叫你一声 my love

“这一牵， 就牵了十年.”

If you haven’t watched it, watch it. Easily relatable; nostalgic; very sweet.

 

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Screwed.

I have two papers due on Friday that I haven’t started writing:

One is to reflect on a Canadian ambassador’s talk on Canada’s economy, which is highlighted with many economic terms and numbers that I do not understand;

Another one is to analyse two ads by Yasmin Ahmad, employing arty concepts of films and storytelling.

Talk about the differences between the north and south pole.
Both of which I’m not at all familiar with.

So many things; so little time.
I have a headache.
I want to stab something. Anything.

 

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Drunk on laughter

I’ve been meaning to post this up for a few days because it’s just CLASSIC.

We started off with some ‘act cute’ photo taking

 
Food – North Indian cuisine and Coffee Club

Still, some normal photos

Then the silliness started  in single shots..

And then. I switched to multi shots…
 
Theme: Diva.
Starring: Nanting and Louis

Theme: “Piao rou” hair
Starring: Sooling and QQ

Theme: Boobs and muscles
Starring: Kat and Kaijun

Theme: I dont know. I think we were too far gone at this point
Starring: QQ, Louis, Kaijun

Haven’t laughed so loudly and heartily in public for a long time now (while being perfectly sober). We all were worried we might get thrown out of Coffee Club. Feels like poly all over again.

Thank goodness for multi shots. (=

 

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Break away

 

Last night, I had this tightness in my chest and I suddenly felt extremely caged.

I was dreaming up freedom. Don’t get me wrong, I love the life I have right now, it’s just that I wish I had the ability or the freedom to do more – something to set me free; to let me live my life.

I wonder what that something is. Age? Marriage? Work? All of those seem ironic to me. I guess I just want less scrutiny from the elders who look at the way I live my life and shake their heads in disapproval.

24. I’m 24, and yet many a time, I feel like I’m still treated like a child. Like I’m incapable of making a decision, that I’m irresponsibly adolescent, and have no clue how to plan my life. I feel like a child. Sometimes I think it’s these that make me want to escape even more. In 6 short years, 30 will come knocking. Will I have achieved what I wanted to achieve by then? But, what I want now has nothing to do with having children nor career progression. What will they think? Honestly, I dont really want to care.

Are we sometimes bound by the invisible reins that the elders have on us? Why should it? They have had their lives to carve, and I now have mine, isn’t it?

Break away.

There’s this pent up frustration from not going away for way too long. Sometimes I wished I could pack up and leave, and I wonder how things will be like if I moved elsewhere for a period of time. Will I face the same degree of homesickness that my friends are facing overseas or will I embrace the freedom?

I wonder.

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Red rant

What a bad weekend. And it hasn’t even started!

Number one, I had to miss a really interesting and important class because of blindingly excruciating menstrual cramps. Took 2 pills that would have normally knocked me out cold, but didnt work. I was writhing in bed and breaking out in cold sweat, called Bryant just so I can get some comfort. And upon hearing his voice, I burst out sobbing, and the only words I could make out was, “very pain.” And then the words, “I’ll be coming over, hang in there,” never sounded better.

So, downed a can of Guinness. Kinda worked though the pain lingered. I was sedated (somewhat) and thoroughly expired from fighting the pain, and my brains couldn’t really work either.

Best thing (Number two)? I was to have a quiz TODAY that I had to study for and though I read the notes twice over, the words couldn’t really go in. Still suffering from the after-effects from yesterday and with my brains still a little out of it, I went to school today.

And I failed the quiz.

Really. Great. Weekend.

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Do you know Flipper committed suicide?

Yes, I’ve watched The Cove;
Yes (Liang), I cried my eyes out;
Yes, I feel like I should do something, anything.
And I feel everyone should play a part too.

The Cove
Before I watched it, I expected half the film to contain scenes that are made to stimulate the emotions, you know, like slow-motion scenes or something. But it’s pleasantly factual. And the emotions that welled up weren’t “man-made” so to speak, it came from deep inside to want to do justice to the dolphins who died the unworthy deaths.

