The Eternal Wanderer's Cool Videos & Podcasts!

2006-10-21T10:51:00.000+08:00

Big Ad... Trust me...it's VERY big!

OMG, this is just one totally freaking awesome ad that just got me laughing and laughing and laughing!!

Trust me, it's worth it!

2006-08-09T09:42:00.000+08:00

Ed Helms On TDS Reports On Speedos

This is one reason why I LOVE Jon Stewart's The Daily Show compared to David Letterman! LOL!

Photo Gallery: Bon Odori Festival 2006 in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

2006-07-16T00:12:00.000+08:00

The President's Kiss

2006-07-09T00:04:00.000+08:00

Vladimir Putin Kisses Young Boy On The Stomach

I think this is so very sweet of Russian President Vladimir Putin to kiss this little tyke on the stomach!

The boy is so utterly adorable! :-D

I went to look for this video after coming across this news item on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/06/russia.putin.reut/index.html

My First Video here: A Clip from L'Or des Anges

2006-06-24T15:33:00.000+08:00

Duo des Chats

I present to you a clip of a touching daydream scene from the exceptional 1998 French documentary film L'Or des Anges.

The two boys are actual boy choristers from Les Petits Chanteurs a la Croix de Bois.

It's weird, I know and some people might be uncomfortable by it because of the boys' expressive and intimate (in a playful way) but it's what we always hope and should expect from our kids - that they develop strong, loving, long-lasting relationships with their friends without the fear of being typecast or branded as 'freaks' by society.

If we really want a world of love, peace and harmony for our future generations, we should start by teaching them to love all people without any stigmatising and prejudice involved. The notion that boys should be macho and bottle up their feelings is one that is seriously flawed and should be challenged to the max. It doesn't mean that they'll end up as sissies and girly and effeminate just because boys expressed their feelings like the two 'cat boys' shown in the clip above.

This clip has made me want to locate this French film. Trust the French to make a documentary/film like this since that country has always been associated with 'love' 'relationships' and 'passion' for a long, long time.

AdSense Up!

2006-06-24T14:32:00.000+08:00

Well, I did say that I want to move over to my new blog, but I decided that since WP.com cannot support Google AdSense, I might as well revive this blog as well as maintain my WP one. Only that this one will be more for posting videos and podcasts, videos mainly. So yes, this will be a vlog from now on.

Mostly what I'll do is I put up the link at my WP blog and link it here so that people can see the video here. And they're encouraged to click on the ads on top of my blog so that I get paid! :D Heh..., thank you Google! Though I may have to wait for quite a while to get my checks :D.

Have fun to this new look vlog!

Moving On and Starting all over

2006-02-06T20:58:00.000+08:00

Greetings to all my readers here. Its been almost a month since my dad was struck down by tragedy and 2 weeks since his passing. The whole month of January was indeed a tough and very difficult time for all of us in the family.

But the time has come for us all to pick up the pieces and try and move on with our lives. No point in dwellingin the past as people all have to die one day. It was surprisingly easy to cope for us, I guess we were quite prepared for my dad's eventual passing that it was not so hard to accept. Indeed, I no longer felt any grief or pain over the loss of my dad but nevertheless, we all do miss him. He's at a better place now, that's all that matters.

And with that, I'd like to make an announcement that I will no longer be updating this blog. I feel that its time to spruce up the image of my blog and have decided that Blogspot does not quite present much options for me to do so, being incapable of writing HTML codes. Plus, I have grown quite weary of the way Blogspot looks so a breath of fresh air is in order.

Therefore, from now on, my blog will be relocated to a new blog server host - Word Press. The address is - http://theeternalwanderer.wordpress.com/ Remember to bookmark it! ^_^

48 posts in all, this blog. In about a year. Not very prolific am I? *Sigh* I promise that at my new blog, there'll be regular updates - as regular as I can try. I'll be talking on a lot more things other than just my life story and movies and issues.

Wanna know more? Just head over to http://theeternalwanderer.wordpress.com/

See you all at Word Press!!!

Gone to his Heavenly home

2006-01-23T07:55:00.000+08:00

My father passed away yesterday night, 10.30pm after a 2 weeks battle for recovery from his stroke attack. We are thankful that God has been merciful to my father and rather than prolonging his suffering, has chosen to take him home to be with Him.

The wake would be held tonight at 8.30pm at the PJ Casket and Crematorium in Kampung Tunku, PJ. The cremation and funeral would be tomorrow at 11.30am.

With love and regards,

Philip

In Critical Condition

2006-01-22T08:07:00.000+08:00

My father was warded again yesterday. He's condition has deteriorated all of a sudden and is now on life support. Its a painful time for all of us. He's breathing heavily and is slipping in and out of consciousness. I don't know whether he'll pull out of this alive. Half of me wants him to recover and half of me wishes for him to go... I don't want to see him suffer anymore, it hurts when you see someone you love very much have to go through pain and suffering in their last moments. It is not the way I want to see my father die. Unlike the West, euthanasia is definitely out of the question here where I stay. No chance for my father to go with the dignity a man like him fully deserves.

All I can do now is to pray that God will just ease his suffering and take him home soon. No point for him to recover and go through yet another suffering. My family has come to accept this for sometime now, so it wasn't exactly a shock. Pls continue to keep praying for him and my family. We certainly need the strength and will to go through this pain we are all feeling right now.

Thank you all.

The Power of Experience

2006-01-18T21:32:00.000+08:00

How do one begin to define the word 'experience'?

I spent the whole day mulling about this, thanks to a lecturer of mine who set us tasks to do even BEFORE we had our first meeting! Certainly, this lecturer is not to be messed with and always one to make a good first impression, I set about interpreting my own meaning of the word 'experience' and also with the help of the Web's most reliable source of information: Wikipedia.

From the way I see it, 'experience' is concept that we cannot live without nor can we avoid it. Everything we do, is a result of some form of experience, right? I don't know who said it before but I remembered someone quoted as saying that "Experience is the greatest teacher". And I wholly agree with that notion.

Based on Wikipedia, the concept of Experience is made up of having knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement or exposure to that thing or event. In layman terms, experience is simply knowledge/skill/understanding that was gained by a person through participation of an event or a thing. Experience = knowledge.

Once I understood this, I came to two conclusions: 1) Metaphorically speaking, experience is like many pieces of Lego that when added or joined together, it becomes a complete picture or thing. We build knowledge through our experiences in dealing with people, with life and with issues. There is no absolute knowledge - each experience shapes a different knowledge, either improving on a previous knowledge or substituting an old knowledge or gaining new knowledge. Am I making sense here? All these thoughts are really giving me a bad, bad migraine!

2) Experience guides us. There is no doubt about it. We learn from experience everyday. The process of acquiring experience is a non-stop, ever-going and lifelong process. The more we repeat an action, the more we become experienced in that action that we become an expert in that action. However, this is different from reptitions. We don't gain any new knowledge by merely repeating something we've already experienced. An 'experience' is called 'experience' when we gained new knowledge.

For example, today, I tried another attempt at side-parking, which I really hated because I am not good at it. However, by watching how mom does it, I gained a bit of experience from seeing how my mom did it and when I actually tried side-parking, it was not perfect, but I did managed it without scratching the car. What I had is another experience in side-parking. But does that make me an expert of side-parking? No! Once I relive the experience and continue to perform side-parking til I am confident in side-parking do I finally become an expert in side-parking. Similarly, having dabbled in Microsoft Word for years now, I cannot fully say that I am an expert in it, although I am an experienced user because sometimes I discover that I can do something new with Microsoft Word. That becomes another new experience in dealing with Microsoft Word.

It is no wonder that children learns best when it comes to learning through experience. Children, with their natural curiosity, are always eager to try, to do, to practice and be directly involved in new things, new experiences. This is the basis for the old proverb "Give a child a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach the child to fish, and you feed him the rest of his day." Show the child how to fish and he can fish for himself. Show the child how to tie his shoelaces and he can tie them himself. Show the child what happens when you play with fire and they will understand not to play with fire. Children have a great capacity to remember things that they learn and experience because their brains are like sponges, constantly absorbing knowledge and storing them away, ready to be recalled and pieced together to form a completed jigsaw puzzle.

Because of the child's great capacity to remember things and learn things quickly, I cannot help but stress on the importance of teaching children the RIGHT things and protect them from things that will do them more harm than good. It is usually the result of tragic experiences in a child's life that resulted in them having to grow up into killers, rapists, abusers and psychos. A child's mind is a fragile, precious thing. All the more important for us to protect them from the unsrupulous, evil people who seek to twist and pervert the children's minds by exposing them to the foulest acts imaginable. Don't you agree that children who grew up watching their fathers beat up mothers would think that it is okay to beat up women? Don't you think a racist is born when a child sees his father or mother treat a person of another race with contempt and disgust?

So, dear readers, do you now see the power of experience? Experience is the key to controlling a person. It's the most potent weapon, and in the right hands, experience brings forth fruit, but in the wrong hands - experience brings forth tragedy.

Now, I wonder how my lecturer would react if I spent the whole hour in class repeating what I've just typed all of the above? Now, THAT will be an experience she'll never forget! Unfortunately, I will not be taking her subject as I have decided to take another and leave this subject for next semester. Guess i'll just save this for next time. ^_^

One of the best Golden Globes

2006-01-17T20:55:00.000+08:00

Though I rarely saw some of the past years' Golden Globes due to missing out on the live telecasts and the shortened repeated versions were not really as fun as watching it live as you would probably got or heard the results from someone by the time you watched the repeated ones. So, in conclusion, I definitely felt immensely satisfied with this year's show. A totally enjoyable three hours of my Tuesday morning well spent!

But getting to watch a live telecast awards show in its entirety is not the only thing that got me gushing about the 63rd Annual Golden Globes Awards. It's nothing short of surprises, many memorable acceptance speeches and most of all, for the first time, I actually felt happy about the winners, all of whom I thought to fully deserved their awards handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Ang Lee chalked up a memorable night for Asians, with his Brokeback Mountain bagging four awards - Best Director, Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Screenplay for Motion Picture & Best Original Song for a Motion Picture .

Who would've thought that some day, a Taiwanese director would win the Best Director award for an English movie - and one that is about a pair of gay cowboys of all subjects! It's priceless! I cannot help but applaud Mr Lee for his immense contribution to raising the profile of Asians in Hollywood and it might just pave the way for others to emulate him. Who knows? Maybe Wong Kar Wai and Stephen Chow might direct an award-winning English movie too!

Another surprise win for Asians would be Korean-American actress Sandra Oh's unexpected Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini Series or Made for Television Movie win over the likes of Candice Bergen, Camryn Manheim, Elizabeth Perkins and Joanne Woodward. If anyone had seen Grey's Anatomy one would feel hard pressed not to award Oh for her performance in the show as an ambitious medical intern who intends to become the best surgeon. Even Oh herself was shocked by her win, judging by her reaction when her name was announced. She was stunned to the point that she seemed to have lost her sense of direction as she made her way to the stage. And her stuttering accpetance speech was priceless enough to make you feel like you wanna hug her and calm her nerves and excitement over the win.

If you wanna talk about upset wins, look no further than Mary-Louise Parker's upset win over FOUR Desperate Housewives actresses for the coveted Best Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy. Many have expected either Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman and Teru Hatcher to bag the award by it was obvious that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association saw something that delighted them and gave Parker, the underdog, for her performances as a weed-peddling mother in the series Weeds, which would probably not be shown in our Malaysian shores because of it's drug content.

Nevertheless, if there's one Desperate Housewife who is not feeling the blues over the loss, it has to be Felicity Huffman, who affirmed her reputation as a character actress and defintely her chances for an Oscar come March for her Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama win for playing a transsexual in the groundbreaking, controversial indie feature Transamerica.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's win for playing famous author Truman Capote in Capote was another unexpected win in the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama category. David Straitharn was the frontrunner for his performance as the courageous broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow who dared to oppose infamous communist hunter Senator Joseph McCarthy in Good Night, and Good Luck and also Heath Ledger for his part as one half of the gay cowboys in Brokeback Mountain. Hoffman would certainly be pleased to know that the win has put him in the lead for coveted Best Actor trophy at the Oscars.

But it won't be easy as he has a formidable opponent in the frame of Joaquin Phoenix, who bagged the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy award for a moving portrayal of late country crooner Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. Reese Witherspoon also won the Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for her protrayal of the faithful and loving June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.

So then what would the Oscars throw up for us come March? Will Brokeback Mountain continue its winning streak or will James Mangold's Walk the Line pip the film to the Best Picture honours at the Oscars? All said and done, this years awards season has certainly been one of the most exciting and unpredictable one in many, many years. It was certainly refreshing to see so many new talents getting recognised for their efforts in Hollywood cinema rather than your usual group of A-list performers such as Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Renee Zellwegger, Naomi Watts and Julia Roberts.

With that being said, allow me the opportunity to thank the winners Huffman, Hoffman, Phoenix, Witherspoon, Rachel Weisz (for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama), George Clooney (Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama) and also the rest of the nominees such as Straitharn, Ledger, Keira Knightley, Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Daniels and Terrence Howard for lighting up a truly magnificent year for American cinema.

For the full list of the winners of the 63rd Annual Golden Globes Awards, go here:
The Winners

An Uncle Again... and a fresh perspective on my parents

2006-01-15T17:22:00.000+08:00

Yet another good news to liven and lighten the mood in our family.

My third sister has given birth to her 2nd child, a healthy, cherubic baby boy. Name not known at this time but I'll be sure to put it up here once I know. She's currently doing well in Perth.

I am really happy to be an Uncle once more. I can't wait to have children of my own some time in the future, but until the right one comes along, I'm more than happy enough to be an Uncle to my nephews and nieces. They are all so adorable and good-looking kids. Well behaved and well-mannered too. My sisters are such good mothers! Hope to have a wife like them and most of all, someone like my mother.

I have not know how deeply my mother loved my father until recently. Despite the hardship she is going through, she is always standing by her man, never letting go and always treating him with the same respect and honour that she gives to every one. The care and love that my mother showed to my dad in caring for him is so incredible that I am shamed to admit that I had loathed my father. But that's another story which I will not share here. May be next time.

I now look at my parents from a whole different perspective. They certainly remind of the elderly couple in Yasmin Ahmad's Rabun. Her story of two loving, elderly Malay couple nearly mirrors that of my mom and dad. And for that, I now have much respect and honour for both my parents. My mom for her loyalty and devotion. And my dad for his integrity and honesty.

A son like me could not have asked for better parents than these.

Mom, Dad.... I LOVE YOU BOTH!

And to my sis, hope you could send us pics of the new born soon!! ^_^

Straight A's for the 2nd time

2006-01-14T16:10:00.000+08:00

In what has been a dark, tempestous week for me, it was certainly encouraging to know that I have managed to achieve straight A's in my 2nd semester final exams, a repeat performance of my first semester result. So, that means I managed to stay on the Dean's list, with a CGPA of 3.94.

