Life of the finite being

At school

2010-08-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

Breaking into the computer school lab... Feels good!

The Bourne Objective

2010-08-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Uh I was sorta disappointed with Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne trilogy(Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum) simply because their time settings were out of date and it had a plot so different from the films. So I checked out the later books written by Eric Van Lustbader.

Like the critics say, Lustbader re-tuned the books to a timeline similar to the films and to please fans of the movie franchise who were displeased with Ludlum's books.

The Bourne Objective marks Lustbader's fifth Jason Bourne novel and signs show he's not slowing down any time soon.

The plot picks up from The Bourne Deception which I wasn't able to buy in which Jason Bourne continues his struggle with fellow Treadstone agent Leonid Arkadin who was mentioned in The Bourne Supremacy and appeared in The Bourne Supremacy film version as Kirill, the dude who kills Jason's girlfriend.

It turns out CIA wants to resurrect Treadstone and pitches their two agents Arkadin and Bourne against each other to see whose training program is more effective. It turned out Alexander Conklin, the Treadstone mastermind dissolved the original program after Arkadin went insane and subjected a more delicate module on David Webb who later became Jason Bourne.

Yet the story unfolds into more than a CIA plot and brings in Russsian mobsters on the hunt for Arkadin, CIA sending spies after Arkadin, Arabic clandestine movements and a terrorist organization known as Severus Domma who are hot on the trail of Solomon's gold.

Hold it! This is a book about Jason Bourne, not National Treasure or some adventure crap. Still this book will satisfy fans of The Bourne franchise. It has alll those awesome action, car chases, footchases and gunfights loyal to the films and of course Robert Ludlum's novels. Lustbader is also able to replicate Ludlum's brilliant ability to catch the reader when they least expect, resulting another subplot or gunfight etc. So this novel will also please hardcore thriller fans. But this trick backfires in this specific novel, it keeps us reading only to be disappointed at the very end. So it was no surprise I finished it in 5 days despite being considerably longer than regular novels.

Sadly, aside from Leonid Arkadin, his dead girlfriends and references to Alexander Conklin's involvement with the Arabs and Arkadin there is little character development for Bourne which is why they should've finished the story instead of continue milking the cow. Jason Bourne's character arc has gone full circle in The Bourne Ultimatum although Lustbader managed to pull it off in his first three novels Legacy, Betrayal and Sanction.

Although it's not a bad book, I hope it'll be the last we see of Jason Bourne because the character is in a decline.

Books, books and more books...

2010-08-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

In chronological order,Hannibal is the last piece of the puzzle of everyone's favorite genius cannibalistic serial killer Dr Hannibal Lecter.

Stephen King rated it as the best in the series however I still consider Red Dragon to be far more superior although this one is still much better than Hannibal Rising which makes it a damn good novel.

In this piece, we get a piece of Dr Lecter's genius-nes. His intellect and knowledge of history enables him to secure a job as a museum curator after he killed and ate the original curator. What a genius, one of the youngest men ever admitted to medical school, his analysis on serial murder is among the pinnacles of criminal psychology, vast knowledge of wine, good cook, and very cunning at freeing himself from traps, running from authorities and concealing his identity. I wish I was like that.

It does live up to it's name to be part of a critically acclaimed thriller. Spawning Oscar winning movies etc. Like it's predecessors, Hannibal gets you in your seat. Obviously Harris has talent at scaring his readers.

Recommended...

I'm not a fan of British literature so Empire Sun gets the honour as the first British novel I've read.

Unlike the American literature of Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Thomas Harris or Mario Puzo. British novelist have the tendency "just to tell the story" without any love scenes or grubby dialogues. Nevertheless, it's more boring than the American storytelling because British literature has it's roots in Shakespear's work.

I read this one because I was a big fan of the movie directed by Steven Spielberg starring a young Christian Bale as12 year old Jamie, the boy torn from his wealthy family during the height of the Sino-Japanese war in World War II. But wait there, the Japanese aren't the villains.It was Basie, a war torn American played nicely by veteran actor John Malkovich in the film. He used Jamie to test for landmines, tried to sell him to Chinese and used him in stealing Japanese goods.

Despite being the reason for his hardship, Jamie maintained a strong admiration and respect for the Japs even befriending a Japanese teenager aspiring to be a kamikaze pilot much to the dismay of the British prisoners in Lunghua prisoner camp. Slowly, with bad hygiene and hunger, the British and American prisoners dying but Jamie kept himself alive with the thought of seeing his parents again and his friendship with the Japanese seargent of the camp.

Nevertheless, he came to a point where he forgotten his real name "Jamie" after being called Jim by Basie and the British for years. He even forgotten the face of his parents.

A sad and morbid novel yet the worse it gets, the better you know it'll turn out in the end.

The last mobster novel by the author of The Godfather. Omerta refers to the Sicilian code of silence, the #1 rule of Cosa Nostra hierarchy. The novel portrays the criminal society in chaos after Don Raymonde Aprile, the LA Godfather was assassinated.

The story goes on when his adopted son Astorre Viola comes out with an ingenious and ultimately successful plan to capture all the perpetrators including a corrupt FBI official whom at the beginning I thought was the good guy. Somehow FBI are worse scumbags than mobsters. At least the mobsters show courtesy and respect. FBI scumbags only care about "justice" in the hands of equally corrupt bureaucrats.

The Silence of The Lambs

2010-07-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Although it took longer for me to finish this than Red Dragon, I finished The Silence of the Lambs rather quickly compared to most other novels.

Like it's predecessor, author Thomas Harris again brilliantly brings back one of entertainment's most alluring villains, Dr Hannibal Lecter. For those who crave to have Dr Lecter in their pages after reading Red Dragon, it's your lucky day. Harris manages to keep his prized man-eating genius exposing more of himself although at a minimal.

The novel also gives hint of Lecter's medical history, something omitted from the prequel Hannibal Rising. It turns out after killing the nazi war criminals, he became the pioneer of the study of serial killers. Of course, he knew so much because in secret he killed and ate people.

Unlike Red Dragon, we get to see Dr Lecter actually killing two security guards in horrific fashion in an ingenious plan to display his brilliance outside the medical school. He also displays a wide taste of books(like me) and classical music.

Alas, much of the surprise I experienced with Red Dragon was lost due to the fact I've already watched the Oscar winning film adaptation featuring Anthony Hopkins in an academy award winning role.

The Hannibal Lecter Quadrilogy Part I

2010-07-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

To gain a better understanding of literature, books are best read in chronological order.

Although it is considered by many to be the weakest novel in Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter series, it is still a goo novel to me. Any novel that I read till the end are always considered good. Like it or not, Rising is probably more important than it's predecessors. It's like X-Men Origins sorta.

The book made me feel sorry for Hannibal the Cannibal. C'mon, every normal man would snap when your baby sister is eaten alive by hungry Nazi's. Quoting from the novel,

The man is not Hannibal Lecter. The little boy Hannibal died in he snow when his sister died. He is now a monster

I've always believed that an evil man is the fault of evil parents, bullies and all that. There is no fault in the "mass murdering psychopaths". they were just simply emotionally shattered, broken and driven to insanity against their will.

But after finishing Red Dragon, the second story in chronological order, Rising lacks from Red Dragon and probably The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal as well is it fails to deliver good suspense and thrills. Here, Hannibal Lecter is given the spotlight so the reader knows what he's gonna do next. The "Jump-out-of-nowhere" move present in most thriller novels is completely absent.

Red Dragon was the only novel which finished reading in a mere four days. Even my prized Star Wars novels, The Godfather Novel Quadrilogy and The Bourne Identity took at least two weeks.

This is the only book I've read so far worthy of all the praises in the front and back covers and flaps. Red Dragon is such a deep psychological novel such that it's like getting into a complicated maze of a delusional psychopath. And being trapped in a maze, you definitely want to see the end of it.

Similar to it's successor The Silence of the Lambs, although Hannibal Lecter is the main character, he is rarely shown. But you can say his presence is felt in every page.

The main killer in the novel is Francis Dolarhyde aka The Red Dragon aka The Tooth Fairy. A slightly disabled man(crooked lip and irregular teeth) tortured by traumatic childhood nightmares including an abusive grandmother, a mother who never wanted him and aggressively mean stepsisters and stepbrothers. Like in Rising you will sympathise with Dolarhyde. Having felt no love in the world and inflicted only pain, he shows no love to others and inflict only pain to others in return.

Dolarhyde is actually a nice guy when he's fine. The Red Dragon is his alter ego due t his obsession with the painting Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun. He fears that "The Dragon" will slowly consume him and take control. it is also implied that his alter ego enslaves and tortures Dolarhyde constantly.

The Dragon's killing spree comes to a halt when Francis Dolarhyde meets Reba McClane, a blind woman ad the first to show affection and appreciation to Dolarhyde. He sorta killed himself so The Dragon won't kill Reba McClane.

Due to it's graphically psychological nature. I'd interpreted the dragon as Satan. It kinda fits though.

The ofter protagonists include the character of Will Graham, the retired FBI officer who arrested Hannibal Lecter but was stabbed and half gutted in the process. Forced to play mind games with his former nemesis Dr Lecter, he tries as hard to find the dreaded Tooth fairy/Red Dragon but is slowly going insane too.

Like in the movies, Hannibal Lecter slithered into me. He talks slyly but intelligently, mocks law-abiding citizens with truths etc. He's more or less like a slithery and nasty serpent.

Red Dragon is beautifully written in a way that you can't wait what happens next. And unlike Rising, it has classic "jump-out-of-nowhere" parts especially when the last few pages where we think Dolarhyde is really dead.

Lets hope Silence and Hannibal will continue this streak.

Ressurect!!!

2010-06-19T07:25:00.001-07:00

I thought it would've been a good idea to return to blogging to polish up my writing skills. I hope this won't be the last post in a long time.

There are many things happening right now.
- My faith is eroding.
- I'm starting to get scared for SPM.
- I haven't played my bass guitar for quite sometime.

Well I wasn't dead yet so I guess my blog must continue as long as I'm alive.

But it's not all bad. Something good happened too.

For the first time in an extremely long time. I was back to being a kid. Toy Story was the first film I can recall watching on cinema as a toddler. I missed Toy Story 2 because it was sold out but at least I grabbed the third and final Toy Story film.

But third installments have a bad history. Jurassic Park III was a load of crap, The Godfather Part III wasn't bad but it wasn't good either, the third installments of Die Hard, Rambo and Indiana Jones placed the series on hiatus for more than 10 years. The only good part 3 I remember watching is The Bourne Ultimatum.

Sadly I didn't get the chance to watch it in 3D but well anything will do.

I won't leak the plot because it'll spoil everything. The best bits are the ones unseen in the trailer. The Latin Buzz Lightyear was unexpected but fun in it's own way, the villain is not who you think it is and Mr Potato Head turns into Mr Tortilla Face and Mr Cucumber sorta.

Like the previous Toy Story it was flawless yet extraordinary. I tried hard to remember anything bad or wasn't good but can't find em. But how does it sums up to Toy Story and Toy Story 2. I happily describe it negatively. Not as good, not even close but BETTER.

A perfect 10 movie. This one does go TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!

I've finished a few novels recently. And my adult novel collection ballooned. I've brought 7 Jason Bourne novels, 2 Star Wars novels, 3 Hannibal Lecter novels and a few others.

Being a fan of the Bourne movies, I tried out the book. To my surprise(unsure if it's good or bad) it has a very different plot compared to the movie.

There are two villains in the novel. Alexander Conklin, the chief operative of Treadstone and Carlos, a rival assassin who is bent on killing Bourne. While Conklin remained in the film version of The Bourne Identity as the villain, the novel counterpart is somewhat not as villainous and is revealed to be a former ally to David Webb(Bourne's real name).

The film makes no reference to Bourne's military past in Vietnam probably to update the character. The novel also has the romance element between Jason and Marie which doesn't give you the lovey-dovey feeling and quite lurid as a romance material. But Robert Ludlum isn't a romance writer and Jason Bourne isn't exactly Romeo.

Well at least the film version of Jason Bourne is parallel to the novel. It's easy to read it with Matt Damon in your head.

Star Wars: Death Troopers is nothing but Left4Dead + Resident Evil + Alien(first film) with Han Solo, Chewbacca and a few others in the mix. The plot is basically a damaged prison shuttle forced to dock on an abandoned Imperial Star Destroyer filled with thousands of zombies.

I guess the novel represents a desperate attempt from Star Wars to cash in the zombie craze stimulated by Left4Dead probably. But it has plenty of blood, guts, gross-ness but what makes it particularly scary is that everything's dark. However, the element of the zombies' ability to learn is kinda silly. Imagine playing L4D where zombies LEARN how to shoot and drive stuff.

Inch by Inch...

2010-01-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

Finally I got it!!! Al Pacino's motivational speech from the film Any Given Sunday which is a more aggressive version of Nick Vujicic's message...

---------------------------------

I don’t know what to say, really. Three minutes till the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today. Now either we heal as a team or we’re gonna crumble, inch by inch, play by play, 'til we’re finished.

We’re in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me. And, we can stay here -- get the shit kicked out of us -- or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell one inch at a time.

Now, I can’t do it for you. I’m too old. I look around. I see these young faces, and I think -- I mean -- I made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who’s ever loved me. And lately, I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know, when you get old in life things get taken from you. I mean that's...part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life’s this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small -- I mean one-half a step too late, or too early, and you don’t quite make it. One-half second too slow, too fast, you don’t quite catch it.

The inches we need are everywhere around us.

They’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch, because we know when we add up all those inches that’s gonna make the fuckin' difference between winning and losing! Between livin' and dyin'!

I’ll tell you this: In any fight, it’s the guy who’s willing to die who’s gonna win that inch. And I know if I’m gonna have any life anymore, it’s because I’m still willin' to fight and die for that inch. Because that’s what livin' is! The six inches in front of your face!!

Now I can’t make you do it. You got to look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes! Now I think you’re gonna see a guy who will go that inch with you. You're gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows, when it comes down to it, you’re gonna do the same for him!

That’s a team, gentleman!

And, either we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.

That’s football guys.

That's all it is.

Now, what are you gonna do?

Time to resurrect

2010-01-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

Recently my blog has been full of lame movie reviews post so I really need something to pump things up... Before I return to HELL ON EARTH/DAVY JONES LOCKER/SMK SULTAN SULAIMAN...

ESP Camp
For my 3rd consecutive ESP Camp, things took unexpected turns due to a few reasons...
- HG didn't send a worship team...
- Jeff and Witter aren't going...
- If I go Pastor will put me in charge of camp forms, bus fares, e-mails etc.

Despite being hard to swallow, it was a big help. It's too early to tell but I hope the messages there will make me sober from my immorality for good. Also there's the calling for Full Time Ministry where The Lord just brought me forward. But this doesn't mean life will get easier. As a matter of fact the stakes are higher because I have to stop yearning for outsider's attention like I used to.

Well it gave me the boost to be myself. But due to the undeniable fact that I'm a self-righteous hypocritical bum, I need to redeem myself before I am ready for the real world.

As an extra note I added 4 toys to my Star Wars collection. I purchased a Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Commemorative Collection containing Darth Vader and Shock Class Stormtroopers as well as a Star Wars: Legacy Collection Clone Trooper + Battle Gear. The battle gear means it includes an entire arsenal of guns. Flechette Shotgun, Plasma Blaster Rifle, Sniper, Dual Blasters and a Pistol.

KL/Johor Trip
Only a day after ESP... Haiz... I have to abandon my plans of going to the UCSI Christmas thing to go to Johor and dreading it. But we had fun with my cousins in Johor, watched James Cameron's Avatar, seeing grandma and the family and last but not least got my bass guitar.

Christmas Holidays
Back to Kemaman for Christmas as usual. It's good to see the whole family again.. HAHAHA. But everything was fun but it was strange that this was the first time that all of us were too lazy to put up a Christmas tree. Mom bought a turkey, grandma made meatballs, there was roasted pork among other dishes.

The less said about presents the better because that won't matter....

HG New Year Countdown
The absence of a proper new year countdown for the past 2 years among His Generation meant we had to make this one the biggest and boy it did. I was surprised that I'm chosen to be the bassist although there was one team only and I'm not a pro bassist because they wanted to pick HG's top dogs. Maybe it's because I aptly have a new bass guitar... LOL...

First time serving under worship leader Sharon Foo was unexpectedly scary. She was stricter than either Christina or Ee June so we dare not fool around and she always demanded mutes. And Jeffery insisted we play without chords. Plus I had a lot of hard songs including Time Has Come, Tell The World, All For Love and especially Jump Around. The only thing that saved my neck was that the bass solo for Salvation Is Here is replaced as a guitar solo by Andy. Thanks man.

The outcome, it brought me to a new level of worship and bass skills. And to be congratulated by Jeffery(my man) brought me painfully low self-esteem to an all time high. I'm still waiting for Witter to congratulate me though... HAHA

But I was a bit shameful no one on my invitation list because my friends already had their plans. Sorry to Eng Hian because I couldn't join you....

The Best Film Characters of All Time

2009-11-26T04:08:00.000-08:00

Screw Twilight, Hannah Montana and HSM. Those films don't have character appeal or good acting.

10. John McClane from Die Hard
While not not notch acting, Bruce Willis played Lieutenant John McClane as one of the most enjoyable characters in action films. Although he jokes even at the face of death, John McClane has moments where he is serious. Example in Die Hard 4.0 where his daughter is kidnapped. Also not to mention his sadistic and mocking laugh and the line "Yippe-Ki-Yay Mother****"

9. Tony "Scarface" Montana from Scarface
Perhaps Al Pacino's most iconic role, excluding the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather series. Maybe it's because Tony Montana suits the new generation of drugs, booze and sex. A deep contrast to the disciplined and honored Michael Corleone, Montana has a loud dirty mouth. Probably the most foul mouthed character I've ever seen. Not even John McClane could top the number of times Montana said the "f" word. Personally, I don't quite REALLY LOVE the character but dang, I won't do this list without him. Most people remember Montana as the first film character who yelled the famous line "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" which has been parodied countless of times.

8. The Terminator from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Due to the fact that the robots... erm cybernetic organisms from The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation are different characters, I'll identify more to the one from the first sequel. While Arnie played the first one as a cool and chilly yet brutal villain, he returns as a cool, macho and awesome hero. He was the only time a robot could create so much emotion among viewers where he says "I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do" before he is melted in the molten steel. Alongside the phrase "I'll be Back" is the equally iconic "Hasta La Vista, Baby".

7. Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story
I'd have to say Buzz Lightyear is the most positive thinking characters of all time. the phrase "To infinity and beyond" is proof enough. Although he did break down and "emo-ed" when he found out he's a toy after his arm broke of during an unsuccessful attempt to fly. Yet in Toy Story 2, he returned as the hero-who-never-gives-up when Woody was kidnapped. There's also a scene when he attempted to fly and ended up FALLING WITH STYLE and opened his eyes pointing to Woody "CAN!". I wonder what Toy Story 3 will be like although I'm not quite happy with a Spanish speaking Buzz Lightyear. He is heroic, but at times he is goofier than any of the toys. "YOU SEE THE HAT! I'M MS NESBITT!!! MUAHAHAHAHA"

6. Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Okay, Lord Maul might not be as iconic as Lord Vader but his rorschach tattooed face makes him the scariest adversary a Jedi could face. While Darth Vader's lightsaber combat employs bone-crushing and mighty swings ans strokes, Darth maul is a more agile and feeble duelist capable of wielding the double bladed lightsaber or lightstaff. He doesn't speak much but the lightsaber duel between him against Obi-Wan and Qui Gon Jinn was awesome. I mean only Darth Maul was awesome. He swings his lighsaber with a velocity Darth Vader could never dreamed of and is exceptionally skilled in melee combat. Played by wushu champion Ray Park(X-Men and G.I. Joe), you know what to expect.

5.Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean
Perhaps the best film acting never to receive and Oscar nomination, Johnny Depp's Captain Jack is a mixture of pure drunken stupidity, brave and enjoyable heroism and the treacherous deadly air of a pirate. How caan we take our eyes off his gestures during speech and his mad and wild runnings. Don't let this fool you, he almost beat Davy Jones in a swordfight. Perhaps Captain Jack Sparrow is a braver and more high flying version of Indiana Jones.

4. Vito Corleone from The Godfather and The Godfather Part II
The only time ONE character received TWO Academy Awards, how can you leave a masterpiece like that out. The infamous Marlon Brando played him in Part I while Robert De Niro took over for the flashbacks of Part II. Brando played him as a raspy voiced yet wise patriarch of the Corleone family, the most powerful mafia organization of the world. Despite his background dealing with casinos, rackets, drugs and booze, we get to sympathise with him. His quiet yet convincing grieving of his son Santino and dying of a heart attack while playing with his grandson at the garden, he's a lovable character.

Robert De Niro played him with the wise and family-loving personality of Brando's version with the brash, charm and wittyness of a younger man. Especially during the scene where he negotiates with Don Fanucci and later shoots the man. Despite his portrayal of Vito as the protagonist contrast to Pacino's Michael as the antagonist of The Godfather Part II, De Niro has his dark moments. Shooting down Don Fanucci at a dark corridor and carving Don Ciccio's stomach for revenge... CHEESY

3. The Joker from The Dark Knight
The make up, the scary severed cheeks, the cackling laugh, WHY SO SERIOUS? Heath Ledger's Joker is the scariest film character not to come from a horror film. It is a mix of crazy and wacky elements and the psychopathic and murderous elements of Jack Torrance from The Shining played by original Joker Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson played the joker in Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. He's the funnier Joker but not the better. He's the most enjoyable joker but not the one you can't take eyes off. Ledger fills in the gaps. It is true, I agree that Jack Nicholson's take is closer to the comics but Heath drives the Joker as a dark and cynical yet charming villain. He rarely jokes onscreen but his voice and speech dominates The Dark Knight.

2. Darth Vader from Star Wars
I'll be marked TRAITOR of Star Wars is he's not on the list. Lord Vader is the epitome of pure villainy. The black suit and armor, the voice that signifies doom, the scary breathing. He'll be a kid's nightmare but a cool character for teens and adults. In Episode I, he's a cute and cheeky boy. The less said about Episode II the better. In Episode III, he plays a Jedi version of Michael Corleone from The Godfather Part II. The story of how a good man becomes evil. Skywalker/Vader is meant to scare us but we are meant to sympathise with him as a tragic hero. A badasss villain but a hero at the same time. Though no emotions and acting are seen under the mask. I really enjoyed Hayden Christensen's acting in Episode III. Yelling at his true love, mocking his best friend. All a repeat of Michael Corleone but has a lot of originality of it's own.

1. Michael Corleone
Al Pacino's a great actor. The Godfather Part II is just one of his great performances in the 70's. The Godfather, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather Part II and Justice For All all gave Pacino Oscar nominations. That totals FIVE NOMINATIONS in 7 years. That's a streak impossible to beat dude. Anyway, Michael Corleone is portrayed under the shadows of Brando's Vito Corleone in Part I. In Part II, he transforms from the good and law abiding citizen who loves his family into an evil man who kills everyone who ever loved him physically and mentally. He kills his brother Fredo, beats the shit out of his wife and alienates himself.But what was his sin? It was not, as we might have imagined or hoped, that he presided over a bloody enterprise of murder and destruction. No, Michael's fault seems to be pride. He has lost the common touch, the dignity he should have inherited from his father. And because he has misplaced his humanity he must suffer. We sympathised him in Part I for being in the wrong family. In Part II all sympathy is lost. Part III delivers the saddest film ending ever. His daughter gets shot by the bullet meant for him and screams in agony, revealing how much he treasured his family. It is said that the fact that Pacino didn't win for Part II was the biggest Oscar upset ever. Up till now, Pacino's performance in Part II is the best I've seen. He doesn't have the visionary character appeal of Darth Vader or Buzz Lightyear but replaces it with acting and a tragic story.

