This is the place where I put my random thoughts that I like to share with you all. It's also a place where I could post about things that interest me such as movies, TV shows, Games and just anything that's part of the Pop culture that I find necessary to post about.
I don’t hate romantic movies/chick flick, I just don’t prefer it. I do watch them and I’ll usually end up enjoying them but I’m not dying to see any of them immediately. You can bet that I can tell you about the many major movies coming out this year or next year but I’ll definitely be clueless if you mention a new Kate Hudson/Katherine Heigl romantic comedy or something (they all look the same anyway)
However, I’m definitely not a cynical bastard and there are few romantic movies/chick flick that I do love. Since Valentine is coming up, here’s some of my favourite romantic movies that I can think of on top of my head. Open the gates!! Let out my softer side!!!
NOTE: ‘The Notebook’ isn’t one of them, sorry.
500 Days of Summer
The tagline for the movie sums it up perfectly: This is not love story, this is a story about love. I see it as the story about Life. There may be some heartbreaking moments but it is not a heartbreaking story. As a matter of fact I see it as an uplifting movie where the main character has a moment of reflection and finally saw the moments where the relationship soured. The climatic scene where they meet at the park rarely happens in real life but they should. Every person deserves a sense of closure – leaving someone emotionally/mentally hanging after a break up is not recommended despite it being really easy to blame others for everything that went wrong.
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset
A guy and girl met at Vienna by chance and decided to spend the rest of the day in the city just before they had to go their separate ways. All day, they talked about life, love, regrets and everything. ‘Before Sunrise’ is about taking a leap of faith in bonding with a someone you just met (even if it’s a creepy looking Ethan Hawke). Life is measured by the people you meet so don’t take people for granted…you may never know how special that person might be. But how do I know for sure? You don’t and that’s why it’s a leap of faith…you won’t know until you take that leap.
Before Sunset is set 9 years after the first movie where the same characters met and spend a day in Paris. The sequel has better dialogues and also much more depressing as they face the harsh reality of life.
Enchanted
I am man enough to admit that this loving tribute to classic Disney princess genre is one of my favourite movie. Princess Giselle (played by the lovely Amy Adams) represent those over the top people brainwashed by the romantic crap from movies. These people should get smacked back to reality by the realistic people represented by Patrick Dempsey. However, just like anything in this world, being in an extreme end of things are not the way to go. In the end, you have to be both realistic and idealistically romantic to make things work. So the moral of the story is that girls shouldn’t always expect to be treated like a princess. BUT it is also always nice for a guy to, once in a while, just go ahead and treat her like one ESPECIALLY when the girl had been nice enough to stuck up with you. See it as a reward and girls will always appreciate it.
My Best Friend’s Wedding
Julia Roberts finds out that her old friend that she’s in love with is marrying another girl. OH NO!! GO JULIA ROBERTS!! STOP THE WEDDING!! Oh wait…the main heroine is a bitch and trying to ruin a nice girl’s wedding!! That’s the fun thing about the movie because you’re rooting for Julia Roberts even though you know it’s wrong. Love is not an absolute concrete thing, it actually takes in many forms and degrees. Sure, you may end up spending a significant amount of your life sharing with one person but that doesn’t entirely diminish what others have meant to you. All we have to do is sort out the feelings and decide which one is best for you. There was no denying from both Julia Roberts and her longtime friend that the thing they shared all this time was something special. But the guy have sorted out his feelings and decided that Cameron Diaz is the right girl he wants to marry. It may have looked like a defeat for Julia Roberts in the end but she learned how to let go and hopefully find what her friend found in Cameron Diaz.
Did I just spoiled the movie?? Who cares, go watch it. It’s an enjoyable movie.
Hitch
Will Smith plays Hitch, the ‘love doctor’ who helps the King of Queens guy get a Paris Hilton type girl. Now Hitch isn’t one of those sleazy douchbag-looking pickup artists you always see on tv…no no no, this is a nice charming guy who genuinely helps the underdogs get the girl they love. Of course, it IS a romantic comedy so you must have the ‘love doctor’ fall in love with a girl who’s cynical about men. Hilarity ensues. Good flick for both chicks and dudes
Serendipity
This movie deals with fate. In a larger context, fate and free will is just the same thing. I watched Serendipity at a particular night at a particular place because I chose to come and study here which was made possible because of the grades that I worked hard for. It was my choices that led me to that particular cold night watching the movie. Yet, I also believed it was fate, I was meant to lazy around on a couch watching Serendipity while it was snowing outside. Why? It was your choice and you could’ve chosen another path? I could’ve but I didn’t. What if you made a different choice and end up somewhere else? Doesn’t matter because it didn’t happen. Life is an interplay between fate and free will. You decide Love and Love decides you but never ever let one side fully dictate your life. Fate can be explained in many ways but never ever listen to the explanation made by those who uses it as an excuse for laziness. Like I said in Enchanted, being in an extreme end of things are not the way to go.
