Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Vantage Point

According to dictionary.com, the word "vantage" is a noun, and brings the meaning:
1. a position, place, or condition affording some advantage or commanding view
2. an advantage or superiority


So, today I went to Mid Valley to watch movie. The initial plan was to watch "Step Up 2", considering that I need my constant sighting of hot guys and girls, but unfortunately, the good seats were all sold out. What to do? Watch "Vantage Point".

It was a really good movie though, perhaps better than "Step Up 2". The storyline was simple, but in no way boring. Easily understood, yet with twist. Makes you realised that there is no such thing as perfect crime, because the antagonist had already planned the whole crime perfectly. Seriously, you will be impressed by the way he set his plan into motion, how he took care of the little details, how he used everything to his advantage, and manipulate the technology to suit his purposes. It really was a clever crime.

But the interesting part about this movie is not the plot. You would have said that what's the big deal about good plot, though I would have said that not many movies out there will really make an impression on me. It's not the plot that really impressed me, it was the way the plot was being laid out that made an impression. The story first started with the point of view from a journalist. At first we didn't realised that the movie is going to unfold using different point of view from different people. So when the pictures got backwards again for the third time, we were like "How many times do they want to show us the bombing?"

I think it was the fourth point of view when things started to clear up. Overall, the first part of the movie showed six different kinds of angles (speaking like a student taking Journalism subject), the last one being the point of view from the antagonist himself. From there, the story progressed until everyone lived happily ever after. Well, not everyone. Lotsa people died, but the person that everyone was fighting to save survived, so it was a happy ending, in a way.

Other than interesting way of delivering a good plot, what stood out in the movie, well, at least to me, is two of the values that were portrayed. One of them is family love. Another is the loyalty of an employee to his employer. I felt kinda touched after I watched the last of the scenes and realised about the values.

After the movie, I'm proud to announce, I didn't go shopping. Lol. Instead, we ate early dinner and eventually ended up in Section 14, where we encountered a group of foreigners. They were waiting for bus to 1U, and since it was rush hour, the buses weren't frequent and they were all packed. One of the got frustrated, and they missed two buses because they couldn't squeeze into them. Another slipped away while they were waiting for taxi after they got tired of waiting for bus. Even if it is funny to watch, I understand their frustration. I myself waited for T628 for one hour. Makes you wonder what actually took the bus so long to come, especially when you saw two T628 passed by at the opposite side of the road, so it couldn't be no buses at the LRT station.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Politics and Assignment

I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT I JUST SPENT THREE FREAKING HOURS AT SS2 FOR MY BLOODY JR ASSIGNMENT THAT ONLY COST 5% OF MY TOTAL COURSEWORK MARKS!

And of course, the fact that I actually endured the three hours of standing, donating blood to the so-very-kawaii mosquitoes, and inhaling poisoned air that will eventually kill my lungs sooner than later now. So now my feet are sore, and my lungs still quite polluted from the smoke, and my legs decorated with the gesture of thanks from the mozzies which I have so kindly given my blood to them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I dislike the talk. In fact, I would have rather enjoyed the talk was it not for the fact that the smoke was making me dizzy and suffocated. In fact, I was surprised that I find it enjoyable. But it's just so fun to see the politicians being so enthusiatic about whatever they were talking about. And well, it is always good to know that things are not so perfect and goody-goody about our country. The sugar-coated version of truth is always boring and dull, and plainly trying to insult our intelligence.

But the thing is, if what the politicians were saying are all true, I wonder why BN is still governing instead of other opposition parties. Makes you wonder if there's something wrong with the people. I didn't go for the talk by BN, instead I went to the talk by DAP. Or maybe I just didn't get the story from BN. Who knows? DAP actually made a lot of interesting points that showed the flaws of our government, not to mention promises, but one has to wonder if they really did step up and take over the government, will they actually do a better job? After all, easier said than done.

Even if I did find the talk interesting, I still think politics isn't something that will really capture my interest. It's basically one party trying to outdo another in brainwashing, and sometimes actually fulfilling the promises that they made if they won. It's really just too messy and manipulating for my liking.

And of course, I have rethink my thoughts about being a journalist. Maybe the idea of being a journalist isn't for me. Still, it's quite an experience to be there and witness a political campaign.

Last but not least, this bloody assignment better worth the effort that I have put in to get this bloody story!

Just a lil note (I know, the above line said last but not least, but humor me anyways), apparently the cost to have an election is around 2 million ringgit, and according to DAP, we are all using the 2 million ringgit to put people who can't govern to govern us by letting the BN continue its reign. It means that our two millions went to the task of jaga-ing longkang and street lamps instead of other more important things. So people, just a gentle reminder, next time you think about throwing rubbish into the longkang, think of the two millions. Can you afford to have such an expensive tong sampah? If not I suggest that we actually look for a cheaper and more appropriate tong sampah before throwing our rubbish, even if it's just the tiniest trash imaginable.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Disturbed

I'm a lazy blogger, and apparently I need Kung to point that out to me.

