Don't say I didn't warn you but when he is famous, just remember that you saw it here first and a Chindian brought it to you.
Michael on the Internet
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Goodbye MJ
It took a long while to sink in....but the King of Pop is no more. When you grow up with an icon, they are indestructible and they are immortal. Though there were very visible ad obvious signs of the strains of the public eye on him, MJ would live forever. It was very difficult to accept that he is gone. Very difficult to look at the situation and have that little voice say that this is not possible.
Maybe it's a hoax. Maybe it's a publicity stunt. Maybe Michael just wants to see if he is still loved. Whatever it was, it cannot be that he is dead.
You then see the reviews, the post-mortems, the news and culminating in a memorial service which was touching and slightly inappropriate. Gold casket below a stage where every sang and danced. Not very Asian. But after all that, we now have to get use to a life without Michael Jackson.
Like most poorer kids in my generation, we didn't really get a chance to enjoy music until our teens. Our parents weren't exactly music people and I didn't have a radio at home until I was 13. It wasn't those mini-compos which were a real fad then but those cassette players that has a dial for radio and everything was button and levers. No electronics, nothing fancy. It was junk and looked like junk but it was our radio.
The first songs I heard was Abba "One of us" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". I hated it and still do. When "Beat It" was played later, I remembered that it was sung by this whiny voiced pansy guy called Michael Jackson who sang a terrible song "Billie Jean" but "Beat It" was kinda cool. So they song I paid attention to, blew my mind literally. I was hooked on "Thriller". At that time, the music was called New Wave and the world was preparing itself for a second British invasion after the Beatles.
We had Duran Duran, Wham, Howard Jones, The Police, Nik Kershaw, Yazoo, Kajagoogoo (I am not making these names up. These were really band names that we were really into). MJ stood out and resisted the British invasion sweeping awards after awards. I remember watching "Thriller" music video at a very popular CD outlet called Victoria Music Station in Sg Wang after school which we snuck out to. I just couldn't move away. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen!
I began to seriously pay attention to MJ then and I was hooked. He went on to become a huge megastar with people going crazy over him! Crying when the saw him and having all these emotions flooding towards him.
Sadly though, that didn't last. To reasons only known to him, MJ became....."weird". For all his shortcomings and all his doings, he will remain forever an icon for perfection, artistry and philanthrophy. Very few people come into the world and leave with the knowledge that they have made a difference. MJ is one of them. We will miss him and his music and we won't be the same again. God Bless and rest in peace.....finally.
Maybe it's a hoax. Maybe it's a publicity stunt. Maybe Michael just wants to see if he is still loved. Whatever it was, it cannot be that he is dead.
You then see the reviews, the post-mortems, the news and culminating in a memorial service which was touching and slightly inappropriate. Gold casket below a stage where every sang and danced. Not very Asian. But after all that, we now have to get use to a life without Michael Jackson.
Like most poorer kids in my generation, we didn't really get a chance to enjoy music until our teens. Our parents weren't exactly music people and I didn't have a radio at home until I was 13. It wasn't those mini-compos which were a real fad then but those cassette players that has a dial for radio and everything was button and levers. No electronics, nothing fancy. It was junk and looked like junk but it was our radio.
The first songs I heard was Abba "One of us" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". I hated it and still do. When "Beat It" was played later, I remembered that it was sung by this whiny voiced pansy guy called Michael Jackson who sang a terrible song "Billie Jean" but "Beat It" was kinda cool. So they song I paid attention to, blew my mind literally. I was hooked on "Thriller". At that time, the music was called New Wave and the world was preparing itself for a second British invasion after the Beatles.
We had Duran Duran, Wham, Howard Jones, The Police, Nik Kershaw, Yazoo, Kajagoogoo (I am not making these names up. These were really band names that we were really into). MJ stood out and resisted the British invasion sweeping awards after awards. I remember watching "Thriller" music video at a very popular CD outlet called Victoria Music Station in Sg Wang after school which we snuck out to. I just couldn't move away. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen!
I began to seriously pay attention to MJ then and I was hooked. He went on to become a huge megastar with people going crazy over him! Crying when the saw him and having all these emotions flooding towards him.
Sadly though, that didn't last. To reasons only known to him, MJ became....."weird". For all his shortcomings and all his doings, he will remain forever an icon for perfection, artistry and philanthrophy. Very few people come into the world and leave with the knowledge that they have made a difference. MJ is one of them. We will miss him and his music and we won't be the same again. God Bless and rest in peace.....finally.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Transformers 2 - Revenge of the Brainless!
You may have read that this sequel really bombed. Then you may have read that it has grossed USD400MM worldwide in 2 weeks, making it one of the most successful films ever! It's opening weekend was only overshadowed by "Dark Knight". So you will be blamed if you are confused. How the heck did a movie that has gotten so rotten reviews absolutely EXPLODED at the box office?!?!?!? Defies logic? Actually not really.
