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so they say,
if you love something, let it go.
if it comes back, it's yours.
if it doesn't, well..it never really belonged to you to begin with..
no matter how hard you tried to convince yourself that it did.
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07 January 2010 @ 12:24 am
07 January 2010 @ 12:10 am
This is what we are doing to our fellow human beings:
edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/06/j
When this man got bombed, it was Japan's fault for refusing to back down from the war. (And not America's use of an atomic bomb, as opposed to conventional weaponry.)
As time passes, he ceases to be a man and becomes an icon of exposure to double radiation, some freak of nature, something to be marvelled at, or as he puts it himself, "an official government record".
An innocent man who cannot conceivably be thought of to have done anything to deserve "a lifetime of radiation-related health problems, including cancers". Over the course of his life, he "suffered from acute leukemia, cataracts and other bomb-related illnesses".
It is always the individual innocent who suffers in a war. But because of the frequency and severity with which wars are occurring, we have become desensitized to news reports of people's deaths as a result of war. Collateral damage, they call it.
One day, we will get what is coming to us.
edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/06/j
When this man got bombed, it was Japan's fault for refusing to back down from the war. (And not America's use of an atomic bomb, as opposed to conventional weaponry.)
As time passes, he ceases to be a man and becomes an icon of exposure to double radiation, some freak of nature, something to be marvelled at, or as he puts it himself, "an official government record".
An innocent man who cannot conceivably be thought of to have done anything to deserve "a lifetime of radiation-related health problems, including cancers". Over the course of his life, he "suffered from acute leukemia, cataracts and other bomb-related illnesses".
It is always the individual innocent who suffers in a war. But because of the frequency and severity with which wars are occurring, we have become desensitized to news reports of people's deaths as a result of war. Collateral damage, they call it.
One day, we will get what is coming to us.
06 January 2010 @ 06:00 pm
"We feel we are part of something mysterious and we would like to know how it all works."
"... the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder. Babies have this faculty. That is not surprising. After a few short months in the womb they slip out into a brand-new reality. But as they grow up the faculty of wonder seems to diminish. Why is this?"
"But long before the child learns to talk properly-and long before it learns to think philosophically-the world will have become a habit [for the child]."
-Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner.
When I was younger, I could not wait to grow up and be an adult, foremost because becoming of age would bring many personal liberties I was not wont to have as a teenager. But at the same time, I feared this thing that seemed to latch itself on to adults, feared that when I myself became older, I would be subject to this phenomenon many euphemise to be "pragmatism", but which should really be known as jadedness. I first became aware of this, and my own idealism, in secondary school, when Mr.Jeow instead of teaching physics, asked me the following question. (This recount is very old by now, but its utility has never diminished.)
"Say there are two men who both love you ardently. If it were possible to measure love, both would be equal. One man is a rich businessman, while the second man sells char kway teow in a hawker centre. The rich guy can obviously provide you with material comforts and financial security, but your love for him is platonic. You don't love him to death, but you like him enough. On the other hand, you do love the char kway teow seller in a way that you can never hope to love the businessman. But of course the hawker guy cannot provide you with the same level of material comfort as the rich guy. (This was Mr. Jeow's stereotype, not mine. I have heard of many hawkers who drives Mercedes and wear Rolexes.) Who would you choose, Melissa?"
I replied as if he was asking a completely pointless question, "Of course I would marry the char kway teo seller. He is the one I love."
And I will remember this as clear as day; Mr. Jeow snorted (well, not really, but for the sake of this personal recount) and said in a rather pitying tone, "You may say that now, but when you have to really make that decision, you will choose the businessman."
And I retorted, angry that he had imposed his own perspective on to my personal decision, "No, I will not."
It seems that as we grow older, we become cynical and jaded, or ruthlessly pragmatic. We lose our "faculty of wonder", as Jostein Gaardner puts it, and we get used to the world. We stop asking questions that are fundamental to our existence, we stop being amazed at everyday things, such as the way a leaf can flutter so beautifully to the ground, or how a child eventually learns to walk and speak. We stop feeling we are part of something mysterious, and think that our reality and our lives are only what we can see.
We seek to master and control our Earth, as opposed to living in harmony with it. We bulldoze rolling green fields and century-old trees, and in their places, put up shopping malls so that people may find the meaning of their lives in a new pair of shoes, or a new mobile phone.
