A Better Title

If I Had Words

If I had words to make a day for you
I’d sing you a morning, golden and new
I would make this day last for all time
Give you a night dipped in moon shine

Go check out this ad at eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2450501898. I want one for my New Year gift!!
Some more links: http://leavesrustle.com/articles/122/. Looks like re-designing others’ pages to comply with the current CSS and XHTML (like what I did with mine) is not really such a good idea.

And one more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/story/0,14024,1108883,00.html. The best of British blogging. The title says it.

Update: The Humming Bird’s Diary now supports multiple themes. To change it, click on the link in the “Theme Used” panel in the side bar. If you’re using Opera or Mozilla or other browsers that support multiple stylesheets (Internet Explorer is, surprisingly, not one of these), you can also change the theme by going to View | Style | Classic / Curved Style or something along that line. I’m thinking of doing a few themes, and let the user choose which theme he/she likes, and this will then become the default in the user’s browser.

I went to a waterfall nearby today… Well, I think it’s one of the good things of staying at the foot of a mountain.. There are plenty of natural places to go nearby. (although admittedly I’m not so fond of nature that much) But the trip was very tiring!

I went with bro, sis, mum, and dad. Sis is obviously not used to being tired, so she had to stop at times during the trip. The trip itself consisted of going through a “long and winding road”. “Long and winding” meaning it goes through mountain sides (we had to go through a valley to get to the waterfall), and “road”meaning footpath made of soil and stones. The path was so tricky that it took us, like, almost 1 hour to get to the waterfall, which is just 1 km away from where we started!

But the waterfall was quite amazing… (that was the first time me going to a waterfall) The water was cool and refreshing, and it was sooo clear, you can see the bottom of the stream! I might go and upload the photos when it becomes available.

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you about an incident that happened a few days ago. I went to the place where my late grandfather was buried to pay respect to him… And took a roll of photos, because that was the first time I was there. And to my dismay, all of the photos turned out underexposed! I was so upset that I straight away randomly took another roll of photos, and sent it for developing. And the stupid photo lab printed the stupid roll, although I didn’t tell them to! And this roll turns out underexposed too! I’ll never trust the photo lab at my place anymore!

And it was not the first time that I go to far away places and take photos, and most of the photos turn out bad! The last time I was back at home, I went to Taman Safari (Safari Garden) with my cousins, and took a roll of photos. That time there were two problems:

1. They underdeveloped the roll. I can tell this because the frame numbers on the roll turned out too light, just like the shots, and
2. They printed it on 3R size, instead of 4R size that I ordered.

And they refused to admit their mistakes! That time I wasn’t so upset because I thought they were humans too, they can make mistakes too. And anyway I can always go to the Taman Safari again the next time with some other people. But this time…. They’re just too much…

Hahah… This is funny…

My sis is kinda obsessed Westlife. So just now I altered some Boyzone songs so that the Artist Name said Westlife, and I let her listen to the songs. She really thought it was Westlife! (Although she said they might have caught flu). She even asked me to copy the songs to the main computer, and to burn them into a CD for her! Hahah…

There are a number of good movies on TV the past few days… There was Home Alone 1 to 3 a couple of days back, Jurassic Park yesterday, and Babe today… Guess they’re good to watch if you’re bored!

Oh, and I’ve some favourite Indonesian advertisements too… Molto ads were funny, and Clear shampoo ads were funny too. But some are quite irritating. Example: Boom detergent and MB detergent…

Ah well… Not really in the mood to write now. Bah…

*** Latest Update (21:11, 27/12/03): Altered the layout of The Humming Bird’s Diary a little.
Update: Template adjusted and re-structured to accomodate expansion. Plus, it should be compatible with both Internet Explorer and Opera now. As always, bugs are expected. Do let me know if it doesn’t show properly on your screen.
But: BackMOB is still not fixed yet…

*** This post contains spoilers for ‘Love Actually’. -= Click here to view/hide =- ***

Some funny quotes: -= Click here to view/hide =-

[Natalie, a servant, is greeting the Prime Minister]
Natalie: Hello, David. I mean sir. Oh, shit, I can’t believe I just did that. Oh and now I’ve gone and said “shit” - twice.
Prime Minister: Well, you could’ve said “fuck”, and then we all would have been in trouble.
Natalie: Oh thank you sir. I had an awful premonition that I was going to fuck up my first day. Oh piss-it!

Prime Minister: [on the phone to his sister] I’m very busy and important. How can I help you?

Colin: American girls would seriously dig me with my cute British accent.

Sam: Girls love musicians, don’t they? Even the really weird ones get girlfriends.

[Aurelia jumps into the lake with hardly any clothes on to save Jamie's book]
Jamie: Oh great! Now if I don’t jump in, she’ll think I’m a total spaz
[takes off his sweater]
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] Fuck it’s cold!
[Jamie dives in]
Jamie: Fuck! Oh it’s fucking cold!
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] This better be a good book. I don’t want to drown saving something that my grandmother could have written.
Jamie: You know, this book is full of crap.
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] What kind of idiot doesn’t make copies?
Jamie: I should really make copies.
[beat]
Jamie: God, I hate eels. I hope there aren’t any eels.
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] Don’t disturb the eels.
Jamie: Oh God, what is that?
[Jamie screams in shock because of the eels]

Some touching ones: -= Click here to view/hide =-

Prime Minister: When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love.

Daniel: So what’s the problem, Sammy-o? Maybe… school - are you being bullied? or is it, I don’t know - something worse? Can you give me any clues at all?
Sam: You really want to know?
Daniel: I really want to know.
Sam: Even though you won’t be able to do anything to help?
Daniel: Even if that’s the case.
Sam: OK. The truth is… I’m in love.
Daniel: Sorry?
Sam: The truth is I’m in love and there’s nothing I can do about it, and it just keeps getting worse.
Daniel: Aren’t you a bit young to be in love?
Sam: No.
Daniel: Oh, OK, right. Well, I can’t deny it. I’m a little relieved.
Sam: Why?
Daniel: Well, you know - I thought it might be something worse. Sam
[incredulous]
Sam: Worse then the total agony of being in love?
Daniel: Oh. Yeah, you’re right. Total agony.

Harry: Tell me, exactly, how long it is that you’ve been working here?
Sarah: Two years, seven months, three days and, I suppose, what, two hours?
Harry: Right. And how long have you been in love with Karl?
Sarah: Sorry?
Harry: How long have you been in love with Karl, our enigmatic chief designer?
Sarah: Ahm, two years, seven months, three days and, I suppose, and hour and thirty minutes.
Harry: I thought as much.
Sarah: Do you think everybody knows?
Harry: Yes.
Sarah: Do you think Karl knows?
Harry: Yes.
Sarah: That is bad news.
Harry: I just think perhaps now is the time to do something about it.
Sarah: Right. What sort of thing did you have in mind?
Harry: How about ask him for a drink, and then maybe after twenty minutes casually slip into the conversation the fact that you love him totally and would like to marry him and have lots of sex and babies.
Sarah: You know that?
Harry: Yes. And so does Karl. Think about it. For all our sakes.
Sarah: Certainly. Excellent. Will do. Thanks, boss.

Jamie: It’s my favorite time of day, driving you.
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] It is the saddest part of my day, leaving you.

But still the best one: -= Click here to view/hide =-

[on sheets of poster board]
Mark: With any luck by next year
Mark: I’ll be going out with one of these girls.
[pictures of beautiful supermodels]
Mark: But for now, let me say
Mark: Without hope or agenda
Mark: Just because it’s Christmas
Mark: (And at Christmas you tell the truth)
Mark: To me, you are perfect
Mark: And my wasted heart will love you
Mark: Until you look like this
[picture of mummy]
Mark: Merry Christmas

A couple more stolen pics: (pics might not load if you click any links, including view/hide, before the pictures load fully. In that case, load the pictures manually by clicking the right mouse button over the blank image placeholder and clicking Load Image or Show Picture or anything along that line). -= Click here to view/hide =-

The quotes and pictures were taken from IMDb.com

Selamat Hari Natal Dan Tahun Baru
Seng Dan Fai Lok, Sang Nian Fai Lok
Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
Hyvää Joulua or Hauskaa Joulua
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!
Froehliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr!
Mo’adim Lesimkha. Shana Tova
Shub Naya Baras
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Boas Festas e um feliz Ano Novo
Nave sal di mubaraka
Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Wilujeng Natal Sareng Warsa Enggal
Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Suksan Wan Christmas lae Sawadee Pee Mai
Chuc Mung Giang Sinh - Chuc Mung Tan Nien

or simply…
Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!

Update: The Humming Bird’s Diary is now more CSS-driven. Lots of the layout using ugly HTML tables have been removed.
However: This leaves serious problems with some browsers such as Opera, which I’m yet to find out why. Sorry for the incovenience should you be using one of the… ‘unsupported’ browsers.
And: I accidentally pressed the wrong button just now, so BackMOB is dead for the moment. *grumble* And so are Archives and the Home page. *grumble* *grumble*

And here’s today’s thought:
If I were to die, I’d like to die painlessly and quickly. Even better: Without me knowing it.
I’m saying this because the gas water heater at my place is starting to give me the creeps.
It’s really, really old (it has been there even before I was born), and has not really been replaced yet.
My dad always claims that it’s very safe, and that the newer ones fare worse compared to the one we’re using.
And so nothing has been done to it.
Hope that he’s right…

Today is Indonesian Mother’s Day. So mum… This is for you:

Kasih Ibu

PS: No, mum doesn’t read my blog…

I… uh… sort of hate watching movies with beautiful stories. Not because I don’t like such movies, but because it might be quite embarassing. They can just make me cry. Almost, at least. Even if the theme or the premise was supposed to be something beautiful.

