LTA near city hall

Always had a fascination with long corridors.

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

OK, did Sweeny Todd break the series of bad movies? I am a little mixed with that. As a musical, it was reasonably interesting. But the songs aren't as catchy and engaging as say Moulin Rouge and Hairspray. The two actors played their role well, I did like Johnny Depp and Helen Bonham Carter in the lead roles. It was also fun to watch Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) and Timothy Spall (Wormtail) together in a movie other than Harry Potter. Sacha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) was also great as a rival barber.

But the sum of good performances didn't strike the gold for me. I think the movie was just too dark (Tim Burton's favourite colour scheme) and I must admit I am getting sick of gornography (excessive gore in movies). There were so many throat slashings and blood spurting in the movie. Kinda turned me off.

I guess you could say the movie is among the better ones that I've seen in comparison to the recent others. But on it's own, I think it's just passable. I really need some gore-less movie right now. Something lighthearted and fun and maybe even heartwarming. Enough with the blood splatters and see-how-much-worse-i-can-kill-a-person scenes. I might even just go for something totally chick flick like 27 dresses.... yes, I am that desperate.... :-)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Boy, is the title of this movie long. And like many reviewers have said, the movie title pretty much tells you the entire story of the movie, spoiler included. For me, the movie is just like the title. LONG. VERY LONG.

I went to the movie expecting some sort of a western - horse-riding, gun fights, etc. All I saw was a long drama set in a western. I can't say the movie is bad. It's just that it takes soooo long to tell a simple story. In fact, I pretty much enjoyed the last 20mins after Jesse James got assassinated. But the 2h 10min that preceded the assassination was very long. Long, with very little action. One reviewer on the web summed it up well, this was like literally watching a book being read. It reminds me how important a screenwriter is in translating a book into a movie. You just can't do everything that's in a book. I have to compliment the writers of the Harry Potter movies. They don't follow the books page by page but are able to pick out the best and most important parts for the movie-goer.

The high point during the movie came when a group of teenage school girls left the cinema about 1hr into the movie. They obviously thought they were going to get to ogle at their dahling BRad Pitt. Little did they expect that all they got was a long movie.

Kinda sad. So desperate for a good movie. My last few movies were quite disappointing. I wonder if Sweeney Todd will turn the tide....

Cloverfield

By now, much has been said in the media about this movie. I'm gonna keep this review short and say that I didn't like this movie at all.

Firstly, yeah, I was one of those who had a severe attack of motion sickness 15mins into the movie. It was really bad. Felt really giddy and wanted to throw up. Had to watch the rest of the movie by keeping my eyes closed and opening them only at the portions when the camera wasn't swinging wildly around. I've watched Blair Witch Project and I didn't feel sick watching that even though it was done in a similar video-cam style. I think the diff was that in Cloverfield, the camera was wildly swinging around all the time. Really made me sick.

Secondly, even as I thought about the story, I found that on the whole, it was not very exciting. We don't really learn anything about the monster. No background, no ending. The movie just felt like one of those 3D rides in a theme park.

Yeah, some reviews are saying how excellent the movie is. For me... YUCK. Nuff said.

Paprika

Finally got around to watching this movie. It's pretty highly rated and some reviews place it as the top anime movie of 2007. I've been looking out for it at VideoEzy and was glad they finally had it last week.

I've watched Satoshi Kon's previous movie, Tokyo Godfathers and thought it was a very warm show. Told a simple story but left you feeling warm and happy at the end. Paprika on the other hand, is kinda weird. I know it's about dreams mixing into reality, but I just didn't find myself getting into the characters much. In fact, although I normally prefer listening to the english dubbing, I actually changed back to the original jap track coz I felt the voicing of the characters just sounded wrong.

The animation is pretty interesting and I did find the dream sequences mildly hypnotic and engaging. But the story just wasn't very interesting to me. On the whole, I found the movie a bit of a yawn. At some points, I had to force myself to continue just to reach the end.

Maybe Paprika is just not my kind of anime. I usually prefer something with a bit more fantasy element. Personally, I wouldn't think it was that fantastic to be the top anime last year.

