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Snippet Of My Life Episode 27 – Some Kind Of Diary

September 2nd, 2010 by wilfrid
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A list of random thoughts and observations that bombard me lately begins with a comment made by my good buddy whom I met for lunch at Changi, somewhere so far away that colleagues aside, I have only got two lunch buddies to hassle with and naturally, they have become – again, colleagues aside – the second and third person I see most often, first being Cynthia of course.  Fortunately, both are guys.  Otherwise, Cynthia would be very suspicious of my activities in this faraway land.

My buddy asked, “What do you write in your website?  It is not a diary.  And I can’t find any moment of intimacy* inside!”

* Note: Censored for PG rating.

I guess I am not that good in sequencing my daily thoughts and actions into one neat post.  And besides, something are better left to the readers’ imagination.  Do you consider posts like this one some kind of diary?

*     *     Best Friend At Work     *     *

Every year, we have to complete a corporate survey.  Every year, I am amused by some of the questions I have to answer openly and honestly.  The most intriguing question, philosophically speaking, is: Do you have a best friend at work?

Think.  How long does it take for me to acquire a best friend outside work?  One year?  Two years?  Many years?  After working in this company for more than three years, I am still perplexed by this same question.

So I have done some soul searching.  And I have come up with a list of what it takes to be my best friend.

  1. My best friend accepts me for what and who I am and still thinks that I am the coolest person on Earth despite all my shortcomings.
  2. That includes the fact that I am often late for my appointments and I enjoy playing video games a lot.
  3. My best friend is ever so supportive to all my ideas, always keen to listen to my ideas, even though my ideas suck at times.
  4. My best friend and I trust each other with our lives.  When I say “Jump?”, I know I am not the only one who will dive in.
  5. My best friend fixes all my problems and make me the coolest person on Earth.

Tell me.  Do you have a best friend at work?  If you do, I am truly happy for you.

*     *     Who Cares?     *     *

I find the following question equally mind-boggling: Does your supervisor, or someone at work, care for you as a person?

Who cares if someone at work care for me as a person if my boss doesn’t?

Inspired by a question on whether or not my good work has been recognised and praised upon in the past 6 months, I turned to Cynthia for an answer.  She gave me a definite yes.  Her colleagues at work are the supportive kind.  I was in tears.  Happy for her.  When I gave her my answer, she too was in tears.  But not the same kind of tears.

All of a sudden, at a macro level, I think I have unlocked the mystery of why some people spend so much more time at work than at home, thinking about work all the time, and messing with their business phones all the time.  Take me as an example.  My direct competitors are Cynthia’s colleagues, who are showering her with praises and recognition during working hours.  If I am not giving her as much, if not more at home to balance that out, she would prefer to spend more time at work.  Make sense?  Here is a list of I-mean-what-I-say-when-I-say-to-Cynthia for sharing.

  1. You are the best!
  2. You smell great (any time of the day).
  3. You look great (even when her sensitive skin acts up).
  4. I love your hair (even when her hair flies everywhere).
  5. You are the best!

As for Cynthia, she is the lucky one.  She does not need to do much for I am getting none at work.

*     *     Where Are The Aliens     *     *     *

We have not found any aliens.  Are we looking at the wrong places?  Or we are looking at the wrong thing?  Recently, scientists suggest that aliens may have evolved into sentient machines.  The pinnacle of evolution.  That, my friends, sound very much like one of my favorite video games Mass Effect.

Are video games art?  Don’t some qualify as the expression or application of creative skill and imagination, typically in visual form, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power – as defined by the Oxford dictionary?

Video games transcend the meaning of art.  Video games foretell our future.

Back to the aliens, if you were to ask me, in my wildest imagination, I think aliens have the following attributes.

  1. All female species evolved to physical perfection.
  2. After the age of 24, physical appearance stays that way for as long as they live (note: I wanted to write 18 but some of you may think that I am a pervert).
  3. Able to read our minds – when we want it, how we want it.
  4. Long hair, long legs.
  5. …*

* Note: Censored for PG rating.

*     *     Daily Surprises     *     *

Here are something about me that some of you may have observed.

  1. Very easily excitable.
  2. Attack all things with passion.
  3. Appears to have all the time in the world to do different things in life.
  4. Does not appear to run out of things to do …
  5. … even though some of these things that I write and do make me looks like an idiot – retrospectively speaking.

