Verdict: A+ visual effect with some cheesy scenes that are... disastrous

This movie is good, no doubt about that. (It's a movie that'll make me walk into the cinema)

The visual effect was way way way better than any movies in recent years - yes, it really created the catastrophic feel and I felt as if I'm in the scene and had the feeling like "oh shit, what do I do if this happens?"

Let's get straight to the point - this movie could be way way way shorter as well - I waited for 1 hour+ to see the first grand disaster scene to happen.

The starting was like, doing introduction, who is who, what is doing what - omg, it's lengthy and not necessary.

And some of the scene are cheesy - preaching what humanity is about, one man that saved thousands of human, and how lucky they escaped in the very last minute (or seconds?)

Probably most of the budget was thrown into CGI production - instead of the script.

It isn't that entertaining as ID4 and the script isn't as smart as ID4 too (the movie from the same director, 13 years ago)

However, the visual effect is really better than his last disaster film - The Day After Tomorrow.

Make no mistake, I enjoyed every moment of the disastrous scene. (note: I'm not a sadist, no)

But my point is, if you take out those disastrous scenes, the quality of the movie could be quite disastrous as well.

Rating: 6/10

Verdict: Imaginative "ability", but lost marks on the storytelling method

A good fiction movie is something that is made up, but is able to convince you with some 'wow'.

So I thought, time traveling is a good element for fiction movie.

It's a love movie, I won't deny. But it's not those ordinary cheesy love story (and hence I chose to watch it)

It's kinda sad as well to learn how helpless it is for the time traveler's situation.

The weakest part of the movie is how the story was told.

While the idea about 'time traveling' is good, the movie seemed to be a bit slow and lost of focus sometimes - telling the interesting parts apart, filled with unnecessary-feel scene (at least that's basically how I felt)

But two things I learned from the movie:

1) Appreciate the moment you have
2) If you know your ability, make full use of it (he made a fortune from his ability - go figure out how)

Rating: 6.5/10

My dad took the photo - I did the interpretation

Everybody has different childhood memory - I hope it's a good one for this girl - she seems lonely and isolated.

Winnie shared with me the improved recipe, and I shall try it in the next attempt.

I modified some in step 2 (for bigger portion) & 5 - basically, the longer you cook the taste will be richer (but no more than 3 hours pls)


1) Short-boil the pork bone for approx 1 minute...and discard the water
2) Put the pork into clean 3L of water...together with 5 medium sized dried oyster
3) Add the cut gourd with the seeds removed.(remove the seed from the gourd by using a toothpick)
4) Boil with high flame for 10-15 mins
5

a) Switch to medium... continue cooking for the next 2 hour

or

b) Switch to low flame ...continue cooking for the next 2 hours 45 minutes

Last but not least, thanks, Winnie :)

Today, I tried a new soup recipe - and I failed.

Nevertheless, I'll still document it

What I used was 1/4 of the shark's fin gourd (魚翅瓜）, 5 pieces of the pig coccyx, 10 pitted red date. Instead of soy sauce, I'm gonna use only fish gravy - a secret weapon that my late granny often use to make the food tasty.


Put all the ingredients into the water


Cook until the water is boiled (approx 15-20 minutes)


Cook with slow fire for the next 2 hours 45 minutes



And the result - FAILED

Reason was because I miscalculated the water needed - the marrow would release water (since majority of marrow is water-based) when it's cooked.

So, the result was - thin-tasting soup.

I shall cook again with slow fire, and see how it goes.

And tomorrow, lotus root soup.

Stay tuned.

Now, the rest will be the testers :P

Background
The aim of this project is to help the babies or even the adults to fall asleep easily during the night time.

I, for one, suffer the occasion insomnia - randomly.

(Hence the usage of aroma therapy product, just FYI)

What motivated me to find this particular music was when I found my colleague came into office in an exhausted look - asked for the reason why - it's because the baby would wake up and crying in the middle of night, frequently.

Project sort of started on 26/10, when I collected some Bach's music to test(detailed post, here)
Then, in the second week, I found that it wasn't quite useful, so I used Google to search for alternative, and found this album - The Mozart Effect: Music for Babies, Vol. 2: Nighty Night

It has 4.5 /5 stars on Amazon, so I thought of giving it a try.

So by logic, the music that works for the active babies in the middle of night, should work for adults, too.

Testing and Filtration
A week of listening test was given, with me as the tester - in non-good sleep environment.

In 5 out of 7 days, these things were refrained to aid my sleeping:
1) Air conditioning (means, only ceiling fan was used)
2) Aroma therapy product (such as pillow spray & burning essential oil)

And I had even tried to go to bed earlier than usual (normally it's 12.30am++). I slept at 11PM+- in 5 out of 7 days.

Test Summary
Day 1
Slept @ track#5

Found that track#4 Symphony No. 11 in D Major, K. 84: Andante was louder than the rest of tracks.

The album from the next day onwards reduced to total of 8

Day 2
Slept @ 1 album cycle + track#7
(With the aid of pillow spray + aircon, cos I drank caffeine drinks before I slept)

Day 3
Slept @ track#4

Day 4
Slept @ track#5

Day 5
Slept @ track#3

Day 6
Slept @ 1 album cycle + track#3
(With the aid of pillow spray + aircon, cos I had 3 hours of nap in the evening + I was awaken by a text message)

Day 7
Slept @ track#3

How I Did the Testing?
I playback these MP3 using my handphone's loudspeaker - not at very high quality but hey, the point here is to make you sleep, not music review, right?

Summary

Final Tracklisting
1. Don Giovanni, K. 527: Deh! Vienialla Finestra
2. Piano Sonata No. 11 in a Major, K. 331: Andante Grandioso
3. String Quartet No. 10 in C Major, K. 170: Adagio
4. Divertimento in D Major, K. 131: Adagio
5 Oboe Quartet in E Flat Major, K. 407: Andante
6. String Quartet in B Flat Major, K. 174: Adagio
7. Divertimento in B Flat Major, K. 287: Adagio
8. Clarinet Quintet in a Major, K. 581: Larghetto

Total Playtime: 45minutes

So I thought the test was quite ok. Further testing will be done by my friends, but I guess, the important thing is, we can have better sleeping quality.

Yep, insomnia is frustrating. I know and hence I did this :P

Limited time download: HERE

P/S: Oh, and another tips from my friend, Sherry: she let the baby drink the milk @ 11PM, then the baby would sleep till 7AM (i.e. the next day).

Hope this will help for the insomnia-er too.

Thanks, Sherry :)

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall.


It's a symbol of breaking down the barrier, I suppose

While the physical wall can be breached easily, there are a lot more works to be done to breach the wall between the human, mentally.

As a followup to the previous post, the testing was commenced last Saturday, and it will take one month to see the outcome.

Until then, I can't conclude, yet :)

Stay tuned

It must be the McD,
Cos I didn't have KFC,
Plus pisang goreng + cekodok + keropok that are oily.
But I don't care cos I'm now sleepy.

Target achieved

Just one week after I had posted the Mun Choong 1995 year book on Facebook - the respond was immense.

I set a target personally to see if it could be successful - The photo album will have 300 comments & 200 tagged persons in a week - and yes, as of yesterday all were achieved.

The tagged persons could have been more - but there are people who simply can't accept their past - chose to untag themselves from the Facebook.

Needless to say, a chance is lost for these people to be connected by their primary school friends.

I had even one message sent from one of my friend to remove the photo from the Facebook - because the person uses Facebook in the office and the person can't stand questions being asked by the bosses or colleague.

For me and my sister, we found nothing wrong with the person's photo - the person looks quite the same as before.

And yes, while they have their rights, chose not to be tagged - I am still puzzled by the fact that they can't accept their past - it's a fact and you can't run away from it.

