why so black and lonely?

So there I was, queueing again among those people who were proudly using their certain credit card to get one free movie ticket for every purchase of one ticket. I was probably the only one in line who paid cash.

I queued for Miami Vice, so it’d better be good. Well, at least, if it weren’t good, I still got to see Gong Li.

It turned out to be not that good. I like Michael Mann for giving a new style & look for action movies. I love what he’s done in Collateral, but this time I tend to dismiss the movie as forgettable and boring.

I knew that Colin Farrell & Jamie Foxx should look cool in the movie. But they weren’t. They were too cool to my liking, and it made them look like snobs. The chemistry was wrong. The worst part was that I couldn’t stand Farrell’s hairdo, I was tortured in my seat knowing that I could do nothing to that hair. And if not for Gong Li who showed up to save the day, I was very close to get off and leave.

I didn’t care if a seven-year old kid in Jakarta’s expensive private school had better pronunciation & vocabulary than Gong Li. I came to see her, not to listen to her accent.

But anyway, maybe she should get together with Jackie Chan, Jet Li, & Zhang Ziyi, and organize a private session with the best English teacher money can buy.

"You! Come teach us English, yes?"

Ruud van Nistelrooy (2001 - 2006)

Thank you for contributing 150 wonderful memories in our Red lives. We’ll never forget you.

A very sad, sad day…

The priest took on an interesting subject during his sermon yesterday by discussing about loneliness. He mentioned that in our hectic life, we sometimes needed time to be alone; to retreat into our figurative shell and reappear freshened physically and spiritually.

It’s ironic that he mentioned it as I think human are always lonely. Even though we’re surrounded by hundreds or thousands of people, we still feel alone. We see ourselves as the only inhabitant of this universe, and keep looking to the sky waiting for a signal that we’re not actually alone. Therefore, it’s our nature to take those who are closest to us for granted. Only to yearn for their presence, when they’re really gone. Long gone.

"Human is an interesting species, an interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other." (Contact, 1997)

Friday evening is the best time in the world as we have about 4-5 hours where we don’t have to think about making end’s meet. Maybe we can catch a movie, grab a book or two, or just sit somewhere spending the night away in the company of good friends, good laughs, & good talks. Nothing could be possibly better than that.

I guess I must finish the last 100 pages of The Historian during the weekend. It’s hard to believe that after all these months, it just sits there patiently waiting for me to pick it up and finish the story. It’s not because the book is bad, but I just don’t seem to have the time to immerse myself completely in it. It’s like saving the best for last. Hopefully it could come tomorrow after swimming! Yeah!

Sometimes you don’t know when your life suddenly takes an abrupt turn somewhere. There’s nothing you can do but to adapt & adjust. Let’s hope for the best.

Di TA lagi ada pameran merchandisenya Thomas & Friends yang elo pasti gak bakalan tau unless elo bergaul sama anak kecil yang bener-bener masih balita. Ya ini sih berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi aja karena gue juga baru tau gara gara ponakan gue yang suka bener sama si Thomas kereta geblek itu.

Yang seru banget ada juga kereta mini si Thomas itu yang bisa dinaikin dan keliling setengah mall dari depan toko Rotiboy yang baunya nyebelin itu terus muter deket donat J.Co yang baunya juga nyebelin dan balik lagi ke depan Rotiboy. Jadi bisa dibilang itu semacam tour yang ngelewatin tempat-tempat bau yang nyebelin.

Entah kenapa I was fixated at that damn train. Lucu banget…gak tau gara gara tampang si Thomas-nya itu sendiri yang emang rada rada dongo atau sok suci gitu, atau ngeliatin anak-anak kecil yang pada berebutan pengen naik keretanya. Sementara nyokap-nyokapnya anak-anak itu lebih sibuk berebutan ngantri di Rotiboy. Gue rasa itu yang masukin Thomas pasti juga yang punya franchisenya Rotiboy.

But anyway, coba ada itu kereta Thomas yang buat orang orang seukuran gue, mau deh gue naik dan gue yakin gak cuman gue yang mau naik juga.

Hari ini pas lunch di Puri gue ngeliat tokonya Multi Toys yang makin banyak aja itu action figurenya. Bingung juga tuh toko ambil barangnya dari mana ye? Abis banyak banget yang aneh aneh, kayak action figure-nya Sharivan! Gue langsung lemes pas liat ada Voltus V yang tingginya sekitar 30cm-an dan mungkin die-cast, terus banyak bener action figure-nya Robin, sama die-cast-nya Millennium Falcon & X-Wing. Tobat deh, gak mau lagi lewat depan toko itu. Bahaya!

I can write many negative things about Superman Returns, and tell you gazillion ideas to make fun of scenes on that movie, but I choose not to. They really have to make the most terrible Superman movies ever to make me write bad things about Superman. I can’t do it, I just can’t.

The sight of blue & red cape flying in the sky always gets me weak on my knees. I cried happy tears when I first saw the teaser trailer. I got goosebumps all over me while Superman theme started. So, it’s impossible for me to throw mud to the character that represents our deepest hope to…fly. To leave everything behind, to be free from all kinds of chain in our life.

Until we can do it, we’d always look up, and wait for that glimmer of hope in blue & red.

It’s been a crazy 2 weeks. Everything wants to be solved fast; everyone wants to be taken care of first; everything wants to be sorted out ASAP. Where does it all leave me? At the very front of the pack, with "bad guys" mark stamped all over my face. Sometimes I wonder why I should I do it all in the first place while people would just stand comfortably behind my back.

I can’t really complain about it actually, as long as it made days go by even faster.