Sunday, July 02, 2006 -

Well...as the title suggests......this post is gonna be a mish mash of random ramblings,updates,reviews,thoughts and cynicism.....in other words this is gonna pretty much be like any other post in my blog.....haha

Where do I start?.....When last I posted.......2-2 1/2 months ago.....70 of us were sent,on loan, to the other 3 air bases to help them out with their shortage of manpower....so if my old air base was considered a home awy from home....I'm now at a home away from home away from home...hahha

This new air base is probably the filthiest and dirtiest place I've ever lived in......oh it looks fine from the outside but in the inside,the building that the RPs live in?It's a complete mess......the building has remained structurally and physically unchanged since World war 2....it is a colonial/Old British type of bunk......the railings on the stair cases are all chipped,the paint on the walls are falling off and peeling in large chunks,the bunks are cluttered with dirt and dust,the hallways are strewn with discolored underwear,fungus covered boots,tin cans,shirts and pants and some of the rooms have been left to rot and decay for years....the amount of neglect is horrible....

A couple of weeks back,the BDO(Base Duty Officer) went up to look at our bunks and he brought up,during one of the big air base meetings with all the big guns attending that "The RPs bunk is not fit for humans to stay in." This of course,embarrased the CO in charge of the RPs.....so he personally went down to check our bunks and he saw that it indeed was one heckuva unholy mess.......so he told us,he said:"This is all my fault,I allowed the bunks to deteriorate to this condition.It's my fault"

Apparently when he said it was his fault....he meant that we were gonna have to stay back,that very same day,Our Book out day to be exact and clean the entire building......wow his fault indeed.........while cleaning up all the rooms....there was this room we saw that was the filthiest room in the entire building...it looked like it was some sort of store room that they threw whatever they did'nt want into.......there were dozens of metal cabinets,paintings,stacks of old magazines and newspapers,cigarette butts all over the floor,empty cans,half eaten food rations(wince gods knows when),a bloody can of rotting/half-opened luncheon meat and this bucket of black liquid with cigarette butts floating on top...which one of my dumb ass bunk mate spilled all over the corridor.........seriously.....I think words cannot describe the place....it has to be seen to be believed.......if only Cameras are'nt a contraband item in the air base...I would just take a single picture and it would be enough to describe the place a hundred times better then I could.......my god.......they haven't cleaned the place in like a decade and now that my batch of RPs are sent over to help them out of 4 and a half mths...they want us to clear up their mess for em'..???

The living conditions are really something man.....the mattresses are thin pieces of foam,some so old...they're crumbling...into this bloody fine powder when you try to move them around too much, the pillows STINK and are covered with yellowish brown stains,the double decker beds we sleep in are creaking,rusty pieces of junk and every time I book in......cos I sleep on the top part of the bed.....I have to sweep paint chips and dust balls off my bed......all these plus the sub zero temperature showers,the rats running across the toilet pipes,the extreme heat and the infestation of mosquitoes make for one helluva unforgettable staying experience...hahaha

But then it's been 2 1/2 mths already.....so no matter how goddamn dirty it is,We pretty much dun care at this point.......the living conditions suck but that's not the biggest problem with this new base.....the biggest problem is thier totally sucky off system..........in my old base,we worked two days and rested two days...in this base? we work for two days and we get a day off(half a day to be honest since they bloody let us book out at like 12pm every book-out day) my time outside is so little nowthat everytime I book out....its a mad dash to do as many things at once, i have the computer,tv On at the same time,I'm outta the house by 2pm,have lunch,dinner and be back home by 9pm to watch another movie on DVD before I turn in ........Its pretty bad......this off system is really the main problem with this base....more so then the living conditions...I mean honestly if They let me work 1 day and rest 3 days but I had to sleep beside the toilet bowl in the toilet....I would gladly do it.....hhahahah....and that ain't no joke...

Now I'm just bidding my time,jut hoping that September comes along quickly and smoothly........so I can finally return to my old base,by the time I return there...I would have already completed my first year in army and be a senior RP in the base....nowadays some of the NS men are back doing Reservice so the hours we have to stand guard at the gates have lessened and we get more off days here and there.........plus they tell great stories.....so things are getting slightly better I guess....just a smidgen....also heard from my CO at my old base that they're planning to pull us back as early as the end of August ...plus he said that we're pretty much overdue for a promotion ....but since we are like uprooted from one airbase to another...our promotion was delayed...

You know I was thinking about my job as an air base RP...and quite a few of my friends have mentioned that being an RP is a slacky job and that we are just like guard dogs to put in bluntly....I don't disagree with that...but it is anything but slack.....the trainee phase was hell for so many of us and once we're in shift side as official RPS...you can't imagine the amount of disrespect heaped on you.......unlike other vocations where your level of contact with the other people in the base is minimal except for the seargents and officers in your own unit......as an RP,You come into contact with EVERYONE in the base,that's hundreds of people...many who are so goddamn rude and look at you like you're something that fell out from the backside of a horse when you just take up 3 seconds of their time to verify their base pass...worse still if you check their vehicle.....they shout at you,they speed past you like I have Motoko Kusanigi's Camouflage/invisibility suit (Ala ghost in the shell),they give you those annoyed looks,they roll their eyes and get all sarcastic with you,....everyday you have get shit from so many people in base and then.....you have to take shit from your own people,your seargents and officers.....so actually we're taking shit from both sides.....Plus your fellow colleagues and RPs in the new base are constantly taking advantage of you or back stabbing each other in order to make their own lives easier...forcing you to do more hours then you're supposed to...every single duty cycle..

