Comic Movies

Wooo Hooo.... Iron Man blasts into movie theaters everywhere... I wasn't too sure about Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark but I must say, he pulled it off. And Gwyneth Paltrow... ssssssssizzling.... The CGI and effects were really great and those of you who rushed out of the cinema after the movie... and didn't wait till after the credits... :-) Well.. you missed out on the cameo of ****... But.. I won't spoil the surprise.. go watch it again...

Anyway, to my delight, the past few years have seen an amazing onslaught of movies based on comic book characters and with the exception of the recent Superman Returns, I'd have to say I'm liking what I see so far and I can't wait for more, More, MOre, MORE!!!. So... what's coming up next??!! Read On...

The Dark Knight. The second remake of Gotham's nocturnal guardian. I used to say that Michael Keaton was the best Batman... That's until Christian Bale came along... And My God... Heath Ledger's Joker is gonna blow you all away... My only disappointment is the death of Heath Ledger cos' he should have been around to savour his masterpiece. RIP Heath!

Hellboy. Never really bought into the comics but the first movie was kinda interesting. I guess being a fan of Mike Mignola (the artist who created Hellboy) helped. From the trailers, the 2nd movie is gonna be more spectacular than the first one so... go watch it!




The Incredible Hulk. Another remake of a cult favourite. There was one in 2003 starring Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly (sayang cos JC is such a babe!!!) which I felt was a flop... sub-standard CGI and effects... This new remake starring Edward Norton, I hope, will pulverize that to gamma particles... Oooohh.. I shiver just thinking those words... "Please don't make me angry.... You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" ROOOOOAAAARRR!!!

Thor. "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy shall possess the power of Thor!!" Thor is the Norse God of Thunder, banished to live among men by his father to teach him humility within Dr Donald Blake, a frail, partially disabled doctor. He however, discovers Thor's hammer, Mjolnir and lo behold, the God of Thunder has returned as protector of mankind!!

Punisher 2. Yet another remake. Never was a fan of Punisher but oh well... Shortage of good movies nowadays so we'll see how this one turns out. Starring Ray Stevenson, last seen in HBO's Rome as Titus Pullo... Pretty decent acting I might add.

Frank Castle's family was brutally murdered and he was left for dead after witnessing a Mafia execution. Angered with the authorities in ability to bring the perpetrators to justice, he became the punisher... bringing death & destruction to organised crime.

If I'm not wrong, he's the first vigilante in comicdom... amongst all the superheroes.

Origins: Wolverine. Everyone's favourite cigar-chewin', adamantium laced canuck is BACK!! And he's gonna' be spilling more blood, eh?...

The story will reveal Wolverine's past in the Weapon X project and very likely his connection to Sabretooth & William Stryker long before the X-Men came about.

Origins: Magneto. The master of magnetism... not to be outdone by Wolverine returns in his own origin story...

















Justice League. DC Comics' answer to Marvel's Avengers. A superhero team led by Superman with a membership including Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and so many many more... Unlikely that you will see that many characters in the movie. If you watch Smallville, you would already have seen appearances by some of the characters mentioned.



Conan. The word barbarian would simply have no meaning if not for Conan. A character most people would associate to Arnold Schwarzeneggar who portrayed the Cimmerian in the earlier movies.

Backpacking 101

I was thinking of writing this sometime back but never really got down to it... But after a friend asked me when I was going for my next trip and that he'd like to tag along, I thought I might as well. So here we go... A Dummies Guide to Backpacking... by a dummy!!

First of all, backpacking is not really that difficult as some may think. To me, I suppose backpacking is defined as cheap travel. And it basically means... well... backpacking... You chuck everything into your backpack including the kitchen sink... And God bless the porter who helps you carry that up Everest/ Mount Kinabalu.

Anyway, for the simple fact that you will be carrying that ton of stuff you are carrying, well... best tip I can offer is travel light. Trust me, I have tried walking around downtown Madrid with my backpack strapped on... It's not fun...

