College professor Abe Lucas was experiencing an existential crisis. He was depressed, saw no meaning in life, and drank excessively. One day, he overheard a conversation: a woman said she would lose her children in a custody battle because of an unethical judge in family court. Troubled by the injustice, Lucas decided to do the woman a favour by killing the judge. As he began planning for this murder, he got excited about this plan, and pretty much everything else in life. He rediscovered his long-lost motivation. (Irrational Man, movie, 2015)
I saw this movie a few years ago. The plot resurfaced in my thoughts recently. What’s interesting is that the man found new meanings in life from a random cause. What he did was nothing personal. He just perceived it as a selfless good deed. I don’t have a plan to commit murder, but I’d love to see what my motivation would be if I become excited about life and work again all of a sudden.
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I’ve finally got an SSL certificate for this site. No more browser BS saying this site is not secure. Yay!
It’s been another long time since I blogged. A lot have happened since then. Before I start, I have to apologize there wasn’t any entry in May. It has never happened in the history of this site that there’s a month without a single entry. Yes, I now rely less on this site to express my thoughts. Or more precisely, I now express less of my thoughts. No matter what, when I do, this site serves as my favourite platform.
The most important to all Apple users (not fans) during this period is WWDC. Well, I don’t usually comment on tech. I just enjoy good tech. And Apple, its iOS 7 and the Mac, just happen to be the kind of good tech that I enjoy.
Some new adopters usually find it difficult to adapt to Apple’s tech. The most frequently complained “problem”: it’s difficult to transfer files into an iPad. That’s not a problem of Apple; that’s a problem of dumb people, the same people who attribute most computer problems to viruses, while in fact those problems were creates by themselves. If you don’t play by Apple’s rules, and take advantage of the entire ecosystem, you will never appreciate the simplicity of Apple’s technology.
Steve Jobs used to say that Apple equals to “the intersection of technology and liberal arts”. Only when you make use of the whole ecosystem – not only hardware like the Mac and iPad, but also softwares inside, and seamless services like iCloud – will you truly benefit from the hardwares which are beautifully crafted. If you choose not to do that, maybe you choose resort to other compromised devices.
To me, WWDC 2013 is the most important WWDC of all. We’ve seen a whole new Apple, one that has transcended Steve Jobs’ vision. Just look at the new iOS 7. The look and feel is now totally different, and no one can’t say “Apple doesn’t innovate anymore” anymore. You may argue that it’s just the skin that’s different, but the functions remain the same. Well, when you change both the form and function together, you’ll create disasters like Windows Vista. For a smooth transition, you can only change one thing at a time, pretty much like when the iPod went colour.
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There’s a film I’ve watched recently – not only once, but twice – that I really love: Populaire. I’m not going into the details of this movie, because 1) I’m not a movie reviewer, 2) you need to experience art by yourself. My advice: if you want to live like a fxxking middle class, go watch it.
It’s been another week (or more). Life continues to be repetitive. Even as spices are added to my life, they come in double. Well, I have a half-day off today, and I watched two movies I’ve longed for — Life of Pi and Cold War [寒戰]. Both are good movies, and both are worth watching.
I remember it’s not until recent years that I started to enjoy going to the cinema alone. It was approximately in the run up to the Year 4 Osca, at a time I was more than desolate, that I suddenly needed something to distract me from books. I went to IFC for quite a number of movies at that time. It was also during that period that I started enjoying going to random places to have dinner. I had been luxurious enough to take a taxi to IFC and buy takeaway from Sen-ryo/Jade and take a taxi back to hall, ordinary enough to eat at Fusion/Pesto, or down-to-earth enough to have Pizza Hut takeaway. Those were perhaps lonely days, but they surely were more variable than nowadays. Perhaps it’s time to move out and live alone?
