Today I finally went to the gym, and made the not – so – difficult to see observation that I am out of shape. Oh well, I managed 2 km on the treadmill among other things, this being the distance from 4th college to my faculty. Woo hoo, if I m going to be walking next year (and I see that walking is definitely featured prominently in next year’s plans), I had better get into shape quickly. Still have about a month to do so, I think I have enough time.

I went back to school, in this case, SMI, yesterday. Has not changed much. The lecture theatre has been done up nicely though, and the air–con there was reminiscent of the one in my faculty library, dubbed by Alicia as the freezer. It was a pleasure to meet up with my juniors and catch up on old times. Actually went to the school library, lay out there quite unique. De jure, the reason I was there was to watch a debate under the Wira debating competition. De facto, I was there to pass some books and notes to a junior and to meet up with friends, which I did spectacularly. :)
The SMI debating team this year is excellent, and I wish them all the best (although I do feel that given the fact they have such a devoted and skilful teacher adviser, it would be hard put for them to be incapable!). The third speaker in the team is actually my friend’s younger brother, I actually always suspected him of having debating potential. I can imagine sparring with him, as I have done in my younger days. I had fun sparring with Hosanna in our orientation debate.

My head is spinning from arguments and counter arguments, as a result of thinking up points for both sides. This is so that I keep mentally alert. I find that it helps to put out the thread or line of argument on a piece of paper to see where it leads to. Of course, taking into consideration the human capacity for rhetoric and in some cases, excellent oratory, some arguments can never really be resolved.

Law school has helped me to understand one fact: both sides are right. It’s only a question of which one is MORE convincing. Heh, substance is one thing, and oratory another. It is best to have both, but when one has only recourse to one or the other, oratory is more effective in convincing as I have observed. As a rule, people seldom like thinking. Except for a select few, appealing to emotions is a better way of getting people to do what you want. The majority leans heavily in favour of emotional as opposed to reason, reason being somewhat more difficult to grasp. Thinking calls for a calm, composed and contemplative state of mind and looking at the state of the world today, it is nigh impossible to seek peace and quiet to ponder something through.

After finishing some heavy duty books on philosophy, now I have moved on to classics. I finished Aldous Huxley’s ‘Point Counter Point’, which can be summarised as rich couples committing adultery interwoven with an assassination sub plot and scientific facts and opinions as a background in early 20th Century England. Ok on the whole, but it has some dull bits. I might start on Emma by Jane Austen, but at the moment, my favourite Austen is Mansfield Park. Sappy hero, sappier heroine, bitchy villains, what more can I ask for?