S03Lovelies

boo

2009-08-21T02:08:00.001+08:00

i'm still so busy even after ATEC and 3 months from ORD...
guess i've fulfilled my blogging quota whee!!!

Missing Everyone!

2009-07-27T00:15:00.002+08:00

Hey People! =D

Haven't seen alot of you for a very long time! Anyway I'm honestly sorry for not being that enthusiastic about organising class outings nowadays. I don't really have any excuse for that, and I really hope to change that. You will be hearing from me soon, regarding the next 2 class outings within the next two weeks! I hope that if you all are free, please do come, haha treat it as doing me a favour k!

Anyway it's kinda sad that no one updates this class blog anymore. Haha I still visit it every now and then, only to see the penguin picture. I'm sure many of you still do visit the website, even though some most probably have never remembered the actual address of the class blog in the first place (*haha glares at sj*) Haha I hope our regulars like Etzy, Heex, Mingsing, Azura, and whoever names I've left out, can come back blogging when you all are free! Haha admit it, at this point in our NS life, when we're so close to ORD-ing (for you guys at least! I know I ORD the latest), there's definitely some time at your hands so keep blogging kk!! Haha anyway that was pretty much what I wanted to say. I'm totally not emo-ing ok! Just that I happened to chance upon several previous entries of the class blog and it reminded me of the days back then. Haha I know many of us (esp. those in Uni) have 'moved on' somewhat with your new social networks and etc but let us still keep in contact and have fun whenever we meet ok! (that is if you all come for class outings in the first place!) Haha please don't feel ANY PRESSURE to come for class outings ok! XP

Haha so one thing that you all can help me with is to Reply my sms-es!! I need to gather responses before I decide on a date when more people can make it! Yea anyway please please keep the Friday of the NDP weekend free. I believe Ms Lio can make it, and it will most probably be a full reunion of the class, if possible HAHA. Then we can all start singing 'Home' by Kit Chan once again (I seriously love that song!). I will be inviting all other teachers too, so that includes Mr Chan, Ms Lee, Ms Chua (or Mrs Smth, ps i dunno the surname of her husband). Haha yup, hope this post will be a good start, in hopes of many more that will come. Thanks for reading! =D

2009-06-25T20:28:00.005+08:00

a penguin was spotted in a petrol kiosk. someone send the zookeepers!

outing!

2009-06-23T21:09:00.004+08:00

hello lovelies (: for those of you who still come here and read, there is one outing on saturday, 27th June 2009. i beseech all of you to come cos it's our beloved KELVIN KOH's birthday the day before and we should show him some love and thanks in addition to catching up with each other (:

there will be two parts. part 1: movie.
Movie title: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Movie place: Lido(cos marina and plaza and basically most gv places have sucky timings. but if you can find a good one do tell me or heex)
Movie time: 3.30pm or 5.30pm , most likely 3.30 (tentative - i don't know if you guys want to watch before or after dinner - after dinner is 8.30pm)

need responses for this part ASAP.

part 2: dinner
Dinner place: city hall or ps would be better. will update.
Dinner time: 6+++, depends on which timeslot we take for the movie! runtime of movie is abt 2.5hours so between 6 and 7pm

i know this is all very tentative but i will be online every day and a more confirmed sms will be going around soon! stay tuned (:

Kelvin is great

2009-04-19T00:13:00.002+08:00

now i know why everyone loves kelvin so much.

Kelvin said:
I have been taking Acai Berry now for over a month and already lost 36 pounds, it is the same stuff that was on the Oprah show, Mikey and Karine lost so much weight too with no diets or excersise. Get it now, its only five bucks a bottle, we are living proof that it works like magic. Get it over at http://*******.com

guys we should all start taking Acai Berry too. follow in his footsteps to achieve greatness.

MUST READ

2009-04-04T23:13:00.001+08:00

asiaone article on the famous BISHAN GAY!

http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20080811-81738.html

must read!

Class Christmas Party 20 Dec 08 @ Huiyi's & Songjie's

2008-12-21T20:54:00.006+08:00

haha the pictures say it all! have fun going through some of them here! all pictures are on facebook btw..

haha kitchen crew at work!

group shot at the start!

this is a rare nice picture where the guys are all smiling!

haha mel and huiyi!

azi totally blocking out milord, who is behind her. ernest is err... dunno doing what.

oo??

weird expressions...

haha waving of one arm failed..

zhangrui grabbed my cam and camwhored within 5 seconds... haha

mingsing king ah.....

haha another nice picture!

another nice group picture! =D

winner of pillowfight round #1! muahaha - victory pose!

azu clueless at wii boxing.. milord laughing away haha..

haha all watching wii boxing...

a nice candid picture, haha both huiyi and thomas smiling!

haha it seems as though pictures always end with ct reps pic! xP *sorry someone haha*

Class Outing

2008-09-16T08:52:00.002+08:00

hello people!! it's been a long time since i've seen many of you all. just wanted to say that i really hope for the next class outing, more people can go, and theres another thing as well haha. the thing that kinda bugs me is the replying part. so the next time i send a sms regarding class outing, do rmbr to reply as soon as possible so that i don't have to call each of u individually, haha yup. im quite sure most of you haven't seen the rest of the class as well so do try to go for class outing, yar lor. so hope to cya all at the next class outing! =D

6/9/2008

2008-09-07T22:31:00.006+08:00

hello dears i am so very sorry i've been caught up with german and lab reports and attitude readjustment (lol) and such :P but kudos to kel for being so nice and putting together the class outing on sat! as promised, here are some pictures yay.

and of course the best pic of the day:

2008-08-09T19:47:00.002+08:00

hey guys (: i promised to beep you all nearer to the class outing so here i am! unfortunately, i cant be there cos i'm going for newbies orientation camp for my research prog (yes i, of all people, am doing research. go figure.) that weekend plus last week my sim card + phone broke down simultaneously so. i dont have most of your numbers ): would you guys still want the outing in the first place? let me know thanks.

2008-07-21T22:29:00.000+08:00

http://www.uglydoggy.com/2008/07/its-friday-just-stop.html
http://www.brainstorm9.com.br/2008/07/17/oreo-elevator/

august outing!

2008-07-20T21:00:00.002+08:00

hey y'all (: there will be an outing in august and it's tentatively on the 16th (because kel said that it would be kind of weird to have it on the 9th since it's nat'l day) and it's most likely kbox my treat as we haven't done that in so long :D so yup any other suggestions are welcome if you don't really want kbox or you'd rather a different date, just tag or msg me k. i'll beep you guys when it's nearer. peace.

aha!

2008-06-29T21:44:00.001+08:00

500th Post

2008-06-29T16:10:00.003+08:00

Wheeee the 500th post! Haha ok anyway, there will be a class outing this coming Saturday so please keep it free! Please! Haha yup, those who are reading this message right now can help pass it around when you talk with other classmates on MSN, thanks! Venue is not confirmed. But things will most probably start from afternoon / late afternoon onwards, depending on what we are gonna do? Yup, so I wanna book all of you! More details will be given out soon! Help pass the message, thanks! Ms Lio might be going too! =D

class outing@manman's

2008-05-25T10:24:00.004+08:00

ehhh........ this is like, really late and i know i still haven't sent the photos to anybody!! but it's not my fault!! the whole folder's like, 239mb! any idea how to spread it around? hahaha, um, here are some spoiler photos first! =D

Class Photos!

2008-05-25T00:52:00.002+08:00

whee!! haha class outing at sakae sushi with 21 people!!! including ms lee of cos!
haha so it means 20 ppl from class, yup, =D =D =D WE ROCK!!
btw the manager there was really nice!

haha random shot of guys + ms lee!

haha this was supposed to be an all girls shot + ms lee, haha no idea
what happened to that plan.

haha another group shot outside sakae sushi!
girls infront and guys behind, haha another nice photo!

duh the best shot of the entire bunch of photos, haha..
can the others who took photos, namely azimah, pls put them up!!
haha thanks =D thanks once again to everyone who came!
hope to cya all in the next class outing, perhaps in june, yup =D
lets beat the current record of 20ppl from class!

pix!

2008-04-01T11:48:00.004+08:00

where else but da klass' favourite haunt - swensens marina sq. 1 mar 08

(spot the difference) j8 cafe cartel another favourite haunt. 7 mar 08 after results.

bwaha sorries, this is really laag! missing all of you! :) pls bug reuben for sleepover@myhouse fotos<< i want also!!

My Last Post as an NSF...

2008-03-22T00:22:00.001+08:00

My Last Post as an NSF...

It's 3 45am. I can't sleep. it's 18 Jan 2008. Look up at the top of the page.
Joy to the world.
I'm going to ORD. ROD to be exact.

Anyway, the past few days there had been many flashbacks of my NS days.

On the fine Jaunary morning of 2006,
the 20th 10am,
the Sun was shining, but it never was this gloomy.
I had my farewell dinner with my friends,
the previous night before.
Didn't know what was coming,
wasn't really prepared.
Took my bag and swing it behind my back.
At pasir ris interchange boarding the bus,
straight towards Tekong Ferry Terminal.
With my good friends, no family nobody else.
I sighed.

Bloody Pengiun Express,
took forever to reach the Island.
I was separated from my friends,
ushered into the back of the hall.
Told to scream and shout like a man,
to assure the parents (audience) i'm a grown man.
But my heart felt otherwise.
Entering the theater, i wasn't allowed,
to smile and to wave.
The solemn expressions of my coursemates however,
was hilarious.
We clapped at the appointed time, we took the oath.
Now we are bind to the country and land,
with our lives.
I wondered.

Loyalty to country was the first on the core values,
care for soldiers the last.
Oh how realistic, and the irony that it is even there.
I had a good lunch with my friends for the last time,
waved, smiled and goodbyed them.
They left, walking towards the terminal.
My heart yearns to follow them,
but the sgt pulled and restrain me.
And gave a good whack on our heads.
I teared.

Panic came next,
we were all rushed to collect,
our bloody boots, bags and various items.
It was chaotic, incredible scary,
but strangely fun.
Never in my life,
i heard so many vulgar words,
yelled in a single sentence.
(Self-censor the following please)
Chee bye, chao recruit,
**** your mother good bye,
I sighed again.

In the bunk I was waiting.
looking at my new found room mates.
staring , unbelievably.
Why a 40year-old man was sitting across,
only to find out he was my age.
I stared.

Down we went to shave our heads,
as the hair lands on the ground,
so did our spirit.
On the hair-missing head,
i rubbed.

Ordered to keep our home clothes,
put on the grey shirt,
black shorts,
Wondering if i'm in jail.
Or hell.
Only to realise, it's both.
I prayed.

Fang Quan the smart, Hafiz the buddy
Qing Long the dragon, Andrew the fit,
Kahlid the silent, Jia Jun the handsome,
Alan the fat, Loysius the sad-case,
Ron the monkey, manyiu fellow prayer.
I smiled.

Swinging our arms,
never coordinating,
we were screwed over and over.
Down to the cookhouse,
into the medical centre,
towards the various places,
I marched.

Betrayed by another guy,
the sgt questioned him why he laughed,
he pointed at me,
saying i made a joke.
Gary the sgt asked me to repeat,
or I had to suffer the consquences.
He made me sing.
I sang.

Life was hell much easier,
after I won him over,
with phantom of the Opera.
Never knew choir was of use.
I grinned.

"Who am I?"
Sgt Gary shouted.
"YOU ARE SGT, SGT"I replied.
"Who are you?"
"I am Chao Recruit!"
He smiled.
I pumped.

Cleaning the Rifle,
Going for Route March,
Into the Outfields,
Setting up my bloody Bahsha,
wondering if my sgt will steal my gun,
and if i should ever run.
Into the gym, onto the track,
I ran.

Camo ourselves,
prepare for war,
go touch that tree.
wanted to call,
but no battery.
eating junk food,
getting fat,
sweeping, cleaning never ends.
I yawned.

Something i must share,
Alan stinks.Real bad,
9 metres his aura,
everyone choked.
We saw him showered only twice,
in the whole BMT course.
First thing i did when i book out,
purchased medical oil.
Whenever I saw him.
I applied.

Before I got my Alvl results,
I fell into depression.
If I were to fail my exams,
at least let me die outside,
with dignity.
I didn't.

Posted out of BMT,
we threw our sgts into the air,
and the bloody PC,
was way too heavy.
Sgt Gary was thrown on to the ground,
he landed with a THUD.
Knock it down he said,
may it be the last.
I pushed.

Failed my MDC audition,
i was lost, didn't know what to do,
I thought I did very well,
but was posted to SAFAC,
as a storeman,
to guard Ammunition.
Looking at my eczema,
i knew i was in trouble.
I knew.

On the 2nd day of course,
i went to report sick with my fellow,
eczemarians, Alvin and loyisus.
the doctor looked at them,
told me to go back,
"not serious enough"
I pouted.

finish the course,
mostly by cheating.
They were openly helping us,
because nobody really needs to know,
Ammo to keep them.
I was posted to Glouchester camp with Brendan.
First saw Julian, Lingo and Cheng.
Alex, Alvin and Eric
Louis and Shiqiang.
I laughed.

Opening up the office,
doing duty, cleaning cups,
filing, typing and stoning.
The fun never ends.
It was heaven,
when there were so many breaks,
long hours of lunch.
I really had fun.
But my skin was sensitive to the,
incredible amount of dust.
Neither did Julian's hands,
his mum gave me a bottle of lotion.
i was touched.
My skin grew worse and so did my eyes,
they were red and in pain all the time,
i reported sick until people told me,
my officers were angry.
Maj Adrian especially,
did not let me have my day-off,
when i did all my duties and was entitled.
I was afraid, thus i reduced the number of reporting sick.
I requested for post-out many times,
the officers knew.
they send me Victor, claiming that he was my understudy,
but in the end, he knew more than me.
I couldnt take the stress,
the pain was overwhelming.
i went to National Eye Centre,
and the doctors told me i had glaucoma.
I guess that was the steriod eye drops,
given to cope with the dust in the office,
mind you, it's hell lot of dust in the office.
Stepping in and out of the room even made a difference.
The Branch was moving, so off with the documents
We spoilt 3 shredding machines,
trying to clear the office.
Dust was everywhere, and everybody knew.
But no, i was not excused.
I whined.

Sent for counselling,
Mr Keith was my consellor.
He made me laugh, joked around with me,
and told me to go back work.
after all, what's the point?
We cant win the system.
If you have a penis, you serve.
I told him my deepest secret,
trusting him completely.
that my family was bankrupt,
my father in debt and about loan sharks,
about my teacher threatening in school,
about my friends betraying me,
about my hopes and dreams, ambitions
and everything
He nodded, listened.
I trusted.

In December, I woke up.
Blind. Couldnt see clearly at all,
i went to my eye doctor.
He panicked, telling me that my eye pressure
was dangerously high.
Every hour was significant.
He wrote a letter to the office,
asking them to excuse me from work.
It's an emergency case,
I was so scared. I told Mr Keith.
He quitted the very same day,
made me sign papers to stop counselling,
telling me he will contact me to help me with it,
but i never heard him ever again.
I crumbled.

on Valentine's day,
I was lying on the operation table.
In physcial pain you can't imagine.
Wondering what I did wrong,
how it happened.
The doctors tried to save the better eye,
and move on to the 2nd eye 3 weeks later.
It was excruitating, to be awake,
knowing ur eyeballs are being poked.
Not brave enough to scream,
too scared to jerk and fighting all ur natural instinct,
And in all these pain i could only manage,
I gasped.

I went back to work in May.
But I kept bumping, falling down.
Tripping on everything,
bleeding and cutting myself,
the laughters of others,
the stares of strangers,
the pain of my heart and body,
i had enough.
I question my doctor,
and he told me the truth.
That I will be forever,
visually handicapped.
my world collapsed.
I cried.

At night, i wake my hand violently,
in front of my face,
hoping to see something
hoping the image will form
it never did and never will,
i was afraid of my eye pressure increasing,
i crawled to the toilet, afraid to fall down,
couldn't see.
couldn't tell my parents i was afraid,
couldn't believe this was happening.
Loyalty to country,
the price is too high.
I despaired.

I was sent to the IMH,
i couldnt control my tears.
Why was this happening?
Where did it go wrong?
What did I do?
why me?
Questions that didn't matter,
answers that never answered them.
I am alone, always will be.
It's one thing to lose ur sight at birth,
another in childhoold,
the worst just before stepping into adulthood.
Whatever's gonna happen to my family now?
Who will support them?
Am I to sell Tissue? Beg?
Let's be realistic.
Who will employ me?
What about my future?
My dreams, my hopes, my ambition.
Who will love me?
I weeped.

Sad true story of an NSF :(. Taken from his blog I think.

posting

2008-03-21T10:12:00.001+08:00

SAF BMTC ePosting Order

NRIC: S8901862E Name: TAN ZHAO YONG, ERNEST

Comd SAF BMTC wishes you all the best in your future posting.

Your Posting Order is listed below:

1. You are posted to SAF OETI.
2. Your vocation is AUTO TECH - A VEH.
3. Your are to report to: Ayer Rajah Camp, BLK 201, RM #01-02.
Reporting Date/Time: 24/03/2008 at 0800 hrs.
Person to report to: Course Clerk / AS
Contact Number: 65590861
You are required to report in smart no.4 uniform (PES E recruits to be in No 3 uniform), except for those assigned to Police Force.
4. Special Instruction:

No Camera Handphone is allowed. You are not required to bring along the SAF issued items given during BMT, except for PT Kit. This is a staying-out unit.

ok i really got the non-combat vocation that i did not really want. well, beats being a man haha. fixing vehicles will be my life for the next 2 years :D.

outing

2008-03-20T00:21:00.002+08:00

hihihihihihi omg i can't believe i'm blogging after dunno how long lol. gosh am i so excited :P

ok just in case u haven't heard, we got class dinner tmrw (20th March) at city hall, 630pm (or so i think). yep i'm just putting it here so that u guys won't forget or something, assuming that people still come and surf the blog.

hmmm i wonder when we can meet and go for outings again... cuz ppl from command schools (which most guys will be in) only book out on saturdays and book in on sunday nights again and then the girls are so busy enjoying their break all the way till july by working as temps or travelling. can't wait for my turn to slack after ORD lol.

ok shit i sound like ns rotted my brains away, becoming unlike my thoughtful self in the past. anyway next time if got outing better treasure the chance kkk.