I remember this incident,a month ago.....Me and a guy from another platoon was assigned to do this check point....we had to clock 8 hrs each....two person had to be at the place at all times so the other guy we stood with was the reservice NS men...there were 4 shifts of 4 hrs each...10 am to 2pm,2pm to 6pm,6pm to 10pm(closing time) and then 6 am to 10 am the following day....so the rule is if you do 10-2pm...you would rest for 4 hrs and then do the 6pm to 10 pm and did'nt have to open up the place tommorrow since you already completed your 8 hrs.....while they guy who does 4pm to 6pm has to open the place tommorrow from 6am to 10 am to clock in his 8 hrs......so anyway this asshole tells me that I'm doing 10 to 2pm and then 6pm to 10pm....but here's the thing he wants me to go down tommorrow and open the place for him and work from 6am to 8am...that means I'm doing 10 hrs and he's doing only 6 hrs of duty and I'm doing both opening and closing so he have to do nuts...he told me about my duty timing through the phone with a straightface man...and the moment he told me...well....I've studied mathematics.....you would have to be retarded not to know that he's playing you for a fool...and making things easier on himself on your expense.......so I heard what he had to said and I did'nt say anything....but I was just so tired of this constant shit we had go through everytime we do duty and the more I thought about it,the angrier I got.....I mean this ass hole ain't even my platoon mate...this is the first time we ever worked together and he's trying to gimme shit liao...so I called him 5 mins later....basically in so many words I told him that I would have to be an idiot not to see what he was doing,he is obviously trying to pull a fast one and I ain't doing this shit......he starts going on about how duty times cannot be split evenly...(erm...16 hrs +2 people on duty= 8 hrs per person...simple arithmetic) and since that I have no experience closing the gate he wants me to learn more and do both the opeing and closing and about how his duty was gonna be tough the following day(my isn't?!) and I should let him do less and other shit.......he goes on and on trying to force me to do his duty and I finally said....ok.No problem.Let me talk to my seargent and Officer if they approve of your planning.....I'll go along with it.My stunt worked.His balls shrank.He knew that he was lying and trying to take advantage of me so goddamn obviously that if my sgt or officer from my platoon were to find out...he'll be in such deep shit that he'll need a shovel to get out of it......so he said fine...he'll do the same hrs as me....but he said since I have no experience with the gate he wants me to go down the next morning at 6am to see how he opens the gate and learn......so after i closed the gate in 10pm(but if you can close it...you obviously can open it liao...duh.),i went down the next morning at 6am........it turns out that this bloodsucker himself dun even know how to open the gate and which keys to use....he had set me up to do both closing and opening cos he dunno shit.....so in the end I had to teach him how to open the place and which key to use....which means that shit about how he wants me to come down at 6am and learn for my own good is a blatant lie.....he jsut did'nt want me to have the long rest from closing time (10pm) to 9.30 am(duty starting time)...what a prince amongst men.

Plus the goddamn sleeping hours is horrible........I'll be sleeping in the bright afternoon and working throughout ungodly hours like between 1am to 8am....sometimes when I working alone at night,its just a constant battle to stay awake and not sleep and go to military jail....when there's nobody I was sprawl my body on the gate like some goddamn Prisoner of war trying to get out of a concentration camp....it's bad lar....you really look and feel bad when your sleeping hours are so screwed up....sometimes me and my colleagues wake up for duty with our hair all unkempt and eyes sunken-in and swollen......look like a drug addict/freaking piece of turd....you don't even want to look at yourself in the mirror...when you wash up in the morning.....then you only get half a day(12- 15 hrs) off after two solid days of duty and within that pathetic time...your're supposed to be rested,go out with friends,spend time with your family and try to squeze in some activities you enjoy doing before booking in.....my mum said that I'm in a constant rush like I'm in a race with time everytime I get back...she's right...I am in a race with time...you know...it's like that but proabbly you have to be an Airbase RP or be an MP yourself to really understand it......it just difficult to understand by just reading about it until you're in the same position.....a bunch of unrespected,widely hated,sleep-deprived bunch of shmucks are we...

Well....that's enough gripeing......maybe when i get back to my old base in a couple mths time...maybe I can finally settle down and not be uprooted once more....the day where the content of my blog post,with regards to my army stuff is limited to "Just came back ......everything is fine at work and going well for me." is the day I'll be a happy,happy man....hahhah...

