They qualify for tax cuts apparently. Not much though, only a measly $500 MILLION a year. That's according to this TheAge article. The article only mentioned churches but is there any tax cut for Muslim mosques or Buddist temples? If there isn't, there would be a public outcry so I reckon the other religions get some kind of tax cut too.
I suppose Gmail has been a thorn in the eye of Yahoo mail and Hotmail for quite some time. Hell, if I were them I would love to squash the competition when it starts too. I must say I love Gmail. I love its look, its spam guard and its 2GB and growing capacity (even though I never will use up that much, what do people do with their 2GB mailbox I wonder? Store music? back up their USB key?). Well, Gmail is still not very popular at the moment. The big guys like Yahoo and Hotmail are still, um, big. Come on people get a Gmail mail box and give it a try in the spirit of supporting the underdog.
For me, Spiderman has always been the best superhero. But not after this. Oh how I mourn the once great super hero.
Questions courtesy of Ritha K. This is quite fun actually, just put my ipod, which holds approximately 2500 songs on shuffle and ask a question. Whatever song title came up became the answer. Easy!
However, some of the answers are seriously weird. The stuff in the <> brackets are my attempted interpretation of the answers
How do my friends see me?
dark waltz - hayley westenera
What is my best friend's theme song?
square one - coldplay
What is/was highschool like?
moonlight (presto) - Beethoven
What should I do with my life?
Ourselves - Ayumi Hamasaki
What is my signature dancing song?
Je pense a toi - Francois Michael
What do you think my current theme song is?
How does it feel? - Avril Lavigne
you might not be aware but I'm an atheist. A newly turned atheist. Previously I was a Catholic, a half-baked one in fact. Since I had my first confession, I've had skepticism about god and my religion and that [my first confession] was a long time ago. Anyway, I made up my mind about being an atheist a while ago and I wanted to read some literature about Atheism. My first stop: the local library. The search for "atheist" returned a book and believe it or not its title is "God: the evidence: the reconciliation of faith and reason in a postsecular world". Now this seems to me a blatant attempt at discouraging people from finding out about atheism. Why do they have stacks of books on religions like Hindu, Muslim and Protestant when there is none on the subject of Atheism??
So first stop didn't give any results, I had to search the Internet for what I want and what a surprise it was. There are hundreds and thousands of atheist websites. Not all of them are good but hey, that's an improvement from the library.
I'm leaving you with a quote I found on one of the websites. Don't you think it's so true?
Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
--Oscar Wilde
Yeah, it's that time of the year again. The start of me wondering should I turn on the TV or not. Big Brother's started. And the new season looks just as dumb as ever. There's a world first. I'm not sure what exactly it is. Maybe it's the fact that there're a mother and daughter in the house. What's next, the whole family?? And within the 30 mind-numbing minutes that I watched it, the female contestants have checked each other boob jobs out and feel each other boobs (shivers). And please don't ask why I watched this for 3o minutes. I did say it was mind-numbing. I was paralyzed, I couldn't get my fingers to push any button to change the channel. And no I didn't have any intention to watch it in the first place (I was waiting for the comedy festival gala) and I will definitely NOT watch it ever again.
And not to mention what the heck Gretel (where's Hansel) Killeen wore yesterday. Striped shirt with an ORANGE tie!!! This woman belongs in, I don't know, shows for people with mid-life crisis, not for young people. Come on Ten, change the host at least.
I came to school at 7.30 am today. You know the drill, save money on public transport by tagging along with my mum who works near my uni. Anyway. I came at 7.30. Hung around the cafe for an hour waiting for the computer lab to open. At 8.00 am it finally opened. Went online, check my mail and I got this email with the title "important". Take a look at it, I've censored out 1 letter but you bright people definitely will make sense of it.
-Sensattional revolution in medicine!
-Enlarge your pen*s up to 10 cm or up to 4 inches!
-It's herbal solution what hasn't side effect, but has 100% guaranted
results!
-Don't lose your chance and but know wihtout doubts, you will be
i`mpressed with results!
Alright, it's a bit late now and I think everybody's seen that movie "V for Vendetta", the best movie of the year so far. When I saw it I just love that part when V introduces himself to Evey and I found the quote! It has lots and lots of V's. Count them.
Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.
Click on post title to see more quotes.
May be it's just me but are these news headlines hilarious?
Easter Sunday, still in my Easter spirit, well mostly because there is a movie on TV tonight named 'The Ten Commandments' and I'm pretty sure my Granny's gonna watch it even if she doesn't know English.
