Dream/Reality

How do we know that we are living in reality and not a dream?

This is one of the questions made based on the latest movie, Inception. If you have not watched that film, I highly recommend that you go watch it! It is one of the best films I have ever watched. It has a good plot, great cast and great effects. Now, do not get me wrong. This is not something like Avatar. The difference is that Inception is a movie with a good plot and a good cast supported by its great effects. While Avatar, it is a movie with a not so good plot supported by its wonderful effects. See the difference?

Now, I have to warn you, this post contains spoilers from the movie. So, if you want to watch the movie, I recommend that you stay away from this blog post....don't say I did not warn you.....

So this movie is basically about dreams. The word Inception in this movie means, planting an idea in your head through dreams. In other words, creating true inspiration of something in your head. As described in the movie, it is not impossible, it is just "bloody difficult". The idea cannot be too complex. On the other hand, "Extraction" is stealing your secrets in your dreams. Usually in a dream, a person's secrets are locked up in a bank vault.

The actors in this movie play different and crucial roles for every single job.

1)Leonardo Dicaprio plays Dominic Cobb, the extractor. He is the leader of the team and the one in charge of stealing secrets from the subjects for his clients.

2)Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, the point man. He is the man responsible for researching on the background info of his targets.

3)Ellen Page plays Ariadne, the architect. She constructs the world of the dream and teaches the dreamer how to do it.

4)Tom Hardy plays Eames, the forger. He impersonates identities of people and adopt their physical form in the dream.

5)Ken Watanabe plays Saito, the tourist. He hired Cobb to perform an inception on his enemy's son and assits them in the mission.

6)Dileep Rao plays Yusuf, the chemist. He makes the chemical compounds for the team to sustain the dreams.

7)Cillan Murphy plays Robert Fischer, the mark/subject. The team's target for inception

8)Marion Cotillard plays Mal, the shade. She is Cobb's wife but committed suicide.

9)Michael Caine plays Miles, Cobb's father-in-law and mentor. He was the one who taught Cobb how to navigate people's minds.

You create the world of the dream. You bring the subject into the dream and they fill it with their secrets.

There are quite a lot of terms in the movie related to dreams like limbo, totem etc. Limbo is unconstructed dreamspace. It feels like reality but it is not reality. People stay in limbo when they start treating limbo as their reality. They do not want to wake up from it.

Totem is a unique object that a person possess. Only he or she knows all the intimate details of it and is impossible to reconstruct in the dream world. Cobb's totem is a spinning top. It will continue spinning without stop in the dream world and vice versa.

Cobb has once been in limbo and stuck there for almost 50 years( in the dream) which is about a few hours in reality. In dreams, your brain functions faster than in reality, thus time passes much faster in dreams. As such, he is unable to differntiate which is reality and which is a dream without the help of his totem.

The ending is the one that sparked off lots of discussions, theories of netizens. At the end, Cobb and his team of extractors all wake up in the plane and all of them looked at Cobb, giving him the look which says "Job Well Done". Cobb goes home and reunites with his children but he spun his totem on the table. He did not get a chance to see if it stopped as he was distracted. Before we could find out anything, the screen blanked. Cliffhanger.

Some say that he is still stuck in limbo while others say he is in reality. It really depends on how you see it. I feel that he has come back to reality since the top wobbles at the end.(it has always spin perfectly in dreams)

So,am I in reality? Are my friends projections? I do not know. I do not have a totem to tell me. I could be living in a dream but in reality I am in coma lying somewhere. But reality can also be based to one's choice. If I am comfortable in where I am, I would say I am in reality.

I am going to watch this movie for a 3rd time soon. FYI, I watched The Dark Knight 3 times too. I am now a fan of Christopher Nolan's films. His next one would most probably be the 3rd Batman sequel in 2012. Do not miss this film or you would regret it!

Educating our children

This topic may seem a little bit far-fetched from the viewpoint of a student, but knowledge in this topic is crucial not only in the future, but also for the present.

I got inspiration for this topic from my parents. Apparently from what I have observed, parents love to use their own life experiences and somehow instilling it in us, desperately trying to make us a copy of them. How many of you have faced canning by your parents? I believe there is a good number of us who have that kind of experience. I got curious on why parents love the rod so much that they use it so often to solve problems when we are being taught that violence is not the solution to all problems. Finally, I found the reason. Our parents were canned by our grandparents, which actually was one of the most effective discipline methods during that time. So, they think that it also works for us.

However, they neglected one very important thing, time. As time progresses on in our life, we get exposed to different things which contributes to the building of our thoughts and feelings. Like right now, if my parents still use canning as punishment for me, I would feel that they are very unreasonable. I am a teenager. I have my own pride, thinking etc. If you choose to use the rod on me, the consequences would be dire. I might turn even more rebellious. I am not a kid who just obey and succumb to the use of the cane everytime. I also want to voice my thoughts and exercise my freedom of speech. I am not lamenting on my parents, but just offering parents the thoughts of a teen.

Have you ever feel that your parents are trying to make everything in your life seem so perfect and prepared? Then later, you discover that is not the kind of life u want. I really dislike the fact that sometimes parents plan out your entire life but you do not like it and you are scared to tell them. I had that experience before. My parents tried making me a sports kid. But when they discovered that I had no talent at all, I could tell they were disappointed. I made my dad disappointed for a second time when I decided to quit NCC.

I did not take after my dad, who was out-going,enthusiastic etc. Instead, I got his height. You may feel that all of these are irrelevant. But, I feel that parents should not interfere with their children's life. Instead they should be their guiding light, giving them the correct advice etc to experience going on a journey to discover who you really want to be. Let them make their own decisions and experience what it feels like in discovering themselves. I feel that it would definitely be more meaningful for both the child and the parent.

Parents, you may think that I am questioning your ability to discipline and educate your children. On the other hand, I feel that you all should take this opportunity to reflect on your ways. Making changes can lead to good results in children's lives like in forms of thinking and perspective.

Why do schools deny students of the chance to watch the World Cup?

Well, Spain won! Congratulations to all Spain fans(which includes yours truly)! Next stop, Brazil 2014!

However, I would not have been able to catch the final match without my school principal, Dr Hon, accepting the petition of the student council to start school one hour later. Right here, I would like to thank those who helped us, HCI students, to let us watch the world cup finals. It would not have been possible for us to watch it.

But not all of the students in Singapore are as fortunate as us. So far, I know that our school is the only one which accepted this decision. Other schools' principals claimed that this would result in a shortage of curriculum time. They are very reluctant and unwilling to make this decision. However, they did not consider the fact that World Cup is something that only occurs once every four years. The chance to watch it is very rare. Four years ago, I could have watched the finals but I missed the chance. So, I made it a point not to miss it this year.

The number of soccer fans are constantly increasing, even among students. There is also no age limit in watching soccer matches. Students should also get to enjoy and immerse in the atmosphere of soccer fever, especially for an international event that occurs once every four years. Do we have to be part of the working force in order to enjoy the world cup? Do we need to have to power to take leave to enjoy world cup?

This is an appeal to all schools' principals. Please also think in the shoes of students. We also want to watch the match. Why must we stay in our rooms while bearing the temptation of shouts like "GOAL!!!"? Do we have to face this misery every four years? Please spare a thought for us students, as we are also human.