It happens only once in a lifetime! You’ll never get such a number again. So I guess I would like to wish everyone a wonderful day!
If you feel a sense of deja vu reading this, that's because I posted a similar post with the exact same wordings (except for the numbers) last year. Read it HERE.
Last year, the special day was on 20th October. That gave us 20102010.
So next year it will be 20th Decemberwhich gives us 20122012.
While everyone was obsessed with the number 111111 on the 11th November 2011, I was more attracted to this date 20112011. The number 111111 may sound special but according to feng shui, there is really nothing significant about this date.
There were many couples who chose this date to get married, but feng shui expert Joey Yap had tweeted that it was actually not a very good day to do so! Oh well, hopefully all the couples who got married on that day would live happily ever after and not follow the trend set by Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries! LOL! OK just kidding there!
There were also many babies being born on 111111. Now that's really something cos I bet the parents would have no problem remembering their child's birthday!
Anyway, I do not consider 111111 very special as it will occur again on the 11th November 2111, which is 100 years later. Whereas 20112011 will never ever occur again anytime in the future!
Since we are talking about dates, here are some important dates coming up. Do take note of them, even if some of the dates do not concern you. *hint hint*
Dec 1st 2011- My birthday! to me!!
Dec 25th 2011- Merry Xmas! Best time of the year!
Jan 1st 2012- Happy New Year 2012!! Will this be the final year for humankind? Personally, I don't think so!
Jan 23rd & 24th 2012- Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year Of The Dragon!
Feb 1st 2012 - Federal Territory Day. PJ will get jammed badly as many KL-lites throng PJ streets and malls.
Feb 4th 2012 - The day your feng shui changes so be prepared for it!!
Feb 7th 2012 - Thaipusam Day Feb 14th 2012 - Valentine's Day
Mar 11th 2012 - My Very First Blog's 4th anniversary! Started way back on this day and month in 2008, I have come a long way in the world of blogging! I am still loving it as blogging is my passion. And I hope to continue blogging for many, many more years to come, perhaps for life!
Apr 1st 2012 - Don't be the fool on this April Fool's Day!
Apr 30th 2012 - Last day to submit your personal income tax if you are an employee.
May 1st 2012 - Labour Day. Yay!!
May 5th 2012 - Wesak Day
July 8th - Launching of iPhone 5! This time it comes with the incredible "Beam me up Scotty" feature that will render airlines and air travel obsolete! Just kidding!
Aug 19th & 20th 2012 - Hari Raya Puasa. Yay! Will be purposely driving around KL.
Aug 30th 2012 - Hungry Ghost Day. Be careful not to roam the streets at night during Hungry Ghost month from Aug 17th till Sept 15th.
Aug 31st 2012 - National Day. Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!
Sept 16th 2012 - Malaysia Day. Holiday! Holiday! Holiday!
Sept 30th 2012 - Mooncake Festival. Please donate me some durian mooncakes! Thank you.
Oct 26th 2012 - Hari Raya Haji
Nov 7th 2012 - My 3rd anniversary with Twitter! Created a Twitter account on this day and month in 2009, I have no regrets about joining Twitter and I'm loving it more and more! Come follow me on Twitter if you have not already!
Nov 13th 2012 - Deepavali
Nov 15th 2012 - Awal Muharam
Dec 1st 2012 - My birthday again!! *hint hint*
Dec 20th - It's 20122012! Awesome!
Dec 25th - Xmas Day. Merry Xmas!!
Dec 31st - Wow! We survived the Doomsday prediction! Let's celebrate!!!
1. Should I name this post Random Notes 23B? Most Chinese people do not like the number 24 as it sounds almost like 'easy to die' in Cantonese.
2. It is amusing to enter a lift in a condo and see buttons 4, 13, 14 and 24 missing. Instead, the 4th floor is replaced with 5th, 13th floor replaced with 16th and so on. So if you press button 25, do you know which floor you are going to actually? Let's see if you can do the maths! Haha!
