Showing posts with label Wonderment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wonderment. Show all posts

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Tears Running Dry



As I type this entry, my nose is still blocked and my eyes are sore from what tantamount to 2 hour and change of weeping.

Thanks to Nagasaki: Memories of My Son (N:MMS).

It has been ages since I wept through out a film. The first film that ever made me cry was Story of a Mad Woman, a Taiwanese film that glorified insane sacrifices for love and filial piety. I was eight years old and it was the first time that a tale moved me to tears. Not easy for someone with 'hati kering' like me.

The Japanese are no slackers at crafting tearjerker melodrama and below is my reaction to this insanely evocative and sentimental post WW2 film.

Beware! Spoilers ahead!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Forever yellow skies

I am sure everybody have fond memories of the music of their teenage years. Mine is pretty checkered because I'm a bit of a hipster when it comes to music, even when I was a mega spotty teen. I loathed most of the hit songs when I was 16 but it got better the year I turned 17 when rock music became cool again  thanks to grunge and the second wave of British invasion made its appearance.

When I heard that the Cranberries was going to perform in Kuala Lumpur for their Asia tour, I was totally psyched. The band's albums pretty much provided the soundtrack to various highlights in my life. I fell in love with them thanks to Linger, but the anthemic Zombie was the one that propelled them into rock and roll hall of fame leagues.


The stadium pretty much was shaken to its foundation when this was on.



I think this cements them as a pretty awesome stadium class rock band, don't you think?

Dolores sounds just as good live as she does in the albums; she's not much for audience interaction, but she delighted us all with her trademark hip gyrate, head banging and back-and-forth stiff armed march which was so cute. The rest of the band was equally indefatigable. The fangirls screamed when Fergal Lawler took off his sweat-soaked t-shirt; no surprise since the man is built like a brick shit house. Not bad for a forty-plus dude, eh? I guess bashing the drums do help a man develop his guns (mmm...).

I had teary moments during the first 30 minutes of the concert; it was just unbelievably amazing to be with so many other fans who were also hollering along to the same songs. And just like the Carpenter's song; it truly was  Yesterday Once More.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Happy New Year!

Okay, okay, I am a few days over due. But what can I say? I'm an inveterate (invertebrate?) procrastinator. I'd tell you that it's my resolution to change, but then I would be lying.

Anyhoo, enjoy some sweet music from the delightful Zooey Deschanel and her dashing friend, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

This is soooo coool ....

If only I had maths teachers who could make maths this simple and fun; perhaps I would not have been so frightened to do chemical engineering and be making gobs of moneh.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Violins and moonbeams

One of the sweetest and most romantic songs ever.

I give you Hujan's "Dikala Bulan Bermain Biola"



I hope you enjoy it.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

On how I freaked out my friend at the movie theatre

It started really innocuously. I went to watch this movie with Naz ...



And I was a sobbing mess at the end of it. Haven't cried like that watching anything; not since the staging of Lantai T Pinkie and Erma Fatima's amazing monologue way back in 1997. That one was really bad in that there were 4 of us watching the theatre with only 2 pieces of Kleenex between us. FML.

Anyway ... most of my friends know that I have been frothing at the mouth to watch this movie thanks to this man,


who is not only dastardly attractive and massively talented, but also warm and kind and just bloody adorable as seen on his interviews.

But I have to say that I was absolutely ecstatic with how Gavin O'Connor crafted a family drama with mixed martial arts as a sport as a background.

Mad fangirl squeals and massive spoilers ahoy!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

How David ate Goliath

In nature, size sometimes do not matter. It's all about your strategy (bite location, poison etc). In the case of ground beetles, it takes bite location, sheer cussedness to hang on to a wildly bucking prey and poison to fell the stronger and bigger toad.

Don't click on video if you do not want to see nature red in tooth and claw. As in live consumption of prey by said beetle. You have been warned.



Ah, Toad. R.I.P.

Courtesy of New Scientist.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Swing it!

