Morning has broken and the 10,000 smiles.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day

That’s the last line of the song made famous by Cat Stevens, now aka Yusuf Islam since his conversion to Islam. It was a song i was introduced to back in primary school, if i remember correctly, a time when the English teacher wanted to impart some unique blend of artistry into her languid classes. The joys of school at the workplace today was indeed a welcomed experience.

Lethargically returning to office after a long weekend spent on doing pretty little (if anything at all), the sweet stroll from the open aired, full of sand, stone and greens parking lot to the lobby, then proceeding 10 floors above and into the doors of my office took me from a “walk and stagger” routine to my desk to a nourishing, rich and vibrant morning beyond my anticipation. Greeted by a smiling miss sakaki who seemed to be concentrating on work before she gets distracted by anyone else, and upon parking my bum and removing my heavy duty brick of a laptop and swiftly turned it on, sakaki-chan presented me with my most favourite Whitakers’ peanut slab bar.

“Happy Belated Birthday,” she said with an ever gracious smile. My consciousness has drifted to an otherworldly plane.

As i paced about to the toilet and arranging stuff and whatnot, the bubbly sakaki unmasked herself to reveal 10,000 smiles, sparkling pigtails and a plastic of 3 pcs of Krispy Kreme donuts she later reveal she had short-sold to us without her sister’s knowledge and said we’ll all be sharing it for breakfast.

Zap. It sure felt like we were suddenly back in high/middle/elementary school, where we, young innocent kids were contemplating about spending the good portions of the day dallying in the most insignificant times of the day. And to me, this, in reality, a so-called working adult was basking in a morning full of glory. Thank God for mornings like this.

And thank you miss sakaki for the peanut slab from Sydney. You don’t know how much that made my day.

Oh oh, last thought for the day:

Prayers move the mountains,

And smiles move the clouds.

Globetrotting?

I’ve been mulling about the places that i wish to go all around the world since forever. And now, in the 6 and a 1/2 short years left of my 20s, i believe that options will have to be narrowed, and sacrifices to be made. But which? To say my life is at its crossroads now would be Hollywooding things a little, but UK, Japan, Australia all littered with pros and cons as well as trying to carve a career in the place i call home; just how much to aim for? Before this becomes a “Dear Thelma,” post I guess more importantly, i’ve got to wake up and smell the coffee of reality, a sleepless passing of time, and walk in the consciousness of growing up. I don’t want to just get older.

And then, in the midst of thinking, i realised i’ve not asked myself. Where does God wants me to be? I closed my eyes and started asking. I turned off my music, and tried earnestly to hear something. But feedback from all those thinking, the pros and cons of everything i was ever considering like voices from the graves came out firing like AK47s in the hands of some insignificant terrorist making all the headlines in my head.

“Globetrotting?”

“You’re not ready.”

Withering finances

In other words, i’m in the RED for the past few months and the damage is beyond belief. Must start saving again. No dvds, books, trips and whatnot. George Orwell’s 1984 will have to keep my company for awhile, otherwise i will not achieve my savings target this year.

There’s much to aim for.

1. To increase propensity to save from 30% to 45% of net salary.
2. No vacations this year.
3. Books limited to George Orwell and CPA.
4. Movies limited to current collection. Cinema pleasures belong to indie flicks.
5. Drinking/clubbing expenses totally dissolved. There’s liquor and beer at home.
6. NO MORE CDs.
7. Gadgets only if necessary. (22″ monitor is a necessity, i’ve thought it over.)
8. Dreams of new webhosting to only begin next year.
9. Food expenditures to be cut in half.

9 step program to ensure i stay in healthy stead. You can do it too.

EVANGELION:1.0

 

Why am i such a kid?

The Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise is more than 10 years old now, and i’m still raving over a new theatrical release spanning 4 new movies which provides (yet) another alternate conclusion to the series. The original had moments of pure joy, despair and even disgust which really kept it in the minds of all its viewers. No international release has been slated just yet, although most fans would be closely watching. I’ve let my guard down and only figured this morning, looking at wiki, checking out the trailers, just a week over before the Japanese release date (1/9/2007).

Differences include:

According to an article in the February 2007 issue of Newtype USA, the first movie will end with Operation Yashima, an incident that takes place during Episode 6 of the original Evangelion TV series. The article also states that a brand new character to the Evangelion universe will be introduced in the second installment and that some of the differences between the original series and the new movies will take advantage of 3D CG technology not available when the series was produced back in 1995. Another story change is that Kaworu will make a much earlier appearance; in the series, he was not introduced until episode 24. – source: wikipedia

Well now, if you’ve watched the original series, you probably would get excited all over again. It’s a real emotional roller-coaster as you dive deep into each character’s thoughts. Just when will this reach Malaysian shores?

