The cake: the New Year tomorrow (it's weird, I'm actually excited).
The icing: the fact that I didn't apply for leave and still don't have to go to work on New Year's Eve.
Yesterday, New Year's Eve was declared a public holiday, because Malaysia won the Asean Football Federation Cup (football) the day before.
What's shocking is that we actually won in something that isn't squash. But I digress. To think we weren't turning into a sports country like America.
And the proverbial cherry? Well, the day's still young. It's just a little past 11am.
Off-topic: Saw Tron: Legacy on Wednesday, review will be up soon. Also, the long-overdue The Expendables.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Icing on the cake.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
2011 Resolutions! Updated!
And whaddaya know, it's still 2010!
I noticed that the last time I had a resolution post was in '07. Which brings us to...
#1 Be more consistent.
#2 Be outgoing. I'm quite introverted, and apparently, my mouth is a firm adherer of, "speak when spoken to". This doesn't mean I'll be shooting my mouth off in 2011 like nobody's business, but I will do my best to not clam up so much.
#3 To not be last minute. This is more of a work thing. As our peak is gonna start in less than two weeks, this resolution will be an easy one to keep, since 'last minute' will mean 'staying late', which is something I most definitely do not intend to do this time around.
#4 Blog more. It's been a tremendous struggle for me to overcome writer's block, as I've been feeling very uninspired. Used to be I could just write about anything; now, it's difficult for me even to string one bitching sentence off the top of my head.
[And I used to bitch so well...]
#5 Watch more movies. Partially related to #4, since I can has opinions when after the film watchings.
#6 Be more patient. Especially on the road. Okay, you know what, be patient, period.
And speaking of periods...
#7 Try to be a helluva lot less irritable. The past seven months feels like a massive PMS binge. I get that mood swings aren't something you can control (not without medication), but rationalising my feelings does help. A bit. I just figured it out, hence the long period of Emo. Think this is also related to #4. Huh.
#8 Lose weight. And gain some inner fat, so that the office air-conditioning doesn't get to me and I can finally wear short sleeves and my coworkers won't keep seeing me in the same damn turtlenecks.
And lastly...
#9 Be gutsy and confident! I have serious self-esteem issues, and I've been trying to overcome that, which hasn't been easy when you've been feeling down the past seven months. Thus, for 2011, I resolve to start acting like the hot bitch I am!
[Just kidding, I'm not that delusional. But, I do have a bitchin' wardrobe.]
NEW ADDITION:
#10 Take up Mandarin and/or dancing lessons. Mandarin, because half of my office speaks Mandarin and I am not getting them at all, and dance, well, because I've seen too many dance movies. Plus, hopefully it'll help with my hand-eye-foot coordination, and then I won't be so klutzy. Well, that's just about it for my list for 2011. Will be posting Christmas and New Year greetings as per usual. Piggy...–OUT!
[Yannoe, like Seacrest.] Read More......
Monday, December 13, 2010
2011 Movie List!
I know my list is out way earlier than usual (in fact it's so early it's STILL 2010!!!), BUT one of my resolutions for the coming year is to not be last-minute and be more punctual and stuff.
On a separate note, 2011 rezzies post will be up soon.
[I know, I know, good luck to me too.]
So without further ado, along with trailer links (in case you wanna check them out; no links mean no trailers yet), here's my movie list for 2011:
1) Sucker Punch (March 25th) - Zack Snyder!
2) Thor (May 6th)
3) Priest (May 13th) - Paul Bettany!
4) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (May 20th)
5) Green Lantern (June 17th) - Ryan Reynolds!
6) Rise of the Planet of the Apes (June 24th) - James Franco!
7) Transformers: Dark of the Moon - NEED I SAY MORE!
8) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (July 15th)
9) Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22nd) - Avengers Assemble!!! Also, Chris Evans.
10) Smurfs (August 3rd)
11) 11.11.11 (you guessed it - November 11th)
[Yes, my movie decisions seem to be dictated by male leads more than anything, so fricken' what?]
Those movies without trailer links, I'll add them as they come, along with any other movie that catch my eye.
For now, it's 11 movies for 2011. Hopefully I can beat my 2010 score, and watch more than six movies this time 'round.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Current addictions and musts list.
Addictions
Music: Grenade - Bruno Mars, The Only Hope For Me Is You - My Chemical Romance and La Camisa Negra - Juanes.
Food: Gekikara ramen (LEVEL 3 YO!) from Yataimura, pork ribs, Wise's Sour Cream and Onion chips
YouTube video: Duck Dodgers vs the Happy Cat Alarm Clock (RIP Mako)
Online game: Die2Nite! * <–– SHAMELESS PLUG!
Cellphone game: Asphalt 4
Must–(s)
Reads: Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, Blackest Night miniseries
Watch: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (this weekend!)
SLEEP!
* Community-based zombie survival game. No real-time combat required, all based on turns, which is why I absolutely love it. Oh, and don't forget the zombies :) Read More......
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)
*minor spoilers*
Unlike the previous movies, Book 7 gets the two-movie treatment. Studio said that one movie is not enough to put in all the important details; I say that it is one last-ditch attempt to squeeze additional money from Potterphiles, since merchandising can only get you so far.
Heck, even Twilight is doing it.
Despite having to fork out 20 bucks for ONE book-to-movie adaptation, and yesidonthavetospendmoneyonthemcapitalistpigsbutthelastonewillgooutwithabangsoshutup, my main complaint for the previous Potter movies is that a running time of two-plus hours per film isn't long enough to capture the essence of the books, giving us rushed messes like Prisoner of Azkaban, which by the way, had the potential to be totally epic and awesome on account of all the bombshells dropped, but instead, events that were to happen in real-time, happened via dialogue.
[End of super-long sentence. Plus, not enough Crookshanks.]
So, the two-movie treatment: good or bad? On one hand, we have to pay extra to see the entire story; on the other, not having to pay extra leads to extreme pissed-offness after watching said movie.
If Part 1 is any indication... 'good'.
Damn.
