Passengers Cards originally uploaded by Ikhlasul Amal
Beginning of next July is vacation holiday for most of schools in Indonesia. Some prepare for outdoor activities; surely, some let students having holiday with their families. School trip is another plan.
Sekolah Alam Bandung (Bandung Nature School) has trip for Class 5, an educational (yet still recreation) to Yogyakarta. It is about 300 km from Bandung. Those two cities have many similarities, in short: city of culture and education. Train and night bus are choices for transportation between those cities.
Pupils were enthusiast preparing for the trip that will become their farthest trip up until now. At 07 o'clock they were all hearing trip coordinator's briefing and gave farewell to parents.
Happy vacation trip!
I definitely chose to watch this movie because of Jodie Foster. She is never the most beautiful actress in the world but I think she’s almost never failed the movie fans with her talent as a true actress. Well, she graduated from Yale University, she speaks several languages fluently, and she never bends to accommodate Hollywood’s commercial command. How's that for role model? *smile*
The synopsis from MSN Movies: For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the show "Street Walk." At night, she goes home to the love of her life, her fiancé David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews). But everything Erica knows and loves is ripped from her on one terrible night when she and David are ambushed in a random, vicious attack that leaves David dead and Erica close to it. [Continue…]
I know a good movie – and this is the one good movie. It’s the one that makes you cry although it’s not a romantic or sad scene. It’s the one that makes you thing long after the movie ended. The plot flows smoothly – anyone on the scenes serves the purpose ‘why they have to be on that scene’, Jodie can show intelligently how a cheerful ordinary Erica Bain can transform into an edgy woman then to a stone-cold vengeance killer, and the soundtrack matches the soul of this movie too. (I think Sarah McLachlan’s ethereal voice that sings most of the soundtrack in this movie.)
Let's pretend that Erica is you....
In a couple of months you’d marry the one true love of your life – he gave you the Mughal ring (was once his grandma’s) and you’ve even ordered the wedding invitations. As in any other summer nights, you went for a walk with your boyfriend and dog, and it later turned out to be your nightmare. Three thugs held your dog hostage and recording their act while they’re beating you and your boyfriend to death. You survived after 3 weeks in coma but your boyfriend didn’t. And the life after that traumatic nightmare was never the same anymore. It took you courage to pass the corridor of your apartment to go to work. Your heart beat faster whenever you heard footsteps behind you even on a clear daylight. You went to the police but your case was among thousands backlogs and you became edgy with the fear that crept inch by inch into your sanity.
Then, one day as you couldn’t take it any longer, you bought a gun. You thought it would calm you down when you walked the streets during your sleepless nights. Your first shot was self defense, killed or be killed. Your second was also self defense, but this time you’re getting better, didn’t miss a shot. You’re still trembling with horror but the monstrous stranger inside you was getting stronger. Then, the killings became easy – you shot a sex-addict who held an underage girl for six days under drug influence and without pay. Next, you killed the elite who was untouchable before the law.
One day the police you befriended found the ring that your boyfriend gave to you. You traced it down the pawnshops – and it led you to the girlfriend of the man that beat you and your boyfriend to death. At first she didn’t want to tell you the thug whereabouts for the fear of her life. But, later she text you the address and sent you the record of that nightmare (thanks to the high digital technology). It broke you down but it steeled the stranger in you to take matters in your own hand. Eventually, you faced the moment of truth – whether you killed the thugs or let the police handle them…. because deep down inside you, you still believe that killing is wrong. All the time when Erica was caught in those conflicting situations, I kept saying… kill him, kill them,… because those thugs made a hole in your soul that nobody can heal.
Do you want to know whether she killed the thugs or not? Nonton dong. *smile*
It’s nice to see Foster (now 44) plays a character that is her age – hey, people do get wrinkles as they get older. She’s so good in this movie that she commands your feeling to the situation just by the look and her body language.
Jodie Foster: Unbreakable, an interview by Entertainment Weekly (EW). The Oscar winning heroine and star of the new movie ''The Brave One'' laughs in the face of Hollywood stereotypes -- and talks to EW about how she forged her own path in the industry. [Read more…]
Jodie Foster gets revenge in ‘The Brave One’ (in Newsweek Entertainment).
I found the tagline “How many wrongs to make it right?” is a bit misleading… at least for me. It doesn’t matter though because the movie is well crafted, well made.
I know a good movie – and this is the one good movie. It’s the one that makes you cry although it’s not a romantic or sad scene. It’s the one that makes you thing long after the movie ended. The plot flows smoothly – anyone on the scenes serves the purpose ‘why they have to be on that scene’, Jodie can show intelligently how a cheerful ordinary Erica Bain can transform into an edgy woman then to a stone-cold vengeance killer, and the soundtrack matches the soul of this movie too. (I think Sarah McLachlan’s ethereal voice that sings most of the soundtrack in this movie.)
Let's pretend that Erica is you....
In a couple of months you’d marry the one true love of your life – he gave you the Mughal ring (was once his grandma’s) and you’ve even ordered the wedding invitations. As in any other summer nights, you went for a walk with your boyfriend and dog, and it later turned out to be your nightmare. Three thugs held your dog hostage and recording their act while they’re beating you and your boyfriend to death. You survived after 3 weeks in coma but your boyfriend didn’t. And the life after that traumatic nightmare was never the same anymore. It took you courage to pass the corridor of your apartment to go to work. Your heart beat faster whenever you heard footsteps behind you even on a clear daylight. You went to the police but your case was among thousands backlogs and you became edgy with the fear that crept inch by inch into your sanity.
