KCAL

Now, on a lighter note, a funny story I heard from NPR today.

KCAL is a small local TV station in SoCal area, it broadcasts shows like Family feud, local news, and the national past-time, highway car chases. Usually, the station has viewerships of about 160000, during a live car chase, the number of viewers quadruples.

High speed car chases are not uncommon in LA area, what's unique about this story the missing ingredients of the usual high speed car chases you see on TV, there were no police involved, and there were not even any speeding.

If you turn off the sound on your TV and watch this 'car chase', you would be wondering what in the hell is going on and why would the TV station broadcast this ordinary car driving down the street while obeying all the traffic laws and with no police chasing after it. The whole event after a fender-bender traffic accident/hit and run, no one was injured in the accident and there were no major property damage. The police decided to call of the chase simply because such offense did not warrant a full scale police pursuit and risk the lives of everyday citizens. However, the KCAL news team heard about this over the police radio and sent a chopper to over the 'Breaking News'. Soon after the police had called off the squad cars, the event became a non-story and the news team were in charge of making this everyday drive down the street a major event for the live audiences they have. With absolutely no action going on the ground, the news caster are resorted to use comments like "That car must be a fuel efficient vehicle." and "This guy may actually get away after running away from the police" to spice up the fact that a car is driving down the street.

To make the long story short, the guy turned out to be a PhD from Georgetown University, he got slightly high after the completion of a major project and just needed time to compose himself before he stopped the car and surrendered to the authority. He got a year in jail for using the drug and no news media contacted him after the chase until the NPR interviewed him for this story years after the event.

26

I actually have to back date this entry since I was suppose to make a post on my birthday, o'well, not like anyone is reading it.

For the last few days, I have been showing people the image I have on top of this post. It is obviously not one of my creations but it reflects this feeling I always have. Until this day, I always believe if I die at this moment, less than 10 people will show up to my funeral and most of them are forced to show because they feel like they have to obey some type of 'social norm'. My life isn't making an impact in anyone's life so why would anyone mourn for something that has no significance to them? But again, I have no right to complain since I failed to show up for two death in the family. Maybe this is God's way to punish me for who I am and I am cursed to live my life like this, an afterthought, a person of no special significance.

Be the future

Haunting me, my past is haunting me, my past has been haunting me, my past will always haunt me. Who is a person but a combination of all his happiness, pains and emotions? So in some way, a person is no more than a combaination of his past, his memories, his experiences.

So, if a large part of that experience is pain, sadness and sorrow, wouldn't those experience be a part of a person and it's impossible to separate the person from those experiences.

It is easy for people to say "Just forget about it, it's in the past, move on, look ahead into the future". In an ideal world, it would be the perfect solution, and everyone would be happy and no one would feel sad after the initial instance. But this is the real world, things don't happen that way, people get depressed long after the cause of the depression. Pain is long lasting, and great pain seems to last forever.