clash

Yup it's time for my oh-so-favorite holiday of the year again. Perhaps to subconsciously commemorate the occasion, i started playing the few chinese songs that exist on my home pc (and btw doesn't Stefanie Sun look so auntie in those canned food ads at bus stops?), something that i've not done since 18 Aug 2007 (it says so on the itunes thingy) and only after starting to type this post did i realize the link.

Well, i'm glad at least that this year's cny is probably as minimally disruptive as they get - we had dinner last night, then there's lunch today, and that pretty much marks the end of any family observances of the holiday. There's also another dinner tonight, but at least i'm spared from having to do any visiting this year, something that i perhaps was nonchalant about when i was younger, but ever since i got older, and $ got less and less, the sole redeeming quality of it all has gotten less and less effective, and in the past five or more years or so have gotten real sian of visiting. May even head back to school to do work tomorrow, in part to avoid having to be dragged down to visit more random people, but also cos after i left my room yesterday and was on the bus back, i realized that i had both left behind perishable food in my room and left the windows wide open.

Unfortunately though, attempts to avoid cny music by staying away from supermarkets and the like unless absolutely necessary have not met with much success, and to make matters worse, my dear presidential neighbor has some cny activities planned and hence now i hear more cny music blasted from a chinese orchestra (so just as well i'm playing more acceptable chinese music to drown that out...). Hmm, yet another reason to go back to school tomorrow - and in any case i've lots of work to do...

This is the first year that i can remember where i've tried to actively do something in the light of Lent season. Food wise, however, i've found it hard to find something to abstain from - at first i was thinking along the lines of cny delicacies like pineapple tarts/love letters etc, but then i realized i don't really like to eat those in any case, so it would be no kick. I already don't eat seafood so no go there, and i was already cutting down on fish both cos it's often too fishy and cos of my concerns over overfishing and the difficulty here (compared to say, in the States) to find out what varieties have in fact been overfished (and hence, might as well avoid all fish). Then, i was thinking along the lines of beef as well, but then again my choice to avoid it would have more to do with the inefficiency of cows as a food source since the calories they consume in their grain feed is far less than the calories their meat produces (i.e. people go hungry at the expense of wasted calories), and less so for religious reasons. And of course cows fart/belch methane too. But in any case i just remembered that i did in fact eat beef at yesterday's dinner so it can't count either heh... So i dunno, chocs? But i don't exactly crave those. Ice cream? But i don't get to eat it often anyways. Alcohol? But i drink like once a year if not less...

So while i still dunno about the food bit, i've decided to avoid youtube for this period, since i do lose at least four productive hours every month or so to browsing random nonsense thingies. Interesting though, how the RC Church here wrote to the Vatican for permission to find an alternative date for Ash Wednesday fasting observation in the light of it coinciding with typical reunion dinner night - raises questions on if and when it is right to compromise Christian practices (or even to label it a compromise) for the sake of culture...

Ah crap there's the Dook game on now and i can't catch it - they're not even airing it on espn here - what a travesty...

Score one for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse

My downstairs neighbor is an intriguing fella - i've never met him before but i've heard his music very frequently (throughout the day and night) and at very loud volumes to boot - it's an eclectic mix of repeated mandarin pop (kinda brings me back to my army days when my ears were constantly at the mercy of my bunk mates, for one particular CD each from Jay Chou and Stefanie Sun were all that they ever would play for two and a half months - no surprise there as to why i can sing to you at least the choruses of virtually every song on those two albums) and tacky Disney showtunes. The chao mugger in me is inclined to stick my head outside and yell at him to turn the volume down, but oh well, the chao mugger in me is miniscule to say the least. Oh, and did i mention he sings/whistles along to the songs as well?

Ah but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, eh? This is the perfect opportunity for more random ramblings...

I was doing my usual morning browse through the internet news, when i came across this report on endengered species rulings in the US. Apparently there was this official in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (and surprise surprise, she's a Bush appointee) who was using her influence to unduly pressure scientists into altering their findings that would have otherwise given certain species protection under the Endangered Species Act. Earlier on, she also had used her position to influence the delisting of a species of fish from the Act - and it so happens that the fish was endemic to the area where she so happened to have an 80-acre farm. Disgusting, if you ask me. Well, she has since resigned, thankfully. I especially like what this environmentalist was quoted as saying in the wake of that: "Julie MacDonald's reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally over." And also what a congressman said about her actions being an example of "this administration's penchant for torpedoing science." Haha... Hopefully once Bush finally leaves someone will take over who will get down to signing and ratifying Kyoto once and for all.

And while we're on the subject of Kyoto, another reason i'm glad that Labour has won in Australia is that unlike Howard, Rudd's firmly committed to the need to be a good steward of the environment and to that end is going to ratify Kyoto as well - not a moment too soon either, given the latest report that puts the Aussies as the worst carbon emitters per capita. It's nice also that his cabinet features a specific ministry, apart from environment, dedicated to water and climate change - he's obviously sending a message that he's serious about it.

And speaking of the Aussie PM i was doing more random wiki-ing and found out that his annual salary is $330,000 (i presume it's Aussie dollars, but anyway nowsaday they're almost on par =p). The American President's salary is justifiably somewhat higher: US$471,000 (enough for peanuts, i suppose)... Fair enough. S$3.1 million? You gotta be kidding me man...

i was thinking back again about the latest happenings in the Philippine political scene again, and then i remembered that i did in fact get stranded there once beforehand due to a coup attempt - it was quite a serious one too - lasted for about a week, and the Presidential Palace itself was hit. But then even then (1989), it was really nothing to get overly worried about. Or at least that's what i perceived from how people were reacting to it over there (but then again, i was all of six years old at the time). Maybe it's some of that been there, done that feeling that has been passed on to me, such that i don't really see all the nonsense that's going on there as much more than just that - annoying nonsense...

eh, and i guess i should make the disclaimer that any views expressed here are strictly my own personal views =p

Hmm should try and do some work eh...

Open your eyes please

Allow me to take a brief sojourn from my endless pile of work (off the top of my head there's one 800-word response paper, one 2000-word research paper, one thesis proposal, one test on tuesday, one midterm after the break, one temple presentation - but eh, i must admit, i've been sleeping much of this weekend) to grumble a bit about something that's really annoyed me.

I was late for church this morning, so i had to take the bus (ok, so it's only two stops). As usual my ever-present foe tv mobile was blaring away, and just as i got off the bus, i caught the headlines of the channenewsasia news - something to the effect of "a silver lining to global warming, a new passage between the Atlantic and Pacific opens". I was aghast.

So later when i got back home i flipped on the news - channelnewsasia yet again - and i was so disgusted - the whole report was about how lucrative this new route in the Canadian far north is - that thanks to the ice melts because of rising temperatures during a part of the year this previously perpetually icy route is now navigable. And it seemed that people were looking forward to the day when it all melts so that ships and what not can traverse this route all year round. Global warming was not a problem, it was an incidental providence.

Just so to not let my inherent disdain for mediacrap programming get to my head by assuming that it was just their distinctly Singaporean, pragmatically-minded programming that was the issue, i went on to check what BBC World and CNN had to say about it - couldn't find it on the tv, so i went to their websites - thankfully a bit more grounded perspectives there - the problems of global warming were not just brushed over as they were in CNA, though the boon to trade was still a major point. The Straits Times? Well - it's Singaporean, so i won't say more than that i was not surprised...

The whole nexus of greed and immediate profit is something that really disgusts and frustrates me - here we are so flippantly damaging this earth that we have been entrusted with by God, and content to do so even more, only now to be further encouraged by this ice-melt. Has this self-serving attitude really gotten so deep into our heads? Are we to just let this earth degrade even more under our charge? Does not global warming and all it's problems not hit home at all?

Well to that end, i did catch a sentence in the ST report - "it could have a negative impact on Singapore's importance as a shipping hub". Well, forgive me if this paints me as unpatriotic, for this is not the reality at all - i smiled to myself. While the very presence of that line just shoves in my face the nauseatingly pragmatic mindset of Singapore in general, (i know i'm grasping at straws here but) i'm hopeful that this may provide some sort of motivation for Singapore to do more in the interests of slowing down this process of global climate change. If the rampant damage to the environment won't do the trick, then maybe this threat to one of Singapore's main economic lifelines will...