Sunday, April 17, 2005 -

Your eyes do not deceive you.....its a Brand New post on my blog!!!.....hahhaa....and It hasn't even been one month yet......just like 3 weeks.....Boy is this my fastest update ever.....hhaha...well this post is gonna have some random ramblings of recent happenings and I'm gonna be reviewing a new movie I've watched recently....the Steamboy anime

Alright first of all, Last thursday ....my TB31 buddies and I FINALLY went on our first Outdoor trip To East Coast....I tell ya man....we've never done any outdoor-related activities ever for the past three years...whenever we go out...its usually just going to town to walk around or to catch a movie at Lido,Shop for gifts,Catch a movie at Lido and hmmmm......catch a movie at Lido..hahaha...this time we decided to just go East Coast for cycling just for a change.....and it was pretty damn fun I gotta say....

Felix and I went to meet Geraldine, Huiling and Wenjun at 12.30pm at SIM because they went there to send in their application forms for SIM.... and then the 4 of us excluding Wenjun took a train from Clementi to Paya Lebar to Meet Liang Jie...Wenjun din go because she's grounded by her mum for losing her handphone that she found again,which technically means she din lose her handphone but it seems she got grounded anyways for the Handphone which she lost but ended up not losing......still with me? Good....ahhahahah....so anyways when we met Ah Liang...we headed straight for East Coast and reached there roughly around 3pm...

Bloody Hell......when we reached ..we were like totally clueless which direction to go...so we went right and walked and walked and walked until ...well..until nothing....cos we din find no Bicycle rental shop......so we decided to ask a cyclist who passed by us and we found out we went in the wrong direction and the Bicycle shop was towards the left......so we had to walk back all the way....luckily on the way, we found a bicycle rental shop that we had completely passed by without knowing.....dammit......but as it turns out the rental rates at that shop were quite okay lar...$7 per hour and they gave you a free extra hour for each hour you rent.......good stuff so off we went...

So Anyways all of us except Felix could cycle and so needless to say there was a helluva lot of crashing and falling involved with felix..hahaha.....he was like the legendary stunt biker Evel Knievel man......grass,sand,stone signs......any terrain..u name it...he's crashed in it...hahahhaa...... but afer awhile he managed to get the hang of it.....sort of....well he managed to stay vertical for extended periods of time by the time the day was done.....hahaha.......towards the last 30 mins of our rental time...we cycled to one of the peers at East Coast........and dammit the Sea Breeze was effing awesome.......so damn relaxing and refreshing......leaning on the railing of the peer with the wind blowing in your face is one of the most relaxing feelings ever man...hahaha.....all of us were like so at ease and relaxed at the peer that we squandered 20 mins of our last 30 mins of rental doing nothing but relaxing at the peer........so for the last 10 mins, Me,Huiling and Liang Jie were like saying that we did'nt really cycle enough because early on during the cycling trip we keep having to trun back to check on felix when he fell or when he was lagging......so we heck care him and left with under the guidance of Garaldine...and we cycled like hell for the last 10 mins to get our money's worth...haahhaha

After all the cycling....we were all tired and hungry.....so we went to Kenny Roger's for our dinner.....good stuff......the side dishes like the Macaroni and Cheese and corn muffin plus their Pot Pie were awesome man....ain't nothing better then cycling your ass off and finishing everything with a solid meal and just relaxing and talking about crap about Ling Zhi Ying,Hentai,Bonsai kittens and other random stuff...hahaah......well everybody enjoyed the trip in the end so we are planning to go back to East Coast again to Rollerblade this time....and since Ah Liang,Felix and Huiling can't rollerblade.....I bet more hilarity is gonna ensue..hahahaha

So...I was just watching the NKF charity show.......and first of all I wanna say: What is up with your hair my dear,beautiful,tanned little Celest Chong??? !!Damn man...that curly,dog-inspired hair looks really bad on you...please change it back to your old,straightened hair......it's sad for me to see you looking like a poodle....

I gotta say I like the fact that the show is trying to help raise funds for the many kidney patients in Singapore,many whom have problems paying for the high costs of dialysis treatments that they have to go for on a very regular basis.....but at the same time I don't really agree with some of the Show's approach to get people to donate........its like they're trying to bribe People into being charitable or to donate by offering all sorts of monetary prizes and incentives......a $710,000 condominium,cars,ferrari lap topscash,muliple platinum credit cards valued at $10,000.........

I mean what's the freaking point of offering an assload of prizes and incentives to attract and bribe people to donate....dammit...Charity is Charity.......You donate because you want to, youempathise with the kidney patients, you donate from the goodness of your heart because you want to do your part to help them if not physically den by monetary means............you don't donate because you want to win cash,prizes or a condominium.....that totally defeats the purpose of charity.....because it sure as hell ain't charity if you expect you monetary contribution to generate or yield finacial returns....cos you supposed to give with no thoughts of any returns....THAT's Charity...damn..even My Twin Brother,Andy Lau said that he won't attend any more NKF shows cos he's not comfortable with the idea of them giving out prizes to people who donate...hahaha

I gotta say I nearly laughed my ass off...when they showed this advertisement of some previous Prize winner with him exclaiming in chinese that "The more you donate and call...the higher your chances of winning prizes.".......this is a charity show uncle.......not a goddamn lucky draw contest.....having the stars take time to entertain and attract people by performing stunts and skits and showing clips of those Kidney Patients are enough man....they should do away with the whole "Prize winning" aspect of the show.......cos those clips alone should be able to do the job of getting people to donate...some of those people are really in pretty bad shape man.....there was this one woman...sad case siar......she has kidney problems and her elderly mum just got kidney problems a year ago...and to top it off...her son is mentally inept....one setback after another.......sad stuff...

Also.....damn...some stuff is really really getting pretty bloody repetitive in these charity shows, year after year we see legions of hormonally challenged,screaming Teenage Girls attending the live show who are more interested in Boybands like Energy,F4,5566 and the rest of those monkeys then actually donating money or helping the Kidney patients......these are the same group of people who would probably spend hundreds of dollars calling in to vote for Sylvester Sim rather then making a phone call or two to the NKF.........also Now call me a cynic..but does anybody else realize that year after year....the actors always seem to have developed all-new types of phobia and personal fears whenever the show comes along.....fear of heights,fire,water....u name it..they're afraid of it.....hahhaa...damn not only that but the same old lines of dialogue is regurgitated every year...I'm serious...I've always said that Mediacorp's actors never act better then when they are on the NKF show....the expressions of pain,the long pause between words..the cliche dialogue.......its like some of them were given a script year after year.....here is my version of what the script would probably be like:

Scene: During The End of Performance

Step 1:Hunch over, show signs of visible fatigue (put hands on knee caps for dramatic effect if preferred)

Step 2:Continue with semi-loud panting

Step 3:Try to talk but make sure the words don't come out

Step 4: Bow head down to indicate tiredness, look up at host...bow down again(x2)

Step 5: Look at the host wearily and tell the host that you're ok with weary,tired,raspy voice( include light panting if possible)

Step 6: Deliver the dialogue in the most agonizing manner possible and make sure to spice it up with painful exppressions and grimaces to indicate physical discomfort.

Actor's dialogue(translated from chinese): " The pppain.........a..a.a.and discomfort..( Short dramatic pause).....that I..I...I.. endured from this performace( show painful expression and make sure to wince your eyes)...is Nnnothing....compared to.....the..the...pain that.....(grimace again and swallow saliva) the Kidney Patients....have suffered."

Hahhaha....damnit I'm serious......the line of Dialogues comes up so frequently and regularly year after year that I'm totally immune to it.....well okay maybe I should'nt be so skeptical and critical of the NKF shows...... some of their approaches to generating funds are questionable at best...but its no easy job trying to come up with all sorts of innovative crazy stunts year in year out and besides...the bottom line is all the cash will be used to help needy kidney patients around Singapore....I guess that's all that really matters....so go ahead Mediacorp stars...u go guys!!!go on and develop new types of whackyass phobias and regurgitate the same cliche dialogue for next year!!!hahahaha

Well Now that my Semi-rant about NKF is over..let's get down to the movie reviews, first up I just bought Katsuhiro Otomo's Steam Boy vcd (In case your wondering.....its not some x-rated story about A Boy who always get physical bodily reactiosn everytime he gets excited...steam in this show really means liquid based steam.....and not"Steeeeam!!")haha.......so anyway this is the most expensive Anime film produced in Japan to Date and features really great CGI and matte background paintings.....

