The Dentist

You know how people usually say, "Oh, going to the dentist doesn't actually hurt, you're just scared of the drill?". Well those people can just go screw themselves. Call me a pussy but going to the dentist really hurts. First of all the cleaning bit is just uncomfortable. Then when the drilling starts it just hurts a lot. And what's with the porno jazz music they play in the background? Apparently its supposed to be soothing, but seriously you can't even hear it when there's a drill boring into your teeth. Probably out of all the specialists, dentists are my least favourite because they involve the highest degree of pain no matter what procedure they're doing. One of the reasons I do not look forward to getting old is that the dentist visits will get progressively more complicated and painful.

That is all.

Midnight in Paris

I do not know who Gertrude Stein is. I've heard a lot about Ernest Hemingway but have never read one of his novels. Midnight in Paris requires for its full enjoyment a degree of cultural literacy which I unfortunately did not have. This is not really a failure of the film. The film is made for a cultured audience charming it with a playful parade of artistic legends and unfortunately in this process, alienates those who have no idea about the characters on the screen.

There is still much to like, however. The film tells the story of Gil (Owen Wilson), a Hollywood screenwriter who dreams of writing a serious novel. He visits Paris with his fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her wealthy parents and is enamoured with the city, walking its streets and fantasising about the great artists and writers who inhabited it in the 1920s. On his walks at midnight every night, he enters a carriage that actually transports him to the 1920s where he meets people like Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and Salvador Dali.

Even if you don't know these people, it's still easy to get caught up in Gil's enthusiasm. Owen Wilson creates a very likeable character whose adulation for his literary idols makes them look good on the screen. He has a charming relationship with Adriana (Marion Cotillard), mistress of Picasso and a student of fashion. However, though their relationship is enjoyable to watch, it is not enough to sustain the movie.

Which brings us back to the first point. There is a scene where Gil sits in a café with Dalí, Buñuel and Man Ray. He tries to explain to them that he is travelling in time between the 21st century and the 1920s. Dalí, without humour, explains that this is perfectly normal and he states that he often feels similarly himself. Exasperated, Gil replies 'Yes, but you're a surrealist!'. If you find that kind of thing funny, then this may be your kind of movie.

Drive

Drive makes you think you're getting one type of film and then gives you another completely different one. This is one of those films that at the end makes you realize that you just watched something great and by the end of the week you thought you watched the best movie in a long time.

I don't want to give too much away but I'll give a general outline. A man who is a stunt driver during the day and is a getaway driver at night helps his neighbour and her son when she gets involved in some deep shit. Thats really all you should know about the movie and not much else. I wouldnt reccommend you read up anything about it (apart from the Roger Ebert review which also doesnt give much away). This is however, one of the few movies I would recommend you watch the trailer for because it tells you nothing but sets up your expectations. In fact I encourage you to watch the trailer because it gives the movie much more impact.

One of the main highlights of this movie is the use of music, which perfectly matches the mood and meaning the director is trying to convey. Also effective is Ryan Gosling as the Driver. Even though he doesn't say much in the movie, he exudes cool and style and makes driving gloves seem fashionable. Whereas his character is subdued and silent, the other characters are a complete contrast. Nino, played by Ron Perlman from Hellboy, is particularly loud and rude.

I think this movie has the potential to gain a cult following in the years to come. The way it blends so many genres together and its use of retro definitely make it more timeless and I'd go so far as to say that this might be considered as a great film as time goes on. I watched this movie maybe a week ago and I can still remember how I felt watching the film and after I left the cinema. Its emotional impact stays with you.

That is all.

Top 6 Greatest Minecraft Creations

I'm not sure if there's not much point in making this post because I'm guessing that at most only about eight or so people I know would read this and find it interesting. So to those eight people, this post is made just for you. I hope you like it.

#6 Halnicholas' USS Enterprise

The reason I put this up first is because it was the first Minecraft creation that left my mouth hanging open because it was so huge (safe). This was made when Minecraft was still in Alpha (though the creation is made in Classic) so this was before people had crazy mods and stuff to design massive epic structures. I think this was the first project of its scale ever made. An early milestone of Minecraft creations.

#5 Minecraft Cathedral by 'Sunflower'

Original forum thread and more images here. (I think the server on which this is built is still open to public).

The guy who built this (I'm guessing it was a dude) writes that he is a 'field expert in historical architectural theory and design' and that this cathedral takes inspiration from 'from Chartres, Amiens, Rouen, and Notre Dame de' Paris, and my experience studying and designing churches in real life'. This is quite a believable claim, looking at how intricately detailed both the interior and exterior of this cathedral is. It's worthy of note that this is designed using the original Minecraft texture pack, which is quite impressive considering its limited colour palette and tones compared to say, Painterly.

#4 Kiershar's Sky Monster Trap



There are two ways to play Minecraft: Creative and Survival. While Creative creations are generally much more interesting and impressive, there's something to be said for Kiershar's survival creations. Doing everything legitly with no mods on single player, he makes all kinds of clever and amazing traps for mobs and other players. This sky monster trap is the most impressive creation he's made so far though his devious traps to ensnare unwitting players are also definitely worth a look.

#3 FVDisco's Temple of Notch



Of all the Minecraft creations I've seen, this guy's creations, without a doubt, have got the most style. What sets this guy apart is his quirky and unique sense of design. He uses his own texture pack named 'OCD' which is changes all the textures to solid colours, straight lines and 90 degree angles. All his creations are compulsively neat, smartly presented and for lack of a better word, very, very groovy. If Minecraft creations were computer products, this guy would be Apple.

The video above is a prime example of why he's so cool. On my first viewing when the Notch statue opened its eyes I shat myself.

#2



Because every list needs a troll entry.

#1 The Voxel Box


It's not really right that I'm putting everything made by the Voxel Box server as one listing because really, this could be a list of top 5 Voxel Box creations. This is a very dedicated community of creative builders who build pretty much everything from towns, theme parks and crazy redstone devices. Their stated goal is to 'push the limits of what Minecraft can deliver to builders and players'. They also recently released an adventure map which is really amazing. It uses a mod that adds in custom sounds for atmospheric music and voiceovers.









And I just realised that this post completely contradicts the first sentence of my previous post.

The Thin Red Line

I've managed to pick up movie watching again as a slightly more constructive study-reward habit than Minecraft. I'm really glad I did because the three movies I've watched in the past week or so are some of the best I've seen all year (which doesn't really mean anything because I don't see movies in the same year they're released). Those movies are Minority Report, Being John Malkovich and The Thin Red Line. I just finished watching The Thin Red Line ten minutes ago so I'll write a few things. I'm typing this on my iPod so I won't write a lot.

The Thin Red Line is a movie portraying the Pacific theatre of World War II. It came out around the same time as Saving Private Ryan did and it's quite tempting to make comparisons. I'd say that this movie is more ambitious than Spielberg's in that it tries to encapsulate more completely what war is about. Whereas Saving Private Ryan told a story about one particular group of men on a mission, this movie dwells on a larger ensemble of characters and often alternates between different perspectives.

Often you judge a war movie by how horrific and gritty it is. While this movie certainly does do this, more amazing is how much of a sense of loss you feel after each violent episode. Terrence Malick (director) has this trademark where he likes to break down the events into a montage while the protagonist voices philosophical questions like 'Where did our evil come from?' and 'Who is killing us?'. Sometimes the film gets very reflective and you're at a loss at what it's trying to say. There are times when the film lingers on images that are beautiful but kind of come out of nowhere. I think they are there to prolong the mood of a scene in order to signal to us that something profound lies underneath. There is one character, Private Whit (I think) who is the closest thing we get to a protagonist and his belief that there is goodness in humanity that is being carelessly discarded becomes an important theme in the film.