Wait, I haven’t even mentioned about the movie!! Ummm…Serendipity is a good movie. It has John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. Go watch it.
WALL-E
“What was the last chick flick you watched in theatres?”
“Ummm….Wall-E”
“…….that’s NOT A CHICK FLICK!!”
“Yes it is!”
“No! It’s a cartoon!”
Wall-E is not an environmental movie at its core. It is a romantic story set against a backdrop of an environmental message. Sure, Wall-E saved the world in the end but actually the primary motivation that drove this lonely robot throughout the movie was simply the desire to be loved. Listen ladies, guys would do anything for a girl. Worst case scenario: Guys do stupid things and embarrass themselves. Best case scenario: Guy would bring out the best in him all because of a girl. Because of a girl, Wall-E saved the world. What would your man do for you? Or better yet, have you really appreciated what your man had done for you? Think about it.
When Harry Met Sally
“Can a guy and a girl be good friends?” That was a question a friend of mine have asked because her friend didn’t believe in such thing. I say yes but it can be tricky because things might develop into something more than friendship. It could end up well if you’re lucky but usually it just turn into an emotional mess but hey! that depends on how the two of you decide to deal/play with it.
This movie deals with that question and much more….and it’s a hilarious movie too!! It is one of my favourite movie and I don’t know where to begin in writing about it (PLUS I’m tired of writing this post …I’m not that passionate about writing on romance & relationship ). So I’ll just bombard you with clips:
Of course, it wouldn’t be complete with this scene:
A Half Remembered Dream
A more recent posts on my dreams plus with references to the movie, Inception
I have always been fascinated with dreams. Anything can happen in dreams and for most people they are beyond their control. It can be exciting or frightening but most of all, it is mind-boggling. It is a place where you experience your heightened fantasies and fears that you most probably don’t know you even have. I believe that the best way to understand your own mind is to dive directly into your subconscious part of the mind and dreams are the easiest place to do it. Some seek to fully control their dreams but I prefer not to. I want them to surprise me…I want to see what kinda of stuff my mind can create.
Most of the time, I tried to mentally recall my dreams as soon as I wake up but recently I’ve scribbled down notes every time I have a chance to wake up (Nov 1 – 11 2009; May 11 – June 2 2010). The fun part begins when you are fully awake and you start reading the stuff you wrote. Some of them actually create a coherent narrative:
May 14
Group of students in a theatre with an empty stage – trying to create a play but there is no script – a teacher shows up warning us to leave if we don’t have anything to show – the scriptwriter (a white girl) and her friend (a black girl with curly hair) wrote the first scene – a casual talk between characters at a dining table and they find a mysterious origami – they asked us for suggestion on the next scene – my friend, Ida stood up and start giving some elaborate suggestion – I disagree and suggest another scene – we argued
Some of them are randomly funny:
May 23
Watching TV – saw a music video of a new catchy song by Mischa Barton and Lindsay Lohan – titled “Candy Time” – lyric – “wake up, it’s the morning, It’s Candy TIME!”
And some are just…it made me pause and say WTF? because it seemed to be gibberish:
May 17
The city got its ‘Voice’ back. I told Joan that I’ll be the new voice of Amy’s town.
“Building a dream from your memory is the easiest way to lose your grasp on what’s real and what is a dream”
But as strange these dreams may sound like, they can be dissected and explained. The first dream is just an alternative representation of a real life situation between me and my friend (in this case, arguing about direction of a script we’re working on). Furthermore, the origami is a reference to the game ‘Heavy Rain’.
The second one is strange because as far as I know Mischa Barton is not a singer. But I could tell that the ‘Candy Time’ lyrics have its basis from Robin Thicke’s ‘It’s in the Morning’ song. As for the third dream, the only image that I remember from that dream was an animated city from the Facebook game, ‘Social City’. As for the inclusion of my friends and the whole business of ‘Voice’…that I have no clue.
