Sunday, February 23, 2014

The Grass are Brown

Yes indeed. The grass are brown or perhaps they're not brown, they're just dead. I came from no-sunlight Jakarta into unrelentingly hot Singapore. I did feel like the rainy season came early last year and it seems the dry hot season is coming early too. Way way early. Another sign of the hot weather is when you see the bougainvillea blooming gloriously. A little trivia for you: what you may think as the flowers are actually still their leaves. Really, check it out yourself. Their shapes are really similar like their leaves, but they just happen to have colors. Their actual flowers are actually really small surrounded by these colourful leaves. Since it's been really hot, I was thinking if it's their survival skill to bust out these colourful leaves, since I assume these colourful leaves don't really have chlorophyll in them and chlorophyll are needed for photosynthesis. More leaves with chlorophyll means the plants need to get a lot of water and in this hot weather, it's not sustainable. So perhaps this is the bougainvillea first mode of self-preservation before they do what many trees have done, which is to shed their leaves. Well that's my theory, maybe it's all wrong. Other plant observation in this hot weather is how the ground which are normally covered in grass all went brown. We're so early in the year and we're already facing such hot weather. It feels rather scary to imagine how the next months gonna go. During Chinese New Year holiday, the Chinese fortune tellers invited to share their insight on TV in Indonesia did say we should expect for hot dry weather. Not sure if it's the same in Singapore, but we already had another volcano burst out in Indonesia so yeah, kinda scary to imagine more heat coming our way. Anyway, isn't it crazy that there's only a week left in February? We have gone through 2 months in 2014! Time really flies!

Managed to watch a few films in the past 2 weeks. I watched Dallas Buyers Club and I have to applaud Matthew McConaughey. He was so frail and skinny in this film, it's sad and really shows how committed he is into the role. Jared Leto was also awesome, truly truly awesome. It's like there's not a trace of masculinity in the character he played. Overall I thought it was a good film. Then I watched The Wolf of Wall Street in a cinema. Matthew McConaughey also had a small part in it and he was still skinny in the movie. I really really hope he's going to go back to his normal weight soon. It's really disturbing seeing him skinny. A good thing that they're planning Magic Mike 2, so I guess he'll have to go back to his healthy weight for that movie :) The Wolf of Wall Street in Singapore was censored in some parts. I felt 2 parts were cut and I checked and I was correct. The first scene was the sex party that the gay butler had in the condo and the other one was the honeymoon scene in the plane. I'm not sure if there were other scenes which were cut. While I agree that these scenes were obscene as are many other scenes in the movie, I still do not like the fact that a movie get cut. It should be presented in its entirety and if a person feel uncomfortable watching it, they can just walk out. By the way, a part of Delivery Man that I suspected was cut was indeed cut. It was the scene when one of the biological son kissed other guys. I felt more annoyed that these scenes get cut than the scenes in The Wolf of Wall Street because I think the scenes in Delivery Man were pretty harmless, but since Singapore is obviously trying to suppress homosexuality, all these must be thrown away. I wonder how the censorship on these movies goes in Indonesia. Anyway, perhaps because The Wolf of Wall Street is so outrageous, I don't love it much, but I do think it's pretty well made. I also managed to watch The Monuments Men. It wasn't as good or as funny as I expected it to be. They have many good actors in it, but the movie wasn't satisfying for me so it's quite a shame :( It's still a good story though and a good thing that George Clooney brought this story into our attention. The landscape of European culture would have been so different now, if these people hadn't worked hard and risked their lives in preserving all those works of art. Lastly, I watched August: Osage County. Meryl Streep as expected was awesome in it, but I also thought Julia Roberts was great. Wow, August: Osage County is draining to watch with all the family drama :P You will be thankful about how tame your family feel like after watching this, unless your family is worse :P

Another accomplishment I had was that I finished my first book this year. I finished Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. It was interesting as it began with all the mystery, but I thought the conclusion wasn't satisfying. I guess I was expecting more, just like perhaps many of the characters in the book. It kinda made me think of Sherlock series 3. You have so much expectation on how the story would go but at the end, in this case episode 3 of Sherlock series 3, it was so disappointing that you look at series 3 or the book, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, as a whole as so-so and even perhaps quite a let down. Anyway, the book I am on now was given by the peeps back home. It's kinda a motivational book which is not my type of book since I detest self-help book. However since I have been feeling all depressed last year, it's perhaps a good thing that my friends got me something to motivate me, especially since I wouldn't choose this myself. It's a book from Ajahn Brahm which in Indonesian is called Si Cacing dan Kotoran Kesayangannya. In English, I think it's called either Opening the Door of Your Heart: And Other Buddhist Tales of Happiness or Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties. I first heard of this book from my brother but I have never read it myself until now. It's a collection of short short stories and though I haven't read much, I already felt like being slapped because one of the stories relates to how I often look at my situation, which is a tormenting way of doing it since I obviously feel shitty all the time.

I guess that's about it guys. I wish you great wonderful things in your side of the world :)

:) eKa @ 6:34:00 PM •