All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them…

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.

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.

“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!

Earth Hour 2009 happens to be a week away; 28 March, 8.30 p.m. to be exact. Last year, I managed to play a teeny part in preventing (or more realistically, prolonging) global warming with a candle light dinner in the middle of Fortitude Valley. Next week, I expect myself to be sitting in darkness, blogging perhaps?

On a side note, here are my two cents worth after reading a random YouTube comment on ‘how sad it is that the video above has only over 300,000 views’ and apparently, it is a reflection of how much people care. It’s a wonder how these people think! Caring is relative to YouTube hits? To be honest, Earth Hour would be of little use if nobody keeps it up for the remaining 364 days of the year.

Don’t get me wrong – I strongly believe that the head-fake of Earth Hour is to raise awareness by reminding society that a future with global warming would be calamitous to say the least, and that its’ yardstick of success wouldn’t be based on how many people turn off their lights (the aim for 2009: one billion people) but rather the number of people that would continue with their energy-saving efforts.

Have a good one people! And do remember to Vote Earth! Gosh, the humanitarian in me is finally emerging! Woohoo! :D

I’m watching the live telecast of the 81st Academy Awards and Jerry Lewis, a comedian, has just received the Jean G. Hersholt award. Less than two minutes after his acceptance speech, I decided to Google his name and unsurprisingly, there was Wikipedia with an entry on his life.

Scrolling all the way down, under the Honors and Awards category, was this…

Lewis is a 2009 inductee of the New Jersey Hall of Fame. He just got some award on the Oscars for lifetime achievement or something [24]

Yay!

A minute later, I decided to refresh the page and this came up instead…

Lewis is a 2009 inductee of the New Jersey Hall of Fame. He just got some award on the Oscars for lifetime achievement or something [24]

Received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

I find it really amusing that information can be edited within mere seconds of a live telecast. No complaints though. That’s what you get for free! Okay, back to the Oscars! Later!

Recently, I turned on the magic box and immediately, I was greeted by a Toyota ad quoting Albert Einstein – If at first an idea isn’t absurd, there’s no hope for it – the subsequent seconds explained Toyota’s absurd idea in creating a Hybrid vehicle. The advertisement then cheekily ended with “The idea is absurd? Maybe”.

Hours later, Eintein’s words proved to be an epiphany for an update as I reminisced of the absurd events that has defined the year 2008 so far…

Malaysian elections where the BN lost its’ two-third majority in Parliamentary seats. Who would have thought that after 50 years, BN’s dominance has finally been halted by who else but the Malaysian voters themselves who have come to realize that the idea isn’t absurd after all…

Michael Phelps – 8 gold medals and 7 world records. Enough said.

The United States Presidential Election. It would have been absurd to think that so many people would have believed in Obama’s “Change” philosophy. Not only did he become the first African-American President, his campaign raised the most money and he won the elections by a clear mile.

Offhand, that’s about all I can recall for now. Personally though, I find it absurd that my graduation isn’t too far away, that this is my first update after a month’s hiatus, and that I can’t think of other absurd happenings right now. Cheerios! ( :

If I may so selectively read into the title above and shift the attention from its’ biblical side to its’ literal meaning, I’d end up with this: the predicament of knowing that with truth comes freedom but at the same time, not wanting to know what the truth is at all. In other words, ignorance is bliss? No?

Many a time, when we’re presented with opportunities to know the truth, we shun away from them. Simply said, we’d rather live a lie. I, for one, find myself too eager to make sense of my (and sometimes, of other people’s) circumstances. Being typically pessimistic, I’d think of extremely irrational reasons on why things are the way they are, why things aren’t turning out the way they’re supposed to, so on and so forth. Looking back, not only has the view from my cynical telescope been a nauseating one, but the audacity of this thinking process has backfired terribly.

So often, when a simple question could be enough to stop the train of thoughts in it’s tracks, we choose to ignore it and opt for the path that is seemingly more promising, despite the obvious danger: the path of ignorance. We choose to overlook the truth, knowing that the truth might just jeopardize our comfort zones. But what does ‘truth’ in the above title refer to anyway? For instance, imagine someone who has acquired HIV (or any other sexually-transmitted, or even hereditary disease), and is completely unaware of it. (And no! I am not dropping indirect hints that I’ve an STD of any sort.) Would knowing the truth be of any relief at all? And would this kind of truth be related to the truth that sets us free?

