tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85670838654493596242024-02-20T18:37:43.949+08:00eslabsBlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-85569997176690142862009-12-17T16:08:00.005+08:002009-12-17T17:12:55.090+08:00Avatar is not the game changer that is hyped up to be<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggnj8q47JaCMjcQ-vag-7QrHIK4VWiGBkpDacTuFrEQtlxFmtCcfmmq7r3lf1z0remyz3ZSWLjXMczbDp8URk8IcQMuM4sXJcBaXzxEqbYWs1CRpbMRt4l297OCiG4WY-Mj_hpYGCVtNA/s1600-h/avatar-movie-poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggnj8q47JaCMjcQ-vag-7QrHIK4VWiGBkpDacTuFrEQtlxFmtCcfmmq7r3lf1z0remyz3ZSWLjXMczbDp8URk8IcQMuM4sXJcBaXzxEqbYWs1CRpbMRt4l297OCiG4WY-Mj_hpYGCVtNA/s320/avatar-movie-poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416129358697747298" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Avatar is the first movie I've watched in 3D. The hype is that it is made to be watched in 3D, and the 3D is not some afterthought tacked onto the movie like some other 3D movies. But being this is my first 3D experience, I'm unable compare Avatar's 3D to other movie's 3D, but from what I've seen, it gives a different experience, but not really essential. I have to admit that 3D does add something to the experience of watching the movie, but what it adds just isn't enough for it to be something that will change how people go watch a movie altogether.<br /><br />Apart from adding something, 3D also takes something away. If you're not used to wearing glasses, then wearing those 3D glasses while watching the movie isn't really "comfortable". You never really forget that you're wearing glasses. The feel of it on your face, and the glass itself gives you a feeling like you're watching a movie through a window. And wearing glasses also makes the movie darker than normal. Some dark scenes become just too dark to see what's happening.<br /><br />But the CG in Avatar really does push the boundaries of what has been done before. What they've really nailed is the facial expressions on virtual characters. That, they got it almost perfect. But as for the human/humanoid body movement, they've got most of it right, but some if it just isn't that good. But one GC element that they made "their's" bio-luminescence. Nobody has done it, and if they have it was never as good as what is seen here. The CG of mechanical things like vehicles isn't the best of what we've seen. Transformers 2 did a way better job of it than Avatar. And the vehicle and mech designs in the movie seems as if James Cameron is stuck in the 90s. They seem dated.<br /><br />In the end, what makes a movie isn't the CG, it's the story. And the story in Avatar isn't a very original story. It is about humans trying to exploit the riches of a foreign planet at the expense of the aliens living there. Sure James Cameron did a great job of fleshing out the environment of Pandora, the alien planet, but as to what takes place on the planet, he could've done better. The dialog is very simplistic, but it's not as Star Wars prequel bad. There's nothing "edgy" to the story. It's very straight forward ,feels like it's a story made for a kids movie. There isn't any plot twists that turn things upside down.<br /><br />So it has beautiful CG, but has a mediocre story. It still can be enjoyable if it has great action. But I'm sad to say that the action does not redeem the movie to enter the "enjoyably fun" category. The final battle is a big one, but I never really got into it. Maybe it's the 3D glasses, maybe it's just the direction, but it didn't work for me. What makes an action scene work is choreography and damage. As for the choreography, there isn't really much opportunity to implement cool choreography in the action scenes as most of the action is organism vs. machine. It's organism vs. orgasm is where choreography can shine. And as for damage, in their effort to keep the movie PG, there is very minimal blood splatter, and the vehicular damage wasn't very dramatic.<br /><br />So there it is. Avatar. A movie that wanted to change things, and change may very well come if enough studios jump on the bandwagon, but if seen as what it is, a movie, it's just mediocre.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-89575491440322046342009-09-28T11:18:00.002+08:002009-09-28T11:22:41.390+08:00Transformers 2 Is Way Better Than The First One<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmz5G5zCVdPMz1PTmfNvexkHfoYT6sohMhL6bKHMHK0K2wb4AHZRZbWfn3l3c5fnyE5QSPUA3aCq071JeEebcf77LWYN1IEdg6yiO_VmXUy41zMEMcpQFqEElPW4WGMR7BwyqUYkSpgEk/s1600-h/transformers-2-poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 205px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmz5G5zCVdPMz1PTmfNvexkHfoYT6sohMhL6bKHMHK0K2wb4AHZRZbWfn3l3c5fnyE5QSPUA3aCq071JeEebcf77LWYN1IEdg6yiO_VmXUy41zMEMcpQFqEElPW4WGMR7BwyqUYkSpgEk/s320/transformers-2-poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386353284322136930" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I hated the first Transformers movie. The reason I hated it was because I had very high expectations for the movie. Being a fan of the cartoon series, I expected it to have a serious tone and a coherent story. The movie could have been so much better in the right hands. I couldn't understand at that time why anyone would enjoy the shitty juvenile excuse of a movie. After experiencing the first movie, naturally I decided not to spend money to see the sequel and waited the for dvdrip to be released. The first movie also lowered my expectations for the sequel, and the all round bad reviews that the second movie got when it was released in theaters didn't help either.<br /><br />Yesterday, the dvdrip was released and after watching it, I am surprised to say that I enjoyed the movie a lot. The silly jokes somehow worked for me this time, and the nonsensical story actually made sense to me. Now it's the opposite, I can't understand why people hate this movie so passionately. It's not the greatest movie of all time, but it's a summer action movie that delivers what it advertises.<br /><br />If you are going to watch this movie, make sure you watch it in HD. One regret I had while watching the movie was not waiting for the HD version of it to be available. I did watch the 3 cd version of the dvdrip, but it just wasn't comparable to the 720p version I saw from the sample I downloaded. This movie is made to be watched in HD. The action and and special effects are what I enjoyed most about the movie and it needs to be seen in all their HD glory. They have toned down the use of the "shaky cam" technique compared to the first movie and as a result, the action was more discernable this time. You actually know who's fighting whom most of the time and which limb they are using to beat each other up. Plus, the use of slow motion for "cool" action set pieces helped too.<br /><br />My advice for anybody that's going to watch Transformers 2 is to turn off your brain, get in mood to see lots of explosions and huge robots fighting each other with some juvenile jokes sprinkled in between. You'll be rewarded with two and a half hours of pure unadulterated fun.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-64331349505561574822009-08-13T19:21:00.004+08:002009-08-13T19:26:13.403+08:00District 9 Is The Best Movie Of 2009 So Far<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGuguueQ7HR-aHxgUrX6nkYKYyWQbU1ugw2Kf9BBxApF8hF9gZF9qSThMxXZ1rGlmFU5DV-6K3U_6UbCnkerfuEIwO3dYvrtVUHHlNz3DnSUt2B6vcGD-7_zlSA6VoZpEf_iw5oMMID5k/s1600-h/district-9-poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGuguueQ7HR-aHxgUrX6nkYKYyWQbU1ugw2Kf9BBxApF8hF9gZF9qSThMxXZ1rGlmFU5DV-6K3U_6UbCnkerfuEIwO3dYvrtVUHHlNz3DnSUt2B6vcGD-7_zlSA6VoZpEf_iw5oMMID5k/s320/district-9-poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369407849616121426" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Saying this movie is good would be an understatement. The movie has it all, a very intriguing deep plot, good acting and great action. If I was to find a flaw in this movie, it would be the shaky cam technique employed at the beginning part of the movie and also at the very end. The shaky parts are supposedly documentary clips telling the story of Wikus, the protagonist. But rather than add to the feel of it, the shakiness is just nauseating. They just over did it. But after a while into the movie, they got out of the documentary mode and things couldn't be any better. And the special effects in his movie will have you believing that these aliens are real.<br /><br />It's better that you go into this movie not knowing the deeper plot as a big part of the movie's entertainment value for me is the parts when things look hopeless and you really feel the despair and hopelessness of the characters. The only thing you need to know going in is that there are aliens stranded on earth and they are put in slums.<br /><br />This is one of those movies that teases you that it's nearing its end, but inside, you go "No, I want more. It can't end like this", and the movie hears you and gives you more. And it's primed for a great sequel. The potential that this franchise has is just enormous. The way they can expand the story is just limitless and all of them can add to it's lore. This is a classic franchise in the making. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-9218926539577359682009-05-07T06:12:00.006+08:002009-05-07T21:51:59.825+08:00Ovrebo, not Iniesta who stopped Chelsea from reaching Champions League final<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhckM2r0OAyATaRTKRFqw4R18HWNw633PyLD2g4-kkDpDlb_c4aJ7yrcWJVHIIfI0wm583XPURg4McVdfvWqERDOjg3JMc1NShGxav6nPsZ1RF-S79obmkumbZzuTVBqvkjSzVJQKBSW3Q/s1600-h/ovrebo_tom_v2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 248px; height: 290px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhckM2r0OAyATaRTKRFqw4R18HWNw633PyLD2g4-kkDpDlb_c4aJ7yrcWJVHIIfI0wm583XPURg4McVdfvWqERDOjg3JMc1NShGxav6nPsZ1RF-S79obmkumbZzuTVBqvkjSzVJQKBSW3Q/s320/ovrebo_tom_v2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332841779266167522" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Tom Ovrebo</span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Don't be fooled. It wasn't Iniesta who prevented Chelsea from winning the match against Barcelona. It was Tom Ovrebo, the *&#@* referee. Personally, before the match I thought Barcelona was going to win it. I believed the hype that newspapers were spreading that Barcelano were playing football from the gods. I started watching the match as a neutral. I didn't actually mind who won. But as the game progressed, I was impressed how Chelsea held back Barca and actually had the better chances of the match. And they would have been at least 2 goals up if not for Ovrebo. Ovrebo's lack of courage to award Chelsea the penalty(s?) cost Chelsea the match when Iniesta scored in added time. I went into the game as a neutral, but by the end of the game, I felt the rage Chelsea fans would've felt towards the referee for denying Chelsea the match. This Tom Ovrebo guy should stick to being a psychologist and never referee a football match ever again.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-90539275568125571942009-04-13T19:00:00.009+08:002009-04-14T09:23:05.448+08:00SRWare Iron - Chrome Without The Google Updater Crap<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 285px; height: 103px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeIpustkJrjTSuYlmSAs8wsAzelSXreC9aaeat-WWkqLjru8-UmoDgX6OnaRjOhsUFBp49FnttBhEkIgotnJOVtML0M26-Yq99k-R5xZ60brATI2eupLP2n4c71J3lRCqUZSwe7BpgcD0/s320/logo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324155339988082930" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 64px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0Yi9MKJS8xK1AMkoMs55T5QBDfwNtSq6vA0UtOcFUZtpgxKCVd0Nv5Dw0j0y24aXFQdvnSfSaA-rcmAnbT80TZ5WqC-R87Gv_ZKEmxNWXZtCZDZJtyA7OuDmUPd1mcIoPOwpiW2wdBA/s320/werbung.