Movie Reviews: Infernal Affairs Trilogy

2009-11-11T04:43:00.000-08:00

I'm always a big fan of Oscar winning hits. So far, no American film which bagged Best Picture disappointed me except for Slumdog Millionaire. The Departed was an enjoyable crime movie, obviously because of Martin Scorsese whom gave us all time classics (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas) with Godfather alumni and multiple Oscar winner Robert DeNiro.

But The Departed is a remake. So it was necessary for me to watch the original art.

Much like The Departed, Infernal Affairs is a fast paced crime thriller. A cat and mouse game played by the cops and criminals. Much in the vein of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino's Heat. But there's a shred of difference that makes it very intriguing. An undercover cop infiltrating the Mafia... I mean Triads as well as a Triad member infiltrating the Police Force.

The plot is essentially identical to The Departed but directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak created a universe more intense and psychological compared to it's Hollywood counterpart. The Departed follows a typical tone of a Martin Scorsese film... A violent, dirty and cynical half of the American society. Infernal Affairs digs deep into the minds of Chan Wing Yan(Tony Leung) and Lau Kin Ming(Andy Lau).

Not to be missed are the performances of comedian Eric Tsang from the Super Trio Show as Triad Boss Hon Sam and Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing. I'd mark Anthony Wong as the one who gives the best acting among the main cast. Too bad he was given the backseat was killed early in the film. Don't worry, we'll see much of him in the prequel Infernal Affairs II.

However, this film is a little bit boring compared to it's successor. Maybe it's because I've watched The Departed long enough to anticipate the next move. But it's like reading Mario Puzo's The Godfather, you need to respect the original.

The pairing of Tony Leung and Andy Lau is also quite effectve. A reminiscent of the teaming of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in Heat.

8.0/10... Actually 6.5 but additional marks are given for inspiring an Oscar winner.

I'd like to identify Infernal Affairs II as a superior prequel to it's predecessor. The directing team of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak
takes the prequel in a more intense and productive story with a darker and more cynical tone. In the way that The Godfather Part II delved back into Brando's Don's formative years, Infernal Affairs II fleshes out beginning of Yan(Shawn Yue) and Ming(Edison Chen) as undercover components in opposing sides. It also explores the early friendship of Superintendent Wong and Hon Sam during their early days during the early to mid 1990's.

However, I find certain plot points simillar to The Godfather series, particularly The Godfather Part II. That's why I like it...LOL.

The subplot involving veteran Mob boss Ngai Kwun's death in the hands of Ming(prior to his days as Hon Sam's mole in the police force) and the rise and takeover of his son Ngai Wing-Hau(Francis Ng) parallels the end of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II.

Ngai Kwun was the boss of bosses/Capo di tutti capi of the Triad five families. Much like Vito Corleone,all bosses need to have his permission in business dealings. Hon Sam's scheming wife Mary(Carina Lau) ordered Ming to push the button so her husband could take over. The other "big four" bosses conspire to topple Wing Hau to consolidate their power. Much like the scenario in The Godfather Part II where Hyman Roth, Fredo Corleone and Frank Pentangelli rubbed out Michael Corleone.

At the same time, Superintendent Wong is relying on Hon Sam for information and sends out Yan as a mole in Wing Hau's mob. It is revealed that Yan came from a mobster background. Things got ugly as Ngai Wing Hau found out Mary Hon conspired with Superintendent Wong to kill Ngai Kwun. Superintendent Wong is demoted and is pending trial for conspiracy murder. However, he is receiving support from police force who will stop at nothing to bring down Ngai Wing Hau. Superintendent Wong gets his nerve after Wing Hau bombs his friend's car.

Wing Hau also rubs out the big four and Hon Sam in retaliation for their refusal to co-operate. However, Mary Hon worked alone and Hon Sam is very loyal to Wing Hau. The killings of Wing Hau's enemies occurred at the same time. Flashes of each assassination come spontaneously much like all 3 Godfather movies. Wing Hau also sends his family to Hawaii in the ensuing war.

Mary Hon goes into hiding after Ming saves her. Ming begins to flirt with Mary who angrily berates him and attempts to meet her husband in Thailand but is violently mowed down by a car driven by Wing Hau's henchmen.

Hon Sam also stays in Thailand and attempts to conspire with a Thai drug dealer to overthrow their respective bosses. Superintendent Wong enlists Hon Sam's help to testify against Wing Hau but runs away at the last minute. In turns out Hon Sam's That buddies have held Wing Hau's family hostage. Wing Hau holds Hon Sam at gunpoint with Superintendent Wong and his men asking him to stand down. Before Wing Hau could pull the trigger, Superintendent Wong shoots him in the head. A devastated Yan cradles his dying half brother in front of his own comrades.

This film distinguishes itself from the original to explore a more gangster orientated storyline and a violent mob war. The film is quite complicated but isn't confusing. Finally, Anthony Wong's character is shown full circle as Edison Chen and Shawn Yue are given the backseat. Eric Tsang plays a jollier version of Hon Sam before his downfall.

However, Francis Ng plays his character of Ngai Wing Hau identical to Al Pacino's Michael Corleone from The Godfather Part II.As happened with Pacino's Michael Corleone, Ngai the family's rank outsider suddenly develops into its main man, and he sets out to avenge his dead father, as well as take on the other Triad clan. Wing Hau also points out his father's ways and quotes and is a strong family man also like Michael Corleone.

Whereas Francis Ford Coppola weaved The Godfather into his narrative, here it remains very much on the margins. Thankfully, at its core, it's a skillful, absorbing crime thriller.

8.7/10... The best Hong Kong film not to be participated by Stephen Chow I've ever seen.

Unlike it's predecessor, Infernal Affairs III doesn't measure up to the previous 2 movies and it's only motivation is to end the story and make Lau Kin Ming "pay for his sins" like Coppola's The Godfather Part III. This sequel explores Yan's final months investigating Hon Sam's dealings with a mainland triad boss Shen(Chen Daoming). Also in the picture is another of Hon Sam's police moles Inspector Yeung.

In the process, Yan gets into trouble and is introduced to psychiatric treatment with Dr Lee(Kelly Chen), his love interest in the first film.

It also flashes back and forth into the days after Yan's death. Inspector Yeung is working to reveal Hon Sam's still thriving mole. Andy Lau returns as Ming, now paranoid of his previous actions is hitting on Inspector Yeung hard to prove him as the mole, giving him some breathing space.

Over time, Ming becomes paranoid and is hallucinating himself as Yan trying to find the mole. In the end, he found the edvidence he needed and proceeds to arrest Yeung. Before he could play the tapes, Shen appears and plays the tape provided by Yan, proving that Ming is the mole. Ming begs for forgiveness and in a moment of madness shoots down Yeung fatally. He attempts suicide but only manages to cause brain damage and lives the rest of his life haunted and mad.

This film is a poor effort to cash in the series and is hastily assembled. Only the ending portraying Ming's downfall is worth watching. the plot involving Yan and Hon Sam's dealing with Shen doesn't come to terms with the original film. The romantic sub-plot involving Yan and Dr Lee is kinda boring.

It's like The Godfather Part III of the series. The plot being too outlandish and convoluted, as well as the storyline being too based on continuity, rather than just a "stand alone" story. It's impossible to understand this film without watching the first film. It is also confusing with footage of Yan alive and dead showing up without any indicating of time frame. This flashback sequence is a pun of The Godfather Part II with footage of the rise of both Michael Corleone and Vito Corleone. However, the timeframe shifting in The Godfather Part II occurs only 4 times and plays for at least 20 minutes for Vito's story. Infernal Affairs III does this more than a dozen times.

To me, it's just "another Hong Kong movie"... 4.5/10

Movie Reviews: Die Hard Quadrilogy

2009-11-02T06:22:00.000-08:00

Screw Rambo... John McClane is the Hollywood's coolest human action hero(the coolest ever action hero is Terminator). Having watched Die Hard 4.0 a handful of times and Die Hard 2: Die Harder on TV, I finished the puzzle by buying a Die Hard 4 in 1 DVD.

Die Hard begins when NYPD cop John McClane visits his wife at the Nakatomi plaza, a corporate skyscraper on Christmas Eve. A group of terrorists led by the icy Hans Gruber(Alan Rickman who played Snape in Harry Potter) takes control of the city. Fortunately for them, the security guards are killed off easily BUT unfortunately, there's McClane.

McClane makes a few kills and gains an MP5 SMG's plus some magazines, some C4 and detonators, European cigarettes and lighter from his kills. He tries to steal a shoe as he was barefoot in his wife's room when the chaos ensued. He throws it off saying "Nine million terrorists in the world and I get to kill one with feet smaller than my sister." This proved to be McClane's undoing because the men shot the glasses and forced McClane to flee with a bleeding foot.

McClane makes a few attempts to call for back-up. He gets back-up in the form of Sgt Al Powell(Reginald VelJohnson)a cop who sits behind the desk who gets his first taste of action when McClane called.

The terrorists mysteriously lacked motives and demands unlike others. In the end, it appears that Hans and his goons wanted the trade bonds secured in the Nakatomi building worth 800 million dollars.

However all ends well when McClane kills em all.

Not surprisingly, this film set a new standard for action films and launched Bruce Willis into Hollywood. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first choice for John McClane but director John McTiernan turned him down. Obviously Arnie didn't have the cowboy persona that John McClane has. Arine also lacks the humor and fast talking persona of John McClane. Kudos to Bruce Willis. I couldn't imagine someone other than Bruce Willis playing John McClane... Van Damme? Stallone? Steven Seagal? BOOOO...

Alan Rickman also did a good job playing Hans Gruber, the villain. He's sort of a more quiet and sinister version of an Al Pacino character. A charming sociopath + gentleman.

Die Hard is an awesome action film. Quite logic, packed with gunfights and explosion that put Rambo to shame. McClane is also part of the treat. A tough but funny guy who often jokes and laughs in the face of death. Hard to imagine Arnie doing the same.

This movie has a solid 8.5/10....

Also, my dad took my mom to see this show on a date before I was born... Jeez, good movie but not for lovebirds...LOL

Bruce Willis returns as John McClane in the sequel. McClane recently moved to the LAPD to spend more time with his wife and kids. This time, his wife's life is again jeopardised when American rebel mercenaries thwart the airport's communication and landing systems, forcing the planes to circle the area with the risks of running out of fuel. Guess what, it's Christmas again and John McClane is going the distance to avoid his wife's plane to crash.

The mercenaries led by Colonel Stuart(William Salder) are aiming to collect their ally, General Ramon Esperanza(Franco Nero), a drug lord and dictator of Val Verde(fictional country).

Now, this sequel takes John McClane outdoors. From the baggage area to the runway to the underground tunnels. This film has bigger explosions(planes exploding) and more gunfights that the first film. The climax is when John McClane brawls with Colonel Stuart and his conspirator Major Grant on the wing of Esperanza's plane... Cool stuff eh?

Despite being an efficient and terrific action entertainment, this film lacked one vital part. A good villain. General Ramon Esperanza, Colonel Stuart and Major Grant just doesn't measure up to the standard set by Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber in Die Hard. However, we get to see Robert Patrick(the T-1000 liquid villain in Terminator 2: Judgment Day) as O'Reilly, one of Major Stuart's soldiers in his film's debut. Although he almost kicks Arnold's ass, he is easily shot down by John McClane... SWT...

John McTiernan refused to return to the director's chair. He chose to make the popular The Hunt For Red October instead. He is replaced by Renny Harlin who later directed other action machines such as Stallone's Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea and recently 12 Rounds with John Cena...

Of course you'll enjoy and laugh off this movie... A respectable 7/10....

Die Hard: With A Vengeance marks the return of John McTiernan to the director's chair. Also, John McClane is now divorced and has since returned to the NYPD.

This time, a mysterious terrorist by the name of Simon plays a game with the NYPD particularly with McClane. The game called "Simon Says" tasks McClane to push his limits by doing near impossible tasks with the threat of blowing up a public place should McClane fails.

This time, McClane has a partner. Zeus Carver(the one and only SAMUEL L JACKSON), an Afro-American extremist who hates white men including McClane. However, he is pulled into Simon's scheme when he saves McClane's life, interfering with Simon's original game plan.

It turns out Simon is actually Simon Gruber, the big brother of Hans Gruber from the first film. In his games, he attempts to humiliate and mock McClane in public in retaliation of McClane's killing of his little brother. Simon is as cunning as his brother and is certainly more aggressive and ruthless. Hans is primarily a schemer but Simon is both a schemer and a front line soldier.

Behind his revenge is to steal the gold bullion from Wall Street. Like his brother, Simon is both a terrorist and big time thief.

The third film is my least favorite of the four Die Hard films. Although it marks the return of a cheesier and icier villain, Simon Gruber(Jeremy Irons. He played the equally icy Scar in Lion King) but it lacks gunfight and brawls. McClane also sheds most of his humor and jokes less on-screen. However, the notion of Bruce Willis teaming up with Samuel L Jackson gives the film it's redeeming quality. It is also the darkest film in the series, with McClane being an angry guy after being humiliated by Simon's games.

This film is good, but not as good as it's predecessors or successor. It is interesting yet not so exciting. A favorable 6.5/10 for this one...

Die Hard 4.0 brings John McClane into the 21st century. A group of hackers plan to decimate the United States government by taking out all transportation, stock markets, utilities, electricity etc. Despite the age of technology, John McClane is still there to save the day.

This is the biggest film of the Die Hard series. It has a cool villain(the hacker) and an interesting plot. More gunfights, explosions, McClane taking on a F-22 Raptor jet. Also there is a scene where John McClane and a hot kungfu chick kicking each other's asses. Although McClane retains his trademark humor, it is considerably less compared to the first two films. Maybe McClane is now a wiser man.

Die Hard 4.0 is only surpassed by the first film. 8.0/10

New Movie Reviews

2009-10-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'll start off with critically acclaimed Oscar winning films...

Silver screen legend Jack Nicholson bagged his first Oscar for Best Actor in this film beating Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon and I can't disagree. It'll be a kick to watch Jack Nicholson's trademark over-the-top laugh.

The story goes with Nicholson's character Randall Patrick McMurphy, a social misfit and a rebel of the outside world(much like me). He fakes insanity and enters a mental hospital and befriends the wackos there. The film consists of an ensemble cast excluding Nicholson with all inspiring acting. Brad Dourif(famous for supplying the voice of Chucky in Child's Play) plays the vulnerable and shy yet friendly Billy Bibbit, Dourif got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Danny DeVito(Twins, Batman Returns, Junior) plays the always-smiling midget Mr Martini, and Red Indian actor Will Sampson as the mute and delusional Chief, Sydney Lasick as Charlie Cheswick. My best pick is Max Taber played by Christopher Lloyd(who played Doc in Back to the Future).

McMurphy tries to boost the patients morale and oppose the icy and tyrannical Nurse Ratched(the actress won Best Actress). He teaches Chief to play basketball, plays poker with Max Taber, Billy Bibbit, Martini and others. He also serves as a big brother figure to Billy Bibbit. McMurphy and his gang go on all wacky and comedic adventures such as stealing a bus to go deep sea fishing.

However, the comedic atmosphere turns gloomy when Cheswick challenges Nurse Ratched and demands his cigarettes. McMurphy tries to defend him but ends up beaten, luckily big 7 foot tall Chief saves the day. However, all three are taken to undergo electroshock therapy. Before the therapy, McMurphy gets chief to converse with him. Tired of Nurse Ratched's outrages activities, McMurphy stages an escape with his girlfriends and Chief on Christmas night. McMurphy holds an illegal farewell party with his friends. However, Billy Bibbit has a crush on one of McMurphy's girls. McMurphy asks Billy to go to bed with her and waits with the hospital windows opened.

Unfortunately, McMurphy fell asleep, so does everyone including Bibbit and the girl. Nurse Ratched berates Billy and the others for the mess. A scream distracts the personnel, giving McMurphy and Chief a chance to run. Instead, McMurphy fears for Billy and follows the others.Poor Billy commited suicide out of shame. Nurse Ratched asks everyone to go on with the schedule and blames McMurphy for the incident. An enraged McMurphy attempts to strangle the nurse but is knocked down by the guards. Not even Big Chief could help him.

Days later, Harding is playing poker with Max Taber, Cheswick and Martini and discusses of McMurphy's whereabouts. That night McMurphy is escorted back into the ward. Big Chief rushes to welcome his friend. It turned out Nurse Ratched drilled a hole in McMurphy's temple, rendering him mentally disabled for good. Chief tearfully begs for his friend to come back but to no avail. Unable to let McMurphy live a meaningless life, Big Chief suffocates his friend.

Big Chief, now more determined than ever, hatches an escape plan introduced by McMurphy involving breaking the windows with a heavy sink. McMurphy failed his attempt but Big Chief's 7 feet tall body breaks the sink loose and destroys the windows. Max Taber wakes up and cheers for Big Chief, waking everyone up. However, it is uncertain if all of the patients escape.

This film has a few sexually suggestive themes as well as some profanity. Other than that, a classic Oscar champion.

I give this film a 8.5/10.

Another Best Picture winner, The Deer Hunter is the most emotionally shattering film I've ever seen. Second only to Passion Of The Christ. Directed by "big budget flop king" Michael Cimino, Deer Hunter is one of two Cimino helmed films that made a profit. Cimino is known for his boundary breaking, risky and dangerous writing and directing. However The Deer Hunter made it to the top without toppling down.

Starring The Godfather alumni Robert DeNiro(Don Vito Corleone in Godfather Part II) and John Cazale(Fredo Corleone in Godfather I and II) as well as a then unknown Christopher Walken. DeNiro was nominated for Best Actor while Walken won the Best Supporting actor. Cimino bagged BestScreenplay, Best Director and Best Picture.

The film follows a group of friends. Steel factory workers and deer hunting enthusiasts. The main guys are Mikey(DeNiro), Steven, Nick(Walken) and Stanley Stosh(Cazale). The friends attend Steven's wedding less than a week before drafted into Vietnam. Later after the wedding, a drunk Mike goes nuts but Nick stops him. Nick begs Mike not to leave him alone if anything happens in Vietnam. Mike agrees.

The group goes deer hunting one last time and Nick says goodbye to his girlfriend Linda(Meryl Streep).

The film cuts to Vietnam. Mike, Nick and Steven are forced to play Russian roulette. A suicidal game where one bullet is inserted into a revolver and the cylinder is spun. The participants are forced to pull the trigger once each. Steven cheats by raising the gun above his temple so the Viet Cong dudes leave him to drown. Mike puts in three bullets for extra gains. Mike bravely pulls the trigger three times without a live round. Mike and Nick shoots the Viets down and rescue Steve.

The two drift down a river where they are spotted by a helicopter. Nick makes it but Steven falls and breaks his legs. Mike goes down after him. Nick, alone and paranoid is showing signs of insanity and heads out for Saigon's red light district. Nick enters a Russian Roulette parlor not noticing Mike is also watching the game. A Frenchman who operates the parlor encourages Nick to play. Due to his experiences, Nick is determined that he will survive every Russian Roulette game and grabs the revolver and pulls the trigger on himself and his competitor and storms off into the Frenchman's car. Mike runs after him but falls behind.

Mike returns to America alone. Steve and Nick all mysteriously have disappeared. He is reunited with Stosh and the others. They all go deer hunting again but this time Mike couldn't bring himself to fire a gun at anything, fearful of Vietnam. He also starts an affair with Linda, Nick's girlfriend. With the help of Steven's wife, Mike finds out Steven is still alive and is recovering in a Vietnam hospital.

Mike returns to Vietnam and finds out Steve has lost both his legs after the incident. Steve has also received loads of cash from "someone in Saigon". Mike determines this to be Nick and sends Steve home. Mike buys his way into the parlor with the Frenchman's help and finally sees Nick, prepping for another game. Mike tries to make Nick comes to his senses but Nick spits on him and pushes him back(the most intense scene of the whole film). Mike reluctantly agrees to play against Nick as a last resort attempt.

Mike and Nick survived their first round. Before Nick can pull the trigger again, Mike reminds him of their hunting trips. Nick finally comes to his senses but is already too emotionally drained and dazed to stop playing. He smiles to Mike and says "One shot" but Mike still tries to stop him. Nick's final shot proved to be loaded and blows his head off. Mike tries to revive him. But hey, no one can survive a headshot.

Mike keeps his promise of not abandoning Nick and brings his body home. Mike, Linda, Stosh, Steve and the others toast in their friend's honor.

This film is full of profanity. Typical 70's Oscar classics. Also abit of sexual themes. But a strong message of friendship and the side-effects of war make up for all the dirty stuff. DeNiro and Walken's acting are enjoyable.

This film would have me a 9/10. However, it's not like Star Wars or The Godfather type of film that you'll get hooked onto. The second time you watch it, you'll loose the interest.

Critically acclaimed two time winner for Best Director(Born On The Fourth Of July, Platoon) and the screenwriter of Scarface directs this intense political thriller about the mysterious assassination of John F Kennedy.

The film starts with the news headlines of JFK's murder. We are also introduced to Lee Harvey Oswald, played by Gary Oldman, JFK's "murderer". District Attorney Jim Garrison(Kevin Costner) attempts to uncover the mystery behind the inconsistencies of President Lyndon Johnson's official autopsy.

Garrison goes as far as denying President Johnson's Warren Commission and intensifies his battle against politicians and his suspect, a businessman named Clay Shaw/Clay Bertrand(Tommy Lee Jones). He also runs into trouble along the way as well as being deserted by his wife and family due to his obsession towards his case. Garrison also traced edvidence to President Johnson, the Mafia and CIA.

The story is pretty much this. But with several flashback scenarios that gives different theories of what could have happened. It also serves as a documentary that tells of the USA Government's flawed and inconsistent report. I've always believed JFK's headshot came from the front, not from Lee Harvey Oswald who's nest is behind the motorcade. But this movie solidifies my belief that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't work alone.

However, you might have a hard time understanding this movie. Being a complex movie, it has many twist and turns but keeps you glued to your seat wanting to know more. this film is also a good History lesson, better than any of the lame and slow-paced shit you find in Sejarah textbooks.

7.5/10.

As far as District 9 goes, it is essentially Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. We take Fidel and his comrades out of the picture and replace them with aliens. INTERESTING!

It is said that a UFO docked near Johannesburg, South Africa and the aliens(nicknamed prawns) are moved to District 9, s slum area to seperate humans from prawns. The aliens are squeezed off their weaponry and technology and bullied by soldiers. To make things safe, the aliens are to be moved to District 10, and area
far from the city.

Leading the operation is Wikus, a prawn hater. He gets squirted with alien goo while investigating an alien settlement and his DNA begins to change into alien like features. He is now the only man who can operate alien weaponry because these laser guns bal bla bla only respond to alien DNA.

Wikus is now a fugitive and teams up with Christopher, a prawn who wants to go home. Wikus makes a deal so he can return to human form and Christopher can go home. Damn I'm lazy to type the whole thing.

This film is full of profanity and violence. But the scene involving the alien robot-endoskeleton is as cool as Transformers. the special effects are believable too. However, I didn't enjoy the plot's inconsistencies and twists.

