So if you know me, I love live sciences. It is very unfortunate that I do not work in that field, but I love it nonetheless. Lately I have not been able to bring myself to reading scientific news. Why? You may ask. The more I read, the more depressing I get. Why? I'll tell you why. Here's what I read, in this order:-
(1) We have successfully wiped out Mexican salamander's natural habitat (look for my earlier post for pictures. But they are very abundant in laboratories, spending their entire live in a cup no bigger than them, being experimental subjects. Just who gave us the rights to do that?
(2) Noise pollutions in the ocean are hindering whales from navigating and finding mates, possibly the cause for mass beachings.
(3) Latest article on Scientific American about sustainability of this planet.
Whether it is God or aliens who gave us intelligence, or if you subscribe to natural selection that it "just happened," I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Never had a species so actively destroy another of the same species (homocides), our habitats, and everything else that stands in our paths... or just so happen to be edible... Is there really a justification for all these?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
San Jose Girl Finds Herself Out of a Job Upon Returning from Vacation Because of Facebook Entry
Got you to look, didn't I? :)
So as you may or may not know, I am currently vacaying in Hawaii. WoohoO! I seriously contemplating posting (jokingly) on my facebook account (yeah, finally folded and got one of those) that I will no longer be returning. But I can just see myself on the Channel 2 news, which the title of this entry. Who knows, what you post on your facebook just might constitute a legitimate resignation in the day and age when people can be fired by voicemail, email, or even a text message. Better not take that chance till I win my lottery jackpot.
So as you may or may not know, I am currently vacaying in Hawaii. WoohoO! I seriously contemplating posting (jokingly) on my facebook account (yeah, finally folded and got one of those) that I will no longer be returning. But I can just see myself on the Channel 2 news, which the title of this entry. Who knows, what you post on your facebook just might constitute a legitimate resignation in the day and age when people can be fired by voicemail, email, or even a text message. Better not take that chance till I win my lottery jackpot.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Possession is 9/10 of the Law
This is especially true when it comes to women and our fitness equipment. You see, the trick to weight losing lies neither with our determination to exercise or control our calories intake; it's all about the POSSESSION of the fitness equipment. So long as we OWN the equipments, we'll be able to rip the benefit from them. The actual usage of them are optional. =D
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tokyo Drift
This is funny. This is particularly funny because I just learned what Tokyo drift is from watching 4 (yes, that's FOUR) episodes of I Survived a Japanese Game Show last night. A day ago I would have been clueless....
Found on The Frogman
Found on The Frogman
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Updates
I apologize for not having any updates for a while now -- my most loyal reader -- my cousin -- had been laid off and is no longer visiting my blog religiously. Who knows along with his job goes my drive to blog? :P I should pick it back up... so he'll have plenty of reader material when he starts his new job. In the meantime, how about a few weekend filler pictures? :)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Meaning of Life II (III?)
People always asks "WHAT is the meaning of life?" Perhaps a better question is: "IS there a meaning of life?" Or better yet, "SHOULD there be a meaning of life?" After all, who ever promised that there is a reason for us to discover? Even all the great men (women?) before us who invented religion did not promise a meaning of life. Let's examine them:-
(1) Western religion (grossly represented by Bible-based religions of any variation). Whether you subscribe to the Christian branch of belief-without-seeing-and-you'll-go-to-Heaven or Catholic's be-a-nice-person-and-you'll-go-to-Heaven or the Islam (?) 27-virgins-await-in-Heaven philosophy, they invariably focuses on the afterlife. Nothing says anything about the meaning of this lifetime... other than working towards what you can reap after you die (hmmmmm).
(2) Buddhism did not address that question either, reincarnation and enlightenment again focus on life after death. Some argue that Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion. Come to think about it, should Buddhism truly portrays the way the universe work, then it's just science. Science focuses on the mechanisms behind every process and cannot be further away from the meaning of life. (See my previos entry "The HOW versus the WHY".)
(3) Darwinism/natural selection. Definitely hardcore, no bullshit science. Reproduction might be the purpose of life, but definitely not the meaning. I can't relate to how great it is to have an offspring, and I definitely fail to see how that will make my life meaningful. Especially in this day and age when people just seem to be competing about who can leave a bigger carbon footprint and better drive this planet out of all higher life forms.
Perhaps all the quests for WHAT is the meaning of life is fruitless because there simply isn't one. It's like looking for that treasure that was never buried. Try as you might, you are not going to find anything because it was never there to begin with. I am starting to think that the "meaning" of life is all about distractions. It is about what kind of distractions you can find to keep your mind occupied so you don't the big void left by the lack of a meaning of life. If you think about it, everything is pretty much a distractions:- any kind of entertainment (TV, sports, gambling, shopping), power struggling, money that can buy you more distractions, vanity, and the best and most long term distraction of it all? Children.