Was leaving the house today when i noticed these flowers in my own garden. Thought they looked really beautiful. Isn't it sad that i've never noticed then before?

Lego Star Wars T-16

Nah, I didn't spend money to buy a new Star Wars lego. Took apart my Imperial Star Destroyer and found the instructions on the internet for Luke Skywalker's T-16. The build isn't too difficult. Got it done in about 2 hours. The model is pretty big, easily more than half a metre tall from the base of the stand to the top wing tip. The only thing that I don't like about it is that the weapons (the roundish thing at the bottom) is not really connected to the ship. It's actually part of the stand. So the whole model can't be separated. It's the stand+the ship. Might try to see if I can use some parts to make some changes so the weapons are properly connected to the ship and the ship can be separated from the stand.

New Lego Stuff

OK, I've got this addiction to Lego that comes and goes. When it hits, I'll like have to get my hands on new stuff until the 'kick' dies off. Then I'll lay off it for a while until the new series comes in and I get addicted again.

It all started with the new Star Wars series that came in last week. When I saw the new stock at Novena Bricksworld, I couldn't resist it. Ended up with the new Rogue Shadow which belongs to the Star Wars Alternate Universe series. They are the vehicles which didn't appear in the movies but elsewhere like in the cartoons. Anyway, I enjoyed building the Rogue Shadow. Here are two pics of it. The only thing that pissed me off was when I found out how much it cost in the US. The original price is US$50 which works out to less than S$75. Lego Singapore had set the price at S$130!!! Even with my discount card, I paid about S$117 for it the set. Even with some shipping cost thrown in, I can't believe I should be paying so much for it. Turns me off buying the other new sets. Might end up waiting for some frenz to come back from US and getting them to bring back a set or two for me.



Well, after building the Rogue Shadow, my lego addiction kinda kicked in so I had to get another lego. But I refused to buy any of the overpriced ones. Ended up with the helicopter from the creator series which can be reassembled into 2 other models. Paid about S$41 for it. Checked the US price and it was going for US$20 which is about S$30. I guess paying S$10 more isn't too bad.


Anyway, I've been hooked on Star Wars Lego for the last 2 years or so. Here's a part of my collection of the figures from the Lego sets. Some are not displayed here, like the slave girl leia figure... too hot!! lolz...

New Gundam Megablok

Two weeks ago, my brother told me about the new Gundam Megabloks which was on sale at about S$100 at Takashimaya and Toys 'R Us. Went down and I could only find the MS-06S Char's Zaku II. The RX-78-2 Gundam was sold out. Despite my fear of Mega Bloks, I decided to give it a try coz the models looked pretty good.

Spent a few hours (almost 4hrs i think) to complete it. But, I was quite disappointed with the entire process coz:

1. Megablok bricks feel plasticky. Compared to lego, the pieces just feel lighter and cheaper. Add to that, the blocks are also matt coloured, giving it an overall cheaper look when compared to Lego's shinier/brighter looks.

2. Megablok bricks don't fit as well. A few times, the bloks dun fit properly and end up being a little loose. I rarely have that problem with lego.

3. Very bad instructions. Lego's building instructions are really very clear. When I looked at Megablok's instructions, I was often confused. Firstly, they dun list the parts required for each step clearly. Secondly, they also dun show how the bricks are joined very clearly. More than once, I had to go back because I had used a wrong brick or I had joined the parts wrongly due to the unclear instructions.

4. The building process isn't as fun. Maybe I'm a little biased. I found that the building of the model was not very interesting. Many parts were just stacking bricks over each other. For lego, the way the sets are built are much more interesting and I often find myself a little 'wow-ed' by the way they build up the model.

On the whole, while the end product looks decent, I really didn't enjoy building the whole thing. Probably will stick to Lego from now on....

Anyway, here's how the boxes look. There's a third set, but I can't find the pic...

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To those still going to school
May your new year be filled with experiences that will last you a lifetime. Enjoy schooling (yes.. even though you have tests/projects/exams/etc) while you can.

To those going/in NS
May your new year pass as fast as possible and may your liberation draw ever nearer.

To those who are working
May your work life be fulfilling and may you enjoy what you do.

To All
Good health for the new year!

