Of Movies and Soccer

So I wanted to watch Harry Potter last Sunday. Unfortunately, the cinemas were swamped and most of the tickets were already sold out by the time I arrived. At the same time, Transformers and Die Hard 4.0 were sold out as well. So my friend and I decided to watch something else since we were already there. We decided to watch Dead Silence. The funny thing was that everyone else had the same mind since they couldn't buy tickets for the movie that they actually wanted to watch. Fortunately for us, we actually got tickets and it was good seats.

The movie was a great watch. Its a horror movie and the interesting part that caught my attention was that it was from the writers of the movie Saw. Saw, despite being disturbing, was a very good movie. It had an awesome twist and at the same time there was a moral message in there, behind the gore and sick tortures. Now, its not as sick as Hostel, nothing can top Hostel (Except for Hostel 2 of course). Anyway back to Dead Silence, I found the storyline and theme quite original. For people who have watched Saw, there are some easter eggs in the movie, like seeing the Saw doll in Dead Silence. So I quite enjoyed the movie.

Finally! We all knew it in our hearts but this past week, the whole world has known that Malaysian soccer is in a very sorry state! Suffering a 5-1 thrashing to China, only to be topped by getting 5-0 to Uzbekistan in the recent Asia Cup, we can only hope that we don't give that many goals for the last match for Malaysia against Iran. Since Iran drew with China, I am expecting Iran to have a goal bonanza. So what's wrong with our soccer scene? Simple, we have placed too much importance in the academic aspect of our schools. The sports scene from school is pretty sad. There is no quirks in being great in sports from schools. Without that kind of pull, are we surprised that our talent base in Malaysia is kinda stale? Unfortunately, this problem cannot be rectified in the frame of 5 to 10 years. It will be a long arduous process. If we start now, we'd only be seeing the results in a 20 years time. So for now, Malaysian soccer is dead. The ironic thing is that next month will be Malaysia's Independence.

Die Hard 4.0

John McClane is back with a new brand of ass kicking in this fourth instalment of the movie. He is older, bald, has a tired expression on most of the time but he is still the same badass that just moves forward against a wave of terror. This time though, technology has caught up to him and he has to stop a gang of terrorists from hacking the government and causing chaos to a whole nation.

Yes my friends, McClane has came out from single areas (the former die hard movies were all on single locations) and out into the whole city! This movie kept me entertained from the start to the finish. The stunts were over the top and it was spectacularly done. Some scenes are quite impossible to happen in real life but that's what movies are for.

To help McClane combat this so called cyber terrorists, Matt Farrell (Justin Long), a hacker who is unceremoniously paired with him after being targeted by the same terrorists. Both of these characters were perfect for each other and their screen time together are quite entertaining to watch. Matt Farrell is the brains with his seemingly in depth knowledge on hacking but seems fragile in the physical department. However, McClane more than makes up for it as the brawn of the pair.

Timothy Olyphant plays the leader of the terrorists and I should mention that he plays a cool villain. This should be interesting since he will also play as Agent 47 in the movie adaptation of the game Hitman which will be coming out soon.

Die Hard 4.0 bleeds action from the get go and its everything I expected from the movie. The only downside is that the action is considered a little tame after watching the Transformers movie. Even so, Die Hard 4.0 is a must watch for all movie goers.

My review on Transformers the live action movie

After watching Transformers the movie, I had to deliberate a few days to properly conform my thoughts. The movie is awesome and its perfectly one of the biggest block busters of the year. Case in point, my workmate asked me how to spell Transformers and I spelt it out for him. He said it was wrong. Transformers is spelt 'a-w-e-s-o-m-e' and for the most part, I agreed with him. Never will you see an action movie that blends detailed CGI robots with live action environments and actors so believable than in Transformers.

The robots themselves are designed specifically for detail and realism. How else can you explain bipedal robots transforming into vehicles or other objects without designing the robots to have detailed transforming parts that conform with the object? In addition to that, the CGI is so photo realistic that never once will you be thinking that the robots were not part of the scene. Starscream flying in the sky overhead, then swooping low and then transforming into robot mode and firing his cannons into the crowd in one smooth transition would make your jaw hang open in awe. Don't take my word for it, just go ahead and watch it if you haven't. This*is*the movie to die for this year.

