Magical musicals

Okay guys, I know I just did a post and the second post may be too much for you to handle, but I implore to my loyal readers, just bear with this unexpected but hopefully pleasant surprise. I was going to include this in my soon-to-be-but-forever-delayed London post, but I simply have to post something about it here.

I saw three musicals while I was in London, which were, in the order that I saw them in: Lion King, Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. Before I get into the actual musicals themselves, I will talk a little about musicals in London.

For those who don't know, London is littered with theatres. It's one of London's biggest revenues and there's a huge industry behind. Not like here, where

TicketTek (boooo) and TicketMaster (boooo) control most of the plays in Melbourne, there are literally dozens of outlets where you can buy tickets for shows. Most of them offer discounted tickets, in which they try and sell last minute tickets or restricted views. Seeing a show almost seems like seeing a movie over there, but no where near as cheap (or should I say 'cheap').

Official tickets range from 60 pounds to as much as 200 pounds. Discounted tickets can get as low as 20 pounds. Pounds = AUS, roughly 1.5x. Now, my opinion on show tickets is this: I hate discounted tickets. You don't know what you're really going to get, because the people sell them really well (or just blatantly lie in your face).

For Wicked, I bought one of these discounted tickets, in which the lady said they were midway, dress circle. For those who don't know, theatres usually go in the order: stalls, dress circle, grand circle, balcony - from ground up. So I thought, middle row, dress circle not bad for 30 pounds. Turns out the theatre for Wicked only has stalls and the dress circle. So I was pretty much up the back, which while it wasn't completely a show breaker, it was still annoying. Now why would you pay so little, and give up enjoyment for a show you obviously want to see (otherwise what are you doing there?). So I like to buy with having mind enjoying show the best way possible. Lion King, me and tracy paid 65 pounds for 2nd row dress circle, and it was awesome.

Anyway, enough about tickets. The shows themselves:

Lion King

Easily the best thing I've ever seen. The costumes themselves are beautiful, the masks that they use to portray the characters that they're playing are magnificent. The music, which we all know and love, is as great as ever and the extra pieces they added in a pretty good too (with a few exceptions in my opinion). The translation from movie to stage is excellent, it really is a different experience but the whole story line is still there. The whole thing is so good, by the end of the first scene, the epic Circle of Life, I was satisfied. 65 pounds well paid for one scene. In short, it was BRILLIANT. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Can't recommend enough. Stampede music and scene was my favourite, so epic.

Wicked

Had slightly distant seats as mentioned above, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this show. I had only very little idea of what it was about, and was really surprised at how much I loved the story. It relates to the behind the scene and is the prequel of the Wizard of Oz. The characters are cute and lovable, the songs are really nice and I've been singing along with them in my car for the past 2 weeks. People like Amanda will really love this show. Also highly recommend (and for the love of theatre, get good seats).

No picture =[

Phantom of the Opera

This one was slightly different in style, and an interesting deviation from the two above. Followed the storyline of the movie (from what I can remember anyway) pretty well and I did enjoy it. However, not sure if opera singing is my thing, cause I don't think I appreciated it as much. The songs in this one was very much more solo style, showing off some good talent. They had some nice special effects too, like fire balls (oooOOoo) and gunshots (everyone jumped, really unexpected). Recommend if you liked the movie and the songs. Theatre was kinda small though, my legs were pretty cramped.

So that's it. If you see a crazy asian boy driving, bopping his head and yelling out gibberish and bashing his wheel in some kinda of stampede pattern, that will be me. Makes the drive to Hopper's Crossing easier though =]

teoh,

Not convinced

So I've finished two full time days at Civil EX and thought I'd just give my impressions of the place and what I do there.

Civil EX is a construction contractor company, that is fast expanding, getting more and more staff and projects. Basically I'm known there as an intern/student, just helping out my supervisor Matt in Estimating. Estimating is where clients send their initial tenders/plans to us and we estimate the amount of money and work that Civil EX would need to do to take upon the job. We then send back the numbers to the client, and if we're one of the lowest estimates, they will sign on with us (or maybe there's reputation also involved, I'm not entirely sure).

Matt's gotten me doing some document preparation, a LOT of printing and sorting into folders etc. I really hate printers now, I've had one jam on me a few times. The interesting things I got to do was actual estimating on some plans using a computer program and getting to know how the place works.

