The Pencilman Lives

The Most Sensible Advice About H1N1!

2009-08-24T19:32:00.000+08:00

I received this email on prevention of H1N1, so I am sharing it here.

How to prevent H1N1 – An eMail forward is reproduced below:

Friends,

Thanks to media hype about H1N1, several people who trust me have either approached or called me to advice. The hype in media about the utility of face masks and N95 respirators as a tool for general protection against H1N1 can't be deplored enough.

Yesterday, a friend who listened wanted me to write down briefly what I advised so that he could tell others in similar words. Hence this short email to friends whom I have advised recently (and others whom I haven't yet).

Please realize that this is not an official advice, especially the one about face masks or N95. Most N95 respirators are designed to filter 95% particulates of 0.3µ, while the size of H1N1 virus is about 0.1µ. Hence, dependence on N95 to protect against H1N1 is like protecting against rain with an umbrella made of mosquito net.

Tamiflu does not kill but prevents H1N1 from further proliferation till the virus limits itself in about 1-2 weeks (its natural cycle). H1N1, like other Influenza A viruses, only infects the upper respiratory tract and proliferates (only) there. The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/ throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions.

Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps - not fully highlighted in most official communications - can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat or bathe).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

Amla is the small yellow preserved fruit we use to get from those tit bits stalls. Alternatively get them from the Himalaya's pure herbs, Amalaki.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

7. All these are simple ways to prevent, within means of most households, and certainly much less painful than to wait in long queues outside public hospitals.

Happy breathing!

Best regards,
Dr.Ashutosh Mundkur

EARTH HOUR

2009-03-31T21:20:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday, 28 March 2009 was Earth Hour. Is your house light off?

I didn't expect my father to understand. After all, I explained to him why I chose to wash my car with 2 buckets of water instead of using the hose. I speak about how we need to conserve energy and water for the future generation or how we should reduce the use of plastic bags. He never gets it. I was contented that during Earth Hour, I can turned off all power except for the living room, where he will sits in. So it was to my surprise that at about 8.00pm on Earth Hour day, he asked if we can at least leave the fan on. I pondered and told him the switching off the light exercise of Earth Hour is not mandatory and to my delight, he said he knows but he wanted to play a part. What a surprise indeed.It also happened that I needed to visit a client's house to pick up a cheque. I arrived just as the clock struck 8.30pm and his place is lit with but 2 candles. Mind you, his wife just gave birth 3 months ago but they are still doing their parts.

I read of 2 Earth Hour events taking place in Malaysia that night. Host for one the event Stephanie Chai said it best when she reminded us that Earth Hour is not about saving that one hour worth of energy all around the world, even if that amount is quite significant. Rather, it's about creating awareness and getting more people to participate in all effort to preserve earth. Another host, Lina Teoh mentioned she would prefer to drive an ecologically friendly car but she could not afford one (hey, is she fishing for sponsorship?). But lets share some facts. The most environmentally friendly car available in Malaysia is probably the Honda Civic Hybrid, initially introduced with a price tag of about RM180,000 (about USD49,300). If I have any reader from outside Malaysia, they probably wonder why the Civic costs so much here in Malaysia but that would be story for another day. Back to Lina Teoh, probably one of the most recognised face in the country and she said she can't afford a Honda. That is so sad to hear since it really leave us wondering about the rest of us ordinary people. Sigh.

Speaking of Honda, there was also an Earth Hour special pullout in a local newspaper and Honda was one of its sponsors. One of only two sponsors that took part in fact, which I guess strongly imply environmental awareness in Malaysia is still very low and any dedication to save the earth may in fact be a weak selling point for any company seeking to compete in the local market. Double sigh. The other sponsor was Bonuslink, with its GM speaking passionately about the importance of doing everything we can to preserve the earth and that even as individual, each of our affort can make a difference. He also expressed how much he hated seeing people using more toilet paper that is necessary. seriuosly, that really do make a difference. I saw once a young man pulled out 3 pieces of tissue paper from the tissue box of a foodstall, crumbled them all and wipe his mouth in one quick swipe before discarding them. Was that necessary? I usually used only half. But such is the mentality of Asian in general. If it's free, use as much as you like, even more than you need. They thought it's only right, since they already paid for the food, they are entitled to use as much as they like. I just think that was a lack of class.

Back to Earth Hour. The day has passed but if you love Earth, everyday can be Earth Hour. For those of us who can yet afford a Honda Civic Hybrid, there is so much more we can still do:
Don't leave the tap running as we brush our teeth.
Use products - personal or household that create none or minimal damage to the environment.
Reduce use of plastic bag whenever possible.
Reduce usage of any paper - tissue paper, cups, etc.
Basically reduce or stop using anything disposable.
Well, you don't expect me to list down everything right? Go on. Show you care.

To Read or Not To Read.

2009-03-14T13:49:00.001+08:00

A net friend of mine from Thailand will be spending 3 months of her university break in a worthwhile project. The aim of the project is to encourage young people, especially those in the age range of 13 to 15, to read more literary books. That in my opinion is an extremely noble project to pursue but June and her friends face a Herculean task.

The problem most likely begins in childhood, with most parents letting their children watch TV instead of encouraging them to read. Why? Because when children watch the idiot box, they leave their parents alone? Maybe. But without the love of reading instilled in these younger years, it becomes even more difficult as the children enter their teenage years. How do you get them to start reading when these are the years when they begin to become interested in the opposite sex and hence, are more focused in making themselves appeared attractive? After all, reading hasn’t been viewed as cool for a long time. Even Peter Parker was only seen with books when he was just a geeky teenager but as Spiderman, he appeared to have no more need for them. So again the question asks, can these young people be ‘lured’ into giving reading a try?

I have a multiple phases idea I am not sure will work. The internet is a major distraction from reading but used right, it may also become a tool to champion it.
1) Pick about 5 good books
2) Present the story in gist and simplified version via a short animation.
3) Withhold the conclusion, then reveal the book in which people can read the full story.

Of course, packaging is almost everything in today’s world so a plan is not a plan unless the plan has a plan on how to package the plan. Hey, I kinda like how that sounds – can I trademark it? But seriously folks, I do have a plan on how to package this.
1) Actual animation would complicate things and also make file slow to load, not to mention long to produce. Presentation is probably best presented in a series of drawing / pictures
2) The style of the drawing must not be too real or complicated. It should be simple, clean and almost cute, with appeal enough to young people that they will want to forward them to friends.
3) While it may be presented as powerpoint, a video or flv file is preferred. Other than the email route, it may also be uploaded into video community site such as youtube.

But can such a plan work? The creation of these animation file has the following objective.
1) While many people are not interested to read books, most do read their email and forward what they like. The file will hopefully found a percentage of people who might be intrigued enough to check out the book the next time they pass by a bookstore.
2) Discovering the story on one‘s own freewill will hopefully cultivate a genuine love for reading. This way, a person will continue to read for life instead of doing so under a campaign which runs for limited time.
3) A well made animation could continue to circulate as email attachment for years. While the initial result may be small, it will hopefully over a period of time, accumulate to a significant figure.

The whole notion seems so... idealistic. The initial stage may take a lot of work but if it breeds success, everything will be well worth it. The message will continue to go round and round in the cyberspace because someone is bound to forward it. It created first the interest, and if anyone is even intrigued enough to check out the book, it could turns into a lifelong love affair with the beauty of the written words. In the future, writer may even use the same method to promote their new books.

Which give the plan a commercial angle. Couldn’t draw well enough to present the plan? Friends talented in art too busy to help? But could not afford a professional graphic designer to do it? Approach a leading bookstore chain, preferable an international brand. Present this idea to them and I am sure they could see the benefit in store for them. The publicity they will enjoy aside, the file may also place link to the bookstore’s corporate website. Need I mention the increase of interest in reading means the increase of sales for them too?

Can this really work? Someone gimme some comments here. Anyone got any other bright ideas too? C’mon… share your view.

No to Plastic Bag

2009-03-08T14:23:00.000+08:00

I was buying some er... drugs from a pharmacy in Nilai and instead of a plastic bag, they gave me my purchase in this:
One might thought the pharmacy was too cheap to even pays for plastic bags but I am inclined to believe that the owner actually cared for the environment. Afterall, she has a WWF certificate in her name being displayed in the shop. According to her staff, the customers in the area tend to share the same sentiment too.

Plastic bags usage indeed has a role in the rapidly declining state of our environment but in a recent article in the Star, local plastic bags manufacturers defended themselves, reminding us that the environmental problem brought by plastic bags usage should not lies solely on them but also on the consumers, who usually discarded the bag after use without a second thought. The waste management in the country also created a problem as wastes cannot decompose without water and light. In fact, it was reported that 40 plus years old newspaper has been found intact beneath mountain of waste.

I don't know how rampant the problem is in other country but in mine, this lack of civic mindedness is indeed a cause for concern. I regularly see on the road litter being thrown out from a moving car - cigarette butt, tissue paper, empty drink package, plastic bag. and don't even get me started on the drain here. Why would someone throw anything into the drain is beneath me. Don't they know this will taint water that will eventually find their ways back to our pipeline? Or that they may clog our already compromised drainage system, making floods all the easier to occur?

Too often, people just said that one people cannot make a difference but really, they just couldn't care less. If only one person of 30 million Malaysian stop using plastic bag, that is 365 plastic bags saved and not discarded in a year. If every Malaysian adopt the same mindset, that is 300,000 plastic bags a day. This message comes from someone in the local group One Buck Short through Hitz FM. Sorry, I can't remember who but I don't know local group well. Will support them though, that's my New Year resolution 2010 :-)

But seriously folks, I already started by not littering around and declining a plastic bag for anything I bought that I can carry with my bare hands. I still forget to bring my own shopping bag but hey, at least I already have one. What are you doing to help preserve the environment?

ps: Don't worry about the street sweeper. They will be able to keep their job sweeping leaves that falls from trees naturally.

Life Is Either A Daring Adventure Or Nothing.

2009-03-05T00:24:00.003+08:00

Wow.. I haven’t updated in a while. I haven’t dated in a while too but that’s another story for another day.

I didn’t even write about my first time playing paintball or the movie review for Mamma Mia and many more that I have watched. That’s everyone’s main gripe isn’t it? Silas especially, been telling me I wrote too many movie reviews. Due to time constraint, I haven’t been watching many movies but I have been reading more. Does that mean I will be writing books reviews instead? Maybe, or maybe not. I don’t know but I thought I just come back to blogging with a positive note. I came across the following phrases recently. Enjoy.

Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Satchel Paige

If you think education is expensive- try ignorance.
Derek Bok

God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things done.
Harry Emerson Fosdick

It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
J.K. Rowling

There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
Denis Diderot

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.Don't complain.
Maya Angelou

If you are not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.
Woody Allen

Think you can, think you can't. Either way, you are right. Henry Ford

The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B.

Do the thing you fear most and the Death of fear is certain.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

2009-01-26T12:52:00.000+08:00

Ride the Bull and arrive in the Valley of Happiness sandwiched by the Mountains of Prosperity. Wishing you a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year. Kong He Fatt Choy!!!

ok- I nicked that from a SMS greeeting I received :-)

Struck by Lightning.

2008-10-21T21:06:00.000+08:00

Well.. not me.

There was a heavy thunderstorm 2 Saturdays ago in my neighbourhood and one particular strike of lightning was followed by an almost deafening roar of thunder. I was taking a nap and the first thing that crossed my mind is thanks God I turned off the computer and its power disconnected. So I continued my sleep.

I only found out later in the evening that a house in the neighbourhood was struck and its roofs damaged. I would have take a photo but it was already dark. The next morning was greeted by another discovery as I tried unsuccessfully to go online. There was no light on my modem. A quick check revealed that the DSL filter was exposed and when I found the cover, it was immediately obvious why.

Apparently, the phone line was struck too and the overload of power is so great that the line burst and blew open the cover. The line connected to the modem is also burnt off so my modem is damaged now. I must have replaced the modem less than a year ago, the last which was also damaged by lightning. I never learnt my lesson.

Better get the modem replaced ASAP, with a lightning protector of course, or my only way to go online would be the cybercafe.

Deep Blue Sea

2008-10-09T21:19:00.001+08:00

I was in Port Dickson today. Unfortunately, it was for work and not play.

I am not sure what was the reason but the tide seems higher than usual and the sea blue-er. Even on non-resort beach, where the water tend to be a little brownish to the eyes, the water is blue today. I am talking about the blue we normally only see on postcard, the shade of the deep blue sea.

Too bad, I didn't have my camera with me..

Accuracy of Death

2008-10-03T16:22:00.005+08:00

I stepped into the cinema hall knowing nothing more than Takeshi Kaneshiro played the role of Death in this movie.
The movie opened with Kaneshiro attending a church funeral. He sat himself next to a cute little girl who immediately recognised that he is a shinigami, often refered to as the God of Death or in this case, the Grimm Reaper. When asked about a shinigami's role, Kaneshiro gently explained that a shinigami appears to people about to face an unexpected death. After determining if that person has fulfilled his purpose on earth, the shinigami will choose to either proceed with his death or suspend it. However, a shinigami will only attend a child's funeral as a courtesy since most children are usually not aware of what is really happening. Thus revealed, not really unexpectedly, that the little girl speaking to Kaneshiro is the deceased everyone in the church is mourning.

And with that introduction, the movie begins the first of three stories that make up the film. Kaneshiro's character uses the name "Chiba" when he is on the field. He would usually makes contact and interview "prospects" on their opinion on death and determine himself if the person has yet a purpose to be served by continuing living. Even though his dog companion revealed that Chiba usually choose to proceed, he tends to hold his decision till the last day, which was fortunate for one prospect, whose new purpose in lives was revealed only on the day she was meant to die.

Unsurprisingly, all three stories are connected to each other but it was done in quite an unspectacular way. With a title like "Accuracy of Death", I was actually expecting a slow but highly thought provoking notion on why death is necessary and important to the point that it can affect the course of history. The movie was slow but it was hardly thought provoking. In fact, the charm of the movie lies in its humour. The bulk of the humour however, lies in Chiba's taking in the literal meaning of the words people said, being totally clueless about the slang we used. This incited plenty of laughter but it didn't make sense since he is in constant communication with humans. Beside, one other shinigami who spoke with him didn't seems to have that problem. There is also an inconsistency in the second story when he is more suave and street smart and he even smoked. Maybe he picked it up over the years but in the last story, he is back to his old 'dumb' self.

The movie lack the sophistication I was expecting and the humour was nothing brilliant. Its comic timing however was good enough to draw plenty of laughs. The contents may failed to meet my expectation but I can't say I didn't enjoy the movie. After all, why so serious?

21

2008-10-02T10:38:00.004+08:00

I am no genius but I kinda liked Mathematics. So when a movie comes out that centres on using Mathematics skills to win in Black Jack, I don't even bother who will be in it. I am just going to watch it.
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a Maths genius hoping to secure a scholarship to Harward Medical School as his USD8 perhour part time job simply isn't enough to pay for that education. That amount however, is still higher than what an average Malaysian is making on a full-time basis but enough about our country's economy.

As with all the geniuses depicted in any movie, Campbell doesn't has many friends, often only hanging out with two other people who though are pretty smart, are only half his genius and 1/3 his good look. These two friends and Campbell's mother are the only people present to celebrate his very tame 21st birthday. The birthday scene was a crucial one as they used the Fibonacci code to depicted the number 21 on the cake so audiences can see what geeky maths geniuses they are. That was when I realised this is going to be a mediocre movie.

Campbell's lives started to changed when he impressed his non-linear equation professor by explaining how eliminating a wrong option from a choice of three actually increased the probability of one of the remaining two to 66.66% being the correct option instead of just 50%. That is called variable changes.

I didn't get that either.

As it turned out, Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) is looking exactly for someone of his genius as he is leading a team of clever students to win big money in Las Vegas via card counting. He was looking for a replacement for a key member who left the team for a job in Google, which is really funny if you received an email showing the office in Google. Everyone wants to work for them now.

Back to the story, honest Campbell does not wish to get involved but when his mother gave her hard-earned life saving to help pay for his Harvard education, he decided that Vegas is the only way to go. Campbell joined the team, which coincidently included Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), the prettiest girl in campus whom he happened to has the hots for.

Campbell was determined to do this only until he raised enough money for Harvard but the question is, after he get a taste of the high life of easy wealth, can he really go back? Can a brilliant student making money from simple Maths skill still thinks about using his genius for the betterment of mankind? Would a CEO enjoying privileges paid for by the company opts to gives up that luxury to reduces expenditures? Will a politician with power to reform policy to suits his own personal interest chose to repents and steps down?

The answer is a dissolute no, unless someone makes them.

That someone comes in the form of security honcho, Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) who quickly caught on to what Campbell can do. But he isn't as interested in Campbell as he is in Rosa, with whom he has an old grundge.

The movie has a decent story and characters, which is played well enough by its casts but everything about it is pretty run of the mill. It is a pretty standard fare of a hero using his gift for personal gains only to learn the wrongness of his action and turned over a new leaf. And audiences are taught a little lesson not to belittle those smarts geeks around us as we never know just what they may be capable of.

It is also interesting that the movie actually revealed how card counting works although I don't quite understand it. Maybe the instruction isn't complete but more probably is that I am just not smart enough to get it. There is also the phrase "Winner winner, Chicken dinner", uttered everytime a player got a Black Jack which meaning and significance escaped me but which I find catchy.

Here's a Mathematics question. Is it worth paying to watch this movie? I paid RM6 to watch this on Wednesday and I pretty much get my worth but RM10 for any other day just may noy be worth its fare. Now how is that for non linear equation?

Babylon AD

2008-09-21T23:51:00.005+08:00

Well, I watched Babylon AD too. Given the critical review it received, I wouldnn't exactly say it sucks.

Vin Diesel is Toorop, a mercenary tasked with bringing a special and mysterious girl from a convent to the US of A. Come to think of it, I have no idea where on earth he was at the beginning of the movie.

The girl in question is Aurora (Melanie Thierry) and her constant companion Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh). Aurora appeared to be very knowledgeable on many subject common and uncommon. She even knows how to operate a 30 years old submarine but she is also irritatingly emphathetic to the suffering of others. Other than that, put her in a singlet and a pair of shorts, let loose her hair and she is still pretty hot.

It became clear very soon that more than one faction wanted and needed her so Toorop's job isn't somuch of getting her to US safely than ensuring that she doesn't falls into the hand of the other faction. The question is who Aurora really is and why is she so important to so many people?

Compared to Death Race which I watched a week earlier, Babylon AD is more properly produced and tastefully directed but it still suffered from the things that don't make sense plaguing the movie.

The movie started right with the introduction of Toorop, his character and what he stands for. We were treated to a mildly exciting journey they made as Toorop tried to smuggle Aurora and Rebeka to the US. Along the way, the movie created the mystery of Aurora real identity.

But after creating the stage for what could be of biblical proportion, audiences were left with the tacky revelation of science experiment gone wrong (gone right?). And if Aurora is so important to everyone alive, then what exactly is Toorop fighting for?

As an action movie, it isn't so bad but ultimately has nothing fresh to offer. As a science fiction, its element is too weak and too brief. As a biblical fantasy, the mystery it successfully created in the beginning was ravaged by its sudden transition into science fiction toward the end of the movie. In the end, the villain was not properly dealt with and we could not see the relevance of certain incidents that took place. Maybe there is some kind of significance to the ending. Aurora did gave virgin birth to a pair of twin girls who were one black and one white but I certainly couldn't see the meaning.

I was prepared to defend the movie but such anti-climatic ending changed my mind. Too bad.

Death Race

2008-09-19T23:30:00.007+08:00

I was planning to watch Babylon AD when Duncan told me Babylon sucked, watch Death Race instead.

OK...

I know Jason Statham was in it and though I thought he looked the part of a tough guy, I was never really a fan. Beside, the title and poster looked really cheesy and I expected the movie to be the same. But I watched it anyway.

Death Race is a very old school type of movie with an unlikely concept, a simple story and a small little twist to the plot. Done right, it can still be entertaining, provided one is willing to overlook all the holes that filled the entire movie. Holes that simply doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense that corporation can and would take over operation of correctional facility (they don't call it prison anymore).

It doesn't make sense that said corporation has authority to grant release order to its prisoners.

And it sure as hell doesn't make sense that in times of economic turmoil, so many people can actually afford paying to watch Death Race.

Still, I can see why such movie appealed to my buddy. Death Race is a sport broadcasted by aforementioned corporation from one of the prison it controls. Participated by its prisoners, the race promised anyone who wins the race 5 times release and freedom. But this isn't just a simple race to the finish line. Each car is heavily fortified and even more heavily armed. Driving over a lighted icon of sword or shield placed along the track will activate either the offensive or defensive system of the car. And it's not exactly a good idea to take the lead right from the start as that would means others can fire at you while you cannot fire at them. You don't just lost a race, you can literally die in one.

Wow! The whole idea is just like one big video game.

In the middle of round 2, the warden even introduced a new secret weapon called the Dreadnaught, presumably meaning "Dreadful Juggernaut". As the name might suggests, it is a super heavy vehicle that is both destructive and near indestructible.

Question. If the Death Race show is as popular as implied in the movie, why would they released something so powerful it can potentially kill every racers in Death Race and in effect, killing off the show along with them? And how does every vehicle, regardless of size and shape able to maintain similar speed to each other?

Ahh... more holes that just don't make sense.

Obviously I have many problem with its realism, or lack of it. But if I were to judge this movie solely on its entertaining value, then it's not so bad. Fast cars that are armoured and fire machine guns and missiles. Race sport that plays like a video game. Hot babes in tight clothing who know about cars. Yeah.. a guy could like a movie like this. Just don't worry about the things that doesn't make sense.

Robbed!

2008-09-19T23:30:00.003+08:00

"Be careful what you wish for
Cos you just might get it all...
And then some you don't want..."
Sung the bridge of Chris Daughtry's Home.

Not for the first timeduring my blogging existence that I thought I got to write something other than movie review. And so something did happened on the first Wednesday of September. Something for me to write about.

I was robbed.

OK, technically, I was mugged but it lacks the dramatic effect of robbed. A bike pulled up right in front of me just as I was approaching the junction to the outdoor parking lot, its rider asking for my IC. Not looking the slightest like a police officer, I demanded for his identification. That was when he unzipped his jacket to revealed a machete hidden within and I know I was being mugged.

I remembered being very angry. This is my hard earned money and now I have to give it away to someone who did nothing more than hides a weapon in his jacket?

My immediate thought was to fight and take him down but a quick scan of the area suggested that there will be noone around to help me if I am unable to overpower him. So I co-operated and handed him my wallet. Even as he was taking the cash, I was grumbling aloud about how unfair this is. When he asked for my phone, I handed it to him too and demanded he return the SIM card but he wasn't interested in my old model. Suddenly, I was glad I never got around to replacing it. He asked for my other phone too, the bulge being rather obvious in my pocket but I just told him off, saying that was a company phone that I cannot give away. He didn't insist but instead, turned around to made his escape.

Huh? What a wimp! I could have take this guy!!

Part of me regretted that I was in no shape to fight back but another assured me that I did the smart thing. That's it until I realised that I was so absorbed in the thought of beating him up that I forgotten the time tested and proven art of self defense.

Run!

The street wasn't that busy. All I needed to do was run across quickly and I would reached the commercial building I came out from. And I wouldn't lost that RM300 - 400 I was carrying in my wallet.

I am feeling really stooopid right now.

The "Cloned" Wars

2008-08-27T22:02:00.005+08:00

Am I a big fan of Star Wars? Not exactly.

Do I like Star Wars? I guess I do to a certain extend. Having said that, I sure wouldn't mind getting Stormtrooper action figures for my birthday in October. Ahem. I always liked the Troopers figure because they looked like they are right out of the movie. Unlike the human figure, which likeliness is more difficult to capture.

Anyway, I just saw Star Wars- The Clone War, which was supposedly a missing episode between Part II Attack of the Clones (goodness, what a very lame name) and Part III Revenge of the Sith. Actually, I understand the transition just fine without having to watch this latest installment but I guess I just want to.

In a nutshell, the Galactic Republic with the help of the Jedi are in a war with the Separatist led by Count Dooku. The Separatists fought with their AI driven droids while the Republic have in their disposal the clone soldier, which, having a brain is is a more inteligent fighter. In the word from the movie, the war has kept the Jedi busy fighting the war with noone keeping the peace. But when crime lord Jabba the Hutt's son was kidnapped (since when he has one?), the Republic tried to win his favour by rescueing him. An endeavor that the Count would stop at nothing to sabotage.

