What can i say, she's the imperfect that i grew to love....

tyiara, there are many things that i've heard about her from a whole lot of people. good and bad things. but above all that, i love her. i love her so much, no words could describe how much i appreciate her. i'll put her first in line, even my boyfriend won't be on the same par. i will support her in every decision that she made and i will be by her side when the whole world is against her. i promise you that. as i told you, you're not just a bestfriend, you're my family.

i still remember, when we were 14, in her dorm, we pricked our thumb with pin, and we combined blood and said 'til death do us part'. i know that was silly but we were 14 and we were the best of friend. even if it's not much, her blood still runs in my body somewhere. maybe that's why i can't trigger her out. maybe that's why i miss her so much. maybe that's why i grew to love her more and more each day. she's the best thing that've ever happen to me.

i would give her my life if i have too.

lara is a very good friend. lye is a superb side-kick! (carl is a shhtoopid boy!! ha ha ha!!)

VOICES OF MALAYSIA: friends of BN (he he he!!)

i wanna go mandi.

adi will be calling later.

a lot of things to write.

time does not permit.

maybe later!

- how? why? hmm....

Yesterday was fun!

Went out with Linda for some movies, but we end up waling in and out of every single (except for Escada, BCBG Maxazria and some other stores which would make my debit cards cry) store. Mean Girls was okay..it reminds me of the girls...nvm...

hello again.. that calc test was hard. I was shaking through that. Damn it was hard!! as hard as an erected cock. But what the hell; one down, two more to go.

stuffing gum paper...

hey...me dad bought me this yesterday. i was so happy and am still happy now! wheeeee!

2F2F was okay. but some part of it was quite suspen. heh. but i'm looking forward to watch LXG. it'll come out next thursday. haih. bestnyerrr!

my dad's leaving for umrah later. imma go have breakfast with him now. chiow!

We (me and Ude) went to watch man on fire and it was awesome. I can feel that the black blood is in my veins, rite when I was born. But i was to ignorant to know the fact. John W. Creasy was rite. "revenge is a meal best served cold". I'm half Malay and half African. Yeah. Hail to my long lost sistas and brothas.

I woke up at 9.30 a.m. An exciting achievement for my daily routine. Even Shahir woke up later than me. I AM SO LAZY TO STUDY FOR THAT GODDAMN PHYSICS TEST! Can we please cancel the Physics exam and do something else? I called home last nite and talked to Saty, Mak and Papa. Everyone is pretty happy with themselves.

sometimes you start a little pet project like this and you have every intentions of keeping it up to date. but such is the professional world, you get busy at work, you don't have time to log on and the last thing i want to do when i get home is spend time reliving that days absurdities.

before you know it, you forgot you even started this side project.

but then, you get hit with some insanely ignorant bullshit question that actually makes you stand back in awe and say to yourself "i need to do something about this. i should start a site where i can vent these frustrations, show the world that yes, companies succeed, they grow by leaps and bounds, all on the input and collaboration of the intellectually challanged"

and it dawns on you that you already did that. so with that, here was todays comment that made me rediscover this blog.

i was asked by someone in Sales, what price a new title would be sold for.

don't people in Sales have meetings to discuss these types of things?

i apologize, i was about to go on a rant of how extremely unknowlegable most Sales people are of the product they've made their CAREERS out of selling, their profession of choice is to SELL (Sales 101, right at the top of the Sales For Dummies pamphlet, the first bullet point is "know what price you are selling for dipshit"), but then that would be too easy, like taking candy from a baby, but this baby is retarded... and has no legs... and no opposable thunbs to even hold the candy which you are taking.

and what kind of sick fuck are you that you would take candy from a handicapped, retarded baby.

I Am a CLOWN!

Now I have a thing about clowns. They kinda FREAK me out. But I was just nominated for Class Clown over at An Island Life and now you can all vote for me so I can WIN! Yes...WIN!! It's the First Annual Bloggy Hoss Elections, and I want to win VERY badly! I didn't win a senior class superlative in high school (although I SHOULD'VE, but that silly saxophone player girl beat me out, the band geek! Wait, I was a band geek, too... shit...) so go vote!

