Picture update

This post has 71 pictures, just so you know. I won't write much. This time I just want to show pictures. Basically they're just small details about what happened during summer and what I've been up to since I got back...



I cut my hair! And I liked it. And the girl who cut my hair was very nice that day cause she did a temporary curl which was lovely and I absolutely adored it.



Too bad it was literally temporary. That's my hair going all straight again.



Kuih raya, aka Eid cookies (I don't know a better term for it). The only thing my family makes during raya. We couldn't be bothered with other kinds (easier to buy), just this one because EVERYONE loves them and they're so good.....!



Yours truly baking cookies, with her hair returned to the original glorious crap that it always is.



So, you take a lil bit of cookie dough, make it into cute lil balls...



Roll 'em in crushed corn flakes...



Arrange 'em nicely in trays...



And you bake them in Mami's super sophisticated spanking brand new oven! Worked like magic and they came out purr-fect-o and irresistable - they're called Melting Moments (the cookies).



Obligatory raya (Eid) pics.



Bemer and cousins doing something at Che Yah's house. All three wearing baju melayu, two wearing sampin and one wearing songkok. You can guess what's what =)




Sasha and I - nothing special here. I'm wearing kebaya and she's wearing baju kurung.



And this is what we do during Eid, wear nice traditional clothes and ruin them.



Can't remember which day after the end of Ramadhan, but we're at Che Jah's house and that pink thing is absolutely delicious and expensive because it's basically art on food. I don't know what it's called. It's from Sarawak...? I think?



Playing a game of 'Speed' with cousins. Sasha looks very pretty and innocent here.



Syefik getting over excited as I was beating him.



I beat him.



Younger cousins looking on as the older ones acted like complete retards.






Then, right before I flew back to the UK, went to Melaka for the third day of raya (I guess). Melaka is an amazing place, the attraction focuses mainly on preserved buildings and there's a lot of history. It's such a distinct state, that for a while I felt like I was not in Malaysia. Really unique.








Got tired of cam-whoring so we shopped instead =p



And eventually - back in Nottingham! So this is my new room, awfully dirty and in complete disarray. No, it wasn't like this when I arrived, but a guy previously lived in this room, and I did not like the aura, the smell and the arrangement of furniture. I pulled everything out (right when I arrived) before I even started unpacking and started vacuuming every corner of the room until I was satisfied - and I'm so glad I did because it was DISGUSTING.



I don't know what that guy did, but there were a lot of sticky stuff sticking at a lot of places and it's a combination of white and brown gooey stuff. I don't know how I managed to sterilise everything.



He also found it perfectly acceptable to leave broken glass, pebbles, underwear and a lot of other random things in the room.

Fourth picture* I WAS INJURED!

And so I worked my magic and put a lot of feminine touch and.............

TADA~!

Oops, that's my hallway, just wanted to show you how it looked like.

Pingu reading my comic book =p

My super comfortable double bed (I love my room).

Study table (don't love it as much as the bed).

My bundle of joy. Migle said the amount of candy in my room makes it look like Christmas =p

Kitchen

And... heavy snow in Nottingham. Maybe not so heavy by a lot of standards, but in Nottingham it certainly was heavy.




The fence that some drunk driver rammed into on New Year's Eve that made me think it was a robber breaking into the house (poor fence).


In the morning... It was still snowing heavily, and when it finally stopped, the sky was extremely blue. It was so refreshing just walking outside. Took the pictures on the way to Subha's house - she was sick and I had to buy something for her.







And this picture was taken today =) It was such a nice day and you can see the sun shining on my bed through the blinds...




Me feeling quite happy. For some reason.

Well, signing off now! Take care everyone =)

Exam

I suppose this means...

*puts on shades*

I'm screwed.

Snow!

Stupid thin socks.

Avatar (2009) - Spoiler alert!

Figured that I've kept myself in the room for too long and it was driving me crazy. What was supposed to be a quick, innocent trip to the city with Subha to 'get some exercise and fresh air' turned into a full-blown thing including lunch at Zizzi's (with 2 for 1 meal voucher of course), minor shopping (I bought scented candles!) and it ended with a 3D Avatar movie. I almost said no when Subha asked me, but I really wanted to watch it in 3D and I was afraid that they might remove it from the cinemas soon, so I went.

