when the work suddenly dries up like a desert stream, one feels afloat, a little at a loss.
when the papers are read and the facebook friends are stalked, time is like a flickering, burning candle. flames licking the air languorously, wax pooling, lapping gently at the diminishing sides.

snowskin mooncakes sweet and cool, donuts crisp and pillowy soft, puffs oozing cream - they call out to me. lovely lovely sugary fats, to coat and comfort my idle mind (and when i'm stressed, fuel for thought) twenty minutes of jogging = 100 calories burnt = 1/2 a donut. math sucks la, it quantifies, it solidifies, it petrifies. giddy matrix of numerals that everyone obsesses over. which is what must be meant in le petit prince (The Little Prince):

"adults are always preoccupied with numbers. when you meet a new friend they won't believe when you tell them he must be real because he asked you to draw a lamb. they want to know, how old he is, how many siblings he has, how much his father earns. then they will be satisfied, and think, now they know all about him."

the number game gets to everyone; statistics, surveys and censuses, cornerstones of academia. there was a gp question, i believe, that went "statistics measure everything but prove nothing. discuss."

and in the world of media - be it entertainment or news - it becomes even more pertinent. it is the sea we swim in; with it we surge and against it we drown. how effective is free press anyway? can press really be free? if even history cannot be objective, how can news be? it is always filtered through a lens, be it partisan or commercial. since mathemat ics and numbers are unfailingly fair and impartial, the guiding principles of every paper must be its bottom line. 

independent newspapers can print whatever they want, because they don't have to pander to the wishes of advertisers and biggies with agendas. but the bigger they get and the more influential they become, they will have to be held accountable for what they write. the chees are definitely not the only ones to have been sued for defamation. so to make sure they have money to protect themselves (and cos ink v. expensive) papers woo advertisers. and then become bound to them. (like cannot run bad stories on them) so wad to do? get even more advertisers to counter lor.

quite like the way sg plays the big powers against each other and goes after the runty ones nobody wants too. always leave yourself a back door so you don't have to "sell backside" so much, as expressed aptly by my supervisor.

Capitalism: yield to it or die! sighs. i do support green movements, who promote non-development. imagine a city in limbo, for hundreds and hundreds of years. tree-people, flower-children and galloping goats. stagnation ahoy!