mardi, juin 28, 2005 Wouldn't it be nice (weird, bizarre, whatever) if there were more concerts featuring unlikely people? Star Wars characters from the ROTS video game rock out to Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out' on MTV2's Video Mods. The video features Anakin on vocals, Obi-Wan on guitar, Mace Windu on bass, Yoda on drums. Stormtroopers moshing?  Mace of Bass, Obi-wan on electric guit  Killing Me Softly with Sithly Singing: Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) on vocals  Yoda, Master of the Drums ALL PICTURES FROM STARWARS.COM [Wouldn't it be nice...?] |
lundi, juin 27, 2005 Sent my little brother off to BMTC this morning. I thought we were just going to go to the SAF Changi jetty, mill around waiting for the 11B exchange, and that was it - but no, we went over to Pulau Tekong and toured the place - how come nobody told me about this?! I thought it was a morning mission - take little brother, drive there, mill around, watch 11B exchange, bye bye! At least the lunch/"food sampling" was delicious - KM's gonna put on weight if he eats like that every day! Too bad he's a slacker and only needs to be there for the slacker one-week lecture-based induction programme instead of BMT. Too bad. The courses look like fun. (Of course, SG guys will definitely disagree...)No wonder my parents took leave just to see him off. And there I was thinking that they were over-zealous in their parental duties. [BMTC 2] |
samedi, juin 25, 2005 Tony had a last-minute opening to see Rani Singam at the Esplanade - a late night concert which I thought would definitely be good (since Tony's a jazz guy - understatement), but her concert pretty much blew everything else I've heard out of the water: an hour is definitely not enough to hear all that Rani Singam has to offer.She opened with the title track of her debut album, "With A Song In My Heart", also the title of her concert. A mid-tempo piece, it set the mood for the one-hour concert - smooth and elegant, yet lively enough to keep everyone's feet tapping the whole time through. I personally felt that she should have sang this as the third or fourth song, so that she could have gotten more warmed up a little more, but it worked out well anyhow. The songs that I recognised (and what I managed to google-up) included George Gershwin's "Yeh Yeh" (I wish she had done it even more cheekily than she did!), Lighthouse Family's (?) "I Wish I Knew How It Would To Be Free" , Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" (very, very hard to go wrong with this song), Presley's "You Were Always On My Mind" (which I felt she shouldn't have done), Gerswin's "I've Got Rhythm" (which I also felt she shouldn't have done; it's been done to death, but I suppose she wanted to keep things mainstream), and Louis Armstrong "What A Wonderful World" (ditto) for their encore presentation. The jazz idiot that I am, I was unfamiliar with most of the songs that she sang, but the energy that the band had was very, very good. Featuring Tama Goh (drums), Christy Smith (bass), Mei Sheum (piano) and Andrew Lim (on totally hot guitars!), the unspoken camadarie between members and their love and mastery of their instruments melded and formed a heady cocktail mix which the audience drank in eagerly. I wish she had chosen more "middle ground" songs to present, like Janis Ian's "At Seventeen". Her selection was rather mainstream - but that's the only problem I have with the concert. Her sound is very much like Billie Holiday (with whom she has been compared) and her band is very tight (to the point of being waterproof - though Tony was a little sad at not being invited to play the bass.) She has demonstrated perfect vocal mastery over the classics (as much as a music idiot as me can tell), and I'm looking very forward to anything else she comes up with the next time round. Non-PC review: she's better than Jacintha! But not up to Babes Conde's standard... but Babes isn't Singaporean, so maybe not fair to compare... [Rani Singam @ Esplanade] |
jeudi, juin 23, 2005 "HELP ME - I'M A DISABLED CLONE WARS VET - NEED $$$ TO BUILD DEATH STAR" PLUS! A MUST-READ! From talkingcock.com "Spore Bores" - the impending collaboration between MediaCock and LucasFilm, a science fiction epic about a politician who turns a republic into an evil empire together with the help of his heir and an army of white-suited clones. [Vader Want Ads] |
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Tonight, in an entirely failed outing (movie sold out), we were recollecting the chinese shows from a long time ago when Muney dug up this oldie but goodie from "a show with a man and a cartoon tortoise around him": 乌龟 : 哇，你的脸很黑，很像个神！ 男人 ： 真的？想什么神？ 乌龟 ： 像 Michael Jackson (神)! I think everyone at Centrepoint's Macs thought we were in danger of dying of laughter. How come these days I hear so many 欠扁问答题?！ [欠扁问答题] |