Now that is out of the way, we move on to the cons of the movie. Yes, there are cons to the movie and it will be so apparent to the fans of Transformers the cartoon. No where in sight did I see any familiar faces except for Optimus Prime. The fact that they blatantly disregarded to design any of the robots in the live action movie to at least conform to things that make them our lovable autobots/ decepticons aren't there. The closest that they succeeded (other than Prime) was Bumblebee. His cheerful demeanour was nicely translated into the movie and also his yellow colour scheme. However, it was totally destroyed when you hear him speak for the first time at the end of the movie in perfect British accent.

Prime looked quite magnificent, if he had his visor on all the time like in the cartoon series but for some reason or other they had to design lips and it was the worst looking lips ever. To give you a mental picture on how ludicrous the lips were, try pinching your mouth from the sides with your hands ... thats exactly how they look. Ironhide looks like an ape whereas Jazz and Ratchet were quite unmemorable to me. Other than their faces, the robots looked incredible. Unfortunately it didn't suit the whole Transformers theme. If they followed the colour schemes of the robots to appeal to us fans would be ok. Heck, they should have followed the faces of all the robots to make them more appealing and identifiable. Unfortunately, because you can't properly identify the robots, the battle scenes although were rocking, appeared hectic and quite chaotic when the camera likes to take close shots and all you see is detailed wires and metal and not 'two robots bringing the pain on'.

Another rant of mine is the way the whole movie seems to revolve more on humans rather than the Transformers. I didn't know the movie was called 'Humans'. However, the human cast was quite commendable. Especially Spike who was portrayed true to his cartoon persona. The heroine (Mikaela if I'm not mistaken her name was) seems more like eye candy than anything else although she did 'lend a hand' to Bumblebee. Despite all that though, we will be seeing 2 more sequels to the movie as the actors have signed contracts for two more Transformer movies.

I conclude by saying that this movie rocks, I kid you not. This is the best movie I have seen, period. Unfortunately, its not Transformers. Transforming robots does not equate to Transformers. Oh well, I'm catching Die Hard 4.0 later and then perhaps a round of Transformers the animated movie.

Countdown to Transformers

There are great reasons to be in Malaysia and one of them is that Transformers the live action movie is shown here earlier than the States! In fact, it started playing in the cinemas here on the 28th of June! FYI, it is coming out in the States on the 4th of July. Unfortunately, due to work, I haven't watched the movie yet. Yeah, a blasphemy I know. BUT! This coming Tuesday is my off day and I will march to the nearest cinema and immerse myself in the greatness of Transformers! However, I am also interested to watch Live Free or Die Harder. I'm not sure when its out but if I can catch both on my off day, I'll do so.

In the meantime, I can just count the hours ...
T.T

Joke of the day

While I was in Kedah there was a curious girl looking around our hardware. She was particularly inclined towards our huge LCD screens which we used to show videos of our games. Spotting the exhibitor's tags we were wearing, she proceeded to ask my Event Manager.

Curious Girl: How many inches. *pointing towards the LCD screen*
E.Manager: 32 inches.
Curious Girl: Oh. *Nods and takes a last look before leaving*

Spotting the humour in the situation I quickly told him to add "Can you handle that much man?"

In hindsight, he could have given a lot of answers that could have ended up with a sexual harassment act. One of them being "Can you handle that many inches?" or "It changes from hot to cold."

Almost a road statistic

Something crazy happened to me this morning on my way to work. I was almost involved in an accident. The day started normal for me. I left home at around 9:40am and just exited Jalan Duta into Jalan Muzium and I was about to put the pedal to the metal when I notice that there were two police cars on the speed lane. Behind them was a Mercedes and they were moving relatively fast. So I decided to join in the que. Bare in mind though, we weren't going that fast at all. Something along the lines of 100 kmph-ish. So I was driving fine and we passed the Istana, only to notice a lot of tourist bus stopping on the other side. Normally, this was normal but what made it weird was that the busses were stopping on the lane nearest to the middle of the road (ie the speed lane). As I went on, I could see more busses joining the line.

