Sharp Objects

Sharp Objects is one of my favourite shows to watch and one of my favourite books to read. I recommend this show to anyone who's into beautiful show sceneries flawed by well-written storyline. The soundtrack from the show is also a playlist of good music. I bought the novel from Kinokuniya, and it was a fantastic read.

I love the way the director portrayed the storyline from Camille Preaker's point of view. Her lifestyle is normal (apart from her cutting herself all over her body) but is also interesting to watch. The show is also aesthetic by itself. And I would never have imagined that the show ended with such a plot twist. Gillian Flynn really did a good job writing the story.

Kafka on the Shore

It's been such a long time since I wrote any posts in this blog; and now I finally start to write again. To commemorate on blogging, I've decided to write about Kafka on the Shore.

I just finished reading Kafka on the Shore during last weekend. It's a book that I hear people say good things about but haven't got around to read it until recently. And to be completely honest, I daresay it's a really good book with great storyline. I noticed how clever it was of Murakami to alternate 2 storylines among the chapters to keep the readers hooked.

I know I've previously linked this song to another blog post, but to me, this song strongly correlates to this novel. So I'm going to post this song here again.

Orange

There are many movies out there that depict the lives of suicidal people, but for me, not many of them can come close to this one. This movie has a way of making me feel more in depth and understand deeper about how life looks like for these individuals, and more importantly, how the main character of this movie, Kakeru, experienced what made him guilty enough to think about ending his own life.

This movie emphasises a lot on how friendship and support from people in a person's life can help them to put off the idea of suicide and think about continue to live and having a purpose to live. In this movie, the friendship between Naho, Kakeru, Suwa, Takako, Hagita and Azusa is very admirable and strong. Kakeru, in the hardest moments in his life, was truly blessed to have met the other five people that helped him change his life and thinking. Never have I ever watched a movie that reflects on the lives of high schoolers at such an interesting angle, and this movie truly did it.

All of the pictures above are screenshots taken by me from the movie clip.

Living Under the Shadows

It's time to stop living life based on people's expectations, for in the end, what could you be proud of to call your own when you are old? Do you not seek happiness in life after fighting through so many years of it? In this case, the end justifies the means. You wanna feel like being on top of the world when you have reached the few final days of your life; you wanna leave this world knowing you did something that you think was right for the future of this land; you want to hold your head high because life is too short to be living under the shadows of someone; be it people's expectations, people's beliefs, people's opinions of you and your life.

It's true. The world moves on without you, you are just a speck and it can all happen without you. But you do not want to leave this life of yours wasted. That's why you must fight through and live the best life out of yours, with no regrets to mourn upon in the end. Never waste your time looking at the life of others but focus on your own. Never compare. You are unique and so you must prove that you are special in your own ways.

Break Up

(of a couple) end a relationship.

A new day begins. You wake up from your awful sleep. You’re partly covered in sheets, and as you open your eyes and regain your senses, you remember that you are now single again.

You spend the rest of your day at work, doing household chores, shopping with friends or alone, or other things. Regardless of what you do, carrying out any of these things feel a bit different, as you’re single again.

Everywhere you go or look, you see him or her. Even when you’re doing something, your mind will wander off to him or her eventually. You miss the person. You wonder what they are doing or how they are doing now.

Even when you are in the company of someone, be it friends, family, or co-workers, you still think of the person. Even when your company could potentially help you to keep your mind off of the person, you wish you could just go into your room and shut yourself from the outside world just to reserve and devote some moments and time to think about him or her, even when you shouldn’t be doing that.

You wish you could be back with the person. You feel that as if your world is crumbling, and part of you is missing since the day the announcement was made. At times you just resent him or her, sometimes you think to yourself why and how did everything go wrong and things ended up like this.

You feel very lonely in this world, even when there are people around you. You feel as if no one understands you now. Your world collapses, and you make no effort to restore it, and instead you just watch it burn down to the ground and to ashes. Yet you’re still alive, but still feel lonely.

You wish you could talk to him or her, to discuss about the things between the two of you. You want to know why did it happen, you want to know if there’s any possible way of the two of you getting back together. You still couldn’t get over the break up.

That person was gone from your life. You could be covering that hole with anything right now; social life, hobbies, work and etc., but at the end of the day, you still think of the person.

When all else fails, you are alone in your room again, and you realise that you will never get the person back into your life anymore. You are now depressed and melancholic: this is one of the darkest times of your life. People might reach out to you, or they didn’t, but you think life is all over now.

Months or years have passed by, and that’s when you finally realised that life isn’t over yet. That person may be long gone, but life still goes on. You’re still alive. Now you feel as if you gotta get up on your own feet and continue to live your life.

Like they always say “Life is short”, now you gotta listen to that, don’t you? It’s not the end of the world. And now you realise that you haven’t been loving yourself as much as you should, but it’s not too late because you can still do that.

