TGIF

I had the worst sleep in a while last night. I am not really sure my sleep was interrupted throughout the night, and I just had weird dreams for the whole night. I dreamed a friend of mine was trying to get my ears pierced so I can be controlled through this weird magic that comes with the earring....and there were others I couldn't remember clearly....Hades was certainly not helping by scratching his neck and ears whenever he thought about it. I think he is just reacting on his lack of sleep from two nights ago with a bad mood.

I finally gave up and just woke up to take a bath for Hades in the morning. He was sure surprised the bath came so early and took more than usual cuz I needed to apply two diff. types of shampoo on him. I guess at least he is liking the smell more than the medicated spray I put on him few days ago. Maybe I should go get this medicated collar for him later on so we can avoid future possibilities of flea or ticks when we take him out. I doubt he is gonna like it though....such a difficult cat....

I am still super dizzy and the coffee does not seem to work. I think the cloudy weather might of contributed to my insomnia and also preventing from waking up fully. My mood is not too shady though.....I guess it's because today is Friday. Oh and it's Halloween too....which means if it does not rain we will see some kids wondering around through the streets all dressed up weird...I never thought all that dressing up is fun, and so I never did....but oh well....there are a lot of things I don't think is fun cuz I probably didn't have a real childhood anyway....Alright....time to finish another cup of coffee....

die your head

I guess my blog has been going slow since there is not much to write about....and then all of a sudden I noticed that my blog counter was gone. The whole counter website just died, like one of the e-mail accounts I had before....just died....without warning....I guess that is like life cua some stuff just die without warning. I have to say death is not one of my favorite things, and of course that only applies to things or people I like....

Two of my watches also died on me recently cuz the batteries went out. I wonder if I should get new ones since it's been a long time since I got my last watch. I may just be getting old since I don't spend my time shopping any more. I guess I just don't get those free days like I used to be now, and I can't enjoy shopping when I have to think about when I have to start teaching each day. It's amazing how I just kinda stop doing things I used to enjoy doing one by one. It becomes hard to think about what I really want to do now.

I wonder what we should do in life when we lose interest on things. Life goes on and on and on....same almost everyday...and then what? People die, pets die, things die, and then we die, right? But at least when we die we won't have to worry about the rest any more....and even though I am not a big fan of death I do want to die 1st....ahead of everyone I know....why? cuz I am selfish and I don't want to go through the grief of death when my loved ones die....Maybe that has something to do with my aloofness that observant people see in me....?

How did we get to this serious topic? yeah....my blog counter died on me.....I just installed something else in right now, but then this counter does not give me the function of spying WHO actually looked at my blog by showing the connection link.....so I guess now I will lose just a little more fun in life cuz I can't watch people from the dark....Oh well....not like I have secret admirers reading my blog anyway.....

How is that so good?

Weekend went by without me noticing it again. It was both packed and relaxing at the same time. Packed because we had lunches with various friends, and my fat body got packed with more fat. I just don't know why I am accumulating so much weight from last week...hum....anyway....It was relaxing cuz we really didn't do much.

On Sat we went to check out some condos since Chih-Lin is less busy nowadays. There were 2 pretty cool condos, but one in a condition which will probably require too much work...and the other one just a bit more expensive. This house hunting thing is really getting annoying and tiring. I wonder when will be the time that we finally move into something that belongs to ourselves....

Rest of the weekend was just a lot of TV watching, and Chih-Lin actually burnt the movie 海角七號for us so we watched it last night. I am not sure if I just had too high of an expectation for it, or my taste of movies just aren't the same with TW people....I didn't like the movie at all.....1st of all, I thought the movie was just way too predictable. On top of that, a lot of things didn't make sense to me....Let me just list out stuff that I had question marks on...

