The Female Pope...

As the dust stirred up by the book Da Vinci Code has yet fully settled down, a new controversy surrounding another historical female figure emerges, the enigmatic Pope Joan. Though the evidence of her existence is a little far-fetched and hard to validate, still this battle between sexes that has been going on since the ancient times fascinated me. Just which sex is the dominant one? Are women indeed born inferior to men? Should we believe that Eve was made from a bone of Adams, or is it just a propaganda? Should we settle for our current social status, or should we fight for what we lost thousands of years ago?

That's Amore

-Dino

(In Napoli where love is King, when boy meets girl, here's what they say)

When the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie
that's amore
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine
That's amore
Bells'll ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts'll play tippi-tippi-tay, tippi-tippi-tay
Like a gay tarantella

When the stars make you drool joost-a like pasta fazool
That's amore
When you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet, you're in love
When you walk in a dream but you know you're not dreamin',
signore' scusa me, but you see, back in old Napoli, that's amore

Amore
That's amore

This song totally cracks me up, and it makes me want to go to Olive Garden so bad!

"Men should be like Kleenex - soft, strong and disposable." --- Cher

New Year's Resolutions

It's the time of the year again when we start to make those lofty goals for ourselves to achieve the coming year, and here is mine (in totally arbitrary order) :

1. Join more clubs and make more friends;
2. Go to gym more often and take dance and yoga classes;
3. Learn how to swim;
4. Learn how to bike;
5. Better my grades;
6. Find an on-campus job;
7. Find a boyfriend;
8. Find a mentor;
9. Find a summer internship;
10. Read more;

The merriest place on earth

Went to Disneyland on X'mas day, a big treat to the inner child of mine. It was a dreamlike day, with my heart overflown with joy, my spirit lifted, and my fantasy materialized. Sadly, at the grand finale of the X'mas parade, when the light and music went off, the fake snowflakes disappeared into the thin air, suddenly, I was back to the reality again, people pushing from different directions, children wailing, and as we sat along the curbside watching the crowd moving slowly out of the gate, into the real world, I snickered, we human beings are so bored that we make up all those artificial things to keep us entertained, or fooled shall we say. At the other hand, I was also thinking that we all have our own disneyland when the real world gets a little too harsh on us, we tend to retreat to our little fantasy land seeking for the sense of security and exhilaration of holding on the hands of our mommy and daddy and prancing down the main street with all our favorite cartoon characters waving at us, with not a care in the world. Sometimes it's better to act a little foolish, naive and immature, and that's probably the reason why people keep coming back to disneyland, it's therapeutic in some way...

The March of Love

It's a love story indeed, the march of the penguins. Who would think, at the coldest place on earth, the affection shown by those meek creatures is warm enough to melt every emotionally jaded, cold-hearted movie goer's heart. It reminded us of that one thing that makes the world go around, in their case, love has been reduced to the simpliest, most intrinsic, unpretentious yet beautiful form. While watching the penguins march 70 miles inland against the harshest weather just to find a mate, watching them kiss and caress each other like infatuated couples, and seeing how much painstaking effort they make to raise the younguns, it almost brought tears to my eyes. If those little penguins could survive a temperature of 75 degrees below lounging under the flap of their parents, then what on the earth is ever impossible with the power of love? I was intrigued by both the similarity and difference between the penguins and the human beings in terms of the ability to love, and it makes me think twice about the place where I put love and family on my priority list. In contrast with the penguins, my cousin and her husband have been bent on swearing off kids, it makes me wonder whether this deviated path we take away from our fellow mammals a blessing, or a doom?
currently listening to Spice Girls' 2 become 1 ... ...

I know what you did that winter... ...