Then, one day as you couldn’t take it any longer, you bought a gun. You thought it would calm you down when you walked the streets during your sleepless nights. Your first shot was self defense, killed or be killed. Your second was also self defense, but this time you’re getting better, didn’t miss a shot. You’re still trembling with horror but the monstrous stranger inside you was getting stronger. Then, the killings became easy – you shot a sex-addict who held an underage girl for six days under drug influence and without pay. Next, you killed the elite who was untouchable before the law.
One day the police you befriended found the ring that your boyfriend gave to you. You traced it down the pawnshops – and it led you to the girlfriend of the man that beat you and your boyfriend to death. At first she didn’t want to tell you the thug whereabouts for the fear of her life. But, later she text you the address and sent you the record of that nightmare (thanks to the high digital technology). It broke you down but it steeled the stranger in you to take matters in your own hand. Eventually, you faced the moment of truth – whether you killed the thugs or let the police handle them…. because deep down inside you, you still believe that killing is wrong. All the time when Erica was caught in those conflicting situations, I kept saying… kill him, kill them,… because those thugs made a hole in your soul that nobody can heal.
Do you want to know whether she killed the thugs or not? Nonton dong. *smile*
It’s nice to see Foster (now 44) plays a character that is her age – hey, people do get wrinkles as they get older. She’s so good in this movie that she commands your feeling to the situation just by the look and her body language.
Jodie Foster: Unbreakable, an interview by Entertainment Weekly (EW). The Oscar winning heroine and star of the new movie ''The Brave One'' laughs in the face of Hollywood stereotypes -- and talks to EW about how she forged her own path in the industry. [Read more…]
Jodie Foster gets revenge in ‘The Brave One’ (in Newsweek Entertainment).
I found the tagline “How many wrongs to make it right?” is a bit misleading… at least for me. It doesn’t matter though because the movie is well crafted, well made.
It was the 27th of December – I and my mom would return to Jakarta tonight. Oh, how sad I was. I went to some stores in the morning because I needed to exchange some things that I and my sister bought before and on Boxing Day and vitamin for my father. The snow fell – the weather forecasted snow in the morning and continued with in rain the afternoon. I’d miss the snow!
I got home before my brother-in-law got home from picking up lunch from Coconut Island in Markham. We had Mie Mamak, Lady Finger with Prawn, Tofu Salad, Mango Chicken, Spring Roll, and Fish Cake. Thea already had her meal but she wanted the mango and noodle that we had. *smile* Glad that her healthy appetite had returned to normal. After lunch I, my mom and my sister chatted. I’m sure we will cherish this moment.
Around three in the afternoon I headed out to stow back my winter clothing and some stuffs in the storage. I immediately took a bath soon after I got home. Then, I packed the last stuffs into my luggage.
I and my mom didn’t feel like having dinner. I know it’s hard for us to leave my sister and her family after spending sometime with them. We said ‘good bye’ to Thea and she responded with ‘Merry Christmas’. *smile* My brother-in-law drove us to the airport – we’re all quiet; my mom wept through it.
The regular check-in line was significantly longer that the online check-in line. Thank goodness I made the online check-in otherwise I and my mom had to stand in the long queue. I met Joe and his daughter Via that would also fly on the same flight to Jakarta. I was so relieved after we finished the luggage check-in. My sister called from home and we spoke on the phone. We bid farewell to John before we entered the departure gate.
I told my mom that I didn’t like the attitude of the officers (either the ones led to the departure gate or the ones in the security checkpoint). They’re not friendly at all. Pearson is categorized as an international airport but it lacks international airport comforts – it costs you about CAD3.55 to make a local call from the airport, it doesn’t have free internet line (at least I couldn’t find it), it doesn’t have many choices for restaurants or cafés in the departure gates (although the choices are more varied compared to 2005). We had our dinner after we passed the security checkpoint.
The CX829 to Hong Kong via Anchorage should depart on 22:30 but it was delayed until an hour later. I sat by the window and I could see when they de-iced the plane before it took off. I prayed that we’d have a pleasant flight to Hong Kong – it took about 5 hours and 10 minutes from Toronto to Anchorage and about 13 hours and 45 minutes from Anchorage to Hong Kong.
During Toronto – Hong Kong stretch I think I could only watch one movie from the start to the end – The Contract (2007 release, starring Morgan Freeman, John Cusack). It’s a story about Ray Keene and his son coincidental but unfortunate meeting with Frank Cardin, the captured-but-then-got-escaped group leader of paid assassins/mercenaries, while they’re on the hiking trip. I got a new phrase from this movie, i.e., an obstacle to progress – person(s) that is/are deemed by authority going against their objective or agenda.
I also watched Superbad (2007 release, starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and one Hong Kong’s cop movie that I forgot the title. Superbad is a hilarious teen movie with “losers try to get laid” theme but better than its similar genre. It creates funny situations and hilarious dialogue although it uses gross out language. I know I wouldn’t choose to watch this movie as movie to watch in the theatre, but it made me laugh constantly during its whole stretch. *smile*
The meals were OK for me. My mom had fruit platters. We slept in between meals and movies. We arrived a bit late in Hong Kong but we managed to have breakfast in the airport.
