Movie Review: 9 (2009)

1 to protect us...
2 to inspire us...
3 to define us...
4 to teach us...
5 to guide us...
6 to lead us...
7 to defend us...
8 to guard us...
9 to save us.

Confused? Dont be! Here's a better explanation. This movie was set in a post apocalyptic world. By the looks of it, this movie was meant to reflect another take of what World War 2 would have turned out. The plot is pretty much this: a scientist have created a super-technology robot that was meant to assist human in progress. However, the evil Chancellor had another thing in mind, he wanted to use this powerful robot to raise havoc and war and ultimately led to the compete wipe-out of humanity. Not a single life form is left on earth except for the sackdolls the scientist created as a last hope to help defeat the misused machines. The last sackdoll, branded number 9 by the scientist contains the last fragment of the scientist's knowledge and his soul. All the sackdolls are fragments of his soul and each play an important part. It is interesting to note however that this movie is not meant not for children, it contains very obvious death(carnage from war, dead bodies here and there, wasteland and some surreal elements).

Character introduction:

This is Number one. He is the first one to be created by the scientist. He assumes the role of an old elderly leader of a clan. He represents the hesitant and fearful part of the scientist.(Voice: Christopher Plummer)

This is Number Two. He is the inquisitive and curious part of the scientist that's hungry for knowledge.(Voice: Martin Landau)

This is Number Three and Four. They're represent the intelligence of the scientist in knowing many information. Heck, they live in a library. They are twins.(They are silent throughout the film hence no voice actor for them).

This is Number Five. He represents the part of the scientist that's supportive and spirited.(Voice: John. C.Riley)

This is Number 6. He represents the problem-solving part of the scientist. He is the one knows what the machines are made up of and what can be done to stop them. (Voice: Crispin Glover)

This is Number 7. She is represents the feminine and protective part of the scientist. Perhaps this can be seen as how he created the sackdolls as a last resort to save mankind - protecting.(Voice: Jennifer Connelly)

This is Number Eight. He is a big fella and repesents the masculine and powerful side if the scientist.(Voice: Fred Tatasciore)

Finally, Number 9. He is our hero who leads the rest of the sackdolls to stop the tyranny of the machines once and for all. He is the last sackdoll to be created by the scientist before he died.(Voice: Elijah Wood)


If you like unique, out of the ordinary movies...then you will enjoy this! The visual is beautiful, the creativity is magnificent and storyline may be cliched but it was taken in such a way that you would sit throughout the movie really wanting to know what would happen. My personal rating - 10/10

Here's the official movie poster:

99 Facts About Guys

 THEY ARENT MINE I GOT THEM FROM THE NET.

http://www.knowledgesutra.com/forums/topic/36949-99-facts-about-guys-believe-it-or-not/

*inserting reverse harem anime boys was a brilliant idea no? Plus, it gives a relief from reading too much words. Only my genius self could think of something like this.
***********************************************************

1. Guys don't actually look after good-looking girls. They prefer neat and presentable girls.
2. Guys love flirts.
3. A guy can like you for a minute, and then forget you afterwards.
4. When a guy says he doesn't understand you, it simply means you're not thinking the way he is.
5. "Are you doing something?" or "Have you eaten already?" are the first usual questions a guy asks on the phone just to get out from stammering.
6. Guys may be flirting around all day but before they go to sleep, they always think about the girl they truly care about.
7. When a guy really likes you, he'll disregard all your bad characteristics.
8. Guys go crazy over a girl's smile.
9. Guys will do anything just to get the girl's attention.
10. Guys hate it when you talk about your ex-boyfriend.

11. When guys want to meet your parents. Let them.
12. Guys want to tell you many things but they can't. And they sure have one habit to gain courage and spirit to tell you many things and it is drinking!
13. Guys cry!!!!!!!!
14. Don't provoke the guy to heat up. Believe me. He will.
15. Guys can never dream and hope too much.
16. Guys usually try hard to get the girl who has dumped them, and this makes it harder for them to accept their defeat.
17. When you touch a guy's heart, there's no turning back.
18. Giving a guy a hanging message like "You know what?!..uh...never mind!" would make him jump to a conclusion that is far from what you are thinking.
19. Guys go crazy when girls touch their hands.
20. Guys are good flatterers when courting but they usually stammer when they talk to a girl they really like.

