Surfing has something similar to a good addictive game, no matter how many waves you've caught, you always want to try to catch another one, and another, and another.....so you keep going until you're absolutely exhausted. It is very physically demanding, but the time goes by really quickly, especially when you have beautiful curling waves like the ones at Muriwai yesterday.
Read more...I watched a stream of movies recently, and I thought it'll be fun to write down my impressions of them.
Taken
A rather enjoyable fast paced thriller. Knowing how bad the situation is with human trafficking in Europe, it is very emotionally satisfying to see those bad guys got beat up mercilessly by Liam Neeson.
The fast paced plot kept me entertained all the time, but it did feel a bit contrived at certain points. I don't find it to be too big of a deal as it didn't take away enjoyments from watching the movie.
The final act of the movie though, is slightly dissatisfying because of its predictability, it would've been better if they throw in a twist or surprise somewhere.
Ratings:
First Act (Setup) 10/10
Second Act (Confrontation) 9/10
Thrid Act (Resolution) 7/10
Satisfactions from seeing Liam Neeson beat up the human traffickers: 11/10
Eastern Promises
Another story with human trafficking as a backdrop.
I did not find Viggo Mortensen's performance in Lord of the Rings to be anything special, but wow, he was absolutely brilliant in this film. He played the character so convincingly that I did not recognize him at first. Calm and magnetic, it feels a bit like watching a Russian version of Don Vito Corleone in the making, it's hard to take your eyes off him.
Oh ye, and the story was good too, it is one of the few movies that I wished could be longer.
Rating: 9/10
The Kite Runner
Loved it. The phrase "For you, a thousand times over!" appeared twice in the film, and both times it sent chills up my spine. Beautiful would be a good word to describe this movie. I enjoyed it so much that I watched it again with the director & the author's commentaries on.
Rating: 9/10
Holy Smoke
The first half of the movie was excellent. Interesting and engaging, it raised questions about spirituality, which is my favourite kind of questions, so the plot really grabbed my attention.
However, half way through the movie, the direction changed in a weird way. The motive for this turn was unconvincing, and, in my opinion, the movie just went downhill from there.
It has excellent cinematography though, I took lots of screenshots from this movie for personal references.
Ratings:
First half: 5 Stars out of 5
Second half: 2 Stars out of 5
Mongol
I thought the beginning of the movie was pretty good, then it slowed down and became somewhat sluggish. The depiction of Ghengis Khan's family life was a bit of a drag, yet the story about how he united different tribes was skipped and only described by texts on screen.
About the final battle between Ghengis Khan & his blood brother...sigh...he won it because it started to thunder and all the enemy soldiers were so scared that threw down their weapons???
What the @#$%%.....? Head shaking...
But I have to say overall this is not a bad movie, the visual direction was perfect, the sceneries were breathtaking, and the battles were exciting and spectacular. If you don't know much about Ghengis Khan and is not as fussy about historical accuracies as me, chances are that you'll enjoy the film.
Rating: 3 Stars out of 5
Requim For a Dream
A bit preachy. I know the danger of addiction, and I know some people may find values in a story like this, good for them. But I just don't enjoy seeing a movie about things going from bad to worse and then it ends. There's nothing really philosophical about it, just a big old "if you made the wrong choice, you'll mess up your life" message.
Rating: A small frowning face.
The Savages
Reminded me of The Barbarian Invasions, a typical festival-style film, the subject matter is something that I can't really relate to.
So I don't really have much to comment about this film.
No Ratings.
This came as a surprise. After Almost 2 years of delay, it seems that the movie I worked on back in 2006 in India is finally going to be released. It's good to see that a few shots (lighting) that I worked on were included in the trailer. ie. a top view of the floor exploding, and a few shots of blood splashing across the screen.
Now the tricky thing would be to obtain a copy of the movie, so that I can put some of the stuff in my showreel.
I thought about watching this movie a few times before, because it frequently showed up when I browse through imdb, but I always lost interest after reading the synopsis:
"The movie starts off with an old man in a nursing home reading a story to an old woman each day. The story he reads is about two young lovers..."
