-Human Observations Report…-

Been slightly free-er lately and thus manage to steal some time to start babbling agian here…

Yeap lets see. Today no stories about world peace and all. Oh, yes there is. Heard about the heartbreaking news of a 13 year-old girl in Eygypt dead of female circumcision, the second recently thus prompting the Eygyptian government to ban the practice. Good step forward dudes… One more victim is simply one too many. Its probably better that the poor girl is dead than living an life of suffering and terror. Never heard of whats this all about? Go read some but be prepared, its not for the faint hearted. Might cause slight mental disturbance but please don’t blame me. Well, just hope they are showing the good example for other north-African countries.

Moving on…

Managed to watch Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam before I started working. Well, to be honest, I like it, and it kinda reminds me of Spinning Gasing  as both feature some traditional Malays dance that I really loved since in was really young, the kind that kinda touches my soul everytime I see or hear it (the music).

Essentially, the movie starts in the setting of 1940s Malay village and a beautiful Gamelan dancer was awarded the title of Prima Donna by the palace followed by her marriage and her fall - death in a mysterious murder and her most precious personal belongings taken away.

*Spoilers ahead*

Her friends later arrived to find her dying and she asked them to save her baby which shes very pregnant with. one of them then took the baby away, presumably to indonesia to be raised while the other one was killed as well. The story then continues with the haunting of the village by her unrested spirit turning into a pontinak - vampire/banshee, prompting her villagers to burn down her house and destroy all thats left of her. It was also said that the boat her husband took to Surabaya have sunken. It is then revealed that the person behind this was a friend who is jealously attracted to her.

The scene then cuts to the present time where the village has developed into a modern town. But the presence of a girl who mysteriously resemble the late Prima Donna, Mariam have shaken the hearts of a few. Soon, it became apparent that the pontianak is back for a revenge, by possessing this girl called Maria.

*Spoilers end*

First of all, I am very enchanted by the beauty of Maya Karin playing Mariam and I have no disappointment whatsoever when she dances as the Prima Donna. I love the 1940’s setting and  its the part which I enjoyed most which unfortunately only lasted for the first one-third of the movie. It is a sad but beautiful story which i expect to watch as a melodramatic ghost story rather than a scary one. I would say Maya Karin is perfect as the prima donna as she seem to be able to carry herself as the proud, beautiful and admired by all, plus theres a certain age in her eyes which somehow makes her fit perfectly into the olden era.

The present however, was slightly boring as it is slow paced with not much happening and with a few somewhat misplaced characters and roles. Even Maya herself appear abit stiff and out of place during her performance as Maria. The pontianak parts were slightly irritating with too much repetition of sounds and visuals. Make up and sound effects are actually quite crappy. But Maya was quite natural as pontianak though.

The scenes didnt flow very smoothly especially in the present era. But I assume its was all the fault of the Malaysian censorship board for forcing the pontianak to appear like its only a few nut-dude’s hallucination. I was aware that many changes have been made to the cinematography to accommodate this nuisance so I decided to not judge on those, and try to imagine the movie as it would without all these nonsense censorship thing going on.

The ending is certianly very touching, I wish they would show it as it is a "real" thing rather than a hallucination - sadly disappointing.

Other than that, I would prefer the ghost to be more of a spirit rather than an embodiment - although yeah, the traditional pontianak is more to an embodiment - and emphasize more on the emotions of the ghost rather than trying to be scary, which turns out kinda lame.

Lastly, I fell in love with its theme song, Pulangkan, by Misha Omar, something which I didn’t understand why people were so obsessed with 3-4 years ago. Lol…I’m so outdated. But its a hauntingly beautiful with quite a nice music video.

All in all, I think its a not bad job from our local director, Suhaimi Baba, its better than the multimillioin ringgit Puteri Gunung Ledang which deliberately dwindles towards the second half due to… I dunno, mismanagement of time and funds I presume. Its a beautiful story told, and yeap, good photogrqaphy and art direction, and it makes me want to see more of old-time Malaya. Ahh, and as a plus, its fun to see the girl, Yuli doing traditional massage with her feet and singing Bengawan Solo.

For me, I’ve tried to ignore the setbacks and technical weaknesses to truly enjoy this movie. Well, way to go for the local film industry.

Does it? Just do the regular stuffs and be done. If you got a little extra time and a little extra energy, then go do a little more. Maybe thats really how it goes.

