Kids,
When I sit alone I'd start thinking of the what was's, the what is's, the what will's and the what if's. You see a coffee cup on your right and you wonder why you made it too hot to drink.
There are no reasons why. No reasons at all. Just maybe the reasons are just there to give us some kind of certainty about anything real. What is real anymore? What is real when everything seems foggy?
I am setting an example. That's all. It's up to you to decide on whether you want to follow my footsteps. I have images, I have goals, I have hopes. Hopes that are probably deadly to my soul.
Let's just start anew. Let's do this. I'm in a new environment, but it doesn't force me to change. I'll adapt instead. Because adapting to changes is what I've been doing since the day we kissed. And the day we kissed was the day that changed everything.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Yes, I am angry.
Kids,
Here's a huge problem that we're facing nowadays: communication. And it's either we have no way of getting out of communication or lack thereof. I shall explain.
Communication has become an omnipresent entity today. Everyone has a handphone now. Heck, we don't even use the word 'handphone', we use words like 'blackberry', 'iPhone' and 'android'. There's no way of being alone. I find that rather scary. Not only that, we have Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and that social networking site that enables you to tell the whole world your current location on a daily basis. It's funny: you'd tell the WHOLE fucking world where you are having dinner or where you're going and who you're going with, but you will never tell your parents.
There's fucking nowhere to run. We're becoming so dependent on such communication tools that ironically in the end, we lack the very same thing. We lack the ability to fucking communicate. There's an increase in the number of people who are able to talk but can't write, which is somewhat confusing for me since if you're on the internet the whole time and typing, shouldn't you be able to write better and talk worse? WRONG!! In fact, writing and talking skills are both deteriorating among students nowadays. It's not shocking at all really, when you're getting song titles like 'What Yo Name Iz?' (fuck, even the grammar is wrong) and shit like that. Or this increasing trend where people would talk in cat language or 'lolcats'. An example of that would be: "Can I has Cheezburger?" or shit like that too.
I've always hated social networking sites. This is because I don't believe that you should tell the whole world what you think and what you do. I hate it when someone pours out a problem on Facebook instead of actually facing the problem in real life. They should face the problem directly. And I have met a lot of people like this. Trust me I have, and most of them lack the ability to talk or to express themselves. You give them a paper and a pen, still, they'd find it difficult to express themselves. You give them a tumblr profile, give them the ILLUSION that they're alone and they're anonymous, and you'll get endless updates of expression. We are lacking the ability to talk because we are not practicing. That's a no brainer if you ask me. To be able to talk you need to practice talking. To know what to say, you need to fucking read. And I don't mean reading stuff online. I mean go to a bookstore and buy yourself a book. And I don't mean Twilight or Murakami or stuff like that. I mean philosophical books, books about history; English history, Egyptian History, religions and analytical essays. An average Japanese reads 10 books in 6 months. An average Malaysian reads 1 1/2 books a year (Malaysians are so fucking lazy that they can't finish the 2nd book they pick up), so start reading. Now, why these books and not story books? Because you will learn to state opinions, talk, and fucking gain some general knowledge while you're at it, because you lack some of that too.
Not only that, people get so addicted when they're on Facebook that they just HAVE to go on, even after signing out. You even become so addicted to notifications on Facebook that when you actually see one, you just HAVE TO check it out, even if it's just an invitation to a stupid game. Tell you what, next time you see a notification, take a fucking deep breath and sign out. After signing out, get out and walk around your neighborhood. Go find a good bench to sit on, and start reading that fucking book I asked you to buy at the bookstore.
And that's just the social networking sites. Then there's imgfave.com, or 9gag.com or any other sites of that sort where you can view a bunch of photos one by one till you see something you like. When you do see something you like, you are given the pleasure of sharing it on tumblr, facebook, or twitter. See? It's an endless loop!
In the end, people who go to imgfave or 9gag will just browse through, without actually taking time to look at a photo properly because these very websites have turned them to goldfishes with a fucking 2 second memory. They look at one photo, forget about it, go on to the next one, forget about it, off to the next one etc. This brain and mental conditioning will go on everyday, depending on how often they go on these sites. Soon enough, they will find it hard to remember important things in life. They will forget family, friends, and sometimes partners.
And when it gets to the latter, you know something is fucking wrong with us humans.
Here's a huge problem that we're facing nowadays: communication. And it's either we have no way of getting out of communication or lack thereof. I shall explain.