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324155436301209458" border="0" /></a><br />I installed <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">Google Chrome</a> once way back when it was brand new back in September 2008. It was impressively fast, and the thing I liked best about it was the address bar. Once you start typing in the the address bar, the browser searches your bookmarks and history for what you're looking for and almost every time, the browser gets it right. Then you just hit "Enter", and off you go to where you want. Though <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html">Firefox 3</a> has a similar feature, but with Firefox 3, you can't just hit "Enter" after the search because the results are shown below the address bar in a dropdown menu. So you have to either hit the down arrow key or the "Tab" key once before hitting "Enter" to go to the first result of the search. With Chrome, the first result of the search is shown inside the address bar itself, that's why you can just hit "Enter" right away.<br /><br />But Chrome's primary weakness was it's lack of extensions. As a power user, you need extensions to make the browser you're using and the page you're visiting to work for you the way you want to. So after using it for a few days, I went back to Firefox. From my short experience with Chrome, the one thing I hated most about it was the fact that it installed Google Updater on my computer and they made it very hard to get rid of it. It's designed to always run in the background and check for updates for any of Google desktop applications you have on your machine. I don't like softwares that loads on startup and check for updates without my explicit permission. And this reason alone have made me stay away from Chrome, that is, until recently.<br /><br />I was browsing through <a href="http://www.reddit.com/">reddit</a> and saw a <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/8bs6s/google_update_goes_open_source/">story that says google has made the Google Updater open source</a>. I thought if this is the case, then there might be a way to install Chrome without intsalling Google Updater. So I put forth the <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/8bs6s/google_update_goes_open_source/c08str1">question in the comments</a> section and got a reply linking me to a <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5163115/install-google-chrome-without-googles-pushy-updater">Lifehacker story</a> on how to do just that, but only it didn't. The story shows where to get the <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?standalone=1">standalone version of Chrome</a> that installs Chrome directly. You see, if you download Chrome from its official site, you are actually downloading Google Updater, and then the Google Updater downloads Chrome and installs it. However, the Lifehacker story fails to mention that even if you install the standalone version, googleupdater.exe still gets installed on your system as it comes as part of Chrome itself. The purpose of the Lifehacker story is more about helping users with non-existent or slow internet connection get Chrome installed on their machine. The standalone version can be installed on any machine without requiring an internet connection whereas if you downloaded it from the official site, you're actually downloading Google Updater and if you run that thing you downloaded an a machine that has no internet connection, then you won't be able to get Chrome installed.<br /><br />So, for those who want to install Chrome without having googleupdater.exe installed with it, the Lifehacker story was completely useless, or so it seems. This is where Web2.0 comes and saves the day. Browsing through the <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5163115/install-google-chrome-without-googles-pushy-updater#c11093151">comments for the Lifehacker story</a>, a reader commented that there's this thing called <a href="http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php">SRWare Iron</a>. As it turns out, SRWare Iron is exactly what I've been looking for-a stripped down version of Chrome without any of the Google Updater crap.<br /><br />I tried it out and it works as advertised. I'm not really going to use it as my primary browser. I'm working on a new project right now and I need to see the whether the web-based project works on the WebKit engine. My choices were either Safari or Chrome, but instead I found something better - Iron.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-82270830149184841602009-01-09T01:31:00.004+08:002009-01-09T01:42:53.550+08:00Slumdog Millionaire Is A Masterpiece<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwvAWYkTzTdvkK4wbbsui6vCAHGGtZFZO1Nd8apiqC553GbqtwXhVKtaNh6i0h9Z-nnZ0fk66Whb5ualHp3OZrc71FQHZ9iEqFFFLVlNnE8bTz1HO5F8rWob-FSB32NoJI5E0NeSPaQQ/s1600-h/2693979.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 151px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwvAWYkTzTdvkK4wbbsui6vCAHGGtZFZO1Nd8apiqC553GbqtwXhVKtaNh6i0h9Z-nnZ0fk66Whb5ualHp3OZrc71FQHZ9iEqFFFLVlNnE8bTz1HO5F8rWob-FSB32NoJI5E0NeSPaQQ/s320/2693979.0.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288979142069216162" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest product from Danny Boyle, the guy the brought us Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Sunshine but Slumdog Millionaire must be his best work yet.<br /><br />It's not one of those movies that gets critical acclaim for it's great acting, or eyeball exploding special effects, or any of those award show categories. It is great because it does what movies do, and does it in an almost perfect way. It takes the everyday Joe's fantasy, put it in film form, and make anybody who watches it live the fantasy, even if just for 2 hours.<br /><br />This movie is for the everyday Joe, what Twilight is for unpopular school girls, and Danny Boyle does it without the involvement of sparkling vampires.<br /><br />Right from the get go the movie pulls you in. It's not one of those slow burning movies. The movie tells about this kid from the slums of India, who goes on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire gameshow and reaches the final question. They ran out of time before the final question is asked so they have to continue the next day. The police find it hard to believe a slum kid can answer all those questions so they interrogate him and he tells how he got to know the answers. In telling it, he practically tells his life story. And he has been through a lot. However, it is rather convenient that in the movie, the events that lead to him knowing the answers to each question in the gameshow is in the same chronological order to the chronology of the questions that are asked on the gameshow. But hey, it's a movie and I'm not complaining. So it shows how he knows the answer to the first question from events from he was a kid, up to the answer to the penultimate question from events just moments before being asked the question.<br /><br />One of the things that sets this movie apart is how it shows India. This ain't your Bollywood India. It's the slums and how people go about their lives living there. Some scenes are harsh but at the same time, this is not one of those dark and gritty movies either. It actually is a feel good movie. Sure there are some hard reality shown in the movie but overall the movie is overwhelmingly feel good. It's so feel good that you can consider it to be Bollywood in a way. And that's why this movie is almost perfect. Everything was going perfectly in the movie, but how they wrapped it all up in the end seemed too Bollywood for me. Sure it's feel good, and I admit I did feel good, but I prefer my feel good endings have a bit more believability.<br /><br />But why am I arguing about believability when I'm an everyday Joe and I had an excellent 2 hours. Plus, the music is great too. A.R. Rahman.'Nuff said.<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_fSTBFLDblgZ_PH8fBJjRAP0MI1oRFzHAaw0zHq6eWgtYl6WETqJ3jUGZanKrOpJLMgRngKY5hn9kktH4y0vhHmjPebneOcpLWwipMC9j2jcFmDU6Ay85_lPVtABhIC_y-nMCu_Uriw/s1600-h/Slumdog-Millionaire-001.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_fSTBFLDblgZ_PH8fBJjRAP0MI1oRFzHAaw0zHq6eWgtYl6WETqJ3jUGZanKrOpJLMgRngKY5hn9kktH4y0vhHmjPebneOcpLWwipMC9j2jcFmDU6Ay85_lPVtABhIC_y-nMCu_Uriw/s320/Slumdog-Millionaire-001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288979737280992594" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-69665253483542657292008-07-11T04:29:00.005+08:002008-12-11T06:19:06.356+08:00The Love Guru Is Surprisingly Funny<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUr2tEMu9AzGgikGGab8d11VBsXdnIKCI1VIywc_ZkDZ79agk-PpR-MduyWL8UGf6DEeO_s5DFuJWUqDIY6M2-ki-5aLa-oc6DKTIB1tJwPWZtVWd7h69GLSwy39gN2XM57ihYPedSH4/s1600-h/the-love-guru.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUr2tEMu9AzGgikGGab8d11VBsXdnIKCI1VIywc_ZkDZ79agk-PpR-MduyWL8UGf6DEeO_s5DFuJWUqDIY6M2-ki-5aLa-oc6DKTIB1tJwPWZtVWd7h69GLSwy39gN2XM57ihYPedSH4/s320/the-love-guru.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221494339995026658" border="0" /></a><br />Even before the movie was released, this movie had bad reviews. I myself thought this was going to be a shitty movie. From the trailer, it looks as if Mike Myers is recycling his old jokes for this movie. The last fairly good movie of his was the first Austin Powers, and every movie after that was terrible. The first Mike Myers movie i saw was Wayne's World 2, and loved it.<br /><br />So after <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811138/">The Love Guru</a> was released, the critics ripped the movie apart, saying Mike Myers is a "has been" and has lost his magical touch. It currently has a 3.2 rating on IMDB. They complained that he keeps doing the some jokes over and over again in his movies, and they have a point there.<br /><br />Then yesterday, a screener of the movie appeared on the internets, and being that there has not been any good movies released on the net lately, I figured I'd give this one a shot. So after watching it, I was surprised at how funny I found it. Sure he rehashes some of his old jokes, but the rehashes worked well in the movie. These jokes worked better in this movie than in his Austin Powers movies. In his Austin Powers movies, he kinds of over-do it with his jokes, it's like "yeah, I get the joke already", but he keeps banging the joke on your head until it loses its funniness. It seems that he's learned from his mistakes and the jokes are done very well in this movie. He has learned when to stop.<br /><br />Plus, compared to his previous movies, this movie is heavier on word-play jokes than physical jokes. And I like it like that.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-57567899485637923982008-06-08T08:36:00.003+08:002008-12-11T06:19:06.549+08:00Definitely, Maybe Is A Recommended Watch<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfH69n_g7hX8vaa4pL1Sfk4jfRul6XLYVNlHsIW5U_7Rwo-Ob1MsJIAmNvbJ042zUsFLH8aB1sFwxMEzqKLtBSMHJ0Q6E_JhzQjBy1QmtMGl-q68wC-Y2HM79LTszQ46Hu_c4jED6wSqU/s1600-h/definitely_maybe.