In 240 hours, yeah don't count, it's 10 days, I'll be on the airplane heading for Seoul. The heart of South Korea, that's where this year's Siggraph Asia is held. It's gonna be a real fruitful trip, widening my horizons, establishing new contacts, and probably learn how to survive in a negative-celcius condition. May God truly bless me for that. I've this strong anti-feeling that I would walk around in the darn cold with nostrils stuffed. On a not-so-funny note, I pray that the tension between the North and South would lessen (God! At least for the period when we're on their lands!) Nah, that's a joke. I'm all-out for total world-peace, although anyone who has a mind to think, probably knows that this is beyond the bounds of possibility.

Putting those aside, a real quick checklist for this trip.

Here goes:

Down Jacket
Parka
Lots of Cotton Shirts
Thermal Garments
Checkered-Scarf
Sunscreen
Lip balm
Heating pads
Gloves
Some good jeans
Lots of Socks
Boots

Passport
Money
Credit Card
How to speak Korean
Camera
Handphone
Umbrella
Toiletries, including tons of tissue
Garments

Name cards
A photo of my mum and girlfriend

And, uh... probably my SNSD album.

I'm still deciding whether I need a fleece hat or a pair of ear-muffs. The need to spend so much money.

*Sigh* Just to save my ass from the cold.

While searching the web, I came across this story, which was told by my pastor several times before. It is truly interesting and amazing, so might as well share it.

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An old story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.

As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way. As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "This is good!"

"What do you mean,'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"

"If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you."

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"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28)

Situations may not always seem pleasant while we are in them, but the promise of God is clear. If we love Him and live our lives according to His precepts, even that which seems to be bleak and hopeless will be turned by God for His glory and our benefit.

God knows. Trust in Him.
And I always pray that He will show me the way.

Having watched all seven, well six-and-a-half episodes of Harry Potter, including the latest "H.P. and the Deathly Hallows", it kind of reminded me how far those main leads have grown, becoming seasoned actors and actresses, developing strong characters within themselves, and not to mention, grown into much mature and beautiful people. With not a single hint of doubt, someday they'll be in the professional league, where all the huge shots are.

Talking about money sense, people as young as twenty-something, to mention some, Chad Hurley, Andrew Gower, not to forget, facebook-creator Mark Zuckerburg has already carved their names on the youngest millionaire's list. Younger? Justin Bieber. Love him or hate him, I bet everyone knows he has the money to retire - now. The average age of the millionaires is dropping, people (kids rather) are earning their huge bucks and living the high-life, real young.

Applying it to me, I always ask myself this three questions: What am I now? What am I doing? Where am I heading?

I don't envy or am jealous of their successes, I rather see them as a target, as an aim. Born with no silver, golden, or platinum whatsoever spoon in my mouth, I've to work my butt up. Well, thank God for this family, my dear mother especially, whom suffered so much, bore me and painstakingly raising me and my brother up. I swear I'm gonna give her a good life, and by the way, I'm not about to waste my life away.

Life is precious, and it's all about taking chances. Grabbing opportunities. Helping the ones in need. Giving back to the society. Having fun. I got big dreams too, to earn big bucks, live the high-life, to travel around the globe. The target. And don't tell me I can't do it, because I will, and prove you wrong.

"One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching."

And I will make damn sure, that mine's gonna be an epic blockbuster movie.

Storyline: 5.8/10

Visual Efx: 8.9/10

Sound Efx: 8.5/10

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series always fail to attract me, to grab one of them and actually read it. I'd watched the previous six installations though, and the 7th one - Deathly Hallows Part I, is kind of disjointed. For some moments during the screening, I can "catch no ball", it's either I am slow to find out what's actually happening in the movie, or I am half-asleep throughout, I see little linkage connecting this to the other six.

Where's the magic? Those awesome and cool spells that always attracts the audience, I see little. I'd admit after "Chamber of Secrets", I've little expectations on the next coming Harry Potter movies.

Well, on the brighter side, the iconic trio, Harry Potter(Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger(Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley(Rupert Grint) do have some good acting skills. To be honest, although I'm no Harry Potter die-hard fan, I caught every series and looks like from all those Harry Potter series, the three have really become seasoned actors and actresses. Not to mention, that the visual and sound effects also feature some impressive and powerful moments, just to mention one, the chase scene - where the trio escaped from the Death Eaters. All nicely done-up.

P.S. The story of the Deathly Hallows is interesting too. (Nah, I won't spoil.)

For 145 minutes of screen-time, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I" is dull, draggy and dry. I seriously hope the second, which is the grand finale that rounds up the whole series, would be way better than this part.

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On a side note, there's two really irritating movie-goers sitting darn right behind me and discussing what would happen next, what is this, what is that, et cetera. It doesn't means if you read the bloody book, you can spoil this whole god-damn movie.

Time flies, well. Literally. Our 4th Month Anniversary just happened to be the 123rd day of us being together.

Headed to Orchard for some photography and dinner at 鹿港小镇 (by the Asian Kitchen).


Ahh yeah, this is my dearie posing with a plate of roasted duck.

Had Ben & Jerry's for dessert. To be honest, it was the first time I had it. Too much Haagen Daz and cheap ice-creams. So yeah, it was definitely an awesome night, too much we got to get back home early. Piles of assignment.

And I always ask myself, what's next? 4 years? 40 years?

On a sad note, I'll be away in Seoul for our 5th Month. Aish.

The title sounds purely absurb, but I did caught this two awesome movies this weekend - "Megamind" and "Due Date" respectively.

Our group's presentation went well, uhh.. not bad at least, and watching an animation film is the best way to unwind, re-charge and prepare for the next lap. Spending almost every single and lovely moments in the god-darn second home of ours, the computer-lab. But that's another topic altogether, back to Megamind.


Animation: 9.3/10

Storyline: 8.5/10

Verdict:
Undeniably, other than "How to Train Your Dragon", "Megamind" is one of Dreamwork's best animation production. Brilliant concoction, awesome combination of humour, emotions, plot and animation. Definitely recommended.
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When one movie is enough, you go for two. This time with my Bromance buddies.


Storyline: 7.0/10

Visual Efx: 5.8/10

Sound Efx: 7.3/10

Verdict:
Other countries rated this movie as "R", I wondered why Singapore put it as just "NC16", when the content is so, well you know- strong language, drug use, and especially the high sexual content. (But we enjoyed it anyway.)

Seeing Robert Downey Jr. known better as Tony Stark or Guy Ritchie in those action-packed movies, acting in "Due Date" is plain wierd. He's good though, I'd say better, together with Zach Galifianakis and Sunny, the masturbating bulldog, the trio makes a comical kick-ass combination.

Well, they totally got the "Bromance-factor" in them.

Gonna practice for the presentation. Our group is the first to present somemore. I thought it's good though, the ealier you do it, the faster it would be over.

But..Hope I don't stutter in front of the crowd. Improvisation, hmm..I better get a script or at least know what I'm talking about first.

Movie outing tommorow! Watching Megamind with my poly-mates.

Bromance outing on Saturday! Due Date - totally awesome for bromancing.

Final Year Project is taking it's toll on me. Well, slowly. It's only the 4th week into the semester, and sometimes I just felt like doing nothing. But I can't, it is my responsibilty to lead and organise the group (I found out that director does not equals to leader. God), and I always wanted to finish it good.

We finally had a schedule planned for the whole semester, so far, so good. I hope that the four of us are able to keep up with this planning, do it well, present this piece of project, get an goodawesome grade and graduate TOGETHER. We are definitely not leaving anyone behind, nobody wants to anyway.

Things to do *by this week*
- More concept art
- CA1 Presentation
- Romance Outing
- Bromance Outing
- Gym
- Quiet time
- Read a book
- Read baking recipes
- Copy them
- Bake something

Well, I don't know if I have enough time to accomplish all of this tasks, but I'll try my best to clear the important ones first. And thank God for the cross, my loved family and friends, for I'd break-down without them.

"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

- 2 Corinthians 12:10

Another secondary school class gathering, and here we go, let's watch a movie.


Storyline: 9.0/10

Visual Efx: 6.1/10

Sound Efx: 7.0/10

Have you ever sat down on your couch and wondered how the number-one website started? Yes, that's right - Facebook. The creator, well so-called, (go check out the movie if you like to find out more), Mark Zuckerberg, just like any other students in Harvard. One fall night in 2003, there's this idea that popped inside his head and quickly worked on it. What begins in his dorm room, soon becomes a global social networking site, with no doubt - a revolutionary for communication.

Six years later, with more than 500 million friends currently, Boom. With a current net worth of US$6.9 billion. Ladies and gentlemen, may we put our hands together and welcome Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest billionaire in history, the creator of Facebook.

The Social Network is more of how Facebook started and how Zuckerberg got into conflicts and law-suits with his partners. It is definitely not a movie on himself. Actually after Zuckerberg was told about the film, he responded, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive."

But still, it's out. Great for general knowledge, at least now you know how the website you logged-on to 3-hours per day started.

ALOR STAR: The floods in Kedah claimed the lives of two young sisters yesterday, bringing the total number of fatalities in the state to four since Monday.
The situation in Perlis is still precarious with two-thirds of the state inundated by floodwaters, while in Kelantan it is easing up.

To date, however, more than 33,000 victims are being housed in relief centres in the three states.

Taken from New Straits Time:
http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/33_000inshelters/Article/#ixzz14HYrSLKy
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Alor Star, the route we took to Langkawi (the bus terminal and jetty is situated there), got flooded by heavy rains on Monday. Luckily, the six of us went there last month, and not this month. If we head to Langkawi at this period of time, who knows what might happen. Luck? Fortunate? Maybe not. I'd rather say - God's grace.

I urge you, readers to also pray for those who are affected, be it those locals or foreigners, that they would recieve no harm and return home safely, and may the flood reside real soon. May God show mercy.

Condolences to the deceased's families. May God bless their souls.

You know, sometimes testimonies state that God work in wonders. At those time, I don't understand even a bit.

.. Maybe this is what they meant.

(Taken on instantshift.com)

Maybe one day I should do something like this,
it's so fascinating.

It's a small world after all.