Okay... so I felt a bit modest in saying it. Guess 'encouraging' doesn't quite sum up my feeling.

I am downright ECSTATIC - DELIGHTED - OVERJOYED!!

To be honest, I had spent the whole of the holidays in a bit of a worried mood because I wondered how I had fared in the exams. I was worried that I didn't write or answered well to some of the questions in the exams. So, I wasn't exactly expecting to achieve straight A's this time round but when I found out I did, an overwhelming sense of relief and joy came over me, erasing the pain and exhaustion I had felt over my dad's debilitating stroke. I hope my result would at least cheered him up a bit and it certainly did a bit caused he smiled at me.

With my dad in the condition that he is now in, i resolve to put in more effort in my studies and in my work so as not to disappoint and worry him. All I ask for him is to quickly recuperate so that we can bring him home with us in a few months time.

So here's to hoping for more good news and fresh beginnings to put a terrible start behind me.

My Father had a Stroke

2006-01-13T22:57:00.000+08:00

Hence, the lack of any updates in this past week as I have tending to my distraught mother and trying to keep my house in order.

Dad fell from his chair last Thursday in the dining room to pick up his medicine that fell on the floor and as a result, he had a concussion, which triggered the stroke. Docs at the hospital checked and confirmed that dad had suffered a mild stroke, with a little bleeding in his brain. As such, half his body is now paralysed on the right side.

So much had happened at such a short time. It's quite simply the worst ever start of a new year that I had ever had, 2nd being last year with the Asian Tsunami.

At present, he is recuperating in a nursing home, which everyone felt that it is the best solution for him and for us. There is no way my mother and I can cope with him. It is best to leave the caring and the recuperation process to the professionals. There is nothing much my mother and I can do anyways. My mom is no Xena, Warrior Princess and I have to work. The family now survives on my income and there's no way I can stay at home just to care for him.

I just like to take this time to thank everyone who has shown compassion and support to me and my family in our times of trouble. You are all truly wonderful people and we are eternally grateful for all your prayers and support.

Thank you all from the depths of my grateful heart. I love you all.

Philip

Resolutely Intent on Fulfilling Resolutions v.2006

2006-01-04T15:20:00.000+08:00

Right, so it's that time of the year again. Before I go on, allow me the courtesy of wishing you all yet another exciting New Year.

Oh, joy!

So, what's the fun in celebrating the 'momentous' event that is the earth completing it's full orbit around the sun? That is all there is to it. It is only us ingenious humans dating back to the Ancient Roman times that came up with the novel idea of celebrating the passage of another year with feasts and exchanging of gifts. Back then, the Ancient Roman calendar only had 10 months and the New Year was celebrated on the 1st of March. From the Middle Ages, different countries in Europe and the world follow different calendars, therefore, for the different cultures around the world, there were many, many New Year's Day... depending on which culture you belong to. Fascinating isn't it?

Well, I'm not going to go into a long, boring lecture about the history and origins of the New Year. That's not the purpose on this entry. It is however, about that little tradition that comes with the New Year... the time when we resolve to make resolutions on what we want to see happen and what we want to do in the coming new year.

Yes, New's Year's resolutions!!! The tiresome, needless tradition of drafting up and making up dreams, wishes, ambitions and hopes of what we will resolutely try to achieve. For the majority of us, it'll usually end in tears and failures as we forgot all about it come February. Of course, there are those whom I will bow to for really sticking to their princinples and their resolute spirit in fulfilling their New Year Resolutions. I take my hat off to you monsters.

As much as I want to resist the temptation for coming up with a dreary piece detailing my hopes and ambitions for the year, let's just say I'm just a weak, normal mortal. With everyone drafting their resolutions and commiting them to memory, my resistance weakens and I am finally swayed into making a few teeny resolutions for myself. Whether or not I will see them through, is another matter altogether.

And so, my dear readers, the following are what I hope to resolutely achieve:

1. Most of all, holding down a permanent job for safety and security purposes instead of freelancing.

2. Come 31 December 2006, I hope that I am at least RM8,000 or so richer in my bank account. To date, it's a measly sum of RM2,700.

3. No promises but i resolutely and am determined (for now) to reply and write emails to friends and family more frequently and not lag behind and keeping everyone in the dark as to what is happening to me.

4. No guarantee as well but I do hope to suffer less mood swings and emotional breakdowns this year, unlike in 2005. I hope to be made of more sterner stuff mentally and emotionally.

5. Of course, this is fairly typical of everybody's resolutions - exercise more often and keep a healthy, fit lifestyle with minimal intake of fatty, heaty, oily foods.

6. And last, but not the least... be a more exuberant, cheerful and chatty with my friends. Learn to relax a little and smile always. I've always had this kinda serious demeanour that seems to indicate I am a prideful and sullen person (according to my aunt) which usually throws people off from making contact with me. Well, that's gonna change.

Well, there you have it. Six easy, achievable resolutions. Wish me luck and by the grace of God, I hope to see at least three of these met come 31 December 2006. So, til then, look forward to more entries on this blog for the whole of this year. Thanks for taking the time to follow me through since Feb 2005. I hope to be this blog more interesting and exciting as possible.

Take care all and have a nice day!

My Year in Reflection

2005-12-30T21:21:00.000+08:00

Hey ho, 2005 zooms by and 2006 is about to creep up on all of us in less than 48 hours.Looking back, this year has been so full of ups and down that I am just glad to see the back of it. Full of regrets, yeah but I ain't about to quit. If you've been following my life since the start of this blog, you'll know what hell it has been this whole year. So many changes.

So here's the highlights of a year that I would rather not look back yet, except for the few lights that brought hope in an otherwise bleak, dark and moody year:

Quiting my Teacher's Post

This has to be the one huge significance that really sparked off an upheavel in my life. April of 2005 was the end of my contract at the international school I taught for the past 1 1/2 years. Mind you, I didn't want to go willingly but alas, I knew I had to go... considering how the management of the school is becoming worse and worse. I am thankful that I got out of that terrible school as a dastardly person - a person who was a pathetic excuse for a human being and who probably slept her way into the position - was appointed as principal. I pity the teachers and students who had to suffer under her bigoted authority. I sincerely won't recommend anyone overseas to go to this idiotic school. There are much better schools than this one, seriously. No point wasting cash on your kids education in this money-minded, dumb school.

Embarking on a new future career

I must admit that I did have second thoughts about pursuing my 2nd degree in Counselling in Education. The choices were pretty vast and I had no idea what I wanted. You can say I was on the crossroads all over again and without a clue as to which path to go. It's all up to fate and to God to lead me where He wants me to go. After much thought and consideration, my mind has made up that I will definitely continue my education. So, with my head held high, I began my quest for more knowledge and skills that I hope would one day help me to help others.

Dad's sickness getting worse

It has come to a point that 2005 is a year my father would rather forget. Blighted and plagued with ill health again and again... culminating in his Alzheimer's diagnosis. Went through a minor surgery. His condition is not looking to improve in the next year. Its a matter of time before he goes away for good. I have come to accept the fact that I might not have time to spend with my dad. All i can do now is to help him get through one day after another and allevate his suffering a little less. It's all I can do now as my dad's only son...

A New Window of Opportunity

I sincerely did not expect it. I was ecstatic the moment the fact sank in. That I managed to win myself a contributing writer's job for a magazine! It was a breath of fresh air for me. It most certainly was! I am enjoying myself writing for FACES magazine. I am so thankful and grateful to God for this talent in the written word. I hope I can build a side career in writing, not just for the magazine but also for other media as well.

New Home, New Start... is it really?

The big move. My new condominium at Kelana Mahkota had finally completed its construction and obtained the certificate of fitness. My parents and I began to start moving from our old house at Taman SEA to the new place. Brilliant looking place. But sadly, a new start it was not going to be. Barely three months after moving in, disaster (more like nighmare actually) struck. A girl drowned in the condo's pool. Shit happens, yeah but I was crushed that it happened at where I am staying. I just couldn't believe it. That incident has really taken a bit of the joy of staying in the condo. Nevertheless, I'm not gonna let one tiny incident blight my time in this place. The condo is, after all, under my name and my sister's name but I am the primary owner. No way in hell am I gonna look for another place in a long time.

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Well, five major highlights in my 22 year of life. As I look forward to beginning my 23rd year in this temporal, earthly body, I cross my fingers and sincerely pray that 2006 will be the year I see a significant turnaround in my fortunes.After all, my 23 year coincides with the Year of the Dog, of which I was born on. As dog's are man's best friend, here's to hoping that I have a good... no... a GREAT year ahead!!

A year at the Movies - A Look Back at the Best and Worst of 2005

2005-12-29T23:30:00.000+08:00

Ah... another topsy turvy year has come to an end. What a year it has been indeed! Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, diplomatic shenanigans not withstanding, it has been an equally exciting year at the world of movies.

Hollywood may have been running out of ideas but far from croaking, they had turned their profit-minded attention to the literary world for inspiration. And its not just the literary world too, but Hollywood saw it fit to do modern society a favour by 'modernising' old movies needlessly. Not to forget too, that some Hollywood studio bigwigs think they are doing all us Asians a huge favour by tranlating and reworking our movies into their 'bankable' and 'flashy' versions. Ah yes, there's also the matter of wanting to continue the adventures of our favourite silverscreen heroes - thus, we have sequels and prequels, some works but alas, some falls flat upon the director's and the studio's faces.

An interesting year, 2005, isn't it?

Without delay, let's get on with my pick of the 10 best movies released in Malaysia this year.

Philip's Top 10 Movies of 2005

10. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

The final chapter of the painfully long space saga that is a long time coming. The fall of Anakin Skywalker is complete. His transformation into the dastardly evil Darth Vader was really heart-wrenching to see. Sometimes i feel like reaching into the screen and shake and slap that Skywalker chap silly for the pain she caused the beautiful Padme. The attack on the Jedi Temple too, was utterly gut-wrenching for me. Yea, so I'm a softy. So sue me. Crappy, soppy dialogues aside, George Lucas could not have made a much more fitting end to the Star Wars saga and should really be apllauded for the wonderful digital effects. HD is certainly the future of filmmaking!

9. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Released in the USA in December 2004 but took three months to open here in Malaysia. Having not read the books, I can gladly say that I enjoyed this movie very much. The young leads handled their roles very well... but arguably, the stars of the movie has to be their adult co-stars that simply steals every scene. Jim Carrey is at his best with a slick, supremely evil performance as the pathetic, scheming, greedy and evil Count Olaf. He gave us a villain that we just simply love to hate and hate to love. Meryl Streep is certainly having a lot of fun as eccentric, scaredy-cat Aunt Josephine. Jude Law's sombre and smooth voice set the tone of the movie perfectly, dark, morbid with an air of mystery. Wonderful sets. Wonderful acting al round. And did I mention that I simply got dreamily lost in Liam Aiken's wonderfully expressive eyes? Gorgeous!

8. Sepet

Definitely, by far, one of the most heart-warming Malaysian movies I have ever seen. And it is certainly my No.1 Malaysian film ever! Much better than that expensive, too-grand-for-its-own-good Puteri Gunung Ledang. Released in Singapore in September 2004 before it was shown in Malaysia in February 2005, this second film by the uncomparable Yasmin Ahmad - she who brought us those touching and inspiring Petronas festive TV ads - broke all boundaries by daring to explore the complex issue of interracial romance. Touching and inspiring in every aspect, it is a shame to note that Malaysia's Film Censorship Board wanted to ban this film if Yasmin had not cut out several scenes from the film. I must thank her for not giving into the demands of those ancient foggies sitting on that board. With a sequel in the works, Sepet is a MUST see film for all ages and one that is worthy to be studied and taught in schools all over the country for its messages of tolerance, acceptance and understanding.

7. Constantine

I have to admit that this film adaptation of Garth Ennis' comic book called Hellblazer is fun and riveting. Again, I was not preoccupied with making comparisons between the comic and the film as I have not seen any of Ennis' works before. So, I was able to enjoy this heaven vs. earth vs. hell film very much. It's hard, of course, for Keanu Reeves to shake off his Neo mantle and I half-expected him to defy gravity at some point along the film. Nevertheless, this film introduced me to Tilda Swinton, who was really good as the misguided angel Gabriel. Peter Stormare too, made an impact in his short confrontation scene with the dying Constantine. I like how the movie portrayed the selfish anti-hero, for all his faults, who finally redeemed himself in the eyes of Heaven by willing to sacrifice himself. A certainly good watch.

6. The Interpreter

Political drama thrillers are always risky business. The director must be skillful too convey a sense of excitement, edginess and anxiety that is gripping enough for audiences to keep their eyes on the screen while not being too chatty and putting people to sleep with all the political jargon and conspiracy theories. With The Interpreter, veteran director Sydney Pollack mixes just the right amount of edginess and excitement to keep the audiences glued to the screen as the conspiracy unfolds before them. With superb acting from two of Hollywood's hottest leads in the vein of Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman, what you got in the end is one really cool, heart-stopping drama played out for the first time within the actual United Nations building.

5. Initial D

Contrary to what some people thought about this film, I found it to be quite impressive to say the least. Especially with Taiwanese heartthrob Jay Chou making an impressive acting debut as the moody and brooding high speed racing junkie Takumi Fujiwara. Yes, this is a Hong Kong made film based on a popular Japanese anime of the same title. Although it certainly gave me the shivers hearing people with Japanese names speaking in Cantonese, the directors gave us enough adrenaline rush in the form of brilliantly choreographed car racing scenes worthy of the anime, not to mention that it also feature some of the best looking cars that I would certainly kill to have. This is certainly one cool flick.

4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I absolutely loved Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore! After seeing them in last year's Finding Neverland, I could not wait to see them both in this film. And they certainly didn't disappoint! Depp is just as wonderfully eccentric and weird as he can ever be as Willy Wonka, the manufacturer of seemingly the world's MOST popular chocolate. Freddie is so sweet looking and just plain absolutely adorable! Roald Dahl must be happy to know that they have made quite a faithful adaptation of his book. The interior of the chocolate factory was just as how I imagined it! And Deep Roy as the Ooompa-Loompas is so... well... cute! Lavish, colourful sets that just seems to bring the book to life. Kudos to Tim Burton for a job well done on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

3. Batman Begins

Thank you Christopher Nolan for giving us the best ever interpretation and adaptation of Bob Kane's Batman! Christian Bale is absolutely perfect as the Caped Crusader of Gotham City. The role was made for him! Dark, gritty and edgy - just like in the comics. Katie Holmes not withstanding, the supporting cast was just as great and colourful. Cilian Murphy's portrayal of The Scarecrow makes him my favourite Bat-villain of all the Batman movies. Michael Caine was just as funny too but the best of the lot has to be that ever dependable Liam Neeson, my favourite actor ever! Lots of memorable scenes in this film that will bring viewers back to the film again and again. Not to mention guys will get a kick out of that supercool Batmobile! Go Batman!!

