Transformers review

No I'm not going to spoil anything so don't worry.

Instead of going home on my half-day today I went to the cinemas...by myself...in work clothes. Before you laugh, it was the middle of a working day in the middle of a working week when everyone else is working! (or at uni). At least that's what I tell myself to ease the pain of being a loner and help me sleep at night. :P So anyway, with the cinemas being 200m away from where I had to be in Glen Waverley this morning, I thought...why not? Convenience is a nice word in the dictionary.

So I ended up watching Transformers. Oh yes, that's right. It was time to nourish the nerd within yet again, and what better way than to feed it generous helpings of big F-ing robots in digital graphics, shooting up anything remotely resembling an object. And how sweeter it is when those robots are the very same ones that you loved to watch back before you even knew how to do math. I think I shot myself in the foot a little by watching all the trailers for this movie beforehand. Nonetheless I will confess to shaking in anticipation as I sat there watching the first transformer, well... transform, and then again when Optimus Prime rolled up en queue for his first appearance, and then once more during the climactic battle. At least I kept my mouth shut in that early-afternoon quarter-filled cinema, unlike the other nerds in the cinema that were audibly gasping as Prime transformed for the first time. If you have no idea who or what the hell I'm talking about, then you're most likely NOT a nerd. Congratulations. I had some dude sitting to my left. He was pumping his fists in the air a few times during the movie because he was so excited. I wanted to slap him like something chronic. Regardless, he didn't wreck what was otherwise a pretty sweet movie experience.

Like 300, this movie delivers where it needs to deliver. Acting was good but nothing spectacular and the human characters were mere props in the end. In terms of storyline, whilst it was essentially nothing more than what you'd expect it did surprise a little. Whilst by no means will this ever appear on an English class syllabus, it did have its little complexities. The developing relationship between the boy and Bumblebee was brilliantly put together. The real stars however were the dudes in the graphics studios rendering the Transformers themselves. You know the digital graphics are good when halfway through the movie you totally forget that the robots are basically just a bunch of pixels, albeit LOTS of pixels. That's what happened with this. This movie pretty much rewrites the book on how to seamlessly blend artificial graphics with real-life objects, environments and actors. And then there's the sound...yikes. When the smashing and bruising occurs, you'll know about it, and you won't look away.

A couple of tiny little gripes. More just me being a tightarse than anything else. It took a little while for it to get going, though that was probably just 'coz I wanted the smashing and shooting to begin asap. The movie certainly didn't feel like it dragged. And with the storyline, there was very little closure. But you'd expect nothing else from a movie that already has the second and third sequels signed up. I guess the only real gripe about the movie was that it was another case of "America is the World!" Meh, Hollywood... at least the Aussie actress got to keep her accent in the movie.

So long as you get over the implausibilities of some of the things that happened (look ma! I'm a giant robot that can tower over the neighbourhood so quietly that not a single soul is stirring) and the odd bits of humour that was mixed in (I can see die-hard fans writing death letters to the director yelling "how dare you try to put humour in our beloved robots")... then sit back and enjoy being a kid all over again :D

Out of 10...give it an 8.5. Can't wait for the sequel... apparently they might make an entire aircraft carrier transform :0

Sex, cough medicine and rock and roll!

Blogging at work...how bored am I? Ok so the sex bit of the title is somewhat of a lie. But this cough is still here. It's starting to piss me off more than Michael Moore proclaiming to the world that his new movie is not meant to be political despite choosing to have its premiere in Washington DC - the political heart of the US. I am this close to skolling an entire bottle of cough suppressant in one go and saying to my throat "ha! try to cough now bitch!"

Oh, remember that judge who tried to sue a Korean couple in the US for fifty-something million dollars because of an (alleged) missing pair of pants at the dry cleaners? If not, read an earlier entry, it's somewhere there. Well he lost, AND he has to pay the defendants' trial fees, which might also include all their legal fees too. There IS a god!!! http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2528824020070625

In another little rant, I've been seeing more and more ads for the Live Earth concerts around the world that's coming up soon. I have but one simple question: Why? Seriously...why? What's the goal? Is it to "engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis" as the official description of the event states? Ok, that's a fair enough statement, but how in this increasingly brown world are these freaking concerts going to do that?! The words "raising awareness man" in hippy voices have been heard around the wire, but c'mon. Raising awareness?! We already know about freaking global warming. What's the point of shoving it further down our throats through the power of sex, drugs and rock and/or roll? Gimme a break. Sure, ok they're going to showcase some of the most technologically advanced equipment that is easy on the environment during the shows. But unless I run mega concerts for a living, that's about as useful as a condom in a lesbian relationship. I fail to see any practical benefit from this sham. As far as I'm concerned, any credibility to this event went down the drain when they announced that each ticket was to cost $99. Fair enough, expenses need to be paid but that doesn't justify the price...unless of course, a profit is to be made. Hmmmm. And please don't tell me that all the artists are in it because they 'care about the world'. If by "world" you mean "public relations" then yes that seems more plausible. I wonder how many of those artists involved whore themselves off to ads for SUVs. And how many of them would be flying around in private jets? Hmmm. I'm not as pissed off as this rant may make me seem. I'm just a little bewildered as to how such a thing has gained so much popularity. The premise behind the event is good. We do need to get off our arses and do something collectively as a whole about it, at the very least in case global warming is happening. (Remember now, it probably is true but no one can be 100% sure yet) But please, give me practical solutions, not hypocritical preaching.