Part 1 presumes that you've reread Book 7 recently, and jumps straight into the storyline. Gone are brief updates and reminders of what occurred in previous films; no more saying, "Memory charm," before the first instance of obliviate-ing a person in the movie. The movie doesn't even bother to introduce the characters (except Bill Weasley and Xenophilius Lovegood), so I had to do a lot of Wiki-ing after the film to see which Death Eaterscharacters got screentime as it's been a while since I read Book 7.
[Particularly the rather good-looking one in the band of Snatchers that took the trio towards the end of the film.]
As per usual, there were minor deviations from the book. Dobby's death was a bit drawn-out (probably for emotional impact), but for the length of his death-speech, the kids could've gotten a potion or fashioned a spell to prevent him from dying long enough to get help. I was particularly looking forward seeing Wormtail reach his appointed end, but not in this flick, unfortunately. Think they may be saving it for Part 2.
One addition I laud is the scene where we see Hermione wipes her parents' memories as well as every trace of herself in their lives (in the book, we find out via dialogue). The scene really adds to the gravity of the entirely-dire situation, and also, made me tear up within the first 10 minutes of the movie.
I won't even bother to talk about the CG, since it's top-notch, as expected.
As Part 1 was quite faithful to the book, it's not as fast-paced and harried as the earlier movies, but for non-Potter readers, be prepared for instances where they talk and argue and do not do much at all. Patience will be rewarded during action sequences, for they are awesome as always (the Ministry of Magic scenes are best).
And for viewers in general, please brace yourself for the dancing scene that lasts for like, five minutes. It was not in the book, and it is absolutely pointless.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Damn auto-saving on Blogger!!
Harry Potter 7 post will be late, since my Command-Z somehow removed all the text and the damned thing auto-saved itself and Command-insertletterhere doesn't seem to bring the text back.
Dammit!!
"145 Reasons Why Spider-man 3 Sucks."
#82 – #96. Also, #115, the scene that broke the entire movie for me.
Also-also, too much English reporter.
Can't say that I agree with ALL 145 reasons, but I agree with enough.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
WoT Book 13 released-chapters nitpicks!
Prologue
Aside from serving us the reminder that Lan is still riding towards the Blight ('still', considering that it's been two books already), the character that would cause everyone to sit straight up whilst reading is Graendal, for this prologue details the events leading up to Rand's balefire of her fortress. Oh, and what Rand did is called 'balescream'. Awesome stuff. The prologue also includes Padan Fain, now mostly-completely Mordeth, making his way through the Blight and heading for Shadar Logoth.
[Precioussssss...]
And also an interesting look at Kandori tradition. The main point of that PoV is show how much the Blight has advanced on Randland, but it was too engaging to be called filler. Loved it.
Part on Galad was kinda pointless, though understandable, but then again, someone should really tell him that Morgase is alive. Same with Gawyn. And will someone kill Rhadam Asunawa already! I like him 'cuz he's skinny and evil and all, but since we can't kill Galad 'cuz he's one of the good guys, kill Asunawa so that we can move on with friggin' story.
Chapter 1
...is called Apples First. As with The Gathering Storm, it's an early chapter on how the Dark One's power has touched the world, crops are dying, random people have random horrible deaths, yadda yadda yadda, but what makes this chapter fantastic comes close to the end of it, when we see an enlightened Rand coming down Dragonmount, after his epiphany in the last few pages of TGS.
And question: Do people in Randland use the word 'ain't'? Usage of the word was so jarring I had to bring it up.
Anyway, Rand's presence and his driving away the Dark One's touch at the end of Chapter 1 is what saved it from being filler material. And none too soon, too. Which brings me to...
Chapter 8
Filler.
The Seven-Striped Lass, which also serves as the name for the bar that Mat is in, doesn't have much except for the usual 'A is given a letter and if he reads it he'll be bound to do what is in it' schtick. Cue 3-4 pages of 'to open, or not to open', and inner turmoil.
Bo-friggin'-ring.
Now, Chapter 8 will be the first chapter in Book 13 to have Mat, but I don't remember any mention of Verin giving Mat a letter before her death. But then again, I only read Book 12 once. I hope to recap the entire series during these two weeks, on my study leave. Sniggersnort.
The chapter only gets slightly more interesting towards the end (but only just a weeeee bit), where Mat hears people discussing how the random dead in that town have been drained of their blood (meaning that the gholam is drawing in), and at the end of said chapter, in Mat's camp, he smells blood.
But really, folks, what we wanna see is another confrontation between Mat and the gholam. And a long one this time, please. None of this sneaking-in-shadows-and-only-killing-lookalikes business. Mr Gholam should know that he is evil and that he will not live past Tarmon Gai'don, so he should quickly find Mat as we want to move on with our lives. And the rest of the book.
Chapter 2 will be released prior to November 2nd, but I'm not sure when. Stay tuned, folks! :)
ADD:
Chapter 2
...was released on audio just today!! Had a listen this morning; Questions of Leadership involves Perrin and Galad, separate POVs. Wasn't as exciting as I thought it'd be, especially on Perrin's side, since he still hasn't accepted the fact that he has a huge role to play in all the events. Long talky dialogue with Faile (whom I detest), but as long as she's not calling him a bloody lummox and being a general bitch, I'm content.
Galad's side is a little more interesting, but only just. The rest of the Children of the Light have finally realised that Asunawa is up to no good, offs him and elects Galad as Lord Captain Commander. No mention on what happened to Asunawa, though.
So it's a more-than-a-partial 'yay' from me, since Galad's conflicts are done with, and Perrin's arc is still stuck at that whole "axe or hammer, humanity or wolf–um–ility" thing. Maybe we're in for another epiphany in this book.
EDITS: I've just read Chapter 2, and realised I read better than I listen. Thousand apologies.
Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man.
- Frederick Nietzsche
[I'm happy Nietzche feels the same way I do about hope.]
Read More......
Saturday, October 2, 2010
November...
...will be the best month ever.
Why, kind reader, you may ask?
