fish8me.com

my good friend cal ina is running 42km marathon to raise money for the As ylum S eekers Res ource Center Aus tralia. I am suppose to run in this but my shin splits is just kicking my ass.

Basically we’re paying her to run, and I asked her if she doesn’t finish does that mean i get my money back? and she said “that’s what everyone else asked”. which technically isn’t an answer, but HEY ITS FOR CHARITY AND TAX DEDUCTIBLE SO ITS ALLL GOOD YOU ALLLZZZ.

She still needs help reaching her intended goal of $1000, so if you could donate any amount (credit card needed), she, I and all 3700 staff and asylum seekers would really appreciate it!

more info on the Just Run team website.

speaking of travelling…take a look at photography.

and whats this? The American Look?

I watched Wicked the other day. Awesome show. I just love how it makes use of existing Wizard of Oz lore to wrap its own story around. so its not an adaptation of Oz per se, but rather an alternative perspective that fits in extremely well with existing story lines and the “feel” of Oz! granted, Wicked: the musical is itself an adaptation of Wicked: the book. but having not read the book myself, all i have to go by is the musical, which has a very tight feel to the storyline that works very well with what it is trying to do. great special effects as well.

I would love to deconstruct the themes of the show (namely the nature of good and evil), as well as the actual story itself with you guys, but i don’t want to give too much of it away. But i will say it is an extremely thought provoking piece on perspectives, the power of propaganda and “public consensus” and, of course, right and wrong.

If you’ve watched it, please do leave your thoughts!

google just came out with a new browser.

its pretty slick, quick, and small memory footprint so it won’t hog resources like firefox. but its got quite a few security flaws at the moment, so don’t use it for anything important just yet.

lots of potential. very clean interface, with a all-purpose-url bar. takes a bit of getting use to not having a dedicated wikipedia search bar on the right, but i think its for the best to cut down on clutter. tabs on the top give it a unique look. and the tabs are all dynamically manipulatable, so you can drag and drop them to separate a window or combine tabs from different windows. download menu unobtrusively pops up as well.

i’m not quite sure what engine its running though (IE, Mozille Gecko or *gasp* Opera?). siong reported a website that was incompatible, so it might be using its own proprietary thing.

for those who don’t know, i’ve basically tested personally every single browser for windows out there, and this matches up pretty well for a public beta. the web browser is probably one of the most important, yet under appreciated applications on computers today.

google products only get better with time, and i’m sure they’ll be putting some effort into this (even though they are funding firefox).

Wow i remember doing this when i turned 21…

hell i remember doing this when i turned 17!

hmmm… i could write on about all the stuff i learnt this year, but instead of boring you with the sanctimonious platitudes, here’s a nice song!

Bri mful of As ha by Cor nershop (Fa t Bo y Sl im Remix)

I’ve been filming and editing for the past 14 hours straight, but i’m glad to say my 2 minute film is finally done.

i’m sending it in for the Australian L aw School Film Competition, but you guys get to see it first here!

thanks to everyone who helped out! really couldn’t have done it without the support this time round.

*update* the quality of the video on facebook is MUCH better.

came home messed up and immediately opened the Bible and “What the Buddha taught” and started reading. reading for answers. reading for peace. and WOW.

randomly opening the Good Book, one of the first verses that jumps out at me:

Mark 2:27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

judging by how He was trying to reform Jewish customs at the time, was He saying “don’t be a slave TO DOCTRINE”?? that while overly concerning and immersing yourself in the technical theological aspects of the religion, YOU MIGHT MISS THE REAL MESSAGE????? the Truth??

forgive me if this seems uncharacteristically cryptic, but i’m just typing from the heart here, because my head is in a mess. and these are the first things that come out.

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.
The Buddha

if there’s ONE thing i have learnt from law school:

not everything is as easy as black and white. good or bad. right or wrong.

choice is an easy word to use, but SOME things aren’t as clear cut as that word implies.

you CHOOSE to have these emotions. you CHOOSE to want what you want.

but this goes beyond a stupid philosophical or ideological debate. WAY beyond that. and WAY more important to me.

i feel like. crap. frustrated. yet i don’t feel angry. instead of anger, its just: hollow. and churning. and weird.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
The Buddha

and some measure of acceptance. because denial is a terrible thing. i try not to do that.

but like i said, choices aren’t always easy to be made. and sometimes they don’t even present much of a choice.

when you know from the start its going to hurt, what possesses people to stick their hand in boiling water anyway? knowing full well nothing good can come from it.

maybe its hope. and the reason we have hope is so that we can accomplish the difficult things. so that we can gain fulfillment.

maybe its stupidity. and the reason we have stupidity is population control. hey, SOMEONE’s gotta be at the bottom of the ladder.

and maybe its arrogance. arrogance that we know what we are doing and we know the cause and effect of things. AND THAT WE ARE ALWAYS RIGHT.

even when we’re not.

“you don’t understand.” “you won’t understand” “you can’t understand”

is the most condescending, sanctimonious, stupidest load of crap i have ever heard.

HOW CAN YOU ASSUME I WON’T UNDERSTAND IF YOU DON’T EVEN TRY ?@?@!?!?!??!$?#@#5>@!?@$#^%?@#$^@#$%^$@%^$%^$^

Anyway.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
The Buddha

at least we didn’t die.