Most of you should have read by now about PM Lee’s 4 Million Smiles Campaign. I make no comment about the effectiveness of this campaign, as there are already scathing reviews on it. Suffice to say that a genuine smile means more than a thousand plastic, forced smiles.

However, I wish to see this in the light of the gay community. The PM wants smiles. He wants normal, ordinary Singaporeans to send in photos of them smiling, so as to showcase the diversity in our country.

He wants diversity? Let’s give him diversity. I want every one of you – every person who is more or less out, and has a steady partner, to smile for him. I want you to wear rainbow colours, and pose as a couple for PM Lee. Hold hands, hug, whatever. And I want you to smile. I want you to show how very happy you are, and how undysfunctional and normal you are, even though you are gay.

Even if you are not attached, I want you to smile for him. Wear your pride necklace, pride band, anything that clearly indicates your sexuality. Say cheese, because you are doing the best thing possible for our community: being out, proud and visible. You are showing all those a**holes in the government that we are not a bunch of screwed-up, drug-using, psychopathic whores. And that we do care for the country, as much as any other straight baby-making person.And most importantly, that we are human.

This is our pride parade, people. Flaunt it.
Send in your smiles through this website: http://www.smiles2006.com/ .

Otherwise known as an explanation for why I am still single

Activists are great people. Well, duh, I would say so, I am one. People like us work our butt off for the good of the community, so that all you mortals folks out there can kiss your girlfriends and not get arrested. But we activists have a major problem: we are single more often than not, sometimes, more often than all the time.

Clearly, there are reasons for this.

1. Gods Activists like us don't need companionship! We are strong, independent people who are able to survive without support. *thumbs nose*

2. The first thing when two activists get together is start debating. Which is all very nice and all, but it wears our tongues out, severely impairing our performance in bed - who has the energy to lick pussy when it has been wagging all day long? Or worse, the debate is online, and we have worn our fingers out too!

3. It is the second law of nature that no two activists have exactly the same viewpoint. [the first law is that activists don't get laid] Hence, us and our girlfriends/soon-to-be-exes, who are likely to be activists as well, will definitely have a war of words over issues like representational politics, identity formation, and acceptance of minority groups. Who has time to argue about money, roving eyes, and household chores when there are more pertinent issues like these to resolve? Nevermind the fact that after you fight about feelings, you still have a chance to kiss and makeup, something that completely goes out of the window when you reveal your political inclinations.

4. On Friday nights, we don't head to the gay clubs. We go for meetings to frame the bill for gay rights, never mind the fact that everyone else but you get to take advantage of civil unions that come out of this bill, since you've just broken up with your girlfriend over whether this year's Gay Parade should include a radical lesbian feminist group who all insist on wearing Jill Johnston masks.

5. When we see a good-looking girl, the first word that comes out of our mouths isn't, 'Hey there, good-looking', but 'Would you sign my petition?'

6. Assuming that girl was charmed by your passion and spirit, repeat steps 2-5, thumb nose at everyone for a few weeks, lather, rinse. And repeat.

So there.

Pleinelune writes this with her tongue firmly lodged in her cheek, and implores her fellow activists not to bash her, if they happen to be in happy, conflict-free, sex-rich relationships.

Daily predictions. Weekly predictions. Monthly predictions. Yearly predictions.
In magazines, websites, newspapers… predictions to your handphone!

I have many gay friends who swear by astrology.
“My star sign totally describes me. It’s 100% accurate.”

To start off, i decided to google “What is Astrology?”

1. Astrology (from Greek: astron, “star” + logos, “word”) is any of several traditions or systems in which knowledge of the apparent positions of celestial bodies is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing knowledge about reality and human existence on earth.
2. a pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moon.
3. the belief that the relative positions of planets, planetoids and stars, can influence events and behavior surrounding us.
4. The pseudoscience that deals with the supposed influences of the configurations and locations in the sky of the Sun, Moon, and planets on human destiny; a primitive religion having its origin in ancient Babylonia.

Well, there is a huge debate going on about the validity of astrology. And here seems to be the gist of what those who are against astrology are saying:

The camp against astrology:
How does your star sign come about?
It depends on where the sun is when you are born.
Well, strictly speaking, the sun and stars don’t move. Only planets move. The sun appears to enter into different zodiac signs. For example: in the beginning of spring, the sun is located in Pisces. But a couple of thousand years ago it was in Aries.

This paragraph written by John Mosley in his article “Born under Ophiuchus’ and ignored by the horoscopes: a modern dilemma” highlights this point: “If you were born during the first two weeks of May 2600 years ago, you were born when the sun was in both the sign and constellation of Taurus. Now during those weeks the sun is in Aries. Astrologically speaking, you are still a Taurus; astronomically speaking you are an Aries. Likewise, most Libras are really Virgos, and so on.” So, for a more accurate reading of horoscopes, you should be looking at the sign for the earlier month. This article also mentioned a 13th horoscope- Ophiuchus.

What causes this movement?
It’s precession.
Hipparchus discovered precession in the first century BC when he noticed that the coordinates of the stars measured 170 years ago was of 2 degrees difference from his measures.
The earth is tilted at 23.5 degrees and it is spinning on its axis. It is not spherical, but bulges in the middle near the equator. It wobbles slowly like a top at the end of its spin, because of gravitational pulls from the moon and the sun. As such, it earth shifts about 0.01395 degrees every year- it is not stationary. Small as it appears, but coordinates of stars change with time. And regular update is needed. For a complete precession (360 degrees), it takes about 25800 years.

“The precession can also be seen in terms of the “North Star”. Currently the North Pole of the Earth is aligned with the fixed star Polaris. This was not the case 3,000 years ago; and by the year 14,000 A.D., the North Star will be Vega, not Polaris.” To add to this: Because of precession, the sun may not be in any of the astrologers’ contellations at your birth. Hence not everyone has a star sign.

The defending camp:
There is a difference between the Sidereal and Tropical Zodiac. The Tropical Zodiac is used by many Western astrologers and begins at the Spring Equinox. But it is not the only zodiac system. The Sidereal zodiac takes precession into account and begins when the Sun aligns with a star in the constellation of Aries.

These two systems have different interpretations of the Signs:
“Tropical Astrology believes that the qualities associated with the signs are linked to the seasons, rather than to the fixed stars, and therefore the precession of the equinoxes and the growing difference between the Tropical Signs and the relative positions of their namesake constellations is of no consequence. Sidereal Astrologers believe that the qualities of the signs are not related to the seasons, but rather to the specific portions of the ecliptic as measured against the fixed stars… While there is certainly a greater correlation between the Sidereal Signs and the constellations along the ecliptic, again, the constellations do not divide the ecliptic into equal segments and therefore they are not used as the basis for the Sidereal Zodiac.” -Kevin Burk-

In other words, neither Sidereal nor Tropical Zodiac rely on Constellations.

For a better understanding of this debate, you can click on the following.
http://www.astrologycom.com/precession.html
http://www.griffithobs.org/SkyOphiuchus.html
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So how real has it been for you?
Astrology has a measure of interpretation. There is also a measure of self-fulfilling prophecy involved.

Buy it or not, astrology is a fascinating subject on its own.

But for astrology materials that dispense general truths…
“Keep your clarity of vision and proceed towards your goal with objectivity….”
“The trick is to maintain your calm and look at the problems without delay.”
These keep my eyes rolling.

Are you ready for Femme Quest 2006? Come and witness the MOST happening event of the year as we present you with the 3rd run of the very sucessful Femme Quest competition!! Expect to see more reality segments & get upclose with the femmes. You don’t want to miss that, do you? Profiles of Femme Quest 2006 contestants out NOW.

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