Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!

Last night, my company had its annual dinner and the theme was Freaky Friday. I'd always admired those who had the nerve and the dedication to dress in theme for these things but I never had the nerve to do it myself. This year, I decided to change and I went as a zombie much to everyone's surprise since I'm not exactly a guy who would do this sort of thing.

I got some instructions on the net, and made myself some fake blood with honey, chocolate sauce (Hershey's even ;)), and red food colouring. It was really icky and bloody. I dirtied and bloodied an old shirt. I also made a fake wound out of chewing gum and it was totally gross. Powder and black/blue/green eye shadow rounded out the effect. I got lots of compliments on the get-up and it was a lot of fun scaring people. I'm kinda proud of myself for doing this :) Hopefully I can repeat it next year.

Posting of my full face is still against personal policy, but check out this wound:

Surprisingly realistic for something made from a pack of gum...

Real Steel

Humans love violence; at least seeing it in a controlled environment. Fighting tournaments are wildly popular and boxing is chief among them. Brutal as it is, what happens when people want more? Real Steel imagines a time in the near future when the job of boxers has been delegated to huge humanoid robots controlled by operators. Without the limitations of fleshiness, these metal men duke it out to the 'death' much to the delight of the massive crowds.

The story of Real Steel revolves around a former boxer down on his luck. Now a robot operator, Charlie Kenton's (Hugh Jackman) already messed-up life is further complicated by the arrival of his 11-year old son Max (Dakota Goyo) after his mother's untimely death. Wanting nothing to do with the boy, Charlie nevertheless is stuck with him for a while, to neither one's great delight. Max is annoying, bratty, and belligerent towards Charlie but they eventually bond over an old fighting robot they find in a junk yard while scouring for parts. Max drives Charlie to enter their robot in fights which they surprisingly win and this leads to bigger fights and the predictable father-son bonding.

It's a far from original story - basically Rocky with robots - but it's done really well and with heart and wit. Formulaic as it is, the story is still highly engaging and the robot 'chereography' is simply amazing. The fluidity and realism of the motion is really very impressive (Michael Bay, eat your heart out). Filmed without quick-cuts, the fight scenes highlight each and every punch and throw in metal-crunching detail. The main robot 'Atom' is highly likeable with his blue oval 'eyes' recalling to mind EVE from Wall·E. The way he 'shadows' his operator is really fun to watch and makes him seem almost more than just a dumb machine (a point which is alluded to but not explored).

Of course a movie with just cool robots and no humans worth rooting for (ahem), is much less fun. Fortunately we have Jackman giving a honest performance as an incredibly selfish man who seems to care about nothing other than himself but is still not beyond redemption. Evangeline Lily (forever Kate from Lost) plays Bailey, his long-suffering on-and-off romantic interest who still believes in him despite his massive screw-ups and cavalier attitude. Both fine performances, but the star of the show is undoubtedly scene-stealing little Dakota Goyo (last seen as a young Thor) who in his first big movie turns in a believable and natural performance. The character of Max is childish, audacious, stubborn, cheeky, rude, and at times too mature for his age. Goyo pulls this off while still coming across as a normal honest-to-goodness little boy secretly longing for his absent father's affection.

Everyone loves an underdog. Here we have a washed up boxer, an obsolete robot from a junkyard, and a half-orphaned little boy - underdogs if ever there were any. In the obligatory final fight, I had to resist the urge to punch imaginary opponents to cheer them on.

For a fighting good time, I give Real Steel eight out of ten baby seals.

iSad

It's a sad sad day today.

I'm writing this so I'll remember where I was when the tech world, and the world at large, grew a bit dimmer. Only yesterday, I was venting over the decidedly underwhelming product announcements from Apple, making my six-month wait to replace my lost iPod Touch pointless. This morning, while driving to work, I heard on the radio that Steve Jobs, recently CEO of Apple, had passed away the day before from pancreatic cancer, apparently not long after the iPhone 4S announcement. Suddenly, my fury over the unchanged iPod Touch wasn't so important any more. At work, I watched the tweets roll in from various people. It seemed unbelievable, although I guess it wasn't unexpected; just very ironic timing.

