Inspirational Pictures... From Another Angle

Too lazy to write... didn't watch any new movies recently anyway... New Moon, Mulan, Astro Boy... all crappy movies :P. And I'm playing this new game, Dragon Age: Origins that need me to play at least 6 times before seeing all available content in the game... and every playthrough is like around 50+ hours... this is one of the best pc game investment I have ever made... now in second playthrough...

Found these pictures in my junk mail folder... just wanna share...

It's choice not chance that determines your destiny... it's true... so we should not give any chance to anyone at all!

Nothing happens... but first a dream... if everything that I dream of has a possibility of coming true, I shudder at that thought... basically, I dreamt myself ruler of the world and everyone else is my super loyal slave :P

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things... sure, handphones 10 years ago were really monstrously big!

Throw your heart  over the fence and the rest will follow... I can't help but laugh when looking at this picture... it's so true... when you jump over the fence into the cliff, surely the rest of your body will follow :P

Burn brightly without burning out... impossible... if the sun can burn itself out, who are we to compare ourselves to the great and mighty Sun?

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day, saying... "I will try again tomorrow."... well, I don't know about you, but hearing a quiet voice in my head is pretty scary... and definitely will not make me courageous.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life... that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself... this is what I have been preaching all along... everyone who help another is a selfish person... so, not helping anyone is my motto!

Keep your face to the sunshine and you will not see the shadows... sure, if everyone has really dark, burned faces (due to sunburn), you won't be able to differentiate shadows and faces :P... tell that to the girls who hide behind umbrellas!

The best sermons are lived, not preached... true, but humans are such generous animals... they have to share what they know and if others don't follow what they believe is right, then the others are wrong.

The heart that gives, gathers... erm... I think it should be the one who gets a heart, gathers :P

Find your joy, and... share it with others... duh, if I can find joy without sharing with others, why would I need to share with others?]

Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there... ah, this is what my mum told me when I was little... we must continue to improve ourselves or we will be left behind... but then again, even if you are on the right track, and running, you still will get run over by those who step over you to win the race!

Laughter is an instant vacation... which is why I rarely take vacation... people spend thousands going to foreign soil while I just need a dvd to laugh myself into vacation!

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything... including falling in love? :P

The only things that stand between a person and what they want in life are the will to try it, and the faith to believe it's possible... I'm pretty sure that other than will and faith, other things that stand in between includes, time, death, luck, destiny, God, etc.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but the echoes are truly endless... I'm unsure it that meant the effect resulting from kind words are endless or people talking about it would be endless... either way, it's bad... it's bad for someone to want others to talk about the good deed they have done and it's bad that your actions (kind or otherwise) have infinite consequences since sooner all later, everything good will turn bad and vice versa...

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides... again... nobody ever heard of sunburn? I'm wilting like crazy under one sun... but two? No wonder I avoid this like a plague...

Change your thoughts and change your world... okay... I am the Master of the world and everyone will be my slave... waiting... waiting... waiting...

Sometimes in the winds of change we find our true direction... it's possible... but more than often, we will get lost forever!

I know, I know, I'm so sarcastic but all I said were true too :P

Movie Reiew 35: 2012

Title: 2012

Director: Ronald Emmerich

Running time: 2 hours 38 minutes

Genre: Sci-fi

What would you do if the world is going to end in two days? Such is one of the themes explored in the movie... some would accept their fate, some would try to survive while some would die without knowing why. The reason behind the end of the world depicted in 2012 is too advanced for me to understand... it has something to do with shifting of Earth crust... in conclusion, the earth is restructuring it's surfaces... some land will rise, some will crack and some will just simply sink into the bottom of the ocean.

This movie focuses on the struggle of several characters... the intelligent geologist Adrian Helmsly (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who is amongst the first to discover the shifting of Earth crust (apart from the Mayans and previous generations scientists) and later is the one who managed to increase the survivor numbers by several times more than previously arranged. Then, we have Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a divorcee, who do accidentally stumbled on the top-secret and will do anything to save his ex-wife, children and ex-wife's bf. These are the two group/individuals with the extra screen time... while others have a relatively short (living) time :P.

I think that this movie is quite nice. I don't like all those "end of the world" movies. Of course, the theme of this movie is nothing new... in the 90s, the end of the world is usually caused by aliens and demons, then meteors and nowadays, they blame on Mother Nature. And as with most other "end of world" movies (except alien types), the movie focuses on several groups of people who in some way connects with each other even though they don't know each other. I have always thought of this type of style as boring since there is too little character development and everything would feel so rushed.

