The beginning

Baggage flot firmly in hand, she suddenly felt the weight of his absence leaden her chest as she turned to face the welcoming smiles on the other side of the glass.

She thought it strange that she felt it only then, and not when they had pecked chastely goodbye just before she entered the core-tubes, or when she had settled into her seat, or when she had her irises scanned for immigration. Not even once during the 47 Rio-Tokyo journey did she fell anything amiss. Putting the unease tempoarily out of her mind, she swiveled her head as she walked past the glass partition, until she saw the tell-tale purple puff of yarn weaving through the crowds.

"Ethel!" she crowed, even though she needn't have said a word as the butler-bot had already registered her arrival.

Posted via email from Shirlene vs. 50,000 words

The beginning

Baggage flot firmly in hand, she suddenly felt the weight of his absence leaden her chest as she turned to face the welcoming smiles on the other side of the glass.

She thought it strange that she felt it only then, and not when they had pecked chastely goodbye just before she entered the core-tubes, or when she had settled into her seat, or when she had her irises scanned for immigration. Not even once during the 47 Rio-Tokyo journey did she fell anything amiss. Putting the unease tempoarily out of her mind, she swiveled her head as she walked past the glass partition, until she saw the tell-tale purple puff of yarn weaving through the crowds.

"Ethel!" she crowed, even though she needn't have said a word as the butler-bot had already registered her arrival.

Posted via email from Shirlene vs. 50,000 words

Creative Commons

Enough with reading. Here's videos!

Creative Commons:


Science Commons:

Motivation

"Live for something bigger than just yourself.  People spend so much time becoming good at things, but they never remember they carry the wishes of all those who they beat to get where they are."  -Friend's Facebook status update

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Statuses

Is John Gore
At Mr. Big concert?
I'm not here right now, I'm trying to find
A quarter of the marmalade skies mid
Term Season! Take a breath.
Before you hit the water you'll need a damn good massage.
And dumplings.

I hope to own this someday, I just wanna be
Not here.
Wine and beer!
Oh my mojitos!
So full.

Monday, 11:02am

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Sometimes it pays to listen during mass

"To a person who's hungry, the good news is food. To a person who's
thirsty, clean water. To a person who's sick, the good news is health
and nutrition. To a person who's lonely, the good news is
companionship. The good news is concrete and real; it is much more
than just a book."

Said by the visiting missionary priest based in Kenya at mass yesterday evening.

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To ponder on when you're eating chicken

"A man will sometimes waste his whole life on the development of one
part of his body - the wishbone." -Robert Frost

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On walking when your legs feel like jelly, and other post-marathon-ing delights

from 1 Jun 09, post-running

The first emotion that hit me after I finished my very first marathon was anger.

It galled me that I still had to walk after I had subjected my legs to 42km of asphalt, concrete, sand, hills, and fake promises of "just 1km more", that I couldn't simply collapse on the road in the blessed space right after the final gantry.

Admittedly, I was only kinda miffed at having travel the 20m distance from the finish line to collect the finisher's medal and t-shirt. However, the thought that I had to drag my sorry pairs of calves and thighs and knees uphill to the Changi Village Subway from the finishers area in an inhuman half hour was nothing short of incendiary.

All thoughts of meeting up with my friends at the predetermined time of 7:30 flung heatedly out of my mind, I had the presence of mind to ask permission from another similarly exhausted lady to share her cardboard seat. After punishing my body for 7 hours, I couldn't allow myself to sit on the sand and make my shorts grubby. So I'm not totally destroyed, but no amount of tentative sips of sports drink or changing my seating position brings my body any iota of respite for now - I'll count this as being as exhausted as I ever want to be.

Posted via email from faces in clouds

The Women’s Crusade

via nytimes.com

"... After Luck and her entourage disappeared, Tererai began to study on her own, in hiding from her husband, while raising her five children. Painstakingly, with the help of friends, she wrote down her goals on a piece of paper: “One day I will go to the United States of America,” she began, for Goal 1. She added that she would earn a college degree, a master’s degree and a Ph.D. — all exquisitely absurd dreams for a married cattle herder in Zimbabwe who had less than one year’s formal education. But Tererai took the piece of paper and folded it inside three layers of plastic to protect it, and then placed it in an old can. She buried the can under a rock where she herded cattle."

You need to hear how this story ends.

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temporary home for fb favorite quotes

“What is real?” asked the Rabbit one day. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside and a stick-out handle?’

