I never expect to crack my brains for a Chinese paper. First time in so many years that I found a Chinese paper so difficult. It’s either a border-line pass or somewhere there I guess, but I think I wrote well for the composition though. Sianglin’s definitely gonna score higher, she had deeper interpretation of the same topic I wrote … gwarsh.
I’m not really in a school mood today. I’ve just had a few face-wash, 3 brooms met my face today when rules broke loose as ASPIRE was canceled.
Tomorrow’s labor day, it’s a holiday!
Stranger than Fiction stars Will Ferrell as an IRS auditor who finds a strange voice narrating his life, and hints than he might soon die. This movie was released in November of 2006, but only now I’ve watched it after it was released on DVDs and such medias. I hardly go to cinemas unless it’s a film I’ve been anticipating long before (for example, spider-man 3!).
Alright, I love this movie after watching it yesterday night. It’s artistic, the visual screen effects (those digital calculations thing), the characters (Emma Thompso, playing as Karen Eiffel, a famous writer and the voice of Harold Crick’s narrator) and I was further taken aback by the style of the ending credits.
It’s hard for a man to knowingly face his own death, and when he knows he’s gonna die, he’s willingly to take chances. The story starts with this narration:
“Harold Crick was a man of infinite numbers, endless calculations, and remarkably few words. And his wristwatch said even less. Every weekday, for twelve years, Harold would brush each of his thirty-two teeth seventy-six times. Thirty-eight times back and forth, thirty-eight times up and down. Every weekday, for twelve years, Harold would tie his tie in a single Windsor knot instead of the double, thereby saving up to forty-three seconds.”
When he found out that he’s gonna die, he broke the barriers of his own life. He went to fulfill his childhood dream by making his life a little more musical, and little did he knew that making his life musical would introduced a little romance into his life too. He meets and falls in love with Ana Pascal in a very hilarious situation, and was utterly disliked by her at first.
The thing about this story is, it’s thought-provoking. You would want to listen to those narrations and look at how Crick is reacting to it. All the characters seem to be stuck in the same dilemma in different lives, to make a change in life or stay the same. A choice one may make not only affects himself, but others as well. Just like the book Karen Eiffel was writing, and didn’t knew Harold Crick actually existed. He was a character in her book, and she just couldn’t believe the story she’s about to write links directly to Harold Crick. If the character dies, Harold Crick dies.
Of course it’d be easy to just change the ending to keep him alive, but if you’d just watch the movie, you would not think it is easy. She’s under pressure, writer’s block and been through difficult times before she’s able to think of a tragic ending that fits. It was also said by Professor Jules Hilbert in the movies, that this book is probably the best that Karen Eiffel have ever wrote, a masterpiece in fact.
The ending was nice, too, it didn’t disappoint as I thought it might have been. If you have some free time, you might considering sparing it for watching this movie!
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Will Ferrell seems to be a funny couple in this movie, playing as Ana Pascal & Harold Crick respectively. Will’s confession was funny, I swear!
Harold Crick: Miss Pascal, I’ve been odd. I know I’ve been odd, and I know that there are many forces at work telling me to bring these down here to you, but I brought these for you because… I want you.
Ana Pascal: Excuse me?
Harold Crick: I want you.
Ana Pascal: You want me?
Harold Crick: In no uncertain terms.
Ana Pascal: But isn’t there some… I don’t rule about fraternization…
Harold Crick: Auditor / Auditee protocols, yes, but I don’t care.
Ana Pascal: Why not?
Harold Crick: Because I want you.
Ana Pascal: Can you carry those a little bit further.
Harold Crick: Okay.
Life doesn’t have to be a part of your habits, you need flavors added to it every now and then to keep life alive. At least, that’s my reflections after watching the movie.
Exams gonna start soon, the first paper on next Monday. Have been feeling weird recently, my adrenaline to do revision didn’t came easily this time. Damn, I really want to score well, but oddly, there’s something in my way. April hasn’t been a good month for me, emotions are killing me.
So let it be what it’ll be
Don’t make a fuss and get crazy over you and me
Here’s what I’ll do
I’ll pay loose
Run like we have a day with destiny
It’s just a little crush (crush)
Not like I faint every time we touch
It’s just some little thing (crush)
Not like everything I do depends on you
And I just want to find a way to show what’s best in me … someday, maybe.
The title, the title says it all! Gold, baby, our modern dance has attained a gold for SYF ‘07! We broke the freakin’ no-gold for 28 years of performing arts in SYF! We’re shining, we’re smiling, we’re on a roll! It’s like, all of our efforts paid off and didn’t let anybody down! And there’s so much I want to say.
Everyone was anticipating for the results, good results, and for that I pulled a prank off Pei Xuan. I was acting like I knew the result and didn’t want to talk, pulling off a disappointed face and after she asked numerous times, getting so fed-up, I told her “Actually I don’t know yet” and then WHAM! Ouch. Mrs. Lim SMS-ed me at 10.24AM telling that we’ve gotten gold, and SMSes just came one by one, and they all contained the word “GOLD”.
After-school, Pei xuan showed us this poster we caught sight of at a nearby bus-stop outside of school. This is what it states: “Pretty girls for rent. Many nationalities for you to choose! Book from 6PM - 11PM. Special price for foreign workers. Only $15 per hour.” As Peiling would say, ohmytian =) I mean, this kind of pimping activities still goes round in here? Perhaps I can guess why they chose to stick this up here … our school is undergoing prime, get it? I can’t help but to think that some kind of CID put this up to catch sex-offenders who endorse such ideas (you know, like those online pervs. who are actually police in disguise?). And they are call … Dolls ‘R Us. She kept using my photo to call that number … gwarsh. I can’t believe them calling me up because the line couldn’t get through when Pei Xuan called. She eventually tore the poster off =/
There’s this talent-time thing too today, all the finalist were Indian-schoolmates but they weren’t as interesting as those of before. One of them did a Traditional-Indian dance and the hall was really laughing out loud, he’s so daring, I swear.
And back to dance, I’m gonna do some reflections.
2 years ago, when I was still a kid, I was dragged into the SYF ‘05 by Mrs Lim and played quite a minor role in that dance. We got silver, and at that point of time, I didn’t really understood why the seniors had to cry. I was the smallest guy in there, brittle, weak and everything you can think of.
2 years later, now, we’re back in action again. Only some dancers who have participated in the previous SYF took part again, and they were: Pei Xuan, Wan Ting, Yi Sin, Wengling and lastly, me. The guys in the last SYF have mostly graduated, while Chun Hui & Zhi Kai would prefer to play basketball. And there comes the saviors of this dance: Sean, Jia Cheng and Sayang. Wei Heng was knocked out with an uncalled injury at the very last moment, but we managed to get by without his presence. Sean was thrown into dance by me, whereas Jia Cheng & Sayang were just like the old me, being forced by Mrs. Lim.
Huang-laoshi (Henry Ng) was a professional choreographer, a gold medalist in SYF competitions and took the risk of taking us to the SYF as we’re a bunch of dancers with weak techniques. The intensive training started in December of 2006, when Pan-laoshi started crafting this dance for us, so unique, that we were actually using pillows as our props.
Fong-laoshi assisted us in the later part of December, along with Cheng-laoshi who would later make major changes to our dance. Not to forget, it was also Wu-laoshi who was always there to clean up the mess us guys have caused. We were a playful bunch, little team spirit back then, but as time passed, love grows and blah-blah … Oh heck, I just want to say that we have become closer, yea?
Our attitude started to turn worse towards the SYF competition, inconsistent performance and it was worrying the teachers. It was not until the very day before the competition, that we were all as one and have the feeling of gold-rush. The camp was like, gosh, barely one-quarter of the dancers were sleeping and were all loitering at night. Wu-laoshi did not sleep because he was sewing the mattress for us, and Cheng-laoshi was designing the lighting for us. The next morning, the most terrifying thing came true … everyone was half-dead. Slacking, sleeping and all bad attitude you can think of, we did it.
But the feeling of doing well just came back to us after putting on our costumes and make-up, danced a few times before setting off for the UCC. That was what our teachers have longed to see in us, seriousness with stage-performance quality. And my god, we did it. For the past 2 days, I was thinking about it. I don’t want to get another silver, I want to earn something different for the school. We all want, gold.
If it weren’t for Pan-laoshi and Huang-laoshi, we wouldn’t have danced this item. They could have given this theme to some gold-standard schools and won a gold with honors award, but they chose to risk it on us. If it weren’t for Fong-laoshi, we wouldn’t have such unique music. It it weren’t for Wu-laoshi and Cheng-laoshi, our dance steps would be in jeopardy. If it weren’t for them, the gold ain’t possible.
This … is the last time. Things will never be the same again.
Have I been wasting my love?
Never underestimated an hour less of sleep, it makes a major difference when it comes down to another school day. I slept through the Chinese period, with my handphone in the hands of Sianglin who were enjoying the photos. She commented that looking back at the old photos of us really provokes some memorable moments, and I do agree so.
Photographs just reminds you of that moment you might have forgotten, how stupid you have been, or how your friends used to be. Nothing has really changed much, and I’m not sure if I liked it that way. I am always indecisive when it comes to making choices, especially if they are matters of the heart.
Anyways, during the morning assembly, the speech really spoiled my day. Another burden of stress when the message behind the principal’s words sound like “dance should obviously get gold for SYF”. The result will be out tomorrow, and it makes my heart shivers.
I guess I have something to confess. Yes, I’m acting weird recently, can be like a walk corpse now and a hyperactive kid then. It isn’t as if I hadn’t noticed it myself, and it was intentional. I have so much emotional stuffs bottled inside me and I couldn’t find a way to let it all out. I think I’ll die inside if this continues on and on, an unstable emotional status will eventually wear me out. Yet I have no idea what to do. And the reason can be easily guessed, it’s obvious, but I just don’t want to talk about it. I have so much to say, but I don’t know where to start. And would you listen if I spoke from the heart…?
I know what I want, but I just have difficulty verbalizing it. Don’t tell me leaving the pitch is a solution, it ain’t. Like a damsel in distress, I shall scream “save me please”. She has got me drowning … haiz.