21. When a guy makes a prolonged "umm" or makes any excuses when you're asking him to do you a favor, he's actually saying that he doesn't like you and he can't lay down the card for you.
22. When a girl says "no", a guy hears it as "try again tomorrow."
23. You have to tell a guy what you really want before he gets the message clearly.
24. Guys hate gays!
25. Guys love their moms.
26. A guy would sacrifice his money for lunch just to get you a couple of roses.
27. A guy often thinks about the girl who likes him. But this doesn't mean that the guy likes her.
28. You can never understand him unless you listen to him.
29. If a guy tells you he loves you once in a lifetime. He does.
30. Beware. Guys can make gossips scatter through half of the face of the earth faster than girls can.

31. Like Eve, girls are guys EUR™ weaknesses.
32. Guys are very open about themselves.
33. It's good to test a guy first before you believe him. But don't let him wait that long.
34. No guy is bad when he is courting.
35. Guys hate it when their clothes get dirty. Even a small dot.
36. Guys really admire girls that they like even if they're not that much pretty.
37. Your best friend, whom your boyfriend seeks help from about his problems with you may end up being admired by your boyfriend.
38. If a guy tells you about his problems, he just needs someone to listen to him. You don't need to give advice.
39. A usual act that proves that the guy likes you is when he teases you.
40. A guy finds ways to keep you off from linking with someone else.

41. Guys love girls with brains more than girls in miniskirts.
42. Guys try to find the stuffed toy a girl wants but would unluckily get the wrong one.
43. Guys virtually brag about anything.
44. Guys cannot keep secrets that girls tell them.
45. Guys think too much.
46. Guys' fantasies are unlimited.
47. Girls' height doesn't really matter to a guy but her weight does!
48. Guys tend to get serious with their relationship and become too possessive. So watch out girls!!
49. When a girl makes the boy suffer during courtship, it would be hard for him to let go of that girl.
50. It's not easy for a guy to let go of his girlfriend after they broke up especially when they've been together for 3 years or more.

51. You have to tell a guy what you really want before getting involved with that guy.
52. A guy has to experience rejection, because if he's too-good-never-been-busted, never been in love and hurt, he won't be matured and grow up.
53. When an unlikable circumstance comes, guys blame themselves a lot more than girls do. They could even hurt themselves physically.
54. Guys have strong passion to change but have weak will power.
55. Guys are tigers in their peer groups but become tamed pussycats with their girlfriends.
56. When a guy pretends to be calm, check if he's sweating. You'll probably see that he is nervous.
57. When a guy says he is going crazy about the girl. He really is.
58. When a guy asks you to leave him alone, he's just actually saying, "Please come and listen to me."
59. Guys don't really have final decisions.
60. When a guy loves you, bring out the best in him.

 

61. If a guy starts to talk seriously, listen to him.
62. If a guy has been kept shut or silent, say something.
63. Guys believe that there's no such thing as love at first sight, but court the girls anyway and then realize at the end that he is wrong.
64. Guys like femininity not feebleness.
65. Guys don't like girls who punch harder than they do.
66. A guy may instantly know if the girl likes him but can never be sure unless the girl tells him.
67. A guy would waste his time over video games and basketball, the way a girl would do over her romance novels and make-ups.
68. Guys love girls who can cook or bake.
69. Guys like girls who are like their moms. No kidding!
70. A guy has more problems than you can see with your naked eyes.