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once like being wound up?” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or have to be carefully kept. Generally by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints, and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” ~Ailin's blog.

"Go. Do. Be." ~teva

"Never stop exploring." ~the north face

"You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children." ~Madeleine L'Engle

"What marries me to you? Is it a piece of paper? Then I am not married to you. Is it Church approval? Then I am not married to you. Is it the fact of a roof, the fact of a bed, the fact of two keys in one lock? Then I am not married to you. Is it the Eye of the Law? Then I am not married to you.

If it is the daily pleasure in your face. If it is the quickening of my spirits at your face, if it is your face I seek when I seek no other, if it is the love of you that is consent, if it is consent to be of the same mind, then let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments..."
~Art & Lies, Jeanette Winterson, from Char Lim fav quotes

"Oh... So I see you like erm... milk..." ~Eugene, demonstrating a possible pickup line to be used at the neighbourhood supermarket.

"Anima Sana In Corpore Sano" ~asics

"And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
By the purification of the motive
In the ground of our beseeching."
~Little Gidding III, T.S. Eliot

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World

<i>by Five for Fighting</i>

Got a package full of Wishes
A Time machine, a Magic Wand
A Globe made out of Gold

No Instructions or Commandments
Laws of Gravity or
Indecisions to uphold

Printed on the box I see
A.C.M.E.'s Build-a-World-to-be
Take a chance - Grab a piece
Help me to believe it

What kind of world do you want?
Think Anything
Let's start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now...

Should there be people or peoples
Money, Funny pedestals for Fools who never pay
Raise your Army - Choose your Steeple
Don't be shy, the satellites can look the other way

Lose the Earthquakes - Keep the Faults
Fill the oceans without the salt
Let every Man own his own Hand

What kind of world do you want
Think Anything
Let's start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now...

Sunlight's on the Bridge
Sunlight's on the Way
Tomorrow's Calling

There's more to this than Love

What Kind of world do you want
What Kind of world do you want

What Kind of world do you want
Think Anything
Let's start at the start
Build a masterpiece

History Starts Now

Be careful what you wish for
Start Now

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i'm lovin' it

I don't know if this is real, but if it is... *goggles*

Another terrible food choice brought to you by McDonald's.
http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/sales/new/mega_tamago/

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-less

restless, listless, mindless, soulless, directionless.

experiencing a distinct lack of drive.

Posted via email from faces in clouds

389 Years Ago

via wallstats.com

"A tyopgraphic journey through four centuries of black history."

I'm inordinately proud of this little titbit in the middle:
"Rhode Island becomes the first colony to ban the importation of slaves."

I love that small, big hearted, state.

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New President at RISD!

His name is John Maeda. He grew up in Seattle in a family of tofu makers, he's an electrical engineer from MIT by training, a prolific graphic designer by profession, author of the book "The Laws of Simplicity", TED presenter not once, but twice, father to five daughters. He totally transcends and shatters any label you try to put on him, and he seems like an absolutely awesome person.

He was inaugurated as RISD President on 12 September 2008, and his nifty, inclusive inauguration speech can be found here, which happens to be on Maeda's RISD blog, our.risd.edu. President Simmons, can you have a blog, too, please?

I found Maeda through his talk On Simplicity at TED 2007. Whimsical, beautiful, fun, inspiring. As a Mechanical Engineer wondering what to do with her life, I have more hope now.

I also found this little gem on our.risd.edu:

via our.risd.edu

*dreams about going to RISD*

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The richest fake things

People:

No.1:  Uncle Sam

   -Net Worth: Infinite, Source: Engraving

No.2:  McDuck, Scrooge

   -Net Worth: 29.1B, Source: Treasure Hunting

No.5:  Hutt, Jabba The

   -Net Worth: 8.4B, Source: Crime

No.13:  Burns, Montgomery

   -Net Worth: 0.9B, Source: Energy

No.15:  Mr. Monopoly

   -Net Worth: 0.8B, Source: Real Estate

Company:

No. 2:  Acme Corp

  -Net Worth: 348.7B, Source: Making EVERYTHING

(Source: http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/18/fictional-15-richest-characters-oped-fictional1508_cx_mn_de_1218fict15_land.html)

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5 words that should be in the OED

Happification
Rejoicifying
Disrespectation
Swankified
Dictionarised.

Thanks, C! :)

How do new words come about in the Oxford English Dictionary, the self-exulted "definitive record of the English language"?