3. I went to watch 'The Secret Life of Nora' musical at Istana Budaya KL a few weeks ago. I went there with high expectation but unfortunately it was not awesome enough for me.
I can only say that Adibah Noor and Aznil Nawawi's funny antics plus the outstanding dance choreography saved the show from being average.
4. Last month I received a gift from Filipino blogger Bluedreamer! It was a Kernel-Pult plush toy from the Plants vs Zombies game. Thanks Bluedreamer for this cute gift!
5. I had flu and a really bad cough a few weeks back that would not go away. The cough was so bad I could not sleep at night. I normally don't see a doctor for flu but I almost resorted to seeing one for this horrible cough. Then, my mom asked me to eat this leaf.
Do you know what leaf this is? I don't, but I have this plant in my garden LOL! I ate the leaf raw and I must tell you it was bitter and had an aftertaste that I did not like! But guess what? After eating just two leaves one night, I immediately stopped coughing!
It was like a miracle! Of course the cough was not completely gone but I would say it was reduced by as much as 80 percent! I even had a good sleep that night! It was definitely better than any cough medicine I know!
6. It had been some time since I last dine at the New Paris Restaurant in SS2 PJ. I had the opportunity to go for dinner with my brother and sis-in-law at this famous restaurant last month. The dish I liked best was this - watermelon chicken! So yummy!
7. Are you a fan of X Factor? Recently, I was engrossed in X Factor USA reality show on 8TV. Having been bored to death with American Idol, this new show is like a breath of fresh air! In fact I like all the 4 judges here especially Nicole Scherzinger.
There were so much drama and unexpected twists in this reality show that I was hooked. Besides, the contestants are all so talented, although not all of them have the X factor, I must say.
8. Do you like 'pun choy'? I am not a fan - in fact, I find it boring! - but I thought this one from Restoran LYJ in Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh quite good.
One side of the poon choy
The other side of the poon choy
The restaurant facade
9. Christmas is coming soon!! I know, I know, I should not be talking about Christmas when Deepavali is not even over yet, but I just love the Xmas mood! Cant wait for another Christmassy December and end of the year holidays!
I wonder if 1Utama shopping mall will put up this cute snowman again after it went missing for the past few years?
1. I received a gift from blogger SK the other day. It was an unexpected award for Top Commenter in his blog! Thanks for the award, SK! I really love it!
Oh! He also left a message on the other side of the award! Nice! : )
2. My stickers from GetGlue arrived last week! Are you a member of GetGlue? For the uninitiated, GetGlue is an entertainment based social networking site. If you are into movies, TV shows, sports, celebrities and songs, then GetGlue is for you!
By checking in on the website, you can earn points and stickers! These stickers were mailed to me all the way from USA at no cost to me! Interested? Join and follow me HERE.
3. Two weeks ago, my family and I visited Putrajaya Floria 2011, a Flower and Garden Festival. We went there after dinner, so it was pretty dark by the time we reached there.
I did not really get to enjoy the flowers as the lightings were insufficient. Perhaps we should have gone there in the day time. But I enjoyed walking around and reading historical facts which were displayed on the side of this walkway.
OK, to those of you who have been to Putrajaya, do you know what is the name of this bridge? It was beautifully lighted up that night.
Although I did not get to see the flowers properly in the dark, I was lucky enough to see a float on the lake. There were a few floats that night but only this float from Tourism Malaysia were near enough for me to take a shot at with my camera.
Here are a few magnified pictures of the float. This is the famous Petronas Twin Towers.
Orangutan from Sabah and next to it, the Rafflesia flower - the biggest flower on earth!
Can you see the fishes and the divers?
The Flower & Garden Festival had already ended its run. Perhaps there will be Putrajaya Floria 2012 ? You can read more about the festival HERE.
4. If you remember, I wrote about my favourite actress Angelina Jolie in a Louis Vuitton ad last month. To recall, read HERE.
