moved

i don't know how to put it into words really.

Children of God. i quietly thought to myself what could possibly warrant such a title. there was no synopsis. no trailers. a simple documentary featured at the toronto reel asian film festival. i doubt that anyone's even heard of the director, seung-jun yi.

flowers in a murky river. perpetually flowing. little glimpses of the river bed. the sand, the pebbles. the camera brushes against a free diver. no, it was a child. it all seemed so jovial. one can't help but feel the sense of serenity.

but what lay ahead was anything but serene - a dark and moody peer into the meandering story of life and death.

the nepalese hindus believe that heaven lies at the end of the bagmati river. and the river gathers the souls of those cremated at its steps at the pashupatinath temple in kathmandu. for the deceased it may be the gateway to their journey in the after-life, but for some of the living, it is the only reason they're still alive.

the life story is about 12 year old alesh poudel. for him and his family, home is the temple. the deceased provide a means of survival. fishing for coins from the river with magnets and scavenging everything from gold fillings to offerings to the gods, that was the way they got by. hanging on to life by the skin of their teeth.

one quote especially struck a chord that deeply resonated within me. it was like one of those minor 7th chords with an added 13th. it aches the heart.

it says "i'm 12 and will die at 13... just because... because i just want to die."

i couldn't help but feel a little estranged. for someone so young to say something like that. the loss of innocense and the profound sadness...

the imagery, the music, the words. they all come together with the river forming an inseparable backdrop. the tapestry of life. and those unnamed ones. those of whom the world passed by without taking a second look.

what is the reason? why are we here? and why are there those who suffer in silence.

+listening to: nothing

» Read the Full Post of " moved "...

another city, another tragedy

got rear-ended slightly while on the way home. some buffoon nicked me with his license plate screws just as i was accelerating away from gate security. yes i was driving without an official license and yes i've added yet another little ding to the trusty family vehicle besides the ten million other ones i'm responsible for.

but it wasn't my fault this time. that buffoon hit me. and he hit me driving a CITY.

oh for pete's sake. why, of all things, a city? this just reaffirms my belief that nobody, NOBODY, under any circumstances should purchase a honda city as their mode of transport. that means even if you're held at gunpoint. death by firing squad is more dignified than actually owning one of those ghastly things, let alone driving around town in it.

there's not a single angle from which a person would have a look and associate it with "beauty" or "elegance". maybe those concepts are a little aloof and snobbish. how about lets try erm... "car-like"? ...nope, doesn't look anything like it.

i very much prefer the rear view of donkey to that of a city. and with that kind of money i could afford half a dozen donkeys and stare at their collective behinds all day. and then i'd have enough dough left over for a chariot, with battle spikes in the wheel hub, ala the gladiator. and i bet this simple setup goes faster than the city too. not to mention the absolutely terrified looks of onlookers and their severed limps that i'd be leaving behind in my bloody wakes.

there's not another car on the face of this planet uglier than a city. well, maybe the pt cruiser. but the pt cruiser is american. all american cars are ugly by default. just like a "fat italian" or a "short german", a "good-looking american car" simply wouldn't make any grammatical sense at all.

and if for any reason you managed to spot a decent looker in one, that's because it's really a major manufacturing mishap: bob or steve at the plant down in alabama probably left the machines on while they went out for a donut and a cup of joe.

so the moral of the story? you're better off with a herd of donkeys than a honda city. and they taste better too on the bbq when the mileage has read somewhere in the 200,000 miles. while it is true that their meat maybe rather tough and no longer juicy, at least they'd be like good cross-trainers for your mouth, something to do when you’re not smoking.

you can't eat your honda city after it's reached the end of its lifespan now can you?


+listening to: something's missing by john mayer trio

» Read the Full Post of " another city, another tragedy "...

tidbit

did you know the L in JBL stands for Lancing as in Altec Lancing?

look under James B. Lancing on wikipedia.

yea time to stop nerding.


+listening to: mojo pin by jeff buckley

» Read the Full Post of " tidbit "...

oh so you think

i was told last night that a certain person thinks i am fat upon our first meeting.

well, the truth is i am. i may have love handles (note the plural) and i may have a slight beer belly that causes my body to lean forward a wee bit too much. but that doesn't imply that i am useless. it's like saying someone is short and therefore he must be rubbish at singing.

i can sneeze with my eyes wide open. i will also wrestle a horse to the ground in 10 seconds flat while reciting the entire english alphabet backwards, all 30 of them. would you still call that useless?

in fact, did you know that 35% of fat people are more intelligent than their skinny counterparts in the same age group? you didn't? well that's because it isn't true. but i bet the stats are even higher.

and all this because i read about getting involved today. and here is step one: stand up to an accusation and make right what isn't.

nah... i'm just kidding.

+listening to: nothing

» Read the Full Post of " oh so you think "...

well well well

typing this post (the physical act) is a joy. i never thought i'd say that. it's like writing by telepathy. and here for example, this tilde that you see ~, i didn't touch the keyboard at all, i was simply using the power of suggestion.

i should explain myself. i was out at the downtown district where IT is the name of the game. there're just entire malls devoted to all kinds of gadgets. well i was actually looking for a laptop stand to prop my laptop up, my neck had been feeling a little wonky lately. anyways to cut a long story short, somewhere along the way i kind of got side-tracked, and i came home not just with the laptop stand, but also a 2gb ram chip for my laptop.

now imagine to my amazement everything just seemed to start happening at warp speed, on my computer that is. it's as if the thing has suddenly ingested some testes and decided to tear the internet apart. that's like saying i've got a jet-propelled elephant, a turbo-charged donkey. well maybe i do.

after a while the term "lag" simply wasn't in my vocabulary anymore, except maybe when accompanied by the prefix "jet" and then "-ged" at the rear to describe the feeling after about half an hour of surfing around the web. about time i say.

so boys and girls, why not give it a try. 3gb of ram in your computer might just spell lurv for your dusty old machines.


+listening to: get rhythm by johnny cash

» Read the Full Post of " well well well "...

strangely at peace

woke up today feeling less anxious than yesterday, less anxious than the day before. actually come to think of it, i haven't felt this tranquil for a long time. it's like the stone that i've been crawling under has been lifted off my shoulder.

+listening to: hollow years by dream theater

» Read the Full Post of " strangely at peace "...

nothing but pictures

capturing the eclipse using a filter:

before and after:

and a taste of the old china:

+listening to: in the wee small hours of the morning by frank sinatra

» Read the Full Post of " nothing but pictures "...

not for the faint hearted

met jing lin and her cousin today. i'd just like to say that shopping with women takes a certain amount of nerve and patience. and i fully admire their ability to just shop and shop and shop and shop, then shop some more. there is no power greater than their will power to shop, and there's no strength tougher than their mental strength to carry on.

oh and here's something interesting i saw:

+listening to: nothing

» Read the Full Post of " not for the faint hearted "...