by | May 11, 2010 | Uncategorized
While we’re still lingering around the subject of movie posters, I took a quick check in my memory drawer of the war related movies that has captivated me ever since I was young.
And I’m still young, by the way.
So what makes a great war movie? I don’t know, but I sure enjoy reliving through these flicks and wouldn’t mind watching it over again.
I stumbled upon a few sites with movie posters, and so I thought, why not?
Here’s a quick recap of the posters, of what I’d thought would make up my best 10 war movies, followed by my summarised thoughts.
Troy: All these destruction, for a lady? Damn worth it.
300: Makes chasing death look too cool.
Black Hawk Down: Sometimes shit happens.
Enemy At The Gates: Playing dead to stay alive.
Saving Private Ryan: All these destruction, for a man? Damn worth it.
Zulu: Sometimes you gotta stop, retreat, and applaud the bravery.
Avatar: All these destruction, for a floating rock? *Puts on 3D glasses*
Braveheart: Freedom!!!
Lord Of The Flies: Kids aren’t so innocent after all.
The Hurt Locker: A different kind of drug.
Takes a breather..
And these are the war movies that I certainly don’t mind sitting through a few hours to experience all over again.
Now, who wants to watch em with me???
by | May 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
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?
by | May 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
It’s been long overdue, Gmail’s latest feature which allows drag and drop functionality, but sadly, for IE and Opera users, this feature is only available for Chrome and Firefox.
If you’re not on Gmail yet, shame on you, you’re missing out on a lot of really fun stuffs, like the old snakey game for one.
And earlier I stumbled upon MaleCopywriter, who actually won the webbies for best homepage award! Check out his ‘Contact me’ page. Hilarious, just like his works.
And where if anyone’s short of cash, and is in need of short term loan, go ahead call your nearest loanshark and give Wango a tryout, it’s got a rather high interest rate and really short term loans.
Anyway, who knows in case you needed some liquidity a little bit earlier than payday, and if that’s so, then this is the answer for your prayers.
Talking about money, got a better way to manage your finances other than MoneyStrands? Best of all, it free and has plenty to offer for the money concious minds.
So, got a useful site to share?
by | May 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
It felt all sucky, sticky, and shitty when I woke this morning–no, I still don’t blame you Belle–, after a 2 hour slumber, and if not for the incessant licking of one of my cats, Jack, in asking to be fed breakfast, I’m pretty sure I’d probably missed work and slept till afternoon.
But it really began on Wednesday, even though I had enough rest that night.
On Thursday morning, a blitzkrieg salvo of smses meant that the night’s planned project unfortunately had to be stretched, culmnating in whatever little I had to recharge ‘my batteries’ between Friday and Thursday.
What did we do? A poster. A movie poster.
An Avatar movie poster, that never was.
It was completed on Friday night, and it quickly became one of the most captivating ad-hoc project I’ve ever did.
From brainstorming, to conception, to execution, everything moved quickly and it helped that both parties weren’t fans of dilly-dallying on work.
It began with me not agreeing as to how the actual movie poster of Avatar looks like, and so my take that the Blue Alien movie is an essential love story takes centerstage.
It went through a few revisions, a few painted backgrounds before we decided that purple fits best.
Purple is an intelligent, intimate as well as technological, so it was a wise choice on her part.
We couldnt’ borrow James Cameron’s 3D video camera, so we opted for the 3D effect or depth of illusion via paper cut-out and pasting them on top of each other.
It’s not the greatest movie poster ever made, or remotely close to that thought, but I think that it’s a beautiful creation nonetheless, and this from me, a person who sees beauty in the unlikeliest of places.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?
Work hogged all of my daytime and early nighttime, and thus I could only afford late nights and wee hours to contribute to this project, and despite the numbness while working at the office, I’m just glad that it manifested well.
It’s been a long, arduous and scintillating journey. One that brought it’s share of scares, concerns and cups of coffee.
But that’s a story for another day, and as of now, it’s time for my overdue beauty sleep.
by | May 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
Okay lah, there really wasn’t any ketchup spilled or harmed in the derivation of this post, but I just said ketchup as it sounds way cooler alike to catch-up.
Just because.
Anyway, I’m quite surprised as to why there’s just a mountain of workpile to climb and a horrific mash of effing shit (Pardon the lang, I know, but since this blog is NC181.. oh well) that comes from people who are just too devoid of proactiveness to work efficiently.
