《临江仙·滚滚长江东逝水》- 杨慎

滚滚长江东逝水，浪花淘尽英雄。是非成败转头空。青山依旧在，几度夕阳红。 白发渔樵江渚上，惯看秋月春风。一壶浊酒喜相逢。古今多少事，都付笑谈中。

The current ME

I don't usually do this(taking pics of myself and making myself look super vain), but words really cannot start to discribe my new haircut(see for yourself =P). Call it an accident, call it miscommunication with the hairstylist or just me exploring a new unknown part of who I am, but this is ME in the flash.

Laugh your hearts out ;) (to ppl like shin hung and huei ming)

I just realised that the singlet that I'm wearing looks like a tunic from here, but what the heck. Back to studying. I think i'll just show mum the pics tonight and make her flip xD

Some people being shot up on some campus

In some morning at some campus of an institute of higher education in some country somewhere in world, a person, of certain gender, age, race and religion, armed with a certain firearm manufactured by some firearms company, went on a killing spree and shot dead 29 of his fellow students before taking his/her own life.

........................

Bah, too much speculation and finger pointing has already been done anyway..
No point slapping on a dark and permanent mark on the affected communities, be it to always be condemned as the PLACE where IT happened, or as the community from which HE came from. Let's just keep the victim count to 30, shall we?

Does it really matter who did and where he did it? Does knowing these things serve to make any one of out lives better/safer? Does it change the very fact that, irregardless of the details, it is still a social problem that the whole world has to address?

I think not.

To whoever's been hurt or scarred by this incident, you have my condolences. Hopefully this too shall pass for you.

Placed a midi which I made in the background, which should be audible to those people using IE to browse. Rather cute ain't it?^^

Coruption, oppression and self-obsession

Taking a break from studying for finals. As I fumbled through my collection of songs, I came across this song which I feel, holds particular meaning to me. This song is sung by Johor-born Artist Zainal Abidin in his 1st solo album I think. For those who have never heard the song before, it calls out to the listeners to really rethink their own role in the gradual destruction of mother nature. Coupled with the unique Afro-Asian style of Zainalabidin, it is no wonder that this song is one of my all time favourite - definitely recommended if you've never heard it before.

For the benefit of those illiterate in the Malay Language. Included here is an attempted translation on my part of the lyrics, with some reference from The I'mPerfect Mum, of the song. Correct me if there are any mistakes.

Hijau - Zainal Abidin Bumi yang tiada rimba Seumpama hamba Dia dicemar manusia Yang jahil ketawa Bumi yang tiada udara Bagai tiada nyawa Pasti hilang suatu hari Tanpa disedari Bumi tanpa lautan Akan kehausan Pasti lambat laun hilang Duniaku yang malang Dewasa ini kita saling merayakan Kejayaan yang akhirnya membinasakan Apalah gunanya kematangan fikiran Bila di jiwa kita masih lagi muda Dan mentah Ku lihat hijau Bumiku yang kian pudar Siapa yang melihat Di kala kita tersedar Mungkinkah terlewat Korupsi,opresi,obsesi diri Polusi,depressi,di bumi,kini Oh..anok-anok tokleh meghaso mandi laok Besaing,maing ghama-ghama Ale lo ni tuo umurnyo bejuto Kito usoho Jauhke dari malapetako Ozon lo ni koho nipih nak nak aghi Keno make asak Hok biso wei,pasa maknusio Seghemo bendo-bendo di dunio Tokleh tehe Sapa bilo-bilo

Green -Zainal Abidin Mother Earth without it's forrests, is just like a slave. Corrupted by us humans, who are still foolishly laughing it away. Mother Earth without it's (clean)air, is like a dead planet. Bound to disappear some day, before we even know it. Mother Earth without it's oceans, will dry up in thrist. It WILL, sooner or later, vanish. Oh my unfortune Earth. In recent years, we kept celebrating, the successes which will eventually destroy us all. What's the use of maturity of thought, when in our souls we are still so young, and inexperienced. I envisage a green(world). My dear Earth is fading, but who sees(pays attention to) it? By the time we finally realise it, it might already be too late. Corruption, opression, self-obsession, (is the cause of)Pollution, depression in our world now. Oh.. children will not feel how it is to swim in the sea and play in it together this earth is millions of years old we (should) work to keep it away from disaster the ozone is thinning and yet we still keep burning. Poisoned by humans, all the things in this world, will not last foverever.

Somebody should do something. And that somebody is you and I. People who know me well would be able to recall the number of times I kept harping to them about going green. It's as easy as not wasting our precious resources for a start, but how many of us actually bother to make that extra effort to switch off that phone charger/appliance when not in use? How many lights and computers are left running in empty office blocks at night? Recently the city of Sydney held a city-wide awareness campaign during World Earth Hour to make people seriously view the impacts of their style of living, but critics on the ground report that a large portion of the Sydneyians just went on with their lives as if it's none of their business(BBC NEWS, 2007). They just don't care.

The white sails of the Opera House were darkened during
Earth Hour(picture obtained from BBC News,2007)

Xtine's words resonate once and again in my head, "Mankind is charging towards its own destruction.".. and the worst part is, most of us just don't care.

One incident which interests me is this tv programme by BBC which features BBC Panorama reporter Justin Rowlatt sharing his experience of going green for a whole year(BBC NEWS, 2007). Although the stint smells of commercialisation, nevertheless, it shows that going green is possible, and I envisage that I will be able to live just like him in the near future.

Hope this has induced some thought on your part. Back to studying for me~ ciao

Hmm, feeling rather free today.. probably gonna do some mugging and then go have lunch at the Terrace@Business School later.. I have a strange feeling that something good's gonna happen today ;) (free food perhaps? xD) Well, in view of my good mood, here's a treat for y'all :

Cliched quotes from TeamNUS Dragon Boat(that we all grew to love) :

1) "..8, ..9, ..10, ..long pullll..." xD

2) "Sui orh?" -Ah Fu. Hokkien. Which kinda means - "beautiful! Let's do it!"

3) "来啊 NUS !"

4) "Kiyah!"

5) ..and all types of grunts and groan of effort that you can possibly imagine :D

6) "Come. Let's do a whoosh to end the day" - Captain Teddy

7) "1 heart, 1 soul, 1 stroke" -Team Motto

8) "NUS dragonboaters row with their hearts." - Teddy

9) "The heart is your strongest muscle." - Jeffrey

10) "Come on! How much do you want it?!" -Guo Bing, Johnny

11) "Ba-ik NUS! " -Nazri

12) "Sashi ! Stealth mode!" -purely a joke reserved for our beloved Indian rower during night trainings

13) "Start small, think big." - Vincent

14) "When I was a junior, the big-sized and hunky rowers from the other teams looked like lions to me and I felt scared cuz teamNUS rowers look like tiny wolves compared to the lions.. It's only now that I realised that, when lions come together, they just eat,sleep and have sex. We wolves however, are different - we hunt as a unit, as a pack. And that race course out there, my brothers, is our hunting ground. Let's go hunt some lions.. " -Jeffrey (sorry for the long one, but this is one of my favourites ;))

15) "we play a little bit~" -coach Nazirman

16) "Wei Ming! Front double biceps.. and flex!" *followed by humming of Rocky theme* -in memory of our own body-builder's stunning performance at Muscle War this year.

Well, I suppose that's it for now, although I'm sure the list still extends a long long way..
back to studies, and hoping that something good happens today ;) taa~