apocalypto

I enjoyed watching Apocalypto and would recommend it to anybody who’s not a Mesoamerican historian. I really liked the colourful depictions of the Mayan city.

Apocalypto official website and on IMDB.

another photo blogged

Another photo of mine has been blogged here and here.

censorship goood, communists baaad

Malaysia has banned another Amir Muhammad film because it “distorts historical fact”.

front page news

Guess what? I’m on the front page of The Star today, together with hundreds of others, no thanks in part to my soon-to-be employer. See if you can spot me….

the departed should be interred

I watched Martin Scorsese’s The Departed recently. A rather decent movie on its own, but it pales in comparison to the original Infernal Affairs, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Why, oh why would anyone remake an excellent movie that was released barely 5 years ago? It was not just inspired by Infernal Affairs, it is Infernal Affairs combined with some parts of Infernal Affairs III, set in Boston instead of Hong Kong, and with a slightly different ending. Very, very disappointing.

If it wasn’t based on a vastly superior original, I would have given The Departed a score of 6.5 out of 10; but since we already have the very well-made Infernal Affairs series, I would give it a 2 out of 10. It shouldn’t have been made in the first place…what a waste of precious resources! By comparison, I would rate Infernal Affairs 8.5 out of 10, Infernal Affairs II 8 out of 10, Infernal Affairs III 7 out of 10, and the entire series a solid 9 out of 10 (that's synergy there).

So, if you haven’t watched The Departed, I would highly recommend that you watch the entire Infernal Affairs series first if you have not already done so. If you have already watched The Departed, and have not watched the original Infernal Affairs series, please watch the original Hong Kong version as well (and let me know what you think).

The Departed official website and on IMDB
Infernal Affairs official website, US distributor website and on IMDB
Infernal Affairs II official website and on IMDB
Infernal Affairs III official website and on IMDB

anjing pegi, babi mali

My favourite SMS greeting of the season:

Anjing pegi, babi mali,
Sueh pegi, ong mali,
Untong-untong manyak kali,
Hali-hali suka hati,
Kena ekor, kena loteli,
Gongxi gongxi lu sama famili!

恭喜发财

[untitled] Hosted on Zooomr

Happy New Year everyone! Will be off for the reunion dinner soon. This will probably be my last family reunion dinner for the next 5 years as I probably won’t be granted leave during Chinese New Year….

my photo was blogged

Yay! To my knowledge, this is the first time that a photo of mine has been blogged.

zooomr

[untitled] Hosted on Zooomr

The whole log-in merge with Yahoo! issue has put me in a predicament. I used to really like Flickr but I really hate the idea of having to use a Yahoo! ID to log in and I haven’t been entirely satisfied with the way the issue has been handled. So while looking around for an alternative, I found Zooomr! It’s not perfect, and it’s still beta (and this can be quite evident), but it’s got lots of potential and promise. I’'s got some pretty cool features not found on Flickr, and best of all, I get a free pro account for a year for linking this post!

summer in singapore?

The following line is from "The Photographs" by Saskia Louise Schafer, on page 171 of Silverfish New Writing 6, edited by Dipika Mukherjee, published by Silverfish Books, Kuala Lumpur:

…"She knows everything?! That we’ve been seeing each other since summer? That I’m here now?" His voice was filled with horror….

"She" refers to his wife, "he" is a man from KL, and he is talking to his lover, "here" is Singapore, where their relationship is based in, and "summer" is apparently a season that Singapore has….

divine diving talents

Most amusing read in the papers this morning: "Liverpool should spend their megabucks on a world-class diver if they want to compete with Chelsea and Manchester United".

Read it here.

into the tiger’s mouth i go

From the Malay saying, "terlepas dari mulut buaya, masuk ke mulut harimau", literally, "escaped from the crocodile’s mouth, into the tiger’s mouth", not quite the same as "out of the frying pan, into the fire", but similar….

So what’s this pepatah got to do with anything…? Well, I finally got a starting date with the new job in Singapore: 12 March. So I guess I’ll be moving to Singapore after all.

Hence, I begin my blogging life, as a soon-to-be migrant worker….