(Or what I just watched on youtube)

Sweet sweet inspiration. Keep thinking indeed.

On a more “I am a serious” tone…

Makes me wish I have a national song like that that I can really rally to…

and finally to round off the keep thinking title…

In case I didn’t make myself completely clear…

I HATE Nature.

There’s just something about being stuck in mosquito infested greenery that really bugs (I amuse myself too much) me. Sure, there are sights in nature that would still leave me awe struck and are sometimes totally breath taken, but I would still prefer my breath taken away not so literally…like, say, on a photo, from some website, in front of a computer screen, in an air conditioned room.

This lil prologue was just a setup for a not so short tale of some ‘quality time’ I’ve decided to spend with the Girlfriend over this weekend.

For some Special Reason, Yours Truly decided that it would be great fun to spend some time with the Girlfriend trekking through a local hill nature walk that had just been refurbished. The Special Reason being I have brains the size of a pea. To further reiterate that point, the deceptively smart Me decided “Hey! This 4 hour long trek is not challenging enough. Why don’t we gorge ourselves on an insane amount of Japanese food before starting the trek at say…3pm when the sun is hottest!”

So you can imagine my perverse delight when at the start of the trail, we find ourselves staring up a stairway with 10000 steps. Haha. Of course, I kid. That was only 1 flight of the entire stairs up the bloody hill. Not that I am complaining, of course.

The Girlfriend also thought that it would be a good time to laden ourselves with a hugeass bottle of water. And I have the great honour of carrying this bottle.

How sweet.

Now’s probably a good time to say that the climb wasn’t the long ardious trudge that I dreaded. It was significantly worsen when a group of youngsters decided that this was a good day to do the same trek so that they can better appreciate the sound of each others’ voices.

They’ve decided that the big discussion about everyone’s new job was best shared with us, the trees, the creepy crawlies in the ground and the birds on the trees… which have all but disappeared because they wanted the amazing jobs the kids were having.

In the end, we managed to get rid of these irritatiants by throwing the hugeass bottle of water at them, thus lightening our load and saving the wildlife from noise pollution at the same time.

Haha. Of course, I kid again.

Being the mature individuals that we are, we did the only sensible thing possible at that moment in time. We LET them ramble past us. Yes, young punks, you’d only managed to overtake us because we wanted some quality time along. The panting was all a big show.

After a long and extremely tiring climb upslope, guess what we discovered? Yup, our friendly public buses actually service the god forsaken route to the top of the hill… But, of course THAT would not be spending quality time together. According to reliable sources of information (random blogs of Authority churned up by google) People who have gone through near death experiences together have been known to forge long and lasting bonds.

Thankfully, the worst part of the ordeal was over, there was just the little matter of walking for 3 odd hours under the blazing sun.

Chicken Shit.

Seriously, the rest of the walk was not so bad. The scenery was nice and the greenery *shudder* was dotted with assorted plants of various colors and shapes. It was a complete change from the concrete blocks of the City in the sense that there was no air conditioning.

Haha. See, how I kid again?

For a while, the change in environment actually made me feel like I was in a totally different time and place. It was a place where all the tension and anxiety built up over the week were temporarily forgotten. It was a place where the low hanging tree branch hit me on the head.

See! Kidding again.

For all the grumping that I’ve been doing, it was seriously not that bad. Aside from a few untruths in advertising (”Stream Garden” HA!) that lead to a lot of wasted steps, it was really quite an experience to get away from the hustle and bustle of the City. The sights were rather nice (and here, I suspect you would enjoy it a lot more than me if you already are a Nature Buff) (As opposed to Natural Buff) (Somebody needs to get the naked images outta my head) . The shutterbug opportunities that presented themselves even managed to coax a curl around the edges of my mouth.

Which the arm twisting Girlfriend is asking me to put down as a “Smile” (as opposed to grimace) and that this paragraph has nothing to do with any arm twisting whatsoever.

Haha. I Kid…

OUCH!

