Mood: *sigh*
Currently listening to: Undenied - Portishead

Spent most of the day at home attempting to study and...

Actually, on second thought, let's not go there. Other things... yes, thats it... lets talk about other things. :(

Met up with Sneexe in the afternoon at Bangsar Shopping Centre for the IxBe 'artistic juggling' performance. Hehehe, thanks for pretending to be 'Mrs Pincon' for a day! ;)

Well, Sneexe has *ahem* kindly 'offered' to write the review for this one so all i'll say is that between the untold numbers of blonde french children running rampant throughout the performance (but they sound sooooo cute when they speak in French! Awwww...) and the poor performer 'dropping the ball', literally, on numerous occasions, it was a pretty lukewarm show all in all. Sure, there were some moments where his amazing dexterity shone through, but this was somewhat let down by the overly drawn out moments when the juggling just wasn't, well, interesting. And my God, wasn't the poor man perspiring profusely throughout his show! ;p

Meh, my two cents...

On a side note, i think it was decidedly wrong for those parents to bring all those French children to the show since it wasn't exactly promoted on its website as a 'Bobo the clown' special. That, and think of the rest of the audience who had to put up with the incessant talking, laughing and screaming which was performed by the bored children. Meh, parents will never learn i guess. That, and it IS Mothers Day in France today...

Caught up on the news and, yeah, Reagan died today. Sure he was a little scarily evangelistic in outlook, and not to mention had a government that was put through the Iran-Contra scandal at the time - a conspiracy that has been conclusively proven true (scary eh?), but the man had PERSONALITY! ;)

Heh, read this for an interesting take on his two terms...

That, and i appreciate the gesture that only in a truly democratic country can an actor become its head of state. Which is a little scary in and of itself come to think of it... ;)

Well, regardless, rest in peace 'Gipper'.

On a side note which is completely unrelated to the topic of Mr. Reagan, today is also the anniversary of the Operation Bluestar Indian Army attack on the Sikh Golden Temple 20 years ago. "Say what?", you ask? Well, long story short, the Sikhs at that time were trying for an independent state (Khalistan) and 250 armed rebels ensconed themselves in Sikhdom's holiest site. Without going into too much detail on what happened next (you can pretty much guess), the result brought both international condemnation AND resulted in the Indian Prime Minister getting assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Which, you'll have to admit, was the stupidest of security flaws at the time *rolls eyes*...

So what's my point here? Well, barely a week ago it was unveiled to the world that India's new Prime Minister is a Sikh, the first to ever hold the position. In contrast to 20 years ago, i think thats what we should call progress (mixed perhaps with a hint of delicious irony however)... ;)

Watched some of the ceremonies of the D-Day celebrations today, including President Bush's speech. Erm, did anybody else notice one of the flag bearing soldiers behind the podium fainting while Bush was talking? Hehehe, poor guy! Still, you've got to credit the two officers who very discreetly caught him (and the flag) just as he was wilting. Hrmm... i think he was a Navy brat as well. ;)

On a more sobering note i feel incredibly sad that the last of these men and women who fought and died during that era are inevitably succumbing to death. For who will remind us, first hand, of those momentous events? There is truly something profound in speaking, touching and reliving those days through the eyes of a living link to the past which makes it all seem more truthful and not as far away as one would imagine. I think we should remember that it was only a lifetime ago that these events occured. Put this into perspective, my grandfather's grandfather lived in the Napoleonic era in an age of Waterloo and Borodino. Put in that perspective, how close history seems...

I wonder how those soldiers felt. Not just those who stormed ashore on Normandy, but all of those who lived to see the end of a period of great and terrible change in the world. Did they vow that such a thing should never come to pass again? Did they look upon the world with a renewed optimism, one of change for the better? For all? Did they vow to make that change?

Well, we all know what followed.

I look at the world through the eyes of a historian, and i only see such events repeating in ever larger, different and more terrible scales than could ever be envisaged by those who stood at those crossroads of history. And i wonder, how will it all end?

Whatever that end, i hope that our bloody history was worth it.

*sigh* Back to reality... :(

And yes, i promise there won't be any more history based rants after this one - you ungrateful, uneducated sods! ;p