Now as I sit at home, going through all the tributes and reading about him, I feel oddly sad. I mean, I didn't know the man personally. I'm not even a big fan of his company's products or the walled-garden approach they so cheerfully promote. On the contrary, I've been a detractor, save for the iPod Touch (still a lovely toy). I guess I'm sad about the loss of a great mind, one of the great thinkers of our time. As one who takes great pleasure in the world of computing and technology, I appreciate Apple for popularizing personal computers. As one who loves gadgetry, I appreciate Apple for popularizing media players and pretty phones. As one who loves animation, I especially appreciate Jobs for creating Pixar, the pioneer and leader of CGI animation that has given me and millions of others so much enjoyment over the years.

Truth be told, Apple's products were never revolutionary, rather they were evolutionary, taking existing ideas and somehow turning them into products people wanted to buy. Jobs was certainly a marketing genius and his attention to detail was legendary. He has shaped a generation and like it or not, there's no denying his impact and contributions to pop culture.

At his commencement address in 2005 at Stanford, shortly after his cancer diagnosis, Jobs said:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Inspirational words we should all be lucky enough to live by, though sadly most of us do not.

I will be buying a new iPod Touch in the coming weeks, my joy of buying new gadgetry surely bound to be coated with a tinge of sadness.

I found another quote from Steve Jobs:

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

I'm pretty sure you did, Mr. Jobs. If not in the universe, at least on this planet.

RIP Steve Jobs, too soon.

32

Another 365.25 days of orbiting our resident ball of fire has come to a close and I've survived! Yay me!

It's been an erm... interesting year... I broke my arm, I went to China, my car broke down on a lonely highway at night, my iPod got stolen, I watched some cool movies, tried champagne for the first time, baked a cake, joined Google+, and endured the usual drudgery of work.

32 years... a fine number! Some fun facts:

• 32 is a power of 2! My favourite type of number!
• 32 is the number of teeth on an adult human. *CHOMP*
• 32 is apparently a happy number. Beats being a sad number!
• 32 is the number of completed, numbered piano sonatas by Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of my favourite classical composers.
• 32 is the atomic number of germanium which is widely used in optics and semiconductors including transistors. This is cool.
• 32 is the freezing point of water in degrees Fahrenheit at sea level. Cool... or maybe just cold.

Happy Birthday to me! Here's hoping for an awesome year ahead.

(Number facts from Wikipedia)

Breaking Down

So it finally happened... my car broke down... on a highway... at night.

The engine made weird noises as I was driving home. I thought, "Hey, I think I can make it home. I'll deal with it in the morning." The car had other ideas though. It started making screeching noises when i braked. Then some clanking noises. Then vibrations - more than usual. When the vibrations started shaking the whole car and the clanking got more pronounced, I moved to the side of the road, just before a toll plaza. With its last heave, the old girl managed to stop nicely out of the way but would not start again after I stopped the engine.

"Well this sucks... But I am prepared!", thought I.

I fished out my Auto Rescue card that I got with my insurance. I called the 24-hour toll free hotline. And got instantly disconnected. Lovely. A gazillion repeated calls later, I was not a happy camper. Epic fail, Oriental Capital Assurance Auto Rescue, epic fail.

Plan B: I called back to a colleague at my office asking if he knew any tow truck operators. He didn't. Fortunately, someone else who had not gone home did know of one. Thank FSM for life's little miracles.

About half an hour later, the tow truck arrived. The car managed to start again, albeit with a noisy protest, which made it easier to load onto the flatbed truck. You know you're an engineer when you're in the middle of a highway at night with a broken down vehicle and you're admiring the power of the hydraulic systems on the tow truck. I chose to tow the car home as it was late, and the tow truck operator didn't know any late-night mechanics.

The next day, I got the same tow truck to send my car to a workshop recommended by the same colleague nearby my company. As we pulled into the workshop and started to unload my car, I saw a familiar face and a friendly wave as I was about to alight from the truck. Coincidentally, an old friend and ex-colleague worked just opposite the workshop. I'd not seen him in almost a year. Life is funny sometimes.

A preliminary inspection indicated a poor verdict. In the words of the mechanic: condemned. In order to confirm, he had to take apart the engine to look at it, so he told me to come back five hours later. With nothing to do, I decided to go to the office to pass the time even though I was officially on leave. My friend very kindly sent me to my office.