Well anyway this was a great movie and I'm glad I decided to see it. Its quite unlike any other war movie I've seen.

(500) Days of Summer

Right at the beginning of (500) Days of Summer, a deep-voiced narrator tells us what the movie will be about:

'This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know upfront, this is not a love story.'

The movie is about a guy called Tom who falls in love with Summer, dates her, gets dumped by her and spends the rest of the movie trying to get over it.

The reason for the popularity of this movie, I believe, is how easy it is to relate to. A lot of guys could empathise with the idea of loving a girl so much but being mystified at how she can’t return it. The other reason is that it deals with this feeling gracefully in a very light-hearted and enjoyable way. I wish that if I was put in the same situation as Tom, I could be just as witty and likeable.

It's a great movie because it takes an approach to the feeling of heartbreak that is humorous but true to the feelings involved. Tom's anguish appears genuine but the film takes every chance to make light of his situation. The balance between drama and comedy is helped a lot by Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance which is really great.

There is also a lot of exciting editing in this film. The director (Marc Webb, who previously directed music videos) stated that he wanted this film to be like a 'pop song in movie form' and we see this in the use of split-screens, the narrating voice-over and the non-chronological sequence held together by 'Day X'- type title cards. It's all designed to be choppy, exciting and highly palatable to a modern audience. In fact, I think Webb is a bit critical about the relevance of 'serious art' for being so esoteric and inaccessible to most of society. My evidence is a scene in a modern art gallery, and a short montage of scenes parodying some Ingmar Bergmann films.

The cinematography's great too. I can’t describe it technically but it has a nostalgic tone to it and alternates between very warm and very cool. On IMDb it says that the bluish tones are there to bring out Zooey Deschanel’s pretty pretty eyes, which is nice.

If I had a choice of the kinds of movies I'd like to see more of, it'd be movies like these. Not necessarily important or challenging movies, but clever enjoyable movies that tell important truths through lives not very different to our own.

(Normally I should be posting this on the other blog, though since both are inactive right now I'd thought I'd revive this one first. And also because people asked for this on this blog.)

Last Day of School

Today was the actual last day of school. Well technically it was yesterday because we went to the beach today but whatever.

Over the past week, I have been ticking off all the lasts that I had. Last math period, last english period, last free, last recess, last lunch, last bus ride to and from school etc. etc. and I realised that there was absolutely nothing special about any of them, apart from the fact that we did nothing. In fact, I would probably say that my last free period was one of the most boring I had in a while. I guess what I'm trying to say is that all the days we have are basically the same and even something special like graduation doesn't change that. I imagine that the day I die would also be quite unremarkable.

Going through graduation sort of reminds me of the episode of The Office when Steve Carell left. I watched it again yesterday.

That is all.

Leaving School

If somebody had asked me a few months ago what I felt about leaving school, I would have replied that I was feeling pretty pleased about it. I would have explained that the HSC was like a great mental sponge, soaking up all the energy out of my body. I looked to the future as some vague dot in the distance where I would study things that I needed in life and work hard for reasons that made a lot more sense. It confused me when I saw the previous batch of Year 12s were so nostalgic and told us to treasure our days of school. They must be institutionalised, I thought. Like in The Shawshank Redemption how Red has been in prison for so many years that he doesn't know how to live freely once he is finally released.

Now that the future is a little more than a dot in the distance, I feel a bit more trepidation about leaving school. In a way, I guess I've been institutionalised (I'm only using this word half-seriously) too. What I mean to say is that in school you're stuck in a little bubble but in a way that's good because that's all you have to deal with. Once the bubble pops, you have to look after yourself in a much bigger place. I do look forward to making my own choices and deciding what kind of a person I want to be. But still, I worry that I will be burdened by choices rather than freed.

Also, only with the end so near do I realise that I'll really miss everybody. Once it's all over, it will certainly be strange no longer seeing so many familiar faces every day. There's still the formal and everyone will probably still maintain their networks of friendships but without the routine of school and being stuck with each other, things will be different.

Though I've had a change of heart about leaving school, I certainly have not forgotten the bad things about being in Year 12. I don't think I've ever experienced anything as stressful as the week before the English exam in Term 1. And there's still the HSC in 4 weeks. But I guess what I mean to say is that being a member of our year group has become a big part of who I am and it won't be easy to see the end of that.

Devolution

I've been wondering whether or not we've come to a point in our evolution where we now are actually undoing all of the hard work that billions of years of human evolution has done.

As most of you would know, the concept of evolution is so that a species can reach perfection in adapting to its habitat. Humans have obviously been very good at this since we are now probably the dominant species on the planet. But I think now, because of all this scientific progress we're making, our genes are actually becoming worse. If you think about it all this medical innovation is actually ruining our gene pool because it means that people with hereditary diseases aren't dieing out but are instead able to continue to breed and pass on their genes. Also stuff like adaptability to the environment has probably been diminished because we can build our own homes and make our own climate to suit us.

Also, our social preferences are probably ruining our gene pool too. Note how now we not only select our mates based upon physical characteristics (traits which are actually hereditary), as a society we also covet other stuff like personality (which is probably not hereditary). This would probably mean ugly people like me would never be born but I seriously wouldn't mind if there were a few more Miranda Kerr's out there. The male preference for women with less hair on their bodies (I think men like hair on the head more), is also counter-evolutionary because hair is meant to keep our bodies warm, although I guess we don't really need it now since we have clothes, but still it reduces our adaptability. I also believe that women are also trending towards the less hairy male but I'm not too sure, and if this continues we will all probably end up being hairless.

What I'm trying to say is that if some alien life force came and managed to take away all our clothing and any means of producing more clothing, we would be pretty screwed. On the other hand, if evolution was allowed to continue normally, we, as very hairy Miranda Kerrs, would stand a much better chance of survival.

That is all.

I've been thinking hard recently.

A few days ago after reading his blog I asked Jeffery on Formspring what he thought about determinism. I first learnt about determinism a few months ago from watching Waking Life (which I found about from Roger) and the idea seemed so amazing to me that I've thought about it a lot ever since. I now know that what I thought was determinism could be more accurately described as deterministic fatalism. That sounds a bit complicated but you can basically summarise it as this: if the laws of nature precisely govern the behaviour of every little particle in the universe, then everything that ever happens in the future can only follow one set path.

I had difficulty getting my head around this idea. It's not so hard to imagine that things like the orbit of the Earth, the death of a star, the formation of a galaxy are all predetermined events brought on by pre-existing conditions. But it gets harder when you realise that our minds are also made of the same particles as anything else in the world. So everything we think about, everything we do is not guided by our free will but rather the Laws of Nature being carried out within the particles of our mind. It's such a drastic conclusion but I can't think of any way that it's not true.

Accepting this belief of determinism, it then becomes quite hard to contemplate the implications of it. Should we resign to the futility of human will and forgo responsibility for our decisions? Technically, you don't even get to make that decision because that's predetermined too. But in real life when you make a decision, it still feels like you're making a choice and that you're in control of what you're doing. Free will may be an illusion, but it's certainly a very good one. People seem to make decisions everyday that affect the course of their lives. Everybody still needs to be held accountable for their actions and their decisions if society is to function. It seems that for all discussion of ethics, politics and practical real world issues, a fatalistic viewpoint while logically valid, is quite dangerous for the attitude of defeatism it implies.

Perhaps more profound are the consequences of these beliefs on things like spirituality. When one imagines the universe and consequently everybody within it to simply be a jumble of particles forced to follow a set sequence of interactions then that leaves pretty much no room for concepts like the human soul. I think this is a different topic altogether but thinking about this made me realise that the attributes that make up what we believe to be the 'human soul' like our personalities, memories, thoughts and beliefs are really just a specific arrangement of neurons. These things that we believe to be immaterial and maybe even persistent after death are in fact physical things that exist within our skull and decompose when we die. For this reason, I believe that there is no afterlife.

