Another post for Pam Song a.k.a. Aston Martin aficionado.
First post which led to ‘best-buddish-bonds‘ is here. Heh!
God bless!
Filed under: Movies
The short of the long is that it’s good to talk about but not a very enjoyable movie to be sitting and watching.
It is well spaced, giving you time to breathe in between hectic scenes of destruction & disaster but somehow it just didn’t do it for me.
“Full” review at my Debate Movies corner… 
God bless!
Filed under: Movies
So I treated my eyes to an early Christmas present. A screening of “Avatar” in 3D. Yahoo!
No one whom I know or heard of had said that this movie was bad. Not a single person. So when a movie has such ‘rave reviews’ (noting that when someone say its good means its good and not great/perfect/excellent/unflawed/not cliche) there’s only one conclusion; that every single person has someone who they can relate to in the movie. To me, that’s the definition of a ‘good’ movie.
Sometimes people hide it by saying that the movie was great or the script was good or there was nice cinematography, but at the end of the day a ‘good’ movie is a vehicle for you to escape into a fantasy you already have pre-determined in your mind and with that live it out for the next 2 hours or so (or in Avatar’s case it was 3) & so when you finally come out of that movie mode, you say to yourself and the people around you, it’s a ‘good’ movie. Unless of course you critic movies for a living or an actor/actress/producer/cameraman/sound guy/scriptwriter/director yourself; then the technical aspects will get to you more.
But anyhow, having being paid for my movie critic-ness before, I would always love to think that I belong in the second category. Maybe because I can see through scripts and what they are trying to portray or its because too many storylines have the same cliches? I’m not sure; I might be wrong, there might be things which are meant to be as clear as daylight but to me I thought that the moviemakers might have wanted to keep it subtle or vice versa.
Anyhoo, “Avatar” was ‘good’ for me because of the very nature of the realm that you are being transported into. The visual effects of the entire movie was nothing short of amazing. There were almost no flaws. Even if it had, they gaussian blurred it and lighted away the mistakes/hard bits. I particularly loved the scene where there was sunset back lighting; it is already so difficult to do naturally and to be able to pull it off in CGI is nothing short of amazing (read painstaking and expensive).
The storyline was good and if you read into it could be a metaphor for a whole array of things. I’ve come up with one how during work you can be a completely different person then when you’re out with your say your close friends… Or you could just be WoW player; with a ‘real’ avatar in the game… Basically anything that empowers you to feel more powerful than you actually really are in real life; and believe you me, EVERY one has a ‘thing’.
I guess all in all the 3D aspect of the movie made it, excuse the pun, pop. This poor girl sitting next to me was freaking out and everything when the birds came flying out at her. Gone are the days of red and green glasses, apparently now they use polarizing filters on the glasses to achieve the same effect. It was cool though and definitely made the movie more memorable.
Watch it for the excitement, adrenaline, stunning graphics and forgive the at times predictable storyline and you will surely be left wanting for more.
4.5 out of 5 stars!
God bless!
When life takes you into a very long and often dark hole, people always revert to things that make themselves feel better.
Be it spending money, shopping (gaining material things), or elevating yourself and having internal conversations which make yourself feel better and then out of this often misplaced confidence linking to behaviour which puts people down (to elevate your own status).
This is somewhat ‘normal’ in today’s society. I see it a lot at work its usually the insecure people which cause the most dramas; little things will tick them off and if they don’t get their way, they whine and want to ‘complain’ to a more senior manager. This is all good unless the senior manager takes the side of the employee which further infuriates the customer/client and then they leave red-faced. But the thing is everyone wants to be heard and everyone will want to cause a ruckus to cover their already sensitive state of mind/emotions, insecurities and to deflect attention from the real issue.
Usually lots of things are said and its the reason behind those words and actions that need deciphering; not the words and actions itself. We live in a complicated world and people have a whole array of backgrounds. Some poor, some rich, some marginalised, some included, some good-looking and still others not quite.
