Saturday, March 29, 2014
Hello guys. A few days left in March 2014. Since I last wrote, it's been a scary week. My mother was feeling sick and wasn't getting better that she finally relented to be hospitalized last Saturday. That was really scary and sudden. Even more worrying was because I didn't have my passport at that time and going home immediately wasn't an option. It turned out my father wasn't feeling well also, but he didn't want to go to the hospital to get checked up as well. He did agree to go see a doctor in the evening. I think my brother was pretty busy and annoyed at the stubbornness of my parents. My mother was discharged the day after, so she only spent a night. As much as I would like to think it's good news, I think it's more because she was stubborn. She was feeling better and she decided to just quickly go home. Both of my parents seemed to be showing signs of getting better this week, which I think is good news compared to showing signs of deteriorating, but I'm not really sure if they're really okay, if whatever problems were handled, and if the drugs really work. Gonna call them later. My passport is also back, so I guess it makes it easier now if I need to go home immediately. I'll save the story of why my passport wasn't with me for another day. Anyways, still keeping my parents in prayer because seriously I was really really scared about the whole thing. People at home seemed to be not doing too good. Mom just told me today that my uncle is also sick now. I just hope everyone would be well soon and get stronger.As for me, I thought I was doing okay, but today I found out the thing that stressed me out seems to be happening again. Damn it! I hate it when people lie to me or people are withholding information and not telling me anything. What the fuck?!? I hope and hope if a bad thing should fall my way, it would happen only when I am ready. I'd like to say I'll never be ready, but maybe when I am angry enough, it will be the right time because that would be the time when I would just take myself out of the situation willingly.
The other day, I saw a beautiful flowering tree nearby where I live. I was in shock, I was like what is that?!? It feels silly that there's something beautiful near you and you never realize it. The tree had been there for a long time and I'm pretty sure it's been flowering for some days or weeks and yet my eyes only managed to see it a few days ago. I thought it was glorious. It has pink flowers everywhere. I guess again because it's been so hot, the tree decided to just shed leaves and turn everything into flowers. I went up to it today and since I was in a hurry, I didn't really explore much of the area. I don't know what tree it is. Definitely not sakura.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman - Chose this because Ty Burrell voiced the main character, the dog, Mr. Peabody. Ty Burrell played my favorite tv husband and dad currently, Phil Dunphy in Modern Family. Some people may argue, how about Marshall from How I Met Your Mother? Well, it's just Phil Dunphy has been married for quite a long time and I guess that kinda relationship and husband is the one I want to have :P So Mr. Peabody & Sherman being a cartoon, obviously there were many kids there. Luckily while they hadn't been the quietest kids around, I wasn't annoyed. I think the little blondie girl sitting in my row cried when it seemed Mr. Peabody died. It was so cute of her and kinda interesting to see how kids perceive the story. It's not a bad cartoon, I like the jokes that play around on words, and I love how the cartoon touched lightly on history, it made me realize how when I was young I learned some things also from watching things like this. If watching this made a kid remember that Marie Antoinette said, "let them eat cake", I think that's quite a good achievement, although it's not entirely true. Marie Antoinette didn't say that. I have googled this, but hopefully the kids would know this phrase or be interested to learn more about Marie Antoinette. Me myself, got most of my french revolution knowledge from The Rose of Versailles.
The Grand Budapest Hotel - A Wes Anderson's movie is just too scintillating to ignore and how I loved this movie. So many things to love about this movie. Love Ralph Fiennes and the boy who played Zero, Tony Revolori. Love love the cinematography. I think if you press pause on the movie, every single scene is just so beautiful, postcard like images. It's not all warm and fuzzy and in the end you do feel a tinge of sadness, but I still love the story :)
Divergent - Glad to see Theo James again. I've known him since his brief but very influential appearance in Downton Abbey. If you think about it, it was only with the Turk that Lady Mary let go. She didn't think about consequences, she just let go and obviously it was stupid of her to do that, but still the only guy who managed to get Lady Mary on pretty much the first try :P Anyway, watched Divergent with La Gioia and she was totally smitten with him which is kinda out of character for her :P I know there are some type of guys she likes but to hear her gushing about a guy, I think this is my first time :P Me too, I am still in love with Theo James :P Anyway, Divergent was pretty good. I like it and looking forward for the sequel. Can't help thinking which faction I would end up in. I conclude that I may end up factionless. Not a hippie. May not be smart enough to be the smart ones. Not that brave. Too selfish to be selfless and all is left is the lawyer looking faction and while some people may say that I speak with no filter, I'd like to think that they're all wrong, there are so many things that I keep to myself :P So in the end I'll be factionless, but hopefully not a useless factionless. I mean why are all those people without a faction look like a hobo? How can they just lose all will to live and think or even try?
