Sean's Sharings

When we are born, we are naked. When we die, we are naked. When I say we are naked when we die, I am not referring to our clothes, I am referring to whatever we have strived to achieve in life.

When we are born, we start fresh and anew, we have no gains, no accomplishments, nothing in this life. We are just a baby fresh out a womb, soon to be taught the harshness of life.

After birth, we are taught basic knowledge to survive before going to more advance knowledge, ie School. We study for about 12 years and then we work, we go through a lot of suffering before we end up dropping dead. Then, it continues on in our future lives. It is a vicious cycle. A cycle of birth and death.

However, there is a way out of this cycle, Enlightenment. Freedom from suffering and attachments. Eternal bliss fueled by compassion. Enlightenment, of course, is no easy feat. Thus, this is the goal we must strive to attain, not wealth or material gains. Those are all lost at the point of death.

When I say that we die naked, everything we once known to care for and treasure, our wealth is all stripped off us, except for one thing - our mind. Our mind remains with us even after death and our karma and merits follow suit.

Karma is like a shadow. You can't easily get rid of it. So, we must be detached from all material attachments and focus on clearing our negative karma and gain merits. This can be done by practising the Dharma and practising compassion (If you are not religious).

In conclusion, if you do not wish to die a meaningless life, put some meaning into your life through having unconditional care for others. Everything you would work hard for in this life is impermanent, it does not really exist. They are merely illusions. Your Buddha nature is the true nature of your mind. The naked body is your mind and in that body there is a Buddha.

Hello my fellow readers, here is a treasure trove of cute videos on my youtube channel.

The kitten in the video was called Mini and is now called Tara. She was taken care of by my household until she was adopted into a loving family.

This cat is Mani. I tried to see whether she would do anything cute for the video but she failed to impress me, hence the title.

This doggy is Yogi (Mumu). He is H.E. Tsem Rinpoche's miniature schnauzer. Mumu is a very lovely and friendly dog. I like him a lot.

What happens when you mix a very butch dog and a very lazy one to play tug-of-war? This.

This very random thing happened to me at 6 in the morning. I could not resist sharing it.

Brush is super cute. I really like her. She is the first cat I ever got and she has been with me for the longest time.

Recently, I have been re-introduced to Magic: The Gathering. I was introduced to the game early in the year. Then, I stopped playing for a bit due to there being no one to play with. I was re-introduced to it again about a week ago by a very close friend of mine who also gave me some of his spare cards.

What is Magic: The Gathering? You ask? Well, each game represents a battle between mighty wizards, known as "planeswalkers", who employ spells, items, and creatures depicted on individual Magic cards to defeat their opponents. Although the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditional fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the gameplay of Magic bears little similarity to pencil-and-paper adventure games, while having substantially more cards and more complex rules than many other card games.

The game is a fusion of both luck and skill. Luck in the sense that you have to draw the right cards or even be lucky when you buy booster packs. Skill in the sense that you need to be very analytical of your cards to ensure that they are played at their best.

Furthermore, Magic The Gathering is a rather cost-efficient game in comparison to other card games like Pokemon. Here is the comparison:

MAGIC THE GATHERING THEROS BOOSTERS (15 cards) - RM12
POKEMON TCG PLASMA FREEZE BOOSTERS (10 cards) - RM 10

Furthermore, MTG has a larger fanbase than other card games. The age range for MTG is not all children but rather mostly adults.

Also, MTG improves decision making skills and social skills due to interaction with other players while playing.

I hope that one day, I will be able to master the game and go for tournaments. It will be very fun.

So, it was a Saturday night, I was planning to watch Kick-ass 2 with some friends but then the cinema wouldn't let an 8 year old see the movie. So, we settled for the only option within the timeframe which kids were allowed to watch, Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters (The other film we wanted to watch was Elysium but that was 18+ too).

