Just Photoshop Your Worries Away

Recently discovered a link to a blog showing all the photoshop disasters. It's wonderful what Photoshop can do to your years. Just see what a couple of minutes on a pc did for the two stars below! Plenty more funny errors on that blog. Don't forget to check it out for a laugh (especially those with missing belly buttons and other body parts!

Unbelievable

Can't believe the proper 'authorities' didn't even bother to brief her properly....

So embaressing, some more broadcast all over the world...

Looking forward to this...

Just saw this trailer for the new Wonder Woman Cartoon Movie. DC Comics have been coming up with some pretty good stuff as far as cartoons are concerned... the entire Justice League series, the Teen Titans series, the Justice League: New Frontier Movie and the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD. I've always enjoyed the mythology of the Wonder Woman comic so I'm really looking forward to it. Here's the new trailer:

Pixeljunk Eden & more.

I'm enjoying a few games on the PS3 now and the one I'm hooked on right now is Pixeljunk Eden. It's a weird game. I guess it's basically a platform game since the aim is to jump and swing your way from plant to plant in order to destroy pollen and form seeds to grow new plants so that I can reach the spectra. Heh, got it? It's a game you have to see to understand. Here's a video of the gameplay.



PS3 has also started this 'trophy system' where you get to collect little trophies for completing certain tasks in a game. I can't believe how effective it is in getting me to replay levels to get my trophies! lolz..

The other game that has begun eating up my time again is World of Warcraft. After a 5mth or so break, I've decided to return to the game to try some of the new stuff. It was a little hard to start playing again coz I'd forgotten most of the strategies and even techniques. But it's been fun getting back into the game. I'm eagerly waiting for Wrath of the Lich King, the new WoW expansion supposedly to be coming in the last quarter of the year...

Comic Sale at Funan

For Comic Book Lovers out there, the comic shop at the 5th floor of Funan Centre (Alarics Comics) is having a sale of 35% off all Trade Paperbacks! It's a really good deal. I bought some stuff which I've been thinking of reading but was unwilling to pay full-price. For books which cost USD19.99, I only paid SGD18.00. That's a steal!

They don't have a super large selection, but you should be able to find the usual stuff (unless they are already sold). Don't know how long the sale will last, so if you're interested to get stuff, better go down soon.

Definitely gonna look through my collection and see what else I'm missing!

Wall-E Toy

I finally saw the new Wall-E toys today at Toys R' Us and I think they are one of the better movie toys in recent times. I think the characters in this movie are well -suited to be toys and Disney has found good partners who are delivering well-designed and well-made toys. After looking at the toys, I couldn't resist buying at least one. I chose the one which could be disassembled (literally pulled apart! lol) into 20 different parts and then put together again. Damn cute rite!? I foresee myself getting more of the toys, especially after the movie. Heh.

Three Good Movies: Red Cliff, Hellboy 2, Dark Knight

I'm happily satisfied with the three movies that were released these last two weeks. I enjoyed all three movies thoroughly and they were certainly worth every cent spent on the tickets (and drinks and snacks of course).

RED CLIFF (Part 1)
Like I mentioned in an earlier post about Andy Lau's THREE KINGDOMS, it's disappointing to see that no one has done a really good movie based on China's Three Kingdoms era. I'm glad to say that RED CLIFF has finally broken that trend. John Woo has assembled a pretty good cast, with a pretty good script and combined them together to form a darn good movie. lol. There is a nice epic feel to this movie and what I'm particularly impressed with is the way they manage to have so many characters and yet allow the viewer to remember all of them! This was one big failure of the early movie starring Andy Lau. Other than Andy and Sammo Hung, I couldn't really follow who was who and the other characters didn't have much personality at all. Effects were also pretty credible and the fight choreography is top-notch as I would expect from a John Woo movie. My favourite actor Tony Leung, is at his best as usual (I think I only cannot stand him in Wong Kar Wai's 2046) and acts off well against the pretty-boy Takeshi Kanishiro (who for some reason, walks like a kuniang in this movie). The only complain is the female lead. They could have replaced her with a brick and no one would know the difference. Heh.