***

I did my best. Even after reading in TheStar how StarHub, a leading ISP in Spore was forced to blow on its users who have illegally downloaded animes and dampen the sales of Odex, Singapore’s largest anime retailer/provider who will take action with fines of around SGD5,000. I do not know if TMNet would ever do that, since its users can’t even use a BT client for more than 3 mins without causing all sorts of deathspells and plagues on your internet line, neither do i care. But being left in awe by Mind Game and Paprika reviews, not to mention a host of other non-mainstream animes which unluckily for this part of the world is not genuine appreciated, I have resorted to downloading both of those movies online. I swear i’ll purchase those dvds if they were available (affordably). If i atone for my downloading in that way, there’s no issue right?

Time for the greatest show on Earth!?

Paprika.

Living a double life, Dr Atsuko Chiba is a 29 year-old research psychotherapist working on the cutting edge of the scientific community. Her alter ego, 18 year-old Paprika, is a dream detective who enters people’s sleep at night to battle the source of their neuroses and anxieties. When an evil force steals her dream-entering device, waking life becomes over-run by nightmares and Paprika is the only hope for saving Tokyo from annihilation.  - MIFF

Now let me just add that to my wishlist. A wishlist that’s not been updated for awhile. Christmas’ coming soon, and i would love to strike a few of them out by then. Yes, the title appears to be the first words on Paprika, Satoshi Kon’s latest anime offering. Well now, anime self-respecting anime fan has to know that name, and at least watched one of the following 3 movies; Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers.

A brave tagline seen on IMDb, regardless of who put it there, is “This is your brain on anime” and the first thing that comes to mind was a similar mind-boggling anime, Mind Game. It goes beyond artistic elements and metaphors, blending the craziness of what you can do with animations and just fudging with you mind. Thus, Mind Game, i suppose. Paprika seems to explore something of a more coherent plot or idea or whatever you like to call it. It was shown on the Melbourne Film Festival, and i can’t believe that it’s been a year now since i was in Melbourne having the time of my life overexposing my eyes to films of all languages and genres.

I’m no artist, and though life may not seem that way, i agree with Jean Luc Godard that a film has 3 necessary elements; a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessary in the said order.

“This head movie is cunningly designed to mess up minds.” – Japan Times.

***

Another interest bit. For some reason i ticked the section GSC In’tl screens Newsletters when signing up as a member there, and to my greatest surprise, my curiousity in actually opening the email which i usually delete without a 2nd thought reaped a sorta of a magical gem which i thought i had lost about one year ago. The three words i saw was “Linda Linda Linda“. Thank you GSC for having this Japanese Film Festival, though it might not be much.

At least there’s something from Hirokazu Kore-eda!

***

Even more of interesting bits.

A reflective day, where i blab a whole lot with miss sakaki, had a lot of cheese and then regretting it when i look into the mirror, i finally realised, at the end of the day, while typing the few paras above that today marks 1 year i’ve been back in Malaysia. Not that it really matters to anyone anyway. But one year on, have i decided what i really want? sakaki-chan was saying that even she doesn’t know (yet), and i can’t say i am relieved. I mean, when i look at all those shiny happy people who seem to know where they are going, i’d really love to know if where they is really where they wanna go?

It’s still early days in life when i think about it again. And i think i am beginning to be able to map out what i really want. I just need the Lord’s help.

Then as it was, then again it will be…

Though the course may change sometimes, rivers always reach the sea. Well she said that when guys are in a group, their IQs don’t add up. She suggested that we even share just one person’s IQ! It became far more apparent that same night, when i was lazing at the garden of my friend’s house, that the 3 of us were having the most senseless conversations, and mind you, enjoying it. We talked about high school like we were literally still high school kids. 3 hours of the most meaningless and senseless of ideas and topics. I think she’s just about right.

hmm?

hmm.. i’ve looked at my own blog time and again over the past couple of weeks, and reading the murky waters that is called ‘fiction writing’ and its semblance of a rioting mind working in a box. I’ve read “Alison Foley” and “Under You” songs by Better Than Ezra from which the stories were based on, and each reading makes me feel like tweaking it. But the split-second ideas that come and go were unrecorded, and, with the 4th and 5th parts of a story already fully developed and thought out, changing the 2nd and 3rd parts might be a little tricky. Not that i care, or that you would mind, but time, like money, is always scarce.

It will be done over again. Until then, the original will remain.

***

Enough bout the selfish me. I’ve just came back from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, again. It was actually a pretty rewarding trip, I didn’t do all the greatest work in the job, but i did what i would have wanted to do from the start. And that can only be a good thing. It was a good opportunity to take a look at the KPIs of a company, breaking ‘em down and analysing it. I’m not master of statistics/sampling, linear/nonlinear functions/ and probability but no such complicated measures were involved. Although if i had the time, i would love to do something like that.

There is still much to learn.

I didnt finish my book, even with an entire month of reading before sleeping as i mostly crush and bend my book after dozing off from reading a few pages. And now i’m even looking for a new one, not the deeply profound/confounding book i had lent my friend, but something satirical. Like Catch-22.

I had found out the reason why Lep Zeppelin was the biggest band in the world during its prime. For me, even without my life’s annotations scribbled in my mind, Ten Years Gone just blows Kashmir and Stairway to Heaven away. It just gets to you. And now it’s repeating itself in my Media Player, morning, day and night; office, car and room.

Lastly, i need exercise. 

Have a good day!