Now comes this full length Louis Vuitton commercial featuring Angelina Jolie. I love, love, love this video! Since I am in the midst of blogging about my Cambodia trip, I thought I would like to share with you all this nice video.
In it, you can see Angelina talked about her journey in Cambodia, how she felt about the people there and what made it so special for her. Fast forward to the 6th minute, and you will see her talking about eating crickets and spiders! And of course, you'll get to see how she was filmed in the commercial. Enjoy!!
Coming Up Next : Baphuon And Terrace Of The Elephants
Since I am in the midst of blogging about my Cambodia trip which took place last year, I thought it was fitting to add in this short post about my favourite actress, Angelina Jolie.
What does Angelina Jolie have to do with Cambodia? Quite a lot, it seems.
Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider
After filming Tomb Raider in Cambodia in the year 2000, Angelina founded an animal sanctuary there and even adopted a boy called Rath Vibol from an orphanage. This boy is now her son known as Maddox Chivan.
Angelina also used to hang out a lot at The Red Piano along the infamous Pub Street, and now the restaurant even offers a drink called Tomb Raider cocktail!
So when I heard the latest news about Angelina Jolie being featured in luxury brand Louis Vuitton's ad, I was interested to check it out. The ad was amazing. I love it!
This Louis Vuitton ad is however, rather strange. It has Angelina Jolie, reportedly without any make up, sitting on a wooden boat in a swamp in Cambodia's Siem Reap province. On top of that, she's actually wearing her own clothes and carrying her very own Louis Vuitton bag - a USD10,700 monogrammed Alto bag that is no longer in production.
I am not very sure about the "no make up" claim though. Looking at the photo, I thought she had mascara on? Or maybe I am wrong?
The ad was shot by legendary photographer Annie Liebovitz. It was part of Louis Vuitton's Core Values campaign which had before this featured U2's Bono and actor Sean Connery.
Critics were quick to condemn the ad, saying that it blatantly used a poor country like Cambodia as a backdrop for Louis Vuitton's luxury goods. Some said it smacks of hypocrisy and was done in poor taste.
Angelina Jolie in The Tourist
Personally, I am thinking along this line - would you carry a USD10,700 bag with you on a boat cruising on a swamp in an under-developed country? I don't think so. But then again, this is Angelina Jolie. What is USD10,700 to her?
Oh well, seeing that Angelina is my favourite actress, I am quick to forgive. Besides, she had reportedly given a big chunk of her rumoured USD10 million pay cheque for doing this ad, to charity. And don't you think this ad will put Cambodia in the spotlight perhaps attracting more tourists to the country? So stop being so negative, dear critics!
According to Louis Vuitton's executive vice president Pietro Beccari, people are not used to see Angelina Jolie in this fashion. "I like the fact that it's a real moment," he said and added "This travel message we give through personal journeys is a fundamental one for the brand. This campaign is about a very special person and a very special journey."
Louis Vuitton is no stranger to supporting a huge list of charities. Perhaps they are creating this illusion that we are doing someone somewhere some good when we fork out US10,700 for a bag.
Oh, by the way, now that the ad is released worldwide, I think it would be wise for Louis Vuitton to start producing that Alto bag again.
OK, confession time. I did not know the meaning of this wordINSIDIOUS.
A check with Merriam-Webster site revealed the following definitions: 1. awaiting a chance to entrap (treacherous) 2. harmful but enticing (seductive) 3. having a gradual and cumulative effect (subtle)
If you didn't already know, INSIDIOUS is the title of a new horror movie playing in cinemas right now. As a horror movie fan, I heard some good reviews about this movie and decided to catch it yesterday.
Before you proceed, take note - SPOILERS AHEAD!
But first, you might want to watch this trailer from the movie.
Frankly speaking, I was not at all impressed with the trailer. It didn't look that scary to me, but on learning that INSIDIOUS is a collaboration between Saw co-creators James Wan & Leigh Wannell and the Paranormal Activity team comprising Oren Peli, Jason Blum and Steven Schneider, I decided to give it a go.
