Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I hope to one day sit with my children and laugh about days when people still believed in religion.

"And kids, in my day there were even people sentenced to death for questioning what everyone else believed in. Imagine that!'

Until then, I sigh at the contradictions in human nature: on one hand, we are a species that has sent men to the Moon, sequenced the human genome, and embarked on deep philosophical questions; on the other, we have laws that condemn men to death simply for reflecting on their religious beliefs.

Hishamuddin and Najib: make no mistake, the blood of Hamza Kashgari could be on your hands. And all for the sake of pandering to the religious right, because you have nothing else to offer.

Blasphemy has always been a victimless crime, a crime of conscience. If God exists he can jolly well punish heathens on his own.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The Galaxy Nexus finally arrived in Malaysia recently, albeit with much less fanfare than the iPhone 4S. It's main feature is the new Ice Cream Sandwich OS, and it brings Android closer to being a distinct OS all on its own, while maintaining its usefulness for tablets - something Honeycomb couldn't do.

At first look it does seem much nicer. The new font Roboto is definitely a step up from the old one, and the slight UI lag is gone. There isn't a "killer feature" like iPhone's Siri (which I admit I rarely use nowadays) or camera, but everything seems much slicker overall.

I won't wade into the Android vs iOS app store war here, but if you use Google applications a lot (Gmail, Calendar) etc then Android does a much better job of integrating them. The Nexus will support offline search of your Gmail account for example.

The only thing I didn't like about it was the plasticky feel: the case is mainly plastic, with the battery cover especially feeling "cheap". This boils down to personal preference - using plastic makes the phone much lighter - but I prefer the solidness of the iPhone and Lumia 800.

If you have small hands like yours truly, the generous 4.65" screen might be a tad unwieldy for one-handed handling. I could barely reach the top quarter of the screen. On the flip side though, all that real estate makes HD videos and photos positively pop on the Nexus.

If you're looking for an Android phone but are still undecided about the Nexus, a look at DiGi's price plans for the Nexus should tip you over the edge. At a mere RM28/month for a 1GB plan or RM38/month for the 3GB plan (with auto-billing), you'll end up paying less than half of what an iPhone user would, and you save RM400-RM500 compared to going with a Celcom plan. That is seriously a rock-bottom price! Someone at DiGi definitely loves this phone :).

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It's hard to imagine a world without Youtube now, but it was only a decade ago when there was no way to watch music outside MTV, and the only funny cat videos you saw were introduced by Bob Saget. Awesome when you think about it (until you realize that you're getting old).

Youtube is moving towards disrupting the TV industry these days, and between my subscriptions and automated TV torrents, I never miss not having ASTRO and don't bother with Hypp TV even.

Clara Chung in Malaysia!

I subscribe to Kurt Schneider, Gerald Ko, Nick Pitera, and many others. But one of my favourites is Clara Chung. Her signature song is her original Offbeat, but she's also known for her covers, my favourites being Fireflies, Rhythm of Love, and Rocketeer.

I was very surprised (and pleased!) that she would actually be touring SEA. I'll say it again - It's just amazing how much Youtube has empowered the arts. And it's just great to know there are so many Malaysian who like her music too!

Her concert was held in Bentley Auditorium. I managed to drag Yuen, Pinky and Linda along (love you guys!!). I can't remember ever being as excited for a show - I guess there may be better artists out there, but I think there is just something about seeing someone you thought you'd only ever see on Youtube up close.

I'd seen her other live shows on Youtube so I pretty much knew what to expect. Clara really knew how to make her audience at ease and get everyone into the groove. And there was of course her trademark magic with the loop pedal and melodica. Her handlers were the only low point of the show: really pushy and didn't allow any videos or pictures to be taken (!) But her routine was much like this (Stole this off Youtube, FF to 2:30 for her loop pedal routine):

Thanks to Yuen for sneaking in this shot after the show!

Wong Fu For Life

Wong Fu Productions is a video productions team that has gained a lot of popularity recently. You've probably seen Strangers Again, their seminal work which perfectly captured how relationships break down. Their work ranges from the comical to the artistic to the dramatic. To be honest I've pretty new to Wong Fu but Elaine was a big fan and we got a slight discount on the VIP tickets so I thought hey why not.

The atmostphere was very different from Clara's concert. They were treated like rock stars! There were girls we talked to who said they queued up from 7am for the meet-and-greet which started at 4pm. Some broke down in tears after not winning the lucky draw for brunch with Wong Fu the day after.

The actual session itself started late, but we were at least treated to great opening acts. I feel guilty for not remembering the names but there was an awesome beatboxer and two awesome dance groups.

It was nice meeting Howard and Dizzy as well. Howard was so chivalrous he gave up his winning lucky draw entry so a crying girl could meet her idols. We scolded him because it sets a bad precedent!

Ted was conspicuously missing from the Wong Fu crew, but he was nice enough to give us the next best thing:

Wes and Phil showcased some of their videos and fielded questions about their work. They also gave a sneak preview of the latest episodes of their hilarious new series "Home is Where the Hans are".

There is just that level of connection for Youtube artists that you don't see in conventional concerts and meetups. I wonder when the next Youtube sensations will come to Malaysia! The International Secret Agents hopefully?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Time Trax was a relatively obscure 90s sci-fi series. It ran at a time before ASTRO and Streamyx, and so all a ten-year old had to watch in the evenings were TV2, TV3, and NTV7 (even back then no one watched TV1). It was perhaps a golden age of sorts, a time where special effects were still special, and disbelief was more easily suspended. I still look back fondly to the days when I would see MacGyver, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Hercules, Robocop, etc in the TV Guide.