Anyway, this post was initially intended to be just about my fatalistic beliefs but it diverged a bit at the end. The reason I wrote about this stuff is that Jeffery lent me his course book thing from the philosophy course he did last year on the module 'Time and Cause'. This was meant to be a kind of introduction about why I'm interested in philosophy before I started writing about what I thought about the book Jeffery lent me but it turned out quite long. I'm halfway through the book Jeffery lent me and I'll blog about it sometime soon. It's titled 'Time and Cause'.

Harry Potter!

I saw Harry Potter yesterday and wrote about it in the other blog.

I know its kinda pointless writing about Harry Potter, since it's Harry Potter and all but if you value my opinion on movies/ find it interesting then you might like reading it lols.

Formspring

Today I decided to get a formspring for some reason. I guess I've been put off from getting one from either not wanting to conform to society or for the reasons Vincent had for not wanting to publicize his.
I suppose I should be happy with the four questions I've received from real people and my 2 followers but I always like to expand my horizons. My answers will probably vary in tone depending on how troll i feel.

The link is here

That is all.

Update

Bob and Richard just posted some cool stuff about movies on the other very good blog and so have I.

If you're interested in contributing, then comment on cbox or msn me or whatever. You don't have to write about movies. It could be about music, politics, fashion, philosophy, pornography etc. etc. Whatever floats your boat lol.

Being John Malkovich

I actually watched this move quite a while ago (I think back in year 8 or 9 during my movie watching spree cos I just got broadband) but I decided to re-watch it because it was really good. It's about how this guy who discovers a secret hole which allows him to be John Malkovich, an actual actor in real life. Basically its a portal for mind control, but it only works for one person John Malkovich, hence the title.

This is a lot more interesting than it sounds and the above synopsis is a gross over-simplification of the film. This movie is written by Charlie Kauffman (who also wrote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and I've watched four of the movies he's written which I'll post about later. Right now I'll just say he's a very original writer with many original ideas. Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are) directs this movie and I think it's largely to his credit that he can thread all of the plot elements and themes here to make a coherent story which is emotionally involving as well as being funny and engaging.

What really confuses me is why the movie had such a hard time being made. Apparently plenty of studios turned down the chance to make this movie. One guy even said "Why the fuck can't it be Being Tom Cruise?".

Unlike Somewhere I think the majority of people will like this movie. It's an easy to watch movie (as in you always know what is going on and why - no long stretches of the camera just watching something) but not easy to understand. It's challenging not in an Inception sort of way where the structure of it confuses you, but rather raises questions that you might not have thought about before. What if John Malkovich went into the portal so he experiences being himself? What if a woman went in? What if John Malkovich had a child?

I think this is the perfect movie to start off watching other more diverse movies rather than traditional genre movies. I think it was this movie when I watched it way back in Year 9 that made me realize that good movies didn't necessarily have to be just conventional ones done well, but could also rely on original ideas not explored before. I recommend everyone to watch this movie when they have the time. Which is after Trials. Or HSC. You could still watch it now though.

That is all.

Somewhere

I'd like to start off by saying that the idea for a separate film blog where everyone chips in is very good because it would probably lessen the guilt in me having multiple posts when I want to post about multiple movies and/or random posts. Over the holidays I've watched quite a few films but this one is one of the less weird ones I've watched. By that I mean, more people will get this movie than the other movies I watched (I think).



Somewhere is about a movie star Johnny Marco who feels no pleasure in anything even though he has a successful professional life. He also drinks a lot of alcohol, does drugs and a lot of women. One day his 11 year old daughter comes to stay with him after her mother needs to take some time off.

This movie is directed by Sofia Coppola, who you may know from Lost in Translation. Let me start off by saying that this film isn't as good as LIT. I think it just doesn't have the same intimacy as that movie and it isn't as visually as interesting because Tokyo at night is pretty cool. It isn't as funny (although I think this film has the funniest sex scene ever) and the acting isn't as good. Some of the themes and concept are the same and those are equally as interesting (at least for me) here.
On it's own though it is a really good movie. This is sort of like LIT in the sense that there isn't really a plot, things just happen. There's no complication except for the inner conflict Johnny has because he thinks he's nothing. The very end is a bit of a copout and a cliche, but the film still evokes emotion without getting all mushy.
If you thought LIT was boring, this will probably be the same for you (although for all you perverts out there is more sex and nudity in this but obviously done in a tasteful manner). I have a suspicion that even people who did like LIT won't like this as much. I thought it was just fine.

That is all.

Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies starts with the death of its young protagonist Seita, starving to death as a tramp in a subway. The rest of the movie is a flashback from his ghost, starting from the firebombing of his village during World War II that left he and his younger sister Setsuko orphaned and homeless. They stay with their aunt for a while but she's a cruel woman so they leave her and live in a hillside bomb shelter, scrounging for food wherever they can.

This has got to be one of the most depressing movies I've ever watched. It's a very subdued movie which makes it all the more human when it sinks into moments of grief and suffering. Afterwards, I wondered what was the point of making a movie like this. It reads very well as an anti-war film, an exploration of how it destroys innocent individuals from the inside out. Seita starts off as a proud, well-off kind of guy but by the end he has nothing left in the world and has lost his will to live.

According to Wikipedia however, the director (Isao Takahata) never intended an anti-war message because the film is more concerned with 'conveying the image of a brother and sister living a failed life due to isolation from society'. I guess what he's trying to say is that if you made it an anti-war film, then it has a message of 'look at all these bad things that happen because of war' and that would reduce the tragedy of the events because they would have a meaning and a purpose. But there is no meaning to the events of the film. Noone comes out wiser and everything is just absurd (in this sense of the word). The fact that the film is partly based on a true story is enough to justify its necessity.

I wish now that I hadn't picked this as my last Ghibli film to watch until after Trials. It was such a depressing note to end it on. After watching this movie, I thought about it and then I thought of the exuberance of Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away and I felt really bad.

Princess Mononoke

Continuing my watching spree of Ghibli films, yesterday I saw Princess Mononoke. If you haven't seen it, its about a young Prince Ashitaka, who is wounded after bringing down a wild demon that attacked his village. The wound is infected with some kind of curse which will gradually kill him and so he departs to the west in search of a cure. He eventually reaches an iron-making village led by Lady Eboshi that is caught up in conflict with the animal-gods of the local mountain ranges. There's also a girl named San raised by the wolf-god who he falls in love with. She's the 'Princess Mononoke' of the title, though that's more a description than a name because mononoke is just Japanese for 'monster-spirit'.

The noticeable thing about this movie is that there's no clear-cut villains. When the movie was over, I had this feeling that something wasn't quite right. I realised it was because though there was so much conflict and suffering in the movie, there is noone to really blame for it. There is no triumph over good and evil because there is no good and evil. All the characters seem to have complex and reasonable motives for their actions and that is something you'd hardly expect in this kind of fantasy epic story. Just think of the Empire in Star Wars, Saruman in Lord of the Rings or Voldemort in Harry Potter. (Not saying these villains are bad of course because they're all kickass characters. Just a different kind of storytelling.)

The love story between Ashitaka and San is also a pretty important part of the film but as usual, Miyazaki really plays it down. There's this scene where he's lying down recovering from a serious injury and she's taking care of him. She gives him some bat jerky to eat but he doesn't have the strength to chew. So she starts eating it herself and then she leans down to his face. I thought she was kissing him until I realised that she was actually spitting the chewed up meat into his mouth so he could swallow it. I know that sounds really gross but in the movie, its a really heartfelt scene.

