Buzz for Studies - and the Oscars

I can't believe I've not been here for about two months.

But if this is to be my first blog entry of the year, then so be it: I can always make up for it with plenty of things to say.

First off, I'm very excited about the many things that are about to happen. Like the start of my second year in uni. It's going to be fun, even when it's a tougher year. It's time to get that brain back to its working state again instead of falling into a clunk of clogging machinery that only thinks but doesn't produce much.

Personally, I feel that I work much better under pressure, where deadlines are breathing down my neck and all I get are weary eyes, late nights and jab-jab-jabbing at the keyboard until you're absolutely sure you've written a masterpiece of an assignment before you send it off.

Classes don't start until Tuesday, which still gives me tomorrow as my last day off.

The good news? It's Oscar day! Yay! XD





I told myself that I'd try to watch as many of the nominated movies for Best Picture this year before the big day itself. I suppose I'll have to close the list for now, which makes it a total of 5 films - hey, at least it's half of the entire list!

And while I've been having a blast, I've also thought about how these films I've seen will fare for the award-grabbing, and how they will turn out if they were real-life people walking the red carpet. They've all got personalities of their own, too.


Here's a good way to describe and allegorize my List of 5:

1. Inception - The dreamer; long-lost but never entirely forgotten

Don't be afraid to dream. That's what Christopher Nolan did when he created this awe-inspiring flick that makes just as much sense as my last Pyshics paper. But like the dreams it showcases all around, it's really original and won't get out of your head, floating about like some kind of a memory. The only problem is, it's being overshadowed by all the other great films which have made the nominee list, but perhaps it'll stand a chance at some of the lesser Oscar awards. Let's keep dreaming, folks.


2. Toy Story 3 - The big kid who's still young at heart
Growing up at the same time that the main character Andy does in the span of the three Toy Story movies, I definitely feel a sense of rekindled childhood and nostalgia coming back. Still, being the only exception amongst the other nominees, it stands out like the little kid amongst the more grown-up and mature films. Will win Best Animated Feature Film for sure, but unless you take away the kiddy ride with the training wheels, Best Picture will go to someone else.


3. The Social Network - The bad boy who likes to show off
Great story, a great deal of focusing on the guy who founded Facebook. I get it already. Will become a great discussion topic amongst media and communication students, I can tell. Okay, so you've bagged a number of Golden Globes, now back off and give the other films a fighting chance. Like Zuckerberg in the movie, it's not really about being an asshole; it's just trying real hard to be one.


4. Black Swan - The enigma that remains a shadow

A film that is so vivid and filled with imagery and meaning, it appears to be even darker than a Tim Burton movie. And BS stands out in the crowd with a great deal of unexplained eccentricity. Some may not be able to understand the depth of its context. And the rest will walk away feeling like they've missed out something very important, but just don't know where to put their finger on it. Plus, it's good to see another psych-horror film on the Oscar list ever since Silence of the Lambs. This film never leaves you, not once.


5. The King's Speech - The humble underdog with a regal status
I'm still blown away by how simple this film turned out to be, yet every second promised nothing more than the story of a leader that rose to fame. Who knew royal history could be that awe-inspiring? And I must admit - I felt a little tug at my heart with every second of the King's speech itself. Whether it was the accompanying music or the passion Colin Firth had, there's no denying what this film is going to bring to the round table. Long live the King!

The only thing I'm disappointed about is that I still never got to watch True Grit before the awards start pouring out. It really, really sucks.

Especially when there are only 6 cinemas in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley which are only showing this movie - and Pyramid and Summit aren't any of them. :(

To quote a comment I recieved on Facebook a while ago, perhaps a good reason why the cinemas haven't been so kind to allow such an accomodable facility is because of this:

They can't handle the awesomeness of Jeff Bridges and his gun-slinging ways. Yee-haw!

And though I may not be an expert predictor in films, here's my pick on who should win what at the Oscars:


Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Actor in a Supporting Role: Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Actress in a Supporting Role: Haley Steinfeld (True Grit)
I may be a little biased, but there has to be a reason why 14-year-old child stars don't often get the chance to win Oscars. Then again, I could be wrong.

Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3
If you had released your own animated film at the same time Disney and Pixar did so, get ready to give up and kiss your Oscar-winning dream goodbye.

Cinematography: The King's Speech

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky

Any director who makes you think and ponder really hard about what he is able to portray through his works definitely deserves a leaf in my book. Sorry Nolan, I would have picked you if not for the other greater films.

Film Editing: Black Swan

Original Screenplay: Inception

And finally, Best Picture: The King's Speech!