I think I only get the title, but oh my, how glorious it would be! So get over to An Island Life between Saturday, July 7th (tomorrow) and Tuesday, July 10th. I'm not sure how many times you can vote, but I'd appreciate just 1 from all 15 of you.

I will bribe you with everything I can get my hands on and send to you via UPS. PLEASE! I just want a little old title. Is that SO much to ask for? HMMMMMMMM?

(Say it with me - cookies of your choice, cookies of your choice...)

And whoever nominated me for this award, thanks a million. You TOTALLY made my day. Seriously!

Have a great weekend, everyone! XOXO

Unleash the HOUNDS!

Hubby had a wonderful idea today - why don't I bring the dogs to the dog park for a little run? There was some rain overnight last night, and they were calling for thunderstorms for the late afternoon and evening, but there was a nice window of nice (albeit humid) weather, perfect for a little pooch exercise. Hubby was working, kids were resting. I actually like taking the dogs out to the park alone - it's a relaxing time. Pups, want to go for a ride? Circle, circle, bark, squeak, WOOF!

When I got there today, there was 1 other car there, with the owners and the pooch playing in the field. Btw, this field has a fench on the side where the entrance is, with 2 gates along it. We used to live closer to this park, but we still manage to drive there when we can, to give the dogs a big field to run and play. And this park entertains all sorts. Young, old, nice dogs, mean dogs. There are rules. And there are nice people and biotches.

Today was the day of the bitch.

Let me explain. I parked RIGHT next to one of the gates, and because my dogs didn't have leashes, my plan was to open the gate door, open the van door and get them into the field asap. Now I am a responsible dog owner, and I have respect for other dogs and their owners. I saw the wench/bitch...ah..OLDER WOMAN with her 3 pups - a golden lab, a pug and a little brown YIPPY Dachshund - drive up. She had them on leashes, BUT I didn't see her bring her dogs into the field through the other gate until it was TOO LATE, I GUESS!

Mind you, I was trying to be quick with my dogs. Parked right next to the gate. I opened the door, then turned to open the van door. Mere seconds. And all of a sudden, I heard a voice resembling my mother's:

CLOSE THE GATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DON'T LEAVE THE GATE OPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It rang so loud and so shrill that I think everyone in the 10 town area heard her. I was instantly a 10 year old girl getting in trouble for leaving the door open. "Do we live in a BARN?" My mother was the disciplinarian. The one who wore the pants. The bitch on wheels.

This woman instantly got my hairs up. I shut the gate quickly (as I saw her little yippyskankpup - and I use that term with the most love I can muster - coming towards my ankles, although it would've taken that dog a whole day to get to me, it was so small) and proceeded to get my dogs out of the van, put them on "heel" so they didn't run, because you know, I train my dogs to not run after STRANGERS, and got them into the field safely.

You know, I have no problem understanding that I should be sensitive to others at the dog park, and I have no issue with other people asking me to close the gate. In fact, I could understand an emergency tone to a person's voice, if they were nervous about their dog's safety. But to SCREAM at me? CLOSE THESE, BIOTCH!

Where the HELL were this bitch's MANNERS? Ever hear of the word PLEASE, lady?

I got my poop bags from the dispenser and led my dogs to the other SIDE of the field, where I didn't have to talk to that witch. We played fetch with tennis balls (I use something called a chuckit that makes the balls fly far) and kept to ourselves. And if she said one more WORD to me, I would've unleashed something like, "you know, I expect my preschool children to struggle with manners, but not a grown WOMAN!" I'll be damned if I was gonna take any more crap from this woman. She was probably over on the other side of the field telling all the old people who arrived after me that I was a thoughtful 41 year old who WAS GOING TO LET HER DOGS GET RUN OVER BY A TRUCK BECAUSE, after all, THE PARK WAS ON A ROAD TRAVELED BY 6 TRUCKS A MONTH! Heaven help us. And what would've happened if that little yippyskankpup bit me? I would've dropkicked that beast into next WEEK, I kid you NOT!

