Archive | 2006

The Salesman

A young Indian guy moves to Montreal and goes to a big department store looking for a job. The manager asks, “Do you have any sales experience?”

The kid, “Yeah, I was a salesman back home”. Well, the manager liked the young man, so he gave him the job. “You start tomorrow. I’ll come down after we close and see how you did, but let me give you a bit of advice. If a customer comes looking, say, for toothpaste, you might suggest for him a toothbrush, or shaving cream etc. you get the idea?” “Of course,” the young man said.

His first day on the job was rough but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the manager came down. “How many sales did you make today?

The kid says, “One”

The manager groans, “Just one? Our sales people average 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale for?”

The kid says, “$101, 237.64.”

The manager exclaims, “What? $ 101,237.64? What did you sell him?”

The kid, “First I sold him a small fish hook. Then I soldhim a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing, and he said down at the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department, and I sold him that twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn’t think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I Took him down to the automotive department and sold him
that 4X4 Pajero.”

The manager says “You mean a guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and truck?!”

The kid, “No, no, no, he came in here to buy a box of Kotex for his wife and I said, “Well, since your weekend’s already screwed up,you might as well go fishing.”

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Movie Review – Dragon Tiger Gate (Loong Fu Moon) – Just Missed

Dragon Tiger Gate

Dragon Tiger Gate is a martial arts academy established by three youngsters, Tiger Huang , Little Dragon Huang and Black Dragon Shi. Adopted as children by kung fu master Huang Jianglong, they aspire to impart the spirit of Chinese martial arts to the world. The final showdown between good and evil is a spectacular battle that makes the walls of Dragon Tiger Gate quake.

Yeah I’ve managed to catch up with quite a lot of movies lately!

This is a typical hong-kong style action kung-fu movie starring Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yu.

The action was also directed by Donnie Yen himself, which shows as he is now experienced and mature in his style, the action elements and choreography was very good through-out the film with some pretty unique and exciting displays of fighting and interesting use of weapons.

Honestly speaking though, he still has a long way to go to catch Yuen Wo Ping.

Apart from that, I love any movie that has nunchukas in it!

The movie itself was adapted from some very famous Hong Kong manga (comic books) so the story and plot is already laid out, even though you don’t really need a phd to understand it, it’s the same old basic good vs evil thing with very little deviation.

As you can probably guess, the story itself is nothing special…the romantic elements are actually quite pukeworthy and the rest you can guess as it goes along.

Basically I only suggest you watch this movie if you really enjoy good well crafted fight scenes, as I do, so I did enjoy this movie.

Donnie Yen once again manages to appear eternally youthful and carries out his role very well, not that any of the three leads have tough jobs as apart from Shawn Yue they both play fairly silent reflective types.

I found Nicholas Tse was a little soft and girly for the role he was supposed to be playing, I would have preferred someone else.

Shawn Yue was adequate as the more bubbly and confident Turbo.

Dragon Tiger Gate

You don’t really feel for the characters and the flashbacks are a bit annoying with upright ‘moral’ overtones.

The final villain is a bit of a joke too, the fight scene is quite good though.

Overall the movie is a nice piece of comic book escapism which could really use a good producer/director.

I’d say watch it for the fight scenes (especially the first big one) and give it a fairly mediocre head kick of 4.5/10.

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Scary Saudi

Travelling again, in Saudi now after a 26 hour journey..for a job I don’t have, yeah I’m jobless remember 😛

15 hour transit in Dubai, erg….at least they gave me a hotel so I could pass out for a few hours, they didn’t feed me though…which is bad! Well some people might say it’s good *looks at his waistline*

At first there was no hotel as promised, then finally found someone who knew what they were talking about and managed to get a room.

Then finally got on a flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia..that’s where I am now.

I already had a pre-approved business visa in my passport when I arrived, so I thought all would be smooth…

But no, a bunch of us ended up in a dingy smokey little office wondering what the hell was happening, apparently there was a problem with the ‘system’.

It was like something from a movie, the guy at the desk was throwing passports around, scowling and banging the desk.

I thought…that was not a good place to be.