Anyway, backpacking is fun... it's an adventure... Freedom at it's finest - you go where you want to go, you do what you want to do, you sit where you wanna... ok... forget the last 2... You have to consider local customs before you do something in a foreign country... But anyway.. let's get down to it...

Step 1: Planning Your Budget

Know where you want to go. Know how much you have to spend. This is critical otherwise you'll find yourself sleeping in toilets (I'm not kidding... I have friends who did this...) or on park benches (which is not advisable even if you are a guy)... Remember American Werewolf in Paris?? Never know what's lurking out there... :-) Basically, you start with a destination. This is pretty simple cos' South East Asia (SEA) is quite cheap to travel on a shoestring. Once you have decided, go look around for cheap airfares. With Air Asia, land travel is not necessarily cheaper anymore. For example, zero air fare is a common feature nowadays and when I went to Vietnam in 2007, I paid only RM 238 on fuel surcharges and airport taxes... The fare was zero.

Next, the best guide you can get is Lonely Planet & the Internet. For example, try keying-in 'tourist destinations in Hanoi' in Google or Yahoo. You will get hundreds & thousands of results... Lonely Planet is very good... Why? Listings of accommodations according to your budget. This will give you a good idea of how much you need to spend on accommodation. Try to get an idea (from friends who have been there or even doing a search on Google) on how much meals cost at your destination. But a good guideline is about USD5 for each meal... This is for SEA.

Basically, after Step 1, you want to know how much you would have spent on necessities. Based on my scenario, this would have come to about slightly over RM600 for a 10-day trip inclusive of return flight & meals. Accommodation can vary. Again, factor that in based on research that you have made before hand and work within that budget. And whatever remains of that from your initial budget of let's say (RM1,000) is for your domestic travelling, land travel and so on. Depending on your research, you can get a better estimate because a lot of details are in Lonely Planet so make use of it.

Tips: Ask friends, Lonely Planet, Internet

Step 2: Planning Your Itinerary

Be practical. If you want to travel throughout Vietnam in 10-days... What you want is Superman to ferry you around... so don't try to achieve too much and most importantly, work within your budget. Think about your objective... Do you have specific places you would like to visit? Do you want to see a little bit of everything or do you want to see everything in a specific destination. For example, if you want to travel from Hanoi to Central Vietnam, unless you want to dish out several hundreds more for domestic air travel you'll be wasting time cos' a bus ride from Hanoi to let's say Danang/ Hue will take you easily 16 hours. You will have to factor the travelling time into your schedule so let's say you take 10 days off, you will lose about 2 days just for travelling...

Anyway, know the country you are visiting. Look at the map. Again, do some research on the distances and the kind of transportations available to you. In most cases, Lonely Planet will let you know how to get from one place to another and the cost and duration as well.

When you already have a list of places you want to go, group them according to localities. From there, you can cover all the places in one locale before moving to another locale. This is plain common sense. I sometimes consider where I will be leaving for home from and I plan in such a way that I cover that area last because I can relax and rest and just laze around.

A good way to travel is to travel at night but this depends on where you are going to. in some parts of the globe night travel can be dangerous due to bandits and so on. But on the good side of things, you can't do much so why not travel at night. In other words, get a night train or bus and just sleep on the bus. You depart at night and by the time you arrive, it's early in the morning. You have saved one day of travelling... and most importantly, lodging for the night. I have done this in Europe, Thailand & also Vietnam and it's something that I swear by.

Tips: Travel at night (consider the safety), group your travel sites by locales.

Step 3: Travel Documents

Travel documents. Most important document will be your passport. Make copies of all your documents and credit cards and leave them with a friend/ relative so in case you lose them (touch wood), you can get a copy easily.