…in life.

Life…has taken me to a point where important decisions are being made. The first steps to the rest of my life.

Job, I’ve got one now, starting to get a hang of it and its probably not as nightmarish as the first weeks, except for the super cold air conditioning. So I wouldn’t wanna think too much of it right now. But might wanna request for a change of place soon, if they aren’t going to do so.

I have a DSLR now - Very happy - A graduation gift from my mom. Thanks mom, you’re the greatest… But I have yet to learn its functions and use it for some serious shooting.

But well, overall, I’m afraid that I still do not know what I want to do with my life. Gonna marry and have children just like everyone else?? Or leave my comfort zone and go do some crazy stuffs I dream of? Then grow old and die alone? That sounds abit sad. I used to want to do everything, I still want to do many things. But as I grow older, it becomes clearer that we can sometimes only do so much. Like we can only learn so many subjects in Uni, we can only choose one path… stuffs like that.

That I kinda end up becoming a jack of all trades, master of none - or a master of jacks… hahaha. I prefer to be a balanced individual, to explore all that I could, to enjoy life to its fullest, to explore all possible tracks. I tend to do this when I play games, and I play it over and over again, trying to find the perfect pathway. But in life, there is a time limit, and I can only play it once. And thats it. Perhaps, in the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. All things end the same way… and then forgotten. Its a sad fact that I have come to live with. But as long as I’m living, thinking, feeling, my life still matters to me.
Most people probably already have an idea of how they want their life to be. I used to have an idea, but I doubted it, and now I no longer know. Some people live with a burning passion. Some drown in greed. Some just floats around aimlessly. Some fight so hard just to survive. I do not wish to become any of these. But I do not know what is it like. I fear… and fear has once again crippled me like that… I do not understand the meaning of survival, neither have I found the meaning of life.

How do I want my life to be? Perhaps I’m thinking too much. My mind has taken me too far. I need to learn to live in the present. Should I just let the currents of time sweep me through? Will I end up in the right place? My inner voice has been quiet lately. I need its wisdoms. Perhaps I’ve been ignoring it alot lately. I just want to be happy, but what does it take for me to be happy? I do not know. Why am I in this tunnel again? Wheres the light now?….

I’ve wanted to make this update for a while, but haven’t found the time. Been so busy lately, that I feel the last post has become so stale, it started growing mosses and mushrooms, probably trees and shrubs…

Anyway, updates… I finally graudated MMU!!! yay…thats big news. Its been so tough, I struggled all the way throughout my final sem, given my all, and gladly rewarded with the best GPA and the best result in a subject. Unfortunately, the GPA boost wasn’t enough to pull up the slack in the past 3 years. Funny thing is, I get the best results from lecturers that I’m most afriad of, heh… Slightly disappointed with my Design Project 2 results too, my majoring subject though. Thought I’ve done quite some. Maybe they missed out something, which is still my mistake. Long story. Just glad that its over. Finally…phew.

Anyway, happy that its the end. Felt abit wierd that I’m not so sad leaving MMU. Not that I hate that place. Kinda like it too. So its just…wierd.

Stupid convo stuff took so long to settle.

Well, took a little break, went for 2 interviews and fortunately (or unfortunately) got an offer and started working exactly after 4 weeks. Haven’t even had enough time to finish clearning up my room, still a mess. Haven’t put up my last post for my FYP blog, halfway through setting up my enhancefilm.com page, currently still consisting of my totally outdated portfolio site and a new, beta blog page.

Job is… well, job. Quite tiring, learning 3dmax all over again, not that I knew much about it before, and learning all the new, crazy, texturing techniques. Been 5-6 weeks now I think, and I’ve been pulling OTs cos, sad to admit, I’m quite a slow learner sometimes. And stayed back to catch up. Gets tiring… In fact, I’m typing this in the office. This job seem to be quite a good offer, but I’m going to need more time to get used to the job here. Interesting new people I meet here though.

But sometimes, I really miss working in Vectorworks, and having the kind of uber-nice boss I had for my intern, not the kind of boss u get anywhere, which unfortunately at the same time also come with a  co-boss whos … strict to say the least.

