Blog Change!

Hello peeps. Well, I guess you can see it. I change the blog's design. It's been awhile coming. Been planning to do it since I started meddling with HTML5 and CSS transition. However I've been lazy (what else is new?). Finally I do it today because after 2 days of confining myself to my room*, I decided that I really have to do something useful and here you go. It's developed with HTML5 and CSS transition things in mind, though I don't really use much of them or do it in a way that matters. The irony is, my vaio is running in windows XP so my IE is unable to show the page nicely because IE9 cannot be installed in windows XP. I really need a new computer but I still love my loyal vaio very much (loyalty is darn important for me). Anyways, I still have Google Chrome to see it in the display I am aiming for. The thing is, you gotta hand it to IE, it's able to render to font nicer than chrome. The texts are too sharp in chrome while it's nice and smooth in IE. I'm OCD this way.

I remove the comment box because I just feel so lazy maintaining it with all its spam. If you have anything to say, you can email me, write on my facebook wall, or just sms me *thank you!!!*. I add a flickr section, it will randomly select a picture from my collection and display it there. It's kinda nice :) and another treat I have is I added a javascript code which will randomly choose a banner picture. There are 3 different pictures. All are pictures of flowers taken from my Keukenhof's visit. However the design is made with the blue flowers in mind, so perhaps the rest of the flowers don't match nicely into the color scheme. Whatever. I'm still pretty pleased with the design and I hope you too. So that's it for this public holiday today. I do get bored yesterday but I still don't want tomorrow to come. Life is rather good when I can watch Charlie and Lola.

*I was still not feeling well eventhough I had taken a whole box of medicine during the weekend. In desperation I even mixed some flu medicine together and I think I took more medicine than the dosage allowed. On Monday I just couldn't take it anymore and off I went to see the doctor. Surprisingly she gave me the letter to rest on Monday and Tuesday. She never gave me 2-day off, so I was really really stumped that she gave me 2-day off without me asking. Anyway in between not having money and I feel like I have to not betray the doctor's trust that I will rest, I really just stayed in my room. I slept a lot and I felt really bored. At least I achieve something today :P

:) eKa @ 3:09:00 PM • 0 comments

The Help

I'm down with flu right now. I'm pretty much sick and don't have much energy and concentration, so I don't know how detailed I can write about movie of the week which I really like. Movie of the week is The Help. Maybe because I was sick when I watched it, my emotional state was rather affected that I actually shed many tears while watching this movie. The Help tells the story of african-american maids during the time when segregation was still the law in America. I seriously feel that anyone fighting for equality and acceptance should see the history of african american in America to keep the fighting spirit alive. It took a long way and the discrimination and perception was really hurtful but right now they have a black president. Discrimination sucks. I know because I'm an Indonesian Chinese. You may not like certain things about someone but to treat someone badly and make them feel inferior than you, that's just something that I despise.

I'm digressing. The Help was really good. I think Viola Davis who played one of the maids should get an oscar nomination. It's heartwarming and touching. I like how it really focused on the maids. Even Emma Stone's character who's one of the lead didn't really hog the limelight much. I thought the guy he was seeing was handsome and it was really disappointing that that guy was disapproving of her book and they broke up. The white characters were just as interesting to watch as the black ones. Among the white one, I have to choose the character Celia Foote. She's crazy fun and it's fun to see her managed to make the character Minny Jackson to be rather speechless a bit :P Those two were hilarious. This movie was definitely carried by the actresses and they were really awesome. Each one of them from the mean one, the old lady, to the little baby girl really made the most of their scenes. This movie also had some witty lines. One line that really registered in me was, Love and hate are two horns on the same goat, Eugenia. And you need a goat. It's funny. Do watch it peeps. The critics has kinda called this the little movie that could, meaning that it actually stand a chance to win best movie in Oscar next year. Well we have to see the other contenders before we make our pick.

