Thank God for bus drivers

Thank God for bus drivers, those humble, unsung heroes of this world. In a strange foreign land, bus drivers (at least good, friendly ones) open their arms to you and make the entire place seem a lot less intimidating. Be it a tiring day, heavy rain, or a tough errand, bus drivers make the job so much easier.

That's amazingly true for those in Urbana-Champaign, who impressed me with their wonderful mannerisms and patience. Without them, life at the university would have been miserable. Again, thank you.

The "joys" of flying

I simply hate flying. It is tiring, frustrating, and time-wasting. Although I may have adored every moment of staring at the clouds through the cabin windows as a kid, the shocking reality of adult flying responsibilities have ignited within me a strong dislike for flying. I glower with impatience at having to comply with the discriminating check-in baggage limitations. I tire at having to wait long lines or having to battle inefficient computers just to check-in. I am sick of having to spend hours at the departure gates just waiting to enter an airplane. I am disgusted by inconsiderate passengers who push and fight their way to their seats. I am frustrated at how long international flights take and how taxing they are.

However, it is not these little peculiarities and regulations of flying that really overwhelm me. Ultimately, it's the sad goodbyes, the sinking feelings, the fighting emotions that make me detest flying at the heart of my soul. It's having to part with a life of blissful contentment, familiarity, and joy. It's having to convince yourself about the so-called “bright future” and “exciting times” arguments.

Yes, I know that by all reasoning and logic, it is the best road to take. But since when were humans logical beings? We were given feelings and emotions unquantifiable and unexplainable by science. Despite many centuries of knowledge accumulation, we still cannot convincingly persuade ourselves that emotions can be logically understood.

I've often said that my dream was to soar through the clouds, much like Peter Pan did in his marvelous adventures. Reality sucks, doesn't it?

Yes sir, we're back in business...

Yes, I've been neglecting this blog. Yes, I've been complacent. Due to being berated by a friend *cough* Sheldon *cough*, I've decided to start writing in this again.

What's up with my life? Unlike some studious friends, I've wasted it playing video games and watching geeky stuff, be it movies or TV shows. Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen came and went; the former rocked, no pun intended, to the stars, while the latter was so-so. However, I'll be damned if I didn't agree with the fantastic special effects and AWESOME AWESOME robot designs. More on that in later posts, if there's time (and initiative).

Favorite for this year

Recently, we had to go to Putrajaya for a JPA pre-departure briefing. It felt odd at first meeting all my friends again after 2 months, but it gradually evolved to great fun. I'll repeat what I said before, I'll never forget you guys. It was really fantastic hanging out with everyone and that surely cannot be replaced by any amount of geekdom.

So, if there are any readers out there, expect to see more posts in the future! Gerard logging out.

Goodbye INTI

Just last Friday, I was officially "kicked out" of INTI University College, Malaysia. It was a unique experience to say the least...and yes, I really can't think of anything other than cliches to describe it.

However, in all seriousness, INTI was probably, as a whole, the best experience of my life. I learned so many new things, met so many people and experienced all the joys and pains of independence. Okay, boring cliched essay time!

I was very lucky to be part of the INTI culture as a JPA student. It taught me to grow as a person and to appreciate the diversity of this ever-changing world. INTI and her students taught me to think critically but not to be too judgmental of other people, to be bold yet not to be reckless, and to be open-minded yet spiritual. I met many challenges that changed me and helped me to develop, challenges that nearly drove me to death in all their difficulty.

INTI really gave me a lot to think about. While back in Kuching, I lived out my lifestyle without trial, in INTI, I faced a lot of conflicting ideas and opinions. Many perspectives challenged my faith and basic principles and I still remember the time when I started to challenge my Roman Catholic faith due to criticisms from even my closest friends. During that time, perhaps due to divine intervention, I joined the Catholic Student’s Society (CSS) and received the guidance from friends there.

Also, I also appreciated my many other INTI friends who I’ve come to appreciate very much. Listing all of those names would be foolhardy, as I would run the risk of skipping over many important friends (due in no small part to my atrocious memory for names). However, I'm sure that you all know who you are, and I can't say enough just how grateful I truly was to be with you guys. You taught me friendship, hope, joy, fun and how to live life to the fullest. To put it bluntly, you taught me there was more to life than games and the internet. I’ll say that overall, INTI was a splendid time as I learned to establish an identity for myself.

Yes, this post may sound like something out of a university application essay, but I really do mean all I say. I truly enjoyed myself at INTI. Now of course, there are many pros and cons about this dear little college-university-thing, which I shall list here:



Pros:
1) AUP or The Center for American Education and the University Placement Office are simply great places to be at. The officers there are immensely helpful and good-natured and I never hesitated to ask their help (to the point of being annoying). Kudos to these offices.

