Spring!

Yes, I know it's late spring, which means that summer will be here soon! The sun has been setting well past 2000 and the longer daylight hours are just GREAT. Soon, it won't even be full dark at 2330, like it was when I first arrived last year!

These are a few recent pictures. If you're wondering why some of 'em look fuzzy, it's because it was slightly misty when I took 'em. Yes, it was sunny and misty. Sigh, I just love scottish weather, don't you?

Magnolia trees, I believe. Not sure though.
Daffodils, daffodils, pretty pretty daffodils!

Thats all for this time. May the Force be with you.

Shanidar

A must read!

This might rub some of you the wrong way...

My response to 2 blog posts, by 2 different people, I read today today.

This is about me, it's my opinion, repeat - MINE. Not something I read about, heard about, or had put into my head telepathically. It's something I thought about and it's something I thought about when I was between 15 and 16.

Some of you who were in Methodist High School Klang when I was in Form 4 may recall a little talk I gave about our "conscience", but that's another story for another time, if that time ever comes.

My opinion?

Praying helps no one. Prayers but offer a small measure of comfort and security to the one praying.

Look, do you really believe that some greater force will change the way things are just because you asked it to? Do you really believe that praying for someone's good fortune, praying for someone's health, or just praying, is ever going to make a difference to the world.

Yes, and no. More on this another time.

Prayers do nothing but comfort the one praying. Praying that one will pass an exam is not going to work unless one studies for it, or has a particularly high IQ and a good memory.

I was introduced to a religion at a pretty young age. It was a form of Buddhism with Japanese teachings. Some of you may know of it as the Soka Gakkai. I went for meetings, I kneeled and chanted, I went for various talks, I joined various youth activities, and I even helped clean the floors of the building where most of these activities were held.

What a big fat waste of MY time. The smartest thing I probably did was to NOT memorize the prayers in that little book I got from them.

The speakers at the talks used to say, "If you chant, what you chant for will come true". "If you chant for good results, you will get good results". He even went so far as to say this, "You must be specific, if you want 10 As you must chant for 10 As. You cannot chant for 'good results' because 9 As is also a good result. You must be specific."

(On a related note, this would be a good time to mention that most of them spoke English really really badly.)

Wow. Really? If that were true, I'd chant for the sky to fall on your head. Not hard enough to kill you of course, but hard enough to give you an epidural hematoma. For the simple reason that I would like to make a hole in your skull to save your life, but I wouldn't give you any anaesthetic for it.

Fact is, I can only think of 2 possible ways, through which something you chant for will come true:

1. Something will come true if you want it to come true and work hard for it, to make it come true.
2. Chance. Coincidence. Fate. Luck. Call it whatever you want.

Therefore, if I have to work to get what I want, why bother praying at all? I know that praying that my luck will change is never going to change my luck. So why bother praying at all. Instead, if you get cracking and start working for whatever you want, you get it sooner. By cutting all the praying out of the picture, I could get more sleep instead.

What do most religions preach? All the mumbo jumbo, in my humble opinion (IMHO) basically boils down to 3 words:

DO NO EVIL.

And without fail, we shall have to question the nature of evil itself, or some people won't be very satisfied. Here we go again.

Imagine a straight line, not curvy or wavy of whatever, perfectly straight and 20 miles long. Now imagine, at one end of the line we have 10 mile high capital letters spelling out the word "GOOD", and at the other end we have 9.99999 mile high capital letters spelling out the word "EVIL". (measurements are approximate and exchangeable, the letters spelling 'evil' could be 10 miles high instead, and vice versa)

1. Would you be able to tell that the letters spelling out 'evil' are 0.00001 miles shorter than the the letters spelling out 'good'?
2. Would you know exactly where you stand on this line?
3. Would you know which direction you're facing?

My answer, to all 3 questions, is 'No'.

Go figure.

Before I continue, I would like to say that I have many whom I consider friends who are Christians and I bear no ill will towards you or your beliefs, just questions and uncertainties.

A friend once told me that I wouldn't be allowed through the pearly gates into paradise/heaven/whatever you want to call it, because I wasn't a Christian. Define 'paradise'. If you believe that a such a place exists, and you truly believe that you deserve to go there because you are a Christian, you're either misguided, stupid, or both.