Anyhow, I’m still not sure if this is the place for me to be. Though I may not want to get rejected either…

Lotsa things I wanna say, like how I feel ashamed of humanity, that I’m actually a part of this horrible race called human beings, and the fact that we’re not as civilised as we’d like to think we are, but perhaps some other time. The office is getting deserted. Gotta go. Till the next time I steal a couple of minutes… take care you guys, and to those who are still looking for jobs, best of luck. Hope to see some of you on convo. And oh, don’t forget our gathering in Alamanda ya? 12 August.

Ciao~…

This woman said it all…

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=nul >> nuff said.

Err…yesterday.
Well, as per my previous post, its sad that we’re actually celebrating earth day after such damage and tragedy to our earth. And if you haven’t seen it in the news on TV, well it was WAY more heartbreaking than the pictures.

But are there awareness? Do you recycle? They have these bins in Ikea-Ikano-The curve.

Why can’t we have it in more places? In our university campuses for example. Around town. Do you realise that your discrepancy in using paper can help contribute to the conservation of our precious forests? Why precious? Because it takes hundreds of thousands of years to form, forests like ours. That it is so dense that our forests contributes to almost 30% of the oxygen for for the world. Chopping off one such tree is like stopping 10 air conditioners of the earth.

Which reminds me of the good old school days, when we have to stand in the scorching afternoon sun to wait for our buses. Well, the bus stops are usually small, woudlnt fit too many students, and the heat is unbearable. They can install fan and all in the bus stop, but nothing beats the few tall trees nearby. There were no benches there, so many woudlnt go there, a tree is still the best shade provided by nature. No need for steel and electrical fan. Its the best thing you could have in a typical malaysian sunny afternoon.

Trees aside, we have animals too, animals whom we regard as lesser beings, are often mistreated. Whos the beast now huh? Stories of animal cruelties are still widespread, of people deliberately torturing them, denying them all sorts of neccessities. Have you ever give a thought for the bird in the cage? or the dog in chains? Those in the zoo? Ever consider if they truly belong there? How they feel? What if its you?

Having said that, theres another buggy issue going about in Malaysia, of politicians blurting out things they shouldn’t say. I think its not as much a slip of tongue than a deliberate attempt at expressing their innermost thoughts and leave the consequences for later. Or perhaps, there isn’t any consequences. Why? Because they are politicians. They rule, they can say anything they want. Who is there to stop them? And whatever they say will go into the primetime news. Great! Everybody hears it. When the public makes noise, they go, “Oops, I said that? So sorry”. Oops, didn’t know they were gonna cut down the trees like that. “Bathe this keris in the blood of infidels…Oops i went on tv?”, “All female bloggers are jobless liars… Oh that was not true? I said that on International Women’s Day? What women’s day?” And so on and so forth. Its funny really, as it is annoying.

In the end of the day, its really about stopping a moment to consider the things around us, to think about others, what we said, what we did, how we made others feel. Is somebody gonna get hurt? Always keep in mind that the earth is round, therefore what goes around, comes around, and might come knocking you in the head and you don’t even know what hit you…like huh?? I did that to you?…Well, sometimes we don’t realise what we do, but we try.

Recent reports of massive land clearance in Lojing Highlands, boardering with Gua Musang and Taman Negara left my heart shattered in pieces.

Are you aware? http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/3/28/nation/17274386&sec=nation&focus=1

I first saw it in the news on tv, and seriously, it was way more heartbreaking than this pic here in the link, and this is only like, a small portion of it.

Gosh, I feel so helpless. Why are they doing this? Dont they need air to breathe, suckers??? Look at the global warming now. Its so darn freaking hot these few days. I know they those people in charge on top has all pleasure to sit in their air conditioned rooms and cars 24-7, while some of us here gets frequent power outage, or some cant even afford an aircond. Don’t they have a mind?? Dont they? They dont need clean water to drink? They think clean water still fall from the sky these days? They think they are the only one whos living in this freakin world therefore clean water and fresh air sufficient for one person left is good enough??

They who can’t even think of smple things like giving some love for our dear forests who provides us fresh air and clean water, then they shall have bad dreams for the rest of your pitiful ignorant lives. Its too bad that their descendants will have to wear 2000degrees glasses. We keep getting more selfish assheads like these, God bless the future…

For starters, is there anything we could do? Where’d all the campaigns go? Write a petition? Do they even listen?

