EZ-Link Card Stickers are all the rage these days aren’t they?
You go into Mini Toons, Comics Mart or GIfts Shop and you’ll find them littered all over the shop.
There are celebrity images, cartoon images and even common pet images, but what if you wanted your own pictures?
Well if you sometime wish that you could print your own family photos, facourite images or basically something that’s different and cannot be found in stores, thankfully there is…. *drum-rolls*…
Been rather occupied tying down a few websites at the moment, so pardon the lack of constant posts here these days. I’m just glad that StickerDojo is nearing its completion. There’s still chinks in there, but nothing’s perfect right? I’d love to hear feedbacks, good or bad, and ways to improve. Let me know ya!
Quick Trivia: Where and when will the next edition of the FIFA World Cup take place at?
But first, football really is a game about luck ain’t that so?
Might as well get the two coaches to come together, toss a coin and whoever gets it right wins.
Think of all the troubles that hundreds of thousands of fans, who’ve spent a fortune travelling to a faraway land and getting their ears blared with Vuvuzuelas, would have saved.
But when you come down to it all, it’s really about the satisfaction and pride that one achieves to encapsulate through sheer grit, incessant effort and that insatiable hunger for a win.
Oh, and that never give up attitude sure helps.
Some get it by raising their children through thick and thin, steering them towards a well-to-do life.
Some feel it through their philanthropic personality, via means of teaching and charity.
And some earn it over 650 minutes of gruelling football, like the Spanish team this morning, winning their inaugural World Cup trophy.
Congratulations to Spain and Iniesta especially for clinching the championship, and in exreme style too.
But what-if Robben had scored during one of his driving runs through the Spanish backline?
What if Germany had chose to play offensively instead of defensively?
What if Cardozo had scored Paraguay’s Penalty during the quarterfinals?
As I dissect the world cup’s success stories bit by bit, it’s clear to me that all the what-ifs combined, really, mean nothing at all.
You don’t want to live the next chapter of your lifestory and begin it with a ‘What-if’.
Try asking the Dutch players about it.
Spain taught us a humbling lesson in football last night, that reputation and status can only get you so far.
Right England?
That one of, if not the greatest form of defence is offense.
Right Brazil/Germany?
That to achieve success, you sometimes need to face failures, or lose to an unlikely opponent, eg. Switzerland, early on in your journey.
With their feet firmly planted and humbly grounded, the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Alonso, Puyol, Pique, Ramos, Torres and Cassilas lifted the much coveted trophy with a sense of satisfaction and pride, that only a select few will probably ever feel throughout modern history, but they will celebrate for now.
Yikes, another cheesy, hollywood-formulated romcom (romance+comedy) eh?
Pretty girl, a 10/10 there on your left (Alice Eve), falls for geek, a 5 there if you’re able to find him in the pic (Jay Baruchel), while getting over her ex-pilot and successful boyfriend (which you’re probably wondering how he looks like~) — like who’d ever wanna dump a boyfriend who’s a pilot?
Quite a great classic, love story.. not!
But it’s refreshingly entertaining nonetheless, though it could do without some scenes, like the balls-shaving moments~
Um, refreshing because both leads didn’t really have to try too hard to impose themselves on the screen, like Something About Mary or Valentine’s Day, and both leads added the charming factor to this flick.
Okay to the plot now, and without even stepping into the theatres you’d probably already knew how it’s going to end — girl sees boy, finds him interesting, gets to know him, gets over her ex, then ex comes back, girl and boy cools off, then both realises they’re meant for each other, a departing plane gets grounded, and they both kiss in the middle of the waiting area of the airport.
Not exactly pure adrenaline stuffs, nor a script that’s worthy to be called a classic, but then again, it’s not exactly your usual hollywood rebound-guy comedy either.
Okay, unless you count the upsized masculine jokes as Hollywood, then it’s your hollywood comedy, but the inviting direction from an Englishman, Jim Field Smith, in his debut Hollywood feature film, shines plenty of light on the subtle impressions from the leads, who had to work with very little crumbs of a plot to chew on.
The supporting casts were a mixture of over the top and underdeveloped characters, with nothing else but to support the plot and egg the leads on, where a guy finds himself being almost the rebound guy, and the girl finding herself that.. oh wait, nothing much changed on the girl’s part except that the guy made her into a better person.
It is essentially a movie about him believing stoutly that she is of his league, and it’s certainly not original but it’s one that most, including yours truly, can relate to — that thought at the back of your head where you’re not good enough for your partner or that you’re worried that someone with better credentials than you might stroll into their life.
You know, that low self-esteem displacement of not being good enough for someone else, when in fact the only reason anyone is perfect for each other is when they accept that they are?
