more of evolution, creation, etc.

This made me chuckle. Letter to the Editor in response to Time's cover article "What Makes Us Different" that explains the differences and similarities between humans and chimps (who share 99% DNA):

"'What Makes Us Different?' We're made in the image of God; chimpanzees are not. In understanding the genome, scientists can neither add to nor take away from this truth. Spiritual realities are not the province of the natural sciences. What is truly different between human beings and even our closest cousins in the animal kingdom is the ability to reason. The great apes are not reasoninig creatures, which doesn't mean they are unable to think in their own way. They just aren't able to sit around and pose questions like, What makes us different?"

had to share

u know what I realized from watching X-Files reruns? The guy who plays Alex Krycek appeared as a different minor character less than a year before he started playing Krycek!

blah blah blah

arrrr
I'm gonna send my submission to the RTHK/The Standard Short Story Competition 2006 tomorrow. I read this article online abt last year's competition receiving a record-breaking 800 entries in the junior and senior categories!! This is very disappointing because that means my chances are much lower than I thought. I don't know how many entries they got before when they were with the SCMP, but I came in co-3rd runner-up in 2004 (there was a 1st prize, a 1st runner-up, a 2nd runner-up, and two 3rd runners-up), so I thought there can't be THAT many entries. Now the task of winning seems much more daunting. How am I supposed to beat 400 people (that is if one estimates abt half of the entries are the junior category)? I don't think I'm gonna enter anymore if there are that many entries!!

I've been running on the treadmill now that there's a gym in our apartment building. I am literally in the last 3rd percentile worldwide when it comes to running. But I've actually not died yet so I think I got better stamina from all the tennis.

And I am officially very swamped... um, swamped and trying to be a singer, and write my short story, and go to the gym, and go to church, and... see Marie Antoinette and the Queen and the Prestige. Whatever, no biggie.

OH by the way, I am totally addicted to X-files rerun marathons while origami-ing on every Monday night from 11pm - 4am (which, I'm only up 'til like 3am, I sleep from 3am to 11am), sometimes Fridays, and right now it's Thursday and it's on, yay but I sometimes hate watching X-files reruns really late b/c it can get to be freaky. Like I had to not watch during that Brady Bunch house episode. It was kinda like the Shining! But a few months ago there was one of the funny episodes, and the local small-town sheriff was Luke Wilson and it was funny hahahaha... that's my favorite episode I guess... I sorta dislike the monster episodes most... the gov't conspiracy/alien ones used to be my favorite but they're maybe too serious, like sometimes you just want to watch a silly Buffy episode, not the ones about killing the "big bad." Anyway, yeah I like the funny X-files and ones that are kinda different, like the hallucination mushroom one, and the one that was like "Groundhog Day," those were good ones, and I think they were back-to-back. The one on right now is another small-town, log-cabin, sheriffs and rangers, and mysterious death ones. Sometimes I try to keep track of how many times Mulder has died. I think it's somewhere around 15, if you include misunderstandings.

I should NOT be blogging. What I should be doing now is threading tiny little needles with tiny little threads, then stringing them into tiny little cranes, adding a tiny little bead with a tiny little hole, then tying a tiny little knot. Repeat 175 times. It can make a girl crazy, lemme tell ya.

VERY EXCITED ABOUT (ramblings)

MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE PRESTIGE!!! Both coming out this Friday. I KNOW they'll be good. How can Sofia Coppola or Christopher Nolan mess up? I know lots of people who consider Batman Begins the best movie of the year last year, including myself, although it's sort of a tie with Serenity. Weird huh? Last year's movies were so unremarkable, a BATMAN movie is considered best. And Sofia! Some high-budgetry going on with Marie Antoinette. Kirsten Dunst better be good. I loved Jason Schwartzman in I Heart Huckabees and Shopgirl. (But I loved Mark Wahlberg more in Huckabees.)

opera

Currently singing: "Batti, Batti" from Don Giovanni

I was previously singing "Ah! Je Veux Vivre" from Romeo et Juliette. I think my teacher realized I can't handle it, although she says "we just did that one to mess around." The recital is coming up, and I guess she realized I need something easier. She already pushed back the recital by a week, since people aren't doing very well (myself included, I know). The person who comes in after my lesson thought she should push it back by a month, which I would've totally agreed with if I were still doing "Ah! Je Veux Vivre."

I am swamped with work too so I haven't even been able to practice as much as I'd like. I guess Christmas orders start about now.

it was good

I am still giddy about the Departed. I can go on and on about the differences between it and Infernal Affairs and the effect of those differences... as well as the weird stuff they chose to keep... but I won't. Mostly the characters were sooo much more developed in the Departed, it's beautiful to watch them unfold. I seriously want to see it again. It was especially entertaining because I didn't have to think about the complex plot, since I already knew it. I've never been much of a Leo DiCaprio fan, and I had trouble picturing him as a tough guy before seeing this, but he should win best actor, not kidding.

BY THE WAY, THIS MOVIE IS HILARIOUS. Mark Wahlberg should win best comedic performance. And his hair... man the hair... it's the most hideous hair ever... but he's funnier with the hair...

The Departed

Just saw The Departed with Tim and Busta. I felt physically sick afterwards, partially b/c I was hungry, but also because it was so stressful and I felt bad for all the characters. It was better than Infernal Affairs, of course. I loved Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg, they are geniuses. Jack Nicholson was genius but too freaky. I found it very weird that they stuck with so many random scenes from the original! Why would you do that? First of all, the overall plot is exactly the same--except a little bit of the ending, which is to be expected anyway since the there are two versions to the ending of Internal Affairs. I guess the HK version was just TOO GOOD to change HUH? Like, they kept all the little details like meeting on the roof, and coming out the movie theater with the phone ringing, and the cast on the arm, and trying to spot who's a cop, etc etc. But they totally embellished on the characters of DiCaprio's boss (not Wong Sir) and Nicholson. And thankfully, they made Sammy Cheung and Kelly Chan's characters into one. The original girls were excruciating to watch--Sammy's shrieking (does she ever stop?) and Kelly's bad crying as usual.

have been very busy

moving to out new apt, major craziness... haven't forgotten abt my emails and blog, will get back soon (to: VLi). However, I must say I was very excited when V. Li told me she read Kavalier and Clay and officially calls it her favorite book. See? I don't lie.