Nice quote

"present perceptions of past people are not at all the same as past people's perceptions of their present"

Broke

I can forsee myself being dead broke in the months to come as I plan for 2 getaways.

One to Europe and another one to New Zealand.

Thankfully the Europe one is where I get sent there on course by my company and hence the tickets will be covered. Taking an additional one week to hopefully tour Amsterdam, Brussels and *fingers crossed* get to catch a match at Anfield. But the traveling within Europe is still going to cost moolah.

New Zealand will be to attend Unicon 15 in Wellington. This one, the tickets will be coming out of my own pockets leading me to come to the conclusion that I will be pretty much broke come Feb 2010.

Ah well at least it should be a blast.

South Park - Pun Hell

South Park came up with another pun that will send their writers to pun hell.

Firstly, they defined Fag, not as a gay person, but rather an obnoxious person who drives loud motorcycles around, much to the annoyance of everyone else.

Next they said that someone who was just intrigued by loud motorcycles, but had not bought one yet, and instead just checks them out in stores as... wait for it... bike-curious.

In case you haven't got the memo

My Primary School Teacher

I have no idea why I'm writing this post, but was just reminiscing about some stuff and my thoughts happened to turn towards my English teacher in Primary school. Her name is Miss Lean. She was pretty much an old spinster that was left on the shelf and probably decided to take it out on children like us.

I still remember her pinching this girl so hard on the cheek that the poor girl started to bleed from the nose. Imagine that, twisting the cheek skin so hard that something tore in the nose and blood started spurting out. But that was old school and teachers were welcomed to hit and beat submission into the students. I can't imagine what would have happened today.

I still remember her expounding her Christian beliefs. About how evolution is a load of tosh. The most distinct one being "Are you telling me that the monkeys in the zoo are going to turn into humans one of these days?!". A sad lack of understanding in evolution.

But still she was my English teacher and without her, I wouldn't have been able to write this about her. She gave me a percious gift, the gift of literacy. But she shall still haunt my nightmares forever.

Irritating Habit

Find myself replying to emails via phone when my laptop is just in front of me. Gah.

Star Jumps aren't easy

Mounting

Sneak Peek At Kota Kinabalu Pics.

More to come soon.

The universality of performances

I'm watching this TV show right now. It's a Taiwanese magic show.

Which brings back memories when I went to watch this magic show when I was in Melbourne. The show was pretty good, the performer putting on quite a show. However, there was something about that performance that was pretty interesting.

He did one whole section in Mandarin. He's Australian, so he has to put in quite a bit of effort. Me, being able to understand Mandarin, could tell what he was asking for. However, the majority of the audience weren't able to. And yet every time he did something, he was able to get an appropriate response from the audience.

Which I thought was really interesting as, a lot of it wasn't about what he was saying, it was about his body language. He could be speaking Gibberish and he would still be able to get a response out his audience.

Moon

Managed to catch Moon yesterday. I think it's going to be taken off soon and I'm really glad I managed to catch this movie. It wasn't really mind blowing, but in a sense, it gets you thinking about morality and ethics.

The basic premise is that Sam is on the Moon. He is working for this corporation that is harvesting stuff from the Moon to provide for clean energy on Earth. He has been here for close to 3 years, with 3 years being the length of his contract on the Moon. After that, he'll get to go home. He struggles through each day, and due to a communications failure, he can only receive recorded messages from his wife, messages that seem to be the only thing that keeps him going on.

On a routine maintainence mission, he hallucinates and sees someone standing beside a harvester. Being distracted by that, he crashes into the harvester.

The next scene shows him in the infirmary, in pretty good condition. How did he get there? Why does he not have any injuries? These questions are answered when Sam gets out of the space station to investigate the harvester. Beside the harvester, he finds a crashed space vehicle.

If you want to enjoy the movie, don't continue reading, just go watch it. If not spoilers ahead.

*SPOILERS*

In the vehicle, he finds a person. That person is Sam. He carries the body back to the space station and struggles with an identity crisis. He's a clone. What he knows are all memories implanted in him. How does he react? What should he do? Why is the company that hired him doing all these? Can he still go back home? What will happen when the other Sam wakes up? Is the other Sam a clone as well?

*SPOILERS*

Suffice to say, I won't be talking too much about the plot but it's really good.

