Saturday 31st March 2007

hazardous machines

Have vacated my cubicle for the past few days thanks to all the accidents happening over there.

A week ago, it was some sort of gas leakage, ammonia if I was informed right. And on Thursday, the awful smell of burnt machine wafted in. The fumes due to some overheated machine in the semi-clean room nearby. Yucky!

So anyways, it's Saturday, and it's like, phew... another month. Everyone seems to have started their thesis writing. I think i shall start too. Who cares if I have nothing worth writing yet. I can always write out all the literature review first. Right?

Friday 30th March 2007

Back to manual

Haha...after all the trouble of getting a motorized wheelchair, my mom is stubbornly sticking to a manual one, which she claims is way better. And they say teenagers are fickle minded. Ai yai yai.

Thursday 29th March 2007

Yummy Dexter

Had I been asked to select the post that I most look foward to write for this month it'd have been this one. because Dexter was such a totally delicious drama and it enlightens one to a wider variety of possibilities. The only dissappointment here was that it was only 12 episodes long, and season 2 will only arrive on our shores in September 2007.

The story is based on 2 out of 3 of the Dexter novels (Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter & Dexter in The Dark) by Jeff Lindsay (& I have surreptitiously found the first two books. Yay!). In a nutshell, or maybe in this case, on a fingernail tip, the story is about a serial killer - Dexter, who only kills bad guys thanks to Harry's Code (his fosterfather's teachings). Dexter is a sociopath who puts on the mask of a brother, colleague and boyfriend whenever he is around friends and family. He believes himself to be a monster known as Dexter, sometimes subhuman, humanity wise, but superhuman in intelligence. Wat totally rocks in the show is how Dexter is portrayed. He is a killer, and thus, based on all the usual killer profile, he is egotistic, intelligent, ruthless and unfeeling. He also contradicts himself, sometimes claiming he has no heart and does not feel the normal emotions a person does, and yet he is so possesive of Rita (his girlfriend) and Debra his sister.

All in all, I'd say that this drama is wicked fun and levitates the serial killer profession to unhealthy new heights and gore. I'm sure there are millions of fans out there waiting to see Dexter chopping up more victims while expertly avoiding Sgt. Doakes' watchful eyes.

Wednesday 28th March 2007

Dusty business

If I were to use a 2 words to describe March of 2007, I guess I'd write down "Home Renovation". Or maybe "Dusty renovation". It has been a devastating war zone back at the flat, with 7 females living in a crampy area, dust flying everywhere, the tilers taking a gazillion years to get the kitchen ready (we think that the tiler has a quota of 10 tiles per day to meet, for that is the amount of tiles he puts up everyday. It would have been a rather good joke if not for the circumstances), the washing machine having finally broken down right before the renovation started, the work on the rest of the flat started before the kitchen work ended as pre-planned.

I guess it is of no use to drone on about all the discomfort and annoyance the renovation has caused. I would just like to apologize here to everyone for the lousy living condition. Let's pray to all the deities out there for a quick clean end to all the work.

Tuesday 27th March 2007

TVB fiesta

Given my couple of months of missing action in the drama scene, I have returned with a vengeance with a sidekick (muh mom no less) to boot. Here are the dramas that we have both devoured in less than a month's time.

OK, to be more precise, I actually started watching this back in 2006, but delayed the last few episodes till March '07. Was abit worried bout the ending since my predecessors said that the ending was not so great. Well...I was not disappointed. Bosco acted really idiotically near the end but at least he redeemed himself. Sort of. My fav. character in this drama is Tavia in her bimbo-tic breast. Uhm.. I meant best. Jessica as a gambler was delicious too, but Jessica as the love-torn woman is less fun. Benz Hui as Ah Wing (the guy who calls the other guys Baby and Honey) is also another favourite character of mine. All in all, I'd give the drama a 7/10. It would have gotten an 8/10 if Michael Miu was not in it. Really dislike dat wooden guy.

This show started rather slowly. And I totally detested Bosco's hairstyle here. Sammul is the bad guy in this drama but it was enjoyable seeing him being bad. The scene where he confessed to the sister about his sins... delicious. Could not stand Kate here. Whinny and so annoyingly stubborn. Instead I liked Shirley tremendously. Can't say anyone agreed with me. Nobody seems to like her acting here at all.:P

The story finally picked up towards the last few episodes, Kate finally discovering she has a spine, but I felt it could not save its lousy beginning. I'd grade it 5/10.

