Finally, BMT is over for me. POP was two days ago and I was just too lazy to blog about it. It was pouring rather heavily during the parade and the VIP decided to embark on such a long speech that the poor souls standing there in the rain had to endure feet pain. To add to the concoction, there was an accident somewhere in Loyang and everyone was stuck at the ferry terminal - so basically, my company only left Tekong at around 8 pm nearing 9 pm.

But hell, it was worth it. At least our two days of rehearsal did not go to waste. (There was a wet weather programme and that programme is so truncated that it was not even worth doing.) Postings are going to be released on the 21st. I will keep my fingers crossed.

By the way, for those who want to watch 10,000 BC, please don’t. It’s a bad movie. I rated it 4/10. Apparently, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 6% fresh rating. This is probably one of the worst movie rating I’ve seen.

It’s rather hard to maintain a so-called life. Weekends are rushed and you can only go out so many times and when in camp, you basically do the basic routine over everyday. Still I’ve managed to watch a few good movies lately. I haven’t really seen much movies lately that I can safely say was money was spent.

First up was Atonement. It’s basically a tragedy kind of story and since it was rated M18, it was my first M18 show. Honestly, I think it didn’t really warrant that rating - a NC-16 would have been sufficient anyway. The soundtrack was pretty unique and was excellent. It used the sound made by those ancient typewriters as part of the music.

Next up was Kite Runner based on the novel of the same title. The story is great but I think the novel does the story more justice. You miss out certain important elements like characters’ thoughts which obviously cannot be put on screen.

On a side note, I finally managed to achieve a sub-ten 2.4 km run timing - 9:52 =)

I believe I wasted a little money today on the movie Bratz. Well, I had hoped to watch Stardust but since they ran out of tickets, I guess I had so settle for something lesser.

And look how it turned out.

Well, the show is at least funny and heartwarming but my biggest problem with it is the simple plot. Not a lot of plot twists. Just some bimbo high school girls.

The funniest thing was when they showed someone mixing up some chemicals like Silver, Magnesium etc. up in a test tube to create some fireworks and called it the bernoulli effect. Well you could either take it as a joke to punch at geeks stereotypes (and this joke will be rather obscure to be spotted) or just simply… ignorance?

Final verdict: 6/10.

And Six more days.

For some of us, at least for me, we can’t listen to songs with lyrics when trying to memorise facts of which Economics is the worst culprit of them all. The lyrics just distract me from memorising. So, I turn to acoustic music, that is music without lyrics, that usually come in the form of soundtracks.

My interests in soundtracks can be traced back to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack which I have already written to death here. For those who want to know though, the third Return of the King Complete Recordings is going to be released in the midst of our A-Levels on November 6. For some kind souls who have spare cash, please consider a Christmas gift for me with all three complete recordings

So far, there has only been five “entertainment” (mixture of movies, TV Show and anime) that has wow’d me with their soundtracks:
- Lord of the Rings (duh!)
- Lost
- Eureka seveN
- Death Note
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Of course, there is also the once in a while song or two that sounds good but these are my top five in no order. As again, here are some of my selected songs for your listening pleasure. A mix of upbeat, majestic and soft music.

Well, in case you were wondering about the seemingly music themed entries nowadays, let’s just say that I’m in this mood right now to write these kind of posts.

Tags: death note, eureka seven, Lord of the Rings, lost, soundtracks, tengen toppa gurren lagann

I’ve just came back from watching the movie. I must say, I can proclaim that it is definitely of “Death Note” standard. Much better than the first one which I would say was only a kind of appetiser and introduction to the world created by Tsugumi Ooba. If you didn’t like the first one, you should be give this a chance - you might like it!

WARNING: Detailed spoilers for the movie and manga follows. You have been warned!
Read the rest of this entry »

A Merry Christmas everyone!

I went to watch the movie The Holiday yesterday. Not my type of movie but I kind of enjoyed it, at least the humour within, much unlike the terrible You, me and Dupree. The crowd at Orchard was just terrible. I wonder how it’s like right at this moment, 10+ minutes to Christmas.

Today, on Christmas eve, I went on a shopping spree, including stuff that weren’t for me. I had a haircut, followed by a trip to Sim Lim to buy 200 CD-R and 50 DVD-R for CCA usage. Gosh, that was SO heavy and expensive (SGD 87). I almost died along the way carrying that home. I bought myself a Bluetooth adapter and for my cousin a network card and a thumbdrive (a pretty good looking one if you ask me).

Walked around for a long time before settling on a pair of Niké shoes. Believe it or not, this is my first piece of Niké merchandise I ever bought. The rest belonged to Adidas and New Balance etc.

And later on, I bought another jacket and a new shoe bag.

Phew, remind me not to shop at this time of the year again. The crowd is kinda huge. I still need some shorts and pants. That should be all that’s left to get.

Went to watch Sinking of Japan/Japan Sinks/日本沈没 today. You can call it The Day After Tomorrow with improved effects. It’s basically an average movie for me with no “wow” factors. The subplot of the love between the main characters is hardly developed! The ending was kind of corny too. “Everyone lives happily ever after.”

The first “goodie” I bring to you is a preview of the tagboard I’m working on. You can find a link to it. Currently, you can only browse the tags - you can’t post any tags yet. Those tags are from the former tagboard at Zenden Lee’s blog. In the next preview, there should be posting access plus a new black and white colour scheme perhaps.

A while ago, another friend and I sent in a video for the Mediacorp Roving DV competition. Basically, we are supposed to come up with a “student news report” and send that in. It was aired today at 9.30 pm on Channel 5 News and 10 pm on CNA news. For those who missed it, here’s a video: (I’ll upload the version with the “additional overlay text” that Mediacorp added in at a later time)

EDIT:
I did a “grey” colour scheme and aren’t exactly satisfied with it yet:

EDIT 2:
You can find the news article that goes with our video here or here.

Tags: PHP

Prepare to be bombarded by a fanboy’s scream rant.

I want this and this!!!

Gosh, ever since I first heard the soundtrack in The Two Towers (yes I didn’t watch Fellowship of the Ring first), I’ve fallen in love with the soundtrack. And now, Howard Shore is releasing it in complete recordings!

</fanboy rant>

Tags: Lord of the Rings

Watched the movie already. Frankly, it was a little disappointing - for manga readers/anime watchers at least. For those who have never encountered Death Note before, I think Death Note will be a rare treat for them. Spoilers for both the manga and movie beyond this. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve just finished watching the most unfunny comedy of the year (note the irony eh?) and flushed 7 bucks out of my wallet to Golden Village (phew, it’s still a weekday thankfully). I barely passed it: 5/10; and apparently, it’s a Rotten Tomato. On the whole, the movie was VERY predictable.

So I’ve watched 3 movies for the past week and I’d say that’s enough already. Probably the best out of the three was The Devil Wears Prada. Now that my wallet has a hole bigger than your finger can stick through, I’m retreating to the safety haven called home - at least not for movie outings.