Another Must-See

"Suggestive techniques for the marine to use in the avoidance of boredom and loneliness: Masturbation. Re-reading of letters from unfaithful wives and girlfriends. Cleaning your rifle. Further masturbation. Re-wiring Walkman. Arguing about religion and meaning of life. Discussing in detail, every women the marine has ever fucked. Debating differences, such as Cupban VS Mexican, Harleys VS Hondas, left VS right-handed masturbation. Further cleaning of rifle. Studying the mail order bride catalogue. Further masturbation. Planning a marine's first meal on return home. Imagining what a marine's girlfriend and her man Joey are doing in the alley or in a hotel bed."

Some more remarkable quotes here from Jarhead.

Middle-East Fever 2

The book I'm reading right now is called 'Nach Afghanistan kommt Gott nur noch zum Weinen- Die Geschichte der Shirin-Gol' (Translation: Crying Afghanistan- 哭泣的阿富汗). It's the true story of an Afghan woman's life and is recorded by an iranian lady who encountered her in a rafugee camp in Afghanistan when shooting a documentary for German TV program. Shirin-Gol is the Afghan woman's name meaning a fragrant flower, and the whole story is written in her tone and through her eyes to see the true face of wars.

The curiosity makes me keep turning pages but the more I read the deeper my heart drops down. The unequal position in men and women is the first test they have to encounter ever since they were born. Women are strickly restrained from exposing face and parts of body, from talking in public, from looking up to men's faces, from reading and education... etc. When male power rules the society- during wars or in illiterate ages, women's position gets even lower and being treated like meat sacks. The words vividly describe how they managed to live and nurture kids under poorness, sickness, or maim, how they escaped from bombs, bullets, or mines, and how they survived from rapes again and again and gave birth of rapers' kids. While no matter what happens, they pray to Allah and expect Allah offers them some answers.

After finishing this book, I guess there'll be no more middle-east story for a while. My next book will be.... wait a min... I can't believe I've run out of new books!! Hm... gotta go shopping again...

當年紀漸長, 我常常會想, 前幾世的我到底是些什麼樣的人?
在種種際遇發生之後, 我總是懷疑, 是怎樣的因緣牽繫著我, 在這一世重新上演這些來來往往的故事?

也許某一世我是跟隨航海家探險的旅者, 終日漂泊無故定居所, 只有短暫的靠岸停留, 在泊船的港灣與美麗的女子邂逅;
也許某一世我是駕著驛馬車的商旅, 遊走於各國間蒐集珍稀藝品於各地販賣, 歇腳之處不敵美色而處處留情;
也或許我只是個流落風塵間的女子, 賣才獻藝為求三餐溫飽, 偶遇恩人不捨而墜入情網, 卻因違背倫理而被迫分離....

這些或許只是我童話般的幻想, 可佛說的因緣卻領著我一步一步的走. 什麼時候遇上什麼人, 什麼時候斷了什麼情, 我無法預測, 也無法控制, 只有在發生的時候, 我才明瞭是該開始或是結束.

在經歷這種種許多之後, 我寧可我只是一個足不出戶的女兒, 生而只為等待一樁門當戶對的姻緣, 在面紗拉下時才見著那張即將長相廝守的面孔, 一生只愛戀這個為我卸下面紗的人.

I just wanted the great time we had before could be lasted. That's all I wanted...

When she thought she's hurt and she intends to hurt back, in fact she hurts herself more. She's angry to someone, but in fact she's angry to herself more. She tried hard to forgive and forget, but in fact she's too selfish to know how to forgive and forget. The heart she's holding, is a black ugly hideous heart of hers.

Pls forget what she said and only keep her good side in mind.

Farewell, her forever lover.

Middle-East Fever

Another great book I finished in this trip-- The kite runner.

It's written by an Afghan Khaled Hosseini who fled to US with his family in 1980 when Russia attacked Afghanistan.

"He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.-- Amazon reviews"

This weekend I went to see the movie 'Munich'. The story is based on the true events in 1972 Munich Olympics, that 11 Israeli athletes got murdered by PLO. The whole movie is surrounded by assassinations and continuous revenge, but the whole point it keeps expressing is that, behind all the fighting and killing, their only dream is merely to have their own homeland where they can pass on their culture and tradition to generation and generation.