When you wake up again, you smile and think to yourself that he or she may be gone, but you and your dreams have not.

Maybe there’s no one for me in this world. Maybe I am meant to be alone. Maybe love isn’t the main objective of my life. Maybe he or she will come back to you in the future. When that happens, you will be ready.

Crazy Rich Asians

I was brought to a cinema to watch Crazy Rich Asians, and it was better than I expected. I didn't hear of it until I heard my friend was talking about it. At first, I was thinking to myself that this movie will just be another non-realistic view of the life of a rich Asian, a life that is too good to be true and too costly for one to bear. However, my opinions changed after I watched this movie. All I can say is that everyone has problems; even rich people have them, but different of course.

I think this movie is quite good, nice to watch with friends, and it has a good touch on Asians' funny moments. I gotta say, I used to enjoy watching movies in cinemas, but after some mishaps and bad experiences, I refrain myself from watching movies in cinemas. I wouldn't have watched this movie if it wasn't for my friend; he absolutely loves watching movies, so I was taken along, and I didn't regret going to the cinema to watch this film, because it's really nice.

When You Disappear

Today is the 7th of July, and it's about to be over soon.

Time flies, life goes on, things change, and you were gone.

When you disappear, you took part of me away with you. Life is like a stage, and now I don't know how to keep the show going on. It's always hard to let go, can you teach me how? I remember I always asked for your opinion, I'm practically lost now without you.

At least you leaving me gives me a reason to be back - because I have no other purpose apart from returning to my hobby of blogging.

To the Sun that is Setting/Horizon

One situation ends and another situation begins. I guess that's how you could define life in a way. They always say that life is a journey, like being in a car and driving down the road; which could be bumpy, curvy, straight, narrow and so much more. And that is true.

But in the end, all that matters is that we are happy with the outcomes of our lives. To end my degree life at university and cheer for my new adult, working life, I present to you this song by none other than Pendulum. God their songs are amazing.

This song was created in 2005, featuring TC, Will Carlton, and Fats. Isn't this song amazing?

Lone Survivor (game)

The retro style and settings as illustrated in the game, as well as a simple yet attention-catching storyline have all made Lone Survivor another one-of-a-kind masterpiece to be remembered by fans of games all over the world. What captured and intrigued me was the music; which was a combination of the style of the 80's and the 90's with some jazz fusion within the mix. One of my favourite tracks from the game is called Home:

Music by Jasper Byrne - many kudos and thanks to him.

As a viewer of games and non-player of most games, I sometimes do prefer to sit back and enjoy the games themselves than playing them. There may be some things that I am yet to figure out in games, but that doesn't stop me from loving them and looking forward to even more. Video games have a way of allowing the gamers and spectators to immerse within their story and gameplay; many thanks to game creators and those who have been making it possible for us to enjoy these beautiful works.

Lunch and Dinner Dates

I always love going to dinner dates with people I love and care about. During the course of the dinner, While waiting for our food, I get to see what do they do to spend their waiting times. They could be chatting and talking about various topics, maybe about what they are currently interested in; they could be busy texting or playing games on phone; or they could be reading a book.

Lunch and dinner dates are when you get to bond closer to the people you love. There's so many things you can talk about that you get to really understand each other, even their likes and dislikes. These dates are also good opportunities for me to catch up with these people that I care about, especially after we haven't seen each other for a while. There's so many things I will be able to learn about them and about myself; these talks are also important in changing my lifestyle as I get persuaded or talked into different ways of doing things that may appeal to me.

Most important of all, as life is short, I can appreciate my time with people I love and I shall one day reminisce the good times we have had.

New Music! And Short Films

I was watching short films again on YouTube, which is a hobby which I developed since this year. Short films are very interesting; the ones I watched are full of eerie and chilly suspenses in between them and very imaginative plots embedded in them.

This video was one of the ones I watched days ago, which is about a girl named Lalin; who sadly is very conscious of how she looks and a story followed suit about this state of mind of hers.

The video above lead me to a new favourite song of mine, and I placed the link down below so you would be able to listen to it too. It's real nice and really bring things to a new shed of light.

God, I love this song :) It's called How Long by Jelly Rocket.

I watched Bad Genius last week. That really opened my eyes to the creative potentials that the people of Thailand could achieve if we would just give them the chance. I will definitely widen my options in music and movies towards the benefits of theirs so there will be more that I can share in my blog :)

Lolita (1997)

Lolita... Funny that it's categorised as a literature novel, but as it's the second literature work made into movies or films that I ever came across (with the first being The Signature of All Things), it seems to me that the literature novels are capable of being more erotic than the series of Fifty Shades of Grey. My God, Lolita's too much for me, yet I can totally relate to it.