Any way I watched a ton of movies both on DVD and in theatres.....like X-men 3,Superman Returns,Pirates of the Carribean and even Nacho Libre(unfortunately).....so its review time!!!

First of all X-men 3...ah the final chapter in the x-men trilogy.....you know the x-men franchise has a special place in my heart...not just because I'm an x-men reader but because of the good memories...I can vividly remember sneaking out of after- school tuition classes with a group of my friends and going to westmall to catch the first movie back in 1999 when I was in sec 3....and months before the movies came out I was decorating my desk and the notice board at the back of my classroom with X-men movie posters and other related stuff to drum up interest.....it worked...I got verybody excited about the flick and we went to watch it in full force......20 of us met 3 years later to catch X-men 2 and once again it was a great experience.....

I've liked the movie from the very first scene in the first movie...when the film opens up in a Concentration camp in Poland with a young magneto.....and not some campy ass Batman and Robin kinda shit opening....it showed that the material was gonna be treated with a healthy amount of intelligence and respect from the director......Bryan Singer.The first two films were great...Bryan singer is a great director...especially good in creating strong inter relationships between the characters and making you care about them....so when I heard he was gonna direct Superman Returns instead of X-men 3.......and that Brett Ratner(Rush hour 1 and 2) was gonna direct the film....my interest in the film practically vaporized...

So I did'nt bother reading advance scripts or the novelization or whatever...I just went cold turkey on all the leaked info about the film because of lack of interest....i just hope he did'nt eff up the movie too badly......

The thing is Bryan Singer is good at developing characters and not stage huge,epic Mutant Fights and other spectacles......and the previous Two films were very restrained as far as letting us see what destructive potential the mutants were capable of.......and for the third film,after all the build-up from the two films had to end with a bang...we've gotta finally see Mutants going at it full force just like in the comics.......

That's why I think Brett Ratner works.....he's good at doing this huge,action scenes and his characters are usually underdeveloped or have paper thin characterizations.......but since this is the third film and we already have a vested interest in the characters and like them alot.....he does not need to spent alot of the film trying to make us care about the characters....he just needs to tie up all the plot threads created by the two films and brings things to a sensible conclusion...which he mostly does....

Of all the new characters.......only Beast was semi-well developed.....Angel,Juggernaut and the mutant messiah kid(Leech) and Callisto were all kinda 2-dimensional and under developed.......however some of the things I did'nt like in the film was how horribly they treated the character of Cyclops.....the leader of the x-men was like given 5 minutes of screen time and then Killed Off-screen!! and I thought that after establishing Rogue as a major character in the first two films....her character's fate was logical but alittle lacklustre.....

Anyway Ian Mckellen was great as always as Magneto,Hugh Jackman kicks ass as always,Professor x's death was pretty good and I like the Exorcist-esque take on the Dark Pheonix,it makes more sense to take a more realistic approach(that's been established with the first two films) then to introduce a more sci-fi Cosmic version of Dark Pheonix like in the comics.....because of the realistic tone extablished by X-men 1 and 2...it would'nt have worked if the movie suddenly became a Star wars flick and Dark pheonix started devouring planets and killing Aliens...imagine her going to coruscant and devouring the Jedi council with Yoda screaming:"Mmmmmm.....if turn to the dark side Jean Grey does....burnt to a crisp the Jedi will be!!"...just would'nt work.......instead Brett Ratner made her into the physical emboiment of Sigmund Freud's theory of the "Vagina Dentata"......her make out scene with Logan was great...seeing her claw his skin and his healing facter healing it back up and her death scene was straight outta the comics.....I think I'll rate the film 7/10....it was'nt nearly as bad as I thought it would be.....

As for Pirates of the carribean:Dead Man's chest.......I thought it was helluva entertaining Popcorn flick....Better then the first. Such a rididculous concept of making movies based on a ride in Disney land...but somehow they pulled it off.....Johnny Depp was great as always.......the designs and CGI-work on Davey Jones and his crew of crustacean-covered crew was pretty nifty and the film perfectly sets up the third film with a surprise return of a prominent character at the end of the flick...

However like with the first flick.....the reason why this film works is because of one thing:Jack Sparrow......without the character of Jack Sparrow,the two films would have been a souless CGI-fest with a horribly uncharismatic Orlando Bloom as its leading man...it's jack sparrow who kinda elevates the two films into pretty great flicks.......remove him from the equation and I don't think the two pirates of the carribean films are flicks I would be interested in watching at all..........I'll rate this flick.....8.5/10......can't wait to catch Chow Yun Fat as Sao Feng,king of the Singapore pirates, in the third and final flick....

Now for my third film....Nacho Libre.........errrr....It sucks huge ass Mexican donkey balls.I really wanted to enjoy this film......the concept was pretty rdidculously fun: A Friar played by Jack Black dresses up as a pot bellied mexican wrestler to make enough money to feed the orphans he takes care of at the monastery............it had the potential to be over the top and bizzare and funny with such a crazy concept............but it falls flat lar....the funny parts are few and far between....the audience wanted to laugh so badly but there just wasn't anything funny.........urgh.........the only funny scene was this scene towards the end with Jack Black singing this cray song he had composed ofr the nun he had a crush on.....otherwise......the show was just dumb and unfunny........its ok to be dumb and funny.....but unfunny?damn.......I rate this heap of dung like 2/10......ur money is better spent buying yourself some real nachos with cream cheese then watching the flick.....

