Have you ever been alone in a crowded room when I'm here with you?

Have you ever been alone in a crowded room; well I'm here with you...

Let us look at the standard opening phrase of a standard business letter:

Dear Sir,

Well, this is clearly sexist as it precludes the possibility that a woman is reading the letter. We can try to fix this, however, by writing:

Dear Sir/Madam,

This was suggested in a recent posting in a few of the gender-issue related news groups. However, someone pointed out that by putting the masculine title before the feminine one, unacceptable dominance was demonstrated, making this non-PC. So, I tried to fix it:

Dear Madam/Sir,

Well, this is no good since we're showing dominance in the other direction. Of course, since Men are Oppressors and Womyn are Oppressees, that may not be so bad. But it's not really PC, is it? Ok, let's try again:

Dear Sir
Madam,

Well, that solves the problem of who goes first. Of course, the Sir is on top now, which is completely unacceptable. Missionary style het-sexist imagery abounds. Very bad news, probably worse than the original. Ok, what about:

Dear Madam
Sir,

Well, I was once told that men laying on their back during sex was sexist as they were making women do all the work. Besides, you still have one on top of the other showing dominance. We may not sure who's doing what, but somebody is being oppressed here. Next:

Dear MadSiram,

Put the Sir inside the Madam, ok, neither is going first and neither is above the other one. Ok? NO! This is terrible! The Sir has inserted himself inside the Madam! Practically splitting her in two with himself! How pornographic!! A man writing a letter addressed like this to a woman is obviously making an (unwanted) sexual advance. If he were at Antioch college, he'd be suspended for a year and have to go through rehabilitation. Catherine MacKinnon would have a fit!

Dear SMadamir,

Now we put the Madam inside the Sir. Oh, now the Sir has enveloped the Madam! Horrors, she has lost her identity, her sense of self! This is imprisonment! Ugh, how could I have even thought of this one?? I'm so ashamed!

Well, there's only one answer left:

To Whom it May Concern

There. Simple, no reference to sex or sexuality, no problems. Not very friendly, but then again unwanted intimacy is a sin. And getting rid of friendliness is a small price to pay to make sure that absolutely no-one is ever, ever offended.

"Live life to the fullest because one day you might not have that life to live."
-- Jenna Smith

I'm waiting... and waiting... and waiting... for the winter season sports to start. After vball and ultimate phryz-bee ended afterschool's been a little less eventful. I suppose stuff happens, but I wanna play a SPORT. Badminton preferably, but I'll settle for something else I guess.

“I said 6 things, and he said… 8 things… 8 really long things… I said 6 really short things...”
-- Kristina Kottova

My brother has just mangled the opening of the Frosted Flakes I bought from Costco. Man, I bought those to eat for my morning breakfast, not for his mangulation in want of a midnight snack!

"Like many people, I have been thinking about the problem of homelessness in America's cities. Besides the obvious suffering of the homeless people, the spectacle of raggedly dressed people bent for warmth in the subways and bus stations of the cities greets visitors with a pronouncedly negative image. I have struck upon a means of eliminating the privation of the homeless while lessening the adverse impact they have on the surrounding neighborhoods.

At a cost of about $250 per individual, each can be outfitted with a friendly Disney character costume. Generous insulation and bright, stain resistant colors would help to insure that the occupant remains warm inside and cheerful outside. As there are so many different characters, each participant would be able to choose which outfit most closely fits his style.

This landmark project would have manifold beneficial effects. Travelers arriving at the bus and train terminals would no longer comment on how awful it is to be met with wave attacks of unkempt panhandlers. Instead, their kids could laugh and feel safe and recall fondly how Mickey greeted them upon their arrival to the Big City. Replace the heart-rending image of a woman swaddled in torn clothes crouching for shelter in a shop doorway with that of a warm and sweetly blushing Snow White settled snugly down with her pullcart of possessions in the same alcove. A societal blemish has been instantly transformed into a fantasy attraction!

The boost this program could provide to the participants' sense of self-image would be tremendous. They would enjoy a strong sense of camaradery. Instead of facing a bleak street existence alone, they would belong to a happy family of playful ducks, dogs and chipmunks. This would give everybody something to be proud of. The necessity of keeping one's uniform spiffy and one's antics competitively endearing (to bolster handout revenues) would be easy and fun. And, as George Bush has observed, many of the homeless people on our streets already identify with popular cartoon figures. The transition would be painless for most everyone.

