Reality and sleep

Today for the first time ever I woke up and didn't know what was real. I dream a lot during sleep, even have lots of those 'false awakening' dreams (where you think you've woken but are still asleep), but I've never woken up and felt completely disassociated from reality before. I checked the time, brushed my teeth and took a shower but when all that was done I still wasn't sure if I was awake. Now it's 8.36 at night and I'm still very jittery and thoroughly unnerved. Everything feels unreal. I hate the feeling.

All I hear in my head is Air's 'Playground Love'. I can't decide if my sensory abilities feels like it's cheating or being cheated. I've slapped myself a couple times now but then I've slapped myself in dreams before. This would make a good entry in my dream journal if I actually kept one.

Ruminations: Part III

- I was trawling through my archives and I thought it necessary to point out a particularly odd event that happened in May of '06. The oddity is that history has repeated itself and because I noted it down on the blog, I can marvel at the strange way the same thing happened again in the same month it happened before in the present day of May of '07. Which is really just the most long-winded way I could think of parleying the information that my fan heater has died. Again. Like it did before. Yes, that really is all.

- With a lot of the US TV series winding down now, I desperately want to type up a post comparing, contrasting and reviewing the shows I've been diligently following since last fall. When they premiered I wrote up a post about shows that I were looking forward to. I would very much like to revisit that and see if my predictions or assumptions were in any way true. Except that I don't have the time. So I'll probably do this in the week after next. Which annoys me because I'm afraid I'll lack the drive to do it later. I should probably just do it now and not waste the time on debating the merits of doing it now or later. But where's the uselessness in that? Which actually brings me to my next point.

- I've been toying with the idea of either converting this blog to a purely pop culture concentrated one or starting up a new one to vent my pop culture obsessions. After going through the archives I realize that since a significantly large portion of posts tend to be about movies/music/allthatrot, it's not exactly fair to subject friends who come here to live vicariously (cough) through my personal posts. I feel quite guilty force feeding people my fanwanks and rants about stuff they don't care about. Except right now I can't quite decide which route to take. Do I take out all the personal stuff out of Sporadic Word Vomit or transport all my pop culture posts to a new plate? Or continue to do my pop-cultural version of religious bible-thumping as per usual?

- I wish I could stop eating KFC. When I'm stripping the meat off the grotesquely small bird I keep imagining a mutated bird running around the KFC product farm without beaks, or a tail and three eyes. Or whatever abomination the conspiracy theorists are yelling from their soapbox. But damn that original recipe, 12 secret herb and spices crap. Like a fly to the electric-fly-killer-box, I'm drawn right back into the greasy stores of Kentucky Effin' Chicken whenever I pass by and catch a whiff of the steroid chickens. Damn it.

- I cannot wait for winter break to start. For starters there's the China exhibition at the Melbourne Museum I must go to before it's over (insane wildness). There's also the sneakers exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria that if I miss will lead to massive stomping of my Chucks-covered feet (the party train just does not stop). After that I need to go visit the Human Bodyworks exhibition when it hits Docklands. Seriously guys, I put Courtney Love to shame.

- And before I forget, Wicked is coming to town! As in Wicked, of the Wizard of The Oz Broadway production! Well, technically they're coming in '08, but I've got my party poppers out and ready to go. The theatre scene is really shaping up with The Phantom of the Opera opening in July, SPAMALOT (dies of glee) in December and Wicked in 2008. Between this and all the exhibitions I intend to go to, I've just got about my local coke dealer primed for business. Lindsay Lohan, your hard-parrrrtying ass is beat.

- My mobile is now web-accessible and that pleases and frightens me at the same time. Great because I can now check my email any time but scary because I have to contend with the 24/7 knowledge that I'm simply that big a loser and short of wildly imaginative offers about enlarging a dick I don't have, I get no good emails ever.

- Also interesting to note that my stance on the Equality-Now!-No-Ma-Pa-Day-Celebration-Till-Kids-Get-Their-Recognition-Day that I spouted last year in May turned out to be nothing but a novel idea. This year I went traditional and made my mum a card. A pop up card, thankyouverymuch. All I got in return was a text message saying "I will cherish it, my dear". Yes, cherish it in monetary sum, mum. Or care packages! That would be of the awesomeness, ma.

- I don't know why I continue to write all this quips to my mum. She knows about the blog but to my knowledge, doesn't visit it. I think since she's just only conquered Yahoo Mail the idea of keeping a journal in a public virtual space where denizens of the intrawebs have access to them is just a tad too new-fangled. At the rate she's experiencing technology and all it's offshoots, she'll only appreciate the brilliance of Sporadic Word Vomit in 2016. That is if her eyesight hasn't failed her completely yet. Oh mum, surely I kid. It's like planting seeds; only after a while will you reap what you sow. And trust me when I say this forward planning is totally worth in getting a rise out of my mother.

- In all actuality, rereading the archives and finding lame attempts at bagging my mum like such makes me laugh. I alternately marvel at my childishness and snicker at my (self-deluded) witticisms. It takes very little to amuse me but even I am aware just how pathetic that admission was. Okay, humiliation stopping now.

More stories from the foxhole!

I've been away from the fluorescent life-sucking glare of Maccas for 6 months now. My reprieve from the thankless chore that is customer service ended on Tuesday. I think the fact that I swung back like clockwork to the job says a lot about how mindless it is. Right down to the minute details like knowing where the Big Mac sauces are kept. I refuse to believe that this natural knowledge is due to my birthright at holding down a McJob for life. I cannot be a lifer. Regardless of what they say about Art students, no no no no no no no. At the very least can't I be a Big Issue vendor?

Panic aside, I decided to celebrate my first day back by breaking the most crucial rule in the employee handbook. I was a one-woman free upgrade-a-palooza. It was free sauces and free coffee upgrades all around. So I guess technically, I actually got a lot of thanks in my three hour shift. It would have been terribly ironic if I had gotten caught out and fired on my first day back in retrospect.

Here's a couple of things about 'the McDonald's experience' I forgot over time:

1. The amount of time spent on a shift always feels twice longer than it actually is.
2. Why do people insist on replying, "Oh, I'm sweet enough" when asked if they want sugar in their coffee? Is there a newsletter going around on how to be lame, unfunny and corny in one fell swoop?
3. By the way, strange how the amount of customers who give corny replies has increased exponentially in my absence.
4. How cute most of the backpackers are who go into the store. Thank goodness we're smack right in the middle of backpackers central.
5. How incredibly quirky some customers are. This bunch of skater kids came in all shifty-eyed and guilty looking. They ordered a coke and a cheeseburger. After they got their order, they hightailed it out of the store doing a quick ollie down our steps. Bless their little diehard skater mentality. Would have been better if they had fallen.
6. How high the crew turnover is. I don't know three quarters of the current crew there.
7. How bitchy the people who work there are. It's all 'who's sleeping with who', 'who sucks', 'who's secretly gay' gossip. I don't indulge but I can't help if my ear perks up occasionally! First day back and I already know who's doing who. Oh, the workplace drama!

So expect more stories of the freaks, the saints and the crazy in the future. As seen from both sides of the counter.

Conversations With Dead People.

There is this quote in Season 7 of Buffy in the episode 'Conversations With Dead People' which best states everything that I feel about high school. Or at least the high school experience that I remember looking back at it now that I'm four years out of it.

I really miss [high school]. Time goes by, and everything drops away. All the cruelty, all the pain, all that humiliation. It all washes away. I miss my friends. I miss my enemies. I miss the people I talked to every day. I miss the people who never knew I existed. I miss 'em all. I want to talk to them, you know. I want to find out how they're doing. I want to know what's going on in their lives.

-Jonathan

Okay, so I don't exactly identify with the cruelty, pain and humiliation that Jonathan (the ubernerd) experienced. But the rest of it, about missing everyone is really what I think about in the quiet moments when my mind is not preoccupied with the hustle and bustle of life and all its multiple tangents.

