drafted into EF for Teaching Observation. To be honest, I didn't go in with many high hopes because I thought it would be a waste of time, but I actually ended up by realising how much one can learn from others with a certain amount of experience, no matter how short the sessions at hand are. This doesn't mean that I will not be adopting my own teaching style come when I settle into the job at the end of June, despite my inexperience, but it did help calm my fears about teaching being a real hard ordeal. When one has textbooks at his disposal, the ordeal automatically becomes a hell of a lot easier, and then it's simply up to the teacher to be in control of the class. At least, that's how I felt it.
And in a blog that is bereft of ideas, I might as well fill up another mini-paragraph with one common sentiment: for the one time that I went there to study; last Thursday, to be precise, because of the presence of the maid at home; I actually miss Room 101! Okay, maybe not the room itself, but the company that is associated with it. Seeing that I feel capable of getting more content done at home, this has kind of left people like myself a bit socially deprived during the week due to the fact that, well, I'm staying indoors! On the other end of the scale, however, I really am thanking God that I didn't take Architecture as a course at University... while I, and other law students, might be going bonkers over Administrative and Criminal Law now, our 'bonkers' is simply nothing compared to that suffered in Architecture. I actually pity the people there... and a clear example of what they're passing through can be seen and illustrated clearly by none other than the ever-increasingly popular Lanf! ;)
God Bless You all!
Matti
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