natural light, get it off!

Being self-imposed housebound for the last week or so has sucked. Illness is such a chore; it consumes so much of your energy, spirit and willpower to do things, your enthusiasm to shine, your ability to to break out and carpe diem and all that. I've just wanted to lie in bed, migrate to the PC, and headed out to the grocery store to stock up on soup. Lots of it. The Heinz Very Special range is surprisingly good! For $3 a can, can't go wrong.

I used to get over colds and flus really quickly as a kid. Couple of days tops and bam, back in it. I used to wear shorts to school and it'd be like 4-5 degrees and foggy. Now it seems I can't shake off colds for at least a week no matter what I try. I don't know why.

One of the "positive" aspects of being sick, I suppose, is that I've lost a bit of weight. I'm reminded of the so-called celebrity "diet" where in order to lose a few pounds people intentionally ate under-cooked chicken/pork to get e-coli or salmonella poisoning. A few days of diarrhoea, maybe a little vomiting, and voila, down a dress size. IDIOTS.

In this day and age of instant celebrity and the multitude of ways to get it- reality TV, being a blogstar/youtube star eg. Perez Hilton, I have to take a step back. Why do we worship these people so much? And why do their opinions on completely random topics carry so much weight?
And why are there so many trashy magazines dedicated to getting snaps of celebs looking 'ugly' for when they just want to go down the store and buy some bread and milk for chrissakes?

An example that comes to mind is Kanye West. A true celebrity because he is recognised for his talent- beatmaking and rapping. Never get it twisted- he is a beatmaker and producer first and foremost. I love his style. In a recent mixtape he released before Graduation was dropped, he recounts how someone asked him in an interview, whether he would vote for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the Democratic candidacy.

Why ask him? I guess it's interesting to know different things about celebrities, know more about their lives than just what they're famous for, sure. To just get his opinion on an issue that affects the American nation, sure. But if at that moment he says the wrong thing, it'll get blown out of context and become a scandal, because he's a celebrity. It's like, as a celebrity must be able to keep right on the pulse of everything. Because you're a celebrity, you must know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. Your opinion is instantly more informed, more wise, more intelligent. You've become a god. But wtf.

Kanye goes on to say, well, I'm just interested in doing projects that are exciting and interesting to him. I don't really know that much about politics to make an informed statement. Good on him. Common sense prevails. Sure it's interesting to read what he'd have to say. But it's only his opinion in a field where he has no further advantages or insight than say, my hairdresser. My hairdresser ain't known all round the world, but her political opinion is probably more informed than Kanye's. So why aren't her passionate anti-Bush anti-McCain views a nationwide scandal?

PS> Has anyone else thought of putting Jon McCain's face on the McCain chips? That'd be funny.

the backward life

Just a bit of commentary on the following article, "Top U.S. court is divided over lethal injection"

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/07/america/scotus.php

People are still enforcing death by electric chair? In this day and age? I mean, really.

The death penalty itself - well, I don't really discuss this topic with anybody much (and why would you, it's such a morbid topic), but I wonder whether it's better to let the criminal live and be tormented by the knowledge that they have committed such a nasty (to put it lightly) act. Death is really the easy way out - you can't think or feel (from our knoweldge) so you can commit your crime and be done with it.

If everybody was nicer to each other, more accepting, tolerant, broad-minded, and everybody had the opportunity to receive a good education (and used that opportunity, no less), perhaps the world would be a better place and I wouldn't be blogging about death penalties.

creativity is a gift

Have a read of this:
"The Mother of Invention"

Although the whole article is quite interesting, this excerpt is probably the most random and kind of amusing:

"I recently got a call from somebody in Defence," she reveals. "Very top secret, very hush-hush. Couldn't tell me their name. They asked, 'Is it possible to shoot bullets through your product? And can it be used to build walls around structures, like army deposits for instance?'."

She begins to get animated, jigging around excitedly in her seat, her big, silver, guitar earrings swinging wildly about her head. "So I started Googling because I love a challenge and I started getting info, like how much water it takes to stop a bullet. According to New Scientist, three centimetres of water will stop a 50-calibre bullet significantly, due to the surface area and the drag. So if you line up the Hogs and surround a structure then, yes, they do become bulletproof."

I never thought about stopping bullets with water! I mean, now that the idea has been shown to me, it makes a lot of sense.. although I suppose it's not really possible to wear bulletproof vests that have water in them..

some interesting articles

"Save the trees and go digital"
It's true. Sometimes I feel like I have to print out a webpage full of text, just so I can concentrate on it properly. Trying to read and comprehend things off a screen can be surprisingly difficult sometimes.

"Facebook 1, HSBC 0"
The simple lesson here is, as most of us probably already know/realise, Facebook has the potential (or already is) a powerful medium in many ways. I'm currently at a point where I'm getting over Facebook in terms of its many applications, but still find it useful as a way of keeping in contact with people whom I would probably not regularly contact otherwise.

"The not-so happy hour"
Better nightlife in Sydney? Sounds great.
But still - what's the fascination with alcohol? People should be naturally less inhibited. Loosen up, y'all.