Label Me Gone

I remember talking to Clive's dad at the Leaver's Dinner a couple of months back about vegetarianism. He said that he was half-vegetarian, which I didn't completely understand, but hey, I don't fully understand my vegetarianism myself. The thing that he said that struck me most was that why he became a vegetarian was not to make a difference to the world, but out of his own conscience. Which is true. It's what some people don't understand. That's why I'm a vegetarian.

I guess ultimately a lot of the little things we as individuals do to save the world won't make a significant change, but at least our conscience is cleared. At least we've done our part. If the other six billion are doing the same, only then will things change.

For me, vegetarianism isn't a choice. At least now it isn't. It's a way of life.

I'm quite flexible, really. By flexible I don't mean I would eat meat if the occasion calls for it. What I mean is that if I'm eating a Mee Goreng and there's a piece of chicken, I would just push the chicken to the side and eat the rest of the Mee Goreng. I'm not the type who won't even touch anything that touched a chicken wing.

I guess the label vegetarian is a bit misleading sometimes. There are people who think they know vegetarianism better than me, and in definition they do, but trying to put me into a label is very annoying to me. "Are you lacto-, vegan etc?"

So I fit into a label now? Thanks.

Labels are stupid when put on people.

Be it race, religion, nationality or even the food you eat or don't eat.

Labels destroy individuality. Individuality needs no labels. Because it's individual. Labels, stereotypes. One person said that stereotyping is still used because it is right. What the fuck are you on about? Stereotyping kills the concept of diversity. It belittles the million little things that make a person an individual. Being chinese doesn't make you a human calculator. Being malay doesn't make you late for every appointment. And being english certainly doesn't make you crave for tea all the time.

I'm Malay, I'm very, very punctual. Well, technically Malay isn't even a race, but that is besides the point.

I've been trying to educate myself in films right now. I've made myself watch a few classics, films people say are the all-time greats.

Firstly, 2001: A Space Odyssey. This took a lot of patience in me. I've seen the other Stanley Kubrick masterpiece, A Clockwork Orange, which I thought was brilliant. I have not seen The Shining. Back to 2001, the film I mean. This is more of a visual and musical experience than a story. And yes, it is beautiful, even by today's standard. I can see how it influenced other sci-fiction films like Sunshine. It's that shrinking feeling that you feel when you realise you're just an insignificant dot in this vast universe. But as I said, this film tested my patience. For one, it took five minutes before there was actually anything on the screen except the music. The scenes are slow and tedious. But the spaceship, wow. And what about the ending. The word 'Spaced' must have been invented from this film.

Then I saw the original Batman with Jack Nicholson as The Joker. I've mentioned this somewhere in my previous entries.

I've also seen Lolita, Monster's Ball, The Devil's Advocate, We Own The Night, Pulp Fiction, Monty Python: The Life Of Brian, Flags Of Our Fathers, The History Boys, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Italian Job (the original) and August Rush. Not just them, of course. There are films I've seen in the summer holidays that come highly recommended by me.

But there's also been some shit ones. Like...

Resident Evil Extinction, 10,000 BC... Well, thank jeez that I saw more goods than these two shockers.

Signing out

Over and out