Of Machines and Men

Watched Wall-E. Enjoyed tremendously. =) It's impressive how simple the sources of humor are when there are so many hilarious moments in there.

[Warning for indirect spoilers below]

There's the moral message about what modern conveniences can do to us when taken to the extreme, but I'm totally in just for the cuteness. The straightforward, honest cuteness of robots whose idea of romance consists of hand-holding. As TS Eliot asked, "Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" similarly I thought, "Where is the romance we have lost in sentimentality?"

The only thing that kept it from being perfect in my opinion is the oversimplified (or perhaps only unexplained?) resolution to that memory issue at the end. It's not like it couldn't be resolved without 'magic'-- just copy the data over, la. Though it might still require some Evangelion-style Ritsuko-jutsu to do that directly from the chip. (Actually, I think I'll love it even more if they put in this kind of hardware-level sci-fi action. Throw in some more memory corruption problem and I'll be sold.)

The trademark Pixar bonus clip felt a bit longer than necessary this time, but still all of us enjoyed it throughout.

Aside from the movie, was feeling a bit under the weather today with accumulated tiny disappointments in myself, which led to more disappointing acts committed towards various people around me. Should have apologized but the situations were rather too vague and awkward to, so I applied my usual strategy of 'acting normal, moving on'. Ah, sorry~~

It's What You Didn't Say

Got this from the "Writer's Block" section on my Livejournal:

Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” He is believed to have called it his greatest literary work ever.

Indeed, thriller is in the imagination of the beholder?

Six-word stories from other authors

Being Born

I still remember the first movie that made me actually cry-- it was Armageddon. It sort of marked the starting point when I no longer held back from crying over movies or books. =P I suppose that was one of my emotional development stages-- living away from my parents did break a lot of my reserved habits.

In recent years I noticed that almost all of those tear-jerking scenes had to do with parent-child relationships. (Thinking back, the context in Armageddon happened to be the same.) This is probably yet another mental development stage-- connecting with the parental instinct in me, I suppose? =D

This thought particularly stroke me when I cried harder than I laughed while watching Money No Enough 2 today. It was meant to be touching, but I was quite surprised and paiseh at how readily the tears flowed, heh. The Hokkian insert songs at those points were unexpectedly beautiful too, and the mundane words in the lyrics made them all the more heartfelt to me.

Anyway.. the movie was part of a string of pampering treatments I'm afraid I've been indulging in these few days. =) Thank you so much, family and friends. I thought a birthday was the most unearned-for pampering compared to other celebrations.. =D Some say that on such a day we are really giving thanks for the person having been born, leading to them being part of our lives today. That is a very kind thought, but our parents were the ones doing all the work on that day, no? =P

With my Jap-entertainment knowledge overload, that made me recall reading/watching somewhere that Yamashita Tomohisa received that similar birthday message "Thank you for having been born" from his mother. How noble is that? His friends rightfully commented that he should reply to her with something like "(I'm the one who should) thank you for giving birth to me", but he was apparently too shy to do that in the end.

His senpai Doumoto Tsuyoshi on the other hand really got my respect when he revealed the inspiration behind a song he wrote, that was, the memory of viewing cherry blossoms with his mother; and that just before recording the song, he'd fought off the embarrassment and sent her the message: "I'm glad to have been born as your child (お母さんの子供に生まれて良かったです), thank you."

The birthday person themselves really have more reasons to be thankful about, na. From the Buddhist perspective, being thankful for the precious human birth, too, and taking care not to waste it. *nudges self*


With today comes the reminder of your love
With today comes the reminder of all the lives that make up a part of mine
今日まで全てにありがとう
今日からもどうぞよろしく

...and Let the Sun Shine In

I surprised myself by actually coming up with concrete answers when people asked for my preferences these few days. =D It's of course tempting when someone asks me what I want (with the intention of fully complying) but even without the "false humility", when I really don't have a favorite, it can be quite troublesome. And yet I found that all I had to do was to push a bit further into my impulsive side, set aside the fear of being selfish... and there they were, random quirky ideas jumping out one after another.

I've always been bothered by my own indecisiveness, not only with connection to other people ("anything's fine" could be quite an annoying answer) but also for myself-- now that I'm once again in the transition process from completing my graduate studies to job seeking.

(Ad flash: while I'm at that, would appreciate your input if you know of reco/vacancies for Computer Science R&D, Singapore or abroad. Thank you! =))

I've encountered many good things that are unexpected: interesting points of view I haven't considered, great music outside my usual genre, fruitful reads I have little initial interest for, (recent foosball craze in the lab,) ... that I think I might be missing something every time I choose to stick to my old perspectives.

