I stood in the lounge, staring at the aquarium.

There lay a fish, asleep, lying on some rocks.

I wondered for a while, whether this aquarium was big enough for these fishes - do they get bored?

As a kid you're confined to the house mostly. As a domestic pet you might have an even smaller surface area you're allowed to roam in. Having seen one puppy have a small fencing to itself made me quite sad really, thinking animals should roam free and be allowed the joy of travel as and when they want to!

So kids, if you're reading your dad's blog archives, this is why I don't want pets in the house.

Sure, kids love dogs, but dogs need dog friends too! They got urges, and you'd be glad they don't put their urges on you.

Hmmm that was a different tangent than what I originally intended. Anyway! Imagine being a fish - you could swim about and sleep wherever you want, whenever you want. Because you have no belongings! There is nothing to take care of. You don't have to put your stash at home. You have no stash.

Maybe if you were a baby octopus you'd have a coconut shell as a house, but that is temporary.

The only thing you'd need to worry about, is that you are not eaten when you are asleep. I take it that different fishes don't eat each other despite cohabiting, because fish food just tastes better. It has to, for the survival of the smaller fish!

So is that what being a monk is all about? Having no belongings? All you have is the robe. You have all the time in the world to think about how to solve the world's problems. Nobody nags you, you don't have to report to anybody, you don't have to go to school... you have full control over your mental resources.

Thus, a child born into a monastery has less mental worth than a regular member of society who knows the problems of society and then becomes a monk and gets to thinking how to solve problems full-time. All the kid is good for, is probably martial arts and being a vegetarian chef. What good does that kid do for society when he comes to town and steals our women, charming them with their ponytails and vegetarian ways?

Howdy folks, Albert is back.

No, not the photo-blogging Albert, the original blogging Albert. The wordy one.

Yes I've been away - a lot of stuff has been going on. I've been doing the night shift; today is the first week and I'm... adjusting. It's quite fun, the prospect of being able to see the sun when not at work. If only I wasn't so tired. The idea that I can go visit all these places that are only open during office hours is also quite enthralling. But first things first - daily 8 hours have never become so necessary.

I end up waking at 6pm. Which is, really, like exiting the office at 6pm.

Speaking of which, I am in a different office (again). While my employer and hand that feeds me is the same, the office and colleagues are different - it's like I got a new job without the hassle of any interviews (and 2-month waiting time!) So I am now closer to home, Solaris Dutamas to be exact. Bukit Jalil was far and had no life anyway, other than its new found function as a bus station.

I've also been doing 10am to midnight work hours the past 2 weeks, which explains my online absence and absent-mindedness. Big project that was. My 30-something year old colleague was finding it interesting that she could re-align herself to such long hours, something we only had the vitality for in our college years!

I believe it was C. Loco who told me that once you hit 27 (or was it 26?) you start to think you're real old and complain about it. I hear myself doing so, and I see older people doing so at a greater extent. So be prepared for some juvenile geriatric speeches the next time I see you acting youthful!

Camera-wise - the Sony NEX-3 and NEX-5 were launched last Friday. Pictures will come once I get some sleep as I've just got home. Pricing is RM2699 for the NEX-5 with Sony E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS (Optical SteadyShot) and the first 150 buyers get a 8GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, 2 years extended warranty and a free training workshop. Prices for other packages are not out yet, unfortunately, until the stock arrives. I know I want the NEX-5, Sony E 16mm F2.8 pancake and LA-EA1 lens adapter.

I would also like to thank Thursday Love, who is writing a book on her (and our) favorite subject! She hooked me up with some movies - one of which is the title of this blog entry (well, it was planned to be, but got renamed) and the others being Kinsey and My Own Private Idaho. Kinsey was interesting - I could relate to the detachment of emotion from science, as I fancy myself a man of science (and can relate to the external view that Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen has.) I dare say it had a much further, better impact and awareness for the GLBT movement than Brokeback Mountain ever did. Honestly, I wasn't moved by Brokeback Mountain, nor could I understand why they were suddenly humping each other in a tent!

Then there was My Own Private Idaho, with Keanu Reeves actually acting... as a male escort (euphemism used to prevent being on a company's website filter list.) I've always known I looked like Keanu ever since The Matrix, and so I have this symptom where whenever I've just watched a Keanu movie, I tend to walk or stand like I'm Keanu and there is a movie camera a few meters away pointed at me. Yes, he had that look even in that movie.

I've not cut my hair since the 11th of October 2004. (Credits to smashpOp for taking this picture.)

On the 28th of March 2010, I will cut my hair - all of it. I will go bald!

That would make a 1994 day streak of uncut hair (I did shave though.)



This is for WorldVision Malaysia's Operation Botak. Its aim is to raise funds to build a learning resource centre and equip a mobile library; I quote the site:

"Over half of Sabah's population is scattered amongst isolated rural areas. We hope to raise RM100,000 to help provide indigenous communities in the interiors of Tuaran and Kota Belud with the gift of education and literacy by equipping a mobile library and learning resource centre.

Thus, we're challenging our more fervent supporters to go bald for literacy."

You can see all 48 participants who have pledged to go bald, on their Facebook Album here:
WorldVision Malaysia's Photos - Operation Botak

Mine is here:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=11685558&id=34138915656&fbid=10150142976360657



To donate to the cause, download this form:

http://worldvision.com.my/images/blitz/operation%20botak_donation%20form.pdf

You can then send it by post, fax, or email the form to admin@worldvision.com.my.

So, all of you Who have said I look better in short hair had better donate!

Remember that scene in the movie "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs", where it is snowing ice-cream? Kids are eating chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, and one lone kid shouts "my favorite!" and crashes in the strawberry ice-cream.

It was Ice-Cream Day at the office, and we had a choice of 3 flavors - chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. I see a resemblance! (I picked vanilla.) This is what was left after a few hours:

...on Sunday the 11th of October 2009. My computer already misses me - it went into a blue screen of death and upon restarting, I found my Kingston 1GB DDR400 wouldn't work in any of the slots, my motherboard beeping away. So now I have one third the memory, and hopefully this is only temporary!