Find out travel requirements. Some countries require visas or travel permits. This is important if you want to step out of the airport in the case of long stopovers. For example, if you fly from Kuala Lumpur to let's say Sweden and you have a 5 hour transit in Tokyo. Surely you don't want to stay in the transit hall cos' that's what you will be doing if you don't have proper travel documents. In other words, even if you are not travelling in Tokyo but you would like to look around/ even step out of customs, you need a visa (if it is required).

Step 4: Packing

Two very simple principles of backpacking... What you bring, you have to carry and what you need, you will have to carry. To put it simply, carry only what you need. Most of us would like to have a change of clothes everyday or even twice a day but this would be impossible unless you wanna backpack with 2 - 3 luggage cases. So don't pack your entire wardrobe in to your back, otherwise you will definitely be paying a visit to the chiropractor once you return... if your spine doesn't give way in between. Travel light!! Most of us will buy t-shirts as souvenirs... so bring less... you can buy when you are at your destination... You have to consider not just what you bring but also what you will buy. Unless you are so disciplined and will not buy anything... Nope... I didn't think so...

Check this site out ----> The Backpacking Site

Ultimately, things you need will differ depending on where you go. A camping trip will be different from a sightseeing trip. A trip to Antarctica will be different from a trip to South Africa so know where you are going and find out what you need...

Tips: Travel light, carry what you need, make copies of important documents and leave them with loved ones

Step 5: Money

Check out the current conversion rates. XE.com is a good site to consider. If you need extra cash at your destination, you may want to consider withdrawing from ATMs that have the CIRRUS logo. It's possibly cheaper than money changers. As well, for safety considerations, you might want to consider traveller's cheques if you travel abroad and bring large sums of money.

I have also found it useful to wear concealed pouches especially in certain parts of Europe. In countries like Italy, Spain, Belgium, France and so on, pickpockets are rampant. Never, never, never take this lightly. In Spain alone, I came across 2 attempts. Once in Barcelona and once in Madrid. So be very careful in enclosed and packed places. Again, be aware of your surroundings and don't go to dark alleys on your own. Keep your cash in concealed pouches so they can't be taken easily.

Tips: Concealed Pouches, Travellers Cheques, CIRRUS.

There's definitely a lot more to backpacking than what I've got here but this would give you a very good start. Give The Backpacking Site a visit. And most importantly, enjoy yourself.

SEATRU Volunteer Work

Volunteering for SEATRU conservation work is pretty simple & straightforward... It requires effort but I guess I find it meaningful and most importantly, I like sweating it out and not really having to use my brains that much... That I can get loads of back in the office. It's really different from the normal routine of going to the office and sitting in front of the computer and way better than attending meetings. And it's really effective in helping you lose weight as well...

In the mornings, volunteers' tasks start with the documenting of the last night's nests. Documenting the nests consist of writing relevant information on a nest marker. This includes information such as the identity of the turtle, the nest number and also the date the nest was deposited. The nest marker is a 1" x 1" stick painted red on one side (indicating where the clutch of eggs is located) which is normally placed during the nesting, but more on this later. At the same time, measurements are taken to document the distance of the nest from the surf and the foliage.

Once that's done, it's pretty much free and easy. Volunteers are free to swim & snorkel (up to 3 pm). In addition, depending on the weather, the staff will bring the volunteers to Turtle Rock a short trek up the hill on one side of the beach providing some of the breathtaking views of the beach as well as the North Eastern coast of the island. There's also snorkeling at Marine Park if weather permits and also a hike up the river on the other side of the beach.

A roster will be drawn up whereby volunteers will patrol the beach throughout the day to ensure the nests along the beach are safe. This normally involves checking each nest to ensure there are no signs of attack by fire ants, monitor lizards and ghost crabs. Other tasks include beach clean-up and any other odd jobs such as cooking, cleaning the camp, preparing the marker sticks and so on.

Late in the evening, excavation begins. Excavation involves the examination of nests which reach a certain age. This is done to document the progress of the clutch of eggs. In addition, by excavating nests, researchers are able to track the progress of hatchlings. From this process, we would also know if the hatchlings will be emerging that night. Once the nests reach a certain age, typically after the incubation period, the contents would be extracted for examination. From this, we would know how many of the clutch successfully hatched.

