Movie review - Il Mare/Siworae

Afte the kerfuffle between me and Jiggs over the Hollywood re-make of this 2000 Korean movie, Pooky decided to purchase the original on the intention that we'd watch it together and perhaps it would make more sense.

The plot is basically the same - two people living in the same house (named Il Mare) but separated by two years begin corresponding through a mystical mailbox. The same time-travelling dog owned by both of them are there, he's still a builder/architect type, the twist etc etc. But some things are different - notably she's a voice actor (not a doctor) and, of course, the ending. So how do the two movies compare?

Well. Originally I was not going to review this movie because I fell asleep during it. That's a review in itself, quite frankly. Pooey is probably gonna think what I'm about to write is sacrilege, but I really did find the english remake better, and not just because Keanu is way better looking than the male Korean lead. This movie was sloooooooooooooooooooooooow. And unless the key event happened while I was sleeping (Miss Pooky assures me it didn't), the *flashback* reason why they were unable to meet up felt to me like a bit of a last minute add in to make the entire thing more tragic. The idea that the two fall in love over their correspondence also felt better done in the Keanu version because their letters seemed more interactive.

So anyway, I found this movie fairly ordinary. Sleep-inducingly ordinary. Or that might have been Miss Pooky's couch. *shrug*
4-5/10

drowning

omg, I just realised I have a month until I start the Great European Adventure 2007.

I GOTTA GET TO WORK!!!

Potty for Harry Potter (NO SPOILERS HERE!)

Being the perceptive fellow he is, Kahuna gave me a Borders voucher for my birthday!After experiencing the initial excitement of what to get, I realised it would be perfect for getting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Unfortch, since I was in Sydney for the weekend, I did not pre-order a copy of HP7 cos I wanted to get to reading ASAP! I decided the best course of action would be to party throughout the night and then plant myself outside Borders Pitt St. Mall to get my copy.

Again, the best laid plans never work and I ended up waking up in the apartment at 9:30 - 30 minutes after the book went on sale! I reached Pitt St. around 10-something am and was surprised to see the shop didn't have a giant line pouring out into the mall. In fact, it looked kinda empty.

Although if you look carefully, there are several people wearing capes.

Then I went inside the store and found these two massive queues. One was to register your pre-ordered copies, the other to collect. Not having ordered, I went to the help desk and asked what to do - and they let me purchase two copies then and there, and thus avoid one of the giant queues! Hooray! (Sooooo dirty :P)

Looking sheepish with my proof of purchase

So here I am towards the back of the queue that stretched into the Centrepoint Arcade.

And here I am quickly moving forwards - the the system was very efficient!

And then with the two books I managed to get! (I was going to photoshop out my double chin but it looked like I had a beard - better get back on that diet!)

From here, I dawdled around, getting groceries, having lunch, making cookies before finally succumbing and sequestering myself in the apartment to read from 3-something pm onwards. Miss Pooky returned from the lab from hell and forced me to take a break for dinner and then movies. We returned around midnight whereby I declared I was not going to sleep. Come 3:30am I finished the book and then messaged Pooey in London to let her know I was done!

So what's my verdict? It's action-packed, it answers all the questions, and it was downright satisfying!

Party in Sydney!

Yes people, I am once again in Sydney. Alix was finally leaving Australia to go back to France and decided to have party. In Sydney. So I decided to fly up for it! So having informed Miss Pooky of my plans, I flew up and we went to the party!

The cousins! (and Miss Pooky)

Although it was a little rainy and Pooky was feeling a bit sick from arriving back from Singapore the day before (among other things), I believe we all had a good time! I introduced her to Zubrowka Vodka and we managed to have a bit of conversation in franglais!

Simpsonize me!

As a promo for the upcoming Simpsons Movie, http://www.simpsonizeme.com/index.php, allows you to upload a photo and let you see what you look like as a Simpsons character!

This is me:It does kinda look like me, except the eyes need to be a little bit more chinky!

The Big Day Arrives!

After about 5-6 years togther, Dr Ilaya and Mr Kelly finally tied the knot yesterday! Unfortunately, I didn't bring a camera (hey, as a bridesmaid, when would I even have time to take photos?!?) so take me word for it until I can scum pics off other people.

I won't do an entire day run through, but all went well. By staying over with Nance, we were all on schedule for the hair appointments, make up appointments, photography appointments...only the flowers were a bit late. Everyone fit into their dresses (yay!) which was especially great because Nance and I had pizza for dinner. It was all a big relaxed day - what do you expect when the maid of honour is a guy and I was a groomsman (heh). There was laughing during the ceremony, especially when Nance didn't realise the priest was prompting her to say *I have* and there was a big silence.

