A Better Title

So you want to know my plans for Valentine’s Day? Glad that you asked. Read more to find out…

In the morning I’ll wake up and have my breakfast. That’s assuming I can wake up early enough. Then I’ll take my medicine, one pill of antibiotics, and one of painkiller. Then I’ll start up my computer and either practice my flying skills at Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight, or kill some generals at Command And Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour.

In the afternoon I’ll go to the dentist to have a mini operation; the one I mentioned earlier was postponed as I was down with flu then. My wisdom teeth are partly covered with my gum, and hence the gum has to be removed. Moreover, according to the dentist, one of the teeth already has a hole on it, so this has to be fixed as well.

In the night I’ll go online and wish my online friends a Happy Valentine’s Day.

And that’s about it.

I notice that there are a lot of things related to love around us at the moment. Just take a look at the newspapers, television or even the Internet! There are lot of advertisements out there in the newspapers which say something like “Celebrate Valentine’s Day with UMAX together with your loved one”, together with an array of products at a discounted rate. Indonesian teenager tabloid Fantasi has the latest issue decorated in amorous colours, and the articles are mostly about Valentine’s Day, most of which I skipped.

In the TV, television companies and production houses seem to be addicted to TV series about teenagers in the SMU (Sekolah Menengah Umum, literally Public Middle School, an equivalent to high schools), with love as their main theme. Examples include Kisah Kasih di Sekolah (Love Story in School, a series with the lead called Kasih, so the title can also mean “Kasih’s Story in School”), Kisah Sedih di Hari Minggu (Sad Story on Sunday, a series which I mentioned earlier. Apparently it’s shown every weekday instead of every Tuesday. I could still be wrong though…) and another SMU student story, the title of which has slipped my mind this time.

On the Internet, I receive subscribed mailing lists which almost always reminds the readers that this Saturday is Valentine’s Day, invite the readers to go to some mall to shop during Valentine’s Day to receive huge discounts, or simply provide links to websites which are, again, related to love.

To quote from a Straits Times Forum reader last year, instead of getting lovesick, I got sick of love. The sheer amount of commercialisation of Valentine’s Day is slightly too much that sometimes we got lost in the commercialisation and celebration itself, and hence the true meaning of love is lost.

A recent instant messaging with a friend had this line being said:

We’re barely past the December holidays, but the deluge of Valentine’s Day commercialism has already descended upon us. It’s a bit much; even for people in existing relationships. And for those who aren’t, it’s easy to feel blue when everything we see is red.

He got the quote from MSN Today, a feature of MSN Messenger which I’ve disabled, and I agree with it. It’s just too much.

Let me end with a poem called Romance by The Seaside, written by Zhang Enyu. The graphics was done by me for Spectra when I was still in ACJC. Oh yeah, a little advertisement here: Spectra Issue 4 is out! Go check it out at http://www.acjc.edu.sg/spectra/. The presentation video can be found at Rui Ping’s Website, under the section called Download, which is in Materials. If you’re confused, just click this link for direct download.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2004 at 12:06 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.