Vacation?

This graph neatly and hilariously summarises
your vacation time, versus your stress level and time!

I loved the graph where you try to resist the urge to
check email when you're enjoying yourself
on vacation in another country,
it has happened oh too often for me!

The Plan

The long-awaited tele-movie from Battlestar Galactica - The Plan has finally been released. Ever since the TV series ended in March 2009, I've been getting withdrawal symptoms. The finale was not overly bad, it was actually rather emotional and sad. However, still too many unanswered questions lingered. With The Plan, some of the unanswered questions have finally been answered.

The Plan actually started from 2 weeks before the Fall of Caprica to just around Season 2 of the TV series and not till the finale. I won't spoil it too much, but you do see more of the Cylons, their plottings and plannings that went completely unnoticed throughout the fleet. It was more like they formed a tiny little cult amongst themselves, held meetings within a makeshift chapel, possibly on Galactica and then plotted. Only the No.1, 4, 5, 6 and 8 (Sharon Valerii) were plotting.

The entire Plan tele-movie was John or No.1 driven. He's the leader, leading the rest of his race to destroy the humans. However, his brother model No.1, Brother Cavil, sees things from a different point of view, which he doesn't accept. His vendetta against humanity must be absolute and unquestionably followed, even if resistance among his own model seems forthcoming, he will squash it all the same and proceed with his master plan. The disappearance of Shelly Godfrey was explained, it was rather sad what happened actually, but interesting to watch the banter.

I won't spoil anymore, but let's just say that through humanity's drive to survive and live on, Brother Cavil saw a possibility for peace between humans and Cylons and acted on it with the rest of the Cylons on Caprica. However, John refused to acknowledge peace, he insisted to teach the Final Five a lesson and hope they would come crawling back to him to tell him that he was correct. And so their plan was destroyed, leading to the rest of the season.

I was rather disappointed that Lucy Lawless didn't make an appearance in this series, because she was the driving force behind Season 3, and she had screen presence and could stand up to the No.1s. They did show her in a short snippet here and there, probably taken from Season 3, but otherwise, she had no air time. Dean Stockwell was excellent as No.1, conveying menace and vengeance throughout the entire movie. I will never again see him as Scott Bakula's personal computer from Quantum Leap!

It was also interesting to note that when the Basestars attacked the Twelve Colonies, they turn their top and bottom Y-shaped sections to fit a symmetrical configuration before launching their nukes. Something that was never shown again in the course of the TV series!

Highly recommended to all who followed the entire re-imagined series, and are still suffering from BSG withdrawal symptoms, like me! :P

4 out of 5 stars

Inspiring Paintings

These beautiful paintings inspired me with their color, tone and mood.
I have personally seen the top painting when I was
in Glasgow, it is my favorite!
I actually contemplated purchasing it
and getting it shipped back home!

Top: Sunset on 7th, Madjid
Middle Left: Wang Yehan WS256
Middle Right: Wang Yehan WS524
Bottom: Wang Yehan WS532

Inglouriously Delicious!

Another Quentin Tarantino movie I definitely had to watch. The stars were from all over the globe. A movie involving Nazi-occupied France. Violence. Killing. What more could you really ask for.

I think the more Tarantino makes movies, the more he's able to shift his genre from the violent to the most prolific and sophisticated. It's like an art, making movies, and Tarantino has all the right ingredients when making a brilliant movie.

Without giving too much away - yes, this time no spoilers my friends, you all have to watch it yourselves - I would say that the movie started off rather slowly, but then again it is Tarantino's new way, to have a decent conversation, building up the characters, the suspense, then making you feel at ease with the entire conversation. But by that time it's too late, you are already in the trap, you lie, you cheat, you pretend to wriggle out of it, but you're already ensnared by it and then you're caught in it utterly with no escape. This is when he creates an opening in the trap, in which he gives you a choice of cooperating to live or defying to the bitter end and get your entire family murdered, it's your choice.

The verbal banter is amazingly candid and humorous at the same time. Most of the entire movie is in either French, German, a little Italian and English. I think only about 15 minutes of the movie is in English, the rest are in their native tongue, it is France after all, so you have to be content with reading subtitles. However, the nuances, the punctuation, the curses, all fitted into the movie perfectly. I was laughing at all throughout!

Christoph Waltz who played Colonel Hans Landa gave the best performance I've ever seen. He switched from French to English to German with such ease, it was difficult to catch up. His character was filled with such sincerity that the menace behind it was hidden so well.

Diane Kruger looks excellent in period movies and fitted in perfectly with her role. She looks better with Brad Pitt standing next to her than she did in National Treasure with Nicolas Cage!

I don't want to spoil any more than I should, but the rest of the cast were just stellar.

However, the movie did move at a pace slower than I expected, and I suspect that several more scenes did not make the final cut, because there was quite a lot of unexplained stuff. It will probably be featured in the DVD director's uncut edit or something, which will be available in the next half of the year.

Highly, highly recommended!

4 out of 5 stars!