I have a lot to say about this movie. Both good and bad.

I will start with the good, and the most obvious which is the imagination and graphics that went into this spectacularly designed movie. I don't know when I started being such a movie snob, but it's been a while since I've been this excited about a movie. When I put on my 3D glasses, I was practically bouncing on my seat, eager for the movie to start.

And boy, was I rewarded with a sample of what great, creative minds can create. I gasped at so many parts of the movie that displayed the richness of the Earth-like ecosystem, the design of the animals, the fluidity and sense of realness carefully implanted in every organism that appeared in the movie. It was like nothing was there by mistake, or randomness. Each and every leaf was carefully designed, each animal's colour, presence and movement painstakingly matched to be natural. It is a work of art definitely, by someone absolutely meticulous and truly perfectionist. And I admire that to the utmost.

Allow me to digress a little by making a worthy reference to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, an anime produced by Studio Ghibli. It is not like the common animes you see nowadays, definitely worth a watch, if only for the sense of originality of the world thought up by the author. I am probably biased because I have my own comic and I realise that the world I created is very weak and barely believable, and I've been paying special attention to stories that have a strong sense of reality to it, and Nausicaä's world definitely struck me as nothing short of impressive. Especially since it was released in 1984. Some people's thinking are really too forward for the masses.

Back to Avatar, there are just too many things I could praise and therefore I will start from the easiest, and that is Neytiri, daughter of the chief of the indigenous race of Pandora called the Na'vi.

I'm sure you can tell which one of them is the fairer sex - that's Neytiri.

The first time I saw her, I can't help but marvel at how beautiful she was. Not human, but designed to be so closely familiar to homo sapiens that viewers can relate to their body language, facial expressions and emotions. So beautiful and elegant and strong that I actually felt like being a Na'vi. I've seen a lot of movies with elves and witches, vampires, fairies and mermaids in it, and I have never felt like being them. I guess this is the power of realism when every element is carefully considered.

Second, the beauty of the world of Pandora. A character separated from his group and getting lost in an unfamiliar world is an excellent opportunity to showcase the beautiful/terrorising/enchanting experience of the settings (which I shall keep in mind for future use).

What I found most amazing was the night view of the place after Neytiri rescued Jake. The plants and insects were glowing, like glowing jigsaw puzzle in that dark room you see in Sunway Pyramid. And I noticed that the dots on the Na'vi's faces were glowing too, in harmony of their surroundings and again, another excellent piece of detail I must commend.

The concept of 'bonding' with not only animals, but plants was so simple but creative that I wanted to cry out of jealousy - bonding not just mentally, mind you, but biologically as well, using that smooth, soft, tentacle-like appendage that all the organisms in Pandora seem to have in common. How imaginative can you get? I am proud of my imagination, but I am like an infant compared to the creator of Pandora. I admire practicality of design, and to think that their long hair serves more than just appearance and religious belief is enough to make me gawk.

Fourth, I am a big fan of floating worlds, and big chunks of beautiful floating rocks was definitely incorporated into the movie. Nothing new since a lot of stories and games included dimensions with floating land, but again, the realism of it all made it special. Case in point, it was a nest of Banshees (flying reptilian-bird-fish thingamagic) where the would-be warriors of Na'vi go for their rite of passage, the familiarity of the Na'vi with the place, the way the Banshees clutch to the rocks and stayed flat before attacking - it all seemed so natural.

Banshee (Na'vi name: Ikran)

Hammerhead Titanothere (Na'vi Name: Angtsìk)

Fifth, the Hammerhead Titanothere, a massive herbivore with bone-like projections on either side of its skull. It appeared quite early in the movie, and I simply have to comment on how (surprise, surprise) natural (I am running out of synonyms to use) the animals are. When threatened, they would fan out a semi-circle of colourful skin on top of their heads, just the way peacocks fan out their feathers in full force when mating. Just another piece of detail I admire. And not to mention the flying insects (damn, I cannot categorise these animals because they aren't exactly classifiable by Earth standards) with wings (or wing?) that move in circular, helicopter like motions and producing colourful, firey tones with it.

I am slowly losing my memory of what excited me about the movie, which is probably a good thing because basically, I am impressed by how amazing the technical details are, and the imaginative power of the creator. It would do you good to just go to the official website and there's a PandoraPedia of all things Pandorian. If you just watch the movie, you will understand my feelings about it, although being a fellow imaginator (yes, it's a made up word), I shamelessly claim that my appreciation of his skills is above other mortal beings.

Now, swiftly moving to criticisms -

America, America, America - Americanism is so thick in this movie it makes me sick to the stomach. I have nothing against Americans except for the stupid ones. What I mean by stupid is shown by the image below. If I have any American readers, please do not be offended because rest assured you are not stupid if you have any level of respect for non-Americans.

It's like Siti Nurhaliza, you know? I have nothing against her, and I think she made a lot of contribution to Malaysia, but a lot of people criticise her and say bad things about her and that boils down to too much of her. And unlike Hollywood, there are not enough worthy people to compete for the limelight, and if Siti does not step away gracefully to make way for newer, younger artists, people will continue being sick of her. I'm not, just for the record.

Hollywood is out of ideas. Full. Stop.

I have long been unimpressed by their plot because they recycle the same old socks again and again and again. Did you notice? Whenever you watch a Hollywood film, the essentials are some lame sexual scenes that usually doesn't work out because character development is so stupid you fail to feel the emotions; and explosions.

For some unfathomable reason Hollywood has a really stupid infatuation with explosion, destruction of everything beautiful and sacred, it gives some sick people some sick satisfaction to watch priceless artifacts get destroyed in some blooming explosion while the hero heroically jumps away at the very nick of time and has time to make a lame, self-absorbed, sarcastic one-liner about the dreary situation. Transformers II is just so stupid to the point that I cannot even appreciate the technology that goes into the graphics; Over the Hedge is a story about furry shmolies for God's sakes, and for some other reason the director managed to include a huge explosion that made a van fly and destroy a beautiful house - why?

To be perfectly honest, I worshiped the first half of the movie. The second half of it was just old socks again, so distasteful and pointless I felt like an idiot cheated into paying for lame American fetish for fire and explosion.

Like the good points, there are so many bad points I don't know where to start. So let's start with the easiest.

The first thing I said was Americanism.

Because it has to be the freaking American ex-marine guy to win the heart of the chief's daughter, Neytiri (no one less worthy in status), it has to be the freaking same guy who tamed the ferocious flying beast, Toruk, that only 5 Na'vi have ever tamed; and the most cringe-worthy part of the movie?

He gave a freaking speech. That part was really dreadful. I should have seen it coming miles away, but I only detected that something stupid like that would happen when he started moving into the Omaticayan tribe straight towards Neytiri and the atmosphere turned from hostility to that of awe because, "Oooh, look, the American dream-walker traitor tamed the freaking Toruk, we must listen to him."

Look Hollywood, I'm sorry to say this, but I'm afraid Bollywood has patented the right for emotional, awe-inspiring speech moments for heroes/heroins that can move the hearts of millions in a matter of minutes ages ago.

The only thing missing when Jake Sully (that's the name of the ex-marine guy who converted into a Na'vi) was giving that yes-I-betrayed-you-but-I-can-lead-you-against-humans speech was an American flag on Pandora soil.

In a matter of moments, all memory of him being a traitor was lost, everyone is so willing to engage battle with humans with this joker amongst them, the fact that their humongous, sacred tree was just burned down less than a day before forgotten, children, friends, relatives dead in the attack - also forgotten.

Oh, oh, you wanna know what else? During the attack on the Na'vi's Hometree where so many of them died, the horror of it all paled in comparison to a special extended moment of Dr. Grace's death, an American scientist who fell in love with Pandora who died an emotional death while the natives watched on silently and sadly. Sad, definitely, that a peace loving person should die. But why are the Na'vi so receptive when their own relatives just died too?