 

71. A guy's friend knows everything about him. Use this to your advantage.
72. Don't be a snob. Guys may easily give up on the first sign of rejection.
73. Don't be biased. Try loving a guy without prejudice and you'll be surprised.
74. Girls who bathe in their eau de perfumes do more repelling than attracting guys.
75. Guys are more talkative than girls are especially when the topic is about girls.
76. Guys don't comprehend the statement "Get lost" too well.
77. Guys really think that girls are strange and have unpredictable decisions but still love them more.
78. When a guy gives a crooked or pretentious grin at your jokes, he finds them offending and he just tried to be polite.
79. Guys don't care about how shiny their shoes are unlike girls.
80. Guys tend to generalize about girls but once they get to know them, they'll realize they're wrong.

 

81. Any guy can handle his problems all by his own. He's just too stubborn to deal with it.
82. Guys find it so objectionable when a girl swears.
83. Guys' weakest point is at the knee.
84. When a problem arises, a guy usually keeps himself cool but is already thinking of a way out.
85. When a guy is conscious of his looks, it shows he is not good at fixing things.
86. When a guy looks at you, either he's amazed of you or he's criticizing you.
87. When you catch him cheating on you and he asks for a second chance, give it to him. But when you catch him again and he asks for another chance, ignore him.
88. If a guy lets you go, he really loves you.
89. If you have a boyfriend, and your boy best friend always glances at you and it obviously shows that he is jealous whenever you're with your boyfriend, all I can say is your boy best friend loves you more than your boyfriend does.
90. Guys learn from experience not from the romance books that girls read and take as their basis of experience.

91. You can tell if a guy is really hurt or in pain when he cries in front of you!
92. If a guy suddenly asks you for a date, ask him first why.
93. When a guy says he can't sleep if he doesn't hear your voice even just for one night, hang up. He also tells that to another girl. He only flatters you and sometimes makes fun of you.
94. You can truly say that a guy has good intentions if you see him praying sometimes.
95. Guys seek for advice not from a guy but from a girl.
96. Girls are allowed to touch boys' things. Not their hair!
97. If a guy says you're beautiful, that guy likes you.
98. Guys hate girls who overreact.
99. Guys love you more than you love them if they are serious in your relationships.

This is ouke no monshou, the longest manga still ongoing since 1976. I am currently reading this and I must say I am very impressed with how this series is catching up. No wonder it's the 3rd best selling manga of all time.I am going to write a review about it soon.

Sir, You Have Never Owned A Dog, Am I Right?

 

I found this article in the previous Sunday Star edition in newspaper so I took the online article and posted it here. I suppose some of you have come across it. Well, there is a lot to criticize in this article because an experienced dog owner like myself find what Mr. Gomez wrote here a bit offensive. This is clearly a biased view on dog owners and their etiquette in raising their dogs. While Mr.Gomez does have a point in saying that there are irresponsible owners who let loose their dogs and let them poop in other people's residence, I'd like to stress that not all of us are like this. Responsible owners like myself pick up after our pets, make sure they are in leash and make sure tour pets do their business on the grass far away from civilization. 

I'd like to clarify a few things.

First, you brought up a point of dog owners purchasing license yet the dogs are still misbehaving. How is purchasing a license ensures their good behaviour? I fail to see the correlation. We purchase a license for our dogs so that the people from Majlis Bandaraya does not mistake a house pet for a stray! The last thing we want is for our pet be shot down and burned in a dumpster! The Bandaraya people also fail to notice that despite the absence of the lisence in a dog's collar, if the dog is in a house(behind the gate) then obviously it's a house pet! What right have they to shoot a pet that was inside a house??? So here it is, we buy lisence so to ensure the safety of our pet, not to curb their animal behavious. Lisence have nothing to do with that!

Second, you claim that it is a nuisance for dogs to be brought out of the house for a walk. The pooping everywhere aside, did you know that if you keep a dog indoors for a long time they become frustrated hence the agression we see in so many dogs? How would you feel if you haven't left the house for 7 days? Wont you go mad with boredom? It is the same thing. Dogs needs to go out and have a breather outside their house too. Just like how you go out to the mall in the weekend after a long hard work on the weekdays. It's the same thing, animals need chillin' out too. So you can't blame the dog owners for taking out their dogs out for a walk. It keeps the dog calm and in good spirits. Another thing, owners like myself allow our dogs to go in and out of the house and they sometimes poop in the house. We dont mind cleaning that up but letting them poop outside is a much better alternative. We love our dogs, we want them to be happy too. So for you to say we bring out our dogs so they can poop at other people's house just shows ignorance on your part, Mr.Gomez. We dog owners better things to do.

Third, you mentioned how you are intimated when a dog sniffs at you. Well, as basic knowledge as this can be, when we humans use our 5 senses to make up of something, dogs only have their nose to make sense of their surroundings. So if they sniff you, it means they want to know what you are. They dont mean harm. Honestly. Guard dogs are proptective by nature so their first instinct is to protect their family. They are naturally wary of their surroundings and will not hesitate to attack if they find themselves or their family in danger. It's their basic instinct, YOU have to be careful not to provoke them!

Fourth, their bowel movement issue. If a pet dog keep giving you 'presents' in front of your house, why dont you just tell the owner to quit it? Why are you taking out on the rest of dog owners like myself? Again, this is ignorance on your part. Not the dogs fault, but the owners' for not keeping an eye and being responsible for the dog's bowel movements and the pick up after.

Fifth, the government does not need to do anything at all. Its just a matter of the dog owner's consensus in training their dogs. I think this is a given but if one doesn't know how to look after a dog, then spare the dog and don't keep one. You're being unfair to the poor animal by not knowing how to look after it. Looking after a dog is not an easy job, one must have a real dedication to raise a dog. If you're thinking of keeping a dog, do it because you are willing to love the animal, willing to let the dog be a part of your family and raise the dog as you would raise a child.

The Brandon Teena Story

Forget about the movie. I wanna talk about the real person who had gone through hell.

Brandon Teena was a gay youth who died in 1993. Her life events are thought-provoking, regretful and inspiring at the same time. When first writing this article, I bawled like a baby because I felt an innocent person who deserved a good life had died unjustly.

Brandon Teena was a female to male transgender. He was born in the wrong body so to speak. What a curse.

This is Brandon Teena.
Brandon Teena is said to be very charming, charismatic and a real ladies man. He was very popular with the girls. I can imagine why:

                                                     gorgeous isn't he?

Name: Teena Renae Brandon
Born: 12th December 1972, Lincoln, Nebraska
Died: 31 December 1993 (aged 21), Humboldt, Nebraska.
Cause of Death: Murder by gunshot.
 Pseudonyms: Billy Brinson, Teena Ray
Nationality: American

This is a cronological order of her life and till death.

*~ Teena was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. His father died before he was born. He has an older sister Tammy. He lived with his mother.
*~ His uncle sexually abused him and his sister when they were young. This can explain his preference for female.
*~ Brandon had always been a tomboy. He began dating a girl in his adolescence.
*~ Brandon wanted to be in the army but was rejected when he labelled his sex as 'male'.
*~ Brandon binded his breasts to look like a boy. He was said to be a very happy person - 'class clown'.
*~ He officially began cross-dressing and had several relationships.
*~ In the new town where he moved with his friends, he met Lana Tisdell, whom he was seriously in love with. He also made friends with John Lotter and Tom Nissen - both whom were ex convicts.
*~ Brandon was convinced by his mother to receive psychiatric evaluation and was diagnosed with having severe gender identity crisis. That was also when he told his mother than he had been raped by his uncle.
*~ In 1993, Brandon was arrested for forging cheques and spent a night in the women's lock-up. Thats when the townsfolk found out he was actually a female. And this was also the start of his disaster.
*~ During a Christmas Eve party, Lotter and Nissen forced Brandon in a bathroom to proof that he was female. They pulled his pants down while Tisdell just looked.
*~ Later that night, Lotter and Nissen forced him into a car, drove to a meat packing factory and brutally raped him. They threatened to silence him permanently if he told anyone.
* They took him to Nissen's house where Brandon escaped through Nissen's bathroom window. Brandon managed to flee and get Tisdell to lodge a police report.
*~ The Sheriff was more interested in Brandon's transexuality and found his questions rude so I guess he never filed a report. =\
*~ Lotter and Nissen managed to know of the report and sought out Brandon, who was staying with two other women. They killed(shot) Brandon and the two other women.
*~ Nissen and Lotter was charged with first degree murder and now serving life sentence.

