Hello!

I'm gonna be in Sabah until Monday! Woo hoo! :D

The Losers

Movie Poster from Filmofilia

Synopsis:
A Special Ops group goes on a seemingly innocuous mission, only to be betrayed. Presumed dead, they're blamed for a horrendous incident that involves 25 children, just for knowing too much. Stuck in a foreign country, they have to find a way to get back to the US and take revenge on the people who took their lives away, with the help of a mysterious woman who shows up out of nowhere.

Ok, so did I like the movie? Hell, yeah! :D

Plenty of action, knives, guns and comedic relief (provided by Jenkins Jensen (thanks Keren, my bad), played by Chris Evans, with his bumbling lines and ridiculous t-shirts. Oh, and the villain, Max, played by Jason Patric, did a great job of providing wtf moments too)

Oh. Please don't forget the eye candy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (yes, I know he's old but I've always had a crush on him), Chis Evans (he was awful in Fantastic Four, but those were awful movies anyway. he definitely redeemed himself here), Oscar Jaenada and Columbus Short? And don't forget Zoe Saldana for the guys.

WARNING!Spoiler alert after this eye candy photo

Taken from GeekTyrant

Sangat best. Believe me.






The only thing I didn't like about it was how one of them decided to betray the others. He was so blase about it, despite the fact that they had been through everything together for years and years. I didn't like the fact that he betrayed them (supposedly in order to get his freedom back) and then automatically defected over to the dark side. From a grumpy, albeit good hearted guy, he changed into a greedy, wimpy, cowardly asshole who'd run his best friend over with a plane just so he'd be rich. Doesn't make sense.

Probably would have been better to just let him disappear, and since there are hints of a sequel, have them fight it out then, but that's just me and I'm no director.

(end of spoiler)

All in all though, I seriously loved the movie. And you know what I say. If I walk out of the theatres wishing I was part of that, then I definitely think it's a great movie.

Seriously. Go and watch it.

Tertipu!

When I was 15, the school I was in at the time had just started activating their co-curricular programme. They had a journalism club, which went on to publish our first student-made yearbook.

Back then, after finding my class pictures, I would inevitable gravitate towards the creative section. You know, where students submitted their art and writings and whatnot.

I remember vividly reading this poem that a senior of mine had supposedly written. I thought it was beautiful, and haunting at the same time, and I must've read it close to a thousand times. I was in total awe of said senior and I wondered how someone so young (she was 16 at the time) had so much talent. I guess I could say that she inspired the urge in me to start writing.

Up until a few minutes ago, I really did believe she was that talented. As luck would have had it, I was watching a vlog of the making of an indie movie, and they were reading out a note that they had found tucked in a tree.

I'd recognise the first line anywhere!

It turned out that the girl I had been in awe of had plagiarised Sonnet 17 of one Pablo Neruda. I was lied to!

Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Teka-Teki, Teka Tekuk

"Asm" tu apa?

SMS language is usually defined by the shortening of certain words to fit into the limited amount set by the phone/service provider. For example, some phones have a 160 word limit per SMS, and if one uses more than that, they'd have to pay for another sms. Geddit?

So I completely understand the need to shorten words.

What I don't understand is why people carry that language out into e-mails, blogs, chats and what have you.

Ok, ok, I admit, I'm guilty of that sometimes. I use 'cuz instead of because (probably cuz I say 'cuz' in real life too) and sometimes, i use 'u' instead of 'you'.

That said, I've noticed several short forms of "Assalamualaikum".

Among those that I absolutely cannot stand are "A'kum" and "Askum". They bug the hell out of me, and not to mention that they'd confuse anyone who wasn't in with text language and pronounce it the way it is spelt.

One that I find acceptable to use is "Salam", and, upon asking my mom-in-law, she confirmed that this was an appropriate shortening of the word, because even the Quran writes it as so.

This week, I found out yet another VERY inappropriate short form of the word.

My friend recently asked me if I knew what "asm" stood for, as a short form. I racked and racked my brain, and, for the life of me, couldn't think of what it could possibly be. She told me it apparently stood for 'Assalamualaikum', and a friend of hers had initiated a chat using that phrase or abbreviation or whatever u wanna call it.

Oh, makin lama makin pemalasnya kita ni kan?

A Short Tribute

When I was 19, my heart got broken. At around 2am in the morning. I walked over to where mama was sleeping peacefully, and for the first time in god knows how many years, cuddled up to her. She woke up, and blearily asked me what was wrong. I just burst out crying.