This is where the ‘ignorance’ card is played to its’ strengths. Some of us would like to know as much as we can but some of us would only want to know what we want to know. Being ignorant isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To be honest, I’ve always welcomed the Que Sera Sera personality to a certain extent but lately, I’ve not been particularly successful in endorsing it. Still, I find the truth to be rather confusing as much as it is intimidating.

So yeah, we can be the most ignorant people on earth and turn a blind eye to the truth for as long as we want to but ultimately, I believe that the truth matters. And about the truth setting us free? Well, that’s surely up to us isn’t it? After all, the truth (no pun intended) is out there…

Pre-Registration Consolidation Placement (PRCP) began today and for the first time in two and a half years, I didn’t count the number of days I have left! Maybe it’s because counting would require more math this time around – read: FOURTEEN weeks! And that does not include another four weeks of specialized posting thrown in the midst of my PRCP.

Well, ever thought about whether animals go to heaven (or just an afterlife in general)? A few of us were having a little debate about this just the other day and I thought that my cell leaders’ take on it was the most sensible one. Anyway, he thinks that it’s possible that once animals die, they’d have an afterlife waiting for them. Here’s why… Similar to us humans, animals have souls too. Yes, my ignorant readers. Animals have souls. And the soul, is where spiritual beings attach themselves to. For example, when we become Christians, God grants us his Holy Spirit to be attached to our soul. The same principle could be applied to animals as well! No? Balaam’s donkey could speak when God opened its’ mouth. And even in the New Testament, Jesus drove Legion into the pigs before they drowned themselves. These are the two examples that we were talking about anyway.

Apart from that, there’s nothing much to shout about during my past one week or so. Oh yeah, I saw a wannabe real Gothic girl on the train the other day. You’d know it’s real when people dress in black from head to toe with a dozen piercings or so on their faces (ears not included), and the disturbing thought that even without the unnecessary facial decorations, they’d still look scary as shit. Oh well, I wouldn’t label her a weirdo though. How would you conclude that someone’s a weirdo anyway? Like, if you break the law, you’re an outlaw. If you break the moral code, you’re a freak. But a weirdo? Would going against the norms of society suffice? I don’t know and I honestly am not really bothered to know as well.

Okay, that’s all – my Discoveries - as Elaine would call them. Haha. Take care and goodnight!

Well apparently, the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. And from the first few letters, you don’t need rocket science to safely conclude that the meaning is somewhat “lung-related”. Nevertheless, I think it’s ironic that such a long word refers to a lung disease. Imagine the number of breaths you’d need to pronounce that! Thankfully though, such cases are not found in Singapore otherwise I’d definitely skip that during my handover. Haha.

Oh and if you’re afraid of long words, there’s even a condition for it called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – which is, ironically (again) the fear of long words. Why on earth would such a word be used to describe people who are simply terrified of long words to begin with? I mean, picture this…

Doctor: I’m afraid you have what we call, Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

There’s an awkward silence as the patient stares at the doctor in disbelief when all of a sudden, thud! The patient drops to the floor, eyes rolled back, throwing fits…

Okay, I might be exaggerating. But still, we can’t be sure of anything, can we? (:

Okay. How many times have we heard people use the term “falling in love” or even, how many times have we used it? I kinda have my doubts about the choice of words though. Maybe it’s just me but allow me to shed some light on this.

By saying that we are falling, it gives us the perception that when we’ve fallen in love, we can’t really be blamed for it, can we? Being our defensive selves, we’ve actually decided to absolve ourselves of all blame by saying that being in love isn’t much of a choice after all. And what about this, if we’ve fallen in love (like falling into a pit, for instance), is there even a possibility of us falling out of it? Can we fall out of pits? Does it not make sense?

Anyway, in my previous post, the chorus of Jars of Clay’s Love Song for a Savior is simply I want to fall in love with You. Now by phrasing it this way, falling in love is a choice to begin with! But then again, we simply can’t be irresponsible beings by saying that we’re helpless when it comes to love.

So yeah… Falling in love? For real? Think about it. (: