Friday, May 31, 2002

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was much better than Star Wars: The Phantom Menance. The script was still pretty corny and filled with dialog trying to inject a little humour into the film but it wasn't as bad as Episode 1. Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker was just a tinge better than the little boy who played Anakin. Actually, I can't say that I like Anakin at all. It's no wonder he went bad. So, whiny. What in the world does Padme see in him? His good looks? His incredible potential of being the greatest Jedi ... ever?

Eesh! For lack of a better sentence, he sucks!

Funny parts, ... Padme running through the fields of Naboo. Looks like a scene from The Sound of Music. I can just imagine her bursting out in song. My sister couldn't stop laughing when we were watching that part and I sang (silently), 'The hills are alive, with the sound of music'. :)

Next up, after Ani found his kidnapped mother and she was lying there dying, she went 'I love ... *cough* *choke* ... I love'. Aunty Kool, sis S and I completed it with char kuey teow, chocolates and laksa, respectively. Don't know why we can't all feel sad and serious about that whole scene. Why do we find it funny? We're just plain cruel and unfeeling people. That or the scene wasn't convincing?

Throughly enjoyable film though. Wouldn't mind watching it again although I didn't like a lot of things in it. Probably the things that I did like made it bearable. Padme's wardrobe, gorgeous Naboo, Ewan McGregor ...

Wednesday, May 29, 2002

The drive back from Penang to Kuala Lumpur was less torturous than the drive there. Mainly cause everyone else has gone back to work on today (Tuesday) after the long weekend. Managed to have my assam laksa, my durians up in the hill, and some (all of 45 minutes) sun bathing done. Made myself sick by eating too much. Cor! What torture. I didn't know overeating can cause such pain. Felt dizzy, was sweating and even threw up a little. Felt better after the purging though. All of this plus some time for packing and cleaning up the apartment took till about 3.35pm before we left for the cemetary to place flowers on my grandfather and greatgrandparents's graves. Was feeling better by that time although I could still feel the food in my stomach.

Black sheep sister was suppose to meet up with us, she was staying with friends, but she didn't show until we were in our cars and getting ready to leave. She went with brother and company for lok-lok (raw/pre-cooked food on sticks sold from a van which provides pots with boiling water in which you cook the food) while the rest of us left straight for KL. Bought some guavas and mangoes on the way back but besides that, it was a smooth non-stop ride back. Slept most of the way. Managed to influence Aunty Cool into listening to Josh Groban. She likes. :)

Monday, May 27, 2002

On holiday

Hey, hey. I'm on holiday. In Penang. The drive there was so long. Originally, the drive up north was suppose to take only 4 hours but this beeing a long weekend, Awal Muharram on Saturday and Wesak Day on Sunday with a Monday holiday, the traffic was attrocious. At every toll on the highway, there was a massive jam. Every toll! Therefore in the end we got to Penang at 7pm. EDT was Saturday 11am.

We're staying at my dad's friend's apartment which has an incredible view of the sea. The apartment is of a good size; three bedrooms, a large hall fully equiped with television and a radio, a small kitchen with no stove, and two bathrooms. Nice. :) There's also a gymnasium downstairs (the apartment's at the 14th floor) and two swimming pools.

Didn't do much yet this trip. Basically just lazed around at the apartment watching DVDs. Saw Zoolander and Ocean's Eleven this morning and half of Lord of the Rings last night. Did a bit of swimming this evening as well ... all of 20 minutes I think. Heh heh ... not a lot. Haven't been to the beach yet, haven't done any sun bathing, haven't had my assam laksa from my favourite assam laksa stall in air hitam ... haven't done much of anything!

Did go to Gurney Plaza this evening though. Visited British India Home, it's a shop, to check if they still have the purple bedsheet that I wanted to buy but didn't about six months ago. Nope. Not there anymore. Serves me right. The rest, sister, brother, aunts and dad, bought some clothing from F.O.S. (the visiting aunts from UK's fave shopping outlet).

