Illusion of Words

Yet More Movies

I think I’m nearing the end of this movie marathon thing. After all, school begins tomorrow.

After yesterday’s politics and mysteries, today’s theme was apparently romance. Hardly my type, but one’s got to broaden one’s horizon.

It Happened One Night

Cute romantic comedy, another movie directed by Frank Capra, starring Clark Gable. It’s about a rich, spoilt girl who runs away from home and on the way to New York, meets a reporter. So they travel together and of course, fall in love. And along the way, there are many hilarious incidents, from the famous hitchhiking scene to the fighting couple act. Great movie, all in all. Although I wished I was watching with someone, because it’s kind of dull having to watch it on your own.

The Notebook

I can’t believe I actually watched this thing. Anyway (MAJOR spoilers ahead, don’t read if you’re going to watch the movie, because I’m giving away the ending), the movie was slightly redeemed by the whole old people thing. As in the old Allie had Alzheimer’s (that reminded me of ‘Away From Her’, which is just two posts below this), and old Noah still loved her. And read the Notebook, which was the story of their romance, to her to make her remember (There! I’ve spilled everything now! You don’t have to watch the movie anymore). Other than that, it would have been yet another ‘girl-falls-in-love-with-guy-but-break-up-and-meets-another-guy-and-gets-engaged-except-meets-first-guy-so-dumps-poor-fiance’. Well, yeah, so most of the movie was like that, actually, and I don’t know why I always feel sorry for the second person who is bound to get dumped. Maybe that’s why I quite liked Tuck Everlasting (more major spoilers ahead), because the girl didn’t wait for her first love and got married anyway. One thing: Noah actually had a beard when the scene shown in the poster occurred in the movie. Just a little nitpicking.

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More Movies

I must be too bored or something. Never have I watched so many movies in a few days - I’ve never been one to watch movies. But then, when you’re bored, there’s nothing much you can do about it, except watch a movie.

Mr Smith Goes To Washington

Brilliant, brilliant film by Frank Capra, whom you’ll remember as the director of the Christmas tear-jerker “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Jefferson Smith, portrayed by yet again the fantastic James Stewart, is a young man full of wonderful ideas who gets to the Senate when the governor picks him. His state is run by a Taylor, who is just evil. So of course, Mr Smith faces quite a few problems when he realizes that all the Lincoln speech/Constitution stuff are not real in the Senate. But of course, he stands up against it - great great scene. A typical good vs evil thing, but not at all boring. Fantastic movie, especially when you’ve got a supporting actor like Claude Rains, whom you might remember from Casablanca (the police guy), and Hitchcock’s Notorious. I must say, I didn’t recognize him from the two movies, but nevertheless, throughout the whole movie I felt that Claude Rains was simply awesome as the conflicted Senator Paine. Just terrific.

Rebecca (another Hitchcock film!)

I felt it didn’t quite live up to other Hitchcock stuff. However, it still is pretty good. A girl marries a widower, whose dead wife is called Rebecca, who even in death still seems to have a hold on the entire house. Scary for the second wife, who was quite insecure. And a great performance in the character of the maid Mrs Danvers, who is just absolutely spooky.

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Thanksgiving and Two Movies

Pecan Pie!

Pumpkin Pie!

Two indispensable items on Thanksgiving meals. They don’t look as appetizing as they should - blame the camera and/or my photographing skills.

Anyway, I was exceptionally productive (if could be said so), watching 2 movies which I saw from the previews on the dvd of the movie Bella.

Away From Her

A sad story about an old couple, the wife getting Alzheimer’s and all the complications afterwards. So you can tell it’s a pretty heartbreaking movie, although surprisingly not as sad as I’d thought it would be. Of course, the wife forgets the husband, especially after she moves into the nursing home. And of course, it’s just all so sad. Great performances from both leads, especially Julie Christie as the lady with Alzheimer’s. She had an Oscar nomination for that role, not to mention a Golden Globe Award.