I mean...how boring does that sound?
However, it really moved me deeply when I finally watched it today. I can't remember when the last time was that a romantic movie affected me this much.
It's sweet, sad, and very real. It left behind emotional ripples in me that wouldn't go away for a long while.
I went to learn surfing for the first time today, and...it wasn't easy. The worst thing about learning a new skill is that you'll be like a complete idiot and there's nothing you can do about it.
That may be the reason why many people hesitate about learning new things, and I know I used to avoid trying certain things just because I really don't like the feeling of being inadequate.
Well, one thing I learnt from travelling, is that if you want to explore new horizons, you just have to accept that being/behaving like an idiot is part of the process, so just go ahead and get on with it. In conclusion, I will continue to fumble and tumble in the waves for an indefinite (but hopefully not too long) period of time.
A thing about the waves at Muriwai today is that it was probably not the best condition for a beginner to learn surfing.
I found this advice on the internet "For your first days surfing the waves should be small, being easy enough for you to walk out to where the waves are breaking, and not have to fight your way off the beach being constantly battered by waves"
The description, "have to fight your way off the beach being constantly battered by waves", was exactly what happened today. I suppose that just made everything more....fun......in retrospect.
People are different, so different that you can be talking about the same thing, but your ideas/views/perspectives/realities are so far apart so that not only the other couldn't understand what you're talking about, they could have interpreted your words in ways beyond your expectation. And it's funny because this could be what the other person think of you at the same time.
I suppose once upon a time, when people lived in relatively segregated groups, where culture defined commonly agreed upon ideas and principals for them, it was easier to define what's right and what's wrong.
In today's world, where ideas & philosophies have virtually no boundaries, where different traditions & cultures clash constantly with each other, there's no longer absolute right or wrong.
Without a common basis of understanding, there may as well be no communication.
This was written as a comment to a recurring theme in my life, but seems like it can also cast itself as an afterthought to the movie of the same title. No wonder I liked the movie.
A heading from a news website.
It happened last Friday night, the blackout came abruptly and without warning I suddenly find that I could not connect to any website.
Well, a year or two ago this probably would have made me angry or feeling frustrated, but after my time in India, where internet & power outage was part of your daily experience, I simply have lots of appreciation for the quality of life and the stable services I'm getting in a developed country.
The dramatic contrast between India and NZ really put things into perspective. Living in a country, where a company would apologize for the occurrence of an overnight service outage, is, awesome.
Story 1
Life is hard. You have to study hard, work hard, compete with everyone to earn your place in the world.
How successful you are determines your value to the society, to the world, so you better struggle and strive to be somebody.
Story 2
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. You just have to relax, follow your heart, flow with the current and it will take you to where you want to be. Who you are is valuable and worthy beyond question, so, believe in yourself, relax and have fun on this journey called life.
I've followed story 1 for almost two decades in my life, the problem with it is that not only does it not work for me, but it almost broke my spirit, drove me to despair and the edge of self destruction.
So screw it, I'm going with story 2.
Letting go of the mental & emotional baggage of story 1 takes time and effort, but it's the best decision I've every made.
There are many people who live by the principals of story 2, for example: Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Irwin...etc, and I found them to be a great source of inspiration.
Soviet Union Olympic study: During the 1980s, what was then the Soviet Union's Olympic team tested various training procedures. Athletes from various sports were split into four groups.
The first group trained entirely with physical practice - 100 percent of the time. The second group used physical training 75 percent of the time, and mental imagery 25 percent of the time. The third group split its training 50-50. The fourth group spent 25 percent of the time training physically, and 75 percent of the time mentally.
The mental training required them to spend time every day practicing their sport in their mind using mental imagery. At the end of the study, the group who had made the biggest gains or improvement was the fourth group - the one that had spent only 25 percent of the time training physically and 75 percent of the time using mental imagery. Interestingly, the group that trained 100 percent of the time physically actually improved the least.
-- from "Speed Secrets 6" by Ross Bentley.
Divine inspiration comes in many forms, their expressions, however diverse, are universally joyful.