 I rather like what Rob Thomas creates, and I've had "Lonely No More" in my head for about a month now, but why, oh why does he have to look so gay in his CD promos?  I guess he's a real "happy" man cos his CD's doing pretty well... but he could have toned down that ear-bling. Just a tad. [Gaydar alert?] |
mercredi, juin 22, 2005 I've been on a geek-out on Star Wars literature these past couple of weeks, plus the Youth Camp, plus just a general anti-social haze has just descended upon me as it infrequently does... and I stop reading the newspaper. I already supplement the local paper with other (equally bigoted, but hey, you can't have everything) news from BBC and CNN, and occasionally the NYT (which has excellent analyses and commentaries), but I've just been too bummed out that I can't be bothered.Today, I woke up, and I felt bothered. Enough to grab today's papers and take a look at the front page to see if there was anything interesting enough to induce me to open the thick stack to venture further into the depths of More children who move out keep in contact with their parents? Mein gott. Please. Put NEWS on the front page of the papers, not the family AND the extended family of a staff writer from Life! section. It must have been a really, really, REALLY slow news day to reduce TST to putting Edward Choy's extended family on the front cover. Not he's a bad writer, but oh come on! Surely there was something, anything, better than reducing your print coverage to writing about YOUR OWN FAMILIES! The extent to which this incident is bugging me out is astonishing. [No News is Good News] |
mardi, juin 21, 2005 Doc cleared me today. No charge for the follow-up consultation. Warned to stay away from heavy lifting. But no need x-ray! *gleeful* Thank God![Good news! Thank God...] |
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Don't you just love donating blood? Seeing that HUGE needle go into one of your veins, feel the blood pump out via a combination of capillary action and your heart's pumping? Then to feel the full packet of blood, wrapped up like a present for someone, still warm with your own (YOURS!) body heat...
[Suck Me Dry] |
dimanche, juin 19, 2005    Ambush at Corellia / Assault at Selonia / Showdown at Centerpoint  The Truce at Bakura Erm... I think I have about 4-5 books left that I want to read, and then this sudden geek-out of mine will end... [(Epi 7)] |
samedi, juin 18, 2005 Moving from the books to the comics... (Epi 6)   Mara Jade: By The Emperor's Hand & Union Think I might start collecting the Dark Empire series (available at Kino) soon... [After reading both] Mara Jade:By The Emperor's Hand story by Zahn and Stackpole art by Ezquerra Story is strong in this novel; the plotline was driven by events which had already occurred in Shadows of the Empire, and it fleshed out Jade's character, giving her more of a history with the Emperor before we met her in Heir to the Empire. The curse of Really Dumb Sequel Names seems to have hit this novel though - Prince Xixor's Black Sun organisation (felled in Shadows of the Empire has been succeeded by another organisation called Black Nebula. Why not White Dwarf? Or Red? Or Milky Way? They should have just gone with a totally different naming convention and not tried to create a simulacrum of what was. The art is well-drawn, in my opinion. The lines are clean and hard, and people and objects look like what they're supposed to look like - comic book heroes. Stances are realistically portrayed, although Mara is barbie-dolled a couple of times to make her legs look incredibly long. No Lara-Croft-ing of her though - she looks normal in that department. I could have also used a less cartoon, less Kim Possible cover for the novel - she looks too innocent in the cover, not a characteristic I would have attributed to the Emperor's personal assassin. Union story by Stackpole art by Teranishi Luke oscillates quite badly between looking exactly like how he was (15 years prior in Star Wars: A New Hope), looking like a smarmy, overly hair-greased politician, and a mangled lump of flesh in this comic. Han does too. In fact, everyone looks horrible in this comic, and I think I can safely say that I do not like Teranishi's artwork at all. He occasionally hits the spot with a really good picture, but he saves these rare moments of inspiration and brilliance on a full-page or a double-page feature. It is only then that he seems to really make an effort to get proportions, stances, and the eyes of a character just right. EVERYONE portrayed in this novel has looked sleepy one time or another. The expression of loving tenderness is