Akeelah and the Bee

I don’t usually like to watch this sort of ‘uplifting’ and ‘inspiring’ movie, since they all tend to be quite cliched. There’s always the loser person who has great potential and a person to inspire him/her, and there’s always the person’s mother or somebody who’s totally against their being better and stuff like that. But I thought, since this is a spelling bee and not yet another football movie, it should be pretty good.
As it turns out, it is pretty good. While it did have some of the usual elements of a competition film, and a too-perfect ending, I thought it was done very well. It is about Akeelah, from southern Los Angeles, where people were basically not good in their studies, but Akeelah was exceptional in spelling. So she has a mentor, and makes a friend or two along the way, and heads for the national spelling bee.
I thought it was really funny - Akeelah’s main competitor, who was Chinese. And of course, he had a Chinese dad who was totally, “You have to win this.” Very stereotype-y. After all, aren’t all Asian parents crazy about their kids being the best and studying hard (*sarcasm*)? I laughed out loud at the scenes of the strict father and the poor Chinese kid.
Oh, and icing on the cake - there was Angela Bassett, if you’d remember from Alias (season 5, Director Chase, yay!). And Laurence Fishburne, whom you might remember from the Matrix, and who is going to take over William Petersen’s (Gil Grissom) role in CSI:LV (boohoo. oh, and I just found that out. I always wondered who Fishburne was from reading CSI spoilers, and now I know). He (Fishburne) is a great actor, but honestly, who can ever replace dear ol’ Grissom?

Overall, I’ll recommend ‘Away From Her’ if you feel like watching an old couple’s love story (kind of). However, I must warn you not to see the trailer first, because really, the trailer shows pretty much all the best scenes of the movie and detracts from the overall enjoyment (sadness, whatever) of watching the movie. Or if you’re in a mood for inspiring stuff, watch ‘Akeelah and the Bee’ and perhaps learn how to spell some of those crazy words which I don’t understand how 12-year-olds could ever want to learn or know. I mean, who ever uses those kind of words?

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Bella

Thanksgiving today. Spent nearly the entire day with a family who was kind enough to invite me. Felt kind of weird, being the only outsider, but I felt quite at home sometimes.

So we watched the movie “Bella”. Apparently it won the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. I will say that it is done very well, shot very beautifully. The story, while not tear-jerking (for me at least), is quite interesting.

It’s about a girl and a guy, and one day changes their lives. The movie kind of reminded me of “Once”. Anyhow, I can’t say anything without giving away too much. All the same, I felt that the story was not as good as it could have been - not that I could have made it any better, but to me, it was just a tad bit lacking, especially for the girl.

Still, it is a movie above average, far better than the junk that comes out weekly. Just for the sheer technical beauty, it’s worth watching. And not to mention the few life lessons (literally) within the movie - very positive ones.

A side note: The DVD, of course, came with a bunch of previews in the beginning. There were about 5 movie previews, and with each preview that came out, I was like, “I have to watch this.” They all looked very exquisite except for the sports swimming one (which I suppose is yet another losers-become-winners type of movie). There was ‘Away From Her’, a story about Alzheimer’s, ‘Akeelah and the Bee’, a story of a girl in spelling bee competitions, and ‘The Girl with a Pearl Earring’, a story about the story behind Vermeer’s famous painting. They all looked pretty good.

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Life the Train Ride

It sounds like a cartoon show. Perhaps life is almost like a cartoon, anyway. Didn’t Shakespeare say something to that effect (not cartoon)?

Anyway, I just wanted to expound a bit of life as a train. It’s probably been expounded by others countless times, but I need to get this out of my system. Ok. So life is like a train. John Mayer sings about stopping the train. Jack Johnson sings about wanting the train to breakdown. So as you can see, trains as a metaphor for life’s journey is quite common.

Now, on the train, assuming you’re the passenger, you’ve got three options to occupy your time. That’s if you don’t have any crossword puzzles or Nintendo DSes with you. Or any other modern or ancient form of anti-boredom material.
Option #1: Admire the scenery.
Option #2: Reminisce about the past beautiful scenery. Or analyze the ugly scenery of the past.
Option #3: Plan your course, i.e. which track you’re going to take.

It is obvious that too much of each option can be quite fatal. And it’s probably quite obvious to you about where I’m heading on this. Anyway, the best thing to do will be to put more time on the present (Option #1), and divide the rest of the time between the last two options.

Too much of #1 and you may end up on the wrong tracks. Too much of #2 and you’d just end up reminiscing about the scenery you should have seen in the past when you were reminiscing about the further past. Too much of #3, and you’d have missed all the beautiful scenery and be rushing head along towards the end of the track.