Okay, the next paragraph will be about the ending so if you haven't watched it this is a spoiler alert. The ending baffled me at first because the denoument was very abrupt. I've thought about it a bit and it makes some sense now. I thought the villagers would be angry at Lady Eboshi for abandoning them but I guess they have too much to thank her for to condemn her for being lead astray by the Mikado's men. I was surprised that Ashitaka decided to help rebuild the ironworks. But I guess he couldn't return to the village as prince after having cut off his hair. Ashitaka and San not (quite) getting together was also a surprise but it makes sense because it would be pretty dumb if San lived with him at the ironworks. I think that in the end, its about the breakdown of the natural order between humans and spirits by Eboshi's firearms and the conflict that determined the establishment of the new order. Ashitaka, as a determined pacifist, is a neutral witness to the conflict who tries his best to end the fighting and minimise the suffering of everyone involved.

The next movie I'll be watching will probably be Grave of the Fireflies. And then I probably won't get to watch anything until Trials are over.

Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration

I saw this on Roger Ebert's website and I thought it was pretty cool and something every wizard or witch should know:

"Ever wonder what the five principal exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration are?

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that Gamp’s Law governs the use of magic to create objects. However, there are five principal exceptions to the law that can’t be created or changed by even the most skilled wizard.

As the release of the final Harry Potter movie approaches, fans discover that only one of the exceptions is revealed. Harry Potter expert and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide ® to The World of Harry Potter, Tere Stouffer, offers her opinions on the remaining exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration.

In Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling reveals only one exception to the law: Food.

Hermione says, “It's impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you've already got some. ’” And that pretty much sums up what we know about Gamp’s Law and its five exceptions.

But what else can’t be conjured or transfigured?

- Money and Shelter: This is two items, but they are often inextricably linked: one can’t have a beautiful or large home without having money to pay for it. Although an interior of a room or area can be expanded, as the Weasleys did while camping at the Quidditch World Cup and while riding ministry-borrowed cars, and valuable objects can be multiplied, if the intention is to suffocate a thief inside a vault at Gringott’s, they can’t be created from scratch.

- Clothing: Even wizards of great skill—Remus Lupin and Molly Weasley included—cannot seem to conjure up new robes and are instead stuck with old, patched ones, ones that are too short, or ones that are hopelessly out of style. If clothing were not one of the exceptions, Lupin would have long ago conjured a new wardrobe, and Ron would have avoided his dress-robe embarrassment at the Yule Ball.

- Body Part Removed by Dark Magic: In the wizarding world, all sorts of body parts can be repaired and even conjured from scratch (like the regrowing of Harry’s bones after his quidditch accident in The Chamber of Secrets.) But these same body parts—and the entire body, in the case of the Killing Curse—cannot be replaced or repaired if Dark Magic was involved, no matter how skilled the healer.

- Temperature: The conjuring of heat or cold or the transfiguring of something warm into something cold (and vice versa). Although wizards can produce water (Aguamenti!) and can emit steam from their wands through the hot-air charm—steam that lightly melts objects like snow or dries objects like sopping-wet clothing—wizards cannot raise or lower the temperature of the air, stop rain or snow from falling, slow or speed the wind, or heat or cool large bodies of water"

That is all.

My Neighbour Totoro

I watched 'My Neighbour Totoro' the day before yesterday and I liked it a lot. It's about a father who moves with her daughters into a rural home where they meet strange woodland spirits (ie, Totoro). It was a much more subdued kind of movie than Spirited Away. Instead of a complication (like say, your parents turning into pigs), it builds up a sense of curiousity and wonder until it reaches moments of great magic. Miyazaki is great at creating really sublime moments with his animation and artwork. In particular I thought the tree-raising scene was pretty amazing.

I think that in the (very small) remainder of these holidays, I'll keep watching more Ghibli films. They make me feel really good, as opposed to other movies which just make me feel challenged.

Harry Potter - To Tim: HACK IT HACK IT HACK IT HACK IT

So since the new Harry Potter movie came out I've been thinking about it a lot especially after I watched the trailer and it looks really good. This time around I have been trying to resist reading the book before I see the movie because all the critics say that it's really confusing if you don't read the books so I'm trying to see if that's really true. And I want to test whether or not the story in the movie is actually any good (no one seriously goes to watch HP for the story right?). I think the HP series is really a sort of visual experience rather than one for plot or acting or dialogue but I think that's ok because the films are actually quite good looking. I think my favourite one is the Half-Blood Prince because the colours and lighting and stuff actually enhanced the mood instead of just trying to look pro, which it did.

Anyway I was wondering why they suddenly changed the Death Eaters being able to travel in black spirals all of a sudden (it sort of looks like the shadow blade in fruit ninja). I mean it looks really really cool but why would they do that if they could just apparate? And it wasn't in the books either so I have no idea what sort of magic they're doing.

Also, WHY THE FUCK do wizards use quills? It's completely illogical. I'm pretty sure in the first few books the students always complain about blotches on their books because of the use of quills and their ink spilling everywhere and ink pots getting smashed etc. etc. Quills have no magical properties, are expensive, are difficult to use and also cumbersome. Which witch (haha geddit?) or wizard was stupid enough to decree that the wizarding world could only use quills? Seriously can't they see that there is a perfect solution to all their quill problems if they used a pen?!?! OR a pencil?! I guess pureblood wizards and witches can't be blamed that much because they probably would never heard of a pen or pencil but seriously, Harry what the hell? Didn't you ever stop to think "Screw these stupid quills I'm gonna use a pen."? Or Hermione. Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?!?!? What the hell was going through your mind when you switched from pen to quill?!?!? Was it "Oh I love this new more inconvenient stationery. I think i prefer this over the pen which I have been using which historically is actually an evolution and improvement on the quill." . Stupid bitch.

That is all.

Spirited Away

I just finished watching Spirited Away and I thought I'd say what I thought of it while its fresh in my mind.

I sincerely, honestly loved this movie a lot. I don't like to use strong adjectives a lot for no reason but it was a beautiful, mysterious and enchanting movie. There's quite a unique sensation you get when you see a really great fantasy story like this. If I could relate it to any other experience, it would be closest to what I felt while reading the Sandman series. I find it hard to put into words but its the kind of fantasy that refuses to be seen as an allegory or a metaphor for real life but rather touches human emotions in a stranger, more profound way. Always at the end of such an experience I find myself wishing there was more.

What was refreshing too was that the film had a lot of heart, which is something quite rare in the angst-ridden movies I've been watching recently. Miyazaki seems like a really sentimental guy and it comes out really nicely. Also, the art that went into this was great. All the Japanese mythological figures everywhere were really quirky and a whole lot of fun. And I liked the music.

Anyway, I hope to see more Studio Ghibli films soon because this one was great.

And now for something a little different...

I've been thinking lately (okay, someone suggested to me) that I should make another blog dedicated just to posting about movies. The upside is that it might be pretty interesting because then I'd have to try harder to write stuff worth reading and things would get all serious and stuff. The downside is that I would have two blogs and only a wanker would have two blogs. So what I've been thinking is that I'd get many people to contribute and it would be a like a book club sort of thing but with movies. Okay, I know that sounds unbelievably gay but I can think of one or two people who'd be interested. So if you think you're one of these people then tell me in some way or another and maybe this dumb idea will go ahead.


(Oh yeah. Hope the people watching the midnight screening of Harry Potter right now are enjoying it.)

Persona and The Tree of Life

I think like most people, my holidays have not been too interesting. However, I've watched some pretty cool movies lately. I watched Persona, a pretty old movie I watched at home and I saw The Tree of Life, which I actually had to go out to the cinemas to see.