Ahem. But I digress.

After a nice 40 minutes of playing, the rain came down, and we all made our way back to our vehicles. And this woman. Ugh. As she drove away, I saw that she was sporting Florida license plates. Let's HOPE that she isn't here for the entire summer. Hopefully she was on her way HOME.

Video games let children play while they learn

Kids with cancer are getting unconventional advice from some North Texas doctors: Eat your vegetables. Take your medicine. And don't forget to play your video game.

Physicians and nurses at Cook Children's Medical Center are urging youngsters to try a shoot-'em-up computer game called Re-Mission that teaches them about their disease and pushes them to keep up with treatments.

Re-Mission is just one example of an emerging spate of so-called "serious games" that blend technology, entertainment and education to reach the so-called Xbox generation.

Although such games account for just a sliver of the $7.4 billion video game industry, they've taken off in recent years -- focusing on themes from everyday money management to the genocide in Darfur.

"Technology is allowing us, now, to approach the teaching of things in new ways," said Marc Prensky, chief executive of New York-based Games2Train.

"Instead of just talking about it, you can actually do it," he said.

Trenton Shepard, an Arlington teen who was treated for leukemia at Cook Children's last year, said the Re-Mission game helps him better understand the vomiting, fatigue and mouth sores that he experienced.

The game puts players in the role of a microscopic robot that travels through the human body blasting cancer cells, defending against infections and grappling with often life-threatening side effects.

"I just like the way it shows you exactly what you're going through," Shepard, 17, said. "Tumors, you get to shoot them all."

Re-Mission was created by California-based HopeLab, a 6-year-old nonprofit organization started by Pam Omidyar, whose husband is the founder of the eBay auction site.

Omidyar paid most of the $4.6 million price tag for the game, which has been given to more than 80,000 players in 74 countries since its launch in April 2006.

The payoff came last year in a clinical study, which included Cook Children's cancer patients among the participants.

HopeLab researchers found that youngsters who played the game knew more about their disease and were more likely to follow treatment instructions, such as taking antibiotics and undergoing chemotherapy.

That's significant, because adolescents often have trouble sticking to treatment, HopeLab spokesman Richard Tate said.

The game's fun approach connects with young people, and the strategy has potential for other childhood ailments, such as obesity and autism, he said.

"There's a whole generation of people who are so native to this technology," Tate said. "Games are really a part of everyday life."

Still, Prensky, who has researched the rise of serious games, said they've been slow to catch on with mainstream video game makers who don't see much profit potential in a small target audience.

"The majority of it, I think, is being funded by either the government or foundations," Prensky said. "The question that people are struggling with now is: Can you be a commercial company, make these, and sell these, and make any money?"

Prensky, who counted 50 serious games when he began his research in 2000, estimates that more than 2,000 such games are now on the market -- although few are as sophisticated as Re-Mission.

His predictions: Developers will move to more complex games that have powerful graphics and numerous levels of play.

And the expansion of serious games will continue, even if the market remains small.

"This stuff is going to happen," Prensky said. "People will always come up with something, because they have passion about it."

Some serious games

Archimage Inc., a Houston-based design studio, is creating two video games aimed at preventing obesity and diabetes in children.

The company describes Escape from Diab and Nanoswarm: Invasion From Inner Space as "sci-fi adventures in healthy eating and exercise." With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Archimage is collaborating on the games with researchers from Baylor College of Medicine.

Massachusetts-based Design Continuum in 2002 invented a headset that connects to a Nintendo GameBoy system, allowing a child to play a game while the device administers anesthesia. The NIH paid for the research and development of the device, called PediSedate.

A group in West Virginia is working to put Konami Digital Entertainment's Dance Dance Revolution -- a foot-stomping, hand-clapping stamina-buster -- into every school in the state. Other U.S. schools, including the Academy at West Birdville in Haltom City, already are using the popular game in their physical-education classes. In February, researchers in West Virginia found that the game improved the health of players who participated in their study.