At the office, I endured the jibes about my predicament from my boss and colleagues who knew about it. Ironically, I had been planning to buy a new car and a colleague was just remarking yesterday that my car would break down in the middle of the highway. I blamed him for it of course. Lunch and a few hours later, I left early and walked back to the workshop, The mechanic confirmed that the engine was better off replaced as a piston had broken (hence the clanking) and some other parts of the engine were worn out, no thanks to my poor service record. No use crying over spilt milk, so I asked him to give me a quotation over the weekend.

My friend sent me to the nearest train station and I rode the rails home, carless. We had a good run, old girl.

Moral of the story: Service your old car often, and sell it before it's too late. Procrastination has a high price sometimes, and I guess I'll just have to pay it. I only hope I can sell the car for the price of the repairs at least :)

EDIT 20/08/2011: Got the car back last night and she's purring like a kitten. Nice to have a car that doesn't vibrate violently when idle.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America never did appeal much to me, since he looks kinda goofy and I'm not even American. I do however know the significance of the character and from trailers, the movie looked to be a fine entry to the Marvel series of movies.

The story of Captain America is about a little guy with a big heart. Short and scrawny Steve Rogers (amazingly still played by tall buff Chris Evans) is on a mission to join the US Army in the midst of World War II. Constantly rejected by army recruiters, he finally gets his chance when selected by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) to take part in an experimental super-soldier program. Under the guidance of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and British liaison Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), he eventually becomes Captain America and earns the ire of Johann Schmidt a.k.a. The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), a Nazi and old 'associate' of Dr. Erskine working for Hitler. Schmidt has his own plans however and of course, it's up to Cap to stop him.

This movie is a great example of what a superhero movie should be - not too heavy on the drama, not too over-the-top on the 'comic-bookness'. The script and pacing are handled well and takes its time to tell the story. The imagery of the 1940s comic-book world is visually compelling. There are pretty good effects and pronounced '3D-ness' - clearly not a cheap conversion. Props, set design, and effects all blend perfectly together to bring the world to life.

The acting by Evans, while not mind-blowing, is all you could want. As Steve Rogers, he is earnest, brave, and madly patriotic. As Captain America, he's well, Captain America. Weaving is menacing as Red Skull, even if a little one-dimensional. But then, sometimes villains should just be villains. Atwell shines as the love interest and Jones has fun with his small role. The small but important role played by Tucci adds pathos and a deeper meaning to the plot. Most of the movie, however stands firmly on the impossibly broad shoulders of Evans and he sells it very well.

There's a great line in the movie that says that only a weak man knows the value of strength. Captain America: The First Avenger has a strong message of perseverance, inner strength, and patriotism. With a strong script, good effects, and decent actors, who could fault that?

Seven out of 10 baby seals agree and look forward to watching The Avengers next year.


Note: There is an extra scene after the credits, so do stick around.

Hanna

The concept of a young girl being a trained assassin is an oddly compelling one, no doubt due to the strange juxtaposition of the sweet girl and the ruthless killer. Cropping up in anime and film - Gunslinger Girl and Kick Ass spring to mind - the girl assassin is given a dramatic treatment in Hanna.

Saoirse Ronan (what a name!) plays Hanna, a lass of 16 years. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, she looks like a regular girl, except when she hunts and kills a deer with her mad archery skillz on a generic snow-covered mountainside. Her father Erik (Eric Bana) seems to have raised her in isolation and instilled certain skills in her in preparation for some unknown mission. The first act concerns itself with establishing their relationship and has minimal exposition.

Once her 'mission' starts in the second act, we get plenty of fight sequences set to music. There's a distinctly 'European' feel to these sequences, which is a good thing really. Unlike Hit-Girl in Kick Ass, Hanna displays no glee in her killing, just cold efficiency. The action scenes are interspersed with scenes of Hanna partaking in 'normal' teenage girl activities. Some of these were a little too drawn out for me to be honest, but some involving another teenage girl - probably the first one Hanna has met - provide some really funny lines and comic relief.

The pacing is not too bad, although lacking a certain inertia at times. It's certainly not a non-stop crazy action movie. The acting from Ronan is inspired and believable. It totally makes up for the tepid The Lovely Bones. Bana doesn't have that much screen time, but he does his best and looks good doing it. Cate Blanchett is coldly creepy as the mean CIA agent chasing down Hanna and Erik. She's also obsessed with dental hygiene, which adds a bit of (weird) colour to the character.

The plot points are not entirely original and some revelations are a bit clichéd, but it's handled with style and good performances all around. For these reasons, I give Hanna seven out of 10 baby seals.