Last piece of information. Today I posted my vote for this year's Indonesian parliament election. Dropped the envelope in with a little prayer to let God make it good and alright in our country. I'm going to waive my right for secrecy and just say openly that I voted for PDIP. Totally didn't expect to do this especially since I thought it wasn't right of them to be putting Joko Widodo as a presidential candidate (read my previous post). In the end I voted for them because above concerns of economy and corruption, my biggest concern in Indonesia right now is Muslim extremists and hardliner Muslims being more and more intolerant and force their ways into rules and regulations that affect the whole country, which is populated not only by Muslims, and so when I googled the candidates, I found that at least in Jakarta, PDIP has the most diverse candidates. So I thought, it would be just a fact that the majority of the people in the government are Muslims, but if in some way we can put some more non-Muslims then there will be hope that there will be more diverse voices, voices which would hopefully really voice out the concerns of non-Muslims who are getting really pushed with these hardliners. It's quite a hard election for me this time. It's hard to choose. It's all because parties need to be able to get more than 20% of the vote before they can put a presidential candidate in the presidential election. So right now what the parties have been doing is saying this is the person we want to run as president, but they never mention the vice president. Only one party states their presidential and vice presidential candidate in this election and already people are calling them presumptuous since they don't even know if they'll get 20% of the vote. The parties are hoping people will vote for them because they want to support their presidential candidate. What is worrying for me is if we vote for a party because we want to support their presidential candidate and then this party doesn't get 20%, they'll end up forming a coalition with other parties. Parties we may not like. Parties which they may have attacked during campaigns but then they form an alliance with, all for the sake of power. I would feel so betrayed with that. However such is the fact of Indonesian politics :( Indonesian political landscape is interesting though. It seems to change every election. People cannot be sure that they will be in majority. For example, the current president's party, the Democratic Party was the only party that managed to get 20% in the last election, but I think in this election they will not be doing so good. They have been dodged by scandals and when I saw that one of their candidate for Jakarta is FuckedUp Abbas, whatever respect I have for this party is just gone. Seriously?!?!? Do you seriously think we can take you seriously when you ask us to vote for FuckedUp Abbas? I wonder if they're even trying to win votes. It's kinda sad because there are many intellectuals from the Democratic Party wanting to be presidents, people I think more suitable than Joko Widodo. If I have to predict, PDIP will win the 20% and then Joko Widodo will win the presidential election unless the parties start campaigning and educating people to choose more based on potential and facts rather than sentimental feeling. It's been a subdued campaigning season in Indonesia because of more rules being enforced, which is kinda a good thing, but more coverage and debates are important so that people can be more informed. I live and vote for Jakarta, so it seems there are more information about the candidates and all, but it's not the same for other areas of Indonesia. The election committee should put all the candidates profiles in the net so that people can easily search information on them. 1.5 weeks left and I am looking forward to see how everything unfold. May all be okay and be good in Indonesia. Amen!
