Knowing

"WHAT? A movie review on this blog?" (you may or may not say in disbelief)

It isn't really a review. Just some thoughts vaguely related to the movie ('Knowing' is the name of the movie). The first thought is of the fact that I visited one of the locations the movie was filmed. I recognised it immediately as being familiar, the site being the Synchotron in Australia. This is not that surprising considering most of the movie was filmed in Melbourne.

The second thought I felt after the movie, when I realised I should have probably seen different movie. To combat this problem ever occuring again, I have formulated a movie plan to be carried out by me before I watch the movie. Here it is:

1. Go to the site www.rottentomatoes.com/
2. Search the movie
3. If it has a low score (this movie had an average score of 4.4 out of ten)
4. Read some other reviews/ask friends about it, if necessary

SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH

I think the best description of 'Knowing' is a mashup of "War of the Worlds", but more philosophically orientated in purpose (in terms of actual screentime, it has roughly the same amount of action). As Yi-Ling commented after she watched the film, there were MANY unnecessary 'shock' scenes, which held no other purpose but to keep the viewer awake. I also realized there was a scene which does not make sense if you finish watching the movie (a contradiction).

If you like a somewhat depressing action film which, as many modern films today do, sacrifices good story telling for what will excite consumers, ....you still shouldn't watch this film.. Another film I [can reccomend instead, which you will like more] cannot reccomend (see edit), is "Sphere is a 1998 psychological science fiction thriller film", from Wikipedia. It is similar in what 'it wants to be' as a film, but I think Sphere explores the concepts better which it has chosen, has a better twist, and contains much less 'mindless modern entertainment' that today's movies seem to have entwined into them / interlaced in them.(I was going to say a word which started with en- in the place of 'woven' but I forgot what it was while I was typing it. Could somebody help me out? (the word is not 'enwoven').

EDIT: MA BAD , i watched this movie a REALLY long time ago. "Sphere currently holds a 13% fresh rating at rottentomatoes, with an average score of 4.1/10 and is currently the worst reviewed movie of Dustin Hoffman". Ok, maybe you shouldn't listen to my recommendations. Go watch the second Ghost in the Shell movie, you can't go wrong with that! (unlike the first one there is no nudity).

EDIT2: Ah i DO know a movie which is marginally better than both 'Sphere' and 'Knowing'. It is called "Contact", yet another sci-fi movie which seems like these two movies but much better. Actually, it is much more similar to "Knowing" than "Sphere" is, and does it MUCH better. Rotten tomatoes percentage? 65%.

Latinus non amo

i do not love latin. i somehow find it really hard recently. ESPECIALLY THE NEW UNSEEN BOOKLETS. like, wth? why are they suddenly so hard? i hate it! i am sick of tacitus as well.

I feel that our latin class is losing steam. we had a rather satisfying discussion for a whole period on the vices of a certain music captain - a pleasant change from the perceived vices of Nero that Tacitus likes to fixate on so much. Seriously, must he constantly infer things about Nero's blackened soul?

Then again, i suppose that Nero did have some traits that might cause people to dislike him. For example, people might be annoyed by his promiscuity. Or something. And they might think he was squandering Rome's money with his large parties (intended, of course, to turn Rome into Alexandria, since he was sulking about his inability to go to Egypt since he uh. went into Vesta's chamber and started trembling with fear. yes, just randomly. this was then taken as a bad omen, so that he then decided it was not a good idea) ummmm poor Tacitus, i must be interpreting him so terribly : ( i am sorry, great writer.

IB is fun.

Life

Harry says:

*:O It's that time again... Puzzle hunt !

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*...

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(]

Harry says:

*C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

Daniel says:

*:(

Harry says:

*:D

An excellent conversation. If you are interested in the puzzle hunt, please notify me/harry. Here is some excellent food.

Yummy, isn't it? You can 'enjoy' this food. I'm sure you can, at this location:

You won't see any of these people there:

I saw something better than this but i didn't have my camera with me....

I was in the car driving on the freeway, looking up at the clouds. There were clearly two layers of clouds, one more dark and brooding layer, while a higher layer was on top, closer to heaven. The sun shone through the top layer, and as we drove under the darker (bottom) layer, the perspective gave the impression that the dark layer was blanketing us.

Dad didn't notice but I did. I thought to myself, 'I should take a picture to capture this'...but i couldn't. A lack of camera, you see.

There was a much more three dimensional quality to the clouds that time than I had ever seen before.... Unfortunately i could not make any metaphorical links with this because nothing has happened recently which could connect to this.... perhaps the way school is a barrier to reaching what you truly want, the skies above? I do not know. Yes , ying, i am stealing your well used 'do not use a contraction for empasis' ability.

Something else I enjoyed today was the tristam town instrumental...here is a youtube link to it. It is from the second Diablo game, although it has featured in both games. It was written by Matt Uelmen.

Also I enjoyed the song "Temple of Shadows" by Angra. Youtube it or something i cbf getting a link.

Why am I being so weird in my blog post today? I don't know....I thought I had a cold again this morning but now it seems much better. Another excuse could be the 6 SACs (School Assessed Coursework...s) next week. I don't even feel depressed.... more distressed, with an impending sense of doom....a driving force which helps me do some work.... some work.... : (. I would work much better without VCAA (victorian certificate of my ass) on my back.

That reminds me, I was doing this physics question today and i was extremely uspset that I didn't get it. It made me, as commonly said, 'ragequit'. I may ....not rage quit, but tiredquit now, as this post is far too long for anyone to read to the end....er.. i mean i'm tired, i'm sure my writing is the purest form of bliss that humankind has ever witnessed.

the next ten minutes

but WHYYY JAMIE WHYYYY
I WANT TO BE YOUR WIIIIIIIIIFE! I WANT TO BEAR YOUR CHIIIIIILD!
i WANT TO DIEEE, KNOWING IIII HAD A LONG FULL LIFE - IN YOUR ARMS
- The Next Ten Minutes, Last Five Years

I could, possibly, have quoted without the capitals, but seriously, that's what it sounds like. It is rather amazing. So is IB, i wish i was more efficient though : (

The rain and overcast sky give me a cosy feeling. There's something nice about drinking tea while there's thunder and rain falling and it's warm, and doing Latin or reading a book seems like the natural thing to do. I think that cold weather is more conducive to studying. That is why we should do May exams instead of November exams - hm that was a bad joke, it would be quite distressing if that actually happened.

The number of bands auditioning for Battle of the Bands has increased - well, not exponentially, but significantly, as in six-fold. Which means that we must try really hard to GET BACK into our true rockselves. Rehearsals start on monday - wish me luck in playing bass!

Which reminds me, if anyone has a bass that they are not using, we need one rather desperately : ( it would be very much appreciated by all of us. I will, uh, transcribe a song for you. um. yes.

goodbye.

Linguistics Olympiad

Well it seems i'm bored...so i'll recount the events of the Linguistics Olympiad.

I didn't really want to go to this that much....it's just my teacher suggested i do it. She basically picked us, as opposed to the other class who had multiple people wanting to do it and had their names picked from a hat. There were, in total, 6 year 12's, and about 12 year 11's. We hopped on our dodgey bus and went to the olympiad.

The only person i recognised there from another school was kristen, the one of the other contributers to this blog. She was carrying a huge art thing? I don't know.

Anyway, just before we were to start, a bell went off. It sounded like a fire alarm sort of bell, so i semi-yelled 'fire' jokingly. Somebody then came in, and told us to get out of the building.


I still don't know why the fire alarm went off, but we all had to stand outside for about 30 minutes. Kristen questioned the action I was taking while taking this photo, to which i replied "I'm taking a photo of the firetruck". While we were going back inside, the alarm went off again.

Before starting, the examiner told us we probably couldn't finish the entire paper in the 2 hours. Our group involved Me,Ben and Adrian, and we surprisingly did finish in time, of course adrian did three whole problems by himself (the "easy" ones) and ben got the "hardest one". The last one was the best (even though i didn't get to actually do it), as it involved anime. Very slightly.

I wonder how we'll go....

harry potter inspires my life

I confess that at times during the night i sit with heated milk and read fanfic voraciously. This, i tell myself, is to console myself about the fact that i am alone, but the truth is -

(i think it's called procrastination)

I am too lazy.

It is, i feel, a sad life when you have lost count of the times you have read [insert trashy fanfic title here]. Then again, i do not know what to say, as Matt is watching the Love Hina Spring Special next to me. Even I did not go that far.

Hopefully tomorrow shall yield more productive results with the rise of the IB spirit.

guys who can sing up to D frighten me

So i was listening to that DBSK song, Doushite Kimi wo Suki ni Shimettandarou, and i noticed that one of them (i assume max, just because i know that he can sing that high - it could be someone else though) randomly sang up to a D. Yes, that is the D an octave above middle C, the D that frequently turns up in songs in assembly, the D that katherine claims she cannot sing, even in headvoice.

Why is that? Why is it that guys are even capable of singing that high???

:(

On Friday i went to see the MGS production of A Midsummer Night's Dream - it was rather amusing. Especially the play, Thisbe and Pyrramus. wth how do you spell pyramus? Phyramus? yes anyway, it was quite hilarious, i spent much of the play laughing while my silent neighbour cast disapproving looks at me. Vincent was quite good as UPRIGHT FROWNING PHILOSTRATE he had quite an amazing booming voice ahahaha.

Hmm i really like the MGS uniform for some reason o__O they have a cool stripy shirt. Sadly even this stripiness is not sufficient to render shorts with long socks acceptable. Please, save our eyes @__@

What else? I am not motivated to do my homework, and Viv asked me to post, so that is why i am here. I am listening to Last Five Years atm. It is the first day of Autumn.

Seasons may change
Summer to Autumn
But i will love you (i will love you)
Until the end of time

Somehow it just does not sound the same. Damn two-syllabled names