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Terminator salvation
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Terminator fucking salvation. Thought I'd start my entry with some cussing, it normally implies some sort of angsty-ness associated with passion or some other emotion. But really, I've been looking forward to this movie for the past couple of months especially since watching terminator the sarah connor chronicles. See I spend the weekend on the internet watching TTSCC and after having my mind blown away by it, i get online monday in a TV marathon induced hazed to find out when I can continue my addiction only to find that fox announces on monday that it's discontinuing it's contract for TTSCC. Like what the fuck, of all the bad timing coincidences, the day after I finish? But I digress, this was about terminator salvation, not the fuck awesome TTSCC which got prematurely shut down due to a bunch of cock suckers.
So terminator, where was I. Ohyes, since I've a simple mind, I'll break it up into, good and bad :-
Good
- The action was good. Especially as a big nerd to see all those flying things and giant robots.
- The effects. But I might be coloured by my nerdiness. See above
- The idea of the story, not the actual plot and how it played out.
- CG ARRRNIEEEE ! Except I think this model is a tad bit tall.
- Sam worthington's portrayal
Bad
- The writing was pretty bad, which I'll get to in a minute.
You'd think with just 1 bad point, this'll be a winner, but it's not , not really. The dialogue was kind of weak at certain points, with a lot of pseudo philosphizing. Some parts where quite cheesy, toward the end as well. My first opinion when i started watching was the opening sequence in death row was a unnecessary , especially that part with cyberdyne logo at the top of the release form, like it was trying to set an ominious tone but in a very obvious manner.. The one other bit I'd change was how it started with an explanation of what skynet is and what was going on. Would probably have been better as a cleverly worded monologue from john connor as resistance leader indicating his role as the voice of the resistance and also to give a little backplot to the audience who are new to the series. Now I'm going out on a limb here, but i was hoping that John connor dies at the end of the movie. That and how marcus takes up his role and identity as john connor and as voice of the resistance. The beauty would be there'd be little continuity issues.
About the problems with time travel. :-D and this will get plenty nerdy.
If john is exist, this means that kyle reese goes back in time to hook up with his mom , which implies that john will survive to be the eventual leader of the resistance and john wouldnt be sending back jailbait. What this means is, that whatever apparent danger john is in, we know it will unfold for the best, because his existance proves he will live long enough to send kyle back. So whatever happens, John must do as it's supposed to unfold. A bit of a predetermination issue. OR the alternative is :-
The terminator's know that killing kyle will have no effect on the current time line, which why he was put in a posh jail cell to lure John in instead of being killed. In effect the war can only be won here and now. Which would be strange because skynet KEEPS FUCKING SENDING MACHINES BACK IN TIME.
Lets say for example that kyle or john dies during this altercation, both will have the same outcome of john not being born. Which will mean that the outcome of the war as we know it is different as john will have taken no part in it. So all events leading up to the death of john or kyle in the altercation will probably(could still) not happen. Which implies that the which ever death it was, is unlikely to have happened to cause this current sequence of events.
Just a loop though, we know that john is the great leader of the resistance, causing strife for skynet and this and that. His survival in the past will lead mankind to where they are now. However, there is also the possiblity that john's death would have leader to an alternate yet positive outcome which we don't actually know about. In effect, mankind in the terminator series has locked itself in a potentional disastrous outcome.
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Death throes of our youth
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Lately , I've been speaking to people my age and found that a lot of people have one thing on their mind. Chili cheese fries! Delicious fucking chilly fries, fried to golden perfection, like a tan on jessica alba's body limber body, coated with warm sticky cheese, like desire made real. ACtually no, we've been talking about life, work and being trapped. Seems it's on the mind of a lot of people my age. We're all quite entrenched in our work life now and many of us have some long term commitments, be it a mortgage or a loved one. In a way we're trapped. We don't like what we do, but and we can't get out because of commitments. I'm atleast a step ahead. I don't like what i do, have no commitments, but I've no idea what else i can do. Or even what I want to do. Two things have been floating in my head lately but seeing as this is a piece of public space, i'll not post it down :).but anyway, maybe its a phase almost young people go throw before accepting their fate. That they'll be tied down and they just have to accept it.
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fighting in london
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london is awesome, its 8 in the morning and there was afight already. i mean who the fuck wakes up early enough to get into a fight. this two white boys kept trying to egg on a fight. like they didnt wnt to @lose face@ by walking away, but they didnt have the cajones to fight either? hehe stupid stupid boys! anyhow it was like a cowboy town and there was fighting in the middle of the street till the cops came. the black guy did kick some ass.
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My dads an illegal!
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Surely things have changed. My dad was relating a story to me about his birth certificate(he was born in 1942, i always forget) and he had to apply for citizenship in malaysia. See, it goes something like this, when my dad was born, my grand parents werent educated and the birth certificate was left empty. Which wasnt a big deal until my dad entered primary school and the teacher noticed it was empty and i believe tried to do my father a favour by filling it out. Later when my dad applies for an ID , they notice the birth certificate isn't entirely legit if you will. That and since he was born during the japanes occupation his birth date was in the japanese calendar(2000 something).SO there was my dad, malaysian by any means, but carrying a pink IC. The line of conversation started when my dad was telling me about his trouble buying tickets online with his new credit card. He was asked to fill out "mother maiden name" as a security measure, which won't be a big deal to most of us, by my dad is in his 60s and his mom died a 50 years ago.
Another story worth remembering. My uncle the colonel doesn't share the same surname as my dad. My uncles family name is ooi. My grandad asked my grandma to name my uncle the colonel at birth, and ooi in hainanese is yellow. So is wong in mandarin :).
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Advocating better online media distibution networks
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Shesh, here i was trying to write out a serious argument against online piracy and peer to peer networks and i realized i've since lost the ability to communicate coherently in a professional manner. SO i guess i'll revert to the way i normally speak with cussing and swearing and just being spastic in general.
Right, since this peer to peer thing started and i believe it did with napster as it's first(diskettes dont count) the big media corporations who owned the copyright to the songs went up in a fit. sure maybe at first they didn't care and thought it would dissapear in the wind like most fads, but with the large amount of people trading music , it's become clear this avenue can't be ignored. So like people who are trying to hold on to their livelyhood and how they did things, they reacted pretty much how you'd expect them to react when threatened. The fought back. Great lot of good that did as it just pushed the p2p networks underground and splintered them, made them a whole lot more efficient at trading music and by george this people can be quite creative. If you'll google TOR, you'll understand.
Now the people trading music had to justify themselves too. Clearly everyone wants a free lunch and online networks just made it so accessible , who could resist? That and the idea of digital distribution brought up a lot of questions bordering on the philosophical. For example , stealing a couch is wrong because it belongs to someone. But if someone created the idea of a couch and told you a bout it, both of you now had the idea of a couch so no one was at a lost. That's the normal argument for p2p networks. But what about the guy in ikea desiging the couch, slaving over his swedish design table to create that perfect couch? Shouldn't he be compensated?
By now, most of this is old news and there are a lot of examples of great places to download music that really have it nailed quite right. Apple and Amazon are the two that come to mind. However one of the things that bother me about music on your computer, is that it just feels so transient as modern electronics aren't really built to withstand a nuclear blast. So what happens to your music? Well , this is the part i think they got it wrong(but i cna kinda relate to why). Once media is sold, it's now your responsibility to back it up and keep it safe. I've read an argument about how a record shop wouldn't reimburse a cd if you broke it. But this is digital media we're talking about. Apple does keep track of what we've bought, so we've nailed down the part about appropriately paying the couch designer. The other half is the logistics and the cost of distribution. Since no raw materials are used, the idea of allowing me to download the track again should be quite valid. Sure there are bandwidth costs, but i reckon that could be offloaded back to the consumer at almost cost. Let's do some simple math :-
If a server costs 129 a month to send 2 terrabytes(http://www.serverbeach.com/servers/index.php?category=3) , and at close to 4.5mg a song average , we'll assume only 40,000 songs are sent(that's 1.8 terrabytes). That would mean each song would cost 0.0032 to download. Sure I'm sure there are other costs involved, but I'm also sure apple doesn't pay 129 per server a month :). I believe the consumer would gladly pay for the option to redownload their songs which could lead to another profit avenue for apple and amazon! profit!
Now back to my argument for these networks. Really as p2p gets bigger and badder, we're inundated by more shit floating on the networks. Not as many believe because of the riaa or mpaa intentionally flooding the networks with crap, but because of the quality being downloaded. I know when i download with apple or amazon, im going to get what i'm looking for. Not the remix some guy made in his basement or the one ripped from podcasts complete with advertising.
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English
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In KL , my biggest gripe was that I only spoke english and that I'd often encounter service staff or people in general that I couldn't communicate with. Though it does bother me that I'm unable to communicate with another human being, i just accept it as such. Being in the UK is weird and very different however. I know these people are speaking english, i just don't have the faintest what the fuck they're talking about. In kl there was a clear dichotomy where you either spoke and i understood you clearly or you didn't. Now I'm bombarded with the various shades of the english accent, some straight out of a farm, some that would make Sean connery proud and others right proper.
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Nodding my head
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I saw a man on the train today, nodding his head rather consistently and rather involuntarily. Probably a manifestation of a psychological issue. Short, uncontrolled twitching throughout most of the train ride. He was in his late 40s. I felt bad because when I should be empathetic , the only thought that came through my mind was to stand up and shout "fengtau ! fengtau! fengtau fengtau fengtau!"
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I don't miss kl
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I've been here a good month or so now and I don't miss kl. I don't miss the familiar city streets. I don't miss my regular saturday dim sum restaurant. I don't even miss sid's pub. I do miss my friends, the people close to me and the familiar faces that put a smile on my face. I miss having drinks with them, joking over the most inane things. I miss knowing I can walk out of my seat to walk off and talk to someone when I'm bored. I miss being able to pick up a phone and know I can call a friend out. Sure, I'll make new friends but I'll cherish the bonds I left behind.
Speaking to a friend about missing home, I wondered if being able to go back every couple of months would help. Saving a little cash to fly back once or twice a year. It would be great, but it be the same as clinging on to something. Just because I miss it doesn't mean it won't be thjere when I get back, and holding on to KL detracts from why I came here. To see the new, to explore, to travel and to find myself. I guess for me to take a step forward I've got to let go and remember all is not lost, that things are where you left them. Don't be afraid Sow, go.
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Still hasn't entirely sunk in that im leaving
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It all just feels so surrreal. like im being washed over with this feeling that i cant describe. it's not entirely sadness and it's not a feeling of elation for leaving. simply put, i feel confused, a little unsure of what to do. Like i can't believe that it's happening and all i feel like doing is waiting for time to pass until it happens. I wouldnt want to compare it to being on deathrow, but in a sense i'm just waiting for time to come
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clocked in a good 11 hours
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i spent most of the day at sids pub taman tun. mostly to meet some friends before i left and stuff whjich was cool. ill miss a lot of people. :~(
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