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The trio is maturing really fine onscreen, having followed through their growing up process since the first Harry Potter film. What a cute, shy little boy Daniel Radcliffe was back then! How time flies! Dan is back in his fourth year in Hogwarts and he is turning into a hunkalicious teenager who is set to break some hearts! Did I hear gasps of adoration and moans of longing when Daniel sheds his clothes for his first ever shirtless scene?? Heh, I did too. Delicious body! Got me salivating, hahaha! The bath scene alone makes this my No.2 film of the year. Of course, there's Ralph Fiennes who showed everyone the reason why he is one superb character actor in portraying the murderous wizard, Voldemort. Then, there's also David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr, the escaped Death Eater who infiltrates Hogwarts to snare our none the wiser hero! However, though it may be the darkest Harry Potter film yet, Alfonso Cuaron's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban remains my No.1 Harry Potter film, mainly because the characters were far more developed and the film looked much more stylish. Still, GoF is what made 2005 a good year for me.

1. Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe

The ultimate holiday film if there ever was one! Narnia moved me even more than that soppy tale of a giant ape falling in love with a pathetic female homo sapien. Glorious special effects, wonderful acting, fantastic characters and a timeless tale of the battle between good and evil makes this film my No.1 film of the year. As I mentioned in a couple of posts back, the film is brimming with so many good points that I just don't know where to start praising. What's even better is that i didn't even bothered to read the stories first, which gave me a much more objective outlook and appreciate Andrew Adamson's work on this film even more. Everything was just how it should be - the centaurs, the mermaids, the phoenix, the fauns and the griffins were exactly how I had imagined such wondrous mythological creatures should be. What else can I gush about? Don't blame me just because everything about this film simply works for me. And I simply must mention the fact that my favourite actor of all time provided the voice for the majestic lion God, Aslan! Glorious! Utterly glorious!
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Heh, and so... that sums up my Top 10 Movies of the year 2005. Check out the next post for the worst of the lot...

The 10 Worst Movies of 2005

2005-12-28T23:25:00.000+08:00

Hey, I'm no film critic and I'm certainly no filmmaker but I have enough experience studying films in college to make me qualified in giving objective and constructive criticisms about films. I'm an avid film goer and nothing gives me more pleasure than to sit in a dark cinema all by myself and get lost in the fantasy world of films. All I want most in a film to justify the RM8 to RM10 ticket is a great, meaningful story to tell that simply grips my attention and kept me riveted to the screen. You see, I' quite easy to please... but no amount of flashing human skin, flashy explosions, flashy effects and flashy fashions are going to save a film from ending up as 'trash' in my book.

So, my unfortunate winners of The Worst 10 Films released in Malaysia in 2005 are:

10. Zathura

Two cute warring brothers bond together to fight space aliens after one of them inadvertently send their home hurtling through space by playing a mysterious board game that makes events literally real. Much, much below the par that Jumanji has set. Same storyline. Same kind of action. Sadly, it's pretty much a bore to me. Special effects are nothing new. Nothing to really shout about here. Pretty much junior school fare. Fit for the kiddies to enjoy or if you fancy watching adults squirm and yawn.

9. Aeon Flux

A cheap copy-cat female version of Neo... in skintight leather... in the form of Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron could not even save this film, with its watery plots, from flowing down the drain. Do we really need more of these cheesy popcorn sci-fi action flicks to bombarde the senses of us poor cinemagoers?? I only hope that the comic version is much intelligible and the computer game is much more engaging than this sorry excuse of a film.

8. House of Wax

Interesting premise. Engaging story. Creative way of getting away with murder by the use of wax. Sadly, bad acting from a cast who thinks they look beautiful and worst still... who thinks that they can act, makes this film a much more painful thing to watch than to be covered in hot wax. Plllleeeaaasseee will someone stop mega brat Paris Hilton from gracing the public domain!!! The very sight of her really, really make me wanna barf!

7. The Fog

Bad, bad remake! I'm utterly surprised that John Carpenter, the producer of this turkey and the director of the original 1980 version, even consented to Rupert Wainwright's boring take. Seriously, what took the ghosties in The Fog so long to take their vengeance against the ancestors of the people who murdered them?? And can you see that the ghosties seemed to be half-heartedly trying to kill our three beautiful leads (Selma Blair, Tom Welling and Maggie Grace) while they gleefully kill off the rest of the unattractive and uninteresting cast members? Doh! 'nuff said.

6. Seven Swords

After the incredibly bad Legend of Zu (2001) and the utterly forgettable Double Team (1997), you'll think Tsui Hark would learn his lesson in making laughable action-kung fu films. He is certainly no Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige! Unfortunately, even with Hong Kong stars such as Leon Lai, Donnie Yen and Charlie Yeung could not safe this poorly executed Chinese version of the Magnificent Seven. Instead of cowboy hats and pistols, we have hear a bunch of seven martial artists skilled with the sword swooping down from their mountain hideout to rid the earth of the cruel warlord that is decimating everything in its path. in the midst of all the grand action and fights, we see a three way love tussle and a betrayal. Yawn!

5. Stealth

A Top Gun Stealth is certainly not! Far from it! And don't even say that this is a great action movie! Sure it has some really cool flying stunts but I rather watch cool flying stunts in Langkawi during LIMA. The only reason this film is fairly watchable to me is Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx. He is really one cool actor and a really talented one at that. Something which Jessica Biel and Josh Lucas ought to learn. Lucas still comes across as pretty wooden to me and seems to be devoid of expression. Hopefully, Lucas will do better in next year's Poseidon, in which he is headlining alonside much more established and talented stars such as Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Emmy Rossum. Stealth certainly deserves better.

4. Bewitched

Yet another poor remake. This could hardly even qualify as a remake. More like paying a homage to the classic TV series. Director Nora Ephron should really stick to doing sweet, memorable romance films for which she is much more popular for. Bewitched hardly qualifies as a love story between a witch and a normal human guy. Will Ferrell tries hard to be funny but he is certainly not. He's much better and funnier in Anchorman (2004) but comes across as a pompous bastard whose head is too big for his own good. Nicole Kidman's nose comes into the spotlight once more since her infamous prosthetic nose in The Hours (2002) that won her an Oscar for Best Actress. Here, she twitches her nose as a means of casting her spells. Somehow, i much prefer the way Elizabeth Montgomery did it in the 60s.

3. Elektra

One thing's for sure. It's better for Elektra to stay dead in the poor adaptation of Marvel Comics' Daredevil. The only good thing about this film is the way Jennifer Garner fits into the bloody hot, skintight, fiery red outfit. Storywise... its utterly boring, considering that I cannot help but fantasise the epic battle between Kill Bill's The Bride and Elektra during much of this film in the cinema. No doubt as to who won hands down!

2. Doom

Ugh, ugh and ugh! I must warn you that this film is utterly detestable and it only besmirches the good name of a legendary computer game! Even Resident Evil fared much better this shameless 'The Rock' vehicle. All the actors are weak in their roles, no chance for them to flex their acting muscles as they are all busy blasting aliens into smithereens. There's really nothing, nothing at all, that is worth capturing the attention of the viewers. Most likely the worst film The Rock has ever been in... besides The Scorpion King.

1. Dukes of Hazzard

No contest at all. This is definitely the worst movie I have ever seen... not just this year alone but in my entire life... well ok... Glitter was the worst movie I had ever seen in my life but Hazzard certainly came really close (thankfully, I steered clear of Britney Spear's Crossroads). Jessica Simpson is totally sooooooo NOT hot at all. She simply does nothing but try to flaunt her assets in ridiculously tight fitting clothes and her role is nothing more than attempting to draw unwitting male audiences to part with their cash to watch this Turkey of the Year. Pathetic! I don't know if the cult hit 60's TV series (another one!!) is just as bad, i never watched it and I don't think I want anything to do with the Hazzards ever again! It's much, much too hazardous (pun unashamedly intended) for my health and sanity!

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Well, there you go, folks! This list was much harder to do as I had seen quite a lot of turkeys this year instead of gems. I basically steered clear of Asian horror because they definitely don't hold much interest to me. And not to mention some campy Hong Kong comedy films too. But these 10 are definitely bad, bad, bad in my books and I am soooo gonna steer clear of them. Over my dead body will anyone attempt to drag me to watch these silly films again!

I am beginning to be really annoyed by the STUPID Americans...

2005-12-16T23:36:00.000+08:00

And perhaps the biggest, and STUPIDEST American of them all is none other than the daft, Texas horn dog that they call 'president' - Mr George W "I'm a Hero" Bush, who is anything but a hero. He's a war-mongerer. He's a liar. He's usurping, money minded freakazoid. He's a self-righteous baboon who gives Christians everywhere a bad name! What good has this clownish "president" done to the countries he so-called "liberated"?? If he ever step foot on Malaysian soil, I have a bucket load of shit and piss to flung at him and his assistants!

Heck, I think the Americans are not doing anything to save the reputation of Christianity with their stupid shennanigans. I mean, how stupid can you be when you decide to ban Christmas plays and Christmas carols and the Nativity from schools?? And instead of "Christmas" trees... you get Holiday trees. And instead of "Merry "Christmas" - its better to say Happy Holidays lest someone from the other religions get offended!

Talk about going all out to appease everyone! Can someone scream "STUPID" loudly at them??

I really have nothing against Americans. I'm in no way anti-American. But I am anti-stupid Americans. See, there's a difference! And of course, like the millions of people out there in the world... I am downright anti-Bush! If he can't even sort his twin daughters out, how the hell do you think he's gonna sort the whole world out?? The Americans who re-elected him has got to be the dumbest, stupidest Americans on the whole freaking damn planet!!!

So what got me ranting about stupid Americans and their stupid mascot (Bush, who else??). The war. Their stance on the issue of Kyoto Protocol - the fact that they call global warming a myth just riles me up! The fact that the world had to put up with this idiot for another three to four years. And the fact that he admitted to spying on people's private lives. The fact that he's appointing himself savior and commander of the world. The list is endless...

As the year draws to a close, 2006 is not gonna be any different than this one. I can sooooo tell that another country is gonna be attacked next year. Nope not North Korea. The fact that the new Iranian president's stupid rants about Israel and the whole thing about Holocaust being a myth and their pretentious argument that their nukes are for generating power is putting it in the target sights of US and Britain. So, it's safe to say that Iran's gonna be "liberated" next.

A new year I am so not looking forward to...

So go eat, drink and be merry while you can! Have a Happy Hol... oops... I ain't gonna be no stupid American... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! AND LET'S HOPE FOR A BRIGHT NEW YEAR!!

Burn Fat...literally

2005-12-14T11:06:00.000+08:00

You know, it's really downright hilarious seeing the lengths people go to just to lose te inches of fat of their bellies, waist and thighs.

If you read The Star today, they featured a story by Hazel Parry on Hong Kong's latest slimming solution - fat burning. Literally. Meaning they set fire to your stomach and the fat melts away.

No kidding. I bowled over laughing out loud at the poor ladies who are conned by this fad.

All I could think is someone being roasted over a burning fire, cooked till juicy tender and ready to be served just in time for Christmas!

The full story below:

Lose Fat - By Being Set on Fire!

I just Watched a god damn bloody brilliant film!!

2005-12-06T12:42:00.000+08:00

And you wanna know what it is??

It's the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe!!! And its all thanks to DiGi Rewards that I managed to catch an advance screening of this excellent film by Shrek director Andrew Adamson with my dear friend Patricia all for FREE!!! It was really worth it and I just feel like I want to watch this once more in the cinema and help it to get more money than Harry Potter... hahaha.

Seriously, if there's one movie that you have to, got to, must see for this holiday season/month... make it Narnia cause the film will just blow you away with its brilliant imagery and characters that make you feel for them in every way and scenes that just takes your breath away and keep you to the edge of your seats! Narnia IS really THAT GOOD!!!

It would be totally unfair to make comparisons with that mother of all fantasy movies Lord Of The Rings as Narnia is a whole different ball game altogether. C.S Lewis' precious work is eons away from his best friend JRR Tolkien's works. It's not as dark, not as complex and not too wordy, which makes it an excellent fantasy film for children of all ages.

There's no subplots in Narnia and the story is pretty much linear and thats the best because you are not distracted from the main focus of the story and allows you to have time to take in the fantastic special effects and imagery that Adamson had dreamt and visualised for the world of Narnia. The landscapes are absolutely breathtaking! It's been a while since I saw visually stunning landscapes in a movie, never since LOTR.

I have absolutely no complains regarding the actors who played the key characters in the film. Though Georgie Henley, the wonderful actress playing little Lucy Pevensie was a tad annoying to me about halfway through the movie with her constant tears and weeping. But she's suppose to typify the type of woman that was normal in those days during Lewis' times when writing this novel.

Edmund playing a spot of cricket in the real world with his siblings

My favourite characters here has to be Skandar Keynes' Edmund Pevensie (see pictures) and Jim Broadbent as Professor Kirke. Skandar was brilliant portraying the stubborn and headstrong Edmund, his wonderful facial expressions really conveyed the emotions that Edmund would have felt when he realises the wrong that he had done. Jim Broadbent was was great as the lovable Professor Kirke with a secret that he has kept from his four, young charges.

Edmund seems happy to be in the presence of the White Witch's castle. Pity he doesn't know the fate that awaits him

Jim Broadbent as the Professor who seems to have a mysterious secret about the wardrobe. If you've read the books, you'd know too!

Tilda Swinton... what can I say about her? On one hand I felt her portrayal of Jadis was excellent, yet I have to agree that she could actually be a bit more menacing and look graceful and elegant while she's at it. Jadis here seems to be a little bit more brutish than elegant but boy, can she churn out a menacing, piercing, icy cold evil stare! It's the stare that she utilises more to convey her fearsomeness and wrath. But I certainly cannot picture any other actresses that would fit the mould of Jadis the White Witch. Tilda is the White Witch, with her flawless, beautiful fair skin in real life. And after seeing her play a misguided angel in Constantine, I just know she would be perfect as Jadis the moment she was casted in the role. Well done Tilda, and bravo to Adamson for a spot-on casting! Tilda Swinton as the cold, evil Jadis with the steely gaze of menace

CGI Aslan was really good looking too. But Liam Neeson could have done slightly better with the voice acting. I had imagined Aslan's voice to be a bit more deep and husky and a bit older sounding and wise. Nevertheless, he did a commendable job in this and must be applauded for his effort to give voice to one of the most benevolent characters that ever lived in the fantasy realm.