But this movie does raise some interesting thoughts, especially regarding the ethics of cloning. Will there be one day in the future where corporations do this? Built clones and send them out to do work. Are the rights and feelings of clones of no consideration? Sam considers himself a human, but the robot that is working with him says that they're all just programmed. It's a strange moral tale.

Another interesting thing brought up is how much the clones differed from one another. They were all bases on the same person and at the point of creation had the same memories, but at the end of 3 years, they had wildly different hairstyles and mannerisms. It begs the question, if there was a clone of Hitler, but he was brought up in different circumstances, would that clone do what Hitler did?

The acting of Sam was top-notch, bringing out the desolation, isolation and eeriness of being stuck in a space station all by himself. The despair and anguish that he finds himself in when he realizes he is a clone. The overwhelming sadness he feels when he realizes that all the videos he saw were just recordings and that his wife is dead and his daughter is all grown up.

All in all, Moon is a gripping sci-fi tale, well paced and thoroughly terrifying.

Excited

I'm going Kota Kinabalu!

After another hair brained idea by JH, we entered this contest by Jetstar. In this challenge, we would be tasked to go to Kota Kinabalu and complete 5 things. We will be traveling there via Jetstar light where there will be no check-in luggage and only hand carry luggage is allowed. Using the money saved on what would otherwise be spent on paying for the check-in luggage, we will instead use this money to do 5 things in Kota Kinabalu. We will then have to blog about our experience and the winning entry will get a 500 dollar voucher.

We've checked out some of the previous entries and it seems that everyone just goes to eat. We've decided to be something different. Oh yes, we're going to do the opposite of eating! We're going to exercise! And on one wheel! So many exclamation marks!!!11one11eleven!!

So our plan is to actually try to squeeze a unicycle (20") into a bag that can be carried on. As mention by JH this is probably going to be as fun as the whole trip itself. The next challenge will then be to bring said carry on luggage on board, while simultaneously trying to convince all security we are not trying to clobber anybody with it. Happy days.

This should be lark and hopefully everything will turn out well. In the mean time, I've got a unicycle to disassemble.

HTC Hero - The sequel

As I alluded to in my previous post, I was eyeing the HTC hero. On discovering the exclusive price that www.singtelshop.com was giving (298SGD), I was ecstatic. However, I wanted to wait 1 day for me to think about it, so it wouldn't be an impulse buy.

When I checked again in the evening, it was sold out. Infuriating. What one cannot have, one wants more. And I was pretty determined to get one as soon as it was available.

A cursory check into various forums, indicated that there would be a restock within the next few days though no one had any idea if the price would remain as such.

Surprise, surprise. On an obsessive, compulsive check today, it was back in stock! I have since placed an order for a white version of the HTC hero that will be delivered on 1st Oct night.

I am beside myself with excitement.

Taken from here

HTC Hero

Surprise surprise. The HTC Hero with a 2 year plan with Singtel cost just 298SGD. Think I might get mine tomorrow...

Anvil

The tribute to 50 years olds in a 30 year old band.


Metal On Metal - Anvil

This is a documentary about Anvil. Who are Anvil? Anvil is the band that toured Japan with some the biggest bands, Bon Jovi, Scorpions etc. Anvil, with the front man Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner, were one of THE bands at that point of time. While the rest went on to sell millions of records, Anvil fell to the side of the road.

This film chronicles what happens after that.

It starts by showing Lips and Robb back in their home town, now working 9-5 jobs. But they still dream, cause they made a promise to be rock stars. They still play and a manager offers to organize a tour of Europe for them, they jump at the chance. But it's tough and the manager is amateurish. Despite having the heart, she doesn't really make things work and the tour culminates in a hall in Romania that holds 10 thousand and yet only 174 people turn up.

Their disappoint is palpable and it tugs at the heartstrings. You look at them and you see 50 year olds and yet you cannot help but admire their passion. It's been 30 years and they're still fighting on and they continue to dream and to reach for that dream.

They get a break when the managed to get a producer to record their latest album. It cost a lot but with supportive people around them, they manage to raise the money and get the album out. But in a world filled with commercial pop, it was always going to be difficult to find someone to distribute their CDs. And their world comes crashing down when that is exactly what happens.

But their passion shine through, they did it for their fans and decided to sell it direct to them. And a miraculous thing happens. Some one from Japan asks them to go to Japan to play. They are happy yet scared. What if there is no one there again?

