Tuesday, March 27, 2007
supppppperrrrrr excited! ye, i know i know, i have to watch 300 first! and bridge to terabithia! but... i have no money!!! (must resort to cousin manipulating tactics..)
anyhooo, here's a pic of me when i was a weeee baby.
i remember yesterday, the world was so young....
don't be fooled by the cuteness and innocence! as i remember at that time, i could kick VERY WELL! :) right, mengs?
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today had a very random BUT fun moment. for one hour, my friend mark gave me a very surreal destressor... a ride at the back of his harley davidson motorbike!!!!
i was reading my nursing books when he came over, said he was free at 3, and wondered if i'd be free by then for a ride. "on your bike?!?!", i say incredously. of course i jumped at the chance, and i didn't know it was going to take an hour, but really, who was bothering about time when you got the open road in front of you, and you are just busy taking in the wind, the speed, the warmth of the sun, the freedom with your arms just spread out (yup, i wasn't holding onto him), and sometimes the smell of manure from cows...
(wait.. what?!?!! *ye, i had a whiff of some. we were traveling on lancaster backroads with some amish farms, what ya expect?!)
OTHERWISE, the ride was awesome! no wonder these biker dudes/dudettes have an entirely different perspective of life. they're laid back, they're real, they're more about the journey than the destination.
here are some pics of the bike (next time, i'll bring my camera. sorry, told u it was random!).
truth is, i had a blast. it was like being on a really loooooong rollercoaster ride, and there were many points i'd laugh hysterically just for the sheer fun of it. i'd wave enthusiastically to most of the motorists (they wave back), and for every biker that we would pass by, i'd flash a V sign (mark told me it meant victory). you could say i was his 'victory flasher' for the time being :P
couldn't believe an hour flew by... but of course, it's always like that when you're having fun.
then it was back to school, to reality... i hit the books yet again to study on catheterization... YEAH... sigh.
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i'd like to share more pics. here are some that i took when my aunt got some free skybox seats at our local baseball stadium. it was really last minute, 2 hours before the game they give it to me, and i called everyone i knew. first 2 calls made through, and they were real baseball fans, and were berating me for not telling them earlier. most of the rest were voice messages or no answer...
i was able to find one guy who went with me.
they are really good seats, i have to tell you. you'd hear the sweet thunk of the baseball every time, and you get to see the entire field. that night, there were almost 2 fights, too.
that's my food..
and there's the people up with us... (wonder what that guy is looking up at the sky?)
a view of the home base and batter... "heeeeeey batteh batteh batteh..."
and one shot where a fight almost broke out.
too bad my friend was not much of a baseball fan so much (i was more excited about the game, having played softball before). anyway, it was really nice watching a live game at good seat. i've already been to basketball games... so now, i wonder what it would feel like on a FOOTBALL stadium....
HMMM........
1 comments // 6:40 PM
Sunday, March 11, 2007i'm kinda slow on movies right now, but i do make sure i watch some good quality ones (well, $6 a ticket, you gotta make it worthwhile!!!). one film on my list right now is '300'...
and then there are others that i get to watch for free, courtesy of some friends. i was lent 'the promise' and 'hero' (chinese movies) just this weekend, and took the time to watch both (since i had to return them immediately).
supposedly the most expensive chinese movie ever. but you could see how it was spent on graphics (some weren't topnotch, but suspend your belief, people!). visuals were really good, particularly the detail on clothes. there's also this goddess with a floating halo on her head, and i was really distracted by it. the fight scenes were not really martial-arts heavy, but you gotta love the background. my fave one was the fight with the revolving chinese panels...
story-wise, it was pretty simple. it had some mythological concepts in it (the goddess butts in very significantly) and there is a bittersweet love story, too. but it's really the visuals that captured it for me... and the villain. was it wrong to root for the villain? he had such an enigmatic prescence, i was almost always cheering for him!
hmmmm... i am not a jet li fan. i'm sure he's a likeable guy...
visuals also play a role in this movie, but more in dominant colors. there are different versions of the story, and as each version unfolds, the characters always change the hue of their clothes. it has a lot more impact story-wise for me, particularly when its supposedly based on historical data (the warring states period of china).
while 'the promise' had the effect of putting me in a momentary trance-like state of wonder at the vibrant colors, 'hero' strongly urged me to be introspective. long after the movie was finished, i found myself unable to sleep as i wrestled with my thoughts.
'hero' has a good-for-all mentality. there are notable lines in the movie such as "the pain of one man is nothing to the suffering of all", and something about a path rooted in hatred or revenge is bad. another message, albeit more subtle, was the nobility of how one person, can die for a good cause (for me, a very Christian self-sacrifice ideal i understand so well). while these are all true, however, it also emphasizes a uniquely and dominant asian culture. this is not to say that thinking of others is wrong. it wasn't the denial of self that bothered me, but the denial of truth.
(warning: spoiler movies to follow, if you haven't watched 'hero' yet)
while the emperor had the foresight to unite the states of china, it was done in a manner that involved a lot of killings. it was only natural that assassins with personal vendettas would hunt this emperor. at the very end, however, the assassin has a change in heart, realizes that a peaceful nation is more important, then he gives up willingly, and let himself be killed instead.
peace from mass bloodshed? i could not get around the logic of that. neither could i understand the emperor when he broke down as he lamented how few people understood his vision of unity. unity is good, but the killings were not. THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS.
i guess because the movie had a political ring to it. it was almost short of saying, there would be anarchy if the government doesn't do this and that. and yes, anarchy is bad, but so is a government that is willing to look the other way all for the sake of vision. it's even more worse if the government doesn't even do any compensation, not even a public apology, for the losses of the people they step on.
there's this movie with wesley snipes (murder at 1600) where a character justifies the killing of a young woman by saying somewhere along the lines of "if i were to choose between righteousness and peace, i choose righteousness". it was more on the context on how and when he said that, which was entirely wrong, especially as he used those words to rationalize the death of an innocent. then the character follows it up with "she was a casualty of war!".
** man. i hated that bastard. **
some people will say, rationalization is not an entirely bad strategy, weighing the pros and cons, and seeing how many people would benefit. i plead guilty, since i do the same thing (i'm asian!), but i guess not in extreme life-or-death circumstances. i guess it does depend on which situation it is used.
however, if rationalization, or the use of logic, is employed to deny reality and emotion -- i might say it even borders on removing self-responsibility -- and attribute the outcome or decision as a necessity, then rationalization needs to be considered, investigated and debated carefully. if not, it will only become a defense mechanism to repress the truth.
3 comments // 4:13 PM
