Funny how dreams can be more powerful than the reality itself... how you create this perfect picture and never consider the possibility of it all being too good to be true. Then, just when you're reaching the best part... it hits you right in the face... hopefully you are wise enough to let go and move on... but, are you?
Read the rest...
I had a wonderful weekend (thanks to Ali) in New York... it was really what I had expected it to be... no disappointments. I think this is the only city I would willingly live in, if I had to leave Vancouver. 48 hours is hardly enough to see a city like New York but since most of our time was spent walking around, I at least got a feel of how life can be in NY city. What I loved the most were the narrow streets with red-brick houses and small stairways in Downtown Manhattan. Here are some pictures:
Downtown Manhattan's view from a ferry towards Staten Island.
Statue of Liberty's view from the same ferry! (I really didn't feel like getting any closer)
Central Park
view of a building from Park Avenue
A quiet street in Midtown Manhattan
A huge building on Broadway Avenue, right where it starts
Tall buildings in Downtown
So I'm in the East coast; nowhere else but the in the location of most of my favorite TV shows: New York City. So far I've only been to Metropolitan museum but liked everything I saw on the streets, hope it stays this way!
Will post some pictures later.
It's been very fun so far...heading out to the East Coast today... this vacation is turning out better than I had expected!
Finally, after 24 hours of sleeplessness and a few hours of waiting in different lines - including check-in, customs, immigration, and security - I've arrived in City of Angels. All you blogger and non-blogger friends nearby, I'd love to see you!
It's absolutely LOVELY here with real summer heat, a great change from Vancouver. Will write some more later (if I'm not too busy partying!)
"Later that night I got to thinking about safe s e x. Odd how only when our physical life is at risk do we follow certain guidelines to protect ourselves. But what about our emotional lives? Wouldn't it be nice if there was a little pamphlet to warn us what unsafe behavior might be high risk to ourselves or our relationships. And even if you take all the precautions and emotionally try to protect yourselves… When you crawl in bed with someone, is s e x ever safe?" - Carrie Bradshaw (from S e x and the city)
(And sorry about the deformed "S"-word, didn't want people finding this blog by Googling weird stuff; I'm getting enough of that, as is!)
What's better to do on a gloomy rainy day than to go watch LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, a hilarious movie about a dysfunctional family on the road. I was laughing so hard during the movie I couldn't believe myself, and I wasn't the only one. Definitely, definitely watch it... it's got smart humor, great acting (especially the cute little girl), and even a valuable message behind it all!! What more can you ask for?
(I hope the producers don't mind me mix and matching their advertising posters!)
Tonight I watched Manderlay, the second movie from Lars von Trier's trilogy: USA- land of opportunities. It's similar- in making - to the first movie, Dogville, which I had watched a while ago. It's not as harsh though.
The movie is about the discrimination against the black people in the States. The director has a way of showing you the worst that human race is capable of; and you wonder at the end whether you'd do the same, if put in similar circumstances. I really liked the idea of just pretending that things exist (walls, doors, trees,...). The minimalistic set decoration (in both films) makes you more focused on what's going on with the characters. If you've watched Dogville and liked it, you'll most probably like this one too. You don't have to have watched Dogville though, the stories are totally independent.
Looks like some people are just not good enough to enter the Land of Freedom.
Read the rest...If they tour around the area you live in, don't miss it. It was awesome...
So I went and watched it. Didn't think I'd like it but I did! It was a very fun movie to watch, great Woody Allen moments, lots of Scarlett Johansson, and a reasonable amount of Hugh Jackman... basically, there was something in it for everyone! Go watch it, but don't expect a masterpiece.
My favorite quote of the movie is when Allen is trying to socialize with some people in a party; he starts asking people about their persuasion (persuasion meaning religion, of course) and then goes on to say : " I was born into the Hebrew persuasion, but soon I converted to narcissism".
Have you ever noticed how annoying Doctors' waiting rooms are? I mean does it bother you too, just sitting there looking at other sick people or noisy kids, or reading decade-old magazines and crappy news papers, or worst of all, listening to the music from the playlist-for-the-sick?
I spent 15 minutes waiting to see my family doctor today and now totally believe that they deliberately try to push you to your limits, just to see if you get a nervous breakdown or a seizure or something. Who here thinks that Pink's "let's get this party started" is a good song for such a place? is "you'll be kissing my a**" what we want our kids to associate with the doctor's office? but even if I try to ignore Pink, there's one song that I absolutely can not forgive them for playing. And that's no other than THE WORST SONG EVER MADE in the history of contemporary music: Girls just wanna have fun by Cindy Lauper!