I miss all the random people and groups who made up the student body of SMKDU Class of 2003. I miss the Art class guys who, it's a safe bet, never knew I existed. I miss the 'hello and goodbye' people I said hello and goodbye to. I miss the people I knew in my class. I miss the people whom I didn't know in my class. I miss the people I had inside jokes with. I miss the Blue house members I'd muck around with on Sports Day. I miss the people I played tennis with. I miss the people I lost contact with, especially the ones who I had a real connection with. I miss the people I would go out of my way to avoid. Alright, maybe 'miss' is a stretch, but I'd like to know how they're doing. Did the two siblings who made up the weirdo factor in our class ever grow out of their awkwardness? Who is engaged? Married? Pregnant? A parent?

Who turned their lives around? Did the band who won Battle of the Bands every year ever go on to get a record deal? Are the stoners still stoning? Do the people who smoked in high school still smoke now? I'd just really like to seat everyone down and get them to tell their post-high school story. I want to hear about their lives when I ask, "How's it going?". I will be all ears.

But I was a no one in the grand scheme of high school hierarchy. I wasn't overtly athletic, popular or a teacher's pet. I wasn't part of the 'pretty people' or hard-working enough to excel academically. I hardly ever volunteered for anything and on the days when I wasn't cutting class, I was sleeping in class. I kept a low profile amongst the student body and within the clubs and organizations that I was involved with.

So I guess in reality, the idea of meeting and catching up with ex-school mates won't be quite so romantic on account of people going, "And you are?" Even if they remembered who I was there's no guarantee that I would have remembered them. And in real life people will answer "I've been good" regardless of actual state of goodness in their lives when questioned.

I don't know. Maybe it's because I didn't attend the school prom so I never really got proper closure. Friends told me it was overrated anyway but maybe had I attended the event and seen everyone together for the last time I wouldn't be thinking like this. Who knows? So I suppose I'll just hold on to that idea of a perfect meeting wherein I spend a perfect day just catching up with all those people I miss sans weirdness, defensiveness and any lull in the conversation.

Besides, Friendster-stalking requires less communication and nullifies all odds of awkwardness anyway.

Superhero gabbery

Spiderman 3
So if you've been following the comments in the previous post you would have gotten the general feel of my friends and my opinion regarding Spiderman 3. If you haven't, here's what you need to know:

As much as it pains me to admit this, Spiderman 3 spread itself too thin in a way bloated running time, delivering an 'okay' film where it had the makings of a masterpiece. It doesn't quite classify as an atrocity, but given the previous two instalments that successfully balanced the pressures of financial success and comic book-realm geekery, the third film surely left a bitter taste in what could have been an epic trilogy. If this is indeed the last film for the franchise (although I doubt it because IMDb has Spiderman 4 down for a 2009 release), it is surely a lousy way to bow out of the scene.

Where did it go wrong?
i. The introduction of additional villians at the cost of their character development.
According to the articles I've been reading, the producers, in so many words, forced Sam Raimi to implement the character of Venom. The excuse given was that "the fans wanted it". While I do think the idea of Eddie Brock/Venom makes a great foil to Peter Parker, he had to contend with Goblin Jr. and Sandman for screen time. Not forgetting the whole relationship aspect of Peter Parker and MJ Watson that the film went into great detail too. This meant that what we saw of Brock was really quite one-dimensional. Had he been taken out of the equation and perhaps introduced in film no. 4 or had his character been laid the groundwork in Spiderman 3 and expanded in no. 4, maybe the franchise would have done him justice.

ii. Gwen Stacy
As above, only applied to the romantic part of the movie.

iii. Excessiveness
There were a lot of scenes that could have been cut short - including the action scenes, the romantic scenes and the comedy scenes. They might have been intended to add to the momentum of the story but in the long run it added to the excessively long running time. Not even halfway into the movie, I started checking the time. And that NEVER happens. If this is the standard for the summer movies to come, the kids of America are going to go back to school in the Fall pasty and overweight.

iv. Pacing and tone of the film
Part of the problem was the pacing of the film. While before it blended comedy and action seamlessly, in Spiderman 3 the erratic tone of the movie that swung from bizarre to hilarious in nanoseconds had me quite unsettled. Were we supposed to take Peter Parker seriously after he did what he did down the street? I want to attribute this problem to the script, but I suspect editing had a play in it as well.

v. Deux ex machina
For the most part I find the use of deux ex machina to be the most lazy way of ending a story or a plot point. It's heavy handed, unsubtle and frankly, insulting to the movie-going public who has coughed up fifteen bucks to watch a film. I'm trying to keep this review spoiler-free so I won't mention anything further except for this, you'll know it when you've seen it. Then you'll want to throw rocks at Sam Raimi, his brother and the other dude who are the writers of the film.

vi. My dad
My dad's quip ruined many scenes for me. I think a couple other people probably felt the same way as my dad because people started laughing inappropriately in certain scenes. Tsk. I knew I shouldn't have asked him what he thought of it.

That being said, there are of course good points to the film. The action scenes were jaw-droppingly fantastic and the comedy scenes (or at least the scenes I find comedic) definitely brought out the chuckles as well. For the most part, the cast did what they could do with the material and delivered. J.K. Simmons, who plays Jonah Jameson, is a stand out, brilliant as per usual. Is the film worth watching? Well, given the subject material (comic book adaptation) I don't see how it's worse than other fare. But if you want to keep only good memories of the film franchise? Mull on it for a little while.

Fantastic Four: The Unnecessary Sequel
The four main cast members of the movie came down to Melbourne for the movie premiere. Having nothing to do on a Friday night, Ad and I decided to go for it. Also, we had never been to the Southland shopping mall where the premiere was held and figured we'd kill two birds with one stone in that trip. Bear in mind that neither of us are particularly huge fans of the film or the cast. We were hoping that Doug Jones, who is one of the most prolific 'movement actors' (he plays the Silver Surfer in FanFourTwo, was Hellboy in Hellboy, the faun in Pan's Labyrinth) in the industry, would show up for a surprise visit but he didn't. Nonetheless, we stuck around for funsies.


Someone's got to do the dirty job.

Ad and I set up camp at around 5 right up front at the barricades. We thought we were bring slightly freaky but the crowd had already started to swell by the time we got there. We were also slightly mortified to discover that the average age of the crowd was 15. Luckily opposite us and by our right were adults. They were slated to arrive at 6.30 pm. After much fake cries and false alarms, they showed up at 6.45 pm. The crowd that was largely there for Jessica Alba went ape-shit crazy.


First out: Michael Chiklis.

Ad and I decided that since everyone was cheering for Alba, we would cheer for Michael Chiklis. It's a process of elimination really. Alba = too many fanboys/girls, Chris Evans = ditto, Ioan Gruffudd = we didn't know how to pronounce his name.


School girl on my right: "Oh my god!!! I'm going to cry!!!!!!!!"

I didn't really understand her logic but it certainly made me laugh at a time when my ribs were pressed up to the barricades and I was being pushed from everywhere by autograph hounds. Jessica Alba is really quite pretty. And she asked the crowd to give space to a little kid who was being crushed by the crowd.


He is really as pretty as Jessica Alba.

Ad and I agreed that he wasn't as tall as we expected. I guess it's no secret that IMDb lies about height. Which makes me wonder.. Just how tall exactly is Seth Green?


Gratuitous shot of celebrity and me.

He is so nice! He and Michael Chiklis were the only ones who really obliged to the crowd request. He was the last one in and although his minders were telling him to get a move on, he still said okay when I requested a picture with him. He was the only one Ad and I requested a picture with and he obliged on both accounts. What a legend. This makes me wish I was a fan.


Spoils of the night.

I can't say I was terribly star struck. I think I was left truly gap-mouthed when I met Danny Boyle earlier this year at the early premiere of Sunshine. I was actually embarrassingly enough tongue-tied!

