paamayim nekudotayim

I’ve been using Editplus to do my PHP coding for many many years. Only a few months back I started using Eclipse PDT, and already I can’t live without it. A lot of convenience than I can ask for.

But still need to keep a simple text editor like Editplus around. Don’t want to have to open a big IDE just to do a simple, minor, typho editing.

“Mr. Anthony Minghella has passed away on 18 March 2008 of a haemorrhage in Charing Cross Hospital, London, following an operation the previous week to remove cancer of the tonsils and neck.”

I’m all misty-eyed to read the news. Rest In Peace, Great Sir.Thank you for The English Patient. Thank you for Cold Mountain.

My boss once asked me if I have any ambition about Hollywood (or filmmaking in general). I said I’d very much like to meet Anthony Minghella in person, and perhaps ask him a thing or two about his films. It seemed to be a far too distant hope. It’s now an impossible thing to happen.

I’ve read The Ninth Life of Louis Drax last year when I read that he’s going to make a movie adaptation of that book. Will we ever get to see the movie?

well, I’m almost on a certain way to become bald. Been having hairloss problem for many months (two years, maybe?), but within these last two months it seems to be much worsening. I can see a glimpse of “shiny scalp” now on top of my head (literally).

Not sure if it has to do with anything, but I’ve been having headache for the past week, too. I’m really worried that something is wrong in the head, not in the insane sort of way. Last week I woke up with a headache, especially when I touch some part of my head, mostly on top area. I thought it’s just the usual symptom associated with what, flu, cold or the likes. Now it’s been a week. And I don’t even need to touch it to feel the pain.

Actually, becoming bald couldn’t have bothered me much (a little, perhaps), but the thing is, what’s going on? People at my age don’t lose much hair for no reason. The first and foremost, quick question that pops out, “Are you distressed?”. Maybe I am, maybe not. I mean, honest to God, these last few months have been much happier time, with me leaving the long protracted and doomed attempt to complete school.

If it’s not psychological, it must be physical, God forbid. The worse reason I could bear will probably be lack of nutrition.

I don’t know. Hope for the better, prepare for the better, too.

Rushing in the morning because you’re worried that you couldn’t catch the bus in time to get in time to wherever you needed to be that morning. In a great hurry much later in the night because you’re worried you would miss the last bus to get back home from wherever you went earlier in the morning.

If that isn’t life, I don’t know what is.

“Yes, ” said Wavey. “Same with Herold. It’s like you feel to yourself that’s all you deserve. And the worse it gets the more it seems true, that you got it coming to you or it wouldn’t be that way. You know what I mean?”

For if Jack Buggit could escape form the pickle jar, if a bird with a broken neck could fly away, what else might be possible? Water may be older than light, diamonds crack in hot goat’s blood, mountaintops give off cold fire, forests appear in mid-ocean, it may happen that a crab is caught with the shadow of a hand on its back, that the wind be imprisoned in a bit of knotted string. And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery.

The least an idle blog is capable of is to recognize a new year when one comes. So, cheers! Looking forward to the next one where we will not to be there where we can see more people to last in the back of our mind for the rest of the year.

well, this is supposed to be the chain-tagging post, me being tagged by Deddy. But quite a sad fact (not part of the oncoming eight facts) that I don’t “know” many bloggers nowadays, they’re probably tagged already anyway by others. So the chain to me will stop here. The eight facts are kinda fun thing to post. So here goes.

My eight random habits and or facts:

1. Peeking into today’s trivia and today’s quote and today’s birthdays at IMDb.
2. Glancing at today’s featured article at Wikipedia.
3. Spending five minutes at the bus stop in this area to decide which bus to take and immediately regret the decision right after boarding the bus.
4. Wondering everytime why my favourite radio programme is titled “Nites with Brian“. I happen to love The Late Night with Conan O’Brien, so I personally think “Nites with Brian” is a lame attempt to borrow title. I have always hated when people say “Have you seen ‘Saving’?”. What the hell is ‘Saving’? “You know, that war film with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg”. Shut up! *a la Jay Leno*.