HI LOOK HERE (:

2008-03-09T17:45:00.002+08:00

alright the sleepover is CONFIRMED (: so i need you people to confirm attendance with me. tell me if you're going at all, if you're staying over or not etc you know the drill.

venue: manman's house (serangoon gardens if i'm not wrong)
date & day: 14th march, this coming friday
time: should be evening till late into the night
food: eating out togetherzzz

thankyous <3 looking forward to seeing you all!

azi's photos from cny

2008-03-04T23:13:00.003+08:00

hi guys hope yall are doing great :) these are photos from the CNY visitation to xw's house.

stayover?

2008-02-27T20:55:00.002+08:00

hey y'all hope you guys and girls are happy and content with life now (: anyway, here's proposing a stayover the week after the guys pop (the week starting with 10th march, am i right? except sherman i think who's popping the week after). i can do the arrangements and all because i won't be working as of fri (and the other girls still are, blah :/) butbut i need us to come to an agreement, whether to have it at someone's house or a chalet or something. so yup suggestions would be nice, or else i'll just round up the normal class planners *coughheex/mingsingcough* to make a decision.

see you guys next week because that's probably when results come out! <3

新年快乐 lunch

2008-02-11T22:35:00.000+08:00

i catch big fish rawr

2008-01-08T00:46:00.000+08:00

i owned the fish. my mom looks happy coz she likes sashimi

2007-12-24T11:47:00.001+08:00

because no body has been commemorating our latest batch of tekongboys. (hmpf) so i shall take some time this christmas season. (i'll be running out of ideas sooner or later, though) Enjoy your civilian break (:

Ernest: A reply for a letter you wrote to Santa. You should have forgotten, it's ok.

Heex: This motivational poster is for you.

Kunda: a postcard from Santa.

As E. M. Forster once said, "Nonsense and beauty have close connections." Merry Forster Christmas.

2007-12-10T21:12:00.000+08:00

To whoever is reading this right now, I'm urging YOU to please come for dinner tomorrow!

This is probably going to be the last time you see Heex/Ernest before they enlist on Thursday. So I'm appealing to the goodwill of all you lovelies to at least try to make it. Never mind if you have valid reasons to be away, but if you're free do try to come down.

Date: 11 Dec (Tue)
Venue: Dhoby Ghaut MRT (Northeast line exit - the one linking to Plaza).
Time: 6.30pm sharp

THANK YOU VERY MUCH =D

remembering sherman....

2007-12-07T15:34:00.001+08:00

hahahaha... don't worry, sherman has strong arms (he can hold the phone for very long) and a good ear for commands (since he can hold the phone for very long) (: will book you guys for cycling soon, maybe next week. mon wed or thurs or fri...

outings.

2007-11-28T22:52:00.000+08:00

heyo!

kelvin should be sleeping now haha.
so:

on thursday 29/11 we are going settler's cafe at clarke quay!
time: 2.00pm
location: meet at clarke quay mrt
cost: about 6 dollars for 4 hours of board games.

on saturday 1/12 we are going for kbox plus dinner! it's gonna be the last major outing before people start going into the army... try to go! bbq at my place is off, so try to go for this instead!
time: 2.00pm
location: cine or marina (depending on numbers)
cost: about 23, but includes one drink, one snack, one side dish. much cheaper than shopping lol.

yeah kel's still sleeping so people who want to go for settler's tmrw can tell me also.

hi!!

2007-11-25T19:22:00.000+08:00

HEY Y'ALL (:

darn zhenghong and yirui managed to post before i did. hehe. anyway i am posting from melbourne!! it's quite cold here, but otherwise i love everything about the place. i went on a river cruise today, and we had the WHOLE cruise boat to ourselves whee whee whee (: and we went up the rialto observation deck which is 150metres up wah damn exciting.

but i'm missing all of you like mad lolol i look at the class pic that we took on thursday whenever i feel bored or homesick.

(by the way heex and sherman, i confirm cannot finish pokemon la ): i barely got out of rock tunnel nyahhh)

kbye lovelies!

greetings

2007-11-25T03:00:00.000+08:00

HI all!!!

yirui/zhenghong here!!! we are in london now yay.

we own everyone. yay

we just visited tate modern, the tower of london and st pauls church.

at st pauls, arnd 5 oclock, all the small church boys suddenly walked out and we thought they were gonna sing christmas songs. however they just stood around. after that, we were trying to enter when the person in fronta us asked if "it was possible to enter the cathedral". the bishop/priest/pastor replied "no the fire alarm went off"

5 minutes later the firemen came. how cool is that. we ownz. got video somemore.

okay bye bye we are gonna eat dinner now. hope everyones great. haha

10 Stupidest Laws

2007-11-19T16:33:00.000+08:00

These are the stupidest laws, according to percentage share of public vote.

Most ridiculous British laws:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27%)

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down (7%)

3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (6%)

4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day (5%)

5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter (4%)

6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (4%)

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen (3.5%)

8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (3%)

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour

10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2%)

Most ridiculous foreign laws:

1. In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk (9%)

2. In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation (8%)

3. In Bahrain, a male doctor can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror (7%)

4. In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm (6%)

5. In Alabama, it is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle (6%)

6. In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed (6%)

7. In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth (6%)

8. In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except funerals or hospital visits (5%)

9. In Japan, there is no age of consent (5%)

10. In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon (4%)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/06/nlaws206.xml

2007-11-18T20:43:00.000+08:00

hi there seems to be many "nice guy" posts on my lj f-page for some reason. but anyway here's a reply from my f-page. don't worry nice guys in class, i don't think this actually applies to you :P

Why "Nice Guys" are often such LOSERS
You hear it all the time: "He was such a NICE Guy, and she's such a Heartless Bitch for dumping him."

I get letters from self-professed Nice Guys, complaining that women must WANT to be treated like shit, because THEY, the "Nice Guy" have failed repeatedly in relationships. This is akin to the false logic that "Whales are mammals. Whales live in the sea. Therefore, all mammals live in the sea."

If you have one bad relationship after another, the only common denominator is YOU. Think about it.

What's wrong with Nice Guys? The biggest problem is that most Nice Guys (tm) are hideously insecure. They are so anxious to be liked and loved that they do things for other people to gain acceptance and attention, rather than for the simply pleasure of giving. You never know if a Nice Guy really likes you for who you are, or if he has glommed onto you out of desperation because you actually paid some kind of attention to him.

Nice Guys exude insecurity -- a big red target for the predators of the world. There are women out there who are "users" -- just looking for a sucker to take advantage of. Users home-in on "Nice Guys", stroke their egos, take them for a ride, add a notch to their belts, and move on. It's no wonder so many Nice Guys complain about women being horrible, when the so often the kind of woman that gets attracted to them is the lowest form of life...

Self-confident, caring, decent-hearted women find "Nice Guys" to be too clingy, self-abasing, and insecure.

Nice Guys go overboard. They bring roses to a "lets get together for coffee" date. They try to buy her affections with presents and fancy things. They think they know about romance, but their timing is all wrong, and they either come-on too strong, too hard and too fast, OR, they are so shy and unassertive, that they hang around pretending to be "friends", in the hope that somehow, someway, they will get the courage up to ask her out for a "date".

They are so desperate to please that they put aside their own needs, and place the object of their desire on a pedestal. Instead of appreciating her, they worship her. We are only human, and pedestals are narrow, confining places to be -- not to mention the fact that we tend to fall off of them.

They cling to her, and want to be "one" with her for fear that if she is out of sight, she may disappear or become attracted to someone else. A Nice Guy often has trouble with emotional intimacy, because he believes that if she learns about the REAL person inside, she will no longer love him.

Nice Guys are always asking HER to make the decisions. They think it's being equitable, but it puts an unfair burden of responsibility on her, and gives him the opportunity to blame her if the decision was an unwise one.

Nice Guys rarely speak up when something bothers them, and rarely state clearly what it is they want, need and expect. They fear that any kind of conflict might spell the end of the relationship. Instead of comprimising and negotiating, they repeatedly "give in". When she doesn't appreciate their sacrifice, they will complain that, "Everything I did, I did for her.", as if this somehow elevates them to the status of martyrs. A woman doesn't want a martyr. She wants an equal, caring, adult partner.

Nice Guys think that they will never meet anyone as special as she is. They use their adoration as a foundation for claiming that "no one will ever love her as much as I do." Instead of being a profound statement of their devotion, this is a subtle, but nasty insult. It is akin to saying to her: "You are a difficult person, and only *I* can ever truly love you, so be thankful I'm here."

The nice guy -needs- to believe that he is the best person for the object of his desires, because otherwise his insecurities will overrun him with jealousies and fear. The truth of the matter is that there are many people out there who can be a good match for her. We rarely stop loving people we truly care about. Even if we no longer continue the relationship, the feelings will continue... But love isn't mutually exclusive. We can (and do) love many people in our lives, and romantic love is really no different. Though he may love her immensely, there will likely be other people who have loved her just as much in her past, and will love her just as much in the future. The irony of it all is: "Who would want to go out with someone who was inherintly unlovable anyways?"

More than loving the woman in his life, a Nice Guy NEEDS her. "She is my Life, my only source of happiness..." YECH! What kind of a burden is that to place on her? That SHE has to be responsible for YOUR happiness? Get a grip!

Another mistake Nice Guys make is to go after "hard luck" cases. They deliberately pick women with neuroses, problems, and personality disorders, because Nice Guys are "helpers". A Nice Guy thinks that by "helping" this woman, it will make him a better, more lovable person. He thinks it will give him a sense of accomplishment, and that she will appreciate and love him more, for all his efforts and sacrifice. He is usually disappointed by the results.

This ultimately boils down to the fact that Nice Guys don't like themselves. Is it any wonder women don't like them? In order to truly love someone else, you must first love yourself. Too often Nice Guys mistake obsession for "love".

Get this Guys: INSECURITY ISN'T SEXY. IT'S A TURNOFF.

You don't have to be an ego-inflated, arrogant jerk. You just have to LIKE yourself. You have to know what you want out of life, and go after it. Only then will you be attractive to the kind of woman with whom a long-term relationship is possible.

From: http://www.heartless-bitches.com/rants/niceguys/niceguys.shtml

2007-11-16T23:03:00.000+08:00

what am i doing wrong?

okay, im tired of like, a levels. im a handsome 18 year old guy. im articulate, classy, not bad looking, im looking to find a girlfriend who earns big bucks. this is so i can spend my time playing x box while she earns money.

where do the pretty, smart, rich, nice girls go? i wonder.

uhh uhh SCREW it i was planning to write a parody of all these inane crafted screwed up columns that any money hungry bastard can churn out to waste the time of people who read them.

but well, im gonna play noggin. haha

2007-11-15T23:44:00.000+08:00

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful
(spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy.
I'm not from New York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at
least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind
that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't
think I'm overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives?
Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around
200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't
get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was
married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty
as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I
get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:

- Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars, restaurants, gyms

-What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won't hurt my feelings

-Is there an age range I should be targeting (I'm 25)?

- Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain?
I've seen really 'plain jane' boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly
wealthy guys. I've seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village.
What's the story there?

- Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment banker, doctor.
How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the
hedge fund guys hang out?

- How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults - I'm putting myself out there in an honest
way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I'm being up front
about it. I wouldn't be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn't
able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a
nice home and hearth.

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial
interests

PostingID: 432279810

THE ANSWER
Dear Pers-431649184:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully
about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.
Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your
bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I
see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple
a crappy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B., what
you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I
bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my
money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely
that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't
be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning
asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation
accelerates! Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty
hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins
in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a
buy and hold...hence the rub...marriage. It doesn't make good business
sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease. In case
you think I'm being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were
to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It's
as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets.
So, I wonder why a girl as "articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful"
as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to
believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K
hasn't found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then
we wouldn't need to have this difficult conversation. With all that said, I must say
you're going about it the right way. Classic "pump and dump."

I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

2007-11-14T23:39:00.000+08:00

being a nice guy, it's a time to plan our post As slacking-mega-partying fest. as from andrea's blog, since bernard and her can probably afford to slack their asses off after 22/11.

so we can have activities on thursday, friday and saturday! sunday go spend quality time with family since u've neglected them for mugging.

thursday, what's confirmed is that most of the guys are going to lan, after the paper from lunch to evening. so we're going to have a class dinner thingy just like that happened after prelims. being a nice guy, i've decided rather democratically to have dinner, 6.30 at glass house (fish and co. near dhoby ghaut). then after that we can go walk to esplanade or something to chat and catchup with each other.

friday and saturday can then be anything from sentosa/cycling/ecp picnic/go see the stars/go changi village to look at trannies/go lan even more/catch movies. yep tag on what u want.

then on 30/11, the friday after econs h3, i think can have bbq at my place! details to be finalised and food unlikely to be free again haha.

all the best for the remaining papers! (esp. h3 chem o.0)

2007-11-14T20:55:00.000+08:00

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgment, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

makes you wonder why on earth nice guys exist.

2007-10-28T16:16:00.001+08:00

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

GP TRick number 1!!!

2007-10-24T19:53:00.000+08:00

hi all, heres a gp trick to use.

talk about gandhi coz gandhi rocks. you guys can go read all his quotes and use it randomly. e.g if ure supporting war, quote "an eye for an eye makes the world blind". after tt say, tts true, but if when someone takes ure eye, u can kill him, so no one eyes will ever be hurt again. yay. gandhi rocks

heres an interesting passage from wikipedia:

"On January 15, 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be."

What does this passage tell us? it tels us gandhis great but hes not very smart. haha. its difficult to be moral and logical at the same time.

anyway, i changed my mind. keep 377A. haha. read an article on james blog that makes very much sense.. as i said, its difficult to be moral and logical at the same time, especially when im such a sensitive soul who believes in individuals over the the masses, but hate to admit that it is very much the other way round that is more impt.

happy mugging guys

2007-10-13T23:29:00.000+08:00

I recall watching Fantasia 2000 twice when it was screening at the ominax theatre... makes me feel sooo emotional everytime i watch it.

How do we draw the line at chasing our dreams and planning for our future?

2007-10-13T14:31:00.000+08:00

hi guys (: let's never ever ever delete this blog!! haha okay this is so random and so anticlimatic after kelvin's long long entry but yeah, i think that this blog really helped us all learn about and from each other. all the emo posts (think ernest's!) and funny moments (like the teachers' day vid...yeah think ernest again :P) like ms lio said, thank you mingsing for putting up this awesome blog (where we awesome people can interact :DDDD)

you guys are da bomb! okay ive got to go now, need to visit more relatives...ive received 270 so far yayyy q:

S03Lovelies

2007-10-12T23:35:00.000+08:00

Bleahz =/ I guess I'll just post while I'm still reflecting over these 2 years. Well, to me, when I first entered RJC, I had a really great OG and I was really sad as to why my class couldn't be the OG I was in. But after getting to know you guys, I am really really glad you guys were all part of 07S03L. I think I'm a really lucky person, because I have such a great OG, class and CCA. Like what I've said in some of the notes that I've written, I'm really sad that all of us are going to part our ways after A levels end, especially once next year starts, when the guys go for NS and the girls head off to their various universities, locally or overseas. I really really hope that all of us can keep in touch no matter what, and well, just update each other on one's life whenever possible? I know like what Zhangrui said, it might be abit idealistic but I really hope that it works out, at least to some extent.

Well, I know some have asked me whether I ever get tired of doing stuff for class and all that. Honestly, I really don't think so. You know, the weird thing about me is that when I see you guys having fun at all the outings, I know it's worth it and as crappy as it may sound, I am happy when I see you guys having fun and laughing. I enjoy organizing stuff for class, because I know you guys will go for them and have loads of fun. Of course there are moments when I'm like zzz when discussions dont go anywhere, esp MSN convos, lolz, I guess I'm used to it. Maybe that's the part about accepting the flaws of everyone? Perhaps. But you guys have proved time after time how amazing you all were and I'm extremely glad to have been part of this class. All the crazy class outings over these 2 years, I'm really happy that I went for almost all of them, because each outing was unique and had various funny classic moments that I will always remember. I'm quite sure no other class in RJC'07 has had as many class outings as us, as well as that many people attending. Also, like what Amanda said earlier on today, we really have such a great Civics Tutor who is so into knowing more about her students, apart from the academic aspects, that it's really rare. I mean how many other Civics Tutors give their classes regular breakfast slots, study packs full of snacks before Promos and so on. That is why 07S03Lovelies is so special to me, and to quite a number of you as well I guess.

Now that 2 years have passed so quickly, I guess what we have left at the end of this JC Journey would be the close friends by our side, always there for us whenever we needed their help. I'm sure all of you have your own close group of friends whom you really treasure in JC so do treasure them and maybe say a word of thanks or something to them today. After all, they were what made JC life so fun, so interesting, so scandalous, and they are basically what we form our memories around as we think back upon our JC life.

I have so so so many dear memories of the class that I'll always hold dear to my heart because I know that there will never be another bunch of people like you guys in my life. Some of these memories that I'll never forget are like the PW period, when Bernard threw my bottle to Daniel, who threw it out of the window, and there I was, laughing like mad until I realized it was my bottle. Well, there's also the personal anecdotes of Ernest asking his parent to cut his hair, or the time when the stack of paper was thrown at the window to kill a moth. Haha, these 2 incidents never fail to make me laugh each time I think about them. You rock, Ernest! Of course, there's Heexun who looked like a friendly dog, and hey, it's a good thing in a way! And the first outing at your house with the greatest attendance and when Yiding stayed over and kept saying Yao Ji while playing mahjong =)

Then, there's Jingwen who for some weird reasons, love to show me his armpit hair, haha. I'll also remember Milord for never failing to make people laugh. Haha, like what Songjie says, NEVER fails. And how he and Mingsing always argue about tofu and tousha, haha Milord you are the laughing bomb. Mingsing, haha you are one guy I feel really lucky to have known. I can be myself infront of you and when I'm bored, I'll always find myself talking to you on MSN every night even though we always suan each other like mad. You know how thankful I am for having you as my friend, yup so rock on as well! Well next would be Munhay, my fellow PW mate who had lent me the skateboard so that I could crash against a pillar and collapse on the floor. Of course, you are the one who always come to school slightly late, haha I'll remember that.

