(This is what I wrote on that day, on the bus. Edited for your reading pleasure, if it can be deemed as such.)

Today it stormed so we didn't get to run after all. We're to report back tomorrow morning if the weather is reasonable. YJ isn't going; she claims she needs to sleep. So do I, but heck. I can live a few days without it if I have to. I have to sleep early tonight, though. I also have to finish the bulk of my homework because I need to spend Saturday doing Bach. The piano teacher'd murder me if I didn't.

I still don't get my Math but at least Dad won't be too late today, so I can ask. I need some more books to read, and another good brainteaser because I'm too familiar with the ones I already have.

I begin to think that inhuman selfishness is unique to humans. I don't profess to know human nature because I have no social life and have never really gone and looked at the world, such and such, but that's the impression I get. We take more than what we need from Mother Earth and don't think to give it back until it's too late, and then only for our own selfish reasons.

Deforestation, mining, exhaust fumes - who invented those? We. Us. Do we ever give a thought for anything beyond ourselves? I begin to doubt. Yes, I too an writing this, protesting again the fate of the Earth, for my own selfish reasons. The truth is that no action can be completely selfless. (Don't condemn me; that's what we learnt in Philosophy. I can take my little blue file out and show you.)

Just an example for the sake of illustration: baby seals. (Disregard whatever insulting comments I will undoubtedly make in reference to certain people while discussing this issue; it applies to that person only and that person will not be reading this because he is halfway around the world and probably does not remember that I exist.)

They were being hunted for sport a while back, as you may recall. Someone told me, "yeah, I know they have those big cute eyes and all, but they're just seals, lower organisms in the food chain". I commend him for his knowledge of the food web (note sarcasm here - on a second note, since you are so prone to being offended by my sometimes justified sense of pride, don't). Well, the fact is that we homo sapiens rely on those "lower organisms" for food, yes? So if they hunt baby seals, baby seals die, yes? If baby seals die, they don't grow up, yes? If they don't grow up they don't reproduce, yes? If they don't reproduce the population will diminish, correct? Got that so far? So what happens when there aren't enough "lower organisms" to feed the animals preying on them? Those animals die out, yes? Then what do we do for food? Do we starve? Ecology for dummies.

Anyway, what makes you think that you have a right to pick on them? (I know I have double standards here, something I just realised, but just to let myself see how I'm going to develop over the years I'm not going to correct any of what I've already written, so live with it for a while. I'll see if I can make an appointment at IMH the week after next. Who knows, they might deem me a sociopath and then you won't have to put up with this any more.) Because they're smaller? Weaker? Purportedly less intelligent? (Yes, last statement is evidence of double standards. Or not, considering I've clarified my numerous references to "idiot" as a very loose reference [for which my English teacher would condemn me for not calling a spade a spade] to "lazybum".) If you want to go by the theory that you can pick on beings less developed than yourself, go knock down the next toddler you see. (I am not asking that you actually do this. This is an analogy of what should not happen.) Alternatively, go stand under the elephant at your local zoo and let it trample on you. It's larger, heavier, more powerful. It has the right to harm you - not. So you don't be hurting baby seals for no good reason either.

There are thousands of other examples, like overfishing to feed the overgrown population of a generally overfed species. Note that I said "generally". I am taking into account starving children in developing and third-world countries, and I suggest, to all of you out there who are fortunate enough to be able to afford an internet connection, that you take one-third of what you normally eat and donate it to a mission. You don't need to eat that much. Really. I assure you. I eat one cup of yoghurt, half a bowl of rice, plus one omelette and something along the lines of two sticks of celery every day (it may not be celery but the quantity is generally comparable). I haven't starved yet. Just take pity on the poor kids, okay? It's not their fault that they were born into the situation they're in. If you have a shred of pity, unlike the man who thoughtlessly says that hunting seals is okay, please don't act like it is.

No matter how insignificant, every life is still a life - unless it's a human life, because some people have the opinion that human lives are worth much more than simply that. How much more, do you think? The world can't sustain itself for very long like that, and it's not fair for us to hand down to future generations a planet any less beautiful than what our ancestors gave us. "I'm not going to be around when that happens" isn't an excuse.