Darfur is Dying was created by mtvU, the Reebok Human Rights Foundation and the International Crisis Group to raise awareness about the genocide in Sudan. The game is a simulation, from the perspective of a displaced Darfurian in a refugee camp.

hello world! calc exam is here. Passing is good enough but an A would be great. I'll try. Later, Linda and I will go movie marathon for the rest of the day. Wheee!!! and go shopping for my house!

Thursday Thirteen

Happy 100th edition to Thursday Thirteen! To celebrate, instructions were giving out to all Thursday Thirteen participants to write about 13 of our favorite lists. I've read many good lists, for sure, but the funny ones are the ones that I especially remember. Therefore, my 13 funny lists are here for your enjoyment. Because if I'm laughing, I think that you are laughing as well. Well, at least I'd hope so! And why not share a laugh or 13?

**Thirteen Funny Thursday Thirteens**

1. Sam over at Temporarily Me with this list: Glamorous Geek Please go read this girl's stuff. She is very real and very funny!

2. Annie over at Blue Monkey Jammies, with her list of 13 Dangerous Things. They are SO true it's scary.

3. The Rock Chick over at Life is Rantastic! with Thirteen Reasons Why I Think Paris Might Have Been Released from Jail Early. Even if you aren't a Paris fan of any kind, you'll still find these amusing!

4. Mommy the Maid cracks me up all the time. Check out another list from her that'll make you laugh, titled Thirteen Things to make you laugh.

5. Rhonda Stapleton's post titled Thirteen People I Wanted to Be When I Was A Kid. A Great list and a great writer. Kevin Arnold's girlfiend! Ha! I wanted to be Donny Osmond's girlfriend, but I'm OLD!

6. Write Out's shares her wit with her post, Thirteen things that irritate the holy hell out of me. Amen SISTER!

7. Christine D'Abo's listed 13 jokes. I especially like #3: Why are hemorrhoids called hemorrhoids instead of “assteroids”?

8. Lulubunny's list over at 3am Therapy Sessions, 13 Things she Can't Live Without. I LOVE this list. Could be me. MMM, delivery guys.

9. Shelly Kneupper Tucker's post about the symptoms of blog addiction. I think I actually peed a little when I read this.

10. Carol over at A View of the World from the Middle shares Words that Make You Sound Smarter than You Are. Funny stuff!

11. Toni at Special K Family's list titled Please raise your big toe and repeat after me: You HAVE to go read this. Definitely snort milk outta your nose material.

12. Mama over at Mama's Moon shares The 13 Different Types of Friends Every Woman Should Have. Funny, and very very true!


For #13, I'll share my favorite list from MY short list of lists. A typical list of WHYS.

Enjoy these funny lists, and please go read more of these great blogs. There are some GREAT writers out in blogland who write some amazing things. So go go Go!

Black Powder

A guy enters a bank to see about getting a business loan.

"What kind of business do you want to start?" asks the bank manager.

"I have some black powder. You sprinkle it on a women's vagina and it makes it taste like a peach."

"I don't think we can give you a loan." he replied.

So the guy left. A few months later he went into the bank with a wheel barrel filled with money.

The same bank manager said, "Congratulations, I guess that idea for black powder really paid off."

"Nah, that didn't go anywhere. I made my money with this white powder."

"Really," replied the bank manager. "What does it do?"

"Give me a peach and I'll show you."

Separate but Equal? Single-Sex Classes Make Waves

The girls at the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School in Dallas feel that they accomplish more without boys around. "Here, you don't have guys, so you pay more attention to your classes, and you Ye more focused," eighth grader Yadira Perez told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of Texas. Rangel is one of about 240 public schools offering all-boys or all-girls classes.
Single-sex schools and classrooms are becoming more popular. The US. Department of Education recently relaxed the rules surrounding Title IX, a 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in public education. Now it's easier for school districts to offer single-sex education.

Supporters of single-sex education say boys and girls can focus better on schoolwork when they are separated. But some people disagree, saying single-sex education is discriminatory and unrealistic.

Better Learning
Boys and girls have better results in separate classes, some educators say. "We have found that the kids get more involved if we segregate them by sex," Mike Durbin, the principal of Gaston Junior High School, told The Oregomian of Portland, Ore.

Teacher Kristi Anderson of Ronald McNair Middle School in Lake City, S.C., says she uses a competitive team-based approach to teach her boys-only math class. "It gets them excited about learning," Anderson told The Tampa Tribune. "They love the competition."

Some students, including seventh grader Gabrielle Buffington, say separating boys and girls into different classes works. She told the Detroit Free Press that she was skeptical when her school began separating classes but changed her mind after a few classes. "We have our attention on learning. Our grades have gotten better," Gabrielle said.

Inherently Unequal?
Equality advocates, such as Emily Martin of the American Civil Liberties Union Women's Rights Project, say supporters of single-sex schools use faulty research. "The regulations give the green light to schools to develop programs based on … junk-science stereotypes, with the real potential to harm boys and girls." Martin says.

Other opponents say single-sex classes don't prepare kids for real life. "The real world is an integrated place where men and women compete for jobs, time, attention, and power," wrote Jennifer Bovair-Danulevicius of Arlington, Va., to the Free Press in response to an editorial about single-sex education.

Some students don't like being separated by gender. Ed Wilson, a student at Brandon Alternative School, told The Tampa Tribune that he doesn't like the lack of interaction with girls. "It doesn't feel right. It makes me feel like it's jail or something."

Current Events

The Year In Medicine From A to Z

It was a year of old scourges and new drugs, from the first vaccine that prevents cancer to a bug that spoiled an entire crop of California spinach

a

AIDS

Hoping to sharply cut HIV/AIDS transmission rates in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took the unusual step of recommending that doctors ask all patients from ages 13 to 64 whether they want to be tested for the virus. One in four Americans living with HIV don't know they are infected; for them, early diagnosis could mean early treatment and longer lives. Antiretroviral drug therapy has already saved nearly 3 million years of life in the U.S. alone. Meanwhile, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS around the world continues to grow, to 40 million, according to estimates released last week by the U.N.

ANOREXIA

When Madrid barred ultrathin models from the city's fashion week in the aftermath of a model's death, it was clear acknowledgment that culture can fuel unhealthy body images. But genes play a role too. Researchers studying 31,406 identical and fraternal twins born in Sweden from 1935 to 1958 found that if one identical twin suffered from anorexia, the odds were significantly higher that the other did as well. Just because someone is genetically predisposed to anorexia, however, doesn't mean she or he will develop the disorder. The next step will be to figure out which genes are involved and how they affect the brain.

Read full text

How to Dream a Man

Eight countries collaborate in the Philippines on the Borges Project

Ich hab' im Traum geweinet
Mir träumte, du lägest im Grab.

I wept in my dream
I dreamed you were lying in the grave.

--Robert Schumann, Dichterliebe

Lying on the floor, sleeping, are the Americans--one in a fitful slumber and the other consumed by a romantic dream. The sound of a wood pipe followed by the call of the kubing, a bamboo mouth harp, represents the music of the Philippines. We see two men in white body suits, slowly extracting audio tape from each other's mouths. The stage fills with actors…then a song swells from the back of the house, a tenor voice intoning Schumann's Dichterliebe in German. A voice--melodic, poetic--speaks: "He wanted to dream a man. Dream him completely, in painstaking detail, and impose him upon reality." A woman enters, without registering the audience, sets up her laptop and types. Projected words appear: "No one saw him slip from the boat in the unanimous night, no one saw the bamboo canoe as it sank into the sacred mud."

