The End

The proverbial "Light at the end of the tunnel" literally, thank goodness it isn't a train!

Happy New Year 2006 everyone!

Scarcrow

I thought I had read them all. After Dan Brown's Angels & Demons spoilt my tastes (in a good way) for good, real-time, suspense, thriller-mystery novels, Matthew Reilly comes along and decides to shatter that record and take it one notch higher.

Scarcrow is an action-paced adventure thriller novel which is a continuous roller coaster ride that won't stop. And believe me, I've been on most of the extreme roller coaster rides there are! The story starts with an aristocratic conglomerate who hire international bounty hunters and put a price to hunt down 15 people's heads (literally), most of them SAS, SEAL, Delta Force, MI6, and eliminate them by noon of a certain day. After eliminating them, they'll be able to carry out their plan for global war.

Enter Captain Shane "Scarcrow" Schofield, the new action commander, who is on the hit-list and has to keep his head on in and around Europe to track down who his bounty hunters are, who hired them, and why. There are several surprising turns in the story that tell you that nobody is safe and that anyone can die. That's what makes the story so believeable.

Matthew Reilly's 5th novel is written almost like an action movie, with nail-biting dog-fights, and car chases that leave you at the edge of your seat and guessing the outcome. Oh, and there's the interesting use of a mountain climbing piton I've never heard of. It has the distinctive writing style of this Australian writer who is only 31. I've yet to read his other novels, but I've just gotten Seven Ancient Wonders, his latest novel and will be starting on that soon!

9 out of 10

359

Dearest family and friends,

Merry Christmas & a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2006!

Cheers all.

Bad Drivers

I just don't understand some drivers. In my country, it's stated that you give way to traffic coming from the right. However, the driver of the SUV this evening was changing from his lane to the right, almost the same time as I was changing from my lane moving left. We were moving into the same lane. I was first, so of course, he was forced to give way to me to avoid hitting me, but he was still unreasonable. He overtook me on the right and cut into my lane right in front of me. If my reflexes weren't fast enough, I would have hit him, or me braking so hard, the car behind me would have hit me.

Oh and he had a lady friend (wife perhaps?) in the car with him. So, perhaps he was trying to impress her with his pig-headed driving skills. If I had a sand truck, I would have rammed his SUV and dragged it all the way to the top of the bridge and pushed it over.

If only...

Grown-Up Christmas List

What I want for Christmas this year, my very own Xmas wishlist.

1. Black iPod 30 GB with Video Playback
   
2. Travel Scrabble Game Set
3. Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
   
4. The Complete Calvin & Hobbes
5. Battlestar Galactica Complete Season 2 DVD
6. Aliens Vs Predator Unrated Directors Cut DVD
7. Michael Buble - Caught In The Act CD/DVD
8. Peter Gallagher – 7 Days In Memphis CD
9. Life size blow-up doll of Jenna Jameson
10. An intelligent, boobsy, strong-headed, vivacious and insanely rich wife!

Hopefully, more than 50% of my wishes come true!!

Update: 40%, that's not too bad!

Pyrrhic Victory

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory which is won at too great a cost for the victor. The phrase is a reference to King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who defeated the Romans at Heraclea and Asculum in 279 BC, but suffered severe and irreplaceable casualties in the process, going on to eventually lose the Pyrrhic War.

President GW Bush just asserted that the US is winning the war in Iraq, a war that he's fighting for his people. War propaganda and morale boosters, nothing more. Really, is he trying to free the Iraqis or is he just trying to tie them up in so much political unrest and red tape so that he can get his hands on their oil? It has always been about the oil and nothing else. Saddam was a bonus to toy around with, to distract us, just like the proclamation of WMD, it was never found.

Actually, the more vehemently someone denies something, the more truth there is to it. It's like the Vietnam War all over again, but they don't want to hear that Iraq is like another Vietnam War, it's low morale on the troops. He doesn't want to give the troop withdrawal time-table because he doesn't have one.

They will forever live in the shadow of terrorism and never move out of their wilderness of mirrors that was created for them, always looking over their shoulders. Their war will never be over. To them it has always been a matter of pride, ego and military might. And to what end? The originator of the September 11 attacks, OBL, is still at large...

'Nuff said.

Atlantis Found?

Atlantis by David Gibbins. I borrowed this book from a colleague of mine who said it was worth reading because of the technical details going into looking for Atlantis and underwater technology. She said something about that being a guy thing!

This book reads almost like an Indiana Jones adventure in the beginning, but pulls out all the slow-motion pace before it reaches page 100. Yawn. I'm having trouble trying to finish it, it doesn't keep the pages going and I'm not reading it fast enough to move onto my next novel. Unlike what I did with all of Dan Brown's novels and the Harry Potter series, those were page-turners!

I'm struggling hard, some sections are interesting, however, too much technical detail which makes it read like a JANE'S book on archeology, without the nice pictures, if there's such a thing! Heh.

At present, not even halfway through the book, so will give another update when I'm closer to the end. Yawn.

Personally, I'd rather be watching the Stargate: Atlantis series on DVD when that comes out, I think that's more exciting!

UPDATE: I've finally finished this book! Hooray! The technical details are too detailed and too much for the layman to understand. At the same time, I had to concentrate very hard on imagining the descriptions of the theories in the book, very taxing really! However, I must give the writer effort for his research into the history of the Black Sea and it's surroundings for it's link to a most imaginative, but ultimately too detailed account of Atlantis located in the Black Sea itself. It could have been better.

Next book, possibly Long Way Round By Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman. We shall see.

Cheers all.

Current Rating: 3 out of 10 (Revised from 3.5)

Arafel

Arafel is a Hebrew word meaning "cloud darkness" or in lack of a better term: the end of the universe.

As we have no doubt seen, Arafel is coming! It possibly started last year Boxing day, 24 December 2004, the fateful day of the Aceh tsunami and it hasn't stopped. Up till today, we've seen relentless worldwide natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes. Coupled with all the violence in Iraq and terrorist bombings going on throughout the world, which include the latest New Delhi bombings and the Paris riotings, not to mention, the upcoming media-paniced avian flu "invisible pandemic", we are certainly, without a doubt, approaching Arafel.