My lovely freesia and tulip groomsman bouquet

Also particularly amusing was when Nance went to throw a bouquet and the aim was so off that Marcus had to position her in the right position - it just kept hitting the concrete or the chapel gardens!

Even though it was fr-e-e-z-ing (really, people were rubbing my hands to get the circulation back into the them, photography was fun too. Hampered by taxis ruining the view of landmarks, duking it out for locations with other wedding parties (who would have thought there'd be four in one day - P.S., we had the best dresses, no salmon pink tulle monstrosities for us!), stopping by Maccas in full wedding regalia, the photographer gave up trying to make us be serious after a while.

Then of course, the 14-course banquet at the end.

Count 'em there are fourteen items! And we polished them off good!

Good lord the wedding cake (mud with fondant icing, no marzipan) was good! If there weren't 12 courses preceding it, I would have eaten more! As it was, I took two slices home.

In keeping with everything else, it was highly relaxed and we all just sat around hanging crap on each other. A jolly time was had by all. I know cos I stayed there until the end. The only sad bit was that our shoes maimed us and since I didn't have the foresight to bring along a spare pair of shoes, I couldn't kick on at the wedding reception after party.

My pretty, maiming shoes

So congratulations to the happy couple and have a great life together. And thank you very much for my bridal present (below) - it really matches my clothes!

Stupid diet, soooo cranky

There's been nothing much to write about for the last few days simply because I haven't done much. Well that's not true, as you can tell by the title, I've been on a diet and it's making me cranky. We got the dresses for the wedding back last week and I only managed to try it on Thursday. Imagine my shock when the dress I remember being roomy had been taken in to the extent I didn't try to sit down! On Saturday, Rachie and Nance confirmed that they too believed the dresses had been taken in too much.

Since then I have been on a shocking diet get the dress comfy. It zips up without too much difficulty but there's no way a wedding banquet is going to fit inside! The diet is basically:

• No bread
• No rice
• No pasta
• No dairy (other than yoghurt)
• No meat if I can get away with it
• No added sugar or salt
• No processed foods or food I don't prepare for myself (if possible)
• Very much decreased portions
• Regimented eating times - NO SNACKING!
  

However brutal this diet may seem, this is me in the dress.I spent last night going around the house in it (homework, etc) so I guess the diet worked. All I have to do now is maintain it.

The flipside is that by the time 5pm gymtime has rolled around, I AM BLOODY STARVING!!! and totally incapable of doing my normal workout *sobsob*. So to compensate, I have been getting off the bus two stops early and walking while carrying about 5kgs worth of computer and another 2kgs worth of handbag (I like to carry a lot) - a distance of about 1.5km. I've also been working hard trying to get as much work done as possible for the London conference that I've been sleeping around 2am. So basically, I am food-deprived, sleep-deprived, and exercise-deprived.

On the other hand, if there's one thing this has taught me, it's that I will never be anorexic :D.

Face Framing

Some people say that if there's one thing that can alter a moderately good looking girl to an all-out stunner, its her eyebrows. Case in point, Liz Hurley.

L. Hurley circa 1989. R. Hurley currently

Okay, ignoring the shocking hairstyle, lighting, and wardrobe (no comment on surgery), you've got to admit, she looks a lot better with those arched eyebrows. Dare I say younger? Eyebrows can also cement a friendship - at ski trip 2001 I told Miss Amandine she had very nicely shaped brows and we've been friends ever since!

I first started plucking my own brows into a mildly arched shape from the age of 15 until I discovered waxing at the age of 19. That pretty much stopped when the shop I used to get it done at changed hands and started to concentrate more on doing nails - I didn't like the smell. And so I went back to plucking, until I really couldn't be bothered maintaining the shape and let them grow back in.

Well Nance *requested* that Rachie Poo and I get our brows shaped for her wedding and we all headed to Liz Hurley-world, the Estee Lauder Brow Booth to get them done. And then when she was done, she declared it a great job, as did Nance and Rachie.

Top - old brows. Bottom - new brows.

I don't know - they look the same to me. A little thinner and a bit straighter, possibly, but nothing that's drastically altered my looks. I guess I need to get plastic surgery done :P

Movie review - Transformers

Blockbuster season has been ho-hum for me with Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3, and Ocean's (1)3 all passing by (I'll prob see them on DVD). So what of Transformers considering I have said numerous times that Michael Bay OWES ME THREE HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK. I still can't believe I went and saw Pearl Harbour in the cinema. I don't think Transformers closes the debt, but it comes mighty close.

