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Showing posts from November, 2008

Grim times

Oh.My.Word. All this is quite sick and horrible. May Ms Lo Hwei Yen rest in peace. And condolences to her family and friends. I am glad, though, that Fr Anthony reminded us to pray for perpetrators of violence too. I had almost forgotten them. After all, they are probably the ones most in need of prayers and healing. Come to think of it, there are also the hundreds of other victims. And hundreds and hundreds others, if you think beyond Mumbai... such as in Kashmir, as mentioned by the gunmen... and the many, many broken lives and spirits out there... Aiyoh... This weekend's Gospel reading (Mark 13:33-37) is timely, I guess: Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore -- for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the...

Young guns on the rampage

Well, well, so Djokovic finally finds himself back on top of things after an amazing slump. And it's amazing that he still has enough points to threaten Federer's No.2 spot. In fact, he will probably become No. 2 sometime next year. But that's where the plot will thicken. Because I think Murray is likely to eclipse him and even Nadal. If Djokovic had done better this year, he might have a brief taste of being No. 1 but seeing how fast and well Murray is improving, I doubt he will get the chance. I'd have preferred to see Murray win the Masters Cup, of course, but never mind, lah. He has already done so well this year and people like Djokovic and Davydenko need the morale booster that they got from playing in the Masters final. I was glad, though, that Murray cut his hair recently (left) . I cannot imagine him gunning for the No. 1 spot with his old hairstyle (right) . Yes, yes, hair is a trivial matter when you are going for No. 1 but still... It was good also to see G...

1% possible

It's time once again to write about trivial topics, ha ha. I mentioned this K drama, 1% of Anything , sometime back. The title is grammatically odd but it is what the show is about - that even if there is a 1% possibility of something working out, there is that possibility of things turning out well in the end. I kind of like that storyline. It is a 2003 production, making it a contemporary of Stairway to Heaven and All In. Rom-coms weren't quite in yet at that time so it must have been quite a change from the usual fare then. This show will appeal to die-hard romantics and anyone interested in watching the precursors for many later rom-com scenes. I recognised so many scenes here that were copied in shows like My Girl , Goong , etc. (For all I know, maybe this show copied those ideas from elsewhere.) The show also has practically all the elements you would expect in K drama - rich family versus poorer family, blind dates and match making, best friends, one girl and two suit...

From kids to coffee prices

So after the so-called monk, I went back to chick lit and finished Rowan Coleman's The Accidental Mother pretty fast. Nowadays, I'm not all that hopeful about chick lit but this book, about Sophie who ended up having to take care of her late best friend's young daughters, turned out to be quite a good departure from the usual formula. Except for the ending. But what to do, it's chick lit what. At least the plot was interesting and there were some strongly emotional and meaningful 'scenes' between Sophie and the girls. I was surprised to find such depth in chick lit. And so now, I am reading Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist . Not my usual type of book but I was attracted by its cover and blurb, ha ha. This is a really good book. I am enjoying every page of it, which is much more than I can say for the Lim Chong Yah and another purple textbook (or was it orange?) we had for econs in the days of yore. With all due respect to Mr Lim and the purple textbo...

Life and death

Added on 7 Nov: I realise that it wasn't the Archbishop but the media that made the church's stand public. ---------------------------------------------------------------- So, our Archbishop has made public our stand on euthanasia . No doubt, this will open us up to some battering by other people's opinions. But never mind, lah, we are used to it. I wonder if we will see some day soon another historic day in parliament when the party whip is lifted and MPs can vote according to their conscience (as they did in 1969 ? for the Abortion Bill)... Don't say no one warned us about the slippery slope from abortion to euthanasia... It's a debate on the same continuum (or slope) , isn't it?