guess wat?

im bored.

yea.. not the first time hearing that one ay? somehow i dont feel too bad not doing anything cept wasting my time here. and being paid for it. like seeeriously, the amount of work (as in real work) i have done thus far is only like 5 days worth if its all condensed together. i dunno wat i've been doing for the rest of the 11 days. tho.. i must say.. my sudoku skills have improved alot thanks to www.websudoku.com.

i have about 2 hours-ish to pass now. im pondering and contemplating whether i should go and eat ice cream. hmm. but then again, eating ice cream will only take like wat.. 15 mins or so? im trying hard to think of a topic that will take like.. 1 hr to blog.

*ponder*

ah yes. actuali got a few things to talk about, among others, the issue of "Halal" food. i think a lot of ppl are mostly confused about wat constitutes as Halal food. "Halal" is an Arabic word which means lawful or allowable. People often ask me why muslims dont take pork. well, that will be explained more in detail later, but for simplicity, think of a religion as an institution, a society. and a society largely lives by law. For example, driving on the road shoulder is *all together now* WRONG... it is unlawful. of course there are ppl who still do it, and they are punished. just like law, there are minor wrong-doings and major crimes also. like, if u drink n drive u will end up in jail. well, same as the religions la.. if u dun follow law, u will also be charged. but the jail is eternal. hee2. (just kidding la... can....)

actuali i tink tt if u have a faith, its easier to understand bcoz i believe that each religion has its set of "rules" lah so-called. so, when we talk about life in general, actuali i find it easier to talk to friends with faiths, no matter if they're catholic, christians, hindus etc.. coz they understand the need for certain restrictions u see. As one of my Christian friends put it to a free-thinker fren, "Faith is believing in something that u can't explain." i concur.

anyways, back to what is Halal. may i just say that 'no pork no lard' does not mean that its halal. it just means that no pork and no lard is used. however, the meat used may be from animals that have not been slaughtered and therefore are not halal. therefore, it does not mean that if u ordered food with no pork and no lard that its Halal food. then u shud probably tell ur frens tt its no pork no lard so that they can avoid taking the meat. technically speaking, vegetable and fish and all that are fine, but the thing is, we never know if the utensils used in cooking meats like pork are used for cooking the vegetables and fish n all tt.. that wud render the veges and seafood non-halal because its considered like its all mixed together liao. there is a way to cleanse and re-purify and tts using clay. but tts another matter altogether ma.

anw, all land animals are lawful except those with sharp teeth, tusks and talons that are used to kill (tigers, bears etc), scorpions, crows, centipedes and amphibians like frogs and turtles. im not quite sure why we can eat crab, maybe coz it falls under the category of crustaceans and not amphibians. but i tink its a food that can be categorised as syubhah coz its doubtful, neither here nor there. in other words, better to be avoided la. but tt said, i do love my seafood. especially cray fish.. GOD!! i love cray fish with sambal! ada oomph bebeh!

i guess my intention for writing this is just to clear the air lor. as to why pork is not allowed, i heard lah (not sure if this is right or not) that the pig does not have a neck, so technically it cannot be slaughtered. slaughtering is scientifically considered the most humane way of killing an animal for consumption. i heard rite, sometimes right, those chickens that are killed using electric shock right haven't even die when they are put into the boiler. so essentially, they are electrically shocked, half-dead(which means that they are also half alive), then suffer from being boiled alive. u wan to die like dat or not? i guess is plausible coz usuali when u get electric shock ur nervous system is disrupted.. and it may be only momentary.. i mean, of course its not pretty to see an animal die no matter how u do it, but at least its better to not let it suffer before it gets eaten wat. god. i sound so gory.

anyway i think nowadays there are quite a number of places that offer Halal food so there's no need to reali scratch ur head and think of one la. the muis website (www.muis.gov.sg) has a list of halal-certified food joints. they further divide them into caterers, restaurants etc, so its quite easy to find. for me ah, if the place reali reali reali got no halal food (like last time when i went to vietnam), i'll eat boiled seafood and vegetables. but ekchelli there's this relaxation to the law when u are reali desperate and if u have no choice or if u are a traveller (not the tourist-y) type ah. If in Singapore, im fine with vegetarian indian restaurants coz they are strictly vegetarian ma. they dont have those kind of mock meats la.. wat la..

yup. so i guess at the end of the day, it boils down to mutual respect and the so-called flexibility of the individual la. but like i said, drive on the road shoulder at ur own risk ah.

anw people, just one last note. its not Hara or halah.. its halal with the 'l' at the back. practise rolling tt ol' tongue of urs.