That girl

The girl that I will raves to my parents about. The girl that makes me text message to my friend "I'm in love". The girl I will brag to my girlfriends about. The girl whose picture I look at every day, secretly looking around the office to make sure nobody's standing behind me.

The girl that I can't wait to take home to meet my parents. The girl that I fantasizes about doing things with - going away, going out to eat, going to the library. The girl that makes me see a hot girl, and think "She's hot, but I like you so much more".

The girl that I bring to the office party, introduce to my coworkers, then pretends I'm annoyed when they say how nice and how beautiful you are, and how cute the two of us are together (though I'm secretly loving every minute of it).

The girl whose name I search for on his computer, msn history and email account, hoping I'll find something an old email or conversation from you. The girl whose old emails and notes I will read again and again. And again and again.

The girl I dream of spending money on. The girl who makes me feel like material things are irrelevant.

The girl that makes me hide in the bathroom at work, quietly sobbing, when things look like they are going bad. The girl that makes me stay at work much later than I should, because instead of working, I'm writing about you.

SpellCast ("Blog Ressurection")

After a long hiatus and a slow day in the office since boss is too busy to deal with my work, I've returned to ressurect my blog!

What to say....

Well it's a little late to be saying this, but I had a great time over Christmas with my choir buddies ^_^ We had a short informal carolling stint of about 7-8 songs (mostly good ol' carols). Best part of the affair (in order of personal enjoyment) was:
1. Getting to see the woman of my dreams for (almost) a week non-stop. Too bad the feeling isn't mutual T_T
2. Getting to meet my old buddies again! Yes I know i just prioritised the lady over the buddies. Zhong4 Se4 Qing1 You3.
3. Getting to sing Mao Mao once more! Just like the good old day. It's one of my fave choral(?) pieces


XY's birthday was over new year's eve so I got her a present, which was this soft-leather bag for office use. I can't quite remember the brand though.. it starts with T and it's italian... Tuscani maybe? The bag was the subject of much discussion and deliberation between my friends and colleagues. Took us a study trip to Robinsons to decide on what to get.

So now that the new year has started, my life has once again settled down into the usual work-WoW routine while I try to slip in a date or two with xy (no such luck yet).

Fairly Ordinary Heroes

This news may seem a little late, but it's been festering in my mind for quite a while so I decided to just place my thoughts here anyway.

Shenzhou VI has returned from its fairly uneventful trip, and the Chinese have responded with the pomp and flair typical of a striving nationalistic country. The two colonels who went into space are being hailed as heroes. Every country needs a hero or two, and they need to be suave and iconic to whip up a good frevor.

Not to belittle our latest taikonauts, but aren't we forgetting somebody? A team of geeky bespectacled folks who got them up there into the first place? Was there anyone who remembered the rocket scientists, the mechanical engineers, the risk analysts, the firmware programmers? Who were those who REALLY made it all possible, constructing a machine not only capable of propelling human beings hundreds of miles above their natural habitat, but also capable of comfortbly housing them and catering for their basic needs (and then some)? Why was there no mention of the dilligence, skill, and sacrifice of the folks behind the scene?

So do your local geeks a favour. That high speed connection allowing you to read this blog? That processor core that squeezes more wires than the strands of your hair into a single centimeter of silicon to allow you to surf the net, chat online and listen to mp3 at the same time? The engines and control systems of your family car? The fridge that keeps your food fresh? Or the light bulb and electrical systems that keep the day going way into the night? They're all the collective fruits of sweat, blood and toil from your local brainies, young and old, alive or dead. Take a while to appreciate them a little; they rarely get the thanks.

Yasukuni: A fault of the Japanese Government?

The Yasukuni War Shrine has always been a place of great controvesy. Everytime a Japanese leader visits the shrine, it will always be accompanied by a huge uproar by its neighbouring countries. The latest visit by Koizumi has resulted in yet another trip cancellation by Beijing and more rhetoric by South Korea, But the issue isn't as clear as we would like it to be.

Yasukuni Shrine was first created to commemorate the victims of the Boshin War, and is one of the primary Shinto shrines in Japan. Since then, it has also enshrined the dead from another 1877 civil war, followed by multiple invasions into the neighbouring states from 1890 till WWII. The purpose of Yasukuni was to enshrine ALL Japanese War casualties. After Japan's defeat in WWII, Yasukuni became a religious insitiution independent from the Japanese Government. It is now completely privatedly funded.

So what seems to be the big deal? Amongst the 2.5 million enshrined in Yasukuni are 14 Class A war criminals, whom Yasukuni has defiantly defended by calling them “cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces.” The Japanese website claims that "comfort women were not forced to serve by the Japanese Empire”. That would surely be enough to tick off more than a few people.

Admist all the hoo-ha, what many don't realise is that the Japanese treat the war-dead from their civil wars much like the way Americans treat the soldiers of the American Revolution. They honor the dead as heroes, which is a perfectly legitimate reason. It is only with the addition of the various Japanese invasions & WWII that the problem begins.

Let us remind ourselves that this is not the first time a religion has twisted history to suit itself. The Crusades of past centuries are revered by the Church as a glorious past, and the same applies to the jihads by the Islamic faith. It is doubtless that these massacres are no less bloody than what the Japanese had accomplished during WWII.

If there is a single party that can change to improve the situation, it will be for Yasukuni to replace its statements about WWII with more historically correct ones. That will be a small but meaningful start. It is however not the government's place to tell a religious institution what to do and hence the ball is really in the court of Yasukuni and its own supporters.

Sharing a well-written passage from National Geographic

Little Ngoan was buried behind the parent's hut three weeks ago. Her grave, a bulky concrete tomb like others dotting the Vietnamese countryside, rests on high ground between a fishpond and yellow-green rice fields. At one end, her family laid out her cherished possessions; a doll's chair, a collection of shells, plastic sandals. They painted her tomb powder blue.

While Ngoan's parents are off helping with the rice harvest, other relatives share their memories. “She was so small, just ten years old,” says her grandmother, sitting on a hammock. “She was very gentle and a good student. If you look at her older sister” - the 17-year-old hangs back shyly - “you can imagine what she was like”. Ngoan's grandfather, silent with grief, lights a stick of incense at her grave.

The loss of a beloved child has hit this family hard. But ordinarily, the wider world would pay little attention to a child's death from infectious disease in this remote corner of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Old scourges like dengue fever and typhoid still take a toll here, and HIV/AIDS is on the rise.

Yet Ngoan's death and more than 50 others in Southeast Asia over the past two years have raised alarms worldwide. Affected countries are struggling to take action; other nations are sending aid and advisers while stockpiling drugs and developing vaccines at home. And scientists have stepped up their research into the fateful traffic of disease between animals and people.

Why? Because Ngoan died of the flu.

So there was this one time at derrick's place when we decided to order some McDonald's for supper at 1 am in the morning. After we placed our order, we were told that the food would take approximately 1 and a half hours to get here.

1.5 hours!!!

Could someone tell me what the definition of fast food is again?

OK NOW I'm officially freaked out