Recently, I have made my first attempt to order Japanese music albums from the Amazon Japan website.  It was an exhilarating experience as I do not read Japanese.  I had no idea I could do it but I did it nonetheless.  Talking about Japanese efficiency, there is only one shipment option: express.  The moment my order was received, the shipment arrived at my doorstep within 24 hours.  I am impressed.  Very impressed.  I was so happy to see the DHL delivery man.  Being a DHL delivery man must be one of the most rewarding jobs on Earth.  I would love to see the smile of people every time I make a delivery.  Talking about recognition and praises at work.

One of the few things that keep the trapped Chilean miners from getting depressed – according to the news – is to give them daily surprises.  Daily surprises destroy monotony and boredom.  Perhaps that is why I keep on creating opportunities to give myself daily surprises.

*     *     Drowning In The Stream Of Consciousness     *     *

… and yes, driving away from town - after dropping off Cynthia at her office - away from the traffic congestion, the rudeness and ruthlessness of the drivers, especially the taxi drivers, and away from some of the unpleasant memories of working in town for a decade or so, I feel such freedom when I am propelled to the highway, heading towards the east, towards the blinding morning sun, the smooth traffic, a future yet to be written, and on my way to an office that is less than half a year old, a place dotted scarcely with commercial buildings, a place covered with green turf and palm trees and in the middle of the business park, a man-made lake with a man-made tiny fountain, and yes, even that short palm tree in the middle of the road, which I often have my face poked by its sharp and hard leaves while I was not paying attention – I cannot stop but to think of the many things I have grown to love about Changi: the butterflies, the fresh air, the tranquility, the sun, and the morning dew that wets my shoes when I walk across a long green field as part of my daily walking ritual after lunch for there are nothing else to do in Changi Business Park except to work on the 3rd floor, and eat on the 6th floor, and work, and eat, and yes, it is possible to make the daily routine more interesting by introducing other routines such as the daily lunch time walk, such as staring at the blue sky through the window by my desk to admire the aeroplanes of different shapes and size and airlines take off by the minutes – such are the scenes that will stay the same tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and many years to come, eating up my life one day at a time initially, and when I am not paying attention, one month at a time, one year at a time, one decade at a time …

PS. An experimental piece on the “drowning in the stream of consciousness” writing style as inspired by Thomas Foster’s book on reading novels.

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How To Read Novels Like A Professor – Thomas C. Foster – Be Inspired As A Reader Or A Writer

August 31st, 2010 by wilfrid
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This book is a heavy read for me, despite the amiable effort by the author to make it as readable as it can be.  The tone is friendly, the style is classroom instructional, and there are humours in the book too.  But unless you are trained in literature and are well read, you are going to go through the book in snail speed trying to digest the contents.  I may consider owning this book because reading once is not enough.  For all the effort, what do you get out of this book?  Cliché as it sounds, you may get to read novels like a professor.  As for me, I am still far from that goal.  Probably need to work a lot harder to get there.

“How To Read Novels Like A Professor” is structured in 22 chapters that are creatively named (such as Met-him-pike-hoses or Source Codes and Recycle Bins and my favorite When Very Bad People Happen To Good Novels).  Each chapter deals with one aspect of reading novels.  Some I am familiar with (or I have a conceptual preexisting idea).  Some I have unheard of.  Like the 18th episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses that begins and ends with the word “yes”.  That one sentence can go on and go forever.  What a demonstration of the meaning of drowning in the stream of consciousness.

The book starts with what readers can derive from the first page of a novel.  Namely style, tone, mood, diction, point of view, narrative presence and attitude, time frame, time management, place, motif, theme, irony, rhythm, pace, expectations, character, and instructions on how to read a novel.  Something familiar to – I presume – literature students (but not I of course).  Did you know that as far as narration goes, there are only seven possibilities and each has a different set of effects and functions?  The author then moves away from the basic and into subtle but important observations on how a novel is constructed, what to look out for.  For example, characters are made out of words that may not fully describe the characters.  It is the readers who ‘supply our own storehouse of information about how people or objects look in real world’ (that reminds me of the movie “Inception“).  It is impossible to write a novel describing all the details involved in, say, half a billion people achieving their freedom from colonial rule.  But a writer can help to form the picture by looking through the eyes of a main character.  The readers would supply the rest.  Any idea which book I am referring to (see footnote)?

