The Simpsons

I was watching my DVDs of The Simpsons during the past week. For all those who do not already know, I am a HUGE fan of the show. Its amazing how long it has been on the air. Right now they are in their 18th season and has been renewed for a 19th year. It has been 18 years since they first got their own show. I was only 8 when they first appeared on TV. I can still remember the first time it was shown on Singapore TV. It was such a huge event. Although I was too young to fully understand the depth of the show at that time, it had such an impact in my life that in the years that followed, even though Singapore no longer aired it, I remained a fan and I still crave after new episodes of Simpsons.

I think when you look back at it. For our generation, TV shows echo the lives we live now, fast and ever changing. For all the shows that have come and gone (Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Numerous Star Treks, Babylon 5, Millennium...i could go on but you get the point),
its amazing to think that a 30 min animated sitcom has been the one that we have all grown up with. 18 years, enough to see a kid through all the stages of their educational years.

One only has to look at the books which have been written based on lesson from the episodes of The Simpsons to know that it is more the just a simple cartoon. Its lessons on morality, philosophy, religion, love, parenthood and much more has been part of its enduring legacy. Maybe its just me but The Simpsons represents to me much more then a TV show, my appreciation and understanding of the show is a sign of my own transition from childhood to adolescence and ultimately to adulthood. Each stage of life has brought on a new layer of responsibility and maturity and with it, a whole new way of seeing what the timeless and ageless people of Springfield and the family Simpsons have to teach us (well, its been 18 years and Bart is still 10, Lisa is still 8 and Maggie is forever 1).

p/s: In honor The Simpsons, I've used their trademark yellow skin as the colour of this post.

footnote: I was just informed by a dear friend that Singapore has started showing The Simpsons again. Welcome back! Its been long but its good to have them back on our TV sets! I have been living in Australia for too long....

Addiction I

Recently the Italian restaurant around the corner from my house has some renovations done and when they reopened, they introduced this limit time offer when you can get a pizza for half price every Monday to Wednesday. So I did.

It was Monday, I had just finished doing my errands when I decided I was too lazy to cook my dinner and it had been a very long time since i had a pizza so I thought, why not.

I went and got myself a large pizza for $11!!! That is the good news. The bad news is, it has kicked in a new addiction for me: PIZZA! I'm looking forward to Monday again.

Paracelsus

Another sleepless night for me. No matter how hard I try to fall asleep, I just can't seem to. So as usual, I was just lying in bed thinking of things. Random thoughts just flow in and out of my head. Sometimes I just get so sick of thinking I want to smash my head into a wall just for one moment of peace and quiet. But then I think of how painful that might possibly be and change my mind. Actually I think I am more afraid of staining my walls with blood then the pain itself. Blood is really hard to wash off a white wall.

Anyhow...tonight I remembered a poem I once read a long time ago, about 9 years actually. (Wow...9 years...17 was almost a decade ago) Right, that was a quick stop back at memory lane. As I was saying, the poem came back to me today and so I thought I'd just put it up here and share it with anyone who happen to be passing by.

It's by Robert Browning and its just a small part from his really long poem Paracelsus.

"At times I almost dream,
I too have spent a life the sages' way,
And thread once more familiar paths.
Perchance I perished in an arrogant self-reliance an age ago;
And in that act a prayer for one more chance went up so earnest,
So instinct with better light let in by Death,
That life was blotted out; not so completely.
But scattered wrecks enough of it to remain,
Dim memories.
As now, when seems once more,
The goal insight again."

My Music I

I spent this weekend listening to a couple of new pieces of music from the soundtracks of 300 and Alexander (the movie wasn't really good but the soundtrack is awesome). Was telling a couple of friends on MSN about them and somehow one of the conversations with my buddy MK turned into a discussion about Hans Zimmer, one of the best composers in the industry today. For anyone interested in this style of music, you have to check out the soundtracks for Crimson Tide, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator and The Rock (these are IMHO some of Zimmer's best work). 300 and Alexander are worth a listening too especially Alexander; a great score by Vangelis.

