*Updated* Across Eurasia

***UPDATE 12/8/08***

As I mentioned few weeks ago, I’m moving to UK…the city of Canterbury to be exact (somewhere at the southeast of England). Before that I had to endure a long tiring flight Brunei to UK with a short stopover at Dubai.

NOTE: Recalling from memory. And times are in Brunei time (+8 GMT)

7pm (22/9/08) – Take off. Little did I know that it’s going to be one long boring flight.

8pm – The first of many meals. I think it was Cheese Omelette. Eating Cheese Omelette while listening to the whole album of Coldplay’s Viva La Veda (really good btw…some really good tracks)

10pm – got bored and started to try out the airline’s Sky Show with their selection of inflight movies. I chose to watch Kung Fu Panda despite having seen it many times. I think it’s one of the best animation to come out in recent years (aside from Wall E but that’s more of a sci fi epic while this one’s just plain fun) and they’re making a sequel which would definitely not be as good as the first one but I would still watch it

11pm – Fell asleep while watching Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of Crystal Skull.

4am – Arrived at Dubai and I think it was around midnight at Dubai. Sadly, I only stayed there for half an hour at the airport. Random info: I saw Azerbaijan airlines for the first time too.

5am – Fell asleep again.

7am – Woke up for awhile…listen to songs…fell asleep again

11am – Woke up and decides to spend the last two hours watching Indiana Jones 4 again and this time managed to finish it. I enjoyed the movie more actually and I thought it was a perfect ending to the series. NO Shia Labeouf/Mutt Williams movie please.

2pm/7am UK time - Arrived at London. Managed to avoid some dogs at the custom. Those were big dogs!

NOTE: Recalling from memory. And times are now in UK time (GMT)

10pm/11pm (23/9/08) – Arrived at Brunei Hall. We quickly decided not to stay and just go straight to Canterbury and get it over with.

12pm/1pm – Went around London (small section of of it). Tried the ‘tube’. It rained (creating this dull gloomy windy environment)

2pm/3pm – Hired a van (but he arrived with a bus!) to take us to Canterbury. Long winding journey out of London.

5pm/6pm – Arrived at Canterbury. Got lost for awhile which was also a good opportunity to see the city.

7pm – An international Student Dinner night. I went there and mingle around.

People:               So how’s your flight?
Me:                      Boring, it was a long one about 16-17 hours
People:            Shit! Really
Me:                      Yeah.. yeah *drinks*
People:               What time did you arrive?
Me:                      umm..this morning
People:            SHIT REALLY!
Me:                      Yeah!
People:               Don’t you feel Jetlagged
Me:                      Jetlagged? kinda…but I’m not really that exhausted
People:               So you arrived here at canterbury at what time?
Me:                      An hour ago
People:               Really?! Wow you don’t look tired?
Me:                  I don’t? Guess I’m a good actor then
*laugh*
Padahal mata ngantuk mendangar urang belgium ani ceta2. Pasal Politik lagi!!

10pm – Went to sleep. Fuck it.

“I’m The DECIDER!!” – Bush Cabinet, Hollywood style

I want to watch this movie. There I said it. Do I want to see a movie that makes fun of Bush? Maybe~ Do I want to see a movie that makes you feel sorry for this man? Maybe~ The fact is I’m just curious about this movie.

ThePlaylist (scanned from Variety) has two images from the upcoming Bush biopic, titled W., showing the Bush cabinet.

You have Jeffrey Wright (far left;top picture) playing Colin Powell although I would prefer James Earl Jones to play him. There are some good casting like Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney and Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice. And then there’s Toby Jones as Karl Rove which is weird…Scott Glenn doesn’t look like Donald Rumsfeld in the picture but he ‘does’ in the trailer (with what he does to the eyes). Then there’s Josh Brolin as Bush who is awesome from the clips I’ve seen. As for the rest, I don’t know who they are playing LOL hehe

Trailer 2

Trailer 1

W. – Oct 17 2008

Moving To UK

I’m moving to another country….again. My flight is next week if things go as planned. Am I excited or nervous? Both, ofcourse…you always have mixed feelings when you confront with something new, its normal, which is why I’m a bit annoyed when people ask that question.

