laptopsnacks

JAN 2020 – “Swimming Pool” Liz has lived much of her younger years in this neighbourhood, and has passed this street more times than there are days in a year. The street is lined on both sides with similar-looking one-storey houses, apart from their colours and garden landscapes. Some of the kids in these houses went to her school, so they made it a habit to walk together in the mornings. All but one of them - the girl who lived in the house at the end of the street. The house at the end of the street stuck out like a sore thumb; not because it was odd in appearance, but because it was much larger and built on elevated ground. Despite its size, the house seemed warm and inviting, never intimidating. It was painted in white - a humble choice, Liz thought - and the gates were carved with simple motifs. Liz could not help herself but to peer into the white house every time she walked past. And there she would see it: the swimming pool, glistening in the morning sun. Sometime...

Five years after Wei Ying's passing, Lan Zhan writes him a short letter. . . . Dear Wei Ying, This morning, I woke up with the sudden realization that all memories of you I hold onto so tightly; your face, your laugh, your witty comments, your booming smile, are starting to fade. With every passing day, my fear of forgetting you grows stronger. These memories are all I have, as there is nothing else to remember you by. There was, and is, no one else quite like you. You stormed into every situation at full speed; chaotic, fearless, intense, beaming. You were intelligent, powerful, empathetic, and so, so selfless. You were admirable, and the world let you down when they failed to recognize that. I hate it more than anything else, seeing you being wronged. Hearing made-up rumors about the Yiling Patriach, each one worse and more inaccurate than the one before. Wei Ying, I am not a man of many words, and there's nothing I regret more than the things I left unsaid. ...

Entering the seventh week of this semester means that I only have seven weeks left as a student, after which, I'll be done for good. And yet, I am nowhere near feeling ready to face the real world. Nowhere near figuring out what I want and where I want to be. I walk the path of privilege my parents paved for me and blow one day after another, with irresponsible lifestyle, bad sleeping patterns, and absent of drive and ambition. In every sense of the word, I have regressed. Two years ago I performed a duet onstage and was in debating, which was the furthest from my comfort zone I've ever been. Just a year ago, I was organizing an art exhibition, running an international Scrabble tournament, securing sponsorship for a charity-centered project, and heading an art bazaar. Currently, I'm a nobody, doing nothing, who spends 4-5 hours a day on Youtube. What worries me the most is the regret which will come with completing my degree. I spent the past three years half-assing t...

The Handmaid's Tale is a TV series based on a novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. It is set in the near future, in the land of Gilead , a dystopian totalitarian state which replaced the United States. Gilead is plague with environmental destruction and is facing rapidly declining birth rate . Most people are infertile, most pregnancies end up terminated halfway through, and many babies are born dead or deformed. In an effort to repopulate the society, fertile women are forced to take on the role of 'handmaids' , and sent off to elite couples to bear children for them. Every month during ovulation period, handmaids must take part in The Ritual, where they have sex with (READ: get raped by) their master while laying between the legs of their mistress. Handmaids during one of their shopping trips to run errands for their assigned families. The Handmaid's Tale is haunting, and it was personally upsetting to watch it as a woman. The idea of Gilead is ev...

I'm going to get straight into it; despite how critically-acclaimed The Shape of Water is, the film has mostly been a disappointment to me. This review contains light spoilers. The Shape of Water is essentially about two individuals who view each other as complete individuals and find solace in each other. Elisa (the main protagonist) is a mute woman who befriends a captured humanoid amphibian man at her workplace, a high-security government laboratory. The humanoid amphibian man, not understanding that Elisa is mute, sees her as any other individual, and not one with a disability. They communicate through sign language, eventually falls in love with each other, and Elisa devises a plan to help him escape. *** Let us first start with the things I liked about this film. Clearly, the visuals and Sally Hawkins' performance are highly commendable. The Shape of Water has a peculiar vibe unique to itself due to the incorporation of classical music into somewhat of a...

A.k.a The Show Where Almost Everyone Is a Manipulative Snake ™ This show does not aim to be likable, nor do the characters aim to be likable for the sake of their audience. This show aims to portray emotions as it is: the good, the bad, and the nasty. Personally, the need to even criticize this show feels unnecessary, because the purpose of this show is to carry raw human emotions, and human emotions by itself is subjective and is interpreted differently by every individual. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS but no major ones. (Trigger warning: I advise against watching this anime if you have had experiences with emotional and/or sexual abuse.) *** Before going through my post, I suggest you first read through this review  for episode one by Anime Feminist ; Amelia Cook managed to put down everything I feel in words better than I ever can. Scum's Wish is not a show for everyone. People who are in healthy, fruitful relationships...

Alright. A brief summary. The word 'Ajin' literally translates to 'half-human' , which is what this anime is about; immortal creatures with supernatural abilities. I first learnt about Ajin from a Youtube video promoting new upcoming animes, wherein Boku Dake ga Inai Machi ( ERASED ) was also in it. These two animes caught my attention, and them being seinen earned them extra points. The first thing I noticed (also the first thing that you would notice if you do end up watching this anime) was how......... odd the animation for the characters looked. They seemed as if they were stuck somewhere between two-dimensional and three-dimensional . I generally do not enjoy animes with an animation style I do not agree with, which is a really shallow quality to base an anime on. Do not do it my way, buddy. The characters looked like the simulation in Japanese dance battle games. Like the projection of Hatsune Miku during her live stages. Only Hatsune Miku looks m...