Month: August 2008

RSAF 40-Year Anniversary Open House

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I went to the RSAF Open House today. The second one I’ve been to, since a long time ago… I think that was like 20 years ago when the Hawker Hunter and A-4S Super Skyhawks are still in service and the F-16 was the brand new state-of-the-art new addition.

I went with Chillycraps and he was a little upset everyone was late ranging from 10 – 20 mins. The queue for the free shuttle bus service was damned long and somewhere in between Chillycraps asked me why I did not express unhappiness with the RSAF wasting costly fuel for the Open House while I make noise about the NDP. And frankly, I am not really sure why and I simply told Chillycraps that’s simply because I am an axxhole and I personally thing it wouldn’t be right to me to complain about something I wanted to see.

Anyway, we reached around 1130hrs, after a long wait for the bus @ Eunos MRT. And by the time we cleared security checks, the air show is long since over and the next one is scheduled at 1700. * sigh *

To further dampen our spirits, there was a short downpour which kept us hiding under the wing of the KC-135 for 10 ~ 15 minutes. With nothing much further to see – which is no fault of the Air Force, as they have put up quite a big display of stuff – we just took photos of whatever interests us of the war machines on display and left around 1320pm… to yet another long wait for a bus back to Hougang Interchange this time (because the queue was shorter).

Below is a slideshow of the few pictures I have taken…

El Sheikh at Pahang Street

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I should have done this before the one on Amirah’s Grill after I went there with some very wonderful people: nadnut, jean, rinaz, dk, chillycraps, malique and his wifey and musxzart on 26th July. However, I also didn’t take any photos then to make a proper post.

I must first thank rinaz for introducing us to this wonderful place, situated in the Kampong Glam area, right next to Amirah’s Grill along Pahang Street. To reach the place you can either take a bus to Beach road and drop off opposite The Concourse, or take the MRT’s East-West line to either Lavender or Bugis MRT station and take a short walk over.

I quote from Rinaz blog: The cafe already looks charming from the outside with the rustic two story shophouse where it was housed. Inside, it looked very cosy and rather condusive with its homely arabic styled decor all around.

The above is true. But as to the service, I think it is a little lacking. I recalled that when I was there for the first time I had to call them to bring the cutlery for late-comers, and on the second occasion when I was there I wasn’t even attended to after a few minutes (but that might be because the staff were having their dinner.)

The food is great. Adding to the fact that I am damned hungry, I swallowed my own order pretty as quickly as possible. Even so, I could taste it’s nice and I really want to go and try out the food again. Since I am not very good at describing how good the food is, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. You can check out some of the pictures taken by Rinaz when she was there some time ago before our outing.

All in all, I think the food is value for money and the portion is generous. Do visit when you can, and I believe most people will enjoy the wonderful food they offer.

The first few photos were given to me by dk, and the rest I took on my own when I revisited the place again on 21st Aug with xinyun mei.

Movie: Star Wars – The Clone Wars

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Personally speaking, it would be more aptly named ‘Star Wars: Clone Wars Chronicles – the Outer Rim War’ or something like that. After all, this is just a small part of the Clone Wars in the Star Wars Universe. My opinion is that if the animation has been named in this way then it paves the way for more to be made in the future, if this one is successful. In short, the Clone Wars animation series could have been the ‘expansion pack’ in the Star Wars movie franchise.

Anyway, I didn’t read the reviews about it though some of the other bloggers who have seen it left their comments on Plurk, and some are not too flattering. So, by the time I get to watch it on Tuesday (free tickets – courtesy of xinyun mei), I had already lowered my expectations and because of that it was some what within expectations. I even found it quite funny – especially the baby Hutt, Anakin’s Padawan Ashoka, and some of the droids in the Confederation’s droid army.

