Hark back to simpler times...

...but I would not delude myself.


I was looking back to the old entries preserved on my private blog, and realized that a year ago, things were really picking up for me. Out of the depressing period of April - June, I had found my answer to looking at things, and came up with the solution to lift myself out of that depression.

Sometimes there are just simple answers to tough questions, 'cos the answers are simply right there, in front of you.

I realized that many things have changed since then, but truth and lie still remain my objective benchmark (against, say, good and evil). And the truth is that my answer still remained unchallenged and unchanged.

And back then, like now, the only voice that really matters is the one inside me. It has never stopped telling me. It has never changed what it's telling me.

Same end, different means. That's all.

You Are Skilled

You are balanced and competent. You value harmony. Other people see you as outgoing, hyper, and even a bit overwhelming. Your ideal romantic relationship is peaceful, romantic, and private. You do best in tasks that require you to be flexible, creative, and playful.

The Shape Test

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Revenge of the Fallen would have been great...

...if not for those bloody jocks in the audience.

I mean, seriously, the Fallen had just literally squashed an entire attack force of prehistoric humans in the prologue, and all the jocks could bother to care about is Megan Fox. Oh yeah, when the first frame of Megan Fox came up, there were catcalls and whistles. It was like they were at a cabaret in Thailand or something (that's incredibly ironic but I don't care; I bet these jocks have no idea what's the meaning of 'ironic' anyway). Apparently, whatever passes for a story is crushed beneath the heels of Megan Fox for these jocks. Brainless bunch of dickheads with blood pumping through their penises 24/7.

That said, for the original Transformers fans, there's a great deal of homages to the original G1 series. Most particularly, I enjoyed the classic Megatron-Starscream relationship. There's no other word to describe it; Starscream is Megatron's bitch here. However, I cannot exactly say that Starscream's scheming nature came across adequately.

I was most anticipating Megatron's resurrection, and I was not disappointed. The way the Decepticons tore apart one of their own to grant more parts to Megatron's reconstruction just showed the Decepticons' willingness to rid themselves of the weakest link, like how, in the 1989 movie, they were willing to jettison their injured comrades, including Megatron (by Starscream), into space. Immediately after that was the scene with the Fallen on the Nemesis. The way Megatron regarded the Fallen was so Vader-Sidious, punctuated by "My Master" and "Apprentice", with the air of a Master that is all-knowing and seemingly all-forgiving towards his sole apprentice.

My only shock was that the Fallen had material form, when the comic (both the prequel and movie adaptation) deceived me into believing that the Fallen was stuck in another dimension, and hence only able to communicate with the Decepticons via a panel. Supposedly, the Fallen's visage, when seen through the panel, is the source for the Decepticon's insignia. Furthermore, the prequels state that Megatron formed the Decepticons at the command of the Fallen, but the movie stated that the Fallen became the original Decepticon, so I assume Megatron was re-establishing the Decepticons instead. Then again, this particular series is not known for consistency; I have seen like 3 different storylines for the events leading up to the first movie. Then again, I'm not complaining (and it's not because of Megan Fox, ok).

There's no lack of humor as well. I enjoyed how Sam's parents alternate between cold detachment and loving affection, like how Sam's dad can be chasing Sam out of the house at one point and the other, just sniffing and telling him how to get hitched (y'know, father-son stuff). Or the mother who could be tearing up and then suddenly declaring she doesn't wanna go on a holiday anymore. I'm hard-pressed to think up of another word to describe this family other than 'dysfunctional'.

Strangely enough, I found myself stirring when Mikaela (yes, Megan Fox) and Sam's parents were screaming and crying when they thought that Sam had died. This was after watching numerous emotional flicks and traumas. Guess it says something about myself; at least Sam accepted his destiny at last, no matter how difficult was it for him to. He was even willing to die for it. The majority would have been like Leo, screaming for his mommy or wanting out all the time (in other words, in the words of the Twins, total pussy). How great would it be, to have something to believe in and hang out to, to even be willing to die for it.

I honestly think the 0.5 star rating was unjustified. This targets certain demographics, such as the fanboys who grew up on Transformers toys, or the jerks...I mean jocks who grew up on the wet dreams of Maxim babes, and if you do not happen to be part of the demographic, you shouldn't go around spreading malicious rumors about the movie.

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VGL...everything I expected

Yesterday, I spent Chris' 'last evening as a teenager' (according to him, at least) with him at the Video Games Live (VGL) concert at Indoor Stadium.

I went with the expectation that I might not be familiar with around 3/4 of the pieces, 'cos first and foremost, I was never a professed gamer. If anything, I'm more of the guy who would make games up than play them. Secondly, My tastes with regard to video game music are quite selective; Knights of the Old Republic (my fav are 'Old Republic' and 'The Sith'), The Force Unleashed ('General Kota and the Control Room Duel' pretty much captures the tragedy and scale of the entire game) and Pokemon. I seriously doubt that any of these games would feature in the concert 'cos they are not exactly what you would call 'exquisite', and the Star Wars games are hovering close to what would be movie adaptations.

Well, I wasn't disappointed.

It started off with this cute AMV of this guy chasing after this girl (same old story over the centuries) with numerous references to games and anime. I got a brief hope that I quickly suppressed when reference was made to Gundam SEED. After all, Gundam SEED's games weren't exactly memorable (with the exception of Federation vs. ZAFT).

