alwyn!
raffles junior college
08 08 '89
leo
star wars fan
Judoka





wishlist :

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume
The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
Matter and Consciousness by Paul Churchland
Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki
Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Betrayal
Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines
Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice

Games:
Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne by Triumph Studios
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic by Triumph Studios
Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood by Spellbound
Myth III: The Wolf Age by MumboJumbo
The Bard's Tale by InXile Entertainment
Dragon Age by Bioware
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir by Obsidian Entertainment
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

Places I'd Like to Visit:
Sweden
Switzerland
Italy
France
Thailand
Brazil
South Korea
Japan (again!)
Norway
Costa Rica

click for more =)

"When I became convinced that the Universe is natural that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world, not even in infinite space. I was free.
free to think, to express my thoughts
free to live to my own ideal
free to live for myself and those I loved
free to use all my faculties, all my senses
free to spread imagination's wings
free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope
free to judge and determine for myself
free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past
free from popes and priests
free from all the "called" and "set apart"
free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies
free from the fear of eternal pain
free from the winged monsters of night
free from devils, ghosts, and gods
For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of my thought, no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings
no chains for my limbs
no lashes for my back
no fires for my flesh
no master's frown or threat
no following another's steps
no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words.
I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds. And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain for the freedom of labor and thought
to those who fell on the fierce fields of war
to those who died in dungeons bound with chains
to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs
to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn
to those by fire consumed
to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men.
And I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still."
-Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899), "Why Am I An Agnostic?", 1896

Click to join Atheisthaven

We are part of the universe. Our earth was created from the universe and will one day be reabsorbed into the universe. We are made of the same matter as the universe. We are not in exile here: we are at home. It is here and nowhere else that we can see the divine face to face. If we erect barriers in our imagination - if we believe our real home is not here but in a land that lies beyond death - if we believe that the divine is found only in old books, or old buildings, or inside our head - then we will see this real, vibrant, luminous world as if through a glass darkly. The universe creates us, preserves us, destroys us. We are part of nature. Nature made us and at our death we will be reabsorbed into nature. We are at home in nature and in our bodies. This is where we belong; this is where we must find and make our paradise, not in some spirit world on the other side of the grave. If nature is the only paradise, then separation from nature is the only hell. When we destroy nature, we create hell on earth for other species and for ourselves. Nature is our mother, our home, our security, our peace, our past and our future. Science is inherently materialist. It always seek material explanations. It never accepts as an explanation that some spiritual force was at work - if it did, then science and technology would come to an end. Disease was once thought to be caused by witchcraft. Science gave it a material explanation which allowed us to control it. Magnetism at one time seemed like a spiritual force - Thales of Miletus thought that magnets were full of spirits. But then science provided a material explanation. In the same way scientific pantheism believes that everything that exists is matter or energy in one form or another. Nothing can exist, be perceived, or act on other things if it is not matter or energy. That does not mean that spiritual phenomena or forces cannot exist. It means that, if they do, they must in fact be material. In scientific pantheism, science becomes a part of the religious quest: the pursuit of deeper understanding of the Reality of which we are all part, deeper knowledge about the awe-inspiring cosmos in which we live, deeper knowledge of nature and the environment, so that we can better preserve the earth's wealth of natural diversity. In scientific pantheism, cognitive openness - listening to reality, to new evidence, to all the evidence, to other people's needs and feelings - becomes a sacred duty in all aspects of life from science to politics to domestic life. Of course, we cannot say that science endorses pantheism. Many religions today state their beliefs in ways that no-one can disprove, so they can and do co-exist with science. But scientific pantheism positively thrives on science. scientific discoveries continually underline the wonder and the mystery of Being, the immensity of the universe, and the complexity of nature.

blogger
violation**

the image was not made by violation**.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

"My shooters knew they were more than just the sum of their individual efforts. They were the living emblem of countless brave men who'd come before. Spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically linked to such a noble ideal, SEAL Team SIX became unstoppable."
-Commander Richard Marcinko

Hello people! Now that i've got nothing really important to do (homework doesn't count), guess i'll give a lil sitrep on the wtfs of kyu grade.

hm well i started off my first bout feeling...hungry. had some cereal for breakfast which wasn't much. but what the heck that's beside the point. fought this guy, goh kar wei. who was bigger and taller than me but obviously had not trained enough since he couldnt even throw me at all. just kept moving out whever i saw him coming in O_O. attempted a few times as well, but hm he seemed preeetty reluctant to let both his legs leave the ground. so after a while...after i got rather pissed that whenever i got him onto the mats it was always a no point... i simply went in one more time, and heaved him onto his back the moment his body made contact with the mats. held down for ippon and end of part one.

second bout. started off REALLY hungry again after a slight lunch of 3.5 bananas (the 0.5 was from timo).well fighting this chs guy called gary gibbons or something. or was it gibson. oh hell i'll just call him gibs then.well gibs is sec4 if i'm not mistaken and my was he motherfeckingly HUGE. like our horny chinaman liddat. so well played him around same way i did with kar wei, moving out of his throw whenever i anticipated one, keeping him on his feet with my constant yanks and jerks and osoto entries. decided to create an opening for morotegari this time...but alas! another opportunity occurred to me. so when ref said hajime again and he reached out to grab my right lapel...i let him have his way lorh. he must've been damn happy. cos the next thing he did was to YANK! me towards him in preparation for what he must have thought was a sure-ippon. well YANK!ed in, i was, and while i was moving towards him i thrust out both arms, grabbed him in a death-grip, and executed a damn-near-beautiful can-can ouchigari!!!(art may be beautiful, wine may be beautiful, hell even trees may be beautiful, but judo throws were not made to be beautiful and they never will be. thy results and not thy methods eh?) that scored a wazari, which i did justice to by pinning him for another wazari after that. score 2 for the good guys!

against bryan next. bryan the huang-hao thrashing machine.got thrown yuko- don't even know HOW he did it, but it just happened- once, then for a while i was actually HOLDING him down, osaekomi had been given but he just HAD to force his way up before i had the chance to consolidate my grip. Jeezus H. Christ i'm never forgiving myself for that. god-fcuking-damn it hurts so much to even think about it.

but what's done can't be undone. bryan went on to win silver anyway...which could have been mine if i had won that bout but that's beside the point and i'm not thinking about what could have been. And to think how eager i was to meet huang hao again...

national schools coming up few months time. huang hao has lived this time to DIE ANOTHER DAY. and that's my promise to all of you...if bryan or timo or ys or mitch or garry doesnt get to him first. HOO-YAH motherfcukers. for verily, in 10 years time people will not remember who threw who, who did what nor even who attempted whatnot. they will only remember -who won. it is thy results that matter and not thy methods, by which meaneth thou shalt killeth thine enemy by any means available before he killeth me. everyone remember that now.

and i will not fail.

spacetime rip! by agent quantum , quite possibly at 4/13/2004 06:25:00 pm :)



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