I spent 4.5 hours dancing non-stop (except for water breaks) today.

I have fresh bruises on my knees, plus new ones on the bridge of my feet (don’t know what is the correct term for that part).

I am exhausted.

Tomorrow’s a new work week and another day of class.

o_O

Note to self : Just another 1.5 mths to go.

This is shocking, but I only recently found out exactly how global warming affects polar bears. I’ve known for a long time that global warming is bad but I’ve never actively tried to find out the specifics. Ironically, it was through reading a children’s book which talked about the destruction humans’ cause to wildlife and nature. (Can’t remember the title at the top of my head, will check).

Polar bears go to the mainland in the winter to bear their young and hibernate. In the summer, they will come out and search for food. Because of the rising global temperatures, ice takes longer to form. As such, the bears can’t go out to search for food and thus, they starve. And those who do try to go out, drown, because the ice floes are too far between one another.  *This is what I understood from the book. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or inaccurate* Read more here.

Picture taken from here.I find this really heartbreaking. I don’t know how we can just sit here and let this happen. How would you feel if you had to swim miles and miles in freezing water just to find food? And that only if you are lucky and not drown in the process? Why can’t we see the consequences of our actions? Are we that blind or ignorant or just plain selfish?

The polar bears are just one example of how destructive human actions can be. You can find all sorts of other destructions happening due to our actions.

I really believe that we all need to take action now to try to reverse the effects of our past and current behavior. Not for ourselves but for our children and future generations. We can’t be that selfish to leave them with a planet in which everything is sparse and with temperatures rising every year.

Very soon, there won’t be any Earth left to live in.

There’s only a couple of reasons why I work as hard as I do, hard as in the long hours.

It’s not because of my loyalty to the organization. A business is a business i.e. to make profits. It does not make sense for the business to look at employee welfare when the business is suffering. So the business wouldn’t care jackshit about me if times are bad and they need reduce costs. 

It’s not because I want to climb higher and faster up the corporate ladder. From my observation, the higher one goes up the ladder, the more detached one becomes from being a decent human being, bordering on mean and ruthless. With the exception of a few amazing individuals, whom I’ve had the good fortune to work with. I’d rather remain as a lowly consultant for as long as I can or even quit, as long as I maintain my sense of compassion and emphathy towards my fellow humans.

So why do I do it?

I do it all in the name of teamwork. Because we are a team, we struggle as a team and celebrate as a team. Because our work is all related and sometimes dependent upon another’s completion, if one person doesn’t pull his/her weight, then the whole piece will eventually collapse. All it takes is just one person to not be in sync with the team and it will make it difficult for everyone else because now, not only do you have to deal with the pressures of the workload, you have to deal with people dynamics and find a way to resolve it.

I have been fortunate all of my working life to have had amazing team members who do not only their share of work but are willing to go further and help other teammates when things get too much.

Sure, we complain and gripe about it. Who wouldn’t, having to work till 2am in the morning every single day for 2 weeks in a row, including weekends? We complain about it together and then we go cuckoo together, like youtube-ing the Smurfs theme song and playing it, in hip hop version. My boss kept himself psyched during the late hours by playing the Star Wars theme song (he’s a Star Wars + movie buff). After the Smurf episode, we all started reminiscing about the cartoons of our childhood : Thundercats, He-Man, Voltron, Jem and the Holograms. And we started singing their theme songs! That’s what sleep deprivation does to you, I guess. Heh. This was my memorable experience in my most recent all-nighter stint.

Also, a more realistic view of this is, we are all not indispensable. If I don’t do it, someone else will be more than willing to take my place. Especially in times like these. So what does one do? Slog la…

Apparently, according to the “Which dog breed are you” test on FB. Yes, I have been doing these mindless tests to kill time, not that I have so much time to kill.

So, according to Wikipedia, the Hovawart is an outstanding watch dog and somewhat reserved towards strangers. They make excellent family dogs as they are totally devoted to their family. They are a working dog breed, and require a consistent and loving yet strict training and meaningful activity throughout their lives.

Let me break it down…

• Outstanding watch dog = mega observant : cannot possibly be me because I am oblivious of my surroundings most of the time
• Reserved towards strangers : most definitely
• Totally devoted to family : I like my family well enough
• Require consistent and loving yet strict training : Yes, I like structure in my life
• Require meaningful activity throughout their lives : True, I would like to leave a meaningful legacy before I die.

Hhmm… I’m quite a Hovawart after all

I don’t remember taking this picture… but I like it

I just noticed my knees after showering today…

 Thanks to all that kneeling and sliding around in Aditya Acharna, my knees are now lovely patterned with bruises. And this is just from ONE day of rehearsal.

o_O

Oh well, at least I don’t have to do the standing back bend. Phew.

I realized fairly recently that we use a terribly huge amount of plastic in our daily life.

When I was in training for 2 weeks, we had lunch packed for us every day. After lunch, I’d see the garbage bin piled full of either the styrofoam containers or those plastic mircrowaveable containers.

Same went for the past 2 weeks when we had to work late and packed our lunches and dinners. All that plastic! Gawd! And there were like, 10-15 of us… all that amount of plastic for this handful of us.

I couldn’t stand the sight of all that plastic being dumped in our landfills so I took whatever I could and brought it back to our recycling bins here.

From now on, I resolve to try to recycle as much as I can (even more than what I normally do), and bring a reusable container along with me so I can use it to pack my food if I need to instead of using those styrofoam packs.

And also, to buy stuff with the least packaging material as possible. Have you noticed how much packaging is used in just a small item?! Especially those mini pack snacks and candies. Sure, it’s convenient but there’s just so much plastic used!

You know what? I really don’t care anymore. Call it imposing my views on others, but people who don’t give animals the respect they deserve and are unkind to animals, don’t deserve to be treated as humans themselves.

I’ve gone past trying to understand and justify why some people can mistreat animals in so many ways.

They should have done this a long time ago.

Pic from the SPCA March newsletter

This is such a sad story, but at the same time, I’m glad to find more kindred spirits when it comes to animals

I keep realizing more and more these days, how important this is to me.