I think the Bourne Trilogy could possibly be the best spy/thriller movies ever made. The first two Bourne film; The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy were awesome. Good action sequences, great plot, great action and most of all, a focus on character over action.
And The Bourne Ultimatum is no different, it dovetails perfectly into the series. And like the previous two films, the best part of it was how they focus on telling the stories of the characters and adding on to what was established in the previous two films.
The film once again has great action as well. The chase scenes in Tangier and New York City were really by the edge of you seat stuff. But the one scene which I loved the most was the spy vs spy one set at Waterloo station. That was such an awesome scene that the only way to describe it would be to say "go watch it."
I think the key to the success of these films was how they made the stories about the characters. In action films, the emphasis has often been on action over story telling (take that Michael Bay) but I have always felt the best action films have been those that managed to tell a great story about interesting characters and that was what this film had in bundles. You not only get charged up by the action but you get drawn in to the story and you feel for the characters. Even the James Bond films are starting to move towards that direction but they still have a long way to go before they can match up to the three Bourne film.
This is one film that is definitely worth a watch. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I think its worth watching twice! To me, this film was everything that Transformers failed to be. 9.5/10.
p/s: I love Julie Stiles! She's gorgeous. She lights up the movie....
Thursday 30 August 2007
Arsenal: Champions League Football
Yes! We beat Sparta Prague 3-0 at home and that means another year of Champions League Football. The team seems to be playing well this year even though we lost some key players. But I still think the squad is rather thin. Hopefully we bring in one or two more players before the transfer window closes but so far so good.
Wednesday 22 August 2007
A poem for today I
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry :
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.
~ Robert Herrick,
'To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time'
Here is a poem that I really like. Enjoy. :)
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry :
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.
~ Robert Herrick,
'To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time'
Here is a poem that I really like. Enjoy. :)
Tuesday 21 August 2007
"Condemnant Quod Non Intellegunt"
I happen pass a friend's blog post one day because I was bored and was looking for things to read. While reading one of her post, I was sparked by something that she wrote. I am not going to go into what it was specifically simply because every one is entitled to his/her own views on things. I told one of my good buds, Jo, about it and she was not a happy camper (Btw, the friend who blogged it was a mutual friend of ours and Jo's kinda a touchy person).
Anyway, we spoke about it on MSN and that was when I thought I'd address the issue which bugged me to begin with: conformity and the death of the individual.
I have said many times on this blog of mine that I am a Christian, not a perfect one, but one that tries to be better all the time. I have my good days and my bad days. My good habits and my bad ones. But one thing I have always maintained through the best of my abilities is my own personal ideas and ethics. What I see to be right and what I see to be wrong. Now, without getting into a huge spiritual debate about this, lets just say that yes, the Holy Spirit leads and guides but it is Man who must make the choice to follow. I believe everyone can agree on that. (Anyone who doesn't, stop reading now and go to some other more Holy webpage)
What angers me most about most Right-Wing Churches (are there any other kind?) that exist in Singapore is the way they often criticize something without understanding it; and often without even having looked into it. Lets take Harry Potter for example. Personally, I have nothing against it. It's just a story book. Yes, it talks about wizards and witches and magic, but the way the Church paints it is that the book is pure evil because it preaches the above-mentioned topics. Now, I find this unfair. How can the Church support works such as The Lord of The Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and yet be so against Harry Potter? Both of those series deal with magic. Gandalf is a wizard for crying out loud. Is it simple because both authors of those books are Catholic and Christian respectively? So are we saying we are not against the story but rather the person who wrote it? I mean, make you arguments and you stands clear.
Why can't we take what's good about those stories and focus on that instead? I mean, if you look at Harry Potter. What is one simple basic Biblical principal that can be found in it? It's not hard. It's the love one has for his friends. If you take the story as a whole, you can summarise it into one single verse in the Bible: "Greater love has no other than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ~ John 15:13". Am I the only one who sees this? I am not even a theologian, much less a pastor. Maybe instead on jumping on the band wagon of speaking before understanding, we could perhaps exercise a little more patience and restraint?
I my humble opinion, wisdom without knowledge is simply bullshit and knowledge without wisdom is just facts. Maybe we should actually put both together for once rather then make them mutually exclusive.
Another thing that got my mind running was the notion of conformity. When I was growing up in my church in Singapore (at least it was my church then), I was always reminded that we must set ourselves apart from the world. After all when Christ was here, he never conformed to the standards of the time. So we must also do that same, set ourselves apart. But on the flip side, they also tell me that I must follow the line when I am within the church. Do not break rank. Stand side by side. Conform to the standards that exist within the church. Trust me, this has caused me to have more then one crisis of faith. It wasn't until many years later that I finally could put that demon to rest. But the point I want to make is this; by doing that, you set a standard for the people within the church, you drive it into their mindsets every weekend. The end result will be this: The people (ok, Christians if you must) become self-righteous and they start to judge every one and everything in this world by their standards (sometimes without even knowing they are doing it but often they know).
How do I know this? I was guilty of it. And so where my peers. But I realized what I was doing was wrong. My question to the is "have you?". I think its easy to pass judgement on things you do not know, but would that be right? I always remember this: You'll never win people by judging them. You will win them by showing them compassion and you will keep them by showing your humanity and by accepting theirs.
Semper Fi.
Anyway, we spoke about it on MSN and that was when I thought I'd address the issue which bugged me to begin with: conformity and the death of the individual.
I have said many times on this blog of mine that I am a Christian, not a perfect one, but one that tries to be better all the time. I have my good days and my bad days. My good habits and my bad ones. But one thing I have always maintained through the best of my abilities is my own personal ideas and ethics. What I see to be right and what I see to be wrong. Now, without getting into a huge spiritual debate about this, lets just say that yes, the Holy Spirit leads and guides but it is Man who must make the choice to follow. I believe everyone can agree on that. (Anyone who doesn't, stop reading now and go to some other more Holy webpage)
What angers me most about most Right-Wing Churches (are there any other kind?) that exist in Singapore is the way they often criticize something without understanding it; and often without even having looked into it. Lets take Harry Potter for example. Personally, I have nothing against it. It's just a story book. Yes, it talks about wizards and witches and magic, but the way the Church paints it is that the book is pure evil because it preaches the above-mentioned topics. Now, I find this unfair. How can the Church support works such as The Lord of The Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and yet be so against Harry Potter? Both of those series deal with magic. Gandalf is a wizard for crying out loud. Is it simple because both authors of those books are Catholic and Christian respectively? So are we saying we are not against the story but rather the person who wrote it? I mean, make you arguments and you stands clear.
Why can't we take what's good about those stories and focus on that instead? I mean, if you look at Harry Potter. What is one simple basic Biblical principal that can be found in it? It's not hard. It's the love one has for his friends. If you take the story as a whole, you can summarise it into one single verse in the Bible: "Greater love has no other than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ~ John 15:13". Am I the only one who sees this? I am not even a theologian, much less a pastor. Maybe instead on jumping on the band wagon of speaking before understanding, we could perhaps exercise a little more patience and restraint?
I my humble opinion, wisdom without knowledge is simply bullshit and knowledge without wisdom is just facts. Maybe we should actually put both together for once rather then make them mutually exclusive.
Another thing that got my mind running was the notion of conformity. When I was growing up in my church in Singapore (at least it was my church then), I was always reminded that we must set ourselves apart from the world. After all when Christ was here, he never conformed to the standards of the time. So we must also do that same, set ourselves apart. But on the flip side, they also tell me that I must follow the line when I am within the church. Do not break rank. Stand side by side. Conform to the standards that exist within the church. Trust me, this has caused me to have more then one crisis of faith. It wasn't until many years later that I finally could put that demon to rest. But the point I want to make is this; by doing that, you set a standard for the people within the church, you drive it into their mindsets every weekend. The end result will be this: The people (ok, Christians if you must) become self-righteous and they start to judge every one and everything in this world by their standards (sometimes without even knowing they are doing it but often they know).
How do I know this? I was guilty of it. And so where my peers. But I realized what I was doing was wrong. My question to the is "have you?". I think its easy to pass judgement on things you do not know, but would that be right? I always remember this: You'll never win people by judging them. You will win them by showing them compassion and you will keep them by showing your humanity and by accepting theirs.
Semper Fi.
Wednesday 15 August 2007
The Daily News...With Me II
It was the Ekka holiday today. So I decided to go into Uni and get some work done since I prefer the Uni when its empty and quiet. A handful of other students were in the library but they didn't bother me. All the offices on my level were empty and quiet.
Peace.
But what I hate about these holidays is the huge crowds that are there when you make your way home. And when you have a "Ekka-type" events, you have children. Children: The bane of my existence. Children, running free with stupid stuff painted all over their faces, yelling and screaming. *Argh*...I really hate children.
I have been told by friends a long time ago that my view of children will change when I reach around 25. Well, I'm 26 now and I hate children now more then I ever have in my whole life. So now they tell me, I'll change my mind when I reach 30, that's 4 more years. Well, we'll see. But knowing me the way I know me, I seriously doubt it.
Peace.
But what I hate about these holidays is the huge crowds that are there when you make your way home. And when you have a "Ekka-type" events, you have children. Children: The bane of my existence. Children, running free with stupid stuff painted all over their faces, yelling and screaming. *Argh*...I really hate children.
I have been told by friends a long time ago that my view of children will change when I reach around 25. Well, I'm 26 now and I hate children now more then I ever have in my whole life. So now they tell me, I'll change my mind when I reach 30, that's 4 more years. Well, we'll see. But knowing me the way I know me, I seriously doubt it.
Monday 13 August 2007
Memoria III
Hearing the stories of heart break that are have come from the lives of my friends have brought a realisation to me: Have I become so numb to the concept of romance that I longer believe in it? I mean, its not that I don't believe in love but maybe I longer believe in the idea of romantic love.
Love has lost that notion of magic that it once held over me. I have come to look at it as secondary to a lot of other things. Maybe I've become more practical then I'd ever hope to be or maybe I'm just tired and stress from the weight of my studies but love no longer seems to have that wonderful warm feeling from that time long ago.
In many a ways, I envy my friends. Their heart breaks and their hopes that one day someone will come and sweep them off their feet. I envy them because I no longer seem to be able to feel that way. Well, maybe one day I will feel like that again. Maybe one day I will feel alive as I once did. There's always hope. Or failing that, there is always photographs; which always brings the wonderful self-reflecting idea of death to one's mind and thus forcing one to really appreciate life.
Or sometimes, wishing for a quicker end to it. Oh well...
p/s: Something interesting happened when I was in Uni on Sat (YES! Sat! I like it when Uni is empty and quiet). I was helping a classmate fix some Avid problems and sensing she was bored of looking at me click the mouse, I let her read my short story. And to my surprise, even though she doesn't know me that well and has never really read my work, she could tell that a lot of the characters in it were based on me. Guess its always a good sign that people can tell your writing style.
Love has lost that notion of magic that it once held over me. I have come to look at it as secondary to a lot of other things. Maybe I've become more practical then I'd ever hope to be or maybe I'm just tired and stress from the weight of my studies but love no longer seems to have that wonderful warm feeling from that time long ago.
In many a ways, I envy my friends. Their heart breaks and their hopes that one day someone will come and sweep them off their feet. I envy them because I no longer seem to be able to feel that way. Well, maybe one day I will feel like that again. Maybe one day I will feel alive as I once did. There's always hope. Or failing that, there is always photographs; which always brings the wonderful self-reflecting idea of death to one's mind and thus forcing one to really appreciate life.
Or sometimes, wishing for a quicker end to it. Oh well...
p/s: Something interesting happened when I was in Uni on Sat (YES! Sat! I like it when Uni is empty and quiet). I was helping a classmate fix some Avid problems and sensing she was bored of looking at me click the mouse, I let her read my short story. And to my surprise, even though she doesn't know me that well and has never really read my work, she could tell that a lot of the characters in it were based on me. Guess its always a good sign that people can tell your writing style.
