It's been a long time since I posted up any illustrations or cartoons on me blog, so here goes the set meal....

First the appetisers....

I know this may come across as slightly paedophilic, but lookie at this cover of the nov issue of First magazine...



Is it my imagination, or is Harry Potter getting more hot?! Yup yup.... :p

Next appetiser...

I did this one a while back, just after I ended lessons with most of my tuition students:



My happiness over the extra free time I had lasted for about a min... then I realised that I had a laptop to pay for in full, and my income had just gone down by about a third. *faint*

But even with the tuition and the extra income, I didn't have that much extra time either to go out with friends on weekdays or to pursue my dance.

The difference was more obvious after I got my first official paycheck. Suddenly, I realised that I could buy a LOT of the things I had always wanted. [Lapy being one of them] I even had the cash to indulge in afternoon coffee sometimes if I could spare the time...

But at the same time, there were a lot of things I could NOT do. You couldn't just take leave when you felt like it. You couldn't just plan your lessons as you felt like it. You couldn't teach the way you wanted sometimes, because of the restrictions placed by schools. And a lot of your time is taken up by your work.

So in the end... you realise that nothing really comes with no strings attached. If you want the extra money, you pretty much give up a lot of things. And if you are content with less money... don't expect to do a lot of shopping. :p

Now a starter before the main course....



World Animal Day was held at Bishan Park today, which made it highly convenient for me to pop by after my roti prata session.

Of all the charities in the world, the ones I probably have more sympathy towards are those animal-based charities.

This is cos I feel that while people are always able to help themselves, or are more inclined to help those of their own kind, they don't always feel the same way towards animals. And I feel that in our urban jungle, animals are more vulnerable, more helpless, and hence more needy of our help.

A big plus point is also I cannot resist the sight of poor helpless kitties......... ^_^!

I picked up these postcards from ACRES, which deals mostly with wildlife animals involved in illegal trading. They had some of the wittiest designs I had seen so far, and I picked up a button as well. [camera didn't capture it too well, so it's not in the pic]

Also present was Noah's Ark, from which I bought a pin. Noah's Ark provides sanctuary for animals who would otherwise be abandoned. They let the animals run free in a plot of land and they are dependent on donations and sale of goods like this to keep the place running, or all the animals have nowhere to go.

There were others, but these were the main ones I bought stuff from. No Cat Welfare Society... damn....

If you're interested in either of these organizations, check out:

http://www.acres.org.sg
http://www.noahsarkcares.com

Now the main course...

I'm realising how easy it is to get misunderstood over a blog post. My previous post on the ministerial salaries clearly ruffled one or two feathers, who immediately ran clucking to my comments box to tell me just what they thought of salaries and how wrong/misguided/delusional I was.

And who ALSO didn't see the next post after that about how ministerial salaries was NOT the point of the post.

You see how people can be selective about their reading sometimes? They see an issue that they are concerned about, and immediately I get more links about how cheated we are, and more info about how I'm really being scammed by the Govt.

ARGH! My point was NOT about ministers' salaries! I don't give a fork about ministers' salaries! [i'm more concerned about my own] My point was about the discrepancies and biases in THAT ONE EMAIL.

So granted, maybe they thought to clarify the discrepancies in that email by handing me more information and proof to back up their stance. Fair enough.

But ack! I still don't feel like I'm getting a balanced enough view of the entire issue. The whole Net seems to be full of people who are more interested in pushing their opposing views rather than people who are genuinely interested in exploring the issue more deeply.

[this is one funny trait about me. I don't like to subscribe to absolute views, and if I feel I'm getting one, I like to play devil's advocate just for the heck of irritating the other person]

More reasons for me to simply not get involved in local politics....... next time i'll just put the inane blatter on my blog......