Some Pics This Weeks

Forest of Lights

I forgot to tell you that recently I've gone to I-City few days ago. It has beautiful light-themed park, I mean park of LED trees, animals and stuffs. FYI, it maybe another park that only opens and looks beautiful at night (after amusement park).

I-city is located in Shah ALam, Selangor. It takes half hour or less (depends on traffic jam) from Kuala Lumpur to go there by car. It charges 2 RM/person (about 0.65 USD) to enter the park and another 2 RM for some special parks there. If you go by car, then it'll be 10 RM per car. For me, 2 RM is worth it, but another 2 RM for special parks (that has slight difference from usual one) is a little bit too much. I-city itself is a shopping complex with outdoor cinema (beside the light park). It should have an indoor snow park in future, as written in its advertisement (when I went there, it's not opened yet hm.... I don't know for sure).

Btw, It's not my attention to promote it (although I did promote it), It's just beautiful place to see for once or twice (in third visit you'll lose the excitement of seeing this light forest, except if you date with your girlfriend/boyfriend here, it would be nice :P).

Well, enjoy the pics that captured by my phone, samsung wave s350 (oh noo, another promotion, my bad :P it's not really as nice as digital camera though)

A light orange trees

The forest of light, linearly

the trees are pine trees, right?

me and Amir (thanks for the ride ^_^)

me and white Christmas light tree

other pine trees, it would be nice if they make sakura/peach blossom trees right?

That's it, you can see my album in Facebook if you wanna see more or simply google it.

Human and Nature

Realize it or not, since our beginning, we/human is all about struggle with nature.

Our ancestors, had already begun the struggle, they challenged every mother nature threats and barriers and in some case, obliterated them completely. We, human are responsible for extinction of saber-toothed tiger, mammoths and many more creatures. We redefine earth by building cities, dams, canals even artificial lands. It is as if we already won the war, Is that really true?

Since our beginning too, we have been victims of mother nature's furies. Drought, tsunami, earthquake and volcanic eruption have killed and erased many civilizations. Diseases and plagues reduced our populations, and emptied kingdoms and countries of its citizen. We fought and struggled, new medicine founds and methods were invented to protect us from disasters. Yet, we still find ourselves powerless in might of mother nature. Once new medicine are found, new disease appeared and every methods we invented will never protect us completely. To make it worse, mother nature uses our wrongdoings to bring our doom (i.e. global warming). It is as if, however strong our effort is, we still submit to nature will.

In  other hand, since the beginning of human being, we have fought with our own nature. A self-interested, egoistic, and power-seeking nature of us have brought so many destruction to ourselves and our world. We have fought countless war and slaved our brethren and sisters. As if it isn't enough, we have created the most destructive weapon, nuclear bomb, to bring utter and complete destruction of our world. No matter how many treaties, charters, and conventions we signs, states keep fight each other. No matter how strong we hold norms, values, and religious beliefs, we keep get in conflict and murder each other.

Sometimes, I feel there is no hope to reach a peaceful ending in our struggle with the two natures we face. We may exploit mother nature and used it for our interest even if it brings our doom. We may kill each other and eventually end human history. Will we compromise with Earth? will we put aside our own egoistic interests for humanity and common good?

I know that having such a idyllic hope may disappoint me but having no hope at all will let me in despair. Hope is the most dangerous thing to lose, and I still hope we, human will reach the peaceful ending in these struggles.

Saying Happy Birthday in different perspectives

My friend just had her birthday last few days, then I'd like to post her my mediocre happy birthday post (happy Birthday, wish U all the best :)) in Facebook. Her wall was full of "happy birthday" posts, but one got my attention

             “Happy Birthday, A. You have just spent one year of your lifespan again."

 Although, this kind of post seems rude and pessimistic, it reminds us how short our life is. But for me, it is kind a weird one, We congratulate her for just able to reach one year more and hope for better life for this year while the other had passed away, this post remind us that we are drawing near to the end of our life, one step closer to our ancestors. For me, an optimistic one will be like this

           "Happy birthday, A. Wish you a full year of happiness and success. God bless you."

Then if we follow the former one, I would like to add his post like this

           "Happy Birthday A, now you're closing to your own death, how far have you gone? How much have you achieved? Think it well; you may end up in your coffin next year."

Okay, I maybe a bit exaggerate it. Whether it is pessimistic or optimistic way to say happy birthday, both are right. We can't be thankful for years that we don't even know we're still alive to live it or not. In the other hand, every year we have passed showed how God is merciful while we pray for better life this year. But we should be wary of our short and precious life, time flies quickly, every second counts, and we won't notice that we're already at the end of this journey. Then, we’ll be sorry for days that won’t come back (Heaven forbid).

Hmm, perhaps next time I’ll post this.

           “Happy Birthday, A. Now, a year has been passed in our lifetime, I believe you have used it well. Then for this year, I hope you a full year of happiness, luck and success. :)"

How that sounds?

How to be not scared so much when watching scary movies

Have you ever watched scary movies but didn't know how the story goes because in most of the movies you closed your eyes closely?
or... scream to your heart desire and surprised people who sat next to you (lucky, they didn't get heart attack or had their eardrum exploded)
Worry no more, I'll tell you how to tackle this issue. My friends always ask me why I never startled or surprised and so calm when watching movies in cinema, and let me tell you my little secrets.

• Know what genre (to be exact, from where) of horror movies you watch, every region has its own taste of horror and they are reflected from their own horror movies. An American or western horror movie has grotesque and extrovert monster/ghost or any apparition, the movies usually focus on gory scene and how the protagonists are chased by the monster (watch any zombie movies, House of Wax, Halloween etc.). Japanese movies has introvert and mostly beautiful yet scary ghost (if not monster), they are so shy and wander around the protagonist like ninja, you can see only them in seconds. Japanese movies usually has complicated and unique plot, so you may miss or not understand the story. Now, the last genre the south-east Asia horror movies (Thailand), the monster/ghost are neither extrovert nor introvert, they wander around the place and surprise the protagonists (include you) so often.
• Expect most (if not all) characters to die. The question is where, when and how. The monster may eat, slash, hack, gore or any possible way to kill the characters (especially in final destination, the monster is the grim reaper of course). Be pessimistic, expect none survives (or two, if you want a happy ending). Don't be scared by gory scene, trust me, the real version is much more scary that you can't forget for a week (if you insist, then you may see the gory pics in any shock websites and compare it).
• Know what fear the movie use to scare you, is it fear of powerless against so many monsters (like in zombie movies), fear of blood and gory animation (like SAW), fear of very ugly and scary yet strong and invincible monster (alien), or fear of unknowing threats.
• Be prepare for some special scenes that surprise you. We can know them by special sound effect, a zoom in to special places, or when you suddenly see the protagonists from the monster point of view and watch how they are helpless and ready to be the monster's meal.
• At last, they are not real. You can still look at the mirror and the reflection is still mimicking you after watching "The Mirror" and zombies in real life will be decayed and soon return to soil as natural fertilizer in months. Still scared? read funny stories and comics, don't ever think about the psycho that hack and cut the unlucky character's head off in hockey mask, forget him and let him sleep well in that lake for eternity.

I hope these tips will help you watch the whole scary movie silently without closing your eyes. What's fun watching the movie this way, you ask? you can watch them full and see how the director struggle to scare you (even after doing this tips, you may freak out if the director is really that good), at least from now on, you can watch them in different perspective, and not be ashamed in that way. :)

New Year, New You?

Haa... it's already 2011 and I just made 3 posts in this blog. To all readers, please forgive me for my laziness. Really, having a college life is a very busy one, right? (eh, no?). After all, those assignments, tasks, projects, and a bit (or large chunks?) of facebook truly made time flew so fast

 A view from my room window, not related to this topic eh? then I put this pic to help us reflect our life in 2010

So? what's your resolutions this year? It wouldn't be the same as 2010, right? for me, I still have some left overs from last year. What is it, you ask? that's kicking my bad habits out.

1.  Sleep late at night, and can't wake up early, oh yes, I got this habit back, after all morning wake-up training from my mum from elementary to senior high school. Being free from your mother scolding has side effects too. 
2. Pray at my wish (when I should pray 5 times a day, according to Muslim belief). To devote 10 minutes of your time to pray 5 times a day shouldn't be so difficult. The problem is one of them is done at dawn, when I can't wake up early enough to catch it, and ...... many other reasons that I would be ashamed to tell.   

And now for this year, I'd like to add some

• Learn foreign language, seriously. Any major foreign language is acceptable (but I still prefer Japanese though)

• Having an internship whether in NGOs or other institutions. This year 4 months holiday (you read it? 4 MONTHS) shouldn't be a waste.

What? that's very FEW resolutions. Yes, it is, we'd better speak few and do a lot right? Writing a list of 100 resolutions will also make you bored just by reading this and make this not so popular blog will be not even known of its existence.
How about you? have you made your resolution, have you planned a new "you" for this year? tell me :)