Thursday, May 31, 2007
Yesterday was the RSAF Combined Graduation Ceremony. Where I've finally received my ADA (Air Defence Artillery) Brevet, my certificates of Appointment and my Officer's sword =) It was a moment of pride! I still wasn't feeling well, so I might have looked paler than usual... Let the pictures do the talking...
My proud parents.
Samuel and I
Bunk-mates!
The RBS70 38th WSO
That's just me =) With the bloodhound missile as a backdrop. The first SAM missile to guard Singapore's Skies.
5:57 AM
Saturday, May 26, 2007
I was running a high fever since last night, at 38.2 deg C, Some kind of infection, but I refuse the Doc's MCs, we had a half-day of parade today and even though I was sick but still went through two run-throughs because I cannot afford to miss anymore parade rehearsals, I felt as if I was dying, and the last run-through was really exhaustive.
Finally one week of Joint term is over and 2 more weeks to go to commissioning! Next week there'll be a full-dress rehearsal, followed by RCGC rehearsals throughout the week.
7:18 PM
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Today is our 24th C3/ 22nd WSO ADA combined graduation ceremony, and it's our Weapon's phase graduation ceremony.
The guest of honor is Commander of ADOC, Colonel Hoo. And I was one of the few prize recipients; I will be getting "Best Knowledge" for 38th RBS70 course. In the whole of 22nd WSO ADA cohort, there are 4 weapons and 2 prizes for each weapon, Best Trainee and Best Knowledge and each of us will be receiving a plaque =)
Zj received 4 awards! Best Knowledge, Best BT, Best Trainee for his weapon and SOH! Completely swept all the prizes off the table. But I am just very happy that at least I won something and could consider myself one of the top 5 in the whole of 42 22nd WSO course? Something to be proud of even if I am not a best trainee.
After the prize presentation, we had a dialogue with the Colonel, talking about the RSAF and ADOC 3rd Gen transformation. Then our 3 Da Bn S3 (a major) came to talk with us, he seems like a nice and gentle guy but who knows what untold horrors the new Dy S3 (one of us) will face and our instructor also gave us an ending talk where he answered some of our questions and told us really useful tips on how to become leaders.
It's actually the last day of weapon's phase and it's the last day and as of tonight they are no longer responsible for us. It was just another passing day.
3:24 AM
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Today morning itself was a mess, unkept appointments by people who completely forgot, plus a really pointless sermon by an equally clueless pastor.
I had a dying harddrive in one of my computers, and I didn't want to lose all the precious videos painstakingly downloaded over the year! So immediately after I reached home, I took a 250gb to use as the backup for the main computer, so while it slowly copied all the files (100gb in all) from the dying C: Drive, I did all the chores, ironed my clothes, then went to SLS and got myself a $217 500Gb Seagate Harddrive. My expenditure for this weekend is really insane!
Nevertheless, I went home, fixed in my new 500gb harddrive, booted the computers and backed all my data on all of them all up. Immediately after that, a pal of mine called me to go swimming, so I left immediately
Then we swam and talk about future holiday plans. The guys were planning to go to Pulau Redang for the upcoming June Holidays. Somewhere around the first week of July or the last week of June, they want me to go, but I can't promise them anything. Darn.
After the nice and refreshing swim I headed back home, the journey was smooth. I felt really tired yet was so busy the whole day! Haha. Booked in that night.
3:22 AM
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Spiderman 3
WARNING: Spoilers ahead
Synopsis: Peter Parker has finally managed to strike a balance between his devotion to M.J. and his duties as a superhero. But there is a storm brewing on the horizon. Forced to choose between the seductive power of the new black suit and the compassionate hero he used to be, Peter must overcome his personal demons as two of the most-feared villains yet, Sandman and Venom, gather unparalleled power and a thirst for retribution to threaten Peter and everyone he loves.
Between a comic-buff and a movie critique, I tried to give a fair evaluation of the movie but I just can't ignore several very obvious flaws in the movie. Here's my review of Spiderman 3.
Of all the 3 movies, Spider-Man 3" is the worst, and feels like a movie franchise getting ready to shut down. It's not awful, as comic book movies go. The special effects are solid, and there are a few laughs.