We finally reached the section of the road where it joined the highway (in front of the private air field) and then I noticed a convoy of several cars with police escort coming into the highway. They were moving at an average speed and this was when it got weird. For no apparent reason, the police cars that were in front of me braked into a full stop. At first I didn't notice that they stopped fully so I just applied a little pressure on the brakes. I mean, its not normal for cars to suddenly brake in the speed lane when there's nothing happening in front of them. Then I saw the Mercedes braked and it was at that moment that I noticed that the distance between my car and the Mercedes was rapidly decreasing. I slammed the brakes hard!

At first the car was slowing down considerably but it immediately skidded to the left. My car was starting to get out of control when I notice that I was getting dangerously close to the car in front of me. Trying to right myself, I turned the steering to the right. The car overcompensated and it was skidding to the right now, right into the guard rails! In the meantime, The Mercedes' bumper looked dangerously close. In that span of time, I immediately yanked the steering to the left. The car immediately swerved to the left narrowly missing the Mercedes but this made my car leave the lane. It went horizontal and it occupied the middle two lanes of the road! At that moment I prayed to god that no cars were going to crash into me because I was well aware on how precarious the position of my car was.

Seeing that my car was in continuous momentum towards the left side of the road, I managed to peek to my left side to see a car slowing down. After seeing that surety of no incoming car is going to crash into me, I turned my steering wheel and righted my car back to the right, right into the left most lane (ie slow lane). I spent a couple of moments to make sure that my car was in the right direction and only then did I slowly let go off my brakes and slowly put pressure back on the accelerator pedal. At that moment my head was completely blank, my chest was thumping like a madmen on the drums. Then I was trying to recall back what had happened when I looked ahead only to see the three cars in front of me were moving as if nothing happened behind them. I highly doubt that they didn't notice the screech of brakes that were sounding loudly behind them. For some reason, I felt as if the policemen knew they were in the wrong and that was why they went on their way as if nothing happened. To stop was to assume responsibility ... and probably my wrath.

Funnily the next few moments I felt really angry. Not angry at the policemen but rather at the general situation of it all. I felt angry at everything and untill this moment of typing, I couldn't really explain why. Then it occured to me that the whole incident might have only occured in bare seconds. Most probably it didn't even reached ten seconds. Everything happened so fast and I could recall that I wasn't thinking at all. Everything happened instinctively. Maybe it was because of this that I came out safe or maybe it was because the road was 4 lanes wide or maybe I missed the busy traffic time.

Suffice to say, I drove on the slow lane all the way to work. I was being over-cautious and I knew it. I seem to recall a Satria Neo honking at me after my predicament and the driver was looking at me with a gesture that said "What happened?" Not feeling like explaining the whole thing in the car, I just looked at him and shook my head slowly with a look that said "I'm just glad I didn't crash."

When I reached work I proceeded to check on my car, especially my tyres to see if they were worn. Weirdly they weren't. It still had its treads and the car was relatively new. So I was wondering how the hell did I started skidding. Well, it was simple really. We were moving relatively fast. It was the speed lane afterall. Then the cars braked unexpectedly. Being a Mercedes, I suppose its brakes and ABS could compensate that but my Proton Satria, I highly doubt it. Not at that speed and sudden stop. So looking back, I suppose anything can happen when you are driving. Its just a matter of you being in a position of relative safety. Thankfully, I managed to get out of it unscathed and there's nothing more than I could wish for at that moment.

Back from Kedah ICT Carnival 2007!

When I was there, Kedah was very hot. Which was one of the reasons on why we ate at KFC twice while I was there. It was for the air-cond. The Kedah ICT Carnival was a three day affair from Friday to Sunday (8th - 10th of June). It was more like an IT Carnival where various companies had booths to showcase their technology. Companies ranging from MDEC to MIMOS to TMNet. Our booth was by far the largest since it housed around 80 PCs for the Counter Strike 1.6 tournament and also some free play, courtesy of Valve and also Cubetech (Last Chaos MMO). The tournament was slated for 32 teams but in the end, only 17 teams registered and entered. The top teams Hybrid and DiV were there and also PwyH, which seem to be in every tourney we made. Although it was a three day affair, we came two days earlier to set up and make sure everything worked. Let me tell you, it was tiring carrying all the equipment and even more so when we set it up. Nevertheless, everything was ready for the event day itself.

The place where we rested. Alot of snores were heard from this room :P.

Being a guy, I couldn't help myself but to check out the Northern Malay chics there. There were a lot of pretty faces and most of them weren't that difficult to have a chat with. However, their northern accents (loghat utara) were quite thick and sometimes I had to stop to think on what they just said. Unfotunately, it was just short chats and therefore no numbers were exchanged.

