Indies

 Comedy 

Drew Barrymore & that chap with fake-looking teeth that makes him look older than necessary. 

Mistress America  

Small scale, Indie movies usually have good work. 

Minus mind-numbing excessive displays of vanity or the endless pursuit of prosperity; Indie movies usually dwell into complex, conflicting & compromising feelings and decisions, which are more relatable to people who are real to themselves, which I think, is a small circle. 

Mistress America is about a late teen girl, settling into college in New York.
She is an aspiring novelist but over time, she discovers the snobbishness of the so-called "elite" writing club. She drops out of it after doing some soul-searching despite her initial eagerness to be admitted into the club.

She spent a weekend with her supposedly soon-to-be half-sister (their parents were planning on marrying each other). During the adventurous weekend spent with her sibling-to-be, the girl forms her judgement of her sister-to-be (who is in her late 20s). She thinks that her sister-to-be has a "sad" life despite all her "happening" activities, eg: she champions for causes, she teaches spin classes at the gym, she meets investors for restaurant business building, and documents her seemingly energetic lifestyle on social media all the time, feeding off superficial "likes" from digital friends. The younger girl thinks that that is a sad life despite all its prettiness.

She began writing down feverishly the life of her sibling-to-be and submitted her short novel based on her sibling-to-be to the writing club in her college.  

The group of older people (friends of her sibling-to-be) were equally confrontational when they've all discovered about the short novel inspired by the older girl. They threatened to sue the teen, they all felt that it was not for her to judge others, especially after spending only one night or one weekend with that person. The teen, however, is sorry to have caused hurt but she is not sorry for having write that novel although she tried to deny it was based on her sibling-to-be. 

They eventually got news that their parents have called off their wedding plans. That leaves them feeling rather awkward-- do they forgive and still be friends? After having gone through a whirlpool of emotional explosive weekend, they somewhat are bonded by an invisible thread of womanhood, of being stoic, young women. Sisters by name, I would say. 

Midweek End March

I asked Kiki who she thinks this person is (pointing to this little girl in picture).
Kiki replied-- Colin.
LOL. She's wearing a dress arh, it's a girl.
Amusing how DNA works. I've always told my sis that Colin looks like her.
Even his Phonics teacher exclaimed - Who are you?! Colin looks so much like you! (to my sis)

 It's a Jungle out there

Circle of life

I want.............

Weekends

 My aunt gave Kiki a miniature desk calendar 

Kiki asked why is 23rd March marked in red since it wasn't any public holiday. 

Oh, this is a Japanese calendar... not sure what are their observance days there. 

 Learning both the Perpetual Motion (Little suite No. 6) & Millionaire Hoedown at the same time.

 Different genres from before. now the songs sound like humming bumble bees. 

We're still warming up at the stairwells before heading to class. 

I don't know anybody that does that, you know, going to stairwells. Sometimes the place is stuffy, sometimes, smelly (food exhaust), but we've always managed to ignore small discomforts and focus on 重点, which is to warm up before class. 

We will go and listen and have a tour around the campus.

 Not bad, not sure why some people commented that it was not nice. 

I mean, the tea scent wasn't overpowering, which to me, is a good thing. 

 Every time I rattle on in Mandarin, she will tell me to -- Hold on, hold on. 

(Because she needs time to process her reply in Mandarin) LOL. 

 They have "their version" of UNO game rules. 

We used the mobile phone a lot when it comes to writing Chinese words.
I'll do the Ping Ying, and then show her the words.

Both are nice in different ways. That Phoenix durian was a little more bitter, which was also nice.
$12 X 2 boxes = $24  on sale due to over-supply at this moment.

Programmed the induction crock-pot to cook at 4 am for an hour.
So when I wake up at 5 plus, I'll just add the sauce base onto the pasta.
Will try fish soup & rice (porridge) tomorrow.
I've given Colin the cod liver oil since young but he is still much small in size =(
Will go to the pharmacy to see what appetite boosters I could get for him.

Monday morning, going to work.

Get moving

 Sis & her work friend

Blighted Ovum

(Emotions processing over the past week, not conclusive, just passing, running, emotions. well, because healing is in progress)

Okay, so I get to do at least one entry about how I feel over the episode of my sis' annulled marriage right?  From the time they've dated (2012) till now that they've ended (2018) I reserve the right to express my grief over this, given the level of complexity I've felt.  I need to say something in order to process and leave this in the pensive bowl. It is over and the sun will still rise tomorrow but the hurt has to wane, we can't go around with an injury, it is not healthy. 

From the time they were dating, I had a dream episode. I do not know why, I do not ask for these but it has become clear to me now, the fact that I get epic dreams that may have been messages or warnings, alas I am not really equipped to interpret my dreams. Worse still, I interpret them wrongly. 

But I also do not wish to be too entangled with mystics, we still are here in the flesh aren't we?  So, live it. So, long story short-- In my dream (that was in 2012) a gang of gangsters had kidnapped my sis. Me and her then BF were frantically running around town, like in a treasure hunt over the island, getting hidden messages left by the kidnappers, clues and quiz to solve in order to get nearer to the location where she was being held. Time was running out and we were desperate, we decided to hunt separately. Finally, the kidnappers gave me another clue, I reassembled with her BF and told him the clue. He was very calm and said to me that "he knows what to do". Shortly after, I found my sis but she was inconsolable, crying until her body dropped to the floor. It appeared that her BF had jumped off the building as the message was for him to pay his debts by death, in exchange for the release of my sis. (end of dream). I woke up exhausted, shocked, and very confused. I had thought that the message was "self-sacrifice", which I took it as a message to say that he would do "anything" for her.  (OMG, in real life, I couldn't be more wrong! gosh, the only time he called me up on the phone was to have me influence my sis to part with him, he said if not, he might throw her out from the windows of their flat, along with himself. He made that threat twice during the phone conversation. There is no mistake about it, that was why I evacuated my sis that same night. I could not risk a threat that had been emphasized.) So I guess the dream message was telling me about the distraught part. About her going through the loss and distraught. Anyway, mystics aside, we still have to go through this, won't we?

So anyway, I don't wish to revisit the hurt, I am trying to find a way to carry on, hopefully without any post traumatic stress disorder. So anyway, finally today I had another realization. The marriage was like a "false positive" pregnancy. So that's also a little sad but at least when I see it clinically, the hurt could be transferred. Then came another realization. It's also like "Blighted Ovum" pregnancy. Having an ovum that attached to the uterus, was beginning to look like a real pregnancy but it did not develop into a fetus. The removal of the ovum or purging (miscarriage) is painful. 

So, if I look at it this way, I think we can start to heal. Because it was not meant to be. 

As much as we had all, and I mean all of us, at one point or another, lived that short-live moment.

(watched "The Good Wife" season 7 today)

FISH ATE WHALE

I don't like to read on Kindle or pdf. My brain doesn't light up that way. 

I used to call up Kinokuniya & Borders (now defunct) to enquire about titles that I want. 

When new titles that I asked for wasn't in store yet, they would jot down the details, bring the books in, and when the books arrived, the store would call me to collect my reservation. 

That was in the past. 

Now I try not to buy books. 

Because first of all, I don't have enough space to store them properly. (Keyword: Properly)

Secondly, books, like money, hardly ever get returned when loaned. (Unless you're the Bank or the Library Bank ie) I don't like losing my books this way, nor money! for that matter. Thirdly, I only live in the moment of reading, I would have Aha moments while reading and then more or less develop amnesia over the books after a few months. I don't recall titles nor authors. How terrible. 

So now that I more of less just borrow books from the library, I still can't help wanting titles that I want. Good thing they have a "recommendation" feature, I can recommend the title and hope they'd bring it in. It would benefit everyone else wouldn't it?

So I've made my maiden recommendation today.

The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King

Gravity Falls

Science homework 

Math quiz

Value gives no discount

Had a dinner gathering with my work friends.
Of all the different versions of seafood & pork, the one that I found best tasting was the one that is not on discount. (it was called "Pink Pork").  The rest of the set meals were on 20% off on a Monday night (with at least one female patron). Free flow cabbages, tea, (and rice?) brown rice available.  (West Gate #04-06 Tonkatsu Bistro)

If you think you're valuable, give no discount.

Monday Morning

 Filters 

This morning, on the way to work. 19th March 2018

 got to know a new hair dresser. she recommended me to get this MCT oil from the organic shop. 

said her sister from 63kg became 48kg in six months. 

skip carbo if at all possible. 

eat meat, vegs, fats are ok. 

 added one teaspoon onto coffee

please read up and research MCT on your own.