Monday, June 22nd 2009

He was such a skinny little thing. I can't get over the tramp having such good manners! It's very appealing.

Sab gave me a set of Charlie Chaplin DVDs, comprising 4 films, 3 of which I've already watched. (Don't worry, Sab, I'll watch them again and again!) The one I haven't watched is "Limelight".
Tonight, I watched "The Great Dictator" a second time. The first time I watched it, which was weeks ago, I disliked it so much that I returned it the next day. It was late and I was tired and grumpy, so I thought it was too political, like all the other political bullshit in the world. Tonight, however, I watched it while having my dinner, and I saw that it isn't too bad at all. Not many people die in the movie, and his portrayal of Hitler is more comical than hateful.

Mom finally found & bought me some overalls, my old ones were getting too tight. This one's very comfortable ($15!), but she had to alter the length of the trousers because they were too long. Oh, well. That's what I get for being short. It's fine being short in Asia, though. I shall have to carry a ladder with me when (not if!) I go abroad to stay and study.

Some research online lead me to news that Charlie Chaplin came to Singapore! Too bad I wasn't alive back then, but he stayed at Raffles Hotel in 1933! Gah! By then, he was 44 and totally rich, but that's beside the point.

I did some research online about "PhD", "masters" and "medical school". "Masters" takes 2 years of post-graduate studies, "PhD" takes 4-6 years of post-graduate studies (depending on whether you sat for "masters"), and graduating from medical school certifies you a doctor and gives you the ability to practise medicine. "Masters" and "PhD" are more for the research field.
I think a PhD is like a badge of mental perseverance. Years of having to endure and do well in the highest levels of a certain chosen field. That's why people think a PhD is so great.

A lot of my heroes didn't finish school, and most of them were in the arts scene. Charlie Chaplin wanted to be a professional classical composer, he practised the violin for hours everyday, locked in his room. He couldn't read a note of music. Yet, he became an actor, the father of comedy.
Elvis Presley wanted a bicycle or rifle for his 11th birthday, but instead, got a guitar. That's all his parents could afford to get him. Years later, he played the guitar for the world to hear.

My Dad thinks it's strange that I should idolise dead people. He lived through a time when they were all alive, but never gave them a second glance. He's the one who's strange. When I was young, I used to wonder why these few people were such a big deal. Elvis's face was everywhere, everyone spoke of the classic Charlie Chaplin, and Jamaican flags were hung here and there with Bob Marley's face grinning from them. Now I know why they're so great.
My heroes weren't born into wealth, they knew poverty. They built themselves a future out of scraps, they remembered what it was like to be hungry, to not be able to afford what they wanted and needed. They grew up to be the greatest people who ever lived!

My life is too boring. Nothing much seems to be happening nowdays, just a routine of studying, having meals and sleeping. I throw in voice lessons and exercise and a bit of television, but that's it.
Where's the action?!
I wish I could live like Joe Dirt or Charlie Bucket (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), feeling so happy to find money in the streets, planning what food to buy, down to the very last cent, having to brave danger and the cold, embracing adventure and going where my heart and feet take me.

Now that I think about it, it's not such a wonder that my heroes were poor once.