Therefore, a dream will always have its basis from aspects of your memory. But can it have a basis from things that hasn’t happen yet?
Dreams as prophecy
Throughout history, some people have associated dreams with predicting the future. I lost a comic book once and I dreamed that I would find it in a drawer. I woke up the next day and guided by my dream, I found the comic on that very same drawer. A divine message? Or was I just thinking about the possible areas where the comic is and the dream was just a mental representation of my thought process?
Let’s take another recent example. I dreamt about me and my brother trying to climb over a fence. My brother climbed first and when he did, I noticed a big centipede on his back and then I woke up. Later that day, me and my brother were watching Bear Gryll’s Man vs Wild and there is a scene where he encounters a big centipede! Was my dream predicting this? Or was it just my mind taking something from my memory (a movie called ‘Human Centipede’) and it manifest itself in the dream? Back in November, I tried to not only write down what I dreamt about but also what happens during the day just to see if there is any connection.
I found out that there is a connection between what goes on in your day with what you dream about later that night. Here’s one notable example where on Nov 4, one of the things I noted that happened that day was “Laptop got fucked up” and this is what I strangely dreamt about that night:
Nov 4
I was walking on the street – my laptop was in the middle of the street – went to plug it out and shut it down – three kids/siblings (a girl, a boy and an older brother) starts stepping on my laptop intentionally – I pleaded them to stop – they refused to stop – I got furious – I punched the little girl and choked the little boy to the ground and threaten him – the older brother was standing up and too scared to do anything – they all fled. I met them later – they were scared – smiled at me – one shook my hand
And all of that was created by my mind only because I was frustrated with how my laptop got fucked up earlier in that day. Now it is really an interesting exercise to keep a record on your dreams however I stopped doing it mainly because it got more difficult to keep up especially when you encounter this situation….
Dream within a dream (DWD)
On May 16, I dreamt about a wrestling match involving Shane McMahon and another wrestler beating up Goldberg. Peter Petrelli, from the TV show Heroes, later arrive at the ring to assist Goldberg. I ‘woke up’ and wrote about the dream in my notebook and then I went back to sleep. A few hours later, I woke up again and was eager to re-read what I wrote. BLANK. I didn’t write anything and never did!! because it was a dream!! A Dream within a Dream! My plan has backfired! This went on several times where I started having dreams of writing about my dreams!!
“This can’t be done. Dreams within dreams is too unstable.”
My method was to write when I’m in a half-awake state because I believe that’s the best time to get a more accurate recollection of your dreams. What I didn’t take into account is I can easily drift back into a dream state OR be deceived into believing that I’m actually awake! Hence, the occasional occurrence of ‘dream within a dream’ (DWD) situation whenever I tried writing in my journal.
But DWD isn’t anything new to me. The first DWD that I remember was when I was kid, I dreamt about watching a cartoon where one of the main characters died. I ‘woke up’ and watched the same cartoon only to see that very same character die. I told my brother that I actually dreamt about it!!! THEN I woke up again….for real this time.
Here’s another more recent DWD:
I took a bath in this large expensive bathroom. Then suddenly a lot of people (from both gender) came in. I was embarrassed and asked one of them “What the hell are you people doing here?!”They said that this was a public place and we are all sharing it. I ‘woke up’. I met three of my friends and told them about my dream. They started debating about it and came up with ridiculous explanation. Later, I was in Starbucks and I was discussing about my dream to my classmates and the subsequent debate among my friends. When I left Starbucks, I couldn’t find my car on the street and started searching for it at a mall (why? Don’t ask). This is where the logical part of my brain kicks in and I said “My car is not here because it’s back at the garage in Brunei”. I woke up for real.
The thing that I noticed in this dream is the amount of time jumps. One moment I’m debating with friends and instantly the next moment I’m at Starbucks. Later, the streets where I lost my car was instantly transformed into a mall. That is entirely illogical and it should’ve been an obvious sign that I was in a dream. But it didn’t wake me up because I haven’t reached that level where I could logically grasp the concept of time and space when I’m in a dream state. Then how could I finally put some logical thinking at the end of the dream?
Wake up call
I’ve noticed that I can only wake up from a dream when I’m in trouble or in fear. I couldn’t find my car so my logical thinking kicks in to escape from the nightmare. I got chased by a monster and force myself to wake up. I had to do an examination and my logical part of the brain instantly creeps up to tell me that I don’t need to because I’ve already sat through it and I passed! I used to think that these are evidence that I’m capable of controlling my dream but I now think I’m merely just reacting than controlling.