Perfection is when you accept things for what they are.
Talking of which, when Alice Eve opens up to Jay Baruchel for the ending, saying how he’s ‘perfect’ for her, it wasn’t quite the emotional ride you’d hope for in a romcom, where instead everything here seemed hurried with a quick-fix ending in place.
So how much would I rate the movie?
Nah, I guess I’ll stray away from ratings, and instead I’ll utilise tags to ‘rate’ the movie in question.
Like these: Schoolboy-Humour, Charming, Cute, B-grade, Honest.
It’s certified, I’m a full fledged Apple fanboy these days as I failed to curb the enthusiasm of owning its product, especially the iPhone, which have turned out to be a revelation indeed.
But first, a quick point out on how Apple’s products have never ever changed, not applicable to cosmetics and applications of its products, but in terms of usability design over the years.
It is this very deeply intricated grasp of what makes a good design truly makes it stand out as one of the greatest love brands in the world, in this era, of which hasn’t been an accident either.
Is it too much to have to call its products, the forbidden fruits?
Certainly not.
Anyway, I knew the iPhone is truly an excellent toy, yes I referred to it as a toy back then, and I wasn’t that interested in getting myself one of these toys, simply for the sake of having it.
I’d rather get something that’s functional, practical, works-as-its-meant-to and, especially so, fuss-free plus easy maintenance.
Getting the Macbook Pro was a no-brainer and despite its immense pricetag, which was really hard for me to swallow, it was a pill I swallowed nonetheless and I’m glad I coughed up that little bit more.
In return, the MBP proved to be an astounding workhorse that I simply couldn’t push to its limit any more than I could, say, for a Dell or Asus laptop.
Website development, surfing the net, FA creations, blogging, entertainment, office productivity, photo management and even something as simple as file management, have been one helluva blast, an experience which I doubt the Dell or Asus could have ever emulated.
Oh, no more viruses and spywares to worry about as well.
Where 99% of forbidden fruits are overrated, Apple and its products, make up the 1% that overwhelms, overperforms and overachieves.
The iPhone has since ceased to appear a toy to me. It is a serious tool and you better believe it.
It came to me by chance to me, when the M1 sales personnel slow-talked me into upgrading my phone plans, and it has usurped its way as, not one of the best phones I’ve had to experience, but THE best phone I’ve had.
SMSes don’t feel like SMSes anymore — it’s now chatting or conversations, and it’s become personalised and deeply, and easily, manageable.
The iPhone is also an entertainment outlet (youtube and videos, ipod, photos, camera, thousands of games), an informational outlet (safari, maps, weather, clock) and a personal management inlet (calendar, notes, contacts, voicemail, sms) as well.
Though I may seem to be listing its basic features here, where almost every other smart phones seem to possess, but that’s where the similarities end.
Apple’s designs make it stand out from the rat race, and it encapsulates the gist of what a good design should be — functional, aestheticised and just damn fun.
Like the forbidden fruit, they (Apple’ products) appear tempting, lustful and one that you simply have to see and use to believe.
The ease of use that comes with Apple’s products isn’t purely coincidental, but a well researched and executed process, and it’s turned out to be a model that almost every other company have been scrambling to emulate.
That’s what lovebrands or lovemarks do, they inspire through design and make lives easier and, in a way, fun, usable and productive.
Sadly, most companies are in a race to create a product, where no doubt it’s fun, that takes a turn for the worse in usability, and then sales take a decline.
They should have focused in creating products in the mould of the forbidden fruits, which sell themselves really.
Companies can save a lot this way right?
Less ads, less marketing, less promotion and I mean less, not zero, although in Apple’s case, it does seem to be non-existent.
Like seriously, when was the last time you saw an advertisement poster or banner for Apple’s products hanging along walkways, perched on railings or plastered onto walls?
5 minutes, think about it, so when was the last time you saw one?
It’s been a long while since I’ve heard of Paramore and a llittle bit or maybe more, since Riot! in 2007, the band takes on darker foreboding themes.
Brick, Boring Brick talks of dissociation when face with life’s problems and somehow it feels close to me.
Like how when faced with a conflict/trauma, I choose to dissociate personally from the problem and instead work towards the solution, it may seem well and smart, but when you think that dissociation are what Military and Illuminati employs in their bigger Agenda, it gets creepy.
Dissociation has slowly ingrained itself in my veins ever since the setback of a beloved’s passing, and perhaps at the sudden and untimely manner of her passing traumatised me so much that I was vindicated whenever I dissociate.
Is that good?