Red Cliff is a really good movie. Only complain is that I have to wait until 2009 for the ending!

HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN MOVIE

HB2 is a fantastic follow-up to the first movie. I liked the first movie and this second movie took everything that was good and made it better. Ron Pearlman is really the only person who can play Hellboy. It's uncanny how he is such a perfect fit for the role. This movie stands out with all the weird incarnations of demons and imaginary folk, right out of the mind of the director Guillermo del Tomo (who channels his best efforts from his eerie movie - The Orphanage and his enchanting movie Pan's Labyrinth). I was blown away by all the weird and wonderful creatures. The story, action and effects were all handled well and the characters really got to show more of their personality as compared to the first movie (especially dear old freaky Abe). I don't have any complains about the movie. Loved it. You should go watch it and then start catching up with Guillermo's other movies.

THE DARK KNIGHT

This is one movie that was so hyped-up that I expected it to fail to deliver. I'm glad to say that for me, it not only delivered, it actually delivered way beyond expectations. Yes, it's been written many times, but I must also say that the Joker is the best character in this movie. He is really creepy and crazy and yet, disturbingly, he was still believable! The other outstanding thing about TDK is the story. I liked that there was a good plot and not the usual Marvel-movie-type stories like Spider Man, Iron Man and Hulk. However, at the same time, be warned that this movie can be a little too dark because the Joker kinda brings out the darkest side of humanity. Thankfully, the writers did include some witty one-liners and jokes in the movie to help lighten the mood. All the other actors are also pretty good. I was only mildly annoyed with two things. (1) I don't think Maggie Gyllenhall suits the role. (2) I don't like Batman's sore-throaty voice. To be frank, I am not sure if this movie is better than Iron Man. I think it is fairer to say that both excel in different ways. Iron Man was a great comic book superhero movie. Dark Knight almost feels non-superhero-like. At times, it feels more like a real life gritty police-and-bad-guy movie. That to me is the charm of DK.

Good News? Or Not..

Woke up this morning and glanced at the Straits Times. Screaming in bold on the front page was the good news that there will now be 'CHEAPER TRAVEL FOR 4 IN 10 COMMUTERS'. Wow! What great news!! And it was printed on the front page no less! Until it hit me... it meant that MARJORITY of travellers, meaning 6 in 10 or 60% would either be paying MORE or maybe the same amount (I would bet it is the former).

There has always been accusation that our media supports the government. Of course, it simply be one of those favourite past times of conspiracy theorists to propagate such rumours. But, it's distressing to read an article where it was obviously bad news for most people and yet it was spun into great news! That 4 in 10 were going to benefit! Imagine how it would have read if the headline was '6 IN 10 COMMUTERS CAN EXPECT TO PAY MORE OR THE SAME'.

Now that would have been more accurate.

Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War

One of the recent comics I've really enjoyed is Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War. These two hardcover collections are a great read, especially for Green Lantern fans like me.

I've always enjoyed reading GL. I mean, come on, having a ring which can create anything you want just based on your thoughts? Which kid can resist such a gift! I remember many happy memories reciting the famous rhyme to charge my imaginary ring in my imaginary lantern... :P

Anyway, GL:TSCW is basically about how the Green Lanterns' greatest nemisis, Sinestro, decides to form a yellow lantern corp to strike fear into all the Green Lanterns. This is really a war on the cosmic scale. For a comic, there's a surprising number of gruesome killings shown in the pages. Just take a look at the cover art below, with all the impalings.

I liked the story, but at times, I did get lost among the sub-plots. But the main plot of how The Sinestro Corps drive the Guardians to amend the no-kill law and then to how the different coloured rings are formed kept me going.

The art is pretty good too, with the exception of the odd issue here and there.

Since Hal Jordan returned as the Green Lantern, it's been a great ride. But as with all comic cycles, I guess it's gonna get boring soon as they run ot of original stories to tell.

Until then, 'In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's Light!'. Heh. Yes, I couldn't resist it.

Hancock & Movie Dryspell

The summer blockbuster season is winding down and it's down to the weekly releases. The bad news is... no more multiple movies to keep me busy. Good news is... there are some good stuff coming out every week. This week there's Hellboy and the new Chinese movie by Tony Leung. Next week is time for The Dark Knight. For now, we're stuck with Hancock.

