HaPpY NEw YeaR from the ~Path of Time~

This is the last day for 2007. Time to say good bye to the old and say hello to the new year that is about to come in a couple of hours time! :)Community Service Message on ~The Path of Time~
For those who are going to be drinking and partying all night long until 1st January 2008, take a cab if you need to go anywhere. Driving after alcohol is dangerous to yourself and to other innocent road users! Be responsible, drink responsibly!

To those staying at home, give yourself a pat on the back because you are smart enough to avoid all the jams and road blocks. (i.e. you can afford to get stoned at home) but just remember not to overdo things and make a mess of the house! In other words, don't get too drunk and start puking all over in the house because it will be a lot of clean up. Be responsible, drink responsibly!

For those planning to go for a real good meal - eating is one of the best things in life. But don't go overeating. Overeating can cause indigestion (i.e. great discomfort in your tummy leading to unnecessary discharge). Be responsible, eat responsibly!

To all of us, I am sure we will be digging into heaps of junk food, crackers and all those bad-for-health foods. Remember to throw those wrappers into the recycle bin. Junk food is good for small bites and over long chats but wrappers can damage the environment if not managed properly. Be responsible, eat responsibly and be responsible to our environment!

FROM THE ~PATH OF TIME~ one on the road for 2007, HaPpY NEw YeaR!!!!!

DJ Pi - Trance Empire Vol. 34 (Unleashed Heartbeat)

CD1
01. Epos - Adagio Espressivo (Magic Island mix)
02. Cloudwalker - Crystalizer
03. Aboutblank Feat Mque - Active Side (Paul Vinitsky Dub)
04. Digital Sense - Look At Heaven
05. Plastic Angel - Try Walking In My World
06. Acute - Citadel (Sindre Eide Remix)
07. Tragida , Azure Sunset - T Tide (Simple Tide Mix)
08. Darius - Eklipse (Sjlver DJ Feat Tragid Mix)
09. Above & Beyond Pres. Tranquility Base - Oceanic (Sean Tyas Mix)
10. 3rd Moon - Meltdown
11. Existone - Seven Nights
12. Thr3sh0ld - Timeless
13. Epic Journey - Silent Tears (D Gate Mix)

CD2
01. Tragida - Elisabeth (Natlife Mix)
02. Sequentia - Sun Worship
03. Abbott & Chambers - Never After (Preijers & Hercules Mix)
04. Mike Nichol - Durado
05. Mindsoundscapes - Evangelion (Fischer & Miethig Mix)
06. Tetrazone - Alphalux (Static Blue Mix)
07. Aeden - Distant Memories
08. Sean Tyas - Drop (Reaves & Ahorn Mix)
09. Stuart Heasty - Aventis
10. Simon Patterson - We'll See
11. Ben Gold - Roll Cage (Aly and Fila Mix)
12. Algarve - The Longest Journey (Alex Morph Mix)

Released in October 2007, I finally got a good chance to really sit down and listen to the mix completely. After listening to both CDs back-to-back I was left breathless at the beautiful blend of songs put into the mix.

CD1 started slowly with Epos - Adagio Espressivo, which was true to its literal meaning of expressively slow. The sounds of the strings were beautiful used in this song, and it gradually introduced the bass. Imagine a waiter just taking away the appertiser once you are done to bring forth the main course to you. The entire CD1 gave sound to a blend of songs filled with emotions and passion. Masterfully blended bass lines by DJ Pi gave the mix a smooth continuation and listening pleasure. Overall, the underlining theme of the first CD was more inclined on the piano and strings for the melodies of the songs. Graceful yet energetic!

CD2, the very first moment the mix starts you can already feel the energetic pump of the bass line. In this mix, the theme of 'Unleasehed Heartbeat' is really felt with the continuous energy felt in the mix. Main disctinction from CD1, is the seriousness of this mix. In CD1 there was more of a graceful and flowing melody. In CD2, you could tell the mix was exerting moving melodies and powerful bass lines. In the car, I get a pretty good high listening to this mix while driving (and yes.... I am still concentrating on the road in case you are wondering).

This time around, DJ Pi did not make any CD covers for this mix...... wierd considering he always does make covers for his mixes. As soon as the covers are out, I will make sure to load it here.

