Sigh…Deficiencies
A thousand apologies for the lack of updates, or rather lack of interest (and yes, I do realize that it has been over a month since I last updated). All the same, do watch this space… There should be one coming right up… Keyword: should.
Goodnight and good luck people! (:
Up In Dreams
With the annoying 3D-glasses perched on the bridge of my nose, I sat back in my cushion seat some ten rows away from the big screen, while I waited for Disney Pixar’s Up to begin…
In a nutshell, Up tells us about a cranky old man (Carl) who decides to embark on an adventure to South America, using his house as a makeshift airship with the aid of 10,000 helium balloons. Shortly after taking off however, Carl finds an eccentric Wilderness Explorer, Russell, on his porch. Well, whatever ensued was nothing short of a breathtaking joyride with a telling conclusion.
Note: The following paragraph contains spoilers of various sorts. You’ve been warned! ;)
Personally, the scenes that captivated me most were the ones involving Ellie’s Adventure Book. Early on, the pages, as emphasized, were blank. Subsequently, the emphasis was placed on Carl, as he chose to withdraw, time and again with his memories of Ellie, rather than turning the page and endure the heartache of staring down a blank page, a page of unfulfilled dreams. In a somewhat poignant scene towards the end, Carl finally decides to risk the agony and to his astonishment, finds pages filled with mementos of them after they were married, and a note of genuine appreciation, love and encouragement that life goes on and that he, should set out for an adventure on his own. With a sudden dose of invigoration, Carl dives into an adventure almost immediately and well, everything else went downhill from then on.
As I fixed my eyes onto the screen, I couldn’t help but recall “The Last Lecture” – a book, and a lecture (duh) by the late Randy Pausch, a brilliant computer science professor diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer a few years back. Asked to give one final lecture, Randy did so, lecturing about “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. It might not be wholly relevant to what Disney Pixar has produced but I still believe that to a certain extent, it is important for us to muse over our dreams – be it a childhood dream, an adolescent one or whatever it is. Either way, here is the lecture – all 76 minutes of it…
In conclusion, here’s a heartrending story of a ten-year-old girl and her dying wish.
Goodnight y’all.
Spoilers, Teasers, Whatever
I stumbled on a random teaser of House M.D.’s sixth season which then led to this update. Well just for the record, I’m quite the House enthusiast – think every minute since 2004 (five seasons thus far, and counting). All the same, I can’t wait for the two-hour premiere of season six! Here is a sneak at what you can expect come September 21. And just for convenience, here is a half-minute long preview video which pretty much sums it all up… (Note and Spoiler: House began hallucinating towards the end of season five, the severity explained by him being in the fictional Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.)
Nonetheless, watching House religiously has somewhat affected my worklife. I do, at times, get the impression that a good number of patients are attention-seekers and liars, which in turn, tends to influence my standards as well, though it isn’t much of an occupational hazard. Yet.
Borrowed Time
Greetings! The weekend before last was spent back home, and what a remarkable couple of days it was; though there really isn’t much to write about it, I still felt that it was time well spent – family, food and fellowship – what else is there at home? Then again, it kinda made my journey back a little more depressing than it usually is, but let’s skip that part for now…
Anyway, the Liverpool squad (except Steven Gerrard, which is such a pity, really) is in this part of the world at the moment as part of their pre-season exercise – the Reds take on the national team (note that I didn’t begin spelling national team with capital letters; unworthy opponents, I believe). I’m not complaining though. At least the rest of us fans get to soak up the atmosphere (positive thinking… yeah right!) and watch the bloody game. Haha. Oh by the way, I managed to get a glimpse of Torres and Carragher earlier today! Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to sneak in an autograph, a picture or even a handshake, though for a moment or two, they were actually just a couple of feet away from me. Besides that, I am supposedly assigned to write a match report, or an article about Liverpool coming over at least. Part and parcel of being a new writer for a LFC news website.
All in all, everything else is pretty much in control. I am participating in two runs within the next three weeks or so and I have a Young Working Adult camp coming up in mid-August. Well, details soon to follow… I hope. :D
Oh! Three’s a crowd…
“You know, I still think that the first one was better.”