During Hong Kong – Jakarta stretch I watched 3:10 to Yuma (2007 release, starring Russel Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda) and Bourne Ultimatum (2007 release, starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Scott Glenn). I like 3:10 to Yuma (read the Synopsis and Review by New York Times). Bourne Ultimatum is the third installment after Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy. I skipped the last quarter of the movie – it’s too ‘easy’ action movie.
The Hong Kong - Jakarta regional flight is having more comfortable economy class seats, follow this link (New Economy Class). It has a 3-3-3 seat in a row instead of the usual 3-4-3 seat in a row.
We arrived in Jakarta earlier than the scheduled arrival time. My cell phone got its signal again after about 2+ weeks was dead. It’s hot, humid, and chaotic. It’s Jakarta, dear. What can you say?
I got home before my brother-in-law got home from picking up lunch from Coconut Island in Markham. We had Mie Mamak, Lady Finger with Prawn, Tofu Salad, Mango Chicken, Spring Roll, and Fish Cake. Thea already had her meal but she wanted the mango and noodle that we had. *smile* Glad that her healthy appetite had returned to normal. After lunch I, my mom and my sister chatted. I’m sure we will cherish this moment.
Around three in the afternoon I headed out to stow back my winter clothing and some stuffs in the storage. I immediately took a bath soon after I got home. Then, I packed the last stuffs into my luggage.
I and my mom didn’t feel like having dinner. I know it’s hard for us to leave my sister and her family after spending sometime with them. We said ‘good bye’ to Thea and she responded with ‘Merry Christmas’. *smile* My brother-in-law drove us to the airport – we’re all quiet; my mom wept through it.
The regular check-in line was significantly longer that the online check-in line. Thank goodness I made the online check-in otherwise I and my mom had to stand in the long queue. I met Joe and his daughter Via that would also fly on the same flight to Jakarta. I was so relieved after we finished the luggage check-in. My sister called from home and we spoke on the phone. We bid farewell to John before we entered the departure gate.
I told my mom that I didn’t like the attitude of the officers (either the ones led to the departure gate or the ones in the security checkpoint). They’re not friendly at all. Pearson is categorized as an international airport but it lacks international airport comforts – it costs you about CAD3.55 to make a local call from the airport, it doesn’t have free internet line (at least I couldn’t find it), it doesn’t have many choices for restaurants or cafés in the departure gates (although the choices are more varied compared to 2005). We had our dinner after we passed the security checkpoint.
The CX829 to Hong Kong via Anchorage should depart on 22:30 but it was delayed until an hour later. I sat by the window and I could see when they de-iced the plane before it took off. I prayed that we’d have a pleasant flight to Hong Kong – it took about 5 hours and 10 minutes from Toronto to Anchorage and about 13 hours and 45 minutes from Anchorage to Hong Kong.
During Toronto – Hong Kong stretch I think I could only watch one movie from the start to the end – The Contract (2007 release, starring Morgan Freeman, John Cusack). It’s a story about Ray Keene and his son coincidental but unfortunate meeting with Frank Cardin, the captured-but-then-got-escaped group leader of paid assassins/mercenaries, while they’re on the hiking trip. I got a new phrase from this movie, i.e., an obstacle to progress – person(s) that is/are deemed by authority going against their objective or agenda.
I also watched Superbad (2007 release, starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and one Hong Kong’s cop movie that I forgot the title. Superbad is a hilarious teen movie with “losers try to get laid” theme but better than its similar genre. It creates funny situations and hilarious dialogue although it uses gross out language. I know I wouldn’t choose to watch this movie as movie to watch in the theatre, but it made me laugh constantly during its whole stretch. *smile*
The meals were OK for me. My mom had fruit platters. We slept in between meals and movies. We arrived a bit late in Hong Kong but we managed to have breakfast in the airport.
During Hong Kong – Jakarta stretch I watched 3:10 to Yuma (2007 release, starring Russel Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda) and Bourne Ultimatum (2007 release, starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Scott Glenn). I like 3:10 to Yuma (read the Synopsis and Review by New York Times). Bourne Ultimatum is the third installment after Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy. I skipped the last quarter of the movie – it’s too ‘easy’ action movie.
The Hong Kong - Jakarta regional flight is having more comfortable economy class seats, follow this link (New Economy Class). It has a 3-3-3 seat in a row instead of the usual 3-4-3 seat in a row.
We arrived in Jakarta earlier than the scheduled arrival time. My cell phone got its signal again after about 2+ weeks was dead. It’s hot, humid, and chaotic. It’s Jakarta, dear. What can you say?
Around ten-to-six in the morning my brother drove me to the airport. My parents were also in the car. Suddenly a tinge of sadness touched my heart. I don’t know why.
The check-in process went smoothly yet the check-in attendant told me to go to the gate early because there will be a lot of passengers today. After completing all the routine process I headed out to talk to my parents and brother. My mom looked sad – I know she’s going to miss me. I told them that I’ll contact them when I arrive in Toronto.
I had my breakfast at JJ’s Café in the airport – I like their black coffee – and read “What Should I Do with My Life?” by Po Bronson. (It’s a beautiful book, you should read it.) I texted my team and my friends before I got on the plane.