1. What is the point of setting up this whole old story between the Japanese guy and TW girl that goes through the whole movie? To me...I don't get why the guy left the girl in TW just because of his stupid egotistic emperorism thoughts. If he indeed loved the girl so much, then wouldn't he do something about it? not like the girl didn't want to go with him or something you know? Hiding for a life time and then writing so the letters can be sent after his death? Man....if you want to NOT do something when you can, then don't regret it at the end....especially on this kinda love situation....
2. What's up with the main character Ah-Jia and the Japanese model wanna be girl? The girl is apparently dissatisfy with her career and frustrated with the whole band situation that she needs to take care of....but does the frustration in life justifies and gives enough reasons for her to just have sex with the singer? and that sex incident is how they started their relationship? no wonder people from the Internet said this is one thing that does not add to the value of the movie at all....oh...and I hate how Japanese girls talk....exaggerations of tone and super noisy...and her ugly mandarin accents were uncalled for...
3. Why is that hotel cleaning lady even introduced in the movie? other than the fact that she speaks Japanese, her daughter plays piano, and that her grnadma is the person who should get all those old letters? If she did something that annoyed her grandma so much, then what is it? Why is her daughter so weird? What up with bringing that church scene? What does that do for the movie line? One thing I don't really get is how the movie introduces so many characters and each one of them seem to have some stories of their own, and yet none of the stories were really laid out clearly. What is the point then? If you want to give the movie audience so many bits of pieces of information, then shouldn't you piece the big puzzle together at the end?
4. So what is up with a band that is all "local" but completely untalented? By the way....the lead singer does not even sing better than the guitarist? and his guitar playing also suck? so why does he have the right to get angry about not making it in music? and what is that tension between him and his stepfather? The tension was introduced, but again not explained.....plus not really resolved. Is it really possible to put a band together when all they did was crappy rehearsals? How did they become able to play at the concert? by miracle? what was the progress? What linked them together? and the band didn't even have a last rehearsal of that 2nd song and all of a sudden they knew exactly how to play the acoustic arrangement? Come on.....
5. SO at the end .....what is really the main theme from this movie? Is it the old story between that Japanese guy and TW girl? or the stupid relationship caused by one night sex with the Japanese girl and the TW singer? Or is the band and the concert more imp? or all the small clues you get through each characters' lives that you can not really piece together cuz there weren't enough explanation on anything? Or is it trying to bring out the whole 草根文化of Taiwanese people? is it supposed to be a positive image?

I have to say the only thing I enjoyed about this movie is really how they cuss with Taiwanese. 茂伯was the only character I liked. Direct and funny and does not give up on things he wants to do. I guess the determined 馬拉桑 was alright too....but that is about all that kept me watching the movie. I have been watching some of those movies that created big fuzzes from TW recently, and so far I do not understand what people are raving about on most of them.....Is it that I am just too critical? or that I am just missing whatever hidden meanings are there? hum....I wonder...

Slow as a turtle...

I think some kids are just not meant to play music....It's amusing and yet depressing at the same time. Of course every kid has diff. level of talent on music, but sometimes....you bump into one that has absolutely NO talent at all....and then it becomes difficult for me as a teacher to think of diff. ways to tell either the kid or the parents to switch the kid to something else....yeah sometimes I have to be creative to convince them....which makes me wonder why us humans tend to try things we are not good at?

I think I have built up my patience by teaching untalented kids through the years. I guess as long as they really want to learn there is always space for improvement....it just kinda harms my health wasting a lot of energy on ideas you know you probably won't get through anyway. Maybe that is going to work out just fine at the end since I don't want to live that long....but then I don't think I want to live my "not too long" life in pain either....dilemmas....there are always plenty of dilemmas in life...

I just wish I can stop teaching and make money with some other ways someday. I think I will be a much happier person over all. The more I teach....the more I am convinced about this....why? I guess watching anything without certain improvements is just a pain....or maybe I am always looking for too much improvement in life....too bad the world functions in its own ways...

Pleasant Surprise....

I have a pile of DVDs scattered on the floor around our entertainment system at home. Last night we picked this one called "88 minutes" to watch after dinner at this random Japanese place. I wasn't particularly in a movie mood or anything after that "sex in the city" trauma, but then I watched cuz this one has Al Pacino in it. Yeah....I admit...I have this thing for old handsome men...lol....

The movie turned to be quite good, at least in my opinion....even though once again I guessed out who was the real criminal like in the 1st 1/3 of the movie. I don't think I am that into violent scenes and sick murders in movies, but I sure like the guessing game. It's the best when a movie can keep me guessing all the way till the end even when it rarely happens. Looking at the movies I really like in my life, it's not hard to tell why I don't belong to the norm of most female viewers. Joelle was telling me that she doesn't watch sex in the city either, and I was certainly happy my friend belongs to the same 5 % as me even though I think she still has more romantic genes in her compared to me.....:p

Anyway....watching an unexpected good movie at a random time is always a cheerful thing. It's like one day you wake up and you are just in a good mood for no reason....ah...I miss those good old days....

Done with it....once and for all

ok....so I patiently finished the movie "sex in the city" with several stops yesterday. I personally thought the movie was super predictable and didn't really know why 95% of female species loved it. However....I did figure out why I am totally not interested in this movie (show), and here are the reasons....