The story was predictable and boring. The AI of the droids have to be seen to be believed. So they are not as intelligent as a live soldier but do they have to be portrayed as downright stupid? That was what they were in the movie. Very very stupid goons which are more funny than deadly. Basically there wasn't much of any developement going on here, characters or plot wise, just a bunch of things happening. The film is ultimately an action film but even that wasn't very exciting. The light sabre duel, all of them, are hardly inspired. The duels in the original trilogy were very suspenseful while the later prequel presented a very martial art oriented chereography. In The Clone Wars, it's just a bunch of people swinging their lightsabre and pushing things away with the force every once in a while. Very unimaginative. And I don't see why Lord Dooku has to let Anakin go near the end of the movie.

So the story sucks, how about the presentation? This film is actually in digital animation. I recognised the style from the Clone Wars animated series although they went one atep further and made this in 3-D. The style worked well enough as I am just glad they did not try to go the realistic approach. But while we were on the subject of animation, I must say I get more kick out of watching a single episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than this movie. Really.. this probably goes straight to DVD in the States (I dunno, I didn't check).

So should anyone watch this movie? Actually the Troopers are cool. As are most of their cannons and tanks and ship fighters and stuffs.

Only the fans.

All I want is to hold her hand..

2008-08-23T21:45:00.008+08:00

In a documentary I saw a long time ago, a simple experiment was carried out where scientists observed the growth of bacteria in a petri dish. Yet, despite the condusive environment created for them, their growth stopped even before the air and nutrients and whatever provided to them is used up. This is because they already created much wastes in the environment that it has became inhabitable.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what will happen to earth in the future when humans have created so much wastes on the planet that it can no longer support lives. And that is the world Wall-E lived in. The humans has moved out of earth into space, leaving only a troop of automated robots to clean up the mess for their eventual return.

In the biginning of the movie, all these Wall-E has already broken down, leaving only a single unit to complete the task.There was already towers and towers of compacted trash but little Wall-E still has a long way to go.

Fortunately, his solitude hasn't yet bore him to death (or total breakdown) yet as he has a good and loyal friend in the form of a cockroach. Beside that, Wall-E also developed a hobby of collecting special items from the mountains of trash that surrounded him. It is also from here that he keeps himself going as he salvaged parts from broken down units of Wall-E. Come to think of it, that is probably how his hobby got started and how his personality grows. Anyhow, anyone noticed the resemblance to Stephen Chow's recent"CJ7"? Wasn't there also a cute little hero there who can fix stuffs and a man who collected "treasures" from the junkyard? Or am I thinking too much?

Anyway, if anyone noticed I was refering Wall-E in a masculine term, that is because this is a love story. After 700 years of doing what he was built for, a space ship from Axiom, a huge mothership city where the humans now lives, arrived on earth to dispatched a probe to determine earth ability to support lives. This probe, named Eve was obviously a female, although I don't understand the reason of assigning gender to robots, and she was sleek, aerodynamic and squeky clean, in stark contrast to the worn out and blocky Wall-E. They were two world apart, like a princess and a pauper. Like Charlize Theron and Danny Devito. Or Michelle Reis and Eric Tsang. Well, You get the picture.

Wall-E has a little idea of what romance is from old movies that he watched in his spare time but he just let his heart guide him along. Awww...

How good can a romance between two robots be, you asked? Well, have you ever meet a person who totally change your perception in lives and gave you new purpose? Ever just want to hold the hand of that special someone? If you ever have that feeling before, you will be able to relate to Wall-E because mechanical he may be but I can so feel his longing to just hold Eve's hand.

So Wall-E fell in love with Eve and tried but failed miserably to impress Eve until he saves her from a storm and took her to his home. She was actually quite impressed with erm.. what he does with his home. They became friends and much later in the movie, she fell for him too. Awww...

This little love story was just lovable but there was also a side story. What happened to the humans who abandoned earth 700 years ago. What has happened to them since and what have they become? Predictably, they returned to earth eventually and it was interesting how the story of how they continue their lives from then on was told during the closing credit through a series of art beginning with cave painting, followed by what appeared to be Egytian hieroglyph. It was the beginning of life anew on earth after all. They even followed that up with painting style of the Renaissane era, pointilism and the style employed by Van Gogh himself. Brilliant closure but that was another story. In the end, it is the romance between Wall-E and Eve that makes this movie.

A delightful movie and one I would categorize as a good date movie, especially at the beginning of a relationship. Wall-E is absolutely adorable. Beside his personality, the design team deserved credit for designing a look that appeared both cute and functional. If ever a robot was built to do what Wall-E does, I can definitely imagine it would looked like that.Ha ha.. Wall-E looked like a little boy with his schoolbag in this picture.

Oh.. as with all recent Pixar production, there was also a short story before the actual movie begins. Called Presto, it is a story of a magician and his magic hat and how his pet rabbit refused to cooperate with him on his tricks until he is fed. Very very funny. Some people are not aware of Pixar's choice to include a short animation as an openning and the worried lady next to me actually asked if she is in the screening of Wall-E. I don't blame her, I had the same reaction when I saw Rattatouile.

So go watch this film but if you saw the story of a magician instaed, don't worry. You are in the right theater.

The Fraternity

2008-08-22T23:59:00.001+08:00

Did you know that the Fraternity almost prevented WW2 but their assasin failed to kill Hitler? Their following assignment was then the assasination of those people who would prevented the creation of the atom bomb which eventually led to the end of WW2.
But alas, that very creation led to many new modern problem..

Nah.. that was just my imagination talking.

Feeling Good

2008-08-13T21:16:00.003+08:00

Last Tuesday my car broke down in, of all place, the stretch of road between Kuala Pilah and Batu Kikir? Where, you asked?

Exactly. That was an outskirt area so I don't blame you if you don't know. Fortunately for me, the OTC rep of my company was just coming back from Bahau (where? - exactly) and she spotted me. After getting a towtruck to get my car to the nearest workshop, Vikki gave me a lift home. Thanks Vikki.

Today, as I was preparing to go home, after seeing my last client for the day at, oh, about 7.00pm then (in case management is reading this), I discovered I have a flat. I used my last spare and have not replace it yet. There is a tyre shop just a block away so I slowly made my way there just to discovered it's closed. I talked to two malay chaps there if they know any tyre workshop nearby. One called his friend whom he claim is a mechanic, who agreed to come over. I thought immediately, this is gonna cost me. They are bound to take advantage in that kind of situation.

That young man arrived, took a look, confirmed I do not have a good spare and..

.. offered his spare to me at no cost. He said I can get mine tyre replaced tomorrow and look him up to return it. No cost. Then, he proceeded to helped me changed that tyre.

OK.. that was not what I was expecting. Awfully generous of this guy, especially since I don't even know him. Guess I should at least buy him lunch but the question is this:

Am I unlucky to have meet with these two unfortunate events barely within a week or am I exceedingly lucky that in both situation, I found someone to lent me a helping hand?

Have I done anything to deserved that? Um.. I do take time to help people sometimes. including strangers as long as it didn't cost me too much time or money or as long as I don't suspect they are taking me for a ride. I have not, however, went to the extend of offering my spare tyre to a total stranger. So was it the collective good deeds I did that I am receiving them now? It is nice to know there is still goods in the world and that one good deed will get you another.

I want to believe that because it just feels good to.

Wanted

2008-08-11T22:46:00.006+08:00

It seems not many people were aware that the movie Wanted was actually based on a comic book. The concept for the book was that there were really super powered beings n the world and what they chose to do with these power was to use these powers for their own benefits. In short, absolute power corrupts absolute.

Wesley Gibson was a loser in every sense, until he met a woman named Fox who told him his father was in fact a super assasin with the Fraternity who was just killed not too long ago. Wesley was promptly invited to take over his place. He learnt then that superheroes did exist but were wiped out when every super villains in the world decided to team up. Following that, one of them with reality altering power proceeded to also wiped out from every living memories these heroes. I would have prefer a more grounded story of these supervillains corrupted lifestyle but I thought the addition of the hitory and other alternate universe where those heroes still exist to be far-fetched. What most readers enjoyed most from the book is the extreme attitude. Wesley went from being a loser to smug confidence. He is not afraid to do anything because the Fraternity has his ass covered. Consequences are a thing of the past.

Was the movie true to the book?

Well, they have Wesley (James McAvoy) the loser and Fox (Angelina Jolie) the hottie. They have the Ikea table and Wesley's girlfriend having an affair on it. They have the shoot the wings off the flying flies test and they have the beat the face up training session. Beyond that everything else is different.

The comic is about owning superhuman ability and abusing the power to do anything and own everything desired without care of consequences. In the end, though Wesley was the lesser of the evil compared to his enemy, he was still a criminal. And he wins and own everything in the end. The moral of the story was crimes pays. Obviously Hollywood cannot make a movie with that kind of message so they made a few changes.

Wesley's father was a super assasin. Yes, and he has in his blood to become one himself. But these assasins were not just out to make a profit from their ability. They belong to a secret society with a noble goal of kill one to save a thousand.

Centuries ago, a group of weavers found a secret language in the cloth they weaved. Calling it the Looms of Fate, they came to understand the code was intruction from Destiny for a specific person to be assasinated to prevented certain tragedy. These assasins eventually evolved to what they are in the present days, able to use adrenaline to increase their speed, strength, awareness, and other skills. They were also able to shoot with uncanny sharpness and even bent the bullets from their guns. The man introduced in the beginning of the film as Wesley's father was shot by a fellow Fraternity's assasin with a sniper rifle from two whole city blocks away! Imagine that.

Basically the movie merely took the basic characters and setting from the comics and changed everything else. What the heck? Why did they do that? I wasn't disappointed but I thought the concept of the Fraternity presented was awesome and deserving of its own mythology. Why do they need to use the comic reference? They should just released that as its own movie. After which they can tells story of the Fraternity in the medieval age and other eras in history. Heck, they can claimed the Fraternity assasinate JFK. The concept was awesome and the potential limitless. It would be bigger than Star Wars.

Was it obvious that I enjoyed the movie? You bet I did. The directing was very stylish, from the art direction to the action. I must admit though that the more creative actions all appeared in the beginning while those toward the end were less spetacular, although still awesome all the same. And the movie shows what they means when Sloan, played by Morgan Freeman, said creating the orchestra symphony with guns. Watch that out in the start of Wesley vs everybody in the Fraternity at the end of the movie. There was something else they adapted from the comic book as Wesley found out later the story of his father's death was not entirely true. Neat twist, even better than the one in the comic.

The Darkest Knight

2008-08-10T23:18:00.007+08:00

If not for the tragedy that befell the actor, I would have yelled,"Heath Ledger lives!"
His portrayal as the Batman's lunatic archnemesis was absolutely captiviting.

The director who also brought us the brilliant "The Prestige" returned with his second installment of Batman. Christopher Nolan has chose to named the sequel The Dark Knight, after one of Batman's more famous moniker.

I had always assumed that the Dark Knight was simply a fancy name, since the Batman is a hero who wages war against crime and he usually operates in the dark of the night. The movie revealed a greater significance behind that name.

Post the first film, Batman Begins, our hero continued his war on crime. Two new and important characters entered Gotham City. First is a lunatic criminal in clown make up with a dangerous trait. The Joker has absolutely no fear of consequences.

The second is Gotham new hero, a righteous and charming man who is also the District Attorney. Harvey Dent is determined to bring the city criminals to justice legally and was later refered to at the end of the movie as The White Knight.

Ah... see the contrasting connection now to the Batman's Dark Knight?

Ledger's Joker may not dominate the film but he certainly steals the limelight. This Joker is not like the Joker in the comic book, whose fall into some chemical substance distorted his face into a permanent smiling facade. This Joker is just a man, though a mad one at that, who painted his face white, with a permanent smile painted on his face in red. This Joker is more gritty, and almost real.

This Joker, in my opinion is the star of the show. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe he has even more screen time than Batman himself, didn't he? The strength was in his personality and Ledger performance is Oscar worthy. While Bale is great as Batman, he is more often than not behind a mask and I don't quite fancy the growling voice he used as Batman. Only time I saw a stellar performance behind a mask is Edward Norton's portrayal of King Baldwin in Kingdom of Heaven. The contrasting personality of these two characters taking their battle from mere physical to a mental level with Batman, though more highly skilled in combat, finding that he is unable to intimidates the Joker as he did the other common criminal while the Joker takes full advantage Batman's refusal to bulged from his morality aganst him.

Comparison to Jack Nicholson's Joker in the Tim Burton helmed Batman is inevitable but I felt such comparison is unfair. Burton has created a world very much similar to the version presented in the comic book and he was lauded for doing that successfully. His Joker is maniacal to the point of being comical with a penchant for the grandeur and Nicholson played that lunacy to perfection. What Nolan required from Ledger was very much different as the Joker here is much darker with a twisted plan for Gotham City which he executed with deadly precision.

Nolan has brought to the movie an unprecedented level of realism never seen before in a superhero movie. The characters were rich and the motives each have for doing what they do is believable. The script, even Joker's line is unpretentious and at times, provoking. And though the idea behind the surveillance technology employed by the Batman is mind-boogling, it was not inplausible. I can imagine the US military already working on that technology, assuming they haven't already own it.

In one hand, it is hardly common for a billionaire to dons tights to battle crime. On another hand, it was not too fantastic that the logic behind it can be immediately dismissed. This is Nolan at his best, capturing many small moments of brilliance and packaging them into one breathtaking piece of orchestra.

Likewise, the Joker appeared to have his small moments of victory but just when it seems Batman had him beaten, he bounced right back to take over the city. Only then did everyone sees the true extend of the plan he has for Batman and the city. The final hour of the movie is most suspenseful and unpredictable and though the Batman out maneuvre him in the end, he never really did outwitted the Joker. The Batman may won the war but the costs from the earlier battles lost are too great while the Joker never really lose anything. It's true that although Batman has foes with more powerful ability than the Joker, none was as dangerous as a man who is simply, mad.

Nolan's realistic approach was a fresh change to the superheroes franchises but seeing that the movies were planned as a trilogy, who will trade punches with Batman next? Considering the style employed here, we can safely rule out any characters with superpower although who to say that Nolan can't come up with a realistic version of such foes? It woould certainly be interesting to see his version of the Penguin. I am almost certain we will see Catwoman in an ambiguous role, as she already did in the existing Batman mythology. But who will be the main villain? And after Ledger's excellent portrayal as the Joker, who else is deserving enough to challenge the Batman in the final installment?

Today..

2008-08-03T23:52:00.004+08:00

TODAY I visited NZX Commercial Centre for the first time. It was nice but not yet very exciting. When the Street in The Curve just started, the place was still quite empty but I could see that it will grow very quickly and I was right. Too bad I can't say the same for NZX. It has potential but I think it will take a bit longer than The Curve before it really prosper.

TODAY for dinner, I had Big Apple Donuts.Shared the doughnuts with my sister with each of us having half a piece, starting with,
Mango Tango, which is sweet but really, I can't taste the mango at all. The doughnut itself was pretty normal, unlike the first time I sinked my teeth into Dunkin Donut which was really fresh and soft yet bouncy. That was then, now there is nothing special about Dunkin either.
Iceberg, which has very nice white sugary powder on top, which I think is glucose powder. The filling is supposed to be vanilla and again, I could not taste that.
Almond, which nickname I forgot but it has almond taste since it contain real pieces of almonds.
Pink Panther which is sweet and actually has a very strong strawberry flavour but unfortunately it also tasted very artificial.
Alien, which is basically chocolate topped and chocolate filled. Quite Ok but it would be cool if the doughnut has some small cavites on top for the filling to oozes out as we bite on it. Hey, they called it Alien after all.
Chocoholic, which is also chocolate topped and chocolate filled.
What I enjoyed the most was actually those white sugar ontop the Iceberg. Everything is so sweet they can't be healthy for you. And to think I declared to Sylviena that the next time she sees me, I would have lost my tummy. Tough.

TODAY I attempted unsuccessfully to finish a comprehensive full review of The Dark Knight which I hoped to watch again this Wednesday but even though I logged in at only 2 minutes past midnight, the tickets are all already fully booked.

TODAY, NTV7 screwed up its schedule AGAIN and I never found out if they screened The Celebrity Apprentice earlier than planned, later or not at all. This station got their schedule so messed up so often it almost seems deliberate. Sure, it was an outdated series and I already know Piers Morgan will win but what was the saying again?
"It was not the destination but the Journey."
It reminded me of how they used to screwed up the airing of Survivors back then. They have the show only a few days later than the airing in US but the show was always aired 10 minutes late. And since it is unacceptable for the midnight news to be late, the show will break for the news before resuming the final 10 minutes of the episode. Survivors didn't lost its fanbase in Malaysia because the show was getting boring (well alittle of that too) but because of the anticlimatic ways that NTV7 handled the show. I was just glad they didn't messed up last week when the annoying Omarosa was fired. If they did, I would stop watching NTV7. I probably should anyway. Well, at least after they air my episode in Deal or No Deal anyway.

The Dark Knight

2008-07-21T00:09:00.004+08:00

I am absolutely speechless and I meant it quite literally.

When the credit for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight rolled out, I could only go wow, then I go wow again. I must have gone wow close to 10 times but I just don't know what to say.

The movie has everything - action, science fiction, romance, tragedy etc. Director Christopher Nolan is the William Shakespeare of our times. Never before have I had such high expectation of the movie and still have that expectation surpassed by such great margin. A definite 5-stars rating and a full review soon.

Hancock

2008-07-08T09:12:00.005+08:00

I actually wrote about the Beauty and the Beast Broadway Musical I just watched last week but misplaced the draft. I am too lazy to rewrite that now so I am just gonna wait and see if the draft will magically reappear.

For now, I am just gonna write a review on Hancock, currently the last movie I saw. And I realised of late, I was giving away too much of the storyline in my review. I have been an avid movie-goer for a long time and of all people, I should know what may be revealed and what may not. It wasn't always like this though as I remembered vividly how I struggle from revealing the shocking ending when I wrote the review for The Prestige.

So here goes. Will Smith is John Hancock, the world's only superhero who has chosen Los Angeles as his base of operation. Despite his role in fighting crime, he wasn't appreciated as he tended to be reckless with his power, causing maximum collateral damages everytime he made an appearance. That is until he saved the life of an image consultant who takes on trying to change his image. It wasn't a business decision. Jason Bateman's Ray Embrey is a really nice and honest guy who truly believe Hancock deserved better.

There was 2 trailers out for this movie. While the first one indicated an all out comedy, the second was more dramatic. I thought it was so funny when a new proper Hancock asked permission to touch a woman so he could save her. And deflecting a missile aimed at you with a wave of your hand is just so cool. It was this second trailer that got me to watch the movie.

The movie itself however, failed to live up to the expectation created by the trailer. Though the characters in the movie - Hancock by Smith, Ray by Bateman and Mary by Theron (well, I don't think I can not like any character played by Charlize Theron anyway) are all quite likable, the story turned out to be uninspired and predictable. And like I mentioned in The Hulk, I take my fight scene very seriously and there is noone in the movie to really give Hancock a hard time. Sure he lost some of his power near the end of the movie making him vulnerable but hey, when I see a superhero movie, I expect a superhero brawl. No matter how good a script you write, if a superhero did not have an enemy who can match him/her in physical prowess, you will not have an exciting finale. Period.

All the recent superhero movies that ever been successful had the protaganists' actual superpowered nemesises from the original comic books fighting them in the reel version. The presense of these supervillains may not necessary tranlated to success but their absense will almost certainly guarantee the film's failure.

This is not a bad movie. It just wasn't as good as I expected. And while it was fun while it last, it didn't give us much worth remembering.

Sailing

2008-06-27T22:24:00.000+08:00

It was the first time I went sailing. I am talking about really sailing here. Sailing with the power of the wind to move the boat, without a motor to runs it. Of course I was planning to blog about it. Unfortunately, Jaclyn's camera broke down and I was unable to get the pictures to go along with the story. Well, she finally got the pictures out thanks to EJ card's reader.

When Jaclyn's granduncle insisted to take her sailing, Jaclyn turned to her group of friends for companionship. Fortunately for me, she didn't forget about me. Unfortunately for her, I was the only one interested. It was a Sunday morning after all. Noone is willing to wake up early for anything on a Sunday morning.

It was the 9th of March 2008, a day after Duncan's birthday (as well as Samyvellu's) and one day after the national general election. Many people have chose to stay home that fateful day out of paranoia of possible post-election riot. Way I see it though, there is no place safer that day than in the middle of the sea.
Me at the Sailing Club in Port Klang.

This is Jaclyn. Notice how I shifted the angle a little to minimise the glare. Brilliant photography? Not really cos I should have just turn on the flash. LOL.

Unfortunately, her granduncle (GU) was away to prepare the boat so there wasn't anyone there to hold the camera for us. He also managed to contacted another of his friend to joined us.

GU was briefing us on the trip even before we arrive. At all times, we must ensure we have one hand on the boat. Each of us must remain in our position no matter what. We are not to try anythingwe have not been taught or briefed on before. Erm.. actually, I can't remember all of them now.

The mast of our boat and also my favourite photo of the day.
This shows our bearing of the direction the boat is moving.
The helm, or the big steering wheel. Learning some basics before the journey begins.
Einstein's Theory of Relativity - Am I tall or is GU short?
Aye aye Captain! All ready to set out.

We started out by engine but by the time we reached windy water, it was turned off with only the power of wind to bring the boat forward. We were really sailing. For lack of an accurate term, I was helping with setting up the sail and pulling those ropes as we change the direction of the sail. They are hard works but fortunately, I have the muscle for it. Too bad there wasn't any pictures of me in action. That would be so cool.

My camwhore moment on the boat.

Jaclyn definitely looked more at ease out in the sea than me.

Apparently, in non-competitive sailing, one person is actually enough to manage the boat. I really admired these two men to still have the strength in their age for such a hobby.

Contrary to popular belief, we weren't just letting the wind take us where it was blowing. With the right technique, we can even sail against the wind, and with decent speed too. Me.. I couldn't understand the dynamic of it all. I just let go when I was told to let go and pull when I was told to pull. GU was actually quite impressed with how well I took instruction and performed the required tasks. He was equally impressed with Jaclyn ability at the helm as most people are unable to steer a boat properly the first time. Most people which included me, who took the boat in circles when I tried. Paiseh!

Captain Jaclyn Sparrow with her crew.

Just posing. I couldn't steer a boat if my life depends on it.

It was a hot and sunny day but it didn't remained so for the rest of the day. When dark clouds began to gather, we turned the boat around to head for dock but we didn't make it before it rained.

It wasn't the perfect storm but it was still quite heavy. Despite the condition, we continued to leave Jaclyn at the helm since she was doing such a great job. We docked just as the rain was coming to a stop, then packed up the sails, rolled up the ropes and head for home.

I was developing a healthy sexy tan from beginning. At the end of the trip, my skin was blazing red, despite putting on the sunblock twice during the entire trip. But I don't care about the sunburn.
A first time at anything is always a memorable experience. The rain did nothing to dampen the spirit or memory, just make it more exciting. I didn't suddenly develop a passion for sailing but I definitely have a great time.

Hulk Smash!!!

2008-06-26T20:01:00.007+08:00

There was two reasons I wanted to watch the new Hulk movie. The first was because Edward Norton is Bruce Banner and I thought that casting was sheer genius. Why didn't I thought of that?

The second was the scene in the trailer where Bruce Banner actually stepped out of a flying helicopter, with the intentionof bringing out the Hulk in him through sheer extreme agitation, since he recently just managed to suppressed the Hulk.

Damn. That was taken straight out from the Ultimate version of the Hulk. In the comic, Banner had successfully suppressed the transformation into the Hulk through medical science. But when the military needed the Hulk to fight an unstopable enemy, they didn't think twice to just push Banner off the helicopter. The panic, fear and madness felt by Banner as he plummeted to the ground from so high up in the air was enough to turned him into the Hulk again just moment before he crashed with a loud thud. Brilliant. Only from the wildly creative mind of scribe Mark Millar.

Back to the movie. It opened with a quick introduction to the origin of the Hulk. In an experiment on radiation imunity went wrong, Banner became the Hulk, destroyed the lab and injured his lab partner and love interest Betty Ross. Also in the openning sequences are flashes of documents addressed to Stark Enterprise and Nick Fury from SHIELD, each making reference to famous characters in the Marvel Universe. So when the story takes us to the present, where Banner is in hiding in Brazil while looking for a cure with the help of a mysteriuos Mr Blue, I can't help but wondered if that was Dr Reed Richards aka Mr Fantastic himself from Fantastic Four. He turned out to be a Dr Samuel Stern, whom Banner must return to meet back in the States if he is to have any chance of ever suppressing the Hulk.

