The Beauty of Simplicity

`` my daily journey. [#] `-

Monday, 28 January 2008

This song - Say Anything by X-Japan, is my current favourite.

!!! X-Japan - Say Anything !!!

zawameki dake ga kokoro wo sashite
kikoenai mune no toiki
toki wo wasurete motome samayou
takanaru omoi nurashite

Run away from reality I've been crying in the dream
ka'ri tsuita toki ni furuete
yugande mienai kioku kasaneru
kanashimi ga kieru made

* You say anything kizutsuke au kotoba demo
Say anything tachikirenai kokoro ni
You say anything Just tell me all your sweet lies
Say anything enji kirenai kokoro ni

If I can go back to where I've been
yume no naka ni dake ikite
owaranai ame ni nureru
nagareru namida wo hakujitsu yume ni somete

You say anything Whatever you like to say to me
Say anything You leave me out of my eyes
You say anything All I can hear is voice from dream
Say anything You can dry my every tear

akari no kieta On the stage hitori mitsumete
ta'risugita hibi ni dakareru
kowashite kure nani mo ka mo kazatta ai mo
toki no suna ni kieru made

*

Close your eyes
and I'll kill you in the rain
kirei ni koroshi aeba
za'ka no bara ni umoreta
shijin no namida wa kioku ni nagasarete

Time may change my life
But my heart remains the same to you
Time may change your heart
My love for you never changes

You say anything kizutsuke au kotoba demo
Say anything tachi kirenai kokoro ni

You say anything... Say anything
Now you've gone away
Where can I go from here?
Say anything... Say anything...

Light my path
4:19:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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New Miss America Once Battled Anorexia

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 27, 7:44 PM ET

LAS VEGAS - Just three years ago, newly crowned Miss America Kirsten Haglund was eating tiny portions of food and became so thin her concerned parents "dragged me to the doctor."

Haglund was diagnosed with anorexia, and the lack of nutrition caused her collar bones to stick out, her heart rate to drop and her relationships to suffer.

"I would feel fatigued walking up six stairs," the 19-year-old Haglund said Sunday, a day after being crowned Miss America 2008. "I was a completely different person. It's not a pretty sight."

Haglund plans to spend her yearlong reign, trying to raise awareness of eating disorders, promoting the pagaent and helping the Children's Miracle Network while maintaining a healthy lifestyle and exercise.

To win her crown, the Farmington Hills, Mich., native sang "Over the Rainbow" and walked a crowd-pleasing strut in a black and gold bikini to clinch the title.

"You have to have curves," she said proudly. "You can't look like a stick-thin model."

The aspiring Broadway star even ate the silver medallion chocolates left on her pillow in her suite at the host site, the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

"Yes, oh my gosh, yes," she said. "I love chocolate. Chocolates are a girl's best friend."

The 5-foot 8-inch blonde said she doesn't disclose her weight to avoid setting standards for youths obsessed with getting lighter.

She said she stopped pursuing her dream to become a professional ballerina to escape an environment in which she was rewarded for being slim and an industry that Haglund said sweeps concerns about eating disorders under the rug.

The National Eating Disorders Association estimates eating disorders affect 10 million girls and women and about 1 million boys and men in the United States.

Haglund's job begins right away, and on Sunday she caught a plane to New York for a Monday interview on "Live With Regis and Kelly."

While the teen said she wasn't about to "let myself go," she didn't plan to skip any meals over her crowning year.

"I'm going to enjoy my food," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080128/ap_on_re_us/miss_america

Light my path
4:11:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Friday, 25 January 2008

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You Are Beautiful

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw you face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw you face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

Light my path
1:35:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Tuesday, 22 January 2008

It was a fantastic meal today. my colleague & I had Korean food at Far East Plaza's basement 1. The food is simply great. Two thumbs up.

If you are interested, you can make your way down there. I kind of forgot the name of the restaurant, but, it is the only Korean eatery located at Basement 1. The set lunch is $10, exclusive of service charge & GST. It comes with a main dish, 6 side dishes, 1 bowl of seaweed soup, 4 slices of fruits and a bowl of rice.

Really worth the money.

Try it!!

Light my path
4:08:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Forced Annulment Keeps Couple Apart

By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 20, 4:14 PM ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.

It was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.

That was just the beginning of an ordeal for a couple who — under Saudi Arabia's strict segregation rules — can no longer live together. They sued to reverse the ruling, publicized their story and sought help from a Saudi human rights group.

