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Personal

[92] Of an angel

I was on my way to the Engineering Campus late in the evening. All I could think of was how relieve am I to be done with almost everything for the week save the upcoming test tomorrow. How fortunate was I to complete a discrete math assignment in just within seven short hours. The assignment was due at Wednesday’s midnight and I had more than an hour to spare. Delighted to know time, for this one time had decided to be my friend, I took the leisure to walk to the Natural Science Museum. I need to take a bus ride there but I simply didn’t care whether the bus would leave me or not. I was trying to savor the hour without letting even a single second slipped from my senses. I let the cold air into my lung and felt so thankful to God to let me breathe the sweet air. I just walked slowly and tried to appreciate the sweetness of the clean air.

Once I reached the bus stop, I saw the bus was about to leave. Nevertheless, I did not mind and simply walked toward the bus without much haste. Fortunately for me, the bus driver was kind enough to wait for me. I got onto the bus and to my delight, I saw Vinay in the bus. I had a little chat with him until I need to get off the bus.

Afterward, I submitted the dreaded assignment and walked back to the edge of the Media Union for the bus again. I stood there and surveyed my surrounding. I saw how beautiful the North Campus is at night. It reminds of the Perdana Lake Garden back in Kuala Lumpur. My eyes still enjoying the scenery until my eyes noticed an angel. I observed her for a fraction of a second until I broke the contact.

The bus came. I went into the bus. So did her.

I sat somewhere in the middle of the bus and she was standing near the driver. I wonder why she didn’t take a sit while the bus was simply empty. Perhaps she was going to get off the bus somewhere nearby. That was what I said to myself. And it proved to be true later.

While on the bus, I could not stop looking at her.

She had a fair skin.

A pleasantly bluish colored snowcap covered her blonde hair with a comforting dark brown scarf dangled around her neck. She wore a jean with a blue overcoat. She would be all in blue except for her cotton hand glove, which was purple in color.

Her face looked sad, or maybe even angry. Yes, she more or less looked angry. Nevertheless, even with a raging hatred, she was stunningly beautiful beyond words.

She rang the bell and the bus stopped to allow her to get off. My eyes followed her outside. Later, she was gone, for good. I on the other hand, was still in the bus, moved by her beauty.

Categories
Personal

[91] Of life goes on

I think I will take a break from writing about the future for this entry. The Future series demands me to spend more time than I had planned to invest earlier.

After all my life, I have finally realized that the thing that had kept me going on was the phrase “life goes on”.

Whenever something bad happens, I will regret it but at the same time, I will tell myself to go on and forget about unfortunate event that had befallen me. My inner voice will always say too bad Hafiz. It is your fault but there is no point of blaming, is there? Learn from it and live on. Hope for the better for life goes on.

That was the only thing that had given me hope to live on. Hope for the best. Yet, it seems that hope is something forsaken. On everything that went against my favor, I went through it and hope for a brighter future – nevertheless, when I went through it, immediately after that, the situation took another turn, for the worse. How could it be? How could it be when you said life goes on, life seems to take a worse twist?

Yes, life goes on but must it always be for the worse? Aye, perhaps always is too tough a word but from my perspective, the word always appears to be an underestimation.
A person somewhere in war torn part of Africa, where famine is everlasting, is it possible to hope, to see into the future and say tomorrow is going to be better? How is that possible when now, right at the very moment, that person is dying from hunger, lying on his back while his face faces the scorching UV? Is it possible to say life goes on when at the very moment, when it seems that life is non-existence in the very next minute?

Just a few days ago, I found a better phrase to hang on to. Concentrate on the moment. Yes, hope for the best but hope is nothing when you just hope and dream. What makes hope possible is the moment that you are facing now, at the present, at the very second of your existence; not the past neither the things that will be. When a person is dying from hunger, he (I refuse to use “she”, I am a chauvinist and yes, chauvinism still exist well into the 21st century. At least I am not an extremist. I think that feminism movement should be banned but let us not steer into that water just yet. And oh, I am a little bit racist but let put that aside) needs to concentrate on the moment, find the precious water to live on, not yelling silently to himself I am going to die nor I am going to live through this. If he says he is going to die, then he will not try to search for water. If he believes that he is going to survive, he will depend too much on blind hope.

All he needs to do is concentrate on the moment. He may die but at least he concentrated on the moment and did his best to survive.

Aye, life goes on but like what Yoda said, concentrates on the moment.

I am having a terrible headache now and I have an exam on Thursday. I am worry about the exam but I need to concentrate on the moment. I need to sleep to let the headache pass through me. I need to concentrate on the pain rather than the exam first.

Good night, and pray for my future.

Categories
Future Sci-fi

[90] Of I dream of an utopia IV

Space Lanes and Spaceports

Once the Solar System or at least the inner region of the system is populated, there will be space lanes, much as the present shipping lanes transporting goods and people across vast distance. Although it will take sometimes before lots of lanes to be defined and accepted among the public, the only lanes that will be accepted will be the safest or the fastest route. Once the space lanes are defined, space buses will be the main vehicle transporting Human back and forth from Earth to other colonies. The existence of the lanes is vital to Human expansion in space. It will enable ship pilots to save time instead of trying to figure the best way to navigate their ships.

These lanes or sort of course will not be built with similar fashion as the tube. It would be ridiculously stupid to buill a tube from one place in space to another. By the way, the hazard of meteor shower or the same sort prevents such idea to be implemented.

Instead, a buoy will be placed after every certain among of distance along the lanes. The buoys will transmit some kind of signal to traveling ship. The signal gives out useful information regarding navigation.

One would argue that these buoys be effectively be replaced by a space station placed in a quadrant or so. However, communication between a ship and the station will take time. The buoys effectively tell ship pilots.

Buoys nevertheless do not dismiss the importance of a space station. It must be stressed that these buoys will be under the jurisdiction of the station.

There will at least space station in every planet’s orbit, controlling the space traffic of a particular planet. These space stations will usually act as spaceports, a commercial center of a planet. This will allow space traders to sell their goods at the spaceport instead of descending to the planet and waste precious energy.

There will also be stations built in the middle of space, especially in the middle of a long space lane. The station will act as a pit stop and an entreport station.

Back to the orbit, the spaceport will possibly have an extra feature, or at least a spaceport with a solid planet rather than the gaseous Jupiter or Saturn. The feature will accelerate the economic growth of a planet rather dramatic and check the demand for fuel effectively. Spaceports in Earth’s and Mars orbit will be the upper part of a space elevator. For more information on space elevator, read a past posting in The __earth Inc. here.

To be continued…

Categories
Future Sci-fi

[89] Of I dream of an utopia III

The Minerals and Space Colonization

Currently, crude oil reserve will only sustain us barely through half of the 21st century and it is only the matter of time until all of the minerals will finally be exhausted.

Nevertheless, Human will develop a way to dig even deeper to obtain more mineral. Mines will be built deep in the dark sea trenches. These mines will sustain Human needs when all ground mines are rendered useless.

Although these underwater mines will be prominent in the future scenario, with the ongoing developing aerospace technology, there will be no doubt that future minerals will be mined in outer space, both on Earth’s natural satellite and beyond. These mines will be the foundation of future space cities.

The need of more minerals will lead to the colonization of the Moon. The colonization of the Moon will without doubt be expensive but the advantage of it, by far suppress the economic burdens. During the “Age of Lunar Colonization”, there will be a point where the idea of transporting the water supply from Earth to Moon bases (that will become Moon cities) is unfeasible. In the end, the mining of water will be one of the main agenda. It is known now that there is ice cap somewhere at one of Moon’s poles. If this is not enough, perhaps Human will have to resort to technology that fusions hydrogen and oxygen together to produce the most precious elixir in the universe.

Once science allows Human to explore and travel farther in the cold space, the asteroids will be heavily mined. The asteroid belt will become the place for major mines in the Solar System.

Mars, Earth’s twin will also be the victim of Human expansion because the colonization of the fourth planet will promise a non-stop supply of resources. As time passes by, the notion of terraforming will come to mind. The process of terraforming will consume many years but the possibility of a new Earth will not stop Human from continuing with the process.

The other main reason for space exploration will be Earth inability to support Human’s exponential growth. With open space far becoming scarce, the only way to avoid conflict among the Human is a habitat expansion outside of Earth.

To be continued…

Categories
Environment Future Sci-fi

[88] Of I dream of an utopia II

Two third of Earth surface is covered by water. Two third is such a large portion to be left unused and it goes unmentioned that human will scour for land in any way that is possible. They “reclaim” land for the sea and build skyscrapers to provide more space for their business. Between these two, land reclamation is the most destructive method. Not only it destroys the natural habitat of underwater creatures, it also diverts the natural flow of the ocean and in the end, causing great catastrophe to ecosystems such as swamp and beach.

This is why in the future, in the middle of the ocean, there will be great cities comparable to today’s major cities. The cities will stand under the sea level as well as floating in the middle of nowhere.

The underwater cities will be protected against the powerful water pressure by multiple great dome made out from some high pressure tolerance material. The cities might be built in ocean trenches or simply on shallow sea floor. Some of the cities, if it is huge enough and if the depth of the city is not so great, will reach the water surface and have the pleasure of sunlight to some extend. It will not be surprising to see the city of Singapore or Hong Kong to be both ground-based cities and underwater cities. The land problem there is so critical, in times to come, we might see of these cities’ structures to be built underwater, near its coast instead of seeing major land reclamation projects.

Between the underwater cities, transportation tubes will be constructed much as the same fashion as its ground counterpart plus a few technical details that enable it to survive the intense water pressure. Although there will be tubes, the main type of underwater vehicle will depend on rotor much as what is being use nowadays. These vehicles, submarine if you may, will be amphibious, allowing it to be operated on land (or in the tubes) and underwater.

Being under the water, the water pressure could be another method of producing clean energy and thus helping solving the problem of transporting the much needed electricity to the underwater world.

There will also be cities floating on the wave. It may well be exaggeration to call these Human’s habitat as city as the floating structure is just a large ship that are sailing all around the world. Like on land, almost everything is available for its residents. These ships will only come to shore to restock its supplies. This idea is not far fetch as even right now, the project of such magnitude is underway. Read all about it at www.freedomship.com. Perhaps, the only time when these ships need not to call a port is when they are out of fresh fish supply.

To be continued…