2008年12月3日水曜日

Yakuza Moon (極道な月)

This book is an autobiography of a lady born into a Yakuza Family. Her story of a very harsh and extreme early half life. Gangsters, Drugs, Violence and Sex. All the element to attract curious readers.

Quite touching. And a quick read. I only spend 4 days reading during MRT ride to work to finish this book.

City of Ember


The movie is quite entertaining. More of a kid's fantasy movie. No much of violence and action. Story is that the earth surface was not sustainable any more for human to live due to Nuclear Contamination, hence the Builders have created an Underground City named Ember to hold the humans until the time they can emerge back to earth.
This is also based on a Theory of ancient time where we humans also lived in underground for quite some time due to some catastrophe.
Over all the movie is quite okay, but not great.

2008年11月28日金曜日

Tipping Point, Uprising and Eat Your Heart Out

Finished 3 books in 3 months.

Tipping Point describe how little things with enough followers or momentum, can lead to something significant enough to be noticed and even become dominant. Every thing starts from tiny, and with enough effort to promote it from different side with specific function (trend setters, promoters, advertisers, and the mass public), when it reach the Tipping Point, it just explode. But trends might stay and go, all depends on how to maintain it.


The Uprising is about how USA citizen start to organize to push for their social rights and keep the big corporations and government in check. They put pressure on the Government and Corporation to be responsible towards society.
Quite interesting as we can see, with the power of Internet and modern technology, organizing have been much much easier. This books introduce us to the ongoing Populist (supporter of the rights and power of the people) action in USA.


This book is very related to my line of work. The author is well known and influential food journalist in UK. The book expose on how big food company evolves, and how they operate in order to maximize their profit. And by doing so at the expense of the society, humanity and environment. Especially I am in the food trade, this book really showed me some points from another perspective.

2008年11月2日日曜日

What happened to the Shoppers?

Over the weekend, I was in Pavilion, The Gardens/Midvalley and KLCC. The crowd was lower than expected. It was totally different from a month or 2 ago. Especially lesser Chinese Shoppers.

Is the Global Recession started to affect Malaysia? Are the Malaysians started to tie their belts?

Speaking of Belt, I just broke mine due to overtighening it. Must have gain in waistline.

2008年10月2日木曜日

BIG STAN


This is one hilarious movie. Just for laughs and entertainment. Story about a real estate con-man being sentenced to jail for 3 years. He got a 6 months preparation period before going into prison. Due to his small stature, he is afraid that he will be target of gay rape in the prison. He learned martial art from a mysterious master, and prepare for the worst in prison.
Very "无哩头". But sometimes vulgar crude sex humor. I wonder Malaysia is showing this movie?

2008年8月24日日曜日

Wall-E (2008/8/23)


This movie is really fantastic!! It was released 2 months ago in the USA, and finally in Malaysia. Singapore opens next week though. I brought my girl friend and sister to watch it in Pavilion KL on 23rd August.
The sequence of the story is flawless, visual is totally out of this world. And the message & lessons brought by this movies is really important. Save our planet!! The Robots are really cute and they are more alive than the humans.
Well... I beg you guys not to miss this movie on the big screen!!

2008年7月20日日曜日

5 Movies I watched 7/14-7/20

Too Long in India, hence treat myself to some movie therapy. Below are the 5 movies I watched in ranking.
No.1 Spot: Dark Knight
One of the best movie of 2008. Heath Ledger stole the lime lite for this movie. He deserves an Oscar. Harvey Dent, the District Attorney who eventually became 2-Face also very good. Over all, all the actors did well. The movie is very well edited, 2 and half hours passed by unnoticed.
I am waiting for the Complete DVD Version, then I will sit back, relax and enjoy the movie comfortably in the house.






No 2. Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army
The special effects and characters designs is already worth the ticket. And as an avid Hellboy Fan, I enjoyed the movie, but not the Hellboy Character. The movie version of Hellboy Character is a bit sissy IMO. And the movie suggested an impossible matter: Demon impregnate a human woman. I wish they would have not think of such sick thing.









