I can watch 2 hours of sitcoms but almost never agonised through 2 hours of stuff which I just did. I sat through 'Boston Legal' (a show about law) and 'TRU Calling' (a show about mortuaries?) for the first time. I figure if I'm going to live, I may as well watch them at least once in my lifetime knowing that there's a high chance never watching them again. Well right now, I think I'll be right.

It's one of those nights that I cannot really sleep. I'm thinking of how lonely people can be to be spending the whole night watching TV. I don't think people can really get a thrill out of TV watching because it is the sort of thing that numbs you more than it gives you something. Too much TV has the effect of putting your brain into sleep and stop all active thinking for the duration of the program. You don't want it but you just keep sitting in front of it.

I've been dissapointed in 90% of the shows I watch so TV or movies have never been high on my list of things to do. However I almost enjoy every situational comedies or sitcoms I ever watched. Comedy, that's what the 'screen' is all about for me. Yeah TV and movies are just a big joke that somebody played on us and I have accepted it at face value (as a joke). That's why I like comedies. My favourites are Frasier, Kumars at Number 42, David Letterman Show, Who's Line Is It Anyway, Family Ties, Cheers, Seinfeld and many more. For work I will also try to catch the latest children programmes which are mostly funny anyway

I do like serious movies like A Beautiful Mind, The Messenger, Patch Adams, Amadeus and Lord of the Rings but I realise these movies has the common theme which is 'insanity'. ?? hmm.. I watched Patch Adams with my kids and with a bit of guidance, it completely thrilled them because it was about the ways of clowns. I am a great fan of clowns. I like who they are, what they do, and what they represent. I watch street clowns, I had the privilege of watching high quality clowns in Slava Snowshow and tries to see them whenever I can cos deep inside me there's a secret ambition to be one. I have yet to have the guts to try it though the closest I got to being a clown was as a pirate in our previous camp.

I share Henry Nouwen's philosophy about clowns. He said in his book "Clowning in Rome": "The clowns are not the center of events. They appear between the great acts, fumble and fall and make us smile again after the tensions created by the heroes we came to admire. The clowns don't have it together--they are awkward, out of balance and left-handed, but--they are on our side. The clowns remind us with a tear and a smile that we are sharing the same human weakness. The longer I was in Rome, the more I enjoyed the clowns, those peripheral people who by their humble, saintly lives evoke a smile and awaken hope, even in a city terrorized by kidnapping and street violence." Ah how lovely ...

One of my all time favourite broadway songs is "Send in the Clowns" where Babra Streisand sang "Where are the Clowns .... we ought to be Clowns...". Yes I agree we all ought to be one.