Last day at the Office (for the time being)

Well, today is the last office day before an obligatory a week-off holiday beginning next Monday. I thought about writing something witty, smart, or downright philosophical. But, nothing came to mind even if I rather found myself more often than not, living in an illusion of being a better than average composer of words (for a non-English speaker, anyway).

Anyhoo, if you're living in a country where Islam is majority AND a Moslem (I am both, by the way) this time of day would surely saw influx of incoming mails electronic or stamp-and-envelope wishing you a merry Idul Fitri, ask for forgiveness, or just some sweet words around that theme. It is, after all, probably the most celebrated holiday in the Islamic calendar.

So, I wish you a happy holiday if you happened to celebrate Idul Fitri, may the wrong doers and talks in the past turns into myth that soon be long forgotten. The scheduled next entry to this blog would be on October 6th.

The Mentalist (TV)

There's a new TV show at CBS, The Mentalist. It was a story about a crime-unit centered around a ... um, for lack of better word, a mentalist. Clearly inspired by Sherlock Holmes (or so I thought), our dude here, the mentalist, paid extra attention to little details around that turns him into a terrific yet understandably socially inept detective. He solved a murder case by pointing a finger to the most unlikely suspect when his team and the public has allegedly held the primer suspect for the case within the opening minutes of the film. He then surprises his mates again when during an autopsy he gave a comment that the victim was gay (he proved correct later, and no, he doesn't tell us how he correctly guessed one's sexual orientation from his cadaver). And just as Sherlock Holmes has Professor Moriarty, so does our detective. He has his own nemesis to answer to. A serial killer brandished by media with "Red Jack" who has been eluded him for five years and one that he has made into "his own" All in all, even if I'm not swept off of my feet, I'm planning to see what this series has to offer in the next episodes.

General review: Mostly acceptable, helped a lot by impressive performances (TV-wise) from Simon Baker and Robin Tunney.

5-in-1 USB Charger

I see the image first before I read the content. Immediately, I thought, "Why do I need another iPod charger-slash-syncer?" However, as it turns out after I read the article, this little 5-in-1 USB Charger (US$ 14) could charge/sync 5 different gadgets (iPod, Nintendo DS (!), Sony PSP (!), GBA, and a mini-USB device, whatever that device is), three of which I had in my possession. Now, add a Samsung hand-phone charger, and I would order one of these online like, right now.

Time

"You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun"
- Time, Pink Floyd -

The dude in this video below, Dmitri Gaskin, is talking and introducing jQuery in front of developers in Google Tech at April 2008. I've been furiously and excitedly learning about jQuery for a couple of days now, and while the knowledge of John Resig, the original creator of jQuery is only 24 has put me in some kind of jealousy and excitement to match his achievement in a near future, with a product of my own (*yeah, yeah, some dream, eh?*), Dmitri Gaskin made me look ancient as he is only 12, and already a core Drupal developer.



I'm still excited all over though, as most of you probably know, my current stint as a cubicle worker is merely a temporary. I want a job that I love, not just a job because it's a job and paid well and it took me a while, but I knew what I love (as the wisdom often said, you never knew what you love until it taken away from you) and this job I'm holding right now, clearly not one of them.

Weekend Screening Galore

"Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying"

It's been a quite a long while since the last I cried during a film. Dead Poet Society (1985) brings back that moment when the emotional torrent swept me up off my feet as a single drop of tear shed from the corner of my eye. Alas, although it's not the first time that I've seen the film, in so far, the film has never failed to made me at least had my heart expanded within its casket on that particular snow-field scene. "O Captain, My Captain"

Awake (2008). I used to love Jessica Alba. Well, probably I still did. Her bedroom eyes is naturally her first and foremost main attraction to many. On the other hand, I was ever reluctant with Hayden Christensen. And the fact that he keeps having roles that pit him against beautiful actresses doesn't help a bit. Anyway, probably due to my very low expectation, I found that Awake is an okay experience, at least much better than what would I have expected and Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen actually had their above average performance (which still poor :D) here.

The Love Guru (2008). Another Jessica Alba. Mike Myers probably thought himself as the center of the universe. Even so, this film is probably his funniest film after the first Austin Powers film. Featured many cross-reference to his previous stints (the most obvious one, "Bohemian Rhapsody"), its lightness and disgusting acronyms might appeal to many who seeks for the merest form of entertainment through film.

What Happens in Vegas (2008). There's one single fact that I still found confusing today. Cameron Diaz portrayed as a f-ing hot actress. Big no. But hey, that's just me. Whatever my opinion is, she still is one of the most overpaid working actress in Hollywood today.