sleepiness. The depiction of men looking at Han Solo detailling a battle plan is droopy eyelids. Leia looked extremely sleepy making the announcement of Luke and Mara's wedding to the entire galaxy via simulcast. Jedi attending the Jedi bonding ceremony looked sleepy. If it weren't so awful it would actually be quite funny. So, after disliking the artwork so much, the story couldn't have been much worse right? Unfortunately for Mr Stackpole, IT IS. Which does not bode well for the reading of your precious X-Wing series, although I've been told that it's actually interesting reading about Wedge, Corran and gang. After reading this pathetic excuse for a plot, I think I'd rather read a Mills and Boons e-book on anything, and use a word processor to swap the lead characters' names into "Luke" and "Mara" to give me some respite from the sheer uselessness of the plot in the novel. And the showdown battle scene was... painful to read. An assassin suddenly changing his mind in front of everyone? The whole galaxy? Somewhere after the 10th page I decided that I would read the novel as a satire on marriage. Everything worked out better in my mind after that decision. Although Luke still looked like a lump of meat, but at least he was ironic about it. Irony rocks. [Moving from the books to the comics... (Epi 6)] |
   Jedi Search \ Dark Apprentice \ Champions of the Force Luke starts his Yavin IV Jedi Academy, and a sickening Lado-Mara...thing is implied. Yuck. Next in view: The Corellian Trilogy [Another Trilogy down (Epi V)] |
vendredi, juin 17, 2005 In the custom of pre-mobile phone days, I had a five-hour long chat with Merlyn today on the telephone, complete with toilet breaks and call-you-back-later breaks. Almost as if to prove how long we've not met/talked, she told me that she's gotten engaged! Going on a month now! Teachers and their insane schedules... tsk tsk.She was waiting to meet me in person to show me the ring and to tell me in person, but we were out of contact for too long and she couldn't wait any longer, so she just said, in typical fashion: "Guess what. I have a ring on my finger." Good thing she told me now - so I can to start shopping for a fabulous dress that will still fit me two years from now. (Or find and adhere to a strict, strict exercise routine between now and then. Can anyone say "fat chance"?) Ooh, and I told her to start planning the seating plan properly. A significant portion of the five-hour telephone call was spent on things like "Oh no! You'll have to PAY YOUR OWN PUB BILLS NOW!" and on stuff like, "Eh, you will own a fridge!" "I already owned a fridge when I stayed in hostel wat," "No, but now you'll own a big, grown-up fridge, and HEY! You can buy those sexy matte-silver fridges, like the one on The Nanny!" and other things like "You'll have your own address, and everything will be addressed to YOU, not your parents liao! Eh, apply for HDB already or not?" A little silly, but these are the symbols of growing up to both of us... This sort of ties in to a similar discussion I had with Ade over the whole growing-up thing - I commented that her pant-shirt ensemble looked good, and she said that it just makes her look like she knows what she's doing, but she still feels like a kid inside. This tangented into a discussion on how many people in Shenton Way/Tanjong Pagar actually have any freaking clue what they're doing. CONGRATS MER! (gnoliew will be pleased to hear but might be slightly peeved, if his "red bomb" posts are anything to go by...) [Congratulations Mer & Ben!] |
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Attack of the Star Wars Books! (Episode IV)   Specter of the Past | Vision of the Future : Good plotline because it's Timothy Zahn, but the super duper trooper plus point is of course, Luke and Mara!  Tales of the New Republic [Attack of the Star Wars Books! (Episode IV)] |
mardi, juin 14, 2005 Well then. More than six months of planning, and in four days, it's over. And what a blast the four days were: cold showers at 2am in the morning (nothing like freezing your blood in your veins for a good night's rest), walks to the beach in the dead of the night (with a pit stop at 7-11), talking talking talking the night away, movie marathons, hyperventilation... you name it, we've probably got it.I'm so glad that it went down alright with everyone; granted that the facilities of the Sentosa Campsite really left a lot to be desired, but it was the best that we could afford on our really really tight budget, without increasing the camp fees to an astronomical amount. We definitely could have gotten a cheaper "campsite", but that would have meant holding it in the middle of the city, in a hostel/hotel type place, which would have really limited the space