Happy Birthday Ren (one year old)

Happy birthday to baby Ren! One year old already! Time really flies...

Earth Hour 2010

This year's Earth Hour is on 27 Mar, at 8:30pm local time. I have written about it last year, and this year is no different. We didn't go out of the way to turn out the lights because it is something that we already do on a daily basis. The important thing is not to join the crowd in that one hour per year, but to make it a part of your life and practise it on a daily basis.

Turning out the lights but holding a concert seems to be contradictory... a concert does use up quite a bit of energy, with lights and sound. But I do know that the concert's aim is to gather attention, not save energy. Still, I just can't seem to accept using all that energy... but that's just me. Some would just enjoy the concert and not think too much about it.

JapanToday's report on Earth Hour

Flying business

Just a thought... there is a reason why business class is called business class. It is meant for people who are flying because of business. Because unlike flying for holidays, when you fly for business, you want to arrive fresh and ready to work (since you are being paid to travel, you need to be productive). So while business class is going to cost the company more, it maintains the image of the company (you arrive fresh and professional, rather than yawning away fighting jet lag) and in the end, is more productive since you are in the working mode (rather than the jet lag mode).

Saving money for the company is important, but there are some things that we shouldn't scrimp on.

On monogamy and polygamy

An article in The Straits Times published in the Review section on 18 Mar 10, titled "Blame the woman, spare the man" (read it here is you are not a subscriber of The Straits Times), caught my attention and set me thinking about societies that advocate monogamy and those that allowed polygamy.

We are humans, all the same species, yet why did we develop differently?

My own pet theory on this. Not backed up by research since I am not any authority on this and not getting any degrees out of it.

Maybe it is because of food? No one will deny that in general, men are stronger than women, and that men have generally been the ones who bring home the food. The amount of food than a man can produce thus determines the size of the family that he can feed.

In an agricultural society, the supply of food is steady (you reap what you sow) and thus a man is able to properly feed a certain family size based on the amount of food that he can produce. This steady supply of food means that he is able to maintain a sizeable family. He can thus feed more wives and more children.

In a hunter/gatherer society, the supply of food is not constant. A man may not be able to gather enough to feed a sizeable family, and thus it is best to keep the family size small and manageable. He keeps to one wife and has less children so that they don't starve.

In societies living under harsh conditions, men die off easily as they go about their business of getting food. It thus makes sense for a woman to have multiple sources of food, so that she maintains a supply of food to feed her children. We thus see the reverse in which a woman has many husbands.

Just my own thought on this, actual research may yield totally different conclusions.

Scribblings from the plane

Just some scribblings while flying around...

书上读来终难解
不如一睹万法清
------------------
东奔西跑不能挡
四处留情欲难拦

Zoo trip Mar 2010

We went to the zoo, first trip for the baby, though our last trip to the zoo was a year ago with his cousin. But unlike his cousin then, the baby still can't walk, so we pushed him along in his stroller and carried him around once in a while.

Got stopped in our tracks by a heavy downpour. But that didn't deter us from completing the trip to the zoo. Once the rain let up, we continued to press on. By then, the baby was a bit tired, and he ended up sleeping in his stroller.

Here's a shot of a black jaguar. Full black coat of fur, real cool!

On misunderstandings

Just a thought... was watching a Japanese drama (will be writing on that one in the near future) when this thing about misunderstandings came to me. Misunderstandings probably result from lack of communications. When two persons don't talk enough to each other, and only try to piece together little bits of information from here and there, that is when misunderstandings can grow. The solution is actually to sit down, and talk to each other to fill in the missing pieces. It is easy to get angry over misunderstandings, it is harder to find the strength to sit down and talk things through.

USA Trip Feb 10

Took a trip to the USA in February (San Diego to be exact), here are some pictures. It was a short trip for work, so I didn't go around much, even though San Diego is famous for Sea World, the zoo and Legoland.

Sunset over San Diego

Gaslamp Quarter at San Diego

Me and my cousin's son, Jayden. Taken when I visited them in Los Angeles, on transit during the flight home.