Expensive and marginally effective substance abuse recovery programs could be avoided by the simple expedient of dressing addicts and drunks as either pink elephants or Dopey the dwarf. A person suffering from a nervous tic could become Pinnochio the dancing puppet boy. Persons who habitually argue with demons or devils could be suited up with muffled headpieces to squelch the sudden shouts. Creative application of the basics outlined here would enable the administrators of this plan to massage away almost ANY obstacle, and allow them to artfully blend these people back into society."
-- Anonymous

“Don't let someone decide your future when you haven't decided the present.”
-- Kaitlin Trenam

Man, it was a great day despite the absence of the MUN people. To sum it all up:

1. Went out to lunch with E.C. K.K. S.W. and D.?. Made funny patterns with tea bags and accidentaly spilled S.W.'s tapioca whilst engaging in a fight with E.C.

2. Afterschool went to Finch Station and realized that they didn't accept bills and we didn't have enough coins for the $6 parking fee

3. Went to the station and looked for K.A. in hopes that she has change. Didn't see her and was about to call her cell when she tapped me on the shoulder and claimed that I looked right past her (I've only seen her 3 times in my life!). She gave me needed change, so ran back outside to give G.W. the change so he could park.

4. G.W. parks and takes forever to do so. Comes back, subway down, on the way down B.W. rambles on about our guitarist.

5. Reach the Queen station, get off, look for Rockit. K.A. knows the downtown grid like the back of her hand so we followed her.

6. Reached Rockit and arrived to see the end of the first performance. It was sweltering hot so we met up with DisKard and discarded outer garmets.

7. Wait for DisKard's performance whilst watching other band. Second band had a very energetic lead singer. He tried to cause a commotion.

8. Mosh pit develops in the center of the floor. Miniature psychotic chinese kid goes berserk and thrashes around in mosh pit with people twice his size.

9. DisKard performs and destroys the competition. T.?.'s bass moves out of reach. T.S.'s drumming was insane, D.O.'s guitar solo was insane.

10. Mosh pit gets really heated. B.W. and A.W. get invovled.

11. Random kid jumps out of mosh pit clutching his groin in pain. Everyone stiffles a laugh. B.W. laughs hysterically out loud whilst pointing.

12. G.W. B.W. T.S. and I decide to walk K.A. back to dorm. I am cold due to a lack of outer garmets. T.S. laughs at my pitiful state.

13. T.S. is quick to point out that we are not "gallavanting" to K.A.'s dorm, we are merely "walking"

14. Reach dorm, find that B.W. cannot go in due to lack of ID. T.S. goes up with K.A. whilst I procure a guest pass, only to learn that G.W. does not want me to go in.

15. B.W. screams for food, but refuses to go to Subway so G.W. agrees to pick up food on the way home.

16. Reach subway station and I demand that we travel northbound since we travelled southbound to get to the concert. G.w. agrees. B.W. remains speechless.

17. Reach Wilson station and realize that we have been travelling northbound on the wrong side of the subway route. The subway route is shaped like a "U". We were heading north on the left side of the U when our desitination was on the right side of the U.

18. Head south again. B.W. lectures me upon my idiocy and G.W. picks up a porn magazine from one of the local convinience shops.

19. On the way back, we get a phone call from a very panicked D.O. who claims that T.S. has yet to return from K.A.'s residence.

20. D.O. slams down phone before we could get his number. G.W. also worried and claims T.S. has no sense of direction and is probably lost amonst the city.

21. G.W. calls K.A. and realizes that he's called her house and not her cell. G.W. confesses that he doesn't have her cell number. I reveal that I do.

22. G.W. calls K.A.'s cell and gets everything sorted out. All the while, G.W. and I are in a state of panic and boredom. B.W. is quite content reading the porn magazine.

23. Finally reach the Finch station and start driving home. Stop off at Pizza Pizza on demand from B.W. My chocolate milk carton was messed up and I went berserk, and ended up committing lactomangulation (mangling the opening of the carton so badly I resort to opening the illegal side)

24. Finish pizza. B.W. blames me for not warning him that the square slices are comically small.

25. Reach home and G.W. and B.W. want to egg the house of my neighbors.

"I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all"
-- Whitney Houston

"Just try and breathe"
-- Anonymous

Life is pretty damn complex. Especially at this point in my life. Personal life is great so I have no cause to complain, but man... it's just so intertwined and there are so many things you have to allocate attention to that it's kinda stressful sometimes. Breathe.

