Viva Forever

I’m sick. AGAIN. Literally about three days after recovering from my previous cold, I’ve been invaded by more viruses (or something). While the previous one was a sore throat -> losing my voice -> non-stop coughing type, this new one seems to be scratchy throat + clogged/runny nose + sneezing + constant tiredness. Blargh. I feel pretty crummy about this new cold too, not only from the frustration of being sick and tired again, which does affect my study, but for the past few days I’ve been behaving and feeling really short-tempered and irritable at the people around me, which is just general crappy behaviour.

Other than that, I’ve been a relatively good student! I’ve been doing most of my readings, participating in class and what not. My Cyberspace Law research plan assignment thing is due soonish, and I’ve got to come up with a topic for what I want to write about. There are so many interesting internet issues out there! I’m thinking about writing about net neutrality, or maybe the proposed ISP-level filtering. Or maybe something entirely more fun, such as the interaction between internet law and MMORPGs and other online games. Or maybe online privacy and freedom of speech in relation to blogs. Must… decide soon. o_o

I watched Glitter yesterday due to feeling too ill to do my readings and wow… THAT’S A HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE MOVIE. It was just so… trite, contrived, bland and juvenile. It was about as meaningful as those really dramatic Korean music videos (for example) except that Glitter took over 100 minutes to express itself. The worse part though was hearing the awful “ballads” and pop songs in the movie, all of which were horrible dragged out and pedestrian. I am comfortable with admitting that I like Mariah Carey’s old music and her voice, but ugh, the songs in this movie were lyrically and melodically weak. It was a definitely poor choice on my part to be watching this movie in the hope that it would make me feel better.

Also, watched 10,000 BC the other day, that movie was also not very good. It was mostly nonsensical in terms of history, and the storyline was rather mundane for a Hollywood flick.

Watched Cloverfield tonight. Before I spoil my fresh impression of the movie by absorbing internet opinions, reviews and criticisms, let me just say first off that I really enjoyed the movie. I think the thing I liked most is that for a survival/horror/monster movie, it actually didn’t use stupid, pedestrian directing techniques to generate cheap scares. You know the type, where the booming background soundtrack would cease, the camera zooms close over near/over the protagonist’s shoulder, all you could hear is his/her heavy breathing in a dark environment, then moments later (length of such “suspenseful” moments proportional to how much of a douchebag the director is), BOOM, some creature launches it/his/herself at the protagonist, the background music floods in and the audience is startled. It’s amazing how much I hate that.

Cloverfield doesn’t have such bullshit because it doesn’t have background music as its completely filmed in first person. Speaking of first person perspective, I was a little iffy about the whole shaky handheld camera style, having seen the dizzying lameness that was The Blair Witch Project. However, Cloverfield isn’t much hindered by it, though sometimes, I guess for realism sakes, the camera does swing to an alarming degree.

I guess the only minor gripe I have about the movie is that I do want to know more about the… thing that caused so much havoc and the movie doesn’t really provide for it. Of course the point of the movie ISN’T about the thing but about the people who are trying to survive but still, a tad unfulfilling in that respect. Other than that, the movie was enjoyably suspenseful and scary throughout.

Yay Minchin. This clip is only 1 minute and 52 seconds long, so I highly recommend watching it. Pure lolage.

I haven’t been blogging much, been a bit out of it online-wise lately. I’ve joined a second awesome D&D campaign where I’m a halfling ranger. I’m also more than halfway through Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and I’m baffled by the amount of teen drama exploding throughout much of the middle of the book. The imagery of Ron spending chapter after chapter basically just sucking face with a girl non-stop is a little nauseating. Hopefully the plot would pick up soon. I loled when one of the “random” passwords into the Gryffindor room was “abstinence”. Real subtle, Rowling. Also, I’ve started a new crafting project, fingers crossed that it’ll turn out to be a success.

Since I only have one more exam to go, it means it’s time to start thinking about getting a holiday job for the next few months. I’m mainly looking for office jobs relating to law, e.g. being a paralegal or legal clerk. There seems to be a number that looks like good potentials, yet I’m worried about a common perquisite that many of the ads have.

It’s the need to be “well groomed”, “immaculately presented” or something of the sorts. What the hell does that mean?