All of Oxford's English dictionaries aim to include primarily those words that have genuinely entered the English language. The use of a newly invented word by a single person is not sufficient to merit a dictionary entry (unless the person happens to be, for example, William Shakespeare or Jane Austen).

...There is nothing to stop you using an invented word - so long as you don't mind the fact that it will not be understood and will have to be explained every time. If it genuinely fills a gap in the language, then it may well catch on among a significant section of the population. It will then have become part of the language, and if it is used in print (or can be traced, for example, in scripts or transcripts of broadcasts), it will fall within the sphere of the OED's Reading Programme.

From askoxford.com.

So all I have to do now is become William Shakespeare. Or Jane Austen. Or, if you read the entirety of link above, Rudyard Kipling, Emily and Anne Brontë, J.R.R. Tolkien, or Edward Lear.

Choices, choices.

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How lazy can I be?

Purpose:  Can you get stronger and grow new muscle by simply cutting yourself?

Background:  How does all this weight lifting make us stronger?  Supposedly the answer is you microly tear (microtear) your muscle when you use it, then new muscle grows on top of it.  So if you combine this "fact" with the another fact that 'bigger is better', if I just knife my arm and make a huge tear, I'll have accomplished weeks of lifting in one day, right?

Methods:  Internet

Results:  False  :-(

Discussion:  Muscle grows from protein synthesis - but what triggers it?  Muscle tear?  As it turns out, muscle tearing is just the result of using muscle.  That's it.  The actual trigger for protein synthesis is the neural drive that stimulates muscle contraction.  The more that pathway is used, the more some chemicals are released and those activate the genes for protein synthesis.  So ends up, there's no short cut for this.  Boo.  (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_hypertrophy)

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Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5310ZH20090402

This is for the working peeps chatting online, including myself, of course.

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How to win one of those "Best Places to Work" awards, Dilbert Style

via dilbert.com

Moo.

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CNY 2010

Did you know that...

The first day of the Chinese (Lunar) New Year in 2010 is 14 Feb, Sunday.

Which means... in Singapore, I get 15 and 16 Feb off work, which also means that I should go find someplace interesting to put myself during my extended weekend.

Skiing in Japan, anyone? *nudges Charlie*

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How fast is our world changing?

From J, see video for answer.

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If You Knew Sushi

via vanityfair.com

"The difference between a bad sushi joint and a good sushi joint is: at a good sushi joint the sweetness of the sushi doesn't challenge the taste of the fish. The difference between a good sushi joint and a very good sushi joint is: at a very good sushi joint the sweetness of the sushi doesn't challenge the taste of the fish, and the fish is very good. The difference between a very good sushi joint and a great sushi joint is: at a great sushi joint the sweetness of the sushi doesn't challenge the taste of the fish, the fish is excellent, and, piece after piece—sushi should never be served more than one piece at a time; each piece should come freshly made directly from the chef's hands to you—the meal unfolds in a concert of many varied tastes, some delicate and some strong, all in a sequence of subtle harmony and balance that leaves you exquisitely satisfied, in a way that Mrs. Paul never could."

Anyone has spare tickets from Singapore to Tokyo lying around?

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Miwok

So I'm lurking on REI, ogling at the Gregory Maya bag I want to get, when I chance upon its male counterpart, the Gregory Miwok. Picture courtesy of REI.com .

Miwok sounds like ewok, but it's not a cute furry thing. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miwok :

Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) can refer to any one of four linguistically-related groups of Native Americans, who lived in what is now Northern California, who spoke one of the MiwokanUtian family. The word Miwok means people in their native language.

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Manhattan vs Singapore

Sushi wins, and I owe him a drink:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore
Area
 - Total: 710.2 km2 (274.2 sq mi)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan
Area
 - Total: 33.77 sq mi (87.5 km2)
 - Land: 22.96 sq mi (59.5 km2)

So my perception that Singapore is just Manhattan with an airforce is somewhat spurious.

Singapore is like 8 Manhattans with an airforce.

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Brown...

"... when used as a general term, is a color that is a dark yellow,
orange, or red, of low luminance relative to lighter or white colored
objects."

"... was the first college in the nation to accept students regardless
of religious affiliations. The school also has the oldest
undergraduate engineering program in the Ivy League (1847)."

"... is the second album by rock group P.O.D.. The album was released
on Rescue Records."

gotta love wikipedia. test post for posterous.

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