But the thing that made the first two "Spider-Man" movies so memorable - the way we empathized with geeky Everyman Peter Parker and his travails - is missing in this third instalment. Where the other films had heart, this one seems to be just going through the motions, tying up loose ends before bowing out.
And early on Harry Osborn, Peter's one-time best friend turned deadly nemesis, attacks him out of the blue with a cheesy line "you knew this was coming peter", and then later on gets bumped on the head and forgets that he blames Peter/Spidey for the death of his father (the Green Goblin) way back in the first movie. The whole scene was quite lame.
Mary Jane gets savaged by the critics and is fired from her show. Darn critics. To complicate things, the now-jobless M.J. sees Peter basking in the glow of near-universal Spidey-adulation and backs away from their romance.
Meanwhile, some ambulatory black gunk from a meteorite turns into a parasite that amplifies Peter's darkest thoughts. He starts wearing a black outfit that matches his ever darkening mood and gets seriously vengeful when he finds that the real killer of his uncle was small-time crook Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church).
As lousy luck would have it, Marko has stumbled into a physics experiment and emerges as the Sandman. I mean, he jumps over a fence, then falls into a pit just as the scientists do a "particle dematerialization" of SAND? (the scene may be impressive; the security is laughable)
Wait, there are more complications. At the Daily Bugle Peter has competition in cocky photographer Eddie Brock, who late in the film will get intimate with some of that meteorite gunk and metamorphose into Venom, yet another super villain.
Oh, and Harry regains his memory and resumes his vendetta against Spider-Man. And Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), daughter of NYC's police chief (James Cromwell) and a fashion model who, as every comic-book nerd knows, will become our man's love interest. Then finally, all the characters Venom, Sandman, The New Goblin and spiderman comes together to duke it out in one big massive battle which results in Venom being vaporized, Sandman leaving, Harry Osborn dead and Spiderman unscathed. The whole battle seemed all-so-predictable and rather unimaginative if you ask me. Peter going to Harry to ask for help, Harry turning up to help just when Spiderman is being pounded, Peter goes to save Mary Jane blah blah..
There's enough plot in "Spider-Man 3" for two or three movies. Because that's the movie's real problem. The first two movies stood apart from other superhero flicks because we genuinely cared. But there's nothing in "3" that comes close to the lump-in-your-throat intensity of the elevated train scene in "2" (when passengers gently carry the unconscious Spidey to safety) or Mary Jane sending her superhero boyfriend off to work with a cheery/sexy, "Go get 'em, Tiger."
In fact, there's zero heat between Maguire and Dunst this time around. The villains are, well, kind of boring. The starting scene was way messy with shots from the previous 2 movies which in no way has any kind of impact on the audience at all.
And whereas the first two movies made an effort to root Spider-Man in a real world, "3" unfolds in Hollywoodland. This is a logic-free realm where the ever-wise Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) will schlep across two boroughs to pay Peter a three-minute visit so that she can say what the script requires, and where Harry Osborn's butler, like a god on a machine in a Greek tragedy, suddenly drops in to reveal a bit of information that will change everything.
At least we still get some comic relief from J.K. Simmons as bombastic newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson. And Bruce Campbell, as an unctuous French maitre d' at a snooty Manhattan restaurant, is so funny it's almost worth going just to catch his two minutes of screen time.
Sam Raimi's direction seems utterly impersonal this time around - more like traffic directing than anything else. Even when he comes up with a clever idea - an over-confident Peter Parker bopping down a Manhattan sidewalk like John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever" - he lets it go on for so long that it's no longer amusing.
There were too many climaxes, too many battle scenes which rose in tempo, then suddenly and abruptly ended just as it began. After the final battle, the sunset should have been the ending, but it panned and showed Harry's funeral, which is completely redundant.
Kirsten Dunst acting was terrible, she hardly conveyed her emotions across; anger, joy, irritation, all seemed so fake and forced. There was poor character development, the problem here is that there are too many characters! 4 villains (including Spiderman's alter-ego himself), emotions were all amok, (there seemed to be a love triangle here with Gwen Stacey involved. Oh, the action scenes were okay, Sam Riami did well with Spiderman 2 and Doctor Octopus. But Riami Don't know how to manage the multitude of characters and emotions in this movie. Plus there was that cynical dreariness of the script.
FX gives it 3/5
10:27 AM
