Standing In The Gap.

Dear God,

I am but only one.

Guide me, God.

To fight for what is right.

For what I plan and am about to do,

Is a bold move in unchartered waters.

It may take days, months, years, decades to fulfil.

I may lose friends, love and possessions along the way.

Do not let me falter in the face of disappointment.

Stay with me.

Carry me.

Lift me, God.

For I cannot do it alone.

Use me to do what is right.

For the glory of Your Kingdom.

Amen.

Third Of Open Ocean Sharks Face Extinction.

Say no to shark's fin soup.
It can be easily substituted with shredded crab meat / abalone / lobster / chicken!

PARIS (AFP) — A third of the world's open water sharks -- including the great white and hammerhead -- face extinction, according to a major conservation survey released Thursday.

Species hunted on the high seas are particularly at risk, with more than half in danger of dying out, reported the Shark Specialist Group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Collapsing shark populations have already severely disrupted at least two coastal marine ecosystems, and could trigger even more severe consequences in the high seas, marine biologists warned at the same time.

The main culprit is overfishing. Sharks are prized for their meat, and in Asia especially for their fins, a prestige food thought to convey health benefits.

The survey of 64 species of open water, or pelagic, sharks -- the most comprehensive ever done -- comes days before an international meeting on high-seas tuna fisheries that could potentially play a role in shark conservation.

For decades, significant numbers of sharks -- including blue and mako -- have perished as "by-catch" in commercial tuna and swordfish operations.

More recently, the soaring value of shark meat has prompted some of these fisheries to target sharks as a lucrative sideline, said Sonja Forham, Policy Director for the Shark Alliance, and co-author of the study.

The Spanish fleet of so-called surface longline fishing boats ostensibly targets swordfish, but 70 percent of its catch, by weight, from 2000 to 2004 were pelagic sharks.

"There are currently no restrictions on the number of sharks that these fisheries can harvest," Fordham told AFP by phone. "Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas."

Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because most species take many years to mature and have relatively few young.

Scientists are also set to meet in Denmark to issue recommendations on the Atlantic porbeagle which, despite dwindling numbers, failed to earn protection at the last meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in 2007.

Canada led the charge to block the protective measure, supported by Argentina, New Zealand and some Asian countries.

Europe is the fastest growing market for meat from the porbeagle and another species, the spiny dogfish.

The demand for shark fins, a traditional Chinese delicacy, has soared along with income levels in China over the last decade. Shark carcasses are often tossed back into the sea by fishermen after the fins are cut off.

Despite bans in international waters, this practice -- known as "finning" -- is largely unregulated, experts say.

The loss of sharks from the world's oceans could have unpredictable impacts, say marine scientists.

"Removing large predators would deprive ecosystems of players that have been around for more than 400 million years," said Francesco Ferretti, a researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

Recent studies have shown that sharp reductions of coastal shark populations along the US East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico caused major disruptions throughout the food chain, including on aquaculture.

"Pelagic sharks may have even bigger consequences due to their global distribution," Ferretti told AFP.

The report identified the great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead sharks, as well as giant devil rays as globally endangered.

The smooth hammerhead, great white, basking, and oceanic whitetip sharks are listed as globally vulnerable to extinction, along with two species of makos and three types of threshers.

Some 100 million sharks are caught in commercial and sports fishing every year, and several species have declined by more than 80 percent in the past decade alone, according the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The IUCN issues the Red List of Threatened Species, the most comprehensive and authoritative conservation inventory of the world?s plants and animals species.

Source : AFP

Goodnight, You.

A little whisper before I go to bed
I'll see You in a while, where dreams are made.

Back From UK....

One of my favourite pics.
With Des. =)

*More pics are available on Facebook.

Come, Now Is The Time.

Come, now is the time to worship.
Come, now is the time to lift your heart.
Come, just as you are to worship.
Come, just as you are before your God.
Come.

30 June 2009

An epiphany descended upon me when I embarked on my spiritual rampage. In search of a new haven, I was led to a thinly-guised entity masquerading as a place of worship.

The self is miniscule in the Big Picture.

My pain and struggles are but a fragment of what is to be done.

There are more important issues to address.

God first, Mich last.

And so, I'm staying put.

To fight for what is right.

For God.

Not for myself.

======================================

21 June 2009

I'm seeking an alternative.

To that which has been my safe haven for 22 years.

To leave a place which has become a comfortable snuggle with its sights, sounds and people isn't easy.

But as D. Foo says, if edification has ceased to fill the spiritual life, leave and find another before one begins to draw away from God.

Staying on intensifies pain and internal struggles.

Its familiarity reeks of yesterdays -
Those which I'm desperately trying to forget, bury and move on.

I will begin my search.

Dream A Little Dream

Our Song.

