And XW, I forgot

Today is XW's 21st bday and I forgot. Crap. Blaming it all on my arithmetics teacher and my stupid brain cells. Sorry dear.

Tho' my voice can't be heard and my face can't be seen, my sincere bday wishes I hope will travel across the vastness and finds u in great health.

I must say, in u I have found, a great friendship bounded by no rules and regularities which itself is a rarity. Indeed, in these past few days, I have learnt to know and reckon u as someone who is amazingly fun to be with. A great fren u are to me. So, it is only right if I return this extreme kindness of urs by at least wishing u all the best genuinely: All the best (from the deepest corners of my heart). Thanx for being nice to me all this while.

AND now that u have found a job befitting ur passion, I pray for ur talents to be known evrywhere. May u find fame in the four corners of earth, for ur dedication, talent and hardwork in filmmaking. May u progress daily in this line, and may God shower u with His graces. HAPPY BIRTHDAY XIAO WEN.
-Suthar


Happy Bday yaah, XW: Does this qualify as a gift?

The Beginning

In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
-Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto

I am an idealist, and will do my best to support the communist ideology till death tears me apart. I am not radical however like my fellow ches and comrades. But if the ruling society is adamant, coercion is a must: a revolution I mean is necessary. Let injustices be handled accordingly, and let there be happiness evrywhere. Let there be no competition, let there be no specialization, and let there be no more sufferings. Let the classes break and merge into a unit separated by nothing and liberate us all. Let us all hope. AND may we be blessed.

Che Guevara

Man really attains the state of complete humanity when he produces, without being forced by physical need to sell himself as a commodity.
- Man and Socialism in Cuba

Real name ERNESTO GUEVARA (1928-67), Latin American guerrilla leader and revolutionary theorist, who became a hero to the New Left radicals of the 1960s.

Convinced that revolution was the only remedy for Latin America's social inequities, in 1954 he went to Mexico, where he joined exiled Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro. A strong opponent of U.S. influence in the Third World, he helped guide the Castro regime on its leftward and pro-Communist path.

At heart a revolutionary rather than an administrator, he left Cuba in 1965 to foster revolutionary activity in other countries. In 1967, while directing a guerrilla movement in Bolivia, he was wounded in a clash with government troops, captured, and later executed.

Che teaches the lesson of hope and dedication. Throughout struggles with adversity, like his lifelong asthma, to the military campaigns in Guatemala, Cuba, the Congo and finally Bolivia, Che always kept his goal in front of him, he was ever optimistic and single-minded in his purpose. Che became a legend and an idol for the revolutionary- and even the merely discontented- youth of the later 1960s and early 70's a focus for the kind of desperate revolutionary action which seemed to millions of young people the only hope of destroying the world of bourgeois industrial capitalism.


Che: A true renaissance man

All Along the Watchtower

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,

"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,

"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view.
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.


Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland

Trance

For a change I was listening to Trance today by Bruno Fergani. Got bored with the normal Rock stuff. Neway, I must admit it was quite nice. However, nothing beats All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix f. Bob Dylan. Best song ever.

The sand story

Relationships--of all kinds--are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, the sand trickles through your fingers. You may hold onto some of it, but most will be spilled. A relationship is like that. Held loosely, with respect and freedom for the other person, it is likely to remain intact. But hold too tightly, too possessively, and the relationship slips away and is lost.
-Kaleel Jamison

I believe however, a great deal of balance need to be striked to not to hold the sand too tightly or too loosely. Too loose, you might earn the respect and freedom from the other person but love maybe lost. Thus in my opinion, a li'l bit of jealousy and possesiveness are always important in a relationship. How much is li'l and how much is a lot, is subjective. But for sure, its presence is significant.

Yakkai Thiri (My body the wick...)

yaakkai thiri kaadhal sudar - anbae
jeevan nadhi kaadhal kadal - nenjae
piravi pizhai kaadhal thirutham - nenjae
irudhayam kal kaadhal sirpam - anbae
yaakai thiri kaadhal sudar............fanaah
- Vairamuthu
 
Translation:
My body the wick, your love the flame!
My soul the stream, your love the ocean!
My birth an error, your love the correction!
My heart the stone, your love the sculpture!
In this agonizingly ecstatic state of mind: Fanaah.......... 

Wooo Voodoo

A voodoo practitioner is often consulted when individual passions such as love, hate or jealousy express themselves. Alternatively, the art may be dealt to a person whom a family member or the village community at large wishes to punish. The practitioner is able to induce in the victim a deep coma by brushing the zombie poison on the victim's skin until he starts to feel the effect. The body's vital signs are arrested to the point where the victim appears dead. The victim is now in the state of suspended animation.

