He melts my heart.

Have you heard of Knut?

If you haven't, here's a picture of him, the famous 3-month-old polar bear who was unfortunately rejected by his mother. He should have his furry best friend by his side, but sadly, after their mother had left them both to fend for themselves, his twin brother didn't make it. Sobbles.

Ain't he the cutest baby boy! All cuddly and furry, he has the roundest eyes, sweetest smile and cutest ears. My heart melts each time I see him.

The way he mischeviously runs about is so cute and just look at how adorable he is playing with that soccer ball! I adore him to bits! And it hurts me so much (or maybe, even angers me) to know that activists out there are protesting that hand-rearing Knut is a violation of animal rights and he should be put to sleep. I don't care if that poison only takes 2 seconds to end his life. I don't care if he will not feel any pain when he is being killed.

Point is, I just don't get it. Why should his life be put to a halt just because his mother refuses to take care of him? I know, I know, I know. I know that wild animals should not be humanised, I know they probably can never be domesticated. I understand that they should be allowed to live the exact way they would if they were in the wild.

But........in Knut's case, which is the greater evil? To let a human take care of Knut until he can take care of himself? Or to kill Knut?

The answer is clear to me, it's not as if the Berlin Zoo will throw Knut into the wild, after domesticating him, right? He's going to live in the zoo, he's going to be happy polar bear. Yes, he will be less wild, he may not be able to fend for himself if you dump him into the wilderness. But just make sure you don't throw him out into the wild and everything will be rosy and cheery for Knut, isn't it?

Knut has a new found best friend (who also valiantly taken on the role of a father), Thomas, a zookeeper. Thomas has moved into the zoo to take care of Knut. He sleeps in a bed by Knut's crate, bottle feeds him, croons Elvis hits to him and even showers this baby with Christmas gifts. He loves Knut heaps, and I'm sure Knut loves Thomas truckloads too.

The director of the Aachen Zoo believes it was a wrong decision to save Knut and said this: "It is not correct to bottle-feed a small polar bear. He will always be fixated on his keeper and will never grow to be a proper polar bear."

But say this to me anytime, and I'll give the same reply. I prefer a living Knut to a dead Knut. I prefer a not-so-proper-polar-bear Knut to a Knut who ain't breathing and cannot move. Not so proper? Does 'not so proper' just mean he is different from wild polar bears? Different, as in he probably can't find his own food if you throw him in the oceans? Does that difference matter so much? Does that matter more than Knut's right to live?

I want Knut to be able to live. I want Knut to be a happy smiling polar bear. I want Knut to have his new best friend by his side and live happily ever after in our crazy warped world, where animal rights have contradicting meanings.

Save animals! Kill animals! Apparently to activists, in Knut's case, they equate to the same darn thing: animal rights. What an insane world..............

Click here to read more on Knut: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21421012-5006007,00.html

The other Hoppo.

Hoppo, You're the Winner of Australian Lifeguard of the Year Award in 2006!

Okay, okay, I'm talking about the Other Hoppo, the one who resides at the famous Bondi, not the one whom ermmmmm shrieks when she sees crumpled tissues. Heeeeeeeeeeee!

Anyway, you can catch the Other Hoppo live in action in the show 'Bondi Rescue'. Typically, the episodes show random things such as very toned (Hehe!) lifeguards rushing out in the surfboards in the scary splashing waves to rescue weak swimmers, to them searching for lost children or even apprehending perverts.

But last Monday's episode was heartwrenching. A lifeguard at the tower spotted a swimmer, but lost sight of him in just a split moment. It was unknown if the swimmer had just dived and swam away, or if he was swallowed by the gripping waves. To be on the safe side, the search started.

Every lifeguard was engaged in the search but they could not find that swimmer. After some time, the search was put to a halt. Afterall, they were not sure who they were looking for, no one had reported any missing persons and the swimmer could have long reached the shores safely.