No 3. Hancock



A hero movie with a different approach. I enjoyed this movie. Charlize Theron and Will Smith delivered good acting, and a lesson in love.






















No. 4 Red Cliff

A bit too long and lavishly done. Nice dialogs. But some parts are historically incorrect though. Intimate scene was cut in Singapore, but all the other gruesome violent scenes are intact. Hope part 2 will be better.




No.5 Wanted
Wanted: My ticket money back. This movie really insulted my intelligence: normal bullets that can travel curve lines (even circular line). Avoid this at all cause.

2008年7月5日土曜日

Biz Trip to India 6/24-7/13





A very long Biz Trip this time to India. Managed to go to a forest sanctuary park for wild life. The chances of seeing live tiger here is almost certain, but due to the monsoon starting and the road condition in the park was affected by the rain, we could not go into deeper forest, and missed our chance to watch live tiger.
Well, that was the best part of the trip, other days are work work work. Starting to get tired... miss my Subway Sandwiches, Movies and usual city life. At least I will get in total USD1,000 as pockect money.
Well, one more week to go. Hope to get the best out of it!!

2008年6月14日土曜日

The Incredible Hulk

Have been very busy lately. No updates in my blog for long time.

Hulk movie is quite okay, although not as good as Iron Man, but still good entertainment. The story is different from the original comic story, but I think most movie version will have a slightly different story to reflect the real world. No post credits movie clip this time. (I think they brought forward the post credits clip to just before the credit where Tony Stark was talking to General Ross). The Hulk's power is still not fully unleash in the movie, it can do much more awesome stuff in the comics.

Overall this movie is worth a 2nd watch.

2008年5月26日月曜日

Japan Business Trip 14th-18th May

I went to Japan 2 weeks ago for business trip. Very lucky I could extend one day due to the supplier also extending his stay. Well Tokyo is really a Haven for Shopping. And the stuff are cheap too (made in Japan stuff or stuff for Japan market only, Japan will be the cheapest in the world to get them, especially Tokyo). Below is the list of stuff I bought. Some of the stuff I already pass to my sister's BF to bring it to them. Should have taken a picture of the stuff before that. Well here goes:
Porter Bag JPY16500
Porter Wallet JPY5880
Earphone * 2 JPY3980 each
Webcam JPY2980
Grocery(milk tea, sesame sauce, stew cube) JPY4400
Yukata (Japanese Bath Robe)*3 JPY5800 each
Umesyu (Plum Wine) *2 JPY2400
Fukuoka Pie JPY5250 (10 Boxes)
Matcha Cake JPY600
Rackham Miniature JPY2500
Manga * 10 JPY620 each
Gap T-Shirt + Accessories JPY3700
Kokeshi Ningyo(Japanese Doll) JPY1700
Camera Screen Protector * 2 JPY630/each
Mammoth Vinyl Toys JPY6000 X 2 + JPY2400
Vacuum Bag to shrink my clothes JPY1300
Working Shoes JPY1900
Gum JPy1500
Calorie Mate JPY1440
Royce Chocolate JPY1420
and other stuff.
If I had brought more cash, there will be more items I would buy. Will take pictures of the remaining stuff later.

2008年5月4日日曜日

8" Zombie Pet Dunny


Got this Zombie Pet Dunny last week. It is in light blue painted with Glow In the Dark (GID) sticker paints. The boxed also with GID Sticker all over. Not really exciting though, but add to my GID toys. After I off the light each night, those GID toys will give out a soothing ghastly glow. Really relaxing to see them slowly fade away before sleeping.

Iron Man Rocks!!


Iron man really fulfilled all my expectations. Although the story a bit draggy in the 1st half, it is necessary to show how Tony Stark developed the suit step by step. The development not be shown in normal comic form, and was perfectly shown in the movie. Stay on after the end credits, there will be a surprise waiting for you.
Below is the Iron man Statue I bought in January. Cost a BOMB!! Although it is not the "original" with numbering, but a fix up garage kit. The paint they used on this is superior than the original, the finishing too they used those for normal cars. I basically can wash this baby under running water.