HANCOCK is an attempt to make a realistic superhero. Like how superheroes can sometimes do more bad than good when they destroy buildings and bust up the roads, even when they are fighting to save the day. There was some potential in this movie, but I think the director/writers just didn't dare to take it to the next level. So in the end, the movie just ended up feeling a little blah.

They tried to explore a little about how superheroics can hurt more than help, but then they resolve it without much thought. They tried to make Will Smith a hero with a difference. But then they chickened out and show him turning over a new leaf in no time. They tried to build an interesting mythology behind how he belongs to a breed of super-humans. But they never really fleshed out the story.

In the end, Hancock just feels bland. It's not bad. There are some laughs and some nice effects. But in a movie season with great films like Iron Man and good films like Hulk, Hancock just ends up being severely mediocre. :)

1st Singapore Toy & Comic Convention

Last weekend was a real busy one for me.

It was the first every Singapore Toy & Comic Convention (STCC) and I was quite excited that Singapore was actually going to have one. The other reason why I was busy was coz I was helping a friend to launch his new comic book! More on that later...

Below are some pics from the STCC. Actually, there were quite a few other things to see, but I was kept busy helping my friend so I didn't have much time to go round taking pics. You can catch more pics from some other sites (click here and here for pics from other sites - Warning! Plenty of pics so they might take some time to load).

While I'm really glad that we have our own Toy & Comic Con, I as initially a little disappointed at the whole thing at the beginning. I was there on the set-up day and I felt that the booths and exhibits were a little low-key and boring. Some thots:

- The Star Wars exhibit was quite cool, but the booth was so small and there really wasn't much to see unless you are a super die-hard fan who must scrutinize every single little figurine.

- The Lego booth was a super let-down. THey only showed some entries on some Singapore-themed Lego structures. Come on.. there have been so many other awesome lego structures which I've seen in Singapore, where were they?!! And there wasn't even any lego sales!

- There was a decent representation of Singapore Artists, but I couldn't help but wonder where was the promotion? Much hoopla was made over the foriegn guests, but there didn't seem to be more effort promoting the efforts of local artists, some of whom are really good.

- In my bid to support local artists, I bought this comic novel from kenfoo, who was in the booth just next to mine. To be frank, it was the drawing which first attracted me to the comic. But when I read it... sigh.. it was so depressing!!! Don't let the happy smily drawing below fool you. It's one of those sad stories...

- There was plenty of cosplay/costume competitions going on. Not bad really. Saw this really cool guy in a Cylon costume which actual moving red eye! Sound effects included! Kinda nice to see more Singapore youths picking up on cosplay. I think it helps our youths to be more open in expressing themselves.

I was really surprised with the huge turn-out on the two days open to the public! It seems that there really is a pretty huge fan-base for all things comic and toys. But personally, I hope that the STCC can really look into improving next year. I felt that this year, maybe coz it's the first year, they can't really decide what they want to be. Do they want to be really serious and attract the fans with very niche stuff or do they want to attract the general singaporean with plenty of sales and offers. I felt it was neither. I guess it's unfair coz I'm comparing STCC to other Comic Conventions I've been to in Japan and USA. Those are really awesome. You can spend hours browsing the booths and there are sales, artists, talks, movies, etc, etc, etc going on around the clock! Very exciting! Hopefully we'll see more support next year and we can see more booths and more exciting displays and competition.

On the whole, a good start! Hope to see it continue. Here are some pics I took:

Oh yeah, as I was saying earlier, I was helping a friend who launched his new book (below) at the STCC. We had a good time at the fair and it was really amazing that we were able to sell out all 300 copies which we had brought to the fair! The book should be out in bookstores soon. So do take a look at it if you see it and buy it if you think it's good!

Mega Movie Mini-Reviews

In case you haven't realized by now.. .tonight (ie. Monday night) is server maintenance night for Age of Conan... so that's partly why there's a huge blog update. Sorry lar, for now, my life does kinda plan itslef around the two server maintenance nights for AoC :P.

