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I still recall, while waiting for my A levels results in Singapore, I applied through the press to be an air stewardess for Singapore Airlines (SIA). I got a free flight trip from Penang to Singapore to attend the interview. There were team building games and we were accessed on our skills in a group. We also had to swim 50m across the length of the pool with 4 persons viewing us. I feel like we are in a beauty pagent contest with eagle eyes focused on us. For the successful applicants, they have to go for
flight attendant school for 3 months to train on becoming an air stewardess.

And for those with a measure of crooked teeth, they will undergo orthodontic treatment all paid for by SIA. I remember a gal from Penang trying for the 14th attempt to be accepted in this flight attendant career and she still could not make it because of her poor spoken English. She was in fact, very beautiful and slim but it was a pity that she could not converse well in English which was mandatory for the flight attendant career application.

‘Anwarized’ - meaning: To get back-stabbed … i.e. People who have been anwarized may contact the DPM’s hotline

‘ Badawized’ - meaning: To be stupified … i.e. Malaysians seem to be badawized by the media which reports biased news

‘Najibbed’ - meaning: To be blown to bits … i.e. In this country,you better be careful with what you say, you can be najibbed otherwise

‘ Petrad’ - meaning: To be exposed … i.e. Lately the BN coalition has been petrad in many ways

‘KayJayed’ - meaning: To shout for no reason i.e. He kayjayed in the Dewan and appeared like a moron

‘Balaed’ - meaning: To vanish suddenly i.e. The opposition balaed from the meeting in protest

‘Lingamed’ - meaning: To repeat redundantly i.e. The Information Minister lingamed the same rubbish in the debate recently.

‘ Soileked’ - meaning: To be caught on tape i.e. People have stopped using budget hotels as they are afraid of being soileked.

As short Malaysian fiction :
Altantuya was cold bloodedly najibbed after she attempted to petra Najib for anwarising her and not making the promised payments. Razak was badawized into covering up for Najib while Najib balaed from the scene. Razak was actually anwarized . However Najib lingamed that he had nothing to do with it and has been kayjaying on the topic in an attempt to prove his innocence. Nevertheless, some quarters have been threatening that they have soileked evidence that Najib was involved.

To Love Malaysia, is to know Malaysia’

I work for a company that deals with sports surfaces like installing tennis courts, futsal courts, basketball courts, netball courts, multipurpose courts and even children’s playground. We get enquiries from our company web site which can be found by Google Search Engine that is maintained by me. Because of the nature of our business, we need to find children’s playground equipment suppliers like manfred mantis playsets for a variety of products for our clients.

Our company mainly specialises in sports surface courts installation using black SBR rubber chips, synthetic turf and our own PU Membrane Fibre Reinforced Seamless system rubberized floor. Besides the web site, we also do calendar marketing or postage marketing sending out to various company and clients. Two years ago, we sent out to about 1,000 people all over Malaysia and last year, we cut down to about 500 postages. Our company has been quite successful in getting small projects from the public every month for our 10 workers to keep busy and to feed their families. They have work almost every day as they are paid daily wages.

This acrobatic performance is worth an Olympic Gold. Enjoy!

Before July is over, I like to state that it is my birthday month and I have treated my family some time back. I am not going to reveal the date but suffice to say that it falls in the month of July. I got my birthday ang pows from dad and youngest sister. I also got a birthday cake, 1kg chocolate sponge cake with my name on top. The photo is still in my camera and I am too lazy to install the digital camera software to my new lap top to process the photo. Because of the nature of the audience of this blog, there will be fewer photos and personal stuffs mentioned here. I also don’t want to cause jealousy and envy just by reading this blog of mine. But it will still continue to entertain with updated news now and then.

Alzheimer’s Disease is something close to my heart. That’s because my mother’s eldest sister died from the illness last year in 2007 after more than 15 years of battle with the disease. The symptoms are obvious. Initially, she forgot where she placed her pens and her personal things. There were tremors on her hands when she lifted the spoon to her mouth to feed herself. As it progressed, she also forgot names of familiar faces and at one time walked around the house naked. Her memory lapses were getting worse and eventually she could not feed herself, brush teeth or even bathe. Later on, day time nurse and night time nurse had to be called in to take care of her round the clock. She was lucky in a way because the family had the financial means to hire nurses for her and for her monthly visits to the hospital for medication. I could see that from a happy woman, she deteriorated so much and became an invalid with frequent bouts of anger and temper. Alzheimer’s disease is a debilitating illness that takes away the quality of life of the sufferer. There are links to read up more on this disease such as Alzheimer’s Memory Walk.

You know you’re not watching a formulaic comic book film when one of the highlights is a drunken rendition of “Can’t Smile Without You” by Hellboy and Abe Sapien. “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” is a more confident, assured outing than the first film and while it does not draw from Mignola’s comics for its plot it is perhaps better off for it, lacking the usual burden of comparison and expectations. “The Golden Army” is more fantastical than the first film and is less sci-fi oriented but this is the sort of thing Del Toro does exceptionally well as a writer. He never lets the fantasy become the focus of the film, instead concentrating on characters and delivering action scenes that can only be described as, forgive the crass immaturity, kickass.

As entertaining as many comic book-to-film adaptations are it is a rare event when one can call one of these films a true artistic achievement. I am convinced without a shadow of a doubt that Guillermo Del Toro’s entire career has been leading up to this film, particularly regarding his work as screenwriter here. The comedy feels less forced and is worked incredibly well into the script here, so much so that it doesn’t feel remotely unnatural when the scene of comic drunken singing leads directly without a break into one of the film’s most intensely dramatic sequences. Del Toro’s handling of character has never been better, not even with “The Devil’s Backbone”, which is still my favorite of his films, and his sheer skill and ability when it comes to telling a fairytale-esquire fantasy is astonishing, as proved in the prologue to this film. In short this is Del Toro at the top of his game and providing artistry the likes of which we rarely if ever see in summer blockbusters. It’s only fair that an astonishingly brilliant comic like “Hellboy” by an astonishingly brilliant artist like Mike Mignola is adapted this well and by someone as talented at what they do as he is.

How refreshing it is, a week after the release of “Hancock”, which to me epitomizes everything wrong with action film-making today, that we get “The Golden Army” which features hands down some of the finest action scenes we have ever seen in this sort of film. Just stunningly beautiful, well-shot, well-crafted, the sort of thing that leaves one wondering how much time and effort went into it and endlessly thankful that some really talented people went to the trouble of making the film.

The film is generally just superb on a technical level. Why am I even saying this? Of course it is. Danny Elfman composing, Guillermo Navarro serving as cinematographer, top-notch editors, fantastic special effects wizards. It’s a world-class crew that made this film. I shouldn’t be surprised at its quality but “The Golden Army” really just floored and astonished me with how good it is. The cast is also excellent, proving once again that you don’t need ‘big names’ to carry a movie. Just about everyone here is excellent, particularly Perlman with another excellent turn as Hellboy and the underrated Selma Blair as Liz Sherman.

“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” provides essentially everything a Del Toro or Mignola fan would want. I imagine it will entertain and charm many outside those circles as well with its fantastic action sequences, engaging characters, and wonderful sense of humor. I would personally go as far as calling “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”, without hesitation, the greatest film based on a comic book character that I’ve ever seen, and the second great film of the summer 2008 season and when you remember that there was not one great summer film in 2007, that is quite impressive.

An exciting adventure based on the classic Jules Verne novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Brendan Fraser (Crash, The Mummy) as a science professor whose untraditional hypotheses have made him the laughing stock of the academic community. But on an expedition in Iceland, he and his nephew stumble upon a major discovery that launches them on a thrilling journey deep beneath the Earth’s surface, where they travel through never-before-seen worlds and encounter a variety of unusual creatures. Journey to the Center of the Earth is directed by Academy Award-winning visual effects veteran Eric Brevig (Total Recall, Pearl Harbor) from a screenplay by Michael Weiss and Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin. The film is a co-venture between New Line Cinema and Walden Media.

I have to admit not being a fan of the Director, Tim Bekmambetov. Somewhat disappointed in his Russian Films Nightwatch and Daywatch. However, in his American directorial he delivers! An abundance of profanities and over the top action sequences that are beyond xtreme this movie holds your with its interesting visual techniques, humor and acting. James McAvoy (the sweet faun from the Chronicles of Narnia) plays the loser we all know, Wesley Gibbon. The guy, who just trudges through life allowing himself to be walked upon, humiliated and has no desire to escape it, except in a bottle of anti-anxiety meds. Enter a beautiful Woman, Fox (Angelie Jolie), a mysterious wise man Sloan (Morgan Freeman) and his life instantly changes from Billing Reports to Gratuitous Violence, Mastering Weaponry Skills, and Assassination. Believe me when I say what the Matrix introduced, Wanted has mastered. The director is a skilled artist at using the camera in conveying visual emotions of Wesley like I have never seen before, wait I take that back, seen it in NightWatch. I definitely recommend this deliberately humorous, action packed, violent, profane, to-the-extreme film to be seen on the big screen -

I was in Gurney Plaza’s Golden Screen Cinemas some time ago to watch Made of Honor, a warm-hearted romantic comedy. Here is the synopsis. It is crystal clear that best friends Tom (Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) are madly in love with each other, and should be together. Tom and Hannah are beautiful and good people, but apparently not smart enough to figure this out now. So we have to wait it out for the next couple hours. Yes, this is formulaic romantic comedy, and taxing one’s patience. Further complicating our pain, the fleet of writers—Adam Sztykiel, Deborah Kaplan, and Harry Elfont, depict Tom and Hannah literally on paper as smart, charming, and engaging, except for this glaring blind spot. However, despite the narrative devices and clumsy direction from Paul Weiland, I was enrolled by a scene with Michelle Monaghan. As Hannah, Monaghan looks wistfully at photos of her and Tom on her cell phone. She resonates with a sense of sadness and regret. Later Dempsey as the clued in Tom implores Hannah, “Please don’t marry him…”

A lot of “Made of Honor” is over wrought and contrived; however, Dempsey and Monaghan’s charm make you wait it out. Dempsey is the handsome engaging player lug-head, who underneath it all has a good heart. Michelle Monaghan is radiantly beautiful, funny, and smart. She is a younger Sandra Bullock. Monaghan is humorously vulnerable as Hannah, who is smart in settling for a relationship, because she fears she can’t have what she really deserves. Monaghan is amazing.

We find that Tom and Hannah (Dempsey and Monaghan) became best friends as a result of Tom’s college high jinx. Today Tom is very wealthy as a result of an idea he had for a cup holder sleeve. Hannah is the passionate art curator for the museum. Tom and Hannah are best friends with killer chemistry. Hannah is Tom’s go to date for his father Thomas Sr.’s (funny Sydney Pollack) numerous weddings. The count is up to 6. Even Thomas jokes to Tom, if Tom doesn’t marry Hannah, he’ll make her number 7. Hannah, being Tom’s tolerant and patient best bud accepts Tom’s one night stands with hot women. She is even versed in his rules for sleeping with the same woman on consecutive nights. Tom also has his buddies, including solid Felix (Kadeem Hardison), with whom he plays basketball. Tom seems to have the perfect life. Then following Tom’s father’s wedding reception, Hannah tells Tom that she has to go to Scotland for 6 weeks on business. Tom facetiously says, “What am I going to do without you?”

During her absence, Tom starts to get a clue about Hannah– being the one. So he decides to tell Hannah, that they should be together when she returns. However, Hannah returns with great news: She has fallen in love and is getting married in 2 weeks in Scotland. The guy is Colin (dashing and charming Kevin McKidd), who is a Scottish Duke and apparently the perfect guy. Really. Tom and his crew later get a glimpse of this at a ridiculous pick up basketball game experience. Anyway, Hannah asks Tom to be her Maid of Honor. Tom accepts. His bud Felix reminds him that he can “steal the bride” from inside the wedding. Predictably the rest of the Brides Maids are annoyed with Tom, particularly Maid of Honor runner-up cousin Melissa (angry Busy Philipps), who Tom slept with once.

For the most part “Made of Honor” is by the numbers romantic comedy. It does manage a touching turn, because we really want to know why Hannah ends up choosing Colin. It is transparent to us that Colin is the perfect guy, but he is not the perfect guy for Hannah. Fortunately, Dempsey and Monaghan’s charm and chemistry for the most part wins over “Maid of Honor”. Sydney Pollack provides welcome comic relief and staid fatherly advice. Kathleen Quilan is great in the supporting role of Hannah’s mother Joan. Too bad she doesn’t have a bigger role. But she has a moving moment with Monaghan as Mom talks about Hannah’s late father.

“Made of Honor” is enjoyable for what it is: cookie cutter romantic comedy. We can suspend our disbelief, because Dempsey and Monaghan are great together.