Magic? Coincidence? or The Will of God?

If it had not been for the phone call that came in not more than 6 hours ago, the title for my blog post today would have been "Farewell - The Art of Magic".

Just as of 2 days ago. After some heavy thoughts and consideration. I came to the conclusion.... to quit Magic. The reasons to quit were obvious, why? I guess I can say that the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.


When I first started magic, it was the hope, the creativity, the passion, and that sheer feeling that shoots through your spine when you see the magic happen... that drove me, made me learn, and strive to be better, do better. Soon, I started performing magic myself, first to close friends, then to family, and moving on to more classmates, and as 'presents' during people's birthdays....

But then, as all things improve, demands went up, expectations grew, people wanted to see more, more stunning, more obvious, more impossible. People who have seen one will wave you off with a "I've seen that one, show me another"; People who didn't know how to appreciate would grab the pack of cards from your hands and scrutinize each card to check for tricks and cheats.

Furthurmore, I lacked the courage to perform in the street, and this led to a lack of audience, a lack of exposure, and consequencially the lack of experience.

Besides that, after practicing magic for some time.... I came to realise, I had a problem, with the most important instruments I use during my performances: My Hands. I had hand tremors. Even when I'm holding a soup spoon and just slurping the soup out of it, my hands tremble; When I hold a fishball at the end of a pair of chopsticks, my hands shake; Magic performances didn't make things better, with the added excitement, nervousness and stress, sometimes my hands trembled so much that I would drop cards and perform wrong tricks.

Lastly, magic wasn't a cheap sport. Well, its cheap in a sense that all you need is a deck of cards (in MY case), and a more expensive deck of cards if you're trying to go pro (like me ^^). But what not many people know is magic takes a LOT of time. I used to spend like 5 hours a day with a deck of cards in my hands when I first started.... then 4 ~ 3 hours when I was more skilled. With that much time spent on magic, and money spent on cards, I thought that I just couldn't afford it anymore.


Anyway, that was all what I thought YESTERDAY. And I was going to declare my retirement from magic today, in a form of a blog post.


At 7pm TODAY, of ALL THE DAYS, a phone call came in, asking whether I can still perform, and whether I would like to perform (Oh of course I would like.... if I could), with that, all my intentions of quitting magic were swayed as if a 7th degree Earthquake hit them.


And now, I have one week to decide. To perform? or Not?

Such irony.... was it magic? was it a coincidence? or was it the will of God?

A Week in Bird's Life

Having been tired of seeing tags and tags again and again.... I kinda decided instead..... to make one of my own, to help ME get to know my own self better.... and to let you guys know more about myself too. I'm not sure whether anyone else came across such a tag before, but lets just say I thought this up on my own.

So here goes: A Week in Bird's Life.

Write down amount of time you spend doing what, for a normal week in your life.

In a week (168 hours), I spend:

• about 63 hours sleeping (naps included)
  
• approximately 20 hours on Maple, doing nonsensical stuff...
  
• another 20 hours in front of the computer, surfing the web, chatting, watching movies, learning new stuff, or just killing time... (out of this time, I think about 1 hour on facebook, ^.^, I'm pretty proud of that I guess)
  
• 15 hours or less in classes, lectures, labs...
• average 14 hours of day dreaming, thinking about life and everything else to it.
  
• about 7 hours purely listening to music. I'm a person whom.... when I listen to music, I do ONLY that.... I don't play games and listen, do work as I listen, I don't like interruptions in my music, and I enjoy just listening to it alone = )
• overall 7 hours spent on food and eating.
• 30 ~ 45 mins on vehicles a DAY, that makes 4 hours spent on transport.
  
• maybe 4 hours in the toilet, everything included.
• 3 hours walking and loafing around campus.
  
• 1 1/2 hours walking to and from the bus stop.
• 1 1/2 hours wasted lying semi-conscious on bed after the alarm rings in the morning.
  
• 1 hour wondering what to study.... and ending up not studying....
• 1 hour for "Transition period", which is when I think of what to do next, where to go, what to eat, and the normal everyday questions.
• 1 hour dressing up/changing/getting ready, to go out, to sleep, or anywhere.
  
• and then there's the 30 minutes I spend hunting/killing ants.
• 30 minutes doing laundry?
• another 30 minutes doing household stuff...
• 30 minutes spent with my camera.
  