Throughout the book, the author stresses the point that a novel is a work of fiction, the story is not real.  But yet, some novels are able to captivate readers’ attention and imagination.  Thomas Foster then examines a large repository of novels putting some of them side by side to illustrate his points.  I wish I have read even a fraction of what he has quoted.  Fortunately, Foster has done an excellent job in narrating some parts of the stories so as to make some of us who are not as well read feel inclusive to the discussion.

I agree with the author that it is the readers who keep a novel alive.  And books lead to books, ideas to ideas.  Although this book is titled as such, I am convinced that it is equally essential for those who are aspired to be a novelist.  At the end of the book, there is a list of books for further reading.  This list could be of value to those who are into this topic.  Believe it or not, I do own one of the recommended books: Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1988) by Italo Calvino.  Now, that is a heavy read and I have yet to finish reading it, despite the numerous attempts.

PS. The book I was referring to is called Midnight’s Children written by Salman Rushdie.

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Categories: Book Reviews · Non-Fiction
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Day 3 And We Went Up The Towers Of Notre-Dame

August 29th, 2010 by wilfrid
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Finally, the blue sky appeared on the third day of our holiday.  We switched from museum crawling to monument crawling.  If I am to pick one place in Paris I love to hang out the most, that has to be the two islands – Ile de la Cité and Ile St-Louis – in the center of the city.  These two islands are so tiny but yet, to me, they are the focal point of the numerous momuments in Paris.  That is why when you climb the 387 steps and stand on the top of the south tower of Notre-Dame, you can see Sainte-Chapelle, Hôtel-Dieu, Palais de Justic, Arc de Triomphe, echoed by Grande Arche de La Défense to the west.  Saint-Jacques Tower and Sacré-Cœur rise up over Montmartre to the north.  To the east, the Bibliothèque Nationale and to the south, the Latin district and turning westwards, Les Invalides.

To read more about the third day of our trip, here are the options.

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Categories: Photography · Travel Blog
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The Expendables – Now, That Is Loud

August 29th, 2010 by wilfrid
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I can understand why this film receives mixed reviews.  And I can also understand why this film is doing quite well, commercially speaking.  Audiences love to feel good.  We love to see our heroes beating up the bad guys, many bad guys.  And we hate to see our heroes getting hurt or get killed.  “The Expendables” delivers just that, with a big team of stars.  I was not expecting anything intelligent from the plot and hence, this film works for me.  Some dialogs can be entertaining too.  The clip with the uncredited Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis is probably one of my favorites (though some may cringe).  There is not much acting to highlight per se.  But I enjoy watching one particular scene as Mickey Rourke recounts the past.  That is a convincing piece of acting.

I am a big fan of Stallone and his career thus far has inspired me to rise up to the challenge against all odds (that Rocky theme song still plays inside my head when that happens).  Directed and co-written by Stallone, “The Expendables” is full of loud action.  Some action scenes are so incredible that can only be seen in a shoot-them-all type of video game.  The story is pretty simple.  A CIA officer has hired the mercenary group called The Expendables to kill off a dictator in a fictitious island backed by an ex-CIA agent.  And in the mist of this, the general’s daughter whom seems to disagree with her father’s dictatorship is involved.  Hardly an epic storyline, I must agree.  But it is good to see the actors having fun with the scenes like good old friends.

We watched this film at Cathay Cineleisure and the sound effect was loud, really loud: The gunfire and the explosion and let’s not forget that super loud machine gun that is capable to blow bodies and military structures into pieces with a single shot or two.  Fortunately, not everyone in The Expendables equips that I-win weapon.  I like the knife fight better.  More stylish to watch.

And yes, there is some blood and gore.  But worries not.  I have seen worse on screen, much worse.  It was the loud sound effect that seemed to bug me, for just a bit.

