love, life, school and coffee.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

The 2 Routes

Friend H and I were sitting on the bus on one of those lazy afternoon trips when I remarked about how Friend I should probably be enjoying his date at that point in time. H replied that it's interesting how Friend I reports the little things that happened during dates, considering that H has gone through all that before and is now more seasoned and a lot more cynical.

"But you see, I think he likes the part of being together with a girl. I don't think he really likes the girl."
Whoa. That's a heavy accusation to level against your close friend, pal.
"He enjoys the hand-holding, listening to things from a girl's point of view, doing things that would never happen with guy friends. But those things come with every girl. I've never heard him say what's so special about this particular girl that he finds charming."
So you're saying he likes the medium, not the subject? Kinda like watching movies cos you like the darkened hall?
"But the thing is, loads of people do fall into that trap. People don't realise that while that bit of being attached is attractive, it's only supposed to be the icing. The real cake is the person. At the end of it all, the trick is to find something special with the girl, not the perks with being with a girl."
Whoa, heavy.

And it really is unfortunate that I still notice people falling for that trap all around me. What friend H said really does make sense, and I might have secretly vowed not to fall for that trap myself. However, it's so easy to get back down that route. Blame it on testosterone. Blame it on endorphine addiction. But how often do people realise that they're going down one path and not the other? Don't the paths look eerily similar? What's wrong with people who love darkened cinema halls anyway?

Okay, nothing is wrong with darkened cinema halls. But there might be repercussions if human feelings are involved. The good news is, logically speaking, it is possible to bash towards the other route once we find out that we're going down the wrong route. All is not lost. Unless of course you lose your way while bashing. In which case.... ask for directions. -Jimmy

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Flights of Fancy

"One day, people from both sides will just drop their guns and life will go back to normal. Tall grass will cover the battlefields. And all those pilots who died, you realise, died for nothing. But I wanna make sure that more Germans end up dying for nothing."


From P-51 to Mig-29s, it's the sensation of just floating in air that counts.





Watched Flyboys with friend H today. While it has all the recycled elements of war movies like the brotherly bonding chats, the "meaning of war and life" sharing sessions, "I'd die for you" bravado and all the neccessary action scenes to ensure the pacing doesn't slack off, I don't mind. Sometimes I need reminding on just how lucky we are at this age, without a "great war" looming like a thunderstorm, something I'm sure not many of us could truly fathom.

Flyboys also covered topics like racism. One of the "flyboys" was a black, and his father was a slave. At the time the movie was set in, blacks were still very much looked down upon. During a heart-to-heart chatting scene, the black mentioned how flying brought interesting career prospects later on in his life. He wanted to deliver air mail when the war ended. He claims that "as long as people get their mail, it doesn't matter that it was flown by a black guy. They won't know."

However, it was the other thing the black guy said that struck a chord in me. He mentioned that he loved flying as he felt that as long as the bullets are not flying around, it's "mighty peaceful" up there. He loves the fact that nothing can touch him, that up there, there's no one to look down on him and that he's free to go anywhere. Well, that was the illusion I got. I still wanna fly. I still wanna be in the middle of (almost) nothing, suspended by that magical phenomenon of Bernoulli's effect.

Oh well, thank you Singapore Youth Flying Club for taking that avenue of learning how to fly away from me. I might find a way to learn as a private student next time. I might not. But I'll always remember the bureaucracy surrounding your admission policy. Whatever the case is, I'll also always have Microsoft Flight Simulator. -Jimmy

Monday, December 04, 2006

Annoying Alliterations

An exercise of the bored random mind

Boring Baboons
Charming Cat
Dingy Dog
Earnest Emingway
Fatty fudgecake
Grinning Gorilla
Hello, hello?
Imaginative Invention
Juggling Jalapenos
Killer King
Lame shit
Marvelous Michelangelo
Nuanced Nitpicking
Original Oreo
Playboy Pin-up
Queer Quentin Quells Queasy Queens
Really Really Responsible
Sweet Smile, Silly Smirk, She's so sarcastic
Two to Tango
Unwanted Ushers Unleash Unhappy Umpires
Victor's Victorious
Where's Wally?
Xenophobic Xenophile
Yelling Yodellers
Zeppelin Zebras