It is the end of the world, humanity's eventual extermination from this planet. Next up, the 7 plagues of Egypt!

F.E.A.R

First Encounter Assault Recon or F.E.A.R, that's the name of the latest PC first-person shooter (FPS) I'm hooked onto! And why is that? Well, me being the fussy type when it comes to computer games, I like my stuff to have a nice storyline/plot, something that has good graphics, good sound and all that. I might even compare this game to Half-Life 2, but that's entirely different.

FEAR has a storyline, a rather interesting one at best. It mixes the usual story-telling genre games so that there's a mission and stuff, but it also has an extra "ghost" element in the storyline. A death, a lingering angry spirit, a prototype project gone wrong, genetic experiments for super-soldiers, this game has got it all.

Graphics and sound effects are good and eerie, I think I've never had to deal with goose-bumming so many times while playing this game. You have out of the blue scares and cutscenes that you have to deal with. The graphics are not as well-defined as Half-Life 2, but are good enough for a game of this calibre. I'm not complaning because even if you design the walls so nicely, I'm just going to run past them most of the time and not notice. There is also a nice twist at the end, which also leaves a nice cliff-hanger for hopefully FEAR 2, remember to watch till the end of the End Credits and listen to the short conversation!

I'm playing the DVD-ROM version of the game on my latest Wolfclaw keyboard, which makes it very easy to play as it's designed for FPS games. So, there you go, I won't spoil it too much, coz when I start talking about the game, I won't stop and that might just spoil it all for you. So go out there to get the game and enjoy it! I know I did! I finished it in 4 days, not exactly the fastest, but that was fast!

Ratings: 9 out of 10

Pets: Joy Or Curse?

A pet is defined as an animal kept for amusement, or a companion animal kept by humans for companionship and enjoyment. Reading between the lines, the definition actually means that a pet is a play thing or a living toy that sings, barks, meows or just makes a helluva lot of noise!

There's an article that people who keep pets tend to have more respect for their neighbours and their community. They tend to be more sensitive to other people's needs, wants and emotional well-being. This article is a big joke! A scherzo, nothing more!

I've friends and families who own pets and they actually take the time to take care of their pets, be it dogs or cats. They feed them, bathe them, clothe them, play with them, take walks with them, go jogging with them and ultimately let their pets sleep together with them in the same room. The pet to them is like their child, a living, breathing animal thing that not only amuses them, but offers the entire family companionship.

Pet owners should a whole responsible lot. If walking their pets, usually their dogs, they should pick up the shit that they drop. In some countries, if you don't do that, you're fined. I think that they should make sure that this law is passed world-wide! Of course, when there are laws, there has to be police to maintain the law. Each and every one of us should then be the police for this law.

If the dog doesn't stop barking in the middle of the night, as a pet owner, you either bring it into the house and shush it up, or at least consider that it might be irritating your neighbours and perhaps preventing them from getting a good night's rest. Don't just leave the bloody yapping dog out in the courtyard or garden for it to yap all night long while completely oblivious to your entire neighbourhood. Remember, if your dog barks, your neighbours' will at well and sooner or later the entire neighbourhood dog barking symphony will be chorusing all through the night!

A Japanese expert said and I quote "Today's pet owners want exciting creatures, but tire of them easily. They seem to be losing respect for the mysteries of living creatures." This is so true because not only do people just keep a pet as a living toy, once they tire of it, or lose interest in it entirely, they just kick it aside and ignore it completely, moving onto the next interesting thing that comes their way. People nowadays don't treat pets as family, they treat pets as a trendy object!

Hopefully in the future, someone will invent a floating police drone that detects barking in the middle of the night and emit an ultrahigh frequency squeal that silences the particular dog(s) barking. If that doesn't work because the dog is deaf, it should then be equipped with a particle laser beam that can either disintegrates or barbeques the dog on the spot, thus ending those sleepless nights permanently!

Great Expectations

This world it full of expectations, the greatest one of all is that you expect someone else to do something nice and charitable for you, without anything in return, perhaps that would surprise you to Pay It Forward or at least make you feel like the luckiest person in the world.

However, when these expectations are not met, you get angry, make mountains out of a molehills and then you write a letter to the press to complain. Ah yes, complain, that seems to be the typical nature of the people living in this part of the world who can't get what they want.

Let's begin at the beginning shall we? Be warned that I have in no way targetted the following group of people, but they seem to be the perfect example for this thread.

Pregnant women: At whatever term they're carrying their baby within, will definitely be cumbersome at their later stages. You watch one of them get on a bus or on the train. They waddle to find a seat and surprise, nobody seems to even notice she's pregnant! Come on, what do you think she is, a walking blimp or a Christmas tree? The best part of it is this, suddenly the African Sleeping sickness befalls everyone and they all "pretend" to sleep to avoid eye contact. The best part of it all is yet to come.

Women with babies/infants: They're carrying their baby and they board the bus or train. They desperately look around for a seat to sit down, they don't find one. They have to carry their baby for the entire journey standing up, believe it or not, with perspiration dripping down their legs. Worse, if she's hot, the baby's hot and then the screaming begins, then you wished she never got onto the bus.

Old folks: These people either don't have children to take care of them, or they just don't want to bother their children to take care of them. They venture out into the wild, where the old are thought of as slow and feeble, trying to survive in the jungle of young and fast-pace youngsters. They board the bus or train, they use their last burst of stored energy to dash to an available seat, swatting any youngsters away with their cane or umbrella or stroller.

Right, here comes the anaylsis: Understable that these people are in [desperate] need to sit down, to feel comfortable, to relieve their butt muscles, but is this really a competition of musical chairs? The best part of all of these things are, when somebody nice enough decides to pick up their stuff and give up their seat to these people, lo and behold, they suddenly feel the urge NOT to sit down. They can even smile about it and say, thanks but no thanks, it's only a few stops away, I'll risk it and stand, no big deal. Nice to know. If you ask them, they will say, I don't need to sit down, if you don't ask them, they will think that you're rude because you didn't bother to offer your seat to them or didn't see them there. Expectations.