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfH69n_g7hX8vaa4pL1Sfk4jfRul6XLYVNlHsIW5U_7Rwo-Ob1MsJIAmNvbJ042zUsFLH8aB1sFwxMEzqKLtBSMHJ0Q6E_JhzQjBy1QmtMGl-q68wC-Y2HM79LTszQ46Hu_c4jED6wSqU/s320/definitely_maybe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209309807039458946" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0832266/">Definitely, Maybe</a> is one of the better romantic comedies in recent times. Just like the poster says, it's from the makers of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/">Love Actually</a>, another recommended romantic comedy. The story is set in the 90s, so there's Nirvana and Bill Clinton references, but they are more than just references, they are an integral part of the story. Instead of a story about one guy with one woman, or 3 guys with 3 women, it's about 1 guy with 3 women.<br /><br />The story is told through flashbacks, the guy is telling this story to his daughter. The daughter wants to know about how the guy met her mother, so he tells her about the relationships he has had, and the daughter needs to guess which one is her mother. The story is heavier on the romantic side than the comedy side compared to Love Actually, but it's good. A highly recommended watch. And <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006969/">Elizabeth Banks</a> is hot.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-19165970279187282582008-06-02T02:18:00.003+08:002008-12-11T06:19:07.192+08:00Lost Season 4 Finale Is The Best Episode Yet<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiergwzgDA-S2v1UDHEUB5nq4eSPflazwfKQcRfd89kZKzseurwpRk11KPem1qOn4K-J_kvzdTEfeqFOoNbKcdbE8zKzbhtnBYoyiNMQ-QmJE3Y00I3v8Q4ivJqbqIrAOeBdpJaj0SwH_A/s1600-h/PDVD_002.BMP"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiergwzgDA-S2v1UDHEUB5nq4eSPflazwfKQcRfd89kZKzseurwpRk11KPem1qOn4K-J_kvzdTEfeqFOoNbKcdbE8zKzbhtnBYoyiNMQ-QmJE3Y00I3v8Q4ivJqbqIrAOeBdpJaj0SwH_A/s320/PDVD_002.BMP" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5207006646937803362" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Off the island they go<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiywoehah7kq1h45jTmdXkDZq_8Hhgd9imPR7nctViS9g5htemZHV6ZncVewFKRwMMptr0eqF_skaUKLj08eNfuOZnjcYRGhS4hBqHfMrbdZKO4AeDrdT3Bd2cQeP6CDNimeQxPxCkjNEk/s1600-h/PDVD_006.BMP"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiywoehah7kq1h45jTmdXkDZq_8Hhgd9imPR7nctViS9g5htemZHV6ZncVewFKRwMMptr0eqF_skaUKLj08eNfuOZnjcYRGhS4hBqHfMrbdZKO4AeDrdT3Bd2cQeP6CDNimeQxPxCkjNEk/s320/PDVD_006.BMP" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5207006642642836034" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Desmond finally reunited with Penny</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I've just finished watching the Lost season 4 finale, and it was by far the best episode yet. Every time Penny makes an appearance, the episode is surely going to be good, but this episode is almost perfect. It shows the actual rescue. The season started by implying that they're going to get rescued, but the actual rescue was only shown on the final episode. The so called rescuers that appeared at the start of the season weren't there on a rescue mission, but in the end they played a part in the rescue.<br /><br />It shows how only 6 of them manage to get off the island. Desmond is finally reunited with Penelope. It was the most satisfying moment of the entire series. After showing them searching for each other for several seasons, to see them finally together was very fulfilling.<br /><br />These Lost writers really are geniuses. They manage to find the perfect balance between resolving some story lines and to continue with some to make you want more. The show started with flashbacks, then this season, it's mostly flashforwards, but after the events of this season, it's hard to figure out how the format is going to be next season. It may very well be without any "flashes", showing events on and off the island as they occur. But that itself is going to be tricky, because the time on the island is different than time off the island. It's all about this space-time continuum.<br /><br />So after being rescued and living off the island for 3 years, circumstances have all the 6 rescued to want to go back to island. And how they do that is what season 5 is going to be all about. And going about doing that isn't going to be easy because Ben has moved island.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-86704279400457336432008-04-28T12:00:00.018+08:002008-12-11T06:19:13.497+08:00L.A. & Vegas<span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjztMmAJdER1nGxpp9JMzTWL-YaipBcWMKzOGBU1JSTLUnPPcdvJhBqUWnEeV3A3H7owcOyH0cYPzzxsVivZG8oGylfV3WdgBDGPoKUMIGHeuDSQ5S2T2xzAal2Lj8qUq7Nc2zqcLBEDU8/s1600-h/market_candy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjztMmAJdER1nGxpp9JMzTWL-YaipBcWMKzOGBU1JSTLUnPPcdvJhBqUWnEeV3A3H7owcOyH0cYPzzxsVivZG8oGylfV3WdgBDGPoKUMIGHeuDSQ5S2T2xzAal2Lj8qUq7Nc2zqcLBEDU8/s320/market_candy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952194057267026" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Farmers Market<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ApWuq8tDsWExbc1BBVbul8eFZEs8ka6z-RpKTLoRtfrVNyJiCnl3jBTuip43SlyYlsmpGEgmz9iszn3zSYuxSn1D-Wm8RbxFbuuo18vPUljRuAH_OfKxWS81cCGC_RDmx1r9spsAIvo/s1600-h/market_fruits.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ApWuq8tDsWExbc1BBVbul8eFZEs8ka6z-RpKTLoRtfrVNyJiCnl3jBTuip43SlyYlsmpGEgmz9iszn3zSYuxSn1D-Wm8RbxFbuuo18vPUljRuAH_OfKxWS81cCGC_RDmx1r9spsAIvo/s320/market_fruits.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952194057267042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Farmers Market<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ8C2CXY51cX7XYWBBS3KWFVO6Ilns0yBjmjdIl1FWYALWOemCpeqGVvFIbpPdBkXFsnV4igesZ3LmIwg0Aij7VXBtum8gimJHzAu_NTsz8-mhnksOWTvfEUcY0oWxtP04UTR0QXrwX4Q/s1600-h/mj_star.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ8C2CXY51cX7XYWBBS3KWFVO6Ilns0yBjmjdIl1FWYALWOemCpeqGVvFIbpPdBkXFsnV4igesZ3LmIwg0Aij7VXBtum8gimJHzAu_NTsz8-mhnksOWTvfEUcY0oWxtP04UTR0QXrwX4Q/s320/mj_star.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952198352234354" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Hollywood</span><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4scQfW26gkVGD2KphtlOugktd9zSbtDy4k9nipM1oAxw3Y-i1y63yqyPzVEDJflJD8LBCwQzI5LHav8mF47JJvCY8QyHKdx1kCfpAjo8hRIm-qwmwWVYvh6mxFCddvL-cj3LSp0I30w/s1600-h/grove_park.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4scQfW26gkVGD2KphtlOugktd9zSbtDy4k9nipM1oAxw3Y-i1y63yqyPzVEDJflJD8LBCwQzI5LHav8mF47JJvCY8QyHKdx1kCfpAjo8hRIm-qwmwWVYvh6mxFCddvL-cj3LSp0I30w/s320/grove_park.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951622826616578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Grove, just beside Farmers Market<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-pVDCWyPme-20AIVb0na7ZdTUVuFbX6-1-0L9Utp3Ysj5NcwwOX9nC1KO0FUaDxneRhUbTYm1KoB81sx8NyiQsHxOEG4fSxVronrZyJlzvTBhC2E4QGBotmbqiziS2JdKCraV6WMZOoI/s1600-h/hollywood_sign.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-pVDCWyPme-20AIVb0na7ZdTUVuFbX6-1-0L9Utp3Ysj5NcwwOX9nC1KO0FUaDxneRhUbTYm1KoB81sx8NyiQsHxOEG4fSxVronrZyJlzvTBhC2E4QGBotmbqiziS2JdKCraV6WMZOoI/s320/hollywood_sign.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951622826616594" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Hollywood<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiWn281Q4MptcgwBtEBr9Hzw8RVBRUkMX55ULfhDU8ljzYsyRIR3na-16IQH6dQ4ynyYdiOlbJyu9OBIJ2PXvd5-VhJRGiJm6cmPAon03TTOsadmkubk30xXeD_i5pif1o2DsJ6sQh-ms/s1600-h/hooters_shooting.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiWn281Q4MptcgwBtEBr9Hzw8RVBRUkMX55ULfhDU8ljzYsyRIR3na-16IQH6dQ4ynyYdiOlbJyu9OBIJ2PXvd5-VhJRGiJm6cmPAon03TTOsadmkubk30xXeD_i5pif1o2DsJ6sQh-ms/s320/hooters_shooting.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951627121583906" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Filming going on in front Hooters in Hollywood</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdukuED4cDxBeg5N1GV7upFdTfdxf8bL9RNvASqXAwntxZwN8Qwp295b-vZ4XSB8Il4IDmNJ_W7zgJJQw9fLpu6Qwo51Jls9DCirI6WMh0An18X3eD5lXM4Mzg4ZJKdw_54xHW26hPysk/s1600-h/disney_hall.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdukuED4cDxBeg5N1GV7upFdTfdxf8bL9RNvASqXAwntxZwN8Qwp295b-vZ4XSB8Il4IDmNJ_W7zgJJQw9fLpu6Qwo51Jls9DCirI6WMh0An18X3eD5lXM4Mzg4ZJKdw_54xHW26hPysk/s320/disney_hall.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951030121129634" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Walt Disney Hall</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc2Fl5kZZ4PmGLozzDx8lGpPRKvhp5DxVoc0UH_7rYq6Ctn5SSrhmH2pTPyxmLeWVr-uDHTwjRgkyOOyAoT8BCUnxkC0UiI_j9wXznfJoN2usAnuVRsWpx0xk9iiQif5OElrMz5-aWwXo/s1600-h/e&y_statue.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc2Fl5kZZ4PmGLozzDx8lGpPRKvhp5DxVoc0UH_7rYq6Ctn5SSrhmH2pTPyxmLeWVr-uDHTwjRgkyOOyAoT8BCUnxkC0UiI_j9wXznfJoN2usAnuVRsWpx0xk9iiQif5OElrMz5-aWwXo/s320/e&y_statue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951060185900738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The famous & weird statue at Ernst & Young Plaza, downtown L.A.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikg0cAISwna41NXw_vuGIvPa8IDcYOBkORAym_TypqqpMedRA0RsOB9wlt0h7HAiPkKwNum5m3huoo9Spqad3F9mxXsw3013eV7SBaPCqsVUnK8B_rt5zyACtSOO0IWoXabcnyCzBDJTI/s1600-h/downtown_far.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikg0cAISwna41NXw_vuGIvPa8IDcYOBkORAym_TypqqpMedRA0RsOB9wlt0h7HAiPkKwNum5m3huoo9Spqad3F9mxXsw3013eV7SBaPCqsVUnK8B_rt5zyACtSOO0IWoXabcnyCzBDJTI/s320/downtown_far.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951047300998834" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Downtown L.A. from Getty Center<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5SkaMB7voKypLUpjXm0WxCEBAsT0wPhefnx0M9RQPLSFPlWkgVDFik0QemqUVH78sc4igdcGlSvjKpG4NPH07b3OUgUOiS9Asn7-vWIbNz14-xtWJTOwtAhog2M9C9uRnBe1zhhJBiLE/s1600-h/getty_center_fountain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5SkaMB7voKypLUpjXm0WxCEBAsT0wPhefnx0M9RQPLSFPlWkgVDFik0QemqUVH78sc4igdcGlSvjKpG4NPH07b3OUgUOiS9Asn7-vWIbNz14-xtWJTOwtAhog2M9C9uRnBe1zhhJBiLE/s320/getty_center_fountain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951073070802658" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Getty Center</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZTuUkO_cs9h-xPh6WHoS8BAt0AYl0-FHOwdXxNkpUWSZJRkhUTvbNNJNZ_9QDpP6bAEUnVThyphenhyphenrpd6OHoTZZmm_FnG19iuFunSETpElRHs-zLTvxVH01AAnKMnF09egzOKHGJau-sncm8/s1600-h/getty_circle_fountain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZTuUkO_cs9h-xPh6WHoS8BAt0AYl0-FHOwdXxNkpUWSZJRkhUTvbNNJNZ_9QDpP6bAEUnVThyphenhyphenrpd6OHoTZZmm_FnG19iuFunSETpElRHs-zLTvxVH01AAnKMnF09egzOKHGJau-sncm8/s320/getty_circle_fountain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951614236681970" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Getty Center</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></div>So I went to the U.S. of a about a month ago, more precisely, I was in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.It was my first time in the U.S., and also first time outside of Asia in more than 20 years. I expected to see white men everywhere, but it was easier to spot Hispanics than white men in L.A. And I blended right in with them. I think I was even mistaken for a gang member at one point, but that's another story. The cashiers there speak to me in Spanish so I have to speak to them in English first to give them a head's up that I'm no Latino.