My Sassy Girl (2008). I wonder why I even bother to see this excuse of a film. Remaked from the 2002 Korean film of the same title, featuring Elisha Cuthbert among others, this film is far far inferior than the original film. Don't even bother to rent.

Large Hadron Collider

Yea, yea, I know, it's been almost a week since the first beam in the LHC launched. Yet, the mounting concern of whether what LHC would uncover is some sort of a Pandora's Box refused to deceased and although it's deemed most unlikely, the possibility that the first collision in 6-8 weeks could made a great rift in a time-space plane, fourth-dimension, and even could spawned a Black Hole threatened to cast our beloved Earth into an oblivion, a sure Doomsday, the final existence of humankind.

I spent almost a day on Friday to read about this LHC and its impact almost obsessively. PHD Comics had a pretty cool five part comics that explained this LHC. Wired.com had an article of FAQs about LHC in Twitter format (less than 140 characters) as well as a thorough long article. Wikipedia is of course, another reliable source on this subject. But, by far the most effective and entertaining explanation of LHC surely has to come from this hilarious rap song apparently sung by CERN's scientific members that worked closely in the environment.

Post Hellboy

Well, even if I had seen the film four nights ago and the rest of the world had probably seen it like three months prior, I couldn't help but to make a post-Hellboy-experience post. Just like my previous writing stated, Guillermo Del Toro has created himself a niche ever since that 2006's Pan's Labyrinth. Arguably, public are made aware of Del Toro's niche through this film even if he has already made films in the same breadth as Pan's. Pan's Labyrinth still remains as my favorite film in the year 2006 and up until now, I could still whistle the last lullaby of Olivia as she steps into her kingdom and welcomed warmly by her people and her royal family with passion that never failed to gives me goosebumps all over.

In his latest film, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Del Toro's niche is further accentuated as he redefines the Elf-race, the Tooth Fairy, the Troll market, Goblin and their machineries, and on some length, the Beanstalk from whatever-tale-that-beanstalk-coming-from. In 2001, Peter Jackson introduces the Elf-race to the greater masses (those who watch films but not read books and there are still far too many of such people) with his adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Up to that point, most likely that when you're talked about Elf, you're going to remember Arwen, or in my case, Galadriel. Peter Jackson's Elfs are slender, full-of-grace, and not to mention, terribly beautiful. Now, when I say that Del Toro redefines the Elf-race, one need only to look at Princess Nuala. She was beautiful, but unique, a definition of beautiful that puts her not-of-this-world and then we had Prince Nuada. Fierce, sharp, and precise is how am I going to define his presence. Both of these Elfs still retains the majestic quality, the slenderness and the grace-ness of the Elf-race but they're certainly different, up the ante so to speak. Now, why am I making this comparison? As most of you probably know, Guillermo Del Toro's next project is two-episodes of "The Hobbit", a prequel to "The Lord of the Rings" saga. "The Hobbit" told a story of how Bilbo Baggins found that troublesome One Ring which his nephew Frodo Baggins has to carry ever east to the Mountains of Doom for the duration of three films, and of how Smeagol is a, um, well, Smeagol. Even if Peter Jackson still involved with the project by being a producer, it is to be expected that Guillermo Del Toro will pours his own vision to create the Middle-Earth. I was utterly excited to see how he's going to re-shapes Rivendell and its citizens, how he's going to told the Battle with Smaug and really, judging by what he has done to New York through Hellboy, I had a pretty good reasons that he could do more with a fantasy world such as Middle Earth.

Meanwhile, an assumption could be safely made that we're going to see the third Hellboy film in the future and the word is, we could have a TV series in between. Well, if I was a producer with millions of dollars to invest, I would want to see a Hellboy-related TV series. Not about Hellboy himself, but perhaps more about Manning and his B.P.R.D for as you can see briefly in the film, there are a lot of "interesting" activity in the Bureau which actually reminds me a lot to "Men in Black" Well, whatever Guillermo Del Toro has in store (the seventh Harry Potter film, perhaps?), my only hope is that he's going to finish "The Hobbit" first before anything else.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

I've been known as a furious defender of the first Hellboy film. Even as far as name it the best superhero film ever second only to Batman and that's only because I love Batman. Reasons aside, whenever I heard someone bashed Hellboy, I would revert to my grumpy self and childishly ignored whatever else that come out of that someone's opinion about films. Yes, childish, I know, but as far as I'm concerned, I hadn't yet proved to be wrong on attributing such ignorance. When I know a someone who said that s/he doesn't like Hellboy, even feeling bored and fell asleep on the occasion, I would later found out that s/he is indeed has a pretty crappy taste for films. Thus, my ignorance is justified.