Hopefully, people will get it into their thick skull that if you're going to take public transport other than a cab, you shouldn't be carrying a baby and EXPECT to be given a seat. People decide to give you their seat out of courtesy, and sometimes out of pity, but NOT because they have to. It's a public seat and they're equally entitled NOT to give it to you. There are also other ways to carry babies, there are baby slings which strap the baby onto either your front or back. It's whether or not you have the energy and the courage to try it. It's quite fun, I've tried it, and it frees you hands so you can grab onto something in case an emergency stop needs to be made.

If you so desperately need to sit down, or that you don't feel well and need to sit down immediately, you could always ASK the person closest to you if you could sit. But of course, do NOT take advantage of this by pretending to be sick! I'm sure if you ask nicely, they will give up their seat for you.

We're all living in a civilised world. Complains and expectations are not the answer here, what good are complains if nobody addresses them, or that they will partially address them, but nothing gets carried out?

What we need to do is learn to be mindful/thoughtful of what others will do in your position were they standing in your shoes. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, that is just one small step we could help to contribute to, to change our world.

The New Battlestar Galactica Series

I've always been a fan of Sci-Fi series ever since I was young. Lately, the Sci-Fi channel has been doing quite a load of interesting stories and concepts on several old series and have rekindled the Battlestar Galactica series. All I can say is: It's about bloody time!

The old Battlestar Galactica series of the 1980s talked about a group of rag-tag fugitives that travel alone in space, in search of the planet Earth, which was suppose to be their mythical 13th tribe of Kobol. The Cylons are a robotic race that have supposedly superior technology that attacked their homeworld and destroyed all the 12 colonies, leaving only these few remaining fugitives constantly on the run from attack by them. Starbuck was a man, in a playboyish kind of way.

The new Battlestar Galactica series has changed a little bit of the story. The Cylons were created by Man and they rebelled. A peace treaty was called for and they left Man alone for years. Man tried to reestablish communuication with them but no luck. So in the meantime, mankind prospered in their 12 different planets that housed the 12 different tribes of Kobol. Then the sneak attack by the evolved Cylons, which surprisingly and seemingly had inside info that brought down the entire defence network of the 12 tribes, nuclear attacked and destroyed all the colonies, leaving mankind once again on the constant run to journey through space to find the mythical planet Earth, the 13th tribe of Kobol. Starbuck is a cigar-sucking woman, not the cigar-sucking playboy. The show deals with military and civilian might and rights.

The main change in the story, which I loved, is that there are now 12 models of Cylons, the humanoid model of the old is no more. Now, they have the evolved metallic sentinel robot, and get ready for this, the human model. Yes, Cylons now look, walk, think, feel like humans do and what more, they believe in God! They newest human-cylons are religious, and they think that God has a plan and destiny for them all. In one of the episodes, we also learn that the Cylon raiders are unmanned now, they have no pilots and even have a brain connected to computer servos, nutrient fluids and oxygen! In other words, they're simulating human behaviour more and more.

So far, Season 1 is out on DVD after the fantastic viewership and rave reviews on the Mini-series released in 2003. At present, Season 2 is being screened and I hope that the DVD will come out soon. The stories are exciting, although sometimes, vague, but they make you think for yourself, so that you don't end up like Cylons - useless toasters.

Battle scenes are more realistic with improved computer enhancements and graphics as compared to the older series. No more lasers, now there's ammo and the battlestar docking bays on either side of the ship have to retract for it to make a hyperjump or their Faster Than Light (FTL) jumps. Even the Cylon Base Stars look more scary and shoot missiles. And the Cylons now swarm their enemies with hundreds of raiders.

In Season 1, we learn that the Cyclons are waging psycological warfare on the survivors/fugitives, tricking them but observing their response. They also want to produce their first human-cyclon baby as seen with the characters Helo and Caprica-Boomer. They also believe that their destiny is interwined with humanity and that God has laid out a path for them.

In the end, we have a series, almost comparable to Farscape and Stargate, but of a entirely different genre, the good, old humans versus robots of the old. This series is worth checking out and sticking to.

8.5 out of 10

You Stand Watching

I've been eagerly waiting with breathless anticipation for Ryan Cabrera to produce a second album ever since I heard his first album and embraced it with all my heart! This young man is a gifted and talented song-writer and singer! His charismatic personality has won him legions of devoted fans from coast to coast. A real pity he's devoted his time mainly to America and hasn't toured alone in Europe or South-East Asia. I am so glad that with his latest album, he doesn't disappoint.

You Stand Watching is an excellent follow-up to his first release Take It All Away. Most, if not all of the songs in the album are written by him and some of them probably about his experiences in life and love. I would say that the first album was daring, but in this one, he's taken risk and it's paid off.

The song that stands out most is Photo, Shine On and Walking On Water. Actualy, the whole album stand out as a marvel in song-writing talent! With lyrics like "A photo can say a thousand things, but they can't say the million things I want to say..." It just melts your heart and make you think back about how life can be so true and hit so close to home.

Music arrangements are fantastic and innovative, not some stale or recycled melody or rhythm. I don't know why, but I love his guitar acoustic arrangements. Ryan has a real talent for writing rhythms and the music produced is like a mix between the nuances of rock and and the yearnings of country music, which is a real bonus to listen to actually. Mix all this with an incredible voice, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a hit album on our hands!

The only quarrel I have is that his other debut song in the Fantastic Four OST Always Come Back To You was not featured in this album, which was a crying shame because there was so much more space in the album to include it in, and it would have made the album complete.

Ryan Cabrera, I'm going to end by saying the same thing I said in my review of your first album. I eagerly anticipate your next album and all the albums and songs you write to come!

9 out of 10

Red

John Stevens was an American Idol wannabe who didn't quite make it with the fans, got axed, but has come out with his own album - Red. The idea behind the title is that he's a red-head and what's more impressive is that he's only 17 years old and crooning his way into our hearts!

The album showcases classic cover versions plus some lovely new arrangements of songs like This Love, the Maroon 5 song, done in a nice slow, ballad form which changes the songs distinct characteristic. A duet with Erika Christensen with the song Let's Fall In Love.

This teenage crooner is going to give Michael Buble a run for his money, but is still rough around the edges. Some of the songs were sung without much feeling, and lacked emotion, but then again, perhaps I didn't feel the classic in the songs when he sang it.

