Take A Breather

The action this week is a lot less, and I get to have some breathing space. I wonder if I will ever be suited to office work after all...

I still owe an article to a colleague of mine, will get down to doing it tomorrow perhaps. Other than this, the entire week has been pretty unremarkable for me. the Multilingual Switchboard is all set and ready and we have survived a few days of operations. With AYG heating up, I wonder if our volunteers will finally get busy. Amongst them was a Korean girl from DHS, and a DHS alumni. Way to go Dunman! :) The world is small indeed. The volunteers we have had thus far were pretty nice people, and we've had Russian students as young as 14 to Singaporeans as old as 50+. And *gasp!* a fellow Dragon baby! Have chitchatted with them over meals for the past few days, and also with our new interns, Gilberto Orozco from Mexico and Alexander Agenosov from Russia. Gil's a nice dude to talk to, and Alex reminds me of Vladimir Putin. Hehehehe!

That said, it was quite shocking to receive the news that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson died. Where were you when he died? When news broke at 5.24am, I was still asleep. I heard some whispers of it at work but I never really paid attention until 1pm when I browsed Channel NewsAsia's website during lunch. Then reality hit. That was when I discovered that Farah Fawcett lost her battle against anal cancer. One a talented musician who never seemed to grow up, and trying to make a comeback, the other an angel who went from small-time actress to pin-up and an icon of her time. Adding Ed McMahon (I don't know him, Americans should know him better) we have 3 celebrities who have been claimed by Death this week.

MJ's death certainly had an impact across the world as news sites, Google, Wikipedia and places like Youtube all saw net users swarming related pages for more information/memorials. Page views spiked massively on that day. News stations all ran broadcasts about his death, as did radio stations, playing his songs in tribute. Outpourings of grief came from his fans all over the world. And... his album sales jumped in the aftermath of his death.

I am not a fan of him personally, but I thought his songs that I have heard, like "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and "Rock My World" were pretty nice. And lets not forget his slick moves like the moonwalk (he didn't invent it, but he popularised it - I tried to do it but it turned out too stiff. lol)

*sighs* He seemed pretty troubled, after all...

Lastly, I totally agree with what the Vatican's newspaper, the Osservatore Romano had printed about his death. Here is the relevant excerpt, quoted from The Sunday Times today: "...no accusation, however serious or shameful, is enough to tarnish his myth among his millions of fans throughout the entire world".

May he, Farah, and Ed rest in eternal peace. Is death deliverance, I ask?

Signing off.