The last two weeks have been movie-catch-up weeks for me. Since returning from Japan, I realized there were plenty of June holiday movie releases which I had not seen. So I hit the movies with a venegance and I've kinda realized that in the last two weeks, I've caught at least 8 movies... hehheh.

Well, it's gonna be too long to review each one of them in detail, so here are my mini-reviews for those who are still wondering if you should watch them:

KUNG FU PANDA

- RECOMMENDED! -

Good movie! Plenty of fun. Just wondering how much more interesting it might be if it were dubbed in Chinese!! Heh.

WANTED

- STRONGLY RECOMMENDED! -

Excellent action sequences! There are a few which litereally blew my mind away! Keep a lookout for the train scene. LOVE ANGELINA JOLIE. Jack Macavoy also played a great loser really well. Must see!

YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN

- RECOMMENDED (If you like Adam Sandler) -

This is Adam Sandler back to his roots. Hilarious jokes. Adult Jokes. Body Part Jokes. Can be a turn-off if you dun like Adam Sandler. For me... I LOVED IT!

21

- CAN SEE IF YOU LIKE -

Decent movie about gambling. Kinda predictable but it was a fun movie for me. Nothing spectacular unless you are a true maths geek and enjoy trying to understand the maths behind it.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

- CAN SEE IF YOU LIKE -

Not a fantastic show, but much better than first one. Main characters are just not as interesting as characters in movies like Harry Potter. Shows you how important casting can be. On the whole, not bad lar.

GET SMART

- RECOMMENDED -

If you want to enjoy this show, leave your logic at the door. Don't try to think too hard, just sit back and enjoy Steve Carrel in all his naive stupidity. I find him pretty watchable. He hasn't reached irritation levels yet. Anne Hathaway is a nice icing on the cake. heh.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

- STRONGLY RECOMMENDED -

Though not as entertaining as Iron Man, this second hulk movie is much much better than the first hulk movie. Story moves along faster, effects are kinda fakey but still quite good, Edward Norton is an excellent Bruce Banner.

THE HAPPENING

- BEST MOVIE OF THE SEASON!!! NOT!!! -

This is such a wasted movie. Please avoid it. I only kinda enjoyed it only because it was so bad and I wanted to see how much lousier it could get. Even die-hard Shyamalan fans can't support him after this!

1Q 2005 Get Together

Sorry... this post is long overdue but I just downloaded the pics from my camera so I'm blogging it now (I know, I know.. it's a lousy excuse. :P).

On 18 June, Zongyi organized a class gathering for former 2005 1Q-ians. It was great to meet all those who turned up and you guys have really really changed so much! When Zongyi took out his laptop and showed me some of the pics when they were in Sec 1 and 2, it was almost hard to believe that you guys are in Sec 4 now!

A big THANK YOU to Zongyi for organizing the gathering. Hope we'll continue to keep in touch!

My new distraction...

It's been just over a week since I returned from Kyushu and I know my blog has not been getting many updates. Two main reasons really. (1) I'm in the finish-busy-period-so-now-I'm-super-slack mood and (2) I'm getting hooked on AoC (aka Age of Conan).


My days were kinda filled with catching up on all the movies I missed while I was away in Japan as well as catching up with friends. I've really been on a movie-watching and lunching/dinnering craze. My nights have been filled with the new MMORPG, Age Of Conan.

It's been some months since I kinda stopped playing WoW coz I was getting kinda bored of it. Things in my guild had gotten a little messy, so when I left the guild, I lost interest in the game. I still like WoW but I think I'll give it a break until the launch of the new expansion, Wrath of Lich King.


Age of Conan is the new MMORPG which is supposedly for more mature gamers (that's MATURE... not necessarily OLD.... heh...). It's reasonably fun so far. After playing for about 5 days, I'm up to level 16. That's still kinda low coz I think the action really starts after level 20.

The graphics for AoC are quite different from WoW. It's definitely more detailed and the combat is kinda bloody. I don't know if I really like this style of graphics. I'm not so much into realism. I think WoW is fantasy/cartoony enough to hold my attention and interest. And since WoW is not so graphics intensive, my laptop and old PC ran it reasonably well. For AoC, I had to upgrade my PC and even then, I'm only playing the game at a low to medium graphics level. Scary.