Well, I must be off to bed. Got to get up early if I want to catch this momentous event live and exclusive! I guess it will also make a good study case for any communication related subjects, too. :)

On another note, I shall attempt to write and finish another story before I hit the big 2-O. What's it about, I won't say - I've got to put it down first. ;)

Summing Up My Year - In Film

Well, this is it. This marks my final blog post.

Of 2010, that is.

It's really hard to sum up my year, but if I could make a comparison, I know exactly what to say:

The year 2010 has been the longest movie I've ever seen.

It started off quite well, with me having taken the next step in my education and gone on to university. A lot less bordered on the choice of subjects, and certainly a lot more leeway on the time and knowledge given.

Funny how I mentioned the word movie, because this year will always remind me of taking up Film and Television Studies. A small and minor elective, it may appear to be, but it has been the most memorable time I've ever had studying.

People have even came up to me and asked if I would be going into the film business.

Who knows? Perhaps I will do so. Hey, I'm even doing film screenplay in Screen Theories and Techniques next year!

There have been some bittersweet moments as well; the most I will remember is having known my Film Studies lecturer for only half a year. It wasn't exactly the same without having Mr. Ben around - like losing a good friend, but one that I wish I got to know a lot better.

And being a movie buff, this year has also marked probably the most number of movies I've seen ( I've made track of a list of films from last year, too).

Here's a quick list of the best films to grace the silver screen this year, in my opinion:

1. Inception: Keep dreaming, Christopher Nolan. The idea of crossing the levels of dreams and manipulating them may not be original, but it certainly seems that way when you make dreams become a reality in our eyes.

2. Let Me In: Bring back some of the long-forgotten ideologies of the vampire, make a twist on the original plot of a certain movie craze that really sucks, and you've got a tale of innocence that shares her name with evil.

3. Kick-Ass: Quite frankly, a movie that lives up to its title. Of course, the story's main focus is on Hit Girl, but that's why we're all into rated-18. Her tongue is just as sharp as her weapons she uses to cut down her enemies.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Nuff said with the first name. Though I hate David Yates for butchering the previous two movies, this one really lights the tip of the wand. Now let's all wait anxiously for Part 2.

5. Toy Story 3: A definite winner for Best Animated Picture. Disney never fails to inspire us with bringing back our childhood memories of our favourite toys. It's sad that we have to let them go sooner or later.

6. Legend of the Guardians: Happy Feet just takes to the skies with owls in its place. With the 3 Vs of violence, vivid and visuals in the storyline, the effects will simply take your breath away. Oh, and plenty of show-stealing characters to hoot about, as well.

I've also seen a great number of movies that were filmed in previous years, for the very first time.

A list that includes Carrie (1976), Rain Man (1988), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), The Orphanage (2007), and one of my favourites: American Psycho (2000).

I don't think I can beat the record for this list next year, but I sure as hell am going to try.

Oh yeah, this was also the year that I got myself into writing short stories. It surprised me that it was doing great on Facebook as well, which is why I'm making a New Year's Resolution to churn out more stories before I head back to uni again.

So for those who are reading this, yes, you'll definitely be getting a load to hear from me.

Happy New Year, everyone! :)

A Film (and Book) With Some Serious Bite

Halloween may have come and gone in one night, but that doesn't stop the creatures of the night from dominating our written pages and silver screens.

Enter Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let The Right One In, followed by its original Swedish film and the most recent American re-make Let Me In. Now that is a name that truly screams of one of the best vampire films I've seen in years.

Let's see: got your pints and gallons of blood? Check. Baring fangs and screaming blue murder? Check.

But a little girl who can balance the tips of innocence and evil like child's play? And the idea that evil is present everywhere, even in the thoughts of a child? Woah. Now that's two gold stars in my book.

The book itself has vividly penetrated my literal mind, not just for the amount of violence and gore, but the constant theme of child abuse (hint: expect to lean heavilly on pedophilia). Of course I expected the latter to be cut down in terms of visual screening, but there are all those moments of uncomfortable silences, creepy choir music, and what-the-hell-ah! moments that's enough to scare the living dead.

Oh, and you can forget all those crappy-saturated marble-like vampires that sparkle like diamonds in the sun and stalkers who like to watch you sleep at night. Seriously, is today's audience all about the new rise of the bloodsuckers we've grown to fear and admire?

If you're in serious need of some hauntingly new material, then ditch a certain phenomenon and go for this film. It's not just about the innocence and evil, it's a whole new storyline that will keep at your minds- forever.

10 Things I Learned From Watching: Alpha and Omega

Years and years of waiting for an all-wolf cast movie, and out comes Alpha and Omega. Sadly, this film falls behind as the runt of the pack.