Love Actually was one. The thing that made me quite emotional was the parts that showed how some of them really put an effort to show their partners their… ‘love’… And how their partners reacted to that…
How the guy tried to talk to his maid, who doesn’t speak English at all… (and how the conversations went)…
How the kid ran past security guards to get to “the love of his life”…
The flashcards scene…
And how some people can find out about the partner’s affair, and still live through that… For the sake of the children? (except maybe the sex god scene, which kinda spoils the movie a little)

So please pardon me when you see me fidgeting during such movies. I have something in my eyes, which I don’t want anyone else to notice.

I watched ‘Meet Joe Black’ on TV a few days ago… It tells a story of Death, who was on holiday on earth. He went into the body of this guy who was just killed by a freak road accident. Death was supposed to observe how life on earth was, using Bill Parish, a media tycoon, as a guide, in exchange of a postponement to his imminent death. He was about to celebrate his 65th birthday in a few days’ time.

The body belonged to a ’stranger in the bar’ who fell in love with Bill’s daughter, Susan, ina coffeeshop moments before the accident. Susan, too, fell in love with him. So imagine her reaction when the ’stranger’ appeared in the house. To make matters worse, Bill was not supposed to tell anyone who Death really was, so he introduced Death as ‘Joe Black’. Sparks flew and Death began to develop certain interest in life on earth as well as in Susan, who had no clue who she was flirting with.

Meanwhile, a greedy employee took advantage of the situation where Joe Black wasn’t able to leave Bill, and ousted Bill as the chairman of the company. He wanted to break up the company and keep the profit.

Death decided he will take Bill after the birthday celebration. But at the same time, he didn’t want to leave Susan, and Susan too, didn’t want to leave ‘Joe Black’. Death wanted to change the agreement he had with Bill, and intended to take Susan with him too. But Bill managed to convince Death that this would not be ‘love’ anymore, but already developed into greed. Death, luckily, understood it, albeit not without sacrificing his feelings.

So what happened next was that Bill settled his problems on earth, the party went on, and Death was just watching from afar, probably not wanting to be tempted to take Susan with him again. Bill was there through the party, and when the fireworks started, he walked over to join Death, and walked away.

A while later the ’stranger in the bar’ returned and met Susan. At first, she saw him as a different person from the one she grew used to. But she realised too that this was the actual ’stranger’ she met in the coffeeshop. So, one more time, sparks flew and she once again fell in love with the ’stranger’.

No, no, i didn’t cry because it was very late so by the time the movie ended I was half dead. But I thought the movie was very good. It was built on an interesting storyline (imagine Death falling in love with a human!), and the actors and actresses look good too. (I think Brad Pitt looked kinda… cool in the movie)…

Speaking about movies, I don’t really like Indonesian movies. The comedies tend to be towards slapstick kinda thing. And sometimes they just forced the slapstick too much. Maybe something like purposely laughing damn loudly with a weird tone. And the way they acted are just not funny. Let’s say if they fall, it is very obvious that they actually acted it. You can tell this from how the limbs move as the person falls, and how the actor then says “Ouch, I fall” in that not-painful tone.

Oh, by the way, my brother and I noticed these methods of shooting an Indonesian drama movie (we call it ’sinetron’, short of ’sinema elektronik’ or ‘electronic cinema’), which are already very cliché. You can easily tell who the antagonist is, because she will wear a certain kind of eyeshadow in a certain way. And when she’s planning a way to, say, get rid of someone, the camera will zoom in real slowly towards the person’s face, and she will start contorting her face with her mouth shut as if she’s in deep thought (which actually looks real funny instead), and she will start narrating her thoughts for the viewers.

The second one would be when two people met when they are not supposed to meet each other (eg. arch rivals). The camera will alternate between the two people, and each time they will zoom in (this time quite quickly) towards the face of whoever is in the frame. And this time, they will drop the frame rate quite significantly, while maintaining the same length of scene. So in the end the zooming in is actually quite jerky. The reason behind the choice of this effect is quite Greek to me. And until now I still have no idea why they keep doing this over and over again in the different movies… If anyone know, please let me know.

Oh well, time to stop…