But I’m not surprised that I’ve been neglecting my various teeny, tiny non-profit making (yet!!!) businesses, that I’ve been leaving dirt gathering on some of my other blogs/sites but most agonisingly of course is that I’ve not been spending much time with family.
Go ahead, at this point, and call me a workaholic, unconcerned, elusive, brother or son whichever way you look at it.
It just doesn’t feel good to be missing out on my family and friends, and instead devoting my time at the workplace, and as of this moment, and so I put myself up for accountability as I say loud and clear these words:
I wish to retire in 13 years time.
Excuse me, but that doesn’t me I wish to stop working, but rather the drone mindset of the majority of the world’s population, where work done = personal time spent = money earned.
It’s a nobel thought, to take time out of the equation, but it’s a necessary thought, to free up time, which can better be spent helping others rebuild lives and stuffs — but till today, it remains just a thought, as I’m merely laying down the foundation bricks of things to come.
It’s crazy, suicidal and just plain wishful thinking, but that’s all okay.
Everyone needs a dream to chase and a goal to hold onto right?
It’s definitely not pretty or frilly, and ingloriously, painstakingly taxing, this one of my ‘superhero fantasies2‘ that is to go out there into the streets and start making the world a better place for others, because when that happens, the world becomes a better place for you too.
And then comes the question of: why 13 years?
Because 13 is my lucky number, and.. I.. feel.. lucky.
1. NC18: I’m pretty sure that among the hundreds of monthly pageviews to this place, that there’s actually a dearth of anyone below 18, because let’s face it, they’ve better things to do, like wasting time watching TV, or contemplating whether the person sitting next to them in class ether likes them or is too timid to admit that they do, than reading a bloke on a blog confessing about the implosion of the internet, his own implosion and the implosion of idiots that he knows of.
2. Superhero Fantasies: The other one is to dress up as Edwards Scissorhands and scare the shitload out of bad people3.
3. Bad People: Creatures that couldn’t care less about what others feel and have to go through, and most notably, highly concerned with what they can benefit for themselves, out of everything they do.
by | May 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
I’m a planner kind of guy, and I like planning stuffs and executing them to perfection — but I know that things don’t go as planned sometimes.
And tonight it didn’t went as planned — where we were originally supposed to go for an ice-cream evening — where I began craving for ice-cream early in the week, but as it turned out, ice-cream wasn’t really on my mind the whole time.
And I certainly least expected for an Ironman 2 possibility, but the fact that in that morning, as I went out to get cat litter for my feline friends, there were 2 vacant seats in the middle of Lot 1’s theatre #1, and I just couldn’t resist it.
Chilling out with Dils and watching Machines battling explosively, means killing 2 birds with 1 stone, and with the measly amount of free time that I have these days, like why not?
But no animals were harmed today, other than the prawns that made up my Red Curry Prawn dish, and the chickens and cow that made up the rest of our dishes.
Hmmm, now that I think of food this way, it does feel a little kind of gross to be eating meat! What a thought!
Thankfully, the thought of eating only vegetables somehow puts that gross thought to rest, and lo and behold, I’m omnivorous once again.
Anyway, so I often plan and then there are times when I don’t and just let things pan out, because the unexpected brings with itself more than you could imagine, you’ll soon learn that Murphy’s Law is at work all the time.
Good things, bad things, it’s all subjective and as far as I’m concerned, I gotta admit that it was a little bit awkward, but nothing uncomfortable.
If anything that the event industry has thought me all these years, is that, everything is unexpected, and so the ‘get it done and over with’ mentality kicks in, and the ‘clean up the mess and everybody forgets what happened and becomes friends once again’ execution of thoughts follows up.
I’m still quite shocked, with myself, as to why I even brought up the subject tonight, much to her claims of ‘This is awkward’ for multiple moments, amidst a mixture of ‘lol’ moments and skimpy silences, but nothing that I regretted.
I’d go through all the awkward moments and trip all over again than to go on without knowing what could have been.
I’ll face it, that if it’s meant to be, it will be, and if it happens, it happens, and that still doesn’t malfunction the equation that we’re still really good friends after all these years, because I still want my ice-cream outing!
