she finally turned on the computer to look at the video the next day. she felt surprisingly calm, the pale face, to her eyes, looked like ... the chicken piece. perhaps because of the lack of emotion she felt, she was disappointed.
it was raining outside, she took her umbrella and left the house. it was a quiet sunday afternoon, the kind of days they'd enjoy the tranquility together in the park because no one likes going out in the rain, like the way that peace only comes when the chaos brought about by war is fully realised and everyone is exhausted.
she felt cold, and realised that half of her body was soaked because half of the umbrella is covering an empty space. there was water dripping from her hair: "Water?" she exclaimed. "when did the rain die to become droplets of water?" at that point it was more like a storm. she pictured herself watching a scene in a movie where millions of rain parachuting down, falling to the ground, dying, screaming, trying to hover in the wind, but in the end, all swept down to the river. and the river...as one body, it runs to the sea, the river dies, and all become part of the ocean. and the ocean...always evaporating, ceasing to be part of the ocean, rise up to form clouds. a strange thought appeared in her mind: "if people know that their bodies do nothing but recycle, will they still commit suicide? won't they need to do more, like totally destroying themselves, or ejecting themselves into space, in order to escape the horrible cycle?"
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Sunday, 19 July 2009
part 3 (e): The Camera
when she was back in her flat, she was exhausted, she was not in the mood for food but she went to the fridge. the images of the dead came to live when she saw the piece of chicken breast in the box. at this point, she began to consciously realise that she really was a little tromitised after the visit. she was absolutel overwhelmed emotionally, as if she was the midwife who had also given birth. she fell asleep on the sofa...
she felt hot,, dry heat, there was a burning smell and she could see smoke coming out of the kitchen. she struggled to get up because her hands were tied, she screamed for help...
when she finally woke up, she ran to the kitchen and saw that the fridge door was left opened, no smoke, nothing was on fire, she was relieved. the chicken breast caught her eyes, she touched it with her hand but she didn't feel anything. her hand was numb from how she slept. she thought to herself, "my hand is...dead?"
she took the chicken out of the fridge and closed the door. the box stated that the chicken breast was produced 4 days ago, she took it out of the box. the smooth, pale, moist surface of the chicken horrified her. she imagined herself to be a maggot, eatting away the chicken breast. it was revolting to think of maggots rotting away flesh, so much so that she almost sick with an empty stomach. but the more she thought about herself and the chicken, maggots and the body, the blurer the difference becomes - she really is just like a maggot feeding off some food. she put the piece of chicken in a box and had some pieces of bread instead. she wanted to turn on the computer, but she had seen enough that night.
she felt hot,, dry heat, there was a burning smell and she could see smoke coming out of the kitchen. she struggled to get up because her hands were tied, she screamed for help...
when she finally woke up, she ran to the kitchen and saw that the fridge door was left opened, no smoke, nothing was on fire, she was relieved. the chicken breast caught her eyes, she touched it with her hand but she didn't feel anything. her hand was numb from how she slept. she thought to herself, "my hand is...dead?"
she took the chicken out of the fridge and closed the door. the box stated that the chicken breast was produced 4 days ago, she took it out of the box. the smooth, pale, moist surface of the chicken horrified her. she imagined herself to be a maggot, eatting away the chicken breast. it was revolting to think of maggots rotting away flesh, so much so that she almost sick with an empty stomach. but the more she thought about herself and the chicken, maggots and the body, the blurer the difference becomes - she really is just like a maggot feeding off some food. she put the piece of chicken in a box and had some pieces of bread instead. she wanted to turn on the computer, but she had seen enough that night.
Friday, 10 July 2009
part 2: the box
she dreamt about him last night, his smooth, clean-shaven face touching hers, she put her fingers through his hair and to her horror, his hair just came off.
on the same day after work, she went to the semetry. she sat in front of the tomb stone, and turned on her computer.
a few weeks ago, her aunt gave birth to her first child, she remembered watching her aunt when she was about to go to labour. she asked herself "perhaps this's how she felt?"
she turned on the camera remotely from her computer, she stared at the screen, she imagined herself to be a midwife...... finally, the head came into view. "push!" she exclaimed, wanting the whole body to come out. soon, she came back to the reality that the camera was placed on his chest.
on the same day after work, she went to the semetry. she sat in front of the tomb stone, and turned on her computer.
a few weeks ago, her aunt gave birth to her first child, she remembered watching her aunt when she was about to go to labour. she asked herself "perhaps this's how she felt?"
she turned on the camera remotely from her computer, she stared at the screen, she imagined herself to be a midwife...... finally, the head came into view. "push!" she exclaimed, wanting the whole body to come out. soon, she came back to the reality that the camera was placed on his chest.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
part one, the coffin
finally, the time has come when the coffin has to be closed. He lays motionlessly, expressionlessly inside, while everyone in the room gathers to see him for the last time.