:) eKa @ 8:15:00 PM • 0 comments
Friday, March 14, 2014
Before we get to the title. I just found out that the governor of Jakarta has decided to run for president this year. WHAT?!?!? The Jakarta composite straight away rose on the news but I cannot in my conscience vote for him though I would have voted for him for governor that time (I couldn't because I don't live in Jakarta). I was actually really happy that he managed to become governor with his running mate Basuki. The reason why I think it's a big mistake that he's running for president is because he's only been a governor for 1 year plus. What the hell? Yes he's clean (seemingly so far), yes he seems practical in his effort to make a better Jakarta, and yes there are visible good changes in Jakarta, but I feel he's still running under the image of being clean and not based on achievement. I feel you need to prove yourself first before you decide to run as a leader of our country. Also if he stays as governor and really does good work until his terms ends, surely all that experience will be even more valuable as the basis to run for president next time. Not now, next time!!! Even my mother agrees that it wouldn't be a good idea for him to run for president now when we're discussing about the rumors last February when I was at home. I feel so disappointed. SO DISAPPOINTED!!!. I feel the party endorsing him is just doing this to lift the party up. This is not good, totally not good. Even making things worse, there are already the darn people who reject the vice governor, Basuki, replacing Joko Widodo as governor if he really becomes president, just because Basuki is not a muslim!!! This is so stupid!!! What would be ideal would be these 2 people just stay in their posts and run again as president and vice president in the next next election. This really doesn't make my day good.Okay breathe, let's talk about the title. If you haven't guessed. I turned 32 today. Crap! Couldn't really sleep last night when I started thinking that in some minutes I would be 32, darn it! I also woke up earlier than usual today and even managed to get ready earlier than usual which made me feel stupid that I was up so early on my birthday that I decided to sit down first and played some games on my vaio. Overall I could just think of today as another day and ignore the getting older part. If I have to think about it, it's just depressing, so let's not. So today I managed to get out pretty early but the train was still full even after 9 am, darn people why are you all late for work? I had to do something today so that's why I was rather early. What is that thing I had to do, well I want to describe it, but it will reveal certain things, so I cannot give full detail. Let's just say I have to go into this place and when I got in, the security guard said I had to switch off my phone for the whole process and he had to check my bag and "wand" me (I think wand in this case can be used as a verb, hope you understand what I mean). I thought the security check was unnecessarily high. As I passed the security check and sat down to wait, my first instinct was to to check my phone and then I realized I had it off and had to keep it that way. Luckily I didn't have to wait long and the whole process was fast and smooth. Hope all will be okay and I'll find out soon.
After that I went to pray for good luck and for my birthday and then I went to Gardens by the Bay for the War of The Roses Floral Display. Seriously, this place is the most visited place by me in Singapore and most photographed too. Passed by Lao Pa Sat and realized that the place is closed for renovation, it seemed. I didn't know that. Anyway, the War of The Roses Floral Display wasn't as good as I expected it to be. You can see the pictures here. There was this mannequin kind of decoration which I thought was tacky. The horses sculptures seemed to be left over from the Chinese New Year display.
The medieval knights on horses were cool though.
Then of course there are pretty roses.
:) eKa @ 7:53:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, March 08, 2014
Everything is awesome. No, not really. Not that anything bad has happened, but the always pessimistic me can't just go around and say or sing, everything is awesome ♫ It's just I just watched The Lego Movie today and the song earwormed its way into my head so I was like the boy who broke into that tune after we got out the cinema, me in my head, him pretty loudly. Talking about a boy, I just can't help complaining about kids in a cinema, aarrrghhhh!!! I happened to sit next to a young girl, perhaps 9 years old and in my row there's a toddler girl who's perhaps between 3 to 5. Both are Asians. The toddler couldn't shut up and she's not even sitting, she's standing around. I would have been so pissed if I had sit in front of her and her parents did nothing! The girl next to me did make some noise at the beginning, then she got bored and she put her legs up to the seat in front of her, then she played with her chair that I think a few times she's blocking the person behind her and her mom said nothing! I hate all these parents. By the way, I think people who put their legs up into the seats in front of them are so disrespectful! Regardless of if there's a person in front of them. Hello are your shoes and sandals clean? Seriously, when I see adults doing this, my blood boils :@ So basically the watching of the movie experience wasn't great. I also felt the volume was a bit low, I wonder if they purposely did that so that the young kids don't get too shocked. With all these kids losing their interest and attention in watching a cartoon, I wonder at what age kids can really be trusted to behave in watching a movie. Also if there's any formula in movie making to make sure kids will really be interested until the end. Unless it's expected that kids should be rowdy when watching cartoons. I'd like to think my kids would be different, that I will teach them to respect the cinema as I do :P but I don't know, maybe my kids will be worse. Please not God.So anyways, I thought the movie was great. I kinda figured out certain things before it happened and these things always made me feel good. I just checked, Liam Neeson also voiced the good cop. That's rather unbelievable. By the way, Liam Neeson has gotten so cool that just listening to his voice made you feel comforted :P Allison Brie whom I know from Community voiced the pony like character and that character is kinda the same as her Community character. In my mind that's what Allison Brie is, so it's kinda hard when I see her in Mad Men :P Anyways, the story was interesting, the lego is interesting, and to be able to have massive creativity to be master builders must be so cool. They set it really nicely for a possible sequel. So I think it's been quite a smart movie.