These are the opening words of "Las ruinas circulares" ("The Circular Ruins"), a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, which served as source material for the Borges Project, an eight-country collaboration that culminated in a performance at the 2006 International Theatre Institute World Congress in May, and also opened the Manila International Theaterfest at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The Borges Project was developed under the jurisdiction of the New Project Group, formed in 1995 with the aim of creating multinational projects. As a U.S. delegate to the Congress and a fundraiser for the Borges Project, I observed this collaboration's development (the third undertaken by NPG) through its final presentation, which opened with the theatrical prologue described above.

Over the past two years, artists in eight countries--Belgium, Cameroon, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Philippines, Switzerland and the United States--created 10- to 15-minute pieces using "The Circular Ruins" as thematic inspiration. The project was originally conceived at the ITI World Congress in Tampico, Mexico, in 2004, then further developed at a meeting in Heidelberg, Germany, in 2005. Line producers based in each country selected a creative team, raised funds and coordinated production details with project managers Emilya Cachapero, from the U.S., and Vitomira Loncar, from Croatia. The pieces were to be woven together during the Manila Congress into a globally resonant production and performed at the closing day's festivities.

The foreigner lay down at the foot of the pedestal. He wanted to dream a man. He wanted to dream him completely, in painstaking detail, and impose him upon reality.

