Schmusie Video 1.




Schmusie Video 2.

Here's a video of Hedgy. It's kinda mega-dark.

Since blogger now allows video uploads here is a video of baby turtles on the Seychelles heading out to sea on Bird Island. Honestly it was like being in Lost!

The Rockery Part 1.





The Rockery Part 2

What do you mean "all guys are like that. Deep down.", my dear Rhubi? No, you forgot a VERY important detail: They are like that ON the surface. Also, "they'll get better when they get older". Oh yeah?! I should think not! What a lie or very optimistic point of view!

Anyhow after all the strains of the day settle down for an utterly useless discussion about the definitions of "be right back", "be back later" and "be back soon".

Obviously "right" indicates that the person will be back without delay, so within 0-10 minutes. Then the real discussion is about the words later and soon. Which one comes first? What do they imply? Later: does it mean within the same day? You say see you soon or VERY soon, which would mean that it's further in time than later.
So to conclude, probably soon over-laps with later, but then goes further, so:

Right: 0-10 min
later: 3-24 hrs
soon: 1 hr-3/6 months

Wasn't that wonderful? Well I thought so... No actually I didn't!

OK, now for a video of Schmusie in a box of toys!

OK, one convo we had on the beach of Nyon was SO funny. We were talking 'bout CSI Las Vegas. In one of the episodes a guy dies 'cos he's been infected by a fungus so Greg and Sara had to strip and were showered by the bio-hazard troupe. Of course they were hidden from the camera and so with from us. First funny comment from N: "Aww, what a shame!". Then Greg says later on to Sara: "I just wanted you to know that I didn't see anything back there." and she answers: "Really? I saw everything." Nothing, (too) funny about that, now for the addition we made: he should have said: "Well? What did you think?" Hehe, now that would have been funny! Really ETMI! Well it would have been if she had answered!

Akon Lyrics

Welcome to a sort of Friday Discussion Topic, except that it's not Friday and it's not really a discussion... Anyway, here we go!

Do we always have a choice in everything we do? Oh wow, another YES or NO situation...

NO: We don't have a choice about being born.
YES: Maybe not, but we can choose to end it.

NO: We can't choose our family.
YES: No, but we can choose to turn our backs on them and live with our friends or to make the best with them.

NO: We can't choose our gender.
YES: We can choose to change it with a sex change.

NO: We can't choose our name.
YES: We can choose to change it.

NO: We can't choose what social class we are born into.
YES: Through hard work, effort and a strong will, we can escape it.

NO: We can't choose our ethnicity.
YES: With the help of an operation, almost all traits of all ethnicities can be eradicated.

NO: Kids can't choose whether they go to school or not ("developed" countries).
YES: They can choose not to go.

NO: Slaves couldn't choose to be free.
YES: They could run away and face the consequences (death).

NO: We can't choose not to die.
YES: Perhaps not, but we can make the best with what we were given and live healthily.

NO: We can't choose the weather.
YES: We can choose to accept that.

NO: We can't choose the life we live.
YES: Through (right) choices, we can live it properly.

You see, we always have a choice even if it leads to our destruction and precipitated death. Even a slave could decide to be free, although his escape may provoke his death. The next question is: Is there a destiny? (OK, this has already been discussed, but oh well...)

If there is, then in fact the choices we DO have, aren't open to take. For example, say you have a job interview. You cannot choose to be picked as an employee, but you can choose not to go. If it's destiny for you to get that job, then you shall be picked. That means the choice of not going to the interview could NOT be taken by you.

Here's an image for a better comprehension:

So basically, the corridor is our life path and the rooms are events. With destiny, the path is chosen, so the rooms all remain locked. The \\ means it cannot be accessed, because it is not our destiny. We have no choices. All the choices we think we have such as "to wear these trousers or this skirt" are in fact not real choices. You might think you chose to wear it, but in fact the trousers had no real chance anyway.

Without destiny:

Here we have many different paths, everything is possible. The Main Event can be reached or not.

Then we have half-destiny. Won't do a pic for this. Some things are destiny, but the way we choose to take to get there is up to us.

