Movie Review: Yes Man (2008)

I finally managed to catch Yes Man today and it's a really interesting movie because the movie protagonist, Carl Allen (Jim Carrey), was quite a nay-sayer, opting out of life's many opportunities until he deeply disappointed his best friend by excusing himself out of his best friend's engagement party. Shaken by the terrible possibility of dying alone and friendless, Carl attended a motivational seminar which turned him into a Yes Man - someone who supposedly have to say "yes" to any opportunity that comes along in his life.

What follows were a series of astounding encounters where Carl drove the homeless, emptied his wallet, risked his neck on a scooter, met the girl of his dreams, got into a hopelessly drunken brawl, got sexually relieved by his elderly woman neighbour, got promoted, did a bunjee jump off a bridge, met an entire new group of friends, saved some suicidal person with a song on a guitar, flew his own plane, learned Korean, got arrested by intelligence operatives.

The second half of the movie was sadly less exciting because the movie concentrated on him trying to convince the girl of his life that he was not saying "yes" to her because of the motivational seminar but because he truly meant "yes" in his heart.

All in all, I felt that the movie was still a very amusing movie which preached a very simple message - are people saying no more often than they should? Perhaps people have been missing out on engaging life within their possible means by opting out rather than jumping in. Personally, I am influenced by the movie to some extent and I thought I should learn to say yes more often because life's possibilities are endless and life's changes may not necessarily be negative.

So here I go - Yes! Although I cannot please everyone, I will do what I can to engage life at its fullest. I may fall flat on my face but I am not flat in my spirits.

What are you waiting for? Say "Yes" and go watch the movie yourself! Hahaha!

"Wolverine" The Teaser Movie Trailer

Alright, I have watched all the previous X-men movies and I don't think I am going to miss this one. Something to look forward to for 01 May 2009.

I am such a movie addict and I enjoyed being so. Adamantium claws, anyone? =D

SandFantasy 2008 By IIana Yahav

What a beautiful story well told. Enjoy, my readers and have a good weekend! =)

Campus Superstars Season 3

Well, the top 12 of Campus Superstars Season 3 are finally out in public. As with the previous two seasons of Campus Superstars, I will be providing performance commentaries for their performances because firstly, everyone gets to learn if I can catch and comment on the important things about singing and performances. Secondly, I feel that I can contribute a little here and there by helping the genuine singing talents and enthusiasts to hone whatever they may be lacking. Thirdly, I enjoyed good renditions of songs and good performances - after all, some of them may eventually shape the future of music and entertainment.

I would expect this season's top 12 to be slightly more well-trained than the previous batches because the auditions were closed-doors and the contestants will have more time to hone their skills under the possible tutorship of some of the talented local music instructors, singers and lyricists in Singapore before taking on the official competition stage in January 2009. Their supporters seem more organized with at least nine fan clubs already set up before the official competition and the page hits are impressive. However, given the economic downturn which will kick in in 2009, I would expect to see how MediaCorp Singapore may have to come up with creative ways to encourage votes.

During the past year, I have attended as many singing auditions as I could to observe how contestants fared during their performances and I have also personally increased my own stage experience in the hope that I will be able to do a better job at the upcoming performance commentaries. Being a critic in the past two seasons was not easy because I needed to keep my commentaries as objectively as I can, amidst all the flaming, slandering and accusations. Some of my harshest online opposition just wanted me to shut up and stop exposing their Superstars' weaknesses but for the betterment of the quality of singing and performances, I pressed on and finished what I intended to. Let's hope this new season's worth of supporters can be more civilized and understanding.

(Image Source: Campus Superstars 3 Official Website by MediaCorp Singapore)

《愛的牧羊人》 by 伍思凱 Sky Wu

一个忍受寂寞的人
一条长满荆棘的路
天冷风吹的狠
我的脸上沾满了灰尘

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
我很累我不肯睡我很虔诚
天保佑我遇见幸运的神

我以为爱是个方向
雨打风吹我可以忍
泪水酿成了酒
我的脚下一道一道伤痕

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
我很累我不肯睡我很虔诚
天保佑我遇见幸运的神

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
爱情对我招手
往前走吧去找幸福的人

草原上下着倾盆大雨
一望无际世界只有我
一步一步往前去
追逐爱的回忆

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
爱情对我招手
往前走吧去找幸福的人

爱情~~

I was surfing youtube videos and came across this beautiful song so I am putting it up for the listening pleasure for all the readers of my blog. This is a very old composition by Sky Wu himself many years ago but the song is still so wondrous to my ears after so long.

I have even tried singing this song but I have to admit that I still cannot hold the song properly myself because the techniques used are incredibly difficult and the song's mood is not easy to portray. Anyway, have fun listening. Enjoy~~~ ^__^

Fallout 3 - The Long Awaited Game For Me

I think I am long overdue for a blog post because I have been recently indulging in a computer game which I have waited for nearly 10 years - Fallout 3.

The game is so interesting and involving for me because it is a sandbox type of game, which means the character gets to do anything he/she pleases, making countless decisions about how to impress the non-playing characters to release quests or to deal with tactical combat situations with serious considerations to factor in stealth, lighting, terrain, weaponry and even the character's alignment (good, neutral or evil).

To show my blog readers who have been faithfully checking my blog for updates all these while, I will try and list down the more interesting things I have done in the game to show why I love the game so much. Over the past couple of weeks, my character (who is competent in the skills of small guns, energy weapons, lock-picking, science and speech) has done the following things:

• Disarmed an atomic bomb in the middle of a small town
• Deliberately crippled my character's leg by blowing up on a mine for medical studies
• Put an animal observatory sensor device in the middle of a nest of monsters
• Infiltrated a library for the sake of continuing humanity's pursuit of knowledge
• Installed a satellite dish to extend the broadcast range of a radio station
• Fought alongside non-playing characters (NPCs) against a gigantic monster
• Saved some children from captivity against some slavers' encampment
• Negotiated a mutually beneficial deal between a small settlement and a group of vampires
• Stolen the weapon from a sniper in a tall building in the middle of a mine-strewn town
• Drowned more than five times attempting to swim underwater to an aircraft carrier
• Activated some complex mechanical device to try and help jump-start a science experiment
• Defeated a sinister enemy by discovering a secret way to escape from virtual reality world
• Lead my character to break out from a massive enemy fortress full of robots and soldiers
• Rescued a group of mercenaries besieged and trapped at the rooftop of a hotel
• Helped to contribute to the maintenance of a water processing plant by collecting parts
• Sold some drug components to a drug dealer for the much needed bottle caps (money)
• Neutralized some mutated ant nest due to a miscalculation by a biologist
• Allowed an escaped android to live his new lease of life by lying to his pursuer-cum-creator
• Battled some Super-Mutant fortresses and saved some hostages from the wasteland
• Collected pre-war books and sold them to a scholar for the much needed bottle caps
• Trying to find out the industrial formula for Nuka-cola (a drink in the wasteland)
• Trying to find out what the satellite towers in the wasteland does
• Trying to retrieve a 200-year-old violin for an old lady who broadcasts her music on the radio

Sounds fun? I have not even discovered more than twenty other locations on the wasteland map so there could be other crazy things that I might have to find my character doing. Here are some screenshots taken during the game. I will upload more of them to share with you readers in the near future.

Sometimes, while waiting for the shops to open for business so that my character can buy and sell things, my character would enjoy the beautiful sunrises in the game. This one was taken outside Craterside Supply Store in the earlier starting towns of Megaton.
This was taken in the night time at the front porch of Washington Building after my character took out a group of Enclave soldiers, an Enclave officer and a deadly beast known as a Deathclaw. The weapon my character was holding was a Plasma Rifle and the craft in front of my character was some sort of flying craft - I wished my character could pilot it but my character could not do so. Maybe next time?
This was taken in the evening time when my character was exiting from an important city called Rivet City (which was actually a half-broken-off aircraft carrier). My character was facing the ruins of Washington DC and it was a scary trip because the enemies could be around the very next piece of debris, raking my character with a rocket or machine-gun fire.
This was my character dressed in a Reinforced 101 Vault suit with a motorcycle helmet talking to a person called Tenpenny. Tenpenny is a rich man with a richly-lavished tower and my character was trying to negotiate to see if he could allow another group to live in his tower. I have not made a decision to this quest yet - should my character kill Tenpenny and the existing residents so that the new group could move in or should I just kill off the new group and collect Tenpenny's reward instead?
This was the view taken from Tenpenny's tower and yes, my character was literally walking over all those rock outcroppings, ruined buildings and sand-dunes before my character could reach the tower, carefully fighting and avoiding terrible beasts and raiders who would not hesitate to tear my character to shreds.

Well, that is most active activity I am currently engaging in right now. I will update again on this game as well as any other interesting happenings to me as soon as I can. Time for dinner - an Italian BMT sandwich from Subway. Yummy~~~ ^__^