“There are five possible operations for any army.
If you can fight, fight. If you cannot fight, defend.
If you cannot defend, surrender.
If you cannot surrender, flee. If you cannot flee, die.”

- Sima Yi

Crimson Peak

Ok, first of all, DISCLAIMER: Of course this is going to be super biased, this is MY opinion of the movie.

I can't believe this movie is only 6.5 in IMDB. This movie is so beautifully shot and within the first few minutes I just knew that Guillermo del Toro is behind it (yeah I didn't read about it beforehand). The distinctive camera and lighting works are there.

Fair enough, I'm only giving it 8 out of 10. I rarely give any movie 10, because 10 is perfection and perfection is rare. I had to further minus one point because the storyline is a tad predictable. BUT it doesn't diminish how beautiful the movie is. And I'm not only talking about the cinematography. The costume, the script, the morality questions, the philosophical message... are all thought through and blended beautifully.

And the details of it, ho my, the more I think about them, the more fascinated I am. Pay attention to the background, little details of the sounds, the words chosen --the word 'beautiful' keeps popping in my mind to describe this movie.

I didn't want to watch it earlier because I'm not really a fan of Mia Wasikowska. She only has that one expression and always play that misunderstood innocence. She's also part of the -1 that I can't give the movie a 9. But Tom Hiddlesont is there, who can deny his acting skills? And I only lately realised that Jessica Chastain is a gem too. So I finally watched it (a long Easter weekend helped too). And ho boy, did they deliver. The acting, their acting is soooo underrated. Tom Hiddleston can look at a tree, tell it that he loves it, and that tree will fall in love with him.

"I feel as if a link exists between your heart and mine,
and should that link be broken, either by distance or by time,
then my heart would cease to beat and I would die."

And Jessica Chastain.. the whole time I keep thinking she's Eva Green. She carries that looming darkness so subtly yet so intensely. I get chills just remember her character. Her character is one of those that you knew something is wrong with her, your guts keep telling you to run away from her, but you can't pinpoint why. We all have such people in our real lives. But to convey this in a fictional character is another story, and to do it so convincingly is just absolutely amazing.

(Beside acting, remember when she tricked Michael Fassbender into breakdancing? What a gem. God bless her soul).

I'm not gonna talk about the plot points of the movie. Cos I'm lazy and this post is getting too long. All I can say is, it's so seldom a movie delivers a perfect balance of horror and romance, thriller, and love.
You gotta watch the movie and experience them yourselves. There are many bad reviews that saying it's not really a horror movie, and therefore it's a failed movie. Well, it's not, cos that's not the point of the movie. Go watch it and see it for yourself. If you appreciate subtlety and beauty, you will love this movie.

Passion

How do you know what your dream is, you ask? It's when you can't stop thinking about it, until you do something. And once you're doing something to reach that dream, you can't stop moving.

What is passion, you ask? It's when you can't stop yourself from working for it. Even when everyone doubts you, mock you. Even when you question yourself. But you can't help to keep working for it.

I cannot have a normal colleague

I'm glad to report that my colleague with the incredible thoughts have moved back to her home country, ready for spawning. She's at her 2nd spawn right now. I hope she stops at two. I don't think the world can bear any more little incredible thoughts such as hers in this world.

But I can't catch a break. Even before the first is gone, the second came. Not only this second one has some similar incredible thoughts, she's outspoken too.

One outspokenness that bother me is, she really likes to report to me whenever she's going to the toilet for a big business. Or anything that's related to her big business, really. Usually it's verbal, but here's a written evidence of her favourite past time in office:

That's not the first time too. I just didn't get to screenshot her other reports.

I'm flattered that she feels the need to report to her senior in life, but I really do not need to know that particular aspect of her life.

“Planet Earth is the insane asylum of the galaxy.”

- Werner Von Braun 

"Simplicity is underrated."

- Evan T.

I found out how Donald Trump won the presidency.

Nothing changes until you do

“Let him that would move the world first move himself.” 

- Socrates

Spotted in Quora

Being rich is surely nice but being filthy rich is overrated.
After you hit US$20 million or something, it is the same nasi goreng afterwards.

-Anonymous in Quora

Heart vs Head

"Love with your heart. Use your head for everything else."

- Alan Melikdjanian

Values

Remember some time ago I had a question: When two persons you respect are disrespecting each other, do you stop respecting either one?

I finally found a concrete answer, which is a resounding YES.

It might not be too clearly black and white. It might not happen immediately. But you will lose your respect for one of them eventually. I found this answer, unfortunately, through personal experiences. I realised, this tendency to lean towards one side is because of our values. Or more precisely, the conflicting of those values.

What are values? No, not the monetary worth of something. I'm talking about the other kind of values:

The principles or standards of behaviour; one's judgement of what is important in life.

Everyone has values. Positive or negative, everyone has their own view of what they hold as important, that they use as the cornerstone of their lives.

For the positive examples, some people value honesty, or honour. So in everything they do, they will try to be honest, or honourable, even though they might get into trouble (Ned Stark, anyone?).

For the negative examples, it could be materialism, the value that put things as more than human beings.

When you respect someone, I find, it's because you have similar values. If you're an honest person, you'll only respect honest people, whether you realise this or not.

So if the 2 people you respect, are disrespecting each other, most probably there's a contradiction of values there. But as we know from a wise man, contradiction cannot exist in one place, so you'll drop one of them in the end.

“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”
- Francisco d’Anconia

I find this true in love as well.

We might fall in love because of various reasons. But we stay in love when we share the same values. When a couple in a relationship don't share the same values, you'll see that the relationship will fall apart faster than you can say "Francisco d'Anconia".

Anger

It's ok to be sad. It's also okay to be angry.

“...anger could be thought of as an intermediate emotion. An event happens, the brain doesn't have time (or doesn't want to) to fully process the situation and it needs a reaction, so anger is what's used until there's more time to examine everything in more detail.”^

“It’s the one that tells us we need to take action to put something right,” she says. “Anger is a problem-solving emotion. It gives us strength and energy, and motivates us to act.”^

“Nobody ever gets into trouble for feeling angry. But people sometimes get into trouble for what they do when they feel angry.”^

The Piemaker

"Nobody remembers your father, Ned.
But they do talk about how you turn out to be such a nice, wonderful boy.

Man, even."

- Vivian Charles, Pushing Daisies

Image of God

"...if man is made in the image of his god, and man is a corrupt entity
- wouldn’t it stand to reason that god is a corrupt entity?"

Jika manusia diciptakan menurut rupa tuhan, dan manusia adalah sebuah wujud yang curang
- bukankah sebuah argumen yang benar untuk mengatakan bahwa tuhan adalah sebuah wujud yang curang?

- The Day I Lost My Faith

Why are we trying to save the world?
What has the world done for us, except hates us.

Kenapa kita berusaha menyelamatkan dunia?

Apa yang sudah dunia ini berikan pada kita, selain kebencian.

-Inspired by Harley Quinn and her love for Puddin'

Lessons today

"Being nice is not something to do."

- Two Worlds, ep. 2

"It's better to be the enemy of a good person,
than to be a friend of a bad one.

Lebih baik menjadi musuh seseorang yang baik, daripada menjadi teman orang yang jahat.

-Anonymous 

Nam Jung Gi

"Only money that makes you comfortable when accepting is truly yours.
Money that makes you uneasy when taking, it always comes back to bite you."

Wisdom from the dad in Ms. Temper and Nam Jung Gi

Alexander

Heartless

"You laugh at me because I'm different, 

I laugh at you because you're all the same." 

- Jonathan Davis

Andrei Chikatilo

Varys

"The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish,
and I keep on paddling."

- Varys, A Clash of Kings

Just Vary's less cute, more epic way of saying 'keep on swimming'.

What family is

"That's what family is —People who hate you but can't kill you 'cause they're the first ones questioned."

- Max Black from 2 Broke Girls