2008年4月30日水曜日

Harold and Kumar 2


Watched this movie yesterday. It is very funny with lots of Sex Jokes. And a lot of weed smoking. Very vulgar, bad taste, but entertaining.
Lots of F words and nudity (even frontal), so in Malaysia 100% not going to show in cinema.
Make sure the friends you bring along have an open mind, or else they might have a very different opinion of you after this movie.
That's one advantage watching Movies in Singapore.

2008年4月27日日曜日

Real News of Malaysia (Malaysia Today)


This website is very informative about Malaysian Politics and real news. I have been reading this quite often. Check it out guys.

P/S: Stayed in house again for whole weekend. Paint up another model. Hehehe... I will save a lot of $$ if I keep on doing this.

2008年4月21日月曜日

How I spent on my last 2 weekends

Last 2 weekends (4days), I spent on painting my Confrontation game figurines. These figurines are used in playing a table-top tactical fantasy miniature war game. I loved this game very much, and over committed it 2 years back. I think I spent more than RM5k for these figurines. They are really expensive. I have about 180 big and small figurines and only painted 23 of them. The Wolfen models below are considered large ones.

It's been a long while since I last painted them. Basically I prepared them as below, by assembling and glue the lead metal models together, then spray a coating of white or black base coat like below pic:
then I painted them up to these:







I painted total of 7 models for 4 days, although the paint job is not tip-top quality, but fair enough for game play and display at home.

Below is the size comparison with a 3" inch Dunny. My 3" inch Dunny is a giant compared to these figures huh.



2008年4月11日金曜日

Meat Production is wasting precious resources

(Information from George Jacobs' letter to the paper, I got similar information from the book "Skinny Bitch" also)

Human Population : 6.6billion

Animal Population eaten by people yearly : 50billion !!

Food used to feed the 50billion animals yearly, is enough to feed the entire human population for more than a year. Just imagine that we human will have so much surplus of food if we cut meat.

Roughly more than 10kg of plant food is required to produce 1kg of meat.

Hence the world will be a better place if human consume more plants than meat.

Books Read in March 2008

Finished 2 books in March08:

1. Brida by Paulo Coelho
Very easy and quick read. The story is mainly about Love and Finding of our soul mate. And sometimes Love need not to be possessed or owned, just sharing a loving moment in a particular time or situation is enough for a life time remembrance.

The main character is Brida, a witch apprentice, who is trying hard to succeed. She had help from her master a witch, a wizard and his boy friend.

Paulo's books are quite entertaining, always there is a twist and surprise in the end. Well, the book is based on Wizards and Witches characters of modern days, maybe might contradict to some people's religious belief, need an open mind to read this book.

2. Micromotives and Macrobehaviour by Thomas C. Schelling
This author is one of the 2005 Nobel prize recipient for economics, he wrote "Strategy of Conflict". I am getting this book from the Library soon. Could not get it in normal bookstores at the moment.

In this book, Schelling illustrate how decisions made by individual will slowly effect the larger crowd eventually. Well, great economist like Schelling really like to make lots of Hypothesis, and look into it one by one, segregating the unlikely, likely . And then chart it out and plot into Graphs for better explanation.

(quote from Editorial Review)
""Schelling here offers an early analysis of 'tipping' in social situations involving a large number of individuals."—official citation for the 2005 Nobel Prize
Micromotives and Macrobehavior was originally published over twenty-five years ago, yet the stories it tells feel just as fresh today. And the subject of these stories—how small and seemingly meaningless decisions and actions by individuals often lead to significant unintended consequences for a large group—is more important than ever. In one famous example, Thomas C. Schelling shows that a slight-but-not-malicious preference to have neighbors of the same race eventually leads to completely segregated populations.."

2008年4月3日木曜日

Allergy Attack !!

I had an allergic attack last night.

I was using a cream (Eurax) to sooth itchiness from my allergy after bath. This time I used a bit more since I accidentally squeezed out a big portion.

