Pages

To Think About

Perspective
Less is more. Unless you're standing next to the one with more. Then less just looks pathetic.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Flying Solo

I'm 6,742 miles away from home... and 3,601 miles away from my other home.

It's really quite interesting the set of circumstances that brought me to this very moment. Oh yeah, I should probably give more information about what my situation is right now. I am sitting in the Sakura Lounge of Japan Airlines located somewhere in the depths of the Narita International Airport.

To all of the people out there that don't know me, I want everything to be in control. My control. (And that's an understatement.) What happened to me these past couple of days just can't be further from that.

On Monday, June 15 I was dropped off at Sea-Tac Airport by my lovely roommate's mother, LaVaughn. I know. It's kind of bizzare that your roommate's mom drives you to the airport and not your roommate. Long story. But LaVaughn is a good friend and she's like family to me, so I was quite content with the arrangement. After checking in and the usual stuff that pertains with getting on International flights, I got on the plane just in time.

My flight made a short stop in Honolulu to re-fuel and all that good stuff. And then we were off to a 7-hour flight (Yes. I'm serious. No. This isn't a typo) to Tokyo, Japan. Throughout this first leg of my flights, I watched a few movies. Okay. Maybe a little bit more than a few. Hotel for Dogs, Last Chance Harvey, Race to Witch Mountain, New in Town, and InkHeart. Yep. Just a few. It didn't really sink in to me that something was wrong until the time they handed out immigration forms for Japan. Of course, I was like, "I'm going to Hong Kong and then to Jakarta. I don't need these forms." But they gave me the forms anyways. I started looking at the itinerary I had printed out and stuck in my purse. The captain had said that we were going to arrive at Narita Airport at 9:30pm. Wait a second, I thought to my self (or maybe out loud). The flight was supposed to have landed at 4:40pm and then I should have departed on another flight to Hong Kong at 6:40pm. I could literally feel the ground underneath me crumble. Okay. Maybe it was some turbulence the flight was experiencing.

You see. For a control freak like me, having your flight itinerary changed, being dumped at a foreign place with lots of people who speak some kind of English you don't understand, and having no notion of how or when you'll get to your destination is a bad thing. I still smiled and was still polite to the people I encountered, but deep inside I was hyperventilating. (Is that even possible? Internal hyperventilating.)

When my flight landed in Narita, I had to wait in line to get my little "situation" figured out. In line, I had the chance to observe human nature put under a series of misfortunes uncontrollable by anyone. People are rude. When people's comfort gets threatened, they get rude. As I was waiting in line, I had a revelation. Whatever we are experiencing right now is not the people manning the counter's fault - and why do we unleash 3 hours worth of delay anger on them? They weren't the ones flying the planes or manning the control towers.

So I resolved on shutting up, be polite, and muster up whatever strength left in me to smile.

It worked. The guy that helped me told me that they have booked a hotel room with complimentary dinner and breakfast on them. They also arranged a new flight itinerary. The guy saw that my final destination is Jakarta, and so he asked me if I would rather have a direct flight from Tokyo to Jakarta. I did not hesitate in agreeing. So it was settled. My flight to Jakarta was to leave the next day at 2:10pm. That left me enough time to rest, clean up, and lounge around.

Japan Airlines has a lounge with complimentary food, drinks, and wireless internet. It was paradise for me.

It turns out that the circumstances played out better than what I had planned myself.

What I planned consisted of waiting for 9 hours in Hong Kong International Airport - sleep deprived and alone.

What I got was free dinner, breakfast, and a great place to stay and sleep. I got a full 8 hours of sleep.

Accept the unexpected. It may end up being a whole lot better than you have planned.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Season Finale


So, I finished watching the last season of Veronica Mars. My roommate suggested that I move on to more bad boys. In Buffy, for example.

Sigh. But alas. My heart is still captured by the teenage detective series.

I think it's public knowledge now that one of the reasons for my unending love for Veronica Mars is the presence of the hot boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend, or whatever Logan Echolls decides to be). Nevertheless, there are other aspects that contributes to my love for Veronica Mars.

Mystery novels. Murders. Who did it? It's like the CLUE game, where you try to find who did it, where, and with what. Do I have to spell it out again? Hint: it's the whole thing about humankind loving danger and adventures. Yeah. That's the one.

Okay. Forgive me for I have sinned. It's been xx days since my last confession. The big reason why I'm oh so head over heels about this tv series is Logan. Okay. Here comes the analysis.

I've watched a few episodes of Veronica Mars in the past - just a few, not all of them. After these few days of Veronica Mars marathon, I have come to the decision that Season 3 wasn't as good as the first two seasons. To be honest, I am biased. Can you blame me? Veronica dumped Logan and hooked up with a guy named "Piz."

Seriously?

At first glance, the end of season 3 seems to be a depressing moment in the lives of those who want Logan and Veronica to end up together. (In case you don't know, that would be me.) However, after thinking about it and consulting the special features in the DVD package, I received an epiphany.

Scenario #1: Saying, "You're stupid," to someone. Direct, to the point, plain and simple.
Scenario #2: Expose the person's stupidity in front of an audience, causing humiliation... This to be done without a single time saying "You're stupid" to the person. But boy, oh boy, they get the message clearly.

The difference between scenario #1 and scenario #2? It's called literary genius.

And I think that was what the creators of Veronica Mars wanted to accomplish in the Logan/Veronica relationship as portrayed in Season 3. Brilliant. Astonishing. Simply a masterpiece.

Let's take a look (figuratively, of course) to the last scene of Veronica-Logan-Piz in the season finale. At first I hated the scene because I thought it wasn't powerful enough. I changed my mind. The scene became one of my favorite Logan-Veronica scene in this season.
She was in the cafeteria. Logan came to apologize to her for beating her boyfriend up, which was, of course, an amazingly intense yet exhilarating scene. Veronica told him that it was going to take some time for her to be able to get over what Logan has done. After finding out the perpetrator behind Veronica's raunchy video footage, Veronica decided not to do anything, for it was a politically weighty matter. The scum said some things that he surely would take back if he knew who Logan was. Surprise, surprise. The Echolls' temper came through. Logan completely beat up the guy. I love it that the guy said, "Whoever you are, you're going to die." And, Logan charmingly replies, "Yeah. Someday." Pretty amazing line there.

After this little witty comment here, the rest of the scene involves the power of facial expressions more than verbal attempts. Logan looks at Veronica with his usual bad-boy-and-knight-in-shining-armor mix. He smiled, and ran into Piz. He apologized to Piz about everything and walked away. Veronica was looking at Logan with this unexplainable adoration in her eyes. She had this look that said, "This is the man I love." And then she looked at Piz. I guess she had to realize that sooner or later she had to come to terms with the fact that Piz is her boyfriend, not Logan. She couldn't even look at Piz for too long. Piz, on the other hand, realized his defeat. He knows that at the end of the day, there was only one man for Veronica, and he's not it.

Powerful, isn't it?

Mind recalling that Veronica did storm into Logan's hotel suite in an earlier scene and told him that she did not want him in her life anymore. Ah. The things people say and what they end up doing rarely matches.

I feel that this method of telling their story is simply brilliant. The creators didn't just write the story and handed it on a silver platter. The ambiguity of the scene was golden. It draws out feelings, rather than describes plot.

Of course, no one knows whether those two stubborn, thick-headed people will end up together again. They each have their own pretty ornaments that decorate their lives: Logan with his irresponsibility and temper inherited from his family, and Veronica with her deep-seethed need to be suspicious of everyone. But no one can really doubt that these two flawed personalities share a bond that even their own corrupt lives can't seem to break.

Yes. I'm talking about cinematography.
Yes. I'm talking about script writing.
But I guess I'm more talking about powerful expressions.

Sometimes. It does not require words to communicate how you feel or what you think. When words fail (And trust me. It will.), actions and expressions scream the point across.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Bad Boys


Funny how at times you can't seem to recognize a good thing even after it hits you on the head. Many people take for granted the good things in life - friends, family, love.

Cliche statements floating around in my head. I know. It's a tad bit unnatural, especially for me. Whenever cliches decorate my rhetoric, they usually are connected at the hip to my faithful friend. Sarcasm.