Staying at my Penang aunt's place now cause I need internet connection. I have an article for adequacy that I needed to send out.

Right now at this very moment, am waiting for the JDK to finish downloading. *sigh* only 11% done. 89% more to go. It's gonna be a long night.

See, I promised my colleague that I'd work on the e-mail module that he needed over my holidays (I took the whole of this week off!). So, to be able to do that, I'd need a network connection to test the module. My PC doesn't have a modem at the moment so I need to install the JDK and other modules to do my work on my dad's laptop. It has internal modem.

So, here I am now. Waiting for the thing to download. *sigh*

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

"Why are you going shopping have you forgotten that you're a man?"

That's the first line of a radio commercial for a local hotel cafe.

As Cher Horowitz in Clueless would say ... AS IF!

If that sentence have any semblance of truth in it, all single men would be walking around stark naked and starved to death after they've move out of momma's house. That's assuming the man's wife/girlfriend does his shopping for him and feeds him. Well, the stark naked thing might prove interesting watch for us ladies and same interest males if those men took care of their bodies. ;)
Christof Lauer & Jens Thomas: A Review

Christof Lauer - "One of the most important saxophonists on the European jazz scene and a "musician's musician"!
Jens Thomas - "The Jimi Hendrix of the piano"!

That's what's written in the flyer that was handed to me on entering the music hall of the Asian European Institute at University Malaya. Earlier that day, I had managed to scan through an article in The Star about the duo prior to dashing off for work.

Remind me to never believe anything said in print! If I read something and tell go, "Hmmm ... this sounds interesting. Wanna go?" Just give me a hard smack at the back of my head.

A more wasted evening I have never know, this one's almost as bad as the 4 Men and a Woman dance drama I saw, I think, two years ago. All this creative improvisation things just doesn't suit my palate. It's either I'm terribly dense (a huge possiblity) or the music was that bad!

The duo did their rendition of Sting tunes. Starting off with Roxanne, followed by a piece written by Mr. Thomas, Synchronicity #2, another Thomas creation, Every Breath You Take, Dar (Thomas original), Desert Rose, Synchronicity #1 and the encore 'Be With You" or was that "Be With Me". All in all totally unlistenable except for maybe Dar and the encore piece where there is a hints of melody them.

I only recognised Roxanne because while waiting for the start of the performance, I read the handout given at the door which stated that they did a CD covering Sting songs. Therefore, I was looking/listening hard to try and recognise the song. The part of the song that goes "Roxanne", for those that are familiar with the song, was the only recognisable part. The other part was a bunch of Thomas banging wooden on the interior of the baby grand and plucking at the piano strings. Oh yes. I feel asleep in the middle of the first song.

Every Breath You Take fared better in that the tune was quite recognisable, although not completely, and there was less sections where Thomas started playing with the innards again. Desert Rose was absolutely not in evidence except for maybe twenty seconds almost towards the end of the song. As for Jen Thomas originals, most of the were a bunch of banging on the piano, banging on the inside of the piano and fast finger works and excellent breathing technique by Mr. Lauer. All of which culminates to a bunch of noise.

Saving grace of the evening would be that the duo are actually excellent musicians. You can hear the incredible piano playing of Thomas which reminded me in parts to the song 'Study for Three Hands' by Ennio Morricone for the movie 'Legend of 1900'. Lauer plays a mean sax and the tremoloes? that he does sounds simply out of this world. The duo should really start writing that includes more rhythmic melodies instead of experimenting with banging which lays their talent to waste.

Anyway, it seems that there are people who actually likes this sort of music. After their last piece, as I was aching to get out the hall as soon as I can, some guy behind me cried out for an encore and the duo obliged. Shoot! Stuck for another song! Later getting out of the hall, I actually saw people buying their CDs. I was about to yell, 'You freaking pretensious freaks! A baby could make those noise. Want me to gather some kids together?!". That and I was trying had to suppress my disbelief of the people around me.