Communication has become an omnipresent entity today. Everyone has a handphone now. Heck, we don't even use the word 'handphone', we use words like 'blackberry', 'iPhone' and 'android'. There's no way of being alone. I find that rather scary. Not only that, we have Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and that social networking site that enables you to tell the whole world your current location on a daily basis. It's funny: you'd tell the WHOLE fucking world where you are having dinner or where you're going and who you're going with, but you will never tell your parents.
There's fucking nowhere to run. We're becoming so dependent on such communication tools that ironically in the end, we lack the very same thing. We lack the ability to fucking communicate. There's an increase in the number of people who are able to talk but can't write, which is somewhat confusing for me since if you're on the internet the whole time and typing, shouldn't you be able to write better and talk worse? WRONG!! In fact, writing and talking skills are both deteriorating among students nowadays. It's not shocking at all really, when you're getting song titles like 'What Yo Name Iz?' (fuck, even the grammar is wrong) and shit like that. Or this increasing trend where people would talk in cat language or 'lolcats'. An example of that would be: "Can I has Cheezburger?" or shit like that too.
I've always hated social networking sites. This is because I don't believe that you should tell the whole world what you think and what you do. I hate it when someone pours out a problem on Facebook instead of actually facing the problem in real life. They should face the problem directly. And I have met a lot of people like this. Trust me I have, and most of them lack the ability to talk or to express themselves. You give them a paper and a pen, still, they'd find it difficult to express themselves. You give them a tumblr profile, give them the ILLUSION that they're alone and they're anonymous, and you'll get endless updates of expression. We are lacking the ability to talk because we are not practicing. That's a no brainer if you ask me. To be able to talk you need to practice talking. To know what to say, you need to fucking read. And I don't mean reading stuff online. I mean go to a bookstore and buy yourself a book. And I don't mean Twilight or Murakami or stuff like that. I mean philosophical books, books about history; English history, Egyptian History, religions and analytical essays. An average Japanese reads 10 books in 6 months. An average Malaysian reads 1 1/2 books a year (Malaysians are so fucking lazy that they can't finish the 2nd book they pick up), so start reading. Now, why these books and not story books? Because you will learn to state opinions, talk, and fucking gain some general knowledge while you're at it, because you lack some of that too.
Not only that, people get so addicted when they're on Facebook that they just HAVE to go on, even after signing out. You even become so addicted to notifications on Facebook that when you actually see one, you just HAVE TO check it out, even if it's just an invitation to a stupid game. Tell you what, next time you see a notification, take a fucking deep breath and sign out. After signing out, get out and walk around your neighborhood. Go find a good bench to sit on, and start reading that fucking book I asked you to buy at the bookstore.
And that's just the social networking sites. Then there's imgfave.com, or 9gag.com or any other sites of that sort where you can view a bunch of photos one by one till you see something you like. When you do see something you like, you are given the pleasure of sharing it on tumblr, facebook, or twitter. See? It's an endless loop!
In the end, people who go to imgfave or 9gag will just browse through, without actually taking time to look at a photo properly because these very websites have turned them to goldfishes with a fucking 2 second memory. They look at one photo, forget about it, go on to the next one, forget about it, off to the next one etc. This brain and mental conditioning will go on everyday, depending on how often they go on these sites. Soon enough, they will find it hard to remember important things in life. They will forget family, friends, and sometimes partners.
And when it gets to the latter, you know something is fucking wrong with us humans.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Contentment in 2012
Kids,
Be contented. Yes, there are people who are greater than her. There are people who are more attractive, more intelligent, more caring, and more fortunate.
That's life: full of temptations. But don't be deceived by those things. Because didn't you ever realize that there are people who are also greater than you?
Yet, she chose you.
What a post to start the year off. I've been mucking around lately but it's time to steer this life towards a brighter path, not too bright though, cos I might get a headache.
Be contented. Yes, there are people who are greater than her. There are people who are more attractive, more intelligent, more caring, and more fortunate.
That's life: full of temptations. But don't be deceived by those things. Because didn't you ever realize that there are people who are also greater than you?
Yet, she chose you.
What a post to start the year off. I've been mucking around lately but it's time to steer this life towards a brighter path, not too bright though, cos I might get a headache.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Pleasures
Kids,
We find that the requirements of our bodily nature are few indeed, no more than is necessary to banish pain, and also to spread out many pleasures for ourselves. Nature does not periodically seek anything more gratifying than this, not complaining if there are no golden images of youths about the house who are holding flaming torches in their right hands to illuminate banquets that go on long into the night. What does it matter if the hall doesn’t sparkle with silver and gleam with gold, and no carved and gilded rafters ring to the music of the flute? Nature doesn’t miss these luxuries when people can recline in company on the soft grass by a running stream under the branches of a tall tree and refresh their bodies pleasurably at small expense. Better still if the weather smiles on them, and the season of the year stipples the green grass with flowers.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
of Zombies and Drama.
