X-Files.....

*RING RING*

"Hello, Roy, it's JC. Are you sleeping?"

"Hi JC, no I'm not. What's up?"

"Guess which hantu I bumped into at Bangsar today?"

"V?"

"Yeah, the dickhead is still alive!"

It didn't take me long to guess. And I got it the first time around. This so-called "hantu" was my room-mate in college. He was deemed missing in action for the past 6 years. Other college classmates have reported spotting him around the Setapak area but they were unconfirmed reports.

The last time I saw him was during an outing in Bangsar, before I left for Melbourne. All of us decided to meet up then, was sort of like a farewell. Fast forward 6 years, I spoke to V for a couple of minutes over the phone and told him I'd meet him and JC at JC's house after dinner. V wanted to have dinner, so we stopped by some chinese place in Bangsar called Mak Koh (Brother Mark - wasn't that a character played by Chow Yuen Fatt in one of John Woo's movies?).

After that, it was a stop at Starbucks for a chat over a nice cold Frappucino. Tried this new one called "Java Chip" - nice if you like chocolate as its got lots of chocolate chips in it.

Apparently, he was in KL all the while and he lost our contact numbers. Disappearing didn't help matters either. Now that we have each other's contacts, I suppose we can expect more get-togethers in the near future. 6 years from now perhaps?

MARVEL Superheroes

Watched a couple of repeat screenings the other day - "The Punisher" and "Elektra". I couldn't help but chuckle during a bit of dialogue from both movies:

"The Punisher" Frank Castle (The Punisher) "returns" from the dead after some time and confronts some of the law enforcement officers about no arrests being made for the murder of his family. Frank Castle: It's been five months since my family was killed. I don't see ONE man in jail. Police Chief: Obviously you're upset... Frank Castle: Upset? Is that the word? I used to get upset. When I got a flat tire, when a plane was delayed. I used to get *upset* when the Yankees won the series. So if that's what upset means, what am I feeling now? If you know the word, tell me because I don't.

"Elektra"

Elektra (an assassin) was questioned by the girl as to what she does for a living. Elektra replies something to the effect of "Payroll reduction, downsizing, that sort of thing. Boring stuff."

T.G.I.F's

I don't know why, but I decided to check out T.G.I.F's website the other night. Big mistake - It's pure torture. Some new items on the menu (Do we have them here in Malaysia yet?). Others, just because it looks damned mouth-wateringly good, and just so you know, T.G.I.F's is paying me a single sen from this:

A combination of sizzling cheeses blended with pepperoni, Italian sausage and bacon. Served sizzling with warm breadsticks for dipping.

Chipotle-marinated chicken, Cheddar & Jack cheeses and caramelized onions & peppers in double-stacked flour tortillas. Served with ranchero rice, fresh pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream and salsa.

Mouthwatering baby back pork ribs served with Friday's^® Fries.

A tender and juicy 8-oz. flat iron steak, grilled to perfection and served with our signature mashed potatoes. Aged and hand-cut especially for Friday's^®.

Crispy bacon, smoked Provolone, grilled onions and our signature Jack Daniel's^® sauce. It's the biggest step in burger evolution

Our classic bacon cheeseburger made Ultimate. A grilled mouthwatering all-beef patty topped with melted American cheese, crispy bacon and gooey golden-fried Provolone cheese.

Mouthwatering all-beef patty with caramelized onions, melted Swiss cheese and mayonnaise. Served with a side of French Onion soup.

Smoked pulled pork tossed with our signature barbecue sauce and basted with sweet-smoky Jack Daniel's^® sauce. Topped with grilled red onions and served with an extra side of sauce for dipping.

I don't know what the hell "pulled pork" is but it looks good. Also, all their descriptions have the word "mouth watering", damn right they are!

So, when are we going? Who's buying?!

Another shopping spree.....

YET MORE TRANSFORMERS

I don't know what has gotten over me, stopped by at 1U after dropping mum off at the hospital and ended up with these:

HASBRO Transformers Alternators (l-r): Decepticon Nemesis Prime, Autobot Optimus Prime, Autobot Meister

Spend RM 100 or more on Transformers toys and get a free cap while stocks last. Looks like its a HASBRO promotion as the offer seems to be valid at most of the major shopping centres.

I had RM 50 worth of JUSCO vouchers that I have not used since last year when I got it from work as part of the R&R. I was worried that they weren't going to be valid anymore. The cashier was kind enough to inform me that JUSCO vouchers do not have expiry dates. AWESOME.

I came pretty close to getting some other stuff before but I kept putting them off. So, I got my Nemesis Prime for about RM 40 using the vouchers.

