KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA

....must. go. watch. 300....


Old photographs will never fail to stir mixed emotions in you. My albums from yesteryear were doomed to forever collect dust if not for an important assignment given to me recently. I have a whole stack of them; a lot of the photographs I personally took, so there were many without me in it. Those days, photoes need to be developed from film rolls in order to be viewed.

Here's the deal. For a friend's wedding next week, we have agreed to prepare a scrapbook to be presented to her on her wedding day. Everyone is supposed to contribute at least one page to that book, and it has to be done from scratch, giving a personal touch to it. The content basically must be something that will always remind her of us besides congratulating her. The page must preferably be accompanied by a photograph of us together with her. At the end, the individual pages will be collected and nicely bound together.

There lies my problem. I don't exactly have a 'proper' picture with her. There are the group photoes but you either have to squint to notice I was actually there or I was unrecognizable from the oversized T-shirts and tattered jeans (tried going for the grunge look to no avail)

I was flipping through the albums and tried putting names to the more unfamilar faces. Obviously, some names I don't even remember anymore, like the girl from Greece who was my pen pal. For others, like Annuar who never fails to celebrate our birthdays together (we were born one day apart), I wondered how they are all doing now. Then there's Don from class (a great individual) who passed away a few years back, may he rest in peace.

For whatever reason, I started to take out some of the pictures. At the back of my head, I kept telling myself that I have to get them scanned. I know friends who would like to share them.

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to spend time with another old buddy from school. This time, while having a good chat with her, more names cropped up from long ago. Naturally, the usual questions were also asked: where they are now, what they're doing, whether they are married, are those two still together etc. etc. Time flew quickly.

I continued flipping through the album, then out of the blue, Vanilla Ice's classic music video Ice Ice Baby was aired on Channel V. Oh. My. Gawd! I couldn't stop from giggling the whole way while watching it because I just couldn't believe I actually sang and danced to that once upon a time ago in a faraway land. I even knew the lyrics by heart! But hey, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air danced the same too, also once upon a time ago in a faraway TV land. He was cool then and still is now, only difference is that the next generation will probably only know him as Mr Will Smith, so there's nothing to be ashamed of, is there?

Though, I think I've made a big fool out of myself by actually revealing that piece of info.

A lot of reminiscing the past today.

Silly dance and song aside, I still haven't found a nice photo to use. Time for Plan B.