So that's about the movie today. I had a hard time waking up today. I was feeling really tired. It turned out it's just me feeling sick. As usual, I didn't really feel like thinking or talking much in class but Mr. C still had to call me up. A depressing thing happened. It turned out he's not gonna be our teacher for the next term, starting next week :( Everyone was feeling sad about it. Me too. All this time I have had teachers whom I wished could teach me for more lessons and it's always kinda sad when a teacher we liked gets changed. Like being the operative word there. On the case of Mr. C, I just felt that I finally get used to him and yeah kinda like him since he is very hardworking and does strive to make us really really better. If it had happened on my first few classes with him, I would have breathed a sigh or relief but now after finally accepting him and now that he gets my quirkiness and my flaw, it's really disappointing, no? As much as I don't enjoy getting told that my sentences are still not compact enough, that I'm repeating too many things, and my style of writing is still not so sophisticated, I do want the chance to try again and again and to finally shut him up :P It sounds like I'm dying of acknowledgement, ya? Maybe I just like being tortured. I do liken this sentiment to like having stockholm syndrome :P

On other news. Well, maybe there's 1-2 things to say but my nose is killing me. So I'm just gonna stop now. Take care peeps. Stay healthy!

:) eKa @ 7:16:00 PM • 0 comments

Minuit à Paris

Movie of this week was Midnight in Paris. Am I a fan of Woody Allen? Well I haven't watched enough of his movies to call myself a fan. The reason why I wanted to watch this movie was because it seemed interesting and I've seen the posters all over when I was in Cannes this year. Basically I'm just drawn. Back to if I am a fan of Woody Allen. Well his movies often have some elements that I don't really like. Most of the time because the characters in his movie were often so flawed. However, as I was watching the movie progressed, I found myself liking one aspect of Woody Allen. He wrote and direct the movie himself and it seemed he just didn't care if the movie will make sense, if it will be silly, if it's meaningful, if it's gonna appeal to anyone. I feel he's just doing what his head churned out and film it the way he wants it to be. It's very admirable of him.

I like Midnight in Paris. I like Owen Wilson, so it's a good start for me :P Does the movie make sense? Well scientifically obviously not. Does it have any message or does it enlighten me in any way? Not really, except it did get me thinking a bit on which period of the world history, I would like to live in. I'm still undecided on that. The movie felt fun for me and it made me feel I want to experience it as well :P Something about this movie though, I think you'll enjoy it more if you know the historical figures. Other thing that I can talk about the movie? Well as I said, I like Owen Wilson. His nose seemed to be more crooked. He's still ever so likable. I thought Carla Bruni is quite pretty in this movie, which is weird, because I don't normally find her so. The rest of the actors were really interesting too. It was a good ensemble. For the ending, I wonder if the girl is from the future. It would fit the theme. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised that I understood the french dialogues. So all the french lessons did have their effects :)

The thing that ruined my movie experience was the fact that a mom brought her 2 young kids into the movie and for obvious reasons, the kids were really really noisy. The mother didn't even try to quiet the kids. I felt like I wanted to throw things at her. Seriously? Why would you do that? Bring your kids to a movie which definitely gonna bore them and then have them ruin the movie for everyone. Selfish much? I was also rather disappointed with the Cineleisure staff who allowed them in. However YeeMaggio did remind me that by right they could go in because the movie was just rated PG. I just wanted a nice time enjoying the movie which was rather good and yet I got utterly annoyed during it.

I have to be honest, I'm not really in a forgiving mood. Yesterday wasn't a good day. The suckiness of SMRT made me feel pissed even more. As I was trying to go to sleep last night, I thought of what it was that made me feel pissed the most. The answer is how people could be so self-centered. It's the same old story of me listening to people telling me their issue and the moment I sent out 1 line to tell them something about me, they didn't respond. I actually asked out loud, why does this always happen to me? I cannot deal with this. What kind of people are these people? Seriously? Can you just not step aside for 1 minute and think of other people than yourself? Do you think I am always interested and free to be listening to your woes? No I didn't but I tried my best to respond, especially to distress call! I was pissed as I was going to sleep and I was actually still feeling rather moody when I woke up. Was feeling so tired as well that I had to drag myself up and get ready for class. For some reason, I actually made it on time to class. Class was alright I guess. Maybe not for Mr. C because he's rather sick (poor thing). I think the only comment I can make after each of his class is, I survive it. I think I'm getting used to him but his class still makes me nervous.