From the positive side, since I'm the owner of the scanned photo, everybody's comment will be copied to my email as well - Yes, I read some of them and mostly are positive - they are happy and surprised that after 14 years, they are able to reconnect with their school mate.

I thought I've done what is Facebook initially meant to be - (re)connecting people.

Since then I've added no less than 40 new friends, all from the same primary school.

I would consider this project is closed, successfully.

P/S: Facebook is viral, period.

Testing, testing, 123 (take note, Trevor only bought RM1 on '1225' the rest belongs to his dad)

You know, since this week has been a great week of the bear - I shall put my power on testing.

Yes. 1225 is my birthday, just FYI.

I hope the outcome is positive - then I'll be the most powerful bear in the world. :-3

Her request to mask it, not mine

Somehow I like this photo - the lighting, the colours on her skirt etc

But she wasn't impressed.

我覺得，這是馬華爭霸-最新進展的最佳簡述。

不管這個小廖要如何掙扎，結果還是（和回光返照）一樣的。

難道大家還不知劇終了嗎？

While we can't deny the fact that majority of the Malaysians are Muslim, we can, however, wish for a more open-minded Muslim leader like this ex-mufti of Perlis.

I thought from the first 4 minutes you can sort of know why Malaysia needs such a Muslim leader.

I'm not sure what's his point of 'allowing foreign artist to perform in Muslim country'

But I thought the recent ban on the foreign artists to perform in Malaysia means it's possible that it scared away some potential foreign investment.

Read this news

The woman will be charged for culpable homicide, for killing a robber.

Fair.

But what punishment will she get?

I don't hope one day the robber will say to the victim, (while running away) "Come and kill me, you'll be charged for culpable homicide, I DARE YOU!"

A better judgment needs to be made, period.

3 more days to draw a conclusion :)

This small little project aims to aid both baby and adult to sleep both easily and better.
(details will be discussed in the full report next week)

I tested it in (sort of) extreme condition - normally I would switch on aircon, use the pillow spray or even burn the essential oil to make me sleep easily.

To test this album, I:
1) Switched on only the fan
2) No pillow spray was used
3) No essential oil was burned

Day 1
I'm able to fall asleep when the album reach track #5

However, found that track#4 Symphony No. 11 in D Major, K. 84: Andante was a bit louder.

To remove that from the album and test again

Day 2
The test basically failed cos I drank 4 full glass of Coke during dinner. And had beef as dinner.
I felt hot and couldn't fall asleep.

After the album reached the end of play, I played it again.

With the aid of pillow spray + aircon, I was able to fall asleep at around track#7.

Day 3
I fell asleep when the album reached track#4.

I think the workload will be extremely a lot for the next two months.

Not to mention about the possible audit.

But from the monstrous workload that I'm facing, I actually found two things that are interesting:

1) Programming (yet to complete after 1 and half year of slacking)
2) Documentation (which most people find it extreeemely boring to do)

Yes. I'm a boring person.

I thought it's interesting to share this.

Click here to see the people from old Japan (circa early 20th century)

Some... even looked scary!

I'm pleased to announce that a bears band had been formed.

The members include: me, Sebastian, Emoody and Emoody Sr.

I'll intro each of the member soon.

Thanks to Colleen for creating the logo - it looks great!

Yeah, I need to feel pissed cos in the winner photo, the lead singer was not featured

So this week, the result for DIGI: Pimp My Broadband was announced.

The Bears (our new band name) had won the 1st prize.

That gives Trevor a new Macbook Air and 3 months 3G broadband service.. for free.

The bears made the day.



Next, this photo helped Trevor to win another HP laptop in the Spritzer's "My No.1 Moment" contest,in Week#2

Yes I admit that back on Mount Kinabalu, it was My No.1 Moment cos I was standing higher than human.

Who doesn't like to feel superior than others?

So right now I think we are a bit powerful, at least I know I'm the talisman for Trevor.

Stay tuned for more performance from The Bears!

Now we need some good rest.