But the two remain apart and Fatima said she is considering suicide if her recent appeal to King Abdullah does not reunite her with her husband.

"Only the king can resolve my case," Fatima told The Associated Press by telephone in a rare interview. "I want to return to my husband, but if that is not possible, I need to know so I can put an end to my life."

Fatima's case underscores shortcomings in the kingdom's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

Recently, the king did intervene and pardon another high-profile defendant — a rape victim who was sentenced to lashes and jail time for being in a car with a man who was not her relative.

The two cases have brought Saudi human rights once again into the international spotlight, revealing not only the weakness of the kingdom's justice system, but the scant rights of Saudi women.

"When I heard that the (rape victim) was pardoned, I couldn't believe it. My case is so much simpler than hers, since my divorce is invalid," Fatima said.

Fatima said her husband, a hospital administrator, followed Saudi tradition in asking her father for permission to marry her in 2003.

"My brother reported good things about him, so my dad accepted his proposal," said Fatima, a computer specialist who was 29 when she married.

She said her father knew that Mansour came from a less prominent tribe than hers, but that he did not mind because he "cared about the man himself."

A few months after the wedding, several of Fatima's relatives, including a half brother, persuaded her father to give them power of attorney to file a lawsuit demanding an annulment, she said.

Then her father died, and Fatima said she had hoped the case would be dropped.

But on Feb. 25, 2006, police knocked on the couple's door to serve Mansour with divorce papers — which said his marriage had been annulled nine months earlier.

"We were shattered. How did this happen? Why?" Fatima asked.

Under Saudi law, a woman needs the permission of her family to marry.

Saudi lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, who used to represent the couple, said local interpretations of Islamic law hold that relatives of a married couple have the right to seek an annulment if they feel the marriage lowers the extended family's status.

He said authorities are reluctant to overrule such annulment orders, believing they are private matters within extended families.

Fatima took the couple's 2-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son to live with her mother, who had persuaded her to let Mansour deal with the legal issues on his own.

But after three months without her husband, Fatima and the children sneaked out of her mother's house and flew with Mansour to the western seaside city of Jiddah, where they sought to live in anonymity.

Saudi police soon discovered them and imprisoned the family for living together illegally.

"The police told me I either return to my (mother's) family or go to jail," Fatima said. "I chose jail."

"My children and I were thrown in a cell with women sentenced for pushing drugs, practicing witchcraft and behaving immorally," Fatima said. Authorities allowed her to send her daughter back to live with her father, but the infant stayed with Fatima in jail.

"He learned to speak in jail, he learned to walk in jail and his teeth came out in jail," she said.

Meanwhile, Mansour went to court to appeal the divorce ruling, but a Riyadh appeals court upheld the decision in 2007.

Last September, the head of a prominent Saudi human rights group reportedly asked the kingdom's highest court to review the case.

Bandar al-Hajjar, head of the National Society of Human Rights, submitted two Islamic studies concluding that the divorce was invalid, according to the Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily.

The studies, conducted by Islamic researcher Adnan Al-Zahrani and Bassam Al-Bassam, a counselor at the Court of Cassation in Mecca, said that if a woman's legal guardian represented her at the original wedding, then other relatives have no right to object to the marriage based on compatibility.

Both studies concluded that Fatima married Mansour with her father's permission, and that only the wife can decide whether she wants her marriage annulled, the paper reported.

Despite their legal fight, Fatima and Mansour remain apart.

After nine months in jail, Fatima moved to an orphanage where she and her son share an apartment with several other women.

Fatima said she is holding out hope the king might pardon her, and recognize her as "married to Mansour, before God."

"I love him more than ever. He's the only one who has stood by me," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_forced_divorce

Light my path
11:05:00 am

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Thursday, 10 January 2008

A Corpse, A Check, A Bizarre NYC Crime

By TOM HAYS and CLARE TRAPASSO, Associated Press Writers

NEW YORK - Detective Travis Rapp has seen his share of corpses, but this was new: two men wheeling a rigid, pale body down a Manhattan street in a red office chair, drawing a crowd of suspicious onlookers.

Looking out the window of the restaurant where he was having lunch, Rapp initially assumed "it was a mannequin or a dummy," he said. "I thought it was a joke, honestly."

A closer inspection showed that it wasn't. The man was dead, and two of his friends had hauled his corpse to a store to cash his $355 Social Security check, police said. They were arrested before they could get the money.