<br /><br />The climate is dry. Coming a country where the humidity is high, this became a problem. My lips started to crack, eyes became red, nose started to bleed and my skin became stretched. And at Venice beach, I thought it was spring, the weather isn't that hot as it is in Malaysia, the last thing on my mind was putting on sunscreen. But when I got back, my face was burned.<br /><br />The cars over there actually stop for pedestrians. The respect that they give to pedestrians is surprising. The freeway surface isn't that good, compared to what we have in Malaysia. So Samy Vellu isn't 100% incompetent as I would like to think he is. And also, you can turn right on a red light. The reason for that is because their roads are all in a grid. So it's very orderly. You can't do that in Malaysia.<br /><br />The people are friendlier than I thought they would be. Bus and cab drivers always greet you. You don't always get that here. The public transport system is very good in L.A. The Metro rail and buses all publish their routes online, so it's very easy to plan your journey. The only problem is with the non-Metro buses and also on less popular routes where the buses aren't as frequent.<br /><br />But one thing that bugged me the most is this culture of "tips". They expect tips for the slightest of things. WTF is up with that? Why can't they just do their damn job. Don't extort people out of their money. Even cab fares need tips. This tip thing is needs to go away.<br /><br />Maybe I wasn't at the right place at the right time, but in L.A. I expected to see a hot chick at every corner but that wasn't the case. But the percentage does increase as you get closer to the coast line. But in Downtown, not so much. And downtown L.A isn't as busy as I thought it would be. And it's quite small. You can explore the whole downtown area on foot, which I did.<br /><br />Other than Downtown, I also went on a tour that took me around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I thought I saw Stan Lee, or at least somebody that looked like him at the Farmers Market. The next I visited the Getty Center. Then on the day after that, my plan was to do the beaches. Take the rail down to Long Beach, then go back up a bit and do a triple of Redondo, Manhattan and Hermosa beaches. But by the time I was finished with Redondo, it was already late, so I didn't get to Hermosa or Manhattan beach.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiatE35rZoFe9vfCFnFKa7-pr0UjyIJ9B_O4zpZYW2SCdRLVfoPpI17Eg9YlgFpRDo8AvopQaJ81-VeSsKcqTk0sQgjLIFY0uik9lXjcFzHerZCYwPAc_ymqusWFEymTFG-gkHpo2Nlcwk/s1600-h/long_beach_1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiatE35rZoFe9vfCFnFKa7-pr0UjyIJ9B_O4zpZYW2SCdRLVfoPpI17Eg9YlgFpRDo8AvopQaJ81-VeSsKcqTk0sQgjLIFY0uik9lXjcFzHerZCYwPAc_ymqusWFEymTFG-gkHpo2Nlcwk/s320/long_beach_1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952189762299714" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Long Beach</span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHU9y89kUCwl2w-bsirNA_mSNg_ajmve-4_XiirMeDgy816cCUSjlBpQ2cgQCboYnHXiD3eyALS0lmQumwCYfOvGauoqybpnjZteufxOWXZMhAQNoXDP0POQn2QH94N5_r0Jm_to2qig/s1600-h/redondo_pier.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHU9y89kUCwl2w-bsirNA_mSNg_ajmve-4_XiirMeDgy816cCUSjlBpQ2cgQCboYnHXiD3eyALS0lmQumwCYfOvGauoqybpnjZteufxOWXZMhAQNoXDP0POQn2QH94N5_r0Jm_to2qig/s320/redondo_pier.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952198352234370" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Redondo Beach</span><br /></div><br />Next, I did a double of Venice and Santa Monica. The first thing that I noticed about Venice/Santa Monica beach is how wide it is. The amount of sand you have to wade through just to get to the water, it's like a 3 minute walk in the sand. This is where da girls at.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPywNZJErBHHS4wudNA1OCENUtRKpjJ_MlWUHhUbKrRnrIthptHeKl4Mb2sgvRA_EoFckYMENqdzKAd7sx2Uge6ZqY15VOOdJouBZgekIvQ9NdwGvYPDFQ86UxL4d1MR6mqcFXQPCmeX8/s1600-h/venice.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPywNZJErBHHS4wudNA1OCENUtRKpjJ_MlWUHhUbKrRnrIthptHeKl4Mb2sgvRA_EoFckYMENqdzKAd7sx2Uge6ZqY15VOOdJouBZgekIvQ9NdwGvYPDFQ86UxL4d1MR6mqcFXQPCmeX8/s320/venice.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202953156129941474" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Venice Beach<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5hXHkCLFTW9nf5WHnIjruy2wKZ5ZjyHRQUE9cn9MVV_HSACtNF8JFAXmQLqzPUF006sLP4X1wLWf3s5f3XBsPq0m1bIXSId1-p7msEl2QViZuUQVvVg0Gn2_zJb0ND3Vq3ETfns90Oc/s1600-h/baywatch.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5hXHkCLFTW9nf5WHnIjruy2wKZ5ZjyHRQUE9cn9MVV_HSACtNF8JFAXmQLqzPUF006sLP4X1wLWf3s5f3XBsPq0m1bIXSId1-p7msEl2QViZuUQVvVg0Gn2_zJb0ND3Vq3ETfns90Oc/s320/baywatch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202919273132942962" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Baywatch on Venice Beach.<br /><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRl9XAcFMBqpsGLht_k3z8SvUJ1nEM7K0tsGAhaUR2EltRaJOcH9dMbjyiJNUjYkiXcANOPv-x7K2igiii1kDavx4ZuGhAWX05vm58U2Xy2l2C_b4STWRmEFS8AoGchWRbBbCUUtU-4Q/s1600-h/venice_trees.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRl9XAcFMBqpsGLht_k3z8SvUJ1nEM7K0tsGAhaUR2EltRaJOcH9dMbjyiJNUjYkiXcANOPv-x7K2igiii1kDavx4ZuGhAWX05vm58U2Xy2l2C_b4STWRmEFS8AoGchWRbBbCUUtU-4Q/s320/venice_trees.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202953160424908786" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Venice Beach<br /><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhTZZH8jM4h49MIt6uZOeaetGEBr5la48kIcjM0k5s0bkpNTxSreWoWY9lkwWcZ8MiBrAzK_VKV4KYJj2PwGL9kz5-C_JZTzlexjzSqmtKxUTipC_NVs4h2GxawHq1lmeYiqjSDutNZE/s1600-h/santa_monica_beach.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhTZZH8jM4h49MIt6uZOeaetGEBr5la48kIcjM0k5s0bkpNTxSreWoWY9lkwWcZ8MiBrAzK_VKV4KYJj2PwGL9kz5-C_JZTzlexjzSqmtKxUTipC_NVs4h2GxawHq1lmeYiqjSDutNZE/s320/santa_monica_beach.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952748108048274" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Santa Monica Beach<br /><br /></span> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMdapku6aobieJCkWuiTa2ACIVXiUE9YtFixTGHLhFkc3AUq5KhHXyyLVO4gfZ5izSmCr0wn2KS3AvVOMiu_RdSJz8WfNLCTrfUp27eMYXEiLSWaYKirnB1bAUXAey2J-TWjEq71rgb2g/s1600-h/santa_monica_beach2b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMdapku6aobieJCkWuiTa2ACIVXiUE9YtFixTGHLhFkc3AUq5KhHXyyLVO4gfZ5izSmCr0wn2KS3AvVOMiu_RdSJz8WfNLCTrfUp27eMYXEiLSWaYKirnB1bAUXAey2J-TWjEq71rgb2g/s320/santa_monica_beach2b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952756697982882" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Santa Monica Beach<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq5nH_kkb8OuR3FA_8ZXbI53GJdWdUG18ILy_DoBAPbd1uo4tlCxQfsC4SuEAZJ8Z2QU4fw1wwhyMRm7c3c79FbzMbyXyskEVuhQPPaJKywvDOp1vz9mxuWMrg8qWZCrBEVwscGq3eQj8/s1600-h/hot.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq5nH_kkb8OuR3FA_8ZXbI53GJdWdUG18ILy_DoBAPbd1uo4tlCxQfsC4SuEAZJ8Z2QU4fw1wwhyMRm7c3c79FbzMbyXyskEVuhQPPaJKywvDOp1vz9mxuWMrg8qWZCrBEVwscGq3eQj8/s320/hot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951640006485810" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">It's Hot</span><br /><br /></div>And in Vegas, there wasn't much travelling to do becsue the hotel was right there on the strip, so I had time to really watch tv there. I switched through the late night talk shows that they have there. There's Leno and Conan on NBC, and there's Letterman and Craig Ferguson on CBS. Of the 4, I actually like Craig Ferguson the best. Craig Ferguson is Drew Carey's boss, Mr. Wick, from the Drew Carey Show. His talk show is actually very funny. He doesn't have a sidekick to pick things up if the shows gets slow, because it doesn't. It's a one man show, and still he manages to beat the others in funniness. When Letterman calls it quits, he should get Letterman's slot.<br /><br />Vegas reaches it's peak on Fridays and Saturdays. People start coming in droves on Friday afternoon. They do whatever they went there to do, then leave on Sunday, and go to work on Monday. So it's nice to go for a walk on weekdays when its not as crowded.<br /><br />The dancing fountains at the Bellagio is reason enough to go to Vegas. And the best part is it's free. It is easily one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It starts at sunset every night, but they turn it off if it's too windy.<br /><br />And there's quite a big population of Muslims in Vegas. There are even mosques there, but not on the strip. So, halal food in Vegas isn't a problem. There are halal restaurants and even halal grocery stores. My mom bought some chicken and rice to cook. While there, there was this halal restaurant that served Philly Steak. At first I thought it was a steak as in one big piece of meat, but a Philly Steak is actually a sandwich. What?! I expected a steak and they gave me a damn sandwich?! But the sandwich is actually good. It's filled with little slices of meat with melted cheese together with sliced mushroom, and it's really really good. I wish they had it here in Malaysia.<br /><br />And I also went to see Ka, a Cirque Du Soleil production. I've always wanted too see a Cirque Du Soleil show ever since I saw a documentary about them on tv. The show was okay, it had it's moments. It was the only Cirque show on discount at the time. Ka is more about the props, stage and special effects and a bit lacking in the actual circus acrobatics stuff, compared to other Cirque shows.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQZx19oyeQbXXMhmi7ASDlCD3yNaRJeUuX9lOsT9sj37_ZeO98BuBZnzxyxr_veqSTuVVU19nclNji7-z5sbcvdriMswEX0jrxxUDRqqP8i5f7yAqtcVc1v7ua4Oezn3PG2_21QBRVNlM/s1600-h/strip_night1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQZx19oyeQbXXMhmi7ASDlCD3yNaRJeUuX9lOsT9sj37_ZeO98BuBZnzxyxr_veqSTuVVU19nclNji7-z5sbcvdriMswEX0jrxxUDRqqP8i5f7yAqtcVc1v7ua4Oezn3PG2_21QBRVNlM/s320/strip_night1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952756697982898" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Vegas Strip<br /><br /></span> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9vO7mqDzI7O8HKWV6ZK54dSaws49AvY2cP8D9ol1uVe1C9tkar9cWmcj52uwVhiyk0PHLSb7MwemQ9q7Tz8BABTrnG91FcLHtQuHiUJq0vfrBkzeOpiAu6VmX3bsGCwZ8EGZvWqY5h5o/s1600-h/strip_night2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9vO7mqDzI7O8HKWV6ZK54dSaws49AvY2cP8D9ol1uVe1C9tkar9cWmcj52uwVhiyk0PHLSb7MwemQ9q7Tz8BABTrnG91FcLHtQuHiUJq0vfrBkzeOpiAu6VmX3bsGCwZ8EGZvWqY5h5o/s320/strip_night2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952756697982914" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Vegas Strip<br /><br /></span> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQxkGN99lpaqBcuSc-D_KmQNznFxmtOCn-j1Ot-EovCJivffZHTUyfKhvWuEN-2ZeKXPMEnLj8-pdUH_-GbMntz2FjmqlzFpigabIdZJlTz_pWJglFuJX_4xBT-noHLIVli64MJZnF-mc/s1600-h/trump_tower.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQxkGN99lpaqBcuSc-D_KmQNznFxmtOCn-j1Ot-EovCJivffZHTUyfKhvWuEN-2ZeKXPMEnLj8-pdUH_-GbMntz2FjmqlzFpigabIdZJlTz_pWJglFuJX_4xBT-noHLIVli64MJZnF-mc/s320/trump_tower.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202952765287917522" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The newly opened Trump International in Vegas<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8f3NU8-nLvMTBEsJ9sL1o0IaHdC93yUdHqAPs6m_7etMUvQ0kMBhQ-jspzT3ljV874rCUz9fg0Ak9T6LVp4FlO4Vg5NOssARHc80QlxYzvIlGvjBDJ0p9wnFPrO3sr-cT_UF4ZY3DQvY/s1600-h/encore_wynn_palazzo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8f3NU8-nLvMTBEsJ9sL1o0IaHdC93yUdHqAPs6m_7etMUvQ0kMBhQ-jspzT3ljV874rCUz9fg0Ak9T6LVp4FlO4Vg5NOssARHc80QlxYzvIlGvjBDJ0p9wnFPrO3sr-cT_UF4ZY3DQvY/s320/encore_wynn_palazzo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202951064480868050" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Encore,Wynn and Palazzo on the Vegas strip<br /></span> <div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUaVMtIV8KoPZCJQFHXxa2wphd8qIUXyOCLS2O1IThkWfmJVmaWQ0Poq7Nk-tnSEmkxmpVJ92_5jfxYJX-b1GaOf5PHGkWcc1hbbajHescT0XBoZyUNfFhtfj7y_mc3331BWOA9TqU1dU/s1600-h/bellagio_casino.