You believe that your God (I'm using capitals so as not to offend) is all powerful, kind, benevolent, loving, and willing to cleanse and forgive anyone of all their sins so long as they believe in him. Yet, you don't believe that he'll allow me into heaven. If that's the case, can you still consider him kind, loving and benevolent?

Another friend spoke these words,"My belief is that only those who are Christians will be saved when the end of the world comes, all the rest will go to hell. That is what I was taught". Let's say that you're a Christian and you believe this with all your heart and soul. Let's say that your 22 year old daughter whom you love so much that you'd die for her, decides that she wants to be a Muslim? Would you still believe in the words above, or would you pray feverishly day and night that He will still accept her into His arms on account of her having been a Christian once, or would you offer to trade your soul for hers, that you go to hell in her place?

Another friend, who was going around campus talking to people about Christianity (he was a Christian of course) told me without hesitation, when I asked him about the 2 people above,"I do not believe that the God I love is so cruel. The God I love loves all and He will save all who deserve to be saved. He will see and judge. What happens then I don't know." And he left me with a bookmark. One of the few that I've kept to this day, just to remind myself that that not all are blind and without a shred of independent thought.

Easter wasn't too long ago. A friend mentioned that it should be us on the cross having nails driven through our hands and not Jesus. Jesus sacrificed himself so that we might live etc etc etc...

Well, if we're all on the cross, who'd be the one driving in the nails?

Damage Control

"Damage Control"

One of our favorite pre-exam phrases back when I was still in IMU. I'll leave the uninitiated to puzzle out what it means.

Anyway, my finals are in early July. Yes, finals. 'coz for some reason, we have our finals at the end of 4th year instead of 5th year. And on top of that, my 4th year project is due on the 27th of this month, which means that things are pretty hectic at the moment.

Reminds me of when I was in college and typed out my 2000+ word literature review in under 8 hours. I didn't get any sleep that night. Probably won't get any sleep this weekend either, as I'm trying to tweak my 4th year project write-up before next Monday.

And on the plus side, my hair is a little longer. Which is good, because the fact that it's uneven isn't so obvious anymore.

Work work.

May the Force be with you.

Cap

Of all the miscellaneous items I brought with me to Dundee, the most useful, by far, is my cap.

Why? Well, here in Dundee, it never pours, it just drizzles, for a really long time. A cap is best thing I've found that keeps the rain off my head and unlike a hood, it doesn't obscure my sight or hearing.

However, after today's haircut, my cap is going to be a permanent part of my wardrobe till my hair is long enough to properly comb again.

I've not getting another haircut in Dundee, ever. Today's haircut was probably the worst one I've ever got. Henceforth, that motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore shall be refered to as that "motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore".

I swear I gave her explicit instructions. I said: Cut the back short, take away the sideburns, but only trim half-an-inch from the rest.

Motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore said: Right, short back, and only half-an-inch off the rest.

Motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore got out her motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore-electric-shears and did the exact opposite.

First she cut the back short, and that was fine. But before I could say anything, she got to the side of my head with her motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore-electric-shears and took off half the hair from the side of my head.

Bitch.

So she had to do the other side as well.

Then she got out her motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore-scissors and tried to patch up the damage.

Fuck you bitch.

If she had gone slow, and cut of a little at a time, she could have saved what was left of my hair. instead, she started cutting off half-an-inch at a time. Unevenly, from both sides. First she'd cut the left side, then go to the right, and then the left again.

And in the end, she finally decided that she couldn't get it even. So she got out her motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore-electric-shears and kept trimming bits and pieces off either side of my head, until she realised that I'd end up bald if she didn't stop soon.

And it still isn't even. Bitch.

I've no idea why I was so patient with that motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore. Any other person would have got up, called her a motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore and slapped the motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore twice on the same side of her face.

I'll give you a description of what this motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore looks like so that those of you who read my blog won't ever suffer the same fate I did if you ever decide to get your hair trimmed in Dundee.

She's about 5 feet 4, with long brown hair, slightly overweight, a pear shaped face, and oval glasses.

And the address is:

Huir & Co
7,Bunk St,Dundee, Dundee, DD1 1RL
Tel: 01382 205003.

Replace the first 2 letter "U"s in the address above for the real address.

The other hairdresser, with black hair, did a pretty good job for me the previous time I was there.

Fuck you, you motherfucking-idiot-daughter-of-a-deceased-barber-whore.

This post does not affect my statutory rights.