The bedraggled suspects, David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare, were scheduled to appear in court Wednesday night. Police said the men, both 65, were petty criminals with long histories of heroin addiction and arrests dating to the 1960s.

The trouble began Tuesday when Dalaia and O'Hare tried to cash Virgilio Cintron's check at a store in Hell's Kitchen on their own, police said. The man at the counter told them that Cintron had to be present to cash the check, so they went back to his apartment, which one of the suspects shared with the dead man.

Cintron was apparently undressed when he died, sometime within the previous 24 hours. Police said Dalaia and O'Hare proceeded to dress him in a faded T-shirt, pants they could only get up part way, and a pair of Velcro sneakers. They threw a coat over his waist to conceal what the pants couldn't cover, police said.

They then put him on the office chair and wheeled the corpse over to the check-cashing store.

The men left Cintron's body outside, went inside and tried to cash his check, authorities said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him.

At about the same time, Rapp spotted the men and confronted them as they were trying to haul the body into the store. He said that even after he identified himself as a police officer, O'Hare told him, "I have to get my friend in here. I have to cash his check."

He ordered the men to back away from the victim. They feigned surprise when paramedics declared him dead, Rapp said.

"When they said, 'Your friend is dead,' they said, 'Oh my God, he's gone?'"

The scene played out on a busy Manhattan street as several people watched.

"I saw this guy sitting in this chair with his head back. He looked very dead," said Victor Rodriguez, 38, who was working at a nearby restaurant when he saw the commotion outside. "He looked very sick. His eyes were closed. He wasn't moving."

Little is known about Cintron, 66, who apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy proved inconclusive, the medical examiner's office said, and his body hadn't been positively identified as of Wednesday afternoon.

Relatives told police that he had recently been hospitalized for Parkinson's disease. Police said his rap sheet was long, with arrests for burglary, assault and drugs. Locals said that Cintron and O'Hare often frequented a food pantry down the street.

A telephone number listed for Cintron at the apartment he shared with O'Hare went unanswered. Police said they didn't have an address for Dalaia or attorney information for him or O'Hare.

Regardless of what happens to the defendants, they can take solace in the fact that they fooled one onlooker with the dead man disguise.

"He went in regular clothes. I didn't even know he was dead. I thought he was alive," said Gerit Ahemed, a clerk at a nearby deli.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_re_us/dead_man_s_check;_ylt=Ak5Fcz8h9Q_NwmoYMRn6hTxH2ocA

Light my path
9:55:00 am

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Wednesday, 9 January 2008

Jan 9, 2008

Chauffeur Service Offers 8m Super-stretch Limo

By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

Rental starts from $350 an hour, with champagne thrown in. -- PHOTOS: (ST) DESMOND WEE, WWW.KRYSTAL-LIMOUSINES.COM

IT IS so long that the driver arrives a couple of seconds before the passengers.
Presenting the Chrysler 300, Singapore's longest passenger car, which measures a tad over 8 metres - or nearly 2m longer than the previous record holder, the Maybach 62.

In fact, its wheelbase alone is almost as long as the Maybach.

Restaurant and hospitality group IndoChine's chief executive Michael Ma has acquired the car to rent to people who must arrive in stye.

It will accommodate eight in the rear, where passengers can help themselves to a mini bar or watch movies on the plasma TV system.

'It is a moving lounge,' said Mr Ma, 40. 'You should see the reaction of people who see it on the street.'

Mr Ma, who said the car costs 'more than half a million dollars', will be acquiring 'a few more' units.

He is marketing the high-end chauffeur service under Lotus Limousines.

Rental starts from $350 an hour, with champagne thrown in.

But Lotus Limousines is now planning to bring in something even more outrageous - a stretch Hummer that measures between 8.5m and 9m, and which can be outfitted to look like a disco on wheels.

Demand for such an ostentatious mode of commute is expected to grow when Formula One roars into town in September, and when the high-rollers fly in to visit the integrated resorts from 2009.

Mr Ma's first monument on wheels has a 3.5-litre Mercedes-Benz engine, and is based on the Chrysler 300C. Built in Britain, the car has a generous middle section added to it.

Those who want to book the car can contact Lotus Limousines, which Mr Ma is a shareholder of.

Ditto those who want a job as a chauffeur of the behemoth.

Applicants must have a Class 4 driving licence (for lorries) - because the car weighs 2.6 tonnes, which exceeds the 2.5-tonne limit for Class 3 licence.

