A few weeks ago, my three-year-old niece’s play school teacher told her that Iman is her star student. Iman was so proud of it that she looks forward to going to her school every weekend.
But today, Iman told her mommy that she doesn’t want to be a star student anymore. My sister was surprised but Iman explained: "I want to be a ‘moon’ student now!" (",)
I was going through my friends’ list just now and as I went through several of my schoolmates’ pages, it just occurred to me that I have not been keeping in touch with any of them for a long, long time. The last time I met some of them was last year, during Dewi’s wedding. Now, a year has elapsed and I have not met any of them lately. Some has actually gone overseas, some has started working, some has very serious boyfriends (whom I hope, will turn out to be their husbands… huhu), some are still in school, some are doing their Master’s degrees and everyone with their own agendas.
Wow. How time has flown.
It is kinda sad, you know, to see that you’re no longer a part of this group of people whom you have grown up with. I went to school with many of them for 11 years! But after SPM, as they left, many of them to do their matriculation studies in colleges all around Malaysia and some to study in Form 6, I went to IIUM, the only one among my close friends to study there. They did at first ask me to go out with them: reunions or just hanging out, but I was always too busy with too many things to make time. Plus, it was only in my 2nd year (I think) that IIUM changed our academic calendar to follow that of other public universities. Otherwise, each time I was on a break, the others were back at campus, busy wrecking their brains and vice versa. And so, after a while, they gave up. Huhu. No one to blame but me huh?
Of course there’s the occasional smses, usually on birthdays and festivals, like Aidilfitri and Christmases, and the casual messages and emails on Friendster. But that’s how far I actually went. My bad. I should have put more effort!
And so, my dear friends… Tiah, Dewi, Mimi, Naba, Munira, Mai, Jia Yin, Wei Ni, Xin Yi, Zeti, Ajak, Siew Kheng, May Chern, Deepa, Darshini, Shanti, Nisha, Oy Ling, Poh Kit, Swee Ping, Maria, Mas, Farihah, Dianelly, Khalidah, Shaz, Zealda and the others whom I might have forgotten to mention here, especially 5 Rubi 2001 and SMK Convent Kajang Class of 2001, I’d love to hear from you guys. I know just how busy you guys are, but I’d be great to hear from you lots. Coz in truth, I really miss you guys! Perhaps we will all be able to meet again one day huh? Does any of you here have the energy (and time, mind you) to organize a reunion? Huhu.
And to my friends in IIUM: I MISS YOU TOO! I hope to see you guys during our convocation, this August, to celebrate our victory after finishing 5 long years there. And please, I may be bad in keeping in touch, but I hope you guys will be able to just include me in your list of persons to see! Haha.
It was worth it.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is worth waking up at 5.20 in the morning. It is worth facing my mother that morning who said "Kalau la bangun awal untuk qiyamullail, mesti sekarang dah confirm masuk syurga" (Ouch!). It is worth waiting outside Tesco for an hour at an otherwise quite ungodly hour. It is worth the ugly argument I had with Anas when he confiscated the book because I had refused to do anything else except read the book last Saturday (Anas forgot that I also bought another copy for Xole so I managed to continue reading even after he hid the book. Haha.).
I have just finished the book. I could have finished it much earlier but I stalled a lot of times. Sometimes, in the middle of a chapter, I would stop reading because so many things are going on in that chapter that I had to allow my brain (and my soul) accept what is going on. Rowling had definitely out-do herself, living up to the hype and excitement Harry had caused when the first book came out.
Okay peeps… to those of you who have yet to read or finish the book, I advise you to stop reading here if you don’t want me to spoil the surprise for you. Don’t tell me I haven’t warned you!
Out of all the seven books, my favourite will always be ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’, mainly because I love both Remus Lupin and Sirius Black and they were both introduced for the first time in that book. I think they both are two cool characters. Sadly, Rowling had to go kill them both! While Sirius’ death had been unexpected, Remus’ is more tragic. He had just gotten married and had a baby! Plus, Rowling even decided to kill off his wife, Tonks, leaving the baby, Teddy Lupin, orphaned. How cruel can that be?? But as one of my friends said, their deaths are too typical. "Macam Harry’s parents jek," she said and I can’t help but agree.
Which brings us to the problem of the book.
While the beginning had been gripping, I thought the ending had been a little too expected, too plain. In the beginning, when the members of the Order of the Phoenix (which, for me is the coolest organization - I wouldn’t mind joining them!) gather to escort Harry away from his uncle’s house and they are attacked by the Death Eaters, I swear my heart was pumping hard against my ribs. The attack was wonderfully described by Rowling and I found myself praying for their survival and everyone, except Moody, survives. As the story progresses, as more fights follows - at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, the Malfoy’s manor, Gringotts and the last Battle of Hogwarts - the story just got better and better. But it stopped there.
As the book come to an end, as more questions that had been burning fans’ heads for the past two years were given the answers, I couldn’t help notice that Rowling had actually ran out of ideas at that point. I expected startling revelations yet I was presented with unflattering solutions. I was browsing through a Harry Potter fan page and one of the fans gave a comment on the book: "The ending is like a badly written fan fiction,". I couldn’t help but agree. Snape’s actual intention, Dumbledore’s supposed death, even Voldemort’s fall and Harry’s future - many die-hard fans had guessed it. Rowling usually had the power to startle readers at the end of her books but this time, I think she has failed.
However, despite that minor flaw, the book itself is brilliant - a great story line mixed with love, friendship, humour, anger, hatred and sadness. It shows that even the greatest human being can’t be without flaws, that love and victory can’t come without sacrifice like death and letting go, and that even in the worst of people (in the case of Snape and Pettigrew), there is even a slight feeling of remorse, regret and even love. It portrays courage at its best and fighting for what we believe in no matter the odds. It discusses discrimination and prejudice every human being have towards each other especially to those who are different than who we are, those who carry different beliefs and ideologies. This is to say, this book (and all its predecessors) talk about life as a whole.
As an English language and literature graduate, I applaud Rowling for changing the course of literary history. Her writings have not only changed people’s perspective about literature itself, but has shown that so much can be achieved and said by a simple idea.
Aristotle once said that literature is much more important than history because while the latter merely explains to us what has happened in the past, literature explores the idea of what should happen. Rowling might have just proven him right.
Finally got the chance to catch the latest installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise with Fader, Memen, Xole, Ummi, Kim and Sara. Hmm… while some friends have warned me that being any big Potter fan like yours truly here who had watched the movie had been disappointed with it, I can’t say that about myself. I had no expectation towards the movie. I’ve never loved any of its’ predecessors and I knew that there’s no way that the movie franchise will be as colourful and imaginative as the books. I was right.
First of all… Harry Potter is getting a bit boring. I mean, the actor, Daniel Radcliffe’s portrayal of Harry is becoming too common. In the books, you can actually feel Harry’s suffering and pain. You actually experience the desperate longing that Harry feels for his parents’ love. You can actually understand why Harry so dearly loves his godfather, Sirius Black. You know how much he loves Ron and Hermione. Harry’s fear of Voldermort, his reluctance to be a hero and his desperation to be just another typical teenager. All these, Rowling had managed to beautifully set across but none is achieved through the movie. However, credits should be given to Radcliffe as anyone can see how hard he is trying to be Harry.
The movie is entitled ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ yet sadly, the significance of the Order of the Phoenix is not properly outlined and highlighted. Early in the movie, viewers are told that the Order is actually a group of people fighting against the Dark Lord in the first war and it is now resurrected to fight against Voldermort’s comeback. There’s no mention of exactly who the members of the Order are. There’s no mention of Emmeline Vance and Mundungus Fletcher. Mad-Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Arthur Weasley are clearly members of the Order but their functions in it remain unknown. In the book, the Order plays a huge part in Harry’s life, but in the flick, it’s as if the Order does nothing except to come at the climax of the story to save Harry and his friends from the Death Eaters.
The scenes where Snape teaches Harry the art of Occlumency is also disappointing. In the book, it is through the lessons that Harry finally understands why Snape loathes his father and his friends while in school. In the movie, that scene is only shown through the matter of seconds.
Fred and George Weasley are supposed to be more fun than what is shown in the movie. They are supposed to have played more pranks on Umbridge to drive her crazy and they are also supposed to be doing their brotherly activities: bugging Ron. But their role had been minimized completely in the movie. The last prank they played in the school (where they released several fireworks in the exam hall) should have signified something for both of them. Yet, none whatsoever is done in the movie.
On the bright sight, I’d like to commend some of the actors for their great performances. Choosing Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange is a very good move as the actress gave a great performance as the Death Eater. She is evil and scary: exactly the way Rowling had portrayed her in the book. As she laughs like a maniac after killing Sirius Black, chanting "I killed Sirius Black, I killed Sirius Black!", I actually felt a chill in my spine. Stellar performance for a very small character.
Evanna Lynch, who played Luna (Loony) Lovegood also gave a spectacular performance. She is weird yet you can’t help to love and sympathize her. PERFECT!
And yes, I love the scene where the members of the Order apparate just in time to save Harry and his friends from the Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries. It is simply amazing to see real-life magical duels. The effects are simply powerful.
I decided to give a 2.7 out of 5 stars for the movie. I don’t blame the director (David Yates) though. The fact that he managed to cut a 700 + pages of a book into a single 2 hour plus movie is already magical! Sadly, such magic comes with a cost.
I personally think that Rowling made an error in judgment. If I were her, I’d never had allowed my books to be made into movies. They kill off all the imagination and entertainment the books offer.
I now impatiently awaits 7.01 am tomorrow morning for the release of the final book… YEAH!
Nuri will be phased-out in 3 years
After such terrible tragedy… in fact, after 18 horrible accidents and around 35 lives lost, the government FINALLY decided to stop using the 40 to 50 year-old helicopters. Finally. Finally?? Not until the next three years it seems.
And meanwhile, thousands of our airforce men and women, will continue using the old, out-dated and dangerous choppers, risking their lives doing routine exercises. Without a doubt, all those who died in all the Nuri crashes are national heroes but wouldn’t you rather have these noble men and women die at the front instead?
So many lives, so easily wasted.
Perhaps this time, why don’t we make Nuri the official means of transportation to carry all our Ministers and Cabinet members (especially Najib) during all their official visits?
Now, doesn’t that sound like a good idea?
3 MORE DAYS!
I can’t wait to get my hands on that book. I told my mom I want to go to KLCC at 4 am this Saturday to get a chance of getting the limited editions of the book signed by JK Rowling herself. Mak said I’m being silly and laughed. Oh bugger! =(
But anyway, autograph or no autograph, I AM getting the book this Saturday, no matter what! And I hope I won’t end up crying my heart out while reading it just like Syima did while reading ‘The Half-Blood Prince’. Haha. Huda, Fida and I thought she had either just broken up with her boyfriend or received some devastating news somewhere. It turned out she just found out who dies in that book. Sorry, Syima! Hehe.
Harry Harry! Fight Harry fight!
I love Remus Lupin, Harry’s former teacher from Hogwarts who happened to be one of Harry’s dad’s best friends in school. He’s so nice, righteous, sweet, kind, smart, intelligent and above all, he’s a werewolf! How cool is that?? Haha. Now Nymphadora Tonks has him and by golly, am I jealous of her! =p
Saturday! Hurry up!
I used to think that even the meanest and cruelest people in the planet have a little good in themselves and that they can be good if they want to. They can change, they have hope to be better than who they are. I have such optimism in human kind. Heh.
We were all born sinless. We were pure and clean. Our upbringings shape who we turn out to be. And some people just turned out to be truly rotten.
I can’t say that I am free from any wrongdoings or ill feelings towards others. Boy, there are a lot of people I know that I’d like to get my hands on and give a spanking to. I’ve said and done things that I knew I shouldn’t have said but I just didn’t care. I’ve lied to my parents and others that I love, I’ve hurt their feelings, I’ve had arguments with even the closest of friends, I fought with my siblings over the tiniest matters like what show we should watch on tv tonight, there were times when I even got jealous of others’ success, I ignored my friends because they were getting on my nerves, I forced my friends to do things they didn’t want to do, I got so angry over trivial matters, I blamed others for my mistakes, I lied to get myself out of trouble and to get what I wanted… bla bla bla. I am definitely not the perfect example of purity and innocence.