Nice airport, but horrible immigration, it took forever, there was no order in the queues and the immigration officers made the Malaysian bunch seem polite.

Eventually got through, then there was no hotel pick-up as promised. I paid myself for an over-priced taxi to some 2 star dump near the partners office.

No Internet, No Iron available to guests..

Not sure what’s happening in Saudi now but every hotel is fully booked, I should be shifting to a half decent place tonight.

Sick like a dog too, sore throat, glands up…for once I can safely say, life sucks!

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Movie Review – The Prestige – Awesome!

The Prestige

A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy — full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences. From the time that they first met as young magicians on the rise, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden were competitors. However, their friendly competition evolves into a bitter rivalry making them fierce enemies-for-life and consequently jeopardizing the lives of everyone around them. Set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London.

I’ll say straight up this is probably the best movie of the year so far without much competition, it’s been a pretty bad year for movies all in all after 2005 which has a clean sweep of great movies, 2006 performed pretty badly, a good sign before watching this movie was the extremely strong 8.2 at IMDB.

It lived up to expectations! KY even joined us to watch it for the second time.

This is a truly allstar cast mixing new talent with old, pitting Hugh Jackman (Robert Angier) and Christian Bale (Alfred Borden) against each other is a work of genius, both have already proved themselves with movies such as X-men and Batman Begins and even more so for Bale with the haunting The Machinist.

Christian Bale & Hugh Jackman

The sparks really fly between them, imagine turn of the century magicians fighting for audiences and fame, Bale (Borden) is the technical expert, the magical genius, but his showmanship lacks the pull to bring audiences..Where as Jackman (Angier) is the opposite, suave, charming and the superior showman, but his tricks are lacking, his technical knowledge and innovation aren’t matching Bale.

Michael Caine of course puts in a stirling performance with his strong screen prescence, a lesser actor would have paled in this supporting role.

David Bowie pops up too, did you spot him?

I can’t really talk about the story without ruining it, just watch out for the the pledge, the turn and finally the prestige. You do have to suspend belief a bit though, it’s not a real story, it has elements of fantasy or sci-fi and stars some great scientists from the same period.

The cinematography, set design, production and direction are top notch, the pacing of the movie is excellent and has multiple narrators, so you see the same things from various views. It’s a dark brooding movie showing the nasty side of human nature.

Christopher Nolan is really showing us what he’s capable of with Memento, Batman Begins, Insomnia and now this!

Just go and watch this movie now.

I give it a film of the year 9/10.

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Shong Lee Photogenic Contest – Part II

For those not interested in the saga, here’s back to normal programming for a post 😉

The Shong Lee Contest, a behind the scenes look and the 1st prize winner!

These were taken with a super wide angle zoom at 10mm, who else shoots catwalk with 10mm, just me!

The contestants! There were quite a lot, but most of the pros didn’t enter, if not we’d stand no chance, respect to them for that.

Contestants

Quite a lot of spectators too.

A lot were just there for practise too or to get some more portfolio shots in a stress free situation.

Fighting for space.

Fighting for Space

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Continue Reading · 6 Comments · Photography

Shong Lee Photogenic Catwalk Photography Contest – 1-Utama

This would be part one I guess, seen as though I got less than 10 comments when I use only words it must mean I’m a lousy writer, I better stick to pictures! Hahah.

As I mentioned, I went off to 1-Utama on Saturday afternoon to shoot some catwalk pictures of some lovely young girls holding all the latest cameras. It was a fairly informal contest, you could only enter 1 picture per person, no post processing allowed, you had to print it there on site on one of the provided Canon printers.

The rules were to shoot the girls WITH the cameras, the cam had to be in the shot.

I had a quick triple play and a beer at Chili’s then headed down to shoot the contest.

From a photography point of view I think I did ok, pretty well without flash and shooting with a f/2.8 macro lens with no stabiliser 😀

Compositions could be a little more adventerous, but just need to learn the basics first..

Anyway, enough of that, what you want to see is the GIRLS right?

Well here you go..

Christina Ng with a new Sony DV Cam.

