The film Moon, staring Sam Rockwell released a couple of years ago was a great sic fi thriller. Often these sic fi affair tried to vow you with their clever visual effects and wildly improbable storyline. Moon was different. Essentially it was about a mining scientist plied by Rockwell who was on a two-year mission marooned on the moon, only in physical contact with a robot. Apparently it was one of those clever artificial intelligence ones who can read his mood and interact accordingly.
He was looking forward to return to his young family - a daughter born when he was away - when something peculiar happened, and things started to unfold from then on.
The same directors' sophomore effort (Duncan Jones), Source Code, offered something along the dame vein, but not stereotypical of Moon. It offered enough action to keep you at the edge of your seat, in the meantime made you think about the whole affair. It again left a lasting impression, something that only hit me a few days after the fact. Good quality psychological thriller, with a definite twist in the end. As the movie would be coming out on DVD soon, I suggest that you grab it when it came put. If you were into psychological thriller, you couldn't go wrong with this.
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:12AM 
Bracing myself
It was kind of difficult to ignore the forces around you. And what would be around the corner, a couple of weekends from now may be a turning point for the country. I almost never talk about politics specially on my blog but those who knew me personally probably knew that i have my own take about the local politics.
All I wished for on the day would be a peaceful outcome and the story of the day would be portrayed in a fair perspective as the events would not go down as just another nuisance that happened similar to rallies in the past. I can almost predict what the headline was going to be, and it would be definitely a couple of different versions, one in the local mass media, and another on the international news outlet - BBC, CNN and Aljazeera.
The other major difference between the coking rally and those in the past was the advent of social media. In the last six months, we have seen the power of social media - twitter and Facebook - been demonstrated in weakening oppressive regimes. How information was disseminated. And how reporting of events have changed. Like all informations sources, there would be room for manipulation. But the sheer volume of information and news would help the readers to be in a better position to make judgement of the actual happenings. Social media also offer direct interaction with the source, making clarification more transparent. Censorship would also be difficult, and the only viable solution for that would be a total media blackout - close down the Internet, like what happened to Egypt and Libya. The sheer fact that Malaysia would be mentioned on the same breath with the two country really demonstrated the gravity of the coming event.
I must say that the development leading up to the coming rally had been interesting to say the least, and it was mainly on how the information was disseminated. Here's to a peaceful rally. And here's hoping that Yorais would not take the decision to cut off the Internet on the day .....