Director James Wan on the set of Insidious
I did not expect it to be scarier than The Exorcist - still the scariest horror movie to me - and it wasn't. Well, I was hoping it would be scarier than The Eye, my No.1 horror movie from Hong Kong directed by the Pang Brothers, but it still wasn't.
You know how it's like after I watched The Eye? Right after I stepped out of the cinema, I started to imagine things whether I was in the lift, in my room alone or in the bathroom! The Eye really freaked me out for weeks! Now that's what I call a real horror movie!!
In fact, I even find The Ring (the original Japanese horror movie), Shutter (the original Thai horror movie) and The Exorcism Of Emily Rose much scarier than Insidious.
The Ring was horribly disturbing, especially with that video thingy; Shutter gave me the goose bumps especially with the nightmarish shocking ending and Emily Rose made me worry about waking up at 3am every night!
Insidious? Let's just say I was not at all traumatized leaving the cinema hall. Haha! Perhaps I watched too many horror movies and it's getting harder to scare me? Maybe.
But that does not mean Insidious is not a good movie. It was simply not scary enough for me, but it was engrossing enough to keep me at the edge of my seat, at least for the first half of the movie. Yes, it was more suspenseful than it was scary, at least to me.
Briefly, the movie is about a couple Josh and Renai Lambert (played by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne respectively) whom upon moving into their new home with their three kids discovers that their house is haunted and that their son Dalton has inexplicably fallen into a coma. In order to escape the haunting and save their son, they move again only to discover a shocking truth - it is not their house that was haunted, but their son!
Now that revelation may be shocking for the couple but definitely not to us viewers. That's because the filmmakers had already revealed that the boy is the source of the hauntings in the trailer! I thought this sort of hurt the movie a bit since I would have preferred to discover it myself during the movie! Oh well, maybe they needed a twist since not many would want to watch another movie about some haunted house!
Anyway, to cut the story short, Dalton is found to be gifted at astral travel in his sleep. Don't know what astral travel is?
Astral travel or astral projection is an out-of-body experience where the person who practises it is able to project his "astral self" or consciousness out of his physical body and travel in the astral plane. It appears that some people are more gifted in this than others but experts in astral travel claimed that everyone can do it if one practises enough.
In fact, some experts said that all of us travel out of our body in our sleep every night! Read more HERE.
Since astral travel seems like a foreign topic to most people, many are afraid of trying it out of fear that they may not be able to return to their physical body. Some people are also afraid that evil spirits will possess their physical body while they are away on astral travel.
And this is exactly what this movie Insidious is trying to exploit. That fear that you cannot return to your physical body and forever trapped in the astral world while an evil spirit takes over. Creepy.
Experts on astral travel had however, debunked such thoughts as myths. Some maintained that you are connected to your physical body by a silver cord and this cord cannot be severed under any circumstances unless you are to leave your body forever like in the case of death. Others said that actually it is only your consciousness that is traveling, your soul is still in your physical body. But with no concrete proof of this, would you believe in the experts?
The bottomline is, are you daring enough to try astral travel? If yes, here is a step-by-step guide on how you can travel out of your body. Do it at your own risk yes? : )
Back to the movie, Dalton is highly gifted in astral projection and because he had traveled a bit too far into the dark realm called "The Further", he could not find his way back. His physical body lapses into a coma and this attracts all those spirits who are craving to possess his body.
That certainly explains all the hauntings that the couple experienced, but that's not their only problem. It seems that in the dark realm, there is a demon who is hell-bent to possess their son's body and will stop at nothing to achieve it.
And from then onwards, the movie started to remind me of Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist with the arrival of the three ghost hunters with their gadgets and mumbo jumbos. It all still remain quite engrossing and entertaining until the descend into the dark realm.