It's wonderful to witness so many joyful spirits around, an especially noticeable phenomenon in my social circles, is that many people are becoming happy first time parents.
Congratulations to those who finds joy in their lives, in any manner or forms.
One of my photo showing the full moon illuminating the Himalaya mountains is now published in Worldnomads Book of Travels 2008. I'm now waiting to receive my copy :)
Click the above image will take you to the webpage about the book, the photo I submitted can be seen in my previous post titled "panoramas" .
The cat curled up like a furry cushion, sleeping soundly on my laps.
Usually he prefers to sleep on K's laps, but for the past two days he's been coming to me instead.
"Somehow cats always know that you are leaving. Before we left NZ, the cat we had came and stayed around us all the time." K said.
There are still 3 days left before I leave, but I'm already feeling nostalgic.
I really like my stay in Dharamkot, where we can see the mountains and valleys every day; walk pass forests, monkeys, mongooses, cows, donkeys, and of course dogs and cats; watch crows, huge vultures and other unknown birds flying in the sky.
Of course the place is not a paradise, it's fulled of inconveniences and daily bugs, like the frequent power cuts, internet problems, network cable problems, the cold weather & the absence of indoor heating, and the locals who always try to get as much money out of us as possible (they are the minority but unfortunately they are the ones that you have to deal with the most).
On the day before I leave, I still have to deal with the guys who sold and promised to buy back our computers, as he suddenly had a change of heart and wouldn't own up to the flowery promises he had made.
I also have to settle the payments with our landlord, who had already given us a few surprises regarding to the bills.
Every time something bad like the above happened, I wish I was in the comfort of my home in NZ, but...I will still miss the good things here once I'm gone.
"There's a French saying, every time you leave a place, a part of you dies." Five years ago, in a mountain village of Northern Italy, my Dutch flatmate told me this, before I left after finishing a two-week marble sculpture course.
Yes it is sad to leave a place where you've created a lot of memories, but that's just a natural part of travelling. You feel sad, but it's a beautiful feeling.
"I guess I'll miss you too." I say to the cat as I stroke his chin. He continues to sleep like a baby.
The cold weather on the mountain have taken its first victim, after some itchy red patches appeared on my hands for several days, now 2.5 of my fingers are swollen like sausages.
Of course, it was my own fault for not realising the hazard of cold temperatures and taking preventive measures, but there was a good reason (whether wise or not): I tried to test my limits and see how much my body can adjust to the cold weather with minimum amount of external help.
So as a result:
- I washed clothes by hand with cold water
- I only wore a pair of gloves that's not wind proof and is probably slightly too tight (bad for blood circulation)
- I walked in snow/hail storms where the cold breeze attacked my umbrella-holding hands mercilessly (this one is unavoidable though)
- I ignored the early symptoms - the itchy red patches
Anyway my hands are now wrapped in a new pair of warm gloves, and with 12 days to go until I leave here, they shall survive.
I find that when I disagree with people's beliefs, quite often they get upset.
On the other hand, it upsets me when they assume that since I disagree with them, I must believe in the opposite beliefs.
Needless to say, with all the upsetting going around, the heated exchanges of disagreements often occur naturally and unavoidably.
It's an interesting and delicate situation when you are standing in the middle, and don't want to take side in the constant fightings between dualistic beliefs and ideas.
"Does god exist?"
"Does Jesus as a historical figure actually existed?"
"Is there a purpose to life, or are we all just nature's accidents?"
"Did we really evolve from monkeys? (evolution vs. creationism)"
"Did we (humankind) really landed on the moon?"
"Was Benezir Bhutto really killed by Al-Qaeda?"
("It's Musharraf, he's the one behind this!" Someone uttered this in a matter-of-fact-tone, immediately after the news of the assassination came out.)
Having spend a lot of time on questioning and thinking about everything I could, I concluded that: "If you know the truth, then you know it. Only when this knowing is absent do beliefs become necessary."
Of course we cannot know everything, so it is inevitable that we have to believe in a lot of things that we don't really know.