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Categories: Action & Thriller · Movie Reviews
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Metallica – Francais Pour Une Nuit – A Must Have HD Concert Recording For Fans

August 26th, 2010 by wilfrid
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I have watched concert recordings of different sorts.  It is the first time I see one hosted inside an ancient Coliseum, where gladiators battled for their lives thousands of years ago.  From the moment James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo entered through the gladiator tunnel, till the last song of the set, this 2-hour long concert electrified both Cynthia and I.  We were exhausted after watching the show in HD format.  2 hours, we were glued in front of the TV, waving our hands and jumping on the floor.  Cynthia remembers the lyrics so she could sing along with some of the songs.  I was in high spirit when they played “The Day That Never Comes” and “Nothing Else Matters”.  Yes, I can be a softy at heart.

Consider the relatively small price difference between the Blu-ray format and the DVD format, HD is a worthy investment.  With the high clarity in picture and audio quality, “Francais Pour Une Nuit” has captured the essence of the live performance well.  There were cameras that scanned through the cheering crowd, there were cameras that took close-up shots on each band member, and there was a camera that ran along the rail placed in front of the stage (that unfortunately tends to shake a bit due to the vibration coming from the bass drums).  The entire concert setup and recording was made by the French.  Metallica purposely wanted this concert to be as French as it could be.  With such a historical venue in Nîmes (South of France), it is a suiting decision to capture the essence of the location and the people behind it too.

Cynthia loves Metallica’s first album (1983) to the “Black Album” (1991).  Because she listens to Metallica since the beginning.  As for me, I love their “Black Album” all the way to the most recent release “Death Magnetic” (2008).  That was when I started listening to Metallica.  Hence you can imagine that while we watched “Francais Pour Une Nuit”, some songs got Cynthia excited more and other songs got me on my feet more.  Looking at the song list, you bound to question why some songs are not included.  For Cynthia, she yearned for “… And Justice For All” while for me, “The Unforgiven”.  Inside the 40 minutes interview, Lars shared with the viewers that they have a song list of over 70 songs and they aim to play different sets at different venues in order to keep themselves alert.

We like this recording because it is evident that each band member has given his all.  James, he is always charismatic on stage.  His guitar riffs are beautiful.  The way he rallied the crowd, we could feel it even though we were in front of our TV.  Robert is as usual, entertaining to watch on stage.  The frequent eye contacts he has with Lars – as later on expressed during the interview – is due to the fact that he as a bassist needs to feel connected with the drummer and to feel the flow of the beats.  And Lars, what a joy to watch.  He could hold the beats fast and steady, seated or on his feet.  He must be the most hardworking man on stage.  Initially, Kirk did not seem to receive as much air time as the rest of the members.  But when he did, it was when he was playing his mad guitar solos.  Kirk admitted in the interview that he does not necessarily play the same solo all the time.  I suppose that is what make the performance comes alive.

Some tracks moved the crowd better than others.  I guess that is fact in life.  Some songs are so majestically executed that you could see the triumphant joy and expression of James at the end of the track.  The success of “Death Magnetic” has played a vital role in the success of their tour because often, the crowd tends to like the more familiar classic tracks better.  However, some of the songs taken from the new album did just as well, meshing in cohesively with their songs written 25 years ago.

I cannot think of any metal band that can deliver a performance as electrifying as Metallica; I cannot think of a more unique venue than an ancient Coliseum; I cannot think of a better media format to capture the essence of the live concert today than in HD.  Hence, if you are a Metallica fan, “Francais Pour Une Nuit” in Blu-ray format is a must-have.  Stick around for the 40 minutes interview too.  It is interesting to see how each member responded to the same question differently (in the backdrop of the Coliseum) – from the “true value” of the band to their involvement with the game “Guitar Hero”.

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Categories: Blu-ray / DVD Review
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Koalas and Kangaroos, Penguins and Black Swines

August 24th, 2010 by wilfrid
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Note: This photo was taken in 2007 using my point-and-shoot camera during our trip to Australia.  I needed to make a short speech on one of my holidays in Spanish.  Panic, I have started writing in simple 5th grade English and hoped to translate this piece of writing into Spanish on the way to my class.  That did not work out.

I wanted to visit Australia because I love koalas.  I love koalas because they are cute. But I read that they can be quite fearsome.  Their claws are sharp and some of them carry sexually transmitted diseases.  They move slowly.  Fortunately there are no leopards or snakes in Australia.  Otherwise, koalas are easy targets.  They would have been extinct by now.

Koalas are driven to the blink of extinction because of their low sex drive.  I wonder if taking the blue pills would help them to procreate better.  Koalas love to hug trees, only eat one type of leaves – eucalyptus leaves.  I read that eucalyptus leaves are poisonous, like drugs.  That is why it takes the koalas a long time to digest.  That is why most of the time they look stoned, as though they are high on drug.  I like their evolved siblings – wombats.  Once upon a time, wombats had collectively decided to diversify their dietary, to live on the ground, and to make love not on trees.  This seems to be a more successful strategy.  If you look at the butt of a wombat, you may mistake it as a koala.  That was why Cynthia got me a wombat soft toy during her first visit to down south when I specifically asked for a koala.

Australia has a lot of sun, very little water.  Cynthia and I have visited a national park.  When we saw a herd of kangaroos running across a valley, I jumped out of the car in excitement and took out my small point and shoot camera.  By the time my camera was ready for action, the kangaroos had disappeared into the charcoal coloured bushes.  There had been a recent forest fire due to dry weather.  But that did not stop me from admiring the animals of the wild.  I was brought up in a city. Most animals I see are served as food on my dining table.  I have tried eating kangaroo meat.  It is tough.  It does not taste like chicken.  I have a theory that everything except beef, pork, and fish tastes like chicken – such as snake.  In fact, kangaroo meat does not taste like anything at all.

It was Chinese New year.  And we visited a casino by a river.  Outside the casino there were tents with pigs inside.  One pig was black in colour and it got me excited.  I thought that all pigs were pink, like in the cartoons.  That black swine had big tits, many tits.  And she fed milk to piglets of black and of pink.  I was moved.  I could see racial harmony in Australia down to the animal level.

I love our trip to Australia because I got to drive a car along the Great Ocean Road.  Seeing those gigantic rocks by the ocean gave me an urge to paint in oil.  I could see rocks in the shape of koalas.  I think that is how the Australians name those rocks – 12 Koalas.  I tried to count.  But I could only find nine.  When we drove in Australia, I tended to stop whenever I saw a koala, waiting patiently for it to move.  Most of the time, they curled up like a ball and did nothing.  I stood up like a statue and did nothing.

Little Penguins are one and a half feet tall, weight about one kilogram.  At sunset, we were hiding in the dark together with the rest of the tourist, braving the cold drizzling rain, and waiting for the penguins to arrive at the shore.  When the little army of Little Penguins appeared, my heart cried in joy.  I was told that the penguins would return to their burrows and procreate.  I was happy for them.  When we left the park, I did a check underneath the car as advised in order to avoid running over a penguin by mistake.  I was disappointed when I saw none.  If I did, I would have picked it up and hide it inside the car boot.  Little penguins are like chickens, birds that cannot fly. Since its conservation status is “least concern”, I doubt Green Peace would mind if I keep one at home.  We were not allowed to take photographs.  So we bought a postcard instead.

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Categories: Travel Blog
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Click Me To Rooney

August 21st, 2010 by wilfrid
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Dear readers, here is where I really need some help from you.  For real.  From now till end of the month, click onto the short link below and share it with as many people as you can possibly harass.  The more people know about my post, the better the chance I am to meet Wayne Rooney in an all expenses paid trip to Manchester sponsored by Tiger Beer.  I will get to drink Tiger Beer with him and play dart games.  I hope he will help to hook me up with David Beckham, whom I really want to meet in real life.  I want to meet Beckham’s wife too.  On TV, Victoria looks really stunning.  I am a big fan of Spice Girls.  I wonder if Victoria could hook me up with the rest of the spicy girls and sing me “Wannabe”.  If they do, I don’t mind if Rooney tucks along with me.  To make my dream comes true, here is the short link that Tiger Beer keeps track of how many are clicking:

http://bit.ly/wilfrid4tiger

 
I am from Asia and in my tradition, when we meet someone overseas the first time, we bring something from our home country as a gift.  Since I have put aside my budget to purchase clicks from Google AdSense (not that I don’t trust you guys, just in case the clicks fall short you know), I have no money to buy a gift for Rooney.  Instead, since I draw, I have painted him a picture.  One that I am going to ask Tiger Beer to frame for me so that it will look better on the UK tabloids, when I get to present him the painting in person.

