Woke up to the faint shuffling of the leaves by the winds blowing over from the beach. These were the sounds I have grown accustomed to over the past months I've been staying here in the Coogee House. I'd stumble out of my bed and make my way to the bathroom as usual. Bladder empty, and face washed, I'd come back to my room and walk over to laptop sitting idly on my messy study desk.
I'd go through my daily scroll down, I'd read the news from back home and then compulsively go read through your blogs. I don't know why I am overwhelmed by these mixed feelings as I read these writings on my screen. I don't know if I'm jealous of the life you are living now or whether I'm sad that I'm not a part of it anymore. But those mixed feelings will pass as I look up to the wall behind my computer screen. There hangs the many pictures of me and you and all those times, the wonderful good memories frozen in that moment. I'd give my crooked smile, and close the blog windows. A tiny flickering moment of warmth will fill me, which will soon be replaced with a cold emptiness of longing and reminiscence.
So much I'd wish to say, so much I'd wish to do. But, I'm here, and you're there and the answer was simple as that. You have other people you'd rather share your life with and I should be fine with that. Trying is all we did...well, I say 'we' cause it'll make me feel better and think that all that has been done was not in vain. I won't bother with chasing what has passed and I've grown weary of fixing things that only I've been trying to fix. I'm tired of you sucking me in and pushing me out as you please. I don't know who exactly I'm saying this though... and don't you dare turn this back to me. Selamat Tahun Baru Hijrah, assalamualaikum.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Why are all the good shows gone?
Being overseas and having limited access to the luxuries of astro and cheap pirated dvds, the only remaining tv series and movie resource for the common overseas bruneian university student is through the internet with a wonderful thing called file-sharing. It started with limewire and downloading single music files back in the good old days, but now it internet and its userbase has evolved, and we have access to bittorrent, azureus and other file-sharing programs which allow us to continuous download huge files of music, movies and other stuff.
In Brunei, we never did have the mindset of 'piracy is illegal, downloading bad' like that of other western countries. Heck, we complain about not having the freedom of thought or whatever, but we tend to overlook our country's wonderful freedom of piracy and sharing, which is the most important type of freedom. Owh Brunei...how I miss you and your dvd stores with its endless selection of $3 dvds in their tacky plastic containers and badly photocopied covers.
Being overseas, having access to cheaper high speed internet access, we'll be drawn in to piracy downloads like a fat man to a cheap buffet. So we download....download like mad. We download till we have to buy external harddrives, and then download the files there till the harddrive is full and then have to buy a new one and then download the files there again. One of the reasons to justify this, is to download the weekly shows that we'd normally watch and not have access to due to boring local tv.
Well, the shows, I started out downloading naruto in Brunei when it first came out (1-2 days for a 100mb file) , but now I can download a gigs worth in just a matter of hours. It started with just naruto (naruto shippudden now), to a whole slew of tv shows. There are so many now, but what I really wanted to talk about is that among all those shows, only a few are worth watchin and waiting every week. All of the rest of them are just meaningless repetitive unoriginal forced dry humour crap, well, from my point of view anyways. Its sad that shows with good writing, drama, originality don't get good ratings, don't last long and always get cancelled in the long run.
Take this show for instance:
Pushing Daisies, the tale of the piemaker and his ability to bring the dead to life with a touch of his finger. It's a surprising amazing black comedy show about the life this magic pie maker and the lives of the people around him. What's surprising is that it so original and smart. So much than any of the shows out there. The story is consistent and linear, and you'll fall in love with all the characters. Its unlike the current season of this show:
I gotta admit heroes started great in season 1. It was original, it was epic. I loved the stylized way the show was shot, I love the comic references, I loved the characters. As implied by its own storyline it has set up, it was destined for greatness. But that greatness died in the second season and even more in the third. Now, you'll have no idea whats going on, and the characters you once fell in love with are doing pointless things, and the show just got...boring and unwatchable. I don't like it anymore even to the point of hating and despising it. What's even more sad, is that due to the hype and relentless promotion, its still going strong. The writers of heroes have no clue of what to do with the characters, no idea where the show is going. The show is only alive because people are stupidly watching it. I do hope with the new season, they'll fix things up. Sadly, even with its wonderful writing, pushing daisies is wilting for good.
Brian Fullers amazing show is ending after two seasons due to a weak following. I don't know why people aren't watching this tv show. Its brilliant, it makes me feel like I'm back into those days where you don't need sex and endless gore and action to sell a story. What you need to sell a story is a good story. And pushing daisies had that. I am partly to blame because I download each episode as they come out and the executives don't count downloads as ratings and viewer followings which are needed to see if the show is worth keeping alive or not. Money makes the world go round as usual. I would watch it if it came out on tv though! But its not shown here in australia, so I'm blaming american audience for not watching it. You guys suck, heheh. The story was going somewhere, and I don't think they'll be able to wrap it up in a satisfying way in the remaining 2 coming episodes.
There's one good news to this though. Brian Fuller, the creator of pushing daisies is coming back to work in the new seasons of heroes. Brian Fuller is also the writer responsible for some of the amazing episodes of the first season of Heroes. So with him back on heroes, hopefully it'll go back to its former glory. I'm watching back the first season of heroes on bluray, and I'm still dissappointed how far the apple has fallen from tree.
In Brunei, we never did have the mindset of 'piracy is illegal, downloading bad' like that of other western countries. Heck, we complain about not having the freedom of thought or whatever, but we tend to overlook our country's wonderful freedom of piracy and sharing, which is the most important type of freedom. Owh Brunei...how I miss you and your dvd stores with its endless selection of $3 dvds in their tacky plastic containers and badly photocopied covers.
Being overseas, having access to cheaper high speed internet access, we'll be drawn in to piracy downloads like a fat man to a cheap buffet. So we download....download like mad. We download till we have to buy external harddrives, and then download the files there till the harddrive is full and then have to buy a new one and then download the files there again. One of the reasons to justify this, is to download the weekly shows that we'd normally watch and not have access to due to boring local tv.
Well, the shows, I started out downloading naruto in Brunei when it first came out (1-2 days for a 100mb file) , but now I can download a gigs worth in just a matter of hours. It started with just naruto (naruto shippudden now), to a whole slew of tv shows. There are so many now, but what I really wanted to talk about is that among all those shows, only a few are worth watchin and waiting every week. All of the rest of them are just meaningless repetitive unoriginal forced dry humour crap, well, from my point of view anyways. Its sad that shows with good writing, drama, originality don't get good ratings, don't last long and always get cancelled in the long run.
Take this show for instance:
Pushing Daisies, the tale of the piemaker and his ability to bring the dead to life with a touch of his finger. It's a surprising amazing black comedy show about the life this magic pie maker and the lives of the people around him. What's surprising is that it so original and smart. So much than any of the shows out there. The story is consistent and linear, and you'll fall in love with all the characters. Its unlike the current season of this show:
I gotta admit heroes started great in season 1. It was original, it was epic. I loved the stylized way the show was shot, I love the comic references, I loved the characters. As implied by its own storyline it has set up, it was destined for greatness. But that greatness died in the second season and even more in the third. Now, you'll have no idea whats going on, and the characters you once fell in love with are doing pointless things, and the show just got...boring and unwatchable. I don't like it anymore even to the point of hating and despising it. What's even more sad, is that due to the hype and relentless promotion, its still going strong. The writers of heroes have no clue of what to do with the characters, no idea where the show is going. The show is only alive because people are stupidly watching it. I do hope with the new season, they'll fix things up. Sadly, even with its wonderful writing, pushing daisies is wilting for good.
Brian Fullers amazing show is ending after two seasons due to a weak following. I don't know why people aren't watching this tv show. Its brilliant, it makes me feel like I'm back into those days where you don't need sex and endless gore and action to sell a story. What you need to sell a story is a good story. And pushing daisies had that. I am partly to blame because I download each episode as they come out and the executives don't count downloads as ratings and viewer followings which are needed to see if the show is worth keeping alive or not. Money makes the world go round as usual. I would watch it if it came out on tv though! But its not shown here in australia, so I'm blaming american audience for not watching it. You guys suck, heheh. The story was going somewhere, and I don't think they'll be able to wrap it up in a satisfying way in the remaining 2 coming episodes.
There's one good news to this though. Brian Fuller, the creator of pushing daisies is coming back to work in the new seasons of heroes. Brian Fuller is also the writer responsible for some of the amazing episodes of the first season of Heroes. So with him back on heroes, hopefully it'll go back to its former glory. I'm watching back the first season of heroes on bluray, and I'm still dissappointed how far the apple has fallen from tree.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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