Chatter of the Squirrel

Bookmarks

2020-05-03T17:00:00.000+08:00

Hmm... having my own blog lets me use it as a handy bookmark for articles that I've researched, and might want to refer back later...

Such as:
Pound Pilfering Pirates
Ultracrepidarian Musings
Where is the ETF's gold?
Behold Gold's ETF
Bull in Bear's Skin by Antal E Fekete
The Greatest Scam On Earth by Douglas Gnazzo
Not Worth The Paper It Was Written On
Foreign Trade and International Debt Report
Gold and Stock Cream Out by Christopher Laird
.

Migration

2007-07-30T19:59:00.000+08:00

Many had noticed that I've not updated in a while... and my limited fan-base had called me on it.

Anyways, been a little bit more preoccupied at work the past two weeks. And found better things to do at home too.

Also, I had been migrating my blogspot stuff over to another server.

Came across Blogsentral, a server being maintained by the guys who do the Low Yat forums, Malaysia's finest forum for tech geeks. I managed to get an account there...

So I've moved my blog here, and been trying it out.

It's much more responsive than Blogspot, on account of it being local, and not as congested. And I have the option to organise the posts into categories, which I find very useful. It kinda makes sense to organise my reviews.

Although, there are disadvantages that might not be apparent yet... Who knows how long it'll last... Or what to do about censure... Especially with the Malaysian government shouting "Bloggers Beware!" in large headlines in our major paper last Wednesday.

But I think I should be able to obscure my anarchisitic leanings, and everyone hates the SOBs in the government anyway, so I don't think I will draw a lot of notice. Besides, I'm not interested in filling a niche that is already crowded with more eloquent bloggers with more suitable vocabulary.

So, for future rantings from the Insane Squirrel, catch me henceforth at http://insanesquirrel.blogsentral.com

(Edited July 2007)
But after a while, the blogsite became somewhat unreliable. So I migrated yet again. Before migrating, I also purchased my own domain name. So, this name should be wherever I go from now on. So, let's go to:

http://insanesquirrel.com

Endings

2007-06-07T01:40:00.000+08:00

Most of the good TV series have ended. There'll be a drought on Bit Torrent till September.

Lost

They've finally been FOUND! Jack and Kate made it off the island, but regrets doing so, cos they were "not meant to leave." Walt, the boy whose puberty resulted in him and Michael to be written out of the story, suddenly re-appeared. A ghost asks John to help him. Pippin, sorry -- Charlie, finally died. Danielle meets her daughter at last.

Please just finish the story already. It's hard to remain emotionally invested in any of the characters. We just want to see how everything ends, so that there's some closure.

House

A rather lame End-Of-Season cliffhanger, when you compare it to the previous two seasons.

Season 1 ended with House's almost-wife coming back. Season 2 ends with House dying from lead poisoning (delivered with a hand-gun).

Season 3 ended with his entire team fired or resigning. Ya. Like THAT will stick. They'll be back. Those three actors are small time and have nowhere better to be, they wouldn't leave the show willingly.

Jericho

Jake loses his dad, and he now leads the town of Jericho in a desperate defence against an invasion force. But the US army is on its way to break up the war. An army flying a new American flag, and led by the mysterious figure who may have engineered the nuclear attacks in the first place.

We're finally getting somewhere in understanding who launched the nukes that destroyed the US Federal Government. There's a fascinating conspiracy.

But this won't matter cos CBS is axing the show.

TV Executives hate sci-fi. Star Trek. Firefly. Futurama. But shows like American Idiot and Squirm Factor will keep going.

Scrubs

J.D. is about to become a father. Blonde doctor is about to marry Keith.

And they screw everything up by screwing each other. Saw that coming from a mile away.

But the whole season is redeemed merely for the Broadway musical episode.

Gilmore Girls

Series finale. Finally. Followed this chick show for years cos the witty dialogue and kooky characters were brilliant. But the last few seasons were pretty dumb and uninspiring. Kept following it for the sake of closure.

Lorelai almost marries Luke. Lorelai marries Christopher. Lorelai divorces Christopher. Rory gets a marriage proposal. Rory rejects marriage proposal. The whole town loves Rory. Rory leaves.

Bah.

I could have written a better ending. Like in that episode when the mayor turned the whole town into a hay-wall maze... Somebody smoked carelessly around the hay. Fire spreads uncontrollably across the entire town. Fire rescue got lost in the maze and can't reach their fire engines. Everybody in Star's Hollow succumbs to the smoke, the town burns to the ground, leaving nothing behind but charred corpses.

Fin.

Heroes

Started off as an uninspiring X-Men knock-off, and was unimpressed. Kept watching only cos Hiro Nakamura is adorable to watch.

But the character development was alright, and it started to grow on me. A couple of plot points felt rather clumsy, but it eventually got the job done. The twists were suspenseful and ultimately, a pretty cool story.

Sylar is defeated, but did not completely perish. Everyone risked their lives to defeat him, fully aware of the threat and danger he poses. And when they 'killed' him, nobody took the trouble to verify his vitals, or decapitate him. He had 'returned' from the dead before, and at least one guy there should have known better! Instead, the season ends with a blood trail leading into the sewers, and Hiro teleported back to feudal Japan.

How I Met Your Mother

Marshall and Lily marries. Robin and Ted breaks up, and Barney gets Ted back.

This sitcom remains fun just because of Barney, played by Doogie Howser.

The Simpsons

They did a spoof of World of Warcraft, and one on 24. Nothing particularly inspiring anymore. But have been watching this for more than half my life. May as well keep going.

Family Guy

A gutsier knock-off of the Simpsons family. Funnier jokes. It's constantly in danger of getting cut from the air, so the show is forever pushing the envelope of decency, determined to go out in a blaze of glory. But somehow the show manages to cling on. "Son of a bitch", "God damnit" and "asshole" etc are common fare. And in this season, for the first time, "F*ck" escaped the notice of the censors, where it had always been bleeped the last 5 seasons.

24

Didn't bother to watch this season. There's a mole inside CTU. A hostile takeover in CTU leadership happens. Bad guys have Jack's loved-one hostage. Jack acts on his own against the instructions of his superiors and ends up fighting everybody. Jack makes a bunch of phonecalls, some of which gets cut-off at critical moments. Jack tortures some bad guys.

It's the same thing every season! ENOUGH ALREADY!

Prison Break

END THE STORY ALREADY!! The conspiracy is finally exposed. Michael's brother is free. But Michael gets arrested and dumped into a Panama prison. No one likes the show after they escaped the prison! Enough already. END IT!

Flash Hulk

2007-06-02T01:15:00.000+08:00

I still remember Trix, the Illusions of Grandeur - Donate deck that dominated the Magic scene almost 10yrs ago.

It was able to 'go off' consistently at around the 4th turn and win, and there's very little that the opponent can do about it. And it doesn't help that the deck uses a lot of old, hard to get rares that only veterans had access to.

A few years ago, a standard deck was able to do a 3rd turn kill. With Goblins, no less.

Mountain; play Goblin Prospector

Mountain; sac Prospector for Red mana; Goblin Chief (All goblins get Haste and cost 1 mana less to cast.)

Mountain; play 3 Goblin Piledriver (1R: Whenever Goblin Piledriver attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn for each other attacking Goblin. 1/2); attacks with 4 goblins for 23 points of damage. Game Over.

And if anyone needed further evidence of how horrible M:tG is right now, you can just look at this deck. Which boasts an average win at turn 1.5. One and a half turns, and it's game over. On average.

It needs TWO cards, and TWO mana, goes off, and game over.

Hell, with the right cards in hand, you can even go off at turn 0.5, and win before your opponent even gets to draw a single card. EVEN IF YOUR OPPONENT WAS GOING FIRST! You can win on HIS FIRST TURN!!

Turn 0: Put Gemstone Caverns in play.

Turn 0.5: Just before your opponent reaches out to draw his first card...

Discard Elvish Spirit Guide for 1 Green mana.

Tap Gemstone Caverns for 1 Blue mana.

Cast Flash, drop a Protean Hulk.

The Hulk dies, and you dig through your library for 4 Disciple of the Vault, 4 Phyrexian Marauder, 4 Shifting Wall, and drop them all into play.

The Marauders and Walls are 0/0 artifact creatures, thus they die immediately.

For each artifact going to the graveyard, Disciple of the Vault's ability triggers, and your opponent loses one life.

4 Disciple of the Vault x 8 artifacts dying = Opponent loses 32 life.

Pick up trophy, you're the new champion.

You know what? I believe I still have a copy of Flash in my collection somewhere. Wonder if that card can fetch me a couple of bucks now.

DM Of The Rings

2007-05-22T16:41:00.000+08:00

Re-live the magic of Lord of the Rings here.

Basically, this guy has taken screen-caps (captures) of scenes from the amazing trilogy, and made a comic out of it.

In this comic, the Dungeon Master (the voice in the narrative), has created a game campaign for a bunch of players, who are role-playing the characters of the Fellowship. And he's frequently frustrated by his players in ways only a DM can relate. All the time and effort to create a rich campaign setting, and writing dialogues, but the only thing the players want is killing Orcs and getting XP.

It might take some RPG-ing experience before you can appreciate some of the humor. But the strips are still funny even if you've never gone geek. And the author has a real knack for finding just the right screen-cap for the punchlines.

Stardust

2007-05-09T11:42:00.000+08:00

Oooo....

Trailer here!

It's looking very good. But maybe a bit too Pirates, and not enough Fantasy.

And only 3 more months to go to 10th August.

Sweet.

Zanussi

2006-12-04T08:51:00.000+08:00

Been agonizing for more than a year how to fix up my cooking area.

Didn't want the stove in my house, cos I didn't want a cooking hood. So it has to be in the washing area.

As a temporary solution, I used a crappy table a tenant left behind, lay out the top with ceramic tiles left over from bathroom repair jobs the building engineers did, and tossed a hob on top of it.

Been that way for more than two years. Always had the intention of building up a proper platform and popping a hob in. There's just the question of whether I *CAN* figure out how to work with cement to do up a mini counter top in an alcove in the washing balcony.

Then recently, in a casual perusal of the forums, I came across a garage sale notice.

A Zanussi 4-hob cooker with electric oven.

Very nice condition. And the oven has hardly even been used!

RM550.

Just a pity that the seller realised at the last moment that he had left a gas tank inside. Else it would have been a steal.

Had to get Moses to use his Atoz to help me transport this back. The stove just barely slipped in his boot with half a cm to spare.
This should finally complete my kitchen... After I'm able to toss out the old hob. If I'm able to find the time to clean it up and polish the careless grime on it, I should still be able to fetch a decent price on it.

I'm harbouring no delusions of baking. But I can offer the use of the oven to friends. And exact a tax from whatever they're baking... Ha ha!

And there's a turn-spit for the oven too. So I could ohways woast a wabbit or swomething.

Lich Lord Terminus

2006-12-04T08:24:00.000+08:00

Starting the most visually stunning of Privateer Press' miniatures.

The idea is to turn it into :

But in a cheerier colour maybe... The effect on the sword is very nice, but I'm afraid I'm no where near the artistic level to replicate that...

Lich Lord Terminus, favoured lieutenant of the DragonFather Turok of the Nightmare Isles. Disfigured and empowered by centuries of immortal service.

Came across an interesting technique using air-brush and glazes to paint and highlight the wings quickly. Will see if it works...

Barnyard

2006-12-04T05:02:00.000+08:00

Nickleodeon movie. 3-D animation.

A farm where animals walk on two legs and talks when no one is watching.

The protagonist is a cow who protects the farm from coyotes. It could be just me, but there's something obscene about 3-D rendered udders.

The creators of this cartoon is most certainly a Gary Larson fan. Many familiar gags.

Quite a fun watch. Just a funny cartoon with no delusions of grandeur.

Easily accessible visual gags and a moral for the kids.

Yakuza gophers.

A fat possum-like creature wearing lots of bling, singing Shaggy's Boombastic.

That's just too cute.

Invisible Tenors

2006-12-04T04:52:00.000+08:00

Happened to be in the area around PJ South last week. Lots of workshops there, so I took my car to a random one that does aircon servicing. And also to have the passenger window replaced at the same time.
Aircon died a few months ago. The Daihatsu service centre quoted me 1.2k to repair. Hmm... 1.2k to repair a 7k car. Didn't sound right. So I bore with till I could get a second opinion. These guys, I think a pair of twins with prematurely greying hair, actually took things apart to look for leaks etc.

The compressor was leaking. I needed a new one. And that's that.

Got a reconditioned compressor. Looked shiny.

But after the compressor went on, the car handles like I'm driving the 3 tenors up Genting.

This is crap.

Thought maybe I could re-tune the engine a bit... Took out the kit I bought in Melbourne and spent a few hours on my car.

Think there may be something wrong with my vacuum advancer. Doesn't seem to do anything to the engine timing... According to the manual, the timing should advance a few degrees when I suck on it.

Sheesh...

For all the tuning... The car still feels like there are 3 fat men sitting in the back.

But at least they're quiet.

More Malware…

2006-12-01T06:06:00.000+08:00

Office network down...

After some investigation, I've determined that my PC was the source of the problem.

Although being protected by Avast! AV, something snuck in. When I'm connected directly to the iPStar network for tests, it always leaves my PC very vulnerable.

Checking Network traffic:

Note the regular spikes in the middle of the graph.

Something was spamming the upload bandwidth, such that nothing could come in too. Thus, I threw open the Task Manager and removed suspicious processes. When I hit the right one, the bandwidth graph went back to normal, and the purple line finally moved upwards and stuff started coming in.

lsass.exe is the Local Security Authority Service. But lssas.exe is NOT. And it should not be a hidden file either.
In either case, it should never appear in that particular place in the system registry.