Morphing location
Let’s go back to the concept of space in a dream. For me, it is rare for a dream to take place in a single location. I usually end up in an environment that is radically different from where the dream started. Look no further than the dreams that I’ve managed to record:
Nov 1 – Walking on a brick road at night – hallway with red carpet – a shopping mall
Nov 3 – climb a steep green hill – climb down – reach a muddy lake and could only be crossed with the floating logs – entering a club with changing coloured floors
Nov 6 – shopping mall full of people – went upstairs to a casino – went down and the mall was dark and empty – walked further and end up at an airport
Nov 11 – in a ‘Counter Strike’ map (CS assault) – parking lot – swamp – residential area
What was amazing is that these locations morphed in a seamless way that you don’t even realize it.
Here’s an example of one of my recorded dream that seemed to combine all of the major aspects that I’ve mentioned so far (Real life basis, Dream within Dream & Morphing location) plus a surprising twist at the end that I will get to later:
May 29
It started with me and my friends on a road trip around New York. We didn’t have any maps so we followed our guts (real life basis: we recently did a road trip). We eventually end up at a shopping mall that was about to close. The girls rushed around and shop a lot while I only bought one shirt.
I woke up and I wrote down what I dreamt about (‘Dream within a dream’). I was suddenly at McDonald’s, writing in my dream journal (‘Morphing location’). I was surrounded by my friends who wanted to see what I wrote but I refused to show it them. A guy walked past with three dogs. The three dogs started fighting with a cat and another dog. One of the three dogs was a bulldog who starts spitting his saliva all over the place. A lot of the saliva washed over my burger and I got furious at the dog!
It was suddenly night-time and McDonald’s was no longer located in town but beside a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. My friends and I followed the dirt road and found ourselves at a quiet abandoned resort. We came upon a swimming pool. I recognized the place and told my friend that this was a place where we had a New Year party. She didn’t recall that party.
Now this is where things got interesting. The reason why she didn’t recall that party was because she wasn’t there….actually, NO ONE WAS THERE! IT DIDN’T EVEN HAPPEN….at least in real life. I was actually referring to another dream!!
Memory of other dreams/de javu
I’ve visited the resort many times in my dreams. Of course in another dream, it was full of people and joy (certainly not abandoned). There are many places that I’ve visited many times (creating a sense of de ja vu within a dream) and the most notable one was the fountain room.I’ve talked about this place in my blog few years ago and you can click here to read it. One possible explanation for why I seemed to recognized places that I’ve dreamed before is because these places, just like a lot of things in dreams, have their real life counterparts. I admit that the ‘Fountain’ that I usually come across in my dreams is just a supersized exaggerated version of a fountain at Glorietta shopping mall in The Philippines. Yet, it doesn’t explain one particular dream: My friend and I found a secret passage at our Elementary school that leads us to a magical place with dancing fountains. Years later, I dreamt about returning to that place and actively seeking the very same secret passage (and successfully found it too!).
***
And that was my weird account on dreams and I’m not sure if other people share similar experiences. But what I do know is that there is an upcoming movie that I’m REALLY excited to see!! From the director of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan…
…directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible—inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime.
Things I noticed:
- a mention about creating a dreamworld not based from your memory. I find that almost impossible (“You gotta draw from something right” said Ellen Paige’s character)
- A mention on ‘Dream within a dream’
- A ‘Kick’ – sense of falling that snaps the person out of his dreams. ‘Falling’ in a dream tend to wake you up.
Inception – July 16 2010
**
Well I’m off to bed now! Let’s see what’s in store for me tonight!
***
UPDATE 24/06/2010
My dream the night after I posted this entry. Enjoy
- Made my way to an old run down hospital located somewhere at a backalley of futuristic industrial Blade Runner-esque city
- Met a Chinese doctor and nurse. I needed an special medical treatment to prevent myself from being infected with a new disease.
- The treatment involved making a minor incision on my shoulder. Then they heat up this small but thick disc shape object – place that on the area of my shoulder that has been cut – the object sticks to my skin and eventually gets absorb
- the doctor even introduced to me another procedure where several of these heated disc shaped object gets put on people’s head to increase their memories
- went out of the hospital – Walked through the rainy and dark city – had to pass through a chocolate cake factory – managed to steal one too – arrived at a toy shop but it was closed – I was disappointed but a security guard lady came to me and told me that I will get a discount on my next visit
- I was watching TV and it was showing a documentary on ghosts. The show depicted a scene where a guy was sleeping and his laptop automatically switched on – showed some scary but blurry images – the images seems to be showing a particular room
- next thing I know, I was no longer watching the TV show BUT was part of it! I was part of a team who are experts on the paranormal. My speciality was that I study the connection between ghosts and electrical energy (thus explaining how the guy’s laptop got messed up) – we arrived at an abandoned hospital and there is a dark room – some entered the room (a cop and a scientist) – we suddenly hear a scream and two fingers flung out of the room and hit one of the cameraman!! The cop and the scientist got out of the room – the scientist were screaming and showing his bloody hands (missing fingers!) – the rest of us were closing the door and try hard to prevent whatever is inside the room from getting out – THEN a head pops out of the door – A PALE FACE WITH WHITE BLANK EYES!!! – EVERYONE SCREAMED! – I shouted MOTHERFUCKER!
An interviewer? What kind of interviewer are you huh? Kidnapped me…
Don’t worry, everything is going to be fine…
and tied me to this freakin chair! And put me in this dark room?! WTF!
Don’t worry…we just want a chat with you. So how’s everything?
Fine fine..just finished my exams and..by the way, I passed, well, not that you care…
Congratulations..
..and I’m back home and..oh yeah, and I’m now tied to a chair being forced to do an interviewer with you..whoever you are, so yeah, everything is FINE~
So now that you have nothing to do, I guess you’re returning to blogging right?
I don’t know and why should you care?
So you’re busy with other things then?
Not really..aside from being tied up!
..but you’re doing things other than blogging right? I mean..If I remember correctly, you started the blog because you were in a long holiday..
Yeah, school ended and I was waiting for to get to Uni and..
And you were bored out of your mind and so you created the blog..
Yeah exactly..
..Trylobyte’s Corner on wordpress
..boredom leads to creativity, that’s what I like to say..I think I’ve wrote that somewhere in my blog or maybe it was in the old blog..
You are referring to the old MSN space page right?
Yeah..this one…’Boredom leads to creativity’ one of those stupid random quotes I like to say..wait how the hell do you know that? How the hell do you know a lot of things about my blog?
Because I’ve followed your blog for a long time, you could say I’m the biggest fan of your blog
Biggest fan? Hahaha..you? A fan?
What? You don’t appreciate your readers?
I do but a fan? A fan of this blog? THAT IS JUST SAD
You don’t believe that there is someone who is fan of your blog?
nop…People search, they stumble upon posts I’ve made, they read it, they enjoyed it..well, i hope they did..and then they leave AND THAT is how things go with this place…no fans
I’m sorry to hear your pessimistic view
Well good for you, so~ mr.’Fanboy’..why don’t you untie me and let me go
I can’t do that
why not?
because I have few things to ask you…you know…catching up on things…
***
Click more to see the rest of this odd interview as Trylobyte touches on various topics such as Twitter, Facebook, TV and other random stuff. AND find out the shocking end of the interview that you just have to read it yourself to believe!!!
Sorry for the lack of update lately. I’ve been busy with assignments/essays and I thought ‘maybe I should start writing some posts again when my term holiday starts‘ yet when holiday started, blogging was the last thing on my mind hehe. Just want to say that I don’t think I’ll make any post till the New Year because I’ll be in London doing…well…things besides blogging that is.
Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone (everybody celebrates Christmas…the commercialized version of it at least) and enjoy your holiday!
I just realized that few days ago (November 15) marks the first year anniversary of this blog! Holy F***! It has been one year? A year ago I was bored and sitting in front of my computer while starting this blog. Now…I’m still bored and sitting in front of my computer writing this post…some shit never change
Anyway, thank you to all those who viewed this blog (all 126,214 of them) and those who left comments, I appreciate it, it kept me ‘blogger sane’ because then I know somebody actually read what I wrote (especially during the early months of blogging).
I was planning to write an overview on the posts I made since last year but I remember that I pretty much wrote about it in my previous post. So I’m just gonna copy and paste it here:
Some of my earlier post were more personal like the one I wrote about my story idea or the recurring dreams. Even the post about Battlefield and WWE were also personal. I think I should do those personal posts more often rather than being preoccupied by movies. My friend even called my site a movie blog. WTF
I also remember how at the beginning, I said to myself that I’m not going to talk about politics. Blah! I guess I failed in keeping up with that promise. Another promise that I sort of broke was the one that I stated in my About page.
