The Sound of A Wish by ilmungo

Through ups and downs, rain drops and sun rays, we held together, we marched shoulder by shoulder. We are not naive, we knew too well life is unpredictable, like how we traveled thousands of miles to meet with one another on this distant land so far away from our homes, like that floating feather at the beginning and the end of the movie Forrest Gump. We knew, but farewells were too distant to be fully understood.

I always had this picture in my mind that we were dandelions, the parachute ball. Each of us is a tiny parachute, and when the wind blows with certain magnitude, we are ready to fly away, to dance in the wind. Today, we are dancing in the wind, and I have to share with you, my friends, it is beautiful and poetic. From that first twist in the air, I saw my blessing, I saw everything turn golden, even the times we could not stand each other, even when tears glided across the cheeks. So many forgotten details became clear, gleaming like diamonds. I felt so rich, so blessed, and at the same time so sad.

But, let’s not end this chapter of our life with a sad note. As we float in the air, smile to the sun, play with cotton clouds, witness the breathtaking beauty under our feet, let’s be the hopefuls, let us be the sons of eternal Light. When we finally landed, buried under soil, do remember the fickleness of life, there is a chance we may end up as neighbors the day we break the ground.

I was fortunate enough to see this in an advanced screening on Saturday morning, and best of all I watched it in 3D. If you are going to see this movie, watch it in 3D. It really enhances the movie experience. Monsters vs. Aliens is not a long movie, it runs about one hour and 30 minutes. There were some funny parts, but overall the movie is good not great. The story is typical and predictable, and as far as being funny, it only managed to be passable, nothing like Kung Fu Panda. One thing the movie did right is casting Seth Rogen to be the voice of B.O.B., I think he did a great job. Every time B.O.B. speaks or even just laughs, you are guaranteed to laugh. It is the perfect animated character for Seth Rogen. In comparison to B.O.B., all the other characters fades into background, even the supposed main character Susan. To conclude this review, watch this movie in theater only if you want to watch it with your kids, otherwise just wait until its DVD release, and save the money for Pixar’s Up.

I am glad I read this post on Vikiworks recently, it introduced me to a wonderful micro-blogging platform, Asaph. Asaph is minimalistic and simple. It allows you to collect links and images as you stumble them on the internet. It comes close to Tumblr, but even simpler than that. The best part of Asaph is its bookmarklet. You simply drag-and-drop it on your bookmarks toolbar, and you are set to post content from anywhere, just like Tumblr’s bookmarklet. Although the system is not as sophisticated as WordPress, but customizing the template is quite straightforward. I have already set up my micro-blog, HEART, check it out, and if you like the idea, try micro-blogging with Asaph yourself. It is really a delight!

As I sealed Help Me, Eros (幫幫我愛神) DVD into Netflix’s red envelope, I struggled mentally whether to write a review about this movie. If I do, how would I put my mixed feelings about this film into a coherent and comprehensible article. It appeared to me almost an impossible task. Later, after returning the DVD, I went on my Netflix account and tried to rate the movie. Once again, I froze, lost in thoughts and nonplussed. Even though in the end I gave 2 stars out of 5, but I do not consider it to be accurate. Perhaps, as a reader, you should completely disregard this rating.

To get one thing straight, Help Me, Eros is an artsy film not a senseless erotic film. It is true, there were plenty of sexual scenes, but they were in the movie to illustrate a point, to enforce the message.

Help Me, Eros is not a bad movie, but definitely not a movie with high entertainment value, therefore not a movie for everyone. It comes close to being a poem, a visual poem that carries a suffocating and almost unbearable melancholy. Perhaps, my rating merely reflects its entertainment value, rather than its artistic value. Artistically, it deserves a 5-star.

Using long still shots, and sometimes extended scenes without any dialogue, the movie achieved in expressing the loneliness of city dwellers and the inadequacy of love. Sex is merely an escape, a temporary solution to satiate one’s longing to be loved and cared. At the same time, sex drives the main character into a deeper void, because after the temporary physical union and pleasure, he only finds himself lonelier than ever.

The parallel story of the helpline lady is an interesting one. At work, she patiently helps the main character, preventing him from committing suicide. Yet, when she returns her home, she is just another victim. She receives no love from her husband. In certain way, she is probably more miserable than the main character, because she cannot even pursue for sexual pleasure. It is obvious to see the mocking paradox here, a victim helping another victim, a lonely person helps another lonely person to find love and caring they both yearn. Both of them cries out Help Me, Eros!

I think this is a profound movie. However, you need to be patient to watch it. Like a Netflix reviewer recommended, it is best that you watch it alone and undisturbed.

Ever since I got my iPod Touch, I wanted to convert some of my wallpapers into iPhone/iPod Touch size. Truth to be known, sometimes I can be a extremely good procrastinator. As you can see, after being an iPod Touch owner for more than a year, and having gone from the original iPod Touch to the second generation one, I still haven’t released the wallpapers. Well, wait no more, today I am releasing the first 18 wallpapers for iPhone/iPod Touch. They are hand-picked from my previously released desktop wallpapers, I made sure that they would look good on your device. I think I will release more 320×480 size wallpapers in the future, so bookmark this page and keep up with future updates.

Beginning of this year, I had the opportunity to attend CES 2009 in Las Vegas. Many thanks to my dear friend! Basically through her and her company, she hooked us up with the pass and also a very comfortable place to sleep. We stayed in Las Vegas for four days, from January 8th to 11th. We did many things, it was a very relaxing mini-vacation. We spent two days in CES, we watched the show Zumanity, we gambled a little and of course we had a lot of delicious food. On the last day, we had brunch inside Paris Hotel, and we watched the football game between San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers in a sports bar. Simply put, we had a blast!

Although, this was my first time attending CES, but from what I saw and what I heard, I can positively say that the attendance of CES this year was not very high. You can definitely feel the effect of the current economic crisis in CES. However, many Korean companies did have huge booths, for instance, LG and Samsung. Particularly LG, its booth is probably even bigger than Microsoft’s. I guess they are doing okay.

Sorry, it took me forever to upload these photos. After coming back, I have been busy at work and after work. I hope you enjoy these photos, mostly taken by my girlfriend.

I have to admit the story in this movie is definitely enticing, and the storytelling is also very clever. In the movie, Jamal Malik’s painful and tough childhood is revealed through the questions of the popular TV game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. Although highly unrealistic, but taken that Slumdog Millionaire is almost like a modern-day fairy tale, I chose to enjoy the story.

When I was taken into Jamal’s childhood, first I noticed the colors. Like many Indian films, every frame is fulled of colors. However, immediately after the shallow visual observation is the hard-swallowed truth, the unsanitary and impoverished slum of Mumbai where Jamal grew up. I think this is what the director Danny Boyle wanted to show the rest of the world through this movie, not just the love story between Jamal and Latika.

Towards the end of the film, the story became predictable. Just like any fairy tale, good triumphs and the evil is defeated, or at least temporary forgettable, and the lovers live happily ever after. Personally, I prefer parts of film about Jamal’s childhood, they make you laugh, worry and cry. So, I definitely recommend this movie. It certainly will make you encouraged due to its happy ending, but I would not say that it is the best film in 2008, probably one that stands out in mediocrity because of the unique and engaging story of Jamal.

There is one obvious similarity between The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Forrest Gump, and that is both movies tell stories about a man’s life. Other than this, Benjamin Button is nothing like Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump. In Benjamin Button, the central theme of the movie is vague. You can list many topics the movie touched on in a time span of almost 3 hours, but you can never pinpoint one single theme that stands out and the movie intends to focus on. Maybe because of this lack of focus, some people consider Benjamin Button as a long and boring ramble of a fantasy-like character, and instead prefer to spend the 3-hours surfing on, maybe Facebook. However, personally I find the movie a successful attempt in portraying the lifetime of any real human being. If you think about it, does one’s life focus on one single theme, or is one’s life a collage of various human experience of love, hate, fear of death, forgiveness, etc?

Admittedly, Benjamin Button is an extraordinary individual, a person who ages reversely, but this does not make him any less real or hard to relate to. His loneliness in his unusual childhood, his early encounters with death, his love and his heartache, I am sure they echo in many viewers’ heart.

Visually, Benjamin Button is a beautiful movie. The motorcycle ride on the narrow road alongside the vast field, the majestic sunrise at the ocean pier, and the misty morning fog on the tugboat, you are reminded time after time to pay a bit more attention of our surroundings as we walk through the path of life, because these scenery make us to contemplate about life.

In my opinion, Cate Blanchett had a better performance than Brad Pitt. In some scenes, Brad Pitt seemed too dull and apathetic. I don’t know if he did on purpose, but his apathy definitely made some scenes lack of emotional outburst, everything seemed so suppressed and subtle, sometimes a bit unrealistic.

I have said a lot about this movie, but don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to defend it or to convince you to see it. After all, it depends on personal taste, but one thing for sure it does not appeal to everyone. You may be so touched that you shed tears at the end of the movie, others may yawn and complain that the movie drags too long. In my case, I walked out the theater thinking: No matter which direction your biological clock is ticking towards, we always loses in the battle with time, and when we reach the end of journey, it is those lasting moments and unforgettable people we met that make our life worth of living.

After some time off from blogging and some thinking, I decided to keep Wooden Fish running, but I decided to approach blogging differently. I don’t want to write just to see the increase in the number of subscribers, or the revenue of Google Adsense; but rather go back to the original motivation, to write for myself and to write anything that interests me without worrying anything else. Once I had that figured out, I felt the need of a new design, a new beginning, a milestone. This is the motivation and story of this new design.

After some hand-drawn sketches, I started to work on the new blog theme. It turned out to be a lengthy process, and the final design you see before your eyes is drastically different than what I first envisioned. During the process, I had moments when I wanted to give up, but I am glad I did not and persisted through. Now, I am proud to say that I am quite satisfied with the final result, and I sincerely hope you feel the same way too. I hope you hang around here a bit, and let me know what you think. Finally, wish everyone a happy and abundant 2009!