Because:
1) Book 13 of the Wheel of Time series will be out on the November 2nd! Managed to check out Chapter 8, which was put up for free, and the Prologue as well. Helluva long one to be covering five (yes, five!) character PoVs, but only TWO (or is it THREE? *wink*) characters make the entire prologue length worthwhile.
Thoughts on the prologue and Chapter 8 will be up in a few.
[Slightly off-topic, this link here is a tongue-in-cheek book-by-book summary of the WoT series (but only up till Book 10). Do check it out if you have some time to kill, it is absolutely hilarious. And for the record, the people in the summaries who say, "Go Light," are working for the other side. As in the side Voldemort would be on.]
and:
2) Danger Days: The True Lives of Fabulous Killjoys will be out November 22nd!! YESYESYESYES!!!
Plus, November is also awesome 'cuz it'll be after exams.
EDIT: Towers of Midnight Chapter 1 is out! ZOMG!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Hope.
There's this dude in office that I really like, and forgive me for being perasan, but at one point, I think he kinda liked me too.
That is, until my nerves realized I had feelings for him and started to get in the effing way, coupled with the fact that we hardly have had the chance to talk to each other for a very long while, and before you know it, feelings pass and it's like nothing happened.
Unfortunately for me, I think I skipped that last part.
Scratch that, I'm not even past that last part. Still haven't reached it yet, still in (or is it 'on'?) that runaway train, still not being able to let go, so much so that for the past few months, I needed constant distraction to keep my emotions at bay.
And it's tough because work is out of the question. It's not our peak at the moment, though I'm not sure excessive amounts of work would be successful, though.
So far it seems like he's been avoiding me with a passion, and even if we bump into each other, what he does, is look at everything else but me, usually focusing at some point in the distance above my head. I mean, he's seven feetreally tall, so it's relatively understandable, but really... At least the people who avoid me at work, acknowledge and smile back whenever I happen to catch their eye and grin.
[Because being polite doesn't hurt.]
On Wednesday, I was about to write him off as a cause so lost (c'mon, dude acts like I don't exist) that even the smoke monster can't freaking get to it, when we make eye contact. So, the rare time he looks my way and is actually looking at me, I wave at him and smile.
Then he asked me whether I was going for bowling practice that night. Mimed, really, since he was halfway across the room. I was taken aback, obviously (if you don't see it, then it's only obvious to me, obviously) but also because I actually understood that he meant bowling.
[The densest material on Earth is not something called (Os)mium (looked it up, never heard of it either), it is Me (i.e. yours truly).
I am so dense that I'll sink straight through the ocean floor (suck on that, saltwater!) right through to the core of the Earth (and then some!), I'm so dense that you can get me to proclaim that I am dense, and I'd still be dense to the fact that I just announced to the world that I am dense.
Yeah, that's how dense I am. And the sentence before this was a lame-ass attempt at something Escher-esque. If you're not familiar with his work, samples are here. They are awesome.
Also, I am lazy.]
I shook my head, and mime-asked him. He wasn't going either.
So now I'm confused. Mind you, my confusion revolves around why he bothered making small mimicrytalk, when he could've gone with the regular nod-and-acknowledge routine everyone's got down pat. No conclusion-jumping here, folks, that ship has long left the dock.
Oddly, I felt a bit... hopeful, after. That I haven't universally messed things up with him, and that, well, to put it simply, we're still okay.
Although, you could say that I'm clinically insane. And I can't say I disagree with the prognosis.
By my standards (because I have terrible luck), Wednesday was a pretty good day. Went through it relatively unscathed, found out that My Chem's Na Na Na is totally out (yes!!!), helped a senior co-worker with his taxes (without mistake!), and basically, emphasis is on the 'unscathed', emotionally and work–um...–ally.
Today, well... everything went to hell again, but... eh. Optimism. It carries forward.
Though the mild euphoria may be from the wrong reasons, but right now, somehow, things look like they're pointing north for the moment.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.
I'm a huge fan of My Chemical Romance, but haven't had the time to keep tabs on them. Last I heard, they have an album coming out this year.
I am soooo far behind on things and I call myself a fan. I am ashamed.
Anyway, the teaser trailer for the album dropped a coupla days ago (please see below). Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is the name, and according to Rolling Stone article snapshot here, post-apocalyptic future radio songs is (or is it 'are'?) the game.
Song in trailer is called Na Na Na. Lead singer Gerard Way describes it as the punk-rock Hey Ya (by OutKast). But I humbly beg to differ, for I do not like Hey Ya, and I am totally loving the song snippet above.
No release date yet, but Wikipedia says (yesiamlazysueme) the album's completed! One more fantastic thing coming out this year (the first is here, at end of post)
On a more serious note, Bob Bryar has left the band. Why do drummers keep leaving? :/
Friday, September 10, 2010
Books.
I bought two books a coupla' weekends ago. I am very happy.
Bought Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (final-friggin'-ly!) and Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals. The former is about someone dying in the beginning leading his daughter to join forces with religious symbology and the Freemasons, and the latter is a satire on football.Tom HanksRobert Langdon to find the killer
[Note: In this Dan Brown, no one dies in the beginning. Finally.]
Been meaning to get Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's The Gathering Storm, but so far the paperback isn't available in bookstores yet (on account of it not being demand as much as The Lost Symbol). No worries, though, I'll wait.
Bee-tee-dubya, Towers of Midnight is finally done!! They're gonna make the November 2nd release date! YESSS~!!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Because I'm lazy.
But mostly 'cuzza the writer's block. Still not over it yet, folks. Sorry.
Anyway, my thoughts on Inception and The Sorceror's Apprentice, both 2010 movies.
Inception (2010)
Chris Nolan's film about implanting an idea into someone's head via dreams is so complex, so many-layered (if you've seen the movie you'll know what I mean) that it demands every ounce of your attention lest you miss out one crucial detail. Heaven forbid you go to the bathroom for this one. One of the rare films that actually lives up to the hype, in my opinion, but then again, what else can you expect from Chris Nolan?
