As some of you probably already know, I'm back in the USA.
A bit sick right now, so will put up a longer post when I'm feeling a bit better.
Been dizzy/slightly feverish today, aching in some parts, and the two injuries on my left foot(only on two toes, really) started hurting more than they seem they should after I showered.
Unpacking now.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Hola
Monday, August 20, 2007
Blogging When I Should Be Packing
Time to pack up and leave again.
About 95% done with packing. I feel a bit more depressed this time around, no idea why. Or rather, I do have an idea why, but I don't feel like discussing it right now.
Leaving about 12 hours from now.
Too tired to write a long reflective post on summer right now. Will do that once I'm back in Montana and settled in, which will be on the evening of the 23rd (Montana time) at the earliest.
The word 'bittersweet', I think, is used way too much. I wish there was a word similar in meaning, but with more sweetness and less bitterness. I would use that new word to summarize my summer experience home.
Thank you, everyone, for a wonderful time these past few months. I am always thankful for the friends I have, only because I can be pretty horrible at the friendship thing myself.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Movies
Because I'm out of other ideas, I have decided to list the movies that I watched over the summer, and my short reviews of them :). Bwaha I'm so creative(actually stealing Ken Gene's idea, he said he wanted to post about Ratatouille in his blog, I realized later I could post about ALL the movies I've watched this summer). Hohoho.
The list(in no particular order):
Disturbia
The Invisible
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Ratatouille
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
The Simpsons Movie
Transformers
Tip: At the end of each one paragraph review is a short summary of the review, read that if you're too lazy to read too much :P
UPDATE: watched Evan Almighty as well. Too lazy to type a full review for it though. So, in a nutshell, it wasn't enjoyable. Not really comedy, more like a family movie with a bit of comedy on the side. Might have been funnier to me if I had been less sleepy, but oh well.
1) Disturbia
Disturbia was better than I expected. I honestly went in expecting it to be an averagely good movie, but I enjoyed it a lot. While the storyline was quite predictable, I really liked the execution of the movie. The lead (played by Shia LaBeouf) was a perfect choice; he carried the movie really well, and some of the funniest scenes were between him and his best friend in the movie :P The romance with the next door neighbor, on the other hand, didn't work too well; but it was still good, with at least one 'awwwwwwww' moment. It wasn't just a thriller, it was also funny and charming in an odd way. The protagonists and his sidekicks were likable, the villain was very unlikeable, and so on and so forth. I was surprised by how much comedy it had; I thought it worked well despite the dark nature of the plot. I think, it the movie had taken itself too seriously, the movie would have sucked. The 'scary' parts were good, but not amazing. So yea, the movie worked for me!
In short: Better than expected; great acting, predictable plot, comedy almost overshadowed 'scary' parts, quite enjoyable!
2) The Invisible
This movie sucked. It was okay but sucked. The acting was decent, but I just thought that the plot and characterization had too many 'wtf?' elements. The lead role (played by Justin Chatwin) was quite frustration-inducing. The actor should've passed on this script. The script was horrible and barely believable. The main character is awfully calm despite realizing that he is almost dead somewhere and is only able to move around as a ghost to try to.. do something about it? Not to mention the fact that he falls in love? is infatuated? is creepily fascinated? with the girl who almost kinda sorta killed him. And it turns out she's the only one who can save him. Oh boy. If I were him I'd be raving at her like a super pissed off ghost. Sigh. And the ending is predictable, too. The main characters were not likable at all.
In short: I can't believe I wasted my time and money watching this movie.
3) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
PotC: aWE (lazy to type) was a decently good movie. It was not as enjoyable as the first two movies; somehow it fell short of the high standards the prequels had set. There isn't really too much to say about this movie. The main cast (Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly, etc) are actually greater in stature than the movie itself. And I think they hardly had to put in too much effort to play their respective roles; for example, Keira Knightly and Johnny Depp have both received Oscar nominations. Their roles didn't require too much of them (except maybe physical effort). It was a good summer movie, that's all. Sigh.
In short: Good summer movie.
4) Ratatouille
Ratatouille is an absolutely charming story. I loved it. It was absolutely delightful, romantic without the use of romance, charming without having to work too hard at charming the audience. I think it captured the spirit of Paris perfectly. I did not expect that I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. It wasn't just about any single brilliant moment; the entire movie was a feast of the eyes and the heart. It was hilarious, with quite a number of laugh-out-loud moments. It was also heartwarming and, like I said, charming. The setting, beautiful Paris, was perfect for such an unusual story. I mean, a rat who wants to become a chef? While the premise seems weird, I assure you that the movie is not. The rats weren't particularly cute in design, but they were extremely lovable. I didn't want the movie to end; and at the end, I desperately wanted to go to Paris. Le sigh.