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUaVMtIV8KoPZCJQFHXxa2wphd8qIUXyOCLS2O1IThkWfmJVmaWQ0Poq7Nk-tnSEmkxmpVJ92_5jfxYJX-b1GaOf5PHGkWcc1hbbajHescT0XBoZyUNfFhtfj7y_mc3331BWOA9TqU1dU/s320/bellagio_casino.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202919273132942978" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Bellagio Casino<br /><br /></span> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMG50UB0A48YKN1c7GGygK0tyNcgPNcZl8PLvEWLWGnU7NJ3-7lfV8ds2h1cq3uln375e5kPeKUxxAjOq5BEUsXC-WBt5tr2IAVkBJN0jGHchwCG-pwSFKKGiNbE0Mw9B3wcK-985Xxdc/s1600-h/dancing_fountian.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMG50UB0A48YKN1c7GGygK0tyNcgPNcZl8PLvEWLWGnU7NJ3-7lfV8ds2h1cq3uln375e5kPeKUxxAjOq5BEUsXC-WBt5tr2IAVkBJN0jGHchwCG-pwSFKKGiNbE0Mw9B3wcK-985Xxdc/s320/dancing_fountian.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202919277427910290" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Bellagio dancing fountains.</span></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZjXS3p2uQ8bU4PtA7YxSjUxzmsGCCc12Cac8JxXVWRhwPzKJX9pOiJ7ApiGcomGZPHU5q9dF-l1OojZsL9pU1W6Qo95bfld0-GgNg4UnOuThr47bkzNySZpvSi23JIdICgZI81gLWdc/s1600-h/911_truth.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZjXS3p2uQ8bU4PtA7YxSjUxzmsGCCc12Cac8JxXVWRhwPzKJX9pOiJ7ApiGcomGZPHU5q9dF-l1OojZsL9pU1W6Qo95bfld0-GgNg4UnOuThr47bkzNySZpvSi23JIdICgZI81gLWdc/s320/911_truth.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202919268837975634" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Protest against income tax in Vegas. It seems that there's no law requiring individuals to pay income tax. It's only for businesses.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhXR531mu265Xhh1gNjZNwep3PlLXY4jXxUMc00LnfkNMDdKMNgqCA5ILQSRtVT9_zJS3CjlPi5faSYWpyntgfYGKlQLtbr3XKGPajrDAR2jxLMskRwO9_JbX3Eb2vULWMFTf_MtISy2o/s1600-h/barstow_station.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhXR531mu265Xhh1gNjZNwep3PlLXY4jXxUMc00LnfkNMDdKMNgqCA5ILQSRtVT9_zJS3CjlPi5faSYWpyntgfYGKlQLtbr3XKGPajrDAR2jxLMskRwO9_JbX3Eb2vULWMFTf_MtISy2o/s320/barstow_station.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202919268837975650" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Barstow Station. We took the Greyhound to travel between L.A. and Vegas. Barstow Station is somewhere in between.<br /><br /></span></div>I can go on writing a lot more about my trip but this is already the longest post on the blog. And it took me a long time to make this post. So it ends here. Plus, nobody reads my blog anyway. The reason I'm late in posting this is because I was waiting to finish editing all the photos that I took on my trip, but there just too many of them. So I'll attach the few good ones that I took, the rest of them will be on Flickr when I've finished editing all of them.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-86484967374297583932008-03-29T15:42:00.011+08:002008-12-11T06:19:16.149+08:00Dhaka, Bangladesh<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhraLKholf8VgKregfPmtGMSGwXxi237_JLDRjG3PDhAmnKfSkAJmFthHa8YO6uU2NOHC59AkdLbXA7ZoVFtweMIts1VswDdiI1hwrfRToW6S0gSGvyQesW2XAh8BqFvG3LlGLcMwIqJFU/s1600-h/food6smallR.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhraLKholf8VgKregfPmtGMSGwXxi237_JLDRjG3PDhAmnKfSkAJmFthHa8YO6uU2NOHC59AkdLbXA7ZoVFtweMIts1VswDdiI1hwrfRToW6S0gSGvyQesW2XAh8BqFvG3LlGLcMwIqJFU/s320/food6smallR.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184716987358449506" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTAsZnMQE20XLwUMP4jbRT8VwtBKvWBZ5K1du1XJLNLQ0eF2H7mHqG2dXn4rTJtqS2YmhDjAepETfEYJNET2n5uH_3gXB6y0u-0E6qemS_QYAgb0fJAtyK9pm5vMGJFFhcMezUYy-WmeY/s1600-h/food4smallR.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTAsZnMQE20XLwUMP4jbRT8VwtBKvWBZ5K1du1XJLNLQ0eF2H7mHqG2dXn4rTJtqS2YmhDjAepETfEYJNET2n5uH_3gXB6y0u-0E6qemS_QYAgb0fJAtyK9pm5vMGJFFhcMezUYy-WmeY/s320/food4smallR.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184716991653416818" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXIRk5W_wl-8c2swFF9vzkRwOyWXqRmh3ZM_faVzqosKyMpjkQlRR9tFoEIkAyWg8MffRA-sE7xhiOYSk5yCwvy-1xKMZ_4DbU8jeIVPPlJOPcvTtOxbJsQMRE-XDoogpJZQsv1d2STw/s1600-h/food2smallR.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXIRk5W_wl-8c2swFF9vzkRwOyWXqRmh3ZM_faVzqosKyMpjkQlRR9tFoEIkAyWg8MffRA-sE7xhiOYSk5yCwvy-1xKMZ_4DbU8jeIVPPlJOPcvTtOxbJsQMRE-XDoogpJZQsv1d2STw/s320/food2smallR.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184716995948384130" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSV5UDC__ak2jZiKxjqwTJIdMSKzqP-Ozs-UXmLFdRCYQbzL-CK6UYjjClfXFKhzZubMMuPYS0eMq2e6NgKZ1bVzbN7NhuYP-uEh1Mg80bBcpKJj_xgaIJbbrHcQ_JsP0G4vO_RUJ_8s/s1600-h/roadsmallR.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSV5UDC__ak2jZiKxjqwTJIdMSKzqP-Ozs-UXmLFdRCYQbzL-CK6UYjjClfXFKhzZubMMuPYS0eMq2e6NgKZ1bVzbN7NhuYP-uEh1Mg80bBcpKJj_xgaIJbbrHcQ_JsP0G4vO_RUJ_8s/s320/roadsmallR.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184717000243351442" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAZ2PgjBpg01K6Ycqoa_9SibFQO4He6LYC7WHduRzhEzoWmnJ5QXJZSdR1FgNvdJb5DPNsXy0inuXrJ5_FxowSq49CH4eEqDpKAigz3rFz9m6fqNOyQXjNu6dyTWQN_ZRHgHNjzmejhp4/s1600-h/food1small.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAZ2PgjBpg01K6Ycqoa_9SibFQO4He6LYC7WHduRzhEzoWmnJ5QXJZSdR1FgNvdJb5DPNsXy0inuXrJ5_FxowSq49CH4eEqDpKAigz3rFz9m6fqNOyQXjNu6dyTWQN_ZRHgHNjzmejhp4/s320/food1small.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184715728933031730" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHBKs74XanUvRDazTYzVuRAW2LN1KZBTeuWmVg9Tml7BRPu_k8ZUDXWP55KbjfaHzjUUj0awenp1VYZGN1h99uzNVegVUE-7A-COzY-JNRxqc8ZsxEiaV8aBaeNpZmyjA9Epd2jtfrB8/s1600-h/traffic2small.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHBKs74XanUvRDazTYzVuRAW2LN1KZBTeuWmVg9Tml7BRPu_k8ZUDXWP55KbjfaHzjUUj0awenp1VYZGN1h99uzNVegVUE-7A-COzY-JNRxqc8ZsxEiaV8aBaeNpZmyjA9Epd2jtfrB8/s320/traffic2small.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184715733227999042" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhozoPpN-E09fR6DtXduUWA_uauYbOjnNRFrjB8BYjgNYfTivzSVuXZvgAbaSlC2_9zWwjcjavXG1eD55JyE-mUMFltGMqieNKk7kzT6XpjdsPhA4bE8vVncMsZfkuJktmS3x_JptQYUhw/s1600-h/traffic+small.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhozoPpN-E09fR6DtXduUWA_uauYbOjnNRFrjB8BYjgNYfTivzSVuXZvgAbaSlC2_9zWwjcjavXG1eD55JyE-mUMFltGMqieNKk7kzT6XpjdsPhA4bE8vVncMsZfkuJktmS3x_JptQYUhw/s320/traffic+small.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184715733227999058" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzxMZWihP14YwxzPe5HVoRO5LoogIwCsLI8mC-mpiKw8ArN7tek4DOjY9K27VCFhjZVCXOndVaKr4mqpaBKX3c-up-bqh6YKgr_hCq8be3_N57UcaK0Q4uHibgYezCcAj0fWTaSPKoDqg/s1600-h/food5small.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzxMZWihP14YwxzPe5HVoRO5LoogIwCsLI8mC-mpiKw8ArN7tek4DOjY9K27VCFhjZVCXOndVaKr4mqpaBKX3c-up-bqh6YKgr_hCq8be3_N57UcaK0Q4uHibgYezCcAj0fWTaSPKoDqg/s320/food5small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184715497004797682" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPsQAZGS61g9Y27CmFO7uakGo5ZGVK1blrwzguqFpzmKy-BvtxNBFdjKKb5nLULjAqRjhI6kk_6OhXcrc9ojCOMmSpmu_UC5ApQPKL5C9GBofx-uwZxJ9thUIO0Vq_KJTbtoBt-SbPViY/s1600-h/food3small.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPsQAZGS61g9Y27CmFO7uakGo5ZGVK1blrwzguqFpzmKy-BvtxNBFdjKKb5nLULjAqRjhI6kk_6OhXcrc9ojCOMmSpmu_UC5ApQPKL5C9GBofx-uwZxJ9thUIO0Vq_KJTbtoBt-SbPViY/s320/food3small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184715501299765010" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Traffic</span><br /><ul><li>Lanes are just whites lines on the road to be ignored.</li><li>Instead of using signal lights, just honk.</li><li>It's really hard to spot a car without a dent on it.</li><li>Light bumping between vehicles are normal.</li><li>Hardly any motorcycles.</li><li>Most vehicles run on CNG.<br /></li></ul><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Food</span><br /><ul><li>Good briyani. Katchi(mutton) briyani is traditionally served at social functions.<br /></li><li>They squeeze lime over their briyani.</li><li>Most of the chicken is the "kampung" kind, though they have multi-storey chicken farms.<br /></li><li>Lots of Jack fruit.</li><li>Allegedly has the best mangoes in the world.</li><li>Avoid tap water.</li></ul><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">People</span><br /><ul><li>About 90% muslims, a lot of the women wear sari.</li><li>Their perception of Malaysians is that we are a very religious bunch.</li><li>They learn about Tunku Abdul Rahman in their schools.</li><li>They admire Dr. Mahathir.</li><li>11 million millionaires there, out of 150 million population.</li><li>Very small middle class.</li><li>Canada is a very popular migration destination for the rich.</li><li>Advised by the hotel staff not to go out at night.</li><li>A lot of police officers around. It's like there's one every 100 meters.</li><li>Supermarket entrances have metal detectors.<br /></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-49986725917124676732008-02-15T00:23:00.003+08:002008-02-15T00:30:36.671+08:00Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull TrailerFirst trailer for Indy 4. Looks good.<br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-09234480787728824 visible" href="http://l.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-09234480787728824 visible" href="http://l.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf"></a><object id="uvp_fop" height="277" width="350"><param name="movie" value="http://l.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf"><param name="flashVars" value="id=6441610&rd=eyc-off&ympsc=&postpanelEnable=1&prepanelEnable=1&infopanelEnable=1&carouselEnable=0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed id="uvp_fop" allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://l.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="id=6441610&rd=eyc-off&ympsc=&prepanelEnable=1&infopanelEnable=1" height="277" width="350"></embed></object><br />The only iffy thing about the movie is that Shia LeBeouf is in the movie. I hated him in Transformers, and I'm afraid he will spoil this movie too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-41022503738710402072008-02-09T13:55:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:16.478+08:00Lost Is Back!<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJto3VIIPPeNghrgMasCVqurTFuLIsRiUTeW6HFb5EB6eNNpRrB339knGL1wr46t75_1-WsvF7ASGk4NeX6wSGuGN157BAJ_DdF9dBWG5M5UqjL6KlhFdX9XJhkANjB7TpKvZVOnXnRI/s1600-h/heli.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJto3VIIPPeNghrgMasCVqurTFuLIsRiUTeW6HFb5EB6eNNpRrB339knGL1wr46t75_1-WsvF7ASGk4NeX6wSGuGN157BAJ_DdF9dBWG5M5UqjL6KlhFdX9XJhkANjB7TpKvZVOnXnRI/s320/heli.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164859736477082210" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Finally, something that can take them off the island.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></div>Lost returned with it's 4th season last week, but the first episode was underwhelming for me. It didn't start with a bang. Things that happened were expected to happen. Nothing much revealed.