Oneirism

Oneirism (n): absent-minded dreaming while awake, daydream

Oneiric (adj): Of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams

I learnt a new word today! Yay! From a review in StarMag pun. Oneiric. I think I first saw this word from Diana Wynne Jones's short story Carol Oneir's One Hundredth Dream. Thought it was a weird name. Now I know where she got it from.

Finished Pullman's The Golden Compass/ Northern Lights. The last chapter was the best EVAH. And Pullman's definition of alternate universes is just the same as D. W. Jones's. Who's copying who eh? Or is this the standard definition of AUs in fantasy?

Right, goes something like this (because I really like the concept, see) - let's say an event or occurrence is going to happen, but there are so many possibilities for it: to happen or not to happen. (No I'm not quoting Shakespeare, haven't read any of his works completely.) D. W. Jones's played around with this concept a lot in Witch Week, using the plot to blow up Parliament as the starting point. Guy Fawkes is already stationed under the Parliament building with the kegs of gunpowder, but there are so many possibilities of what could happen -

a) Guy Fawkes could have been caught (like he was in our world)
b) he could have lighted the gunpowder too early
c) he could have blown up himself after blowing up the place
d) the fuse might have failed, and the gunpowder never ignited
e) he could have escaped after blowing up Parliament
f) he might have chickened out at the last minute and escaped

So there's six possibilities that I've listed out, but since all those possibilities can't happen in the same world, they have to split into separate worlds, especially after Guy Fawkes lit the fuse. There would definitely be more than six worlds, because there are millions of possibilities, such as -

g) a cat might have messed round with the gunpowder and scared the heck out of Guy Fawkes
h) people decide that Parliament should have been blown up
i) a massive flood destroys all the gunpowder before anything could be done

Anything, right?

So these worlds continue to exist separately, and after that one incident, they move in new directions, and the people in each world have no idea of the existence of the other worlds. D. W. Jones also brings in the idea of an individual existing at the same time in different worlds due to some similar circumstances - like, say, I'm born here and in several other worlds, but I will have absolutely no idea that I have doubles.

Pullman does the same with the world-splitting idea. Very cool. And my favourite part was when Lord Asriel said this -

"Death is going to die."

Can you imagine Daniel Craig saying that line in the movie? *ooo shiver* Can't wait. And they had better include that line, or I'll be railing against the movie for months.

Went for Dhamma class today, and the teacher was scaring us with concepts and science. Quantum physics and the like. Impermanence. Emptiness - but not in the sense of emptiness that we think it is. What's smaller than electrons, protons, neutrons? Space? Matter? Energy? What are we? Matter. What is reality? Aaaaargh. What we think, then perceive, and believe to be real. (Is it necessary to have the sequence there? Oh my head.) How do we know that we aren't dreaming?

I went on overload halfway through the lesson. And it was only one hour, mind. This emptiness thing - of which all reality is made of - we can't understand, apparently. It's like asking a person who has been blind from birth whether he/she knows what is the colour red. Remember reading something like it in The Giver. The members of the community have absolutely no concept of colour, because the genetic engineers made them this way after they turned to Sameness. No colour, no books, no music. Walau. And they didn't even understand the concept of emotions, of love, because their way of life was so systematic, so planned out, that there isn't opportunity to just "go with the flow", or whatever it is. Even your own spouses and family are decided for you.

Right. Emptiness and reality. All from the Buddha. Scary concepts in themselves, and then my teacher introduced physics and my mind when kaboom. There is no "I", because it is all the illusion of the ego...aww man. *headdesk headdesk headdesk* To put it nicely, this blog is technically pointless. Not that you don't already know :)

Not preaching. Nope. But the dream-reality thing was similar to the one in Sophie's World. (Holddit - tried to look for the quote. Google came up with something about butterflies and bowling balls and sashimi. Ah.) How do we know that we're not the products of an overactive imagination eh?

Ooo scary. Imagine if all the characters in my stories came into my reality and demanded to know why I gave them such crappy characterisation and endings. I'd be done for.

Played candles with my sister this evening. We did look so cute together - simply adorable, in fact. Even my neighbour's cat - the one which looks like a mini Ginger - stopped by to stare at our fire and lanterns. And then my sis got scared and screamed it away. Typical.

Look look look! Pictures! OMG! First time EVAH!



One of my best pics this evening. Bet you that little sister in there is going to upload it to Friendster. I should leave a mark on it. Last picture of mine that she uploaded to Friendster, some kid took it. And all for a single candle only. So nice meh?



Guess who's 17 this yeeeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrr ~

Told my parents that I didn't want a birthday cake. My mum saw the 17 candles just now, and I told her that it was because I didn't have any candles for my birthday. She gave me the Look - you know that Look parents have? - and replied that I was the one who didn't want it anyway. Ah well.



Anybody else's picture but mine :D

Both my grandparents have told me, separately, that I should defer NS and go much later. Something about the irresponsible way things are managed in camps, and the sicknesses and problems the NS trainees always seem to get. I told my grandmother about what Grace said before she left for NS - that people have actually died in camps, and my grandmother's first reaction was "Choi! Tak senonoh!" You should hear her exclamations in Nyonya :P

Ooo, and another thing. I wonder what the school is teaching these days. My sister was doing her Science homework and asked what were the three R's we can do to help the environment. "Jie, respiration, reproduction and - ?"

I started laughing like an idiot.

Reproduction. Har har.

And the last one. I'm still not too old to play with fire and candles, am I? =)