Now that the storm surges are mostly gone.
Weather forecast until October: calm with occasional sun. Generally gloomy.
How the Planets Protect us From the Sun
10 hours ago
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Haste makes waste.
So take a deep breath and relax. Don't lose your temper. Don't hammer the lift door just because they've neglected to hold the lift again. Don't shout at the person next to you, even if he's shouting incoherently. Don't mutter under your breath either. Don't break a sweat and have your fingers turn into jelly, even if your glasses are completely fogged up and you can't see a thing. No worries. Just take another deep breath, remember to continue relaxing, and never lose sight of what is written in big, friendly letters on the cover the Hitchhikers' Guide: 'Don't Panic'.
'Where there is no vision, the people perish'
Perhaps not literally drop and die, but perish in the sense of ceasing to lead full, meaningful lives, since they live their lives blindly, without direction, without purpose.
Of course I am taking some liberties here, because surely all this is not what was intended in the Proverbs.
Of course I am taking some liberties here, because surely all this is not what was intended in the Proverbs.
Manumit
Can it be any coincidence that the word both means to set free from servitude and bondage, and also to confer a degree upon? Evidently knowledge does set us free.
Reminder to self
What you really want is continued conversation. Not a lunch or a dinner. So don't be too worked up over the latter. It's not healthy, really.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
A long overdue account of Starlight
Day 0: 26 July 2008.
Spent the last night before Taiwan figuring out the saddle point between minimum time spent as a stone at Changi Airport and minimum cost incurred going there. Finally settled on taking the 33 all the way to Bedok and then taking a taxi from there. The cab fare worked out to about $11, including midnight surcharge. Not too bad, although it did take more than 2 hours on the road. But it was a nice nap on the bus, and anyway the time would have been spent sleeping either at home or at the airport anyway. Same difference. Bedok bus interchange at 1 am was extremely quiet. And almost deserted. It was like the whole town centre was asleep.
Changi Airport was pretty quiet too; guess there aren't too many flights between the midnight rush and the sunrise rush. Terminal 3 is a nice and spacious place. The shops inside the passenger waiting area are arranged nicely around the corridors so that the whole place looks like a bustling shopping street. And the fountains and greenery outside the waiting area are pretty pleasant.
Presently it's time to fall-in. Regimentation begins.
About half a dozen hours later we arrive at Taipei. We step off the plane, cruise through the unremarkable and rather empty airport (does Taiwan get this little air traffic? Strange) and step out to board the bus ... hallelujah. Are you sure we didn't just step into a sauna?
It's a long bus ride. About 5 hours to Meilin. And then training begins.
Phase 1A -- Training: Until 7 August 2008.
Training was, well, training. Something I don't really want to talk about and can't even if I did, courtesy of the collective blockheadnesses of MP Command, MSD, Mindef, the Cabinet, the PAP, Old Harry, and the Man. Suffice to say it was like training in Singapore writ large: mountains instead of hills, hills where there would have been microknolls, extreme heat and humidity, even worse than in Singapore, and distances magnified at least fourfold. Oh, yes, and the views from up high were excellent. Too bad we weren't allowed cameras.
Phase 1B -- Should have been Training: 7 to 12 August 2008.
But my immune system and the sandflies conspired to make it otherwise. Their very successful joint operation resulted in my being confined to the Medical Centre in camp for 5 days. So while my comrades continued to charge hills, march overnight and sleep at odd times in uncomfortable positions, I observed the sick bay ceiling, cleaned the medical centre, reported the current temperature to the Ops Room every hour during daylight hours, and watched TV. Caught the Olympic opening ceremony, which was truly spectacular, and a couple of movies.
Also went to a hospital in Douliu, the nearest town, twice. Once on the 8th, right after I came in, and once on the 12th. Douliu is a pretty unremarkable town, but it seemed the epitome of urban bustle after we'd been out in the field for more than 2 weeks, when the largest human settlements we saw were villages, with no more than a dozen or two low-rise buildings.
The MO and medic were also nice enough to buy me breakfast in town both times. It tasted particularly excellent after combat rations and cookhouse food, although on hindsight it was perhaps just of the usual standard for Chinese roadside stalls. Burgers (freshly-made, not fast-food-style factory-made) and chicken cutlets figure quite prominently in Taiwan, somehow. American influence, perhaps.
