My fox. =)

It was then that the fox appeared.

“Good morning,” said the fox.

“Good morning,” the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.

“I am right here,” the voice said, “under the apple tree.”

“Who are you?” asked the little prince, and added, “You are very pretty to look at.”

“I am a fox,” the fox said.

“Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince. “I am so unhappy.”

“I cannot play with you,” the fox said. “I am not tamed.”

“Ah! Please excuse me,” said the little prince.

But, after some thought, he added:

“What does that mean — ‘tame’?”

“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. It means to establish ties.”

“‘To establish ties’?”

“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . .”

“My life is very monotonous,” the fox said. “I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . .”

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.

“Please — tame me!” he said.

“I want to, very much,” the little prince replied. “But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.”

“One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox. “Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . .”

“What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince.

“You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance from me — like that — in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . .”

The next day the little prince came back.

“It would have been better to come back at the same hour,” said the fox. “If, for example, you come at four o’clock in the afternoon, then at three o’clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o’clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites . . .”

“What is a rite?” asked the little prince.

“Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. “They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all.”

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near –

“Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”

“It is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . .”

“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.

“But now you are going to cry!” said the little prince.

“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.

“Then it has done you no good at all!”

“It has done me good,” said the fox, “because of the color of the wheat fields.” And then he added:

“Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret.”

The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

“You are not at all like my rose,” he said. “As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world.”

And the roses were very much embarassed.

“You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you–the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.

And he went back to meet the fox.

“Goodbye,” he said.

“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

“It is the time I have wasted for my rose — ” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . .”

“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

–From The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

inspired - babypics

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baby fly away.

i've got work piled up to my head / all i wanna do is jump into bed

Sick.

Flu symptoms. Diarrhoea.

Want to sleep but there's so much work to do.

Air is too hot and air con is too cold.

And the worst day of the week is tomorrow.

BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Ok, done whining. Back to work.

The amount (x pg / cell) of nerdiness it takes

.. to give yourself the username "intron" and the email "transposon@".

Sigh.

New diseases found in Singapore

SARS is not our only worry. The Ministry of Health is now asking the public to be on the lookout for symptoms of the following new contagious diseases -

Assma - Severe rashes around the mouth caused by kissing too much ass, the No. 1 disease in Malaysia. Civil servants are unusually at risk.

Dialarrhoea - Uncontrollable urge to continually dial friends on mobile phone to share with them such important information as "I'm now on the LRT" or "I'm walking towards the car." Victims can be recognised by large, twitching thumb.

Meesles - Blotchy skin condition caused by eating too many packets of instant noodles.

Multiple Spousosis - Affliction whereby victims make frequent trips to Thailand, Indonesia, and China to take on additional brides. Middle-aged men are at significant risk.

Yellow Fever - Compulsion to date Asian females. Very common affliction amongst foreign talent/expatriates working in Malaysia. Also known as Pinkerton's Disease.

Totonus - Flushed complexion, high blood pressure and sometimes depression at finding out one has not touched lottery.

Heavytitis - Excessively large breasts. This disease comes in several variant strains: Heavytitis A, Heavytitis B, Heavytitis C and sometimes Heavytitis DD.

Cybertension - Feelings of stress and panic caused by lack of internet access.

Dyebetes - A compulsive need to colour one's hair. Reddish brown tints are the most common symptom, but health authorities have reported a new strain of blond highlights.

Chicken Tox - Victims exhibit a great need to talk cock. Incurable and highly contagious. Spread by ordinary conversation, and may be exacerbated by good food and alcohol. Politicians and lawyers are especially susceptible. Incurable.

The Dangers of Bread

A recent Cincinnati Enquirer headline read, "SMELL OF BAKED BREAD MAY BE HEALTH HAZARD." The article went on to describe the dangers of the smell of baking bread. The main danger, apparently, is that the organic components of this aroma may break down ozone (I'm not making this stuff up).

I was horrified. When are we going to do something about bread-induced global warming? Sure, we attack tobacco companies, but when is the government going to go after Big Bread?

Well, I've done a little research, and what I've discovered should make anyone think twice ....

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread eaters.
   
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
   
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever and influenza ravaged whole nations.
   
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
   
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
   
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low occurrence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis.
   
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat, actually begged for bread after only two days.
   
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to harder items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter and even cold cuts.
   
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
   
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
    
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
    
12. Most American bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.

In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:

1. No sale of bread to minors.
   
2. No advertising of bread within 1000 feet of a school.
   
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
   
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
   
5. A $4.2 zillion fine on the three biggest bread manufacturers. Please send this e-mail on to everyone you know who cares about this crucial issue.

Remember: Think globally, act idiotically.

Spam emails

Have been receiving strange emails lately, in my school email inbox no less, with strange titles like "Your money, honey pot".

How the spammers could believe anyone might actually open these emails is beyond me. Sigh.. I think they have no other purpose than to generate information overload for everybody.

Some of the titles are actually quite amusing though. I had one today that scolded me for being "Lazy, Orang Melayu".. No offence to the Malays but I thought it was quite apt for me, the half Malysian-half Indonesian lazy hybrid. Oh well..

Mikey's Funnies - Biannual Thoughts =)

~ A company held a contest for kids with the theme: "The nicest thing
My Father Ever Did For Me." One kid answered "He married my mother."
~ A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
~ A laugh is a smile that bursts.
~ A mother can touch a whole generation just by loving her own child well.
~ All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention
to criticism. 
~ Can't sleep? Try counting your blessings.
~ Character is what you are. Reputation is what people think you are.
~ Do not believe in miracles...rely on them.
~ Don't point a finger; hold out a hand.
~ Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
~ Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
~ Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals
dying of nothing.
~ How come it takes a properly prepared, primed surface for paint to
stick to a wall, but if a drop lands on the floor, it's there for life?
~ If evolution is true, why do mothers still only have one pair of
hands?
~ If mother always knows best, what happens when two mothers disagree?
~ If the going gets easy, you may be going downhill.
~ If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really
good, you will get out of it.
~ If you can laugh at it, then you can live with it.
~ If you don't care where you're going, any road will get you there.
~ If you don't know where you're going, you're never lost.
~ If you really want to do something, you'll find a way; if you don't,
you'll find an excuse.
~ If you want your dreams to come true, don't oversleep.
~ I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.
~ In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world
is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
~ It is bad to suppress laughter; it goes back down and spreads to your
hips.
~ It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, and fewer still to
ignore someone completely.
~ Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make
them all yourself.
~ My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.
~ Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then
beat you with experience.
~ The grass may be greener on the other side, but that's because there
is a lot more manure.
~ We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more
information in our heads. So I'm not fat, I'm just really intelligent and my
head couldn't hold any more so it started filling up the rest of me.
~ Where there is no wonder there is no worship.
~ You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving
~ Your child needs your love the most when they deserve it the least.
~ Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of
God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the
need of God's grace.