After Hours

If anyone had to ask me about the most eventful year of my life, it would have to be this year, 2012.

And I'm not just talking about this being the supposed end of the world (that so graciously takes place before I even get to celebrate my birthday) or anything to do with my having to take the As (which was reasonably challenging if you cared to know), but so many more things that have added intensely to my life experience. Sometimes I don't feel like writing. I used to say all the time that I sought books out for that escapist feeling with the exception of chick lit, but somehow, I've also come to realise that there if is such thing as good rap music, then certain chicklit novels are also acceptable.


raghh. I'm in a very rambly sort of mood today, but since I haven't touched this blog thing for months, I figured what the heck. Sometimes I forget that I'm merely adding to the vast amount of global internet traffic that will one day jam. My brother assures me this won't happen because regularly and legitimately used internet sites like blogger or facebook or twitter account for only about 10% of the whole web while the so-called "deep internet" i.e. all those disgusting porn/ child abuse websites and various other amoral ones account for 90% of the web and you haven't seen the web crash yet, have you. I asked my brother how he knew and he said he'd been 'reading up' which doesn't say much if you think about it. In any case, I don't really want to know what he knows... so. I have also realised that my previous comments may be misinterpreted as meaning that my brother visits the deepnet but I doubt that's the case (to clear up any misunderstanding).

In other news, I watched the final twilight instalment. It wasn't as bad as I'd imagined, which is very disappointing because I wanted to laugh and jeer at a bad movie. But, it had all the pre-requisites of a pseudo-interesting movie; like gore (they're vampires sheesh), sex (wth) and more violence (many heads were lost during the movie). Also, it was pretty funny that characters in the movie pretty much sniffed each other to check each other out.

Example 1:

Bella: *sniffs Jacob* pheww. I see what everyone was talking about. You really stink.


Uh huh. And that's how you end an otherwise fairly abnormal friendship to begin with.

But the major problem I had with it was that characters weren't dressed for the weather. For instance, if someone from Singapore were to visit the U.S in winter, they would be wearing coats. But no, in twilight, visitors from the heart of the Brazilian jungle battle it out in the snow with vampires wearing black velvet cloaks, wearing stuff Pocahontas would wear i.e. sleeveless dresses. The Brazilian dude had it the worst. He was wearing this ridiculously short skirt and no shirt. It made me feel pretty bad for the actor really. Sure, I get it, they're vampires, they don't feel anything, they drink blood, they're literally cold-blooded, but they sure don't dress for the occasion huh.

I guess not dressing for the occasion is the same as asking how come the Doctor speaks English and the rest of the aliens understand him. My pet theory is that it has something to do with the Tardis, but of course we could go the Edgar Rice Burroughs way (author of Tarzan, and if you're into pulp sci-fi thangs, A Princess of Mars -which is sodamnawesome) and concur that aliens rarely open their mouths to speak because they communicate via brainwaves/ thoughts OR we could just say it's 'cause he's the Doctor and everyone listens to the Doctor because he's the Timelord and Matt Smith is so afhahfiik-ly cute:

SMITH: But how can Doctor Who walk by in Sherlock Holmes?

Interviewer: I don’t know.

SMITH: Because he’s fictional.  Doctor Who could, but it’s just nah, it’s you know—and The Doctor with Watson, he’d be like, “Cheer up mate.  It’s not that bad, I know you’re really clever, but there’s an alien over there, let’s go and talk.  He’s got wiggly bits on.”


And yep, I'm still waiting for Season 8 to come out before I finish season 7 just so I don't finish all the episodes at one go and so that I won't be left stranded like when I finished book 5 of A Game of Thrones : A Dance with Dragons (by George R.R. Martin) AND IT ENDED ON A CLIFF HANGER AND NOW I'LL PROBABLY HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL I'M 30 TO FINISH THE WHOLE SERIES BECAUSE HE HAS TWO MORE BOOKS BEFORE IT'S FINISHED AND YOU CAN'T RUSH AN ARTIST. Understandably, I was remarkably upset but somewhat relieved because I was so addicted and that was like near the As. It's just that the series is so wonderfully fantastic! The characters are utterly believable, it's a hard, unflinching look at the brutality and violence of war and human nature set in a fantasy world that spans 7 kingdoms jostling for the Iron Throne, and somewhat medieval with knights and all but also the magic that every fantasy series needs, and plot twists say, AT THE END OF EVERY BLOODY CHAPTER. Reading the first book made me want to cry because I was so involved, and that is very rare. It's a tremendously good book.

ALSO DID I MENTION THAT THERE IS A GAME OF THRONES BOARD GAME?!

Also, to summarise the cultural exploits of my year (meaning the books and TV shows/ movies I've read/ re-read/ watched and am about to recommend):

Suspenseful Books:
Long Day's Journey into Night (Eugene O'Neill)
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians Series (Rick Riordan) actually surprisingly good

• The Lightning Thief
• The Sea of Monsters
• The Titan's Curse
• The Battle of the Labyrinth
• The Last Olympian

-A Song of Ice and Fire series

• A Game of Thrones
• A Clash of Kings
• A Storm of Swords
  • Part 1 Steel and Snow
  • Part 2 Blood and Gold
• A Feast for Crows
• A Dance with Dragons
  • Part 1 Dreams and Dust
  • Part 2 After the Feast

The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) also influenced the making of Revenge-that awesome TV show
The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas) hey it's actually quite good
Dracula (Bram Stoker) for the real scary vampire deal
Gods of Gotham (Lyndsay Faye)--It's a crime thriller if you like that sorta thing


TV Shows:
Revenge (season one) I've heard season two's a real bummer which makes me sad but I will watch it
Doctor Who
Modern Family
Adventure Time ('nuff said)

TV Shows I need to watch:
Revenge (season 2)
Doctor Who
Sherlock
A Game of Thrones (according to sources, it's very gory. I'm so scared but I need to watch this)
Suits (season 2)
Downton Abbey (season 2 onwards-although I'm getting impatient and I just want Mary and Matthew to get together)

Movies:
21 Jump Street (funniest shit I've watched in a long while)
ParaNorman (it's so sweet and it made me tear up)
The Dark Knight trilogy (Because Christopher Nolan has an epic brain)

• Batman Begins
• The Dark Knight
• The Dark Knight Rises

You are the Apple of my eye (eh com can't type chinese but it's the na xie nian wo men yi qi zhui de nu hai movie. It's quite good say)

I've also watched An Education and while Carey Mulligan is lovely, I don't understand why everybody loves it so. I didn't get the moral of the story or feel anything besides the fact that Carey Mulligan acts as a clever and very pretty schoolgirl about to take her A levels except that she's conned because she's so quirky. Made me feel inadequate haha. I guess it's like Breakfast at Tiffany's- while I thought Audrey Hepburn was very good, I just didn't like the story. I guess I have to read Truman Capote then.

Movies to watch:
Casablanca
Death of a Salesman
Argo
Frankenweenie (since I've watched Paranorman, why not right?)
Perks of being a Wallflower
My Fair Lady (because the play ended off poorly and I want a happy ending hahaha what was GBS thinking!)

HOMG STARS IS COMING TO SINGAPORE :B