Friday, July 22, 2005

Jumat Sore - Buffet Movie [Edited]





















I'm going to my friend's house in an hour or so. Later on tonight, I'm thinking to watch "Charlie's and the Chocolate factory" unless nobody wants to go; RottenTomatoes gives it a good rating, so I guess it must be worth watching.

Talking about movie-theatre, in the states (at least on the theatres that I visited), we don't have the seat-number on the ticket, so we could sit anywhere we want (which means if you're late on a box-office movie, you gotta be ready to sit in the front row: in fact, I did it once, or twice). But offcouse, people here are not that naive, due to that flaw, the theatre offers a refund (they give back your money), if you change your mind about seeing the movie (eg. you don't get a good seat) well, as long as the movie hasn't finished yet.

The other thing, usually some Indonesian friends sometimes watch more than one movie at a time and some call this method "buffet" which is taken from the "buffet restaurant" in which the meaning of 'buffet' is actually irrelevant to the concept of "the privilege of abusing resources with a single payment" because buffet actually means " A meal at which guests serve themselves from various dishes displayed on a table or sideboard".

Yes, they only pay a ticket to one movie. They could possibly do that because nobody actually watch the door in-front-of each auditorium, they took the ticket in the very front door, and after that you could go to any theatres - number of times, well except the box-office movie, for that one they usually got some tough-looking guy (or just some guy) to watch the door.

- The Movie Ticket -

Ofcourse, most people would think that we shouldn't do that, that we shouldn't watch more than one movie when we only pay the ticket for one. The thing is, if we think about it, sometimes the theatres here are quite empty, so I think, as long as we don't disadvantage anybody (not making noise, not littering, not taking anybody's seat), where's the harm? They gotta run the movies anyway. Isn't it better if more people watch, even for free? (especially if we see this thing as global's advantage, by spending the same amount of energy, isn't that the world is less disadvantaged if more people are watching it? - I say disadvantaged because it's using energy resources to present a less important issue)

If we really care about honesty(which I think is related with generousity, benelovence), isn't it better to give the ticket money to the poor, rather than make some rich guy getting even richer? We're not really breaking the law, aren't we? Well, according to my friend who actually worked for the theatre, his supervisor never actually told him to watch/catch for the 'buffet-watchers'. So I think despite the fact that the theatre-owner must have known that some guys are 'buffeting' the movies, they don't really give a damn about it. Maybe, as long as they make money, they don't really care about unimportant stuff. (Remind me of the saying "The law doesn't concern itself with trifles" -> very wonderful!)

You might say "what is different between stealing one book and two books?" what is the different between buffet-watching and not-paying-at-all to watch the movie? You're right they're both are the same thing called stealing. I just offer my point-of-view which is not an absolute true, it's just an opinion, a way of thinking. Sometimes we're too focus on the law that we forget the big picture, the very reasons behind the making of the law.

Now, for me. The last time I did the buffet movie thing is 4 yrs ago or so. It isn't really my thing. But, sometimes I got annoyed with people who try to be wise, but in a wrong way. They say doing that is wrong without really thinking about it. They just believe that doing that is wrong while at the same time, they do a lot of worse things - for an obvious example they prefer to pay two tickets (give more money to the rich guy) rather than giving the same amount of money to the poor (to their neighbor kids who can't go to school). Now not everybody is like that, some guys are real honest, and real wise, I really appreciate that kind of guys. I know I shouldn't judge people like that, maybe I'm just a bit annoyed remembering some guys who talk-talk-talk(even worse, judging-judging-complaining-cursing-blaming) and actually do nothing but shit, which ironically reminds me of my self.

Oh man... I start to judge people again without looking at myself. You know what, nobody really got any bad intentions, the buffet-watchers are just playing along with the culture and trying to save money, the critics are guys who have principles and do not afraid in stating their opinion (wrong or right, based on them). So, there isn't any conflict here. Why the hell I make it looks like such a big deal? Anyway, now everybody is happy, instead of deleting my [above] post, I prefer to add this paragraph. After all, I just learn to express my self through writing.

Have a nice day: let's try to stop judging people.

Jumat Pagi - Playing Chess















Actually, tonight I don't really feel like blogging. I feel tired and not in the mood to do almost anything. I don't know whether it's because I played at least 5 games of chess today (each game took at least 30 minutes) or because I just watched "The Cider House Rules" (which is quite heart-warming and actually really good) or I don't know, maybe I feel like this just because the caffeine start to wear off. Nevertheless, I am writing one right now. I guess I just don't want to skip on my new hobby. It doesn't really matter anyway.

Nothing really special happened today, I don't really read book today, except some chapters from the book that I mentioned yesterday (Don't Sweat small stuff ...). Yeah, I didn't really have the time to read because I played chess the whole day, playing against my roomate and my other buddy. I lose on at least half of the games, but I had fun (it's fun to think), and that's what really matters right? It wasn't an official tournament, so who really cares about winning? hehehe ... I know that sometimes it feels good to win the game. I just say those things because I think it will miss the original purpose (which is having-fun) if I have to feel bad when I don't win the game. Don't you think so? So, right before I started the game, I tried to remind my self that winning is important, but enjoying the game is the main reason I play this game, so if I had to feel bad about not-winning the game, I rather not playing at all. Yeah .. something like that, hehehe. I actually haven't been playing chess for long (just bought the thing two days ago), I played occasionally when I was still in elementary school, but that doesn't count rite?

Oh yeah, about the film: "The Cider House Rules". It was really good, I really enjoyed it. It's the kind of movie that touch your heart, makes your eyes wet, but not too depressing, not too dramatic, nor too sad. It just makes your heart warm; makes you feel good about life. The story is basically about a guy names Homer who was raised in orphanage. It's deeper than it seems. It also brings some deeper issues like abortion, the purpose of law (that was made by outsider), complexity of love (devotion&norm), and some more.

You know, if you're the kind of guy who enjoy Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, or Finding Neverland, you will love this one too. Talking about good movie, I guess next-time I'm going to make a list of the best movies that I've watched.

I guess that's it for today.