[Belated] Merry Christmas, everyone!!

 Chug out the 'nog and the prezzies, folks! :D

************

Really sorry guys, thought I'd posted this on Christmas day itself (or at least, yesterday).

Right, update of sorts: I'm still working on Twilight, and contrary to everyone's belief and to my own surprise, I'm not sick of it. It's just been a bit tedious for me to read the entire thing on my computer, when I'm more of a paper, book-in-hand person. And besides, I've had a massive headache the past week, so I've been trying not to exert my eyes much by reading the screen.

Which is something like what... I'm... doing... now. Shit.

Anyway, I'm at the hospital scene. That whole action sequence in the movie was just two pages in the book. Yawn.

Paul Sussman has a new book! Titled The Hidden Oasis, it's selling in MPH now. And since this one DOES NOT HAVE Inspector Khalifa, well, I'll just wait for the book to hit RM32.95 mark. I bought myself the first book, The Lost Army of Cambyses, but that one was just alright, after the awesomeness that was the second book, The Last Secret of the Temple [YOU MUST REEADDDD!!~!].

Aside from that, I watched the first two Psycho movies, and the third and fourth, like, glimpses here and there. For the third, the two female leads annoyed the crap out of me so I kinda zoned out whenever they were on (which was for a considerable time), and for the fourth, I went to bed early. One thing that annoys me off is that they keep repeating Psycho II. Someone please put on the first one, I'd like to see it again.

[Plus, Anthony Perkins isn't so yummy in the second one. Understandably, of course, since it was made 20 years after the first film.]

I'm still working on my posts for the first two Psycho films, and expect one on Avatar, which I just watched todayon Christmas! Word of advice, if you're a special-effects fan like I am, do go watch it in 3-D, because the movie is absolutely, absolutely gorgeous and I'm totally kicking myself for not watching it in 3-D.

Storyline, however, is just meh, so you may want to weigh that against the RM15 for Digital 3-D.

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Storm Warriors (2009)

Storm Warriors is the loudest movie I've ever seen, and I've seen Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe.

It is also awesome and fail all in one. This is the first time I've felt that way about any movie.

*spoilers*

Why? Because Aaron Kwok bloody dies, that's why! More on this later.

SW is the follow-up to Storm Riders, from over 10 years ago. This time around, Wind and Cloud has to contend with Lord Godless, a powerful Japanese warlord that wants to take over China, and his son, Heart. To defeat him, both Cloud and Wind have to train and increase their martial arts skills; Wind taking the evil path, and Cloud taking the normal one. Wind becomes demonic, so it falls to Cloud to stop him before he does any more destruction.

First, the good stuff:

The CGI is fan-bloody-tastic, very comic-bookish, and very 300, except more color. Cue 60-plus seconds of badassery 10-15 minutes into the movie, with Heart, Earth and Sky, and a whole ton of Immortals masked soldiers take on the other martial arts schools in China, with the baddies on the winning side, of course, and every other fight scene, really.

Plus, montages of innocent people dying, yeah!

The fight scenes are very comic book-ish, and the choreography is pretty good as well, although some instances they just stand there and throw chi / energies / [insert correct term here] at each other. Doesn't lessen the cool factor, though.

Then, the not-so-good:

The theme song for this movie kinda blows. It's awesome that they got both our leads to sing it, compared to the previous one where it's just Aaron Kwok, but I preferred the theme for the first movie. Overall score is lovely, though, and really went well with the fight scenes.

The love interests are annoying as usual, especially Charlene Choi, whom I've never really liked. I mean, the writers had the chance to kill her off and they didn't. Girls are pointless in these types of movies. It's a bit like Supernatural: we only want to see the boys and the monsters (or in this case, the kung-fu), and only them.


[Everything else can jump off a bridge.] 

Speaking of female presence, where is Shu Qi? I didn't even know her character from the first film was carried forward to this one till I got on Wikipedia. As such, I managed to guess that her character was going to die, but kudos to the filmmakers, her death was so abrupt that I didn't see it coming.


[Just as well, though; ChoCho was even more pointlessly-annoying than the first film.]

The final fight scene should've been longer, and Wind's evil side shouldn't have been defeated that easily. (Though it was pretty cool.). Evil eye should've opened all the way, too.

Annnddd... the downright unpretty:

Pulling a Cyclops (an X-Men 3, if you will) with Heart and the Emperor's soldiers. The whole bunch just vanished into thin air after Wind threw a hissy fit descended deeper to the Dark Side (note the alliteration). No remains, no fight / death scene, no justice done. What pissed me off more was that they forgot to take Charlene Choi with them, but I digress.

As I mentioned earlier, Aaron Kwok dies. Or seemingly dies. Whatev. To save the falling Wind-and-Choi, Cloud dives down after them and kickspushes them back up towards safe ground. Yes, no main character body means he's still probably alive and will have amnesia, but when you do it at the end of the movie rather than in the middle, it's highly unsatisfying.
And I don't know whether there were any after-credits scene, because the theatre people shut it down halfway through the credits, and Wikipedia is not being informative at this moment.

ARGH!

And there was absolutely no mention (in interviews and news articles) of the movie being the first part of a larger story-arc, which really pisses me off because if I had known of the ending, it wouldn't have been so anti-climactic for me. I still wouldn't have liked it, but at least I wouldn't have ended up being disappointed. Despite the movie's treatment of Nicholas Tse / Heart, I was planning to watch the movie a second time, but the ending just blew me off.

At least the Harry Potter people have already announced their movie plans for Book 7.

Overall, CGI and fights are simply lovely; just the stupid ending and that Nicholas Tse-part that killed it for me. Sorry if my review is a bit awkward; it's difficult to rant about all of this in English :P

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Twilight Chapters 7-14.

I was mistaken: she did use the Google, but only to do research on the types of vampires, and not, like, symptoms and such. Anyway, that section didn't seem pointless like in the movie.

Some sentences were a bit, well, weird ("...traitor tears were there, betraying me"? Once you have the traitor, you don't need the betraying), but this took the cake:

"...emphasizing [Edward's] muscular chest".

HA!

At least Rob Pattinson is tall.

It's been rather dull till now. Backstories. In bed. So much for pillow talk.
I'm at page 159 (out of 260) of the .pdf book, and we're roughly at 50 minutes of the movie, if I'm not wrong.

One thing I noticed about the story is the way Bella and Edward describe each other: smell, appearance, but not really personality or actions (aside from Bella having the instincts of a lemming). I mean, yeah, they act like two people in love (all talk and no action), but I feel it's more about what they want than what they like. Temptation, forbidden fruit, obsession... whole nine yards of Lust. Just a thought.

I'm still plodding away. I'll be damned if I let a bunch of romance novels (TEEN romance novels) stop me from being Little Miss Pop Culture.

And there are three books left... *sob*

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New Moon (2009)

I was actually squirming in my seat because I noticed that my butt hurts from all that sitting.

Don't get me wrong, the movie isn't long. But for me, when attention shifts from what's happening onscreen, to what's NOT happening butt-wise... not a good sign.

New Moon is the sequel to last year's Twilight, a love story between the new girl in town and the mysterious pale totally cute dude sitting in the corner in the cafeteria. That's pretty much what happened in the first movie. The sequel deals with heartbreak and abandonment (technically), because after a papercut almost gets Bella killed (she was in the Cullen house at the time), Edward and family leave Forks so that Bella wouldn't be in constant danger. Bella becomes an adrenaline junkie (so that she can get visions of Edward naggingtelling her not to do dangerous things) and goes on the rebound with her friend Jacob, who turns out to be a werewolf.

After some miscommunication, Edward mistakenly thinks that Bella is dead and wants to commit Huge Vampire Faux Pas after vampiric enforcers the Vulturi refuse his execution request. HVFP in this movie means exposing yourself at noon (maximum sunlight) to a group of revellers celebrating the expulsion of vampires in that town. Because it means a LOT of sparkling. I mean, Rob Pattinson isn't exactly short, yannoe. See the irony, people.