[The only one other I can think of is The Dark Knight. Also Nolan.]
Not really keen on the open-ended ending, though. An intriguing film, no doubt, but so far my favourite Nolan would have to be The Prestige (2008). Hard to beat two Bales and a magically-scientific Bowie.
The Sorceror's Apprentice (2010)
Typical Disney fare, but not as meh as The Prince of Persia, mostly because of Nicolas Cage. I would've preferred an all-out battle between the forces of good and that evil little girl from Salem, but that way cool battle in Chinatown does make up for it. A little. Alfred Molina doesn't die in the end, which is such an obvious ploy for a sequel.
By the way, is it me, or does Jay Baruchel's girlfriend in the film look A LOT LIKE Kristen Stewart but blonde? Just sayin'.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Writer's block's back.
[insert string of expletives here.]
It's not that I don't have anything to post about; heck, I've got two movies and a bunch of book reviews to flood the world with more proof that I have opinions and bygoshdarnit Imma use 'em.
I'm not out of ideas. I'm not out of things to write.
It's just that I haven't been able to, well... bring them out? Bridge the gap between mind and screen?express myself. Words finally hit me two weeks after postage. Gah.
I'm not even bothered to think of a better way to finish the above sentence, so I hope you catch my drift with those two quarter-assed attempts.
At the moment, I can't even produce coherent sentences. Everything's just a jumble in my head.
Yannoe, I thought I'd really gotten past the block. It looks that the only things I can post about these days are UPDATES!!!!, which are just about the lamest things in the world and really doesn't require effort on my end, which is kinda great in a way ('cuz I'm lazy), but not as well, since there are so many things I need to vent about, and my blog is a channel to get my bitchings through.
But I seem to have lost access to the channel I need to get to the channel that I use to air my rants. Knawmsayin'?
This must be what emo feels like. Minus the suicidal tendencies.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Okay, this review is so, sooo long overdue. Sorry about that. Have just been feeling uninspired and 'meh' lately.
Which brings me back to this movie. Meh.
Didn't hate it, didn't love it. For a movie based on a video game, could've been a lot better.
Likes:
- Alfred Molina. If he's in it, I'll watch it. In this case, I've been meaning to watch PoP already, so two birds, eh?
- The CGI is totally freaking awesome in this film! Every scene with Sand (geddit? Ged the capitalization?) looked absolutely cool, and I loved it whenever time was reversed.
- Nostalgia. I grew up playing the first Prince of Persia game, and though I sucked at it and never got very far ('cuz I suck), it was rare to get a Mac game back in the day. And I loved it. Though I kept sliding off ledges and having bloody deaths.
- Jake Gyllenhaal. Hot hot hot hot! Did not see that coming.
- The Hassassins. Cool, scary mofos. Basically any scene with them in it is awesome, and that snake time-reversing scene was the best of the lot.
- Not enough shirtless Jake. Yes, I'm a geek, but I'm also there to see Jake Gyllenhaal without his shirt on, and unfortunately in this movie, he only has his shirt off in ONE scene. Somewhere near the beginning of the film.
- PG13 storyline. I get that this is a Disney movie, but they didn't have to Disney-fy the ending. Now, I'm not against happy endings or Disney endings in general, but somehow it didn't do it for me here.
- Too much jumping, too little fighting. Seems that he's avoiding fights more than getting into them. Not much use for cutlasses here.
- Moar shirtless Jake!
By the way, is it me, or does Gemma Arterton speak a LOT like Rachel Weisz? Read More......
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Guess who's back!
[Back again. Piggy's back. Tell a friend.]
[Again.]
Annual deadhorse-beating aside, I know I've not updated in a really, REALLY long time, and that I still need to forcefeed the world my two cents on The Persian Prince: The Timely Sands.
Ooo! And Inception! Yay for regular movie-watching! :)
So the title of my post doesn't only refer to my being back to the blogosphere (well, back to be updating a bit more regular that usual hahaha), but also from my KL trip, which I just came back from Friday.
[Ready yourselves for a wall o' text, peeps.]
My department and I were in KL for our Business Development Plan Meeting, which basically details what we'll be doing for the coming financial year. We took Firefly, Thursday morning flight out at 7.05am, which means having to wake up at 5.30am. I had the misfortune of taking like, the slowest cab down to the airport, which caused me to reach said airport at 6.30am, and rush to be checked in, since check-in time is half an hour before take-off.
Upon reaching KL at 8.15/20am, it was a mad rush to the offices, since the meeting was supposed to start at 8.30am, and I say 'mad' because there was a huge, huge jam from Subang to 1Sentral and I really, really, really had to pee.
[And I've always had this phobia about exploding bladders and really horrible agonizing internal-toxic deaths.]
We got there at 9am. Didn't get to pee right away, 'cuz everything started once we walked through the door and put down our bags.
So, despite being called 'Business Development Plan' and hearing from my seniors that it was all about discussing the budget and going through slides and yannoe, really dry stuff, it was a helluva lot of fun! Only about one day was spent on going through the BDP, and the rest was team-building activities and that kind of stuff. First day, we were supposed to go into random food establishments and see how that particular service line is similar to ours. Yay for food assignments! So we went to Meal Station and had breakfast.
Other groups went to Coffee Bean, Le Meridien, McDonald's... ENVY!
Lunch was provided, and was great for both days. Chicken = heaven.
We'd received an email on Wednesday saying that there would be a team event that'll last till 9pm-ish, which I wasn't too excited about, since it would mean that we'll reach our hotel at 10pm, and after the obligatory showering and washing up, sleep at 11pm?
Shudder.
Turns out, we were to go to the badminton semifinals of the Inter-Accounting Firm Games! Which, to me, was infinitely better than what the term 'team event' usually means! Strength for strength, both set of players. The match for the first set of players was really intense; the second, not so much, since the two teams playing weren't really that good. We were up against Deloitte, and we totally won!!!
[Plus, got a PwC t-shirt that day, though it was XXL.]
