Rise of the Phoenix

Those who know me probably figured that I adore the Phoenix hence my moniker, user names, alias etc.

As everyone knows, phoenix is a bird. A mythical one. That is not real. Why the hell then that I make it my object of adoration/inspiration? Lets start with the description of the mythical phoenix:

As per wiki: A phoenix is a mythical bird with a colourful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet . It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of myrrh twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek). The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and invincible — it is also said that it can heal a person with a tear from its eyes and make them temporarily immune to death. The phoenix is a symbol of fire and divinity.
Still can’t see it? Here are some hints: rebirth, reincarnation, immortality!

Yes, who doesn’t want those coz I know I do. Every time it got hurt, the phoenix will heal itself. It can also heal a person. It will also be reborn in a continuous life cycle. It will die and reborn every 500 years in a burst of crimson flame. How cool is that? Ok, let’s be metaphoric for a while…

The phoenix represents life – a continuation of life. No matter how many time you got hurt, attacked, face terrible turmoil in life, you can always heal yourself. And along the way, you can always help others who face similar fate. And you will not give up when faced with terrible mistakes or challenges. When it seems like you are about to go down, flames of determination and desire will burst forth, bringing your spirit back and you can continue your life as before. You are invincible; immortal. Keep the flames burning.

On the literal side, I just wanna be immortal. Yes, the world is continuously deteriorating that hundreds of years from now, I may be the only one alive. Or I might face Judgment Day. But, immortality is nice….

Now you know about the phoenix and me. I’ll always adore phoenixes (is that the plural form?), flames and all. I think most of you know my user name right? I’ll keep that at least until some hacker stole my identity…

In 10 days (from today, 27th April), a phoenix will be reborn (probably not in the brightest flames as before).

Caresse sur l’ocean

Or Cherish (Caress) Upon the Ocean from the movie Les Choristes.  An amazingly beautiful song, best to listen to when your mind is troubled. It just calms you right away.

Here is the lyric:

Caresse sur l’océan
Porte l’oiseau si léger
Revenant des terres enneigées
Air éphémère de l’hiver
Au loin ton écho s’éloigne
Châteaux en Espagne
Vire au vent tournoie déploie tes ailes
Dans l’aube grise du levant
Trouve un chemin vers l’arc-en-ciel
Se découvrira le printemps

Caresse sur l’océan
Pose l’oiseau si léger
Sur la pierre d’une île immergée
Air éphémère de l’hiver
Enfin ton souffle s’éloigne
Loin dans les montagnes
Vire au vent tournoie déploie tes ailes
Dans l’aube grise du levant
Trouve un chemin vers l’arc-en-ciel
Se découvrira le printemps
Calme sur l’océan.

Via, Veritas, Vita

From one of the extremely addictive Facebook quizzes:

Choose one line that you like:

	1. Are you going to kiss me or do I have to lie to my diary?
	2. They say the truth will set you free. But then why is it that every time I tell the truth I get sent to my room?
	3. Screw me if I am wrong, but haven’t we met before?
	4. If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?
	5. When I die, I want to go like my grandfather did, peacefully in his sleep. Not yelling and screaming like all the passengers in his car.
	6. I don’t have a girlfriend. But I do know a woman who’d be mad at me for saying that.
	7. When I saw you from across the room, I passed out cold and hit my head on the floor…so I’m going to need your name and number for insurance reasons.
	8. U say”I know how to please a woman” and she say “Then please leave me alone”

Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About

I watched Doubt the other day (which was amazing by the way), and this particular quote intrigued me:

A woman was gossiping with her friend about a man whom they hardly knew – I know none of you have ever done this. That night, she had a dream: a great hand appeared over her and pointed down on her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O’ Rourke, and she told him the whole thing. ‘Is gossiping a sin?’ she asked the old man. ‘Was that God All Mighty’s hand pointing down at me? Should I ask for your absolution? Father, have I done something wrong?’ ‘Yes,’ Father O’ Rourke answered her. ‘Yes, you ignorant, badly-brought-up female. You have blamed false witness on your neighbor. You played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed.’ So, the woman said she was sorry, and asked for forgiveness. ‘Not so fast,’ says O’ Rourke. ‘I want you to go home, take a pillow upon your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me.’ So, the woman went home: took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to her roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed. ‘Did you cut the pillow with a knife?’ he says. ‘Yes, Father.’ ‘And what were the results?’ ‘Feathers,’ she said. ‘Feathers?’ he repeated. ‘Feathers; everywhere, Father.’ ‘Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out onto the wind,’ ‘Well,’ she said, ‘it can’t be done. I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over.’ ‘And that,’ said Father O’ Rourke, ‘is gossip!’