So admire the scenery. Compare the past scenery with the present and analyze them (or maybe it’s just me who does that). Plan your course, but be ready for sudden surprises. For who knows? the track may suddenly veer off, or it may come to a abrupt halt when God says, “Time’s up!”

Coming into this new land, it’s admirable scenery. And the past, I can’t dwell on it. The train moves along the tracks and if I spend too much time thinking about home, I’d miss the scenery of the present. Some people think I’m cold and heartless. But truth is, I feel that it’s perfectly rational.

The allegory and explanation was probably kind of lame, but nevermind.

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Thanksgiving - the Day before the Break

Thanksgiving - now that’s a truly all-American holiday. It’s probably the best time of the fall semester, since it’s a nearly week-long holiday and after the break, the semester will pretty much be over.

Everyone is going home. You can tell, though it’s only Tuesday. Cars are disappearing. There is a general excitement in the air. If you would listen in as people bid each other hello and goodbye in the hallways, there’s always, “Have a safe trip!” or “Have a great Thanksgiving!”

I had a few people ask if I were going home. I don’t blame them for that question, really. After all, it must have slipped their minds that going home, for me, is a two-day journey of planes and airports. And jetlag. It isn’t just the journey, but also the fact that Thanksgiving is, like I said, an American thing. No one else celebrates it.

Thanksgiving is a time when everyone seems to be extra generous. I’ve had a few invitations to Thanksgiving meals/trips. Now this is one moment when I wish I could split myself into many persons, because I do want to try out each family’s meal. I hope I don’t sound too greedy.

People are going home to see their families. It’s a reunion time for most. I can’t help but think of Chinese New Year. After all, that’s reunion time for us Chinese people. And when I think of CNY, I think of angpaos and food (when will I ever get to eat the crab crackers, I wonder?). And thinking of food, I suddenly feel like I want to eat fresh fish (cooked, of course), instead of those sickening fried fish fillets which Americans eat because they can’t deal with bones. Not that I deal with bones well either.

It may sound pretty complain-ish, but really, I’m thankful for everything here. Thankful despite the food. And thankful for the food (Why is it all about food??). Thankful for the nice people. Thankful because there’s God, and he’s most awesome.

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One Bad thing and other misc

Great. Just what I need.

Do you notice something different about my glasses?

Yes, so I guess I snapped one side right off. And I thought my glasses were indestructible (my old ones are still perfectly alright - apparently the newer one isn’t as good).

This brings a whole new meaning to the warning: “Treat your glasses gently.”

Recently it’s been really cold. As it is, the weather widget thingy says 3 degrees (Celcius, of course), and there’s a powdery icon above it. Snow? It can’t be, because the only thing that’s happening outside is the freezing wind. I check again. Oh well, it’s back to that usual moon+clouds icon. Tomorrow’s forecast puts the highs at 6, lows at -6. You’ve got to be kidding me. I almost froze my nose off just walking 5 minutes to the main campus building in weather around 5 or 6 degrees.

My glasses tilt slightly to one side. I guess the tape made it unbalanced. NOOOO. Perhaps it’s something to make me wear my contact lens more often.

Oh, and I sat through the school’s symphonic orchestra. While it obviously isn’t top class, they played some interesting, radical stuff. Like one poem-y thing where there were just strange background noises - including that of the “finger making circles on top of the glass” sound, you know, the kind of sound you’d make in restaurants just to annoy people (well, not that I’d ever do such a thing). That was pretty awesome. They also played some John Williams music, namely the Indiana Jones theme and Star Wars theme, which was also pretty cool.

Then I got back home, nearly freezing up halfway through the walk. And I snapped my glasses. And I … well … am sad. And angry that my glasses failed me. Oh, how could you have done this to me, glasses? I admit that I wasn’t very kind to you usually, but look, your older brother never snapped on me (and he’d served me far longer than your itsy-bitsy one year)! You’re just so… cruel and - and …. (I’ll stop here before it gets out of hand…)

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Decisions

Decisions come easy for some people. They don’t doubt, they know exactly what they want, and they don’t regret their decisions (usually). For me, and some other people, each decision is pretty much a pain.

Not that the choices are bad ones. They’re equally righteous and proper choices, none above the other, like the haunting question - with which family should I spend Thanksgiving with?

That’s the kind of choices I have to make, and really, I feel grateful about it. Grateful that it isn’t a choice between money and life, or, on a darker side, “Which parent to kill?” (yes, perhaps a little too fanciful, that, but then it was in Alias. Remember?)