Well it's time for an intermission........I'll write my review about Superman Returns later in this post....reading 4 movie reviews in a row is overkill......see I do consider about the sanity of my readers......time for a small intermission featuring various odds and ends ....some random rambling as it were.....

With regards to my recent bouts of Retail therapy........Retail therapy is the only thing keeping me sane after booking out from camp...goddamn,I've bought lots of shit in the last two months......let's see......I bought an entire series of DC's New Frontier toys based on the artwork of one of my favorite comic/animation artist,Darwyn cooke, I bought two huge ass 18' Sin City Figures of Marv(Mickey Rourke) and Hartigan(Bruce willis) with motion-activated sound chips, I bought another version of Electric Chair Marv(The hard to find first edition of the figure based on the comic and not on the movie),a ton of trade paperbacks and comics,I Also bought the entire first series of the Nightmare before Christmas figures....that was my mum's fault!!hahaha

This store I frequent was gonna close down so it was selling boxes and boxes of Nightmare before Christmas figures at a super cheap price of $5 each...keep in mid this figures normally cost like $29.90 each.......so anyways I was really keen on getting some of the figures......Emphasis on Some...and I brought my mum to check out the figures.....so heres what happened:

Me:"Mum.....OHMIGOD......this figures are damn cheap!!I'm gonna get some!"

Mum:"Yah......its cheap......the film is very cute...why don'y you buy some figures to display.."

Mum (to store owner):"How many figures are there in the series?"

Store owner:"Eight"

Mum:"Ok.....give us eight please."

Me(Staring with my mouth open at my mum):" Mum......8?! And who's gonna pay for these figures might one enquire?!

Mum:"Err....you?"

HAHHA.Damn.I wanted to get 3-4 figures and I ended up with the whole set...hahahha...blew $20 bucks on the figures. I still haven't opened them up yet...I've cleared a section of my shelf to display the figures and bought all sort of additional props like a Mini Christmas tree and miniature book shelfs as props for the characters......my mum said she's gonna use them to decorate the Christmas tree this year if I want her to...LOL......I really like the figures....check some of them out:

http://www.theempire.com.au/images/2005-09-23/Nightmare%20Before%20Christmas%20S2%20Figures.jpg

Oh and I've bought an assload of DVDs too......I've been on a Robert Deniro kick recently and I've been buying alot of old his movies.....my all time favorite actor EVER.....He truly is one of the best actors in the history of modern film......amazing actor.....Don't worry I'm not going to go on about how he physically transforms himself for each role and his in depth research for his roles ....for the sake of Wenjun...hahaha....he's been in helluva lot of good flicks.....but nowadays he's just kinda doing easier roles that pose no challenge to him......for the money he says to finance his own private and personal films and projects......his characters in Aanalyze this and that,Shark Tales and even Meet the focker/parents are simply parodies of the kind of characters he used to play...those tough guys/gangster types....

here's some of his films I bought/watched recently:

1) The Deer Hunter - haunting story about 3 good friends who got drafted in the vietnam war and what the war did to them. They were caught by the vietcong and traped in bamboo cages and forced to play Russian Roulette(taking turns to fire a gun at your head and see who lives to play another round) while the vietnamese bet on who would survive or die........at the end, of the three guys.... Robert Deniro returned semi unscathed after escaping and killing his jailers during a game of russian roulette, his other friend was badly traumatized and had both legs and his left limb amputated and his third buddy Nicky(Played by Christopher Walken) went mad after his experience in vietnam and stayed behind in vietnam to become a drug addicted champion in playing russian roulette in the illegal tournaments.........until Robert Deniro finally went back to vietnam to get him only to have him shoot himself in one last fatal game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deer_Hunter

2) Casino - Based on a true story with Robert Deniro as Sam Rothstein,Sharon Stone as his wife and The great Joe Pesci (the thug from home alone 1&2) as his best friend Nicky Santoro,directed by my favorite director Martin Scorsese.Its a film about how Las Vegas was runned by the mob and how were things back in Vegas before the Big Corporations took over vegas. GREAT movie.It inspired the tv series Las Vegas and its damn good. I swear any flick with Robert Deniro,Joe Pesci and Martin Scorsese collaborating will be the most entertaining 3 hrs of your movie going life....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_(film)

3) Good Fellas - The best gangster flick I've ever watched and trust me...I've watched Tons......It stars Ray Liotta(The guy who got his brain eaten in Hannibal), Robert deniro,Joe pesci and was directed by Martin scorscese) It is once again based on the true story of life long crook/FBI informant Henry hill.....and it chronicles how he went from being a small time gangster when he was a kid to his downfall later on in his adult life......it's at times touching,funny and it really paints gangsters in a favorable but at the same time brutal light.....this show inspired the Sorpranos TV show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodfellas

I've also bought HEAT(the first onscreen collaboration between Robert deniro and Al Pacino) but haven't had the time to watch it yet.....the other non-robert deniro related dvds I bought are films like Clerks(by indie movie director/comic writer Kevin smith), Ghost World(based on Daniel clowes comic series), The God Father 1 starring the great Marlon Brando, Election 2,Superman 1 and 2, Beetle Juice,Edward Scissorshand,my long awaited Season 2 of the Justice League animated series,Scar Face(starring Al Pacino in one of his most blood thirsty roles) and Fight Club(That I'll be watching tonight)...hahha

It's great that censorship laws in Singapore has been more relaxed and we're now able to own previously controversial and unreleased films in the 70's 80's and even 90's on DVD now......censorship is at at all time low now and that's great...hell the last time I encountered censorship in any movie was watching Matrix Reloaded where they cut out the sex scene between keanu and Carrie Ann Moss......and I thank God for that actually....Seriously...seeing Carrie ann Moss naked is just....damn man.....seeing her naked is gonna scar kids for life, make grown men cry and change heterosexual males instantly homo.....hahahha.....Bravo Censorship Board of Singapore for removing her naked ass from the movie....I salute you..hahahah

Anyway in the near future I'm gonna get Godfather part 2(With Al Pacino as the modern day godfather and Robert Deniro playing the younger version of The previous Godfather in the flashback sequences) Cape Fear,Once Upon a time in America(Both Robert deniro flicks), Bram Stroker's Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola,Mean streets by Martin Scorscese,The V for Vendetta DVD that's out on 1st August and If I'm really rich the Lord of the Rings extended 12 disc boxed set that's being sold at a pretty damn low price at HMV........hahahaha

Recently I've also been going to the Library and reading Biograhical books on my Favorite Actors and Directors. I just finished the Robert Deniro biography a month ago and I'm currently reading the Francis Ford Coppola biography and getting Started on the marlon Brando biography............if I were to rate my all time favorite actors...the top three would be Robert deniro(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Niro),Marlon Brando (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_brando) and Al Pacino( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_pacino ) Few modern day actors can touch them in terms of acting and versatility.....in case you're wondering who the four one on the list is...Its Jack Nicholson...haha

On to other thinsg now shall we......the other notable evenst I can think of in the past few mths are probably Felix and LJ's birthday....

We celebrated LJ's birthday firstly be having dinner at Cafe Cartel in Cineleisure and then going to Club Momo to hang out and watch him drink the $500 bucks worth of alcohol he ordered at Club Momo.....hahaha...bought him a fossil Watch to replace the Fossil watch he spoilt while fireman lifting a certain kitty Kat that shall remained unnamed...hahaha.......it was funny watching Liang Jie in a drunken stupor after downing 3o shots.....goddamn man....he began walking like Gollum,spouting some nonsense.. and started shouting very loudly when talking...hahah...heard he even vomited on the cab on his way back home...haha....anyway the highlight of the day was seeing this semi-hot chick gyrating and dancing on the club momo platform...her bloody left boob was almost gonna pop out.......I SWEAR...however after watching her dance all night.......alas no Nipplage was revealed......it would have made my day...haha

As For Felix's Birthday......we met up at Settler's cafe to play Board Games and ended up at The esplanade for Dinner......where amazingly Felix PAYED for the bill!! It's amazing...if you were to ask me 2 years ago how likely was it to see felix treat his friends to a meal....I would say it would be about as likely as George Bush tongue-kissing Osama Bin Laden.....but I guess he's changed for the better...hahhah....even though technically he made LJ pay the bill first with his credit card before returning him the cash...hahha.....well I gave Felix the Galvatron figure that Felix never hinted about("Dude.....wah lau....How NICE if somebody were to buy me Galvatron for My Birthday man.....I would be damn happy sia!!" multiply this sentence by 4-5 times and you'll see what a master of sublety Felix is..haha) and I gave him a Framed drawing of A Robot Sentinel from the X-men comics which was pencilled,inked and ink-washed by me.......took me about 2 weeks....drawing bits and pieces whenever I have the time or between toilet breaks..haha......I think the drawing turned out pretty ok...

Now onto my artistic ramblings for the day.....those who wanna hear me talk about drawing put up your hands....(~Crickets chirping~)..haha... nevermind I'm gonna give a brief update on my current artistic endeavors for the sake of my Biggest Fan :Nat Yrrab.....err.....he's arabian..hahah......anyway I finally found out why I'm so unproductive and just can't bear to sit my ass down and start drawing things......it's because NO WAY in hell can I possibly afford to spend 8 straight hours sitting down and drawing.......imagine Me having one day off......and since I leave camp at around 12pm and reach home at 12.30pm......plus minus lunch time and bathing and surfing the net,if I start to draw by 1.30pm......it would,at my current speed, be about 10pm or 9.30pm before I would have a completed drawing...and that would mean i would have spent anentire day drawing and doing nothing else at all....and given my current situation.....I cannot afford to do so..........so Nowadays I NEVER complete a drawing in a single session.....I usually work on it here and there,bits and pieces during whatever free time I have and this could take me weeks to get a single piece done........a single piece would have taken me a day and a half at most to complete now takes weaks because of the slow and piece meal way of working.......