If you don't see the absurdity of this, consider this: where humans once lived alongside animals, and to see a duck or rabbit in one's vicinity was natural, we now pay an exorbitant amount of money to look at these animals in cages or "what their natural habitat would look like in the wild". We bring our children there to oooh and aaah at the animals on display, and believe the promotional spiel of the zoo's management; that the animals are better off in a zoo than in the wild, because they are on the verge of extinction and need to be given special care, that the cage they are in has been modelled after their natural habitat so that the animal would not know the difference. It's not cruel at all.
On this note of animals and cages, I was recently in Bangkok's famous Chatuchak weekend market, and was brought to a section of the market which sold all sorts of animals, from puppies and kittens to exotic birds and reptiles. I was amazed and moved the the cute puppies, but this quickly turned into utter disgust that this is what humans are capable of doing. And I am sad to say this, but this practice of selling animals in such a manner is made possible by capitalism and unregulated markets. That this animal section of the market has been flourishing for so long can only mean one thing; people's demand for the animals.To make things worse, the sellers put all sorts of ridiculous things on the dogs and kittens, and it seems like a form of prostitution imposed on an unwilling, undeserving, but helpless being.
I am by no means an animal rights activist or environmentalist, but of late, I have been thinking - how did we get here? According to my professor, the traditional belief has always been that the best resides with the origin (which they would attribute to going back to a God). It is only in modern times do we believe (and he says this belief is of a deformed nature) that things are getting better as we "progress".
I love being alive, and I think there is an immeasurable beauty in living. At the same time, if one stops and digs a little deeper beyond what we have been so used to, there is so much ugliness entrenched in our actions and practices. But mostly, we are too far gone, and too used to the world to see this. Hence, we continue living the lives we live, accepting things as they are. Because, how can we change things?
This brings to mind a question my dad asked me sometime back, with regard to the environmental destruction our industrial society was wreaking. In order to reduce carbon emissions and many of the pollution problems associated with production, couldn't every company seek to reduce production by a certain amount?
Couldn't the world slow down?
It seems like a naive question, and an immediate answer would be that if it were so easy to slow down, companies and nations would have done it long ago. The reason I gave him was that there would be a first-mover disadvantage; that the company or nation to make a concerted effort to slow down and cut down on output would lose its market share and profits to other companies and nations who do not do so. And because all companies desire profits (yes, they do, despite what they may tell you), and coming from a realist perspective, all nations must fight to increase their resources (in a myriad of forms) or fear being eaten up, no one is going to act first for change.
The underlying implication of this could be that man is inherently evil in that we desire power for its own sake, and will go to any lengths to get it. But I think it is not such much that we are bad by nature, as that we have been too used to this way of life. Our sensory perceptions, thoughts, feelings and opinions have all been conditioned by the environment we were brought up in, and if you allow yourself to stop asking and caring about questions fundamental to our existence, the current generation of humans is what you get.
"... the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder. Babies have this faculty. That is not surprising. After a few short months in the womb they slip out into a brand-new reality. But as they grow up the faculty of wonder seems to diminish. Why is this?"
"But long before the child learns to talk properly-and long before it learns to think philosophically-the world will have become a habit [for the child]."
-Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner.
When I was younger, I could not wait to grow up and be an adult, foremost because becoming of age would bring many personal liberties I was not wont to have as a teenager. But at the same time, I feared this thing that seemed to latch itself on to adults, feared that when I myself became older, I would be subject to this phenomenon many euphemise to be "pragmatism", but which should really be known as jadedness. I first became aware of this, and my own idealism, in secondary school, when Mr.Jeow instead of teaching physics, asked me the following question. (This recount is very old by now, but its utility has never diminished.)
"Say there are two men who both love you ardently. If it were possible to measure love, both would be equal. One man is a rich businessman, while the second man sells char kway teow in a hawker centre. The rich guy can obviously provide you with material comforts and financial security, but your love for him is platonic. You don't love him to death, but you like him enough. On the other hand, you do love the char kway teow seller in a way that you can never hope to love the businessman. But of course the hawker guy cannot provide you with the same level of material comfort as the rich guy. (This was Mr. Jeow's stereotype, not mine. I have heard of many hawkers who drives Mercedes and wear Rolexes.) Who would you choose, Melissa?"
I replied as if he was asking a completely pointless question, "Of course I would marry the char kway teo seller. He is the one I love."
