Dear Diary,
Watching the tsunamis unfold as the people lying on their shores trying to get a good suntan is a devastating sight, not to mention those people trying to make a livelihood out there in the sea or those just leading their daily lives but just happens to be near the bloody coast. Coastlines are going to recede due to the corrosion ability of the great wall of seawater crashing down into the land. Sigh.. does this mean something? Nature releasing its wrath on us, the humans who had more often than not fail to appreciate its goodness. Scientists predict that the effects of greenhouse effect, notably the melting of the ice caps which will lead to the rise in sea levels will take place in the next 50 years or so. By then, I would be an old man and I don't think I will be concerned enough with it, however, what about our next generation? The effects are alrady devastating enough but we must count ourselves lucky that it is only affecting only specific regions which happen to be in the proximity of the epicentre of the quake. However, after 50 years, when the effects of greenhouse is felt, would we be able to cope with the destruction and flooding of all lowlands on an international scale? Will the UN, the Red Cross, US and all countries be able to cope with that? Perhaps I worry too much, I can't predict the technology of the day after tommorrow.
Back to the present.. How I wish that I am a grown up now, working, with a source of income and be able to donate a sum of money, no matter how big it is to those who live in a country where their GDP is about equal to Beckham's salary, how I wish I am with the air force now, on the C-130 leaving for Indonesia, Sri Lanka, whatever, to help in the situation over there, how I wish I am a fireman now, and be sent on such missions of goodwill. How I wish... How I dissent this utter helplessness and uselessness of myself.. I mean 19 years old and yet still a dumb student who practically knows nothing really? Sigh.. what a lame person am I...
Geography sheltered us from this storm, yet humanity linked us all together...

Dear Diary,
Where do you find strength when you lost the source of it? Complex question of faith isn't it? Does it come from the almighty, Buddha, any form of god that walks this earth? Many people have many different ways of locating the source of their strength. However, what that truly convinced me would from the accounts of soldiers who had gone through grotesque combats, inhuman living conditions whereby only something special can lead them on through the ordeal. Through my various readings of such wartime accounts, I had find that more often than not, soldiers depended on their closed ones to give them strength to survive through whatever ordeals they were experiencing. It is their comradeship in war, the thought that they would not disappoint the person fighting alongside him, their memory of their loved ones who might not be with them at the moment but forever living in their hearts, the thought that they must stay alive in order to not disappoint their loved ones gives them strength. So what happens when their source of strenth falls? What happens when their source of strength disappears into the deep abyss?
Perhaps it really is time I should really consider volunteering...

Dear Diary,
I shan't comment much on my camping trip in Malaysia during the weekend, although I do want to comment that the scenery was breathtaking albeit pocked by black flyiing spots...if you get what I mean. I was lucky enough to escape with only four bites.. thus proving again that my theory on the "foulest wins" is still very much a very intact theory. Ha! kudos to me!
I guess I am getting a little fat these days...haven't been excersing for like 2 ccenturies and I must admit that it really is not on top of my prerogatives. The lethargy bug in me is like killing me softly... anyway, goodbye for now...
Typed with the laptop screen 30degrees down..ie to say I am not looking at the screen at all! Woohoo!

Dear Diary,
Watched National Treasure today alone at the expense of going for canoe land training, not that I really cared about going for training as I seriously do not find the drive to go for it. Anyway, it was not bad a movie and I would greatly recommend it to anyone who has some spare cash and am feeling bored, and for some reasons do not want to venture too far out. Yeah, a trip to the cinemas watching this movie should help, not to mention the upcoming Kung Fu by Stephen Chow who is already a legendary person by himself especially after Shaolin Soccer which is just fantastically funny.. haha... Can't wait for it man..
Racism
A topic that has spurned the hard works of many and had seemingly seen some results throughout the last century. However, unfortunately, it is still a topic of concern to all of us earthling. I seeriuosly wonder if the almighty created us to hate each other? Or that there is several impurities in the mud Nu Wa used to create us the homo sapiens? Racism is the worst thing to have happen to mankind, afterall it had frequently been the trigger and catalyst to even more evil things. Great tragedies had resulted, great deal of people had died, great numbers of people persecuted, don't the people who dominated the blacks or the people who were killing the tutsis in Rwanda feel something, or just some sensation when they were committing those atrocities? This is certainly a matter of intrigue to me. Don't they feel some sympathy for those whom they killed for no other reasons than the fact that they are the others? I don't know...

