Had the chance to watch the Mockingjay Part I yesterday thanks to my screening sponsor, Cadbury Philippines. As I came directly from work, we walked in just as the lights have dimmed and the movie is starting. Anyway, my comments:
1. Dragging - The movie was off to a slow start (read: all talk), and as I haven't eaten dinner yet, it was just as well, for I busied myself with the task of eating Wendys' 2-piece Salisbury steak in the dark (which my friend had considerably bought for me) while the cast of characters droned on. But after ample time has passed, the cast were still just talking among themselves, and I started getting impatient. I mean, I know it's nice that it's intellectual and sticking close to the book by inserting as many dialogues and all -but- I'm still an averaged Short-Attention-Spanned moviegoer and I prefer action please over words, thank you very much!
But when you think about it, how else can they stretch the Mockingjay book into 2-part movies and make twice the money if they aren't gonna insert lots of down time talking as "fillers" for the movie? The action only started on the second hour of the movie. So yes, you may sleep on the first half of the movie and set your phone to vibrate an hour later when things start to get interesting.
2. Jennifer Lawrence can act - Throughout the film, I have noticed one fact: Jennifer Lawrence's acting has only improved over time. Whenever she is anguished, suddenly I also feel tears spilling over my own eyes. I can't help but compare her to Twilight's Kristen Stewart and it makes me more appreciative of Jennifer's ability to act.
3. Look-alikes - The world has grown so big and populated that nowadays, everyone has at least one celebrity look-alike. Proof of this is how I always find semblances between people when watching movies or meeting someone new. Here are my look-alikes for Mockingjay Part I:
President Coin/Madonna
Boggs/Michael Jordan
Cressida/Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo
Luke Mejares/Beetee
President Snow's cream trench coat/Tablecloth
The movie is not that bad, when it comes down to it from the perspective of someone who has read all three books by Suzanne Collins. However, I'm not sure if those who haven't read the book will have as much tolerance for it, as my friend who haven't read the book seemed lost on what was happening, and asked me to explain some parts of the movie.
Thursday, November 20
"Wake up. You're gonna be late. I love you," he said, as I suddenly opened my eyes to find myself alone in my bed, my dream/fantasy slipping away from me. "I love you too," I mouthed back to the air.
My love is humbled down now. It does not demand to be loved back. It is not proud, and will not be used as a phrase spoken over and over again in a louder tone and gritted teeth to bully my love into saying "iloveyou" back to me when he is mad at me. It is now gentle, unassuming, spoken mildly into the air, to be never caught or returned by anyone again. It is meant to be lost in the world, unobtrusive to anyone, wasted as it may go. It is simply be.
There is a certain kind of meekness associated with having feelings of love for someone you're not committed to. The lack of security makes you sick with love and longing and enables you to give the loved one a type of reverence that creates delusions and encourages masochism tendencies. You envision yourself making all sorts of sacrifices for them, being enslaved by them, kissing them even when they're mean and insufferable to you, coming up behind them to give them out-of-the-blue hugs when they're busy playing games and don't wanna be bothered, saving your favorite food for them, and so forth -if only they will love you back. It's as if somehow you know how futile it is to be loved back, and the more that you know this, the more you keep thinking of gestures of grand, noble and sometimes exaggerated proportions -which in your delusional mind you can do- just so you will have that wonderful feeling of being loved back again. It's so hard to cope up with unrequited love, you think.
And then you wake up next day, and you're fine, and you conquer the world again without batting an eyelash.
I was browsing my Facebook newsfeed when I came across the mysterious case of Elisa Lam, a truly spine-tingling, eerie, true-to-life story.
In late February, 2003, the body of a 21-year old Chinese was found decomposing in a water tank in the rooftop of a hotel in Los Angeles. Along with her naked body, her clothes and watch was found in the tank with her.
The Canadian student tourist from the University of British Columbia has been missing for three weeks when her body was discovered in the tank in Cecil Hotel. According to reports, guests have complained about a "funny taste" in the water as well as trickling of "water that starts out as black" before gradually turning back to its natural color. When a maintenance worker came to check on the tank, it was then that Elisa's dead body was found. What's weird about the case is how Elisa could possibly had access to a high security area that is said to be protected by alarms. It was said that Elisa had stayed at the hotel for five days before she started to disappear. It was also reported that she was on her way to Santa Cruz, California when she checked in at the hotel.
What makes the case creepy is the CCTV footage of Elisa in the last minutes of her life before she died, as shown below:
Hide and Seek, anyone?
Elisa looking nervous
In the CCTV footage, although Elisa was clearly alone in the elevator, she made it appear as if someone else was in there with her, as she nervously hides and re-appears behind the elevator's panel, looking at something that is not visible to the human eye. She proceeds to press several buttons on the elevator while the elevator's doors remain open and won't close. She then steps out to study the elevator from the outside and then suddenly starts this very eerie motion of waving around and parting the air with her hands. She continues doing this slow, creepy hand dance movement until she walked away from the elevator and out of sight from the CCTV camera. It was presumed that she went upstairs to the roof top shortly after this, where she met her tragic fate of "drowning by accident".
Because Cecil Hotel had been popular for murders that occurred in 1985 and 1991 (by serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger respectively), and has also been one of the places that was rumoured to be visited by the brutally murdered Elizabeth Short before she was killed in 1947, most are speculating that Elisa may have been lured to her death by supernatural forces or spirits that haunt the hotel that had been known for murders.
However, a genius comment made by a guest on this site is the one that -to me- seemed to make the most sense of all the theories.
According to the guest, Elisa Lam was bipolar and that this was what caused her to hallucinate a lot, which tired her out and also caused her to decide to kill herself after finding out about the water tank on the rooftop. The elevator did not close even after Elisa had entered because she kept on pressing the buttons, which caused the elevator delays in functioning. Further more, the guest theorized that because Elisa continued pushing the button outside the elevator when she goes out of sight from the camera, this further prevented the elevators from closing.
The guest continued that the weird hand gestures Elisa had been doing was actually her way of practicing the swimming motions which she was about to make in the water tank in a few minutes' time. It was theorized that she reached the water tank by going out of the window on the first floor, taking the fire escape ladder towards the roof, and then getting on the stairs towards the second roof. This is what led her to the water tank, which she may have opened partially before jumping in. As the water level in the tank may have been too low, sadly, she may not have been able to climb out of the water as much as she may have wanted too because she cannot go back and reach the top anymore.
Although this may be the most logical explanation to what really happened, questions still can't stop filling my head about what happened:
What was she thinking when she took her life, if this was the case? Was she so depressed that she did it or was she just being delusional and was not aware that she was killing herself? Had she just wanted to go for a "swim"? What was her last thoughts? Did she try to call out for help or changed her mind once she found her whole body submerged in the dark waters? The fact that she was no longer wearing her clothes and watch but her possessions were seen in the tank with her may suggest that she tried to rise up from the water and removed her garments as it weighed her down and kept her from surviving. How long did she suffer before she drowned?
I also found her three blogs which hint at the depression she may have been battling which led her to her demise:
In etherfields, one of her last posts was about "spending 2 days in bed hating herself", and another one is about berating herself for being "too lazy to exercise".
Meanwhile, her other blog was not too bright and cheerful either. It was empty except for a quote from Chuck Palaniuk she used in describing herself, which was "being haunted by the idea of wasting one's life".
Additionally, in a post in her tumblr account, Elisa talked about how she has to take pills for her depression, bipolar disorder and ADHD, and how she hates having to take the 5 pills everyday:
I wonder what will happen when I take these things long term. Will I ever not need them?
I call it the breakfast of champions and I hate that I have to take it everyday. I’m basically taking these pills because I can’t handle life. Life is hard and since I can’t handle hard things, I need pharmaceuticals.
Part of me is still in denial that I’m not sick and this can be solved without pills.
There is no physical manifestation of my “illness.” If I were to stop taking it, the worst thing would be a headache.
Would I become psychotic and want to off myself? I doubt that very much. For other people, yes there’s a huge risk that will happen but I know I wouldn’t do anything rash like actually jump off a bridge. I’m too much of a coward. Instead I’ll just lie in my bed and let the days pass by. That’s my physical manifestation, sleeping for days in bed.
Today, I want to share an inspiring excerpt from the the book I'm reading called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It's an uplifting read that enables the mind to rid itself of all doubts and negativity....
We are going to share a beautiful dream together -a dream that you will love to have all of the time. In this dream you are in the middle of a warm sunny day. You hear the birds, the wind, and a little river. You walk toward the river. At the edge of the river is an old man in meditation and you see that out of his head comes a beautiful light of different colors. You try not to bother him, but he notices your presence and opens his eyes. He has the kind of eyes that are full of love and a big smile. You ask him how he is able to radiate all of that beautiful light. You ask him if he can teach you to do what he is doing. He replies that many, many years ago he asked the same question of his teacher.
The old man begins to tell you his story: “My teacher opened his chest and took out his heart, and he took a beautiful flame from his heart. Then he opened my chest, opened my heart, and he put that little flame inside it. He put my heart back in my chest, and as soon as my heart was inside me, I felt intense love, because the flame he put in my heart was his own love.”
“That flame grew in my heart and became a big, big, fire—a fire that doesn’t burn, but purifies everything that it touches. And that fire touched each one of the cells of my body, and the cells of my body loved me back. I became one with my body, but my love grew even more. The fire touched every emotion of my mind, and all of the emotions transformed into a strong and intense love. And I loved myself, completely and unconditionally.”
But the fire kept burning and I had the need to share my love. I decided to put a little piece of my love in every tree, and the trees loved me back, and I became one with the trees, but my love did not stop, it grew more. I put a piece of love in every flower, in the grass, in the earth and they loved me back, and we became one. And my love grew more and more to love every animal in the world. They responded to my love and they loved me back, and we became one. But my love kept growing and growing.
I turned my head to the sky, to the sun, to the stars, and put a little piece of my love in every star, in the moon, in the sun, and they loved me back. And I became one with the moon and the sun and the stars, and my love kept growing and growing. And I put a little piece of my love in every human, and I became one with the whole of humanity. Wherever I go, whomever I meet, I see myself in their eyes, because I am a part of everything, because I love.”
And then the old man opens his own chest, and takes out his heart with that beautiful flame inside, and he puts that flame in your heart. And now that love is growing inside of you. Now you are one with the wind, with the water, with the stars, with all of nature, with all animals and with all humans. You feel the heat and the light emanating from the flame in your heart. Out of your head shines a beautiful light of different colors. You are radiant with the glow of love and you pray:
Thank you Creator of the Universe, for the gift of life you have given me. Thank you for giving me everything that I have ever truly needed. Thank you for the opportunity to experience this beautiful body and this wonderful mind. Thank you for living inside me with all of your love, with your pure and boundless spirit, with your warm and radiant light.
Thank you for using my words, for using my eyes, for using my heart to share your love wherever I go. I love you just the way you are, and because I am your creation, I love myself just the way I am. Help me to keep the love and the peace in my heart and to make that love a new way of life, that I may live in love the rest of my life.
Me and my pals, Grace and Gen are always up for an adventure. As such, we like to imagine ourselves fine dining and sipping teas in Paris, chic and sassy as can be! We can almost visualize ourselves touring the Eiffel Tower and taking selfies as we pass by couples. As you can see here in our picture, we even have a poster of Paris, and a bag with the iconic Eiffel tower logo.
Another thing we enjoy doing together is devouring good quality chocolates after a meal. In particular, we like the new variant Cadbury has recently launched. Both Cadbury Dairy Milk French Vanilla and Chocolate Mousse are now out in the markets starting this month for P180 for a 180-gram bar. Our barkada is definitely #TeamFrenchVanilla because the creamy and classical vanilla filling goodness of the new Cadbury Dairy Milk French Vanilla chocolates allows us to feel sophistication at its finest any time and anywhere we want to, as well as giving us sweet endings to every meal. With Cadbury French Vanilla, we can have a taste of Paris without even stepping out of our office.