After 3 minutes, suddenly I feel feverish with blood rushing towards my head. My eye balls were swollen red, neck, waist, arms and thigh and legs, itchy rashes starts popping out. Even my palms are swollen red.

I quickly gone to the shower to bath in cold water, cleaning all the cream and cool down my body. Then while resting, the itch and rash still not subside. I made my self a "三七花" Tea to slow down my blood pressure, and then took some Propolis (Bee Hive Extract) as they are believed to counter allergens.

The attack did subside a bit, and I went to bed straight after. This morning, all the rashes are gone and I feel normal again. I think maybe my body is healthy or the Propolis did work its wonder?

Really ironic, as the cream I use to sooth my allergy rashes is the one that causes it all along.
Anyway going to the doctors for an opinion.

2008年4月2日水曜日

Neptoon Project figures by Sam Hout

(Click on the image to enlarge it)


I did it again. Bought another set of Vinyl Figures. This set of 6 pcs cost less than half of the retail price in the USA. The main reason for this discount is the Producer and Distributor is in Singapore.


This set was out in 2006, old collection actually, but the cuteness is eternal. They are very cute and I personally think it looks great on the display shelf.

I need to concentrate on the theme of my collection or else it will be very awkward and mismatched when display on the shelves.

2008年4月1日火曜日

Semi Pro !


Got a free ticket for this movie through buying a magazine which was SD4.50. (The movie Ticket is SD7.50).
Very funny and entertaining movie. Had a good laugh. Will Ferrel is always funny. This movie is quite"meaningful", especially to basketball fans. Well, I like Will Ferrel's flicks... He is funny even just standing there doing nothing.

2008年3月26日水曜日

God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)


Spent many hours playing this game. The Easy Mode was a piece of cake. Really had fun playing it... no stress and fun in hack and slash.
After finished the Easy Mode, the God Mode is unlocked. I gave the God Mode a try... but to my horror... it is 100 times harder than Easy Mode. The enemies are harder to be killed while they inflict more damage. This double impact is really a nightmare for me. I spend hours trying to kill the monsters one by one, looking for the best and most efficient way to kill them, as in God Mode, we cannot hack and slash them head on, but must skillfully evade the enemy attacks while delivering maximum damage, normal damage will take ages to kill them. And playing God Mode really tested my patience. I am a very impatient person, always go head on to hack and clash with the monsters, but this just don't work. Must always repeat a formula or combo many times to take down the Monsters. And against each different monsters, there is a Knack (a smart way) to kill them fast without being hurt our selves. Even the very last Lady Boss: Persephone, Goddess of the undead. I managed to beat this boss without being hurt my self... well after many trial and errors of course.
Below is how I did it:
In God Mode, against Persephone,
1st Half, using Gauntlet of Zeus,
Persephone will fly up and charge towards Kratos, double jump high at right timing and she cannot harm or catch Kratos, use L+O to hang on the air while hitting Persephone. If you manage to do at least 4-hit combo, Persephone will step back and use the Earth Projectile Attack. Double Jump head on towards Persephone and use L+□ (charged) attack against her while evading the projectile. Once you hit the ground, quickly roll back 2 times to evade her counter attack. Then she will then fly up and charge towards Kratos again, thus repeat the same formula all over again until her health depletes to half full.

2nd half、Gauntlet of Zeus
With trial and error, I found out that Kratos can neutralize the death ray of Persephone by evading/diving/rolling very straight towards the ray. For her Green Projectile attack, you can just defend it with the shield, or use Shield to reflect the Green Ball towards Persephone. She can reflect back to Kratos and Kratos can reflect back again towards Persephone, like playing Ping Pong, until Persephone is tired and will eventually hit her. This reflect projectile delivers the highest amount of Damage to Persephone. While she is hanging on the pillar resting after suffering the attack, just do double jump and hit with △ □ △ combo to max out the damage, Repeat it until she flies up again.
And while she is doing the earth quake thingy, just be near to the pillar she was standing, evade 2 earth quake attacks by moving left and right and then double jump and press L+O (Gauntlet of Zeus) to hang in the air while attacking her. The earth Quake will wears off without hitting Kratos.
The best time to take her down is when she project the Green Ball and play Ping Pong with her.
Well, the thrill of finishing the Enemies stages by stages is really good. The feeling is just awesome when I finally finished the whole game, as if I have achieved the unachievable and everything seems to be a piece of cake liao.
This game is by far the hardest action hack and slash game I have ever played and the most thrilling and rewarding one.
Every one who owns a PSP should give this a try!!

