Last week was a great week for Libya. It was a weekend full of partying, joy, sparked up hope and most importantly a day that declared a chance of reform. Gaddafi's 41 years and 363 days as the autocracy (meaning a person given unlimited power over a nation) has finally come to an end.
Someone needs a bit of coffee...
The rebel fighters fought fierecely through the country's capital, Tripoli, on Friday night. Almost all of the pro Gaddafi fighters had somehow exasperated out of thin air, perhaps seeking shelters for themselves after seeing what has happened. Muammar Gaddafi on the other hand had gone into hiding along with his family. To put a end to Gaddafi once and for all, a wealthy Libyan businessman has offered a million euros for Gaddafi, dead or alive, that's around one million four hundred thirteen thousand and twenty three hundred (1,413,023,000)! It's definitely not a small number in any case at all.
Pure gold mermaid sofa taken from Aisha Gaddafi's home
The family possesses bad reputation. All of Gaddafi's sons and daughters have been living luxurious lives while the country suffered from poverty. Their beautiful compounds filled with gigantic swimming pools, expensive wineries and modern, breathtaking mansions. As compared to the lifestyles of most Lybians, you could truly only divide them into two categories, heaven and hell.
One of Gaddafi's daughter-in-law abused her Ethiopian nanny just because she had refused to beat her children when they were restless. As a result, Aline Skaf (former model) poured boiling water over the nanny's head as a punishment, then isolated her in a room so no one was able to reach or help her. Out of sympathy, a guard offered to help but later on Skaf found out and threatened to do the same if he dared again.
What a horrifying family, I'm happy for the nation that such a dictator has finally fallen.
So I checked out The Ex this week, it's a once-a-year event held in the Canadian National Exhibit centre. It runs from August 19th to the 5th of September. Here are some events that I encounter while roaming around:
The entrance area. It looks like a carnival doesn't it? ( The qualities of these photos are not the best because they were taken on my phone camera. )
The thrill rides are extremely over priced, six something - a bit more and less of Canadian dollars for 30 seconds of your life. If you really want to go somewhere where various roller coasters dominate the landscape, go to Canada's Wonderland!
Excuse my bad photo taking skills, the background was suppose to say "Hairspray" but instead it says "Airspray". I'm quite talented at creating random transformations of perfectly normal things, aren't I? It was a Ice Skating Show featuring Canada's own 2010 Bronze medalist Joannie Rochette.
More of my wonderful photography
The grand opening of the show, everybody grooved along with the popular party song of We Will Rock You - Queen.
A peakof the star's arrival on the ice!
Trippy ? I think so. Does anyone know what these are called? I think they're meant to be kept on the balcony.
Sand sculptures!
A stone sculpture. They are created by finding the balancing point of each rock. Anyone else see that face on the top of the rock? I thought it kind of looked like an alien, therefore I added a space effect.
Fantastic smelling flowers, the store said "All natural", but the flowers themselves smelled a bit processed.
A fancy dressed English man in our 21 century. I guess the vintage look is really coming back hard and fast.
Beautiful colored lamps, I would love to have one in my room.
Super dog show, what is so great about it is that 40% of the dogs in the show are adopted from the Humane Society and animal shelters.
But during the visit I found that there were so literally tons of companies of all sizes, big and small, advertising their products. The irony in this is that we were paying to go there. In a sense, are we paying for advertisements?
All in all, it was a great experience, I hope those of you who can go will go visit before the annual event pulls its curtains on the 5th of September
Is the world coming to an end? We'll soon to find out as the designated day approaches, but I have deep doubts about it. Just like many other apocalypses and predictions that predicted the world to come to an end, it never did yet.
Two days ago I experienced my first earthquake of 5.8 while I was sitting cross legged on my desk typing away when I suddenly felt my desk sway while the plastic blinds in front of me flew back and forth uncontrollably. At first, I thought it was just myself being on the computer for too long and started having illusions. But the Earthquake statuses on Facebook confirmed that I wasn't just day dreaming about it. That quake shook me to reality, I should be living my life and even if I do die in 2012, die with no regrets.
Could 2012 be real? The Mayan calendar showed so, but maybe the Mayans could just have been too tired and exhausted to continue their now world famous calendar.
Well, whether it's true or not, we'll just have to see. Live in the moment and not in the past or the future.
Jack Layton passed away on early Monday morning at age 61. He was surrounded by his loved ones, including his Hong Kong born wife, Olivia, and his two children from the previous marriage. Layton is one of the most known politicians in Canada, who had led the now opposition party of Canada, New Democratic Party to it's station which had long been possessed by the Liberals.