For Jakarta-Hong Kong leg of the trip, I got seat 31K in CX 718. The food was good – or was it because I was hungry? *smile* The stewardess asked me to fill out their questionnaire – which I filled in willingly. (Hey, I know how hard it is to find respondent that wants to help you to fill out a questionnaire!) In exchange, they gave their green ballpoint. *wink wink*
I slept all the way to Hong Kong after watching No Country for Old Men. It’s a thriller movie with lots of terrifying violence – yet it’s so exquisitely harrowing that I held my breath during a number of its scenes. No wonder it got so many Oscars this year. It’s based on Cormac McCarthy’s book with the same title: "No Country for Old Men" begins when Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin), a Vietnam veteran hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds a pick-up truck surrounded by a sentry of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. Packing the money out, he knows, will change everything. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law – in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell (played by Tommy Lee Jones) – can contain. As Moss tries to evade his pursuers – in particular a mysterious mastermind (played superbly by Javier Bardem) who flips coins for human lives – the film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning's headlines. (Only within two-thirds of the movie I got what caused the chain reaction of catastrophic violence!)
There were already long lines going through the transfer. I prayed that I didn’t have to get out my laptop from my backpack. Thank God I didn’t have to do it. I looked at my watch… I spent 40-min for this queue. Before getting to Gate 21 for departure to Toronto, I had my afternoon snacking at Popeye.
My travel agent was right when she’s saying that the Hong Kong – Toronto leg was packed. I wasn’t sure what kind of events in Toronto that made all planes bound for Toronto were so full within this week.
I got seat 30G in CX 828. Both CX 718 and CX 828 are new planes with 3-3-3 seating arrangement – provide more leg room and more ergonomic/comfortable seat.
I watched a number of movies in eating-drinking-sleeping-drinking-eating-sleeping mode. (It seemed my mind refused to read even the colorful in-flight magazine.) What’s nice about this in-flight entertainment is that we can switch on and off to as many movies and TV programs as we want, as many music channels as we care to listen, and as many games we can play.
I am Legend (Will Smith) – Can you imagine if you’re living in a deserted megapolitan that are full of blood thirsty zombies at night? The deserted New York City scene looks like the one in Vanilla Sky. Click this link for the synopsis.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris) – A child movie, I guess. Click this link for the synopsis.
There Will Be Blood (Daniel Day Lewis) – It’s based on Upton Sinclair’s book titled “Oil!”, telling a breathtaking epic about an oil tycoon, Daniel Plainview, set against the backdrop of the Southern California oil boom of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Click this link for the synopsis and this link for movie review in New York Times.
Lust, Caution (Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Wang Lee-hom) – Ang Lee directed this movie. A good one, but I think it lacks connection to me, at least. Click this link for the synopsis.
From the above four movies, I like There Will be Blood – because of the epic story and of course Daniel Day Lewis who won an Oscar for actor in a leading role in this movie. I like him since My Left Foot.
The flight to Toronto was also smooth and arrived on time at 7:15PM. By around 8:30PM I could meet my sister’s family and kiss my nieces. Marcia is such a giant baby for her age of almost six months.
The check-in process went smoothly yet the check-in attendant told me to go to the gate early because there will be a lot of passengers today. After completing all the routine process I headed out to talk to my parents and brother. My mom looked sad – I know she’s going to miss me. I told them that I’ll contact them when I arrive in Toronto.
I had my breakfast at JJ’s Café in the airport – I like their black coffee – and read “What Should I Do with My Life?” by Po Bronson. (It’s a beautiful book, you should read it.) I texted my team and my friends before I got on the plane.
For Jakarta-Hong Kong leg of the trip, I got seat 31K in CX 718. The food was good – or was it because I was hungry? *smile* The stewardess asked me to fill out their questionnaire – which I filled in willingly. (Hey, I know how hard it is to find respondent that wants to help you to fill out a questionnaire!) In exchange, they gave their green ballpoint. *wink wink*
There were already long lines going through the transfer. I prayed that I didn’t have to get out my laptop from my backpack. Thank God I didn’t have to do it. I looked at my watch… I spent 40-min for this queue. Before getting to Gate 21 for departure to Toronto, I had my afternoon snacking at Popeye.
My travel agent was right when she’s saying that the Hong Kong – Toronto leg was packed. I wasn’t sure what kind of events in Toronto that made all planes bound for Toronto were so full within this week.
I got seat 30G in CX 828. Both CX 718 and CX 828 are new planes with 3-3-3 seating arrangement – provide more leg room and more ergonomic/comfortable seat.
I watched a number of movies in eating-drinking-sleeping-drinking-eating-sleeping mode. (It seemed my mind refused to read even the colorful in-flight magazine.) What’s nice about this in-flight entertainment is that we can switch on and off to as many movies and TV programs as we want, as many music channels as we care to listen, and as many games we can play.
I am Legend (Will Smith) – Can you imagine if you’re living in a deserted megapolitan that are full of blood thirsty zombies at night? The deserted New York City scene looks like the one in Vanilla Sky. Click this link for the synopsis.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris) – A child movie, I guess. Click this link for the synopsis.
Lust, Caution (Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Wang Lee-hom) – Ang Lee directed this movie. A good one, but I think it lacks connection to me, at least. Click this link for the synopsis.
From the above four movies, I like There Will be Blood – because of the epic story and of course Daniel Day Lewis who won an Oscar for actor in a leading role in this movie. I like him since My Left Foot.