The following review for the movie may be a bit incorrect as I went into the film with a very negative mindset due to negative reviews I have read. I honestly did not expect much from the movie, so I was rather surprised at what the movie offered. Also, I have not read the book so all my reviewing here is done purely as it is a movie and I would not deal with source material differences. Also to add on, I will be as cynical as possible for the readers amusement and if I have trouble finding this to nitpick about it shows how good film is and remember, this is all my interpretation. If there are any errors with my understanding of the plot, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below.

Let me get into this sequel to another mildly underrated film.

The film starts off with bubbles, freaking bubbles, then it reveals it's title (that is seven syllables too long).

After the short opening sequence, we are given a little backstory on the shield of Camp Half-Blood (Does the director have to pay J.K. Rowling to use this?). Basically, Thalia (Not al-ghul), Annabeth , Luke (Not skywalker) and the satyr Grover are rushing to Camp Half-Blood, they are running away from a cyclops (This will become important in the film later.) Thalia dies and because she is the daughter of Zeus (The ONLY human one because Hera doesn't like a cheating hubby) and Zeus turns her into a tree which then turns into a shield for Camp Half-Blood (I'll just call it CHB from now on.)

After that, we are introduced to the main man, Percy Jackson as his good will causes him to lose a competition and we are shown Dionysus, who appears as the director of the camp, even though he is not in the first film whatsoever. He is cursed by Zeus as every glass of wine he pours turns into water. He makes a joke about Jesus Christ saying that by doing water into wine, "That's a real god!" We are also introduced to Clarisse, a person who is a BITCH! She is the typical mean girl that finds the error of her ways at the end cliche.

After the competition and after Percy cleans up the mess at the stadium, Chiron (Who looks at least 20 years older) calls Percy to Dionysus who introduces him (Percy) to his new half-brother, Tyson, a big, stumbling cyclops. Tyson is ugly and I am not saying that he is an ugly guy but the CG for his eye is rather disappointing.

So, Tyson is constantly ridiculed by the other campers, even as a child of Poseidon. Percy was treated like a god when everyone found out that he was the son of Poseidon (In the film but the book says otherwise). So, Tyson is the punching bag for Anti-Cyclops racism (Or is it considered speciesism?).

Suddenly, the Colchis Bull attacks CHB and Percy kills it and it is revealed that Luke has survived the first movie and now looks like Malfoy and a bond villain had a lovechild. Luke was revealed to be the one who poisoned the tree that grew out of Thalia. So, now Thalia is dying, the shield is falling and everybody is scared.

Clarisse and her satyr are sent to find The Golden Fleece. Percy decides to bring Annabeth, Grover and Tyson as he sneaks out of CHB to get the fleece.

The four of them go to a cab called the Chariot of Damnation, a NYC cab. Same difference. The taxi is driven by the Gray Sisters. They get interrogated regarding the prophecy which Percy plays a major role in. They use the same method in which Hercules did with the sister, holding their single eye hostage. I find that to be a nice nod to the story of Hercules/Heracles.

They get kicked out when they don't have any money. Tyson confuses the White House for Olympus (Even funnier as I just watched Olympus has fallen). Grover gets captured.

They get back on track by contacting Hermes, Luke's father who works in the OPS which is a disguised UPS.

Hermes helps the trio find their way (using a hippocampus) to Luke who had a yacht. They escaped from Luke and go to the Sea of Monsters, they get swallowed by the monster that guards the sea. Whoop, movie over? Nope.

They find Clarisse and her crew of zombies, or dead confederate soldiers who swear their souls to Ares (As they prefer to be called). They escape.

They arrive at CirceLand, Polyphemus's lair.Percy finds Grover and the five escape Polyphemus, retrieving the fleece and trapping him in his cave. Afterwards, Luke arrives and demands the fleece from Percy, who refuses. Luke shoots a crossbow at Percy, but Tyson takes the bolt in the chest before falling to the water below, much to Percy's shock.

Luke begins reviving Kronos as Percy laments over the loss of Tyson. The team then escapes captivity and a fight ensues. Percy grapples with Luke over the Fleece, but Luke easily gains the upper hand. Luke is suddenly thrown away by Tyson, revealed to have survived his wound, due to the water healing it, as he is Poseidon's son. The group however watches in horror as Kronos rises from the sarcophagus. Kronos consumes Luke and Grover, before battling Percy. Percy realizes that Riptide is the "cursed blade" of the prophecy, and slays Kronos with it, who regurgitates Grover and Luke, the latter landing in Polyphemus' Lair. The victory is short lived, however, as Annabeth is stabbed from behind by the Manticore, who is killed in turn by Clarisse and Grover. Annabeth dies in Percy's arms, but is resurrected by the Fleece. Percy then gives the fleece to Clarisse, and they return to Camp Half-Blood. Clarisse places the fleece on Thalia's tree. The group returns later to find Thalia alive, as the fleece "did its job too well" and returned her to human form. The film ends with Percy realizing that Thalia is a child of Zeus, and therefore is another possible child of the prophecy about either preserving or destroying Olympus.

That was the story, now here's are my reflections on the story.

Firstly, I was surprised by how the story played through but there was too many characters and too many plot devices.

Next, there were a lot of cliches. Lemme list down the cliches:

Guy loses competition due to good will.
Bitchy character learns her mistake and becomes good.
Bad guy from previous film somehow returns.
Big bad from this film betrays enemy ally.
Guy sacrifices himself for friends/brother.
People think that a certain character is dead and the said character returns.
Protagonists are not aware of things in the background which the audience can obviously notice.

Next, there is a part where Annabeth was dying and she mentions Elysium.. Pro tip for movies, do not name other movies in your movie (Intentionally or unintentionally). Wait it out until the movie is out of theatres before you release yours or release it earlier. People who watch Elysium will think it is better and tip for moviemakers, never put in the title of a movie better than yours..

Now, since this a children's movie, there are bound to be a crap-ton of things to be learned. Let me list them down in a numeric list for easy viewing.

Blood is thicker than water as shown when Tyson sacrifices himself for his brother.
Looks are deceiving. Tyson's character revolves around this.
Do not judge another person's race just because another of his race caused pain in your life.
Do not be so prideful and egoistic, you will end up in a sea monster's belly.
Cross-dressing can save your life.
Always carry enough money for long journeys.
Have faith.
Forgive your parents for their neglect.
Parents love their children even if there is something hindering that love.
If you need something, try asking.
If the thing you ask for doesn't come to you instantly, earn it.
Do not piss off Zeus.

So, in conclusion, I would give this movie a 6/10 for it's effort and things learned and proper CGI.

See you soon!

Recently, a few quite noteworthy people have passed away. I am not saying that all the other thousands who died over the past few weeks are not important but rather these few people that passed away recently struck a chord in my heart.

The first person who had an untimely demise is Cory Monteith. One of the lead actors of Glee. For a short time, I used to really like Glee, until I realised that the original songs were so much better than the glee-mix (Is that a thing?) and the songs got butchered and also I got bored with the constantly expanding story. But we are not here to talk about Glee, are we? We are going to talk about the recently deceased star, Cory.

According to the various news sources I have read, he died from a deadly combination of alcohol and heroin. When he passed away, people were really shocked and so was I, until I found out his cause of death. Don't call me cold-hearted but when I found out that he took his own life with drugs, whatever sliver of respect I had for him instantly diminished.

I used to admire his talent for singing (Despite butchering popular and classical songs) and his courage to pursue acting but taking drugs is a really bad way to go. From my sources, he even went to rehabilitation centers. Yet, he still overdoses. This disappoints me. Why is it that child stars tend to choose drugs over finding the true source of the problems, themselves.

Pressure can be one thing but pressure can be solved by looking within and finding the cause for your pressure and removing it. By taking drugs to ease suffering, it is like taking a bullet to the foot to cure a toothache. You solve nothing and instead, create another problem.

When I voiced out my opinion, I was surprised with the amount of fans he got, claiming that he was extremely inspirational and that I should respect him. Taking drugs and going to rehab does NOT make you inspirational and dying over very silly matters makes me have a hard time feeling any respect for him.

Furthermore, he, like all stars (Save for a few), does acting and music not only for his insatiable passion, but also his greed as acting is a career. Stars do not see fans as fans, they do not see fans as friends. They put on a guise to ensure that their "fans" will adore them. Their true view of their "fans" are numbers on a paycheck.

So, in conclusion, if you want to respect someone who passed away, you should respect someone who did something right in their life and actually inspired people. Which brings us onto our next dead celebrity, this time, it is a Youtube celebrity - Talia Castellano.

Talia Castellano was a youtube sensation as she gave make-up tutorials. She was quite young when she was diagnosed with cancer and with her remaining months of life, she pressed on with her dreams and inspired many people after appearing on The Ellen Show. She is one of the kinds of people I would respect as she decided to follow on with her passion despite the unfortunate circumstances. The circumstances were not created by herself and she had no control whatsoever.

She teaches me to continue living my life despite any obstacles that may come in my way. She is truly an inspiration to all. I truly hope that she had a lovely rebirth where she can be free from the torment that she suffered in this current life.

Despite concealing her face behind make-up, she still showed the world her beautiful heart and inspired many people to believe in themselves.

The final noteworthy dead person that passed away recently was one of the teachers in my school. Cikgu Rohaya. She passed away sadly at the age of 50 due to cancer.

I was only taught by her in Form 1 as she was having extra-classes after school. She was quite a good teacher despite being quite loud. She seemed to have a huge impact on the rest of my school as a lot of my schoolmates respect her, even if they do not approve of her teaching methods as she was extremely passionate when it came to ensuring the success of her students.

So, in conclusion, many people die every day. Our clock is always ticking. We must not assume that we will live forever and we must not assume that we will live long. Talia passed away when she was 13, Cory passed away when he was 34, Cikgu rohaya passed away at 50. We can die at any given time.

We must not waste our lives to trivial unnecessities. We should not waste our lives just enjoying ourselves. We should be spending our lives benefiting others. We should be holding the hands of people who never felt the warmth of love. We should be bowing our heads and showing respect to our seniors. We should be feeding those who do not have the ability to feed themselves. We must do all this before we die. Remember, the clock IS ticking. Tick tock, tick tock. Our life slowly crumbles away.

Hello everyone, about two weeks ago, I went to see a film that was highly grossing in cinemas in Malaysia. The film was called Pacific Rim.

Warning: The following review is my own personal opinion. My views may or may not be like yours, the readers. Do not be aggravated if I like or dislike certain parts of the film.

Pacific Rim is essentially an action movie with a ton of monsters. At first glance, it seems like a combination of Transformers, Iron Man, Halo and Japanese Monster movies. However, upon watching the film, I have discovered the film is more like the Mazinger series and Transformer series had a Michael Bay lovechild.

The movie starts off with some monologue from the main character, Rayleigh, explaining that world first encountered the kaiju when he was 15 years old during the year 2013. How ominous. Then, he goes on to explain a little bit of the backstory of the premise of the film. The basic idea of the film is that Kaijus are to be killed by Jaegers that are piloted by two people who drift (Fuse memories). Before going into a timeskip of 7 years after the initial attack.

Rayleigh is the pilot of Gypsy Danger, a jaeger (Kaiju-Killing Robotic Badass) with his brother. They go out to fight a Kaiju called Knifehead. It's body and name seemingly giving a nod to the Gamera monster, Guiron. Which I think is kind of cute. The monster kills Rayleigh's brother and Rayleigh murders the little bastard.

Then, the movie takes us to another premise, which was the "Wall of Life", a governmental project that aims to build a giant wall to stop the Kaiju from invading and this project discontinues funding for the jaeger project. (I was thinking about Shingeki No Kyojin when they were building the wall)

Honestly, I find this hilariously stupid as governments (Despite being mentally retarded) should not invest so much money, time and lives into building a thin wall that will be destroyed in the next scene. This just makes the government look dumb as hell.

So, the leader of the jaeger program, now funded privately by some Russians, seeks Rayleigh. Rayleigh of course joins the team and is sent to the Shatterdome. The place where the jaegers are kept. We are given a brief introduction of each Jaeger but I wish there would have been more. We are also introduced to the pilots. An asian triplet team, two russian badasses, a father and his scumbag son. Kind of an army, ain't it.

So, after a little bit of a sub-plot with Rayleigh's co-pilot Mako being all emotional and screamy, we are brought into the first real Kaiju battle after the one in the beginning of the film. Two Kaiju appear and that shocks everybody, despite the calculations being present earlier in the film saying that a double event will happen sooner or later.

The Kaiju attack and murder the Russians and the Asians. GO AMERICA! as the white man saves the day again with the Aussies barely surviving.

Then, the plot does not evolve much as there is only a sub-plot where Newton, a kaiju-fanatic/scientist is drifting with a Kaiju brain and the effects that happen afterwards.

The main plot ends up becoming nuke the rift in the Pacific Ocean, which they do, ending up with the death of Kaiju, for now.

So, what did I think about this movie?

I actually thought it was pretty good. The film had a lot of decent action scenes and CGI that is rendered well that would fully immersify viewers. The explosions were a bit like something that Michael Bay's creation but it was done in a way that the explosions were pretty necessary.

The main problem with the film however, is it's constant plot holes. I found a short list on the Internet so I don't have to type so much.

(Source: http://www.movieplotholes.com/pacific-rim.html)
Minor Plot Hole: So over all the years of knowing the inter-dimensional rift exists, no one has ever figured out how to send anything through to the other side until two scientists manage to techno-mind-meld with a Kaiju fetus and learn the rift only opens if you have Kaiju genetics with you. However, not only do the Shatterdome's communications and sensors still track Gipsy Danger when she falls through to the other side, but Raleigh's escape pod somehow makes it back through the rift alone.

Minor Plot Hole: So the Kaiju Leatherback sets off some kind of EMP that instantly knocks out all of the Shatterdome's electronics, communications, and even one of their super-expensive and super-high-tech Jaegers. But fortunately, the several dozen helicopters necessary to transport Gipsy Danger into battle are mysteriously unaffected.

Major Plot hole: So the world governments are retiring the Jaegers because they cost too much and the Kaiju are getting stronger and stronger, and instead their plan is to... build a huge-ass wall around the entire Pacific Ocean. Setting aside that this plan would almost certainly be way more ridiculously expensive than the Jaegers, how exactly is this a long-term solution? Are the world governments basically planning to just let the stronger and stronger Kaiju mass up in the Pacific and just hope their walls hold forever? Their plan is so stupid it almost feels like the movie's writers wanted to make it clear that Marshall Pentecost is the last competent person on the planet.

Plot contrivance: When a nuclear reactor melts down, it does not result in a nuclear explosion. Yes I know it’s a giant robot movie but nowhere in the premise of the movie is it clearly stated that nuclear reactions are different in Del Torro’s world. Hence – shut up.

Plot contrivance: Why pick up objects made of lesser metals to hit monsters with rather than punch them with your super rare-metal billion dollar alloyed fists? It’s like a 200 pounds muscle guy who decides to grab a bag of Cheetos and hit you with it as hard as he can instead of punching you directly in the face. Looks cool – still dumb.

Plot Contrivance: The beginning exposition makes it clear how important a close bond based on common memories is between the Jaeger pilots, and that this bond is extremely rare - so rare that having it is enough to overlook other obvious personal and professional flaws. The introduction to the original pilots reinforces this - pilot crews are brothers, triplets, father/son, and whatever the stereotypical scary Russians are. However, as soon as the plot requires Raleigh to have a new partner he apparently instantly forms an extremely rare instant life bond with Mako, who he knows nothing about except that she's hot. Plot hole, or subtle social commentary about gender politics? You decide.

Unaddressed Issue: To fight the Kaiju, humanity's best option was to build hugely expensive and resource-draining gigantic killer wrestling robots to beat them to death in hand-to-hand combat far off the coasts of major cities. Then, in the movie's ultimate fight, we also learn that apparently nuclear weapons are also pretty effective against level 4 Kaiju and lower. I mean, building gigantic super-robots is cool and everything, but why wouldn't the world's governments just nuke the hell out of the Kaiju as soon as they detected them in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Are they worried about pollution or something?

Also, the acting ain't exactly that good with it's multiple B-list actors and the sounds were a bit too loud for my personal taste.

BUT! The film's action sequences were done so well that I only noticed its flaws after watching the film. So, in conclusion, this film is not bad.

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I also made a video reviews with some friends :D

A week ago, I went to Kechara Forest Retreat and I was in awe when I saw the amount of development present. The last time I visited KFR was quite a while back and I did not get to see the complete form of the Dukkar Apartments.

The Dukkar Apartments truly blossomed into a beautiful lotus. The first time I saw the empty plot of land, honestly, I did not expect such a beautiful building to arise. Then again, this is what should be expected of the fusion of hard work of Kecharians and the compassion and guidance of His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche.

So, it was 7 a.m. in the morning when I woke up that day. Sock Wan kindly picked Beatrix, Edward and I up to start a day of good and healthy labour. It was an hours journey as usual and Edward managed to keep me awake by talking with me about various animes but eventually I fell asleep halfway through the journey.

When we reached Bentong town, we went to a coffee shop near an abandoned house that was built in the year 1923. The coffee shop had amazing Char Kuey Teow, though it was a bit overcooked. The shop was quite crowded and I guess that this is because if you are in a restaurant in a small town, they will always be crowded.

After fueled up with Char Kuey Teow and coffee, we went to the KFR compound and started to help Ajai, our lovely groundskeeper with gardening work.

Firstly, we were moving some pots around to make things neater for transport into other areas of KFR. The pots were quite heavy and some required two people to carry while some only required one person to carry. After moving the pots around, we were to remove some plants from their green plastic bags into a small black plastic bag, so that they can be planted in the future.

After digging up dirt and putting it in the black plastic bags and placing the plants in them, we moved more plants around but this time, they were smaller ones. We started out by carrying them by hand but eventually, we realised that it would have been more efficient to use a wheelbarrow which we did.

A few hours of moving later, we finished most of the plants and we went for a quick water and toilet break before finishing off the remainder. When we were finishing off the remainder, we discovered two leeches. I normally hate the idea of vectors sucking blood out of me but ever since Outward Bound School, leeches have not creeped me out too much. One leech ended up on my glove, so I simply asked Edward to pluck it off my glove and thank goodness, it didn't bite him :P

When we moved all the pots in the nursery to it's allocated areas, we went for a quick lunch at another coffee shop. This time, I had Wantan Noodles without the wantan (Meat dumpling) or the charsiew (Pork). It was quite well done and was made rather quickly despite there being so many people at the shop.

After our quick lunch, we went to Dukkar Apartments to clean the railings and mop the floor. The railings were quite easy to wipe as they were not really dusty but the tables in the main dining area was quite dusty.

The tables in the dining and kitchen area resembled that of a cafe with an LED sign saying, "Be the Light." on the wall. Most of the tables had a little flower vase and a small plant on it. The kitchen was well equipped and has a water dispenser that dispenses water so cold that the Arctic Ocean would be jealous and after a hot day, a glass of cold water is what was definitely needed.

So, in a three hour timeframe, we managed to clean up Dukkar Apartments and after all that cleaning, I felt extremely tired.

But by being tired for others is a virtue. When you work very hard for the benefit of others, good karma and merits arise. When you do so much for others, the work does not seem to be work and is something that you would want to do as often as you can while the opportunity is given. So, a sweat-filled day is a good day when in a Dharmic community.

I hope those who read this post will be encouraged to go and volunteer at Kechara Forest Retreat!

http://retreat.kechara.com/

Love,
Sean

Sean's Sharings

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