Kids,
I sense a shift in the whole media entertainment industry. I'm talking specifically about movies and tv series. I'm sensing that movies will never be as interesting as they were before, because tv series are more interesting now.
Movie makers will have a hard time I'm guessing, in trying to make movies that will somehow "entertain" people, and get highest gross rate, breaking previous box office records and all. This is a slow process, but nonetheless, there will be a day when movies are rendering themselves more and more insignificant. Why?
Well, let's just look at tv series that came up in the past few years. There's CSI (all of them), Heroes, Lost, Prison Break, and many more. Now there's The Walking Dead. I've been watching The Walking Dead lately, and seriously, the standard of tv series has just gone far up. It's like watching a movie, except that there are more sequels, and it's not boring. It's like the whole Harry Potter series, except that they don't have a one year gap between the sequels. The make-up is incredible, the set design, CGI, even the sound design, everything is just amazing. I would say that tv series is the next movies.
Why would I want to sit in the cinema and watch a movie, when I can sit and watch a tv series on my laptop, and have a better experience?
Movie genres are turned into tv series now because tv series have one thing that movies don't: time. There's so much time for tv series. They can have as many episodes as they want and because of that, they get to pay attention to the characters, each single character. Movies sometimes can't do that. Most of the time, movies can't do that, only one or two characters would be the centre of attention.
When there are more characters to focus on, there are more levels to play with, and a wide range of audience will get attracted. Some target audience wouldn't watch a zombie movie, but they'd watch a zombie tv series because there's more attention to the characters, and not just people blowing off zombie heads. It's because the director's got time on his hands. That is the great advantage.
I bet that if Harry Potter were to be a tv series instead, a lot more readers would be happy because the director would have more time to pay attention to the small little details in the books. Now some people may say that the video quality of tv series can't surpass that of movies', but look at Prison Break, Lost, or even Heroes (the first tv series that uses A LOT of special effects and CGI, that are actually the same standard as those in movies), the mise en scene (the make-believe world that's being put on screen) is just remarkable. Tv series are getting more budget, and with more budget, they can be as good as movies.
But also, that being said, tv series can sometimes focus too much on the characters, like soap operas. Well, that's totally up to the director and his/her team to figure out and plan.
But I believe that one day, movies are going to get cheaper (in every sense of the word; insignificant, half-assed etc) and tv series will get a lot more attention in the future. Aspiring film-makers of the younger generation should switch and aim for tv series instead. There's more money there.
I sense a shift in the whole media entertainment industry. I'm talking specifically about movies and tv series. I'm sensing that movies will never be as interesting as they were before, because tv series are more interesting now.
Movie makers will have a hard time I'm guessing, in trying to make movies that will somehow "entertain" people, and get highest gross rate, breaking previous box office records and all. This is a slow process, but nonetheless, there will be a day when movies are rendering themselves more and more insignificant. Why?
Well, let's just look at tv series that came up in the past few years. There's CSI (all of them), Heroes, Lost, Prison Break, and many more. Now there's The Walking Dead. I've been watching The Walking Dead lately, and seriously, the standard of tv series has just gone far up. It's like watching a movie, except that there are more sequels, and it's not boring. It's like the whole Harry Potter series, except that they don't have a one year gap between the sequels. The make-up is incredible, the set design, CGI, even the sound design, everything is just amazing. I would say that tv series is the next movies.
Why would I want to sit in the cinema and watch a movie, when I can sit and watch a tv series on my laptop, and have a better experience?
Movie genres are turned into tv series now because tv series have one thing that movies don't: time. There's so much time for tv series. They can have as many episodes as they want and because of that, they get to pay attention to the characters, each single character. Movies sometimes can't do that. Most of the time, movies can't do that, only one or two characters would be the centre of attention.
When there are more characters to focus on, there are more levels to play with, and a wide range of audience will get attracted. Some target audience wouldn't watch a zombie movie, but they'd watch a zombie tv series because there's more attention to the characters, and not just people blowing off zombie heads. It's because the director's got time on his hands. That is the great advantage.
I bet that if Harry Potter were to be a tv series instead, a lot more readers would be happy because the director would have more time to pay attention to the small little details in the books. Now some people may say that the video quality of tv series can't surpass that of movies', but look at Prison Break, Lost, or even Heroes (the first tv series that uses A LOT of special effects and CGI, that are actually the same standard as those in movies), the mise en scene (the make-believe world that's being put on screen) is just remarkable. Tv series are getting more budget, and with more budget, they can be as good as movies.