For those who enjoy steampunk novels, here is the genre that would be the perfect soundtrack to your reading pleasure. Caravan Palace is a marvelous example of the melange that is electro swing. Big band sensibilities with electronica edginess, this genre is whimsical and magical with an underlying darkness like hidden teeth.





*is swinging away to the beat*

Thursday, May 19, 2011

My namesake!

Or is it the other way round?

Don't care. Here's the cutest video of a sloth trying to cross the road in Costa Rica. I gotta say; the good Samaritan sure have the most fantastic legs.



Isn't the sloth adorable?

(ganked from here)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Who is afraid of the Internet?

Beautiful, beautiful animated video that makes you smile, and then think. It may be a little long, but definitely worth clicking.



A lot of people are saying that the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt was largely successful because of the Internet. Connectivity helps to fan the fervour amongst those protesting and garner support to their cause. An Egyptian man even named his daughter Facebook as a tribute to the social networking site.  

But are we naive in thinking that the Internet is so powerful?

The Internet is value neutral; but like a sword, the wielder can both cut and also BE cut. It can be used as a tool by the activists; but by the same coin, the authorities working to stamp out dissidence can also use it to track, identify and contravene the efforts of the activists.

But  as Evgeny Morozov pointed out, when the Internet is primarily used to download bootleg entertainment material (all right, porn, dammit) and to tell/troll your friends of your "noteworthy" activities, the likelihood of the "democratic change" extolled by the cyber-utopians are about as real as the Farmville corn you harvest.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Starting your week

Good:



OH. MY. GOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!!

*swoons*

Bad:


AAAAAARGGGHHHH!!!!

But then again:


Happy Monday!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Arthropod abuse with trebuchet

Not many of us like the leggy creepy crawlies. If you want to see them get what's coming to them, mediaevel geek-style, take a look at this video.



Ganked from Improbable Research.

Monday, October 25, 2010

We salute women who kick ass & take names

Step aside Dr Brady Barr. Your chiseled features may make you a darling on the National Geographic Channel, but there's another herpetologist who kicks ass harder than you.

Why do I say that Dr Kate Jackson is more hardcore than Brady Barr?

That's because she's doing near the same thing he does, without the benefit of a television show funding, while half crippled by transverse myelitis.

Hats off to you, Dr Jackson.


Kate Jackson SNAKES from Rose on Vimeo.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Stupendous!

The strength it takes to make this look effortless is stupefying. Wonderful interpretation of the tango via the titillating pole dance.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Yummy stuff ahead

Wedding cake for geeks of every flavour. As an amateur baker whose idea of cake decoration is slopping vast quantities of ganache over every inch of said baked goods, I can only marvel at the amount of work and creativity that goes into these.



*props chin to admire some more*

All pics swiped from Jet City Cakes.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Not two-legged sloth

I am sure you encounter two-legged sloths on a daily basis. I should know; I am one.

The four-legged ones are sooooo much cuter!!!

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

This is not an advertisement

For those who's forever complaining about how difficult it is to get stuff done with Government departments in Malaysia, there is a solution.

Go to myeg.com.my.

It's a portal that helps you with stuff from renewing your driving licence, checking for traffic violations to getting a new MyCard.

*lovingly caress my new driving licence that is good for another 5 years*

Oh, if you're interested, I applied for a new one just yesterday afternoon and today they've couriered it over. Really fast, hassle free.

Go on. Check it out.

Monday, February 22, 2010

OMG I do not know which competition this came from, but seriously ... whoa ...

Probably not safe for the workplace (unless you got your privacy). :p

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Tongue firmly in cheek

The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words.

The winners are:
1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.), a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n), Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.), person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief
that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.), opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.


The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take
any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:
1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the
purpose of getting laid.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate's disease. ( that one got extra
credit)
9. Karmageddon (n): Its like, when everybody is sending off all
these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's
like, a serious bummer.
10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.
11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into
your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub
in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.