The advantages of drawing piece meal is......since you leave your drawing for extended periods of time...you come with it with brand new eyes everytime you get started and so you're able to spot and correct mistakes with greater ease.....unlike drawing everything in a single session...where you tend to miss your mistakes (e.g anatomy) because you're working on that piece for hours on end and cannot spot the flawas in the midst of working......the disadvantage to drawing piece meal is of course you don't get to experience the exhiliration and satisfaction of having a complete,uninterrupted drawing experience and have a stack of white hot/freshly inked pages of art at the end of everything.....

Usually drawing everything in a single session was how I worked when I first started drawing seriously......spending 8-10 hrs laying out,penciling,dialogueing and inking a page in a continuous session a day,Every day for a month......was a great learning curve and taught me how to be disciplined and productive when it comes to drawing...........now I can't do that anymore,its ok when you're sec 3 and your eyes are 20/20.........not so okay years later when your vision's gone to hell,you're sleep deprived and you're at a stage where every single line has to be perfect.....hahaah......still there are times when I have this artistic outburst of energy....where I have this image in my head and can't wait to project it unto paper and I find my self just feverishly working on the piece,oblivious to everything and foregoing other stuff to complete the drawing...

The most recent case of this was a month or so back.......I had conjured this really striking image of the star crossed lovers Hawkman and Hawk Girl in my head......and was just itching to get started...that image just lingered on and on in my head and I found that between bus trips from my house to town or serene centre or whatever...I was like mentally drawing this image in my head,figuring the layout,the inking style I want,the pose,the texture of their wings......Until I was really fired up to start drawing and so I took a piece of paper....and everything just flowed out......it was such a huge relief to finally commit the image in my head to paper otherwise I was gonna be seriously irritated having this image linger on and on in my head........I think it's one of my favrite drawings I've done this year......It's an image of Hawk Man and Hawk Girl embracing and kissing passionately with his wings draped protectively over her, their masks andweapons strewn across the smoking earth they stand on, his body is covered in cuts and bruises,hers is perfectly unharmed,he's kneeling with his hand grabbing her shoulder ,drawing her close and she's also kneeling with her hand stroking his face.I inked everything with a super slick line and finished it off by giving the drawing an Ink Wash......I like the drawing...it's spontatenous,primal and passionate...which captured the feel I wanted to invoke.......yes.... Artsy Fartsy shit I know....

So anyways I devised a perfect plan to stretch my artistic muscles while doing it within the small amount of free time I have/or that I'm willing to devote to drawing....I know even though I really want to start drawing sequential comic pages and do a fifty page comic or something again.......I would probably not be able to do so and burn out before even 1/4 of the book was done......So I've decided to do simple 2 page vignettes(little stories) on some of my favorite heroes...where I can experiment in different styles :I can use my hyper detailed style filled with all sorts of details and crazy cross-hatching(I can do it since its only a mere two pages and not 20 pages where I just can't keep up all the detail), or my more "Open" art style where I scale back on all those cross-hatching and leave more space for me to do my ink wash on the figures...anything that suits the character's style...........and it'll take me probably 1-2 weeks to do a single 2 page story/vignette which I can manage.....so by the end of this year I should have a nice collection of vignettes on my favorite characters that I always wanted to draw........excellent and when I ORD......I'm gonna do my big Batman comic...it's gonna be at least 80-90 pages......the most I've ever drawn for a single story was 55 pages of art including character designs,interior art pages and covers.....I think I wanna try and top that......it's just great having a body of work......and just flipping through pages and pages of your own work...very gratifying....

Anyway Random info time:Let's talk about Debbie Wong. The first time I saw the pretty little thing it was like I was hit by a sledge hammer to my nuts.....she looked absolutely stunning in that Down Town east condo advertisement on TV....you know...the same one with that oblong head Mark Zee......truly one of the prettiest faces in the local entertainment industry......so anyway after that ad....I did kinda made an effort to see what other stuff she would appear in......an episode of Phua Chu Kang(which I did'nt watch) and an issue of FHM(Which was fantastic!!haha).....so anyways I read in 8 days recently that she would be the host for this arts central program called "Front" with Kumar and Eunice Olsen,every mondays at 9.30pm...........and I decided to catch an episode of the program just to oogle at her........she looked absolutely stunning and everything and then.......she opened her mouth..........and out came a voice that was shrill and squeeky with false innocence....If I did'nt see her on the tv and heard that voice I would swear on a stack of bibles that the voice probably belonged to a girl no older then 12.......what a disappointment man.......she looks so gorgeous and would be perfect with one of those intelligent,sultry voices like maybe....Diana ser's or Cheryl Fox's.......but instead she sounded like Lizzy Mcguire with a baseball bat stuck up her ass..........haiz.....I watched the show for 15 mins before I had enough....truly depressing....but I will still continue to support her when she appears in any non audio media like magazines or nespapers....she's perfect ....err as long as she dun speak....hahhaaha...That's it! Media Corp should let her have a role as a Bikini model who's born mute in one of their local dramas......hahahaha..I would watch that!!