Once excavation is complete, it's time to wash up and prepare dinner.

After dinner, everyone lazes around waiting for the tide to rise. Once the tide rises, the fun begins. This is when turtles start crawling up the beach to lay their eggs. The volunteers together with the staffs and research assistant(s) will sit on the beach and chat (softly) under the moonlight while monitoring the beach for any incoming turtles.

Any sightings will be documented on a sheet of paper including time of emergence from sea, the time the turtle starts crawling up the beach, the species and also the time it starts nesting. The nesting can also be sub-divided into several stages, body pitting (where the turtle digs a hole to submerge itself), egg chamber (where it starts digging the cavity to deposit its eggs, sand bathing (where it camouflages the nest) and last but not least, return to the sea. During the process, volunteers will be treated to one of the greatest wonders of mother nature... Watching a turtle lay its clutch of eggs. The processes mentioned here are typical of a green turtle. Other species such as the Olive Ridley, Hawksbill or Leatherbacks will differ.

While the turtle is laying it's clutch, the team would also be required to document the identity of the turtle and if it has yet to be tagged, to tag the turtle. Any parasites such as barnacles will be removed from the carapace.

Now, things may not be as quick as it seems... What was documented in one paragraph sometimes takes hours to complete. For example, body-pitting can take up to 30 mins and if you are unlucky, the turtle may decide the feng shui is not good enough and decides to relocate. There were times I have tracked the same turtle zig zagging up and down the beach before finally depositing its eggs... after 3 hours.

This process takes place until daybreak however, after midnight, the volunteers will again be divided into shifts so they don't look like zombies at the end of the week long attachment.

As mentioned earlier, in the morning, nests will be properly documented. This is done using the data gathered on the forms the last night.

And voila... That's pretty much all you need to do the whole week. For those of you who like it, it will be a very enriching experience and it's not necessarily routine as you may have different experiences each day. Each night, the volunteers will look forward to a productive night surpassing the previous night. The most I have had on a single night is 5 nestings... Boy it was a busy night.

Having volunteered 4 times, I have seen turtles being tagged, I have seen them laying eggs, removed barnacles... the whole works... And it's not just that. The excitement of spotting a turtle crawling up the beach is out of this world. And in 2005, we woke up at 3 am to find that the boat was sinking.
Some volunteers enjoy stargazing and watching shooting stars. Last year, some of us even went on a night safari tracking mousedeers, river prawns and crabs.

Sea Turtle Research Unit

SEATRU is an acronym for Sea Turtle Research Unit and it was created in the mid 80s with the specific goal of research on Sea Turtles. In 1993, SEATRU commenced conservation and research operations on Chagar Hutang, a roughly 350 m long beach north of Redang Island. Chagar Hutang plays a significant part in Malaysian Sea Turtle conservation as it represents the bulk of the green turtle nesting population in peninsular Malaysia. During the economic downturn in the late 80s (87/88) corporate sponsorship was scarce and thus was born the Sea Turtle Outreach Program (STOP) who's primary goal was to educate the public about sea turtles and in the process, provide means for the general public to adopt nests and turtles as well as participate as volunteers on the island, specifically on Chagar Hutang (CH). Since then, SEATRU's role have increased to encompass River Terrapin conservation and the name was subsequently changed to Centre for Turtle Research and Conservation (CTReC).

Sea turtle conservation is not unique to SEATRU as the fisheries department and WWF also has other projects such as in Malacca, Perak and also on other beaches on Terengganu. One significant difference is that SEATRU practices in-situ incubation, meaning the eggs are left where they are laid. This is made easier by the fact that CH is gazetted as a conservation site and is off limits to the public. In Perak & Malacca the nests are relocated to a hatchery nearby. Thus increasing irregularities and increase risk of damaging the eggs especially during relocation (But more about this later).