Highly reminiscent of how a fantastical number of Iraqi civilians violent deaths are downplayed, overshadowed by American casualties, that suffering Iraqis were forgotten. It's always America, America, America. Yeah, imma eff you over because you have weapons of mass destruction. Oh whoops, you don't? Sorry, I guess I was wrong but hey, at least we know you're clean now right?

Jumping right back on track before I stray any further, America definitely needs to be respected for the level of freedom of expression granted to the citizens that Malaysians can only dream of in their wildest dreams. They portray the typical scenario of greedy, rich stakeholders, ruthless, emotionless tycoons ordering the mining of minerals at any cost. In fact it's a replay of Americans versus Red Indian 'savages' all over again. But there's also American heroism, (America is #1, f*** yeah!!!) an American will prevail no matter what, the American guy will know what to do because everyone else is stupid, everyone let's follow the American guy and make him our leader bull.

I would not be harping on this so much apart from the fact that there are too many of this crap circulating around the world. I notice that good movies nowadays are about people dissecting topics about being human, rather than distinguishing people's abilities based on nationality, race or sex. People everywhere are the same, but of course since it's a Hollywood production, who else would be the hero but the American hero. Heck, if they even put a European guy as the leading actor I would stop complaining. There's too much America, and I have to say at this point that this my very own personal feeling. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mind seeing a lot of Americanism everywhere. I mind.

Last in line, bad, stereotypical plot, too easy a conclusion (I could predict the ending less than halfway into the story), no new revelation except that humans are greedy and we are hurting ourselves and other people by being greedy. And yeah, the fact that no one could do a blinking thing but that single amazing American guy. Who of course became the chief because he stole the heart of the chief's daughter. How convenient is that, huh? Learn from the smart one, yeah.

Conclusion? This movie is praiseworthy a hundred times for the state of the art, super advanced graphical technology that moved my heart so, and the imaginative aspect of the world. But story line is just bad, typical, and the one man to save the world is just so old and childish it's an insult to my intelligence that such a bad storyline is integrated with such an amazing world. It's not exactly the whole thing gone down the drain, they did make a lot of money out of Avatar, but it is not a masterpiece. It's a work of art tarnished by simplistic thinking that people would accept such mediocrity.

Ran out of fresh ideas of new ways to tell a story? Ran out of originality? Well look for new ones. That's your job.

And after writing all this, a general consensus from Rotten Tomatoes summed it all quite well.

"It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing film-making."

I thought I would list Avatar as one of my favourite movies, but not this one. If you have nothing against the bad points I've listed rather disorderly above, then it deserves a 9 out of 10, because the plot is not as horrendous as I make it out to be. There are plenty of bad plots out there that I am loathe to mention, but the typical storyline was simply outperformed by a fantastical artistic display, that I got my hopes up in the beginning, and got sorely disappointed.

I do still love the movie. I recommend watching it to everyone! In nothing less than 3D because that's the only way the movie should be appreciated, for lack of a better way of enjoyment.

Stranger in my house

It was almost 3 o'clock in the morning and I was in the kitchen, washing a glass when suddenly, I heard this crashing sound, like something big falling off or a window breaking, so awfully loud I wasn't sure where it came from. It sounded like it came from upstairs.

No one was in the house, I had been up and down the house countless times and I knew for a fact that nothing upstairs would fall if undisturbed.

My heart skipped a beat and I immediately hid behind the kitchen door and waited there for 2 minutes, glass a quarter full of soap water. I realised soon enough that I had no weapon and it didn't cross my mind to grab my huge kitchen knife from the drawer. I attempted to make my way back to my room quietly to get to the phone but the floor creaked miserably beneath my weight and I ran into my room and locked the door. And barred it with a flimsy chair that wouldn't even hold a broom.

It's a new year, everyone's out to celebrate and robbers choose this time to rob a house all the time. I began speculating and for once did I truly appreciate my father's words when he said, "Do not be scared of ghosts. Real people can touch you and harm you."

I was scared out of my wits and couldn't think straight. Every little sound that I usually discard as unimportant would make me jump. Every little creak sounded to me like footsteps of a stranger going down the stairs in my house. And I was all alone.