But is it wrong to derive a sense of self-worth from all these things? These crutches? A whole array of people have crutches which prop them up in life, cars, houses, your net worth, family, friends; that’s why I think that the best people in life are the homeless. They have nothing to rely on but truly themselves, no possessions to feel good about themselves about and no solid goals or objectives to keep them going. They are just being themselves; but even then they could rely on being homeless as an identity.
I don’t know, my Dad always brought us up to be humble and not have a big head and I think he’s brought me up fine that way. It’s the truly confident and secure that do not need to shout and whine and cause a ruckus because honestly that will only let people see through you even more easily. If you are rich, there’s definitely going to be people who are richer than you and if you’re smart, there’s always someone smarter than you. It’s an endless cycle of up and down, above and below, that’s the hierarchy and nature of the human race.
Whatever your crutch is, I just ask you to examine it, be it your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/family/children/friends/career/possessions. Imagine your life without these things and if a tinge of sadness/hopelessness comes across you when you imagine life without it, maybe, just maybe you need to rethink your priorities and see if you can run the race without crutches.
Obviously being a Christian, my crutch is always and only going to be God. He is the only crutch that will get me through because He is God. All powerful, omnipresent, Creator of The Universe, all-loving God. He is immovable, indisputable and most importantly not going to disappear and crumble like other crutches. Wow!
God bless!
This song popped up in my playlist just as I got back from the dentist. Don’t we have that moment sometimes? When you come back from something or are feeling something and then a song pops up and describes EXACTLY how you are feeling? Coincident much? I don’t know… Suppose a statistician would come up with the probability of that happening; I’m sure it would be small. But it happens.
Anyway, I visited Strathfield Dental Clinic today; wasn’t thinking much besides the fact that my friend, Claire’s a dentist there and I wanted to get rid of my annoying wisdom tooth for a while now. The girlfriend just had hers removed last week and besides the healing process, I figure the whole thing was do-able. 
I did check it when I went back sometime last year but the dentist then (a family friend) advised me not to go through with surgery because I was flying back to Sydney/Singapore in a few days time. She just advised that the area be kept clean, which I have and lately that gap has gotten tighter and tighter making cleaning harder than it used to be.
OK, so this is what I thought of wisdom tooth removal before today. Those who have gone before me have said “I removed my wisdom tooth last week and I swelled up and bruised a little bit” and “I bit on the gauze to stop the bleeding” or words to that effect. Nobody told me that wisdom teeth can grow so near to nerves that that’s the primary reason they refer you to an oral surgeon. A normal tooth extraction is cheap but its when you get ‘upgraded’ to an oral surgeon that that’s where the costs start to soar. Cutting around bone (your teeth are attached to your jaw bones) and ‘making room’ so that they don’t severe your nerve. This nerve which usually runs down your jawline affects your lips and gum area. So another friendly dentist at Strathfield Dental Centre today told me you could lose feeling of your lips and then can’t feel an ulcer. The ulcer then turns into something serious and your gums start to go, etc etc. He was direct of course, as all doctors are, and I balked slightly, just slightly, enough to let him know, “OK, it’s time for you to say something positive”; he picked that up of course and said, “Oh, it only happens to one in a hundred thousand people” and we proceeded to change the subject.
So back to the thing, after having my X-Ray done (which lasted for 15 seconds); I could see my the x-ray of my oral orifice on an LCD screen IMMEDIATELY; I pity recent graduates of radiography; maybe you should’ve just taken a Photoshop course or design course ha! *slight balk* But anyway, I’m sure radiography goes deeper than this.
So I’ve got all four wisdom teeth and my top ones are looking OK. My bottom two ones are the problematic ones, my right one is vertically impacting and my left one hasn’t erupted yet being blocked by the maxillae next to it. Anyway, so I was focusing on my vertically impacting tooth because to me that’s obviously the ‘odd one out’ in my dento-gram but its almost touching a nerve and the dentists doesn’t seem to keen on removing it. They asked me if it was sore or anything and I just said I have a tight feeling in my teeth and they advised me to remove the top tooth instead so it won’t be pushing down on my impacting tooth. And it’s an easy job apparently. The left side is an easy job also and having that removed will probably free up my teeth a little bit.