Thus killed the lssas.exe in the Task Manager. Removed it from the registry. Deleted it from C:\Windows\System32.

But this may not be the last of it... It's made it's way in once, it can do so again until my AV software gets a new update. Hopefully.

performance.JPG

2006-12-01T05:57:00.000+08:00

Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures!

2006-12-01T05:44:00.000+08:00

Just re-read Out From Boneville, again, this morning.

This is book 1 of 9 of the Bone series by Jeff Smith.

Got into this comic a few years ago, when I won my first and only slogan contest for World Book Day, and got rm500 worth of Kinokuniya Vouchers. Also bought Death: The High Cost Of Living and The Time Of Your Life by Neil Gaiman.

The comic is like, Tolkien doing Calvin and Hobbes.

It's an incredibly brilliant and funny fantasy story. And the art is beautiful.

Some time back, there was some discussion about Bone being made into a movie. The whole thing fell through cos a block-head producer insisted that the Bones have kid voices, and that's bound to be the first of many other changes to make the story "fit for children".

Pity pity pity.

Still missing a few of Jeff Smith's books... Need to do some Christmas shopping for myself.

The Banquet, 夜宴

2006-11-30T07:08:00.000+08:00

Enjoyed this a LOT more than The Promise.

Zhang Ziyi. Zhou Xun. Shakespearean tragedy. Everybody dies. Enough said.

No sucky Japanese nor Korean actors in this one. Definitely a good sign.

A proper period movie with proper Chinese speaking proper Mandarin.

When I'm watching a Chinese period movie, the accent and the dialogue is the most important ingredient that takes me INTO the movie.

And that's why The Promised sucked to high heaven. With a Korean co-lead and a Japanese co-lead with their ridiculous grating accent. That and the Superman theme too.

Back to the Banquet...

If you've never read Hamlet, the story goes something like:

Prince loves Zhang Ziyi, but daddy beats him to the punch and makes her his empress.

Depressed prince goes Emo takes up dancing.

Emperor dies. His brother takes the throne.

The brother wants to kill the prince and marry Zhang Ziyi.

Zhang Ziyi wants to kill her brother-in-law to have her prince.

Prince wants his uncle dead to avenge his father.

Zhou Xun is in there somewhere as an adviser's daughter who's in love with the prince.

Action ensues.

There's a number of sword fighting scenes. But choreographed for style. Very dance-like. Nothing as good as Hero.

The selling point is the dialogue, and the lack of foreign actors. Enjoyed the movie.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight

2006-11-30T03:27:00.000+08:00

Hmm... perhaps a bit late...

But here's http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=21543, and the imdb.

A Dragonlance cartoon!

Though, incidentally, I've never read any of the Dragonlance novels. I jumped into the deep end of fantasy fiction, and never took the time to backstroke to the casual end. Might have read something from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, but was underwhelmed.

The Black Spot #4

2006-11-29T09:43:00.000+08:00

Who is a Press Ganger?
This is Norman, your local Press Ganger.

I'm the guy judging tournaments, and being roped in by gamestores to do demos for WARMACHINE and HORDES. [These games kick so much ass, they have to spelt in all CAPS].

"But what is the Black Spot, Captain?" - Jim from Treasure Island
I'm starting up this newsletter as a means to get word out to the small crew of Privateer Press fans out there. I'll use the newsletter to keep everyone updated on the local WARMACHINE and HORDES scene. Especially notices for demos or tournaments happening locally. When new stuff comes in. What kind of new stuff to expect.

Tournament Reports
The last HORDES event had a 50% better showing than the first one.

Yeah, 3 people showed up. So we opted to postpone it to the coming Sunday instead.

Upcoming Tournaments
3/12/06 (Sunday) Wolf's Game Shop
HORDES Box-set Rumble.

Come to WGS this Sunday, before 2pm.

We'll have a HORDES boxset battle. Those of you who have bought your second or third Warlock already, feel free to sub them in. But those who have bought up Dire Troll Maulers, sorry, no dice!

We're playing with the WarBeasts in the boxset only. No solos or infantries yet. I know some of you have furious beasties just raring to see battle, but let's give the community some time to grow. Don't bully those poor factions who haven't got their Titan Cannoneers, or Seraphs, or Woldwardens yet.

Back to the tourney....
Entry fee is RM10.

You'll win store credit, Best of Faction certificates. And the champ will also receive a voucher to redeem Gold bordered stat cards from Privateer Press.

x/12/06 (Saturday) Wolf's Game Shop
750pt WARMACHINE Epic Battle

This event will be moved. I may want to get this to happen at the mini-con at Cineleisure.

Wolf is thinking of inviting the Singaporean players up again. It'll be easier to tempt those guys to come with 750pt games. And we'll need more players to make 750 more interesting anyway.

It'll likely be Steamroller 2.1 format. And I'll want to time the turns to 15min per turn. I'll release the Steamroller rules on request soon.

Players I hope I can count on for this:
Saleem
Brian
Rahman
Khairul
Kuok? or will you be working?
And can somebody get hold of K.J. ?

15-17/12/06 Cineleisure
There'll be a mini-con for the launch of Eragon.

Wolf's Game Shop has already been invited and promised a lot of tables. There'll be a mix of Privateer Press, Games Workshop, Rackham games there. And Dark Age? Even some WWF it seems. And a display case full of dragons.

We'll have meeting soon to plan out event schedules.

One of the days for the 750 Epic Battle. Another day for a 350 Guts and Gears. And demos when I don't have to play.

Help~~~~ too many models to get ready before I'm ready....

The Crow's Nest
Arzmi, our unfaithful Cygnaran, will be leaving for New Zealand in less than a week. He'll be available at Settler's this Thursday, for everyone who wants to meet the dude one last time before he spends his next two years abroad... Possibly without his army transport case.

Also,

Our hobby received some media attention sometime last week. I'll like to draw everyone's attention to The Sun U! on 21st Nov 2006. Page 6. I'm reproducing the article here without permission. Well, they published our Eric's Cygnar Hunter on the papers without permission either, so fair's fair. The link will take you to a pic of the article as it appears in the papers.

Have done a bit of Googling. Lainie is a blogger, and you'll find her blog linked below. She's also a frequent contributor to kakiseni.com. So she is a fairly good writer. But unfortunately, when she was writing about our hobby, her research only scratched the most superficial aspects and completely missed out the underlying passion. So there was an unflattering slant.

Several people have suggested responding with arson. But let's make sure that our responses are mature.

It's not that big a deal that she called us geeks. Which we are. Listen to yourself talk sometimes. We have the taint. But it was still insensitive of her to write about Figmentia. That wasn't her word, nor was it her definition. Don't blame her for that. But it's like, you can't use the word "{insert racial slur}" unless you are {insert racial colour} yourself. If spoken by a person of the wrong colour, it'll cause offense no matter the situation.

If you are calm and mature about this, do write to the editor of The Sun (can someone source me the email?) and let them know how you feel. Lainie also responds to her Blog, so you might be able to voice your objections there. But please watch what you write, and don't make us out to be vicious little rabid hamsters with a burning match up its ass.

Scrutinizing Small Toys
A few months ago someone linked U! writer Lainie Yeoh to CoolMiniOrNot.com, a website where users vote on the overall quality of painted miniature models. Since then, she has been exploring this unchartered terrain of geekery.

{Full article not available on the blog.}

Phat Lootz
Some great news for hobbyists.
The P3 paints have finally launched last week.
You may have seen write-ups about these in the last few No Quarter mags, and there has been mostly good buzz going around on the forums and the PodThrall's podcasts.

Wolf is not bringing these paints in yet. But I'm sure if we place a dozen orders with him, that will get him to change his mind.

The official retail price is US$18 for 6 pots. Each pot is 18ml, ie 50% more than GW paints (12ml). At the moment, the only source of GW paints is Games' Circle, selling at RM15 per pot. GW prices have gone up, don't ja know it. I think this is the best value for miniature paints.

In a few days, I plan to order in some of these paints from an online retailer. I'll like to try them out. Particularly piqued by the Blighted Gold in the Cryx set. Maybe even let P.A.W.S. (Painters At Wolf's Shop) try them out, and see if that convinces Wolf to bring in some of these paints.

The Bilge
For those who need a quick rundown of the models in WARMACHINE, without having to slog through the noise in the forums, you'll need to read Battle College, http://www.battlecollege.com.

This goes for those who've just joined WARMACHINE, or have been out of it for a while. This may get you a little bit more up to speed. And even for those of us who never stopped playing, it's still good to read. Our player scene isn't diverse enough yet, there's bound to be a few things we've not seen.

Epilogue
Please help get the Black Spot around. Let our community grow.

Back issues of The Black Spot will now be here.

30 Year Old Virgin

2006-11-27T01:14:00.000+08:00

Yay....

Superman 2

2006-11-24T06:39:00.000+08:00

Just rewatched the movie.

I think the last time I watched it was before puberty. Such a long time ago.

Cos I never remembered that Superman had pre-maritals with Lois Lane.

Small town upbringing, and the all-American eagle-scout...

Such a scandal.

Wonder why I never realised it before? At the time, I probably never understood the context of why Superman was sleeping naked with Lois.

I guess that explains the bastard in Superman Returns.

Except why wasn't Lois pregnant in Superman III & IV...

Looney Tunes

2006-11-24T06:33:00.000+08:00

Just 'got' a whole ton of Looney Tunes cartoons.

Lots of nostalgic moments.

My favourite will always be the Rabbit of Serville, an ingenious 'musical', with Bugs and Elmer, done to the track of Rossini's Barber of Serville.

But sometimes I wonder if watching so much of these in my childhood might have warped me somewhat.

Every character has a speech impediment, and a Brooklyn / Bronx accent, that might have worked itself into my speech pattern during my formative years.

And the RoadRunner physics took a few years to get over too.

Many a times too, I wish I knew where to get hold of some Acme products, like their Dehydrated Boulders. And I think some of my repressed pyromaniacal tendencies come from growing up thinking TNT was cool.

Also the misogyny. There were no female characters, with the possible exception of PePe le Phew's unfortunate targets, or the hens in Foghorn Leghorn's farm. Anytime a female animal is introduced, she's merely a plot device to make the protagonist become hormonally charged or act stupid.

The Black Spot #3

2006-11-23T09:43:00.000+08:00

Who is a Press Ganger?
This is Norman, your local Press Ganger.

I'm the guy judging tournaments, and being roped in by gamestores to do demos for WARMACHINE and HORDES. [These games kick so much ass, they have to spelt in all CAPS].

"But what is the Black Spot, Captain?" - Jim from Treasure Island
I'm starting up this newsletter as a means to get word out to the small crew of Privateer Press fans out there. I'll use the newsletter to keep everyone updated on the local WARMACHINE and HORDES scene. Especially notices for demos or tournaments happening locally. When new stuff comes in. What kind of new stuff to expect.

Upcoming Tournaments
25/11/06 (Saturday) Wolf's Game Shop
HORDES Box-set Rumble.

Come to WGS this Saturday, before 12pm.

We'll have a HORDES boxset battle. Those of you who have bought your second or third Warlock already, feel free to sub them in. But those who have bought up Dire Troll Maulers, sorry, no dice!

We're playing with the WarBeasts in the boxset only. No solos or infantries yet. I know some of you have furious beasties just raring to see battle, but let's give the community some time to grow. Don't bully those poor factions who haven't got their Titan Cannoneers, or Seraphs, or Woldwardens yet.

As early as next month, I'll give those Maulers a chance to do battle.

Back to the tourney....
Entry fee is RM10.

You'll win store credit, Best of Faction certificates. And the champ will also receive a voucher to redeem Gold bordered stat cards from Privateer Press.

Remember, it's Saturday, 25th November. High noon!

2/12/06 (Saturday) Wolf's Game Shop
750pt WARMACHINE Epic Battle

This will be a tournament for the more veteran players.

We refuse to let 2006 pass us by without establishing a new landmark. And we want to do this by upping WARMACHINE to the next level.

I'm counting on the veterans for this event. We're hoping to get 6-8 people for this.

15-17/12/06 Cineleisure
There'll be some kind of mini-con for the launch of Eragon.

Details are still coming in. But I'll probably be running demos there.

And we may have a Guts & Gears event. A grand melee of both HORDES and WARMACHINE together. Details being ironed out.

Phat Lootz
I'm getting a big fat loot of Cygnar next year. Not counting my chickens yet, but all signs are good for the moment.

So for me, that's like, a bunch of Cryx, a sample of Khador, some Legion, then maybe Trollbloods, and hopefully a buttload of Cygnar and Mercs next year... I think I'm biting off more than I can chew...

The Bilge
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14.
Hilarious LOTR comic.

And some lame joke contribution from Saleem.

What Is Politics?

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What's politics?"

Dad says, " Well son, let me try to explain it this way:

I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me Capitalism. Your Mom, she's the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs so we'll call you the People. The nanny, we'll consider her he Working Class. Now your baby brother, we'll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense."

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him, he finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to is parent's room and finds his mother fast asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy says to to his father " I think I understand Politics now."

The father replies, "Good son, tell me in your own words what you think it is."

The boy promptly answers, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is asleep, the People are being ignored, and the Future is in deep shit."

Epilogue
Please help get the Black Spot around. Let our community grow.

--
Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Infrared Camera

2006-11-23T03:38:00.000+08:00

On the left is the lens housing from my cheapish RM50 Made-In-China webcam. I unscrewed the lens out, and took a knife to it.

In order to remove the small pinkish glass on the bottom. That's the InfraRed filter.

