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onewingedangel82
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Name: Aloysius
Country: Singapore
Birthday: 7/12/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Dancing (Latin and Standard Ballroom!), Hanging out with friends, Gaming (see below), Movies, Music, Reading (Neil Gaiman especially), Slacking, Sleeping!!
Expertise: Console RPGs - Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Suikoden, Xenogears, etc
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
7/31/2003
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| Of A No.1 and A Circumstantial No. 20
Enter the name "Neil" into Google and a bunch of famous persons pop up. The very first entry is Mr Gaiman's website. The man's even received a medal proclaiming him as Neil Number One. Try the very same search limiting results to Singapore sites and another Neil appears. Less famous worldwide and no doubt less wealthy. But like the latter, the guy is well known in Singapore; I'd dare say even more well known. This is Mr Humphreys. They have quite a few similarities. Both are English. Both emigrated. Both spent some part of their lives in journalism. Both are authors with recent new releases on the market. Both have had one of their items bought by me within the last four days.
Thanks to Grace and Pat for the Christmas presents of $20 worth of Kino and Times vouchers respectively. I am not Son Goku so I tend to have to store up my reserves till they reach a substantial fraction of his OVER-9000!! power level before expanding them. Friends wonder how I can restrain myself from using these things immediately. The answer is simple. Put them into a drawer and forget about them. Works wonders. Actually no, not that much. Really, you either make the fullest of them and your friends' regards and get something you really want or waste them all on crap and regret it later on.
At Times, I paid just $14 more for an autographed copy of Neil Humphreys' Complete Notes from Singapore, an omnibus edition of his three previously published books. I also forked out another $10 for Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves' Interworld, a new tale, at Kino. Which of these should I read first? It should go without saying that Gaiman takes priority. But I already started on Humphreys' volume since I got that last Friday while Gaiman was only bought today. And Humphreys' goods are very engaging in their own right. So I put the Dream King on hold for a couple of hours to finish the first book of Humphreys' three book omnibus. Alas the best selling local author will now have to step aside for Neil Numero Uno. No offense or disrespect meant to N.H. at all. Just loyalties and priorities.
A couple of interesting tidbits for fans of the two Neils, one for each.
1. The National Library is organizing a lucky draw with autographed copies of Complete Notes from Singapore up for grabs. Not sure how many are available. Every four books (or is it any item?) borrowed entitles one chance. Multiple entries allowed. Contest is open till Aug 1.
2. Neil Gaiman has another book out as well. A collection of short stories and a poem for children titled M is for Magic. Eight of the eleven entries have already been published in two earlier and easily available collections. Of the remaining three, one is a chapter of an in-progress illustrated book and another was in the rare first collection. That leaves only one truly new collected short story. Worth it? Depends on what you already own and thus how much new stuff there is.
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Prayer Request
For those who have asked for my prayers and those I have told I would pray for. God bless, keep, guide and guard you all. Amen.
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| Summorum Pontificum
The day Jason Koh has been waiting for has arrived. Something for him to be joyous about and to drive away his weariness. How widespread will it be in Singapore? We'll have to wait till Sep 14 to find out for sure. Look out for lots of articles and forum discussions in the Catholic News in the meantime. My own view on it? I take no sides on the matter. Both the Pauline and the Tridentine (name placement only in alphabetical order) have facets that appeal to me. It'll be something enriching for the Church in Singapore. Something that will thrill those with particular attachment to it. A learning opportunity for those who think using Latin Mass is a regression. For everyone else, there's MasterCa... I mean a chance to experience the richness of liturgy in the Catholic Church.
The above link is more or less unintelligible, especially if an online translator is used. A more easily comprehended version can be found here along with links to other notes and commentaries.
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| I Wonder...
How much energy will be consummed by the Live Earth concerts?
How much refuse will be generated by those who attend?
If raising awareness with a resource guzzling activity far greater in length and scope than its contemporaries is a good example to show?
If anyone involved knows the meaning of the word "irony"?
