What is it that make it so hard to talk to each other? How to break down the emotional wall?

Communication is an activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings, or of giving people information. Sometimes, this activity can be extremely tough. We may find that the person we talk to interpret the matter wrongly or we cannot get they are talking about. Is it our fault not to understand what others intend to tell us or we are not good enough to express our thought?

In love, we say “NO” to age as a boundary stopping two persons to get into a relationship. However, in interaction and communication, we may not be surprise that we only feel comfortable talking to people of our age. This is an undeniable fact! Different generations share different stories as they experience different things. It is so hard for the young to explain what a computer or an i-pod is to the older generation. At the same time, we cannot understand the stories of the Second World War from our grandparents. In the short story “A Thousand Years of Good Prayer”, the main character, Mr Shi can communicate with Madam who is almost the same age as him even though they don’t share the same language. The only thing in common among them is their age and they experience the same family dilemma. They are able to understand each other based on the tone and the body language but their children can’t understand them although they share the same genetic.

I really don’t like to talk to my grandma. I rarely respond even though she is so enthusiastic in explaining some “do and don’t” to live a happy life. She thinks that all her way should be followed closely by me just because she has more experience in life. However, to me, I am perfectly capable of handling my own life. Same thing happens to Mr. Shi as well. He tries to advise her daughter to live a happy life but her respond is “I am perfectly fine!” Communication is a process of expressing something to another party but it is hard when the other party doesn’t seem to “co-operate”.

The reluctance of talking can be as simple as you don’t the others to find out something you have hid deep in your heart just to protect your dignity. Mr. Shi doesn’t explain his demotion to his family since he wants to defend his own dignity in front of his wife and daughter. However, this eventually brings to the misunderstanding of his daughter until their relationship worsens.

The fear of offending others makes us difficult to communicate as well. We are going to lose our confidence in communication if we happen to offend others all the while although we have tried our very best not to do so. Eventually, we just keep our mouth shut to prevent unnecessary stuff from happening. Maybe living in silence is not a bad idea to live our lives as what Mr. Shi’s daughter tells him in the beginning of the stories. Telepathy is very creative as well!

For me, the only way to make communication easier and less harsh is to be more considerate and understanding. We try to put ourselves into each other’s shoes before we come out with something. With this, the possibility to offend others can be reduced. Meanwhile, we must be observant in communication. If you feel that somebody is not comfortable to what you are talking, you should just end the conversation and try to ask his or her opinion. Some people are quiet in nature and some people are the other way round. So, we may switch our roles in some occasion. The talkative or the one good at expressing ideas can be a listener and vice versa.

Communication is a way for us to understand others better. If not, why does God create a mouth for us? So, please use your mouth wisely in every communication so that this activity will neither hard nor harmful.

C'est la vie

Recently, I started to watch a new series of full metal alchemist (Japanese anime). It is about these two brothers who practice a kind of magic that can create thing from nothing. However, this is not ordinary magic. In order to create thing, they need to pay for it. There is no free lunch in this world even in this virtual world. Their mother died when the elder one was 11 whiles the young one only 10. Even though they were so young at that time, they were determined to “create” their mother through the magic. They had put in a lot of effort. However, after they carried out certain ritual. What they had gotten was nothing else but hell and they paid for it. The young one lost his body. The elder, on the other hand, managed to “lock” his brother’s soul on a metal body but he lost one of his arms and legs. The elder, Edward managed to get artificial limps from a friend. The fixing of these artificial limps is rather painful especially when the limps join with his nerves. Even though their life is tough, they are not going to cease until they get back what they have lost. You may say their life is pathetic. For me, they are brave and strong until they can withstand such a pain and keep moving ahead. I somehow found this story quite reflective to our life everyday.

Life is harsh and challenging. It is never easy.

The adults: They work everyday although they had their job so much just to earn themselves a living. Inflation haunts them every single minute. They can bear the consequence if they have lose their job. The situation worsens if they are the bread-breeder of the family.

The parents: Their main concern is how to make a bright future for their beloved children. They buy them books, learning gadgets(e.g. laptop) tuition classes to obtain the best result in their exam. As a result, the parents need to work extra hard to sustain these education cost. Other than that, the parents need to worry for the safety and the social cycle of the children.

The old people: They are worried that they have caused too much burden and trouble to their children. The cost of health care is so great. Some also are worried that their children may send them to the old folk’s home and they might end up lonely there.

The elder one has so many burdens until they want to go back to their teenage or early year when they don’t need to worry for anything. Who on Earth does telling you that the young generation lives happily all the time? The young ones have their own problems and troubles as well. The adults always treat these problems of young as exaggeration and serve no significance. In fact, all these matters are important to the young.

The students: Last time I used to spend my time playing in the field or stream during my early year. However, the young generation today is not holding fishing rods anymore but books, in particular, textbooks. Students today, ranging from primary to secondary school, are asked to study hard. “You must revise everyday, do a lot of exercises, attend a lot of tuition classes and score excellently in every exam to get good results. This will help you get a good job later and your life will be easy.” Imagine you need to attend tuition class from 8.00am to 5.00pm non-stop during weekend. I used to have a friend doing this in her secondary school in order to get excellent results.

Once again, life is never easy for anybody. However, this is life, man! It is all the challenges, success, failures, good time and bad time which spice out our life and make our life meaningful. You may find your days difficult. Think for a moment, if you don’t move ahead and work hard, how are you going to achieve what you want. All the challenges and failures are just a process to learn new thing and to experience life. Nobody is successful all the times and no one is a loser forever. No matter what happens, everybody needs to accept it and keep going. A stop to relax and rejuvenate while experience the world is essential but it is just a short moment and then start to work again. Everyone has a story to tell and every story is unique.

A shocking Saturday morning

"Woei Song", "Woei Song", "Woei Song"...

Hardly lifted my thousand-tonnes-weighted eyelids, I searched quickly for the source of the voice. Was someone calling for my roommate? The voice softened and eventually disappeared in the dense and warm air. My body was so heavy as like it was forcing me to lie back. Okay, I thought it would be better to follow my body since it was Saturday. Who on Earth want to wake up so early on Saturday morning? By the way, there were a lot of students like to enhance their high-pitched voice early in the morning. I guessed the air was better early in the morning.Gracefully, I went back to sleep.

Suddenly, somebody was banging at my door. Dragging my sleepy body, I opened the door. At this moment, all my cells woke up and became extremely alert.

"Good morning, uncle."

Oh my! Woei Song's dad was just outside the door and his son was not here. He didn't come back last night.

"Do know where is he because he didn't even pick up the phone? I told him last night that i would be here this morning." his father told me.

"I guess he stayed overnight at student house." This was what my roommate always did during Friday's night. Perhaps watching movie together. But no picking up the phone? He always woke up quite early even on Saturday and Sunday. Had anything happened to him? What if he crashed into something bad while walking back to hostel.

Maybe somebody robbed him and killed him to cover out. Or he crashed with a serial sodomizer who was too obsessed with muscular boy and Woei Song just the one he was looking for. What a lousy roommate I am not to care for the safety of my roommate!

"Daniel, do you know where Woei Song is?"

"He is in my room now."

Thanks God that he is safe and just a short distance from my room. What a frightening but harmless morning. Then, he went out for breakfast with his dad which meant I could go back to sleep. Night everybody.

1. the environment



2. the fresh bread baker



3. the penne bolognese



4. tuna & mushroom spaghetti

5. traditional homemade pizza

Italiannies

Italiannies, a restaurant that I always want to go since last year. I got a lot of highly positive feedbacks from my friends who have been to it, eg. big portion, nice environment, nice spaghetti etc, making so earger to go. This day had arrived finally. My so-called-boss who always slaves me decided to treat me the set lunch in Italiannies. A good pay-off, right?

A friend of mine, Shun Ling, fetched us(Edwin & Chang Win) there. Poh Hui, Hooi Ying, Jaevon and Ainin joined us as well. There was set lunch promotion of RM13.90 onwards which was considered quite reasonable for Italiannies. Everyone wanted to get a good bargain. Upon reaching there, we were served with freshly baked breads dipped with olive oil and balsamic vinegar while deciding our orders. I ordered a lunch set of penne sauce bolognese(ps. not really sure about its name) and a dessert, Italiannies Chocolate and hazelnut cake. Both Edwin and Chang Win ordered set luch as well with different types of spaghetti. Only three lunch were ordered for girls since they would share among themselves with an add-on dessert of bread pudding.

An important part that makes the restaurant nice is its environment. Lacey white curtains, wooden furnitures and tableclothes with checkerboards all gives a homey and relaxing ambiance.
The first thing served was the mushroom soup which functioned as the appertiser. It was very creamy and concentrated. Coming out next were the spaghetti. We shared them so that everyone could get a try. To my surprise, they were all dried pasta. Quite a long time I didn't have dried pasta. They were all sinfully nice. The meat sauce of my penne bolognese was pretty good. The tuna of Edwin's tuna and mushroom spaghetti was quite crispy (not very sure is the correct word to use) and fresh. Chang Win's one which i had forgotten the name constituted a lot of spice but quite delicious in the first place. The girls had a traditional homemade pizza which was quite attracting.

The motto for Italiannies is "so good, so much, so share!" and it suits the food it serves. The portion is rather big which you can actually share among yourself while chit-chatting with your friends. Plates are placed at the dining table to share the food. To me, it is actually a good way to enhance the relationship. How smart the operator is to come out with such a briliant idea. For your infomation, I saw two men sharing a gigantic plate of spaghetti.

In short, the food served is very nice and the environment is conducive as well. However, this type of expensive reataurant can only go once in the very blue moon.

*Ps. Hereby I attached some of the photos of food served. Hope you enjoy them.

KnoWing

The story begins with a little girl, Lucinda staring at the sun in the elementary school where she engaged in. It was 1959. She could hear people whispering to her all the time, making her sick but the mysterious whispering just could get lost. The scene then switched to her teacher, Ms Taylor, asking the students to draw the future they expected and the drawings would be put into a time capsule. The time capsule would be buried into the ground and shall be dug out again after 50 years later so that the next generation can appreciate it. However, Lucinda just wrote a series of numbers. Ms Taylor discovered the missing of Lucinda after the opening day. Ms Taylor eventually found Lucinda in a small room of the gym and all her fingers were bleeding badly. Again, she carved a series number at the door of the room…

In present, John (Nicolas Cage), an astrophysicist is preparing hotdog for his son but his son, Caleb then told him that he wants to be vegetarian. Caleb is actually wearing a hearing aid since he can’t hear properly. His son engages in the same elementary school. The scene then switches to the time capsule in the opening day after 50 years. The children are given an envelope containing the drawing of the last generation. Caleb accidentally took Lucinda’s. After reading the numbers, he starts to hear the mysterious whispering as well. At the same time, he notices that a strange guy staring at him from him who vanishes quickly. Caleb brings the envelope with the series of number back to his house. John becomes curious about the numbers after a coincidence. After dismissing the numbers, he finds out that the numbers are actually prophecies from Lucinda, accurately predicting the date, location and the total fatalities of the major disasters happened over the past 50 years. There are three disasters that predicted in the prophecies but they haven’t happen yet. They are all going to happen soon.

On his way to fetch Caleb, John is stuck in a serious traffic jam. When he makes his enquiries to the officer, a plane heads towards them and crashes in front of them, killing 81 people just the same with the total fatalities predicted in the prophecies. Caleb then has a vision of future global catastrophe from a silent man. John, who deadly wants to protect his son from the strange man, tries to approach Diana who is the daughter of Lucinda. For your information, Lucinda passed away a few years ago, making Diana the only one to get the answer. However, Diana treats John as mentally disturbed. John believes that there is reason that Caleb gets the prophecies. He then witnesses the second disaster which is the train crash in the subway. This disaster has made Diana to trust John. Abby, daughter of Diana confesses that she can hear the whispering as well. The doubt worsens.

Diana brings John together with their children to Lucinda’s place. After listening to Diana that Abby writes the numbers and letters backwards sometimes, John discovers that the last two numbers in the prophecies are actually “EE”. In the small cabin, they find a drawing of Ezekiel's Wheel. They find out the other carving in the bed of Lucinda writing the “EE” in full: everyone else. Outside the cabin, Abby and Caleb encounter the silent man again. There are three more this time but immediate action of Caleb manages to scare them away. John finally figures out that the last disaster is actually a massive solar flare that will demolish the life on Earth and there is no escape from it. John breaks in the elementary school to get the craving on the door of the closet as he wants to get the remaining of the prophecies. Diana doesn’t believe in John and bring the children to a cave that she believes that they are able to survive by hiding in it. However, the silent men hijack her car halfway. Diana chases after the men which eventually lead to her dead in a car accident. Back to John, he finds out that the only place that they can escape from the disaster is at Lucinda’s cabin.

Upon reaching the cabin, he follows the trace left by the silent men, bringing him to a spacious ground where he discovers that the children are safe. Caleb tells John that the silent men are actually trying to save them. They have already gotten a permission to bring the children to a safer planet. John is completely stunt when he sees a gigantic and artistic UFO appears in front of him and the silent men transform into aliens. They refuse to take John since he is not the chosen one. After saying goodbye to each other, Abby and Caleb leave in the UFO. The other UFOs are witnessed when the one taking Abby and Caleb passes the atmosphere. To my surprise, there are more chosen people. Afterwards, the massive solar flare strikes Earth and it washes off all the living creatures on Earth including John.

Despite the massive destruction, this is not the end yet. The UFO put Abby and Caleb in a weird and lifeless planet. The movie ends with both Abby and Caleb running towards a huge tree.

I guess this is the new beginning. In Bible, God creates Adam and Eve and they are the beginning of human beings. After all, I like the movie since it manages to put me into doubt and mystery and the ending is not what have I predicted. If you are not able to predict the ending, the movie can then be considered a success, I guess.

Sorry everybody. I was overloaded with my documentary last week. However, you have no worry because I am back!!!

I went to Chang Win’s room after cutting my hair in one utama in the evening.

“Do you want to watch movie tonight? DRAGONBALL!” he asked me.

Even though I didn’t really interested in that movie, but I still agreed to join them (Shun Jing & little ghost). It’s time for me to relax after so much hard work and sleepless night. To me, the movie should something hilarious. I need laughter since it is generally known as the best cure.

We bought the 8.45pm session. Our seats were at the third row but I didn’t really care because I didn’t want to spoil their mood.

The story started with the main character, Goku practicing kungfu with his grandpa, Gohan. It’s a very simple and normal start. Nothing special.

Next, the acting skills of the actors and actress really sucked. They were just fooling around rather than acting. Their facial expression didn’t match with their dialogue. They looked pretty fake in acting. Stephen Chow was the only actor who was good at acting in that movie.

The movie was full of special effects. You might think that it’s better to have a lot of effect since the movie was supernatural in nature. However, too much cooks spoil the soup. Special effect should function leaving a strong impact in audience. In fact, too much computer effects made the movie looked so fake and untrue. Frankly speaking, I couldn’t feel anything.

Dragonball should be an action movie but in fact it didn’t. the fighting scenes were quite blurred and we hardly felt the tense of the atmosphere. The killing of the villain was quite easy. They only hit each other with their strongest ability and it ended in a few second. (Of course it was Goku killed the villain.) besides, the transform of Goku into a gorilla was quite blurred.

The plot of the movie also quite lousy. It didn’t leave any suspense in us to attract our direction. It was so direct and predictable. As an audience, I expected for suspense and surprise but I didn’t get any of them. The plot didn’t interested me a lot. I only realized the climax after I discussed with my friends after the movie. It was so unnoticeable.

Some of the computer effects were lousy as well. If you know dragonball, Goku can transform into a gorilla. He did transform but only a small one just like how power ranger transform. The “shen long” or dragon was also a small one. Instead of dragon, serpent was a better name for that. I was so disappointed with it. I expected a very hugh one , shining in the light.

As a whole, the movie was extremely lousy. I am not going to another edition if it comes out dragonball two!!