Zombie Poison's Ingredients:
1. Zombie cucumber - A plant which causes hallucinogen and amnesia.
2. Mucuna pruriens - A plant with stinging hairs and also causes hallucinogen.
3. Puffer fish poison - This was a well-guarded secret. Also known as Fugu's poison. The scientific name is tetrodotoxin. For best effects get the liver, bones and the gonads of the fish. The Cuban puffer is slightly smaller than the Japanese Fugu. The witchdoctor's call it the toad fish. This is the most important ingredient. The poison causes one to enter a state of deep coma.
 
Right dosage is always important. Too little it won't work, and too much of it will send ur victim straight to the spiritual world. Be careful!! AND Remember this, even the most skilled witchdoctor will kill at least a minimum of 30 to 40 victims before raising an undead.

The Beautiful Gwen Stacy

Loved by all, known by few, she was taken too soon. She will be missed. - Peter Parker.
 
Gwen Stacy: Virtually attractive. Gorgeous. Beautiful. Pretty. Stunning. No they aren't redundant. Mysterious. How can anyone, not adore her? Looking at her gives me the same kinda joy experienced by the prisoners at Shawshank when they were watching Rita Hayworth.  
 
Nevermind she's gone, her memories still live one. hmmmmmmm....:)

One and many

It is true that I am one self; but here I am known as legs, here I am known as nose, here I am known as eyes; that which the eyes can do the legs cannot do, what the nose can do the ears cannot do, and what the hands can do the eyes cannot do; although I am one I appear as many. But essentially I am one, there is this only one body.

Now let's look at a circle. In a circle, there is only one centre but many radii. These many radii are nothing but emanations from the same centre. From the standpoint of the circumference, there will be many such lines called radii, but again essentially there is only one, this one centre.

And now more importantly what does this one body and one centre represent. The believers' using their heart's thought call it the Soul. The non-believers using their logic and reasoning call it the Human Nature.

Me a believer.

Existensialism is a Humanism (I)

Of human nature:

When we think of God as the creator, we are thinking of him, most of the time, as a supernal artisan. Whatever doctrine we may be considering, whether it be a doctrine like that of Descartes, or of Leibnitz himself, we always imply that the will follows, more or less, from the understanding or at least accompanies it, so that when God creates he knows precisely what he is creating. Thus, the conception of man in the mind of God is comparable to that of the paper-knife in the mind of the artisan: God makes man according to a procedure and a conception, exactly as the artisan manufactures a paper-knife, following a definition and a formula. Thus each individual man is the realisation of a certain conception which dwells in the divine understanding. In the philosophic atheism of the eighteenth century, the notion of God is suppressed, but not, for all that, the idea that essence is prior to existence; something of that idea we still find everywhere, in Diderot, in Voltaire and even in Kant. Man possesses a human nature; that “human nature,” which is the conception of human being, is found in every man; which means that each man is a particular example of a universal conception, the conception of Man. In Kant, this universality goes so far that the wild man of the woods, man in the state of nature and the bourgeois are all contained in the same definition and have the same fundamental qualities. Here again, the essence of man precedes that historic existence which we confront in experience.
- Jean-Paul Sarte.

I am not a supporter or a representative of this idea or Hobbes'(refer Utopian or Scientific dated 8th July 2002). I included them here, because I find them interesting, almost matching my beliefs. Now why did I say almost matching? On the surface, my beliefs and their philosophies may look the same but a greater study will yield I am interested in infinite elements unlike them, who base their writings on logic and tangible proofs.

Understanding infinity

Sword cannot pierce Me
Fire cannot burn Me
Water cannot wet Me
Air cannot dry Me

Science derives conclusions acceptable by the mind. I believe however, there's something more than this Science alone; this something I name X. X begins where Science ends.

Science is the struggle in the outer universe; X is the struggle in the inside universe. Both struggles are great, no doubt, but one will end in failure and the other one will find success. Science is all about experiments, observations, inductions; Science is fundamentally a study of the finite elements and the finite bodies. Once the truth seekers realize, the knowledge they are getting out of Science is insufficient, they would turn to X; X being the study of the limitless entity.

The question then arises: how does a limited being understand something so vast, this something that we conveniently term infinite? The knowers claim, understanding infinity is easy, for it is the natural condition of all living beings. However, there is this great opposing force called delusion that makes us think otherwise. Once delusion is mastered, understanding infinity is easy.

Utopian or Scientific?

