Another Bleeding Cold





Oh, sod it, I won't be going to another Hot Yoga class for awhile. This is, like, the third cold I've had in just as many months and I reckon it's cos the hot room is, in fact, a hot bed for nasty germs (thanks to inconsiderate, germs-carrying students). I thought the whole point of practising yoga is to be healthy, not sick. Anyway, here are some simple poses that I enjoy getting into (before infection) ... am not sure about the alignment but they look kinda correct ...

Triangle Pose




Eagle Pose  Credit: Guru Eric

 











Harry Potter ...

who has never been the real star. The REAL STARS are, of course, all the grown up wizards especially in the movie series. In the final instalment, Alan Rickam (who plays Snape) alone is worth the ticket price. His last scene is devastatingly tragic and heart-breaking *sob* Also to look out for are Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent and Helena Bonham-Carter (playing Hermione playing Bellatrix Lestrange). Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant.

Rickman with Smith

The Tree of Life

Don't you just love it when you walk into a movie with zero expectation? When I walked into The Tree of Life, I had no idea what the movie was about ~ at all. I only knew that it won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes and that was about it. So you can imagine how (pleasantly) surprised I was when I realise this is not really a movie as we normally see it. "Starring" Brad Pitt and Sean Penn (who just gets better and better as he ages), this is actually a Full On arthouse flick on a general (mainstream) release ... it's basically a poetic rendition of what Life is about. A member of the family dies. What does death mean within the religous, emotional, social and even political context? What is life all about? The movie offers both a scientific and religious response to that, which is interesting. We were even treated with scenes of the beginning of the Universe and the dinosaur age. However, there is a sort of narrative to this drama and that I found a little all over the place. While I realise it has a non-linear narrative, it was somehow presented as a drama-with-a plot, which is as confusing as it is annoying. People did walk out from the screening; perhaps they were expecting to see Pitt/Penn act ... well, Penn certainly just drifted through the whole thing, albeit somewhat stylishly. I thoroughly enjoyed the visuals (cinematography?) of The Tree of Life -- it was like watching an unusually long artsy video (made for art biennials) but projected onto the big screen.

Off to see Transformers 3 tomorrow (got dragged along by my dad, of all people) and then Harry Potter VII (Part 2) on Tuesday. Can't wait!!!

  

A Pinched Nerve

OUCH! I think I've finally located the source of that pain in my neck (see last post): a pinched nerve close to my left shoulder blade. I'm quite certain of that because whenever I turn my neck in a certain way, I get this numbness running dowm my arm. Not good. Worse, it means I may have to give up PSP-ing (just like some people have to give up eating peanuts)... and I shall NEVER find out what Aya Brea wears underneath her torn combat suit !! !! !!

Have to say yoga DOES help alleviate the pain a little ... but, tonight, I was distracted by other pains of other kinds when my instructor first tried to get me into a split then, in the evening's second class, pushed my hips down towards the floor when I was in that hip-opening frog pose ... I thought my pelvis was going to split into halves. I walked out of the class feeling [like Mr] Fantastic ...

A Pain in the Neck

Some people aren't good at sports, others are terrible in the kitchen ... I'm just crap at PSP games. Despite my addiction to the Dissidia titles and, most recently, The 3rd Birthday (see earlier posts) I now realise my brain is simply NOT wired to handling controls (it surprises me even today I have a driver's licence). My fingers are not fast enough and reflex is too slow. In the crucial moment of (virtual) life and death, I plunge into confusion and die. I mean, do not be deceived by the handheld's simple layout. 

Though on the face of it, there are only, like, 11 buttons to press/move -- 4 directional keys on the left + scroll; the iconic triangle, circle, cross and square buttons on the right; plus the L and R triggers at the top -- but to execute a combo move, you'd need to hit a combination of those bits and bobs (hence "combo") to set off an action (shoot) ... so do the maths, there can be some 121 combinations; and if you have several game titles on the go at the same time, it can be very, very, very confusing.

So playing the PSP can be an extremely (IN)TENSE experience for me. The other afternoon, I was just seconds away from killing a boss in The 3rd Birthday but I was also down on life points so my brain was screaming I MUST, MUST, MUST KILL THE BASTARD NOW OR I'LL HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS FRIGGING NIGHTMARE AGAIN ... WHY DOESN'T IT DIE?!?!? Well, I did kill it (thank god) but not without a price: my left index finger went numb after pressing it too hard on the left trigger! Worse, during a Yin class that eveing, I couldn't turn my neck to the left without my left shoulder pulling up because of the pain in my neck that stretches all the way down to my upper back(!!!)

I have a PSP injury! I think because I was SO intense/nervous/highly-strung/other synonyms when playing the game I torn my neck muscle, or something.

So now I am just resting. I still have TWO more chapters to go in The 3rd Birthday but I won't be playing them very soon (I'll just have to watch the walkthorough on YouTube in the meantime to quench the urge). And guess what, I am still on the EASY mode. I cannot imagine what the NORMAL (let alone the GENOCIDE) mode is going to be like. And I'm not going to find out ... unless I want a heart attack.