So anyway Intermission time is done...let's get on with my final movie review...Superman Returns.......I don't understand why so many people are avoiding this movie.....won't even givivng it a look.....I guess whenever comicbook movies are concerned....they expect crazy ass over the top fights and all sorts of shit being blown up.....rather then watch a less action-oriented butsmart comicbook movie that deals with very human issues and places a Superhuman in a very "human" situation.......If there's one sentence to describe the film....It has A lot of Heart.....Its almost the polar opposite of X-men 3 ......

You see the thing with Superman is....he's a difficult character to portray.....personally I'm not the biggest fan of Superman...I'm more of a Batman fan....but when Superman is written right.....which isn't often....he can be as compelling as any other comic character.........I hate it when writers portray him as this stupid strong guy with red and blue tights punchin things around.......I'm not interested in reading that shit,personally...there's only two ways to portray Superman.....One as this Super,larger then life Icon....A demi god...a freaking force of Nature that can change the course of Mighty rivers whose very actions can alter the fate of the entire planet...in short,making him into this awe-sinpiring almost Christ-like Figure.........and the other way to portray him is painting him in an extremely human light,by humanizing him......to show that underneath the costume,the powers and this God-like being is as human as the rest of us........raised by loving,humble farmers in SmallVille,an outsider trying to fit in with society, a man who lives,eat,breath and loves just like the rest of us.......A man of Steel with an invunerable hide but an extremely vulnerable heart underneath it all....

Superman is a cultural Icon....he is as American as Apple Pie and Mickey Mouse......Millions of people know who he is...even my grandmother who has never touched a comicbook in her life knows Superman.......He was the very first Superhero Created......and in many ways the purest and best of them all........he has endured for nearly 70 years through World war 2,the cold war,the vietnam war and sept 11th and he's still around...people still haven't forgotten about him.......and he's be a wrong a long time after We're all feeding earthworms,6 feet underground.........I have a theory why people in today's society just aren't as interested in Superman....they can't identify with him.

We are now a very cynical,acid tongued and pessimistic bunch of people.....we don't buy the idea of a Man with God-like powers putting on a cape and doing good...........we prefer our heroes to be dark and gritty,to have feet of clay and huge psychological hang ups and inner struggles........we prefer the near psychotic,shcizophrenic Batman.....a tragic figure who never recovered from his parents death and who dresses up in black leather and goes out every night to keep himself sane and make sure no 8 year old ever becomes an orphan again....we prefer the everyman that is Spider-man...a hero whith money problems,relationship problems....wrecked by Guilt over his part in his Uncle's death......we Love Wolverine, a violent loner haunted by memories of himself being experimented on and plagued by inability to remember who he is.....a death-dealing,hairy chested Loner who oozes animal magnetism........we Don't want A hero like Superman who is a perfectly well-adjusted individual,who isn't a revenge obsessed or psychologically disturbed individual and who uses his God-like abilities to do...Good?! The mind boggles......how can cynical people like us ever believe some one could be so pure.....someone could give everything with no thought of any return...someone who is just so gosh darn...Good?!We can't identify...we want our heroes to be dark,brooding guys with relationship problems we have,with psychological quirks and problems we face......God Forbid anyone is capable of such good!!

Make no mistake...Superman is the quinssential Hero.He never kills.he Never lies.He never loses control.He always does the right thing..........People like heroes like Wolverine and Batman better, but they are'nt really very good heroes or role models...they're almost anti heroes....Batmn has no hesitation mentally and physically torturing criminals for the info he wants,in fact he will probably do anything just short of killing or crippling a criminal.......and Wolverine....a hero? This is a guy who fights dirty ,has absolutely no compunctions about killing,who slices and dices anything in his path and who's been prone to berserker rages that leaves hundreds of people dead and disembered........but they work in today's social climate. Girls love bad boys.....Superman is THE perfect gentlemen(he's a guy who can stop a plane crash and find time to save a little girl's pet cat from a tree)....so he's out of vogue...........who needs a perfect gentlemen when you can get some hairy-chested,cigar smoking,cool quips spouting walk Six-pack like Wolverine? That's kinda sad actually........but reflective of our times nowadays...but if you think about it, This bad boys Wolverine and Batman would'nt even last a second in a fight with Superman....Batman would be dead in about 0.5 secs...Wolverine's indestructible admantium skeleton and claws? Superman could just toss him straight into the freaking sun in a blink of an eye..........but that's what sets him apart from the rest....it's easier to lose control and kill your enemies then to restrain your self and not kill......killing them is the easy way out......Superman is infinitely more powerful then any Super hero......he could break somebody's neck with the flick of his pinky.....but instead he controls himself,everyday he restrains himself,keep his powers in check,struggle to make sure he doesn't use the full extent of his powers......he does the right thing....all the power he has and he could enslave the world..insead...he chooses to serve it...........I guess that's not a concept a cynical modern society can easily swallow...like I said...he's too Pure....haha

