Le Petit Prince review

It has been some time since I read a fiction in french. Last one I read one was a few years ago, The Wave by Todd Strasser french version, so it is named La Vague. Too many english books I have read, it's time to balance out a little bit. What's the best book to start off french literature than The Little Prince, Le Petit Prince.

Because of its simple language and it's barely 110 pages long, I finished it just within two hours. This is a good book for any beginner to learn french. This is the kind of book that cannot be seperated from its paintings. It kinda reminds me of another book I have on my bookshelf in my home in Penang. The similitude is uncanny but I don't think they are the same book. I definitely gonna check out the book again to verify. 

I started this book without much expectation. The only fact I know about it is it is really famous, nothing else. As a children book, I didn't expect it to be so profound, metaphors after metaphors. At some point, I was kinda fed up with all this profoundness. After some time, all the metaphors do feel like 'in your face', as if the book is shouting out for attention : "I am so profound!" to me. As much as I dislike the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I love its one quote :

Mike : Why is everything here completely pointless?
Charlie : Candy doesn't have to have a point. That's why it's candy.

Not everything has to have a deeper meaning or logic. And that is how I would prefer the book to be. Not entirely pointless but at least express the meanings in a non explicit way. I don't get why the hype about this book. I don't hate it, don't get me wrong. Perhaps that means I have already became a grown-up myself.


















      

Phelps' 12000 calories

Behind any great man, there are always some mythos surrounding him or her. There was a rumour saying that Michael Phelps consumes a monstrous amount of 12000 calories daily during his training. It is an impressive number, so impressive that it has became a signature food challenge for many youtubers such as the following. 

The rumour isn't true though. Saturday Night Live and Phelps himself together even make fun of it in a fake commercial. Swimming is indeed very energy-demanding. It is true because from my experience, my craving for food is always at the peak after a solid swimming training session. But no matter you are training for Olympic gold medal or just an average man, a well balanced meal is the right choice, or like Phelps says, eat only as much as you need.

My dietary principal is eating only when I am hungry. As my training getting more and more intense, I get hungry so fast that I eat so frequently, probably 5 to 6 meals per day. The rumour of Phelps' 12000 calories stays impressive but not so unbelievable anymore to me.

As Ramadhan is on going, for those Muslims who doing fasting, I salute you because you are doing something that needs a certain level of dedication. For someone like me who cannot stay away from food and water for a few hours, fasting is a really difficult task.

Under The Skin got under my skin

No pun intended for the title but owh my god! This movie is creepier than Sinister and it is not even a horror movie! Many disturbing images and scenes, preying not on blood or disgust but the fear of the unknown. The fact that you won't be able to fully understand those scenes is unsettling. And adding in some incredible background music, goosebumps ceaselessly appear. 

However I wasn't really engaged in the storyline. The arch of the story isn't huge enough for me to attach to the main character. I thought may be I was so adapted to the formula of main stream movies. I say this because this is certainly not a movie for everyone. Firstly, it is rated R. Secondly, it does require some brain power to follow, at least it is how I feel. 

Then I saw a french movie critic saying, the synopsis kinda gave away the main twist and it might explain why I was not engaged in the movie. If audience has not know from the beginning that she is an alien, the payback might be higher. If I have not known that she is an alien, her strange behaviour would have drive me crazy by searching in vain for answer. But since I know, throughout the movie, what I only did was I kept anticipating her to reveal her true form. 

I would consider this movie as pure sci-fi, same category as most of Kubrick's movies. The only Kubrick's works I have watched is 2001. Is this as great as 2001? I don't think so. As much as I say 2001 is boring, I still like it though. This one not so much. It feels a bit pretentious at some time, trying too hard to be meaningful and profound. May be I am just too ignorant to understand it. The truth is if it is not for Scarlette Jo, I won't go to see this movie in cinema. And yes I admit, the main reason I went for this movie is primal : I like Scarlette Johansson. 

In the end, I don't like it but the creepy factor is well constructed.

The movie I hate the most

I never really hate a movie in my life except for this one : The Last Airbender movie by M. Night Shyamalan. What a shitty movie! I was sincerely angry when I was watching this shit. How can Shyamalan butcher the source material! The animated series are so great that I really think it must require some sort of twisted talent to ruin the series completely like Shyamalan did. 

Like I said, I never really hated a movie. When it is a bad movie, like Batman & Robin or Piranha 3D, they are so bad that most of the time I would just laugh at them. But not this time. The thing is, I really love the animated series. I had watched all three seasons at least 5 times. I think I can safely call myself a hardcore fan of the series. When a bad movie of this caliber is made out of my beloved treasure, it just pisses me off.

When Dragonball Evolution came out and it pissed everybody, and then this shit came out the next year, I could finally understand how angry are the Dragonball fans about the movie.  These two adaptations could very well be the worst adaptations of all time.

Extreme love can create extreme hate. I hate Shyamalan so much that I still refuse to believe that he made the Sixth Sense. When After Earth came out, I already hated it before I even watched it. Until present day, I still haven't watched After Earth. It is probably not as bad as TLA, but all his movies after TLA are shit in my mind. He had no redeeming quality anymore.

I am not a very good film critic, but Doug Walker is. His review of TLA movie is so to the point and so funny at the same time. His review is totally a treat to TLA fans because I think all the jokes in his review are meant for whoever had watched the series before. For me, I love it. If I have a bad day, watching this review can totally cheers me up.

Train hard and survive

Writing skill is just like a knife. You need to keep sharpen it to keep it effective. I have stopped writing this blog for almost a month. First it was the final exam earlier this month keeping me away from this blog. After that, it was just training, training and training. I know it is just an excuse and it pretty much is. 

Like I said, it is all about triathlon training recently. Unlike last year, I am kinda taking it really seriously this time and I kinda need to. The main reason is the competition I am gonna participate in, the Alpe d'Huez triathlon, is really daunting. 2.2k swim, 115k bike and a half marathon, all within 12h hours time limit. It is not the typical half Ironman 70.3 format, it is way more than that. 

This triathlon is really focus on the cycling part. By looking at the route profile, it can already knock out whoever new to cycling. To give a comparison to any Malaysian cyclist, the route is roughly composed of climbing up and down the Bukit Bendera twice plus a final climb up to Genting Highland. No flat road, the only chance to recuperate is in between climbs, during the descents. And the final climb, the legendary Alpe d'Huez climb is freaking hors-catégorie climb, the toughest category of all.     

Cycling route profile (image from http://www.alpetriathlon.com)

If you are not into cycling and have no idea how tough the route is, then the half-marathon still can get your jaw drop. The run isn't just about the distance but the fact of running a half-marathon at the average altitude of 1900m. Plus some uphills and downhills, it is without a doubt very challenging. 

The top contenders can finish it in around 6 hours and this is the time reference. My physical condition for now, I estimate myself to finish within 9 hours. I can do the swimming part no problem and the cycling averagely. The run? It is all about surviving for me. Never compete in a trithlon of this distance before and regarding the level difficulty, it is gonna to be hard for sure and I expect another great but painful experience again.