Persona was a very perplexing movie. It's basically about a nurse who looks after a woman who refuses to speak even though she is perfectly healthy and sane. I don't remember feeling so confused watching a movie since David Bowman transformed into a giant glowing baby in 2001. Partly I was surprised because I've seen several of Bergmann's other films and they were very different to this. Usually his style is quite straightforward, such as in The Seventh Seal where to visualise a man contemplating the nature of death, he actually shows him playing chess with the Grim Reaper. This movie is much more mystifying and it is often difficult to see what's real and what isn't. Bergmann likes to play around with the audience and he does things like making the film look like its burning up or turning the camera around to show the film crew, like he's trying to say it doesn't matter because it's all a movie anyway.

The Tree of Life was probably just as non-sequitur and unconventional but I found it a lot easier to understand. It's about a family of three boys growing up in 1950s Texas though there are strange intermissions where he cuts to epic scenes that highlight the miracle of life: the formation of galaxies, thermal activity in the Earth's initial formation, the evolution of life and dinosaurs. His goal is to make a connection between our everyday lives and the terrifying grandness of the universe. I read a lot about this film before I watched it and I was kind of skeptical how you could alternate between these two plot threads without ruining the flow of the movie but it works because they're united in tone and atmosphere. Despite asking all kinds of big questions, it's a pretty emotional film.





EDIT: I'm gonna watch Spirited Away next so I'll probably write something about that next time.

Regular Update

I really feel like posting a lot now even though there are fewer people than ever who read this because of exams.

Recently I've noticed how my movie watching habits have been sharply decreased over time. By that I mean there were really specific moments in my life which dramatically limited my ability to watch movies. Seriously, I think back in Year 9 when I first got broadband and just got introduced to downloading movies I think I watched about every single release for that year plus old movies. Now I can't even keep up with the latest ones. I still haven't seen Rango, Limitless, Paul, The Lincoln Lawyer, Sucker Punch, Source Code and Fast Five. Not too mention a lot of the recent releases that have come out.

Anyway back to movies I HAVE watched, which include Green Hornet (crap), Thor (good) and Adjustment Bureau (really good). It's really the last one I want to focus on because it has the most interesting premise since Minority Report. Basically it's about this guy who falls in love with a girl and vice versa but they're not actually meant to be together. How you may ask? (wow that sounded very douchey) Well there's this grand plan made by this dude and he has these guys all over the world who make sure that everything follows this plan. These guys have powers to help them to make things happen to ensure that everything stays in plan, like telepathically being able to move stuff, perceive your decisions and also change your mind. Seriously watch the movie, or if you don't have time read the first three (and only the first three) paragraphs of the wiki article.

Anyway, this movie really got me thinking if we actually have free will or do we only have the appearance of it. Like we can make decisions on the tiniest details like which pen to use or what clothes to wear but other decisions like your career are already predestined. Seriously there are times in my life where I look back and there were all these decisions that I made that brought me an oppurtunity or prevented me from doing something that I wanted. And plus all the decisions that everyone else has made around me. I wonder if there really are men in hats running around changing people's minds.

This sort of reminds me of the time after I watched the Truman Show and I got a bit paranoid that I was actually trapped in a TV show (btw that bit was actually supposed to be a surprise when the movie first came out) but then I realised that's stupid because if I were in a TV show they would never ever have me watch The Truman Show. Unless they're trying to be ironic. Hmm.... And I also realized that the Truman Syndrome is an actual mental illness and that I could be sent to a mental hospital if I kept my fantasy going. But maybe they just put that there to make me think that? DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!!!! And I also realized how incredibly narcissistic it is to assume that my life was interesting enough for it to be the subject of a TV show. So now I've stopped.

That is all.

The Truman Show

On Alex's advice, I watched the The Truman Show a few days ago. It's about a guy who doesn't know it at first, but later realises that he has lived his entire life in a reality TV show, which is streamed 24 hours around the world. Every person he has met is an actor playing a role and every place he has been to has been within a giant television studio. I found it an oddly emotional film which left quite an impression afterwards. It was very unsettling to see a person trapped in an artificial world, and there's always a feeling of something sinister hiding behind the film's appearance of a light comedy, especially in its first half.

I thought it was interesting that this film was originally written as a brooding sci-fi thriller kind of movie. Only after Peter Weir signed on, he decided to make the film a bit lighter and cast Jim Carrey in the main role. This was a pretty good idea because it gives a kind of surreal atmosphere to the film which patches up its otherwise incredulous plot. If the film took on a more serious tone then it would have been quite hard to believe or get stuck into.

It's hard to say what the movie is about. All at once it's a criticism of voyeuristic media, a questioning of reality and a story about escape. It's the last one that really made me like this movie. I can't quite explain why but I really felt for this Truman guy as he was constantly lied to and trapped.

Tennis

I've recently been watching Wimbledon until really late and I was really pissed off that the network decided to only show one Roger Federer match which I missed especially since I stayed up almost every other night to see if he was on.

Anyway, I was really sad when Federer lost in the quarter finals because I really thought that this year was his comeback year. It made me realize that even though I thought that his greatness would last forever, it really didn't and the game of tennis really isn't the same anymore. While watching the Wimbledon finals, I discovered how boring tennis is in comparison to when RF plays. Really Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were just hitting the ball as hard as they could at each other and seeing who could hit harder. Of course those two are actually good players, they have excellent court coverage for one, but somehow they lack the artistry with which Roger Federer plays with. For anyone who also watched the match, most of the time Djokovic tries to hit it to Rafa's backhand and Rafa tries to do the same. It was pretty boring. Obviously there were some really good points but every time that happened I always thought if Federer played, it would look a lot proer. In one of the points Rafa tries to do a backhand smash and it just turns into a really easy point for djokovic cos he smashes it back. It's not really an easy shot so good on him for trying. In another point Rafa tries to do a tweener but he seriously screws it up and it just ends up going nowhere. It was pretty funny because the ball went nowhere near the other side of the court, it just went off to the side and it was probably worth me wasting like 2.5 hours just to see that shot. Again, it's actually a ridiculously difficult shot to hit and kudos for trying but please just leave it to Federer next time. Watching that match made me realize how much I miss see Federer playing.

Also check out this match between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. The Pete Sampras guy is seriously pro, I think maybe even better than Federer cos he's actually really old in that video. I bet if he played now, he would still be in the top 10.

That is all.

A deep sentimental story about me pondering the philosophies of life

Ok, so this sort of story usually belongs to http://happinessequalsbracket.blogspot.com/ (for some reason I always think the stories are made up), but yeah this is a true story that happened to me while I was sitting in my car.

At the traffic lights I was looking out the window and saw this guy in a wheelchair and he looked about 40 or 50. Anyway, the street that we stopped at was really really steep like at a 20 degree angle, sort of like that street outside our school on the cross country route, the one next to the big public road? Forgot what it's called. Anyway the guy had to wheelchair himself up that hill and it looked really difficult because he didn't have any of those rails at the side of the wheels and the armrests really restricted the pushing movement. Basically it was one of those wheelchairs that are designed for a person to push you rather than you wheeling yourself. Anyway, halfway up the hill he gets really tired and tries to stop so that he can rest. Except he can't really hold tight enough on the wheels and he starts to slip and eventually he ends up at the bottom of the hill again. After a few seconds he just looks up at the hill and starts pushing again. I didn't see what happened next because the light when green but yeh, for a long while I thought "Wow, this guy can never walk again and can't even go up a hill and there are people out there (myself included) who complain about stuff like the HSC". Watching that man just looking at that hill and trying again really put things in perspective for me.

That is all.

What I do on the Internets

Quite a long while ago Alex told me that revealing embarassing entries in my Google search history would make for an interesting blog post. I thought this was a great idea but unfortunately I knew that I cleared my search history everyday to hide embarassing searches. However, when I googled a way to recover search data, I found this site.

It turns out that if you have a Google Account, then Google will keep a record of every search you have ever made. Privacy issues aside, this was pretty cool because it meant I could look at a list of every Google search I have made since Year 7. I spent about a very long time looking through the pages. It was kind of nostalgic, which is kind of sad.