Question: Would I be terribly awful if for all my male friend's 21st this year I blow up all the pictures I took of Jessica Alba and give it to them as a present?

My dad is awesome

When asked about how Spiderman 3 was, this is what my dad had to say:

"I don't know why he cried so much. Should have been called 'The Crying Spiderman'."

Sigh.

Today I...

...got a text message from my mum that said verbatim, "Jon, dad n I will be going 4 spiderman 3 show 2night." I already knew from my brother's blog that he was going for the early premiere. He failed to mention that my parents would be going along too.

I have a feeling I'm being incredibly petty, but the fact that my parents are watching Spiderman 3, probably the most bomb-diggity sequel (triquel?) of the year, is bugging me heaps. It doesn't help that Channel 10 runs the damn trailer every damn ad break during Big Brother. Yeah, so I'm obviously jealous but what bugs me the most is how my dad will not appreciate the immense event that is Spidey 3. Fanboys/girls, comic book geeks and nerds alike know what I'm talking about. My dad is the same dude who only goes to the cinemas to watch Jackie Chan movies and Bond movies. I mean, he watched Lord of the Rings: Part 3 without watching the first two and made me sit next to him to explain everything that was going on! His thoughts after the movie? "Why are those two hobbits (Sam and Frodo) like the homosexuals, Karen?" Sheesh.

Anyway I'm going to avoid my brother's blog until I watch the movie because although I tell him not to post any spoilers I just know that that little shit will with much glee to boot. Fuck, I probably would. Technically everyone knows how it's going to end - Spidey will emerge victorious, Mary Jane will live regardless of mortal peril, and the bad guys will get taken down. But I'll be damned if I find out HOW he gets there. So, dong ma Jonny? I'll visit your blog again after May 3rd, you sneaky little kid.

---

... also found this site online that creates a word cloud of common words that appear on your blog. Insert your blog URL and let the little robots work their magic! Below is my word cloud.
Very amusing how the numbers one, two and three appear so often but four doesn't even rate a mention. I don't even remember using them much. I am pretty amazed that 'awesome' came up so little seeing as to how I abuse it so much in my vernacular. Go get one of your own and see what words you've been abusing!

add-on: Oh! I get it! One, two, three. Season one/two/three! Shows I watch hardly ever reach season four. I am the best damn blogger (three other majorly used words) ever!

My Kind of Romantic Films

In my deluded attempt at 'working out' yesterday I now have burning biceps. Biceps.. what a word. I have a sneaky suspicion that any muscle I ever had in my body has de-evolved into fat due to my long inactivity, even if that goes against any existing scientific theory. It started with an (abysmal) run and degenerated into me playing at the horizontal bars. I'm quite proud that I can still do the same tricks I learned in primary school. Not like that's going to earn me any points in any fitness books but still -pats self on head-, it's good to know.

I watched Paris Je'Taime yesterday. I had a lot of fun trying to match the segments with the directors. Out of eighteen, I got one right. Christopher Doyle's was pretty much a given though. And I was so sure Wes Craven had directed the story involving Elijah Wood too! If you watched the movie you might be apt to think so too. Anyway, the movie really made me think about the best romantic movies I've seen. Yep, you guessed it. Here's yet another movie list by me! With commentary, as per usual.

My Most Favourite Romantic Movies As Of 2007

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Joel (narration as Clementine acknowledges him by raising her coffee mug): Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?

I got so spooked out when I first heard that line and briefly wondered if Charlie Kaufman was looking into my life cause it needs to be said that that one line is in essence, my love life. Replace the woman with a man and that is just me all over. Sucks to be me. Personally I think Jim Carrey is one of the most versatile working actors in the industry. I always tell the disagreeing majority to watch this film. What usually follows is, "What the hell is a eternal sunshine of the what what?" Tsk. Lousy inbreds.

2. Casablanca
Rick: Here's looking at you, kid.

Actually that's not my favourite line in what is probably the most quotable movie in the world. But it carries the most emotional weight. This movie is probably one of the best romantic movies because both males who are vying for the attentions of Ingrid Bergman's character are real great guys. Unlike say, Reality Bites, where Ethan Hawke is a schlub next to Ben Stiller's nice guy and then Winona Ryder ends up choosing the douche anyway. Christ, I hate that overrated wallowing-in-faux-90s-pretentiousness movie. So as I was saying, you find yourself rooting for both of them alternatively because both of them need Ilsa in completely different ways. And both of them have their redeeming qualities so in the end when she goes off with ____ the grace with which the other guy handles the situation just adds the needed gravity and beauty to the love triangle.

3. Amelie
This movie is quite literally the celluloid encapsulation of the phrase joie de vivre. It isn't just about finding romantic or platonic love, it's about being in love with life and all its minute pleasures. How to fault it on any level?

4. Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Mr. Darcy: Miss Elizabeth. I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past months have been a torment. I came to Rosings with the single object of seeing you... I had to see you. I have fought against my better judgment, my family's expectations, the inferiority of your birth by rank and circumstance. All these things I am willing to put aside and ask you to end my agony.

Best wedding proposal ever. That's how real men propose -thumps chest-. Heh. For real though, the final scene between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth in the marsh in the early light of dawn is an absolute killer. And Darcy's second proposal is much improved of course.

5. The Village
I think I know why it did so badly in the movies. M. Night Shyamalan because of his past fare has built himself a certain reputation and unfortunately at the same time painted himself into a corner. Because of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, everyone expects a twist to happen and when it does and doesn't deliver they hate it on the film and go onto IMDb and rant. The Village suffered because the trailers painted it as a horror film. Everyone watched it expecting one. When it turned out to be about a character study in love and grief, they went ape shit.

I never saw The Village as a horror film. I went into the movie expecting a twist, sure, I mean I read the internet forums, but once the film started I was sucked into the love story between Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard. To me the film was all about their relationship. Because I am quite a tactile person by nature, the incredible cinematography (it helps that the lead character is blind) with scenes like this:


had me enraptured.

6. Lost in Translation
Key scene: the karaoke scene with Scarlett Johansson singing 'Brass in Pocket'. In one fell swoop a million men lost their hearts when ScarJo sang the 'I'm special' line in the song.

Later when the credits are rolling and you're mulling about all the missed connections in your love life you'll understand why this movie is so damn good. The endless possibilities and 'what ifs' presented throughout the film, especially the final scene between ScarJo and Bill Murray will haunt you in your loneliest hour and you'll wish you had a Charlotte to your Bob.

7. City of Glass
The story of soulmates and undying love. It's a bit like The Notebook without the excessive schmaltz and dementia tangent. Off topic but this was the very first movie I saw Daniel Wu in. Even with the horrible Cantonese and floppy hair, it was celluloid love at first sight.

8. Peter Pan (2004)
I am endlessly fascinated by the concept of first love. Parents scoff and demean the idea by labelling it 'puppy love' but I am a strong believer that love can exist within children. It's the most pure kind of love for it is untainted by the baggage that comes with adult romances. Which is why I rank this film in my top 10 romantic films. The film might not have mean to come off that way and I might actually just be projecting my own issues, but the subtext between Wendy and Peter I found to be very bitter sweet.

9. Brokeback Mountain
Fave scene:


I am so tired of explaining to my mum how this is so much more than 'that gay movie' so I don't want to go into it again. Suffice to say that I always end up sniffing back tears at the end of the movie every damn time. For the last time, it's about love between two individuals who happen to be men not homosexual love, mum!

10. Moulin Rouge + Romeo and Juliet (both directed by Baz Luhrman)
I put them both together because they're quite similar for fairly obvious reasons. On a sidenote, how awesome is John Leguizamo in both of them? I actually didn't realize he was the midget in Moulin Rouge till much later on in the movie. I'm too lazy to find a screencap of my favourite scene of R+J, which is when Romeo first meets Juliet at the fish tank. The obvious but playful attraction that happen between the two are crucial in sealing the chemistry for the rest of the movie. Apart from this movie, Claire Danes will prove that her decision to leave My So-Called Life for a movie career was an unwise one due to her incredible sucktitude.

