Friday, February 25, 2005

Bus Rants

Upon request by fellow blogger Raymond to continue blogging, I've decided to give a short post before I present additional information pertaining to my research in Christianity. I am seriously honoured that this has actually attracted some positive attention. A big thank you to all my supporters out there!!! ^_^
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Anyay, right now I wish to complain about something that has irked me immensely. For having to spend at LEAST 3 hours day on these monstrous machines 5 days a week, having to tolerate their eccentricities DAY IN DAY OUT it beginning to get quite annoying. So I present to you all a rant that I have been meaning to do for quite some time...on BUSES!!! And I will warn you now that there will be times in which I am going to get retarded.

Once in a while, I read on other's blogs on how weird the people on Singapore's buses can get. Now, London buses usually do not have weird people. The driver, however, is another issue altogether. And normally, it would not matter to me how eccentric one is. But when one is SO eccentric that his eccentricity makes one's journeying time annoyingly LONG, it DOES. And below, I list for you the most annoying habits that I have spotted London bus drivers posessing...

1)The Doormat Drivers
Everyone likes a doormat driver.Traffic police love him for abiding ever so strictly to traffic regulations, and his fellow road users even more for ALWAYS giving them the right of way. That of course in itself isn't at all bad, but if you actually STOP when you're not supposed to, you waste a whole lot of time, for yourself and the people around you, but save a few seconds of someone else's time. My friend, if YOU want to be a doormat because you life smelling everyone's feet on your face, please do so. But please do NOT do it when you are NOT driving alone!!!

2) The people with the strange sexual tastes
A highly passionate group of people who will stop at absolutely NOTHING to show their undying love for their object of desire, hence more often than not interfering immensely with their driving. Two groups exist, as detailed below...

a) Laneophiles
Great and immeasurable is the power of love indeed. For this group of people, getting hit by what must be one of Cupid's wonkiest arrows appears to have given them extraordinarily superhuman powers. For one of their senses-either their sense of touch or sight-is EXTREMELY finely-tuned. I mean, when you and I look at a road, we are unable to tell, even if we are given time to analyse them, the differences between one lane and another! Neither will we be able to feel the differences in vibrations caused by minute differences in the layout of the stones of one lane and another. Laneophiles, however, are able to do this! Why!? Because what else can cause them to stick ever so faithfully to just ONE lane-no matter how clogged-up that lane is!? They must be able to see sometihing awfully SPECIAL in the unique yet random arrangement of stones in that lane, or at least enjoy particularly the vibrations caused by travelling along them. And to be able to pick out such small differences as they driving!? I mean, like WOW!!! Razor-sharp eyes they have to pick it out to be able to see each pebble for its exact location! Extra sensitive Gluteus Maximi they must have to be able to detect the differences in vibrations that they cause to an object that is so mjuch bigger than it! And to actually find something to LIKE about all these differences!? Definitely a task a bit too difficult for mere mortals like us. Yet one must undoubtedly wonder-why do people with such powers have to become mere bus-drivers?! Enigmatic and unfanthomable is the power of love as well.....

b)Redophiles
Unlike laneophiles, redophiles do not have superhuman powers. Yet their sexual orientation is no less dubious. Because redophiles, as you may have guessed, are in desperate love with the colour RED. Look around and you will discover exactly how a lecher may act around his object of desire. He/she will go out of his way to get a glimpse of thm/her, and redophiles are no exception. And I have noticed that to them, the most attractive red is the shade emitted from TRAFFIC LIGHTS. Thus, if a traffic light is red when they approach it, they will stop to look(Duh!). If, however, a traffic light is green, they will deliberately SLOW DOWN as they approach the traffic light! Because we know and they know that after a certain period of time, a GREEN light will soon change RED. Thus, in hopes of seeing their crush, they are desperately hoping and praying that the light will change before they pass it! They can't stop at a green light, you see, because that will reveal exactly how desperate a redophile they are. And being someone who so loves the colour red is not exactly very good for one's social image! Neither will Ken Livingstone, Mayor for London Transport, want to employ people who will slow down all the buses. Thus lest they reveal their dubious passions, they need to show them in the most inconspicuous ways possible.

But look. Don't you pity those poor redophiles, suffering day by day from the torments of unrequited love!? What they need is something that can RESPOND. So red...hmm...say, why doesn't someone bring them a REDDLEMAN, say DIGGORY VENN!? (Return of the Native anyone?) They are covered in red! That way, redophiles can drive their buses in peace. Indeed, because they won't want to disappoint their newfound love, they'll NOT want to see red, thus causing them to actually dash past traffic lights before they change red! And when they get home, they can truly enjoy the fullness of a relationship with red that they have longed for all this while...

That's all I deemed noteworthy for now. On a side note, however, one thing I think commuters have to be thankful for is the fact that GREENOPHILES still, thankfully enough, do not exist-yet. But anyway it seems a short post becomes a really long one. My personal apologies for any brain cells of yours that this seriously retarded entry may have destroyed. Will be back with all my research on Christianity soon. Till then, ciao!

