The Ringer, The Aristocrat and The Posh Secret Agent!

Alright, I know I have not been blogging about movies for quite some time now. So far for this year I’ve watched only 3 movies. The first movie was The Wedding Ringer starring Kevin Hart, and ( the most anticipated but I ended up feeling vain and disappointed) Mortdecai and the most recent one is Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Let me begin with The Wedding Ringer. I’m not going to copy and paste the plot of the film for all I know you’ll be Googling for it later on. Wikipedia to the rescue! It was just an OK movie, pretty much like Will Smith’s Hitch. Typical American jokes, blending in racial, cultural and even religious stuff. Basically FRIENDSHIP and "bro-over-hos" kind of flick. To be honest I am not a fan of Kevin Hart but I gave the movie a try. Just an OK from my POV. 

I have been adoring Johnny Depp's style of acting ever since I was a kid. After Edward Scissorhands, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape, I've been his fan since then. OK cut the story short; after Pirates of the Caribbeans sagas, Willy Wonka and that 60s vampire flick that he was in (I forgot the title!), I looked forward to see Depp playing the role of a British aristocrat and an art collector in Mortdecai. I saw the trailer on Youtube and I made sure that I must watch it in the cinema. So after The Wedding Ringer, I went to watch Mortdecai on the same day. The first half an hour the scenes shown in the movie were laughable. Tongue-in-cheek, sort of. Full of English puns, antics and all. The rest of the film *sigh* I felt so miserable in the end. The movie was a flop.

Yes, the film is not unforgettable. Oh dear, I shall be waiting for the next Johnny Depp flick.

The next one was Kingsman: The Secret Service. Now many would have expected me to fall for the new hero in that film (newcomer Taron Egerton). WRONG! I was delighted to see COLIN FIRTH (swooned) after his amazing portrayal of the stuttering British monarch in The King's Speech. That was the real reason of me wanting to watch Kingsman. 

The film was bombastic. OK, I am being biased since this is the first time that I've seen Firth playing the role of a smart and posh-looking secret agent.

Wayyyy better than James Bond, to be honest!

And Firth did most of his own stunts. Not bad for a 54-year-old father of three, eh!

And LOADS of vulgar phrases and LOADS of gory actions! And, and, and....remember the villain in Sherlock Holmes and also Robin Hood, that baldy baddie Mark Strong?

HE'S SO MACHO..Yes, he played the good ol' secret agent trainer nicknamed Merlin.

Of all these three flicks, I am going to rewatch one of them. 

*drumrolls*

Yes, I am so gonna watch Kingsman AGAIN!

The year of the Ram enters!

Hello everyone!
Guess it's not too late for me to wish everyone A BLESSED NEW YEAR.

I purposely did not say HAPPY because once again we were shocked with the Airasia aircraft mishap that claimed about 162 lives on board.

What a tragedy to end the year 2014. Plus, we're still saddened by the missing MH370 MAS plane and the doomed MH17 MAS aircraft bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.

2014 was a year of tragedy, I must say. The people of South Korea were hit by the sunken Sewol ferry that got over 300 people perished in it. The Arab world was  stricken by the mad so-called terrorists ISIS or ISIL that targeted the Arab Christians.

I don't want to sound like I am a street preacher blabbing about doomsday and all but we are on the verge of the end of the world.

I may be sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned room, be it at home or at workplace. Looking at things via the mass media, I feel nothing but heartache and anger.

Politicians have become circus entertainers. Now this is not quite a new scene. It's just that the plots are getting more and more interesting....and ridiculous as well.

Where do people like us, civilians, stand now?

By the way, I do hope the ram brings in comfort to compensate what the mighty horse had done in the past year.

Hope is all I have although things may turn out vague.

Utilised but Not Appreciated

Nowadays I feel that most people take me for granted. I said MOST, not ALL.

They only notice me for my abilities in certain matters. After they are done "using" me, that is it.
It's pretty sickening. As I try to distant myself from them, they always come up with requests and demands. Do I look like a machine that can just make people happy.
I am tired of dealing with all these craps.
I would love to go away again.
Leaving everything here, be gone silently.

