Twists and turns

Managed to finish Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons this morning. Another intriguing novel involving lots of symbolism. This time, the backdrop is Rome, and the villain the ancient enemy of the Catholic Church – the Illuminati. Very absorbing book, which explains why I was reading it when I should be working on my Dip FM project… 😉

While the plot was fast-paced and full of twists and turns, it does attempt to explore an important question: Does science have soul? In other words, has religion lost its relevance, and replaced by conscienceless technology which dictates our way of life. The speech by one of the central characters 2/3 through the book is especially illuminating.

Amazing finish!

The Rugby World Cup final just finished a few minutes ago, and Australia narrowly lost it… 😥

The Australian team did themselves proud tonight, twice coming back from behind and eventually forcing play into extra time. Every time England nudged ahead, Australia managed to pull back the difference. In the end, it was the halfback Jonny Wilkinson’s kicking that made all the difference, kicking a final drop goal seconds from the end of extra time. It was certainly a nerve-racking game right through!! Final score: Australia 17, England 20.

England has made history tonight, being the first northern-hemisphere to hold aloft the Rugby World Cup.

Rugby World Cup

Can’t really call myself a rugby person. Heck, have not even played tough rugby before! However, the World Cup is on now and I guess it’s that nationalistic streak which is stirring in me now. Guess I will being taking a 2 hour break come Saturday… After courageously downing the mighty All Blacks, the Aussie Green’N’Gold will face the English this coming Saturday in the Final. No prizes for guessing who I will be rooting for! :rolleyes:

Go Aussies!

Reality?

Recently, increasingly disturbed by the notion of truth, and the “how things REALLY happened” concept.

Judging from what I see in the news, whatever opinions declared by the local government here are instantly deemed to be the law and “truth set in stone”. On the other hand, both US and British administration are in deep trouble because of information-manipulation prior to the Iraq war, and the subsequent mis-handling of information flow. With meaning of events changing so rapidly, is it a wonder that one loses faith in the sources of such, official and therefore controlled, information?

These events, combined with, as an example, questions raised in the Matrix trilogy, and the intriguing novels I have read recently, really make me stop and think: how can I be so sure of the history I have learnt till now? It seems that if many of the current events can have multiple interpretations, could it not have taken place in the past? Can we then still have so much faith in what is in our history books? After all, that is only ONE version of what happened, not necessarily how it happened!?

It may be in the scientific spirit to question all that you come across, but where do we stop and draw the line? Is this when faith comes into it?

ps. Maybe all of this is the result of exam stress!? For the Dip FM course, the day of reckoning is 2 December, and a project deadline before that!

The final Matrix

Like it or not, Matrix: the revolution is the talk of the town in Singapore, and, seemingly, the talk of many online forums around the world.

Saw it last Wednesday – the date of the world premiere in fact, although it was not intentional on my part. While the action and animation are again first-class, can’t help feeling that some loose ends still remain. Some would of course argue that this is precisely the magic of the Wachowsky brothers!? 😉

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Watchlist

Decided to create a *list of links devoted to the gadgets which I am currently interested in. Hopefuly I can find an MP3 player to my taste soon!

ps. (11.02.2011) The link seems to have gone AWOL when I converted to WordPress from MovableType many moons ago!

Bravery

Another angle on bravery.

“Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again – this is the brave and happy life.”

J.E. Buchrose

Dark secrets

Been following Etemenanki since the September 11 incident. Maybe, like so many other people, I wanted to make some sense of the change in the world at the time? While I have found the articles to be mostly entertaining, such as the coincidences in the Iraq conflict, the recall election won by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the recent blackouts in US, I do feel some of the links are rather far-fetched. Nevertheless, entertaining reading.

Recent readings on Etemenanki have led to some very intriguing stuff. From the Gnostic website, then to The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which proposes some startling theory of Christian lineage (see also Holy Blood, Holy Grail).

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Illness

Been sick in bed for the past two days. Not a pleasant experience. 🙁

This reminds me of the time when I had appendicitis, about 5 years ago. Due to delay in diagnosis, and some complications which followed, everything was dragged out much longer than it should have. Looking back, the feeling of helplessness, and of being trapped in one’s situation, was really terrible.