Light my path
10:19:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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ISEAS 40TH ANNIVERSARY

A gracious Singapore? Not in my lifetime: MM

He says cultivating social graces will take longer compared to environmental consciousness

By Li Xueying

IT TAKES TIME: Mr Lee said he hoped a gracious society 'will come with cultivated living over a long period of time'. -- ST PHOTO: TERENCE TAN

ENVIRONMENTAL consciousness among Singaporeans will come about very quickly when they realise how they will be in trouble when changes in the climate take place.
But attaining a gracious society will take more time, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on Monday at a dialogue marking the 40th anniversary of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Iseas).

In fact, he believes it will not happen in his lifetime.

'I will not see it, maybe you will live long enough to see it; I wish you well,' he told 48-year-old economics academic Euston Quah to laughter from the audience of diplomats, academics and government leaders.

Dr Quah had asked a question about Singapore's progress in terms of social graces and environmental consciousness just as the country succeeds economically.

The issue he raised was among a host of subjects brought up by the audience, from the situation in Myanmar to the rise of China and India.

In his reply, Mr Lee said a gracious society will not happen so fast. 'I think it will take more time to develop and mature culturally as a people.'

Even the British, he said, were 'sitting at a very high level over an empire for nearly 150 years before they developed their culture and then being invaded by football hooligans and foreigners who are now joining them and coarsening their society'.

'So it's very difficult to get a rough society onto a cultivated plane and it's very easy to bring it down,' he concluded.

Environmental consciousness, on the other hand, will come very quickly 'when something happens and they say, you do that, your whole environment changes and you are in trouble'.

On the other hand, the idea of a gracious society - 'where people are considerate to one another, where you don't make more noise to upset your neighbour than you need to, where you tell the other motorist, please have the right of way' - was 'harder to come by', said Mr Lee.

'It will take time, but I hope it will come with cultivated living over a long period of time.'

Mr Lee recalled how, 45 years ago, Singaporeans wanted to take their chickens with them when they were resettled from kampungs into high-rise flats.

'So it took some time to get them adjusted. A more cultivated way of life takes a very long time,' he said.

xueying@sph.com.sg

Light my path
10:07:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Your Personality Type is Romantic

You are an idealistic person who treasures personal relationships. Emotional and easily swept off your feet, you enjoy surprises and are always eager to explore new opportunities for love. If your needs and desires are met, you are loyal, devoted and faithful. Romantic personalities are often expressive and have a flair for charming others because of their optimistic attitude.

Light my path
2:57:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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" You spend all your time waiting for that second chance. Then when you finally get it, you hesitate. Everyone is like that."

" But if you do take the chance then you're stronger then you think."

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3527440/3/Falling

The above quotes impacted me a few months back, when I read them. Now, they are impacting me even more, as true to the first quote, my chance is here. I do not know if it is my second chance or not, but a chance is a chance.

I've been talking about joining an airline as a cabin crew. Talking and thinking, with no actions. I didn't go for the interview with SIA when I saw their advertisement a few months back. More than a few months, I think. At that time, I was afraid. Afraid of failure, of the blow, should I get rejected. I am afraid that with my looks and body, I am not the kind of staff they want. I am worried that I will not do well at the interview, that I do not know how to present myself. I am afraid that I am not they want, that I will never be good enough for such a prestigious airline. I am just an average person. I am a plain Jane. With no remarkable looks or body. Without an interesting and clever mind. And without a sparkling personality. I am greyish. A dull grey square.

With all that, how can I ever hope to get into SIA - considered one of the world's best airline?

At that time, I thought of all that and resolved not to try to get in. For I'd only suffer the greatest disappointment and a crushing letdown. In addition, at that time, I told myself I wasn't ready. I am not slim enough.

With that, I simply exited SIA's website.

Now, once again, I am presented with an opportunity - SIA is recruiting. This is my second or third or fourth chance. I still have all the above-mentioned fears, concerns and insecurities. And more of them now. A lot more. But Angeline is right. She reminded me that I can't wait anymore. When I get older, they will not want me.

I still have tonnes, gallons of fears. They are so stifling, suffocating. But, I simply can't pass up this chance anymore. Time is not on my side anymore. It is against me. Youth is slipping me by. It is now or never. If I do not try out now, I can't try out anymore.

Nevertheless, I am so very insecure. Mountains and mountains of fears are pressing down on me. I can't shift my body. I am having difficulty breathing.