Was watching a program on TV recently (yes, that’s where we get all our education from, isn’t it?). It’s an interview with kids and what they want to be when they grow up. It’s refreshing, in a way, when you hear ol favourite answers such as “astronauts, police, doctors, teachers, reporters” etc…

It’s something that we tend to forget when we “grew up”. It’s something that was thrown out the window when life and pragmatism came along, bowled you over and kicked your teeth out. When you realized that it is “unrealistic” or “not practical” to go for these dreams. That it is more important to satisfy your stomach than it is to fulfill your “kiddish” goals.

Do you still remember what YOU wanted to be when you grow up?

And if I ask you now what you want to be, would your answer be “Rich”?

And what does it mean to be “Rich”, exactly?

Just browsed through a copy of “The 4 Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss recently. He challenged the fact that people want to be rich in cash. He claims that

“$1,000,000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows.”

He talked about the “Nouveau Riche”, a class of people that do not want to wait till retirement to enjoy the “fruits of their labor”, but rather using technology and some dirty tricks, earn money while taking “mini retirements” throughout their lives.

Sounds good to me so far.

But the truth of the matter is that a lot of us don’t have the stomach for “dirty tricks”.

According to my favorite Wikipedia, Nouveau Riche (French for “new rich”), or new money, also refers to a person who has acquired considerable wealth within his or her generation. While I disdain people (me included) who slave for money in jobs they loath, I believe a job and job satisfaction are crucial in the overall happiness of a person.

I think some of the happiest people in the world are those that truely enjoy what they are doing. Don’t know how true this is, but apparently Warren “I don’t really need any more money” Buffett was quoted as saying

‘I tap-dance into work, and then I read and talk on the phone for seven or eight hours, and then I go home and read some more,”

I think that would be my perfect definition of Nouveau Riche.

the parties you’re invited to no longer requires you to dress up and put on your contact lens to impress.

Rather, they involve persons who are younger than your contact lens and who would be most impressed if you dress up as the Tellytubbies.

How far the mighty have fallen….

This will seem blasphemous to some, but I did not really enjoy “The Dark Knight”

After raving about the hype in a previous post, I felt a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience. “Batman Begins” was an awesome flick. I think that’s partly because it seems like a breath of fresh air after the farce that descended on the whole franchise when Joel Schumacher took over the series. (I shall not bitch about bat nipples and neon villains). We had a tank-like Batmobile, we have Aslan as Ra-shal-gul, we even have a wise cracking Alfred and Lucius Fox. Batman remains as the dark, methodical bastard that he is, but we could still see glimpses of Bruce Wayne.

“Dark Knight”, however is a dark, dark flick with nothing to counter balance it. The plot is semi-deep (which is twice as deep as most Hollywood fare these days) and there seems to be no end to the blanket of doom and gloom that envelops the whole show. Batman (and the denizens of Gotham, of course) just keeps finding himself mired in deeper and stickier layers of shit as the movie progresses.

You’d think that the presence of the Joker will elevate that. After all, he is created to be the Super ego to Batman’s Id. He is wild abandonment compared to Batman’s cold calculations. He is everything that Batman is not. In other words, the Joker is supposed to be fun.

No offense to the dead guy,(preparing for more gasps of disapproval…) but this will always be my Joker.

“Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?”

Kudos for Harvey Dent though. He is definitely one of the most 3 dimensional character in the show. Because we are the sadistic bastards that we are, we all love the story of a fall from grace. “Schadenfreuder”, if I remember my Boston Legal correctly. Huge Kudos for the design of Two-Face too. Don’t think I could’ve sat through another one of this…

On other news, (warning: HUGE geek alert), NEIL GAIMAN IS WRITING BATMAN!!!

And if I did not make myself clear on that statement,

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

Right, now that we have that out of the way.

I know, I know. It is probably more of a marketing move than a creative one. I mean, there are fanboys out that who will just buy ANYTHING that Gaiman even scribbles on right? So Batman + Gaiman =  Ka-ching, Kaching.

Having said that, this is not the first time Gaiman wrote Batman. If memory serves me right, he actually wrote some tales about the bats that was collected in Batman: Black and White, along with other stories from Frank Miller and such.

Don’t remember the story, but I don’t remember it as particularly outstanding. Which can be looked at from both ways.