Bella makes it in time to prevent Edward's move, though the Vulturi almost kill her for her immense in-knowledge of the vampiric world. After Alice manages to convince the Vulturi with her Foretelling that Bella will eventually become a vampire (we see Bella and Edward running in the woods, where Bella totally $pArK1eD), they let them go, and everyone returns to Forks. Before the movie ends, Bella tells Jacob that she chooses Edward, causing Jacob to leave in a huff, and Edward asking her to marry him (as in, Edward).

Dun dun DUUUUNNNNN!!!

New Moon also marks the first where I actually felt like dozing off. In the cinema. Which has never ever happened before, since I always make it a point to maximize my ticket's worth ('cuz I paid for it), by focusing on the movie before me and not thinking about things like bloody sleeping.
 
The movie could do with a lot less of the scenes where months passed, and Bella moped around the house and yelled in her sleep, because even non-fans and non-watchers of the first movie would've gotten it by then: Bella misses Edward, Bella wants Edward back, and so on. Also, the, "Dear Alice," voice-overs just got tedious after a while, because though kinda unique at first, there were TOO MANY. I shudder to think how that entire section was treated in the book.

The interaction between Bella and Jacob was fun to watch, although I feel that that and the adrenaline parts could be cut a bit (come on, it took Bella half an hour to fall for Edward in Twilight), which would've made the movie shorter than its two hours, and thus, more tolerable. The wolf pack also made for cool chase scenes and CGI; pity they weren't really central to the story.

Also, I don't really like our heroine. At one scene, we see Bella tell Jacob that he can't leave her, that she can't get through getting over Edward it without him (she didn't say it outright, but we all knew what she really meant). Sadly, the fact that bitch's using him hasn't sunk into poor Jacob yet (or he's in denial, I'unno), so he tells her that they can't see each other again, on account that he is a werewolf and it's supposed to be a secret shhhh. I mean, at that point of the movie Bella already knows that Jacob likes her. And in the end she crushes him by telling him that she will ALWAYS choose Edward.


[And the fourth book is gonna be split into two movies. Sigh. At least we have the violent childbirth to look forward to.]

The Vulturi were the highlight of the movie. Headed by Aro and composed of powerful vampires (each with unique mental abilities, outfits sold separately), they are vampire royalty, and they enforce the law that no vampire should expose their existence to the world (which leads us back to Edward's close HVFP). Plus, they all wear black and look really evil, so that's gonna make for interesting times, right?

I was actually looking forward to the part where Bella was running through the courtyards and stuff to try and stop Edward from revealing himself to the world, because that meant that we would get to see the Vulturi soon after. I wish they had more screen time than, what, 20 minutes? I mean, they're not Venom, you know.

Movie also has consistency issues, though very minor. Like the part when everyone finds out that Bella is immune to their vampiric mental abilities (not including biting and hitting and other physical damage). Wouldn't she have been immune to Jasper's emotion-bending at the beginning of the movie?

And was it really necessary to show Bella's dad grounding her? I mean, the movie ended with Bella stopping a fight between Edward and Jacob in the forest. As in, not in / anywhere near her father's house! It's like he never grounded her! That part was so pointless because hellooo, everyone already figured out that the reason the father exists was because the series started when Bella was 17, and therefore, needed a parental guardian.

Score is first-rate, and the soundtrack wasn't bad either, even though it felt like there were a snippets of a million songs throughout the movie. Hearing Muse's Mon Cœur S'ouvre a ta Voix was a pleasant surprise, since I was expecting Uprising, which I didn't like so much. Unfortunately, Muse was only on for 10 seconds. 

One thing I appreciated about was the title of each movie. The previous one was about Edward, so Twilight; this one is about Jacob, so New Moon. The next one is Eclipse: which probably means that she will pick her final choice in that one, since 'eclipse' means half-moon and half darkness. Props to Stephenie Meyer.


Conclusion: New Moon is a romance movie with loads of talky and no action-y (if you know what I mean *wink*). You have been warned.

Random fun fact:

Whenever I try to type 'Bella', I get 'Belal' sometimes. Unlike this story, Belal makes an appearance in Robert Jordan's The Dragon Reborn, and was balefired (read: erased from existence) about five pages later.

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2012 (2009)

Based on the ancient Mayan theory that the world will end on December 21st, 2012 (12 + 21 = 23 ha!!), 2012 is basically about the end of the world brought on by the sun's weird neutrino activity causing the earth's tectonic plates and everything cracking and sinking and magma-ing and obligatory tsunamis. Oh, and John Cusack.

I liked it.

And I don't get why people are bitching about the movie. About how the CGI was "fake-ish", and how the movie was "unrealistic". Now, I've no problems with the CGI, I thought the damage and destruction done was massive, and it didn't look video-gamish to me at all. To each his own, I guess.

On the lack of realism, sure, I see where they're coming with this. Spelling it out: how can ONE FAMILY survive EVERYTHING LITERALLY THROWN AT / FALLING ON them without SPENDING A CENT and still SURVIVE to see THE END of the movie? Even the rich people, who paid €1 billion to be saved, didn't have that much luck (read: Pushing and Stampeding).

But really, is that unrealistic aspect of the movie such a bad thing?

Every movie usually has an underdog, and the really good ones make you root for that underdog, make you want to see that underdog reach his happy ending. I'm not saying this movie makes you piss your pants every time a Big Giant Rock falls their way, but you don't want to see them die either. Although Chiwetel Ejiofor's character was generally good, he already has a complimentary Get Saved card, so it'd be a pretty short movie if he were the main focus. And really, unless it's about zombies, no one wants to see a movie where the entire world is annihilated and the final scene is a view of Earth from space, with all the water and the magma and the random bit of land.

It's downright depressing. People only flock to this kind of movie is if they've been warned fully in advance, or if it's based on a very well-known book.

I've read quite a few reviews, and another issue is with the amount of characters in the movie, which is to say, quite a lot, on top of Cusack and Fam. The more characters you have, the less time you'd spend on each one of them, and thus, character development would suck, and emotional connectivity with the audience would, well, be lacking.

But I beg to differ.

Though we get only 10 minutes (some, only fleeting moments), I still felt sorry all those who went under, especially George Segal and Blu Mankuma (because I like those two geezers). Call me a sucker, but I even felt sorry for all those faceless CGI-ed victims.

However, I'm most pissed with the movie's treatment of Tamara's death towards the end of the movie. Tamara died to save Cusack's daughter, but in the final scene, there wasn't even a BRIEF mention of her. It was like they were trying to wrap up the bloody movie, and had conveniently forgotten that this poor girl had died in place of another. And plus, Gordon shouldn't have died either. It was like, "Oh, we need your character to fly the plane because John Cusack's an author. Now that we've reached the ark, you can go get crushed. Literally." It was pointless.

It'd also be pretty cool if Woody Harrelson had survived Yellowstone (and everything else), and became the first radio host to broadcast to the survivors.

[Honourable mention goes to the Russian mob dude's two little Dan Foglers. They are SO ADORABLE!!]

Also, Oliver Platt seems to be getting typecast as Person Of Questionable Morals #1.

As for that lousy last line, technically the last word in is, "Nice," which really isn't a bad word in itself.

With the exception of Tamara and Gordon, I thought it was a pretty good movie. And seriously, it's like Transformers 2 all over again. In movies like these, characters are secondary. What we want to see is giant robots how the world will be destroyed this time around.

If the end of the world DOES happen in 2012... I hope it doesn't happen before May 5th :)

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Twilight Chapters 1-6.

And... I'm finding it fairly slow.

Also, I'm rather pissed that the new girl, who's relatively emodepressed that she has to spend time in GloomyTown, has all the boys clamouring to be Friend Numero Uno and wanting to go out with her, even though she hardly provides any stimulating conversation whatsoever, aside from replying the person with the question of the hour / day.

Things must work differently in small-town America.

So far, it's the occasional conversation between Bella and her father, and her annoying friends, and Edward. And Edward saving Bella from the skidding van.

We have also have a bit of back-and-forth between Bella and Ed, even though some parts don't make sense. I mean, he keeps glaring at her and telling her to stay away from him and that he won't be a very good friend, and the next he's asking her whether she needs a ride to Seattle, and to ask him for. We know he means it, and we also know he's half-assing it, because unless you've been living under a soundproof rock that also doubles as a nuclear shelter, *spoiler* Edward is in love with Bella.

And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, the definitive men's guide for scoring with chicks. If there is a girl you like,

DO:

• frequently snicker (this is crucial); and
• give her mixed signals about what your intentions are.
  

DO NOT:

• be clear on anything, especially on your feelings towards her. 
  

This hot-cold combo will annoy and infuriate her to no end, and eventually (about two months or so), she will start hyperventilating whenever you're within the two-mile radius.

NOTE:

• Will only work if you are GOOD-LOOKING. 
• Alternative: PLASTIC SURGERY.

One part about the book I did appreciate was how straightforward Jacob was in telling his tribe history with Bella. I haven't read any further, but I hope this saves us some time on Bella looking up the Google and doing research on something so painfully obvious (as per the movie).

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At the mountains of madness...

As much as I refuse to have any thing to do with sparkly bloodsuckers and pedo werewolves, alas, I finally give. The New Moon is on the rise, my colleagues want to see it, the whole WORLD will be / is already watching it, and I must admit, I am not strong enough to deny its pull.

After all, pop culture is my life.

Not that I loved or even remotely liked the first movie, this intrepid reporterreader will delve into the most popular and current book series for teenage girlsyoung adults, just for the sake of exposure. I've already downloaded the books (try before you buy :)), all I need is just some time to read it. Rather than do the ol' hackneyed chapter-by-chapter analysis, I'll be posting my thoughts when I wanna, though I'll make it a point to update regularly on my progress.

[Like, more often than I blog now.]

So, before I descend into the madness that is Twi-mania, here are my last lucid words as someone who has not read any of the Twilight saga, and who is well aware that the next thousand or so pages (four books) she reads will revolve around forbidden love and romance, with absolutely no sex despite there being vampires around.

Here's to hoping I come out of the experience sane, and not as a *shudder* Cullen fangirl.

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Twilight (2008)

I figured with Twilight season already upon us, I'd give the first movie a try. I hadn't seen it when it first came out, because even though it has vampires and is based on a best-selling series, teen romance isn't my thing.

As much as I tried to keep an open mind, I didn't like it.

Yes, the people are beautiful, and the acting wasn't atrocious as everyone had said it to be, but I still couldn't find myself to like it.

The first 45 minutes involved our two leads being awkward towards each other, with the girl being annoyed with why the totally cute loner doesn't like her, and, I believe, also with her excruciatingly over-chatty new high school friends. Besides being overwhelming, I mean hellooo, there's probably a reason why she's awkward with y'all and gives one-worded answers EVEN AFTER SOME TIME INTO THE MOVIE.

Anyway, for 15 minutes (and occasionally after that), the point that THE NEW GIRL IS POPULAR AMONG THE LOCAL EVERYONE is put to us.

We find out that totally cute loner Edward doesn't like her because he's attracted to her bloodscent (and also 'cuz he can't read her mind, but that bit isn't expanded on), and after he saves her a few times, they get to know each other and get together. As in, they lie on the forest floor looking into each other's eyes, while NOTHING EVER HAPPENS.

NOT EVEN PASSIONATE KISSING. 

[No wonder Rob Pattinson keeps wanting to get it on with Kristen Stewart. But last I heard, they already HAVE! SQUEE~]

In this story, the vampires don't burst into flame when they go into the sun, they just... glow. Or shine, if you will. A word I see being thrown around is 'sparkle', but that's just ridiculous. Edward looked glow-in-the-dark, despite standing in bright sunlight. And even with his good looks, no, he doesn't look beautiful, he just looks freaky and radioactive scary.

Anyway, the next half hour's involved with our girl Bella meeting Edward's family, decent vampires who abstain from human blood and drink animals instead (they call themselves 'vegan', but the way I see it, animal blood isn't synthetic blood, nor is it the opposite of plain ol' blood, please correct me if I'm wrong), and playing baseball, the latter scene being the best part in the entire movie.

[I think that speaks volumes of my opinion towards this film. Supermassive black HOOOOLLLLLLEEEEEEEEE!!!]


Then we have some rogue vampires that do eat humans, and one of them, James, likes Bella's scent. So with some really lousy attempts at misdirection, we get to the showdown between Jim and Edward, which isn't too bad, but still can't beat the baseball scene.

Long story short: Bella gets bitten by James, James is set on fire by the other Cullens (who proceed to prance about in the background after doing so), Edward sucks the venom out after MUCH thought and deliberation, Bella is taken to the hospital, Edward says he wants to leave for fear of hurting her, Bella upon hearing that has a MASSIVE PANIC ATTACK, Edward changes his mind, and then they go to the prom.

Tha End.

Some parts didn't make sense. Obviously, James had stopped by Bella's mom's place to be able to speak to Bella over the phone, but we're talking about a cold-blooded killer here. Don't tell me that after James knocked Bella's mother out and ended the call with Bella, he proceeds to LEAVE the place without HARMING the mother?! Unless James has mad hackering skillzz or something and intercepted the call without stepping into the house, which I really doubt. And James was right outside Bella's house in Forks! How on earth does he NOT drop in and eat her father??


[And plus, the bad-ass vampires wanting to play baseball as well? Puh-leese.]

Despite all the irregularities, it was still okay for me, till I saw Bella's reaction towards Edward leaving. It was such a 180˚ for a character who through this entire time was rather expressionlessnonchalant and 'whatev', so much so that she would get all clingy and borderline obsessive towards Edward when he said he wanted to leave. Yes, she loves him, and he did save her life quite a few times, but the overreaction was a bit... random. I mean, he just 'said', he didn't actually do it.

I equate that scene to the butler telling Harry that his father died by his own hand in Spider-man 3. Though this one didn't make my jaw drop out of WTF-ness, still made the movie suck for me.

I admit that some instances (like the 'James and parents' part) may be fully explained in the book, but that should've been translated onto the movie, and it didn't. I'd be a bit pissed if I had anything to watch that day, and foregone it for this. As much as I love reading, I'm a bit afraid of trying Twilight, just in case I become a tolerant reader (or worse, a Twi-hard) and start gawping and fangirling over anything Twilight-related.

Here are two articles about the series and Edward Cullen, courtesy of Cracked.com.

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And today we went shopping!

We totally did. After we left the company, we went down to Central Square (in Sungai Petani!) to do some gift-shopping for a colleague of ours, whose party is this Saturday.


We didn't manage to buy anything, but at least we got to see some place new :)

I swear, I had the most fun at work this week and the last.

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Kedah and back!

Went to Sungai Petani this morning, and was back by 5.45pm.

And I didn't even have to go on leave.

This week I'm to assist my seniors in auditing a manufacturer of... stuff, I'unnoyet. We got to go see the factory, which was pretty cool 'cuz it was big, and we got to see the township itself, which, by all aspects, looks a helluvalot cleaner and newer than our Penang.

Pity we can't stop by to do shopping and stuff. Though the weather was really, really, REALLY hot today. And glaringly bright, too.

And last week we got lost in Seberang Prai. I yelled, "Road trip!" about an hour into the journey, and we drove around for two hours before we found the bloody place (different from this week's, though). We even went off the Googlemap we had, and had to stop every 10 minutes or so to ask for directions. That company was a plastics manufacturer. It was quite stuffy.

IN OTHER NEWS !

I read in the papers about something called "Through My Window", which is this rather annoying TV commercial that also seems to be getting airtime on radios and cinemas.

That article also mentions that TMW is supposed to get everyone participating in a nationwide karaoke session, and footage of random people lipsyncingsinging will be combined to make a montage of sorts. Don't get me wrong, it sounds kinda cool, but between ONE movie trailer per movie and a full song that isn't from Lady GaGa or Tokio Hotel? I'll be pissed that management will be taking away what little movie trailers we get and replacing it with a song that isn't even sung / pronounced correctly.


[I'm all for pronounciation. That's why I don't really like Leona Lewis.]

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BROOKLYN RAGE~

As you all would've figured it out by now, I'm a fan of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, as well as the Abridged Series that parodies it. Little Kuriboh, the guy that's behind the series, just released this video of Joey Wheeler singing about his Brooklyn Rage (he goes into a frenzy when he's pissed and he has a Brooklyn accent), all the while parodying one of my favourite songs in all of existence.

It has quite a bit of in-jokes, but I hope you non-followers enjoy it as much as us crazies did ;)

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Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's The Gathering Storm.

As I've probably typed quite a few times now, Book 12 of The Wheel Of Time series was only partially finished by the original author, since he'd passed on in 2007. Sanderson is the new author to finish off the series, and as per my relatively-outraged post here (outrage for different reasons), he'll be doing the writing for the next two books.

I just finished the book, and I'd have to say, it was much better than I thought it'd be. Much, much better.

I was a bit nitpicky at the beginning, especially with the first few chapters, since they were so many italicised words in there that weren't in Old Tongue!! It was a bit jarring at first because Jordan hardly ever used italics in his narrations, except when referring to terms in Old Tongue. Luckily, I got used to the writing, and there were not much italicised regular words to distract me from then on.

Well, fellow fans who've complained about the length and filler-iness of some books *cough*Books 6-8*cough* and yet stuck by all this time (as in, me), this book is very similar to Book 11, except better. At least one major storyline was wrapped up, several hundred people got theirs, and even more dark random mayhem happening to poor random civilians.

And another onetwo bites the dust! I think you know the Ones ;)

Many, many Dreams and Foretellings come true, with the major one close in the end a battle that, though not as long as Dumai's Wells, is far, far more awesome. Highlight below if you wanna know what that's about ^^
The Seanchan siege of the White Tower.

The most major character development to happen in this book is of Rand. He did a complete 180˚ in this, a transition discussed in many of the previous books, and made things all the more intense. Most of the chapters are focused on Rand and Egwene; with the occasional Mat, about two from Perrin, and absolutely no chapter from Elayne's POV.


[In a way, I'm kinda glad. Her arc kinda bored me in the previous book, even though she finally defeated the rebel Houses.]

I did get a kick out of trying to guess which parts were his and which parts were Jordan. The names of the new characters are a bit obvious, since some had Indian origins. I've not read any of Sanderson's work, so I cannot be sure, but some comments on Tor's webpage for the book mentioned that it's fairly obvious between the writing styles. The Foreword from Sanderson mentioned that he did not try to copy Jordan's style of writing (but of course), but the purist in me still kinda wished he did.

I love how the ending was written. I've never paid much attention to the excerpts from the prophecies and other brouhaha usually written at the end of each Book, but I did to this. It explained a lot, and for Rand, it's on a really positive note.

At least, unless I misread that section, which I really hope I didn't 'cuz it'd be a total bummer if I did.

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This Is It (2009)

Just came back from the movie. Wow.

This Is It is like your usual concert movie, except that it's all rehearsals. It has the songs, the behind-the-scenes footage, and as in the case of Michael Jackson concerts, the videos introducing or accompanying the songs.

Based on the footage in the movie, and based on his energy, and his dancing all the frakin' time (and even keeping in time with his half-his-age background dancers), he didn't look sick and he didn't SEEM sick. He looked just fine. And that's why I teared up a few times during the movie. It's just so sad that he passed on when he did.

The songs in the movie are his classics, although some of the more famous ones were missing from the movie, like We Are The World, Bad, and You Are Not Alone, though Heal The World was played over the end credits.


[Speaking of the end credits, apparently there's something after it. I don't know what it is, because as fucking usual, my radar for after-credit goodies suck big... well, you know. Anyway, just a heads-up ^^]

Although, if he hadn't died and I got an INSANELY REMOTELY UNLIKELY CHANCE to go, I'd be disappointed with Smooth Criminal. No leaning.

['Cuz if there were, it would've been in the movie.]

Watching the movie reminds me of how Michael's music transcends generations and borders. Old and young alike love his music. You hardly see a teenager (or 'young adult') jamming to Elvis or The Beatles, because they're the Golden Oldies, with much emphasis on the 'Old'. But you do see fans of the Golden Oldies appreciating Michael's music.

And when you think about it, when someone's death has that much impact on the world, that pretty much every government issued a statement about his death, you know that it's not a craze or an intense liking you have for that person, it is because that person himself has touched the world.

It's obvious who I'm referring to. I seriously doubt you can get that kind of effect with Britney or GaGa or even Madonna.
 
The movie ends with his performance of Man In The Mirror (which I think, is the song he intended to end his concerts), arms wide open, and the words,

"Michael Jackson

King of Pop

Love Lives Forever"

Simple words, yet beautiful and poignant. Just like how the man was.

At the end of the movie, a bunch of people at the front were clapping, and then someone at the back said, "Gila ke?"

And his friend said, "Itu bukan gila, itu respek."

I salute you, companion of Stupid Idiot.

Think what you want about the man, judge him if you will, but you cannot deny that his music is genius.

R.I.P Michael Jackson.

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Why so HILARIOUS?!!

I received this helluva gem from Keng Yee earlier. Click to enlarge:

Anyone able to read Mandarin or Japanese/Korean? I'd love to know the dialogue :)

And besides, just because it's grammatically incorrect doesn't mean it's not "descriptive."

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WoT Book 12 first chapter thoughts!

As from here, Robert Jordan's passing meant that another person would have to expand on and continue Jordan's story so as to complete the entire Wheel of Time series (which, at 11 books not including prequel, is slowly outstaying their welcome). The final book was initially called A Memory of Light, but according to them, since there were still so many loose ends and other such things to be tied up, it will be split into three(!!!) volumes, thereby making it the final saga.


[This is worst than the final Harry Potter book getting the two-movie treatment.]

And we're not even bringing in the uncompleted prequels yet.

Anyway, the first volume, The Gathering Storm, will be released on October 27th of this year, and the publishers, Tor, has released the first chapter for free on their website (you can check it out here, but you'd have to sign up to be able to have access to it).

And surprisingly, I didn't hate it. And I'm an extreme purist.

In the beginning, it's VERY apparent that it's not Jordan's style of writing anymore, since Brandon Sanderson went into Ultra-Descriptive Mode about the general situation around, which really isn't wrong except that I'm not used to it (Jordan writes from the POV of each character, and that early part just threw me off a bit). But afterward when we got to Rand, it reads very much like Jordan.

Not sure whether there is a prologue or not (although knowing them, there probably will be), but the first chapter is intriguing. In a nutshell, it mentions a bit of their Nynaeve and Cadsuane's interrogation of Semirhage, a really sadistic chick who'd put ALL torture-porn filmmakers to shame (and then some), as well as Lews Therin's vague-and-incomplete words (but of course!) about how the absence of GIRL POWER!women brought about the downfall of the Hundred Companions back during the Age of Legends (which, as you can see, means a Long, Long Time Ago).

[Though not in A Galaxy Far, Far Away]

Sigh. My mom's gonna kick my ass for making this the next Harry Potter. 
And they've still got three more tomes (no, really) to go :(

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I have a confession...

...I am a Starbucks virgin.

Though I've stepped into Starbucks before, I didn't buy anything because

1) it was in Melbourne and everything was pretty much Times 3 then, and

2) that was the only time I was EVER in Starbucks.

There, I've said it.

In your face, Shop Of OverPriced Coffee. Blek.

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Is totally happy 'cuz....

I found the English version of my favourite song!!!! Now I can listen to both!! :D:D:D

Check out Tokio Hotel's 1000 Meere, if you will:

Lovely, lovely song :)

If you like the German version, you can go to the YouTube link for English version here.

[If I, Miss Fussypot, can get past the guyliner, so can you! :D]

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Win!

That is all.

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This evening, on MSN...

My eBuddy screen.

Combo of the century.

The fact that they know each other in real life makes it even more awesome.

Second edit:

Combo x2.

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John Connolly's Bad Men.

Also from my mum's friend, Bad Men is set mostly on an island with a bloody and violent history, as the initial settlers there were massacred, and from then on, any person of villainous and immoral character will be found in the woods in very horrific circumstances. The titular bad men are escaped convict Moloch, and his gang. Moloch has been having dreams about the island and he wants payback, as his wife took off with the money and gave the police enough evidence to send him to jail. Unbeknownst to him, Marianne, as she's currently known, is also staying on said creepy island. It is this place that both sides, good and bad, will converge (I seem to be using this word a lot), and this is the place where the bad ones will get their hineys kicked.

No doubt, Bad Men is a thrilling and intriguing ride, but I found some instances a bit too sadistic and graphic for my taste. Also, the characters weren't really fully explained. 'frinstance, Willard, one of Moloch's men, is a child-like man who basically likes to torture and mutilate the crap out of people. Though it may seem predictable, I would've liked to see how he came to be, a history of the guy, so to speak. Willard is very twisted, and like his fellow bad men, makes for very interesting reading.

There is also no explanation on why Moloch keeps having his dreams about the island (the book hints at reincarnation, but I would've preferred something a bit more concrete). And also, if Marianne could recognise the ghost (albeit a rather decayed version of herself) she saw at the end, why couldn't Moloch? And why would Marianne's past life enact revenge on Moloch? Yes, Moloch's also a bad person, but unless Moloch's original self has been alive these past three hundred years, there's really no reason why the ghost would want to kill Moloch.

Not to say that "Know me, husband," is not one of the most terrifying lines I've ever read.

Besides that, there could've been a back-story for the Grey Girl, the ghost of a little girl who wants to take another life in return for the one she lost, and only preys on the dying or the severely-wounded. She gets what she wants at the end of the story, but I feel that her purpose in the story is just to be able to add the word 'ghost' as a tag. I mean, the ghost of a random little girl can't be THIS powerful, even though she probably died Ju-On style.

All in all, Bad Men is quite a good read if you like atmospheric ghost stories. If you're into backstories like I am, there isn't much about the island (besides the necessary massacre) and its hidden dwellers.

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Paul Sussman's The Last Secret of the Temple.

Set in the Middle East, with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a backdrop, Temple follows the stories of three people: Yusuf Khalifa, a detective investigating a routine murder in Egypt, but finds out that it may be connected to the murder of an Israeli woman, very first case he worked on; Layla al-Madani, a Palestinian journalist reporting on the conflict, receives an anonymous letter stating that an artifact of enormous power and significance is finally able to end the conflict in favor of the Palestinians; and Arieh Ben-Roi, an Israeli detective still depressed over the death of his wife due to a suicide bombing, who is forced to work with Khalifa as the Israeli woman's address is within his station's jurisdiction. As Khalifa and Ben-Roi digs deeper and Layla tracks down the clues to the artifact, they finally converge, as both parties within Palestine and Israel wish to end the conflict peacefully before any more innocent lives are taken.

I have but one word:

Awesome.


This is one of the best books I've ever read, and unlike many books, there is really no filler, no random fact or situation to give color to the setting. Every single thing is relevant, and if it doesn't seem that way at first, Sussman is able to bring even the tiniest detail mentioned into the story at a later stage without it being obvious or awkward. As with every book, you have your obligatory twists, but this book sets you up so well that it pulls a fast one at the last minute, and everything explains itself nicely.

Even the end of the book is a cliffhanger. I won't tell, but initially I'd skipped to the end and skimmed, and panicked when I read it. Thankfully, I was wrong.

It's an amazing, amazing read. And it's not even something I picked up at the store; my mum's friend got it for me by the hotel swimming pool.

[Tourists buy books, read them, and leave them behind. Apparently, other guests are allowed to take them.]

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"Eighteen Hundred Billion Billion!"

Well peeps, sorry for the lack of posting. It's not that I don't have anything to write about, it's just that when it comes to the actual process of typing it all down... I get stuck. Inspiration has the tendency to nag me in the back of my head when I'm not near the laptop, and disappears completely whenever I'm on the Internet.

Nuts to that.

Anywayy, there are two TV shows that I'm absolutely crazy about at the moment! For those of you with payTV, you may have heard of these shows, and for those of you without... well, here's to hoping you're overseas, because everyone NOT in Malaysia has access to better TV programming.

The first is The IT Crowd.

It's about the misadventures of two IT department nerds, Roy and Moss, and their manager, Jen (who knows absolutely jack about technology), with occasional appearances from the basement live-in Goth, Richmond, and their new-in-this-season extremely eccentric boss Douglas.

The first episode was okay, but the show really picks up as it goes along. If you've got some time to kill, do check out the clips below:



Same one as above, but longer:
Breaking The Internet

From the first episode, if I'm not mistaken.

And my personal favourite. This is the episode where Douglas comes in.

[I'd embed the vids themselves, but the good ones have "Embedding disabled by request". Retards. Oh well, click if you wanna ^^]

The second is Chowder.

Also about misadventuring, the show is about Chowder, a bear-cat-rabbit apprentice chef who really loves eating. Together with his mentor Mung Daal, Mung's wife Truffles, and pro chef Schnitzel, each episode involves them cooking up stuff, although some episodes revolve around the background characters.

What I REALLY love about the show, is Chowder himself. See below:

Note: The second and third pictures are related.

LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS!!

Storyline-wise, it's mediocre, but there ARE some really good episodes. And Chowder is too cute beyond words! Also, a "Best Of" video below. And YES TO EMBEDDING!

My favourite part is at 0:28. The subsequent pink bunny is Panini, who digs Chowder.

Enjoy! :)

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

[Sorry for the belated post. Totally forgot I've yet to put it up here.]

Saw this one on opening night; rushed back from work to do it. Teeheehee.

So, the basic premise for the second movie is that our boy Sam has a bit of the AllSpark imprinted into his mind (kinda like Chuck), and now has to deal with The Fallen, who's Megatron's big boss. And by the way, Megatron's also back.

In my personal and humble opinion, I thought this movie was pretty awesome.

Sure, some of the camera work was crap (that bit with Sam and Mikaela before he leaves for college LITERALLY revolving around them? Not cool), and for some parts you couldn't see the bots transforming properly because the camera was too close to them, and most of the time you couldn't tell the difference between the Decepticons because of their bland coloring, but overall it was a fun ride.

With a lot more Transforming robots second time around (especially on the Autobot side) and more Bot cameos you can shake a finger at, there are a lot of fight scenes in this movie, something I'm not complaining about. The only thing I feel could've been longer is the fight between Optimus and The Fallen. Major fight like that should be longer than 10 minutes.

And plus, old = Egypt now? Yes, we get that The Fallen came to Earth many, many thousand years ago, but seriously, ever since The Mummy, old things made to look Egyptian is SO clichéd now.

Anyway, for a summer movie, Transformers 2 is really worth your ticket in the theatres. Just don't think too much of the plot (and how some bits of funny are really NOT necessary), and you'll have a great time :)

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UPDATE!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been meaning to post more on the Melbourne trip, but I've been VERY exhaustedbusy these days.

ARGH!

And I have to totally recharge my camera, but I can't even FIND it at the moment (or the wire connector-thingy, whenever the universe feels like it), so I'm afraid the Melbourne posts will have to be delayed MUCH longer.

:'(

And I see I haven't put up my review for Transformers 2 yet. Oh dear, the backlog I've caused...