The people there are nice, but older than me obviously. I'm not too sure how much relationships I can establish being there only one or two days a week. It's too early to tell what future I have at Civil EX, but part time work is looking pretty good! The drive isn't as bad as I thought it would be either.

Captain America Movie

"I've just finished kicking Captain America's butt, here's the shield as proof"
Iron man still beats the crap out of any marvel movie I've seen.

Maybe I'm just too harsh, but this is another mediocre movie for me. In fact, it doesn't feel like a lot of effort was put into it (not to dismiss the work they probably actually DID put into it, but that's just the impression I get), an almost 'oh let's make captain america because we need him for the avengers movie' feel.

That's to say, it wasn't entirely not enjoyable. The beginning of the movie was enjoyable, a scene where bravery was demonstrated certainly made a good impression of character depth. I appreciated all the links to other movies, such as Stark appearances and the tie onwards to avengers. There was a sense of lacking during the 'putting together Captain America' for me, nothing like what Iron Man had when he was building his suit. No real exploration of his new found powers or anything like that. Besides becoming really buff, they didn't really show off his speed, his strength or shield in such a way that was a definite link to Captain America. Movies exaggerate men strength all the time! Show me that this is different!

Slight spoilers ahead

And then once Captain America is establish, it's all just explosions and gun shots (all which miss Captain America through terrible marksmanship) with no narrative. Character depth is all gone. All I know about the 'personal' squad that Captain America choose is they all like to drink and one's the token asian guy. No names or anything. The storyline is so terribly simple and predictable. There's a point in the movie where I wanted to stand up and scream ITS A TRAP in my best ackbar voice. A girl kisses the hero just as he prepares to jump on a plane to save the world; I'm thinking, what if the plane left while you did that? GG world for romance. But that would've been more entertaining than the completely anti climactic 'boss' fight.

AND BY THE WAY. How does Captain America know how to fight? He wasn't trained in combat, guns, flying ships, driving bikes or any of that. How does throw the shield so well and catch it so well?

Not too sure why people said it was on par with Iron Man - for me, definitely not. I know Xuan, Edward and Marco enjoyed it, but me and amanda remain unconvinced. But it was definitely better than Thor *snigger*.

teoh,

unshackle those chains

Okay, so it's been a while. Let's update.

I am currently a free man, finished exams so early that almost none of my friends want to talk to me. That's cool guys, no hard feelings AT ALL (caps for emphasis, not subtle hate). What am I using this free time that would've otherwise been used to stress continuously for multiple exams over the next two weeks? Stressing out about other things of course!

At the current stage of my life, I have come to realise that there will always be something to stress about, plan about, something unknown to come. My carefree university life is rapidly coming to end (at least I hope so anyway) and the next step is into the bigger world of not just the workforce, but boundless opportunities of things to do. Move overseas? Travel overseas? Save for a house? Buy a new car (because I've once again scratched poor SAM on the right side bumper =( )? All of those things are now possible (technically), whereas I'm used to dusting my hands of the final assignment and settling in for some holiday fun.

These fairly mundane thoughts aside, I am actually just working a lot and planning for Europe/Snow. In case I have not mentioned this in the past few blog posts, I am actually leaving for Europe on the 22nd of June for around three weeks, flying back to arrive on the 16th July, and then heading off to the snow for three days on the 18th. Currently, I'm more excited for the snow, most likely cause it's with my close friends and I get to do snowboarding which I've never done before. Though I must say, booking accommodation and transport has been the bane of my life for the past few weeks. To prevent any misfortune on the actual trip however, I will wait until AFTER trip to write my displeasure.

But don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to Europe; I guess I'm getting pre-departure jitters as I usually do. Europe is such a far away country, it's almost more like a concept than a real thing to me. I'm a bit worried about how the tour will be, but I think as long as I'm open minded, I should have a blast. Seeing my sister will also be fun =] and LIOOOOOOON KING!! I've been sore about missing out this musical since I missed the high school excursion in year 9? And now I get to see it in the best place ever (well apparently LA was the best, butlookoverthere!).