But also, that being said, tv series can sometimes focus too much on the characters, like soap operas. Well, that's totally up to the director and his/her team to figure out and plan.
But I believe that one day, movies are going to get cheaper (in every sense of the word; insignificant, half-assed etc) and tv series will get a lot more attention in the future. Aspiring film-makers of the younger generation should switch and aim for tv series instead. There's more money there.
Monday, October 10, 2011
HAHA!!
Just a random thought: why is God always portrayed as wearing white, has long hair and a beard? Maybe for that particular picture it's Jesus. But still, why the beard? Well, maybe because it's Jesus. Why the white robe then? The purpose of clothing is to cover our naked body. Does God have a body that he wants to cover up? Who made that robe for him? He has facial hair, does he have hair at other places too? Why is God being portrayed as very human is that picture? Is it because he's the Son of God? God's word being made flesh therefore he speaks like us, wears clothes like us and grows facial hair like us. I created a microwave. Do I have to be the microwave to understand how it works? Do I have to heat, spin, defrost, time, beep like a microwave? I have the power to be, but why would I choose to be? Didn't I God, created choice to begin with? Why do I have to be subservient to my own creations and become like them? If I choose to be, then does that make me more compassionate because I care?
But Morgan Freeman was God in Bruce Almighty. He had a beard there. But he's black. Is God black? God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient etc. Could he be omnigen as well (I created that word up by looking at a Latin translation of the word 'race')?
Why would you draw God if you don't know how he looks like?
Thursday, September 15, 2011
They're as delicate as you.
Kids,
I have been thinking too much again. Is it a bad thing? I don’t know anymore. The fact is, I’ve been very angry lately. Too angry. I am angry at every single thing right now. It has been 4 months now since I’ve taken up photography. I have been practicing all this while. The more I think about photography, the more it attracts me and the more I want to practice it. It is highly direct, highly philosophical, highly metaphorical and at the same time almost primordial.
I have been thinking of taking photography really seriously, as in making money by selling my photos. I want to do something with it. I want to change something. I just don’t know what I want to change. Maybe I should start with the way people take photography nowadays.
I am very angry at the fact that people, and by people I really mean teenagers, are taking worthless photos and calling their works ‘real photography’. Honestly, to hell with that. I don’t see a point in taking macro-shots of a piece of pie that you’re eating at Starbucks with your DSLRs. Whatever happened to photos with meaning?
I walk around areas like Pasar Seni, Masjid Jamek, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Pudu and a lot of other places where grittiness can be found. I look for dirty pictures, not sexual but unclean. I guess it says a lot about me at the moment. I really am kind of restless nowadays. I want to capture moments; moments which are beautiful to me in the dirtiest of places. I never knew that I can express how I feel through photography. To me, you can’t see light without darkness. I would spend almost the whole day walking through the alleys of Pudu to look for a good photo to take. And it’s not tiring at all. However, walking alone can be pretty boring and I would feel lonely from time to time because there’s no one I can share this passion with.
What sickens me, though, is when I meet people who are interested in photography; they are not interested in the same kind of photos that I want to take. They prefer to take close-up pictures of a cup on the table with a blurred background, or a picture of a landscape, or a macro-shot of an insect. To me it’s ironic that you take pictures of life but the photos are so dead. Photography now has become a trend, not a passion. That makes me angry. There’s a need for me to show these people the bigger things you can do with photography. People have forgotten how important a photograph used to be. Photography is ultimately very important. People believe pictures. It’s a photograph that in your passport, not a painting. George Bernard Shaw once said “I would exchange all the paintings of Christ for a single snapshot of him.” That’s what the power of photography is.
This is why I started off with an SLR instead of a DSLR. I use film instead of digital because I know that if you want to learn photography, you have to start from the basics.
In the quest of trying to find a person who has the same passion as I do, I’ve met people who are just plain annoying when it comes to photography. They know nothing about it, and yet they boast around about buying a DSLR for thousands of bucks. I will admit now that I know that I just started 4 months ago, I am still learning and I haven’t yet grasped the true meaning and technique of photography; I still have a very long way to go and I accept that reality. But still, the thought of people having forgotten about capturing meaning behind the photos they take just aggravates me to a point where I feel that I have to change that.
To hell with photos of landscapes or buildings or macro-shots of insects. To hell with lomography effects. Personally, to hell with people who take photos with lomo cameras in general. Lomography is just another trend to follow. Fine by me if you want to buy a cheap piece of plastic for 400 bucks just because the photos will look ‘vintage’ once they’re developed.
Fuck.
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