Life For Rent

Finally! Exams are over! The best paper I had so far.

It is gonna be a new term next week, with new work. Sounds like a challenge.

The weekend is gonna see me taking sometime off for some relaxation. First up, gonna watch red eye later! Woo hoo!

Pardon me for my crazy behaviour.

It also seems Took that murderer is to hang. Good judgement for someone who has no respect for the law in refusing to defend himself. It was a brutal murder in the first degree. Is capital punishment good? I say why not, if the case is proven without a doubt. Like this one. I mean the man doesn’t even want to defend himself. Signs that he is mad? I don’t think so. He belittled our judicial system. And I don’t think tax payer’s money should be wasted over a life sentence for him.

I am outta here, yada yada!

I’m beginning my write up on network and computer security and providing info on hacking countermeasures.

If there is any question anyone has, please send them in and I will include them in my write up.

Thanks!

Has anyone wondered why the same advice given by someone can be treated as the holy grail yet the same advice given by another is absolute trash and grounds for a quarrel, even, and especially among couples.

Some say it is due to the respect one has for the other, that whatever advice given is treated seriously. It is true to a cetain extent, but primarily it seems to have a lot more to do with the reputation of the person giving advice. Would you even listen to someone whom you feel never knows what he or she is talking about? Even before he or she opens the mouth, in your head you have already rejected whatever that comes out. Even if it is true, you find ways to counter it and prove that it is flawed.

One such person exists in my family. Even for me, my mind’s always shut to her ‘bright ideas’ regardless of the fact of how true it may be. So I can’t blame the rest for the same problem either. I haven’t spoken it out yet. Maybe I will if I’m asked about it. I think it is important cause I don’t think she realises it and will probably wonder why no one ever heeds her advice and it concerns her husband and things happening at work. She is right on a lot of things but they are not going to be taken seriously at all, not all these while and it doesn’t look like it will ever. If I say what I think the problem is, would it help change things? What would you do?

And we see an article in the ST today on SPCA. Does it astonish you find that more than 10,000 animals are taken in by SPCA every year?

It doesn’t astonish me. Humans can’t even take care of their mobile phones, their spouses, their girlfrens, their parents well. What makes us think we can take care of our pets well huh?

People who know me will know, I am always against buying a pet. I do not mean to put pooch breeders out of business. But for every one abandonned animal out there, is one too many. And we have TOO many so much so most of them are put down eventually. And yeh, to use we will just say “oh well it is just a 2 thousand dollar dog. I change my mobile phone every 3 months so what’s the big deal.” The deal is, an animal has life, and emotions, and you put a price tag on that? Fish are different. They are cold blooded. Pooches are warm blooded, like us, and we compare them to phones? And two thousand dollars? In what way are we different from comparing a peanut to 600,000 then?

I sincerely and honestly urge one and all, if you do want to get a pet, please re consider. And if you are sure you can committ yourself to its entire lifespan, perhaps you may consider an adoption instead. SPCA has a site with a random list of what it has. And mind you they do have pedigree labs among x-breeds, mice, cats etc. Oh but knowing some cheapos around, it is NOT exactly free to just go there and carry a pet home yar? There are some fees to pay, and they will come by and check on the animal, and I am glad they do, else I will personally volunteer my services to do just that on animal adopters! But it isn’t exactly like a supermarket shelf, so the animals come and go. If you insist on a particular breed you may have to wait, but this is one aspect I do not like but I can’t do anything bout it cause I know majority can only fall in love and take care of their preferred species, and if that helps them to take care of the animal for life then I don’t see any trouble. Pedigrees and expensive breeds do have a lot of ‘competition’ and hopefully, the dogs standing at the other side will not understand the ‘discrimmination’ that is taking place. It is a very very sad feeling to be the first to join the queue yet to be the last one standing. And finally it does get to go. It has to. Can’t afford to keep the animal longer financially. To put it down, for its own good, and forced circumstances.

So please guys, adopt, or heck, buy the pets if you really must. But I hope that very same pet won’t be seen at the SPCA. Or even worse, left roaming the streets with injuries from other territorial dogs. A domesticated pet is no match for a street fighter, and will not survive in the open for long.