Arsenal 2 Fulham 1
The Premier League kicked off this weekend and after a whole summer of selling some of the keystones of our team, Arsenal has started the season with a good home win against Fulham. Pity the early mistake by Lehmann let Fulham score early. Otherwise, kudos to the youngsters, especially Van Persie. This is a big year for our new Dutch master.
featured photo III
I realised I had not changed my feature photo for almost 2 months. I must admit, I have been rather lazy to do it but finally I have. Guess I was in the mood to update my blog today. Took this photo with the Nikon D200 and the Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens (if I'm not wrong...I have a 8 minute memory. Blame TV.)
Thursday 9 August 2007
Oh great...Its the NDP again...
Maybe its just me or maybe its because I have become cynical and jaded like a large portion of my generation but every year when the NDP comes around, rather then get wrapped up in the sense of national pride and patriotism; I get swamped with feelings of annoyance and the anger at the waste of money on the NDP itself. Now, I am not saying that loving your country is not important, in fact I think the opposite. I love my country. It is my home and the one place where I will always find a connection with. If my country goes to war, I'd be more then happy to fight for it.
But I cannot understand why every year we continue to pour money away at an attempt to whip up feelings of patriotism and celebration of the greatness of our leaders and our armed forces and lets face it, the NDP is nothing more then a showcase of how "cool" and "awesome" the SAF is. And coming from someone who has worked with some of the officers in charge of planning previous NDPs, I can safely say this: they are nothing but a bunch of stupid mindless drones who has NO sense of individuality and ideology.
In a year when the GST in has been raised from 5% to 7%, a small but significant increase. Couldn't the money set aside for the NDP be used for something better? Tax breaks perhaps? I mean, it is NOT cheap to put the NDP together and interestingly, the budget for the NDP has never been reveal to the public but I can say this, it is often a 7 figured sum. I am sure there are ways to celebrate our nation's birth without having to spend that much money. (And as my friend remarked, its showed on ALL 3 Free-to-air channels. Talk about a waste of prime time television slots.)
I love my country; I honestly do. And I love this world we live in; maybe not the people (we are after all causing our very own destruction) who live in it but definitely the Earth herself and in a time when wars and famine are claiming the lives of count less innocents, maybe the money can be really but to a better use rather then thrown away in an honestly lame attempt to make us love our country more, to be more grateful to our wondrous leaders who are often above reproach. (ironically, when watching the NDP, a film called Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl comes to mind. Great film.) Above all, the NDP tries to make us more patriotic. But if you asked me, I'd simply say this: a great writer once wrote a long time ago, "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious". Oh yeah, and the name of that great writer: Oscar Wilde.
But I cannot understand why every year we continue to pour money away at an attempt to whip up feelings of patriotism and celebration of the greatness of our leaders and our armed forces and lets face it, the NDP is nothing more then a showcase of how "cool" and "awesome" the SAF is. And coming from someone who has worked with some of the officers in charge of planning previous NDPs, I can safely say this: they are nothing but a bunch of stupid mindless drones who has NO sense of individuality and ideology.
In a year when the GST in has been raised from 5% to 7%, a small but significant increase. Couldn't the money set aside for the NDP be used for something better? Tax breaks perhaps? I mean, it is NOT cheap to put the NDP together and interestingly, the budget for the NDP has never been reveal to the public but I can say this, it is often a 7 figured sum. I am sure there are ways to celebrate our nation's birth without having to spend that much money. (And as my friend remarked, its showed on ALL 3 Free-to-air channels. Talk about a waste of prime time television slots.)
I love my country; I honestly do. And I love this world we live in; maybe not the people (we are after all causing our very own destruction) who live in it but definitely the Earth herself and in a time when wars and famine are claiming the lives of count less innocents, maybe the money can be really but to a better use rather then thrown away in an honestly lame attempt to make us love our country more, to be more grateful to our wondrous leaders who are often above reproach. (ironically, when watching the NDP, a film called Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl comes to mind. Great film.) Above all, the NDP tries to make us more patriotic. But if you asked me, I'd simply say this: a great writer once wrote a long time ago, "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious". Oh yeah, and the name of that great writer: Oscar Wilde.
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