Nostradamus

Looking back at my hoard of unfinished manuscripts, I found one describing the conditions in a war, one that was started by America. The USA had sent seven elite black ops soldiers into the enemy country, right into an ambush that got two killed immediately. The remaining five would be taken as POWs and the story would revolve around them trying to get out, without anyone discovering their secret. And all the while, the US government would deny their existence.

The story was dated 5th March 2002.

Sometimes, I scare myself.

Church

The Mass has never been such a solitary experience as it was this weekend. I had to go for two services, one on Saturday and one this morning, because I’m a lector. Both times I sat apart from my family. Both times I was seated in an isolated spot in the front of the church, with the altar in front of me and the rest of the congregation all around me.

Both times, it seemed as though I sat alone.

And I broke down - not totally, just overcome enough to shed a tear - both times, in the middle of the hour-long service, during the singing of the Lord’s Prayer. Only last week, the joining of hands while singing in unison was the ultimate sign of the “communion of saints” - one of the fundamental beliefs of the church. This weekend, no one moved to join hands - except for a few who were with their families. But as long as there were strangers next to you, you treated them like they had the Plague. And all for what?

My church friends are divided over this. Interestingly enough, it appears that all the guys who spoke up consider it an overreaction, while all the girls who responded believed that it was always important to err on the side of caution. The dudes felt that since people were all cramming into the pews anyway, whether you held hands or not seemed incidental, but the ladies believed that a “better safe than sorry” attitude was imperative, regardless. I’m not saying that men are happy-go-lucky creatures, or are too simple to care, but I thought it was interesting that the women are the ones who, in the spirit of sensitivity, choosing to isolate themselves as much as possible.

Over on the MINDEF forums, a similar debate raged on, between those that believed this was a deadly epidemic, and those (me inlcuded) who believed that fear and paranoia were the bigger demons here. As expected, the debate never reached a conclusion, and I hope people just agreed to disagree and leave it as that.

As a church friend mentioned in her e-mail, “It’s not as if we have any say in the matter.”

Reactions

I hear dys is reacting pretty badly to the whole SARS issue. The hazards of the job and all that. Take care of yourself, yeah?

But that’s not the reaction I’m referring to. To quote one of my friends:

“What really pisses me off, though, isn’t about SARS. it’s about how people treat it. Some people just complain complain complain about nonsense, some people just go all out paranoid (it’s not the black death for crying out loud!) and some people refuse to acknowledge its existence.”

I totally agree.

The Catholic Church in Singapore has made the following rulings:

• No receiving the host on the tongue during Communion.

• No holding hands during the reciting of The Lord’s Prayer

• No bodily contact during the Sign of Peace.

I am amazed and disgusted that it can come to this. In fact, I don’t think I’ll say any more.

Death

That’s all it’s about, really, isn’t it? Every little bugger’s just so afraid to die that everyone’s blowing this SARS situation out of proportion. School’s been suspended for over a week. Glory glory hallelujah. I think it’s ironic that at the same time, somewhere out there, the Commandos are busy executing their annual major exercise (also known as ATEC). Why is it that when the school-going girlfriend is unable to school, the NS boyfriend gets the 24/7 job? I only know of one example, but I doubt it’s the exception to the rule.

Sister and Dad tore down the house this morning, making the first few hours of my leave a literal hell. It’s bad enough that my father takes everything he hears on air as gospel truth, but when my sister isn’t allowed to go to school to pick up her textbooks just because the Health Minister “suggested” confining students, it just smacks of unfounded anxiety on my father’s part.

Pa, humans get SARS. School buildings do not.

Did I mention he also advocates the War? I would have thought someone who lived through WWII would never advocate another one ever. Guess I was wrong.

But coming back to the point: Death. That’s what it’s all about now. Death, and the inane fear of it. Yes, it’s a tragedy. Yes, it can be painful. But wake up and smell the roses. People die every day. On the road alone, the most recent report states a fatal accident occurs every 4 days.

