On watching Oprah

I was watching, or rather, listening to an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show the other day, while doing the dishes at the same time. The reason I could only hear it and not watch it was because the kitchen was too far away, and the TV was switched on at full blast, with nobody watching it. I think I just wanted some company while doing the dishes. (So many dishes!)

That day they were talking about physical vs real age. The theory is this, with good eating habits, a healthy lifestyle etc etc etc, a person's real age could be younger than his physical or biological age. So there were these 2 ladies whose real ages were about 10 years younger than their physical or biological ages which is about 60. They not only look younger (And this conclusion is based on the collective gasp I heard from the audience!), but they minds were younger and more active and sharper than a normal 60-year-old!

When interviewed and asked what were their lifestyles secrets to maintaining youthful, they all cited exercise, healthy eating and living as their secret to eternal youth. (I'm thinking plastic surgery also!) They also mentioned one other factor, they all had a hobby or a passion that they pursued in their lives. One was a social volunteer in old folks' homes and orphanages. One spent time gardening and playing golf or something like that. And another one was a dancer. (I was obviously only half-listening, I had to concentrate on not breaking the dishes!)

It later occurred to me that it would have been interesting doing this experiment, to have another control group doing the healthy eating and exercising thing, but take away the hobby, the interest, the passion, and we'll see what happens to this other group. They may just aphyxiate and die out of boredom or something.

Passion. I suspect that's key. It's the essence of living really. It creates an interest in life and all that surrounds life, and as a result, sustains life, and motivates us to preserve and maintain our physical bodies and non-physical beings. Without passion, there is no meaning and interest, and we might just be bored of our wits. People who are passionate about nothing are usually people who are nothing. What we're passionate about determines how how we turn out as a human being. People are passionate about different things - love, money, world domination, plants, birds, so we turn out to be lovers, con-men, Hitler. plant-people, bird-people respectively.

Passion is what really makes us tick doesn't it?

Which brings me to the next point, the non-physical aspect of being. I call that the soul. My friend there's no such thing as a soul, but I don't agree with him; in fact I think he's a little mad.

Our non-physical being is everything else which does not involve our physical aspects (obviously!). The emotions, the will, the intelligence, in other words, the non-physical and non-bodily sustenance of life.

I think our passion and excitement about stuff has to come from somewhere. My soulless friend will probably just put it down to hormones and chemicals that are being produced in our machine/bodies or something. In other words, its all a matter of chemistry. We're all the human version of a bubbling beaker of different combinations of chemicals. The bad-tempered ones just happen to have two non-compatible chemicals inside their bodies resulting in the "kaboom"!

I'm not disagreeing totally that we're well-oiled machines and human chemistry experiments, I'm just not totally agreeing, because I think we have to be more than that, thus making human beings the illogical, unpredictable, spontaneous beings that we are!

We imagine and believe and do incredible things that are logically ridiculous and difficult. We climb mountains at the risk of frostbite and avalanches and possible death. We ride impossible distances in tight bicycle shorts and sitting on teeny and uncomfortable sit that render us potentially impotent.

We pursue impossible dreams and difficult outcomes. We seek for alternative worlds out of our galaxy. We visualise, we conceptualise. We argue that the world is round when everybody thought it was square. We build machines that imitate birds and almost die trying to be a bird. We build wings of wax and fly towards the son.

We conquer kingdoms for the sake of love and pride and showing off. For the sake of love, we become super human. We can run faster than a speeding bullet, lift heavy weights, for the sake of the love of our offspring. We stay when we should walk away from a non-profitable and non-beneficial relationships. We stick through thick and thin through death and diseases and even infidelity.

We hope against hope and work against reason to save the dying, feed the hungry, quench the thirst of knowledge and to keep hope alive in people who might have been better left for dead because the world has nothing to offer them.

Show me people that behave as people should. And I'll show you a world devoid of life and passion and love and ridiculous mistake and foibles and generally unliveable and boring.

Watching TV is good for you!

I am a TV addict who is very discerning in the types of TV she watches.

I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but that's true.

I don't just watch any old junk. I am very selective in the shows that I choose to peruse of. None of the third-rate junk for me. Any show I watch must have all of the following...

- Attention-grabbing show title. Never mind if it's a little cheesy or vulgar, I need it to get my attention, to differentiate itself from the 60-odd channels that are on cable. Some suggestions for the hit-you-in-the-face-and-gives-you-a-black-eye show titles would be things like "The Mystery of the Exploding Boobs", or "Plastic Make-Overs Come Undone" or something to that effect.

- Never forget the Very Important Bits. In any show, every show, you must have at least of the the following, not listed in order of importance. Babies, boobs, cleavage, blood, gore, boobs, explosions, car chases, boobs, nice hair, nice legs, inspirational speeches, boobs. Of course, if you could have everything in there, it will be great! Oh oh oh, and make sure there's not too much time-lag in-between the important bits. I don't have time for the non-important bits!