The AllSpark was a life-giving cube from the planet Cybertron. The evil leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, wanted to use the AllSpark for nefarious purposes. The honourable Autobots led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen - from the original cartoon series) are there to stop him! Cybertron was destroyed by war and the AllSpark lost to the galaxy until it crash landed on...EARTH!!! Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) inadvertently buys the Transformer Bumblebee as his first car and a whole bunch of other humans including the super-hot Josh Duhamel (right) get dragged into the war between the two groups of giant robots (in disguise).

Like all Michael Bay movies, a certain number of elements are present:

• Plot that makes no sense (although people walking into this movie expecting a plot are asking too much).
• Major bust up with lots of explosions/car chases/flying.
• Unbelievably bad dialogue.
• Large ensemble cast who either get largely discarded (Bernie Mac) or kept on despite no reason to stay there (Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson)

I could continue but I won't.

BECAUSE FOR ALL THE THINGS THAT MAKE IT ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS, THIS FILM ROCKED!!!

Everything I hate in movies were present...and of course, it was done by Michael Bay. But what helped me enjoy it immensely was that it seems everyone involved in the film (except John Voight) did not take it seriously. This movie is gloriously, ridiculously stupid and not one iota of angst (apart from the CGI) is wasted on making it intelligent. The bad dialogue (really, it is shocking!) is counteracted by the tongue in cheek references and the equally hammy acting. Shia LaBeouf is particularly good considering most of his acting, especially the *holy shit, there's a giant robot in front of me* bits must have been against blank space.

Absolutely ludicrous plot elements abound - Sam telling Optimus Prime off for crushing his mum's roses, the Autobots trying to be inconspicuous and trying to save the human race...but then they lure the Decepticons to a major city where the robots go mano-a-mano in the central business district, killing god knows how many people.
The CGI is something most reviews have raved about and with good reason. It is seamless. For most CGI, there is a slight something wrong with it that makes you know it is fake. But in Transformers, while you know the giant robots have been animated into the live action, the animations have a solid rendering that it looks like they could have built giant models and had the people act around them. I was a mild fan of the cartoons when I was a very young child, especially of the *shrit zhuup shreet* sound they made when they transformed, and I loved the transforming animations. I could have watched an hour of that alone.

But enough raving, here's a list of things I really didn't like

• Product placement - all Autobots are GMC vehicles except for Optimus Prime (because you know everyone would have had a fit if he weren't his usual Mac truck)
• Bumblebee being a Camaro instead of the inconic Beetle. But I guess he's still ok
• The human characters are pretty one-dimensional...there's no more to them than meets the eye
  
• Megan Fox - can't act one bit. But she looks good...so I guess that's enough.
• The amount of time it took for the transformers to start fighting each other. And when they were fighting I couldn't really tell who was whom.
  
• The script. It is really that bad
• Josh Duhamel's costume has too many pieces
  
• Silly Natty has mentioned to me that the sound effects (full of deep bass) were overwhelming when she saw it.
  

One thing I did miss was the power struggle between Megatron and Starscream. Other than one line "You've disappointed me once again, Starscream" the rivalry the two had in the cartoon wasn't there.

And so in conclusion, Michael Bay has surprisingly delivered a movie that contains many elements of his other shockers, yet manages to be wonderful entertainment instead of making me add another 2.5 hours to his debt. If you don't love CGI, explosions, and stupidity, don't bother.
8/10
(pictures from rottentomatoes.com)

Shortbread!

Mammy's little baby loves shortbread, shortbread....and this baby (i.e. Me) luuuurrrrrrves shortbread! Those who follow this blog know that I've experimented with making different types of shortbread (see here and here) but really, nothing beats normal buttery shortbread. And shortbread really needs to be buttery - nothing beats that melt in your mouth buttery...ness.

This recipe comes from a cookbook aptly titled *Comfort Food* by Maxine Clark. Usually when I get a recipe out of a book, I make the thing, hand it out to people, get their opinion and modify it accordingly. When I made this one, however, Smee declared it the best shortbread he'd ever had and father of my male handbag of the time ate the entire box I gave to the handbag as a present. I took that to mean they thought it was pretty good. In addition, it's pretty easy to make except for the elbow grease needed for the creaming.