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A Restoration
Noticed that my "movie review" tag is now thicker than my "book review" one. It's not that I haven't been reading. It's just that 1) it generally takes more time to read a book than to watch a movie and 2) i haven't posted for a couple of books. So, time to fatten up that latter tag.
It would be presumptious for me to critique Michael Moorcock's Elric. This here is a mythos that lies at the base of what many would define as modern fantasy. Highly enjoyable. Basically a counter-stereotype to the typical barbarian adventurer stories of Conan and Red Sonja. It re-invents the scope of what writers can do in the genre and gives the world one of its first anti-heroes. Simple language without anything too superfluous. An easy book to read and a useful one to give someone who wants to cultivate reading as a hobby. Just make sure their old enough for some of the more risque bits. Moorcock's writing style changes through the tale. For the academics or fanboys, an interesting peek at the evolution of a writer. One saga that fantasy fans should not miss. Go for the collections and try to find the more "complete" ones.
First seeing the discounted price of USD$4.99 for the novelisation of Infinite Crisis (originally USD$15.00) is not something that imbues people with much confidence. Greg Cox adapts DC Comic's event of the year 2006 for the book market. It's actually a pretty good adaptation. The fidelity to the source material is quite high though the parts in which it deviates would make readers of the original series and comic fans gawk and glare and point. Non comics-fans would probably not pick this up but if they do, they would probably be pretty lost. Infinite Crisis is what folks in the industry call a company-wide event. The entire superhero and supervillain community is involved meaning lots of minor character name throwing and references to character histories and past storylines. The story is also a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was what defined events of this scope for all comics companies. Thankfully there's Wikipedia to ease the search for information to fill the gaps. That aside, Cox provides a well-written read and provides filler material such as the private thoughts of the heros and villains that is very much in-character.
Comicsmart was sold out for Interworld yesterday. I knew I should have made the reservation on Monday. Next week then. Hopefully Kino or Times brings it in so I can use the vouchers Grace and Pat gave to me last Christmas. | | |
| Robots and Hottie and Guns! Oh My!
Surprise of surprises! Something that actually lived up to the hype my friends generated. Huicong SMSed me yesterday proclaiming Transformers as "THE COOLEST MOVIE EVER!". Jou was equal albeit more descriptive in the praises she gave. A live action Transformers movie? I mean seriously, how many people would expect something that sounds like that to be good? This one actually is. Caught it with Mel D, Barry, Jason Koh and Jason Tay at Lido. Hadn't been to Shaw House for ages.
Michael Bay, whose past films have garnered mixed reactions has a style which fits into what is required for a film like Transformers. The plot is simple and straightforward, easy to understand and digest. Good guys fight bad guys. There is admittedly little depth but who watches a flick like this for the plot? It's all about the action and the coolness factor. Despite the length of the show, it doesn't grow draggy. No moments of preaching and reflection and growing up. Nope, everyone goes for broke here. You want to learn? Do it on the job (which actually can give great results). While this may be a risky decision to make with regards to most shows, non-stop action is what the audience really comes to expect from a franchise like this.
One thing to be aware of is that this is not the Transformers of your
childhood days. No way is it going to give you the same experience. The source material would be just too hard to adapt without incurring wrath from one group of fans or another. So they didn't.
This is made clear early in the film when the new Chevrolet Camaro
Bumblebee bumps a yellow Volkswagen Beetle at a car dealer's. That's a
big shout out from the scriptwriters saying "Sorry folks, please throw
all fanboy (and girl) expectations out of the window now and buckle up."
While not bowing the past incarnations and series, the movie pays tribute to them and their different groups of fans. Lots of fan service and Easter eggs. Quotes from Generation One. Plot devices from Beast Wars and Beast Machines. That one of a kind zaniness from the Japanese series. All there in what I can only refer to as Shrek-esque ingenuity. If you don't catch all the references, there'll definitely be a friend or two you can ask.