Getting into the car, switching on the radio, the familiar soothing melodious tune of 'Truly Madly Deeply' was a much needed reprieve. God bless the radio. God bless commercialism!

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Hurrah! Just went to the photo shop to collect the roll of film I sent in yesterday evening. They all came out. I wasn't sure they would cause that roll has been in the camera for more than two months.

The pictures came out great. Well, not all are great. The one I took of Miguel Ayesa signing my program is though. I'm such a great photographer. Haha ... self praise. :)

Right. Now, to get my hands on a scanner then I can place some of the pictures I took of the F1 race at Sepang, me in my latin competition costume and the pictures with the cast of FAME.

Monday, May 20, 2002

Gosh! It's been a week since my last blog. This is turning out to be more of a weekly entry instead of the original daily entry.

Anyway, not much happened last week, which was probably why I didn't make any entry in here. Monday is much the same as most of my Mondays, work and then choir practise in the evening. However, prior to practise, I met up with a guy, Ram, at San Francisco? Starbucks? who's searching for people to make up a band. He's already in a band and is looking to have a sideband. I told him I could sing. Did a three liner of Letters To Cleo's I Want You To Want Me. He thinks I can sing. So, yay. I might be in a band. Haha ... so teenagerish.

As for Tuesday, the choir committee had a meeting. The tentative date for the press blitz of our Opera Di Tutti Frutti performance is Monday June 3. More talk about posters and postcards and programs. There isn't much that I'm assigned to for these issue. However, there are plans for an after show party after the performance. That would be where I come in.

The rest of the week was just work. Then on Saturday, went to watch Ram's band jam. They're pretty good. Sounded better live than on their home made CD recording.

Later that day, I went to stalk the cast of FAME to sign my program after their matinee show. Very successfull outing. I managed to get almost everyone's signature. Only one missing, Leah's. I heard she has a twisted/busted ankle so she wasn't at Istana Budaya (the venue). They're all so very nice. Especially Miguel Ayesa. Deonne Zanotto got overly excited when I asked her to sign my CHICAGO program. She was in that show as well about a year and a half ago. In fact, everyone got excited over the CHICAGO program. All of them poured over it like they've never seen it before.

That was great! Of course, I had to go back after their evening show cause I didn't manage to get them all after the matinee. Had to miss the second half of the BBC Proms being relayed live over the KLCC park to go back but I'm glad I did. Otherwise I'd have to go back into the city the next day. Don't want to do that if I don't have to.

Fab! Fab! Fab! Can't wait to get the pictures developed. Hope they all come out well. I'll have them scanned and the posted after I do.

Monday, May 13, 2002

Still slightly buzzing from watching FAME - The Musical last night. The energy. The enthusiasm. It's incredible.

Reminds me so much why I wanted to have a career in music theatre when I was young. Of course now, older and jaded, I don't believe that dream will ever, ever come true anymore. Should it ever materialise however, THAT'S the sort of musical I'd like to be in.

Back to FAME. Great voices and great dancing. Maria Mercedes's voice is just incredible. So powerful and rich. Besides her, I also like Simon Gleeson's voice. Dance wise, I like Deonne Zanotto aka Carmen Diaz. She can really dance! Wow!

I usually look among the supporting dancers in musicals such as these for that one person with that extra presence, that extra bounce that catches my eyes. Sometime I see it and sometimes I don't. This time, that person is Kane Bonke. He just seemed to have the extra bounce to his steps. My eyes were trained only at him from the moment I spotted him. Very arresting. Later, I saw him and some of the other dancers at the side exit while on my way to the car.

Darn! Where's my pen when I needed one?!

I might go back one day just to wait for them to come out so that they can sign my program. Hopefully will be able to catch Maria Mercedes and get her to sign my Chicago program. Just realised she played Mama Morton in the Chicago musical that I saw in Singapore two years ago. Oh! And Deonne Zanotto as well, she was one of the dancers in the Chicago production.