There's also a feature which lets you see your most frequent search terms. Now, I would guess that a lot of people reading this probably have an image of me as a pretty untainted, innocent kinda guy. So that these people can continue holding this wholesome image of me, I have strategically blurred several terms on this list. The rest of you can fill the gaps with your imagination.

This isn't really an accurate representation of what I do on the internet. 'Kol wiki' is from some text-based game I was really into during Year 8. I don't look up Crysis 2 anymore since the game came out. 'Daily clicks' is for Neopets, which I have played intermittently over the years. 'Thesaurus' is to help me write my English essays (though I've kicked that habit now). And I don't really go on 4chan that much anymore.

The Top sites thing isnt really that accurate either since I only enabled it to start tracking a few weeks ago. I think the 'most visited' page on Chrome is a better representation. Right now it reads 'Facebook, Formspring, rogerebert.com, Youtube, Kongregate.

Really Really Bored

This is more of a stream of consciousness thing here so don't expect anything particularly interesting.

The only reason I'm writing this post is because I'm really really bored and I don't feel like doing any work but I still have to look like I'm doing work, so I remembered that I can post in this blog and that typing looks like doing work and so I'm doing this post. Everyone also seems to have formspring but I'm trying to resist the temptation of getting for some reason I don't even know. Maybe it's because I want to prove to myself that I'm not a conformist. But I have a feeling I'm going to get one soon even though there is absolutely no peer pressure for me to get one. Don't you hate it when people say "Countries like Africa"? Africa isn't a country!!! It's a continent!!!! So there can be no countries "like" Africa because Africa is not a country!!! Blair's 3U speech today was really good. Actually my class is full of excellent public speakers and I'm so glad the majority of them went today so that hopefully Ms Mayers will forget how good those guys were last week. But there are still some pretty good speakers left, in fact I think there's still a good majority of good speakers left, if not all of them are good. Great, now I sound like a suck up. To balance things out, I'll say that there is a really crappy speaker in my class. OK now I sound like a douche. Man I really hate the red squiggly lines under words which are supposed to be wrong but they really aren't, they're just proper nouns.

Oh, almost forgot, today was the happiest day of my life because I finally broke the 1000 point barrier in fruit ninja arcade mode!!!!!!!!! WHHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Damn it!!!! Another squiggly line. Anyway, high score of 1043. Check it out on Raymond's iPad. There's also a screenshot of it. As if iPad isn't a word! Stupid Alex got 1199.

I haven't watched any movies in quite a while and the only games I have played for the past few weeks are Bejeweled Blitz (EVERYBODY SHOULD PLAY THIS!!!!), Zuma Blitz and Fruit Ninja plus the odd random FaceBook game. You guys should really check out Fruit Slasher. It's a really really really really really really really really really crappy version of Fruit Ninja.

My life seems to have lost a lot of purpose after Steve Carrell left The Office. I'm afraid to watch the episodes after because I think they might ruin the glorious Steve Carrell period I watched. Will Ferrell was so bad he almost ruined the farewell to Michael Scott. I don't even know why he was there. He isn't even a permanent character, he just showed up for the farewell. Or should I say the "Ferrell"? Haw haw haw. Oh man not these type jokes again.

That is all.

Stuff I did in the last two weeks

This exciting blog post will be about all the stuff I've done in the past two weeks. In roughly chronological order:

Shakespeare Festival
Was kind of fun. We were fully unprepared and were practising in the car on the way there. The people there didn't laugh at our jokes as much so it felt kind of awkward. They're still deciding whether or not to let us through to state because (of all things) we went over the time limit. Tim and Louie are hoping we don't get through because the State Festival is on the week before trials.

The festival was at William Clark College which is a pretty well to do private school. All the buildings looked so impressive that we went exploring out of the school. We tried to go into the library but the guy kicked us out because we looked super dodgy as a bunch of asian dudes wearing full black drama clothes. That was pretty awkward.

Exams
Were mostly okay. I found 4U maths really hard and I wasn't very confident about my Physics answers. I was severely lacking in motivation for this round of exams so I feel that I could have tried harder. (Except for English. I tried pretty hard for that because it's pulling me down.)

Minecraft!
I have been developing my floating rock island and it's looking pretty good now.

During my studious studying, I managed to build an okay looking house. I also tried to build a TNT cannon. In Minecraft, a TNT cannon is a structure that uses TNT to propel another block of TNT a very long distance before it blows up. It works because if TNT explodes while in water, it can propel objects but won't destroy blocks. But I kept stuffing up the design and the TNT didn't fall into the water. And when that happens it just destroys everything and you have to start again.

To add to my troubles, I kept falling off the floating platform. While a floating island looks cool and everything, it's pretty annoying to get back into if you fall off.

Watching X-Men: First Class
Okay this is actually the real reason I wrote this post. I watched X-Men with a whole bunch of other guys yesterday and afterwards Alex asked if I was going to write what I thought about it on my blog. So here is my attempt to write a serious review about this movie.

The movie shows the first meeting of Professer X and Magneto and the events that surrounded the revelation of mutants to human society. It's centered around the Cold War, in particular the events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Putting everything in a historical context allows for a more complex plot and gives a bit more weight to the action. It makes the movie look more serious than say, X-Men 3 or Thor.

But the effectiveness of the movie is lost to its plot. It weaves around all its characters without finding some kind of focus. The movie should have focused more on Charles and Erik rather than spending so much time going through the other mutants. I suspect that comic-book fans wanting to see all their heroes was behind this decision.

In the end I found the movie to be alright. It is quite well paced and some of the performances are quite charming. The final act plays out nicely. But it needed some kind of emotional edge which could have been brought by perhaps giving more insight into its characters.

Formspring

I've had a Formspring for a while now but I never shared it because I worried that noone would ask me questions. I also didn't know how to publicise my Formspring without looking like a wanker (seeing as I already use my MSN pm to publicise my blog).

Anyway, for various reasons all of that doesn't bother me so much anymore. So here's my Formspring:

http://www.formspring.me/vincentkong


(I will give answers as serious as I think the questions are.)

Movies

For our faithful readers out there expecting another deep and meaningful post, this is my return to our traditional topic of movies. So movies that I am currently really excited about are:

• Super 8 - some kids make a film and discover aliens I think. Not too sure because it doesn't actually say in the trailer but it's pretty obvious.
  
• X-Men: First Class - I really didn't like the X-Men origins movie and the Xmen 3 also seemed a bit lame but I hope that this new one is better with a decent director (this guy also directed Kick-Ass)
• Green Lantern - Not really too sure about how good this one will be but it seems kind of interesting
• Cars 2 - Even though the last one was my least favourite Pixar movie, I still think it's going to be good because it's Pixar.
  
• Transformers 3 - I think this going to be crap, but I still want to see robots fight each other. And that new chick.
• Cowboys and Aliens - just look at the title
• Crazy, Stupid Love - STEVE CARELL!!!!!
• Johnny English Reborn - I haven't seen Rowan Atkinson for so long
• Hugo Cabaret - New Martin Scorcese film
• The Adventures of Tin Tin

That is all.

woooooooooooooooooow

Throwing stuff out

As a child I was always a bit of a hoarder. I kept a weird collection of things I refused to throw away. It's hard to remember what I kept but it included baby teeth, broken toys and random crap that I thought would be useful someday. I kept it all in a stash in my room, ensuring it remained hidden from my very tidy mum.

It was a difficult habit to get out of. At first was the problem of realising what was worth keeping and what was rubbish. It took time to convince myself that empty batteries should just be thrown away. However, many things I kept I knew had no value. I realised I placed a lot of sentimental value on the silliest things. I became attached to clothes that I wore a lot and found myself extremely unwilling to throw them away when they became too old or useless. It made me really sad when I outgrew my pajamas and my mum cut them up and used them as rags.