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZB57HtsIW1iAPJRk53TX_EXub0blojmBuDgFZb8FgfOz43TSE2W4A52yWDLdK3-JML0BWqQtL2MBJdvfHMCZJ99_qrZ_oQ0TGpTj3Ml14CBO3nzAfyYjllpdtXup-t-36lQFf-9_QYE/s1600-h/ben.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZB57HtsIW1iAPJRk53TX_EXub0blojmBuDgFZb8FgfOz43TSE2W4A52yWDLdK3-JML0BWqQtL2MBJdvfHMCZJ99_qrZ_oQ0TGpTj3Ml14CBO3nzAfyYjllpdtXup-t-36lQFf-9_QYE/s320/ben.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164859736477082194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Somebody's carrying this photo of Ben.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></div>But this week's episode really hit the mark. The rescuers finally manage to get on the island, but they aren't really there to rescue the lost bunch. The rescuers, there 4 of them, with their stories (they have their own flashbacks), really sets up what season 4 is going to be about. And it's looking good.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-40620012544392361602008-02-07T15:53:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:16.651+08:00A Perfect End To Rambo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia5eP5W24y5qDrmk-sxpxeuczMS2gJcekazgfFjmhZfuRNUGgklgS41pBQzEiHuKG_LQwknyeLms9P9jXyTtexsAwa48Fkaql_KwMygiarq1uAxI-2l2G2jdXjyiSMdeKRE1lpHiCkL8U/s1600-h/mparamboposterb.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia5eP5W24y5qDrmk-sxpxeuczMS2gJcekazgfFjmhZfuRNUGgklgS41pBQzEiHuKG_LQwknyeLms9P9jXyTtexsAwa48Fkaql_KwMygiarq1uAxI-2l2G2jdXjyiSMdeKRE1lpHiCkL8U/s400/mparamboposterb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164148600034877794" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I decided to see this in theaters after hearing that it wasn't butchered by the censors. Overall, it was a very enjoyable movie. Over-the-top violence and gore as expected. But the best thing about it was how it ended. John Rambo finally finds peace with himself and returns home. A great way to end the series. After all that he's been through, I'm happy to see him at peace. Good for him.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-50834377242431870462008-01-23T23:38:00.000+08:002008-01-23T23:56:51.733+08:00Bandoleros Fixed Audio Sync Download Link<div style="text-align: justify;">Well, I've just finished uploading <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0859760/">Bandoleros</a> aka <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0859760/">Ladrón que roba a ladrón</a>, a movie I mentioned about in my <a href="http://eslabs.blogspot.com/2008/01/editing-xvid-video-in-sony-vegas-8.html">previous post</a>. The movie, originally released by VoMiT had audio sync problems. I decided to fix it myself, and share it with everyone. I re-encoded the original source, so there's a slight dip in video quality, but not much.<br /><br />Here's the link:<br /><a href="http://www.yastorage.com/download.php?id=186014&key=da81aa885gndf676f1gg8aaa6c582ffg">http://www.yaStorage.com/download.php?id=186014&key=da81aa885gndf676f1gg8aaa6c582ffg</a><br /><br />The way to use the yaStorage link is to click on the word "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Request</span>" from "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Request Download Link</span>". Then after that, click on the letter "<span style="font-weight: bold;">F</span>" from "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Downloading File</span>".<br /><br />Here's a sample video of the movie for you to check the quality:<br /><a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/85796986/bandoleros_fixedaudio_sample.avi">http://rapidshare.com/files/85796986/bandoleros_fixedaudio_sample.avi</a><br /><br />Enjoy.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-69624929598307695012008-01-23T07:15:00.000+08:002008-01-23T07:55:48.738+08:00Editing XviD Video In Sony Vegas 8<div style="text-align: justify;">I downloaded a movie the other day called Bandoleros. It's an American made Spanish movie. Haven't seen it yet, but the audio was out of sync by a few hundred miliseconds. A few hundred miliseconds is enough of a difference to make the viewer notice it and spoils the movie. Most pirated movies are released in XviD format. I've tried to edit Xvid video previously using <a href="http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/vegasfamily.asp">Sony Vegas</a> but for some reason Vegas doesn't recognize XviD format video. The last version I tried it on was version 6 of Vegas. Now the latest version is version 8, and and I've got a new laptop with some serious power in it, so I decided to give it another try.<br /><br />After installing it, to my dismay Vegas still doesn't support XviD editing. So googled around for some solutions to this problem. I encountered 2 YouTube videos that have 2 different solutions to this problem. The first one is here:<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05178646705013599 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5zNcjdOKR_Y&rel=1"></a><object height="295" width="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5zNcjdOKR_Y&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5zNcjdOKR_Y&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="295" width="370"></embed></object><br /><br />I tried the method showed in first one, but it didn't work for me. In some of the comments for the YouTube video, it is said the the trick only works on XP. My laptop runs Vista so that may be the reason it didn't work.<br />So on to the second video:<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05178646705013599 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/B3I1646Vwis&rel=1"></a><object height="295" width="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/B3I1646Vwis&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B3I1646Vwis&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="295" width="370"></embed></object><br /><br />This trick did it for me. This method tricked Vegas into seeing the XviD video as a DivX video. I managed to fix the audio sync problem. But since I re-encoded the XviD to XviD again, there is a slight deterioration in video quality, but barely noticeable. I basically used the same video setting as the original file.<br /><br />I have decided to share this fixed version of the movie with the world. So in a way, I am now a true pirate. It's still in the process of being uploaded. It's quite slow. As of right now, I still have about 8 hours to go before the upload is completed. I'll post and spread the links when it's done.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-32280604528887661802008-01-19T04:44:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:17.444+08:00Cloverfield Sucks For Others Too<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDLihGSExRiAv-ypJQcHNxt2mk1yIeNHnvmkfY2lUcpH8OihMWIGHtsGtHN1FczQO8mW690hufpJO-0KMnhfL93aa1-Hp9C9x5hLG5c251iPSZPPIqOdZsI35E_TKEYQb9vm3jTz8-mo/s1600-h/graph.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDLihGSExRiAv-ypJQcHNxt2mk1yIeNHnvmkfY2lUcpH8OihMWIGHtsGtHN1FczQO8mW690hufpJO-0KMnhfL93aa1-Hp9C9x5hLG5c251iPSZPPIqOdZsI35E_TKEYQb9vm3jTz8-mo/s400/graph.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156924364547451506" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Click image for larger version</span><br /></div>An updated version is below. The jump goes higher than I thought it would be.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWa8ts3ZDI2rxDvMfTe_j3eMTq5YKs1FUZy_c22umxb5jJi-9IoKb2T6G2byR9gUkBUznJxFYbUWkGQ0xTPgAaZx1CFQiK7O-hivBs_F2ftsbGNYAZ42f3Vu3Z3bpitNrQ2J6M8-yv140/s1600-h/graph2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWa8ts3ZDI2rxDvMfTe_j3eMTq5YKs1FUZy_c22umxb5jJi-9IoKb2T6G2byR9gUkBUznJxFYbUWkGQ0xTPgAaZx1CFQiK7O-hivBs_F2ftsbGNYAZ42f3Vu3Z3bpitNrQ2J6M8-yv140/s400/graph2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157248574448757394" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Click image for larger version</span><br /></div><br />It seems that I'm not the only one who thinks <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/">Cloverfield</a> sucks, and I've got the stats to prove it. After my <a href="http://eslabs.blogspot.com/2008/01/cloverfield-sucks.html">previous post</a> titled "Cloverfield Sucks", my blog got a big jump in the number of visits. Most of it is referred from Google with the search term "<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cloverfield+sucks&btnG=Google+Search">cloverfield sucks</a>". Apparently I am not alone with this sentiment.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUR3DPKEPJ6m3iF6TzoiYviQaKWNYVzoOJPx7l5VIsvS7Z8Gy6Nk9xizsQm_ODkNrhj5ET0Lw-BXq4nHS2m_SRs7wzZwLliuDC2tXuj5oUTuIu9J2DHetI2cYxeFV9pDz_MccnuKkCmP8/s1600-h/keyword2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUR3DPKEPJ6m3iF6TzoiYviQaKWNYVzoOJPx7l5VIsvS7Z8Gy6Nk9xizsQm_ODkNrhj5ET0Lw-BXq4nHS2m_SRs7wzZwLliuDC2tXuj5oUTuIu9J2DHetI2cYxeFV9pDz_MccnuKkCmP8/s400/keyword2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156924364547451522" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Click image for larger version</span><br /></div><br />After further analysis of the movie, I think the problem was the movie didn't make me want to care enough about those yuppie characters. There are a lot of other movies that made me feel very attached to its characters, but this one didn't do it well enough. Maybe it's the unconvincing acting, or the maybe it's the script itself that didn't make me believe these characters were real enough to invest my emotions in them.<br /><br />But the it's not like I didn't enjoy it at all. My main disappointment was with the ending. It ended at a point where I felt that things were only starting to get good and looked forward for it to get better. I wanted to see more of the monster.<br /><br />I expected a different kind of movie. But my expectations are from the promotions and hype that the movie itself has generated. If I didn't know anything about the movie, if I didn't know that it's about a monster, and my only knowledge of the movie is from the movie poster only, then, maybe I'll truly enjoy it. But after so much focus on the monster from the media hype, I expect it to be monster-centric, not yuppie-centric.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-52697249230378451812008-01-17T16:41:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:18.056+08:00Cloverfield Sucks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXMAnsOkInugNlSh7V5ZYfZpBFNqppjVqWndwa5pAhsEdLWC0ZDjBGutWOGGX298Q8w6sm_WXzBq3P3GCWBXbUyKehmJTxIqAlkRXA8dFfjBhopWXIEzUT0ZyWdnmzCUDj7vQv2zardI/s1600-h/1-18-08_poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXMAnsOkInugNlSh7V5ZYfZpBFNqppjVqWndwa5pAhsEdLWC0ZDjBGutWOGGX298Q8w6sm_WXzBq3P3GCWBXbUyKehmJTxIqAlkRXA8dFfjBhopWXIEzUT0ZyWdnmzCUDj7vQv2zardI/s320/1-18-08_poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156367126900533858" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/">Cloverfield</a> doesn't live up to the hype. They clearly had a sequel in mind when they made this movie. At the end of the movie, I went "That's it?".<br /><br />It's a love story with the monster as a sideshow. Yes you get to see the monster, but it doesn't even touch on what the monster is, where did it come from, why is it attacking Manhattan, etc. I didn't go to see the movie just to see a monster being hit by missiles, but that's what the movie really is. Who gives a shit about the love story, I want the monster to be the star of the movie, not a bunch of yuppies with relationship problems. I have nothing against sequels but at least make the first movie a complete movie, and not just a jumping point for the real movie. And the camcorder style thing, was okay, it didn't bother me that much, but I prefer normal traditional camera style.