The Way to True Love

Writer Mandy Len Catron refers to a study about love conducted by psychologist Arthur Aron in her Modern Love essay, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This”, that there are 36 questions that one can ask a stranger to determine if the stranger will be one's true love. 

This Vice video features a bunch of volunteers, trying these questions out. Of course, not everyone meets their perfect stranger that easily, but I think it quite a fun thing to do, and a way to get intimate and open up to people as well as oneself. 

There is, of course, no direct train to Destination True Love; but I think these questions is an express train to all sorts of things one usually get to understand about the other person as they go deeper into a relationship. 

Though, isn't the learning and slow unravelling of oneself to another soul, or vice versa, that make love interesting, that make love complex as it is, that make finding true love all the more meaningful and precious? 

Well, who cares? No harm trying it out, just for fun.

Plug & Play

PLUG & PLAY from Michael Frei on Vimeo.

In the spirit of Valentines' day, here is Plug & Play, a somewhat dark, slightly comedic and satirical commentary on love. This experimental short by Michael Frei can be described as quirky, eerie, uncomforting (at times), confusing and somehow at the end, relatable and real. What this 6-minute short film explores and brings to the table about human relationships and love are modern and universal. Through these humaniod figures and the trippy journey, viewers go through the modern process of finding love.

The scene where the two humaniods with the most distant voices talk to each other is as realistic an interpretation of modern love as it gets. 

'I love you.'

'I don't think I love you.'

'Are you sure?'

'No.'

'I think you love me.'

'I don't love you enough.'

'I think I don't love you enough either. But I know I love you.'

'I'm not sure, you're too slow for me.'

'You are too busy, but I love you. Do you want to hug me.'

'Yes I do. But it might be wrong.'

'I love you.'

'I don't think you love me.'

'I know I love you.'

'...'

'Are you waiting for me to say something?'

'I can't leave.'

'Maybe I will miss you when I leave you.'

'It hurts. It hurts.'

'I'm leaving.'

From looking at the wrong persons, to rejections, to getting hurt, to changing yourself to fit others, to connecting with the right one, then others joining in the party until it's all a mess and your heart's a broken mess. The divine fingers clicks at the buttons, torn and unable to make any right decisions. And you end up losing yourself chasing after the wrong person and fighting within yourself between 'yeses' and 'nos'. This short is the summary of modern love. 

P.S. They have also made an interactive app which is quite interesting. (I wouldn't say fun, but interesting.) Players get to control and be as loving or cruel or uninterested or confused as you wish to be and see where the journey takes you. 

Talks on Ancient Remedies - Poo Wine

I get annoyed every time someone makes fun of ancient asian herbal medicines or medical treatments, such as acupuncture and fire cupping. I have personally seen them work on my family members and have tried some of them myself. These ancient wisdom of my ancestors have been working and functioning long before the western science scene has remotely developed. And I can't stand it when people make jokes and think that what my ancestors developed was unscientific, was 'monkey magic', yes indeed, someone told me right in my face. For one, it's very rude of them to say that, and two, they haven't even tried it so how could they judge.

I wouldn't deny the medical functions of this age-old recipe of the Korean Poo Wine, I couldn't because I haven't tried, or known anyone who had tried it, personally. But what I can agree is that the idea of poo wine definitely grossed me out. I would very much have acted like the reporter here if I were to have drank it, I mean, it's poo we are talking about here.