Anyways. I'm sure the millions of people reading this blog have one question: what the heck?

Well. The fact that I am unmotivated to start my summer papers and broke due to the lack of occupation gives me the time to think about conspiracy theories. Okay. Maybe I'm exaggerating.
I spend most of my time these two weeks watching 3 seasons of Veronica Mars on DVD. I think I've gotten a little hooked on it. My current roommate can certainly vouch for that. She has threatened to take Veronica Mars away from me. She can do that. Especially because the DVDs belong to her.

Bad boys. Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?


Sigh. Right now there is only one boy in my life - one bad boy to be exact. His name? Logan Echolls. You guessed it. He's the guy from Veronica Mars. Please don't misinterpret this as an oh-he's-so-cute-i'm-now-a-fan-and-want-to-marry-him-and-have-his-babies kind of thing. To be frank, Jason Dohring is a pretty amazing looking man. I'm not covering it up. I'm human. And he's quite an attractive guy. But that's besides the point. The point is, Jason Dohring portrayed that character of Logan Echolls quite brilliantly. The spoiled bad boy son of an A-list actor who fell madly in love with a girl that loves him back but have some trust issues. And I didn't get it wrong. I don't have a crush on Jason Dohring. But I sort of do have one on Logan Echolls. Yes. The fictional character that lived for three years on television, thanks to Rob Thomas. (Note: I am not crazy. At least, not yet. I will give further notice if I decide to change my mind.)

Back to my topic. Bad boys.


Why are they so appealing? This might be an assumption, but based on general observation, I should be able to prove this. I guess this is also a confession. I have a thing for bad boys. Haha. Who would have guessed?


Back to their appeal. My theory is that they provide a sense of adventure. We can't blame ourselves. We are geared that way. Even the most organized, sensible, rational girl is prone to fall for the bad boy. They carry this thing with them. Risk. Admit it. It's appealing. All of us humans - no matter men or women - are thrill seekers. We always want a secure life, a safe life. But we are so allured by risk, danger, adventure. Wonder. It's not bad. I think we're sort of wired that way. It's funny isn't it? We work so hard to stabilize everything and make life predictable, but then we complain about being trapped... We long for that adventure. We long for uncertainty. We long for the mystery. We long for the romance.



So. That's that about my bad boy spiel. Back to Mr. Echolls. I know it sounds a little out there and slightly psychotic, but the writers of VM got my ideal kind of guy dead on. Well. Without the promiscuous lifestyle of extramarital sex and abuse of alcohol. See. In Veronica Mars, Logan has turned out to be the knight in shining armor always there in time to save the love of his life who happens to love playing with distress. Okay. Rephrase. He's a sarcastic snidy knight in shining armor... If you haven't noticed by now, I have a relationship with sarcasm. I find it quite... witty. It's a very creative way to communicate truth with ambiguity. Anyways. Logan says the most incredible things. He's got a take on life that is quite uniquely charming. Here are some of the things he had said:
  • "'Anthropomorphic.' All yours, big guy." (To the principal, when asked if he can "have a word")
  • "Annoy, tiny blonde one. Annoy like the wind!"
  • "Push in on our hero. Natural light frames his handsome, weathered face, as he passed sage advice to his doting daughter. The music swells. [imitating Yoda] "Important your family is, hmm, hmm."
  • "[stops his stopwatch] Twelve hours to hit me up for my dead mother's money. Hmmm, I wonder who had that in the pool."
  • "[in police lineup] Oh wow, I'm stunned. You like me! You really like me! Well first, I'd just like to say the other, uh, nominees are all such wonderfully gifted criminals. And I wanna thank my agent and my publicist for always shooting me from the left side."
  • "Drugs? Murder? Frame-ups? St. Mary's Church? God, why didn't we think of that sooner?"
  • "You do know I've been cleared of all charges, right? The whole 'dead Felix' business has lost its intrigue for me. Once something stops being important to me, my memory gets a little fuzz - wait. Who are you?"
  • "Follow the bouncing ball [signals with his fingers]: not-my-problem"
  • "Thoughts of me? Hey, I get it. Sometimes I'm up all night, just thinkin' about myself."
  • [Veronica asks if he has spoken to Dick] "Yeah, but it was brief - shouted his name, flipped me off: the bonds of friendship."
  • Clif- They have set your court date. A month from today. Logan- Whatever will I wear?
  • [In response to "You're gonna die"] "Yeah, [smirks] someday."
  • [To Deputy Sachs, who has come to tell him that Sheriff Lamb "would like a word"] "If I'm under arrest, then do me the courtesy of making it all official-like."
I don't know. Sounds pretty cool to me. This bad boy of the television series was also portrayed as having a pretty amazing sense of humor - one that I could relate to. Maybe it had something to do with the hint of sarcasm... (Hmm.. I'm starting to think that they might have written his character based on a real life person. I should probably track him down.)

But he's pretty messed up though. Father: murderer, abuser, and pervert, murdered by the order of his best friend. Mother: jumped off a bridge. Sister: wants to be in the limelight. Girlfriend record: first one killed by his father, second one almost got killed by his father and have serious psychotic trust issues (she couldn't trust him to save his life). He's what you call a girl's father's worst nightmare. I'm sure if I start seeing a guy with that kind of background, my dad would get a restraining order.

It's funny though that while I'm thinking about it, I got reminded of last week's The Bachelorette on ABC. Jillian (this season's bachelorette) have said that to find the right person you have to have been heartbroken before. Well, you see, Jillian. I have a problem with your theory. It seems a bit... faulty. If your theory is right. I should be marrying prince charming right about now.

Sorry. I kinda got sidetracked.
One thing though. Out of the distorted yet cool portrayal of Logan Echolls, the many facets are dimmed by the fact that he'll do anything for the woman he loves - although most of the times, she does not deserve his affections due to the aforementioned psychotic trust issues.

He's also surprisingly very patient with his very difficult-to-understand girlfriend. Some of the cute and sweet things he said:

Dick Casablancas: Dude, what the hell are you doing? Please tell me this is some new reality show called 'My Skank'.
Logan Echolls: Goodbye, Dick.
Dick Casablancas
: What?
Logan Echolls
: Get out of my house. You have a problem with Veronica, you leave. Actually, you have a problem with Veronica, you're pretty much dead to me, so just, like, evaporate or something, I don't know. That's kind of a general invitation. If you don't like my girlfriend, then... just start heading towards the rectangle with the knob.

Veronica Mars: You didn't know what would happen.
Logan Echolls: I'm the one who's responsible for what happened to you. And I can't take that I hurt you like that. I can't take that i hurt you when all I wanna do is protect you.
[Veronica kisses him]
Logan Echolls: I want you to trust me.
Veronica Mars: ...I do.

Veronica
: So what are you like now?
Logan
: You know, tortured... ever since I got my heart broken.
Veronica
: Hannah really did a number on you, huh?
Logan: Come on, you know I'm not talking about Hannah. I thought our story was epic, you know, you and me.
Veronica
: Epic how?
Logan: Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC. But summer's almost here, and we won't see each other at all. And then you leave town... and then it's over.
Veronica
: Logan...
Logan: I'm sorry about last summer. You know, if I could do it over...
Veronica
: Come on. Ruined lives? Bloodshed? You really think a relationship should be that hard?
Logan: No one writes songs about the ones that come easy.

Logan Echolls
: Here, a bonus birthday gift.
Veronica Mars
: You got me a bow? A bow! How did you guess?
Logan Echolls
: Open it smarty pants. Veronica: Your room key? What if I drop in unexpectedly? The other girls will have to - [makes vamoose gesture]
Logan
: But you know there's no one else. I only want you. You ought to know that by now. [pause]
Logan
: What, no quip?

"You know who I am. And you're constantly expecting me to change.
[she looks at him dumbfounded] And even right now as you're thinking, "Crap, he's got a point," you still think you're ultimately right. I love you Veronica. I love you. [after no response] Do you love me?"


I guess if they ever come up with a movie or another season to conclude Veronica Mars' story, I would love to see her end up with Logan. It's just.... EPIC.
Oh wow. I think this blog could really sound like I'm going crazy. Maybe I am. I'm just waiting for my Logan Echolls to come along... It's crazy right? but it's an adventure nevertheless.