Now for those of you who don't know.....Katsuhiro Otomo is one of the great Comic and anime legends in Japan......he's not as profilic as other guys like Hayao Miyazaki( Spirited Away,Princess Mononoke, The Howling castle,etc)....but he's undoubtedly one of the most respected comics creator in Japan......his past Works include stuff like Akira(widely considered the most popular Japanese anime ever,he wrote and drew the original manga and then adapted and directed it on film) and he was also involved in anime films like Spriggan,Metropolis and of course his current Movie; Steam Boy....

Anyway basically this story is set in the 1800's in Victorian England and its based on the prremise of an alternative world where Electricity was not yet created and what if Steam Energy remained the main form of power and fuel throughout the world........and the main Character is an inventive kid called Ray Steam.....who's father Eddy Steam and Grandfather Lloydd Steam (yup ..they're one excitable bunch of hormonally unbalanced males..haha) have created something called Steam Ball( Not a sex toy) which is this metal ball that contains near infinite amounts of steam power and can be used to power an entire nation for the company they work for The O'Hara Foundation, who are in the business of selling weapons to various countries..........so anyways Daddy Steam and Grandfather Steam have a difference in opinion on how the steamball should be used......Daddy Steam wants to use the technology to create weapons and spread such technology all over th world....while Grandfather Steam believes that the steamn ball should be only used for the betterment of mankind and for peaceful purposes......so anyway an accident happens in their factory and daddy steam gets badly injured and the Grandfather escapes with the steam ball......which he sends to the Main Character, Ray Steam for safekeeping............and so the O'hara foundation wants their property back and other various fractions like the British empire are also after it...and basically no side is to be trusted with the Ball.....

I think I'll give this film 8.5/10 because the animation is gorgeous...perfect blend of 2-d animation with CGI backgrounds and also air-brushed paintings.......plus the level of imagination and creativity are off the hook man.....all sorts of weird technological shit like Steam Powered Tractors that can travel on sea and Land, Steam Powered Submarines with legs, Steam Powered Knights, Steam Powered Gliders and of course the most magnificent one is this thing called the Steam Tower....which is basically this building that is powered by entirely steam and can freaking launch itlelf into the air through humnongous streams of steam......wow man the shot where the Tower's fake exterior breaks away as it slowly rises to the sky and moves through london leaving an endless trail of ice and snow( generating steam requires drawing heat away from the surrounding area..thus freezing everything in its path) is amazing man.....the scope and imagery is absolutely epic.........and thevisuals are great too.....the Tower exploding and crystalizing as it explodes blasting the whole of london with snow is some far out shit....hahaha....great stuff....much better then Ghost in the Shell 2:Man Machine interface.....where the plot was so totally incomprehensible and just basically involved hundreds of female Sex Androids gaining sentience and killing their customers....at least I think that was what the story was about....I'm still clueless.....hahahha

Oh yeah and Before I forget......big news siar...I finally got my Enlistment letter after days of anticipating and worrying.....I will be going to Pulau Tekong(Or as my Friends puts it...'Hell on Earth') on......*Drum Roll* Please.......10th September 2005......what an awesome date!!...exactly what I wanted......not only will I not miss out on the best movies coming out in May,June and July like Sin city,Star Wars Revenge of the sith,Fantastic four and Batman Begins......but I will be out already during months like November and December...an not only that having this 4 and a half months between April and September is just about enough time to do really major training and conditioning in preparation for NS....good stuff......very happy with the enlistment date siar....hahaha....

Well that's about it folks.......damnit....looking back at this post...it's still as long as ever, I swear man......I'm a great Project Lengthener but absolutely horrible blogger..ahhahaha.......Damn man......its not my fault if I was put on Earth to lengthen stuff and not shorten stuff!!!

Okay anyways this post would have been longer orginally......cos I wanted to review two movies...Steam Boy and Sin City......but seeing as how slowly the Sin Citytorrent file is downloading and how long this post is already getting...I decided to scrap the idea of reviewing Sin City.....goddamn slow siar the torrent file........I just re-installed my bit torrent and I know it takes a few downloads before the download speed increases....but this is ridiculous siar.......as I'm Typing this .....the file is only 48.3 % downloaded after a week!!....and the highest speed I have ever seen for this download is 2kb/s..........cos the normal speed fluctuates between the super fast lightning speeds of between 1 kb/s and 0kb/s...........damn...well.....stay tune for my in-depth Sin City Review...............current remaining time for torrent download is 132 days...........so I think It'll be up shortly ebfore Christmas 2005 or after I pass out from the Army......hahahha

5:12 AM