Then there's drama king number 1, Reuben, haha who is always so hyped up and goes all drama-mama when he speaks infront of the class during GP lessons, haha you are one hell of an actor! Sherman, I will remember you not as the ecp stalker (lolz i was just kidding) but the guy who is always so enthu about class outings and then doing well in studies (like many others). Jiayou for NS! =) Songjie, haha you are my only classmate-cum-volleyballer in RJC and I think that has made you a very special friend I guess. I know you won't be reading this anyway since you STILL don't know the class blog address, haha, but you have been one of the nicest friends I've made these 2 years and I wanna say loads and loads of thanks for tolerating all my rubbish and random scandalizing of you. You rock! Thomas, hahha you are so funny! and somemore in such an awkward manner that makes you even funnier than most funny people! I like your mixed facial expression that confuses people and hey, you are my classmate for 6 years!

Yiding!!! Haha my future boss because he keeps claiming that he will open a new safari park in Africa/China and then I will be the vet taking care of the animals. Haha I'm really looking forward to that, and like what you said, waiting for you to shoot animals with anaesthesia jabs from your helicopter. Haha you are one funny person whom always like to smile and try to get away without answering when I'm arguing with people like Mingsing or Songjie and ask for your comment. Jiayou! Haha then yirui, the role model student who is good in almost everything. Haha, Don't know why you always get teased about your height when you are not the shortest or maybe its bcs of the hairpulling? Jolin Tsai is so not hot but anyway, good luck with finding a chio gf!

Zhangrui, one of my closest friends because I think you already knew me at the start of JC, since we shared the same sec1&2 class so spending time with each other made us closer I guess. I thank you for so many many things that you've done, and you are definitely the nicest guy in class! Jiayou! Last guy who is damn good at singing with guitar, Zhenghong, the guy whom I will remember as the one who resembled my brother in terms of mannerism (without the joker part) haha. Econs have been so much more lively with you sia!

Now onto the girls =) Haha amanda, the music star of the class, and always so spontaneous about stuff, like walking to RK Prata House! I'll never forget the video and the comments on the various people inside the video! And how a group of us sang or something while you played the piano at the shop in J8. Then there's andrea, haha I'll always remember your PW group's recording, because I crashed!! Haha it was funny seeing you and Kunman acting as reporters and doing all the rubbish stuff. I still remember that we had to reshoot one scene because I couldn't help but laugh and in the end, laughed alot and the camera shook like mad, haha =)

Azimah, the super small girl who has a shrieky voice but a warm personality and very funny person. You really resemble Bellatrix somewhat and haha, I'll remember you for being the only fellow june baby and fellow cancerian in class! Azura (or ZUURRAAA) !! I can never ever thank you enough for all the support you have given me, you have been a tremedous pillar of support and a superb friend. You were the one who gave me the best birthday present ever in my life, and it was really sweet of you, thanks so much! Haha & how could i ever forget the massive celebrations (I bet it was the only one of its kind done in RJC) for your birthday at the amphi!!
Huiyi, haha I was just kidding about the nun part, because I thot that a nun would ultimately achiever nirvana and do the ohmmm thingy as well. I hope I'm talking to a future creative director of Pixar! & of course, i will remember you are my class Valentine's Day mortal, and thanks sooo very much for that unforgettable Perak trip that really made a difference to my JC life.

Julia! Ok I already promise I won't call you by that name so I wont! You will always be the most innocent & smiley girl in class who is so smart and hardworking and your econs notes!!! so neat, tsk tsk. Keep it up and maybe you'll eventually be a soccer mum! And our very own clumsy dancer but still very much glam & vocal Gavel vice-chair, Kunman! Haha hope that you no longer sprain your ankle while walking (LOL) and that lizards stay clear of you! I like your laughter by the way! =D Melissa, the ever-so-efficient-Bio-rep whose presence makes other subject reps feel inferior! Haha you rock at being the Bio rep, and dont get stressed over small things ok!

Ruth, the pretty fencer who never fails to take photos of class outings! I will always remember you for being such a great listening ear on 6sept '06 and how u tell random ppl abt my handwriting, lolz. haha jiayou and you WILL be the dangerous woman with the looks and books (& sabres) for sure!!! Xiaoyu, another one of the closer friends I've made in RJC and I really thank you for making such a tremendous difference to my life. Yup, I'll always remember you as the small eater who hardly eats anything other than fruits, and i'll remember the conversations on msn, and how you walked to esplanade bare-footed! Xinwei, the LAWN who I've gotten to know alot better. I'll remember you as the super-clumsy-ultra-lag woman who has sooo many classic moments that I don't know where to start. For example, polyclinic is not a polytechnic, LOL.

Well, I guess my point is that all these memories of you guys, I'll never forget and I hope that all of you will really keep in touch. As a ct rep (addressing using this for the first time or smth), I'm proud and happy that all the outings have really bonded you guys as a class. I'm so happy with you guys as classmates, thank you thank you thank you thank you. At least after writing all that, I'm less emo as I started out, so THANK YOU VERY MUCH for making my JC life such a special and unique one that I'll never forget. And especially to all my closer friends, thank you so very much for all the interesting contributions you all have made to my life, it's been really a privilege getting to know you all. I know that even though we might not be able to see each other after 'A' levels (other than Grad nite), i really really hope that we can still keep in touch and try our best in cherishing the last few moments that we have left together. Well, that's it for now. Thanks for being my best class ever *smiles*. 07S03Lovelies BEST CLASS FTW! =D

2007-10-09T23:34:00.000+08:00

1. How to Detect Lies

Watching facial expressions in order to determine whether a person is lying might just save you from being a victim of fraud, or it could help you figure out when somebody’s being genuine. Jury analysts do this when assisting in jury selection. The police do this during an interrogation. Of course a polygraph does this, but it is a little heavy to carry with you. Therefore, you have to learn the little facial and body expressions that can help you distinguish a lie from the truth.

Observe how the person smiles.

Forced Smile

Forced smiles are easy to spot since they only involve the muscles around the mouth. The person will appear as being overly relaxed and not really happy. Look at the mouth and see if the teeth are showing. A real smile will reveal a bit of teeth but a forced smile will not.

True Smile

In a real smile, more facial muscles besides the mouth are involved. A dead giveaway is tightening around the eyes, which sometimes causes crows’ feet. Very few people can fake a smile and still control their eyes in this manner.

Watch their hands, arms and legs, which tend to be limited, stiff, and self-directed when the person is lying. The hands may touch or scratch their face, nose or behind an ear, but are not likely to touch their chest or heart with an open hand.
Check for sweating. People tend to sweat more when they lie.
See if they are telling you too much, like “My mom is living in France, isn’t it nice there? Don’t you like the Eiffel tower? It’s so clean there.” Too many details may tip you off to their desperation to get you to believe them.

Observe eye contact

Notice the person’s eye movements. Contrary to popular belief, a liar does not always avoid eye contact. Humans naturally break eye contact and look upwards when remembering something. Liars may deliberately make eye contact to seem more sincere. Liars also tend to blink more often. A typical right-handed person tends to look towards his left (your right) when remembering something that actually happened (remembered images, sounds and internal dialogue) and towards their right (constructed images, sounds and kinesthetic sensations) when they’re making something up.

Be sensitive to the person’s emotional expression, specifically the timing and duration, which tends to be off when someone is lying. Emotions can be delayed, remain longer than usual, then stop suddenly. Likewise, they might not match appropriately with verbal statements. And, as with smiling, facial expressions of a liar will be limited to the mouth area.
Pay close attention to the person’s reaction to your questions. A liar will often feel uncomfortable and turn their head or body away, or even unconsciously put an object between the two of you. Also, while an innocent person would go on the offensive, a guilty person will often go immediately on the defensive.
Listen for a subtle delay in responses to questions. An honest answer comes quickly from memory. Lies require a quick mental review of what they have told others to avoid inconsistency and to make up new details as needed.
Be conscious of their wording. Verbal expression can give many clues as to whether a person is lying, such as:
Using/repeating your own exact words when answering a question
NOT using contractions
Avoiding direct statements or answers
Speaking excessively in an effort to convince
Speaking in a monotonous tone
Leaving out pronouns (he, she, it, etc.)
Speaking in muddled sentences
Equivocation. “Non-Answers” for example: Q:”Are these your drugs?” A:”I don’t even smoke.” Q:”Did you kill that man?” A:”I don’t even own a gun.” In essence, these subjects ARE answering TRUTHFULLY, however, the answers they are providing do not address the actual questions in any way.
Using humor and sarcasm to avoid the subject
Allow silence to enter the conversation. Observe how uncomfortable and restless the person becomes when there is a pause.
Change the subject quickly. While an innocent person would be confused by the sudden shift in the conversation and may try to return to the previous subject, a liar will be relieved and welcome the change. You may see the person become more relaxed and less defensive.
Watch his or her throat. A person may constantly be either trying to lubricate their throat when he/she lies OR swallowing to avoid the tension built up
TIPS

ust because someone exhibits one or more of these signs does not mean they are lying. The above behaviors should be compared to a person’s base (normal) behavior whenever possible.
The more you get to know someone, the better you will become at recognizing their thinking style, and you will become better at knowing when they may be straying from the truth. In the ordinary course of events, you will see a consistent pattern of eye movements. If a person breaks their pattern, this may well suggest that they are deviating from the truth, though they may not be lying deliberately. To test the pattern break, ask more questions to try and clarify whether the pattern break was indeed an attempt to tell a lie.
Some of the behaviors of a liar listed above also coincide with those of an extremely shy person, who might not be lying at all.
Some of the behaviors may occur also when somebody is very concentrated on speech (for example when topic is sophisticated or person stressed)
Botox or other plastic surgery may also interfere with ‘tells’ and give false positives.
Some people may have reputations for lying; keep this in mind, but don’t let it color your opinions all the time — you have to take it on a case by case basis.
Be careful how often you use this with your friends. If you are always looking for lies, you may soon not have any friends. Use wisdom.
Remember that eye contact is considered rude in some cultures, so this may explain why they are reluctant to look you in the eye consistantly.
Some people with developmental disabilities like Autism or Asperger’s syndrome are very reluctant to make eye contact or do not make eye contact at all. This is a trait of the Autism spectrum and not an attempt to lie.
2. How to Stop Lying

Take a look at why you are lying and you’ll find ways to help yourself stop.

Don’t overpromise. Many lies feel necessary because you’ve gotten yourself into a situation and you don’t know how to get out of it. You can start by not overcommitting yourself with other people. Only promise what you can realistically do.
Don’t make up too many rules for yourself. If you set yourself up by trying to be perfect, you will feel like you’re failing and feel like you have to lie. Instead of “I am never going to be late for school again”, try “I intend to stop being late as much as I reasonably can.”
Talk to others about what you can realistically do. Are others making you stick to rules that aren’t realistic? Many times parents, teachers, employers, boyfriends or girlfriends box us into a corner by making us follow their strict rules. If you are in such a situation, you will find that you are lying because you can’t possibly live up to their expectations. You may not be entirely successful - sometimes you can’t change your parent’s ideas, but you can acknowledge to yourself that their expectation is ridiculous.
Make sure your heart is in what you are doing. If not, try to find a way to make it so. You have to stay in school, so find something that you really are interested in. You need to have a job - find ways that you can enjoy some aspect of what you do.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. When you find yourself telling a lie, check it out. Why did you? What was it you were trying to hide? Is there a way you can be yourself instead? Recognize the situations you tend to lie in, and start practicing just telling the truth.
Consider the consequences of a major lie. Coming out and admitting your mistake can make a world of difference, and sometimes the worst price is your self-esteem. That you can recover. If you can’t do it, try a middle ground. Write a letter to yourself admitting what happened. Find a counselor who can listen to you and advise you. Getting it out of your head is the most important step toward stopping your torture.
TIPS

Use your sense of humor to tell the truth. Laugh at yourself with other people. Just saying “Could I be any worse at managing my checking account?” out loud, rather than denying your problem can get you on the road to recovery.
Guess what - the definition of being human is that we are not perfect. You will never be perfect! Don’t set yourself up thinking you should be.
Come right out with your primary feeling. “Sam, I am so completely embarrassed by what I did. I’m hating myself. I told Kim you liked her, even thought you told me not to. Would you forgive me?”
When you admit that you are a liar you are nearly there.
3. How to Deal With a Liar

When dealing with a liar, the best policy is blinding truth. Lies always are shown in the end for what they are.
Keep your words soft and hold your tongue. At times this may be the hardest thing to do when presented with a lie, either to you or about you. Simply state the truth. Do not use harsh words. Do not get angry.
Let the lie be seen for what it is in time.
Most importantly make sure you do not lie. If you are known as an honest person, who never fails the truth, when a lie is said the other will be known as false. “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil”. Plato
If one speaks lies about you, then say nothing back but the truth. Even if it hurts sometimes. “Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can’t last”. Greg Evans
Truth really is the best weapon for fighting a lie. “Truth is generally the best vindication against slander”. Abraham Lincoln
Ask an elder for help in the matter. No matter what you are, be you 7 of 75, there is wisdom that comes with age, and presenting your problem to an elder, will often lead you to a result. Never forget that they have lived already and have the wisdom that accompanies that.
If a child lies that’s considered immaturity, if an adult lies thats considered having an evil tounge.
Words are cheap, but all the money in the world can’t buy back an exposed lie! Noel Gallagher.
TIPS

Speak nothing but truth. Liars hate to hear the truth because it exposes them to their reality (they have no real control over others) and that forces them to surrender control over the situation. ego shattering!
Anger and harsh words only leads to more hate, and proves the others harsh words correct about you. Don’t be manipulated into making yourself look like a jerk this is a huge payoff (desired outcome) for a liar who backstabs and undermines others.

hungry planet, what eat you in a week?

2007-10-06T22:59:00.000+08:00

talking about fruits/food, look through the TIME photo journal on 'Hungry Planet'
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html
you MUST see this! must. must laaa.

articles

2007-10-05T23:33:00.000+08:00

haha.. these are courtesy of kmli who's busy eating pomelo to use both hands :P

http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/sued-for-sharing-music/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html?hp

*exclusive* Marion Jones admitted to taking steriods before her fine run in the 2000 Olympics where she won 3 Golds out of 5 events. She plans to plead guilty to lying to the federal agent *exclusive*

2007-10-04T13:13:00.000+08:00

make love not war!

lets all eat donuts! :9

to you

2007-10-03T22:36:00.001+08:00

[edit]
we shall split paths.

2007-10-01T20:44:00.001+08:00

http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/neuroscience

From Wikipedia.

2007-09-27T18:12:00.001+08:00

Dostoevsky's notion of rebellion

Dostoevsky, in a chapter of The Brothers Karamazov entitled Rebellion, has the atheist character Ivan Karamazov ask his religious brother Alyosha:

Imagine you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the
object of making men happy in the end, […] but that it was essential and
inevitable to torture to death
one tiny creature- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance- and
to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the
architect of those conditions?

Dostoevsky's character makes the point that if there is a God, he is unjust and immoral for making innocent children suffer even if it is to make the world a better place. Ivan further states that the moral thing for a person to do would be to reject God’s bargain (The suffering of children to make the world a better place) and give back their ticket to heaven: “I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible”.

If only I could write stinging and lucid arguments such as this guy. But I am just a boy struggling with getting a bloody A for GP and bio. lol.

EXPLANATION PLEASE!

2007-09-26T02:29:00.000+08:00

From the Gospel of Thomas.

English translations here: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl_thomas.htm

"His disciples asked him: When will the dead rest? When will the new world arrive? He replied: That which you are waiting for has come, but you don't recognize it."

"Jesus said: You often wanted to hear the words I am speaking to you. You have no one else from whom you can hear them. The days will come when you will seek me and you will not be able to find me."

"Jesus said: Where there are three Gods there are Gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him."

"Jesus said: People think, perhaps, that I have come to throw peace upon the world. They don't know that I have come to throw disagreement upon the world, and fire, and sword, and struggle."

"Jesus said: If your leaders say to you "Look! The Kingdom is in the sky!" then the birds will be there before you are. If they say that the Kingdom is in the sea, then the fish will be there before you are. Rather, the Kingdom is within you and it is outside of you."

"Jesus said to them: If you fast you will bring sin to yourselves, and if you pray you will be condemned, and if you give charity you will damage yLUKE 6 27 -33
But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, be good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away. Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.

MATTHEW 6 5-8
Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles, because they think that by their many words they will be heard. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him

MATTHEW 7 1- 2
Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive

MATTHEW 5 29-30
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.
our spirits."

Can somebody explain all this to me? And why the bible has so many family trees.
Or has NOBODY finished reading the WHOLE bible? I only read the kiddy full color illustrated version and like ten pages of the black leather bound harrypotter one before giving up after like 6 family trees.

mid autumn festival

2007-09-22T23:44:00.000+08:00

well as we want to do almost everything possible as a class, we shall have a mid autumn festival class celebration on this coming tuesday, which is the 15th of the 8th lunar month!

the plan is something like this:
meet at serangoon mrt to eat dinner.
then go my house.
i have lots of paper lanterns, sparklers. people who prefer their own electronic or cellophane lanterns and bring their own also! then we can form a procession to the playground near my house to talk cock or behave like kids with lanterns. whee.

then we go back, gamble, play mahjong, watch movies and get drunk if you want to. there's also mooncakes and tea if u all want. can even sit in the porch to admire the round and bright moon (hopefully clear skies and good weather). then we shall sleepover!

yeah it's still part of the marking days holidays so do try to come, and wednesday is still a holiday, so we can degen in the morning after my siblings and my parents leave the house hahaha.