2) General Office people are surprisingly friendly, too. I got my room-bookings done easily.

3) 13th INTIMA were great pals to hang out with. I always felt at home at the INTIMA office.


Cons:
1) Accomodation Office, sad to say, can really be horrible. I'm not dissing all of them, just "a select few managers" (you know who I mean).

2) INTI management seriously needs to stop going beyond their capacity. Stop bringing so many students in when you can't afford to accept them. Treat INTI more like an educational institution and less like a capitalistic business.



So yeah, that's 3 pros vs 2 cons. Shows that INTI isn't bad, huh? I'd just advice future incoming students to think twice before handing Accomodation Office your business.

Thanks again, all my friends. The last 2 years were a blast!

The purpose of blogging?

Just finished Music Appreciation Midterm. It wasn't the most difficult, but it could have been better. What the heck.

Many people have asked why I don't post personal feelings and comments on this blog. Apparently, I'm too neutral or conventional. Well, I actually treat this blog like my personal website, like my own Geocities. As such, I prefer to blog about subjects such as games and movies as they are detached from my personal life. Besides that, I am still uncomfortable with the idea of publicly declaring my opinions, thoughts, feelings and personality.

Should I open up? Do tell.

The religion of Star Trek

I've been watching a few Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes now, and it is fun stuff. Captain Jean-Luc Picard may not be quite as cool as Captain Kirk, but his strict, serious demeanor does grow on you. However, any keen observer would notice that Star Trek is subtly pushing forward an agenda.

To quote Star Trek: Enterprise's Producer, Brannon Braga, ""In Gene Roddenberry’s imagining of the future [...] religion is completely gone. Not a single human being on Earth believes in any of the nonsense that has plagued our civilization for thousands of years. This was an important part of Roddenberry’s mythology. He, himself, was a secular humanist and made it well-known to writers of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation that religion and superstition and mystical thinking were not to be part of his universe. On Roddenberry’s future Earth, everyone is an atheist. And that world is the better for it.""


Sad indeed that Mr. Roddenberry would think like that. Worse yet that instead of keeping it to himself, he actually tried to enforce this view in his series. In many episodes of the original Star Trek series and the subsequent Star Trek: The Next Generation, oppressive "gods" are shown to be outsmarted by humans and eventually revealed to be false gods. These deities turn out to be mere aliens, supercomputers or other suitably advanced, but not at all divine, beings. Naturally, it's up to the crew of the Enterprise to shake the primitive, oppressed people out of their false convictions and stand up for themselves.


A few examples can be found on this ="http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/religion.htm">website.

It's sad that such a positive and egalitarian series would end up being hypocritical by discriminating religion. So it's not alright to make fun of other races, but it's fair game to mock the faiths of billions of people in the world?

Mr. Roddenberry failed to realize that religion is neither oppressive nor self-destructive. A majority of the world's population live in relative peace despite adhering to a wide variety of faiths. There may be a few black sheep in the world, but one should focus on the positive majority of religious people and see that in actuality, they're progressive, nice people who get along with everyone else. Make no mistake though, I do not wish for Star Trek to begin promoting any one faith or even religion in general. To be truly equal and fair, Star Trek should remain secular, not atheistic.

Still there's plenty to like in Star Trek and I have come to love the series very much. Let's just hope that new director JJ Abrams never resorts to a false god story in his adaptations of Star Trek.

Dental Terror

It was freaky. Upon entering the dentist's office, I saw in my mind fleeting images of pain and torment, with a few scenes from the Dentist horror movies thrown in. Nevertheless, I sat calmly as the dentist injected painkiller into my gum nerves. It didn't help when he said in an almost bored voice, "Now I have to tell you the risks involved..."

Supposedly there was a risk of getting a serious wound that would last for 6 months. Ouch.

The next few minutes were painless, but strange. I closed my eyes, and while the painkillers nullified the pain, I could still experience some pressure. So it really feels awkward as you can feel the scissors snipping away at your gum while death-drills grind your teeth down. I didn't even know it when the dentist began stitching my gums back.

Now, for the long week ahead where I'll be experiencing some pain and the inability to enjoy food (Darn it!). Friday's the day I get rid of the stitches, and it can't come sooner!

P.S. This was a wisdom tooth removal operation

New facelift!

Ok I couldn't find a movie quote this time. However I am proud to have finally redesigned some aspects of my blog. Fine, it was just a banner upgrade, but I'm still happy with it nevertheless.

This banner design parodies American comics of the 60s to the 70s. Pick up any copy of Amazing Spider-man or Batman and you'll see some similarities. And yes, my face strikes out like a grinning fool it is. Don't ask me why, it was just a spur of the moment thing.

Also, what exactly is the Comics Code Authority? The Comic Codes Authority was a regulatory (read: viciously dictatorial) body that censored comics back then. They were the ones that caused Batman to become the questionably flamboyant character he was in the sixties. (You know, BAM! POW! BIFF! Holy gee willickers, Batman!) Thank goodness Chris Nolan brought him back with the new Batman movies.

Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity say thank you to loyal readers, if there are any, for visiting my blog. Hope to see you again!

"One of the surest signs of true maturity...is reaching the state where you no longer care whether or not what you're doing in private is mature."

Click here.

This blog post is profoundly beautiful, and I very much agree with it. I myself have a few confessions to make: I enjoy kid games, I love fantasy, I can't stand horror, I practically adore Star Wars and I collect action figures. Some jocks out there are already probably wincing in pain.

And like GabuEx, I ask myself, why not? Why should "the fact that the person has existed on Earth for an arbitrary number of years" account for what his hobbies should or should not be? As people mature, they try to conform to societal standards, because that is precisely what is expected of them. Yet, are these standards really logical in the first place?

Think about it, why does growing up mean you have to watch something more violent, read something more trashy, play something more "intellectually mature"? In my opinion, it's not as if this world and the news we get from television isn't enough to shake us up to the depressing reality of life. To be blunt, this world sucks, life is harsh and cruel, and people die everyday. We see this everyday, so why should we confront it in our entertainment?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Let me tell you why fantasy and Star Wars appeals to me. When I want to entertain myself, I want to escape from this world, or I'd have a sensory overload. I want to experience something totally distinct from our world, to play a knight or an adventurer seeking glory and excitement. These are things not found or obtainable in my real life, and I believe the best way to live it out is through fantasy.

Of course, don't assume that I cannot appreciate the "darker" things in entertainment. I still enjoy movies such as Pan's Labyrinth, Walk the Line and other serious shows. I'm just saying that there's nothing wrong in indulging in "childish" fantasy. In fact, the only thing childish in life is picking up certain hobbies to prove to others that you are above Pokemon and fairy tales.

Images are copyrighted by Lucasfilm Animation.

"Never start with the head, the victim gets all fuzzy. "

This might be the first and only post in a long time. Exams are coming up and I've got my hands full at the moment. I just thought I'd want to rant it here to release stress and clear this aching head.

Life has been half good, half bad. Although I've been rather happy the past few weeks, school seems determined to put me down to dust. I've scored the worst mark in my entire history of INTI-UC in my accounts midterm. Also, JPA (for the uninitiated, that's the Public Services Department which funds my scholarship) says that although I'm a social science major, I'm unallowed to take up economics as a major. Double-kill.

However, sometimes two wrongs do make up a right, it seems. I've been doubting my choice in economics for a while now, especially since last semester when both microeconomics and statistics gave me headaches. What really drove the nail in the proverbial coffin was this semester's accounts, a truly vexing subject that has taken a great toll on me. It's not the lecturer's fault though, as Miss Kiran is a good lecturer, but it's rather my rusting brain that is unable to comprehend the easiest of debits and credits.

Let's see, accounts and statistics, two difficult subjects that are crucial for success in economics. If I can't master them, I'll be facing hell the next few years.

Therefore, considering the two blows I've faced, namely the economics no-no and the poor accounts midterm, I believe God might be telling me to change to another major, more suited to my skills (like I have any). Recently I've been thinking of a plan B, that is, Mass Communication. I'll look into it, and with luck, it might just be the right choice.

And the award goes to...

IGN.com, the famous online entertainment magazine, has just released their list of summer movie awards. I being a geek on (almost) all things movies and awards, thought it would be nice to report it on this humble little blog. Full link here!

Note that IGN is probably one of those chauvinistic websites out there, and is therefore very (stereotypically) male-oriented. As such some of the "awards" seemed to have popped up from the minds of those high school jock-geek hybrids you see on TV.

Nevertheless, it is still a fun list and some of the awards actually surprised me, in a good way. One was Favorite Hero, as I thought Batman was to be the clear winner, but IGN convinced me that Iron Man was more deserving of the title. Another was Best Effects Sequence, which proved me right about how cool the Troll Market was in Hellboy II.

So, here's the list in full:

1. Best Summer Movie - The Dark Knight
2. Best Animated Movie - Wall-E
3. Favorite Fizzle - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. Favorite Hero - Tony Stark/Iron Man (Iron Man)
5. Favorite Villain - The Joker (The Dark Knight)
6. Best Cameo - Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (Iron Man)
7. Babe of the Summer - Natalie Martinez in Death Race
8. Best Effects Sequence - Troll Market Scene (Hellboy II: The Golden Army)
9. Greatest Explosion - The Hospital Explosion (The Dark Knight)
10. Gunfight to End All Gunfights - Supermarket/Car Chase Gunfight (Wanted)
11. Craziest Car Chase - Speed Racer
12. Best All-Out Brawl - Red vs. Saul and Dale (Pineapple Express)
13. Best Kill - The Joker's "Pencil Trick" (The Dark Knight)
14. Coolest Creature - Angel of Death (Hellboy II: The Golden Army)
15. Funniest Line - "You don't ever go full retard." (Tropic Thunder)
16. Niftiest Gadget - Mark III Armor (Iron Man)
17. Hottest Trailer - Watchmen
18. Best DVD of the Summer - Spaced - The Complete Series
19. Best Blu-Ray of the Summer - Batman Begins

Whew, that was a lot of typing. So, to tally up, and if my statistics skills still match up, the following movies are the biggest winners:

1. The Dark Knight - 4 awards
2. Iron Man - 3 awards
3. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - 2 awards

I couldn't agree more with IGN about the greatness of these three.

Look in the sky!

Check this out: http://www.superherohype.com/news/supermannews.php?id=7609.

This is really good news! It’s about time that Warner realized the potential of their massive superhero franchise and got their feet together. This reminds me of The Incredible Hulk, which was quite a refreshing reboot for the series and a great movie.

Initially, I thought of titling this post, “Best. News. Ever.”, but with much thought I realized it wouldn’t be fair. I’ll explain this in a bit, if you’ll kindly spare the time. The last Superman movie to be released was Superman Returns in 2006, directed by Bryan Singer. Many people dismissed it as boring and clichéd and it didn’t help that it didn’t scrape enough bucks for the big tycoons at Warner. So, a sequel was a no-no for the bosses, that is, until they discovered the huge gold mine they had through the immense success of The Dark Knight. (Which was really an excellent film, read my review.)

Now this is just unfair to the talented Bryan Singer, who obviously put in immense effort into “Returns”. The movie clearly had high production values, fantastic art direction and set pieces , a quality cast, beautiful special effects and a fantastic soundtrack. If it were released in the 70s, along with the Christopher Reeve films, it would have struck gold. No, I think the main problem with “Returns” was that Singer tried too hard. Superman Returns was a good film, just not in line with contemporary standards.

Take for example, Brandon Routh, who plays the titular character. I believe Routh is a good actor from the way he portrayed himself in the movie, but Singer drained of much of his potential by forcing him to emulate the late Christopher Reeve. In fact, Brandon Routh had to apply a lot of visible makeup just to make his face look more like Mr. Reeve. Face it, Mr. Singer, Christopher Reeve was a fantastic Superman, but you need to be original and step out from the shell of the previous movies.

“Returns” is riddled with jokes and homages to the old movies that would make fans laugh but puzzle many younger viewers. The movie tries too hard to fit in with the old series when in fact it should be promoted as a new film with a rebooted storyline. Director Christopher Nolan did the right thing with Batman Begins by starting anew, something Bryan Singer should have done.

Another problem was that while it tried to be old-fashioned, it threw in some very weird, supposedly “contemporary” themes into the mix. People be warned, spoilers ahead! In “Returns”, Superman has a son with Lois Lane, who is currently together with another man. While I’d appreciate some drama in superhero movies (done so excellently in Spider-man 2), one does not humanize Superman by making him an illegitimate father!

As such, I am very pleased that Warner is attempting a reboot with Superman. No doubt Returns was good movie, which I would still recommend. You can clearly see how well done and polished the whole movie was and I enjoyed it very much. However, this doesn’t mean that everyone will, because not everyone is a fan. So, I sincerely hope that Warner will prove to the world that Superman is a hero for modern times, and also one of its greatest!

So you think you've got a Masters?

Do forgive me. It takes a bit to make me scream in frustration, but one lecturer cut the strings of my patience today.

I was having problems trying to print a statistics assignment (knowing beautiful INTI College printers and all), and today's problems were exacerbated more so than usual. It took me half an hour just to get things running and this lecturer came in to teach his half-gathered class.

All right, all right! It was my fault that I didn't print my assignment earlier in order to meet the deadline, but take a look at the following conversation and see what you think:

Lecturer: I have a class right now.
Me : I'm really sorry, I know, I know.
Lecturer: If you know then why don't you take action? (The nerve!!)
Me : Please, it's just two more graphs. Can't you allow me to continue printing?
Lecturer: I can't do that. Go print in another lab or somewhere.

The nerve of him! With that play-pretend stern face and all! At least talk nicely if you wanted to chase me out! I fully comprehend the need for you to have a silent class sleeping paying attention to you, but at least speak politely. You really don't need to prove your ego as none of your students probably cared anyway.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I needed to get that of my chest. grrr...