The good news is that Q-tip's getting better. She's been quiet for much of the day and that's a relief for us. The bad news is, it's my turn to succumb to cold symptoms.

I didn't even finish my review of Little Shop last night because I couldn't think straight any longer. Suffice to say I enjoyed the production even though I sat through it with a swimming head and a stuffed nose.

Feeling worse today, trying to sleep it off...

It's been about a week now but Q-tip is still coughing. It was particularly bad last night: June and I were both awakened at the unearthly hour of 0635 this morning by an intermittent hacking from under the bed, and this is becoming a relatively common occurrence these days.

Time to bring out the big guns. I took Q-tip to Namly where she got an x-ray taken, which thankfully showed that internally at least there are no signs of injury or disease. So we're treating her condition as a viral infection and have added a steroid to her current prescription. Poor little dog.

In the evening, while Q-tip recuperated at home, June and I went to watch "Little Shop of Horrors". See? It pays to keep close tabs on the Drama Club, 'cos when there are stray tix we usually get first dibs.

Little Shop was a slick production, highly amusing and light and fluffy in its presentation. It's a musical based on the genre of the B-grade movie, so it's easy on the brain while the basic rock tunes and dance movement carry us through this tale of zero-turned-hero, but at what cost?

ST reports that Parliament has repealed our archaic laws on "unnatural sex". Guess that means that Zoe can "swallow" without guilt now, as long as she does it outside of the public eye. But seriously, I'm surprised that there was such a law in the first place. Who are we to demarcate what is "natural" and "unnatural"? Nature itself has set some remarkable precedents in the animal kingdom for reproductive practices that might seem utterly perverted by our reckoning!

By nature, most animals are promiscuous, apart from the wolf (ironically) and perhaps certain species of whales. As long as a mate offers the potential to sire a generation with strong survival genes, there's little loyalty between mating couples.

Mammals have no qualms about incest, and we human beings have taken advantage of this casualness by creating bloodlines of champion purebreds best suited for their utility in helping us get our myriad businesses done.

Some invertebrate species change gender on the fly, depending on the preference of their mate, or by some other biological trigger. Some insectoids literally eat their mates in their afterglow, a post-coital ritual that we find extremely difficult to stomach.

Nature is as wondrous as she is perverse in terms of reproductive techniques. So what exactly do we mean by "unnatural"?

I think one of the reasons why we put such emphasis on regulating our sexual practices is due to the perceived guilt associated with the guilt experienced by Adam and Eve when they discovered their "nakedness" after their "eyes were opened" (our laws derive from British Law, remember?). To us, we tend to link nudity to sexual perversion though, as evidenced by nature's innovations, that interpretation just seems tenuous at best.

So what was the "original sin" in our first couple seeing each other starkers for the first time? I propose that "nakedness" might refer more to the realization that they didn't posess anything they could call exclusively their own. Clothes, after all, distinguish one person from another. Clothes (apart from uniforms) establish our individual identities; and distinguish me from you, us from them. Clothes determine who's in and who's out, who has more and who has less, who should do this and who should do... eeew, that! And they separate the discrepancies with a barrier that is nearly impossible to cross.

So part of our original sin was to desire an identity separate from one another, and in Christian circles, apart from God himself.

Another part of our original sin was to realise that things from nature can be transformed from their naturally intended purpose and turned into other things that suit our selfish purposes instead. The natural function of a fig leaf is to transform solar energy into bio-energy to sustain the life of the fig plant. But to Eve, it became a fashion accessory that served the Very Important Function of decorating her nether regions with. I'm sure the fig could have done without a single leaf but to be fair, the fig needed it more. Adam probably found other uses for sticks and rocks that set in motion a dangerous chain of events leading to the state of our world today.

I think we've got a lot more to worry about than how people want to relate with one another. But then again, I'm no theological scholar. What do I know about this sort of thing?

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of my October ish of Discover. There's a book review of "AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War". This book details the horrific things Edison (yes, the electricity dude) did, not in the name of science even, but in a desperate publicity campaign for his company.

I was thoroughly outraged because we usually uphold this man as a model of personal perseverance and meticulous scientific practice, but this pushes the envelope way too far. In my print edition, I have photos. Be thankful the online version doesn't. Refer to the review entitled, "Power Failure", from the link here.

Unrelated...

Declarative statement: Bowling is such a Zen activity.
Declarative supplemental statement: The calmer you are, the better you bowl.
Supplemental correlative: The better you bowl, the calmer you become.
Unnecerssary addendum: Just let all that karma flow through you, baby!

Bowling brings the bowler to centre; both physionomically and psychologically. Physically, we line ourselves up with our target. Our muscles click into place and lock-on. Our breathing slows to a halt. The heart slows in sync with our breath. Our thoughts focus until nothing remains other than our target and the line that connects us to it, seen only in the mind's eye.

If the throw is successful, we find perfect peace as we bring ourselves another step closer to perfect control and we prepare for our next throw. If we mess our throw up, most of the time we lose it. We cuss and swear and start blaming everything from our luck to the lane to our lack of skill, and that's the end of the game for us!

How did I do today? 155 for a 3-game average. Not too bad, considering I haven't touched that ball in months. Yeah, bowling lunches can be fun!

Q-tip is still hacking and has started to sneeze a little too. But otherwise she's still behaving quite normally, so I guess we'll have to let her cold run its course. I'm getting better at srynging her meds into her mouth, a much less painful process than making her swallow pills.

Lucy was nice and bought a packet lunch for the 2 of us, which we shared with Amy. And Mel joined us at the table as well. Considering how diverse our schedules are these days, particularly for those of us whose duties are off campus, it's such a morale booster when we do manage to meet and eat. :D

Poor Q-tip is sick. She's developed a bad cough and is bringing up phlegm. We took her to the vet, who isn't jumping to conclusions yet. We're just treating it like a normal sore throat with some antibiotics, antihistamines and cough syrup. But apart from the coughing, she's behaving quite as usual so I guess there's nothing to be too concerned about for now.

After taking Q-tip home, we went to explore Vivo. Can't say it stands out all that much considering wht the hype has been. Yes, it's got an organic design, it's got what might pass for a little busking activity, it's got a cool wading pool on the rooftop garden with a spectacular view of the... Sentosa Gateway. But most of the tenants are the same as any other shopping mall around here. But what was I really expecting, anyway?

1 more mall to do our Christmas shopping in.