Sunday, March 27, 2011

listen.

 Unlike any other creature on this planet, human beings can learn and understand without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places. Of course this is a power like my brand of fictional magic that is morally neutral, one might use such an ability to manipulate or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise, and many choose not to exercise that imaginations at all. They choose to comfortably remain within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to be born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know. I may be tempted to envy people who live that way, except that I do not think that they do not have fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental acrophobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters for without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it through our own apathy.
-J.K. Rowling



I've got a purpose in life and that is to inspire others to live. Truly live, that is, to do the things that make them feel alive and do them well.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Sunday, March 20, 2011

parade of colours


I have never celebrated nor really seen how St Patrick's Day was celebrated before. And I was also pretty photo-deprived. So when I was told that there was a parade on St Patrick's Day in the city centre, I decided to bring Ever and go. 


Me and two friends of mine set off around an hour before noon, after having breakfast together -pancakes, muffins and cookies. :) 
I had asked for the sun the day before, and thankfully enough, it met us, petting us on our backs and heads with its gentle warm hand. We beamed back at it and praised its beauty. It was so happy that it accompanied us all day long.


We walked to the city centre, giving me a chance to capture some of the atmosphere along the way. I was limited by when and what I could stop at, as I had to catch up with my friends -and I also didn't want them to have to wait for me and be late.
The walk, which had once seemed to be pretty long to me, was a blur of almost familiarity. It was harder to try and take in every little thing with the same eyes of naivety as I had before. I could no longer stare as long as I once had at a fancy building or into the clear glass of a shop at its wares. Maybe one day, I'll be able to make stories of them in my head again. We must never let things get boring.


And we reached the city hall. There was already a crowd there, and more people like us streaming in.

There were people with green hats, green clothes, green headbands, green scarves, green flags and even,  green hair. There was a band practicing in the yard of the city hall, as well as some other performers. 
But now, I guess that I'll hand it over to the photos to do the talking.



































A sweet little girl looking like an Irish princess








The people kept moving and squeezing forward, it was sometimes hard for me to capture the paraders. We were already off the pavement, but sometimes, I was hesitant to go right to the very front -even though I had a camera- in case I blocked the little kids. 

Then a monster came. 


It talked to us. Well, it talked more to the little kids, who didn't quite know whether to be frightened or amused. They answered its questions -which were said it a deep, hollow monster voice-, all while backing towards me. A braver girl tugged on the monster's coat, which made the monster go, 'WHO WAS THAT?' and the girl jumped and squeezed to the back. The monster then demanded 'WHO DID THAT?' again to the poor terrified children at the front, and a few boys pointed to the girl. 

The monster turned and reached its head out to the back. The girl smiled meekly at him.

And the monster swallowed the girl up. 


(LOL!!!!! Ok, I made the last sentence up. ;D)


It was a small and rather short parade, and before we knew it, it had ended. People began pouring back out onto the streets, little children leaving with their families, babies in strollers being rolled away and some teenagers joking around and taking photos with their compacts.

Me?
 I went, 'What?!! That's it?'



LOL!
Hope that everyone had a great St Patrick's Day! :)


*Special thanks to my friend who lent me her photoshop. :)