Nevertheless, Someone To Watch Over Me is one of my all-time favourite songs and he did a good job singing it. Plus the fact that the album has David Foster as an Executive Producer will say volumes for the music. The song arrangements have been rewritten with much thought and the melody produced sounds gifted and makes you just want to get up and dance to these classic hits. Although not the original, it's just as good, if not better with John Stevens singing it!

8.5 out of 10

New Venice & Victim Complexes

New Venice, that's the new name for the once lovely French Quarter New Orleans. How did that name come about? Well, it's simple really, the city's below sea level and the levees broke during the latest Hurricane Katrina natural disaster and literally drowned the entire city. So, what does Venice look like? New Orleans is just that, New Venice. After all, it is another New city.

At present the flood waters are receding, but there is much to learn from this tragedy:

(1) When asked to flee your homes by authorities just before a CAT 4 storm, you should listen and flee, not stay behind and hope for help after, or that the storm will miss you and you'll escape unscathed, not even in a Hollywood movie will you escape alive, anyone remember the movie Twister? Same thing applies.

(2) Everything in your home should be made either waterproof or inflatable, so that you can tie them together and gather them later.

(3) When there's a disaster of this magnitude, nobody's going to help, everyone's for themselves. So don't blame anyone else if you didn't prepare or listen to warnings before the event.

Not to be mean or uncaring or evil, but the people of that country do tend to have this victim complex. It's not a new complex, it's inherent in everyone of us, but more so for the people of that country. What do I mean, here are a few examples,

(1) I'm a victim here, the storm hit and I've got no home, I'm a victim.
(2) I blame the government for not moving fast enough.
(3) I blame the President for not caring.
(4) The President arriving would rather hug 2 beauties than 2 fat black New Orleaneans.
(5) I blame you for making me homeless.
(6) Where's our food? Where's our home? Where's our help?
(7) Where was God in this? God's just cruel, he's made me a victim of circumstance.
(8) God's abandoned this city, the city of jazz. God hates jazz!

All these sound so familiar, just 4 years ago with the 11 September 2001 event. Take it from me, it was a terrorist event, it wasn't anything more than any other disaster that history couldn't remember. No need to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Sure, that was a tragedy, many people lost their lives, died, everything was senseless, but riddle me this...have they caught the ultimate culprit Osama yet? No they haven't. With all their vaunted technology, stealth weapons blah, blah, blah... they can't even catch a simple bad guy? It's sad, it's pathetic and they made Saddam the scapegoat for it. Yeah sure, the world is a much better place without Saddam. Tell that to the families who have lost their sons and daughters and loved ones with the troops killed in Iraq everyday.

Iraq was a mistake. One that the President isn't willing to admit because he's out playing another round of golf during a hurricane. If I'm not mistaken, he was taking a vacation again this time. You don't just go in, invade the country to catch their dictator, claiming Weapons of Mass Destruction, and find NOTHING! Even Tony Blair has been hiding from his mistake. You don't hear him so often now.

Bottom line: People are still missing, starving, homeless and aching from the disaster. Up till now, relief efforts are only probably 50% to 60% and the higher-ups are still arguing that FEMA chief shouldn't be in-charge of relief efforts, because he fucked up. Now, he's resigned! In effect, blaming everyone again, ring around the rosie. This, ladies and gentlemen, this is the level of efficiency of relief and help you get if you're living in New Venice.


"Now watch this drive!"
-- President George W Bush playing golf, quote taken from Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11

One Liners

1. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
2. I intend to live forever - so far, so good.
3. I love defenseless animals, especially in a good gravy.
4. If you ain't making waves, you ain't kicking hard enough.
5. Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.
6. Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.
7. When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
8. Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
9. If I work as much as others, I'll do as little as they.
10. Beauty is in the eyes of the beer holder.
11. If everything seems to be going well, you've obviously overlooked something.
12. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.
13. Join the Army, meet interesting people, kill them.
14. Laughing stock: cattle with a sense of humour.
15. Parachute: Used only once, never opened. Small stain.
16. Black holes are where God divded by zero.
17. Excuses are like asses, everyone's got them, and they all stink.

It's Great To Be A Guy!

1. Your ass is never a factor for a job interview.
2. Your orgasms are real - always!
3. Your last name stays put.
4. The garage is all yours.
5. Nobody secretly wonders if you swallow.
6. Wedding plans take care of themselves.
7. Chocolate is just another snack.
8. You can be President.
9. You can wear a white shirt to a water park.
10. Foreplay is optional.
11. Car mechanics tell you the truth.
12. You don't give a rat's ass if someone notices your new haircut.
13. The world it your urinal.
14. Hot wax never comes near your pubic area.
15. You never have to drive to another gas station because this one's too icky.
16. Wrinkles add character.
17. Wedding dress $2000; Tux rental $100. 'Nuff said.
18. People never glance at your chest when they talk to you.
19. Princess Di's death was just another orbituary.
20. Porn movies are designed with you in mind.

Stop All The World Now

Howie Day's song Collide was what got me interested in his album in the first place. The song has been dominating the airwaves for the past few months, be it in the Top 10, 20 or 30 spots, it just brings a sense of reality to music everywhere, and has it's bittersweet moments as a love song.

Day has cited important groups and songwriters amongst his influences, Radiohead, Dave Matthews, Jeff Buckley and the list goes on. He manages to incorporate their influences and come up with a style of his own. Brace Yourself, Collide, She Says and Come Lay Down are just some of my favourite tracks on the album, especially Come Lay Down, which almost sounds gothic and beckoning, like an exhausting siren call that twists its way around your soul and finds a place to stay.

With all the latest new talents out there like Ryan Cabrera, Tyler Hilton, Gavin DeGraw, Avril Lavigne, just to name a few, Howie Day has established himself in this second venture. Stop All The World Now is a truly inspiring album and highly recommended to guitar audiophiles out there. For being only 24 years old, he certainly expresses his maturity in singing/songwriting talents that are comparable with singer/songwriter Richard Marx at that age.

9 out of 10

Peanuts

Peanuts, it's a very common word to use now in connection with something that happened here. I loved this version, even if it's a local version of Peanuts, it's a good one. Borrowed with courtesy from www.talkingcock.com. You can click ton enlarge it.

