Ex Machina

Firstly, let me marvel at the stunning landscape and interior in the movie. It's super pretty. I guessed that place they filmed was in Scandinavia (the landscape unique and unmistakable) and I was right! It was filmed at Juvet Landscape Hotel in Valldalen, Norway. Now I need to pay that place a visit.

The film does not involve violence or such, but thrilling in its manner, which, is not your usual type of thriller. A little bit of mind-fk going on in there while trying to do the Turing test on an AI, Ava.

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) was invited by Nathan (Oscar Isaac) to test if his AI prototype was going to be a success. He had a week with him. Caleb then grew feelings for the AI, Ava (Alicia Vikander) as she expressed her emotions and feelings to him through their "test" interaction. Caleb attempts to help Ava escape her confinement after Ava told him not to trust Nathan and his lies. Later, Nathan reveals to Caleb the real aim of the test is to see if the AI was capable enough to persuade a human to help her escape. The film ended with the AIs (Kyoko and Ava) killing Nathan and Ava locking Caleb in the room, unable to escape. I don't need to spell it out, but AI test succeeds. 

The actors were good, filming (for the lack of better term) was good. The plot development was good too.

Worth a watch? Definitely!

(some nudity)

Ant-Man

Okay seriously, the name of this "superhero"? Never though I'd catch this "lame-sounding" movie in the cinemas but guess what, I watched it twice. In the cinema.

First off, I love the humour. What I love about this movie is that it incorporates (lotsa) humour in the typical "save the world" movies. And they're really my type of humour. Second time watching and still laughing at the same jokes.

Second, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is cute.

However, there were so many "loopholes" I didn't bother counting them. Like why didn't he just un-shrink himself when he was in the glass. How do you vaporize(?) or make the whole "exploded" building vanish without sucking in the surrounding people, cars, things? His shrunk self can break the-thing-you turn-to-make-scratching-sounds-when-you-DJ disc thing and not be sliced into half? And... the ants thing (watch and you'll understand). The whole "big motive" for the movie sounds quite stupid to me too. I wouldn't do that shit if i were ant-man.

Overall, I think the humour kinda saved the movie. IMO at least. I appreciate that kind of humour. Plus, it seems like Ant-man is an important movie with important details to the next "series" of Marvel movies. Hmmmmm

Oh and that quantum realm thing reminded me of Interstellar's (which I love too) wormhole experience.

Worth a watch? Hell yeah.

Cinderella (2015)

Although I had already expected the movie to be sucky (also given the reviews), I had to watch it just because and it wasn't as bad as I thought! Granted, we all already know how the movie's going to unfold, what's the ending etc. But I gotta say the CG won me over. The setting, the costumes, makeup, hair, and CG were great IMO. 

Nevertheless, S said this was the most boring show he ever watched LOL. While the girl in me was being fascinated by what I saw. 

Cast is mehhhh.... 

Worth a watch? Yes if you like fairytales and don't want to give this a miss. 

Worth a second watch? Nah

Souls the Gods Had Forsaken

"From a 'slave farm' in China to a 'death house' in Singapore"

This fiction novel is based on true events. It's written in first person perspective of a mother and daughter. It brings us from slavery in China to World War II in England and Singapore. Really fresh read because I don't always read books that relate to Singapore and its history, if ever.

It mentions the tough life of Mei Ling who was an orphan in a slave farm in China and got deported to Singapore to be sold. She was then "adopted" even though she was still a slave, got raped by her foster father and gave birth to Ching Ling. Ching Ling was raised in a "death house" where people were brought there to die.

The book is a narration of their stories. How tough life was back then. How they supported each other. How their love for each other extended beyond national boundaries but never got to see each other again after Ching Ling's departure to England to nurse her mistress.

Dawned on me how fortunate I am to be who and where I am right now. Never take peace for granted.

Chanced upon the "Singapore collection" while roaming in the library and saw this really brown, wrinkled and old book (not something I'd usually pick up). Thought I'd give it a "chance" and it didn't disappoint.

Year 2 Sem 2

So I've decided to jot down some thoughts about the mods I've taken last sem. I'm approaching Year 3 and noooooooo I'm still not ready to graduate in another year. :( On a side note, I'm excited for exchange (finally my turn) in sem 2. So much mixed feelings. Just hope I come back alive, like really, haha.


Year 2 Sem 2

MS800M BEAUTY, FORM AND FUNCTION: AN EXPLORATION OF SYMMETRY (3AU)

This is an online mod (8 weeks course) offered by Coursera in collaboration with NTU. Students are required to register with Coursera first, then choose to allocate the AUs to either UE or GERPE-STS. I chose to clear it as a UE because I like GERPE mods more lolol (i.e. I can save my GERPEs for more interesting mods). Bonus: this is a pass/fail mod! I decided to take this despite my lack of passion (at all) for art, symmetry, chem nor math cos many of my friends are taking this mod and it's good to take this mod with friends (*cough* answers collab/cheat for MCQ)

This course started out easy and fun. You get to do field work, write reflections, peer mark and complete weekly graded MCQs. That's for the first 4 weeks (Track 1). Subsequently, when you move on to Track 2 (required to get your AUs), things get tougher. Once it touches on 3D chemical bonds, I'm outta here. I don't understand a single shit going on! But thanks to my friends (refer to above paragraph), I managed to get full marks for the MCQs. And not to mention, borrowed "references" for the field work haha. The catch is to not get caught for plagiarism or you'll fail the mod.

The final essay was the killer for most because I swear, I flipped through the two journal papers we were asked to review, it's practically alien language to me. I'm not a stranger to journals but this is the ultimate impossible. So.... the use of paraphrasing, "references" and friends are really important. :P

Overall, it's still a pretty manageable course, because you don't need to be physically present in class and you can discuss answers with your peers (but not write the same things). I passed with a 99.5% grade so if I can do it, you can too! Just remember to submit all your assignments on time and don't plagiarize!


HG3015 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

Another "hot stuff" mod. Really wanted this mod because of my love for biology and psychology. This mod didn't disappoint me in my learning but I gotta say it's not an easy mod to score. I never really fancied Alice's mods (although she's really nice) because I don't seem to do well for those mods and her lecture notes aren't the best type of notes for revision (or even understanding at times). I learnt a lot in this mod and no although my results were worse than I expected, I never regretted taking this mod. Alice's mod are pretty standard - mid terms, finals, project (and presentation) and essay. I'd recommend this mod to people who think they can do well or simply because of your passion for the nature of this mod.


HG2013 CHILD LANGUAGE

Now, I must be crazy to take two of Alice's mod in one sem. Yes, and no. Yes because the deadlines are pretty much packed together, although Alice does make an effort to make sure students taking both her classes will not present for both mods on the same week. Yes because like I said earlier, I never really fancied the way Alice teaches nor her assignments. So it was either a make it or break it. But because, again, my love for psychology (hahaha), I told myself I must take this mod. Morever, it was probably the only really interesting Level 2 mod. The class was FULL on the first week of class. And I was surprised to hear that only about half of the class were officially registered. Hence, that meant that half the students present did not manage to get this mod yet still came down for class. Wow. I was glad I was one of the lucky ones to be registered. 

Again, I did not do as well as I expected for this mod. (why Alice whyyyyy T_T) but my grade was okay - average~~ Definitely recommend this mod to any LMS students! But i'm not sure if it's just me or the bell curve's steep. Haha. All the best nonetheless!


HG2005 RESEARCH METHODS IN LINGUISTICS I - INTRODUCTION

This mod is the MOST HATEFUL MOD EVERRRR. 1) I hate research 2) I hate math 3) I hate stats (refer to no. 2). Francis (Alice's husband lolol. All my core mods this sem are with them husband and wife), to be honest, isn't the best prof around. I'm sorry Francis but his lectures are boring, I'm not sure if it's cos of the content (hate research, hate stats) or cos of the way he teaches but I was only present for one lecture. It's amazing I passed this mod. 

Super burden mod also cos it splits the lect and tutorial into 2 DIFFERENT DAYS. EXCUSE ME?! say goodbye to 3 day week. Lecture's 2 hours and tutorial's 1 hour. And guess what, I have a whole day dedicated to this 1 hour tutorial. I take more than 3 hours to travel to and fro school, mind you. So.... in the end I only turned up for the first few tutorials, which is good because at the start he gives mini assignments to be marked as class participation. Towards the end, not much of such as most of the tutorial times will be left for project discussion.

Oh, and did I mention, I hate projects. Let me add that to my hate list. 4) I hate projects! 

My project was another disaster. Not gonna elaborate but again, it's amazing I passed. For this mod, I scored better than I thought. I thought I was gonna get a C or lower.


BS8003 SCIENCE OR FICTION? - BIOLOGY IN POPULAR MEDIA

My favourite mod for this sem!!! Best mod to take, EVER! :D 1) watching movies for lecture 2) Bio (teehee)

This mod is a 3-hour lecture every week (usually it ends early) and the best and worst part? 100% finals. I had mixed feelings about the 100% finals  because that meant no mid terms to gauge your standing and yknow split up the weightage. I was so afraid I would do worse than I thought I would for this mod because there were a few questions I did wrongly or were unsure of. But I didn't want to S/U it because I know I'll still do better for this mod than any of my cores. And it's true! Honestly, I didn't expect myself to get an A because of the mistakes I made and the uncertainty. Thank you bell curve!

The final paper is all MCQ. First section, each question has only 1 correct answer. Second section, each question has more than one correct answer. You must select ALL correct answers to get the mark for that question (tough one I tell you). 

Lectures are super fun because you get to watch nice movies and discuss about the biology in them, whether it's accurate or not. Bio never fails to intrigue me. Oh, and lectures are recorded! Definitely recommend this mod!