We stayed in Cititel MidValley, which was pretty awesome. Our room was small, and felt slightly cramped, since they put the two beds pretty close together, but it was clean. (and that's what's most important!). I turned in pretty early that night. Got me some chocolate from Coffee Bean, then went straight back to my room to rest and recuperate and watched 10 Things I Hate About You.
Yes dear reader, you thought correct. There was absolutely nothing else on TV that night.
Second day, meant to sleep in, but I automatically woke up at 5.30am (a-fucking-gain!) and couldn't go back to sleep after. My roomie and I were the first down to breakfast at 7am. Spread was lovely; got roti canai, teriyaki chicken, wedges, franks, the usual egg station... If I were on holiday, I'd have eaten a whole lot more.
Friday was also a lot of fun, but office activities were relatively uneventful, compared to what happened to us after we left office.
We (my three seniors plus moi, not including my boss, whose friend was fetching her to the airport) had booked a taxi from the service in KL Sentral to go to Subang airport, because KL cabs usually charge crazy, but there were absolutely no cabs for the people ahead of us to get on. That was at 6.15pm, with about seven groups of people in front of us.
On hindsight, we would've been much better off hailing a random cab from the sidewalk.
We finally got a cab at 7pm. It was running low on gas, and the driver was female. Like, the needle was at 'E'. She tried to fuel up, actually, but the quite huge-ass petrol station was SO BLOODY FRIGGIN' FULL OF CARS, so she went out on a limb and continued driving.
A quarterway into the journey, heavy, heavy traffic, and it was raining to boot.
My senior joked that if we couldn't reach our flight on time, we should call the airport and tell them there's a bomb on the plane. It was our own version of the Amazing Race, if you will, 'cept that the prize isn't a million dollars but instead, a budget no-frills flight home.
Nervous laughter all around. It was about 7.45pm at that point. Our flight was at 8.20pm.
We reached Subang at 8pm, and very, very luckily, our boss (who had reached earlier than us) managed to persuade the check-in counter to wait for us and not close up in our faces. Also luckily for us, the plane was late, on account of rain.
Still, we ran all the way to the departure gate.
None of us had had anything to eat, and none of us could really eat, after all that happened. My boss had some crackers, but yea, that doesn't really count.
[Random: I've never walked on airplane-runway tarmac before this. I found it totally awesome.]
All-in-all, a very, very fun and eventful two days, and with the inclusion of the final-taxi-ride-to-the-airport, emotionally
The only thing that I'm pissed about from my trip was that despite spending A LOT OF TIME on the road, I did not manage to see a license plate that went, 'WTF'. The acronym was brought to my attention when my roomie told me that she saw one in Penang.
[MOAR ENVEE!!1ONELEVEN1]
Plenty of 'WTR's, and 'WTS's, and 'WTE's(!!) even, but no 'WTF'.
Wtf. Read More......
Friday, June 4, 2010
Headdesk.
This morning, I emailed a client, and he called me, "Mam." I can't delve much into this, but it was most definitely not in a good way.
Then in the afternoon, while having chocolate cake during tea-break, I chatted up a few friends of mine (two of whom, are dudes I like-like), conversation had revolved around how the cake came to be, and well, I've never laughed harder in my entire life.
Going into the bathroom and catching my reflection in the mirror, I saw that I had chocolate all over my mouth.
And I was out there for half an hour, and no one said a bloody thing.
Tabletop, I believe you have already met My Face.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Iron Man 2 (2010)
I liked it.
What I've been hearing on the Interwebz is that the movie tries to cram too many things in two hours, and that it's as bad as Spider-man 3.
I know I've been neglecting my blog and my reviews, and granted, this post is three-four weeks past opening night, which makes it TOO LATE. And so much for getting back in-game with Prince of Persia; I took my uncles out on Friday, went back to work on Saturday, and grocery-shopped on Sunday.
Hopefully I'll have better luck next weekend.
Anyway, back to Iron Man 2: It's not as bad as everyone says it is. At least, not as bad to warrant a comparison with S-M3, which was messy and unsatisfying in its own right, since S-M2 is like The Empire Strikes Back of all comic book movies.
But IM2 (Iron Man, not Ip Man haha) does suffer from overcrowding in terms of characters and plotline details. Scarlett Johansson is really unnecessary in this, even though she looks superhot in black latex/leather. I'm not a guy, so adding her in the movie didn't really do anything for me.
The only awesome scene in the entire movie is the racetrack scene, which, contrary to my belief that everything journalistic is super-hyped at times, is really, well, pretty awesome. It's a great introduction to the damage that Whiplash/Crimson Dynamo amalgamation Mickey Rourke can do, and in my book, destruction always looks good onscreen.
Which brings me to the downside of the film. The final fight scene.
In Iron Man, the fight between Tony and Warmonger lasted 7-10 minutes. In Iron Man 2, what has the potential to be the biggest, loudest, awesomest battle scene between Tony and Ultra-Whiplash and War Machine, ends in under just one minute.
Yes. One. Friggin'. Minute.
In place, we're given attempts to placate Pepper, his not-really-exciting discovery of a new element (which was not named, and Googling attempts have failed to give me a name for this new element), and a bunch of other unnecessary scenes that could've been cut out and replaced with a longer fight scene, because the way the film was going, Ivan Vanko is clearly more awesome Obadiah Stane.
As can be expected from Iron Man, the movie is absolutely hilarious, and the cast does a stand-up job. We get to see more of Jon Favreau in this, and although I'm not a fan of directors putting themselves in their movies (*cough*M Night*cough*), his scenes are pretty funny. Ditto for Garry Shandling, whose humor I've never been able to appreciate all these years.
Anyway, as with all Marvel films nowadays, there is a short scene after the end-credits, and even though it doesn't make movie history like the after-credits scene in Iron Man, it's a prelude to what Marvel has in store for us in 2011.
All in all, it was pretty good, even with the anti-climactic ending.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Things to look forward for the rest of the year!