But that’s the thing about anthology short stories. They don’t really have time to grow. I know some of the best stories are the shortest ones. But I also believe in the rewarding of loyal readers. To be there from the start of an epic and looking at all the pieces coming together after a long build up is something else altogether.

Gaiman’s take on Batman will come by after Grant Morrison’s arc that is ominously named “Batman R.I.P.” I have no idea how long Gaiman’s arc on Batman will be, but I hope that it has time to grow and mature..

And that the Joker’s in it…

And that it involves no Bat nipples.

I HAVE to do that

Oh right, if it warms your cockles to (probably) see Batman tears (literally) someone a new one, there’s also this lil thing coming up…

Yeeeesh….

Of all the places I’ve been, it remains one of the most fascinating.

Romans have amazing architecture and art pieces growing out of their wazoos and they don’t seem to realize it. I wish I could go for short city breaks in Rome whenever I want.

“We can’t build more subways because we’re afraid we’ll hit some lost city if we do anymore digging”. That, my friend is an actual quote, sort of…but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true.

My mates and I literally stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain while walking around some suburb. We were pretty convinced we were lost (which our group seem to have an uncanny knack for doing) (we have ways of getting lost that other people can only DREAM about) after wandering around some narrow alleys and high rise building before we heard the gushing of water, we turned a corner and lo and behold! We saw a drunkard pissing into a drain. Na..seriously, it was one of the grandest things I’ve ever seen.

A wonder carved outta marble if there ever was such a thing. It’s a wonder to behold in all its glory. And it does help that we had the best gelato known to man in our hands while we watched the cascading waters (and the tonnes of ignorant fools who were throwing coins into the pool) (we lost a grand total of 4 Euros to that pool) (damnit).

This is where I am going to insert a blatant plug: if you EVER need to request for a last meal (I know it’s only a matter of time for some of you bastard reading this. Hur hur), DEMAND for San Crispino gelato from Rome. I swear I could’ve died happy then. It’s what I would have for EVERY meal if I could go for Rome city breaks.

And that’s just one of the many delights we saw there.

While I was not terribly orgasmic about the Colossium (bite me!) or the Sistine Chapel (bite me and hang me to dry), I was just generally blown away by the whole haphazard  “we got more antiques then we could deal with” way in which the Romans leave pieces that are ‘just’ a few centuries old to rot in the open.  And here in Homeland, we treat ANYTHING that’s more that 30 years old as a national treasure.

Kinda put things into perspective,huh?

Other fun things we did in Rome? ALMOST seeing the Pope, blatantly ‘forgetting’ to pay for our public transport (a crime that would catch up with us)(but that’s a story for another day), and being singled out by authentic home grown pickpockets.

Yup. Yours truely had his wallet stolen by a pair of impeccably dressed buggers on the local bus. While losing the wallet was a tad inconvenient for someone who is backpacking, it was kinda a blessing in disguise.

I mean for a few tens of euros and a bit of hassle I now have a story that I can repeat forever and ever as a show of my street creds. Now, It’s also a story that will live on in cyberspace long after I’m gone… Just like the stories of the other million bugger like me who got robbed when they went for rome short breaks.

I’ve since grown past that and these days I can proudly say that I no longer bear any ill will towards those 2 fuckers

No… this is not actually a review for Dark Knight.

In fact, this post actually came about after watching one of the OTHER summer block busters: Hellboy II.

I enjoyed the movie… A LOT.

With recent super hero movies immersing themselves in a  “Darker Tone”, Hellboy came out and showed everyone how superhero movies should be made.While these “darker” movies show how mature a medium the graphic novel can be, they forget that at the end of the day, we’re often talking about men/women/big green things prancing about in their underwear.

And that, in itself is a whole bag of fun.

Women prancing about in their underwear, I mean.

While Hellboy has its fair share of plot points and subplots involving unrequited love, family hatred, death and maiming of parents/work mates. It does not result in the characters moping and looking anguished while  hanging upside down on bridges, hanging out in inpoverished South American Towns, or just plain hanging.

Nope, for Hellboy, these “issues” are resolved over beer, cigars and an unhealthy dose of Barry Manilow.

Sounds good to me already.