…post about things that interest me…..anything that’s part of the Pop culture that I find necessary to post about (no I’m not going to talk about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, you can find that somewhere else)
Recently, I made few posts on my country Brunei. I just thought that I needed to write something related to Brunei or maybe it’s just another way to balance out all those movie related post.
I’ve also noticed how I began to write more episodic posts (eg Part 1, part 2). Several reasons; either the original idea of the post was too long or I was just lazy to finish the post and hold it off for later. Examples of this can be found here, here and here.
Oh and one more thing, I realized that I have only reviewed one book. Man, I haven’t read any novels for a long time. I’ll try posting a review of books that I have read. (fiction or non fiction).
I wrote that back in March and I have little to add to it except for few things I did since March like:
Finish my ‘Trylobyte Odyssey Portal’ page that I was planning to finish by November 15 lol (more on this later)
Restructure my ‘Top Post’ page. It’s outdated now.
Publish this post that I’ve been thinking about in the past few days
Hopefully adding more links in my links bar/blogroll.
If you’re interested in some random statistic facts about my blog then click ‘More’ at the bottom of this post. In the meantime I’ll leave you with Coldplay’s ‘Lovers in Japan’. No reason….just felt like putting up a video at the end of this post hehe
I haven’t been blogging for few days (ok make that for a month!!) but here I am now! I’m back! I’m not going to write a long account in paragraphs of what has been going on so far, instead, I’m just going to dump few random things in this post that would hopefully give you some idea. So here we go…
Random Quotes
“Konichiwa” - Some white dude greeting me with a smile while I was walking down the streets. Oh what the hell, I said Konichiwa back to him lol.
“The only good thing about London is getting out of it” - Some elderly Taxi Driver at Canterbury who also turned out to be one of the owners of the Taxi service itself.
“Get the fucking the books. Or even better just photocopy it. Just pretend that you didn’t hear that from me” -A lecturer who looked like Moby (there’s another one who looked like Bill Gates)
“Cheers mate”
- I’m probably the only one who says “thank you” instead of cheers around here.
“Sorry housemates, I was really drunk last night. I will clean this in the morning”
- A note posted on the door of one of the bathrooms (good thing there’s three bathrooms). Btw, he never cleaned it LOL the cleaner did.
Friend: Basar jua susu atu
Me: Kan tekluar bah
Friend: Sini susu2 saja bah Baie
- A conversation we had in malay while passing a voluptuous woman. We said it out loud and nobody understands it. Of course we didn’t stare coz that would be obvious.
“Urang Brunai kah tu?”
- a phrase we always say whenever we see: a) dark skinned person b) a girl wearing ‘tudong be-design2′c)Mua urang brunai lah
Random dude: Are you Malaysian?
Us: No, we’re Bruneians
Random dude: oooo……*short nod*
*Silence* Random dude stare somewhere else
Us: Are you Malaysian?
Random dude: No, I’m Bruneian
Us: OOooooOOO [*thinking* mcm nada bah urang ani]
- Us meeting one Bruneian (there’s a whole bunch of them in Canterbury)
“Iatah bah”
- me randomly saying a Malay Bruneian word when talking to an Italian girl
“bah apa karang malam? Crash? Crash rumah urang”
- The phrase we always say when we’re bored (almost every night in the first few weeks). Usual target? The UBDians
“Salnviger?” (Salt & Vinegar?), “minus?” (Mayonnaise?) - Barely audible staff at the local Kebab shop (really funny cool guys though)
- Shopping is fun…..until you multiply the amount by three. 20 pounds kau blanja? Duit brunei brapa tu? Hehe
- Making lots of friends is nice….until they nominate you for Society president and you don’t know shit!
- Taking a hot shower is great….until you step outside and remember that it’s below 10 degrees. Baik tah ku mcm urang putih inda mandi
- Asian night sounds fun….until you find out that it should’ve been called “South Asian” night.
- Going to a halal restaurant is a relief…..until you find out they also serve Bacon burger….ok that’s fine, the chicken is halal….until you find out that they cook in the same kitchen and stuff…tapi iya ckp halal kalau d tanya so…..di halal uleh ya, iya tanggung dusa
- Walking around campus at night can be boring…..until you meet some drunk ass white dude making a fool of themselves…just the right entertainment we need.
- Staring at hot girls is ok….until you almost accidentally hit a pole Sapa kan tegantuk tiang tu ah?! *coughsiSafcough*
- Buying stuff and cooking together is a good idea….until you find out only two know how to cook and the rest were hopeless
- It’s really easy to make fun of vegetarians…until you find out that she also has a black belt in karate
- Going to the library is a good idea….until you find out how big the library is and you don’t know where to start
As I mentioned few weeks ago, I’m moving to UK…the city of Canterbury to be exact (somewhere at the southeast of England). Before that I had to endure a long tiring flight Brunei to UK with a short stopover at Dubai.
NOTE: Recalling from memory. And times are in Brunei time (+8 GMT)
7pm (22/9/08) – Take off. Little did I know that it’s going to be one long boring flight.
10pm – got bored and started to try out the airline’s Sky Show with their selection of inflight movies. I chose to watch Kung Fu Panda despite having seen it many times. I think it’s one of the best animation to come out in recent years (aside from Wall E but that’s more of a sci fi epic while this one’s just plain fun) and they’re making a sequel which would definitely not be as good as the first one but I would still watch it
11pm – Fell asleep while watching Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of Crystal Skull.
4am – Arrived at Dubai and I think it was around midnight at Dubai. Sadly, I only stayed there for half an hour at the airport. Random info: I saw Azerbaijan airlines for the first time too.
5am – Fell asleep again.
7am – Woke up for awhile…listen to songs…fell asleep again
11am – Woke up and decides to spend the last two hours watching Indiana Jones 4 again and this time managed to finish it. I enjoyed the movie more actually and I thought it was a perfect ending to the series. NO Shia Labeouf/Mutt Williams movie please.
2pm/7am UK time - Arrived at London. Managed to avoid some dogs at the custom. Those were big dogs!
NOTE: Recalling from memory. And times are now in UK time (GMT)
10pm/11pm (23/9/08) – Arrived at Brunei Hall. We quickly decided not to stay and just go straight to Canterbury and get it over with.
12pm/1pm – Went around London (small section of of it). Tried the ‘tube’. It rained (creating this dull gloomy windy environment)
2pm/3pm – Hired a van (but he arrived with a bus!) to take us to Canterbury. Long winding journey out of London.
5pm/6pm – Arrived at Canterbury. Got lost for awhile which was also a good opportunity to see the city.
7pm – An international Student Dinner night. I went there and mingle around.
People: So how’s your flight? Me: Boring, it was a long one about 16-17 hours People: Shit! Really Me: Yeah.. yeah *drinks* People: What time did you arrive? Me: umm..this morning People: SHIT REALLY! Me: Yeah! People: Don’t you feel Jetlagged Me: Jetlagged? kinda…but I’m not really that exhausted People: So you arrived here at canterbury at what time? Me: An hour ago People: Really?! Wow you don’t look tired? Me: I don’t? Guess I’m a good actor then *laugh* Padahal mata ngantuk mendangar urang belgium ani ceta2. Pasal Politik lagi!!
In recent years, there’s a rise in popularity of satellite TV here in Brunei. Mostly (if not completely) due to the way it enables us to watch our favourite Indonesian channels. Nowadays, it’s normal for us Bruneians to have access to three different ’TV modes’ in a single household: the local Bruneian channel, the Malaysian Astro cable channel (eg.HBO, Cartoon Network, etc) and the satellite TV (receiving Indonesian channels). It’s usually a tug o war in my house between me wanting to watch cable channels and my mom with her Indonesian channels.
There are some good shows in the Indonesian channels and there are some bad ones. Then there are the “so-bad-it’s-good” ones . What’s interesting is that the shows that fit into this “so-bad-it’s-good” belong to the Sinetron genre, the type of shows that my mom loves to watch. What’s a Sinetron? It’s a short form of “Sinema Elektronik” (Electronic Cinema) and it’s basically an Indonesian version of Soap Opera. The main reason for why they fit into the “so-bad-it’s-good” category is that all of them share the same cliche that always makes me laugh whenever it shows up on screen. Here are the list of cliches of a Sinetron that I could remember:
The hero (usually a heroine) is soooooo good…like really really good, caring, noble…I mean all of the good qualities of human being magnified 1000x. She is soooo innocent to the point that she is very stupidly naive and get fooled by the bad guy every single second!!! This goes on till the very end of the series when the bad guy finally get his/her ass kicked by bad karma.
