How Pokemon Made Me Cry

Clang!.. Clang!..

Oh dammit.. I had just put my head down on the pillow, about to sleep after a long night, no, a long semester.. It was 7 in the morning, and after not sleeping properly for exam week, this last day was full of celebration and just being happy that we've gotten the exams over and done with. We were ridiculously homesick, totally broke, sleepy as hell, and our return flight dates weren't for another two days.

We lived in a first floor apartment, with a small supermarket right below us, and it seems that just as we decided to go to sleep, they decided that they should put their new sign up.

Clang!.. Clang!..

What the.. The sign they were putting up was right outside our appt, and we cursed the guys banging into the wall less than a meter or two from where we lied down. We still tried to sleep through the banging, the clanging, the drilling, but there was no use; it was too loud. We were really sleepy, really tired, really homesick, and no matter what we tried, we couldn't sleep through the noise.

By then it was almost 10am, and after 3 hours of not being able to sleep, we asked (screamed at) the workers when they were going to finish, and ended up being disappointed by the response; "not until 2pm". Oh crap.

Clang!.. Clang!..

The noise was getting unbearable and our heads felt like they were going to explode, so my friend decided we might as well just go out until they finish. After figuring that was the best course of action, we got changed, hopped into the car, and drove off. Now, it was the beginning of the summer and already the weather was hot, but what made it worse was that we were a bunch of broke students with a car whose air conditioning didn't work. We drove through the Sharjah traffic to Dubai, which I must stress is very slow and congested, and the unairconditioned jeep we were in (with it's hot leather seats) didn't make things much easier on this hot Dubai summer afternoon.

After a whole hour of sweating in our clothes, we made it to City Center Mall, and being broke, didn't have any money for drinks to cool ourselves down. But hey, just being out of that hotbox car in the traffic was great. Turning back and going home at this time was just stupid, since we would have to put up with rush hour traffic on the way back too. Luckily, my friend had two free cinema tickets, and we decided to go into the first movie we could find; thoughts of a dark, cool theatre hall so far away from the sun seemed so appealing.

The Pokemon Movie. Yes, unfortunately that's what was on at the time, and we went in without a second thought. We watched the Pokemon characters living happily together, then slowly drift apart during the cartoon movie, and end up fighting each other and destroying the land. The climax of the movie was when Pikachu (the main cartoon character, a very cute tiny thing) looked around in despair at everybody fighting each other and being turned to stone, and even through trying his hardest, couldn't stop the pain and fighting going on all around him.. And with us being stuck in Dubai and homesick, sleep deprived, broke, hot, just the whole situation coupled with the very, very cute Pikachu seeing everyone around him turning to stone as everyone fought everyone.. Well, lets just say the emotions inside of us were overwhelming, and tears started coming out of eyes.. And that, my friends, is how Pokemon made me cry.

From ammaros diary, June 2000

PS. On a happy note, Pikachu did end up saving the day, and Pokemon land was a happy place yet again

Destructive Orange

A little old, but still cracks me up everytime I see it - the tale of a sad orange that ended in self-destruction:

Sad sad drama. Speaking of drama, this is something I should have had up when I posted the top bathroom signs a few weeks ago:


I don't how many people actually go fishing in a toilet seat, but hey, you never know what you might catch down there. Anyway; besides that, 'Thee Project' have just been featured on BahrainTalent, making them the second artist to be featured up there, and hopefully i'll be adding another three this week.

For all those who've watched my short movie The Package and commented, thanks :) Support appreciated; i'll send you invitations to the ceremony whenever i'm nominated for an Oscar (or a Golden Globe, I really don't mind either). Lots of changes happening here, lots of new productions in both movies, music and website business in general, and lots of everything. Keep coming back for more ;) ammarocorp is coming soon (scary drum roll)

Scratch My Disc

Whoever came up with the Compact Disc concept needs to get shot. Although we've started off with CD's, moved on to VCD's, then DVD's and now the Blu-Ray and HD DVD's (which were recently killed off), the reality of the situation is that they're really damn FLIMSY.

Unless you make sure you always put them in the box the same way you took them out, don't place them on any other surface, careful when handling them, etc, you are BOUND to get a scratch or two on there. And here's where the big problem lies; one scratch or two can screw up your whole movie-watching/videogame-playing/music-listening experience.

Multiply this problem by ten if you're talking about rental DVD's. There are bound to be people who have rented this DVD before you, and considering it isn't theirs, they won't exactly take the utmost care in not getting scratched.

Yesterday, I watched a DVD movie. Which movie it was is not the issue; the issue is that it took me three and a half hours to watch a 2-hour movie. Why? The first hour went by smoothly, and when I got really into the movie, it started freezing on certain scenes because of the scratches. So I had to take the DVD out, wipe/clean/jump on it and then play it again to watch the scene and so on, till it froze again, repeat, and so on till the end.

I miss video tapes. Well, not the rewinding part, but you can bet placing them on a table or something won't waste you an extra hour and a half on watching a movie.

The Package (2008)

Finally!

The movie is supposed to be 2 minutes long, and that took around half an hour of footage. To get that footage needed around 6 hours of filming. And to put it all together took two whole days of editing, and me staying up till 4:00am last night... Blaaaah i'm so tired...

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy it; we were supposed to have a total crew of 6 people filming and acting and so on, but because 4 of them decided they were too busy, we ended up as two people, me and Basharo. He does the main character acting, I do everything else from directing to filming to etc etc :p

But honestly though, a lot of fun, some very very corny lines (GUARD IT WITH YOUR LIFE etc), and overall a good laugh...

The movie was basically for a short movie competion by MBC, and we had to squeeze everything into two minutes (that's why we cut some of the scenes short, and the whole thing sorta moves very quick). If you like it and want to help the cause, head over to MBC Movies in Motion, sign up and GIVE THE MOVIE 5 OUT OF 5.

Oscars, here I come!

(For my other video productions, please click here)

Slow Food

It's a sad day for fast food lovers everywhere, when the amount of time it takes you to get your food is substantially longer than the time it takes people who ordered 'normal-speed' food.

I went into the Dana Mall food court today with three people. I was hungry, and made a quick decision; walked over to Burger King, ordered my meal, paid, and waited. The other three took a little longer to decide, but as they did, the first went over to Isfahan (Iranian food), the second to Quiznos, and the third to Yum Yum Tree (to order some Japanese dish thingy). Now, I must add that food ordered in each of the above three places requires a reasonable amount of cooking time; Isfahan was a plate of rice with meat, Quiznos make your sandwich on the spot then 'oven-toast' it, and YumYum Tree cook the Teryaki plates right infront of your eyes. Wow.

So we all sat down on a table as we waited for our food, and one by one each restaurant called to pick up their dish, except for me. As the third person sat down ready to eat, I looked over at Burger King. Where the hell is my food? I walked over and asked them if it's ready, to which the lady there rudely replied, "No, you wait No?"

I would understand if they were busy, but there was only one person infront of me who had ordered a coke, and I doubt that would delay my order by much. Anyhoo; few minutes later, my food was ready, and I sat down as the others had already begun and were half way through their meals.

I think this means that every single benefit of 'fast-food' has been killed off. Even being a pile of totally unhealthy junk, it was convenient and quick. Nope, no more. I signal today, the day fast-food died.

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Never mind that; If you haven't already checked it out, take a look at BahrainTalent; it's officially been launched as of today with the first artist, Ed Buzzerk, being featured. On another note, I managed to get together with one other person yesterday and get the movie filmed and over and done with; sure, we were supposed to be a total of six, but like I previously said, getting a few people in the same place at the same time is sort of impossible here. Anyway, should be done with the editing tonight hopefully, and will be posting it up. Stay Tuned!