That is the exact quote of what I thought this week when I realised that uni starts on Monday. This holiday has been the best holiday ever even though I stay at home most of the time. Let's see what happened this holiday. Um, strangely nothing comes to mind so I guess really nothing much happened. This realisation is even sadder than the previous one so I set out to do something exciting this week. And what's more exciting than doing an eight-movie marathon, yeah, I know my life is just so awesomely fracking exciting. In fact, I'm still recovering from all the excitement. Let's have a look at the movie I saw to capture back some of the excitement.
The first movie of the marathon was A lot like love. What can I say? Romantic comedies are the way to go if you want to see something that will definitely end well and might have some funny moments. However, I spent most of the movie remembering which movies or TV shows I saw the supporting actors from. That probably says something about the quality of this gem.
After such a promising start with the romantic comedy, I watched Children of Men next because watching another RomCom would have killed me. What can I say about Children of Men, I was kind of genuinely excited before watching this movie because of all the good reviews it received. However, it was a letdown. The performances from the actors were good, everything was good actually except for the plot which was supposed to be thought-provoking. Come on, putting illegal immigrants in cages and camps? That's sort of what the Australian government is doing to illegal immigrants. And what the camp guards did to said illegal aliens was exactly what was going on in Abu Ghraib prison. I don't find stuff that has already happened thought-provoking. At least this movie is much better than Babel (which I still don't know how to pronounce, is it pronounced babble or ba-bell?) which was another movie that received good reviews but turned out really bad for me.
The next movie on the hit list was The Human Stain. Why I chose this movie? I know it's a strange reason but because it's a thriller (or it claims itself to be a thriller) and it has Anthony Hopkins and his character in the movie is supposed to have this deep dark secret that nobody else knows. I guess I was hoping that the deep dark secret was that he was a creepy cannibal. It turns out his character is an African American and nobody knows about it. So much for deep dark secret.
So by the time I finished The Human Stain, I was desperate for anything that's entertaining and funny, I had enough of people dying or being killed or tortured by then so I went to the second romantic comedy in the pile: The Family Stone. And what a romantic comedy it was. It's not even remotely romantic, well maybe it would be if you consider a story about a girl spending Christmas with her boyfriend's incredibly rude family and managed to leave said boyfriend for his brother and then the ex-boyfriend hooks up with the girl's sister. Does that sound romantic to you? And comedy? I found myself almost cry throughout the movie and not because I was laughing too hard either. This has got to be the saddest comedy I've ever seen.
Oh gee, what is with me and picking a straight forward funny movie? I'm having very little confidence in my ability to pick out a good movie. So what I usually do when I don't know what movie to watch is to watch those teenage movies, there's no thought provoking stuff, no tragedies masquerade as comedies, they're just goofy and funny. That's why I watched Stick It next. And I got what I expected, a sort of funny movie that ends well.
Since the only teenage movie I watched on this marathon was the best movie so far, I went for another teenage movie next. And it was a big big mistake. The big mistake was Havoc. It was just so bad it's just plain bad. A movie about bored rich kids looking for excitement by joining gangs and doing drugs? These people should look at my example, don't do drugs or join gangs, watch movies instead.
I didn't finish Havoc, it was that bad. I was glad I didn't see this movie in theatre, that would be a waste of money. I watched Nacho Libre next and I'm still trying to purge the image of Jack Black's back side in tight pants. That was disturbing and I didn't like the movie. Let's just leave it at that because if I have to think about exactly what I don't like about this movie I would have to remember what Jack Black looked like in his wrestling costume with tight pants.
I know so far all the movie I've seen was bad, I was kinda pissed at the time too. You would be too if you were hoping for something good but it turned out average or just plain bad. However, the last movie I saw was just fracking awesome. It was Poseidon. Imagine Titanic without the love story and only the part when the ship as sinking, times that by four and that is what Poseidon is.
So let's see, I've seen the saddest comedy ever, an average RomCom, a disturbing Jack Black comedy, a not very thrilling thriller, a depressing futuristic movie. Man I'm super excited for uni now.
I've been tagged by Jacob over at Bent My Wookie on the subject of "Five Quotations that I like". First of all I have to say that I don't like being tagged. It's too much work. I'm lazy and I don't like to think more than I have to.
The last time I was tagged it was something about a list of books that change your life or something along that line. And of course I didn't do that. I read a lot but all the books that I read are for entertainment only and I definitely don't want to display my taste in books for everyone to see. What if Gone with the wind is among my books that change my life list? (I'm not saying that it is ok? I said if). Someone would die laughing at that.
Besides, participating in this tagging business is sort of conforming. I don't have a problem with conformists, I don't. What I do have a problem with is doing the act of conforming myself. Once you conform, you're open for comparison. It's like once you write down the list of whatever and tag somebody else, sooner or later someone will think to themselves: "my list is better than yours, your list sucks". I don't like comparing or being compared because every time I do I would get seriously jealous and then depressed or my ego would be blown up to the size that it can block out the sun and reduce global warming. Usually the former happens.
----begin off-topic----
I have to go off-topic for a bit here, this is a great time to share another of my personal "how to be positive" notes: Don't frakking compare yourself to anybody.
----end off-topic----
I know not everybody goes around comparing themselves to other people. I think it's sort of an Asian thing. Don't blame me, blame my parents. I was brought up on comparisons. Why can't you be like your older sister? Why can't you be just as good as your cousin? Why did your friend get 100% on that test and you only get 97%? Seriously, Asian parents should go to Antarctica to chill.
It's sort of hard not doing something you were brought up to do, but hey I'm happy so I guess I'm making progress with not comparing myself to anyone. But I still don't like conforming. Not in the same sense as when emo kids say they don't like conforming. What I meant was I don't like to be so predictable that I can be pigeonholed.
With that said, here goes my list of quotes that I like. I guess I'm doing something that's quite unpredictable because, believe it or not, I started this post not wanting to list anything. I guess you can be unpredictably predictable.
The world is going to end and when it does, something will happen that has never happened before. ---Beauregard, The Muppet Show
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion. -- Superintendent Chalmers, The Simpsons
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! -- Homer Simpson
Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything ... just give him time to rationalize it. -- Robert A Heinlein, from Job: A Comedy of Justice
If I was any more open-minded [...], my whole brain would fall out. -- Buffy
That's it, please don't compare. And to end this unpredictably predictable on an, well, unpredictable note, I will not tag anybody (and it's not because I don't have anybody to tag).
Well, Chinese New Year to be exact. Of course it's not a very big deal in western countries but in China I'm pretty sure everybody's celebrating. Me? I'm not celebrating anything today. For one I'm Vietnamese and even though us Asians look kinda the same we have different Lunar New Year days. From what I know, the Vietnamese have a different way to calculate the lunar year from the Chinese. That's why Vietnamese New Year started yesterday. Oh gee, one day!
So you might ask what's the big deal with this new year stuff. Well, it's pretty much the equivalence of Christmas in Asian Culture. Everybody gets a holiday, kids get presents in the form of lucky money. For adults, well, it's pretty much the time of the year when you have to go all out to kiss people's ass.
Actually, when I come to think about it, there was a lot of ass-kissing every year around the end of the Lunar New year in Vietnam. My parents used to have a business when we were there so every year, even though they didn't do anything wrong, they had to give bribes to the tax people, the police, the local council... just so that they wouldn't make things difficult. It's a dream job to be in the police in Vietnam, it's not because of the piss-poor government salary, it's all the bribes people give you. Anyway, I digress, those aren't the only people whose asses you have to kiss, you have to be on the good side with your kids' teachers too so that they don't make things any more difficult for your kids. But then you can hardly give the teachers money, hence the very expensive presents.
Anyway, what the hell am I doing telling corruption stories on this special day? Let's see if there is anything more cheerful to talk about. Oh yeah, have you heard, Britney Spears wanted to get this awesome haircut
But the haircut didn't turn out to be that good on her so to save the situation she had her head shaved completely and get some tatoos too.
Ok, I was only joking about the first picture. What I really think is Britney's gone off the deep end. This girl needs serious help. No actually she needs to be away from the media and people should just leave her alone to figure her stuff out. And that includes me. So how's about this, I will not mention Britney on this blog again this year. Is it hard to believe that I used to like her back in '98? No, it's not that hard really, I used to like Backstreet Boys and N'Sync too.
Talking about N'Sync, I just have to post this video, I have no idea why I used to like them that much.
Getting broadband seriously opened my eyes to a lot of things. Ok, truthfully, just a lot of downloads, a lot of youtube videos and lots of time wasting doing seriously irrelevant stuff. What I also found out this week is 40GB download is just not enough when you spend all day on the net downloading. I have this download schedule: Monday is Battlestar Galactica day, Tuesday is for Prison Break, Wednesday is for Veronica Mars. I know it's illegal but I can't see BSG in Australia and Ten's showing Veronica Mars as such a "fixed" time slot that I never manage to catch any glimpse of it. Seven is showing Prison Break but it's 12 episodes late. Initially I downloaded Prison Break for my Dad but after sitting down to watch one episode with him I was irrevocably hooked. At least I'm not hooked on Lost or Heroes.
Since I almost maxed out my download allowance 4 days before the end of my download month, I've been trying to avoid youtube or any website that requires lots of download this week. However, as most of my plans usually turn out, it wasn't to be. I started reading some blog and one thing led to another and I ended up watching youtube videos again. I was at a pretty nondescript random blog [yes, I'm using the Next Blog button again despite swearing off it a few months back, I was so bored I could put up with anything any blog can throw at me] when I found this link to an awesome website: Imeem.
Imeem is a Youtube-like website with an emphasis on music. It's got videos and pictures sharing between users too but there are far more music files on the site. I had a look at the pictures people uploaded to the site and I regretted it. It's not exactly porn or anything that resembles porn but it's disturbing. If you feel up to it, just head to the picture section and click on the week's most viewed picture, hell I'll just give you the link, happy getting disturbed. Here's the summary in 4 words: Briney goes commando style. I know she did that a while ago but I didn't know somebody actually managed to snap a few pictures that show everything.
Did anyone really get themselves disturbed by clicking on that link? Tell me if you did. Here's something good, at least I think so, from the site. Just a random song I'm listening to at the moment I'm typing this.
I must say this is not my favourite day of the year, my usual favourite day of the year is the day before Valentine's day. Why? It's quite obvious really. Guess, I'll give you a hint: my star sign is Aquarius. Back to Valentine's day. It's not my favourite day because I think it's over-rated. Why do you just have to be extra romantic on a designated day every year? If you're in love any day can be a romantic day.
Also, I believe that Valentine's day is just an excuse for people who have somebody to rub it in for single people. Like we haven't had enough with putting up with you kissing and groping on the train. One good thing about being single though, you don't have to worry about the romantic gifts and meals for the other possible half. We can wallow in our singleness with discounted chocolate [hey, is that why single people are fat?].
Anyhow, here's my Valentine's Day gift to all those people who are in a relationship. It's morbid I know but look at it this way, those skeletons are about 5000-6000 years old, they are believed to be the remains of a man and a woman and they are found "locked in an embrace" 40 kilometers south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set "Romeo and Juliet". The good news is so far no Creationist has stepped up and say those are skeletons of Adam and Eve as the time frame fits the 6000-year-old Earth story.
As is often the case with politicians, they create a war of words, which ends in no sides being the winner, over a presidential candidate's possible future plan. So Obama has his sight set on being the first African-American President of the US of A. Good for him, I'm sure he's more sensible than the bloke who's running the office now but I'd vote for Hilary Clinton just because she's a female Democrat. I'm just curious about how the world would turn out without someone with testosterone in power.
Ok, back to Obama. His trump card seems to be withdraw all American troops from Iraq. And of course that doesn't sit well with John Howard. Mr. Howard, being the outspoken, promises-keeping, no-lie-telling, straight-facts-understanding [I'm still getting over his blunder last week in parliament about "the jury is still out on the connection between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change"] and not power-obsessed good bloke that he is, came to one conclusion, among other things, that Obama is the US president of choice of Al-Qaeda.
If I were running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.
Sorry to bust your bubble Mr. Howard, prayers just don't work. If there is a god, George Bush wouldn't have been re-elected. What I don't get is why take the time and effort to slam Obama's possible plan? It's not like he's gonna be the Democrats' candidate and it's not like he's gonna win the election tomorrow. Did the PM see this as a fast and cheap way to show his loyalty to Bush?
We might never know the PM's motive but for sure Kevin Rudd's response to the PM's response to Obama's plan is just a ploy to gain more popularity in opinion polls. Rudd suggested that Howard's remarks had the potential to cause damage to the American-Australian alliance.
Let me just point this out, again. It's not like Obama's gonna win the election or a Democrats' candidate will. And the election is not tomorrow, it's next year and a lot can happen in one year. And it's not like the Liberal Party will win again in Australia. Besides, how can you be sure the Americans wouldn't dismiss Howard's remarks as some absurd comments from a senile old man? Jeez, politicians just don't know how to chill.
I expect we poor Australians will be bombarded with more of this nonsense throughout this week. Like I said, all this fuss for nothing.
P.S. I've just realized that I made quite some fuss on a post about gratuitous fuss. Man! the irony.
I've got a comment this week that kinda pissed me off. I'm not a person who gets pissed off easily by a comment. Maybe that's because I don't get that many comments and all of the comments I receive so far has been sort of constructive with the exception of Chuck.
So how did this comment leaver managed to piss me off? Ok, here's "How to piss me off with a comment 101" - Don't write anything, just give me a link to some Christian site - Make sure it's not a hyperlinked text i.e. make me highlight the link, copy and paste it to the address bar. Jeez that's like 2 seconds of my life wasted there already. - Be damn sure that the article I will have to read is long-winded, pointless and subtly insulting as well.
That was what Betsy did to me and that is what I'm gonna do to you, my dear readers, so that you can feel my pain. This is the address: http://www.christiananswers.net/evangelism/beliefs/atheism.html
Ok, I'm not that cruel, the site is here but don't read it. I almost fell asleep reading it and miss the paragraphs where the author insults my intelligence.
How do you know that there is no conscious existence after death? The main reason that people claim to not believe in an afterlife is that they think that the idea is a naive wish-fulfillment in the face of the fear of death.
Credit where credit's due, the author's spot on with these 2 sentences. I do think that God and his paradise should be put in the same box as the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus as it's all "naive wish-fulfillment in the face of the fear of death". But?
But disbelief in an afterlife could have the same intellectual status. It could be the hopeful wish that there might be no accountability to anyone after we die, and the hope that there is no intrusive authority in our lives before that time.
Now I'm insulted. You're saying I'm a hopeful, sinful coward who's petrified at the prospects of being judged by a supreme being, who created time but is outside of time (wtf?), at the end of days. So petrified that I'm in denial of the said supreme being. Excuse me, I feel the need to go into a corner, wrap myself in my beloved security blanket and whimper with fear of the wrath of God before turning that fear into steely denial of God's existence.
If I'm what you suggested I am, I would have believed, even though deep down I'm always a skeptical, in God and all that crap. There's no evidence that God exists or not but if you choose to believe in his existence you stand to lose nothing and gain everything. Here are 2 scenarios.
Scenario 1: you believe in God even though you're skeptical all your life then you die and find out that there's no God, no paradise, nothing. So what does it mean? You wasted all your life believing in something that isn't there and end up in the same place as the evil atheists, the non-believers and everybody else. You lose nothing but a lifetime of believing.
Scenario 2: you believe in God even though you're skeptical all your life then you die and find out that, surprise surprise, there's a God and there's paradise and everything the Bible says there should be. You stand to gain entrance into paradise because you never denounce God outright.
So I guess the smart choice for me if I'm a coward, who fears retribution at the end of days, would be to immediately denounce my atheism and open my heart to God or so to speak. However I don't find anything wrong with not believing in some outdated ancient beliefs. What's wrong is killing people because they don't believe in the same thing as you or because they are different. What's wrong is believing in some ancient text which approves of slavery and rape and which claims itself to be the exact words of God.
If you're thinking I've finished being pissed off, you're wrong. That was just mild annoyance. Here's what actually pissed me off big time:
Why the Atheist doesn't exist
There can be no such things as an atheist. This is why: Let's imagine that you are a professing atheist. Here are two questions for you to answer: First, do you know the combined weight of all the sand on all the beaches of Hawaii? We can safely assume that you don't. This brings us to the second question: Do you know how many hairs are on the back of a fully-grown male Tibetan yak? Probably not. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that there are some things that you don't know. It is important to ask these questions because there are some people who think they know everything.
Let's say that you know an incredible one percent of all the knowledge in the universe. To know 100 percent, you would have to know everything. There wouldn't be a rock in the universe that you would not be intimately familiar with, or a grain of sand that you would not be aware of. You would know everything that has happened in history, from that which is common knowledge to the minor details of the secret love life of Napoleon's great-grandmother's black cat's fleas. You would know every hair of every head, and every thought of every heart. All history would be laid out before you, because you would be omniscient (all-knowing).
Bear in mind that one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, Thomas Edison, said, "We do not know a millionth of one percent about anything." Let me repeat: Let's say that you have an incredible one percent of all the knowledge in the universe. Would it be possible, in the ninety-nine percent of the knowledge that you haven't yet come across, that there might be ample evidence to prove the existence of God? If you are reasonable, you will be forced to admit that it is possible. Somewhere, in the knowledge you haven't yet discovered, there could be enough evidence to prove that God does exist.
Let's look at the same thought from another angle. If I were to make an absolute statement such as, "There is no gold in China," what is needed for that statement to be proven true? I need absolute or total knowledge. I need to have information that there is no gold in any rock, in any river, in the ground, in any store, in any ring, or in any mouth (gold filling) in China. If there is one speck of gold in China, then my statement is false and I have no basis for it. I need absolute knowledge before I can make an absolute statement of that nature. Conversely, for me to say, "There is gold in China," I don't need to have all knowledge. I just need to have seen a speck of gold in the country, and the statement is then true.
To say categorically, "There is no God," is to make an absolute statement. For the statement to be true, I must know for certain that there is no God in the entire universe. No human being has all knowledge. Therefore, none of us is able to truthfully make this assertion.
If you insist upon disbelief in God, what you must say is, "Having the limited knowledge I have at present, I believe that there is no God." Owing to a lack of knowledge on your part, you don't know if God exists. So, in the strict sense of the word, you cannot be an atheist. The only true qualifier for the title is the One who has absolute knowledge, and why on earth would God want to deny His own existence?
The professing atheist is what is commonly known as an "agnostic" - one who claims he "doesn't know" if God exists. It is interesting to note that the Latin equivalent for the Greek word is "ignoramus." The Bible tells us that this ignorance is "willful" (Psalm 10:4). It's not that a person can't find God, but that he won't. It has been rightly said that the "atheist" can't find God for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman. He knows that if he admits that there is a God, he is admitting that he is ultimately responsible to Him. This is not a pleasant thought for some.
It is said that Mussolini (the Italian dictator), once stood on a pinnacle and cried, "God, if you are there, strike me dead!" When God didn't immediately bow to his dictates, Mussolini then concluded that there was no God. However, his prayer was answered some time later.
Excerpted from God Doesn't Believe in Atheists by Ray Comfort
What I'm wondering is:
- Who the frack decides that the definition for the word "atheist" is "some pain in the ass who knows everything including the weight of all the sand in the world"? The definition from Dictionary.com is "a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings" and that is the definition that I use, sorry to disappoint.
- Would it be possible, in the ninety-nine percent of the knowledge that we haven't yet come across, that there might be ample evidence to prove the non-existence of God?
- To say, categorically, "There is a God" is to make an absolute statement. For the statement to be true, you must know for certain that there is a God. No human being has all knowledge. Therefore, none of us is able to truthfully make this assertion.
- Who says atheists are agnostics? They are completely different. Even though I'm no linguist, the origin of the word "agnostic" is the Greek word "ágnōtos" which means "not known, incapable of being known" whereas the Latin word "ignōrāmus" is a legal term that means "we do not know" originally. The word "Ignoramus" has its modern meaning of "an ignorant person" because of a 1615 satirical play by George Ruggle which poked fun at the ignorance of common lawyers. So I guess what I'm trying to say is even if ignōrāmus is the Latin equivalence of ágnōtos it wouldn't mean that agnostics or atheists are ignorant. Who's the ignorant one now?
- This paragraph just kills me:
It is said that Mussolini (the Italian dictator), once stood on a pinnacle and cried, "God, if you are there, strike me dead!" When God didn't immediately bow to his dictates, Mussolini then concluded that there was no God. However, his prayer was answered some time later.
Of course everybody dies eventually. That is not the evidence that there is a God. How about some Christian try saying this: "Zeus, if you are there, strike me dead!"? If you are not stroke dead immediately it doesn't mean that Zeus doesn't exist coz eventually you'll die and it might be because of Zeus.
- "God doesn't believe in Atheist". Presumptuous much? You are not God, how can you know what he does or does not believe in? Do you hear him talking to you coz really you should see a psychiatrist since it can be a mental illness you have here.
Ok, now I've finished being pissed off. Let's get on with what I wanted to post in the first place. Here's a George Carlin routine for you enjoyment.
Back in July last year I did this post on ... well, I'm not sure what it was on actually. It got started because of an article about angry atheists then I moved on to talk about North Korea and Israel. I ended up talking about the-glass-is-half-full blogs. The strange thing is that was the most searched for post I've ever written. If you're expecting some literary masterpiece then don't click on the link to that post. The post was awful, even the synopsis I gave above sounds bad. What attracts people to that post was the phrase "how to be positive". If I'm one of those really negative people who got the link to that post I would probably put my blog in the never-ever-visit-this-blog-again list. I don't suppose anyone find any positive help from my tip on being positive. I wasn't trying to intentionally direct search engine results to my blog, here's one example when I was actually trying to achieve that feat.
To rectify that fortuitous manipulation of my dear friend Google, here's the real tip to be positive straight from the 3vil g3nius: look elsewhere, preferably real professional help. If you're thinking "no can do" then I suggest Nine Inch Nails music, that has always been my negativeness-bane ever since I discovered NIN. It wouldn't make you feel extremely positive though, just less negative.
I did try to do a simple dot point list at the start of last month when I borrowed this stack of self-help books to read. One thing I learn from that experience: self-help books don't help with anything except wasting time. The pieces of wisdom on how to be positive I got from those books are: - Think positively - Don't think negatively - Happiness is only a state of mind - Do things that make you happy - Tomorrow is a new day
My response to all those? DUUH! It's kinda hard to think positively or not think negatively when you're depressed to the point of slashing your wrists and say "goodbye cruel world", is it not? And the umpteenth examples of how slightly depressed people, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, overcame their negativeness do not help with anything. Me thinks those people are just figments of the authors' collective imagination.
After reading all those books, or rather the first 2 books and skimming through the rest of those extremely similar books I can say that the experience is positively negative and that I will never ever venture near a self-help book again. And now if you would excuse me, I'm feeling a negativeness-attack coming so I'm gonna need some NIN music on immediately.
