Eternal Future

Three Kingdoms

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:14:00 +0000

When I planned to watch this movie on the theater, I must admit that I was skeptical. Well, my worries were justified. Despite its great in almost everything, the plot was mostly nowhere near the original story. I mean, Cao Ying? Come on, don't be ridiculous. Or that Zhao Yun got killed in battle? Now that would just like saying that Abraham Lincoln died while leading his army during the civil war. From start to finish, I'd say it was a tormenting moments. Zhao Yun didn't start from lowly position in the Liu Bei's army. He even saved Liu Bei's life in the beginning of their acquaintance. Such a shame. The original was a great story, why couldn't just keep it that way? Despite that, the movie was well directed. The emotional stirring was pretty felt. Acting was all good, but the harp-playing scene was awful. No need for that one. Heck, no need for even put Cao Ying on the scene. The score for the plot was 3, the directing was 8, the acting was 8. Overall, it was an obvious disappointment of 6.

Still, there is another release planned regarding the Three Kingdoms. Tony Leung will be a part of it, and it would be focusing on the Battle of Red Wall. With the Chinese government involvement in the project, I guess the quality must be way better than the Resurrection of the Dragon.

I'd also still see the TV series was way better than Resurrection. Well, sometimes some novel just couldn't be fitted into a single movie. Learn from the LotR.

The Darjeeling Limited

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:59:00 +0000

Just watched it this morning. My interest wasn't actually on who acted in this movie. It wasn't on who directed this movie also. Instead, it was the title that intrigued me. All I know that Darjeeling is some sort of tea. After watching it for a while, it appeared that Darjeeling Limited was the name of the train the three brothers used. An interesting way to tell a story, though. Nice work, but the story was rather dull. The acting was of standard quality, not too good, but not bad either.
If it was supposed to be a life-changing, spiritual journey, well I couldn't see how that could possibly happens. At least not to me. I'd take it as a simple vacation. Fortunately, it wasn't like those stupid comedies with same plot "a group vacation/journey" with lots of things happening during the journey. Well, the story was so-so, I'd give it a 6, the acting was slightly good, worth a 7, the directing was interesting, making the movie a joy to watch. I'd give it an 8. Overall it was a simply average movie to watch.

Well, I'm planning to see The Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon tomorrow. I hope it's good...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:24:00 +0000

If you couldn't stand gruesome, bloody scenes, then either close your eyes during such scenes, or just stay away from the entire movie. Johnny Depp's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" was a great movie to watch. It's not that I love bloody scenes, but the way it was made and played was able to compensate for its gruesome scenes. I've never been a fan of musical features films, but aside from Moulin Rouge & Chicago, I've made an exception for Sweeney Todd. The plot was pretty good. The twist in the end made it somewhat memorable. The acting was not super, but hey, it's musical. From my standpoint, the directing was great (8), the plot was also very good (8), the acting, well, quite good (7). I think it wasn't the acting that made it great, but the directing and the plot that made this movie great.

According to wikipedia, there are other adaptations of Sweeney Todd. I guess, I'll go and look for them, especially the one with Ben Kingsley on it.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:45:00 +0000

A few months ago I watched "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". I was actually expecting an action movie, but instead the movie was a drama. I fell asleep though, watching the early half of the movie, but after that it became very interesting. No, not in terms of the plot. The plot was not that extraordinary, however. It was Brad Pitt's performance that was so impressive. You can feel that sense of fearsome impression behind the calm, cold look of Jesse.
On the other side, I could feel the disgust with Robert Ford. It was also a great performance by Casey Affleck. The film indeed painted a heroic impression in the character Jesse James. I don't know, perhaps it was because of the plot, or was it because of Brad Pitt's performance? Maybe both. In the end, I give the score of 10 in acting, a 7 in plot, also 7 in directing. Overall, it is a highly recommendable movie, but if you want an action movie, just forget it. The only action in this movie was silent one. It was all about expression.

A new start

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:18:00 +0000

Another "restart" after a long time of absence. I intend to rant more about movies that I've seen. I actually planned to start a new blog, but I don't think that would be practical for now.

I've seen lots of movies since my last posts. Some were good, some were awful, but hey, good movies are harder to come by these days.

I may not be posting today. Got a flu right now. So, maybe tomorrow I'll write.