Well, as stupid as its name is, I was surprised by this movie... it was a very well-made movie, super funny, with good acting (except the supporting role actress who was a tad disappointing). The whole movie is basically narrated, and it's just too funny... I resisted for the longest time and finally watched it last week and definitely recommend it to everyone. You're gonna get a good laugh out of it and you're gonna enjoy the cinematography and editing... the story is not the best, but the dialogues are awesome. Just thought it was disappointing how little publicity this movie has received.
We are the same height, have the same highlights, we borrow each other's clothes, we don't look like each other but somehow are similar. We go on the same diet, we overeat together. We go to school together, and party with the same people. We listen to the same music, and go to the same hairdresser. We travel. People think we're sisters... I think we're even closer.
You are a lot more than a roommate to me... you are my mom when I'm sick, my dad when I need protection, my sister when I need someone to confine in, my brother when I feel lonely... you've been my friend all along, you are what's left of my country for me, you're the closest thing I have to a home... Just like I hope to be all this for you.
So bear with me when I'm moody, when I need attention, when I'm sad, heartbroken, or tired. When I don't feel like talking, or when I talk too much. When I act weird or give you advice you haven't asked for. When I drag you to the movies, or want to stay home when you feel like going out. When I get cleany, or when I make a mess. When I become cold, irritating, or obnoxious.
Three years...It's not been easy, but we've grown up together. Sooner or later, we'll be going our own way, but I'm sure no one will understand what we've been through, except for us! So cheers to us, the coolest roommates on earth!
" Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport.
General opinion makes out that we live in a world of hatred and greed. I don't see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.
When the planes hit the Twin Towers, none of the phone calls from people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love.
lf you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
From Love Actually
I always cry at the airport when I go back home.. I'm fine up until the moment I see my mom and then it just happens. No reason, no control. Today I just happened to remember the fact that I love airports... no matter if I'm leaving home, or going back, if I'm there to pick up friends, or to watch them leave through the gates. I just love airports.
We're leaving in a cruel world. Sometimes - like these days - you just see it more clearly... maybe we should all go walk around the arrival gates in a nearby airport... just to feel that love still exists. It does, right?
Sometimes I wonder if he really knows how I feel... I never told him, he never asked... we're just going along with it. Emoticons are not the best way to describe how one feels, are they?
Read the rest...1. ... I wake up in the morning and go to a CPR class at 9:00 a.m. (note: from now to 22 July 2009, you're allowed to choke on your food, have heart attacks, get beaten by snakes, and get unconcious for any other reason in my presence. because now I'm knowledgeable enough to call 911 and ask for help; honestly, the first three hours of the class was just to tell us how important it is to call 911 and how you should do it and what to say and stuff like that. They did teach us how to do CPR and rescue breathing though, so you're still safe.)
2. ... I leave the CPR class and go with my friends to rent a motor boat and ride around in it for two hours in the Pacific ocean, watch the seals sunbathe on rocks, and get back just in time to have a delicious fish and chips at the harbor.
3. ... After a long hot summer day, I end up watching "Paradise Now" with some friends and discuss politics till 1 in the morning.
4. ... I wake up super late on Sunday and still decide to go canoeing (yet again!) and have a wonderful time.
Yeah, I just had a perfect weekend (still a few more hours to go)!
The link to this website has been circulating a lot in the past few days, I can't comment on the reliability of the pictures, but even if one percent of it is truly happening, we can surely call it a disaster.
I'm also very interested to see where the States is going with arguments about Iran's involvement in the conflict. There has even been a meeting with a group of selected Iranians and the White House officials, probably to somehow justify a military action against Iran. I really have no idea where all this is going.
So my office-mate is back from Germany, where he had to attend his mom's funeral. We (people in our office) wanted to do something for him; so we bought a card and each wrote a few lines in it. We also decided to buy her flowers... or was it plants?
You see, two of us (including me) thought that you didn't want to get something that went on living for a long time, because it was always going to remind the poor guy of the tragic incident, while the flowers would die away. However, there was an opposing view in our office that thought plants were better.
This morning I walked in to say hi and talk to my office-mate... and he was very difficult to see behind the leaves of four big plants on his desk. It's done now and I think just showing that we cared was good enough, but still feel weird about having to see those plants everyday... would flowers have been a better choice?
I have mentioned on other occasions that I do not want to write about my political views here... I feel like to write about politics you have to know a lot more than I currently do... I did not want to act against my word, but sometimes enough is enough. And that's the case with my silence about Lebanon's situation.
Just looking at the pictures on news websites is painful... imagining that the same thing is very likely to happen to my homeland, for a similar pathetic excuse. I'm not saying that the lives of the two captive soldiers are not worth anything, but really, is it why Israel is attacking Lebanon and killing so many civilians? What is the ratio of the value of an Israeli soldier's life to a civilian Lebanese, 1/1000? I feel the word OVERREACT is not enough to express this situation.
Picture from BBC News