1. Ok...I know I have mentioned this before....but that actress Sarah Parker is just freaking ugly to me...every time I watch some movie by her I just kept on wondering how she came to be an actress in this Hollywood world....maybe she looks so vastly diff. from the other nice looking people?

2. I think I just cannot relate to all the girl bondings in the movie. I have no idea how it would feel like to have whole bunch of girlfriends and tell them your little secrets. 1st of all I think girls are just too much trouble and too noisy to hang around with most of the time....so I would rather hang out with guys. I don't think I can handle more than three girls at a time really....I get bored and I get annoyed...and yeah...I am female....and I don't know how I grew up to be like that...I do have girlfriends, but I usually only hang out with one at a time...guess I don't have those endless energy most girls have when they start talking about shopping, hair, make up, outfits...

3. Yeah the lives of those gals in the movie are just unreal. I think that is exactly why most girls like it. They enjoy imagining how their lives would be if they are exactly like the ones in the movie. Having a great career plus all those pocessions + being attractive to men (which I don't really know how by the looks of those in the movie...but they are designed to be attractive with the characters...)....basically just everything girls want themselves to be. The fact is....if you ARE already everything you want to be....why would you be watching the show anyway? right?

4. The relationships which centered heavily around SEX just annoys me.....Yeah I know sex is a big part in relationships in this country....but is it what we really should be promoting in our society? no wonder the youth is messed up nowadays and marriages are always messed up. It doesn't seem like sex is only "in the city"....it's basically promoted everywhere. Talking about true love...how is it possible to find when sex is the 1st thing that comes to mind? I wonder....

5. Not only the main actress is ugly....the guys are all ugly too....I don't know why people pay money to watch whole bunch of ugly guys? If it's entertainment, then at least we should have things pleasing to the eyes? or at least they have to be excellenet actors to justify for the not so attractive looks? I don't know....the whole thing just seems odd to me....

Ok...I don't think I want to go on and state more points...even this feels like a waste of time. I just want to kinda keep a record for myself to prove I tried to be the 95 % and failed. Yeah I guess love is imp somehow....but I guess I just get annoyed when it's overly discussed....with disgusting imagiries too...but....it's all my personal opinion....the 95 % of the crowd....can still enjoy it....all they want....

Why? somebody tell me why....

I am sitting here watching this movie "Sex and the City" cuz I want to figure out why about 95 % of girls are so into this. The movie came from the TV series which was hot for....like....forever...I think. I have never wanted to watch the thing because the main character is FREAKING UGLY....The only good looking thing about her is how skinny she is I think. Her face is super long with a lot of wrinkles. She has hair that looks messy all the time....and she is ugly even for a western model (just saying that cuz there are many diff. typs of looks for models in the western world).

In short...I just don't get why people love watching whole bunch of women over 40 talk about their love life...I borrowed the DVD just to figure out the mystery....and the DVD was sitting there on the floor for the whole week before I finally got enough urge to put it into the computer. That says how much I DON'T want to watch it...which is funny cuz I am the person who borrowed it right? I guess I do have the spirit of a scientist who needs to figure out the reasons behind things...

I am about 15 min into the movie...not entertained much by the old women. Only one of those 4 look good. I guess that tells us there are a lot of old movie watchers out there. We will all be old someday...oh...and that guy (Mr. Big) which the most ugly girl is about to get married to....looks absolutely gay....lol...I better just stop right here and continue after I am done with the whole movie....someday....

Changes

I was watching this interview with a famous designer from TW. She said "the only unchanging thing in life is that everything is changing." It's amusing how she thinks the same way as I do, and I guess that is why she survives well in the fashion industry for 20 + years....I wonder if all artists crave for new ideas and things....

I was reading this book on tea. I grew up drinking coffee most of the time and I started quite young. I have enjoyed drinking coffee all my life, but then I think I should expand to the tea side since I do drink the Chinese tea that old people drink. It's amazing how tea was valuable at the end of Qing dynasty. I guess the British people really helped spreading the good stuff from China by having their tea time....

Anyway....time to change some stuff in life. It's always good when I finally get tired of things and give myself deadlines.....

Photos from our accidental zoo trip....

Well....some photo updates from last weekend.... Originally we went through all the trouble trying to get free tickets for Bower's museum on Sun, but then failed the whole attempt. There were way too many people lining up just to get in when we got there. We then gave up and got to Billy's office to reboot his work computer. We headed to the zoo afterwards since we really didn't know where to go. Photos turned out to be only ok, but then I guess practicing taking photos of animals can train patience somehow....