Typical conversation starter, right after a trilogy is complete don’t you think? Why is it that comparisons are always made between the first and the last? Why does the second installment always seem non-existent? And are first parts better than sequels all the time?
Think! Bourne, Ocean’s 11 to 13, Ice Age, Spiderman, The Godfather and heck, even Lord of the Rings (where the Return of the King ran away with 11 Oscars! YES, ELEVEN!) And still, people tell me that they thought that the Fellowship of the Ring still edged it. Don’t misunderstand though. I am not implying that the number of Oscars won is relative to how good a movie is. I am just confuzzled over why first installments usually reclaim the plaudits, even after reaching the end.
Well, foundations are all laid in the first part – mostly introductory material, who’s who, the plot, pretty much the vertebrae of any decent story is all in the first chapter. What about the second installment then? Build-ups from the first, main characters remain, storyline isn’t close to anything conclusive – more often than not, it serves as the crescendo, before peaking at the last scene or two and suddenly, the credits appear… Conclusions? Most questions are answered in this final episode, the anticipation is usually at an all-time high prior to focusing our eyes on the screen (here’s a tip: if you have yet to watch a sequel to a particular movie, and a friend of yours has, you would probably hit him/her if he/she daresay a word about what happens next, or if you have annoying friends, you would close your ears and scream… Reactions like these can gauge the anticipation.)
So, why do beginnings and endings get the most attention? And why do beginnings always seem to have the extra edge when we compare them to the rest for that matter? Aren’t parts in the middle important as well? I’m inclined to think that our conclusions regarding trilogies are purely psychological and even delusional at that. Introductions and endings are what we look for all the time that we do, unfortunately miss out on the juicy parts in between. Nonetheless, these are just assumptions – I still am pretty much in the dark trying to comprehend why trilogies are constantly graded in such a manner; first, third and second. Gosh, maybe it’s just me who’s obsessive about such details but it would be brilliant if you could share your view!
By the way, has anyone watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen yet? The third (and possibly final) installment is planned for release within the next three years or so. And I’m hoping that for once, a Pyrrhic victory concludes a trilogy! Fingers crossed for tear-jerking drama and unpredictability! Goodnight world!
Tinted Glasses
Once again, apologies for the long wait… I have been busy somewhat – not extremely busy, but busy enough which justifies the lack of updates (or maybe I just don’t like to admit laziness on my part). Either way, work has been pretty decent so far. Though it’s not something that I look forward to every day and besides feeling like a total loser every morning when I wake up to prepare for it, I still think that it’s manageable and at times, even enjoyable. Lol. Guess having ridiculously low expectations (or no expectations at all) helped quite a bit!
Anyways, I don’t quite know what else to update about so yeah, have a blessed week and take care! (:
Distance and Desperation
This moment of time a week ago, I was drowning in self-pity – work would officially begin the following morning, and convocation would be less than 24 hours away. I just couldn’t seem to put everything into perspective, and besides, the future (the next three years) didn’t excite me at all. It was just awfully selfish and pessimistic to be honest. I totally ignored the fact that I am rather fortunate – A job pretty much guaranteed for 36-months (at least), a decent place to stay, enough to eat, and a loving family despite being a good 500 miles away…
So, Monday it was and the journey began… along with my struggle to accept reality: being posted to an “alien” department was no consolation – my expectations were shot down and they didn’t just fall to the ground, they buried themselves. “God surely has a purpose there for me!”, I thought to myself but still, I wasn’t willing to believe that. I wanted some form of justification, I was rationalizing. It’s ironic that my previous post was about being patient and trusting Him in everything and here I am forgetting all of that in just a few days. It’s ironic how I managed to pose an argument weeks ago on how we can never define God by logic and here I am, trying to make sense of His ways.
Either way, convocation was next and I wasn’t the happiest graduate – I barely clapped, I completely ignored the pledge, I wore smiles for photograph sessions… To make matters worse, my family would be leaving for home and I would be stuck behind in misery. Everything just felt out of place. What remained of the week wasn’t much better though – It was still head versus heart, fantasy versus reality… I so wanted to see that the glass was half full but I couldn’t.