Tiger Beer wants to know how I am similar to Tiger Football Champion Wayne Rooney.  When I get older, I want to be a millionaire, just like Rooney.  Since I have way more hair then he does, I reckon I will have some time before I reach his age today.  I am an up and coming artist and celebrity (I think) and I enjoy watching football.  And I am as smart as Paul the Octopus.  I too knew that Spain would win the World Cup.  When Spain won the UEFA Cup, I started learning Spanish.  When Spain won the World Cup, I renewed my interest in learning Spanish.  ¡Hola amigo, clic en el enlace por favor!  Compártelo con tus amigos.  ¡Muchas gracias!

http://bit.ly/wilfrid4tiger

 
The real reason why I am similar to Rooney lies inside the video I have spent much time preparing.  I really want to credit my band members for the demo recording materials but I am quite sure that none of them wants to be associated with it.  It is more like a one off crazy thing we did.  The song excerpt is called “Unleash The Beast” and pardon my strong accent (I had sore throat the next day).  Unfortunately Tiger Beer does not give me much time to prepare for this blog post and so, I grab what I have.  Something like when the ball lands onto our heads, we just head it into the goal post instinctively, like Rooney does I suppose.  And I can argue with Tiger Beer later on the short notice.  I hope I won’t be red carded because of the strong language used in the video.  If you are underage, please turn off the volume or watch it with your parents (and ask them to spread and click onto my short link).

My post will be judged on presentation and creativity (60%) and buzz generation (40%).  That’s why I need your help to spread the words.  For those of you who are anticipating my weekend travel blog post, I am afraid I will need to postpone it to next week because this post has sucked all my energy I have for a weekend.  Sorry!  I hope this blog post is entertaining enough to make up for it.

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Categories: Announcement · My YouTube
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The Story Of A Boatman (La Historia Del Barquero)

August 19th, 2010 by wilfrid
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This is my latest doodle titled “Boatman And A Girl Together With Other Parties“.  I have not been drawing for quite some time.  Drawing can be therapeutic.  Especially if you have a rough day at work (like mine today).  Each stroke scraps away a little bit of the trouble in your mind.  By the time you are done with your drawing, you would be so detached from the earthy frustration and glad that the time spent not thinking of it has turned into something tangible.  Something that brings a smile to your face.

Some of you may be bored of me going through in detail how I compose my drawings.  If you have been reading on my doodle series, it is the same old symbols and linkages and a picture within a picture.

What inspired this drawing is our recent Spanish class.  We were given a story in Spanish and were tasked to first form our individual opinion and then discussed and debated within the group in order to arrive at a common conclusion.  All in Spanish of course.  What intrigued me, out of this entire exercise, is how differently we think as an individual.  It comes down to our bearings.

The story goes something like this.  A young married girl was neglected by her husband who spent most of his time working.  And she was seduced by another man while her husband was away.  How far did she go?  She had spent a night at her lover’s place on the other side of the river.  In the next morning, she woke up early and planned to reach home before her husband returned from his business trip.  At the bridge, she was hassled by a dangerously looking mad man who refused to let her pass.  Panic, she had decided to take a boat in order to cross the river.  But she had no money with her.  And the boatman refused to take her across if she did not pay in advance.

She then returned to her lover’s home asking for money.  But he refused with no explanation.  As she left her lover’s home, she remembered a bachelor friend of hers living nearby and is in platonic love with her.  When she explained her situation to her friend asking for money and he refused.  Feeling utterly disappointed, the young girl had decided to reason with the mad man.  When she tried to cross the bridge, she was killed by the mad man.

So, in your opinion, of the six characters – the girl, her husband, her lover, the mad man, the boatman, and her friend – who is the most guilty one?  And how would you rank them from the most to the least guilty?

Our class spent much time debating, attempting to arrive at a common ranking order.  It was a fun exercise.  It reminds of one of the law books my sister read.  So full of bizarre scenarios that challenge the readers to decide who the guilty ones are.

For those who are learning Spanish, here is the story in the original text.

Una joven casada, poco atendida por su marido demasiado ocupado en sus negocios, se deja seducir y va a pasar la noche con su amante en una casa situada al otro lado del río.

Para volver a casa al día siguiente, muy temprano, antes de volver su marido que está de viaje, tiene que cruzar un puente, pero un loco haciendo gestos amenazadores le impide el paso.  Corre entonces hacía un hombre que se dedica a pasar gente con su barca.  Se monta, pero el barquero le pide dinero por el viaje.  Ella no tiene dinero y aunque le suplica desesperada, el barquero se niega a pasarla si no le paga por adelantado.