Then of course, the music. It started off with very old-school stuff. How old-school are we talking about here? Well, it's either the fact that the now two-decades old Chris cannot recognize the games from the segment, or that the host, Tommy Tallarico, told a 27-year-old participant that Space Invaders came out before he was born. Choose one. These games were instant classics much like the way 2001 is to Sci-Fi fans.

Of course, then came along the 1990s-onwards ones, starting off with Metal Gear Solid. Well, of course, as my interactions with MGS had been limited to sporadic moments and Super Smash Bros Brawl, I would only say that the theme was familiar to me. Then came the every-classic Sonic music, which given its placement in this segment, does not make me feel old the way Sonic always seems to do. I thought of how cuz KH would have loved this, but I was kinda hoping that 'Escape from the City' would be played when they showed clippings from Sonic Adventure. Pays to be practical, sometimes, though.

The more memorable ones were the Nintendo ones, considering how I was brought up on a borderline-obsessive dose of Nintendo games (GBC, N64, DS, Wii...not counting that my family members would have the rest of the consoles in between). Metroid, Mario, Zelda...would have loved Pokemon but like I said, pays to be practical...

For the Kingdom Hearts segment, they played a collection of clips from the (classic) Disney movies. Chris suspected that they could not show actual game footage 'cos due to rights issues with Square Enix, which were proven in the encore. Then we had the Final Fantasy piece. Chris was saying how it was a mistake to be doing the Final Fantasy Medley as a piano solo. Of course, my only informed complaint would be that medleys might not do the full pieces themselves justic, like how One-Winged Angel was condensed to a mere 30 seconds or so.

I have to admit, I was impressed by Diablo 3 and Halo. The Diablo 3 music reminds me of 'hellish music' like the Troy soundtrack. Halo's theme, of course, is incredibly iconic 21st Century game music with the amazing choir. They even played the much lauded Halo 3 trailer music, which had a whole documentary dedicated to it when it first came out (mind you, the trailer music, not the game music itself!).

The encore was One-Winged Angel (according to Zhe Xuan, he knew it like before the concert itself, though logic would not have it any other way). Proving what Chris suspected, they screened cosplay photos instead of actual game footage or clips from Advent Children. Y'know, ending it off with 'COSPLAY FTW!' does not discount the fact that fanart of the chirpy chicken were shown as fillers (okay, the chicken is Chocobo Robo, but I'm being mean).

All in all, I can see that the gamers were not disappointed and they shouldn't have any reason to. Including the guy seated to my right, who looked like the typical gamer version of a hikikomori and filmed a quarter of the concert with his iPhone.

Like I said, I never was much of a gamer, and more of a Sci-Fi guy or the Disney (Channel) guy (since I went like ballistic at the HSM Ice Tour last year), but I'm always ready to give fresh new experiences a go.

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Whether you wear No. 4 or No.3, you are still a soldier of Singapore

I remembered distinctly back in Secondary School during this Total Defence event when an NSF came down to talk to us about NS. Specifically, the one thing he said that left a deep impression on me was about how people on the trains and buses would shun from people who wear their No. 4 due to some perception that these guys are sweaty or smelly.

Having only worn No. 4 on too sparse occasions to do a proper comparison (and the bus/train journeys I took when wearing it are usually quite empty), I will safely say that those wearing No. 3 are not subjected to such discrimination.

However. I want to say that the civilians who shun away from those wearing No. 4 have absolutely no right to discriminate against them.

I had believe there is no reason for any Singaporean to shun a soldier of the Singapore Armed Forces just 'cos of the smell of his blood and toil. Even an NSman, if he had indeed done his part for national defence, deserves the respect and honor to be afforded to a stalwart of our national sovereignty and independence.

My reasoning is simple; my measure of a person's worth is his loyalty and/or usefulness to the country. NSFs have taken oaths, whether willingly or not, to defend our pride, honor and integrity as a nation, and hence, until they dishonor that oath, they deserve the highest form of respect citizens of this country could give them.

In fact, more often than not, I would rather seat myself next to a sweaty and tired NSF any time rather than those well-groomed gits I see on the bus who oozes a slimy vibe that gives the impression he would sell away his mother, let alone his country, for a price to pay off his next housing installment.

So far during my service, I have seen a wide range of superiors; there are those that inspire the soldiers under their charge, and there are those that are only concerned with fawning to others to further themselves. I greatly respect and admire the former. Such leaders never expect their soldiers to do something they cannot do themselves, choosing to, to use an overused phrase, 'lead by example'. They do not treat their people like resources but instead as valued colleagues and subordinates.

I just cringe sometimes when I see the terms being thrown around casually to describe our soldiers; 'human resource' being chief among them. Call me an old-school guy, sure I guess, despite never being on Tekong and never gonna have the chance to be as well.

These are our soldiers; defenders of our sovereignty against our enemies and stalwarts of the independence we have so jealously guarded. However grudgingly and unwillingly so, they had dedicated 2 whole years of their lives to serving this national duty, and for that, they do not deserve the ill treatment of the citizens they would have to die to protect.

Of course, one can argue that the "well-groomed gits" are also doing a national service by contributing to economic defence.

By all means, I will allow them to concede the point, 'cos (even if their intentions are not so unmixed) one way or another, one will serve.

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