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Monday, September 17, 2007
Organic Living: Does Anyone Care About Climate Change?
Recently I have been reading a lot on climate change. If we don't start making a difference, our children may see the end of civilisation as we know it with floods, famine, and earthquakes. Heck, we are seeing it already everywhere.
Some days I feel it is fruitless, all this recycling and self-imposed curb on consumption. Look, I asked a few friends the other day, and they haven't even thought about it and made some rhetorics and mumbles about yeah, it is important.
Truthfully, no one cares. The supermarket own bag campaign seems to be useless. I have seen less than 10 people bring their own bags in the weeks since it started. Cashiers automatically bag our stuff and look amused when I give them my own bags. One told me 1 out of 10 bring their own bags.
What about cutting our electricity use? By habit I had already started switching off appliances from the walls to save money years ago. Yet I can't even convince my nearest and dearest to do so in their own homes to save the world for the next gen. Is it really so inconvenient? I secretly do so at their homes and get a telling-off for making it so.
So if individuals don't care, it is up to the governments to step in and make it mandatory. The Ikea model works great. Charge people who want to use plastic bags. But didn't the governments just sign some lip-service treaty which still excludes the US, Australia, and China - three of the worst offenders? Does that mean the governments don't care too?
I may be dead by the time the climate really goes to hell. But Jack won't be. And I want him to live well and happy, and preferably in a civilisation. We sure aren't going to make it to space to save humankind, so what is a Mom to do? Build my own ark or maybe buy my log cabin in the middle of nowhere and teach Jack to hunt and fish.
Still I try. I recycle. I buy less and in bulk. I eat organic as much as I can afford. I bring my own bags when I shop. I use as little electricity as possible. Will it make a difference? I don't know. Things might come around. Who knows, you might try to live a green lifestyle after reading this article and together we might change the world.
Each day flies by like a whirlwind. It seems like I just blinked and Jack is now 16 months, says new words every day and delighting me with kisses and hugs. Just today he said "bell(y) button" and repeated "button" for his Dad's benefit. Yesterday he said "auntie" to an auntie who was very honoured she was the first. Despite his cough now, he is happy and spirited, dissolving in tears only when tired or hungry.
We bought him new shoes today after the few he had worn before began tearing at the big toe and began smelling rather salty. He loved trying the new shoes. But prefers his Dad's, Mom's, Grandpop or Grandma's instead. :) We bought a pair of those squeaky sandals to air his feet (heck, I loved walking on them as a kid) and a pair of Snoopy shoes for more formal occasions.
It has been 16+9 months since I have slept through the night. See, I can't even count nowadays. My memory is better and my good nights are those when he wakes up 3-4 times. Bad, like last night when the poor baby was sick, 7-8 times. I was mush today and thankfully my Mom and Dad came to the rescue since hubby had a meeting.
Just on Saturday I broke out the card-sized photo paper and printed a whole bunch for my parents, who were delighted to receive them, and for us too. They almost feel like collectibles (they truly are) and just looking at his impish grin breaks my face into a smile.
I love online stores for babies and the whole family and Preggers n Proud is another delightful place for moms to browse and buy neat stuff for the family.
At Preggers n Proud, there are USA-made tees for mom, dad, and baby (no worries about formaldehyde in your clothing). I like the wholesale prices (US$6.50 per tee - minimum 10) since I *might* want to design and sell some. Note to self: must also include shipping in before calculating a sale price.
Meanwhile I am contemplating buying the "Good Daddies are Hot" tee shirt for the hubby. :) He will be tickled.
A portion of each purchase goes to supporting Canines for Disabled Kids, PETA, and Zero to Three. An online company doesn't get cooler than that. Check them out at Preggers n Proud.
And so I spent Saturday and Sunday night finishing the chronicles of Harry Potter. Rowling wastes no time plunging the world into a Voldemort-ruled chaos and no one is spared.
While Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are off on a quest to find the remaining Horcruxes and sidelined by the Deathly Hallows, the rest of the world are devastated by Muggles and Mudbloods being rounded up and executed like Jews in the second world war.
It begins brilliantly. The Durseys are swiftly extracted for their own protection and Dudley makes an unexpected gesture that is really very touching. Harry's own extraction from his home of 17 years, thus breaking its protection both for his family and himself leaves the Order of the Phoenix one short.
Sad and unexpected deaths scatter through the beginning and through dreadfully draggy middle of the book but it is only from Harry, Hermoine, and Ron's brilliant escape from Gringotts when the action really kickstarts. The Battle of Hogwarts brought to mind many a battle from Lord of the Rings, and its final swan song well choreographed.
It was not without flaws though. For many Potter fans who failed to reread the whole series before embarking on the final journey, some parts perplexed me, such as how did Neville draw the sword from the Sorting Hat when it was clearly with the goblin? Also, Harry's resurrection was a tad convoluted although well-explained in its wiki.
Like many other reviewers, I found the epilogue pointless and scant of value. It could have been fuller with more on what happened to everyone else, rather than a focus on the trio's children. It felt rather cliched. At the very least, it could have shed more light on how Harry and the others felt after all those years. As an ending to a monumental series, it fell flat.
Still, the Deathly Hallows answered most of the hanging questions and neatly tied up most of the loose ends. It could have been better organised: less time spent on the trio's search for the Horcruxes, Snape and Dumbledore's tales weaved into the story rather than stuck in as chapters of their own, and a more cohesive ending which told more of what happened 19 years later to everyone, not just the trio and Neville, or perhaps even better, not at all.
Time flies so quickly every day, almost like a book lying on a hilltop, its pages flipping fast in the wind. I try to grasp each moment with Jack, memorising each smile, each quizzical expression and the thing that earned it.
I long to go back in labour, so that I might relive the ecstasy of seeing my own child born from my loins. He has grown up too fast.
He's now running, climbing, saying new words, testing them like ice cream flavours: fssh, up, *growl*, he dances, he laughs, he pulls his own penis in wonder, he pushes people away, he hugs his mom, dad, grandparents, he squeezes a strawberry and amazes at the red juice that smears his leg, he feeds himself strawberries, grapes, vegetables, he chooses his own clothes, he swims and delights in splashing his cousin.
We spend days exploring the parks, gardens, pools, malls, the different machines (read: rides) in shopping centres, music in shops where he runs in and dances much to the delight of the shop girls. He points out bugs, hairs on the grounds, tiny leaves, and marks on the floor. It's sheer delight watching him discover our world.
What a journey it has been these 14 months and the 9 before. These have probably been the best months of my life. Let me press Publish and return to it...
It is a terrible life for them in cages so tiny they cannot stand or turn. In addition, catheters are permanently stuck in their side to drain bile from them.
Help Animals Asia rescue and rehabilitate these bears. Let them live out their lives with dignity and happiness in a sanctuary.
List yourself and your friends you have tagged here and add their permalinks (optional: and pledges):
Now that Jack is 1, I have decided to involve him with saving the world, one animal at a time. Since my nickname for him is Bear and I feel passionately about bears, I have sponsored a bear called Freedom who was rescued by the AnimalsAsia Foundation from a life in a cage, catheter stuck in his side to extract his bile for a Chinese "remedy".
Freedom's Profile Freedom is a female cub. As she stared out of her cage with frightened eyes we were shocked to see that both of her front limbs were missing as a result of traps which had caught her twice.
It took weeks of gentle encouragement before she would come to us from the safety of her new den - but, to see her now as she hops to the front of the queue to lick honey from our fingers, is a wonderful reward. Her den mates seem to sense her disability too and play gently with this sweet, forgiving bear.
Helping others brings a joy that is unparallelled in many other fun but thankless activities like surfing for goss (ahem), clubbing, well... anything hedonistic and temporal. It leaves a glow long after the fire has died. I hope to pass on the love of helping others, in particular animals, to Jack.
If you have a child, consider befriending a bear on his or her behalf. It will be a wonderful feeling for your baby to know he or she is helping an animal in need and better yet, possess ownership of that enduring act of kindness.
DH and I usually have our own nocturnal activities after Jack sleeps: he plays DOTA and I surf or read. Tonight he crashed when Jack did at 1130pm. Since, Jack's only woken up once. Usually in the early night, he wakes up at least twice in 2.5 hours. Must be Daddy's warm body and soft breathing that soothes him. I remember reading something about that somewhere because when I finally go to bed around 3-4am, he only wakes up once before day breaks.
Yup I am a fan, both of the marketing phenomenon and of the wonderful tale of Harry Potter and his friends.
And this time I might just buy the book when it comes out instead of waiting for it to go on sale at Borders a year later - I have great patience.
Some spoilers have surfaced online. Unfortunately the two I found seem to contradict each other. My take is that they're fake.
SPOILERS ALERT! (For those who may be affected, fake or not.)
"Gabriel", a person who claims to have hacked into the publisher's website claims that Snape kills Hagrid and Voldemort kills Hermoine, and finally Harry kills Voldemort on Privet Drive. Read it here and the actual email here.
Meanwhile, Gawker claims that a publisher insider told them that "Harry Potter dies. Ripped to a million tiny fleshy pieces."
Neither sound very promising and both contradict each other. Since both claim to have read the story, one or both of them is lying. Frankly I find Gabriel's story more likely but I doubt JK will kill Hermione and Hagrid, two beloved characters. Then again, who knew she'd kill Dumbledore.
We'll find out in 21 days, won't we?
END SPOILERS
There's a cool fan fic of Deathly Hallows many are mistaking for the real thing which is now floating around the net. Haven't read it yet but heard it isn't bad at all. You can download it here and preview it here.
If I had a middle name, yesterday it would have been Crabby. The reason for it was revealed today at Great World City when I discovered my period had returned (or maybe something more sinister - we'll see tomorrow).
It's been two years almost since I had to deal with a period but it comes back quickly. The need for Ponstan to reduce bleeding and period pain, and lots of rest. Plus the realisation that I missed the first egg. Dang.
Anyhow although it was a relatively chill day, I accomplished a lot. I completed a whole lot of chores, brought Jack to make his rounds on all the kiddie rides (sans money), and bought my very first power drill! It is a Bosch.
Jack accomplished a lot today too. He single-handedly managed to climb up Bob the Builder's tractor. Repeatedly. He even did many a victory dance. :) His Dad and I cheered him on.
"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." -- Bertrand Russell
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
-- Thomas Edison (Harper's Magazine, 1890)
A woman's romance with motherhood, green living, finance, and this heady thing called life.
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