But even before that trip, the military already located his whereabouts and a band of highly trained soldiers, together with mercenary Emil Bronski was dispatched to capture him alive. Of course the Hulk came out and they didn't stand a chance.

By the time the Hulk and Emil meets for round two, the British mercenary has already been enhanced by the US Super Soldier programme and was already stronger and faster though not yet bigger. It was interesting seeing a soldier pitting his cunning and agility against the pure brute of the Hulk. However, his guns could not harm the Hulk and the battle ended with him broken and almost dead.

As Banner and Betty continued their run, Emil received a second dose of the Super Soldier serum to further even the odds. Earlier before that encounter, Bruce actually did looked for Betty the moment he returned to US but when he saw that she is already seeing someone else, he left her alone. After all, if you truly love someone, you let her go. If she comes back to you, she is yours. If not, it was never meant to be. Right?

Well, it was meant to be. Even after seeing Banner transformed into the Hulk, she continued to stay with him. There was even a King Kong moment where in a scene after Hulk rescued Betty, she woke up to an apparently nervous and clumsy Hulk. The giant just soften up at the mere sight of the woman he loves.

The story doesn't ends there as Banner finally met up with Dr Stern. The cure apparently worked and just as the Hulk was banished from Banner's system, the military busted in and took Banner away. Emil, disappointed to lost to the Hulk without a rematch forced Stern to use Banner's blood sample on him, turning him into the Abomination. His anatomy is a little distorted which is quite interesting. He also became bald and because he was not wearing extra large and loose pants like Banner, he loses that as well. His pants and hairs are not the only things he lost though as a full frontal view also revealed that he no longer has what is every mens' favourite piece of muscle. Ahem..

This is the scene I was waiting for. Unsure if the Hulk was truly suppressed, Banner needed a trauma at its highest level to try draw out the monster within, so he decided to throw himself out a flying helicopter. The Hulk emerged and they both clased like only Titans can. Noone was supposed to be physically stronger than the Hulk in the Marvel universe but the producer wanted to give him a real challenge. Not only is the Abomination stronger but he was also more well trained in close quarter combat as a soldier.

As an ardent movie fan who take the fight scene very seriuosly, I find it unacceptable that this version of Hulk was able to defeat the Abomination. What I would do differently if I were the director is to have them in a more primitive fist fight with the Abomination having the upper hand due to the skill he already have but with the Hulk keep coming back for more. Despite all his skill, Emil will finds that it was not enough to overwhelm the Hulk's brute strength. The Hulk would also not be the one using weapon but the Abomination will. And plenty of collateral damage from the fight.

The anatomy of the Hulk as presented in the CG was rather impressive. Take it from me that I do know abit on this subject since I draw a lot of muscle bound men. If they could retain a little resemblance of Norton to Hulk's face, that would be even better. The texture however, does not like like skin some of the times. And they move too fast. Big creatures like them could not possibly move with that kind of agility. Just look at Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong, especially the scene where he fought the 3 rexes. They are by no mean slow, but there was a certain weight in their movements that was more realistic. And that was an excellent fight scene. No need to smash cars into fists like gloves.

Other than that, I really have no other complain. The movie even managed to get abit emotional at times although I doubt anyone would actually shed a tear. There was some light humour that blended in very well like the purple pants that Betty bought for Banner. In the comic book, the Hulk is always wearing a torn purple pants. Then there is the time when Banner got his Brazilian wrong and told some rascals not to make him hungry because they won't like it when he is hungry. The movie also hinted on a possible new nemesis when we saw drops of Banner blood falling on Dr Stern's wounded forehead, causing it to swells.I didn't recognise the name but Stern must be the Leader, another archnemesis who battle the Hulk's brawn with brain. The cliffhanger near the ends however, takes the cake when we see Robert Downey Jr in a cameo as Tony Stark aka Ironman telling General Ross that they are assembling a team, obviously refering to the Avenger, which is rumoured to be an upcoming Marvel live action movie project.

I suddenly find myself wondering how an Avenger movie would be like if Peter Jackson directs it.

Petrol Price Hike - Two Ways To Look At It?

2008-06-07T19:34:00.004+08:00

With the recent price increase on petrol, I was expecting comments aplenty on this subject. I have my two-sen worth and would have told my story that night itself if I wasn't feeling so sad then. Why was I sad? When a day comes when I can finally laugh about it, perhaps then, I will write about it.

On 4th June 2008, the government suddenly announced the price hike of petrol from RM 1.92 to RM 2.70 per litre - a whopping 40 plus percent increase. This, coming not too long after an announcement by the same government that the petrol's price is only expected to rise in August.

LIARS!

As was the case everytime such an increase was brought on, the people of Malaysia rushed to the nearest petrol station to "enjoy" one last bite of the old price. It must be almost six in the evening when I pulled up into a petrol station in the Seremban R&R, and I have not heard yet. I usually fill up my tank in the morning before I head for the office but on that day, I thought maybe it will not be such a bad idea to fill up there and then, considering that it hasn't been a terribly hot day. I ended up with just buying a drink as I was very thirsty. About 5 minutes after I left the station, Roy sms-ed me informing me of the price increase effective from midnight.

I just left a station and it was not packed, so I thought he must have mistaken. After all, I have my own inside source on this matter and Duncan has not informed me about it.

I made a stop in Kajang to helped Silas and Rachel buy an ear thermometer and decided to eat there too when Wendy called me, reminding me to fill up. OK.. maybe Roy hasn't mistaken, he was a bright chap right?

I sms-ed Duncan to confirm and he informed me he knew about it an hour ago. What? And he never thought to tell me? Some friend. So much for my inside source.

As I drive out from Kajang, it took me more than 20 minutes to just turned around the bend of a shop block. It was the first time I was there at such an hour so I didn't suspect a thing, thinking it must be always like that in there.

But no.. the whole delay was caused by the many vehicles lining up to enter a petrol station just around the block. For that, I was stuck for 20 minutes over a distance of a mere 300 or so metres. Though the road I travelled to go home that night was mostly wide enough not to be affected by such jam, I can see that every station is packed with a long line of vehicles waiting to go in. I estimated that it would probably take an hour for anyone before they can fill up. I thought of how I entered an almost empty petrol station and did not fill up. On top of that, I realised that I actually received an sms from one of my bosses about the increase as early as 5.17 pm but I didn't notice it. Bummer..

Duncan called me later. He too was stuck in a jam near Uptown Damansara as everyone was trying to enter the petrol station. He cursed and asked why are Malaysian like that? I brutally and honestly replied," Because Malaysian are broke."

We all know this. We need this subsidy for no other reason than we are not making enough money. As my own job stabilised these past few months, I suspected I may be making more than quite a number of my friends, if you don't count my colleagues, that is. But that amount is probably only as much as what a waiter in New York can makes, minus the stress. And of course, I also need to pay my car installment and the cars in my country is super-expensive. The economy is in shambles and anyone who try to tell you otherwise is either his/her own boss or the government. That is why we are all broke.

Let's face it. Rich people are not going to be bothered much by such increase. You won't be seeing Donald Trump inside his car waiting to have his tank filled up. You don't expect Michael Schumacher to stop driving around his fuel-thirsty Ferrari. We lined up for hour(s) to fill up so we may saved peanuts and have our heads filled with endless doses of negativity as we wait because we are not like them. We have a job and we are just over broke.

I am not rich (yet) but I do not want that kind of negativity. I drove home straight and fill up the next day. It was 29.9 litres for RM 80.85, meaning I just lost RM 23.44 just by paying the new price. Way I figured it, if I thought my one hour is worth a mere twenty-plus riggit, I don't have the vision for greater thing in live. And a man without vision shall perishs.

How can we look at this? We can continue to complain about the rising the cost of living or we can do something about it to ensure that we are above being affected by these costs.

ps: I was wrong. Most of the famous blogs I read did not mention about the increase. Even among my blogging friends, only Peter and Silas posted something but even that was just repost of materials they read elsewhere.

Talk About Love

2008-06-05T00:50:00.002+08:00

"If you really love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it didn't, it was never meant to be."

Indiana Jones and Mars Attack?

2008-05-25T15:22:00.003+08:00

A newspaper's review of the movie reminded me to forget about logic as I watch this. With most of the recent films attempting to be as real as possible, even as they tackle out of the world concept, I must admit I almost forgot about movies that try to be just fun.
An Indiana Jones movie has always been about fun and going to watch the latest installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I had hope to again capture the feeling and excitement I got from the earlier films.
The movie begins with the Russians forcing Indy to help them steal a mysterious item from a US military facility in Area 51. That location itself is enough to tell us the direction that this movie is heading. Indy escaped but without stopping the Russian from making away with the mysterious cargo. Then a young man appeared, asking Indy to help rescue his kidnaped mother and foster father and the real adventure begins.
As with Rocky Balboa, the film did not try to hide the fact that the main character has aged much since the last outing but age hasn't slowed Indy down much though. Except for the occasion whining about how things used to be easier, he still made some unbelievable escape. He isn't any clumsier than he used to be but if he can take on a younger Russian commander, I guess he is still pretty strong.
Unfortunately, despite all their attempt, I just don't feel like this is an Indiana Jones movie. The chase scene in the jungle is the only entertaining part of the movie but I keeps thinking Pirates of the Carribean as I watched that. Don't know why. Some peole may think the man-eating ants are a bit far-fetched but I thought it was totally cool. Hey, it's an Indiana Jones movie. I will never forget the 'monk' in Temple of Doom who can retrieve a man's beating heart right from his chest.
Well, that was about it. The rest of the movie was rather dull for this franchise. Even the famous theme music is very much toned down. And after 19 years of choosing the right script, they can't even get that right. I don't expect the script to be flawless but there is just too many missing ingredients. I am all for exaggeration but certain recipes just doesn't mixed right. You will understand what I mean after you seen the film.
It's not a bad movie, but it is a lousy Indiana Jones movie.

Re-United We Stand

2008-05-25T14:35:00.002+08:00

The reunion on 23th went better than I expected as everyone is enthusiastic to meet up again. While I admittedly wasn't too optimistic in the beginning, I now begin to wonder if we really can make this a monthly itinenary. Though Thomas could not make it this round, we have Parama and Wei Cheong with us. Being the one who brought everyone back together for the last 2 gatherings, I was appointed the unofficial organiser. On top of that, as we are expecting an even bigger group next time, Duncan also asked me to bring my camera, making me the unofficial photographer as well.
On a personal note, it was weird that when I met up with my FedEx friends, the girls only obliged very casually for a photograph while my guy friends in 5SK were so excited about taking photos. Hmm..
Wait a minute, with my work schedule, is it possible for me to carry out my duty as a organiser? I don't know but I can't let my friends down now can I?
We will be meeting again June 20th at the Curve for dinner followed "The Incredible Hulk" movie. Yes, everyone is very tame but we are all also excited about planning a trip soon, perhaps to Bali or Pattaya.
Ah.. it's good to be among old friends again.

Man in Red Iron Armor

2008-05-18T14:24:00.001+08:00

The cool thing about a hero in armor is the special effect. Obviously, a man in armor is easier to rendered than a man in flesh. We only have to look at Ironman, currently showing in cinema and the upcoming The Incredible Hulk to make a comparison.Shiny metal armor in gold and red - Easy.
Facial expression, accurate anatomy and skin complexion - Not so easy.
In the same context, it is also easier to translates the characters into action figure, making some really cool merchandises. I would choose the Stormtroopers figures over any of the leading characters in the Starwars saga anytime. Strangely though, I don't see any Ironman toys offered with any fastfood kiddie meal combo.
Let's make another quick comparison.
The original Ironman in the comic book is Tony Stark, genius inventor of his own weapons manufacturing Stark Enterprise. Wounded while he was in Vietnam, he must dons the suit of Ironman which ironically he considered his greatest failure, to continue living. And because the suit has a device that keep his heart beating, he must never remove it.
The movie Ironman is still Tony Stark, genius inventor of his own weapons manufacturing Stark Enterprise. Wounded while in Afghanistan, he was fitted with a electromagnet in his chest by the enemies' doctor, to prevented sharpnels he received in an explosion from slowly reaching his heart and killing him. Unfortunately, this electromagnet is powered by a bulky battery very much like the one that starts our car. He too turned to his greatest failure, a energy generator that was both bulky and cost-inefficient (since that project was started only as a publicity stunts) to create a small and powerful generator to power the magnet. Hence taking his first steps to becoming Ironman.
Heck.. they have to update the character. The original Ironman used to carry his armors in a briefcase. Would you have believe that?
The villains were updated too. I didn't read the Ironman comic books but I do know that the Mandarin and Titanium Man count amongt his enemies.

In the movie, the Mandarin goes by the moniker Ten Rings. We made the connection right away because the original Mandarain wears a ring on each of his finger. It wasn't vanity. Each ring is a weapon on its own. Ten Rings is a leader of a band of terrorists in Afghanistan that kidnapped Stark in the begining of the movie. Their attempt to force Stark to build powerful weapon for them led to the creation of Ironman which Stark used to escaped from his captivity. Without those rings weapons that the original Mandarin wore, Ten Rings is unable to reach the level of threat that his comic counterpart is able to do.
Titanium Man was supposed to be the Soviet equivalent to Ironman back during the Cold War. though not as advanced as the Ironman armor, it does boosts greater firepower and being built with titanium, is tougher than Ironman. In the movie, Titanium Man's other name, the Iron Monger was used instead. Here he is an upgraded model of the first armor Stark built in Afghanistan to make his escape. Here Monger overwhelm Ironman in both sheer brute force and Firepower. Afdterall, there is only so many weapons you can fit into a suit of armor. Monger is more than that as it was not worn but controlled electronically from within, making him a freaking robot. Ironically, it was Ironman which was built with gold titanium in the movie and that edge Stark used to defeat the Iron Monger. Not just titanium here.. it's gold titanium. Cool.
Everyone may wants to be in a superhero movie now but when you got a stellar cast the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow, you know there got to be something solid about the script. The film paced along very well, from the time Stark was kidnapped to his daring escape, from the creation of the clumsy first Ironman prototype to the final sleeks aerodynamic gold and red model and the personal development of Stark's character and the other supporting casts. Maybe not all of us will love Stark but we definitely respect his genius and resolute to set right what he has done wrong. A good script is one that can make the audiences feels what the movie requires them to feel toward its characters.
Personally, I always liked to have the main villain to appeared early in the film so we can see the kind of dangers he really posed. The iron Moner only appeared toward the end of the film but as a pilot movie, sometimes it is more vital to develop the hero first, as was done in "Batman Begins". As suggested from the trailer to its sequel titled "The Dark Knight", we will see Batman's archnemesis appearing fairly early and wreaking much havocs. I expect the same for Ironman but with two of his greatest enemies already out of the picture, who else can he fights?
Well.. I guess there is always the Hulk.

A Meeting or Two, of Old Friends

2008-05-17T22:23:00.006+08:00

It was almost serendipitous. I was out for a yam cha session when I noticed a man literally staring with sinister smile on his face. I was not too pleased with the way he looked at me until I realised he was my friend and former classmate from secondary year. After I recognised him as Thomas, his smile doesn't seems so sinister after all.
I called Duncan and tell him about it and we decided to meet up. Then I called Voon Fatt and surprise surprise. He also just found Ben Mah. Ben's wife is Voon Fatt's client and he was just verifying some information when he realise who her husband is. The reunion seems inevitable now. We attempted to get a few more to join us but the notice was admittedly short. Parama was so enthusiastic he forgotten he got an important date that night. Jason was tied up with works, Azrul was in Sarawak and Kam Fatt, I really got to apologise to as I forgot to tell him till the day itself. Needless to say, he can't make it.From left: Ben Mah, me, Voon Fatt, Thomas with Duncan sitting down.
Soo Wei Kang (standing in middle) from 5SM also joined us despite not knowing us so well. We had a simple dinner in Restoran Peranakan in 1U. It was a good catch up session with another planned for 23th May probably at Wendy's in Sunway Pyramid. Ben Mah and Thomas are married, Voon Fatt probably will in the near future. Only Duncan and I are still single. Sigh.
Looking at some of my younger friends now, I do get a bit envious. Keeping in touch is not a problem nowaday with their mobile phone and various internet networking site like Friendster and Facebook. We have none of that during our days. I don't even know how to use a computer then. Was I talking about computer? Heck, my family don't even have a telephone. I remembered going to the payphone to call them up but most of them were too excited about their new college (something my family was too poor to afford for me) lives to really meet up. In the end, I gradually lost all their numbers. Still, we are beginning to find each others and hopefully, we will not lose contact this time around.

Today I went for another reunion. This time with friends I made when I worked with FedEx. Everyone there loves Sow Hon so he was the key person that must be there. Unfortunately, a few were going back to their hometown this weekend, leaving only(from left) Jason, Sow Hon, Sharon, Carrie and me with a light dinner in Pizza Hut. The outing was shorter than I expected as everyone has plans further into the evening. That was unexpected as I made an impromptu visit to Wan Nee and Woan Koon barely a week ago and we talked for 3 hours or so. And we didn't even have dinner. Then again, that included a tour around the newly expanded and renovated office of my former company. Now that place really looks like a first-class multinational company. Still, I was invited to a paintball outing coming June but I think that date just might clash with the Beauty and the Beast musical I am planning to catch. Oops, I haven't even pay Jaclyn for that ticket.

Sex Kills

2008-05-14T22:27:00.004+08:00

I walked into the bathroom earlier to find three cockroaches on the wall. Two of them are being naughty. Is this cockroaches sex?
I took out my camera and quickly took a picture. Didn't bother to get a good shot as I didn't want to started them. I wasn't being polite. I just wanted to make sure they are still there when I wrapped up a roll of newspaper and smack them.
Talk about lust being one of the seven deadly sins. I only hit one cockroach of that couple but as the other tried to crawl away, it couldn't, being stuck to the dead one. If it wasn't mating when I found it, it would still be alive now, being able to scurry away before I make a second smack, then a third. I never did figure out which is the male.
I didn't just killed 3 cockroaches today. I killed a whole future generation. Damn, I hate those things.

I am TVman

2008-05-04T08:41:00.003+08:00

I have yet wrote the full review on Ironman but I have a far more interesting experience to share than watching a film.
On Saturday 3/5/08, about a quarter to noon, I arrived at the NTV7 studio to shoot the preliminary round for Deal or No Deal. Yes.. I have been selected as a contestant and making pass this round will bring me the chance to bring home the grand prize of RM 100,000.
Naturally, I planned to blog about this but I can't believe I didn't bring my camera. Of course there are also certain rules to abide by since I did signed a confidentiality agreement. So I can't reveal anything on the date or how the shooting was carried out, or who won which preliminary round, or even if I did. Okay.. I will leak out one thing.
The questions got a little tougher.
So what is there left to write about?
I saw the host Non during the roadshow before but this is the first time I met him face to face. He was actually a very nice and down to earth man. And though I thought he appeared pretty serious onscreen, he can be very laid back offscreen. The crews absolutely love him and they are a happy bunch who laugh all the times even as they work. It's so goood to be loving your work. One of their faurite joke on Non seems to be on his oily face as they took every available ability to have him check his complexion on the camera, so they can see if he need touch up on his make up. And they will go "Quick, let's start shooting before the oils come out".
Hilarious.
Non was very friendly with absolutely no air, spending most of the times between takes chatting with us. Nice guys.
I also almost made many new friends. I said almost because I was talking and laughing with many of them but unfortunately, when the shooting ended, everyone disappeared so quickly I didn't have a chance to get their numbers. Only Angie and Stephanie were still around taking photos with Non. I took a couple too and gave my email to Angie. Hope she remembers to email them to me.
I was in group 7 (how auspicious) together with Sam, Alan, Nicholas, Sue and Su Ling. It's too bad I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with them, especially Allan who is a business owner. Maybe a business opportunity there somewhere. Oh well.
Oh, I also had make-up on my face for the firat time in my lives. When I had my lunch, I have to be extra careful. I wasn't afraid to smear the lipstick butI just don't want to eat them. And I hadn't a clue how to wipe my mouth after my food. It's not easy being a woman. And I haven't even try the torture of wearing a high heel yet.

Ironman

2008-04-30T01:03:00.003+08:00

I just got home from Cineleisure from the premiere screening of Ironman in Malaysia.
Initial comment is; yeah, it's pretty good. Interesting characters, good script, great design and special effect plus they managed to stay true to the original Ironman, albeit very much updated. The movie works, better than expected and I heard Tony Stark will also be making an cameo appearance in the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie. Everything goes as planned then we may even see Ironman vs Hulk in the future. Hmm..
Well, will write a full review soon. Gotta sleep now.

Blossoms in Bahau

2008-04-27T22:05:00.010+08:00

I was talking a photo of a mountain..when suddenly, a dragon appeared.OK.. so it wasn't really a dragon.Bahau was actually my first "photo expedition" with my new camera. It was a great place for avid photographer, amateur enthusiast included, as it has a park with a pond full of lotuses.Ok.. I actually cheated with this piece. My camera doesn't have that kind of zoom but it is 8 megapixel, so I conveniently just cropped the original piece.
I started the day early, before the fog even settle. I took many photos of the lotus flowers there and these are a selected few.
I took this the evening earlier, when the light was low. Coincidentally, I took another at the same spot the next morning when the bud blossomed.
This is my favourite piece. And here are some others..

I was not the only one there. Another photographer, in full gear was also taking photos of the flowers.
One look at his gear and it was obvious that I got the sleeker machine between the two of us :-)
Then I moved on to other subjects.Some kind of water plant.
Close-up and more close-ups.

Like I said, sign of an amateur enthusiast- getting up close and personal on anything and everything. Now I really regret not getting a camera with better macro quality.

Just Shoot It!

2008-04-19T23:59:00.015+08:00

Last month I got my hand on a new toy. It is a brand new digital camera.
I have always decided that it will be a Nikon and I have always know that I will eventually get their DSLR. I am not ready yet. Not experienced enough so I might as well wait till I am more refined in composing a photos and then buy the latest model by then right. Beside, knowing myself, I will ended up spending every minute with it that I neglect my work. With that, I set my eyes on the P5100. Only Nikon would sells a 12 Megapixel semi-pro digital camera at only RM1299. But I eventually decide it's too big for my pocket but still not as canggih as a DSLR.
I already decided that I will eventually get a DSLR, so why settle for a mere P5100? All I need is a pocket size compact until I get that toy. Nikon has a L range of camera which is both effective and affordable (the L16 is 7 Megapixel effective with a 2.8" LCD monitor at under RM400) but not too pleasing in term of aesthetic. And though it makes perfect sense to just get one of these, the feeling of excitement just isn't there when I hold it. So I thought maybe I get the S51 (S range for style). It was pricier but oh so beautiful. At that time however, the P50 is expected to comes into Malaysia soon and it looks like it has the right balance of quality, style and affordability. I thought maybe I should wait for that first.
The P range is actually under the category for semi-pro cameras. It produces very good quality photos with almost as much flexibility of a SLR minus the bulk. What I like physically about this sort of camera is it has a grip that feels really good to hold. I prefer a zoom ring but am fine with the button variation. For a moment, it looked like the P50 is it. All I need is to wait for it to arrive.
I keep checking but it never comes. I got busy and put off buying a digital camera until last month, when I walked into Jusco with the intention to only check out the promotion. The P50 is already out and it's on promotion. A 8-Megapixel semipro digital camera at under RM700. I had my eyes on it for a while and was told that the price was reduced to clear the stock as the model will be discontinued along with the P5100. I have every reasons to buy it but since I haven't been looking around in a while, I looked at the other new models. The S210 surprised me because it was relatively quick. Not to the P50 but the other S range units. I also did not expect a S model in this range of cost.
I bought it and paid an additional RM30 to upgrade the free memory SD card from 1G to 2G. As the camera was on promotion, I also received a leather camera pouch, a Nikon bag, a Nikon umbrella and a very nice mini tripod :-)
It's a beauty isn't it? At 8 Megapixel and housed in a sleek slim body, this piece of gem surprisingly comes with a pricetag at a little under RM700. It was a new model and without knowing much about this particular model, I am surprised I bought it on the spot. All the research I did on Nikon camera the past few month went down the drain without being put to use.
So what do boys do when they got their hands on a new toys? They play with it. I went around snapping everything.
Landscape
Food (Got careless. My shadow was on the subject)
Treats (not pin sharp but the manufacturer name on the wrapper is legible in the original size)
Orchids (in a bowl of water in a toilet of a hotel in the city of PJ - ahem)
My document bag
Fogged up windscreen
My dinner one night in Bahau.
My Ferrari 250 GTO
I took more close-up than I expected but I guess that is the norm of a amateur enthusiast (or is that enthusiatic amateur?) I am not experienced yet to really know how to make a picture interesting so I just get up close and personal on anything and everything.
Which kinda made me regret choosing this model over the P50. Even from review I read, Nikon S-range isn't especially strong in their macro. The sample macro photo of the P50 is excellent. I wished thse close-up photos I took with the S210 could be as sharp. If I wasn't so tight financially in the moment, I'll probably give this to my sister and get the P50. It's also too bad that I am not as famous as Timothy Tiah or Nikon might actually contact me to endorse their cameras. Would really love that but if they are looking for a blogger to do that, Kenny Sia is also using a Nikon. A DSLR no less so they have no reason to look for me (except I am a die hard Nikon believer). Sigh...
Still, I found my favourite subjects are portrait, especially happy people and people in celebratory mood and the S210 is definitely good enough for those shot.

Until I get my DSLR anyway.
*note: Above portrait taken with flash to compensate for poor quality outdoor lighting. Photo's quality is typically compromised in such condition and in no way reflect on the quality of the camera itself.

The new Knight Rider

2008-04-13T20:13:00.006+08:00

Some times ago, I had a funny discussion with some friends on what 80's TV series that may be made into a movie. The list included some really unlikely "hits" like a live action Care Bear and My Little Ponies (wincing yet?) but the one show that I thought has a good potential is Knight Rider.
I was a big fan of the show then and KITT was my dream car. I also recalled that KITT has a nemesis in a similar car named KATT.
KITT KATT? Gimme a break!
Anyway, two things are obvious if there ever going to be a new Knight Rider.
1) David Hasselhoff is NOT to return to lead the cast.
2) KITT definitely need to be housed in a more updated model.
For the former, I really can't think of anyone other than Paul Walker. Sorry.. love the first two Fast and Furious, kinda already stereotype him as the coolest face behind the wheel of a sport car.
For the latter, I just knew it's going to be an American car. No Lamborghini, no Ferrari, no BMW Z4. It's an American pride thing. Even in Tokyo Drift, the protaganist has to drive an American car (with Japanese engine though) in the end and Knight Rider is an American show set in America. My guess was that it is going to be a Dodge Viper.

This car is so sleek right? Kinda match what the original KITT was in the 80's.
As it turned out, the new Knight Rider is already out, not as a new movie but as a new updated TV series. I only found that out when I read Henry's blog. But they didn't get a Viper, they got a Mustang!

A Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 to be precise. Whatever.. I never did know much about cars.
It was an interesting choice though because this is obviously not the shiny sleek type of sport car guys drive to club to attract chicks but the tough as nail powerful car intended to get a job done, no matter the damages that come with it, to public properties or to the car itself. But of course we also know that the only thing that can come close to even denting a KITT is a KATT right?
I said it was an interesting choice because this reminded me of how they chose Daniel Craig as the new Bond, switching from smart, suave, sleek to fast and furious dangerous! I suspect we will be seeing a lot more car chase scenes in the new series. Come to think of it, there isn't much of that in the original series. At that age I saw it, I got enough thrill every time Turbo Boost is used, sending the car flying.
Hope to catch that show soon. The trailer I saw in youtube definitely looked interesting. I noticed KITT not only has a new body but also a new voice that is more human. Kinda liked the original voice though.
I still have no idea who is the lead actor but I am guessing David Hasselhoff will be making a guest appearance.

To Silas, Rachel and baby Sarah.

2008-04-13T19:59:00.002+08:00

My friend Silas and wife Rachel, celebrated the full month of their first baby girl, Sarah today. Little princess is beginning to look like her daddy. Congrats to my two dear friends.

Photo nicked from Rachel's blog.

An Appalling Sight

2008-02-13T07:57:00.000+08:00

No... I am not talking about Edison's pictures

I just stopped at a red light this morning when an old white Nissan pulled up beside me, obviously attempting to cut queue. In the car was an old man driving with with his wife beside him. Holding in her arm, unprotected by a seat belt was their granddaughter. The first thing I immediately noticed is the lack of protection to the little child, as well as the fact that both old man and woman were smoking, with all their second hand smoke swirling around the poor little girl. Wait.. there is another woman at the back. She was probably the child's mother and SHE WAS SMOKING TOO!!!

DAMN F!

What kind of people are these to be so ignorant, both of the child's wellbeing as well as the examples she is exposed to? If we can't rely on the older generation for example and guidance, what hope can we hold for the generation to come?

The Edison Law

2008-02-11T09:57:00.000+08:00

I can't believe how long it has been since my last entry. There is literally a dozen movies I saw that I want to write about but there is hotter news now than the latest movie isn't it?
Of course I am referring to the Edison Chen scandal. but for this post lets refer to him as E-boy since I don't want to waste the time of all the people googling and searching for the lastest release on this matter. To those people:

NO PHOTOS HERE!!
NO LINKS HERE!! Shoo, shoo

E-boy supposedly sent his laptop for servicing and had all his dirty files within- photos, videos copied and currently widely distributed on the internet. Whoever is doing this is all out to ruin him but the greatest damage falls on the girls who willingly took those dirty photos with him.
I was having lunch with Duncan, Jaclyn and Joshua. As Duncan was enthusiastically feeding us with the latest update on this juicy gossip, I turned to the only girl on the table and asked just what is it about E-boy that girls find so attractive? Jaclyn could only say than bad boys like him can only be a boyfriend but never a lifelong partner but ah... she just admitted that the attraction existed, didn't she?
While he is admittedly cute in some way, E-boy is nowhere as goodlooking as me some other celebrity like Wang Lee Hom isn't he? And he is nowhere near as talented either. And do I even need to question his maturity or sensitivity after the recent scandal?
OK.. so Wang is one in a million but unfortunately, many also believe that he is not straight so let's throw him out of the picture and just look at all the new actors Hong Kong have in recent years, especially those in the TV drama. I can think of a few example but I don't know their name. Which kinda prove my points. These actors are better than E-boy in term of good look and talent anytime, yet they could not reach the level of celebrity that E-boy is enjoying.
Why?
Is it simply of the bad boy persona?
It is frustrating sometimes. In a society which increasingly discourage integrity by constantly rewarding those who do not practise it, a good man could not even win the girl of his dream out of the goodness of his heart while the bad boy is charming a new girl every week into doing anything he likes. And the girls willingly do it, because they want their guy to be happy. Talk about adding insult to injury.
Can the girls see that the reason bad boy has so much bravado is that they got nothing to lose? He wants the girl but not for life, he doesn't care if he got rejected and so he dares. Because there is no emotional attachment.
A good guy finds a girl he likes and tried to care for her in every way he can. He hopes to be there for her for the rest of her lives and can't bear the thought that he is not the one for her. And therefore, he dares not, in case he did something wrong and loses her forever.
Is it any wonder then, that there is this twisted advice that tell men not to be too good to their women? Because if we give them everything we have, then we will have nothing else to offer? Because it makes us unexciting and predictable?
We should all be bad boys then, getting women to give us what we want instead of giving them what they desired. If nothing else, it at least maintain their attraction to us, won't it?
But dammit, this is not how I want to treat my woman.
I could go on and on but whoa... how did i got out of topic like that? Back to E-boy, I don't think he is suffering much damage at all. It's not like he even cares that right now, all those girls who ever been with him wanted to slit his throat. And since he is rumoured to be showing off those photos to his friends, he might actually be enjoying the attention. But per Duncan, he unfortunately also took some photo with a girlfriend who supposedly have close ties to the mobs in Hong Kong and is currently hiding out in US.
True or untrue? I don't care and I don't think the rest of the world should too. Now shouldn't we all be more concerned about the extreme weather in China and how it is affecting her people? Shame on all of you.

World of Idols

2007-12-16T00:29:00.000+08:00

The first Idol show I followed was American Idol Season 3, and if memory serve me right, it was in the same year of the first and only World Idol. I caught that on a repeat telecast and it was the first time I saw Kelly Clarkson in action. (Well.. I don't watch a lot of TV or listen to the radio much then). Kelly sang Natural Woman and I thought, "How can she only won second place? The other contestents aren't even half as good as her!" Clips from her time in American Idol shows an adorable bubbly personality and her attention to what the judges said display such intelligence and openness to constructive critism. (some contestents actually argued with the judge, I recalled one who cussed too). I mean.. what a woman... my kinda gal.

Could not find a clip of her in World Idol. This is a similar performance in American Idol.

And then of course Kurt Nilsen from Norway opened his mouth and I can only go, "Oh.. ooooh!" Kurt Nilsen won the World Idol hands down fair and square.
It was 8TV (best free TV channel in the country) that brought the Idol show to Malaysia 4 years ago with Malaysian Idol. The other stations wouldn't bring it in because the franchise was too expensive. 8TV makes no secret that its intention was to send a Malaysian Idol onto the world stage and our very first Idol, Jaclyn Victor proved that she has the prowess to be there. Unfortunately, there was never a second World Idol show.
The good news however, is that the first Asian Idol, with idols from six Asian countries, just finished its competition stage some half an hour ago as I am typing this. And our first Malaysian Idol was right up there with Singapore Idol, Vietnam Idol, Philippines Idol, Indonesia Idol and India Idol. I'm not good with names so I can't remember them but the Vietnam Idol is really pretty. Poor gal is not too happy when one judge commented that whether she can sings or not, she has the greatest commercial value of all the contestents there. She wants to hear compliment on her singing, not her look. She already knows she is pretty. What a character. Nice...
OK... Jaclyn Victor! She definitely did Malaysia proud. I think she has the most powerful vocal there. One judge said that she is too technical but I think that is one skill where she really outperformed the other. On the judge point that it was too technical that she failed to immersed herself in the song? I'm not sure, I didn't quite notice.
But the Idol is a win by votes competition. How can the show avoids bias judgement? Every countries is bound to vote for their own idol right? The Asian Idol solution is that each voter has to votes for two favourites or his/her vote will not count. This way I can vote for my own idol as well as another deserving Idol at the same time. For example, I voted Malaysia as well as each other country three times. That means each Singapore Idol, Vietnam Idol, Philippines Idol, Indonesia Idol and India Idol each got three votes from me while Malaysian Idol got 15. Suddenly, I am not too sure about their system. If 10 million Malaysians vote as I did, imagine what the score would be for Jaclyn? But then again, what is our measly population compared to India or Indonesia? My condolences to Vietnam and Singapore, by the way.
I recalled the system in the World Idol was that you cannot vote for your own country (unless you happened to be in another country at the time of voting). The result from each country is first individually ranked and then collectively tabulated. Using point system determined by the contestents' ranking, the rightful winner is finally fairly announced.
My suspicion for Asian Idol is that they will eliminate all the own country vote, otherwise Indonesia Idol will almost certainly wins. Why asking us to vote for 2 countries in the first place when they intend to do that then?
To ensure that we DO vote. One possible reason there wasn't a second World Idol is probably the lack of response to voting. By letting us vote for 2 countries, they tugged at our spirit of patriotism to support our local Idol as well as ensuring that we send votes for someone else that we think deserved to win. Yes.. I too can get very technical.
Which also means damn.. I just sent 3 votes for each country against my own. Oops..
Another thing I really wonder about is the quality of the sound mixing. The judges loved Philippines Idol's rendition of Reach but to me, it was rather flat without much high and low, as if she was saving her breath for an explosive ending which I thought she failed to deliver. When they show the recap however, it was totally different as she was actually really powerful. That was what the judges hear. That was what brought in the positive comments. Unfortunately for the home audiences, the poor sound mixing of the broadcast understated the true extend of the Idols' talent.
In my humblest and most honest opinion, I still think Malaysian Idol delivered the best performance. Jacyln Victor's vocal and showmanship (especially her showmanship) is unparalleled to the other Idols.
Yes.. I voted for my own Idol but my opinion is only 5% biased.

Do our education lack a secret recipe?

2007-12-08T02:04:00.000+08:00

I really need to write about something other than movie review.

Jaclyn sent me a link today on sales event in Malaysia and the first thing that caught my eyes is the Secret Recipe's 10th year anniversary celebration where they will be giving away one free cake with every cake purchased.
Being one of the most popular cakes in town, there is naturally a lot of excitement. In the forum, people started asking if anyone knows what are the term and conditon, or if there will be a limit to how many cake a single customer can purchase, what cakes are available in this promotion..
My initial thought is this is probably restricted to dine in order only but nobody seems to have the answer. I did the only thing I can do then. I clicked on the link provided to Secret Recipe website.
Lo and Behold!
All the information are there. Why can't anyone just click on the damned link? Is that so much of a hassle? Is it more productive to ask in the forum and keep checking for an answer that never comes? Do we blame the government for an incompetent education system that apparently left us all waiting to be spoon fed all the times?
If anyone is curiuos, the... know what? nobody should wait to be spoonfed. Anyone who is interested to know only need to know one thing. All info is in the Secret Recipe website!

Delightfully Enchanting

2007-12-08T01:37:00.000+08:00

Two fairy tales in a week and I love them both. I hope I am not getting soft.
But while Stardust is a tale of adventure and destiny, Enchanted is about something even greater - love.
Don't let my choice of words fool you. Enchanted is nowhere as epic or grand as Stardust. It is just much more delightful to watch.
Starting off as a cartoon, with the beautiful Giselle and the handsome Prince Edward falling in love at first sight, the movie quickly took a twist when Prince Edward's evil stepmother, reluctant to step down from the throne as Queen, banished Giselle into another world. Our world, or the middle of New York City, to be precise.
New York City is a world very different from the enchanted land of Andalasia. The sweet and innocent Giselle would not last one night in New york had she not meet dashing lawyer Robert who happened to be passing by with his daughter. Giselle however, is not doomed to be stuck in New York forever as her chipmunk friend, Pip saw everything and alerted the prince to come rescue her.
As with most of the leading ladies in traditional fairy tales, Giselle is full of love,ever kindhearted, eternally optimistic, hopelessly trusting, enjoys cleaning the house, speak to animal, sings at every opportunity.. the list goes on. In short, she gives us every reason to love her, provided we do not overdosed from her sweetness. From her horror upon arrival, to her delight of making new friend, to her cluelessness of the way of our world, and her joy when she sings, Amy Adams fits into this animated role so effortlessly she might as well be an animation herself.
Equally animated, Prince Edward was also swallow, as was every Prince Charming in existence. If we looked back at all those Disney cartoons, the prince never did anything but show up in the end of the movie to marry Snow White or Cinderella. At least in Sleeping Beauty, he fought a dragon. Still, it was fun to watched him basking in his own glory of greatness and courage.
Robert was probably the least remarkable of the three characters. But he is dashing and Dempsey does dashing well. All the ladies would swoon over him. The children I suspect, would prefer the prince.
It was a fun filled movie with plenty of laugh worthy moments and a few good song. It was the characters that made this movie comes alive, most notably Amy Adams's excellent portrayal of Giselle. Clearly a children film but the dance sequence near the end was so well done it upped the romance element several notches. The humour would appeal to most comedy lovers too. Definitely the best date movie I ever seen, if only I had a date.
Ah.. maybe it won't be long before I found my true love kiss..

Shining Stars

2007-12-07T23:10:00.000+08:00

There are times when I just want to be thrilled by nerve-wrecking action on screen, or awed with the acrobatic prowess of a martial art exponent. Other times, nothing engaged me more than the mind game and strategy two brilliant opponents employed on one another. Then again, sometimes I just want to laugh my heart out on the silliest matter. But nothing really beat the charm and delight of watching a fairy tale.Stardust is a story about a young man's journey across the wall from the mortal world of Wall, England into the magical world Stormhold to retrieve a fallen star to prove his love to a girl. In that realm however, the star took the form of another beautiful girl. Young Tristan convinced the star, Yvaine to follow him home so he may present her to his love. Unknown to them however, hot on their trail is a wicked witch intended to capture the star, whose heart is able to restore her youth and a prince aftering her for a jewel she found and wore, so he may rightfully take the throne.
The story may not be much, and we can already guess of the happy ending. But it was the journey, not the destination that matter the most isn't it? Neil Gaiman had fill the story with some very likable and memorable characters as well as interesting concepts. The very idea of a fallen star taking the form of a human is by itself fresh. It was delightful how she literally shines when she is filled with joy. Then there are the ghosts of dead princes stranded on earth until a new king is crowned, which made for good laugh. The magic chain that rebond after it is cut is a simple but neat idea. But my favourite has to be the flying ship, with net that flap out like wings, used to collect lightning in stormy skies and subsequently sold as spell.
The movie has an easy flow with everything tying up nicely in the end. While I am not too familiar with Neil Gaiman's work, the film was too apparently light for his style. I was told that the original story was darker and does not have a happy ending. Although fans will swear that the book is much better, and the work is illustrated by Charles Vess, whose works I absolutely adore, I am not too sure I want to know the story in any other way than what was portrayed in the movie.

Need-More-Wonder Emporium

2007-11-24T00:25:00.000+08:00

A children movie about a magical toy store, Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium appeared to already has the right ingredients to charms its viewer, very much like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. After all, what more could children love as much as chocolate if not toys?

But that is exactly what they failed to do, imbueing enough wonder into the film.
The film actually has a promising start. Hoffman's Mr Magorium, being the over 200 years old magic character he is, was delightful and likable and naturally said the strangest thing. His toys store has been around for a long time and he was planning to pass it down to store's manager, Molly played by Natalie Portman. To faciliate this transfer, the accountant Henry was hired. But when the magical store itself learnt of his planned departure, it began to throw a temper tantrum. Colours on wall desaturated and toys started to misbehave. It is up to Mr Magorium's as the fatherly figure to the store to persuade the store to accept Molly as the new owner and to Molly to retain the magic in the store.
Charming story this. If only the writer knew where to focus the story on. Everything that seems so wonderful and creative about the movie appeared to dwindle as the movie progress. I would prefer to see Mr Magorium training Molly to take over the store and using the opportunity to showcase more magical things that happened within instead of Molly trying to convince him not to depart. The direction got a bit too serious, even when the writers tried to make it light. In the end. they tried too hard to write a meaningful story that they neglected the magic. Some adults seems lost to what story the movie is trying to tell, I doubt the children will get it.
Children's movie does not always need to tell a meaningful story. The writers need to let go of reality and let their imagination just take over. I read a children book off the shelf of a bookstore about a boy taking a bath and before long, he was joined by many wild animals one by one. I admitted I don't remember the details much there is at least an elephant and a whale in his bathtub before he is done. In the end, the book never suggested that it was all just his imagination and it was an absolute delight to read it.
Yes.. the playful cardboard dinosaur was funny and the hug-hungry sock monkey was totally adorable. That were exactly what the movie need, in extra large helping. All that is sadly wanting in this movie.
But not all is lost. There is one scene in the beginning of the film when Mr Magorium told Henry how very long ago, he fell in love with a pair of shoes and bought enough pairs to last him a lifetime. That is how he knew his time is up because he is now wearing the last pair. Of course that doesn't make sense but there is something so charming about it that it will probably be the one thing I will remember about the movie in years to come.
Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium could certainly do with a little more wonder.

Of Hero and Liar

2007-11-15T20:50:00.000+08:00

Look at the movie pass above. Apart from Kee Lin is too broke to pay for movie that is why he only watches free movie nowaday, what else can you tell?
Is anyone aware that the entire movie is rendered in CG? Looking at the promotional image, I never suspect a thing. Something doesn't quite looked right but I never once suspect the movie isn't a live motion picture.
I was told that Beowulf is a Scandinavian mythology but really, all those praises to Odin is already a dead giveaway. The movie begins with celebration of victory in war and of the new hall built. This celebration is cut short when a monster, a giant in the form of a very deformed human attack and killed most of the men there. When King Hrothgar challenged the monster however, it chose to flee. Out of sorrow, the new great hall is sealed and the King offered as reward to anyone who can kill this monster Grendel, half of all the golds he owns. Beowulf arrived and slayed Grendel, not realising that its mother is an even greater terror.
The story and script is acceptable but after the first confrontation between Beowulf and Grendel's mother, it kind of lost its direction. Much is not explained in the movie with the biggest question of all, why did Grendel's mother did what she did? She did not kill the killer of her child but instead bear another with him and gave him glory as king and warrior, undefeatable as long as she deems fit.
Why?
Isn't she trying to avenge Grendel's end?
I have no problem with how the story ends however. It was actually quite apt. How else can it ends? That's the way folklore goes.
Though not exceptional, the script is provoking enough. Fans of Neil Gaiman will still be disappointed as it somehow lacked the depth that he well known for. Still, the speech he gave to a defeated invader on why he cannot be killed is pretty powerful. It was also interesting how he tried evading Hrothgar's direct question on whether he kill Grendel's mother. I also happen to recall a scene when he explained how he lost a swimming marathon because he got caught up in a battle with a sea monster when in fact he was seduced by a mermaid.
Damned Beowulf is horny and a liar!
Since most of us were fooled by the poster of the movie, it goes without saying that the graphic was what really stood out in the movie. Due to its realistic factor, it will bound to draw comparison to Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within. The difference though, is that the color in FF:TSW is more highly saturated and the characters have more beautiful hair. I recalled right away that in the movie Virtuocity, Denzel Washington had his entire head scanned so the special effect team may render him likeliness and filmed all his stunt digitally, which is what is being done to the entire film here. To compress the size of the file however, they scraped off some unnecessay details.
Herein lies the problem with CGI. Making everything in full detail takes too much time and space so the programmers tend to cut corners somewhere, ie the supporting characters and the extras. Most of the men in the movie are probably fully rendered digitally and thus, lack the realism compared to the main characters. Even the stars were rendered in different level of details with Angelina Jolie's character as Grendel's mother the strongest while John Malkovich's Unferth the weakest. Unferth was almost unable to make any expression whatsoever. And with the raw data of the highly detailed rendition of Jolie, the programmers are now free to render her anyway they want. Tsk.. it wasn't so difficult to understand how they list their priority after all.
But why make it a CG? Why can't they just film it? With a script like that, the film would be made better when we can see some real acting. Not Oscar worthy definitely but live would still be better.
In the end, this is a movie that leave much to the viewers' own imagination. Though it has good monster fight scene supported with a decent script, it doesn't really has the substance or depth. Falling short from being an epic, most viewers were probably more interested in seeing Angelina Jolie.

Eat Your Vegetables, Shoot Your Load

2007-11-10T09:42:00.000+08:00

"You know what I hate the most?"
Watching a crappy movie like Shoot 'em up and actually found myself enjoying it.
Shit...

Shoot 'em Up is a satire of action noir movie. The story begins with Clive Owen's Smith rescueing a pregnant woman from a group of assasins. The woman died and he ran off with the baby, intending to keep him safe and finding out the reason for the assasination.
Everything in the movie, from the people to the words to the action are either vulgar or downright ridiculous. Smith actually delivered a baby in the middle of an action in the beginning of the film and later does the same in the middle of making love to Bellucci's Donna.
"Talk about shooting your load", he said.
The movie could easily become a very bad B-graded movie except that it was evident that everything incredibly stupid about the movie is actually quite deliberate.
As if to show that this is not just a mindless action film, a lot of twist and turn are thrown in, wrapping the film in a tight conspiracy theory. Both the hero and the baddy, Hertz, also demonstrated intelligence in the pursuit for truth for the former and in locating his target for the latter. Yes... the logic used in their "investigation" is silly, I admit. Hertz located Donna because he realised that the baby needed to be fed and started looking for all lactating prostitute in the city. Smith discovered who the baby's real father is when he noticed an article in the newspaper he was using as diaper for the baby.
Clive Owen, both as an actor and as the character Smith in this movie is without a doubt the reason why this movie is so fun to watch. He is perfect for such kind of role isn't he? The dark noir type of tough guy in trench coat with a haunting past who smokes heavily to drown away his sorrow. Except for the unique twist that he doesn't smoke. He eats carrots. It is, after all, a healthier alternative, not to mention that he can used it as a weapon, or to reach a gun just beyond his grasp. Eating carrots never looked so cool before.
Another thing that most of us, or at least I can relate to is how much he hates road bully. Smith drove up to the car and forced it off the road. A very bad influence, I always wanted to do that. Most, if not every character such as the one he played here is righteous but his choice of what to be righteous about is really fresh.
With Smith disposing all the assault thrown onto him, including the 50 henchmen who ambushed his home, Hertz asked a very valid question.
"These men suck... or is he that damn good?"
Pretty much what crosses our mind in just about every action movie we saw. The heroes are good but the goons remained goons... idiots.
The writer director went to great length to portrayed Smith as a very exceptional and extraordinary man. His deductive reasoning is (silly but) sound and his skill with guns has to be seen to be believed. Actually it was still unbelievable even after you seen it but that was again, quite deliberate from the director.
I stepped into the theater hoping to catched a movie that would not assault my mind - I was too tired to think. I did not expect one who would tickle my senses the way this one does. An enjoyable movie as long as you are open to the idea that is is a satire. All those punny one-liner alone is enough to leave you in stitches. Leave your brain at home, just enjoy the ride.

For the record, I still rated Hot Fuzz as the classier and more intelligent satire to action movie.

30 Days of Night

2007-10-31T20:34:00.000+08:00

Spiderman and X-men were cool but not as cool as V for Vendetta or 300. The number of good movies adapted from comic books seems to be increasing every month, and the lesser known non-superhero title really shows everyone what a good story is really like. This month, we can add 30 Days of Night to the list.

Lying quietly in Alaska is the northern most town in US, Barrow which during the winter, faces 30 days of darkness. A group of vampires take the opportunity to hunt.
When I first read the sypnosis when the comic book first came out, I quickly thought that that was brilliant and wondered how noone ever thought of it earlier. This will be the time when the vampires can hunt freely and openly without the worries of sunrise. 720 hours to hunt and with the town communication disabled and all means of tranportation destroyed, the entire town is doomed to die feeding the vampires' hunger (or is that thirst?). And the entire town's population amount to 120 plus after a bigger majority whom left for other parts in the country to avoid these dark period. In the end, the vampires only need to burn the whole town down and noone will be able to suspect what really went on.
The vampires actually has the help of a normal human, except this is a scumbag of a human, who went into town earlier to steal and destroy all satelite phone, kill all sledge pulling dogs and damage the town's only helicopter. His reason to help these predators is he was promised to be made one of them. He didn't get his wish.
Josh Harnett played the town sheriff who initially hoped to to capture these perpetrators but upon understanding what he is facing, contented with just leading a group of survivors from their clutch, a role that he surprising, played effectively. There is only a handful of the survivors left at the end, with the sheriff making a final sacrifice to prevent the vampires from destroting all evidence.
I managed to predict how the story will conclude but I still enjoyed the whole movie. It was quite horrifying when the vampires started unleashing their terror as their intention is apparently not just to feed but also to terrorise. They don't get such chances very often, when they are in control of an entire town. The people are brave but not stupid brave and they know the best way to survive is to hide until the sun rise.
30 days later.
The vampires weren't given much of a background but it was enough actually. Aliens and predators didn't started off in the screen with much of a background either. One clear difference of these modern vampires compared to the tradisional ones is that they do not have 2 long fangs. They have a whole row of them in their mouth. The better to bite you with, dear.
The movie can get frightening but it was not scary as in horror scary. I am never quite shaken with physical horror. After all, anything that has a physical body is something that can be fought. Still, the director managed to keep the excitement and suspense up and the characters were quite likable. A worthy movie with decent story to be watched in the theater.

The Sound of Music (NOT)

2007-10-28T22:45:00.000+08:00

What does it mean when you hear a loud continous clanking sound from the back of your car as you drive?
I don't know either, which is why I stopped my car aside for a check when that happened last Tuesday evening. As it turned out, I had a flat. A long big bolt had somehow punctured the side of my tire. That sound was the sound of the bolt's head hitting the tar road as the wheel spins. I am glad I had a spare but I still can't figure out how the bolt got there.
And now I got to get a spare's spare since the spare I had is used and I no longer had that spare as spare for another time that I would need a spare. Dollar notes flying away again. Siennn!

Alice in Zombie-land

2007-10-13T15:19:00.000+08:00

I was warned that I needed to watch the first two parts if I am to understand the story. I only know Milla Jovovich played a tough kick-ass babe combating hordes of undead zombies. It turned out that is enough to carry me through the film. I was also warned that the prequels, especially part 2, sucked big time. It turned out that part three didn't.
Milla Jovovich played, as mentioned above, a tough kick-ass babe combating hordes of undead zombies. The zombies in question were normal human infected with some kind of virus that turned them numb-minded and hungry for human flesh. Like a vampire, a normal human who did not die from an attack of an infected zombie eventually turned into one as well.
When the movie opened, the entire world is already overrun by these zombies. The Umbrella Corp, who is responsible for the outbreak is in secured hiding and desperately looking for a cure. This is done by continous cloning of Jovovich's Alice, whose DNA contained the secret to fight the viral infection. The real Alice however, is alone and on the run. It wasn't too long however, before she found and rejoin old friend Carlos, who is living among a group of human survivors who have learnt to adapt in this "post-infection" world. The third and presumebly final chapter of the movie also revealed that Alice is more than just a skillful combatant as she apparently has other power in her disposal. In the end of the movie, Alice once again faced the mandatory strong zombie nemesis.
Surprisingly, the movie wasn't action and gore all the way as time is taken to develop some of the character. and while I heard the zombie dogs were in both the prequels, Resident Evil: Extintion has a new horror to terrorise the humans in the form of undead ravens. They fly and are small enough to make shooting them difficult. Real menace but they led me to wonder, won't there be undead cockroaches and killer bees and locusts as well? Now that would be really creepy.
The chief scientist, who became Alice's nemesis, however, is pretty standard and boring villain stuff. I alway have a problem with normal human turning into super duper powerful being in such a short time. Too cliche. Still, my only complain is the nemesis itself. The rest of the movie is quite OK. The ending does not have a final closure, giving the viewers the freedom to decide what is next. For Alice and for the world.
Will there be another sequel? I don't know but Jovovich reportedly claimed she will not be playing Alice another time. Based on the reputation of the first two movie, I am surprised part 3 got made at all, but it was a good sequel made.

Of Gold and Silver.

2007-10-13T00:26:00.000+08:00

So what is it about my company recent annual dinner that is so compelling that a month and a half after it was over, I still want to blog about it, despite it being a smaller event than the Sales conference in July?
Group photo at Sales Conference, where noone's face can be seen...

Best photo from Sales Conference, taken on third and final evening.

Personally, I did something that night I don't usually do.
I camwhored.
So yeah... many photos were taken and yeah... I had fun.

Me and the National Sales Manager (don't play play), or affectionately known as Ah Jher (big sister).

Me rocking it, Fred, Paul, Serena,Angelie, Peter, Chester, Adrian, Lim.

Kenny, Chester with wive, Peter, me, Paul, Adrian, Lim.

Paul, Bala(-ji), Siva(-ji), Adrian, me.

The annual dinner was on 31 Aug 2007. That was supposed to be my first public holiday in the company but I still had to attend a company function. Since it was held in Melaka, the company had graciously arranged for our accomodation in Fenix Inn. Don't let the name fool you. The place is quite comfortable, much better than some other places that had the cheek to call themselves a hotel. I suppose Fenix decided that instead of being an average hotel in Melaka, they rather be the best inn in town.
The theme of the night was Gold & Silver and it was only until during the mandatory speech in the beginning of the night that I realised why. It was Malaysia's Golden 50th annivery of independence as well as the company's Silver Jubilee of 25 years.
I wore a grey lined shirt to comply with the colour silver and sprayed my hair gold, as did Lim and Chester. It didn't actually coloured my hair gold but added golden glitter to it, like in stardust. Bala, whom everyone fondly remember as Zorro when he donned the mask for an earlier annual dinner again made his mark of creativity. He simply wore a white shirt with a rectangular sticker of gold and silver each on his sleeve. Hmmm...

4 out of five of the finalists for best dressed are from Sales team.

The best dressed award eventually went to Serena from Penang, with Adrian and Angelie clinching the runner-up prizes. Yup, there was no gender division and the reward left much to be desired but I guess the glamour that came with it cannot be bought by money. Right?
Still, the right incentive would have motivate more people to comply to the theme at least. Say... maybe a vacation trip. Just local would do but the bonus being the days spent during the trip would not be deducted from the winner's existing annual leave. How's that?

The not so glamourous sharing the glamour with the glamourous winners of the best dressed award.

The food was the westernised version of the typical Chinese 8-course dinner. Sharkfin soup was replaced with the cream of mushroom soup. While the change was refreshing and creative, the satisfaction just wasn't quite there.
See, if I have my own camera, I would have taken photos of the food as well, but I don't. Up and coming though. Already window shopping for one now. The grand lucky draw prize of RM3000 cash would really come in handy. Too bad I didn't win it. Maybe next time.
Personally, I didn't like the idea of cash prize so much. It reflected on the lack of thought on the side of the organising commitee but I admittedly wouldn't have said that if I won.

Best photo of the night. Adrian looking like a king in his palace.

Best pose of the night. HOT!!

Me, with the King and the Princess.

Group of posers. Ricky, Lim CK, Adrian, Paul and me acting larn yau yeng but my elbow made me looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Chester (center, in yellow, hugging wife), won the coolest pose award hands down.

If we looked cocky, it's because we are good looking!!

I believe, I mean we believe we can fly. (And there is Bala, with his little gold and silver stickers.)

Me again, with the deserving winner of the best dressed award.

Upclose. I really only put this up because the picture managed to capture the golden glitter in my hair. Barely anyway.

Will the real Mr Smith please stand up... please stand up?

Th-th-th-that's all folks!
Well, for the night anyway. The next day, we did what tourists do in Melaka and toured Jonker Street. Bought myself a cowboy hat just for fun, and for shade from the sun. Paul spent quite a sum on some ethnic musical instruments. Who would have thought he is into that kind of thing? I always thought he is a little rock and roll but I guess we just can't judge a book by its cover.
We had different noodles each for breakfast and finished with a bowl of ABC. Alice and Lim had their fortune predicted in a temple. Our lunch was pork satay and after hearing so much from Lim about its aromatic meat and gooey pineapple sauce, it turned out to be a disappointment.

Well... at least I got my cowboy hat.

I looked like a girl.

2007-09-30T11:47:00.000+08:00

Angelie just pointed me to an interesting site. It has a face recognition software and upon uploading of your own photo, will match you up with celebrity who look like you. Interesting...
So who do I looked like? According to the site, the celebrity who bears the greatest resemblance to me is a very beautiful Song Hye Kyo.
But.. I... am... a... guy...
Song Hye Kyo is a girl I would love to go out with, NOT someone I want to look like. C'mon... which part of me exactly that looked like a girl???

The list of who I look like is outrageous. I even looked like Naomi Watts and the late Anita Mui. Let's see who else is there- John Woo, Alan Tham, Vince Vaughn, Salvador Dali(??), and Andy Lau. For those who do not know Salvador Dali, he was a great artist who was the father of surrealism, an art movement on things that are well... surreal. I would love his imagination but I don't want his moustache. Well, at least the last person was a saving grace for me. But no Wang Lee Hom in the list? I am dissapointed...
The second picture I uploaded revealed even more unbelievable result.

Sammi Cheng, Lauryn Hill, Sheryn Regis, Jericho Rosales, Katherine Hepburn, Jolin Tsai, Siti Nurhaliza and Tyra bank. Only one guy in the list? This is not helping with my self esteem here. What is really scary though is that I thought the resemblance to Katherine Hepburn is uncanny.
The third picture I tried is a little more encouraging.

There are still three hot babes there in Jang Nara, Sofia Vergara and Ayumi Hamasaki but at least there is also the hunky Takashi Sorimachi, Takashi Keneshiro and Won Bin. Hmm... and acclaimed director Chen Kaige.
I am certain this is not the same face recognition software used by the FBI. I HOPE this is NOT the same software used by the FBI. Definitely not to be taken seriously but it was fun while it lasted.

Scolding not enuff ler...

2007-09-26T20:06:00.000+08:00

A very well known advertisement we see in theater recently is the Digi advertisement, in which a cocky fat boy spoke freely and loudly in the theater without regards to the other patrons. He even bragged that noone will dare to scold him because he is "tai kor what".
That advertisement just has an updated version. He still received call in the cinema but his phone is in vibrate mode now. And he didn't even answer the call, just quickly rejected it. He can call back later, he probably thought. Oh... one of his arm is also in cast and his eyes is swollen.
He didn't get any scolding the last time he answered his call all right. He simply received a good beating from another patron. I think it was Vishul.

There's a rat in my soup.

2007-09-21T22:55:00.000+08:00

When every other studios seems to be releasing their own 3-D CG animated movie recently, having one more title seems so... unexciting. I was admittedly skeptical about this film until I know it was directed by Brad Bird. Yes, the same man who gave us the incredible The Incredibles. The man who beat Antonio Banderas (Shrek's Puss in Boots) for best voice acting award with his portrayal of the eccentric Edna Mode. That Brad Bird.
I felt something was missing when I watched The Incredibles. After watching Ratatouile, I think I know what that is. Despite the medium, Bird has the ability to make an animation feels somewhat like a full feature movie. Compared to an actual good feature movie however, an animation still somehow falls short, which explained for the nagging feeling that something is missing. Erm... am I making any sense here?
Anyway... Ratatouille is a story about a rat, not just any rat. Remy has a sense of smell far superior than any other rats but more important than that is what he choose to do with it. He smells out the good food and stays away from the rest, unlike his brethrens, who eat anything. He hung out a lot in the human's house, going through their spices and watching their TV. His favourite programme is a cook show by Gusteau, who advocated that anyone can cook. He also read Gusteau's cookbook which is conveniently left in the kitchen (Sesame Street was on before the cookshow, that's where Remy picked up his ABC).
Remy soon ended up separated from his colony and alone in Paris. In extreme hunger, he saw the spirit of Gusteau himself, who insisted he is a figment of Remy's imagination. Gusteau led Remy to his restaurant where he was soon discovered by the new barbage boy, Linguini (wait... isn't that an Italian pasta?). Linguini found Remy mixing spices and flavours to improved a soup Linguini himself accidentally ruined, thereby revealing Remy's genius in the art of culinary. The two became friends and eventually work out a system for Linguini to cook on Remy's behalf, who made the choice of what ingredient to use and how to cook it. The story presented is very unlikely but that is what animation is for isn't it?
Remy is not a sweet, cute and adorable character but he is likable in his own way. The other characters are nice although nothing really outstanding. Bird's characters do tend to become a wee too real for animation.
However, Bird managed to pulled the story together very well. As usual, he never hurry through the story, picking up the pace only when it's necessary and prefering to let the story unfold slowly. This slow pacing seems to have an extra magical effect when set in Paris.
The animation is superb. I noticed that Bird seems to like a painted effect in the colour of his animation, similar to what he done in The Incredibles. It is a effect I like quite a bit.
What is most important though, is that the movie is darn entertaining. And at almost 2 hours long, we hardly felt the time goes by. It is simple enough for the children to enjoy and yet still has plenty more to offer the adults. What was the title that made Brad Bird a household name in animation? The Iron Giant I think. I really got to get my hand on a copy of that.

MERDEKA!

2007-09-15T23:43:00.000+08:00

Recently I saw in a pharmacy, three elderly friends taking their blood pressure test. They were apparently very close with each other and there was an easy banter among them. These three friends, best of buddies, are by the way, consisted of a Chinese, a Malay and an Indian.
A truly muhibah friendship that crosses across border. I felt like I was in the middle of a Petronas "Merdeka" advertisement :-)

Fairy Tale

2007-09-08T23:53:00.000+08:00

I don't really listen to Chinese songs. In fact, I don't really listen to much songs at all. I guess I am more of a visual person, which is why I prefer movies. But once in a while you come across something memorable.
The mandarin song Tong Hua is one that really caught my eyes. Yes, that wasn't a typo. It caught my eyes because I didn't really care for that song until I saw the music video in a Karaoke session.
The video begins with a grand piano being pushed onstage. Michael then came up, dialled a number on his mobile phone and started playing. The scene shifted to the past when Michael was attempting to compose a song and his girl friend gave him the first few note of the chorus. We then see a few couple moment, mostly with the girl seemingly bullying the boy, affectionally of course. They then kissed and after that, the girl laughed at Michael as he has blood below his nose, not realising then that those are her blood flowing out. She has a medical checkup and then accompanied Michael for his rehearsal but she collapsed just as he started playing. Hospitalised and obviously terminal, she insisted Michael continue with his performance on stage, which bring us back to the present, with Michael playing the piano on stage and his girlfriend in the hospital, listening to the performance by phone. At the end of the song, she closed her eyes and passed away.
I am sorry to give away the ending. I am not one who usually do that but the whole video is just so touching. The director did an excellent job and the use of silent moment and slow motion really increase the emotion of the video. Viewers find their heart gripped with sorrow every time something happened to the girl. My friend from Hong Kong, Elsa jumped when the girl passed away. I am not joking. She was sitting right in front of her and that was how she reacted but who can blame her? That scene was really intense.
Watch it and see if it make you cry too.

The song itself is just a typical Chinese love song. Nice, sweet, and easy on the ear. The lyric is not as heart wrenching as the video. In fact, it is really a song of a guy wanting to convince a girl that he can give her a live with a fairy tale ending despite her disbelief in such. The words are simple and needed only average command of the Mandarin language to learn the song.
With a little help, I too learnt that song and in fact, sang it for a friend on her birthday celebration. She was plesantly surprised since everyone know I can't read Mandarin. I realised it's not one of the most played song in most location but when she does hears this song, I would like to know that she would remember me.

The Hardest Feeling of All

2007-09-05T02:20:00.000+08:00

I can't sleep.

For there is someone in my mind.

And my heart ache at the thought of her.

I do not know where to begin. Perhaps I should at the first time I saw her. She is a pretty girl and immediately I was interested to know her better. Admittedly the initial attraction is more physical than anything else but in time I saw her heart for what she is and gradually I fell, deeper and deeper. She was already with another man and though I long to be the one for her, I could not bear the thought of breaking them up for I have come to know that this is a good man. Gentle. Kind. Honest. Faithful.

I felt unqualified to pursue her love as I am not certain the depth of my feeling matches his. But we grew very close. So close she would tell me almost everything. And though she confessed that she is not happy with her relationship as she felt he does not understand her well enough, I could only encouraged her to keep trying and advised her on how to communicate to him on what she needs. Though my heart yearned to tell her my true feeling for her, the voice of my mind could only tell her what a wonderful man he is to her because deep inside, I know that she will be well taken care of and I wanted what was best for her.

The day I left the company was the most bitter and yet the sweetest day that I can remembered. For I know I will not be able to see her everyday. But it was also on this day that she told me, she broke up with her boyfriend. It was my last day she said, and she continued with the question was there anything I would like to tell her?

Yes there is. I wanted to tell her that in the time we shared together, I have grown really fond of her, and that deep down inside me, I wanted to be with her more than anything else. But instead, I only told her that among all the colleagues there, she is the one hardest for me to say goodbye to, and the one I will miss the most. She smiled a shy smile but I have the feeling that was not what she was hoping to hear. I continued that there is much more I wanted to tell her but the time has not come. I said that because I was not sure what her feeling for me are and I do not wish to frighten her.

We continued to meet up even after I went separate way to a different company. We watched movie together, celebrated her birthday, shared a strawberry cheese cake over a dinner. I would like to believe I stood a chance but though she appeared more and more comfortable around me, I have the feeling her affection is decreasing? I also know of another guy who was aftering her, for far longer than I have. I made a decision. I decided that I wanted her to choose the one she really likes, regardless if it was he or I.

But the more I learnt of this person, the more I became afraid that she would really choose him. For he is not like the man she was previously with. I became more determined to win this war even though pressure from and commitment to work tired me greatly. I was continually robbed of chances to reveal my feeling for her and before long, I realised this person played a role in sabotaging some of my plan. My determination could only grow with this discovery but in the end I lost when she revealed that her feeling for me was never the romantic kind. Ironic that it was this moment that I realised how deep my feeling for her really are.

It was difficult to let go of the feeling after all that we have gone through. I have noone to turn to as my best friend himself has also just broken off a 4 years relationship. I chose to be his outlet to pour out his grief, instead of asking him to be mine. My dear sister knows of this but she will only worry too much if she truly knows how much this is hurting me so I hide this from even her. Everyday, I put on a brave face and tried to remained cheerful. It was the hardest feeling.

I thought of the last girl I fell for. Somehow, it has been easier to let go then. Perhaps because I know I was not yet the man she would like to share her lives with. Perhaps because I believe she found someone really compatible to her and one capable of giving her everything she needs. Perhaps it's simply because, I found someone else. But it is not so easy this time. If I have lost to a better man, perhaps it will be easier to be happy for her. I do not believe the man this girl chose deserved a person as wonderful as her. I can only console myself that despite my impression of him, I still believe that his feeling for her is true. And though he has a temper, he will not let it out on her. Or though he is far from honest, he will not hurt her.

Though I realised the futility of such thought, I admit I still harbour hope that she will one day choose me. The question is, until then, can we remain as friend? She assured me we still are but though she answered my call and we continue to chat, I could sensed her enthusiasm is no longer there. She hasn't as much to tell me as before and I have not seen her since the fateful day of my confession. Something always came up but I chose to believe her every reason for each time that she backed out. But I don't think I can continue with this. Each time she agreed to meet up is accompanied by the anxiety that she will cancel. And each time that she does cancel is the time my heart break all over again.

We were to meet up this weekend but she has cancelled again. I know I should let go.

It is hurting again. And it is always the heart that feel the pain the most.

Transform (and have a rolling good time).

2007-08-18T16:50:00.000+08:00

I finally watched Transformer and if I have to describe it in a word, it will be satisfying. Not great, not even good, just satisfying.

In a nutshell, the Transformers, both good and evil are on earth, searching for the All-Spark, a mighty artifact of unknown origin from their planet Cybertron that crashed landed here on earth. Of course the origin is unknown. The filmmaker couldn't possibly find enough time to tell everything. Beside, it would means that they have to figure it out too. Back to the movie, the good Autobots, wanted it to rebuild their planet, which is ravaged by the long war between the two factions. The evil Decepticon, on the other hand, wished to use it to create an army to take over the world. The cube shaped thingy was featured in the animated series as well, although they are known as energon and are the source of energy for the Transformers. The Autobots don't seems to need them though as they never try to collect any.

Bumblebee, who was the heart of the team in the original Transformer animated series was chosen as the star Transformer in the film. Good choice here and though fans wondered about the change in Bumblebee (he was a VW Beetle originally and a sporty Camaro in the movie), it didn't take long before we love the new version. Beside, in one scene, he single-handedly took out the Decepticon's Barricade, something we will probably have a problem accepting if he was the kind-hearted mild mannered Beetle that he was. Easily the most likable robot in the whole of the movie (made us all want a Bumblebee), we were expected to feel really sad, maybe even shed a tears, when he was captured by the humans. We can see he is in pain but it was also obvious he is not really fighting back hard because he does not wants to hurt them. How touching but why is it I felt... nothing?

Seems as hard as he tried, Michael Bay is still not the heart type of director he aspired to be. But then again, I did not come to watch this movie to cry my heart out. I am in it for the action and the robot and the mayhem etc. On that matter at least , Bay delivered. From earlier on, Bay showed us how superior a Transformer is to even our most advanced technology when the Decepticon's Blackout, in guise of a combat helicopter effectively and easily wiped out an army base. The tricky part here is that we must remember that although each Transformer is able to take the form of an earthly automotive, they are not made out of the same material as the automotive itself but presumably of their own harder substance that cannot be found on earth. For instance, an Autobot who tranformed into a Proton Saga will still emerged unscathed in a collision with say, a Hummer. Therefore we may questioned on why the Autobots all chose to disguise as street vehicle when the Decepticon took the more combat ready form of war vehicles but in the end, it doesn't really matter because in their robots' form, it all boiled down to who is tougher and better skilled.

Having said that, I thought Starscream was the most combat-effective of all the Transformer featured in this film, rapidly changing his mode of attack as he switched from vehicle mode to robot mode and back. He also appeared to be the only one who can maintained his flight as a robot. Megatron who was a handgun in the original Transformer was given a major upgrade in the film. As an alien's fighter plane, he was the strongest of them all. I recalled in the the cartoon I watched as a kid that he was never stronger than Optimus Prime although he undeniably has greater firepower. Here, he totally overwhelmed Prime and at one time, transformed both his arm into a powerful cannon he used to blasted Prime. I thought that was a pretty clever referrence to the original Megatron. Prime too showed a darker side when he earlier transformed his arm into a blade he used to destroyed a Decepticon. It happened quite fast. I think he either decapitated his enemy of sliced his throat. That was the first mortality before we saw Megatron tore the Autobot's Jazz in two. Nobody ever get mortally wounded or fatally killed in the original cartoon series.

We however, have to accept a few suspension of the physics law if we were to enjoy the movie. In the scene where the Autobots are hiding from the humans, we saw them swinging and jumping around (like monkeys do) the support of a bridge without dealing any damage to it. And I lost count of how many times Sam fell but was caught by an Autobot without suffering any injury whatsoever. The Autobots know Tai Chi?

The robots, both the Autobots and Decepticons but especially the Decepticon was not given enough screen time that it was difficult to tell them apart sometimes, except for Prime and Bumblebee that truly stand out. Fans who want to know the robot better may be disappointed by this but it helps in the development of the story which I must say cleverly involved the human protagonist, Sam from the beginning to give both side of the Transformers reason to seek him out. It still, however, has more holes than any cheese you will find in Ratatouille. The ending was quite unexpected for me, though I was probably expecting Prime to die due to what happened in the animated movie.

All in all, we have a Transformer that is edgier than what we used to watched. The camera angle and special effect is engaging. The robots do not appeared geeky when they were transforming (and in fact they transformed a lot in the middle of an action). The babe in the movie is really hot. What is there not to like about the movie? Satisfying indeed.

Question:

Why don't all Transformer take the same form that Megatron took, seeing how strong and powerful that form is?
There is a giant robot scorpion. What on earth did that Decepticon scanned on exactly?
Why do all the new robots created from the energy of the All-Spark so hostile?
Bumblebee became Sam's new best friend. He make out with his new girlfriend on top of Bumblebee. Eeewwww.
Hey, Starscream is still alive and well at the end of the movie.
Many more stoopid questions I can't recall at the moment.

Film Workshop, 4 Aug 2007, Central Market

2007-08-04T22:31:00.000+08:00

I went for a Film Workshop in Central Market this morning with Duncan and his sister Cordelia. Presented by Australian writer cum director cum actress Denise Roberts, I expected a talk on the steps and process of making a film. Instead, the speaker seems more interested in sharing her view on what makes a good script and movie. Which is actually fine with me because I am even more interested in that topic.
Her first topic was the importance of punctuality, especially since shooting usually runs on very tight schedule and any delay could potentially raise the budget by several hundred thousands of dollar. This short topic is probably directed at the few of us who did not arrived before 10 am. Ahem.
Also present to assist her in the workshop are two local actors. I have never see the girl before but the guy looked familiar (not to mention tall, dark and handsome too). They were given a simple script without any indication of what actually happened. The script basically goes like this; the guy asking the girl to stop doing something that is annoying him and the girl telling him to get lost.
Needless to say, the act was rather dry. Denise then explained to us the important of love or lack of love in a script as "love makes the world go round". Love which she also used as an acronym for Loading, Objective, Vulnerability and Empathy.
The second time the act was played out, she loaded the actors with a little background. The guy loves the girl and can't stand that she is addicted to drug. The girl loves the guy too but stronger than her love for him is her urge to get her regular fix.
That little background makes a world of different on how they actors acted out their role and how they delivered their lines. It is much better this time. Denise keeps adding more dimension to the scenario till she fill up on the rest of the acronym. Although audiences do not necessarily need to know the full background of the characters, it is important that the actors at least have a hint of it so the scenes may be acted out with more depth.
The workshop covered on pretty basic but important stuffs. Stuffs most movie buffs would probably already know though not necessarily apply when they write or attempt to write.
However, the problem with film as an art is that everything can be very objective and what works for one might not work for another. I can see Duncan shaking his head when she said the movie Fight Club was boring, pointless and she fell asleep at the same scene the 3 times that she tried to watch it. I saw the movie later of the day on DVD and I also beg to differ. It has a brilliant script and can be very deep. I am still digesting it as I write this.
I am also rather surprised that her style is very much inclined toward the Hollywood 3-Acts format with their mandatory positive message ending. This is a topic that drew some debate from the audiences with someone pointing out that a film with no message can be a message itself. Personally I felt that topic is more toward the Etiquette and Integrity of Filmmaking and does not necessarily make or break a film.
Denise also shared with us her experience as an actress in Australia and some difference between theater acting and filmed acting. One hint I very useful was how to protect the copyright of your script when you send one to a producer, short of registering a trademark for it.
Overall, a satisfying workshop I have no regret attending. Personally, the most important thing a film can achieve for me is to tell a story effectively.

p.s. I just thought of the movie Babel. A very good movie telling a story very effectively that ties up everything in the end but one which I can find no positve message from. It was just very real and very engaging.

Flashpoint

2007-08-02T23:48:00.000+08:00

Donnie Yen still got it.

No. Let me rephrase that.

Donnie Yen is better than he had ever been before.

I got a free pass to watch the first screening of Flashpoint in Malaysia. The movie started off with an interesting scene of Donnie Yen stepping into a kickboxing training gym to arrest a criminal hiding there. As he climbed into the ring, he was already taking off his coat and talking at the same time, getting ready for a fight. The said criminal fought back his arrest but of course he was no match for Donnie's Inspector Ma. One thing I noticed right away is Donnie using wrestling locking moves. Surprise surprise.

That essentially sums up his character in the movie. Tough as nail and as far as he is concerned, his duty is to arrest criminal. Period. If they want to resist arrest, then bring it on. Lets see who is tougher.

The storyline is nothing complicated. Three Vietnamese brothers making their mark in the Hong Kong triad society and Donnie trying to arrest them with the help of undercover cop Wilson, played by Louis Koo. As it turned out, the brothers found out about Wilson's real identity and attempted to kill him. As they were also too busy escaping at the same time, they did not finish the job and Wilson only ended up slightly crippled. Which is not so bad since he has a loving and beautiful girlfriend by his side (I still can't believe this babe is the last girl he thought of calling to celebrate his birthday).

Back to the story, the eldest of the three brothers was arrested and so the remaining two set out to kill all witnesses who will testify against him. I will leave out the details because I really come to see this movie for the action. And after a slow hour of storytelling, it finally begins.

The highlight was definitely the final fight between Donnie and the second brother of the trio played by Colin Chou. Donnie as the action director has certainly set a new standard here. I can't think of a better way to describe it other than fast and furious.

The two were equally matched in every sense although Donnie seems to made the first mistake by underestimating Colin. The upper hand kept switching between the two and was determined only by who managed to gain the momentum of the attack. But while Colin seems to displayed a strictly attack style of kickboxing, Donnie switched from kickboxing to judo to wrestling. Yes. Jackie Chan and Jet Li did that before as well but never to the degree that Donnie managed to achieved in this movie. He switched style so flawlessly, and executed each move so effectively that he seems like he been doing all these styles all his lives, unlike Jacky or Jet whom don't really divert much from the style they are familiar with and only managed to appeared dabbled into a new style to suit a particular movie.

We all know who will emerged the victor of course. But while the action is captivating, the plot left much to be desired. There were too many holes, like why the three brothers chose to go against the triad in Hong Kong. Or how the leaders of the triad could choose to testify against them without implicating themselves. There are more but why bother?

We are watching this to be thrilled by Donnie Yen martial art prowess and in that department, he did not fail to impress.

Am I losing my touch?

2007-07-30T21:43:00.000+08:00

Just for fun, and to avoid work, I looked at some old entries I wrote on my Friendster blog and found, hey... I seems to be a better writer back then than now. Everything's much more sincere and meaningful. What has happened to me that changed me so much that my even my writing style is altered?
This is how I should be writing review. Or shared a beautiful story.

The worst is not over...

2007-07-29T09:25:00.000+08:00

What?
With everything that has happened to me in July, it's still not unlucky enough? And I have to get into an accident to make it worse?
I hit a car in the rear last Thursday, damaging the left rear light and bumper of the car. On my own side, the bonnet is dented, front right light broken and the bumper, though still attached is pushed all the way back to the tyres. That means though the engine is still OK, I can't drive the car.
Repair will comes up to the thousands for both car and since it was my fault and I don't have that kind of money to spare, I am claiming from the insurance. The loss of moolah to go into repair is one thing, the inconvenience caused is the real consequences of the accident.
There I was hoping to close more sales for the month and here I am now, running around trying to take care of all the paperwork required for the claim. That and the fact that my car will need to remain in the workshop for a month. Luckily, I still have a Kancil for backup.
The whole accident is a hassle, and could not come at a worst time but is there still a silver lining to be found here?
I was bound for NS these 2 days and there was a report of a serious accident along the highway when a car skidded and crashed into a group of motorcyclists taking shelter from the rain under the bridge. I could have been there, I am just thankful a minor accident prevented me from making the trip. Plus, while searching for the panel workshop for Kurnia, a man collapsed in front of me in an epilepsy attack. I sort of helped that man recover.
So yeah... I can find the silver lining but I still hope for unlucky July of 2007 to go away soon and looking forward to a learning month of August. I have signed up for a filmmaking workshop on Aug 4 and a marketing seminar on communication helmed by a Mr Jeffrey Kee on 25th and 26th. Should be interesting.

(Un-)Lucky Seven

2007-07-23T00:03:00.000+08:00

There are much that I foresee for the month of July 07, especially in the 3rd week where everything would fall into place and the world would become a much more beautiful place. Instead...
1) The admin girl forgot to process my commission
2) My best friend's heart's broken
3) My heart's broken
4) My grandma passed away
There should be more but I can't seems to remember so I guess I can add 'failing memory' to the list. Sigh...

On the bright side, I made many new friends in person and one very interesting one online. OK, need to get into my positive thinking mode and start believing everything is possible.

Just a phrase on friendship I like to use even though most of my friends think it's corny.
"Without friend, noone would choose to lives, though he has all other goods" - Aristotle

BLOODY FUCKING HELL

2007-07-10T05:40:00.000+08:00

People who know me would probably described me among other, as patient and forgiving, some may even said I am too patient and forgiving to a fault.

BUT HELL, PATIENT AND FORGIVING IS NOT FUCKING HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW. I AM SO MAD I COULD NOT SLEEP THE WHOLE NIGHT. WHY ELSE WOULD I BE UP AT 5.40 AM TYPING THIS? I CAN'T BLOODY CATCH A WINK. GOD DAMMIT! I NEVER WANT SO MUCH TO REALLY PUNCH SOMEONE IN THE FACE. ASK SOME OF MY OLDER FRIENDS AND THEY WILL TELL YOU I CAN PUNCH. REAL FUCKING HARD.

DAMNED SABOTEUR. BLOODY FUCK HAS NO SENSE OF INTEGRITY WHATSOEVER. THE END JUSTIFY THE MEAN? NOT ALWAYS. AND NEVER, IF THE THE INTEREST IS SOLELY AND SELFISHLY YOUR OWN INSTEAD OF THE ONE THAT REALLY IMPORTANT. WOULD YOU BE PROUD TO WIN A WAR WON THROUGH UNDERHANDED TECHNIQUE?

IF YOUR NAME IS (name withheld) AND YOU WORK IN THE I.T. DEPARTMENT FOR (name withheld), YOU BLOODY FUCK BETTER FIND OUT WHAT MY FACE LOOK LIKE AND STAY OUT OF MY SIGHT CAUSE I FUCKING KNOW YOUR FACE AND IF I EVER SEE YOU, THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!

NO... I AM NOT FEELING BETTER YET.

UPDATES 23/7/07 : See, I am still forgiving. I removed the name of my enemy. Admittedly, the above post was a knee-jerk reaction and hardly justified. Anyone I have spoke to, I begun by admitting that I was being a baby about it. I acknowledged that I am probably as much a villain in my enemy's eyes as he was in mine. Still, in the exact same situation, I doubt I would do the things he does. In fact, I knew I won't because I been there.
Whatever... I just hope he is a better person that the (slightly tainted) impression I have of him right now, and not just because of 'this incident' especially since the battle was lost, just before the end of 17/7/07.

Best "Underrated Movie" of the Year.

2007-07-08T12:08:00.000+08:00

Here's a movie most people would miss, so if you are reading this, please don't miss it.

Hot Fuzz begins with a top London cop being promoted to sergeant and reassigned to the countryside for no reason other than he made the rest of the department looked bad. The village Sandford is a model village with extremely low crime rate and this is bad news for Nicholas Angel as he is totally commited to enforcing the law. So what do a hardcore top cop to do when everybody seems to be obeying the law and the worst crime in the village is the occasional grafitti?

It doesn't make thing easier that he has a partner whose impression of law enforcement in the city comes form the many action movies he seen. On top of that, there is the very active Neighbourhood Watch Association who keeps a close eyes on everything that goes on in the village. The police officers there have practically nothing to do. While Angel tried to adapt, and his partner continued to remained unprofessional and unserious about his job, it soon became clear that there is more going on in the village than meets the eyes (I know, Transformer fever. Forgive me). Though the village is low in crime rate, it does has an incredibly high rate of accidents.

Angel began to suspect that there is a murderer at loose and this murderer is cleverly disguising the murder as accident. With scantly any support from the local police force, he set out to investigate but the murderer always seems to be one step ahead of him.

Of course he solved the mystery in the end, this is a movie after all. While this movie poked fun on other movie for laugh, it does so brilliantly, unlike most of the slapstick movie we find nowaday. And though one would enjoy this movie most if one is familiar with cop-buddy films and the typical style of such film, there is enough effort in parts of the makers that others unfamiliar with this genre would still get the jokes. I saw neither Bad Boys II nor Point break, the two most satired films in this movie but I still laugh at its every reference, thanks to the film successful attempt to fill us in on the scenes.

When I watched this, Duncan and Suet were watching it for the second time. The first time around, both of them, together with another friend were the only ones laughing as the rest of the patrons do not appeared to get the joke. Brilliant as it is, this is one of those film that will only bring in mediocre blockbuster success along with a small but strong fanbase. Sadly, people nowaday prefer more in your face and obvious brand of comedy the likes of slapstick Scary Movie and its other incarnation. I admitted the first was quite good because it was unexpected and fun but the following sequel were just in bad taste in my humble opinion.

And hell, think I posted this review a little late since the movie is no longer showing in the theater. Go get the (original) DVD.

Drop Dead!

2007-07-08T11:31:00.000+08:00

I just read an interesting tips on mosquitoes control. Apparently, you can dilute a few drops of lemon flavoured dish wash liquid in a white dinner plate of water and mosquitoes will be drawn to the solution, drink it and died. A simple and far less toxic method to control mosquitoes if you planning to have a garden picnic than the regular insecticide.

Don't ask me if it really work, or if the solution must be strictly in a white dinner plate or if the mosquitoes will eventually develop resistance to dish washer solution. I haven't try it and I haven't a clue. All I remember was an even more powerful technique I once employed.

I was driving when I noticed a mosquito flying around inside the car. I don't know how it got in but I do know it's blardy irritating and my hands are quite occupied at the moment. I just wished for it to drop dead and sure enough... it did. Right in front of me and in mid flight, it just dropped dead on the dashboard (of old age maybe?).

If you can name any technique greater than having the mosquito drop dead at your mental command, please feel free to share but do not underestimate the power of the Force.

You do NOT want to cross me.

I don't want to watch Alone alone

2007-06-24T14:11:00.000+08:00

While I am admittedly not a big fan of the horror genre, I been itching to watch something that will scare the living daylight out of me. So far I have been disappointed. Amityville does nothing for me despite watching it in a darkened theater. Dark Water was more scary when Silas told me the story than when I actually watched it. Having not watch The Ring, its prequel Ring 0 is more confusing than frightening. Haunted Spirit is so amateurish I don't even want to talk about it. A friend once told me there are only two movies that scared the piss out of him so much he shat. And anyone who knows Pang can attest that it takes a lot to scare this daredevil. That 2 movies are the original Ring and a Thai film Shutter. While I have watch neither, the makers of the latter has recently released a new movie - Alone.

Pim is a Thai woman living in Korea with her husband Wee. News from home of her mother's succumb to stroke forced her to return home and once again face the past she was trying to put behind. The movie then revealed that she was the surviving sister of a pair of Siamese twins, with her other half supposingly perished in the operation that separated them. Flashback revealed her sister Ploy to be vengeful and possessive, especially of her twin sister. When a handsome young patient they met in a hospital fell for only Pim, Ploy became insanely jealous and even refused to budge from the bed for Pim to say her farewell on the day he left. This incident leaded Pim to insisted on living a separate live from the sister she is attached to. Hence, the burden of her guilt as she is convinced that her sister would still be alive if she hasn't make that decision.

What really happened? Here comes the spoiler. They are in red, so just avoid them if you are planning to watch it soon.

The sister who survived is not Pim but Ploy. Jealous of and upset with her sister, she strangled Pim to death. The manner in which it was revealed is brilliant, almost as good as Shyamalan's 6th Sense. In the beginning of the film, the sisters are easily identified with a simple pair of glass, with Ploy being the one who wore them. Pim has always been the sweet one while Ploy is constantly portrayed as the ... well, maybe not evil but definitely twisted sister. In the scene of the operation, Pim appeared unconscious while Ploy has a sad longing expression on her face. What we didn't know is that it wasn't anesthetic, Pim was already dead. Which is why the operation need to be carried out to save the surviving twin. Ploy then lived her live as Pim, corresponding with Wee and eventually moving to Korea to stay with him.

While it was great to watch a horror film with a strong storyline, here is where being too intelligent spoilt the mood of the movie. Suddenly, the victim became the victimizer and instead of rooting for her, we started wondering if the haunting spirit is being far too lenient. We no longer care if she survive and in fact hope she receive her just punishment. Afterall, the film been leading viewer to hate Ploy and to have her as the evil spirit definitely up the scare factor while Pim as the spirit leave us wondering if she has the heart to hurt anyone.

When Ploy scheme was revealed, Wee became the victim of torture as she was enraged that he could not accept her even though he has been living with her as Pim all these year. Earlier in the film, she accidentally ran over Wee's pet beagle and was upset that he couldn't care for the new beagle she bought him. They are identical in look, why does it matter so much that they are not the same, she questioned. An intense scene more suitable for a more grounded genre like psychological crime than supernatural horror, in my humble opinion.

Having said that, did the film did it for me? I wanted scare, so was I?

Hell, yeah. There is the complaint that there was too little of the scary parts and each of them was rather short as the director is more interested in developing the characters, which I should mention that they did well in, but it scared me good. The importance of a good director is evident here especially in cliche scene like seeing the spirit hanging on a slow moving ceiling fan because damn, I closed my eyes during that scene. I mean, I saw it coming but it didn't make it less scary. There is some unexpected scene though, one that I remember vividly is when Pim walked along a beach and turned to find that there were two set of footprint behind her. Too bad, it turned out to be merely a nightmare.

This has been an effective horror film for me but if you read the spoiler above, you would understand that I felt the story is more suited for other genre. Now I understand why most horror film has such a simple storyline because at the core or it, it is the scary part that matter the most. If the director has only added a few more scene, and prolong each of the scene to increase the suspense, then I will definitely be scared so bad I shat.

The scare factor is decent. But don't just take my word for it. I dare you to go watch it.

Alone.

Trip, Rip, Drip.

2007-06-09T14:25:00.001+08:00

This post is likely to invoke two type of emotion among friends who read my blog (Hi Alia, Hey Cheryl). The first is probably an immediate concern for my well-being because just a month ago, I had a minor accident. I tripped while moving up an escalator and fell face first onto the edge of its steps. Ouch! Believe me, that hurts.
That incident took place in Ikano and that fall left some cuts on both my shins and three on my lower lips, with the worst one on the left. My first instint was to clean my wound in the nearest washroom but when it would not stop bleeding, I take a look in the mirror and was horrified to find a gash so deep, it practically split my lower lips to two. I was overcame with an immediate concern that the bleeding will not stop and I need medical attention. I rushed out immediately and approached the first guard I can find. Not only was he ~~unwilling~~ unable to help me but he also glared at me with disgust and contempt. I am not sure if he is truly disgusted or merely horrified, which would explain why he refused to budge from his position. So frightened was he by the blood flowing out of my wound that his knee got all wobbly and standing still itself was a challenge. I left him and found another equally (in-)competent guard but at least the second guard did not glare. The woman in the information counter could do nothing but informed me that there is a clinic in Ikano but it was already closed and suggested that I try the one opposite the road in the Curve.
I don't know what made me decided to use the tunnel at the other end of Ikano but I was glad I did as when I was near there, I suddenly thought that the people in Ikea may be able to help me. The first man I approached in a help desk immediately picked up the phone and called their first-aid personnel. Ah.. the Swedish company is well prepared to handle small emergency.
The personnel who came however, told me frankly upon seeing my wound that it was too deep for her to do anything about it. Though she was not able to help, she stayed with me and was sympathetic about the accident. Maybe it was her professional training to relax me so I do not go into a shock but I think she was just a sweet girl trying to help.
I eventually went for a treatment in a 24-hours clinic in Uptown as all other clinics were closed by that hour. The doctor there advised that I needed a stitch for that cut. I asked for alternative and he ended up using glue to held my broken lips together as they healed. Yes... I wasn't aware of it either but there is such a thing as skin glue, used to hold soft tissues together. But as the cut was quite deep, his only concern was that the glue will not works. It took him several attempt before he managed to hold them together. The good news is my lips is almost all healed up now as I type this.
Looking back, the only pain was the pain I felt "on impact", after which it was gone. Considering the depth of the cut, the bleeding stopped very quickly with hardly any effort and there was no itchiness or irritation on the wound throughout my healing. Well, there was the uneasiness that comes with feeling the dry and ugly scab as the wound healed, which for once, I am disciplined enough not to peel as it seems to be the only thing holding my lips together. It kinda reminded me of some cases we see in Ripley's Believe it or Not!, where some people got into a serious accident, like a guy who had a steel rod impaled through his chest but miraculously missed all vital organs and major blood vessel, thus making the injury minimal. My case is much less severe compared to that but I still feel fortunate that it missed whatever veins or nerve in my lips that can make this much more complicated. Unbelievable? Believe it!
As for how I can tripped on a moving escalator.. well, here comes the second "emotional part" for those who are reading this. An unbelievable sense of incredulousness of the dumb things men do coupled with an exclamation of "Of all the stupid stunts he can pulled...".
I tripped because I was running up the escalator. I wasn't even in a hurry, I just do that all the times. I just never tripped before that day.
Yes, I know that was really stupid. And just one week after the accident, I found myself running up another flight to rush to a seminar. Halfway up and I suddenly remembered the accident and stopped. See... lesson well learnt.
I noticed something though. I was used to running up 2 steps at a time but at the time of the accident, I was only running up one. Must be a muscle memory kind of thing that caused that trip then as the momentum then does not feel naturel?
And no, that wasn't my ego speaking. And yes, despite this discovery, I am determined not to run up another flight of escalator.
Oh... if you ever need any help while you are in Ikano, don't bother asking the guard. They are just positioned there to give patrons a false sense of securities but are in fact, not allowed to move away from their designated spot and their walki talkie was not for communicaton for the handling of a emergency but for light chatting on a slow day when the guards are feeling a little bored.
Tsk.

Along Comes a Spider...

2007-05-06T15:17:00.000+08:00

Nope. this is not my review of the movie Spiderman III although I really should get to that. After all, with ticket to an early screening comes the responsibility to inform to the public the quality of the show.

Yeah, right!

Well, actually I just could not resist ~~wasting~~ spending my weekend to draw this. It was in reference to the movie Charlotte's Web, where a spider named Charlotte attempted to rescue a piglet named Wilbur from slaughter by spinning 'miraculous' web with words of compliment to the pig.

Wilbur was born a runt and because he is one of 11 to a sow with 10 teats, he would probably not be able to fight for his share. For this reason alone, the farmer decided to slaughter him on the very night he was born. However, he was rescued by the farmer's daughter, who took to caring for him.

Wilbur was a warm-hearted and friendly pig, not to mention really cute too and he brought some joy to the otherwise mundane farm. Everyone (as in, the other animals) grew to loves him but he was the only one who would befriend a spider. And what a friend Charlotte turned out to be as when Wilbur found out that he would be slaughtered by winter, she made a promise without a second thought, to save Wilbur from such fate. One night, she had an inpiration and weaved the word "some pig" on her web above Wilbur. The humans are so amazed by it they declared the incident a miracle.

However, Charlotte was not too confident that this is enough to saves Wilbur and so begin a search for a more incredible words that will both honestly describe Wilbur as well as touches the hearts of the humans in the farm. Spinning those words on web however, is a difficult job for Charlotte as she has never done it before. As the movie progress, so too does the design of the web as the tapestry became more refined. In the end of the movie, the tiny Charlotte did rescue Wilbur as the human were to amazed with the presense of such web that they put off the slaughter.

Yes...don't tell the children but from the direction of the movie, it was obvious that Wilbur will not survive the next winter. Ignore this fact however, and you will have an absolutely delightful movie to bring the kids to. Due to the cute factor, not a bad movie to bring a girl to as well.

I give the movie a three stars. I would also like to mention the visual effect is excellent. Talking animals, a CG spider and in my opinion, very realistic webs. Though it is no longer showing in the theater, I am certain that the 'resourceful' Malaysian will not have problem looking for an alternative. And here is the cartoon I just drew.

Apparently, Spiderman has an easier time 'writing on web' compared to Charlotte. And if you have seen Spiderman III, you might noticed that Venom pulled the same trick when he was trying to get Spidey's attention.

The human spider

2007-04-30T16:31:00.000+08:00

Me: So, you stick to walls, you shoot web, you have the proportional strength of a spider... you are literally a human spider. Do you feel blessed for all this?

Spiderman: Well, with great power comes great responsibility. I wouldn't use the word blessed but I guess I am glad. Glad that at least I didn't develop an appetite for bugs although considering the current economic, that might not be such a bad idea. But most of all, I am just glad that unlike normal spider, I don't shoot web out of my butt.

It's not my fault, it's the voice inside my head.

2007-04-28T16:14:00.000+08:00

BTW, something I thought of when I watched Spiderman 2. Does Sam Raimi has something for villains with voices in their head? The Green Goblin hears voices in his head in the first movie and so does Dr Octopus in the second, even though as far as I know, Doc never have that problem. Spiderman 3 will sees the appearance of Venom and since it is a living alien symbiote, chances are the host Eddie Brock will also hears voices in his head. Hmm...

It's the Venom of Love that sting the worst...

2007-04-28T15:54:00.000+08:00

Friends who know me probably guessed that one of my most awaited movie of the year was Spiderman 3. X-Men may deserved the credit of jumpstarting the recent flood of big budget adaption of comic book superheroes but it was Spiderman that was the most successful in this franchise. Duncan already secured tickets to the early screening of Spiderman 3 in Cineleisure Damansara on May 1, at 2 pm. To those who don't have a ticket... nyeh nyeh.

The marketing has been brilliant. The fans already know there will be a new Goblin. The studio revealed that the new villain for part 3 would be Sandman. We fans go WTF... we want Venom. What we didn't know is Venom IS in it. It was just never revealed until the first teaser was released and all the fans around the world started jumping with excitement.

Confession. Truth is... I am not too optimistic about part 3. Why? Hmm, must be an overexposure of their promotion. Too much of a good thing is not always ermm... a good thing. Beside, although my jaw dropped to the ground at earlier Spiderman 3 poster, I am getting bored with each new variation. Red and blue Spidey in new poses with a relection of the same Spidey in black. How much more repetitive can you can? Can we see a bit of the new Goblin or Sandman please... even though it is Venom we are waiting for?

In fact, there was a rumour when part 2 was screened that Harry Osborn will be Venom in part 3. Personally, I thought that would be an interesting twist to the original story. After all the only important criteria as the host for the alien symbiote is that the person hated Spiderman. Very very much. So far, we saw the gooey black costume, nice effect by the way and a glimpse of Venom. Unlike the comic version, this Venom is not brawnier than Spiderman. In fact, I would say it look more like a black Carnage and I thought I saw in the trailer, Venom shooting out black web. Which indicated that he is not capable of generating his own webbing but utilise the symbiote's shape shifting ability to replicate web. Kinda like how Carnage uses that property to create sharp tentacle as weapons.

There is other apparent difference that was revealed in the trailer. For one, Gwen Stacy will be in part 3. This difference, the presense of Gwen as MJ's love rival however, we fans don't quite find agreeable. In the book, Gwen was Peter's first love, not MJ Watson. And it was also she whom Green Goblin thrown off the bridge. Except in the book Spiderman failed to save her. Yes, in one of the most memorable story in Spidey's mythology, the first love of Peter Parker died because even though he managed to snatched her with his web before she hits the ocean, the force of the fall broke her back, killing her. That was about the only time the law of physic was not broken in a superhero story.

I understand the need for this though. At the core, what Spiderman really is is a soapy sappy love story. The superpower, the costume, the action- they are merely gimmick. Admit it or not, Sam Raimi got us, or at least me, all emotional over every victory and defeat of young Peter Parker. We rooted for Peter to find the courage to confess his love to MJ and we were moved speechless when he decided to remain "friend only" with her due to the tragedy that befell Harry Osborn in part 1. We cheer him on when he attempted to win back the then engaged MJ in part 2 and gritted in frustration when Peter blew his chances. When they finally got together in the end of that episode, we grinned like silly when MJ told Peter to "Go get 'em, Tiger" (a line from the comic).

So what will we be left with if after every battle, Spiderman gets to return to the loving embrace of the love of his live? Just another action movie. Heck, even in the newspaper comicstrip, their relationship is anything but smooth sailing. Therefore, we need something to rock their relationship and there is nothing like the presense of a sexy blonde to do just that. I believe they will have a rosy ending still after this episode and though Sam has not confirm it yet, trust me that if there will be a part 4, something else will be threathening their relationship. Maybe Logan will visit Manhattan and MJ finds him absolutely irresistable.

So if there is any guy out there who think it is not macho to watch romance, don't let anyone know you are watching Spiderman because screw Titanic, Spiderman IS the greatest love story of all time.

THIS IS SPARTA...

2007-04-28T14:43:00.000+08:00

During my absense from blogging, I did write one article which is the review of 300. I watched it on the opening week but never finish the review. That was quite a while ago but since I haven't post a review in a while, what the hell, here it is...

I saw 300 and IT. WAS. EXCELLENT.

For the uninformed, 300 is a movie adaption based on Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same title. This is the story of how 300 soldiers of Sparta defended their city from the massive Persian army so huge, they "shook the earth with their march and drink the river dry".

Knowing the actual history of this battle, I realised, when I read the graphic novel, that the story presented is highly inaccurate and excessively glorified but what the hell... it was one hell of a read.

My initial impression, based on the trailer, is that they will followed the other movie adaption of another of Miller's successful graphic novel, where scripts and scene was followed virtually unaltered from that of the printed version. While that will still be interesting to watch, I am glad director Zack Snyder did what he did, adding to the story, shooting some original scenes, and all the while keeping some very memorable scenes from the graphic novel, which is plenty. And their attempt to replicate the lighting and colour mood as originally presented is also commendable.

I could not believe that the role of King Leonidas, based on Miller's interpretation can be carried out so effectively but Gerard Butler pulled it off briliantly. He was brought up to be hard but yet it shows that deep down inside, he has a soft spot for those that he love. But it was his toughness that fanboys like us love, and his sense of sarcasm as only Miller can script it. One of my favourite line was his reply to a band of Greek who expressed their disappointment in his number of soldiers. And of course, all of us remember how he treated the Persian messenger in the beginning of the film.

The director has chosen to expand the story beyond what was first published. Good decision as the original content was probably not long enough for a proper movie. The rape of Leonidas's queen and the subsequent punishment she carried out on the traitor during the council meeting was not in the original story. But Miller's style was so closely followed in the scripting that even one who has read the GN wonders, if the scene were original, or were from the book but merely forgotten.

The battle scenes were awesome as viewers see how superior the Spartans, fighting skill is to the Persian. Purists however, may question... where is their formation? History as well as the movie have stated that the strength of the Spartan army lies in their formation. Formation which was used only in the beginnning of the first battle before every Spartan seems to break away and fights-maims-kills-slaughters as individual instead of as one single fighting unit. A friend also mentioned that in real battle, soldiers never thrust as deep as the handle will become slippery from all the bloodshed and it would be impossible to withdraw the spear.

Well... I was right about the formation as Dick was about the thrust but truth is nobody give a damn. We were all too busy feasting our eyes on the images of Spartans giving hell to the Persians. Have I mention I love the lighting used in the film? Apart from that, Leonidas gave the most powerful battle cry I have heard in a movie.

"GIVE THEM NOTHING! BUT TAKE FROM THEM... EVERYTHING!!!

It was not in the book but it still feels like Miller could have written that. But I must add that it only works because Synder managed to create the right mood for it. Can you imagine if Aragorn shouted that in LOTR: ROTK? And for the record, his battle cry, as scripted by Tolkien is excellent too, albeit a tad too poetic. My favourite battle cry, or rather 'final pep talk' is still that uttered by General Maximus played by Russell Crowe in Gladiator.

Before a Spartan knock my light out for getting out of topic, my verdict is... hey, I already said it.

IT. WAS. EXCELLENT.

I AM BACK...

2007-04-28T13:37:00.000+08:00

Some fan, aka a friend, been bugging me about updating my blog as apparently, reading blog is a fun way for her to know what is happening in her friends' lives. And I haven't updated in a while.

Well, its been speculated that the year of boar will not be kind to those born in the year of snake. And though I chosen to ignore these hocus-pocus, the report has proven to be accurate so far. I ran into so much problem in the beginning of the year I have enough material to write a book. Except I really could not find the time to even draft them.

Any girls out there who like guys with issue, here I am...

Still, there is no use 'bitching' about it here. I am just glad most of the problems are behind me now and the immediate future promised to be more rosy from now. There is a silver lining in these clouds after all. And there is no point to believe in fortune telling.

Just saw Wild Hogs last week. Basically a rather enjoyable but hardly outstanding films about 4 friends setting out on a road trip to escape the problems they are facing in their personal lives. You can call it mid live crisis, but to me, it's merely escapism. The humour is predictable at times but also fresh the rest of the times. I just thought it has the potential to achieve more than what it has to offer.

Right after the movie, I signed up for a promotion outside GSC. Gave my personal info and completed a short survey, all for a free bottle of 80ml mouthwash. Damn, that was so cheap I wonder how much need to be offered before I agreed to sell my soul.

Who's da man?

2007-02-04T22:06:00.000+08:00

Haven't the time to be online much nowaday. You can imagine, I just bloged about event that happened a whole one week ago. So I was pleasantly surprised to find someone left a comment on my post that goes:

hey !
like your blog better the xiaxue.
She only got shiiiiiit to say ;)

Keep it up ;)
Cheers,
Patrick
www.ribbsaeter.blogspot.com

Hmm... quite a generous compliment directed at a novice blogger, considering that Xiaxue is one of the most well-known bloggers around. Still, I shouldn't get too excited. My blog is just more 'likable', not better. And many people don't like Xiaxue for her attitude portrayed in her blog.
I thought she was a good writer but sometimes, I also beh tahan with her but it's her blog, she can write whatever she wants.
If one day someone tells me I am better than Kenny Sia, then I will have reason to celebrate. What???
If you think you can, you can.

Well, Patrick is on to some kinda charity plan for India (made mental note to read into details next time) so Patrick, if you are reading this, all the best to you.

p.s. First comment I receive on this blog. You made my day. Thanks

Along the Silk Road

2007-02-04T18:08:00.000+08:00

It is too easy to forget about the different and diverse cultures that reside in China other than the mainstream Chinese. The recently staged Mystical Steppes: Along the Silk Road is a real eye openner. For the uninformed, I am referring to the live performance carried out by the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar Theatre Dance Troupe in KLCC from January 26 to 28 of this year.

The Journey
As the event was jointly presented by The Star newspaper, there was no problem with publicity. A short article related to the event, usually concerning one of the many beautiful dancers in the troupe was a daily feature. I was fortunate to know of the event fairly early into their promotion and not just managed to obtained a pair of tickets but also ones with a very decent seating. That was the easy part, the hard part is getting someone to see that with me. So before I forgot, my thanks to Fiona for agreeing to accompany me despite not being sure she enjoy this kind of thing.
I figured I need a camera. I am (trying to be) a blogger after all. Unfortunately, when I asked a very reliable Ms Tan to borrow her camera, she already loaned it to another friend. A friend, who is a mother of a teenage son wanted the camera for the Rain concert she was attending. There was something very disturbingly wrong about our choice of event to attend but I can't quite place it. Oh well, it's time I start hunting around for a good camera.
There was another concern, the show will most likely be presented in their own tribal language or at least in Mandarin. I am clueless with the former and very poor with the latter. This is not a movie after all, there will not be any subtitle!!

The Experience
The moment I stepped into the Planery Hall, I wish I have a camera. There is so much I can put up in this blog. Actually, in full and normal lighting, the stage looked smaller than I expected. I thought the distance was just right though. Too near to the screen and I would not be able to capture everything on stage. A little more to the centre would be most ideal.
I was surprised when the show started as there was many bright and colourful lighting and the music, although tradisional, was infused with contemporary arrangement. It was an attempt to modernise the performance but personally, I thought it took away the charm of the performance. It was an introduction to the performance and thankfully, the subsequent acts were accompanied with their normal tradisional music.
And I was wrong. There was subtitle, projected onto a long screen above the stage. Too bad I only found out during the third performance, The Big Hat Dance. This all-men dance performance that seems to carry some influence from the Russian culture appeared to be a favourite with the family sitting behind me, based on what I overheard (not intentionally) during the intermission. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the name of the second performance, which is akin to belly dances but appeared much softer and gentler, which to me, made it all the more sensual. Now I really regretted not having a camera.
There was a second belly dance performance, The Exotic Arab belly Dance whish was hailed as one of the main attraction of the event although I actually prefer the first. The main dancer for this performance also danced with a prthon loaned from Zoo Negara around her. Many spetators were awed but I can't help but wondered if the light and sound and air condition may be a little overwhelming to the snake, especially after I read that the caretaker from the zoo did warned that excessive stress could kill it.
Aside from the dances, there is also two vocal and one instrumental performance, out of which the female vocalist was without a doubt the most impressive. The second song she belted out, Highland of Tibet, was supposedly one that many vocalist avoided as it required a very high key. And I do mean a really high key, although it seems pretty effortless to her. I wondered what Simon Cowell would say of her performance?
The show was hosted by a member of the troupe and a local host, whom looked very much like the girl from an old local sitcom, 2+1 but I wasn't sure. The presentation was decent enough and the Chinese host spoke with a sharp crisp voice that eluded most Malaysian. It's true. I don't understand either. We have better host/presenter/speaker/DJ in Malaysia nowaday compared to last decade but eventhough these people know what to say, many of them just don't have the voice. I have my suspicion of the reason but that would be another story.

The Verdict
Was the show good? I certainly won't mind a second viewing. The dances are lively, the costumes are fabulous and the people are beautiful. What is there not to like about this? At least Fiona enjoyed the show as much as I did. Whew, I was worried she might fall asleep.
Still, I find it a bit overwhelming to watch performance from 13 different tribes in two hours. I reckoned I would enjoyed it more if the audience were given more time to appreciate and understand the culture of each tribe, to be absorbed into their world but I guess that is just me.

What's Next?
Apparently, there was a tradisional Japanese drum performance a week earlier at the Istana Budaya which I didn't know about because it was not as widely publicised. I thought I might really enjoyed that. I saw the drum performance of the Korean (not live though) and I really enjoyed it.The Korean show has Korean women beating moderate sized drums while the picture for the Japanese show depicted men hitting really big drum. Different but I am intrigued nevertheless.
And through the power of publicity, there were 2 other performance brought to Malaysia I got to know about which I never get to catch. First is Cats. Admittedly I don't know much of this show except that it is a musical. The poster though, was absolutely brilliant. It has two yellow circle, within each which has a rough graphic drawing of a dancing figure. Look at both circle together and we see what looked like a pair of cat's eyes staring out at the readers. Brilliant.
Second is Stomp. I read about this and was very interested with the concept where the performers dance and created music with everyday objects. Those who do not remember reading about them may still remember them in an advertisement for one of the theater sound system when you go watch a movie. Or at the very least, remember a curly haired guys with a big empty drum strapped on each of his leg stamping around, making very loud noise. Anyone? Well, I saw a version of this in one of Hong Kong variety show and although it was a short simplified performance with mostly hitting pots, bins etc like a drum, it was already very enjoyable. Hope these two shows will come to Malaysia again.
Anyway, it won't be a quiet year. The Phantom of the Opera is taking stage in Singapore in March and aroung June, there will be a local production of Chinese romantic classic, The Butterfly Lovers. Now all I have to do is find a companion.

The Lake House

2007-01-14T16:46:00.000+08:00

The Lake House is basically about well, a lake house, which two occupants who lived there 2 years apart found that they could, miraculaously exchange letters between themselves through the house little mail box. Inevitably, they both found themselves falling in love with each other.

The movie begins with Kate (Sandra Bullock) moving out of the lake house in 2006 just as Alex (Keanu Reeves) was moving into the house in 2004. Before she left, Kate left a note in the mailbox, requesting any new tenant to forward her letters to her new address.The note is then found by Alex, 2 years earlier. It didn't take them long before they realised they are communicating across time and continue their correspondence as pen friends. Alex would then also met Kate, before she moves into the lake house and realised he really has fallen in love with her, at about the same time, 2 years later that Kate remembered back the same meeting. But when he failed to turned up for an agreed meet up 2 years later, Kate give up on that romance without giving him a break or trying to find out what happened. It was very obvious to me that in an accident scene in the beginning of the movie, Alex was the victim. The only reason he did not show up was because he died. Unfortunately, Kate only found that out another 2 years later. Wouldn't that make it 2008 then? The film even take us into the future.

The spoiler being, Kate found out that Alex got killed in 2006, shortly after their correspondence began because she has told him where she would be the Valentine of that year. Alex attempted to look for her there and met with a fatal car accident. 2 years later, she would find out about the accident and rushed to the lake house to forward a warning to Alex. The question then remain if Alex would find the letter in time before he set out to look for her. Knowing Hollywood, the studio probably film a version of each ending, one where he lives and one where he died. Obviously, screen test shows the more popular ending is he lived so he was saved from that accident and meet up with Kate 2 years later.

Do we feel sorry for Alex waiting so faithfully, 4 years in total, to reunite with Kate? Do we get frustrated at Kate for letting go too early or not trying to find Alex? Do we jump for joy when Alex avoided the accident because Kate's letter reached him through time, on time?

Unfortunately, interesting as the story is, we were not moved by any of the event. Although the plot was interesting, the movie failed to make us feel. Maybe the characters were just too nice, you know, the kind of people we can really grow fond of after we know them for a couple of years? Unfortunately, we only have less than a couple of hours so we never really grow to care aout them. Too bad.

Saying thanks with your hand.

2007-01-14T16:11:00.000+08:00

Seeing a lady driver having difficulty coming out of a junction, I slowed down and let her passed. She raised her hand in gratitude, except she is not very good with hand signal. Her hand was raised with her palm facing herself, thus making it looked like she is gesturing in offense instead of gratitude. Well, I was pretty sure she really meant to thanks me.

She is not the only one though. I know of people who refrained from giving similar hand sign because they realised they are doing it wrong. To these people, I can only advise; Show your palm.

Whether you are trying to thank a driver who just let you pass or apologising for say, slamming your brake too suddenly, just show your palm. It is the guaranteed way to send the right message. Afterall, you do not want other to think you are blaming them when you are only trying to thank them, right? Oh, if it's to a driver behind you and you can't turn around, just keep your eyes on the road and raise your hand as if taking an oath. We'll get the meaning. Simple, right?

Show your palm and you can't go wrong!
Well, just be careful not to overdo it la.

This community message is brought to you by pencilmanlives.blogspot.com

I will follow you...

2007-01-10T17:49:00.000+08:00

Anybody have not seen the recent Digi advertisement, with all those yellow teletubbies- like characters running around? It’s impossible to miss. Maxis may dominates the market but Digi rules the media exposure.
It’s really quite catchy. Played to the song ‘I will follow you’, these characters just follow people around, listening to their phone calls, reading their sms, (tried) following them into toilets etc. Supposedly representing the Digi service, they are really trying to say that Digi will faithfully be by the users’ side every time and everywhere. Except of course when their service is down or when user don’t get good enough coverage but they don’t mention about those. That’s advertisement for you.
Actually, I kinda like the advertisement, even though I don’t like Teletubbies. It’s funny, I almost always like the advertisement for the competitors of whatever I am supporting, although apparently, I am not easily swayed. Supported FedEx, coz I had a good time working for them but always find DHL ads funnier and UPS’s “Synchronized Dance” very classy. OK lah… FedEx’s “Stepping Stone” is quite a surprise delight as well.
Back to Digi, the ad has stop running. Maybe some people find it freaky but Digi is already on a new campaign. The ‘Hello’ ad however, lacks the creativity and energy of their earlier advertisement campaigns.
They also made a mistake with one short variation in between these two ads. After the deadline to register prepaid numbers in Malaysia, they have one where a new user registered and 2 of these ‘teletubbies’ characters fighting to follow this new user. Maybe they are trying to tell us they are very eager to serve us and that they have more than enough resources for their client but why didn’t anyone else in the ad has a yellow guys beside them? Digi unwittingly just told Malaysian that noone is using their service. Talk about giving the wrong impression. Digi probably realized this and that is why this campaign was so shortlived, and why the new ad seems a bit like a rush job. Love them or loathe them, we probably seen the last of those eternally cheerful, forever grinning yellow fellas.
For the record, I use 012, and before that, 017. Had I known Maxis will take over the 017 number, I would not have given up my 017-8880800 number. Damn waste but a.d.a.m. back then sucks. Oh well...

Pain & Pleasure

2007-01-06T15:36:00.000+08:00

One of the belief that Anthony Robbins taught was that our lives are controlled by 2 powerful force- PAIN and PLEASURE. Likewise, the changes we made in our lives are motivated either by our need to avoid pain or our desire to obtain pleasure.

In my "complicated" past, I have use the above unwittingly to avoid the pain of the live I was living and each time, a little difference presented itself. I was satisfied with the changes even though I realised my core problem is not solved yet.

Recently, all these leftover problem came back to haunt me. I may have miraculously secured a decent-paying job in a multi-nasional company but how far am I from the lives I wanted for myself? Driven by desire for pleasure this time, I found that what would please me is financial freedom and time for myself to do the things I enjoyed. A little luxury is most welcomed, it's been wanting in the past. I also want to be able to pamper a loved one, to let her know I am capable of taking good care of her.

I left my safe job last year for another in sales line. Though I shamelessly lauded myself for the courage to leave the security of that job, I must admit that I was really hasty and ill-prepared. Aside from a freelance project I managed to obscured, I have pretty much failed to achieve all that I have set out for. And once again, I found myself wounded from the pain of failure and rejection.

This year, pain will be my friend as I use the force from the need to avoid pain to change my lives once and for all. I may not always make the right decision, I amy face failure again, but the most important thing is to pick myself up each time I fall, preferable much more quicker than I used to. And stay focused.

Closure...

2006-12-31T14:42:00.000+08:00

How ironic that in the middle of writing one of the most inpiring article I ever post, one of not letting go of your dream and to keep fighting, that I should receive closure for my most important dream. Ironic that it was at this time that I found all my avenue been exhausted but the dream will not be realised.

And so it was with much difficulty that I finished my last article, Stepping into 2007 Strong, Wise and Full of Faith, and with much pride that I still finished it the way I earlier intended it. On the bright side, I shall be grateful that I receive a closure beyond doubt that I may now let go and like all the great figures I mentioned in the last article, including Jon Arbuckle, I shall stand tall and look into the future.

I would like to end this post with a timely New Year dedication I received.

The year is almost gone but it has also made us strong.
The path was long but we walked it with a song.
There were fears and tears but we also had reasons for cheers.

Wishing you Happy Memories of 2006 and have a Great 2007...

Stepping into 2007 Strong, Wise and Full of Faith

2006-12-31T10:17:00.000+08:00

It is the time of the year again for resolution when many of us look back on our past, evaluate the present and ponder on the future. So why is there only The Christmas Carol but not The New Year Carol? Isn't New Year the time all of us choose to do what we really should do on a more regular basis? An action known as reflection?
I am once again watching some of my (more important & personal) resolution dashed. It was so depressing all I want to do is give up. But thanks to a long talk with a good friend, I emerged from a state of shattered hope to one of renewed faith.
We all been through this, when what we are aiming for is so far beyond our reach we find that we have nothing to hold on to. And when our grasp on that which we desire weaken, we are tempted to just let go. After all, we are already too excessively exhausted from holding on for so long on merely faith and optimism alone.
To be or not to be? That is the question. The answer to this question is the question, "How much does this mean to you?"
While we are regularly bombarded with ever positive advice to be strong and keep fighting, letting go, sometimes is the wise choice. Our answer to the above question will be the deciding factor. How much your dream means to you? For if it means the world to you, a day will surely come when you will rue letting go of your dream. The only acceptable closure to a dream is try everything humanly possible, to exhaust all avenue and when you have given your all, yet the dream you seek cannot be achieved, there be no regret. But until that day, we shall continue to dream, and we shall continue to strive to realise that dream.
Colonel Sander did not sell his recipe to the first restaurant. He visited well over a hundred restaurant before one would give him a partnership.
Honda rise during one of the most difficult time in Japan and only through the sheer determination of its founder, overcoming obstacle after obstacle that would collapsed any lesser men.
Seabiscuit started his racing career in defeat after defeat and was forever the joke and underdog of any race before he started winning.
And the most inspiring success story (ahem) of the year 2006, geeky Jon Arbuckle finally, not only got a date with his dream girl Liz, he is dating her! This is almost as good as Charlie Brown finally getting a homerun.
"Everybody loses a couple. And either you pack up and go home or you keep fighting!"
Keep fighting everyone, till there is not an iota of energy left in you. Keep fighting even when noone understand and the whole world is against you. For there is no price you would not pay to see your dream come true.

Go Forth and Multiply

2006-12-26T09:09:00.000+08:00

In Happy Feet, a very irritated Lovelace, annoyed with Mumble's persistent questioning, told Mumble to "go forth and multiply".

Now, isn't that a funny thing to say to someone who just peeved you? Why would you wish for someone you dislike to multiply?

You are in a KTV, singing a slow love song, hoping to impress one of your lady friend in the group when one of the guys shout out, "Woh dude, you sucked, man."

And you tell him, "Who is this fool? You came join us here and you doubted my talent? Go forth and multiply"?

A driver from your right lane swerved in front of you so he could make a left turn. You have to slammed your brake to avoid colliding with his car. You give him the sign and shout," Hey... why don't you go forth and multiply"?

A local politician made a stupid and racist remark that insulted the entire human race and we comment, "Well, he can go forth and multiply"?

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?

Well, I am not sure if I am the last person to figure it out but out of the blue, it suddenly struck me the meaning of this phrase. Go forth and multiply, Lovelace is really telling Mumble to %#@* off. Really, just think of the literal meaning of both phrase. And it can be used in all the instances above.

Happy Feet just got away with saying "%#@* off" uncensored around the world and managed to obtained a "general viewing" rating too. We also got a new phrase to express a very vulgar meaning in a relatively civilised tongue. Go forth and multiply.

Come to think of it... why don't we all go forth and multiply. I shall now retire to my chamber of perpetual indulgence.

Dragon

2006-12-17T14:44:00.000+08:00

With all the excitement and fascination with dragon, now that Eragon is playing in the cinema, I thought I just post an old cartoon I drawn. This piece is quite a milestone since it was one of my earlier attempt in cartoon. Usually I just draw comic, superheroes mostly.

OK... I admit, just trying to do some promotion for my deviantart site at http://keelin77.deviantart.com

Tales of the Speed Demons

2006-12-08T18:07:00.000+08:00

That day I saw in Kajang an extremely obnoxious motorcylist who blared the horn all the way so drivers will look out for him as he weaved his way quickly in and out of the traffic. Damned speed demon. We all have our experience with them but I remembered two experience with different "speed-demon-ish" car drivers fondly.

Fondly? Yes, because you see, the twist of the event is quite funny.

I stopped in front of another car at a red light. Expecting the light to turn green soon, the car started to move forward, leaving maybe half a car-length of gap between us. I did not bothered to fill that space. That's when the Perdana behind me honked. I quickly looked at the light again. It was still red. What is this guy's problem? I turned my head around to look at him but he was already steering his car to the lane on the right, just as the light turned green. However, there was another car on that lane and despite being on the fast lane, the aunty driver inside moved very slowly. I maintained the same speed and the Perdana was stuck behind the two of us. What a laugh. Unfortunately at the next traffic stop, the Perdana already honked at the aunty and obviously affected, she drove faster this time. I thought momentarily to keep up with her and keep the Perdana behind us but what's the point? The driver's an idiot. I let him overtook me.

Then, there was the time I was driving back from Penang. I was just overtaking a slow vehicle when I noticed a car flashed at me. How far away was this car? So far away it looked like it flashed at me the moment the driver saw my car's rear lamps but it is coming at me fast and furious. I know I do not have enough time to overtake the two long trucks in front before that BMW is at my tail so I gave way. But as the BMW approached, the two trucks decided to moved over to the fast lane, thereby, blocking the BMW. My friend urged me to maintain my speed, trapping the BMW with me on its left and the two gigantic trucks in its front. This moved on for quite a distance and to give some credit to the driver in the BMW, he did not sound the honk or tried in anyway to get me to slow down. Eventually the two trucks overtook an extremely slow Kancil. I too, have to slowed down as the Kancil was in my way. That was when the BMW came into my lane and overtook the two trucks. After that, the two trucks decided to returned to the left lane. My friend and I agreed that the two truck drivers probably did that on purpose because maybe they were miffed by the BMW driver's arrogance. Flashing your lights from a whole kilometre away IS arrogance.

It was satisfying in a small pleasure kind of way to see these drivers humbled by such situation. That's all it is though, small pleasure. Nowaday, I usually chose safety first. You never know if one of these crazy drivers may do something stupid and caused an accident.

Damned speed demon.

Saying...

2006-12-08T17:48:00.000+08:00

It is usually those who treated others as less than human who are often so themselves.

At least treat me as a human...

2006-12-08T16:24:00.000+08:00

C worked in a health food shop. The shop opened from 10 am to 6.30 pm. Despite this, many customers would choose to come at the last possible minute and the shop will have to stay opened for them. This is quite understandable as the shop does not have a branch and these customers usually come after their work.
In one incident, a customer called in close to 6.30pm and requested the shop to stay open a little longer as she is on the way. She only arrived at 7. That's alright, at least she is courteous and appreciative. Well, some are fake and act nice only so they can receive a favour but let's not dwell too deep into that for now.
Then another called at almost 7, when all employees should long have been gone but still demanded that they wait for her. C informed her that they are still open but they are closing soon. They will however, continue to serve her if she arrive before they leave. Reasonable?
Not to to this customer. She started making noise and demanded that they stay open. When C thought she should let the manager take the call, even the manager will not take it and told C that they are closing now. The customer was upset and scolded C for not willing to wait another mere 5 minutes although she never informed earlier that she is that close by. She even asked C if C is trying to get her into an accident by rushing her to come over quickly, although C never did rush her. Reasonable?
As an employee, we are obliged by contract to serve the customer during our shift and by sheer goodwill beyond our shift. On one hand, we understand if a customer could not come earlier if he/ she worked far away. One the other hand, which God dies and gave customers the right and power to treat any other human as anything less? To expect the courtesy of being served beyond the opening hour is one thing, to be a bitch about it is quite another. The shop is opened on Saturday till 6 pm, which is always a viable option. Of course as a customer, she does not care if others are working past their shift as long as she does not have to sacrifice any time from her precious Saturday day off to visit the shop.
Customers have their rights but just as there are many traders who take advantage of an ignorant customer, there are just as many, if not more customers who abused their right. Perhaps the above are lousy examples but the topic here is not about consumers' right but about treating others, including those below you as the human that they are instead of as some hungry broken dogs begging you to feed them. THEY. ARE. NOT.
There is also another who put up a full-fledged diva act everytime she comes in. If you thought some of the diva attitude of celebrities that we read about in papers or magazines are unreasonable, imagine having to face them. A Mrs knows-it-all who speaks loudly as if she owns the place and expected to be treated like a queen. She treated everyone there including C, like they are nobody. Forget that she goes to the same church as C, she is probably to proud to be associated with anybody of "lesser status". Bitch.
I worked as a customer service representative before and have more than my fair share of experience with customers who treated others as dirt but I been known known for my high tolerance and have put all of this behind me, save for one.
This Mr B called in the moment I started work and keep bombarding me with the f-word. I was serving Singapore while he was calling from Australia. While it was not my fault that the call was wrongly routed to me, I recognise that it is definitely the company's fault so I held on. I certainly do not need to put up with his language, especially since the company's policy was that we have the right to tell the customer to refrain from using those words or we will hang up. But I was in a good mood that morning and was feeling generous. The company been good to me so I want to give the customer an "outstanding customer experience". Silly me. At the end of the call, he demanded for my name because he is not happy with the way I spoke to him. WTF?
I gave him my name in full and spelt it out for him but my manager never ask to see me regarding the call. And I still have a happy birthday the next day.

Happy Happy Feet.

2006-12-03T17:16:00.000+08:00

I know this is gonna sound girlie but OHMYGODTHEPENGUINSARESOCUTE!

Sorry, can't resist it. Despite keeping the animation relatively real and not giving its characters big round eyes, baby Mumble is the cutest thing to come out of CGI. The cuteness is not just in the look but more on the manner, movement and speech. He is also the only penguin who wears a "bowtie". Kinda made me wish there were more scene of baby Mumble before he grew up. (The cheating studios, they use the picture of baby Mumble in the poster. I didn't know he will grow up so soon).

OK, I think I degraded my macho-ness enough as it is. The film carried a surprisingly thick plot. We know that Mumble is the only penguin who could not sings although he can tap dance very well. In an environment, as per the film, where one sings a heart song to get the girl, Mumble's chance is as good as nothing, especially when the girl he desired is the best singer in the flock(?). But beyond the story of romance, the film also touches on friendship (expected), alien abduction (huh?), natural preservation (what?) and a little on the pressure to conform to society expectation when ultimately it was the courage to break away from conservative mindframe that is needed to overcome an obstacle that was unattended to due to an overzealous adherence to tradition and superstitious reliance on a greater power that was nothing more than a religious belief(holy *insert name of preferred animal species here*!). The movie did not take the direction most animation typically did. Some scenes and incidents will surprise you.

I can't help but to feel that when their leader Noah is preaching in an obsessed manner for them to behave and to sing praises to the Great Guin, there is a message in the scene. In a broad sense, I supposed we can assumed the movie is telling us to put aside our difference, accept others' culture, think out of the box, be open to new idea, among other messages. But if it has a more specific message to a specific audience, its message escapes me. Anyone care to provide some enlightenment?

The best part of the movie is the musical. All penguins, after all, has a heart song. Now I am not too musically inclined but there arrangement is really good. The voice is great, excellent arrangement and flawless interjection. Snippets of famous love song, including a short "Hello... is it me you're looking for?" are thrown in although I think most of the songs are original.

This time, I will offer my friends' verdict instead. One remarked that this is even better than Moulin Rouge (OK, maybe that is a bit kua cheong) while another saw fit to quoted one of the human characters in the movie who said, "I don't want to live in a world without penguin."

Incidently, the movie has a great website. You will smile again watching baby Mumble dance on the flash site at http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/

Pasta Nite!

2006-12-03T16:06:00.000+08:00

My friends and I had dinner at Italiannies in the Curve last Wednesday night. We deliberately chose that day of the week because it is Pasta Buffet night, all you can eat pasta at only RM19.99++.

WE ARE NOT CHEAP. WE ARE ECONOMICALLY SENSIBLE.

I am not too familiar with Italian dish apart from the occasional pizza at Pizza Hut and spaghetti cabonara at Murni mamak restaurant in SS2 so I intended to try a wider variety of pasta that night.

There were four of us and we were seated at a small square table measuring no more than 3' x 3' by my estimate. A Chinese restaurant would never get away with such small table. There won't be enough room for all the dishes. Small as the table may be there is still enough space for four plates of pasta and glasses of drink with room for everyone's elbows too :)
The ambience is warm and cosy and the service isn't too bad either. I don't frequent this kind of joint too much but they are definitely better than those buffet restaurant we can find in any 5-stars hotel in the country. In fact, for a 5-star hotel, I thought the service is horrible, not just in the restaurant, but in the reception as well. Unfortunaely we have all seems to accept that as the local standard of service. Another story for another time.

The format for the buffet is simple. Choose a pasta, choose a sauce, choose a topping, waiter will bring you the food and when you are done, repeat again. For the first round, I chose... Spaghetti Cabonara with chicken chunks. Yeah, yeah, I have that all the time but it's good for comparison sake. For my taste however, Itallianies paled in comparison with the cabonara served at Murni.
Unbelievable. To begin with, I don't know if that is the way to serve pasta but I like my food hot. Murni served a plate hot, generous with sauce and chicken chunks and sausages. In comparison, Itallianies's was warm enough with just enough sauce for the spaghetti and a relatively frugal amount of chicken chunks. No sausage. OK, OK, that didn't matter. Truth is, it wasn't that bad- I just like my Murni's spaghetti better.

I was more adventurous in the second round, ordering Linguine in aglio olio with salmon chunks. I wanted to try an oil based sauce and I heard seafood goes with this best. Somehow they messed up my order and it did not arrive until all my friends were done with round two. Computer glitch konon. Or are they trying to prevent a round three?

I was initially worried that I will not like this sauce, that the oil will be too thick. It wasn't. The sauce was quite mild but pleasant enough, and the pasta is served hot this time, with very generous topping of salmon. The only reason I did not finish it was that I was already full. no room for round three.

Despite the pasta buffet night, I noticed most people were not there for the buffet. The pizzas seem to be a popular choice. Must try that next time. Still, it is very feasible to select the buffet menu as a single plate of pasta normally goes for more than RM30. Unless of course, they served tastier pasta from the al carte menu. The pictures definitely looked more appetizing.
To sum it all up, the food and price is acceptable, service is good, I like the atmosphere and the girl who held the door open for me is quite cute too. I just might come back here again soon.

Teaching of Sudoku

2006-12-03T10:51:00.000+08:00

You know it's a slow week when you solved a sudoku puzzle and decided to blog about it.

Here it is, the first puzzle I solved, found in a copy of Malaysian Today, finished in under 15 minutes as I snacked on nuggets and slurped on Sprite in a Burger King outlet.

Hey, that's pretty quick, and easy too. Or didn't you notice what is written above the puzzle?
Not very challenging but I could use the encouragement. I tried another on The Star newspaper. This is much more difficult, took me about an hour but there is no rating given.
See how much messier this puzzle is? Not as straightforward as puzzle # 1, that's for sure. Called for a lot more brain power but I enjoyed it. I got so hooked that I went through the stack of old newspaper for more sudoku puzzles and stayed up late into the night cracking the puzzle. I can proudly say that I can solved most of the puzzle between half to a full hour.

When I got my hand on the newspaper on Saturday morning, again I looked at the new puzzle. OK... this is a hard one. I made a single mistake and could not solve it. Tried again until I reached a deadlock. There just simply isn't enough clue to go on and I have went way past the time frame of one hour. I digged out more puzzles, hoping to learn some new trick from them. Every time I solved one, I went back to this difficult puzzle but I was still stuck.

With nowhere else to turn to, I visited www.sudoku.org.uk for some hints. However, every tricks they taught there I have already learnt from previous puzzles and none can get me closer to solving this puzzle. However, the site advised that when all else fail, pick one square with 2 possible answer, choose one and see where it takes you. That's it? The sudoku puzzle is reduced to a game of trial and error? I always thought the puzzle can be solved wholly by logic but apparently, there are what is known as diabolical puzzle with plenty of dead ends that require "advanced solving stategies or intelligent guessing". This must be one of them, albeit a relatively easy level of a diabolical puzzle. I think.

But I guess life's like that. Sometimes we are faced with choices which each seems equally good (or equally bad) and all the analysis and reasoning and pro & con weighing in the world are not able to help us make a decision. Rather than be stuck in a deadlock, it is best that we make a quick and firm decision and see where it takes us. After all, in life, more often than not, we regret more about the things we didn't do than the things we did. How enlightening.

Sudoku. Fun way to spend your time and gives you live lesson as well. What more can you ask for? Oh, I did solve the puzzle in the end. If you are interested to see that, look for the puzzle published in The Star on Dec 2, 2006. I recreated the puzzle here as well. As you can imagine, my original copy is pretty messed up.

The magic of The Prestige

2006-11-27T18:17:00.000+08:00

I wasn't quite sure how to write this review. I thought that the movie is brilliant but you see, I don't quite like the ending. The idea suggested in the end was too mind-boggling to grasp that somehow, I felt cheated because I could never have seen it coming. This, despite that the ending was hinted before it was revealed but the concept was just too fantastic that I rejected the notion, and looked forward to other more logical explanation. This is akin to the experience I went through when I read Alan Moore's "The Watchmen".

Therefore, I found it difficult to write this review without revealing the ending because without it, I would not be able to describe how I feel. Yet, I do not wish to spoil the ending for anyone who had not watch it yet.

Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale played two magicians who started off as friends but ended up as enemies, whose rivalry grew deadlier with time. Jackman's Angier is more a showman and less a magician, and strictly abided by his principle of not getting his hands dirty, like killing little animal for the sake of performance. Bale's Borden, on the other hand, a superior magician albeit with poorer showmanship, believes that sacrifice must be made and literally lived his trick in his everyday lives, even keeping the secret of his tricks from his beloved wife.

When the movie begins, Angier drowned to death in a magic trick gone wrong. Being present at the crime scene, Borden was eventually convicted for his murder. The story then unfolded through a series of flashback on how they both began their carrer as magicians and how they became the enemies that they were, leading subsequently, to the murder of Angier. Of course, like the magic tricks that are the theme of this movie, nothing is as it seems. Watch this and be astonished, not unlike watching magic itself.

I used the word earlier and I will use it again. Mind- boggling. Do not watch this when you're having a headache.

I am Bond... born again

2006-11-26T20:06:00.000+08:00

"Dry martinis."

"Shaken or stirred?"

"Do I looked like I give a damn?"

Well, I heard this is going to be a very different Bond. He is, tough as nail and extremely dangerous. I am guessing that everyone has either watch the movie or read its review so I will just skip the part of the storyline here.

For the record, I like Brosnan's Bond for no other reason than he is super smooth and suave. I like smooth. Connery's Bond is universally accepted as the best while the others who ever (attempted to) played this characters are pretty forgetable. Unexpectedly, Craig just managed to slips in the ranking between Connery and Brosnan.

This is by far the most realistic Bond film I saw and it calls for a new tougher and harder hero. With a little of Connery's charm, Brosnan's suaveness and a whole new level of unprecendented toughness, Craig will erase all doubt casted upon him as the new Bond. Everyone is loving the new Bond and I do wonder if they are going to maintain the hot-headed character portrayed here or as the films progressed, will he evolve into the Connery's Bond we have all come to know.

As with all recent Bonds, the producers tried to give a Bond girl more equal to Bond himself and they succeded admirably here. But instead of merely being merely smarter or tougher than the classic Bond girls, they create one with strength in character instead and it is easy to understand how Bond could falls in love with her.

I am not sure if I am the only one complaining here but I am not too impressed by the villain though. Sure, at one point he orchestrated the capture and torture of James Bond but beyond that, he never struck me as dangerous. It was also quite a dissappointment that as a professional gambler, he would has such a tell-tale sign of bluffing. It's a wonder Bond is the only one who caught on to it.

I would like to mention about Chow Yuen Fatt in "The God of Gamblers". In that film, the villain observed that Chow has a tendency of subtly touching his ring whenever he bluffs. He tried to uses this knowledge, along with a series of dirty tricks to defeat the God of Gamblers only to find out in the end that Chow deliberately played out this habit for an entire year in order to mislead him. Brilliant... but I guess most of the world are just not obsessed with gambling as the Chinese are?

OK, back to Bond. Like I mentioned earlier, I like smooth. Craig is a little weak when he played smooth but for what he lack in suaveness, he more than make up for in gritty toughness. An enjoyable movie overall.

Will Draw For $

2006-11-16T18:12:00.000+08:00

In the month of September 2006, a friend recruited me to do a comission work for a pre-school book for 4 years old. A total of 24 pages of drawing in 2 weeks- pencilled, inked, coloured and layout. I did it in a little over 3. Fortunately, they still accepted and paid me as agreed.

It wasn't easy drawing for children. Not to me anyway. I grew up drawing superheroes afterall. I was struggling with the correct proportion but in the end, I pulled through, thanks to the unrelenting and uncompromising criticism my dear sister provided. The whole look is quite inconsistent but I think I am getting the hang of it. The publisher is pleased too.

The moral of the story; Criticism is good. Listen to it and use it to improve yourself.

I am grateful to land the job and just as glad when it's over. I am still holding a full time job and only had time to complete the drawing in the night. For almost a month, I went to bed only at 1 am and woke up at 7 am for my day job. I practically do not have the time to see any friends outside of work.

I can't wait for my next project on Feb next year.
My first piece, also the piece that got me the assignment. This is one of the piece that worked out as I hope but the boys look like they are older than 4. No big deal though.
A family portrait. This is exactly the piece I did. No changes although I realise (after submission of my work) that there is no shadow on the floor. Gasp... a floating family.

Two pieces on emotion.
Some other selected images. I kinda like the one with the three friends. Original drawing was very small though, only about 5 x 5 cm so there isn't much room for detail.

Two pieces of maze that I need to do. I have to make sure it's not too challeging for 4 years old though. I enjoyed creating these mazes. Maybe I will make one with higher difficulty just for the kick of it.

Well... like it? If you have any commission work to offer me, let me know.

The Dentist Visit

2006-11-14T18:41:00.000+08:00

It's ironic. I never have any problem with my teeth or visit a dentist in my 29 plus years of living until now, 2 months after I joined a dental supply equipment.

About a month ago, I noticed there was a stain on my second premolar tooth on the upper right quadrant. Terms I learnt from my current job but since I am the one who just got a filling along with a warning that I might need a root canal, I am not feeling too cocky.

I intended to get a checkup on this but which doctor should I look for? In my line of work, I have come to know several dentists whom I know is really good but premium services comes with premium charges. Also, knowing the benefit of laser tretment, specifically, laser supplied BY my company, I intended to only look for a dentist with similar equipment. This eliminate the only dentist I know who is delicately careful but charges reasonable rate simply because he hasn't own the laser yet. In a case of knowing more than I need but less than I want, I kept delaying the dreaded visit to the dentist. Furthermore, I brushed my teeth twice a day and there was no pain or sensitivity whatsoever. Surely it can't be that bad. Maybe just a bit of decay that can easily be sterilised and the tooth remineralised?

Well, a friend went to a polyclinic for checkup and scaling. registration is only RM 1 and the scaling for RM 2. Very cheap. I came up with the ingenious idea of going there for check up and then deciding later, which doctor to visit for treatment.

I visited them today and the dentist told me I need a filling. Not just on the tooth I mentioned but also another on a tooth on my upper left quadrant. And when she proceed with the filling, I did not object, having totalling forgotten at that time that the girlfriend of my friend just had a filling redone as the first one fell out. Premium dollar for premium care. I just paid RM 2 for this filling. What type of service am I getting here???

To give the dentist credit, I thought she did a good job although I really wish she didn't keep asking her nurse how many patient is waiting outside. I don't doubt her skill but I do wonder if she care more about my oral health or about going home early. She did not even do the filling for the other tooth, telling me to return again. She never tell me what she is doing and what my option is but followed her Nike syndrome to "just do it". Whatever answers I have, I got by staying back and asking. Apparently, my teeth grow very close and tight so it is difficult to remove food stuck between. But I always check, that is how I notice the stain. She answered all the questions I can think of but I got the feeling like I was holding her captive against her will.

"What is wrong with this guy? Let me see my last patient so I may go home!!"

For some people, I guess it is OK. By some people, I am referring to those people who don't care about their teeth and went to the dentist only when they are seriously aching. I am not one of those people. I want to be able to smile with a full set of my natural teeth when being photographed on my 90th birthday celebration. So much for that wish. Served me right for never visiting the dentist all this time, for arrogantly believing that good genes and low craving for sweet is all I need to maintain my teeth. Afterall, my father smoked and only brushed indifferently once a day and he is still able to chew through fresh sugarcane.

And the moral of the story is; take good care of your teeth and remember to visit your dentist. I felt so silly because my previous company has a dental plan but I never use it. I only thought of going for a scaling when I was resigning, then feel guilty about using the company resourses so I didn't. Bodoh.

And when you are visiting your dentist, ask if he/ she used laser. Better still, tell your dentist you prefer laser treatment for your teeth under the precision of magnification of a microscope, then tell me which clinic and where. Heh heh.

Damn, treted tooth feels a bit cool now. I hope it's just my imagination.

The Birth

2006-11-11T15:19:00.000+08:00

Since I am new at this and am going to post something as a test, I might as well make something out of it and write about the name of this blog.

Before that, I just want to add that the date of birth for this site of 11 November is no coincidence. I chose this date of double eleven. However, as I was trying name after name that turned out to be taken, and passing the intended birthtime of 11.11 am, it never occur to me to try the name double-eleven. I came up with pencilmanlives.blogspot.com instead.

As it turned out, it wasn't so bad. As an artist (OK... an aspiring comic artist), I started most, if not all my drawing with a pencil. The name indicated a comic book superhero character and the title itself is like a movie name, which, being a movie buff of sort, is quite complementary.

The Pencilman Lives - um... kinda cheesy actually. Oh well...