On materialism:

If all human knowledge is furnished by the senses, then our concepts and ideas are but the phantoms, divested of their sensual forms, of the real world. Philosophy can but give names to these phantoms. One name may be applied to more than one of them. There may even be names of names. It would imply a contradiction if, on the one hand, we maintained that all ideas had their origin in the world of sensation, and, on the other, that a word was more than a word; that, besides the beings known to us by our senses, beings which are one and all individuals, there existed also beings of a general, not individual, nature. An unbodily substance is the same absurdity as an unbodily body. Body, being, substance, are but different terms for the same reality. It is impossible to separate thought from matter that thinks. This matter is the substratum of all changes going on in the world. The word infinite is meaningless, unless it states that our mind is capable of performing an endless process of addition. Only material things being perceptible to us, we cannot know anything about the existence of God. My own existence alone is certain. Every human passion is a mechanical movement, which has a beginning and an end. The objects of impulse are what we call good. Man is subject to the same laws as nature. Power and freedom are identical.
- Hobbes

"Favouritest" Hollywood movies: Last 20 yrs

These are my favourites in ascending order:

10. US Marshalls - best action sequence I have seen: the one where Snipes jumps from the building to the train.

9. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade - u know I wanted to become a history prof after watching this movie here.

8. Forrest Gump - Nice acting, good plot; it had a good blend of evrything.

7. Minority Report - Saw a very realistic future.

6. Last of The Mohicans - Good story.

5. When Harry met Sally - Best chick flick eva'.

4. Gladiator - Good acting + Epic (more a less) can never go wrong.

3. LOTR: Fellowship of The Ring - Very grand, and the adventures unlike it's sequels are very varied.

2. A Time to Kill - Very moving.

1. The Shawshank Redemption - A feel good movie. Best prison drama, even better than Escape from Alcatrez. My fav. movie of all time.

Dis' Life

One meeting. Two things happened. But God had greater plans.

And yeah, Greece won. 1-0. Hail King Otto, as they say.

Euro 2004: My Prediction

Generally, this time the tournament was not exciting like the last time. No flairy football, no outstanding player/players, etc. U'll know what I mean, if u had been watching the games.

Never thought Greece will come this far. They defeated Portugal, Spain, France and most surprisingly the Czech Republic in their march to the finals. They did a Rajinikanth I would say. Importantly, will they lift the cup?

Meanwhile, Portugal the hosts started off pretty badly. But they are united, and progressed consistently. Their last match was their best I would say. Figo's last big match I suppose. Anyway, can he lead his country to victory?

No one can definitely say they know the answers for the questions above. Really, football is a strange game. U'll never know who'll win and who'll lose. Whoever performs on the day, wins. So, we'll see what the end results will be this Monday morning, Malaysian time.

My prediction: Portugal winning. 2-1.

Tale of A Jealous Lover

She was extraordinary, he was ordinary. She was popular, he wasn't. She was a dream girl, he was too plain. She had evrything, he had nothing. But he loved her so much; so much even the thought of parting seemed painful. He wanted her by his side all the time, from morning till evening and from dawn till dusk. Otherwise, his heart will ache so badly, he will allow his mind to sink to a level lower than the deepest pit imaginable to us. In that state, he derived extreme pleasures by hurting himself, usually by beating himself repeatitively.

The beating marks he hid well. Often by wearing thick clothes. Initially, she was under the impression that she was going out with the most romantic guy on this planet. But, how long can someone hide such great physical scars? She too loved him, but unlike him she was an ordinary lover.

She weeped like a 3 year old, when the inflictions were revealed. She couldn't understand the depth that would drive a man to do such things. He too didn't understand: this force's control which was ruling over him. But inevitably, she was deeply moved by this act and decided to stay with him as long as possible.

Happy moments those were in their lives. He was a love god and she was his firmest believer....until she was accused.

He came in straight like a diseased dog and slapped her hard a few times. So hard were his blows, her nose broke after the third slap. He wasnt even bothered to stop or ask. Then he brought her down and kicked her stomach a few times. Somewhere in between he caught hold of a mug and threw it at the room wall, almost immediately shattering it into a few small pieces. A small piece entered his left eye. He let out a painful scream, which was short-lived and without a break he resumed his beating: only this time it was harder. He used everything from his plastic chair, to his leather belt. The last remaining energy in her were long gone; surprisingly throughout this whole process, she never resisted, probably never had the chance. He then carried her effortlessly: first from the room, then to the hall, laid her down, said something to her, opened the apartment's door, carried her back again, charged towards the exit and plunged with their heads down first and found death together.