ZI CHAR

2007-09-19T17:46:00.000+08:00

haha ok heex you know the zi char stall i was telling you abt? its called hong kong street 21 zi char... operated by some hong kong migrants. its quite gosu, but unfortunately they dont serve crab... which i know u badly want to eat. lol. yea but they are good for 1) fish fillet soup (the sliced fish with lotsa veggie in the cloudy soup in a steamboat one) 2) fried chicken 3) sweet n sour pork (their slices are huge. as big as a handphone) 4)mongolian beancurd (its this ring of fried, tasty fish beancurd that has peppery scallops and prawns and onions inside. its my personal fav) and many others! i think the price is quite reasonable, i think we can order what as much as we can eat for approx $15 per person inc drinks? (unless you drink beeer which wud be ex) yea so heres a map of the place(the place is in the bottom right hand corner, the shophouses there). maybe we could try it coz i dont think very highly of no signboard restaurant which is employee run (hence the food usually sucks, cooked by some trainee chef) and also expensive (probably cost us $20+, especially if we order crab). haha... accessibility i dont know, but its walkable from outram park which is an interchange i think.can take the purple line to heex's house for gambling and board games after that? haha.

post-prelims activites

2007-09-17T23:05:00.000+08:00

ok i shall take the initiative to plan this, as i always do.

[1] right after prelims, the guys shall go lanning! some people got colours, so too bad. for the girls who won't lan, you people can go shopping or something in the meantime. expect smses to remind you to bring cvs to lan lol.

[2] this is the real thing! ok i think eating zi char (you know, going to some chinese seafood restaurant) and ordering chilli crabs, prawns etc. is a very good deal compared to eating at some posh angmoh restaurant! so for the first time, and since dear azu and azi are fasting and can't join us for dinner anyway, we shall go eat stuff like that and enjoy some s03L-style chilli crabs.

we're most likely going to geylang or something, so girls can meet us at aljunied mrt (most likely) and nice guys like ernest will escort you people there. the food will definitely be good, though i shall find out which buses to go there. yep and so DON'T go home and start mugging for the As! relax a bit and go for dinner k! (chao-muggers, you know who u are lol.)

[3] and of course k-box on monday or wednesday. shall confirm later.

2007-09-09T18:26:00.000+08:00

hi! econs quotes i was compiling from the dense stack of articles at the back of our globalisation tutorial. sorry some of them are from newspaper articles so it's like uh no reference sorry. and since i'm typing them anyway, might as well type them into a place where there are positive externalities:)

this is an example of exchange efficiency. like when prisoners exchange their rations and everyone is better off. see. instead of typing into Word i'm typing here so that's the same amt of resources but better welfare. (okay sorry i'm pretty sure that's a wrong application but okay nevermind)

"1 out of 5 migrants in the US, Switzerland and Canada are professionals"
(i dont really know what you can use this for though. brain drain?)

"144,800 Germans emigrated in 2005, up by 35,000 from 2001 and fewer are returning" -stanchart study (the real thing had alot more numbers so i just shortened it :P)

"Chinese exporters have labour costs of $2 an hour" so they can pack cars with standard features and sell at rock bottom prices AND give generous warranties.
and who says nobody wants china's cars "70% of Americans under age 35 said they'd consider a Chinese car." this is called X competitiveness to the max.

"India has 7 cities as the most favoured outsourcing destinations globally."
because... it has 1. talent supply, English-language fluency. 2. their IT skills are 1337. okay basically they're really good at IT. (we all heard of IIT from ms uma right)

"Trade has made IT hardware 10-30% cheaper" resulting in "GDP for US growing 0.3% faster annually" used to support OUTSOURCING benefits countries!
you know why? very logical. they have lower costs, better quality (due to specialisation), MORE US firms can take up this technology > increase in productivity.

"US exports 69% of its cotton output, 59% of rice production" wowee.

"Union won Civil War by preventing Confederacy from exporting cottong" and "British disrupted German trade effectively in WWI and WWII" shows that trade can be used as weapons of foreign policy

"200,000/year lost in US due to offshoring, is less than 1% the total job losses annually in UK." so offshoring increasing unemployment substantially? i dont think so.

"telephone operators in India paid <1/hour. US paid about 12.50/hour." (Us dollar i think) sometimes different skills but not always! i mean how differently can you differentiate your telephone operating skills right..

okay that's it :) yay! typing this helps me remember better too :)

reading

2007-09-07T20:09:00.000+08:00

hi all!! some nice articles to read

bio: http://www.thestar.com/article/253699

and another article that will make you feel hapy:
http://www.thestar.com/ActsofKindness/article/190134

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.

2007-09-07T00:59:00.000+08:00

THIS IS JESUS PISS. no shit. if Jesus took a piss, and you were to bottle it, you'd get apple cider vinegar. its that miraculous and disgusting at the same time.
It boost metabolism, removes toxins, clears acne and clogged drains, and best of all this schtick STINKS. I've been on it for 3 days, my pores are tightening, I'm feeling cleaner and damn I smell like vinegar.
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.

yay :)

2007-09-01T22:37:00.000+08:00

i like class chalets.

(by the way jingwen, for some reason you are in the vjc yearbook. i was looking through it today. haha. for some colours i think. so funky.)

2007-09-01T08:04:00.001+08:00

What is your dominant Element? (A serious personality test, for a change)

Water
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mine 6% only ah! took again and again and managed to squeeze out my next element - fire!

teachers' day '07

2007-08-31T23:03:00.001+08:00

here's wishing all out fabulous tutors.....

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY =D

photos are up by the way. view them via my photo albums. i'll also be circulating a whole CD of class photos soon so that you people can make copies if you all want. here's a video i took today haha.

quoting ernest:
_(F)_- ernest - _(F)_ says:
I IS GODLIKEE

metal!

2007-08-31T22:47:00.000+08:00

What is your dominant Element? (A serious personality test, for a change)

Metal
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aziazimeme!

2007-08-31T00:37:00.000+08:00

What is your dominant Element? (A serious personality test, for a change)

Wood
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2007-08-30T22:34:00.000+08:00

What is your dominant Element? (A serious personality test, for a change)

Earth
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mine!

2007-08-30T06:08:00.001+08:00

What is your dominant Element? (A serious personality test, for a change)

Fire
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hey guys do this!

2007-08-29T22:44:00.000+08:00

What is your dominant Element? (A serious personality test, for a change)

Air
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Chronological Timeline

2007-08-26T10:41:00.000+08:00

How did we spend our 2 years together?

Jan 2006
- S03L meet as strangers in some random classroom
- Lessons begin and Reuben finally appears after missing Orientation in New Zealand
- First class lunch to the open area of J8, where we played "have I ever..."

Feb 2006
- Valentine's Day! Every guy and girl gets a present from a classmate!
- First class outing to watch dramafeste! Yiding and Kunman sneak into PAC and heex spends 2+ hours with Yiding on one seat.

March 2006
- Class outing to eat steamboat at marina! Heex singlehandedly ate a crab and we learn valuable crab dismemberment skills
- Some of us went to lan before going to marina... dota fever catches on.
- Truth-or-dare after Steamboat at marina... we learn a few secrets!
- Yongzhi leaves, but Andrea joins us.

April 2006
- http://s03lovelies.blogspot.com is created.
- Mass MSN convos are a common occurrence.
- End of Council interviews and start of campaigning period.
- Ernest lost his ORA card.
- Rec Mugging Club is founded. Teacher-in-charge: Mingsing, Chairperson: Ernest, Vice-Chairs: Heex and Sherman, Secretary: Kunman, Exco: Everyone else except Yiding who is still under probation.
- ORA Walk-a-Strollathon: 3L Strollers encountered the Bishan Gay while some council campaigners protected the Emperor. Haunted House exploration followed up later in the day.
- End of council campaigning period.
- Thomas proclaims knowledge of 'Kun Da's Fascination'.
- Class Outing and BBQ at Heex's House on 29 April!

May 2006
- Mrs Chiang leaves 3L. The class prepares a box of Kitkats for her.
- 3L takes its first official class photo.
- Guys' Lan Outing on May 13
- Grenade Fiasco takes place during PW. Participants: Bernard, Kunda and Bluekel (lol)
- Class movie outing: Da Vinci Code on 19 May
- Class Outing: Shifting Gears College Play on 19 May!
- 26th Student's Council investiture; Kunman, Amanda, Reuben and Julia now class councillors.
- Azura lost and found her phone.
- Class movie outing: X-men 3 on 24th May!

June 2006
- Class Outing: Songjie's House on June 11!
- Mugfest for J1 CT1
- Bernard travels to KL for a weekend trip and bought Heroes V, among others.
- J1 CT1, where everyone dies for post-world cup

July 2006
- Care To Dance 2006
- Bernard is forced to reveal secrets about his love life by Lagman in econs lecture.
- Class birthday celebration for Kunman at Yishun SAFRA on July 8!
- Yirui gets shingles; H3 starts.
- Class Outing at Sentosa Beach on July 22!

August 2006
- Class Outing at Yirui's house after National Day Celebrations where we had class breakfast, celebrating both Mun Hay and Yirui's bottle
- Witnessed how fast Miss Lio turns red after a can of beer
- Coconut Gang is founded by Bernard. It replaces the now non-existent rec mugging club.

September 2006
- Mugfest for Promos
- 3L students are champions and start getting hooked on playing basketball and the spinning game
- 5 guys go for kbox... starting a new activity for class outings!

October 2006
- Guys' Lan Outing on Oct 2! Kbox and Class Dinner on Oct 3.
- Sleepovers; Bernard's birthday party
- Haze hits Singapore
- Yirui posts first entry in class blog.
- Promos results are released; everyone got promoted.
- Class learning journey to Discovery centre - people are bored out stiff but oh wellz.
- Vivocity opens, new shopping hangout?
- Another Kbox session at Orchard, then XiaoYu walked barefoot to Esplanade as she wore high heels lol. Denise Lwin, Miss Lio and Mr Chan show us their singing skills!

November 2006
- PW Oral Presentations
- Class Outing at Heex's House; Nightwalk and RK Prata House
- Perak Trip and Council retreat
- Dota Season commences!
- Ernest starts gushing over Sarah Carter after watching DOA, blogposts full of her pictures follow

December 2006
- Class Party at Yirui's House on 26 Dec! It was a pretty cool experience for us all!

Jan 2007
- UFO appears in Singapore.
- 'Happy Birthday Azura' written by Class bodies at Amphi
- Heex thought he lost his EZ-link. Turns out he had used it to borrow BOOM-O cards.
- 7-11 opens, and we witness RI boys swarming it to be loaded with big gulps, slurpee and geting fat and unhealthy.

Feb 2007
- Gavin blogs about working life at RJ.
- Class meal at Swensens. Azi hogs the limelight with a hair in her pasta.
- 3L Teletakers own at Take5! The Amazing Race team almost came in second!
- Chinese New Year outing to Xin Wei's house, where poker craze starts as Ruth ruthlessly wins the most money
- Kenneth replaces Gavin at the 7-11 counter, profusely saying "Thank you."

Mar 2007
- Class Yusheng, courtesy of Ms Lio
- 3L Hippo Dance, courtesy of Ms Lee
- mugfest for J2 CT1

April 2007
- Class starts getting hooked on to poker, we invent our own poker chips with pieces of paper and mini-calendars courtesy of Piano Ensemble

May 2007
- Zhenghong performs at Timbre.
- Girls' soccer season ends.
- Lovelies go support Kun Man at dance night and we buy her a nice sunflower.
- our respectable Teacher Teo's birthday, and since he has a salary he treats us to kbox.
- Kenneth upgrades his skills, he now says "Thank you for shopping at 7-11."

June 2007
- Class outing at Yirui's house, where we have a dota-marathon for 24 hours; Ocean's 13 followed
- Class Chalet Outing, where we are honoured to have Kunda to grace the occasion! Some guys went to eat katong laksa and lanned after that.

July 2007
- Class movie outing: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on 11th July
- Boys mass-pon lessons to go NS checkup
- we get devastated by CT2 results
- Daidee tournaments now become a daily occurence

August 2007
- National Day Celebrations, where we sing harmoniously to National Day songs that Thomas had mugged to pwnz the song-guessing game at Raffles Believe-It-Or-Not
- Library becomes our second home as up to 8 Lovelies can be found studying until 9pm.
- Last day of official classes for the S03Lovelies, craze for writing messages on each other's class photos last for 2 hours and the longest Daidee tournament of 4 hours occurs.

Best Class Ever.

2007-08-25T15:58:00.000+08:00

Yesterday marked the end of the last official term of our RJC life, and receiving our class picture on the same day certainly did not help make me less emotional when I realised what everyone thought of me. It was really sad to realise that we were never going to attend tutorials or lectures together as a class again. The times when we spent together as a class in school would never come again in the same way as the past 21 months. After seeing all the messages that we wrote for each other on the class pictures, and seeing all the doodling on Ruth's, it suddenly came to my mind that I will definitely be sorely missing the Lovelies, each and every single one of you. I actually wanted to post this post of mine before Heex did, but I guess he was much less lazier than I am. Nonetheless, it doesn't matter who posted what and when, but what matters most is who we actually are, what we actually did, and at the end of the day, what we remember of our class 07S03L at the end of 7 terms of school.

If many of you did not know or remember, I wasn't actually in this class from the start. I took physics at first, but decided to make the switch to BCME because I realised that physics was hardly my kind of thing and all, it's like why the hell would I want to know about quantum physics? Biology actually appealed more to me, and I have definitely not regretted my decision, especially when Lady Luck shone on me, and allocated me to 07S03L.

Initially, it was really good to know that there were others whom I knew rather well, such as Sherman, Thomas and Kelvin, having been classmates for the previous 2 years. I knew that I wasn't going to take very long to settle in this class, because at least I wouldn't have needed to know everyone from scratch, which would definitely put me off somewhat, being the introvert I am. True to my expectations, the class got off to a great start, no thanks to our CT reps Azura and Reuben(now Kelvin), who initiated numerous class outings and class lunches etc, just so that our every single person can get to know each other better right from the beginning. Credit also goes to everyone else in the class, because most of us actually did make the effort to gel and bond together, and in so doing, a great class was born.

Somehow, I really felt as though we had been together for dozens of years, even though the class was only a couple of months old at that time. Most of my friends never liked their own classes, each citing their own different reasons, while I only had good things to say about mine, because honestly, I could hardly find fault with my class, because it made me feel like I had a second family. One of my OG mates even commented that I was really lucky to have both excellent class and OG, because he really disliked his. This made me ponder then, "will the class remain like this throughout the 2 years in RJC?".

As time passed, we discarded our secondary school uniforms and replaced them with the new RJC ones, signifying our transistion to a new level of education. Yongzhi amidst much disappointment and sadness, and Andrea came. Schoolwork started to pick up pace, and from then on, JC life got more monotonous day by day. However, we never forgot to hang out together as a class in doing everything possible as Heex stated, K-box, lanning, learning journeys, stayovers, etc. I dare say we have had the most class outings with the highest attendace as compared to any other class in our school. They say true friends are those who stick with you through thick and thin, and I could never really experience what was meant by that until late last year, after September 13th to be exact.

I guess we all know and still remember what happened then. Even if you don't you'll know what I'm referring to at the end of this. On that fateful night, when the news came, I was struck really hard. My mind came to a blank, and my tears just gushed out uncontrollably. A really close friend of mine, one that had been classmates with me from sec one to sec four, a friend whom I thought was the best buddy one could ever have, was never going to be seen again. He was the last person one would ever think of to commit this act, and yet it happened. My heart felt like it was pierced by something blunt, yet painful enough to void my mind of any other things. I was online at this time, and true to the saying that bad news spread like wildfire, many others also realised it soon after I did, and consoled me. And yes, I meant many, from my class especially. Even people whom I was not particularly close with, offered to lend an ear if I needed someone to talk to. The SMSes also came, each expressing their concern. However, I was just too emotionally affected at that time that I just wanted some personal time on my own and with a few other close friends, friends that knew him well, and so, I just told everyone that I was alright and they did not have to worry. Only a couple knew what went through in my mind, people like Garry and Jiahua. The 2 of them were so disappointed with their own class, that they really wanted to be transferred out of their class. I told them what my classmates did, and they told me what their class did not, and I could feel the envy they had of me. The next few days, I missed all the lessons, with the company of Thomas, Sherman and Kelvin, and yet the messages and calls still came. Someone gave me a pack of M&Ms, someone gave me hugs (yeah I still remember who you all are), and many others did numerous miscellaenous things that really touched my heart, because it is during times like these, when I was at one of the weakest moments in my life, that every single thing counts. I felt really blessed and lucky to have such wonderful classmates. If not for you guys, I would never have been able to recover so quickly, because I was one that treated close friends like family, and the loss of a friend would have destroyed all my will. Yet, you guys were all there when I needed someone to talk to, and A73 felt like my second house, 07S03L felt like my 2nd family. I have never officially said this to anyone, but it all comes from the bottom of my heart. Thanks S03Lovelies for everything that you have done!

Throughout these 21 months, after all the laughter that we share, all the numerous scandals that surfaced out of nowhere, the teasing sessions, I realised that it is probably impossible to relive those moments again, once we finish our A levels, or even prelims. We were a class with diverse personalities, some being extremely smart, some being extremely nice, some being extremely helpful, some being extremely crazy/weird, some being extremely funny, some being extremely retarded, one of us being extremely bent on world domination, and the same guy and a couple of others being extremely horny, but yet we could all relate to each other and the chemistry we had was undeniable, and this was what made us special. Every member of the class made 07S03L the class it is today. In spite of all our differences, we have marched on together with mostly enjoyable times. These near 2 years in RJC has definitely been an unforgettable moment for me to cherish, for me to to remember whenever I'm feeling down in the future, solely because I am a proud and honoured member of the best class there ever was. Thanks for the times, S03Lovelies!

EMOOOOOOOOOOOO

2007-08-24T22:22:00.000+08:00

ok with reference to the title of this post, i feeling quite EMO now after today, our last day of the lessons in A51 in our weird-smelling classroom with the cranky projector and OHP. I was the last to leave the class, switching off the fans and turning off the heater to the projector lamp. I wonder now with exams coming up whether people will still turn up for any class outings we have before As and after As and how fast people will like leave the country for holidays and you sort of won't see them ever again until we get back our A level results next year.