But the best part of the entire movie has to be the final battle scene. A sight to behold. It's an epic battle worthy of the LOTR: Return of the King. Arguably one of the best battlefield scenes that I had ever seen in a movie. The build up to the final battle was fantastic, it really kept the audience at the edge of their seats. You felt like you are involved in every single decision that Peter Pevensie had to make that will decide the outcome of the classic battle against the forces of good and evil. Really fantastic.

Of course, every film, no matter how brilliant they are, will have its weak points as well but thankfully, it did not overshadow the film and was not obvious to ruin the movie. Some scenes look almost like watercolour effects, some scenes the actors were in did not gel with the effects - to the untrained eye, it makes no difference but alas, I had taken a course in filmmaking so I was every bit aware of the detail and could detect certain parts where it was plain obvious that it was unreal. The most important reason why special effects are utilised in movies are so that they can lend a sense of actuality and "realness" to the scenes. Meaning - special effects are used to make things look believably real to people that they actually thought it was real. But thats just a technical hang up that I have so don't worry about it too much. Overall, on a whole, THIS IS ONE REALLY DARN FREAKING COOL FILM!!!

Support this film! Watch the original and BUY the original. I sure hope Adamson will follow Peter Jackson in coming up with a special extended version! It would be so priceless! And maybe he will improve a bit on the special effects while doing the transfer to DVD. Who knows? One things for sure: I'll definitely be getting the DVD!

Can't wait for more Chronicles of Narnia films! And while waiting for it, I guess now is as good as a time as any to get started on reading the books again. Yes, I have not read all of the books, certainly not the second novel which The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was based on. I guess I should say that the books are now highly recommended to everyone who loves a bit of magic and fantasy in their life after all the LOTR and the Harry Potters. ^_^

Now I can go to bed happy... knowing that I had just gushed out my joy and happiness at having seen a great movie and not be disappointed at all! Good night!

Pictures are courtesy of Narnia Web Galleries

The New Harry Potter Movie: Should I be glad or should I despair?

2005-11-28T22:50:00.000+08:00

That was the question I asked myself as I watched the recently released Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I guess to answer the above question, I will have to put myself in the shoes of a manic fan of the book and that of a film critic who adores the film series.

As the former, I would most likely be asking for British director Mike Newell's head for the audacity to cut out Winky the House Elf, Ludo Bagman, Rita Skeeter being unveiled as an Animagus and Hermione's S.P.E.W are all shown the bin. I don't mind him taking out the Dursleys because everytime those idiot Muggles are onscreen, I just have this feeling of smashing the cinema (or TV) screen. They really get to you, those bloody Muggles!

However, thankfully, I tend to lean to the other side of the fence - the film critic who adores the film series, even though I read every single HP book five times already. There's so much to love about the movie - the texture, the pacing, the art, the new actors and characters and the drama and the tension of knowing what's to come are all packaged nicely into 2 and 1/2 hours of cinematic feast.

Travelling via the Portkey looked just as how I imagined, and the Barty Crouch Jr is really excellent! David Tennent fits the bill as the loyal, escaped Death Eater. How he flicks his tongue like a snake was really cool. Brendan Gleeson fared well as Moody and I can't wait to see him again in the fifth part when he plays the good version of Moody. And Miranda Richardson exudes poison and busy-bodiness and embodies the role of Rita Skeeter down to a pat. It was an excellent performance all round by everyone. And how can i forget Ralph Fiennes??? HE'S BLOODY BRILLIANT as Voldemort- to lend a phrase from Ron Weasley.

Harry's certainly maturing really fine. I just can't see anyone else as Harry Potter. Even though he's 16 already and he might not finish film 6 and 7, Daniel Radcliffe was born to play this consummate hero. What else can I say that has not already been said in the press and all the reviews? This movie is certainly a great one but yet, I liked Alfonso Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban was much more because it was more stylishly dark and managed to capture the changes thats beginning in the three kids.

No matter, each film has proven to be much better than its predecessor and Goblet of Fire is rightly so. Can't wait to see what David Yates will be serving up for us Pottermaniacs in the Order of Phoenix. Who will play Dolores Umbridge? Will Kreacher be shown?? How does Sirius Black's house look like? Will David Thewlis (god, how I like him as Lupin!) return?? And Luna Lovegood - will she be cut out? And the Thestrals - I am going to enjoy 'seeing' that! Of course, there's Tonks, there's Shacklebolt, Mundungus Fletcher and Ms Figg. Will we get to see Neville's parents in St. Mungo's? How will St. Mungo's look like on film? And the showdown at the Ministry. That's going to be so action packed!

Man, I'm beside myself just waiting for it. Until it's released in 2007, I guess it's back to the books for the sixth time and the movies for the third time! FYI, I've seen Goblet of Fire only twice so far. ^_^ And not to forget all those delicious gossips and rumours over at www.the-leaky-cauldron.org to keep the fans happy. All power to Harry Potter!

Til then, ta!

I'll be honest 'bout it...

2005-11-26T20:34:00.000+08:00

My first NaNoWriMo is a sad, sad failure... I just ran out of words... barely reaching 10,000! I guess I really didn't prepare myself as much as I thought I did. Well, there's always next year. And next year, I think its best that I not take the fantasy route... easy as it may seem but a lot of it is really down to sheer creativity. Though my fellow compatriots tell me to say "ah heck with the logic and sense... go with the flow!" it's really hard not to be confined within the realms of logic. I should really try not to think what others felt about my story should anyone actually bothered to read it. I'm definitely not JK Rowling or David Eddings. Heck, it took Rowling almost 6 years to come out with the 1st Harry Potter book!

Still, NaNoWriMo was a good experience to test out my ability to write free hand and free style. I definitely need to brush up on my skills and to continue to read and write. Though I failed to make it to the 50,000 word target, I still think I'll keep trying to finish this fantasy novel of mine. Its rather foolish to just discard something which I had started.

Looking forwards to the next one with bated breath!

Later,

Philip

Day Two: Totally Brain Busting!!

2005-11-02T13:46:00.000+08:00

Hello, folks! Here's an update on my progress... its been a totally brain-busting, nerve wrecking experience trying to coax out the words from my suddenly infertile mind!

For the whole day, I've only manged an exact 280 words - according to my MS Word count - equivalent to 4 paras. Not very productive considering that I could usually finish off a 2,000 word assignment for my editor in just a day! How hard I realise now writing fiction can be compared to writing facts and non-fiction! Ideas flow in and out of my mind but rarely could I piece them together and form a coherent and cohesive piece of narrative.

Still, I'm quite glad with what I managed to come out with with my 280 words. I hope things can develop from there but for the next few days, I don't see how I can add on to what I've wrote considering that my sis and her family are dropping by for a 3 day 2 nites visit for the holiday. There goes three wasted days of productivity!

Meanwhile... here's what I have so far for my NaNoWriMo novel. Don't you dare rip off!!:

The night was calm and serene. All around the forest was quiet, its inhabitants blissfully asleep, undisturbed by the solitary figure striding through the night forest. Clad in a dark green cloak, the figure blends into the surrounding environment. The night was unusually still, the stranger felt it strongly in his heart.

He looked to the cloudless night sky. The bright silver moon illuminated all in its path. The stranger hurried forth towards his destination, with the silver moonlight seemingly guiding him. He was careful to keep an eye out for anything that might suddenly burst forth from the dark shadows of the trees, his hand never leaving his sword’s handle.

Soon, he slowed down as he came to a small pond. The moonlight, as if by some unseen force, began to concentrate its focus on the pond. The stranger stopped, wary of any unseen adversary but at the same time, sensed a quiet peace that surpasses understanding enveloping his entire being. He looked across the small pond, the gentle ripples of the surface glinted like diamonds under the moonlight.

So, this is the famed Oracle, thought the stranger. He knew he would be in no danger here when he’s under the watchful eye of Ellos. The stranger stepped slowly forwards, drawn to the banks of the clearly magical oracle. He knew what the Oracle was meant to do. But dare he look into it? Was he really ready like his father had said – ready for his destiny. A destiny that the Oracle was meant to show him. As he stood there by the bank, his mind wandered to the day when he came of age not too long ago…

Well, there you have it - my 1st four glorious paragraphs of my first novel! LOL! Hope I'll be able to continue from here... not about to change anything cos that'll be too time consuming.

Til tomorrow then... if there's any further development to the above... ^_^

Ja Ne!

And so it begins...

2005-11-01T10:24:00.000+08:00

The NaNoWriMo Writing Challenge has begun!!

This month, from today onwards, I'll be posting my progress here and of course, my silly rants and gripes about the madness of writing a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days! So, if you're interested in my progress and just curious as to whats happening to me and whether I'll end up bonkers, do keep an eye on this page at the end of the day ;-)

Without wasting anytime now, its into the novel I go!

Oh, and before I forget... my festive wishes (Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf zahir batin and Happy Deepavali) to all my friends and all my readers/visitors out there who are celebrating these two joyous festivals above! Have loads of fun and don't forget to watch how yo drive as you travel back to your hometown and back!

Ja Ne!

Fancy a corpse for a bride?? - Return of Master Burton!!

2005-10-30T12:30:00.000+08:00

After watching The Corpse Bride recently, I could not have felt all the more relieved for my favourite director Tim Burton . The depressive slump of quality of his recent projects is finally over with the fantastic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride.

Corpse Bride is a tale set in the depressing, repressful and stiff 19th Century - a tale of a love triangle that transcends the realm of the living into the realm of the dead. Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp, Burton's fave actor and so is mine ^_^), son of wealthy fish merchants looking to be elevated to the heights of society with the marriage, is set to be betrothed to Victoria Everglot (sweet Emily Watson) , whose former classy family is out of cash and out of luck and is looking at the marriage to get them out of the rut. Talk about the irony of things! Victor is madly insecure and downright frightened by the marriage prospects while Victoria was hopeful and sad... until she hears Victor playing sweet, lovely music on the piano in her home.

Victor too, falls for Victoria, but that doesn't stop him from getting the jitters about marriage. He fouled up his marriage vows so badly during the rehearsal that the Pastor (the unmistakeable low, gruff voice of Christopher Lee) issued a stern warning to Victor that he get his vows right or else there won't be a marriage. Out he ran from the Everglot Manor like a frightened little pup and he began to wander about trying to get his vows right. Deeper and deeper into the dark, dank woods he goes until, when he finally got his vows right, he just HAD to slip the ring onto a root - unfortunately for Victor, it was much more than a root.

The root was but the finger of Emily The Corspe Bride (Helena Bonham Carter sounds like she's having fun) who has been waiting ever since the day she died for her 'one true love' to set her free. And Victor's it! I must say, if The Corpse Bride were a live-action film, I would certainly wet my pants at the 'resurrected' scene of the Corpse Bride rising from the earth. That was just scary and definitely understood why Victor ran helter-skelter for his life. I would too, if I were in his shoes. And so, Victor ends up getting caught in a life and death tug -of-war between two women and must decide who he really loves and wants to spend the rest of his life with.

While Corpse Bride is not as energetic and colourful and the animation not as supreme as Nightmare Before Christmas, Burton's finest animated work that put stop-motion claymation back into the limelight, Corpse Bride is still a very entertaining movie that really delivers the laughs - that is if you could stomach some of the queasy, icky stuff that was shown in the scenes depicting the Land of the Dead.

That aside, there are two things that I just love about The Corpse Bride. One is how Burton paints a stark contrast between the land of the living and the land of the dead. It's so striking that one could not have missed it. The land of the living, with its dark, grey hues and tones presents to us a depressing and at times, suffocating world where everyone has to be prim and proper. In contrast, the land of the dead - with its beautiful and colourful list of characters - comes across as a place to be merry... full of...um..er... well... just full of life. Ironic isn't it? But how seemingly true it must be to some people amongst us who thought that death's nothing but a party. What little colour left in the land of the living is the little blue butterfly that symbolises everything that life should be - free, unshackled by the norms and rules of a strict society. It is all the more poignant in the scene where Victor releases the blue butterfly from its captivity - seemingly to tell us that he longs to be just as free as the butterfly.

The second thing that I like about it is, of course, the humour and Burton rose to the occassion - poking fun at everything living and dead, no skulls unturned and no bones left unscattered. But I just have to mention three funny scenes that still stayed in mind long after I saw the movie. First, was when Emily sought the aid of Elder Gutknecht (one of my fave characters because of some of the one liners he uttered, voiced by Tony Award-winning Michael Gough, who was born in Malaysia in 1917!!!) to help them return to the Land of the Living. Puzzled and curious, the good elder quipped, "Why go up there when people are dying to get down here?" was just laugh out loud funny. The other two funny scenes worthy of mention happened when the dead returned to the Land of the Living to witness Emily's wedding to Victor. It showed how people alive and well react to the sudden appearance of the ghosties. One shows the innocence of a child who recognises his dead grandpa, but the way it was shown made it out as if the ghosts intended to kidnap the boy for dinner! But the best one had to be the feisty old lady reunited with his long dead husband... with Burton paying homage to Gone with the Wind with the line made famous by Clark Gable - "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!" - complete with the same pose and big kiss!

There are other funny moments for everyone and while the scare factor is minimal, the fun factor is high up. Though this may be an animation, its best that parents watch this with their kids and be prepared to answer tough questions about life and death!

All in all, I am really happy with The Corpse Bride and the fun I had watching it. It's certainly much more watchable than the cringe-worthy The Big Fish and the bad turkey Planet of the Apes. Here's to hoping for more good stuff from the guru of all things gothic, macabre and dark - Tim Burton!!

Six days to go to NaNoWriMo 2005!!!

2005-10-25T17:15:00.000+08:00

Hey, people!
You know, I've been stalling for far too long now. So, I decided today 'aw what the heck, might as well give it a go!' And now I am officially participating in the NaNoWriMo Writing Challenge 2005! Gosh, can't believe it but I am actually really going to go for it! Wow!

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMO is the acronym for National Novel Writing Month where participants force themselves to write 50,000 words (175 pages or so) of a novel, whatever kind of novel, from November 1 to November 30. Yes, to finish writing a novel in just 30 days! Sounds crazy? You might think so, bt I think its great to challenge yourself to see if you have the staying power to actually write a novel. This will be a sought of testing ground for me to test my passion for the written art form. I've always wanted to write a novel but have been putting off due to laziness and just plain don't know where to start. November 2005 is as good a time as any to get started.

So, hope you guys and gals can lend your support and encourage me whenever you see me around, k. I definitely need that extra push! ^_^ For more info on NaNoWriMo, go here ===> http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Here's to a new novel in the making! ^_^

Philip

I'm Speechless... Stunned... Shocked...Infuriated... Just Freaking Damned Pissed OFF!!!

2005-10-23T13:19:00.000+08:00

If you think this is another one of my stupid rant about how stupid my life is and all that, before you begin to even roll your eyes and chastise me for my ineptness and stupidity - hear me out for a while cos that not what this is all about.

It's 9.30am in the morning. I've just completed my my morning routine and was just sitting down to enjoy a hearty breakfast of wan tan mee when out of the corner of my eye, I saw today's newspaper with a big front page pic of a cute little baby smiling at the camera. So I edged closer to the newspaper on the table and read the caption - and that's what got me all riled up - the baby was a victim of damn irresponsible parents who zipped the baby up in a sports bag and left him for dead in a garbage dump site!!!!!

The shock! The horror! How terrible! God, I wish I could get the necks of the parents around my paws and choked the breath out of them! How could they do this to their own flesh and blood! The baby boy's umbilical cord was still attached and that says something - the boy was just born and dumped as it is! So unimaginably cruel, heartless and... and... God, I'm out of adjectives to describe this unspeakable act of evil! Reading about it just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth! If it weren't for two kind hearted souls who happened to stop by the dumping ground, the baby would have lost its precious life! My gratitude goes out to the two men who rescued the baby and did the right thing!

Sadly, this is not the first case recently. For the past couple of months, cases of baby dumping has significantly increased. This month itself, there were three other cases, two on the same day! Oct 8, a baby was found dead after being dumped in a dustbin in a toilet cubicle. Oct 10, a baby suffocated to death in a plastic bag and another was found with a swollen eye and a lot of mosquito and ant bite in a cardboard box! All in all, the newspaper recorded 9 cases of baby dumping this year alone! I cannot begin to describe the vile and evil people that perpetrated these heinous crimes! Even a tiger would not hurt its own cub, what more we humans blessed with the gift of knowing what is right and what is wrong!

This is so sad I just feel like tearing up. How could the mothers of these babies sleep peacefully at night without a single thought for their babies? If you don't want your babies, don't dump them! Give it away! Give it up for adoption! Spare the child the penalty of your own fault! I know the mothers could have been underaged or even rape victims and I understand the shame and embarrassment that will result from having an unwanted pregnancy, but the baby is innocent of everything! The baby should be given the right to live!

It is clear that we have learnt nothing at all. Malaysians are still just as clueless in how to solve its social ills. We are still not able to educate our people on the right thing to do. Its a great shame really. A great shame that a society of educated people can act so ruthlessly and heartlessly like this. And this coming after only three days of the passing of Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood, the champion and the epitome of the strength of Malaysian women. How Datin would weep if she was alive and read about these cases of baby dumping.

I'm out of words to say about this issue. One thing is clear, I will not rest on my laurels - I will forge on to ensure that the young generation will not commit this heartless act in the future. I will play my part in instilling moral values in our young and every sensible minded Malaysian ought to be doing the same!

What a LLLLOOOOONNNNGGG Day!

2005-10-20T01:00:00.000+08:00

It's half past midnight. And I'm still wide awake typing this from my laptop. I'm in my room right now. All is quiet in the house. 'xcept for the crickets macking a racket outside.

It's just me and mom in the house tonight. Dad's staying overnight at the hospital for some heart tests after complaining of heart problems. Hope its not too serious. We're already running dry and if he needs a bypass, we'll have to break the bank to settle the hospital bills.

Or, we could just let the insurance guys deal with it.

Anyways, it's been a very loooonnnnggg day as I said. It's been that way for as long as I can remember. Time seems to crawl by the second every day to me... god, can't wait for the day to be over and here I am can't sleep. My day's not over yet till I lay down and close my eyes.

So what's keeping me up?

A lot of things.

Finances. The future. My family. My life. My friends. My dreams. You know, the usual humdrum of things that pierces deep into the dark, tortured recesses of my mind. Not that I'm on the verge of insanity nor am I starting to hear voices or anything. Just that I've got sooooo many things to think about and to settle.

As much as I try to stay upbeat and be my happy-go-lucky cheerful self, deep down I am tortured. Tormented. Frustrated. Disappointed. At what? At me. At my life. It's just not going the way I had hoped it would be. And what the heck am I doing about it?

Nothing!

It figures. Its my fault and my own doing. Wish I could be more confident and more resilient. Gotta shut out the crticisms and discouragements from some people. Its no good wallowing in them. That'll be emotional suicide. No, I gotta pick myself up again and try it all over.

Yeah... thats it - I gotta rise up like the phoenix and meet life head on! Tomorrow's a brand new day of brand new opportunities. Like Robin Williams said in Dead Poets Society "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys!" Thats what I gotta do. Sure, it'll be just another long, long, long day but I gotta give it a shot. Who knows what the future may hold for me tomorrow? Whatever it is, may it be good.

Thanks for listening y'all. Usually I ain't this depressing. Just gotta unload some emotional baggage before I turn in for the night. It's already 1am. Do really hope things will brighten up some. I sure need it.

Cheers and may your days to come be as colourful as the rainbow! (Jeez, thats just so lame!) At least, may it be better than mind!

Public is at fault of the dengue cases

2005-10-04T20:25:00.000+08:00

I would like to comment on the latest outbreak of dengue that is causing much panic among the pubic in several states.

Malaysians have been struck by sporadic dengue outbreaks over the course of the last decade. The nation has gone from strength to strength and yet, we are still not able to prevent such outbreak of diseases. This really says a lot about the effectiveness of the Health Ministry in handling such outbreaks. The Ministry should be more pro-active and vigilant in identifying the causes of the outbreaks and nip it in the bud as soon as possible!

Unfortunately, the Ministry shouldn’t really be faulted entirely as it is the onus of the public to maintain the health, cleanliness and hygiene of our environment. The dengue outbreak happened because we let it happen with our Third World mentality! How often have we seen rubbish strewn all over the place behind alleys, in rivers and drains? Because of the irresponsible acts of some citizens, the rest of the country had to suffer. It is typical for Malaysians to be prodded into doing something when a crisis hits. We should shed this attitude and identify the causes in advance, then take preventive measures to correct the problem.

I appeal to my fellow citizens to please, please be mindful of our nation’s well-being and that of its people! With so many outbreaks of diseases happening around the world, it is time we take up arms and be vigilant against anything that will result in an epidemic in our country! With bird flu within range of our country, it will only be a matter of time before another full-scale epidemic hits our shores. This is but a lull before the storm.

X-Men 3 - Just can't wait for it!

2005-09-24T12:01:00.000+08:00

Looking at the cast for X-Men 3 has got me drooling over another explosive movie! I personally can't wait to see Jean Grey's resurrection and who would've thought Dr Frasier Crane will end up as another doctor albeit a more scientific one. I'm of course talking about Kelsey Grammer as The Beast! Whether he'll be blue and furry is anybody's guess but I'd love to see his acrobatic moves that's for sure! And what about the Archangel? Who would've thought they be bringing him into the movie? And casting Cayden Boyd as Young Warren is just oh so lovely! Definitely can't wait to see the kid sprouts wings and take to the sky!

Nevertheless, I'm still dismayed by some of the casting choices too... specifically Halle Berry, James Marsden and Anna Paquin. These three, I'm sorry to say, had been pretty much the last two movies' weakness.

Naturally, griping about the director's pick will lead to me pondering over alternative casting possibilities. And that'll be what this post be all about. If I had the power vested within me to overhaul the entire cast.... these will be who I want to see as the comic characters... maybe some day, it'll come true? Gosh, how I wish the producers and director and the writer for this movie and future movies will look at this and try them out!!! Till then... it'll always be in my minds eye when I sleep...

Professor X - Ben Kingsley will no doubt be one excellent veteran baldie actor to play him. Not to say that Pat Stewart's not doing a great job, i mean he embodies the look of Prof X but he still doesn't have that powerful presence/aura that comes from a world's most powerful telepath. If you've seen Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast you'll no doubt will agree with me. Plus, his wisdom as Gandhi will be good since Professor X strives for peace among mutants and humans.

Magneto - Nick Nolte... most likely gonna get a bit of flame for this one =b why Nick Nolte? Cause he plays wild and gritty characters with issues well. One think i have doubts about Ian McKellen's performance (not to say he's not good, he looks good being evil) is that Magneto's comes off looking a bit posh. Could be just me of course. Besides, if you true blue fans remember how Magneto first appeared in the first ever X-Men comic, you'll know he's this embittered person driven by a sense of revenge against humanity for crimes against mutants, which Magneto sees as a repeat of the extermination of the Jews in WW2. If Nick Nolte can't be Magneto, there others in the wings waiting to take over. My other choices for this role would be Christopher Plummer, Powers Boothe and Jeremy Irons, although I'm saving Irons for future villain, Mr Sinister. Plummer has the qualities needed for the part and Powers Boothe scares me sometimes with his many slimy evil characters that he has portrayed.

Cyclops - Tough call for this one. I had to ponder over whether I want a 'pretty boy' or one who can act, unlike stiff wood Marsden. Heh... but I do thank the heaven they didnt pick that Affleck guy for this part! I have two choices for this role... Matt Damon is one and Brendan Fraser is another. Someone mentioned him to and I do like Fraser in the two Mummy movies. And I do think Fraser's just as good looking and he too has the bod for pulling off Cyclops well. Why Matt Damon, he's looks I guess. Sometimes when I look at the comic version and compare it with Matt Damon in Bourne Supremacy, and I'd go, cool, Damon should've been Cyclops.

Jean Grey - Another tough call as I don't remember enough fiery headed actresses that can embody this lovely girl. Famke is sooooooooo not Jean Grey. Kirsten Dunst already looked soooooo good in Spiderman as the equally red-headed Mary Jane and I wish Dunst was several years older for her to be perfect as Jean Grey. I definitely want Dunst to be Jean Grey. But that will not happen cause I doubt she'll be in another comic movie other than Spiderman. People already see her sooooooo much as Mary Jane. So, I'll put aside my favourite and go with the next best two actress... Julianne Moore and Bridget Moynahan. Either one would be perfect!

Wolverine - I initially didnt want to recast this role because I like Jackman soooo much as Wolverine. But if I must... then I'll look around and scour for the next best actor to be the tough talking Logan/Wolverine. My actor has to be... ok, I admit it.. it was hard to find a replacement... I don't think Dougray Scott would fit the bill either even though he was the first choice. This character is in a class of his own and for someone in real-life to be able to have the same wild nature as Wolverine has to be a damn good actor... or he was a hermit living in the wild for ages... Then again...Matthew Fox of TV's "Lost" might be able to portray Wolvie too. If he can top Jackman's performance, that is.

Rogue - Anna Paquin is no Southern belle thats for sure! But since I'm not from the States, I don't any Southern actresses. So, I might actually take the risk and cast a newbie in this role. If I must choose an already established star, then my pick would be Scarlett Johansson. Paquin may have an Oscar as a kid, but she don't really seem to be able to act much in her later years. I'll pick Scarlett in the hope she can bring to life Rogue's tough but vulnerable on the inside and no-nonsense gal. If Scarlett can't be it... heck I'll go for Julia Stiles or even Ann Hathaway!

Storm - Hallen Berry should steer clear of ALL comic based movies from now on. Thats my verdict. What disastrous showing Catwoman was and how pathetic she was as Storm who can fly in the comics. The only time I've actually seen Storm defying gravity is the scene in the 1st movie where she glides/floats up to lightning blast The Toad sky high. My pick for the motherly and also tough 'weather witch' has to be Angela Bassett. No doubts about it. Oprah Winfrey? Errr.... I don't know... she'll probably talk a lot of the characters to death if she became Storm. Vivica Fox? Hmmmmm.... a possibility and the lesser known actress Erykah Badu too can be Storm but Bassett is still best.

The Beast/Hank McCoy - Heh, heh, I like this character a lot and to see Robbie Coltrane portraying this scientific genius would be a hoot! He's already looking very hairy in Harry Potter so why not add a few more bluer hairs and Robbie's all ready to play the Beast. Only problem here is that Robbie got to take some gymnastic and acrobatic lessons for him to be limber and agile.

Iceman - Initially, I actually thought Ryan Reynolds should've been given the part but he's a little too old to be in a school... Then, I saw Chris Evans and went... he's the one! Talk about a clash of powers! Hot and cold, no one does it as good as Chris Evans! LOL! But seriously, Chris Evans ought to be given a shot at this role instead of Ashmore, who looks too doleful for the wise-cracking, happy-go-lucky Iceman.

The Archangel - Cayden Boyd is perfect as Young Warren. The blond hair, pretty boy looks. Now, we need an older version who looks more or less like Cayden. Despite the fact of how much I hated Colin Farrell in Alexander, he might be able to portray a rich playboy mutant in X-Men 3. Everything about him looks a bit playboysih to me anyways... unless you want David Beckham the football player! LOL! Yep, Colin Farrell... might be able to pull it off.

Mystique - Looks don't matter here. After all, the actress gonna get herself paint blue with scales pasted on her latex suit. Plus, i think this role requires less acting skills... I think any actress who has played villains can pull this off. However, to be honest, I think it'll be kinda need if Angelina Jolie plays Mystique =b Other choices would be Gisele Bundchen from Tim Story's Taxi.

Pyro - I'd prefer someone manic-looking to play Pyro. I think John Robinson from Lords of Dogtown could do it too! He has everything that makes Pyro a fiery fire loving and fire manipulator arsonist. Or, since Cillian Murphy already did excellent villainous characters in Batman Begins and Red Eye, he'll be perfect for Pyro... just that he needs to dye his hair blond! =b

Colossus - So far, from the brief glimpse of Daniel Cudmore in X-2, I think he'll make a nice Colossus, even though he's Canadian and not Russian. They should've tried to be bit more realistic and truthful to the comics, you know what I mean? Sigh! I'll definitely pick someone Russian, or at least of Balkan origins to portray Colossus. Even if you get someone American, the least the producers could do is throw the actor into a Russian class and get him to learn the slang. No actors I know are tall or bulky enough to be Colossus and I've ran out of ideas so I'll leave it open for now... definitely a newbie for this role.

Juggernaut - I seriously think ex British footballer Vinnie Jones is a serious miscast for Juggernaut, but then again I haven't seen him act it out yet. He's a well-known actor of tough and rough guy but he's not daft... which I feel that Juggernaut is in the comic. Juggernaut has always been the jealous, vengeful and evil half-brother to Prof X and I like someone bulkier and mean looking to be Juggernaut. My casting choice for this character will be a former WWE pro wrestler named Brock Lesnar. Other contenders for the title (pun intended ^_^) are Matt Bloom aka The A-Train/Albert and Bill Goldberg.

Shadowcat - Shadowcat is supposed to be a young teen who has yet to mature but which young teen can play this role? I'll have to scour the Disney and Nickelodeon channels to look for the right kind of girl that'll do well for the still young and precocious X-girl who could walk through walls and even human beings. Therefore, I will not look further than Alexa Vega from the Spy Kids movies and Michelle Trachtenberg.