See ya.

Struck down [again]

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:34:00 +0000

Got struck down with flu the last three days. Probably because the air con at my office was set too cold. I hope it won't be getting too serious. I've been ill one time too many this year. I even think that this city is just not suitable for me. Too unhygienic. Dirt everywhere, pools of spits everywhere. Disgusting.

As disgusting as those Taliban sombitches. Holding innocent hostages and killing them. Who do they think they are? God? If they want to protest, why don't they launch an attack to an army camp or an army base? Or even better, to the White House. Of course they can't. They don't have the guts. Pieces of shits like them ought to be mutilated alive [like what that bad guy did in Hostel]. For Jihad they say. If I'm God, I'll quash them with my foot like dirt. Well, I hope those hostages will survive this madness. These hostages should also learn the lesson that some people just don't deserve mercy. Let them die and rot there. I wonder why the US haven't done anything. They could just raid the whole Afghanistan. Sweep the country inch by inch. Why, they could land their men on the moon, why they couldn't do a full sweep on a small country like Afghanistan. Yeah, I know, there's no profit in it for them.

A disgusting habit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:21:00 +0000

Spitting is disgusting, isn't it? Yet a lot of people here are doing it everyday. I always say to myself whenever and wherever I spot someone spits: "OMG! What the hell is he/she thinking?". Although I've noticed only a few female "spitters", but yes, ladies and gentlemen, women also spit outdoors.

I'd say, perhaps there should be a law to forbid spitting in public. First, it's disgusting, second, it lacks respect to others (I even consider it as an indirect insult, be it intentional or not), and third, it's extremely unhealthy.

Imagine how far healthier our world would be if spitting is considered illegal. Can you imagine how potent the saliva is as an agent of contamination? Diseases could spread from it!

Amazingly, them people seemed to be in ease when they spit. Even more like a reflex action.

I hope one day, people could be sued for spitting in public, for committing the act of endangering other people's lives. I mean, if they could ban smoking in public, why not ban spitting in public.

Thank God Mr. Monk doesn't live in this city. He would've died of paranoia. Speaking of Mr. Monk, it is unfortunate that, just like CSI: Miami, the series seemed to be losing its charm. I'm watching the fourth season now, and I couldn't feel the same enthusiasm that I felt when watching the first and second seasons. The show is hardly funny anymore.

I watched A Fish Called Wanda the other day, but somehow failed to spend my time laughing at it. Weird, eh? Despite the praises from critics about the movie, I felt that the only hilarious moments were the ones when Ken tried to kill the old lady. The first time he tried, he killed lady's first terrier. The second time he tried, he turned out to be flattening the lady's second terrier (literally!), and the third time he tried, he crushed the third and the last dog which, eventually sent the old lady into a heart attack and died. To me the funny thing was that Ken was an animal-lover!

Well, anyway, that's all for now. See you all later.

Out of the conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 15:53:00 +0000

It's been a week, perhaps, since my last post. I've been rather lazy though, to write anything. Fortunately, I'm out of the conundrum now.

Anyway, been watching some movies. Now that I've done watching Jeeves & Wooster, I've spent the week watching the fifth season of CSI: Miami. I could not help to think that the series had actually lost its charm. As a matter of fact, I already felt that since the third season, I guess.

The bad guys were always easy to fold, the tragedies which struck the team seemed to be too easily forgotten, and that Horatio seemed to be too invincible to beat. The first episode of the fifth was even absurd, in my opinion. How could two Americans kicked asses in Rio without any local police doing anything? Obviously, CSI: Miami has turned closer and closer to a set of fairy tales. Personally, I think the CSI (the Vegas one) series would trump Miami totally. I surely hope the sixth season will be able to resurrect its charm again.

I watched the Flags of our Fathers, too this week. Got to buy the movie twice. The first one was scratched so it couldn't be played. Overall, it was quite an interesting movie. Yet more interesting was the fact that Clint Eastwood also made Letters from Iwo Jima which had the same timeline, same background (same war), just different in perspective. Flags saw the war from the American side, while Letters saw it from the Japanese.

I think Letters was better than Flags. Anyway, after watching them, every character could be regarded as “the good guy”. Perhaps, there were supposed to be no bad guys after all in a war. Every soldier just want to survive the war and go home. Who wants to get killed anyway? After all, it could be said that the purpose of every human in life is simply to live, to survive life. Nobody with a sane mind would say “I want to meet my maker, NOW!”.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm saving some thoughts for the next post.