Onward with life. I have to say that my mental state hasn't been bad since I came back from Jakarta. In fact, this week I got a bit of ... let's say I got my first lego piece which is needed to build something. However then I got freaked out which is totally unexpected. I thought I would be all fine, but it's reaching a point that I question everything and if I should back out. I thought about it and in my head the answer is obvious, but somehow my heart or mentally in my mind, it's all pretty hazy. I wonder if I should be doing this, but yeah logically the other option is just too dumb to be considered. I mean the only way I would consider the other option would be because I chicken out and that would be silly. For you who are fluent in Harry Potter lingo, there's this potion called Felix Felicis. It's like a good luck potion. Harry Potter pretended to give it to Ron Weasley before his first quidditch game and since he thought it was real, Ron developed a confidence, basically blind faith that all would be well, and so he did well in the game. It is said that the dog people, which is me, will have a very good year in this year of the horse. So I guess in a way, that false confidence is kinda comforting me right now. I mean like I said, my mental state hasn't been bad and if I compared it to how I was months ago, that's a huge difference. I don't hate my life so much right now and things don't seem to be so bad now, like they get lighter. So perhaps if I just keep this blind faith, I should just rise above whatever fear I have now and think that everything will be awesome as it's destined to be for me now.
:) eKa @ 7:24:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, March 01, 2014
Watched 2 Tom Hanks' movie today. Started this morning with Saving Mr. Banks which I loved very much. I thought it was really well made. Tom Hanks' role was actually quite small compared to Emma Thompson's role in which the movie is actually centered about. I have to shamefully admit that I have never watched Mary Poppins. Maybe one day I get around to it. The cast was great, I was surprised to see Paul Giamatti played a simpleton driver. There is no small role, I suppose. Go and watch it peeps, it doesn't get many showings here in Singapore, but it's really good. Then this evening, I decided to watch Captain Phillips. Didn't watch it when it was out because I did read that the movie wasn't as accurate as what went down exactly. Dramatic license can be such a turn off for me. After watching the movie, I have to say it's actually a really good movie. Gripping and the pace was great. It's interesting finding out that a big ship is not very fast, that a raggedy boat can catch up to them. Also interesting to see the defense mechanism that container ships like MAERSK Alabama has in dealing with pirates. It doesn't seem very helpful. It's also pretty crazy to see how "nekat" the pirates are. The Indonesian word describes it really well, the word daring in English is not sufficient for me. Another thing that I note was that the SEAL team was really cool, when have they not been? :D Anyway that got me thinking that maybe these ships need some security people in their ships, like an air marshal?Well I got to think that because this week, I also managed to watch Non-Stop. I am quite taken by Liam Neeson with his Taken movie series :D but I wasn't that interested in watching this movie. However the majority won and since it's free, there I was. I actually liked Non-Stop a lot as the movie progressed, but then the conclusion ruined it all for me. It was such a lame conclusion. I don't buy the terrorists' reasoning and how I wished it could be smarter. It's like what I wrote in the last post, how a promising story can all just be awful by the ending and this in the end made me more critical. Like in the end how I found Julianne Moore's character to be rather useless. They have very interesting cast and one of them was the guy who played Peter Russo in House of Cards which I just started watching. I don't know the actor's name, but when I saw him, I was like oh Peter Russo is in this movie :P and then there's also Michelle Dockery and I was thinking how rather weird it was to see Lady Mary in a modern world :P Liam Neeson was of course cool and awesome. Seriously he's like getting cooler and more awesome as he gets older. I'm sure like me, there are many other who's having more love for Liam Neeson :D
Another movie that I managed to watch this week was Philomena. Yes, I am trying to watch all the movies nominated for best picture in this year's Oscar. I don't think I'll get to watch Nebraska before the award show so 8 out of 9, not bad. I love Philomena though I have to say that the ending (again with the ending!) was quite harsh to God believers. I'm not a Catholic, but I thought all the scolding from Steve Coogan's character to the nuns was unnecessary, too rude, too harsh. I still love him in this movie though and I think Judi Dench was amazing. It's quite a tragic story but I love it and Philomena is so lovable.
So this post is pretty much about movies that I watched this week. Man! I watched a lot of things and this doesn't even include all the tv shows that I managed to watch as well (yay to April and Jackson in Grey's Anatomy, so happy for them). 2 Tom Hanks' movies today and I like both of them :) As for best picture Oscar, I don't have any strong like to any of the ones that I watched, so it's rather hard to choose. Perhaps the one I love the most is Philomena but if I have to choose between the strong contender of Gravity and 12 Years a Slave, I'll choose Gravity. This has been an uninteresting post as usual? Well I hope you guys have better story than me :D Stay hydrated people!
:) eKa @ 11:35:00 PM • 0 comments
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