For more information and to download, visit DJ Pi's official website

MERRY CHRISTMAS from ~Path of Time~

Just like that, the year 2007 is nearing to a close and 2008 is coming. Makes you wonder whether you spent 2007 well and beneficially. For those who achieved their goals for 2007, good on you! For those who could not achieve their goals in 2007, it is time to make a resolution for 2008 and make sure you give it another shot........

It is Christmas eve today, to all Christians and those who celebrate Christmas - ~Path of Time~ wishes all of you a wonderful and joyous Christmas and do not forget to give thanks!

An Inspirational Story~

Late at night, finding difficulties trying to sleep I just hooked up the internet and started browsing for some inspirational stories. You'd be surprised how many stories are out there that can really touch one's heart. Here's one I found.
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I Kid You Not

Although I love children, I am content with knowing that motherhood is not in my future.
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By Eileen Mitchell

As I straddle middle age, I realize it's unlikely that I'll ever be a mother. Heck, in recent months I haven't found a guy I want to share a dinner with, let alone my DNA.

But that's okay.

Because throughout adulthood, while attending dozens of baby showers, I've been happy for my friends but have never felt that pang of envy, wishing it were I. Not once have I ever turned the same shade of green that washes over me when, for example, someone gets a puppy or vacations in London.

Do I like kids? Absolutely. Will I regret not having any of my own? I doubt it. I recognize that not every person is meant to be a parent simply because they're capable of reproducing. But occasionally I need a kid fix. I need to forget about cheating politicians, reality TV, road rage, ringing cell phones, and looming deadlines. That's when I seek out a little person. An innocent who really thinks that true happiness lies in a triple scoop Baskin Robbins bubblegum ice-cream cone.

Faith is connected to hope and hope means believing in spite of the evidence and then watching the evidence change.

Enter my seven-year old niece, Meggie.

She reminds me of a time when my biggest concern in life was what to be for Halloween. Like when I witnessed her agonizing dilemma over which costume to choose. Should she be the silly SpongeBob SquarePants or the pretty pre-transformation Princess Fiona from Shrek? Sigh… to face such a big decision at such a tender age isn't easy.

Meggie is the only person I buy gifts for when I travel. As an infant she drooled over the exquisite lace frock I purchased in Florence. When she was four she insisted on wearing her hula outfit from Maui. To church, on Christmas Eve. As a five-year-old she strutted to kindergarten, proudly showing off her straw purse from Jamaica. After each trip we sit on her bed and spin the Rand McNally globe, identifying the origin of each gift.

"This is Ireland," I point to the tiny green spot in the Atlantic. "where your flute is from. And here," I slide my finger down to Martinique, " is where I bought your doll." Intrigued, she asks questions about the different countries. Do the kids eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, too? What do they look like? Are they nice?

That's why I've told Meggie if she gets good grades and doesn't give her parents any grief, I'll take her on vacation with me when she graduates from high school. "Anywhere?" she asks incredulously. As she's spinning the globe, I see brown-bag lunches and coupon clipping in my future for the next decade, but I don't care. "Anywhere." I promise.

Meggie and I talk about music. TV. School. Once a month we go to our favorite bookstore and after carefully perusing the aisles, we take our newly acquired purchases to the adjacent café and read, my Patricia Cornwell to her Harry Potter. We sit in silence as I sip my soy latte and she, her hot cocoa.

One night we made chocolate covered breadsticks. Carefully she dipped each thick breadstick in the bowl of melted milk chocolate, and then rolled it in a plate of red and green sprinkles before setting it down to dry on aluminum foil. Patiently she repeated the process with each breadstick, mindful not to drip any chocolate or spill any sprinkles on my beige carpet.

Maybe this kid was too clean.

I dipped my fingers in the melted chocolate, smeared the sweet brown goop across my mouth, and then planted a big brown smackaroo on her cheek. There!

"And don't you even THINK of doing that to me," I challenged.

Stunned, she looked at me for a second. Was her aunt crazy? Then cautiously, she mimicked my actions.

"Oh, you're in trouble now," I warned, dipping both hands in the chocolate and reaching for her as, shocked and delighted, she happily followed suit.