I’m a recently converted fan of Guillermo del Toro. Pan’s Labyrinth was a huge revelation for me. Some of the best stories I’ve read/watch/seen/heard tread the fine line between darkness and light. They’re about light being found when all hope seems to be gone; or even better yet, they’re stories that slowly peel and crawl and chew away facades of seemingly bright and cheery scenarios to reveal the filthy, rotting and decomposing surface below.

It’s hard to find this balance. To have a story that is heavy on its rhetorics and yet, doesn’t really preach to its audience.

And finally, to round it all up, Hellboy boasts some of the most devilishly (hur hur) beautiful creature designs this side of Mirrormask. Mike Mignola was a genius at incorporating mythology and folklore into the tales of Hellboy and del Toro managed to put his own twist to Mignola’s creatures and bring them alive on screen.

Just check out the scene where Hellboy battles the plant elemental whatchumightcallit. While it is not one of those Waichoskily complicated, well cheorographed “Fight sequence” per se, but the fight and its aftermath has got to be one of the most whimsical (in a good way) piece of cinema that I’ve ever seen.

Great stuff.

“Hulk” tops “”John Lennon” as the most read post in your entire blog.

Not that there is anything wrong with the Hulk, of course…

You get just the SLIGHTEST bit upset that your phone does not have the word “rewind” in its auto spell function.

Yes… there is such a word as REWIND!

It was on my walkman

One of the nature of The Job is that I could be uncontactable for days on end.

For the most part, this is ok (sometimes even a blessing in disguise)

But there are times when you look back and think… Is the Job really worth missing out on some things in life? Is it worth not being there for some things that are happening? Is it worth the time away from your family and loved ones?

Someone much wiser than me said recently. “Almost everything that you can dream of is achievable. Anything can be done. But thing is… there’s a price to everything. The only question you need to ask is… Are you willing to pay the price?”

For the most part, the rewards (not just monetary) I’ve gotten from the job outweighs the price I’ve been paying. Sure, I’ve missed celebrating at home during the Festivals, had not been able to make it to several weddings that should’ve been significant to me (not mine la), and have not seen some close friends for too long than is healthy. But, as I’ve said, on the most part, it is ok. The rewards have been outweighing the price.

The things that really matters. The potential “Instant Job Quitting Triggers”, however, are something else altogether.

One thing I hate more than anything else is not being able to be somewhere that I am needed.

Somewhere where my presence might make a difference.

A difference to people that matters to me, at least.

And today was one of those days.

Really really guts me to know that someone whom I care about was not able to contact me for the whole day just because I was goddamn working.

And that I could’ve made a difference but didn’t because of the Job.

And that I could’ve made a difference to someone that matters a whole lot but didn’t because of the Job.

This just plain sucks.

Some aliens out there actually thinks that cigars smoking is an anti social behavior and drives people apart.

CIGAR smoking, not just any type of smoking.

To that, I can only say 2 lil words..

“Denny Crane”

I know that TV is not exactly the best place to find logic to support your case for arguments but I think that a glass of scotch and a cigar might be all some people need to bond at the end of a work day. Of course, I learnt that from Boston Legal. But watching Denny and Alan sit at the balcony week after week makes it easy to believe that the argument is true.

OF course the Girlfriend detests smoking so that rules out one potential cigars and scotch buddy for me.

It proves that romance would always be slightly different from… (wait for it…) bromance.

It’s no secret.

I want to see the world.

And the way I’ve always wanted to do it is by sail.

I know that it’s totally impractical, given today’s (relatively) low flight cost, but there’s just something about sailing that knocks the winds outta you.

Hur hur…

I am good.

Right back on point.

There’s just something about being in the middle the wide open seas with almost nothing standing between you and mother nature that is so, dare I say it? wonderfully romantic.

There! And not just in the pussy “I am the King of the World” kinda romantic.

It puts a lot of things into perspective, being that close to the whims and willies of the sea.

But the ironic thing about this whole concept is that it is so damn bloody expensive. Not just to own a sail boat but to maintain and upkeep it as well.

I’m more or less a desktop traveler these days. Yes… sad but true. I’ve said this before but you’d be amazed by the amount of information and misinformation you’d be able to find on the net given some time in hand.