Memoria I

I haven't been sleeping well for the past week, maybe 3, 4 hours day at the most. It seems that my insomnia has come back. I've been having it on and off since i was 17. I would fall asleep only to wake up a couple of hours later and then try in a vain attempt to save what's left of the night, to go back to sleep. Often I would. But by the time i get back to sleep a second time, it's often close to the time I would have to get up. And in the process of this vicious cycle, coffee has become my best friend. Coffee: The one true drug.

The funny thing about the lack of sleep this week is the fact I keep having the same dream over and over again. Well, its more like a "Ground Hog Day"-ish kind of dream. Its the same scenario but played out differently. Déjà vu-ish you could say (though I really hate the Matrix reference but Déjà vu existed long before the Matrix did). Anyway, bitching aside...

The dream is weird, I was in a family that traveled back in time in order to change the future (or what they knew as the present). It sounds either like a really badly written book or a "B"-Grade movie flick. But hey, its a dream!?!?

The funny thing is, every dream I have is an improvement of the night before. Its like my brain is making changes to all the mistakes of the previous night's dream. I guess you could say my brain is trying to make the perfect realistic dream. But aren't dreams surreal in nature?

Burn me! Burn me at the stakes! NOW!

Disclaimer: This is a posting that involves religious beliefs so please read only if you want to. This post reflects my personal views, thoughts and beliefs. It has not been endorse by any Church or religious organisation that I know of or am a member of. Thank you.

Ok. This one is a hard one. This one is one which might cause a lot of anger in some readers so please read it at your discretion. I am not here to offend anyone but this is something just a question that popped into me brain when i was doing some readings this afternoon. I do not claim to be an expert in any of the areas i am about to touch on but everything i say here is just thoughts which floated in and out of my head today.

The question: Can one be both a Christian and an atheist at the same time? (I am using Christianity because that is my faith but essentially i am asking "Can someone believe in the existence of a divine God and be an atheist at the same time?")

Atheism conveys the idea that there is no God. Christianity preaches one absolute God. So here then is the problem. What if someone wants to be both? Can he/she?

Lets take the stand that one can be both. This will ultimately disprove both statements at the same time. If you believe in the existence of God, you cannot say that there is no God. And vice versa.

But what if someone were to say, "I believe and follow the teachings of Jesus but I do not believe in God." Well, when i asking this question to a friend, her reply was "But do you believe in something greater then Jesus?" Which would then mean that Jesus is not God. And if we take the definition that Christianity means "Followers of Christ" then perhaps the question would hold true. But we know it is not. To be a follower of Christ is to believe in the Bible. And the Bible holds that God the Father, God the son (Jesus Christ) and God the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) is one and the same. The Holy Trinity.

So logically one cannot follow the teachings of Christ and not believe in God.

What if we took the stand that there is no God. Then everything that is happening in this world is due to the actions of Man. Therefore Man is evil. But by what standard do we measure Evil is there is no standard to measure Good? Unless we say that Man can be both good and evil at the same time? Then why can't we be a Christian or an atheist at the same time?

So if Man cannot be measured by Good and Evil if we do not have something to define Good. And the if we ask Christianity for an quote they would say "God is Good", so you cannot deny the existence of God if you go by the saying that Man is evil or Man is good by nature. We do not have anything to measure ourselves against. The argument destroys itself.

Alright, so if one were to take the stand that there is a God and God is in charge of our lives. By that stand, one can argue that if God is divine and all powerful and has the ability to intervene in everything that God is therefore both Good and Evil.

Man to this day commit evil acts upon themselves for no reason other then the desire to do so. But God isn't both Good and Evil. Remember "God is Good". But that also cannot be. Because of the evil in this world, God as divine influence, would mean that he is evil.
So we are caught in a paradox. And defenders of the Faith will bring out at this point the "Free will of Man"; God's greatest gift to Man (well, aside from His son Jesus but lets leave that out for the sake of argument). Evil exist because of the free will of Man. So does that end the argument?

Sorry my friends, it does not. To exercise the free will of Man to do evil, one has no choice but to admit that God is the one who has given Man free will. So it comes back to Him in the end. The creator is evil. But then one can say anyone exercising the free will of Man does not believe in God and is doing so by his own will. But like i said; you cannot argue that with asking the question where did free will come from in the first place. If it came from God, then God will have some part in the evil. If it came from Man then there is no God. This would be the logical conclusion. But the problem, it renders both sides of the question to be unattainable.