Unless you're a purist believer in wolves, you might want to cringe as you watch this film. As much as the trailer says "We can eat together, but we can't, you know, howl together", you'll probably be agreeing by whimpering in pity instead at the end.

So, here are 10 things from the movie which might have just easily gone to the dogs:

1. Wolves do more than just howl; they burst out into song.

2. The moon brings out the show-biz performer in every wolf.

3. Alpha she-wolves have all the flexibility of Olympic gymnasts.

4. Eating too many berries will make you go high and hippie-like.

5. Male wolves have toilet issues and possibly smaller bladders than the females.

6. Don't leave frosting on your mouth, especially if you're a member of the canine family.

7. A piece of log equals one wild joyride.

8. Birds play golf in the hopes of getting, well, a birdie.

9. It is pointless to do a rain dance in the middle of a downpour.

10. If you want to bring down a pack of birds, howl completely out of tune.

Looks like there isn't the perfect wolf movie yet, so until then, guess we'll all be howling at the moon.

Madame Butterfly

In my world of dreams, I saw her.
The woman with the butterfly’s wings. The lady that carried death on the wind.
When I awoke the next morning, I thought of nothing but her. I remember it all clearly. How she grew younger with each passing minute. How the world seemed to change around her but she never did, not even for a second’s blessing.
I never quite got her out of my mind. But she wasn’t just a figment of my imagination.
She really does exist, you know.
You have to remember that it was she who did not come to me. For it would have made all the differences in the world.
I wouldn’t be here to tell you so.

There is a meadow somewhere in the field of dreams, where the air is fresh with the scent of after-rain, where you can see the high hills that stretch beyond the horizon, and the sky is filled with butterflies; thousands of them in a myriad menagerie of colours.
The souls of all mankind.

She makes her home amongst the fragile things; she plays with them and sings to them when they are feeling lonely.
And when she descends upon the mortal world, she unfolds her wings. They are like paper fans; delicate and etched with pretty colours, while the tips are rimmed with shades of black.
Black was never related to death. It is the colour of change.

Death, on the other hand, is a rainbow of colours. She has seen life flash before her eyes in streams of red, which is why she cries pools of blue misery. Yet there is the promise of hope that shines warm and yellow, for life is green when it begins anew, like fresh spring grass. And then there are all the rest of the colours blended onto this easel – the little things that make our lives meaningful, because the world will be but a blank canvas without them.

Death isn’t all about a bed of skulls or an angel of stone towering over another piece of stone.
That’s the reaper’s job.
No one’s seen him, of course. But if she exists, then perhaps, so does he.

You think you know what death is because you’ve stayed up all night with weary eyes, standing guard over the lifeless but ominous casket.
You’ve been led to believe that by putting up a masquerade of sympathy and tears, you would be accepted into a society that has embraced death the way the blind hold one another.
But she’ll let you in on a secret – something you don’t know about yourself.

The truth is, in the eyes of death, we are as worse, if not the same, as the common moth who plays the fool; a parody of the original thing itself. For the moth is by far a greater scavenger than the vulture, and while it does not share the same diet of flesh as the bird of carrion, this agent of death becomes a plague of deceit.
It deceives us all.

We appear to be as dull and as lifeless as the faded and washed-out colours of the moth’s wings in the face of death. But given the opportunity, we are creatures drawn so easily to other people’s sorrows. We feed on them because it makes us feel better than our fellow neighbour who is wretched with misfortune.

We are moths in nature; drawn to the flames of anguish and grief.

It pains her to watch as the humans grow into trees of their former selves; all gnarly and wrinkled, and slowly perishing on the inside. She has decided that she too wants to die, but the extent of her mortality stretches as far as the end of the universe.
A line on her face might disappear every now and then; her skin grows smoother than a cat’s warm pelt, but that’s all there is to her youth. After all, beautiful butterflies can’t exactly crawl back into their cocoons and start all over as grubby little caterpillars.

But when a soul departs from its body, it emerges from a shell of its former self. It is free of pain, sickness and death; free as the wings it has now grown on its back.
And when it flies, it comes into her gentle grasp.
She cradles it in her palms as she would a newborn babe, and sings of sweet songs and promises as its little wings kiss the hands of the maiden who hides her woes.
There will be plenty of butterflies to play with in my garden of dreams, she whispers. Come with me, and we will fly away to a place where happiness is free and innocence is bliss.
And I think you know the rest.

When you are old and all alone, take some time to shut yourself away from the chaos that is the world around you. Listen to what the songs of silence have to say.
If the only sound you hear is the slow beating of your heart, listen, listen carefully, and perhaps you will hear the gentle patter of wings flapping in the distant breeze – that is the sound of life that is close to its cyclic end.
And it doesn’t matter if it happens in April’s showers or December’s frost, but eventually, she will come. She wants to know you like her best friend.