Jane recalled her 17 years old birthday party which happened just a week ago, the roses are replaced with lilleys, the candles are turned into incense. She looked at him intensely trying to comprehend what it means to be seeing him the last time. a rotten corpse which she saw on tv some time ago appeared in her mind, it made her hair stand on end. Then she remembered the cryogenic program she watched, cant that preserve his body so that she can see him again and again? Someone murmured a prayer and asked everyone to look away, and proceeded to close the coffin. She screamed, '
'no!' she dashed forward and placed the little box she prepared in the coffin, and she could no longer hold her tears.
Jane recalled her 17 years old birthday party which happened just a week ago, the roses are replaced with lilleys, the candles are turned into incense. She looked at him intensely trying to comprehend what it means to be seeing him the last time. a rotten corpse which she saw on tv some time ago appeared in her mind, it made her hair stand on end. Then she remembered the cryogenic program she watched, cant that preserve his body so that she can see him again and again? Someone murmured a prayer and asked everyone to look away, and proceeded to close the coffin. She screamed, '
'no!' she dashed forward and placed the little box she prepared in the coffin, and she could no longer hold her tears.
Friday, 3 July 2009
friday joke
Last month a world-wide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was:-
"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"
The survey was a huge failure because of the following:
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant. In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant. In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant. In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant. In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant. In South America they didn't know what "please" meant. In the US they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.
And Finally...........................
In Australia they hung up because they can't understand an Indian accent.
"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"
The survey was a huge failure because of the following:
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant. In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant. In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant. In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant. In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant. In South America they didn't know what "please" meant. In the US they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.
And Finally...........................
In Australia they hung up because they can't understand an Indian accent.
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Yan's speaking from top of his head, bottom of his heart
this is my theory of human nature, businesses which are successful are the ones capable of capitalising on various aspects of the theory regardless of the nature of the business.
in fact, there are only two aspects of human nature that can be capitalised on:
the more competitive you are, the more nosy you are too, since you need to find out how much more other people are making, how much faster the others can run, how much sexier others' partners are etc in order to be able to compare.
however, nosy people are not necessarily competitive, therefore it is possible to capture just nosiness and be successful.
the way to tell whether a nosy person is competitive or not is by examining the things they are nosy about, competitive people are nosy about things that are measurable such as wages, speed, and more complicated properties which do not have absolute values but have certain established norms among a culture such as beauty.
those who are nosy but not competitive tend to be more interested in, or are not picky on what they are nosy about, they will be satisfied to know whether you like orange juice or apple juice, orange juice with bits or without, a cat-person or a dog-person etc.
facebook can satisfy all of the nosy people, but it is not capable of capitalising on people's competitiveness.
to create a site that will both capture people's nosiness and competitiveness is therefore my goal:)
in fact, there are only two aspects of human nature that can be capitalised on:
- Competitiveness
- Nosiness
the more competitive you are, the more nosy you are too, since you need to find out how much more other people are making, how much faster the others can run, how much sexier others' partners are etc in order to be able to compare.
however, nosy people are not necessarily competitive, therefore it is possible to capture just nosiness and be successful.
the way to tell whether a nosy person is competitive or not is by examining the things they are nosy about, competitive people are nosy about things that are measurable such as wages, speed, and more complicated properties which do not have absolute values but have certain established norms among a culture such as beauty.
those who are nosy but not competitive tend to be more interested in, or are not picky on what they are nosy about, they will be satisfied to know whether you like orange juice or apple juice, orange juice with bits or without, a cat-person or a dog-person etc.
facebook can satisfy all of the nosy people, but it is not capable of capitalising on people's competitiveness.
to create a site that will both capture people's nosiness and competitiveness is therefore my goal:)
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
If I do leave the UK, these are the things I will miss...
I've just finished dinner, sitting down and about to continue building my web site. but then all of a suddden I feel like writing this.
I will be at risk of losing my job next monday officially, I will have to reapply (to a different post). of course there's a chance that I won't get a job at all at the end of all this, and that will mean not only losing my job, but losing my right to stay in the UK as well after ten years of studying and working here.
without ordering these in any way, I think I'll miss a lot of these if I have to go back to Hong Kong:
1. BLT, or just the expectation of having BLT in any sandwich shop, anywhere that sells sandwiches at all. also smook salmon and cream cheese.
2. travelling on trains, not the delay, not the price, but I actually quite like travelling on trains sometimes, chatting to random nice people and all that.
3. having my own place, no matter how small my room is, having to share the bathroom, kitchen etc, I have my own place and I can shut the door and talk to no one if I feel like it.
4. the occasional sunshine, which makes it precious. the summer chirping birds (which we don't really have in hong kong unless you go to the mountains to look for them). the rain, which is fun to get annoyed with.