I guess I anthropomorphise inanimate objects too much. Just yesterday I had to replace my worn out toothbrush. (I will take this opportunity to once again promote oral hygiene. Replace your toothbrush every three months, people!) As I threw it away, I felt bad about disposing this toothbrush which served me well for three months in such an unceremonious manner. Of course, I quickly realised how absurd my feelings were and that inspired me to write this.

I had a few ideas about why I found throwing stuff away so difficult. Perhaps I just feared the passing away of things. Even throwing away an empty pen or plastic bottle, it crosses my mind that I will never see it again. That really worried me. As a child, I was always aware about the transience of life. Even while holding my mum's hand, I imagined that her skin and flesh would one day be a pile of bones underground. Everything inevitably has to go and that was always hard to accept.

Well it seem that what started with a whimsical recount of my hoarding as a child has turned into me shooting the crap about the transience of life. I feel I must apologise for trying to be so d&m all the time for fear of seeming pretentious. But I realise that writing openly can make for more interesting reading. So I promise to stop apologising next time I do this. Thanks for reading.

[Edit: Just realised this is my 300th post. Hooray!]

Pointless Update

I don't know what to write about after writing so much last time I posted. So as the title indicates, this update was made for the sake of an update.

Firstly I want to say that the response to my last post was pretty cool. I was a little surprised that everyone had such strong opinions about religion. It was also very comforting when I saw that a lot of people empathised with my fear of eternity.

Anyway, recently I rewatched Cinema Paradiso because I liked it so much. The movie is quite sentimental but it pulls it off and ends up quite touching. In particular the first act of the movie is very entertaining because it depicts the protagonist as a child and he's really cute. Unfortunately he grows up about an hour into the movie. I also have to say that Ennio Morricone is my favourite movie music composer. He also did the score for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly which has the best movie soundtrack I've ever heard.

Here's the trailer, though I don't think its a particularly great representation of the movie.


And here's Ecstacy of Gold, by Ennio Morricone. (From The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)


And that's all I really have to say. Also, look at what I built on Minecraft!

I will concede the tower is a bit ugly but the floating island is pretty cool.

High School Inception

Wow. I haven't posted in a really really really long time and now my comeback seems completely insignificant compared to Vincent's. I might write my thoughts on religion someday but I don't think anyone really cares and some points are the same as Vincent's. Anyway this is what I wanted to post:



Now that's mind-boggling! (High School Musical 3 was released 2 years before Inception) Maybe Christopher Nolan thought "Man this hallway sequence is cool but it sure is pussy".

On a final note, Steve Carell left the Office which makes me really sad to see him go. I don't know if I'll continue to watch the Office now that he's gone so this may be the last -

Office Quote of the Day: Well, I guess this is it. Hey will you guys let me know if this ever airs? Thank you.

That is all.

My Religion

I haven't blogged for about a week now, which is quite a long time for me. So I thought I'd come back with a bang and write about the mother of all contentious issues. Religion is something I've wanted to write about for a long time. My heart is actually beating hard as I type this, which is something I can't say I've ever experienced while blogging before. So here goes.

There is no doubt that nothing stirs up more heated debate than religion. The nature of the subject naturally brings up all kinds of dogma that makes sensible discussion quite dificult. All I really hope to convey here are my own experiences with religion, how it has changed during my life and what I think of it now.

(Note: When I talk about religion, I almost exclusively mean Christianity. Simply because that is the only religion I've ever dealt with.)

For many years I considered myself a good Christian. I prayed every night, mostly to say thanks and to hope for self-improvement. In times of distress, I prayed for strength and for faith. I tried my best to behave in a way that upheld the ideals of Christ. However, I never regularly attended church. At first this bothered me because that was the proper Christian thing to do. Later I worried about it less because I believed that God would recognize my sincere faith in Christ regardless.

I rarely had trouble holding onto my faith. As a child, I had no problem in believing the story of Genesis and all the Old Testament events like the Flood and the parting of the Red Sea. Growing up, I started learning about things like Evolution and the Big Bang that disputed these stories. But that was never an issue for me. Like most sensible Christians I know of, I simply altered my interpretation of the Bible. The seven days of Creation became seven metaphorical days. Adam and Eve's banishment from Eden became an allegory rather than historical account. Most importantly though was that none of these things really impacted what I felt was the crux of Christianity- the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thinking back now, I was never really concerned with the validity of the Bible. I did not find it hard to believe that the Son of God walked the Earth two thousand years ago. I was more occupied with the ideologies and teachings of Christianity. I was confident that my faith was unshakeable and so I devoted myself only into being the best Christian I could.

So I was once Christian. As good a Christian I believe, as any. I may not have studied the Bible all that intensely but I felt I knew enough. More importantly, I had sincere faith in the sacrifice of Christ for humanity's sins, which is really what Christianity is all about.

Now, however I am an atheist. Not even an agnostic or anything. Completely atheist and maybe even a little nihilistic. Ironically, sometimes I see my departure from faith as my true 'second birth'. So let me explain how it happened.

About last year I found out that my dad didn't believe in evolution. It really set me off. I told a friend about how much it bothered me. He promptly replied that I was completely overreacting. Which I was. I always knew that there were Christians who denied evolution. As I explained earlier, I found a way to accept scientific facts without hurting my faith. My opinion on those who could not was that they may have been ignorant but they had a good relationship with God and that was the imporant thing.

But it's one thing to talk about ignorance and another to witness it first-hand. To see it in my dad was hurtful. I guess that's one of my vices. Ignorance just really gives me the shits. Experiencing it at such a personal level tied to religion was enough to make me question my faith.

My 'conversion', if you like from Christianity to atheism was certainly not solely dependant on this event. But I have to say that this was the first domino in a long chain reaction. In the months to follow, I went through a very long process in which I gradually, almost painfully, let go of my religion.

I find it difficult now to recount my thoughts during these months. They're hard to remember. Little arguments against Christianity flew in from all sorts of directions. I became acutely aware of the historical context of Christianity. It started two thousand years ago as a branch of Judaism which differentiated itself by the acceptance of Christ as Messiah. Somehow it managed to spread over all of Europe and became the major religion it is today. Realising that the Bible (at least the New Testament stuff on which Christianity is based) was written only two thousand years ago made it seem less authoritative in my mind. (In comparison, humans have been around for 200,000 years. And that's not even including neanderthals and stuff. Which raises the question, if animals aren't subject to Judgement after death, then at what stage of evolution did humans begin to be judged for their sins? I have heard that some religious leaders have released official statements about when they believe the human soul was 'evolved'. (Okay, I realise I'm being kind of smart-alecky here but I thought that was a pretty clever thing to ask.))

When I say that these little arguments came from all sorts of directions I really mean it. Even at school, we happened to be doing 'The Cosmic Engine' for Physics. I thought a lot about the incomprehensible scale of the universe and how insignificant human life, history and culture is compared to say, the lifetime of a star. It seems like a bit of characteristic vanity on the part of humans to propose that we were made in the image of the creator of the universe. Also particularly valuable during this tumultous period were the videos of this particular Youtube channel. Lots of strong arguments opposing religion there. Unfortunately, he comes off a bit smug and arrogrant at times (especially towards Christians, who seem to be his main target) but that seems to be a trait of most atheist campaigners. I think its rubbed off me a little too.

The thing to note about all these little arguments against religion (except maybe the Youtube guy) I accumulated were that they appealed to my emotions rather than my sense of reason. That's what really tipped me over. Any sensible Christian knows that reason has very little to do with religion. Faith is what really holds religious beliefs together. So when my emotions began to react against religion, there was no longer anything that tied me to it.