Anyhow, I realised I don't remember all 10 of the Ten Commandments. I do remember something about don't commit adultery and don't eat too much [gosh, these commandments can never be out of date]. So I went and look for the Ten Commandments [what a good Christian, me], and here it is, this is the text of the commonly accepted commandments found in the book of Exodus:
God spoke all these words, saying: I am God your Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, from the place of slavery. Do not have any other gods before Me. Do not represent [such] gods by any carved statue or picture of anything in the heaven above, on the earth below, or in the water below the land. Do not bow down to [such gods] or worship them. I am God your Lord, a God who demands exclusive worship. Where My enemies are concerned, I keep in mind the sin of the fathers for [their] descendants, to the third and fourth [generation]. But for those who love Me and keep My commandments, I show love for thousands [of generations]. Do not take the name of God your Lord in vain. God will not allow the one who takes His name in vain to go unpunished. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. You can work during the six weekdays and do all your tasks. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God your Lord. Do not do anything that constitutes work. [This includes] you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maid, your animal, and the foreigner in your gates. It was during the six weekdays that God made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. God therefore blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and mother. You will then live long on the land that God your Lord is giving you. Do not commit murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not testify as a false witness against your neighbor. Do not be envious of your neighbor's house. Do not be envious of your neighbor's wife, his slave, his maid, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that is your neighbor's.
I like movies, and I love good movies. Some might hate the movies I love, I can't give a damn. Now, I've tried reviewing a few movie in the past and they didn't go very well, in my opinion, please prove my opinion wrong, I'd love to have my opinion proven wrong this one time.
Anyway, I love good movies, there fore I love this movie: "Kiss kiss bang bang". Now don't let the title of the movie drive you off it. Trust me, this is great. If you like Fight Club and Donnie Darko you'll like this. It's comedy, black comedy so you know it's good. Besides, there's Robert Downey Jr. in it.
The title of the movie did turn me off at first, I must say it is a crappy title of a movie, but 5 no 2 minutes into the movie, I've forgotten my initial hesitation. You'll forget the crappy title after 2 minutes, trust me.
Being born in a Catholic family, you can't help but know what is Easter all about. No it has nothing to do with Easter Bunny or chocolate. It has a lot to do with that Mel Gibson's movie "the Passion". I saw that movie 2 or 3 years ago and I must say coming out of the movie theater that day I felt like I was blessed. Not to say that I don't feel blessed now but I don't feel like a Catholic either. I had my crisis of faith, if you can call it that because it has a lot to do with what the bible says, in year 11. All thanks to that book "the handmaid's tale" by Margaret Atwood. I didn't even finish the book but it did shake my foundation a bit, hell, a lot. Apart from making me question the bible, that book turned me agains dystopia novels. They make me feel uncomfortable.
Ok, back to the topic of Easter. I think I should say I believe there is not God. The universe began with the Big Bang. Before that? We, the universe, was a lump of unstable material(s). Even if there is a God, how can we know that he is the Catholic God or any other religions' Gods? And why does God must have the shape of a man, I mean a Male Homo Sapiens, can't God be a female?
Easter is a time of reflection and I did some today. May be this is the best Easter in my life so far. All the previous Easter was spent half-heartedly attending church services that I hate.
To another Easter related topic. Is Judas a hero? I heard on the radio a few days back that some archeologist found a bible according to Judas. In it, Judas was described as the "hero" because without Judas, Jesus wouldn't be crucified. Talking about painting a flattering picture of yourself. It might be the same with all the other bible versions according to the other disciples. They might be telling the same story but they might have other ulterior motives also, something petty like making them look good for all eternity? Hell, I'm becoming cynical
Well, at least for Nhan only. She knows that I don't play game online partly because of my snail dial up connection. So here's a surprise: I've finally played some thing online and it's highly addictive. Thank god I don't have broadband connection or else I'd end up playing this thing all day everyday and not reading anything.
Alright, I know you are all itching to know what the heck got me hooked so here it is. It's called Polar Jump. I think it's not too complicated I might gonna pull off playing this on my dial up connection but I'm not gonna try. Have fun people.
And for anyone who's a rubik freak like me. Here's a virtual rubik's cube for you to play with in case, like me, you're too lazy to drag your ass to where you put your real rubik's cube.
I was thinking more along the line of what is the worst thing I can say to my sister, who is a dentist in training, that will make her totally freak out. Apart from "I'm gonna go kill myself right this moment" and "I'm gonna get big mac meals for dinner from now on" (coz she's on a no saturated fat, low unsaturated fat, well actually no fat at all and no red meat diet). And I arrived at: "I'm gonna go to sleep with 10 lollipops in my mouth tonight" granted that I'll survive having 10 lollipops in my mouth when I sleep and "I'll never floss again".
So next time your dentist annoys you so much you want to change dentist, after telling him/her what a pathetic dentist he/she has been, tell him/her that you will go to sleep with lollipops, the sugar-full type, not the sugar-free type coz that will defeat the purpose of annoying him/her, seriously, dentists, or maybe just my sister, are obssessed with sugar.