I was bored at the parking lot at Billy's work....took this one for no reason....

Billy took the photo of the 1st animal we saw at the zoo...
Doesn't this dear have the alien face somehow?

This little guy was posing for a while....

There were whole bunch of flamingos....To take photos of a single one was a tough task. Billy took the 2nd one..

There were 4 tigers that we saw. Two of them just basically walked and played together all the time...Very sweet...

And this one just gave the best photos out of the 4...handsome big cat...

This hippo was huge....I liked the one in the water....
These are the thinkers of the zoo....deep thoughts...


Big one and small one...

Kiss Kiss...

Chipped ear...this guy was waiting for me to take his pictures for a long time...

Pretending to be cute...

Black and White...best colors?

Kangaroo that pretended to be dead...

It seems like animals from Australia are all lazy cuz the Koala was only awake for like 2 min the whole time we were standing there...

Somehow this was called the dragon....but just a big evil looking lizard...gloomy lighting too...

On the way back to the exit I took these two again....

And....just wanted to prove we indeed went to the zoo and took those photos...lol

Why do you have to discuss on things you know what to do with?

Have you ever wonder why people come to you and tell you that they have a dilemma and they are struggling to make a decision? They tell you they really know what they should do..in fact they have plan and they will probably do that...However.... they say "BUT I am wondering if there is 'something else' I should do cuz of various reasons."

1st of all....if you know what you should do, then it means you know very well what is "supposedly correct". However, you probably want to do something else so then you come up with various reasons to make yourself or whoever you are talking to think there are more options to work around the situation. That....clearly indicates what you really want to do, and yet may not be the best thing to do. So then what can you do now? go ask someone else and see if you can get support! I guess life is easier when others make decisions for you?

So now you wonder again why the person with struggles comes to you and tell you about the dilemma.....I personally think they come in hope for you to tell them "whichever you want to do is fine....or maybe you should forget about what you should do, and just go with the 2nd option....who knows? maybe it's going to create no harm after all...try it..." I am sure when the person hears such answer, he would be overjoyed cuz there is the support he needs.....and that is exactly why he comes to you to "discuss" the options.

1st of all, people who do such things are trying to share the responsibilities....cuz whatever they do at the end, is with your suggestion as a decision making factor....so it's not entirely their responsibility with the actions they take. 2nd of all...they are hoping for luck...they probably know what you would say to start with....and yet hey come to you because you are somehow important in their lives... and what you say do make certain effects in their lives....Thus for them to live in peace with you in the future, they would want you to participate in the decision making.... If you don't object to whatever they want to do,then in the future your "no objection" answer may very well be a good thing to shut off any reaction you can have later on. Convenient, isn't it? Who gets to struggle at the end? I wonder....

I want to know....

The little 8 years old kid that has been starting with me for over a year now is still driving me crazy. She would be looking at some stuff that she knows exactly how to do and then do the completely opposite or the wrong stuff. However....I don't mind teaching this weirdo kid cuz she is actually the person who wants to learn and does not want to give up no matter how bad our lessons get. I have to say she has a strong personality, and that....is exactly my cup of tea...

When I was teaching the kid yesterday, she asked me "so is that website of your group put together yet?". I was like....huh? Did I ever even tell you I have a group? How did you know about the website? Apparently she has been secretly overhearing conversations between her sister and I when I was still trying to teach her sister (yeah with the 100 things her sister was learning...I finally just think it was not worth wasting time and money on the violin really...and thank God her mom agrees so now the older kid is sticking with "composing".....very amusing but I certainly hope she can just go with the normal academics cuz she is smart...hope she won't end up like those stupid composers who think they can be the "Chinese Beethoven"....yeah....smart people reading this would know who I am talking about of course....)

Anyway....imagining an 8 year old trying to peek into your life....it's quite entertaining.....That kinda reminded me how Clement was like when he was little. I remember one time when he was staying with me in the summer (when he was probably still in elementary school but close to junior high I think) he told me "hey you can share your secrets (xin-shi) with me if something bothers you....I was very amused and couldn't help thinking "hum...I wonder how you can help me with the things I am bothered by"....

I guess kids want to grow up fast and be adults....and that is why they want to peek into the adult lives early. When they really grow up....they will eventually realize being a kid and not have to worry about anything is such a blessing...I wonder if that is the case for everyone...or just for us who grow up too fast in their lives?