• 20 minutes climbing up and down the staircase to my home, going to the kitchen, getting water... etc...
• 15 minutes typing text messages (sms)
  
• 10 minutes wasted locking and unlocking the door a week.
• around 7 minutes a week collecting my thoughts in between actions.
• and..... 5 minutes counting my money.

That all adds up to a total of about 165 hours and 27 minutes. And the remaining of the time... I can't really remember what else I do, but I guess the rest of that time is spent on other stuff that I do differently each week, ^.^


So long.

I wish to tag.... everyone actually.... but since I can't, I'll make it: everybody that sees this = )

It's Tiring, being Different.

Living the same life as everyone else, being the same as everyone else, would seem to be dull and boring. To me, that seems to be the very case. And so, all these time, I've unconsciously been striving for a different life, however, as far as I realise, it isn't something I do on purpose, it's not something I like, neither is it something I want.


Ever since I was a kid, I lived alone with my mom. While the neighbour's children played Video games and watched tv, I played with Lego and self taught myself how to make slingshots; When parents had maids to take care of their children when they weren't around, I entertained myself with household stuff when my mom was out to work (and so I've dismantled, spoilt, and broke quite a lot of things when I was young).

Some students had the luxury of having their parents wait for them after school for pickup, and others had school-buses rent for them, I spent most of my time staying back in school for hours to wait for my ride home, in the meantime, I hung around and saw for myself what made a school a school; While secondary school students were busy with studies or getting lost with puppy love, I found myself deeply interested in making bombs and learning new skills; As high school students, most people studied, slept early, and prepared for their future. Me however, lived as a night owl and used the rest of my time learning stuff some people never knew existed.



Life was interesting for me. At least on the surface it was. And in was different.

But on the other side of that difference, was a burden to carry with it.



I've never wanted to live an ordinary life. I didn't want just to be born, study, graduate, work, earn a living, have a family, grow old, and rest in peace. It's just.... too simple.... too simple for me. To me, there's so much about the world itself that just living like that wouldn't be sufficient for me. I wanted something different.



But being different isn't easy. Being different makes you separate, it isolates you, it changes you, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Nevertheless, it turns you into something far from reality, unreachable, untouchable. At the same time, you realise that there's no one else doing the same things you do, thinking the same way you do. The feeling of having no one else walking the same path with you, its something weird.... it feels wrong, yet it feels right, but still, sometimes it's not something we can choose.... it's just there for us.



I've always thought that.... maybe I should just live a normal life like everyone else, find a job, go to work, have a family, age, and end up 6 feet under.

But then again, I'll always end up asking myself: "Are you okay with that?"

.
.
.
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".... .... .... .... No.... ... I don't think I ever will be."

The Love of Siam (2007)

Well, most of you who know me would know that I'm not overly impressed by at least 90% of the movies out there. As half a movie critic I would call myself, movies that I find really good are only a handful, mainly because I like its plot, the acting, the directing, and other aspects of it. Few movies actually make it into my top lists.... but well, to name a few all-time favourites are "The Matrix", "V for Vendetta", "Transformers", "Sex and the City", "Marley and Me", "Saving Private Ryan", and "The Click".

But then again, once in a blue moon, comes a movie SO good, that I've decided to write an advert cum short review for it. Its a rare thing for me to actually review a movie.... in fact I've never done it before. However I simply feel that this movie is worth the effort. Without saying more....

Introducing:

The Love of Siam (2007)

Directed by: Chookiat Sakveerakul

Main Starring:
Witwisit Hiranyawongkul
Mario Maurer

Brief introduction of movie history: (skip this part if you're not interested in the facts)
I'm guessing that nearly none of you would've heard of this movie before. Well, mainly because it's a Thai movie, and secondly, it's not aired in Malaysia, and my guess is it never will be.

Well, this romance category movie was released in 2007 in Thailand, by the director Chookiat Sakveerakul, whom was apparently known for producing Thriller and Horror movies.... so this movie seemed like something of a surprise to everyone. However, it still managed to score a big hit in the theaters, although there was some controversy to it, with people accusing the director of 'misleading' the audience into watching it. What this controversy is, you'll find out if you read on, hehe.

After the release of this movie in Thailand, it received such an amazing response from Taiwan that they subbed the movie in Chinese for Taiwan audiences and was released in 2008 in Taiwan.

In year 2009, somehow, a single copy of the movie managed to find its way into Singapore, and soon turned up as a huge hit there too. And now, it seems that this movie is now internationally known as one of Thailand's Best Movies in 2007.

The two starrings, Witwisit (nicknamed Pchy/Pitch) and Mario, after their debut in this movie where shot to super stardom and became thai Superstars overnight.


Introduction to movie:
The theme for this movie, as obvious as it can be, is stated in the title. L . o . v . e.

However, this isn't a normal romance story between a girl and a guy, its up and downs, and an ending. This movie portrays about Love in General, not just the love between two lovers, but how and what love can do in relationships, love between friends, families, and love that transcends throughout space and time (this last one might sound a bit science fictional, haha, but no, its not like Star Trek or anything like that). You might not understand what I meant by that, but it'll soon get clear if you watch the movie.

This story is also more about how love could turn into a single moving force which affects the family, friends, motivates, cultivates, and make someone capable of doing things they never thought of before.

The Love of Siam is actually about two childhood friends, Tong (Mario Maurer), and Mew (Witwisit Hiranyawongkul, or a.k.a Pitch), that were separated when Tong's family decided to move after his sister went missing. They manage to meet each other after again many years being apart, and from there.... the story really develops from then on .


As for the controversy I mentioned earlier, this movie was categorized as teen romance, and that was all.

Still.... I'm not sure whether you guessed what the controversy was about yet, but in case you haven't.... here's a hint.

From left, Mew (Pitch) and Tong (Mario)

Haha.... lets just say.... there's something gay about it. So, a word of caution for the narrow minded. This movie is not for you. This also led to the movie taking the two ends of the spectrum in rating. "Very good"... and at the same time "Very bad", because the narrow minded ones couldn't believe they were 'cheated' into watching a gay movie they say.

However, I'll tell you guys that this is the one and only "no skin shown" gay movie I think I've seen out there. No 18 SX content, no cheesy talk.... and to top it all off.... it's still the BEST I've seen so far. Instead of the usually highlighted 'hot love scenes' in all the other gay movies, this one served to display the pure innocence love could bring about.

Anyway, I decided that I'm not gonna go into the synopsis for it, since I'd rather you watch it yourself if you're interested rather than me giving you spoilers. Rather, I'd give you some of my opinions on the movie.

*****
Honestly, I really really DO recommend this movie to Everyone, whether you're straight, gay, girls who are just interested in seeing the two cute starrings in the movie, whoever it is. This is a must watch. Just watching this movie changed my view in many things itself.

The plot for the movie is perfect by itself, made even more interesting when coupled by the spectacular acting and its two lovable starrings. The acting itself is REALLY Down-To-Life. Unlike almost all of other movies in which actors overact, show expressions that you'll almost NEVER come across in real life, bring out the movie's atmosphere through anger, sadness, sweet talk and more..... this movie is totally different.

They managed to capture exactly the expressions we would show in reality, no overreacting, no corny lines at the wrong time, and most of all, you rarely see the conventional expressions such as 'she's gonna blow' and 'jealousy' or 'sad' expressions used.... rather it's more life-like, like a real scenario that we would commonly experience in real life.

Besides that, considering the fact that this movie was the first movie for both the two leading actors Mario and Pitch, they played their roles perfectly and flawlessly I could say. It isn't easy acting as a gay character, even more so since this was their first time acting.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the songs and soundtracks used in the movie are personally sung by Pitch, the actor himself. And if you thought Thai songs suck before.... think again.... or you should try listening to the songs from THIS movie.

There're actually so many more things I could say about the movie... its camera angles, its scenes, the way they put it all together, and much more. But as a common audience, I'll say that I'd give this movie a 9/10 rating, ^_^.


The only drawback I can think of right now for this movie..... is its unusually LONG runtime. There are official versions of this movie as I know it, an original 4 hour run, a Director's Cut, 2 hours 50 minutes, and finally the International Version of 2 hours 11 minutes.

In the director's cut, it took almost 30 minutes just to Get to the starting credits... which I feel is long enough to make people walk out of the theater. But then again, I really can't think of how they could shorten the movie without losing its mood and feel.

Personally I watched the 2 hour 50 minute Director's Cut and I think that's the best, because in my honest opinion. The 4 hour one however would be too much for most people. But if you're impatient and can't sit for long.... I guess the 2 hour run would suffice.
*****



Sorry if you found the review boring, haha. Because I wrote it in the middle of the night and my mind wouldn't spin properly.... so it might sound a bit sleepy.

So that's it for the review.


Till I find something worthwhile to update.