Ahaha.. nothing beats an ice-cream binge after countless continuous work days, where other than this Sunday, I can’t even remember when was the last Sunday that I spent waking up dazed from my bed at 1 O’clock in the lazy, humid afternoon, and all this without having to worry about receiving a client’s call to rush back to the office.
At this point of time, if it’s Shrek-like fairy tale with an ending: they gazed into each other, they kissed, they hugged and they lived on happily ever after, well then that’s only for the silver screens.
But I think there’s a far more suitable line and with enough credits too, and so here goes:
Keep rocking my world.
And from a good friend to a good friend, I still want my ice-cream. \m/
Oh, and Ironman2 rocks!
by | May 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
Working in the printing/events line definitely has its perks and benefits, but to wake up on a Sunday morning with total detachment from your job is definitely not one of it.
And it feels damn good, this feeling of near zero work burden and it’s going to be a simple Sunday that will be spent quietly with the family.
Dils and I are gonna go chase after an ice-cream evening later today, and at this point of time I must specifically point out that I am not an ice-cream person — but an ice-cream evening does seems like the best avenue to chill, pun intended, and relax this time round.
Plus, on the bright side, I get to spend a little bit more time with her, and I don’t ever get to spend much time with people I’d like to, ever since me and my colleagues launched the company back in July 2007.
Btw I’m still not the big balls boss: to my close friends who seem to think that just because I was one of the founding partners. But there’s never been a more comfortable working level than ever, and this much I’ll confess a little.
There’s never been more sacrifice than ever as well, mostly of time spent with family and friends.
I’ve often been asked why do I have to work on days and ends, and it’s not even like I’m trying to make ends meet, so why?
Well, building bridges, pipelines, opportunites and such, and these, takes plenty of time.
I’m a preacher of that family is more important than work, but of late however, I’m in irony of that as I have been spending more time in the office than, say with my brother, who’s preparing frantically for his wedding in a few weeks time, which means he’ll be moving out already.
No more Winning Eleven nights, or what other games that might tickle our fancies, for a long time now — but all’s good, because games have to take a backseat while we mend to other priorities of our adulthood.
I’ve also been neglecting, a little bit, with my sister’s job hunt, but thankfully, a few of my friends, well customers actually, have vacancies in their company where I’ve managed to convince them that my Sister’s a scintillating prospect for their office.
Is this right? This getting a job through contacts? Like is this fair? I’m pretty sure that thousands of jobseekers who’ve gone to countless career fairs will be crying foul of this move.
She’s just graduated a month back and she’s probably going to be confirmed with a job, without much hunting to do — all thanks to her brother’s, well that’s me really, contacts.
In fact, in this real world, there’s a saying that to be successful in life, it’s not about how much or what you know, but rather it is who you know.
Now I’m not asking anyone to put down their textbooks right now and start going around and shaking strangers’ hands — actually it could turn out to be good, but mostly you’ll be seen as siao (which means crazy in Mandarin) — because that won’t work but do go out there, absorb as much knowledge as you can, continuously upgrade yourself and build as many wokrable bridges as you can, and opportunities will present itself in manners that you’d probably had least planned for.
Also, neither am I recommending on being a suck-up, just to get into the right books, because everybody hates suck-ups, and where a boss finds the time to give attention to suck-ups, it’s 99% true that they’re using them for their own benefits only.
The other 1%, they’re just ignorant, and when your boss is ignorant, find yourself a new boss.
Oh, and if by some inexplicable manner, you find that all bosses that you’ve worked for are jerks in one way or another, then there’s really only one thing left to do — be your own boss.
How about starting your own ice-cream parlour?
Whatever it is, work hard, work smart, and go have an ice-cream evening with someone you desire on a Sunday evening once in a while.
by | Apr 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
What do i really want?
This passage here, is probably the 5th or 6th introductory passage that I’ve rewritten for tonight, as my eccentric mind wanders violently from topic to topic, and where I’ve come to a compromise that an opening passage shall be opened without targeting any particular subject that haunts me in my head.
Oh how I wish that I’m down with a writer’s block, but what do you call the opposite of that? A Writer’s broken dam? Does that sound the opposite enough? Anyway, you get the idea..
Guess what it’s called when there’s a few things that have been bothering you and lingering in your mind, but there’s just noone qualifiable and available that you can talk with.
Instead of being able to approach others for direction or guidance, you’re the one whom others turn to, and you do it gracefully, and being the least acerbic person ever to walk this earth, you realise that even though your attention isn’t limitless and personally draining, you comply because you enjoy helping or listening out.