I was really quite put off with all those dead souls, like the bunch of dead family members in the living room, the laughing child that runs across the hallway, and the demon himself. It was not even scary anymore! Oh by the way, did anyone notice that the demon looks like Darth Maul from Star Wars? Or is it just me?
And to see Dalton with his legs chained to the floor presumably by the demon? I mean, seriously? This just makes it look like a scene taken out from Charmed or Supernatural! Gosh!
So yes, the movie started off really well and managed to build up its suspense and momentum effectively. There were many creepy moments like the raspy whispers on the baby monitor and the front door of the house found wide open in the middle of the night. And of course the sudden appearance of the demon behind Josh almost threw me off my seat!
The actors all did a great job and this include excellent performances from Barbara Hershey as Josh's mom and Lin Shaye as the ghostbuster.
Unfortunately, it started to go downhill from the moment Josh crossed over to the other side towards the later part of the movie. Maybe they showed too much of the ghosts? Over exposure is never a good thing in horror movies and I think the filmmakers made a mistake of doing just that.
Also I thought some of the scenes in the later part of the movie looked funny and probably a bit corny. If they wanted to be funny, then I think that Sam Raimi did a better job with his movie Drag Me To Hell. Now that was one hell of an entertaining horror movie!
Still, I consider Insidious to be one of the better horror movies among all those mediocre horror movies churned out by Hollywood. I am rating it as follows: Scariness : 6/10 Suspense : 9/10 Storyline : 7/10 Acting : 9/10
One thing's for sure though. I will never attempt astral travel. Not after watching this movie!
I was a little late in catching the movie Source Code which created quite a stir recently. I am glad that I did not read any reviews before watching it. Just like the movie Inception, people were either hating it or loving it. I belong to the latter category.
Many people did not like the movie because it did not make any sense to them. And I don't think I can really blame them. It is hard to understand about parellel universes or alternate realities, which was explained quite briefly in the movie. In fact, I don't think I am smart enough to really understand completely anything that has to do with Quantum Physics!
But first, a little about the movie Source Code. It is basically about Colter Stevens (played by Jake Gyllenhaal ) an American Army helicopter pilot who woke up on a train and discovered he had assumed the identity of another man named Sean Fentress. Before he could learn more about himself, the train exploded and he found himself in some kind of pod where he soon learnt that he was in a project to save Chicago from a bomber via a program that enters him into alternate realities.
This is as brief as I could get. For the full story, read HERE.
The movie got me engrossed right from the beginning all the way to the end. The way the story developed each time Colter enters a different reality was really interesting. Character development was also executed perfectly and I really think the actors and actresses did a great job!
I particularly like Vera Farmiga as Colleen Goodwin, the mission controller. Her facial expression was excellent and her acting very believable.
Michelle Monaghan who played Christina Warren, Colter's love interest, was very natural and Jake Gyllenhaal was totally warm and compelling in his role as Colter.
The only problem with the movie is the inability of the audiences to fully understand the plot. Or to be more exact, the scientific theory behind it. My friend who watched this movie with me thought the Source Code is a simulation device. It is not, as told by Dr Rutledge (played by Jeffrey Wright) to Colter at one point in the movie. This is not Matrix or Avatar.
A lot of people thought this is about time travel and that Colter was travelling back to the past to uncover who the bomber is. Again, this is NOT correct. There is no time travel involved at all. If it is time travel, Colter would have gone back to the past and changed history. But he could not and did not. Those people who were killed in the train were still dead and even after he prevented the bombing and saved everyone towards the end of the movie, they still remain dead.
Source Code is all about parellel universes or alternate realities, a mind boggling topic even for the most educated and intelligent amongst us. If you go into the cinema with absolute zero knowledge about this topic, you will have a hard time trying to make sense of it all. Consequently, most people will come out of the cinema saying the plot is unbelievable or ridiculous or even far-fetched.
Luckily for me, I was exposed to this topic of parellel universes a few years ago. Thus, I think I was a bit more successful in making sense of the movie and more accepting of the storyline.