Transformers: The Revenge of The Fallen will be up tomorrow or something. I'm feeling quite unburdened this weekend :D

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

G.I. Joe was totally awesome! But... I'm all for action movies, so in terms of that, this movie did really well by me.

[I actually cringed when I heard my coworkers talk about watching The Proposal and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past today. I must be turning butch. Ugh.]

*choi*

As with all action movies, storyline takes a backseat, though so far, I can't really think of anything wrong with continuity and the usual nitpicky stuff I go through, except that the Baroness sounded like she had an English accent in the beginning, then progressed to an American one for the rest of the movie.

Having already known who's playing the eventual Cobra Commander, and having seen Joseph Gordon-Levitt since The Powers That Be, I totally shat a brick during Duke's (Channing Tatum) flashback sequence, where it turns out that Duke knew the CC, and he was actually the Baroness' biological brother!

When my eyebrows go to the top of my hairline, that means that I'm VERY surprised. For this, my jaw dropped. Just did not see that one coming.

That aside, one of the reason why I loved G.I. Joe was because of the actors. No, I'm not referring to the main cast, not that they were awful or anything.

I'm referring to the supporting cast, some of which came from one of my favourite movie series, The Mummy.

[And by that, I mean the first two. The third one is too shiteous to be included. Plus, it wasn't in Egypt.]

You got Brendan Fraser, ImhotepArnold Vosloo(!!), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kevin J. O'Connor (for like, 10 seconds, but still!), actors whom I loved in The Mummy movies, and whom I haven't seen in quite a long while (except Fraser, 'cuz he was in the crappylast one, and Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who was on Lost for a while).

I got a HUGE kick outta seeing them. They should've brought Oded Fehr in as well :]

[And Jonathan Pryce has already played TWO Presidents; one in this movie, and the other was Juan Peron. I don't know whether he's played more or not, though, but I thought it's a fun fact to share :)]

Anyway, the special effects looked really cool, although it got video-gamey near the end, what with all the underwater fighting and all. For some reason, I was okay with that, seeing as I got pissed when The Scorpion King literally looked like the end-level Boss in the second Mummy movie.

Final verdict: Loved it. A sequel is already announced, but not sure whether Stephen Sommers will be back or not.


[By the way peoples, I saw the trailer for A Perfect Getaway before the movie. You know the couple the cops are looking for? I'm guessing it's Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich, since Zahn is a more of a comedy actor, and audiences will be BLOWN AWAY when it turns out he's a psychopath. I'm not even gonna bother Wiki-ing this.]

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It's not about what you know...

...but who you know.

Sorry for the distinct lack of updates, just been busy with work the past couple of weeks. But, surprisingly, this time my apology is related to my post.

Only by way of category.

My application was rejected by Ernst & Young. Again.

I'd submitted one in April, got the generic Keep-In-View letter, and since my friends at work were called for interviews (TWO of them), I figured I'd give it another try and submit it again.

That was the first week of July-ish. I got the KIV letter again yesterday.

Granted, my application got in much later than everyone else's, and my theory is that EY hires every two months, which means my application was sent in much later than my friends', and thus, very most probably late for the August round.

I'm not saying that I'm entirely blameless in the matter.

But the least they could've done was to call me for an interview.

I heard from a friend that you stand a better chance of getting called (but not sure about hired) if you know someone on the inside, and get them to pass your resume on. He even went on to say that that was the case with a former classmate of ours, and subsequently, a few others.

It's like a chain letter, I feel.

I'm not saying I'm the perfect candidate (requirements on website state that co-curricular activitieswell-roundedness is of the essence, something of which I'm not).

But, I'd be lying if I said I was a lousy student.

I've never flunked a paper during my three years. The lowest mark I've received for a paper is 59, for Auditing, which is very ironic since I'm trying to make a career out of it (I'm not saying I've worked out the kinks yet, but I'm confident enough to say that I'm definitely better than I was before). I'm on the Dean's Merit List for 2009, and have a Distinction average.

So why is it that I have had NO REPLY, (or in EY's case, NO CALL) whatsoever from ANY of the Big 4 organisations?

The fact I have not been participating in out-of-school activities doesn't mean I suck at life. It doesn't hurt my mental capacity in any way, nor does it affect my physical self, or my health, or my happiness, even.

So I don't join clubs and societies. So what if I'm a bookworm.

Would that make me less than capable of carrying out my job?
I mean, it's two times already I didn't get called, you'd think I still haven't graduated yet.

even non-graduates stand a better chance of getting called than i do

For those who excel in studies and Outside Activities, hat's off to you all. For now, I'm hardly in your league, and I'm not being sarcastic here.
For those who just have Outside Activities, when pecking order's concerned, well, it's a tad bit unfair for the rest of us who just have studies, donchathink?

I will be sending in another job application maybe end of next week, since it's only beginning of August, and my previous application would still be, well, rather fresh. Maybe then, I'd be early (or considered to be early) enough for the October round.

If I had a friend working in EY, I'd be an AABS Associate by now.

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Robert Ludlum's The Gemini Contenders

I'm a huge, HUGE fan of Robert Ludlum.

['Cept the Bourne series.]

FINALLY got my grubby hands on this book, the only book from the old printed series my Dad has THAT I DON'T HAVE / NEVER READ BEFORE. The bookstores keep stocking the Bourne series, which, judging by the first book, kinda suck.

The story is first set in WWII, when young Vittorio Fonti-Christi witnessed his entire family being executed by the Nazis because of a secret container his father had helped hidden away, with backing from the Roman Catholic Church.

[No, not THAT kind of secret you dirty-minders.]

The Germans want the container because of leverage. It's said to contain denials involving one of the world's most famous religious central figures:

Jim CaviezelJesus Christ

Vittorio manages to get protection from the British government, simply because they thought he knows where the container is, which he doesn't, because his father pretty much took the location to the grave. The currently-named Victor finds out that the Germans had gotten a tip from a renegade Cardinal and his renegade band of priests, who wants the denials for their own ends. After many fast-paced actions, the renegades are put away, and we get to the second half of the book, which is 40 years later.

This is where the significance to the title is revealed to us.

Victor now has twin sons ('chyeah, I didn't see it coming either. No really, I didn't.), and one of the renegade fanatics are back (apparently, murder only gets you 30 years). We have Andrew, a ruthless military man with his covert group of blackmailers, and Adrian, the decent, upright hippie lawyer who is forced to turn against his brother to expose his heinous crimes.

[Of which I will not disclose because they are not interestingimportant. But they ARE, like, low and stuff.]

After much investigating (and more beating-up), a dying Victor hands the search over to his two sons, wanting them to work together to find the crate before the renegade does, but finding out too late that they're on opposing sides already. Andrew wants to use the crate's contents to save his group from being prosecuted, and will stop at nothing to find its location; Adrian just wants to stop his brother from murdering more innocent people. And so begins the Geminis' journey to find the all-important container from 40 years ago that could shatter the entire Christian world.

The Gemini Contenders was good, but not exceptional. I would've preferred Victor to be the MAIN protagonist for the entire book, rather than the second half be focussed on his sons (though the Gemini part was kinda cool). I also feel that the second half was a bit rushed, although that IS keeping in line with Andrew's character, whom as a military man, is the type to act fast.

[Book should be longer :) Also, the contents does change things, but weren't really earth-shattering.]

All in all, still a good read. Not as good as some of his other books (my personal favourites are The Holcroft Covenant and The Chancellor Manuscript; they are SOOOO fricken' AWESOME!!!) but not too bad either.

[Most shiteous is The Scarlatti Inheritance, although it's understandable since it's his first book.]

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R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958–2009).

Wow.

That was the only word I could sum up when I found out.

[And I couldn't even talk it over with anybody, because I was at work at the time, and was not supposed to be surfing the Internet.]

I grew up on Michael Jackson songs. I remember loving Smooth Criminal (seriously, how awesome was that whole 'leaning on the floor' thing?), and getting creeped out by the Thriller video, and wishing I could moonwalk. Even though we haven't really heard anything new from him in a while, he's definitely still the King of Pop.

