a Journey

Words can be one of the most powerful things around.

A word of encouragement, a timely word, can make a person's day. Words of cheer can bring joy and goodwill; it can give strength and bring a whole new sense of hope to a previously doomed situation.

Words born of selfishness and pride can cut deep and scar, even after the wounds have closed.

Help!

The mid-terms for Modern History is this Friday. And so far, the only productive thing I've done preparing for it was to read off other people's notes. My concetration has dried up; it's as close to a prune as can be. :| *bah*

I need...

-Study partners?

-I don't know.

Feel free to share study tips with me for all I can dream of is sleeping, shopping and chillin' out. *smacks self* Argh!

The week break has ended, and here I am sitting in the school's lab with a mountain of work looming in the future. A mountain of work looming in the future; that is so deja vu. A week can be an amazingly short or long period of time, depending on what lies ahead. In the course of the week, I have:

• Changed my entire look. All thanks to a great haircut from the stylist at REDS at Bugis(Singapore). Well, during the course of today, I've had plenty of comments. I'm not sure how nice I look right now, for lack of a better word. But, the comments have been coming... and y'know what I realised? I LIKE change. Change, no matter how minor does help to add a lil' spring to your steps. :) (Maybe that's how the reasoning for retail therapy goes: buying something new=a minor change to your wardrobe=happy me!)
• Taken my appreciation of all the gurls I have in my life, and the family that I can call mine, to a whole new level. I guess it was the night I went out with people I thought I could call my friends, and realised that I'd been wrong all along. It is when you don't know what everyone knows; the awkward moments of silence and sudden new discoveries... Moments like this jolt you into the fact that you are NOT a part of the everyone. I have come to learn just how precious, how rare, genuine trustworthy friends are. And all that I have now, I will hold close and treasure dearly.
• Been given hope that my baby boy may return to me! I want to walk down Orchard with him; go tanning at East Coast; drag him for makeovers at Topshop; cuddle with hot kopi to a good ol' sitcom... I miss those, and I've been missing them for the past 10 months plus. It'd be lovely to be able to have that (again). Finally. :)

Yesterday, whilst indulging in a bit of retail therapy, a dear gurlfriend and I came across this BONDS singlet which has some sort of thrmoplast thingy which allows it to change color when heated; i.e. in the sun.

Me: Hey, check this out, it can change colour in the sun!

Gurlfriend: Ooh really?! That's so cool. Lemme try!

*proceeds to place said singlet in between her 2 hands and presses them together tightly.

Me: ... ...

What would I do without my gurls! :)

It's the hols this week, and I can't hardly wait for the extra time off class that I can claim as mine! *whee* I can't hardly wait for the coffee chill out sessions! *twirls*

Oh, was reading FEMALE yesterday, and under the health section it said this:

Coffee drinkers have been found to be more sexually active than non-coffee drinkers. One of the reasons given is the fact that coffee is a form of aphrodisiac! Yummilicious! but, too much coffee will kill the libido (men and women alike) simply cos' caffeinne is a depressant in copious amounts! So, tis a fine line to be threading if you're looking for a bedroom booster! ;)

What has really warmed me since the departure of Fir to Melbourne, the posting of DH to Alabama, and the impending going of Fay to Melbourne again is this:

• Cheryl Chan's shoulder to cry on (literally). I now realise what a truly sweet friend that I have in her. She helped to hold my world together when I fell and could not stand. Instead of forcing me to stand when I wasn't ready, she just held me close and sat on the ground with me, giving me my space and time to deal. For your patience and your love, thanks gurl. You rawk.
• Fay, as always. Thanks for reaching out to me. Your care and concern for me helped me to remember that no matter where we went, you'd be my bestie and that the (psychic!) connection would stay. It's hard being apart from you, but I guess, the fact that we're still best friends and you know my deepest darkest secrets, distance or not... that says something gurl. *hugs*
• Those who were at the pizza party! Xiaofen, Dong, Helmiee, Shunyi-- y'all made me laugh when I thought I wasn't able to. Thanks for helping me realise that I would be able to laugh, no matter what, cos of friends like you.
• Shal-- your company as always, helped to make life more bearable. Just chillin' out with you over meals and what not helped to keep some form of normalcy during the days when I thought I could not go on.
• And all the lovely people who told me I looked pretty todaY! *twirls in her baby doll top* Um, I've learnt that brown is my color. Well, even my roomie complimented me! Good note to keep in mind, I think when shopping! ;)

I thought that I was strong enough, that I was already "used to it," like Amanda said. I thought wrong. The moment Fir called when I was on the MRT, whatever strong front I had just crumbled. How can anyone ever get used saying goodbye to the people who are closest to them? I don't know how I thought I could smile as I said farewell to my bro. I must have been delusional. It's so hard to try to get on with life as usual, knowing that tomorrow's different from today cos I've one less person here in Singapore with me. Know what broke my defense? When Fir made me realise that I had to turn to someone else now. Simply cos he's not gonna be here anymore to help me thru' all my nights gone wild... being my listening ear, my voice of pragmatism and reason, keeper of my secrets (bimbotic as they may be). Basically, he's not here anymore. Things are going to be different, but come what may, I am thankful for the years I had my bro back. Those were crazy-fun-memorable times. Thanks Fir, and I wish you happiness in Melbourne.  :)

The Danish cartoons reflected the personal impressions/opinions of 12 individuals who were asked to express their personal take on Islam. I believe in the freedom of expression: these people were free to draw whatever they wished of their impression of Islam. I believe each of us was born with the innate ability and right to freedom: to think and thus form opinions is an aspect of our freedom.

The sticky part then, is where then does this freedom of expression end?

I will not condemn Jyllands-Posten (the Danish paper), and say that they were wrong to publish the cartoons,  because it would be an encroachment of their rights of a free press and the usual satirical nature of these sort of cartoons. Yet, having the freedom to do something does not mean that the subject in question is the best option for everyone. Was it ignorance that the Danish paper did not know that the Prophet Muhammad was not meant to be portrayed in any form? Or did they choose to ignore that fact and exercise their right to freedom of speech? I honetly do not know.

In the end, the personal opnions of these individuals and the consequent outrage and reactions worldwide have reflected deep-seated issues which have yet to be addressed in communities around the world.

Firstly, I do not see the link between Danish cartoons on Prophet Muhammad and Iran's Hamshahi declaring that it wants to satirize the Holocaust(!).The Holocaust was a genocide of the Jews. (How did we move from Danes to Jews again?) How then does a grevious insult put it on the same plane as the atrocities of WW2 Hitler? The insult was not planned and caluclated to bring about the greatest possible harm, or rather deaths and torture (although it has brought about much harm), it was a thought, it was happenstance. How can the memories and lives lost during the Holocaust be mocked and ridiculed based on 12 individuals' personal opinons?

A mistake was made. The paper was blunt and oafish about expressing the opinions of those 12 cartoonists, yes, that is true. Yet it is the opinons of 12 individuals, for which they themselves are responsible for. And no, I do not mean killing them for holding such opinons. The rest of the world need not "pay for their sins" and I certainly do not see how threatening jihad on the lives of Danes is justified. 

To be peaceful is to be tolerant and patient. To gain respect, one must first learn to respect. Many who riot say that they do so because they feel that their religon has not been given the respect it deserves. That is true. Yet, how can such actions convince the masses, who have no contact or interaction with Muslims in their community, otherwise? These are not moral gudings, just a reflection of the mechanisms of human nature.