It’s sounds venerable, it seems philantrophic, and it’s called My Life.
The few people whom I turn to as my source of inspiration all sit in a room, where we’re separated by vast bodies of water and land, but thanks to the internet, they’re only a website, or a forum, away.
If you’ve ever wanted to know who these beautiful souls are, we’re known as the third tribe, and it’s a pricey group to be in, but imho, justifiable.
Anyway, it’s like the right kind of support group that suits me in this moment, and feeds me with plenty of courage and invaluable life lessons. You are what you eat, right?
So what have I been doing of late?
For the lack of words to describe it succinctly, perhaps I’ll just say that I’m purposely screwing up my life, just so that I can fix it all back on my own again. It’s like a challenge that I’m going through all over again, just because.
I’ve been through plenty of hardship growing up and I sure know what it feels like to go through life without basic amenities, and now that I’m a little bit comfortable, it seems as if life itself is sucked out of me.
To feel alive, you’ve got to get out of your comfort zone right?
Obstacles, challenges and problems, means you’re alive, like pinching shows that you’re not asleep.
I would never see an obstacle or a setback as a problem, but rather as an opportunity to thrive from. For the record, there have been situations where I simply can’t put my head around it and have to simply ‘take it like a man’. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
Sometimes Life puts us in a situation where the solution is so obvious, but when our mindset looks at it as a setback or discombobulating problem, we get put down and we grow weary.
When that happens, I say, view it as a challenge and give yourself a reason to overcome it, and hopefully gain something out of it. At the very least, you owe yourself this much to not meander around it.
If you’re wondering why I’m putting all these into words, it’s because of things that I see and hear from friends and family, especially of late.
Of course it’s easier said than done when I say that I see a solution and a way of overcoming their ‘problems’. Naturally I won’t go all out and lay down the blueprints for them, because It’s just impolite to do so, unless they specifically requests so.
You see, whenever someone shares something with you, they aren’t really looking for an answer, but rather a listening ear and perhaps a few tips or tricks that they may have thought that you could have kept under your sleeves.
Though I’d rather be saying ‘Look, this is how it’s done and your problem will be solved’, I’d honour their generosity in sharing by simply trying to draw out the answer from their own breathes. It’s funny how you’re more receptive to an idea when you’re made to think that you carved out the answer on your own.
In any case, nobody really needs an answer, but they’ll definitely welcome your guidance and your pat-on-the-back appreciateively.
And I’d definitely welcome any form of guidance and pat-on-the-back that I can get at the moment, in my pursuit of happiness. The Pursuit of Happiness, seen that show?
I look at myself in the mirror, and I whisper to myself “What are you searching for?”
Then I’d go all silent and make funny faces at myself.
“Why push yourself any further than where you already are?”
“Why aren’t you content with what you already have?”
Hmm, actually, I’m very much content with myself and where I am, really, but it’s what I can do for others that I’m not quite content with.
I know I can’t change them the way I want to, and so I try not to, no matter how tempted I am.
But I do tend to put on others’ shoes more readily than I’d like to, and some shoes are really tight, and it hurts.
Still, there’s so many questions that lingers on and haunts me, but like i said, noone really needs an answer.
And why again am I sharing all these, when I really don’t have to?
Because a drop of water in a pond creates ripples, and ripples makes an otherwise stagnant and dull pond more beautiful.
And I wish you’d drop and create ripples more often too.
by | Apr 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
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?
Like how James Cameron plays ‘Avatar’ in listening to the plight of the Amazon natives.
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!
Need more tidbits of the movie, check it out over at IMDB yo, and don’t miss out on this movie.
It’s goooooooooood!
by | Apr 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
They’re feeling uber generous, these fellas over at 99 designs.com, but that’s good news for us mortals, who stand a chance to be on the receiving end of this:
Yes, that sexy, sleek, touchy touchy thingy.
No, not the uber exotic gal (you wankers!). No, not the endangered Panda (you animal w*nkers!).
The Apple iPad is being given away by 99 Designs.com — actually, 3 Apple iPads are being given away.
How to?
1. Sign up with them.
2. Use their Portfolio Widget to display your 99designs portfolio on your own website or blog.
That’s it, and the more unique websites that you display this, the more chances you get.
Now, don’t tell me you don’t want an iPad?
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