On my release I went to join the rest of the platoon to do post-administration, packing up our bags and everything ... and promptly had to fall out after getting rather giddy in the overwhelming afternoon heat. Oh dear. Maybe I had been lounging in the air-conditioned Medical Centre for a little too long.
Phase 2 -- Rest & Relaxation! : 13 to 15 August 2008.
Despite all the drama of Phase 1B, I still got the full three days of R&R. Incredible and amazing.
A guided tour took up the first two days. It was, well, not too great. First the tour guide went crazy (but then she was quite helpful afterwards so we should just forgive her), then we visited an amusement park. Two roller-coasters promptly convinced me that undue accelerations weren't exactly my thing ><. And then there was the highlight ... getting suspended, sort of, at the top of a 110-metre vertical drop right before you plunge down, perpendicularly. What a thought, no?
By the first day night we had reached Taipei. The second day we went out again, to two more amusement parks, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Did someone mention the word 'repetitive'? Yes, it is a very apt word to use here. The second one was really more for children. And by the time we reached the third ... we were all getting just a little bored. Fortunately, the guided tour didn't eat up all of the three days. So on the first and second evenings, we poked our heads around the major shopping areas. 士林夜市 and 西门町.
Not particularly remarkable, actually. The atmosphere and stuff on sale weren't very different from, say, major shopping areas in Singapore. Other than the food which was excellent. The mango ice was nice (except I bought too large a portion and got a stomachache), and using pastry to wrap up crushed pastry (大饼包小饼) produced an intriguing and pleasant texture. Oh yes, and there was this shop tucked in the 万年 Department Store in 西门町 that specialised entirely in Japanese magazines and design catalogues ... or actually I'm not quite sure how to describe the sort of publications. Somewhere in between the two, or maybe both at once. Like coffee-table books in that they were full of pictures and graphics, but not entirely that since they also had plenty of words and verbal description ... there were regular magazines, and unofficial owners' guides for various models of cars, collections of logos, colour catalogues, collections of drawings of anime characters, and more. Quite an interesting shop, and probably something you wouldn't find here. Or maybe I'm just being ignorant about it. (EDIT: Yes you can find such a thing here. Go to Kinokuniya's flagship store and look in the "Graphic" section.) Also, Taiwan is full of convenience stores, particularly 7-11's. Just an observation.
The last day was given over entirely to free and easy. Followed Pui Kit and Yihan to the 故宫博物馆 (National Palace Museum) for the morning. The Museum was quite a sight: large and grand, almost like a palace.
After viewing the superb lacquerware collection and a few of the other exhibits, a few of them rather jaw-dropping (the piece of braised meat or the cabbage, both carved out whole from precious stones, for example, or the concentric ivory spheres carved out of what was originally one solid piece of ivory) we split; Pui Kit went to visit Taipei 101 and Yihan somewhere southwest of Taipei, while I went, with Afiq in tow, to airmail excess cargo (which turned out to be a really bad decision, financially, in the end, but never mind that), and then to 中正纪念堂 (CKS Memorial Hall). Larked around the huge square around the Memorial Hall for a while, then went off to 鼎泰丰，a twenty-minute walk away, for lunch.
The 小笼包 were really excellent: the meat and soup just melted in your mouth. The egg soup was quite tasty too. It was most unfortunate Afiq couldn't eat anything there ><. After that we headed back, by foot all the way, passing by the National Theatre, built in traditional style with a huge Chinese roof, various government buildings built in an imposing and large style, the President's Office and the huge 凯达格兰大道 (Ketagalan Boulevard), the rather messy bus station. 
Taipei felt a bit like a mix between 厦门 and 南京, and perhaps 浦东. The parts around City Hall and Taipei 101 were most like 浦东: wide roads and broad plazas and skyscrapers, and bustling commerce. The bits near the Presidential Office were more like 南京: broad roads and facades, imposing buildings, lots of greenery and open space, an air of official seriousness. The parts around our hotel and further north and east were most like 厦门: old buildings, a little dilapidated, a faint air of faded glory. The place as a whole was rather less crowded than most cities on mainland China, or even today's Singapore, come to think of it. Singapore is getting awfully crowded. The MRT is often standing-space-only even during off-peak hours, and the difficult crowds in the shopping centres make movement at anything beyond a leisurely saunter difficult. Even the RJ campus feels like it's getting more and more cramped. But excuse me. Digression.
