“There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that that have nothing to lose. People who have stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.” – Martin Luther King Jr

People laugh at your dreams, because they never believed in their own. – 22 November 2009

the campus papers, the international tribunals, CNA news, fiction books, a new interesting film, an old interesting film, that website that teaches Korean language, the newly discovered Scandinavian indie bands, the website that collects some awe-inspiring product designs, the one-day lomography shoot that i’ve always wanted to embark on…

Bookmarks one too many, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back onto them.

Oh, december it seems? When dreaded exams are done, the streets are decorative and all is rosy.

Oh, but there’s still FYP. fuck.

We should really start thinking about how life starts and how it ends, and think about how to fill the spaces in between with a multitude of emotions that is gratifying enough not to be forgottten. – November 6, 2009

The best and only way to commemorate lost time is to smile and let the thought sink deep. – November 5, 2009

Life is limitless only if you haven’t started living it.

曾经有一个小小的社会新闻，四个男孩子相偕去戏水，结果大浪一来，三个人死掉了，只剩下一个活着游回来。报纸上谈论著死掉的那三个孩子，而我急切地找活着的那一个：怎么没有他的名字呢？怎么没有人告诉我只剩下他活下来之后、他过得怎么样呢？

大家都替死的人感到难过，我却一直在想，活下来的那一个，一下子失去了三个好朋友，他会不会孤单？
　　
所以我有了《沉睡的青春》。
　　
沉睡，说的不是青春的消逝，而是生命的孤寂，可是却用一种带着诗意的甜美浪漫被呈现出来，原因是我并不想再增加生命的悲伤，相反地，我想疗伤，静静地、缓缓地、帮忙那些有遗憾的生命找到存在的力量。

— 导演 郑芬芬

出现在电影的话:

　有些人对时间的流逝 感到遗憾
　有些人则深陷其中 永远也逃不出来

　存在也许无法被证明
　灵魂的重量却可以被创造

We don’t really learn anything properly until there is a problem, until we are in pain, until something fails to go as we had hoped.

A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness. An unfailing memory is not a very powerful incentive to study the phenomena of memory.

There is no man, however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or even lived in a way which was so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory. But he shouldn’t regret this entirely, because he cannot be certain that he has indeed become a wise man – so far as any of us can be wise – unless he has passed through all the fatuous or unwholesome incarnations by which that ultimate stage must be reached.

If colors could be used to describe writings, his writings made full use of every colors from black to white.

1. There is an Arabic saying that the soul travels at the pace of a camel. While most of our self is led by the strict demands of timetables and diaries, our soul, the seat of the heart, trails nostalgically behind, burdened by the weight of memory. if every love affair adds a certain weight to the camel’s load, then we can expect the soul to slow according to the significance of love’s burden. By the time it was finally able to shrug off the crushing weight of her memory, Chloe had nearly killed my camel

5. The physical world refused to let me forget. Life is crueler than art, for the latter usually assures that physical surrounds reflect characters’ mental states. If someone in a Garcia Lorca play remarks on how the sky has turned low, dark, and gray, this is no longer an innocent meteorological observation, but a symbol of a psychological state. Life gives us no such handy markers – a storm comes, and far from this being a harbinger of death and collapse, during its course a person discovers love and truth, beauty and happiness, the rain lashing at the windows all the while. Similarly, in the course of a beautiful warm summer day, a car momentarily loses control on a winding road and crashes into a tree, fatally injuring its passengers.

6. But the external world did not follow my inner moods. The buildings that had provided the backdrop to my love story, and that I had animated with feelings derived from it, now stubbornly refused to change their appearance so as to reflect my inner state. The same trees lined the approach to Buckingham Palace, the same stuccoed houses fronted the residential streets, the same Serpentine flowed through Hyde Park, the same sky was lined with the same porcelain blue, the same cars drove through the same streets, the same shops sold much the same goods to much the same people.

7. This refusal of change was a reminder that the world was an entity that would spin on regardless of whether I was in love or out of it, happy or unhappy, alive or dead. It could not be expected to change its expressions according to my moods, nor would the great blocks of stones that formed the streets of the city take time to consider my love story. Though they had been happy to accommodate my happiness, they had better things to do than to come crashing down now that Chloe was gone.

“I’m often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I’m running? I don’t have a clue.

On cold days I guess I think a little about how cold it is. And about the heat on hot days. When I’m sad I think a little about sadness. When I’m happy I think a little about happiness.”

- Haruki Murakami

via the brilliant as usual casualpoet

it’s beautiful when you embrace the little imperfections.

ps: this is supposed to be a propaganda advertising by our dearest government agency but i like the way the message and idea is brought across.

///
”和平“
如果没有“战乱”，没有人可能发明“和平”
“它”是一个目标，或者是理想主义者的一种幻想，或者是现在？

”和平“是…
当没有谁比谁重要，
当大家很独立地互相依赖，
当每个人各自追求不同的目标但拥抱着同样的信念，
当歌词的某一段某一句和内心深处的一段记忆产生一种共鸣
当天气很好