This week still has its good points. Did a blackberry app this week. It works. So I've done an android app and a blackberry one. It kinda feels good to be able to do all that. There are other kinda good things but as usual, I'm not gonna write about it. Maybe I'll share some of the things that people said about me this week that kinda threw me off balance a bit (not exact quote):
"you're outspoken" --> somehow this kinda thing can still bother me even though I'm most probably that way. Probably? Denial, Eka? I even said if you have an opinion, you should say it. If not, what's your brain for?
"maybe you just like to be in control, but right now you're not" --> yeah, I'm power hungry, as usual.
"you look happier" --> this is very disturbing :P

:) eKa @ 11:10:00 PM • 0 comments

REAL STEEL

Movie of this week was Real Steel. To be honest, I wasn't interested in watching anything because I thought there's no good movie at the cinema right now. However YeeMaggio asked me if I want to watch anything and we settled with Real Steel. It appeared to me as a kiddy movie but I thought it would be a better choice than all the chick flicks around. Real Steel turned out to be such a delight.

I'm not really sure what makes this movie pretty good. It think it was the execution. The story was not incredibly wonderful or anything. To a certain extend it's rather expected, except for the ending perhaps. The ending kinda disappointed me but I guess if it had been a happy one, it would have been too predictable. The robots were interesting and the main robot, Atom, was really a real star. You just gotta like him. I really wonder how they did the robots scenes. Did they make actual robots? That would be too expensive. Another star of the movie is the little boy. He's so cute, adorable, and loveable. His eyes really could melt you away. As for Hugh Jackman, well I'm never really a fan of him because I am not one who likes bulky guys :P However I kinda like him a bit in this movie. He's less bulky and when traces of his daddy side appeared, he is rather charming. I wasn't totally taken by him though because his character was pretty much a jerk. I couldn't believe his character was willing to sell his kid without putting much though into it. Then there's Evangeline Lilly who was looking pretty, without freckles this time around :P One thing to note, it seemed Hugh Jackman is pretty tall. Either that, or Evangeline Lilly is not as tall as she appeared to be. So anyway I like the movie, I like that feeling of going in with so little expectation and to come out of it pleasantly satisfied :)

:) eKa @ 7:51:00 PM • 0 comments

The Tree of Life

Movie of this week was The Tree of Life. I watched it Vivy. Haven't seen her since March. Anyways, the movie was kinda painful for me. I read the wikipedia entry before watching this movie and so I knew it received such polarizing reviews but I also knew it won Palme d'Or at this year Cannes film festival. So I thought it's a movie to watch. It turned out to be a rather painful experience for me :( At 2 hours plus, it felt really long. I checked my watch a few times and I remember thinking when it reached the 1 hour mark, that I still had another hour or so to bear :( There were actually people leaving after about 15 minutes and I think the lady next to Vivy wanted to leave as well but I think because of her friend, she preserved. I remembered reading in wikipedia that there are scenes with dinosaurs and so I was hoping it would come soon so that there's some excitement, however the T-rex was just a baby T-rex and again it was another scene which left me thinking, what??!?!

