Journals
Friday,Dec 16 2005, 11:26:50 PMTo Live
Kind of wanted to respond to Lloyd/Shawn. There are a couple of points I wanted to make as I read thru Shawn's entry, but they are spreaded-out points and can't really be coherented in any logical sense so I guess I'll kinda just write whatever. First in my experience I think the best way to go about living a meaningful life is to not think about the meaning of living at all. I've gone thru stages of thinking about what to live for, myself, in the past. When you are deciding to a point to fight for in life, it always starts getting stressful. Trying to force yourself back to a path you strayed off of takes efforts. Just go where your feelings take you. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that a person grows. This is not just a physical growth but in the mind as well. In each stage of your life, what is (most) important to you changes. With this, (very likely) what you want to live for and how you want to live also change. I'm not sure if you get my point, but.. yeah. Seriously, right now, I just do whatever that makes me feel happy. I find this to be pretty satisfying, if nothing else. Another thing, that came into my mind when I read the first half of the entry, is religions. To think about it, if it wasn't for religions, humans have no afterlives (isn't that how it works? By science, when a human dies, that is it. When your brain dies, there is no "you" anymore). Only with religions (and this is true for almost any religions, I believe), "you" still exist after you die, in another form. In other words, "living" in this world becomes a process, part of a bigger picture. So without religions, living is just living, how would there ever be any purpose then? (in other words -- no use of asking the question of "how should I live") I personally like the idea of buddhism -- the idea that you'll reincarnate after some time, and become another person/animal in your next life, based on what you've done in your previous. so that's what I chose to believe in. therefore, the "purpose" of living becomes doing as much good deeds as possible such that ultimately you'll get out of the reincarnation loop.
Thursday,Dec 15 2005, 07:47:58 PMDespise
so, on Tuesday, I went to EBGames (Davis) to look around after work, to see what are some good games to buy for DS and GBA.
On the test play machines was a kid, playing Call of Duty on XBOX 360. The kid was about 6~7 years old, as a rough guess. His dad was standing next to him. After about 2 minutes of playing, his dad grew impatient and started talking to his kid: "You like this game? How about I buy this home for you?" The kid wasn't really even listening, focusing on the game. He uh-huh-ed his dad immediately. Without further ado his dad asked for this game from the salesperson and paid for it, and lead his kid out of the store. Here comes the best part: the kid asked the dad, as they were walknig out of the store, "So what did we buy?"
All of this conversation took place in Cantonese. Why there'd be a Cantonese family of apparently no college students in the family living in DAVIS is beyond me (as a college town). But what really bothers me is how rich parents treat their kids. The dad bought the game for the kid simply because he didn't want to wait.
And note the implication of all this -- this was an XBOX 360 game. We are talking about a $400 game system. This kid, who probably has no idea what this system even is, HAS it at home to play whenever he wants. He doesn't even KNOW what game he just bought.
I remembered this so clearly and decided to write about it here because it's such a big contrast with myself when I was a kid of that age.
When I was this age, my parents bought a supergun and the Street Fighter II (original) game board for me. But this didn't come with no effort. They promised to buy me that if I could get a 3rd class rank (top 3, of 45 people in class. This is in a crazy HK education environment, mind you) for the following exams period. I did that, and this was the only time I had ever done that good in school, all the way until college. Even after that they had to re-think about it because it was so expensive -- but they really wanted to keep their promises for me. And I really do believe my parents have done the best things to raise me up.
Tuesday,Dec 13 2005, 01:54:38 AMget it
let's play Mario Kart DS online.
Friday,Dec 9 2005, 06:53:44 PM人在江湖 身不由已
i watched the movie 童夢奇緣 (Wait Till You're Older) a couple of days ago.
i think that movie wouldn't even be as good if i watched it half a year ago. but i can really feel the empathy with the characters in there. i remember very clearly one quote Cherrie Ying said to kid Andy Lau: "i am very jealous of you children. when you don't feel like going to school, you can just say you're sick. i wake up every morning not wanting to go to work. but i have to go. so i run in the morning to wake myself up."
and the conversation between Wong Yat Wah, Lam Ka Tung and Andy Lau in the arcade.. oftentimes, when you are an adult, living in the society, there are many things you can't control. you know some things are not right but you can't do anything about it. sometimes people just don't understand you.
those parts left the deepest impression in me in the whole movie..
Wednesday,Dec 7 2005, 09:06:32 PMWeapon of mass destruction
The world's strongest weapon is the writing pen/hand.... or in this digital age, let's just say written text. Or, the media, to be exact. it's hard to believe that the thread I started on the CSA forum 3 days ago about the singing contest, generated a 4-page discussion, 1200+ views and the more number of words than all other threads in the forum combined, in 3 days. I think you have to give credit to that because the CSA web site itself reports a mere 1400 views (web counter) since the beginning of the web site. the thread ended up being closed by the CSA admin. but it's okay. I got my point across, and evidently from the replies of people, the majority of the audience of the contest agreed. it's only the officers who insist on their decision for reasons they can't explain. however, everybody else is able to come to the same conclusion I drew early on. I like the feeling of being able to speak out what I feel is not right and unfair, and have supporters to back me up, so that I know I'm not full of shit. 直腸直肚, 敢怒敢言, 有何不可?