What ho, Venus!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 16:26:00 +0000

It’s been a hot day today. I spent most of my time in my room, as usual, playing games and watching movies. I went out to the barber, as planned, though.

I watched Venus this evening. I’d say it was a good movie. Well played, and nicely scripted. I wonder why Peter O’Toole failed to snatched the Oscar. Well, I guess Forrest played slightly better. The film might make you pondering how you’re going to be when you’re old. I’d be looking back to my life surely, wondering if I’ve lived a good life, or if I’ve screwed it up to the last bit. I hope I wouldn’t screw it up. I’ve tried to live my life happily and, despite sh*t happened in the process, well, that’s what life supposed to be, right? It’s full of happy moments, sh*t and surprises.

I believe that there are plenty of people out there who feel the same thing as the characters Maurice and Ian. At the dawn of their lives, some become worried about what lies waiting for them beyond death, some become suddenly religious (if they weren’t religious enough beforehand), some just trying to spend the remainder of their lives having fun while they can. That’s what I saw in the movie, people contemplating the final moments of their lives. There were some good bits of humor in it too.

Speaking of humor, I’ve reached the middle of the fourth series of Jeeves & Wooster. I figured that I’d be completed by tomorrow. The fourth installment was nearly as good as the third, although I still favored the third. Still full of ‘Bertie’s dodging the bullet named marriage’, however.

Anyway, it’s time for me to sleep. I’ve got a handful of things to do tomorrow.

Doldrums

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 17:32:00 +0000

Well, it’s been an uneventful day today. Went shopping for some snacks and fruit, visited the DVD counter looking for new, interesting movies, but bought nothing in the end. I’ve been pondering at the idea of watching Naruto and Smallville, but I guess they could wait for a little while longer because I’ve still got a stack of movies not yet seen.

I canceled my plan to have a hair cut today, because when I arrived at the barber shop, both were out for lunch. Besides, there were a lot of people queuing, too. I didn’t want to waste my time waiting there, so I decided to go back.

The entire day was spent watching Jeeves & Wooster episodes from the third series and playing Marvel Trading Card game. I’d say that that game relies heavily on luck. Forget about skill. If you have a bad draw, defeat is almost a certainty. It’s not a great game, although it kept my brain ticking. The graphics were poor. I was expecting Jim Lee’s style of drawing, but instead it was someone else’s. I don’t know who drew the strips, but they were definitely disappointing. Moreover, instead of providing the gamer with crisp cut-scenes (a la Warcraft), what I’ve got were comic strips, zoomed in and out. Pretty lame, I’d say.

Nevertheless, at least the third series of Jeeves & Wooster were not disappointing. Actually, they were great. I haven’t watched the fourth series, but up till now, the third series ranked as the best among the first three series. The third ones made me laugh more frequently than the first two. I’ve also noticed that several episodes showed that Jeeves’ ploys went sour, although he, as usual, managed to save the day.

After somewhat ridiculing ultra nationalism in the second installment, the subject of communism was included in the final episode of the third series. Luckily, it was a British film. Had it been an Indonesian film, the movie would be banned. Well, just in case you haven’t known, most of the people here in my country are allergic to that subject. They could easily run riot because of it.

It’s late now, and I don’t know what else to do. I can play Sid Meier’s Railroads!, but I kinda bored with it. I’ve somewhat bored with Sim Golf, too (it’s kinda awkward that a tournament could last more than a year in terms of the game time). Then, there’s Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossover, but both are antique games, of which graphic qualities are still “less developed”. The only option left is to just sleep after this.

Let’s see, what I can do tomorrow… Well, I might watch Venus and the fourth installment of Jeeves & Wooster; and surely I need to go to the barber. Resuming my Marvel game would be another choice to take.

Okay then, see you all tomorrow.

Wooster, the 'Idle Rich'

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:14:00 +0000

Laurie's character in Jeeves & Wooster was actually far more intelligent than the Prince Regent and Lt. George. However, despite this fact, he was definitely outsmarted by Jeeves (played by Laurie's long-time friend Stephen Fry). Wooster, or Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster, was a rich but jobless aristocrat. He frequently got himself into troubles in which he usually managed to escape from only because Jeeves came to the rescue.