It hurts to know you're the second or the third in the eyes of someone you love; if you're to be ranked along with the other two for something. The pedophile and protagonist of this movie, Humbert, happens to be the second or third in Dolores' eyes, who was his victim and his very favourite person. Dolores was Lolita, and he gave her the name Lolita.

I didn't read the novel so I might not accurately interpret and give the best analysis about the story, but I could only interpret the story based on the movie made in 1997. Lolita got pregnant towards the end in the movie at such a young age as she constantly let her fate lie in the hands of those who are untrustworthy like Humbert - who, in his selfish ways, did not let Lolita enjoy her adolescent life and I daresay he was mostly responsible for what had happened to Lolita. But then again, if Lolita did not subject herself into a life that made her commit sins such as incest, manipulation of the minds of men and using her femininity to get what she wants, she would had been safe and rid herself from all this trouble.

I could still say that Lolita is rather unlucky to have met Humbert, as she filled a void in his life that was created ever since he was a teenager. Everyone of us has our own downfalls in life, and we all have things which could drive us from our true purposes in life. But we can never run away from our own fates; just like Humbert who was, in a way, traumatised by the death of his first love, and he had to live in the shadows of those traumatic moments in his life as his dreams were crushed. He developed into being hebephilic and he created his own fate; by having attraction towards young girls and experienced problems in his life because of that. Eventually, he had of course felt remorse for what he had done to Lolita and failed to provide her with the freedom and love that she deserves even though she's not perfect as a person; as we could at least let someone we love be happy.

I think it's a great movie which invoked many different kinds of feelings in me. The ending's too sad to bear, and I feel that even though they're not perfect for each other; Humbert truly loved Lolita, and Lolita truly loved him in her own ways. It's a beautiful movie and I recommend everyone to watch it. But be warned; the movie is not for everyone haha.

When a Stranger Calls

Photo taken and edited by me on 17th of November, 2014.

Finals are coming soon, and after spending so much time studying and making notes, I've got to let myself relax and enjoy a little reward, right? Right?

That was when I found myself watching the movie When a Stranger Calls again.

I watched the one made in 2006, which starred Camilla Belle, who was gorgeous in that movie. When I first watched the movie, which was like eight years ago, I fell in love with it ever since then. I'm pretty sure it's quite underrated, but it was really, really good.

There's so many things I love about the movie. One thing being the thrilling storyline which I cannot get away from. The story becomes more intense as time flows by, as the identity of the antagonist comes to light towards the end of the film. And although I do not know what were the intentions of the antagonist, I do know that he played his role very well.

And God, the settings in the movie are absolutely amazing, and I said this mainly due to the house at where the main character, Jill (played by Camilla Belle), did her babysitting. Yes, the Mandrakis' house, or should I call mansion, is too beautiful to be described in words - although it may seem too good to be true. But I guess some people are just that wealthy. It's a house I could ever wish for (lol).

Though the story started going very slow in the beginning, it did fasten up its pace and developed into a very horrifying ending with Jill ended up on a hospital bed and traumatised from what she went through during the night of babysitting the Mandrakis' kids. And I really love the way the movie showcased the life of high schoolers in USA, which may be rather typical yet amusing, especially for someone like me who never went to a bonfire before.

Sunny [써니] and A Letter to Momo

Hey all! I'm back again with two movies to share with all of you.

So these past two days I have watched two movies per day. The first one I watched on Sunday is called Sunny, which is a South-Korean film made in 2011. I normally do not watch Korean films and this is one of the first few that I ever watched. It was suggested to me online and I just happened to click the link and then I watched the whole movie. I have to say it was great and super good :)

It feels good to watch a movie about a clique of seven girls at a Korean high school, who were rather materialistic, fashionable (in my opinion) and having a wide range of personalities from one teenage girl to another. The film partially played back in time as the main character called Na-mi reminisced on her high school life at a new school which she transferred to, and how she started to get together with a group of girls to highlight her high school life with awesome memories with the group of people. Watching this movie just made me sad about my high school life, because mine is quite dull and not happy as hers :( haha oh well...

Now on to the next movie called A Letter to Momo; which I am quite excited to share here with you all. This movie features the main character called Momo, who moved to a small town with her mother and left Tokyo, where she and her family used to live at. Her father passed away before she came to the town. She arrived the town called Seto Inland Sea by ferry, and while riding on the sea, she had an incomplete letter which was addressed to her by her father. She had an argument with her dad before he passed away, and in his drawer is where she found the unfinished letter written "Dear Momo".

She has wondered what her father actually wanted to tell her in the letter. Her life at the small town became a little more interesting as three goblins from the sky fell onto her as droplets and that was how she can see them while the others can't (except for a boy's younger sister) since they accidentally touched her when they fell from the sky. As she interacted with them later on and still adapting to her new life at the town, she faced some situations which made her closer to the goblins, her mother as well as the boy named Yota who has a younger sister.

