Saturday, November 29, 2003
i have always had the honor to experience great friendships with many people. i assumed that i already knew all there is to know about friendship.
but i also admit that i have had some really great friends that have been extremely understanding and honest with me. they extend their warmest regards to me, accept me and have me in their thoughts many a times.
i have been truly lucky in this respect, but that only shows my ineptness at reciprocating the kindness. i think many of my friends have treated me better than i treat them, and i feel remorseful.
nevertheless, being a good friend involves being at the side of someone, when they need you the most, where you can be supportive of each other's emotional states. it is being able to stick around, through the chaos of life, and the most troubling of incidents, and responding positively to the situation when someone needs that relief.
Bob says that there are three criteria to having true friendship, and i find them most succinct but also humbling.
1) When one dies, a good friend will mourn his passing and show his respect at the funeral.
2) When one asks for a favor, not matter how big or small, a good friend will try his best to fulfil it
3) When one is going through the worst of times, a good friend will be by his side, sharing the pain and bringing him into the light
true friendship is hard to find, and even harder to keep. i apologize for ever letting anyone down, and thank those who have been instrumental in making me understand what true friendship is.
but i also admit that i have had some really great friends that have been extremely understanding and honest with me. they extend their warmest regards to me, accept me and have me in their thoughts many a times.
i have been truly lucky in this respect, but that only shows my ineptness at reciprocating the kindness. i think many of my friends have treated me better than i treat them, and i feel remorseful.
nevertheless, being a good friend involves being at the side of someone, when they need you the most, where you can be supportive of each other's emotional states. it is being able to stick around, through the chaos of life, and the most troubling of incidents, and responding positively to the situation when someone needs that relief.
Bob says that there are three criteria to having true friendship, and i find them most succinct but also humbling.
1) When one dies, a good friend will mourn his passing and show his respect at the funeral.
2) When one asks for a favor, not matter how big or small, a good friend will try his best to fulfil it
3) When one is going through the worst of times, a good friend will be by his side, sharing the pain and bringing him into the light
true friendship is hard to find, and even harder to keep. i apologize for ever letting anyone down, and thank those who have been instrumental in making me understand what true friendship is.
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
This week and the next will be the most gruelling test of academic endurance for me. I have been slaving away on my computer every night the past few days, trying to churn out papers after papers. I have been typing so much that my upper arms and shoulders have started to get cramps. but then I can only go on typing, trying not to distract a particular train of thought. so there i sit, by my computer, my back stoic and rigid due to the paralysing cramp, and my forearm, limp and bloated, my hands, the only parts of my body that are receiving instructions from my brain, and the the fingers tapping... tapping... tapping...
Saturday, November 22, 2003
Sentosa: The Post-Modernist Ideoscape
If Jean Baudrillard had been to Sentosa, the tropical resort-style island just minutes from the Singapore mainland, he would definitely deem it as a simulacra.
Sentosa has the marks of a post-modernist landscape. For what makes a tropical island a tropical island are its beaches and palm trees. And in Sentosa, even the sand and the palm trees have to be imported from Indonesia. The very notion of an island is a fabrication there.
If Jean Baudrillard had been to Sentosa, the tropical resort-style island just minutes from the Singapore mainland, he would definitely deem it as a simulacra.
Sentosa has the marks of a post-modernist landscape. For what makes a tropical island a tropical island are its beaches and palm trees. And in Sentosa, even the sand and the palm trees have to be imported from Indonesia. The very notion of an island is a fabrication there.
Monday, November 17, 2003
Seeing qian4 nu3 you1 hun2 (A Chinese Ghost Story) brings back fond memories. I grew up on a diet of Hong Kong ghost and zombie films, and they, to me, are what Asian horror is all about. Now, with the flood of visceral body horror genres coming from Japan and Korea, and even Singapore's Raintree, I am having a longing for the 80s HK flick. Movies where humor and horror interwines into a bittersweet visual treat.
I recall watching the film when it first came out, probably when I was 10 years old. But I never remembered the erotic nature of it. The version I first saw was perhaps a censored-for-television version that was more family-oriented.
But I do recall the scene where Joey Wong takes off her top, and force-kisses Leslie Cheung into a big tub of water that he was hiding in. But there wasn't anything too overtly sexual when I first saw it. It seemed more like something to giggle at.
Now that I see it again, more than ten years later, and with puberty far behind me, the sexual innuendoes simply fly at my face.
Today, I sat in the Lucas auditorium spellbound by Tsui Hark's imagination, but also pondering about how far I have come. From the backwaters of Ang Mo Kio New Town, I find myself living alone in one of the most cosmopolitan city, in the best film school in the world, and treading the lines between love, romance, friendship and lust.
Not only do I marvel at the transversing I have done, I also marvel at the sexual and mental maturity that is so unique and special and specific to the individual.
Not often is one reminded of the journey one has chosen to take, but today, I have been put through a reflective lesson. One that reminds me of my past, teaches me of my present mentality, and one filled with a nostalgia for the simpler days of pre-adolescent years.
I recall watching the film when it first came out, probably when I was 10 years old. But I never remembered the erotic nature of it. The version I first saw was perhaps a censored-for-television version that was more family-oriented.
But I do recall the scene where Joey Wong takes off her top, and force-kisses Leslie Cheung into a big tub of water that he was hiding in. But there wasn't anything too overtly sexual when I first saw it. It seemed more like something to giggle at.
Now that I see it again, more than ten years later, and with puberty far behind me, the sexual innuendoes simply fly at my face.
Today, I sat in the Lucas auditorium spellbound by Tsui Hark's imagination, but also pondering about how far I have come. From the backwaters of Ang Mo Kio New Town, I find myself living alone in one of the most cosmopolitan city, in the best film school in the world, and treading the lines between love, romance, friendship and lust.
Not only do I marvel at the transversing I have done, I also marvel at the sexual and mental maturity that is so unique and special and specific to the individual.
Not often is one reminded of the journey one has chosen to take, but today, I have been put through a reflective lesson. One that reminds me of my past, teaches me of my present mentality, and one filled with a nostalgia for the simpler days of pre-adolescent years.
