i became achy-gal this afternoon.. i've got shoulderache, toothache, heartache and headache. sighz

my shoulder hurts. but of cuz.. it doesnt matter.

ya im' juz having paranoia... i do appreciate all of you - you know who you are (and who you arent) - who have been showing me concern and offering a listening ear nowadays.. thanks so much!

i'm having a sense of paranoia. i feel like... no one really cares about me liao... hmmm except for my mum.. she's always there.. sighz

i dun feel happy. dun feel happy dun feel happy dun feel happy dun feel happy. arrrrgh!!...................

so the next day i went to MANGO SALE!!! haha not really specifically to shop for yellow dresses and green tops, but juz cuz its the MANGO SALE!!!

i'm a fan of mango.. and yes i do love the fruit (ripened and sweet ones, please) as well, thx. haha.

well of cuz i took the chance to shop for yellow dresses and green tops. i saw a green top tat was qte ok, except it was a bit ex. i was actually foolish enough to queue to pay up but thankfully i was persuaded to abandon the queue by my frens, who politely reminded me that the movie (which happened to be initial-D by the way, and which happened to have lotsa cool guys in it - i'm swooning juz htinking of them) that i was gg to watch was due to start in 5 min time in a cinema tat was a good 20min hurried walk away (thank goodness the movie started 15 min late, and so i was JUST in time! hehe). and thus i was able to save $29.

so, no green tops for me yet. no yellow dresses either actually, cuz i din manage to see any. i did see a green dress, and i actually trawled 4 branches of mango (haha pun unintended) (wisma, lido, back to taka, then raffles city, altogether from 1pm to 7pm, with about half an hour's break at macs for lunch) juz to find the yellow version. but i cldnt find any single one!! (yes i did confirm with the sales staff that there IS a yellow version around so apparently its been snapped up.. =( )

so.. yeah.. i actually paid $55 to buy some stuff which isnt on my shopping list but havent gotten those which are yet. hmmm i actually regret giving up tat $55.. cuz seriously under normal circumstances i wld have tot its a bit ex for 1 orange beaded top and plain white knee length skirt to cost $55 altogether. sighz but i juz couldnt resist the temptation of buying.. cuz its the MANGO SALE!!! yesh i noe its stupid and really silly to buy sthg juz cuz its the mango sale even tho its still expensive after 50% discount, and to defend myself i'll mention taht i did stop myself from buyign another more ex skirt okay. heh.

in fact in a way i'm stil unrepentant.. i intend to go back again! cuz apparently they've got some more designs unreleased. mebbe i'll discover some good finds again! hmm but i do hope i manage to keep myself from teh cashier's counter if they're not value for money tho. hee. hmmm i still rem the tops i bought from the past seasons of mango sales were all nice and cost only less than $20. but cldnt find such good finds this time it seems. i hope i'm wrong! *hope*

well and of cuz i muz gush abit about initial D too. but actually apart from teh cool guys (even the uncles in teh show! sauve.. haha) and fast action and (only one) cute gal and funny dialogues/scenes i cant htink of anything much to say.. cuz i'm not really a fan of the anime actually. only caught bout 20 min of it while i was waiting for my fren who was browsing in the anime store. heh. but well i guess if i WAS a fan of the anime i wldnt like it so much.. cuz apparently qte a few of my frens din really like the movie cuz it din do justice to the anime. like the stunts were much paler, and qte a few of the details of the anime were misrepresented. and of cuz becuz of the time constraint on the movie much of the plot couldnt be delivered.
oh well.............

well its qte late now.. shall go zzz.. had a long day today actualyl.. starting w badminton in teh morning (at 9am!!! super early for me.. i've waking up at 1pm, 3pm, 4pm the past few days. heh heh) and continueing with not one, but Two sessions of bible study. which ended at 7pm. =S oh well you can say i was nourished physically and spiritually tho. hehe..

yepz nitez peepz.. till teh next entry~~~~

i wanna get a green top and a yellow dress!!

woo hoo!!! its the holidays!!! my IA has finally ended haha..
so 'ive got no excuse liao... cant say i've no time anymore.. gotta do up my blog layout!

still looking for inspiration tho. tats y this page is still so boring.

boring boring boring boring boring. i lead a boring lifestyle. me = boring. bleah.

It is wrong to be nice to someone and expect something in return.










but i juz cant help feeling a tinge of disappointment when there is no reciprocation .....

another quote from someone somewhere...

"Love requires time. a love tt comes fast is a crush, an infatuation. it may turn into love in e end, but it shdnt be interpreted as love at 1st sight."

here's a quote from someone somewhere..

" When it rains we wait for the sun
When the rain stops, the rainbow appears instead...
Somethings are just like the rainbow, you didn't expect it will happen but when it happened, no doubt it's short but yet it's beautiful..."

"... Third, we must remember this: each transition will involve some kind of loss. Growth will always be costly; a new venture will always involve some form of letting go. It may be a matter of separation - from parents or from those who are part of an old way or an old world. It may involve leaving behind the comfortable and the secure. Each transition will be a small death, and the new life, the new opportunity and the new challenge will only come as we let go. "

taken from Courage and Calling by Gordon T. Smith.

hmmmmmmmmm today's mood is......... very very pale violet. anyone knows wat that means?????? guess not. haha. and i dun wanna elaborate. why? cuz my mood is very very pale violet.

yes i noe i seem to be speaking some rubbish language again. but tats how emotions are, see? sometimes, emotional things cannot be explained by logic. oh well.............lalala~

eh.. do twice about having foie gras next time when you're ordering your food at a french restaurant..

History
Foie gras has been exalted in some gourmet food circles as a prized delicacy, but if most people knew how foie gras is produced, they would be horrified.
Foie gras, the French term for "fatty liver," is the product of extreme animal cruelty. It is the swollen, diseased liver of ducks and geese who are force-fed just up until the point of death before being slaughtered. Birds suffer tremendously, both during and after the force-feeding process, as their physical condition rapidly deterioriates. In just a few weeks, their livers swell up to ten times their normal size, and the birds can scarcely stand, walk, or even breathe. At this point, they are slaughtered, and their livers are peddled as a "gourmet" delicacy.
The idea for this cruel force-feeding practice is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt, after people noticed that wild geese often gorge themselves before embarking on long migrations. Because Egyptians considered the fat-laden flesh and organs of those geese caught after this pre-migration gorging to taste better, they sought to artificially induce and exaggerate this condition in captive geese. Thereafter, the practice of force-feeding took hold, later degenerating and devolving into what is now the modern foie gras industry.

Confinement and Cruelty
Today foie gras production is concentrated in France, which produces and consumes 90% of the world's foie gras. Roughly 24 million ducks and half a million geese are killed annually for France's foie gras industry. Nearly all of the birds are raised in intensive confinement systems, and all of them endure brutal, intensive force feeding, several times a day, in the weeks prior to their deaths.
In modern foie gras factory farms, geese and ducks are confined, usually in either small pens or in tiny cages that virtually lock the birds in place. Thus restrained, the birds cannot escape the "feeder" and the mechanized feeding machine. One by one, the feeder grabs each bird and plunges the metal pipe of the feeding machine down their throats. The machine then pumps a huge amount of a corn-and-oil mixture (equivalent, for a human, to 11 pounds of food) directly into their gullets in just a few seconds.

This brutal treatment is devastating to the health of the birds. In a matter of weeks, their livers have swollen up to ten times their normal size. Breathing and walking become difficult as the liver pushes against other organs and forces the legs to move outward at an unnatural angle. Ducks at foie gras farms have been observed panting and struggling to stand, using their wings to push themselves forward when their crippled legs can no longer support them.
In this compromised state, depressed birds can no longer engage in normal preening behaviors, and this is compounded by the fact that they are denied access to water sufficient for them to engage in normal, instinctual behaviors. Their plumage becomes encrusted with filth, and most of them develop what foie gras farmers call "wet neck"-when their unpreened feathers curl up and become coated with dirt and oil.
They also suffer, as do all factory-farmed ducks, from debilling, which is performed ostensibly to prevent them from pecking each other when they are so severely confined. Shortly after birth, a hot knife sears off the tips of their sensitive upper bills, slicing through tissue rich in nerve endings. Debilled poultry suffer from chronic pain for the rest of their lives, often having trouble eating and preening.

