Thoroughly Confused!

This past Sunday night's Battlestar Galactica saw some really interesting themes and at the same time, very confusing stuff. I don't know if it was deliberately done, but according to an interview with Ron Moore that I read, he said that it was a preview of things to come. And the season 3 finale episodes itself confirmed several things and redefined how you think of a Cylon.

The entire storyline was based on the final 5 Cylons, the recurring opera house where the visions and dreams seem to converge on, Hera, Gauis Baltar, and Starbuck. There are many spoilers ahead, so please read at your own risk if you haven't seen the season 3 finale yet!

We at least find out 4 of the final 5 Cylons: Tigh, Tori, Tyrol and Anders are all Cylons! And what a revelation indeed! The basis of how and why they are Cylons is confusing. An Internet friend and I have come up with 2 main rather sound theories, however, pls feel free to poke holes in them:

1. The recurring theme here is "All this has happened before, it will happen again." The Lords of Kobol created "humans" as robots and "humans" evolved to become living beings, and perhaps destroyed the Lords of Kobol. "Humans" later decided to recreate a race of robots in their own image (probably play God) and call them Cylons, whom they later fought with and who also evolved into humano-cylons. It's like a cycle happening over and over again.

2. The Lords of Kobol created both humans and Cylons together, sort of like how Cro-Mags and Mammals evolved on Earth. Somewhere along the way, divergent evolution occurred, Cylons got wiped out either in a catastrophy, through war, or the humans themselves wiped them out. Humans evolved as the dominat species and Cylons, only a few, merging their "bloodline" and mingling with humans until the time is right where they recreated themselves. And later on, watched the further evolution of their race. In this case, they already had evolved humano-cyclons, this we see in the final 5.

These are all theory and speculation, based on what we've seen so far. What else is there really to answer all the questions posed on Sunday night's season 3 finale?

There was another unanswered question, perhaps the most nagging one of all: Starbuck. How did Starbuck survive the explosion of her Viper in Maelstrom? She she one of the final 5? Apollo saw Starbuck within the Ioanian Nebula, could it b e a hallucination as so widely speculated in the forums out there now? Or is she now stuck in his head like how Number Six is stuck in Baltar's? His very own personal inner Starbuck? Of course, if that were true, Starbuck would have appeared in the cockpit with Apollo rather than in another Viper! I can't seem to find any theories.

All the colonial ships losing power in the nebula, could it be some form of radiation? Possibly the thought that it was like a jump-start for the final 5 to awaken and begin their final duties, to either stop them from reaching Earth, or to help them reach Earth in a truce? This also begs another big question: Is the last remaining member of the final 5 on Earth together with the 13th tribe that settled there?

So many questions, so little answers, well, we just have to be patient and find out more next season, won't we? In the meantime, feel free to comment on the 2 theories we discussed with above.

So say we all.

How Much Longer?

"Power don't come from a badge or a gun. Power comes from lying. Lying big and gettin' the whole damn world to play along with you. Once you've got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you've got 'em by the balls."
-- Frank Miller, Sin City

Frank Miller has been in the limelight lately for all the comics he wrote and all the adaptations that are turning out so well on screen. The film noir kind of movies that are almost taken directly out of the panels of his comics. 300 was his latest and visually nicest adaptation to screen. The way he writes, it's brilliant! He writes with such gusto, he's blunt and drives the point across. His stories have guts and sometimes, it's the cold, hard truth.

However, the quote above about sums up President Bush's outright lie about Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and his need for continued support on his war on terrorism. Kind of sad once you find out the truth. Nobody has a crystal ball that can see the future, but still, time only tells if you're telling the truth. It's all about the oil, all about the spice. There have been comparisons with Bush and Hitler, tyrant, usurper and idiot. Oops, did I say that out loud?

Perhaps Bush liberated the people of Iraq from their dictator/tyrant Saddam, but how much better off are they now? Their country is still in chaos, suicide bombing left and right. US Marines dying lie flies every day. It's sad that he still doesn't realise that he's lost and pull out. And what's worse, it's been almost 6 years since 9/11 and they still haven't been able to catch Osama. I bet Osama's laughing away at Bush every morning when he wakes up from his mountain hideout; Laughing every day he doesn't get caught and manages to cook up another evil scheme to shame the western world.