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. We'll miss you.


EDIT: I read somewhere that this must've been what it was like when Elvis had died. So true.

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Lousy fricken' Esquire.

I just found out that Esquire magazine's fiction-writing competition is open to the Americas only.

Yes, I know that it's a common-sense thing, it's an American magazine, of bloody course it's only open to Americas. But the reason I got hopeful was because it was posted up on an Australian writing forum, under 'Competitions and Publications'.

I only found out because I Googled it for more info and got to the website proper.

Nuts.


EDIT: I found this story offa the Esquire fiction site. READ! :D

DUBBLE-EDIT: And also this one :D)

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Why I think Apple's about to sell out (if it hasn't already)

[This was an old post from '07/'08. I took it down because I was applying for a job at CG Computers, which is a Mac-centric store. Since I'm not hired... what the hey.]

Don't get me wrong, I love Apple. I've been using Macs since 1993. Leopard came out some time ago, and, like many Mac fans, I was thinking of upgrading. But once, you upgrade, there's practically no turning back. If you downgrade, the lesser version is going to be a bit off since it's already had the new one. (Just like Firefox 1.5. I accidentally installed Firefox 2, found out I didn't like it so much, and tried to stop halfway. Firefox 1.5 still runs, but the Theme is a bit off. At least, though.)

Anyway, I went down over to the store, and checked out Leopard for myself. One of the reasons I was pretty excited about it was because it's said to have around 300 changes(!!!) with this new release. So I went to fiddle with one of the MacBooks.

Didn't like it.

For one thing, everything looked like iTunes, even when you're not IN iTunes. And they integrated the stuffs with the stuff on the left, and they did away with the many-windows thing that I like (at least, I think they did). Checked out Time Machine, it looked cool, but then I wondered, "How much memory is this going to take UP??" Back-ups need memory too, and I've always been a bit crazy with my memory. *heehee* There was this brochure listing the 300 changes so, on my way down, I read through it. More than half of those changes really didn't apply to me. I mean, Terminal?? I don't use that. I don't even know how to use that! Whenever I try to put in my Admin password, I couldn't! Mostly programmer/source changes and stuff, stuff I don't even get. My judgement might've been pretty hasty, but I REALLY didn't want to upgrade after that.

And lucky that I didn't.

I read this article in the papers the other day about how more and more Mac users are downgrading back to Tiger (Leopard came out, oh, sometime October/November; the article was in December). Hmmm. Reminds me of another recently-out OS that people said was kinky.

*cough* Vista *cough*

I googled the term 'downgrading to Tiger', and true enough, I read a forum post somewhere that the new Leopard might be the new Vista. It keeps hanging. Jonathan said he heard that with Leopard, you can get the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), which is something that I've never experienced before with my Macs. Sure, the thing freezes. But no blue screen. All my frozen screens have been technicolour.

As the new OS's keep coming (OS X onwards), I feel that Apple's slowly crossing over to the dark side. That is, ahem, Windows.

*cough* Intel processors *cough*

One niggle I've always had with OS X was the fact that it reminded me too much of Windows. I'm not entirely sure who copied who this time around (since OS X came out around the same time as XP, if I'm not wrong), but OS X's interface looks quite a bit like Windows. Move the icons to the left, turn the Dock Hiding off, lose the menu at the top, and there you have it. Rather familiar-looking, don'cha think? Maybe they're trying to get Windows users to convert and thought that their Windows-blown minds wouldn't be able to handle the original simplicity. Hahaha. Although I gotta admit, the Dock comes in mighty convenient sometimes.

About my quibble with Intel processors: Yeah, they're faster (my laptop runs on PPC, which lags sometimes. But there's probably 'cos I have loads of crap on it), and sometimes I wish that I'm running on Intel. But one thing that Intel cannot run, is the Classic OS 9 environment emulation-thingy. Either they didn't include it in, or they couldn't. Sure, you got SheepShaver and Basilisk. They're free, if you know where to get 'em. But it's extremely tedious trying to get OS 9 itself installed (it's hard trying to get the OS itself!), since SS and B are open-source, and require you to know command-lines and Linux functions (which I know absolutely jack about, I'll have you know). And they only have updates up to System 7. System 8 is virtually extinct. Can't find it anywhere, even though it's supposedly free or something. I wouldn't give up Classic for the world (unless I can find AND figure out how to run System 8, which is the one before they started The Change). There's no other way I can run my games. They're ancient.

I remember when:
1) There weren't so many drop-down menus on the right, just the time and the applications in use. Now there's Spotlight, and a host of other things you can add on. Spotlight might be intuitive, but I really don't dig Internet cookies coming up with every search.
2) Shut Down had its OWN titled menu along with Restart and Empty Trash and some others, instead of being under the Apple menu.
3) The Apple menu had a whole bunch of other mini-applications (I call them 'mini' cos they're a bit like widgets, but aren't). Those mini-apps go under Widgets now, I think. Widgets are kinda fun, though.
4) You have to open every single folder to look for that elusive game/file. I'll admit, clicking the Applications folder-slot thingy on the right is a lot faster than double-clicking the Applications folder-icon itself. But that's only it. I don't really use the rest. Luckily, they have this option where you can choose to have a whole bunch of windows open. Last I checked on Intel Macs, they did away with that. Or maybe I couldn't find it.
5) They had funny names for the folder colours. Like Red was Hot, Blue was Cool, Orange or Pink was Work-in-Progress or something. And during then, the whole folders changed colours, instead of just the names.

I can't remember what my old LCII ran on, but it sure wasn't OS 9. I don't think it was System 8 either. Maybe 7 or 6. I'm really, really sad that it broke down some years ago, and, knowing the locals, they don't have the parts, and they don't know/want to get the parts. The only way I can probably get it fixed, is to lug my massive computers (yeah, cos the other one's also gone boom boom) all the way to the States, and see whether they still have parts or not (and even that isn't really guaranteed). Yeah. Like my mom's gonna let me do that.

The only good thing I found with OS X so far is only the individual application hangs, and not Finder. I don't have to restart the entire computer just because my game got frozen. And the fact that I can play my old LucasArts games (thank you, ScummVM!!). They didn't really work on the other two (actually they worked on the LCII, but I was too young then. By the time I was old enough, the LCII was already on the bye-bye). I miss playing Sierra's The Adventures Of Willy Beamish. It was too fast on the OS9 (the stupid Cook always catches me before I could throw the freaking cup at her), and it's still too fast on the OSX (I can now play Willy Beamish! Yay! I can finally throw the cup at Cook and she doesn't catch me prematurely! Whee!!). I miss PageMaker. I miss when Trash was an icon by itself on the desktop, and how you can install this little plug-in so that when you Empty Trash, Oscar the Grouch comes out and sings, "I love it, because it's TRASH!" or, "I. Love. TRASH!!!" He had so many songs... :( And back then, they actually TELL you the total memory of the items about to be thrown out.

(As for the selling-out, I saw somewhere that even though Apple is a computer manufacturer, most of its income right now is coming from the Pods and the Phones. No wonder over there. Pretty soon, they'll probably phase out the comps. Hope not. I mean, where'm I gonna get my parts from?)

I guess I'm a REALLY old-school Mac user. But old-school's always tried and tested. The new ones are the ones that are funky.

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This has been driving me nuts!

There's this song on the radio that was stuck in my mind for a while (in a good way), but, having the misfortune of not catching either the title nor the artiste, I only had part of the lyrics to go with.

The Google wasn't really on my side, either, but the song sounded like The Killers, which made things slightly promising.

After Wiki-ing them (yea, I was desperate), I decided to check out Spaceman on YouTube since it was their latest single. It didn't really sound like the one I heard on the radio in some parts (the lyrics I Googled with weren't in the song), but since I only heard bits of it, I thought I had it right, so I was happy.

I was also wrong.