6/10....

How it all happened....

2009-10-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

All work and no play makes Doink a dull boy. Or an emo boy whatever... We made him play...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Breaks my heart....

2009-10-11T03:08:00.000-07:00

ELS Annual Dinner

2009-10-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

OK... Finally something for me to say in this meaningless and meaningful life...

The day started in the morning, I went to Ibai to help prepare stuff... I was the first to arrive with a guitar+case, an amplifier, my bag and a piano...HAIZ... Then Amanda and Chee June arrived and the list goes on. We set up the PA, tested the guitar and piano and the rehearsal went on... Actually not really, only a handful really rehearsed, the others couldn't be bothered...

When it was all done, I had to go home to stack up my guitar. Then Willert, Choon Khai and Michelle hitched a ride to church. Despite the fact that me and Willert were supposed to be practicing for our band performance later at night, we couldn;t run away from being part of the church's worship team. I was on the bass and Willert was on guitar. I also bought a new guitar cable since the old one snapped and I need to play on Annual Dinner...

Julia Ma came back from Australia which added to the necessity of going to church. Unfortunately my old friend Caleb Ma couldn't come. So Julia shared about her new life. Australia is definitely more interesting than the quiet town of KT.

So I left early. Went home for a bath, brush and hairdo. For the first time I wore a tie because I was the MC for the night. I double checked my guitar and left.

I reached there, tuned the guitar and set up my stuff. No time for final practice. The dinner started. I was so damn giddy being an MC but I did what I had to do. Joke around. Bla Bla Bla. Then my mom called saying she wants to see the band performance, lagi tension...

When it was our time we did what we did. Me, Arul, Willert, Nagend and Gan. Our first slot was Fall For You and Pork and Beans. I disliked Fall For You the most because I thought the song was quite boring. I even wrote my own guitar solo to heat things up. But I messed a few notes of my guitar solo. Pork and Beans was a fun song so it was OK.

The night took of as usual. Dinner, thinking of what to say and running back and forth for the sideshows. Surprisingly, all of the performances were good especially Choon Khai's Japanese song and the dance by Amanda and Vivian. In the LCDS days, band performance was the top dog for the night. I guess the streak was broken.

When Choon Khai sang, I gave him a thumbs up for encouragement. Then I got a cramp at my leg. So damn embarrassing. Luckily I got up for the lucky draw. Then Arul came to me saying we're gonna do the third song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" which was the original plan. We had our time cut short but the AJK's arranged a slot. We just did what we could and left.

Then the Form 5's sang graduation song BLA BLA BLA and we packed up. But there was a lot of last minute photos to be taken. The teachers shoo-ed us off LOL. I went home have a bath and watched the band performance videos.

Honestly, I hate watching myself playing guitar. I will fall asleep. I think it was embarrassing in a way I don't know how.

So, Annual Dinner 09 was a huge success. It was the best I've attended in my four year time at the club. But good luck was not without hardships becuase due to stress, there was a tangle between the AJK. Luckily it wasn't intense. It was all for the club's best interest.

Photos....

Kuantan Trip

2009-09-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

I had to leave the church early on that day as I have to go to Kuantan. My uncle and aunt from Japan are coming for a short visit... And Jim is dropping by too.

Jim got stuck in a horrible jam. The dark side of Hari Raya. So we had a chat. I also learnt the darker side of Japan. People get depressed easily. That fact hit me hard. I thought Japan was a happy and all-smiles country given to the existence of Danny Choo dancing in a stormtrooper outfit in the streets of Tokyo. The rate of suicide is 300 a day which adds up to 100,000 a day plus the additional fatalities. By additional fatalities I mean the emo dicks will pull someone into the train tracks or drive his truck into several people. Damn, so anyone wanna go Japan, stay behind until the train comes or you won't eat char koay teow ever again.

Of course whenever my family goes holiday there'll be tons of food. We also purchased some new DVD's, this time we brought in some HD DVD's but they were all movies at least 20 years old. JFK, Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest, The Deer Hunter and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, all theold Oscar winning classics. I also brought Watchmen, District 9 and Die Hard 4 in 1 collection. Then we went for some movies. Although don't watch non-english speaking movies, this time I made an exception.

The last time I watched a non-english speaking movie in cinema was CJ7. This one fared better. The show was relatively funny as of all of Jack Neo helmed movies. But this film throws in a few thrills too. The first story "Streets Got Ghost" which revolves around people eating the oranges meant for the ghosts is the least funny and least scary of the lot. The second one "Forest Got Ghost" is the funniest of the three which concentrates on two inexperienced and un-trained soldiers taking a shortcut. While it's not the scariest, it did gave the scariest jump the movie offered.

The third story "House Got Ghost" is also very funny but is the scariest of the three. Basically a continuation of Money Not Enough 2, the story has the ghost of the deceased mother haunting her three sons. The catchiest and cheesiest of the scenes is where the mother calling out "Lu ciak pa a be?" and ominously appears full screen, giving us a jump and appears on tv, imitating The Ring. The music, atmosphere and make-up made the gentle and kind old lady we see in Money Not Enough 2 as scary as Ju-On.

As an extra note, the soundtrack is composed by our very own NameWee best known for the critically acclaimed but controversial Negarakuku.

The film was good. Worth 6.5/10.

POem of a troubled soul...

2009-09-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

Why is it when my faith gets to the top,
Something big and bad comes and block,
At times my faith is soft,
At others it's as hard as rock,
My own damned soul I mock,

I wanna break free,
See the things I used to see,
But I unknowingly planted evil's seed,
I really need my creed,
The Lord's guidance I need,
Help me Jesus I plead,

Happiness is fading further from me,
Why don't you come home to me,
The Lord's love is deeper than the sea,
However I'm so corrupted I can't feel Thee,

I want my promised eternal salvation,
But I might be heading to damnation,
Evil and lust isn't the Lord's creation,
Yet it has brought my faith to destruction,

Literature All Day

2009-08-22T03:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't uploaded such posts yet so I think it's time to do one.

We had an inter-class drama competition. The drama must be heavily based on the literature stories covered in form 4. So I played a mafia/loan shark/gangster named Mr Barzini who was the main antagonist of The Godfather. I hoped they could name him Corleone or Vitti or Capone or even Soprano.

But I choose to wear clothes that resemble Al Pacino's Tony Montana from Scarface. Yea, the guy behind the famous "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND! quote"

See the resemblance...

So I borrowed Wee's pistol manik and I rolled up paper for a cigarette. Actually in the actual story "The Necklace", the loan shark received no screen time but I pleaded for them to put it in. But every mafioso needs a banger/solidati/enforcer. So Eevy took the role with a shotgun. Um, don't know if there ever was a girl in the maifa structure. There was one part I needed to bang someone's head with a gun and I actually hit him. How hard I dunno.

We got fourth place. I had to say we were outmatched by 4H who did The Sound Machine. Asyraf could really act. The Darth Vader hat really fitted the mad scientist story. And Kai Vin looked goofy in postman costume for the 4AA drama based on Sonnet 18...

Pictures...

Look Pal... You f*ck with me, you f*ck with the best. I'm Tony Montana.

I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse...

Mr Postman...

Poem

2009-08-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Bad seed,
Fueled by monstrous greed,
The evil lust you must feed,
Greed can grow from money to weed,
It all ends when you go back to your creed,
In which the Lord's forgiveness you plead,
Where into righteousness he will lead,

The Godfather's Revenge Book Review

2009-08-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

Although I still prefer the first novel, this was the first Godfather novel which I read the whole book. In my reading process of The Godfather, I skipped a few pages to avoid the painfully boring subplots involving Johnny Fontane and Lucy Mancini.

The Godfather's Revenge will be rated as the 2nd best novel in the Godfather novels. Despite the fact that Nick Geraci remains the main character, there is more action in this novel compared to The Godfather: The Lost Years in which it was all dialogue. We get to see Michael Corleone showing signs of diabetes as in the third film. In this novel, Michael tries to cope with his children and ex-wife Kay while finding romance in his brother Fredo's ex mistress, Rita Duvall. In The Godfather Part II, Michael teases consigliere Tom Hagen about his mistress. This novel goes in deeper, with Tom being a suspect of his mistress' murder. At the very end, Tom is killed by Nick Geraci. However, Nick is betrayed by Don Stracchi and left alone for Michael Corleone to finish off. Interestingly, this novel shows that the Corleone family had a hand if President Kennedy's assassination.

For people who preferred the first Godfather movie, The Godfather and The Sicilian suits you best. For the fans of the Part II and Part III films, Winegardner's expansion of Mario Puzo's story will be your type. As for me, I prefer the Sicilian drama of Puzo and the first film but also crave for the complexity and Americanized violence of Part II and Part III which is what you'll find in Winegardner.

As until now, only four Godfather novels have been published. I really hope either Mark Winegardner or someone else will pen another novel. Who knows, in 10 years time I might be the author of a new Godfather novel... HAHA... Dream on... However, I would enjoy a storyline which involves either Vito Corleone or Michael Corleone fight a war with the Chinese Tongs, Chinese Triads or the Japanese Yakuza. That'll be epic. Russian Red Mafiosi and Irish Mobsters will also fit the bill... But I would root for the Oriental mobs. They also deserve some recognition. Example, as with Al Capone's Valentine's Day Massacre, the Chinese Triads staged the Golden Dragon Massacre in San Fransisco where two Chinese gangs clash in a restaurant.

The Coves of Taiji, Japan

2009-08-07T23:58:00.000-07:00

Every year at a certain time, the lagoons of Taiji turn red with innocent blood. The innocent blood of dolphins. Yet, it's perfectly legal... Sick stuff dude...

What Course should I take....

2009-08-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

My aunties and parents keep rushing me on making these decisions. When I was a kid, I wanna be a skydiver, a cowboy, a Jedi and all those silly crap... I'm now considering these courses....

- My first alternative is to take a double degree on English/Mass Communication. That way, it's easy to look for a job for a newspaper or magazine. I could maybe write books, poems etc. On top of it, it's this choice that my mum wants me to do.

- Marine biology. Maybe, but the pay is painfully low if you are like the 85% of marine biologists in Malaysia who works for the Fishery Department. But the other 15% get big cash working for Aquaria KLCC or Sentosa Island's Aquaria. Yea, I love the ocean but it's hard to fins a job with this one. Eat seafood your whole life dude.

- Art. I'm quite good at drawing but art like marine biology doesn't pay the bills unless you get as good as Picaso, Da Vinci or Michaelangelo. I could be a cartoon artist but that would have to be in USA or Europe unless I'm as successful as the all incredible LAT. However, my sense of humor sucks so I need someone to fill in the jokes for me to draw. I love comics, I mean the funny ones such as Zits, Pickles and Shoe but my all time favorite is CALVIN AND HOBBES.

- Paleontology. After watching National Geographic and Jurassic Park dozens of times, I think it's a fun idea to go dig up dinosaur skeleton. There are many drawbacks, dinosaurs don't inhabit Malaysia maybe because the country is full of garbage which means you won't find dinosaur bones. However you will find artifacts and and skeletons from zaman neolitik, zaman logam and zaman paleolitik which is kinda lame. And you need to go to somewhere in USA to get such a course which costs money. However, these seemingly worthless old bones cost big money. One complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton cost 7.6 million USD.

Any comments or suggestions will be deeply appreciated thanks. I might consider taking more than one of these choices. I might work and save then study again.

Movie Reviews - Spielberg's Movies

2009-07-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a 4 in 1 DVD set. It included Empire of the Sun, Schindler's List, The Color Purple and Munich. 3 of these films gained critical nominations at the Academy Awards except for Empire of the Sun. As I said, every movie fan must watch Spielberg's movie because he's the most accomplished film director Hollywood has ever known. So far, I've only watched two of the four movies. Empire of the Sun and Schindler's List. And both were two of the best films I've ever seen.

1987's Empire of the Sun was a box office failure although this doesn't mean it's a bad movie. Starring a 12 year old Christian Bale before his Batman career. Empire of the Sun tells the story of Jamie Graham later nicknamed "Jim" as he is separated from his parents when Japan attacked his hometown of Shanghai.

A lonely ventures back into his parents' old mansion and eat food scraps for a few weeks. He ventures into Shanghai to fins his parents but is instead found by Basie, an American who uses Jamie as a tool much like Fagin in Oliver Twist. Jamie and Basie are transported to a Japanese Labor Camp where he lives with both British and American incidents. There, he befriends a Japanese teenager who aspires to be a kamikaze. The sad part is due to hectic experiences in the labor camp, Jamie eventually forgotten how his parents looked like.

But all ends well, Jamie is sent to an orphanage where kids have either lost of got separated from their parents during the war. As other kids wait anxiously to be reunited with their parents, Jamie stands quietly and weeps. However, his mother comes and convinces Jamie who he is and bla bla bla... The end.

I give this movie an 8.5/10. It is full of epic grandeur and drama as well as several good laughs. The CGI scenes where the American Mustangs bomb the labor camp are reasonably well done. The type of drama is also unique. Example, compared to The Godfather where the drama keeps you amazed, Empire of the Sun digs into your emotion. Don't be surprised if you cry watching this film.

Steven Spielberg's friend and collaborator John Williams who composed music for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, E.T., Harry Potter and Superman introduced an epic score spearheaded by the choir based Suo Gan which is in Welsh language. Also, a very young Ben Stiller gets a small role in this movie. Fortunately, he's not hard to spot.

Schindler's List is one of Steven Spielberg's most critically acclaimed movies. Although it doesn't have the cultural significance of Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters With the Third Kind and Jurassic Park, this film is reasonably well made. Unfortunately, this film is kinda strange especially for a film directed by Spielberg. I'll tell you why later.

The movie tells the legendary tales of German businessman Oskar Schindler(played by a very young Liam Neeson) who owns a metal factory. He initially sees Jewish people as cheap workers for his factory due to the fact that he needs not pay their salary. Due to the fact that the Germans enjoy shooting the Jews, he gets a compensation by the German army which profits him further.

Despite this, he treated his workers much better than the Germans. He also befriends his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern as well as tyrannical German SS commander Amon Goth. One day, Oskar witnesses Jews being executed by the thousands in the Plaszow Camp. This makes him warmer to the Jews and so the legend grew that his factory is a refuge for Jews. Desperate Jews attempt to enlist themselves or family members in his factory and this fustrates him. He eventually accepts most of the request.

In their gratitude to Schindler, the Jews worked quickly and productively. Thus, earning Schindler a truckload of money. He also advises Amon Goth that the power of compassion is greater than the power to kill. Amon almost came to his senses twice but in the end falls into evil. First, He pardons a Jewish servant who failed to clean his bathroom properly but shoots the boy when he exits his house. Second, he became friendly to his Jewish maid as if like a lover but ends up whacking her.

Schindler is toched further during his birthday party where German SS Officers are invited including Amon Goth. The Jews present him with a simple cake, however he thanks them and kisses one of them in the forehead. Enraged at Schindler's compassion, Amon orders Schindler to be put in jail for kissing a Jew.

Schindler finally made his decision to save the Jews when he witnesses the incineration of Jewish bodies killed by the gas chamber executions. He then compiles a list of 1,200 people and shows them to Amon and says that he needs more workers for his factory. The move is greenlit due to the fact that other Germans are stealing Schindler's Jews. Schindler counters this problem by bribing SS Officers.

Back at the factory, Schindler forces his workers to make bullets that won't fire. Thus, causes him to go bankrupt. One day, Schindler announces Germany's defeat in the war and explains that British Law is replacing laws set by Germans. In British law, Schindler will be executed due to the fact that he benefited from slavery. He says he will spend his final hours in Germany with his workers before he exiles himself.

The aged Jews pull out their gold teeth and melted them to make a gold ring for Schindler. As he is presented with the gift, Schindler is depressed about not being able to save more Jews and stated his car and jewelry could save at least a dozen more lives. Itzhak Stern however consoles him and bids farewell before he leaves Germany with his wife.

Only 4,000 Jews are alive in Poland by 1990. But the descendants of Schindler's Jews number by 6,000 all over the world. Today, we may be talking about at least 10,000 Jews are alive today because of Schindler's actions.

No wonder Pastor Koshy wanted to screen Schindler's List at the church.

Now I tell you why the movie is weird. To depict a reality of the Jews sufferings, Steven Spielberg had his actors and actresses in the nude at certain scenes so the "those things" are clearly visible. Now imagine Steven Spielberg directing a bunch of naked goons...LOL....

However, this ilm can be scary at times because unlike Indiana Jones where Nazi's are just power crazed villains, Spielberg portrayed the Nazi's in Schindler's List as pure evil. As if they are Satan's servants. The amount of emotion in this film is also equal to Empire of the Sun. However, the scary-ness of this film caused me not to enjoy it too much.

Spielberg also stated if he'd done Schindler's List first, he would not have been able to direct Jurassic Park due to the amount of emotion in the movie. True enough, studio executives forced Spielberg to do his dinosaur epic before he did Schindler's List. Wise move as Jurassic Park earned more than 900 million dollars worldwide. Schindler's List was a big hit at the oscars, winning Best Picture and Best Director.

John Williams composed a piano ballad soundtrack for the film. At times, a horrifying theme (kinda like combining horror movie soundtracks with Darth Vader's theme) is used. The film is reasonably well made although it would be better in the eyes of Western film critics.

I give it 8/10 although the cultural significance of Schindler's List is almost equal to The Godfather.

Random poems

2009-07-20T06:38:00.000-07:00

I've known many people in my life,
Some help me live and thrive,
Some are as annoying as bees from the hive,
Good ones are necessary for life,
Bad ones I wanna slash them with a knife,

The power of greed awakens,
Desire of power fills the vacant,
Once the dark door you open,
The code of discipline you've forsaken,
Absolute power cannot be given,
It must be taken,

Don't worry. I'm fine. I write poems for fun only...

The Godfather's Revenge and Harry Potter 6 Review...

2009-07-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

The final piece of Mario Puzo's mafia masetro puzzle.

HAHAHAHA.

My collection of The Godfather novels is COMPLETE! The Godfather's Revenge is the fourth and final book in Mario Puzo's mafia masetro piece is MINE!!!!

Like the previous book, The Godfather: The Lost Years aka The Godfather Returns, The Godfather's Revenge is written by Mike Winegardner. Although closely following the canon of Mario Puzo's original two Godfather novels, Winegardner uses a different style of language. The Sicilian-ish language is much more Americanized with some vulgar language inside...swt...

One drawback of Winegardner's expansion of Michael Corleone's career as Don is that it differ's greatly from the movies due to one small but pivotal element. In the first movie The Godfather, all the heads of the 5 families opposing the Corleone organization Emilio Barzini, Phillip Tattaglia, Carmine Cuneo and Victor Stracchi are all gunned down by Corleone hitmen during the famous baptism scene.

In Puzo's original, only the two spearheading Dons Barzini and Tattaglia are executed. Cuneo and Stracchi surrendered to Michael Corleone. In Winegardner's novels, the survivors play expanded pivotal roles compared the first novel. The Godfather's Revenge also explores the upstart of Osvaldo "Ozzy" Altobello whom was once a Tattaglia caporegime. Osvaldo became the main antagonist of The Godfather: Part III who organized the Immobiliare plot.

I've gotten back The Sicilian and The Godfather: The Lost Years from Nagen due to the fact that to understand Revenge, understanding of The Lost Years is critical because the main story arc of the two novels are the same. Nick Geraci, a former Corleone capo, tries to execute his revenge on Michael Corleone's empire.

Puzzle completed...

Stacked up...

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince kinda sucked. Despite it's dark atmosphere, the plot is draggy and contains little of the action that made Harry Potter moves enjoyable to me.

Book Reviews... The Godfather and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed....

2009-07-15T02:40:00.000-07:00

I finished reading the first and original The Godfather novel weeks ago but yet to put up a review. So here goes to my first review.

Like the movie itself, The Godfather novel is a true masterpiece. Instead of focusing on just only one theme, it branches out into many other elements. With crime as it's root theme, the themes of romance, action, thriller and of course family plays major parts in the novel.

The crime elements of course are about the Corleone family's dealings and infrastructure. From Don Vito Corleone, Camporegimes Pete Clemenza and Salvatore "Sally" Tessio, Consiglieres Genco Abbadando and Tom Hagen. Also included is a flashback arc about Vito's rise to power as shown in The Godfather: Part II.

The element of romance explores Michael Corleone's relationship with Kay Adams in USA and Apollonia when he's exiled in Sicily. Also included is Santino Corleone's illegitimate relationship with Lucy Mancini. Family elements consists of Vito's relationship with his children. The thriller element deals with Vito Corleone's main hitman Luca Brasi who is Vito's Jason Voorhees. Of course we get a slab of mafia action.

By reading the novel, you can conclude that director Francis Ford Coppola never truly wrote the script. He directed most of the scenes according to the novel itself. So Mario Puzo must be given the credit. Of course Coppola should be given credit for selecting splendid actors such as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert DeNiro and Robert Duvall to play the characters. The film follows VERY close to the novel. More close than Harry Potter as far as I'm concerned.

There's just one flaw in this masterpiece. I kinda dislike the characters of Johnny Fontane and Lucy Mancini who are covered in a few chapters. Good thing Coppola almost erased them from the movie.

Due to the fact that I've read the book after I've watched all three movies, it didn't make much difference. BUT, you know the novel is the ORIGINAL piece. Needless to say, the first novel is better than my other Godfather novels The Sicilian and The Godfather: Lost Years.

My brother bought the novel Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from USA. With my current sci-fi fascination now being passed from Star Wars to Godfather, getting a Star Wars novel revived my interest in Star Wars which still remains my craziest childhood fascination. The novel is also based on the Force Unleashed video game. Although I know how the story goes, the novel's detailed language explores into the Force. Good reference if you wanna write a fan fiction Star Wars novel.

The novel starts of with Darth Vader promoting his apprentice to a level in which he is allowed to hunt down Jedi. However, his apprentice Starkiller/Galen Marek is an "unofficial" Sith apprentice due to Darth Bane's "Rule of Two" where there can only be two Sith Lords at one time. One master, one apprentice. Despite his lack of the Sith Lord pangkat, Starkiller's force ability surpasses Darth Vader because Vader lost his potential after getting toasted in the volcano.

But as the novel progresses, things heat up with Starkiller going on missions to kill 3 Jedi Masters. Rahm Kota being the first, followed by a war bitter Kadazan Paratus. His hardest battle was Jedi High Council member Shaak Ti who possessed the ability to control Rancors(bipedal monsters that resemble dinosaurs. Luke Skywalker killed one owned by Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars Episode VI). This process is repeated, mission after mission. This makes the middle part of the novel kinda boring. One thing I also despise is Starkiller's romance with Juno Eclipse, an Imperial pilot.

Then Darth Vader almost killed his apprentice to avoid being killed by his master Darth Sidious for breaking the Sith Rule Of Two and prove his allegiance. Vader gave his revived apprentice new orders, Form a Rebel Alliance to distract Emperor Palpatine's spies. A frustrated Starkiller broke his ties with Vader, adopted his birthname Galen Marek and formed the Rebel Alliance not to distract Palpatine but to avenge his master. Despite his noble actions, he remained a practitioner of the dark side.