Tarzan's Famous Yell

Ever wondered how Tarzan got his yell, you know, the famous one when he goes swinging through the jungle? Here's 1 possibility, enjoy...

Ode To Taxi Drivers

Taxi drivers, they're all one and the same breed in every different country you visit. Perhaps it's the quota they have to meet or perhaps they push themselves too hard or perhaps there competition between taxi companies, the need to get the passengers, the need to get them to where they want fast.

In this country, taxi drivers seem to be able to choose where to bring you and not the other way around. Take for example, if you live in a remote residential area where everybody owns a car or some means of transportation, taxi drivers actually get to choose whether or not to ferry you back home. Why? Because they want to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. How? If they ferry you home, and don't get another passenger in return, that's diesel wasted travelling the extra distance, and diesel means money.

However, if you live in a popular district, where the taxi driver is certain to get a fare, then it's to and fro, double the income. It's sort of a way to maximise the amount of diesel with the number of passengers ferried. But is this any way to treat passengers? As it is, if we book a taxi through the phone, we have to pay a booking fee. Then there are peak hour charges, midnight charges, location charges etc, etc, etc the list just goes on and on and on and on.

Then there's the way they drive. Have you ever seen how taxi drivers drive? They will stop at absolutely nothing, cut in front of you no matter how small the space is, swerve in and out of lanes, just to cut the queue to get their passengers to their destinations on time. We who drive cars tend to think that this is an utterly despicable habit, but if you were the passenger in the taxi, you would thank the driver dearly for doing all those things to get you to work on time.

However, not all people take kindly to taxi drivers. Recently here a van driver got angry with a taxi driver for cutting into his lane that they had a heated discussion which ended up with him driving him running the taxi driver down and dragging his body for over 800 meters on a crowded street to try to dislodge him from his van. This sounds so much like what Achilles did to Hector in the Trojan war. Achilles killed Hector and dragged his body behind his chariot before the walls of Troy 3 times. Should we thus be turning to savages to take care of savages? Sounds a bit far-fetched, it's more likely an eye for an eye, but does it make it right?

Taxi drivers don't realise that driving dangerously and compromising safety gives them more problems than they realise. Look at it this way, if the taxi itself is involved in an accident due to reckless driving, then they can't pick up any more passengers. In this country, it's called a broken rice bowl. No passenger equates to no income, and at least a week's of regret.

However, not all taxi drivers are like savages. A handful of them have been known to be extra careful and very, very chatty and friendly when they pick you up. They go the extra mile to make your journey as a passenger enjoyable and it helps to make your day. I guess all it takes is 1 rotten apple in the basket to spoil the whole bunch. And at the same time, it is a mundane life they make chauffeuring passengers from point A to B to C, but it still doesn't give us the right to turn savage, after all, we're all making a living in different ways, aren't we?

Run them over? I think not, it's better to live and let live to fight another day.

Fantastic Four Review

The Fantastic Four have been one of the flagship titles in Marvels, together with Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, Avengers and The Uncanny X-Men. Now, all the superheroes are coming out of the woodworks from paperback books to onscreen movies! Some comic to screen adaptations are great, for example the Spiderman and X-Men movies. However, movies like the Incredible Hulk leave us wondering if directors are bringing comics to screen adaptations in the right direction.

Fantastic Four (FF) is truly and inspiration from which unlikely everyday characters who encounter an incredible cosmic accident, have their genes mutated to develop superpowers. Take note the distinction between superheroes and mutants. The latter are born with the x-factor gene that gives them natural superpowers whereas the former encounter an event that gives them superpowers. Spiderman is a superhero, he was bitten by a radioactive spider that gave him superpowers. In the beginning the heroes do not know what to do with their power, but it becomes clear that being in the right place at the right time helps to paint them as heroes in a world without one.

FF are Marvel Comics dysfunctional family. To set the records straight, Doctor Victor von Doom experimented with alchemy and science which led to a laboratory explosion leaving him scarred for life. He did not go up to space and get himself exposed to comic radiations that gave him organo-metallic skin and lightning powers! Victor was always in love with Susan Storm, however Reed Richards was the more humane character and shared her many ideals.

This movie is a great introduction to the FF characters and how they develop into their hero status in Manhanttan, New York. However, the storyline, like most first movies, leaves more to be desired as it was sketchy and linear at best. Don't fret however, the movie has loads of banter between Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm which adds to the antics which livens up everything. I draw parallels to the X-Men's first movie, because it was also aimed at introducing the characters and their powers to us. I certainly await FF's second movie and hope that it was follow some of its Marvel cousins to be as successful as ever at the box office.

I give this movie 7.5 out of 10.

4400

I've watched many, many alien abduction movies, but none is more exciting and interesting as The 4400. I first heard about this movie when I was in America last year. The trailers were good and the ideas and concepts behind the storyline were interesting.

The first season only comprises of 5 episodes, call it a trial season if you wish to test the waters. Sometimes, if they think that the cast and props and whatever else will become too expensive to make into a full-blown 24 episode season, they

test the show on a network and let the viewers decide if the show is good. Basically to see if the show would survive the wolves. If they get good ratings, then the second season will probably consist of more episodes.

The 4400 starts off by showing you how throughout the course of history, people get abducted by this bright light. Flash to present day, a comet is on a direct course for the Earth, which worries everyone when it starts fo change course towards a huge lake in Seattle, where 4400 people who were abducted are returned exactly the way they look from when they were taken. For example, an 8 year old girl taken in the 1950s returns exactly the way she was and not the older woman she should have grown up to be. It's like time never changed for any of them. And surprise! Each of them returns with a special gift. They've been slightly altered for a greater purpose. And as you follow the course of the episodes, there's a reason behind this higher purpose that gets revealed in the season finale.

My favourite episode is Becoming, which is the third episode in the season. It centres around how an MO (Modus Operandi) used in a present day homicide is the same MO used by a serial killer who vanished 25 years ago. In the course of the episode, they try to link the killer, who's a returnee from the 4400, but can't seem to pin the murders on him because he has used his new gift with a new results.