And yes, this movie does feel rushed but not in a bad way. It started off slow, and then it's just one obstacle over another. The "apocalypse" scenes were quite nicely done... although I think that they are a little over the top... the almost-like atomic explosion of volcano is so surreal... beautiful but deadly... but hey, I've never seen a super major earthquake/volcano eruption before, so who am I to complain? But I just love what they have done to Hawaii... it's a perfect beauty. Though I must say that they miss out some details like... people. Sure, some people would pop up here and then during the earthquake... but I a lot of the buildings were void with people when one of the actor drove his car through buildings to escape the earthquake.

The 'ark' thingy is also a nice touch... it's much better and more plausible than 'spaceships'. However, I think the biggest weakness of this movie is the lack of inspiring emotions. Sure, there are great speeches and great emotional scenes, but I just can't feel it... I've never cried once during the movie... and those who know me know that I cry easily during emotional scenes or speeches. For example, when a son told his father that the end of the world is coming and that his father is going to die far, far away from his son, I just can't feel those "happy that his son will live, and don't you worry about me since I had a good long life" kind of feeling.

And the romantic scenes are just unromantic... I was rolling my eyes heavenward when the ex-wife was screaming/praying/hoping that her ex-husband (soon to be husband again) will resurface from the water... it was like, ugh... :P

Anyway, I still think that this is an enjoyable movie although the casts' acting skills really need some polishing... but the writers did a hell of a good job.

Observation: The communication system in India and US must be very good... people are using phones left and right even though the whole world is being torn apart by natural disasters. :P

Bottomline: If it's any indication, the cinema for this movie was fully booked throughout the day that I had to travel to a cinema 1 hour away from my house and had to watch a late night movie even though I had to work the very next day. I seriously never heard of this movie before this.

Bamboo Ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

Forgetful

Apparently, kindness still exist in this forsaken land. Last two weeks, I used my ATM card to deposit some money... and I actually forgot to retrieve the card! It took a very long time for the card to be ejected out after I completed my transactions mah...

So, I actually left the ATM without the ATM card! And I realised that only two weeks later... and not by myself. I received a phone call from the bank saying that my card was found in the ATM! And I was telling the girl that I still have the card with me! So embarrassing... I immediately check my bank records and thankfully all the money (albeit very small amount) are still there! Still, since I left the card in Kampar, and the bank said they can't hold my card till the next time I go home, I had to cancel my card and the next time when I reapply for it, I have to pay RM12 :(.

Not that I'm not thankful, but why does it take the bank 2 weeks before calling me? :P

Movie Review 34: Inglourious Basterds

Title: Inglourious Basterds

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Running time: 2 hours 32 minutes

Genre: Thriller, Action, Drama

Most of the time, I would not have watch a movie with such titles and the Nazi era thingy is really not my cup of tea. However, it was either watching a Michael Jackson movie, a Chinese poker game movie or this, so I chose the lesser of three evils :P.

What made me chose this movie is mainly the director, Quentin Tarantino and the name of Brad Pitt... and just to show how unpopular this movie is in Malaysia... for the first time, I had the cinema all by myself! Okay, initially, there were a couple but less then halfway through the movie, the left the cinema.

The story revolves in Nazi occupied France during the World War II. It started off with how a young Jewish refugee, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) witnessed the murder of her family by Colonel Hans Landa (Chirstoph Waltz). She escaped and several years later, an opportunity presents itself to her (Fredrick Zoller by Daniel Bruhl) which she starts plotting her vengeance. There were also another group of people who called themselves "the Basterds" led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) who were plotting the assassination of the Nazis as well.

This movie might not go down well for a lot of people. First of all, it's gruesome... ever watched Kill Bill? Yup, it's on the level of gruesome though through the effort made by censors, it is less so. Anyway, for me, I think that this is a brilliant movie... in a twisted sort of way.

It doesn't revolve around the normal good vs bad kind of plot. You would be feeling bad when you see the 'bad guys' die in this movie... well, for some of them anyway. The director is able to express the reality of the war era in a very convincing manner. He constantly reminds us that there is such a thing called 'unreasonable' incidents. What I meant was there are a lot of scenes in which things happen for no reason at all. Bad things happen to the good and bad guys and good things happen to both too. I know this kind of thing happen in other movie as well, but it was presented in such a way that would really shake you to the core. It touches the core of humanity... and most people who watch it might not like to be reminded of their own true self throughout the movie. If this movie were to be shown during my college studying year, it would have made a fascinating discussion.

The storyline, although is simple, the director introduced a lot of plot twists inside to keep it going for two and half hours. There are not much of action since this is more of a brain over brawn kind of movie.