I remember her hugging me tightly, telling me everything was gonna be okay. I think she knew what must've happened. It was my first real heartbreak, and she was there for me.

So here's to the most beautiful woman in the world. Love you, Mama.

Biadab

Yesterday, while I was at Sunway Pyramid with my besties, an appalling incident happened right before our eyes. We were approaching the escalators to go up at the time. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that a man with a shopping cart had just gotten off the escalator which led up to the floor we were on. Right behind him were three little children. He was too busy texting on his phone to take care of them, so I'm guessing his wife was watching out for them from behind.

His wife reached the floor, and she was pushing another shopping cart. I guess between watching out for the children and trying to take care of the shopping cart at the same time, she must've fumbled, because the cart tipped over with a LOUD *CRASH*

The husband turns around, just looks at the wife without any attempt of rushing over to help and says "BODOH LA KAU NI! BANGANG LA KAU NI!" really really loudly, within earshot of at least 5 or 6 people (including us).

With a shocked and (in my opinion) a slightly scared look on her face, she quietly picks up the cart and wheels it over to her husband. From where we were standing, it looked like he was still talking to her, but she seemed to be quiet all the way through.

The three of us just gaped at him. This, my dear friends, is what we call "Emotional Abuse". Kalau nak kata dia physically abuse wife dia, takut memfitnah pulak kan? But emotionally, memang nampak sangat la, kalau depan orang ramai pun senang je dia bodoh bangangkan wife dia, dekat rumah macam mana agaknye ye?

Picture taken from InvisibleViolence

Seriously, dulu masa kau kawin dengan dia mesti beriya2 cakap dengan mak bapak dia yang kau akan jaga dia elok2 kan? Sekarang?

Kot ye pun tak puas hati dengan isteri kau, tak boleh cakap in private? Kena ke maki dia depan2 orang lain? Jatuhkan air muka dia?

And another thing, what kind of example are you setting for your kids? Nanti dah besar mak dia buat salah sikit senang je la kan, dia panggil mak dia "bodoh", "bangang", after all, you seem to do it without a slight bit of remorse pon.

Biadab.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My Sister's Keeper, in my opinion, was definitely written from the heart. From the first moment I picked it up, three days ago, I couldn't seem to put it down. To me, the book was not written to impress scholars and geniuses. It wasn't filled with big words or clever little cliches, and yet, it was beautiful. I didn't have to use contextual clues, or pick up my dictionary to understand what she was trying to say, and yet, somehow, the way the single words fell into sentences and the sentences, into paragraphs made the story so enticing and so easy to read.

Normally, books which are not chronological, or skip from the point of view of one character to another would make bore and and confuse me, and I usually end up giving up on understanding or trying to get through it altogether. Yet, My Sister's Keeper has both of those, and managed to keep me hooked until the very end.

I loved it. The ending, ironic and heartbreaking at the same time, took me by surprise and made me cry. The only thing I could think about as I was reading it were my two beautiful little sisters and how it would kill me if anything like that happened to any of them.

It's safe to say that from now on, I'll probably be picking up more books by the author for my little collection. I'm gonna end this post with one of the most beautiful lines in the book:

"I have only known her for two years. but if you took every memory, every moment if you stretched them end to end - they'd reach forever." -Sara, about Kate

p/s: I know the book was made into a movie, but I'm not sure I want to watch it, because I found out that they cut out one of the major characters from the book and changed the ending. We'll see.

Hot Chocolate Pots

Last week, I made some chocolate pots, just to try out the recipe. They're basically gooey chocolate goodness in little ramekin pots. For the life of me, I can't seem to find any ramekins over here, and since the recipe doesn't require any baking, I dug up some of my mom-in-law's cute little white teacups and decided to put them in those.

It's an extremely easy recipe which takes less than 5 minutes to make, but Epol and mama suka. Last night, Epol asked me when I was gonna make some more, and since the last time, I only used half of the ingredients, I decided to just finish the other half today.

No pictures, but they basically looked like these:



(I took this picture from Easy French Food, tapi the recipe is not the same)

After pouring the mixture into the cups, I saw that there was quite a bit of residue stuck in the pot and the ladle, so I just reheated the stove, poured in some milk, and voila, hot chocolate.

This was the first time I made my own hot chocolate, and let me tell you, I was very pleasantly surprised that it tasted just like the ones I love at Starbucks! :D

So yeah, byebye Starbucks, hello homemade hot chocolate.

I feel all warm, happy and sleepy now...