Liver Disease
Furthermore, liver function in foie gras birds is severely compromised. In medical terms, the liver is in a state of dysfunction called hepatic lipidosis or hepatic steatosis, meaning it can no longer perform its intended function. According to avian veterinarian Dr. Laurie Siperstein Cook, "The liver is there to clean out toxins from the blood stream. If the liver can't work properly, you've got all these toxins flowing through the blood, making them feel bad in various ways, so it can harm various organs as well as the brain."
Dr. Castes of L'Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse describes this phenomenon further as "hepatic encephalopathy":
This is the result of an endogenous intoxication due to the hepatic impairment; the liver can no longer play its role as a circulatory filter. As a result, various metabolites appear in the blood that are usually stopped by the liver (ammonium, mercaptans, short-chain antigens) and that may then reach the central nervous system (particularly sensitive to these compounds) and trigger central nervous troubles such as:
- cerclage movements,
- eptileptiform crisis
- Increase of the intracranial pressure accompanied by migraines, and finally stupor, coma and death.

Not surprisingly, the mortality rate on foie gras farms can be up to 20 times higher than the death rate on conventional duck farms. Ducks can die when the metal feeding tube punctures their necks, or when their stomachs literally "burst" from the enormous volume of food they are forced to ingest. Necropsies performed on foie gras birds have shown them to suffer from grossly enlarged livers, lacerated tracheas and esophagi, throats and gullets impacted with undigested corn, and massive internal bacterial and fungal growth (see Farm Sanctuary necropsy report, p. xx).

Spurious Industry Arguments
The foie gras industry often tries to justify its practices by saying they are just an extension of the natural, pre-migration gorging behaviors of migratory fowl, first noted by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. However, this claim is patently false on several accounts.
First, migratory geese never gorge themselves up until the point of death before migration. Such extreme behaviors would be physically incapacitating and would be antithetical to their survival. As asserted by Dr. Yvan Beck, a French veterinarian who published a comprehensive study on foie gras production, "There is no comparison between what nature does. . . and the extreme which force feeding represents for the organism. At the end of this process the birds are, in any case, incapable of making the smallest effort, which is in total contradiction to the aim of the natural process."
Second, the duck species (Muscovy and Mulard) used in foie gras production are non-migratory and not predisposed to gorging as are wild geese. Artificially-induced gorging is extremely painful and debilitating to these birds, as noted by the European Scientific Committee on Health and Animal Welfare's 1998 report, which concluded that "Whilst the domestic goose might well be adapted to store food before migration, it is less likely that a cross between the domestic duck and the Muscovy duck, the Mulard, has such potential for food."
Today, the Mulard duck, a cross between the Muscovy and the Pekin duck, is the most commonly-used bird in the foie gras industry throughout the world. It is, in fact, the only species of bird used by U.S. foie gras producers because it is considered easier to raise than geese or other breeds of ducks. Because the male Mulard duck is larger and hardier (and thus better able to survive the rigors of force feeding), females are almost never used, and they are either killed after hatching or raised for meat.
Legislative Remedies
Over the last few decades, foie gras production has been outlawed in at least fourteen countries, either with explicit language in the laws, or as part of the general animal cruelty law. As of January 2004, Italy banned foie gras production, following the lead of Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Poland. Other countries whose laws have been interpreted to ban the force feeding of animals for foie gras production include Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Perhaps most significantly, Israel, once the world's fourth largest foie gras producer, recently banned foie gras production in the country. In August 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a 39-page decision declaring foie gras production to be contrary to the country's animal protection laws. In issuing his opinion, Judge Strasberg-Cohen stated:
There is no real controversy with respect to the fact that the practice of force-feeding causes suffering to the geese. . . the goose is prevented from eating freely and is forcefully fed several times a day with high energy food and in quantity far above is physiological requirements. The process-whereby a metal tube, through which the food is packed into its stomach, is introduced into the goose's body-is violent and harmful. The process causes a degenerative disease in the goose's liver and enlargement of the liver up to ten times its normal size. There is no controversy that without the injury to the goose liver, it is not possible, at present, to produce goose liver. (see Israeli Report, page 32).
His colleague, Justice E. Rivlin, concluded the court's declaration by stating:
. . . no one denies that these creatures also feel the pain inflicted upon them through physical harm or a violent intrusion into their bodies. Indeed, whoever wishes to may find, in the circumstances of this appeal, prima facie justification for the acts of artificial force-feeding, justification whose essence is the need to retain the farmer's source of livelihood and enhance the gastronomic delight of others. . . But this has a price-and the price is reducing the dignity of Man himself.
Like my colleague Justice Strasberg-Cohen, I also think that the regulations concerning the force-feeding procedure are to be annulled, and the acts of artificial force-feeding, as allowed by the regulations, are banned. (see Israeli Report, p. 39).
Despite these legislative advances, worldwide foie gras production has been increasing dramatically in recent years, and in France it has nearly doubled in the last decade. The last decade has also seen the establishment of foie gras farms in the U.S., which previously imported all of its foie gras from abroad. Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York is responsible for most of the U.S. foie gras production, followed by Sonoma Foie Gras in California. Undercover investigations in both of these farms have revealed terrible, graphic suffering, from bloodied birds barely able to stand or walk, to trash cans full of dead birds. Legislative and other efforts are now underway in the U.S. to ban this cruelty. Click here to see how you can help.