I was quite disappointed with this drama. I guess it was once again a case of too much expectation. I had heard that it was a great family saga on wealth, mafia and detective work. Well... I felt rather deflated after watching the first few episodes. Let's see. How to describe it? Well... Steven Ma sucks, Ron sucks. The end. Alright, backtracking abit, Steve's acting was not bad. It was the character he played that was so unbelievable. The only thing Ron did right was dying I think. It at least rendered his character more memorable. Shirley here, was too unsuccessful as a baddy. Sigh... she should really learn more from Michelle. That lady rocks. Kate is once again too whinny. *yawn* I'll say the show deserves a 5.5/10. If the Ron character was played by someone else, maybe it'll garner a 6/10.

I'd give it a 6.8/10. 1 point coz Bosco is innit, another 3 points for the great humour, a point for the refreshing intro few episodes and another 1.8 for the overall. I'd have liked it better if Sharon had lived. Also, I think the drama actually deserved a much longer story line. It should have been 40 episodes, preferably with Bosco helping out Sharon in the Blood Shadow Sect to fight against the 8 good sects. The story where Bosco was so gullible he fell for the Sword Sect leader's plan is downright embarrassing. Such an overdone plot. Luckily it only lasted for 2 episodes and Sharon forgave him. All that junk on the Unity Sect is such a waste of plotline. The ludicrous sect reminds me of those hippie communities that we've got around these days. Ew... I enjoyed Wayne Lai's character here. V. cool.

I am currently still watching these last two dramas so it won't be fair to judge them yet. I'd say I agree with KTVB that Kevin is way nicer to watch here (in Life Art) as compared to DD. It just goes to prove, the theory that you can't have 2 good guys hero in a drama. It spoils the whole pot of soup.

The Slicing of Demon is rather intriguing. I liked both the leads (oops, there I go contradicting myself.) Chan Kam Hung and Michael Tse compliments each other quite well. Bernice Liu is a tad boring here. In Life Art, I loved Gigi Lai's character (so far). She is so nice to look at. So, based on what I have watched so far, I'd say both dramas deserve a >5/10 rating. Keep up the good work TVB! But for goodness sake, change your leads. The same bunch appear all the time.

Monday 26th March 2007

TA no more

Ah yes... no more throwing wicked tantrums at students who don't bother to listen to me as I give them valuable lessons in their lab sessions. Darn it.

Wrapping up these 3 months of teaching, let's gather my thoughts and think about what I had learnt...

(1) Hmm... that myth about 20 minutes attention span of normal humans? In reality, it is less than 5 minutes.

(2) The simple instructions "Read the manual carefully" is easier said than done.

(3) Spoon-feeding IS the way to go. Else, only a small portion would actually understand the whole darn experiment.

(4) Turn your back and pretend to be very busy if you prefer to NOT answer any questions and ultimately delay the whole session.

(5) Copying is forgivable. Lack of creativity is a sadder crime.

Saddest of all is, now that all the lab sessions of the semester are over, I am once again a poor graduate student in dire need of financial aid. *lamenting my sadly depleting savings account.*

Any good part-time jobs out there?

Sunday 25th March 2007

Shopping for 3

Sigh... Is this a sign of growing up? Gone are the days when I can abandonly eat anything that I want without a care for others. The early days of this month had been spent visitng supermarkets to but vege and meat for 3. Gone are the days where I can just grab a 'no mai kai' for dinner or go on a whim to a sushi bar to gorge myself silly. And since the renovation started, we've been surviving on economical rice and noodles. :P How I miss my sandwiches. *whine somemore*

Living expenses have rocketed and these days I have to forego my shopping weekly spree. Ah... agony...

Hmm... *stubbornly trying to find a silver lining somewhere* I guess the upside of this is I am actually spending with more care? And hopefully, someday I'll outgrow all my money wasting habits and become a miserable miser... baby steps.

Saturday 24th March 2007

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

First off, I'd like to thank Ju for dragging me to the concert. :) The following is the offical website of the group, obtained from Ju's multiply site: