Wednesday, January 2, 2013

New Years Resolution 2013

My experience in Social Marketing (which has been my job for a 2 months now) has thought me the power of blogging. I realize that I really did write stuff out for this blog. Not sure if anyone still follows it, but I think I might just continue updating it from time to time. 

This last 6 months hasn't been nice on me (frankly I haven't been nice for more than a year). After graduation, the uncertainly, having no family around, and not knowing my direction really took a toll on me. Working for an evil corporate bank didn't help.

Anyway, here are my New Years Resolutions. First year I actually made some:

1) I will cook at least 3 meals in a week.

I've been eating crap outside lately. Since moving back to Malaysia and staying in PJ/KL. Hawker food here sucks and is overpriced, making me go to fast food places more than I should. Will change when I move back to Penang.

2) I will work out at least 2 times a week, no matter how my back is. (FYI, it has been injured for a long time, preventing me from doing activities I love)

My injury actually feels better in a year, but whether or not it is, I will work out. (Although I doubt it will be much of a problem if it's healed.

3)  I will go on a date.

The dating scene as a fresh out of university person is intimidating. I feel like I've just entered high school again. Gonna push myself out there and ask a cute girl out.

4) I will travel to a country in South East Asia (East Malaysia counts)

Time to start doing things I wanna do. Always wanted to go around here. Should at least go on 1 trip this year

5) I will do well in my new job.
No more job hopping. Science is what my interest is and it will never change. Will see how things go once I start it next month.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Things I hate about Martial Art films

I'm a great fan of martial art films. Ip Man, Ong Bak, Fearless (Hua Yuan Jia) or anything that shows beautiful, impressive, real moves stirs up something inside me. Makes me feel how cool it is that the human body can do all these amazing stuff. Guess that's why I became a traceur, but that's not the point of this post.

This post is about some of the cliches and stereotypes in recent MA films that I hate. I feel there is a trend recently in MA films that shows a lack of creativity, a horrible overuse of certain themes and many stereotypes. I want to note that I fully understand that the main focus of a MA flick is the action, and I'm fine with that, it's when they mess it up the other parts so bad that it distracts you from the action that pisses me off. In no particular order, the following are things I hate about recent MA films.

1. Overly nationalistic themes. I know that traditionally MA films have always have nationalistic themes in them. Since Bruce Lee beat up a bunch of Japanese guys and Wong Fei Hung beating the shit out of horribly generic white people, MA films have been showing Chinese people beating up everyone else since they exist. The problem is, every recent MA flick seems to be about how much better kung fu is compared to karate, jiujutsu, boxing, fencing, krav manga, ninjutsu, tae kwon do, muay thai, and everything in between. Every time, the chinese are being exploited by some foreign fuckheads and are generally helpless until our hero comes along and beats up everyone. It's getting old, seriously, I'm sure you guys can think up of some other storyline where one guy beats up another.

2. Unrealistic portrayal of training, I understand this can't be help in a way, but I still feel like mentioning it. People don't get good at beating other people up by doing the horse stance 12 hours a day, they get good at it by training how to beat people up. Nevertheless, I guess it is necessary to maintain the mysticalness of kung fu to non-practitioners of the physical arts.

3. "Flower vase" female characters. You know, girls are people too, and they generally contribute a lot to society, it'd be nice if the females are marginally useful instead of whining a lot then getting rescued. You don't have to know kung fu to have a strong personality or admirable qualities, and no, not wanting your husband to continue fighting does not fucking count. You cunt. I think what annoys me more is those females that know kung fu, but always end up needing to be rescued, and not in the way a strong guy character needs to get rescued, but in a oh no I'm useless but I try too hard kinda way, with half a boob hanging out. Seriously, when have you seen a female character dishing out some punishment against non-drone enemies?

4. Overuse of wires. I hate wire-fu. I understand it's an art and it enhances a lot of action scenes to make them more dramatic or over the top, but recently it seems like wire-fu is being used to replace actual good martial art choreography. Every scene you look some guy is floating somewhere. I guess liberal usage of wires are okay in wu xia films, where everyone sort of has superpowers anyways, but in more realistic MA films where people rely on punches and kicks rather then flying needles or giant hammers really needs to maintain a certain level of realism. Also (although maybe this is the traceur in me speaking), I'd prefer to see stuntman/MA artist taking realistic drops and rolls, or really jumping on balance beams and such rather then "floating" there. It looks much more authentic and real, just watch any good Parkour video and you'll know what I mean.

5. Overdone dramatic effects. A good emotional scene is a thing of beauty. It draws the viewers in without making them feel like the whole thing is fake. It makes you relate to the character and feel the pain he/she is feeling. Recently, however, it feels like MA film directors are using cheap emotional reels like little girls dying (and coming back to life to speak a few dramatic words) before REALLY dying or family getting slaughtered.. etc etc. I suppose these are all fine if done correctly, but often the poor execution makes the scene feel silly and overdone, and in the worst case, laughable. Just watch the new movie shaolin (2011) and you'll know what I mean.

