I know Mothers Day has gone and this post is late, but I still want to get this off my chest.
Why have Mothering Sunday?!
What is the point in celebrating a living person for just one day? Does it give you license to be an ass through the rest of the year or is it because you feel guilty of not treating your mother well daily that you must concoct a 'special day' just for mum?
Only my mother could verify but I'd like to think that I've been good to her everyday. Sure, there have been some bad patches when I was young but that's part of growing up and part of being a good mother is to grow you out of the immaturity and I'd like to think I have and more than made up for all my past misdeeds. I treat my mum to random presents or surprises, help her when I can or when she least expects it etc - I know I'm not the perfect son and I could do a lot more but I do appreciate her every day and she knows that ... yet I still am 'forced' into getting something for one particular day of the year.
I say forced because although it is indeed optional, we've been brought up as children to participate in this farce. From nursery, kids are helped to create gifts to their mothers and the cycle from kids to parents can never end!
Of course, this isn't the only 'treat some especially on this particular day'... you have Fathers Day and Valentines ... the cynical part of me leads me to believe that these are just marketing tactics used by companies to charge 5x for the same goods and the only difference is it's wrapped and has a ribbon on it. A commercial day used to boost sales of otherwise unwanted goods to be bought by suckers.
And yet there I was on Saturday, shopping for my mother and continuing this facade of special appreciation, guilty at betraying my thoughts because I'm part of the system.
Another sucker.
Monday 30 March 2009
Thursday 19 March 2009
Rules and Tips for Flying
1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the
stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all
the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.
4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up
there wishing you were down here.
5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the
pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided
with the sky.
8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great'
landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to
make all of them yourself.
10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to
taxi to the ramp.
11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of
arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice
versa.
12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to
five minutes earlier.
13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about
might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources
also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.
14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the
number of take offs you've made.
15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing.
Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The
trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
17. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.
18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and
round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger
compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium going hundreds
of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has
yet to lose.
20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience
usually comes from bad judgment.
21. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much
as possible.
22. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.
23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not
subject to repeal.
24. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you,
runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the
stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all
the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.
4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up
there wishing you were down here.
5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the
pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided
with the sky.
8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great'
landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to
make all of them yourself.
10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to
taxi to the ramp.
11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of
arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice
versa.
12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to
five minutes earlier.
13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about
might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources
also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.
14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the
number of take offs you've made.
15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing.
Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The
trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
17. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.
18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and
round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger
compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium going hundreds
of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has
yet to lose.
20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience
usually comes from bad judgment.
21. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much
as possible.
22. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.
23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not
subject to repeal.
24. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you,
runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Who Watches The Watchmen?
I'm a self professed 'geek' (- a term used derogatively by the masses but in fact just highlights their own shortcomings) and I clearly remember being 11, going to the library and finding the graphic novel section and wowed that comic books were in the library!
From that moment on, I was immersed in a world of Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Green Lantern, Flash, Nexus... I was living a kid's dream in the company of superheroes but as I satiated my childish glee, I became interested in more thoughtful plots - true graphic novels which would be insulted being referred to as a comic. One that remains still clear in my mind is the Watchmen, which I have picked up several times between these years and I hoped that the movie did the book justice as there have been countless Hollywood attempts at bringing life to comics with eye-bleeding results (does anyone remember Halle Berry as Catwoman?!).
This was the first graphic novel that opened my mind to other aspects of the superhero life, more than the super powers and heroics - the humanity of heroes. It is quite dark and gritty, shocking scenes of violence including abuse to women would knock you out of your comfort zone and when you see it happen in a movie as opposed to drawings, stunned is an understatement.
Watchmen is about a group of people with power and ideals doing what they believe is right and just for the world and how everyone's opinion of righteousness differs. You have those that fight from the bottom up, cleaning the streets of crime and working upwards, those that want to start from the top and bring crime crashing from it's heights, those that don't care as long as it doesn't affect them and finally those that think they can save the world in one act. Yet all of these people are on the same team.
The dynamics between the different 'heroes' is interesting and you couldn't help but sympathise with aspects of everyone's views as you watch the powerplay amongst them but unlike the book, you could tell who the 'bad guy' was. The essence of the story is "the end justifies the means" and to how far you would go down that path. Would you sacrifice a handful for the peace of a city? A million for the world? Or would you stick to your guns like Rorschach and "never compromise, not even in the face of armageddon"?
Those of us who have read the novel will know the difference in endings but it essentially brought about the same end and in honesty, I preferred the movie's ending as it didn't seem as far-fetched as the novel. The only gripe I would have was that it didn't leave you in as much suspense as to who the mastermind of this was. Also the frequency of full frontal male nudity was a sight I could have lived without!
The movie is pretty true to its origins and is done well, in fact it was more shocking for me than the novel and viewers must be warned beforehand the nature of this movie :- cold, brutal and brilliant!
From that moment on, I was immersed in a world of Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Green Lantern, Flash, Nexus... I was living a kid's dream in the company of superheroes but as I satiated my childish glee, I became interested in more thoughtful plots - true graphic novels which would be insulted being referred to as a comic. One that remains still clear in my mind is the Watchmen, which I have picked up several times between these years and I hoped that the movie did the book justice as there have been countless Hollywood attempts at bringing life to comics with eye-bleeding results (does anyone remember Halle Berry as Catwoman?!).
This was the first graphic novel that opened my mind to other aspects of the superhero life, more than the super powers and heroics - the humanity of heroes. It is quite dark and gritty, shocking scenes of violence including abuse to women would knock you out of your comfort zone and when you see it happen in a movie as opposed to drawings, stunned is an understatement.
Watchmen is about a group of people with power and ideals doing what they believe is right and just for the world and how everyone's opinion of righteousness differs. You have those that fight from the bottom up, cleaning the streets of crime and working upwards, those that want to start from the top and bring crime crashing from it's heights, those that don't care as long as it doesn't affect them and finally those that think they can save the world in one act. Yet all of these people are on the same team.
The dynamics between the different 'heroes' is interesting and you couldn't help but sympathise with aspects of everyone's views as you watch the powerplay amongst them but unlike the book, you could tell who the 'bad guy' was. The essence of the story is "the end justifies the means" and to how far you would go down that path. Would you sacrifice a handful for the peace of a city? A million for the world? Or would you stick to your guns like Rorschach and "never compromise, not even in the face of armageddon"?
Those of us who have read the novel will know the difference in endings but it essentially brought about the same end and in honesty, I preferred the movie's ending as it didn't seem as far-fetched as the novel. The only gripe I would have was that it didn't leave you in as much suspense as to who the mastermind of this was. Also the frequency of full frontal male nudity was a sight I could have lived without!
The movie is pretty true to its origins and is done well, in fact it was more shocking for me than the novel and viewers must be warned beforehand the nature of this movie :- cold, brutal and brilliant!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)