Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

He's small... he's hungry... he's persistent... Scrat's Back!! Pretty amazing how an acorn can last through the Ice Age followed by the great floods... and now dinosaurs!!

It's funny watching his obsession with erm... nuts... specifically acorns. I kinda' enjoyed the first one (The Ice Age)... Wasn't that particular about the previous one (The Meltdown) but I guess I'll be watching this third one. Let's see how many installments they can produce... :-)

Even if you don't stay for the whole show, you should pay the ticket just to watch this little guy in action.

Don't hold your breath though... Releasing only in July 2009.

Friendship

Been pretty much out of things the past few days... Down with nasal infection, flu, sore throat and a slight cough... And with an MC in hand, I still had to attend meetings... groan...

But anyway, I was catching up on some TV series... one of which was Boston Legal... Very entertaining legal series... What got me thinking wasn't so much the show itself but one of the message. The episode was about the 2 main characters representing different sides on the same case. As the case involved an issue one of them felt strongly about, the topic of friendship came up and several quotes that struck me were as follows:

"That's the beauty of being good friends... Relationships with long shelf lives you can just stick up on the shelf..."

"...Friendships are a little like backyard gardens... We plan to tend to them. We just always seem to put it off till next week."

It kinda' got me thinking as I guess I've been pretty much guilty of neglecting my friends unless when I really needed them. I mean, it's not like I ignored them completely but I guess I have not been socialising much and it's been work and my personal life lately.

Maybe neglecting my friends wouldn't be that accurate a way to describe it... perhaps more of neglecting the friendships that I have. Over the years I have made many good friends, some that have helped me through some really rough patches. Some whom I've known since school days and there was also this French lady, a Finnish guy and also a Vietnamese guy that I got acquainted with while I was in Hanoi last year. The first 2 don't have access to e-mail but even then Pentti the Finnish guy actually sent me a post card... which I have yet to reply... The horror!! AArrgHHhh... Feel so bad...

As we get engrossed in technology nowadays... facebook, friendster, MSN, Yahoo, e-mail, how many of us actually still send snail mails... postcards... birthday cards or even just drop by to say Hi. We even download movies more than going to the cinemas... Well at least I do! Unless it's a really good movie worthy of the silver screen.

I guess with work and life getting in the way, keeping in touch has been getting more difficult but I realise that this should not be an excuse to just drop a line and tell a friend that they are thought of and remembered. Even my 7 year old niece can send me a "Hello Khau Fu... How are you" hand-drawn card once in a while... I am so ashamed... Anyway... I think should actually work harder at re-establishing communications with all my long lost friends... I think it's about time I dusted off my facebook account as well and start sending some pokes and also some growing gifts.

This doesn't just apply to friends but also family members. How about you folks? Remember an old friend that you have not spoken to in a long while?

"A Friend May Well Be Reckoned the Masterpiece of Nature" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thomas Cup 2008

Sigh. Another year goes by and still no Thomas Cup. Quite a waste actually. Again we were so close that we could even touch it. It's not like we lack the capabilities. Badminton is one of the very few sports that Malaysia has been able to excel in. A lot of us grow up playing badminton and have very good memories of it at one time or another.

Mine was in 1992 where the Thomas Cup returned to Malaysia. It just so happened that we had tuition at the time but fortunately, our tuition teacher was also hooked on the game so I easily excused myself every half an hour or so to check the results and update everyone. :-) It was an amazing game. Foo Kok Keong was at the twilight of his competitive career and his opponent Alan Budi Kusuma was in form. And theirs was the decider game. And you know what? Foo Kok Keong won! Not because of superior skills... Not because Alan was not playing well. But it was because Foo Kok Keong fought... and he fought hard. The nation's pride on his shoulders. He fought and he triumphed. Sadly, the pride in representing their country and also the fighting spirit is very rare in our athletes nowadays. Well... I could be wrong... Ultimately, I'm not a sports analyst and I was never really good in sports as well.

But anyway, through the years it has always been up and down and for some time, badminton was pretty much dominated by Indonesia and also China. Even Denmark & Japan has also improved significantly.

