happy new year..?

try telling that to the familes of the hundreds of thousands who perished. sad eh? ah well, life goes on.. as unsensitive as that sounds, u have to admit that there's nothing much that can be done rite? incidently, cnn.com sez that to date 134,000 have been reported to be dead. sigh, jus the yesterday i was commenting to my fren "don't be surprised that there're 120,000 ppl dead", and its now 134k and counting. my god. n if u actually see pics of wats left of acheh, indonesia (the area right in front of where the earthquake struck), u'd realise that it looks like its just been nuked - its just well, empty.

anyway, all these talk about the tsunamis and stuff is getting alil out of hand - its just everywhere! everyone is talking bout it, thats all thats on the news. so i've decided, this is the last post that i'm gonna comment on it cos frankly its just plain depressing.

and oh yah, the malaysian government has postponed all new years celebration in respect of those who perished in the tsunami "attack". reports say that they will "postpone the new years countdown celebration 2005 to a later, more appropriate time". now wait a minute, how in the world does one POSTPONE a new years countdown to a later time?! do u like go "oh no, we can't countdown cos its just disrespectful.. nevermind, we'll just wait til sometime mid february and do the countdown "TEN...!!! NINE...!!! EIGHT...!!!" hmmm, kinda makes u wonder doesn't it? hahahaa..

u da man!

ooo, just caught on the telly that donations are pouring in to help those affected in the asian tsunami affair. among the prominent ppl who donated are: Jacky Chan - US$60,000 and HK tycoon Lee Ka Shing a whopping US$3 million!! u da man, dawg. =)

tsunami hits various asian destinations.

whats going on..? tremors felt in the klang valley? tsunami waves hitting langkawi & penang? an earthquake hitting 8.9 on the richter scale (the 5th worst ever recorded in the world)?!

current death tolls stands at 69,000 confirmed deaths - i fear that this number will just get more as the minutes tick. my heart goes out to all those affected.

this is gonna sound cheezy, but here goes: life is short, play hard - u never know when its gonna end. carpe diem, my friend.. seize the day.

p/s: i believe the pic above depicts the aftermath at gurney drive, penang. at speeds of over 100km/h (some sources say 400 km/h), the cars and concrete blocks dont stand a chance.

the da vinci code

oh, one thing i did miss out in my last post is that i actually did find the time to sit down and read dan brown's 'da vinci code' (DVC) after getting it like 7 months ago!! wat can i say? i thoroughly enjoyed it. however, i have to point out that although the story was good, i cant quite say that dan brown is a good author. confused? read on..

here's how it goes, dan browns DVC isnt exactly dan brown's idea. its more like he took (stole is such a strong word) an already very well researched and widely published topic, inserted some characters, some story and action scenes and voila.. u've got the best selling book of the year. even more confused? well.. u ARE blur arent you? =P

okay, DVC actually builds on some theory which many conspiracy theorists have been discussing for ages, that Jesus actually had a wife and it was to this wife that He was to pass the church to after his crucification. however, due to many opposition from everywhere this was not to be. and to cut the story short, she had to 'disappear' and due to certain reasons (political and otherwise), this fact was conveniently omitted from the bible. however, the 'enlightened' ppl (da vinci and gang) knew wat was going on and actually left many clues in their arts in hopes that this story could be passed on to the world. kewl stuff.. therefore, if conspiracies are ur cup of tea and u're looking for something thought provoking, i highly recommend reading DVC. i'm sure u'll realise that u'd be seeing things from a totally different perspective.

oh ya, just so u know.. DVC is actually the 2nd book in the Robert Langdon series (the main character in the story), his 1st 'adventure' was in 'Angels & Demons', which is all about 'the illuminati'. wanna know more..? go read the book laaaaa! oh ya, heard DVC the movie is already in the works (if its not filmed already), with tom hanks playing the lead. wait for that if u're just too lazy to read the book, though as we all know, no book has ever successfully been transfered unto the big screen well so the choice is urs..

Merry X'mas everyone! well, although its somewhat belated already.. hope u guys had a great x'mas. i'm sure u guys have been wondering whats up with communication blackout over the past few weeks. all i can say is, need u ask? i mean this isnt the 1st time its happened: my modem konked out again. take my advice: if u should be in the market to get an ADSL modem, dont ever get D-Link. screwed me up twice already, good thing its still under warranty.

so anyway.. lemme fill u in on wats been happening in my life lately. well, for starters i've finally tried the dim sum in mandarin oriental. i alil pricey, but its good. well, when i was actually eating it i didnt think it was anything special and all.. sure its fresh and the 'ha gau' (prawn dumpling) skin doesnt break when u try to separate them, but i thought that should u what to expect since i'm paying like 8 bucks for it. it was only when i had dim sum again in spring valley, midvalley (which is owned by the tai thong group - one of the more famous chinese restaurants offering dim sum), when i realised how good M.O.'s dim sum was compared to spring valley's. i mean MO's didnt have the 'porky' smell (haha..) and it was waaayy fresher. so if u're in kl and crave dim sum, save urself the grief and head on over to MO for the best around. but then again there's Oriental in ss14 PJ, but thats another story altogether..

