Window A

sigh. have only managed to get lam's thingy down to some diagonal looking thing.. *sigh* go check it out :/ and tell me if you can help me!!

today's word of the day is artless :) an entirely quaint and charming little word, n'est-ce pas? haha :) i love the word :) it's just on the same scale of as those words which *totally* sound like what they mean... like 'nefarious' sounds evil-ish but yet slightly funny? dunno how to explain *grins* if you know what i mean you just *know* what i mean.

so freaky...jo is down with 'sar-like' symptoms... fever and flu-ish stuff... which could just *be* normal flu. but could also just as easily be sars :/ hope she gets well soon. and fuzzy too (who's just plain ol' sick i think) :) sigh. and my paranoia is being slowly but steadily fed by dreamcatcher... so freaky... having something like cancer feeding on you from the inside out, and you're just rotting away and have *no idea* what's going on... sigh. i'm still halfway lost in that tome... alternately freaked out and fascinated...

oh yeah :) sandman! went to the library today and returned neil gaiman's book..dream huntersanyway. it's a v tragic little story -- folktale-ish. set in japan or thereabouts: there's a monk and a fox, and by some weird quirk of fate (which i shall skip here), the fox falls in love with the monk. there's this evil official, who's rich and powerful, but has never been at ease. He is then told by the oracles he consults, 3 old women, otherwise known as clothos and her sisters (who always recur in the stories), that for him to gain his courage and bravery, he has to kill the monk, but without blood and without pain.

the official then devises a scheme --- the monk would dream on three consecutive nights --- first about a box, then about a key, then on the third night, he would open the box and be caught in the dreaming world forever. the fox happens to hear this (a long story behind this) and seeks out the lord of the dreamworld to ask for his help--- she is told that the only way she can save the monk is to dream his dream for him. and so, the dreams start. the fox dreams the first 2 ones with him, and the third one, she dreams it for him, opens the box and is trapped in the dreamworld.

The next day, the monk wakes up, and sees the fox comatose near his temple --- not knowing how to revive her, he decides to go to the town nearby in search for a physician. But before he reaches, he meets this old man who tells him that the only person who can help him is the dreamlord himself. and so after a long roundabout way, he manages to see the dreamlord. the monk glimpses the fox, a pretty young lady in this plane, and refuses to let her take his place. he releases the fox and is himself caught. the fox is heartbroken, and vows to take revenge for the monk. the fox, by seducing the official, ruins him completely. the official is reduced to nothing but rags and bones.

i don't remember how the story ends. it's somewhere around there as far as i can remember. i skipped a lot of details in that tiny paragraph but i guess that by through a bit of imagination, most of the gaps can somewhat be filled up. but it was v moving. and oh yeah. the monk *did* love the fox. and the fact that the fox could do such utter damage and take such total revenge for her love just attests to the depth of her love for the monk.aargh. that sounds totally morbid tho... to kill for love? *sigh*