The Star made it very clear in its publications today. Transformers 2 was made to entertain audiences...not critics. You see, some movies are made for critics that will say how artistic it is, how certain actors bring out the best in themselves by displaying a variety of emotions that totally brings out the talent in them. Then there are movies that just defies logic, pure fantasy, uses sexual charm or comic to mask the poor plot and of course uses extensive special effects. This is such a movie.
Going into the movie with a low expectation really helped. So what I did was to leave my brain outside and THOROUGHLY enjoyed the movie. It's a guy movie meaning there are lots of action, destruction, guns, really big guns, coolest planes, big huge mother robots, sexy girl, comic relief and huge explosions at the end.
What is there not to love?!?!?! But its a guy movie.
Don't get logical with it or try to reason because you are not going to get it or win. There are no fantastic talent being showcased here and you can pretty much guarantee that no one is going to be nominated for Oscars.
There are new robots which will make Hasbro and Toys R' So-overpriced-you-have-to-sell-your-spleen-to-afford even richer. There is one that looks like a dog one which is a monster truck transformed and one into a SR71 Blackbird. So its a merchandizer heaven. And we as responsible 21st century parents, will go out and invest more into these toys than our retirement funds and the GDP of Haiti put together.
I don't want to reveal too much. Just that there are more robots, Megan Fox is hotter (it that is at all possible), there is a female transformer, some comic relief and lots and lots of action. 2 hours 30min worth of non-stop, hard breathing action.
My suggestion, forget about the critics. Just see it, get it over with and enjoy.
The Star made it very clear in its publications today. Transformers 2 was made to entertain audiences...not critics. You see, some movies are made for critics that will say how artistic it is, how certain actors bring out the best in themselves by displaying a variety of emotions that totally brings out the talent in them. Then there are movies that just defies logic, pure fantasy, uses sexual charm or comic to mask the poor plot and of course uses extensive special effects. This is such a movie.
Going into the movie with a low expectation really helped. So what I did was to leave my brain outside and THOROUGHLY enjoyed the movie. It's a guy movie meaning there are lots of action, destruction, guns, really big guns, coolest planes, big huge mother robots, sexy girl, comic relief and huge explosions at the end.
What is there not to love?!?!?! But its a guy movie.
Don't get logical with it or try to reason because you are not going to get it or win. There are no fantastic talent being showcased here and you can pretty much guarantee that no one is going to be nominated for Oscars.
There are new robots which will make Hasbro and Toys R' So-overpriced-you-have-to-sell-your-spleen-to-afford even richer. There is one that looks like a dog one which is a monster truck transformed and one into a SR71 Blackbird. So its a merchandizer heaven. And we as responsible 21st century parents, will go out and invest more into these toys than our retirement funds and the GDP of Haiti put together.
I don't want to reveal too much. Just that there are more robots, Megan Fox is hotter (it that is at all possible), there is a female transformer, some comic relief and lots and lots of action. 2 hours 30min worth of non-stop, hard breathing action.
My suggestion, forget about the critics. Just see it, get it over with and enjoy.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Naming the offspring - so that they don't become homicidal killers
This is a HUGE problem and you wanna take your time on this one. Remember, names last FOREVER, that's a tad longer than ETERNITY. If you name your child well, they may grow up normal or even extraordinary. If you name you child 50 cents or Chainsaw, they going to jail.
Now in Malaysia, we have a syndrome called the national education system. What this means is that 99% of the educators in Government schools are rural folks who have not watched a single Hollywood movie. What that leads to is that they will be unable to pronounce names like Sage (tell them to pronounce sausage but without the "sau"), Matthew (will sound like a Cantonese swear word), Elliot (will pronounce idiot) or new age psychedelic names like Destiny, Mother Earth or Toad Excrement.
The other reason why you want to name your child well, is so that they won't get teased all their school life and end up losers or worse, homicidal serial killers! You see those TV news reports that say, that this kid was a quiet, polite kid and no one understands why he suddenly took a gun and starting shooting up his school. No one can give an explanation why this should happen to a kid like Ballwhacker Jones.
So you wanna be EXTRA sensitive about this. Malaysia also has another problem where we have multi racial implications to the names. So we have to ensure that the names don't mean something else in another language. For me it was doubly hard as I had to make sure our Japanese-occupation, tapioca-eating , 10-miles-to-schoolwalking, kerosene-lamp-reading and being constantly under fire parents could pronounce our babies' names. Secondly we had to make sure it didn't mean something different in any language to the best of our knowledge.
So we decided to play it safe and take common names with a nice flow to it.
There is also the occult way where you wanna see if the numbers in the names align to the person's birth date, the day the peed for the first time, etc. I didn't want anything to do with that so we just stuck to the normal English language names. I always like the name Sean and how it was pronounced despite its spelling. Then I looked for the most suitable and well meaning name and I came upon Joseph and Michael. Michael meant who is like God and the captain of God's Angels is St. Michael the Archangel. How much cooler can you get!!!! That's like the leader of Transformers, Justice League, G.I. Joe all rolled into one, a million times over!!! Also Michael Sean had a better ring to it than Joseph Sean.
So Michael Sean it was.
