It has been four months since my last entry and my, have things changed in these four months. So I now reside in Japan, with my wife and have started my PhD. Many changes indeed. I’ve been keeping everyone updated with my status mainly through facebook, because well no one reads this blog (yes I like to remind my phantom viewers of this fact).

Life is very much different now; I’m more focused towards research and work. I have a goal, which is to complete my PhD within 3 years. For those unfamiliar, people usually finish in >3 years; so it’s a formidable task.

Living in a different country hasn’t changed my lifestyle too much; just mainly my diet is different. I just play much less basketball now and work more.

And lastly I am a married man now. I’ve actually always treated my better half as my wife anyway but now I have paper proof; so it hasn’t been too different. It is definitely a big step forward and I need to think more about my future now. In the meantime, I have a poster to make for a presentation on Monday. Life in Japan: busy times.

“You’re free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film — and such speculation is one indication that it has succeeded in gripping the audience at a deep level — but I don’t want to spell out a verbal road map for 2001 that every viewer will feel obligated to pursue or else fear he’s missed the point.” – Stanley Kubrick

I just finished watching 2001 A Space Odyssey, and as always the first thing I do after seeing a movie is to visit its wikipedia page to read the plot and interpretations of the movie. Even for movies that weren’t meant to be particularly deep, I always read up. The quote by Kubrick was given when asked for an interpretation of 2001. By and large, I totally agree. Since we are all different, we all pursue our own intellectual thoughts.

So the question on my mind is what was this monolithic block? One of the reasons I always read up on a movie is because I’m afraid I missed the point, which Kubrick pointed out. I’m afraid to make connections, which differ from the director/author’s intentions. But just like how Tarantino has his interpretations on the song “Like a virgin” (which perhaps wasn’t the song writer’s original intentions), shouldn’t we all have our interpretations on things? Maybe this is why 2001 is highly acclaimed.

As for what I got out of the movie, I guess it was the special effects. For a film made in 1968, it is pretty spectacular. The “Dawn of man” was particularly boring for me (and I kept thinking back at The Simpsons awesome parody of it) and the lack of dialogue and prolonged cinematic effects didn’t do it for me. I loved the HAL 9000 portion of the movie, and finally understood all The Simpsons references made to it. The only thing gripping about the movie was the monolithic block, and trying to figure out what it is. I’m truly a mystery fan boy, with favourites such as The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown.

The block will remain an enigma, just like the intentions of the movie. My overall interpretation of the movie? Computers will eventually get smart enough and take over us (which it has probably achieved already on my part, since I spend a crazy amount of time in front of a computer).

I watched Apocalypto yesterday and although I don’t like using the word epic (since it is overused by young people), that would be the word to describe the film. The make up, the sceneries and the actors looked amazing. Although academics and historians have blasted the movie for its inaccurate portrayals of Mayan Civilisation and other things such as historical dates, I have learned to watch movies (especially Hollywood films) as a fictional piece of art but I do understand that some people will believe in everything that they see. Nevertheless I absolutely enjoyed watching the film and in particular there was one scene that I really enjoyed, and would like to share.

I have sat and pondered over the meaning and message of this simple story. It’s a simple message, we are sad when we don’t have what we want. And when we get what we want, we want more. It’s true to the core. I remember as a kid, I had a video game console but with no games. The game I wanted more than anything else in this world was Street Fighter 2. But it was sold for a ridiculous price, since I was in PNG and these things are very rare and valuable. I told my parents and myself that I would only need to have one game and I would be content if I got Street Fighter 2. After gaining possession of the game, I remember soon after I got bored of the game and actually wanted more games even when I assured my parents and myself that I would only want one game! Almost 2 decades later, I find myself in the same situation where I have this superficial want. It’s ok to want more, but sometimes we need to distinguish between a want and a need.

The beauty of the story is that you can relate the story to many different scenarios. You can relate it to how we all keep taking from nature and this world; how we keep asking for more and are never content; and generally how we are just damn insatiable because we all have holes. I love the Buddhist philosophy; they believe that desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering. We all need to develop that mentality; we need to know what we want, and want what we have.