There was one final obstacle I had to overcome before I could let go of religion and that was fear. I feared eternity. Lying in bed at night, sometimes I think about how time is infinite. When I think about it hard enough, it gets really fucking scary. Time never ends. Does that mean everything exists for ever? Forever is a very scary word. Even as a Christian, I would think of eternal happiness in heaven and even that would unsettle me. Who wants eternal happiness? I don't want eternal anything. But time is infinite, so everything goes on forever whether you like it or not. Who can deal with such terrifying truths? This might not sound powerful now but thinking about it in the middle of the night, it drives me crazy. Fear of eternity has plagued me for a very long time. As a small child, I would end it by imagining the embrace of my mother. In adolescence, I took comfort in the hope of heaven, where the Bible explained that eternity was a good thing. For a while, I held onto religion solely because of this security it gave. I resolved I was too weak to be an atheist. My solution in the end was to avoid the question of eternity. I did so for at many months. Doing so, I was able to well and truly became an atheist and I finally ended my prayers to God every night.

Just last week, I thought about eternity again. As always, it drove me nuts. I sat up in bed and stared at the wall for a while. Then I went back to sleep. The fear of eternity that almost kept me religious reflects a comment made by Cardinal George Pell last year. He claimed that the lives of people without faith have 'nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss'. To this, one disgruntled newsreader replied, "It seems to me that the Cardinal is just upset that nobody wants his lollies."

As a final note, I would like to say that I am very content now in terms of all this metaphysical stuff and I cannot imagine myself returning to Christianity. My mind remains open, as always, but it has taken a long journey to reach where it is now. It would please me greatly if this post provoked some kind of discussion. There are other opinions I have on religion that I did not have time to touch on.

Well, that's all that I have time to write about religion. I'm a little tired now because I just spent almost two hours writing this (didn't even realise that time was passing). I would like to apologise to anybody who came to this blog and expected some movie/flash game recommendations. The truth is I haven't been getting much of either lately because of schoolwork/Minecraft.

Once

I watched Once yesterday and I really liked it. I heard about it a while ago because I some people in our grade performed Falling Slowly last year or something. I looked up the song on Youtube and really liked it and then I Wikied the film and saw that a lot of people like the movie too. But I forgot about it for until a few days ago I decided on a whim to download it. Probably the best decision I made all week.

Here's a music video for Falling Slowly using clips from the film:



I don't know what else to say except that if you liked this video, go watch the movie.

My House

This was a post I wrote last week but I didn't publish it because I thought it was kind of stupid. But I'm publishing it now because I haven't posted anything for about two weeks, which makes me feel bad. My life needs consistency.

I had the sudden inspiration today to write about my house.

Compared to its neighbouring houses, my house looks a bit big. That's because its a single storey house that's had a level added on top. So really its the size of two houses. Its a pretty nice place but there's a few things about it that occasionally piss me off.

If you look closely, there's lots of little bits of dodgy construction around the house. There's big cracks on the walls around our front lawn because the soil has either eroded or sunken. The light switch for the toilet is outside the door. The doors don't shut properly in extreme weather because the wood contracts/expands. Our house was built by a construction crew owned by a family friend, whose crew mostly consisted of untrained apprentices. However, I think just a little more common sense and thoughtfulness from the builders would have been enough to make our house better. The toilet in the en-suite is squished in a tiny corner between the wall and the sink despite the huge empty space in the middle and the presence of an enormous bathtub we have never ever used. If you saw it you'd laugh.

I think my dad put a lot of thought into this house. He designed its layout and everything (though he had to get some developer guy to look over it) so I feel a bit bad when I think critically of it. Because of this, I've tried to change the way I think about my house. While I frustratedly tried to slam the bathroom door shut this morning I thought that all the annoying little things in the house give it a bit of character. It still pisses me off that my face is pressed to the wall when I take a shit but I imagine that someday as an adult I'll get all sentimental and nostalgic thinking about this house and all its little quirks. It kind of embodies some of the qualities I see in my parents. It's quite noticeable, a little dodgy and kind of tacky. But in the end, its my home which is always a good thing.

Sarah Palin

I was looking at random Youtube videos today and it struck me again how ridiculous Sarah Palin is. She is unbelievably incompetent and it is amazing how she managed to even run for US Vice President in 2008.

Example of Sarah Palin being Sarah Palin:



The point of this post however, was not to point out how stupid Sarah Palin is but to share this hilarious video of Matt Damon voicing serious concerns about her in an interview.



And another opinion about her by John Cleese (former Monty Python member and the guy in Fawlty Towers). He nicely sums up her entire political career about 3 seconds into the video.

Some flash games

There are some seriously good flash games on Kongregate right now.

Elephant Quest
From the people who made 'Achievement Unlocked' and 'This is the Only Level'. Both really great flash games, though this one is even better.

Upgrade Complete 2
Like Upgrade Complete 1, but with more upgrades. Pretty cool.

Minecraft

Minecraft is ruining my life. I can't sleep properly because I keep thinking about it. I had a dream about Minecraft last night. It's 1AM right now because I stayed up playing Minecraft, even though I was planning on doing something else tonight. On the plus side, my cavehouse is now amazingly cool. I spent the past hour channeling water from the nearby lake into little pools in my cave so I could grow sugar cane and wheat. Amazing. I also built a secret underwater entrance to my house, which was pretty cool as well.

I only started playing Minecraft on Thursday, so I managed to do some other things before that. In no particular order I watched:
- Where the Wild Things Are
- The Social Network
- Black Swan
- American History X

I thought these were all great movies and it'd be difficult for me to say straight off which one I liked the most. I'd recommend Where the Wild Things Are the most out of all of them because I'm guessing most people have seen the second and third movies and American History X is already on the imdb 250.

Also, I rewatched Vertigo and Citizen Kane (mostly because people talking about it on Facebook made me feel like watching it). I had an audio commentary by Roger Ebert on Citizen Kane that I was going to watch but I got pretty bored halfway. If anyone's doing it for English though, I'd say it's one of the most useful resources you could get on the movie.

I also read Maus, which I borrowed from our school library. I mention this a lot, but I have to mention it again: our school has an amazing graphic novel collection.

The Dictionary

Lately, I've been finding the dictionary a very interesting and informative experience. So was Fruit Ninja with the Fruit Facts. But back to dictionaries.

I think dictionaries are probably underrated as books because people find them boring. False. There are many endlessly fascinating words which can be found within the confines of the dictionary. I think what people lack is a really comprehensive dictionary. The "My First Dictionary for Children" isn't going to cut it. I use the Concise Oxford Dictionary and it's really fun just to flick to a random page and look for an overwhelmingly complex word and find out its meaning and then use it in a sentence so that you look and sound like a genius.
Example: "Walter is nuciverous" which really just means "Walter is nut-eating". But it sounds so much better. Also, "Walter is non-nuciferous", which means "Walter is non-nut bearing".
There are also many archaic insults in the dictionary which can be used to confound your verbal opponents e.g. "You're such a ninny" with ninny meaning a foolish or simple-minded person.

Here are some words which I would like to use in these sentences more often. Look them up for yourself (but please don't use dictionary.com, it is the destroyer of the procurement of words):

Wilson has prognathous.
Some people have very obscure sobriquets.
Meet at the top right socle of the library.
Please pass the fondant.
I admire the craquelure that is prevalent within Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

That is all.

Some movie trailers.

Decided to watch upcoming movie trailers for a while today. A lot of them looked pretty crap but here's a few I thought seemed promising.

Gary Moore - The Loner (guitar cover)

Here's some more guitar recordings that Edwin sent me. He hasn't bothered filming himself while playing so these are audio only.

First, a cover of Gary Moore - The Loner



And an impro recording with no real name.



Also, I was looking through my album of images that I save so I can upload onto this blog and I found this:

I must have forgotten to upload it.