past stories

always love looking back at my old stories and poems. makes me feel happy. ideas have not been flowing readily recently... probably because i rely on very strong emotions as the impetus for works... well...

inexpressible

if only emotions could write down in words
the flutter of wings of the lifeless bird

an analysis of pirates 1

so i view certain movies very differently from most people. like iam one of those nerds who see the Matrix as the deepest movie in the world, who actually identifies with each of the characters in American Beauty, and etc.

and guess what? i actually see the pirates series as a huge chain of agreements and how these agreements are created, kept, or broken :) of course i really enjoyed the hilarious acting + fight scenes too! but this is just another way of seeing a movie.

so let's start with pirates 1 :)

scene
searching for a new crew

agreements
crew members: join jack sparrow
jack: gives them the crew members the ship

fulfilled?
yes! this is why the crew members decided to leave jack behind on the treasure islabnd - cos they own the ship now. it's only at the end of the movie that the crew gives the ship back to jack after he escapes the noose.


scene
barbossa and will

agreement
barbosa: let elizabeth and the crew go free
will: won't kill himself in return

fulfilled?
partially. elizabeth and jack are "freed" by being marooned on an island. the rest of the crew aren't freed tho.


scene
after jack and elizabeth are rescued by the english

agreement
commodore person: help save will
elizabeth: marry the commodore

fulfilled?
no. elizabeth doesn't marry the commodore in this movie.


scene
jack and the english

agreement
jack: to bring the undead pirates out for the english to kill
commodore: spares jack's life

fulfilled?
yes! jack brought them out, the english just had no idea that they would be attacked...


scene
before the final fight

agreement
barbossa: don't kill will now, attack the english first, and own 2 ships
jack: life is spared but have to pay barbossa 25% of his plunder

fulfilled?
no, because jack kills barbossa. even though he comes to life in pirates 3, the death arguably nullifies the agreement.


conclusion
all the agreements made are fulfilled except for elizabeth having to marry the commodore. if i remember correctly this problem is dealt with in pirates 3 :)

yo ho!

new thing a-learn!

just learned something about web programming that's quite simple but deceptively so especially with all the newfangled tools out there: that coding simply is better than coding "complexly"

:)

it really is

everywhere you look you see love. there's so much magic to remember... i'm suddenly remember the time i would sit alone in the corner of the flat concrete roof of my army camp at night gazing at stars, and pick up the phone to call a friend. and the times (twice i think) i would walk to the busstop from VJ with my heart a-flutter because so-and-so was walking in the same group. and the time it occurred very suddenly to me that i really did make some great friends in the army. and the fact that i've cried with friends before.

magic in the air. i remember a monkey once told me that our lives are like korean dramas, we just don't see it from the audience's viewpoint. how true...

love, actually, is all around us

two scenes in that movie rank among the most heart-wrenching i've ever seen. one is everyone's anti-favourite: the one where the best man had to reveal to the bride that he loved her all along...

and the other is the scene where the big boss' wife had found out that her husband was cheating on her. she's in the bedroom, sadness well-hidden, and she doesn't know what to do, like it's a huge shock to her. "both sides now" plays in the background, and she walks around as if still very rattled, dabs her eyes with the tissue and starts to arrange the bed... and then she stares silently at their bed and you can imagine all the thoughts running through her mind: has he slept with her? how did he get seduced? should i confront him? and then she bites down all the emotions and sadness because she has to face her happy family again... after all, it's Christmas.

Going Home

Dear friend, do you dream?
Take my hand,

It is a white glove. The kind worn
by faces on a dark stage: the kind
that holds canes and chairs and tall dark hats;
the kind you see with covered faces saying

Yes, why would I?
In this land of all places, why wear

A toothless, sightless grin. A mask
made by the end of life itself; a lifeless
face that speaks of unnatural times and dreadful
places like

Here?
We are nowhere,

then

Let us go somewhere.

A wind-battered, rain-soaked hilltop. A robe
in shreds and torn by spears of water; the uncontrollable
night that like screeching bats
sweep and stare and echoes in your

Soul... so you begin to guess?
move closer, and see

Shapes: one holding the robe to its place
in the rain; its stoicity is
like a pillar the shape of a man
draped in the wind

Itself, what can you tell?
Open your eyes and see

The wind sweeps back and forth and around
the figure, like the grasps of
a drowning man; through the piercing water
the wind flings the cloak open and

You see?
There is nothing, dear friend. It's just

Home.