“are you excited?”
“a bit”
“Are you nervous?”
“a bit”
“you don’t have any feelings about it?”
“I do, I have a mixed feeling about it that’s all”
“something wrong?”
“no”
“then why the mixed feeling? That means something wrong”
“What’s wrong with having mixed feelings?”
“Nuthin but are you more excited or are you more nervous?”
“I don’t know. I guess it’s equal. Equally mixed feelings, that’s the right word I think “

PS: Anybody from Canterbury or have been there at least?

Time Between Dog and Wolf

The Korean dramas that I’ve managed to catch were usually the sad romantic ones that ends tragically (the only happy one I saw was ‘Full House’ starring Korean pop superstar Rain, who was also in Speed Racer). So it was a bit refreshing to watch a Korean drama about cops and gangsters, a genre mostly associated with Hong Kong films. Sure, there is a love triangle plotline as you can guess from the picture above but it’s balanced out with several action sequences, plot twists and episodic cliffhangers.

Time Between Dog and Wolf is about Lee Soo Hyun (the guy on the left) who was adopted by a senior officer in the ‘National Intelligence Service’ (NIS) after his parents were murdered by gangsters. Soo Hyun grew up to become an NIS agent himself together with his foster brother, Kang Min Ki (the guy on the right). Later, Soo Hyun agree to become an undercover agent by faking his death and infiltrate a drug trafficking gang led by Ma Woo, the same man who murdered his parents. Further complicating things is a love triangle between Soo Hyun (now under the name of Kay), Ji Woo (Soo Hyun’s childhood friend and the daughter of the gang leader) and Min Ki (Soo Hyun’s foster brother).

As usual for an undercover cop, Soo Hyun suffered from a crisis of identity just like Tony Leung from Hard Boiled & Infernal Affairs. BUT, here’s where it gets better, Soo Hyun later had a car accident and lost his memories!!! So he’s a dude disguised as another dude who lost his memories and thinks he’s really the dude he disguised as!!!Beat that Tony Leung!!

That’s where the second part of the series began which was also when things get slow as the three main characters gets one dimensional (Soo Hyun acts like an asshole, the girl is like all confused and Min Ki just shouts a lot). Then things get better again in the last few episodes with cliffhangers and twists (aside from stupid acts by the girl). It has a sort of a happy ending LOL Hehe and it also leaves it open for a second season too. 

Overall, the show at least kept me entertained throughout so that’s good I guess

The Movie trailer guy passed away

Sometimes I like to imagine something that I saw or heard about into a movie or more specifically a movie trailer. For example, I hear about a Bruneian family whose cars get stolen in Miri (Malaysian city across the border) and I would imagine a made up movie about a man who gets his revenge by single handedly destroy the illegal car trade business or some shit like that. I would explain the idea to my brother in a ‘trailer form’. I would imitate the movie trailer voice and say something along the line of *lowers voice like in movie trailer* “They Thought it was funny to steal his car…They Thought it was funny to terrify his family….They Thought Wrong…..This Summerrrrr….There’s nothing funny about Awang Haji crossing the border…looking for payback…..Arnold Schwarzenegger in….ONCE UPON A TIME IN MIRI”

Or I see a lot of people tapauing and I start thinking, “In a future without rules…the only way to survive….is to Tapau….This summerrr….one food…one dinner table….two men……but only one can be…THE TAPAU KING…coming to theatres near you” HAHA

So basically I love to imitate the trailer voice, it’s like a recurring joke for me. Which is why I’m sad that we won’t be hearing that distinctive voice ever again because ‘the movie trailer voice guy’, Don LaFontaine has passed away at the age of 68 due to lung collapse.

A voice actor famous for recording nearly 5,000 movie trailers, and nearly 350,000 commericals, programs, files and other presentations. He is arguably the most successful Voice Actor of all time.