The most interesting theme is the ripple effect and how it affects everyone. It's like throwing a stone into a calm lake and watching the ripples radiate out from the centre. This show has exactly the same effect. The 4400's return was the stone in the lake and the people who were returned are the ripples that affect everyone else's lives, some in a good way, some in a bad and others in ways we haven't seen yet. Well, they have 4400 possibilites to tell the story from.

Overall, the show is almost like X-files meets X-men on a tone-down level not overly bombastic for viewers to appreciate good story-telling. It is also completely different from how Steven Spielberg series Taken was told, which was a generational story and it was complicated to understand.

I highly recommend this show to anyone who loves to watch a good movie and has been hoping that X-files was something more than it should have been and should not have ended the way it did! The show doesn't insult your intelligence as a viewer and leaves you wanting more after the season finale. I really don't know when and if the show will come to this country, but if it doesn't, go out there and purchase it online, trust me, you won't regret it!

The 4400 gets 9 out of 10 from me.

P/S: I gave up trying to figure out why the paragraphs do not come out when I publish the Blog in some sections, although they were perfectly fine when I was composing the post. UGH!

P/P/S: I've solved the problem with the paragraphing. All I've to do is to add a "br /" enclosed in a pair of <> to the end of the paragraphs in under the HTML edit, let's hope it doesn't have to be done on all ocassions!

Lifehouse Reviewed

My very first music CD review at long last! The reason why I couldn't do this earlier was because I couldn't find a good way to upload a picture of the album cover for reivew. Blogger was giving me this strange option to download a huge programme instead. Oh well.

Lifehouse, this is their third venture, their first two albums were equally good and generated a huge fan base with their highly popular songs Hanging By A Moment and Spin.

With Lifehouse, these guys did justice to their music. Their music now sounds a little bit like the group The Calling. They have definitely left their Creed identity behind and have turned down the amps from their first two albums. With lyrics written by Jason Wade, the lead vocals for the band, everything seems to be going right! The album has a mellow and sombre mood to it that definitely tugs are the heart. But there are songs reminding us or who we are and the journey is ongoing through life. Jason Wade is an excellent songwriter, I think he might even give Rob Thomas a run for his money!

I highly recommend this album to first time listeners of the group Lifehouse (do NOT confuse with Lighthouse Family!), and also anyone with strong affinity for The Calling and the likes of their music. It grows on you and you'll be hungry for more by the time you finish listening to it.

9 out of 10 - Excellent! Highly Recommended, A Must-buy!

My personal reference Scale Ratings out of 10:

0-3 : Hideous! It must be used as a frisbee!
4-6 : Average! Sitting on the fence, needs work, to buy or not to buy.
7-8 : Good! Worth listening to and buying. Recommended.
9-10 : Excellent! Highly Recommended, a must-buy!

Control Is An Illusion...

When it comes to movies, there just no control here in this country. There's an illusion of control, or rather, there's the talk only, but no action done. Well, when you can talk, the promise of doing things aren't followed through enough to be justified to the public. In other words, satisfaction isn't guaranteed. It's just semantics to assure you that it won't happen, a delay if you must, but it will eventually happen anyway. The need of the many, outweigh the need of the one. Let's start at the beginning shall we?

A new movie comes in, the first thing we do is to find out when it's going to be released. These days, it's not difficult to find out on the Internet, especially when the movie has a homepage of its own and a release schedule in the individual countries it'll be screening.

Sometimes, to our horror, the movie comes in 3 months to 6 months and sometimes to 1 year later from when it was released. Take for example, the movie Identity. It was released in the USA on 25 April 2003, the trailer only screened here some time in December 2003. It's release was delayed till February 2004, by that time, the DVD had already been released. You could easily purchase the DVD on any overseas Internet site that market it. Take another example, Sin City. The movie was released in the USA 1 April 2005. It will be screened here on 14 July 2005, over 3 months of waiting. Why is this? conflict of interest? The movie's too controversial to be screened here? Money problems in obtaining the movie? Is it a B-grade movie? Censorship problems?

It's no wonder patrons of the movie will turn towards bootleg (piracy) copies of the movie, which is cheap and disposable. They'd rather watch the movie first, in whatever form, be it bootleg or Internet uploaded, than wait 3 months for the movie to come to the cinemas here. But really, can you blame them for wanting to watch a movie?

A movie distributor said that there's lost of patrons because of the parallel imports of DVDs which will lead to lost of revenue in obtaining new movies to be screened here. What total, complete and utter rubbish! If anything, this movie distributor is obviously not trying hard enough to obtain the new movies from overseas for our screening pleasure and to maintain his control over his other competition. He must ask himself, is his bureaucratic red tape preventing work from being done in his company, or is there a censorship problem when deciding to bring the movie here. I guess it's neither, owing that he's the CEO of the movie company - like I said, all talk and no action, it's all complain, complain, complain when competition outwits, outclasses and outplays his company - sour grapes!

The harder you tighten your grip, the easier it is for your goals to slip right through your fingers. Whatever happened to showbiz? I say, give the patrons what they want. A freedom to do what they want free from a control that doesn't work, a half-past six stop-guard or is an illusion anyway.

In the end, the patrons are not the ones who suffer, no matter the outcome of the decision to impose a period of time to ban parallel import of DVDs, because they have their own little circles to obtain and circulate the movies, be it original parallel imports, or bootleg copies. And like I mentioned in an earlier post: the more you restrict someone from doing something legal, the more he/she will do it out of defiance, even if it's illegal, to show everyone that it's do-able. And believe me, everyone will start following their example. The reign of cinema movies will be over, the reign of piracy will return, just wait and see, I don't want to have to be standing here and quipping out "I told you so."

If movie distributors do nothing but raise ticket prices for the movies they screen here, then perhaps it's time that movies go straight to DVDs than waste space being screened at overpriced cinemas with censored material.

Ultimately, it is an insult to the patrons, and it's an insult to the actors, directors and everyone who put in their hard work to produce the movie. Period.