Voice acting was a contentious point but it was good. I doubt many fans
would complain much once Peter Cullen reprised the role of Optimus
Prime. Yes, it is a pity that Frank Welker did not voice Megatron but
that old voice would probably not suit this version of the Decepticon
leader. Hugo Weaving provides a voice that fits nicely. It actually
sounds like Leonard Nimoy's Galvatron which is a good tone to have for
a figure that is supposed to inspire fear. The other Transformers did
not have many lines at all, an issue that should be addressed in the
sequels.
Most of the characters (both robots and humans) are pretty one dimensional. Singular roles with no development whatsoever. Humans especially, considering how the team choose to focus on them rather than the robots. It won't harm the movie itself but the subsequent outings will need to pack lots of this in or it'll go as stale as month-old bread.
Graphics... They need to show off the power of today's technology more. We've got films like Pirates and Shrek and the upcoming Harry Potter constantly upping the ante. What is shown here just won't cut it. There was a ton of hazy and/or long distant shots which seemed meant to make up for constraints in animation. As for the few really close range shots, they zipped by in seconds and only covered restricted angles. As a result, cinematography suffered. Hopefully the financial success provides the funds they need to realize the dream of eye candy.
Almost forgot to mention how hot Megan Fox is. The cheesy loser boy gets babe formula that Spider-Man pioneered pleases just about everyone. Might as well throw that in too.
One of the best adaptations of anything I've seen so far and the best action movie for a long time. This is one flick that will generate lots of cash at the box office and in the DVD market. Catch it on the big screen in the best format available.
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| Ripped Comfort Zones
GST increased as of midnight today. 7% now which means out of every $10 we used to spend, we'll now have to spend another $0.20; out of every $100, another $2; out of every $1000, another $20; so on and so forth. Glenn Ong and FD polled Class95 listeners one morning to ask them how they would react to the increased tax. All except one response said things like eating out less, cooking at home, cutting down on shopping, etc.
Now, take a look at those figures above. If you currently can reasonably afford $10 a week, what's another $0.20 going to buy you? A sweet? Probably not even half at today's prices. If $100 isn't a terribly big issue, $2 is something that actually should ok for quite a few Singaporeans, especially if they're getting the Offset Package. For anyone who can actually afford to spend $1000 a month without qualms, is that extra $20 really going to be a blimp on the radar?
I may be wrong but I'll guess that most of those folks who SMSed in to the poll would fall into the group who can afford that extra $0.20 or $2 or $20. I mean come on, it's a chargeable number they're using to respond. The hike will definitely affect those who cannot afford that $10 amount and the $0.50 they used to pay before. These are the people whose pleas have merit. If they complain, yes, we should listen to them. They have valid cases and need more help to cope. For the others, it's something for which we have to suck our guts in and take. Like that singular dissident voice in the polls said, "Come on. We'll get used to it."
It's not as if everything in Singapore is going up by 66.6%...
Clean smoke free air in pubs, bars and clubs tonight as well. Possibly the biggest upheaval local nightlife will face. Will be a culture shock to whole generations who've only navigated these joints five metres at a time. Shirley insists that I'll have to try it at least once before I retire from clubbing. I actually know of one friend who has said she'll start going more now that they're smoke free.
Still, one has to wonder what effect this will have on smokers. Will they view it as an ostracizing move? How will they react to it if they do? From Army experience, when smokers are with non-smokers, they smoke less. In the smoking boxes, the air quality can actually rival clubs.
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Met up with Jou for Mass. Caught up over a drink and prata afterwards. Haven't seen her in ages. Her hair's long now. Even longer than in the photo I saw at St Teresa's. Sounds like she's doing quite well at work. A good job with good opportunities. Here's to continued blessings for her in journalism.
Some troubles with housing though. There anyone lives in the Bishan-Toa Payoh area and knows of rooms for rent? Budget of $400-$450. Gary?
All things aside, Mass is a great thing to meet up for, provided both parties go for Mass or are at least ok with it if they aren't Catholic. That brings us to...
Prayer request
For Jou, in her search for housing, that she'll find one that suits her needs best and that the tensions and worries she is having will be relieved. Amen.
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