11. A Very Long Engagement
While I found the movie to be overly convulated at some parts and brain numbingly slow in others, when laid down to its bare essential- the relationship between Mathilde and Manech, it is very successful in creating a love story of hope and endless faith. It also helps that the two leads Miss Amelie Poutain herself, Audrey Tautou and Gaspard Ulliel, are incredibly pretty. In fact, lately the pretty stakes have been on the side of Ulliel. Google Image him, the boy is hot. A Very Long Engagement is another film that leaves me sniffing back tears at the end of it. You'd have to have a heart of ice not to.

12. The Princess Bride
Let's take a moment to remember the incredible hotness of Cary Elwes before the harsh years of thirtysomething life hit him. [beat] Right then. I think the great thing about the film is its fairy tale-like quality. Not unlike Peter Pan that has quite fantastical elements, it never gets bogged down by the larger than life premise or characters.

That just about ends the list. Can you believe not one Sandra Bullock or Hugh Grant film made the list? Crikey. I barely can. How will that validate their career that is afterall made up of romantic comedy schlock?

For good measure (and cause I'm on a roll), here are some scenes that I like in films that I didn't like enough to make the cut.

- the "Can I keep you?" scene in Casper. It's just absolutely gold considering it's a CGI ghost talking.

- the Keira Knightley segment in Love Actually. As a whole the movie doesn't do it for me with it's unrelenting schmaltziness but the unrequited love segment with Keira Knightley and dude-with-the-placards is quite sweet in it's inevitable hopelessness.

- alright here's one for Miss Bullock. I thought her character in While You Were Sleeping was adorable. I haven't watched the film in a long time after my mum confessed to thinking Bill Pullman was hot (ruined Independence Day for me too). I've never been able to look at him in a proper light after that life scarring confession. Thanks, mum.

I end with this quote by Ryan Gosling in an interview he did with OK! Magazine recently.

Interviewer: Many guys say they cry when they watch The Notebook.

Ryan Gosling: [Smiles] Sissies. What's the matter with them?

Heh.

And one more for the LOL road.


Got to give mad props to this guy for trying.

Words from my notebook

I was going through Notebook #2 the other day making sure I had fulfilled everything on my to-do list when I came across this list I made at the beginning of the year, just before my birthday.

Three Birthday Gifts That I Want But Will Likely Never Come To Be In My Possession Anytime Soon

1. The iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner



2. A Segway
3. The R2D2 Projector


Oh well. Maybe next year.

It has also just recently come to my attention that I am no longer a teenager. Hence the delayed "Oh. So for the next 10 years whenever I write my age down it will begin with a 2?" reaction. Expect the dreaded 'final year freak-out' to happen only after I graduate.

Lego reimagined in contemporary times.

Twist and Shout
Originally uploaded by eitheror.

This was my favourite of the bunch. More over here! I guess some people just kill time on Christmas Eve more interestingly than others.













Also, see Mario Bros in Legoland

Mario Bros. Lego
Uploaded by Bibi-de-Bibopof

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So, for those who were wondering, I actually finished Pride and Prejudice this time around. (see: this post here). And considering the speed with which I ploughed through the book, it's hard to believe the hard time I had reading the book the first time around. Actually, no. I suspect the only reason I finished the book was because of my fondness for the movie. It's like Lord of the Rings for me. It's much easier to go through the book with visuals attached to certain scenes.

Verdict: For me, movie trumps book. If not for the superb acting or the cinematography, than because of the tracking shots. I'm a bit of a dope when it comes to long tracking shots. Dope meaning that I fall hopelessly in love with really successful long tracking shots.

Q: What's better than watching 300 on big screen?
A: Watching 300 on HUGE ASS SCREEN - IMAX, bitchezzzz.

Another Q: What's better than watching Spiderman 3 on big screen?
A: For real, it opens at the Melbourne IMAX on May 3rd. I'd advise you to check your local listings for this will be unlike any other screening. (IT'S 3D!!!!!//11/convulses/dies)

Earthlings

If you've never heard of the documentary Earthling, well, on the verge of being patronizing, lucky you. Having heard of this notorious doco, I hunted it down and after viewing it, I almost wish that Earthling to me was nothing but the word 'earthling' in italics. Not because it is bad by any means, but the stark truth of the film sears itself into your brain, leaving you unable to ever feign ignorance at the subject matter.

In short, the doco is about animal rights. Yeah, I can hear the groans already but this film is not PETA propaganda material. It doesn't resort to the organization's irritating and ultimately self-defeating 'shock tactics'. It does tend to fall on preachy grounds but given the obvious direction of the subject matter, it's hard not to.

What I thought was the most interesting thing about the doco was the idea of speciesism it expounded on. The idea is that we, top-of-the-food-chain-bearer-of-opposable-thumbs humans, are guilty of not including other living planets on the Earth when we use the term 'earthling', therefore unconsciously practising deplorable acts to what we view as lesser species. Hence, the -ism. The practice of speciesism is divided into 5 sections:

1. Pets - that we own these free creatures and expect them to serve us = a big no no.
2. Food - hidden-cameras taken into slaughterhouses allow us explicit footage of what really goes behind those walls.
3. Clothing - self-explanatory
4. Science
5. Entertainment - animals as exhibitions at zoos, circuses

For the most part I found that even if I didn't fully agree with everything said in the doco, the graphic content sure did have some truly stomach churning moments. These are my thoughts on the 5 sections humans are most guilty of in specieism. I should probably warn you that there will be spoilers. I would prefer if you, dear reader whether friend or random visitor, watched the film before reading on but if you can't stomach gore (and I mean, real life gore, not the CGI stuff you see in horror films or in CSI), then by all means. Hopefully my horrible grammar and inarticulacy will be no deterrent.

For those interested, you can watch the film online here. It runs for 95 minutes.

---Here be SPOILERS---

To begin, I should tell you that I would call myself a selective animal lover. In the sense that I love some animals more than others. Whales and wolves would be at the top of my list (and not just for alliterative purposes), whereas pigeons and guinea pigs are right down there. It's horrible and hypocritical but it's the truth. Besides, I never said I was a nice person. Alright.. onwards to my thoughts on the film.

1. Pets
Having never had a pet, apart from the one day Baxter affair (see: Flickr), I can't claim to know the motivations behind keeping a pet. Friends who have pets lavish them with so much attention and care that it's hard to believe that people will rear pets for any other reason besides adding another member to the family. Yet, there exists puppy mills where pets are bred for profit. And pets that have outgrown their rearer's comfort zone only to be abandoned. It's a sick world and I lead a charmed life, pardon the ignorance. Pet shelters can only do and keep so much abandoned pets. As humane as the concept of euthanasia is, it's still chilling having to watch actual footage of dogs slumping over five seconds after receiving the lethal injection. Worse still is the footage of inproper extermination, eg. cyanide in food. Euthanasia may be the most humane process but also the most expensive and in the end the mighty dollar speaks last. This segment lauds owners who haven't more than one space for a pet yet leave them unneutered because the excess of breeding goes to become landfill waste in the long run. Which I have to agree with for even if you do manage to sell your pets, there's no telling how well they will be treated or even how long they might hold the buyer's attention.