Of course, I'm not sure if I'll survive 6 days straight of full time work. I think the greatest motivation of finding a job is so I can quit that place at the end of the year. Yes, the location is great, the job is pretty easy, the money is good, I understand all of that. But you don't understand the frustration, the crap that goes on, the way the place gets to you while you're there. I do not feel respected for my three years of loyalty, I do not feel valued by my employers. Please let me find a job soon. Otherwise I might strangle myself with my headset.

I've seen both X-men First Class and Super 8 since I've finished exams. I won't bother to do a proper review, bar saying that they were both entertaining and not too bad. But I bring it up because neither movie was worth the expensive tickets we paid. In fact, I'm pretty sure no movie will ever be worth the $15 dollar ticket we all pay at the movies now. Food, yes. Oil, yes. Why the heck are movie tickets going up for!? You are driving me into piracy or bankruptcy, either way we all lose. I'm thinking of creating Teoh Cinemas and bringing back old ticket prices and making a fortune. I'll set it up next to our hospital that we're going to make. And I'll sell pies for <$4.

I am sorry for the lack of exciting pictures.

teoh,

Friday Night Lights

I need a break from FYP, so I'm going to blog a bit.

I've been using a TV show Friday Night Lights as my breaks/relaxation time during this busy period. And it's the best thing I've ever watched. Not that I should hype it up or anything, because to many people, it's going to be a pretty ordinary drama TV show. Based around a small town called Dillon and their strong community culture built up around their American Football team, the Dillion Panthers, the show follows primarily around the Taylor family. Coach Eric Taylor is the main star, trying to take the team to State Championship. But obviously some of the main players and their stories are also told. The drama tries to address real issues that are happening in America, such as drug use, racial issues, team spirit, believing in yourself, life in general etc.

So what's so good about it? I find it so inspiring and touching. I don't know if that's cause of the acting, the way they film it or what, but I have connected with so many of the characters, so easily. Their troubles also seem to remind me that things I get frustrated about are nothing compared to what's out there. Family and friends are the best thing in the world. The human conscience, the difference between heart and mind. It's sooo good.

When it comes down to it, it really is just another drama show. But I love it! Five seasons in total, although season 2 was chopped in half due to writer's strike at the time.

BTW, saw Thor yesterday with Amanda and Edward. It's very so so. Disappointed. And I had to pay extra to see it cause they cancelled the 2D session we were going to see.

teoh,

gasland

hey guys,

I thought I would share a documentary that I've just finished watching. As I type this, the credits and banjo solo music accompanying it is playing in the background. I want to write up some of the strongest impressions and memorable parts of the documentary to share.

It's called Gasland, directed and produced by Josh Fox. I first heard of it during the Oscars, as it was nominated for best documentary. In summary, it investigates the natural gas mining method called hydraulic fracturing and it's environmental impact. It is a industry that is actually growing in size today.

Hydraulic Fracturing, or fracking, is a method of freeing up natural gases trapped within a formation of rock called shale. It uses deep core drilling to pump liquid at high pressure into the ground, to fracture the surrounding shale to free up the gas. It resembles a small earthquake.

The first issue is that out of the 1 - 7 millions of gallons of liquid that is pumped into the ground, about only half is recovered. This isn't too much of an issue if it was just water. But in fact, the fracking liquid that is used contains over 596 types of chemicals; drilling additives, anti-corrosives, acids etc. All of this goes straight into the environment, and because almost all of them are non-biodegradable, it's in there for good.

This kills local wildlife, poisons all the near by streams and rivers, goes into live stock's drinking water, decimates plant life. The list goes on. There was a sad part of the doco, where a lady had frozen multiple species of animals for proof. Rabbits, frogs, birds, even a baby doe. Fish get their gills eaten by chemicals and die.

It also goes into our groundwater and thus our drinking water. The scariest part was when a farmer filled a tub of water from the tap, and applied fire to it. You can actually SEE melted plastic forming on the surface of the water. That's how much poly-whatever is actually present in the water.

Another scene was when a man let his tap run for a few seconds, and then applied a fire. There was so much gas within the liquid, it lit on fire and burnt his arm hairs off.

Some communities are on this water right now, and suffer large amount of brain damage because of the chemicals. Most suffer headaches, lack of taste, lack of smell, unable to see clearly.

The documentary goes through interviews, investigations, researchers and even congress. It's a really good perspective. I really enjoyed this documentary and encourage anyone that interested to have a look. I have a copy if anyone wants it.

teoh,

moving movies

What makes a movie moving to you? What makes you love a movie so much, you watch over and over again, no matter how old it becomes?

