Shermaine's Return

For the uninformed, MY GIRLFRIEND'S BACK!! haha.. my little kempo yamazaru monkey has returned to pluck peaches on yamazaru mountain (aka Bukit Batok). =)

Can u believe that in the past 10 mths or so of our relationship, we've spent only roughly 3 weeks together?? Well.. add this past week of her return to tht then. hehe.. it's been a fabulous week. How could we have spent so much time apart? gee.. *gives many adoring smoochies to dearest*

okok.. I think this is more fluff than most of you expect of me, so I shall limit this post and leave the rest to imagination. =)

life is bliss! shiawase!

Screen Singapore '05

Screen Singapore! In conjunction with National Day celebrations, they're bringing back selected locally produced movies! Prepare yourselves to laugh at ourselves!

I'm hoping to catch Mee Pok Man, Ring of Fury, They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong, Forever Fever, Zombie Dogs, Return to Pontianak.

The Return to Pontianak was directed by Djinn who was the creative genius behind the local film that I acted in - Perth. I want to see it cos everyone referred to that movie when I hadn't even heard of it. Anyway, I hear Perth's out in the theatres now, catch it and watch for the blur and the shadow that were me (really were me - I'm listed in the credits!).

I wonder why they put "05" in the title.. there're prolly not that many other local movies for another Screen Singapore 06 or smtg is there? haha

Sin City

I managed to watch Sin City yesterday, the long-awaited movie adaptation of Frank Miller's fantastic noir comics. After reading the preview in First, I got even more impatient and committed an illegal act in order to watch it as soon as i could. How ironic, the characters in sin city wouldn't blink an eye if they had to kill in a second.

The comic was black n white with splashes of colour for effect. For example, in "the babe wore red", everything was black n white except the babe in red, of course. Similarly, in the movie, blood is sometimes white, red or black, depending on the shadows.. tht's the beauty of noir. Sin City was hardcore, and it hit u hard like a brass knuckle worn by hands hired to off u for no reason or the heavy butt of a gun whose barrel was previously keeping ur mouth open. But it was a fabulous read, and it stuck in my head for days after. The movie does the same thing. Go watch the flick. It's the best movie based on a comic that I've come across. Rodriguez really brought the comic to the screen, the mood, the feel, the imagery and the aftertaste. bloody.


"Deadly little Miho", my favourite character.


Check out this site to see how true to the comic the movie is. The cast are almost perfect, the outfits too! I was disappointed that they cast that odd-looking chick frm 2 Fast 2 Furious as Miho, but her scenes changed my mind totally! And ohyea, disappointed too that Jessica Alba's Nancy (her character inspired many artists' versions) wore a bra. In any case, director Robert Rodriguez based the script on the original dialogue with little changes, and he even replicated scenes panel by frame as in the comic. Fabulous! It prolly helped that Frank Miller himself was onset directing as well.


To get the books, check out Amazon.

Pointless

Do you know why Singaporeans don't speak up?

Sometimes, it just seems like a complete waste of time. The atmosphere is so stifling.. well-meaning intentions get shot down. Can't we see the best way to live is to conform and just do? Dictatorship for everyone!

P.S, this isn't really abt the government.

After putting up the previous post, I realised smtg.. London explosions, 33+ ppl dead, many wounded, entire developed city centre transport network halted. Significant enuff selldown in after-hours trading on a Taiwan futures contract (usually after-hours trading is a shadown of normal trading. And this selldown more than equalled normal hours selldowns). Taiwan..

2004 December - Tsunami hits Asia. many HUNDRED THOUSANDS dead, many more injured. Entire geographies re-geographed. Insignificant blip in the financial market that holiday other than the economies of those particular badly-hit countries..

Just a comparison that was going thru my head in the shower earlier..

On this day, the London Explosions..

Today, a disaster occurred in a major city that would rival the 9/11 one several years ago. How I wished I had been in the pits then, trading n scalping my fortune, by taking a position and not cutting it. Millions were made n lost that day, and in the retracements the week after. In my office, with all our live news reports, and our price feeds, and the Reuters program.. I only knew abt the tragedy when I got OUT of the office and into my van.

Today, unfortunately, CC left early, the TV which we turned off at lunch - we forgot to turn back on after, and I had closed shop for the day, sighing at wat a tough day it had been on MSCI Taiwan. The Reuters program (where we get our up to the minute live news information) of course was happily turned off in the home of the boss, who happened to be at the hospital cos his month-old kid was coughing and had to have phlegm mechanically removed from her system.. (eww).

So yes, essentially, during the whole event, I was playing my game - Guild Wars - too.. What can I say? Prepare myself for the aftershock tmr lor.. missed the move liao. sian.

Kendo robot?


Click here!

I 'yam wat I 'yam

wat's to say? I had a great month at work, I love my work. I got a new mode of transportation, which I love, and I've got new specs. The best bit? my dear gf in faraway Japan is finally returning to sunny singapore frm her exchange stint!

I have gripes, but I've become a mouse, lost the ability to bitch n moan and wax lyrical abt things online. I seem to have censored myself in a way. That's wat makes me part of the human horde of easily-controlled and manipulated drones, i guess. Speak not, break not, live not.

Why can't ppl just be happy n satisfied? muz we alwiz make ourselves upset? muz we alwiz live by emotion after emotion - happy, sad, disappointed, ecstatic, gleeful.. sure we all wanna be somewhere we're not, we wanna be someone we're not, but the blunt truth is that - we're who we are. and that individuality is smtg to be happy n proud of. I guess I learnt that from reading Popeye comics. u'd nvr have caught me saying stuff like that when I was growing up. Thank god we learn n change as we live n grow.