Love at first sight, loving the first sight.

Ironic as it is, I often laugh at people's sentiments.

Sometimes my friends, or their friends write on their blog or facebook note saying how terrible they are feeling. How they broke up with a boyfriend, their hopelessness, complaining about their exams, you name it. And I think... get a grip! What you feel doesn't change anything, and you have food to eat, you've got a job, you've got an education, so stop whining. It's not the end of the world.

But I also wrote, and am still writing the similar things, like the following...

Have you ever considered that you are attracted to your crush because of the fact that she/he is your crush?

You like him because of what the distance you now have with him entails, and this distance does not allow you to know her much more. Thus is the chance for some fantasy to creep in. There is something about her that you really like, her looks perhaps. She isn't the most beautiful girl you've ever seen in your life, but she is realistically pretty. And wouldn't it just be great that she likes Jazz as well?

So your wishful thinking becomes more real, at least in your own mind. Perhaps it isn't something as specific as jazz, but something more blurry. Maybe it would be perfect if he can enjoy that long walk with you at twilight on the park, and embarking with your solitary and timeless trip is a soft summer wind.

However, the attraction for her is endless nights of dances, the drinks, and the fun. He likes tennis, rather than Pride and Prejudice. She loves the shopping and taking pictures on her trip in Tokyo, while you like to look at lake Louise in Banff, lying on a chair for hours, so you never have to take a picture with your camera. She loves the indie French band from Montreal, but rap is your thang.

Yes, perhaps he would really love the walk, the talk, and the occasional caffe latte with Andrea Bocelli singing Il Calmo Mare della Sera or one of your 80's favourite. She would love to do that because she is by then immensely in love with you, and this can happen only when you can understand her world. Sadly, you simply cannot take the deafening noise at the club playing what they call music. While at the same way, she can only enjoy the first 30 seconds of the 3rd movement of Sonata no. 8 Pathetique. That is, after you tell her what the piece is, and she can only remember "Pathetique," the same way she feels if she listens to it for more than two minutes without falling asleep.

You believe in love at first sight, and it's true, it exists. The love can only linger on that first sight.

And I hope this may be some consolation to you.

Why D-Day?

Saturday was June 6th, 2009, the 65th anniversary of the commencement of the Operation Overlord, otherwise known as the D-day landings during WWII. On the first day, at the Normandy Landings, 156,000 allied forces landed in France on a single day. The invasion continued with the eventual liberation of Paris, then advancing eastward into German soil. On May 8th, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered, marking the Victory in Europe Day in WWII. Our press often dubbed it as the "turning point of the war."

Every year, there is extensive celebration of the day and there has been much press coverage. However a friend asked, why D-day? Why not V-E day? The answer is not about its significance in history, but its significance in politics and id
eology.

The real turning point to WWII in Europe is not June 6th, 1944, but February 2nd, 1943. The day marks the German surrender to the siege of Stalingrad, setting free a million troops and more. Stalin has always wanted his allies to open up a second front, by they delayed for a year. By then, the Soviet army already pushed the Nazi armies away from Russian soil. Eventually, Soviet troops captured Berlin and the European theatre of WWII was brought to an end. One may argue that the glory is more to the soviets than to the "western world."

The glory to the liberation of France however, is to "us." We, the fighters of democracy, liberating people from fascism and tyranny. The notion of those who defeated tyranny being communists is out of place, and it doesn't fit the west's persecution of communism at the time. Although we are through Cold War, and though the democratic capitalists prevail, we still like to view ourselves the good important guys.

Bookstore and Buffet

I like going to bookstores, bookstores like Chapters, or Page One in the context of my occasional readers from Hong Kong. The UBC bookstore obviously doesn't count, do you like somebody who is constantly trying to squeeze the last shoe out of you?

Bookstores are amusing (contrary to popular belief), I love the smell of (new) books. The pages carry a faint smell of wood that is somewhat hypnotizing, but not enough to make you sleep at the first tincture of the smell that enters your nose. I like that they are usually quiet and has just an enough number of people that does not make the room stuffy and makes me feel safe. I love all the different covers on the books, most of them colourful and catchy. It is sort of like going to a buffet, but only slightly like it.

Like a buffet, there are a lot of things to pick.
However, I don't want to try everything in a bookstore, but I pretty much like to try everything in a buffet. Most books are actually quite dull on the inside. For most books, I'd only want what I can acquire through the book. It is best I can have knowledge without reading the book. But as for the food, I would love to eat them but don't like the calories that I'll eventually get.

So books and food are somewhat opposites, and bookstores and buffets are like the two sides of the same coin.

Today is the 65th(?) anniversary of D-Day.

random no. 2

This is again a very random note.