INGREDIENTS - Use all ingredients at room temp
225g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence - *optional* not included in the original recipe, I put it in once as an accident and it still tasted OK.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla if you use it.
Sift the two flours and salt into the butter mixture and combine into mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Using your hands, gather the dough together and on a clean surface, knead together into a ball. (Be careful not to have too much fun kneading or it goes greasy)
Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for about 20 mins.
When firm, divide into three balls and roll between two sheets of baking paper until 1cm thick.
Cut into happy cookie shapes and bake for 20-25 mins until golden coloured.
Allow to cool on baking sheet before transferring to wire rack.

Happy variations!
Lemon and Poppy Seed: Add the finely grated zest of 2 lemons to the butter and sugar when creaming and add 2 heaped tablespoons of poppy seeds with the flours.

Macadamia and Ginger : Add 2 teaspoons ground ginger to the flours when sifting and 2/3 cup chopped macadamias.

Happy birthday, House of Dior!

The Haute Couture House of Dior celebrates it's 60th year today! Dior, founded by Christian Dior was the source of all those nipped-in waists and puffy post-WWII skirts. Termed the 'New Look' (e.g. right source), it was a radical change from the 20s flapper style, the between wars simplicity of Chanel, and the war-time fashions that reflected rationing of fabrics. Geez that's a beautiful dress - I'd buy something like that if it were on sale now!

Things looked pretty dire for the house when Dior died prematurely in 1957, but the he had the foresight to appoint the 21-yo Yves St. Laurent as successor. Things went nicely along for a while but by the mid-90s with couture sales falling. I don't know if the sales have since risen (it's a very specialised market!), but the house was rejuvenated in 1996 with the appointment of John Galliano to head couture and ready to wear lines.

Galliano...he might look a right nutbag the way he goes out in public (left, source), but you can not deny the sheer beauty of his creations. Ignore the fact that the pic features Charlize Theron who could make a bag look good. That dress is a MARVEL. Just look at it!!! That is the kind of dress I imagine despotic empresses wore when they were sending peasants to their death. What fashion-loving girls get to wear in heaven! I don't know how comfortable it is, I don't really care. It's a stunner through and through.

But this dress worn by Cameron Diaz really takes the cake (source). I don't doubt that it helps to have a body like Diaz's to show it off, but that dress is an artistic and architectural wonder! The shadows created by the combination of all those layers and ruffles and light bouncing off the hot fuschia satin. I believe that this dress could make anyone feel like a goddess, and I know that James Packer paid $100,000 so Erica Baxter could wear it at their wedding. Incidentally, I think the pink version is better - the white doesn't seem as spectacular to me.

In any case, hats off to you and your style, Mr. Galliano. Continue that spectacular sense of style that Dior is known for and let the House define high fashion for another sixty more years.

Phighting with Photoshop

Fiddling around with my various cell markers last week after listening to a talk, I decided to try and use someone else's method for blood vessel analysis. I'm not exactly sure how she did it, but I know it involved a lot of Photoshop.

I SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP. I swear, almost everytime I need to create a pic or do some touching, I'm always asking other people for help.

There was some darkening of vessels with and labelling of pericytes somehow, I dunno. But this is my best shot at it so far.
This looks nothing like the crystal clear stuff she churned out! Look at all those blobs! and the tears in the tissue. *sniff sniff* I've greyscaled, altered levels, inverted, and altered levels again but I don't think I could use that to follow the vessels if my life depending on it. Looks like I'm gonna have to keep slogging away or find a low-tech way of doing it.

Happy New Month

Well, it is now the first of July. The calendar year is now half over and I've got sooooooo much work to do before the end!!! Aiyo. 18 months of PhD down, another to go. Ouch!!!! So in the words of Jack who sent this to me last year:

See the Old Month out and the New Month coming.
Have a Nice New Month!

P.S. Happy New Financial Year, everyone!

New Romantics Ballet

Last night was part two of our ballet subscription (part three I will not be able to attend - The Nutcracker - since I will be in Europe *sniff*). And it was a double event to celebrate because after twenty-odd years, Steven Heathcote is retiring and the New Romantics bill was to be his swansong.

Except he wasn't bloody performing the night we had tickets! Arrrrgh! My reaction was just like the one I had for Pirates. No matter *sigh*.

The New Romantics is promoted as a showcase of neoclassical ballet, but I thought it more like making nice shapes out of human bodies. It had all the trappings of modern ballet - something usually akin to modern art in my mind - unflattering flesh coloured leotards (above), flexed hands and feet ruining the lines, simulated birth....but despite all that, I really enjoyed it!

The first was Balanchine's Apollo which had perhaps the nicest shapes (e.g. left) that showed to the best advantage from our seats in the heavens. Then was Stanton Welch's Constant Variants which I found the most entertaining - it was full of action and had nice maroon/blue leotards. The final piece was After the Rain (featuring the flesh leotard) which was supposed to feature Heathcote. Instead we got Matthew Lawrence (right). Male ballet dancers have such nice musculature, and Rain really needed them cos there was a lot of lifting the ballerina around and balancing her on various limbs!

Actually, I think that's what I liked best about Romantics, there was an excess of acrobatics compared to other modern ballets which made it fun.
(Photos from Australian Ballet website)

Some things change, others remain the same

Pooey and Spuey have been having great fun together in London and thereabouts (see here, here and here). And to rub it in that I'm not there with them, they sent me some of the silly photos they took.

While I was sobbingly looking at them, I realised - they took photos with the same Beefeater bear that was propped up in the gardens of the Tower of London...

That bear looks much happier to see me than them! I hope that bear has been cleaned.

and Spuey also managed to get the EXACT SAME Yeoman that I had my photo taken with!

It is the same guy. I was gonna photoshop Pooey's face on top of Ruilin.

These then teaches me two things:

1. Summer light sure makes a difference in photography!
   
2. Some things just run in the family.
3. I need to get to Europe asap.
   

What I love about Winter...

Winter food!!! I love how cold weather cancels out diets and makes it almost illegal to eat salad as a main course! But most of all, I love how you can drag out the soup! And with a few slices of buttered bread (because any fat intake you have in winter doesn't count either :P) it makes a great meal.

Off the top of my head, my favourite soups (discounting the usual soup noodles) are:
University Cafe - Tortellini and baby spinach in chicken broth
Chicken with angel hair spaghetti and dumplings
Ti Amo2 - Prawn and lobster (crab?) soup
Duck and tortellini with vegetables
Some cafe in the city - Cream of Mushroom
That soup place in CentreWay/Degraves - pretty much everything they have.

Madame La Presidente Rides Again!

I just read Dancing Hula's entry and thought I'd add that, yes, I am once again Madame La Présidente de la société d'étudiant de l'anatomie. I was also mightily unimpressed that people who make up the society did not attend, especially since they are the ones who benefit from my actions.

*cough*

And seeing as I was actually voted in this time, and that I have declared that this presidency will only go for six months, LET MY REIGN OF TERROR BEGIN!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Indecision

Like many other people of my generation and acquaintance, I have joined Facebook. And like all the other times I join a *networking* thingamajig, they ask you to make a list of favourite movies, songs/music, books and so forth.

I am not Maria Von Trapp. It is difficult to write out a list of things that one can call the absolute bestbestbest in one's mind! How do you decide? I mean, the criteria to decide these things are so vague! I love opera but I can't tell you if I like it better than RnB! And then how do I choose between individual operas and arias and whatnot?

The same goes for books. I've read a lot of books, many of which remain with me years after reading. But would you define best as something you'd read over and over again? I loved War and Peace but I'm not going to read it every year - to do so would be sheer folly! Likewise L'Assommoir by Emile Zola which I've read in English and French. It's a brilliant book that's absolutely devastating not something I'd tackle again in either languages. And then you have those romances that I do read over again if I'm feeling like something light. I wouldn't be calling them the 'best' though. I will however say is that The Da Vinci Code is a load of crap.

Movies? TV shows? I watch so many of them, often repeatedly, that that I can't decide. And don't get me started on artists and their paintings. Hell, I can't even decide if I prefer Melbourne over London over Paris over Venice over Rome. English breakfast, chai, Earl Grey, or jasmine? Life is just too short to decide what you like best!

New Link

This entry of our night out on the town has apparently inspired Dancing Hula to start up her own blog chronicling her nights out.

Her blog has been added to the *links* list as, guess what? Dancing Hula.
Enjoy!

First he took my heart and then he ran...

Usually I don't like the dance remixes of 80s songs, but I much prefer the Linus Loves (ft. Sam Obernik) version of Stand Back to the Stevie Nicks original.

The thumping beat, the cute lyrics, Sam Obernik's distinct voice, and of course the corny 80s throwback video where the geek reveals himself as a true superstar.

The Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2007

While I am a staunch believer in Womens' Rights, I will admit to be oddly fascinated by beauty pageants. I think it's mostly got to do with what and how people define beauty and what makes a person enter the competitions. I've been particularly intrigued by the Asian pageants due to my own racial background and a friend competing in one a few years ago.

The Asian Ideal of beauty is not particularly different from other races (i.e. taller, slim etc) but there are a few aspects that set it apart. There is a big emphasis on being pale. The MHK pageant often has a token tanned girl within the competition but is almost never guaranteed to win a big prize. When Shermon Tang (left) won Miss Photogenic in 2005, she was widely derided as being an ugly *ban-ban* (filipino maid) who got the award due to her connections. While I find her neither particularly attractive or ugly, her photos since then have shown her skin to have undergone extensive whitening. (Image from www.misshongkongpageant.com/mbphotogenic.htm.)

And then there is the emphasis on being thin. While I'm aware being slim is a pre-req in these kinds of things, I think the Asian ideal of *thin* is something a little extreme. Take for example the 2001 winner Shirley Yeung who at 43kg, had a BMI of 16.17 (height 5'4). I do believe a BMI of less than 17.5 is a feature of anorexia nervosa. I'm not that I'm saying she was anorexic, I'm saying the definitions in the pageant/society are a somewhat extreme.

The reason why I'm writing this entry is because I've been following the pageant press this year
and I'm becoming increasingly outraged by the publicity around contestant number 2, Lily Ho Ngo Yee (right, image source). At 18 years old, she was considered a favourite to win until the contestants were photographed in bikinis, where she has since been derided for having "wide shoulders, full bottom and thick hands (thick hands?!?source) and since being nicknamed "Miss Hips" (source). People, the girl has a BMI of approx 19, a 24 inch waist and 34 inch hips, neither measurements are as huge as you seem to think. Consider that the slimness of her waist may produce an optical illusion which highlight her hips in comparison? I found it particularly sad to read the translation of this article where after the girls were interviewed and offered beauty and slimming treatments, Lily was questioned about slimming her hips and she indicated her intention to slim herself all over in response to the criticism.

Girl, you are thin enough as it is and considered the best in the competition (until forced to wear a bikini). Being healthy is far more important than squeezing out that one extra inch. Don't do it.

Movie Review - Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction is the story of Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) an IRS auditor. His life is ordered (to him) and boring (to us). Everything changes when one day he becomes aware that an anonymous person is narrating his life - a narration that he, and no one else, can hear. It doesn't bother him too much other than thinking he's crazy until, one day, the voice says that Harold is going to die. Trying to stop his imminent death, he seeks the help of a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman - best academic office I've ever seen!) in order to identify the voice. Meanwhile, the author, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), is stuck with writer's block and an assistant from the publishing house, Penny Escher (Queen Latifah) has been sent to help her. And so in the course of trying to find Karen before she finishes the book and kills him, Harold begins to live his life fully.

It was a bit difficult to figure out what this movie was trying to be. In some parts, it was pretty damn funny, in other aspects, particularly the message, it was quite serious. Everyone plays their roles completely straight - even Will Ferrell, when he does his crazy yelling mode is completely understandable as being representative of Harold's psychological trauma at finding out he's going to die! But by playing it straight, they too seem absolutely hilarious. This doubleplay is seen everywhere as the plot and script waver between complete absurdity and being deeply serious. I suppose the best description would be that this movie is analogous to Adaptation or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but a little less of a mind-$@#% than those movies.

But the wavering that the movie makes means that I'm not sure whether this is a great work of absurdist movie making or a great dissertation on the meaning of life - how an ordinary person in an ordinary life can in oneself be extraordinary. The things I like: As an existentialist reading of life, it's amusing. As a criticism of modern literature (where the protagonist has to die to make a masterpiece) I think it's spot on! The things I didn't like: I didn't think there's much between Maggie Gyllenhaal and Will Ferrell. He's funny and she's the alternative world to him, I guess, but it didn't feel like something natural. Also, the carpe diem message can be a bit heavy at times.

In the end, I think it's a good movie. Not brilliant, not terrible, just good.
6.5-7/10

Geeky quizzes!

49%

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

I need a gun and learn how to use it properly.

I Scored a 100%!

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

Spelling! Severely underrated in this age.

Free Online Dating

Got the physics ones wrong :(

Paquita!

As an adjunct to the opera subscriptions, Laura organised a ballet subscription. Last night we saw the 'tutu spectacular' Paquita.

While I enjoy ballet and don't dispute the level of technical mastery and artistry involved, I generally don't enjoy ballet as much as opera. This is probably due to the telling the story through dance/pantomime element - I feel less involved in it than I would watching and listening to people singing. The emotional hook is there as much in ballet for me compared to opera. But when ballet rocks, its rocks. I still remember describing Grand Tarantella as completely psycho dancing due to all the crazy leaps and whatnot.

Paquita goes into the rockin' crazy territory. The programme was pretty much a number of celebrated pas de deux and a newly choreographed from from a dancer in the company. My personal favourite was Spring Waters that featured the ballerina doing a horizontal jump into her partner's arms - imagine how horrible wrong it could have gone! But it didn't so it was fine. And there was another point where she was held above his head and spun around, also tricky. But the general favourite went to the aptly named La Favorita (left) which was a few minutes of Spanish inspired crazy. I can't remember who was the male, but the ballerina was Reiko Hombo who despite being only a member of the Corps de Baller, gave a wonderfully tight execution of the dance. Sue declared it the best performance of the night and thinks she'll go far.

As for the main performance of the night...hmmm...when it went well, it was beautiful. When it wasn't it was scary. My high (low?) light was when a bead fell off a soloist's costume - the *ping!* was audible. I was so scared another performer would slip on it during the night!
(Photos from Australian Ballet site.)

The Stats!

Ok, I've finally finished putting labels on all my back blogs. Never before have I wished that I wrote less. God, it took four days. Anyway, I've made 22 categories - I could have made more (e.g. pics of cute animals) but it was tiring enough as is. So the categories I've made with their respective number of entries (most entries double up) is as below:The *filler blog* category are entries that either start off on something and then ramble into something else, or really are about nothing. Not all entries labelled *movie reviews* are movie reviews but include passing comments I've made about movies (individual entries will stay on the sidebar). On the other hand, I can't believe I've only written about tv six times. That's got to be wrong.

For those who have been paying attention...

although I'm guessing most haven't or don't care, I've been slowly attaching tags to my posts. At first I thought they were stoopit, but then I used them to navigate someone else's blog and I do admit, they can be useful.

So instead of me putting lines and lines of links in the sidebar, if you want to see all I've written about *food* they are now linked together. i. Likewise if you want to see my pics of Safin, they are all visible if you click on *eye candy*.

I *heart* Supernatural

I know I have written repeatedly little comments about how I love Supernatural. I remember the first time I saw something about it. I think it was was December 2005/January 2006 and me and Pooey went to the movies. I can't remember what movie it was, but a trailer fro Supernatural came up.


This isn't the trailer - it was way scarier, but it had the right effect of me and Pooey turning to each other and going *We're gonna watch that!* And Pooey was interstate when it finally aired on tv, but as soon as it was done, we rang and each other to say *We love this show!* and anointed it our new Buffy.

So why do I love it?

I could write a huge analysis about why, but I won't. Basically, it runs down to these points:

1. I love being scared. And by scared, I don't mean that bullshit like Hostel. I mean by things that I can't explain or are plain creepy, like when a scarecrow moves of it's own volition. The creepy factor - ooh yeah.
2. Humour! Them guys are funny. Those writers are funny. For all the creepiness, the show is just funny, especially with the one-liners
   
3. Pop culture references. If a show combines horror and humour with pop culture, I am usually always happy (Death to CSI!)
4. The casting. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki really act like bickering kids! And it's fun to see guests that have appeared on other much loved shows. I still think it's funny that their Dad is Denny from Grey's Anatomy. And Tina did comment that while the guys are obviously the focus, the producers do make an effort for the male audience by casting hot women in guest roles.
   

This then leads to the great Dean vs. Sam debate.Sam is young, rational, sensitive, pre-law, and very responsible. Dean is a joker, liar, womaniser and happy to pull a gun when the situation suits him.I'm firmly in Dean's camp, especially when he's rockin' the coat like in this pic.Nice
(All pics from tv.yahoo.com)

Happy Long Weekend?

Well we celebrated our head of state's birthday this weekend by declaring a public holiday and the uni celebrated by having a (rare) shutdown.

But hold on! Not only was I in today (sectioning), but I was in on Saturday and Sunday prepping for today! I suppose the only good thing was that I managed to section 4 blocks (10 slides at 3 sections/slide) in less than three hours!

In other news:
Happy Birthday to Glendam, and Khoon makes awesome onion, bacon, sausage and bbq sauce....food.
Nance and RachiePoo attempted to buy accessories for Nance's wedding - no joy.
Nice to meet the iggs girls again in boxy (baked chicken and sweet corn rice - num nums!). And funny running into so many ppl there.

It's Official!

For the last few days I’ve been talking as if something crawled into my throat and died, as well as making strange little honking sounds that mutated into little bubbling sounds while I breathed. Despite the sign that ill health was approaching, with the exception of a sore throat I have felt perfectly fine. So fine in fact that it didn’t stop me from going to the gym on both Tuesday and Wednesday (although I largely did just weights on Wednesday), and Pilates with Glen on Thursday.


Well our fears have come true.

My sore throat that I had been trying to stave off with regular lemon and honey drinks has developed into an upper respiratory infection. I woke up today with that vague kind of chest pain and have started to cough up thick coloured sputum. Nice.

Man, I seem to get one of these every year. I’ll give myself a week to get over it. Lucky it’s a long weekend. Unlucky I’m busy all through it.

Bai Spuey!!!

The lil'est member of the household has gone out to explore Euroland, just like his big sisters before him.

Unlike the girls, he's exploring Eastern Europe.

He has not seen Hostel despite encouragement from various relos.

Good luck!

Quick shots

On Sunday we had a nice extended family day to celebrate
1. Spuey going away,
2. Loi going away, and
3. Auntie getting older.
Mumsie made Bún riêu, among other things and I took the opportunity to take a few shots of Ethan and Amelia.

Ethan eating himself into exhaustion

Amelia already chanelling the phone princess

Other than that, we played the wii (bowling, golf), watched a lot of television, and ate a lot of food, like any good family gathering.

Friday night out!

Well the semester has come to a close bringing an end to classes (yay!) but also the end of seminar drinks (boo!). So DancingHula, Marlene and I decided to head into the city and attend a Lane Party (i.e. a party in a lane).

The lane party, meh...the excitement of the location wore off pretty quickly when we saw the massive queue to get into the lane and the excitement of two free glasses of alcohol wore off even quicker when we found the wine to be yerky. But here are some pics.

The location and crowd

Some of the entertainers. I found the silver stilt ppl quite creepy.

We three party girls

Our drink cards were cards from the bar secrets pack!

Taking time to enjoy the champagne

Alcohol induced silly posing!

We left the lane to meet up with Hula's sister Kt and went off to Degraves to get food before meeting up with some of Hula and Marls' friends. The next drink location was Bambu were Uncle Loi was having his going away party as well as to satisfy Marlene's desire for a good margarita.

Kt, Hula, Vinh, Lisa
Me, Mike, Kt, Studds, Hula

Marls trying to get a margarita (I find this pic unbelievably amusing)

Bringing out my inner jap posing.

Unforch, pretty much every time I went to go buy Loi a drink, he usually had one in each hand. Eventually we left (quite early) for tea in a warm and quiet-ish place to converse. Despite the silly posing, I only sunk three drinks and was home by midnight! If only all Friday drinks would be so easy and eventful!

Me and the Internet: A Love/Hate Story

I love the internet. I don't deny it. But I hate it as well - also undeniable. I love how much easier it makes my work - to go to PubMed, type in a few words and have it spit out journal articles that haven't even been published yet! No poring over that medical compendium index or whatever its called. But at the same time, I miss the effort and satisfaction of having to physically track down an article, photocopy it and slog over its pages. Plus, the lack of tangibility that books have. I had to pore over journals that were over 100 years old for Art Hist and referenced the collected works of John Ruskin that had obviously had generations of over researchers go over it - it was that beaten up. *sigh* But then, it wouldn't be beaten up if it were on the net since it would then not require physical handling!

After hearing rumblings of it, I had my first interaction with the internet in 1996 when our IT teacher tried to demonstrate its use and other things. I was largely unimpressed due to the slowness of our school's connection and poor formatting. It was just like reading the MSY site. Things changed in 1998 when the internet was connected to our house via a 32.2k modem. Still slow, but now I could satisfy my desire for knowledge at home! I also discovered email and chat rooms and somehow ended up exchanging correspondence with a US Marine until he got posted to the Gulf (probably not the wisest thing I've ever done).

University brought huge changes in the role of internet in my life but it didn't become that integral as my Faculties continued publishing their own notes and forcing us to purchase them rather than download. Instead the net became the means to explore celebrity gossip and use a variety of instant messaging programmes such as tetranet Big Two and ICQ to communicate with friends. And of course a way to share our favourite music and to waste time while significant others were busy playing LAN games :P.

While I accept its role in my life, I curse my dependence on it for communication (oh god, life stopped when the email server went down) and deadlines are even scarier when you have to submit something online and you know everyone else is jamming it at the same time. Procrastination increasing multi-fold. The downgrading of print media. The constant threat of viruses...*sigh* But I appreciate the ability to see and speak to people on the other side of the world short of flying over there. How much easier it makes my working life and a myriad of other aspects. From my original dismissal to the present dependence, the internet and I have had a difficult relationship. I consider it akin to an abusive lover - capable of doing things to make me sing your praises to all and sundry, but never knowing when you're going to turn against me and make life hell. And yes, I see the irony in me posting this online