La joven vuelve a casa de su amante y le pide dinero.  Él se niega sin darle explicaciones.

Se acuerda de un amigo soltero que vive en la misma orilla del río y que siempre ha sentido por ella un amor platónico, aunque ella nuca lo ha querido.  La joven le explica su situación y le pide dinero.  Pero su amigo también se niega: se siente totalmente decepcionado.

La chica vuelve a hablar con el loco, pero él no cede y la amenaza otra vez.  Al final la joven decide cruzar el puente.  El loco la mata.

¿Quién es, en tu opinión, más culpable de la muerte de la chica?

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Categories: Linguistic
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Fragments Of My Dreams Episode 15 – A Song That Lingered

August 18th, 2010 by wilfrid
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For close to a year, I have had dreamless sleep, which is unusual if you know me.  The night before, out of nowhere, Cynthia was conversing to me in purely Bahasa Indonesia.  I suppose once in a while, we have this innate desire to feel closer to our mother tongue.  I tried to hold a decent conversation with my limited knowledge of the language but soon, sleepiness hit us.  And I fell asleep.

It may not seem to be that coincidental when Cynthia’s brother Eric appeared in my dream, outside a hut or a hideout, under a hot sun, conversing with me in Bahasa Indonesia.  In this play, he whom I had not met before wanted to deliver an important message.  How could I, in my sleep, create dialogs of a foreign language convincing enough for me to recognize it as Bahasa Indonesia, I do not know.  The story goes something like this.  Cynthia and I were in some undisclosed locations ranging from a hut to a small urban city to a futuristic spaceship and what have you.  And one of the many bizarre things I did besides plotting to overthrow the incumbent militia was to gamble (!!).  In fact, I don’t even remember the act of gambling.  What I remember though was that this character Eric appeared and delivered a long speech in Bahasa Indonesia.  I referred Eric to Cynthia and later on, in a spaceship filled with blue light, he needed to borrow some cash from me.  For some strange reasons, in order to exchange my winning chips back to cash, I need to pay a commission in cash – a percentage of my winnings.  But I had no cash because I gave it to Eric.  I asked around and no one had spare cash to lend me.  Feeling helplessly frustrated at the chips worthed of $320,000 that could have been mine, I heard a song.

If you have watched Nana, the Japanese animation series, you may be able to better appreciate this part of the story.  I heard a song, a beautiful song.  My guitarist J in real life was playing in my dream, together with a friend of mine from my Spanish class (let’s call her B), on a stage, in front of an audience.  The guitar riff was minimalistic, the drum pattern was simple.  He was on the microphone and instead, that should have been me!  Cynthia - my real life bassist - and I were on our feet mesmerized by the performance – a scene tantamount to Nana and Nana watching Trapnest on stage.  At the same time, I felt as though my pride was hurt as I was not part of the performance, not part of the song creation process.

Maybe the song was not much of a song, no more than the meaningless dialog recited by Eric in my dream.  But I reckon if I was to grab my guitar in the middle of the night, I would be able to compose a song based on the fragments of a tune that lingered in my head.  Instead, I spent the whole day feeling melancholy, unable to get that tuneless song out of my head.

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Categories: Fragments of My Dreams
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First Two Days In Paris Was Colder Than We’d Anticipated

August 15th, 2010 by wilfrid
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Time flies.  If I don’t get started documenting our travel journal, year 2011 may hit me before I know it.  June this year, we have visited France.  Like our trip to Spain last year, I am going to publish an article every weekend, until I run out of materials.

I am familiar with Paris.  When I was studying in UK, I spent my summer holidays staying with my relatives in Paris, helping them with their work and in my free time, I wandered the streets of Paris.  I have worked in Paris too.  And I have always wanted to bring Cynthia to Paris and show her the city inside out.  10 years we have been married, it seems like a destination long overdued.

Late June, we would have thought the weather was going to be sunny and warm.  We landed in Paris on a cold, cold morning of 9 degree Celsius.  Time to jiggle our plan a little bit and improvise.  Below are the options to read more about our first two days of the trip.

Here is a quick peep at a highlight of our photos.

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Categories: Photography · Travel Blog
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