Vader eventually captured the Rebel Alliance conspirators and left Marek for dead. Juno revives Marek who proceeds to the un-operational Death Star I to free the rebels. Darth Vader goe to duel his apprentice. Knowing his apprentice's lightsaber skills exceeds his own, Vader tried to bash him up with the force. But the tables turned, the extremely powerful Vader was overpowered by his former pupil. Emperor Palpatine then burned Rahm Kota with Sith lighting so Marek left the badly wounded Vader to save his friend.

The dreaded Emperor surrendered and asked Marek to strike him down just like what he will ask of Luke Skywalker 4-5 years later. Marek refuse to give in and moved away. Palpatine then blasted lighting at Kota and the other rebels. Marek who was as powerful as Yoda, was able to block Sith lighting with his bare hands and could even wield lighting on his own due to his Sith tutelage. Vader recovered and commanded a platoon of stormtroopers to blast down Kota and the rebels who escaping to Juno's ship. Marek then "unleashed" the force within him by giving out all he had, even the force necessary to sustain life, killing himself and all the stormtroopers, mildly injuring Vader and Palpatine as well as enabling his friends to escape.

The novel was dark and had little subplots compared to my other novels. It really focuses on the whole "Jedi vs Sith" concept. The Force Unleashed project which comprised of the game, comics, toys and novel is definitely better than the dreadful Clone Wars movie and TV series. Probably the best non-live action movie Star Wars material ever made so far.

Spielberg for Harry Potter, Dark films and other movie related titles...

2009-07-14T00:37:00.001-07:00

As a big fan of GOOD movies, it is always necessary to be a big fan of Steven Spielberg. I read a Wikipedia article which stated Warner Brother's executives chose Spielberg to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone which was the first film of the series. With classics such as Jaws, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, E.T., Indiana Jones, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park in his filmography, it was wise to hire an expert to direct a film which such grandeur.

I was also surprised Francis Ford Coppola who directed the critically-acclaimed The Godfather and The Godfather Part II wasn't contacted. He would be a perfect choice for a large scale film which is dark and filled with grandeur like Godfather. Nuff said...

However, the executives were stubborn towards the EXPERT'S advice because Spielberg wanted a dark movie but the executives wanted to give a family-film. True enough, the first Harry Potter was very kid-friendly. The proceeding films were darker although kid-friendly elements remained. I have a feeling Half Blood Prince looked darker which is cool for me. I like dark and gothic films. For example, compare The Dark Knight and the gay and cartoonish Batman & Robin.

Many people say Twilight is dark and gothic but I dislike films with too much romance. Example Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones was more of a romance film than a science fiction one. Star Wars IV and Star Wars I were not dark but everything else was good. The others were good because there was a good balance between fun and dark elements. Star Wars III was the darkest and possibly the best. It would be better if we get to see more of Darth Vader.

Those days in the 70's-90's, many films were good. Today, many of the sucked big time. Take Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for example. Yea, there were more action scenes but everything else didn't work. If you wanna know what movies I enjoy watching, it is simple...

A non-comedy or animated film MUST BE DARK which means there must be a good villain/bad guy in it. C'mon, name me an action film without good villains. However, there may be some exceptions, I still enjoy the latest Star Trek and Indiana Jones although they weren't that dark.

The Godfather DISCO!!!

2009-07-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

I recently found a disco version of The Godfather theme. Very different from the original orchestral/violin version or Slash guitar solo version...

Although not quite an offer I can't refuse, it was good...

MJ 1995

2009-07-02T11:21:00.000-07:00

A kickass performance by the King of Pop at the 1995 VMA's with a special appearance with the one and only SLASH!!!

Scarface Movie Review

2009-06-27T07:54:00.001-07:00

My dad recently bought the DVD for Scarface two days ago. When I saw that famous black and white DVD cover, I smiled with joy.

This film was rated as one of the greatest gangster movies of all time if not one of the greatest movies of all time. With Al Pacino (Godfather series, Carlito's Way) in the lead role as Cuban Drug lord Tony Montana, the film looks promising.

Pacino looked very different in this film compared to The Godfather as he looked tanned, scruffy and who can forget, he has a scar on his face. Pacino also spoke in Cuban dialect with a rough and aggressive voice opposed to the calm and sinister voice of Michael Corleone.

The film's atmosphere is very GTA-ish and very similar to GTA: Vice City. They wear the same clothes, drive Cadillacs, do drugs etc. Needless to say GTA: Vice City is inspired by Scarface as stated in Wikipedia.

Despite the legendary status and popularity of the film, I was kinda disappointed with Scarface. It is more colorful and varied than the dark atmosphere of The Godfather but it lacks the drama that The Godfather displayed so elegantly. Long story short, Scarface is a 100% slab of dirty action with minimal drama. The film is also kinda draggy with too many sub-plots. Despite the fact that I was disappointed, Al Pacino gives a memorable performance as usual.

While some of the scenes from Scarface are lame and full of lame jokes, the other scenes will wanna make you applause!!! Some of the scenes include....

- The famous chainsaw torture scene.

- The part where Tony Montana and Manny Ray execute their former boss Frank Lopez who tried to have Montana killed. The irony of the scene is once Lopez's bodyguards abandon him to Montana, he begs for mercy and kisses Montana's feet.

- Who can forget, Tony Montana grabs a M4A1 equipped with grenade launcher and screams "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" before blasting Alejandro Sosa's gunmen into smithereens with a M4A1 equipped with a M203 Grenade Launcher. Montana proceeds to gun down dozens of Sosa's gunmen before being killed. Despite this scene being less than 2 minutes long, it remains one of the most memorable scene in motion picture history. This scene is also the highlight of the film.

Despite it's awesome legacy and popularity, I was kinda disappointed with Scarface although it proves to be a good gangster movie in it's own right. Definitely not as good as The Godfather but better than Righteous Kill(a film starring both Corleone's Robert De Niro and Al Pacino). GTA fans will enjoy it no doubt.

I'll give it 6 out of 10.

Poem for school magazine...

2009-06-22T08:13:00.001-07:00

I was tasked to write a poem to be published in the school magazine... Let me know what you think...

Memories make life worth living for,
Some so good you will ask for more,
Some so bad you feel lower than the floor,
New experiences you never felt before,
Remains your heart till it beats no more,

Memories are like an open book,
Every nook and cranny there is something good to look,
We will love the good ones that we took,
Memories are like good recipes we love to cook,
Some memories will stick on us like a fishing hook,

Memories and experience can be used as tools,
People who are depressed in life are not cool,
People who don’t enjoy life are fools,
He who never enjoys life is worse than mules,
Because happiness is one of the golden rules,

Happy memories determine life’s intensity,
Your life can be either a dull desert or a bright city,
Some fools hate life they descend into insanity,
For all they see in life is calamity,
For such blind people what a pity,

Life is better if it’s positive so focus on fun,
Relax yourself by looking at the sun,
Go get high when you run,
Be happy because it’s a warm gun,
You look back satisfied when your time is done,

Life is comforting like the breeze that blow,
It is as beautiful as the pure white snow,
As significant as the stars that glow,
Life is a candle we must now blow,
Because the candle gives the light we must follow,

I might edit it in the future...

A Day Of Fatigue and Dissapointment...

2009-06-21T03:25:00.000-07:00

OK... Today was the day for the Annual Parliamentary Bla Bla Bla Debate Competition...

First there was a assembly which roasted us in the sun as usual. Then we went to discuss about the debate stuff. I was tasked to observe our opponents and lots of lame shit came up.

Due to the fact that SMK Bandar was quite weak, we couldn't make the most of our chances. I wrote down some of the opponents traits and characteristics and other shit.

Then we went for recess and I received my writable CD's to burn during Jumble Sale. They said the customers had to choose the CD's already available. I said we should let customers choose their songs mana tahu someone want's to listen to Guns N' Roses.

I even suggested ROCK CD's at discounted price. HAHA but those pop-lovers objected. Lame. Then I went to Bilik Akses and helped Henna with her essay that was going to be published in the school magazine. It wasn't on Grammer mistakes but rather on "sentence enhancements". However her English higher than mine so I gave 2-3 phrases only.

I suddenly thought it was a good idea to write my own story for the school magazine. I typed down a draft involving the mafioso and his son. It is what I say a combination between The Godfather and The Last Don both written by Mario Puzo. But such a complex story would take a long time to tell. It was also kinda lame compared to the genius of Mario Puzo.

Then came the debate. Our team started smoothly by answering POI's accurately. When the CHWS came, we were pissed of because.
- There was supposed to be only 5 team members. CHWS had 7. WTF!
- The one to deliver the replying speech is the 2nd speaker, CHWS asked their 3rd speaker to deliver instead. Damn!

The CHWS team were talking cock the whole way. Their statements sometimes implifying that they agree with SMKSS and most of their points ran off course. Looked like we had a good chance to win despite the odds. Worst of all, POI's brought by the SMKSS team were not answered to be denied rudely or postponed till it was forgotten.

Guess what! The CHWS won. What is this madness? And the best speaker went to 1 American I dunno. The funny thing is she started her speech stating that she was the government in fact WE are the government. HAHA! What a joke, the best speaker couldn't know whose side she's on...

Our 3rd speaker Theva was devastated. I joked reciting Tom Hagen's lines from The Godfather Part II ..."This house owes us an apology Mr Speaker"... but I did it quietly so no one would notice. Then Willert came in looking rather moody and emo and he ignored me. Hey it's cool for me because he had a rough time.

I went back to class to see my class empty. I ran to the Physics and Chemistry lab to see if anyone was there but they were both empty. Then Mr TTS came and asked his usual cynical questions so I ran away. The library was empty either. I sat in my class alone and even the birds entered the class not knowing I was inside. I tried to catch one but failed.

Went home, told dad about the debate and wished him HAPPY FATHER'S DAY. I ate some good lunch and slept like a pig. I went to the computer to upload on Facebook and search for the usual stuff.

I learnt that Morgan Freeman molested his granddaughter. Then I was watching Al Pacino's video from Dog Day Afternoon. The famous "Attica! Attica!" scene. I thought of the movie as a very good plot. I had this crazy idea to use Dog Day Afternoon as a basis for my school magazine essay, replacing the Mafia story.

i took a Facebook quiz to see how gangster i am. I got 96% so I'm qualified to join the Corleone family...LOL... Now I'm finishing this post. I'm treating my family dinner in conjunction of Father's Day then got TTT later.

Bye now...

Left 4 Dead 2

2009-06-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

The trailer for Left 4 Dead 2....

Scorpion Feeding...

2009-06-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

Now I'm able to require good pictures of my scorpion eating because now the prey is a green grasshopper I caught in my house opposed to brown crickets...

This time I used a different method to feed the scorpion. I used a pair of pliers to grab the grasshopper by the wing and pushed it into the scorpion's mouth. This is the technique used by exotic pet owners in the USA as demonstrated in many YouTube videos.

The scorpion only grabbed after a few attempts much to my relief. I guess it was hungry after 3 days without food which is not unusual. As usual it didn't sting the grasshopper and ate it head first. Unlike the cricket, the grasshopper died quickly.

Then I saw a piece of cricket leg full of maggots in the enclosure. I read that these maggots are able to kill tarantulas so I removed them. The scorpion ate everything including the grasshopper's wings. All that's left is a small piece of leg that I removed quickly to avoid maggot infestation.

I was lucky to find a grasshopper in my compound. I don't know if I can rely on freshly caught insects instead of purchased crickets for my pet.

Difficult To Draw!!!

2009-06-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to draw Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather for many weeks. Today alone, I sketched up to 5-6 failed portraits... Darn it...

When drawing Don Michael Corleone, the drawing looks like half Michael Corleone and half Antonio "Scarface" Montana. To all non gangster movie fans, Scarface and Michael Corleone are played by the same actor which is Al Pacino.

Scorpion Feeding...

2009-06-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

When it comes to exotic pets, you know the animal is comfortable in the new environment if it eats. My scorpion ate this morning I mean early morning about 3AM. If your pet doesn't eat, you better release it before it dies but if it eats, VOILA! your money is well spent...

I was observing from my bed. My pet crawled to the water dish for a drink then entered it's flowerpot burrow. Then it stayed still with it's tail raised up and claws spread. That is a signal "Waiter! Where's my food".

There was already 2 crickets in the enclosure but it didn't notice. I dropped one more and the bug crawled into the burrow, right into the lion's den. At first nothing happened so I was kinda pissed of. Then I heard some noise. The two bugs brawled. The brawl was so big that the flowerpot came off, giving me a clear view. And I was relieved because it shows that my new pet is adapting well.

I didn't see the scorpion stinging the cricket. Maybe it didn't sting because the cricket was small compared to itself and small enough to be restrained with it's claws. i guess venom was precious and reserved for big meals like mice, lizards, frogs or bigger bugs.

The poor cricket was eaten alive and head first. Even after half of the head was gone, it was still struggling. I observed the scorpion's mouth and it was the ugliest mouth I've ever seen...LOL... It was like a second pair of claws in the mouth. It rips food into smaller pieces for the inner mouth parts to swallow. EWWW....

The scorpion's mouth...

Similar mouth parts right?

By the time the cricket's thorax was gone, the prey stopped moving. Then it continued eating. I tried taking photos but the colour of the cricket is same with the clour of the soil and rocks... BROWN... it's meant to camoflauge....

The dinner took at least 45 minutes. LONG EH? But it's definitely better to hear my accounts teacher bragging and nagging why my English is A1 and my accounts failed... Damn! And it's more fun than any lame experiment carried out in the school lab.

My New Pet....

2009-06-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

I went to KL again. And I brought home a new pet... Guess what? It ain't a dog, kitten, bird, fish or rodent...

.....

....

....

....

An ARACHNID..... A scorpion....

I've been thinking of buying a tarantula for years now. But tarantulas are way more expensive and I'm a noob bug owner. So I opted for a scorpion instead because it's not very expensive and it's more hardy. And tarantulas can run faster than scorpions so who knows what happens if it escapes...

It is at least 4.5 inches long and it doesn't eat very often. One cricket will be good for 4-5 days. To save money I'll have to go out and catch bigs, lizards or frogs instead of buying crickets.

To arachnaphobic people(people who are scared of scorpions and spiders), It is possible to put the scorpion onto my hand if it is in the mood. If it's bo mood, it'll curl up it's tail and stinger and spread it's claws.

In it's enclosure...

Outside it's enclosure. The next picture will knock your socks off...

TAA DAAA!!!!!!

Call me crazy if you want....

Why Did The Stadium Fall?

2009-06-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Due to the fact that the world's government has the tendency to spread lies in order to cover up the truth, the collapse of the KT stadium is no exception...

They said it was an unstable structure, low quality material and other "in-the-box" remarks. Lame...

What if we think out of the box...

Maybe? Possibly? I don't know...

Random sketches...

2009-06-03T11:59:00.001-07:00

I shot photos of some of the sketches in my notebook... Most of them are sketches of terminator robots...

There are many sketched but only a few I really put effort into them... I first sketched my favourite rock guitarists...

Slash drawing...

Buckethead drawing...

Due to the recent hype of Terminator Salvation, drawing the cyborgs hit my mind. My sketches are always based on the latest movies example when Transformers was out I drew Transformers and during The Dark Knight, I draw lots and lots of Joker and a little bit of Batman...
I drew this last week at school. In a funny way it looked more like Clint Eastwood than Arnold Schwarzenegger...

I went to the ICT room at school for some internet pictures and I drew a rough sketch of a terminator(T-800 from Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day) although it lacks certain details.

This one was done at Chemistry tution at TTT and it was on my chemistry book. This one I designed myself but it was based on the big brutish T-600 terminator from Terminator Salvation. I knew I had to do more....

I went home straight away draw a more accurate and detailed T-600 Terminator. Knowing the previous T-800 I sketched wasn't detailed enough, it got better...

A more detailed T-800 but the lower jaw is too big. I drew a big lower jaw because Arnold Schwarzenegger has a big chin HAHAHA...

Of all terminator drawings, I still can't draw the famous half man half machine face in which half of the face is Arnold Schwhatever... and another half is the robot skull...

It kinda looks like this....

So when Tranformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen comes out, you'll know what to expect... LOL...

The Long Holiday Part 2: KL Trip

2009-06-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, the main reason for this trip is to attend my the wedding of the daughter-of-my-dad's-friend.

Still exhausted from the Redang trip, i slept 80% of the drive to Kuantan. There we ate a dim sum dinner and watched some TV. I slept quickly because I haven't slept enough during the camp.

The next day we were off to KL. Me, my sis and my mum went to KLCC while my dad went to check in the hotel. My mum said watching a movie was impossible due to inadequate time. I was lucky to get a ticket for Terminator Salvation. Which brings us to movie review number 1.
The movie had brought a lot of promise and potential. The critics either gave it a negative or mix response while fans gave it a positive review. My brother Jimbo said it was awesome. So I had to see for myself.

The Good Stuff of Terminator: Salvation.
- AWESOME! special effects.
- Plenty of scenes which show naked(without the skin) T-600 and T-800 endoskeleton.
- Gives the fans the highly anticipated Post-Apocalyptic setting.
- A good cast unlike Star Trek. Christian Bale as John Connor.
- One of the best scenes in the entire series. The T-800 goes after John Connor and Marcus Wright.

The Flaws of Terminator Salvation.
- No Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although there's a CGI Arnold face.
- Predictable plot.
- Lame dialogue.
- The concept of Marcus Wright being a endoskeleton robot with human heart and brain is kinda stupid.

- Many scenes in Terminator Salvation is similar to scenes in previous Terminator movies.
* There's a scene where the T-800 gets a molten metal bath(In Terminator 2, the T-1000 falls into a vat of hot metal and dies) but survives.

* Moments later, T-800 gets a bath of industrial coolant aka liquid nitrogen(Also in Terminator 2 The T-1000 crashes his liquid nitrogen truck and gets frozen.)

* The line "Come with me if you want to live."

* The line "I'll Be Back" is spoken by John Connor.

* A damaged T-600 who has lost it's legs crawls after John Connor(In Terminator a T-800 damaged in the same way crawls after Sarah Connor.)

* In Terminator, The T-800 chases Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese in an industrial factory. In Terminator Salvation John Connor and Kyle Reese are pursued by a Terminator in a Terminator making factory.

However, the appearance of the T-800 makes the film worth watching. Although we get a glimpse of the CGI Arnold Schwarzenegger, the T-800 skin is burned off after a minute.

I hoped Terminator Salvation could bring back the franchise to the quality of the first and second film after a disappointing Terminator 3 but it failed. It was a little bit better than Terminator 3 compared to Terminator and Terminator 2, it sucks. Kinda like how you compare The Godfather Part III with the first two movies. I give it a 5.5/10.

I then ate a Beef Sandwich for lunch and we went to that wedding. It was a Malay wedding held in a Putrajaya Convention Centre. Sounds big! Yea, the grandest Malay wedding I ever attended. But there was not enough food unlike Chinese dinners. We needed supper after the dinner so we went for Imbi Road Hokkien mee.

The next day, we went to Pavillion. We went to get some movie tickets and my friend works there. We chose Night At The Museum 2.
There the strangest thing happened. My friend said he would give the tickets for free. Me and sis got into some good seats. Even the drink and popcorn was free... WOW!... The movie was good but the first Night at the Museum was much better. But it wasn't all that dissapointing because I never had big expectations for this one unlike Terminator Salvation. I rate it 5.5/10. It was full of laughter and fun but the lack of involvement from characters from the first film brought it down.

There was a scene where the evil pharoah was recruiting bad guys. He already had Mafia Kingpin Al Capone, Napoleon Bonaparte and Ivan The Terrible. he rejected Oscar Grouch(From Sesame Street) and Darth Vader. The pharoah heared Darth Vader's iconic breathing and called him an asmathic. Vader then tried to force choke the pharoah but failed. He's just a wax figure.

The Jonas Brothers made a fairly entertaining appearance as 3 cupid fairies who are always singing. The first time I enjoyed anything regarding the Jonas Brothers.

After the show ended I went book-hunting at Times Pavillion. There was a discount on Angels and Demons but I couldn't be bothered. I looked into some Stephen King and Tom Clancy but most of all I was looking forward to add into my collection of Godfather novels and found just the thing....
The original The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo. This was the first of 4 Godfather novels and is definitely the best novel in the series.

That brings my Godfather collection to 3 out of 4 books.

Knowing I can't collect the 50++ Star Wars novels out there, I think I might have a complete Godfather collection in the near future. That's an offer I can't refuse. LOL.

The Long Holiday Part 1: Redang Camp

2009-06-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Ok so I joined the ELS summer camp. We gathered at the school bla bla bla bla bla.

Reached the island and took a long painful hike to the "pusat ko-ko". We ate lunch and it sucked but someone bought in some bak chang which the boys really appreciated. We got our bags frisked bla bla bla and entered our room. Dirty, full of dust and the mattresses were smelly and full of holes. I had a feeling like "I didn't really sign up for this" because I was hoping to join a bad ass camp that could kick start my holidays.

Then there was some kinda water confidence. I could not even lie on my back to relax watching the clear blue skies as there was always someone to splash at me. DANG! That night someone broke my guitar string so the only song I could play with my guitar is the power-chord-based GNR song "Dead Horse".

Then we needed to design our flags. I gave out a few ideas including a logo similar to the album cover of "It's 5 o Clock Somewhere" by Slash Snakepit. I finally setteled on a pirate doing the hula dance with a flower necklace, grass skirt and coconut bra. I added a Slash skeleton crunching his Les Paul.

There was an old saying "When the lights go out, the mice will play". This happened to us on the first night. Some of us had a Chinese karaoke, some laughed loudly and Arul, William and Asyraf built an army observational post. Armed with nothing but their will and flashlights, their mission: to see if any of the boys ahead of them did something naughty. One of the boys scratched his bird then they yelled " 'anonymous' garu p**** ". Then they played a weird sex audio and laughed and laughed. By this time the camp official got tired and barged into our room. Through my observation, his face was full of anger like a dragon awakened from a 2000 year hibernation.

The next morning, we woke up to find our feet to be freezing. After a horrible first day, I thought the second day to be full of promise. We then hopped of to Pulau Pinang but we didn't find any char kway teow. We saw fish and hot babes in bikinis LOL. We then did the traditional feed-the-fish with-bread thingy. I learned a new technique, stuffing your bread in a bottle and squeeze em out slowly. It was here I got nipped by a parrot fish. I also saw some giant clams, a deflated puffer fish/blow fish and the infamous trigger fish. There were some stone fish so I kept my feet up. Then there was a group of silly form 5 girls who were scared of fish. WHAT THE HECK? So I disturbed by putting bread in the middle of their circle. They screamed like in the Jaws movie but that was a 25-feet man-eating Great White Shark, these were 4-8 inch long cute colourful fish. Damn they need an education on marine life.

Then Willert sorta panicked as vigorously as those silly fish-phobia girls. He said he had a cramp. I reeled him in like a lifeguard...CHEH... Sohor banyok. I got him to relax by singing the Discovery Channel song "Boom-De-Ya-Da". The song fitted with the moment as we were in a place to show that the world is truly awesome. We sang the regular nature themed verses such as "I Love the fishes" or "I Love the Oceans" and I think it was Arul coming in with "I Love Bikini Girls" LOL.