2. Food
When I tell people that I don't consume shark fin's soup (on the grounds of animal cruelty), I often get asked if I'm a vegetarian/vegan. I go on to tell them that no, I love my chicken too much to ever give it up, eating veges only is madness! how bout you? After watching this doco, I have to ask myself why the hypocritical partiality to sharks? Then I examine my life a bit more and have to admit that the main reason behind abstaining from pork for four years was not because of an objection to the breeding conditions of the pig, but borne out of an obsession with Jewish culture. I realize now that the looming extinction of a creature has had a lot to do with my food choices. That realization was affirmed while watching the doco because the parts I squirmed the most was during the footage of whale hunting. Having always had a soft side for whales (they are my second favourite mammals after humans), watching the visceral footage was horrible. There are, of course, equally visceral imagery regarding poultry, beef and pork slaughterhouses, which really affirms everything we've heard about the practices in these places. It's not really a question of whether we shouldn't eat meat. It's the circle of life. What really matter is if it's right to torture animals so grotesquely before we consume them. To give them hormone injections to bulk them up, to force animals into pens that can only hold a tenth of them is against what nature prescribed, is it not? I wonder if having an image attached to the rumour-turned-truth will prevent me from buying crispy strips off KFC. I'll tell you in a week.

3. Clothing
Alright, so that really weaned me off my hunt for the perfect leather jacket. Touché. No mink either, point taken.

4. Science
This is the section that I want to agree with but can't. When I was fourteen, I fancied myself an antivivisectionist. I was against all use of animal in product testing or medical research, the whole righteous she-bang really. Then I turned fifteen and in biology class, I happily spliced a frog open without much hesitation. It wasn't even in the name of science for me, just morbid fascination. Two years later I talked with a friend's mother over dinner about her work in scientific research and the use of animals in said field. Now, at the age of twenty, I have to admit that I am a pro-lab rat kinda person. In the doco, it was mentioned that the use of animals are wasted as these medicines are tested on humans in later clinical trials. To my understanding, those medicines/products used in clinical tests have been finely modified and worked upon after the results of the tests on animals. So really what the humans are receiving is at that point, the most perfect formulation after trial and error. I don't know what would happen to humans if they received the rawest product. Does anyone remember the international crisis a couple years ago where four humans reacted badly to a clinical test in Germany? I don't remember the specifics but the global reaction was urgency at its finest hour. I imagine that if animal testing was outlawed, that event would be a weekly occurrence, and for those who can't remember, it was urgency bordering on terror. I suppose to make clear, I am an advocate of donating human bodies to science as well. There is a lot of people dying of cancer. Need we add to the death toll on the quest to find a cure for cancer?

5. Entertainment
The doco made clearly the difference in zoos and conservations. Our natural curiosity of the exotic is the basis behind zoo operations, the film states. Which come to think of it, is quite true. Very rarely do zoos serve conservation purposes. Living in captivity is surely not healthy for the creature. Keiko, the whale from Free Willy, anyone? What really drove the point home was the bull-fighting footage. It's just wrong, what they do to the bulls to get them to 'fight'. They prod, poke, tighten reins, stab the bulls- all in the name of entertainment. Humans are the worst kind of species because we not only force other species for our entertainment but have no qualms in using fellow human beings too; the gladiators in ancient Rome comes to mind, or a more recent example, the leaked pictures of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib. WWE, people! I have no idea why I brought that last point up, just thought it needs to be made clear that despite the best of our intentions, all of us are guilty of being speciesist. And too easily entertained by men in lycra.

I think that at the end of the day it's a dog eat dog world out there. Only the best survive, right? Darwin and all that rot. Yet I can't help but feel for our fallen earthlings, especially those killed because some people had too much a passion for fashion. I wished that slaughterhouses in the world would only use the most humane methods in killing livestock, yet I know profits are the order of the day so expenditure must be kept to a minimum. I wished I could say I wasn't a speciesist, that to me all animals are equal, but I laughed pretty badly at the footage of the 'pigeon bowling' sport. I'm a little confused, and I'm not sure what to do to ensure that animals can at very least be granted a humane death so all I can think to do is to pass the message on so that at bare minimum no one can feign ignorance at the extent we mistreat animals. Hopefully I've done that. Thanks for reading.

Recap of past week

I haven't been the busiest of the busy beavers around but I've been surprisingly lax when it came to updating the blog, if only because I have too many things I want to say but no linking theme between these things. So what will transpire is a post that is garbled, long and rambling- not exactly the easiest kind to read. Anyhow I'll try to break this post up into manageable reading material.

Uni aspect of life
For one of my classes, part of the final assessment is creating and maintaining a blog throughout the semester. Initially I set up the blog using the old Blogger account style with my Hotmail email address because I didn't want to mix the personal blog with the class blog, but embarrassingly enough I forgot the username so I started a new one with my Gmail account. Talk about a waste of a perfectly good URL. So now if you click on my profile, you'll see that I am actually managing three blogs right now. Which is quite an accomplishment for me considering my lackadaisical attitude towards updating. If you care to know,

1. Sporadic word vomit - is the private, or as-private-as-I-get, blog. Updates generally contain either pop culture references, self-made lists, or what-I've-been-up-to details.
2. Test pilot - is where I try to create a satisfactory template so that I can transfer 'Sporadic word vomit' to the new Blogger Beta layout. Nobody is ever meant to visit this blog. Currently the only problem left is getting Haloscan to work with the new beta Blogger. Once that's done (probably 900 years from now) it's Blogger Beta all the way, baybeh.
3. Overcoming crippling HTML fear - is the blog for class. So far I've put up links to things I find amusing on the web, so take a look there for some of my best finds on the wide world of the intrawebs.

Social aspect of life
N/A. Report: this entity does not exist.

Work aspect of life
Because nobody will entertain a kid without retail experience, it's pretty impossible to find a job in retail. It doesn't help that I'm terribly picky about shops I want to work at. So in the end there's a high chance that I'm going back to Maccas. Yes, I am Ronald's bitch. Did you want that cheeseburger in a meal or by itself?

Pop culture aspect of life
I finally got around to watching Crank and I wished I watched it in 2006 because then I could have include it in my annual review. It would be my one and only "Most WTF movie of the year" entry. I'll say this much about it: What Crank lacks in plot is made up in the visual and editing department. And that was some serious top-notch editing. You know how chick lit is considered the fluff of the romance genre? Crank is basically the cinematic equivalent of unadulterated fluff in the action genre. It's not good, not bad but purely contained to the realms of guilty pleasure. Watch it if only to see Jason Statham steal the role that Bruce Willis once owned before the paunchiness and onset of male pattern baldness. Seriously though, the really innovative highly stylized visuals and editing are definitely something else. Think about watching it.

This year will be the year I force my way through Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The last time I read it in high school, I gave up halfway through the book on the grounds of insane levels of boredom. But yes, ladies and gents, even if my eyes spontaneously start bleeding from the sockets, I will persevere and finish the damn book. That is the promise I make to you.

And right now you're thinking, "what the hell do I care if Karen reads P&P?" Well, it's true it's nothing to you but I thought the dramatic exclamation had a nice touch to what is essentially a really pointless goal. So there.

Just because

Goth 60% Punk 47% Emo Kid 40% "Ghetto" 40% Jock 33% Hot 33% Geek/Nerd 20% Stoner 13% Loner 7% Prep 7% What Highschool Clique Do You Belong To? created with QuizFarm.com

Can't them cracker asses see that this girly be feeling the "ghetto" style? Holla!

My extremely belated Top 3

Well, as it turns out I threw out all my past year ticket stubs under the impression that mid-February was a wee bit too late to rate the top 3 movies of 2006. But then comes Thursday, March 15 and I'm in need of a distraction so hell, here's my extremely belated top/bottom 3 movies of the past year going on memory. Yeap, this is going to be THE BEST LIST EVER.

My Three Favourite Films

1. Brick
This, to me, was the best movie of the year not simply because of the Joseph Gordon-Levitt factor, but because the idea, execution and delivery of the film was perfect on every tactical and technical level. Rian Johnson's decision to write the script in old-school mystery noir style was very ambitious and potentially fatal to the success of the film. Pretentiousness, overreaching, unrealistic.. these were some of the words attached to Brick. Luckily the majority of the movie world embraced the film with a grousing applause. It's hard to be critical about the dialogue when it flows so smoothly and adds an extra dimension to a world of thugs, drugs and murder, that is, get this, set in an urban high school. It might seem implausible but then film was never meant to perfectly resemble real life. The ensemble cast was simply exceptional and delivered above and beyond what I expected from largely no-name actors. Highly recommended to anyone who is willing to venture out of their comfortable pop culture grounds.