This was where the Counter-Strike tourney took place. Not too shabby eh? ;).

The CS 1.6 tournament took off without a hitch although it did cause a small problem to our head marshall as he was thinking on what proper format to use. As the tournament went on, it was quite a straight forward affair as the top teams went on to the next stage, leaving the other teams in their wake. However, there was a major upset and surprise which came in the form of PwyH's victory over team Hybrid in the lower brackets. At first, Hybrid was pushed into the lower bracket courtesy of DiV which was quite a surprise as well but being Malaysia's number 1 and 2 teams respectively, the situation wasn't that big of a surprise anyway. But PwyH trouncing Hybrid to a 16-4 score was quite a phenomenal achievement! Its even more surprising that the night before the match, PwyH had an impromptu wrestling match amongst themselves (free-for-all-format) in their hotel room! Seeing the performance of PwyH, even DiV thought that they might lose. Unfortunately, DiV won for the finals, placing them champions with PwyH in the second place and Hybrid in the third place. Good game!

Me with the third place checque. I was sweating because the pic was taken during the tear down.

After that it was the closing day ceremony as well as the prize giving ceremony. Then it was the tear down of our booth and we had to move everything back into boxes and into the store room for transportation on the next day. On Monday we had our last breakfast at our hotel, which was the Grand Continental and proceeded to transfer the equipment into the lorry. Funnily, it wasn't as tiring when we had to set up the equipment. Some of us went back to the hotel for a last shower while I proceeded to go to the Pekan Rabu which was nearby to shop for some sweets and delicacies (kuih-muih). I bought some dodol and some other kuihs which I can't recall its name. Oh wait, one of them was telinga monyet and another was kuih cakar ayam.

I don't smoke but I had to take this picture! Vista enabled ciggies!XD.

We gave the lorry a two hour head start before we checked out of our hotel and went after it! Suffice to say, we got ourselves a speeding ticket and proceeded to go F1 all the way! We left at 1:30 from Alor Setar and reached KL around 5:30! Somehow, we caught up with the lorry near Rawang. Sheesh, two hour head start was too much.

The event was successful to me and here's hoping we have another one ... closer.

Pics of Carnevale!

Heya dudes! Finally I have managed to acquire myself a USB all-in-one card reader. Here are the pics:


This is the stage. Kinda nice no? Anyway, its empty now because they are still setting it up.


Here is the general viewing area, where the people are going to sit. Right now though, the clowns have it to themselves.


Unfortunately for the clowns, guests start to arrive and they were hurriedly kicked out. Hehehe.

Below are the booths that were up that day. You could buy merchandise and try some games by spending your One Card points.







This is the booth where I was supposed to be supervising. It was called the Wizard Shop. Maybe some of you are familiar with the shop in OU? Anyway, I was there just to make sure that the computer hardware was installed and handled properly and also to see that the game tournament was handled profesionally. Unfortunately, due to lack of advertisement (not on my part), the amount of people who joined the games were very little.

On the first day there was an opening ceremony and some stage performances which you can see below:

She was literally hot stuff as she fire breathed on the stage!


Which was followed by some waist shaking dance! It was mesmerising. Hmmm, is she winking at me?


Of course, what is complete without a magician and his hat of magic tricks? Not to mention the beautiful assistant.


She arrives in a Mini Cooper S and starts telling jokes. Mostly about her smaller figure and her 'longkang' :D. Which then follows with the opening ceremony of the One Card Carnevale! I'm sorry but for some reason I forgot her name.


Should have been there coz this car was one of the prizes offered.

I was only there for a day but the celebration was fun while it lasted. There were finger food and drinks being offered by waiters all around. Guests mingled and later were visiting the booths to try their luck in the games. Again, it was a very well done carnival. Hopefully next time, that Mini Cooper S will be mine.

God has a sense of humour ...

Indeed, sometimes, life has a really funny sense of humour. I just read a funny news article which you can read here, courtesy of philly.com.

Long story short, a couple was having a fight inside the boyfriend's car and it got heated enough that the boyfriend parked the car on railroad tracks and left quickly while a train was en-route. What happened next was totally unexpected in that the train hit the rear of the car and propelled it into the fleeing boyfriend, killing him on the spot! The girlfriend however was sent to the hospital with some injuries where she is in stable condition. Talk about sweet poetic justice!