The flight to Toronto was also smooth and arrived on time at 7:15PM. By around 8:30PM I could meet my sister’s family and kiss my nieces. Marcia is such a giant baby for her age of almost six months.
This is the part three ~ featured in the 5th Annual ReelWorld Film Festival ~ of Cheuk Kwan's Chinese Restaurants series. Please check "Chinese Restaurants: On The Islands" for the previous glimpse of his film documentary edition.
Date/Time: Thursday, April 14, 2005 5:00PM
Place: Rainbow Cinemas - Market Square (Toronto)
Duration: 80 min.
Ticket: $9.50
I quoted the film synopsis as follows: Three Continents, based on the 13-part documentary series Chinese Restaurants, tells the story of the Chinese Diaspora through its most recognizable and enduring icon - the family-run Chinese restaurant. Filmmaker Cheuk Kwan visits Madagascar, Norway and Canada, exploring the meaning of “home” in Chinese communities that have established themselves on three continents.
Did the Chinese come to Madagascar in the fifteenth century, years before the Europeans? And how have recent immigrants integrate in the most multicultural country of the world? These and other questions are answered as we visit Restaurant Le Jade in the port city of Tamatave, where there is a large Chinese population. More traces of Chinese settlements are revealed as the filmmaker visits the oldest Chinese immigrant on the fourth largest island of the world.
In Norway in the land of the midnight sun, Michael Wong and his wife Ting have opened one of the very few Chinese restaurants inside the Arctic Circle, the Little Buddha. As the owner couple promotes their Hong Kong-style efficiency on the Norwegian waitresses, the Chinese kitchen staff openly discusses their lives as Chinese restaurant workers -- how they first entered Europe illegally and the loneliness away from home.
Chinese workers came to Canada in the 19th century to build the trans-continental railroad, but by 1923, the country were keeping the Chinese immigrant workers out as their services were no longer required. Against these odds, Jim Kook came to the Prairie town of Outlook, Saskatchewan as a “paper son” using a dead Canadian’s identity. The gregarious “Noisy” Jim soon became the most popular man about town and ran his New Outlook Cafe for forty years until his recent death.
Together, these community and personal histories illustrate the wider story of Chinese migration, settlement and integration. These stories celebrate the resilience and complexity of the Chinese Diaspora and expand the definition of what it means to be "Chinese" today. They highlight the fluidity and highly personal nature of identity, and the human impulse to connect both with the past and with those amongst whom we find ourselves.
Source: Chinese Restaurants' Official Website.
For me personally, the most captivating story in this installment is without any doubt the Noisy Jim in Outlook, Saskatchewan. Jim had such a personality that the community loved him so much. He built such a strong bond with his customers that he would even leave the keys to his café to his customers, and they just helped themselves to breakfasts! *smile* After 40-year of working and owning this café, Jim sold it. But, he still came early in the morning to help out the new owner and served the customers. When the new owner offered to pay for his wage, he refused, and said that he loved to help them out and a free man never accept money as exchange for help. (Wow! What a philosophy of life.) He's sharp and quick... most often his response was effortlessly amusing. *smile* When he died the whole town gathered in the community hall to pay their last respect to him. The café was closed, for the first time outside Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The funeral car that carried his coffin passed the café three times as required by Jim's Chinese customs before headed to the cemetery... Jim's last resting place.
Wong and Ting in Tromso, Norway were some interesting individuals. They worked very hard during the restaurant's hours and they could still stayed up late talking and drinking. Their two children are raised up by Ting's mother in Gutenberg and they spend only couple times a year with their children. Wong said he didn't like Hong Kong and would never return there. He left Hong Kong when he was 17 years old by jumping ship. He landed in Germany, worked and stayed couple of years there before he moved on to France, Spain, Sweden, and Norway. Wong has long thought of running a small boutique in France when he has enough hard and long work in Norway.
In this installment, the issue of identity is not as troublesome as in the previous installments but the issue of home is quite profound. For immigrants all over the world, what's the meaning of home for them? I believe wherever we move we're trying to create the life for ourselves... a new home that makes us preserve the memories about our ancestors and that makes us absorb the challenge and values of our new adopted homeland.
The film swirls around Nafas, a young Afghan refugee sets out from Canada to rescue her maimed sister still in Afghanistan who has threatened to kill herself at the next solar eclipse. Heavily veiled and disguised as a peasant, Nafas manages to reach Iran where a young boy leads her across war-ravaged, mine-strewn wastelands in search of her sister. Nafas is a journalist—and a tape travels with her. If she gets killed she hopes the tape survives to tell the world about her journey, about the Afghans.
Her journey begins in the refugee camp near the Iran-Afghanistan border. Her liaison negotiates on her behalf—she would pretend to be a man’s fourth wife to go to Kandahar. From now on she becomes a person without identity—a woman should wear burqa—locally called black head. When she raises her burqa to talk to this man, he orders her to put it down—his dignity depends on her compliance to the rules. Nafas bears witness to women in this land, how they put lipstick under their burqa, how they put nail polish—it was such a sad reality, a stark contrast between a stiff and illogical rule and a desire to feel beautiful. A UN flag could not even save them from robbery in their journey. This man decides to return to the refugee camp—and leaves Nafas to continue her journey on her own.
Again, Nafas had to rely her mission on man’s hand, this time on a little boy named Khak. Khak was kicked out from a boarding school of Kuran studies because he cannot recite the Kuran as the mullah wants. He becomes Nafas’ guide to Kandahar—after he left the boarding school and the mullah who taught the boys about Kuran and Kalashnikov. We are exposed with a simple fact—the words of Allah and a weapon to kill enemy and tear their flesh. The picture follows Nafas and Khak, two silhouettes in the vast desert on the way to Kandahar. Khak, a witty and persistent little boy, knows how to rule the world—poverty has even sharpened him into a man of himself.
After Khak, it is Hashim—a black American who people calls tabib. A man and a woman cannot meet face to face. So, when Nafas needs to get remedy for her fever and stomachache Khak brings her to Hashim. Bitingly poignant and satirical—Hashim and Nafas exchange questions and answers through Khak. A cloth partition between doctor and patient becomes a symbolic wall between man and woman, between twisted dogma and humanity.
What a black American has to do in this land? Hashim came to Afghanistan in search for God—he has fought Tajiks with Pashtun, and he has fought Pashtun with Tajiks. Hashim wears a fake beard—necessary for a man of respect there. Beard is a burqa for men—not to hide their identity as in women but to raise their status in the society. With the help of Hashim, Nafas goes to meet medical practitioners on the periphery of mine-strewn wastelands to seek for guide to Kandahar. Again, in the middle of nowhere Nafas bears witness to a handful of men who lost their legs—they run after leg replacements that are dropped from some UN helicopters.
Hashim negotiates with Hayat, a man who lost one of his arm from land mines near Kandahar. Nafas, again has to put her fate in a man’s hands. Hayat wears burqa, pretends to be a woman. They follow a group of black head—women with burqa—to Kandahar. They claim to be the relatives of the bride or groom, depends on the situation. The film then mutes down—no one can enter Kandahar without being searched. Hayat cannot enter Kandahar, a man under disguise as a woman in burqa is deemed having a suspicious motive. The film ends when Nafas raises her burqa and answers the authority’s question—it grants her entrance to Kandahar, a Taliban-controlled city in Afghanistan.
The film left us with many questions—does Nafas find her sister? Does she come on time before her sister commits suicice? And, what Hashim has said to Nafas on her tape lingers on our mind—it is HOPE that keeps people going.
King is really an awesome crafters of words: goners and gomers, bad gunky, Boo'ya Moon, and booksnake, SOWISA, booms, bools, bool hunts, stations of the bools, blood bools, long boy, "the thing with the endless piebald side", "darkness loves him", King of Incunks, the Black Prince of the Incunks, smucking, babyluv, under the yum-yum tree, the tree story.
King built the novel’s core using the flashbacks of Scott and Lisey’s marriage without the slightest hint of authorial labor. The reader, in this case I, didn’t have difficulty to follow these flashbacks that are so lucidly relate Lisey's own reactions to her present worries.
King depicts Lisey's reaction as human, caresses her as he writes her horrors: "There were a lot of things they didn't tell you about death…and one of the biggies was how long it took the ones you loved most to die in your heart."
Follow these links for coverage on Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story:
Every marriage has two hearts, one light and one dark.
‘You are the call and I am the answer,
You are the wish, and I the fulfillment,
You are the night, and I the day.
What else? It’s perfect enough.
It is perfectly complete.
You and I,
What more—?
Strange, how we suffer in spite of this!’
D.H. Lawrence as quoted by King in Part 3 of this book.
In an effort to illustrate the ideas, King admitted that he used references literally dozens of novels, poems, and songs that intertwining and making a net with the heart of this novel.
It’s actually a damn good love story! (Is there any such love as rock-solid but true as Scott’s and Lisey’s? Probably there is.)
I just cleaned up and re-organized my book shelves. I thought about donating some of my geology and geophysics books... hmm... I should make some contacts.
Whenever I stumbled upon a book or magazine that I like, as usual I would read it again. I read "You Can't Be A Smart Cookie If You Have A Crummy Attitude" by Dr. John C. Maxwell. Here are some quotes for you from this book:
I may not be able to change the world I see around me, but I can change the way I see the world within me. (John C. Maxwell)
Your attitude determined your action. Your action determines your accomplishment. (John C. Maxwell)
Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can. (John C. Maxwell)
A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. (David Brinkley)
Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right. (Henry Ford)
God chooses what we go through; we choose how we go through it. (John C. Maxwell)
A pessimist is a person who, regardless of the present, is disappointed in the future. (John C. Maxwell)
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out? (Michel de Saint-Pierre)
The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their state of mind. (William James)
The greatest mistake a person can make is doing nothing. (John C. Maxwell)
Man's greatness lies in his power of thought. (Blaise Pascal)
Others can stop you temporarily, but you're the only one who can do it permanently. (John C. Maxwell)
We lost because we told ourselves we lost. (Leo Tolstoy)
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. (Vince Lombardi)
Nothing is as hard as it looks; everything is more rewarding than you expect; and if anything can go right it will and at the best possible moment. (Maxwell's Law)
I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God. (Helen Keller)
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. (Henry Ford)
I expect the best and with God's help will attain the best. (Norman Vincent Peale)
You never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with them. (John C. Maxwell)
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and the man who leads that gains victory. (General George S. Patton)
Every change in human attitude must come through internal understanding and acceptance. Man is the only known creature who can reshape and remold himself by altering his attitude. (John C. Maxwell)
Always do more than is required of you. (General George S. Patton)
A positive mental attitude is rooted in clear, calm, and honest self-confidence. (John C. Maxwell)
Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it. (Chinese proverb)
99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. (George Washington Carver)
Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. (John C. Maxwell)
Many intelligent people never move beyond the boundaries of their self-imposed limitations. (John C. Maxwell)
Your attitude speaks so loudly that I can't hear what you say. (John C. Maxwell)
To the discontented man no chair is easy. (Benjamin Franklin)
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they're always there. (Norman Vincent Peale)
Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition. (John C. Maxwell)
It is your actions and attitude when you are on your own that reflect what you really are. (Martin Vanbee)
Enthusiasm and persistence can make an average person superior; indifference and lethargy can make a superior person average. (William Ward)
True greatness consists in being great in little things. (Charles Simmons)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. (John C. Maxwell)
Anybody who accepts mediocrity - in school, on the job, in life - is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises. (Charles Knight)
Don't Let Yourself...
