Friday, November 16, 2007
She sees red
Later on I smsed her, explaining my reasons: I find it unfair that someone else has to pay for her carelessness. If I were to help her out this time round and should it happen again, no worries, there would always be me. And she might never learn from the mistake, would she? Regardless she likes it or not, she has to be responsible for her blunder. Whether she is just upset over losing her points or she is mad that I didn't extend my helping hand, I do not know because she didn't reply to my message.
I am gonna just leave it at that and I will not apologise for not helping. Just too bad her good friend is a straight talking one. Putting myself in her shoes, I know I would not be going around asking for demerit points since it's clearly my own fault and I should be the one paying for it. Period.
Hibernation rules!
Also, with the cold, I snack incessantly in-between meals. I am always HUNGRY!!! Damn it! Goodbye healthy eating, hello snack junkie!
If only I could hibernate through the coming even-colder winter! During which, I would wake up every few days to grab a bite or go pee. By the time my hibernation ended in spring, I would be very thin and starving which suited me just fine. Who needs dieting and working out anymore when you have hibernation!
Technically, human hibernation is not impossible. A toddler of 13 months wandered outside her family home in Canada. The outside temperature was -24 °C. When she was found, her heart had stopped beating for two hours and her body temperature had fallen to 16°C. She was pronounced clinically dead. In October 2006, a Japanese man was believed to have been in a state akin to hibernation for three weeks. He had fallen asleep on a snowy mountain after an accident and claimed he had only woken up after being discovered 23 days later. Doctors who treated him believed his temperature had fallen to 22 °C during that period. Both made full recovery after the ordeals.
There are also many research projects currently investigating how to achieve induced hibernation in humans. I am optimistic that a breakthrough will come very soon in the near future. It'll then be: goodbye winter, hello my sleeping holiday!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A Bigger Person
Her efforts made me ponder how many of us actually have the courage to leave behind our comforts and earthly possessions, not to mention family and friends, to go help the less privilege in a third world country? Courage alone is not enough. Imagine in the course of your efforts, your supposedly trusted housekeeper stealing from you when you are there in their country with the sole intention of helping their own people. Can you trust them again? How about having to constantly beat off imposters who claim they are policemen or firemen asking for some license fees which is in fact just money for themselves. Some are actual policemen who do not earn much from their jobs. Hence they resort to extorting money from businesses. What about being handed a fake US$100 and you returned the US$75 change plus 2 bags to the conman? Furthermore you have to sort out work politics problems among the workers and worry about their living conditions at the same time. On top of that, you also worry if the business is going to do well, if you can pull this through, you get homesick, you miss the comforts back home... It can be too overwhelming and daunting at times. How do you chin up when things simply just don't go the way it's supposed to be?
It is a very challenging task which requires a lot from a person. A person who is selfless, courageous, generous, extraordinary and has a bigger heart than most people. And Diana Saw is such a person. Despite the difficulties, there she stands resolute in her beliefs and convictions.
My hats off to her.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Madam Butterfly - My first opera outing
After being seated, I was a little anxious if I would enjoy it at all. Opera evokes rather extreme emotions in people. It's either you love it or hate it, there is no in-between, so they say. The first act was basically about the wedding of Pinkerton, an American navy officer and Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly), a 15 year old Japanese geisha. The marriage could in fact be cancelled whenever Pinkerton wished while Butterfly wishfully thought the marriage was binding. The first act was rather flat. Pinkerton and Butterfly sang almost half the time about stars, flowers, sea and so on. I had to stifle my yawns. I was half-expecting something more dramatic like Miss Saigon, which was of course my mistake. Because Miss Saigon is after all a modern broadway musical while Madam Butterfly was written some 100 years ago.
During the second act, I stopped reading the German subtitles and concentrated on the music instead. Surprisingly, I found myself being drawn into the plot instantly. That must be the secret: not understanding what they were singing about. Credits have to be given to the lead singer in the role of Cio-Cio-San. She sings fabulously, her joy in her marriage, her belief and longing for Pinkerton's return and her sadness of being abandoned flow freely through her vocals. While her maid, Suzuki sings equally well, she is more of an actress who amply depicts her grief and despair for her forsaken mistress. She magically conjured pain in me that night.
At times, I felt I was Julia Roberts watching her first opera in Pretty Woman, with tears brimming in my eyes. At times, my toes curled inwards whenever the singers reached those high notes. In one scene Butterfly was waiting for Pinkerton to return. There she stood still on the stage with her back towards us for nearly 5 minutes!! It was most agonising for me as I was badly in need to go to the loo. Talk about bad timing.
All in all, it was quite an experience and I do like it. This won't be my last opera. Nonetheless, my next opera would have to be a very theatrical one because I heart anything melodramatic.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Mrs Miller
She: Who is that guy on the picture? Is he your husband?
WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... I Wish!!!!!! It's silly but she certainly made my day that day.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Our Selfishness
On the other hand, I was lucky no one broached the subject on shark's fins. Since young till now, I love shark's fin soup to death. How would my classmates look at me if they knew I eat shark's fins? I would be called a 'heartless Chinese!', that's for sure. Abruptly, my uprightness and righteousness vanished into thin air. I am such a half-fucked animal rights activist.
The conclusion of my teacher at the end of the discussion: 'This is all due to our different cultures.' It is not the answer to everything but at least it consoles me a little.
The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Abort Plan
Anyways, I decided, enough is enough. It's time to do something about our diet. We better try to eat healthier though we would not go the extreme way of detoxing by eating only fruits and veggies for days straight because I will for sure faint on myself after just 1 day. First day of my diet plan which is today, mushrooms salad with bread rolls for lunch and dinner. Right after my lunch, a small voice was nagging in my head, I am not full, I am not full! I tried very hard to dismiss it by occupying myself with, yes you guessed it, watching more american series. It helped for a while. An hour later, I asked Mr R if he was hungry. He replied no with a laugh. I bore up my hunger pangs for another few hours.
At last, dinnertime! Hastily, I washed my salad. I wasn't looking forward to just having the salad, honestly, but I was starving so anything goes. Perhaps it was heaven's will, the salad had gone all wilted. We bought it the day before, you see. Mr R suggested to throw it away as it was no longer good to eat. Just what I wanted to hear! Naturally he asked what's for dinner then. He didn't mind driving out to get takeaways. Just then MacDonald's ad came on. I lost all my will power and asked for burger.
While I was ravishing my burger as if I have not eaten for days, Mr R was teasing me about 'my healthy diet' attempt. I had to laugh at myself too. Shame on me! I didn't even last a day! As proven to me on several occasions, I can never survive on just greens or fruits. I know of some people who can! They are amazing. The truth is I am a carnivorous at heart and I should not deny my nature. I am satisfied and happy after my burger as compared to the grumpy me few hours ago. I live to eat. I am definitely no health queen freak. But of course, too much of anything is always bad. The key word here is restraint.
Backup plan: skip in the following days. My skipping rope is collecting dust in some corner, as we speak. I better wake up my bloody idea tomorrow and move that arse off the couch.
Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
- Mark Twain
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Young Presidents-To-Be
The documentary then went on to show how the 2 boys, with the help of their parents, prepared their campaign speeches for the big election the next day. The big day came and Barack was the first to go. He impressed his voters with promises of democracy, efficiency and transparency. Next came George. He spoke with promises and visions like Barack. At the last instant before he left his centrestage, George had something up his sleeves: he presented small little cards to his little voters to mark the celebration of the Mid-autumn Festival. Everyone, especially the girls, screamed with delight how exquisite the cards were.
At last, it was time to count the votes. No prize for guessing who won the election. It was George of course. He won them over with his harmless bride.
These 10 year-old kids amaze me. I almost thought I was watching Bush and other presidential candidates campaigning for the election. These kids are way more intelligent than I was when I was 10. Instead of playing, they spend time agonising over class monitor elections and trying to stay ahead of their peers. Times have certainly changed. Children these days face the pressure of doing well in school. Failure in doing so might mean a lesser life than your peers who have excelled in school. Our society in this time and age demand such competitiveness in every aspect of our lives that even little children are not spared of it too. Nobody wants to be lagged behind. As a result, modern parents would send their offsprings to various courses to better their kids so that they have a competitive edge in the game. But for goodness sake, these kids are after all just kids. What happens to 'playing'? Do they not play anymore? Is it right that their childhood comprise mainly of studying and the pressure of conforming and excelling? What about a pure innocent playful childhood which helps form their individual characters and which they can recall fondly later in their adult lives?
In my childhood days, I didn't give a damn who would be my next class monitor. Who cares, as long as I get to play five stones, zero point or football with my classmates. The most important thing in my head then was play, watch tv and play again. Campaigning for class monitor? Huh? What?
Eh, perhaps too much playing as a child because I am now a bummer without a job.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Envy - one of the Seven Deadly Sins
Once upon a time, there lived a sheep on a green pasture near the ocean. Because she often roamed furthest away from her flock, she was called a outlier. With her anti-social behaviour, the outlier had naturally not much friends. Everyday she would wander away to graze on her own and ponder on her own thoughts.
One day, as Sheep was spacing out as usual, she heard an animal coming closer towards her. The outlier turned around and saw a mountain goat trotting towards her. The mountain goat had a smile on her face and the outlier was drawn to her at once. After a few exchange of words, the Sheep realised it was summertime and the mountain goats usually left their high-altitude habitats for mineral licks (in search of nutritional needs).
The outlier and Mountain Goat became fast friends. Sheep was impressed by her new friend because she seemed so worldly and Sheep felt she could learn a thing or two from her. The outlier would let on where to graze for the greenest grass, where to source for the freshest and sweetest water, where to catch the best dawn and sunset, where to find the best place to rest oneself and so on. Mountain Goat was grateful for the outlier's kindness and in return she would relate her adventures high up in the mountains and how to fight off aggressive fellow mountain goats or predators like bears. Many moons passed and Sheep was truly glad she had found a friend at last.
After the initial thrill of discovering each other wore off, the two friends went about their business as before; Sheep would graze on her own while Mountain Goat would explore this new place with her fellow mountain goats. Of course the 2 new friends would find time to catch up with each other every so often. Again many moons passed. Mountain Goat gradually became painfully aware that the 2 of them didn't have many common topics to engage in except in the subject of nutritional needs. The Goat was bored. She was badly in need of some fun which resulted in her spending lesser and lesser time in Sheep's company.
One day, Mountain Goat came trotting excitedly to the outlier and exclaimed in exhilaration she had discovered a pasture nearby with the sweetest grass. Together they rushed to the mentioned pasture. Already other sheeps and mountain goats were there to savour the temptingly sweet grass. Upon seeing Mountain Goat's approach, they begun to sing praises of how clever she was to have found such delicacy and how generous she was to share with everyone. Mountain Goat was very pleased with herself. However, she realised her friend, Sheep, was grazing quietly without a single word a distance away from them. It puzzled Mountain Goat a little but she was just too distracted by the enthusiasm of the others to dwell much on it.
Quite unexpectedly one day, something caught the attention of Mountain Goat: The Sheep was conducting herself in a similar way as the Goat, in the way Goat walked, talked and behaved. Nonetheless, the Goat didn't believe what she saw. She shook herself and blamed herself for being too sensitive. Days after, Mountain Goat couldn't help but continue to observe the outlier. By and by, she was certain it was not her sensitivity at work here but the Sheep was indeed trying to carry herself like the Goat. The Goat was in a perplexed state. She had no idea what to think of it....
Further and further drifted the 2 friends apart. After her discovery, Mountain Goat couldn't bear to be in the presence of the Sheep anymore. The Sheep sensed Goat's distance. Whether she knew why, she showed no signs of it. Sheep's pride also prevented her from bridging the now-widen gap between them.
Moons passed. Green leaves turned to shades of yellow and fell from the trees. The landscape was filled with all sorts of gold. The sheeps and mountain goats planned an excursion to a nearby hill to view the beautiful, golden autumn around them before the goats leave in a few weeks time. Gaily they set off for the hill. Mountain Goat caught a glimpse of the Sheep in a distance and gave her a weak smile. They haven't spoken for months now.
Later, after the oohs and ahs over the fantastic scenery, some started grazing while others just lazed around. Mountain Goat was minding her own business when she casually looked up and caught the Sheep watching her. The Goat was startled by that look. She couldn't put her finger on what the outlier's look meant. Goat mulled it over the whole night and the whole of next day. It finally dawned on her: it was a look of envy. Goat was even more baffled, why the envy? She mulled it over again the whole of next night and day. The rational Goat eventually figured it out that perhaps Sheep had insecurity problems or that she might be discontented with her life. Hence, she would tend to be competitive and could not be happy for her friends if they did better than her. Admittedly, the Goat was always charming and more popular than the Sheep amongst the other animals, the Goat was handsome with her long black horns and her full woolly white coat, she was also very sophisticated and was able to dispense clever advices. Perhaps these were the roots of Sheep's envy. Such conclusions saddened the Goat because more often than not, envy or jealousy tended to ruin friendships. Even so, Goat knew it wasn't her fault to be who she was and she shouldn't feel apologetic about it. Somehow it reminded her of an old friend which was also suffering from the same problems and it was simply too draining to remain friends with her. The Mountain Goat certainly didn't need another one in her life again. She would rather be without friends.
With downcast eyes, Mountain Goat decided it's high time for her to leave and go back home in the mountains.