Christina Ng

The infamous Rose Chin with the Leica D-Lux

Rose Chin

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Continue Reading · 18 Comments · Photography

Popping My Cherry Twice

I wonder if I’ll get any comments with no pictures only words 😛

It’s become such a habit to post picture, maybe I’ve overdosed on pictures this weekend, pictures of females anyway.

Let’s just talk about what I did instead of looking at the results for once.

Was back to the office on Thursday and Friday…definately not enjoying the blue skies whilst stuck in my cubicle!

Friday night went for some good Indian food in Bangsar One at Sagar, then onto a local photography magazine TT (DCM), a TT for the uninitiated is a Teh Tarik or Technical Talk session, there are loads of groups that have these kind of meetings.

Basically it’s for a group of ______ geeks to get together and talk about their hobby, equipment, techniques, upcoming events and so on (______ can be car/camera/fishing/bird watching/diving etc).

After that a coffee at Starbucks with Paul Tan for his birthday, happy birthday Paul and hope you are enjoying the D80 🙂

Saturday morning was off to 1-Utama for a quick lunch and then a chance to shoot catwalk models for the Photogenic contest sponsored by Shong Lee.

This was my first try at shooting catwalk and my first competition.

It was quite fun and quite easy although my compositions were not very creative my technique was decent, I’ll post more and some tips on DigiSniper.

Saturday night was a light dinner with KY at the Mee Sua place, then off home to process some pics and sleep early..

Early because Sunday morning..I got up at 8.30am! For an outdoor model shoot, again another first for me, I’m not really good at portrait/model shooting and it’s something I really need to work on. So I’m practising and trying to improve.

After that it was off to 1-Utama again for the competition prize ceremony and to collection my consellation prize (I came 10th out of 21 entrants), which is not bad for my first try and I shot without flash..

Got horribly lost in KL after that picking something up, then there was a downpour and the roads flooded…so I got stuck and stressed, by the time I got home it was too late to go to a BBQ I was invited for..so I chilled at home, processed a few of the model shoot pics from the morning, I did ok 🙂 Need some work on posing the models though.

So that’s two firsts this weekend, popped my cherry twice in one weekend!

And today, back to work zz..

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Continue Reading · 9 Comments · General Nonsense, Photography

Putrajaya – The Haze & The Dew

I was up early one morning so I headed to Putrajaya to take the sunset and some architecture pictures, all I got was haze..super duper mega haze.

Disappointing to say the least, not a cheap journey either, 20 bucks petrol, 10 bucks toll and a couple of hours.

I did manage to get a couple of shots of the morning dew though, then I got bitten to death by mosquitoes, it’s a shame I think they would have been great pictures.

Putrajaya Mosque

The famous Palace of Justice, the only building with an English name in Putrajaya, odd eh?

Palace of Justice

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Continue Reading · 11 Comments · Photography

Urgghh……..SO ANNOYING

Blue skies..

MOTHER FUCKING BLUE SKIES.

On the day I come back to work, I’ve been wanting to go and take pictures, lovely beautiful pictures with nice long shadows and good bright light.

What do I get?

YEAH I GET HAZE…haze…more haze, flat light, no shadows, diffusion, lacking textures, boring flat tones

I come to work, blue skies, super blue skies, super clear, super bright, clearer than a normal day in KL.

I can see miles, I can breath the freshness in the air..

Until I step into my purple cubicle under the flourescent light..

Now I’m trapped again.

DIE DIE DIE

RAGE X 10000000.

Murphies law at work folks. October has some of the most beautiful skies and light of the year and it’s all been wasted.

Anyway I sincerely hope you enjoyed the holidays more than I did, cos mine were crap.

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Continue Reading · 8 Comments · Ranting

Singapore – Chinatown – Part II

The night shots!

Following on the from the last series, I got the rest of the pics done and uploaded so here they are, again all shot with two prime lenses 🙂

It was the end of a hot and sweaty (and extremely hazy day), the lanterns weren’t as impressive as the Bukit Jalil Lantern Festival in Malaysia. Malaysia Boleh!

There’s plenty to see (and more importantly photograph) in Singapore Chinatown so I do highly recommend checking it out.

Temple

Guardian

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Continue Reading · 6 Comments · Photography, Singapore, Trips & Travel