Aug 20, 2005
Stretched for resources, but SPCA’s doing its best
by Yap Su-Yin

DUMPED three weeks ago at a bus stop in Tampines, Floppy the rabbit was facing certain death, until a member of the public took it to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Now safe at the SPCA’s premises on Mount Vernon Road, Floppy is awaiting a new home. It will be cared for full-time until it gets adopted.

The non-profit group was set up 58 years ago and is the longest-running animal welfare charity outfit here.

Although other groups have sprung up in recent years, SPCA continues to be the main refuge for Singapore’s abandoned, abused, lost or stray animals.

‘We are the only animal welfare charity here that does not turn away any animal,’ said executive officer Deirdre Moss.

In SPCA’s last financial year, which ended this June, it took in more than 10,000 animals. Half were strays, the rest unwanted pets.

It is a depressing fact, said Ms Moss, that all too often pet owners treat SPCA as a dumping ground when the novelty of having an animal at home wears off or if it has become too inconvenient to keep.

Just one in 10 animals stands a chance of being adopted.

Most of the others have to be put down because there are simply not enough resources to care for them.

‘We have to be the ones to make the decision whether it lives or dies. It’s a painful choice,’ said Ms Moss. ‘If only more owners tried harder to find a new home for their pets’.

Each month, the SPCA spends $4,000 issuing vouchers for free sterilisation of strays. It is also absorbing the cost of implanting microchips into adopted cats and rabbits, in the hope that it will encourage more adoptions.

A full-time education officer tours schools and conducts in-house group visits to raise awareness on topics like animal abuse, the importance of sterilisation and what responsible pet ownership entails.

In May, it launched its first teachers’ resource package, called Animal Kind, to educate primary school pupils about animal welfare.

The SPCA needs $1.5 million a year to support its programmes, cover operational costs and care for the 170 animals that it can house at any one time.

As more groups compete for a slice of the charity pie, the SPCA has had to come up with novel ways to raise funds.

Its smaller-scale events include wine-tasting and art or photo contests.

Then there is SPCA’s annual fun run, which kicks off at MacRitchie Reservoir Park tomorrow at 7am. Last year’s run raised $19,000 – and the society is hoping to match that figure this time.

Given the niche nature of their cause, pet-lovers have been helping in a big way. Giro deductions – a brainwave of Singapore’s former resident, the late Dr Wee Kim Wee, makes up a quarter of its total income today, said Ms Moss.

Also heartening is the growing number of volunteers. They pitch in at the animal shelter, help raise funds, or do sales and administrative work.

‘A pet is not a piece of furniture, but a living thing that needs love and care,’ said Ms Moss. ‘We’re lucky to have donors and supporters who share this conviction.’

yapsuyin@sph.com.sg

SPCA facts

Name: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)

Office: 31 Mount Vernon Road, Singapore 368054

What it does: The self-funded charity looks after the welfare of animals which are unwanted and in distress.

It offers services such as animal rescue, cruelty investigations, sterilisation, education and re-homing via an adoption service.

Total in reserves: $3.6 million, enough to last about 2 1/2 years.

Staff strength: 26

Expenses: The day-to-day running of the animal shelter, clinic and to support its programmes.

Contact: 6287-5355 or visit www.spca.org.sg

Movie Review : The Maid
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To be frank, halfway through the show I was thinking how the heck I was gonna write bout this one. And I decided to write bout maids in general only that’s totally unrelated. But as the story goes along…hmm well let’s see..

Have you ever wondered if the maids we have in Singapore, most, if not all that are females, are more MAN than the young soldiers going into NS? Some of us whine bout not being able to spend time with girl friends cause we got to stay in, and have sucky pay for all the troubles. Does anyone of us know how it is like to go abroad, into a new unknown family, don’t know what to expect, with possibly nowhere else trustworthy to turn to in crisis other than your country’s embassy, and you probably won’t see your friends and family for another 2,3 or 4 years? Even when I was a pre-enlistee about to have my ‘rank’ changed from a CIV to a REC, I asked around which BMTC company is the most ’slack’ which one most shiong. How many of you have done that? Talk bout luck and destiny. If the employers of the maid are nice easy going and kind, things shouldn’t be a problem. If you have demanding ones then I would say it is nothing less than a 3 year boot camp. And I can say that cause my house is a boot camp itself but I’m not gonna elaborate. Wait kena charged by the CO here..