And in a really poignant scene they come out to thousands of screaming fans, reminiscent of their heyday when they toured Japan with some of the worlds biggest bands. They have lived their dream.

Wishlist update

As previously mentioned I've got a couple of things that I've been eyeing.

A trip to Hong Kong allowed me to purchase one of them, the Tokina 11-16 ATX. And it was really much cheaper then what I would have to pay for in Singapore. Had to search almost the whole of Hong Kong island for it as Mong Kok shops just did not carry it at all. But very happy with my purchase if a but burnt in the wallet.

Also, Sony has finally played nice and come up with a new iteration of their gaming console, the PS3 Slim. This means that prices for the PS3 will drop and more surprisingly and interestingly, the PS3 Slim isn't as expensive as the PS3 when it first came out. Need to think about this one, but I might want to get this when I have to go overseas again.

Additionally, the HTC hero was finally released in Singapore on September 4th. Suggested retail price is about 800+++ with suggestions that signing a 2 year plan will drop this price to around 600++. Again another toy to lust after as my phone contract is about up.

My wallet weeps gently.

Up up and away

Up started positively enough. A short film titled Partly Cloudy brought about giggles as memories of how we used to think babies come from was brilliantly put into animation. Funny yet poignant about how friends stick with each other. It was also interesting to look at how someone has to do the stuff that no one wants.

And then it was onto the movie proper. This was a story that talked of how a child, because of his idol, has big dreams. It talks about how he finds the love of his life that shares the same dreams that he has. But life is rarely smooth sailing. You live life and sometimes you get comfortable with it, so much so that you forget the dreams when you were young. And the next thing you know, it's almost too late. And Carl (the old man) only sees that when his wife (Ellie) is on her last breath.

But if there's a will then there's a way. Adventure has a way of finding people who need to escape. Stuck alone and with the prospect of being sent to a nursing home staring him in the face, he remembers his dreams and follow it. And tying balloons to his house, he goes up in search of adventure.

Along the way he picks up a virtual menagerie of characters ranging from a young and overly enthusiastic Wilderness Explorer (think scout cub), a talking (!) dog and a weird bird. He learns about friendship and ultimately needing to let go and move of to better things. No sense grieving for what has left when there are new opportunities ahead.

Up is a feel good movie that has enough of a story to keep adults entertained and some parables inside to get some people thinking, while at the same time having enough jokes and visual gags to keep the young uns giggling away.

Tram rides

Was taking a tram home last night and despite it being close to 9pm, tram conductors decided to pop up.

To give a bit of background, in Melbourne city itself, trams are the preferred mode of transport. You have to buy a ticket to ride on the tram. These tickets can be purchased either on the tram, where they are instantly validated or you can purchase them before hand and validate them when you're on the tram.

It's not perfect, and there are numerous cases of people cheating the system. There have been numerous ad campaigns urging people to validate their tickets. But still, the common method is to ride the tram with a ticket but not validate it. If they see a tram conductor, they will then have to try to validate the ticket before they get caught.

So anyway, there was this girl sitting across me in the tram. No kidding that she looked something like this:

which may or may not have been the reason I sat opposite her.

So when the tram conductor popped up, much to her horror, she desperately tried to validate her ticket before he could get to her, Unfortunately, she was sitting next to the door and was stopped by the tram conductor before she could do just that.

The poor girl was then quizzed and asked for her address so that the fine could be sent to her. But since she was from Hong Kong, hence not having a local identity card and address, the conductor was adamant about confirming her address, least she was giving a fake address. She was asked to call a friend so that that person could confirm her address. However, the friend on the phone gave the conductor his own address as he doesn't know where the girl stays.

The conductor was fuming now and inistent that the girl was trying to cheat her way out of a ticket and that it was now TWO offences. 1 for travelling without a valid ticket and the other one for lying about her address. At this point of time the girl was close to tears and trying to desperately explain her situation. Added to that, she was missing her stop. Another conductor had to come along to try to calm the situation down and ask that they get off and settle it off the train.

And that was the last of what I know of that.

Moral of the story? Nothing, though the girl was awfully cute.

Update wishlist

New toys that I want to get my hands on if I had money.

HTC Hero



Newest Android phone to be coming out soon.




Playstation 3

Being marooned in another country with nothing to do makes me want this so much.





Tokina 11-16mm

I want to take pretty pics.