for the type of interaction and games we wanted. In Sentosa, at least we got the beach and the trees and the space to play "Amazing Race" as one of the R&R games. God's presence was definitely around us during the camp. We've prayed for many things to happen, and for this camp to be the first step towards something larger than ourselves - perhaps even the first step towards a combined youth ministry - and I'm pleased to bits that people are exchanging MSN contacts and emails and are generally getting to know each other better. The photo's from a pageant that was held on camp night - and thanks to Jacob, almost became an xxx-rated affair - fancy that, a church camp becoming xxx-rated! Only Jacob. I thought that the R&R committee did an excellent job in planning and executing games - it definitely wasn't their fault that this whole hunky Navy battalion just had to have an outing on the beach the day that we were supposed to play outdoor games that day. All the girls were definitely distracted by the tanned bodies and quite amazing pecs that were on display. I really hope everyone had a good time. We'll start planning for the next camp once the nightmares have faded from the memories of the camp committee. :-) [addendum] And it's very fun hearing scandal after scandal of people... especially of a very dear brother of mine avec another sister. Like I told Beverly, my antennae is not broken, it simply doesn't exist, so my knowledge of this scandal is preciousss indeed. :) So exciting. [Youth Camp Night 2005] |
lundi, juin 13, 2005 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Just cos they're cool! Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Heroes in a half-shell Turtle power! They're the world's most fearsome fighting team (We're really hip!) They're heroes in a half-shell and they're green (Hey - get a grip!) When the evil Shredder attacks These Turtle boys don't cut him no slack! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (He's a radical rat!) Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines (That's a fact, Jack!) Raphael is cool but crude (Gimme a break!) Michaelangelo is a party dude (Party!) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Heroes in a half shell Turtle power! Nostalgic much? Here's a review of their very FIRST episode - which, believe it or not, I ACTUALLY WATCHED! Read the review, I think I threw out my back laughing at the sardonic humour. *wipes tears from eyes* I remember cutting holes out of stips of cloth with my brother to wear as eye-masks. 想当年... [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Just cos they're cool!] |
lundi, juin 06, 2005    L-R: The Courtship of Princess Leia (passable) Planet of Twilight (bad, don't touch this one) The Crystal Ship (just made "passable") Oh, and I think I've exhausted the 2ndhand bookstores in AMK and Bishan centrals in a search for "Spectre of the Past" by Timothy Zahn. Ade lent me "Vision of the Future", and I'm barely restraining myself from reading it before reading "Spectre". She's also warned me to stay away from the other Barbara Hambly novel, "Children of the Jedi", and I quote: "barbara hambly writes the kind of stuff that made mills & boon a brand name. dont go near children of the jedi. two words: soppy. stupid."Gotta hand it to these lawyers to put everything in perspective. [Badly-Named Books] |
dimanche, juin 05, 2005 Go, eXeem, go! Stick it up where the sun don't shine!Man/Child in charge of suprnova.org gets his day in Wired magazine for writing the trackerless P2P client. ISPs are going to be put in a tight spot by law-enforcers when it comes down to the crunch - it's going to be harder to pin filesharing on individual users without trespassing on privacy clauses to get to the IP addresses (unless they invoke some other law to get to the IPs by spying on the ISP network.) Obviously, this won't apply much in our little country, where the ISPs themselves become the ISA and spy on you. [Track this!] |
samedi, juin 04, 2005    The New Rebellion / Shadows of the Empire / Splinter of the Mind's Eye    The Black Fleet Crisis: Before the Storm / Shield of Lies / Tyrant's Test [Waa Sii Le eh Lau Peh...] |
jeudi, juin 02, 2005 My stupid brother tossed me a book while we were watching Episodes IV, V and VI. "Here, this one is between 'Empire' and 'Jedi', and this one is after 'Jedi'."And that, my friends, is how obsession starts. I've finished The Thrawn Trilogy, and am now bugging poor Adeline (immediately after she just started work too!) about what comes next... bad me.    The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire \ Dark Force Rising \ The Last Command [oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.] |
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