Though the movie might not intend to be a tear-inducing one, I actually became really emotional towards the end of the movie as she became closer to her mother and they learned to cope with the loss of a husband and a father together, which to me is really powerful. And what I really love about this movie, apart from its touching, stand alone  storyline and beautiful animation and sceneries, is its individuality and uniqueness; it's not to say that any other Japanese movies like Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away are not, but this movie simply has a very unique touch to it which I really adore up close to my heart.

To finish up this blog, I have included five pictures from the movie which are very picturesque and artistic in my opinion, all of which come from the movie. 

All of the pictures above are screenshots from the movie A Letter to Momo, which were taken by me.

Hedgehog, Games and More

Hey everyone! I'm back because I decide to continue to do blogging. With the amount of workload and stress that I'm going through, it will be nice to make some blog posts every once in a while. So, my decision was made, and I want to focus on this blog; not only because of the reason of de-stressing, but it's also because I want to relive my passion of blogging and talking about things like I used to do. Of course the content will be different, but blogging is just a reminder to me of how it can be fun and fulfilling.

I have been with a hedgehog for about a year already, and I'm learning a lot about them. Hedgehogs are going to be my favourite pet as of now, and if I were to ever own a pet I would buy a hedgehog. They're just adorable and cute, not to mention full of surprises and mystery. And I also have been playing two games, one is called Fish Tycoon, which is very common but I only started to learn how to get a lot more out of this game when playing it. Another game is called Papa's Pancakeria, and it's about helping to operate a pancake house, making pancakes, toasts and waffles and serve them to customers. You guys should definitely try this game :)

Seriously, typing all this reminds me of how I used to get so much enjoyment from blogging. I guess it's not to late to start again now, and I hope to make more out of doing this.

Back Again

Yeah I know, it has been quite a while since I last posted here. I think this is a perfect time to come back here.

I have been very busy; having a lot of work to do. But I am happy. And, I must say that I am lucky to still be able to do things; maybe not the things I can enjoy or like, but I feel productive at least.

I have 3 things in mind that I want to accomplish for now:

1. Be educated; and it means that I have to learn as many things as possible in my university life, quantitative and qualitatively. I must learn the necessary knowledge.

2. Look after myself. I must be calm, cool, and collected. I must be healthy and physically fit for the sake of pursuing daily errands.

3. Save money. As the saying goes, money doesn't grow on trees.

Lady Gaga - powerful/unforgettable quotes

"Thank you for doing that for me. Cuz everytime somebody told me "no",

it just makes me stronger. And I heard "no" way more than I heard "yes".

But you, you make me feel like I can do anything.

Cuz sometimes, we can all feel so broken. But we can fix each other."

- Lady Gaga

My VSCO Grid

All the photos above can be found in my VSCO Grid.

I've been a major fan of VSCO ever since last year. After discovering the existence of this wonderful app, I've been editing most of the pictures that I took using it. The presets offered by this app are unlike anything that I've seen in other app. They are different yet artisitically promising, and it's a free ticket for aesthetic finders like me who are eager to uncover the beauty in everything.

One of the best things about VSCO is that users get to use various types of presets dedicated for different settings and purposes, such as Analog, Portrait, Mood and Etiquette. Part of the reason why I enjoy using VSCO and trust that it can always satisfy me is that users of VSCO can make use of the various settings offered by VSCO such as the adjusting of Tint, Shadow, Highlights, Contrast and Fade to give their pictures a finishing touch and more appealing appearances.

Night Time, My Time

As clouds drift over the sky, over our heads, we couldn't help but to notice their beauty, yet we have wasted our life away by watching them. Photo taken by yours sincerely.

Just to match the title of this post, and not being able to take many pictures of the nights I lived through, I hope the picture above can fairly match the music that I am going to share in this post. It's called Night Time, My Time by Sky Ferreira.

For the record, I remember listening to Sky's "Everything is Embarassing" song before it became famous. I thought she can sing really well, but because I was watching her singing inside a studio with not much photographic scenes like in music videos, I didn't follow her for a few months. And when finally I watched her again in Night Time, My Time's music video, I thought she was superb. With that, I've become an official fan of hers.

This song is unlike any other song that I have ever listened to. It's depressing, dark as illustrated by the name of the song, the song itself and the settings in the music video, and the most important thing is that it brings certain feelings that no song has ever brought to me. More specifically, they are freedom and regret.

Dreams

Everyone dreams when they sleep. Dreams give us a whole new perspective in viewing things. They tend to expand our imagination to the maximum. But most importantly, dreams tell us something about ourselves. And as we sleep every night, we dream differently every night. Hence, those dreams are just like school report cards, giving us information about our daily statuses, our personal development and our current problems. This can only happen if we choose to unravel them by finding out what our dreams meant.

The photo above belongs to me.