Watching the movie is like watching installation art for me. More often that not, I don't get installation art and don't like it. If the movie has some kind of message that people should get, I don't get it. I don't understand it. I understand it in the way that your brain can be weird though. Your brain can move from one place to another, relate certain things, experience, and emotions to certain images. So in a way, I get the weirdness of the movie because my brain works that way too sometime. The movie started with a news of the middle son of a family died, then it went fast forward to the present day when we saw the adult older brother (Sean Penn) grappling with the anniversary of the death of his brother. Obviously it still affected him a lot. Then the movie moved back to the lives of the brothers with their loving and expressive mother and their strict father (Brad Pitt). Along the way, some imageries not unlike things you'll see in national geographics were being inserted. It's kinda hard to make sense of all this and they seriously made you wonder, what are you trying to say? I just see it as the imageries and the selected memories from the older brother reflected how the older brother felt and saw his life. I think that after all this time, he's still quite visibly broken, he needed some therapy :P

The last scene was rather weird again. I don't know what this supposed to mean. It showed the adult brother walking through a door in an unknown landscape and he met people from his past lives in all the different ages. For this scene, I saw it that when we finally die, we're going to meet ourselves and all those people from our past in all the different ages that we were and we're gonna reconcile with all of them. In this scene, everybody looked happy. Some had tears, but they were happy tears. Since I think of it that way, this scene was really really comforting for me :) I always believe what you are now is your past, present, and future combined. I always feel that you shouldn't do things that's gonna disappoint your past and future. Try to fulfill the dream of your young self and don't make your future self has regrets in life. Anyway, so that's that about the movie. I'm not really gonna recommend this movie because I don't know how you're gonna react to it :P It is rather disheartening that right now there aren't many good movies in the cinemas. Some of them are actually pretty dumb :( I actually feel rather disappointed that I don't have much things to see :( I'm waiting for The Help but it's still quite a long wait :(

On life, it's same old same old. I don't like being older but I kinda want next year to come soon. Geez, I need to slow it down and just enjoy these last few months of 2011. The previous post was pretty long that I forgot to write something that I wanted to write. There's been an addition in the household, I'm just gonna call him Max here. This year we had Chloe and Max back. While Chloe left, Max stays. I kinda like the kids but as they grew older, they do come with their teenager attitudes. On one side they are teenagers so they are allowed to be teenagers with all their way of thinking and attitude. It's just it's been a long time since I was a teenager and God knows I don't deal with them a lot. The last time I had to deal with them, I was more in a place of authority so my relationships with them, which I still call kids regardless of them being older, was perhaps rather different. Now having Max around, I do get stumped sometime seeing how he behaves. Last night at 1 am something as I was about to go to sleep, he got into trouble with his aunt. I don't know why they always have such bad timings. Even last time when Chloe was around, I got awoken at 5 am something with all the shouting :( I was quite fearful that someone would call the police :( So anyways, I had my dinner today and Max was at the table. For some reason he started the conversation in french, which was good because I could ask him what happened last night. He explained it to me and he said sorry when I complained to him that I was trying to sleep. That was kinda sweet of him :) I do think that it's all good between me and him. Between our love for The Big Bang Theory and my lack of authority over him, I guess he sees me as someone who he just could talk to as a friend. I'm not sure if he sees me as an older sister because he has one. Just like me who don't really see younger guys as my younger brother just because I already have one.

I do feel that the boy needs some discipline going on. I think he may even have a slight ADD. I don't know, it's been awhile since I'm a teenager and when I was a teenager time was really different than now. I feel he needs to find his center and be anchored a bit and not have his mind float all over the place. Am I asking too much from a teenager? I'm not sure I fully agree with how his aunt deals with him but it's not my place to say anything. I just hope that the boy is not too damaged and all will be good between them. As I said yesterday when we were all sitting at the table, it's like a battle of will power among them and the aunt was really sure she has stronger will power. The boy agrees as well but it's just been less than 3 months so we'll see. Anyway I do have my paranoia having him around. It could be nothing, just my paranoid self, but I could also be right as my senses usually are. Anyway, I can only say prayers to God so that what I fear will not happen *please God!* I seem to have written such personal stuff about someone else here so perhaps I should stop. Let's hope for a great week ahead *amen!*

:) eKa @ 7:24:00 PM • 0 comments

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