I enjoyed being alone until that very moment. I prayed and prayed for Migle and Joanna to be back magically from Lithuania and Poland, I prayed to God to make everything alright, but I didn't know how to find out if it was someone in the house or not. What if it was really a person who accidentally dropped something and ran away, and he waited to see if there would be any reaction, and he could be back at any time? Even if I were brave enough to check, Migle's and Joanna's rooms were locked and there's no way of knowing if there's no one inside.

I grabbed a pair of scissors for protection and called Hazriq. He was about to sleep and when I told him how I scared I was I started crying. So scared I was reduced to quiet tears in case 'he' heard me. Too late, now that I think about it. 'He' would have heard my footsteps.

Hazriq said he'd take a cab and come right over. I took comfort in that and called Subha. She was sleeping and my crying had the same effect on her as it did on Hazriq. I didn't know why I was so hesitant to call the police. I didn't know if it was the fact that I was not home in Malaysia. If I didn't feel safe anywhere but to be with familiar people. And I wasn't sure what the sound was, and what I thought were sounds of shuffling above my head could be pure imagination.

I packed a pair of clothing and my laptop just so I can grab them and get out of the house when Hazriq arrived. The wait was unbearable. A million speculations within a few seconds. I started thinking about how on earth do people react in situations like these? In movies, they always grab a baseball bat and check things out. I was completely immobilised. If 'he' were to force entry into my room, I'd open the window wide and escape. Even then I was not sure I could do it without tripping somewhere. I was completely weak and useless.

I peeked outside through the blinds and saw a white car, of what make I had no idea. It was too dark to see who was inside, but there were no other cars in sight, and only that white car was in front of my house. Waiting. I freaked out. There goes my escape route. I resolved to staying in my room until Hazriq arrived.

As I was waiting, listening to Subha breathing on the other end of the line, I thought I heard a creak, a creak so real, that I whispered to Subha that someone was going down the stairs and the shuffling was so damned close to my room that my hand trembled. I went to the window and whispered to her that I was going to run through the window - to hell with the white car, it was gone. I pushed my right feet into my trainers slowly - and then there was a loud bang -

Well it sounded like a bang. It was Hazriq fervently knocking on my window because apparently I scared the shit out of him too. I grabbed my scissors, the key, and no one would believe how much courage I had to muster to open that door.

I peeked outside, my scissors at a ready to attack, adrenaline so high I could stab a bull to death.

I opened the front door like a mad person in case someone grabbed me from behind and battered me to death. I must've been a real queer sight, tear-stricken face, only my right foot had a shoe on, phone wedged between my left shoulder and ear, left hand keys and right hand scissors, so unsteady a light slap would make me drop it.

Hazriq's entrance into the hallway was like a bright angel in a dark room. I felt so enveloped in safety and he asked me if I wanted him to check upstairs. I nodded dumbly and followed him.

We turned on every light and I expected to see broken glass or anything at all in a state of disarray. But everything was perfectly in order. I told Hazriq that it could be someone hiding in either Migle's or Joanna's room. Of course 'he' would stay silent.

Hazriq said there was a police car outside. Maybe the crash came from a neighbour's house. We went outside to ask the police if it was a neighbour's house that got broken into.

And then we saw it. Further down road, view blocked from my room window, a car in the middle of the road, all crumpled, and the steel fences in front my house along the road bended into a C, some of them flat on the ground, and one iron bar actually flew across the pavements, probably hit my gate and fell into my house compound. Probably some drunkard, whom I hope is still alive, ran into steel bars and the impact was the loud crash that I heard reverberating everywhere, making me think it came from upstairs, where all the fuss started.

Amazing what speculation can do, innit?

Happy New Year.

For times gone by

It's true that the colour green is a cure for sore eyes. And I especially love bamboo trees. I associate them with something something bucolic, simple and rustic. I will think of ancient China or Japan and how idyllic life could be then.

Most of my imagination about ancient China and Japan is of course made up by TV dramas that I was obsessed with when I was younger. I will return to both countries one day and explore them in more detail when I am more experienced. I will not go on one of those tour packages - I will hire a local guide to show me original culture untainted by tourism.