In short: Absolutely charming, unexpectedly heartwarming, and absolutely hilarious. I loved it!
5) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
HPatOotP was a huge letdown. The hype was greater than the movie itself. The acting, quite frankly, was quite horrible. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and... uh.. the other actors didn't do a good job here. There were one and two exceptions, of course, but I don't feel like mentioning them here. They were either overacting, or just failed to emote the correct emotions. The girl who acted as Cho also looked like she was always a bit preoccupied with constipation. There were only two things in the movie that I liked. One was the way the Order members and Death Eaters could, uh, move around at high speeds with that aura trailing them. I also enjoyed the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort, which was in my opinion way too short. It should've been longer! I didn't enjoy the rest of the movie. While I like the world JK Rowling has created, all the HP movies so far have been quite disappointing.
In short: Hype over substance, bad acting. Watchable, but only enjoyable to a limited extent.
6) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
This movie was also a disappointment. It was much like Pirates; a summer flick with a lot of style but little substance. It was a moderately fun movie to watch, and that's it. The acting was good enough, as the main roles didn't require much acting skills anyway. Jessica Alba and Chris Evans were only in the movie for sex appeal, not because of their acting prowess. Not that they can't act, but they obviously weren't cast in this movie for their acting skills. Lots of big movie effects here which didn't really have a big impact on me. But there was one relatively awe-inducing scene; the final scene where our planet is about to be devoured. It was, I think, the only scene that made me go 'wow!', if only a little, and without too much oomph. Either than that, the movie fell flat.
In short: Typical summer flick, good but nothing special, nice for a pleasant diversion.
7) The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons movie was AWESOME! It really lived up to the Simpsons legacy. It was really funny, touching, witty, etc. Really really enjoyable! My favorite scenes were the ones with President Schwarzenegger and also one with Maggie in it. Zomg. President Schwarzenegger also delivers one of the best one-liners I've heard in a long, long time. Basically, the movie was absolutely amazing and deserves to be watched more than once! Which is what I did. Hoho. Also, they managed to create a pretty addictive theme song. Spiderpig, Spiderpig...
In short: Absolutely AWESOME, a must-watch!
8) Transformers
Finally; the mother of all summer flicks, and this one DELIVERS! Transformers was an absolutely AMAZING movie. Words cannot express how good of a movie it is. But I will attempt it anyway. The movie was ORGASMIC, exceeding my expectations even more than how much I expected it would exceed my expectations by. Gah. The action was fast and furious with several amazing combat scenes, and the pace moved quite fast from the get-go! The action sequences were amazing: the attack on the military base, the attack on the village, the large fight towards the end of the movie, etc - they were all AWESOMEEEEEE. The acting was great and/or spot-on, although Shia LaBeouf was the only one who had a meaty role. And he pulled it off well; he has great comedic timing, etc. Gah future Hollywood megastar much? He and the rest of the cast complemented the Transformers perfectly! I love this movie! And it was great how the Transformers could emote :D Well, uh, mainly Bumblebee anyway. Which is more than can be said about a number of real actors and actresses. So yea. ORGASMIC!
In short: Best movie I've seen in awhile. AWESOME and ORGASMIC. Should be watched more than once. Or rather, over and over and over and over and over again. RAWR! One of my all-time FAVORITES!
So ya, that's all :P
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Shaken and Stirred
So, I was sitting in front of the computer being bored sometime past midnight when I noticed that the blinds on my window were shaking. And then I realized that there was no chance at all that I could have caused it to shake. I realized, a bit slower than that, that the blinds weren't the only things shaking - THE WHOLE FREAKIN BUILDING WAS SHAKING TOO ZOMG.
Okay, I'm being a bit dramatic there. It really was a reasonably minor tremor that was mostly noticeable for several seconds - it slowly petered down afterwards for about a minute. But when you're on the 21st floor of a building, like I was, your imagination will go into overdrive about the dire possibilities of ominous tremors. Or maybe I'm just paranoid about stuff like that, so yeah. I went out of my room wobbly-kneed with my heart rate going pretty fast, and decided to check on my mom (who had been watching tv upstairs, but for some reason was downstairs when I left my room).
She was wondering why her wind chimes (which were inside the house) were chiming, when there was no wind. She thought she'd left something open which would have let the wind in. I told her about, well, the windlessness and the whole place shaking. She said she didn't feel anything -_-. I then noticed that a few light fixtures were swaying as well, which is when I was 100% sure I hadn't been imagining things.