The Question of the day is: How do we know if something is true?

random no. 1

My English essay is due 18 hours from now, it's on Paradise Lost, and I didn't finish it yet...
If this poem is written two or three hundred years later, it'll go on bookstore shelves under "Apologetics" in the "Religious" section rather than a fictional epic poem.

So I decided to write a completely random blog. It's May 28, six days from June 4th. It's been twenty years since what happened shook the world, the world except the place it happened on.

Anyways, the song of the day is Allegro, Opus 3.3 a.m. by Eason Chan. I think it's the first studio recorded Jazz song by him. Ciao!

Masks

"Science is the new religion."

I don't know where I saw that, but if here religion means superstition, then I can totally see it on TV.

When watching the news reporting near hospitals, the reporter always wear a mask. But while he is in Mongkok, he doesn't.


Why does he wear a mask outside a hospital? Are there dark clouds roaming above it, creeping death and disease over everyone who stands near this place? And why doesn't he wear a mask in Mongkok? Does he have assurance that the million people (quite literal) beside him are not sick? Not even having the common cold?

Besides, contrary to popular belief, masks don't prevent you from getting cold, influenza, etc...
It only reduces the chance of the mask wearer transmitting his/her sickness to other people. A mask only protects our mouths and noses, it doesn't protect anywhere else, especially the eyes, which is vulnerable to bacteria too. If a mask can protect you, it can protect you only if you dress like this...

So why wear a mask? It is simply because of fear, fear that if I don't do what is "scientific," death and sickness will befall me. People understand things superficially and half-heartedly, just like catholics in the medieval times. If I wear a mask, I'll be safe. If I wear a rosary, God will protect me.

Or maybe... the company that produces the masks paid the news reporters to help impose the fear to watchers.

So... is science the new religion?

Arsenal...Arsenal?

I didn't follow much football (soccer) these days, but I still have a liking for some clubs, particularly Arsenal FC. Like many other people, I come to like the gunners because of Thierry Henry, who was a vital part of the team. It was of utter disappointment to the fans that he left for Barca in 2007, and I thought Arsenal would be in a mess. But the truly indispensible part of the team is its manager Arsene Wenger.

He definitely has an eye for young potential players, and these people brought much life to the games they played and created much magic together. The club turned out fine after two years. Among many are Van Persie, Flamini, Walcott, Hleb, Cesc Fabregas, who became captain of Arsenal at only 22.

His team is always... cost effective, if you will. The gunners doesn't have that solid star filled line like Man utd or Chelsea (other than its defence). I think Wenger is somewhat like a Warren Buffet of the football market. He has a good eye for potential stocks, buy them, then sell them at a good rate. For example, Flamini and Hleb. Whenever we've found a good line, he always has something to sell. The average age of our line is amazingly young, and while seemingly without many stars thus much guarantee, we've stroll through pretty well. However, there is always that fear as a fan that the young players can't create the magic...

Go goooooooooooooooooonersss!!!

Top: Hleb Bottom: Flamini

Afterthoughts on debate

I study philosophy, and people always thought it goes well with debating (in Chinese, for your information).

Well, it doesn't, as the audience, ie. judges, are not all receptive to what that violates common sense.

To most people, what that appeals to common sense is what they call "logical." However, philsophers always call into question our common sense believes. Commen sense morals are the most easily spotted believes. For example, one would say it is "logical," or it is common sense that "killing is wrong." Why is it wrong to kill? Most judges would say it's immoral, but of course, it is just an example of common sense morality and does not answer any questions.

To convey to the judges things that violate common sense most likely guarantees your losing the debate. Thus the contents we wish to be included to our debate is determined by the judges as well.

We can't, for example, put in an argument for idealism, ie. only ideas exist and material objects don't. Or make a stand on ethical egoism, that is moral standards are really solely dependent on our liking. Judges are most likely to say that it doesn't make sense.

Then what follows is the most difficult to answer in philosophy: Is it that the proposition is so weird that it can't be true, or is it a surprising fact?

Sondry Serendipity

Welcome to my new blog.

I used to have a xanga blog, but since its complication, facebook, and my laziness in updating it, I stopped using it for a long time. If you like to visit, it's www.xanga.com/archyami

Note that you need a xanga account to read it. Time and again I found my old blog posts quite interesting, not to mention some... rather embarassing ones.

"Sondry Serendipity"

"Sondry" marks when I set this up, and what this blog has. I'm studying the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, "sondry" is a middle English word in it meaning "various." And well... it sounds cool.

I thought it would be nice to have an alliteration as my title, so I asked a friend who I thought would give me an idea. She gave me the word "serendipity," which means finding something fortunate when I wanted to find something entirely different. Since many of my previous blog posts or notes are quite random and they were never planned to be so, "Sondry Serendipity" would be quite fitting as the name for the blog.

I picked the colour because it feels like the name.

And so start my real hobby!

trivia: Italian for "serendipity" is, you guessed it, "serendipita'"