5. the minority of people who have studied and are actually civilised and educated, their endless stimulating conversations, their dreams, their ideals, their political thinking.
6. the bbc, watching news 24 online, iplayer. listening to radio 4, the today program every single morning, john humphrey's questioning of politicians. the comedies at 6:30 in the evening. the satire, endless documentaries, countless stories.
7. the various accent from various part of the UK.
8. this may sound strange, but some of the food:) the occasional dose of fish and chips, and nice rare piece of steak, lamb, the big portabello mushroom, all kinds of starter, dessert, all these just taste and feel different to have in hong kong. and curry, the weird chinese food, eatting it while thinking about how they should taste like. dim sum, which I don't tend to have with friends in hong kong.
9. shopping online. it's not big in hong kong because hong kong is too small.
10. being close to europe, the holidays, the european languages. absolutely endless fun. the history, the complexity of it, the development of ideas. travelling to places knowing that great events or people have happened there which affected the whole world.
11. random cats on the streets, love cats. girlfriend and I always play with them whenever we see them.
12. girlfriend. and a lot of people, I am not going to name any of them.
*sigh*
I will be at risk of losing my job next monday officially, I will have to reapply (to a different post). of course there's a chance that I won't get a job at all at the end of all this, and that will mean not only losing my job, but losing my right to stay in the UK as well after ten years of studying and working here.
without ordering these in any way, I think I'll miss a lot of these if I have to go back to Hong Kong:
1. BLT, or just the expectation of having BLT in any sandwich shop, anywhere that sells sandwiches at all. also smook salmon and cream cheese.
2. travelling on trains, not the delay, not the price, but I actually quite like travelling on trains sometimes, chatting to random nice people and all that.
3. having my own place, no matter how small my room is, having to share the bathroom, kitchen etc, I have my own place and I can shut the door and talk to no one if I feel like it.
4. the occasional sunshine, which makes it precious. the summer chirping birds (which we don't really have in hong kong unless you go to the mountains to look for them). the rain, which is fun to get annoyed with.
5. the minority of people who have studied and are actually civilised and educated, their endless stimulating conversations, their dreams, their ideals, their political thinking.
6. the bbc, watching news 24 online, iplayer. listening to radio 4, the today program every single morning, john humphrey's questioning of politicians. the comedies at 6:30 in the evening. the satire, endless documentaries, countless stories.
7. the various accent from various part of the UK.
8. this may sound strange, but some of the food:) the occasional dose of fish and chips, and nice rare piece of steak, lamb, the big portabello mushroom, all kinds of starter, dessert, all these just taste and feel different to have in hong kong. and curry, the weird chinese food, eatting it while thinking about how they should taste like. dim sum, which I don't tend to have with friends in hong kong.
9. shopping online. it's not big in hong kong because hong kong is too small.
10. being close to europe, the holidays, the european languages. absolutely endless fun. the history, the complexity of it, the development of ideas. travelling to places knowing that great events or people have happened there which affected the whole world.
11. random cats on the streets, love cats. girlfriend and I always play with them whenever we see them.
12. girlfriend. and a lot of people, I am not going to name any of them.
*sigh*
Sunday, 15 March 2009
punishing a machine gun
Thursday frontpages had a lot of coverage on the Luton protest to the regiment that just came back from Iraq. if you look carefully at the protest, there is only one thing that essentially differentiate that protest from a lot of the others that had gone on - the fact that these are muslims protesting. forget about the placards and shouting of "butchers, war criminals, murderers" etc, I do not believe that these guys invented the usage of these words to describe the people - whether they be politicians or soldiers - who are involved in this war.
what made this protest to the head line, apparently, is that it generated divide between the british and the muslim comunity, because the way the protest was conducted was "offensive."
what was the war for? why did the soldiers go to iraq? in the past, the public sees the soldiers as brave and glorious after a war because they have defended their country, they sacrifice their life for their country, or sometimes the soldiers had conquered other parts of the world and the public sees it as ligitimate. in the current case, none of these applies. the war on iraq is not a glory, it's a shame on the countries involved, it is illigitimate. above all, the war has been offensive to the muslims everywere.
offensive, firstly because the british (I dare not to say aout the general public but at least the government) is in effect discriminating muslims, my previous housemate was in fact a subject of that discrimination - he was arrested because he downloaded materials from the american government web site on al qaida for research in university, he was detained for over 20 days, interogated about the cartoons he drew, books he read etc and of course nothing came out of it. who has generated the divide between the british and the muslim comunity?
secondly, people fail to understand that (correct me if I'm wrong), muslims really do see their remote people as brothers. if your brothers are killed, will you go call the guys who killed them murderers? I'm sure that the british soldiers tried their best to avoid killing civilians but the fact is that they did. and since the war is illigitimate in the first place, accidental killing of civilians is just unjustifiable.