ORIGINAL HAPPY VERSION

Saw the above cartoon in the newspaper concerning the increase in tariffs. See how chirpy they are! I thought the version below is a slightly more accurate cartoon. :P

ADJUSTED REALITY VERSION

Celebrate Life by riding SMRT!

Wow... I love these publicity slogans. I never knew that by riding the SMRT, I am celebrating life!! heh. I really wonder where these marketing companies come up with their slogans. I guess it must be from the same place where they come up with names like 'Marina Bay' for Marina Bay, 'Budget Terminal' for our Budget Termina and 'Science Centre, Singapore' for our Singapore Science Centre.

Attack of the Gurmit Clones

Loved this comic in today's TODAY. Totally captures the state of our English entertainment channel. If it's not Gurmit Singh, it's Adrian Pang. It's like, there are no other English actors in our little red dot?

Bus Fare is too cheap! Must charge more!

Strangely, this is what our Public Transport Council told SMRT when it wanted to launch a feeder bus service in Yio Chu Kang. Below is the excerpt from TODAY (26 Dec 2007):

"When the proposal was submitted to the Public Transport Council (PTC) in June, it was rejected because the fare proposed ($1.30 per trip) was not appropriate for a premium bus service, usually priced between $2 to $3 per trip."

So... isn't it no surprise that our bus/mrt/taxi fares only go up and up? Even the PTC, who is supposed to help regulate the fares, tell the companies that they are charging too low! lolz.

No more tubes

How time flies. I've been on the tube for about a month and finally, the doctor has decided that it's time to remove the tube & bottle from me. After a series of blood tests and a very expensive CT scan (costs close to $800), it seems most of the infection has subsided. When he took out the PICC, which is basically the 'plug' inserted in my upper arm, I was anticipating a painful experience, especially since the insertion process was not the most pleasant experience . It was with much relief when he simply pulled the tube out and I felt nothing. The tube was easily up to 50cm long.... kinda scary actually. Well, I'm finally liberated from the liquid antibiotics and have moved on to tablets, which I'm supposed to be on for another month. Problem is, it seems I might have developed some form of allergy to the drug. Just before the plug was taken out, some spots and a bit of rash started appearing on parts of my skin. It's kinda itchy and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll go away soon.

Christmas has been kinda low-key this year. I guess it's partly due to the fact that I was/am recovering from the MRSA infection. I stayed away from the main shopping areas as much as I could and laboured to finish my Christmas shopping more than a week before Christmas (a first for me!) so as to avoid the last minute crowds.

My office has moved to Toa Payoh. At first, I was pretty psyched that I would be so much nearer to home. But then I realized that our 'excellent' public transport system is such that travelling from Serangoon Gardens to Toa Payoh by bus took me just as much time as travelling to Shenton Way!! It's really weird, but I have to leave my house at pretty much the same time in order to reach my office in Toa Payoh HDB Hub on time. I think it's due mainly to the fact that the SBS bus is caught in at least 2 jams along the way to Toa Payoh and there are plenty of stops. When I took the 'private' bus service, it zipped along the CTE. The advantage of the private bus is I had a nice seat all the way to work/home. For the SBS bus, I have to rush for a seat and squeeze with the others on the crowded bus. Not a pleasant way to get to/from work.

Of course, the stupid increase in taxi fares don't really make things easier. I still can't believe the addition of the 35% surcharge during peak hours. Well, it's driven me to make an effort to wake up a couple of minutes earlier so that I won't need to take a taxi to work. I've also started thinking thrice before flagging down a taxi. It's not that I've given up on them. In fact, I think taking the cab during off peak hours (from around 10am to 4.30pm) is pretty ok. There is some increase which I think is reasonable. But if it's the peak hour, I'm gonna stay as far away from the cabs as possible. Congratulations to the rich folks who now find it easier to catch a cab during peak hours. My sympathies to the cab drivers who my have lost some income due to the crazy increases.

It's sometimes frustrating to live in a country where everything is spoken in terms of dollars and cents. Roads too crowded? Charge more to use them. Not enough taxis? Charge more to get them. Need better ministers/public servants? Pay more to hire them. Want to get faster service (like in the hospitals)? Pay a premium for the ease & speed. And the thing is, everyone in any position of authority just seems to nod their heads and say it's the only solution. And we (including me) obedient citizens just grin and bear it. Sigh.