So here's a list of what I really remember about our beloved and totally wonderful class for the last two years:

we did it all for class outings (chalet, kbox, sentosa, movies, stayovers, steamboat, marina bay to fly kites, talk cock sessions at the esplanade, learning journey, lanning, eating namkee chicken rice, mass class convos, class lunch and supporting our fellow classmates at all sorts of performances)

our fantastic teachers:
ms lio for really trying to be a super nice civics tutor and enlightening us on complicated econs ideas

ms lee for being SOOO nice, buying us ice cream and of course tolerating me sleeping in lab

mr chan for being really dedicated in answering any student's queries, though i think it gives him a bit of a headache sometimes

ms chua for her (super funny) jokes, hope to see us run up to the board to do maths questions and being the best maths lecturer (imo) this year!

ms uma who demands us to knock on the door when we are late for lessons and her fantastic handwriting

mr loo and mrs cheang who gave us a really good foundation in maths and bio, making lessons so interesting with her cheerful personality and his passion in bio

mrs davis, ms naidu and our pe teachers who have definitely shaped our experience these two years

my wonderful classmates:

bernard for his big bulging biceps, his canoeist himbo innate nature and EHKKK

munhay for his mat rocker presence and determination to improve in studies

andrea for her larger than life personality and enthusiasm for class activities (and stop spotting
errors in my post!)

kelvin for his super neat handwriting, his big hands, his laughter and big headphones

huiyi for her interesting dietary habits (i can also eat noodles w/o chewing haha)

kunda for his endless quest for world domination and keeping secret files on us

amanda for the enchanting piano playing and love for econs

thomas for being the atypical studious boy who plays cards in class and so amusingly frank

songjie for just being so hilarious and being able to jump really high

xiaoyu for the one-apple-a-day diet and her dream to become a tai-tai

kunman for supporting racial harmony and doing weird actions at times

yiding for being our resident china info-guide and having an insatiable hunger for knowledge

zhenghong for organising a meaningful class cip and really questioning the meaning of life

milord for teaching us how we can learn from a malaysian chinese man and liking tofu :D

jingwen for his expertise in the area of human social behaviour and being so lively

ruth for being a bit blur in class and pretty (haha sounds like bimbo. ok ruth is good fencer too)

azimah for her random screaming in class and being so pro at basketball esp. for her height.

azura for her desire to meddle with people's hair and being like a caring mother to us all

julia for packing interesting lunchpacks to class and being so random and bubbly in class

melissa for being the most responsible class rep in class (go compare with uhm yirui haha)

yirui for being pro at sports from soccer to basketball and being so fun to tease

ernest for being the dota-pro and online forum junkie as well as having a head of white hair

mingsing for his interesting self reference as the "Phoenix" and teaching us really well.

sherman for his uncanny resemblance to the shark in the comic strip - slagoon!

reuben for his drama-mama presence and being able to do like fencing/acting/council together!

xinwei for her lousy attempts at speaking chinese and being so suannable haha

zhangrui for being the self-proclaimed manly guy and the pseudo-chinaman

it's been a real pleasure to plan class outings and see everyone coming together and having fun. even near the exam period our class probably takes up a high percentage of the people in the library mugging into the night, yeah our class definitely rocks. AHHH I LUV S03L!!!!!!

P.S. are you guys up for a class stayover at my house after the prelims? we should use all the stuff i took back from the class chalet and it's a oppotunity to catch up again until revision lessons resume. sure hope that everyone can make it for this class outing now! (28/28!)

2007-08-21T23:26:00.000+08:00

4 (Harmless) Ways to Make a Man Jealous
Posted by David Zinczenko
on Mon, Aug 06, 2007, 10:14 pm PDT Post a Comment View all 3857 Comments »
The jealousy card. You know it well, and chances are you've played it on more than one occasion.

It does wonders, doesn't it? Make a guy jealous, and he's back in the palm of your hands, treating you better, paying more attention to your ups and downs, and cleaning the bathrooms twice a week (with rubber gloves). Genius.

Or is it? As with politics and winter skies, there are various shades of gray here, too. While you may have something to gain by pushing his buttons, you also have an awful lot to lose if you hit the wrong one.

At the risk of being labeled a traitor to my gender - but as a favor to my female friends - here are some surefire ways to safely and compassionately poke your partner with the jealousy stick without risking more serious issues.

Stay Up Later Than He Does

And make sure you're logged in. When he says he's going to bed, tell him you'll be in later, that you just have a few things to look up on the computer. Not that he doesn't trust you and not that you're going to check up on an ex or two, but he doesn't know that.

And his wandering mind may just think you're up to something. And the thought that you might be means that you'll soon be getting more attention than David Beckham in the Los Angeles airport.

Have Drinks with Friends

He knows you talk. He knows you talk more when you're with friends, especially when you add drinks to the mix. And he cares deeply about how he's portrayed in your version of the media - that is, your social network - and how he stacks up against other men. Go out and compare notes with the girls, and selectively report back on the findings of the kangaroo court. He may be less likely to give you damning evidence to report.

Click on ESPN.com

Read up on the latest sports happenings, and bring them up later to your man. When he asks how the heck you knew Padraig Harrington won the British Open, tell him that a couple guys from work were talking about it.

The thought of you playing Erin Andrews (sports reporter for ESPN since 2004 ... C'mon, stay with me here!) around the coffee machine will make him steam without totally burning. (Note: Anything you do with male colleagues that's potentially frisky will infuriate him - and can potentially backfire on you.)

Whoop Him

Challenge him in something physical - whether it's in an upcoming 5K or in your regular yoga class. It's hard for even the least competitive men not to feel antsy when his woman is stronger, faster, or more flexible than he is.

He'll say it doesn't bother him when you cross the finish line first or scratch your ears with your toes. Plus, research shows that even a little healthy competition can ignite your sex life. Don't push the Venus Williams act too hard, though, or he'll wonder if his losing streak will send you in search of a man who's faster, stronger, and better.

Have your own ideas about how to get a partner's attention and get him or her to care more? Share them with others here.

OMG FUCKTARDS! It'd just piss the shit out of any selfrespecting guy. Girls (and guys) dont be retards and go around trying to get people jealous or shit. I've done it before, it just screws yourself up faster than a carpenter on crack. can you spell r-e-t-a-r-d-e-d better than that? just be honest (HAHAHAH I MAKE IT SOUND SO EASY!) and things will work out, if the other party isnt too insecure and fucked up. if thats the case, maybe this jealousy bullshit will help you yay!

Funny Pics

2007-08-20T15:06:00.000+08:00

woohoo!

2007-08-19T22:41:00.001+08:00

i wonder if people still read the blog, or they are too busy mugging. do take a break. but just in case you think that if you mug too much you won't get a girlfriend, here are some super interesting pick-up lines from chow's blog! (ok thanks chow)

oh zhenghong you can now showcase your immense amount of talent and still hook that girl! isn't that interesting? (i think it works best on girls from hwa chong and nj)

WARNING: SOME UNSUITABLE FOR LITTLE BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

1. You're like an exothermic reaction, you spread your hotness everywhere!

2. I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves

4. If i was an enzyme, i'd be helicase so i could unzip your genes

8. Baby, you make my floppy disk turn into a hard drive

12. You must be auxin, cuz u r causing me to have rapid stem elongation.

21. did you just combust?? Because you're HOT!

22. By looking at you I can tell you're 36-25-36, which by the way are all perfect squares.

25. What do you say we go back to my room and do some math: Add a bed, subtract our clothes, divide your legs, and multiply

28. I wish I were adenine because then I could get paired with U.

29. What's your sine? The sine^(-1) of you must be pi/2 cause you're the one

35. If I was sin^2 theta and you were cos^2 theta together we would be 1

39. If i was an endoplasmic reticulum, how would you want me: smooth or rough?

40. I wish I was an Ion so I could form an exothermic bond with you.

43. Lets meet somewhere... you bring your beaker and I'll bring my stirring rod

44. Baby let me be your integral so I can be the area under your curves

56. Excuse me, ma'am, but can I get your seven significant digits?

63. That dress would look better accelerating towards the floor at 9.8 m/s^2

66. YouTube Myspace and I'll Google your Yahoo

71. If I could rearrange the periodic table, I'd put Uranium and Iodine together.

76. Baby if you were a 6 I would want to be your (reflection about the x-axis + then reflection about the y-axis) -->9

80. Baby, lim (u->me) ∫ e^x = f(u)^n.

84. Baby ill be your asymptotes so i can shape your curves...

85. Would you like to see the exponential growth of my natural log?

86. If you were a graphics calculator, i'd look at your curves all day long!

91. baby i just drew a pic of you on my ti83 but ur sooo hot my screen melted
(P.S. now the GC actually provides you with good pick-up lines.... yay to new syllabus!)

96. Hey baby, I'm like a rubix cube. THe more you play with me, the harder I get.

103. Let's make like a transcription factor and response element and turn things on.

104. If I were a Shwann cell, I'd squeeze areound your axon and give you a fast action potential.

105. You must be an asymptote, because I just find myself getting closer and closer to you.

124. Can I plug my solution into your equation?

131. Let's work out our orbicularis oris muscles together!
*orbicularis oris = kissing muscles

135. You have 206 bones in your body... want one more?

136. Chem students do it on the table periodically

137. If you let me work hard enough, I can give you a dipole moment

154. Baby you must be a modulus sign, 'cos whenever you wrap your arms round me i always feel positive!

156. You're so hot you denature my proteins

168. I'll be your Secretary of the Interior...

175. Girl whenever I am near you, I undergo anaerobic respiration because you take my breath away

185. I wish we were in telophase, cause then I could admire your cleavage.

190. Forget hydrogen you're my number one element

193. Hey baby, wanna form a synapse with me and exchange neurotransmitters?

221. Hey baby, can I be your enzyme? because my active site is dying for a chemical reaction.

222. Why don't you remove those barriers to imports? It will ease my inflation and the benefits will trickle down.

225. what say we slip between my beta-pleated sheets and you get to know my alpha-helix?

226. i couldn't help but notice your impressive cleavage furrow...

Elite Malays and their mixed marriages

2007-08-17T17:00:00.000+08:00

MALAYSIA's Malay leaders say 'do as I say, not do as I do' when it comes to marriage

In early June, the Malaysian media blossomed with pictures of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the traditional Malay suap-menyuap ceremony, exchanging bites of coloured glutinous rice with his new bride.

This low-key but high-profile wedding followed another elite ceremony in May when one of Malaysia 's most eligible bachelors, the Raja Muda (crown prince) of Perak, Dr Raja Nazrin Shah, finally got hitched at the age of 50 in an unostentatious ceremony in Kuala Kangsar.

But these two weddings had something else in common, a characteristic not much commented on in the media but clear to most Malaysians: in both cases the brides were locally-born Eurasians.

The prime minister's new wife is Jeanne Abdullah, a friend and relative of Abdullah Badawi's late wife, Endon, who died of complications from breast cancer in October 2005. Jeanne had originally been Jean Danker, a Catholic from a Eurasian family which spans Malaysia and Singapore and who converted to Islam when she married her first husband, Endon's brother Othman, from whom she was later divorced.

The bride of Oxford and Harvard-educated Raja Nazrin, son of the current Perak Sultan, who himself was formerly Malaysia's top law official, is Zara Salim Davidson, a chemical engineer and the daughter of William Davidson, a British-born Ipoh lawyer and his Malay wife. She herself is a member of the Kedah royal house and thus related to Malaysia 's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Raja Nazrin has repeatedly spoken out against racism in Malaysia . Zara considers herself to be very much a Malay despite her Eurasian blood.

These weddings thus represent what should be one of the triumphs of Malaysia - its ability to break down racial and religious barriers and subsume them into a broader Malaysian identity. Unfortunately the elite all too often fails to preach what it actually practices. It is a one-way street. Marry a Malay and you will become a Malay. You will also become a Muslim and, the courts say, you will stay that way.

The good-natured Abdullah Badawi clearly has no problem with the mixed racial ancestry of his bride, or with the fact that she was baptised a Christian. Yet he heads a ruling party which is not merely race-based but at times makes a fetish of Malay racial purity. And he heads a government that supports the recent court decision refusing to allow a Muslim to become a Christian, an act of supposed apostasy. But in the eyes of some Christian fundamentalists, the gentle Jeanne is also an apostate for having forsaken Christianity.

Others have identity problems too

Malays are not the only ones with identity problems. Scratch many a Malaysian Chinese and one may also find a strain of Chinese chauvinism, as is often the case in Singapore . But in Malaysia it is the Malay elite which sets the tone. This is why many believe that a more open recognition of the sheer diversity of Malaysians' origins would help offset the divisions caused by race-based politics that identifies religion with race.

Just a brief look at the origins of many members of the elite gives the lie to ethnic purity and religious dogmatism. There is Maha thir Mohamad , Malaysia 's longest-serving prime minister. His father was a Muslim Malayali from Kerala in south India who migrated to Malaysia and took a Malay bride. Mahathir himself was classified as an Indian when at university in Singapore .
But instead of celebrating the upward mobility that Malaysia offered to this migrant from India , the politics of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) required Mahathir to bury his ethnic past and wear his acquired Malay identity on his sleeve. In reality Mahathir welcomes racial mingling. His son Mirzan married into the family of Indonesian Chinese tycoon Liem Sioe Liong, and daughter Marina 's first husband was European.

The current head of Umno Youth, Hishamuddin Hussein, who waved a kris (Malay dagger) at last year's national Umno convention and offered to bathe it in Chinese blood to the ominous cheers of the audience, is another whose Malay roots are not as deep as often assumed. His grandfather, the founder of Umno, Onn Jaafar, appeared to be a Caucasian, which was not surprising given that his Johor-based family was of Turkish origin. Onn was ejected from the party he founded because he wanted to make it multi-racial and though his son went on to become the head of Umno and a prime minister, he carried with him his father's inclusive and moderate instincts.

Onn lost out politically to Malaysia ' s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Although the Tunku placed more emphasis on Malay identity, he was certainly no exclusivist. Indeed, he had been born a subject of the King of Siam and as a scion of the royal house of Kedah spent some of his early years in Bangkok at the court of his then sovereign. His mother was Siamese, though her family originally was from Pegu ( Burma ). Of his four wives, one was Thai Chinese, one English, one Malay and one Malaysian-Chinese. He never hid his fondness for whisky, even while heading the Organization of Islamic Conference, or his student days in England pre-occupied, as he once put it, with "fast women, fast cars and not-so-fast horses."

The Malay aristocracy has anyway been quite catholic in its choice of brides. Those in mixed marriages include Ahmad Shah, the Sultan of Pahang, whose consort is of Pakistani lineage. The Sultan of Selangor's divorced second consort and mother of his heir apparent was an American citizen.

Catholic brides

Sultan Iskandar of Johor's first wife, the mother of his heir apparent, was a British woman, Josephine Trevorrow. In this respect Sultan Iskandar took after his own grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim, who had two European wives, one British, one Romanian.

Maybe it is Johor's geography, its proximity to Singapore and the diversity of Indonesia , but its politicians seem to thrive on marrying outsiders. Former Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam's first wife was from (Catholic) Latin America and his second was of mixed ancestry. Another Johor politician, Tun Dr Ismail, deputy prime minister in the early 1970s, was of part Chinese ancestry.

Conversions of convenience to Islam often mean that Malay mixtures leave little trace compared with other cross-ethnic marriages. But the non-Malay, but Muslim, origins of many of the elite are found everywhere, from South Asia, Yemen , Egypt , Turkey and other countries. They include the likes of Zeti Aziz, the governor of Bank Negara. She is the daughter of Ungku Aziz, the European-looking former University of Malaya vice-chancellor, whose Johor-based family came from Turkey .

Chinese roots are also more real than apparent, often hidden by conversions. But relatively recent high-profile marriages to Chinese include Tengku Razaleigh, former finance minister and a member of the Kelantan royal house who married a long-time Chinese friend who converted and changed her name to Noor Abdullah.

Rashid Hussein, the prominent Singapore-born, Anglophile financier whose father was Indian and mother Malay married Sue Kuok, a daughter of tycoon Robert Kuok Hock Nian, the Malaysian-born but now Hong Kong-based tycoon. Kuok's first wife and mother of some of his children was Eurasian but he later married a Chinese and emphasized his Chinese ethnic identity. In a recent book, "Asian Godfathers" Kuok was described by an in-law as "the biggest racial bigot I have ever met."

Among the non-Malay groups, inter-ethnic marriages are generally much more common than among Malays. However it also seems the case that migration is the preferred option for the numbers of Malaysians who either marry across ethnic lines or acquire foreign spouses while studying or working abroad. This particularly applies to Malay women who are either not particularly religious or who see no reason why their spouses should convert.

By one estimate, there are some 150,000 mixed marriages in Malaysia , a number that seems impossibly small in a population of 24 million. The leafy, winding streets of Damansara Heights and Kenny Hills abound with matrons who entered into marriage and lives of leisure with well-to-do Malays straight out of the universities of England , where the government had sent their mates. It is forbidden for a Muslim to marry a non-Muslim, so these women, with their servants and their huge homes, stop being Jean and become Jehan in public, although seldom in private.
But while the list of Malay elites is long and rich with instances of intermarriage, at the lower economic levels the list is short, and increasingly circumscribed by the growing power of Malaysia 's shariah, or Islamic religious courts. The issue was brought to the fore in the case of Lina Joy, who changed her name from Azlina Jailani and became a Catholic in an effort to marry a non-Muslim.

Not a catalyst but symbolic

With scores, perhaps hundreds, of outraged Muslims outside the courtroom, demanding that she be denied the chance to change her religion on her identity card, a high court ruled in May that she was subject to the jurisdiction of the shariah court. The shariah courts have allowed one conversion in history Ã¢â‚¬" for a woman who had been dead for decades.

The result is that either people do not marry, or they emigrate. Bright women who have preferred to marry foreigners found their husbands denied work permits. There are believed to be thousands living in Australia , Canada or the United Kingdom .