If you think about it: every time you meet someone you change their destiny. Well, unless it was destiny to meet them in the first place... Our actions affect people in one way or another, whether it is beneficial or not.

Is there always a good and bad path? For instance: say you just leave your school stuff in the middle of the passage, someone slips on it, breaks their neck, you feel guilty, you commit suicide and lure your family on to destruction and the GOOD path would be: you tidy up and everyone lives happily ever after? Can the consequences of a seemingly good path be worse? Is it even possible to take another path? What does destiny care what colour your socks are?
If anything, I'd say there is a kind of half-destiny: we are destined to be born, it is destiny to meet the people we know, to go certain places, to have children or not, to get married and to die. You see, we have choices and destiny is just a wall, which we can hide our uncertainties and fear behind. We just have to make decisions and even if it turns out we didn't have a choice, what does it matter? Then it's destiny and we can do nothing about it!
Destiny seems like a great way to suppress people: "Oh well, it's destiny that you live in the gutter and I have mounds of gold. Live with it!"
Enough of that! Now comment, you have a choice or maybe even destiny!

Extract from http://fengshuidesign.lifetips.com/cat/54895/chinese-astrology/index.html about Chinese Animal Years.

"The characteristics of the Cat or Rabbit

People born in the year of the Rabbit or Cat tend to be exceptionally sensitive and unusually alert. They exhibit a high degree of intelligence combined with refreshing honesty. Their minds move with great speed. This enables them to complete a wide range of varied tasks in a surprisingly short time. Their speed and acumen is highly prized in the world of mathematics and accountancy. Their feelings also change as rapidly as unstable weather. They flit back and forth between happiness and sadness. Rabbits/Cats don´t like to waste time and often don´t understand why others are not as quick witted as they are. Others can get easily provoked by this especially if they consider the Rabbits/Cats impatience to be arrogant disdain. In any given situation the Rabbit/Cat will have an acute awareness of it´s environment and there can be no greater asset in a team." End of quote.

Now for a bit of info about Scorpios (born October 22 to November 22) from http://www.astrology-online.com/scorpio.htm :

" Traditional Scorpio Traits:
Determined and forceful
Emotional and intuitive
Powerful and passionate
Exciting and magnetic

On the dark side:
Jealous and resentful
Compulsive and obsessive
Secretive and obstinate" End of quote.

Whoa, this is once again quite accurate. Scorpios are said to be introverted and quiet. Dunno about compulsive, suffocating might be more accurate. Resentful: possibly. Jealous: maybe. Obsessive? Perhaps. Secretive: defo. The Cat thing is quite true as well. I am more of a Cat than a Rabbit, although it's exactly the same. It's just that some Asian cultures replace Rabbit with Cat. Dunno about "high degree of Intelligence" though. Einstein, Peter Falk (Inspector Columbo), Drew Barrymore, Stalin, Marie Curie and others might be considered intelligent (well maybe not Stalin or Fidel Castro), but anyway. As much as I hate to quote Britney Spears, but: "I'm a fool in so many ways."
Well wasn't this fascinating? Next up: "Do we always have a choice?"

Went to the fête de Genève on Saturday by sail boat. On Capicou of course.
It was great, except that it was rather cold and quite rocky, not to mention at some point it smelled of Weed. You're not even safe out there! It was loud as well. OK, this is a film, but you can see the magnitude of the fireworks. Several million Francs down the drain. Beautiful, but very expensive.
We arrived home at about 1:30 AM and N stayed the night. We stayed up 'til about 4:30 AM, just talkin' 'bout various things (no TMI [Too Much Information] at this point). Then the next day we went to see S, who was working down at the plage de Nyon. Her reaction was hilarious when she saw N: "WTF, happened to you?!" That was SO funny! She used to call him "The Kid" (worthy of one of my nickname creations), of course that is now impossible, since he is "of age".
That is SO incredibly emo, it's incredible! The convo at this stage was rather TMI, especially what happened to his friend at the boarding school. It involved, well TMI off course, but also certain "acts" and being caught "near the middle to end". Well that was on the way TO here actually. Let's see the discussions here were how to put it TM (too much). Oops, nearly wrote something qualified as VWI (very weird information) here, but at least it was not TMI! Also S said something well ya know ETMI (EXTREMELY too much information), so it can't be put on here.