And the people seemed rather more polite and civilised. They queued up to board the MRT, unlike the huge crowds congregating around the doors and squeezing in here, or in China. On the escalators people would automatically keep to the right if they weren't moving. People didn't seem to be in so much of an impatient rush everywhere, and didn't show any impatience if you asked them for directions or other help.
And, on the whole, Taiwan felt more Chinese than China. Here you hear Chinese being spoken everywhere, see signs on the roads and shops purely in Chinese and generally just feel soaked in Chinese. Whereas on the mainland there are plenty of people trying to practise English, the Chinese signs are usually accompanied by bad English translations, and the general perception that things Western must be better than things Chinese is still alive in some corners.
Day 21: 16 August 2008
And then we came back. A most uneventful journey homewards. Taipei CKS International was rather busier on the day we came back. Maybe it was just the time.
Spent the last night before Taiwan figuring out the saddle point between minimum time spent as a stone at Changi Airport and minimum cost incurred going there. Finally settled on taking the 33 all the way to Bedok and then taking a taxi from there. The cab fare worked out to about $11, including midnight surcharge. Not too bad, although it did take more than 2 hours on the road. But it was a nice nap on the bus, and anyway the time would have been spent sleeping either at home or at the airport anyway. Same difference. Bedok bus interchange at 1 am was extremely quiet. And almost deserted. It was like the whole town centre was asleep.
Changi Airport was pretty quiet too; guess there aren't too many flights between the midnight rush and the sunrise rush. Terminal 3 is a nice and spacious place. The shops inside the passenger waiting area are arranged nicely around the corridors so that the whole place looks like a bustling shopping street. And the fountains and greenery outside the waiting area are pretty pleasant.
Presently it's time to fall-in. Regimentation begins.About half a dozen hours later we arrive at Taipei. We step off the plane, cruise through the unremarkable and rather empty airport (does Taiwan get this little air traffic? Strange) and step out to board the bus ... hallelujah. Are you sure we didn't just step into a sauna?
It's a long bus ride. About 5 hours to Meilin. And then training begins.
Phase 1A -- Training: Until 7 August 2008.
Training was, well, training. Something I don't really want to talk about and can't even if I did, courtesy of the collective blockheadnesses of MP Command, MSD, Mindef, the Cabinet, the PAP, Old Harry, and the Man. Suffice to say it was like training in Singapore writ large: mountains instead of hills, hills where there would have been microknolls, extreme heat and humidity, even worse than in Singapore, and distances magnified at least fourfold. Oh, yes, and the views from up high were excellent. Too bad we weren't allowed cameras.
Phase 1B -- Should have been Training: 7 to 12 August 2008.
But my immune system and the sandflies conspired to make it otherwise. Their very successful joint operation resulted in my being confined to the Medical Centre in camp for 5 days. So while my comrades continued to charge hills, march overnight and sleep at odd times in uncomfortable positions, I observed the sick bay ceiling, cleaned the medical centre, reported the current temperature to the Ops Room every hour during daylight hours, and watched TV. Caught the Olympic opening ceremony, which was truly spectacular, and a couple of movies.
Also went to a hospital in Douliu, the nearest town, twice. Once on the 8th, right after I came in, and once on the 12th. Douliu is a pretty unremarkable town, but it seemed the epitome of urban bustle after we'd been out in the field for more than 2 weeks, when the largest human settlements we saw were villages, with no more than a dozen or two low-rise buildings.The MO and medic were also nice enough to buy me breakfast in town both times. It tasted particularly excellent after combat rations and cookhouse food, although on hindsight it was perhaps just of the usual standard for Chinese roadside stalls. Burgers (freshly-made, not fast-food-style factory-made) and chicken cutlets figure quite prominently in Taiwan, somehow. American influence, perhaps.
On my release I went to join the rest of the platoon to do post-administration, packing up our bags and everything ... and promptly had to fall out after getting rather giddy in the overwhelming afternoon heat. Oh dear. Maybe I had been lounging in the air-conditioned Medical Centre for a little too long.
Phase 2 -- Rest & Relaxation! : 13 to 15 August 2008.
Despite all the drama of Phase 1B, I still got the full three days of R&R. Incredible and amazing.
