Stuff I Own

I think there is a collector in all of us, as long as there is a passion for something, we collect. I used to collect stamps as a kid. Photographers buy tons of glass and store them in the dry box, for that special occasion when they are needed. A friend of mine collects action figures and his house is choked full of DVDs and music CDs. Wives collect handbags and shoes that they cannot possibly use in a hundred years.

Subsequent to reading my buddy Wilfrid’s entry on Ayumi Hamasaki’s Complete Singles, I had been toying with the idea of purchasing it. But I had resisted that one time when I was in HMV after watching Manchester United draw with Aston Villa at Paulana Brauhaus. Alas! Resistance, it seems, proved futile. When I dropped by Popular bookstore to get my monthly dosage of Practical Photography, the CD set was sitting there… throbbing, calling, seducing… and somehow it landed among the list of my purchase items. Don’t know how it got there really. It’s a mystery.

I love the booklet with beautiful pictures of her single covers! The lyrics in Chinese translation is yet another bewildering mystery to me though.

I am also a fan of Manchester United, but you will not be able to immediately tell if you ever visit my apartment. Ryan Giggs is my hero! If only he had chosen to play for England. The only things I own that relate to this magnificent club is a jersey I bought in Jakarta a couple of months ago, a hardcover book named “The Treasures of Manchester United”, and another hardcover titled Manchester United, The Untold Story by Ned Kelly with Eric Rowan. Perhaps one day I shall collect a ticket for one of their live games, I don’t know.

One of my favorite DVD sets is the one of Band of Brothers. It was given to me by my Warden, who asked her friend in Australia to get it for me. Maybe it’s the tagline, “They depended on each other. The world depended on them”. The actors were all excellent in their roles, and made the viewers feel for the men. The “Day of Days” episode is easily one of the most unforgettable for me.

When the original Star Wars movie was released, I was still a kid and did not quite grasp the degree of how much this movie influenced the industry. It was technology at its best, mastered by a director years ahead of his peers at that time. The Star Wars series has stand through time and still evolves today in many forms, such as computer games and science fiction novels. This was bought by Warden again, this time in Taiwan.

Stuff. I might look upon them when my eyes can no longer focus right, and throw them away in a fit. But for now, it feels good to own stuff.