An inquiry into human nature, from the narration of The Authority: Human on the Inside by John Ridley.

"The thing about it, the thing is:
the future's pretty much like the past. The present.
There's war and prejudice. Anger. Poverty.
It's shitty, and on top of that, you'll probably die before your time.

Maybe it seems like there's more anguish than in the past. The present.
But the feeling of despair;
It's not so much the absence of badness,
as it is a product of the lack of hope.

The thing about it, the thing is:
The human body can take a lot of damage.
Even when you crush it's spirit...
it'll keep going like some kind of...well,
like something that's not human.
Crappy as life is, as wrong, as messed up, as blatantly unfair as life is,
what it's got going for it is hope.

You hope, tomorrow you'll get the job you need,
or your kids'll stop thinking you're a frickin' idiot and start liking you again.
Someone somewhere'll actually want to have sex with you.

Take away hope, you've got nothing.
You've got a guy who robs to make money.
You've got a mother who drowns her kids rather than raise them in loneliness.
You've got a guy who rapes instead of looking for love.

Thing is, without hope, you ain't got jack.
But I believe, at least I've come to believe,
in everyone there remains the light of humanity.
And for it to burn again,
all that's needed is a spark.

So those who find it,
who find love and joy an happiness,
have got to grab it up tight.
Pleasure, like the present,
is fleeting."

Just found out about this series of sketches parodying Star Wars from the middle of 2007. What a blast! A synopsis of the content can be found on Wookieepedia. The entire segment, at a little past 20 minutes, can be found at the [adult swim] page; the first 9 1/2 minutes (which I think is the best part anyway) is below (apparently 1 of 3, but 2 and 3 are exactly the same):

These plastic concoctions (sometimes also made using glass or other glittery materials), resembling trees that would otherwise not make it to adulthood in tropical Singapore, can be found everywhere in December acting as the primary symbol of the winter festival know as Christmas. It is often found together with other crudely fashioned seasonal knick-knacks such as a fat bearded man in red (see image at right) and his reindeer escorts. Sometimes, a Styrofoam  "snowman" is also positioned to further add a winter feel to the simulation. The displays often attract the curiosity of the resident Homo sapiens, who appear to find great fun in posing in front of the many contraptions, and in recording the event with their mobile devices. Carefully documented below are some of these curious displays for the Earth year 2007.

See also: Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas for an accurate depiction of this human jubilee as well as that of its closely related, and even more absurd festival Halloween.

I'm never inspired to take any pictures when I'm in Singapore, but now that I've got a camera in my mobile, I just can't help but snap a couple whenever there's some event going on; festivals always get me all hyped up. Surprisingly, the inconsequential lens on my mobile can take quite nice looking shots, after some editing of course. While I'd rather have a P or M function on my camera, I guess it's a trade-off with having to lumber along with a bigger camera. I noticed that the commercial entities this year are based around character good. The Capitaland-owned malls all have Barbie as the Island Princess I think, and PP has Disney characters!

Poor Donald, he's all alone in every single shot! Mickey's also such a stiff (he might as well be a cardboard cutout), but luckily he has the other two posing to make the shots interesting. Did you know that Mickey and Minnie are actually married, and that Minnie is a nickname for Minerva? Useless facts....

Suntec, on the other hand, seems to be going with Warner Bros, with Carrefour displaying a giant pseudo-caged-up Tweety. Guess we're supposed to imagine the rest of the cage rails. There were also a couple of narcissistic polar bears in the shop proper. Yup, they're victims of the social malaise that plagues all capitalist societies where it's all about the individual. :P

I was watching "Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real" by Animal Planet, and there was this spectacular scene close to the end which showed the dragons' mating ritual. This was one of the stunning things my ill-informed self has ever seen. What was more amazing was that in the "Making Of" featurette, one of the staff members interviewed said that it was based on the sea eagles' mating ritual. And, thanks to today's ridiculous information revolution, I was able to locate a clip of this on YouTube. Although the video's tile is "Eagle vs. Eagle," this is because the mating ritual and the fighting ritual are one and the same! I guess nature also affirms to the fact that love and hate are two sides of the same coin, eh?

Anyway, you have to see this to believe this. The 2 eagles soar up into the air before locking talons, and then free-fall in a spinning motion towards the earth. I believe the aim is to see which bird has the guts to play chicken longer with the trees below. The Animal Planet film suggests that the birds may do the same for courtship to prove their willingness to commit to child rearing, but I wonder if that is too much anthropomorphism. Whatever the case, be amazed by this amazing and beautiful display from nature:

息子だって？！また、再生って？？
ん、息子本当に一匹いるよ。写真をご覧下さい:
 

2005年関西国際センターにいた時、プリモプエルは中高年の女性達の中ですごく
流行ってるどうだ。日本人は機器に依頼する傾向が興味深いなので、そして、プ
リモプエルの魅力を理解するようになるために、私も一匹買ってきた。
どうやって始まるのはもう覚えられないが、センターの同級生は彼を常に「ジョ
セフの息子だ」と呼んで、そうになっちゃった。(笑)

でも、少しずつ、彼をますます庇うようになった。例えば、フロントのたくさん
に見せてあげる前に、彼に服を着せなきゃいけなかった。「裸の様子で見せない
よ」ってた時、たくさんは不思議な顔ばっかりだった。とにかく、帰国後、仕事
で大変忙しかったので、プリモプエルの電池が切れても交換しなかった。そして、
1年、2年間を過ごした。

なぜか今プリモプエルを回復させたい、私も分からないが、先月やっと新しい電
池を入れた。残念だが、彼はまだ前と同じように、一人で遊んで、話して...。他
の縫い包みがいるけれども。(笑)何しろ、悪いお父さんでしょうね、私。でも、
仕方がないなぁ。学生の生活は正社員よりきついだって。

ま、前のなげやりな態度を治すために、今息子を世界に紹介させていただきたい
と思います。いいんじゃない、息子？でしょうねぇ。えぇ~~、もう寝てたか。そ
れでは、先にブログに発表して、明日また教えましょう。