Dear Diary,
Been attending a lot of gatherings, chalet, all those kind of sstuff people do to make themselves feel young again. Well, I would not concede that I am old, especially since I, technically, am not old. Just 19 and with singapore's life expectancy being 80 as said by MM Lee, I still have a long way to go man... However, does age really serve as a terrific indicator of youth or....(can't remember the opposite of youth...perhaps someone can tell me about it?) I don't think so.. Met quite a few of those active senior citizens, with an average age of about 70 or so and they still have such an upbeat view about the life which they want to lead, fulfill dreams that they had not done so in the past. They were so much younger than me in my perspective. they are the teenagers of the society, although really, I must say that they are really a fortunate bunch of old folks, still healthy, retired, filial children, of course they are very much eligible to be like what they are... Anyway, that is beside the point. In my opinion the term an ageing population takes on a whole new meaning, at least for me... I feel stretched, like butter spread on too much bread, I no longer have the drive like I used to in the past when I was much younger.. Does ageing population means the emergence of too many old folks, no longer economically active or does it mean the emergence of the greying of youths? Perhaps it is only affecting me.. I don't know. I don't have the tenacity to see through things anymore...
Humans.. the leader of the animal kingdom, the species with the biggest brains and how we have evolved. In the very very distant past, we only had had to survive the wild, survive the harsh conditions that mother nature decrees that we had to endure and although we still have to do such things, survival is getting more and more complicated especially when it comes to surviving humanity. I hate this feeling of having to surviving humanity, afterall, we are all the same species and that pretty much makes us one big family and why are we still fighting each other. Millions of people are displaced everyday and I suspect that that is a crude understatement. Look at the children in the African regions, recall the fate of blacks in the past, predict the fate of the world in the future, did we really evolve or de-evolve to be exact? I don't know..
Well, I do want to do something for the Earth, for humanity, for this place I call home but I guess you can only do something like that when you get into the upper ecthelions of the Earth before something like that can be done on an individual basis... Hence, I guess it is only apt that I shut up and get on with life..

Dear Diary,
Nothing much has been happening these days after the exams... so much for the anticipation which I had before the holidays really began! Never mind, as the climax of the holiday came finally, on this very day, the day when I finally bought the special extended version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Although like the other two, whereby the extended scences, whether they are there or not, won't change the drama and storyline of the plot but watching this whole package certainly gives you a sense of feeling good after the show. Although I must say that the show is a tad too long, almost 5h of sitting down on the crouch and your eyes fixed on it, it is certainly worth every cent I spent on it. The confrontations between saruman and Gandalf, between Aragorn and the Mouth of Sauron and even the paths of the dead became more interesting. Battle sequences became longer and Gimli gets ever funny, spouting nonsense after being drunk with a drinking game which Legolas won in the end. It was extremely funny when Legolas said "I feel a slight tingle in my fingers... I think these drinks are starting to affect me..." which Gimli replied "Told you all he can't hold his liquor.." and then rolls his eyes and falls back...dead drunk. Hahaa.. you will have to imagine such a scene.
There and Back Again.
A Human's Tale
By Ang Kheng Wee

Dear Diary,
The damn Numeronean and Elf are just too much. 3days of pursuit, no rest, minimal water, stinking bread, in fact the last time I had real food was at Emyn Muil. Damn them. I swear my body is wasted for cross country, although I would be very dangerous over short distances. And to hell with those Uruks... running as if their masters are right behind their backs with a whip in hand. Damn it. Are they dumb? Don't they have the brains to foresee that Isengard is still a long way to go and stop running like a caged cheetah on the loose?
Argh finally, a little rest while the elf go and make some surveillance. Yah yah. They would surely turn north east. I wonder what is the big surprise. Doesn't he know that those uruks are slaves of saruman and would of course bring the two hobbits to Isengard. A case of redundancy as I would say. Ar.. here they go again. Run..run...run and run. Can't they go seek a horse or something? Oh no. my calves are acting up... Big cramp is coming up... OOh how I miss my cave dwelling..malt beer, roaring fires and meat fresh out of the bone. Oh yeah the uruks are finally in sight! Hahar!
And I cross the finish line, grab the finisher's tee and medal and look for wenyang and go home.