A guided tour took up the first two days. It was, well, not too great. First the tour guide went crazy (but then she was quite helpful afterwards so we should just forgive her), then we visited an amusement park. Two roller-coasters promptly convinced me that undue accelerations weren't exactly my thing ><. And then there was the highlight ... getting suspended, sort of, at the top of a 110-metre vertical drop right before you plunge down, perpendicularly. What a thought, no?
By the first day night we had reached Taipei. The second day we went out again, to two more amusement parks, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Did someone mention the word 'repetitive'? Yes, it is a very apt word to use here. The second one was really more for children. And by the time we reached the third ... we were all getting just a little bored. Fortunately, the guided tour didn't eat up all of the three days. So on the first and second evenings, we poked our heads around the major shopping areas. 士林夜市 and 西门町.
Not particularly remarkable, actually. The atmosphere and stuff on sale weren't very different from, say, major shopping areas in Singapore. Other than the food which was excellent. The mango ice was nice (except I bought too large a portion and got a stomachache), and using pastry to wrap up crushed pastry (大饼包小饼) produced an intriguing and pleasant texture. Oh yes, and there was this shop tucked in the 万年 Department Store in 西门町 that specialised entirely in Japanese magazines and design catalogues ... or actually I'm not quite sure how to describe the sort of publications. Somewhere in between the two, or maybe both at once. Like coffee-table books in that they were full of pictures and graphics, but not entirely that since they also had plenty of words and verbal description ... there were regular magazines, and unofficial owners' guides for various models of cars, collections of logos, colour catalogues, collections of drawings of anime characters, and more. Quite an interesting shop, and probably something you wouldn't find here. Or maybe I'm just being ignorant about it. (EDIT: Yes you can find such a thing here. Go to Kinokuniya's flagship store and look in the "Graphic" section.) Also, Taiwan is full of convenience stores, particularly 7-11's. Just an observation.
The last day was given over entirely to free and easy. Followed Pui Kit and Yihan to the 故宫博物馆 (National Palace Museum) for the morning. The Museum was quite a sight: large and grand, almost like a palace.
After viewing the superb lacquerware collection and a few of the other exhibits, a few of them rather jaw-dropping (the piece of braised meat or the cabbage, both carved out whole from precious stones, for example, or the concentric ivory spheres carved out of what was originally one solid piece of ivory) we split; Pui Kit went to visit Taipei 101 and Yihan somewhere southwest of Taipei, while I went, with Afiq in tow, to airmail excess cargo (which turned out to be a really bad decision, financially, in the end, but never mind that), and then to 中正纪念堂 (CKS Memorial Hall). Larked around the huge square around the Memorial Hall for a while, then went off to 鼎泰丰，a twenty-minute walk away, for lunch.
The 小笼包 were really excellent: the meat and soup just melted in your mouth. The egg soup was quite tasty too. It was most unfortunate Afiq couldn't eat anything there ><. After that we headed back, by foot all the way, passing by the National Theatre, built in traditional style with a huge Chinese roof, various government buildings built in an imposing and large style, the President's Office and the huge 凯达格兰大道 (Ketagalan Boulevard), the rather messy bus station. 
Taipei felt a bit like a mix between 厦门 and 南京, and perhaps 浦东. The parts around City Hall and Taipei 101 were most like 浦东: wide roads and broad plazas and skyscrapers, and bustling commerce. The bits near the Presidential Office were more like 南京: broad roads and facades, imposing buildings, lots of greenery and open space, an air of official seriousness. The parts around our hotel and further north and east were most like 厦门: old buildings, a little dilapidated, a faint air of faded glory. The place as a whole was rather less crowded than most cities on mainland China, or even today's Singapore, come to think of it. Singapore is getting awfully crowded. The MRT is often standing-space-only even during off-peak hours, and the difficult crowds in the shopping centres make movement at anything beyond a leisurely saunter difficult. Even the RJ campus feels like it's getting more and more cramped. But excuse me. Digression.
And the people seemed rather more polite and civilised. They queued up to board the MRT, unlike the huge crowds congregating around the doors and squeezing in here, or in China. On the escalators people would automatically keep to the right if they weren't moving. People didn't seem to be in so much of an impatient rush everywhere, and didn't show any impatience if you asked them for directions or other help.And, on the whole, Taiwan felt more Chinese than China. Here you hear Chinese being spoken everywhere, see signs on the roads and shops purely in Chinese and generally just feel soaked in Chinese. Whereas on the mainland there are plenty of people trying to practise English, the Chinese signs are usually accompanied by bad English translations, and the general perception that things Western must be better than things Chinese is still alive in some corners.