Fate and destiny in relation to The Maid is exactly what it sets out to be. All I would say about the movie is, audiences would probably feel that the twists are quite good (though they are rather weak in my opinion, with too many gaping holes) though the storyline’s kinda weak with too many ‘copy and paste’ from other texts so much so you gotta read between the lines here and there. The trailers and promos prints images of ‘7th month’ and images of ghosts following the female lead Rossa. Even in the movie itself, the words ‘7th month’ comes on so often, you would forget the title of the show is The Maid. There’s more than one maid involved here, so which one is ‘the’ maid? That is up for you to decide. I don’t know how to rate this. Maybe I watched it when I was still rather ill and all the sounds annoyed the hell out of me with my head pounding so badly. Scare tactics aside, it just seems like an extended version of “Incredible Tales” to me. This movie has mixed reviews throughout so, you decide for yourself. But I’d bet I will enjoy Wedding Crashers, which is probably the next upcoming one..

Posting by : rectusabdominis (Fight AIDS. Not people with AIDS)

Think of the mitochondrialDNA (from the mother) and Y-chr (from the father) as 2 entities competing to be passed on. For the mother, her mDNA is only passed through her daughters, so producing sons would produce no benefit. For the father, his Y-chr is passed on only through his sons.

To illusrate this better, let’s begin with the fusion of a male (father) and female (mother) gamete to produce an offspring. I’ve used familial identities hopefully to make things clearer.

Scenario (1)
The offspring is a daughter. The mother’s mDNA is passed on. The father’s Y-chr is not. This daughter (generation 1) can then go on to pass on her mother’s mDNA when she produces her own daughters (generation 2). The father’s Y-chr dies with him if he doesn’t produce any sons. The mother’s mDNA gets perpetuated.

Scenario (2)
The offspring is a son. The father gets to pass on his Y-chr this time round. Being in the cytoplasm of the ovum, the mother’s mDNA is passed regardless of the sex of the offspring. However, in a son, the mother’s mDNA is doomed to end with him. When the son produces sperms, the mDNA he has inherited from his mother is carried in the mitochondria which reside in the midpiece of the sperms. When his sperms fuse with the ova (of his wife), only the nucleus (which contains his nuclear DNA) enters the ovum. The midpiece (and hence the mother’s mDNA) and tail of the sperm remains outside the ovum. Any maternal mDNA that somehow slips through and enters the wife’s ovum is quickly overwhelmed and destroyed by the cytoplasmic mDNA of the wife (who got them from her own mother). The son, therefore, can never pass on his mother’s mDNA. His mother’s mDNA dies with him. The son, however, can continue to pass on the father’s Y-chr, but only if he produces sons himself.

Therefore, the system is such that maternal DNA can only be passed on through daughters while the Y-chr can only be passed through sons. Therein lies the conflict of interests. It doesn’t do the Y-chr any good to produce daughters. On the other hand, it doesn’t do the maternal mDNA any good to produce sons.

Based on this, it has henceforth been postulated that homosexuality is the result of mechanisms put into place in the male fetus, orchestrated by the mother’s mDNA, in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of this son bearing offspring (specifically sons) of his own and continuing the perpetuation of the father’s Y-chr.

It is believed that different mDNA has varying degrees of this “ability” to predispose the male offspring to homosexuality. It therefore follows that phenotypically, we see a whole spectrum of sexuality, from “absolute homosexual” to “absolute heterosexual”.

This mechanism of inheritance of homosexuality by mDNA (as opposed to the conventional theory of inheritance by nuclear DNA) also explains why male homosexuality can remain so prevalent. Homosexuality would not have become extinct even if all the male homosexuals ever produced have never produced offspring themselves.

Here’s some interesting read :

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/08/14/what_makes_people_gay/

Just doing my part to broadcast some info that is seldom seen in public, and hence the view of certain topics are still the same as a 100 years ago despite technology advances.

I’ll say it in one line.

“I know I hate accounting, because I have studied and learnt about it before.”

Urgh I have been ill since my last exam. Took a hell lot outta me I guess.

Old ailment. I’m cravin for like hokkien mee now after not eating for a day or two.

I will return.

Happy birthday to my pap! I am glad I didn’t forget among all the mess I am in due to an exam tomorrow. Or should I say, later.

Urgh. I hate accounting. But it is not that bad once you get the hang of things, just like most topics and fields. Question is, how long do you have to hang before you get the hang of things?

