Recent updates
The weekend before last:
Went to see The Incredibles and rode my bike at Jells Park. The movie was a lot of fun, and it was nice riding along suburban trails and lakeside that I haven't ridden along before. The weather is around the range of being not too sunny or too cold, so it has been great to get outside.
Tuesday:
Mum came back from Hong Kong after a month overseas, mainly to spend time with my grandfather and to celebrate his 90th birthday. I got up early (for me) and picked her up from the airport.
In the evening I went to an information session for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) valued supporters (anyone who donate more than $35/month). The topics covered: a midwife talked about her experience working in a town with ~80,000 displaced people in Sudan/Darfur, an environmental engineer working as a water sanitation expert in Indonesia, and MSF Australia's decision to halt their tsnami appeal. I went to one similar (MSF's volunteer session) and it was great again to listen to their accounts and experience and thoughts. Despite them probably showing a very non-confronting version of events, I grimaced at certain points of the accounts of the suffering and devastations, but as always, there were such contrast and tales of amazing resilience and optimism in the midst of all these tragedies. Darfur was the worst man-made humanitarian crisis in 2004 (genocide were reported), did not receive the necessary level of coverage in the media, but has since then been overshadowed by the Asia Tsunami, so please consider donating to help out.
After the Q&A ended, there was a period of time for mingling and talking/listening more to the aid workers/speakers. I really wanted to hear more from them (I could have just stood and listened in the background), but somehow it was so unsettling and I headed straight for the door immediately.
I have been having doubts about me helping people out, it has always sounded naive in a way and it is probably one of the areas of work I am least equipped for. I realized something strange a few weeks ago. In the ~10 years that I have been receiving newsletters from charity organizations, I had never once read an article within them. Most of them I don't even look at the frontpage headline. I think my lines of thought were usually something like "it's all the same", but yet I was very interested when listening to aid workers talking about their experiences. This is probably a cheesy explanation, but it was probably because I cannot really bring myself to look at other people's pain and confronting matters, like my own, and until I do that, I cannot really help other people. So I think that's one of the things I need to work on, as well as sorting out my own bills and things that I need to take care of. It sounds terribly obvious but I didn't understand, probably still don't.
Rest of the week:
I didn't do much as usual, but Mum found the place really dusty (it was a bit, but I never really take much notice). So I did a little bit a cleaning. We went to Ikea twice in search of bookshelves on special last week, but there were out of stock (got to get there very early). Bumped into Ningqi, a former workmate, (amazing how that could happen with me staying home most days) didn't talk long. I haven't been replying/talking to anyone from my last job or from university/school, feel a bit embarassed and guilty about wasting all this time (5 months) not doing anything constructive. Got to do it though. On Sunday, after cleaning some windows, I climbed onto the roof and it was nice to sit there overlooking the neighbourhood and enjoying the breeze.
Monday:
After going to bed and getting up unusually early, I went to see Million Dollar Baby and Vera Drake.
Million Dollar Baby was great, right up there with some of the best films I have ever seen. There is a frankness about this film that makes it very real. The performances by Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman were all wonderful and complimented each other perfectly I thought. Even the minor characters seem very real and believeable to me. Toward the end, I had a few tears roll down my cheeks. The thing about this movie is that it's more about people than boxing, and I related with the estrangement of Frankie and Maggie from their own families, the relationship between Frankie and Maggie was great to see. It made me think that it's easy for me to say I would go it alone, but until I got no one, I won't really know how difficult it is. The controversial ending, I thought the reasons were laid out well and it is one particular story about an individual, so I agreed with it, but I realize it is reasonable that some would be offended by it, being such a widely seen film. I guess I don't really know what it is like until I have experienced it myself. A lot of the success of this film is down to the direction of Clint Eastwood I think (it was shot in 37 days, many not even full days), it was enlightening in what he said about setting up the right environment for people to work in, which I have come across when I worked too. Hilary Swank was great, her humility in talking about her role, the training, and the people she met along the way (on the website) was rare and wonderful to see. I haven't seen any of her previous movies (incl. Boy Don't Cry), or Clint Eastwood's last film (Mystic River), but I think I will from now on. Overall, it is hard to imagine there will be a better film this year, will probably see it again in the next few weeks.
I saw Vera Drake right after and this probably wasn't such a great idea. The post-war feel seemed very authentic, the people all seemed in character, but somehow the people and their reactions were a bit simplistic for me. I could not really understand the reasons for this simplicity, particularly in the second half of the film. I like the fact that the various cases of pregnancy presented were wide-ranged (I thought), but because of its simplicity, I probably would not have chosen to see it if I knew.
I have always been curious as to what other people are thinking about me, so here's this meme. I haven't been around much for a long time, so I guess there is probably not much. Sorry I didn't comment when others were doing this meme.
If you read this, even if I don't speak to you often, comment with a memory of me. It can be anything you want as long as it happened. Then post this to your journal. See what people remember about you.
Went to see The Incredibles and rode my bike at Jells Park. The movie was a lot of fun, and it was nice riding along suburban trails and lakeside that I haven't ridden along before. The weather is around the range of being not too sunny or too cold, so it has been great to get outside.
Tuesday:
Mum came back from Hong Kong after a month overseas, mainly to spend time with my grandfather and to celebrate his 90th birthday. I got up early (for me) and picked her up from the airport.
In the evening I went to an information session for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) valued supporters (anyone who donate more than $35/month). The topics covered: a midwife talked about her experience working in a town with ~80,000 displaced people in Sudan/Darfur, an environmental engineer working as a water sanitation expert in Indonesia, and MSF Australia's decision to halt their tsnami appeal. I went to one similar (MSF's volunteer session) and it was great again to listen to their accounts and experience and thoughts. Despite them probably showing a very non-confronting version of events, I grimaced at certain points of the accounts of the suffering and devastations, but as always, there were such contrast and tales of amazing resilience and optimism in the midst of all these tragedies. Darfur was the worst man-made humanitarian crisis in 2004 (genocide were reported), did not receive the necessary level of coverage in the media, but has since then been overshadowed by the Asia Tsunami, so please consider donating to help out.
After the Q&A ended, there was a period of time for mingling and talking/listening more to the aid workers/speakers. I really wanted to hear more from them (I could have just stood and listened in the background), but somehow it was so unsettling and I headed straight for the door immediately.
I have been having doubts about me helping people out, it has always sounded naive in a way and it is probably one of the areas of work I am least equipped for. I realized something strange a few weeks ago. In the ~10 years that I have been receiving newsletters from charity organizations, I had never once read an article within them. Most of them I don't even look at the frontpage headline. I think my lines of thought were usually something like "it's all the same", but yet I was very interested when listening to aid workers talking about their experiences. This is probably a cheesy explanation, but it was probably because I cannot really bring myself to look at other people's pain and confronting matters, like my own, and until I do that, I cannot really help other people. So I think that's one of the things I need to work on, as well as sorting out my own bills and things that I need to take care of. It sounds terribly obvious but I didn't understand, probably still don't.
Rest of the week:
I didn't do much as usual, but Mum found the place really dusty (it was a bit, but I never really take much notice). So I did a little bit a cleaning. We went to Ikea twice in search of bookshelves on special last week, but there were out of stock (got to get there very early). Bumped into Ningqi, a former workmate, (amazing how that could happen with me staying home most days) didn't talk long. I haven't been replying/talking to anyone from my last job or from university/school, feel a bit embarassed and guilty about wasting all this time (5 months) not doing anything constructive. Got to do it though. On Sunday, after cleaning some windows, I climbed onto the roof and it was nice to sit there overlooking the neighbourhood and enjoying the breeze.
Monday:
After going to bed and getting up unusually early, I went to see Million Dollar Baby and Vera Drake.
Million Dollar Baby was great, right up there with some of the best films I have ever seen. There is a frankness about this film that makes it very real. The performances by Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman were all wonderful and complimented each other perfectly I thought. Even the minor characters seem very real and believeable to me. Toward the end, I had a few tears roll down my cheeks. The thing about this movie is that it's more about people than boxing, and I related with the estrangement of Frankie and Maggie from their own families, the relationship between Frankie and Maggie was great to see. It made me think that it's easy for me to say I would go it alone, but until I got no one, I won't really know how difficult it is. The controversial ending, I thought the reasons were laid out well and it is one particular story about an individual, so I agreed with it, but I realize it is reasonable that some would be offended by it, being such a widely seen film. I guess I don't really know what it is like until I have experienced it myself. A lot of the success of this film is down to the direction of Clint Eastwood I think (it was shot in 37 days, many not even full days), it was enlightening in what he said about setting up the right environment for people to work in, which I have come across when I worked too. Hilary Swank was great, her humility in talking about her role, the training, and the people she met along the way (on the website) was rare and wonderful to see. I haven't seen any of her previous movies (incl. Boy Don't Cry), or Clint Eastwood's last film (Mystic River), but I think I will from now on. Overall, it is hard to imagine there will be a better film this year, will probably see it again in the next few weeks.
I saw Vera Drake right after and this probably wasn't such a great idea. The post-war feel seemed very authentic, the people all seemed in character, but somehow the people and their reactions were a bit simplistic for me. I could not really understand the reasons for this simplicity, particularly in the second half of the film. I like the fact that the various cases of pregnancy presented were wide-ranged (I thought), but because of its simplicity, I probably would not have chosen to see it if I knew.
I have always been curious as to what other people are thinking about me, so here's this meme. I haven't been around much for a long time, so I guess there is probably not much. Sorry I didn't comment when others were doing this meme.
If you read this, even if I don't speak to you often, comment with a memory of me. It can be anything you want as long as it happened. Then post this to your journal. See what people remember about you.