Siryn - The high pitch screaming girl who could also fly is very tough to cast as I can't think of any young actress who has red hair and Irish to boot. So, I'll have to leave this as a newbie actress. If she doesnt have to be Irish, I'd go for Alexis Bledel from Gilmore Girls... her audition will be simply whether she can let out a long high pitch scream without damaging her larynx. =b

Hmmm... well I can think of this much in one day. Of course, there's still Deathstryke, Nightcrawler, Sabretooth and The Toad from the 2nd and 1st movies respectively. It'll be alright to leave 'em out for now... but I may be back next time to add on a few more words.

Come back for more and do post your thoughts on this cast list.

Some great truths... something for all of you to laugh about when you're down ^_^

2005-09-18T02:45:00.000+08:00

Happy greets to all my wonderful readers out there!

Just wanna share something which I just received through mail from a good web friend. Yeah, look at the time.. Its almost 3am. Why am I doing up so late? Well, its just one of those nights when I just can't get myself to sleep... I'm a night owl sometimes... Anyways, have a read and do share them with your family and friends!

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD
1) Growing up is mandatory; growing old is optional. (Personally, I think this is backwards: Growing Old is Mandatory, Growing Up is Optional....)
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:
1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.

SUCCESS:
At age 4 success is . .. not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . ...having friends.
At age 16 or 18 success is ... having a drivers license.
At age 35 success is ... having money.
At age 50 success is . . having money.
At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is .... having friends.
At age 80 success is .... not peeing in your pants.

Pass this on to someone who could use a laugh.

Always remember to forget the troubles that pass your way; BUT NEVER forget the blessings that come each day.Have a wonderful day with many *smiles* .

Datuk Michelle Yeoh.... Malaysia's 1st Oscar nominated actress??? OMG!!!

2005-09-07T17:15:00.000+08:00

Hey, yeah... I'm back again in barely minutes after my last post. This is a totally new topic and I'm here to gush about Malaysia's hottest international actress right now: our very own Ipoh-born Datuk Michelle Yeoh!!!

The Star did a feature on her today about her tour de force performance in Steven Spielberg's Memoirs of a Geisha. For a lot of people to stand up and pay attention to her performance means that this movie has to be THE movie of the year, and Oscar talk is on everybody's lips and not just for Michelle... but literally for EVERY single Chinese actress in the movie about JAPANESE geishas! Talk about irony!!!

I'm not sure about my fellow countrymen, but I am immensely proud of Datuk Michelle. She's really good actress and I've enjoyed her movies immensely. Who could forget Police Story III: Supercop, my first ever Michelle movie? She literally held her own against master action hero Jackie Chan in that movie! She was wonderful in that. After that movie, I sampled her next movie ... a martial arts story called Wing Chun, though not as stylish as martial arts movies today, but it was highly watchable. And let's not forget how he whacked Pierce Brosnan's James Bond butt in Tomorrow Never Dies but liplocking with him by the end of the movie. She was Malaysia's 1st (and probably the last) Bond girl! Then comes what has to be her next best movie after Memoirs... Wo hu chang long or better known to the world out there as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That Ang Lee movie was artistically made and wonderfully and beautifully made! It definitely propelled a lot of the cast members into the international spotlight, especially Datuk Michelle and Zhang Ziyi, who also put in a fantastic performance in Memoirs. Though her movies after Ang Lee's actually suck... they are still quite entertaining enough to enjoy in one sitting but doesn't merit a DVD release... But with Memoirs, Datuk Michelle is definitely going places where no Malaysians have been before!!

So what's Datuk Michelle's prospects are?? Well, it's too early to talk about it but everyone is defintely praying and hoping for a Malaysian success! Come December, when it's finally released here in Malaysia, I'll defintely be one of the first in line to catch this fantastic movie. You can never go wrong with a Spielberg movie... he's up there with the likes of Akira Kurosawa and Alfred Hitchcock.

On Writing....and lots more about nothing

2005-09-07T17:02:00.000+08:00

Hi to anyone thats interested in reading the rants and ramblings of an aspiring writer.

First up, just to let you know that this is a post that is dedicated to the topic of nothingness... Yup, you heard that right... I'm writing this post about nothing... cos I'm just basically bored and just wanted to flex my writing muscles... if I have any in the first place. Well, you'll be the judge of that. I'm just bored out of my mind now that I've completed my deadlines.

Ok, how do you go about writing something about nothing? A thought balloon has just formed at the corner of my head..."I must be warped out of my mind...perhaps my readers are thinking the same. But short of checking myself in to the nearest looney bin, might as well have some fun while I'm at it...."

No apologies on my part if you're getting confused and just as warped out as I am now.

Like I said, I'm just toying around with you for now as I struggle to write something about anything on nothing. Well, to be honest I just trying to see how much I can write with pausing to think what to write. I guess thats a good start. If I can keep writing without pausing to think about what to write, its good practice of the mind and also my writing strength. Even if it does sound silly and pointless but I'm quite sure many of the greatest writers out there do practice some form of doodling and writing nonsensical stuff just to stimulate their creative thinking process. Consider this my online version of doodling...

I've just borrowed a book from my uni library on the history of modern short stories. Quite an interesting read actually. I'm enjoying the book very much. Are you still with me, cause if you are... I'll start talking a bit about the book on short stories. I love short stories. I love writing them too. In fact, I've written a few of my own and am planning to publish an antholgy of the writings. Well, they aren't exactly profitable commercial writings but they are my writings and I don't really mind if it doesn't pay much just as long as I know that there are people who are interested in what I have to say.

Ok, about the book. The book chronicles how short stories came to be and how it established itself as America's national art form. Edgar Allan Poe and Anton Chekov had been credited as the founding pioneers of the short story form. Poe is quite an interesting writer and I enjoyed some of his works very much. Very morbid and dark and troubling by today's standards. No doubt its entertaining though. As for Chekov...did i get the name right? Well anyways, Chekov is a doctor who found his niche in writing short stories and novellas. He's quite popular I heard though I've not read his works yet. There's also another writer before Chekov... Nicolai Gogol I think. I saw Gogol's works at Borders and I must say... he is quite an interesting writer too. Very simple plots but very human. Both Gogol and Chekov are writers that portray a stark reality of the people in the lowest level of society, often describing the poverty and hardships vividly. And some of it hits quite close to home back in those days in the late 19th century.

Aw crap... my strain of thought broke and had to pause there... for 10secs... oh well nevermind, I'm on a roll here. After deciding to write something...anything... about nothing... I went on to describe a book that I'm currently reading now. Not too bad. Well, this is getting to be a long post so I'll sum up about where I am so far at the book. Besides the 3 abovementioned authors... there were others who developed the short story form and provided the foundation to what it is today. People that were popular writers in the 19th century both in America and in Britain... where literature was a hot thing then. Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling and even a Frenchie... Guy Maupassant (I think!) All of them contributed to the short story form in their own way and all played a part in makiung short stories into what it is today. I hope to emulate them and be a popular writer in Malaysian circles... though I know I can't compete with the best there is that are already established.

In Malaysia.... the only writers that I know of and like are either very sharp in their wit and sarcasm and also very creative. Most of them I know are from the newspaper The Star that I enjoyed reading so much... mainly because of the writers that wrote for the paper. If only I can be like them... but I guess writing about movies for a magazine would suffice for now. The writers that I enjoyed in the paper are Effendi Yusoff, Mary Scheider, Marina Mahathir (I totally salute this iron lady!) and Chong Sheau Ching (old enough to be one of my aunts, but she is one of the best social commentators and critic that I know of). There's also Lydia Teh and Mangai Balasegram... both of whom are thoughtful writers too. I admire Tash aw and John Ling... both of whom have published successful books... the former had even been shortlisted for an award for his first book! Definitely a prime example of the Malaysian spirit....Malaysia Boleh! Instead of dreaming to be like them, I wanna stay awake and make my dreams to be like them a reality!

Thanks for reading, people! Probably too much to take in one sitting but hope you had a great time anyways. Haha! Til the next edition of this blog, stay tuned and come back for more helpings of the insanical (is there such a word??) ramblings of a 23 year old Malaysian upstart wannabe writer. ^_^

My Malaysian Dream

2005-08-31T13:29:00.000+08:00

Today, my country celebrates its 48th Independence Day and as we approach that milestone of 50, I could not help but ponder about the future of my beloved country. Malaysia has come a long, long way since the British colonial times to what it is now: a proud, speedily developed and self-governed country. Look at where we are now compared to other countries who had obtained independence long before us.

We Malaysians must honour and be grateful to the sacrifices our leaders have made into turning this country into one of the most peaceful and developed country in this region. We do not suffer from 'people power' riots, religious extremism, communism and extreme poverty like many of our neighbouring countries today. All credit must go to the people who had striven to protect Malaysia.

Every Malaysians must have a sense of duty to the country! I am sad to see that many among the young are taking everything for granted with little appreciation for the efforts our forefathers. These young people have come to expect that all the good things in life have been rightfully theirs but they did not know that before it was rightfully theirs, people had to fight for it. If people had not fought for this country, it would have been very easy for the communists to take over this country and make it into another Myanmar. I wish that all young people will wake up and open their eyes to see the value of our independence, our freedom. That they may not be indifferent to it when the time comes for them to take over the reins of this country. The generation of today must inculcate important values in the generation of tomorrow so that they will become worthy leaders and heirs of this country.

This is my Malaysian dream. A future Malaysia that is secure, that is still as peaceful and stable as ever before when Vision 2020 is fulfilled. It is all in our hands, my dear compatriots. Will you be willing to stick your neck out and brace the storms like our forefathers had or will you run off to another country to seek for better and greener pastures?

I wish all of you, dear brothers and sisters of Malaysia... a Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Thank you Mother Nature... Wooo-hooo!!!

2005-08-15T12:24:00.000+08:00

Like many long-suffering Malaysians out there, I was immensely thankful for the powers of Mother Nature as she lend a helping hand in blowing and clearing the thick smog that has plagued us over 2 weeks. Heavy rain and strong winds naturally dissipates the fog and brought back our clear blue skies, the plasure of feeling the warm sun rays and the breath of fresh air! Good riddance to the haze!

Hopefully, the respective authorities and governments would work hard to ensure that this terrible haze must not be allowed to occur again. We, Malaysians, have suffered long enough and quite frankly, we are soooo fed up. Let's be pro-active and put a stop this danger to our environment, to our daily life and to our economy!

Bought a cool watch...

2005-08-12T21:09:00.000+08:00

Well, I went back on my word about staying indoors till this haze crisis is over, but today seem to be slightly better compared to the last two days. So, i decided to go and hang out at KLCC and 1 Utama.

Well, the haze cleared a bit in my area but definitely not in KL. The haze is still quite bad so I did not venture out to the KLCC park but stayed indoors. I decided to catch a movie so watched Herbie Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan. Well, what can I say about the movie except that it was a really fun! Herbie is just as funny as the old version, he hasn't changed a bit despite having a really totally makeover. Nothing has changed for this little diminutive love bug! ^_^

As for Lohan, can she look any better?? Seriously, despite her drastic weight loss, she is still far from looking reed-thin a la Calista Flockhart. I'm banking on her star to shine ever brighter and maybe an Oscar award for her in the next five years, that is if she makes the transition from feel-good movies to grittier and dramatic stuff like what Scarlett Johansson is doing now. One thing's for sure, Lohan is destined for greater works and she's only 20!!

Right after the movie, I headed back towards P.J. to I Utama to look for some cool things that I can write about for the Faces magazine. It's on what writers of the magazine buys each month. Mainly its on personal items like apparels, bags, watches and whatnots. Something that is cool or maybe just special to the writers. I saw some really cool stuff actually, 1 Utama has loads of them.

At a shop called 3Point6, I saw this funny T-shirt that graphically describe how to break up with your girlfriend. If I ever wear that, I can guarantee that I won't get myself a girlfriend ever... or any female friends for that matter! Cool as it maybe... it's certainly off the list. Then, I dropped by at this nifty little gift shop called Folio Designer Edition. A lot of really nice things there but what caught my eye was the timepieces that they have on display. One blue watch definitely caught my attention simply because I like its colour and it's simplicity. Most digital watches nowadays have so many buttons that its so confusing to operate them. All I want is a watch that tells me the time and I'm happy. I can't remember what the model of the watch is but I think its from O.D.M - which stood for Original, Dynamic and Minimal. I certainly recommend this watch. The watch that I bought is quite affordable too. It's retailed at RM79.90 but thanks to the Mega Sale, it's cut down to RM53.95. Here's a pic of the watch!

Well, thats all for today... till tomorrow then. Ciao!

Oh Gosh!! This is horrible... I could barely see anything!! 0_0

2005-08-10T22:35:00.000+08:00

Just take a look at the pictures above. The top one is taken from my bedroom window this morning, and you can see that the haze is actually worse than yesterday... The 2nd pic is a view of the Subang highway (not sure what it's actual name is but I know it as the highway to Subang Jaya and Shah Alam. ^_^) from my balcony at noon. The constrcution work in front of my block have stopped its work since Monday due to the terrible haze condition. A little peaceful but the acrid smell of the haze is still horrible.

The air quality shows no sign of improvement. I've breathing in lungs full of smelly, dirty air even in the comforts of my own bedroom, living room and heck, I can smell it even when I'm in the shower. The haze is so strong that it's actually invading our homes!! This has to be the worst haze attack ever, and its no thanks to those darn Indonesians over at Sumatra. The perpetrators of the fires there had to be one of the most insensitive, ignorant and thickest-skinned people I've ever known! The authorities better do something about it and not let it get out of hand! No amount of apologies is gonna help if you sit around and do nothing! It's time to be pro-active and take control of the situation!

Meanwhile, on the homefront, I agree with The Star's Wong Sulong's comments here (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/8/10/focus/11727578&sec=focus)with regards to the haze situation. Like his friends, I too, sorely missed the sun's bright shining rays and the blue skies with its snowy, puffy clouds and the gentle breeze of fresh air. The haze really puts a damper to our spirits and I think people are feeling lethargic and depressed because of it.

Nevertheless, its really true that Malaysia should start doing something about the haze situation even if it isn't our fault that the haze ocurred. This haze will have a huge negative impact on our economy if nothing is done to address the situation. Ships and planes would be forced to be grounded due to poor visibility, resulting in delayed and cancelled flights which will result in thousands of disgruntled tourists and passengers which will in one way or another affect our tourism industry. This is very bad press indeed. Quick perogative action is needed to reverse the effects of this haze.

