boo!

happy haunting halloween to you!

100 words

I want a child who will wrap his small arms halfway around my waist, rest his chin on my rib and question me about the world. His mother will silence me with a touch and continue feeding him white lies and mashed carrots.

I will let him ride on my shoulders so that he can see further, see what I couldn't. He will be my crown, I will be his elephant. My wife will be a princess waiting for rescue. He might even forbid her from eating apples.

He will outgrow us eventually.

I did, but I never forgot.

quoi de neuf?

1. Bacau seems to be a fun place to go hiking.

2. cycling is more fun when done in pelotons.

3. the JPY rose damn dramatically against the SGD recently. =(

4. playing monopoly amidst the current crisis is a very interesting experience.

5. i need to finish my readings. preferably before scheduled meetings with my prof.

6. empire cafe serves individual portions of or-nee!!!

une observation

Just realised that I log in more often to the school's online facilities booking system than ivle.

'nuf said. =P

mcdo

Big mac		Chicken McNuggets
Milk Shake		Large French Fries
Egg McMuffin		Quarter Pounder

WOOTS I still remember these guys. Used to have one or two or them, but I think they got thrown away when I moved house. Do you remember them? Super retro and funky!

By the way these McDo transformers were available during 1989-1990. I must have just been about 5. How young was I only then.

Hooray for childhood! =D

reli..duh

durkheim would have been so proud of this.

"Religion is the opiate of the masses" - Karl Marx.

If there is one question I get asked more than any other, it would be “Why don’t you believe in God?”. Rather than going down the popular route of trying to work out which God the inquirer is talking about, I like to respond with reasons why I don’t believe in any god. To be an atheist, you don’t just have to disbelieve the existence of one god; you have to disbelieve in all of them.

By far the most persuasive reason I disbelieve in gods is the sheer lack of evidence for them in the first place. A theist might argue that all of existence is evidence enough for god, but the problem with this conclusion is that it does not explain the god. In fact, it makes things even more confusing, because it invokes a “supreme” being that in most religions is all-knowing and all-powerful. Such a being is so infinitely complex that the only way you can possibly explain its own existence is by claiming it was “always there”. Not only does this argument rely on speculation and blind faith, but you can easily turn it around and argue that the universe - in some form - was always there. Indeed, the same line of argument is used with Intelligent Design, and the same problem is reached; you simply cannot explain or give evidence for the “designer”. All things considered, it would probably be far easier for me to believe in flying unicorns than to suppose an infinitely complex being.

Another problem I find with the whole “god” idea is the contradictory nature of religion. It’s not just that there are several hundred religions all claiming to be the truth, or that all of them contradict each other in some way, but that even each religion is internally inconsistent. Evangelicals like to claim that the Bible is supported by science, but it is simply not. The Bible has stayed roughly the same for generations; science has not. When a new scientific discovery threatens the “infallibility” of the Bible, one of two things can occur; either believers change the way they interpret passages so that the inconsistency is effectively removed, or they reject the entire scientific idea. Not all believers choose to do the same thing of course. This whole process of constantly updating religious texts to comply with science begs the ultimate question: If a god did exist, and these texts are supposedly its word, why was it so wrong in the first place? Or have we really risen to such a high level that we are out-thinking an all-knowing god? =P

The next thing which irks me is the unquestioning nature and pre-requisite of blind faith in the belief of god. It is just so amazing how seemingly rational and powerful people are still at their mother's knees when it comes to the topic of religion. Its like for some reason, their faculties for religion never really developed after the rest of their brains had took off. Using faith as a euphemism for ignorance is just irresponsible of religion, and puts religious followers in a compromising position. We often see the manipulative nature of religion precisely taking advantage of this complete trust and consequently the harm which it can wreak on the gullible and the innocent. Do the 9/11 terrorists, the Crusades and the Aum Shin Rikyo cult ring a bell? On the other hand, why is faith so hyped up by religious believers as the crucible of one's religiosity? If so, why pray only as a last resort; one should just pray instead of studying/training/working! And spare me the "God helps those who help themselves" crap.