But, God forbid that I should do things that might ruin others’ lives no matter how much I hate one person. No matter how bitchy and spoilt I think she is or how I think he is desperately seeking attention and a liar, I know I won’t do anything bad to hurt them. Because I know that other people still love them. There are their parents and family and their friends (if they do have any with such rotten personalities - haha). And I do believe that they also deserve happiness and success in their lives. Anyway, who am I to condemn them anyway?
Then why must there be people who just can’t sit still when others are happy? Why must there be home wreckers, back stabbers, liars, parasites and such? Why can’t a person just be thankful for what he has rather than starting fire everywhere he goes? Who is he to ruin another person’s life? Who is he to think that one person does not deserve happiness or success? Who is he to take away what Allah has bestowed upon another person??? How could a person be an unbelievably rotten, ugly and mean existence when we are supposed to be the best among all of Allah’s Creations?
Patience.
Allah bersama orang-orang yang dizalimi… Insya Allah…
I did some calculations just now and the shocking result is that I spend 40% of my 24 hours everyday SLEEPING!!
Ugh.
I need a life… actually, I need a job. Hahaha.
Introducing my favourite Autobot,
BUMBLE BEE!!
Wow!
That’s the only word I can use to describe my feeling when I watched ‘Transformers’.
While I couldn’t wait to watch the third installations of ‘Pirates’, ‘Shrek’ and ‘Spiderman’, ‘Transformers’ was not in my list of looking-forward-to-watch movies. And the outcome surprised me. It turned out that I didn’t really enjoy the three long-awaited sequels (my least favourite is Spiderman as this time, Mary Jane really, really got on my nerves!), but I truly love ‘Transformers’.
I distinctly remember growing up watching the cartoon version with my elder brothers but I now cannot recall what the cartoon was all about. My brothers were talking ‘Transformers’ and I joined them as I thought it was cool. Big brothers’ influence, I guess.
What is so cool about the movie is of course, the out-of-world effects. The fight scenes between the robots are amazing especially the one in the city. I was on the edge on my seat every time those robots start shooting and kicking asses.
As for the actors, I personally think Shia LaBeouf was kinda good in this movie. Of course it is not a potentially Oscar-nominated role but all in all, he did manage to bring his character to life. This goofy role really fits him well. However, I think that the character of Sam Witwicky is too typical. I mean, almost all teenage heroes in any movie are clumsy, nerdy and goofy and (not surprisingly) in the end they will always prevail. Except this time Sam doesn’t go through the boring ‘I’m-searching-for-my-identity’ kind of crisis like Peter Parker went through.
And of course (typically, again), there’s this hot babe the hero would like to get his hands on. However, unlike the usual sickening teenage love story between two lovelorn teenagers, their relationship is kinda sweet. There was no sudden romantic scenes except some snippets of them holding hands and a cheesy scene where the the girl Mikaela (played by Megan Fox) suddenly said that she’s glad that she’s with him bla bla bla. In fact, they didn’t even kiss until at the very end of the movie. I especially love Bumble Bee’s part in joining them together. A gigantic, powerful robot can be sensitive and sweet too. How adorable!
Apart from that, the humour is well-played throughout the movie. Even in wars and intense times, there were a lot of comedic scenes fitted in at the most unexpected times. Surprisingly, they all fit in rather well. Like the scene where Sergeant Lennox (played by Josh Duhamel) have to talk to a bored operator when he is desperately trying to reach the Pentagon in the middle of the fight against one of the Decepticons soldiers. But my favourite scene would be the one where all the Autobots are trying to hide in Sam’s backyard so that they will not be noticed by his parents. Imagine five gigantic robots trying to hide. Very cute!
But typical of any American movie, this movie glorifies the power of the American government and they are always the hero. At one point, they named Iran, Korea, China and Japan as the possible culprit behind those evil robots. Later, they said that the Iranian (thus, Muslim) scientists are not clever enough to create such advanced technology. And yeah… they have the best soldiers, the best army, the best bla bla bla…
If you expect this movie to be realistic, then you’ll be disappointed. Sam, Sergeant Lennox and his men are shot at with debris from buildings fall all around them but they all escape with minor scratches and their clothes remain clean with not even the slightest tear. It seems that only the robots are capable of getting hurt. But hey, what can you expect from a movie about robots??
I think I wanna watch it again. Huhu. And I would love to have a cool Autobot as my car. Haha.
AUTOBOTS TRANSFORM!!