The chocolate breadsticks never did get made, but that's okay. Because something far more important was created instead. It was all too apparent by the glow on Meggie's face.

Motherhood, by its purest definition, may not be my goal, but I'm content with the knowledge that it doesn't have to be. And when Meggie asks, "Can we pretend you're my mommy tonight?" I stroke her earnest chocolate-covered face and inform my "daughter" that she has chocolate in her ears.

Biofuels: solution to global warming or a hidden agenda for the rich to get richer?

Global warming has been gaining much focus of late, and many have been suggesting solutions to reduce the threat of global warming. Ask anyone the main cause for global warming, and you'll find fingers are pointing at fossil fuel usage. It is difficult not to blame fossil fuel for being the main cause of global warming and let us not forget we too contribute to global warming (i.e. car fuel comes from fossil fuel, cooking gas, diesel generators that produce household generators).

With the growing number of fingers pointing at fossil fuel, many have proposed the use of biofuels. Naturally, the parties suggesting it are mainly developed countries. After all, they are the ones with the knowledge and technology to develop biofuels. However, the idea of biofuels has fueled much disagreement and controversy.

Here are quotes from authoritative voices in the environmental arena:
"The stage is now set for direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles, and the world's two billion poorest people." -–Lester Brown (more on Lester Brown HERE)

"The only goal [of biofuels] is to maintain current patterns of consumption in the First World and high rates of profit for multinational corporations." —MST (the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement)

The current hype in the biofuel industry is based on using agricultural produce to generate fuel to replace the use of fossil fuel. This has led to many big corporations to sink billions into ethanol and biodiesel plants, huge plantations of soy, corn, sugarcane, oil palm or other sources of agrofuels, as well as genetically engineered (GE) trees and microbes for future supplies of cellulosic ethanol.

On the surface, biofuel may look like the way to go to replacing fossil fuel but if we were to take an utilitarian approach to assessing biofuel, it may not necessarily be the way forward. I did further reading and I can come up with a few reasons why we should all re-look the idea of biofuel.

1) Biofuels are creating competition between food for people and fuel for cars, leading to skyrocketing grain prices and increasing numbers of people who cannot afford to eat. As one example, the amount of grain needed to create enough ethanol to fill the tank of a single SUV could feed one person for an entire year. There simply isn't enough grain to feed all of the people and all of the cars.

2) The increasing demand for land for biofuel plantations is causing deforestation and destruction of some of the last and largest primeval forests, which are being logged and burned to clear land for these biofuel plantations. In Indonesia, millions of acres of primordial rainforest are at stake. The government plans to clear vast tracts of this forest for oil palm plantations for biodiesel for export to Europe, threatening the existence of wildlife including orangutans, rhinoceros and tigers.

3) The logging and burning of forests for biofuel plantations releases huge quantities of greenhouse gases which are unlikely to be offset by the biofuels created from the crops grown on these former forest lands. The burning of the forests of Indonesia each year (largely for oil palm plantations) makes it the world's third largest producer of global carbon emissions, even though most of the population lives in poverty.

4) Indigenous peoples who depend on forests for food, medicine, shelter, livelihoods or culture are being forcibly displaced from their lands to make room for biofuel plantations.

6) The biotechnology industry is using rising demand for biofuel as a new way to sell their highly unpopular, unpredictable and problematic genetic engineering technology. Monsanto's stocks are soaring as demand increased for their genetically engineered corn and soy for biofuels. ArborGen is genetically engineering trees for release in the Southeast US and Brazil that have specifically been modified to produce cellulosic ethanol.

7) The rich get richer because biofuel. With the introduction of GE trees, there is bound to be the patenting of tree genes and tree cells. Big conglomerates then use the patents to earn exorbitantly high patent fees to plant GE trees.

8) There is virtually no study on the side effects of releasing GE trees into the environment. Just like how releasing certain species of fish into a pond can destroy the entire pond's ecosystem, GE trees may well carry such risks hence bringing forth more destruction than benefits. We have to take note that genetic contamination is irrevocable and its costs far from measurable.

Biofuels the way to fueling our daily lives? Think again.............

Fate/Stay Night

Emiya Shirou is the sole surivor of a great fire that wiped out a substantial part of the town he lived in. The fire had robbed him of his parents, and he was saved by a sorcerer named Emiya Kirutsugu who became his step father. His step father too succumbed to illness and left Shirou alone.