These are other pictures of him.

      The far right below is Brandon's mugshot after his arrest for cheque forgery.

                Brandon with Lana Tisdell, top and below picture.

This is his resting place:

Honestly, I find this gravestone engraving extremely distasteful. Im sure Brandon would've wanted his gravestone to read "Son, Brother & Friend".

Homophobia has got to stop. It doesnt matter what one's sexual orientation is, love is love. Everyone deserves to experience it! There are many straight people who still aren't open-minded about gays and lesbians. They need to know that their ignorance and hatred and prejudice could one day cause someone's death. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP.

Brandon Teena may had a colorful life but that doesnt mean he deserves to die. He was an innocent young man who had so much in life and would have been someone influential in the gay community. What a wasted lost life. 

Movie Review: The Happening

 
This is one of those movies with a powerful message. You need to have a certain kind of intelligence to watch it. It doesn't shove everything to your face: you need to watch it, put two-and-two together and decipher it.


Storyline is simple: some unknown air-borne chemical radiated from plants is making people display unnatural behaviours - hanging themselves, placing themselves under bulldozers(YIKES!), driving in inhuman speed killing themselves and etc. Speculations goes how it's a sign of apocalypse, how mother nature is angry with us, how some chemical from the sea travelled to land affecting land creatures etc.


A science teacher is on the roads with his wife and friend's daughter trying to escape the calamity. They travel further and further away, witnessing many deaths and mishaps and finally close to the brink of breaking down.

They survived though. How? Watch the movie to find out. =)

Rating: 7/10
Points were deducted for awkward acting and graphic violence.=\

Supplementary Nutrition for Your Dogs

and other pets too. If it doesn't give your type of pets any adverse effect.

1) Evening Primrose Oil
    - This helps a dog to shed less(great for owners with short-haired dogs like mine) hair. It also prevents senility when she/he gets older. Tiffany is 12 years old and she's still so alert and energetic. Introduce this to your pet when she/he gets old enough to chew solid food. On the long run, you will be grateful that you gave her/him that. It also helps to improve their immune system. I can count the number of time we brought her(Tiffany) to the vet. Small dogs tend to get sick easily so this is actually a live saver. Any brand of EPO would do. Im personally giving me her Kordels.

2) Longan Honey(the sugar free kind)
    - This is actually to helps fussy eaters like Tiffany to get to eat her food. Make sure you buy the sugar free ones because sugar is fatal to dogs. Just spread a reasonable amount on your pets kibble/canned food. It helps with the shedding to. It gives your pets a nice glow/sheen to their coat. I give her the brand I buy from Cosway it's good for pets.

                 Note: THESE FUCKERS ARE EXTREMELY UNHEALTHY

3) Raw treats

    - Make sure it is made from the simplest ingredients because those colorful red-white-green-yellow ones have preservatives in them and it's REALLY bad for your dog! Imagine feeding poison to your dog OMG NOOO NOT THE DOG!!! So yeah be very, very careful in choosing a healthy treat for your dog because it can result in nasty allergic reaction/severe shedding and stomach pains. Tiffany's side effect was she shed enough hair to make a whole new dog. =\ We stopped giving her those colorful ones and gave her a pure ingredient treats and her shedding stopped.

Manga Review: Ibitsu

Ibitsu, literally means 'Twisted' in Japanese is a psychological-horror manga in all it's truth. It's based on a (fictional) urban legend in Japan that goes like this:

There's a legend that goes around in Japan. It involves a girl dressed in Loli outfit sitting near dump sites holding an umbrella and a plush toy. She would have a dirty appearence as if she hadn't bathed in days. If you find her sitting near dump sites when you are about to throw your trash at night...by all means DO NOT SPEAK TO HER. She would often target young men and ask them a question 'Do you have a sister?'. If you answered yes, she will become your sister against your will. If you said no, she will still become your sister*. So the trick is...DONT SPEAK WITH HER. Ignore her competely and in time she will leave to find someone else.

