♥ walk, don't run

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 @ 3:06 PM

Re-reading my Palahniuk books when I came across this passage in Survivor. Reminded me of this which I read off tomorrow.sg.

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"Down onstage, the local preacher was doing his opening act. Part of his waarm-up was to get the audience hyperventilated. Loud singing does the job. Or chanting. According to the agent, when people shout this way or sing "Amazing Grace" at the top of their lungs, they breathe too much. People's blood should be acid. When they hyperventilate the carbon dioxide level of their blood drops, and their blood becomes alkaline.

Respiratory alkalosis.

Peopld get light-headed. People fall down with their ears ringing, their fingers and toes go numb, they get chest pains, they sweat. This is supposed to be rapture. People thrash on the floor with thie hands cramped into stiff claws.

This is what passes for ecstasy.

People in the religion business call it 'lobstering'. They call it speaking in tongues.

Repetitive motions add to the effect, and the opening act down onstage runs through the usual drills. The audience claps in unison. Long rows of people hold hands and sway together in their delirium. People do that rainbow hands.

Whoever invented this routine, the agent tells me, they pretty much run things in Hell.

[...]

Part of my training was how to press my hands over smebody's eyes so hard and fast so the pressure registered on their optic nerve as a flash of white light.

Divine light.

Part of my training was how to press my hands over somebody's ears so hard they heard a buzzing noise I could tell them was the eternal Om."

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Of course, Palahniuk is known to pass off made-ups and fiction as facts. So well... but there is something sinister about these mile high church clubs. Buy your way into heaven! Give money to make money! Just 10% of your pay and eternal happiness is yours! Happiness is a tad overrated. Don't you think?

I had this awesome idea for a movie/book. That death wasn't very much different from life. I wouldn't be surprised if I died and discovered that the priests, pastors, imams, buddhas, ayatollahs, politicians still run the scene. Now that IS depressing.

iStupid

Monday, January 22, 2007 @ 11:22 PM

Yes, we're a silly bunch of pretentious fucks who are either women or gay. Proud to be an Apple fan-girl. :)

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If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

You melt and swell at that moment. For that moment, nothing matters. Look up at the stars and you're gone. Not your luggage. Nothing matters. Not your bad breath. The windows are dark outside and the horns are blaring around you. The headlights are flashing high and low and high in your face, and you will never have to go to work again.

"What," he says, "what will you wish you'd done before you died?"

Raymond K. K. Hessel, your dinner is going to taste better than any meal you've ever eaten, and tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of your life.

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Amos and I have come to the conclusion that life is meaningless. We strive too hard to find meaning and that makes us terribly miserable and depressed. Ironically, the sooner you accept there is no inherent meaning in life, life becomes a lot easier.

When was the last time you woke up and did nothing? Nothing in the world at all? You didn't care what time it was. Which day. How you smell. How much you earn. When was the last time you did laundry and loved doing it? Took time to talk to your plants and make your bed? Watch Grey's Anatomy or played WoW till 4am? Walked with lightness and freedom? When was the last time you spent less than $30 a week? That you didn't feel compelled to go to the Mango or Zara sale? When was the last time you felt happy, truly happy? Of course, there is much satisfaction in a job, in success (money/career), but that is for another day. For today, I am happy doing nothing.

Sunday, January 14, 2007 @ 8:47 PM

A fairy-tale for adults... Check out Pan's Labyrinth... Watch it for the gorgeous images, fascinating fantasy creatures like the Faun and Pale Man, historical contexts. Amos and I wish there were more fantasy bits and more interweaving between real and fantasy. More of Pale Man, I can watch that scene over and over. Now, it feels like any ole Tim Burton movie. But I would give it a 7.5 rating. Ofelia and the Captain gave excellent performances.

"...while we sleep here, we are awake elsewhere and that in this way every man is two men."
- Jorge Luis Borges

Saturday, January 13, 2007 @ 10:21 PM

Dawn Yang's pretentious. Miss Izzy's self-righteous. Mr Brown got sacked and is scared. Well, that still leaves Xiaxue, our reigning lian blogger, who never fails to crack me up. Yeah, so what? I like trashy writing and trashy bloggers. I like trashy shows like Borat, Girls Out Loud and Grey's Anatomy. I like trashy fantasy books like Eragon and Eldest. I like singing trashy songs, having trashy fantasies and talking trashy. Hold your high horses. Trash is in. Yea.

Friday, January 05, 2007 @ 10:32 AM

What a great age to be unemployed! Twenty-five seems to be the ideal. A little too old, Amos said. But I think its the right age. I've gotten enough working experience under my belt. I still have plenty of energy, excitement and radical ideas to set up my empire. You're not committed to any loans or mortgages. No kids to feed. No family to support. Beautiful.

Great things about being unemployed:
(1) You learn that you're not attached to money, not in the sense that I need a regular stable job. Of course, I love money and want to make tons of it. Having no money at this stage also makes you a lot more hungry.
(2) You have so much time to think. And when you start thinking, you see so much more opportunities, so much more possibilities around you.
(3) You become self-empowered. I can't rely on the company now; no regular paychecks, no allowance from parents. So how? Grow up and look for money lor. This period of unemployment will probably teach me more about myself, life, business and making money than any business school or MBA can.
(4) Taking the big leap. So that's the scary part but once it's done, yay freedom.

I would encourage people to go unemployed for a while, well at least when you're young. Oh yes, and happy new year of course.