I'll give it a month of two to see how AoC shapes up. I think Wrath of Lich King is due for launch later this year. So I have up till then to see if I remain hooked on AoC.



Other than that... it's the off-peak season right now, so I'm thinking of taking a holiday. Can't decide to go to my always-favourite USA or try something new like Taiwan or maybe even Cambodia. Tough choices. :)

JYSS Photos Uploaded!

Yep! I've uploaded the photos for the JYSS Geog Kyushu Tour.

You can click the album link on the right or here (to access the entire album).

BVSS Photos Uploaded!

Hi all, it's nice to be back. Have been busy catching up on (1) sleep and (2) food!

I've enjoyed yummy horfun, vietnamese noodles, hainanese pork chop and more since I've come back. Next... laksa and chicken rice!

It was really nice to meet up with some of you from JYSS at the airport. Thanks for coming to receive me... sniff sniff.

I've uploaded the pics for BVSS. You can click the album link on the right or here.

Junyuanians... gimme a day or two more! Will upload the pics as soon as I can!

It's almost over!

Yes... finally time to go back to Singapore. I love Japan, I really do... but doing three tours in 2.5 weeks is really quite tiring. Cannot wait to sink my teeth into some shiok local singapore food!

Although tiring, I must say that I have been very fortunate to have three pretty fun groups. Each group was fun in their own way and the challenges were also very different.

The last group is from SJIMB. Thanks for the fun memories guys... and stop calling me u-noe-what!!!

Another tour... over

Blogging from my room in Hakata Fukuoka. Another group departs tomorrow and another group is arriving at the same time. I don't remember ever having such an exciting schedule of tours. Usually there's a day or two of rest before the next group starts. Must admit I'm feeling a little burnt out. Must push on for one more group! Kanpatei!

I'll be saying good bye to JYSS tomorrow. Thanks for a really interesting trip... I don't think I've done so much adventure work in a Japan tour before! I will try to upload the pictures when I get back or maybe I might pass a CD of the pics to your teachers. All the best! And I hope we will bump into each other some time soon. Here's a picture to remind you guys of my 500+steps of suffering. :-)

From Amakusa, Kyushu...

It's been a really busy two weeks since I last blogged. I'm right now in Amakusa in Kyushu, the first time I've visited this place... and I'm almost finished with the second tour group. One more to go! I'll blog a little more when I return next week.

For now, here's a BIG HI to the students from BVSS who might be dropping by my blog. Hope I didn't make your life too miserable! heh.

I will upload the photos into my Flickr account when I get back to Singapore. Thanks for the memories and I hope to see you all soon!

Silly Notices

I'm sure many of you who take the NEL have seen this notice at the escalators in the stations. Everytime I see them, I can't help but snigger coz I think the notice does make some silly implications (OK, I know my implications are statistically wrong, but hey... as long as I'm happy...)

Well, if 8 out of 10 injuries are cause by improper use of the escalators... does it mean that 2 out of 10 are caused by PROPER use of the escalators?!! That's not very assurng.

The next one is a bit sillier.

If 5 out of 10 injuries are by passengers not holding on to the handrails... doesn't it mean that 5 out of 10 injuries are also caused by passengers HOLDING on to the handrails?!! Heh. So it doesn't really make a difference whether I hold on to the handrails or not, right?

So, in the end, we are told that in order to help, we should (1) ask the elderly to old the handrails. I wonder why, since statistically, the possibility of injuring yourself is the same whether I hold on to the handrails or not. and (2) we should ask the elderly to use the lifts! lolz. So next time, whenever we see an elderly attempting to use the escalator, we should go up to him/her and tell him/her that he is not allowed to use the escalator. Might as well ban them from the escalators right? lolz.

OKOK, I know I'm just making silly implications. What to do? Nothing else to do when taking the trains mah. So think of stupid things lor. :-)

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I've been itching to catch this show since it opened on Thursday. Yep, I'm not one to wait. So once, my crazy week was over, I couldn't wait to pop into a cinema today to catch IJATKCS. Lolz. That's quite a mouthful. IJATKCS is a sequel 20 years in the making. Has it been worth the wait?

