It's been a year!

A bit over a year since I started this blog. At this point, I'm just glad that I'm writing all sorts of trash. It's fun fun fun!

Thanks to all readers, thanks to my friends, and heartfelt thanks to those special few who, whether directly or indirectly, helped to make this blog happen and sustain itself. You know who you all are...

Here's to the next year!

Quick Fantastic Four review (with spoilers)

Alright, if you haven't watched the movie stop right now...

Okay, let's get the main purist issue out of the way first. Victor Von Doom, say what??? What, they couldn't think of a way to make him menacing on film without giving him flashy powers? The evil genius of Dr. Doom is what he's all about. Taking that away from him just changes the character entirely. Is it because they were afraid they couldn't convince the movie-goers that a no-powers human brilliant genius (albeit with some limited mystical knowledge) could take on a whole superhero quartet?

The comic that started it all

(I wanted to post Jessica Alba but I think that pic's been done to death on the Web, ha ha)

Okay, onto business...

This movie has the problem of having extremely successful superhero movies preceding it. From Spiderman, X-Men, and most recently Batman Begins, Fantastic Four was always gonna have a tough time in front of the critics.

The main difference in terms of superhero comics was that the FF did not have secret identities. Sure they had codenames but everyone knew who they were. In a sense, this caused the comic stories to be less darker and more colourful than the rest, and consequently, the movie too.

And when it followed Batman Begins, it just looked horrible.

But for all that, I think the movie did okay. It set out what it intended to do, i.e. have a more colourful, cheerful image of the typical superhero group (in this case, family). Although there were other things I didn't like, e.g. Reed's wimpiness with Sue, and Ben Grimm changing BACK into The Thing (where'd the additional power come from? And is the machine still around???!), the Fantastic Four movie was a success in its own way.

Oh, and of course, they found a way to show Jessica Alba in skimpy undies. Never doubted it for a sec!

The Importance of Follow-Up

Back when I was in KPMG, to a lot of fellow colleagues and myself, the word Follow-up was pretty much a four letter word that happened to start with the word F as well. In audit, doing the initial work seemed much easier than chasing people to get outstanding stuff. It's like writing a brilliant opening chapter for your novel, only to experience writer's block in the next.

Nevertheless, it becomes really important not to let any momentum built up thus far simply wash out.

Case in point:

I was at Zouk's Mambo night Special on Wednesday evening (thanks Ruud!), and the Grease Anniversary Medley came on! I was high enough at this stage I leaped on the already full platform and started replicating the movie dance moves.

Then, halfway through the song, a pretty Chinese girl moved to stand in front of me but on the dance floor. She didn't dance, she just looked at me doing my nonsense, smiling sweetly all the time. Towards the end (the slow Summer Loving portion) I started singing to her and she smiled on. Song ends, I introduced myself (still on the platform) with a handshake. Her name was Ju Shuen (not sure bout the spelling). Then she walks away from the dance floor, and throws one more smile at me. And what did I not do?

I didn't FOLLOW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn damn damn, I just continued dancing instead... An opportunity passed up, just like that...

This is wishful thinking I KNOW, but I hope to high hope that our paths will cross again...

Anywayz, I'd like to write bout Mambo more, (it was an Abba theme night!) but that has ta appear elsewhere on the web ha ha...

Nooo!!! Unbelievable!!!

Rockstar INXS

The bottom three turned out to be Jessica, Heather and Daphna. I think it would have been close, as at least half of the performers had a bad day. And bloody JD dodged another bullet!

And who did INXS eliminate?

Not one, but TWO performers, Heather AND Daphna!!!! Aieeeee, there goes my favourite. I guess she made a mistake of not showing what INXS asked for, vocal range.

So we're now down to ten, instead of eleven, and that's 1/3rd of what they started with.

And currently in the driving seat, IMHO, are... Mig (yeap, eating my words), Marty, JD and Jordis.

Well!

A few posts ago, I admitted I didn't have any recent pics of my my college buddy, Yee Leng coz I didn't meet up with her. She has since kindly provided me an update with tons of pics. Thank you heaps, dear! Here's some samples, and she looks lovelier than ever!!!

Miss Yee Leng as I live and breathe

Rose Gardens, Budapest

Of course, I can't deny the fact that I'm tremendously jealous finding out she went on a huge 4 week trip to Europe!!! Here's another shot:

That's Mozart back there! Well, a likeness at least...

Apparently, she's also quite an avid photographer. Here's an example which I rather liked myself (okay fine, I can't comment on the colour technique!!! I get it already)


Mirrabel Garden, Salzburg

Europe, Europe, sure I went before but I was bloody well 4-6 yrs old at the time!!!

Patience, Azmin, your time will come...

Hmm, saying that more and more these days ha ha

Broken link...

This entry is for Meeshell,

I would like to draw your attention to the left column of my blog. Scroll up or down until you see Sleepy Jedi Associates in small blue font. Then scroll down to the link after Loco and before Moeology. Then try to click on it and see what happens...