Now, I feel myself disconnected to problems and troubles, and instead of feeling emotionally drained whenever conflict arises, I’m able to dissociate and move on, or promptly come up with a solution.
Is that good?
Do I not care? Do I not bother? Do I not even feel a pinch?
Is that good?
Actually I do, I care, I bother and I certainly feel the pinch but I won’t brood over it or forget to put cat food in a bowl because of it.
I get up and get things done. I get going and get into action
Time is extremely precious.
In this music video, Hayley Williams (Paramore’s lead vocal/keyboardist) faces conflicts and dissociates by transforming her mind into a child that wanders into a castle where bundles of happy thoughts awaits her.
But, as we later finds out, the castle’s smiling portraits and characters turn sinister, sooner or later, and there’s only so much that the child can run away from. In the end she gets buried alive.
Before anyone says what an abusive video, the child burying graphics can actually be taken as the burying of Hayley’s ‘child’ persona that runs away from problems — that she’s burying ‘her’ because she’s facing up to the conflicts and not running away anymore.
Because sometimes, running away won’t solve anything and you’ve got to ‘bury that child’ and face reality.
Dark, dreamy, foreboding video concept, but interesting, thought-provoking and challenging as hell.
I’m still in the middle of this excellent read, which Belle said made her tears flow.
Disclaimer: She’s a really strong lady, and I’m blown away by the seemingly unquantifiable courage and fight within, such that if there’s anything that can make her tears flow, I’m pretty sure it’s gotta be one helluva book.
And Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kiterunner, did wrote one helluva book.
It’s so brutally honest, heart-wrenchingly warm, and emotionally gripping – totally a tangent away from the previous fiction book I read, and amusingly enjoyed, Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis.
I swear that I would run out of words to review The Kiterunner, however, if there’s a phrase, thus far, that I’ve learned that best describes the book, and one which she paraphrased to me as well, this is it:
For you, a thousand times.
It’s touching, and I wish I had more time.
Really there should be more than 24 hours to qualify a day’s worth, cos I’m having to do all this blogging thingy in the wee hours, when everyone is sleeping and my thoughts aren’t distracted, or else I’d be able to finish reading it sooner and come up with a complete review.
But reality sinks in and if there’s a phrase I’d like to paraphrase about this book and it’s author, and to you as well (you know who you are), and taken off Avatar’s intimate tagline, this is it:
I See You.
But it’s still unfinished.
There’s a big lake. Everyone says a monster is in it. What would you do?
It was a Shawshank Shaw Bugis Redemption yesterday, but that’s just sugar-coated gloss over my blunder of booking a movie at the wrong time slot and collecting the tickets on a wrong day.
I bought 2 Saturday tickets, when I actually intended to watch the movie on Sunday, me and D (wkwkwkwk, I’m still getting into this naming of persons in their initials as seen in many many blogs).
That I drew out the tickets without any initial flags or alarm raised by the box office, is amusing enough. Fair enough both parties didn’t realise the mistake early on.
Fortunately the box office Auntie was kind enough to allow us to change to the current date so that we were able to watch the movie as intended. What a kind and nice Auntie~
Kick-Ass!
No, not the Auntie, but the movie that we watched was Kick-Ass!
I’ve read a few glowing reviews of it and though I’ll expect any comic-book adapted movie to be sub-par most of the time, Kick-Ass truly kicked ass!
The profanities flew by as fast and furious as the punches and gore hits you, and you’ll be forgiven for thinking it’s just another mindless, action-thrill ride, but despite the ’superhero’ setting of it all, the show remained very much human.
And that’s what I loved about it, that the leading characters are all limited by their human potential, and that the real superhero lies not in super powers, but rather a change in the mindset of the person.
It begs the question “What would you do? Would you help someone in trouble?”
I know I would, and I know I’ll probably get beaten up, ass-kicked and stabbed too — *spoiler alert* just like what our main character suffered in his first Superhero impression — but what really matters is that you stand up and fight for the weak, right?
It’s like they’re trying to send us a message. That they can take whatever they want, but this.. this is our — oh wait, wrong movie. Back to Kick-Ass.
There’ve been a couple of these ‘human’ superhero movies in recent years, and most notably Batman and Ironman, rich fellas with gadgets to play with, and also who can forget the affable Watchmen with their naked blue Dr Manhattan.
And does anyone recall Mystery Men, with Ben Stiller in that movie? I loved that too, though it wasn’t a big hit with the mainstream movie-goers, and I thought it was a delicate story then.
With Kick-Ass, it’s not just a delicate story. It is brutally kind, heartfeltly heartless, crazily cracked-up and humanly superhuman.