Yet 2 hours later, a lady and her son came forward to report a missing person: her husband, a doctor from Mongolia. They last saw him approximately 2 hours ago and he was a weak swimmer. The lifeguards wasted no time and called in the helicopters and sent the team out in jetskis and surfboards. After a long search, they finally found him.

Sadly, it was too late. He was overpowered by the waves and could not be revived. He left behind his wife and a teenager son. The even sadder part? He and his family had just migrated to Australia a week ago, to start on a new phase of their life. The saddest part of all? It was his birthday. :( This is one of those days you can find no words to say besides 'So sad!' It was such a depressing day at Bondi, leaving all the lifeguards devastated. It was the first drowning in 4 years at Bondi.

Anyway, okay, this is meant to be a happy blog entry, to introduce the heroic Other Hoppo to all of you guys.

P.S Hoppo, is he your alter ego? Like one moment, you are here being our silly lame Hoppo. Next moment, you fly halfway around the earth to rescue people in the rough seas!

You can read more about the Other Hoppo here: http://www.ten.com.au/ten/2676.html

Out of the blue.

Out of the blue, a memory of something that happened exactly 21 days back popped right into my head. And I went "Darn! How could I have forgotten about this!"

3 weeks back, in the wee hours on a Friday morning, I was shifting about in my seat, waiting for the plane to reach its destination soon. Getting bored and weary, I looked out of the window and suddenly I saw a SHOOTING STAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was beautiful. I'm not sure if this is the first time I caught sight of a shooting star (Pardon my bubbly goldfish memory) but this is definitely the first time I saw a shooting star on board a flight! How lucky can I get! It can't be something THAT common, right? Hehe!

Its beauty was amazingly phenomenonal. It left me speechless for a split moment (Probably just dropped my jaw) thus, by the time I got to nudging Double A 'Hey, can you see that? Can you see that? It's a shooting star!', it has long departed into the darkness of the skies. And obviously, he saw nothing thanks to my unintended delayed reaction.

A minute ago, I tried closing my eyes, hoping to see its beauty again. Sadly, it's blurry. I wish there was some technology that could take a photo of my memory while it's all still crystal clear. But on second thoughts, I really shouldn't wish for such advanced technology because nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible in this world.

Maybe someday, I will be up in the skies, riding a shooting star to Tokyo. :)

You know it's a good day when.....

You're sitting in a crowded bank minutes before its closing, waiting somewhat patiently for your queue number to be called. You blast your music to entertain yourself.........And suddenly, you realise the guy beside is saying something to you.

Me: Sorry I didn't catch you. *Quickly taking off my earphones*
Him: Oh, I'm wondering what's your queue number?
Me *slightly bewildered*: *Turned the slip of paper towards him* 4-3-9.
Him: Mine's 435 and I don't need it anymore. I'm queuing for something else and need a B-ticket. *showing me 2 tickets, a A and a B* You want it?
Me: Oh okay, that's great! Thanks! *and happily took it from his hands*

Beep! A-4-3-5, A-4-3-5.

The moment I was done at the counter and turned to walk towards the exit, there he was, right where he had been, looking at me with a smile. I returned a smile and mouthed the word 'Thanks'.

Well, he made my day. :)

A day in my life.

Hi,

I'm Ginger, the black skinny loop-ear bunnie of 2 weird self-conflicting owners. Two months back, they say I'm all skin and bones and need to put on weight. Now, they rub my tummy and say I'm fat. I hate it when they do that because it tickles (Btw, that makes me feel fat which I ain't....I think.....), so I started growling at them each time they do that. Now, they say I am rude. It is getting really hard to please them, so I don't bother to do so anymore. Not like I ever did anyway, haha.