But I do feel sorry for ya for such a ridiculous matter to occur. My condolences and hopefully a replacement will be up and running in the near future...

Till then, that link will remain!

The Dirty Dozen

It's Rockstar:INXS time!!!! (think I'm getting a bit obsessed here!)

Well, as you all know from last week's episode, J.D.'s comments about him loving INXS songs compared to the rest of the group, who have to learn them, didn't sit well with the rest. Antagonism towards him has obviously not gone away and it showed this week.

This week's clinic was rather interesting (unlike last week's which I didn't bother commenting on). The focus was stagecraft and the comments from the two members of INXS were quite insightful, too bad it wasn't an hour show.

The Dirty Dozen

But, the concert was not as good as before, maybe due to the songs available. A lot of the singers seem to have problems with more mellow songs.

Concert Report cards!

1. Mig : For someone whom I originally said "Nope" to, I have slowly been forced to eat my words here. Great performance!

2. J.D. : Looks like the gang has problems believing anything he says now. And his excuse for not doing the song well was pathetic. Terrible showing.

3. Heather : She didn't look scary today, and somehow it affected her singing. Apparently she really WAS sick this time and looked it.

4. Brandon : He sang Twisted, a song which I absolutely LOVE. I first heard the song in Reality Bites (awesome Movie) and it was primarily for this song I bought the soundtrack. BUT! He sang the song horribly!!! This just could be his downfall.

5. Daphna: Going the total opposite of INXS here. One of INXS went so far as to say she murdered the song. I Have to disagree totally! I think she sang great! If anyone murdered a song, it was Brandon! But I hated her outfit, though.


Daphna Dove

6. Suzie: She's definitely improved, I'll haveta say, definitely one of the harder working contestants here, if only for the fact she listens to criticism and works on it. Will survive again, the cat, but I stand by what I said last week.

7. Tara : Could be better, but comparatively to the other singers she did well. Then again, maybe I'm biased coz I'm partial to David Bowie songs...

8. Ty : Fantastic job.

9. Deanna : I thought she recovered very well after being shafted the previous week, and should avoid elimination

10. Jordis: Love the song (Gimme gimme some lovin') and she lived up to it, regaining my confidence in her.

11. Jessica: I didn't like this either. Jessica's steam seems to be running out

12. Marty: The best performance of the evening! I'm slowly warming up to his voice too!

Finding the bottom three is hard coz a lot of them didn't do well. Here's my list, in no particular order:

Jessica, J.D., Brandon (Yes, I am VERY upset with Brandon's treatment of the song!)

Had to choose between Jessica and Heather, but if Heather drops to bottom three, she won't get kicked coz of her previous solid performances.

So am I totally off my element here!? We'll find out tomorrow!!

Of sports...

Aside from Australian cricket and Liverpool football, I don't really follow many sports religiously. I am aware of Malaysia's achievements on the international stage, e.g. Nicol David's recent win (well done gal!), but usually not till the final stages. If I tune in to pool or tennis on Astro, I usually have a watch, but that's about it. Well, with tennis, it's when Maria Sharapova plays heh heh...

However, sometimes someone becomes so outstanding one just has to look up and take note.

This guy is a monster:

Mr. Lance Armstrong

Yeap, he just ended his involvement in Tour De France by winning his 7th (read: SEVEN), signing off on his cycling career in a flourish. I tell ya, this guy is someone you've just got to admire. You're looking at a guy who, seemingly at the peak of his career, finds out he has advanced testicular cancer spreading to his brain and lungs. He then undergoes chemotherapy and makes it through, establishes a Foundation to help the worldwide battle against cancer, then gets back into competitive cycling and proceeds to win 7 Tour De France competitions. IN A ROW.

You gotta give the guy credit. What an achievement!

Yee Leng, college buddy

Was trying to clean up and organize my e-mails yesterday and came across one I had overlooked before: A Malaysian friend of mine working in S'pore had been home in Malaysia for the holidays for the past four weeks and was going back to S'pore.... ....THAT SAME DAY!!!

Panicked and called her up and luckily enough I caught her about THREE hours before her flight back!!! Phew...
Flattering when I called and she immediately recognised me, going in her classic greeting, "Yes, Azmin..."

I met this gal in my 1st year at Uni, and I went into the same residential college in our final year. I think we became close coz we kept having the same courses. To my memory, the clincher was our Accounting Information Systems assignments.

!Ai de mi! I can never forget those Macros that just kept having us duped!

This is what she looked like 5 years ago (gimme a break, aight?) I don't have any recent pictures of her...



I don't know what she looks like now, although she'll prob. have that professional aura on her. 5 years working in PWC does that to ya...

It was good to catch up with an old friend, esp. a person like me whom, after two weeks not with the WGS gang, miss them like nuts! In any case, having her MSN username makes it a LOT more easier to stay in touch. Hopefully I'll be able to spend more time with her the next time she comes back down, which should be in about two months.

Till then... :)

c Warne b McGrath..

Thus the 1st Ashes cricket Test ended. As predicted, Australia won. And it actually rained first too ha ha!!!