Stupid Canon Powershot G3 camera drivers doesn't work with Windows Vista platform. Apparently I have to get a Vista compatible card reader, whatever that is. (I thought all card readers are compatible with any OS :P). So pics of the Carnevale will be delayed.

One Card Carnevale!

There's a One Card Carnivale going on this Friday to Sunday. It's to reward the One Card users to some cool and fun activities as well as some chances to win some prizes. For clarification, the One Card is a shopper's card that can be used anywhere in the One Utama Shopping Mall which is located in Bandar Utama. Everytime you buy something there, you will be rewarded in the form of points. The more points you accumulate, the more prizes or benefits you can get.

I will personally be at the Wizard's Shop booth, monitoring the Counter Strike: Source Mano-a-mano tournament which will be going on there. You just need to have a One Card to be eligible to enter and at the end of the day, the player with the most rounds won will stand a chance to be in the grand finals, which will be on this Sunday. For people without the One Card, there will be special booths for you to get one.

At the same time there will be other booths that will be present at the new wing concourse, offering other activites, games or just selling of merchandise. So, if you have the time, head on to One Utama Shopping Complex and take a peek. I will be there for Friday only. ;). For more info, check it out here.

The Gaming World Held its breath ...

For Blizzard to finally announce their new game that they have in the works during the Worldwide Invitational event in South Korea. Cheers erupted as the CG Video was played in a huge screen and later, all the rumours were finally confirmed as Blizzard unveiled Starcraft 2! What followed was another video of the game in action. It still retains the isometric view that is so famous with all RTS type of games but the models look bigger, more detailed with a lot of added effects. However, it still just look like Starcraft 1 with a new face lift and some new units.

I just pity the RTS games that have already released or are going to be released before Starcraft 2 will be released. Supreme Commander, Command and Conquer 3, although great games in their own regard ... but we are talking about Starcraft here. The sequel to the most played RTS game of the century. After this announcement, I bet most people would say "CnC3 wha-at?" and I'd just agree with them.

If some of you reading this haven't heard of the news, or want to watch the vids and screenshots first hand, you can check out the official Starcraft 2 website ...

Oooooh ..!

Wow I finally changed the blogger format to a new one. Its so easy with a lot of things that you can change and edit into your blog. Wished I did this sooner. Kinda cool. Hmmm, now if I just could update my blog often. :P

The Devil wears Prada

So I just watched Devil wears Prada. Somehow its one of those movies you don't tell your friends about because it's something that I am unlikely to watch. However, after hearing great reviews on the movie, I managed to find the time to get a copy of it. When I bought it with my friend, I didn't tell him what I bought seeing that he got himself Babel and Hills have Eyes.

I am not sure how close to reality is the movie itself about high market magazines but thats not what makes it a great watch. The transformation of Anne Hathaway's character 'Andy', from a normal girl next door who doesn't give a hoot about fashion to a Runaway girl who has fashion sense. The story is coherent enough for anyone to understand and it blends naturally with the allure of the movie. Most say that this movie is a comedy and it has small doses of that but the acting that goes on in the movie lends an air of credibility and gives more than just 'comedy'. This movie make you feel sorry, angry but you will always understand the situation that Anne Hathaway is in. The 'Devil' in this movie is played by Meryl Streep who IMO is so right for the character of Miranda Priestly, fashion magazine editor. As in any type of movies like this, Miranda Priestly is a no nonsense, straight to the point, holier than thou type of character and Meryl Streep carries her so realistically its astounding!

The cast of the movie is great but the one of the messages of the movie (if there ever was one) was that whatever you do, you are always given a choice. Unconsciously, you make the best decision to you at that moment. It could be the right choice or it could be the wrong one but no matter what it is, the choice that you choose must be the one that is honest to yourself. For that matter you must be positive about your future because its the only thing that you have.

