"For housewife Fanny Mak, whether a book has been adapted for a movie is a gauge of how well written the book is."

Firstly, she sources her books by verifying if they have silver-screen counterparts, which, unlike game-movie adaptations where the game always seems to be better, it seems to be the other way around for book-movie adaptations. Anyone who reads the Harry Potter series and watched the movies can testify to that. Well then, some may say that that is just one example, but then there are plenty more in the case where book to movie adaptations are not faithful to the book itself, and for good reason too. All the person who follows such a line of thought in picking books is reading a slightly different version of what he or she has already seen in the cinemas. To begin with, whether a book has been adapted for a movie is a gauge of how popular the book is, not how well written a book is. All the Stephenie Meyer witch-hunt participants can attest to that.

The other thing that was highlighted was about an escaped convict who got himself out of a minimum-security prison in Britain, and has a facebook page that he regularly updates, taunting the police and mocking them with his ungrammatical language and obscene signs. That isn't the interesting part, not yet, at least.

"His facebook page is clogged with hundreds of messages from well-wishers..."

It just goes to show how morally degraded segments of society are today. In an age where people are more connected, but at the same time more removed from each other, the consequences of one's actions seem too damned trivial and funny for things to be taken seriously. Of course, it was also mentioned that sane people stepped in to remind them who they were rooting for, but these voices were easily outnumbered. Obviously the simple question that will come to mind is, would these people mind getting robbed by this convict, and anything else that might follow?

These people don't have that in mind in their heads, because they simply are too far removed from the convict, and couldn't care diddly-squat for others who might potentially be his next victims. They've become far too selfish, seeking a momentary slice of mischievous joy like some toddler without having any concern for consequences. The only question is, (apart from, what the hell is wrong with these people?) did this kind of mentality evolve recently, or was it there for a long time, to begin with?

Many would be quick to posit that it's the spoiled upbringing of the newer generations, those who have never experienced hardship as tough as those as our forefathers. But if the internet were in place before it was in place, who is to say that the propensity of people not to care for those far removed from our immediate social surroundings would not rear it's ugly head? After all, we've all been treated to the cliche "there are people starving in Africa" line, but we don't really care for them, even after seeing pictures of extremely malnourished kids. We may pity, sympathise or empathise with their struggle, but unless we actually do something, we don't actually care. Egging a criminal on in his infantile display of arrogance is simply an extension of that.

Also, the convict reasoned that he isn't going to turn himself in because the cops are paid to do just such jobs, and he isn't going to make their livelihood any easier for nothing. If I were to bring this up to my dad, I'd be stuck in an hour-long lecture about this screwed up mentality. It doesn't mean that just because the cleaner is present, we shit all over the shiny marble, right?

To end off, (although I doubt anyone is going to read through this entire post, and I wonder why...) my dad was regaling to me this incident that happened in his workplace the other day, where his colleague was cleaning up a mess someone left behind in the pantry, when another colleague happened to walk in and ask her why she was doing that when they had a cleaner for that. My dad gave this colleague, who happened to be his sec 4 classmate, a good blasting, but in any case, it seems that the cleaner is the one who has the last laugh, because apparently she owns three properties, has rented out one, and has also gotten my dad to trade stocks and shares for her before. She's just working this job because she's got nothing to do at home. The food chain is not always as it seems to be.

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