My Take On (500) Days of Summer

 

Emotionally, the movie surpassed my expectation in the way it brings out laughter and tears simultaneously in a course of a one-and-half-an-hour rollercoaster ride, literally. If you think about it, Tom started his early ride with Summer cheerfully expectant. Those romantic flowery days is like going up up and up in a rollercoaster, you believe everything is gonna be a fun ride since you’re with the person you love the most, not knowing that halfway through the ride, she start screaming her way out of the relationship, and before you know it, it already crushes you so much that it faints you and wobble your days, only to find at the end of the ride, you are back at square one. Zip. None. Nothing. No love. No us.

I remember I tweet this right after watching the movie: “reality has never been so real and honestly presented in a movie”. So real, that there’s a point in the movie where I believe I am Tom Hansen. No kidding, I can relate in so many ways with the character. The out-of-the-universe (stratosphere level of out-of-the-blue) breakup. The fact that Summer has made Tom’s days amazingly beautiful while at the same time managed to keep it ‘casual’. This is the agony. Tom is merely an option for Summer, while Summer is simply everything to him. I guess we’ve all done our share of ‘dumped’. Also, I guess part of the reason why it feels real to me is the anonymity of the cast. Both, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are perfect for the part. I don’t know them before this movie. That allows me to see this is as everyday ordinary guy meets everyday extraordinary girl.

And this just came to me, the whole movie is presented from Tom’s angle of the story. I would really really like to see sort-of the counterpart of the movie, where the story unfolds from Summer’s point of view. That would be interesting. I’d like to know what’s in her head, what rushes through her heart while they were spending those delightful times together, the happy times you know, and what made her so easy to bring it to an end with the vaguest reason. I guess that would be appropriately titled (500) Days of Fling. I sound very subjective, aren’t I? No offense. Haha. And this what I meant vague.

All in all, this is an awesomely written movie. The way it rolled out, jumping from one days to another, the honesty, and of course the message it brings. Tom learned the hard way about relationship, breakup, and eventually moving forward. I vote this to be one of the top movie in 2009. And personally, I put this numero uno in top movies about breakup, preceding John Cusack’s High Fidelity and Jim Carrey's Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind.

To close, here’s one of my favorite quote from the movie:

“I guess you’re only looking at the good stuff, make you sure you don’t miss the bad ones next time you look back”.

From that point forward, a new Tom find his revelation, learned to let go, and finally open up for brand new love. IMDB gave it 8.1. Rottentomato gave it 86%. I gave it FOUR AWESOME THUMBS. Very recommended.

Smile on, Shine on!

Love / Lust. (Strictly Boys Only)

[Post is in Indonesian Bahasa. English readers, you can skip this]

Perhatikan percakapan di bawah ini yang g comot dari sebuah DVD berjudul French Film yang disutradarai oleh Jackie Oudney. Film ini mengambil tokoh Grimandi sebagai sosok pusat yang menjadi pimpinan alur cerita dan membawa intrik-intrik ke dalam disfungsi percintaan antara dua tokoh yang menurut saya cukup menarik dan kalau ditilik dari .. (lah eeee, kok jadi review film? #)$*) Hoheaoha. Mari kita lanjutkan. Lagi-lagi g tekankan, cowo yang paling cocok sama post ini, tapi terserah si kalau kalian lovely-ladies juga mau baca. Tapi jangan komplain kalau tulisan ini ‘offensive' atau bokep. Buat g sih ini kocak. 

 ---

Marcus: It was her

Jed: Who?

Marcus: Kate! The one I mentioned the other day. I was in love once when I was a kid. Remember? Its her.

Jed: The kid?

Marcus: Yeah. She's not a kid now obviously.

Jed: No, but you just met the girl you were in love with in here. Just now? The kid?

Marcus: Yeah, after 20 years.

Jed: How old were you?

Marcus: Seventeen.

Jed: That wasn't love! That was erectile-tissue. Let's get a coffee.

 ---

Baiklah, g tidak mau post ini terlalu panjang, biar kebijaksanaan dan pola-pikir lo yang mengarahkan lo ke konklusi selanjutnya.

Tapi g ulang lagi deh quote’nya:

That wasn’t love! That was erectile-tissue! atau terjemahan Sunda-nya "Itu bukan cinta, jek! Itu k***ol lo ngaceng!"

Saran g sebagai sesama lelaki kali berikutnya anda merasa ‘fell in love’ sama cewe, coba jangan cek hati lo ajah, itu udah pasti berbunga-bunga, konfirmasi juga sama ‘si adik’ di bawah. Huahahaha. Kalau dia mengacungkan ‘yak!’, yah berhati-hatilah, ‘adik’-mu yang memimpin, bukan hati lo, apalagi akal-sehat lo.  =P. Pilih yang benar, belanja aja kadang ga bisa dituker kembali, apalagi hari-hari lo yang disiasiakan sama nafsu.

Disclaimer: (1) G gak sok pinter, karena emang g bukan yang paling pinter, tapi g tau karena g cowo. Itu ajah sih.(2) Ini postingan g yang paling nyantai sepertinya, karena emang g lagi mau suasananya nyantai aja bos. G nganggepnya si itu percakapan lumayan as a joke. Tapi menurut g ada benernya walau cuma sebentuk bibit pikiran. G ga pengen love-life g yang malah jadi joke. (3) Iya sori lah terjemahannya explicit content, cuman perlu biar nangkep. Kayak NKJV ditranslate ke Message, lebih nampol kan?

In the end, take it as a fun-humorous-reminder. Hehe. Akhir kata, akan g tutup seperti biasanya g tutup.

Guys, Tersenyumlah, Bersinarlah!

Everything is Amazing & Nobody is Happy!

This video below is how Louis CK tells it, everything is amazing, yet nobody is happy. I somehow feel it’s true to a certain extent. Just spare 4 minutes of your time to watch the hilarious video. For a teaser, this is a glitch of the conversation with Conan O’Brian:

Conan: Do you feel that we now in the 21^st century, we take technology for granted?

Louis: Yeah! Cause see, we’re now living in an amazing amazing world and its wasted on the crappiest generation on just spoiled idiots that don’t care. Cause this is people are right now. They grab their phone, and they’re just (look impatient waiting for it to load) ‘uhhh, it wont work..’. Well, give it a second! GIVE IT! MAN IT’S GOING TO SPACE! Can you give it a second to get back from space?

http://www.youtube.com/v/UN0MpBQG3-E&hl=en&fs=1

So, how do you like it? I know you have your opinion on this, feel free to leave your comments below.

As for me, I kinda agree with Louis, I get pissed off by small things, my Blackberry messenger stopped working for an hour and I’m just like what? I paid a lot for their services, and I start complaining. Well, if I think about it, I was fine before with my old cellphone. No Blackberry messenger, no Twitter, and whatnots. If it’s important, and your BB messenger is not working, then friggin pick up the phone, dial your friend's number, that’s it! (I’m yelling to myself, not you, so you're good) =p.

These Feet Aren't Mine

It came from a simple thought. I am here not on my own will, I exist not accidentally, but for a purpose. There's a greater being who breathe life into everyone of us. And in that perspective, what I have is not mine, including these feet, they will go wherever He directs me to.

So these pictures are not just me showing off my Converse shoes. It represent faith, walking on the path presented forward upon me. It never came across my mind to have the opportunity to study in one of the most spectacular places in the world. I am thankful. I am humbled. And the point that I am now show how great He was, He is, and He is to come.

See if you recognize these spots taken around Paris, Tours, Brussels, and Amsterdam.

Smile on, Shine on!

Rubs.

See the full gallery on posterous

Apology Doesn't Stop at Sorry.

I’m the kind of person who could catch a glitch of details from a movie, a word from a dictionary, or a bit of experience and got inspired. This time I discover, well not eureka-kind-of-discovery, let’s say I encountered a recurring pattern about relationship as it pertains to fights and apologies.

I’m a huge fan of Friends series and I dare you to play on any episode, you will pretty much always find arguments, fights, and quarrels although it varies in size and intensity. I can relate with these clash between people. We got into stupid argument with our loved ones over silly things. We banged the door when our parents accused us of something we ‘feel’ we didn’t do. Its just life and we can’t avoid it.

Now, what gets interesting is that how these characters respond to these fights. Obviously when a fight happens, somebody felt wronged, somebody felt they shouldn’t be blamed for all of the mistakes. See, logically, there should be one person ‘actually’ making the mistake. But in a fight, ego is on play. And eventually, if you really want the fight to be over, somebody has got to apologize, right? But now that you want to, you find it hard to find the words to say. This point forward I’ll try to present you the recurring pattern I mentioned above. Not that it’s a perfect formula for an apology. Not that it guarantees (it definitely not if you don’t say it from your heart). But often times, we only get one chance to apologize and you don’t want to screw it up after you screwed up in the first place right?

Watch this conversation. Its how Monica apologize to Chandler. They promised to make something for each other as Valentine’s present. Well, some might not get it, but for couples you do know this stuff matters. Monica forgot to get the present, and don’t mention about making it herself, so she took a bunny-socks made by Phoebe and use it as present instead. Chandler on the other hand got her a mixtape of romantic songs. See if you get what I meant by the title of this post.

 

Monica:

Okay okay, I didn't make it. I'm sorry, I forgot about tonight and that we're supposed to make the presents. (Admit your mistake, how you wronged the other person, how your mistake has made serious repercussion in others feelings)

You're incredible.

You went through all this time and effort to make this mix-tape. (Lift of the blame from the other person, acknowledge it’s yours. Show your appreciation to other person, and his/her effort)

You know, I'll make this up to you.

I am going to cook you anything you want in there (pointing at the kitchen) and I'm going to do anything you want in there (pointing at the bedroom).

(Take the initiative to ask the person if you could make up for your mistake, mean it, and do it)

 

So there they are. Its not rocket science, though it’s not as simple as well. See the pattern? Apology doesn’t stop at the word ‘sorry’.

Also, it takes honesty to say those words; you can’t simply make up beautiful words. Especially if you guys apologizing to a girl. Man, they know when you cooking up s**t.  So, if it ever comes to you, that one single chance to make up for your mistake, don’t miss it, be sincere, let it comes from your heart, say what you mean and mean what you say. Depending on the intensity, a ‘sorry’ might be enough, but for big-scale cases (i personally think all offenses in any size are big scale), apology doesn’t stop at sorry. And when you’re forgiven, remember you still have homework to do.

So, this is life, we deal with relationship everyday. We can’t avoid clashes, but don’t escape when it happens. We fight, we make up. That’s friendship. That’s love.

Smile on, shine on.

Battles & War

It came to me through Kings Of Convenience's song "Winning a Battle, Losing The War", you can see life in the viewpoint of battles and war. Not the content of the song that inspire me though, just plainly the title.

Sun Tzu, said to be one of the greatest strategist wrote the book Art of War. And yeah, you don't need to read the whole thousand-pages thick book, I'll just spill the essence here. One of the greatest quote I learn from him is:

If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

Or in a more condensed version:

If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can come out of hundreds of battles without danger.

And I begin to think. Contemplate. Isn't it what happen in our life? Day in day out we face battles.

Battles in all kind of size. Battle of waking up early in the morning. Battle of patience on a fookin traffic (yeas i use the f-word, i'm not trying to be fookin holy or something. see i just use it again. haha). Battle of meeting deadlines, whatever deadlines it is. Project deadlines? Thesis deadlines? Credit card deadlines? Battle of letting go? Et cetera.

And the answer is lying there all along: Know yourself, know your enemy!

Knowing yourself, your strength, your talents, also your weaknesses is vital to surviving these battles. In your job, learn the demands of your customers. Expand your knowledge. Know your enemies is as vital as knowing yourself. Competition? It will always be there. So learn where you stand over others. Have you been a procrastinator? Know why you did that in the first place, is it because you're stuck taking passion-less major in university surrounded by passion-less people? The thing is take action! It's not always that hard to fight over battle, some time is just a matter of willing or not. And I believe we are born to be the head, we are here to overcome battles! So rise up! I've faced it myself, and its proven, once you take action, one good thing will lead to another.

Now I'm speaking more specifically to battles over whatever habits that you've been fighting for years. Get to know yourself, and your enemy. The devil itself and how it works. How it condemns. How it misled. How it create contradiction in your mind. And once you master yourself and your enemy, be reminded that each of us has one God that's greater that all our battles combined. Instead of falling to devil's deception over and over again, take charge when the battle arrive!

Lastly, but not least, be aware that winning one battle surely take you one step closer to winning the war, however losing one battle doesn't necessarily means losing your chance to win the war.

KEEP FIGHTING! SMILE ON, SHINE ON PEOPLE!

-- originally written June 2008

~ ivd.

when i lay down and my eyes refuse to shut
that's when your images rushing out
seemingly friendly, they caught me off guard
tick tock tick tock tickly tick ... tock
it tickles my heart
one scene to another i grow on tears
where did we start, how did we end up here?
one scene to the last i cry them tears

one distance to another we grow apart
when i lay down and my heart refuse to part
that's when i know that was love
love love love
love ?
in my pursuit there were us
in our chapters there were laughs
flowery flowery blissful heart
at the best i know that was my part

when i lay down and finally close my eyes
i wish i can keep this dream aside
that it was not goodbye
that i'd have my fair chance to make you the happiest alive

i lied
i wish i can keep that dream for a long while.