Then on the right, is a piece of fully exposed colour film negative. I cut a small circle of that out, and glued it to the lens, where I removed the IR filter.

Then put the lens back into the digital cam, and took the following picture.

That's my buffish fore arm. Under infrared, all the veins show up on the camera. Under normal lighting, none of those veins show through my well tanned complexion.

Theory of operation:

The electronic sensor in even a cheapish webcam is sensitive enough to pick up infrared light. Thus, an IR filter is put in to block some of the IR, or else the brightness will wash out the picture. When I pried out the IR filter, I let IR light back in. When I added a piece of exposed negative, that blocks out a lot of visible light. So now, the camera captures mostly IR light.

Why do I do this?

Cos I've got that kind of time in the office...

Unlucky Day

2006-11-21T03:38:00.000+08:00

Hoping for a quiet day today, three jobs popped up out of nowhere.

Needed to get all of them wrapped up quick, so I can come back to send my parents to the airport.

First, to Shah Alam.

Call came in just as I arrived at the first site. Stopped car by side of road to answer phone. Grasscutter guy worked his way towards me, and slammed a rock directly into my passenger side window, shattering it!

Argument with the landscaping supervisor about whether my car was illegally parked or not. But finally got his company's phone number and the person to talk to to file a claims. But will need a police report too.

Shit.

And the phonecall? That was from dad. My apartment's power just got cut. I had set up my credit card to auto pay my electric bill a year ago. But had terminated that credit card a few months back... And thus my electric bill had gone unpaid for a couple of months. Cripes. I've got an RM350 deposit with TNB, and the total bill was only half the deposit amount! Where will I find the time to make a police report. Repair my window. And pay the power bill now?

Shit.

Let's get the work finished first.

Nothing wrong with our equipment. All working fine. But someone had been messing around, and two connections were pulled loose. Fixed the connection and done. But who's the retard that generated the unnecessary work? Those things were sitting there working fine for more than a year, and suddenly two connections came loose?!

Found a bunch of traffic cops writing summons for illegally parked cars as I was exiting building. Got one to tell me the nearest station. Headed there to file a report for my damaged car. Quite a simple process. Saw a sergeant. Was instructed to go to a counter to get a camera guy to snap a pic of the damages and I'll be done.

Reached that counter a few minutes before 1pm. No one around. Lunch. They'll be back at 230pm.

Shit.

Settle other jobs first. One more in an industrial area in Shah Alam. Then zoomed off to another one in PJ.

The job at PJ was again not our problem. Their keyphone system was acting up. So I just pulled out our equipment and demonstrated that the fault is ENTIRELY the keyphone's fault. And let them call in those technicians and give them no reason to pin the rap on us.

Shit.

240pm. Zoomed back to Shah Alam. Found cameraman. Received copy of police report. Quickly done.

Zoomed back home to parents and sis.

Cleaned the glass out of the car. Loaded up the luggage, and headed to the airport.

Started raining. And one window missing.

Shit.

My parents flew from the LCCT. And after that, my sister flew from the Main Terminal, many km away.

The Main Terminal has very expensive parking. RM3 /hr. After the string of luck today, didn't dare to tempt it further. So, I sucked it in and parked inside. Paid RM9.

Shit.

Dinner with sis. Lunch for me also. Sent her off. Headed home, and washed off the day's grit and grime in the silent darkness.
Then I took all the perishables out of my fridge. Parents had gone overboard, and bought me a few kg of char siew and siew yok. Too valuable to risk them spoiling. Took them over to Settler's Cafe, to keep them in their big freezer for a day. Their big boss from Singapore was visiting the franchise, so couldn't hang around to chit-chat.

Back home. Parked my car with the side hugging a wall as tightly as possible, so the door with the broken window can't be opened. Not that there's anything inside worth stealing at all.

No internet. Slept without aircon.

Shit.

You can never please your parents…

2006-11-17T01:44:00.000+08:00

Parents have all kinds of expectations for their children. Because they contributed DNA, they have God given rights to make their offsprings jump through hoops their entire life. Offsprings are also bred and trained to seek approval from their parents, thus completing the circle.

During childhood, their expectations were simple.

"Sit down! And shut up!"

Those were simple days...

As you age, the goal posts are pulled ever further away.

"Study hard so you can get into a good school."

"Study hard so you can get into a good University."

"Find a husband/wife."

"Give us some grandchildren."

"Make your boy/girl study hard so he/she can get into a good school."

...ad nauseum...

Last year when my parents came over, I was still in the middle of DIY-ing my kitchen. So there was a small mess in the living room.

I never heard the end of that.

This time around, before they arrived, I did a lot of cleaning. Vacuumed and mopped the floors. Scrubbed the bathrooms. Especially the outside bathroom, which until last month, was used by a tenant. Thankfully, she had moved out end of last month. Less RM220 of rental income, (cheap cheap cos I was helping out an old friend's ex-girlfriend), but I no longer have to worry about the loser boyfriend she brings home every other night. That kind of grief wasn't worth the pittance.

Anyway, the toilet... There were brown stains in the basin, and it looked filthier than my toilet bowl. Enough said.

So, I managed to get my house into some semblance of order. Particularly, I had to hide away some of my toys. Namely the WARMACHINE stuff. Else I won't hear the end of it... ("This is what you've been doing in lieu of giving us a grandchild?!?!").

Anyways, house cleaned. Mom came. Nothing but praises for the first few heartbeats, but praises tainted with grumbling reminders of the previous STY-ish state last year.

By the tenth heartbeat, she ran a finger across the top of the microwave and shoved the grimey finger in my face.

"Look at this oily grime! You have to clean your microwave often. You have to close the door when you cook. Don't let the oil fumes come into the house... etc etc..."

*sigh*

Powerpuff Girls

2006-11-16T03:14:00.000+08:00

Here's the Witch Coven of Garlgast. With a more interesting colour scheme than the official ones.

It's received a few fair comments here.

They're one of the more interesting Warcasters in the game. Mostly staying back and buff things up, make things ninja, mess with opponent plans and math, and when the opportunity finally presents itself, Checkmate!

A WM fanatic has written up basic strategies for most, if not all, WARMACHINE models at the Battle College.

Money in the days to come…

2006-11-16T01:49:00.000+08:00

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/dorsch/2006/1113.html

A huge article to read... but a good way to jump into step with current global trends.

Democrats taking the house and promises change in Iraq. People say Yay!

Iran also says Yay!

Israel says Bummer!

Cos they might have to take matters into their own hands to deal with the threat of a nuclear Iran.

We live in interesting times...

group1a.jpg

2006-11-15T08:18:00.000+08:00

I Am The Terror, That Flaps In The Night

2006-11-15T08:11:00.000+08:00

Many see Gorman di Wulfe, and think of DC's Golden Age Sandman, Wesley Dodds.

But I saw past the deception...

I saw to the source, the original inspiration of this model, and thus painted him in the colours as he's meant to be.

For he is...

DARKWING DUCK!!

This paint scheme has been way popular. After sharing it on the PP forums, I got more views on the forum in two weeks than I did with my blog in months.

gorman.jpg

2006-11-15T08:01:00.000+08:00

picture-359.jpg

2006-11-15T07:58:00.000+08:00

Always funny news…

2006-11-15T05:46:00.000+08:00

http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/newsncom.php?itemid=741

Sweetened Creamer

2006-11-15T05:45:00.000+08:00

Whatever happened to condensed milk and evaporated milk?

Just went shopping a few weeks back, looking for condensed milk at Tesco. And I can't find any!

All the classic Nestle Susu Cap Junjung I saw there were Sweetened Creamers. Teapot, Carnation, and every other brand of tinned milk in the beverage section were Sweetened Creamers.

They're almost the same packaging as the condensed milk and evaporated milk tins of old.
But the ingredients listed Palm Oil and Milk Solids.

Yuck!

Do you realise, that everytime you order milo, kopi and teh at mamaks, you're drinking palm oil? As if the sugar isn't fattening enough already.

lrg-142-33043_iron_fang_uhlans_box_set.jpg

2006-11-15T02:13:00.000+08:00

picture-383.jpg

2006-11-15T02:11:00.000+08:00

The Black Spot #2

2006-11-14T12:42:00.000+08:00

Who is a Press Ganger?
This is Norman, your local Press Ganger.

I'm the guy judging tournaments, and being roped in by gamestores to do demos for WARMACHINE and HORDES. [These games kick so much ass, they have to spelt in all CAPS].

"But what is the Black Spot, Captain?" - Jim from Treasure Island
I'm starting up this newsletter as a means to get word out to the small crew of Privateer Press fans out there. I'll use the newsletter to keep everyone updated on the local WARMACHINE and HORDES scene. Especially notices for demos or tournaments happening locally. When new stuff comes in. What kind of new stuff to expect.

Tournament Report
11/11/06 (Saturday) Settler's Cafe 3.00pm

We had a very successful FOODMACHINE last Saturday.

Some of the more 'dependable' players were outstation for the weekend, but we still managed to get 4 players to turn up. That and two WM-addicted staff, makes a perfect 6 army tournament. Just the right number for the venue, not taking up too many tables and not letting the tournament drag on too long, since the cafe boiled over with customer came late evening.

The Armies
Brian - Menoth with Amon. Happily fielding the Reclaimer that just released last week. Lots of arc-nodes for Sand Blasty goodness. And not enough Zealots. :P

Geoffrey - Cygnar with Darius. Thunderhead. 2 Centurions. A painful tide of blue metal.

Hang - Cygnar with Caine. Lots of bullets. LG, Trenchers, Hunter, GMCA, Jr, Eyriss, Gorman. I don't think there was a single model with a melee weapon that could hit for nuts. But the quantity of air-borne lead was fatal.

Jason - Cryx with Deneghra. Deathjack and Seether. Two heavies with a non-melee WarCaster. Not the most optimum list, but being able to cast two Scourge a turn almost makes up for this.

Jefri - Legion with Vayl. 2 Carniveans. 2 Seraphs. 1 Shredder as pt filler. A lot of pain.

Kuok - Khador with Butcher. Spriggan, Destroyer, 2 Kovniks, WM, Eyriss etc.

Most of the players showed up late in typical Malaysian fashion, but we still had time to put in three matches for everybody. I managed to come up with a few scenarios off the top of my head, a "Prisoner Exchange" and "A Ranger Leaves No Man Behind". But it appears that the most popular scenario was the last one: Beat-The-Beejeezus-Out-Of-The

-Other-Guy-And-Screw-Scenario-Objectives.

Cryx was disadvantaged, with all the Cygnarans, and the disruption from Eyriss. A disrupted Deathjack makes the Cryx player very sad.

Jefri was the most popular, in-demand, opponent. Everyone wanted a chance to face off a HORDES army. And this was the first tourney with 500pts of beast. Carniveans chew up things very well. It lost to Menoth cos the Carnis were ganged up on. And then they failed to shred some Centurions cos of some poor dice rolls. But otherwise, even without any infantry, the Legion list is fairly formidable.

Khador suprisingly won a lot of games... :P Anyone familiar with Kuok's reputation will see why this was surprising.

I had a bit of my own fun when I had to fill in for Kuok when demands of work had to take him away from the gaming table. Last game vs Cygnar, I thought I would try out my newly assembled Old Witch of Khador list. With the Iron Fang Uhlans that I received just that very morning!! [I blew a butt-load of PG points that took half a year of tourney running to earn....]

The one turn when the Scrapjack (with Slaughter upkept), Unseen Paths into Trencher smoke with 3 focus, and proceeds to maul 2 Trenchers, 1 GMCA, 1 Eyriss, 6 Risen, 1 Thrall Warrior and Alexia... that was magic ^_^

But similarly, I lost a buttload of points when the Uhlans' MAT6 couldn't hit the LongGunners I sent them against. A little disappointed here. The charge attacks get a +2 to hit, which hits well, but the impact attacks are dependent on the measly MAT6. And I think they need numbers of 4-5 to be effective. Else the danger of getting bogged down in melee is too great.

Ultimately, Kuok's Khador won.
But staff wasn't eligible for the prize. So the free dinner fell to Geoffrey.
Food tastes better when seasoned with victory.

All in all, a great time was had by all. Many thanks to Settler's Cafe for the use of valuable table time.

Lessons Learnt
- Don't be tempted to deploy your Eyriss on a platform. She takes a POW10+2d6 falling damage when she tries to step off. *ouch*
- Always pack some munchies with Deathjack.
- Don't huddle around a Carni fielded by Vayl. Hoarfrost kills things.
- And when Carni is huddled by squishy Menites, remember that Hoarfrost kills things.

Photos
Here. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/64603942@N00/sets/72157594375732333]

Upcoming Tournaments
25/11/06 (Saturday) Wolf's Game Shop
HORDES Box-set Rumble
Time to be determined. Will keep all posted here.

This is the long over-due second Box-Set battle for HORDES. The 'first' one had a poor turnout cos there wasn't a way to reach everyone. Hopefully, we can do better this time.

2/12/06 (Saturday) Wolf's Game Shop
750pt WARMACHINE Epic Battle

This will be a tournament for the more veteran players.
We refuse to let 2006 pass us by without establishing a new landmark. And we want to do this by upping WARMACHINE to the next level.

I'm counting on the veterans for this event. We're hoping to get 6-8 people for this.

15-17/12/06 Cineleisure
There'll be some kind of mini-con for the launch of Eragon.
Details are still coming in. But I'll probably be running demos there.
And we may have a Guts & Gears event. A grand melee of both HORDES and WARMACHINE together. Details being ironed out.