All of us I believe, have been subjects of ridicules, gossips, insults one way or another. Well, that’s life for you. Some of us may take the criticisms hard, while some just lose it and fights ensue. But I always believe that we should take this thing lightly, especially if it’s done behind our backs. Always turn a deaf ear to such gossips.

While I won’t deny to my ever being gossiping about other people, I always thought it’s an inappropriate thing to do. I’d rather keep my opinion or knowledge about somebody else’s dirty laundry to myself than sharing it, and  let it spread to the whole community. Though in the case of celebrities’ gossips, it’s quite different (at least the gossips are true and widely circulated in magazines, it’s not really talking behind their backs), gossiping about people you hardly know, and about something that is not true is quite a cowardly thing to do.

What if you are the subject of the gossip? Well, like I said, turn a deaf ear and let them keep talking about it. You are your own person, and words can never hurt you. Sure they hurt more than sticks or stones, but you will always be able to hold your head up high. People’s opinions are worthless, especially of those who believe and participate in such lies and aggravation. So, maintain your countenance, ignore their unfounded disapprobation and just give them something to talk about  all the way to their hell-holes.

Practical Papers Are Practically Unpractical

Ok, exam season is coming (well, it’s here already to most of us) and it’s time to let the nerves get to work. As nervous am I for all the Pre-AS exam papers, objective and subjective papers are nothing compared to practical papers.

For practical papers, we will spend 2 hours in the lab to either conduct the experiment asked in the question paper or just trying to figure out what the questions ask us to do. I’m trying to avoid the latter.Even so, two experiments in 2 hours sounds rather stressful. The CIE is really trying tense us up. Do they think Einstein, Edison and Newton finished their experiments in a few hours?

I really don’t like practical. I know in my future line of work, I must always be practical. There’s no theoretical work, unless I wanna be a reasearch physician. I’m going to disect somethings hither and thither, concoct some god-knows-what preparations, toucing the human body incessantly (for examination…don’t be so dirty-minded) etc etc. But practical is so..uncertain, I mean you can’t really know the answer. One wrong reasult, and you can kiss the A goodbye.

So suppose these practical exams gonna prepare me for my degree studies? Lets see…

Biology practical is probably the hardest one to me. I’m impartial towards it. One of the question qould always be about examining specimens under the microscope. Easy enough right? Wrong. Sometimes, the microscope can be faulty, and the only thing you can see is light. Bright, useless light. But you can always inform the supervisors. The pother experiment could be about food test, enzyme etc, which can take a lot of your time.

Physics practical is probably the easiest, but the most boring. Here are the experiments we’ve done so far: dropping ping pong ball, dropping cone-shaped paper, spinning ruler, rolling a plasticine down an inclined plane, and did I mention dropping ping pong ball? Who knows what we might have to drop next. Still, physics takes the shortest time which is fortunate because I couldn’t bear to drop balls for 2 hours.

Chemistry practical is so so, but my favourite. Sure I hate titration, but it’s not hard and as long as there’s any colour change, you know you did the experiment correctly. The calculation parts are annoying though. The other is qualitative analysis, and I love it. Basically you just mix around various chemicals, test for gas, heating and sorts, and you just deduct what ions are present. But there’s a risk of getting the ions wrong, and the mixture exploding. Not unlike the cartoon ones, but yeah, the mixture can shoot out of the boiling tube like *****. Unless you’re careful, you might end up looking like Two-Face.

Yes, practical is not the same as theory papers. It require’s skills, luck and, well, practicality. Now you know why I’m scared of practical exams. On a bright side though, there’s not much to study for practical….

P/S: Next week is Pre-AS exams, last until 16th April. But between, 4th to 13th, I don’t have any papers. Still deciding whether to go home. Opinions please.

The NINErs fortyNINErs

Ok, the title is bad.I wanna talk about Nine, one my most anticipated film this year (or maybe next year here). Seriously, this film got awards written all over it (literally!). Not that awards mean anything, but still…Here’s a teaser pic.

Standing from left: Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson. Sitting from left: Penelope Cruz, Fergie. And Daniel Day-Lewis with his back to the pic.