When you are gone and your children’s children are gone, though I may not think about you, but she will always.

She never forgets.

300? Not Quite, But I'm Already There

My limbs still feel like they're straining from all that weight I've been carrying around with me. Weight that can be measured in books, that is.

It's been my first visit ever to the Popular Book Fair convention, and I must say, the experience is quite the heart attack. Seriously.

I died and went to book heaven in that hour of temporary happiness.

No pictures allowed to be taken, but you really have to be there to experience it for yourself.

So now I'm adding these new books into my collection. It's true that I now have over 300 and counting, but some of them are encyclopedias, or they don't exactly belong to me. Because in my family, I am the keeper of many reads.

Here's what I brought back as a souvenir of my visit:

1 & 2. Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Journey and The Rescue by Kathryn Lasky. Two titles to a follow-up of the first book I read and enjoyed many years ago. With the upcoming Legend of the Guardians movie, I will adhere to my code of "read the book before you watch the movie".

3. The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman. The new paperback has a very cool-looking cover, and it's suppose to tell you about a guy named Cale who might destroy the world. Maybe he will.

4. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. Hardcover which costs me only RM17 instead of 79. Very good praise and blurbs for a story of mystery and love from many different countries. Has a storyteller's point of view too.

5. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Taken from the synopsis: "I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the ministrels weep. You may have heard of me." Isn't that enough to make you want to read it?

6. The Shining by Stephen King. Ah yes, another of the King of horror writers' works falls into my hands. Which brings my S.K collection up to 12.

To me, I say: Happy Reading! :)

25 - A Random Number for Random Things

Something I did on Facebook out of complete boredom. Basically, it's one of those 25 things about yourself, and you've got to tag 25 people to do it.

So I thought long and hard. In the end, this is what I came up with:

1. The reason I chose to do this is because it's becoming quite the craze on my Facebook page, and I was inspired to write one of my own.

2. Having said that, I get frustrated when I can't think of something new to write.

3. My height is 6 feet and 3 inches (because so many people have been asking me this, I feel like a girrafe!)

4. I may not be street smart, but I am book smart! :)

5. People have told me that I have an unusual ability to stay calm in a dire situation (but mostly, it's during exams).

6. I have a fascination for pictures of predators (lions, tigers, wolves, those of the mammal class etc.), because there's something mysteriously beautiful about these deadly creatures.

7. If I had to name 5 of my favourite authors who have shaped my life, they are: Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Erin Hunter, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling. :)

8. I am a fan of the Warriors series, and an avid collector of the books (28 titles in my collection right now, and still counting).

9. I never had the chance to do an ISU (Independent Study Unit) for English in college, but if I did, I would have based it on Watership Down by Richard Adams. One of my truly favourite reads.

10. My fingers are always counting the number of syllables in every sentence, song, or title (book and movie).

11. For the rest of the year, I will not eat any octopus, in respect of the great Paul who was ALWAYS RIGHT and led Spain to victory. Yes, I'm a Paul supporter.

12. I took up kenjitsu (samurai sword fencing) for a year in college. So I do know the basics of attacking and defending with a sword.

13. I'm really interested in Greek mythology, and that's because it started with me finding out about my namesake (Jason who led the Argonauts on the quest of the Golden Fleece).

14. During my college graduation ceremony, the organizers mentioned that I would be furthering my studies in Biomedical Science. Boy, were they wrong!

15. Until today, I'm still wondering what the hell was I doing taking Physics in secondary school.

16. I know how to burp at will.

17. The most annoying sound I've ever heard is the sound of Velcro. You might as well just rip my ears off.

18. I sleep with 4 books or more on my bed. No surprises.

19. Whenever I'm writing a story or an assignment on Word Document, the word count MUST end with any even number or 5. Otherwise, I get all nervous.

20. I'm the oddball in my family. What did you expect? No one's perfect!

21. According to my birth cert, I'm born in the year of the Goat, but also in the hour of the Snake. How ironic is that?

22. I like cheese, but ONLY on pizza and pasta. And I don't eat those Kraft singles or square pieces, ergh!

23. I have two blogs - Jayson's Lexicon and The Hopeful Storyteller. But it's the first one that I put more of my heart and soul into.

24. To date, these are the only movies that I have seen twice in the cinema: Goblet of Fire, Bolt (in 3D), and The Karate Kid.

25. I think I might be the most boring person on the planet, but then again, it's just me.

* Bonus 26. I believe that you should challenge the ordinary. And that's not just me for practicing my writing. But I learn to avoid cliches and stereotypes.