Day 21: 16 August 2008
And then we came back. A most uneventful journey homewards. Taipei CKS International was rather busier on the day we came back. Maybe it was just the time.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wow.
Now, was that utter blankness in your mind a sign of your inner universe finally falling apart, or just your body clock trying to signal bedtime?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Speak in your own voice.
One day, if I keep writing, I might develop a voice of my own. A voice full of idiosyncracies, of vocabulary plucked from the strangest corners of various tongues, of references of varying obscurity. A voice nobody would easily understand.
Now what on Earth would the good of that be?
Now what on Earth would the good of that be?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Now Las Vegas comes to you.
This is probably an hoary old chestnut by now, but I'll still say it anyway: -The taxi drove past the city on the Keppel Viaduct and Benjamin Sheares Bridge this morning, at about 6. The sky was still dark, but the Marina Bay area was brilliantly lit, making plainly visible to all the forest of cranes that's building the Integrated Resorts with casinos. The IRs are partly up already. They're starting to show a bit of a resemblance to the fine architecture along the Strip.
You bastards, you took the easy way out.
You could have tried to foster an entrepreneurial spirit. Or bet on the next major creative industry. Something, perhaps, a little more generative than gambling?
Of course it wouldn't have been easy. It would have taken a massive effort, massive funding, and there would be no guarantee of success. What if the whole thing failed? Singapore might just become an economic backwater eclipsed by all the giants rising around it. If that's not going to happen anyway, with or without gambling dens added.
Las Vegas is a surreal place. It feels removed from the real world, a giant amusement park for adults rather than a city where human beings live in. Now it seems that Marina Bay is going to become a mini Las Vegas.
Yes, surely Vegas does fulfil a function, not a very savoury function, perhaps, but still a necessary, even intriguing, one. But is it necessary to replicate it in miniature all over the world, including here in the Most Serene republic? There's already another, bigger replica relatively nearby. It's called Macau.
We don't need to turn all our homes into mere amusement parks, do we.
You bastards, you took the easy way out.
You could have tried to foster an entrepreneurial spirit. Or bet on the next major creative industry. Something, perhaps, a little more generative than gambling?
Of course it wouldn't have been easy. It would have taken a massive effort, massive funding, and there would be no guarantee of success. What if the whole thing failed? Singapore might just become an economic backwater eclipsed by all the giants rising around it. If that's not going to happen anyway, with or without gambling dens added.
Las Vegas is a surreal place. It feels removed from the real world, a giant amusement park for adults rather than a city where human beings live in. Now it seems that Marina Bay is going to become a mini Las Vegas.
Yes, surely Vegas does fulfil a function, not a very savoury function, perhaps, but still a necessary, even intriguing, one. But is it necessary to replicate it in miniature all over the world, including here in the Most Serene republic? There's already another, bigger replica relatively nearby. It's called Macau.
We don't need to turn all our homes into mere amusement parks, do we.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Wha?
I think your heart just skipped a few beats there. But maybe you're just reading the signal wrongly. But then again you do tend to caution, a little too much at times. But still ... we shall wait and see.
Home is a hive of Memories
Like a Beacon
In London
every now and then
I get this craving
for my mother's food
I leave art galleries
in search of plaintains
saltfish/sweet potatoes
I need this link
I need this touch
of home
swinging in my bag
like a beacon
against the cold
Grace Nichols (b. 1950)
Home is mum's cooking. Or father's long monologues. Or Shanghai's never-ending interrogation. Or the easy banter of old friends and the memories of places that you've once studied, played, or just stoned at.
In London
every now and then
I get this craving
for my mother's food
I leave art galleries
in search of plaintains
saltfish/sweet potatoes
I need this link
I need this touch
of home
swinging in my bag
like a beacon
against the cold
Grace Nichols (b. 1950)
Home is mum's cooking. Or father's long monologues. Or Shanghai's never-ending interrogation. Or the easy banter of old friends and the memories of places that you've once studied, played, or just stoned at.
For Honour and Glory
`Trail all your pikes`
Trail all your pikes, dispirit every drum,
March in a slow procession from afar,
Ye silent, ye dejected men of war!
Be still the hautboys, and the flute be dumb!
Display no more, in vain, the loftly banner.