I worry over what to wear. Angeline suggested formal wear. I agree, but formal wear is boring. She said that flowery skirts are a no-no. So there goes my plans of wearing that nice flowery skirt. But still, I am thinking, I want to dress formal and nice. Without being formal, plain and boring, you know.

I was hoping that I can start off my interviews with other airlines. Start off slow and steady, then try for SIA. But, it has to be SIA at the first stop!!!
Rarrrrrr...

Why??

Why can't I start small?

Why must my first stop be Mount Everest? SIA seems insurmountable.

How can little old me ever hope to qualify?

I am seriously not ready. I am not mentally nor physically prepared. Yet, as I mentioned earlier, I am not getting any younger. Ready or not, I have to go.

Frankly, I am not holding my breath. My chances of getting in, is almost nil. It is demoralizing, sad, but true. I had hoped for a few more months, so that I can be slimmer. Be more prepared. so that if I fail, (I wanted to put 'when I fail', but decided that I shouldn't think that way, even if I am thinking that way. When a person use 'when', it is a certainity that some thing will happen. It is only a matter of when. For my morale's sake, I will not use 'when', but I will use 'if'.); at least I won't wonder, is it because I am not prepared enough? Not slim enough?

But nevertheless, I will charge ahead. Insecurities and all.

To add to that, I worry about other stuff, like swimming. Do I have to swim without goggles? I think that is a 'yes', right? You don't really have the time for goggles when the plane is falling or has malfunctioned.

Boy, I am such a worrier. I think and agonize too much. So much that it is ridiculous.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

- Matthew 6:34

"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

- Luke 12:11-12

Though I will not exactly be brought before a panel of judges or in the courtroom, the above verses speak to me too.

Light my path
9:02:00 am

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Saturday, 5 January 2008

No way, man.

I am straight out against cloning. What more to say about products from cloned animals?

Cloning is simply against nature. Alright, to put a fine line on it, it'd be cloning of humans and animals which I am against. Including organs.

Such things are simply not done.

Light my path
11:11:00 am

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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US Regulators Set to Approve Cloned Meat, Milk

AFP - Saturday, January 5NEW YORK (AFP) - - The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring safe to eat as early as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The federal agency decision would come after more than six years of deliberation on the issue, the newspaper said, without naming its sources.

FDA spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings told AFP that the food agency "is still working to finalize our risk assessment activities" and that it could not say when the process would be complete.

The FDA ruled in 2006 that milk and meat from cloned cattle, swine and goats were no different from healthy, conventionally bred animals, but has asked producers not to sell products from cloned animals pending a safety ruling.

It previously described cloning as a more advanced form of breeding technology already used in the cattle industry, such as artificial insemination, embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization, the Journal said.

Even if the agency does approve such products, it could be three to five years before US consumers see milk and meat from offspring of cloned animals on store shelves, the newspaper said.

It said that because cloned cattle cost 15,000 to 20,000 dollars per copy, most cloned animals would be used for breeding.

A green light from the FDA would be a milestone for biotech companies that want to center their business on producing copies of prize dairy cows and other farm animals, it added.

Meat or dairy products from cloned animals or their offspring would however likely face deep-seated opposition from consumers groups, some of whom still routinely refer to foods such as genetically-modified corn as "Frankenfood."

"Most consumers do not find this appealing," the paper quoted Marguerite Copel, from Dean Foods Co., one of the top US milk producers, as saying, adding that the company would not sell milk from cloned animals.

The paper said consumer wariness could also lead to a backlash from opponents in US Congress and markets such as the European Union over concerns that it is too early to say for sure if food from cloned animals is safe.

Further concerns center on the higher number of health problems that cloned animals tend to experience at birth, compared to conventionally-bred animals.

The US food industry was divided on the issue, the paper said, with some big food companies saying they are not interested in products from cloned animals or their offspring, while others are actively exploring the possibilities.

Some in the meat industry consider that consumers would come to prefer products from cloned animals, given leaner and larger cuts of meat, it said.

"These animals are not some kind of freaks of nature," James Hodges, president of The American Meat Institute Foundation told the newspaper.

The European Food Safety Authority, the European Union's equivalent of the FDA, would likely deliver its own initial assessment on food from cloned animals next week, but a final decision was not expected for months, it added.

Regulators in countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Japan and New Zealand, which already have livestock clones, although they rarely enter the food chain, would be closely watching the FDA decision, the paper said.

