A Few Observations

If you don't know, I work part part part time as an office boy. Besides the typing and typing involved, I get to make calls soliciting information from company gatekeepers (usually operators or secretaries) about their bosses so we can inundate their inboxes with our e-mails. Sometimes I go straight to their bosses.

So here is a short, empirical account of what I've noticed:

• If the person picking up the phone is a Malay operator/secretary, he or she is more likely to divulge information about his or her boss than Chinese or Indians (the latter being the hardest group to extract information from, although this is slightly misleading).

• The degree of success of extracting information from the higher ranked members of companies (such as managers) can be categorized thus (from easiest to hardest, according to race): 1. Malay 2. Indian 3. Chinese (although I would say Malays and Indians tie for being the easiest, with Chinese being the hardest).

• Chinese managers are the hardest to extract information from. However, there is an interesting (if a little tenuous) correlation between the accent of the speaker to the willingness to divulge information (i.e. the thicker the "Chinese" accent, the more likely he or she is to share personal details). Of course, this is slight generalization on my part.

Update: Something I forgot to mention earlier- all my conversations were in English, although some (but very, very little) BM was used in some cases.

Do note that sometimes I am required to ask for e-mails only, and on other occasions actually find out (what I call, "from scratch") the owner of the business from lower ranked members of the company. The latter is not necessarily harder than the former, but it is a longer process.

Notice that I categorize people according to races, and directly imply that some races are more willing to share information than others. This is merely what I've noticed, and it is up to the reader to come up with his own conjectures. That said, Malays are still the nicest of the lot. =)

Well, this is from the top of my head. I should be writing this stuff down. Intriguing. Anyway, I'll share more with you once I collect more observations. Hehe.

Movies To See

So, the American Film Institute has released their list of Top 100 movies as of 2007. Since first posting it here, I've made some progress! Hopefully I'll see all of them by the uh, end of the decade?

I've another list here.

1. Citizen Kane, 1941.

2. The Godfather, 1972.

3. Casablanca, 1942.

4. Raging Bull, 1980.

5. Singin' in the Rain, 1952.

6. Gone With the Wind, 1939.

7. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962.

8. Schindler's List, 1993.

9. Vertigo, 1958.

10. The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

11. City Lights, 1931.

12. The Searchers, 1956.

13. Star Wars, 1977.

14. Psycho, 1960.

15. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.

16. Sunset Blvd., 1950.

17. The Graduate, 1967.

18. The General, 1927.

19. On the Waterfront, 1954.

20. It's a Wonderful Life, 1946.

21. Chinatown, 1974.

22. Some Like It Hot, 1959.

23. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940.

24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.

25. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962.

26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939.

27. High Noon, 1952.

28. All About Eve, 1950.

29. Double Indemnity, 1944.

30. Apocalypse Now, 1979.

31. The Maltese Falcon, 1941.

32. The Godfather Part II, 1974.

33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975.

34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.

35. Annie Hall, 1977.

36. The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957.

37. The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946.

38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948.

39. Dr. Strangelove, 1964.

40. The Sound of Music, 1965.

41. King Kong, 1933.

42. Bonnie and Clyde, 1967.

43. Midnight Cowboy, 1969.

44. The Philadelphia Story, 1940.

45. Shane, 1953.

46. It Happened One Night, 1934.

47. A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951.

48. Rear Window, 1954.

49. Intolerance, 1916.

50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001.

51. West Side Story, 1961.

52. Taxi Driver, 1976.

53. The Deer Hunter, 1978.

54. M-A-S-H, 1970.

55. North by Northwest, 1959.

56. Jaws, 1975.

57. Rocky, 1976.

58. The Gold Rush, 1925.

59. Nashville, 1975.

60. Duck Soup, 1933.

61. Sullivan's Travels, 1941.

62. American Graffiti, 1973.

63. Cabaret, 1972.

64. Network, 1976.

65. The African Queen, 1951.

66. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.

67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966.

68. Unforgiven, 1992.

69. Tootsie, 1982.

70. A Clockwork Orange, 1971.

71. Saving Private Ryan, 1998.

72. The Shawshank Redemption, 1994.

73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969.

74. The Silence of the Lambs, 1991.

75. In the Heat of the Night, 1967.

76. Forrest Gump, 1994.

77. All the President's Men, 1976.

78. Modern Times, 1936.

79. The Wild Bunch, 1969.

80. The Apartment, 1960.

81. Spartacus, 1960.

82. Sunrise, 1927.

83. Titanic, 1997.

84. Easy Rider, 1969.

85. A Night at the Opera, 1935.

86. Platoon, 1986.

87. 12 Angry Men, 1957.

88. Bringing Up Baby, 1938.

89. The Sixth Sense, 1999.

90. Swing Time, 1936.

91. Sophie's Choice, 1982.

92. Goodfellas, 1990.

93. The French Connection, 1971.

94. Pulp Fiction, 1994.

95. The Last Picture Show, 1971.

96. Do the Right Thing, 1989.

97. Blade Runner, 1982.

98. Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942.

99. Toy Story, 1995.

100. Ben-Hur, 1959.

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Last Updated 20/2/2008

For Not Everything Is Beneficial.

I watched 28 Weeks Later a while back, and it truly represents a break from the usual kinds of movies I watch. You see, I hardly ever watch horror. Since almost all the ones nowadays are so cliched, that if you watched one you watched them all. Which was why I only watched 28 Weeks Later due to a good impression I had with its predecessor, 28 Days Later. Not that it was that good. It was just kind of refreshing, and certainly entertaining.

Then again, it does descend into visual nihilism. That is, there is
nothing else to expect but more blood, decapitation and what have you. It might prove entertaining, but it certainly brings one no good. This is what I've come to conclude.

I hardly, for example, ever watch comedy either. Of the Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler et. al. kind (and almost all of them fall into one category or the other). I dislike them. No, I loathe them. Yes, they make me laugh. But they leave a bad, bad aftertaste. Forgive my language, but crap don't taste good. On the other hand, some of them are sweet fluff. But too much cotton candy ruins the teeth.

But I'm a huge fan of (decent) action movies. Give me Transformers anytime. I lap it all up, eagerly. Lovely, they are. I get delighted by visual feasts, certainly. Even if they serve up no useful purpose, but entertainment.

So, how do I balance it all? The truth is, I console myself by writing reviews. Take for example, anime. I'm very particular. I shun the usual stuff everyone watch- like Naruto or Bleach. If an anime series does not impress me in its first episode, then it goes down the drain (or, as is usually the case, the recycle bin).

So, I have waded through a fair share of often fluffy (and sometimes, downright crappy) stuff. But all for a noble end, that is, to write a review, and warn others away. If anyone listens.

Is there a line I ought to draw? I do think so. I may not be that conservative when it comes to this sort of stuff, but I still hold a small candle to the views of, say Focus on the Family. Some shows I should not be watching (and to that end, I regretted watching them). And some, no one should. Even liberals like Roger Ebert agree that shows like Rob Schneider's are utter garbage. If not due to moral reservations, then due to the plain fact that some shows are not worth your time. Indeed, they are a waste of your time, and your life. Still, crap is crap is crap.

While everything is permissible (in a sense) not everything is beneficial. And considering the abundance of media we have today, there surely are some not too beneficial ones out there. And we as Christians, even more so, human beings who are endowed with reason, ought to shun them.

Last Exile

Almost nothing bad can be said about Last Exile. It has one of the highest production values for an anime that I've ever seen, and, along with a well thought out (and intriguing) plot with interesting characters, is certainly one of the better animes out there.

Well, I can wax eloquent about this anime all day, but in the end you have to see it for yourself to appreciate the depth of the show. Personally, the most important aspect was the well created world of Last Exile, characterized by the conflict between the nations Anatoray and Disith. And certainly the world is a bizarre one (check out the Wikipedia article to find out what I mean, and to spoil all your fun).

So...are there any drawbacks? Perhaps a few, such as the somewhat bumpy plot and often uninteresting detours. But, nevertheless, I can say that I was gripped from beginning to end. Hence why I finished the entire series in two days.

Regardless, this whole show is one big mixture of themes ranging from musket battles and Star Wars style airships to all-powerful antagonists and then some. And if that doesn't get you intrigued, well, tough luck.

Malaysia: My Inheritance

Malaysia: My Inheritance sounds a tad sentimental, if a little corny. Nevertheless, we have high hopes for it. And we are looking for contributors. If you are a youth (we have a flexible definition of youth, don't worry) and you don't mind writing a thing or two (they need only be simple reflections) on Malaysia, from your perspective, then e-mail me! We need contributors.

And lots of thanks to Crystal for her birthday wish (hehe). She's a contributor, too.

So, to use a well-worn motivational phrase, what are you waiting for?