Although I haven't finished watching all episodes of Jeeves & Wooster, I believe it's a fascinating series. Again, Wooster's character was a complete opposite to House whereas Wooster was a more polite and, unfortunately, more stupid, yet more jolly than House.

I still haven't got the chance to read the book version of Jeeves & Wooster, but maybe when I'm in the mood, I'll have a look at those books. P.G. Wodehouse wrote the books, by the way.

Another interesting series that I'm planning to watch is A Bit of Fry & Laurie. I've watched only one episode, but I haven't got all of the complete series. Hopefully, I'll have them soon.

I guess that's all about Laurie. Let's move on to other subjects.

House Rules!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:57:00 +0000

During the my blogging hiatus period I've decided to buy House M.D., a TV series about medical stuffs (bootlegged, of course!). I'm not actually interested on the world of doctors and those medical stuffs (reminds me of ER, which for me, was absolutely boring). House, on the other hand, is more interesting. Especially House's character himself.

Apparently, he's (I think) a broken man. Perhaps because he was crippled by a disease (I forgot what disease), which led to the separation between him and his wife. Still, fortunately, his brain stayed sharp. I consider him as the Sherlock Holmes of the medical world, because he seemed to be using similar methods to those of Holmes' in diagnosing his patients.

If you read the article about House at Wikipedia.org, there are some similarities between House and Holmes listed there. What made me interested on the series was his view towards the world and God. Maybe I'll post more about this later on.

Remarkably, while House is defined as a rude and serious character, Hugh Laurie (who performed the role), was more of a comedian. I've watched some other series in which he starred in, such as Blackadder, Jeeves & Wooster, and A Bit of Fry & Laurie.

In Blackadder the Third, Laurie played as George, the idiot Prince Regent; while in Blackadder Goes Fourth, he starred as Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Bartleigh MC. I don't want to re-write the whole text from Wikipedia about all this, but if you're interested, you can visit www.wikipedia.org for more information about this character. Click here.

Laurie returned to play again in two more Blackadder movies: the Christmas Carol and Blackadder: Back and Forth.

I'll write a bit about his role in Jeeves & Wooster in the next post.

Resurrected!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:33:00 +0000

After being absent for a long, long time, finally I'm back on blogging. Actually, I thought I've lost my blogs because somehow I didn't update them for a long time.

It's been months since my last post, and there have been lots of things happening in between, new thoughts about things I've felt, seen, and heard. I hope I'll be posting more frequent in the future. Starting from today.

Well, here we go again...

End of Prolonged Summer?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 06:54:00 +0000

At last! The rain has been falling. It has been months since it rained. I thought that this country was cursed with a neverending summer. Anyway, the holiday week is coming to an end. It's going to be Monday soon. So, everyone will be back to work.

My spare time is spent on watching DVDs, and plundering the internet for stuffs.

I'm considering looking for Dead Ringers, another British comedy series. I wonder if it's as good as Little Britain. You do know Little Britain, don't you?

Some may hate Little Britain, but I think their sense of humour are just lacking. I feel that British comedies tend to push things to the extreme limit. Mostly, towards self-degrading jokes or insulting others.

Well, got to go now. Starving!

Cheerio!

Uneventful Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 04:44:00 +0000

With a full week of holiday, it's surely a boring one, especially with the scorching heat outside. Worse is, it's like inside of an oven inside my room, even with the fan turned on! I wonder if there's going to be any rain until the end of year this year.

Anyways, it's not really a holiday at all, though. Still got to go to the office, monitoring the new internet connection. It got on and off a while ago, but I guess it was just a faulty equipment. It got replaced and everything has been pretty good now.

Meanwhile, finished the third season of CSI: Miami. Now moving towards NY spinoff. I also bought Hustle (a BBC series, not the magazine) and House. Pretty interesting stuffs, though. I'll let you know what I think about them later.

Got to go now, it's lunchtime!

Cheerio!

Background Laughter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:34:00 +0000

If you watch a sitcom, there's a near certainty that you're going to hear the audience laugh whenever a joke or what supposed to be funny is performed by the actor/actors/actress/actresses.