“The difference between holding on to a grudge or releasing it with forgiveness is like the difference between laying your head down at night on a pillow of thorns or a pillow of petals.”
-- Loren Fischer

Does the world suck sometimes? Yes it does. More importantly, can we change it? Yes we can. We're all so focused upon the bad things in the world and all the corruption and selfishness that exists it broodes that all too often, we fail to appreciate the good things in life. If we all just opened up and looked at the big picture, unbiased, maybe we'd realize that everything in the universe is balanced. For every bad thing that exists, there exists something else that is good. How often have we gotten upset at stupid drivers on the road who cut us off, make left turns out of nowhere, and run redlights? Everyone will recount times that things like that have happened and the people invovled. But how often to do we remember the people who stop when they have the right of way and let us turn left on a busy road? How often do we remember the people that let us have the parking spaces, even though we both got there at the same time? How often do we remember the pedestrians that RUN instead of walk across the street, even though they have right of way, just because they see that you want to turn? And how often do we remember the times when our cars broke down and a random citizen helped us start it again using jumper cables (it's happened to me)?

We often talk about people in school or people we meet. We talk about "that idiot... I can't believe he was so mean to his friend!" and "I can't believe that stupid teacher gave us this huge assignement!" Yes it's good to rant about stuff like that to get it all out, but you should never let it ruin your day. Cause there's always something better to focus on, like the friend who stays behind just to wait for you, or the teacher who decides not to assign any homework cause you have so much in other classes. The world is full of good people, we just have to adjust our eyes to find them.

When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world;

As I grew older and wiser I realized the world would not change.

And I decided to shorten my sights somewhat and change only my country. But it too seemed immovable.

As I entered my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I sought to change only my family, those closest to me, but alas they would have none of it.

And now here I lie on my death bed and realize (perhaps for the first time) that if only I'd changed myself first, then by example I may have influenced my family and with their encouragement and support I may have bettered my country, and who know I may have changed the world.
-- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

Congradulations to the boys v-ball team for winning the SSAF champtionships! You guys all rock. Actually, it was a fairly long season and we had our share of funny times and the like. Hisham in particular, you're an amazing team captain. You got all the qualities and skills. That's our 3 banner of the year!

"You do your thing and I do my thing. You are you and I am I. And, if, in the end, we end up together, it's beautiful."
-- Boy Meets World

One of the greatest quotes I've ever heard about true love. Todays' weather was great... I think the first day of sun since more than a week ago. By the late afternoon the weather turned ugly again and it was pretty cold. I rode home on my bike against the wind and uphill and it was absolute hell... I thought my hands had frostbites when I got back. I wasn't appropriately dresssed cause when I started off on my bike at like 1 in the afternoon it was still relatively warm. So yeah, I thought I froze my lungs, but it was all good.

“There's a point in your life when you realize who really matters, who never did, and who always will.”
-- Anonymous

Report cards were ok I suppose, grr, my Phys. Ed. mark dropped from last year. And it's not just me either, fellow athletic compatriot, Hisham also had his mark drop. Oh well, just pray we do better in January.

Weekend's looking pretty good. I want to play a racquet sport, be it badminton or tennis cause I miss swinging something violently.

"And if I ever lose my hands
Lose my plough
Lose my land
Oh if I ever lose my hands
Oh if, I won't have to work no more

And if I ever lose my eyes
If my colours all run dry
Yes if I ever lose my eyes
Oh if, I won't have to cry no more

I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow

And if I ever lose my legs
I won't moan, and I won't beg
Yes if I ever lose my legs
Oh if, I won't have to walk no more

And if I ever lose my mouth
All my teeth
North and south
Yes if I ever lose my mouth
Oh if, I won't have to talk

Did it take long to find me?
I asked the faithful light
Did it take long to find me?
And are you gonna stay the night?

I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow
Moonshadow
Moonshadow
Leapin and hoppin' on a moonshadow
Moonshadow
Moonshadow"
-- Mandy Moore, (Moonshadow)

This song sounds hauntingly familar to me. It sounds very much like a lulluby of some sorts. Actually, I think that's where I've heard a similar tune before; from this wind-up lulluby toy I used to have on my crib. Funny, I didn't imagine that I would be able to remember a tune from so long ago. Oh well, long forgotten corners of my mind I guess.

Dad's back from Malaysia! He got me a tennis racquet while he was there, although I'm not sure what I"m going to do with it. I dont' play too much tennis and I've already got a racquet. Oh well, it's all good. On top of that came new shoes and a T-shirt. I'm inclined to believe that this was all funded by my grandparents