Entry 153: Blogging from London

I'm in London!

We'd found an internet bar at Preston Road near the station and now I'm blogging from this place. Next to the road, facing the roaring traffic. Takes the spirit off writing really.

Anyway since I really can't write now, I expect pictures and all the other narrative crap will be up after the holidays. Just so you'll know.

Entry 129: St. Bernadette's Day

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes: (1844-1879) Oldest of 6 children in a very poor family headed by Francois and Louise Casterot. Hired out as a servant from age 12 to 14. Shepherdess. On 11 February 1858, around the time of her first Communion, she received a vision of the Virgin. [...] She received 18 more in the next 5 months, and was led to a spring of healing waters. She moved into a house with the sisters of Nevers at Lourdes where she lived, worked, and learned to read and write. The sisters cared to the sick and indigent, and at age 22 they admitted Bernadette into their order since she was both. Always sick, and often mistreated by her superiors, she died with a prayer for Mary's aid. Body is incorruptible. --www.catholic-forum.com

I'd read a book about her, when I was younger. Don't know where the book is now.

Just came back from a long morning of GOH training, and the best thing about training in the morning is that almost whatever you did at home after that can be seen as rest. I'm blogging now. But today I'm telling you, there's this thing you've got to go and check out if you're any good in biology or archaeology:

Click here for The Genographic Project Website.

Besides the cool tangy flash layout, it lays out 200,000 years of human voyages and migrations right in front of your eyes. It traces your ancient ancestry all the way to Adam and Mitochondrial Eve, or at least where your ancestors went before they landed on what would be your homeland. If that wasn't enough, watching the ice sheets change shape on the world map might be intriguing also, or maybe not.

Screenshot of interface: Presenting the Na-Dene Languages of North America

If you've got the financial prowness, you can join the project by buying the package, send your cheek swab to the scientists and let them identify your Haplogroup, and when you get your results after the test, never cease to be amazed.

Stop Press at 10:42 pm: I've just stumbled on the flash version of the Elements Song by Tom Lehrer, and it's so cool. This link here is for me to get to save the file into my own computer actually, but anyone's free to click and be entertained.

Entry 121: South Australia

Ho de ho ho I've just completed my storyboard today I have been in a state of constant elation until I started to remind myself my literature review is currently untouched-upon and my research proposal is in dire need of revising. Also been experimenting on environmental lighting and found out the sun doesn't require a sphere at all.

That also reminds me about the theory of Murphy's Law. It relates to the Law of Thermodynamics so well that Murphy's Law might as well be called the philosophical thermodynamical theory. While Murphy's Law states that "Left on their own, things always go wrong", the Law of Thermodynamics states, "Left on their own, entropy (roughly equivalent to 'disorder') in stuff increases." See the similarity?

When you've got nothing else to say the best way out is to blog a song:

South Australia

In South Australia I was born, Heave away, Haul away!
In South Australia round Cape Horn, Bound for South Australia!
Haul away you rollin' king! Heave away! Haul away!
Haul away oh hear me sing, We're bound for South Austalia!

Now as I went out one morning fair, Heave away, Haul away!
'twas where I met Miss Nancy Blair, Bound for South Australia!
Haul away you rollin' king! Heave away! Haul away!
Haul away oh hear me sing, We're bound for South Austalia!

I shook her up I shook her down, Heave away, Haul away!
I shook her up and down the town! Bound for South Australia!
Haul away you rollin' king! Heave away! Haul away!
Haul away oh hear me sing, We're bound for South Austalia!

There's one thing that does grieve my mind, Heave away, Haul away!
It's leaving Nancy Blair behind! Bound for South Australia!
Haul away you rollin' king! Heave away! Haul away!
Haul away oh hear me sing, We're bound for South Austalia!

And as we wallup around Cape Horn, Heave away, Haul away!
You wish to God you'd never been born! Bound for South Australia!
Haul away you rollin' king! Heave away! Haul away!
Haul away oh hear me sing, We're bound for South Austalia!

Great potential for parodies.

Ionosphere

In the village the night before the last I lay down in my bed and knocked on the doors to the subconscious. I came into this futuristic mid-air cruise Zeppelin hundreds of kilometres above sea level. The rooms were bloody big and posh, the kids were playing around but the strangest thing I saw was the sky. From right below to around ten degrees below eye level was the daytime stratosphere sky, clear blue with white clouds below. above ten degrees above eye level was that of evening sky, of a darker shade. Between these two zones was a region occupied oddly by a solid purple band. Right above was another gap, this time in the shape of a decagon, that made a deep dark hole in the sky, leading off to space.

Everything else that happened during the past week had been dampeners to our spirit after the exodus from Yunnan. Just the third day I came back to Fuqing I fell sick; didn't get any better until yesterday. The road trips seemed to be the best parts.

I miss my home!

Blogging From Kunming

Well we're finally here after a long and tortuous flight on another boeing 737 plane (though I rather suspected that it was the same one) we finally found the seat belt lights light up, which meant we were descending. Under the wing was a thick blanket of clouds.

Then after our plane broke through that, there was another blanket of clouds beneath us. So we were smack sandwiched between cloud layers. Brilliant. Never before seen anything like that.

And after we broke through that one, we saw Kunming city, where dad's conference is held. I have never seen anything like that either. It's city as far as the eyes could see. It's a concrete jungle as far as the eyes could see... before all is lost beyond the foggy background. Kunming city is one of those megacities in the midlands, as big as -- well, bigger than Singapore Island itself, for example.

They say that the air in Kunming is relatively fresh. They probably haven't been to Cape Town. Here all I could smell is engine exhaust and cigarette.

The view from my hotel room was horrible. So horrible in fact, I took relish under its drabness. It probably inspired a lot of tragedy plays. The window faced the Kunming broadway, which had hardly any traffic lights. If that's not enough, at night the sky turns grey! At least the sky over Singapore is inky black, and stars COULD show up if you looked hard enough.

But on the light side, Julie and her sister are staying with us in the hotel, so I have two more people to talk to... and with more on the way.