With Amanda, it was a lot tougher. Primarily because the saints' names are either very biblical or ages you. Names like Agatha, Mary, Catherine, Caroline, Bridgette, etc. That made it difficult as I don't want her sounding like a 60 year SOOO soon! Eventually the Christian name I chose was Grace since it was the same meaning as Mary but a lot more chic. That was the middle name. I chose and shortlisted these first names, Amanda, Nicole and Stacy. I gave these names to my colleagues and asked them which girl name they would date.
The majority was on Nicole with Stacy coming in a very strong second. Then my Chindian colleague (you can always trust a Chindian to make things easy for you), Joseph commented that Nicole sounds hot and dirty and Stacy sounds like a porn star's name. You never seen me move as fast as I did when I wrote down Amanda and drove to the Registration Dept to submit her name. Flash Gordon would have been proud!
So hence the names Michael Sean David and Amanda Grace David. I am glad to know that there is only one other kid I know in his school named Michael and Amanda was just as uncommon. So much for it being TO common. So Mikey and Mandy or M&M got their names through very meticulous method of selection which followed these principles:-
1. It has got to have no vulgar or ridiculous meaning
2. Doesn't represent any body parts
3. Easy to pronounce even by one certified to be clinically dead
4. Doesn't turn you one (for a girl's name)
5. Doesn't sound like a porn star
6. No or minimal teasing with the names
7. Doesn't spawn nick names that can be used in rap videos or prison
So there you have it. Algernon Constipated Charles Weedshaker III is a no-no. Please! You might as well kill the boy. Keep it simple, has a good, strong meaning. Gives your kids confidence.
Hey! Maybe try something like Aquaman or Optimus Prime or The HULK!!!
Now in Malaysia, we have a syndrome called the national education system. What this means is that 99% of the educators in Government schools are rural folks who have not watched a single Hollywood movie. What that leads to is that they will be unable to pronounce names like Sage (tell them to pronounce sausage but without the "sau"), Matthew (will sound like a Cantonese swear word), Elliot (will pronounce idiot) or new age psychedelic names like Destiny, Mother Earth or Toad Excrement.
The other reason why you want to name your child well, is so that they won't get teased all their school life and end up losers or worse, homicidal serial killers! You see those TV news reports that say, that this kid was a quiet, polite kid and no one understands why he suddenly took a gun and starting shooting up his school. No one can give an explanation why this should happen to a kid like Ballwhacker Jones.
So you wanna be EXTRA sensitive about this. Malaysia also has another problem where we have multi racial implications to the names. So we have to ensure that the names don't mean something else in another language. For me it was doubly hard as I had to make sure our Japanese-occupation, tapioca-eating , 10-miles-to-schoolwalking, kerosene-lamp-reading and being constantly under fire parents could pronounce our babies' names. Secondly we had to make sure it didn't mean something different in any language to the best of our knowledge.
So we decided to play it safe and take common names with a nice flow to it.
There is also the occult way where you wanna see if the numbers in the names align to the person's birth date, the day the peed for the first time, etc. I didn't want anything to do with that so we just stuck to the normal English language names. I always like the name Sean and how it was pronounced despite its spelling. Then I looked for the most suitable and well meaning name and I came upon Joseph and Michael. Michael meant who is like God and the captain of God's Angels is St. Michael the Archangel. How much cooler can you get!!!! That's like the leader of Transformers, Justice League, G.I. Joe all rolled into one, a million times over!!! Also Michael Sean had a better ring to it than Joseph Sean.
So Michael Sean it was.
With Amanda, it was a lot tougher. Primarily because the saints' names are either very biblical or ages you. Names like Agatha, Mary, Catherine, Caroline, Bridgette, etc. That made it difficult as I don't want her sounding like a 60 year SOOO soon! Eventually the Christian name I chose was Grace since it was the same meaning as Mary but a lot more chic. That was the middle name. I chose and shortlisted these first names, Amanda, Nicole and Stacy. I gave these names to my colleagues and asked them which girl name they would date.
The majority was on Nicole with Stacy coming in a very strong second. Then my Chindian colleague (you can always trust a Chindian to make things easy for you), Joseph commented that Nicole sounds hot and dirty and Stacy sounds like a porn star's name. You never seen me move as fast as I did when I wrote down Amanda and drove to the Registration Dept to submit her name. Flash Gordon would have been proud!
So hence the names Michael Sean David and Amanda Grace David. I am glad to know that there is only one other kid I know in his school named Michael and Amanda was just as uncommon. So much for it being TO common. So Mikey and Mandy or M&M got their names through very meticulous method of selection which followed these principles:-
1. It has got to have no vulgar or ridiculous meaning
2. Doesn't represent any body parts
3. Easy to pronounce even by one certified to be clinically dead
4. Doesn't turn you one (for a girl's name)
5. Doesn't sound like a porn star
6. No or minimal teasing with the names
7. Doesn't spawn nick names that can be used in rap videos or prison
So there you have it. Algernon Constipated Charles Weedshaker III is a no-no. Please! You might as well kill the boy. Keep it simple, has a good, strong meaning. Gives your kids confidence.
Hey! Maybe try something like Aquaman or Optimus Prime or The HULK!!!
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