Storywise, I think it's pretty much in the similar vein as the early Indiana Jones movies. Two weeks ago, I made an effort to rewatch the original movies to remind myself of them. As I sat through the movie today, I think Spielberg has remained quite true to the original flavour of the IJ movies. So story-wise, time has been kind to the franchise.

Moving on to the actors.... heh... I must admit that as much as I was impressed with Harrison Ford doing many of the action sequences, I couldn't help thinking...boy, is he old. lolz. It's been 20 years and I think it shows. He's no less entertaining. But at times, I felt it was a bit of a misfit. Shia Labeouf does a pretty decent job as Indiana's son. Yeah, we all know he is probably being groomed to take over the Indiana Jones franchise and although he doesn't really do much in this movie, I think the scenes he were involved in were done pretty well. The other main actor in this movie is Cate Blanchett as the evil russian scientist. I felt she was kinda corny. Her accent really sounded weird but oh well, I didn't go to this movie expecting academy-award winning performances.

I want to say a little about the special effects. I have to say that there were a few scenes which really blew me away. The first one was the atomic bomb mushroom cloud. Phew. It was awesome and scary. The other happens near the end. I won't say more as I don't want to spoil the ending to anyone who is reading this review. But I was really glued to my seat when the final mega-effect scene unfolded.

On the whole, IJATKCS is a fun show. Don't expect deep plots. Just go expecting a roller coaster ride. I still enjoy the clue-solving moments. I like to think of IJATKCS as a big budget version of the National Treasure series. Watch it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

A Crazy Week

Phew. The last week and a half has been quite a ride. It's two weeks before the school holidays and all the schools going on tour with us have asked for tour briefings during the part one and a half weeks. In the last week alone, I've had to conduct 5 briefings in 5 days. That has been quite a challenge. Briefings entail preparing briefing notes, briefing kits, and also the powerpoint for the actual presentation. Being the perfectionist that I am, this has meant working right up to the last minute, trying to perfect the presentation. It has been very very challenging and given that I am quite a slacker... heh.. (especially since I stopped working full-time), it has required tremendous willpower to temporarily restrain myself from my usual worldly pursuits! Yep.. NO MOVIES in the last 10 days! Yep... that's TEN days without visiting the celluloid chambers! Believe me, that took alot of effort on my part. heh.

Anyway, I've been really lucky to have some part-time help in office to prepare the stuff for my briefings. Having gone through the past 7 briefings (it was 5 in 5 days and 7 in 10 days), I am quite proud to say that I think I've done reasonably well. I wanted to do more than the usual boring tour briefing and I think I've improved on my presentation through the last 7 briefings. It's quite satisfying to know that I have managed to do some different things and that I have received pretty good feedback from the teachers. The other thing that has been exciting for me is the opportunity to address students during the briefings. It's been almost 20 months since I left teaching and I really do miss interacting with students in a classroom-like environment. I think conducting briefings has been as close as I could get for now to a classroom environment. Yeah, I do wonder if I should return to teaching again. Perhaps if the time and opportunity is right...

Well, one more week and I'll be off to Fukuoka for almost 2 weeks. The week ahead is gonna be real busy as I finalize the details of the tours I have been organizing for some schools. Then it's off to Kyushu with my first of three tour groups. I'm trying to think how to make my tours different from the normal tours. Gonna definitely try to think out of the box as I plan to lead the three tours.

The next three weeks should be challenging... and very tiring! Sigh, less slacking for me...

A Nostalgic Ride

Wow... Boarded bus 93 outside Queensway Shopping Centre and realised it was a NON-Aircon bus! Haven't taken one in a long time.

A great start to Summer Blockbuster season!

Last Friday was a very satisfying day. Watched two movies and ended up being thoroughly satisfied with BOTH movies. It seems that the Summer Blockbuster season has officially started!

IRON MAN

IRON MAN is an excellent movie. The trailers were pretty interesting and I was a little afraid that expectations would be too high and the movie would be a disappointment. I am glad to say that I was not disappointed.