Knowing that the building wasn't shaking anymore didn't really help my heart rate slow down. I was still about as shaken as I was during the initial tremor. Sigh. Decided to take a hot shower to see if it would help me calm down. It did, but not completely. I mean, THE WHOLE BUILDING HAD BEEN SHAKING ZOMG... ya you would be shaken too okay.
After I was done and dressed, left my room to find out from my brother and mom who were watching CNN (since I blabbed about the tremors to them...) that there had been an earthquake in West Java, 7.4(later upgraded to 7.5) on the Richter scale. OMFG I was right. My brother reminded me that my dad was in Jakarta. They'd discovered he was alright, so yay for that!
Gah. Hope the people in Java are alright. Apparently it was really deep underground, so there's no chance of tsunamis and such, which is good. Sigh. And to think I was panicking when my building was only shaking a bit.
Yes I had to blog about this immediately. And too lazy to control macho about how panicky I felt. Gah!
Monday, August 06, 2007
"To all Malaysians, welcome home."
Nowadays, The Star newspaper has a daily article where Malaysian youths write-in to express their love for our country, in conjunction with its 50th anniversary of independence. Sometimes it's about the past, sometimes it's about the present, and sometimes it's about the future. But it is always about why they love our country.
I was reading it the other day, and surprisingly something that the featured youth that day had written struck a chord in me. Usually they point out the usual things - the food, the people, the unique feeling of being in Malaysia. But this girl had written something slightly different.
She mentioned being abroad and returning home to Malaysia. Not on any random airline, mind you, but on Malaysia Airlines. I guess I'd never noticed it before because I've really only traveled on MAS for my short trips to Indonesia, so I've never really felt any longing for home on the flight back.
Well she said that she loved it when, before arriving in KL while flying Malaysia Airlines, they'll announce something along the lines of "to all Malaysians, welcome home." Yes, I know it's in their announcement script. I don't care. :P
I got a bit sentimental at that. I'll never know why; I usually dismiss all those articles and think they are SO naive. I guess I don't like being cynical all the time.
I like being welcomed home. Right now, Malaysia is home, flaws and all. I want to work in another country in the future; migrate, even. But while I can choose a place to stay overseas, it won't be home, to me. Not yet. You don't get to choose where home is, but you can choose the place that might just fill that role in the future.
Sigh.
I just wish that things here were different. Better.
If only Malaysia was an easier country to love. Then I wouldn't have to feel conflicted about how I feel towards it.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
The Worst Feeling on Earth, I Think
It worries me that I can tell a person to 'cut their losses' and 'give up on it' in regards to something that has been rewarding(in many different ways) in the past, and may prove to be satisfying in the future; what worries me more is that I say it with absolute sincerity.
Whenever I try to give meaningful advice to a person, I tend to mix both the good and the bad. I mention both the positive and negative possibilities. Yes, there is hope, but even hope will not last you forever. Sometimes you should just give up on hope and focus on living a new (happy?) life instead, rather than just hoping for it. Because there are more ways to be happy than just the path you have chosen, or so I believe.
I have to add, however, that I do care a great deal, even if the words I speak with absolute frankness (or harshness, depending on how you look at it). I care too much, sometimes. Even my father commented that I'm a very caring person, not at all suitable for the cutthroat world of business (not sure what that says about my future career, sigh).
There are so many things I wish I could influence, or change outright. But I can't. Yet it doesn't stop me from caring.
And not being able to do anything is the worst feeling a person could ever feel.
Just ask those who have been in such situations. Those who have stood by and watched, and later thought there was nothing I could do about it, and lost a bit more of themselves each time their inner voice said it.
Like watching a loved one die slowly from disease.
Or crying out uselessly as a child gets swept away by strong currents.
Seeing a speeding car, and a young mother fussing over her baby as she pushes the stroller across the road absentmindedly.
Standing on the streets of New York as you watch the World Trade Center collapse with all the people in it.
Cradling a stillborn baby in your arms.
There are so many ways for us to be happy, and yet there are also too many ways for us to be broken and defeated. Especially so when all you can think of afterwards is that there was nothing you could have done about it; the absolutely worst feeling on earth.
Not that I'm feeling such a feeling that intensely, right now. I am far from being, well, broken and defeated. I guess, much like the way I give out advice, I also contemplate life both positively and negatively.
Though I will quite happily ignore the fact that my contemplation, more often than not, will lead me down negative routes.
I guess it's easier to think negatively, but live positively.
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