just minishorts.

I really, really, really want a new camera and a new phone, but I don't feel like drawing out money to get these two things.

*I wish money DID fall from the sky*!!

You know, sometimes, I want to go back to the times where I didn't have to give-a-damn about difficult issues like race, religion, cultures, idealogies. Back to a time when Philosophy could be labelled as just 'the most bloody difficult core subject' for Literature minors. Pushed into a reality where people would kill and fight (not necessarily with physical weapons) just over differences of opinion towards an idea, we all have to consider this, 'What's the reason we're here on earth?'

Don't worry, I'm not about to preach religion here.But I've been thinking, you know how everyone says that we're all on Earth for something, or how the universal truth goes by, 'You can't choose your parents,' or 'there are somethings you just cannot choose?' I've been thinking about the things that, you know, they can't say you can't choose, the things that you need to accept and carry out no matter what. I wanted to list them down, because I think, it's relevent, in this time. I know, I know this, I can't choose the following, Earth-concepts:

1. parents, siblings, family members
2. the country in which I was born
3. the religion in which I was born to
4. the primary school that my parents first decided to send me to
5. this Earth, this planet I'm born to

I know I cannot choose most of the things above, they'll stick with me till my dying days. Unless of course, I choose to

1. Denounce every single member of my family, maybe due to a break-up of catastrophic proportions?
2. Leave this place and migrate to 'greener pastures'? Just in case I get fed-up, y'know?
3. Convert! It's pretty simple for me, but not so simple for others.
4. Can't do much about this except go about pretending I never went to that school, or make up a fictional tale about some school I never went to in order to erase my past.
5. Erm. Fall in love with an Alien and migrate overspace?

I'm looking at the lists above, and I just realized this. Have you notice how for items (1)-(4), even though technically we cannot 'choose' their origins, there's always another option alternative to the original? Even for item (1) the fact that we can't choose our original families; some people have denounce family bloodlines before and started completely new ones! It's not a new thought. The fact is, this Earth has ample of choices for almost everything in every category. It's what you choose that makes you what you are.

Except the last item. The fact that we cannot choose the planet we're born in. Alamak now that's a dilemma right? Say I hate Malaysia because its laws are somewhat draconian, I can always try to move out of it, let's say I move to Singapore. Then maybe I hate it because it's too sanitized, so I'll move to maybe Thailand. I can keep on moving from country to country until I find a nice place to settle down in.

But if I don't like Planet Earth, I can't very well fly out of the planet and settle down on the Moon, for example. It's just physically and logically not possible. Now, unless I choose to commit suicide and see where that takes me, I suppose I'm just stuck on earth. With all it's inadequacies and injustice, and the stupid people that seem to be multiplying like bunnies by the way. Even with the wars and the idiocy and the increasing number of fundies that annoy me to death. So I'm stuck here, and I have to tolerate these people no matter what.

I can do that. I know a lot of people can do that. The question is, why is it that FUNDAMENTALISTS cannot seem to get it into their brains that they have to move along just like the rest of us?

Strange place, this world.

I'm terrified of fundamentalists. Because they go by a 'it's my way or the highway' principle. That makes them terribly difficult people to deal with. Now, putting my declaration here in context, I have to quote Bukan Islam Liberal:

What kind of retard would ever consider such a religion and embrace it as their way of life, to the extent that they are willing to leave the beautiful ad-Deen which is Islam for the reckless pursuits of a man-made religion?

I am deeply insulted, because by your definitions and quotes, I am your kind of retard who has embraced the reckless pursuits of a man-made religion.

(more…)

I read this in a Massage Therapy forum, the opinion of a lady. In her post she talks about how it is always so pointless to argue opinions with religious fundamentalists who go by their way only. Snippets galore:

people involved with high-control groups often don't have any morals of their own. What they have are rules. When they break the rules, they feel defeated, they think they are weak, bad and condemned. Most importantly, they feel "influenced." "The Devil made me do it," is not just the punchline to a stand-up comedy routine, they really believe they have been influenced by evil forces. They believe this so entirely, that the idea does not even seem strange to them.

On the other hand, when anything goes well in their lives, they can't take credit for that either. It must be a "blessing" from God, rather than their own hard work, ability or serendipity.

They often feel isolated. They are the "only ones" serving God, they are the "only ones" who understand. At the same time, they revel in their isolation, they wear it as a badge of honor. They see their difference as evidence of being on the right path, criticism is viewed as "persecution"–further evidence of truth and right.

What all of this means, is that people who have all of their rules set for them, may never develop their own moral compass.

The ideas of persecution, being under attack, being influenced by evil, being the only ones, having the absolute truth, having a mainline to God… sound so totally irrational to most people, but are completely logical to this type of Christian.

Taken to its extreme, this difference in thinking creates not only extremists, but even more frightening in its implications, it creates people who are unable to formulate their own boundaries. Without rules, they are lost, adrift.

I'll openly say this here: I'm terrified of rules not because of the rules themselves, because when I read the rules I know they're good for me. Yet I'm terrified because I cannot trust the people who enforce the rules.

And we all know that there are A LOT OF PEOPLE just eager to 'enforce' rules in this place.

So kacau-lah. Will discuss the context in a bit. Wait for that one.

I've seen marriages breakdown far too many times because of the other woman. I don't know about you, but it sometimes beats me why a man is capable of inflicting so much hurt on another person, especially when that person is someone who has sacrificed at least 20 odd years to build a marriage. You know? Have kids and all, stayed with him through thick and thin, helped build a strong family while he built his careers.

I've known far too many women who started off having fantastic careers, and then somewhere along their marriages, decided it would be best to give it up for the family, and after that when the man's career goes steadily up the ladder, so does the marriage come spiralling down.

20 years, 3 children and a dog later, he walks into the house, out of the blue, and announces it, 'I've met someone else. I want to go with her. I'm divorcing you.'

Well, most women emerge strong enough to rebuild their lifes, and look back on what happened with a definite spat of bitterness. But I wonder, I wonder, why on earth do we get so stupid?

Why is it that a 25 year old girl, with plenty of things to run for in life, would settle down with a man who's old enough to be her father?

Is it the money? The promise of a shortcut to branded stuff? That Rolex on your hand? The range of LaMer facial products you get to sport on your table? The Chanel bag you probably would never get to own ever had you chosen to try to make it on your own?

And so you find it PERFECTLY all right to barge in, and take over the place of another woman? Just for the heck of materialistic needs like this?

Why did you get so stupid? Where's the dignity in being such a bitch?