unlimited

It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the words, 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction

Abraham Lincoln

With the death toll surging past 80,000, the forces of good (as such) have mobilized aid operations. This is very necessary, not because of those it helps, but because of how it reflects upon the state of humanity. If we did not extend a hand, we would hardly be 'human'.

On the other hand... Let us consider how, right now, overpopulation is a huge problem. The earth only has so much resources, and can sustain a finite amount of people. Beyond that, the quality of life will undoubtedly drop sharply. Famine will rise and war will result because of scarce resources. In the long run, perhaps the devastation wreaked by the tsunami isn't as bad, especially if you consider it from an impersonal standpoint. Forest fires might be bad, but they are a part of the whole cycle, and are essential for making way for the new shoots.

Or maybe that's just the pessmistic thoughts of a 17 yr old :b.

The Making Of... The Christmas Tree! 

Christmas Eve! I just spent the last hour setting up the Christmas tree... Really last minute, but oh well. Chalk it down to moving woes. I never would've believed that I had so many books... Maybe I should have a garage sale someday to get rid of the junk :b.

Anyhow, I may not be from a Christian family, but the Christmas tree has been a tradition since... well, at least, since I stayed in US ('92/'93) more than a decade ago. I have some custom made ornaments, really sentimental stuff =). The private school I went to there had this kiln, where they could bake and glaze pottery, so I've got this star with my face in it, haha. It's on the top of the tree because the thing that's supposed to be there is broken (long broken actually) and doesn't fit properly. Speaking of nostalgia, Even the old newspapers used to wrap the ornaments are really old and dated.

Well, the tree actually looks decent, and it's nice to see it back up. It wasn't around last year... I was going through a pretty rough time then, transition sort of thing, so I didn't bother to put it up. Symbolic, too, I remember thinking. The Christmas tree is symbolic of something (you figure out yourself), and by not having it... something else is said between the lines. Well, you've got to know the lines are there, but anyway, that's how I saw it :b

Today was a rather productive day, by all accounts. I restrung and tuned (at a shop... I don't have the skill :b ) my mom's old classical guitar (which I hope I'll learn to play someday soon). I unscrewed my bike tyre and took it to the shop to get a new inner tube. And the big one (are you ready?): Streamyx in a week! Yes! My dad finally signed up for certain, everything in order and all. The guy said 5 days (business days) at worst, so it should be around Thursday, assuming next Friday is a holiday. Not much to it, anyhow. They've just got to send over the (free) modem and do their stuff at Telekom and whee!! High speed, 1.0mbps broadband!! Can. You. Feel. The. Need For speed!! Bwahaha!

*cough* A bit carried away there. *cough* It's just that it's been so long since Streamyx first came about... It's one long struggle come to an end.

To wrap up, as a little (fictional) boy once said, if I remember right, Merry Christmas, one and all!

Haha, quickies: I didn't get Uplands, a little disappointing. =( I finished the book 1984 recently, bleakish stuff (the word dystopia was coined for scenarios like these). I registered for the SAT at last (one day shy of the closing date, as usual). I spent a few days at Fraser's Hill recently, mostly watched Astro =b (see what happens when one is deprived of something regularly?). I'm settling into the new house gradually, it's not a bad place really, though my (new) bed has this awful smell.

What else... Can't remember much, the days all slide into one.

Whoa, it's been a busy few days since I got back from the Pangkor trip... Which was a blast =D, a lot of fun =) I'm not going to bother to blog it, because it'd take too long. But it was amazing.

The past few days however, are easier to tell. Let's start with... Sunday. PC fair! I manage to persuade my mom to go (after a lot of persistence), and came back with a cool wireless mouse and keyboard. I'm typing this on them now, in fact, and it's a whole lot better than my old keyboard. Wireless is soo convenient, though I can't help but wonder what kind of radio waves are shooting through my skull =b. Besides that, I bought a new stack of CD-rs, meaning I can finally backup my com and format it (been buggy for half a year... *sigh*).

The best part, though, is that I might finally be getting Streamyx. My mom was lured (but still reluctant) by the promise of a 128mb thumbdrive and a free modem. It's the 1.0mbps package, too. *drool* But they've yet to call to confirm it... so I'm just crossing my fingers. Oh, and if my mom remembers to go to computer war, she said I could get an mp3 thumbdrive (hehehe). It's not one of my must-haves, but never leave opportunity knocking.

That night, we moved to the new house, so it's been pretty hectic the past few days too. Keep going back to get stuff, thankfully the new house is also in TTDI. Of course, a silver lining in every cloud, and I've (finally) got a cell phone =D. Well, I had the phone (it was lying around), just not a SIM card. My dad went out and got me one because the new place hadn't a phone line as of yesterday. Persuading my mom to top it up, now there's the challenge. In her book, cell phones are for receiving calls, not making them. *sigh* But one victory's won, and that'll do for now.

At any rate, the phone line is back up as of today (the 14th), and as you can see I'm jacked into the WWW again (cue evil cackle).

Lastly, I'm going to be going to Penang tomorrow. Alone. By bus. Well, there's a first for anything, and it's a step towards independence at any rate. There's the Uplands interview, which IMHO is worth the trouble. I scored 88 for the Math paper and 85 for the English one. The grade was Q for qualified, hehe. I'm hoping for the best tomorrow =D. Be back at 11.30pm, so TTFN, ta ta for now.

The news is in: I'm going for the Uplands interview on the 15th =)). I'm glad that this test at least went better than my ASEAN. Brr... ASEAN did NOT go well. My fault I wasn't prepared enough, really. As in, by bringing all the stuff I'd need (like my watch and IC) and going to the loo during the breaks. So sue me.

And tomorrow is... my Class trip! Last one of my secondary years... I can only hope it goes well. With luck, there won't be too many planned activities. The kayakking and biking sound interesting. I am a certified kayaker, after all =D. Though I did fail the second rank test. Basically, I think it means I just won't drown in a kayak. Hm. The second rank was a lot more fun to do, though. I remember that I had to get ear plugs because there was this capsize exercise, where you had to flip your whole kayak upside down (with you in it) and then swim out to crawl onto the kayak. Or was it flipping yourself back up? Ug.

UM's water was questionable, too. Another reason for the ear plugs, which I still have. Nose clips are darned useful too, but I lost those... oh well. No force on earth could force to try capsizing in SEA water. But it'll be fun, kayaking again. Exhausting, too.

Haha, I think it's going to turn out to be one fun trip... =)

Whoo! Spm is over, but the rush isn't over. I'm going down to Penang in a few minutes... thus the short entry. I can't bear not to post now, what with the SPM being over. At long last, too. I still have no idea what to do with the sudden amount of free time... More later! (that is, tomorrow, when I get back... and if I feel like it)