After some good lunch, we went to Marine Park. Due to the cramp I had during the water confidence, I hurried to the shallows not wanting to drown. The deeper water 6 feet deep was full of corals but no fish. The shallows were much more interesting. There was a clown fish and anemone in water shallow enough for me to stand. I thought the clownfish to be the Ocellaris clownfish that we saw in Pixar's Finding Nemo. My favourite species is Ocellaris because I dislike the fat and dull one striped body of yellowtail or two band clownfish. Now I knew how Nemo got kidnap because as I was enjoying myself observing them, one of them got pissed off and swam straight at me in a pattern that says SHOO! SHOO! It flicked it's tail the same way we flick our hands to shoo people. The longer I stayed, the more closer it came. It came to at least 5 inches from my face. I thought, if I caught this fish and put it into an aquarium, will a pelican ith a mouth full of water and fish fly into my window.HAHA.

Next we went to the Laguna area at late noon. I and Willert went to the Pasir Panjang aka Tanjong Tengah area to see my favourite marine animal THE SHARKS! I remember venturing into this area with my dad when I was a small kid and those baby sharks were everywhere. But times have changed. We had to look hard for em so their numbers probably decreased. The good thing was there were no jellyfish like those days when I went with my dad. The sharks usually swam in groups of 2-5 sharks. Some fools forgotten their mask and grabbed others but eventually went to get their own. Due to my marine knowledge(Cheh.. sohor lagi), I told them not to spread your arms out when the shark approaches because it scares them. It may cause the sharks to flee and spoil everyone elses fun or lead the shark to bite you. I remember Michelle was friggin annoying due to impatience of seeing some sharks. The sharks were Blacktip sharks(Carcharhinus limbatus) and it's status was "near threatened" like many shark species. The babies were at least 3-4 feet long and were perfect replicas of their adults that can grow to 9 feet maximum. This particular shark eats mostly fish. I can describe the sharks as very elegant and beautiful. They never displayed their sharp teeth unlike the nasty evil grin of the dangerous Great White Shark. They were calm, minding their own business unlike the artificial shark in Jaws which kept nipping of human limbs. This are real sharks, not animatronics created by Steven Spielberg. My dad also told me bigger adults 6-7 feet long can be found in deeper waters in Redang. Blacktip sharks are also known to engage in asexual reproduction altough this is one in a million.

OK enough of sharks. We were supposed to have a barbecue and Pirates night but the electricity went down so Pirate Night had to be cancelled but I didn't give a damn about Pirate Night, I wanted my barbecue food. The food was AWESOME but I preferred last year's barbecue in Cheneh. That night was kinda quiet with me chatting with Willert and Choon Khai while reading Godfather: The Lost Years. When everyone else slept, I exchanged jokes with Asyraf and Arul for a while then we slept like pigs.

The next day kinda sucked. We woke up to the sound of Tay Vivian aka The Angry Pikachu screaming. GOSH! She's worse than my mother. The activity was fun though frustrating with me swimming with makeshift rafts. Due to lack of preparation, my raft busted. I grabbed the bucket from Willert and hurried back. I came in second behind William(Sukma swimmer) and was battling nausea and was forced to eat raw eggs. A combination of disgusting food, exhausted body and nausea proved too much for a couch potato for me and I vomited. Then I was mad, I yelled and cursed I don't know why.

We then went back and bathed, packed up and left Redang BLA BLA BLA BLA.

Reached home, bathed, used computer for a while and slept on my computer desk. My mom asked me to sleep somewhere else. Went downstairs to sleep for 30 minutes than I was whisked off. We were going to Kuantan then to KL.

How good the camp is? Depends on how you look at it. The snorkeling trips and your exposure to nature's magic is OUT OF THIS WORLD while the dorm's condition, canteen food and most of the group activities kinda sucked(no offense AJK's but nobody's perfect). If you keep bragging and bragging, the camp will suck but if you relax and look back at your memories full of fishes, splashed and water, the camp is reasonably good. Thank you ELS.

Photos....
Gay version of Titanic...

Crystal Clear Water...
I am Sand Man...
The most notorious Oceanic predator who ever swam the oceans. Willert the Doink(Homo Sapiens)
A group of lousy sea monkeys...

Don't play play... You may be looking at the SLASH or Steve Vai of the next generation....

Beautiful... The world is awesome... BOOM-DE-YA-DA!!!

The approaching storm on our last day...

To be continued to part 2: KL Trip, Terminator Salvation and Night At The Museum 2 Movie Reviews.

Toy STory 3 Trailer to be released soon...

2009-05-27T08:49:00.001-07:00

Forget Shrek 4, Toy Story 3 is gonna hit theatres on 2010 with much of the original voice actors including Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz Lightyear respectively.

In conjunction with Pixar's new movie UP to be released this year, Pixar with give fans a first look of Toy Story 3 with a teaser trailer packaged with UP. Finally, after a decade in development hell, Toy Story 3 will be released.

Confirmed in a website....

/Film reader Wagner has officially confirmed that a Toy Story 3 teaser trailer is attached to Pixar’s Up, and sent along a short description:

“It is confirmed.” … “Toy Story 3 teaser trailer is attached. Unfortunately like i said it is a teaser. It only shows the original characters building a Toy Story 3 sign led by Woody pretty funny. Then Buzz Lightyear showing him off by building a better one. They also show the release date of June 2010.”

A longer trailer is expected to be attached to the Toy Story / Toy Story 2 3D double feature limited engagement in October. Toy Story 3 is set for a June 18th 2010 release.

Weekend Trip & Star Trek Movie Review

2009-05-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

I went back to Kuantan yesterday for my grandmother's birthday. I went to Kuantan Megamall to buy movie tickets for me and my cousin. At first I faced a tough question, Do I wanna watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine or the new Star Trek. The question raced in my mind even when I was lining up in the counter. I eventually opted for Star Trek which was a wise decision because my cousin already watched X-Men Origins twice.

So the birthday dinner was filling LOL... Just like any other 7 course Chinese dinner. Like many times before, I opted not to eat the shark fin soup. Everything was good except for the butter prawns. I ate the first few dishes quickly but after that I couldn't take much. As usual I skipped the dessert.

Then I went back to my uncle's house to rest. I sat there listening to my MP3 while my dad was busy playing mahjong with my uncles.

Then we were off to the cinema. The strange thing is my cousin and I, we barely knew each other in within 30 minutes we talked and got to know each other more than the last 10 years of knowing each other, yeah it's good to get to know a relative...LOL... Now off to the movie criticsm...

It turned out better than I thought actually. I thought it would be a so-and-so movie but it proved to be a fun and enjoyable movie but unlike it's simillar counterpart Star Wars, it lacks drama and is more to special effects. But it's a standout in int's genre. I think i'll give it 7/10. It has some great laughs(more funny scenes than Star Wars) which I really enjoy. It's logic to say the laughs makes the movie nice making it a half-comedy. but like many great movies, it has flaws.

- It's strange to see Sylar(the bad guy from Heroes) as a pointy eared alien with funny eyebrows and hairstyle named Spock.

- The enemy ship piloted by the bad-ass Captain Nero looks more like an aloe vera plant than a giant space ship.

- The film lacks a good cast. The only familiar actor is Eric Bana who plays the villain in this film, Captain Nero although in all those weird facial structures and make-up, he's barely recognisable. But Chris Pine did a good job as the punk womanizer Cadet James T Kirk who later becomes Captain. Sylar(dunno the actor's name) looked pretty strange with a nerd-accent, pointy ears, funny hairstyle and eyebrows.

The good stuff about the film.

- The funny scenes of the film.
= A bumbling Russian cadet who can't even pronounce the words right
=Cadet Kirk's playful and naughty character such as getting drunk in the bar and cheating in exams.
= The scene where Kirk's friend got wrongly teleported into a water pipes. HAHA That was the best scene.

- The film makes usually crazy and dumb plot elements such as time travel, travelling back in time and seeing a younger you, teleportation and black holes surprisingly work well.

- The special effects are SPLENDID and the dialogue is better than that of the Star Wars prequels.

But I noticed some elements of Star Trek are similar to that of Star Wars.
- The ship in which Captain Nero commands can destroy planets which is all to similar to Darth Vader's Death Star although the planet gets destroyed in a different way.

- The friendship between the flamboyant Captain Kirk and the no-nonsense Commander Spock is similar to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

- Who can forget. Ships than can warp in light speed, giant overwhelming mother-ships, laser guns.

But I'm still a Star Wars fan and I ain't no Trekkie.

Okay then I fell kinda ill the next day and I ate two panadol pills. We went home and ate dinner at Kerteh's Burger King. Went to TTT for Add Maths. Due to the fact that i took too much panadol, I became VERY VERY VERY wacky. Far wackeir than my usual self. So now I know the side-effects of drug overdose.

Tiring Day

2009-04-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 10, practice guitar parts, played some GTA: Vice city and and a few rounds of Battlefront 2. Watched some Naruto movie I downloaded a year ago for the first time. Then my dog ran upstairs and sniffed around so I layan them a while before putting them away. Ate some good lunch cooked by grandma.

Played as lead guitar at His Generation today. Not 100% since Ah Kent played the leads in Hosanna(known for it's hard-to-follow tempo). I had to do a solo for Treasure and borrowed Andy's Ibanez Tube Screamer for today(Thanks Dude...). Today was a surprisingly well executed worship as well as a well executed practice compared to last week kena marah by Christina. I guess kena scolding really works.

At first I thought it would be rather fun to play a solo but it's more hard work than profits reaped. HAHA! Simple solo like Treasure also need to really focus. Talking about playing a Guns N' Roses solo. Brought me back to earth. Don't play a smoking Blues or Hard Rock solo if you can't play simple solos or penthatonic scale.

Went back feeling extremely hungry. Ate good dinner. The special thing is the dish I enjoyed the most is asparagus. Never touched the belacan because my lips n gums swollen because I ate too much belacan. Ate 2 rounds as this was the last time grandma will cook dinner for us in a while. She's going back to Kuantan tomorrow.

Kena bleber by mum for lending portable hard disk to Choon Khai(he want to play Left 4 Dead). Had to wait a while because my mum wanna do income tax(stupid government). I chatted with sis at my room and later sneaked outside for freshair at the grassy empty area. I sat down on thos marble chairs and enjoyed the cool and humid air as it rained recently. Looked at the stars while listening to music. Went into house and quietly and sneakily boiled some Maggi... MMMMmmmm...

Funny ELEMENT Song!!!

2009-04-16T03:22:00.000-07:00

Wanna get an A1 for Chemistry, listen to this song everyday.

I NEED A REGULAR MSN!!!

2009-04-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

This new MSN sucks!!! I can only online for 10 seconds

What's worse, all my contacts are gone!!!

I'm gonna $@$% sue MSN for putting me through all this trouble... BLAH!!!!

And to Wee Choon Khai, I hope you can put a functional version of MSN Messenger through pendrive and give it to me... THANKS!!!

New MSN Messenger SUCKS!!!

2009-04-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

I have to upgrade my MSN messenger because they say can't sign in... Outdated doh...

I upgrade, sign in for like 10 seconds then off.... What type of #@$ upgrade is this...

Wow, this week is like being in a sewer... First Maslow's prefects took my phone, now my MSN is being screwed...

HAIZ

Bad Coughing!!!

2009-04-02T01:26:00.000-07:00

Since Wednesday I've been coughing really badly. With the yellow yellow phlegm goo.

What a pain in the back. Breath also got raspy sound as if I am a Velociraptor...LOL... And no one could have guessed what caused this coughing.

Well it all started after I got hooked on to
Yes... Tuna with olive oil in my sandwich. I ate them for breakfast, bring 3-4 pieces of tuna sandwich to school, eat for tea time and for supper... It really tastes good but it probably caused my coughing... Takkan coincidence sahaje...

Hope to get well soon...

Inspired By Korean sings Mariah Carrey songs...

2009-03-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

I've got the inspiration to post this after reading the "Korean sings Mariah Carey songs". This language barrier in music can be embarrassing at times but hilarious at times.

Actually I found these videos a long time ago. Courtesy of Andy Khor...

Enjoy

My exam Results...

2009-03-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

I got 43% for my Additional Maths. Since braniards are rare in my class, I'm one of the top 5 for Add Maths. Among the boys I'm the top. I treat it as an achievement due to the fact that most students in the whole school won't pass their first encounter with this subject of mythical and legendary difficulty much less get an A.

I got 36% for Chemistry which is lower than I've aimed for. I hoped to get at least 50% but never mind that.

My history is 50% because I'm not familliar with the new format. Quite interesting now because didn't learn the Arabic chapters yet... I learnt new things about SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've yet to know the results of my other subjects. I'm enthusiastic to know what i got for English, BM, Modern Maths and Physics. Accounts can go die la.. Crap subject...

So I think my parents are right. My potential is better than Jimbo's but it's just that I'm too lazy to exercise my brain, injuring my potential...LOL... Sorta like Anakin Skywalker who has a high midi chlorian count but failed to live up Darth Sidious' hopes after he got toasted and chopped in a volcanic planet... I'm not sure if I will work harder than what I'm doing now.

I guess it's normal. No one can trully gain many virtues at one time. Like how Buckethead can play fatser than Slash but Slash can play more melodically.

Music Review - Chinese Democracy

2009-03-21T04:51:00.000-07:00

OK... I've just recently listened the new Guns N Roses album after hearing it's a more friendly album compared to Appetite For Destruction or Use Your Illusion... During the album's pre-release, it sparked headlines not because people are glad GNR are back but because it got banned in China because um... Look at the album title also know why lar...

Ironically, my liking to this album can finally bring me out of Metal Addiction due to it's softer style. Initially I thought it would be more demonic than the previous Guns albums sue to the participation of Metal guitarists like Buckethead and Robin Finck.

It is true. It does not sound like the traditional Hard Rock during the Slash, McKagan and Izzy Stradlin era... Instead it sounds more like a combination of softer music like Elton John, U2, Muse, Good Charlotte and also reminds me of Weezer's "Perfect Situation" and some of Fightstar's music. It's a far cry from GNR's music from the 80's and 90's... They've become like an alternative rock band... Biasalah, nowadays the mainstream rock bands aren't as naughty or demonic as their predecessors. Even my sister says it's better than the old Guns N Roses.

There are also less "heavy songs" in the album. Instead, there's more ballads that are accompanied by orchestral instruments like the Illusion song "November Rain". Only the first two songs are quite heavy. The single "Better" is very very similar to Muse while "Street Of Dreams" resembles November Rain(Elton John style pianos with some guitars thrown in.).

The love songs in the album are more deep than the popular "Sweet Child O' Mine" but more like Weezer's "Perfect Situation". To be honest, the love ballads from Democracy sounds better from the Illusion ballads such as "Don't Cry" or "Estranged".

I know many Guns N Roses fans dislike the new album because they prefer the more brash, heavy and violent sound of Appetite and Illusion. But to me, I prefer Democracy because it can help bring me out of Heavy Metal finally because even the heaviest song of the album is not as dirty or violent as "Welcome To The Jungle". It's more like Linkin Park's "Somewhere I Belong"

What about the guitar solos? Don't worry, Buckethead's and Bumblefoot's shredding based solos can be quite unique and deep not to mention fast. Robin Finck's solos reminds me of Scorpions' love ballad style solos with a little bit of Slash's blues style.

So is Democracy a good album in it's own right? Yeah. But i still don't consider it to be Guns N Roses because Guns N Roses broke up in the mid 90's. But I really enjoy the love ballads of these songs. Not really love ballads because it's more of the story of a man after his breakup. And throughout the whole album, I've only heard the "f word" less than 3 times unlike in Appetite or Illusion, the "f words" are everywhere.

I'm not saying Chinese Democracy is a "holy" album. It's just less demonic than the hard rock bands like AC/DC or the old Guns N Roses. If you're trying to get out of Metal, I would recommend it. Hey, getting rid of Metal is not overnight process okay. It's as addictive as smoking.

Tagged by Jeff

2009-03-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

I've not been tagged for ages. I was enjoying a lasting peace but peace would not last...

Directions : Once you've been tagged, you have to write a post with sixteen random things, habits or goals about you.At the end, choose five people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them Don't forget to leave a comment (''You're tagged!'') and to read your blog, you can't tag the person who tagged you

1. I'm so sick of homework given during the holidays.

2. I hate Sejarah the most because I can't learn about the Trojan War, Genghis Khan and the Mogolian Empire, Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, The Japanese Shogun, The Great Depression, Mafia during the "Prohibition", The Battle of Thermopylae... All the great historical tales are forfeited just to learn the islamic empire and prophet muhammad...

3. I hate additional maths and modern maths. I really wish I weren't in this situation...

4. I just created my own guitar solo of a Guns N Roses song. Well, not really create but I improvise a lot... Still a big mess though...

5. I love to eat meat. Pork, chicken, mutton, beef, venison, lamb, frog, turkey and some types of fish.

6. I am a supporter of Sea Shepard Conservation Group. They protect animals by destroying and sinking whaling ships and long line shark fishing boats. Gambateh to Sea Shepard. Screw the Japs for killing dolphins and whales and to fishermen who kill the sharks and tuna...

7. I really wanna buy an electric guitar but my dad took advantage of this situation ask me to get straight A's for exams as a term to get my electric guitar...

8. I really miss my bro who is in USA. But good also because the chocolate milk, cereals, yohgurt drink, fruit juice and ice cream lasts longer without him... JK JK...

9. I love playing guitar... Especially for my HIS GENERATION band... Hope to improve plucking.

10. I have an annoying sister who never respects her brother by screaming at me all the time... She also very inconsiderate... When she on HSM and Jonas Brothers I don't mind... I turn on some Guns N Roses, she merajuk and go trash my room... My mum scold ME for being inconsiderate... THIS IS MADNESS!!!

11. I don't eat shark fin soup because it is expensive, causes 100 million of my favourite species of fish to be killed and shark fins are full of mercury and no nutritunal value...

12. I love listening to rock music. Hard Rock, Neo-Classical Metal and Christian Rock... i don't listen to kiddish rock like the lame-o's Jonas Brothers. Beside's rock, I hardly listen to anything else.

13. My favourite guitarists are Buckethead and Slash.

14. I love watching and reading The Godfather novels and movies.

15. I'm very ganjil at school because I'm the only one who listens to hard rock, not interested in relationships, only chinese in my class, play guitar. I'm either unique or seperated from society... I don't know...

16. I feel happy because I've got something to post but angry because got people wanna disturb me...

5 people I tag...
1. Albert Einsten - For being so smart
2. Robert DeNiro - For winning an Oscar in The Godfather Part II
3. Al Capone - For being one of the most famous Mafia bosses during the "Prohibition"
4. Buckethead - For being a talented guitarist.
5. Zac Efron - Because his songs pisses me off!!!

From GnR to Instrumnental Rock....

2009-03-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ok... I've been struggling with this issue ever since I listened to Guns N Roses. Although I succeeded in cutting out more Demonic bands such as Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Slipknot and Metallica from my computer, I still listen to Guns N Roses occasionally...

But I found out there are some hard rock/metal songs without all those negative lyrics... They're the instrumental or neo-classical metal... Without any vocals... Many would say the best instrumental rock guitarist is Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen or Paul Gilbert, I kinda dislike that style... All shredding gives me a headache... I prefer the ones that are a little bit slower like Jerry C's "Cannon Rock".

Recently I checked out "Buckethead", a former guitarist for Guns N Roses who once replaced Slash... Some of his songs like "Jordan" have lots of shredding but also lots of wacky effects... Another one of Buckethead's songs, "Soothsayer" is a little bit EMO but the riff bears resemblance to "Diary Of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin, only two times longer and more guitars in them... "Soothsayer" should be in the Twilight soundtrack although I don't like the movie because it has a very dark, morbid, emo and gothic tone... I know he's quite a scary guy with the KFC bucket on his head and his wierd costumes and his chicken stories but at least there's no lyrics so the negativity is not there... You can even put in your own lyrics...LOL

Soothsayer - Buckethead

Jordan - Buckethead

Cannon Rock - Jerry C(covered by FunTwo)... This is one of the most popular YouTube videos...

Ok, so I'm trying to limit the listening of GNR by listening to Neo-Classical and Instrumental rock music...

I Love My New Edit

2009-03-06T07:52:00.001-08:00

I edited my Blog title header... This picture is just too good...

Along Came A Spider Killer

2009-03-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

It was Wednesday, My mum spotted a funnel cocoon made of mud on my shoe cabinet... She suspected it as a wasp nest and sprayed ridsect on the nest. I hacked the nest off and to my amazement, almost a dozen dead and dying spiders came out... I told her it was a spider's nest but later I concluded several facts...

-Spiders are not social animals, they're likely to bite each other than share a home with a dozen other neighbours.

-No spiders are known to build funnel homes with mud.

So I concluded the bug who build the nest as a Pompillidae Spider Wasp... But this one is a much slimmer and smaller specimen than European species... The European species will snag a spider, paralyze it without killing it and drag it into it's nest where it lays its eggs. The wasp larvae will feed on the spider till it pupates. But this one had snaggged at least 12 spiders, probably orb-weavers judging by their shape... Due to the fact that I love to catch grasshoppers and spiders and put them inside a tupperware quite often, it is surprising because this is the first time I saw such spiders...

Today(Friday), I spotted the mud funnel again... I destroyed the nest and now approximately 20 spiders of the same species as the ones I found on Wednesday fell out... This time, I sprayed ridsect on the wasp who came to see her state-of-the-art restaurant for her babies destroyed... LOL... I took some pictures...

The dying wasp mother and her kill... With spiders of big and average sizes everywhere...

Suspect is found guilty of first grade murder of 30 spiders for the purpose of feeding her young and is sentenced to death via ridsect...LOL

The dead spiders...

I concluded this wasp is a very good hunter because it could kill more than 30 spiders hich are already efficient hunters in a few days... And the spiders caught are ones I never seen before... The wasp must also be very picky, all the dead prey were spiders, not a grasshopper or ant to be found...

A larger species of spider wasp is found in the Southwestern USA, Mexico and Amazon... Guess what this bird-sized wasp kills big tarantulas for the smae purpose!!!

Novel Madness

2009-02-27T23:41:00.000-08:00

In 2009, many of my friends are into novels, Last year a handful of my classmates had HSM novels while I brought along my Star Wars novels... Ratz!!! I heared 2 or 3 times someone comes up to me and says "Are you reading Twilight?" What's so nice about it... It's a girl's book... A more tough-ish and brut-ish novel will do good for me...

Now it got bigger... I brought in my first set of "non science fiction" novels... Yeah because all this while I was a Star Wars freak as my bro loved the Narnia, Harry Potter and LOTR novels... I purchased two of Mario Puzo's novels from KL during CNY and borrowed another from my grandmas house... I developed a liking for Puzo's novels after watching Godfather movies... And by dad also brought in "The Untouchables" VCD which is about Al Capone with a significantly fatter Robert DeNiro as Al Capone...

I recently finished The Godfather: The Lost Years at least 3 weeks ago... But now I just belek-belek only... Talks about Michael Corleone as Don during the events in between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II movies... The novel's background was written by Mario Puzo but he died before he could finish it... The author was Mike Winegardner who didn't put in Puzo's "christian" elements(The Sicilian talks a little bit about Jesus and the Catholic Faith). Instead, Winegardner used lots of 4 letter words and swearing... Tarnishing a good story... The book also has flashbacks of Michael's broken relationship with his father Vito Corleone... If it were without the profanity, I would read it over again 10 times...

