October 9th, 2008 by Eshin
It always amuses me to see these programmes that profess to reveal the truth behind the Da Vinci code. More often than not, they debunk the Da Vinci Code theory with as much fanfare and congratulatory backslapping that one would expect from just having defeated a dragon. It would seem a Herculean task as any akin to proving that Star Wars has no place in our origins or that Lord of the Rings was in fact a work of fiction. Okay, so the claim at the beginning of the book might be questionable but let’s face it, that’s the only claim they make to be true.
What I find amazing is that the hardcore Christians out there are trying very hard to destroy the Da Vinci code as if it was reality. One wonders at how much wealth the Vatican has to draw upon to fund TV shows painting the book in a questionable light, flood the market with enough Templar books to debase the currency of the thought, or even fund a second-rate performance by Tom Hanks in a blockbuster epic that fell flat on its face.
So let me get this straight. The idea of a Jewish man at the time being married and having children is preposterous while virgin births and walking on water are taken as common sense?
Magical fancies aside from the Church, I think that the book has been powerful to open people’s mind to a truth different from St. Augustine’s universal faith. May the struggle continue towards understanding.
September 11th, 2008 by Eshin
In close family, I have only faced death once with my sister passing away. In the last week, life has relinquished itself to death three times in my vicinity. The first was the passing of someone I knew through my girlfriend, the second was my grandfather and the third was the father-in-law of my uncle.
Continue reading ‘At One with Death’
August 23rd, 2008 by Eshin
No good dreams usually come from napping in the afternoon. Especially with the gloomy, rainy weather that we’ve been having these last couple of days. Must be the rain from the typhoon that passed over Hong Kong yesterday.
Dream was strange just now. I was in my girlfriend’s apartment in a divided city like Hong Kong in that there were two physical, distinct parts to it. Anyway, the apartment itself was strange in that it was also divided into two distinct parts connected by a horizontal travelator. I remember my girlfriend being there but she was going out with friends and then my mate being there asking me why it was separated that way. He asked why it was laid out like a terminal, which I countered that it wasn’t…
… which morphed into a terminal with airline and ground staff with a suitably rousing song that even CX could be proud of. Except that it was for Malaysian Airlines (derisive snort from the Singaporeans in my dream).
The dream was weird but wouldn’t it be cool to have an apartment separated by a traveletor?
August 21st, 2008 by Eshin
My dreaming has been troubled of late and last night, they seemed to want to manifest themselves all in one go. I wouldn’t say these were my biggest fears but they certainly things that I feel averse to or just don’t like.
First segment was me riding a scooter. Yep, I hate automatic bikes but this particular scooter was rigged to have an exceptionally high visor that blocked your view, forcing you to crane over the top. The segment ended with me on this scooter chasing a similar scooter up a ramp in an abandoned car park which felt like it was in London. My fear of Quadrephenia perhaps?
I guess the visor being blacked out symbolized my own inability to see the future and economically, a scooter is less than a bike. The chase just represented the chase for economic stability and freedom. It’s all a game.
The second segment featured me at my girlfriend’s new apartment. That in itself is not a fearful thing. What was scary was that the TV console kept moving and being shifted around. Not quite sure what that meant. Also, ants. It seemed a legion of ants had found some spot on her carpet and I just couldn’t find the bug spray. Then she threw a party and my (well, ours now) MacBook was put outside on the balcony. Yep, you guessed it, it fell down three stories and was pretty much smashed. It’s a fear - who wouldn’t worry about the computer being destroyed utterly - but did it really manifest something greater?
The last segment was me and a toothache. My tooth was about to fall out it was so painful. There were other elements to this segment but I can’t remember them clearly. It is probably because when I woke up this morning and brushed my teeth, I did draw blood and one tooth did ache a little. It’s still there but I really need to go see a dentist soon.
August 10th, 2008 by Eshin
Today’s dream involved some peculiarities relating to travel. For some reason, I had to travel somewhere and the dream’s focal point was the journey between leaving home and the start of the plane journey. I can only remember that I left with my girlfriend and then she had to go back to the apartment to pick up something. Only it’s not really our apartment but looked like one of those wrecked city apartments straight out from post-alien invasion Cloverfield which is unsurprising because I went to bed after just having watched the DVD. She told me to go on ahead and she would meet me at the airport. I think this, along with the rush when you need to catch a flight, gave the dream its strange undertones of urgency.
Next I found myself shifted to London.
There was an impression of a certainty that I had actually started the traditional route I use to go the airport from Finchley to Heathrow and that I had embarked in a car. In spite of this and the need for haste, I ended up at the entrance to Finchley Road underground station. Walking down Finchley Road towards Swiss Cottage, I found myself wondering why I needed to walk it when I had arrived at the start of this segment of the journey on a perfectly good motorbike. I think the ludicrousness topped out when I ended up at the destination I was trying to reach to but, on account of not having parked my bike properly, back-tracked up the length of Finchley Road.
For some reason, I had actually ended up back to where my dream thought I needed to be. (There was some crazy computer game type of riding simulation in the dream but it remains vague as to how this fit into everything else). The only thing about the destination where I was at (a mixture of a train station like Waterloo and a crappy airport terminal like Gatwick), was that it was in-town and nowhere near where I wanted to be. My growing frustration was not helped by me running around trying to figure out how, in the space of a really short space of time, I would catch my flight.
I had met someone I knew and asked them for help. Yet they hadn’t offered any help whatsoever to my predicament. When we were 10 minutes out from the deadline (yes, it felt like a deadline), they came back to me and did have a solution - their much touted direct train ride to from that place and the airport (you guessed it - it takes just 10 minutes). I think the person was giving me a object lesson in being late and even the new train service could help you.
The dream cut to me being inside the aircraft. Oddly enough, it was a transit flight so some people were already on-board. There was an announcement for First Class travelers although I saw it as strange since my girlfriend and I were on the foremost seats possible and they were business. My seat was a mess and it looked like no-one had actually cleaned it for the next stage of the aircraft’s journey. My dissatisfaction was increased when some jokey had taken my girlfriend’s seat and refused to move for the take-off. I was about to offer my own seat to her and show the guy the emergency exit face first when I did manage to wake-up.
The dream’s aftertaste was reminiscing about Maida Vale in the UK and how my parents and I almost got an apartment there. It wasn’t big enough so ended up not being where did eventually end up in Finchley. I think part of the reason was that it afforded my father a more convenient location for the airport. This morning has been a sunny one and a nice breeze is coming through my girlfriends’ large windows. The wind, the lighting and the relaxed nature of the morning since the dream evokes reminders of Maida Vale’s compact gardens and green boulevards.
