SoulThirst

Heh... I'm at Jk0h's, watching Hero. ^^;;;. eh.... it's ok... nice kung-fu, good swordsmanship... but overall plot & such isn't that great. Scenery was beautiful, music was beautiful, and so was the end-title song. But yea... the overall plot/story (with all its imagery & flowery language)... almost put me to sleep. And the whole love thing & killing the one you love, etc.... eh. I have no idea why the girls on the couch are actually moved by it ~_~. Although, Zhang Ziyi is still a babe. ^^;;

Car estimate place called, said the car wouldn't get fixed until the 28th... meaning 2 weeks without a car ~_~... but yes, Tenshi will be fixed. (Btw, thank you for the concern. You got the name of the car wrong ^^;;;. It's ok. Thanks still, & I appreciate it). Actually, it's not so bad to be car-less... a minor inconvenience, but not like I can't live without one.

Now the girls are watching Totoro (for you non-anime folk: a kid anime that's made by the same studio as Spirited Away, Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, etc.). It's very light-hearted, cute, and funny in the way that anime is funny. But for some reason I'm not really as into it as I know I probably could be. I've been more entertained before... laughed more... gotten more into it. Heh, here I am blogging on my laptop/cell phone & only half-watching.

*edit*

I'm home now, sitting out in the front yard (yes, while blogging via wireless), watchin the tail end of the eclipse. The ancient pagan cultures believed eclipses were omens from the gods- bad omens. They recognized that something was happening in the heavens that they did not understand. And although we understand more about the universe than the ancients did, I wonder if we forget- in our technologically & scientifically growing world- that there is still much happening in the heavens (physically or metaphysically) that we do not understand still. It's a beautiful night... somethin very soothing & therapeutic about being outdoors, especially at night. The world (well, at least the natural order) is quiet & settled down. Wish I could take my cues from the natural order.

The creators of Totoro do a good job of depicting the whole synergy with nature thing. And also the spirit of children- Josh Koh pointed out that the writer really captured well the essence of a childlike spirit. In the film, the 2 children were the only ones able to see Totoro (the fantasy fat fuzzy chubby squirrel-creature-thing from storybooks) and play with him; and were the only ones who called on him to help them when they needed help). Of course, the adults never quite understood what the kids were talking about. But the kids had the grandest time, laughing & playing with their "imaginary friend."

The childlike heart... having faith in the "crazy storybook ideas"? (after all, isn't Scripture, in large part, a story- about God and His creation)... or maybe just being able to play & not worry?

Heard Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You" over the radio this afternoon. Although I'm not a fan of her music, the words of it struck me as very... hopeless. And I remember a conversation I had with Vicki Ku about the fact that music reflects the culture & times in which it was written. And one defining characteristic of much of the recent music (i.e. past 3-4 years ) is full of existential angst. Translation: there's a lot of sentiments of hopelessness, loneliness, despair, meaningless, etc. in music. And you know, I realized, that no matter how "down & out" I've ever felt, I've never felt hopeless. Like, utterly completely hopeless. Hope, of course, is one of the gifts of God- the source of all hope & comfort. Yet the presence of hope (or perhaps the fact that we don't feel its complete absence) is often taken for granted. And yet perhaps, at a very basic level, when all faith seems to be gone, the bit of hope that says "things'll get better... things MUST get better" is in itself a step of faith. When people who do not know God claim to say "don't worry, it'll be ok", sometimes it makes me want to ask them "how do you know?" But for those who follow God, there actually is a basis- a promise- for being able to say that and have any sort of guarantee.

Anyway, those are my 2 theological thoughts of the evening. G'nite

posted by Andy Chang @ 12:33 AM