For those who did not watch, this movie serves basically to educate the world about dolphin capture and dolphin killings. Every September, dolphin hunters in Taiji, Japan, will round up large pods of dolphins who were migrating off its coast. Throngs of dolphin trainers will wait on shore to select the dolphins. Most will want bottlenose dolphins after the old movie Flipper made dolphin shows all over the world surge in popularity.

Those dolphins who got selected will be shipped all over the world to feed eager tourists who want to see dolphin perform tricks. Those who weren’t selected will be killed in the cove, often dyeing the sea water blood-red. Their meat, which is highly toxic from mercury poisoning, will be passed off as whale meat and sold to the Japanese consumers.

Here’s the trailer for the show:

Dolphins aren’t made for captivity. That was why Kathy, the lead dolphin in Flipper, decided to end her life.

In the words of Richard O’Barry, the trainer for Kathy and the man behind “The Cove” –

“She swam right over into my arms, looked me in the eye, took a deep breath, and never took another one. I let her go and she sank very slowly to the bottom of the tank.”

He pledged to devote his life into going against dolphin captivity from then on. He said, it took 10 years to build the dolphin show industry, and it’s taking 35 years to tear it down.

There are so many perspectives and angles to this film about the dolphin captures and killings that I don’t know how to write about it. All I know it that I really want to stop this. Thus, I’m immensely respectful of the crew behind The Cove, because they brave the Taiji fishermen, the Japanese police, the International Whaling Commission, and many other people during the makings of this film.

The crew

My encounter with the pink dolphin
I remember my one and only time in Sentosa’s dolphin lagoon. The emcee asked for volunteers to play with the pink dolphins, young as I was and not quite against dolphin shows as I am now, my hand shot up, and I got selected to play with the dolphin.

Imagine my glee as I stepped into the water and was face-to-face with the pink dolphin, who was lying placidly in the water, waiting for command. As the trainer gave the command, and asked me to lean my face over, the dolphin ‘kissed’ me. That moment, instead of feeling exhilarated, I remember feeling that this isn’t quite right. The trainer then asked me to lean over again, and upon command, the dolphin splashed water on my face with her flippers. I laughed with the crowd, of course, but I couldn’t shake off the unsettled feeling that all these antics were just the workings of the trainer.

Against dolphin and marine mammals shows
How can we be so thoroughly thrilled to see dolphins leap out of the water and clap with their flippers when it’s all controlled by humans? It’s just absurd, thinking about it now. They are wild animals, they aren’t meant to be held captive. In fact, dolphins in captivity usually will grow sores and other physical ailments. Ric O’Barry said that the smiles on the dolphins’ face is nature’s greatest deception.

It’s ironic how this industry sparked my love for the ocean and its creatures slowly became the industry that I learnt to detest.

So, in an animated discussion with Bryant after the movie, I said that I want to do something. And he said there’s nothing that can be done. We are too tiny a human being in this world. But that isn’t true, is it? Every seemingly tiny action is still an action. It’s because of the undying passion of a man to eradicate dolphin captures that the world is now more educated of this cruel practice. The purpose of the movie isn’t to stop this, the purpose of this movie is to educate people enough to make them want to stop the killings.

So to quote Margaret Mead –

"Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals. "

What can you do, then?
Simple. Stop going for dolphin and marine mammals shows. If enough people stop going to those show, there won’t be enough people to fuel this industry, therefore, it will stop.

And also, please sign the petition:
http://savejapandolphins.com/

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Dolphin killings

I have a burning desire to watch The Cove, yet I dread that it will be a horrible cry fest for me to watch the creatures I love getting brutally killed.

http://thecovemovie.com/

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A walk in the park..

..with my dogs

This is Spot

 
Spot asking, “can we go nooow?”

And this is Black. I’m sure you can tell the difference

 
Black sniffing yummy grass

 
Exhausted. Hot. Cool floor.