I mean, I brush my hair and my teeth daily and I don’t reek of body odour (I hope!). At the office I currently work at weekly (unpaid internship at a small solicitor’s office) I wear officey clothes, like collared shirts and work pants. For the days I have to attend court, I wear a suit. Is that “well groomed” enough? What’s your definition of well groomed/immaculately presented?

I’m worried that it means having to have manicures, styled hair and/or worst of all, makeup. I hate the idea of slabbing crap on my face, it’s so damn uncomfortable (and expensive). Not to mention having to learn how to do it properly. Do you think it’s something you ask an interviewer about, e.g. “what does your company require in terms of well-groomedness” or is that something you’re supposed to just know?

I watched Dune yesterday night with Tim. What an excruciatingly long and convoluted movie! Ugh the bad acting and stupid plot just killed my brain.

Life
Not much has been going on, gave in my huge assignments. My Intellectual Property assignment was left to the last minute AGAIN, and even staying up all night, it turned out all shitty anyway. Tim said it’s not bad when he helped proof read it for me, but we all know he’s just trying to make me feel better. :3 I need to get my Gardasil booster and maybe a blood test too, the perpetual tiredness is still bugging me.

Watched
On the night before my Corporate Law assignment was due, rather than working on it, I instead watched the documentary The Dying Room that’s basically an undercover report on orphanages in China. It’s well worth watching, though incredibly depressing. All the children in the orphanages were girls (except for a small number of handicapped boys). The living conditions in the state orphanages were absolutely appalling, with toddlers being literally tied to chairs to keep them from moving around. The looks of lifeless boredom in many of their eyes as they rock back and forth was absolutely horrible.

One of the commentators interviewed blamed the One Child policy for the huge numbers of baby girls being left in the streets because their families don’t want them. While the policy no doubt exacerbated the problem, the real problem is 1) the cultural disregard for the sacredness of human life and 2) the treatment of women as second class citizens. My mother once said that the more people there are, the more expendable they are. When we’re dealing with more than a billion of people, I guess it is easier and easier to think of people as just a number.

In regard to sexism, it’s kinda weird. In modern times, every since the Cultural Revolution, it at least seems that there is more of an equality between genders. I’ve seen a number of women in parliament in China, and women are encouraged to work as much as men. But watching that documentary, female children are despised whereas male children are infinitely more desirable. This can’t be just an anomalous finding as generally speaking, there’s already way too many men in China because of people’s persistent desire to have male children over female. It frustrates me beyond words that there’s no movement in China to counter the mind-numbingly stupid cultural traditions of how women ought to be viewed and treated. It’s probably better now in the city areas of China at least but it is problematic that the idea that women are not as good as men are allowed to be trickle through.

Oh and yesterday I watched Moulin Rouge. I’ve never seen it before, and wow, talk about disappointing! :P I first heard the soundtrack from a friend when it was released and I quite like the songs on it. But watching it was excruciating at parts, the acting was bad and the choice of song was at times just bizarre (”Smells Like Teen Spirit”? Really, Baz Luhrmann, was that necessary?). And this is coming from someone who generally like musicals.

I finished watching xxxHOLiC, I have a review of it up. I watched the beginning of the first episode of Code Geass, but so far, the story hasn’t really sucked me in. I’m really not very into political conflict type anime. But yay, CLAMP artwork.

Games
I watched Tim play Portal (well the beginning and end, I fell asleep halfway through). It’s an awesome game to even watch. The finale was one of the most memorable I’ve ever seen, just in how funny GLaDOS is. I love the taunts she’d throw at you, oh and her ending song is just fabulous. More games should put emphasis on their scripts! The game itself looked fun to play, but given how un-coordinated and crappy at spatial tasks I am, I think I’m a little too intimidated to play it.

Site stuff

I finished this a little while ago. Mwaha, yay the Pucca fanlisting is finally mine! :D Heh, I love that little broad. Yeah, the layout isn’t very good, but I was in a hurry and I had a huge brain freeze. Why is it that I use image rollovers whenever I make bad layouts? Spin has also finally gotten an update after 11 months of no activity. I’ve got a bunch of other site updates that I need to make as well.

Right now, what I should be doing are my Uni readings though. Bah.