I probably can blog about many stuff, but most of the time I'm just too lazy to put my thoughts into words and string the words into sentences. So I guess I will never be able to qualify myself as a good critical thinker. Laziness is in every part of my soul.

Saturday had been a sad day, as in sad in a pathetic kind of way. We were forced to go to campus, for replacement. Journalism lecture was disturbing, seriously. We were on the topic of Photojournalism, and the lecturer showed us many disturbing pictures. Good pictures, but very sad pictures. We saw a picture of people's bodies being blown apart in a accident, a pic of terrified and agonised kids running down a street during the Vietnam war, and also another pic of a starved kid crawling towards a camp for food with a vulture waiting just behind the kid. If those pictures didn't evoke any emotions in you, seriously, you must be very cold-blooded. It was so sad that it makes me rethink about being a journalist. I don't think I can ever subject myself to this sort of harsh reality.

After the lecture was Grammar tutorial. Maybe we were so disturbed from our JR lecture, or maybe we were just feeling rebellious cause we had to come for class on Saturday, we actually switched off the lights and hid when our lecturer came so we could scare her. She was so surprised, but she was quite good humored about it.

Lunch was expensive, but in no way not satisfactory. We attended a discussion, which eventually turned out to be a Q and A session in the end. We watched a documentary by Fahmi Reza, called "10 tahun sebelum merdeka". I'm actually still quite surprised that I didn't fall asleep, instead, I enjoyed the movie, though I felt, again, disturbed, after watching it. It was about the untold version of history that was left out in our oh-so-boring Sejarah textbook. The documentary actually made us think about why this part of history is not in our textbook, and many of us felt cheated that we were not given this version of story in our textbook.

But since, like I said, I'm not a good critical thinking, I pushed my thoughts aside. Sunday was pretty boring what with doing the Lit assignment, and also watching D.Gray-man.

Come today, Semantics left me confused, as usual, but in tutorial, the Fantastic Four drew up two impressive Semantic fields that brought laughter. In Critical Reading and Thinking class, Dr. Carmen tried out Socratic Circle with us, which I'm too lazy to describe.

Oh, just a little something that I feel like adding, I heard on radio about Colbie writing a song because she missed the feeling of having a crush. So, I'm not the only weird girl out there, but it actually makes me think of something else.

Is it okay for other people to change an individual, even if it's for that individual's own good and it is only done out of pure concern?

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Randomness

  1. Barely missing my bus ride back to BP only to realise that my bus went to Muar first instead of going straight back to BP, because the bus to Muar broke down and the company decided to join the two trip together. Surprisingly, the delayed trip didn't make me feel extremely annoyed.
  2. My sis locked herself in her room without realising her lock was broken, hence trapping herself in the room, for a grand total of 15 minutes. It probably was a blessing in disguse that she's so ganas, if not it might have been a 15 hours trap instead of 15 minutes.
  3. Falling in love with my newest niece, who is only two weeks old. She's just so small and adorable that you just can't not love her.
  4. Attending my cousin's wedding to find a cute nephew, throwing himself on the floor in a fit of tantrum cause his mother blocked all his routes towards the plant that he wanted to destroy. Fyi, the nephew is also very cute, one year and three months old, just learnt how to walk properly and my sis is currently trying to teach him to say "leng lui" so that he can call her "leng lui" instead of "aunty".
  5. Being shouted awake by a cousin this morning only to be instructed by my dad to bring my dogs in from the sun. It is NOT amusing, being slobbered by your own dogs' saliva even before you are fully awake to know what is going on.
  6. Eavesdropping on my parents and relatives discussing about the prospect of my cousin (the cousin who is the same age with me) having a boyfriend and how her mum should NOT be jealous of her boyfriend because apparently, a certain relative had been quite jealous when her daughter, who sadly to say, had not have a boyfriend for quite some time, finally found a boyfriend. Said certain relative also has the tendency to brag about things that are not hers, don't know why, not to mention that she likes to look down on other people. Apparently only her nieces and nephews are able to score brilliantly in public exams like SPM and graduate from universities.
  7. Being told off by a friend for being selfish, and actually not feeling offended, because it is the truth that I'm already bordering the line of being selfish.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Happy Commercialised Day

Yesterday was the oh-so-celebrated Valentine's Day. Personally, I have no reason to celebrate this day, I mean, as in the couple-romantic kind of way, but you will find me celebrating it every year anyways. Cause to me, Vday is the day when I get to go around declaring my love to the people that I care about without feeling weird outta my mind.

The day started off as usual, with class. Morning class with Dr. Roy was good, though I really don't get Old English OR Middle English. As much as I enjoy literature, give me a text which I have no understanding of, a text which might as well be as foreign to me as another language that I have never learnt, you will see my soul leaves the body, leaving my brain to leak out from my skull as I crack my skull open when I fall down in a faint. But after the tutorial, Dr. Roy gave us some chocs for the much-commercialised day, and also in loving memory of her dead sister, who also loved sweet stuff. She asked us to visit her sister's blog, which in my humble opinion, is worth checking out as her sister's art is awesome.

Grammar followed after Lit. It was fun, not the tutorial part, the part before tutorial when Miss Wee let us play games. Since we usually have no intentions to start class, we dragged out the game for as long as half an hour.

