12.27.2002

 

whoa. finally finished watching the epic Ran on AXN.. previously only watched the 1st half of it. its so cool, the way kurosawa adapts King Lear and makes it so totally japanese. and its from the time when having large-scale battles on celluloid mean having an enormous cast of extras..

i cant manage any intellectual discussion of the movie, but anyway here's a plot summary that actually covers all the essential plot details. tragic, powerful and moving.. strangely enough these words kinda complement each other.

timestamp: anonymous 18:17 0 comments

12.25.2002

 

merry xmas everybody! so this is late by about 30 mins.. i correct myself, happy boxing day!

been such a topsy turvy day.. i cant believe wat a klutz i am. seems like ive been goofing up presents ALL xmas long! yesterday (yesterday being the 24th), i mix up presents for my family.. and today (today being the 25th) i discover that i mixed up gifts for 2 of my close frens (which i incidentally gave out on the 24th, too). and so i go all into a fluster and into crisis-solving mode.. only to discover that i made a grand faux pas cos i din despatch the wrong gifts to both people - the said gift was with me all along! argh. confused? you should be.. i still am. and its basically cos all the boxes look the same except for the chi words on the outside which the salesgirl at leofoo village helpfully wrote for me.. argh... i just get this feeling that someone, somewhere, from up above is watching all this and can barely contain his/her laughter: its like a page out of some practical joke book. *groan* somehow the helplessness of the situation doesnt lend itself very well to being retold. bah.

im sorry for the paucity of posts since i came back from roc: been swamped with stuff, multitasking as usual.. video's due on the 10th and im still going thru, aka reviewing, all the 4h of footage i took.. havent even started the capturing or better yet, the processing. so every night im home sees me starting the night on a cup of Blue Mtn Ice Coffee (or whatever the Pokka consumerized mocha is called).. working til about 0500/0600 reviewing tape.. but after a while it degenerates into a 'quick fix' of warcraft 3 or gta 3 or (good grief) jedi knight 2 that persists until i KO.. all this courtesy of my dad's spanking new office com. ill wipe the games out later.. ho ho ho (and merry xmas! ha) .. collapsing into a safari bed - after ROC im a safari bed convert - and snoozing til midday or thereabouts. =\ hence im just plain tired and not getting any work done! help..

past week has been nice, met up wif so many old frens. somehow im just too tired to talk, much less converse with people, so im sorry if i rubbed anybody off the wrong way. i keep hearing that this xmas doesnt feel so xmassy.. it din feel that way yesterday but i guess now that xmas is over already, with the benefit of hindsight its quite paltry. that said it still beats the xmas i spent in perth: alone, friendless and worst of all, bored to tears, cos practically everything - restaurants, shops, u name it - was closed firmly shut. in a way thats good, since xmas is all about family and frens, but it can also isolate and totally disjoint somebody who doesnt belong there, whether theyre just passing through or whether they just cant fit in.

ooo thats kinda sombre. what to do? i just feel that way. sometimes i feel that i blog straight from the hip (um, thats a bad paraphrase of shooting from the hip... or whatever. u get the idea, i hope) .. i cant quite seem to muster anything that even aspires to be literary. its sad.

i know why xmas doesnt exactly feel very xmassy - theres not much music mags to buy anymore, ever since ministry (middle-of-road between sleazy mixmag and the totally music muzik) folded. the recession's taking its toll, cant go on mag sprees like i used to, which makes buying stuff a carefully measured decision (i sound so irresponsible saying that) and suddenly i dont just spring for muzik anymore.. not that i frown at its contents. theyre still good. its more of since i only buy for the cd i consider carefully whether i need it or not.. and right now all i want is the oct ish.

okay its late.. im gonna sleep. got a major prac test all of today n tmr. bleah!

nice song to mull over:

Avril Lavigne - Im With You

---

I'm standing on a bridge
I'm waiting in the dark
I thought that you'd be here by now
There's nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I'm listening but there's no sound

Isn't anyone tryin to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Wont you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

I'm looking for a place
Searching for a face
Is anybody here I know
'Cause nothing's going right
And everythigns a mess
And no one likes to be alone

Isn't anyone trying to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Wont you take me by the hand
take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

Oh why is everything so confusing
Maybe I'm just out of my mind
Yea yea yea

It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand
take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you
I'm with you...

---

night night. sweet dreams. i feel all warm and fuzzy now.. its the xmas mood. *hugz* all. =)

timestamp: anonymous 16:52 0 comments

12.15.2002

 

hi all!

i survived SPITFIRE..

72++ click of hell, high water and the freezing cold with anything between 30-40kg of load (estimates vary) interspersed with command tasks (ie 'tests'). man. that's all that's on my mind now - heck i was aiming for the toilet brush award, given to the last team to come in, since that wd actually mean i finished.. as it turns out my group was superpowered and despite starting 2nd last we were 2nd for more than 3/4 of the race - literally an amazing race - losing out in the end cos a) we slept too much (and therefore had a good time) and b) one of our members had terrible blisters and we had to slow down. for the record that isnt me, tho it *is* the first time im nursing blisters.

still in ROC now, 0th (extra) day of RnR. city of tou3 liu4.. pretty neat place, i guess, tho to be honest theres nothing much to do around here, things are seriously overpriced and given that this isnt e capital there isnt anything worth doing. camped out in a movie theatre n watched a doublebill of the sweetest thing - american pie for chicks - and e road to perdition, which is such a terrific show (and great for fathers' day, too). the blend of action and drama/bonding is near-perfect and i cant quite understand why anybody wd claim its boring. mm. i cant remember the last time i went to the cinema - mayhap the last film i watched was chocolat from way back? =|

bleah. running out of time, gotta head back. thats all from me for now til i find another net cafe.. bore y'all with more roc tales some other time. and to the diaspora heading home for the hols: welcome back y'all - esp to jiaying n zuan. welcome home. htat's something i hope to be doing soon!

Gemma Hayes - Ran for Miles

---

Well I got myself a new day
And I got myself a second chance
So I headed to the bus stop
And the sun, the sun was warm on my back

Today I ran for miles
Just to see what I was made of

Today I ran for all that was mine

Well I got myself a song inside
And I got myself some full blown daylight
Wanna tell you just how hard it's been
Trying to talk myself out of jumping

Today I ran for miles
Just to see what I was made of

Today I ran for all that was mine, yeah

Today I ran for miles
Just to see what I was made of

Today I ran for all that was mine
Just to see what I was made of

Today I ran for all that was mine, yeah

---

incidentally did i mention that gemma hayes looks exactly like the quintessential brit female? post a pix sometime soon. til then! merry xmas all..

timestamp: anonymous 12:38 0 comments