Psychoanalysis means saying one thing and meaning your mother.

Some radio program here reported that people in Bangkok spent US$37 million on seeing astrologers this year!!! Everyone is so worried about their future! (The economy in SE-Asia is pretty bad as well these days).

Why is there no opposite for the word "really"... can we say "fakely"? Can someone "fakely" do something?

HERO. One really really beautiful movie. And the action is really good too. Really! There's good stuff in the gallery.

This is an AMAZING ad for Visa. This ad required over 200 crew and 100 vehicles. Pierce Brosnan is caught in traffic in Bangkok, and decides to jump into a "tuk tuk"... if you've ever been in one of these you'll know that they're noisy, it's smelly, there are NO seatbelts, and they don't generally go too fast. Oh, and Zhang Ziyi is in it too.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
-- Isaac Asimov

Sometimes I'm an apatheist: the question is no longer interesting, and the answer no longer matters. I find this applies not only to take-home finals and papers that I spend way too long on, but also to the big questions in life.

Kinda lame, but in the spirit of finals week and Christmas...

Twas the night before exam week, and all through dorms, not a student was studying, this was usually the norm.
Kegs in the kitchen, jello shots in the hall -- thanks to the liquor, it was a late night for all.
Passed out all around, the kids all slept tight. When they woke up the next day, they thought, 'Man, whatta night!'
'We're too hung-over to study' they shouted with cheer. So to hell with exams, just bring on the beer!!

So they made a movie about Phil Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment... check out the trailer of "Das Experiment" by clicking here. It's quite a bit over the top... no wonder he wasn't pleased about it. The website is pretty cool. I thought that you were assigned (and were supposed to believe you were assigned) randomly to the particular group?

"The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it."
-- Jean Paul Sartre

http://www.wikipedia.org/
'...a collaborative project to produce a free and complete encyclopedia in every language. We started in January 2001 and are already working on 94579 articles in the English version, with more being added and improved all the time. Anyone, including you, can edit any article right now, without even having to log in.'

My new cousin is named "Hemant" and I get to see him for the first time in a less than 2 weeks. I was just thinking how that name would be kinda confusing for Americans. It sounds nothing like "He-man"... the "Hem" sounds like "hem" of a garment. The "ant" part is not like the insect, but like the British way of pronouncing "aunt"... kinda like saying "until"... I'm told "Hemant" means mountain. I wonder what effect that'll have on him. Does everyone know what "Roshan" means? If you don't, ask me. Maybe that way I'll get an idea of how many people read this blog...

"You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours."
-- an old saying from somewhere which, I've discovered, has some rather profound applications...

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."
-- Einstein

A pretty interesting situation raised in "Solaris" (2002) [if you haven't seen it, this might spoil the movie a bit for you and might not make so much sense]:
Rhea knows that she's created from Chris' memory and that she's not a complete person (i.e. she was missing parts of her own memory). Could you exist being only the pieces that another person remembered? Did they remember you correctly, or as they wished to remember you? How could she deal with her own emotions and feelings? Also, is she the person that he was in love with, or a complete fantasy? Obviously she wasn't the original. But would we be satisfied with a copy? If you carried a lot of regret like Chris did, then probably yes. But otherwise?

Another interesting (but unoriginal) idea brought up: try not to find answers, but choose a path and move forward. There are no answers, only choices. This is very existential.

Senior year sucks because you are reminded regularly that everything around you is temporary. You find yourself in situations out of compulsion - like looking for jobs and doing grad school stuff. Because of the lack of stability it messes with some parts of regular life. It makes it harder for certain things.
But senior year doesn't suck. On the whole it's going great!

“If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where do you expect to find it?”
- Dogen

I'm a Martini (although I never really order or make Martini's). What's your alcoholic personality?

"The past is only an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of your present conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as you try to grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish the illusion of solid ground?"
--H.H. Dilgo

In the East a parent will punish a child by threatening to lock him/her out of the home (and thus out of the comfort of the inner circle of the family/group); whereas, in the West a parent will punish a child by threatening to lock him/her inside the home (and thus deprive them of their independence).
Interesting, eh?

"If you want to understand the truth in martial arts, to see any opponent clearly, you must throw away the notion of styles or schools, prejudices, likes and dislikes, and so forth. Then, your mind will cease all conflict and come to rest. In this silence, you will see totally and freshly."
-- Bruce Lee
By the way... this summer I learned that at university Bruce Lee studied philosophy and psychology.... isn't it a coincidence that those are my two majors?!?

"Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time."
--T.S. Elliot

"Every time you measure something you settle on a reduction."
- prof. Costanzo in class

Thought and excessive reflection are seductive because we do not implicate ourselves. We distance ourselves from an authentic and passionate existence. Thinking gets in the way of doing. We should make choices, take risks and accept the responsibility. It doesn't matter what we choose, as long as the choice is freely made and relflects our own passions.

though you hear the buzzing of the bee grow louder
be still.
do not fear a sting you have never felt,
you just might be a flower.