So, the point of this blog is a lot of people going for professional help seem to know what the problem is with themselves/family/friends but post-consultation will have an outcome that might just be completely different to what they expect; especially with health and surgery-related options. The body is a complicated thing and what we think we know may not necessarily outweigh the risks in doing what you think is right. Obviously, with years these professionals have seen what their actions (and the actions of others) have come up with and I guess that’s why people tend to want second or third opinions. Professionals are trained to believe in themselves and drawing from their education and experience come up with a solution for their patients. Obviously this ‘cloud’ of experience following said professional will always be different.
I guess Claire was right when she told me last week that no one knows what to tell you until you get that x-ray done. Now its all clear and my options clear to me; I would need to weigh this out and think it over; my priorities have been changed. But then again, obviously if money (AUD4000 for oral surgeon!) and time (recovery period) were no problem, I would get what I wanted. But that’s life isn’t it? A constant triangular shaped battle of what we really want versus time versus money.
Thoughts? Comments?
God bless!
So today 3 (three.com.au) won.
I have stuck with Optus for so many years mainly because we had the Optus 20 minute free call time. It used to be from 8pm-8am I believe then 8pm-12am. Sok Leng and I have had many “timed” conversations where we would hang up after 20 minutes and chat again. I do that with a few other friends too but as the years passed and we’ve gone from ultra-free uni students who love to chat to busy young adults carving out our niche in the world, long conversations seem a distant past.
But I haven’t really had any problems with Optus. There was this phase where they kept calling me offering a new plan months before my previous plan ended but they just went shy on offering me the then new iPhone. That’s where I got irritated; anyone could have seen through that ploy. Lock you in for 24 months just before the darling of smartphones would be released and earn twice your money once you cannot resist the temptation to ACQUIRE the iPhone, OUTRIGHT or on a hefty plan change fee.
The iPhone was released and the calls immediately ceased. My plan was laid to rest last month. I thought it would just continue and be the same way; if it were that way; 3 wouldn’t have won me over as a new customer today.
Last month, my plan ended and subsequently, without my knowledge, Optus silently charged ALL my international SMSes, excluding them from my “plan”. Which was automatically reverted back to a “no-nonsense” plan but with the same name! I knew that my plan was ending but chose to ignore it thinking it will just be the same plan. But no, I was charged for ALL my international SMSes; which is obviously a lot being in a long distance relationship.
That was the last straw; Optus is infamous for confusing bills, workarounds and confusing plan names and “opt-out/opt-in” options instead of being defaults. So six years of loyalty to Optus has evaporated. My friend also commented few weeks back when he switched to Vodafone that loyalty to Optus didn’t mean a thing to them. The silent majority would be like what I would have been if this international SMS drama didn’t happen.
They would be happy with their plan and only change when drama happens. The noisy minority which I think Optus thinks has the “I will change my plan when I want to change my plan” mentality and “no one can stop me from doing that” is precisely that, the noisy minority. If only Optus would have awarded, acknowledged or even better REWARD our loyalty; I don’t think we would have gone the paths that we did. The iPhone plan is so much cheaper with either Vodafone or 3 (with 3 being cheaper) and Optus is seriously lagging behind this. Even its website feels so 2001.
Anyway, another thing is that both Vodafone and 3 shop assistants I visited today was more than happy to help me. Obviously, I spent more time with the guy at 3 but I remember the last time I went to Optus. They were too preoccupied to even care. But that’s the thing I guess, Vodafone just looks better in red and 3 is just young, hip and clean. To me Optus is infamously expensive, trying too hard to be perceived as “leaders” and yet use RACOONS and OSTRICHES in their ad campaigns? Confusion much?
Just look at Vodafone and Three. Do you see animals peeping out of their shop fronts? NO! They pass on their savings on to their customers!
Anyway, it’s been a good 6 years with Optus. Oh yeah, forgot to mention also that their 3G has been stuffing up these past few months. It will drop out and then I would have to revert it back to 2G for a signal. I think that was also one of the main reasons I wanted to change. And deep down, I just feel Optus isn’t “cool” anymore. Their ad campaigns don’t work for me, their colours are boring and obviously their prices are too high.
I guess that’s the rundown of why I’ve chosen to switch providers. It might not be a big deal but I think a lot of people share some of the same sentiments as myself; if not all.
It’s time to buck up and target consumers where they are right now; everyone’s still trying to save and stretch their dollar; nothing in that sense has changed. And when people do want to spend more money; animals in ads don’t give the impression that you are serious. And with the fading away of the 20 minute Optus Yes time, Optus has nothing else to offer.
Hopefully everyone learns from this… Here’s to a good experience with 3 in the coming years…
God bless!
Filed under: Movies
Finally caught the Transformers 2 movie! Oh gosh!
I admit to liking it and understanding how a cult-following can be gotten from it but for me, it’s nothing really great. Sure there are parts when you go oh my goodness this is awesome but you come away from the movie with nothing much.
But is that a definition of a good movie? Something which you enjoy for two hours and then reality drops on you like a heavy anvil in a Looney Tunes cartoon.
Anyway, a more in-depth review here. Let me know what YOU think…
Debatemovies.com | Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen
God bless!
Filed under: Movies
Caught The Ugly Truth couple a weeks back and just only got to writing up the review.
Short one but if you are thinking on whether to watch it or not the review might help.
Blog soon!
God bless!
This is something that I want to put on writing for a very long time, since Hillsong Conference 2009 actually…
So I was volunteering in Kids as usual and got to talking to one of the parents as she was dropping off her kid which was in my group.
I don’t know what on Earth we were talking about (which is like 90% of my conversations lol). What I do remember is as follows (P for the parent ):
P: You know what I got healed of cancer myself. I’ll show you the doctor’s letter too and everything but I didn’t bring my bible today.
So I was like yeah of course, with two kids and the tight schedule of Conference, who carries a big Bible around.
P: Oh you know what?! I did bring it!
She then proceeds to taking out an envelop from the Bible bag and handed me the letter.
I read the letter.
It was an official letter alright with medical letterheads and everything and it began with, “Dear Mrs. X, Unfortunately you have been diagnosed with cancer of the oesaphagus.”
It went on to explain the reasons that came to the conclusion and how it will spread and what medications are available for it and all the medical stuff.
The last paragraph went something like this, “Please prepare your family for the future as your husband will not have a wife in six months time and your children without their mother. Yours sincerely, Dr. X.”
I’ve never read a “Death Note” before and in my hands was one that sounds just like one if they do exist. I track backed to the date of the letter and it was March 2008. Simple mathematics put her 9 months “due”. And there she was standing right in front of me. As real as the computer screen you are reading this from and as real as the mouse you are clicking.
I was like “Wow!” You hear of miracles from like Africa and India and even China but I’ve never met someone I know personally who has been healed from a “death sentence”. She was like, “As soon as I got the news I rallied my church and we prayed and prayed and believed for healing.”
Through various visions and dreams she’s got confirmation after confirmation of her healing and she told me herself she’s never felt better in her life… 9 months past her “due date”…
Truly amazing what faith in a very real God can do I guess. But beyond that faith is a supernatural God with supernatural reasonings that we will never ever know. It’s amazing how things just ‘work’ sometimes… Truly amazing…
God bless!
P.S. On another note, apparently my grandfather is healed of nose cancer but I cannot verify this and all though; my uncle told me in an SMS. But if he really did get healed of a CONFIRMED case of cancer than PRAISE GOD! Sometimes people think Christians are humans living life “wishfully thinking” that “god” is in their midst but truth be knownst, some Christians are the most thorough and detailed and skeptical people I know… Me included…
Filed under: Movies
Yeow!
My DebateMovies.com website has been neglected this past TWO MONTHS cause I have been pursuing other interests… Gah!
Started my photography business but already its own website is left dead… Yikes! Anyone has an idea on how to update a website easily? Gah!
Anyway, life goes on. There are some bad things and good things going on in my life but I choose to focus on the good things cause only good and healthy things grow. Prune those bad things! Ah well… Here’s to a more suitable time when I can blog about MIRACLES… Yes, miracles! And more recently a friend who’s coming to know Jesus… A friend! Can you imagine? haha
Anyway, link to my Revolutionary Road review HERE!
God bless!