Not that I'm adventurous; more like I have fairly high tolerance, I suppose? I still need that push from you people to try something new. =D Having said that (this is mostly to certain friends who probably don't read this blog anyway XD) still no chilli and seafood for me please. Those I already know I don't like. ^^; At least for the time being, because my tastes do change -- thinking back to my semi-hermitic school-day self, I couldn't remember nor imagine how I could have gotten into a movie group, a karaoke group, a badminton group... and yet those are the groups of friends I'm glad to have that have persisted for years now.

On the other hand, having no strong stands has been disadvantageous in various professional and social settings, where opinions are needed to further discussions and conversations. But a line from a movie surprisingly made me feel much better about this: "Why do I have to have opinions on every single thing?" (It's April from "Definitely, Maybe" about the Clinton campaign if I remember correctly.)

As far as tastes are concerned it's all relative anyway, no? =D Judgment can be objective according to certain standards, but actual outcome has nothing to do with it -- whether one likes/enjoys/benefits from the subject in question.

You've seen me ranting passionately about songs and shows and things I found amazing (what's a public blog for if not for spreading beliefs? ^^) -- having been in a few fandoms, I think I've developed enough awareness of what my biases are and am perfectly fine with having them. Meanwhile in matters I don't feel strongly for, I will promote open-mindedness and liberal thinking (while trying not to be too hypocritical about it). Isn't that all right? =3


* Title is a "referential substitute" for the preceding line in Frente!'s song, "Open up your heart", which has a different context in that song (a good, inspirational one, by the way). I, uh, like to do this with my entry titles, so just to make sure people actually get the connection, as my thinking process is questionably random. =P

Do You Mean "Eternal", Maybe?

Finished Last Friends, another drama that phoenix chix got me hooked on. That second pic in his post played a big part in motivating me. =D Cool/kind boyish girls are so my type. Oh, Ruka.

And I know Takeru is totally scripted to be the ultimate good guy (the "ability to make people happy" is now my new idea of the supreme personality trait), but still I like him tremendously and 'ship him with Ruka forever -- much as I support whoever she loves; and loving (among other verbs) with disregard to gender is a cause close to my heart.. but Michiru is just the type of heroine I don't sympathize much with.

But even with that I think the drama ending is great -- ignoring the cheesiness of the closing lines, plus how I think the title is absurd enough without making its way into the monologues -- and (perhaps ironically) I especially like how these two's relationship never crosses the line, making the connection so much more meaningful and the sweet moments (plus mild fan-service XD) so much more squeal-worthy, lol.

(Ah, sorry for approaching such a serious drama with this attitude. _ _)

I actually started watching this before Liar Game (see previous post) but while waiting for the last episode to be subbed, I ended up finishing (the long-time released) LG first. The level of excitement is quite similar =D though I wasn't as compelled to watch LF back-to-back, given the milder genre. (That and my constant self-reminder, "the last ep sub is not out yet..")

I like how LF is pretty realistic and doesn't fall into stereotypical conflict resolutions (well, mostly). There was a bit of a tease in the last episode that had me scolding my monitor, "Don't give me that kind of ending now!" -- so the eventual twist made me half amused and half eye-rolling "geez.."

Somehow, though, that last episode was a bit of a letdown to me. I just feel that the emotional build-up was lacking. Strangely so, as it had felt solid up to that point, but everything seemed to rush towards a closure in that particular episode. (One more episode probably wouldn't hurt..) With all the foreshadowing on Takeru's personal conflict, I think it ended up rather underdeveloped. (Yet that might be the realistic way our problems get solved in actuality-- they just fade with time?)

Just personally, I had expected a further growth on Michiru's part too, which she hadn't quite reached at the turning point-- still blaming herself.. not facing her friends.. -- which was probably normal if not for my idealism. =D

While my favoring Ruka is sorta given, =D Eri was a really great character. Her "let it flow" attitude was what attracted me the most, and I think the occasional vulnerability just accented her subtle strength more. I watched Mizukawa Asami (the actress) in a talk show, and her real personality seems just as interesting-in-a-good-way. =D I'm glad that I'll see her again in 33-pun Tantei (33-minute Detective) which is already in my watchlist for a different person (current crush, heeh).

It won't be so soon, though, as this one has just started airing. Not to mention the wait for the subtitles. What a motivation to embrace my old Jap textbook again, lol.