Anyway, I'd love to talk about how fascinated I am by the country of the Emperor and the Shogun, but I should be studying right now. I just want to post a quick update so my readers will know that I am still managing quite well.

My aunt and uncle (Auntie Sarah and Uncle Nizar) and my 2 cousins (Nikki and Danny) came to visit last Thursday - and it so happens that Thursday was the first day Nottingham saw snow since winter started. It started off relatively light and the sun was shining brightly. Great welcome for my relatives.

I left home in good time, got my mom the vanilla extract she wanted and went to the train station to receive them. I only had to wait about 10 minutes before seeing them. I was happier to see them than I thought. And what was most pleasant was how grown up and entertaining Nikki and Danny were. They're 17 and 15 respectively and just completed big important exams in Malaysia. They said the exam was 'OK' when I asked and I didn't really probe further because I remembered that I don't really like people asking me about how my exam went.

I think it's just really surprising because I always thought they were really quiet when they were little. But they're really talkative, and I stopped worrying about things being awkward. I really enjoyed their company and wished they didn't have to leave so early.

Uncle Nizar brought his entire photography studio in his backpack as usual and I took him to the Market Square to take some pictures. He's really good, and my personal favourite (of yours truly of course) is this one.




We were in Caffe Nero and Uncle Nizar treated all of us to hot chocolate with whipped cream. And we were so glad to be out of the cold, in the warm, orange, glowing cafe, drinking something hot just when the snow started falling more heavily. It was a really good atmosphere.

Nikki and Danny

Auntie Sarah in the middle. No picture of the photographer. (Actually I have some pictures I took with my phone but I refuse to put them here because they really suck. It's bad enough that the picture is bad, but it's just stupid to put it next to excellent photography.

Gave them the 17" laptop Bemer ordered, hugged them and said goodbye when they left. Even met Uncle Nizar's brother whose name escapes me, but he works in Nottingham. Somewhere.

Migle left for Lithuania on Friday, and now I am alone in this empty house. Joanna left for Poland a few days earlier.

I've always felt that I'd be happier staying alone in a house than have housemates, but now that I have the house to myself, it's kind of depressing not to have Migle at the top of the stairs peering down when I go through the front door and saying 'welcome home'. Or beating Joanna to the door when the postman knocks on the door and seeing her smile when the shoes she ordered from eBay gets delivered.

The good side to it is I don't have to lock the bathroom door, I can take long showers, I can be as noisy as I want and I can wash the dishes whenever I want. And I have the whole fridge to myself.

Well, I think it's just the whole festive Christmas spirit getting to me. Everyone seems to have a family to return to, people to buy presents for, plans to make, meals to plan... And here I am drinking my hot chocolate and kicking the stupid heater when it starts vibrating. I'd call my landlord, but the latest fib he told me when I called him was that he was in LA and won't be back till January. I really think he's avoiding me. Well he can't do that for long because it's time to pay for rent soon.

I'm going to London soon for boxing day, and I'm going to Kent to be with my old housemates and friends for Christmas. Sarah Ali said there'd be plenty of food and we're doing Secret Santa, so it should be fun. And I can see my cousin Nadia while I'm in London and catch up with her.



Maybe I'm just getting all melancholic because there's only about 6 months left of my final year and that's not a long time at all. This whole Subha-Hazriq-Sarah thing will be broken, we'll be in different places and I'm going to form new ties. Sometimes I get sick of growing apart from people I'm close to, seeing them get close to other people and feel sad thinking, "I'm not the closest one to him or her anymore."

This is pure selfishness talking, of course. I know in the long run, I'll find something that will make me happy, and they will find something that will make them happy. After all, no one relishes the idea of being depressed, recalling fun days and not moving forward.

Sometimes I hate this cold country, but most of the time I love it. I did grow up loving it, thanks to Blyton. Or maybe I just love the world in general. If only I could be in many places at one time.



This Wednesday will be Hazriq's birthday, and the 3 of us are gonna spend time together, just like in first year. I'm looking forward to it.

Tech Savvy