6. Special effects. Original brilliant camera work and choreography was what made Hong Kong cinema famous in the first place, and now, more and more movies are going the Hollywood approach and putting in many special effects instead of relying on good stunts and camera work. Even worse, the special effects aren't even well done! In most cases you can easily tell what is CGI, they obviously aren't as good as the people in Hollywood at doing these stuff. Please, just film real martial artist in well choreographed scenes, and everyone will love it, I promise!

Well, that's all I can think of for now. There are probably more things that I hate about them, I suppose I may write them down in the future (or not). I just pray that in the future more brilliant films are produced rather then horrible generic cash-cow films with too much special effects and a famous cast that don't even know martial arts.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Comparisons

You know what annoys me? Malaysians who come to the United States of America and make sweeping (often negative) comments about Malaysia that don't make much sense.

After coming to the states, suddenly Malaysians are uncivilized fucktards who spits out of their car windows, pee on the street, rob you when you go out at night, steal your stuff whenever they get the chance, laugh at you when you fall down, don't follow the rules and road rage every time there is a minor traffic misunderstanding.

Fuck you for your arrogance, fuck you for being a hypocrite, and fuck you for being a disloyal jerk.


Now, am I some crazy patriotic dude? Not that much. The thing is, the comments these people make does not only pertain to the government as well, but very often to Malaysians themselves. Not only that, they somehow got into the belief that everything in the developed world is vastly superior compared to everything back home.

There is no denying that stuff like facilities, laws, corruption, etc etc that are far superior to anything back home. I don't deny that. I know very well the problems of a developing country, I know how inefficient some things can be, how sometimes attitudes can be very negative.

What annoys me is that these people don't make fair comparisons at all, and very often mock/berate the culture/people/environment back home, when what is in front of them is no better. Examples? I was in a car with a bunch of people and there were signs saying construction is going on. There was a slight jam soon after in the otherwise smooth traffic, so obviously there was a temporary block, when someone said :" If we were back in Malaysia, some people would be out there looking for a fight/swearing." That is a fucking retarded statement to make. If anything Malaysians are more passive then these ang mohs over here, and road rage is pretty common in a lot of places.

Another one I frequently hear is how safe it is here compared to back home. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight, you think walking at night in Subang Jaya is bad? Try taking a midnight walk around downtown LA. Or Boston, or the hundred other places with high crime rate around here.

Another similar and really really annoying thing is making statements like:
*right after i jaywalk*
"This is not Malaysia, you can't do that, you gotta follow the rules here."
Then you see an ang moh jaywalk right after you do.

Just for the record, I've also seen ang mohs (or to be fair, people from here):
i) dump whipped cream from a starbucks frapuccino on the road from the window of a car
ii) spit on the side walk

Not to mention anyone in the states has probably encountered one of more homeless guys then might or might not be smelly/eccentric/stands too close to you.

The worst thing is, the mentioned people above, most of them KNOW all this crap I just said about the states, yet for some reason, they refuse to acknowledge it and continue to make retarded comments about the people at home. They can effective say how bad crime is nowadays when watching the news about a robbery here, and conveniently ignore this fact and say how "dangerous" it is back in Malaysia in another conversation 10 minutes later.

God, people are fucking annoying.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Spring~

Although the winter cold was kinda bad, spring is actually really nice. One thing you gotta learn from the gwai lou, you gotta appreciate good weather :)

On another note, Spring Break is also near, and I'm looking forward to going back to meet my mum and sis in California and juts chill out. (Also get some decent Asian food, my capacity for fries has just about reached it's limit.)

Also, in my unwavering determination to have a productive summer I am once again applying for a job. This time it's one in limnology (fresh water biology stuff), If I get it I should be hanging out at a research station beside a lake, going out to collect samples and stuff like that.

Fingers are crossing :x

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

U.S.A

So.. I just randomly decided to update my blog again! Good news for those that actually read what I write, all 2 of you! *Wonders if there is even two people.*

Anyways, your favorite blogger is currently studying in University of Wisconsin-Madison! How time flies. One moment you're in Malaysia waking up to teh tarik and the next you have to wear at least 3 layers of thick clothing to make sure you don't freeze to death.

Fortunately, the weather is actually already getting warmer as I am writing this. It's actually above 0 Celcius now (ZOMG!) I actually went skiing the other day. Was really fun, thinking of getting a season pass next year so I can go all the time :)

As for studies.. Personally I don't find it harder here then in Malaysia. In Malaysia, the lecturers always say what a big deal it is that they don't "spoon feed" you in America, blah blah blah, but what that really means is that you just have to take notes in class. The exams are IMO, easier, BUT the grade requirements are higher, requiring 90+ for an A. So I find it about the same I guess, with an extra emphasis on homeworks (which I hate) taking up a big portion of the grade.

So anyways, will update again when I want to. Which could be like 2 years for now. byes