<br /><br />A real disappointment. Not worth my 10 bucks. I hope the movie doesn't do well, so they won't have to make a lame sequel.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-68392630557976448952008-01-10T03:18:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:18.755+08:00American Gangster<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYCtZuI93-XnDjY0fRRCL12VtihPrI5tclIQ7cWn9M_bz9lL5360mvt8bsgwqhYqxOwRzoaBjvuYYhYcF0IxEciRkAbr6Pjo6gHlYkg-Gb-eUhoWUpoPPvS0Y5eAxggPpi_vQH7Sy0yA/s1600-h/ed935f0d3f2fc78cbd2392a85093d73da3841057americangangsterposter.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYCtZuI93-XnDjY0fRRCL12VtihPrI5tclIQ7cWn9M_bz9lL5360mvt8bsgwqhYqxOwRzoaBjvuYYhYcF0IxEciRkAbr6Pjo6gHlYkg-Gb-eUhoWUpoPPvS0Y5eAxggPpi_vQH7Sy0yA/s320/ed935f0d3f2fc78cbd2392a85093d73da3841057americangangsterposter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153567572727720482" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765429/">American Gangster</a> is a true story about Frank Lucas, a black gangster honcho who was bigger than the mafia during his peak. It's a really good movie.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Enough about the movie, while looking around for pictures of Lymari Nadal, who the lady plays Frank's wife in the movie, another person always crops up beside her in her pictures. That person is Edward James Olmos, the guy who plays Admiral Adama on BattleStar Galactica, and Lt. Martin Castillo (the boss cop) on Miami Vice. It turns out that this old guy is the babes' husband. WTF! Nice.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0TBBVBZ418_Bku_VThnO7eBDHKHfBB0n8swchYHwT_pMG_jb_NJ_tBgff8hwQEnSHDrIxIAG2wyE_p7Tm76yvURf6XBVmjQKJbS18b20ma7oDpNybI-xvs9jeOVlItawmm35UI6ZZcTk/s1600-h/lymari.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0TBBVBZ418_Bku_VThnO7eBDHKHfBB0n8swchYHwT_pMG_jb_NJ_tBgff8hwQEnSHDrIxIAG2wyE_p7Tm76yvURf6XBVmjQKJbS18b20ma7oDpNybI-xvs9jeOVlItawmm35UI6ZZcTk/s320/lymari.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153567577022687794" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Lymari Nadal<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ynzmXnoVAlfilWiA8Re-komuIG5Hb9Y3D4RT2z24OU85lCyaeouZg3T0RjGZxyLYypUWlJJxBVqjYoJslznFoRD506u2Hd_17vf5df6mJvT0q2cowDFytPhCUP1N0lvHwu2gQwh4Q3Q/s1600-h/olmos1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ynzmXnoVAlfilWiA8Re-komuIG5Hb9Y3D4RT2z24OU85lCyaeouZg3T0RjGZxyLYypUWlJJxBVqjYoJslznFoRD506u2Hd_17vf5df6mJvT0q2cowDFytPhCUP1N0lvHwu2gQwh4Q3Q/s320/olmos1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153567577022687810" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Edward James Olmos<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wa5xf_VraokWWlcNKQHEiYvhntaH8teY3L8klYj4Sp0XKdmerACjZSHPmELtxtrKF51Nc3YrrSVExQCeEdKbsJ0X245n9F9EFa1QVo6Zoa1c_Lu-UvrXJnCTyjEmbCGEqxbxUdWckOA/s1600-h/lymariolmos.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 378px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wa5xf_VraokWWlcNKQHEiYvhntaH8teY3L8klYj4Sp0XKdmerACjZSHPmELtxtrKF51Nc3YrrSVExQCeEdKbsJ0X245n9F9EFa1QVo6Zoa1c_Lu-UvrXJnCTyjEmbCGEqxbxUdWckOA/s320/lymariolmos.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153567581317655122" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Married<br /><br /></span></div>Other than that, American Gangster is a very good movie, it was really easy for me to "get into" it. It feels long, but in good way. There's hardly a boring moment in the movie. Good editing.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-71491350818339366892007-12-04T04:02:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:19.109+08:00Stardust is a *****/***** (5/5)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDyRiWKyrkrjcP4kkQ8potdRj6eill59c6BqM3u_G-qH9kyVJSFOGQoMo4AFBHrSuOXHa97olKvU1zxAhRh8hy2Un6ANZn5BR25Be31dF5wRHdTO2RLnIfhoGwDNGqjQIgmL5aaupBh0/s1600-r/stardustposterfinal.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vYpsXbGRVaDvX6GkmkJPRP6xM9hGkNn-jBxpduucpCe1qS4FWeIdBrU6GLinW7kx2Ro3ZDO76rr6CMi4za9iFYVgCzOW754xrCP2MprBlsG7M6kMfKMiK6jtkuPDkwXZNvWH3DM4L_4/s320/stardustposterfinal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139849767192968658" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.stardustmovie.com/">Stardust</a> is superb. It's a fairy tale, but unlike most fairy tales, it's not written by some old hack who has died half a century ago, but written in modern times (1998) by the famed writer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman">Neil Gaiman</a>. I admit I'm not much of a novel reader, and I've never read the novel itself, but the movie really is excellent.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />It has all the good things you expect from a fairy tale, without the pitfalls of a fairy tale created in olden times. Old fairy tales were made for people of that time. The way its told, the kinds of magic and stuff that are in it, the story elements, all are conceived by by old day mentality and experiences. That's why though some of those stories are good, they never really "clicked" perfectly (for me, at least). You have to condition your mindset to the way the story's needs it to be. But with Stardust, there's no need for that. There aren't any of those little quirky things in the story that you never really "get" just because "that's what people back then used to do". It flows effortlessly without interrupting your enjoyment of the movie.<br /><br />This Neil Gaiman guy must be really good. I look up for more of his work on <a href="http://imdb.com/">IMDB,</a> and found out that he is one the the screenplay writers for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/">Beowulf</a>. I wasn't really interested Beowulf when it came out, but after seeing Stardust, I'll surely make an effort to download it when a DVDRip of it emerges.<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjiROKqkO0RHMrrhp4FtPRCN2sR13-l4iHrrxbmX-6XLe3661OIbSWALo5lCcaxmM2fYDQa5Z5wNxkVZd9ImEtT4YkvttjfDDhouPou-AP3AGBtcqErXAm6gBkitWsODe8BsjELcIAAc/s1600-r/Stardust.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgug0KOzgPdSNGIphCWApWFJmnfrLR6YLNY6bayJoU2bEyMY3Lip_NOCz4QRoChrnkOqQ2g9ZQTLGiCBcwd4HtXFLYPq6ftQkSnBfozPkLtnU750sCpof5UFDljMEUaP1vDU41eLVa1Ik8/s320/Stardust.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139848616141733298" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-64952648622241624382007-11-16T14:19:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:19.394+08:00The Strike Is In Full Swing.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5dIlCU8g5ugW6VZG6K9cD2bjjRsk3g-6rv_YcZlIPvGSPtuqJID31YvkdaDcIlO_wMosIntBdUupdGfOPBPNQKxyt_Uhoe6XCLJbGfrpKS5RlbI-kBTQ6-oy5VBSuifTFI8fL6SXIys/s1600-h/strike.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5dIlCU8g5ugW6VZG6K9cD2bjjRsk3g-6rv_YcZlIPvGSPtuqJID31YvkdaDcIlO_wMosIntBdUupdGfOPBPNQKxyt_Uhoe6XCLJbGfrpKS5RlbI-kBTQ6-oy5VBSuifTFI8fL6SXIys/s320/strike.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133324472236308514" border="0" /></a>The WGA strike is in full swing. A lot of tv shows have stopped production. Shows that matter:<br /><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-weight: bold;"> 24</span>: Production shut down with 8 episodes taped. Show on hiatus. Premiere has been delayed until such a time that the <i>Day 7</i> season can air continuously with no or few interruptions.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lost</span>: 8 episodes out of 16 ordered taped. In event of protracted dispute, the 8 in the can could run as a mini-season starting in the New Year with remaining shows held back for 2008-09.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;"> House</span>: 12 episodes have been completed. Repeats to air after American Idol in January.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Simpsons</span>: 22 of this season's 23 episodes will be completed.</li><li> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Heroes</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;">Heroes: Origins</span> spinoff suspended. December 3 episode to serve as finale of volume two.</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">And all the talk shows have stopped production and airing reruns. The surprising thing is that they are actually ending Heroes early. Not that this season has much to shout about, but still. The conclusion I have come up with about all this is, "this sucks".<br /><br />Just give the writers their damn money. At first I was somewhat against the writers and their strike. But after watching <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a37uqd5vTw">this video</a>, I think it's fair game for them to have this strike. Whether they actually get what they want is another matter. Just give me back my tv shows.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-15076527902319367482007-11-12T13:18:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:20.001+08:00Dimmented is Live!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9RAI48HvPt7LUc8sQJvZ-yoIr4yhKADUGhUCPQBOt0qufUxA4tG2GizagZH-4O-khIn_wfhcmC5NAkejLhjYR-TOF22XYcSrI9Ws8rHLgFeRt6MGdllYhIT29sbXIfz2kgD29AaFfQY/s1600-h/dimmentedfull.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9RAI48HvPt7LUc8sQJvZ-yoIr4yhKADUGhUCPQBOt0qufUxA4tG2GizagZH-4O-khIn_wfhcmC5NAkejLhjYR-TOF22XYcSrI9Ws8rHLgFeRt6MGdllYhIT29sbXIfz2kgD29AaFfQY/s320/dimmentedfull.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131825494386040610" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">My latest app, <a href="http://dimmented.com/">Dimmented</a> is live. It's still in beta, but all of the functions work, I hope. Only the UI stuff needs to be fine-tuned. It's my first <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/">Flex</a> app, haven't got around to reading about transitions and effects yet, so there are no fancy animations yet in Dimmented.<br /><br />Dimmented is an app that shows your <a href="http://digg.com/">Digg</a> comments or any other Digg user's comments. I used to keep track of my Digg comments by using their <a href="http://apidoc.digg.com/">API</a> and reading the raw xml. But the problem with that is it doesn't show the replies to my comments. With Dimmented, I made it show replies, and not just the first level of replies, but all the replies, plus, it can also show the first level of <span style="font-style: italic;">"reply to"</span>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioqZ0nVY1PhvhUu5FlrWz2i4umh_U6f-6q2njTOc2bpIh8ZDXtizeZ-pr0a42Xnk9nqPx0i83LXW0TyiqzrjaYgfyJ2YGczbRdY1g8lvAY4_THyP470Vgu6jGWDDGmPdzD66DGiGXojOI/s1600-h/dimmented+logo+square+button.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioqZ0nVY1PhvhUu5FlrWz2i4umh_U6f-6q2njTOc2bpIh8ZDXtizeZ-pr0a42Xnk9nqPx0i83LXW0TyiqzrjaYgfyJ2YGczbRdY1g8lvAY4_THyP470Vgu6jGWDDGmPdzD66DGiGXojOI/s320/dimmented+logo+square+button.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131825494386040594" border="0" /></a>I also included the "remember me" function so that I don't have to type in my username each time. At first, I tried to do this using cookies and php, but for some reason, it didn't work. Then I found out about Flex's shared objects, and it was so much easier, and boom, it was like the feature made itself available.