Do you know that you can overdose on Paracetamol? The obvious sign of overdosing is brown urine. Yup, Brown.
And as you can overdose on Paracetamol, you can also die from overdosing on Paracetamol. Usually people who die from overdosing on Paracetamol have green liver. Yes, Green.
So the point is Paracetamol can give you unusual colours if you're overdosing. And it's not like you look at your liver to check if it has unusual colouring anyway.
I was tired, I was distracted and I was in a lecture. What could I do? Try to rear my already distracted mind back towards the lecture or I could spend the whole lecture thinking about stuff? After 1 second I chose the 2nd option.
So having chosen the option, I had to find the "stuff" to think on. And that "stuff" better has nothing to do with the lecture. Hence I arrived at the age-old question of "why is the sky blue?"
Pretty easy when you first think about it. However, the blue of the sky is not, I repeat NOT, a reflection of the blue of the water of the ocean. So why is the sky blue? As always, when in doubt turn to Google. And here it is, the sky is blue because when white light passes through the atmosphere air, which suspends lots of small particles, light is diffracted, ie. bent which gives us the impression that the sky is blue when in fact it is not.
Confused? If yes, well you can google your own answer out of the web or click on the title of the post and it will take you to a site that will explain, which is what I attempted to do, in full details. If no, good!
Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...
Ok, it's the end of Wednesday now. For me this is the start of the weekend already since on Thursday and Friday I have half-days ie can't be counted as full day (duh!). And most importantly I have finished my oral presentation. I know I might sound like a broken record to my friends for saying that I've finished my oral for at least 10 times since 2 pm today but it is so so relaxing when other people have to worry their butts off something you already done. That's why I call my self "evil".
Alright. As stated in the topic. I've just received a letter from Google saying that I can build my homepage or pages now so I'm doing that. It's going pretty slow since I don't have any material to put on that. Thanks to this blog. So if you have any suggestions please leave a comment or email me or do both. Thanks, in advance.
Another project of mine right at this moment is to read my Physiology book, I mean my borrowed physiology book. I was so lost during the histology prac and during that osmolarity business. Seriously, scientist usually make simple stuff complicated. For example osmosis and tonicity. I thought I understood that in year 11 biology, that business with isotonic hypertonic and hypotonic. Well, I understood until they started to introduce molality, yes molality not morality or molarity, and osmolality. So now everything's all messed up until I untangled some of my neurons which was tangled up since yesterday. All thanks to the physiology lecture. And this project has a higher priority than the homepage so it's gonna be a long time until that homepage is up and running.
You know postcards? They're those pretty pictures that people on holiday usually buy and send them to friends to say "hey, I'm in this wonderful place and you suckers are stuck at home doing whatever you're doing". Well, maybe not exactly that but it's usually what I think when I receive one of those postcards. And what's the deal with postcards anyway? Why do you write on the back of it for the whole world to see and post it to your friends?
Whatever! I was browsing in Borders yesterday and I came across this pack of postcards with a difference. Take a look at this.
I think fans of the Wachowski brothers, creators of the Matrix trilogy, would flock to the cinema to see this movie in hope of some serious ass-kicking action sequence. Well, they're in for a surprise. No car chases in the movie, a few fights in dark alleys and smoke-filled room and a few seriously illogical explosions. That's about all the actions in this movie.
However, this is an awesome movie. Yes, Awesome with a big fat capital A. It's not because of the actions, come on, what kind of terrorist would bomb a building and make sure that all the people watching the bombing would enjoy themselves by blowing up the building that's full of fireworks? And if the building's full of fireworks, wouldn't the anti-terrorism squad found those fireworks already? No, it's not about the actions, it's about revolution, it's about politics, it's about terrorism, it's about religious extremist and it's about hope. Oh, and the movie has a gay theme too. Seems like Hollywood is cashing on in the gay movement, maybe not for the right reasons though. This movie is gonna make you think about the current political state and about the laws that are rushed through the parliament to "protect" us. However, this movie also quite confronting since it glorifies terrorism or maybe it just attempts to show the western world the terrorism through the eye of the terrorists. It's all about perspective I guess. After 9-11 the western world just want Al qaeda's blood, I mean brought to justice. And before that Al qaeda just want the western countries' or more precisely America's blood for whatever reasons. To them, maybe, we are the terrorists. In the end it all comes down to this one question though: "does the end justify the means?". The answer the movie leans towards is Yes. And in the real world, strangely, the answer is still a Yes.
I did say this was AWESOME right? If only all comics adapted movies are this good.
10/10
An awesome alternative review since I'm pretty sure someone's gonna disagree with me.
