things j.h.r.s. said: superheroes & death hairbows

- Ji is pretending to be Superman after dinner.  He blathers while I read the paper.  I finally tune in and record the following on my notepad (all comments by Ji unless otherwise noted, time 6:58 pm to 7:05 pm):

Mum, do you think Superman would have homework to do? But then, he was a little kid in his spaceship. Who put the tapes and videos on for him to watch? Why?

[in character as Superman]: I don't eat.  I don't mean to say this, but I'm actually an alien.  Because I came from another planet.  I came here because the planet exploded.  And I had to stay in the spaceship for quite a long time.  That's why I came here. Why do you say 'how nice'? [in response to the question 'who changed your bum in the spaceship?']: I don't eat. [in response to the question 'do you have any questions about the earth?']: Why are volcanoes on the earth?  Why are there earthquakes?  And tsunamis?  Why do people live?  How does the atmosphere work?  Humans know why, I just don't know why.  Do you know why people survive?  Why don't rocks breathe?  Couldn't everything be alive?  How does air come into you?  Where does ink come from?  How do you eat?

- Ji is having a shower, something he can now do mostly on his own.   He gets out and starts drying off and I begin to listen in on a hilarious monologue he is having, he's using this very funny drawn-out drawly low voice and he's saying: I don't knoooow why I'm eeeevilllll.  I started out good and I became eviiiillll.  My magic towel. [so I ask him what he's talking about] I was an evil wizard.  At first I was good when I first turned evil.  I'm just making all the fighting, scary, fighting evil robots movies.  And things that turned evil.  And fighting and blah blah blah.  And violence.  I'm making shows about violence for adults.  Because I need to show off my powers. It's enough time being human and being weak, Mum.  So I'm making movies so I can show off my strength.  You should go and see my movies.  It's all about evil doctors and wizards and fighting and punching and killing and violence.   It's all about exciting pirate violence. An evil towel turned the wizard evil, it just wrecked everything.  That's my movie, fighting like bam, bam, bam.  Maybe it's too violently for you, Mum. [I ask Ji if there is any love story in the movie] Yeah, there's some love story.  At the end of the battle, only the King and Queen were left and two knights and the love story is they fell in love and they had a wedding and then they had a baby.  What's it called when the King and Queen have a baby? [my response:  'I dunno, uh, a baby?'] No.a prince. What do you call it when a person marries a book?  Booked marry.  Not so funny, eh?  Why?  What's it called when someone falls in love with a pen?  Pen love.  Why aren't my jokes super funny? [Ji has apparently been thinking about his long discussion with Phet about how superheroes are not real, that what we watch are just movies with actors in them and that Ji does not have real super powers - we're a little worried he's going to jump into traffic to lift up a car one day].

- I leave the bedroom after putting Ji to bed.  Sometimes I stay, sometimes I go out and read on the couch.  As I leave Ji asks, "Are you leaving to go shopping or to go to Paris?"

- Ji finds a hair-bow on the floor that is red with little plastic stick-things on it as decorations.  He says that they look like bones and asks, "Is that a death hair-bow?"

- Ji is babbling away with some stuff and yabbering on about the Buddha and Jesus and so on and tells me, "Each different symbol of water means holy in a different sense."  Good to know.

- And lastly, over breakfast today Ji tells me, "Mum, thanks for bringing me into this world."  I tell him he's very welcome, I love having him in the universe.  He goes on and explains that "Back in the old days I had a very rip-off life.  I lived in another country where they gave me rip-off days where I always had to fight.  Not peaceful days, crap rip-off days.  That was in a previous life time.  I'm always the same person, even in the old days.  I mean, in Villa Putri they gave me rip-off days." [Ji Hong-23-February-2005]