WORRY when you're doing your best.
HURRY when success depends on accuracy.
THINK evil of anyone until you have the facts.
BELIEVE a thing is impossible without trying it.
(Andrew Carnegie)
Attitude
It is the "advance man" of our true selves.
Its roots are inward but its fruit is outward.
It is our best friend or our worst enemy.
It is more honest and more consistent than our words.
It is an outward look based on past experiences.
It is a thing which draws people to us or repels them.
It is never content until it is expressed.
It is the librarian of our past.
It is the speaker of our present.
It is the prophet of our future.
(John C. Maxwell)
I may not be able to change the world I see around me, but I can change the way I see the world within me. (John C. Maxwell)
Your attitude determined your action. Your action determines your accomplishment. (John C. Maxwell)
Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can. (John C. Maxwell)
A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. (David Brinkley)
Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right. (Henry Ford)
God chooses what we go through; we choose how we go through it. (John C. Maxwell)
A pessimist is a person who, regardless of the present, is disappointed in the future. (John C. Maxwell)
An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out? (Michel de Saint-Pierre)
The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their state of mind. (William James)
The greatest mistake a person can make is doing nothing. (John C. Maxwell)
Man's greatness lies in his power of thought. (Blaise Pascal)
Others can stop you temporarily, but you're the only one who can do it permanently. (John C. Maxwell)
We lost because we told ourselves we lost. (Leo Tolstoy)
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. (Vince Lombardi)
Nothing is as hard as it looks; everything is more rewarding than you expect; and if anything can go right it will and at the best possible moment. (Maxwell's Law)
I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God. (Helen Keller)
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. (Henry Ford)
I expect the best and with God's help will attain the best. (Norman Vincent Peale)
You never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with them. (John C. Maxwell)
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and the man who leads that gains victory. (General George S. Patton)
Every change in human attitude must come through internal understanding and acceptance. Man is the only known creature who can reshape and remold himself by altering his attitude. (John C. Maxwell)
Always do more than is required of you. (General George S. Patton)
A positive mental attitude is rooted in clear, calm, and honest self-confidence. (John C. Maxwell)
Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it. (Chinese proverb)
99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. (George Washington Carver)
Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. (John C. Maxwell)
Many intelligent people never move beyond the boundaries of their self-imposed limitations. (John C. Maxwell)
Your attitude speaks so loudly that I can't hear what you say. (John C. Maxwell)
To the discontented man no chair is easy. (Benjamin Franklin)
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they're always there. (Norman Vincent Peale)
Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition. (John C. Maxwell)
It is your actions and attitude when you are on your own that reflect what you really are. (Martin Vanbee)
Enthusiasm and persistence can make an average person superior; indifference and lethargy can make a superior person average. (William Ward)
True greatness consists in being great in little things. (Charles Simmons)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. (John C. Maxwell)
Anybody who accepts mediocrity - in school, on the job, in life - is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the whole organization compromises. (Charles Knight)
Don't Let Yourself...
WORRY when you're doing your best.
HURRY when success depends on accuracy.
THINK evil of anyone until you have the facts.
BELIEVE a thing is impossible without trying it.
(Andrew Carnegie)
Attitude
It is the "advance man" of our true selves.
Its roots are inward but its fruit is outward.
It is our best friend or our worst enemy.
It is more honest and more consistent than our words.
It is an outward look based on past experiences.
It is a thing which draws people to us or repels them.
It is never content until it is expressed.
It is the librarian of our past.
It is the speaker of our present.
It is the prophet of our future.
(John C. Maxwell)
The synopsis: For years, Microsoft and other high-tech companies have been posing riddles and logic puzzles like these in their notoriously grueling job interviews. Now "puzzle interviews" have become a hot new trend in hiring. From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, employers are using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidates' intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability – qualities needed to survive in today's hypercompetitive global marketplace. For the first time, William Poundstone reveals the toughest questions used at Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies – and supplies the answers. He traces the rise and controversial fall of employer-mandated IQ tests, the peculiar obsessions of Bill Gates (who plays jigsaw puzzles as a competitive sport), the sadistic mind games of Wall Street (which reportedly led one job seeker to smash a forty-third-story window), and the bizarre excesses of today's hiring managers (who may start off an interview with a box of Legos or a game of virtual Russian roulette). Managers seeking the most talented employees will learn to incorporate puzzle interviews in their search for the top candidates. Job seekers will discover how to tackle even the most brain-busting questions and gain the advantage that could win the job of a lifetime. And anyone who has ever dreamed of going up against the best minds in business may discover that these puzzles are simply a lot of fun.
