Summer Movies 2008

“You’re a movie slut,” said a friend to me.
Hmm, I’m not really. It’s just this past few months I’ve been going to the movie a lot. I need something to do to fill my time. Since I’m not that adventurous, watching movies seems to be the safe option.

Every year Hollywood will focus on the summer as it is their most bankable season. They market this part of the year as ‘Summer movies’ time, taking advantage of the holiday. So they packed all the fun, easygoing, light entertainment movie during it. It’s working well for me as football is in hibernation, so movies as replacement to football make a lot of sense.

I can’t really remember every movie that I have watch so far but what I can say is it hasn’t been up to the expectation. The number of times I walked out of the cinema thinking ‘wow that was worth RM50 I spent tonight’ was far in between. And so far only 1 movie that I can classed as an instant classic, and even then I’m a little bit bias for a reason I’m going to tell later.

In my head I categorised movies into 4;
1- Instant Classic
2- Really good and worth my RM50
3- Just okay
4- Crap

‘Instant' Classic movie
So far it is only Ironman. Robert Downey Jr was really good plus a comeback by Gwyneth, good funny script, great CGI, great action sequence etc2. I think Robert Downey Jr really nailed ‘Tony Stark’ character. Anyway, I wouldn’t have put it under instant classic movie normally but I have a very good reason in doing so.
It was because she said 'Ironman' reminds her of me!!! Woohoo! I'm a superhero! **smug, evil proud laugh, smug**

Really Good movie
I have 3 movies under this one;
1- What happened in Vegas – really good romantic comedy for me. I laughed from start to finish. Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz worked well together.
2- KungFu Panda – I’m so glad that I watched this movie. John Black was excellent, and it was refreshing to see an animation moving away from depending on cute lovable character.
3- Drillbit Taylor – now not many will know about this movie. And maybe watching it with low expectation helped a bit. If anything watching the fat kid alone was worth the time. The fat kid in that movie reminded me of the fat kid in ‘Superbad’.

Just Okay movie
Lots of movies under this one.
1- Made of Honor - corny
2- Hancock – V disappointing
3- Hulk – better than I thought it would be
4- Forbidden Kingdom – good to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li together
5- 21
6- Fool’s Gold – Kate Hudson is not that cute anymore :-(
7- Hellboy – a lot better than I expected actually. Would have made the ‘Really Good’ movie if it didn’t drag a little in the middle part of the story.
8- Street King – ‘The Shield’ wannabe. Never ever try to copy the excellent ‘Shield’ because you will look stupid. Don’t even try it!

Crap movie
1- Indiana Jones – really really very utterly disappointing! Shia Lebouf has never ever been that bad. Harrison Ford in that movie was a poor man’s Tommy Lee Jones. The script and action was corny, stupid and predictable. I shook my head at least 3 times while watching it. During the ridiculous monkey tarzan scene, not only I shook my head, I slapped my forehead really hard, had my face in my hands and let out a very loud sigh. I even felt embarrassed watching it!
2- That Kevin Bacon movie – I can’t even remember the title as it was just terrible!

So the movies have not been that good so far, only 1 classic. I’m sure I forgot to mention a few other movies but I just can’t think anymore. The memory of Indiana Jones ruined it all.

However, tomorrow I’m going to see a movie that I have really high hope for. From what I’ve heard so far it is going to be an instant classic. Step up The Dark Night!

Oh and also I wanna watch Zohan. Hope Adam Sandler got it right….

Working at GUP

Things are getting from bad to worse at GUP, where I work. From bad to worse?!! Hahaha! Even saying that makes me feel guilty. Things are more like getting from ‘worse x 1 million’ to ‘worse x 1 billion’! There, that is more accurate. I even think that statement is a little bit soft…..

I need to leave. Sigh, another understatement. I should have left months ago, or at least plan my leaving seriously. All I did was complain and whine to my friends and family about GUP. I have told them that I need to leave but I’m still here. It has been 13 months now. And the initial plan was to leave once I past my one-year. I haven’t even updated my resume yet. Shame on me!