2. Blood Diamond
DiCaprio proved his role in The Departed was no one-trick pony with his excellent follow-up performance as the morally ambiguous black-market diamond trader in Blood Diamond. If you ask me, I'd say DiCaprio is far more engaging here as evidenced in his constantly toeing the morally grey line. Political messages aside, this film was an emotional powerhouse, Djimon Hounsou being the proverbial dynamite to the exploding show. The pacing was consistent, visuals, exciting and action, unrelenting.

3. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
No, I'm only kidding.

The real no. 3: She's The Man
Seriously though. STM is very entertaining for a teen genre flick. Plus, if you ever wondered, I base my list on shows that are not only my favourite of the year but also flicks that I wouldn't mind re-watching again in the future. So that's why The Prestige isn't taking this spot. It's fantastic and all but I doubt I'll re-watch it anytime soon.

My Bottom Three Movies

1. My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Hard to believe that the lame female lead is the same person who tore up screens a year ago on a bloody rampage as the Bride.

2. Date Movie
It was pretty bad. But Epic Movie is worse. In fact, I'll just declare this up front. As of March 2007, Epic Movie is my chosen worst movie of the year. It's kind of hard to top that disaster of lame and unfunny gags.

3. John Tucker Must Die
It's not so much putrid as horribly generic. Which is actually enough to make it pretty damn bad. So there.

Also, just since I'm on a roll and all..

My Three Favourite 'Horror' flicks

1. Slither
Yeah, I'll admit it. Besides the incredibly gross (=awesome) visuals and FX, the main reason why it's number one has a lot to do with the Nathan Fillion factor. Also, I think I'm a little bit in love with writer/director James Gunn, brother of Sean 'Kirk on Gilmore Girls' Gunn. It's a fun ride this one is.

2. The Hills Have Eyes
Did you know that the same guy who was the father of the baby plays flame-boy Pyro on X2 and X3?

3. The Descent
That scene with the night vision camera and the cave dweller had me stopped chewing my potato chips mid-bite if I remember correctly.


My Three Favourite Comedies

1. Borat
"It nice!" has entered the international lexicon of all things funny, yes?

2. Clerks 2
The humour doesn't really hold up with repeat viewings but you just can't go by the witty pop culture-laced dialogue.

3. Jackass 2
Funny, but for all the wrong reasons.


The Three Biggest Disappointments

1. Lady in the Water
Oh, M. Night Shyamalan. I tried to ignore the critics and the reviews and it worked. But when I watched the movie myself, it was hard to keep paying attention what with the lagging pace and the plodding dialogue. Also, I hate Paul Giamatti so that didn't help any. Still love your visuals though.

2. The Illusionist
I was all prepared to love this show more than The Prestige, after all they had the same 'magician in trouble' premise. While Edward Norton was amazing as per usual, the combination of Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman takes the whole damn bakery. While the visuals were pleasant and the plot easy to understand, it just lacked a lot of the punch Prestige had. Take a bow, Nolan.

3. Babel
The more critical acclaim this film gets, the more I hate it. While each individual plot was engaging, the movie as a whole lacked cohesion and at the end of the movie, I was left with a "urmmmm.. was that all?" feeling. I don't know.. maybe I just expected too much from it. Whatever the case is I'm pretty glad it didn't win best picture at the Oscars.

Restlessness

I have to confess that I've been feeling a little lost these days. The daily grind brings some sense to the days as they pass by in an eternal blur. Much like the proverbial fog rolling in from the sea blanketing a city, I am the proverbial citizen left disoriented and confused as the weight of the air press down on me and sight cease to be the most important of the five senses. Now that all the shows I watch regularly in the US have gone on hiatus, I've pretty much lost my direction during weekdays.

No, seriously, I am devastated.

It used to be so simple. Mondays had Heroes, Tuesdays- Veronica Mars, Wednesdays- catching up on the TWoP forums, Thursdays- the utterly delectable Ugly Betty and The Office, Friday- mad squealing over Thursday's shows. Thanks to the American hiatus system, which I don't even understand and can't find a page on Wikipedia to explain it, I am left on the edge of my seat as I wonder how Peter can come back from a possibly fatal ass-whipping from Sylar. OMG.. Heroes will be the death of me.

Luckily, there is one saving grace on TV right now. Call it what you will but America's Next Top Model is back, and I'm totally loving it. I love everything about it; Tyra's spiral into both inanity and insanity, the cattiness/false modesty of the models, the fact that there's a quiet 'wink-wink' consensus by the producers,models, audience that thus far no previous winner has actually achieved 'top model' status in the US, let alone make a mark on the international modeling circuit.. Finally, there's meaning again on Wednesday nights and while it may be mindless, reality-escapist/bimbotic meaning, I'll take what I can have.

A-Z of Cambodia

And in case you were wondering, YM and Christine, this is what I was frantically scribbling down during traveling periods in the van and bus.

-----
A
Airport - The Siam Reap International Airport looked more like a luxurious getaway resort than a bustling travel hub. Trust me when I say there were lots of pretty abound.
All-American Rejects - Thanks to heavy rotation on Channel [V] which, by the way, we received in Cambodia, I consider 'It Ends Tonight' as my theme song for the trip. Not that it had any relevance to the trip but you know, Tyson Ritter is very, very hot.


Angkor Wat - is everything and more I thought it would be. The pictures I saw did nothing to prepare me for the intense beauty of it all. (I may sound like a prat, but I'm totally serious!)

B
Baguette - I, along with YM, sampled a ham, tuna-filled baguette from a roadside vendor (You see them everywhere). It was yummy and no, we did not spend the rest of the day in the toilet groaning while the baguette violently came out from every orifice in our body.
Bayon Thom - It's depressing how thieves have made away with the heads of the statues. Says a lot about the level of poverty in Cambodia.
Buddhism - approximately 90% of the population are Buddhists.

C

Chilling - Our visit to Cheuong Ek Genocidal Centre on Day 4.
Corruption - rife in Cambodia. There is a marked divide between the rich and the poor - the rich often holding positions of state officials or government folk whereas the poor slum it up in dwellings along the Mekong River.


Crickets - which at point of writing I have full intentions of eating which I did not sample due to time constraints and the lack of cojones on my part.

D

D'Angkor Artisan - a carving center in Siam Reap which primarily houses the deaf. We were given a chance to tour the facilities and it's really interesting to note that handcrafted was meant on a literal level.
Dine & Dash - At Toule Bassae Restaurant, which is a fancy buffet restaurant, we left with a good meal in our stomachs and USD 2.00 more in our wallets because we forgot to pay for the drinks we ordered.
Dusty - Siam Reap as a whole was very, very dusty, mostly due to non-granite roads.

E
Emerald Buddha in the Silver Pagoda, Royal Palace - Conspiracy theorists say that the famed emerald Buddha statue in the Royal Palace had actually been long taken by the Thais during a joint preservation project. What is left is a replica that is either made in the inferior jade or plastic. We saw it and our verdict? Those smarmy Thais.

F
Food - is like a mix of Thai, without the spices, Chinese, without the MSG, and Vietnamese, without the beef noodles, which doesn't make it any less appetizing than it is.

G
Gems - Cambodia's specialty- rubies and sapphires. They still cost an arm and a leg.

H
History - The scars of the Khmer Rouge regime are still fresh in the minds and on the lands of the people. Depending on who you talk to, you get a different account of it all. What I think happened, put simply, is that during the Vietnam War, the Viet Kong in northern Vietnam pushed their way up to Cambodia for survival and taught the fringe-side locals the way of their life. What transpires next in the events of Cambodia is the result of learned hatred and discrimination towards the city and well-learned folk.