However, this movie is mostly using German as its main language... so, if you're not a subtitle reading kind of person, you might be put off by it. Also, it is a slow movie... again, if you're an action fan, it's not your movie. And since this movie touches on Jews and Nazis, it is important to have an open mind as well... though I would say that this advice is more applicable for Germans, French and Jews.

For me, I do not regret watching this movie... it's a soul touching movie... not your normal crying bucketful of love movie... I meant it is a movie that makes you think and reassess one self. And oh, by the way, this movie is fiction... you should not use this as a history lesson :P.

Trivia: Maggie Cheung is supposed to have a scene in the movie, but was deleted during the final cut :(... and no, the there is no typo in the title... the director purposely wrote it as such.

Bottomline: Not your everyday kind of movie... watch with an open mind.

Bamboo Ranking: 3.8 / 5.0

Dory's wedding

Third wedding of the month and this time, it's in Ipoh. Now come to think of it, this is the first time I attended a wedding in Ipoh. Luckily, Doryfish gave me a super precise map to me and I was able to find the Overseas Restaurant without any problem... though I had some problem returning back to home, since some roads I took is a one way road :P.

The night did not go off very well for me. First, there's this super heavy rain while I was on my way to Ipoh. The last time I experienced such heavy rain was while I was in Shah Alam. The rain is so heavy that I can't see anything more than 5m away from me! And I almost took the wrong exit from the highway :P. Previously, the exit to Kinta City was the first exit after the toll booth... now, it's the second exit... luckily I noticed the road sign before making the turn!

The next thing that happened to me was that I entered the wrong wedding dinner! The person standing in the front door was inviting me in already before I managed to scan the name displayed in front. Then, she asked if I'm a friend of Vincent... well, I know Dory's husband, but not sure if he got English name or not... so I mentioned Dory's name and she nodded her head! So, she led me to this table where I recognized no one! I was already starting to think that Dory placed me with the unknowns from her department :P. Then, the reception person led me to the groom and I realized that this man does not look anything like Dory's husband! And the groom said that he don't know who I am! How embarrassing! Luckily, I still haven't handed over the ang pow!

You can't really blame me for walking into the wrong ballroom. Dory's side of the ballroom is very secluded ler. Have to walk past a dark alley one!

The stage setting...

Cute little presents... didn't manage to taste it... forgot to take it back :(, but everyone else at the table were unimpressed by the food that were wrapped inside :P

The menu...

Super lots of lights lighting up the stage...

The wedding dinner did not start without a hitch. Apparently, the wrong song was played during the bride and groom entry. And I think Dory mentioned that this mistake happened during the rehearsal. Besides, Dory is supposed to have arranged the songs in the right order... so the restaurant people just need to play from the top to bottom... how they managed to get it wrong, I have no idea! And usually, after the march in of the bride and groom, it's usually followed by the long speech about the bride and groom by the MC and after that, the first dish will be served. However, after the walk in, there was more 15 minutes of 'nothing happen' time before the first dish was served. Anyway, after the initial hiccup, everything went smoothly afterwards.

The first dish... hot and cold combination platter... I have to say that it is one of the best... the supposedly hot dish is hot and the cold dish is cold... unlike most of the previous ones, all also cold :P.

First time have second dish that is not a shark's fin soup... this is more like a mixed variety... almost like the "Buddha Leaping Over the Wall" thingy... go chicken, herbs, abalone, shark's fin and maybe sea cucumber kua... not very sure... since I just gulp down everything... also taste quite nice!

The prawns served were fresh too and the it was nicely done... very succulent... I actually had two prawns... I have never ate more than one in any wedding dinner.

The thousand level wedding cake... of course fake one ler :P... at first I thought it was champagne glasses... I was sitting at the far back end of the room and was too lazy to walk to the front. Though I don't know why half of the cake was covered with flowers... not enough to cover the whole of it? :P

It has been a really long time since my eyes ever feasted on this miracle dish! Beauty and sin in the same plate! Super crispy, super nice! Of course, the girls were all taking out the best part of the dish before eating it... how terrible!

The Three Treasures... guess what are they... this is supposed to be a nice dish... but compared to the other sinful dishes, it did not manage to show off it's glory loh :P

Sweet and Sour Deep Fried Fish... I think this is not the same dish as the one mentioned in the menu... but never mind! Super good, super nice and superbly done! Even with the gravy, the deep fried fish is still super crispy and the sweet and sour sauce is a perfect combination of sweet and sour!

Again, another dish well done... very tasty and very aromatic... definitely a must try!

Alas, the final dish is the one with the lowest score... the lotus seeds are still very hard... a good lotus seed soup is supposed to have soft lotus seed... the lotus paste pau is nice though...

