Sunday, November 27, 2005

Bonhamie, blithe, ebullient, effusive, insouciant.

This week, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, the wise old Karate sensei of Karate Kid fame has passed on. Karate Kid was one of the first movies I watched while growing up, and in a way, has inculcated a sense of honour and respect in me towards treating others and towards life. It was one of the first movies that made me feel mortal, the fear of death, at the old age of 5.

To my first martial arts and life teacher, I bid you farewell and to have the afterlife you seek and deserve.

I had a fascinating week, not that you should care, but I am writing, so that gives me the right to write (pun unintended) whatever I want to write.

SPM this week starred two subjects:

Uh... Hold on while I check (flipping through black folder)-

Pendidikan Moral (Moral Education) - The fact that I had to actually open my bag to recall this subject should be enough to explain my feelings towards the subject. That said, it marvels me to no end how my mind can turn innocent moral phrases and definitions into twisted sadistic animated shorts (think Futurerama). Everything became surprisingly easier to memorise once I did that. The key is to not inhibit the threads your mind will take. C

Additional Mathematics - Calculus, statistics, and everything in between. I loath this subject. But I still consider loathing better than apathy. It was horrible, terrible, vegetable... Whoops! Sorry, reverted into Manglish there. Having passed this paper only once in 7 attempts, I had extremely low hopes for this paper. In fact, My friends who hung around me before taking the paper actually became worried about taking the paper because of my reputation of, as they put it: "he's never worried." Anyway, the paper went relatively okay, and humans will still slaughter one another even if I fail the paper. C

Note: Words in colour are my expected grades.

Next week, I will slay a dragon and eat its entrails.

P.S. Those who own a driving license and have a huge amount of money to blow on a new car may want to check this out.

Live Long & Prosper,
May The Force Be With You,
Be At Peace With Death.

In Memory of Noriyuki "Pat" Morita,
The greatest on-screen American Karate Sensei.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Finally! Me and my buddies, acquaintances, enemies and other fifth formers have reached the halfway line of our very important high school exam.

The verdict:
  • Chinese - Easily one of my worst subjects. How did I come to that conclusion? I only passed once in the last two years. SPM Chinese was slightly easier, but I'd be contented with a pass. C
  • Malay - Easy and hard at the same time. Easy, because I could answer almost all the questions immediately. Hard, because I had to write a lot of stuff. In fact, this is the first time I didn't have extra time to check my answers for Malay exams. A few of my friends didn't even manage to finish some of the questions. B
  • Sejarah - Disastrous second paper (essays). Other than that, pretty much average (meaning passable). C
  • English - My favourite. Ludicrously easy papers (at least for me). Whipped through both papers with a combined leftover time of two-and-a-half hours, leaving me enough time to think of stuff I wouldn't dare write for my essays! A
  • Modern Mathematics - Easy, with a few (very few) hard questions. A
  • Physics - My weakest of the three science subjects forced upon me. I was expecting the worst when I took my seat for the first of three papers, having failed every time I took the test this year, and almost laughed out loud. The paper was insanely easy. How easy? I could have answered (almost) every question correctly without any revision. It was so easy, it's actually harder trying to fail! B
Note: Words in colour are my expected grades.

That's all for this week and last week. More updates next week.

For now, I can only look forward to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when I finish my exams.

Live Long & Prosper,
May The Force Be With You,
Be At Peace With Death.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

This week, the most important high school examination of my teenage years will take place... And I don't give a damn, well, not a lot.

Yes, folks, the SPM (Sijil Pengajian Tinggi) is right around the corner and I-DON'T-CARE.

The reason for my general apathy towards the whole thing is the fact that whatever happens in this test, not to mention the immense difficulty I have to go through to actually FAIL IT, I'll still move on to Form 6 next year.

So there, end of story, goodbye.

This week, I had the pleasure of watching two modern Malaysian made movies that were ACTUALLY GOOD!

Sepet: Excellent movie about love between two individuals with different skin tones (a particularly touchy subject here in Malaysia). Ahh... Watching this movie reminds me of the time when my primary school teacher reminded us NOT to marry Malays.

Quick Recap: Anyone who marries a Malay in this country MUST WITHOUT EXCEPTION, convert to Islam.

Back to the movie - I must say the director managed to somehow broach the subject very effectively without directly confronting overzealous government officials and censors. It did it in such a way, that if any aspersions from any official will result in political suicide.

Must watch for all Malaysians and the global audience at large.

Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam: Tired of Hollywood slashers or Hollywood remakes of Japanese horror or East Asian horror? Try something South-East Asian for a change.

This movie is based on an unfortunately all-too-real supernatural entity known in Malaysian folklore as the 'pontianak'. The closest thing to it in the West is the vampire.

But not close at all in my opinion.

A pontianak is born from a still born child, women who die while giving birth, and women who were killed by the pontianak or their spirits captured by them.

More info regarding pontianaks, who, believe me, are scarier than anything Dracula can throw out, can be found here.

Back to the movie - This movie is reminiscent of Dark Water (Japanese Version) where we actually empathise and even sympathize with the (somewhat murderous) specter. The scenes switch between the past and present fluidly and the acting here is excellent. My only gripe, and this is a tiny gripe, is that some of the CGI effects look fake.

But it's scary, believe me. It was so scary, I believe any male of the human race shown this movie will NEVER EVER lay a hand on women.

Definitely more effective than all periods of Moral Education in a lifetime.

Only for those who wish to learn more about Malaysian culture, want a good scare, and people who abuse their wives.

And that's all for Deepavali and Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Next post might or might not come next week, depending on (ahem... SPM) circumstances.

Oh, by the way, China make a clean sweep at the Hong Kong Badminton Open. - No comment.