Meister, Optimus Prime, Nemesis Prime


Back: Meister, Optimus Prime, Nemesis Prime
Front: Prowl, Laserwave


(l-r): Prowl, Meister, Optimus Prime, Nemesis Prime, Laserwave

3-D POSTERS

Everyone's probably had some posters on their room wall at some point or the other. I remember I used to have framed photos of some supercars, a Tom & Jerry jigsaw I got as a birthday present when I was a kid.

During my college days, I had movie posters on the wall of my rented room near college.

Well, this is something you don't really see everyday. 3-D Posters by McFarlane Toys.

When you look at it directly from the front, it doesn't look like much. But look at them from an angle and you'll see that they have depth. Pretty cool eh?

Some other posters that will be released:

A Nightmare On Elm Street

Friday The 13th

The best of the lot, in my opinion, would be one from Alien poster.

Why.....?

The Alien poster comes with a light-up feature that gives the Alien egg a glowing effect.

THE ONE AND ONLY.....

Had to go pick up Daph after work today. As I sat waiting in the car, I noticed that there was a missed call on my phone. I was surprised to see that KC had called. While waiting in the car, I decided to call her back.

Apparently, she's sick, and has a real sore throat. I could hardly hear her. But then she managed to wish me Happy Birthday. She wanted to make sure that she got the date right - which she did.

Anyway, it was something totally unexpected, remembering my birthday, and even with that sore throat of hers, she wanted to call and wish me personally. That was really nice of her.

So, officially, KC is the one and only non-family who wished me verbally. YAY!

And you thought it could only happen in the movies.....

Dad was hospitalized on Monday. When I was informed, it was suspected food poisoning. Honestly, I suspected it was something more serious as he had been complaining of stomach discomfort pretty often within the past 2 months. It happened every few weeks or so. He attributed it to indigestion.

Visited him almost everyday since he was admitted on Monday, eye-whites turned yellowish and it was due to jaundice. He was also vomitting. Doctors ordered some tests including one for Hepatitis. In the end, it was actually liver inflammation as well as gall bladder stones.

Driving mum to and fro for the daily hospital visits took a toll on me as well. I now find myself nursing a flu. Might be some germs I picked up or just due to the stress of the whole ordeal.

I've never spent so much time at a hospital in my life.

On the first day, I was going down to get some papers for mum to read while she waited to accompany dad. Got into the lift along with about 5 or 6 other people, one of whom was an intern I suppose as she looked young.

I was on the 12th floor and had to get to the Ground floor. Along the way, the lift stopped and an attendant and a nurse wheeled a patient on a bed into the lift. Because the bed took up about 3/4 of the lift, the attendant requested the rest of us to squeeze on one side of the lift.

And it was a tight squeeze - the young doc actually had to press her back against me, full body contact. Now, can you say "What's up, doc?" :P

Truth be told, I was very well behaved so nothing was "up". And you thought it could only happen in the movies eh? I think the doctor was pretty embarassed as well.

Today, there was some sort of drama happening in the lift as some nurses were having some heated discussion with one of the doctors as I was leaving. Something about wrong information being noted on x-rays or some shit like that. Imagine that?!?!?! Discussing the mistakes in a public area, and in a lift at that!

The multi-storey parking is one of the worst designed I've ever seen. The ramp going up is so steep that even driving an automatic transmission is a chore. Not only that, the pathways are so narrow. Shame on the people who designed that parking lot. Shame.

Last update is that dad might be discharged today - so that's good news.

Happy Birthday.....to me.....

A colleague at work gave me the nickname "Robocop". Why? Because its part of my job to make sure that other people are doing theirs - a watcher, sort of like a Sentinel.....

Well - Robocop's got to shut-down and recharge my batteries. I'm supposed to be off for 11 straight days.

I was planning to catch "Pirates Of The Carribean 2: Dead Man's Chest" on Friday but due to some conflict of scheduling, I didn't make it.

"Battle-damaged Robocop has been infected with a virus by getting caught in the rain"

I was supposed to go meet LSY as he still had my Optimus Prime with him. I previously asked him to get it for me first as it was shortpacked to 2 per case. Its pretty hard to locate these days. I didn't feel nice that he paid for it for me first, and I had not paid him back for it.

Met him at his officein TTDI, and then walked over to KFC for lunch. On the way back to his office, it started pouring. Hung out at his office while waiting for the rain to stop. By that time, it was already too late to catch the 3:15 pm screening of "POTC 2: DMC".

Got caught in the rain and as a result, recovering from a slight fever. And if that's not bad enough, I've re-injured myself by twisting my ankle due to the uneven road surface while going to meet LSY. What a way to start off my annual leave.