Berkeley's winter is pleasantly crisp, yet after the sun sets, the chilly and windy evening can make you feel quite homesick and lonely. Thank God for the little hole-in-the-wall Chinese eatery right off the north gate to the campus. It is called the "T.C. Garden," ran by two old ladies, who are identical twins. One afternoon, as usual, I seeked refuge in this cozy little place after a long day of studying. Ahh...... love their hot tea, it is truly life saving. "Shrimp & vegetable please!" I always ordered the same thing everytime, it's carb plus protein plus fiber, not bad for 5 bucks. As my stomach gradually filled up, I was finally able to take my eyes off the the plate of goodies and took a glance at my surroundings. What a weird picture! The twin sisters were sitting literally across the room from each other, facing different directions, they were both reading the newspaper quietly in an utterly same manner, it was as if one is the reflection in the mirror of the other. Then my imagination begun to run loose, as I started to make up in my mind this story of evil twin sisters, a story of love, hatred, envy, betrayal, scandal, murder, fame, wealth, tears and blood... ... then after all those years, after all they've been going through, they are sitting quietly at this little sanctuary of theirs at Berkeley, California, reading newspaper. They are old now, with all the secrets locked away at the back of their mind gathering dust, suddenly, an article in the newspaper helped to conjure it all up again... ...

I am still working on it, stay tuned!

My Grown Up X'mas List

Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you
With childhood fantasies

Well, I'm all grown up now
And still need help somehow
I'm not a child
But my heart still can dream

So here's my lifelong wish
My grown up christmas list
Not for myself
But for a world in need

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never startand
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up christmas list

As children we believed
he grandest sight to see
Was something lovely
Wrapped beneath our tree

Well heaven only knows
That packages and bows
Can never heal
A hurting human soul

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up christmas list

What is this illusion called the innocence of youth
Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth

Merry X'mas! Happy Hanukkah! Good Kwanzaa! 新年好！

What kind of cheese r u?

You are chevres!

You are a cheese of different shapes, sizes, and textures. You are dependable, generous, and modest. You want to please everyone, but sometimes you have trouble remembering yourself.These cheeses are made from goat's milk. They come in many sizes and shapes, such as round patties, log-shapes, drum-shapes, pyramids, round loaves, long loaves etc.; their textures vary from soft, but firm like cream cheese to extremely hard. Chevres are excellent dessert cheeses, often served as snacks or before dinner drinks. Goat cheese is often served as an ingredient in many fine dishes. [ Country: France Milk: goat milk Texture: semi-hard ]

my first right hand ring

Originally uploaded by saisai.

My favorite things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel
so bad ... ...

STAND BY ME

-John Lennon

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
No I won't be afraid
No I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Stand by me,
stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry
No I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, stand by me
Stand by me,
stand by me,
stand by me
Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Oh, stand by me,
stand by me,
stand by me ... ...

snow and ocean...

Care to sit?
Originally uploaded by Karthikn.

this i believe...

Penn Jillette believes, "There is no God"... ...

Poem du jour

You Go to School to Learn
- by Thomas Lux from New & Selected Poems

You go to school to learn to read and add,
to someday make some money.
It—money—makes sense:
you need a better tractor,
an addition to the gameroom,
you prefer to buy your beancurd by the barrel.
There's no other way to get the goods you need.
Besides, it keeps people busyworking—for it.
It's sensible and, therefore, you go to school to learn
(and the teacher,having learned, gets paid to teach you) how to get it.
Fine. But:you're taught away from poetry or, say,
dancing (That's nice, dear, but there's no dough in it).
No poem ever bought a hamburger, or not too many.
It's true,and so, every morning—it's still dark!—you see them,
the children, like angels being marched off to execution,or banks.
Their bodies luminous in headlights. Going to school.

A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets...

Check this out, it's so true!

... ... I have friends who constantly ask me if i've found the one, i had to tell them that the only one for me exists in heaven, the person i marry is of good companionship material. .... ... But i know a lover owns only part of a woman and not its entirety for surely, there will be nothing left for him to undress if a woman is an open book. A woman belongs to many people, her parents, her sisters, her lover, her husband, her children, her work, her passions, her friends, the people who have shared parts of her life. Then, there is the part that belongs only to herself alone that refuses to be unlocked - that possesses unreasonable amounts of discriminations and contradictions that would jeopardize her role as a rational person in society and her relationships... ...

-quote from Lychee