All comments are welcomed. HBTM

Gamelan Music 101

I've been waiting for the past few years to listen to someone else perform Colin McPhee's Balinese Ceremonial Music for 2 pianos. I've personally gone all out to search, find and collect 4 recordings of the piece, one of which was a CD recording performed by the composer Colin McPhee himself together with his friend Benjamin Britten in 1941. The wait was finally over at last night's Piano Festival 2005. However, excitement turned to great disappointment in the following manner:

1. It was a Premiere for the piece to be played here in this country. What total, complete and utter rubbish! My 2 piano partner and I performed the piece at a University sponsored concert held in 1998 at the same venue using the same 2 pianos (both Steinways if I remember correctly) with our former President as the guest-of-honour. I guess being amateur pianists doesn't count when it comes to premiering completely new pieces for this country. This is so sad, it's almost pathetic!

2. The professional pianists, I shan't name them, it's obvious why, performed it without much research or coordinated effort going into playing the piece. It was ploughed through, with so much rubato and romantic forte that it would have made Horowitz weep and be completely mistaken for a Rachmaninoff piece!

3. The lack of power or rather the balance of power in terms of sound while performing the Balinese piece was confounding, as one of the pianist managed to bring out the ending notes of Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye with so much power that it only could have been a backstage tonic drink that did the trick, Red Bull perhaps?

Balinese Gamelan music, (or BGM as tribute to the growing number of nonsensical acronyms here) has a greater metallic ring to it as compared to it's counterpart Javanese Gamelan music, (or JGM) which is mellow, sombre and has deep resonance. BGM is fast, joyful and celebratory, as compared to JGM, which is slow, relaxing and sometimes dreamy.

Colin McPhee's stay in Bali from 1934 onwards had him contributing to transcribing most, if not all of Bali's cultural music, including it's rhythms and intonations. He even managed to transcribe the notes from the individual gamelan instruments with the closest sound to the key played on the modern piano. These can all be read from his book Music In Bali, which is a fantastic publication on ethnomusicology.

When the Balinese Ceremonial Music piece is performed on the piano, little or hardly any graduations for loud and soft should be heard at all. It should be performed like you're playing it on one of the gamelan instruments, and struck with precision and equal weight like a percussion instrument. The ability to control the speed is very important in gamelan music. I'd have to have recorded the last few bars of the 2nd movement Gambangan for you to have sampled a taste of Romanticism in 20th century Balinese music. Tempo changes for the piece must be sudden and surprising, therefore, the speed for the 2nd movement should have been sustained till the very last note and stopped, not rubato-ed (if there's such a word) for the last 3 bars till the last note!

Finally, there are over 65 instruments in a gamelan [orchestra]. All of them are important and none of them should take importance over any of the others, in other words, there are no solo performances for any of the instruments. Similarly with the performance, piano 1 and 2 should have been so seamlessly integrated that the listener could not tell one from the other, an amalgam of sound if you wish, that would have been worthy of a performance. Anything less would have been just uncoordinated play of dissonance. Sad, considering the calibre of the 2 pianists performing last night, it could have been done right.

I welcome any comments, especially from those who attended last nights concert who agrees or disagrees with me.

Cheers.


Our critics are our friends, they show us our faults.
- Benjamin Franklin

Top 10 Ways...

Some people don't watch enough of Crime Scene Investigations or CSI, be it the Las Vegas glitzy original, wild and bloody Miami series or dark New York series. These series, no matter how improbable they do things to solve the crime are just mainly to keep you entertained within that 1 hour time slot that they screen them on.

How do you go about killing someone? How do you go about NOT leaving clues behind so that all the clever CSI can find traces of you? How do you evade their crime-solving tactics? Obviously, the person who chopped up his lover and dumped her didn't watch enough of CSI.

He got caught!

Here are the Top 10 ways to dispose of a body, call it a 101 guide if you wish. However, bear in mind that there are definitely an infinite number of ways to get rid of a friend, frienemy or pure enemy once you've viciously murdered him/her. Also, please bear in mind that these 10 basic ways are for fun, and should purely be imagined, not executed, in other words...

Don't try this at home!

1. Serve up to your other friends and family for a few delicious meals.
2. Feed body (parts) to animals eg. Cheetah, lion, tiger etc at the zoo.
3. Dissolve body in concentrated Sulphuric Acid (H2SO4).
4. Put body in toy chest and bury beneath swimming pool in backyard.
5. Cook curry or bakuteh, take your pick.
6. Chop it up neatly and bundle in green trash bag.
7. Bury it in a cemetary.
8. Put it in the trunk of a car and push it into the swamp.
9. Dump it with the garbage.
10. Mummification, and if preferred thereafter, taxonomy.

I would be most interested to hear what some of you people out there have to offer on how to dispose of a body or bodies, come on, give me some new ideas, for old times sake. It might even be good for a crime story!

Do post them under comments, thanks!

Cheers.

Catch-22 On Hypocrisy

Today's newspaper had an article in the forum section talking about how HIV does not discriminate gender or sexuality. This is very true. In fact, no disease in the world discriminates against race or gender, young or old. The very notion that SARS or Bird Flu is an Asian disease or epidemic is totally hogwash! If so, what was the Black Plague, a European's disease? There's no such thing. The sad, true fact is this: We are all host and living incubators to every disease known to men, and all those we haven't found yet.

The growing concern that some people have that more and more teenagers here are being tested HIV+ is more due to the fact that they think that they wouldn't get the disease just because it's not exclusive to their sexuality ie, being Heterosexual or being Catholic, that God will protect you from the disease if you're a good boy or girl!

It does sound totally fanatical doesn't it? But I've heard these words flow out of people's mouths in public! If I unknowingly have a certain form of Herpes even if I was that good, and I kiss you, I can pass it to you too, does that mean that we should all wear body protection? Imagine a world where everyone wears a rubber condom over their faces and look like bank robbers, on top of a neoprene suit and gloves to protect against touch!

This is ignorance at it's strongest. Be it the limited open-mindedness or the conservative society that we still pretend we live in, there can be no more ignorance. How difficult is it to get educated? How difficult is it to learn from or teach someone? How difficult is it to find the time? A young child can go onto the Internet and get educated in so many ways, online search engines, online encyclopedias, everything they want they can get if they ask the right question online with pictures too!

But no, lately the universal excuse is "I don't have the time."