- Food! Food is very important. In the absence of a storyline, beautiful actors, blood, gore and action, food is always a safe topic. Food of any sort really - Greek, Italian, British, Chinese times 8 types of Chinese cuisine, Desserts, Appetisers, Side Dishes, Teas, Coffees, Grilled, Steamed. Sometimes they even combine genres. Food + Beautiful People = Food Porn in the form of Nigella. Food in a strange country which is unknown to chef = Jamie Oliver and the Great Italian Escape or something like that. Food + Whiz-Bang-Action = Restaurant Makeover. Food + Violence = Ramsey Gordon in 'The F Word'. Food's oh-so-versatile! You know what is missing, Food + Super hero! It will be fun to see Fire Man torch the cream brulee with his torch hand, or Superman cream the cake mixture at super speed!

- Last but not least, always pretend to be oh-so-natural. Especially for the cooking shows, never mind if it's all scripted down to how many breaths of air you should take a minute, but always pretend that it's all perfectly spontaneous and all naturale. Yes, it's natural to have the vegetables and fruits all so clean and without a speck of soil on it at all. And yes your fridge is always so packed to the brim with of all types of good-looking food. And yes, you speak to your family in complete sentences, using words that are four and five syllabus long. And yes, you cook in that sexy black dress with that cute little sweater. I HATE THESE PEOPLE FOR HAVING SUCH PERFECT LIVES. And I hate them more that they don't have to do any washing up after they cook! *Sulk*

Contrary to what people say about TV being a bad electrostatic influence and making people stupid, TV is actually very good for me. It is inspirational. I get inspired to dance, play the piani, cook, bake, be Oprah Winfrey, chop up people, travel, and be Hitler depending on what I'm watching at that point in time. In fact, that's the worse thing about TV, it inspires you to over-rate one's capabilities. They lie to you and tell you that making Vanilla Jam Muffins are oh-so-simple when really, it is really really complicated to do! Television people should manage expectations better, really!

TV is actually a thinking past-time. Everytime I see Jamie Oliver on TV, I will muse as to whether he's considered cute or ugly. Because while he's mostly cute, he's got a weird overbite that makes his lips look quite pouty. And one really needs to practise one's motor skills channel switching, watching 3 shows at the same time on different channels!

TV's sometimes quite scary. Because they usually do close-ups of Nigella's bosom and face, it gets scary when they sometimes momentarily zoom out and you catch a glimpse of her whole body and you realise how, erh, voluptous she really is. She does remind me of the Blimp in the Ghostbusters.

Now, I think I just might go and watch some more TV.

Blogomania

I have the computer today, and the irritating thing about it is, I just don't feel inspired to blog!

I should think there's some kind of mental conspiracy going on in my head. The little people in my head have obviously something against me, for at the moment that I'm just about to fall asleep or while perumbulating around on the MRT, inspiration strikes and I feel the epic blog coming on, and then horror of horrors, I find that I'm stranded without pen and paper, or I know that as soon as I manage to switch on the laptop that takes forever to re-boot, and am sitting in front of it, the inspiration would have flown out the window somehow.

Life. Just. Isn't. Fair!

And maybe it's just me, but I think I've been struck by an extremely virulent strain of blogomania. I'm increasingly finding myself seeing everything and anything in the blog perspective, whether it's supermarket shopping or making weird muffins or reading a book. I think I need therapy. And you know what the worse thing is, everything happening and occurence comes with a blog title as well as an introduction.

I think I'm going to go bang my head on the wall some more.

To the moon

Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,
And ever changing, like a joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?

I forgot who wrote this. But I just like this poem. I like the moon. There's something ethereal and sublime in its cyclical changing of shape, from being a full moon to slowly being 'eaten' until only a slice is left.

I read a story once, about the moon disappearing from its place in the sky. Because there was no moon in the sky, people carried about lantern moons. But after a while, people got used to dark moonless nights.

I don't think I'll ever get used to moonless nights. I know we sometimes don't get to see the moon because it's hidden behind the clouds. But it is comforting to just know that, somewhere, out there, the moon is still palely loitering.

That's the thing about the moon isn't it. It's quite dispendable, practically speaking. Without the sun, plants won't grow and we won't have food. But moonlessness will merely mean still seas since it's the presence of the moon that creates tides.

The moon is a funny thing. With its mere existence, it makes the world, my world at least, a much more beautiful place.

I sometimes think the moon was made to remind us, it's not necessarily the doing that makes you beautiful. Just be being, it makes all the difference, between a moon-lit night and a dark lightless night.

Good night.

Excuse me...

I've just been watching TV.

And the people on TV have been saying things like, "You look absolutely amazing today. Dinner will be ready shortly. Take a seat while you wait. And will you like a glass of wine while you wait."

Do real people really talk like that in real life, in America?

Geez! How do they survive being so polite all the time? And speaking in grammatically correct sentences AND complete sentences too?

No wonder they drink so much alcohol. They want to be rendered senseless and comatose, so nobody will expect them to talk too much.