by | May 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
Overall a tedious and labourous show. The tension took too long to pick up and build up and when it does, there’s not enough punch to the climax to make it worthwhile. If not for Russell Crowe’s belligerent and stubborn character and Ben Affleck’s slick dialogues and occasional tensions, the movie, ‘State of Play’, would have lost its charm on me.
Its easy to get lost in the plot as the various notions and national conspiracy gets thrown around aimlessly, and I’ll admit that I was lost towards the middle of the story. I don’t easily get lost, but perhaps the script failed to get my attention, although I was glued at the end, where Crowe’s character faces off with the so called ‘mercenary’ of the show.
I’d actually thought his Crowe’s character would be killed off to provide some sort of sentiment to the plot, but faced with a semi automatic weapon and backed by a growing pool of police officers, indeed just a lunge onto the floor saved him from the eventual spray of bullets. Corny, imho. The killing of Crowe’s character would’ve provided the right emotions for a mundane plot, but it was not to be.
Oh, just for the records, I do not endorse any killings of any living things, and these suggestions I have here are purely for fictional entertainment purposes! Bah! (End all wars!)
What’s up with Hollywood and all these wordy shows? I’ve yet to catch Tom Hank’s ‘Angels & Demons’ but I’ll probably catch that in a movie-thon — *nudge-nudge-at-Dils*. At the same time, I’ll probably stay patient while Transformer 2 creeps towards the local Silverscreen.
If you had to watch a movie, and in this case ‘State of Play’, for once I won’t be recommending it because, though I don’t hate it (the director did pretty well), I didn’t like it either. Just my 2 cents here. So watch it for the sake of watching, and you’ll probably not get too disappointed either.
by | May 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
As if a calculated prank, I rode in my rain gear, having stopped a few minutes into my ride home to put on the rainjackets/raincoats, all the way home, wet. Wet, not because of the rain, but because of my sweat. It was a stuffy, hot and uncomfortable ride home. So much for the rain clouds and foggy skies. I guess I got punk’d.
Its like there’s this malay saying “Bunyi guruh di langit, air tempayan dicurah”. Loosely translated it means, “Thunder heard in sky, water in vase poured liao”. Well that’s Singlish speaking actually, but I reckon you get the point. It infers to something like someone hearing he’ll be getting a pay raise this month, and he starts spending all his money already. The moral of the story here is, what if the pay raise don’t come?
So how many times have we been caught in this situation? Come on now, admit it. You’ve been in situations where a friend offers to get that thing done for you, and then you carelessly forgot to remind him thinking he’ll keep his words, but in the end he forgots and you end up getting the stick for not getting it done? No? Okay, maybe its just me then.
Anyway, about the earlier situation I wasn’t being careless but rather careful about the impending rain, which turned out to be a losing situation nevertheless. Still, its good to be careful ‘cos I never knew if the rain might suddenly pour on me while i’m in the middle of the expressway. Now getting wet and wild in the middle of the expressway is far worse than being hot and stuffy. Plus it’s really, REALLY cold when you’re drenched and riding along the expressway. Not recommended definitely.
Oh well, it all doesn’t matter anymore now that I’m home sweet home. No more hot and stuffy, just refreshed and comfy at the moment. And thank goodness it never rained. I’d just washed my bike. \m/
by | May 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
Statistically Liverpool has a very slim chance of landing their record 19th English League title, but realistically — And let’s be realistic shall we? — they have absolutely zero, nil, kosong chance this season.
Man Yoo is on course to land their record title too. An 18th title and why not? They have been one of the best team on the planet for the past few seasons and deservingly, the title rests in their hands now. Just like any great character, noone else but they themselves decide where the outcome of the English Premiere League 08/09 Champions’ Trophy resides.
I will try not to get carried away with the wonderful football form that Man Yoo plays with and instead pay a tribute to the Rafalution.
As this season ends, it will be Rafa Benitez’s 5th year at the helm and odds are looking good that this is going to be his best league haul to date. With a possible 86 points in the bag, it will also be the most Premiereship points that Liverpool ever has and yet not win the league. It could also be the season where Liverpool beats the Champions twice, loses less games, scores more goals, have bigger goal difference, and yet not win the league.
In season 06/07 Liverpool finished with 68 points, scoring 57 goals and losing 10 games. In 07/08 Liverpool finished with 76 points, scoring 67 goals and losing 4 games. In 08/07 it could yet be 86 points, scoring more than 72 goals and possibly losing only 2 games.
The Rafalution is kicking in finally and to think what season 09/10 would bring is simply dangerous, and only because thinking about the next level of improvements that Rafa would bring to the table will only make me wet my pants. Yes, any pants-wetting situations are highly dangerous situations. Like where can you hide that stink along the way to the mall as you buy a new pants?
Then again I don’t wear pants, jeans mainly and I doubt Liverpool will even have, if improvements are proportional yearly, 96 points and scoring 84 goals — but who is to say that its impossible? Chelsea did finished their season with an all time high of 95 points before, so hey, it IS possible.
Before I get carried away again even further, I suppose the improvements will depend on how other teams acquire new players, and more importantly, what new blood will Rafa decide to shuffle into his paper thin squad.
Yes I mentioned thin squad because that is what it is. There’s only a handful of classy players. Really! Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso, Daniel Agger, Jamie Carragher, Javier Mascherano and Pepe Reina are simply not enough to land the 19th title.
Polished players like Skrtel, Arbeloa, Riera, Kuyt, Benayoun and Aurelio adds gloss but they lack lustre at times. Unpolished gems like Babel, Lucas, Insua, Plessis, El-Zhar, Ngog, Dossena, Degen, Darby and Cavalieri are just not making the grade when called upon. Let’s not forget that Hyppia will be off to Germany for their beer next season, though Voronin and Pennant will be back from loan next season.
That’s it. There’s really no one else to call upon at Liverpool football club and thus we witness how missing key creative players like Gerrard, Torres and Alonso greatly affects the team. Its critical that Rafa gets another game-winning, ultra creative, mature and polished player at his disposal.
Perhaps a certain Kaka, Villa, Ribery, Eto’o or Diego might be the catalyst that the Reds have been waiting for? Maybe players at their peak like Barry, Tevez, Valencia, Downing or Santa Cruz might bring more depth to the squad?
Well whatever personnel that the Rafalution brings, one thing for sure is that I can barely wait how season 09/10 unfolds with most of the players reaching the peak of their career.
*salivates incessantly*
by | May 15, 2009 | Uncategorized
A good friend of mine gave me a question to consider: Is it harder to make friends as we get older?
Here’s my answer: No.
Okay, so that was a dumb and quick answer but allow me to deliberate on the similes involving friends.
First there’s Conversances. Then comes Acquaintances. Next up will be Friends and last but not least would be your BFFs (Best Friends Forever) or DBs (Drinking Buddies!!)
Some people, you talk to them once in a while, either along (more…)
by | May 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Nah, nothing’s wrong with em but they were extremely, and surprisingly, sleepy this afternoon, after lunch — and I had an extremely quick lunch on my own, where my customer didn’t believe that I’d already taken it. He thought I was off to the toilet and reckoned that I couldn’t finish my lunch so fast. Seems like NS at Tekong has taught me well in cutting short your meal times~
Even as i write this, they (my eyes) are looping the eyelids incessantly in an effort to get me to sleep, but I’ve only reached home and I’ve yet to DOTA for the day! I’ve targeted to get at least (more…)
by | May 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
I’m a little disappointed approaching this holiday weekend.
3 Reasons. 1 — that I’m not gonna have a proper holiday as I’ve to come back to work, since my colleagues are all back in their hometown in Malaysia. 2 — that one of my cusomers project got stalled due to my supplier’s ignorance and then proceeding to blame me for not giving proper instructions. Yeah right. And 3 — not being (more…)
by | May 7, 2009 | Uncategorized
How fitting it is that the showdown in the finals of this year’s UEFA Champions League will feature the year’s contendors for FIFA Player of the year.
Indeed Christiano Ronaldo has already pipped Lionel messi to the title but critics will argue that Messi is a much more worthy holder of that title — as reflected in his performances this Barcelona season.
A few days back Ronaldo showcased his brilliant talent as he almost single-handedly crushed Arsenal’s dream, capped by a wonderful and delectable 41yard screamer of a freekick.
This boy has immense ability and talents, no doubt about it, but unfortunately he also has this cursed ability to remain silent and anonymous especially when the referee isn’t on his side, unlike previous winners of Player of The Year, who justify that tag with world class performances week in and week out.
Still I’ll be expecting a spectacle come May 27th, as Barcelona entertain Manchester United, who are on their second successive Final appearance and determined on defending their status as champions of Europe.
Even though Ronaldo VS Messi will steal the headlines approaching this game, I reckon the game itself will be bigger than these 2 wonderful footballers, and exquisite passing, swift counter attacks and beautiful goals will dominate the morrow’s headlines instead.
Though I would have loved to see Liverpool VS Barcelona instead, this is arguably the next best thing. Game on.
by | May 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
Guess what I found with Google Chrome. Anyway I’m on version 1.0.154.59, Windows XP.
Do you know about the omnibox? The one where the address/http resides and the place where you can search directly? It’s called the omnibox. I think. Anyway…
Well I’ve had trouble searching directly via the omnibox, where searching for stuffs leaves me with a ‘Chrome failure page’, and now I know why.
You see, this new version (I think) has a neat feature to its omnibox.
I understand now that to search from Google, I simply type G, and then press ‘Tab’ and a “Search Google” button appears, which means you are able to perform a search using Google. Duh.
So what’s so neat about it? Well I’m glad you asked. Um, you did asked right?
Ok, try punching i, then ‘tab’, and you’ll find the button now appears as “Seach Images.Google.com”. Neat!
Not all the alphabets will work, so you gotta give it a try, and I guess what button appears will depend on the websites that you’ve surfed at.
Example, typing b, then ‘tab’, the button appears as “Search Blog.mar.sg” and I’m quite sure that this button isn’t a standard for all Chrome browsers. ; )
Another neat feature of Chrome, brought to you by… *drum rolls*… ME! (Cue: relentless applause)
by | May 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
The flu bug bit again. Fortunately the workload at office has died down to a dormant level, thus I was able to take the later part of the day off, paying a visit to my family doctor.
Guess what greeted me at the front door? A super huge poster with the words ‘SWINE FLU’ grabbing my attention! That seems to be the trend word these days isn’t it? Everybody’s fearful of it but how much will it hurt?
Anyway I’m extremely glad that I wasn’t diagnosed with it and wasn’t divinely picked to be the first for such a case in Singapore. *cross fingers still*
My flu and cough is that standard chronic ailment that gives me a visit, much like a caring auntie that brings along your favourite dish, once in a while — except this isn’t a caring auntie and whatever it brings is far from being your favourite dish.
Too bad I can’t have any of my favourite dishes at the moment, and even turned down Godma’s offer for Fried Crab! Currently fried crab sits on top of my cravings-to-die-for but metaphorically aside, I’ve still loads of things to do before kicking the bucket, or any buckets for that matter too.
Hesitantly I declined the offer in view of my current situation, and hopefully when things get better, I’ll try my luck at asking for that dish.
What? You’ve never tried fried crab? Ahhh, for me to know, for you to find out. ; /
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