2008年3月25日火曜日

Be Kind... Rewind! (Jack Black)



This movie is really funny man!! At the same time very smart and touching. The movie was filmed in a very friendly and real environment, where people still cares for one another.

I quote the synopsis from Yahoo Movie:

Jerry, a junkyard worker, attempts to sabotage a power plant that he believes is melting his brain. But when his plan goes awry, the magnetic field that he creates accidentally erases all of the videotapes in a local video store where his best friend Mike works. Fearing that the mishap will cost Mike his job, the two friends team up to keep the store's only loyal customer - a little old lady with a tenuous grasp on reality - from realizing what has happened by recreating and re-filming every movie that she decides to rent. From "Back to the Future," to "Robocop," to "Rush Hour," to "The Lion King," Jerry and Mike become the biggest stars in their neighborhood by starring in the biggest movies ever made.

2008年3月20日木曜日

Very Fun Movie! Must Watch!


Wow... this movie really makes me Happy!
Highly recommended for all kids and kidults (Kid+Adult). This movie is all FUN without any boring scenes. Very smart & funny.
Watch this movie and you will feel happy for the rest of the day.

2008年3月17日月曜日

A Loner's Saturday

Well, last Saturday, after a very long while (from the week I went to India) I finally can go lepak around my usual favorite spots.

1.00pm
I went to a Comic Shop that offers crazy discount due to the owner's birthday. Got hold of this chance to purchase 2 volumes of Sandman Absolute Collection. The price was very forbidding at SD150 per volume before discount, after discount both for SD207. 4 volumes in total, next volume will be out this Christmas and the last in 2009.
2.30pm
Walked to Bugis Junction, and bump into Liaw Kok Keong and his wife! Wow... Singapore is small. They came down to attend his cousin's wedding. Had a short chat and I proceed to Kinokuniya Bookstore.


3.00pm
After a short browse, proceed to Sunshine Plaza to look for some Gundam models kits. Few of the kits are on bargain, but I could not bring my self to buy any more of the Kits. Must control.

4.00pm
Dhoby Ghaut. My main purpose to come out that day was to visit the museum for the exhibition of Greek Sculptures from Louvre of Paris. Seems that they only give free admission after 6.00pm, hence I decided to go Cathay Cine leisure to kill time. Better spend SD8 on a movie than the admission to the museum.


4.30pm
After buying the ticket for Spiderwick, I proceed to have a snack of Mee Sua and Cheese crepe from the Shih Lin Night Market stall, which SK introduced in his blog. A bit pricey, but quite satisfying.


The movie was okay for kids. The effects are so so, but the young actor who plays a twin is very good. I personally think the book is better with those colorful illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi.

6.30pm Greek Sculptures from Louvre
Finally get to see the marvelous sculptures which are all more than 2,000 years old. But when I went inside the hall, and saw those big sculptures that was displayed with minimum security with no fencing whatsoever, just a "Do not Touch" sign, instinctively I thought that those are just replicas made of plaster. And with close up looked, I saw fine silica grains which was shinny under the spotlights. Well, at least those smaller items displayed inside the glass cabinets should be real ones...


7.30pm
After the museum, I went to Carefour to get some humidifier. I was walking pass all those yummy & seductive snacks and cookies, but I managed to refrain from spending for "junk" food. Well, in the end, i spent more than 1/2 hour Q-ing up to pay for 1 item. Really Crazy!! Those cashiers are really slow and inefficient.


