Archive for March, 2007

31
Mar

300

By Adrian 3 Comments
Categories: Entertaintment and movie

Yeah yeah, I know its not the latest movie at the moment, and I admit that I had just watched it not long ago. Anyway, if you have yet to watch 300, go watch it in cinema as it will worth the 10 bucks for their astonishing graphics. But if you have a HUGE ass TV (Hi-Def Plasma, for instance) home, go ahead and buy the DVD.

The movie is about Spartan. To make my life easier, I am going to quote Wikipedia.

Following the victories in the Messenian Wars (631 BC), Sparta established itself as a local power in Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece. During the following centuries, Sparta’s reputation as a land-fighting force was unequaled. In 480 BC a small Spartan unit under King Leonidas made a legendary last stand against a massive, invading Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. One year later, Sparta assembled at full strength and led a Greek alliance against the Persians at Plataea. There, a decisive Greek victory put an end to the Greco-Persian War along with Persian ambition of expanding into Europe. Even though this war was won by a pan-Greek army, credit was given to Sparta, who besides being the protagonist at Thermopylae and Plataea, had been the de facto leader of the entire Greek expedition.

I am not going to dull you in history. The story goes like this…

King Xerxes, king of Persia, was on a quest to conquer the world. After commanding victories, stepping on the enemies like ants and called himself a God, he set his sight on Greek. Xerxes wanted to conquer Greek, so he sent out a messenger to Sparta to persuade King Leonidas, King of Sparta, to surrender without a fight. Spartans, rumored to be descendant of Hercules, would not retreat nor surrender, so they killed the messenger and called war on King Xerxes and Persia.

Unfortunately, the Senior Counselor (called “ghosts”) were very corrupted and after consulting with the oracle, they prohibited King Leonidas from going to the war and wanted Sparta to surrender. Little did King Leonidas know that the counselors were in fact accepting bribes from Persia. Under the strict law of Sparta that no one, not even the King, can go against those ghosts, King Leonidas had no choice but to bring only 300 warriors with him for a “walk”. Truth is that he lead those 300 warriors to the Hot Gate to defend the territory.

Vastly outnumbered (in the movie, the Persia has around 300,000 armies whereas King Leonidas brought along 300 soldiers), and under constant temptation and threat from King Xerxes, King Leonidas did not bow to King Xerxes. In fact, using smart tactics and utilizing their superior fighting skills, they defended very well and killed thousands upon thousands of invader. It was until a mole betrayed King Leonidas that all 300 soldiers were massacred right after King Leonidas injured King Xerxes.

Why do I like this movie? Well, first of all, I like the spirit in the movie. Never retreat, never surrender, even if we are completely outnumbered or when the enemies do have superior skills compared to us. I simply love this spirit and I believe this kind of spirit, or motivation, is what will propel us to success, and that’s the quality I look for when I am hiring.

Furthermore, the director Zack Snyder is doing a great job at capturing the battle scenes, with intense graphic and beautiful sceneries.

Will I recommend this? Hell yeah! I have watched this movie twice myself. So go, don’t wait. Watch it while it is in cinema.

(PS: I have to admit, I bought the DVD and the un-cut version is much better)

Oracle The Oracle (click to enlarge)

Leonadis The Hero - Leonidas (click to enlarge)

the leapThe Leap (click to enlarge)

the shield Battle Scene (click to enlarge)

30
Mar

I got tagged …

By Adrian 2 Comments
Categories: General

Well, I just found out I was tagged because my name was use exclusively (yeah right!) for my blog domain. Thanks to HijackQueen, now I got to do this meme.

Instructions:

1) Write a short introduction paragraph about how you found the List and include a link to the blog that referred you to the List.
2) COPY the ENTIRE List below and add it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can be accessible for, go ahead and change the title of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blogs.
3) Take the ‘My Adds’ and move them into the ‘The Originals’ list.
4) Tag 5 Brand New Narcissistic Bloggers that you know of, to a new ‘My Adds’.

My Adds:
NONE

Yup, I have decided not to add anyone. Oh wait, maybe I don’t know anyone who has used their names in the domain. Anyway, I have decided not to drag others into this tag.

The Originals:

Kimmy Sia
Wuching
Cynthia Foo
Robin Wong
Adrian Ang
may
simple american
velverse
Doris
Paris Beaverbanks
Albie Wong

Menj
Samantha Yeap
Chan Eileen
Chan Lilian
Liew CF

Andrew Wee
Hong Kiat
Gary Lee
Ed Lau
John Chow dot Com

Nate Whitehill
Stephen Fung
Michael Kwan
Jeff Kee
Stuart Hannig

Hannes Johnson
Nomar
AhSoon
Nathan Drach
Saman Sadeghi
Bob Buskirk

Jon Waraas
David Lithman
Matt Blancarte
Ryan Parker
Josh Buckley

Matt Coddington
Brice Wong
Leo Chiang
Tyler Ingram
Ah Boon

***STOP COPYING HERE***

Anyway, feel free to add the list yourself.

29
Mar

Nokia E90 Communicator

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: General

Nokia E90 Communicator

Nokia E90 (Communicator type)
Specifications (not detailed):
S60-series
quad-band GSM
WiFi (802.11 b/g)
HSDPA (3.5G)
3.2 megapixel camera with flash
integrated GPS and Nokia Maps

Enough said. Now this is what I called a true mobile phone.

