Thursday, November 26, 2009

A Safety Reminder for Cohort 5

Delaqroux Inc Updates

You might think that this would have been a note for the oncoming exam. Well, no it's not but it's still as important as hell. So if exam's your main priority at the moment, you might wanna skip this note (though i really recommend that you give it a read at least after the exams). Otherwise, please take some time out and read.

A member from our cohort has been followed by some guy while she was walking alone along Epping Rd at around 6.30pm. There's some chances that this is just a case of paranoia but if something tells me that it could be for real, i rather bet my ass on being paranoid than being sorry. But listening to the story from her, i wish i can believe it is a case of false alarm but my gut is telling me it could be some loon of a girl-stalker guy for real - not to mention the stories i heard on what've happened along Epping rd, a 25th November newspaper article about some unpleasant cases at Epping, and the public's call for more police patrol cars along Epping (pretty close to Marsfield). So it could have been some lunatic or it could just be a coincidental guy following the same trail as you, but seriously, how many of us really take into consideration about our own safety when we're actually putting ourselves at risk without even realizing it?

So yeah, the nag begins here; i'm made aware that some of us, cohort 5 (the girls mainly), still made it a habit on walking alone right after sun down. You may insist that you might have just been walking on a very short distance at that time but if one of us here was being followed by some loonwhile the sun is still up and she was walking just a short distance as well - i really, really advice you not to take chances on walking alone when it's dark. If you would say that you dont always walk alone - you have a few others with you; i do agree that that's a good point but walking with just another girl or two in the middle of the night, i still think that isnt much of a prevention measure. If you gonna say you've been doing this walk-alone-at-night all this while and nothing happened, well, God-bless on your luck so far. But, seriously, please think about your safety more than just simply getting to places you want to go regardless of what time or situation you're in. Go ahead and throw any other refutes you have at me but if you can recall a news link posted by Flo about some Malaysian female student in Melbourne getting mugged and beaten at 12pm, you might want to consider a point i'm trying to make here.

So, please, it takes some very hard lesson to kill an old habit and in this case, i never would want anything to happen to my friends just coz they cant shake off the habit of walking home/somewhere alone. For those living away from others, please have the emergency line phone numbers right in your head at all times. If you really need to walk after dark, please have at least a guy or two accompanying you - not just another girl or two. And i do read an article that says girls have this habit of walking while talking on the phone, and the article dont recommend this even for the slightest bit. Walking while talking on the phone, having an MP3 earphone in your ears, walking at a relaxed pace, walking while humming or singing etc. exhibits hints of vulnerability. You're suggesting to the eyes around you that you are not aware of your surroundings (and chances that you probably are) and thus, suggesting you're an easier target for some loon to target you. Finally, if you can remember a recommendation made by some dude during our predeparture briefing on self safety - telling you to stop and pretend that you're tying your shoelace when you notice you're being followed; i dare say that is the shittiest dumbest stuff i've ever heard. Stopping is just gonna narrow down the distance between you and your follower, UNLESS you stopped while there are people around and wait for the guy to walk past you. Otherwise, if you do know there is an area close to you with more people around, just hasten up your pace and change your route off from the lonely street to the more crowded area altogether.

On a last note, please at least take some time to read articles, buy safety equipments or watch videos on some sort of self-defense measures if you can get your hands on any. Get some friends to practice it with you, or just sit down for a tad bit and discuss on what kind of measures you can do to keep yourself safe (i know you guys do tazkirahs and stuff all the time and i'm sure you can make one space to have some discussion on this matter). Listen to other's experience and advice and dont ever take them lightly (like this blogpost as well). Please be safe wherever you guys and girls are and just remember, the world is only a safe place to be when you know how to keep yourself safe at all times. That is all. As a final word; touch wood.


-Ad
Your Nick Frost wannabe..

Update @ 11.50PM

Delaqroux Inc Updates!!

Yep, its been awhile hasnt it? In fact, long loooong while. Well, apart from reviews and Delaqroux lil updates on his wee bits of two cents, there isnt much update on my life. So i thought, might as well have one for a lil bit. Oh, and for those avid readers of my blog who have been conditioned to expect a badass, pissed off blogpost made by me after a long, long absence; well, fear not for i am not at all pissed, moody, unhappy, emo etc. In fact, life's been good. Of course, there's been up and downs. Smile, laugh, curse like @#$%, smile, laugh, curse like @#$%, repeat, repeat and repeat but at the point of me making my blogpost here i am currently around 14 hours to my LING216 exam, i've pretty much covered my revision and thought i'm just gonna cruise the last 14 hours here with a lil coke and some sunshine. Well.. figuratively. It's 12am here. No sunshine. But, nah, good enough.

So here's a bit of recap from where i left off... Hmmm... Well, that's some pretty long stretch of flashbacks. Okay, first things first; Tassie trip when DEVILish!!! (No pun intended). The Mountain Lodge was good though i kinda feel that i havent covered much of Tassie with just a dropoff at Launceston and a stay at Cradle Mt Lodge for two nights. But it turned out that Launceston is a nice piece of suburb (my definition of a good suburbian area; plenty of pubs and live music, good eating places, next to the beach/dockside/lake, plenty of mountain sceneries), the shuttle guy Gabriel decided to take us for some extra sight-seeings (one monumental village and another that host Tasmania's renowned mural painting competition, and a really awesome restaurant + inn in the middle of the vast, vast meadows). And apart the mountainside being rainy, we managed to conquer the 3 hours Dove Lake circuit and as a lil extra, i managed to hike 300 metres to Marion Lookout Point, summing up a total of 1200 metres above sea level. I was feeling a lil down for not being able to cover awhole lot of ground in Tassie, but if you cant cover it on foot, conquer it from the skies - and being on 1230 metres above sea level, you can bet how skytall i felt. Pure Awesomeness!!

And as a side note; Marion Lookout is next to Devil's Horn, Cradle Mt's highest peak (1600metres), something tells me i will be standing on top of that peak one day - coz i plan to.

So what eeeeelse... Things been a lil bit hectic with me running low on cash and trying to survive with MUV cutting my last bits of cash for rents (even had 2 months worth of overdue payment in the end), but with the next stock of allowance flowing back in my NAB bloodstream, i was back on track!!!!.... only to end up spending a hell lot on unnecessary things, outings and even waking up one morning with a contract of a new home, 21 inch flat-screen TV, a 140 watt speaker set and A FLIPPING PLAYSTATION 3 in my room!!!! Seriously, whattatuist!!?? (what a twist!!??). Yes, i'm back to square one. Gonna be broke bad soon. But oh well, at least i've played the last installment of Metal Gear Solid and i've discovered the truth behind The Patriots and Snake.. like, whoah.. SNAAAAAAEEEEKKKKEEEE!! A 600 dollars cash well-spent, Darkie.. Good Job! **claps hand for ownself** Good job... Oh, and as a lil bit of addition in keeping myself pumped with adrenalin and purely unnecessary running-around-s, i've made myself a Publisher for Malaysian Student Association and Event committee candidate for International Student Club. Both of these jobs are not paid for but oh well, good experience CAN substitute good money once in a while. (Yes, i know i'm citing mr Aslam's load of crap here) Well, anything to keep myself busy. Like an old wise man (me) always say, if you cant keep yourself entertained, keep yourself busy... and shit.

Oh, and another major event that has occured so far is that i'm in love. With who? When? And (or) with what? Well... JOHN SMITH ON ICE MOMENT!!!! Wheeeehheeee-hheeeee!!

Alrighty, that's all about it for now. Life's been good with ups and downs but yep, still good. Being optimistically idiotic have its drawbacks but it does have its good perks and i'm enjoying every single bit of the latter at the moment. After all, life's gonna end in 1 year, why not enjoy it to the fullest? Oh, and my oncoming exams? Meh.. all's well should/supposed to/i think will end well. Right? :p

Saturday, November 14, 2009

2012


Delaqroux inc Review: 2012

I stumbled upon the idea of world's end when i was seven and found the theory of world's end to be on 12.12.2012 just a few years back. As much as everyone claim that everything is in God's work, one, obviously, cant help to imagine how this God's work will be like. So yep, i have some odds and ends here and there put together and thus, i have my own imaginative version of world's end and it was sick. But not being able to exactly explain to anyone what i visualize, i was pretty glad that 2012 (the movie) came out. But, does the director's depiction of world's end is as horrific and insane as i have imagine, or is it just a natural-disaster flick?

Storyline:
As if the idea of world's end at 2012 not enough to scare us senseless, the movie began with the first sightings of possible end of the world evidences in 2009. Apparently, an indian scientist, monitoring the earth crust in a copper mine found out that the earth core is getting more and more imbalanced due to a high heat wave from the sun. Fast forward 3 years later, the story takes position from behind Jackson Curtis, author of bad-seller Farewell Atlantis and full-time father who neglects his family coz of his manuscript. With his family tearing apart (and not to mention, the world as well), Jackson will have one last chance to prove that he is a worthy father who does care about his family - by trying to escape the end of the world.

The Review:
The storyline may be a turn-off to few and trust me, it is a turn off. This may be a spoiler but if you're a true blue catastrophe savvy guy, you might figure out that the sypnosis above already suggested that it is not the end of the world. It is just another natural disaster; earthquake on a global scale. Yes, you can say it is the end of the world but nothing much out-of the ordinary considering the fact that the Mayans saw it coming first, the Bible and Quran already prophesize an armageddon, and yet the movie done nothing in 'answering' to any mythological or biblical stuff. I can say that the depiction of world's end in 2012 do fit in some prophecy in the holy scriptures but there is too many loop holes and gaps that it turned out to be entirely a scientifical, natural disaster movie. Also, you may feel that the movie's storyline is made via tracing the exact storyline from Day After Tomorrow on a sheet of transparent paper, retyping it in Microsoft Word with a few tweaks here and there, and projected with an OHP via Microsoft Powerpoint with very fancy animation and graphical images. It is that much of an exact copy.

But you may wonder why i mention that long winded analogy beforehand. Well, the storyline, while of an exact copy, is presented in a way that we all love - with very, very fancy animation and graphical images. Yes, the graphic is insane and the size of the destruction is phenomenal. For a guy behind Independence Day, Deep Impact and Day After Tomorrow, this, of course, is nothing of a surprise. But with an added twist, the movie can be considered a mix of all the previous three movies. There's fire and explosion like in Independence Day, massive tsunamis ala Deep Impact, and gigantic cracks and quakes of in Day After Tomorrow. Needless to say, graphical depiction of a natural disaster putting humanity at the brink of extinction (again) in 2012 is the best one yet!

The Verdict:
For the most part; the movie is exactly as is shown in its trailers. The storyline is predictable (and not too mention, almost 3 hours duration) and it does get draggy at some part, especially the 'intermission' between escape scenes where the characters start talking to one another. The director obviously attempt to build up the characters here but with the distraction of the catastrophic eye-candy beforehand and the future ones to expect, i found out that this is the time, i observed, that the audience in the cinema took out their phones and start replying text messages. In a way, the intermission give you a good time-out from mayhem but by imposing boring dialogues between characters, it's not really a good strategy. But when the end begins (pun joke intended), things get really really hot - and i mean, molten-lava-spewing-from-the-earth's-core hot. There's plenty of narrow escape scenes in which is both heart stopping but makes the storyline even more predictable. Narrow escapes makes Jackson seems almost immortal and those that stick with him lives. But a moment someone strays away like a lamb, they die. It's good heart pumping plot but those who can see the pattern will find this who-lives-and-who-dies game very predictable. The only unpredictable element in the movie is the funny moments. The movie does feature aplenty and the fact that it popped out at the most intense-most moments, the funny moments and catchy jokes are simply brilliant.

I give this movie a 6.7/10 - Good: The graphics and unfitting humour, Bad: The predictability, And The Ugly: The draggy part of storyline. While there's nothing beyond awesome in the movie,the movie is indeed entertaining and i still recommend you to watch this movie in the cinema with big screens and super loud surrounds, that you can actually feel the vibration in the room. Downloading and watching this movie in a laptop will not do justice for this gorgeous movie but on the upside, you can fast forward the boring, predictable storyline. So yep, feel free to leave a comment on the movie under the comment section and tell us what you think!

-Adnin
Escaping the end of the humanity immortally, one narrow misses at a time

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

To Write Love on Her Arms

Delaqroux Inc Updates: TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS

There's always those time back in Malaysia before when Valentine's Day kicks in and everyone go all hyped out loving each other like they never been loved before. Well, call me The Grinch of Valentine but i find it annoying. I mean, seriously, if you really love someone like they have never been loved before and you show that only on four days in a year (Valentine, your birthday, your partner's birthday, you and your partner's anniversary), dude, you're not loving enough. why not love her/him a lil bit more on this oncoming NOVEMBER 13th?

Uh yeah.. it's Friday the 13th this November but i'm not referring to that. I'm talking about
TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS DAY!!!! (TWLOHA)



If you're among those who will go "what's that?", do yourself a favor and slap yourself silly. Go on. But not that silly coz you need to read on!

To Write Love on Her Arms is based on a romance novel (if i'm not mistaken). It's a love novel so lovely that people love the phrase "To write love on her arms". I'm not too keen to put the sypnosis of the novel here but the main idea of that novel is that everyone deserve to be loved - no one gets left behind, no one should be left alone and no one dont deserve to be not loved (wait... what?). So yeah, in remembrance to that message the novel brought up, Aussies marked November the 13th as TWLOHA day, a non-profit, charitable event where, what you can do, is show your loved ones that they are loved - your girl/boyfriend, your kids, your parents, your pets, your friends buy writing LOVE on their arms.

There's nothing to attend to on that day so you have no excuse to miss this out. No punctured tire crap, no forgot coz you're too busy watching the grass grow, and definitely, no i'm-busy-studying-to-see-you bull either. What you can do is simple. First, take a pen (preferably permanent markers will be the best as you want this to be as permanent as possible), walk up to the ones you love, ask them for their hand, and write/draw/tattoo "LOVE" on it. Why? Just let them know that you're taking five minutes of your time that you want to tell that that you do love them. Easy peezy, lemon squeezy, cherry berry, go to 7 Eleven and steal a slurpee. It's THAT easy! Oh, and if you feel like joining the millions of people doing the same, you can upload the picture of LOVE on your arms on TWLOHA official website; http://www.twloha.com/
or the Facebook group page; http://www.facebook.com/towriteloveonherarms

So go ahead. Spread the love, literally, on your loved ones' arms and who knows, a lil ink on their skin encrypting the word love might actually change a whole lot of things in their life. Trust me.
And as a side note here, i'll be writing LOVE on her arms for sure =)