Scientific Consensus

A trailer of the upcoming Al Gore movie:

An Inconvenient Truth

I would've been impressed, but unfortunately I once read this speech by Michael Crichton (disk posted the link on his MSN nick if I remember correctly) that has made me skeptical on that issue:

Aliens Cause Global Warming

Open issue, anyway. The below article + discussion gives quite a balanced perspective in my opinion:

'An Inconvenient Truth': Does This Look Like Consensus to You?

There are some (maybe uncalled-for) harsh words around in there, but get past those and there are pretty good points. And a lot of hyperlinks.

These are quite long articles but very interesting, so take your time. =)

Photo Update II

Should be the last update. Photos from Kathy up on the SF photo page.

Should've been up since the weekend but batch resizing is much easier with Microsoft Office Picture Manager that I don't have installed at home, only in the lab. I'm stealing time again to do this, so gtg now. =P

Local Potato

Lost the steam to scream about Mathilda's exit from Singapore Idol (having let out some in Eka's place) so this line is all I'm going to say about it. =P I wonder if they purposedly put the three best singers in the unsafe group each time? Getting old lah.

Aside from that, I'm getting more and more addicted to local shows, how dangerous. 0_0 Already rooting fervently for the yet-to-be couple in Channel 8 9pm drama. Then caught the ad for the 7pm one, "Eh, isn't that the guy who played Youfu? (Got very kind face.)" so I've been watching the first few episodes faithfully too, though I'll be skipping some for other appointments in the future. Bad for me that these are shown five days a week, so that's taking really much time, and even cause me withdrawal symptoms over the weekend sometimes... Well, ABC DJ is over, but in its place I've taken a liking to Maggi & Me, so. My current practice is to skip the blah-blah parts of Singapore Idol to reduce exposure to TV screen radiation (read: guilt).

...Right. Moving on...

I had a lot of rest this weekend, and that puts me in a "soft" mood, so here's a sweet verse from my Winamp "soft" mix. Originally by Ron Sexsmith, this song is covered by k.d. lang in her album "Hymns of the 49th Parallel" (very recommended).

The leaves have lost hold
of the branches as always,
which leaves us with gold-
and wine-coloured pathways.
In the same way I
In the same way I've fallen for you.

-- "Fallen"

Target Audience

Eka just lent me The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, so I hastened to finish my Tuesdays with Morrie so I could get started on it. =D

Just got to Chapter One, and I like it so far. It's the philosophical type like The Little Prince or Dune, which are fictions with quoteworthy* moral messages delivered as the story progresses. (Thanks Eka, and keep them coming! ^_^)

The below story, which particularly impressed me, is from the Preface.

---

Our Lady, with the Baby Jesus in her arms, decided to come down to Earth and visit a monastery. The monks proudly joined in a long queue, and each of them came before the Virgin to render their homage. One declaimed beautiful poetry, another showed his illuminated paintings of biblical subjects, a third repeated the names of all the Saints. And so on, one monk after another, praising Our Lady and the Baby Jesus.

The last monk of all there was the humblest in the whole monastery, who had never studied the learned books of the time. His parents were simple people, who worked in an old travelling circus, and all they had taught him was to throw balls into the air and juggle with them.

When it was his turn, the other members of the order wanted to bring the homage to a conclusion, since the old juggler would have nothing important to say, and might lower the image of the monastery. But in the bottom of his heart, he also felt a burning need to give something of himself to Jesus and the Virgin.

Ashamed, conscious of the disapproving looks of his brothers, he took a few oranges from his bag, and started to juggle them in the air, saying that juggling was all he knew how to do.

It was at that moment that the Baby Jesus, sitting on Our Lady's lap, smiled and started to clap his hands. And the Virgin reached out her arms, inviting him to hold the baby.

---

The dark horse thing is rather cliched, but I'm touched by the content. When we give, how much is for the other person and how much is for our ego? Ah, I've been fighting this for a long time. =P


* Reminded me of Gurney Halleck and his love of quotations and "flowery phrases". My kindred spirit, as Denny pointed out, which made him my favourite character. =D

Relocation

From the Dean's circular to students, sent out today: "...the plans for our relocation are now firm: SoC is scheduled to move to the building cluster comprising Law, parts of AS6, and Biz1 in two phases, beginning June 2007 and completing in June 2009."

The circular from the Office of the Provost gave more details on the phases: "Phase 1 of SoC’s move to Law, Law Library and some parts of AS6 will involve all teaching activities and some research labs, and Phase 2 will involve the remaining SoC research labs moving to BIZ1 building which BIZ school will vacate when its new building is completed, which is expected at end 2008."

Will have to change my transportation routine when that time comes, or pray that the phase involving me isn't until July 2008. =D Will depend on whether we get categorized as "some research labs" or "the remaining SoC research labs".

Smiles for Sale

A few days ago I wanted to catch up with Ms. Jacqueline (my former tutor) but didn't manage to find her after her class in CELC. So to make my visit to the Arts worthwhile, I went into the Forum Co-op to catch up with the new manga section instead. ^___^ *excuses*

All there are the Mandarin editions. One section is for sale while another section is for rent, S$1 per book. Found this out from the salesgirl, who talked to me seeing I was the only customer there at that time. ^^ I was only browsing, as I didn't intend to buy and the rental fee felt a bit expensive (that was around 20% of the book price, I think?) so I wasn't really interested when she suggested some titles and told me about the membership scheme and such, but she was pretty and friendly so I listened and talked to her, sort of, for fun. =P Anyway I thought the info might be useful in the future too.

Also the other day I was trying on a necklace without intending to buy, but again the salesgirl was nice and talkative and I was feeling like trying out those things, so I "humored" both of us. Now that I think about it, maybe I was in fact wasting their time and effort? Huehuehue. But it's their job anyway so I don't have to feel guilty ya? Like, better than being bored when no customers come? =D I felt that way when I was doing poster presentations (equals selling ideas what) but maybe not everybody share the same opinion ah.

Felt a bit guilty anyway for my shopping companions who would have to go on the wild goose chase with me... More reasons for (window-)shopping alone. =P But I'll still drag my sister to buy clothes with me, ha.

But back to the topic... No matter if the smiles and friendliness are just for business, I'm still drawn to those. Luckily I'm stingy enough to balance that. (Er, or maybe not? =P) In my recent trip to the U.S. I found that the salespeople were very friendly -- the moment I walked into their field of view they put on a big smile and asked, "Everything okay?" (In this case they meant "Anything I can help you with?" but I think it is quite a common, general greeting that can also mean "How are you?" sort of thing.) In one particular art store the salesgirl was a "metal" kind of girl with torn jeans and everything, so when she asked in her raspy voice, "Everything okay?" it frightened me a little =D but all was fine.

On a more recent news... went to NUS Rag Day today... but as usual I'm lazy to relate an event that I share with friends (maybe because the experience is already shared so I don't have that need to "vent"). So just wait for Eka's blog to be updated, since I'm sure she will put it in her next entry, and she is a better reporter/movie critic than me. =D In short, I'm very happy that KR won a lot of awards this year! ^^

One thing I do want to vent about, is about this auntie who told us, as we squeezed our way to a better part of the audience area, that we couldn't stand in a particular spot as it would block her view. Hm, complicated yah, since where do rights end and selfishness begin? I mean, from her perspective it must be irritating that three girls came later than her and stood in front of her, so she couldn't watch it sitting down anymore. Another group of people did that to us earlier and we felt a little irritated ourselves. But in a crowd like that, I didn't think we could really expect convenience (not VIPs weh) so we bore with it. Then was it that we should be considerate and not block her view or she should be considerate and let us watch from there? I tried to squeeze away from her as a compromise, and asked if the position was okay, but she didn't want to look at me anymore, so I also took offense. =P Erm, not feeling good about that la, but what to do... heh.

Photo Update

Updated the SF photo page with contributions from Ramkumar and the link to Gu Yan's album. Should start hounding some people for theirs... *hint hint*

Beautiful, Silently

Another bittersweet beautiful song.

---

I Cried For You
Vocal: Katie Melua

You're beautiful, so silently
it lies beneath a shade of blue.
It struck me so violently when I looked at you.

But others pass, they never pause
to feel that magic in your hand.
To me you're like a wild rose;
They never understand -- why

I cried for you,
and the sky cried for you,
and when you went I became a hopeless drifter.

But this life was not for you,
though I learned from you
that beauty need only be a whisper.


I'll cross the sea for a different world,
with your treasure, a secret for me to hold.

In many years they may forget
this love of ours or that we met;
They may not know how much you meant to me.

I cried for you,
and the sky cried for you,
and when you went I became a hopeless drifter.

But this life was not for you,
though I learned from you
that beauty need only be a whisper.


Without you, now I see
how fragile the world can be.
And I know you've gone away,
but in my heart you'll always stay.

I cried for you,
and the sky cried for you,
and when you went I became a hopeless drifter.

But this life was not for you,
though I learned from you
that beauty need only be a whisper,
that beauty need only be a whisper.