A few days later, I managed to catch the song again, this time from the halfway onwards, and since my mom wasn't in the car, I could pay attention to the DJ at the end of it to see whether the song name/artist was mentioned.

I heard "Pesawat".

While I was trawling the radio websites for the song (yes, I was THAT desperate) before stumbling onto Spaceman, I came across the Malaysian Entertainment Top 10 charts, which I didn't give a glance, since it's, well, local.
But I did notice that band's name, plus their song.

Back to the YouTube. Finally got to hear the song in its entirety. And I'm right this time, so yay.

Now THIS is what's been driving me crazy:

Both songs sound very alike.

Yes, you read right. A song, by a local band, sounding like it came from an internationally-acclaimed band. Almost exactly, even. And me liking it.

That coming from me.

Now, there's nothing wrong about that; it's just that I'd like some validation on whether there's something wrong with my HEARING, that is, if everyone else doesn't think the songs are alike, and could tell them apart by miles.

I've embedded the songs below, do check them out:

Excuse Me - Pesawat:


Spaceman - The Killers:


So do they, or don't they, sound alike? Please comment; this has been niggling me in the mind-nuts for some time now.

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Does LJBlogger-cut work?

Does it, or does it not?

Yes it does.

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Angels & Demons (2009)

First of all, this movie was much, much better than The Da Vinci Code.

[Plus, Tom Hanks looks much, MUCH better. Thank goodness!]

I say that because I feel that Angels and Demons was a far more superior book than The Da Vinci Code. Although the latter is very interesting and touches on a much more controversial subject than the former, Angels and Demons has people dying by the hour. You can't beat carnage in a book.

[Agatha Christie's Death Comes As The End, has people dying every two-three chapters. It remains one of my favourite books.]

Plot-wise, they made a lot of changes to the beginning, which I can accept, because it'd be VERY formulaic if they kept the book's, as in Guy Gets Mutilated -> Langdon Gets Called In -> Guy's Adopted Daughter Wants Revenge -> Seemingly Evil Character Who Is Actually Good.

Here's what I liked about the movie:

• Ewan McGregor. I loved the Camerlengo in the book, and I thought that Ewan McGregor would be spot-on, which he was. 'Cept he wasn't Italian in this one.
  

[They tend to give REALLY pivotal roles to much more established actors, and that usually gives away the game for me.
Fr'instance, Lauren Bacall in Appointment with Death. When a famous person plays a character that doesn't even show up for a quarter of the movie, you KNOW she's just that relevant.]

[Because it's friggin' Lauren Bacall.]

• The Assassin. They probably didn't go into that whole Illuminati business with the guy due to time constraints, but I actually liked the guy. He didn't take pleasure in killing the Cardinals; he just did it 'cuz he was getting paid. He doesn't like prolonging death. I was a bit pissed at first, because I was looking forward to the sadistic bastard in the book.

[Plus, he was cu with a really nice pair of spats.]

• PAOLO FROM FRIENDS!! Even though he died.
  
• Anti-matter-go-boom part. Looked way cool.
  
• Ewan McGregor. Excellent casting. Love the guy.
  

Secondly, though I've come to terms that the word 'adaptation' means 'creative liberty with source material', I'm still gonna nitpick:

• No Maximilian Kohler. I thought the misdirection in the movie seemed forced, since EVERY OTHER SCENE with Cardinal Strauss made him look power-hungry and possibly-evil. The different-named Cardinal in the book (only one prominent Cardinal) was a very decent and nice person. Obligatory misdirection aside, if they'd followed the book, then they wouldn't have to keep the fourth Cardinal alive.
  

[Plus, how many times is Armin Muehller-Stahl going to be THE morally-questionable character of a story?]

• In the beginning, why was there blood on the rest-thingy on the outer door if the dead guy and his eyeball was inside the entire time? Yes, the murderer would need his eye to bypass the security system to get to the anti-matter, but there was no mention of another dead man with a missing eyeball, so there shouldn't be any blood on that chin-rest which was on the outside of the lab.
  
• They totally changed the character of the guy who died at the beginning. This makes Vittoria's presence moot. She didn't have much of a point in the movie, except to look pretty and run around with Tom Hanks change the battery of the anti-matter canister. In the book, the man in the beginning was her father. That's why she was along for the trip.
  
• Was looking towards the "WTBloodyF" moment of the book, but it wasn't in the movie. Which brings me to this: Why "Patrick McKenna"? Why not keep "Carlo Ventresca"? Don't tell me Ewan McGregor can't do an Italian accent.

[They also changed the names of every other character that is not Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra. Like, why, man?]
[The Camerlengo is Irish. Isn't McKenna a Scottish name?]

• Where is the Illuminati Diamond? Oh noes, Carmen Sandiego stole it!
• The ending. The one in the book had more of an impact, and explains the Camerlengo's actions in much more detail. You'd actually feel sorry for the guy, and his final act literally IS a "Father, forgive me" kinda thing, rather than, "Oh, I've failed, quick way out, please." I loved how the book portrays him as a very sympathetic character, one who strongly believed that he could make a difference, unlike in the movie, where he just seems old-fashioned. They probably could've taken a minute or so out of the water-rescuing scene and devoted it for this.
  

[Dan Brown has a knack for creating very likeable characters, before revealing them to be true villains of the piece. I hate him for that.]

All in all, good movie. Can't match the book, of course, but not as far off as The Da Vinci Code.
Really missed the guy in the wheelchair.

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Melbourne, Day 1!

So we touched down at about 10am, headed to the hotel to check in, before going out for lunch. We stayed at the Crown Promenade, which isn't in the city, but just on the outskirts. It IS close to the Convention Centre, which I have to get there at 9am on Day 2 for my graduation ceremony.

Photos of the hotel room:

Highly overpriced snacks.

Cutlery and things. Surprisingly, the drink packets were free. We think. Shit.

Closet.

In the bathroom.

In the bathroom Pt. 2.

FLAT-screen.

And double beds. TWIN double beds. Mine is on the right.

After making sure everything's okay, we took the train to Camberwell to go to Sofia's, which is well-known for huge, huge, huge-ass servings. We had the Pasta Mista, which to me, is the pasta sampler, since they give you 3 types of pasta on one plate.

Picture doesn't do it justice. It was fucking HUGE!

Dollar to a dollar, $30 is SO WORTH IT for a plate like this, but conversion really is a bitch.

We couldn't finish the pasta, so we took it back with us.

After that, I met up with my landlady to get my mail, then we headed to the Tax Office to handle my tax returns.

[Yes, I have tax returns to file. I am officially an adult.]
[Tee dubble hee.]

The whole Tax Office thing was pretty straightforward, and I got it down in a (waitforit) jiffy. After that, we got so lazy (well, me, actually) of walking around that we just took a cab back to the hotel. It cost us $10.

[In case you're wondering, the pasta was still with us. Luckily it didn't spoil over.]

Back at the hotel, I started jumping on the beds for a bit, then plomped down to watch TV. As I've mentioned here, they have an ass-ton of good American TV shows that puts Malaysia to shame.

[I was prejudiced; always had the impression that Aussie TV will show ass-ton of Aussie shows. It's equally balanced, actually.]

After (no. 4) watching Everybody Loves Raymond, Family Guy, and a few other shows that I DO watch (but can't really recall), we went out to check out the way to the Convention Centre, which isn't as close as I thought it'd be. Took us about 20 minutes to get it right, because I took us on the wrong path for a while and had to double back.

The city skyline at night is way lovely. BRIGHT PRETTY LIGHTS!!1one

We had dinner in our room; the leftover pasta. Surprisingly, it's still good from all that walking. We couldn't finish it, so we ate most, and put it aside. Sob.

Then we went to sleep.

MULTIPLE photos of the view from our room:

That is the Yarra River.

PricewaterhouseCoopers. It'd be cool if I was attached to that company, WHICH I'M NOT. *FUME!*

Same thing at night.

Annndd....

Ray Romano.

That's all for Day 1, folks. Day 2 shall be up soon.

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