Today, the big one (I've two owners, the big one and the small one) went out for a game of soccer. So I'm left home with Glory (my cute spotted boyfriend) and the small one. Nothing much happened really, just the following:

1) Tiptoed to steal the piece of paper (on the coffee table) holding onto the LAST piece of apple. Come on, why doesn't she want to give me the LAST piece of the DELICIOUS (drools....) apple! Sob. So I had to snatch the good food for myself, right? When she found it in my mouth, she chased after me (all the way back to my house) and dug half of it out of my mouth! So rude, ain't she? She kept saying it's rotten, whatever does the word 'rotten' mean? It's an apple for goodness sake. Apple! Delicious red apple!

2) Tripped over that darn wire. Why do these two people have wires all over the place? Don't they know it's a hazard?! Anyway, it was a bad day. I tripped over the modem wire and it fell from the table, landing on a stack of bowls of plates. CLANG! And I knew I was in deep shit.

3) I was happily chewing a paper bag behind the tv console. Dark and cosy, I love this place. Then the small one had to come disturb me and chased me out of my lovely corner. She then went ouching and whooing. Apparently, she hurt her leg while squashing behind the console. Hahaha.

Well, so there! A day in my very ordinary life with my dalmatian-wannabe boyfriend and my two owners, who are also known as my food givers and on good days, I call them my angels.

Got to go now, my boyfriend is here to groom my fur (for free, hahaha).

Love,
Ginger

Laptop hates work.

Late last year, my laptop gave up on its tender life on 3 occasions. 3 times, within 2 bloody (pardon me) weeks. These 2 weeks encapsulated a couple of due dates, dates which were absolutely non-negotiable.

Blue screen of death (BSOD), as the technie world calls it. My laptop suffered from the widely feared BSOD.

To revive my laptop, I sacrificed all the precious trash I kept in my hard disk. And during the 3rd time that I reformatted my laptop again, my other half called me the 'Queen of Reformatting'. Gosh, I was thinking 'It's either my laptop detests me or it plainly hates work!'

All was rosy through summer. My laptop served me well and was perfect.

Now that we entered the 3rd week of its hectic working life, it decided to tell me that it REALLY hates to go to work.

Me: "Hey! Wake up!"
Laptop: "Nah, no way. I hate work. I'm not going to that darn office." *Rolls about in bed*
Me: "What? BSOD AGAIN?!"
Laptop: "Nah, I'm not that boring. Here's something new. Don't be lazy, go read my screen."
Me: "\system32/hal.dll is corrupted or missing. Please reinstall a copy of the above file.".................*Speechless*............................What the hell is this?

I then hurriedly turned the house upside down to find the system recovery disk, which I finally found after turning the entire room and kitchen area inside out. It was sitting in a box by the couch all the while, probably laughing at how I couldn't find it. Apparently, the disk likes to engage in some hide and seek fun. And yes, I don't fancy it anymore. Not now, anyway.

With the disk and zero instructions, it's not like I can do anything because I know nothing about first aid (Oh I mean rescue). Next up, I went googling on my other half's laptop (Thank God he fixed up his screen. About a month back, his screen looks the same, on and off.) Google, as usual, did his homework and got me heaps of links. Common problem, I reckon. But nothing seemed to help. Even Microsoft's site which specifically listed what to do if your hal.dll file is missing. Then I was real lucky and chanced upon this random link recommended in the forum.

What a trickster my laptop is! Though its the hal.dll file that is missing, that wasn't the problem for me! It was the boot.ini! (Don't worry if you don't understand a thing here, neither do I.) So the link led me to the Microsoft site which listed what to do when you are having problems with your boot.ini. All it took was some typing and bravo! My laptop started up again! Yay for me! Sobs for the laptop of course! ;p

This saved my world yesterday:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330184

And so my laptop goes: "Darn. I'm alive and back at work again."

Either ways, I'm relieved. My paper is due tomorrow and well, I'm not even a quarter way through. I'm worried but at least my laptop has started up. I reckon I definitely need God's blessings to last through today. :) I need buckets of determination, truckloads of wisdom and definitely a working laptop.