Storyline wise, I would say it’s actually quite weak. Usually I would consider a story to be good when you have wheels within wheels. Take for e.g. Vantage Point. In the case of this animation, there was only one main plot in the storyline and that is to deny the other side an alliance with the Hutts. I won’t dwell much on how either side seeks to attain their goals, but suffice to say it was pretty straight forward. There were no surprises nor shocks to be expected.

I wouldn’t say you should give this a miss, since I am personally a Star Wars ‘fanboi’ , but I think it is no loss if you just watch it on a VCD or DVD when it gets released.

[Game] 古惑仔 Kuwakchai.com

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Introduced recently to yet another addictive text-based browser MMORPG called 古惑仔 (古惑仔 or kuwakchai is the Cantonese equivalent of samseng [三牲仔], gangster or mafia). I find it even more addictive than Tribal Wars and it reminds me of MUD (Multi-User Dungeon).

The game is based in the towns of Malaysia so you will see many Bahasa Melayu terms like Merempit, Pudu Jail, Jahat, Lu Punya Kerja, Skolah and Pasar Malam in the game, along with some Cantonese terms like Mahchai [马仔, meaning: Henchmen].

This can be a good game for students, or those who are working. The reason being that it will take time for certain stats like Energy, Will, and Brave to regenerate, and it usually can take up to an hour while in at most 5 minutes, your commands would exhausted much of your stats. This simply means for the rest of the hour you will be waiting for your stats to regenerate. For e.g. Your energy level regenerates at about 8% every 5 minutes so you can return to work while you leave the browser idling at a corner.

However, since the each of the stats has a different regeneration rate, it means you can come back in every few minutes to try and do those things utilising a different stat, provided another player hasn’t come around to give you a beating to land you in the hospital. And thus this is what makes the game addictive so please remember not to let it impact your performance at work or divert your attention from your studies!

So, what is the game all about? Basically you do as what the mafia would do. You start small, doing the Jahat (naughty) stuff like bully kids, sell pirated DVD and stuff, to the big time stuff like killing a model and such. You can also do some ‘Biaomei’ * (prostitutes) trafficking to gain crime experience and dexterity as well, or go around beating or mugging the other players – provided your attributes are better than theirs – or join a gang or even form your own. And of course you must train yourself to have better attributes (strength, agility, guard, labor and IQ) using your points, which is hard to come by, or your energy level.

Do remember these attributes are a factor in calculating whether you succeed in a particular task so do not neglect any one attribute too much, but concentrate on strength and guard, which both puts other players in hospital or prevent yourself from ending up in it. If this sounds too confusing for you, do not worry, the admins of the game are friendly so you can email them. If not, you can always click on the section called ‘Announcements’ to look up what each attribute / stat does for you in the game and how to go about obtaining them.

Currently, 5 – 6 of my blogger friends have joined me in the fun. However, I must remind you that I am in no way responsible if you are lacking in discipline. You and you alone are responsible for your own performance at work or your grades in study. So, if you know you succumb to addiction easily or if you don’t have any discipline, my personal advice is not to play the game. I am reminded that I have heard of how some under-graduates destroyed themselves for their over-indulgence in MUD.

For the rest who would venture to try, I’ll leave you to experience and enjoy the game on your own.


For those who are interested in joining please put this under your referrer code: http://kuwakchai.com?REF=2654.

Biaomei: 表妹 (cousin) in Mandarin. Because the word 表 and 婊 (prostitute) is pronounced similarly, it generally means an illegal immigrant you tried to pass off as your cousin while you pimp them.

Movies Watched Recently…

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The Dark Knight

The sequel to Batman Begins with Christian Bale reprising his role as Batman. There’s no Katie Holmes this time round to play Rachel Dawes but that’s pretty irrelevant. While some say this is better than the prequel, and most of the praises were given to the now deceased Heath Ledger who plays the Joker in this movie, I still liked the prequel better. Without a doubt, Heath Ledger did very well in his role, and he was very much different from the other joker. This is one Joker I find way too sinister and evil. He isn’t funny at all and frankly, I can’t even say if he’s even joking at all.