Journalism was as dreadful as can be. I have never really like writing hard news, I love writing, don't take it the wrong way, but hard news is just too hard for me to digest. Not to mention that we got back our first assignment, which SUCK, big time. Getting a 2 outta 5 is like a major blow to me, even if I really did expect to have this kind of marks. So I was going around being depressed for the rest of the lecture, and sorry to those who I might have ignored while wallowing in my own self pity.

It was easy to get back to a better mood since I was being fed chocs by Alex and Denise. Not to mention the chocs from Dr. Roy. Load sugar in my bloodstream, and I get better instantly, though it probably isn't very healthy. Hearts to you guys who gave me chocs! And surprisingly, Semantics replacement didn't make me feel like banging my head against a wall, or table, till my brain is in a gooey mess. It was actually quite fun to be confused by Dr. Teh despite having to stay till 6.30.

After class I was kinda high, and when I got back and went online, I just went and wished everyone who was online on my list Happy Vday. Until I read someone's personal message, and I instantly became sober.

Dang it....

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Love is in the air

I'm high, thus the screwed priorities. I'm NOT supposed to be doing anything other than breathing and doing assignment, but obviously my fingers are running across the keyboard for the very wrong reason. Instead of doing my JR assignment that's due TOMORROW, I'm blogging.

I went to 1U today with Sal, Boo, and Elyse. As seeing as tomorrow is Valentine's Day, we saw a lot of couples out celebrating the day. And being the romantic person that I am, really, even if I'm way too cynical and sarcastic to be considered a true romantic, I did have my own dose of romance. Even if it's not your typical lovey-dovey stuff. I romanced my own thoughts, in the form of watching Sweeney Todd. Told ya I'm not a true romantic.

Well, it was an awesome movie! The best I have watched lately. Well.... some people might said otherwise, but I absolutely love the story. Watching the movie just brings back the memory of attending Mr. Anba's class, and all through the movie, I'm just thinking about how literary the story is. What a great story to discuss from literature's point. So much that I'm fantasizing about sitting down and discussing the movie the way I used to discuss poems, short stories, Lord of the Flies, and Pygmalion in Mr. Anba's class. Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd will make an interesting character to discuss. So are all the other characters. And the story plot. The things that happened. The change in characters.

Though it was a great movie, there are a few things that are still worth complaining. First of all, like most gory movies out there, the blood looked absolutely fake. And maybe this is just me, there are too many questions left hanging unanswered. One of them that I'm absolutely dying to know will be what happened to Johanna next. And also Anthony. I don't mean if they live happily ever after, duh. I mean does Johanna eventually find whatever that she's searching for? She is a kinda lost soul in the story, still innocent and naive, yet with a tinge of cynism. And Anthony, the love-struck fool that believes that by saving Johanna they will live happily ever after. Someone whacks him on the head please.

But in a way, there is beauty in unanswered questions. It leaves a lot for the viewers to spectulate about. Personally, I rather have an ending with unanswered questions than the boring oh-so-cliche "and they live happily ever after" ending.

Back to the title of this post, other than the mall being swamped by couples, there are too many chocolates, teddy bears with hearts, and flowers on display. Not that I'm annoyed or anything. Valentine's Day is a good day to find some excuse to send love messages to your friends. Ah... actually I'm going off topic. To be honest, I have no idea why I chose the title for this post. I think must be something that Sal said. After coming out from a cold cinema, which all of us had our jackets, Sal went, "At least all of you have jackets. I look left and right, everyone has something to warm them. Human jackets."

Well... not the direct quote, but close enough. I find the "human jackets" part amusing. I think that's what prompt the title.

As much as I love to go on MORE about Sweeney Todd, I really need to go do my assignment. Sucks to have a deadline. Sucks to procastinate. Sucks to have an assignment to begin with. Sigh....

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Just the surface

Lately, I have been a lil stressed out from the new sem, though looking at the way I'm going around kacau-ing people merrily, watching anime till my eyes bugged out, going to the malls to lepak every now and then, it probably isn't very convincing.

The thing is, even if I did like the subjects we have this sem, the subjects are tougher and the assignments are definitely more than last sem. I will try my best to give everything my all, but sometimes it hurts not to live up to people's expectation, especially people who you care and actually give a damn about what they think of you. I have a dreadful feeling that my grades isn't going to be as good as last sem, though last sem's came as a surprise, and most of the time I hate surprises more than love them.

Other the assignments, I discovered something a couple of days ago that haunts my mind till now. Again, even if I did know about this and forget about it most of the time, we really should never judge a book by its cover. Just because someone looked damned happy and contented, doesn't mean that person IS happy and contented. Just because someone looked as though he has no flaws in his life, doesn't mean that his life IS perfect.

My heart goes out to the one whom I'm talking about, though he probably doesn't know about it. Even if I am not close to him, I still wish him the best, and hopefully he finds peace within himself and sees the bright side of the situation, though the situation does seem not very promising.

But I can't resist saying this though: Forever only applies in fairytale, no matter what some people might say.