there is one aspect that the protest should have been done better however, which is that the protest should really be directed more tot eh politicians, not to the soldiers. after all, you do not punnish a machine gun after it has been used to kill someone. you punish the person who used the machine gun. soldiers are like machines n a way, but they are of course also individuals with feelings.
what made this protest to the head line, apparently, is that it generated divide between the british and the muslim comunity, because the way the protest was conducted was "offensive."
what was the war for? why did the soldiers go to iraq? in the past, the public sees the soldiers as brave and glorious after a war because they have defended their country, they sacrifice their life for their country, or sometimes the soldiers had conquered other parts of the world and the public sees it as ligitimate. in the current case, none of these applies. the war on iraq is not a glory, it's a shame on the countries involved, it is illigitimate. above all, the war has been offensive to the muslims everywere.
offensive, firstly because the british (I dare not to say aout the general public but at least the government) is in effect discriminating muslims, my previous housemate was in fact a subject of that discrimination - he was arrested because he downloaded materials from the american government web site on al qaida for research in university, he was detained for over 20 days, interogated about the cartoons he drew, books he read etc and of course nothing came out of it. who has generated the divide between the british and the muslim comunity?
secondly, people fail to understand that (correct me if I'm wrong), muslims really do see their remote people as brothers. if your brothers are killed, will you go call the guys who killed them murderers? I'm sure that the british soldiers tried their best to avoid killing civilians but the fact is that they did. and since the war is illigitimate in the first place, accidental killing of civilians is just unjustifiable.
there is one aspect that the protest should have been done better however, which is that the protest should really be directed more tot eh politicians, not to the soldiers. after all, you do not punnish a machine gun after it has been used to kill someone. you punish the person who used the machine gun. soldiers are like machines n a way, but they are of course also individuals with feelings.
Monday, 9 March 2009
Slumdog Millionaire
I watched the film on saturday, it's quite a nice movie but I find the film a bit strange - I mean the setting and the plot.
people watch the show "Who wants to be a millionaire" presumably because they find it exciting even though it is the contenstent not themselves on the show, there's a great deal of suspense, there is a fair amount of twist because one can potentially lose so much after winning so much. it's fun to watch people being too greedy, it's great to sit at home and laugh at other's misery or to utter in a jealous tone "I know all of those answers too but I wouldn't be picked to be on the show because they know that I will get all the money."
In slumdog millionaire however, the very title tells you that he is going to get every single question right! even when Latika cannot tell him the answer right at the end, he will for sure get it right anyway. you know also that the police is going to release him so that he can get on to the last question, you know that he is going to meet up with latika in the train station as well (whenever there's the line "I'll wait for you at a certain time at the train station until you come", you know for sure that the guy and the girl will meet...
all in all there's just no twist in the film...which is just strange for an oscar film.
people watch the show "Who wants to be a millionaire" presumably because they find it exciting even though it is the contenstent not themselves on the show, there's a great deal of suspense, there is a fair amount of twist because one can potentially lose so much after winning so much. it's fun to watch people being too greedy, it's great to sit at home and laugh at other's misery or to utter in a jealous tone "I know all of those answers too but I wouldn't be picked to be on the show because they know that I will get all the money."
In slumdog millionaire however, the very title tells you that he is going to get every single question right! even when Latika cannot tell him the answer right at the end, he will for sure get it right anyway. you know also that the police is going to release him so that he can get on to the last question, you know that he is going to meet up with latika in the train station as well (whenever there's the line "I'll wait for you at a certain time at the train station until you come", you know for sure that the guy and the girl will meet...
all in all there's just no twist in the film...which is just strange for an oscar film.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
capital punishment
On the BBC Today program this morning, it said that last year there were some 65 cases of people after being released from prison reoffended murder or rape. I don't know what the total number of murder and rape convicts there are each year roughly, but I imagine this 65 is a small percentage. some people then talked of having capital punishment back in place because these reoffenders just need to be stopped and the system is not working (as in rehabilitation is not working).
After learning much about the argument for abolishing capital punishment, and some of the injustices carried out in the USA because a dead person can never really get his life back even though he is subsequently proved to be not guilty, I think it is right to give even the convicted a chance just in case the jury, the judges, the experts who provide the evidence, made mistakes (and of course they do because they are just like us).
however, I wonder whether any research has been done on a system in which capital punishment cannot be applied on first conviction, but it can be on re-offenders?
After learning much about the argument for abolishing capital punishment, and some of the injustices carried out in the USA because a dead person can never really get his life back even though he is subsequently proved to be not guilty, I think it is right to give even the convicted a chance just in case the jury, the judges, the experts who provide the evidence, made mistakes (and of course they do because they are just like us).
however, I wonder whether any research has been done on a system in which capital punishment cannot be applied on first conviction, but it can be on re-offenders?
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