Tsunami before Birthday and New year

Look at the date... It's the New Year. The time which you forget the bad things about last year, and the time too to look forward to a fresh new year. So now close your eyes, and forget all the misfortune that happened on you. Make a wish, which is within your ability, for the new year. Now slowly open your eyes and look forward to it. Now start planning what you should do to make your dream come true, since it is within your ability. Make sure that you can complete your wish this year, and do not be greedy and go for lots of wishes. Even if you have the ability to do so, having loads of wishes will put a lot of pressure on your timetable, and you will not be satisfied with your results. Just a wish will do, on top of your daily work, or at most no more than 3 wishes. Lastly, you may like to know my wish. Hmm... I have not decide yet. Even if I have decided, I will not tell you, because heavenly secrets cannot be revealed. =P

Ok enough of my nonsense, back to my boring life. There is a countdown party in my neighborhood (and in almost every other neighborhood) which began a few hours ago. Even though it is already half past eleven at night, I can hear clearly the sound of the music almost a kilometer away. An even bigger surprise awaits at twelve midnight: the fireworks. I thought it was thunder at first, but thunder which last for more than 10 seconds? This is enough to make me stick my head out of the window, and follow the crowd downstairs watching the fireworks. No, there was nothing wrong celebrating the new year. The problem lies in the noise produce. Mind you, not everyone is as excited as you are for the new year. Some even hate the new year coming, because they have to suffer again due to the weak and poor economy, or for some other reasons. Some are just simply not interested in events like this, and want to turn in early. If I can hear the music almost a kilometer away, what about those who lives just beside the venue of the event, and want to sleep? If you people want to celebrate, go to somewhere else with no residences, and do anything you like there. Furthermore, in light of the tsunami which happened in Indonesia (will talk about it later), our corrupted Prime Minister has urge us to keep the new year celebration on low profile. A movie was replaced instead of live broadcast of the countdown in the last minute, and almost everywhere else on the world had prayers instead. The organizers should replace it with prayers, or at least remove the fireworks. I do not see the point of celebrating when others have died on islands which block this killer wave from hitting us.

Talking about computer stuff, firstly my website/ web log: Ok I really feel like bashing up Flooble or TagBoard. These very simplified message board goes down whenever they feel like it. My Flooble chatterbox got deleted probably due to inactivity, and TagBoard message board can go down for almost everyday. I am going to put an inline frame for this very simplified message board to prevent my web log from lagging again. I also got myself a new website with unlimited disk space and bandwidth (slow transfer rate though), courtesy of a friend of mine (guess who  =P ). Recently I also got addicted to a new forum: Sammyboy's Alfresco Coffee Shop ™. Do note that even local media, opposition leaders, and ministers read this forum. Oppositions posting their views on the current government, ministers brought up important issues which most are unheard of, and The Sundays Times even have a section delicate to it almost every week. It will be a very good place to hear what locals have to say on the latest issues. Gundam Seed Destiny episode 13 ill only be shown on 8 January, so meanwhile I will try to update the information for Destiny. Before concluding, I would like everyone to listen to Fields of Hope from Gundam Seed Destiny. Sang by Lacus, so enjoy ^^

Fields of Hope Gundam Seed Destiny: Insert song (Lacus Clyne)
Translated by Alison (MUST CREDIT TO HER IF YOU WANT TO USE THE LYRICS)

Japanese
konna ni tsumetai tobari no fukaku de anata wa hitori de nemutteru inori no utagoe samishii nohara wo chiisa na hikari ga terashiteta anata no yume wo miteta kodomo no you ni waratteta natsukashiku mada tooku sore wa mirai no yakusoku itsuka midori no asa ni itsuka tadoritsukeru to fuyugareta kono sora wo shinjiteiru kara fields of hope
umarete kita hi ni dakishimete kureta yasashii ano te wo sagashiteru inori no utagoe hitotsu kiete mata hajimaru tayori naku setsunaku tsuzuku itsuka midori no asa e subete no yoru wo koete sore wa tada hitori zutsu mitsukete yuku basho dakara ima wa tada kono mune de anata wo atatametai natsukashiku mada tooi yasuragi no tame ni fields of hope
natsukashiku mada tooi yakusoku no nohara fields of hope
English
Beneath a veil so cold, You deeply sleep, all alone The melody of prayer; on the lonely fields, a little light shined I watched as you dreamed You laughed like a child So dear, and yet so far - That is the promise of our future That one day, on a green morning, One day, we will make it through Because in this wintered sky We still believe Fields of Hope
On the day we were born, we were embraced And now we search for those gentle hands again The melody of prayer; one vanishes, And all begins again; a powerless, painful continuation One day, to that green morning, We'll cross through all these nights Because that is the place each one of us searches for Now, within my own heart, I want to keep you warm So dear, and yet so far - In the name of peace Fields of Hope
So dear, and yet so far - The fields of promise Fields of Hope

You would not know this unless you know me very well: I had my birthday 2 days ago  =D  Don't ask about presents... my family are too poor to have any presents now for birthdays. Don't ask about birthday cards too, I don't have much friends so I don't expect any birthday cards in the first place (and I really got none). But the good thing is that I have birthday greetings from my friends, 4 from my classmates over MSN  =) , and even more from members over the forums  =P  You know who you are, and thank you for the greetings. Finally, I am the same age as all my classmates, which means I can do things they can do almost a year earlier. Weeeeeee... 30th December 2004 was almost like any other day to me, just that I have better outside food. Never really celebrate... whatever... I don't really care.

