What the Devil did in the First 7 days.

Today I want to share with you Nury Vittachi's latest column in Reader's Digest Asia.

First a foreward: In the West children are taught the clear boundaries of good and bad, whereas in Asia children are taught the balance of good and bad (cue the memories of yin-yang and what not) If we were to apply the Asian outlook into Genesis, it would be very weird indeed. In fact, after reading this you may be led to doubting that it was the fruit of knowledge that led to Man's downfall.

The passage below is written by Nury Vittachi and edited by me.

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WHAT THE DEVIL DID IN THE FIRST SEVEN DAYS

In the beginning God created heaven and earth, and earth was void without form. Then God made a cicular light and called it the Sun. And he saw that light was good. Then the Devil made a smaller light, and rectangular in shape, and called it TV. And the Devil saw that light was bad.

God made springs which came out of the ground, which out came fountains of pure water. And God saw that water was good. Then Devil invented carbonated drinks. And saw that fizzy drinks are bad.

God said, Let the Earth bring forth vegetables, so that the children may grow up healthy. Then the Devil said, Let there be deep fried potatoes cut into long strips.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth 10,000 varieties of fish to provide sustainance for the children. And the Devil arranged that the fish be deep fried, smothered in batter and served with the deep fried potatoes.

On the seventh day, God rested and asked his children to rest as well, and contemplate wonders of creation. And the Devil created the Sunday brunch, Sunday tabloids, and that the bodies of the children be filled with more deep fried potatoes.

God said to the boy, Go forth and multiply. Then the devil invented the computer and ordered 10,000 demons to fill it online battles etc. And the boy did cleave to the computer.

God then made many attractive blandishments which she could use whenever the boy is away from the computer. And the Devil invented the Nintendo DS Lite and the PSP.

Then the Devil entered the serpent and caused him to say to the boy, If you eat the fruit of knowledge which the Lord hath forbidden you to touch, your eyes will be opened and you shall be as gods.

And the boy looketh at the girl and said, "No thanks, we liketh not fruit. But hast thou any deep-fried potatoes?"

Haydn's Best Work

It happens to be the music he composed for Germany which is in use until today. According to a source, this very song happens to be the last song that haydn ever played on the piano.

This melody appeared on one of his string quartets as well. If I'm not mistaken it is the second movement of the "Emperor" quartet.

Here's the link.

A Website and an Application to Remember

It's nice that my sister can read Wingdings (seriously, she codes all her messages in those and sniggers behind my back) but I can read more scripts than her at present.

Anyway, I just discovered these cool, albeit insane, website that allows you to advertise for $1 a pixel 9and mind you, that is tiny). And the website author has smartly put up 1,000,000 pixels. There's more: the whole thing has been filled to its 1,000,000 pixels many times over. Let's face it: the author is one smart kid with lots of money now.

Here's a snapshot:

and the link.

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Google's new version of Google Earth is now ultra packed with new add-ons that make exploring much cooler. In addition of Google Mars and Google Sky, it now has a Flight Simulator to go with Google earth, so you can practically fly over the Earth's surface in a choice of 2 planes.

I guess in the near future, Microsoft won't be making any more flight simulators.

You can download and experience Google earth free. Here's the link.

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Before I want to end off for today, I want to say that the first few seconds of music on Han's blog has really gone into my head, because i can't stop the music that fast :)