The point I want to make is that, since beliefs are merely pointers to the truth, there's no point to get too caught up with them mentally or emotionally, right? My beliefs often change with time anyway, like everything else, they are ever-changing and constantly evolving.
My attitude towards questions like "Do you believe....etc?" (eg. "Do you believe that we actually landed on the moon?") have always been something like: "Since I don't have access to the first-hand evidences, and I'm often not expert enough to interpret them, I prefer to stay neutral. I'll just observe, see what both side have to say, and leave it at that."
However this answer doesn't always pleases people.
"You are being political."
"You are just avoiding the responsibility to choose."
"You just won't open your eyes and see the truth, by saying that you will stay neutral, you are denying the evidences in front of you right here!"
"You can't stand in the middle of the street, the car is coming, choose which side you want to be on now, or the car will run you over!"
I frowned whenever I see people jump blindly into believing something, without carefully examining the validity of the story being told to them. Most of the time, people just want the evidences to support or reinforce their existing beliefs, they see what they want to see, and ignore whatever they don't like.
Those who are making an effort to search for the truth, who prefer to observe without rush to conclusions, have to stand the heat coming from people on both sides of the dualistic belief, or leave and go their own way.
How did a lone wolf become alone?
Snow, hail, rain and thunder. Yep, that's what you get for staying half way up the mountain in winter.
This kind of weather started 3 days ago, and it's giving us a hard time here in Dharamkot.
The first hazard is the coldness, but it's actually the easiest one to deal with.
Not long after the temperature dropped, we were then trapped inside the hotel by the rain and the freezing wind almost all day long.
Whenever the weather gets bad, the internet stops working.
The lightening and thunders...they are not just spectacles that I used to watch with great interest and enjoyment in New Zealand, here they are real hazards to electronic equipments. I keep hearing stories about how they burn out everything connected to the power outlet in the entire house.
Just before we moved into our current hotel, one of the power supply of their computer was burnt by the lightening.
Several times we have sparks coming out (not sure from where) near our computers after lightening, that we immediately shut down everything to make sure we don't lose our hardwares.
You may wonder, why don't they just install something (earthing or whatever) to prevent this from happening?
It's a good question, but there's no good answers. The conclusion would be: "This is India, what do you expect?"
This month had been a great training session for my patience.
On the technical front, there's been one bug after another, none stop. First there was the usual difficulties & frustrations to get an internet connection, then for an entire day & night the power supply of our building fluctuated like crazy. The lights went brighter & dimmer all the time like in some horror movies, and the voltage was so unstable that the computers would constantly crash if we switch them on.
An electrician fixed the power problem the next day, but soon after, our internet provider denied our access for 3 days with the message that the username/password was invalid.
After the problem was finally resolved, just one day later, the light on the ADSL modem wouldn't come on. I picked up the phone, and there were no sound. We thought that something messed up the phone line, so there's nothing we can do but wait for the phone company to repair the problem.
We soon heard the news that during the previous night, someone had stolen a significant chunk of the cable from the major phone line, so all the telephone connections from McLeod Ganj upward were down. McLeod Ganj, being the main center in the area, got the phone connection back 2 days later, and for us in Dharamkot, we waited for 3 days until the phone connection was finally back, but...the internet was still not working.
That was yesterday, and today we found out that our network cable was not functioning. As a last resort, I connected an older cable that was broken earlier, and miraculously it worked. That's why I have access the internet at this very moment. We ordered a new cable, and with luck hopefully it will arrive promptly tomorrow.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is life in India. Either you get use to it, or you gocrazy.
On the personal front....ah..well...it's a long story. The only thing I can say is that it has been everything, but never boring.
I have not had such painful experiences with internet connections since the dial-up days.
When the broadband internet we have is working, it is perfect and we have really good speeds, but...it has become a daily struggle for us to get connections & stay connected.
For Rs. 3000 per month (100NZD), it is not so cheap and the reliability is disappointing.
No matter how amazing a person is, there's always something about them that can really annoy you.
In order to have a great friendship/relationship, you always need a bit of space & distance from each other. Maybe there are some exceptions, but the above holds true in most cases.
Ah well, nobody's perfect, I'm no exception.
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