Recently, it seemed that we were finally catching up again and there were notable events such as Hafiz Hashim and most recently Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong winning the All England. Unfortunately, as is the case with most of our athletes nowadays, with the exception of Nicol David, the consistency is just not there. At any rate, our players have improved in recent years and except for the singles where I think the only reliable and consistent player is Lee Chong Wei, we have 3 reasonably strong doubles pairs.

Which brings us back to the recently concluded Thomas Cup 2008. It's really sad that Choong Tan Fook fell ill. With the performance that he and Koo Kien Keat gave us against Japan, I believe if they were paired off again, they would have easily beat China's top pair. It's sad considering how promising Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong's partnership was just a year ago but that's the way it is I suppose in competitive badminton. Their partnership is just not working and in any partnership, the feeling that you can depend on your partner is of utmost importance. This bond is just not there. As such, I really had a gnawing feeling that they were gonna lose. And I was right.

In the singles, Wong Choon Hann was just outclassed by Bao Chun Lai. Wong Choon Hann was one of our best players but the fact is, Bao Chun Lai's just younger and faster. And in a game like badminton, these qualities tend to dictate the winner and loser. And with Chen Jin in his prime...

Oh well, all we can do is ponder about what might have been...

Ultimately, I guess they have tried their best. And who am I to criticise them anyway... I'm not there and I'm not that great a player myself... :-) Maybe next Thomas Cup!!

Microsuck!!

Don't you just frackin' hate it when your PC's running fine and all of a sudden, along comes one of those Goddamn Microsoft Patches, Rollup Patches or Security Hotfixes that are supposed to fix problems that you have or close loopholes in your programs.

Whenever I debate about what Microsoft should do better (in the interest of having them improve) and how they have so many security loopholes, my friends at Microsoft would argue that it's due to ignorant people who don't patch their PCs. They just don't see the frustrations that others face using their programs... Upon induction into the company, they are provided with these white cassette tapes, that they listen to in their car while travelling to and from work , that turn them into bloody zombies that chant Microsoft! Microsoft! Microsoft! and they have this impression that Bill is God!!.

Here I was hoping to have a nice long weekend just catching up on movies and TV series with my Windows Media Center PC but I've got a couple of patches waiting to install... My mistake... instead of just leaving it as it is, I wanted my PC in tip top condition so I update my PC. BANG! There goes my PC with a persistent problem that goes "Strong name validation failed for assembly C:\windows\ehome\EHShell.exe"

Fine. I do a System Restore to an earlier time and it seems to be restored but somehow the problem recurs... and again... and again... Internet forums are no good... Not that I can't find a solution... Quite the contrary, as usual, many have encountered the same problem... But none of their solutions help. So I decided to reinstall Windows. But somehow it keeps failing!! Alright... time to turn in. I left it and decided to just go to sleep.

Next morning... Mood's better so I try again... Did more research, and found one that says something about CD-Rom that's causing the re-installation to fail... WTF!! Oh well.. might as well... I get a spare drive that I have lying around and I retry the installation... and lo behold... Installation finally goes through...

But then, I haven't realised at the time that the problem could be due to patches and assumed that somehow one of my files were corrupted... so there I go happily spending the whole day re-installing drivers, applications and the hundreds of patches that Microsoft piles on me...

BANG!! The problem returns!! And no matter which Restore Point I try to return to, it doesn't help!! ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! The whole frackin' weekend bloody wasted!! God Damn MS!!! And they ask me why I always criticise Microsoft!!

Tribute to Drew Struzan

Went for a movie on Friday and saw the new Indiana Jones (Indy) poster and I thought to myself "Wow!" This guy is really good! Well.. I'm referring to to Drew Struzan, the poster artist and not Indy. :-)

The first time I can recall seeing his art was way back during my studies in Canada when I purchased the movie poster for Ewoks : Battle for Endor. And I've also seen the ones that he did for The Goonies and also The American Tail.











Then came the Star Wars Special Edition back in '97 where George Lucas decided to edit his Star Wars trilogies to enhance the graphics and also to add in scenes that he felt was essential but never had the chance to do earlier. When the movie posters were released, I was blown away. Since then, I have been a fan... not to the point that I invest in his posters but this guy is way up there when it comes to art.











It's interesting to note that he has a long association with George Lucas & Steven Spielberg who gifted us with movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and many more. In tribute, this blog is dedicated to him and hope to see many more from him.