Robert Downey Junior totally fits the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man. He not only seems to look the part, he also plays the role convincingly well. There is a certain playfulness and innocence with the way he explores his new found armour and it's a joy to see him flying through the air. The other roles are played quite well too. Gwyneth Paltrow is also a pretty fun Pepper Potts. She doesn't try to overact and plays her role in an understated yet convincing manner.

The story is fairly straightforward. There weren't many surprises but the story did move along briskly and at least there weren't too many silly plotholes or ridiculous storylines.

But who am I kidding. The real star of the show is the armour and special effects. This is a techie's dream-come-true. From the cool 3D computer interface effects to all the little hydraulic/mechanical parts of the armour, every moment was a moment in techie heaven.

Iron Man was a throughly enjoyable show. In the list of superhero movies, I would say it would be second to Spiderman 2, but definitely beats Spider 1, Spidey 3, Hulk, Superman and the newer, darker Batman. It was a fun ride. Don't hesitate. Watch it now.

HAROLD & KUMAR: ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY

I wasn't expecting anything much from this movie. I didn't watch the first one so I didn't know what the story was about. But since I was in the mood for something stupid, I decided to go for it. I know it's M18, so my apologies to the under-18s, but if you are of the required age... this show is hilarious and certainly worth watching.

This show is pretty no-holds barred. H&K really does make fun or anything and everything. But I think the one thing that raises it above crass humour is that it makes fun of all things American. Hollywood usually makes fun of many racial stereotypes, but in this movie, the minorities (ie. Korean and Indian) make fun of American stereotypes. It's kinda refreshing.

Harold & Kumar is good fun. But it might not be everyone's cup of tea coz there is lots of talk of weed and sexual humour.

Review, Review, Review, Review (That's 4 Reviews)

OK, have watched plenty of movie so here are some quick reviews of the last few. Actually, not sure if I should continue with these reviews coz I dunno if anyone reads them even. So, maybe if you do read them, how about saying something in my cbox so I can decide if I should continue doing them or not.

NIM'S ISLAND - I didn't really go to this movie with much expectation. I caught it simply coz there was nothing else to watch that day. I have to say I liked the movie in a weird kinda way. It was certainly quite childish, but I knew it was supposed to be, so that helped. I didn't take it too seriously so I didn't have an issue with Nim (the girl star) talking to the animals. I also liked how Jodie Foster didn't take herself very seriously and played a very funny author suffering from agoraphobia. Movie can be a little slow at times, but on the whole, an enjoyable, childish movie.

FORBIDDEN KINGDOM - Oh my goodness, how wrong can a movie get. Not much more wrong than this, I can tell you. This was supposed to be the ultimate showdown - Jet Li vs Jackie Chan, but it was just a big comedic attempt. What did they do wrong? (1) Do literal translations from Mandarin to English. Since when do we enter the Gate of No Gate to return to the Land of No Land where you Love of no Love exists? (2) Make the ancient chinese act like they had bilingual lessons in school! Since when did the chinese people of olden times speak english? American english no less! Come on, this was an obvious attempt to pander to the americans. When will Jackie take more pride in his own race. (3) An american kid as a hero in a chinese movie? OMG. To be fair, he did a decent job, but the whole idea is plain stupid. (4) Bad & sad Chinese stereotypes. The Jade Warlord and all his minions had a heavy does of eyeshadow. Don't ask me why. And the Jade Warlord spoke like some kuniang! And I loved it when the Jade Emperor (supposedly the king of the chinese gods) asks the ang mo kid "What is your request? Please?" SO POLITE!!! Like the Jade Emperor was some servant. This movie failed miserably as an action/kungfu film. If you are looking for a comedy, this is it.

THREE KINGDOMS - This is one complicated movie. They did try to give it a sense of scale and some of the battle scenes were not bad. But a poor script with a poor handling of the main characters left you wondering who was who and who did what. Kinda sad coz I know this is supposed to be an epic. It wasn't lousy. Just didn't live up to what it could have been.