One of my friends asked me whether musicals with Malaysian cast will ever be at this standards. Pessimistically, I said no. If you'd just read the bios of the cast in the program, you'll see that these people have been dancing/acting/singing since they were practically toddles. Most performers in Malaysia seem to have cultivated an interest only when they are in their teenage years or adulthood. How can you compete with years and years of training? Dancers, maybe cause people do place their children in dance classes although they do not really encourage their children to grow up to become a dancer ... or maybe that was just my parents?

Friday, May 10, 2002

I'm currently in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer crave. Have been pouring through various Buffy sites reading spoilers and fanfics.

Spike is yummy. I think it due to his bad boy image and British accent. I've always been a sucker for accents. Aussie, British ... whatever. Found some gorgeous Spike wallpapers and WinAmp skins. Didn't download the wallpaper cause I still like the idea of a calendar for wallpaper (I have the whole set of LOTR calendar wallpapers). Might change the wallpaper for the PC at home, maybe.

Wednesday, May 08, 2002

This is so funny/odd. Last night, I stayed up watching a slew of Sex & the City episodes till the wee hours of this morning. I think it was about 2.30am when I finally went to sleep. Astro was having a Marathon Sex & the City thang prior to airing the new season ... or at least I hope they're gonna air the new season. Aidan is so sweet. Such a perfect boyfriend. Yum.

Anyway the weird thing is that I usually dread waking up and will postpone waking for almost an hour after my alarm rings. But this morning, I didn't mind. Felt like I had enough sleep but I actually had less. My usual sleep hour is about 12.30am. Why's that? Was yesterday's weather more condusive for deeper sleep and therefore resulting in me feeling more refreshed this morning? Or is my required hours of sleep less than the norm?

I have heard/read that each person have their own amount of hours that they require for a good sleep. Too much and you'd feel groggy and too little, ... well, sleepy.

So, should I start experimenting sleeping later and getting up earlier?

Monday, May 06, 2002

Oh, on Saturday, I shifted the furniture a little. I've moved my be so that the side of the bed is against the wall instead of the headboard. Ever since that day (which is two days ago), I haven't woken up on time. I almost missed dance practise on Saturday and work today, if it hadn't been for my mom. Maybe the change was bad feng shui. Or something cause this morning I woke up feeling sickly.

Slight throbbing in the head, achy shoulders. Felt like skipping work actually but didn't think I was sick enough. Skipped choir practice though. Spent the extra hours watching Malena. It's great. I'm convinced that any film of the Giusseppe Tornatore and Ennio Morricone collaboration is good.
Saturday: Spent the whole day in KLCC. It's the monthly credit card paying outing. Every month, I'd go pay my credit card in the city. After dropping in the fast cash deposit envelop (this takes about 5 seconds), I'd take the 10 minutes walk to KLCC. Then hang around there till about 6/7pm when it's time to go home for dinner.

This trip was pretty good. I managed to get some design work done; not much but better than nothing. Sad, isn't it? Working at a shopping mall? I meant, when you're suppose to be there to enjoy the shopping experience, not when you're hired to work in the shops. But I think it's great. Away from the distraction of the telly and internet, I managed to get things done. Plus, I don't look so stupid sitting at Dome's alone waiting for my ordersto arrive and starring at people all around. Actually, I love people watching. However, I'd like to watch from a corner, where nobody know's I'm watching. People watching is great fun.

Okay, besides working, I actually got myself a pair of heels from Vincci; a black strappy concoction of about 3 inches high. Have been looking to buy a pair of heels forever. Something with ankle holds so that I don't have to worry about my shoes flying when I go dancing. Then, forked out RM62 buck for the April and May copy of Wired.

Watched Blade 2 on VCD. What a let down! I absolutely enjoyed Blade but Blade 2 was a dissappointment. Not much of a storyline just a lot of slashing. Bleargh!