Breaking off from my boring entry about my boring life, lets take a look at the tsunami. Maybe I should provide details on tsunami to those who do not study (or read up) basic geography before.  There are lots of planes on the earth's crust, with the blue line in the above picture indication rifts and ridges, and the red line indicating trench. Many things happen when the plates meet. If both plates are around the same weight and thickness, they collide to form mountains. A good example will be the Himalayas, the result of the Indian plate clash against the Eurasian plate. When either of the plates (or both plates) are part of the ocean floor, the plate which is lower and heavier will sink below another plate, causing a deep-sea trench. The plate which goes underneath the other will eventually melt away, creating a line of volcanoes above it. This will be the case in Indonesia. Transformation boundary takes place when a plate moves in the opposite direction of the another one. A good example of this will be the Sam Andreas fault in California. For the case in Indonesia, pressure build up on the oceanic plate since it was jammed. When this pressure exceed a certain level, a fault (reverse fault for this case) is resulted and there will be a sudden release of energy. This sudden release of energy also unleashes ground-shaking vibrations that constitute an earthquake. If the earthquake takes place on underwater, it will displace a huge amount of sea water, producing destructive waves known as Tsunami. Tsunami (Tsu means harbor, Nami means wave, in Japanese) can also be triggered by landslide in the seabed or a submarine volcano, and can travel as fast as a jet plane (800km/h). Tsunami can travel past you without you noticing in mid-sea, or you can be dragged in one direction and back if you are diving (Waves only seems to transport volumes of water as they travel, they actually causes the water in any given spot to revolve about a fixed circle). The problem comes when these killer waves enter shallower depths, as the bottom of the waves slow down and the height increase. The faster the depth decreases, the greater the force of the tsunami, and it have been known to surge as high as 30 meters before breaking. Harbors will be drained dry as if someone had pulled a giant bath plug, and onlookers will be swept away be the tsunami when it strikes minutes later.

The latest killer wave have hit almost every coast facing the Indian ocean, there are even death in parts of africa. I am not very sure on the actual number of death tolls, since different new agencies gave different numbers. The latest I heard was around 150000 dead. One thing I am sure of is that it will be increasing, since there is still quite a number of island submerge in the ocean, and the second wave had only just arrived: the spreading of diseases. With the lack of clean water and food, and people living together in camps, it is the perfect breeding ground for diseases. I predict the final death toll to almost double the current amount, at around 300000. The world had also chip in more than US$2 billion to help out in this disaster, with Japan pledging the most at US$500 million. Our country has also opened our military airports and ports for aiding, and our people had donated generously to help out those who are affected. Donations received, however, includes high heels, roller blades and such. I guess some simply treat this as a great time to dispose everything they do not want. Well till now I have not donated anything due to a simple reason: I am too POOR. Our government should spend some of the donations on our poor Singaporeans, instead of wasting on a country which called us a tiny red dot on the map.

You should have know this if you are in Singapore, or at places near Singapore which can receive our TV channels: Mediacorp and Mediaworks had merge, ending the competition between the two companies for four years. The new company, named Mediacorp TV holdings, decided to close down Channel I. Around 400 staff, including some artists, were retrenched in this merger (It should be more than 400). It is the government which suggested for 2 companies which air free television program four years ago, to have a higher quality of shows. Yes, we did get shows of better quality, and even the quality of news had increased. To increase the quality of news, both companies began digging out minor stuff which were not even worth reporting in the past. A good example will the Huang Na's case. Both media companies began reporting the case of this missing girl, and it hit the headlines everyday for a week. When the girl's dead body was found, we locals show sympathy and began donating money to them. The problem here is that her mother used a fake name to enter Singapore, and her father had served jail terms here and is barred from entering. But the police escort them to the airport with the money instead of arresting them, under this reason: it is a special case. If the media had not dug out this case both the parents might have been banned or arrested for entering Singapore. Furthermore, there are tons of cases which children had gone missing. Why out of everyone do they report this incident? The reason used by the scum and corrupted government for merging both TV companies is to curb losses from both sides (Mediacorp is actually going bankrupt), but the real reason will be preventing cases like Huang Na's one from repeating.

There is not much for me to expect for the first few months of this year. I am almost bored up sitting here typing my boring entry. Most of my friends either went for first three months at Junior college, or went for work. My brother's new school term in a secondary school had just began. I am left alone at home doing almost nothing apart from playing games. Maybe I should write up a essay and post it here when I finish.