STREET KINGS - This movie was kinda watchable. Nothing fantastic, which is a slight disappointment considering that Forest Whitaker is in it. Sadly, Whitaker overacts in this film and channels his 'Last King of Scotland' role too much. On the whole, this wasn't a bad movie, just a forgettable one. Felt just like a longer TV episode of the typical cops & villains show.

Buzzing Cashier

I never caught a proper episode of this show. Most of the time, I'm catching up on Last Comic Standing or something else. I finally remembered to set my Hubstation to record it tonite and for the first time, I watched a full episode and I must say I really enjoyed it very much!

First off, Kym Ng and Quan Yifeng are unbeatable as comperes. I've seen some of the other shows with the other mediacorp comperes and no one, not a single one, can compare to the chemistry of these two clowns. They are so witty and they can really play off each other. I don't think I've laughed so much at a mediacorp show in a long time.

Secondly, the concept of the show is really good. I heard it's loosely based on some english programme which I've never seen, so I don't really care. The basic idea is to go to a hawker/food court stall which is not doing well, offer to let the chefs undergo expert mentoring by some pro-chef and then see if they improve. This week's episode was so heartwarming I almost wanted to rush out to the food court stall to buy something from them to support the owner! The owner is this quiet, unassuming, humble man who was basically selling some mass produced char siew, roast pork, etc. So, he basically started learning from scratch how to make char siew and roast pork! He was so earnest and willing to learn and accept criticism. My heart really felt for him and his wife. I am so going to drop by cineleisure to try their char siew! In contrast, I think 2 or 3 weeks ago, I caught a bit of this hawker centre couple who were literally arguing and accusing the producers of the show when things didn't go too well.

It seems next week is already the last episode and I've missed the last 10 episodes. This might actually push me to try out mobtv so that I can catch those 10 episodes!

Great show!

My Toenailsectomy

I finally decided to go see my GP and get my toe nail sliced. I can't believe it, but it's been almost 2yrs since I first started having problems with an ingrown toenail on my left foot's big toe. 2 long yrs.

I've had countless visits to the podiatrist. Endured countless excruciating nail snips. Grinned through the toe infections.

I couldn't bring myself to go get it done coz I had heard that it was really painful. Well, I'm glad to say it wasn't painful at all. heh.

My GP first spent about 15mins injecting my toe at various points with a local anesthetic. When my toe finally lost it's feeling, he started working on slicing about a quarter of my nail off all the way to the roots of the nail. Basically, the idea is to stop that part of my nail from growing back every again. After about 10mins, it was done. He showed me the part he sliced off. I was quite tempted to take a pic for this blog, but kinda decided it might not be in very good taste to show a bloody nail. heh. Would have been cool though.

Anyway, he wrapped it up tight and good and now I look like those cartoon shows where they wrap a toe/finger until it looks a huge lightbulb. The local anesthetic started wearing off about 2 hours after the cut (which is about 1.5hrs ago) and it's starting to throb.... it's obvious that the pain is finally going to show it's true face.

Been warned about possible excessive bleeding. Doctor says it might even drip through the dressing.... (still can't decide if he was scaring me for fun or if it's true...) Thankfully, dun see any blood for now.

Glad I got it done. Hope I don't have this stupid ingrown toe nail problem again.

RIP Dear Friend

Today is a sad day.

After many many many years of good service, I have decided to let my favourite sleep-time-t-shirt go to the great clothes drawer up above. After many attempts at mending and patching (as you can see below), I think it's time to just let go. *sniff*

If I patched it anymore, it would probably be made of an entirely new T-shirt anyway. *sob*

It was one of my earliest BIG DOG shirts. It was one of my favouritest BIG DOG shirt.

Good bye. I will miss sleeping in you.

True or False?

There Brand's Essence posters have been posted up everywhere. The implications are obvious. But i wonder how true they are. If it's true that the two kids drank that chicken essence, at least it wouldn't be too bad. But if they didn't, then it's such a sad reflection of the unethicality (heh. my word) of the marketing industry. And what are we teaching these two 'top PSLE students'? The reality of false marketing and whoring themselves out to any company who is willing to pay?

Kinda sad, isn't it?