(I don't know who wrote this)

If you claim to know the cause of something, you should be able to reproduce it or prevent it. Try to think of examples for where this is false. Can you? For the sake of argument, planetary motion doesn't count (cuz we know how it works, but it's obvious we can't do much about it).

Why does it take me 5 hours to read 15 pages of philosophy? I'm exaggerating a bit, but the point is: what has happened to my concentration?!!

"Life is not what you deserve, it is what you negotiate." - some wise man

Everyone in my family and everyone belonging to my family's culture has had and still has arranged marriages (although things are starting to change). Therefore, unlike other people in the world, having "game" is not a trait that has been passed down from generation to generation in my culture. No one really practices their "game." Does that make sense? I seriously doubt that "game" is something that the individual develops entirely by him/herself... something completely free from the influence of family and culture/society.

A pretty interesting word association test.

not been a good past few days with the authorities...
went to Franklin St on Halloween as a Japanese swordsman, only to have my foam sword confiscated by the cops!
then last night I got written up at Maxwell for holding alcohol... that's so stupid, I'm 21...
where's the sense in all this?

Research proposal -
Get a decently attractive guy and girl to go around campus and ask people to have sex with them that night.
Hypothesis -
In a normal college, all the women asked would shy off immediately. All the men would look at their watches and say, "Yes, I'm free at 8.30!"
But would this really be the case at Duke??? I have no clue actually. I think this might be interesting to do here. Especially if we have hidden video ;)

Everything you always wanted to know about comic adaptations, but were afraid to ask.

You have claim to your actions only; to their fruits you have no claim.
-BHAGAVAD GITA

Must get myself ready for a taekwondo tournament against UNC!!! No one will hit my head this time!!!

I can SO do with a Hainanese Chicken Rice set right about now...

Sitting shirtless and eating chicken tortellini from the BC cafe while listening to "Smack my Bitch up" after a gruesome hour at the career's fair is (just about) the best thing ever...

I just got very excited!!

always outnumbered
never outgunned

- The Prodigy

"Are you hungry for a little more than you've had before?"
-Kosheen

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, especially in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible."
- PJ O'Rouke
(I have no idea who this person is, or what the car looks like, but it's a pretty cool quote)

He remembers those vanished years
As though looking through a dirty window pane
The past is something he could see but not touch
And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct

- from "In the Mood for Love" by Wong Kar Wai

"I think and write, and think and write, and think and write; but the more I work and the more I torment myself the less it works -- then, from inside: voila! There it is."
Hayao Miyazaki (works on Studio Ghibli anime)

"Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being."
Lyrical and Critical Essays, Camus

There is nothing as naked as human eyes: they haven't even got skin over them.

"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question."
- Camus

Looks like it has some potential - see the MiB II trailer here

"Better to have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."
(some song)

Letting emotions go clouds judgement for a moment, but holding them in clouds it always.
(don't know where this comes from)

"You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't do it in the street and frighten the horses."
- an Edwardian quip (whose implications were not fully appreciated when it was first uttered)

"These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others...."
Groucho Marx

I involve myself in too much stuff. Sometimes I ask myself if I'm missing out on actual "living" because of all this involvement... but then I realize that this involvement is what makes me feel alive.

I'm waiting for the day when I'll travel to a country and not be considered a foreigner. Then again, when that day comes, I'll probably be shaking with incomprehension.

The bitter truth about fast food.

Sometimes, what is really going on is only revealed by the gaze of others.

Your future depends on your dreams. So go to sleep. (I don't know where this comes from)

"No matter how good you think you are as an individual, you are not."
- Robert Swan, OBE

"It's not cheating. It's getting the grade you deserve if you did the work."
- A certain ex-neighbor of mine

The only 15 letter word (in English) that can be spelled without repeating any letters is "uncopyrightable."

"Let me try to explain. I'm kind of hyper, in case you hadn't noticed yet, and I have to have something to do otherwise I'm gonna jerk off five times a day."
- Christopher Doyle, Hong Kong cinema's most in-demand director of photography (he's Wong Kar-Wai's cameraman).

A Blaxploitation film? See the trailer to "Undercover Brother" here

I just want time to stop. I'm heading towards some not-so-good things. I'm not dying to get out of here. I'd be more than content if things were like this for a long time.

Is there always a purpose behind why people do things?

This Visa ad is kinda old, but it's pretty neat. It's with Zhang Ziyi. Enjoy it here

[Scene: guy and girl on a bed, making out]

Girl: Does it annoy you that my hair keeps getting in your mouth?
Guy: Yeah, we should do something about it.
Girl: Like what?
Guy: How about wear a shower cap?
Girl: That's not sexy.
Guy: How about a leopard print one?

Don't apply a band aid to a festering wound that will only heal with deeper cleaning and some carefully placed sutures.

Recent idea:

Americans writing cover letters for jobs are like tacky prostitutes. They feel they have to flash their wares and tug on sleeves to get the customer. There is something very wrong with the world if people become clients only after being on the receiving end of that kind of behaviour.
What happened to modesty and subtlety?

Every second, about 6 Smirnoff bottles are sold (around the world).

According to Time Magazine, only 5% of Hong Kong males consider themselves "sexy"