Change

The only constant is change

- Heraclitus, 500 B.C.

People always resist change and try to cling to what feels familiar to them. Reading about European painters in the 19th century, a lot of them were inspired by those changes. The industrial revolution and Franco-Prussian war that took place around that time was causing uneasyness to everyone, including the artists.
The truth is, everything changes all the time, even now, maybe even more so. This century witnessed man on the moon, the advent of the internet, computers, airplanes. People need the familiar, something that they can hang on to. But the reality is that things change faster nowadays, with the inventions and technology around us. Those who don't keep up will be left in the dust.

Actually I wanted to write something else, but never did. And just yesterday I attended a seminar about Christian youth at my church. It was talking about how they are radically different from the previous generation. And this is partly caused by the pace of change around them. A very insightful revelation. The seminar is largely influenced by the latest David Kinnaman's book, titled You Lost Me, which I'm reading right now.

PS: this post is written on Blogger app on iPad, which is long overdue..finally ;)

Immortality

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young
It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth is like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams are swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever

Forever Young - Alphaville

There are so many things a person can do, and could never do in their lifetime. I always wonder why people run out of things to do. I personally need more than 24 hours in a day. There are so much to learn, to read, to do, places to visit. The thought that you can learn about everything in this world is both ridiculous and arrogant.


Meanwhile, I want to share a good testimony from the late dr. Richard Teo

Five years is long enough to call a place home.. sometimes I just miss it.

I finally found a vague familiarity in this city, after a few back and forth in several months. I love cities that are still pulsating in late night, Paris, London... and now this city. But without close friends and relatives, I won't make it here. Not mentioning the bad management at work. It seems that nothing is moving in the last four months.
As my impending return gets closer, I do feel some anxiety.... for the unknown.

Random fact #278

Do you know my blog is visited by a porn site?
Out of curiosity, I click the link to my visitor's page. In office no less.

Prices of a cup of coffee and french fries at a local coffee shop, $1.30 and $2.80 respectively.
I thought 2.80 is a ridiculous price for a small plate of fries. So this time I tried McDonalds, I remember they sell fries for only $1.50. The price for coffee there? $2.60

I swear there is a price-fixing practice at play here. Maybe I should write something to our beloved lawmakers?

Enjoying Things

The present generation, at least from Gen X (interestingly, the term coined by Robert Capa, co-founder of Magnum Photos) onwards, suffers from lack of concentration and short attention span. Thanks to the various electronic gadgets like radio, TV, iPod, iPad, and the advent of internet.People tend to multi task, thus dividing their concentration to several things at the same time.

I have this bad habit of eating and doing something else.. usually reading, be it a comic book, newspaper, or a magazine. The drawback of course, is that I cannot fully appreciate the taste of my food. Although, in my defence, its not haute cuisine either (sorry mom).

I thought about writing this post when reading Petite Anglaise's blog posts regarding food. Its dormant now but the archives are there and its highly entertaining especially if you have nothing to do in office. Hopefully I won't get dooced.. which is highly unlikely since I have tendered my resignation last month.. hee hee
The blog world seems to be much more colourful back then, before the advent of facebook, which some female teenagers mistook for a diary of their lives. But honestly, who ever wrote 'I'm in the toilet' or 'I'm going to sleep' in their diary?

Back to the topic, I think the French had it right, the take their food very seriously. They even stare at people eating their food in the streets. Good thing I didn't do that while I was in Paris. The French sit and enjoy their food properly and slowly, they only take proper meals, and don't like to eat snacks in between.
In the years of living abroad, I get to taste some of the better food available, albeit for a price. Don't worry, I still have my arms and legs. I have come to appreciate the taste of pork soup ramen (tonkotsu), local fish soup (yes.. fish! believe it or not), and the delight of a cod sushi, and occasional Subway sandwich.

To some extent... I cannot fully enjoy a beautiful scenery when I'm with a gorgeous girl for example (or vice versa, in case some gorgeous girl reading this post gets offended, I wouldn't want that would I?). And also, enjoying music or radio when I'm doing something else (internet browsing, photo editing, book reading etc) which requires some level of concentration, so now I just turn off the music.

In an attempt to divert my thoughts from life, work, and relationship.. I shall write a post now.. LoL
I've been into printing in the recent year, trying at least to print a picture each week. And these past view days I have reviewed Vivian Maier's work one more time, and somehow I have come to appreciate it more than before. I suspect I will have the same experience flipping the other photobook in my collection. It just dawned on me what makes them special. I will try to achieve that look in the future prints. Or maybe its just this :

Vivian Maier represents an extreme instance of posthumous discovery of someone who exists entirely in terms of what she saw. Not only was she entirely unknown to the photographic world, hardly anyone seemed to know that she even took photographs. While this seems unfortunate, perhaps even cruel-a symptom or side effect of the fact that she never married or had children, and apparently had no close fiends-it also says something about the unknowable potential of all human beings. As Wislawa Szymborska writes of Homer in her poem "Census" :"No one knows what he does in his spare time."

- Geoff Dyer

Anyway.. for someone who has experiencing the bankruptcy of several of my favorites food stall, I now made the effort to legally buy whichever software I find really useful. Granted that Microsoft and Adobe might not be that vulnerable now, but lets say its better to take... some precautions. Just sayin..