The moral of the story:When facing oppression, don’t stand up for yourself. Instead, just be patient and take all beating from the bad guy because one day she will get what she deserves. Maybe tomorow or in ten years but it will come eventually
Extra points: The good girl wears a head scarf and sweet looking. For maximum impact, reveal that she teaches children Quran reading as her part time job.
The bad guy (usually an evil bitch) is sooooo F***ing evil that she will do anything to get what she wants and make the good heroine suffer badly. There is one sinetron where the evil bitch got what she wanted (she gets to marry the heroine’s boyfriend) and yet she still continues to make the heroine’s life miserable by framing her for murder so she gets sent to jail. I mean she already got what she wanted! How f***ing evil can she be (and this is after the heroine admitted defeat and wish the evil bitch & her ex boyfriend good luck in their marriage). But don’t worry, the evil bitch got sent to the prison by the end of the series if I remember correctly.
The moral of the story:Being evil also equals to being smart. Try to be creative when you want to do some evil things to someone eg. frame someone for murder, ask a ‘bomoh‘ or a witch doctor for help to do the dirty job or claim that you were raped by the hero (usually a good looking guy who works at the mosque). And be a good liar too.
Extra points: The evil bitch is hot and sexy. And she must have bulging eyes! When she talks, her eyes keeps bulging (accompanied by dramatic music) to show how evil she is Hahaha. For maximum impact, have TWO evil bitches: the evil step mom and the evil hot/sexy bimbo daughter
A love triangle.The good guy and the bad guy out for the same girl or vice versa.
Random martial arts scene. Hero must know how to do martial arts moves. It’s also an opportunity for the director to try to do some exciting kinetic Matrix style fights. Even better, have a good looking pious man do martial arts with superpowers!
Evil shape shifting snakes. Usually locked in a battle with a badass pious man.
Big beautiful houses. One of the main highlight of an Indonesian tv series or movies is the way they showcase the big modern designed houses in Indonesia.
Comic relief characters: homosexuals, cross dressers, midgets. Any other characters who isn’t a good looking teenager are usually the ones that provides the comic relief. Besides, good looking teenage characters are busy with angst ridden love plot anyway….no time for humour. (BTW, a lot of teenage Indonesian stories now. What happened to those old Kadir & Doyok comedies or Sundel Bolong type of horror. Although I heard from many that Ayat2 Cinta is really good)
The title of the show is the name of the heroine. Sort of a trend these days…let me list down the names that I could remember: (Na)Dia, Suci, Intan, Candy, Mawar, Soleha and there’s a new one coming out during Ramadhan called Syarifah I think…forgot which channel.
We hear the voices inside the character’s head. Extra point: We hear the evil bitch’s plan (I know, the villain could be a guy but most of the time it’s a girl) through a voice over. Meanwhile, she smiles evilly and play with her eyes BUT nobody around her notice that she’s making evil facial expression!!! HAHA :-P
Longer than it should be. The series tend to drag and just frustrate the viewers. Probably because the producers or TV station stretched it out due to the success of the first few episodes.
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That’s all I can come up with. Have any more ideas?
Last night there was this idiot dribbling a basketball at the bowling alley and distracting other bowlers. Felt like throwing the F***ing bowling ball to his face!
Sorry for the Twitter like post hehe I was just trying to finish up another post about Batman 3 but I got writer’s block.
Here’s a random ‘game’ that my friend and I came up with during a MSN messenger session. It started with him giving me a link to the theme song of the game Metal Gear Solidover at YouTube. I replied with a link to the Battlefield 1942 theme song and so we went back and forth giving links to musical scores we like, be it from a game or a movie. But eventually we started trading YouTube links to songs that we consider to be ‘guilty pleasure’ songs (he started by ‘rickrolling’ me with that Never Gonna Give You Up song). Note that we don’t neccessarily considered these songs to be bad but they are something we enjoyed, laughed and remember fondly.
It’s kinda funny listening (and watch the music videos!!) to songs like Modern Talking’s ‘Brother Louie’ or Mc Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’ again. We continually went “hey, remember this song?” or “OMG, this song used to…” back and forth. This went on for about an hour and some of these songs are now stuck in my head thanks to it.
Click More to see some of the songs that we ‘rediscovered’ during our little game over MSN. Enjoy the trip back in time
). So I’ll just bombard you with clips:
