"Every damn morning"

This is why I started keeping a notebook next to my bed to write down dreams.

Peter Dickinson said that the first chapter of The Weathermonger came to him in a dream. Who knows, I could write a novel.

In case you're wondering, the mouseover text on this xkcd strip is a quote from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where Lucy sneaks into the magician's rooms to find a spell to restore the Monopods, and reads a spell "for the refreshment of the spirit" that turns into a beautiful reverie, but fades from memory as it ends. This essayist believes that the objects Lucy remembers - a cup, a sword, a tree, and a green hill - are a reference to the agony, death, and resurrection of Christ, the story that all other good stories remind us of in one way or another.

I couldn't quite remember whether it was from Lewis or Tolkien.

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Speaking of the Chronicles of Narnia, FlowerMoonFish and I were discussing the Prince Caspian movie on the phone and she says that the reason Peter and Caspian were written as a pair of testosterone-drenched idiots was that (quoting someone else) "the art of our time can't recognize nobility".

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Speaking of nobility, I hope that Raja Petra's right and our King doesn't let AAB and gang call a snap election to screw around with Pakatan Rakyat's chances of taking over the government. Sure they're mostly figureheads in a parliamentary democracy...and history has proved over and over again that heredity confers nothing in morality or intelligence...yet I still find myself hoping that when needed the Agong will act, with nobility.

Information and communication technology, eh?

Sorry haven't been blogging...too depressed over bike theft and trying to find a new one.

You know, if anybody needed any more proof that the Malaysian government is run by dinosaurs and the reason things suck there is because of bureaucracy and politics, not because of anything inherently wrong with Malaysian culture or people, all you need to do is compare 2 websites: Any website of a Malaysian government ministry or agency, and something that's run by volunteers with a real interest in what they're doing, like TorrentMalaya.

It's sort of ironic that the best homegrown Malaysian website I've ever seen is a media piracy (a.k.a. "cetak rompak", literally "print robbery") site. It's really well-designed and the rules and user classes are well-thought-out.

As opposed to the typical government website, which despite all their blabber about the "K-economy" and "ICT" still looks like it was designed by a colorblind grandmother with delirium tremens.

Prince Caspian quickie review

We went to see Prince Caspian yesterday with some Grad Christian Fellowship kakis. It's a pretty good movie...I'd rate it 8/10 all around.

For the most part, it stayed true to the book except:

• There are a few scenes showing discussions between Miraz, Sopespian, Rozelle, and the other Telmarine lords. I don't have a problem with this since their function is explaining Telmarine politics that are narrated in the books in another way.
• During the scene with Nikabrik and his black magic cronies, they actually summon up the White Witch. If I hadn't read the books I would have gotten the impression that she was going to be a recurring villain.
• Before the duel between Peter and Miraz, there's an SAS paratrooper-style raid on the Telmarines' castle which is a lot of fun to watch for the action scenes, but doesn't advance the plot in any way, so I thought it was really weird that the filmmakers wrote it in.

Special effects and action scenes are really good for the most part, except for one really weird bit where the Narnians use a tactic of making the roof fall in on themselves, which I thought was silly.

In terms of characters: Peter is full of testosterone, and himself. One fellow in the group who's a Peter fan commented that after the moral and military mistakes he made, he wasn't given enough time to redeem himself. Susan shows up really well in the action scenes and flirts outrageously with Caspian, much to the younger ones' scorn. ("I'm sure I'll understand when I'm larger." "I'm larger and I'm not sure I want to understand.") Edmund shines - both as a character in this book, and through Skandar Keynes' perfect deadpan delivery of his lines (I dunno where that name is from but it sounds totally Viking). Lucy, as before, is adorable. Caspian is a bit of a nonentity. He sort of reminds me of Hamlet.

As for Reepicheep: holy cow, I'm glad the mice in my lab don't fight like that.

Acquisition

I made a request to the UW library to get a copy of Amir Muhammad's Lelaki Komunis Terakhir [The Last Communist] and they got it from Singapore in a WEEK. I think it was my appending "this film was banned in Malaysia" to the acquisition request that might have sped it up ^_^ I like the little pomelos on the DVD cover and poster. Will watch and let you know what I think.

They also got Syed Akbar Ali's "Malaysia and the Club of DOOM" for me fairly quickly, as well as James Rennie's "The Operators" for Steve. Operators is a non-fictional memoir about British special forces in Northern Ireland and it's great if you like Tom Clancy kind of stuff. Rosei and Johnson's "Survival Skills for Scientists", the only thing I requested that wasn't purely for leisure, actually took a bit longer to get here.

Especially after Karcy/Cat told me how it can take UM (Universiti Malaysia) effing months to get a book - because of the approval process! - I'm glad I'm doing my graduate studies in the US... But I still want to go back and FIX the system. I hate stuff that's broken. It's not like we're some kind of banana republic wallowing in mud. We HAVE the money. We HAVE the tech. It's just not being used!

A survival skill for scientists: not screwing around blogging the morning right before a midterm exam, which skill I don't seem to have...

Silly Icons

Those of you who are on my contact lists may have noticed my Patrick Stewart icon:

The image is from the movie The Lion in Winter, which has him playing King Henry II opposite Glenn Close. I like it also because it has Jonathan Rhys Meyers doing a gay kiss. (Given my predilection for skinny guys, you can see why I like the near-skeletal JRM.)

Here's another one featuring Amanda Tapping as Major Samantha Carter from Stargate SG-1:

I love Carter because SG-1 is one of the few shows where it's the woman spouting technobabble oblivious to the confusion of the people around her.

Feel free to use my icons if you like, please just don't re-post them anywhere else.