Friday, February 18, 2005

Mess

I am majorly pissed off now. It has been a very eventful week doing work experience among other things, seeing and doing many very interesting things. And now:-

-First my discman breaks down when I get a new CD.
-Then I'm told I can't go for my concert this fri
-And THEN my dad HAS to shut down the com and erase the other, better blog post I was working on.

Something that memories of working in a surgery(actually a small clinic), going to a recording studio to see a friend and classmate play music to record for a new film, and socialising with her very hyperactive but enjoyable primary school kids cannot erase. It was all to me very enlightening and unique, but right now I'm just pissed off. Though a short and simple conversation with lit classmate, friend and new reader of this blog Louis has erased a substantial portion of my "annoyment". (Thanks dude!(= ) Cmon I can't be bothered with grammar of all things now, even when my Lit teacher Martyn Crucefix is reading. Probably a bit late, but hope you had a good 49th birthday. 11th Feb-I'll keep it here for reference next year. =P

Anyway the album I got was Shania Twain's Greatest Hits. It seemed a good idea after listening to the samples. It's a nice representation of the better end of modern day pop music, replete with lyrics talking about the same old theme of love, but infusd with some rather nice tunes. As I said, modern day pop is rarely this good, but it's quite far from the best muic I've heard. I give it 7/10.

On another note I'm sick and tired of facades. Who is willing to see a totally different side of me; not judge me and make me know that as with all my inhibitions released I make a complete fool of myself!?

Or wait...something tells me that's what I've been doing all this while. Anyway I'm going to bed now. Next I come, I will have to give that post on Christianity. Till then, my friends, tata!

Thursday, February 03, 2005

The Beautifuk Triad

And as usual after a really long absence, I have another haul of things to write about. Apologies for another long absence. I think I will be only blogging weekly nowadays. Thanks to a daily 2 hours journey home, I doubt I will be able to blog much more often than that. Today, it seems that everything I am going to say will be of particular interest to Ms Beautifuk, or at least issues that she had first introduced to me. There are 3 issues to be discussed...happy reading all!

Issue 1-An Averted Ice Age?
I came across this article in the London paper Metro not too long ago. In its exact words, some experts reckon we may have unwittingly saved ourselves from a new ice age...by interfering with the Earth's climate. Without the greenhouse gases we pump out, the global climate would be almost 2 celsius cooler-and we would be well on the way to full glacial temperatures, researchers found.

And how about that! A blessing in disguise it seems. It seems to me the ideal solution is to ensure the earth's climate does not change. With all the theories in Science Fiction about the world ending when th sun burn out, the emission of everyday greenhouse gases seems to be able to extend its life. However, it doesn't seem practical or possible to effectively control the WHOLE world's emissions though does it? And even so, poisonous gases floatng about the place for the sake of keeping it hot doesn't seem my best idea...I suppose Carbon Dioxide is a relatively harmless greenhouse gas though, and perhaps may be ideal for this purpose? Hmm...

Issue 2-British's Harland Sanders-Colonel of Cruel or otherwise?
You may be familiar with my previous entries how KFC has been slammed by PETA for grossly mistreating their chickens. It was quite enough to put me off fast food for a while, but there was one night in which ALL they bought was KFC. So bearing in mind that what a single organisation says may not be the truth, I began to eat, wondering if I could glean something out of its taste, and I did.

Because London has a wealth of its own farms that can deliver to all its restaurants and supermarkets fresh chicken, it is understandable how the majority of the meat here, be it chicken, lamb, eggs or even Salmon (Sashimiiii.......) and LIVE MUSSELS (absolute HEAVEN!) that I eat here is much fresher than Singapore's. KFC proved to be no exception. It was even cooked in a different way. The health-conscious British, who prefer breast meat to thigh meat, have made their KFC with much less oil. The skin was excellently flavoured, although with lots of flour, had a lovely buttery kick to it and was very nicely salted, nicely complenting the meat-much unlike Singapore's chicken. Even the side dishes were much more well-made. But to sidetrack a tad, there are many other fast food outlets that sell more than chicken here. One beside my school has 2 pieces of chicken and chips at 1.50 pounds, which is considered cheap here. It tastes quite like Singapore's KFC, and I eat it on a regular basis.

But back to British KFC. What struck me most of it was the similarity it posessed to the chicken that my mother buys from the supermarket. Save the difference in taste caused by cooking method, it tasted just about to be from the same chicken, with the same texture and all, or least chickens that were bred in the same way. You see, PETA accuses KFC of having its own chicken farms where chickens are grossly mistreated. But if what PETA says is true and they are for example being stored in such overcrowded conditions that they suffer from ammonia burns is true, would the meat not have been affected as well? Even if KFC had their own farms and used only those that were good enough to be used, it seems doubtful that they would be able to have a profit margin large enough to cover up all this losses.So this either means British supermarkets, like KFC, also mistreat their chickens, OR that they both get their chickens from the same farm! So does this mean Peta's accusations are flawed? There may be more to it than this. In any case 12 pcs out of like a million also isn't a very good sample size. But unless evidence to the contrary emerges (like say I find KFC screws up its meat) I think PETA has blown this issue all out of proportion! At the very least, I think British KFC is fine. I still won't be eating it on my own though. It seriously is quite expensive, and only the family offers are worth buying.

