The Land Below The Haze

It began about four days ago, when it was nothing more than a couple of extra large clouds that didn't seem to move all day. Then those clouds called forth their brethren and multiplied, and behold the result: the visibility from my hostel room has gone down to about 15% of what it used to be, the very air I breathe stinks of smoke, and everything around me looks like someone wrapped it in gray gauze.

I hate the haze, but what's to be done about it? It's not like I can pack the stuff up in little plastic containers marked 'Biohazard' and send them off to Idiot-esia, right? And supposedly my college has loads of trees to help filter the air. Well, those trees should be fired for not doing their job, because the air is as smoggy under them as anywhere else. Or, on the other hand, if they ARE doing their job then I dread to think what it's going to be like if I go anywhere else.

Andthe newspapers say it's only going to rain on weekends. Excuse me, but didn't anybody study science, or am I the only person who knows about acid rain? It's not going to rain weekends. It's going to acid rain weekends, and anybody who finds themselves suddenly balding should go blame the Idiot-esians. Plus wind patterns aren't expected to change until October, which means that until then, the Idiot-esians are just going to sit at home and watch the fires burn in the happy knowledge that they just created a whole nation full of second-hand smokers. As if we didn't have enough of the home-made article.

And to top it all off, I've got a rotten hollow cough and the flu. I've had them for about two days now, and Gene only noticed today. I'm so stoic I surprise myself.

And now, blast and hex Vie Key! I've been trying to contact the guy to interview him (apparently he's a Chinese who looks like a Malay--go figure), but it's like he's gone into a black hole or something. He doesn't reply my SMSes, answer my calls, or even show up for the meeting this morning! I woke up two hours ahead of schedule to get to the smoggy bus stop to get the interview over with, and the stupid feckless doof didn't even appear!! And now, how the heck am I to get the interview done without looking like an obsessed stalker?

'Hi, this is Panthera Sapiens from the editorial, and I called you four times and sent you five SMSes and tried to set up a meeting this morning for which you didn't turn up, and I'd still like to interview you, so when are you free?'

But I'm going to have to get it done. At least my other assignment (400 words of trivia about chocolate) was comparatively easy. All I needed was a couple of websites and some time with a word processor.

I just got hooked on Bleach, thanks to Chronicles's quiz on his blog. Not the kind you put on your clothes, the kind you read. It's a manga series, and is awesomely funny. (In passing, laughing at a computer screen is as likely to draw stares as laughing at a book.) I love it, all the more so because it's free!!

But I'm not telling you where. Go Google for it. And while you're there, you might as well look up 'KOne JR'. I tell you he's a clone of the Pig, in looks and hairstyle at least. And, of course, in choice of nickname. I mean, how much less original can you get?

And even more, when I ran a search on him, 99% of the results were clothes. The Malays believe that seven clones of ourselves roam this earth at any one given time; well, Pig, here's yours.

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