Only two people die from a single unknown disease and everyone’s suddenly afraid for their lives.

Since [we] have flesh and blood, [Jesus] too shared in [our] humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.

Hebrews 2:14-16

Light Years

Petey wrote on 18 March 2003:

That out of the way, I must admit I’m looking forward to the replacement series Light Years. If anything, they finally got the formula for a successful Mediacorp teen series right. Heck the acting, heck the production. Cast eight to ten of the country’s hottest young adults and you’ve got a winner on your hands. Needless to say, I’ll definitely look forward to next week’s pilot.

The Present: I’m half regretting what I said. The acting was a lot better than I expected, though Caroline Cheong, who plays the main character, is ironically rather stiff in some scenes, almost as if she’s not rehearsed her role hard enough. And what’s this about casting best friends? The interaction between Kim (Cheong) and Elle is so draggy it was painful. Heck, there’s more chemistry between lovestruck Ash (played by newcomer Pravin) and Kim than between supposed boyfriend Isaac (played by a Moulmein High alumnus) and her. Go figure.

Like Spin, the drama takes place in the polytechnic, but unlike its predecessor, Light Years occurs at the start of the course, narrating Kim’s experience as she goes through her first year in poly. Like Spin, I fear, it’s going to end up as one big soap opera and that’s something I can do without. However, I must admit that these three:

are more than enough to keep me watching the series. You go, girls.

Oscar Fever

Before the Academy Awards, an Oscar was the green-furred Grouch on Sesame Street. And today, that’s what I’m going to do, grouch.

Okay, for the record, the only movie I watched that even came close to the Oscars was Gangs of New York. Naturally, I was hoping it would at least go back with the awards for Cinematography and Best Song. Well it didn’t. Instead, Road to Perdition won Cinematography and Eminem (of all people) bagged the Award for Original Song. Why? Wasn’t it bad enough that the competition for Directing and Best Actor was so close? Couldn’t the people behind the Awards at least allow Gangs to go back with a single consolation?

And while we’re at it, how does a musical beat the likeness of Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Achievement in Directing award winner The Pianist? Wait, let’s rephrase that… how does a movie glorifying the hideousness of the glamourous lifestyle trump a movie portraying the silent triumph of dreams over disaster? No doubt, Chicago deserved the awards in Art Direction, Sound and Costume Design as well as the Best Supporting Actress for the very talented Catherine Zeta-Jones, but to win Best Picture when up against the likes of The Pianist just smacks of pushing the envelope (in the literal sense of bribery).

P.S. Again, I reiterate that I’ve not watched either Chicago or The Pianist. And I’m still disgusted that Gangs of New York went home empty-handed.

Age of Mythology

I’m a computer game addict, especially if the setting of the game appealed to me already. Age of Mythology is an example of a game that appeals to me mainly because it’s based on three ancient pantheons, and not because it’s an RTS game.

The gameplay follows that of its predecessors in the Age of Empires series but the addition of a new breed of units called “Myth Units” complement and amend the typical RTS style of gameplay. Furthermore, since every unit is designed to counter a certain type of unit, micro-management is necessary to ensure victory.

To provide an added bonus to an engaging game, is the campaign mode, which features the very perilous adventure of Atlantean hero Arkantos. In the story, Arkantos is destined to opposed the villanous son of Poseidon, the cyclops Gargerensis. The one-eyed monster seeks to gain immortality by freeing the damned Titan Kronos from Tartarus, the Underworld. Naturally as this would cause unprecedented disaster, Arkantos, aided by heroes such as Odyseuss, Chiron and Ajax battle through one mission after another, in a bid to stay one step ahead of Gargerensis. This brings him from Greece, to Egypt before heading north to Scandinavia.

Nothing would please me more than to complete that campaign this weekend. When I last left off, Loki had led Arkantos into a wild-goose chase, allowing Gargerensis to attack Atlantis. The desire to rescue Atlantis is killing me.