I always wonder, if they were real laughter or not. If they were, was the audience laugh because the show was funny, or to remind us to laugh, as if they said: "Hey, start laughing! The scene is supposed to be funny!"

Well, that's a possibility, because such thing does have a strong suggestive power. People could simply laugh just because someone else is laughing. They don't know what's being laugh at, and sometimes even if they do, they actually don't think these things aren't funny. As if, laughter is contagious.

Maybe I've mentioned it before, but I surely find it hard to find a good sitcom recently. Maybe the whole genre had ran out of ideas. Maybe mocking someone else is no longer funny. Mocking yourself is no longer funny, too. While mocking God... well, it'll be tricky. Some fanatics may get themselves too upset that they're sending death threats to kill you. In the end, the whole thing is stuck in a rut.

I guess, it's not only in comedy, but in all showbiz. Variance of stories seemed to have reached its limit. What's left are the acting and the directing.

Now back to the original topic, I think the best thing is to strip off the audience's laughter. I feel uneasy because I feel being dictated, to be told or reminded to laugh.

There's no background laughter in Simpsons, fortunately.

What Makes You Laugh?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:17:00 +0000

That's the question asked by Albert Brooks in his recent film "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World". I think he intended that to be a comedy but exactly like the audience in the movie to whom he told jokes during his stand-up act in India, there were hardly any critics laughing.

I did laughed a bit when I saw the movie, but well, rarely. In the movie, Brooks' attempt to look for comedy in India and Pakistan ended up in an escalation of an already tense bilateral relationship between the two countries. Fortunately enough, it did not ended in a billowing mushroom cloud of nuclear boom.

Frankly, I wasn't interested in the movie because Albert Brooks starred in it, but merely because of the title. Say, I think Mr. Brooks took the wrong turn in picking the countries to feature in this movie. Sure that there are Muslims in India, but in terms of numbers, the Hindis trumped the Muslims (don't get mad, I didn't write that Hindu is better than Islam or the Hindis are better than Muslims in terms of quality).

I even think that Mr Brooks could use Indonesia as the featured country. Muslims dominate the population here, though. Or maybe he could try Saudi Arabia, or maybe Iran.

Anyway, the movie implicitly suggested how the intelligence of both India and Pakistan got themselves easily suspicious of each other that troops buildup could easily triggered along the borderline of both countries. From India to Pakistan (illegally), and then to Al-Jazeera's office, this smelled like the trail of Osama (excluding Afghanistan, though).

Now let's get back to the title of this post. Speaking of laughing, I doubt that Mr Brooks' movie could make me laugh enough. What can make me laugh? Well, a Seinfeld episode could make me laugh, as well as a Looney Tunes episode. I laugh at Little Britain, at Douglas Adams' books, at Love, Actually. Yeah, I am quite interested in British comedies. They have different flavors than their American counterparts. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, but not Swept Away, could make me laugh. British jokes are sometimes self-degrading, yet smart. I could hardly find such quality comedies in American movies nowadays (or maybe I wasn't trying hard enough?).

So, in the end, the world is indeed needs to learn to laugh at itself and stop behaving too seriously, especially during this provocative era.

Well, got to go now. Will write again later.

The Baptism, The Veil, and The Video

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 03:10:00 +0000

Glad to be back blogging. Been busy for quite some time.

Three recent issues drew my interest:

Do the unbaptized babies go to heaven and escaped limbo? The issue was a rather low-profile one than the other issue that will be discussed later.

I don't think being baptized or not will be God's only basis for judging whether a soul is worthy for a place in heaven. The unbaptized babies in this discussion are the ones who died before being able to receive baptism. The question may be that whether they deserve a place in heaven. Well, why not? Why do those poor souls deserve a place in limbo? They didn't have any sins other than the "original sin". I also think that everyone inherit the "original sin" unwillingly. Blame it on the first two if you want.
Besides, I believe that God is surely wise enough not to be so rigid with His judgements on humans. If those who repent are spared, how come the innocents not? Also, whether people go to heaven or hell, it will be His decision, not ours.
I'm not saying that baptisms are not necessary, but seeing it as the prime requirement to attain a place up there in heaven is the one view which is not necessary. This is just my opinion.
I used to feel uneasy whenever I hear people telling others that they are bad and will go to hell, or that they do things inapproriate to God's will. I mean, let Him judges and decides later on on someone's fate. That saying, I don't think death penalty is necessary. Who are we to determine someone's end of life? But that'll be another story.
So, essentially, the thought that the souls of unbaptized dead babies are stuck in limbo is somewhat ridiculous to me. Our original sins were inherited, not committed. Our responsibility should be to live our lives well and to be humans as God intended us to be.