In the past here, you'll find censorship sharpening their scissors to snip off any scene in the movies that has a prominent feature of breasts, the butt is fine, just don't show anything frontal with hair, chest hair is fine. Two people lying in bed talking is fine, but add them half-naked, panting, thrusting or suggestive movements of any kind and it's billed as a sex scene, we'll censor that too. SNIP! Remember poor Kate Winslet in the movie Titanic created a huge commotion here because her breasts were "snipped off" by the censorship people. However, the laws of censorship have changed this year and have laxed some, although not enough! Movies are how teenagers learn sex, violence and drugs, it is a window to another world, a make-believe world. It's the mentality of "I want to try that out too, coz it's so cool!" attitude that they venture onto thin ice. So it's a Catch-22 of whether or not to censor. The chicken and egg question. If I screen the movie uncensored, the violence and language will get across to the people watching it and they might want to act it out, increasing some amouts of violence and crime in our country. If not, we won't really get much of a movie to watch after all the cuts now would we? I have personally gone to the movies or have watched television programmes with friends where they go "Yeew, that's disgusting", "Are those her breasts?", "Gross!" when we come across a steamy sex scene or see a full frontal of an actor or actress. It's not the fascination that "Hey, how come I don't have those?" or "How the hell did they do that?", it's the distasteful view of a private act that should be been kept private. Newflash kids, sex sells everything from movies, to TV to commercials and advertisement. Nothing does not have sex in it, in one form or another. If anything, we're all amused.

Sex, like religion, has it's roots in hypocrisy. I think a definition is in order to remind us of the word:

Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have beliefs, virtues and feelings that one does not truly possess. The word derives from the late latin hypocrisis, and Greek hupokrisis both meaning play-acting or pretence. For example, to denounce another for carrying out some action whilst carrying out that same action oneself. Very often religion is used in this context. One could quote Jesus who says,"Let the one who is totally guiltless throw the first stone," pointing out that one must first be sinless in or to judge someone else for their sins: You kill the man for killing a man.

The more you prevent someone from doing something, the chances are, the more they want to commit the act in defiance. Either that, or the new invisible law: Do anything you can possible want to, but don't get caught!

Parents themselves should be having that talk with their children, not just about sex, protection and safety, but about sexuality, tolerance, embracing change and being open-minded. Condoms are the new in-thing that every guy and girl can carry around in their wallets, back pockets or handbags. There's no need to be embarassed by it, it offers a certain amount of protection against every known sexually transmitted disease known to men if used properly. It's become a fashion to carry colourful ones these days.

But at the end of the day - Mankind dwell in hypocrisy and ritual, it's in our nature, it's in our genes. And when all that double standards have failed, we go home and have wanton unprotected sex to please ourselves, knowing full well that we are what we are - alive and loving it!

Nexus

Today was a day that everything went wrong, or at least things leading up to this day went wrong. I fell ill yesterday, call it a fever for no apparent reason that Paracetamol failed to suppress, a crying shame I didn't OD.

Next, last night was a headache, trying to juggle between computer downtime and wonderous, beeping machines, it's a miracle that my fever died while I was trying to sort out whatever work I had. Today, it rained just before I left the house to catch the premiere of Star Wars, worse yet, halfway through using an umbrella from OUB, it broke (fancy that!) and I had to throw it away! How often does an umbrella break? Have you, in the history of life, ever heard of an umbrella breaking at the handle, just under the button used to press it open?

And you think, what else could go wrong tonight? HA!

Somehow or other GV premiere screenings just don't quite cut it. Here is the proof with examples: Tonight, the first 2 minutes of the movie didn't appear on the screen. They literally showed a blank screen! We had to call for a rewind! It happened before with a power failure while watching LOTR halfway while the Ents were having their little meeting and a sound glitch while watching Matrix Revolutions that made Trinity say things she wasn't suppose to say! Maybe it's just me? Equipment failure? Wardrobe malfunction? Maintenance incompetence? To think the cinema ticket prices went up just so that we can tolerate more of this. Jeez...

Well, I guess all these things faded away while I was in that galaxy far, far away. I must say, the penultimate Star Wars movie was a really dark and evil one, filled with lies, deceit and trechery and I loved it! But actually, we just wanted and needed Episode 3, to see how he turns to the dark side, not to see Yoda jump around like a monkey! I like Yoda's sage advice and ways in Empire Strikes Back now more than ever.

For once, evil prevails and we get to see things from another point of view. Then again, all life is viewed from a certain point of view. And it's always relative to something. And best of all, it always depends on the situation, wouldn't you say? I know, he did it for love, but look at it this way, what wouldn't a guy do for the girl he loves huh?

A minor note that Emperor Palpatine certainly had parallels drawn to him to certain world leaders wouldn't you say? Perhaps George Lucas did it on purpose, perhaps not, but I guess we need a good old fashion love story to remind us of the world we live in and that greed doesn't pay, no matter what you pursue it for.

The Story Is Now Complete

4 more days till we return to the galaxy far, far, away for the story to be complete. I'm sure the countdown might be earlier for some, especially when they have preview tickets, or some fanatics might just pay $300 for charity event tickets, who knows what we will do to watch the final episode of Star Wars really. Some might even sell their soul...

I must say that the trailers have been worthwhile watching and gathering online. Everyone just wants to watch the movie. However, apart from online trailers, there are also comics and the Matthew Stover novel that came out. The comic shows that Count Dooku was be-handed, 1 hand only, whereas, from movie stills and story descriptions, both his hands are cut off, before he's beheaded. There are inconsistencies in the movie and published works. As I read somewhere, George Lucas is still tinkering with the finishes and well, I guess going to the movie and watching it will bring everything into perspective.

May The Dark Side Prevail...

Welcome To My Blog!

My first blog, I'm kind of new at this, so be kind.

I'll try to review books, music, movies, CDs, DVDs, games, electronics and whatever else that comes to mind on my blog. Most of the time, these reviews will be personal, meaning I would have experienced them firsthand to be fair to review them properly.

However, it would be interesting if you drop off comments, good or bad, to help anyone reading decide whether or not the information is useful, in order to go that further step in acquiring it for themselves.

I do not claim to be the authority on any subject here, as the term goes, "Jack of all trades, master of none" applies here. Everything will be taken with an open minded, comical and sometimes cynical view. We're all here to enjoy, so let's begin at the beginning...

GE