Sorry for the somewhat disconnected post. Haven't posted in a while so just decided to have some writer's diarrhoea todae.

Hope your Christmas was a memorable one!

Sigh... back to work

Sigh, finally, it's back to work for me... My mc ends today and tomorrow it's back to the office. It's definitely gonna take plenty of will power to get up at 7am in the morning and drag myself to the office. Good thing is, my office has moved to Toa Payoh, which means significantly less travelling time to and from work. Food and shopping there is much better than Shenton Way too! Bad thing is... I've gotta go to work. Doesn't help that I've gotta bring my little bottle everywhere I go. SIGH.

The Golden Compass

last day of freedom before I return to work tomorrow.... what better way to spend it then to catch an afternoon movie...

The Golden Compass has been getting mixed reviews. In fact, in my favourite review site, metacritic.com, the scores aren't very fantastic. I've not the read the book so I went for the movie with no idea what it's about.

The actors in the movie are pretty well chosen. Nicole Kidman is excellent in her schizo role. I love her sudden outburst and how she suddenly switches from a bitch to a caring nun. Chilling! Daniel Craig has less than 5min screen time so it's pretty hard to say much about him. But from what little time he had on the screen, he seemed to be cast in a role well suited to him as well. Of course the big question is whether the new comer, Dokato Blue Richards, can pull off the role of her life. I gotta say I'm impressed with her acting in this movie. She comes across as being very gutsy with a hint of slyness. As mentioned in some reviews, when compared to how kids like Daniel Radcliffe first appeared in their movies, Dakota Blue Richards is way ahead of them in her professionalism.

Of course, the big stars here are also the special effects. I loved the world they created in the movie. It draws you into the story and makes you look forward to more whimsical creations. The animal/daemon CGI is also very well done. Other than the little morphing daemons, I was blown away by the awesome polar bear CGI. Look out for the big fight between the two polar bears... and watch out for the brutal end. I couldn't believe the movie was rated pg-13. heh.

I also enjoyed the story which was pretty fast moving. I'm sure there's much more in the book, but just like in the Harry Potter movies, you really can't have everything faithfully reproduced or each movie would be a 10hr ordeal. Until I read the book, I'll have to say the scriptwriters managed to put together a good story which held my attention from beginning to end.

The Golden Compass was not a disappointment. In fact, if you asked me to rank it together with the first movies of the other big franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, I might even say that it beats the two of them. LOTR 1 sets up a beautiful world but I didn't care much for the first story. Harry Potter 1 was a little shaky with the young actors and so-so story line. Golden Compass seems to have gotten the formula right. This is a great movie to start the December movie season!

Recovery's a bore

OK, it's been 3 days since I've been discharged. I've basically been resting at home except for Sunday morning when I had to report to the hospital for a new bottle of antibiotics. After that, I took the opportunity to drop by Funan to get some DVDs and then to Kinokuniya at Taka coz they were having their 20% discount sale. Phew. It was really tiring to move around since I've been hospital bound for 2 weeks. It's gonna take some time for me to get back to normal... if that ever happens.

At the same time, I'm also getting used to life with my little bottle. Here's a pic of it. The blue pouch is a thermal pouch which the hospital graciously gives so that we can carry the bottle around while preventing extreme changes in temperature. You can see the balloon/condom in the bottle which basically contains the antibiotic. As time passes, the balloon gets smaller as more of the antibiotic is pressured into my body.


The bottle's with me all the time, whole day long. I've gotta constantly remember to bring it along with me and at the same time, make sure the tube doesn't get tangled or caught somewhere. When I sleep, there's also the fear that I might rip the tube from the plug in my body. When I bathe, I've gotta waterproof the bottle and the plug in my right arm to make sure it remains dry so that the plug doesn't get infected. Sigh. Sounds fun right?

Anyway, tomorrow's my second refill visit to the hospital. Second day of outing! Hooray! I might just go catch up on a movie.

