Sweet!

As I was flipping through my diary, I saw these quotes that I had taken down:

"I have not broken your heart- you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine."

"I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer- but yours! How can I?"

-by Heathcliff, Charlotte Bronte's "Wuthering Heights"

Now I know.....

Now I finally know why in Malaysia we always have long festive holidays. If they are not one-week long, they are at least two or three days long, like the Deepavali holidays this time. Remember the ban for fire crackers? Well, apparently the ban was not very effective (obviously!). So, instead of having a preventive measure, the govenment has sought to using cures. Since people like to play with fire crackers, especially at night after bedtime, the government allows long festive holidays. Just in case people didn't get enough sleep and can't wake up for school and work the next morning, it's okay, cause there will be holidays. Aww.... how nice! But just too unfortunate for people like me who enjoy and cherish a night of peaceful slumber.

Sunday's Child

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's Child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

But the child that is born on the Sabbath Day is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

November 20, 1988 was a Sunday. Guess that explains a lot, huh? haha......

'The Shawshank Redemption'

It is my exam week, yet within less than 24 hours, I managed to watch the same movie twice on DVD. Well, that really tells how remarkable the movie is! It is indeed one of the best ones I've watched so far. Hands down.... So, ladies and gentleman, presenting to you 'The Shawshank Redemption', starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

The movie is set in a prison. It is about a man who was wrongly convicted of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the things that go on in there really startle you and I. But the thing that thugs at my heart string is the message of friendship and hope that is being brought out. Of all places, it is really ironical that such a message is preached from a prison, where it is known to be a place where no one is your friend. And hope? Sounds to me like the most unlikely thing to be found in a prison.

Anyway, here are a few lines that I would like to quote from the movie:

"There are places in the world that aren't made out of stone.....There's something inside that they can't get to, that they can't touch. It's yours."

It is about hope. Hope is the thing that keeps one alive, and it is the only thing that no one can take away from you. Unfortunately, it is also the thing of which many deprive themselves.

They say that hope is a dangerous thing. It drives a man insane. I say hope is a dangerous thing. Without hope, you have no sanity to be driven away. They say the higher your hope soars, the greater the impact of the subsequent disappointment. I say if your hope does not soar, you will not even live to be disappointed. Hope keeps one alive. While it may be your decision to draw in each breath that is directly keeping you alive, it is hope or hopelessness that brings about that decision.

Here's a wonderful poem on HOPE, by Emily Dickinson:

PART ONE: LIFE, Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,

And sings the tunes without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest is the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

At the very end of the movie, this was shown on the screen: "This movie was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including the Best Picture. It won none."

Gentlemanly

It was a long and tiring day. After spending part of my morning in school trying to get certification for my documents, then sneaking out in between classes to post them to US, I still had to make a trip to MACEE in the afternoon. Just as I thought I can hitch a ride back home with Dad, he told me that I had to take the Monorail and LRT home as he did not bring his car that day. *sigh*

So I reached the LRT station, I saw the train leaving before my eyes. So I had to board the next train. It was not crowded (thank God!), but there was no seat left. With my 1-tonne backpack on my shoulders, my jacket hanging from my left arm, and my bottle and a plastic bag of files and documents on my right, I squeezed myself into a corner of the train in an attempt to locate my comfort zone for the short 5 minutes.

Then, he got up and offered me his seat. At the exact moment, the train jerked a little, and we were practically face-to-face. It was a moment of awkwardness. So I quickly nodded and muttered my thank you. As I sat down, I was overwhelmed by a sudden surge of mixed emotions. After all, I had never been offered a seat in the 19 years of my life on earth. Well, I have come to realise two things though:

1. There are gentlemen still living in the 21st Century! (oops, sorry guys. No offence! It's just a hyperbolical remark!)
2. Being offered a seat makes me feel so nice, yet so embarrassed at the same time. (after all, I'm only 19 years old!) Talking about mixed emotions......