*In Japanese 'watashi imouto iru kara' means I have a sister. It can be read as both ways: one, I have a sister. Two, I need a sister. If you answered 'watashi imouto inai yo' which mean I dont have a sister. So she will become your sister too because SHE decides you needs a sister. So whatever you asnwer is, you're still fucked.

By the way, this is her:

 

  It must be a Monday.

This is the apparition you would see in dump sites should you decide to throw the trash at night. Alone. Any other normal person would turn back and decide to throw it the next morning during their routine morning jog. But no...characters in this manga would still throw their trash in the night with a creepy girl in white Loli clothes asking you if you have a sister. Meanwhile in Japan.

So her cycle is pretty much consistent. She finds a guy regardless of whether or not he has a sister. She stalkes you and behaves like a 'sister'. She cleans your room, she visits you at night for 'sibling' chat and if you dont entertain her...BE QUICK TO RUN THE HELL OUT. Dont forget your little dog. Nothing happens really, she just kills you in the most horrifyingway possible.

As the manga progresses, you get a glimpse of a hypothetical past of her. She is shown to be in a mental hospital where a kind psychiatrist had taken her under his wing. She was freshly taken away from her 'family' where her brother had supposedly killed the whole family and she was the sole survivor. Only then we remember she might have a name.
As the compassionate shrink tries his best to treat her, he manage to dig out the truth about her and became insane in the process.

You see, you will notice in the manga that she cuts herself regularly and intentionally bleeds herself. She also eats inedible food like makeup creams, lipsticks, lotions and paper and pukes a putrid black stuff.

Extremely violent and cruel, unpredictable psychopath, everything about her is beyond the normal human comprehension. Nobody knows how a living creature can be so fucked up. Perhaps, she is not alive at all, she's a vengeful ghost going a killing spree until she's satisfied.

To say she's alive is debatable, to say she's dead is also plausible.

A) Why it would make sense if she's dead

     No normal human being would survive after eating garbage their whole life. No normal human being would still survive after so much of blood loss. No normal human being can carry a 100kg hammer/chainsaw at a small frame of 40kg. She also cuts up her victims into pieces when they are alive and awake like beef steaks.
She drove her shrink to insanity and he ended up killing everyone in the hospital because he couldn't take up the guilt. It can be assumed that he managed to kill her as well.

B) Why it would make sense if said she was still alive

      Others can see her. If you're a ghost, people can see you only if you let them. Even random people in the road can see her. She leaves a bloody mess after her murder episodes and she leaves trails behind as the 'missing person'. Enough people have seen her for her to be an urban legend. The cuts and bruises can be explained. People with severe mental illness have high pain threshold. No matter how much they are hurt physically, they wont feel pain that much. Bipolar people report feeling numb when they inflict self-injury. They dont feel the pain. She is severely depressed, suffering from severe apathy that she perhaps cut herself to make herself feel 'alive'. Am I making any sense to you?

What happened to this fucked up bitch, really? Why is she doing this?

There is only ONE explanation I found after much thought.

She was abused by her brother. She was made to eat garbage when she 'misbehaves'. She was burned with an iron box when her brother is in his 'moods'. She was forced to dress up like a Lolitha maybe to satiate her brothers own perverted fantasy(ever heard if loli-con fetish and younger sister fetish? Google it). She was also shut in her home-particularly in her closet. Her brother 'trained' her though this abuse so she could become the 'ideal' sister. She did keep it secret from her family until she couldnt take it anymore and snapped.  She has since been living in that 'snapped' mode.

I strongly suggest to read this manga. So far, this is the only manga I read that made me check my bedside to see if anyone is standing there. I also occasionally looked back to see if she was standing there with a hammer asking me if I have a sister. Good God I would die right then and there without her having to kill me.

Rating: 10\10