Having wedding dinner at the Overseas Restaurant reinforced my belief that only a restaurant is able to cook up a nice mass dinner. Hotel food are good but only when it's an overpriced buffet or when ordered ala carte... they seemed to be unable to provide good food for mass dinner... or maybe it's the Chinese style dish that they are unable to excel in. Anyway, in conclusion, Chinese restaurants trumps hotels! They said that the ang pow for wedding dinner at hotel should be more than the one in restaurant... I say it should be the other way around... why are we giving more money for more terrible food? :P

The service at the Overseas Restaurant is very good too... my glass of drink never reach below the two third empty line... the kept on filling up my drink every chance they got... though I noticed that a lot of the waiters are very young... this waiter near my table looked so young that he could have passed off as a Form Three student :P

(At the request of the bride, I shall not post any pictures with the bride and the groom)

CK's wedding

Attended second wedding meal this month... it was my colleague's and for the first time, I had a wedding lunch. I think having lunch instead of dinner is better in several ways. First, I personally preferred brightly lit rooms rather than rooms lit with 'romantic' yellow lights. Next, I'm partially blind at night, so driving at night is a really dangerous thing for me to do. Third, since I don't have air-cond in my room, enjoying lunch in an air-conditioned room is a brilliant idea!

Also, it has been quite some time since I last attended a wedding in a restaurant. The name of the restaurant is Sea Palace. Youngsters nowadays preferred hotels, which I really have no idea why. First, they are more expensive (mainly due to the red wine, I supposed) than restaurants and the food generally sucks... the only redeeming value in having wedding meals in hotel is that there would be an abundance of car parking lots.

Setting of the restaurant... simple and efficient... no menu though... so every meal is a surprise!

Cake and champagne... it's regrettable that I can't show the wedding photo slideshow... it was one of the best that I have seen so far...

Stage deco...

First meal, as usual, mixed platter... this one however, has four types only, which is the least types that I had in all the wedding dinners I have been to... however, apparently, less type means higher quality... the food is quite nice and still hot! And the one on the left is thin duck slices... very nice!

Shark's fin... this one though, is a little bit watery... I prefer a more gel like shark's fin soup...

Herbal chicken... again... though better than the one I had in Kampar, it still doesn't avoid the fact that chicken when cooked until so tender, will cause the meat to be rough and dry... a duck would have been a better substitute...

Prawns... a little bit tasteless, but it is quite fresh since the meat is still springy :P

Abalones, mushroom and vege... normal lah...

It's quite rare for a wedding meal to serve fish of any flavour other than steamed fish... this one, I think is nonya style fish... the gravy is quite nice... sour and spicy! The looks though, needs some improvement :P

Again, this is the first time I was served with such a small portion of rice. Usually, the fried rice (in this case, lotus leaf rice) served on the seventh meal is quite large... but I tell, you this dish is very good... and I usually don't like lotus leaf rice since I don't like the lotus leaf smell...

The emcee of the day... this one is much, much better than the one in Kampar... even though he sang songs in a deep baritone, it isn't uneasy to the ears... partly thanks to the good sound system... meaning they don't have oversized speakers placed all around the restaurant... it's just loud enough to fill the hall...

The groom who started with a glass half full of champagne and is still holding a glass half full of champagne even though he's more than halfway through the 'yam seng' table rounds :P

"Yam seng"...

Last dish, iced longan... nice!

The whole lunch lasted for 1 hour and 45 minutes (if counted from the first dish served)... which could have ended much, much earlier if not for the waiters waiting for the wedded couple to finish their rounds before serving the final dish.

Anyway, in conclusion, even though the food at the Sea Palace is nothing to shout about, it is generally above average and when compared to hotel food, it's like heaven and earth. So, conduct your weddings in restaurants ler :P... or maybe you should try the western style one... I never had a western style full course meal before lah :P

Car Accidents and Curiousity

I was driving in my car yesterday listening to the radio when I heard something really funny and impossible.

There was a car accident in a highway and the lane where there's accident had car jam up till 1km distance. The lane on the other direction, which did not have car accident, has car jam up till 2km length because everyone is stopping to have a good view!

Humans never ceased to amaze me... if you want to help, then by all means, stop by the side of the road and help, but if you're not helping, you're just making it difficult for ambulances to reach the accident site! It is my theory that humans slow down to watch a car accident not only because they are curious but also to show concern. By slowing down, they are trying to say that they want to help but they can't since they have some other things better than to save a stranger. If you don't want to save someone, drive away and let others come and save them... there's no need to act all concern about it only to prevent others who wanted to help by jamming up the road... not to mention, it affected me as well as they make me stuck in a car jam that theoretically is not supposed to be there!