So I sit, and ponder. Actually, I sit and type this post. But the question remains in the back of my head, even as I try to concentrate on my paper about the search for Noah’s ark (honestly, that is not a very normal topic. For the record, I picked it.). I write out pros and cons, pray about it, and postpone my decision.

In the end, it sucks, but it’s a strangely fun process, especially when you look forward into the time when you will look back and think, “I made the right decision.” Or perhaps you’ll never know whether the decision was right or not, because how would you know how things would be different if you chose the other end of the deal?

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Day of Remembrance (and day after election)

Kind of weird, talking to a twelve-year-old while digging at the stubborn grass. 12 seems like a thousand years away - am I really that old? But it was pretty interesting, the kid wasn’t all that of a kid, but quite mature. In a way. How was I like at 12? I can’t really remember. Those years seem to be shrouded in a mist. Anyway, we used small spades and attacked the soil, hacking away at the grass roots that won’t seem to come out. It was supposed to be the start of a foot-wide path in the garden.

Good to be able to help. That’s part of the American culture, isn’t it? Helping people and doing community projects.

And of course, today marks a new beginning. Well, not quite so yet, but then there’s Obama, and I hope that America’s future will be brighter than ever, although I’m inclined to believe that the opposite will happen. I get a bit tired of all this politics talk. The world has been dissecting this election for months, and will be dissecting it for months after. But watch this video. It’s pretty awesome. I wonder what will happen if it came true…

Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President

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Halloween

Twas my first Halloween ever. At least the first real experience of the American-ness of Halloween - particularly the Southern type. There was a church gathering thing out in the country side, where the flatness of West Tennessee was even more obvious than usual. Fields stretched out into trees on the horizon. Wooden barnhouses like those you see in Southern set movies scatter the landscape. We ate chilli - which, for your information, was barely chilli-ish, at least, it wasn’t really spicy. The pot branded ‘Hot’ was just mildly spicy, the one branded ‘mild’ was well, not at all spicy. The rest of the food was pretty typical American food - hot dogs and chips etc.

There was a nice bonfire, which everyone huddled around, because it got really cold. I roasted marshmallows for the first time! Tasted pretty good - crunchy on the outside, melty on the inside. Although the first time I tried to roast it the marshmallows caught fire, and I kind of threw it to the ground, so it was a waste. Of course some people like eating burnt marshmallows - but then I think of my brother and his aversion to burnt food, and I don’t like them too.

Then there was a hayride. Now I never heard of a hayride, and I supposed it was some sort of exciting ride on haystacks - but apparently it was just a tractor pulling a cartload of hay, which you sat on and bumped around the entire field. Not very exciting, and very cold, but the sky was covered with stars. To my shame I couldn’t find the Big Dipper, not even when people tried to point it out. The hayride over, I returned to the comfort of the fire and stared at it while half-burning my knees sitting close to it. Even then I could feel that my feet were numb.

After all this, on the return to campus, I went to the costume party. As expected, it was dark as night in there, except for lots of people walking around and talking loudly, and music. Great costumes. I doubt Halloween will ever succeed much back home - how many folks would dress up? Anyway there were all sorts of people, from a group of folks dressed as the Hundred-Acre Wood, to a table, pirates, ninjas, bananas, fairies, salt & pepper, fork, Pikachu and Ash (singing the theme song) etc. Interesting.

Besides all the new experiences, Halloween pretty much equals Candy. Lots of it. I’ve never eaten so much candy before. And now I have a bag of candy to accompany me for the next few weeks of my life..

Sunset in the countryside. I don’t know about you, but it sure looks pretty to me. Btw, the white streak in the sky was made by a plane. It’s not a wisp of cloud.

Ahhh the fiery redness of fall.

Many pots of chilli… for the competition.

The chilli competition. The little girl walking by wears a bag of small colored balloons - she was dressed as a bubble gum machine. There was another little girl dressed as a whoopee cushion…

Look at the stars.. look how they shine for you… (my neck hurts)

The mesmerizing flames. It just draws you in. I’m not a good photographer though - the color’s turn purple-ish…

The giant cat. Which I assure you is not a Halloween thing - it’s just a big cat that’s all. And oh, the girl has red eyes. Which can be a Halloween thing - of a type.

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