And I will remember this as clear as day; Mr. Jeow snorted (well, not really, but for the sake of this personal recount) and said in a rather pitying tone, "You may say that now, but when you have to really make that decision, you will choose the businessman."
And I retorted, angry that he had imposed his own perspective on to my personal decision, "No, I will not."
It seems that as we grow older, we become cynical and jaded, or ruthlessly pragmatic. We lose our "faculty of wonder", as Jostein Gaardner puts it, and we get used to the world. We stop asking questions that are fundamental to our existence, we stop being amazed at everyday things, such as the way a leaf can flutter so beautifully to the ground, or how a child eventually learns to walk and speak. We stop feeling we are part of something mysterious, and think that our reality and our lives are only what we can see.
We seek to master and control our Earth, as opposed to living in harmony with it. We bulldoze rolling green fields and century-old trees, and in their places, put up shopping malls so that people may find the meaning of their lives in a new pair of shoes, or a new mobile phone.
If you don't see the absurdity of this, consider this: where humans once lived alongside animals, and to see a duck or rabbit in one's vicinity was natural, we now pay an exorbitant amount of money to look at these animals in cages or "what their natural habitat would look like in the wild". We bring our children there to oooh and aaah at the animals on display, and believe the promotional spiel of the zoo's management; that the animals are better off in a zoo than in the wild, because they are on the verge of extinction and need to be given special care, that the cage they are in has been modelled after their natural habitat so that the animal would not know the difference. It's not cruel at all.
On this note of animals and cages, I was recently in Bangkok's famous Chatuchak weekend market, and was brought to a section of the market which sold all sorts of animals, from puppies and kittens to exotic birds and reptiles. I was amazed and moved the the cute puppies, but this quickly turned into utter disgust that this is what humans are capable of doing. And I am sad to say this, but this practice of selling animals in such a manner is made possible by capitalism and unregulated markets. That this animal section of the market has been flourishing for so long can only mean one thing; people's demand for the animals.To make things worse, the sellers put all sorts of ridiculous things on the dogs and kittens, and it seems like a form of prostitution imposed on an unwilling, undeserving, but helpless being.
I am by no means an animal rights activist or environmentalist, but of late, I have been thinking - how did we get here? According to my professor, the traditional belief has always been that the best resides with the origin (which they would attribute to going back to a God). It is only in modern times do we believe (and he says this belief is of a deformed nature) that things are getting better as we "progress".
I love being alive, and I think there is an immeasurable beauty in living. At the same time, if one stops and digs a little deeper beyond what we have been so used to, there is so much ugliness entrenched in our actions and practices. But mostly, we are too far gone, and too used to the world to see this. Hence, we continue living the lives we live, accepting things as they are. Because, how can we change things?
This brings to mind a question my dad asked me sometime back, with regard to the environmental destruction our industrial society was wreaking. In order to reduce carbon emissions and many of the pollution problems associated with production, couldn't every company seek to reduce production by a certain amount?
Couldn't the world slow down?
It seems like a naive question, and an immediate answer would be that if it were so easy to slow down, companies and nations would have done it long ago. The reason I gave him was that there would be a first-mover disadvantage; that the company or nation to make a concerted effort to slow down and cut down on output would lose its market share and profits to other companies and nations who do not do so. And because all companies desire profits (yes, they do, despite what they may tell you), and coming from a realist perspective, all nations must fight to increase their resources (in a myriad of forms) or fear being eaten up, no one is going to act first for change.
The underlying implication of this could be that man is inherently evil in that we desire power for its own sake, and will go to any lengths to get it. But I think it is not such much that we are bad by nature, as that we have been too used to this way of life. Our sensory perceptions, thoughts, feelings and opinions have all been conditioned by the environment we were brought up in, and if you allow yourself to stop asking and caring about questions fundamental to our existence, the current generation of humans is what you get.
31 December 2009 @ 03:39 am
there's nothing quite like spending the day driving without a destination in mind,
letting only our stomachs pave the way.
letting only our stomachs pave the way.
01 January 2010 @ 01:19 pm
I've always spoken of, but never really explained, my love for Gilmore Girls. I had caught snatches of episodes on Channel 5 in the past, but was never really compelled to sit down and follow the series. Aptly enough, it was my mom who got me started on the show. I bought the first season on DVD for her birthday present (she had caught part of the last season and liked it), and in 2008 (I think), my great procrastinating abilities found me starting on Season 1 of what was to be a lifelong love (okay, just to be dramatic. I haven't lived that long.) for Gilmore Girls, instead of studying for exams.