This novel, The Sicilian is written 100% by Mario Puzo but has minimal input from Vito Corleone... Even Michael Corleone's role was only a supporting role along with Corleone caporegime Pete Clemenza... The story focuses more on a real life "Robin Hood" bandit from Sicily, Italy named Salvatore "Turi" Gulliano who steals from the oppresive Sicilian mafia and gives to the poor... And this Robin Hood is Christian... Yeah, talks about Turi Gulliano's conflicts of if he's a real robber or just a man doing a good deed by returning money to their rightful owner... Michael on the other hand, was given orders by his daddy Vito to return to America with Gulliano... Vito must need Gulliano so badly because his favourite son can't come back without a bandit. Pete Clemenza also arrives in the later parts to assist Michael... No profanity in this book but the story is really boring and draggy maybe because the Corleone's are not in it... Like Star wars without the Skywalkers... Anyway, haven't finished reading yet...

Fool's Die is also written by Puzo although it is not part of the Godfather saga... A seperate story about Italian-American immigrants trying to make a living in New York... Although not part of the Godfather, It incorporates the themes of typical Mario Puzo novels... Corruption, loyalty and crime... Haven't started reading this one yet... Not sure if it talks about mafia???

I hope to get the remaining two Godfather novels on my next trip to KL... But one will do, I won't want Winegardener's The Godfather's Revenge since I know there's gonna be lots of profanity... I just want Puzo's original The Godfather or maybe Omerta or The Last Don...

The Open House

2009-02-10T23:41:00.000-08:00

To all my friends who came that day, Thank You... To those who went to Wirayut's farewell and to Wirayut, I'm sorry I couldn't be there...

Okay so the form 4 non-malays are all booked for Wirayut's but there was plan B... The HG dudes... Andy, Jeff, Kent, Ah San and Choon Khai... Luckily Choon Khai bring his Nintendo Wii or else my house sipek boring... Everybody play, including Pastor himself LOL... Also got a lot of makan here makan there(typical open house)... Wii sport very easy but Call Of Duty soooo difficult to control...

Kent trying to play boxing... One of thevery easy games besides tennis...

Me getting into jalan mati on Call Of Duty... Only Choon Khai know how to control the game...

Jeffery wants to watch The Academy Is videos and Chin San watched some Tom and Jerry...LOL

Thanks guys, I had a great time...

Never Mess With Wild Animals Part II

2009-02-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

Ok... Heres another dash of dangerous accidents that happen when people mess with animals...

The Cowboy gets his butt owned by the bull and gets thrown25 feet in the air... Nyaknye!!!

We all know that cages are meant to protect divers from sharks... What happens if the shark is inside the cage, kinda like Tom stuck with a bulldog in a small room...LOL

This is what happens when you try to put your cat into the water...

Lion Dance show in KT

2009-02-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

So I was already back in KT, in fact the show happened on yesterday, Thursday... A troupe of lion dancers came to the neighbourhood specially for the residents of Ibai Jaya 3,4,5... Better than the Kemaman one... There were more "shoulder" stunts and they even entertained the spectators by making "the lion" throw oranges at us... It was more excitiong because there were a trio of lions fighting to reach the ang pow and vegetables hung 10-11 feet into the air...
Preparations........

Let the show begin!!!

Random pics...

Chinese New Year Post

2009-02-06T09:52:00.000-08:00

I think it took way too long to bring up this post...

Here goes... At first we went to Kemaman where my mother's side of the family gathered... Of course we had lots of food, fizzy drinks, laughs, games and chatting... My cousin Ah Beng who is now working, gave us a ride in his new BMW car... Fuyooo, pickup sipek fast and although at 160 still very stable. No bumpy ride at all... We all got our ang pows on the morning of the 1st day and took family pictures but we were all in for a surprise...

Picture of the whole family

The surprise was a lion dance troupe meant for my grandma's neighbour... Preety entertaining but a bigger one came on back at KT...

Then it was off to Kuantan for the first visit of my dad's side of the family... My uncle lives there and we all ate dinner bla bla bla, chit chat and watched TV...
My uncle has a labrador puppy in his house... Only a few months already 3/4 the size of my dog... Still very playful and mouth very itchy...

The next morning we went to KL where another of my father's 7 brothers lives... We stayed there breifly but we were due to hit Seremban after dinner... We went to Seremban wher my aunt and grandmother currently lives and spent the night there...

A German shepard my late cousin owned in his Seremban house... But this dog in poor condition because lack of exercise cause a lot of leg problem and lack og grooming so hair not so handome and got flea problem...

Next destination would be Tanjung Sepat in Sepang... Another two of my aunts live there, one owned a pig farm so we dropped by...

A young suckling piglet... Eeee soooo cute but he's probably gonna be chopped up and served as a delicious slice of pork... YUM YUM
The juveniles that are due to be slaughtered and butchered soon... The reason why only juveniles face the gallows is because adult pigs have very very very tough meat, some say harder than beef...

Then we headed back to KL to spend the night there... We went to KLCC for some shopping and me and my sis went to watch YES MAN, first time go in cinema without Jim.. T.T ... Anyway, it was full of fun and laughter due to the acting of Jim "Rubber-faced" Carrey but it was a little dirty too... Not as good as Bruce Al, Liar Liar or The Mask but at least better than The Number 23... Our last day in KL, we went to Pavillion where my sis and mom did a loooooong lady stuff shopping while me and dad went to the DVD shop to look for older movies on original VCD... My dad bought Top Gun starring Tom Cruise in his 20's, Sum of All Fears which is one of the Jack Ryan adaptations of the Tom Clancy's novels starring Morgan Freeman and Ban Aflleck... Finally I suggested The Untouchables starring Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro and Sean Connery and the movie is about Al Capone... And I went to the bookstore and purchased two of the four novels in Mario Puzo's Godfather series...

The first book "The Sicilian" talks about Michael Corleone(played by Al Pacino in the Godfather movies) in his exile in Sicily, Italy... His father Vito Corleone orders him to bring Salvatore "Turi" Gulliano with him to America where the Sicillian mafia cheif Don Croce attempts to go against Vito Corleone's orders to kill Gulliano... the book also deals with some parts of Christianity and how the mafia rebuke God's word... This one is the less "mafia" type of novel and more on drama. Never finished reading it yet...

The second book "The Godfather: The Lost Years" which contain more sexual words, profanity and a lot of "Oh My God, Jesus Christ" type of words... At first I paid more attention to this book because it has my favourite formula of the Godfather movies... Michael Corleone who is now a Don running his affairs against his enemies... But after i got tired of the cursings, the progress slowed... The reason why the style of writing changed is because this is not written by Mario Puzo who is the author of the original "The Godfather" and "The Sicilian" but instead a new author who wanted to extend the saga...

The third which was borrowed from my late grandpa's collection of novels "Fools Die" is also written by Puzo although it is not part of the Godfather series... Haven read that one yet...

That's all folks...

Never mess with wild animals

2009-01-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, wild animals just don't wanna "come out and play"... Don't insist or you might just end up like the dudes here... I got these videos from Animal Planet...

Killer Willert the Kangaroo turns on his trainers and smacks his balls at 2:29 and whacks him a little bit more...

Some crazy surfers try to mess with an angry shark and gets his hand chewed...

This one is a lot more violent... A Thai "crocodile clown" tries to do an action scene with his pet but the croc plans and executes a more adrenaline pumping stunt...

The moral is, don't mess with wild animals...

First exercise in months

2009-01-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, Jin Sern ajak me and Choon Khai go play futsal at the new place near Lagimura... I and Choon Khai never touch ball for ages...LOL... When start match, very baa because brain masih tidur... Then got jog a bit then run... Good to exercise once again lah... I hope to play badminton soon... Finish go drink pepsi, Go Kari Ahsha go eat roti canai with Choon Khai, I have to belanja him... At 1st he say he want nasi daun pisang... CHE KIA WA!!! Exercise sikit memang ada but after eating roti canai all the exercise go to waste.... Swt... No use la, CNY few days more, gain weight ma gain lor...

I'm getting FAT!!!

2009-01-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

During the school holidays I eat sipek banyak and exercise sipek little... Badminton dok maen, football/futsal I very noob so buat malu je... The only exercise I do is at HG... Jump here and there and clean up the church... SWT

But of course la jumping for 2-3 minutes not enough... the last time I check my weight was 69-70 and that was ages ago... then I wear my school pants and noticed some were wuite tight, and my HUGE spare tayar kluor... I was "WAH! Mampus doh aku!" I go weigh again and my weight increased to 77... AAAAAGGGHHH!!! Aku macam babi gemok doh... Then merentas desa go back to 76.5... BOOOO, so little

Really need to shed some weight, Chinese New Year very near some more!!! If don't shed at all, I get health problems... Need to get back into sports very very soon... But most important, must diet, I think HG dinners and feed me too much already la, pergi KFC eat so much...HAHAHA

Movie updates

2009-01-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

I recently watched Eagle Eye and Mongol DVD's but I never touched Beverly Hills Chihuahua because Not my type...

Eagle Eye was not bad... Sort of like Terminator where Skynet tries to seize control... But the "Eagle Eye" is so intelligent that it doesn't requre Cyborg armies to bring down it's targets... Instead, it manipulates people including Shia LeBeouf to do it's will to bring the government into rapid decline...

Mongol is a historical film about the rise of Genghis Khan... Quite violent like 300 but no CGI at all opposed to 300... The film also shows the softer side of the otherwise violent and ruthless Genghis Khan such as his relationship with his wife Borte, the friendship with rival Mongol ruler Jamukha who became his enemy due an accident... The best part of this movie is the cunning strategies of Genghis Khan to win battles where his army is outnumbered...

But the best of the movies I've watched recently is The Godfather series...
To all people who enjoy watching The Sopranos TV series or The Departed, this is a must watch... This is the story of the Corleone mafia family... The Godfather novels even have a part in which Don Vito Corleone scared the s*it out of a famous real-life Chicago mob boss called Al Capone... Vito Corleone(Marlon Brando) dies in the first film leaving his younger son Michael(Al Pacino) to run his father's business after the eldest and violent Sonny gets killed and 2nd brother Fredo is a weak homosexual man...

the sequels part 2 and part 3 shows Michael's desperate moves to make the family business legitimate or legal but in both movies Michael was forced to return to crime to protect his family from enemies including his own brother Fredo who decided to betray Michael out of jealousy...

The equally good Part 2 shows Michael's efforts to invest money in Cuba but is thwarted by "allies" including his elder brother Fredo who wants the throne of the crime world for himself... Part 2 also contains flashbacks of Don Vito Corleone's early life from native Italy to his rise to power in New York... In part 2, Vito is played by a young and skinnier Robert DeNiro...

The not as good Part 3 shows Michael one step from complete legitimate affairs when rivals attempt to kill him and his family... Part 3 ends with Michael's daughter being killed on an assasination attempt on Michael... He goes into deep depression and dies alone...

But there won't be a part 4...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time I hope to watch "The Day The Earth Stood Still", Jim Carrey's "Yes Man", "Bedtime Stories" and maybe "The Spirit"

Updates

2009-01-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

OK... I will start from the Christmas celebrations in Kemaman... It was very fun, get to chat with cousins, aunties and uncles, watch new DVD's, get presents, eat lots of good food but best of all we have the warmth of the christmas spirit... But also very unhealthy LOL because I drank at least 1 can of coke a day without any exercise... It was also raining heavily so we can't visit the beaches... My cousins from USA and UK(Ken and Paul) wanted to buy some cheaper and unique DVD's but so sui one... On that day got inspection so the shops had to hide their stash... This year less Christmas presents but it's the spirit of christmas that is important...

Back in KT, went to HG and had a special christmas service and it was open sharing again... The whole week so full of boredom...BLALALALA...

Then my PMR result came out... Ceromony messed up with unnessescary matters, the headmistress say got many students get straight A, blabla everywhere and as usual nobody listened... I got 5A 2B which was a satisfaying result but the problem is soooo many get 7a+++ that we had almost no chance of going into pure science stream... Even the 6A's students have little chance... Where got fair? Malays got 1 extra subject!!! Biasalah, Malaysia kan...

This year new year celebrate with family because I wasn't informed that a few HG-ites orgainized a mini-countdown at McD... But nice la, celebrate with family for the first time in 2 years...

New school life gets into my nerves... My first add maths tution class with TTT gave me a VERY VERY VERY bad feeling about the subject... Lord, help me... I've also heard nasty things about chemistry and physics but I hope my interest in science subjects will help me pull through...

Now trying to play a little bit of guitar, so long didn't touch... Hopefully can play for HG very very soon...

Well 2009, show me what you got!!!!

The new me...Time to say goodbye to metal addiction....

2008-12-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

As for my new year resolutions... My main aim is to re-establish my faith in God... 2007, has been a very dirty year for me

Welcome to the new me... I wanna say goodbye to the addiction of heavy metal and being a metalhead... So from now on, Metal is no longer my favourite music genre... Ever since ESP VII, I never listened to any of my Guns N Roses, just pure

Yes... That's right... Hillsong United is now the band I listen to the most... Recently, I was touched by Jeffery's change of life because he helped introduce me to Hard Rock during his metalhead years and now he's serving the Lord faithfully... A miracle, thanks Jeff... There are a few reasons why I would cut down on metal music...

1. The anger, drugs, booze and sex from Guns N' Roses lyrics damages my faith with God...
2. Metal music does not glorify God's name...
3. Hillsong United will bring me closer to God...

Maybe I will still listen to Guns N' Roses, but I won't let it choke me to death... But I still won't listen to HSM or Camp Rock... Count on that...

As for the "strictly for boys" thingy(you my fellow HG'ites will understand)... I've stopped watching the videos and I'm now working on not to the the stuffs... I'm also working on how to read the bible frequently...

Now I feel like a real believer... Thanks to ESP VII and also the encouragement and advice of Pastor Koshy and my fellow HG-ites especially Willert, Jeffery, Caleb, Choon Khai and my brother Jim along with many others... And I would need your prayers so that I may go through this mountain...

ESPlosion of Faith

2008-12-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

Now I'd like to talk about the ESP VII camp I attended recently... Because last year's ESP VI made me a consistent believer in Christ but it was not enough, my life was flawed. Well, This year made big changes to me...

Okay, we boarded the bus at 9.00 and stopped at McDonald's Kerteh... A magnet for HG' ites... Then go Kuantan to pick up 14 of the Youth's there... On board, we chit chat and watched Lord Of The Rings: Return of the King until late night, but some of us continued chatting due to inability to sleep, maybe we were way too excited, I slept for like only 45 minutes... But good thing is we arrived at Majodi Center(campsite) at 7.00 in the morning and registration is at 2.00 so we had plenty of time to sleep... After lunch, camp comanden give breifing then tidur again...LOL... That night got worship and sermon by Pastor Victor. As usual Choon Khai, me, Willert and other HG-ites are always the frontline audience... Some more Jeffery need to wear bandana walk around and eat keropok and later dance YMCA song... Sipek kelakar... That night slept quite early...

The next day, morning devotion worship made us wake up soooo early except for my roomate Witton who was a little bit sick and never had enough sleep at the bus... I was introduced into group 4 and we discussed about the sermon from the previous nite than got worship again(the earlier worship's were above average but not as powerful as the 3rd night)... Then Pastor Vic talk about christian marriage and we were to demonstarte one... The bride and groom must be very sui... The groom is Chris and bride is Christina from KT, it was full of LOLs... Then eat lunch, biasalah I eat paling a lot one....MUAHAHAHA... Then we were off to our whorkshops, mine was "Strictly for Boys" where Pastor Jit delivered a powerful message about how to deal with porn and masturbation... Then we had games where we need to burst balloons filled with flour, make a 3 storey human pyramid, act like animals, sing malay songs and look for 4 different insects... WAH, group leader also wasn't there...nvm... Assistant leader still got... That night after the worship and sermon, I and a few other HG'ites go watch the HG's worship practice where Witton introduced a new more elaborate guitar solo for "Hosanna"... FUYOOO... Then back at the room Nelson, Witton, Jason and myself chit chat about SMKSS and CHWS, some of the things they told me were quite shocking...

The next morining I woke up quite late so while bathing I hear the HG band playing... I was like "Cilaka, my gang's session I miss... Malu aku" I skipped breakfast then enetered the hall... CHEH, last minute practice only... Then when real worship all the HG'ites were there to encourage them buy standing at the frontline... Everyone was good but Witton's "Hosanna" solo made him a star... Then was the sermon entitled "Cyber porn" with an all boys audience... Then Pastor Victor mentioned a serial killer called Ted Bundy which became my nickname, don't need to say why.... Then got the 2nd workshop session where Pastor Jit talked mainly on how to stop this insane addiction... Then we spent the whole evening ZZZZZZZZZZZ... The worship of the 3rd night was the one where God really showed his presence... We jumped and praise Jesus as if this was our last day and also there was the joy as if we could jump forever, jumped like crazy... We also knelt onto our knees, some cried, some fell to the ground all of us humble to our Lord... Such a touching and amazing sight to behold... Than Pastor Vic delivered his sermon about "Youth-heroes" that we must impact our schools, friends on the net, home and church... About the school's, Pastor Vic talked about the High School shootings in USA, everyone stared at my bro Jimbo, he's going to USA, Lord protect him... After message, came more praise and worship where we jumped wildly, although we were exhausted, we asked for more... If I was still standing, I will jump and praise God although I will end up coma but Uncle Venu said it was enough... My voice became like old man dy... We went to canteen for supper and chatted with Indran(camp comanden), Witton's big fan who called him SLASH... Then Indran and Jeffery teased each other and the rest laughed and laughed and laughed... We never slept much that night, we chatted and cooked maggi cup noodles at 4am...

The next morning was the last day. We had some mighty praise but also worship songs where we lifted our hands for God... That was it, many of us took pictures and exchanged emails except for me, Jason, Willert and a few other shy guys... We tearfully said goodbye to ESP VII and to Eric OCH who won't be seeing us for quite a while, what an experience it has been...

Okay the journey home was fun, we watched more Lord Of The Rings and chit chat... Until we ran out of things to talk about, Jeffery got bored and took out a guitar and we had an amazing accoustic praise and worship session in the bus... It was simple but only 1 guitar, our voices and our hearts... We worshipped The Lord no matter what, Jeff also threw in some christmas songs... The MAIN worship ended at Kuantan where we said goodbye to the Kuantan youth's... Then I turned on Pirates Of The Carribean 3: At World's End and had some good laughs, dinner at McDonalds at 10 something and we continued a more minor bus worship because Jeffery already tidur... At KT, we were happy to meet our parents but also sad because we hoped encounters with God like this could last forever...

If there's an ESP VIII, let me know... I WILL go there!!!!!

Thak you Lord for ESP VII...

holiday trips part 1: the long trip

2008-12-15T03:09:00.000-08:00

Ok... It's time to write a new post...

We left KT early at 9 after breakfast at Kampung Cina then drove through Kenyir and some floodwaters to Cameron Highlands for some jalan jalan and lunch... We first bought some fruits and rose petals(car fragance). Later me and my sister entered the butterfly park. Duh, butterflies don't excite me but there were some cool snakes, scorpions, lizards and exotic insects... Some of these leaf and stick insects were so hard to spot... I enjoyed observing the tarantulas the most.

Then we went to Ipoh and stayed there for one night... Our main reason was to eat there...LOL... But there was great food, the famous taugeh chicken with kuey tiaow was delicious... We also tried the original Old Town kopitiam, no use also, I don't take coffee... Their Dim Sum also not bad...

Then we went to Penang... We ate both lunch and dinner at the Gurney Drive hawker stall, we also watched "Bolt" at the Gurney Plaza... A very good disney movie, better than Wall-E and Rattatoullie but not as good as Nemo, Monsters Inc, Toy Story or the Incredibles... My dad also buy new phone... The char kuey tiaow at least better than KT's one... The most interesting part was vsiting the Snake Temple, like my bro said, the snakes were on vacation but the ones in the snake farm were nice, I touched a 20 foot python, big enough to swallow me and saw 4.5 meter long king cobras and angry monocaled cobras... We stayed at Penang one night and headed for Seremban but not before eating some more taugeh chicken...

The next morning I felt terribly sick, my stomach sipek sakit and I always vomit... I was like "Cilakak, the Seremban porridge I cannot eat". I only drank some coconut juice and that was it, I couldn't even take dinner at a seafood restaurant at Tanjung Sepat although I love that restaurant...Sobz... After that kita pergi KL... YAHOOO

At KL, my dad persuaded me to eat something at McDonalds... My appetite wasn't good yetr so all I ate was McChicken only, without fries... The next day okay already so we makan sepuas-puasnya, I ate some Burger King for lunch and later some Imbi road hokkien mee for dinner... The rest was just buying clothes and a long long time at MPH bookstore reading Star Wars comics... I and bro went to check out some guitars at Yamaha, Rhapsody Valley and The Guitar Collection...

The next day, I ate Klang bak kut teh for breakfast... Then go KLCC, then I go to bookstore again, reading Star Wars and Batman comics... My brother go watch Twilight with his friend... I brought some new clothes and ate some of Dunkin Donuts sandwich before eating some seafood at Bukit Bintang with our cousin... The food was great, I ate some prawns, shells but never ate too much crabs, the make me itchy... There were rats crawling everywhere and the cook always argue with his wife one... Then I and my bro go watch "The Body Of Lies" at Pavillion... Although it was an 18 SG movie. we got in with some help...HEHEHE... The movie was quite violent but overall was quite good and inetersting...

The next day we go eat breakfast at a hawker stall at KL and there was a guy who serves pork noodles who cooks with a funny and strange style, some sort like dancing around the stove... Then we went to Kuantan... My uncle's new labrador puppy was soooo cute and mischevious, really likes to bite things such as cloth, toy ball and my finger... My sister lost her socks to that puppy...HAHAHA... Then go Kemaman with my grandma... Dropped my sister there because me and bro will be going to ESP...

End of part 1.. I'll talk about ESP next time on part 2...

Boring movies

2008-11-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

The most recent NEW movie I watched was Quantum of Solace, the new 007 movie... This movie is so far the most boring 007 movie ever...

I'll tell you all why..

They didn't really explain of the villains plan or scheme... After watching it twice, I still don't know what is the villains plan to destroy the world... Also, the villain screams like a girl and sucks at fighting... Tried to swing his axe at 007 and instead sliced his toes...HAHAHA... All I know he's a man working for an organization called Quantum and plans to take over pieces of land(which I dunno why)

Very boring... It takes 20-25 minutes in between scenes that are worth watching...

Although this film overall was a bad movie, it has some redeeming qualities... It has a cool but unfortunately painfully short car chase... Shame right? I still prefer the Jaguar vs Aston Martin chase from Die Another Day... And also, there are also some scenes that are simillar to the more extreme Jason Bourne movies... Brawling with a thug and destroying property at the same time and chasing the thug on rooftops...

An old movie... I borrowed the DVD just because it was a "Batman movie" which captured my attention after the explosive and very successful The Dark Knight but the movie came nothing close to The Dark Knight...

The Penguin in this movie is way too childish, he is depicted as a deformed psychopath instead of the suave and complex criminal from the comics... He's way too lame and boring compared to Heath Ledger's way more psychopathic Joker...

The tone of the film originally thought to be too dark, is still considered campy and childish if you ask me... I'd say The Dark Knight is way darker and more violent... I guess the filmakers are trying to attract kids to the movie but fail to as The Dark Knight succeeded.

LiFeStyLe Of ThE FrEe MaN!!!

2008-11-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

The craziest F1 Race ever...

2008-11-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

So far, this is the most intense ever F1 race I've ever saw, probably the most intense ever... I watched it on TV and I'm a ferarri fan so I hate Lewis Hamilton...

OK, the start was as already unusual, heavy showers before the warm-up lap caused drivers to change to wet tires... Then the race started, Kimi started protecting Massa, Alonso and Vettel fell back a few positions, then the track started to dry up, Alonso and Vettel changed their wheels first and zoomed into 3rd and 4th respectively with Hamilton in 5th... As the other drivers pitted for tires, Hamilton pitted at a bad time and WOHOO, he's down to 7th...But that's not it, he overtook Timo Glock from Toyota and another driver back into 5th... Oh E%$@...

The race stayed like that until the last few laps...

IT RAINED during I think with 7-8 laps to go, everyone dashed for the intermediate and Massa still leading, Hamilton instead went for wet tires and started to loose pace... Rain expert Vettel came striking on Hamilton and Hamilton finally looses control, back up into 6th... Then I was like YAHHHOOOOO!!! Until the LAST corner of the last lap, Toyota's Timo Glock who decided not to change tires was loosing pace more than Hamilton, Vettel overtook him... Then Hamilton... Then I went like WT*!!! NOOOOOOO...

Oh crap, the one aku paling benci, Hamilton won the title...Haiz... WHY!!!

freedom eh... so bored

2008-10-21T06:15:00.000-07:00

Well, the post-PMR months have looked promising to me but failed to live up my expectations... Not sure how it happened but it happened... No hangouts, no badminton... How do I spend my freedom?

Usually it's all internet, some music, DVD's and chores... Nothing else... No one to chat with on MSN... Maybe because most of my schoolmates hates a hard rock fan because they're so into crap like jonas brothers, hsm or other R&B stuff...

Annual dinner was average. Good food but not worth the price... It was so cramped up... Next year would be better as me, Willert and Arul are piecing up a definite rock band performance next year and make the lousy R&B and HSm fans CRY!!!

On the 18th, I joined Caleb, Jeffery and Kent to jam at the church... Me and Kent learnt guitar skills from Jeff and Caleb was doing his own thing... I struggled to keep up with Kent as he knew more chords...LOL... It was quite fun then we went for some snacks at McDonalds without Caleb... Not only snacks, I had double cheeseburger and shakey fries... The shakey fries were sooo spicy that I terpaksa buy an ice-cream... Then Jeff wanted to buy skateboards... We went to Arena, The Store and back to Arena... That was it... So far the most fun...

But Zhen Han's birthday party was quite boring... the food was ok, not much PS2 and the girls singing some chinese song which sound like crap to me... It was me and Andy Khor, 2 hard rock fans just falling asleep in the house... Then when a suggestion came where we could walk to WildZone, I was like yahoo! I can go watch GnR at YouTube or Battlefront... Then suddenly, we passed a group of mat rempits then the girls got scared... Aw man, the fun got robbed at that moment... We had a kiddish time at the playground as a mismatched compensation... To those present at the party, it's not your fault...

I look forward to start reading my bible... I've stopped reading it for half a year already... What happened? I don't know. These few weeks I've been further from God and I need to find out what's wrong...

That's all so far...

Stop tagging me

2008-09-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Actually two guys tagged me the same thing... One kept bugging me to play the stupid game again...

1. What is the most important thing in your life?
- God, my family, PMR, guitar, food

2. What is the last thing you bought with your own money?
- Guitar Picks

3. Where do you wish to get married?
- Um... Artic Pole

4. How old do you think you'll be permanently owned by your lover?
- Won't happen... But I'm permanently owned by God, I tell you that

5. Are you in love?
- Yea, I'm in love with Hard Rock music

6. Where was the last restaurant you had dinner?
- MD Curry House

7. Name the latest book you bought?
- Some PMR work books

~ 8. What is your full name?
- Chua Wei Lim

9. Do you prefer mother or father?
- Equally

10. Name a person that you really wish to meet in your real life for the first time.
- Never thought it through yet...

11. Christina or Britney?
- Neither... I prefer SLASH

12. Do you do your own laundry?
- Yes

13. The most exciting place you want to go?
- The North Pole

14. Hugs or Kisses?
- Hugs...

15. Point out 5 things about the person who tagged you.
- Obnoxious
- Annoying
- Provoking
- Curious
- Fan of Jonas Brothers... Blaugh

21. 8 people you tag
- Albert Einstein
- Darth Vader
- Master Yoda
- Slash
- Frodo Baggins
- Jason Voorhees
- Batman
- The Joker

HAPPY NOW!!!!

Sandcastles in the air!!!!

2008-09-10T01:10:00.000-07:00

Well it's not PMR yet but I have to admit my mind is focused on my guitar for my 7A's instead of pushing to get 7A's... Oh darn it!!! Everyday at bed I keep having pictures of Gibson and Epiphone Les Paul in my head... Obviously, I'm building sandcastles in the sky... But I'm getting more confident in my usual subjects... My beloved english, less enthusiastic BM, ghani's KH, n science... Recently, I focused on geografi because I sucked at it... Sejarah will be next followed by Mathematics which I don't enjoy it!!!

Procrastination is one big problem too. Looking at my homeworks at shrugging it of and say tomorrow x10000... To Jeffery, I'm not a study person... I'm in between... I love all subjects but only Mathematics, i don't know why...

Ah hopefully I can get 7A's or I will be like Mat Jenin, dreaming on coconut tree and falls to his death...Lol...

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin rocks at the Beijing Olympics closing ceromony!!!

2008-08-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page performed the smokin riffs of the Led Zeppelin song "Whole Lotta Love" at the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceromony to simbolise the 2012 London olympics... I almost didn't regconize him until the commentator announced his name... But of all the many rock and metal vocalists available in Britain, they chose to bring out R&B singer Leona Lewis... It ain't the best choice!!!

Why not choose Ian Gillan from Deep Purple or Ozzy Osbourne or at least Paul McCartney!!! They picked the wrong singer for a metal/hard rock song... Haiz... I tell you all this, hard rock songs only go well with rock vocalists not singers from other genres although that singer is Leona Lewis...

David Beckham also made an appearance kicking the ball at excited fans....

the force is NOT with this one!!!! star wars: clone wars SUCKS!!!

2008-08-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

Whenever there's a Star Wars movie in the screens, big things are expected from it because it's one of the biggest and best movie franchises of all time... Most of the time, the Star wars movie never fails to disappoint UNTIL NOW!!!

This Star Wars: Clone Wars is the cause... A real scumbag this one is... This film has a storyline consisting of war and abduction...

All you see is war, clones, droids, guns, explosions, jedi, lightsabers and more explosions...

The only thing enjoyabe athough not that enjoyable is the lightsaber duels between Count Dooku vs Anakin as well as Asaaj Ventress vs Obi Wan Kenobi... But still the best ones are from Episode 1's Darth Maul vs Obi Wan & Qui Gon, Episode 3's Obi Wan vs Darth Vader and Episode 6's father vs son...

This film has a expectation of dethroning Dark Knight from the number 1 spot... It failed, Tropic Thunder took the number 1, Dark Knight fell to number 2 with Star Wars at number 3... So far, this is the ONLY Star wars film not to open at number 1...

It's so bad that it's not even worth buying a pirated DVD of this movie...

Relief

2008-08-09T05:11:00.000-07:00

As the PMR comes nearer, I got more and more confident in scoring more than 6As....

Only mathematics is the one I still fail to get a safe score but at least I now understand the concept of simplifying algebra... I still need to master solid geometry, algebraic inequalities, speed and trigonometry.

English is always in the safe zone...

KH is another easy catch due to the fact that 40 marks is storage for you...

Geography just needs some polishing...

Sejarah is finally in the safe zone... The last time I got an A for Sejarah was in form 2... I did a revision paper barely 15 minutes ago and scored 70%... A little more reading and everything will be fine....

BM needs more polishing than Geography due to the fact that I HATE THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE!!!!!

Science is not 100% because of Tan Ting Tong, he's not as good as he claims everytime but from Cikgu Ismail's teaching also...

So I hope to get at least 6A's but might as well push for 7A's to beat my brother's result... And get into science stream and get an electric guitar!!!!

My Comments On Joker

2008-07-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

Well the buzz is on Heath Ledger's version but I still enjoy the Joker's played by Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill or Kevin Michael Richardson...

Jack Nicholson's Joker aka the Scary Uncle Joker... This version is not the goofy version from the 60's Batman series but more of the maniacal mass-murderer from the 1940's comics... Although Jack Nicholson's natural laugh is creepy enough, his age and lack of suitable physique brings his performance down... Also, Tim Burton's decision to make Joker the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents is not the best idea also... This version also wears a permanent grin due to an accident caused by Batman... Like Heath Ledger's version, This Joker's white face comprises of make-up not chemical mutation like the comics... This version also uses the trademark "Bang! Flag" guns from the comics but doesn't use the Joker gas... Jack's joker is NOT SKILLED IN PHYSICAL COMBAT and is easily defeated by Batman... In their final showdown, Joker's hand hurts when he punches the Bat in the gut...

Heath Ledger's Joker aka the PSYCHOPATH JOKER... The latest version of The Joker comprises of VERY VERY LAME jokes, psychotic laughs but no Joker gas or "bang flag gun"... His purple suit is also more sophisticated... Like Jack Nicholson's version, Heath Ledger's Joker also has a permanent grin but is due to the fact that he slit his mouth before the events of the movie... Like Nicholson, this Joker wears make-up but while Jack's Joker removes his make-up from time to time, Heath's Joker accepts make-up as part of his face and his face starts to show signs of infection as the movie progresses... In this movie, his crimes are somewhat more terrorsist-like which involves thousands of people... Unlike Jack Nicholson, this Joker is SKILLED IN COMBAT and uses his fists, metal poles and knives from his shoes to bring down Batman, he even punches and kicks Batman until he falls into a large net, giving the Bat very little chance...

Mark Hamill's Joker aka WACKY JOKER... The best animated Joker so far... He is still the usual mass murderer with trademark purple and green outfits, Bang flag guns, Joker gas and of course grenades hidden in giant Jack in the Box spring up toys... But, his profile is somewhat more wackier than other versions... Mark Hamill is also the actor who portrayed Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker in the early Star Wars movies by the way... The Joker from the first season is quite skilled in combat and is known to defeat the Phantasm, Mr Freeze and Scarecrow with a single punch... The one in the second season is more cunning but looks much more skinny... The one in the Justice League cartoons and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker movie has great strength, hurling a bag full of rocks against Batman, injuring The Bat but has little skill in combat... Bu the resurrected version in "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" has more skill in combat than any other version as he is inside Robin's body... He uses Joker gas very very often and uses Bang! flag guns on several occasions...

Kevin Michael Richardson's Joker aka the Circus or Clown Joker... This version is somewhat similar to Mark Hamill's take but has unique monkey like abilities such as swinging around and hanging upside down... He is also more clown-like than the previous Jokers... This Joker uses the Joker gas very often just like Mark Hamill's version but does not use bang! flag guns...

The Dark Knight

2008-07-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

I watched The Dark Knight on 12.20 am 19th July at a cinema in Kuantan and I tell you, I won't mind watching 10 times over... This movie is probably one of the best superhero movies ever, slightly better than IRON MAN... Man 1/4 of the movie's performance has to be credited to Heath Ledger's rendition of The Clown Prince of Crime JOKER... Critics may say more than 50% of the film is credited to Heath but I don't... Still, he might get the Oscar many people wanted...

This is not a suitable family movie or a superhero movie for kids such as the kiddish Spider-Man series or the family friendly Iron Man. To me this is one of the most violent U rated movies I've ever seen...

Although we all know Batman has no superpowers and his technology isn't as advanced as Iron Man, he faces a challenge bigger than the one Superman or Spider-Man faced... the maniac Joker... Unlike the Joker from 1989's Batman by Tim Burton, this Joker is way more insane than the one played by Nicholson and Heath's Joker is more intelligent in planning his crimes such as making his hostages look like terrorists and switching locations of his victims so Batman will get to Harvey Dent rather than his girlfriend Rachel...

This Joker also knows how to fight Batman physically, trapping the bat in a net and beating him with a metal pole... The Joker also has lots of tricks up his sleeves such as grenades activated by yo-yo's and of course Joker cards.. But this film does not feature the classic "BANG! flag gun" and there is no Joker gas... In this film, Joker's crimes are more notorious and huge, he's not a criminal, he's a TERRORIST! He blows up a hospital and almost blows up two ferries full of passengers...

In The Dark Knight, Joker tries to make Batman and Harvey Dent go insane but although he fails to corrupt Batman, he does succeed in corrupting Harvey Dent, turning him into Two-Face

Unlike Superman, Iron Man or Spider-Man, Batman's love interest gets blown up by The Joker unlike in Spider-Man 3 where Spidey saves Mary Jane from Venom or in Iron Man where Tony saves Pepper from Iron Monger... Not the usual superhero movie concept...

Plus, Harvey Dent also transforms into Two-Face at the last quarter of the film... At least better than Tommy Lee Jones wacky Joker-like version...

The less said about Edison Chen's appearance the better...

Of course I rate this film A because the director violated the concept of superhero movies and creating a masterpiece out of it....

When I first heard Heath Ledger is due to act as The Joker, I was not very happy, why not Mark Hamill who made a good job in the cartoon, or Robin Williams, Steven Carrell or even Jim Carrey who has a Joker-like facial structure... Well, when you watch it, you know why because he's done better than the others can do...

Velvet Revolver's Not Breaking Up But...

2008-07-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

This news is especially for Jeffery and Andy Chong...

Since Scott Weiland permenantly left the band to rejoin Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver is on hiatus and there are many potential vocalists... The top two are

Chester from Linkin Park???? I was shocked when I read about it in Wikipedia. Hmmm, he said he probaly be in the band because he's busy with Linkin Park and an upcoming solo career... The style of music from LP is totally different from that of GnR or VR but I've seen him singing hard rock before but he ended up in nu-metal badn Linkin Park... Lets say if he joins Velvet Revolver, he will loose those fans who are not hard rock fans but gain new ones... It's a gamble... If you ask me he should quit Linkin Park and join Velvet Revolver or maybe even hiatus the band for a while but so far Linkin Park is more successful due to not rocking very hard to get the fans of regular rock music... I used to be a fan of LP but now I prefer Velvet Revolver...

Chris Cornell from Audioslave and Soundgarden... I'm only familiar with Audioslave but I've never heard of Soundgarden... Audioslave had a promising run but the supergroup broke up after three of the members rejoined with Zack de la Rocha for the Rage Against the Machines reunion... He sings grunge with Soundgarden and alternate hard rock with Audislave...

Others include Steven Tyler, Sebastian Bach and Lenny Kravitz... These two i got nothing to say about...

This news may sound hard to believe but for more info...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolver#Libertad_.282005-2008.29

InCoNsIsTeNt In EvEryThInG

2008-07-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Suddenly my life has been so inconsistent... Wierd eh....

My mathematics performance is more sucked than ever... What a waste, last year's maths teacher was a good one who knows how to explain everything... My current one gets my head cracked... He/She even forces us to get A in PMR... With a quality of that level, ain't an easy thing to accomplish...The problem is this year I'm more serious in studying but I was damn play-FOOL last year, what a waste... Now I also tak puas hati with our very own Tony Tan Ting Tong ever since that misunderstanding at tution... He gave a half-hearted apology, that's OK la... But I still love to play around especially joking about his brand new car LOL...

Another problem is friendship, since there's lots of backstabbing around the fellows around me, you can't satisfy everyone... At sometimes, you have a feeling that guy wants to break you to pieces but the next thing you know, he or she lends a helping hand... Still trying to bring the word unto them by setting up an example but who wants to follow a not-very - intelligent - foul - mouthed and lazy-bum joker... To those out there, this is the real me, I'm a failure to many!!! It's time to turn the tables... BUT HOW??? You come out with an answwer to that one you let me know...

Sometimes anger, hatred and unforgiveness lurks deep down inside, drooling for revenge and beating their as*es up, especially those racists who insult me, practice of eating pork and my religion.. But not all Malays are nasty, some are friendlier than some Chinese, no offense yea... Because I WAS always hammered by racial, a change is happening right in front of my eyes... As for my hatred etc, I better stop fueling it with angry metal songs...

I suddenly find out changing your mind from a lazy bum to a study freak is so tough... With all those procrastination and temptations, only a champ can withstand all these, but I'm not... I'm average... Yea, my English is top of my class but my BM teacher complains to me about why I'm good in English and gets B in Bahasa Malaysia... What's worse, I tend to leave Maths undone although it's my weakest subject... ARGGGHHHHH!!! why do I have to learn linear equations, algebra which I NEVER USE IN MY LIFE... I mean who does... Why do we have to learn about Malaysia, why can't we learn about SPARTA!!! THIS IS MADNESS!!! Hy isn't the education system different, like you study the stuff necessary for your dream job... It's not necessarily smart intellects are rich. This is one of the arguements I had with Tan Ting Tong... Slash and Tom Morello who dropped out of high school are earning millions playing guitar and lecturers still need to control their spendings... Typical Tan Ting Tong, he must have it his way... WHY LA???

Haiz.. Life ain't easy, there are many questions we will ask The Lord but we don't see the answer immediately and leaving us with doubts sometimes but the show must roll on... By the way, my faith has been inconsistent too...

ThE HiAtUs....

2008-06-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

I plan to put my blog on hiatus as the tides are comming for me to study...

Yeah, I'll crack my head studying as I'm not used to it as I'm THE ULTIMATE SLOB... I'll sleep after 10 minutes of studying but all good things must come to an end... NVM, it's only for a few months...

Before I leave, I'd like to say what I plan to do after PMR, I'm not sure if I will get a job or not... If yes, it's for the electric guitar I will get for straight A's... Maybe I will but if I don't, I'll play Battlefront the whole day... lolz...

ThE FoRcE wiLL ALWAYS bE WiTh YoU

2008-06-05T12:07:00.001-07:00

To many people, Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith is deemed to be the last ever Star Wars movie..

If you're one of em', you're dead wrong....

A whole new movie... But it's animated but at least it still has all the lightsaber action and force action from the live-action STAR WARS films... It's

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

No, not the silly cartoon network show, this is new a 3-D CGI film....

And yes, this new show WILL be released in theaters all over the galaxy. Most Star Wars fans(me included) still have much to know about the Clone Wars timeline set between Episodes 2 and 3... We have been shown little of the Clone Wars from the movies Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith but we are brought deeper into it with the Clone Wars PS2 game, the clone wars novel series(i have 3 Clone Wars novels) and of course the Cartoon Network Toonami show...

This film offers a new view of the Clone Wars with never before seen battles, duels and villains...

Two interesting points you'll need to know

1. Anakin Skywalker's apprentice, the 9-year old Togruta padawan, Ashoka Tano will play a big role in the film.

2. The Sith forces led by Darth Sidious and Count Dooku a.k.a. Darth Tyrannus will wage their war against the Hutt gangsters of Jabba the Hutt

Of course there will be stars reprising their roles

Anthony Daniels as C-3p0

Matthew Wood as General Greivous

Samuel L Jackson a.k.a. Sammy L J as Master Windu

Christopher Lee as Count Dooku

There will also be a never before seen duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Assaj Ventress and another cool duel between Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku...

Sadly...

1. Darth Vader will not make an appearance
2. Darth Maul will not make an appearance
3. Chewbacca and the wookiees will not make an appearance

But don't bitch about it cos it's still a Star Wars film packed with Sith Lords, Jedi, Droids, Clone Troopers and Space Ships...

One more thing you should know, the film's ending will lead into the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series, not the Genndy Tartakovsky 2-D Cartoon Network show, but a 3-D show which will also air on Cartoon Network...

Oh boy 2008 is a good year for Star Wars fans... Cos there is also the Force Unleashed game...

May the force be with you...

Silly 8 Tag

2008-05-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

I hope this is the last time I get tagged...

No rules attached to this tag. But one privilege for Steven is that it's not compulsory for him to come out with all '8 things'. (Tag-repliers, you don't have to copy this line)

8 Things I Am Passionate About
- Playing Guitar
- Eating Meat
- Saving Money(to buy electric guitar)
- Reading Novels(english novels only... not POZ, or Potato People)
- Serving the Lord
- Trying to avoid talking profainity
- Drawing
- Uh... playing football

8 Things I Do Often
- Play Guitar
- Listen to Hard Rock and Classic Heavy Metal
- Eat
- Sleep
- Watch DVD's
- Play FIFA 07(swt... ketinggalan zaman dy...)
- Draw pictures
- Watch funny videos on YouTube

8 Things I Had Read Recently
- Newspaper
- Exam paper
- Homework sheets
- Wikipedia articles
- synopsis on the back of a DVD cover
- my Star Wars novels
- My friend's SMS on Manchester United's victory

8 Song Which I Could Listen Over and Over Again
- Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
- Canon Rock - Jerry C
- Glory Man Utd
- Crawling - Linkin Park
- Heart Of Worship - Chris Tomlin
- Iron Man - Ozzy Osbourne
- Imperial March - John Williams
- The Force Theme - John Williams
- Star Wars theme - John Williams

8 Things I Have Learnt Last Year
- How to chase soccer ball
- How to play guitar properly
- How to burn CD's and sell them
- How to put God 1st in everything
- The taste of Japanese Ramen(disgusting)
- How to blog
- How important it is to read the bible
- How important it is to serve God

Please don't tag me already lah....

8 People I'm Tagging
- Darth Vader
- Tony Stark aka Iron Man
- Albert Einstein
- Slash
- Mozart
- Herman Li
- Zakk Wydle
- Paul McCartney

Use the Force!

2008-05-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

Obi-Wan and Yoda says jedi use the force for defense, never for attack...

However Darth Vader uses the DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE to....

Rock Out!!!!!!

On the drums....

And turntables... Ok this one has a boring start but the ending is kinda cute...

The Piano...

Last but not least Guitar....

But Vader decided wearing a whole body suit is lame and decided to rock out wearing regular clothes!!! Iron Man and Crazy Train, very famous riffs...

Strong with the sound, Vader is...

Iron Man!!!!

2008-05-19T01:14:00.000-07:00

This Film Rocks... So does the big hunk o' metal Tony Stark...

Although the comic-book character Iron-Man wasn't as successful as Spidey, Fantastic Four or X-Men, this movie should boost Iron Man's popularity... Iron Man should be given lots of credit as he's the one who

1. Destroyed Dr Doom. Something the Fantasric Four can't do
2. Led the Avengers in the Marvel Civil War
3. Who could forget, defeated Captain America

The film had the same board of directors as Transformers just different director and producers... The All-Star special effects crew from George Lucas owned ILM lead by Terminator and Jurassic Park's special effects specialist Stan Winston... Yeah, Stan Winston is the man who created the Terminator's endoskeleton, the Wookiee costume, the Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus etc and all the other dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park trilogy... Transformers had cool special effects but Iron Man just edged through with better special effects...

Besides special effects, this film has a cool storyline and script uunlike the boring Hulk by gay cowboy's director Ang Lee... The director of Iron Man wasn't very famous, I was shocked to read that he's the director of the hilarious Elf starring Will Ferrell but Jon Favreau(director) pulled of Iron Man quite well
Guess what, I enjoyed this masterpiece in a cinema...