Here is the list of things that I found informative and amusing in this book:
- Microsoft’s interviewing practices are a product of the pressures of the high-technology marketplace. Software is about ideas, not assembly lines, and those ideas are always changing. A software company’s greatest asset is a talented workforce. “The most important thing we do is hire great people,” Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer has stated more than once.
- How do you recognize great people? It is harder than ever to equate talent with a specific of skills. Skills can become obsolete practically overnight. So can business plans. Microsoft is conscious that it has to be looking for people capable of inventing the Microsoft of five or ten years hence. Microsoft’s hiring focuses on the future tense. More than most big companies, Microsoft accepts rather than resist the “job candidates as blank slate.” Its stated goal is to hire for what people can do rather than what they’ve done.
- Microsoft does puzzle interview because it does not want to see itself as a place for high-IQ never-do-wells. One of the claimed merits of its interviews is that they test motivation and persistence. The successful puzzle solver must be persistent as well as smart.
- Microsoft’s people are “hard core” and it’s a place where winning is everything. Possibly Bill Gates’s most famous saying is “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!!!” A runner up is “Why don’t you just give up your stock options and join the peace corps?!?” (meaning you’re fired!)
- Like Gates himself, Microsoft’s hiring has always been cautious. Gates wanted to be sure that everyone hired was very good at what he or she was supposed to do. Programming candidates were expected to write code during the interview. From Microsoft’s viewpoint, puzzles test competitive edge as well as intelligence. Like business or football, a logic puzzle divides the world into winners and losers. You either get the answer, or you don’t. As a coach will tell you, winning is more than ability. You have to be hungry. Winning has to matter.
- Joel Spolsky, now CEO of Fog Creek Software in New York, sees two biggest challenges in technical hiring are identifying people who are smart but don’t get things done and people who get things done but aren’t smart. A company in a competitive industry needs to avoid hiring both classes of people. These two groups of people can be hard to distinguish from those you do want to hire, people who are smart and get things done.
- “Paradigm” is a popular word in the Microsoft vocabulary. Bill Gates claims that no corporation has ever managed to maintain its position of dominance through a paradigm shift in technology. (Therefore, big, successful Microsoft is in constant peril from every upstart start-up.) Gates has said that his goal is for Microsoft to break that rule and find a way of prospering through paradigm shifts.
- When the technology is changing beneath your feet daily, there is not much point in hiring for a specific, soon-to-be-obsolete set of skills. You have to try to hire for a general problem-solving capacity, however difficult that may be.
- A bad hiring decision is likely to hurt the company more than a good hiring decision will help it. Above all, you want to avoid bad hires.
- Remember, the guiding principle should be that it’s better to lose some good people in order to avoid hiring unsuitable people. One weakness of interviewing is that smart people generally come off well. Selective companies tend to hire smart people and then are baffled when some turn out to be disastrous employees. Just like everyone else, smart people can lack motivation.
- It is not intelligence, not solely. Confidence and motivation figure into it too. The ability to accept uncertainty, questions assumptions, and bring projects to completion is one way of putting it.
- OK, let me know your answer to this question: In front of you are two doors. One leads to your interview, the other to an exit. Next to the door is a consultant. He may be from our firm or from a rival. The consultants from our company always tell the truth. The consultants from the other company always lie. You are allowed to ask the consultant one question to find out which is the door to your interview. What would you ask?
As for me… what do I look when I interview a would-be candidate? I observe and look at overall package – the way people talk, the way people walk, their body language, their assertiveness, their honesty, how well they know their previous work, how they relate to their team, etc. Nah... I mostly rely on my intuition for hire- or no-hire decision. However I like a person if my heart says 'no hire', I do trust it.
My mom would like to see any Nicole Kidman's or Angelina Jolie's movie. She said it's nice to see beautiful people on screen. *smile* OK then, Mom, it's your day out. You should have something that you like.
We took the 3:45PM show so we could have the time to have lunch and did some shoppings after the Mass.
Follow The Golden Compass from Wikipedia or The Golden Compass Official Website for the movie's synopsis and everything about this movie. In our world, our demon stays with us, inside us. But there's a parallel world to ours where human's demon walks side by side with its master. The movie sets the serious, dark tone through Nicole's voice over at the first couple minutes.
It's kids movie all right and yet I felt that it sent out subtle message about powerful but corrupt authority that controls anything in the society. I heard this movie has raised many critiques among Christian groups. Well, I think you have to decide yourself whether it's what the critique has said.
As for me, it's just another fantasy movie that offers feast to the eyes. And, yes, I have to admit, it's nice to see Nicole Kidman with flawless beauty and wonderful clothes. *smile*
We took the 3:45PM show so we could have the time to have lunch and did some shoppings after the Mass.
It's kids movie all right and yet I felt that it sent out subtle message about powerful but corrupt authority that controls anything in the society. I heard this movie has raised many critiques among Christian groups. Well, I think you have to decide yourself whether it's what the critique has said.
As for me, it's just another fantasy movie that offers feast to the eyes. And, yes, I have to admit, it's nice to see Nicole Kidman with flawless beauty and wonderful clothes. *smile*