What about the second issue? This one has been a high-profile.

Surely, Mr Jack Straw had sparked a heated debate over the veil worn by Muslim women.
Similar religion-related issue occured in France a few years ago when the government banned the religious symbols. One of the laws was to ban headscarves from schools, but not universities and Muslim schools.

Straw's suggestion that the veil is to be removed was said to be for the sake of the cultural integration in UK. So far, some people considered that tolerance which supposed to be to support cultural differences and to avoid racial & cultural discrimination had been actually promoting segregation.

I don't think that wearing religious symbols would mean that we are distancing away from the community. People can do that without wearing such symbols. And would veil removal ensure integration? Integration can be achieved without banning symbols. It is more important to achieve integration through nationalism instead of prohibiting people wearing religious symbols. It is not important whether someone is wearing any religous symbols or not, but it is very much important that everyone holds a spirit of togetherness and nationalism in his/her heart everyday regardless what his/her faith/religion is.

Thus, if Mr Straw is worried about the community being segregated, I think he looked at the wrong direction. He should look on how to make every UK citizen, regardless of his/her faith, to be proud of being British. Such ban practiced in France, in my opinion, is somewhat unnecessary.

Another problem may also be brewing in Denmark after a tv station broadcast a video showing a contest on the best caricature of the Prophet Mohammed organised by the youth group of the right-wing Danish People's Party (PDD). I don't think such thing is appropriate at all. Doing it is one thing, but broadcasting it is another. If this kind of thing keeps on happening in the near future, one could only wonder when the patience of the Muslim world will last. Especially after Israel's move towards Lebanon, Pope's loose lips, and Mr Straw's comment. I mean, some people are pushing their luck too far.

Well, another weekend here. Will spend another one watching DVDs. See ya later.

Annoying Ads

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 03:25:00 +0000

Have you ever bumped across an ad while watching TV? Well, I have. Sometimes there are ads which are of short duration, about 5-10 seconds. These ads were popping 2-4 times in a row. I mean, what do the advertisers think about the audience? A bunch of deaf people? If they are afraid that the audience will miss the ad, just make one a bit longer.

Bombarding the audience with such ads actually a proof of incompetence. I feel like listening to a person who repeats the same thing 2-4 times in a row. "Here, buy this!", "Here, buy this!", "Here, buy this!", "Here, buy this!". I feel like being treated as being deaf.

There were other times when I saw ads that trying to lecture the audience about chemistry. "This product contains substance X, substance Y, and substance Z." Well, not everyone watching the ad actually know what substance X, Y, and Z are. Maybe they are not useful after all. But then again, they may be useful. Who knows? Anyhow, somewhat trying to be a chemistry smart-ass in front of the audience does really annoying me. I feel like taking chemistry 101.

The best ad is the one that do not try to explicity outsmart the audience. It should be interesting enough to make the ad easier to memorize.

That's all for now.

From Vegas to Miami

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:47:00 +0000

I’ve completed watching the sixth season of CSI, and now in to the series’ spin-off, CSI: Miami. It’s pretty interesting to note that unlike the Vegas chief, Grissom, Horatio Caine seems to be taking most, if not all, of the cases somewhat personally. Grissom, in my opinion, was more interested in the puzzles rather than the victims. Solve and move on. Caine, in the early episodes of the season, was somewhat taking them rather personally. Also, while there were mostly multi-cases style in Vegas series, Miami series so far limited the number of cases per episode. Caine, unlike Grissom, seemed to be more active. Rather than completely delegating cases to his crew, he usually jumped into the fray himself. Maybe because of the single-case style of the series. While Grissom indirectly nurtured his crew to become better CSIs, Caine didn’t display such thing so far. It’s too early to vote for the value of the Miami series, but I may have the picture when I complete the first season.

Net Age

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:44:00 +0000

I saw a show on BBC today. It's about technological stuffs. The presenter said something interesting. A rhetoric, actually. TV is dead, long live the internet? Well, that statement will be true in the not too distant future. The cyberspace is some sort of a final frontier. It is mindbogglingly huge, and still there are uncharted space out there.

It could substitute many things. You can read on-line instead of sitting in the library, you can learn on-line instead of sitting in the classroom. You can meet people on-line instead of travelling to faraway places. You can watch TV shows on the internet. You don't need to go to the post office anymore because you have your e-mail account. Net banking also allows you to pay the bills on-line. You can do shopping on-line too, avoiding hours of traffic jam.

Many things maybe considered as endangered stuffs right now. Newspapers, magazines, books, stamps, even schools. Despite maybe some if not a lot of people will argue my opinion, those stuffs are counting their days.

Internet is also addictive. One click leads to another which leads to another and so on. You chat, browse, watch movies, download stuffs, write your blog, shopping, and suddenly it's been a full 24 hours spent in front of the LCD.

Anyways, it's weekend again. Will complete the final disc of CSI season 6 and move on to the Miami spinoff.

See ya later.

BoB

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:52:00 +0000

Band of Brothers is my favorite war movie. The series tells the journey of the Easy Company throughout WW II. Anyone who hasn't watch the movie ought to watch it. You could feel, in the end of the series, how the men from the E company were transformed from their early days in Currahee, a group of inexperienced soldiers, into a group of veterans.

The series also indirectly tells me that true leadership is innate. Sure, you can learn leadership, assuming you don't have one before, but essentially, true leaders are born, not made.

Richard Winters from the E company, as shown in the movie, didn't have to go to seminars to learn leadership. Perhaps, most, if not all of his actions, displayed leadership. Leaders lead in the frontline, not barking orders in the back. Leaders share pains and gains with their followers. True leaders have followers that are, perhaps, willingly journey through hell and back.

It is unfortunate that nowadays, in my country, those who called themselves leaders are nothing but a bunch of goons. Leaders don't need self-acknowledgement. People will willingly respect them without being asked to. With lack of leaders like now, I wonder if my country really has a future...

See ya later!

Building Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:28:00 +0000

I'm working on a new blog, but it will be specifically discuss matters regarding trading in the foreign exchange market. Done creating the bits, but will add some links to it later. I'll tell you all when it's ready. I hope I can be active again in analyzing the market. It's been quite a while. I even feel that my mind's getting dull.

See ya later.

Oh, by the way, the Pope apologized. But as always, there're some who just couldn't get enough.

Missing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 10:42:00 +0000

Spent the weekend watching CSI again, as usual. Felt upset about the DVD, though. The cover said: The Complete Fifth Season, but the season finale is not there. Now I have to hunt in the cyberspace to find Grave Danger. The same also happened with the Season 2 set. It was worse, actually. Season 2 only had half of the total episodes there. It supposedly 8 discs, but it was only a 4-disc set. So far, the storyline keeps up its quality. One of the episodes, 4x4, used a unique way to tell its stories. Too bad about Grave Danger, because I really eager to watch Quentin Tarantino's work on that one. Anyway, I hope I could watch it later on, when I could find it. It's work week again tomorrow. Surely there's some loose ends to tie up early next week.

Loose Lips or Overreaction?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 02:48:00 +0000

Pope's recent remark had triggered a pandemonium across most of the Muslim world. On one side, the remark was considered as being misinterpreted and that the Pope didn't mean to say what the protesters thought he would've meant. On the other side, the protesters demanded an apology straight from the Pope's mouth (not through his spokesman) regarding the remark.

Considering the current temperature in the relationship between the Muslim world and the West, especially after the Israeli army ran rampant into the Lebanese territory in the quest to root out the Hizbollah militants (unfortunately for the Israelis, the attempt didn't seem to be successful), Pope should've been cautious in picking his words.

So far in Indonesia there has been no uproar. But, I assure you, it's just a matter of time before demonstrations break out here. The frequent-demonstrators will surely have their field day on this matter. Let me guess, aside from demanding an apology, a "seemingly absurd" demand from them would be to cut ties with Vatican. Ohhh it's sooo predictable. I hope I'm wrong on this, though. The traffic could be jammed on these protesters.

Here's the link to the news in Reuters's site.

What would be the price to pay for the remark? I surely don't want to imagine the answer, though.