Why is it so hard to leave? Well the biggest reason is I’m scared. Scared to even send in my resume. My Guardian Angel kept forwarding job ads to me in hope I will tell her, “Hey I have updated my resume & I’m going to apply for one of the jobs that u forwarded me. Can you please vet through it?” That’s all that she expects from me but no, nothing. I shamelessly ask her to keep sending me job ads and she is doing just that. She sent me lots of it. There was this one time when she said “I’m seriously going to hurt you if you don’t apply for this job.” But still nothing!

I was saying that I’m scared to leave. Why? Well I feel that right now I know nothing about my work. Everything that I learned from the Hell’s Hole (please refer to ‘My Guardian Angel’ entry, thank you) has somehow vaporised from my brain. I remember when I first joined GUP, we had an event immediately and we had to get the media and I was really up for it. “Well what are we waiting for, lets do it,” I said. Now however I’m not even sure how to start doing that. For the event that we were supposed to have this coming August (got postponed, what do you expect, it’s GUP), I looked for a way out of it. I insisted that we used a PR company so I don’t have to deal with the media. Can you see the difference?

Looking at the requirements in job ads is enough to scare me from applying. The most persuasive and welcoming of job ads will have only five lines of requirements, and most of the time I’m only confidence of doing one of them. So just forget the intimidating ones where the requirements are two pages long.

Another reason that I’m still at GUP is because I have become a lazy bum. I tried to deny it before, blaming my colleagues and my boss for not doing anything for GUP but now it’s just blatantly obvious. There are lots of pending work (I’m not going to list them here) and I just ignore them; and guess what, no one is asking about them. At work all I do is FB-ing and chatting. Sweet life isn’t it, getting paid to chat and sit on your butt all day. Not only that, I can come to work anytime I want and leave work at 5pm (office hours supposed to end at 630pm). Lunch is 4 hours for us, and I can wear whatever I want to the office.

To leave GUP is to leave all that. Am I willing to do it?

Well I have to. I pride myself for getting back on my feet after the pathetic 4 years. I pride myself of being good at what I do. I’m proud of the education I received from Hell’s Hole. The experience I had there though terrible, it was priceless. No other workplace that I know so far can even come close to that place. I cannot let GUP destroy all that. I have to leave…

Yes, leaving I am!

***Note – the writer’s thoughts and emotions as portrayed above were true at the time of publishing. Any change or inconsistency found afterwards should not be used against and/or to mock, tease or ridicule the writer. Please take note. Thank you ;-)

The Pretty Sun and The Lil Plant

Try reading this one using the same tone & style as that narrator from Desperate Housewives
The Pretty Sun is back. The Pretty Sun is shining again bringing yet another promise to The Lil Plant. Will The Pretty Sun stay long? Or will The Pretty Sun be gone soon? The Lil Plant can only hope for a lasting sunshine. After all The Lil Plant has no right to expect anything from The Pretty Sun. With or without The Pretty Sun, life will go on for The Lil Plant, though admittedly without The Pretty Sun life will be bleak. Life will loose its charm.

If The Pretty Sun decided to leave, the empty space that The Pretty Sun left will be replaced by a dark gloomy storm. The Lil Plant is used to the storm by now but make no mistake, being used to it does not mean The Lil Plant wont suffer. The storm will hurt The Lil Plant, the storm will make The Lil Plant weep but life must go on.

The Lil Plant is ready. No matter what The Pretty Sun does, stay or be gone, The Lil Plant has promised to stay strong. No hatred, just anguish. And The Lil Plant has decided no matter what happened, The Lil Plant would be there for The Pretty Sun.

“Don’t be stupid!”, the brain tells The Lil Plant, but the heart is telling The Lil Plant to hang in there. “It is about time,” the heart says, “for The Lil Plant to make sacrifice. Sacrifice in a real sense. Stop expecting anything but give everything to The Pretty Sun. This is not about The Lil Plant, this is about The Pretty Sun. If The Pretty Sun is happy, The Pretty Sun will shine. Although the shine may not be for The Lil Plant, it will be worth it. Let The Pretty Sun shines for whoever because that’s what The Pretty Sun deserves. Making The Pretty Sun happy should make The Lil Plant happy as well.”