America's in the cross-hairs of everyone. They need loads of goodwill gestures to redeem themselves. How much longer can they hold out?

A Walk In Darkness

Have you ever thought about visiting something so badly that you insisted upon seeing it no matter what time it was? It wasn't a cave, it wasn't an underground cavern, it was a treetop canopy walk. And by the time I went, it was already closed, but no matter, the walk was exercise enough for me.

1800H: Daylight was good. It took almost 30 minutes to reach one of the many crossroads. Decision time, which direction should I take? The choice was so easy, there were only 2 and somehow, I took the wrong direction, it seemed genetically inherent that I took the wrong direction the first time. However, after awhile the signs and directions along this path pointed in the wrong direction and I managed to correct it, but I already walked a good 28 minutes into this trail and wasted time in the wrong direction. Oh well, not to worry, there was still daylight enough for me to complete my mission.

1830H: Strangely enough, I brought a phone in case of any problems. Who knows, I might have sprained an ankle and needed a heli-cassavac! My friend called me, she was fascinated that I was on the trail and wondered why I was alone. The answer I gave her was, because it was faster. We laughed about it because she knew exactly what I was talking about. Bringing anymore the 2 people along for the walk would have been chaos for me. I'm extremely focused and goal-oriented, I go for what I want, I don't linger around for nothing other than to catch my breath. If 1 or 2 more friends came along for this trek, they would have been excess baggage, they would have slowed me down. Then again, I would never know, I might have slowed them down!

1845H: Another 20 minutes in the right direction got me to the ranger's station where I managed to stop for some water at the water fountain. Everything was already closed at the ranger's station, fancy that, a ranger's station that's closed in a nature reserve. I lingered around, to listen to the sounds of the forest and watch the monkeys look for scraps of food and to watch me in turn, the idiot walking through the nature reserve all alone, without a guide, probably get lost.

1900H: From what I figured out, the signs don't give very accurate directions, or at least from walking the ground they don't. The sign said 0.1km to canopy walk, i think walking uphill a little threw me off track with the distance, but I think it was definitely more than 0.1km. Anyway, when I reached there, it was closed. I wasn't expecting too much, I went late, no biggie. However, I later found out that we were only allowed to go in 1 direction, 1 way, like the sign said, no turning back. In order to complete the entire route with the canopy walk, that would have taken a few hours. That was unfavourable seeing that sunlight was completely reduced to penumbra brightness.

1920H: The walk back was easier, as I knew exactly which way to go, by the time I reached the crossroads, it was almost completely dark. Walking along the path in darkness reminded me of my military training days on another island. You learn to trust your other senses, your sight is taken from you, you cannot see anything. Almost blind, but only able to make out the faint outlines of the path and the surroundings. The buzzing of the insects and droning of the crickets make you more in touch with your surroundings than ever - one with nature, well almost.

By the time I made it back to civilisation (ie the car park), it was almost 1940H, darkness had already set in. It was refreshing to take this trek. It allowed me to relax, to be one with nature, it also allowed me to get some much needed exercise and it also allowed me to see that we do have some lovely nature reserves here I should take more advantage of. People take their family for a stroll, strange Chinese Nationals were either lost or simply trekking around with the long pants, joggers jogging, I'm guessing, the entire length of one of the trails which can be as long as 4km.

Another thing I learnt through this trek was that, if I had collapsed or suffered some fatal heart attack or stroke, there would be nobody to hear me yell for help (I refrain from screaming, that's so ungentlemanly!), much less come to my rescue. Another dark thought I had was that should I be a serial killer, or some sicko nut murderer, I could ambush and murder anyone along the path of this innocently beautiful nature reserve, dump the body into the dense foliage and get away with it. Nobody will find the body till the smell gives it away. Yes, in this heat, humidity and weather, flesh rots really fast. If the monkey's don't find it first, the maggots and someone else jogging along the path might notice the smell. What a delicious thought indeed!

All in all, a good 2 hours spent chasing a little dream, to scratch an itch of a question on how long it would have taken me to walk to the canopy treetop walk. Well, I'll have to find out another day now wouldn't I? Perhaps at an earlier time, so it won't be completely in darkness.

