Sunday, June 19, 2011

Movie: The Green Lantern

Happy Father's Day to all dads!

My family had no choice but to grant my Father's Day wish to go watch The Green Lantern in Wangsa Walk today. Well, actually, they didn't mind at all.

Just yesterday Rachel and I were reading several reviews of the movie and 90% pitted against it. Nevertheless, we chose to go for it against the better judgement of these reviewers.

The movie was truly enjoyable and had several funny moments, like Thor. I thought Ryan Reynolds played his character well. The movie cleverly exploits his inner fear masked by his duty to put on a brave front, only to be surfaced when put to real test, and was about to give everything up and walk away until the girl he loved showed him how his fear can be surmounted by courage.

Don't believe what the reviewers say about too much green or aliens with a fish head or stuff. If you like comic book hero movies, even if you haven't read about the Green Lantern, you'll not get lost. There are characters with certain shortcomings whom you can associate with, there's romance, though not heavy, and there's action, but not too much of it. It's likable and enjoyable, well, so far, for me and my family.

Take a break from the office stress. Go watch it!

The Great Movie Review

I'm not very good in writing a movie review. I used to be awed by the bombastic choice of words and grammar reviewers described their likes and dislikes in their reviews. That's why I don't usually write movie reviews.

I also used to be impressed by the way the reviews are based on, like, how unrealistic that the Romans would speak like Americans in The Centurion, how certain movies plots are not original, etc, etc. I have never even noticed all the little details myself!

I also used to depend on these reviews to see if I would get my money's worth going to the cinema.

Now, I see the truth! These reviews are all just crap! Big crappy bunch of time-wasting articles to make you impressed by how well they present their 'intelligent' opinionated reviews!

You just go and watch movies and just enjoy them as the producers produced them. If the movie genre are not your type, don't go. Don't expect too much, cos if you do, you're behaving like you are the one who wrote the script and helmed the movie. Simple and sweet, won't kill you!

You don't have to look at a movie from a technical viewpoint. You don't have to stressed yourself by wondering why the Romans are not speaking in their mother tongue. You don't have to make too much comparison of the movie you're watching with other movies. You're not going to the cinema, with a popcorn and Coke, just to do an academic review. Heck, you're going there to watch and enjoy every last bit of shillings you paid to the cinema owner by watching a movie of your choice!

Who cares if the storyline is somewhat similar to other movies? Are the casts and action sequences the same? And who cares if they're box office flops? Does that mean you won't like it? Does it mean that if you don't like a certain movie, the rest of the world's population share the same sentiment?

The Postman and Waterworld (Kevin Costner) and 13th Warrior (Antonio Banderas) were flops, but I watched them like 5 to 8 times! Look, how many of the so-called Academy Award winning movies you actually like? Mostly I stay away from them if they're not of my genre.

Thing is, movie reviewers are just a bunch of wannabes trying to make themselves stand up above other competing reviewers with their salvos of facts, technical angles and expressive grammatical prowess. If they refuse to enjoy a movie like a normal and sane person there's not much even a shrink can do to alleviate their obsessive desire to rant their opinions of movies.

Now you pick a movie, go out there with your friends, loved ones, or alone, and buy your tickets and popcorns, and make every experience worth your cents! Watch and enjoy!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A day at work

It was truly a good exercise for me albeit the sweat. Repeated routine of taking the LRT and walking to office should make me more lean in no time. That was the 2nd day now, and I realized I'm typing this journal after 12 midnight.

Today at work was no different than yesterday but it took a turn for the worst after 6pm when I left office and midway near Pavillion boss called me and asked if I had left. I told him that I had to catch the bus as I did not take the car. I offered to turn back if there was urgent work. He asked if I was sure about that. Now how could I have said no?

So it was back to office, but more like hellhole.. The work had something to do with some ministry implementing or gazetting an Act which would come into force tomorrow, or rather, today. Without my staff to assist me the work was almost unbearable. Two parts of the assignment and I managed to complete only one and by 10pm I left office and walked to KLCC trying to clear my mind of worries about tomorrow's implementation of the 'rushed' Act.

Halfway walking a guy on a motorbike, which was stationery by the sidewalk, handed me a call card and I sheepishly took it, only to realize it was a contact number of a massage service. Now that I could use!

'nyway, I got to the LRT safely and was home by 10:40pm. Cooked myself 2 eggs and some sausages after shower and started surfing, and ended up entering the day's journal. Gonna hit the sack now that it's already 12:45am. Stay tuned for more boring journals...

Monday, June 13, 2011

A day at work

Today I walked to office from KLCC. My daughter needed to drive to college early morning so my wife and I took the LRT to KLCC, had a good breakfast before I started my journey to office by foot.

Took me 30 minutes at slow pace with a stop midway to dry my perspiration, but still reached the office soaked with it. Made no difference there.

Had meeting at 10am till 12pm, causing my workload to pile up. My staff is still on 2 weeks marriage leave, due back to work this Wednesday. There were just too many calls and most times after I placed the telephone back and started to attend to the latest request another call came in. It was like that most afternoons and I got so mad and frustrated cos I never seem to get my work done!

Though I could get off work at 5:45pm and take my colleague's offer to drive me home but had to stay back till 7pm to clear my backlog. So it's walking again, this time to back to KLCC.

But it's okay. Helped me to de-stress after a crazy day at work. I'm beginning to like walking and taking the LRT to work. Guess it helps me take my mind off the worries of working life..

Saturday, June 4, 2011

"Obey, serve and entertain your husband"

I never imagined these message delivered from a spokesman of The Obedient Wives Club which was supposed to be launched today! "Domestic abuse happens because wives don't obey their husband. He muse be responsible for his wife's well-being but she must listen to him," Siti Maznah told The Star.

Some of the key messages that was delivered to members and the general women are:
- husbands would not even think of going to the prostitutes if their wives give them a satisfying sex experience
- wives who did not bring joy to their husbands are labelled as disobedient and are the cause of many social ills
- if the wives are disobedient towards their husbands domestic abuse will arise

Oh, here's the good part - when asked if the wife is abused, is it her fault? She replied yes, and it's most likely that it's because she did not listen to her husband!

So what should wives do to prevent from being abused and to ensure husbands do not seek gratification from prostitutes? "Wives should welcome them with sexy clothes and alluring smiles in the privacy of their homes," she said.

Fortunately, we have Datuk Seri Shahrizat to counter-respond the misguided thinking by saying that she is saddened by this development.

Ratna Osman, acting executive director of Sisters in Islam, said that Islam has always promote that marriages are always based on mutual cooperation and respect, which I believe are the same for all major religions. Heck, it is the same belief even for "normal minded" people!

Unfortunately, even in any country, whether developed or developing, there still are people who are gullible, though they are not ignorant mind you, who still fall for the twisted-minded propagandas.

Luck deserted me

Or rather, do I even have lady luck at all?

Last Monday I was issued a summons from a traffic cop. What's so bad about a summons? Well, it's one summons for 2 offences!

It was just after lunch at Imbi area and I committed the offense by making an illegal u-turn just like any other drivers would do to ease the traffic. Though it was a shortcut but it was like exercising our social responsibility by not adding one more car onto the jumble of vehicles trying to weave around the jam.

Two cops beckoned me to pull over and the closest one asked me if I knew what offense I'd committed, to which I just smiled and nodded. What benefit would I gain in acting dumb? So, out goes my driving license and ID while he began scribbling on his pad. I'm no expert in sweet-talking to cops so right then I began to accept my fate, and started counting down my income silently, for making the silly mistake of u-turn.

Just when I thought I had a budget allocated for the summons I was hit with a double whammy - he noticed that my driving license expired on 17 May! There goes one more addition into the piece of summons!

Why couldn't they make themselves more useful than summoning corporate lunch goers! The real criminals are out there, terrorizing our neighbors, and here these cops going after non-criminal law breaking offenders who are just taking a lunch break!