Finally, I see no logical reason for life to exist after death; a concept most religions like to advertise. Science tells us we really are just a bunch of atoms, and that even our consciousness can be explained with natural processes. I have no problem with that; I find it quite a humble view. In retrospect, I think our self-awareness is the cause of our fear, and subsequent fixation with death. Problems arise when one attempts to imagine what it is like not to think; it’s impossible to do by the very nature of thinking. So which is it? Was an afterlife created for us so we can live on, or did we create an afterlife to cope with our fears of death?

-

Thanks to thejx for the prodding. Felt that I had been procrastinating on this for far too long. Too much work, too much tennis, and too little beer. Maybe I'll write something more positive sometime, like 'Why I am an Atheist' or something. =]

calm before the storm

The uninspiring stillness
and whispering silence,
of that lack-lustre facade
threatened, to stop your heart.

So you thought,
this calm on me wrought,
like incessant drops of water,
an old Chinese torture.

But raging storms
do rock your boat;
no pretty rhymes,
no monotony.

That proved too much
for your weakened heart,
accustomed to silence,
threatens to fail.

net play

Its my fault! I know!!! MY fault!!!

What fault?

Double fault.. =P

nadal. i wish i had his guns

Heh been enjoying quite a bit of a tennis revival recently; actually its more of a mania than anything. Last week I played 6 days consecutively. On the 7th day I went to the gym instead.

I blame Shi Chuan for introducing TFN to me. Its so easy to find people who want to play, at all locations and at all hours that I am beginning to feel like a prostitute pimping myself on the message board.

"I have the urge to play tomorrow. Are you free?", was the first message sent to me, barely half an hour after I had signed up as a member.

Anyway glad to have signed up, cos for the past 2 weeks I have met so many good mates like Woonz, Krissie (=P) and Elvin. I guess part of the addiction is in wanting to meet up with you guys! =)

-

I realise that I have no photos of me playing tennis. Or holding a racket. Or just posing. Whatever. I am such a noob at the sport. And narcissist also.

-

Finally got a new stick, a 2nd hand APDC, Nadal's very own weapon of choice. Woots. Whacked a bit with it today and the power is just awesome. So awesome that my balls kept launching themselves into lunar orbit. Blah. Looks like I need a higher tension for my strings. Queensway this weekend, anyone?

fine city

Bus driver fined $200 for sleeping on park bench. Read about it here.

No wonder Singapore is so notorious for being such a draconian city.

What bullshit laws. Oh wait. There were no such laws in the first place! Nothing indicating that sleeping on park benches would be a criminal act, just a disclaimer that the 'Dos' and 'Don'ts' list was not exhaustive.

So it looks like our ruling regime is still using our ignorance to stay high-handed: rules and regulations are deliberately left to open interpretation so that people will not dare to try new things for fear of punishment.

@#$%$#^%$-ment incroyable et insupportable!

Anyway isn't this 'law' just plain dumb? I wonder what the park rangers were thinking when they fined the poor bus driver. Didn't they feel stupid by accusing him of 'abusing the park bench'? I so want to head-butt those rangers.

And I don't even want to think about what other bizzare crimes one is capable of committing here in Singapore.

In related news, the Chees were sued for almost SGD1million for, well you guessed it, defamation suits against the Lees today.

Grah. La vie à Singapour, des amendes partout.

dislikes

1. rain
2. waking up in the morning
3. fingernails on chalkboard.. ouch.
4. lack of individuality
5. flu bug, or any bug which makes me ill
6. China
7. indifference
8. dishonesty
9. unquestioning gullibility
10. feeling left out of the loop
11. judgemental people
12. last minute cancellations
13. mozzies and roaches
14. being alone
15. did i already mention rain?

la chine merdique

the cheek of them..

after
the melamine milk cover up,
the Internet censorship during the Olympics,
Tibet,
the Tiananmen incident,
Falun Gong,
the Cultural Revolution

to suggest that the Nobel Peace Prize should not go to a certain Chinese human rights activist.

like, seriously, WTF.

j'en ai marre de ce putain de pays. argh.

encore en france

Je n'avais pas su, mais en fait, j'étais toujours en France.

J'avais quitté l'Hexagone, tombé sur un petit point rouge; un carrefour international, une flamme brulant, une nuit tout noir, le brise de printemps, n'importe quoi.

"Laisser tomber", tu m'avais dit.

La persistance admirable. La façade impitoyable.

Le weekend déjà. Mais quoi d'autre à faire?