Sunday: Dance practise and class as usual in the morning. Minor change to the cha-cha routine. Changed from a Natural Top and hip twist to lots of spins. Minor stuff. Nicer I think. I never did like Natural Tops.

Watched Vatel on DVD in the afternoon. My DVD copy's kinda screwed! Lips and sound does not synchronise. Quite distracting actually. That aside, it was a pretty nice movie. Amazing what they go through just to gain the favours of the King. My favourite actor, Tim Roth, didn't get enough screen time but that's mostly cause his role is just that, small. Very much like his other villainny roles which he seems to excel at. He's deliciously bad.

Later in the afternoon, watched the Keanu Reeves film 'Hardball'. Feel good movie, sad ending and wooden acting by Mr. Cool Breeze. The kids were great though and Keanu's got a great smile when he so chooses to display it.

Gilmore Girls @ 10pm. This is the episode where Rory's dad Christopher came back for a visit. The guy playing Christopher reminds me a lot of Cameron Daddo, who I first saw as a photographer in Aaron Spelling's Model's Inc. Cute. As usual, lots of laugh in this episode, thoroughly enjoyable.

Thursday, May 02, 2002

Possible Breakdown

Near miss on Tuesday; almost knocked down a motorcyclist when he was coming out of a junction. This happened when I was on my way home, just a few more meters away from my house. I stand firm that this incident is in no way my fault. I had the right of way. It was clearly my road. I was going straight. He was coming out of a junction. He didn't seem to be watching where he was going, seemed to be staring up the hill on his left. He didn't even pause at the junction!

Fortunately for him, I saw him nearing the junction. I was going 30km/per. I managed to break in time. I saw him put up his hand in apology. Had he not done this, I might have wound down my window and screamed and yelled at him like a fisherman's wife (no offence to all the fisherman's spouses, tis just a common phrase I've seen used).

Labour Day today is depressing.

Met up with Shawn for lunch. Haven't seen him for quite awhile now. Last time I talked to him, he was working in Singapore. He's back for good now. New job. Now here's the depressing part, at least for me. They are going to pay him RM5500 a month! That's almost double my salary. I've worked almost the same amount of years and I'm earning chicken feed. Is the pay for a Software Developer and a consultant so vastly different?

Plus, I just realised that I'm close to having a breakdown with regards to my work. I don't know what I'm doing, I have to develop a product, I have to lead a project as well as design and code the bloody thing and I find that I don't have time to do all this at the same time and keep up my schedule of dancing and singing.

I'm not, however, prepared to give up those leisure activities cause if I do, I think I'd go mad. I know me and if I don't do those, I'd just be sitting in front of the telly and not doing any work anyway.

I need to focus more on work I think. Put more importance on what I have to do and not just doing it for the pay. Need more passion for work.

Therein lies the problem. I just can't seem to feel passionate for it.

P&P said that I should take time to think about what I want to do. Do you want to continue in the computing line? Do you have something else you'd rather be doing? Do you have any idea what I want to do? Should you pursue your interested in dance & song?

I don't know. Nothing that I know of at this moment. No. No cause I know that I'm not extremely talented in those and those things just can't support my lifestyle.

What do I want? If I quit the computing line, I can't think of anything else that I am capable of doing.

First step - Tomorrow (or in a few hours time), I plan to lock myself in the meeting room and think up the design for the project. I hope that this will at least map out what there is to do for the project so that I can distribute parts of the development to the others. Maybe after that, I won't feel like it's such a big thing.

Then, I can see if I can make time to extend the email module that TL's been pestering me about. If I feel that I can't, I will just have to tell him that I can't at the moment but if he needs it, he can always look into Java Mail and do it himself. I wrote the bloody module a year ago so I'd probably have to relook the Java Mail APIs again anyway.

Hope this works. My plans never seem to work. Most probably cause I tend to postpone anything serious and unpleasant eg. actual work.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails