A moment of silence for the passing of greatest wizard

Spoiler alert to HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE!

It was a sad night for me when poor Prof. Dumbledore died, betrayed by the one he insisted on trusting. Whilst the betrayal seemed complete, I secretly harbour hope still for betrayer to turn to the good side, perhaps so that Dumbledore's death would seem such a waste.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a relatively short book (compared to Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix) and upon rereading it's predecessors, I think it lacked the humour and the queerness found in the previous books.

This post was held until today (22nd July 2005) before it was posted to avoid 'spoiling'. (Post was written on the date as published above)

A post about the past month

Phew it's already July and my last post (other than yesterday's wake-up post) was June something, before my exams. The month long holidays felt short as usual but much happened within that time.

The 3rd year party was quite fun -- the transport there was a bit hectic though (the taxi driver was referring to his map!). Details are a bit woozy now, but pictures paint a thousand words so I've attached some photos along with this post. My face was a bit red...perhaps it was the alcohol? ;p

Moving on, I think I watched Mr and Mrs Smith -- a funny funny action movie, which in my opinion, in a weird way, parodies marriage. They get to do all sorts of things some husbands (and wives) only imagine doing to each other...like kicking and shooting each other.

Mum and Dad came down to Melbourne soon after that I think, but not before I watched Batman Begins though. Another movie I really liked. Went around Melbourne with them and then ended up in Sydney.

The return to blogosphere marred by ugly terrorist attack in London

It took 6 bombs, 37 dead and hundreds of casualties (statistics as I know now, which is probably outdated) to jolt me back to writing -- well I planned to make a return but yesterday's incident reminds me of how important to do things now; we might not get a chance after that, what with all the terrorism everywhere around the world.

Fear and anger is in the air, and Mr.Yoda would say Lead you down the dark side, this would. Terrorising for the sake of what -- justice? revenge? just because you could? Whilst there's excuse for terrorism, the act of war against terrorism would not solve much problem other than absolving our own anger and survivor's guilt.

Le Si Hokkien Lang, wa si teo chew nang (kak kek nang pung)

I didn't know there were blogs dedicated to urm...the development of Hokkien dialect (particularly Penang). It seemed quite difficult to read the words and understand them - but then again, I'm not a Hokkien, definitely no Penang background as well.

Hok kuu bo tah teo chew ewh, bei hiao tah liow lor pak jik. Si le ai hiow tak wa seah si mi kai na jiou ko seah jik siahh nah 'comments' gor. Pak jik chai ki!

Hehe trying translating that ;p

Till the end of exams -- bye

Link to the Hokkien site: http://hokkienlang.blogsome.com/
Link to the TV Smith Hokkien entry: http://www.mycen.com.my/duasen/110405_hokkien.html

National anthem in cinemas...HUH?

While procrastinating, I was browsing through some websites when I came across this weird forum title "Play Negaraku in cinemas, what's your opinion".

Why shouldn't Negaraku be played in cinemas?
1. What for - inculcating patriotism? More likely inciting rebellion...
2. Would there be time for it? Consider revenues for advertisements, trailers etc. An additional few minutes might not seem a lot but imagine going the cinemas playing that for every movie
3. Lost of efficacy - the more you play something, the more familiar people are with it, the less likely people would care about it (think back to school days when they tried daily singing of national anthem)
4. Why would anyone want to stand up and sing in a cinema...I mean...really??!!

Why should Negaraku be played?
1. Because the government suggests so??? Not good enough...