I found this on Amazon while browsing:
"I want to preface this review by saying this: I envy each and every person that will forever be able to pick up this set and experience the magic, whimsy, and zanyness of the Gilmore Girls fresh and anew for the first time..."
"It's impossible to put into words just how magical this show really is. And it is not the perpetual 'chick-flick' that many write-it off as. It is in fact probably one of the smartest and best written television shows to grace the small-screen in recent years. One would need several PH D.s in Popular Culture to get even 80% of the references that these girls throw around. And beyond that, the performances of the actors make this show something special. And although the show started as a drama, the humor was always present and by the middle of season one, the glimpses of the great comedy to come started to make themselves known."
If you like shows like Gossip Girl and The O.C. and various other shows which I don't remember much of except that the actors are frequently half-dressed, then Gilmore Girls probably isn't for you. For one thing, the actors don't have to shed their clothes to attract viewership. I have enjoyed the sheer wit and fast-talking that have come from the very talented Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of the Gilmore Girls, and her skills in repartee (evidenced from the dialogue amongst her characters, especially between Rory and Lorelai, as well as Lorelai and her mother) are very much envied. From the idyllic setting of Stars Hollow to the music, to the pop-culture and book references (Roark from The Fountainhead was referenced once!), this is a show that deserves to be a classic. Nothing is easy-breezy in this show, and I love the themes of aspiration, determination and fellow-feeling.
I identify very closely with the first quote in this entry. There is nothing quite like watching Gilmore Girls for the very first time. It is one of those shows you can watch over and over again, but nothing will ever come close to that very first time you hear Carole King sing "Where You Lead" to the opening scene of the show.
I found this on Amazon while browsing:
"I want to preface this review by saying this: I envy each and every person that will forever be able to pick up this set and experience the magic, whimsy, and zanyness of the Gilmore Girls fresh and anew for the first time..."
"It's impossible to put into words just how magical this show really is. And it is not the perpetual 'chick-flick' that many write-it off as. It is in fact probably one of the smartest and best written television shows to grace the small-screen in recent years. One would need several PH D.s in Popular Culture to get even 80% of the references that these girls throw around. And beyond that, the performances of the actors make this show something special. And although the show started as a drama, the humor was always present and by the middle of season one, the glimpses of the great comedy to come started to make themselves known."
If you like shows like Gossip Girl and The O.C. and various other shows which I don't remember much of except that the actors are frequently half-dressed, then Gilmore Girls probably isn't for you. For one thing, the actors don't have to shed their clothes to attract viewership. I have enjoyed the sheer wit and fast-talking that have come from the very talented Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of the Gilmore Girls, and her skills in repartee (evidenced from the dialogue amongst her characters, especially between Rory and Lorelai, as well as Lorelai and her mother) are very much envied. From the idyllic setting of Stars Hollow to the music, to the pop-culture and book references (Roark from The Fountainhead was referenced once!), this is a show that deserves to be a classic. Nothing is easy-breezy in this show, and I love the themes of aspiration, determination and fellow-feeling.
I identify very closely with the first quote in this entry. There is nothing quite like watching Gilmore Girls for the very first time. It is one of those shows you can watch over and over again, but nothing will ever come close to that very first time you hear Carole King sing "Where You Lead" to the opening scene of the show.
26 December 2009 @ 04:08 pm
“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
- Winston Churchill
- Winston Churchill
25 December 2009 @ 09:03 pm
I love Christmas, or rather the idea of Christmas. I love the commercial idea of Christmas, to be more specific. My Christmases the past few years have been pretty staid, but I've enjoyed them nevertheless. The cool weather, the holiday movies they screen on TV, the nice dinners. The wines and chocolate. There are no countdowns for me, no Orchard Road jostling, but
I have a guilty pleasure that I like to completely surrender myself to on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself. And that is to watch as many sappy, hopelessly romantic, it's-Fate-that-brought-us-together shows as possible. For the past two or three years, I watched Serendipity (John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale) every Christmas Eve. I thought I'd follow with this young tradition this year, but because I already watched Serendipity earlier this year, I decided to do The Holiday (Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law) this year. Not as much of a classic as Serendipity because no one can beat Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack, really. But still so good, with the warm and fuzzy feeling one gets from a fire on a cold winter's night (not that I've experienced that, but that's what the imagination is for).