Learning basic magic from his step father, Shirou vowed to champion justice. Life for Shirou as a normal high school student took a different direction when he one evening stumbled upon two powerful warriors figthing. One wielding twin blades, and one wielding a lance. Shirou was soon killed by the lance wielding warrior after Shirou was seen witnessing the fight.

Strangely, Shirou wakes up feeling disorientated and recalls being stabbed by the lance wielding warrior. Most surprising, he finds himself alive because of his certainty his was stabbed in the heart. Unknowingly, Shirou has gotten himself into a battle of sorcerer in which he was not supposed to witness.

Subsequently, the lance wielder knowing that Shirou did not die from his stab sought Shirou out to make sure of killing Shirou. When the lance wielder attacked Shirou in his home, Shirou unconsciously summoned a sword wielder called Saber.

That is when Shirou begin to realise, he was a master to a warrior just like other sorcerers. The fight between the warriors is actually part of the war of the Holy Grail, whereby the only remaining sorcerer and his warrior will be able to grant their wishes using the Holy Grail.
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RocketDock brought to you by Punk Labs

So there are some of us here that are really pro-Windows users, but deep down in your heart you are wishing you had a dock like the one Macintosh users get to play around with all the time. But then, you do not want to be over spending on a Macintosh that is probably over-priced in Malaysia, and spending too much time trying to get used to a Macintosh if you really do migrate your workstation from a Windows to a Mac. Let's not forget, Macs can get pretty unfriendly for users who have probably been on a Windows since they started using a pc.

The solution - some great guys at Punk Labs decided to make Mac's ever popular dock availabe for Windows users. It's called RocketDock. That's not all. It's free (i.e. you don't pay a single dime unlike a pricey Mac), and it is user-friendly and fast.

Check out the screenshot I took from my desktop:

I installed it, and initially did not expect much since I thought it probably wouldn't be good or it may take up alot of resources. To my surprise, it is fast, hardly takes up any resources, and highly customisable in terms of colours, themes and size.

For those looking for some convenience to executing programs from the dock rather than having to go back to the 'start' button all the time, RocketDock is a must-have!

Available for download at http://rocketdock.com/

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Fans of Final Fantasy VII who want the wallpaper, drop me a comment and I will make it available for downloads! :)

disappointment looming in the horizon

Last day of D-Day for the sitting, and it turned out far from satisfactory. Frankly, I am expecting to fail this paper and go for another round in the next sitting.

I knew the subject of Corporate Reporting has always been a problem for me even since my university days. Come to think of it, I never really understood the subject thoroughly and coming into ACCA, I am talking about the introduction of a plethora of new accounting issues and the demand for an in-depth understanding of accounting standards. Judging from my performance in the past six months, clearly I am in need of dire help.

Only thing left for me to do for now, is to pick myself back up and try to get back on track. After all, every now and then we fall down, and the reason we fall down is because we can learn to pick ourselves back up. Most importantly, is whether I can put this downfall behind and keep pushing foward.

Lesson learned from this experience:
1. Distractions have to be kept at bay, no matter what. At the end of the day, distractions only bring about inefficiencies;
2. Time management is the only way to go in keeping oneself organize and getting things done;
3. Basics are important, get them wrong from the start, and you are on the road to no where!

First exam paper out of the 2 for the semester.

Today was D-day for me, and I underwent the first exam paper. I had no expectations for the paper and I only hoped to write as well as possible.

With the new syllabus and the introduction of the 15 minutes reading time, I thought it would be better for me. It was only natural to think that 15 minutes reading time to annotate important points would help. However, in reality it did not make much of a difference because by allowing the 15 minutes reading time the examiner made sure the paper was difficult enough to warrant the 15 minutes.

My thoughts on the paper:

1. It looked manageable at first take, but when I got down to it clearly it was not as simple as it looked.

2. The 15 minutes time, made me overestimate the amount time I needed to write the answers, thus making me think I could finish the paper quicker when in reality that was not the case.

3. I am not so sure if passing the paper is possible.........
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One way or the other I thank God in Heaven for keeping me cool and focused throughout the exam.