I cannot speak out my anger.
I cannot blurt out my unwillingness.
My hands are tied.
My lips are sealed.
My legs are chained.

When will they ever realize my pain?
When will they let me soar high?
When will they leave alone?
I just do not comprehend things they have asked for.

I need my very own space to live.
Seriously.

Enough is enough.

I was doing some work when I overheard my students were talking about their mothers a couple of months ago. It turned out that they were comparing whose mom is more strict. I had to butt in their little gossip because I have expected them to finish their revision. Before I could blurt out more words to halt their conversation, one of them began telling how his mom normally treats him and stuff.
Then one by one started to share their own matriarch anecdotes with me.

I just paused and listened to them. I did share my own tales as well.

Sometimes I wonder why did God choose me to be in this world. I quote Simon Birch: "God has a plan for everyone."

Yes. But what plan? I have always asked myself that ever since.

I know that little feeling every time I was or am asked to do things against my will. Not pretty at all.

Hearing all their tales, it made me to scream within "ENOUGH!"

Just stop for a minute and look around. This world is getting sicker than ever.

Inked

Last Sunday after a brief meeting with my boss, I spontaneously (actually it was pretty abrupt) brought up something about tattoos. Since my boss shared what is going on and he related the current events with his faith (he's a devoted Christian himself), I suddenly thought of questions of having permanent tattoos among Christians. To begin with, many of my own relatives have things inked on their body. I even overheard my siblings talking about getting one or two weeks ago. My dad, another Christian devotee, pointed out that he has no problem with people getting inked for eternity but he did clarify his view based on this:

“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:28) 

And he added later on,"...you want tattoo? Use your own money!"

Now back to my conversation with my boss that evening. He pointed out that Leviticus is in the Old Testament, years before Christ came into this world. And he quoted something from the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation. It says:

“On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.” (Revelation 19:16)

"His" here refers to Jesus Himself. Well according to one of the blogs I'm currently reading at the moment, whereby the blogger discussed about whether or not Jesus had some writings inscribed or in other word, tattooed on his own flesh?
So I kept reading the blogger's explanation on this matter. 
Towards the end I realized that the writer himself played safe by not leaning to any side.

If it wasn't for my skin condition (I've been suffering from atopic dermatitis @ eczema since I was a toddler), I could have both of my wrists to be tattooed. Nevertheless, that idea is still idling around my head. Years ago when I watched Ayat-ayat Cinta, an Indonesian film based on a novel of the same title, I was attracted to one of the characters, Maria Girgis. Maria is a Coptic Christian Egyptian girl who happens to have a small crucifix tattoo on her left wrist.

Yes, deep down in my heart, I would like to have the similar tattoo on my left wrist. Recently I've have been missing my late paternal grandmother. She passed away 16 years ago. She embraced Catholicism roughly about ten years before her passing. She chose the name "Teresa" as her baptismal name. Now, I am thinking of inking her names on my right wrist. Names? Her birth name was Mawa.

We will see how it goes.

Recapping Two Zero Fourteen.

The world witnessed three planes from Malaysia made major headlines.

First, the still-missing Malaysia Airlines' MH370.

Followed by the ill-fated MH17.

Just more than a couple days after Christmas, Malaysians once again were shocked by the missing Airasia aircraft QZ8501 bound from Surabaya to Singapore.

South Korea earlier this year was stricken by the sunken Sewol ferry. And today a Greek vessel mishap on Italian waters.

Are we on the verge of doomsday?

Have we done too much enough to provoke God's wrath?

Political turmoils seem to emerge everywhere.

What a year we had. What a year indeed.

Rock and Roll Leader : Jokowi to Lead Indonesia!

Dad's been bragging about Jokowi, Indonesia's President-Elect for weeks now.

And tomorrow, 20th October, Indonesia will be witnessing Joko Widodo, 53 years old, swearing in as the republic's 7th President.

I won't be writing so much on him since you guys can check him out yourselves via Wikipedia. So I'll just upload photos of the man who received the baton from Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono.

The future of Indonesia lies in your hands now Pak Jokowi!

Rock on!!