I
Idiot - Malaysia moves an hour faster than Cambodia. I set my alarm on my mobile phone for seven am, and end up wasting an hour that could have been spent on not-really-needed sleep. Mind you, this was on day 4 of our 5 days there.
Insects - Did you know that insects like crickets and beetles are sold as snacks in Cambodia? Spiders, on the other hand, have medicinal values, not like we put that to the test.

J
Jolly - as YM and Christine found out, I get a bit, ahem, 'jolly', come nightfall. Nothing I ever want strangers to find out, of course, in the event I am unfairly, but justly, labeled a psycho.

K
Khmer - is the main language spoken in Cambodia, followed by French, English and Mandarin. See N.

L

License - In Cambodia, driving a motorcycle does not require you to have a license. Cars, vans and trucks on the other hand, do need a official license. And with good reason, as evidenced by 'taxis' in Phnom Penh. Additionally, motorcycles in Cambodia are made to sit up to three people and that's legal (!?).

M
Marriage - When asking for a lady's hand in marriage, the guys need to prepare at least USD$5000 for the day-long ceremony alone. And that's just the average dude.
Massage - THE BEST EVER. It only costs like 7 bucks for a full body massage and it owns every other massage I've had.

N
'Nyer cekut' - which means 'you're stupid' in Khmer. Oh, the handy phrases I choose to remember.


Naga Casino and Resort - where my 15 bucks would end up recirculating to YM's 12 bucks+ and Christine's 10(?) bucks+ winnings for the night.

O
Ouch - the general feeling the day after our visit to Angkor Wat. My thighs were burning something bad.

P

Pan-handlers - not limited to your garden-size variety adults only. Be prepared for kids running up to you and begging for money while your head turns and your heart breaks. Beware: give one and more will come.
Passionate - Our tour guide for the Phnom Penh leg of our trip, Sau Phorn, was extremely passionate about Cambodia's history. Apparently his grandpa had been a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime. He was a teacher before, and something tells me I would have loved him as my history teacher.
Phnom Penh - the capital of Cambodia. A lot like Ipoh, with the slower pace of life, but with more footless monks and crazy tuk-tuk drivers hassling you for a ride.

Q

Quizzical - I was going for 'wildly amazed' but ended up with a, "Huh?" face in this self-portrait taken in front of the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh.

R
Rock - A popular and hip local discotheque which we went to after dinner on our third day. It was dark, cavernous and very empty- owing to the fact that it was only 8.30 pm.


Royal Palace - When the flag is flying high at the King's official residence, that means he's home. No, we did not meet him and neither did he or his guards unethically proposition anyone of us.

S
Siam Reap - the cultural province of Cambodia where the great temples and Tonle Sap can be found.


Sombre - the mood after visiting the Killing Fields.


Sombre X 100000000000 - the mood after vising Tuol Sleng.

T
Tuk-tuk - Much like Thailand, they're a cheap form of transportation, averaging from 2 to 4 bucks.

Tuol Sleng - for those not in the know, Tuol Sleng used to be a school but was converted into a torture/detention prison for those accused of crimes against the regime.

The Khmer Rouge, ruthless as they might have been, were also incredibly organized. They took a picture, along with personal details, of every single person who was condemned to the prison. That was just one room of pictures. The noticeboard with the pictures of kids absolutely slayed me.

U

Unnerving - The feeling within the walls of Tuol Sleng. Never have I experienced a more apt moment for the phrase, 'if these walls could talk'.

V

Very snazzy restaurant we dined at - Alright so I've got nothing for V.

W
Warm - the best times to travel to Cambodia is between the months of November and December, when the weather is generally cooler.


World of hurt - was the state I was in the second day after climbing the steep, STEEP steps of Angkor Wat. I want to go back to when this picture was taken and tell PastKaren that she's going to be in a total agony following the triumphant feelings of climbing the steps.

X

Xcellent (yeah yeah.. what a copout) - The view from above the pagoda at Angkor Wat.

Y
Yang - the name of this kid I promised to buy postcards from after lunch but had to turn down due to the lack of pretty in her postcards. I ended up postcards from her friend. The look she gave me following that made me feel very, very ashamed.

Z

Zoinks! - the bumpy ride on the 'roads' of Siam Reap on the one night we ventured out. This was before we knew about the fog of dust that settled in the night air thus scaring us from coming out after our showers ever again.

I'm a lazy, lazy bugger. What's new?

I've decided that in order to help break this streak of laziness I'm currently fostering, I'll go right ahead and do what lazy people do best when it comes to updating their blog that has been lavished with inattention and neglect for, oh, about eight weeks now.

Alright then.

Brace yourselves, children.


------
Part 1: On the Outside

Name: Karen
Date of Birth: 02/02/1987
Current status: alive and loving it
Eye colour: Black
Hair colour: Black
Righty or Lefty: Righty
Zodiac sign: look it up, you lazy SOB

Part 2: On the Inside
Your heritage: 3/4 Chinese, 1/4 Peranakan
Your fea laziness... taking.. complete... control.. over.. body..

cannot... resist...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Year 2006/2007

Year 2006 ended with:

- an immeasurable feeling of national pride at the quick response of the government in dealing with the floods in Malaysia.
- realizing my cousin could be contacted through email (duh. Hey Daniel. Happy new year!)
- my first trip to China, Shanghai specifically, which left my brain scrambled for more than just negative reasons. To be expanded upon later, when I am sure that my usual long-ass posts won't be rejected.
- the SCBs having their first major fight, which luckily ended in a pact to never let future fights last longer than two days.
- my first new year countdown spent in the company of the SCBs (-1).
- my first aerosol-tin-foam fight which ended with Adeline's kid brother getting pwned big. Ad, don't tell him I said that.

Year 2007 started with:

- my brother exhibiting mad golfing skillz that led to him clinching fourth place in the Saujana men's tournament. That's my kid brother, peeps!
- Sammykins leaving for UPenn for a year. What will entail is me watching movies and student productions at uni all by my lonesome self. Or at least until the Chairman gets back in July.
- a realization that I am horribly allergic to the stuff in the aerosol-tin-foam. There is irony to be found somewhere but I'm too busy trying not to scratch and covering my blotchy face then to go figure it out.

Have a great year everyone!

Ruminations: Part II

1. I have recently discovered a new allergy that I suffer from that unfortunately does not seem to be letting up anytime soon. It is potentially lethal, I feel, and any help given in curing it will be much appreciated. This is it: I am allergic to teenagers of the younger-teeny-bopper variety. It's school holiday season now in Malaysia and the damn kids are out in packs of at least six at a given time and they take up seats at restaurants, giggle excessively in not-really-funny scenes at the movies and block my walking path. You could point out that I too am a teenager, albeit one in the final year, but then I'd have to de-befriend you.

2. To the kids who haven't got the memo and think Heelys (those shoes with the wheels in the heel) should still be worn, please know that your parents don't love you and you were adopted.

3. I got into my first driving accident couple days back. It was at a stupid turning to a road which I stupidly assumed was one-way and my mum was in the front seat giving lousy ass, stupidly confusing directions. Suffice to say, I've now given my mum enough nagging ammo to last a few generations. When last questioned, my mum could not have a bigger smirk on her face.

4. For the life of me, I cannot get into Faulker's works. I've so far attempted 'The Sound and the Fury' and that ended with me exchanging the book for store credit. Yet for some reason or another I purchased 'As I Lay Dying' two days ago, thinking I'd give the guy another shot. I plead temporary insanity. Luckily it only cost 12 ringgit which if I think about, isn't really that much.