<br /><br />It is a good learning experience for me. At first I thought Flex was very different to what I already know about scripting/programming, but it turns out it's very similar to the xml-script structure that I'm used to making <a href="http://www.konfabulator.com/">Konfabulator/Yahoo widgets</a>. So, it wasn't that difficult. And the next version of Flex will have better support for making <a href="http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/">AIR</a> apps, I don't know whether I'll ever go back to Konfabulator. I already have plans for my next Flex app.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-42126663931629785512007-10-26T00:23:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:20.499+08:00Amazing Race 12<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLplUMBU47m9m3zu-XEU2of-05j39Wde9qoImBHbXmvGVok2oy-k4VefMCzF_5G1Dhu2UKYHylmCyvy19vbPqCpYUECVPohc3DGcApnWvaZlYZoEltSC5xPCpTebnMXTTmKFURf8Htlg/s1600-h/amazing_race12.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLplUMBU47m9m3zu-XEU2of-05j39Wde9qoImBHbXmvGVok2oy-k4VefMCzF_5G1Dhu2UKYHylmCyvy19vbPqCpYUECVPohc3DGcApnWvaZlYZoEltSC5xPCpTebnMXTTmKFURf8Htlg/s320/amazing_race12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125319217614717634" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Teams</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The best reality show on tv, <a href="http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race12/">The Amazing Race</a>, will be starting it's 12th season on November 4th. I went throught the teams compteting this time, and the only team worth following is the <a href="http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race12/bio/marianna_julia.shtml">"sisters" team of Marianna & Julia</a>. A double dose of hotness. I hope they win the 1 mil prize just because they're hot.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBlV0NqWNbZ0UdJX126X_0ntHxRMqYmIsK8FFZ9GRECwUE5_3V1AScvWFhRYLqWcl4fMnAJK9rdH5E2vD4G1rSMJBEbNccq-lJIB3ea9auZ2yQdmKwFk6ZJZkZP6rXYk7ZGA-oKSDmGKc/s1600-h/team_09.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBlV0NqWNbZ0UdJX126X_0ntHxRMqYmIsK8FFZ9GRECwUE5_3V1AScvWFhRYLqWcl4fMnAJK9rdH5E2vD4G1rSMJBEbNccq-lJIB3ea9auZ2yQdmKwFk6ZJZkZP6rXYk7ZGA-oKSDmGKc/s320/team_09.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125319226204652258" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Sisters</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There's also another hot chick from the "dating for almost one year" team, <a href="http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race12/bio/rachel_tk.shtml">Rachel and some guy with 2 letters as a name</a>. Who gives a shit who the guy is.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXqAkLw255ufTz7r8uE0kGEyD1exgWmRKcsVgoNuVjFGkqRJuL1bqZw-jK3m_eknGOXi9qXJsbhtH5yjD-t5r9AMfZMOir-aQaENnJ8cG58eDeZ-JzlgROFTa4guf1ooE7bUQd0JiDSk/s1600-h/team_10b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXqAkLw255ufTz7r8uE0kGEyD1exgWmRKcsVgoNuVjFGkqRJuL1bqZw-jK3m_eknGOXi9qXJsbhtH5yjD-t5r9AMfZMOir-aQaENnJ8cG58eDeZ-JzlgROFTa4guf1ooE7bUQd0JiDSk/s320/team_10b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125319221909684946" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Hot Chick and Nobody</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The other teams are just extras. They replaced the obligatory gay team with a goth couple. The "minority" team is now an Asian father/daughter team. I know the term "Asian" can be vague and I hate to use it, but where in Asia wasn't mentioned in the article. They're the <span style="font-style: italic;">sepet</span> kind of Asian if I have to further drill down. Just look at the damn <a href="http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race12/bio/ronald_christina.shtml">picture on the site</a>.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-40650244916000213082007-10-24T04:33:00.003+08:002009-08-08T21:16:07.958+08:00E4X in Flex<div style="text-align: justify;">I've just started working on an <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/">Adobe Flex</a> project, and I've messing around with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E4X">E4X</a>. I'm familiar with <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath">Xpath 1.0</a> from working with <a href="http://www.konfabulator.com/">Konfabulator widgets</a>, but it took me a while to get to grips with E4X. Most of what I learned, I got from <a href="http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials/flashPHP/E4X/page002.php">this</a> website. So, I'll just go ahead and use some of the material from the site. Here's what I've learned so far. I'll be using the below XML as an example.<br /></div><blockquote><pre><br /> <?xml version="1.0"?><br /><rdf><br /> <channel><br /> <title><![CDATA[Test file]]></title><br /> <link>http://www.sephiroth.it</link><br /> <description><![CDATA[A custom description of this document]]></description><br /> <language>en-us</language><br /> <items><br /> <item id="001"><br /> <resource url="http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials.php" /><br /> <channel>FLASH-PHP</channel><br /> <author email="alex@alex.com"><br /> <name>Alessandro</name><br /> </author><br /> </item><br /> <item id="002"><br /> <resource url="http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials/flashPHP/E4X" /><br /> <channel>Flash 9</channel><br /> <author email="mich@alex.com"><br /> <name>Michael</name><br /> </author><br /> </item><br /> <item id="003"><br /> <resource url="http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials/flashPHP/scrollRect" /><br /> <channel>Flash 8</channel><br /> <author email="fk@alex.com"><br /> <name>Frank</name><br /> </author><br /> </item><br /> </items><br /> </channel> <br /></rdf><br /></pre></blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">httpResult.lastResult..item</span> will give all the items in XML fromat:<br /><br /><blockquote><pre><br /><item id="001"><br /> <resource url="http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials.php" /><br /> <channel>FLASH-PHP</channel><br /> <author email="alex@alex.com"><br /> <name>Alessandro</name><br /> </author><br /></item><br /><item id="002"><br /> <resource url="http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials/flashPHP/E4X" /><br /> <channel>Flash 9</channel><br /> <author email="mich@alex.com"><br /> <name>Michael</name><br /> </author><br /></item><br /><item id="003"><br /> <resource url="http://www.sephiroth.it/tutorials/flashPHP/scrollRect" /><br /> <channel>Flash 8</channel><br /> <author email="fk@alex.com"><br /> <name>Frank</name><br /> </author><br /></item><br /></pre></blockquote><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">httpResult.lastResult..name.text()</span> will give all names in normal text, without the XML formatting. That's what the .text() is for.<br /><br /><code></code><blockquote>AlessandroMichaelFrank</blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">httpResult.lastResult..item.@id</span> will give the ids of every item:<br /><br /><blockquote>001002003</blockquote><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">httpResult.lastResult..item[1].@id</span> will give the id of the second item. But there's a warning that popped up in the debugger that discourages from using square bracket operator. It recommends using the <span style="font-style: italic;">ArrayCollection.getItemAt()</span> instead.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>002</blockquote><br />After knowing all that, I can virtually get any value I want. But there's still along way to go in mastering Flex.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8567083865449359624.post-89175465792112258052007-10-17T04:49:00.000+08:002008-12-11T06:19:21.248+08:00Grindhouse<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyO1LXKf2iUY7t9Y23pUY7uM0fh-I0jdnvY9hQdw1TpD-qr0yAdraT0l-xxHylSeyKswkXcXITeihYzwoPcORR8TSXjGKSyyx2Yr6mC_EeyIjFTNoPc8SrHrxVIO_R3YLSGDsDOtlFY8/s1600-h/grindhouseposter.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyO1LXKf2iUY7t9Y23pUY7uM0fh-I0jdnvY9hQdw1TpD-qr0yAdraT0l-xxHylSeyKswkXcXITeihYzwoPcORR8TSXjGKSyyx2Yr6mC_EeyIjFTNoPc8SrHrxVIO_R3YLSGDsDOtlFY8/s320/grindhouseposter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122049588529566226" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMlA9PIj-cmFSjNZA10xM90uO9-694Jc_ZQIVM3VCkU-Xd6aLcvAwpkAgEH8kSpxpsH7MNE1BRUajVFjya6wNEzqqrTwrzPCNosZKRb9G4sF_Ll7mOMK0Q5CpLGvY9wcvxuULxksim_so/s1600-h/deathproofdvd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMlA9PIj-cmFSjNZA10xM90uO9-694Jc_ZQIVM3VCkU-Xd6aLcvAwpkAgEH8kSpxpsH7MNE1BRUajVFjya6wNEzqqrTwrzPCNosZKRb9G4sF_Ll7mOMK0Q5CpLGvY9wcvxuULxksim_so/s320/deathproofdvd.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122049597119500834" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0462322/">Grindhouse</a> is a mixed bag. <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt1028528/">Death Proof</a>, the <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0000233/">Tarantino</a> half of the movie is one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. You can literally fall asleep watching the movie. The dialog is filled so much with "inside" reference, if you're not into the "Tarantino" state of mind, you wouldn't give a shit about what they're talking about. By "Tarantino" state of mind, I mean you're into old vintage cars, and 70s pop culture, and stunts and stuff. I'm not into that stuff, so the only good part of the movie was the lap dance scene by <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm1089685/">Vanessa Ferlito</a>. Other than that, it just stretches itself with pointless rambling about car stunts. Even the violence isn't that heavy compared to the other half. I'll save you the hassle of watching the whole movie by embedding the only good part of the movie, the lap dance scene, here. Enjoy.<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/OvJwSSPZm30"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/OvJwSSPZm30"></a><object height="308" width="380"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OvJwSSPZm30"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OvJwSSPZm30" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="308" width="380"></embed></object><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis9RIJagX5a2L8cGRagMkLAWlPBIrtHaX7ttKAEG10nj3KuAMfu7Uhk8UdNsvKtPXhubG1UNXLgt9LxOBrEAXupNKGK0A5gYdFkpY9PlRdmLx8oBK10NlT_7ePQEnUXv-uP8WB6FuleqE/s1600-h/grindhouse2_large.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis9RIJagX5a2L8cGRagMkLAWlPBIrtHaX7ttKAEG10nj3KuAMfu7Uhk8UdNsvKtPXhubG1UNXLgt9LxOBrEAXupNKGK0A5gYdFkpY9PlRdmLx8oBK10NlT_7ePQEnUXv-uP8WB6FuleqE/s320/grindhouse2_large.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122049571349697026" border="0" /></a><br />The other half of Grindhouse, <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt1077258/">Planet Terror</a> by <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0001675/">Robert Rodriguez</a>, on the other hand, is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's one of those over-the-top ultra violent zombie movies that is fun to watch, and at the same time, it doesn't feel old. They've put new ideas into it to make it feel different from the other similar movies that have been made. I can't even begin to tell how much I enjoyed this movie. A must watch.<br /><br />If you're going to catch this one on DVD or download it, I recommend Planet Terror and give Death Proof a pass.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0