   (Hey while we’re talking about radio, long time ago, back home, my favourite was Sleepy Time on CDBS 100.2FM. Now 94.5 ??!?).

5. Making myself a big tall glass of tea at least once every night.
6. Enjoy flipping over the Bus Guide, discovering interesting routes.
7. Having a notion of being fond of classic literatures despite the fact that I never got past the first chapter of every book I tried. Recently bought Don Quixote, but have never opened it.
8. My most certain, constantly recurring habit is mumbling quotes from favourite movies on almost every chance I got. Sometimes not just quote, on my way to the nearby supermarket, I would rehearse the entire opening scene of Reservoir Dogs; God knows I remember the dialogue in this scene by heart. On my way back, it’s the opening scene of The Godfather. On some other day it’d be from Casablanca.

Haven’t seen much of the ‘internet’ lately. Haven’t seen much of my room either. Haven’t seen much of my housemates for the past couple of weeks.

Yeah I have been busy. And I prefer to be doing my busy-ness (does that spell “business”?) outside. Either staying late at workplace, or hanging out late at the 24-hour fast food outlet. The latter is kinda cozy place to be in, especially during the after-after-hours. Relatively quite (well, considering it’s the center of daily noise during peak hours). And it’s got AIRCON.

Oh boy, I have been so sick of the heat in the house. Rain has not come as often as I would like it to, so my room has been so hot. Sweltering. That’s why I prefer to stay out late.

The more you stay out the messier your room gets, because you have no time to clean it up. The messier it is the more you want to stay out.

The hot and messy room. The cool and cozy McDonald’s. That’s not even a choice!
Back home (that spells seven years ago and before), I’ve never thought of spending time at McDonald’s. There were only two McDonald’s, 10 km apart. Right here right now, down the road there are two 24-hour outlets of them within 10 minutes walking distance from my flat. And this area is only urban part of the country. And oh, we have three 7-Eleven stores nearby. I love this neighbourhood. If only I could afford to install aircon,… ugh….

On a bit of literature note, I have been trying to read Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Not so much progress. Actually it’s more like one page a day thing.

Movie update? Well, I’m into Hong Kong cinema now. Seen Infernal Affairs a couple of months back. And had since seen In the Mood for Love, Hero, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Planning to soon watch Chungking Express and 2046. And maybe the two sequels of Infernal Affairs.

From New York, the greatest city in the world, THIS! IS The Late Show! with David Letterman

Well no, I’m not going post an entry about David Letterman, despite his show becoming my favourite show at the moment, together with The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Night with Conan. And The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert.

These shows are just perfect after a long day at wherever it was the day’s long.

New York. New York is a not so old Martin Scorsese’s film starring Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli. Both actors had won Oscars a few years before (De Niro in The Godfather, Liza Minnelli in Cabaret).

In line with his trademark role with unstable character, in this film De Niro portrayed a selfish saxophone player, who despite at times could be likeable, often burst into rude behaviour. Combination of these two opposing tempers makes us wonder on many scenes whether he’s actually mad or glad about the particular situation in the scenes.

Set after the end of WWII, De Niro coming back from the war, trying to settle and pursue his love for music. Trying to sweet-talk Liza Minnelli for a date without much progress early on, but eventually he succeeds. Liza herself has a great singing career ahead of her, and at times they struggled to cope with their careers’ conflicts.

This is the third collaboration of Scorsese and De Niro (they would go on to work together on five others, as of Aug 2007). The movie was widely reported to be a commercial failure (and rumor has it that it played a part in Scorsese addiction in late 70s). But personally I think the movie is entertaining.

Trivia: I didn’t know that Liza Minnelli is the daughter of Judy Garland. The first mother and daughter to be nominated for Oscars, and the only child whose both parents won Oscars, won Oscar herself.