Fast-forwarding to Sunday, it was a lifesaver, literally… A slap in the face. Since the whole episode began, I earnestly sought for direction and reassurance, but my Sunday experience was just phenomenal! The speaker read from Isaiah 40: 28-31…
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Deep down inside, I knew that God wanted to get His message across and I began trembling almost immediately as tears began streaming down my face… I was having a “high-low” moment – High from my discovery and my answered prayer, low from not being able to trust Him as my Creator.
Anyway, that’s all for now. It has been another lengthy one and besides boring you, I hope it encourages you as well! I do have a fair bit more to share but I feel that this isn’t the best time. So til then, have a brilliant week alright! Over and out. (;
In Security…
Dearest blog,
I’m awfully, awfully sorry to have neglected you for the past few weeks or so. I know that it hasn’t been the busiest time but so much has been happening in recent weeks that I do get a little confused whenever I plan to share how things are with you. But still, I hope that this would suffice… (:
Okay, where do I begin… Oh! You know, I made a trip back to Singapore about two weeks back to get my employment pass done and to move to a new place (Yes, again). I touched down at about six p.m. and I had pre-arranged to move some stuff over at about nine. Anyway, things weren’t going well, not at all. In fact, I was on the verge of going mental. Firstly, I received a couple of smses that weren’t the least encouraging. Apparently, we were shortchanged of over a thousand bucks despite being told otherwise.
Secondly, while I was rushing to get all my packing done within two hours, I realized that I lost my only set of house keys! Frantically, I began turning my unpacked stuff upside down, and unpacking my packed stuff inside out, all to no avail. I was distraught. It wasn’t just a set of keys. It meant not being able to leave the place for as long as I remained locked in, it meant not being able to move to the new place. Well, to cut the long story short, I managed to get them back – I had left them in the keyhole on the way in. Yeah, laugh all you want but these kinda things do happen I guess… It’s just rather unfortunate that it had to happen on an extremely busy day. But then again, things like these wouldn’t happen if I had time to spare would it? Either way, I guess that experience taught me alot. Nothing about house keys and absent-mindedness though. I figured that patience and trust were the real deals here. You see, it’s in times like these where we usually try to be in control over everything, it’s in times like these where we are focused on the problem, not the solution (or even potential solutions)… But it’s in times like these as well, where we begin to ask God for peace and for divine intervention. After that, patience and trust is pretty much all up to us isn’t it?
Oh! Talking about trust, you know, something rather absurd happened just recently… Well, I’m pretty sure that you do know about that swine flu “pandemic” don’t you? And I’m certain that you are aware that my graduation ceremony is going to be held this coming Monday as well, right? Anyway, two days ago, I received news that the ceremony would be postponed until further notice. I shan’t get into the reasons behind that major decision – I believe that it’s partially sensible and partially stupid, though I figure that you have already found the link between sick, cute pigs and the why they’ve decided to do away with such events for the time being. Well, it was a series of unfortunate events, really. We had plans to go down from the weekend, we had hotel rooms booked, et cetera… Nonetheless, in the past 12 hours or so, it has all been overturned. Thank goodness that the organizers have finally come to their senses!
Okay. I really should stop here. It’s been a long one and I bet you have more interesting things to do. I’ll write again soon alright! Take care and love much! (:
Amongst Other Things…
Updates from a place called home:
Employment commences in a month, Graduation coincidentally falls on the same day – May 11th to be exact. I haven’t poured much thought into it so watch this space. I shall keep all ye faithful posted once I’ve spent enough time dwelling on it.
I’ve been home for a couple of weeks now with nothing much on the agenda besides the odd book, some films and a fair bit of traveling around the country, especially in the week(s) to come.
Oh, the Chelsea game was really disappointing – a rather dismal, below-par performance leaving us with the uphill task of needing to score at least three goals at the Bridge. Oh well, can we do it? Why yes, we can! (Note: I am honestly optimistic about it). Lol! (;
Anyway, y’all have a good Easter! Over and out.