Colds, cousins and crappy computers

When you buy something for over three grand, you expect it to work completely fine. Actually, no let me rephrase that. When you buy something for over three grand you hope that it works completely fine but you expect it to have something wrong with it. Such was the case unfornately for my new computer which came last week. Worked like a dream until it died all of a sudden. Long story short, the warranty guy that came over to have a look at it suggested that since it's such a new and uber computer, I should take it back to the place I bought it from, even though it's in NSW. So as I speak the computer is somewhere between Melbourne and Shitown (Sydney). Oh well, thems the way things go unfortunately. I don't blame the place I got it from. Them screwing up the computer doesn't explain why they have a reputable name amongst the geeky internet forum fraternity. I put this one down to simply "stupid F-ing computers $@#!!!!". The guys in NSW have actually been pretty helpful so far about it all and might even give me a free game for all the troubles caused. Either way, I guess that'll learn me for researching stuff too much. That's what you get for spending ages finding a place with a good name and relatively cheaper prices. So I shall be without a computer for at least a week. Such is the withdrawal I'm having from it already that I'm at work right now using the computers here despite the fact I could've left about 15 minutes ago.

Also had a nasty cold. It's pretty much over now but the dry raspy cough lingers on. Even downing an entire bottle of Benadryl hasn't gotten rid of it. I've narrowed down the list of possible people who passed it on to me to about three people - three of my patients specifically. I'm still seeing two of those three so they will get extra punishment from my thumbs and elbows.

The other interesting note to current life was the visiting of my cousin Lina. Lovely girl who I haven't seen for about six years. She was down from the Australian state of New Zealand with her fiance. 'Twas good to catch up with her. Coupled with my other lovely cousin Caroline who came back for a visit a month ago, it's been a period of reunions lately. I knew they'd all come crawling to Australia. Malaysia is too humid and New Zealand is overrun with Lord of the Rings nuts...they'll all end up living in Australia...just you wait. I just need to make sure that I implant an image in their heads of Sydney being the country's anus and Melbourne being the nation's true capital before they decide to live here :P

So that's life at the moment. I'm a nerdy leper without a computer that's being visited by his cousins.

I actually came on to write about something on my mind but now I forget. Screw it. Next time.

I'm 'Strayan!

After about 18 years of leeching off this country, sucking it dry and milking it for all it's worth, I can now finally do it without the scorn of xenophobic monkeys frowning at my yellow-ness. For as of Friday night I am (at long freaking last) an Australian citizen. Why it's taken this long is a looooooong story, the likes of which a trilogy can be made out of it. And for the purposes of sanity, I can't be arsed describing it. Just be glad in the knowledge that there is now no reason whatsoever to question my loyalties and suspect me as some sort of Chinese spy, waiting for the order from my superiors back in my ancestral land of China to commence Operation One Earth, One China.

The citizenship ceremony is pretty black and white. Speeches by the Mayor, various parliamentary figures subliminally telling us to "Vote Labor/Liberal", and a native Aboriginal who ended up being absent. Then, in separate groups we'd go up and recite the pledge, before receiving a certificate, a badge and a little plant...I got a shitty plant. Not happy Australia! The night is then capped off with the anthem followed by a chowfest of sandwiches and pies in the foyer. All in all, whilst an experience for sure, ten hours of work beforehand takes its toll. I also felt sorry for the emcee that had to call out all of our predominantely Chinese/Indian names. Certainly a candidate for the 'toughest job ever'.

In other sadder news, I'm sure everyone's heard about that train crash last week. Two little girls and their mother that died in the crash (the one in the news) came from my church/parish/primary school. I was at church tonight and was listening to the priest talk about it, and how the poor unfortunate father was now left to pick up the pieces. It was a subtly surreal service actually. The priest talked about how the school was coping, and how the kids were told of it. Imagine being the teacher telling the class that one of their classmates died. In the words of the priest, "don't ever let anyone tell you that teachers don't earn their pay." Such a sad thing. By the sounds of it though, everyone is banding together and lending support to one another, not just within the broken school community either. Apparently offers of help for the parish have come from the police, the CFA, local churches in the area (that aren't necessarily Catholic) and the council. At least there's something to smile about out of all this.