Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

My final week before class officially begins.

Monday: Had already planned to meet up with Rebecca to register our classes, but on arriving, the office was soo packed we had no choice but to return another day, as there wasn’t any point sticking around any longer.

Tuesday: On the way to my French class with Andy, I picked up Esther and Adrian from Summit who incidentally wanted to go to SS15. We were already late by 20 minutes but to our surprise, our teacher only arrived at 7.30pm.. and no, we weren’t refunded or anything for his lateness. -___-

Wednesday: My package arrived, and in it contained a white rectangular box.

My new Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS which I ordered from someone on the fredmiranda forum. Long story short, as most of the sellers there were only willing to ship to the continental US, I had Nhat help me again to receive it and then forward it back here, bless him.

It costs USD$952.08 (inclusive of the Fedex International shipping which costs USD$137.08), and in a long complicated story made simple, Jon sorta allowed me to use it out of our PayPal fund as a Christmas gift of sorts.. thanks Jon. :) Even after calculating the shipping fees together, this lens is still marginally cheaper by at least RM600-800 from the original listed price here.

This will ultimately replace my 18-55mm kit lens, and no, I’ve yet to use it – actually I didn’t get a filter for my lens yet, so for fear of damaging this expensive piece of glass, I’ve done very well to resist the temptation of using this 680g baby.

Went on to play DotA with Ding at Jon’s house that night till 1am.

Thursday: Went out to college again and arrived there at about 10am – I was the third person to meet Ms. Elise (who asked me if I’m on a scholarship.. sigh and I’m not), and I promptly registered my subjects:

• Macroeconomics 2
• Law of Investment & Financial Markets
• Introduction to Financial Planning
• International Monetary Economics

Yes, they all sound pretty damn heavy and I hope I can cope with them.. and hopefully if my planning of tutorial classes goes well, I’d have Thursdays and Fridays off! ..at the expense of having classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8am all the way till 6pm. -___-

At about 1.15pm I left home again and picked Andy up from college, then we went to together to MidValley. We purchased our tickets for Bedtime Stories, then went to the Japan Foundation’s library nearby to borrow some books.

Bedtime Stories was quite entertaining, and one of my favourite actors, Russell Brand (who acted as that hilarious British dude in Forgetting Sarah Marshall), was in it – and it automatically upped the comedic factor of this Disney show. For some reason, this film reminds me a lot of that letter by a young girl called Virginia, who, in 1897, wrote to The New York Sun and asked the editor, Francis Pharcellus Church, if Santa Claus exists.

Most of you may have already read it already by now, but if you’re not aware of it, here’s the letter from little Virginia:

Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON. 115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

And the reply published in the Letters to the Editor section:

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

And that is exactly what Bedtime Stories reminds me of – the innocence of the imagination of little children, and the worlds they escape themselves to. And thanks to the fantasies crafted by Enid Blyton, I too, once believed that my toys animate themselves at night.

Went out again at night when Esther picked Andy, me, and Ding up and we went to the USJ 8 satay restaurant for a brief yumcha session.