Still - stopped by at 1Utama and ended up with another action figure from the SOTA Street Fighter series, Ryu based on the popular video game. LSY had brought a long one of his loose ones for me to "play" with - to assist in my decision to get the set.

Haul of the Day - 18 Aug 2006

Ryu vs The Rock

There's someone selling the 4 sets of 20 figures (5 figures per set), mint on card for RM 850. Everyones been saying how good the quality is for this line of figures. Sure I've considered it cause when you break it down, it works out to rougly RM 42.50 per figure. Decent considering some sites are selling Ryu alone for US $60.

The one I got is apparently the "unofficial" version. Made by the same factory that had the licensed but apparently, this factory in China decided to manufacture some extras for their own profit.

No matter now as what really matters is I have something to test with - to decide if I really want to spend on the whole set. Right now, I'm sort of leaning towards NOT getting the set. But who knows I might change my mind later on.

More stuff revealed for Transformers The Movie. Pictures for the Autobots and a mystery Decepticon have been leaked on the Net recently.

The Autobots


The Mystery Decepticon - Megatron?

This is not the Optimus Prime I know and grew up watching. The TF movie Optimus Prime (above) and the Generation 1 cartoon Optimus Prime

Plus the re-release of the Transformers: The Movie cartoon will be released soon. Looks like Transformers mania is slowly picking up steam.

And yes, I've added yet another version of Prime to my collection:



Back row (l-r): TAKARA Masterpiece 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime, TAKARA Galaxy Convoy. Front row (l-r): TAKARA THS-02 Optimus Prime, HASBRO Cybertron Optimus Prime and HASBRO Beast Wars Transmetal Optimus Prime

I've read somewhere that there are 60 different variations of Optimus Prime. This is nothing.

Yes, its my birthday. This would make a nice present:

HOT TOYS Superman Returns with Barbie Lois Lane

Check out this auction!

If I had gotten it earlier, it would have been about RM 380 or so. That is by far the best looking Superman Returns figure I've seen. I guess that's because of the Certificate that comes with it stating there's only 1200 units worldwide.

There are rumours that the HOT TOYS Superman Returns will be re-released sometime in September 2006. Maybe thats a second chance to own it.

Reviews here and here.

HOT TOYS Superman (left) & Medicom Superman (right)

*Note: Superman Images Property of http://testicular-fortitude.blogspot.com/*

Cheese & Chocolate.....

I've always been going on and on about how time flies but when I think of it - there's alot that can be accomplished within this short period of time. The weekend seemed so short but apparently, there seems to be quite alot of stuff I managed to do this weekend.

When D & D read this, they will be pretty upset but I'm sure they'll get over it.

Yes, I've finally managed to try out Fondue House in Hartamas on Saturday night. It has always been on the "To Do" list but never got around to trying it out.

There were 8 different choices/flavours of cheese fondue: 4 with wine and 4 without.

The bacon cheese fondue sounded good so we had that with the chicken fillet. Now I've read from other food blogs that the chicken tasted better than beef. But they've also said that the portions were pretty small. So we ordered the chicken fillet set with a side order of sirloin beef cubes.

The beef was the better one for me. In fact, the marinade made it tasty enough to eat it on its own without dipping it in the cheese. The garlic stick that came with the bread basket was pretty tasty as well. Crackers and a portion of bread (french loaf?) came with in the basket.

The cheese tasted familiar at first - kind of like the Alfredo pasta sauce mix that we used to buy. We almost finished the cheese before we finished the meats and breads. Additional fondue available, extra charge of course - and charged by the head it seems.

Chicken fillet, beef sirloin, bread basket with the cheese

After that, it was time for dessert. There were 4 choices for the chocolate fondue: Chocolate Orange, Chocolate Whiskey, Chocolate Peanut Butter and I can't remember the last one actually. We got the lady to give her recommendations between the Chocolate Orange and Chocolate Whiskey - and so, Chocolate Whiskey it was with bananas and strawberries with a side order of marshmallows.

The chocolate fondue set comes with a little dish with ground peanuts with a little sugar, grated coconut and what appeared to be chocolate (Oreos?) cookie crumbs to dip on after dipping the fruit/cake into the chocolate.

Strawberry Chocolate Fondue set

I had a quick glance through the menu, they do lunch specials as well at that place. Dinner for 2 plus drinks came up to about RM 100. Yes - I would definitely go back again. I'm a cheese and chocolate kinda person.

Fondue House
5 Plaza Prisma Ville
Jalan 26A/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
Tel: 03-62033346
Business Hours: Daily (11am-11pm)

After that, caught "Click" at Cineleisure. Its not a 100% comedy this one. There were people crying towards the last few minutes of the movie. So remember to bring the Kleenex if you haven't watched it yet - just in case.