oh, i also won a consolation prize for some SMS competition. haha, i know u must be going like what?! sms competition?!?!! before u say anything, hear me out. well, i'm on a 238 bucks a month plan on maxis, and i almost never use above a 150 bucks (i get to make 238 worth of calls and i'm exempted from the 60 bucks monthly subscription), no matter how to cincai call here call there i still cant break $150. so when i came across this sms competition, i jus play for the fun of it la.. cos i seem to be losing an average of 100 bucks a month to maxis. i think i spent like 80 bucks jus on that competition and then i got bored of it. so i just left it at that.. a few weeks later (yesterday) i got a call from the competition ppl, i won a consolation prize! wow.. kewlness yo. what i got was one 2005 f1 hillstand ticket (i think it should be worth like 150 bucks) and also a thumb drive. i think the total prize value should be about 250 bucks. not bad for a 80 bucks investment. needless the say, i'm gonna continue playing this stupid sms thing, hoping to get another few more tix so at least i can get others to go with me. okay, before u guys comment on my extravagant mobile plan, i've already changed it to the 138 a month plan, so leave me alone!

oh yah, in case i dont get to chat with u guys soon.. happy new year guys! all the best for the upcoming year.

p/s: modem still konked - havent had the time to get it changed (m using dialup now), so try not to miss me yah? =P

The famous Pagani Zonda taken at the BF Goodrich Asian Motorsports Festival 2004 at the Sepang F1 circuit .. ain't she a beauty?

Larry Suit Larry : Magna Cum Laude

How many of u out there played the earlier editions of Leisure Suit Larry? Well, i did.. dont recall how many i actually played but i remember there were 6 earlier editions. Cant remember much of it but its alwiz about this horny loser named Larry who has to go thru hell alot of crap from the chicks around him just to get laid. This latest offering for the PS2 is no different, just that the original Larry is all old now and the story is about his college-going nephew who funnily enough is also named Larry..

so far i've spent the last 3 hrs playing it and i'm having a ball.. which is really uncommon cos i usually get bored of games after 10 mins playing it. that along with the fact that i tend to buy PS2 games on impulse has resulted in me having DAMN alot of PS2 games, many of which i havent even played yet.. but somehow everytime i pass a shop selling games i still have to walk in and come out with a few. sigh..

so anyway, back to my game.. *click click click*

its happened. thats right folks, the day has finally comed that i've succumbed to temptation.. why, oh why..?! no, its definitely NOT what u're thinking.. then wat happened i hear you ask? hehe, well.. its like this. i decided to go for a movie yesterday. and it being a saturday it was expected that the ticket lines would be super long, and trust me - it was. okay fine, so there i stood looking with disbelief at the amount of ppl there was when i saw it (gasp, dare i say it?) *dum dum dum* the gold class line.. and it was empty. a quick glance to the board and found that Alexander was playing. perfectivante. 5 mins and 70 bucks poorer, i had 2 goldclass tix to see alexander. excellent.

i have to say that the experience was well.. different. after walking through the glass doors with the "Gold Class" words above it, u'd be greeted by a lounge area with a bar. i guess where the creme de-la creme of movie-goers go to socialize. so anyway wat u do is u place ur order of watever u want (popcorn, twisties, coke.. watever) and they'll send it up to u when the movie starts (kewl eh?). well, theres a doorway by the bar which leads to the actual cinema area, and if my memory serves me correctly, there's about 16 seats altogether. the seats here are actually plushy PVC sofas that can recline (but they're not comfy at all!) . these're placed in pairs with a table in between them throughout the room. wats kewl is that there is a button u can press in the middle of the table to call for "service".. hmmm. oh ya, one thing: its cold in there. i mean since there's only 16 ppl in there it got a lil cold halfway thru the movie. one bit of advise: do NOT ask for blankets as it'd cost u 5 bucks a piece *gasp gasp choke choke* all in all, it was a kewl experience.

okay, now on to my take on alexander. hmm.. i'm pretty in the dark about greek mythologies, so i can't quite comment on the storyline or its accuracy, but if titanic/pearl harbor was any indication i'm sure they went waaayyyy off true accounts of wat happened i'd expect. the acting was good and i felt that colin ferrell et all played their parts to perfection, but i dont think that was enough to save the show. it was ermm.. boring. and who'd expect alexander the great to be a bleeping homo?! hahaha.. i mean i know that people in antiquity (even many in the japanese feudal era) 'played' with boys, but alexander the great?! now makes u wonder.. did the 'greatness' come from his conquest of other nations.. or the conquests of other nations' boys. hehe. i have to add that the only thing that surpassed this show's boring-ness, was how disturbing it was. its just plain, mindless and very often draggy violence. it just went on and on and on. and halfway thru the show i felt that alexander just lost it. i couldn't quite understand why.. but he just lost it (potential show spoiler: stop reading now), he already achieved so much and his troops wanted to go back but he kept wanting to go on despite the chance of his success getting bleaker and bleaker. he only relented after being almost killed. i just found that weirrddd..

i wonder if its for real.. but anyone who's worked with 'idiots' before would probably testify how ur "blood can just go upstairs" - gawd knows how many times i've been thru that myself..