So The Lil Plant listens to the heart even if it meant The Lil Plant had to be alone in the dark gloomy storm. If that’s what The Pretty Sun wanted, that’s what The Pretty Sun gets. If The Pretty Sun be gone and came back a thousand times after this, The Lil Plant will just let it be. Nothing will change from The Lil Plant side, after all The Lil Plant is not going anywhere. The Lil Plant will always be there, waiting for The Pretty Sun to be back.

Little price to pay, as long as The Pretty Sun is shining forever….

The Writer In Me

“The key to good writing is to write. Just write. Punch the keys on your keyboard and don't think. You write your first draft with your heart, u do the second draft with your head….” so says William Forrester….

Well I can see the logic in what he said. The problem is I’m nowhere near as talented as he was so it’s not as easy as it sounds. Regardless, this is what I'm doing now, punching the keys on my keyboard. Care free…

I fancy myself to be a writer. What type of writer, I have no idea! ‘Blog-ish’ kind maybe, if it existed. I will just write whatever I have in mind; the grass that I stepped on, the girl that I saw, football, things that I experienced or wish I didn't... whatever. The funny thing is though, my Malay is way better than my English, way better, but I prefer to write in English. Strange that I know, but maybe I will explain it on my next masterpiece, but for now all I can say is it was Salina's fault (that I prefer to write in English).

So here I am, writing in English with all my awkwardness, my bad grammar, my limited vocab, and again strangely, I don't see those as problems at all. You see, I am a firm believer that the purpose of language is to get the message across. Solely, that is the point of thousands (millions?) years of effort to develop a language. To tell your girl she's the most beautiful thing to you, to tell annoying people to shut up, to say sorry when u messed up.

I have a friend who insists on using the perfect English, “because that’s the rule!” she said. She rarely uses jargon or ebonic. However, she wont complained as long as she can understand what people are saying. The problem she has with my English is that being the special person that I am (hah!), I’ve created my own brand of English, my own set of rules and my own unique pronunciations (hehe) and I insist that there is nothing wrong with it! So whenever she misunderstood or simply doesn’t understand, she will say, “this is why you have to stick to the rules so people can understand you!” while making her ‘oh I’m so annoyed’ gesture. Well what do you expect, she’s an English literature grad afterall!
(*Note- by perfect English I mean perfect grammar. When it comes to chatting or sms, she is more dyslexic than I am. She is not a freak!)

Don’t get me wrong, I respect the rules and I admit that rules are there for a reason. BUT, following the rules 100% will only make your writing stiff. Rules limit creativity. It’s a fact! Don’t argue with me. If you want to be creative, you have to bend the rules (not break) a little bit. How can u put across exactly what you have in mind when you keep worrying about the correct tense and grammar? Let the rules guide you, don't let the rules rule you!

Everyone is raving about Shakespeare, but when he wrote his stuff, not only he broke every rule, he even used ‘make-believe’ words! Of course now, because he is Shakespeare, his ‘make-believe’ words and rules are accepted and known as ‘English’, but the point I’m making here is; HE DID NOT FOLLOW THE RULES WHEN HE WROTE HIS BRILLIANT PLAYS/BOOKS/STORIES OR WHATEVER ELSE THAT HE DID! And because of that he can put to paper his ideas and thoughts more freely and effectively.

Disagree with me? Too bad I couldn’t care less. It is my blog and I can do whatever I want. Sure you will find mistakes in my writing and sure some of my sentences will sound awkward but I’m also positively sure I have managed to put my message across. And I’m sure you will agree with that!

I RULE!

That Morning...

Do you remember that morning when my car got clamped?

I still remember it clearly, I had to pay RM50 to the guards! You had to come down to deal with them. I was already late, so you had to rush down. No time to take your shower, your hair was all messy but you were so beautiful that morning. So beautiful!

You came down, smiling sheepishly. You told the guards that we were engaged. Haha, not that it mattered. You wore the pink sweater, your face clearly showed you didn’t get enough sleep. Actually both of us didn’t get much sleep..

One regret that I have about that morning, I didn’t tell you how beautiful you were. Rushing to work, all I can think about was what I’m going to tell my boss for being late. But really, I should have told you that. I should have said that you made my heart skiped a beat, that was how beautiful you were. Well, I don’t think I even kissed you goodbye…

Memories, aren’t they wonderful? Memories are all I have now.

I miss you so much…