Managed to catch "Napoleon Dynamite" on ASTRO on Saturday afternoon. There was alot of hype surrounding this movie as well. Since I've not seen it before, I thought why not. Conclusion - I kept thinking "What the hell is this show about?". Most of the main characters talk like they're stoned throughout the whole movie.

The only thing I liked about it was near the end when he does the dance. And only because it was pretty amusing and I believe it was to Jamiroquai's music.

Having said that, I can't believe that there are toys based on this movie. The sculpts by McFarlane Toys are pretty "sweet" though.

Napoleon Dynamite in Prom Suit

And today, there was a repeat of an excellent movie starring Harrison Ford - "The Fugitive".

This movie reminded me of a segment on "Attack of the Show" over on ASTRO. They were referring to a site dedicated to Harrison Ford. The gist of it was that the site labelled Harrison Ford as "Hand Solo" as he was always acting with his hands (pointing) in his movies. The site has photos/stills from various Harrison Ford movies with him in all the finger pointing shots. True enough, there is an interrogation room scene where Harrison Ford is pointing.

This segment also got me to thinking - Tom Cruise always seems to be running in his movies. Don't believe me? Go watch "Jerry Maguire", "Vanilla Sky", "War Of The Worlds" and even "Mission Impossible: 3".

WTF Quote Of The Day

If you know me well, you'll realize that I hardly touch on any current affairs. The way I see it, if you want current affairs - go read the newspapers or watch the news.

Today however, is an exception.

Was reading the newspapers and I came across the headline in The Star "Salesgirl on way to work found dead". Another victim. It has become almost like an everyday occurance in the papers these days. I think there have been 4 - 5 within the last 2 weeks.

From the article, the victim decided to walk to work instead of taking the bus - against her family's advice. Its a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time I guess.

So where does the "WTF Quote Of The Day" come in? Here's a quote from the article:

Her brother said her handbag, which contained an umbrella and a water bottle, was missing.

However, Shu Chen’s other belongings, including money, mobile phone, ATM cards and house keys were found in the pockets of her pants.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Roslan Ahmad said police would investigate the case as murder.

He said the cause of death could not be ascertained yet as a post mortem had yet to be carried out.

ACP Roslan said police would look into all possibilities including snatch theft.

However, he said: “Do not assume it is snatch theft, as her money, phone and cards were left on her.”

Now, it was determined that her money, phone and cards were in her pants pockets a few paragraphs above.

So, assuming that it was a snatch theft (and it does appear like one), was the thief/thieves supposed to snatch her pants away? They targetted the bag and that's whats missing. How can one not assume that it was a snatch theft?

Unless they're investigating some other crime here.

Condolences to the victim's loved ones.

Joker is a gay cowboy.....?!?!?!

Photo from ign.com

It has been confirmed - Heath Ledger (from Brokeback Mountain) will be starring in "The Dark Knight" (sequel to Batman Begins) as The Joker. Although I have no preference as to who I think would make the perfect Joker - I just want the movie to be damn good. Reports indicate that filming expected to begin in early 2007. Can't wait!

The Batman VS The Joker

Now - this post is mainly going to be about upcoming movies. Manage to dig up some information about another movie that I'm anticipating - "Spider-Man 3"

I guess you can't really call it new information - new pictures would be more accurate. If you haven't seen the trailers or read about it yet (shame on you!) - here's the rundown. "Spider-Man 3" supposedly has him facing off against 4 villains! The trailer already shows Sandman in CGI thrashing New York. The highlight of "Spider-Man 3" would actually be the appearance of Venom. In the comics, Spider-Man brought back an alien suit that bonded with him to create the black-costumed Spider-Man. Its actually said that we won't actually get to see Venom in the movie until the very end, an only a short glimpse. I guess we have to wait until "Spider-Man 4" then. Here are some nice photos I managed to come across.

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) with the new Black Suit


Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) turning into Venom (???)

The old teaser poster where people thought it was a black and white shot of Spider-Man. But its not and this was when the black costume was hinted at and the possibility of the appearance of Venom at that time.

There were also reports of a new poster that's out in the USA. They call it "lenticular posters". Apparently, the image changes depending on which angle you look at it from.

I came across this picture below previously and thought nothing of it. Could it be the "lenticular poster" that they're talking about?

Then I noticed that the the spider-logo is distorted in the black parts of the suit. If you note the spider's legs, they've become more distorted. Comic readers will know that when the alien symbiote bonds with the host, they are "transformed".

I wonder if this poster will be for sale - it would be an awesome looking poster. Very nice!