Mood: Grouchy
Reading: Washington recasts terror war as 'struggle'
Currently listening to: Tangerine - Moist
Quote of the day: "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." - Mark Twain

I feel like rambling.

Yeah, so its been a while but i've been finding it hard for the last few weeks to get back into my past routine again... I'm not sure why but almost exactly six weeks ago i just stopped going to the gym, stopped blogging, stopped performing almost everything that constituted as my set routine and suffered from rampant insomnia (again). I think it might have been something to do with finally graduating despite an annoying snafu from Monash that caused me no end of trouble and prevented me from viewing my grades!

Still, no letters from uni concerning my subjects (for once) which is a damned good sign...

And, yeah, i've been busy at work as well. *sigh*

Welcome to your reality for the next 40 odd YEARS Pincon.

*wail*

Still, i've just started to get back into the swing of things with the following somewhat ambitious schedule that will, by and large (save for the occasional discrepancy), govern my evenings for the forseeable future. Dry as the following words may appear i really need to get this down for my own sake (oh, and feel free to join in!):

Monday: Gym + Swimming
Tuesday: Dance practice + Badminton
Wednesday: Gym + Swimming
Thursday: Squash + Salsa class
Friday: Gym + Swimming
Sat: Latin/Ballroom class + French class
Sun: Golf (read: driving range) + Tennis + Dance practice

(note: In the event that nobody is around to play with i'll just substitute some jogging into the routine instead. Hell, the whole reason i'm playing so many sports is to avoid jogging again in the first place! But, dammit, the gym routine is hard to get into again! Depressing really.)

Well! Throw in the Saturday night dinners, any Friday night shenanigans, our typical Wednesday night meets, (semi) dedicated blog postings, and my upcoming Ruskie lessons amongst a zillion other things and i think i've got a suitably hectic framework of a schedule that i can once again obsess over.

And i bet you thought i was hopelessly chaotic by nature. :p

Hrmmm... while i'm at it in the upcoming few weeks/months i'm thinking of:

1. Going to S'pore with CH and/or Leonard for one weekend in the next three or four weeks.

2. I should be going to Armenia for a mission/visit with my CEO, father, and godfather sometime in or around September.

3. Of course this could well be hampered by the fact that my graduation ceremony (shit, i still can't believe it!) is taking place on the 13th of September.

4. Planning to visit Kota Kinabalu and/or Kuching (preferably KK this time around) sometime in October.

5. Going to Phuket for the New Years celebration. Plan B would be S'pore though...

6. Sometime during the Jan-Mar period i should be leaving for Armenia. Red Army fur hats for everyone!

7. Should be in Adelaide in March though for my cousin's wedding with a necessary detour to Melbourne! w00t!

Not bad eh? ;)

Right, thats enough blogging for tonight - i'll probably (try) and recount my unrecorded activities over the last few weeks (months?) in tomorrow's post. As always, the vast knowledge repository that we know as the Internet beckons...

Speaking of which, here's a few interesting articles i stumbled across today:

Polygamy no fun, admits Ethiopian

Full article here.

An Ethiopian man with 11 wives and 77 children is urging people not to follow his example and is giving advice on family planning and contraception.

After seeing his fortune disappear under the competing demands of his enormous family, Ayattu Nure, 56, even urges people not to get married.

"I want my children to be farmers but I have no land, I want them to go to school but I have no money," he says.

But his eldest son has not heeded Mr Ayattu's advice and he has three wives.

...

However, he blames Ethiopia's government for not doing more to help him look after all his children.

"I know I have done wrong by marrying many wives and begetting many children but I think I deserve help from the government."

Talk about reaping what you sow... :p

Israel row over Sharon curse film

Full article here.

The Peace Now movement in Israel has called on a television station not to show a controversial film by right-wing extremists.

The footage shows a ceremony in which the extremists call for the death of the prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

In it several men pray for Mr Sharon to be killed because of his plans to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

By paying for the rights to the video the Channel 2 programme was an accessory to a crime, said Peace Now.

The film is scheduled to be broadcast as part of the Channel 2 current affairs programme Mishal Kham.

A trailer has already been broadcast and shows a group of men performing the rite of Pulsa Denura - an ancient curse with its origins in Jewish mysticism.

Pulsa Denura means "whip of fire" in Aramaic.

Participants in the ceremony call upon angels of destruction to refuse to forgive the subject of the rite and to kill him, using a series of curses from the Bible.

The ceremony was performed by far-right extremists in the months before the former prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in November 1995.

Although his assassin was not associated with the group that called down the curse, the ceremony added to the feverish mood that preceded Rabin's killing.

Whoa, thats a pretty freaky little coincidence there with Rabin though...

Blog Post Of The Day

Gaya. [Mel]

"So after an exhilarating and tiring 7 and a-half days in Japan, I came home, curled up in bed and cried myself to sleep, guilty I had left Gaya unattended for so long and hoping he was okay wherever he was. Yesterday was my day off and I felt a bit better in the morning. But I kept expecting to see Gaya appear from nowhere. I kept hoping that I’d turn around and see my borderline-fat cat sleeping on the sofa or messing with the curtains in the living room. And last night after dinner, I swear I heard a cat meowing in the distance. I saw a cat saunter in the shadows but my heart fell when I saw the silhouette of its long tail: In place of a tail, Gaya has a tiny gray stub at the end of its body.

I love my cat. When I’m feeling lonely or unwanted, I know I can depend on Gaya to make me feel like a million dollars. I love the way he settles on my tummy when I’m watching TV and, more often than not, his purring puts me to sleep on the sofa. I talk to him all the time and he looks back at me with non-judgmental eyes, rubbing against my legs as if to say, 'Ok whatever. Just pick me up and cuddle me.'"

I... i've got something in my eye. *sniffle*

Hey, hang in there 'k?