Commuting 'Horror' Stories

I've always hated commuting. It's not so much the journey, it's more like squeezing with all those inconsiderate people in the morning that just spoils the whole day. And it's very tiring and trying to begin with. It's almost like a moving museum of human behaviour, happening right before your very eyes. At the same time, I wish I swapped out my eyes for a bunch of video cameras that provide a live feed directly to some new reality channel, ah that will truly be reality!

Just the other day: The next station after I got on, there was this elderly man, white hair with a bit of a hunch. He boarded the train and went to find a seat. Can you believe that nobody got up for him to sit down. I was standing next to him in front of the seats meant for the elderly and disabled. The 2 ladies (if you can call them ladies!) and men (thankfully not gentlemen) just pretended to sleep. Worse, one of the ladies took a peek every time the train stopped to see what station she was at and she couldn't even stand up to give up her seat for this poor old man. What's worse, eventually when he got to sit down, it was almost 20 minutes later, 10 stations later. And it wasn't because the people didn't get up to give up their seats, they got up because it was either their stop or they were changing to another train!

Here's another lesson, same train, same time, different event: This lady, an auntie, probably working some blue-collar job like cashier or shop assistant (sorry, I'm not looking down on them, it's the way they dress that leads you to believe that they probably are in those professions). She boarded the train, and squeezed in all the way to stand in front of me. Can you believe it, there was no space in front of me, if I bent my knees a little, I'd probably touch the knees of those people sitting down. Well, there she was, squeezing in front of me, probably thinking I look good behind her.

Here, I digress a little, you know when trains go underground, the glass windows looking out sort of become mirrors because they're so dark underground. Well, this auntie started to preen herself. She straightened her hair, straightened her blue-collared blouse (it wasn't blue, but oh well), she adjusted numerous things, not that they weren't already rather neat. Looking dainty and all that, after 5 minutes of preening, she decided to to open her trusty handbag and lo and behold, take out her nail clipper!

My goodness, does she have no shame?? She started clipping her nails on the train, and then I saw her catch the clippings in her palm and told myself, oh wow, she's actually going to keep them and throw them out. How wrong I was! After clipping all her nails (thank goodness she didn't bend down to do her toes too!) she put them in her palm and just leisurely pretended to lower her hands and open her palms, letting her DNA fall all over the train, scattering them like how ferns scatter their spores far and wide. It was truly disgusting, truly 3rd world, truly human behaviour.

Another time, another place: I thought I saw it all, apparently, all that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg! Do ladies rush out of the house without time to do their makeup? How do they attempt to leave the house? Covered in a hood or put a paper bag over their heads with holes for their eyes to see out of? Are they so dreadful they have to put on makeup on the train? There was this young lady, probably 20-odd (she looked old lah without her makeup definitely). What was that phrase, beautiful from far, far from beautiful? Anyway, she was taking out her compact and putting on layers and layers of makeup there in front of everybody. She even took out her eyelash curlers and started curling her eyelashes!

Some of these people just don't know how to behave on the train. I know, they'll probably defend themselves using the universal excuse: No Time! But consider this, they could wake up early enough to put on their clothes and wear their shoes, but putting on makeup on the train, curling their eyelashes and clipping their nails are just something they don't have time to do? Perhaps they should just pack everything they need in a bag, and rush naked to catch the train, then when they're on the train, they start putting on item by item. Pfft! Bidding time and personal maintenance are completely different. To kill time, you read a novel, magazine, newspaper or just listen to music.

But then of course, you have me, who didn't really do much, except listen to music and observe everyone else's behaviour, then you see how truly disgusting they all are!

Sabrina Sloan

The other night when I turned on the TV, it was American Idol Season 6. And I just went, yeah, yeah, yeah, another pathetic popularity contest, with suckers trying for the grand prize. It was only then, that Sabrina Sloan started singing I Ain't Never Loved A Man and I just sat there bedazzled, listening to her entire rendition, through her amazing crystal clear voice and vocal gymnastics. Although she's not Mariah Carey with her highs and lows, she had an amazing voice and I'm sure she'll be a winner in American Idol this season, provided people vote for her! Listen to it and judge for yourself! She already sounds like a professional singer!