Plenty of stuffs comin' out 2010, aside from the usual barrage of movies I'm always crazy about, like...:
1) Towers Of Midnight
With The Gathering Storm partially completed before Robert Jordan's passing, we couldn't really see how Brandon Sanderson being the new author affected the book, as TGS was totally freaking awesome!! Save a few very obviously not-RJ's writing style in some spots, some parts wrapped up a bit too quick (considering Books 6-10 were all about making more moneyunnecessarily complicating things), overall TGS exceeded my expectations by a million-fold. Towers of Midnight will be the first book in the Wheel of Time series to be fully written by Sanderson, and with TGS being so good, standards will be very, very high. For me, at any rate. Hopefully, it will be released this October.
2) Mystery Case Files: Game 7
MCF: Dire Grove came out last year, and having played through it, I was a bit disappointed that it was a stand-alone game, rather than a direct continuation form MCF: Return to Ravenhearst, which I thought was really really awesome after the headache that was MCF: Madame Fate. The yet-untitled MCF7 is slated for release at the end of this year, and promises to continue on from RtR, where at the end of that game, Victor the (other) villain is seen leaving in a time machine heading for 2008.
3) Post-release reaction to The Last Airbender
I'm a huge fan of the animated series. Though it was a solely Western production (no collaborating with Asian studios here), the series was set in a predominantly Asian world, with a rich history and loads of backstories based on real-life Asian and Inuit culture. Unfortunately, the movie has decided to cast the leads and those who have lines, with white actors, and no, the Dev Patel card doesn't work here, because he wasn't first choice, Jesse McCartney was. Props to McCartney for backing down. Serious deviation of the source material aside, the fact that the trailer looks pretty cool (a fact that I begrudgingly admit), doesn't really help. I'm interested to see what casual fans and non-fans alike think after watching the movie.
4) My Chemical Romance's next album.
Emo or no, The Black Parade was pretty awesome. My Chem's follow-up is slated for release some time this year, and I'm pretty excited, even though they're notorious for pushing back release dates, and cancelling things (*cough*Mama*cough*). Just sayin', is all.
5) Second half of the year
I've been really crazy-busy with work the past four months (up to the point I did 7-day weeks), and though I'll still be busy, I'm starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, knowing my track record, that light is most probably from the bullet train that's barreling down my way, but eh, I'm in the mood for a bit of positive-thinking, which doesn't happen often.
And that's it. Five things to look forward to this year doesn't seem much, but it's still good enough for now. Oh, and Iron Man 2, which I will be watching later on today (since it's like, 1am in the morning).
And Human Target, which airs at 10.30pm on TV3 every Sunday, which I totally forgot to watch last week 'cuz I was watching CSI: Miami.
[What made it worse was that it was a repeat, and not of a very good episode, either.]
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
I can has Perfume!
I really can has xD
Last weekend marked my first weekend off in months, because I've been doing seven days since Chinese New Year's.
So I went to the bookstore, and got myself Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
Yes, as in THE BOOK. It was only 24 dollars and not 32.95.
I'd link to a previous post that has me raving about how totally freaking awesome the movie was, but looking through the archive, there doesn't seem to be any. Huh.
So, here's a summary (or a recap, if there really was an earlier post):
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born with an extremely keen sense of smell, able to distinguish even the minutest of scent, one from the other. He becomes obsessed with capturing scent and preserving it, or rather, its beauty, and through the course of the book, he goes on a killing spree, combining his victims' scent to make the ultimate perfume.
The book is much darker than the movie, although it's close. Maybe Alan Rickman didn't like how his character ended up in the book.
Anyway (if it hasn't been typed yet), I first saw the trailer when I got my laptop and was still crazy about iTunes. Even though it caught my attention, I conveniently forgot about the movie until my mom was telling me how Alan Rickman was in this creepy movie on TV once (she was trying to figure out the title so long I suggested Die Hard for the heck of it), and mentioned the word 'perfume'.
AND THEN I REMEMBERED !~!ONEleven
I was back for winter hols then, and luckily, they had a rerun that same month (of July of '08, if you were wondering). The rest, they say, is history.
I haven't had the time to properly sit down and enjoy the book again. Hopefully I can do that this weekend :)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Update post of sorts!
Actually, it just is a plain ol' update. I'm sick of typing "UPDATE!!11!" after every hiatus.
I've been really, really busy with work for the past coupla weeks, and will be till end April. Or end June. I don't really care anymore.
So I was in KL from end of February for the induction / orientation event that my company has. The eight of us newbies were there for two-plus days, and took the night bus back. The driver was super-awesome. He got us from KL to Penang in four hours flat AND he stopped twice at rest stops.
Of course, he drove really, really fast, but hey. As long as the bus doesn't go belly-up while I'm in it, I'm happy.
Since we're from Penang, all of us either had a mutual friend, tuition-mate, classmate, etc.. Living proof of six degrees of separation, folks, and all of us thought the other looked relatively familiar. Aside from the people I already know.
Anyway, my baptism is coming up soon! I've already chosen my outfit, which I think I can quite rock provided I don't take dinner for the next two weeks leading up to the event. But I don't think taking two Cloud Nines a day would help. My weight has gone down one kilo (which I feel is a pretty good start), though I hope it doesn't go to my head and I start eating again.
Also, Savage Garden's Truly Madly Deeply is currently stuck in my head, thanks to a cellphone going off in office. Person in office with ringtone, I applaud your excellent taste in music. TMD is one of the rare easy listeningballads that doesn't make me change stations. The worst part is that I only know the opening verse and chorus, so it's like a broken record in my head now.
[Previously, some other person had Lily Allen's Fuck You as a ringtone, but I never found out whom :(]
Side note, isn't Darren Hayes' Insatiable like, the dirtiest song ever? I love, love, love it, but really, if you haven't noticed, next time you hear the song, do pay close attention to the lyrics.
Speaking of radio stations, the ones on my car got messed up. See, I bust it up last week so it had to be hauled and overhauled, and now, the radio stations are wonky. Now I only have Fly.fm and Red.fm, and can't hook on to Hitz.fm or any of the old stations I used to have. Sigh.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Night Visions.