--"The Circular Ruins," translated
~~~~~~~~

by Andrew Hurley

BORGES'S STORY FOLLOWS A MAN, A FOREIGNER, on his quest to "dream a man." This sorcerer, as he is often called, spends 1,001 nights dreaming the man into being. In his first attempt, he dreams an entire classroom of students, but quickly discovers this is not the way to dream a man. He must dream this man organ by organ, hair by hair.

As Arena Stage dramaturg Mark Bly articulated in the program notes for the Borges Project, the story "offers a humbling, cautionary glimpse into the realm of the generative, creative act." The creation theme was the initial attraction for members of the New Project Group. But, in a twist that would surely have pleased Borges, the story served as more than a source for the artists; soon they found themselves, in their creative dreaming, mirroring aspects of the story itself.

In this version of "The Circular Ruins," instead of the sorcerer, there are 22 artists all eager to dream, to create. Like the main character, these artists are foreigners. "I'm sure I would have never come to the Philippines if not for this project," said German team member Alexander von Hugo, echoing the sentiments of most in calling the opportunity a "great gift." Most of the artists had never been to the Philippines before--and even the two Filipino artists were from Mindanao, the southernmost island of the Philippines, far from Manila. Culture shock---and likely jet lag--lulled the artists into a dreamlike situation, in which the only way out was to create--not a man, but a play.

The question was: What would happen when artists from eight countries with eight different translations tried to create connective tissue strong enough to join the disparate parts into a cohesive performance?

He understood that the task of molding the incoherent stuff that dreams are made of is the most difficult work a man can undertake.

--"The Circular Ruins"

Borges Project artists Larisa Lipovac and Bojan Navojec of Croatia.

Philippe Nauer and Dominique Rust of Switzerland.

Chikako Bando of Japan.

UPON ARRIVING IN MANILA, I HAD just enough time to drop my bags in the hotel and wash off the grime from my 23-hour journey before being ushered into a fluorescent jeepney--an elongated, Las Vegasified jeep that transported us to rehearsal (and added a sense of peril to our daily routine). The artists from seven of the countries (the Cameroon team had yet to arrive) had already spent a week rehearsing in Los Baños, southeast of Manila in the province of Laguna. It was there--"in the jungle," as they called it--that the artists presented their work to each other for the first time. U.S. team member Michael John Garcés was impressed by the work and its "diversity of aesthetics and diverse approaches to the material." By the time I arrived, the pieces had been ordered and the artists were delving into transitions--an undertaking that ended up challenging, for some participants, the fundamental aims and structure of the project.

In addition to the 22 artists, the Borges Project had an overseeing director from Germany, Günther Beelitz; a dramaturg and stage manager from the United States, Liz Engelman and J. Paul Preseault; and two Manila-based company managers, Allan and Joyce Manalo. Many countries also brought their own directors. Furthermore, each team came with its own particular aesthetic, making it difficult for Beelitz to come up with a single vision for the piece. He chose to focus on creating bridges between the individual contributions--a decision that received backlash from many of the artists, who were more interested in interacting and experimenting with each other to create new work, than in finessing a compilation of existing pieces.

When I arrived in the rehearsal room, the isolated warm-ups did not reflect the collaborative spirit we had advocated in grant proposals. Some artists exchanged massages, others sat alone reviewing notes while others kicked around a soccer ball and one napped behind the tech table. But despite initial arguments about project goals (product versus process), rehearsals continued and everyone anticipated the imminent arrival of the Cameroonian team. The hope was that their piece, which had singing, drumming and movement, would help offset some of the more somber, stylized pieces. Unfortunately, due to difficulties within the Cameroonian government, the team was unable to attend at the last minute--a heartbreaking loss.

The performance began to take shape: After the prologue, the Swiss team opened with a technologically innovative installation piece in which a video camera moved along a table filled with objects and projected dream-related images onto a screen. With colorful traditional costumes, music and dance, the Philippine piece told of three communities in Mindanao and their struggle to coexist. Focusing on themes of identity and politics, U.S. artists explored the legacy of colonialism and its impact on American identity. Images of destruction and war flashed across the actors' bodies and the upstage screen.

The Croatian piece used an extremely precise movement style, and followed two characters, a man and a woman, struggling to make human contact in an urban environment. Directed in a modernized butoh style, the Japanese piece silently illustrated a being coming to life, learning to stand, discovering her voice, and finally discerning that she could not control her own destiny. The German piece featured an innocent young man undergoing an interrogation by a wily woman; the performers vacillated between German and English. The culminating piece was performed by the single Belgian actress at her laptop, typing to the audience. She used her computer to program a mechanized voice, the Mouth, and explore questions of what it means to "create" using a machine.

Each night he perceived [the heart] with greater clarity, greater certainty. He did not touch it; he only witnessed it, observed it, corrected it, perhaps, with his eyes. -- "The Circular Ruins"

OVER THE TWO WEEKS OF REHEARSAL, the artists developed their own methods of communicating. The artists began to feel creative ownership of the transitions; some took on a directorial role, while others practiced the art of flexibility. The Starbucks across the street from the rehearsal space became an indispensable safe zone at times when tensions mounted. This lingua franca even made its way into one of the transitions: The touching Philippine piece was followed by a condescending applause from U.S. team member Kevin Bitterman, planted in the audience. "The American Dream," he proclaimed, holding his Starbucks cup and introducing the U.S. piece. "You may complain about the American economic domination of your country, but hasn't your life improved since Starbucks arrived?" This was one transition the artists were especially proud of.

The preview performance--arrived at despite the treacherous jeepney's failing transmission and unceremonious backing into a garbage truck--proved the strength in unity. The performance came together as something greater than its parts; the transitions, some stronger than others, did serve as connective tissue. The parts maintained their disparate styles, but an energy passed from piece to piece, even through something as simple as shared breath.