So what exactly are parellel universes? If I am not mistaken, Quantum Mechanics defines parellel universes as universes that are separated from each other by a single quantum event.
I am definitely not an expert but this is what I understand from my limited knowledge about parellel universes. It would seem that there is an unlimited universes or realities co-existing with our present reality. All the universes are happening in the moment of NOW. Do I make any sense here?
Simply put, whatever choices you make defines your present reality. In another reality, you will be making a different choice which leads to different pathways or consequences. For example, you are reading this post now. You decide to leave a comment after you finished reading. This is your present reality. In another reality, you are reading this post and decide not to leave any comments. Your actions in both realities will lead to different consequences which will lead to more decisions to be made later which will play out in yet many other realities or parellel universes.
In other words, all the different pathways you choose are already happening all at once, but in different realities. Mind boggling? Absolutely.
Back to the movie Source Code. OK, this is my take on what actually happened. I may be wrong here and this is of course, open for discussion.
In the very beginning before the movie even starts, there is this man named Sean Fentress who got onto a train and a bomber blowed up the train, killing him and all the passengers inside. The crazed bomber planned to continue with a second bombing. To prevent this, the Government or the authorities needed to find out the identity of the bomber. They enlisted the help of Dr Rutledge who is the inventor of Source Code, a program that can place someone's consciousness into another during the latter's last eight minutes of life at a different reality.
Dr Rutledge and his team discovered that Colter Stevens who supposedly died in a war, was most suitable to take over Sean and therefore, they kept him alive (or at least his brain alive) and connected him to the Source Code.
Colter was sent to a different reality each time to progressively identify the bomber. As you can see, all the different realities were almost the same but with some events changed because Colter took a slightly different action in each of them. Basically, he was just jumping from one parellel universe to another. In the process, he fell in love with Christina Warren, a passenger in the train.
Finally, he found out the identity of the bomber and informed Colleen and Dr Rutledge. With the information, the bomber in this present reality (which I shall call the Original Universe) was tracked down and caught, thus prevented a second bombing.
Dr Rutledge decided to erase Colter's memory so that he could use Colter again to help with another case. But Colter himself wanted to die, so that he is free to go to the alternate reality to save Christina and the passengers of the train and live happily ever after in that reality. He managed to convince Colleen to help him.
So Colleen pushed the button and Colter died in the original universe but lived happily in the parellel universe. And the movie should have ended there and then and I would get out of the cinema happy and satisfied.
But no, they had to come out with a twist at the ending and that's where I started to get confused.
In the last part of the movie, Colleen received a text message from Colter on her phone. Now a text message sent from a parellel universe cannot possibly reach the original universe. So I figured that the last scenes in the movie are actually showing Colleen in an alternate universe, the same universe where Colter is already living happily, having saved Christina and the passengers in the train!
And because in that universe, the bombings did not happen and no one died, that means the Source Code had not even been used yet! Yet, how come we see Colter's body there and connected to the Source Code? He's supposed to be alive in that universe!
But of course I forgot! Colter's consciousness was already in Sean Fentress so the person who saved everyone on the train was actually Sean but with Colter's consciousness! In other words, Colter has two consciousness in that particular universe, one in Sean and the other in his own body! Astounding!
I hoped I figured it out correctly. But I may be wrong so if you have a different idea, do share with me here.
There are still a few unanswered questions.
One, why did Christina's face glitched in one of the scenes? She is real and alive in that particular universe so why the glitch? This is not a simulation!
Two, why and how did they choose Sean for Colter's consciousness to go into? There are so many other passengers in that train they could have chosen.
Three, why did Colter felt cold in the pod at one point in the movie? Besides, the pod is not real, but only what his consiousness sees.
Still, I enjoyed this movie tremendously. I'm rating it 8.5/10. Entertaining and absorbing, with an ingenious plot and superb acting all round. A movie you cannot afford to miss!
to me!!