For Malaysia 's young to take their cues from Malaysia 's top politicians and the cream of society outside of official policy might not be a bad idea. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, the Director of the Institute of the Malay World Civilisation (ATMA) and Professor at University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi Ã¢â‚¬" and himself married to an Australian, says Abdullah Badawi's marriage to Jean Danker Abdullah is "not a catalyst but certainly symbolic."

Marina Mahathir told Asia Sentinel that "If people think that marrying into another culture is enriching, then it will be a good thing. But some people make one person give up their own culture because they think of it as inferior."

But so long as the elite indulges in kris -waving while marrying as it pleases, multiracial nation-building may have scant grassroots impact.

2007-08-15T00:02:00.000+08:00

[2] http://www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished/

[3] Colonoscopy Comments

A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopy:

"Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!

"Did you Find Amelia Earhart yet?"

"Can you hear me NOW?"

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? ARE WE THERE YET ?"

"You know, in Arkansas, we're now legally married."

"Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?"

"You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out..."

"Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!"

"If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!

"Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity."

"You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?"

"Could you write a note for my wife saying that you didn't find my head up there?"

[4] What do you think of force-feeding of prisoners? Is it a doctor's/warden's duty to ensure prisoner survives, and to what extent does force-feeding = survival. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226456/site/newsweek/

hahaah

2007-08-13T21:10:00.001+08:00

Put The Big Red Button on your site

Some Creative News

2007-08-13T14:28:00.001+08:00

This is to add some new posts to the blog as well as highlight the creative happenings that our classmates have come up with in New Atlantis:

"It's not our war? It's not our war?" cries (in)famous Slagoon-born fascist Lars Winters. "Well maybe it's time it became our war! Slagoon should take a more active, and by 'active' I mean 'hostile', role in international politics! This ethnic squabbling will be over when the war is over, and WE can end that war and purge the impure! We won't invade you unless absolutely necessary! Sieg Slagoon!"

~

The Sunday Prophet 12/8

-Thommasia Boosts Security over Unconfirmed Terror Threat

Thommasian police have increased security across the nation after reports that Slagoon militants intended to attack neighbouring countries using radiological device, Thommasian police said.

Police spokesman Brian Tessa said that authorities were using radiological monitoring equipment in the nation’s bridges and tunnels after the threat appeared on the Slagoon website slagoons.com.

"These actions are like those that the Thommasian Police takes every day -- precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize. "The threat level has not changed because of this unverified threat, and we shouldn't let anyone terrorize us by spreading fear," he added.

-Slagoon Space Hotel to Open by 2010

“Slagoon Suite”, the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2010 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 60 minutes.

Its Slagoon-based architects say the space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing 12 million slags for a three-day stay.

“It's the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge,” company director Javier Slaramunt said.

“How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy.”

~

Memorial (to be circulated) - Start of Hungarian Ghost Festival

Regional astrologers have announced the opening of Hell's Gates at 2300 hrs tonight. Regional leaders are advised to be prudent and take special measures to accomodate the good friends who will abound for the next month or so. The Paramount Leader of Kunda Prime, to set an example, has decreed compulsory bedtime at 1900 and curfews from 1500 hrs onwards.

~

Heex Herald 13/8

- Television broadcaster capitalises on Hungarian Ghost Festival

Ever entrepreneurial, television broadcaster MeetDaCorpse TV has announced a whole array of new TV shows specially to give viewers the goosebumps during the Hungarian Ghost Festival.

Viewers will be able to watch Hungarian Horntails smacking little wizards who intend on stealing their golden egg in the epic movie: Hairy Potty and the Goblin of Fire; powdery white little Japanese boys trying to scare the hell of out of women staying alone in the blockbuster Joo-On?; a woman who fell into a well and sprained her neck trying to murder people via TV sets in the Malaysian favourite, the Ringgit and of course, the famous Singapore ghost story, the Eh-levels? where our protagonist wakes up everyday dreaming he doesn't get get an A in the A-levels exams.

Viewers are advised to leave their TV sets on the window sills in the rare occasion that the ghost in Ringgit attempts to crawl through their TVs so that they would be conveniently ejected out of the window. MeetDaCorpse has promised to pass protective videotapes around to also lower the chances of that occuring.

444!

2007-08-12T18:50:00.000+08:00

hi guys this is actually the 444th post! or the $$$ post (if u type it with shift on lol).

apologies cuz my source of jokes sort of ran out this few weeks!

newae... announcing movie event of the month.....
BOURNE ULTIMATUM
Thursday 4.25 pm!

there's only bio test (as usual on friday) and i don't think there's any scholarship/university talks!
let's go for it haha!

Important Stuff

2007-07-31T14:35:00.001+08:00

HEY PEOPLE!

Ok, I'm slightly mad now bcs there's alot of things to rush. But then there's this scrapbook project and it's something like our yearbook class page, smth like that, though not entirely similar. YEA. Erm I need all of you to send all the nice / unglam pictures of our class to Andrea / Azimah (they're in charge) so that they can compile and create some kind of a collage. I think they already have a template so yea, thanks alot to them. I on the other hand need 2 volunteers from our class who are sitting together with the class for GRAD NIGHT to come to school EARLY TMRW MORNING! TO GET QUEUE NUMBER!!!! APPARENTLY THE 2 PEOPLE SHLD GET QUEUE NUMBERS FOR BOTH CLASS TABLES TGT SO THAT WE CAN ARRANGE OUR TABLES TOGETHER WHEN WE REGISTER LATER ON IN THE AFTERNOON. Yea, sry for the caps, just needed to emphasize how important it is. Fun, but still quite rushed. Ok nvm. So yea please reply me if you can help the class queue up for the queue numbers tmrw morning, very important. Thank you. The photos for the scrapbook equally important so do remember to send to Andrea Azimah BY TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! Yea, that's all, thanks very much, cya all and take care. No PE tmrw, crappy >.<

Have fun,
Kelvin

class scrapbook page!

2007-07-30T23:04:00.000+08:00

+zizi /- fate has a way with things. said:
send me class photos tt u have
+zizi /- fate has a way with things. said:
its for our class scrapbk page
* mingsing i love you, come back to me said:
must be by now isit?
+zizi /- fate has a way with things. said:
by tmr okays
+zizi /- fate has a way with things. said:
cause we extended deadline to tmr night
* mingsing i love you, come back to me said:
ok i email u by tmrw
+zizi /- fate has a way with things. said:
okays (:
+zizi /- fate has a way with things. said:
thankyou!
* mingsing i love you, come back to me said:
byebye
+zizi /- fate has a way with things. said:
bye!

if you're reading this, please go dig out any nice photos of the class that you have and EMAIL THEM TO AZI BY TOMORROW for the class scrapbook page. thanks loads (:

2007-07-29T18:41:00.000+08:00

omg.

i finally managed to get my username,

password yada yada for

the classblog.

and guess what i found out,

i had 4 different usernames

for 4 different blogs (personal, class, soccer, laos cip)

all under the same email.

i was like wthhhh.

but thankgod for blogger-gmail.

cleared up and now its all under

my gmail!

now tell me why im blogging here

when i don't even blog

on my own livejournal.

-.-

2007-07-29T14:41:00.000+08:00

to all the aspiring lawyers:
(taken from a freshly-graduated NUS law student's blog, AP = anonymous pupil)

AP1: Lawyers are like high class…

AP2: Prostitutes?

AP1: Well I was going to say personal assistants but yeah…prostitutes…that’s true too. We get paid to be f**ked by clients.

hahaha.

just to liven things up.

2007-07-28T22:02:00.000+08:00

time for heex to save the dying blog again with a joke!

No. 1
Once two morons got fed up with the Indian Government and decided to blow up
the parliament. They took 2 bombs, put them in a suitcase in the front seat
of their car and set off. On the way one moron asks the other, "What will
happen if the bombs blast off now."

The other says, "Don't worry. I have a spare bomb in the back seat!"

No. 2
Two morons walked towards each other on a country road. One carried a bag
over his shoulder.
"What's in the bag?", said one moron
"Chickens" was the reply.
"If I guess their number correctly, how many can I have?"
"You can have both of them."
"OK," said the first moron, "Five."

No. 3
There were 2 morons and each had a horse. They decided to put the horses in a shed for one month while they went on vacation. One guy asked the other guy "How they were going to tell which one belonged to whom?"

After many long hours of thinking they finally came up with a solution. They would shave the mane of one. That one belonged to the 1st farmer. So, they put the horses in the shed and left. When they came back the mane had grown back. They asked each other which belonged to whom. Then the 1st farmer said, "OK I will take the black one you take the white one."

2007-07-28T21:15:00.000+08:00

http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/
looking at how happy he is, i really hope medical science wont take such people away from us.
http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/media/nickvideobig.wmv
this is a video about his everyday life and it uses one of my favourite christian songs :) but anyway, dont need to watch it if you're strongly anti-christian.

read this on my sister's blog and i think it's really funny. i hope you laugh! :) the videos esp. work is never boring when you can think of such fun stuff to do!

same as jw

2007-07-28T20:41:00.000+08:00

$5450.00

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

i tried to rig it and try to get the highest amt possible but i only managed..

$6950.00

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

my body is worth less than jw's ):

2007-07-28T19:50:00.001+08:00

$5115.00

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

2007-07-28T19:07:00.000+08:00

$5450.00

Mingle²

Fun Site!

2007-07-24T21:00:00.000+08:00

http://www.nationstates.net/kunda_prime

UN Category: Corporate Police State
Civil Rights:Rare
Economy:Thriving
Political Freedoms:Outlawed

Location: New Atlantis
Regional Influence: Superpower

The Federation of Kunda Prime is a small, economically powerful nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 12 million are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, moralistic morass -- juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Religion & Spirituality. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 27%. A healthy private sector is led by the Pizza Delivery industry, followed by Door-to-door Insurance Sales and Trout Farming.

The right to free speech is being drastically curtailed, citizens are barcoded to keep track of their movements, meat-eating is frowned upon, and employers may fire workers without giving any reason. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Kunda Prime's national animal is the King Cobra and its currency is the Solari.

Kunda Prime is ranked 10th in the region and 68,997th in the world for Most Politically Free Nations.

Nice

2007-07-24T20:31:00.000+08:00

http://www.nationstates.net/thommasia

UN Category: Scandinavian Liberal Paradise
Civil Rights:Excellent
Economy:Basket Case
Political Freedoms:Average

The United Socialist States of Thommasia is a small, safe nation, renowned for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed population of 10 million enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass -- juggles the competing demands of Social Welfare, Education, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 47%, but much higher for the wealthy. A small but healthy private sector is led by the Information Technology industry, followed by Retail and Woodchip Exports.

Organ donation rates have hit a new low, all recreational drugs are legal, same-sex marriages are increasingly common, and citizens are enjoying a recent large cut in taxes. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is well under control, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Thommasia's national animal is the eagle, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the hom.

Thommasia is ranked 1st in the region and 2,355th in the world for Most Income Equality.

NO SPOILERS!!

2007-07-20T20:33:00.000+08:00

hello people.

tomorrow marks the release of harry potter and the deathly hallows. i'm not going to do anything to the class blog (unlike my own blog, which i'm going to temporarily remove the tagboard), so please respect all fans and readers (at least those that visit our blog) and keep the blog spoiler-free. in other words...

PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY SPOILERS!!

yup, some people have been waiting for more than 10 years for this concluding installment. so please don't spoil the fun for them, okay? at least wait a few days, like monday or something, before posting anything. thanks.

alright, that's that. for those who ordered it, enjoy reading your books tomorrow!

the latest victim...

2007-07-20T18:56:00.000+08:00

http://www.nationstates.net/slagoon
The Armed Republic of Slagoon is a tiny, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its strong anti-business politics. Its hard-nosed population of 5 million are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass -- devotes most of its attentions to Law & Order, with areas such as Social Welfare and Commerce receiving almost no funds by comparison. The average income tax rate is 42%, but much higher for the wealthy. Private enterprise is illegal, but for those in the know there is a slick and highly efficient black market in Pizza Delivery.

Crime is relatively low, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Slagoon's national animal is the shark, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the goons.

obviously they're bisaed towards land animals.. since sharks don't exactly frolic in forests...

koped from azu's blog

2007-07-18T20:41:00.001+08:00

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

2007-07-15T20:12:00.000+08:00

Self Esteem
by David Shade

Self Esteem Is Critical To A Healthy Sexual Relationship

After my nine year marriage ended in 1992, I was determined to find out what I had done wrong. Why did my marriage fail? I read every book about relationships that there was. I went to a counselor. I talked to hundreds of recently divorced women. I dated a number of them. Some of them I got along with wonderfully, some not so. And then I dated a woman who I got along with incredibly well. With her I had everything I didn't have in my marriage. I had an intellectual connection. I had a deep emotional connection. And she was more than happy to do all sorts of wild kinky things with me. It was great.

But I was too recently divorced to be capable of a long term relationship. So I went through sort of an early mid-life crisis where I dated nothing but 21 year old women. Some of them I got along with wonderfully, some not so.

Then I started to see a pattern begin to emerge. The women that I had gotten along very well with, who I connected with, who did wild kinky things with me, were women who had a very high self esteem. And the higher the self esteem, the better the relationship, and the sex.

I began to understand what I needed to have, and why my marriage failed. There was nobody to blame. I assumed full responsibility. I had chosen wrong. I had chosen her simply because she was smoking hot, with no regard to her character. She had a low self esteem. Believe it or not, she could only see the faults in herself, while men would stare at her everywhere she went.

What I had learned on my own was not in any of the books I had read. Over the next many years, I refined my understanding of why self esteem is so critically important to the health of a sexual relationship.

The most comprehensive discussion on self-esteem I have seen is by Nathaniel Branden at nathanielbranden.net. He articulated it well when he wrote: "Self-esteem is an experience. It is a particular way of experiencing the self. It is to move toward life rather than away from it; to move toward consciousness rather than away from it; to treat facts with respect rather than denial; and to operate self-responsibly rather than the opposite."

He defined self-esteem as "being competent to cope with the challenges of life and of being worthy of happiness. It is confidence in our ability to learn, make appropriate choices and decisions, and respond effectively to change. It is the experience that success, achievement, fulfillment, and happiness are right and natural for us. It is a consciousness to trust our self. It strives for rationality, coherence, clarity, and truth."

He defined six practices of a healthy self-esteem:

1) Living consciously: Respect for facts, open to new knowledge and feedback, and seeking to understand the world and ourselves.

2) Self-acceptance: Realism applied to self. The willingness to own, experience, and take responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and actions, without evasion, denial, or disowning.

3) Self-responsibility: Realizing that we are the author of our choices and actions; that each one of us is responsible for life and well being and for the attainment of our goals.

4) Self-assertiveness: Being authentic in our dealings with others; treating our values and persons with decent respect in social contexts; refusing to fake the reality of who we are or what we esteem in order to avoid disapproval; the willingness to stand up for ourselves and our ideas in appropriate ways in appropriate contexts.

5) Living purposefully: Identifying our short-term and long-term goals or purposes and the actions needed to attain them.

6) Integrity: Living with congruence between what we know, what we profess, and what we do; telling the truth, honoring our commitments, exemplifying in action the values we profess to admire.

"What all these have in common is respect for reality."

What we call high self-esteem and low self-esteem, Nathaniel Branden calls self-esteem and pseudo self-esteem. He defined pseudo self-esteem as: "trying to compensate for deficiencies; a pretense at a self-confidence and self-respect; the effort to protect self-esteem with denial and evasion, which only results in a further deterioration of self-esteem."

Pseudo self-esteem can be easily identified by: "the defensiveness with which insecure people may respond when their errors are pointed out, or the extraordinary feats of avoidance and self-deception people can exhibit with regard to gross acts of non-consciousness and irresponsibility, or the foolish and pathetic ways people sometimes try to prop up their egos by the wealth or prestige of their spouse, the make of their automobile, or the fame of their dress designer, or by the exclusiveness of their golf club."

Traits of pseudo self-esteem include: delusional, ignorance, denial, evasion, betrayal of consciousness or conviction, lack of integrity, grandiosity, fantasies of superiority, conceited (exaggerated opinion of oneself,) boasting, arrogance, and the victim mentality of blaming others. What all these have in common is the lack of respect for reality. But the biggest indicator is the angry denial of low self-esteem or the denial that self-esteem is significant or desirable.

There is no black and white, and there are various degrees, but at the extremes, I have found the following to be true of high self esteem (HSE) women and low self esteem (LSE) women:

- LSE women are insecure and seek validation from men. - HSE women are secure in themselves and have nothing to prove.

- LSE women have a bottomless pit of emotional need that can never be filled. - HSE women are self fulfilled.

- LSE women will manipulate a man to make him meet her needs. - HSE women know exactly what they want in a man, and when they find one enjoy who he is.

- LSE women are quick to obtain their man's tokens of devotion, such as expensive gifts or immediately requiring a monogamous relationship. - HSE women are suspicious of expensive gifts early on, and do not decide that they want a relationship with the man until she gets to know him well.

- LSE women would steal a man if it would give her validation. - HSE women are not at all interested in another woman's man.

- LSE women trade sex for attention and for verification that they are attractive and worthy. - For HSE women, sex is about sharing and celebrating sexuality.

- LSE women respond to being treated poorly in an attempt to prove their worthiness. - HSE women expect to be treated well and respond only to that.

- For a LSE woman, it's not about the man, it's about her own needs. - For a HSE woman, it's about what her and her man enjoy together.

- LSE women blame their problems on other people. They have the victim mentality. - HSE women assume personal responsibility for their own lot in life.

- LSE women are motivated by moving away from bad. - HSE women are motivated by moving towards good.

- LSE women must control others by manipulation. - HSE women see that as unhealthy.

- LSE women are drama queens. - HSE women seek harmony.

- LSE women have a warped sense of deservedness. - HSE women have a healthy sense of deservedness.

Self-esteem is formed early in life and takes years to develop. A woman's biggest influence in her developing years are her parents, and it is her father that has the most important influence. It is through him that she acquires the ability, or lack of ability, to have an emotionally healthy relationship with men.

A woman who had a close relationship with her father when she was a little girl is what I call a 'Daddy's Girl.' Her father was loving and caring. He believed in her and supported her. He taught her to be self reliant, independent, and to believe in herself. He may have even taught her how to throw a baseball or throw a punch. She thus grew up with a high self-esteem, a healthy relationship with men, and a good sense of deservedness. She is thus emotionally healthy and believes that she deserves to be treated well by men. Interestingly, she is also very skilled at influencing men and making a man feel emotionally close to her.

Her relationship with her father goes through stages. As a little girl, she loves him dearly and looks up to him. When the taboo instinct sets in at about age 14, she becomes independent from him and sees him as the biggest dork in the world. By the time she matures into the age of legal adult, she again adores him and cares about him dearly. But at any age, she always wants him to see her as innocent and pure, and she wants him to continue to be proud of her.

This is in contrast to another woman who had a condescending or absent father. Such a woman is incapable of forming a deep emotional bond with a man. She has a bottomless pit of emotional need that can never be filled. She believes that she deserves to be treated poorly by men, though she expects being showered with attention and material gifts. She is often spotted in the company of men that view women as objects.

Her relationship with her mother is also important. I have known daddy's girls who had mothers that were total emotional basket cases and made very bad decisions for themselves. In those cases, the young women tend to make bad decisions for themselves. To a large extent, women tend to repeat the same successes or failures of their mothers. Such daddy's girls display some of the typical traits of a daddy's girl, but they make mistakes such as having no direction in life. The very best women are those who had two good parents in a good relationship.

A Daddy's Girl has a good sense of deservedness. Deservedness is what a woman believes she deserves for herself. She believes that she deserves to experience wonderful pleasure, and she believes that she deserves you. She will be your best ally. She will be rooting for you.

The opposite is a bad sense of deservedness. (Note: everybody has A sense of deservedness.) An example of a bad sense of deservedness is a woman who stays with a controlling or abusive man. Therefore, one of the quickest ways to obtain much information about a woman is to note the men she associates with.

If the woman does not have a good sense of deservedness, you will be forever frustrated, your energy will be constantly drained, and the relationship is doomed. She cannot appreciate a good man when she has one. She will sabotage the relationship and eventually leave for some scum that she believes she deserves. If you aren't a psychiatrist or a therapist, there's not much you can do about it. And even then, if she's not motivated to self improvement, it's futile.

Someone once asked me "What is the equivalent in a man? Is it his relationship with his mother?" This recent post on the Internet may shed some light:

"I'm 34, I've slept with over 100 women. I haven't developed strong feelings for any of them, until my first girlfriend. She recently broke up with me. After the breakup, I became obsessed. I emailed her constantly, tried to get in touch with her all the time, started chain smoking and drinking, thought about suicide, stopped eating for a week, stopped sleeping, stopped exercising. I had only one goal: GET HER BACK and MARRY HER! I also realized that I communicated to my girlfriend the same way I communicated to my mother as a child. My mother would insult me, criticize me, yell at me, threaten to leave me. And I would never respond. I would tell her nothing, even though I wanted to say many things to her. I can see now that my entire life has been lived with the fear of intimacy and abandonment by a woman. That is why I'm good at pickup - I leave the emotions aside and go for the close. Only problem is: that has become totally empty to me now. I've had enough sex with multiple partners. I'm ready to be with one woman only."

As you can see, self-esteem is critically important for a healthy sexual relationship. And just because a woman is smoking hot, does not mean she has a low self esteem or a high self esteem. Similarly, just because a woman is average looking does not mean anything about her self esteem.

Over the years I developed reliable ways to determine which women have a high self esteem. One of the best and most reliable tests for a good self esteem is to pay her a compliment and see how she responds. If she belittles the compliment or down plays it, I know she has a low self esteem. The compliment will tend to break rapport, as it should. But if she takes the compliment well, such as responding with a genuine "Thank you!" then it may be possible that she has a good self esteem. The compliment will tend to increase rapport, as it should.

I also discuss this at length in my book, and will discuss it at my seminar in Los Angeles on March 5,6.

http://www.masterful-lover.com/seminar.jsp

If you have any questions, email me at davidshadecorporation@hotmail.com.

Give women incredible pleasure,

David Shade

Kiss- Because I'm A Girl

2007-07-13T20:30:00.000+08:00

Watch this video man, really touching. This was a phenomenon back in 2002, and was one of the most popular Korean songs that year. Must watch all the way till the end to get the full story.

P.S. The girl quite hot also, a bit like Erika Sawajiri :D.

2007-07-12T21:26:00.000+08:00

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of Oolong tea...You will never look at a cup of Oolong the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed Oolong tea. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the Oolong out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and Oolong tea," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the Oolong. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The Oolong tea was unique, however. After they were in the boiling water , they had changed the water color and taste.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a Oolong tea?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the Oolong tea? The tea actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the tea, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a Oolong tea?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Indon Disaster Imminent.

2007-07-11T19:05:00.000+08:00

More than 8,000 flee Indonesian volcano as top alert declaredPosted: 10 July 2007 1717 hrs

Thick plumes of ash are spewed from Mount Gamkonora

JAKARTA: Some 8,500 people have fled the slopes of an Indonesian volcano after it spewed ash, smoke and debris, officials said on Tuesday, as the volcanology office raised its warning to the highest level.

The office said volcanic activity at Mount Gamkonora, about 2,700 kilometres (1,600 miles) northeast of Jakarta, prompted it to raise its warning level to "alert" which means an eruption is imminent.

Spot fires were visible and the crater spewed burning material up to 15 metres (yards) from the crater, the office said. People nearby heard two thunderous booms and the column of smoke rising from the crater reached up to 2,500 metres, the office said on its website.

It said that as of early Monday, 8,439 people had moved off the slopes of the 1,635-metre (5,461-foot) volcano, which last erupted in 1987.

It was unclear how many remained on the slopes.

Local official Penta Libela said authorities were helping with the evacuation of villagers and had prepared four safe shelters. "It is not an official evacuation program. The population panicked because of the eruption and fled on their own and as the local government, we are merely helping by providing more vehicles and assigning temporary shelters," Libela said early Monday.

Indonesia sits on the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire," where continental plates meet, causing frequent volcanic and seismic activity. The archipelago nation has the world's highest number of active volcanoes.

Gamkonora has erupted 12 times since records have been kept.

The volcano typically spews heat clouds, or pyroclastic flows, along with lava streams toward villages in the west and northwest of Halmahera island, rather than exploding, the volcanology website said.

2007-07-10T20:01:00.000+08:00

Chinese man bit to death a fierce dog

Reuters

Published: July 04, 2007, 23:03

Beijing: A Chinese man bit to death a fierce dog that was savaging his beloved puppy.

Awakened by the puppy's yelps, a villager named Geng first tried to chase the dog away by hurling watermelons at it, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

The farmer then threw himself on the dog, clamping his teeth around its neck and eventually killing it.

"The two were rolling around on the ground and fighting for nearly 10 minutes," the Yanzhao Cosmopolitan News, a paper in the northern province of Hebei, said.

Geng suffered deep cuts to his arms and was treated in hospital.

The puppy survived.

thank you!

2007-07-09T19:04:00.000+08:00

thank you kelvin for the note and the sms and for being the first person who encouraged me outside the lab!!!!! :)
thank you andrea for coming down to the toilet immediately :P
thank you azi for letting me eat your chicken and soup
(thank you andrea and azi for sharing the fats :PpP)
thank you bernard for the chocolate sms!
thank you zhang rui for trying to talk to me though i didn't answer.
thank you zh for just giving me the why-the-hell-didn't-you-go-for-chem look.
thank you ms lio for waving at me even though i didn't look very good
thank you mr chan :)

and azura kunman huiyi!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GQ6Bg2OUCp4/RmuTcI5PiRI/AAAAAAAAAIw/6gsBFTFZRxA/s1600-h/Picture+2.png
yiding! look! mr chan did this!
LOOK AT THE ONIONS!!
hahahahaahahahah

MUGMUGMUG

2007-07-06T23:18:00.000+08:00

ok now with our dismal CT grades (even before we get econs and gp... come on they can't be much better)... sorry for being pessismistic haha. let's start mugging damn shit hard so everyone can get a nicenice 4As for their report card for the prelims.

so here it goes. let's study in the library after school every weekday. don't worry, we can all get the prelim papers from the bookshop already so we can have lots and lots of stuff to practice. woohoo MUGGING ROX!!! (muz start psycho-ing yourself)

dark chocs

2007-07-05T19:19:00.001+08:00

Remember all the talk bout dark chocos before? well, i found this article on yahoo (lol) health..

A Bite of Chocolate a Day May Keep Blood Pressure at Bay
TUESDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Chocolate lovers can rejoice again: More research has found that the antioxidants in dark chocolate can help slightly lower blood pressure.

But the good news comes with a caveat -- the chocolate portions have to be limited to 30 calories a day, which works out to slightly more than one Hershey's Kiss.

Such small amounts of the flavanol-rich cocoa found in dark chocolate "may be a promising behavioral approach to lower blood pressure in individuals with above-optimal blood pressure," the German researchers reported in their study.

Unlimited quantities of chocolate won't work, they added, because "the potential blood pressure reduction contributed by the flavanols could be offset by the high sugar, fat and calorie intake with the cocoa products."

The current study, published in the July 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, included 44 adults between the ages of 56 and 73 who either had blood pressure levels in the upper range of normal (considered prehypertension) or they had stage 1 high blood pressure.

None of the study volunteers had other risk factors for heart disease, which means they weren't overweight, didn't smoke, didn't have diabetes or high cholesterol or kidney disease. Additionally, the study participants didn't take additional vitamins or supplements, and the only cocoa-containing products they consumed during the study period were those provided by the researchers.

For 18 weeks, half of the group was asked to consume 30 calories a day of dark chocolate containing polyphenols (a type of antioxidant), while the other half was given 30 calories a day of white chocolate, which has nearly all of the same ingredients as the dark chocolate but no polyphenols.

By the end of the study, the average systolic blood pressure (the top number, which measures the force of blood coming from the heart) dropped by 2.9 mm Hg and the average diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number, which measures the force of blood returning to the heart) dropped by 1.9 mm Hg in the dark chocolate group. There was no change in blood pressure for the white chocolate group.

"Although the magnitude of the BP reduction was small, the effects are clinically noteworthy. On a population basis, it has been estimated that a 3-mm/Hg reduction in systolic BP would reduce the relative risk of stroke mortality by 8 percent, of coronary artery disease mortality by 5 percent, and of all-cause mortality by 4 percent," the authors reported in a prepared statement.

The research was led by Dr. Dirk Taubert, of University Hospital of Cologne, who has done previous research on the effects of cocoa on high blood pressure.

The authors suspect that dark chocolate may increase levels of nitric oxide, a compound that helps to relax and open the blood vessels.

An American nutrition expert found the results promising.

"If you're someone with marginal high blood pressure, and if you eat chocolate anyway, switching to a small piece of dark chocolate daily may give you some benefit. It lowered the upper number about 3 points," said Jo Ann Carson, a professor of clinical nutrition at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Carson recommended looking for dark chocolate that has cocoa content higher than 50 percent. She also pointed out that people who are sensitive to caffeine's effects should be careful about consuming dark chocolate, because the caffeine content is higher than in milk chocolate.

"Dark chocolate doesn't give you as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, but if you start eating it in the evening, you might notice the caffeine," she said.

Additionally, if you have underlying health problems, this study's results probably don't apply to you, according to nutritionist Angela Kurtz, from New York University Medical Center.

"This study was designed to look at the effects of chocolate in individuals who didn't have severe hypertension or other medical problems, and they weren't overweight. If you're diabetic or you have kidney disease, you cannot add chocolate to your diet," she said.

"Moderation is the key. As long as you can have good control of your eating habits, and you can balance chocolate consumption with physical activity to offset the calories, then you can enjoy it," Kurtz added.

But she also cautioned that "chocolate is not a magic bullet but is one little tool for people who are relatively healthy."

Love

2007-07-04T21:47:00.002+08:00

This is an article from Osho, a well respected Indian mystic who's very wise. got it off ideagasms.blogspot.com. do check it out, its a very good site.

What is love? To live it and know it is very easy but to say it is difficult. It is like asking a fish, “What is the sea?” The fish may say, “ This is the sea. It is all around, all over.”

But if you insist, “Please define the sea, don’t just indicate,” then the problem becomes really difficult for the fish.

In the life of humans also, all that is good, all that is beautiful and all that is true, can only be lived, can only be known. One can only be them but it is very difficult to define them, to talk about them. The misfortune is that something that humans should have been living, something which is actually meant to be lived, has only been talked about by them for the past five to six thousand years. Love is being talked about and discussed, songs of love are being sung, devotional hymns of love are being sung, but love itself has no place in the lives of human beings.
If we search deep within man we will find that no other word used by him is more false than “love.” The most unfortunate thing is his thinking that those who actually have falsified love, who actually have blocked all the streams of love, are the direct ancestors of love. Religion talks about love, but the kind of love that has surrounded man so far, like some misfortune, has only closed all the doors to love in his life.

About this there is
no basic difference between East and West, between India and America.
The river of love has not yet manifested in humans. And we we blame man for this, we
blame it on the mind. We say that human beings are bad, the mind is poisonous, and that is why there is no love flowing in our lives. The mind is not a poison. Those who call the mind poisonous have actually poisoned love and have not allowed it to be born. How can the mind be a poison? Nothing in this world is poison. Nothing is poison in the whole existence; everything is nectar. It is human beings who have turned this whole nectar into poison, and the major culprits are the so-called teachers, the so-called holy men and saints, the so-called religious people.

It is necessary to understand this in detail, because if this is not seen clearly, there is no possibility for love in any human being’s life – not even in the future.
We go on using the very things that have been responsible for not allowing love to be
born, as the foundations for the birth of love. The situation is that even though totally wrong principles are repeated and reiterated down the centuries, we fail to see their basic
flaws just because of the repetition. Instead, human beings are deemed to be wrong
because they are unable to fulfill the requirements of those principles.
I have heard:
A hawker of hand-fans was passing by the palace of the king, shouting out, “I have
created unique and wonderful fans. Such fans have never been seen before.”
The king had a collection of all sorts of fans from every corner of the world and so he
was curious. He leaned over his balcony to have a look at this seller of unique and
wonderful fans. To him the fans looked ordinary, hardly worth a penny, but he called the
man upstairs anyway. The king asked, “What is unique about those fans? And what is
their price?”
The hawker replied, “Your Majesty, they don’t cost much. Considering the quality of
these fans, the price is very low: one hundred rupees a fan.”
The king was amazed. “One hundred rupees! This fan worth a paisa is available
anywhere in the market. And you ask a hundred rupees! What is so special about these
fans?”
The hawker said, “What is so special? Each fan is guaranteed to last one hundred years.
For one hundred years it won’t spoil.”
“From the look of it, it seems impossible it can even last a week,” the king said, “Are you
trying to cheat me? Is this outright fraud, and with the king himself?”
The vendor replied, “My lord, would I dare? You know very well, sir, that I pass under
your balcony daily, selling my fans. The price is one hundred rupees a fan, and I am
responsible if it doesn’t last one hundred years. Every day I am available in the street.
And, above all, you are the ruler of this land. How could I dare to cheat you?”
The fan was purchased at the asking price. Although the king did not trust the hawker, he
was dying of curiosity to know what grounds the man had for making such a false claim.
The vendor was ordered to present himself again on the seventh day.
The central stick of the fan came out in three days, and the whole fan disintegrated before
the week was out.
The king was sure the fan-seller would never turn up again, but to his complete surprise
the man presented himself as he had been asked to, on time, on the seventh day.
“At your service, Your Majesty.”
The king was furious. “You rascal! You fool! Look. There lies your fan, all broken in
pieces. This is its condition in a week, and you guaranteed it would last a hundred years!
Are you mad, or just a supercheat?”
The man replied humbly, “With due respect, it seems my lord does not know how to use
fans. The fan must last for one hundred years; it is guaranteed. How did you fan?”
The king said, “Good heavens! Now I will have to learn how to fan too!”
“Please don’t be angry. How did the fan come to this end in just seven days? How did
you fan?”
The king lifted the fan and showed how one fans.
The man said, “Now I understand. You shouldn’t fan like that.”
“What other way is there?” the king asked.
The man explained, “Hold the fan steady. Keep it steady in front of you and then move
your head sideways to and fro. The fan will last one hundred years. You will pass away
but the fan will remain intact. Nothing is wrong with the fan; the way you fan is wrong.
Keep the fan steady and move your head. Where is my fan at fault? The fault is yours, not
that of my fan.”
This is the situation of humanity. Today’s human being is the product of a culture that is
five, six or ten thousand years old. But the human being is blamed for being wrong, not
the culture. Man is rotting, yet the culture is praised. Our great culture, our great
religion…everything is great! And this human being is the fruit of it. But no: “Man is
wrong and he should change himself.” And yet no one dares to stand up to question
whether the culture and religion that have failed to fill humans with love in ten thousand
years might themselves be wrong. And if love hasn’t evolved in the past ten thousand
years, then what is the possibility, based on this same culture and this same religion, that
love will ever fill humans in the future?
Something which could not be achieved in the past ten thousand years is not going to be
attained in the coming ten thousand years either. Today’s human being will be the same
tomorrow also. Human beings have always been the same and will remain the same and
yet we go on shouting slogans praising this culture and religion, and praising the saints
and holy men.
We are not even ready to consider that our culture and religion could be at fault.
I want to say to you that they are. And today’s human being is the proof. What other
proof can there be? If we plant a seed and the fruit is poisonous and bitter, what does it
prove? It proves that the seed must have been poisonous and bitter. Of course, it is
difficult to foretell whether a particular seed will give bitter fruit or not. You may look it
over carefully, press it or break it open, but you cannot predict for sure whether the fruit
will be bitter. Sow a seed. A plant will sprout. Years will pass. A tree will emerge, it will
spread its branches to the sky, it will bear fruit – and only then will you come to know
whether the seed that was sown was bitter or not. Today’s human being is the fruit of
those seeds of culture and religion that were sown ten thousand years ago and have been
nurtured ever since. And the fruit is bitter; it is full of conflict and hatred.
But we go on praising those very seeds and think love will be born out of them. I want to
say to you that that will not happen, because the fundamental potential for the birth of
love has been killed by the religions: they have poisoned it. More love can be seen in the
birds, animals and plants – who have no religion or culture – than in humans.
More love can be seen in the uncivilized and backward tribesmen of the jungles – who
have no developed religion, civilization or culture – than in the so-called progressive,
cultured and civilized people of today.
Why do humans become more and more barren of love the more civilized and cultured
they become, the more under the influence of religions they become, the more they go to
the temples and churches to pray? There are certainly some reasons and I wish to discuss
two of them. If these can be understood, the blocked streams of love can be released and
the Ganges of love can flow again.
Love is within every human being. It does not have to be brought in from somewhere. It
is not something that has to be searched for somewhere. It is there. It is the very longing
of life within everybody. It is the very fragrance of life within everybody. But it is
trapped by high walls on all sides and is unable to manifest itself. All around it there are
rocks, and the stream cannot spring up.
The search for love, the discipline of love is not something that you can go somewhere
and learn.
A sculptor was working on a rock. Someone who had come to see how a statue is made
saw no sign of a statue, the person only saw a stone being cut here and there by a chisel
and hammer.
“What are you doing?” the person inquired. “Are you not going to make a statue? I have
come to see a statue being made, but I only see you chipping stone.”
The artist said, “The statue is already hidden inside. There is no need to make it.
Somehow, the useless mass of stone that is around it has to be separated from it, and then
the statue will manifest itself. A statue is not made, it is only discovered. It is uncovered;
it is brought to light.”
Love is hidden inside human beings; it only needs to be released. The question is not how
to produce it, but only how to uncover it. There is something that we have covered
ourselves with that does not allow love to surface.
Try asking a medical practitioner what health is. It is very strange, but no doctor in the
world can tell you what health is! The whole of medical science is concerned with health,
but there is no one who is able to say what health is. If you ask doctors, they will say, “I
can only tell you what the diseases are or what their symptoms are. I know the different
technical terms and descriptions for each and every disease. But health? About health, I
know nothing. I can only state that what remains when there is no disease is health.” This
is so because health is hidden inside human beings. Health is beyond the definition of
human beings.
Sickness comes from the outside hence it can be defined; health comes from within hence
it cannot be defined. We can only say that the absence of sickness is health. But this is
not the definition of health, you have not said anything directly about health. The truth is
health does not have to be created; it is either hidden by illness or it reveals itself when
the illness goes away or is cured. Health is inside us. Health is our intrinsic nature.
Love is inside us. Love is our intrinsic nature. Thus it is fundamentally wrong to ask
human beings to cultivate love. The problem is not how to cultivate love, but how to
investigate and find out why love is not able to manifest itself. What is the hindrance?
What is the difficulty? Where is the barrier?
If there are no barriers, love will manifest itself; it does not need to be taught or
explained. Every person would be filled with love if there were no barriers of wrong
culture and conditionings imposed. It is an inevitability. No one can avoid love. Love is
our intrinsic nature.
The Ganges flows from the Himalayas. It is natural for it to flow; it is alive, it has water,
it will flow and it will find the ocean. It will not ask a policeman or a priest the way to the
ocean. Have you ever seen a river standing at a crossroads asking a policeman where the
ocean is? The search for the ocean is hidden in its being. And it has energy so it will
break the mountains and rocks, cross the plains and reach the ocean. However far the
ocean may be, however hidden the ocean may be, the river will surely find it. And the
river has no guidebook or map of the path indicating where it has to pass through…but it
definitely reaches.
But suppose dams are created in her way? Suppose high walls are constructed all around
the river. What then? A river overcomes and breaks through natural barriers, but if
barriers of human engineering are created, then it is possible she may not reach the ocean.
It is important to understand this difference. No barrier of nature is really a barrier, that is
why a river reaches the ocean: cutting through the mountains it reaches the ocean. But if
human beings invent, if human beings make arrangements, they can stop a river from
reaching the ocean.
In nature there is a fundamental unity, a harmony. The natural obstructions, the apparent
obstructions seen in nature are perhaps challenges to arouse energy; they serve as clarion
calls to invoke what is latent in the being. There, perhaps, is no obstruction. We sow a
seed; it seems as if the layer of earth above the seed is pressing it down, is obstructing its
growth. But it is not so; if that layer of earth is not there the seed cannot germinate.
Outwardly it appears that the layer of earth is keeping the seed pressed down, but it is
pressing down on the seed so that it can mellow, disintegrate and transform itself into a
sprout. Outwardly it seems as if the soil is obstructing the seed, but the soil is only a
friend, it is helping the seed to grow.
Nature is a harmony, a rhythmic symphony. But the artificiality that humans have
imposed on nature, the things humans have engineered on top of it and the mechanical
contrivances humans have thrown into the current of life have created obstructions. Many
Ganges have stopped flowing; and then the river is blamed. We find no need to blame a
seed. If it doesn’t grow into a plant we reason that the soil may not have been right, that
the seed may not have had enough water or that it may not have received enough warmth.
But if flowers of love don’t blossom in someone’s life we say, “You are responsible for
it.” Nobody thinks of unsuitable soil, of a shortage of water or a lack of warmth as the
reasons this person’s “plant” hasn’t grown, hasn’t developed and hasn’t been able to
reach the flowering stage.
I want to say to you that the basic obstructions are man-made, are created by humans.
Otherwise the river of love is meant to flow and reach the ocean of life. Humans are here
so that they can flow as love and arrive at godliness.
What are the man-made obstacles that we have contrived? The first thing is that up until
now, all of human culture has been against sex, against passion. This opposition, this
negation, has shattered and destroyed the possibility of the birth of love in humans.
The simple truth is that sex is the starting point of all journeys to love. The birthplace of
the journey to love, love’s Gangotri – the source, the origin of the Ganges of love – is
sex. And everybody is inimical to it – all cultures, all religions, all gurus, all holy men. So
this is an attack at the Gangotri itself, at the very source, and the river is stopped there:
“Sex is sin,” “Sex is irreligious,” “Sex is poison!” And we never even give it a thought
that it is sexual energy that ultimately transforms and transmutes into love. The evolution
of love is nothing but transformed sex energy.
Looking at a piece of coal, it would never occur to you that this very coal will transform
into a diamond. There is no essential difference between coal and a diamond. The
elements in a lump of coal are the same as those in a diamond. Passing through a process
taking thousands of years, coal becomes a diamond.
But coal is not considered important. When coal is kept in a house it is stored in a place
where it cannot be seen by guests, whereas diamonds are worn around the neck or on the
breast so that everybody can see them. Diamonds and coal are the same: but there seems
no visible relationship between the two, that they are two points on a journey made by the
same element. If you are against coal – which is very likely, because at first glance it has
nothing more to offer than black soot – the possibility of its transformation into a
diamond ends right there. It is the coal itself which could have been transformed into a
diamond.
It is sexual energy which transforms into love. But everyone is against it, is inimical to it.
Your so-called good people are against it. And this opposition has not allowed the seed
even to sprout and has destroyed the palace of love at its foundation on the very first step.
The coal never becomes a diamond because the acceptance that is needed for its
evolution, for its process of transformation, is out of the question. How can something to
which we have become inimical, to which we are opposed, with which we are
continuously fighting, be transformed? Humans have been set up against their own
energy. Humans have been set up to fight against sex energy.
On the surface human beings are taught to support the dropping of all conflicts, all fights,
all struggles, but deep down they are essentially being taught to fight. “The mind is
poison, so fight against it” – the poison has to be fought against. “Sex is sin, so fight
against it.” And on the surface we are asked to drop all conflicts. The very teachings that
are the basis of man’s inner conflict ask him to drop conflict. On one hand drive human
beings mad, and on the other open asylums to treat them. On one hand spread the germs
of sickness, and on the other build hospitals to treat the sick.
It is very important to understand one thing in this context. Human beings can never be
separated from sex. Sex is the primary point of one’s life; one is born out of it. Existence
has accepted the energy of sex as the starting point of creation. And your holy men call it
sinful…something that existence itself does not consider a sin! If God considers sex as
sin, then there is no greater sinner than God in this world, no greater sinner than God in
this universe.
You see a flower in bloom. Have you ever considered that the blossoming of a flower is
an act of passion, a sexual act? What is happening as the flower blossoms? The butterflies
will sit on it and carry its pollen, its sperm, to another flower. A peacock dances in full
glory, a poet will sing songs to it, your saints will also be filled with joy about it – but
aren’t they aware that the dance is also an overt expression of passion, that it is primarily
a sexual act? The peacock is dancing to woo its beloved. The peacock is calling his
beloved, his spouse. The papiha bird is singing; the cuckoo is singing; a boy has become
an adolescent; a girl has grown into a beautiful woman. These are all expressions of
sexual energy. These are all different manifestations of sexual energy. All this is an
expression and manifestation of sex energy. All life, all expression, all flowering is
basically sex energy.
And it is against this sex energy that religions and cultures are pouring poison into the
minds of human beings. They are trying to engage human beings in a fight against it.
They have entangled humans in this battle against their own basic energy – and so
humans have become wretched, pathetic, devoid of love, false, nobodies. One has not to
fight with sex, but to create a friendship with it and elevate the stream of life to the
heights.
While blessing a newly wed couple, an Upanishadic sage said to the bride, “May you be
the mother of ten children and, ultimately, may your husband become your eleventh
child.”
If passion is transformed, the wife can become the mother; if lust is transformed, sex can
become love. It is only sexual energy that flowers into the energy of love. But we have
filled humans with antagonism toward sex, and the result is that not only has love not
flowered in them – because love is an evolution beyond sexual energy and can come only
through acceptance of it – but their minds have become more and more sexual because of
this opposition to sex.
All our songs, all our poetry, all our art and paintings, all our temples and the statues in
them have directly or indirectly become centered around sex. Our minds revolve around
sex. No animal in the world is sexual like human beings. Human beings are sexual
around the clock – awake or asleep, sitting or walking, sex has become everything to
them. Because of this enmity toward sex, because of this opposition and suppression, it
has become like an ulcer in their being. One cannot be free from something that is the
very root of one’s life, but in the process of this constant inner conflict one’s entire life
can become sick – and it has. Your so-called religions and cultures are basically
responsible for the excessive sexuality that is so evident in humankind. It is not bad
people, but your “good” people and your saints who are responsible for this. Until the
entire human race frees itself from this wrongdoing by your religious leaders and good
people, there is no possibility of the birth of love.

julia's GP contribution

2007-07-04T21:47:00.001+08:00

now this is really funny :) courtesy of my friend in hc humanz who forwarded it to me

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2115569,00.html
from the above site.

The Panel

We asked three writers, three scientists and two broadcasters to answer six basic scientific questions, and their answers appear to confirm the arts/science divide

Click here to read 'The new age of ignorance'.

Tim Adams
Sunday July 1, 2007
The Observer

The panel

John O'Farrell Writer
Author, broadcaster and comedy scriptwriter.

Iain Stewart Geologist
Stewart presents a new TV series, Earth: The Biography, this autumn.

Will Self Writer
Novelist, short-story writer, critic and broadcaster.

Susan Greenfield Scientist
Author of several popular science books about the brain.

Kirsty Wark Broadcaster
Political journalist and presenter of BBC2's Newsnight.

Marina Warner Writer
Novelist, critic and cultural historian, in particular of female myths.

Robert Winston Scientist
Human fertility expert and science TV presenter.

Article continues

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daisy Goodwin TV presenter
TV producer and presenter, editor of several poetry anthologies.

Q: Why does salt dissolve in water?

Iain Stewart Er, I guess the sodium ions get taken up... oh, gosh, I suppose the sodium and chlorine dissociate. The chlorine joins with the water and the sodium ions float free. Something like that.

Will Self It doesn't completely dissolve, of course. It must be because it absorbs water to the point at which it disintegrates. Is that right? I couldn't describe it scientifically.

Daisy Goodwin It forms another compound. The only reason I know any of this is because I've been testing my daughter on her GCSEs.

Marina Warner The molecules join with the water molecules. The sodium molecules join up with the hydrogen and oxygen molecules.

Susan Greenfield Because sodium and chloride disassociate and H20 is hydrogen and oxygen.

Kirsty Wark Because it's less dense.

Robert Winston It's to do with ions isn't it? Let me just work it out. It's to do with the way sodium and chloride ions, um. Do you know, I'm not sure I can really explain it. I can't remember now from my physics years ago.

John O'Farrell No idea.

Answer: Sodium chloride is an ionic substance that contains alternating sodium and chlorine ions. When salt is added to water, the partial charges on the water molecule are attracted to the Na+ and Cl- ions. The water molecules work their way into the crystal structure and between the individual ions, surrounding them and slowly dissolving the salt.

Q: Roughly how old is the earth?

John O'Farrell I'll have a guess. About 100 million years?

Will Self I'm completely winging this. A couple of billion years? No? Give me right on that. Mark me up.

Iain Stewart This I am sure of: 4.5 billion - no, actually 4.6 billion years.

Daisy Goodwin Pass. This is embarrassing.

Marina Warner That I don't know. (I did actually just hear Melvyn Bragg's programme this week about very ancient worlds.) I'm not very good at figures.

Robert Winston Well, the universe is 13 billion or 14 billion and the earth is between 4 and 5 billion years old.

Kirsty Wark More than 5 billion years.

Susan Greenfield Oh blimey. Well, I know that human beings have been going for about a million and a half years, so ... I'm just grasping here. Something like 60 billion years or something like that, but that's a grasp. I'm not a physical scientist and it shows. I'm probably not scientifically literate.

Answer: 4.5 billion years.

Q: What happens when you turn on a light?

Will Self In my house, very little, because I never get round to changing the bulbs. You complete a circuit?

Iain Stewart This is taking me right back to school physics. It's the kind of question I always pray a nine-year-old won't ask me. I think the switch closes a loop for the circuit.

Kirsty Wark It gets brighter. There's a current... that connects between two prongs.

Marina Warner The energy is conducted along the wire to the filament.

John O'Farrell I'm running out of steam here. I really don't know.

Susan Greenfield There's a flow of electrons called a current, and it's that flow which is the energy and generates heat and light.

Robert Winston Well you fall in love, don't you? Isn't that what it is? No, Okay, when you turn on the switch you make a circuit.

Daisy Goodwin You connect a circuit.

Answer: The switch controls the flow of electricity through a circuit - a complete, unbroken loop through which electric charges can move. When the light switch is on, these electric charges can move in an endless loop. This loop begins at a power station where the charges pick up electric energy. They then flow through wires to the light switch, then to the light bulb where they deliver their electric energy, and finally back to the power company to obtain more energy.

Q: Is a clone the same as a twin?

Will Self No.

Iain Stewart Yes, er, I think... oh God, it's probably not. But I think it has to be, doesn't it?

John O'Farrell No. How could it be the same? That's not how cloning works, is it?

Susan Greenfield Yes. An identical twin.

Daisy Goodwin As an identical twin? That's quite interesting. No. Well, I'm not sure about that. I'd say no. But maybe yes. I'm baffled.

Kirsty Wark No. But there's two different kinds of twin. You have to give me a point for that!

Robert Winston Well, not necessarily. It's not genetically the same actually, no. You see, it depends on the kind of twin. Do you mean an identical twin? Identical twins are different in all sorts of ways. It's different epigenetics and there's different mitochondrial DNA, so it's a different organism. Actually, what we're beginning to understand is that the epigenetic aspects of cloning are fundamentally very important. And twins are rather more dissimilar than people imagine, too. For example, they have different fingerprints from each other, so there are quite interesting and subtle diff erences.

Marina Warner Yes it is. Well, identical twins are clones, not non-identical twins.

Answer: Yes, up to a point (see Robert Winston's answer).

Q: Why is the sky blue?

Susan Greenfield That was discovered here at the Royal Institution [of Great Britain] by Tyndall. Sorry, I can't articulate that entirely because I'm half asleep.

John O'Farrell My daughter explained this to me the other day. She is in Year Seven. It's to do with blue being the dominant colour in the colour spectrum.

Will Self It's because of the diffusion of light from the sun through oxygen, through the air.

Iain Stewart Because of 'Rayleigh scatter', the diffusion of blue light molecules.

Daisy Goodwin I have no idea. I have looked it up because I've been asked the question by my children and I've explained it to them and now I've forgotten. It's the colour of the atmosphere or something. It's the gases or whatever.

Marina Warner It's a refraction of the light.

Robert Winston Oh bugger, I can't remember now. Um. Oh Jesus. It isn't really blue actually. It doesn't actually have a colour at all. It just simply appears blue.

Kirsty Wark Because it's a reflection of the oceans on the planet. No idea apart from that. I think the sky is blue because... the rain clouds obscure the blue, and the blue is a reflection... because of the sunshine. Fuck! I don't know! Why is the sky blue?

Answer: A daytime sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light.

Q: What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

Will Self It's either the conservation or the dissipation of energy, isn't it? It's everything tending towards entropy, isn't it?

Iain Stewart It's about the conservation of motion, I think, but I'm not sure. Different field from mine, you know.

John O'Farrell Let me think. Is it to do with heat conductors? Metal is an effective heat conductor and wood is not. I remember that from metalwork classes.

Marina Warner Is it that mass cannot be... that no energy can be lost? The first law is conversion. Is the second law that there is no loss... that energy must go somewhere?

Susan Greenfield That everything degenerates to entropy.

Robert Winston I've always refused to answer that question on a matter of principle, simply because of C P Snow, and you can report that. But it is in one of my children's books.

Daisy Goodwin Don't know. I'm scientifically illiterate.

Kirsty Wark No idea.

Answer: It is the Law of Increased Entropy. It states that in any system the quality of energy deteriorates gradually over time. 'Entropy' is defined as a measure of unusable energy within a closed or isolated system (the universe for example). As usable energy decreases and unusable energy increases, 'entropy' increases. As usable energy is irretrievably lost, disorganisation, randomness and chaos increase.

2007-07-03T00:33:00.000+08:00

heyho (:

heads up!

there'll be a class outing (the last one before prelims!) somewhere around the national day weekend.

since it's the last, i hope most, if not all, of you will go (:

watch this space for details yo.