5. I went to a Pay Less Books book clearance and came back with 14 books for less than RM50 which of course put me into a complete high today. If there's one thing I love more than a good buy is the good buy being books at a reasonable price. Any regular reader in Malaysia will tell you that that reading here is quite an expensive habit to maintain. A fiction novel in paperback form would normally sell for 35 bucks (and when I say bucks, I really mean ringgit) and that's not even including the non-fiction, science, astrology, hardcover stuff. Which is why after I discovered Pay Less Books, a secondhand book store chain with outlets in among other places, One Utama, Carrefour and Atria, I only ever buy second hand books now. It's heaps cheaper and they have a pretty wide variety of books (especially the Atria branch). It might be a little less presentable looking than a fresh, plastic-wrapped MPH bought one, but really, what matters is between the covers, right?

6. That being said, I couldn't find any Neil Gaiman today. So I might actually have to purchase them from MPH. Or maybe I should go to PLB in Atria, since I haven't checked them out yet. Yes.. I should do that.

7. Unfortunately I have also yet to find any manga series on the shelves of Pay Less Books. Which means that I am going to have to fork out an exorbitant amount of money for the Battle Royale and Death Note series if I do decide to get it. Which I probably won't. Because gosh darn it, RM 300+ for manga is something I'm not willing to pay. So I'll just keep moaning about them with the hopes that maybe some charitable do-gooder (ie. friends -ahem-) will decide to help out and fix me of my want. No pressure, or nothing. It's not like my birthday is coming or anything. Oh wait, yes it is.

8. I've been very lazy with email lately, so Charm I promise that my email is coming. Although I fully expect you to be busy in the land of old people and swamps so I guess I could hold out a little more. Alright, alright.. I'm on it.

9. If you're reading this, hello Li Yang! I didn't know you go by Daniel too until Jon filled me in. It was great seeing you during the dinner although I didn't get to talk to you much. I should actually reply in the comments but I'm much too lazy to do so.

10. I am trying to create a Guilty Pleasure Mix CD (tm) and it is surprisingly hard to do so. One CD allows for 18 songs, 19 if you're lucky and fitting in 18 of the most embarrassing, but totally awesome songs is taking much longer than I expected. This is what it looks like, with commentary (re: my defense), since it's Christmas and it's supposed to be time of giving. Before you mock and ostracize me forever, what's yours?

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Fernando - ABBA
A must have in my mix CD since I normally despise ABBA, but really dig this song. I usually break out the funky Saturday Night Fever move whenever it plays on my iTunes.

Lala - Ashlee Simpson
She may be the unholy spawn of living-off-your-famous-sisters-name, capitalism and unhinged consumerism but this song still makes me dance and sing-a-long like a squirrel on fire, or what I imagine a squirrel on fire would look like, which is unbelievably ghastly and funny at the same time. Basically, my feelings toward this song too.

Quit Playing Games With My Heart - Backstreet Boys
If you've been visiting my blog regularly, you know that I actually quite like the BSB. Which is why for me choosing only one BSB song as a guilty pleasure was simply too hard and complicated for words. I had to factor in level of cringe-worthiness and how loud I sing the chorus along too to get the final two. In the end the totally gay video for this song made me choose it over 'Everybody (Backstreet's Back). I'm still a little torn.

One Week - Barenaked Ladies
A one-hit wonder if there ever was one. Actually no, scratch that, Deep Blue Something's 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' remains the yardstick for all one-hit wonders that ever existed and any future hits that will come.

Kokomo- Beach Boys
It's so bad, it's effin' fantastic and you know it!

Sugar, We're Going Down - Fall Out Boy
Pete Wentz's exploits with his camera phone may have scarred me for life but this song remains one that I sing when no one is listening and I'm all alone. Eyeliner aside, the line "I'm just a notch on your bedpost/but you're just a line in a song" is really effective in using your band to slag off an ex, no?

Faith - George Michael
Another must-have for the mix CD. I'm so in love with this song I've even got the Limp Bizkit and The Boy Least Likely To covers. I'm risking social pariahness, but whatever. This song is total gold.

Get Right - Jennifer Lopez
Yeah yeah.. at least it wasn't from that 'Jenny from the Block' CD.

Give It to You - Jordan Knight
I think he was an ex-member of a once famous boyband, possibly New Kids. I don't know why I like it.

Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard
It's the damn violin that puts them above other pop-rock bands.

Since You've Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
There must be a level of hell that is specially reserved for people who admit to liking songs by a reality TV star. I suppose, I'll be seeing at least one of my friends there?

Everything - M2M
I think I gave Chen Chou so much flack for liking them in high school, but at least they're not Mandy Moore, right? That's my rationale and I'm sticking with it.

Just Another Phase - The Moffats
Actually liking Mandy Moore might not be so bad in comparison. Hmm. The song is really good and matured for the band that came out with some of the gayest poppy-sounding 'lite rock' in the 90s. It's like Hanson's 'Weird', a different sound which worked for an innately lame band.

Mother We Can't Get Enough - New Radicals
It was on the soundtrack of A Walk to Remember, which unfortunately really detracts the song from it's really kick-ass riff.

One Girl Revolution - superchic[K]
Lame band name. Lame song title. Really good 'girl power' song without the tackiness of Spice Girls attached.

Move Your Feet - Junior Senior
It's not really a guilty pleasure since I'll gladly tell anyone that I really like it. So it might not end up on the final mix after all.

Bust a Move - Young MC
This song shouldn't be on anyone's guilty pleasure, but it's the kind you end up feigning ignorance at whenever it comes on. Oh, I don't know. It might not be in the final cut either.
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11. The baristas who work at coffee chains in Malaysia are a pitiful lot. The get absolutely no reprieve from the horror that are frappes. At least in Melbourne, winter ensured that only the odd psycho would buy an ice-blended drink. Baristas don't even get the option of a shift without making frappes over here due to the tropical weather. Heh. That's bloody hilarious and absolutely not going to stop me from ordering a mocha at Coffee Bean or a Java Chip at Starbucks!

12. Since everyone here dresses in a jeans and a tee, people-watching here is absolutely depressing. Echoing Sophia's sentiments, people of Malaysia really need to funkify their wardrobe please. As a serial people-watcher, I am at a terrible loss and know not how to continue my voyeuristic tendencies.

13. For some reason or another, whenever I'm in Malaysia my knowledge of Bahasa Malaysia and Cantonese improves substantially. Maybe it's the environment or the simple fact of using it more but I find my usage less awkward. In fact today some guy even asked if I was from Indonesia which pleased me so since I've been trying to speak BM in the style of Bahasa Indon since Trinity. Of course, my Cantonese remains completely anglo-accented which my dad seems to find immensely amusing. It's Daniel-Wu-in-his-early-days bad. Which I suppose is kind of funny.

14. I'm all for Malaysia, but really, don't bother watching Cicakman. The really sad thing about the movie is that the effects were utterly impressive, almost Hollywood-material, but the long, unfunny sequences made the viewing a complete pain. The film had potential, no doubt, and with harsher editing it could have been really something. Unfortunately, 'humour', which you can tell by my use of the apostrophes isn't really humorous, was littered abundantly throughout the movie much to merely test the patience of the audience. Another one bites the dust, eh?

15. It kills me that I'll be missing Beastie Boys in February. I flipped on MTV to come across the MTV$2Bill program with Beastie Boys performing live, and I'm afraid that's the closest thing to a watching them live for the foreseeable future. How utterly depressing.

16. Also another downside to my holiday in Malaysia is the fact that I'm probably going to have to give up a potentially awesome job because I can't make the interview. There's no need to go into specifics since it'll just depress me more but I'll just say that that job would have been a real resume booster. Here's hoping something great comes along later in the year when I'm actually in Melbourne.

"I'll toast to that, Karen."
"You can't toast yourself Kaz. That's lame."
"Oh, and talking to yourself and debating the lameness of toasting yourself is what exactly?"
"Pathetic and borderline creepy, but not lame!"
"I bet our parents never loved us and we're adopted too."
"Nope, just a middle child, dude."