Night Visions was a totally awesome TV series in the early Noughts (or Aughts or whatev) that was totally cut short. It's like this millenium's Night Gallery, the horror genre's Twilight Zone.
I used to look forward to Wednesdays at 11pm because of this show. Nowadays on Wednesdays (and every other day) at 11, we watch Chef At Home.
Yup. That's how mellow TV programming has become.
Anyway, each episode is one hour, with two half-hour stories. Practically all of them have a twist ending, with the protagonist predictably getting it, but it was still fun because it was thrilling. And plus, every episode has someone (relatively) famous in it, with Aidan Quinn *swoon*, Bridget Fonda, Malcolm McDowell, Cary Elwes *dubbleswoon*, David Paymer, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jay Mohr, Gil Bellows, and a truckload of other familiar faces.
The special effects are, admittedly, a bit lame, but hey, it's a TV show. We're lucky that we're getting any special effects. I mean, look at Supernatural. An episode where angels and demons literally have a stand-off, and they fist-fight.
It was boring.
Right, getting back on-topic, I actually thought I'd missed the initial few episodes when they started airing it on TV, because we were away on holiday for about a week or so. The only reason why I wanted to watch the show because I saw Aidan Quinn in the commercials but turns out, I didn't miss any. Aidan Quinn's was the first ever episode, which was the first one we watched, and that one was pretty good (please see description here, somewhere in the middle). The second part of the show was called The Bokor, but that one was so-so, though it was awfully creepy.
My favorite episodes of the series are:
1) Darkness
Michael Rapaport inherits a huge mansion from the uncle he never knew, and inherits the evil that comes out whenever it's dark, refusing to let go of his newfound wealth. Simple storyline, but it stood out for me, and at the end, Rapaport's still staying in the house, except that in the process of eradicating the Darkness, he accidentally blinds himself permanently.
2) A View through the Window
Bill Pullman plays a scientist summoned to explain a mysterious phenomenon in the middle of the desert: a one-way "window" looking into a small house in the countryside. Pullman falls for the daughter of the house, and when the window opens for one brief moment, he goes through it. His ultimate fate is really quite predictable, but the episode really leaves a lasting impression in the final scene, where the window still exists, but the one-way view is now reversed.
3) Bitter Harvest
was another brilliant episode. A young man accidentally causes the token creepy old guy (played by Jack Palance, R.I.P.) to lose his forearms, and as the boy is afraid of telling his parents what happened, he is forced to work on the Palance's farm while he recuperates. Nothing happens to the boy, and at the end of the week, all that anticipation finally gets to him and he asks the old guy a flat out "Why??" Turns out, the old guy isn't into direct revenge. By the end, a foal born with no forelegs, and ominously, the boy's mother announces that she is expecting.
4) Afterlife
opens with a dead Randy Quaid, whose eyes keep popping open despite the very fact that he is, well, dead. During the funeral (his), he comes back to life, and his family is overjoyed. Later, though, Quaid keeps tasting dirt despite NOT eating dirt, and becomes obsessed with heaven, wanting to go back, and creates collages (lovely ones) that depict what he remembers of heaven. He eventually tries to kill his daughter, who totally runs, and as wife and daughter watch in horror, he commits suicide. We come back to the same funeral parlour, and as Quaid's eyes pop open again, the camera pans over to his POV, looking up at the (same) two funeral parlour people from the beginning, and moving up towards the ceiling, where we see a stained glass that is the splitting image of 'heaven'.
So anyway, those are my top few. A few episodes are on YouTube, like Afterlife and A View through the Window. Do check the other episodes out when you have time to kill; they won't disappoint :)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!!
Bring out the leftover fireworks and stuff your faces with mandarin oranges, it's a new year!
May the Year of the Tiger bring all of you great health, loads of wealth, and an abundance of prosperity!!
And hopefully, better weather.
************
Sorry for my lateness; I meant to post this on Sunday, but the lousy Internet decided to go on leave as well. Till now, that is.
Oh well, Happy Holidays, everyone!! Read More......
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Passengers (2008)
Passengers is about a psychiatrist (Anne Hathaway) treating five survivors of a plane crash. As she grows closer to one of them, played by Patrick Wilson (who totally doesn't sing in this movie argh), her patients start going missing one-by-one. Suspicious airline official David Morse (as usual) mentions that there were no survivors in that crash, and when Anne gets a hold of that passenger list, she sees her name on it.
In other words, Passengers is like the Night Visions episode The Passenger List, starring Aidan Quinn and Paul Guilfoyle.
Except Hallmark-y.
Which is why the Night Visions episode is much more superior to this movie, and no, not because Aidan Quinn was in that. *swoon*
Passengers starts off as a thriller. People go missing, David Morse acts suspicious, some of the people she knows acts suspicious, Patrick Wilson keeps seeking her out like all suspicious-like. And the ending was anti-climactic.
It turns out that the five (well, six) are actually in limbo (technically), and the people around Anne Hathaway were actually supposed to help her come to terms that she's dead, and to move on. Except for Patrick Wilson, of course, because he was on the plane as well.
I would've preferred a conspiracy involving the airline.
In The Passenger List, Aidan Quinn is a crash inspector who receives a call about an airplane crash. Heading on-scene, the coroner tells him that there were no survivors and they've got all the bodies, except for one person who's literally in pieces, and since they're in the process of putting him back together and the passenger list isn't back yet, there is no ID on the guy. He becomes romantically involved with this lady whose family died on the plane, and as he investigates, suspicious things (I can't remember what; it's been a long time since I saw this) start to happen. Eventually, he gets a call from the coroner who tells him that they've finally pieced the body together. By the time he gets there, the passenger list has been faxed/despatched over as well, and viewing the body, he sees... him.
As in, himself. It's his body.
Flash-forward (or something like that), and he wakes up on a plane. THE plane. As he panics, he sees familiar faces, ones he's (and we've) seen throughout the episode, and the lady he's currently dating. The plane malfunctions, and the episode ends with the first few people to arrive onto the scene, telephoning Aidan Quinn, and his cellphone starts to ring a few feet away from them.