As of late, the movies I've been seeing have failed to impress. Most recently, we saw Tron 3D. It was a good movie, and despite it being a Disney movie, it was very mature in terms of action and plot. But nothing was there that really moved me.

So what movies have moved me. I guess what I really love is epic/inspiration movies. You know, those final speeches given by leaders before leading all their men to death, or that final surprise that allows victory, with all the glorious soundtrack behind it. The rising feeling in your stomach as you watch the movie, wanting to stand up and join in, that's what I love.

Emotional scenes work too. I think the climax of Tron near the end (without spoilers) could've moved me more if there were tears shed or something. The animation Up was quite touching in some scenes.

I hope a new movie comes out soon that meets these expectations.

teoh,

harry potter and the movie review

This is my 99th post on this blog =]

So it's been a long break between my posting. Exams, interviews, parties, holidays; all of the above have gone and past, except for the last which is thankfully still going. I'll have a brief overview of all of it later. What I want to talk about is.. HARRY POTTER!

First and foremost, in order to give a proper review for this movie, it is ASSUMED and critical that you have read the book. If you have not, then you will find the movie rubbish and have no idea what's going on at all.

Before we get to the movie...

Turning novels into books are always difficult. In the handful of such movies I've seen, I can barely think of any that have done a good job. I believe that these movies only have one purpose: bringing the book alive into imagery with all it's environments, characters and the emotional attachment readers associate with them. This is very dangerous, as a person's unique imagination as they read is far better than a director's vision of a cinematic production.

I would like these movies to simply guide you through the important parts of the plot, bringing the more iconic places alive as beautifully as possible, and having the characters' emit their personalities. So as you sit there watching it, you're drawn back into the story, remembering the adventure as you read it. The movie should definitely make you want to go read the book again after seeing it.

As a vivid Harry Potter reader since grade 4, I have read the books many times and know the plot quite well. That being said, most of the first four movies succeed quite well in turning the novels into films. The last three movies however, have had more difficult jobs, as the plots become more intense, complicated and longer. Breaking up the last book into two parts sounded like a good idea, as this would allow more detail that those last three movies lacked.

The movie (as none of my readers that I know of are HP fans (except for hong), there will be spoilers)
The plot of this book is very complicated, as it ties up a lot of loose ends of the whole series. The way some of it was communicated through the book is very hard to put on screen, such as Dumbledore's past which was pages and pages of a newspaper extract in the book. So hard, that even I had a hard time keeping track of the plot in the movie. There were flashbacks that probably made no sense to a lot of people out there. But as I've said, the movie is for Harry Potter fans, so most would've been OK. I was glad to see that most of the plot was the same as the story, with minor changes.

However, the actual movie wasn't executed very well. For starters, it was quite dull. Granted, there are not many action scenes in the first half of the book, but there were scenes which could've included much more special effects and action. I was especially disappointed with the Lovegood's house, which just ended up with a black shadows blowing up a house. People are correct in saying that they just walk around a lot - it doesn't even feel like the quest to kill Voldemort. It felt like camping in the woods, running away from people to kill us.

In fact, there were many scenes in which I felt had large potential to draw out emotion from the audience, but just wasn't. Rupert Grint(?) did the best job in keeping laughs through out most of the movie, but other than that I can't see why Hong was crying in the movie. Hermoine erasing her parents' memories could've been acted out much better with some tears, some actual memory flashes disappearing or something rather. Mad eye dying. Hedwig dying!? (c'mon that was so sad, but it was dealt so flippantly) Harry at his parents' grave and the destroyed house. Dobby dying was almost done so well, until (I thought) Daniel Radcliff's acting ruined it.

The Three Brother's story was indeed animated well. But it was an animation, so I don't give it any real credit as part of the movie. And as with the last Harry Potter scene, I cringe at all the pointless stuff they put in. Ginny needing her dress zipped up? Harry's dance with Hermione? None of that is needed to convey anything to the audience and just furthers frustrates me.