Take away the profanities, the explosions, the human-microwave torture and it’ll still be a great movie to catch. If there’s one up and coming prodigy to watch out for, Hit Girl, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, is it.
So what if she’s just 11 and sprouts the F language more than you’d hear from your next-of-kins? Welcome to the real world, dear Parents. That your child’s just playing World Of Warcraft or Audition SEA quietly in their room, oh boy.
Nicholas Cage in his withdrawn role, does what he does best, and that is to fill the movie with deadly coyful vengeance and a nonchalant upbringing attitude, a breathe of fresh air from his National Treasure and other supernatural movie days.
Meanwihle Aaron Johnson, who played Kick-Ass, the character, turned out to be the perfect cast for the fragile ambitious boy-grows-up role, with Matthew Vaughn directing impeccably. The tight editing and crisp soundtrack deserves a special mention because the ambience and mood it provides elevates the movie experience greatly.
There just never seem to be a dull moment, and every new scene throws the equilibrium of the show into unpredictability, and it’s this unexpected turn of events that keeps the show fresh and exciting, and in short, ass-kicking!
I’ve watched a couple of movies lately, Clash of The Oh-It’s-So-Good Titans, It’s Complicated, The Men Who Stare At Goats, The Green Zone, and rewatched My Sister’s Keeper again.
These are all really good movies, entertaining in their own rights, and never quite disappointing, but the latter has never failed to move me with every repeat viewings. No I don’t get that same level of experience like when I’m taking on Avatar, but the nostalgic flashbacks that I get of my own first hand experience of living with someone who’s terminally ill, well that’s how My Sister’s Keeper keeps me glued.
Watching the girls’ battle against their mum’s will, seeing how the older brother gets mildly alienated in the process, and how the father keeps up the strong front of trying to keep the family strings together, well in very simple words, it’s all admirable and reinforcefull.
Nevermind that I didn’t quite like Cameron Diaz playing the Mother role and couldn’t really evoke as much eagerness, sadness and force as, say a certain Renee Zellweger or Sandra Bullock, but she did not bad on the whole.
Overall the movie moves back and forth in time and narration of the various leading character leads the shifts and tells you a story of love and release and how a Mother’s love can be strangling, despite all the care and concern — because sometimes, you need to learn how to let go.
In short, My Sister Keeper is a show of how Mother comes to accept her child’s passing, only during her dying moments, not without a purposefully court scenes just to show her so.
The thing about this movie is that I loved the strengths and weakness of each characters, and particular the understanding and accomodating nature of the Father’s character. Comparing from an Asian context, I wonder how many Asian fathers would react like how Jason Patric did. It’s simply and admirably charming.
So go ahead, if you’ve yet to watch a sappy lovely drama of family strengths and acceptance, go give My Sister’s Keeper a chance and who knows, maybe you’ll find your own strengths and weakness and learn to embrace them as well.
It, the movie not capitalism, struck a chord with me.
But it does fail to shine light on the greener pastures, while castigating and largely brooding over the trample-over-the-weak-and-lets-ignore-them social aspect of it.
At first I shunned watching the movie, after a few of Michael Moore’s shockumentary failed to strike me where it matters, but this latest offering, It got me into a couple of ’oh dear’ and ’so des ne’ moments.
You know, moments where you discover that things aren’t what they really look like, even after you though you’ve done enough to read up on that subject?
Well that’s what Capitalism: A Love Story (or CALS) did to me, as it shed light on the lesser known background story of the recent economic turmoils in the USA, of which then spilled onto our parts of the world.
Okay, maybe right now you’re asking what does events there have to do here, and before you know it, things already (and have been for so long) reeks of Capitalism around here.
Now why does a company that is possibly nowhere near the reds in the accounts books would want to remove 1000 mouth-feeding, food-putting-on-table jobs, if it’s for the sake of manoevarability and being competitive?
And this despite forecasts of healthy growth in the next few years.
Let’s see here, more profit for company and spend less on wage, while overworking whoever is left on the team.
One word: Capitalism. Far from praying for the weak, it’s preying on the weak, but I don’t think I can show it any better than Michael Moore already has.
CALS a moving and it grows onto you, the viewer, as you slowly take it all in — unless you’re a capitalist yourself.
Sure, it may not even get close to being nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, but at the very least, it raises awareness and educates the uninformed.
I still think Capitalism has its benefits, but thanks to Michael Moore, a different view is sometimes required to see the whole picture.
In this music video, Hayley Williams (Paramore’s lead vocal/keyboardist) faces conflicts and dissociates by transforming her mind into a child that wanders into a castle where bundles of happy thoughts awaits her.
Kick-Ass!
It, the movie not capitalism, struck a chord with me.