Superman used to be every Kid's favorite hero in the past and a lot of females perfect knight in shinig armor.......when Christopher Reeve was cast as Superman....Girls went crazy about him......and after he had done the movies...he would visit sick children with terminal diseases and talk and play with them and this kids would literally shit their pants when they saw their favorite superhero in the flesh....nowadays?Kids are raised on a life long diet of MTV and Computer games...if somebody were to dressed up as Superman and visit them in hospitals...they would probably sit their pants too...shit their pants laughing that is......hahhaa.....but still I've noticed audiences reaction to Superman..and it's the really young kids that absolutely adore Superman.....I overhead this group of young boys outside the theatre talking about their theories on how Superman really existed and how awesome he was...blah,blah,blah....pretty cute.......I guess it's those that are less jaded,more naive and less cynical who can really appreciate a hero like Superman.

ME?I can ccasionally suppress the cynic in me and enjoy the film for what it was...I thought Brandon Routh was great as Superman and they film really humanized Superman by placing him in a very moral and human dilema that he could'nt just punch his way out of.....my fav scene,after Superman is recovering in hospital after a near fatal kryptonite stabbing,thousands of people gather outside the hospital building to support and pray for their hero....and amongst them all is Martha Kent, Clark Kent's mum who desperately wants to go in and care for her son and be by his side but who cannot....because she would risk exposing his identity and because she knows that little baby Clark is also Superman and she has to share him with the world....very small but touching moment....I would rate this film 8.5/10.........it's not as high on action....but it's big on heart....

Anyway time to wind up this post.........just like to give a few shout outs to My Friends.....

Felix has been in a tough patch lately....first he had to go through an operation to remove the cyst on his leg which left this big sushi-sized hole, then later the doctor prescribed him with Medicine that he had an allergic reaction to it and so he went bonkers,started spouting nonsense about how he could see dead people and the future and started having strange compulsions to touch members of the opposite sex......and also he was affected by migraines and headaches that left him dazed,confused and confined to his bed most of the time........all communication with him was totally cut off from him between this 2-3 weeks where the medicine was affecting him mentally...........and after they found out he was allergic to the medicine,they took him off the drug and he was ok..........but in light of his strange behavior over that 3 week strecth, he was ordered to go for psychological examinations and as of now.....the head of the Neuroscience clinic ,who doesn't know about Felix's reaction to the drugs,has diagnosed him as having bipolar disorder on the basis of his strange behavior alone...........and also told felix that there were some discrepencies like the size of his brain has changed and there are some small problems with his kidneys........and that he and his parents may have to go for joint counselling......imagine...having a small operation to remove a cyst has snowballed into this complicated and horrible affair that has lput felix out of action for the past 2 months and may yet have severe implications on his future if the doctor diagnose him as having a mental disorder........haiz...but I 've been out with felix a couple of times after he recovered and he's now perfectly fine.......so If You're reading this dude,all the best...and hope everythings turn out for the better........if nt there's always a padded cell and injections twice a day waiting for you....ahhaha....Nah I kid........I'm genuinely aghast about the current state of events and hope all this bad shit is resolved as soon as possible....

To Sakthi Ganapathi s/o Ramachandran.....the guy with the longest name in SouthEast asia......and to Choon Tat(Aka The crow) the man with a hald broken voice box....Congratulations on your ORD......finally gotten back your pink IC ....and all the best for your future endeavours....I'll be joining you soon....hahha...and by soon I mean...in 13 long effing mths time....

And also congrats to those that are gonna ORD soon like that black lump of coal,Sasi s/o mailwaganan(another long named jackass..hahah), Zul (my only equal in English) and Zulfadli(the man with the colgate smile..hahha)......Minghui(Austin power's tubby asian twin)..hmmmm ....and practically ALL my other Sec school friends....

To Wai Kwong......I'm not MIA for God's sake lar you giant ass monkey..........we both live in Bukit Panjang...if you wanna meet up just call me lar.....MIA indeed!! My condolences to you on your recent break up.....Man you gotta tell me all about it when we meet!!hahaha.......

Lastly to the girls:Wenjun,Geraldine and Huiling..........Good luck for your new (semi final?) term of studies at SIM....and if you're free....go visit and contact Felix soon lar...I assure you apart from his stronge urge to grope...he's perfectly normal..ahhaha.....well...normal as he can be...ahhaha

Before I go.......You ever wanted to know Hugh Jackman/Wwolverine's true origin....you want to know what hidden memories haunts him night after night??Check out this clip.....hilarious shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYpyLzORfP0

Annnnnnnnnnnd it's a wrap.

11:08 PM