I do not deny the existence of God. In fact, I am a born again Christian myself. I believe in Jesus as my savior but I do not deny I have committed evil in my life. So how can that be? That I guess is where the question came from. A question between my faith and my actions. I think that to take either extremes one would end up with all those dilemmas I mentioned above. So this is where I say what I believe.

Essentially, this really lengthy post is about Beliefs and Actions (i do not use religion because I do not believe in religion. Religion is nothing but pure evil. I prefer the term beliefs). This is my stand, this is where I live my life with (At least at this moment in time). Paraphrasing the teachings of Aristotle - the virtues (or beliefs) of ones life is a mean or balance struck between two extremes, one excessive and the other deficient. I believe in God and I want to follow everything that I am taught to (this would be me being a Christian) but I do not and there are times I will act as thought there is no God and do what my desires drive me to do (this would be me behaving like an atheist). Does this mean i have found an answer to this question?

No. It does not. The question is a paradox. There is not right or wrong answer. There is only what you believe.

A good way of saying this would be from an essay written by Gerald J. Erion & Joseph A. Zeccardi, "Her happiness justifies her life of Aristotelian virtue and proves that people can live moral lives regardless of their religion convictions."

So before the knives get sharpen and the touches are lite, let me just close with this statement I have paraphrased from the above mentioned essay, "Indeed, I am much less concerned with being a good Christian than with being a good person." After all, isn't it through our lives that people will see Christ?

Soli Deo Gloria.

The essay by Gerald J. Erion & Joseph A. Zeccardi is titled "Marge's Moral Motivation" from the book "The Simpsons and Phliosophy."

8 years on...

I just realised that today is the 8th anniversary since Columbine. And yet today in addition to mourning for those lost on that faithful day, we are also mourning those lost in recent Virginia Tech tragedy. I wondered how much have we learned in the 8 years. Sadly, I don't think we've learned anything at all. Innocent blood is still being spilled on our streets. Blood of children and young men and women who will never get a chance to live their dreams. Let not their final words to us go to waste; its time the blood stop spilling. The recent events must have brought back the pain and memories of what happened 8 years ago. I do not think any words I have will be able to ease the pain of anyone affected by these horrific and tragic event. But to every one who has loved and lost, pax vobiscum.

Sic infit...

I have been asked by many friends over the last few months to start a blog but due to my own personal desire to be as lazy as possible, I've found numerous different excuses not to do it. However, in light of certain recent events in my life, i think it was time i started.

So to begin let me just say, this blog for me is just a place for me to share my views and my opinions on things that pop randomly into my head. There will be places for serious issues, funny issues, heart breaking issues etc...

Comments from readers are always welcomed but i do have a request to make. You are more then welcome to disagree with what i say but please do it in a dignified way. This is my space to air MY views. You do not have to agree with me on anything but i ask for respect towards what i have to say. So please disagree with what i have to say, challenge what i have to say but do it to my views and not to me as a human being.

Okay! got that out of the way. Lets move on to something a little more current. i guess for anyone who has been keeping up with the news in the last 2-3 days, the one thing that's been on every one's lips has been the tragedy in the USA at Virginia Tech Uni. My heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims and to all the families of those wounded in the shooting, my prayers are with you.

I've been trying to fathom in the last few days the tragedy and sadness that one person can bring to so many. I understand the pain of the family of the shooter but no matter how hard i try, i cannot bring myself to accept or even understand the situations that push him to those actions. Simply, there is no justification in my mind for these acts of violence. Senseless violence.

Today i picked up the papers on my way into uni and saw photos of the shooter wielding different weapons taken from a video he sent to NBC , explaining his actions.
He claims he was trying to prove a point, to make a statement to the nature and the state of the world as he knew it. I don't know. to me, his actions shows that he is no different from the things he claims to hate. I know there will be people reading this that will question how i can think this way but i am sorry, i cannot bring myself to feel any sympathy for someone who admires the actions of the Columbine shooters.

I think enough young and innocent blood has been spilled in our schools. Isn't it time we learn to really listen and hear what each one of us has to say. The saddest thing of this whole situation isn't the lost potential of everyone of the victims but rather the fact that the parents of those lost will have to bury their children. Once again, my prayers and heart felt condolences go out to each and everyone of you.