Haha! Lucie upon her noble bike. Well, my mother's noble bike. Lookin' a little blue, ain't ya?

Mwhaha! Paparazzi, ain't I? Oh well, waiter down at the port. Forgot his name, but it wouldn't be appropriate to post it on here anyway.

Now we shall do another song analysis. "Welcome to my life" by Simple Plan. It's not the best song ever written (obviously and luckily). The tune is simple, but this is SIMPLE Plan, so what can be expected? The lyrics are not THAT great and the voices can't be described as good. The message is somewhat provocative. Only millions of people feel like the singer, that could qualify as "nobody"... The lyrics are in green and the commentary is in yellow.

"Welcome To My Life"

Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Who doesn't these days?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Is "yes" an accurate answer?
Like somehow you just don't belong
Where's the syntax in that?
And no one understands you
The way you write no wonder no one understands you.
Do you ever wanna run away?
Yerp, defo.
Do you lock yourself in your room?
Nope, although that could be an idea; hate it when people come barging in.
With the radio on turned up so loud
Nope, have all the songs on the Mac and a little less on the PC.
That no one hears you screaming
No, actually the music is to block out the NEIGHBOURS' screaming.

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me
Luckily, we don't all want to be as idiotic as you!

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
That's nearly all correct except for the "you don't know what it's like" part.

Do you wanna be somebody else?
Not really. Where's the point in living someone else's life, when it's worse than yours?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Relatively; mostly I want to be left alone though.
Are you desperate to find something more?
There's more?! Wow, who knew?
Before your life is over
Obviously! It's a little late when it's over...
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Most days.
Are you sick of everyone around?
The neighbours can become VERY annoying.
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
Don't get much of that.
While deep inside you're bleeding
Quite.

No you don't know what it's like
Yes, we do!
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me
What can be said about this?

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
Thanks for the welcome, but no thanks.

No one ever lied straight to your face
Actually they have...
And no one ever stabbed you in the back
They've also done this...
You might think I'm happy but I'm not gonna be okay
What are we supposed to do about this?
Everybody always gave you what you wanted
Hardly.
You never had to work it was always there
That's what you think.
You don't know what it's like, what it's like
Oh, shut up!

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like (what it's like)
I'm surprised you don't drown in all your self-pity!

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life
OKAY, finally he shut up. It was startin' to get repetitive.

WARNING!!! THIS POST CONTAINS INFO ABOUT HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS.
IF YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED LEAVE
NOW AND DON'T BLAME ME IF
YOU DON'T AND COMPLAIN
'COS YOU WERE
WARNED!

Finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Some of you might say: "What a load of old rubbish. Who reads sh!t like that?" like Grandpa does or perhaps even claim it's evil because it talks about witchcraft and wizardry like the Catholics (not all, this is a generalization). The new pope redeemed himself slightly when he said that Harry Potter wasn't that bad after all, since some of the main themes are friendship, loyalty and good vs evil. He was on such a good path that I thought that he would apologize for what the Catholic church did to all those who maintained the earth were round. Of course he quickly assumed his prior "form" when he proclaimed that abortion should be made illegal. What people forget is, is that the witchcraft is not important. It's a façade. Voldemort's ideas are like Hitlers: both wanted something they did not have; Hitler: a pure, intelligent, beautiful race. He himself did not correspond to his own ideal of tall, blond and blue-eyed. He was also part-Jewish. Furthermore he was not even German, but Austrian AND possibly infertile! Voldemort: Pure race. He was a Half-Blood. In fact both wanted something more: Hitler wanted a race to dominate all (so basically world-domination) and Voldemort wanted immortality. Both had an army to do their bidding. Hitler: SS (Schutzstaffel) and Nazis; Voldemort: Death Eaters and SS who in this case is ONE person. It would have been difficult to explain Harry's survival and Voldemort's destruction without introducing magic. Harry could have been Jewish and Hitler came to kill him, but how would his mother's sacrifice have saved him in real life? If Hitler had tried to shoot him and the bullet somehow missed Harry and rebounded on him, he would have been killed or gravely injured. People have to see past the magic and look at the messages the book gives: love thy neighbour, fight for what you believe in, have faith, friendship, trust, good vs evil, etc... It was intended to be a children's book and can hardly qualify as a fairy story since there are only about two mentions of fairies in the whole book. There are however dragons, elves, giants, Kneazles and other fictional figures. Even though the book may lack the quality and writing style of the great authors it is however binding and JKR deserves a lot of credit because she achieved all her fame through the power of imagination and creativity. Also her book is one of the rare ones, in which the characters grow and change. That is very rare in children's books such as the "Famous Five" or "Secret Seven" the characters remain immortally young. Also she killed some of her characters off, which gives the story realism. Her characters aren't fully good or bad, which gives them more depth.