In the end, it all boils down to each of us as Malaysians to take the initiative to start protecting our environment. This haze could have been avoided if we paid more attention keeping our environment clean and healthy. Activities such as smoking, open burning and hazardous smoke from factories must be put to a stop. If we continue to let this haze occur in the future, all of us may have no choice but be forced to lug oxygen tanks whereever we go. One thing's for sure, I'm gonna start doing my part for a better, healthier air in the future for our future generation.

Cough! Cough! Cough! Choke! Oh hazy hazy days...when will it go away??

2005-08-09T19:05:00.000+08:00

That pic above is the view of a neighbouring block of condominiums from my own bedroom on the 1st floor of a condominium. It is one of the worst haze attack I've ever known! Not an ounce of fresh air left... no thanks to the dry season and the open air burnings over at Indonesia.

Oh when will they ever learn?? This ain't the 1st time Malaysians had to suffer because of the haze. Goodness knows how many people are suffering from breathing difficulties and asthma due to this hazardous haze attack. And what the heck is our Meteorological Services and Department of Environment doing about it?? Zilch, I tell you! All they are doing right now is collecting daily data of how polluted the air is and not even doing anything to lessen it! Can't they do some cloud seeding exercise or something? Didn't they use to that before?? Talk about inefficiency!

Until this haze attack lifts, I'll be trying to stay indoors as much as possible. No point exposing myself to all that poisonous, carcinogenic carbon particles floating out there. Here's a piece of advice to all you busy, busy and outgoing, on-the-run people... do yourself a good favour and get a mask! Oh, and drink plenty, plenty of water! This haze usually causes people to have dry throats and lips. So, make sure you keep yourself hydrated constantly!

That's all for now. If you're interested for more updates on this hazy condition, keep tuned in to this blog, alright? Ok folks, gotta run... it's dinner time and it's another packet of Maggi Mee for me again! Oh boy... my hair's gonna be running thin in a matter of years... >_<

A New Start, Anew Life... Towards a New Future

2005-08-09T18:50:00.000+08:00

Today, officially begins my new life as contributing writer to one of Malaysia's popular and long running free lifestyle magazine called Faces. I'm hugely delighted by the opportunity presented to me to by the editor of Faces magazine. It's not easy to be a writer in the lifestyle magazine scene and I know what is expected of me. Despite being a freshie in this, it is something that I have always dreamt of - to be a successful writer, writing from the very bottom of my heart and soul. It is one reason why I pursued and successfully completed my 1st degree in Mass Communication, majoring in Journalism and PR. Heck, I even won an award for being the best of my class in print journalism. Now, I am putting what I've learnt into practice and I am looking to be in this position for a very, very long time. Right now, I'm in this on a part time basis, but if I do well, there's a chance that I might be offered a full-time writer position! Wish me all the best folks!

Looking towards the future...

2005-08-08T08:50:00.000+08:00

and hopefully the future is brighter than what it is for me right now. Its such a mess... not socially but family wise and financial wise. Sure, everybody have problems with the latter - no money = no existence. Period. With inflation on the rise and everything keeps snowballing, sooner or later we'll have to pay double or triple or quadruple the price of a char kuey teow. Imagine that - plate of char kuey teow = the price for a lunch set at Chilli's!

Currently being unemployed and continuing my studies to obtain a 2nd degree, I have no choice but to make do with everything I have on a shoestring budget. I can't always depend on my folks for everything. Even though I am living with them in my own house which I am still paying for, I also have pay my monthly life insurance policy as well. And my savings account ain't that big amount and with the rate things are going at the moment, I'll be flat broke in about a year or so.

Being in this condition definitely bruised my pride and ego and tamed me a little. Looking back, there were so many things that I should have been careful about and be wise about but thanks to my brash and naive self, I've blown everything to bits. I should have saved more and spend less but the rush of earning a couple of thousands got to my head and I started purchasing everything on my "I Want" list. A digital camera, two handphones, an LCD monitor, an external hard-disk, tons of books and dining at expensive restaurants finally took their toll on me. Too late for regrets now. I am not complaining... I feel good letting all this come out. I've learnt a lot of painful lessons the hard way and now, i just have to carry on.

If money problems isn't enough to drive me up the wall, my own family is crumbling... torn apart by internal strife... of years of boiling bitterness, frustrations, indignations, anger and unforgiveness. I'm stuck right in the middle of it all. Now I know what it feels like being a rope pulled on both sides in a tarik tali contest. Why oh why?? Crap, I should know better than to ask that... being a person influenced and driven by Christian beliefs, principles and virtues. Guess I shouldn't mope and or even blog this at all. Should spend time praying and hoping some of you might tell me. And of course, who could forget that oh-so-cliched phrase 'Every cloud has its silver lining' that is spouted by well-meaning people who obviously don't have a clue.

Well, this has been an eventful blogging session. Guess I should stop ranting now and do look for that silver lining... if there's any at all. My life... what has it come to? Afraid of what the future holds most of the time. Do I craft my own path of life or should I continue to lean on God's guidance to do whatever He wants me to do. Only time will tell, i suppose.

What a big change in sentiment you must wonder, if you had been a follower of my blog since its conception. One day I'm all holy and professing God's love and grace and the next... a wounded soldier thinking of giving up and just drop out.

That's life for you, folks!

Its been a while...

2005-08-07T07:15:00.000+08:00

Hey, there peeps! How're all of you out there? Same old story huh? Well, lotsa things had happened in my own little world since my last post. Its been almost a month now.

Well, just to recap a few things... attended the Harry Potter book launch and finished off the book in three days (still trying to get over the shocking, painful death in the book), my sister came back from Australia with her family and started an almighty family feud (and I am not talking about the game show!), finished off my 1st term examinations, there had been another couple of attempted bombings over in London, attended two job interviews and wrote a short story. In between all that, I've watched a couple of movies, attended my old school's Honour's Day, sleep, eat, shop, read two Christian fiction books, play games and basically just hang out.

There you go, a summary of what I've been up to for the past month all in a paragraph! ^_^

Well, sayonnara and till my next post...

Chill out!

London Blasts!!! Was it a power surge or something more sinister at work??

2005-07-08T11:10:00.000+08:00

Earlier today, a series of six explosions rocked the city of London, crippling the famed London Underground rail network. This tragedy occured a day after London was declared the host for Olympics 2012 and while the G8 Summit was underway in Scotland.

The question is: was this a power surge as authorities initially claimed or is it something more sinister, something ruthless? If an incident like this happened about two decades ago, the first thought on every Londoner's mind would be "the IRA did it!" Of course, how remarkable times have changed. There is no doubt that this is NOT the work of the Irish Repulican Army, who had laid down its arms a few years ago and is working towards a peaceful solution to its problems with England.

If investigations proved that it WAS a terrorist attack, little doubt on anyone's mind who would be involved. But let's not be quick to blame it on those poor, wretched mountain dogs that goes by the name of Al-Qaeda. Though they are highly suspect, but there are others who have their own reasons to stage such a despicable act of tyranny upon humanity. But there is no room for doubt about Al-Qaeda's involvement in this as it was reported by BBC that an Islamist website with Al-Qaeda links had put up a claim that it was responsible.

The G8 summit is due to start in Scotland, and this could have happened because somebody wanted to make a point, but what kind of point are those idiots trying to make that is worth crippling the London Underground and wrecking havoc on the lives of hundreds, if not thousands. But there is no doubt that what the perpetrators had achieved what they had set out to achieve. Major financial stock markets across Europe plummeted drastically, some up to three percent! Could it be a coincidence that one of the agenda for the G8 summit was to discuss the poverty situation in Africa? The losses incurred are high and the impact on British and European economy could be serious and may take a while for it to recover. No doubt England's neighbours are all quaking in their seats for the next unexpected strike.

But why choose the London Underground, you wonder? If the experts had predicted in the days after 9/11 that London is susceptible to attacks, they should have guessed that London Underground would be a primary target. Up to three to four million users a day! If one plane were able to destroy a tower, imagine what a bomb could do to an underground train station. The emphasis here is UNDERGROUND. No chance of escape. The force of the explosion will rock and resonate more powerfully when enclosed, hence the scale of destruction much more vast. Fortunately, the baddies wasnt obviously thinking about that as from what I have read on the news so far, none of the trains were turned into bombs but could have been planted somewhere in the stations itself.

Yet, despite the scale of destruction - even a double decker bus on the surface was not spared - there has been a suspiciously low count of casualties and fatalities. So far, from what I know on the Internet, there were 90 casualites and 2 fatalities. This is just speculation I believe. There would be more trapped in the trains devastated by the blasts. The most important thing right now is for the rescuers and authorities to get in there and get them out before its too late. Air in the tunnels will not last long after an explosion and there could be dangers of chemical gas leakage. All I could do right now is join the millions of people across the world who are obviously in prayer right now that the destruction was not as bad as I had presumed and the fatalities remained low.

I feel that this is a warning to the Western powers that they are not as strong and powerful as they think they might be. There will always be people one step ahead of even the most feared intelligence agencies in the world. This is just but a taste of what is to come in the future. None of us are safe now. Anywhere where people congregate will be susceptible to attacks. As they always say, prevention is better than the cure. The US opted for the cure after 9/11, which is to launch into a series of war with Afghanistan and Iraq. Britain followed suit to back-up 'Big Daddy'. What they should have done is ponder over what went wrong, why people would do such a thing and stand back up and start all over for the better. If the USA had done some soul-searching and lessen their arrogance a notch or two, I doubt the farce that is Iraq and Afghanistan today. You cannot fight fire with fire as they always say.

Nevertheless, England ought to have shored up its defences on home soil, knowing that the G8 Summit is going on in Scotland. Of course, no one expected this to happen, especially coming after a night of partying to celebrate victory over Paris for the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. That certainly brought everybody's guard down. No matter what the authorities say,I still think that it is a high possibility that this is indeed a terrorist attack. Six, not one or two but SIX simultaneous explosions at six different locations! Wake up and see the logic! If there's a power surge, how could it have caused six explosions at six different places?? No, it is something more sinister. And I am damn sure about it! Anything lesser and I'll say its a cover up!

We are heading for an uneasy future right now. What the days in the future will bring no one knows for sure, but I pray that everyone will not give up hope. We have someone watching over us and we should not fear anything even though we are walking through the valley of death. It will be a while for us to get over this but then again, most of us are still feeling the pain over 9/11. I don't know whats it is like to lose someone in that kind of tragedy, but I still know what it is like to lose someone. Especially those we love. But I know we have a good God who would never let us down and on that God I entrust my life and future.

The Darkest and the Best Batman Ever! (SPOILERS!!!)

2005-07-07T12:00:00.000+08:00

Director: Christopher Nolan

Creator: Bob Kane

Movie Cast: Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe & Rutger Hauer

Finally, a movie that remained truthful and did justice to the vision of Bob Kane’s beloved and enigmatic creation. Even Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns could not be matched with what Christopher Nolan had done here with Batman Begins. And of course, let’s not even compare it with the utterly forgettable and ultra campy versions of Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forver and Batman & Robin.

Nolan’s is by far the best of the lot and stayed true to the dark and gritty nature of the comic books. Nolan is one of the rising crop of talented young directors who made a name of himself in the indie movie circuit with excellent hits like Memento and Imsomnia before branching out into the mainstream. Warner Bro. could not have picked a better director in Nolan.

The movie opens with Bruce Wayne (Bale) incarcerated in an Asian country for crimes committed as part of his research into the criminal mind and heart. Often picked on (most likely due to the fact that he is the only Mat Salleh there), Wayne found freedom in the mysterious Henri Ducard (Neeson in his first villain role) who belongs to the enigmatic League of Shadows, who proclaimed to be humanity’s guardian of righteousness by way of destroying corrupted civilisations – “We burned London to the ground. We brought Rome on its knees!”

Appointing himself mentor (Neeson’s roles of late have seen him mentoring various characters) with the hopes of using him to lead the League of Shadows in purging Gotham City of evil, Ducard trained Wayne on how to use his fear and turn it against his enemies. “To overcome fear, you must become fear itself!” proclaimed Ducard. (More like “to overcome your fear of bats, you must be THE bat!”)

However, when forced to kill a criminal, Wayne refuses to stoop to the level of a criminal and turned against his trainers before returning to Gotham City to begin his journey as the Caped Crusader… Batman! Along the way, his ever faithful butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Caine) provided the encouragement and support that Wayne needed as well as a few words of wisdom. Caine was a delight to watch as Alfred and has some of the movie’s best lines besides providing the audience a chance to catch a breather from the tense moments of the film.

Nolan gave Wayne’s transition into Batman a certain level of plausibility as he slowly perfects and masters his role with the aid of scientist Lucius Fox (Freeman), an outcast member of Wayne Enterprise’s directors. The inclusion of Fox also makes Wayne’s evolution into Batman more believable, with him being the source of all of Batman’s nifty gadgets – from the lightweight cape that enables him to glide through the air to grappling hooks and the Batsuit as well as the Batmobile, which goes by the name Tumbler! Don’t know about you but the Batmobile is the best of all Batmobiles I have seen on the silver screen. It fits the edgier, more brutal and tougher Batman. And it has to be every man's wet dream!

Gadgetry and Batmobiles aside, Wayne/Batman slowly began to take on the ruthless crime lord Carmine Falcone (Wilkinson), only to discover that Falcone was just a puppet behind a much more diabolical plot to destroy Gotham City. Instead of going for the more popular Bat foes in the comic, Nolan settled for Dr Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow (Murphy) who is no less evil and crazy. Wielding a powerful hallucinogen drug that is similar to LSD, Scarecrow is certainly not to be messed around with.

I simply love everything about this movie. From the Narrows to the progress of the plot to the minimal special effects (Nolan hates CGI thus avoiding it completely in this movie), everything about the movie have an artistic touch to it. And because there are no CGI effects, it becomes much more real. When Batman jumps of a building, he definitely jumped off the building. The most special effects in the film is the climax, where Lt Gordon (Oldman) blows away Gotham City’s monorail system with the Batmobile. It was one of the most spectacular scenes involving trains I have ever seen.

What made this movie work, as I had mentioned before, was Nolan and his vision of how the Bat should take form. He is also well-known to get the best out of his actors and we can see here that he certainly did with Bale believably portraying the angry, hungry for revenge billionaire turned masked vigilante. It was also a good idea for Nolan to change Bale’s voice when he becomes Batman.

I believe that this movie would have won over a new generation of Batman fans and the long-suffering fans who have been waiting for the true portrayal of the hero can now breathe much easier. I, for one, am certainly looking forward to the sequel, knowing who the next diabolical villain would be.

All images are copyright protected and are available here - http://www.batmannews.de/gotham_city_central/flugelheim_museum/flugelheim_museum_bb_001.html

Hey, No internet connection for a while!! >_<

2005-05-23T02:21:00.000+08:00

Dear all visitors and honoured, loyal readers and followers of my humble... and insignificant blog (hahahaha),

It is with great regret that I inform you that I wont be doing much posting for a month or so starting from today as my internet connection has been cut off due to my moving house process. It seems that my new area hasnt got a phone cable up yet so its a really pissy off thing that really got me frustrated. Telekom had better get things started or I'll picket in their HQ!!