In conclusion, it was a weak movie. I am disappointed (but not by heaps) both as part of the audience and as a Harry Potter fan. And sadly, I can't help to think that the 2nd part won't be much better. Thanks to Sharlina for coming to watch it with me!

teoh,

friend hopping

I've had the pleasure of making some new friends in the past few weeks of exam studying. First I started studying with Branavan, who I hadn't had the chance to work with through out the year, which introduced me to his group of friends, who I now enjoy the good company of when I study.

Although it's not the most efficient study group, as we all study different thing, it's a really nice group to hang out with and to have company of. I am grateful that they invited me to their little group during exams.

I should get back into social networking. I used to have 4 or 5 groups during high school I would catch up with. Now it's just my close group and one or two uni groups. Hopefully these holidays will allow me to do this.

On the note of social network, the movie was quite entertaining, though I'm not sure if it's worth seeing in the cinemas. But the way the story was presented was entertaining and drew me in. Interesting little back-story to the popular website most of the world now uses.

I have a pre-interview with a HR rep tomorrow for a potential vacation spot. Wish me luck.

teoh,

money ambitions

It was perfect that I decided to watch 'the social network' after my exam today, because it's furthering my thoughts in my future career.

Mark Zuckerberg owns an online social network that is worth more than 25 billion dollars, that was built back in high school. Amazing. That's only 6 years after it was first launched back in 2004. I'm not sure how true the movie depicted the foundations, but it seems fairly accurate to the facts in wikipedia. The movie is a good watch for some college drama, but not too sure it's a blockbuster worth seeing in the cinema.

At the moment, I am studying engineering, a professional trade, in which I plan to take into the industry, and work my way up through the positions, hopefully ending up somewhere near a project management position. That's annual salary, increased through promotion.

The way Mark did it was to take an idea and explode it into money. Granted, it was one in a billion of an idea, but the concept is still there. But to explode that idea, he had to apply his insane programming skills and use his friends economics degree knowledge. Skills and experience.

Not that I'm saying I want to be a millionaire or anything. In my opinion, the more money you have, the more trouble comes with it, despite the obvious benefits. But I am curious about the different paths of earning money.

Then again, you also have the moral side of things. I remember a year or so back, a person tried to scam me and jason into joining pretty much a pyramid scheme (look it up, pretty common stuff). One of the excellent points that jason brought up was that the pyramid scheme was all about making more money; there was hardly any contributions to society in general. True, you can make lots of money and then use it to contribute that way, but come on (a point to be further discussed in the future maybe?)

Anyway, the whole point of this is not the money, but taking on a challenge and making it to your goal. Something I lack a lot in my life. I wish to think on this further, after exams (and during.).

teoh,

the world needs a slap in the face

It took me a long time to motivate myself to write a post. I had a few times when I would open up blogger, but then get distracted with starcraft 2 or just sleep.

Instead of an update post, this is about a tv show I watched on SBS the other day. It's called Insight, and the topic was global warming. They had a professor from harvard trying to pitch global warming to an audience of skeptics. It turned into a somewhat public debate forum.

At first, I was tempted just to switch it off. Having a professor rattle of research jargon to an audience isn't really going to help convince them; he just doesn't have the charisma to influence them positively. On the other hand, the skeptics just didn't seem to want to be convinced either. That just seems the way we are, once we get an idea into our head, it's very hard to change our mindsets. There was this one doctor, who was very aggressive, and even though the professor seem to address it very well, kept just shouting over him going "you're not answering the question!".

But then I realised the whole point wasn't turning people about, but more about getting people's opinions and concerns out there. Some of the skeptics had some very good point, in terms of questioning data and whether small changes would warrant a large economic change. It was good to get the other side's point of view. So it turned out to be an interesting show.

On the topic of global warming however, I still stand by my opinion (see what I mean about stubbornness?) . Global warming is definitely being caused by us; an interesting point someone made is that global warming is actually natural and all we're doing is accelerating it (which is also bad anyway). An economic pricing on it is not going to change people's lifestyle or opinion about it. It'll probably just spark more heated debate and it'll just go down hill from there. What we need is a global disaster which will wake up everyone to it. Even then, people will people argue the cause of the disaster and that it wasn't global warming.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I had a more structured post about this, but I've seemed to have lost it.

On another note, I had fun karaoking with ann and erica yesterday at my house, followed by lots of ice cream. hehe.

teoh

all in a day's work

alright, update finally. today will be a general update, movie review and laptop review, so prepare yourself for a long-ish post.