28
Mar

only in malaysia

By Adrian 2 Comments
Categories: observation and rants and raves

I am always amazed and intrigued by what dogs can do. They have superior sense of smell and sounds, and they are extremely trainable. That’s why you see dogs are trained as police force (K9), guide dogs for the blind, and in some documentary, you will see dogs as maid (I have seen one that can do laundry!).

Now it seems like there is a new found way to better utilize our canine friends’ superior sense of smell - pirated DVD and CD sniffer.

You read that right. It was reported here and here. Just in case the news link are removed, below is the report from The Star newspaper.

Dogs to help sniff out pirated DVDs and CDs
By JO TIMBUONG
Friday, March 9, 2007

PETALING JAYA: What better way to sniff out pirated DVDs and CDs than to employ man’s best friend – the dog.

That’s what the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs is going to do.

It has trained several dogs that can point out packages containing DVDs or other discs.

It’s minister, Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal, will launch the sniffer dog unit at the MASkargo complex at the KLIA free trade zone on Tuesday.

However, it won’t be the first time that dogs are being used in the war on movie and music pirates.

In May last year, Britain’s Stansted airport became the first to put dogs on duty to sniff out pirated DVDs and CDs.

While dogs are reliable in uncovering hidden caches of illegal drugs or explosives, they cannot differentiate between a pirated DVD and a genuine copy.

But they would still be a bane to anyone trying to smuggle discs through the mail.

The new move is part of the ministry’s increased efforts to stamp out movie and music piracy.

It is also conducting “sting” operations on pirates operating on the Internet.

Now, honestly, we are in Malaysia and we don’t need a dog to sniff out those pirated DVDs and CDs. Hell, I can even do it blind-folded. Just walk around the streets and you can find those pirated DVD sellers, so why need for a dogs? Worse of all, the dogs can’t even differentiate pirated and original DVDs but I can tell, from miles away, which one is original and which one is pirated.

Of course, this move is to sniff out the bags, luggage, containers with DVDs or CDs inside at the airport or cargo area. But that is just going to curb the export of those DVDs and CDs, and not solving the problem at root-level. But that is all good to me because the pirated DVD export market has nothing to do with me. I will continue to enjoy those pDVDs because our censorship board is crap. You can’t even enjoy a decent movie at the cinema nowadays.

Kissing scene is chopped. A bit of blood on the screen is chopped. Love scene (read: sex scene)? Well, in Malaysia we are living in a world of innocence so there is no sex. Cursing? Well sometimes it will be chopped as well. So what’s the point if we can’t even enjoy the full movie?

26
Mar

the monk who drove a lexus

By Adrian 2 Comments
Categories: rants and raves and weird shit

During the weekend, K, SH, my girlfriend and I went to Genting Highland for some fun and leisure (sort of like a short vacation) and we were staying at the Genting Hotel for one night. After spending hours and hours walking and gambling (which is another story), we finally decided to leave at 0730 this morning.

While waiting for K and SH to come down from their room so we could check-out from the hotel together, I waited for them outside to enjoy a cold mist on my face and I particularly love cold weather. There I saw a Lexus GS300, a RM 413,688.20 car [source from Paul Tan]. At first I didn’t give a fuck about it, and I was just looking around. Then, something caught my attention.

First of all, the number plate indicated that the car is from Singapore. And then I saw the driver. Its a monk. And inside the car there were a total of 5 monks.

I gave out a sigh and claimed, “Wow! Monk also drives a Lexus?”, and the police outside the hotel concurred by laughing. He told me, “Ya buddha pun pakai kerata canggih!” (Translation: Yes buddha is also driving a fancy car. Which is technically untrue as they are only a monk, not buddha but I didn’t want to waste my time explaining to him)

Now here is my take. I understand that there are thousands, if not millions, of people donating and contributing to the temple for good cause. So does that mean the monk can use those money to purchase a RM413K (about USD118,000) worth of car? (Yup, I know in US the Lexus GS 450h model, which has bigger capacity and a hybrid engine, is only selling at US 54,900 so we Malaysians are actually paying double, but Singapore got COE and other things, so the price is around the same)

Besides, isn’t it a bit too fucking flashy to drive a Lexus GS300? I mean, don’t they sometimes wonder what the normal people like me, or the keen followers, think about them driving a Lexus GS300? I mean, shitload of people can’t even afford a car like that, and yet a monk, without true license to earn money besides donations and contributions from the society, can afford one.

So if the temple is so rich, why not help the poor and the needy? Don’t tell me Singapore has no poor and needy people. That is just a bunch of bullshit. Okay, even if there is not a single poor and needy people in Singapore (Good job, Mr. Lee), the monk can help those in other nation as true Buddha teaching is “love without boundaries” (that means no differentiating color, race, religion, sex, or anything).

Anyway, I have no problem with monk driving a Honda City, Honda Civic, Toyota Vios and I won’t even recommend them to drive our national car (you know, the infamous Proton?). But Lexus GS300 is a LUXURY car. Now I have a problem with that.

By the way, what the fuck were they doing at Genting Highland, the City of Entertainment? (emphasize Entertainment) Genting Highland is a place very well-know for the casinos and other entertainment bits, so I can’t imagine why a monk should be in Genting. Many would argue that there is a temple on the way to Genting, but that’s BEFORE Genting Highland, and there is no way for the monks to miss that place as it is darn huge and the road is one way street (one way up and another way down).

 

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