Legal Prosecutions
Farm Sanctuary is urging the San Joaquin County, California District Attorney to investigate and prosecute Sonoma Foie Gras for violating California's animal cruelty statute. In making the request, Farm Sanctuary submitted a full year's worth of evidence, including videotape, photographic evidence and written documentation of the ongoing mistreatment and suffering of ducks at the facility. The evidence shows, among other cruelties: Ducks encrusted in filth, bloodied ducks, ducks unable to stand or walk, ducks having difficulty breathing, and dead ducks lying in cages among live ducks. It presents graphically what animal protection advocates have long claimed: That Sonoma Foie Gras wreaks horrific abuses and torture on its animals to produce a "delicacy" food item.
Please click here to read Farm Sanctuary's letter requesting prosecution.
In August 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court determined that the force feeding of birds to produce foie gras is a violation of the nation's anti-cruelty laws. The Israeli Animal Welfare Law states, "No one shall torture an animal, treat it cruelly or abuse it in any manner." (clause 2(a)) Noah, the Israeli Federation of Animal Protection Organizations acted as the plaintiff in the court case, and asked that the court rule that force feeding is forbidden under Israeli law because force feeding constitutes torture, cruel treatment and abuse.
The judges ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and Israel joined the many other nations that have prohibited foie gras production. As Judge T. Strasberg-Cohen stated summarily, "There is no real controversy with respect to the fact that the practice of force feeding causes suffering to the geese."



A farm worker force feeds the birds by plunging a long, metal pipe down their throats several times a day.



A victim of forced-feeding, choked to death on his own regurgitation, lies dead in a pen.


Rough handling during the force feeding process results in bloodied birds, many of them with broken bills.






****text and pictures taken from nofoiegras.org****

can anyone deserve to be loved???????????

seriousli, i realli (x infiniti) dunno y i became so definiteli extremeli sylli. sobz

i juz watched hg2g (hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, for the uninitiated). well if you've read the book, you'll realize alot of parts are omitted. and most of htem are funny parts. i dunno whether its me, or juz the show.. i din really feel inclined to luff in the cinema juz now. and well i din hear much luffter either. i dunno... i felt the book was much funnier. i'd give it a 3 stars out of 5 i guess. ok half more for the sake of the book.

bought a mascara from fasio booth at orchard juz now too, whch entitled me to a goody bag, makeover and a chance to be fasio's sunshine gal. ie after the makeover you get to pose for a picture and use that picture to enter a sorta photogenic contest. well admittedly i was aiming to get into the finals but erm wasnt happy enough to put on my best smile. sighz. i felt it was so wasted.

i really admire pp who can pretend to be so happy when they're not. i wonder how they do it. i think its a useful skill to have, to seem happy all the time. cuz i htink when you radiate happiness, happy things will naturally follow, and then you dun have to act anymore.

i miss my SE k700i. i was really enjoying having accompanying pics to my blog entries. i was at the youth festival today and saw alot of interesting stuff. but w/out my SE k700i i cant post anyhting up.

i dunno y i'm getting so stressed and emotional these few days. i dun think its pms. mebbe i noe the reason.. but the more i acknowledge it, the worse it becomes. weird logic i noe. but tats how it is. and i dun wanna explain cuz if i explain, i'll be acknowledging it. haha.

pp tell me to juz be myself. but i've always been myself. i've always taken the path i wanna go, the course of action i wanna take. which havent always been the right ones, but then, they're mine all the same.

gee i'm really glad i noe how to play the piano.. it brings peace and serenity to the soul.