For some reason, university has been quite light on work so far. Mind you, I'm not complaining, but I'm getting a little paranoid. Everyone else seems to have work, where's ours? It could be that they are giving us time to do our vacation work, but surely they can't be that considerate

I've been putting my free time to good use. I've done a lot of research for my dream job at GHD, and applied to a few other companies. Speaking of vacation work, congrats to Amanda, who secured a internship at KPMG, way to go. Proud of you.

I've also been dabbling in a bit of Starcraft 2 now and then, which has been good fun. I hope to get good enough to do a bit of competitive gaming, if time will allow. It's also a nice workout for my graphics card, which I haven't really used that much. A game review might be in order later on.

A few 21st coming up, September has always been a busy birthday period.

Work lately has become a bit dull, as a lot of the regulars have left, which is disappointing. Not as fun as it used to be, but I'm glad that my friends have moved on to new places. Good for them.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

For starters, this movie is based on comics, which is based on games. So it's obviously a nerdy movie, but oh it was so much fun to watch. The opening Universe logo was displayed in retro 32-bit graphics! How awesome.

The general plot is about a boy who falls in love with this girl, who has 7 evil ex-boyfriends he must defeat if he is to go out with her. There isn't a lot of reality in this movie, with characters suddenly gaining the ability to fight, surviving being thrown into a castle, coming back to life, pulling a sword out of your chest etc. But what reality was taken out, is replaced with sheer nerdy awesomeness. Watch the trailer, and you'll know what I mean.

As movies go, it was very enjoyable to watch and worth my money. The acting was nothing special, although the dialogue was quite entertaining. There were a few special effects that were very cool, but nothing Avatar-like. If you didn't like the trailer, chances are you won't like the movie.

Laptop: Toshiba T130-0E1

So that dead pixel I had awhile ago? The whole laptop was replaced thanks to my Dad, so this is officially my new laptop. Specs: 13", dual core 1.4, 4gb ram, onboard Intel graphics, 320gb harddrive. Nothing that wow, but the laptop itself is quite light (1.7kg I think) and quite portable.

The only faults I have with it are: glossy keys get dirty really fast and not sure if the wireless is slightly worse than normal. Seems to have a hard time picking up wireless signals unless close to the router. Otherwise, it's nice fit for my purposes, mainly doing work at university and work.

teoh,

undercover boss

I have recently just watched episode 4 of undercover boss, and I must say, I really love it.

I know, it's mostly television-ised and there seems to be a lot of set up scenes and such in there. But a little part of me really hopes that some of it is true. Because I believe so much in the concept behind it.

I've only had 3 part time jobs in my life, but in all of those jobs I have experienced some awesome co-workers. The work environment is the easiest by far to make new friendships and become close with one another. You support and work together all the time, share the same issues, connect in a way unlike any other I have yet to experience. I have been lucky to have had 3 awesome part time jobs, and even luckier to meet the people that I have.

There are so many great people out there, and so many of them are found right down in the labor front lines. The positions don't have to be respectable or high class for people to be the same. The front line is one of the toughest positions there is and you have to work so hard to do your job well, and receive almost no recognition for it. The amazing people do it anyway.

My workplace is a good example. It doesn't take too much to do my job properly. As long as you meet certain targets, you're considered a good worker. However, I know many of my co-workers who go the extra extra mile. Will they get recognition for it? Not really. So why do they do it? Cause they're just decent people. You know who you are.

People like them deserve to be recognized and rewarded. I love watching the CEO meeting amazing people in their company, and then speak to them afterwards. I look forward to watching more of these inspiring stories.

Some day, if I'm ever a manager, or who knows, a top boss, I hope I will remember these stories.

teoh,

off on holiday

so 1st July was an awesome kick off to the holidays.

spent some time with a friend in the morning, going around to jells park and knox city. Then had a fight with telstra over our latest bill (which in hindsight seems correct, but still their fault for stuffing up the past ones, confusing me!!) and won, so I got a month of internet free. Then had a big catch up with glenny people, which turned out surprisingly well, despite some last minute organising (=P tim). Watch toy story 3, which I classify as a 'movie worth paying for'.

Awesome day.

Anyway, I'm really lacking sleep, and I'm heading off to Adelaide tomorrow! It came so soon, I haven't even packed yet. So adiós until next thursday. have fun in your HO HO HO HOOOOLIDAYS!!

teoh,

my gwad gumball!

me eating a 10+ year old giant gumball. My brother got it when we visited some family friends up in queensland who owned a lolly shop and had kept it in this metal container ever since. He wanted the container, so I ate it...for a minute before getting sick. Thankfully it was soft, I can't imagine eating it properly...

so after doing some reading, apparently the 'theory' behind tony's new element is quite plausible. Using his home-built particle accelerator, charging whatever blue particles he had in there to high energy, and then fusing two elements that when combined together would add their atomic numbers together to the desired new element, yes it is quite plausible.

However, if any of my readers are highly qualified scientists (no, you're not marco (neither are you ling)), here are a few questions: what is the triangular case made of to withstand and capture the beams energy to fuse whatever elements are inside? how does the accelerated high energy beam held constantly when it was diverted from the accelerator? I would've thought it'd need to keep it's circular motion in order to sustain itself. And finally, how does Stark make it stable? If you can answer all of these, then please join my team in building an iron man suit, as I don't want radioactive poisoning when I wear mine either.

In other news!
I don't know why, but I've got a craving for watching digimon. ><>teoh,

the life of luxury

 so I went to see Iron Man 2 again...but this time in gold class! (note my lovely 2MP pictures above) 

I went with my uni friend Linda, who actually works at the doncaster village as a waitress in gold class (free tickets =]). She hadn't been once herself, so when we talked about it, we decided to go. Linda hadn't seen iron man 2 and I didn't particularly mind watching it again. It was actually good, cause I could fully enjoy the experience, while not caring too much about missing out on stuff in the movie. Also, I don't spend too much time with Linda at uni as she's only in one of my classes, so it was fun to hang out.

Gold Class Experience.

As I open the heavy glass doors that lead into this fantasy world fit only for the wealthy, first thought is: I hope I'm dressed ok. I was wearing my 'good' clothes, but nothing fancy. Despite that, I immediately felt out of place. The nice carpet, the dim lighting, the fancy plush couches, the brightly lit bar with shining wine glasses, the uniformed waiters/waitresses; it felt only the red carpet was missing.

Linda had asked me to come half an hour early, which I thought meant we were going to eat first or something. Turns out, you use that time to not only order your food, but decide what time it comes! How bizarre. And yet strangely pleasing. Power over what and when? And since I had already seen iron man, my choc-mint choctop came exactly just before the exciting end =]
The food and drink prices were, of course, through the roof. At first, I saw meals at $10 - $12, and I thought, hey not bad. Then Linda explained that they were actually snack size stuff; 2-3 pieces each. The pizza, which wasn't that great, was $24. Luckily for me, having Linda with me slashed everything by 50%. But for a normal gold class experience, good luck you cheap asians.

And now, for the one thing I would pay $25 bucks for. The chair. Oh my god, the chair! It's so big! Respectful Red. So soft, yet firm enough at the same time; comfortable. Electric relining action (made me feel like iron man to see my legs brrrr up). A nice big compartment on the side for my jacket and things. A little table on the side for my food.
The cinema was quite small; two big chairs made up a 'table'. 4 by 4 of them gave it a capactiy of 32 people (yeah, that's why me engineer, I can maths! (the next tony stark)). Tonight, there were only 6 others in the cinema.

So once the glory of it all wore off, I started criticizing things in my head.

Having waiters come by every now and then was slightly annoying. I would rather it somehow be elevated up through my little table. Cause there weren't many people in the cinema, yeah I didn't notice it as much. But if it was a full house, I could imagine people going up and down delivering stuff. Yeah that could definitely ruin my movie.

Eating and drinking in the dark is not cool. I couldn't tell what I was dipping my fried calamari into, cause I couldn't see. Plus, trying to eat and drink while a movie is on...takes my concentration away from enjoying the movie. Instead I'm trying not to spill stuff on myself. And that takes a lot of effort.

The little call button next to me was too bright. Turn it down yo.

The atmosphere wasn't there. Even with a room of 32 people, I don't think that's enough of a crowd that's usual for a movie. There were some really amusing parts in Iron Man 2, as most of you should know, but I found that Linda and I were the only ones laughing about it. New reactor core tastes like coconut, that's worth at least a room of chuckles.

Linda said many people actually go to gold class...they even have regulars! Crazy. I'm not sure if I would prefer gold class or not. The chair is such a deal breaker. Wish it had one of those sliding tables like on airplanes, and then a decent laptop and oh boy.

Awesome to experience it for the first time. My thanks to Linda for taking me. Also, driving to Doncaster was an experience. It's actually not that far from my house, but took awhile from uni.

teoh,

p.s I am still NOT convinced about how tony makes his new elements. stand by for theory.

life bending

So I got Avatar: the last airbender from my friend Long at uni...it was actually the series I was most reluctant to take from him; turns out, I don't want to watch anything else he gave me but~!

It's surprisingly on par with things like Naruto (the good episodes) and has hooked me to watch all 3 seasons. It's got a decent story, has my favorite themes like powers of elements, destiny to save the world in the form of a long quest and some nice characters. Disappointingly it's a Nickelodeon cartoon, so the animations are nothing flashy, but maybe it was simple to make that the action in it is not too bad and pretty constant too! So that was my whole weekend gone.

I was quite stressed and frustrated this week, but it really felt like as soon as friday afternoon came, it all disappeared and everything was put into perspective again. So this weekend was not bad, though I didn't get much sleep due to 6am starts. Hopefully that will stop soon.

My taste in music has changed this year. Since I've played less games than usual, I haven't come across any nice soundtracks, and the movie ones this year have been meh (though I'm seeing Hans Zimmerman in everything!?). And I've had more clubbing experiences (mostly in NZ) than I've had my whole life. So I really enjoy listening to the radio now, and I've started to make a playlist of...mainstream songs? I'm a big fan of strings in these songs; favourites at the moment are Train - Hey Soul Sister, Jay Sean - Do You Remember and Closer by whoever.

Mum's leaving tomorrow =[. Need to get work hours down asap so I can cope with home stuff, work stuff and uni stuff.

teoh,

thought to hope to revelation

big post today:

first off, I've been having a few computer issues once again. This time it's the dreaded blue screen of death =[ Actually, I don't get the blue screen, which is why I didn't realise it was the BSOD, my computer just kinda chucks a spaz and dies. But yeah, after hunting through event logs, it's the BSOD. Had to do a few diagnostics around at techsupportforums, and so far all the hardware checks out, which is a relief. Fingers crossed that it's fixed ! ( we did a few things to help hopefully )

secondly, I suck at DDR =[ I feel so ashamed at my performance on tuesday, so terrible. I dunno if I have the heart to go the comp on thursday, but if I have no other plans I might go ( and watch).

The past week has been pretty good. Movie reviews!

Avatar 3D, was pretty amazing, well worth the money. It was good that I went with no expectations, plus I had no idea what it was about. 3D effects were soso for me...I guess it did add to the experience, but it hurt my eyes. When he jumped off a rock high in the sky and leapt for rope, my stomach sorta dropped. The story was alright, but was ruined by the cliche ending at the end =[ But definitely a must-see. Music wasn't bad either, listening to it now, quite a few epic moments.

Sherlock Holmes, was pretty entertaining. I heard it's pretty disappointing to people who've read the novels (let's face it, not many), but it was a good performance by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Jude Law. I enjoyed the way they created the character Holmes, with his little quirks and super-insight to detail. Plot was meh, and the sequel became obvious when it was 10 minutes to finish and they hadn't solved the mystery professor. Overall, not bad. Music was composed by Hans Zimmerman, I recognised his style during the movie. =] (if you don't know, he's pretty awesome)

Reviewing Avatar reminds me that I didn't post anything for Julian Tang's birthday =[ we saw Avatar the same night we went out for his birthday. Took him to Hogs Breath, where I was shamed when I couldn't finish my plate when even MARCO did. T_T but it was his 21st, so happy birthday! sorry we couldn't do anything huge for you big guy!

Um...my sister's left for the UK =[ we took her to the airport on tuesday, and I'm feeling a bit sad that she's gone for so long. She's safely made it to the Uk just last night, and it's really cold haha. Anyway, hope she settles okay and she stays safe =]

Oh! I finish arranging my room. I think I'll wait til the next post though. It'll be a nice new year day post (hopefully)

Adding photos now... gay blogger won't let me move them around.

Happy New Year everyone.

teoh,