It told the story of Darien Lambert, a police cop from 2197 sent back in time to capture time-travelling fugitives, with nothing but his AI assistant Selma and a remote control that shot stun pellets. This setup was pretty cool back in the 90s (I never looked at car remotes quite the same way again). And I've always had a thing for time-travel plots. In a tragic twist I still remember to this day, the channel carrying it (TV3?) never aired the last episode - I vaguely recall reading in the TV guide that the final episode was airing, but when the time came the episode was overriden for some reason and never shown again.

But fret not, past self. Thanks to Bittorrent and Unifi, the full Time Trax series is now mine to watch at leisure!

See the full gallery on Posterous

There is always that odd feeling when re-watching an old series. Plots were pretty cliche then for one thing, and characters tended to have heavy stereotypes. It takes a while to really rewind get back the suspension of disbelief - in the pilot for example, Lambert quotes the multiverse theory of time-travel, but yet he is able to use the personals column to send (archive?) messages back (forward?) to his own time. Being a VHS rip, the quality is terribad to boot. And the title art looks like the graphic designer chose the first thing that popped up in WordArt. But once that's done though: A car remote that stuns. A motherly AI living in your credit card. How cool is that??

Here's to finally learning the ending after nearly two decades!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

2011, you were a hard teacher, I'll tell you that. I'd say you were the year I felt the most of everything I ever have had to feel: the most regret, the most joy, the most sadness, the most pride. If there's a year I'll look back on that changed and taught me the most it will be you.

Who would have thought partings would  be so painful? How could I have known how deep friendships could go? And yet when I think about it, everything seems to have come full circle and more, like endless circles around a wheel.

To break the cycle it's me who needs to change. To whine less - like what I'm doing now, to empathize less, and to rely less on others to be happy.

2012, I don't think you'll be the end of the world, but I hope you'll be a good beginning for me.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I've read every Sherlock Holmes novel and short story ever written, so I guess I'm right up there in the pile of literary snobs, in a world where "singular" meant "remarkable" and a sovereign was still currency.

Yes I know purists can come off as annoying sometimes but I think it all comes down to balance. I count myself among the "Hans shot first!" base for example, but I don't have a problem with Episodes I-III in general. The spirit was there, those were indeed Star Wars movies.

Which is more than I can say for Hollywood's second Sherlock Holmes film headed by Robert Downey Jr. Between the sprawling brawls, train chases, and slapstick moments, the Hollywood-ization of Holmes is jarring. Downey looks like he's fresh off an Iron Man set, Jack Sparrow-ish swagger and all. His Sherlock is much more brawn than brains, which I suppose I should have guessed from the poster (Holmes with a machine pistol? Really?). Those "mental fight" scenes are a guilty pleasure though.

Jude Law does a good job as Watson, as he did in the previous movie, infusing the often bumbling sidekick from the books into quite the debonair doctor, holding his own against Holmes. Jared Harris plays a serviceable menancing Moriarty, and as for Rachel McAdams' Irene Adler, she might well have had "token female" stamped on her forehead.

(Spoiler alert )

Praises are due where deserved though, and the (second to last) scene is worth the price admission for its homage to the iconic fall into the icy abyss from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and the immortal eulogy by a sober Watson to "him who I shall ever regard as the best and wisest man I have ever known". The drama of it all is, however, broken by Hollywood's insistence on having a Happy Ending, the bane of this generation (here's looking at you, Wall-E!).

I know I may come across as pretentious, but I am merely critical because I do know what a good portrayal of the great detective would be like, and no, I don't mean Basil Rathborne coming back from the grave. Karen introduced me to the BAFTA-winning BBC mini-series Sherlock last year, and now that is how to portray Holmes. Benedict Cumberbatch captures the essence of Holmes perfectly - eccentric, borderline manic, and above all, cerebral. If you want to watch Sherlock Holmes on film, watch that. The good news is a second series of Sherlock is now running, which will be a much better use of your time.

Rating: 6/10

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Maybe it was the platform? Wordpress was very... Immobile. The iOS app didn't work very well, and I was spending too much time tweaking pictures and alignment. And I never did find a minimalist theme I liked. Perhaps the move to the more nimble, flexible Posterous will bode better (Considered Tumblr, but didn't find the whole reblog thing up my alley).

Maybe it was the hassle of uploading pictures and finding the time to sit down and write? I have the iPhone 4S now - sold off my nearly-new S95 when I heard how good the camera would be, and I definitely have no regrets. Pictures are a tad noisy, but there tons and tons of apps that more than make up for any limitations of the 4S camera.

Maybe it was the apathy that set in. Malaysian politics has been in the doldrums for a while now, and the euphoria of 2008 is wearing off. The opposition has made its own share of screwups, and there isn't that sense of urgency now that people are much more politically aware (I'm glad to say that after Bersih 2011, most of the girls in the office marched down to get themselves registered!). And my own meanderings on faith and freethought have blunted somewhat, now that I'm more settled and confident. But the next GE is just around the corner, and I think the passing of Christopher Hitchens affected me somehow. I want to be able to look back in another 20 years and laugh at how cynical and aloof I was, dammit!

Hopefully with those issues out of the way, I'll be blogging regularly this time!

Tried importing my old blog to Posterous, but comments wouldn't show up properly, and line breaks disappeared. So the old posts are now at http://archives.timthinksthat.net instead.

Here's to my third try at blogging! Watch this space.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »