Yasmin Ahmad

Some called her Malaysia's Storyteller. She made some of the most progressive films I've seen, and certainly ALL of my Favourite ads for Deepavali/Hari Raya/Chinese New Year/Merdeka. They were funny and poignant, and were all about unity, love, roots and racial harmony in our world where we're struggling between competing in this modern world and holding within ourselves, our history, culture & values.

Some of her movies were banned from local cinemas because they were too progressive: a Really sad reflection of our protectionist reality.

Children are born colour-blind. It's only later that we develop prejudice and hate. Her ads always made us up to be cross-cultural, filially pious, mindful of our values, history, friendships... as if by putting it on TV, she could somehow make it more real... more true. She had hopes for us as a people, I guess. I always thought maybe she thought we just needed reminding once in a while, of who we were meant to be.

"Yasmin, 51, collapsed while presenting a working paper at Sri Pentas, the headquarters of the private television station TV3 on Thursday and was rushed to the Damansara Specialist Hospital... (She passed on Saturday night). The cause of death is believed to be due to brain hemorrhage." - NST

I think it'll really hit home this Hari Raya - which is fast approaching - how much we'll miss her. What a Real Loss.

My favourite ad:

Houston, we have problemces...

Head of Department, in a presentation during a Strategy Retreat:

"... we have to take action to rectify all our department problemces."

'nuff said.

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Edit:
Actually, I might have misquoted him. I really didn't register ANY other part of the sentence except that last word.

RIP, Jacko & Farrah

Via SMS:
Dad: Ur king of pop, MJ, died of heart attack. So, finally he Beat It. Uh.
Me: Farrah Fawcett passed too. Guess the angel went back to heaven.

And you wonder where I get it from.

P/S: The "Uh" only registered several minutes later. My dad is a Genius.

Review: Blood: The Last Vampire

Total waste of money.

The demon/vampire figure they came up with was a joke.
Literally.
Like the whole theatre laughed at how ridiculous it looked kind of joke.
Like I nearly snorted my Sprite kind of joke.

Saya was better than Jackie Chan in the old days of Drunken Master. She could whoop like 60 vamps, single handed, without a scratch.

Character development was limp. We were all waiting for SOMETHING to happen. ANYTHING.

The ending was crap.
After all that build up, it was a real let-down.

Wouldn't watch it again if you paid for tickets.
Well, maybe if the popcorn was good...
Must find my DVD. I'm sure the anime version wasn't that bad... or was it?

Review: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

WTF was that cyborg/robot that can mimic human skin/WHATEVER doing in that movie??????
Never mind that she looked uncannily like that alien in Species, but did her robot have to channel Species too???
Desperation isn't an excuse - the franchise is doing Monstrously well.
So ... WTF?????

Also...
If you're going to kick Devestator's arse, with one shot (and let's not focus on how you're trying to please WMD conspiracy theorists with that "top secret rail gun"), why can't you do the same with the other damn robots? Are they further from the sea than that one particular bot climbing that pyramid?
WTF?????

It isn't fair that Constructicons get a role and Dinobots were left out *pout*
Roland, particularly, was miffed.
Though there was a nice leopard-type-bot that was quite nicely animated...

Never mind the 2 somewhat irritating robots you chucked in as spare change (personally, I thought they were kind of cute in a redneck/stereotype latino way)...
But to have a DREAM / WHITE LIGHT SEQUENCE to re-form the matrix from DUST?
SERIOUSLY.
WTF?????

Having ranted, the special effects were Excellent. The transforming robots, particularly, got the royal treatment in CGI. Really Excellent Stuff.

Optimus' voice made me wonder if it's wrong to want to hump a robot.
Bumblebee got a larger roll. Yay! :)
Those actors in uniform? Yummy!

I got emotionally involved when they killed Optimus. Yeah yeah I'm a wuss, whatever.
They've got some nice writing - really funny sequences - but honestly, you'd be hard pressed to remember them when the nice shiney robots enter stage left.

I'm definitely going to watch it again.
And leaving my ranting at the door, I'd probably notice more of the shineyyyyyy...

Cost Rationalisation

Email fr my president:

Cost rationalisation is about cutting wasteful expenses or unwarranted expenses.
It's about spending wisely.
It's about cutting "bad costs' (a management term).
It does not mean we do not spend when we need to invest in growth and quality.

We need hand towels.
Cleanliness is godliness.

Thank you

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Reading between the lines, me thinks his bathroom has run out of paper towels.
Rest assured, Pres.
I've informed the cleaners.

H1N1

Please to be washing your hands often.
Please not to be wheezing/coughing/sneezing into my airspace/officespace.

Thank you very muchly.