No idea since when middle-east subjects started to interest me. Maybe since I happened to get an iranian friend whose culture is complete different from those I'm familiar with. I'm pretty suprised I found mid-east interesting, and apparently I'm even far away from local taiwanese people.

I can't believe

that I saw a condom commercial on tv in India!

In 1999 they just lifted the ban for lips-on-lips kissing on big screen in bolywood movies. Now in 2006 they're allowed to promote condom on mass media! God this country is really improving...

1. I cried over on the phantom of opera again. Everytime since the organ melody came down and the chandelier's lifted up from the stage, I started to burst out tears uncontrollably until the last scene, on which I even cried harder when Christine kisses the phantom. There's no other play or movie or music I would cry over like this one. Now I deeply believe Andrew Lloyd Webber must have added some magic in this show so that it's not only been kept playing in London for years but also made me cry over everytime.

2. I'm flying to India again on Monday. I've been there a lot of times, but I still don't like the country at all and even don't feel like going there again. This time my Indian coworker will not be in Delhi so I have to arrange everything myself for all visits and dinning and also on the other hand take care of my manager from US. I feel unexpectedly stressful and nervous this time. I didn't really remember the names of the areas that we used to go for food and even never checked out city map before. Besides most of drivers don't speak english there, neither tricycle drivers nor airport pickup guys. I can't stop imaging the troubles which might happen to us and the scenery of a foreign girl travelling in a darkbeadedmen-dominated country on her own. I even thought of calling my boss to cancel this trip earlier today. I'm very scared.

3. Yes I'm scared but I can't do anything with it. People who know me tend to think I'm a brave and independent girl who can and dare to do everything, either with people or on my own. But I'm actually not. I have to learn to be brave because sometimes I can find no one to rely on but only myself. I have to take the task bravely because it's my responsibility and I can't leave to others what I ought to do merely because I'm scared. I can't just quit everytime I face fears. I do wish I didn't have to learn to be brave and there's always a someone I can rely on whenever I'm scared. I wish I could tell people 'I fear and I want to quit'.

Phantom of My Life

Thanks for inviting me to see Phantom of the Opera. I'm very excited and quite looking forward to it. So I took out the sound track album and listened to it again. It reminded me the time we went to see the movie together- the time we were still together, and I was very impressed that you liked it a lot as I did. I remember we had a fight before that day and we nearly broke up. But after coming out from the cinema we found same interest again which relieved the tense relationship a bit. Neverthless we still broke up few weeks later.

Then for quite a long time I kept listening to this album and crying along every time I heard of 'think of me'. I still remember that heartbroken pain but I don't feel sad any more, instead I'm quite happy with current life right now. Having known the play would be on our opera house this year I was quite excited and waited in the queue for the ticket for 6 hrs but I failed to get it at last. When I already gave up the idea you happened to get the ticket, and you invited me. I am so happy even if the seats are quite far. Sometimes I feel you're just too terrible to get along with but once in a while you'd do something really sweet to touch my heart. Perhaps this is what we chinese always say, we owed each other in last life.

I'm glad we can go to see this opera together again, in a form of friends. Hope the chandelier won't have trouble falling down this time.:)

Lantern Show in Guan Du Temple (關渡宮)

I had a great chinese new year with families this year. Probably because I hadn't spent chinese new year at home in the past 5-6 yrs, or probably I'm a bit tired of travlling and away from home, it's more sweet to me this time to stay with families and chat with them. Little bros and sis seem to grow up in a sudden and everyone looks much bigger than those in my memories, on the other hand grandparents look much older than before but still nag in same way for my good. I, myself, turned to be a BIG girl in their eyes as well and prettier (hm... not sure if i should be happy about this or not as in another words I looked more ugly to them before...). Good thing is kids still remember this big sis who once played with them when they were bored in grandma's house listening to grownups talks. And same typical way we celebrate every new year-- eating, eating, eating, and watching tv.

I recalled a saying from a tv commercial... when we were young we tried hard to get away to see the world, but when we get older we find the best getaway is to go home.

Hope all of you are having a great chinese new year!