I can’t wait for the trailer or poster:

From the Tony Award-winning musical based on the Academy Award-winning film

Comes a film by Academy Award-nominated director of Academy Award for Best Picture winner Chicago: Rob Marshall

Starring

Two-times Academy Award for Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis

Academy Award for Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard

Academy Award for Best Actress winner Nicole Kidman

Academy Award for Best Actress winner Sophia Loren

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress winner Judi Dench

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress winner Penelope Cruz

Academy Award nominee Kate Hudson

and featuring Grammy winner Fergie (?)

Can they fit all that into a poster? Can’t wait though…

Release date: 25th Nov 2009 in the US. Most probably next year in malaysia

“It Is A Truth Universally Acknowledged”: Literary Quotes

Some pretty well-known, and not to mention interesting quotes from the great works of literature. See if you can guess which one comes from which work.

#1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

#2. Call me Ishmael.

#3. Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.

#4. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

#5. “They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”
I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we’d been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time.

#6. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble

#7. God bless Us, Every One!

#8. If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding, but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend;
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearnéd luck,
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long:
Else the Puck a liar call.
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends

#9. “[Scheherazade] possessed courage, wit, and penetration. She had read much, and had so admirable a memory, that she never forgot any thing she had read. She had successfully applied herself to philosophy, medicine, history, and the liberal arts; and her poetry excelled the compositions of the best writers of her time. Besides this, she was a perfect beauty, and all her accomplishments were crowned by solid virtue.”

Page or Post?

I now know the difference between a post and a page. I have a new page now. See above.

That is all.

Fairy Tales Brought to Life?

A collection of photos featuring celebrities as classic disney characters, captured by photographer Annie Leibovitz for Disney’s Year of A Million Dreams campaign. Which is your favourite? Which one is the most truthful to its character?

Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella

Julie Andrews as The Blue Fairy and Abigail Breslin as…?

Julianne Moore as Ariel and Michael Phelps as the merman

Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan, Gisele Bundchen as Wendy ad Tina Fey as Tinkerbell

Jessica Biel as Pocahontas

Rachel Weisz as Snow White

Roger Federer as King Arthur

David Beckham as Prince Phillip

Beyonce as Alice (?)

Zac Efron as Prince Phillip and Vanessa Hudgens as Princess Aurora

Whoopi Goldberg as Genie

Marc Anthony as Aladdin and Jennifer Lopez as Princess Jasmine

*I do no own these pictures. All copyrights reserved.

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And now we need Beauty and the Beast, The Lon King, Mulan, Hercules and Tarzan…

P/S: Useless update

Ma Bibliothèque: Livres, Livres et Plus de Livres…

(My Library: Books, Books and More Books. I’m learning french, so forgive me for practicing)

Books. The epitome of knowledge. The passive form of fun. The works of imaginative minds. The exercise machine for the brains. Yes, trees are only worth to be cut for books. Exaggeration aside, I do think reading is a good hobby. For me, it relaxes the mind, clear my thoughts and a sort of escapism from the harsh reality. Sure, reading all day all night without any other physical activities is killing yourself physically, but never read at all is killing your mind. Which one is worst? I don’t have the answer, but I’d choose books over running shoes anyday (no, I’m not the slightest bit a pudgy couch potato).

I admit I have a compulsion in  buying books. I usually cannot come out of a bookstore without a book in hand. That’s where most of my money gone to. Now, I have 8 unfinished books, and I planned to buy some more. Here’s a list I made recently of books I wanna get. The ones I crossed are the ones I’ve gotten already.

1. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

2. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

3. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

4. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

5. Ulysses – James Joyce

6. Animal Farm – George Orwell

7. Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling

8. It – Stephen King

9. The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

10. A Year in the Merde – Stephen Clarke

11. Eleven Minutes – Paulo Coelho

12. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne

13. The Shining – Stephen King

14. The Hound of Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

15. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

16. The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie (Almost impossible to get it here, I know)

I could get it all in one trip to MPH Mid Valley, but that would be a stupid thing to do. So, I’m gonna get one by one, and probably other books in between. I got enough books to last me until May or June (I hope!). At that time, I cannot go out anymore. So, stocking up on reading materials (aside from for exams) is a good thing, no? And considering how expensive most of these books are I can control my compulsion.

So, anyway, why dont you guys try getting some of the books above. I know it’s exam fever now, but still, reading is great way to destress. I know I will still read some books during exam, albeit a little less than I usually do. That’s all for now, I got some books to read. It’s my therapy session, so buh-bye.

P/S: My birthday is coming. So…*nudge nudge*