Wish me luck. This is the one exam in my life that I need all the luck!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine’s alright especially after going to Ikoi. I noticed they have changed their style of serving and stuff. The jap chef prepares bowls of sashimi all at once and dishes them out to all the tables at the same time. What this means is the fish can be sitting in the bowl for 15 mins or so. This is NOT the way to treat sashimi and true enough the initial bowls weren’t that good. Unchilled, soggy and generally deteoriated a whole lot.

My tip is, either request not to be served those, or wait for the initial servings to be out before you order. This usually happens at 6 or 8pm, ie wave 1 and wave 2 respectively. It is a sin to eat bad sashimi. It’s blasphemy to be serving those!

I never thought I could get lost in Singapore. But I did. In Marina Square.

It was two nights ago when they were setting off fireworks at Marina South. Decided to get some Carl’s Jr (finally!) with my dear at Marina Sq. It was jammed packed and my goodness, sometimes I don’t know if it’s a mistake being part of the crowd. Knowing how I hate crowds!

After the fireworks were done, it just occured to me, how dangerous it could be. Think bout it, a bunch of people, maybe a hundred or so excluding diners gathered together, watching the fireworks. I could have sneaked in, dropped a bag on the ground and walk off. One minute later it detonates. All these people when they report to ‘Mr Yan’, and he asks them how did they die, they won’t even know. All eyes are focused into the sky, unaware of what is going on around. Except me. Heck I even thought the person in front of me was cute though I never saw the front. I was looking around for any suspicious activity and thankfully, the whole event ended without incident. But imagine, what could have happened. It is not easy for the gov to step up security for all gatherings like that. People will always find a spot to gather to watch fireworks. Should we cut away the fireworks totally to prevent people from gathering? I don’t think it is practical at all. At least when you step into the Padang, you know almost everyone is screened, and security is high. At unofficial events like the above, there are no security checks. The only security is you and you alone. Do not allow terrorists instill fear till we dare not leave our homes, but we need to be aware of the risks around us as well and do our part.

Ah yes, so I was lost…I spent 30 mins trying to find Carls Jr. I called Wilson for assistance, I met a bunch of ex classmates along the way and all we had were masses of people, no directions, no nothing. I missed the old marina square layout. The new layout makes it appear like a brand new complex and the only thing that has remained (and probably getting worse) is its carpark.

Let’s talk about Carl’s Jr a little. It was a Super Star combo for me 2 nights ago. Tonight it was a double bacon. Apparently Nicholas and Kun Yang loved it, commenting that it is worth its price. Very friendly staff, but lousy customers. People who will not give up their seats and continue chatting cause “drinks are free flow” knowing that someone’s waiting for your seat.

4 bitches. I had no right to chase them away though. So I was cursing them under my breath that the FREE FLOW drinks and burgers will make them 10 pounds heavier by the time the week is over. Humph.

Pretty big burgers, very friendly staff, and hopefully they will open a couple more outlets here and there. For its price and portions, it is like an in between comparing Cafe Cartel and MacDonalds. The concept of the Mac, yet the kinda place you would wanna sit down for a while and chat with free flow of bread or drinks or whatever it is.

For those who have a rumbling tummy, try Carl’s Jr. My tip is, if you are going with your partner, just get a combo and a burger. You can share the fries and drinks. They never said you could but everyone knows that is what everyone does. And forget bout getting a large cup if they ask you for it. Size, does not matter in this case, other than the heavier price you pay when the cup is just an item meant to hold your free flow drinks.

Expect a bill with the above tactic to be around 19 bucks for 2 persons.

Movie Review
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Title : Land of the dead

Supposedly done by the same director who did the ORIGINAL Dawn of the dead. Land of the dead is not a sequel of the latter though. It is rated M18 and is suppose to include more gore and stuff. One part I never understood though. Why should we allow these zombies ‘find somewhere to go’ just like us humans? I mean, these zombies are dead, capable of creating more havoc the next time they reappear. I do not agree with the ending, but that’s my opinion. Nothing new in this one, other than seeing that the zombies have new abilities now. The ability to think and learn. I’m torn between saying “it is not worth my $7.50″ and “spend $7.50 for some cheap thrill but nothing more”. I paid 9.50 tonight and it is certainly not worth it. Land of the dead is graded D by me, and unless you really have nothing better to do and too much money to spend, else I would say I would keep the 7.50 for a popcorn treat for the next movie date.