I find that the journey of Anne Hathaway through the movie was an inspiring one. In the end, I found her to more mature and attractive than her other parts in the movie. There's 3 phases of 'Andy' in the movie: the everyday woman, the woman on a date and the woman in between those two. The latter was what the ending 'Andy' was. For you girls out there, I'd recommend you to watch it. For guys, watching this movie with your girl friend is a good cover up, just don't show too much enthusiasm about it. :D

ACG

After months of planning, ACG has finally kicked off at Cineleisure Damansara on the 20th and 21st of January, coming into the new year of 2007 with a bang. Its first official event with the Counter-Strike 1.6 qualifiers. One of the first CS qualifiers for the year 2007. So, for an event that would be covering four games (CS, GW, DoD, SDO), we started setting up on Friday night. Sounds a bit far fetched? Trust me, so did I when I heard about this. On the events themselves, I was to oversee and be the head marshal for two tournaments. Namely the Day of Defeat (DoD) and Guild Wars (GW) tournament. Since the events was about 2 weeks ago, I’m just going to summarise everything.

FRIDAY
After work. Convoyed to PC supplier. Hauled 80 PCs or so into a truck. Tired as heck. Sweated like an ox. Then drove to Cineleisure to help unloading. Was done faster because had three trolleys. Unloaded everything into store room first. Then had dinner at Kopi Oh. Dinner was sponsored. Went back home to bath and change clothes. Went back to Cineleisure at 11pm after shops were closed. Started setting up. Carpets were already done so started with chairs and tables. There were 2 huge sections with smaller sections in them. Setting up PC took longer. Hardware wise, everything was set up at 4am. Then Intel started setting up for software wise. Personally, didn’t look like everything could be done in time for the event. Went back home. Changed clothes and immediately slept.

SATURDAY
Woke up to a phone call telling to get my ass back to Cineleisure. It was 9am. Reached to find all comps were set up and switched on. Tested DoD island. Got error. Technician fixed it. Can run DoD tournament but dedicated server is a no go. Event started. On paper, 12 DoD teams qualified. Reality, only 7 teams turned up. CS island was a no go, there were technical difficulties. DoD tournament ran smoothly. The team that I figured had the most chances to win, won the tournament, in a lopsided win in the finals. CS tournament finally started in the middle of the DoD tournament. DoD prize giving ceremony was on that day itself. After that, rest tired legs. Sitting down felt good. Alas, problem on the horizon. GW island, internet is laggy. One GW running, laggy, two GW running, can’t move. OH NO! Made some calls to internet service provider. Said they’ll sent an engineer tomorrow. Went home. Mandi, change clothes and slept early.

SUNDAY
Came back with enough sleep. First one there. Noticed the internet provider engineer there. He checks and says its ok. I told him 2mb line for 16 comps won’t cut it and how did that happen anyway? He says he’ll try contacting HQ but its Sunday so whatever. I told him whatever it is, just contact me back ASAP. Work mates start coming in. We discussed about the line issue and tried some things. At the meantime, GW contestants start arriving. I try my best to explain the situation but I can’t do anything. After a long time, we tried the comps, the line was still bad. Talked to boss, decided to postpone GW tournament. Told the GW contestants. Gave them goodie bags to at least make them feel better. All the while the CS tournament has been going. Nothing of note happens. Remember checking out the SDO booth since their tournament was today. Some chics dancing on the dance mat. Otherwise checking out Gears of War at Gamer’s Hideout. ACG ended with prize giving ceremony for the SDO and CS tourneys. Now the tiring part started. Had to start packing up the comps and hardware, tables, and carpet. Finished around 11ish. We all decided to crash to the nearest mamak for some eats.

Aidiladha and 2007

The Aidiladha celebration marked the last day of 2006. On the first day of 2007, my mosque was slaughtering cows for Aidiladha as a religious sacrifice. Most of the meat is to be given to the poor and some will go to the people who contributed on purchasing the cow. My family was there to bear witness as our cow was slaughtered (cow number 8). There were a total of 23 cows and 2 goats that was slaughtered on that day. Initially I came to help out for the event but as I looked around, all the stations were manned and there wasn't a place where it looked lacking. So I hung around where the cows were slaughtered with my friend who was MCing on that day. As always the case, the first few cows were quite docile but the last cows were quite rowdy and wild.

It was all finished by noon and we got to enjoy some of the meat as the women division cooked some of the meat for lunch. I sat there slurping my 'sup tulang', I thought: What a way to start the new year. So, happy new year to everyone and hope 2007 give us a lot of choices to better ourselves.

This is the tongue of my cow