Heh…took me a long time. Sorry I didnt upload the next day as expected. I’ve been very busy as well at the same time. So here it is, uploaded my trip pics, covering the last 3 days, Milan and Switzerland. Added captions, descriptions, some stories if you’re interested. You can view it here in my album http://jenncrystal.blogs.friendster.com/photos/italy_trip/index.html

Happy viewing.
And before its too late, Happy Chinese New Year everybody.

Yeah…

Finally, managed to upload some photos from my trip to Italy here. Gosh, can’t believe I took almost 2 months. =P

Well, I went for a trip to Europe on 2nd October 2006, 11 days trip, though the plane was scheduled for departure at 11.59pm. You know how these people manipulate time to get more money. But anyway, its a nice place, very nice. Wonderful experience, getting to visit 6 countries; 3 big, 3 small ones. The big ones are Italy, France and Switzerland. Smallest, Vatican, followed by Monaco, and then San Marino, with the latter being the 2nd and 4th smallest contries in Europe (or the world??) respectively. (the 3rd is Luxemberg) Lots of old buildings and alot of greenery. Very romantic indeed. And for them, their city is a sort of an open air museum. They preserve these old buildings for modern use, as offices, shopping lots, and they are very well maintained, espcially compared what we see in KL centre. The people there, are just different.  Romantic. They dress in formal attire and ride nice motorbikes with high shields. Some rides bicycles. How often do you get to see some young, handsome Italian, dressed in office attire, riding a bicycle here?  And then their florists, are just totally stuffs out of paintings. Luscious brightly coloured flowers fill mini booths at the corner of the streets, and then this lady will walk out of it, carrying a bouquet of fresh lilies, followed by a cute lil furry doggie on a leash. Scenes like this, you get to see alot there. And yeah, people there tend to walk around with a dog alot. Those dogs, they look different than those we can find here. Except for the occasional bull dogs.

More later…

Anyway, its situated in my Photo Album, http://jenncrystal.blogs.friendster.com/photos/italy_trip/, but due to the onemonth=50 photos restrictions, I got stuck in France. So if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to upload the rest tommorow. So happy viewing.

From what we’re seeing in the papers lalely, snatch thieves are becoming brutal, heartless, inhumane murderers.

What the hell is worng with them?

All along, snatchthieves have been snatch thieves. petty and annoying. Now, theyre more than just scary. You become helpless against them. The carry deadly weapons with them. parangs, knifes or worse, guns, and would not hesitate to use it. Not just to scare you. Even without weapons they act mercilessly, killing their victims along the way. Why in the first place do they have to do that?

Pregnant woman gets kicked in the stomach, lady on bike gets knocked down onto the sidewalk, and died from head injury, now…college boy slashed to death. All done in BROAD DAYLIGHT!!!!

Who are these people? why are these crimes getting more and more brutal by the day? Could somethign more effective have been done? Do those people ever belong here, in Malaysia? IF not what are they doing here then?

Its pretty obvious actually, that alot of foreign workers, many of them illegal are still lingering around in our contry jobless, esp after our economic downturn. These foreginers are especially voilent when committing crime. But the best part is, they have no records with the police if they’re illegals. The result, they are free to do what they want, go where they want and hardly ever get caught. Who knows, they might even someday apply for citizenship and get it with just a snap of the finger!

And for you religios groups, instead of stalking around catching couples kising, hugging holding hands, and making love, why dont you guys instead keep an eye on these malicious hands who forcefully take from people what doesnt belong to them, and destroys the hopes and dreams of many more? Why the hell is making love ever more sinful than taking lives? And for that petty amount of cash (like how much cash can a college student carry anyway?). And why in the world is the police putting such high charges on people who lost their ICs? knowing that people are so prone to snatch thefts these days, making the lives of those who already lost certain amounts of cash lose more cash. And people are so unkind and dishonest these days that even if they picked up a purse they not only will keep the cash but wouldnt bother to send those douments back to the rightful owners. Don’t you guys have any sympathy at all?? huh?? Think about it. And if those people with stolen ICs every get away with it, whose fault is it then? Why arent people found with stolen ICs be punished more severly instead of lashing out on those who lost it innocently?

And for the good government of Indonesia, i think there is alot of things better to do and people to jail than loving and affectionate couples. WHO CARES IF THEY’RE MARRIED OR NOT?!! I know you would rather see people getting killed than people making love but THIS WORLD NEEDS MORE LOVE GODDAMMIT!!!!

Sometimes, people don’t give us something because we didnt earn it.