Not having enough distractions can be detrimental -- see all the rich and famous that die from drug overdose or do a variety of stupid things that we won't even contemplate. Why do they still seek drugs when they are rich and famous, while the rest of us try to hard to get there? (Okay, don't care so much about the fame... definitely would love to be rich. ;) Because they weren't able to find enough distractions. They no longer need to keep a full time job and mingle with stupid people and deal with the stress that comes with a job everyday just to put roof over head and food on table. Thus proving my point that the "meaning" of life is all about how to fill your free time with various form of distractions.
That said, another good question will be:- Why do we have consciousness? It is obviously not essential for evolution. Brine shrimp reproduces just fine. Earth worms and cockroaches reproduce just fine. Perhaps the whole Eve-ate-the-apple incident marked the time when aliens came and modified us genetically and gave us this thing called consciousness!
(1) Western religion (grossly represented by Bible-based religions of any variation). Whether you subscribe to the Christian branch of belief-without-seeing-and-you'll-go-to-Heaven or Catholic's be-a-nice-person-and-you'll-go-to-Heaven or the Islam (?) 27-virgins-await-in-Heaven philosophy, they invariably focuses on the afterlife. Nothing says anything about the meaning of this lifetime... other than working towards what you can reap after you die (hmmmmm).
(2) Buddhism did not address that question either, reincarnation and enlightenment again focus on life after death. Some argue that Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion. Come to think about it, should Buddhism truly portrays the way the universe work, then it's just science. Science focuses on the mechanisms behind every process and cannot be further away from the meaning of life. (See my previos entry "The HOW versus the WHY".)
(3) Darwinism/natural selection. Definitely hardcore, no bullshit science. Reproduction might be the purpose of life, but definitely not the meaning. I can't relate to how great it is to have an offspring, and I definitely fail to see how that will make my life meaningful. Especially in this day and age when people just seem to be competing about who can leave a bigger carbon footprint and better drive this planet out of all higher life forms.
Perhaps all the quests for WHAT is the meaning of life is fruitless because there simply isn't one. It's like looking for that treasure that was never buried. Try as you might, you are not going to find anything because it was never there to begin with. I am starting to think that the "meaning" of life is all about distractions. It is about what kind of distractions you can find to keep your mind occupied so you don't the big void left by the lack of a meaning of life. If you think about it, everything is pretty much a distractions:- any kind of entertainment (TV, sports, gambling, shopping), power struggling, money that can buy you more distractions, vanity, and the best and most long term distraction of it all? Children.
Not having enough distractions can be detrimental -- see all the rich and famous that die from drug overdose or do a variety of stupid things that we won't even contemplate. Why do they still seek drugs when they are rich and famous, while the rest of us try to hard to get there? (Okay, don't care so much about the fame... definitely would love to be rich. ;) Because they weren't able to find enough distractions. They no longer need to keep a full time job and mingle with stupid people and deal with the stress that comes with a job everyday just to put roof over head and food on table. Thus proving my point that the "meaning" of life is all about how to fill your free time with various form of distractions.
That said, another good question will be:- Why do we have consciousness? It is obviously not essential for evolution. Brine shrimp reproduces just fine. Earth worms and cockroaches reproduce just fine. Perhaps the whole Eve-ate-the-apple incident marked the time when aliens came and modified us genetically and gave us this thing called consciousness!
Disheartening
The Hubby did more rearranging of the furniture and we have more freebies to give away. As usual, I turned to the good ol' CL (Craigslist). While we are giving away the items for free because (1) most of them we really don't think will fetch any monetary amount and (2) just want to get them out of the house ASAP, I was still hoping that some real people who will actually use the items can benefit from them. All the stuff were gone within 10 minutes of the posting time, many of them ask for all of the items. Either the individual truly just move to the area and will take practically everything, or they are just scalpers trying to turn it around for cash. It was quite disheartening. Perhaps next time I'll spend a few more minutes to sort through the email and only give the item to those who seems like a "real person." *sighs*
Craigslist - Just When I Thought I've Seen It All
moving-take our unopened freezer food
criss cross frieshot pocket calzone thingys
pie crust
steamables broccoli
family size eggplant parmesan
pasta/shrimp meal for 2
boneless/skinless chicken breast
pork chops
Sounds very healthy. =D
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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