A nice quote from The Holiday:
"I understand feeling as small and as insignificant as humanly possible. And how it can actually ache in places you didn't know you had inside you. And it doesn't matter how many new haircuts you get, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of Chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends... you still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood. And how in the hell for that brief moment you could think that you were that happy. And sometimes you can even convince yourself that he'll see the light and show up at your door. And after all that, however long all that may be, you'll go somewhere new. And you'll meet people who make you feel worthwhile again. And little pieces of your soul will finally come back. And all that fuzzy stuff, those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade."
I loved the Jack Black and Kate Winslet combination, as well as Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach. Was never a fan of Cameron Diaz and the pairing with Jude Law was a bit strange, but overall, really good script and pretty fantastic soundtrack.
Since we're on the subject of movies, I decided to come up with a list of my favourite movies:
1. The Princess Diaries ("I'm a princess? Shut up!")
2. Home Alone
3. 27 Dresses
4. A Moment to Remember
5. Serendipity
6. Titanic (my favourite scene has got to be the one where Rose pushes Jack's frozen body off her raft and said, "I'll never let go, Jack.")
7. You've Got Mail
8. Pride & Prejudice
9. Up
11. Collateral Damage
12. Matchstick Men
13. CITY OF ANGELS (Nicholas Cage AND Meg Ryan together with one of the best scriptwriting and soundtracks, ever? 'Nuff said.)
14. 10 Things I Hate About You
15. Face/off
16. Grease
17. My Fair Lady (Audrey Hepburn was better in this than in Breakfast at Tiffany's or Roman Holiday)
18. Dirty Dancing
19. Moulin Rouge
20. Sleepless in Seattle
21. Meet Joe Black
22. Speed
23. The Wedding Singer
Okay, that is a pretty long list of favourites, so I put those that are absolutely must-watch in bold.
Oooh, maybe I'll do a favourite-books list and favourite-songs-of-all-time list next time.
Happy holidays everyone!
I have a guilty pleasure that I like to completely surrender myself to on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself. And that is to watch as many sappy, hopelessly romantic, it's-Fate-that-brought-us-together shows as possible. For the past two or three years, I watched Serendipity (John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale) every Christmas Eve. I thought I'd follow with this young tradition this year, but because I already watched Serendipity earlier this year, I decided to do The Holiday (Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law) this year. Not as much of a classic as Serendipity because no one can beat Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack, really. But still so good, with the warm and fuzzy feeling one gets from a fire on a cold winter's night (not that I've experienced that, but that's what the imagination is for).
A nice quote from The Holiday:
"I understand feeling as small and as insignificant as humanly possible. And how it can actually ache in places you didn't know you had inside you. And it doesn't matter how many new haircuts you get, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of Chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends... you still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood. And how in the hell for that brief moment you could think that you were that happy. And sometimes you can even convince yourself that he'll see the light and show up at your door. And after all that, however long all that may be, you'll go somewhere new. And you'll meet people who make you feel worthwhile again. And little pieces of your soul will finally come back. And all that fuzzy stuff, those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade."
I loved the Jack Black and Kate Winslet combination, as well as Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach. Was never a fan of Cameron Diaz and the pairing with Jude Law was a bit strange, but overall, really good script and pretty fantastic soundtrack.
Since we're on the subject of movies, I decided to come up with a list of my favourite movies:
1. The Princess Diaries ("I'm a princess? Shut up!")
2. Home Alone
3. 27 Dresses
4. A Moment to Remember
5. Serendipity
6. Titanic (my favourite scene has got to be the one where Rose pushes Jack's frozen body off her raft and said, "I'll never let go, Jack.")
7. You've Got Mail
8. Pride & Prejudice
9. Up
11. Collateral Damage
12. Matchstick Men
13. CITY OF ANGELS (Nicholas Cage AND Meg Ryan together with one of the best scriptwriting and soundtracks, ever? 'Nuff said.)
14. 10 Things I Hate About You
15. Face/off
16. Grease
17. My Fair Lady (Audrey Hepburn was better in this than in Breakfast at Tiffany's or Roman Holiday)
18. Dirty Dancing
19. Moulin Rouge
20. Sleepless in Seattle
21. Meet Joe Black
22. Speed
23. The Wedding Singer
Okay, that is a pretty long list of favourites, so I put those that are absolutely must-watch in bold.
Oooh, maybe I'll do a favourite-books list and favourite-songs-of-all-time list next time.
Happy holidays everyone!