Two weeks

That's how long I've been away. Two long weeks. Not on a holiday, mind you. How I wish I was on one. The two long weeks were actually spent in Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

As my faithful readers might remember, I've been going through a tough time with a fever which refused to go away. I seriously mean a 24hour fever, everyday. All I could do was pop 2 panadols every few hours to try to keep the fever under control. Of course, I was seeing my normal doctor who was putting me through tests and antibiotics to try and tame the fever. However, 2 weeks ago, on 9 Nov, I knew I had to get myself admitted when my fever crossed the 40 degree limit and refused to come down. So on 10 Nov, I went over to Tan Tock Seng A&E and got myself admitted.

There were many needle proddings, blood drawings, body scannings. And after about 4 days, the doctors reached the conclusion that I had caught MRSA, also commonly known as the dreaded Superbug. Simply put, MRSA is a bacteria which is resistant to all normal antibiotics. For me, the MRSA had attacked my right kidney which apparently was filled with pus due to the infection. So, for the next one and a half weeks, I had a tube stuck to me right kidney to drain the pus from it, and I was put on a strong antibiotic called Vancomycin which is one of the drugs used to tackle MRSA.

Everyday was a dead bore. All I had was Channel 5, 8 and U and my Nintendo DS. Unfortunately, having a tube stuck to your kidney greatly decreases the pleasure of playing on my DS. So I'm left with the mind-numbing programmes on the free-to-air channels. I tell you, I still cannot believe how mediacorp can come up with programmes like 80s Rewind and The Noose.

Staying in a hospital is every bit as horrible as you can ever imagine. And this is coming from someone who paid to stay in a B1 ward. Other than the constant needle poking, or the misery-inducing groans from the other patients with painful/more serious problems, I must say that I cannot understand why the hospital can't make a half-decent cup of milo. Someone must have read the instructions wrong and decided that it was like one teaspoon of milo for every cup of milky hot water. The milo was miserable. Food was not too bad. But when I was put on a liquid diet for a day, I could not believe how they could mush up everything to make it 'liquid'. yuck.

Well, after two weeks, I'm finally out. But it's not quite over. Due to the strong infection, I have to be on the intravenous antibiotics for another month. So basically, I now carry a bottle with me everywhere I go. The bottle is filled with the antibiotics which I have to refill at the hospital every 2 days. Whoopee. So now, I have the pleasure of finding ways and means to camouflage the bottle and tube when I go out... which I am dying to do since I've been cooped up in a hospital /home for 2 weeks.

On a positive note, I am feeling much better since the treatment began. But it's kinda scary to find out that I've caught MRSA. It's a pretty strong bug and can be life threatening too. Well, here's hoping for a proper recovery.

80's Rewind

i must admit it. I wanted to watch this because I wanted to find out how much it would suck. And disappoint me it did not.

Main storyline A: Mother & Father obsessed with tree-planting & starting a neighbourhood watch.

Main storyline B: Two brothers trying to get tickets to watch Return of Jedi. They end up getting it from a 'scalper' called Obi Wan Neo... :S Helloo..... Neo is Matrix.... didn't even happen till 1990s.

Both storylines suck.

The acting sucks. Talk about 80s rewind. The acting standards are probably 80s standard too.

Jokes suck. Father threatens sons with.... MOTHER! wow! no one must have ever thot about such a joke. Son says he was robbed. Everyone still keeps asking 'Were you robbed?'. funny hor.

It's been 20mins, I've not even broken into a smile. It's a seriously sad show. I didn't dare to watch The Noose last weekend. I think I'm glad I didn't.

okok.. now got romantic twist.... wife thinks of how a tree helped her get over hubby went he went for NS. That's why tree-planting so important. OMG!!!! What a contrived story!

Thank God. Advert time. Some decent storylines/filming. Please adverts, please dun end....

Sigh. Adverts ended. Soppy round up. Something about planting a bean for wife to see it forever and remember him all the time.

Wow... HILARIOUS ENDING. They all got tickets to watch Return of Jedi and just as the movie started, their sister tells them the twist at the end that Princess Leia is Luke's sister. SO FUNNY.

What is wrong with Mediacorp? Seriously.... Who on earth can think this is even near funny? This is more proof of the death of Mediacorp local programming.