9.30pm
After 1 hour of bus ride, I finally reached home.

2008年3月15日土曜日

Unexpected Purchase




Just walked pass an Ecko Unlimited shop yesterday, pick up this 2 T-Shirt at a discounted price. The T-Shirt design is bit long at the sleeve for T-Shirt, maybe it is their unique design.
The colours are my favorite though.

2008年3月13日木曜日

Vivisect Playset by StrangeCo




Finally fixed up these little models, after over a month I bought them. Displaying them in my new Billy Book shelves I bought from IKEA. I bought a 80cm wide and a 40cm wide shelves with height of 202cm.

Well, trying to stuff my toys inside the shelves. I now feel that really no point buying new toys if I could not display all of them. It is same as buying boxes, unless I am thinking of reselling them hence will keep them in their boxes.

I am feeling a little bored now collecting toys... seeing that I have no house of my own to shelter them... Maybe I have to get a place of my own 1st before restart my collection.

I want a house of my own!!!

Warning: Dangerous Deep Fried Food

This is really true, they try to mimic those special oil that can stay crispy and fresh for hours after frying, our client spent millions in developing this type of oil. But they used the easiest and cheapest way. :

这个世界变了样!我在 佳礼 看到这篇独家新闻。 看完了真的要吐了!天啊!不只是中国才有黑心食品啊,这回可是远在天边,近在眼前了!!!"曾和家人到金馬崙高原遊玩,当時的時间是中午3点多 ..我们在巴刹一帶逛逛看看,当时有很多一档一档的小贩在做生意, 顿時我的視線被某一档小贩的"奇景"吸引住了 ,這一个档口是贩卖炸食物的档口...一大锅"熱勝腾" 的油...竟然有一个装5公升的空油桶 "切成一半"在熱油锅中慢慢的在溶化!当时我看到整个人都傻了!还以為那17..8.岁的女孩子不小心把油桶掉進锅里去?可是看她用一双筷子把油桶翻耒翻去的!看情形不是不小心掉了油桶,很自然的赶紧叫家人一起看!這時那个女孩子和坐在旁边的双親就把眼光转过來?以那种 "惡意"的眼神盯着我们??天啊!果真是以空油桶溶化了炸出来的食物? plasticbag用来炸香蕉。他们在油里参了PLASTIC,原因是要那些食物放久了不会软绵绵。不会软绵绵的原因是因为 PLASTIC被溶化再硬固的关系。试验结果如下试验了!!!两公升油500ml矿泉水瓶一只没加料(矿泉水瓶)时炸一次 -炸出来的有点硬,但很快软绵绵!! 加料(矿泉水瓶)时再炸一次- 出来是比KFC 的还脆!!请你们不好再买香蕉炸,咖哩puff, Keropok Lekor,或是炸鸡饭了。大姐一吃了喉咙就不舒服,应该是这原因吧!以后要吃什么,还是叫mummy 炸给你们吃比较安全。我明天就来去买香蕉!!!我恳请你们花点时间,去爬完这张贴吧,爬完后,我打包单,你们一定不会再吃街边的炸食物了。不只是金马伦的有问题,原来这是他们的secret recipe 家传秘方。我看十摊,十一摊有加料啦!那摊主不是很笨就是胆大包天!不会在家里先把桶丢进油里,竟然笨到在众目睽睽之下,做这些丧尽天良的事。真的他妈的 !

2008年3月9日日曜日

Friend's Wedding (2008/3/8)

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562723903sYdXQG

Check out the link above for the pictures at Lam Fatt's wedding night. We friends from Chong Hwa were really sporting. Never see Lam Fatt so happy in his life.

India Biz Trip (2008/2/24-3/7)






Very long Biz trip this time. Went to India to research on Exotic Fats biz, to be used in chocolate making.
Went to Mumbai-Aurangmabad-Indore-Raipur-Ghodia-Hydrebad.
Not much of pictures taken. Mostly villages and small towns similar to Malaysia 15 years ago. An Incredible experience which I don't feel like writing about now.