Some of the theories about Snape and Harry were true: Harry WAS a Horcrux and he marries Ginny (and doesn't die) and Snape DID love Lily and was kinda good.
I must say I was skeptical about Harry being a Horcrux, because I didn't know how he could destroy himself and that would mean that he would have to die and that JKR would never dare kill Harry unless she was suicidal.
Snape: I was a big supporter of that theory and there were many clues: for one his worst memory wasn't THAT bad. Shouldn't his worst have been his first murder? Betraying the Potters? Living with his parents? I mean sure he was humiliated in front of the some class mates, but there is worse than that. Lily was there and tried to defend him and he insulted her rather badly and she was very offended. The reason for which he hated Harry so much was because: he looked like his father, but had his mother's eyes. It must have been hell seeing someone who resembled a person he loathed profoundly and looking into those eyes, which were not unlike the ones he had looked into so many times and would nevermore look into again. He blamed Harry for Lily's death. He couldn't look past the physical appearance and so with couldn't let go of his hatred.
The theory that Snape killed Dumbledore on the latter's orders is also true. The look of "hatred and revulsion that were etched into the harsh lines of his face" were indeed self-hatred and self-revulsion as we had previously seen on Harry's face as he was forcing Dumbledore to drink that green jelly. Someone watching would not know whether he hated Dumblie or himself and since the reader sees everything from Harry's point of view and we were made to believe that Snape was bad, we were led to believe that he really did hate Dumblie. He would never plead for his life, that is below Dumblie; he was asking Snape to kill him as he had promised. Of course he was not ENTIRELY good, but nobody is. Look at Sirius. Saying that one has to let go of hatred and such, but he himself did nothing of the sort.
She killed Snape off, but he did deserve it.
The bit were Harry goes to a kind of heaven (he's naked in the beginning, that's probably why Dan R took on that role on stage [where he was naked]; he was practicing :-P for this scene) is slightly weird. Lupin and Tonk's death is sad. Their son will have to be raised by his grandmother like Neville was. Talking of Neville: wonder who he married. Luna? Lavender? Maybe Dean married Luna. What happened to Neville's grandmother? Did she make it? What happened to Trelawny? I still would like to know whether the predictions Trelawny made about Hermione leaving and Lavender's rabbit dying were luck or whether she actually predicted them. What other things apart from food can't you magic? Probably money and housing. Something to drink (unless that goes in the same category as food) and possibly a spouse, love, friendship and such; you'd need a potion or whatever. What happened to Fleur and Bill? Do they have kids? It would be nice to know what happened to the other characters. Did Ron, Hermione and Harry finish their education? If so, what jobs do they have now? Could Harry have become and auror or are they no longer needed? Where does HP live? London? Godrick's Hollow? How was Hogwarts re-built?
The story was good, but relatively long and sort of repetitive especially about how they were stuck, hungry, lost and Harry's feelings towards Ginny etc... The ending was good and the story really did play in the past, which means the film makers slightly screwed up, 'cos it plays in the early '90s, so they should have used more of a '90 style haircut and cars etc... Oh well. Sad it's finished, but it ended well. What do y'all think?