It isn't often that a song comes along, wrenches you by the gut while bringing a smile to your face and floods you with that which you've been trying to bury to no avail.

Bittersweet memory is what most would call it, I'd reckon.


Our song is the way You laugh
The first date "Man, I didn't kiss him and I should have"
And when I got home, before I said Amen
Asking God if He could play it again

I've heard every album, listened to the radio
Waited for something to come along
That was as good as our song.

[ Our Song, Taylor Swift ]
It brings to mind the first time I met You.

And I smile to myself, shake my head and close this window.

Beautiful Moon

Oh beautiful moon
Sing me a song
Make it slow and sweet if you can

Oh beautiful moon
Don't worry about the clouds in the sky
Coz they'll all wash away with time

- extracted from Beautiful Moon, Kris Allen

Where Singaporean Women Were Yesterday.

In stilettos and a crisp shirt tucked into her pencil skirt, one elbowed her way to the mirror. There, a fresh faced youth had gathered a mountain. Both eyed the other with a hint of animosity and proceeded with caution.

Now multiply this a thousand-fold.

It is why cash registers chimed merrily across the island.

The bi-annual Mango sale had begun at 2pm.

Sweeping through Centrepoint, Ngee Ann City & Wisma Atria, pulverized logic perforated a $400 hole in Mich's pocket :

2 pairs of black jeans

a pair of pink shorts

a tube dress in orange & brown

a pretty spaghetti-strap dress in cyan

a toga dress in navy blue (note : Mich loves navy blue. It's the best formal colour without the boring drag of black.)

a white T-shirt with a girl's silhouette

a charcoal T-shirt with a sad girl

a short flared skirt in baby blue

Here's Vern & Mich looking really pleased! =)

Ordinarily So.

I'm Afraid.

Because I'm Happy.

Forgiveness

The weak can never forgive.
Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Today, I thought of The Second.

It's been 11 years since Then.

An 11-year friendship was forged prior to That.

Perhaps, if we've not been together,

We would still be the very best of friends since Primary 1.

And I found Forgiveness,

After all this time.

Meerkat Manor - A Tribute To Shakespeare

Staying up till 4am to catch Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet was something I'd do on a regular basis.

Through the lens, viewers received an insight of the lives of a meerkat family. The individual meerkat that caught my attention was Shakespeare.

While attempting to chase a venomous snake away, Shakespeare had been severely injured with multiple bites but survived.

His little life was snuffed shortly after when a rival meerkat group invaded his family home. The rest of his family members were out foraging for food and he was tasked with babysitting the pups in their burrow.

Courageous Shakespeare died defending his baby siblings from the invaders.

Goodbye, Little One.

Clowning Around.

When the circus leaves the town
She'll realise she's been The Clown.

For I Know Not.

You know,

Until some semblance of blatant dialogue transpires,

Nuances pile elaborately on the plate.

And I can't be picking at the echelon

For I know not what lies beneath.

A MEssage To You.

"I need to not want You."



I had so many dreams about you and me.
Happy endings, now I know

I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairytale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet
Lead her up the stairwell

This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down
Now it's too late for you and your White Horse
To come around.

[ Taylor Swift - White Horse ]

Tenaciously Selfish.

Make no mistake.

I'm here to rant.

That's right.

While I have no qualms about getting my Man to fetch my peers home after a day of shopping, (mind you, Vern lives in Yishun while Ting resides in Hougang) and The Man himself sends his colleagues home whenever He can (yes, even to Kranji!), it's rather sad to say that there exists selfish people who roll out excuses pedestrian enough to induce jaw-dropping spasms.

I know the above was quite a mouthful but trepid fluctuations within have limited the capacity for coherence.

Oops, there I go again.

Someone who lives a mere three stops away from me has just shoved the words "Can you come to my place instead? Will be a little grouchy about having to make a detour to yours" into my eyeballs. This comes after the particular person announced of her plans to gatecrash my gathering tomorrow. See where I'm coming from?

Know what? I'll book a cab as usual.

My pride is worth more than your ride.

Psst...just so you'll know, we have a car too.

6 Days of Fun, Fun, Fun!

If you've been wondering where Mich has vanished to since 29 May, she's been busy reworking her social life.

It's been 6 consecutive days of fun-filled laughter.

Mich's looking at the hundreds of photographs taken during this period and wonders when she'll be able to upload every single one of them.

Till then, toodles to all! =)

Isn't This Sweet? =)

Ray : I just wanted to say hello and I am struck with how I have taken your presence for granted. I'm rediscovering my friends and the people that matter so, Hello Michie.

Mich : That's so sweet. Hello, Ray. =)

Ray : Funny it has to come so late. I wish i had realised earlier. Then it wouldn't have been so bad.

Mich : It isn't too late, Ray.

Ray : Thanks, Michie. You're always such a dear.