1 Litre of Tears

By all appearances, I seem to be a very contented person. Cheerful, non-commital, optimistic, not bogged down by trivial worries.

Maybe its because I'm born a normal, healthy human being. Not autistic, blind, handicapped in any way, nor was I born into a broken family, with abusive parents, nor did I mix with the wrong company, get addicted to crack, nor am I sick with cancer or anything like that. (No wood-touching preceded or followed the writing of this paragraph)

If you're ever thinking of doing drugs, don't. It's not cool. It'll ruin you physically, mentally, socially, financially, emotionally, can't come up with any other relevant '-lly' words... Zzz. Anyway, to quote a friend, If ignorance is bliss, stupidity is ecstasy. If you don't get it, forget it.

Or maybe its because I'm tall, dark and handsome (riiight...). This is one cliche that needs a dose of the 20th Century. Tall, handsome and intelligent is more like it. Okay, so I'm not tall, dark and handsome. For the benefit of those who have not seen me in person: I'm sun-deprived (think Gollum from LOTR), an average height for a man (think Danny Devito), blessed with a mix of good-looks plus rough-on-the-edge charm (think Brat Pidd, George Looney & David Beg-for-ham (without the money)), a smooth-talker (think Piglet & Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh), and to top it all off - reasonably smart (think Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. Well, not the part where he goes insane).

Sigh. All this shameless self-promotion. I guess what I want to get across is - I don't have a problem with the way I look. You probably have heard this before, but its so true: There are no ugly people, only lazy ones. I cut my own hair to save money and pass it off as the unkempt grunge look. Frankly, and I know it, it looks TERRIBLE. In actual fact, this is my little experiment, and it has really opened my eyes. Sieving out the real friends who give constructive criticism and those who try to suck up to me. They come right out and say, "It's awful. Here's 10 bucks, go to the barber, idiot!" The others say, "It looks FANTASTIC, you look SO GOOD, I can't believe you actually cut your own hair!" And when I offer to cut their hair, they laugh nervously and decline. Just kidding. Btw, if you try and prove yourself to be a real friend by commenting on how bad my haircut is the nextime we meet, it won't work. I've foreseen that too ;P

Why I brought up the topic of looks is because you can't be genuinely happy and carefree if you spend your whole life being miserable about who you are or what you look like. Its becoming more apparent nowadays. People are becoming, for better or for worse, more self-conscious. At this point, I'd break off and talk about ("Good Heavens, kevin, you're doing it again! Shut up already") something like plastic surgery, but that's another topic for another day. No one's going to notice that your left eye is larger than your right one, or that mole on your backside, or the 1 millimetre of fat you 'accumulated' around your waist from giving in to that sinful cookie-dough triple-scoop ice cream cone from Ben & Jerry's (speaking of which, I just recalled a certain someone who owes me a treat at Ben & Jerry's).

Oh wow, here I go blabbering on again.

"Kevin, you mofo, what has the title '1 Litre of Tears' got anything to do with all this jibberish? And crying? Are you going all sissy on us?!"

Don't worry, I'm not becoming an Em0 Nem0 (think a certain Singapore Idol contestant). No eyeshadow, oily long hair hiding my face from the world, no slit-wrists and scarred forearms.

If you haven't heard already, and its quite well-known, hmm... 1 Litre of Tears is a japanese drama inspired by the real-life (not reel-life) story of a teenage japanese girl inflicted with the dreadful spinocerebellar degeneration disease. This is a real disease, not a fictional one, mind you. 14 episodes long (short, I mean), this heart-wrenching series chronicles the tenacity of a 15 year-old japanese teen as she overcomes increasingly trying situations and encounters life's cruelty as the unforgiving disease slowly but surely incapicitates her. The struggle her family goes through, the predicament she's in, her sadness and inner fortitude, will move you, to tears, even, so long as you're not a block of ice.

If you are interested to know more, you can read more on my brother and his classmates' project blog:
http://www.spinocerebellardegeneration.blogspot.com/

Okay, that's all for my brief, amateurish review. Now watch it. It'll change your perspective.

No, I'm not becoming a perpetual optimist, crazy looney happy-go-lucky wacky person (just yet).

Haha. I's already the way I am before ever hearing about or watching that drama. It just served to reinforce my perspective and bring the important things in life to my attention.

I mean, there's so much to be appreciative about. Each morning you wake up to is a gift from God. The warm sunlight (even though I complain about the heat all the time), the refreshing rain (I only dislike it because of the hole in my right sneaker), the fresh(ly polluted) air. See! There's innumerable things to be thankful for - we're just too busy to pay attention. A new day with new experiences, albeit a mundane, boring job (haha). Even if it were so, you can still meet people from all walks of life, interact and learn many new things everyday. It's in how you interact with people.

On a side note, and I'm sure you'd like to hear this, even dispute it; It is my theory that sporting floppy hair makes me friendlier, as opposed to a slick hairdo, or cool guy-ish short-cropped hair. This applies to the non-narcissists only (narcissists will be affected with any kind of hairdo, with or without hair) - unconsciously you are putting effort into or concentrating on looking and acting cool. It's a psychological thing, I'm sure. More approachable, more comfortable with interacting and being myself, really. Logical?

And that's that. Until I become 101% comfortable in my own skin, a cool hair-do won't do for me, no pun intended. I'm already conscious of being conscious about the hairstyle, which is bad enough, thank you.

Yes, yes, I know I haven't been writing many side-splitting articles for a while, but that's because life is short and we should be spending every minute out there in the real world, talking to real, live, people. Not blogging for some imaginary audience to read, laugh and share your joys. Or the few friends who do bother to catch up on your sad, penned life. If they really care about you, they should be asking to meet up, have dinner once in a while, finding out and showing you care, in-the-flesh! (Apologies. Wrong context. It should be "in person")

Sure, I'll lose viewership, but I must be true to myself. Most audiences prefer drama and kpo-ing about other's lives to humour. But, because the thing I love most is hearing people laugh, I'll get back to that sometime.

I promise.

Cross my fingers, hope to die.