Wednesday 28 April 2010

Rant 532 / All I Have Is Words

Hugo Chavez plans to expand to Twitter after years of ranting on his own TV show. Now the Internet gets to listen to his speeches, all of course limited to a couple of lines per Tweet (I think that's what they're called).

I wonder if 4chan is going to do anything about that. I expect it to be extremely hilarious to see a bunch of Internet Tough Guys involved in an expletive-filled, illogical and one-sided debate with the leader of a socialist country. If it happens, I'll be taking lots of screenshots of this monumental event.













The Greek debt crisis is becoming huge in a region where everyone's filthy rich. Even though Merkel is doing the right thing, I'm not sure if the aid should be delayed any longer. The euro has already hit the lowest point ever recorded within the year and Greek bonds have become much closer to being worthless since it's credit rating was reduced from AA to BB-plus, the best level of junk status. According to the article from the first link, BB-plus is lower than the ratings of Iceland and Kazakhstan. As listed in the S&P website, Singapore's current rating is AAA, the highest in their scale.

FYI, junk status means it's not recommended to invest in it even if it's the highest of this category. Buying Greek bonds now would be more of an act of charity than anything else. Also FYI, buying a bond is one way for people to lend the country money, usually done as a form of investment.

The spike in unemployment rates and loss of national pride after having to ask (read beg) for help from the EU and IMF is going to cause lots of social unrest, which will make it even harder for the country to recover. The unemployment rise is also predicted to cost the government more money due to more people needing welfare to survive.

11% unemployment is no joke. That's more than 1 in 10 adults without a job, ie everyone knows at least one person who's looking for work. It's just like the US, especially in California where Arnold Schwarzenegger is struggling to prevent the state from going bankrupt.













I've just found a way to use this Super 3-in-1 Regular Coffee Mix that would otherwise be wasted. It's very suitable for making Yuan Yang, a drink that's basically a blend of tea and coffee with sugar and milk. Usually Nescafe coffees are too strong to mix with a packet of instant milk tea 1v1 (1 packet of each in one mug), but Super coffee is bland enough that it doesn't cover up all the tea aroma and still gives a hint of coffee. Going to try it with a packet of Lipton Yellow Label instead of instant milk tea.













Just watched Alphaville, a 1965 French sci-fi film about a secret agent sent to destroy the computer that ruled the city that this movie was named after. As a very old film, it inevitably showed me what the acting was like by the actors in the age of black and white films. Seriously, it didn't suck but some parts were rather awkward probably due to the director.

One of the more unforgettable moments of such awkwardness was when the agent first met some guy at the lobby of the apartment near the beginning. This guy walked in and seemed to have spotted him, yet he just stared at the protagonist for several seconds. Then he turned to the guy at the counter and asked for the keys, all the while our hero was there shouting for his attention. It made me confused about whether the man saw him and whether he recognized him.

The level of violence was also very different from the third oldest movie I have seen so far, A Clockwork Orange. In the later movie, there were lots of nude scenes and mildly violent actions, which were necessary due to the nature of the plot. In Alphaville the most violent scenes were either the protagonist firing his pistol at random policemen who seemed to have no blood or the one where he wrestled and killed some guy in order to steal his car.

Even in the latter fight, it was not the sort we're used to, but was a montage of 1-second clips of the agent posing with the victim in several positions that appear to be fighting moves, including things like locking the arm around his neck and putting the unconscious head in front of the wheel before driving over it. The head was not seen anymore once it was placed there.

Throughout the entire film only one single scene contained blood and it was not because our hero donated blood during the story. Surprisingly in all the other scenes involving gunfire, everyone in Alphaville seemed to be cotton golems. But when he tried to escape from the three plainclothes policemen in Alpha 60, one of them had blood flowing from above his forehead despite the fact that we didn't see him get shot. Sounds of the gun firing was heard, then we were shown this guy with a river of blood down his face and staring woodenly at... something.

I'd say that if this film was to be rated using today's standards, it would be somewhere below G - even foetuses can watch it. I'm not joking when I say most of the Disney films that have been produced in recent years have more explicit violence (as opposed to implied violence described in previous paragraphs) than Alphaville. If the most exciting fight scene was two guys clearly making poses that simulated wrestling moves, I don't see why it can be too violent for anyone.

No comments:

Post a Comment