What the hell are you protesting on World Youth Day?

So, the World Youth Day is held in Sydney in Australia this week. While it is meant to be a week of "bringing together young people from around the globe to celebrate and learn about their faith", there are some who would hijack the event to highlight their dissatisfaction with the religion.

I understand some of their concerns, like clergy who abused little boys. I think they are just sick bastards. But then there are those who protest because Roman Catholic does not allow birth contraceptives, or the church has a certain view towards a certain group of people. To these protestors, I would say, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

For one, no one is pointing a gun at you and forced you to join the religion. If you don't like the way it is run, start your own religion and stop whining about someone elses'. Protesting against Roman Catholic's take on condoms is like protesting against Hindu for not eating beef, or protesting against Islam for praying so many times during the day, or protesting against Buddist because all the monks have shave their heads.

Each religion has its own sets of doctrine. If you don't like it, don't believe in it. No one is forcing you to believe what you don't believe in. And no one is stopping you from stop believing what you believed in.

And what's the rationale behind blaming the Pope for his "teachings [that] contributed to 67,000 women dying every year from backyard abortions and a suicide rate among gay youth that is seven times the average."? You might as well blame teenage pregnancy on the Pope. Oh, how about the food shortage? Because you know, everyone is fighting for food to feed those who would not normally be born if they were using condoms. Ms Evans, you are an idiot.

If you are not prepared to be parents, don't fuck in the first place. If you do, bear the consequences.

Every person has the right to protest, I respect that. But for God's sake, protest against something more meaningful, like Michael Jackson cleric who like little boys. You are not doing anything constructive by protesting, unless of course, you work for a condom company.

Results are in

Result for my unit (Java Programming) is finally out today. Actually, I got my result via SMS last night. I got a HD (High Distinction)! So happy ^0^. I knew I passed, but I wasn't expecting to get that high. In fact, it is the highest result I've got thus far in my course.

I am quite pleased with myself. Not bad for someone who work full time and study part time.

Honda getting onto the podium? I'd like to see that.

Who would have thought at the beginning of the year that Honda would get a podium in 2008? Their 2007 season was dismal, and the 2008 car is not much better. Just when rumours are flying about that Honda has given up on the 2008 car and moved onto the 2009, Barrichello produced a podium to boost moral. And seeing that Honda F1 factory is just minutes away from the circuit, it's fitting to see that they get a podium finish.

It's funny to see that throughout the post-race conference, Barrichello insisted on more than one occasions that he still loves to race and he still has the speed. It sounds as if he is selling himself, wanting to stay at the outfit (or at least stay in the sports).

Seeing that Coulthard is retiring at the end of this season, Barrichello will probably be the sole remaining driver on the grid currently that has seen the great Senna on the race track.

The podium is definitely a boost in an otherwise uninspiring season for Honda, albeit in bizarre circumstances. Hopefully this will encourage the Honda team to do better for their 2009 car. I'm sure under the leadership of Ross Brawn, the team will do great things.

Power to the users

Users on the Australian eBay site has been informed yesterday of eBay's decision to withdraw its proposal to made PayPal the only payment option (other than cash on delivery) available for the majority of the auctions held on their site.

It's about bloody time. The original idea was stupid to start with, and has outraged many sellers on the site. ACCC has good sense to reject eBay's proposal and eBay finally has bowed to public pressure to withdraw the proposal. They must have realised that their bad PR is taking its toll.

PayPal is still a must on all listings, but at least buyers will still have a choice to pay via other methods.