CINEMA was only invented in 1895, so that’s only 125 years ago.
If I traveled back in time 150 years ago at my current knowledge, I think I would have pursued a career in Medicine.
Some parts of me still wants to be a physician, a healer of diseases.
But a greater part of me just wants to be an artist.
I like writing most among the arts, and I’m glad I can afford to be living the life of a writer.
But I also understand the power of film in the early part of this tech-savvy millennium, so I want to be a part of it.
But a century and a half ago, I think being a physician would have been awesome.
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Grigori Rasputin is the most infamous person that I admire.
Only because of his considerable influence in late imperial Russia.
I don’t know much about this self-proclaimed mystic except from the literatures I have read.
But I think I really admire people who can influence a great number of people, or the very powerful few who control the many others.
I don’t like Hitler, or Marcos, or Mussolini, but I have to admire the hypnotic spell they have on their people.
It’s not what they have done that I admire, but their charisma to win others.
Actually, I don’t even admire that.
Maybe tolerate is a better word.
It’s not like I idolize their wicked charisma.
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I’m actually nervous about first meetings.
I’m nervously excited about meeting people I like to impress.
Like dates, like interviewers.
(Yes, even student interviewers!)
Most people assume I’m not shy about anything.
But I am. I really am.
In social media, and on dating sites/apps, I have no problem saying the first hello.
But then, I get nervous when I get a response.
I get nervous when I’m asked out for a date.
Or, if I ask for a date, I get nervous when they say yes.
When I’m too nervous to do anything, I just tell myself, “No guts, no glory.”
I have learned through the years that even if things don’t go in my favor, there is always a story there somewhere for me.
Comedy or tragedy, I get so much from life.
And that makes me less nervous to make my moves.
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If I could go back in time, and be present for any 72 hours in history, I think I’d like to be “invisibly present” around the time my parents had sex that resulted in my conception.
My parents never talked about their courtship and intimacy leading to my birth, and for the longest time, the idea has bothered me.
So I guess, that’s my weird answer to the weird question.
But if I have to be “physically present,” I would choose the 72 hours from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection of the Christ.
No other time in history has more power, or meaning, for me than this—my central religious belief.
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Good sex happens really fast.
I mean, we can go slow, and prolong the moments, but it still happens very fast when you come to think of it.
Sex (good sex especially) is something that I really wish I could slow down every time, not slow motion slow down, but just slow enough so I could stay at the moment, every moment.
Because I don’t know about you, but there are moments in frantic sex where I forget time and space, when it’s all bliss and eternity, and I wish I could be present in those lost moments so I could write them out for you.
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I’m a books-and-movies guy.
So between hearing, sight, and taste, I think I can let go of the sense of taste, and still live happily.
At fifty, there isn’t really any food that I want that I haven’t tasted.
In fact, I have eaten weird and strange foods from all over the world that an average person hasn’t tasted.
So I’m good with the sense of taste.
But I still want to read a lot, and watch movies, and attend the theatre, and listen to music.
It’s a hard choice between sight and hearing.
Logically, I can have more if hearing is the last to go (because I have a great imagination).
But I really appreciate colors, shapes and designs, patterns and compositional arrangements.
I love paintings and moving pictures.
I appreciate how things are physically put together in nature or in art, and even in chaos. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
