played mahjong today again at lala's house, and won $7.40, which was still not enough to cover my losses last sat. hahaha but i'm beginning to be a bit sian of it, so maybe should refrain for a while.

finished a book called the 19th wife. it's a book of fiction that explores polygamy. the male characters use religion as an excuse for their marrying many wives. but ultimately, he suffers, the wives suffer, and the children too. the husband has to share his time and love as equally as possible to ensure domestic bliss, but it sort of eats away at his soul too. the wives have to struggle with jealousy and try their best to keep the attention focused on them. the children suffer most, because they become lost in their own family and fade into the background, most only recognizable by their own mothers. thank god, it is prohibited by law now, it wrecks havoc on family and society structure.

currently reading a book titled mapping human history. it takes a look at how humans have evolved. turns out from fossil records and genetic evidence, we are actually more alike than we would have thought. all of us share a group of African ancestors. it was also shown from analysing the Y chromosome that all men can be traced back to a man as father, and from mitochondria analysis, all women can be traced back to a woman as mother, though the two paths are independent. i find the book fascinating, though i'm reading it slowly due to its wordiness.