The old NDP leader retired only last month to treat and recover from the prostate cancer that was diagnosed in February 2010. But waslater misdiagnosed and confirmed as non-prostate cancer.
The flag on top of Parliament Hill in the Country's capital, Ottawa, was lowered half mast . Prime Minister Stephen Harper also paid tribute to the politician.
Jack Layton had big hopes for this country, as he called it one of the most hopeful countries in the world. We will remember how he dedicated the last moments of his life running the election in May to lead his party to a place it hasn't been before. His death brings a nation's grief. We will always remember him as an activist in our community, and someone that made great contributions in making our country a better place.
A while ago, my friend Catherine showed me a little lovely book by a Taiwanese author, named Jimmy Liao.
Inside unfolded a tragic but beautiful love story. Here's my translation of it:
*Note: read the story first so you have a general idea of the story
The grey sky always befell during the autumn, in a city of dread, a girl and a boy lived together in an apartment with a wall in between as a divider. Whenever they went out, he always turned left, and she always turn right habitually. Therefore, they had never met or been acknowledged the presence of each other on this Earth. Winter slowly descended upon the city as days passed. On those days, the boy would sit in the snow covered park to play his violin and feed the wondering pigeons. The girl would roam around on the streets, and occasionally talk to strayed cats for comfort. After a long day, she always turned right to go home, and he always turned left. So, they never met.
One day, they met at a park, like old friends, they talked and talked and talked. Until it started to pour. She gave him her phone number and left. Him, turning left and her, turning right.
That stormy night, they were too excited to fall asleep, the image of them together in the park replied again and again their heads.
The next day, the girl stayed home on her couch, huddling around the phone waiting for the phone call. The boy, sat against his couch against the wall that divided them two and dialed again and again, trying to make out the numbers that was smudged by the rain.
Another year passed, while playing violin in the subway, the music brought out his thoughts, Is she still here, here in this city? Or is she long gone by now? But they met the same strayed cat, the same lost puppy and wake up everyday to the weak shining sun and heard the same quacking crow.
After enduring the miserable time here, he decided to leave this gloomy city to find another place filled with sunshine. She did too, but at the apartment door, he always turned left and she was turned right, leaving behind a city of darkness and memories of each other.
This story reminded me that we should cherish everyone/thing that we possess because you'll never know if when we're going to lose it, like the girl and boy in the story. Chance fooled them, created sparks in their hearts and then put it out with ice cold water that destroyed all signs of hope. This is what I feel about living, catch it by the tail to prevent it from slipping away, it could be an opportunity, a person's feelings or even an apology that you know you have to make. The decisions that we make also largely impacts our lives. If only one of them decided to change their directions,they would've been living happily in that gloomy city. I hope I will be much luckier than the boy and girl, or at least I will try my best not to be.
There are times where other than a dog, pen and paper are your best friend. Sure, the technology is advanced, you could do practically anything on your laptop or computer, but what I do to truly express my feelings on is a piece of paper and a good pen.
I encounter many moments where after a long day, I just want to slip into my covers and write. Write about things that come to my mind, things that I secretly care about, things that I wish had changed. I just let my mind roam with no specific targets to meet. It might not even come out in complete sentences. Scribbles, sketches, whatever it takes, and then hide them into a place where no one will ever look for.
Mosquitoes. Little sneaky, blood sucking creatures that descend when summer arrives. I'm sure everyone has been bitten by these pests before, but how serious is the problem?
Malaria is a major disease responsible for 225 millions of cases worldwide, though most of these victims are in Africa. In decades, man kind has been fighting to defeat this parasite.
First, a little explanation of how malaria is transmitted. It all begins when a female mosquito bites into a human's skin. While sucking out the blood it transfers its young, called sporozoites, which then live in the liver until it's ready to produce asexually (producing only in one sex, in this case, females). It then advances to the next stage of merozoites, and travels out of the liver and invades healthy cells, and overtake them for further reproduction of dividing. When it has matured, it will continue the cycle and bite its next victim.
This problem is the most serious and common in Africa, that's why organizations have worked hard to prevent this from occurring. Nets sprayed with insecticide has cut off the infection rate by half, since being distributed a few years ago.
Unfortunately, during this period, mosquitoes have also developed immunity to the pesticide Deltametrin , the percentage has risen from the previous 8% to an astonishing 48%.
Also, after a period of protection from the parasite, when exposed again, the human immune system weakens, and the parasite comes back harder than ever.
What lies ahead about the malaria control in Africa? Hopefully, better prevention methods. But only time will tell.