So, right now, I'm in this dingy little cybercafe somewhere in Taman Mayang, near where the old LUCT campus is (for those of you who dont know what LUCT is, dont worry, you're not losing out on any important info ^_^)

I've officially moved into my new place!!! Its really great! Though its not a good idea to post my new address here, those of you interested to know WTF (vulgarity :-b) I stay, pls do drop me a line and I'll be glad to point out to you ^_^ Oh, please note to my new email addy - phil.welcometomylife@gmail.com

Well then, until next time... ciao!

4 houses in 22 years - A little history about my past and present residences

2005-05-14T13:16:00.000+08:00

Hey there everyone and anyone who reads this... ^_^

Reason why i hadnt been able to write anything for the past week was due to my hectic moving house schedule, a back ache which left me temporarily immobile and being a tutor to some of my dear students....

Yep, I'll be moving out and for those of you who are in the know, moving out is a big event in one's life. You gotta at least move out once or twice in your entire lfetime... Heh, heh, so far I have moved four times in my entire 22 years of living on this blessed place called Earth.

The first was when I was still a kid... too young to remember the details but my folks decided to one day pack up, sell the house and move all the way down to honey pot Selangor from Penang. Gosh, I still miss penang, especially some of my old friends who probably could not remember me anymore. Plus, never really liked the place we moved into... a cramped apartment in Subang Jaya. Still, we managed to survive there for about three years before my dad got all worked up and started to yell at my mom telling her he wants to move out cos the apartment's so cramp that it's like a prison... and so... we moved...

I have been living for ten glorious years in my present semi detached two storey house here in Petaling Jaya. It was a huge house, spacious and cavernous. It was absolutely perfect for us at the time. I had a lot of memories of this house. Some good and some bad of course. I went through Secondary school living in the same house. Unlike when I was in my Primary years when I was living in three different houses. Plus, I think my mom was actually quite confortable in it and had initially didnt want to move. After all, she became quite good friends with some of my neighbours.

So why the sudden move from this great place, with great location, you ask? Well, one major reason which I am quite ashamed to say - ME. Yep, my dear folks decided to move out because of ME. They bought the new condominium for me... so that I wouldnt have a problem getting one of my own property in the future. All they expect in return is to just be loving and appreciate and care for them. I know the one thing they always feared... that I would abandon them and leave them on their own. Sad to say, I did thought about leaving them and go my own way to live in some foreign land or just do my own thing.

You must be thinking how cruel and evil and ungrateful son that I am. I guess so. I had always had an uneasy relationship with my folks. It seems that we are always at each other's throats... well.. with my dad at least. I love my mom a lot, but she can be a bit unbearing at times too. But, please understand that I know that they do love me deep down and I do love them deep down too. But like many folks from traditional Chinese families, love is never shown emotionally and expressedly. My family's been through a lot. Its hard for outsiders to understand... but anyways, this is about my moving house.. not about my personal family history. Not comfortable about it being in public domain anyways.

So yea, the condo's for me. But there's another reason to it too, I guess. My mom and dad are well into their late 60's and for them to manage and take care of the house while I am away working most of the time is a bit too much and tough for them. So, the best otion is to move out nd get a smaller place and a condo was what I had always wanted and now I got my wish. I'm a happy and lucky person and I really count my blessings to be in such a good family. So, for you people who know me, if you ever catch me moping and griping about my family, please give me a good hard whack on the head... ^_^

Phil signing out...

Grace... such a beautiful word

2005-05-06T10:05:00.000+08:00

Good evening to one and all! How did you all do today on this graceful day of the 5th day of the month, on the 5th month of the 5th year of the new millennium? 5.05.05. For those not in the know, the no. 5 is a great significance to Christians cos its a number of 'grace'. All the more, today is the day that we should all be thankful that we are living in this blessed period of grace.

Don't know about you, but I think there are no words in the English language more beautiful than the word grace. So what is this grace? What's so special about it? You should know by now that the grace I am talking about is something more than just mere elegance and smoothness of movement or behaviour. It's bigger than that... and it holds a deeper, more powerful spiritual meaning.

Grace is the ultimate gift to mankind from God. And it is because of His grace that God sent His Son Jesus to die for all our sins. A selfless act. A GRACIOUS act. All i can say that it is VERY, VERY special. So special not only to me, but it can be special to EVERYONE, even YOU! If you are reading this now, and you think I'm talking rubbish... I just want to let you know that this grace is what is keeping me going. If it weren't for grace, I would probably have ended up in a mental institution, driven crazy by depression and suicidal/homicidal thoughts. By God's loving, saving grace, I am set free from this terrible bondage! By His grace, I couldn't be more alive, more full of joy and love than I could ever have.

So, in this blessed day, I want to share with you, dear readers of my blog, that grace from God is the most beautiful thing to have. He's not asking for anything in return... all He wants is your devotion and submission to Him. It is your choice... to have a life full of grace... full of love, peace, hope, faith and compassion or choose a life full of enmity, hurt, depression, evil and deceit. Be wise, dear friend! Be very wise indeed!

"Thank you, my Lord Jesus for Thy wonderful grace. Thy loving grace is more than sufficient for me. It was because of Thy grace that had led You to die on the cross to save me from my sins. I thank You, Lord Jesus for saving me and I pray that I would be able to continue to serve You in whatever way that You want me to. Most importantly now, Lord, I pray that You touch the hearts of the people who are reading this, and may they know this wonderful grace that You want them to have so much. Reveal Yourself to them and may their life be changed in ways beyond their own understanding. In Jesus' blessed name I pray AMEN"

To the Chinese & Japanese - Please forgive and forget the past!!! Look to the future!

2005-05-04T12:42:00.000+08:00

Whew, what a week it has been since my last post. In between giving tutorials to my beloved students and moving out from my current place, I could not help but get drawn into the controversy over historical facts that had set people from three nations and three cultures that are very dear to me into a frenzy of outraged protests, demosntrations and riots.

I am talking about China, the country of my nationality but not of birth, South Korea, the country which had recently interested me due to my exposure of Korean people in the international school I used to work in and Japan, the country that has held my fascination for a long time in the form of old Ultraman series, Transformer toys and today... Japanime.

What was the fuss, you say? If you had been following the news, it would have been very obvious that even though the World War II is long over and that Japan is not the country that it used to be in the old days, it still have much to answer for the crimes that they did in that period. Is it a crime to whitewash a terrible past? Was it really a whitewash? I can't be the judge of that as I still can't read kanji and have no access to the historical books that the Japanese had been accused of covering up.

Still, I believe that Japan had suffered equally as much and deserved the penance they had to pay when the Americans dropped A-bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And if they want to honour their war dead (war criminals to the rest of the world) it is their right. Why must the Chinese and the Koreans read so much into Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the shrine honouring their dead? It doesn't mean that he will become like them. And many youngsters today hardly really give a damn about what had happened during those days. Its only the older generation thats making a fuss. Why couldn't they just forgive and forget? Why do they still want to relive a terrible past? If only the people in the seat of authority take a step down to earth and see that we are living in different times.

I wish the three nations would wake up and smell the roses. Let bygones be bygones. Indeed, we should learn from mistakes done in the past so that the same mistakes would not be repeated but we should do so with an open heart and open mind. It is pointless to fight and argue and protest over something that had happened so long ago, something that Japanese of today's generation are innocent of.

Sigh!

2005-04-24T09:49:00.000+08:00

Ever get the feeling that you're talking to yourself sometimes when nobody listens to you? Yeah, thats the feeling I'm having right now with this blog. I'm writing and I always get the feeling that no one is reading it... judging by the number of comments that had appeared in this blog of mine.

I guess its the same with every writer. The phobia that no one is reading their works will always exist as long as we're writing. Is there a cure to this phobia? Of course there is... by strengthening our resolve and don't get too bothered by whether people read our work or not. Just keep up the passion for writing and do what we do best - write! So what if our writing is not up to par with international standards? So what if our writing is not Pulitzer or Nobel Literature material? It'l always be hard but thats what we got to do. Never give up just because we think nobody likes our stuff.

So yeah, regardless of whether people read this or not, I'm gonna soldier on and keep writing.

Ciaoz people! Love life and live it to the fullest!

Philip_G signing off... ^_^

About time this is updated!

2005-04-22T09:10:00.000+08:00

Hoo ha, hello people!

Its about time I get this updated. Its been two whole months since my last post! Mind boggling! Bah, thanks to work committments, my poor blog's been cast aside, abandoned... hahaha, but not anymore as I am free to resume my insignificant ramblings from now on!

So, whats the focus of this post? Well... haven't thought about one yet. I just feel the need to write something, anything whatever that comes to my mind right now. As long as I am writing something. Read a book about writing and one of the tips the book recommended was to just write whatever that comes to my mind so I guess thats what I'm doing right now. To keep my mind going and the creative juices flowing.

I'm quite inspired by the literature scene in Malaysia at the moment. Quite a significant amount of people are writing and publishing their works. I hope I will one day too. You want to know what my dream project would be? To breathe a new life into old Malay classics. I'm sure many who had gone through SPM BM papers know what a drag Malay classics are. I hope to one day be able to modernise them and turn them into English translations complete with illustrations.

A modern JK Rowling I am not, but I guess I got to start somewhere. My dream project is still far away but right now, I'm working on a different project. I'm currently doing a children's fantasy-adventure story, tentatively titled "The Ellendale Saga". Not a very catchy title but for now it'll do. The premise of this story revolves around three siblings who stumbled upon a mysterious passage way that leads them into a mystical yet fantastical alternate reality. What sets this aside from other fantasy-adventure series is that this is a very much Malaysianised story. I've inserted references of legendary Malay creatures such as the 'Garuda', the evil tolol and many Malaysianised characters and places.

Its a project that I had started since I was in college, only to be hampered by the need to look for a stable income job the moment I graduated. This was shelved and while working, I began on another project, a teenage spy action-adventure novel but that too got scrapped as I felt I had difficulty finding material due to the hush, hush nature of our country's national intelligence. Yes, it's supposed to be a Malaysianised adventure as well.

The problem I feel is due to the marketability of these type of books, especially if they are written by Malaysians. They definitely had to compete with the likes of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Dianna Wynn Jones, JK Rowling, Tolkien, Clancy, Horowitz and many others who had successfully carved out a sizable portion of the market. And looking at Malaysian literature in general, most of them are political commentaries, biographies, romance novels and BM versions of The Famous Five, Hardy Boys and the Three Investigators.

Regardless, I hope that some day, my stuff will get published and many will hail me as a literary genius. But I still have a monumental task ahead of me before I get to that stage. By God's grace, it will come to pass.

Philip_G

Wife dead, unborn twins dead...what would you do if you are the husband??

2005-02-17T18:46:00.000+08:00

Reading yesterday's news filled me with disgust as I contemplated how cruel and uncaring the general public in my country could be when it comes to accident victims.

Yesterday, it was reported that a soldier lost his wife and unborn twin boys when they met in an accident. The motorcyle they were on was struck by a car, and the irresponsible and probably shaken senior citizen driver who was 73 years old, quickly fled the scene, only to turn himself in later. The man pleaded for passers-by for help, but to his anguish, none came forward to his aid until 20 minutes later. By then, it was too late... the damage was done and a man's hopes to start a family with his loving partner was dealt a cruel end.

What would you do if you were the husband? How would you feel if your wife and kids, unborn kids mind you, could have been saved if it weren't for ugly and uncaring public citizens turn a blind eye on your plight. What were going through the people's mind when that accident unfolded before them?? Did they not feel any anguish, pity or shock or ashamed when they saw how hurt the woman is or how the soldier, in tears, pleaded for the public to take them to the hospital? How thick-skin can they be? How could they live with the knowledge that they have caused, even if its indirectly, the death of an innocent woman and her unborn offsprings? It hurts me to read about stories like this that is still happening in my country in the 21st century?

Are we becoming an uncaring lot? Despite the bad experiences we may have had, couldn't we see for ourselves that there are people who genuinely needed help? I couldn't believe the listeners' responses to Red104.9's morning radio show... "I stopped to help, only to have other motorists beat me up, thinking that I caused the accident," said a doctor, who later declared that he would not stop to help because it was such a hassle. How dare he said that?? As a doctor, are you not bound by professional ethics of your job to help a person in need wherever you may be? Of course, some accident victims are to blame themselves as they took advantage of their situation - a woman helped a motorist who knocked into her car and paid the repair bills on the bike, only to be slapped with a lawsuit by the man who claimed that the woman had knocked him down and taken RM2,000 from him! God, how our morals have deteriorated!

To Mohamad Azmi Sulaiman, I mourn and deeply regret your loss and I want to assure you that not all Malaysians behave in such an uncaring way! I am sure there are many more of us Malaysians who are above such deplorable acts and I wish I was there to help you in your time of need. I hope that this serves as a wake up call to every fibre of society to get their act together and stamp this uncaring attitude out of our system!

How ironic that the newspaper The Star held an opinion poll recently to find out what is considered the rudest behaviour in Malaysia. The verdict? Inconsiderate and rude driving habits...habits which often lead to accidents, accidents such as the one caused by the impatient senior citizen who killed Azmi's wife and his unborn sons. How even more ironic is the fact that the Malaysian government is launching a campaign to instil courtesy and good values! This latest show of public apathy to another human being's suffering had to be the icing on the cake! I urge the government to not stall anymore time and get to work immediately on this campaign! Do we all want to see our Malaysian image and values to rot further? I think not!

- A very unhappy Philip

2005-02-16T07:10:00.000+08:00

Good afternoon to all!!!

Heh, heh, I feel that it is time to jump on the bandwagon and start up my very own blog. Hey, since everyone is doing it, why shouldn't I. Besides, I like writing and putting my thoughts into words is kinda one of my most enjoyable hobbies so this shouldn't be difficult.

Well, here's what to expect from my blog. As like what the title says, I'm laying bare my mind and my innermost thoughts out onto the world... It can sometimes be a dark and bleak world and at times sugary sweet that will certainly guarantee you a visit to the dentist. At other times, its bright sunny weather, just like here in Malaysia, where I reside. So, I welcome you to step into the weird, wonderful, crazy, zany, indomitable, colourful and wild world that is my mind - Philip's Mind. Once you make that bold step, I assure thee that there would be no retreat from where thee comes from... ^_^

Righty ho then. Don't say I didnt warn you. I hope this blog will be an entertaining read to all of you, and if I don't occassionally make sense... hahaha... thats cause I'll be in one of my incorrigible moods. :-D

Till my next post then! Ciao and have a swell time!

Philip G