For see! where on the bier before ye lies
The pale, the fall`n th`untimely sacrafice
To your mistaken shrine, to your false idol Honour!
from ALL IS VANITY
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661 - 1720)
Trail all your pikes, dispirit every drum,
March in a slow procession from afar,
Ye silent, ye dejected men of war!
Be still the hautboys, and the flute be dumb!
Display no more, in vain, the loftly banner.
For see! where on the bier before ye lies
The pale, the fall`n th`untimely sacrafice
To your mistaken shrine, to your false idol Honour!
from ALL IS VANITY
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661 - 1720)
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Poetry for the Day
I Saw A Jolly Hunter
I saw a jolly hunter
With a jolly gun
Walking in the country
In the jolly sun.
In the jolly meadow
Sat a jolly hare.
Saw the jolly hunter.
Took jolly care.
Hunter jolly eager-
Sight of jolly prey.
Forgot gun pointing
Wrong jolly way.
Jolly hunter jolly head
Over heels gone.
Jolly old safety catch
Not jolly on.
Bang went the jolly gun.
Hunter jolly dead.
Jolly hare got clean away.
Jolly good, I said.
Charles Causley
Courtesy of the Poetry on the Underground project
I saw a jolly hunter
With a jolly gun
Walking in the country
In the jolly sun.
In the jolly meadow
Sat a jolly hare.
Saw the jolly hunter.
Took jolly care.
Hunter jolly eager-
Sight of jolly prey.
Forgot gun pointing
Wrong jolly way.
Jolly hunter jolly head
Over heels gone.
Jolly old safety catch
Not jolly on.
Bang went the jolly gun.
Hunter jolly dead.
Jolly hare got clean away.
Jolly good, I said.
Charles Causley
Courtesy of the Poetry on the Underground project
Need. Standardisation.
Why isn't there a uniform standard for power connections? The profusion is extremely irritating. Now there are "Universal Phone Chargers" that consist of one USB cable and a dozen adaptor cables. Every time you charge a different phone you have to pick and tack on a different adaptor cable. How universal is that?
But these are tales of ancient times / Long-buried myths, ancestral legends.
(from xkcd) A little historical sensitivity is surely a useful thing.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Impressive.
The Beijing 2008 venues were always meant to be futuristic. But a shot of the National Swimming Centre next to the Indoor Stadium on television this morning made it seem doubly so.
Almost unreal. Maybe it's partly because everything is so new and shiny.
Almost unreal. Maybe it's partly because everything is so new and shiny.Noise
Your life is being cluttered by noise. Little grey bits of mundane noise that appear spontaneously and take up every bit of space there is. Like the vast grey swarm of nanolife from Michael Crichton's Prey. And, to take the analogy further, the swarm, the huge, menacing cloud, will eventually devour everything else. So that your life will become mer noise. When should I buy this? Where should I put that? Do I need to post this three days from now ... How shall I arrange these? How much time do I have to talk to---oh, but I have to go settle something else now. There will be nothing else. Only the nitty-gritty, the fragments, the noise.
I wonder if most people actually live their lives like that.
I wonder if most people actually live their lives like that.
Beware the air freshener
It may potentially be toxic (or read the press release). Maybe it has something to do with the stuff that is added in to circulate the fragrance. Or maybe its just the artificial fragrance. Or maybe its the interaction between the two.
May we suggest, instead, air, sunlight, potpourri without added artificial scents, and activated charcoal.
Perhaps natural solutions are better because the human body has had rather longer to adapt to them and resolve any toxicity issues. New-fangled chemical solutions are rather alien to the body, which still hasn't quite figured out how to react to any of their toxic effects.
May we suggest, instead, air, sunlight, potpourri without added artificial scents, and activated charcoal.
Perhaps natural solutions are better because the human body has had rather longer to adapt to them and resolve any toxicity issues. New-fangled chemical solutions are rather alien to the body, which still hasn't quite figured out how to react to any of their toxic effects.
Back to school, again.
Hey, guess what? The System sent your writer straight back to Tekong. It was sort of expected, actually. Yes, I am happy about it. It really is, as Corporal Floor's good friend noted, the ideal situation. There was the usual mixed bag of reactions at postings. People were either elated at getting into 6 SIR, less than thrilled at getting into one of the other SIRs, glad or disappointed at going back to Tekong, or slightly stunned and flabbergasted at their unusual posting. Care to join the Australian at ATEC, anyone?
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