Sea Turtle Conservation work was not always the same as it was today. In the past, collection of sea turtle eggs was part and parcel of the fishermen's lives and most importantly, there was nothing to prevent collection of the eggs. As such, up till 2003, villagers were collecting the eggs for sale and consumption. To be fair, it's hard to condemn the activity as it supplements the income of the fishermen. In other parts of the world, Mexico for example, apart from educating the public the authorities also assisted the fishermen to look for other sources of income such as eco-tourism and so on therefore reducing the reliance on egg collections. Anyway, due to this the primary means that SEATRU had of conserving the green turtle population was to buy the eggs from the villagers and this was not cheap. Each nest normally costs between RM 100 - RM 200 depending on the clutch and SEATRU would spend hundreds of thousands each year on the buyback.

However, a major breakthrough was made in 2004 when the local government announced the establishment of turtle sanctuaries on all major nesting beaches on Redang. This included Chagar Hutang, Ma' Daerah and Ma' Kepit. The latter 2 are under the purview of the Fisheries Department and are smaller compared to CH. Since then fishermen are no longer allowed to collect the eggs. As such, things were pretty much different when I first volunteered in 2003 compared to my 2nd time onwards. With the reduced expenditure in buying the nests, SEATRU was then able to improve the facilities on CH such as new quarters to replace the decaying ones, toilets, solar power.




Pre-2006 Toilets... :-) These have since been replaced so don't worry.






Pre-2006 Bathroom. Yes... They've also been replaced... :-)





Pre-2006 Quarters. Yes Yes Yes... New Quarters now... Balinese style... :-)




Told you... Spanking new volunteer quarters as at 2006. The male volunteer quarters are adjacent to the female ones... Girls... whisper softly cos' we can hear what you are saying... :-)





New Solar Panels. But don't expect TV or Astro... These are mainly for lighting and necessary equipment.





New Staff Quarters. For those of you who've been there prior to 2006, these quarters stand where the volunteer quarters and kitchen used to be.




The dining area and kitchen with the office in the background





Alright, that pretty much covers the program... but how do you volunteer? Well, you have to register. Nesting season starts early March till end October so registration normally opens on the CTReC Web site in February and you have to be fast... and I do mean FAST cos' the slots sell like hot cakes!!

So... for those of you who are interested, do check out the Web site next year... :-)

Compromise

How often have we gotten into an argument with our loved ones or our friends and colleagues with neither one willing to give way? Can any one of us say with honesty that we have never been in an argument?

Compromise is part and parcel of interpersonal relationships. It's a crucial part of marriage, work and life in general. From my own personal experience and also from observing situations at work I do feel that many a conflict could have been resolved if one party had just stopped to consider the point that the other was trying to make. In relationships, I myself have been guilty of imposing my will and sometimes just being plain stubborn. Of course I do have my point sometimes.

Where work is concerned, it's pretty much the same where both parties want to make a point but neither one is willing to concede his or her point. I have seen this in negotiations with certain customers where they insist that they are right although we have clearly stated the negative implications of going their way. Such disputes also occur between developers and the quality assurance team (QA) where the QA frequently argue that developers don't do sufficient testing and the developers have the impression that the sole mission of the QA was to make life a living hell for them. However, if both parties would just sit back and think, they would realise that both parties aspire for one thing... to deliver a good product. I suppose this is the main reason why a project manager or leader is required to moderate and make decisions in the event of a deadlock.

In relationships, most if not all of us would have had arguments with our significant other sometimes over silly little things and sometimes over significant issues. But again, right or wrong, both parties should realise that continued arguments would serve neither party. In the end, both will be unhappy. Sometimes, in an effort to resolve the dispute, why not just take a step back and consider the other party's argument and consider compromising.

It is understandable that this can be difficult as it is not possible to always compromise. In this aspect, I suppose both parties have to be reasonable. God knows that conflicts can easily be averted if we as individuals can be more compromising... :-D