The film starts with billionaire, playboy and alcoholic weapon designer Tony Stark, not Tony TTT giving a demo of his Jericho missiles in Afghanistan. Stark was captured by The 10 Rings, one of the branches of Al-Qaeda who forced him to build for them a Jericho Missile... Then there's a flashback revealing Tony wasn't aware his partner Obie Stane is selling weapons created by Stark to the 10 Rings. Back to the story, Tony has a magnet in his chest to stop pieces of metal from piercing his heart... He and Dr. Yinsen, a scientist work on a prototype of the Iron Man suit and fooling the Al-Qaeda militants. After finishing the suit, Stark has to initiate the process of putting on the armor via computer but angry Al-Qaeda soldiers are already near them, to buy time for Stark, Yinsen distracts the soldiers at the cost of his life as Stark programs the suit... Finding Yinsen dead, Stark gets red and kills every single soldier and destroying the weapons stockpile and escaped, after barely 30 seconds in the sky, Stark's costume runs out of battery and crashes... Stark leaves the scrap metal and is airlifted to the USA... Knowing his weapons are in the wrong hands, Stark states his company will no longer manufacture weapons but this move has been blocked by the board of directors...

Stark then lived his life out of the spotlight and secretly builds the new Iron Man suit... The 100% gold coloured prototype is successful but Stark builds another one just because he want's a little bit of red in it... He then finds out the remaining 10 Rings soldiers are using his weapons to kill refugees... Iron Man then flies into action and kills every soldier but leaves the leader for the refugees to handle... Iron Man assumes his job is done and flies into the sky but a tank shoots him down... The tank fires again but he slumber'ly dodges it and fires a tiny missile from his wrist, the missle only tembus the tank and Iron Man walks away and the tank explodes. At this scene many people in the cinema clapped and cheered...

Stark returns and ask his assistant and girlfriend to find edvidence that his partner is doing dirty buissness... She finds out Obie Stane is working on his own Iron Man suit and christens it THE IRON MONGER... He steals Stark's Iron Man battery and leaves him for dead as the battery is also the magnet implanted on his chest to stop the pieces for metal from piercing his heart... Stark asks his friend Colonel Rhodes aka the WAR MACHINE to keep the air clear as he flies... Rhodes stares at the unpainted Iron Man suit but mutters "NEXT TIME BABY"... I was frustrated he didn't wear the suit as War Machine but it's confirmed he will appear as War Machine in Iron Man 2... Patience dude...

Stark battles Iron Monger who is actually Obie Stane inside... Iron Man is weakened because he "low battery" already but his girlfriend activates a reactor to destroy Iron Monger and Stane inside it... Stark is near death as he runs out of energy... He is later revived and the battery stolen by Stane is implanted back into his chest... He holds a press conference to state that Iron Man is his body guard... He changes the script and says "I AM IRON MAN" and Black Sabbath's infamous guitar riff plays along.... Credits roll

This film is a must watch for everyone... I really enjoyed this show... 5 stars!!!!!

Injury

2008-05-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I sprained my ankle while playing football. During the warm-up, I chased Quan Zee for the ball, after a chase that lasted 30 seconds, I tried to tackle him, he defended the ball and my foot went the wrong way and I heard a loud crack and fell. Quan Zee took of, leaving me lying on the ground. I went to lie down, hoping it wasn't serious and I could rejoin after 10 minutes but it didn't work that way.

This was the fist time I kena injury... Lol

Today still painful and I'm using my dad's golf club as a walking stick and I can't follow my dad and bro to island, I will drown if i want to swim or snorkel, lol... HAHAHA

I've Been Tagged

2008-04-30T08:42:00.001-07:00

I don't know what silly game is this... Just because Ching Chung and Jeff tag me I go with it only lah...

Let the game begin!!!

The rules are:
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves
3. At the end of the post the player than tags 5 people and posts their names, than goes to their blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they done got tagged and to ask them to play and read your blog.

What was I doing 10 years ago ( 1998)?
1. Watching Dragon Ball every Saturday
2. Threw up and fell sick in my first day in standard one.
3. Fight with racist malay classmates...
4. Got my arm slashed by a naughty malay boy...
5. Always copy friend's homework.

5 things on my to-do list today
1. Go school
2. Tution with Tan Ting Tong
3. Online
4. Sleep
5. Visit blog, found out I got tagged...

5 Snacks I enjoy
1. Burgers
2. Toasts with peanut butter and chocolated coated rice
3. keropok lekor
4. Cookies with nuts
5. Coconut juice and flesh

5 Things I would do if I were a billionaire
1. Buy Manchester United FC
2. Make movies
3. Invest
4. Donate to churches and to UNICEF
5. Buy a big house

5 of my bad habits
1. Sleep in class, most of the time on Sejarah lessons...
2. Eat too much
3. Hate people
4. Money-face
5. Like to joke during Tan Ting Tong... Always kena rotan but I don't mind

5 place i have lived
1. Taman Ibai[curret house]
2. Westin Hotel[KL]
3. A tent[srandard 6 UPSR camp]
4. A hostel at Inti College[ESP 07]
5. Chalet owned by a Dutch family[Pulau Kapas]

5 jobs I've had
1. Doing chores at home... No upah
2. Help buy things for friends at school during recess... Got upah
3. Sleep... No upah
4. Burn CD's for friends... So far I earn the most from this one but now no customers ady
5. Sell Spider-Man drawings... Standard 3

5 people I tag
1. Wee Choon Khai
2. Lim William
3. Arul the boss
4. Vincent Ng
5. Teacher Nora... No one else already swt

LCDS Badminton Tournament

2008-04-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Me n Boys Double partner... WCK...
In Action... I'm the one with the black Star Wars t-shirt...

OK.. It started with warm up sessions... Then first match was against Jason Tan and someone lah... I though Jason was good in sports, his dad is a sports teacher but he sucks at soccer but OK la at badminton... We won 21-10 then there was a long wait for another match in the boys doubles category... At least can kill some time with mix doubles, only to fail miserably, nvm la, chee june(mix doubles partner) can be said noob la... But at least tight fight in 1 match...

Then got match against Ong Cher Wei n his partner... Won, forgot the score dy... Then came 2 malay pairs which we lost miserably... Harap-harap they loose against the junior noobs but won also... Then lawan Koh Boon Shen and his partner... We both already won 2 matches so we fought for the 3rd postion in the group although only top 2 qualify... At least got some honour left...lolz...
In the end, won 21-18...

Went home at 3 because nothing left to do... Bathe while rendam my feet on a bucket then took a long nap...

Holding Onto Dark Times....

2008-04-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since i blogged on my walk with God, because my days outside the church door has became a lot more bleak than usual. Here's the story...

For the past few weeks, I listened to Linkin Park rarely but moved on to more outrageous music like Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Metallica, Drowning Pool, Black Sabbath and Slipknot... All these semi-demonic bands specialising in Heavy Metal. Got glued to it, if I listened to christian songs, my anger and frustration will turn into peace and smiles but if I listened to Heavy Metal, my anger will boil and the day is full of anger... It's okay to listen to heavy metal but it's better not to. The least I can do is limit my listening of circular music and listen to more Hillsong, Planetshakers or Chris Tomlin. It's shameful that the only songs I can play on guitar are all circular music...

My faith has also been cut off... I haven't read the bible for a couple of months, which is very pathetic as I finished reading Exodus is a day... Ironic isn't it? I've also been plagued by bad luck... Been scolded for small mistakes and have others doing big mistakes getting away, this makes me pissed... Yea, there's this case where I've been bullied by a *&R$^ racist teacher for a small mistake I shouldn't be punished for... All that humiliation, If I were a regular guy, I'd kill him the most cruel way possible and laugh at his pain... That moment of anger still burns, the look on that mad-ass's face makes me wanna rip his eyeballs off... But that's not how civilized people do things rite? I guess the Devil is trying to make us feel like junk but no matter how many racist teachers scold me for nothing, I can't go crazy and make things more f**ked up, I guess I just try to calm down with some noodles and coke...

Studies also makes my life more and more rotten... But I always enjoy English. Which explains why I got 88% for it... Yeap, top of the class but my mathematics, that's another story... My Science was only a scratch away from A, 76%....

Well at least I still have my football buddies and HG to cheer me up...

Man, Life's been really messed up lately, Please help me... Any advice will help! Please...

Andy Khor breaks records at class...

2008-04-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

Today, the class joker Andy Khor Gaik Meng a.k.a. Andy Cock Gay Man(bcuz he likes to yell profanity) got boo'ed by the whole class for about 14 times.

10 times was in English period... Tambah lagi he kena stand at corner for 10 minutes. He insulted people and cracked dirty jokes... Way too dirty for Ms. Nora to tolerate... All the way, even after his 10 minutes punishment dah expired doh, he never learnt his lesson and keep cranking around with what the F...unaudible.... sentences....

Another 4-5 times was in science period, luckily Cikgu Ismail tolerate his "not doing homework" and joker habit... 1 time he kena boo because he laugh at me for getting a wrong answer then when Cikgu Ismail ask him if he got it right or wrong, he say wrong... Everyone boo-ed loudly...

Tambahan lagi is Tony Tan Ting Tong yang bawa kereta TT 7017 yg bagi Tution di Tanjung, Terengganu... He called the penis a "German Frankfrunter Sausage" Yeah, a lame joke but some nerds laughed along... At least Heng Huei, still in his "April Fool" mood stole the show qith very close call just like yesterday on April Fool when he jawab balik when Mr. TTT scolded him for pranking on the teacher...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Actually Heng Huei more kuai cai than Andy but he just likes to get attention... But a the attention of bad reputation if it's for the girls... Ah Huei can be a good stage comedian, so can Andy but Andy need to change his jokes(he specializes in dirty jokes)... One more thing, Andy likes someone who is the total opposite of him... Of course la the girl didn't balas his moves... He say love like magnet, opposite then only can stick...Ala, just to make him confident je...

2008-03-31T08:04:00.001-07:00

White Tigers. Don't they look adorable. Tigers are already extremely rare and to see a white tiger is a once in a lifetime experience. But the truth aren't spoken by zoos who have white tigers in their enclosures. The gene pool for white tigers is extremely small. To produce wild tigers as circus and zoo attractions, breeders resort to inbreeding to conceive white tigers. What's so bad about inbreeding? You might ask. Inbreeding is when someone or something conceives an offspring with a close relative such as cousins or siblings. Like humans, tiger cubs conceived by inbreeding have shorter lifespan, low sperm count, less ovums, cross-eyed and mental retardation. This is the problem faced by most white tiger cubs, 8 out of 10 white tiger cubs aren't perfect. What do the breeders do to severely deformed tigers like this one here>>>>

This is the truth. 8 out of 10 white tigers are like this poor creature here. Ugly. A magnificent tiger looking like this? This is caused by cruel men who have no compassion all for the sake of money. The breeders will either sell the deformed tiger at a low price to illegal tiger skin or bone traders at a low price or discard them. When they are discarded, the deformed tiger's retardation prevents it from hunting successfully and the color prevents them from camouflaging well. They will starve to death. 8 out of 10 white tigers pay the price for "not being good looking enough". Who has to pay the price, the innocent tiger who has deformation because of inbreeding prompted by humans or the sick tiger breeder who dispose of so many tiger cubs just to get a handful of majestic white tigers like the one in the first picture? If a white tiger is paired with a regular tiger, only 25% of the conceived cubs are white... Again 75% are disposed off...

White tigers don't need a conservation status. They are not wild animals, they're man-made. The best thing to do is to stop white tiger breeding and to continue supporting conservation efforts for the real tigers.

Open up you eyes fellas, this is the real world of white tigers... For more info, watch this video...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8VnvjGInpzs&feature=related

Crazy Day at School

2008-03-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

I went to special classes today, I fell asleep 3 times in the bathroom and dropped the shower head thingy. 1st subject to learn is Moral. Malay's have PAI class and unfortunately, the 3P boys ponteng so it's just me and Mohan Jr a.k.a. tetek silikon as the teachers call him. Our Moral teacher Cikgu Mat Omar a.k.a. "Cikgu Masdo" didn't came... Haiz, nothing to do, just sit there complaining only lor... But the thing that made me smile is recess... There was FREE nasi lemak for breakfast. We got 38 packets of nasi lemak but there were less than 20 of us and a few boys including me swapped 2 packets... Then got BM class, just bincang the homework only... WAH, sooo sleepy. We heard we could go home early bcos Math teacher wanna give birth dy... Another fustration but look on the bright side... Wasting 3 hrs is worth it for the DELICIOUS nasi lemak...

The ext time I come to Saturday extra classes got lots of reasons... wanna improve my maths, BM n sejarah, for my semi-accoustic guitar i will get for straight A's in PMR n for NASI LEMAK!!!!!

Lion King is wrong

2008-03-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

In the popular animated show, we see the lions of pride rock fighting hyenas. But the show hasn't been fair towards the poor hyenas. In Lion King, the creator favors the lion but the truth must be spoken.

In the African plains, lions and hyenas are eternal enemies but the competition made is far from Lion King's animation. The tense battle is exploding with blood and action. In National Geographic, most videos depict lionesses chasing after fleeing hyenas, they do this just to mengelak the attacks, not because of fear. Lions have an overall stronger body but hyenas have much powerful jaws and tough bones meaning lions need to have a hard try at killing a hyena and hyenas are capable of injuring a lion with a single bite. Hyena troops contain more members than regular lion prides so lions are sometimes outnumbered but... 1 point for the hyenas...

The leader of the pride, the "alpha" male is a hyena's worst nightmare. Male lions have stronger bones, jaws and muscles and they have thick and tough manes that are too strong even for the hyena's fatal blow. Even if it is a single male lion against a whole troop of hyenas, the male lions have a speed up to 3 times faster than the hyenas which enables male lions to attack and dodge easily. So the score is 1 all.

Lions and hyenas have been fighting on eternal battlefields for millions of years. Both are apex predators in Africa, easily eliminating leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs as the top boss. Hyenas have larger armies and have stronger jaws as well as being more notorious but lions are faster, stronger and more agile.

So don't underestimate a hyena the next time you tune into Animal Planet or watch Lion King.

Lord Grants Me Miracles

2008-03-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

Miracles... They always happen, some are possible behind the borders of science but some exceed that border because in terms of science, God is nothing... But he his our jehovah and our Lord Almighty...

I have experience a few miracles since my Faith progressed recently... Though it is still behind the boundaries of science, I thank the Lord for it... For without him... I won't be where I am now... Standing between the believers and the non-believers whom i care for...

The first miracle happened recently starting from my nasal turbinate surgery... I though it wouldn't help me much. All my life, I've been breathing with one nasal cavity that is half of my whole nose. Now, I'm breathing with both nasal cavities easily... Praise the Lord...

The second is concerning my well-being. For the past 2 years I started to loathe education. I always thought there is always a shortcut to success. At that time, I wasn't the hardworking kid I was during my years at late primay school... I was a lazy slacker waiting in line to be dropped from the school... After the ESP, I vowed and swore to improve... AND IT DID!!!! I started doing homeworks and notes with ease but I copied some of my friends notes... I'm neutral on all subjects which I say is plusible for me to score an A in PMR but I'm still struggling hard with Mathematics... With a not-so-good maths teacher, most of my learnings are from my tution teacher... The notorious MR TAN TING TONG... He's a good teacher I say although we make fun of him sometimes... Praise the Lord

The big miracle, I've been selected as one of the possible candidates to represent the school in NST's SPELL IT RIGHT... I'm not a pro at English because of my weakness in grammar... I was selected for my vocab power... You know, I read bombastic words in the bible and in star wars books very often... Praise the Lord

Yes I'm still struggling with maths, but the Lord has brought me this far, I only need to nudge myself to success, I won't give up when I'm this close to redemption... Never...

I guess the Lord keeps his promise to those who love him... I didn't understand it when I was a kid but I sure got my eyes opened now... The Lord is with us... Now, here... Wherever you are... Not only in the church, at school, at a tution center or in a dark alley... He watches over us and protects us from harm... Amen

The Biggest and Meanest Of All Monsters

2008-03-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

Imagine yourself as a diver in a safety cage on the lookout for Great White Sharks. You see what you were hoping for in a distance, a torpedo shaped body with crescent tail fins and black eyes. It swims towards your cage, you ready your camera, hoping to snap a shot of the Jaws star. It's at a distance where it should be right in front of you but it isn't. As the tail propels forward, you notice it is larger than the maximum sized Great White. You get your true look at the immense beast. It's tooth is broader than your arm, it's jaws can easily swallow your "safety" cage. This is Jaws's grandpa. Megalodon... A shark over 75 feet long, about 4 times the size of a Great White...

This picture defines the true size of Megalodon. A true monster... While for a Great White, a human is a full meal, a Megalodon will regard a human as a popcorn.

Pro-scientists have also stated that in waters shallow enough for T-Rex could stride on, deep enough for Megalodon to swim in, this is the result....

That's right, a Megalodon's mass and size exceeds that of T-Rex... Armed with strong jaws and teeth which beats that of T-Rex and with it's speed, T-Rex could fall prey to this shark...

Megalodon started evolving at the time of the Dinosaurs end and preyed on Pleisosaurs(the Loch-Ness is alleged to be a Pleisosaur) and even Mosasaurus, a marine reptile... It's regular meal includes large whales... With an immense size and fearsome instincts, Megalodon ultimately took control of the oceans after surviving the end of the dinosaurs...

Megalodon continued to rule the oceans for the next 4 dozen million years... At the dawn of Homo Sapiens era at 100,000 years ago, Megalodon became extinct due to many of the whales migrating to icy waters during the ice age... With lack of food, Megalodon could not feed on other animals to satisfy it's hunger and starved to death... The ice bonded the oceans together and caused the shallow waters, nursery for young Megalodons to dry up...

Well, it could be extinct, maybe not... 95% of our oceans are unexplored and claims of jellyfishes capable of sinking boats are reported, mermaids are claimed to be discovered etc etc... In 1881, fishermen return without crayfish traps and told tales where the water boils and a huge fin slices through the oceans surface and dragged away their crayfish traps... Why would they waste their crayfish traps over a lie??? Fishermen aren't rich and crayfish traps are expensive... With the Japanese submarines having recorded a footage of a giant shark, presumably Megalodon... It seems clear to me...

The beast is out there........

Terminator drawing

2008-03-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

OK...I drew out two drawings... I was not too happy with the first as the teeth sucked bad... The second was better...

A close up of the face of the first drawing... Looked okay
The whole thing... You see the teeth, some big some small... Haiz
The second one... This one i prefer more although more difficult to draw out...
This one paling give me headache... The shoulder + nuts + bolts + gears + wires...
At first the fingers i draw not very nice, the picture i observe to draw this did not show the fingers... So i draw the transformers type of fingers but looks like shit... The i found a picture of the terminator's endoskeleton arm...

Next... Planning to draw a Naruto vs Goku picture... Dunno, depends on my mood oso

My Dream Pet

2008-03-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

My dream pet... I do not fancy puppies or kittens... They're either for kids or girls, tough animals are for boys... Well, tarantulas aren't that fierce and tough...They can be killed if you slap or step on them...

They look big and dangerous but are best called regular pets. They require little cleaning, they don't eat everyday and they can be touched or walk on the palm of your hand. The food they need is cheap. It is easy to buy crickets from bait stalls and the best thing to ensure a balanced diet for the tarantula is to snag different species of insects, mice, lizards and frogs around the neighborhood. Tarantulas are creatures who are attracted to the heat of the human body, so they won't hesitate stretching out to you when you want to play.

Tarantula dung is not smelly. The dung looks like jabs of white paint which are actually protein leftovers. The burrow must only be clean once in a month. Contrary to other pets, tarantulas don't require cleaning and they don't stink. They just require attention as they are sensitive to pests. They never get injuries unless inflicted by a human. Lost legs are replaced by molting, which require attention of the owner as accidents may happen.

The tarantula bite is nothing serious. It's just like a bee stingX2 because a tarantula has two fangs. The kind sold in Malaysia are docile Asian species who have hairs that can be left unnoticed by the owner. Or if it gets into your nose, it might only cause a sneeze, not inflamation. If the hair gets into the eye, it will cause a bearable itch.

My parents offered me a mobile phone for straight A's in PMR but I asked for an electric guitar instead but the request was denied. I asked for the tarantula but my parents complained of "what if the spider escapes" and many other excuses. I've replied with scientific facts but my parents are just too arachnaphobic. They are also electric-guitarphobic and onlinegaming phobic.

Man I'm fed up... Just hope they change their mind.

10 quotes that moved me

2008-03-03T00:57:00.000-08:00

Some of these quotes are from films and some are real-life spoken words... They really influenced me...The same might be with you...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote 1...
"Who is the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"
By Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Metaphor-
A more easier concept is "a fool who follows a fool is more foolish"...It's okay if you are foolish, but don't go mix with people who ponteng and do nothing during free time, that's more foolish... A foolish man who tries to recoup himself is a wise man...B

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote 2 and 3...
"Once in one's life, for one mortal moment, one must make a grab for immortality; if not, one has not lived"
By Sylvester Stallone...

Another similar quote is
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."
By James Dean...

Metaphor...
One must have big dreams and plans for his or her life... Life is not worth living if there is no dream or plan...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote 4

"You can't be afraid of people willing to hurt you, cause if you fear life, then you will never live"
By Chester Ben..uh you know who...Lolz

Metaphor...
Many people will try to break your spirit...That's true, living is more about the hardships more than it is about the good times...Bad times are always caused by people but HEY, mostly caused by yourself...But hardships gives you pain but at the same time experience getting to know what is life about...If you fear those who break you, especially yourself... You fear and fail to live a good life...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote 5

"Well, you can't spread no butter with a toothpick..."
By Robin Williams

Metaphor...
You must make huge efforts to mae your goal succeed... Imagine great efforts are knives and regular efforts are spoons and small efforts or no effort at all are toothpicks...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote 6, 7 and 8
All by one very successful man.... Napoleon Hill, a steel tycoon..He gave many advices of success through books and newspapers...

"Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true..."

Metaphor
Of course you need God's help...But he only gives advice, You wanna listen to it or not...It's fine with him...But the true effort comes from the person himself...

"Money without brains is always dangerous."

Metaphor
Money is very important...But look at the word "brains"... Just like I heard from HG...
"Money is the spouse of all evil"

"You give before you get"

Metaphor
Sacrifices must be given before success is acheived

Aiyah..Many things lah he say...I tell you what...Go to the website below...It features Napoleon Hill's most notable quotes...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote 9

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
By Mahatma Gandhi

Metaphor
This is about the state of mind...Don't believe what Darth Vader said about anger gives you power blah blah blah... An angry, hateful guy is always weak in his mind, even Incredible Hulk, if look at an angle, he is stronger if he never turns green and big...It takes great strength to take down your enemies but it takes a whole lot more strength to forgive your enemies...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote 10

"He who has overcomes his fears will truly be free"
by Aristotle

Metaphor
Fear is a cage around you... It is also a bully or mafia bookie collecting protection money...Facing your fears are like fighting the bully or bookie, escaping from the cage...A fearful man won't be free...Same goes to phobia...If you fear ants or spiders, these ants and spiders are your bully or collector bookie.....

THAT'S ALL FOLKS

Next drawing...terminator drawing- model 101 series 850

2008-03-01T03:42:00.000-08:00

i am sick of drawing star wars already... i just tried out something new...

After the success of my darth maul potrait.... I tried drawing pictures of Linkin Park or Rambo but all became failures...But today, i just finished the mainframe of a terminator robot...the "arnold" one, not the girl one...may not look perfect though because i still can't draw perfect teeth...

But this time the paper i used is a regular A3 drawing block... It's more difficult than drawing transformers which has plenty of space for errors but that's not the case in drawing t-800's....this drawing, if there are minor sizing or positioning errors, it'll become unimpressive junk...

i may upload the pictures in a few days time...