At the end of Borges's story, the sorcerer discovers that although he has accomplished his mission, to dream a man, he is not just a creator but has all along been another man's dream--and he chooses to die. This Borges Project, however, will see more life. New Project Group members--as well as the World Congress's appreciative international audience--were so moved by the artists' dedication and the project's potential that they proposed to expand the Borges Project at the next World Congress in 2008.

By Heather Cohn

Heather Cohn is a New York City-based producer and stage manager and a founding member of Flux Theatre Ensemble. The New Project Group can be found online at http://www.npg.itiworldwide.orq/ More information about the Borqes Project's artistic teams can be found in the international section of TCG's website, http://www.tcq.orq/

Health Warning!!! - Hand Bags

Have you ever noticed gals who sit their handbags on public toilet floors - then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table? Happens a lot!

It's not always the 'restaurant food' that causes stomach distress. Sometimes "what you don't know 'will' hurt you"!

Read on...

Mum got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.

Smart Mum!!!

It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know what's inside our handbags, do you have any idea what's on the outside? Shauna Lake put handbags to the test - for bacteria - with surprising results. You may think twice about where you put your handbag.

Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the floor of the car. Most women won't be caught without their handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where your handbag goes during the day?

"I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a lot," says one woman. "On the floor of my car, and in toilets."

"I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts, on the floor of the toilet while changing a nappy," says another woman "and of course in my home which should be clean."

We decided to find out if handbags harbour a lot of bacteria. We learned how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake, and then we set out to test the average woman's handbag.

Most women told us they didn't stop to think about what was on the bottom of their handbag. Most said at home they usually set their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.

Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn't be surprised if their handbags were at least a little bit dirty. It turns out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.

Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the handbags could make people very sick.

In one sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella, and that's not the worst of it. "There is fecal contamination on the handbags," says Amy. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role.

People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without, with one exception. The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. "Some type of feces, or possibly vomit" says Amy.

So the moral of this story - your handbag won't kill you, but it does have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat.

Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don't put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.

Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair of shoes. "If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops, that's the same thing you're doing when you put your handbag on the countertops" - your handbag has gone where individuals before you have sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc!

Do you really want to bring that home with you? The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a handbag will help.

Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather handbags.

THIS IS WORTH SHARING!!!

Some misconception for orkut and forwarding emails...

Misconception #1: ORKUT IS DELETING PROFILES

* Orkut is NOT deleting profiles!
* Orkut is run by google which is having a 300% growth in terms of revenue for this fiscal year!
* They can handle any abysmal requirement of processing power or space!
* They are NOT experiencing any information processing or storage problems as yet!
* Orkut or google is not bankrup yet to send a single stupid mail to a person and ask him to forward it...They still hav technology to inform all the users at a single time..
* If any such thing was there orkut would surely have removed the invite friends option in its recent makeover.

Misconception #2: YOU CANT GET PAID BY FORWARDING AN E-MAIL

* Until Today, there is no way to keep track of where a mail gets forwarded!
* Microsoft will not know if I send a mail from google server to my friend (EVEN IF IT IS A FORWARDED MAIL) unless you explicitly execute some code or click some link!
* However may I wish, I have no means to know whether my friend is forwarding the mail I sent to him or not. Nor does Microsoft, Google or any other corp. or inc.

Misconception #3: No comments about emotional messages appealing a person to forward a mail because it will either...

* suddenly make his love of life realize that she should call him/she should meet him/She should fall in love with him!
* or increase life expectancy of himself or his father/mother/ brother/sister /any other relatives!
* or make something "GOOD"(?) happen in his life!
* or earn him an unexpected fortune!
* or because some poor/crippled/ terminally infected/just infected/dying person will get money for every mail you forward!(I do not mean to disrespect the intentions but it is pointless as your forwards cannot be tracked)
* or just because it is part of a world record attempt!
* or because this e-mail is part of "chain" that many people have kept or going for no particular reason so you should also do the same!

AND THAT STUPID CRUSH THING DOES NOT POP UP UNTIL AND UNLESS YOU JUST GO AND TELL HIM/HER.

Love is an Addiction

Reportedly Men's Health, blood samples have revealed biochemical evidence that intense romantic love fades after a year in a new relationship, according to a recent study in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. Researchers tested the blood of 58 men and women who reported being newly and madly in love, and compared the blood with samples from people in long-lasting relationships. They looked at levels of nerve growth factor (NGF), believed to be a mediator of anxiety, emotions, and behaviors. Higher NGF levels corresponded to reportedly intense feelings of passionate love. And levels were nearly double in the new lovers, compared with those in long-term partnerships. "Love is not only poetry; it also has a strong biological basis," says Enzo Emanuele, M.D., of the University of Pavia, in Italy. "An adage says that 'love is an addiction.' Perhaps we may become tolerant of our partner, though nevertheless remaining 'addicted.'"