See? THAT'S how you make a thriller. Although The Passenger List is only a half hour, but seriously, it's Hollywood. They can hire people to make it an hour and a half longer. I will blog about my love for Night Visions another time; I want to finish this and watch TV now).
Anyway, the only thing I like about the movie was the ending, and not because it meant the movie was over, but because it was... sweet. Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson turned out to be acquaintances on the plane, and as it was crashing and Anne's panicking and screaming, "We're all gonna DIE!!", Patrick consoles her and tells her that he is there for/with her, and flashbacking through the movie, HE was the one who kept meeting up with her, and kept her company, and seeking her out, and generally, was WITH HER.
I thought it was sweet, and basically the only thing in the movie that made it even worth the two hours. Sappy, but sweet.
On the radio...
While driving today, I noticed that out of the five stations I have on the car radio (five because there were only five buttons), three of them were playing Jazz music. And these stations were Hitz, Mix and Lite.
Three radio stations as different as night and day, which means that they NEVER play the same thing at the same time. Let alone Jazz. Ugh.
Red.fm was having piano music, which was nice, but kinda disappointing because I was looking forward to some Lady GaGa. Fly was the only one playing songs, current ones too, like that annoying Fall For You song, but even though they had the announced, "Fly... FM," every other song, still no DJ, no ads.
It's nice to know that even with airwave issues, Fly.fm is still awesome.
Which makes me wonder... would Fly.fm survive a nuclear meltdown?
Monday, January 4, 2010
Avatar (2009)
Or, as it's commonly known on the Internet, Dances with Blue Furries.
I get nauseous easily, and that's why I'm very reluctant to watch a movie in 3-D because 1) 3-D is more expensive than regular movies and 2) I don't want to pay extra money to get a headache and puke all over the person in front of me.
But, the first thing I thought when the movie ended was, "Dammit, I should've seen this in 3-D."
For once, it's not overhyping on the moviemakers' part. The CGI is absolutely gorgeous, and the star of the movie is so obviously Pandora, the planet the film is set on.
Now I'm totally kicking myself for not opting for 3-D the first time.
Storyline, however, is just meh, and because of its total and utter 'meh-ness', doesn't warrant a second round in the cinemas. As you may have heard, the plot is recycled. So is every other Hollywood film, actually, but when the fact is so obvious that the movie just screams, "BORROWED MATERIAL!!", it's not a good sign.
True, the plot is just a device to show off the entire ecosystem created by the makers, but come on, we're talking about a big-budget studio movie. Don't tell me they can't come up with a storyline better than what we've been given. Jeez.
And that's why I'm not gonna watch Avatar again. I feel it's not worth a second time.
If you do want to see it on the big screen, do watch it in 3-D. Saves you the money, and the energy expended in kicking.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Twilight Chapters 15-24 + Epilogue = Finally finished!
So sorry for the delay. I've been putting off my reading because it's such a drag to read everything from a screen.
[Note: I ALWAYS finish a book I've started.]
So in Chapter 15, we get to meet the Cullens.
Full chapter on Carlisle, which is good, since it diverts from the love-talk. The Vulturi also makes an appearance in a painting, though their collective name is not mentioned (probably because Meyer hadn't thought of it yet), only the individual members.
And then we have baseball!
[Supermassive black HOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEE!!!]
I'm enjoying the reparté. Whether it's truly witty, or I have finally lost my mindgot used to the idea of pleasant banter for the sake of it, I'unno. It's surprisingly not painful. The book also explains why James didn't kill her father. The movie, aside from saying that he's ruthless and crap, didn't explain any further, so Hollywood basically just made him look inefficient.
Additional proof that the book is ALWAYS better than the movie. Except for Perfume: Story of A Murderer (which is equally balanced in awesomeness).
Chapter 22, though long, was interesting enough as we find out about Alice's mysterious origins. Mind you, we still don't know much about her, but at least we know how she came to be. James did the first and foremost mistake in villainy, and that is monologuing to his prey. But anyway, if he didn't do that, there wouldn't be Chapter 23, which was a bit cringe-worthy because every other sentence with Edward in it refers to him as "the angel". "The angel is screaming", "The angel is so beautiful", "The angel bollocks." *rolls eyes*
The epilogue could be a few pages shorter, as most of it was of Bella crying and whining in the car about how she doesn't want to go to the prom and how she didn't see it coming and crap. It was absolutely annoying. Everyone pretty is at the prom, with special elaboration on Rosalie, which reminds me of how Movie Rosalie's prettiness can't match that of Movie Alice. Not by a long shot.
And so I'm done with Twilight. I'm not used to romance novels and teen lit, so my recounting may be a bit biased, so anyway read it at your own risk.
Twilight can also be considered the first book I've finished reading in 2010, so yeah. That's that.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year, everyone!! Plus, 2010 Movie List!
Chug out the leftover 'nog and bring out the fireworks! We're hittin' the '10, folks!
************
It is now 2011, and I have seen six out of 10. Not too bad, methinks. Colored ones are the ones I saw.
It's that time of year again, and below are the movies I'm looking forward to this year, in chronological order:
1) Alice in Wonderland
2) Clash of the Titans
3) A Nightmare on Elm Street (but only 'cuz Jackie Earle Haley's donning the iconic knife-nails)
4) Iron Man 2
5) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (this movie has been on my list since last year. Stupid people who pushed it back)
6) The A-Team (Final-friggin'-LY!!)
7) Toy Story 3
8) The Sorceror's Apprentice
9) The Expendables (which promises cheesy lines, and loads and loads of action)
10) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (it's more of a ritual, now)
As a side note, one movie I'm looking forward to, but not in a good way, is The Last Airbender. Here's to hoping that the movie wouldn't be epic, as a movie that disrespects source material SO MUCH shouldn't be successful.
[Unlike Watchmen, who mostly definitely didn't disrespect (95% of the time), but wasn't very successful anyway. Damn general public.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