Phat Lootz
Wolf's Game Shop just brought in Storm Lancers, Skorne Praetorians, Kell Bailoch, Long Gunners + blisters, Sword Knight blisters, Trencher blisters, The Reclaimer, and NQ9

Inside NQ9, are 4 themed armies. You are allowed to build armies within these themes, and get certain bonuses. Such as FA +1 on Stormblades, or Latent Runes on your Bile,MechThralls & Soulhunters so that a new leader is automatically promoted when one dies.

And look here [http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/?cat=7] to see pics of the upcoming, Captain Rengrave, Cryx Helldiver, Legion Teraph etc.

Here's *MY* loot. 36 pieces of broken pewter, which will take all the King's men to put back into 3 Iron Fang Uhlans....

The Bilge
There was some pressure to get this tourney report out...

Slightly brain damaged from stumbling into http://superdickery.com...

That put me into a bit of an ennui... Please refrain from clicking that link if you value your time.

Epilogue
Please help get the Black Spot around. Let our community grow.

I have reason to believe that there's a few mystery Khador players somewhere out there... I can't account for the Behemoth, Karchev, MoW Demo Corp etc that disappeared from Wolf's shelves...

Fairly important news…

2006-11-13T16:28:00.000+08:00

It started off as an incomprehensible insider joke on TSOALR...

Which got me to Googling to find out who Andy Chambers is...

He was the head game designer at Games Workshop, the company that makes Warhammer 40k, amongst many other successful miniature games.

So he'd left GW a few years ago...

And as of April this year, is in the employ of BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, as Creative Director!!!

When you put WH40K and Blizzard together... Is it very far-fetch to imagine that a sequel to StarCraft might be in the making??

And lookie.... A new StarCraft novel just released this month, following the story of Sarah Kerrigan. Although apparently, the book is still playing catchup with the plot already revealed in the expansion game in 1998, after Sarah was left to die on Tarsonis, captured and mutated by the Zerg Overmind, and finally rising as the Queen of Blades.

Why are they still busy keeping interest in this old game alive?

We must wonder...

Brain Damage

2006-11-12T03:38:00.000+08:00

I can't remember what it was that pointed me to http://superdickery.com, but the evil must be shared.

It's a collection of really retarded comic book covers during the days before their prices inflated 2000%. The bulk of these stories have Superman in it, in really, ridiculous plots.

It boggles the mind to think that someone can write things this bad... And be PUBLISHED!

There are so many gems here, that I don't know how to pick a favourite...

Seeing Superman cry?

Seeing him state the Super-Obvious that we all have wondered over the decades?

Or him as a witchdoctor?

Or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure?

Brain........... Damage................................There are also some propaganda stories that's not very politically correct anymore, after we've all forgiven and forgotten.

But at least Superman isn't alone in this crime... There are some nasty Archie covers as well.

Click on the pictures if you don't understand why they are wrong.....

These are hours of my life I'll never get back....

I must quit this while I still can...

10447_4_0271.jpg

2006-11-12T03:34:00.001+08:00

bettyandme16.jpg

2006-11-12T03:34:00.000+08:00

21013acs.jpg

2006-11-12T03:33:00.000+08:00

97_4_0000058.jpg

2006-11-12T03:32:00.000+08:00

1027_4_079.jpg

2006-11-12T03:31:00.000+08:00

1027_4_098.jpg

2006-11-12T03:29:00.000+08:00

1296_4_063.jpg

2006-11-12T03:27:00.001+08:00

1027_4_125.jpg

2006-11-12T03:27:00.000+08:00

New Toys

2006-11-11T01:32:00.000+08:00

My credit card was billed for a shipment 3 and a half weeks ago, and I was expecting a package from Privateer Press. It's going to be my latest care package from them, rewarding me for the effort I put in running WARMACHINE tournaments and demos in KL.

The last time, the package didn't take this long to arrive, and I was getting really anxious. Especially when the Malaysian postmen have this habit of leaving your packages simply anywhere.

When I put my office as the delivery address, the postmen frequently just left stuff in the stairwell leading up to my office on the 1st floor. Good thing that my colleague takes frequent ciggie breaks, and would come across my packages before somebody comes along and takes them. This time, I had it delivered to my friend's house. As his mom-in-law would be home most days, and will be quite likely to meet the postman.

Anyways, after weeks of anxiety, I finally got a message from my friend that it's here!! The postman had left it sitting on the gate.

Another close call... But it's finally here!!

This is a particularly big package, cos I ordered a box of Iron Fang Uhlans. This will cost RM240 in Malaysia... for 36 bits of metal. My next project is to turn this:

into:

Directly after I picked up these goodies, I headed to Settler's Cafe, where I'm running a WARMACHINE tournament there.

A small number of players turned up. But it's just the right number for a nice friendly game. I've written up the tournament report in an email newsletter that I've started up for the WM community in Malaysia.

Settler's has become very WM friendly. Which is great, cos it's very close to my apartment, and there are always people to talk crap with or to play a few games. Two of their staff plays too. And they have been personally responsible for corrupting at least 3 new players.

And it looks like the WM tourney at Settler's will turn into a regular monthly event.

The Black Spot #1

2006-11-09T03:55:00.000+08:00

Who is a Press Ganger?
This is Norman, your local Press Ganger.

Press-ganging is the act of conscripting people to serve as sailors, used by the Royal Navy during the 18-19th century in time of war as a means of crewing warships.

Over here, it just means that I'm the guy judging tournaments, and being roped in by gamestores to do demos for WARMACHINE and HORDES. [These games kick so much ass, they have to spelt in all CAPS].

I'm also supposedly the authority in Privateer Press games. I say supposedly, because even though I am seldom wrong, but I'm very frequently challenged. Players have a stronger desire to win, than they do to spare me a little respect. T_T

"But what is the Black Spot, Captain?" - Jim from Treasure Island
I'm starting up this newsletter as a means to get word out to the small crew of Privateer Press fans out there. I'll use the newsletter to keep everyone updated on the local WARMACHINE and HORDES scene. Especially notices for demos or tournaments happening locally. When new stuff comes in. What kind of new stuff to expect.

Mostly, just so that I have a good way to reach out to the mess of players out there and give them timely notice of upcoming tournaments, so that we can run more successful events.

My email roster of players is far from complete. Thus far, I only have 19 emails here, and a few more handphone numbers. So, please pass the news to other players and get them to email me to be included into all following Black Spot issues. Or share their emails with me so that I can include them in the next Black Spot.

Please pass along the Black Spot, so the Kraken can find you. (reference: The black disgusting boil on Capt Jack Sparrow's hand given by Turner Sr.)

Why am I doing this via a newsletter instead of a forum or YahooGroups? This is so that I can really get you attention when I need to. Forums get ignored and forgotten. Egroups get bogged down by noise, and is also a pain to register into. With a newsletter, I put all emails in BCC, so you won't get random spam from here. All feedback will come through me only.

Tournaments
The end of 2006 will be packed with tournaments.

11/11/06 (Saturday) Settler's Cafe 3.00pm
We're having a casual little tournament at Settler's Cafe.
500pts of WARMACHINE or HORDES. Unpainted is alright. *Some* proxies within limits will be allowable. This tournament is just for everyone to have fun.
The prize will likely be food vouchers sponsored by Settler's.
First shout of non-alcholic beverage on the PressGanger.

For the location of Settler's, check [http://my.settlerscafe.com/damansarajaya/]

25/11/06 (Saturday) Wolf's Game Shop
HORDES Box-set Rumble
Time to be determined. Will keep all posted here.

This is the long over-due second Box-Set battle for HORDES. The 'first' one had a poor turnout cos there wasn't a way to reach everyone. Hopefully, we can do better this time.

All HORDES players, bring your Boxset to WGS for a rumble.
Some keen fellows are already on their way to 500pts already, what with multiple Dire Troll Maulers and such... but we want to pander to the democratic majority who just started.
Only play your boxset WarBeasts, but you may substitute Warlocks if you've got them.
And we don't care if your stuff isn't painted. All the more reason to come and see what other people have done with their minis so you can exchange recipes and ideas.

I'll come up with some fair scenarios to play. And the winner will receive a voucher, which they can send to Privateer Press in exchange for Gold bordered stat cards for your army. The gold cards will also say "Champion" on them, for additional bragging rights.

2/12/06 (Saturday) Wolf's Game Shop
750pt WARMACHINE Epic Battle

This will be a tournament for the more veteran players.
We refuse to let 2006 pass us by without establishing a new landmark. And we want to do this by upping WARMACHINE to the next level.

I'm counting on the veterans for this event. We're hoping to get 6-8 people for this.

15-17/12/06 Cineleisure
There'll be some kind of mini-con for the launch of Eragon.
Details are still coming in. But I'll probably be running demos there.
And we may have a Guts & Gears event. A grand melee of both HORDES and WARMACHINE together. Details being ironed out.

The Bilge
I really wanted to share some fun and interesting pictures here, especially of some really cool conversions of PP figs I come across.

But the picture from [http://forums.privateerpress.com/index.php?showtopic=83859] isn't there anymore... What a pity. But check it and see if it gets fixed.

Here's something else that will cause you a bit of brain damage though...
http://forums.privateerpress.com/index.php?showtopic=97985

Epilogue
Please help get the Black Spot around.
We all want to meet more players to have more games, don't we?

For eg. There must be around 25 players who bought a boxset of Hordes. But I can only account for only 10 people...
Who are these people who've bought PP stuff and disappeared?
We want to meet them all.

Be a man. Do the right thing.

2006-11-03T01:36:00.000+08:00

Yea... Just discovered Russell Peters.

Canadian Anglo-Indian stand-up comic.

Funny.

Heroes

2006-11-02T03:21:00.000+08:00

New TV series.

People starting to develop mutant powers like precog, flight, phasing, super strength, time manipulation etc.

And somehow, they have to save New York from a nuke.

Story seems pretty lame so far.

Milo Ventimiglia is starring in it. Which is quite weird. Still can't get over him as the literate rogue in Gilmore Girls.

Maybe it takes a while for the story and tension to build. But the only reason I'm still watching it is for the adorable time traveller, Hiro Nakamura.
Hiro is a cubicle warrior in Tokyo, who can stare intently at a clock and make the second-hand tick backwards. He's a Trekkie and an obvious fan of superhero comics. Somehow, he finds himself warping space-time, teleported himself to New York, where he found a comicbook that has a character looking just like him, and having the exact same adventure he's having. He noted the date in a newspaper, sees the approaching blastwave of a nuke, and teleported himself back to the present just in time.

I only just realised that the actor is also the surly asian lab technician, Franklyn, in Scrubs.

Cute. Very cute.

But the rest of the X-Men theme has already been done to death and completely unoriginal. Yet I'll still watch it for the adorable Hiro.

Half Light

2006-11-02T03:03:00.000+08:00

Demi Mooore seems to have made sort of a comeback since Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle.

She managed to convince everyone that she's still hawt, and can still act.

So, in Half Light, she plays a thriller writer, who lost her boy in a drowning accident.

Can't get over grief.

Moves to deserted seaside cottage somewhere in Scotland to write.

Her dead son talks to her.

She commits adultery with the lighthouse keeper.

She meets dead people.

Cliched lines like, "You can't have seen him. He's been dead for seven years!"

Lots of nice Scottish sceneries.

But story-wise, the lights are not all on upstairs.

Interesting….

2006-11-02T02:46:00.000+08:00

http://www.slate.com/id/2152487/

Enough said...

Jeepers!

2006-10-28T04:51:00.000+08:00

A caffeine inhaler?!

I wonder if it's legal to import this... Whether the health department would approve it.

I can think of a number of friends who can use something like this.

And I can probably make killer sales during the exam season.

Technorati Profile

2006-09-12T15:28:00.000+08:00

Technorati Profile

Movie: Clerks 2

2006-07-30T21:17:00.000+08:00

My deepest apologies to Kevin Smith.

I have no choice but to download a cam recording of Clerks 2 via BitTorrent. There's no freaking way that any of his movie will hit the local theatres. So, I'm not really denying him of any revenue anyways.

But he shouldn't be worried. The low budget flick easily recovered production and marketing cost in its opening weekend's take of 11 million dollars.

Clerks began Kevin's film making career more than 10yrs ago, and this time, he returned to his original characters: Dante Hicks and Randal Graves, the infamous clerks.

Randal has burnt down the beloved QuickStop. The two now works at a burger joint, finding new ways to torment customers, and fans of Lord of the Rings.

"Those f*cking hobbit movies were boring as hell. All it was was a bunch of people walking. Three movies of people walking to a f*cking volcano ...The f*cking trees walked in those movies."

Dante finally finds love, and is about to move to Florida with his fiance. Randal arranges a 'stag' party for Dante's last day, with live interspecies erotica.

There are plenty of interesting actors in the flick. Kevin is in as Silent Bob. Jason Mewes finally kicked his drug habit, and is back as Jay (we get to see some frontal nudity). Kevin's wife is in (she flashed the camera). Ben Affleck (Shannon in Mallrats, Holden in Chasing Amy, Bartleby in Dogma). Jason Lee (Brodie in Mallrats, Banky in Chasing Amy). Rosario Dawson (who is Gail in Sin City).

Not as funny as the original Clerks. But it's fun to see the crew back together.

Movie: Dead Man's Chest

2006-07-30T20:37:00.000+08:00

A must watch movie if you're a young boy who loves the fantasy of swashbuckling pirates.

Orlando Bloom makes an excellent Guybrush Threepwood... no wait... Will Turner. Well, same difference. Young blonde man becomes a mighty pirate and marries the beautiful governor's daughter... Tell me there is no resemblance to Guybrush!

And there's more than a haunting resemblance between Davy Jones and the zombie pirate LeChuck and his voodoo beard.

Then there's the voodoo queen who sends Guybrush on his quests? And the adorable cannibals.

It's obviously derivative of LucasArt's most successful Monkey Island series of games! Adored those games in my younger days! I'm just kinda surprised that no one shouted, "You fight like a milkmaid!" during the swordplay sequences.

Back to the movie... if you love pirates, you'll enjoy the ride.

If you don't, then it's like flying coach, and squeezed between two fat ladies with BO. You just can't wait for it to end.

Liked Jack Sparrow. Liked the comedic stunts, especially the pole-vault, and the hamster-wheel sequences.

The plot is dumb. But you're watching a pirate movie, what were you expecting?!

Also learnt how to play Liar's Dice.

"Oh yeah, you fight like a cow!"

Old Classmates

2006-07-23T20:26:00.000+08:00

Had lunch with some classmates from those distant days of Brunei.

These were people I never even bothered to talk to when we were primary classmates in Chung Hwa, BSB.

And after moving on to another school in secondary, I had no contact with these ex-classmates... Except the one time I went back to Chung Hwa in sec 3, representing St. Andrew's for the National Science Quiz, and went to trounce my old school. Very very soundly, I'm afraid.

Then a couple of years ago, via Friendster and MSN... somehow I got back in touch with a couple of old friends. And this trip to Singapore, I made it part of my agenda to catch hold of those few who have moved to Singapore in these long intervening years.

Caught up with Jessica Siong (a girl I remembered sitting next to in pri 5, I think), Chee Min (a face I remember from the yearbook, but I don't even remember ever having spoken to her in class), JeeYung (name is familiar, but no remarkable memory), and FuXiang (unknown to me, but was from ChungHwa too).

Some of these faces, I've not seen in 18years...

Spent hours talking while eating at New York New York, a new place at City Link. Food was so so.

Right after lunch, I then had to head to my tea appointment with Karen and young Daniel at Borders.

After tea, it was off to Kallang, where Peggy was having a crab party for a number of friends. Was a good dinner of excellent crabs with excellent company.

Swimming at Suntec City

2006-07-22T15:21:00.000+08:00

Breakfast with Ben. After which, he has a minor emergency at his workplace to attend.

Which allowed me to make a brunch appointment, as Peggy was so kind to pencil me in for a 1-2hrs audience amidst her busy weekend schedule. She was meeting some gym friends for a swim later.

And as it happened... I had my trunks and goggles with me... Me and my Camelbak, we're always prepared. (Maybe I'll introduce my RimRunner one of these days.)

There's a quiet swimming pool secreted away in one corner of Suntec City, available to Planet Fitness members. I managed to sneak in with them, and had a good 15 laps around the pool. Used to swim daily a few years ago when I was staying at an apartment with pool facilities. Miss the swimming a lot.

Then, a heavy tea, before Peggy has a seminar to be at.

I had a bit of time to kill before meeting up with Ben, SimLoong and Ravinder for dinner. So popped over to Paradigm Infinitum at Midpoint Orchard. Picked up some Trenchers miniatures that a friend asked me to get. Also found a good pin-vice and some Tamiya epoxy putty. Nice!

It's the last days of the Great Singapore Sale, and I glimpsed a newspaper ad that Borders was doing a 20% off store-wide discount. Couldn't resist. Although I'm able to get nearly everything I want to read off the net already, there's still a few things I've not been able to find. Tried to look for Story by Robert McKee, but I was out of luck... It'll cost RM140 at the Borders back in KL...

Dinner at Plaza Singapura. With almost all the Hanoi group. And appropriately, we had Vietnamese cuisine. We got the Buy 2 Get 1 Free set meal courtesy of HSBC creditcard. Very cool. But the pig trotters... Bah, can never compare to Sibu.

After dinner entertainment, we adjourned to SimLoong's new pad, moved in just this month. Pretty sweet digs. Very nice pool. Very nice big screen LCD TV.

Quite forgot to check out his SGD$1500 vacuum cleaner. That's like, half the price of my car! On a vacuum cleaner!

Weekend Trip to Singapore

2006-07-21T14:22:00.000+08:00

Had a free weekend...

...and several long procrastinated promises to visit Singapore...

Some primary school mates want to meet up.
And a bloke wants to show me his new pad.

Being the obliging person that I am....

Took a bus down to Singapore, and bunked with Ben.

THIS IS A GOOD DAY!!

2006-07-21T13:23:00.000+08:00

So I didn't get much sleep today.

Will be heading down to Singapore, and imposing myself on the hospitality of friends. Only fitting that I prepare some manner of gift or another. If I have a guava orchard, I'll gladly bring some citrus to share. But since I don't, I share other fruits of my labours...

Such as the Clerks DVD that I hunted down years ago. Spent a couple of hours to rip the video from the DVD and converted it into an Divx avi file. Such a task requires a collection of tools to accomplish, and the best of breed Swiss knife for the task is Gordian Knot. You can get lovely results from this.

Popped it into my portable harddisk.
...still plenty of space left over...
...let's give some Asterix comics...
...maybe Ben can appreciate Kingdom Come too...
...some Coupling episodes... even the final Jeff-free season...
...and padded the rest with Family Guy...

1am...

A few hours of sleep...

Around 4am, Julian and his two Mrs Lee's came down.

They've got an early morning flight to Cambodia. Tried my best to accomodate them with what guest mattresses I have. It'll only be a few hours nap before...

...7am, awake and drive everyone down to KLIA LCCT.

Tried to investigate alternative routes on the way back, and saved almost rm10 in toll.

Moved Julian's beatiful Nissan Sentra into a condo carpark, safe from villianous eyes.

Then, after lunch, divine love just didn't stop giving!

I received my first order from Privateer Press!!

For all the 'work' I had been doing teaching players how to play WarMachine, and for organsing tournaments etc... I've finally been rewarded!

Got my first PressGanger T-Shirt.

A box of these:

And one each of these:

As if this wasn't enough...

I got another FedEx package less than an hour later...

A brand new 120GB harddisk!! I had just sent the dead disk a few days ago. And here the replacement had already arrived!!

Lucky I had bought Western Digital, the only HD that was giving 3 yr warranties at the time. The warranty expires NEXT MONTH. Kinda lucky that it died when it did. Not so lucky for my collection of shows on that harddisk. Although, there's nothing irreplaceable. Lucky.

News: Can the world suck any more?

2006-07-21T10:45:00.000+08:00

Here's a video of a bunch of school girls fighting. That's not exactly right, it's just a case of schoolyard bullying. A few girls wailing away at a defenceless victim. While some joker was walking around filming the whole incidence. And other girls posing around, and smiling at the camera.

I thought girls were of a habit of demonstrating their viciousness through more 'subtle' means via emotional attacks and social sieges. Seems that physical abuse and humiliation are not beneath them anymore either.

What's disturbing is that this is happening close to home.

But the upside is... our schools are also producing budding war journalists. This bloke had demonstrated fine potential. Such a fine effort s/he had made to capture the event from many dynamic angles.

Idea Murdering Retard

2006-07-20T14:45:00.001+08:00

First, you can check out this youTube, of Kevin Smith relating his experience working with Jon Peters.

Jon Peters was a hair stylist for Barbara Streisand once.

Now he lives in Wayne Manor!

He has a shocking list of movie to his credit. There's Rain Man, Caddy Shack and even the first Batman movie.

But at the same time, there's also Wild Wild West.

He is single-handedly responsible for creating the POS that's Superman Returns. He insisted on a Superman that doesn't wear his costume, doesn't fly, and fights a giant spider at the end. Tim Burton and Nick Cage eventually got wise and dropped out after a few years of planning.

And if rumour has it right, also the reason why there won't be a movie version of The Sandman.

The disastrous thing is that, Warner Bros. has the DC franchise. Until this guy DIES, this hair stylist will continue to piss on good talents.

MP3 Player

2006-07-20T12:16:00.000+08:00

Never been much of a music-on-the-go person.

I'm a greater fan of the ebook-on-the-go.

But mp3 players are getting so dirt cheap. Not counting the mega-Gb iPods, of course.

Just got this tiny 512MB player for RM131, with next day delivery.

Just perfect for the the 3eb collection, and guess what, SPAMALOT!

Music: Third Eye Blind

2006-07-20T10:49:00.000+08:00

3eb just released another album 2 days ago. But there's nothing new, it's just "A Collection" of the music they've done since their career took off.

This is only their 4th album since their success in 1997, with a song about crystal meth. They have no desperate need to cash in on their success while they're famous, and took their time writing their music. Their last album, Out of the Vein, was 3 years ago, and a true 4th album isn't due until next year maybe.

For some unfathomable reason, I've had a liking for their melody though I don't pay much attention to the lyrics. It's my 'thinking music'. This stuff works better than Mozart for me.

You can sample a few songs at their mySpace.

Movie: Derailed

2006-07-20T10:18:00.000+08:00

Take a few actors who have not been type-casted by Hollywood yet. Toss them all into a movie with a reasonable plot. Don't read the synopsis for the movie.

Just watch, and enjoy the twists.

Actually not too disgusted by this cautionary tale against adultery. It's not Fatal Attraction, but it's still chilling.

Cultural References

2006-07-20T09:29:00.000+08:00

This is a recent strip of Turn Signals on a Land Raider. A pretty cute web-comic.

Am just wondering how many amongst my peers are able to catch the punchlines and references. I have long been accused of being strange or weird. By people who know me well, and people who know me not so well.

Anyhoo...
The bananas and pointed stick references a Monty Python skit. You should recognise a young-ish looking John Cleese in the photo.

This is the Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit skit. One of the classics.

And in the next photo, the arab with Bugs Bunny? That's Hassan Chop. You can buy this beautiful hand-drawn animation cel here, for US$2950.

TV: 倚天屠龙记 2003

2006-07-19T20:19:00.000+08:00

It's such a dry season for TV and movies, that I've stooped to downloading this.

Only got 3 episodes of it, and have lost interest.

Biggest complaint being the casting choice for 杨逍. They guy is too old, too fat, and too ugly! He's supposed to be the good-bad guy. The dashing rogue. Maybe akin to Capt Jack Sparrow.

And they casted an old, fat guy who is incapable of acting the part.

There's a China made version of the story from a few years before this that was far superior in quality.

Silent Bob Speaks

2006-07-19T14:09:00.000+08:00

Building towards the anticipation of the release of Clerks II, I had been reading Kevin Smith's blog.

Today's entry is a sentiment all movie goers can relate to.

But don't forget classics like his anal fissure here too.

Or the moving story of how he helped 'Jay' deal with his heroin habit. Which is a really addictive read.

Book: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

2006-07-18T10:09:00.000+08:00

The book boasts 11 million copies in print, so it probably doesn't need any introductions. As a bestseller, it even edges out Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, which stood at 9 million. (Although Hawking's book is more of an unread bestseller.)

To summarise, an old professor got Lou Gehrig's disease (same as Hawking); a student goes back to see him every Tuesday in the last few months of the professor's life; they talk about life.

Yet the book is more about death. About a man who had accepted death, chosen how he would face his death, and used his death to teach people how to live.

The book is a godsend, in the sense that the advance from publishers helped paid for an old man's medical expenses and made his final days comfortable. It is also incredible, in the sense that it even made me envy his death, in spite of the many indignities and pains of his prolonged and debilitating demise.

Morrie led an unremarkable life. No empires, no fortune, no fame to his name. He's a professor of a subject with no scientific, economic nor theological consequence. He made friends when he lived, and little more. But his death did not go unremarked.

The courage he demonstrated, and his views of life from a dying man's perspective, lent inspiration to many. In the book, he talked about the world, self pity, regrets, death, family, emotions, aging, money, love, marriage, culture, and forgiveness.

It's very Chicken-Soup stuff. Almost essential reading for those touchy-feely people out there.

But somehow, I felt underwhelmed by the book. Maybe it's because I felt as if most of the issues are already covered in the bible. So who are the 11 million plus plus readers who are lapping up this stuff up, and writing to Morrie calling him a prophet?

To draw an analogy... The book tasted like high fructose corn syrup. It's a cheaper form of sugar. Tastes sweeter. But it doesn't stimulate insulin production and suppresses leptin so you still feel hungry after eating it. It also metabolizes into triglycerides easier.

Am just a little worried that many in this day and age are turning to chicken soup as a source of spiritual food. I'm not a Jesus freak, and at times I'm ashamed of my luke-warm Christianity. But I have a fear of false prophets. I have an aversion to 'spirituality' that is too easy to attain.

It's just my thinking, that the Devil has more to gain in convincing the world that Heaven is so easily attainable.

Morrie is agnostic.

Camel. Eye of a needle. That's what Jesus said.

I did enjoy Tuesdays with Morrie. I am in awe of his courage in the face of a slow and undignified death. I agree with his rejection of the complexities of life, and his advocacy of love. And I aspire to die as he did, bravely, and with friends and family.

But my life has long been changed before the book came along. So I remind myself that the book is corn syrup, and not to neglect healthier nourishment.

Yet, a little bit of Pepsi every once in a while can be very satisfying.

"As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on-in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here."

Google is getting a little too creepy

2006-07-17T10:57:00.000+08:00

For those of you who are using GMail, you'll have noticed the Google Ad-Sense links along the side of your emails.

That's where Google takes certain words or phrases in your email, and try to conjecture what you might be interested in, and target you with the relevant paid ads. It's contextual advertising.

One thing I really adore about GMail, is how easy it is to access from anywhere. I frequently use it to back up files that I might need to access both from home and from the office, and save the 'mail' as a draft.

I also use the draft as a notebook for random ideas... Occassionally, I get ideas for writing a story or some such, and will type out some thoughts. Of course, I've never gotten around to developing any of these ideas into a story yet. But I just want to be sure that nothing escapes my subconscious that might one day be of some good.

So, I've got this draft, with a few funny quotes from Djinn Rummy, and then some random words like suicide hotline, religion, kervokian, split personality, FightClub hallucination,
mysticism???, detective, blind date, historical gaming etc...

Some really random and disjointed words really....

And suddenly, Google Ad-Sense started throwing me links to, www.firstwriter.com, www.writerscafe.co.uk, storymind.com, www.blogit.com etc....

WTF!?

How did the Google algorithms make that intuitive leap?
Granted that I had one line saying, "writing a creeping out story"...
But buried in between all those other random thoughts and concepts... It managed to single out that one single line, and started pointing me to links for writers!!

This is creepy.... Surely it would have made more sense if I at least got a link to purchase morphine without a perscription, or a blueprint for a euthanasia machine....

Musical: The Producers

2006-07-14T10:57:00.000+08:00

Just watched The Producers at the office...

Yeah.... That's quality of life isn't it?

Caught Nathan Lane on Letterman years ago when the musical was still doing its rounds on Broadway with a star cast. That's how I came to hear about it.

Grabbed the songs. Not particularly impressed, but it has its merits: you don't see something like Springtime For Hitler very often.

Glad that they got Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman for the movie. The show would be less without any of them. Especially without Uma.

"Ula dance again!"

(That's probably the most enjoyable part of the show.)

For me, musicals began with Cats.

One and a half dozen years ago, I heard Mr Mistoffelees on the radio. Took a few moments for the magic to take hold of me before I slapped the record button. Only caught a fragment of the song, but I played it back over and over. Broadway musicals not being a popular radio dedication song, it was months before I heard it on radio again in its entirety.

Came University days, and came Napster. During that window period when Napster was still legal, I grabbed tracks of a few dozen musicals. Cats, Les Miserables, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express, Man of La Mancha, etc... Those collections even helped me recover the cost of my CD burner.

I have a treasured DVD of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which I asked my sister to hunt down for me in Melbourne.

Then four years ago, a South African troupe revived Cats for one last world tour, that happened to hit KL!! Managed to catch the event at Istana Budaya with some of my best friends.

After that day, I was pretty much done with musicals. I've already experienced the best of plays with the best of company.

For me, musicals ended with Cats.

Nathan Lane is an incredible performer. Uma Thurman was great to watch. Nazi pigeons are all too hilarious.

But as a musical, The Producer doesn't have the magic that I felt in Cats. And a musical without magic, is little different from a Mentos commercial.

Thinking again... My fascination for musicals might date even earlier than Mr. Mistoffelees...

There was one episode of Quantum Leap, where Sam Beckett leapt into the life of a broadway understudy. At the end of the show, Sam performed Man of La Mancha in the nude, (with naughty bits strategically hidden by stage props of course). I've not heard many songs more powerful than the song of Don Quixote. Nor a love song so full of sweet pining, as Dulcinea.

To each his Dulcinea ...
That he alone can name,
To each a secret hiding place:
Where he can find the haunting face --
To light his secret flame ...
For with his Dulcinea beside him so to stand,
A man can do quite anything:
Outfly the bird upon the wing --
Hold moonlight in his hand ...
Yet if you build your life on dreams,
It's prudent to recall:
A man with moonlight in his hands --
Has nothing there at all ...
There is no Dulcinea ...
She's made of flame and air,
And yet how lovely life would seem:
If every man could weave a dream --
To keep him from despair.
To each his Dulcinea ...
Though she's only flame and air ...

Starch Recipes

2006-07-13T22:15:00.000+08:00

Just spent the evening researching recipes for cooking starch.

Made a batch to repair a chair I bought from Ikea.

It's one of those type where the seat is made from a fabric stretched across a metal frame. Very comfortable. Until the fabric stretched and the seat started to sag.

Had made several efforts to repair it already. This will be the final attempt. Dismantled the fabric. Cooked up a small vat of starch, soaked said fabric in starch, stretched fabric back onto frame. Wait to dry. Hopefully, this will work.

In the midst of this, also digging up my old video collection. Attempting to convert Band of Brothers into mp4 that can be viewed on an iPod. Lenogo seems to work very well for this.

OOTS: #330

2006-07-13T09:21:00.000+08:00

My blog still pops up on Google searches for Haley's cryptograms on Order of the Stick. Thus, I may have a duty to make sure I deserve my spot on Google.

The solution to #330's cryptograms, are once again, on the official forums of Giant In The Park.

Panel 3: I guess there's no point in me asking a question.

Panel 4: You can understand me?

Panel 5: Huh?

Prudent Squirrel

2006-07-12T10:31:00.000+08:00

Added another conspiracy article to my collection of bookmarks above.

This one by a guy who writes for PrudentSquirrel.com.

How cool is it to have a web URL like that? And his chatterings resonate with mine too.

Book: Djinn Rummy by Tom Holt

2006-07-10T12:29:00.000+08:00

Tom Holt is an author of parodic mythopoeic fiction.

...whatever that means...

The story bears the same vein as Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories. It's that odd humourous style where the author is having a greater dialogue with the reader than he is with his own characters. Characterised with lots of satire and unusual metaphors.

My favourite quote is still,

"...the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."

---Hitchhiker's Guide---

Read a couple of Tom Holts previously, Expecting Somebody Taller, Grailblazers, and Paint Your Dragon.

He likes to take various myths, and bring the mythical creatures or legendary heroes into the present world. Naturally, the characters have quite a culture shock, and hilarity ensues.

The mortals in his book often lack character.... and frequently characterised by being jaded and underwhelmed by the adventures they're having.

The stories are amusing, but of course, not on the same par as the late Douglas Adams.

Djinn Rummy is about genies.

A woman is contemplating suicide by overdosing on a bottle of expired aspirin, but finds a genie in the bottle instead of blessed release. Her first wish: "I'd like another twelve million wishes."

And there's no escape clause for the genie, so he's stuck doing dishes, random chores, and home deco stuff for his new owner. As well as bringing her along to his favourite yoghurt and KaraOke joint.

Amusing writing. But much like the mortals in Holt's books, I remain underwhelmed. Not so much as a chuckle.

Disturbingly, I find Denny Crane's erection more amusing than parodic fiction.

Too much TV may be rotting my brain.

But I did have the satisfaction of proofing the book for the community who's making fine works of fiction available to those on a budget.

"Oh woman, in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy and hard to please; When pain and anguish rack the brow, An even greater nuisance thou."

---Djinn Rummy---

Oh, and if you didn't get that joke, Sir Walter Scott's original poem ended with, "When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!"

TV: The 4400

2006-07-09T17:05:00.000+08:00

The 4400 is back!!

Season 3!!!

TV: Boston Legal

2006-07-07T12:24:00.000+08:00

There's just something unbelieveably amusing hearing William Shatner say, "I have an erection."

Quite fun to watch.

Anticipation: Clerks II

2006-07-05T09:16:00.000+08:00

Got a heads up a couple of weeks ago from a friend, about the coming sequel for Clerks.

This guy was an ex-housemate. Shared an apartment with him for almost 2 years. Filthy boy. Colour blind, and also blind to dust. He sleeps with a warren of dust bunnies in his room, and we always try to keep his room door shut to contain the miasma of evil odours.

But otherwise, he's a fun guy, with some amazing super-human skills. Like, he can beat people at Columns, and probably do quite well at Puzzle Bobble too. Let me remind you again, he's COLOUR-BLIND! He is like DareDevil! I tell you, it's amazing.

Also, he has the entire Star Wars episode 4-6 memorised. All the Yoda speak, and all the muppet squeaks. It's very entertaining.

Anyway, back to Clerks. This guy is a fellow Kevin Smith fan as well. He must've watched Clerks at least 20 times. And even played Chasing Amy over and over until my DVD cracked.

Naturally, we're excited about the Clerks sequel. The trailer is here. ViewAskew.com has a ton of other footage to see too.

The movie is opening on 21st July. But I can't get too excited about the date, because there's a snowball's chance in hell that this kind of show will hit the screens here. Canne's films have little to no appeal to our zombie masses. Just checked Golden Village's Coming Soon attractions, and there's no sign of that there either.

I've often thought of Sibu as having no culture. Then KL as being a zombie culture. Seems, Singapore is mostly yuppie culture, things that feign culture. Maybe I don't belong to this world...

Well, just have to be patient, and wait for the mountain to come to me...

The first Clerks is an amazingly movie, made at the cost of a mere $27k, after Kevin Smith quit Vancouver Film School. The entire film was in black and white, cos that's the film he could afford. The movie takes place at the same convenient store where Kevin worked. He's a clerk by day, and movie maker by night, after the store has closed.

One film festival, a Miramax guy later, and the rest is history.

Clerks was a story of two guys, Dante working at the Quik-Stop convenience store, Randall at RST Videos, and going nowhere fast. They meet, and deal with, annoying customers, and spend the bulk of the film picking apart pop culture, especially Star Wars.

"Empire had the better ending: Luke gets his hand cut off, and finds out Vader's his father; Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. And that's life-a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets."

In Clerks 2, Randall has burnt down the Quik-Stop. Thus they have to get new jobs, at Mooby's, a fast food outlet. 32 yrs old, and flipping burgers.

"With no powers, comes no responsibility."

The dialogue and the characters are what made most of Kevin's films. And there's just something unbelieveably funny about watching a stoner dance.

The stoner above is Jay (Jason Mewes), and the guy in the back is Silent Bob (Kevin Smith). And the picture on Jay's shirt is the Buddy Christ, featured in Dogma, an excellent film which was unfortunately spoilt by Linda Florentino's lack of acting. It's like what Anakin's acting did to the Star Wars saga, but worse...

Closing off with an example of great dialogue in Clerks...

Dante: Yeah, right. You can't get enough of me.
Veronica: Typically male point of view.
D: How do you figure?
V: You show some bedroom proficiency, and you think you're gods. What about what we do for you?
D: Women? Women, as lovers, are all basically the same: they just have to be there.
V: "Be there?"
D: Making a male climax is not all that challenging: insert somewhere close and preferably moist; thrust; repeat.
V: How flattering.
D: Now, making a woman cum...therein lies a challenge.
V: Oh, you think so?
D: A girl makes a guy cum, it's standard. A guy makes a girl cum, it's talent.
V: And I actually date you?
D: Something wrong?
V: I'm insulted. Believe me, Don Juan, it takes more than that to get a guy off. Just "being there"-as you put it-is not enough.
D: I touched a nerve.
V: I'm astonished to hear you trivialize my role in our sex life.
D: It wasn't directed at you. I was making a broad generalization.
V: You were making a generalization about "broads!"
D: These are my opinions based on my experiences with the few women who were good enough to sleep with me.
V: How many?
D: How many what?
V: How many girls have you slept with?
D: How many different girls? Didn't we already have this discussion once?
V: We might have; I don't remember. How many?
D: Including you?
V: It better be up to and including me.
D: (pause to count) Twelve.
V: You've slept with twelve different girls?
D: Including you; yes.

Pause. She slaps him.

D: What the hell was that for?
V: You're a pig.
D: Why'd you hit me?
V: Do you know how many different men I've had sex with?
D: Do I get to hit you after you tell me?
V: Three.
D: Three?
V: Three including you.
D: You've only had sex with three different people?
V: I'm not the pig you are.
D: Who?
V: You!
D: No; who were the three, besides me?
V: John Franson and Rob Stanslyk.
D: (with true admiration) Wow. That's great. That's something to be proud of.
V: I am. And that's why you should feel like a pig. You men make me sick. You'll sleep with anything that says yes.
D: Animal, vegetable, or mineral.
V: Vegetable meaning paraplegic.
D: They put up the least amount of struggle.
V: After dropping a bombshell like that, you owe me. Big.

Movie: Superman Returns

2006-07-04T10:33:00.000+08:00

Big Yawn.

Meteor crashes into a Kansas field. Kal-El is back from a 5yr road-trip to Krypton. Apparently Einstein is wrong about the Twin's Paradox, because Kal-El seemed pretty exhausted from his trip. Since he was travelling FTL, virtually no time should have passed while he was accelerating...

Off topic... Anyways, Clark Kent goes back to the Daily Planet. Lois Lane is in a relationship and has a son. Lois gets into trouble in a spectacular way. Superman saves her in similar spectacular fashion. Supe takes Lois flying. Fortress of Solitude. Lex Luthor steals Kryptonite, and uses it to kill Supe. Lex's floozy feels compassion for Supe and helps him. Supe saves the day.

Did I miss out anything from the first Superman movie?? Other than Lois' little bastard, Superman Returns is almost exactly the same thing as the one before Christopher Reeves discovered charity.

Oh, and apparently, Lois' little bastard belongs to Kal-El.

How the freak did that happen?! Clark had a Kansas upbringing, and his adopted parents brought him up so straight that he doesn't even spank his monkey! (If he did, there would be tell-tale 'bullet-holes' all through the Kent residence.) But suddenly he has a love-child??

Better minds than mine have contemplated the quandary.

In the words of Kevin Smith in Mallrats,

"Lois could never have Superman's baby. Do you think her fallopian tubes could handle the sperm? I guarantee he blows a load like a shotgun right through her back. What about her womb? Do you think it's strong enough to carry his child? He's an alien for Christ sake! His Kryptonian biological makeup is enhanced by Earth's yellow sun. If Lois gets a tan, the kid could kick right through her stomach. Only someone like Wonder Woman has a strong enough uterus to carry his kid. The only way he could bang regular chicks is with a kryptonite condom . . . that would kill them."

But the most comprehensive analysis was Larry Niven's "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex." Niven is famed for his Ringworld sci-fi series, with the two headed E.T. Llama. Read a couple of his books. Not bad. And any writer who can string together a sentence with, "obliterating it entirely in an orgy of microscopic gang rape," will surely have my respect.

Moving beyond Superman's physiology... His psychiatry also makes for interesting study, in Dr. Blink: Superhero Shrink, by John Kovalic and Christopher Jones.

That's the greatest thing about Superman. Although the comics are pretty boring, but he is more identifiable than [insert name of any religious figure], and has been an inspiration for many good things in contemporary culture. Such as Three Doors Down's Kryptonite, or the name for Nicholas Cage's son, and a lot of Seinfeld wit.

Jerry: I think Superman probably has a very good sense of humor.
George: I never heard him say anything really funny.
Jerry: But it’s common sense. He’s got super strength, super speed... I’m sure he’s got super humor.
George: You would think that, but either you're born with a sense of humor, or you're not. It's not going to change even if you go from the red sun of Krypton all the way to the yellow sun of the Earth.
Jerry: Why? Why would that one area of his mind not be affected by the yellow sun of Earth?
George: I don't know but he ain't funny.

This has been just a lot of pointless ranting about Superman. Well, it's been fun. But maybe I can also give my two cents about the Superman comics I've read...

I've not read that much Superman comics. Find it terribly dull. I've read the comics telling his death in the hands of Doomsday. And that's pretty much it. Superman is pretty much a one dimensional character. He's a boy scout that solves problems with his incredible brawn, and everyone loves him for it. He has no problems. Everything looks like a nail to him, that he hammers into submission.

Most of the time I see Supe, it's in a Batman comic. The stick-up-the-butt do-gooder setting off the perfect contrast to the world's greatest detective, who doesn't hesitate to use any violoent means, short of killing, in order to solve his case. And the stories where the two clashes, are some of the most worth reading. Especially Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

And one other Superman comic I've enjoyed, is Kingdom Come. This has one of the best drawn art ever achieved in this medium. And the story is solid. Lois Lane is dead. Superman is retired. Batman is old. And at the end, Wonder Woman is pregnant with Kal-El's seed, thus proving Kevin Smith's earlier point....

Look for a browsing copy at your local Borders, if you get the chance.

BOFH

2006-07-04T09:20:00.000+08:00

Discovered Bastard Operator From Hell a couple of years ago. Then it fell out of mind for a bit until I was suddenly reminded by a web-comic.

Just goes to show how seminal the BOFH is...

So, I just spent a couple of days catching up on the Bastard's latest exploits.

The Bastard is an anarchist. He is a systems and networks administrator, working on contract for a clueless un-named corporation. He is assisted by his PFY (Pimply Faced Youth), and managed by a revolving-door series of unfortunate bosses.

The Bastard is the anti-Dilbert. Where Dilbert's spirit becomes asphyxiated by the heavy fog of management cluelessness, the Bastard instead wraps himself in the concealing vapours, and strikes out for personal gain and profit.

No mercy. No quarters.

These are empowering stories, the stuff of fantasy for all IT administrators everywhere.

Suppertime

2006-07-04T01:22:00.000+08:00

No one enjoys his supper more than Snoopy.

And this passion is something I can easily relate to. I have more than a few spare pounds of stubborn love handles that will attest to this fact. Incidentally, some of my favourite foods might be little different from dog chow too... (pig fallopian tube for example... ahh, what a rare dish that was, when will I ever find its like again.)

Anyway, supper was wonderful tonight.

Origins Awards

2006-07-03T16:40:00.000+08:00

The Origins Awards, are like the Emmies of games, be they role-playing, table-top wargames, boardgames, card games etc...

And check out this year's winner!
WARMACHINE: Apotheosis had been awarded the Game of the Year!!

I still remember those tense months last year, as a bunch of us WarMachiners counted down the days until the game released in September, 2005. Every Saturday, we would sit around and speculate various aspects of the Iron Kingdoms. Hanging on the news leaking out on the forums, discussing the sculpts of the new models being released. Speculating on the mechanics of the new game play. Discussing what we think will happen to the storyline after WarMachine: Escalation from the year before.

Just before September, Wolf's Game Shop even hosted a tournament, with an Apotheosis book as the prize. And I won that one. Not an easy battle, that was...

And when the new range of miniatures featured in the book hit the shelves, things couldn't get any sweeter. They were some of the most ambitious models ever sculpted, and were visually stunning. The gameplay was no disappointment either, as each new WarCaster added unique playstyles to their factions.

Good times....

It's good to see the game I play getting the recognition it deserves.

Note also, the Warmachine miniatures also got the Gamer's Choice for best minis. Which really shows that the company has really captured the hearts of the players out there.

And coming up this September, WarMachine: Superiority.

I've already place an advance PressGanger order for the new epic WarCasters. So far, only two sculpts had been shown, and they look freaking sweet. Hope I'll be the first to show off the new stuff in Malaysia.

Movie: Running Scared

2006-06-28T21:34:00.000+08:00

Holy crap... talk about a dirty and gritty mob movie!!

This is a good one. Lots of guns, blood, and exploding heads.

And it's not gratuitious.

Didn't expect there to be such a thing as artistic violence. But this is pretty close.

Nine years ago, I watched Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco at the theatres. It was horribly butchered by the Malaysian censorship board. Every time Al Pacino said "f*ck", the film skipped a milli-second.

Since then, there was an emptiness that I never realised I had... Until it was filled by Running Scared.

Paul Walker, (Mr Fast & Furious, but more enviably the guy that rode Jessica Alba in Into The Blue), is a low level mob grunt. His boss' son shot a couple of dirty cops, and hands him the gun to be disposed of. The gun ends up back in the street, and racks up plenty of mileage.

After that it's a fun ride painting the town red.

The story and the action is gripping. The characters are nasty. Although without the powerful commentary of Brasco.

It's a good watch. But don't watch it on Malaysian theatres.

"One Nike gym bag: 60 bucks.
One Nokia cell phone: 100 bucks.
One ounce Semtex: 500 bucks.
Getting rid of a dirty cop: f*cking priceless!"

Movie: Lucky Number Slevin

2006-06-28T13:46:00.000+08:00

Not a bad movie.

Lots of big names: Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, etc.

Very enjoyable script. Slevin was in the wrong apartment, at the wrong time, and was mistaken for a loser who owes a bookie $96,000. And there's no way to get himself out of it... As if that wasn't enough, the rival ganglord also picks him up for a $33,000 debt. Then the police picks him up too, curious why he's been walking in and out of both mobster HQs.

"The first time somebody calls you a horse, you punch him on the nose.
The second time sombody calls you a horse, you call him a jerk.
But the third time somebody calls you a horse, well then perhaps it's time to go shopping for a saddle."

There are twists, of course, and if your eyes are sharp, you can catch what's going on before the end of the movie. The director was generous with the clues. (Hint: watch for things like watches and rings etc...)

But there's no need to think too hard. It's just a fun story to watch. Good script, good actors, good directing.

And it's cute how lucky Slevin somehow takes everything in stride, and still finds the time to fall in love. It's taking happy-go-lucky to a state of Zen-hood.

By the way, ataraxia is a bogus 'disorder'.

Book: Magic Street by Orson Scott Card

2006-06-27T13:21:00.000+08:00

Plenty of time to catch up on some reading back in Sibu.

Managed to get hold of O.S.Card's latest one-shot offering. This time a genre of fantasy, that I might describe as 'urban fantasy'... Where magic happens in the streets of an urban city. Kinda like Megan Lindholm's Wizard Of The Pigeons, Charles de Lint's The Ivory And The Horn, or Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

It's an interesting genre, where authors weave magic and mystery around aspects of city life that frequently goes unnoticed. All too often, there is the theme of homeless bag-men and bag-ladies as being practitioners of magic. Remember Mad Hattie in Sandman. And it's usually a rather im-potent form of magic or illusions, not the fancy fireballs and magic missiles from D&D.

I can't imagine there being much fandom for this genre. But it's nice to read something less mainstream once in a while. Particularly enjoy Charles de Lint, but he's not mainstream enough for me to get hold of his books easily, else I would have read more...

Magic Street also starts with a Bag-Man, who 'be-witches' an English professor into giving him a lift, and driving him back to his neighbourhood. The professor gets home to find his wife giving birth, although she wasn't pregnant when he left home that morning. When the infant was delivered, unbreathing, the Bag-Man entered the room, took the stillborn, and put it into one of his plastic bags.

And with this sinister beginning, it segways into a story of an orphan boy growing up in a well to do black neighbourhood in LA. A boy who is influenced by magic in his life, and ultimately discovers his beginnings and his fate.

One of O.S.Card's greatest strength is his characterization. He can paint a character so real that you feel that you're living in his world, seeing everything with his eyes. And you inevitably form an emotional bond with the character. Like reading Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

Card's story ideas are wonderful also. I like his short stories best.

Magic Street started out wonderful as well... But somehow, towards the end.... I begin to feel like I'm reading Robert Heinlein, a prolific sci-fi writer whose stories always start out strong, but the finish always leaves you unsatisfied. Like fake Viagra that wears off mid-coitus... But in both authors, it is their skillful characterizations that made their books most enjoyable, so I kinda forgive them for their flaccid endings.

The protagonist is an abandoned child named Mack Street. He's raised by Cecil, a boy that found Mack. I don't think it's a coincidence that the two main characters are named Mack and Ceese.

Mack grows up and meets Puck and Titania as the story builds towards a showdown with a force of great evil.

Pretty standard fantasy fare. But the characters are interesting.

"What fools these mortals be..."
-----Puck, A Midsummer Night's Dream-----

AirAsia, LCC, Sibu

2006-06-27T11:55:00.000+08:00

Just got back from a weekend in Sibu.

Used AirAsia to get the cheapest fare possible. I saved hundreds flying on a weekday, instead of the weekend. Only costs me 2 days' work leave, rm60 for airfare and rm90 in airport taxes.

Flight was on Friday morning, 7am. Had to do a fair bit of research to find the most economical way there.

I used to have a strategy of parking at the Putrajaya ERL station, and take an rm6.40 train ride to KLIA. That won't work this time around, since AirAsia moved to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in March.

The earliest train will leave from the Putrajaya ERL at 5:50, that gets me to KLIA at 6:10, and I still have to take a connecting bus from the Main Terminal to the LCCT. Although both terminals are using the same air-strip, just on opposite sides, but getting from point A to point B is not a straight line. It's a 20km bus ride.

After further research around the net, I was convinced that there's a feeder bus from the Salak Tinggi ERL straight to the LCCT, first bus at 5am. That's what the AirAsia website said.

Downloaded GoogleEarth. Blew up the aerial shot of the Salak Tinggi ERL. Good. There's a good open air carpark. And no sign of those parking barriers, so the parking is free.

Plan A: Park at Salak Tinggi. Take the bus to LCCT.

To be safe, I scanned the aerial view of the LCCT too. Measured its distance to the post office. It's very near the post office where I went a few months back. There's a clearing where I parked that time, and its walking distance to the LCCT from there.

That's Plan B.

Worst case, Plan C, I can park at the LCCT carpark. The parking rate for a couple of days, will still be cheaper than 2 cab-fares to and from PJ.

Woke up at 3:30am on Fri morning, planned the route to Salak Tinggi with my GPS map, and left the house at 4am. The GPS map brought me via a rather _creative_ route... But it saved me more than rm10 in toll.

Waited more than half an hour at Salak Tinggi. The bus appears to be a myth. None of the workers at the station had ever seen such a bus. Scrap Plan A.

Found the clearing near the post office alright. But it's been cordoned off. Scrap Plan B. I could still park along the road-side there as many are doing, but decided not to take the risk. It'll be there for too many days.

Plan C, parked at the LCCT open air carpark. RM30 per 24hr period. Still not too bad. RM50 penalty for losing the parking chip token. ....hmmm....

Anyways, just barely made it to the check-in counter on time.

All this effort to drive to the airport? Cos I've an important date on Monday evening, right after I get back from Sibu. That's why I needed my car waiting for me.

Wasn't much to do in Sibu, except eat. And visit my 92yr old grandma. It's good to see that she has recovered a fair bit of strength, and was coherent enough to ask me why have I not found myself a girl at my age...

I also sinned. Again...

Gremlins

2006-06-22T14:08:00.000+08:00

As if I needed any more reminders of how 'special' I am....

Penny Arcade goes and write a joke that I 'get'...

Or this one, for that matters....

Comic: Heart of Dorkness

2006-06-20T22:29:00.000+08:00

WooHoo!!!

Finally got my hands on book 3 of John Kovalic's Dork Tower compilations: Heart of Dorkness.

This is the book where Matt gets back together with his ex-girlfriend Kayleigh, a woman who cannot understand Matt's passions and choice of friends.

Also, the one where Matt finally meets Gilly the Perky Goth, a heaven-made match, but they kept missing the chance to meet in previous books. Until the very second after Matt became unavailable...

The tragedy....

When oh when can I find Livin' la vida Dorka, the next book ??

Movie: Cars

2006-06-20T08:14:00.000+08:00

This is the latest offering from Pixar. A CG animated feature featuring cars.

Rather disappointing. Not that the movie was bad in any way... Just that, I've come to expect excellence from Pixar after so many successive hits. Cars was only mediocre.

And I don't really fancy Owen Wilson's voice as Lightning McQueen. His voice has a patronizing, cocky quality, which I suppose is just perfect for the character... But after Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights, I just can't stand it.

Rookie race car works alone and fails to win. Gets himself impounded in the middle of nowhere. Discovers an old mentor, a young love, and a simple friend. Comes back stronger for the big finish.

It's like cliches have come back into fashion or something.

New Toy

2006-06-18T10:33:00.000+08:00

Bought a Microscope from Lelong.

Is that cool or what?

It's one of those things I wished I had when I was a boy. To be able to look at the bristles on an ant, or the probocis of a mosquito.

Every boy should have a microscope! That, and a magnifying glass, and a telescope.

And I bought mine for only RM79.

It's been more entertaining than a TV.

And when I can get my hands on a couple of glass slides and cover-slips, there's the exciting world of blood smears and worm cysts to re-discover....

Game: Twilight Imperium

2006-06-12T13:56:00.000+08:00

Suffered a case of serious brain-fart last Saturday night... Made a social commitment that I wasn't quite ready for.

Some time around 1130pm at Settler's Cafe, I agreed to a game of Twilight Imperium. 3rd Edition, no less.

I didn't leave the cafe until 7am.

TI3 is a huge boardgame of galactic conquest. A game of space exploration, diplomacy, trade, techonology research, fleet production and space combat. All the great ingredients of galactic empire building.

But OMG! It takes FOREVER to play!!

I can't even begin to get into how the gameplay works... But it takes oodles and oodles of time to play. Don't even buy the game unless you have a cadre of insane friends to play it with.

And incidentally, I have more than a passing acquaintance with insanity.

Granted this being the case... But there's no denying that this IS the best space strategy boardgame by far. And a 6-person game of TI3 is an experience that is not within the realm of possibility for many people. (Due to the inability of finding 5 other people mad enough to play with). Although Sunday became a Shaun-like haze for me, I think the experience was quite satisfying.

Movie: 杀破狼 SPL : Sha Po Lang

2006-06-12T10:59:00.000+08:00

I hardly bother with HK movies nowadays. Too many disappointments. Too too many...

But boy, did I "drop my glasses" [lit. translation of 跌破眼镜] this time!!

Noticed the DVD of 杀破狼 (Saat Po Long in Cantonese, Sha Po Lang in Mandarin) many months ago. A few glances at pirated wares. Only noting the title of this movie with a pic of 洪金宝 (Sammo Hong) on the cover.

Noted the title, only because 杀破狼 was the name of a 'power move' by a memorable character in the 风云 universe. That's the HK comic by 马荣成, which got made into a so-so movie a few years ago. Followed this comic for a while, cos after 金庸 retired from writing, the only sword-fighting stories worth reading are 马荣成's comics.

Anyway, I just happened to find this movie in my housemate's harddisk, and I copied it over for a watch.

It's a cop movie. Sammo Hong is the evil gang lord. A team of bad-good cops have become obsessed with bringing Sammo to justice, to the extent that they were wiling to frame Sammo for the murder of an undercover cop, the death of whom Sammo was innocent of, since he only 4-Iron-ed the undercover half to death.

The bulk of the action happens on one Father's Day. There is some sort of a plot somewhere. An assassin under Sammo's employ kills a few cops. Donnie Yen, the good-good cop kills the assassin and Sammo.

The acting was OK. The plot was OK. The directing was OK.

The martial arts choreography was STUNNING!!

I was floored by the penultimate battle between Donnie wielding a telescopic baton, and Wu Jing with a Yakuza tanto. It was a vicious, go for the throat battle... fast and furious. It's like watching Bruce Lee, if he went full throttle and didn't have to slow down his punches for the sake of the limitations of the slow cameras of yore.

Donnie's baton fighting is as deadly as a viper, and Wu Jing's knife fighting has the fatal grace of a tiger. This battle even overshadowed the final show-down with Sammo.

There's no wire-fu. No fantasy, like fighting on bamboo. No flying shadow kick. No stylish Jackie Chan fighting with props. No Bollywood brawl where no less than 500 punches are thrown before somebody stays down. No Matrix's style over substance. And don't even compare it to VanDamme or Seagal flicks!

It's like a sword-fighting flick, but grounded in reality. Real martial arts masters going away at each others' jugulars.

I've really paid too little attention to HK films. But I'm grateful for this opportunity to find out more about Donnie. I didn't recognise him from the history-making fight against Jet Li in Once Upon A Time In China 2, nor as the evil eunuch from Dragon Inn (新龙门客栈), nor as 长空 (another name derived from 马荣成's creations) the spear-wielding assassin in Hero, nor in Tsui Hark's pathetic 七剑 (Seven Swords). And apparently in Blade 2, Highlander: Endgame and Shanghai Knights too. He'll be coming again in 龙虎门 (lit translation: Dragon Tiger Gate), which will be based on an ancient HK comic, from the time when Adam West was still Batman. Wasn't going to give two hoots for this movie, but I may have changed my mind now, though I still have to find a way to deal with my revulsion of Nicholas Tse....

Wu Jing had the misfortune of being obscured in disastrous films, like Tsui Hark's (again) embarassing Legend of Zu. But here's hoping that SPL will bring him better roles in future.

Malaysia: Don't Discriminate Against People Who Don't Speak Mandarin

2006-06-07T15:48:00.000+08:00

Our Deputy PM is pissed at employers who have put up advertisements for job openings asking for candidates who are proficient in Mandarin.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/5/31/nation/14399649&sec=nation

Quote of the day, "It is discriminatory. Such a practice should stop."

The irony just blows my mind.

Movie: The Da Vinci Code

2006-06-06T18:38:00.000+08:00

Crappier than the book.

Dan Brown is an over-hyped and undeserving second-rate storyteller.

News: Mystery of the Crooked Bridge

2006-06-06T17:15:00.000+08:00

Finally, the mystery is explained.

After all the speculation and the debating, finally I read one take on the story that is reasonably believable. Although I have always had strong faith in Einstein's wisdom, even this faith was somewhat stretched when I hear stories of the bridge in our local papers.

But now, a story that makes sense and restored my faith in Einstein.

Movie: The Hollow Man II

2006-06-06T11:03:00.000+08:00

It's a piece of shit.

Don't bother. You've seen all the invisible man special effects in the first Hollow Man already, especially the part where the guinea pig turns invisible fleshy layer by fleshy layer.

This time, you just get to see a lot of people getting shoved about by an invisible force. Or rather, you just see actors slamming themselves against the wall, to act like they've been shoved by an invisible force.

Pathetic.

Movie: 16 Blocks

2006-06-06T10:42:00.000+08:00

16 Blocks. New movie from Bruce Willis.

A tired, aging, alcoholic cop fights impossible odds to deliver a witness from police custody to a courthouse.

Almost sounds like Die Hard, Die Harder, Die Hard3 all over again. But a lot less John Wayne. And Bruce doesn't do as much running with his character's gimp leg. And no C4's were employed in the production of this movie.

Still, the suspense is pretty good. A few interesting plot turns.

Bruce plays the part of the tired cop perfectly. The slouchy, apathetic demeanor...

"Life's too long. And people like you makes it longer."

Quite an OK watch.

Movie: Shaun of the Dead

2006-06-05T12:57:00.000+08:00

Never liked zombie movies.

But Shaun of the Dead is one of a kind. It's hilarious.

It plays on that delightful stereotype that Brits are calm & polite, and more deathly afraid of making a fuss, than death itself. Versus the stereotype that Americans turn into selfish, twitchy schizophrenics in a life & death crisis, that we see so often in slasher flicks.

Here's a protagonist that's so slow on the uptake, that he practically blends in with the walking dead.

It's a story of the bond of brotherhood, filial responsibility, and love. After Shaun has an epiphany (in the form of a zombie with a hole in her gut), he rises to the occassion with heroic resolve as he saves his friend, his mother, and his ex-girlfriend. All the while, maintaining his British cool, and never forgetting to make the necessary introductions as good manners dictates.

Very funny. Must watch.

Comics: Infinite Crisis

2006-06-05T11:27:00.000+08:00

Infinite Crisis is a new 7 part story from DC.

Apparently, it's spring cleaning. So DC started an ambitious story arc, bringing hundreds of the DC universe's characters together, and prune off a great number of them.

A society is organising all the villians together, methodically kidnapping and killing heroes.

A telepath, powered up just for the sake of this story arc (beyond the limits of the abilities he previously demonstrated in continuity), made Superman hallucinate that he is fighting bad guys when he's fighting the good guys.

Wonder Woman, was forced to kill the telepath because that was the only way to save Supe.

This act of violence destroyed WW's credibility as a hero. And triggers Batman's Brother Eye satellite to activate protocols to enforce justice. [OMG!! I can't believe that there's a wikipedia entry on Brother Eye!]

Batman's paranoia and trust issues had made him develop a satellite system to spy and keep track of all the superhuman on earth. He has always had trust issues, but this paranoia was exacerbated by the events in Identity Crisis, where he discovered that he had been mind-wiped by his own comrades in the JLA. Incidentally, Identity Crisis was a far, far better book than this one.

Brother Eye evolved into an AI, and became independent of Batman's controls. It launched attacks against several characters. Particularly WW.

Some kind of giant cosmic battle is taking place at the centre of the universe.

An aged Superman, a good Lex Luthor, Superboy Prime, a dying Lois Lane are introduced as being survivors of an alternate multiverse from Crisis of Infinite Earths. These penetrate some kind of space-time barrier to try to rally this foul and corrupted Earth, and convince the players to abandon it and recreate the other, better alternate Earth.

A few characters make their peace and unite again to face the crisis.

Superboy Prime goes nuts and kills some heroes. A couple of Flash-es grabs him and brings him to another time and place. He comes back stronger. It takes two Supermen and the sacrifice of a great number of Green Lanterns to subdue him.

Meanwhile Alexander Luthor is mixing and matching all the multiverses in a petri-dish in an attempt to create the PERFECT world.

Ever wondered how thin you can spread a plot? Well, here you go.

The heroes in DC comics' universe is just over-powered. Thus, they have to fight in these grand plot-lines. It makes the characters impossible to identify with, after a while. Then every once in a while, they tear too many holes in their continuity that they have to push a reset button to alter reality and start over.

Good thing I didn't spend any money on this series...

Movie: Final Destination

2006-06-05T10:03:00.000+08:00

Just watched parts 2 & 3 of this franchise.

The movies have an idiotic plot: someone had a premonition of death, a half dozen people cheated Death as a result, Death comes hunting down the survivors in a series of bizarre accidents.

The acting is of the calibre of Dawn of the Dead. Actually, the zombies were a fair bit better. But I've only watched 10minutes of the classic, so I shan't comment too much on that.

But yet, there's a perverse thrill to watching Final Destination. You know who's gonna die. And you know that it's gonna be gory. And yet, the film still manages to keep you on the edge of your seat, and surprise you with Death's machinations.

Everyone who has seen FD2 will agree with me that the air-bag death was the most ironic, and the most memorable.

And the gore is like watching Fear Factor in one of those events where the participants have to bob in a barrel of chum. Seeing heads beheaded, impaled, squished, nailed; bodies impaled, sliced, smushed, toasted etc... It's a perverse and guilty thrill.

Quite a bit of SFX effort had been put into the highway pile-up and roller-coaster disaster. The movies deserve some credit for that too.

Movie: X Men 3 - The Last Stand

2006-05-31T12:46:00.000+08:00

Watched the movie last night. Was free. Quality wasn't good.

But got the gist of the story.

The wikipedia entry has all the spoilers.

It's an OK watch, I guess. Prof X got atomised, Wolverine and Storm got their time in the limelight. Nightcrawler was cut cos his role just wasn't worth the make-up time.

And that's the end of the X trilogy.

But at least the movie got me in the mood for X-Men stories again. I last left off somewhere around House of M, where the Scarlet Witch (Magneto's daughter) was so distraught with grief that she's losing it, and was recreating reality. Eventually, she overcame Xavier's attempts to block it, and recreated the Marvel universe.

Into a world where H.Sapiens are the second class citizens. And millions of mutants have lost their powers, leaving only a few hundred, who has taken over important roles in government. Magneto lost his powers. Xavier is missing. Wolverine remembers his past. And Peter Parker is successful, until his secret was outed, that he did not come to his powers through evolution.

Right now, I'm 'getting' Deadly Genesis. Xavier will finally be found. And Scott fights his brother. Again. It suddenly appears that Scott has a SECOND brother, that's even more of an ass than the last one. Having Xavier as a powerful telepath is a convenient Deus Ex Machina. Whenever convenient, the writers can just re-write history, and make something happen differently, but Xavier had mind-wiped the events to protect the characters. Thus, explaining how they could just manufacture Scott's other brother out of thin air.

Movie: Firewall, An Unfinished Life

2006-05-31T12:15:00.000+08:00

Firewall, the new Harrison Ford movie.

Think The Fugitive. But nowhere near as good.

Ford is a father in this movie. He's almost 64 years old. And he is playing a father.

Basic plot: some geeks with guns hold Ford's family hostage, while they force him to do an electronic bank heist. A few murders are pinned on him. He runs from the law and tracks down the villians via his dog's GPS collar.

Moral of the story: If you're a bunch of geeks that can't take down a 64yr old banker with automatic weapons, please invest in a couple of goons who can. You're heisting 200million dollars. You can afford a few goons for crying out loud!

Speaking of old actors, I also just watched An Unfinished Life with Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Lopez. Oddly, I didn't recognise J.Lo at all until I checked IMDB...

This is just a simple, ungimmicky movie about a grandfather getting to terms with the death of his son, and connecting with his granddaughter and daughter in law. And Morgan getting to terms with being mauled by a bear.

Not the kind of movie you'll rush to the cinema to watch. Just something that you'll watch and forget on HBO.