Anyway, on my recent flight of fantasy, I actually thought about and dug up some dirt on fractional sailing. Or owning part of a luxurious sailboat. It’s a fairly cheap alternative to actually buying and maintaining one. It’s sort of like a time share of boats.

Seems interesting.

Now, to find the time to do it.

It’s been said that there is a common pool of idea that all creators draw from. A common consciousness, so to speak where all the good ideas come from.

I have no idea how true that is, but I do know that it seems like a convenient excuse for periods of times where movies/books/music with similar theme seemed to come out at the same time. It easily explains away the fads with dinosaur movies, disasters flicks, zombie munchfests, kungfu sockchops and now superhero romps.

Creative serendipity is normally the scapegoat as to why all these similar flicks come out at the same time… NOT plagiarism, or what a layman like me would describe as “riding on the success of others” or copycat.

Anyway, I just finished watching Futurama: The Beast with a Million Backs! (How wonderfully B-Grade)

It’s been too long since the last episode was out and it was really good to see all the famous and not so famous cast of Futurama returns. I swear, there was a slight tingling down my back when the theme song played in the opening sequence… I could almost understand what fans of Sex and the City felt when the show hit the big screen.

ALMOST.

Not quite… that was a show that’s waaaaay too… *muffled profanities*

Anyway. Loved the show. (NOT Sex and the City, wise guy…) But the thing that got to me when the Beast finally appear was how similar it is to a recent (and ongoing?) Marvel event.

The whole issue of being assimilated into a common consciousness and the “selects” actually maintaining a certain degree of free will… at least enough to hold semi conscious thoughts, and LIKING the experience is an issue that is presented in both scenarios.

It is an interesting idea. And the concept is probably more satirical (yes, I just called Futurama satirical, deal with it!) and thought provoking (Woooo… Thought provoking too…) than I could compute with my minuscule mind right now.

But back to my main point.

If the common conscious thing is true, what do you think it is telling us now?

It’s about time someone in Hollywood seriously rethinks what the term “based on” means.

I mean, why pay millions of dollars to some already friggin rich comic writer to used the term “based on” in your movie poster when your film have almost NOTHING to do with the source material, right?

I can understand the marketing view point if you’re making shit like “Super Mario” and “Street Fighter” movies. The words “based on” are normally enough to send the fan boys (and girls) (hmmm… not really, girls are generally too smart to watch Super Mario Bros or Street Fighters) packing into the cinemas. But shows like “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “Wanted” which has a coherent (ok, MOSTLY coherent) and independent storyline should’ve been allowed to stand on their own two feet. It is cheaper and less of a hassle to think up a new name than it is to negotiate the marketing rights, right?

It is almost completely opposite to the Hulk, which pays tribute to the source material and actually rewards fanboys who are able to catch the subtle (and not so subtle) easter eggs in the movie. The only reference I got was the name tag of a certain JG Millar who works in the cubicle next to Wesley’s. (JG Jones and Mark Millar being the creators of the original Wanted) (I HAVE to flaunt this nerd knowledge SOMEWHERE)

So why watch Wanted, you ask?

Well, besides the very obvious reason of the SUPER Sexy Mrs Pitt, Wanted (the movie) is every lil boy’s wet dreams coming true. Superb Action Sequences? Check. Big Ass Car Chases where a dumpster truck can outrun a Sports car? Check. Logic Flaws the size of bullet exit wounds? Check. Profanities spelled out by broken keyboards and fallen teeth? Check. The Sewing Machine of Fate? (I am totally serious). Check. Curving Bullets Gun Fu? Check. Darth Vadar-ish *SPOILER ALERT* “I am Your Father” moment? CHECK!

Naked back shot of Mrs Pitt? (I REALLY had to add that in again) Check! Check! And Check!

And, ermm… There’s also Morgan Freeman and something resembling a plot.

But like I’ve mentioned. It’s a show that could’ve stood on its own 2 feet. It won’t be a cinema classic anytime soon, but for a summer blockbuster, it would’ve done fine. i mean, after all, there’s a naked shot of Angelina’s back. *drooool*

I am also convinced that THIS

Works waaaaay better than THIS

A “Birthday” entry in your calender literally means that your friend is giving birth on that day…