Typhoon in Singapore

I received this in the email today:

Hi fellow surfers,

Due to the typhoon near Taiwan straits, there have been storms in the mornings for the past few days :) This morning was the best, 44 knots was recorded by Richard Man at PA (People's Association). Most went out on a 5/6m but all were trashed up... Imagine Andrew (National Windsurfer) went out with a 4.7m and also find it strong! For those of us always praying for wind, pls make sure you pray for constant, moderate wind. NOT this type of freaking wind. Heh :)

Nothing Else Matters!
Weili.
(Inter Tertiary Windsurfing Association)

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Dammit. What have I been missing... I miss the beach (not Sentosa) already.

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka, the amazing chocolatier...

My favourite line from the entire movie which we caught at 1220am just this morning:

Everything in this room is *eat*able. In fact, I'm *eat*able. But that, my dear children, is called cannibalism which is in fact frowned upon in most societies.

Ah... the heck-care-ness of Depp which everybody so loves.

For the skeptics, it's not 5 thumbs up per se, but it's alright. It's alright. Watchable. Enjoyable. I loved the song and dance routines. Watch out for those. All the little voices are that of Danny Elfman. Overdubbed like a hundred times. Impressive work.

Check out those dance moves. Yowza~

Ah... lookit the time...

Time to sleep...

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka, the amazing chocolatier...

Mysterious Skin

It really gets under your skin. Oh yes it does. Here's what you will not expect from this film. You will not expect a happy ending. You will not expect everything working out for our main characters because real life just doesn't work that way. You will not expect to stay calm throughout the entire film. You will not feel good after this film because it's not something that you watch to escape 2 hours of your life for.

What you can expect from this film. You will look at some of your friends in a different light. If you have suffered similar experiences as them, you know that you are not alone. You will be disturbed. Greatly disturbed. By many shocking scenes of b-m fellatio and violence.

What's amazing about Mysterious Skin is that it's a no holds barred look at pedophiles and their victims. More so of their victims. Different people choose different paths for their lives after episodes with pedophiles and it's really quite an interesting and honest outlook into how children choose to cope with their encounters. Some embrace their newfound lifestyle as the norm and act upon it with the assurance of the adults (it's ok. it's ok. this is what we do when we want to show someone we love them very much) Some can force themselves to totally block out the memories in an attempt to lead their lives normally.

The content here really hits home to me because I do have a few army friends that turned to the other side thanks to childhood meetings with such pedophiles. It might be a one-off experience but it resulted in their discovering of their sexuality a little differently. Watching this was like understanding how it might be possible. And knowing the truth really hurts. There is no holding back on the brutality of abuse these children go through and it kinda made me think of the email regarding the AWARE research. Quite applicable. But too bad the dateline's over.

Overall if one wants to check out something different and you dare to experiment the unusual, do try this film out. Not for the faint of heart or weak stomached, but if you survive the experience, you'll learn things. And you just might feel the same way as I did when the credits rolled. Too awestruck to move from my seat.

I dare ya.

The biggest WTF of the day

A simple recap of the biggest WTF of the day... basically i was waiting for yeshye and the rest to come to the car to drive our collective butts over to UCC for the FICC. Once Yeshye reached the car, he started fiddling with the inclining thingy of the front passenger seat without getting into the car. I didn't know what he wanted, so I asked him. He replied with "How to move the seat?" I then pointed out that there's this lever at the front of the chair to move it front and back. He pushed the chair all the way in front, then proceeded to incline the seat a little, before attempting to stick his leg between the lowered seat and the back passenger compartment. He then asked me "How to get to the back passenger seat?" It was truly a WTF moment. "Zhiwei, I have a door for that".

I would think he's just tired.

How Mysterious

Devlin Tay: Censorship and conservatism
I cannot believe Philip Ruddock is leading the charge to ban Mysterious Skin. For heaven's sake, that movie is being shown in cinemas in Singapore right now. Singapore! A country with one of Asia's most conservative and straight-laced governments, with one of the most stringent set of censorship rules governing film and TV. If something can be shown in cinemas in Singapore, I simply cannot see how anyone can justify banning it in Australia. What have we come to? Does the religious right even bother to examine a movie's themes before condemning it to censorship hell?

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Mr Devlin could not be more wrong in proclaiming that Singapore-yada yada censorship rules. Remember kids, if it's political, it's wrong. That's the basis of our censorship rule. If it's about the church, it isn't that wrong. We're welcomed to watch it with open minds. Afterall, if we start banning stuff based on actual content, the poor ah peks at Yangtze would suffer greatly without their daily dosage of porn. Kudos to Cathy for bringing Mysterious Skin into Singapore. I first saw the trailer a few weeks ago and was greatly greatly disturbed. Haunting images they are and they do not disguise themselves to be anything but shocking. I'm finally getting time to watch it tomorrow (not during Flag! though I'll be absent from Flag due to other matters...) and I'm prepared to be blown away.

Expect a thumbs up for this film. I can't wait.

Harry Pothead

To those like Jackson that are too niaow to fork out $42 for the Half-Blood Prince, here are some spoilers. Snape is the Half-Blood Prince. Snape killed Dumbledore. Harry and Ginny get it on. Ron and some random get it on. Some giant spider dies. There's a funeral. That about sums up the Half-Blood Prince. 600+ pages of the most forced writing I have ever read. Unconvincing menopausic Harry Potter just doesn't come off as anything but irritating. I should wag my finger at the book editors for not cutting this piece of trash down to side. Just because the woman made millions doesn't mean that whatever she writes is gold. Ever wondered why the first 3 books were so thin? 2 words: Legal writing. After that, it was unedited trash all the way. Whoopie. Despite all that and the cliche ending, I actually will still buy the seventh book to read. Damn. It's not as if I'm hooked, but somehow this newest volume is just lacking in substance and leaves us not hanging in suspense but rather go.. wtf? It's over? But nothing barely happened! Hey, if I wanted Seinfeld, I'd have watched it on my tv instead. I still have 3/4 of season 4 to go which I put aside for this... for the lack of a better word, brick.

But as we all know, book seven will be out in like 2 years. Another long piece of indigestible trash which everyone will pick up because we have to see how Harry manages to destroy the Voldemort. Curiosity killed the cat I'd say. Know what the ending to this brick was? ImaGen the ending of Batman Begins and Spiderman. Ya know... the part about the hero giving up the girl for a greater cause? Exactly. Disappointing through and through. I think I should start on Neverwhere next. At least Gaiman's consistant.

Now to nurse my throbbing headache and try to salvage my hair after my disasterous haircut.