A special European ethics commission was also conducting its own studies on the question of whether cloning is inhumane, it added.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080104/tts-us-food-farm-biotech-972e412.html

Light my path
11:05:00 am

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Samurai Deeper Kyo

Light my path
3:55:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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I am thoroughly and utterly bored.

ZZZZzzz.

Witness me fall splat on my table and start snoring.

Lol.

There is practically nothing to do at work.

Since I am so free (and bored), I shall update on how my last day of 2007 & first day of 2008 went.

It was a half day on New Year's Eve. We only found that out when a colleague was telling us that it was a half day. No one else knew about it until he told us. Upon hearing that, quite a lot of people zoomed out of the office, faster than I could blink. I left around 1330. We had a company lunch which consisted of pizza, sushi, fried rice, fried bee hoon, KFC's chicken and whipped potatoes, curry chicken, sake, beer, coke, ice-lemon tea and pepsi. After which, we had a lucky draw or some thing, to give away the hampers. Winners who had their names drawn by their department's head had to kiss, hug or do some other things to their boss. A few of us were rather put out by that, as it seemed rather juvenile and lame. Most of the men were cheering and egging the others on, behaving rather appallingly, like animals. The latter was added by a colleague of mine. He said most men are animals.

Lol.

Anyway, by the time all food and 'fun' were gone, it was around 15 minutes past 1. We settled down back to work; only to rush out of that place 10 minutes later after hearing that it was a half day.

After tidying up the registers, I left and headed towards Kinokuniya to pick up the set of Samurai Deeper Kyo which I'd ordered. Along the way, some thing strange happened.
I remembered thinking that it was rather windy and thought I felt a pull on my skirt. Brushing it off as I didn't think that anyone would dare to pull anyone's skirt, I walked on, only to be stopped by a young girl. I don't think she pulled my skirt or any thing. It must be the wind. Anyway, this girl, she should be in her teens. She stopped me and said she is from an agency. She handed me her name card. I was in a stage of confusion and just blankly accepted it and looked at her, wondering what she wanted. Actually, I wasn't clear about she said either. She didn't say much, just told me there is a screening or screen test for SKII and wanted my name, age and number. Rather surprised, I just gave them to her and left after she told me that they will give me a call.

It all seems rather weird and surreal.

Ha..of course I am not conceited nor shameless enough to think that I am so pretty till some one asked me to go for some screening. Not implying that others are conceited or shamless. Just that I know my limitations thus I do not hold any hopes nor illusions that the girl thought I was pretty. I think they are just gathering people for some thing. Or to do some testing? Besides, the name card that the girl gave me, had her name handwritten on the printed card. Plus the girl is really young, looked like 16. Putting two and two together, I came to the conclusion that it is nothing big. Nor important.

I continued on to Kinokuniya, picked up my manga and bought a set of colour pencils and a soft toy for Josiah and Kayla. After getting the colour pens gift wrapped, I lugged back two bags of books.

It was almost 1600 by the time I reached my place. After putting down my stuff and washing up, I had a 2 hours nap.

After waking up, I showered, changed and put on some light make-up before going to meet up with Cassandra and Boh at the push cart.

Together with Tracie, the 4 of us stuffed ourselves silly with the big box of sushi that Cassandra bought from Sakae Sushi. The food was yummy and the company great. I think, in the 2.5 years of working for Cassandra, that last night at J8's Funky B, was the most relaxed and closest I had ever been to her. Not the physical sense, but rather, in the emotional sense. Finally, it has all ended. That was the closing down of our very first branch. It must have been hard for Cassandra and Boh. From what I'd seen on Sunday, I think Josiah is quite affected by it. It is sad, but it is time for a break for Cassandra, plus the management at J8, they are getting way overboard with their restrictions.

It was around 2200 by the time we moved every thing to Cassandra and Boh's car. It was a rather wistful good bye. Who knows when we will meet again? Though I can always drop by Funky B's branches in Paya Lebar or Adam Road.

Tracie, Gracie and I waited around and helped Yan Ping to close shop. After dallying around, we stood and chatted with Yan Ping while she had a smoke near the MRT station. By the time I got back, it was almost midnight.

I spent the next 5 hours speed reading through the manga - Samurai Deeper Kyo. It was almost 5am by the time I went to bed.

The next time I woke up, it was almost noon and New Year's Day. After washing up, I sat down in front of the television and ate the packet of Nasi Lemak that my father said was for me. I spent the entire day reading my manga and a couple of hours on the Net.

Light my path
2:33:00 pm

youdrovemydarknessaway`-//*

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