Issue 3-Judgementalism
Judgementalism is defined here as being judging someone from immediate impressions. It may not be altogether desirable but we all do it. By my psychological theory that one need not be aware of ideas before they take root in your mind and start influencing your actions, whenever you see someone doing something, your brain is immediatly gonna associate that with an associated impression. In other words, judgementalism is everywhere. As I write this blog, you may, consciously or subconsciously, be inferring from it what kind of person I am. Which is obviously not wrong, of course, but it would help explain the need for facades in life. Because you are almost ALWAYS being judged. Simple fact of life.

However, I've found out that there is NEVER smoke without fire. Everyone has a reason for making such judgemets. However, if we want to be impartial, we ust be able to tell when that smoke really is smoke, and when it is simply a cloud.

I will take the example of homosexuality to illustrate my case. Since my introduction to the concept of the...alternate Tomoyo in CCS, I have been particularly wary of this group of people that I do not belong to. OK, now, most people's knee-jerk reaction to this is one of revulsion, right? And the homosexuals would subsequently scream UNFAIR JUDGEMENTALISM! Homosexuals are not more "dirty" than you or me! I have been wondering whether or not this is true. I still have no definite answer but I can see the smoke that caused he accusations quite clearly-after a visit to Soho Square, London's CHINATOWN.

Soho Square is also home to many homosexuals-something which I found out after seeing pictures in a newspaper of people there waving rainbow-coloured flags during their festival termed Gay Pride. Most importantly, however, Soho Square is also one of London's red-light districts! Is there supposed ot be a link, homosexual town and red light district? Perhaps this is what creates such impressions of homosexuals? But wait, there are more instances...

Because a Sunday Paper offered with it a CD that had some songs in it that I liked, I bought it. The CD was ok, but the paper was ABSOLUTE RUBBISH. Remember the name if you ever come here and do NOT approach at any instance without anything less explosive than a WMD-NEWS OF THE WORLD. Hah....I want REAL news man, do I look like I care who the heck SIMON COWELL is going out with, or pictures of women in hardly any outfit!? But anyway this paper had a story it it about a lesbian who was dating a transexual guy, ie a guy who wants to undergo a sex change to become a girl.

The idea of the relationship mentioned in the lesbian story is bizzare enough. Add that to the fact that it is placed in a tabloid intended mainly for gossip and deprived individuals and it does look like some kind of well...freak show! Now the paper promised cash rewards if people had their true story published. Evidently the girl sent that story in. And for 500 pounds, she would undubtedly be judged harshly by many, lost some dignity, and brought down the image of homosexuals one more notch. I suppose it's possible that all that matters to her is that she's happy with hereself, which is good. However, consider this-the paper also had a story of a vet who feels she can talk to her animal patients. Would the vet also bee seen as a "freak"? No-being able to heal animals with such skill would be admirable! But while both wanted to boast to the world "Look at me for being able to do this!", the lesbian seems to have forgotten that judgementalism is always at work. Does she really care that little about her dignity? I hope not...
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At least people here haven't started associating Chinese with lecher yet...can't believe Soho Square, the London Chinatown, could be so awfully dismal. The restaurants, especially, are particularly HORRENDOUS! What the heck...my mom can make quality food good enough to sell here I should think! Anyway...I don't think we will be able do judge this homosexuality issue, or indeed much else with any accuracy because we don't know enough about it. But to be honest, do we need to? We do not have enforce our morals upon others unless what that guy's doing is clearly wrong are we? Everyone will eventually have to answer to God-or if you're a free thinker, then at the very least their conscience. In other words, who cares if lesbians start dating transsexuals, or if that guy you saw is really an opium-smoking gangster? Avoid any unnecessary judging because we have little hope of getting an accurate picture. If you want to know more or try to help someone, you will need to do it slowly. If you don't never cross paths with him again. Simple as that. The world already has enough formal judgmentalism going on-what with exams, interviews etc. So let's just take a little break and not get involved in another unnecessary dilemma of judgementalism, shall we?

That's the end of it for now. I really have to hit the hay...it's like 3.20am now...and I need to go out tomorrow. At least the good news for me is that my Piano-a Yamaha Clavinova CLP150 is coming this coming Tuesday! WHOOOOOT!!! I await with growing impatience this much anticipated day...I have been dying to try out Andrew Lloyd Webber's songs for Phantom Of the Opera the Musical(It ROCKS this earth) which I just watched.

Right then, with my head full of the intoxicating Musics of the Night, I shall take my leave right now. Till I next blog about Christianity and the Da Vinci Code again, goodbye!
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BTW: To my favourite blog links I've added a nickname of my own invention. Some names need changing; others need adding, but that will come another time. But if you don't like the name I've given you, please let me know.