If you ask me what is the gist of the story, then it would be Joker’s ‘bet’ with Batman that good or morality is an easy thing to say and do when one’s life or loved one is not threatened. i.e. it is not difficult to even turn a good man, even the best among us, to become a bad one if the ‘right switch is flicked’.

In a way Joker’s view is right. I can’t explain that in detail here, as that would become spoilers even though I believe most people have already watched it. But still, it’s best for you to watch it on your own to get your own feel and understanding of this movie.

Personally speaking, I preferred the prequel with the dark and Gothic look to Gotham City. The Gotham in this movie no longer have that feel. Above which, the movie was really too long and almost 3/4 way through I could feel the level rising in the bladder.

Even so, this is the best movie I have watched for the month of July / August. And if there’s one movie you shouldn’t miss, this has to be it.

Addendum 25.08.08: I was clearing my hard disk today and I suddenly come across a screen shot of something a while back when someone said “It is impossible to understand the minds of certain people because that would be like trying to understand the mind of the Joker in Batman.”

It would have been true on the surface, but on deeper thoughts, the above statement shows just how shallow the mind of such a person. There was only one thing in the mind of the Joker, and that is to prove that everyone can break their own principles. i.e. even the best among the good can be turned to do evil. This was at the end of the movie in the conversation between Batman and the Police Commissioner. Apparently someone has left in brains in the freezer when he was watching the movie.

The Mummy III

My personal opinion after watching this movie? Make this the last. The joke one of my friend made about it was, in the next Mummy movie they will be fighting mummies of the legendary Wind [聂风] and Cloud [步惊云] from the HK Kungfu comics.

And there are a few things I didn’t like. First, Rachel Weisz is no longer reprising her role as Evelyn O’Connell. Second, Brendan Fraser looks are still too youthful to play the role of a father. And third, I think Michelle Yeoh’s Mandarin still sucks as bad as it was in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. To round it up, to imagine Qin Shihuang – the first Emperor of China – as a mummy is really pushing the limit of my tolerance. But in the book, it was some other fictional character known as Er shihuangdi, though I am quite sure Qin Shihuang and his unification of China inspired this character.

The story begins with how the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) turned into a Mummy after being cursed by the sorceress Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh). It then fast forward 2000 odd years to show Alex O’Connell – son of Richard O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) – discovering the resting place and how General Yang (Anthony Wong) and his cronies ‘resurrected’ the Emperor or free him from the curse. Then of course, it goes on to the usual attempts to kill / destroy the Mummy.

I won’t dwell too much on the storyline. But suffice to say this movie is completely uninspiring, especially the part where you see an army fighting with iron age weapons with mid-20th Century soldiers. Simply put, I completely regretted watching it. I should have saved that $7.50 and convert it into another HK$35 to buy food for my stomach in Hong Kong.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

The movie was a little too short for my taste and appears to be rushing through the parts. As to what the story is about is summarized by these few words – a simple investigation turning into a major adventure.

Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) is head of the Center of Volcanic Activity in a university. His brother Max went missing 10 years ago leaving behind a widow and his nephew Sean. Max’ widow decided to leave Sean with Trevor for 10 days as she leaves for Canada to prepare for their eventual migration and Sean made Trevor take him along to Iceland to investigate seismic sensor readings that matches those during Max’ disappearance. When they arrived in Iceland they hired guide Hannah (Anita Briem) to take them up the volcano where the sensor is. The rest is ‘history’.

Though another Brendan Fraser movie, at the very least this one was much more interesting than Mummy 3, though at one point of time I was wondering if I wasn’t watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The eye candy, Anita Briem, was better than Mummy 3 of course.

There’s also quite a bit of computer animation put into this movie in the form of dinosaurs, prehistoric piranhas, relatives of the Loch Ness monster etc, and not just mummies, and more mummies. However, you are not missing much if you don’t watch it but if you absolutely ‘heart’ Brendan Fraser than I would suggest getting the cheap VCD version when it is released.

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