Hellboy is sort of an anti-hero, much like Batman in his best of days (what is Batman's best days, you ask? Well, the death of Jason Todd is one, or when Barbara Gordon got shot). From that alone, you know I loved him already. He swaggers and swaddles, fought with such confident and humor that Spider-Man should had but largely absent in the films, and as many superheroes does, his life is sucks but does he moors and grieves? Peter Parker did, but not our Red-beast from Hell and damn you, if you can't love that. Elizabeth Sherman, as portrayed by Selma Blair remains the best female-sidekick in superhero film ever. She's not the kind of a mere sex-slash-lust object (point-in-case, Kirsten Dunst), nor is she an insignificant figure, largely forgettable and exist just for the sake of an existence (point-in-case, Katie Holmes), she is a character with a full-arc and honestly, the closest female character to her that I could think about was perhaps Margot Kidder in the original Superman film.

And then there's Guillermo Del Toro. He has created a niche for himself as a director with a penchant to create a fantastic fantasy creatures.

Therefore, when the full crew is back four years after the first film for a sequel, you know I wouldn't want to miss it.

Hellboy II: the Golden Army is further established Del Toro's niche in creating fantastic creatures. He redefines the Elfs, brought forth from their origin as a beautiful and slender beings to a still beautiful being but with a certain edge. A sharp and terrible edge. I can't help to think about Dark Elf in Blizzard's cosmology of role playing games when Prince Nuada and his sister appears on screen and my, the Prince sure can move in a beautiful way. He also redefines the Tooth Fairy, and populated the screen with other fantastic creatures from the pages of role playing games and fantasy literature universe. However, be as it may, I loved the first film better. The sequel is great though, still great, and I had a really good time, but this time, if I heard someone bashed it, I would forgive him/her and won't go as far as ignored his/her subsequent comments in film and thus able to appreciate our difference in taste. That's how I feel about the first film and this sequel.

Hellboy II starts pretty much the same as many other adventure films (as well as the first sequel). It starts with a flashback sequence that provides a backdrop to the story. A legend said about the legion of indestructible Golden Army, all seventy times seven of them. The army was made by the goblin (an established fact in almost all fantasy world that the goblin race is very very good with machines) for the King of Elf to fought against human. Know no passion, no loyalty, and no remorse, the King of Elf deemed this army is way too dangerous to fall into anyone's hands. Mortal or Elf. Thus, he ordered for a truce and that the golden crown used to command this army be separated in three. Prince Nuada, the King's son, disagreed with the King went into exile. Time passed, and what once was a history turns into legend that turns into myth and even long forgotten. Until a day when finally Prince Nuada returns from his exile and planned for an all-out attack against us, human that has defiled the Earth and of course, the fate of our beloved civilization lies on the shoulder of individuals behind B.P.R.D front-runnered by Liz, H.B, Abe, and one particular weirdo which for the sake of your viewing pleasure, I won't reveal here.

Once, I had a theory. When you're talking about adventure films, making a sequel it's easy. In the first film, you laid the foundation and the origin of the main players of the adventure while in the second film, as you don't need to introduce the characters you could simply built upon the foundation and have some fun. Hellboy II did everything fun-related right. The action-packed sequences works (if you asked me, Hellboy vs Prince Nuada hand-to-hand combat is almost at the same level of entertainment with Jackie Chan vs Jet Li hand-to-hand combat in The Forbidden Kingdom. Well, at least it was WAY better than Jet Li vs Michelle Yeoh hand-to-hand combat in The Mummy 3. Plus, I noticed no slow-motion during the sequence which is very very nice. Gosh, I HATE slow-mo) , the tension-relief sequences were enjoyable most of the time (with one exception scene which I found awkward and quite unnecessary in my opinion), and you could easily guess and feel that everyone in this film is having fun in reprising their roles. Given the direction, had I stretched far enough, I could understand if some casual viewers said that they enjoyed this film more than its predecessors. But of course, I stand my ground, I praised the first film more. The atmosphere of the first film is just, right. It's tighter, and it flows more smoothly than its sequel. Further, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, in my opinion, suffers from two major plot flaw revealed at the end of the film. Of course, I was too excited to gave it more than a frown and a hum but, the flaws are there.

My rating: *** / **** - In Indonesia, the Summer season ends with a bang. Hellboy II: The Golden Army is sure going to pleased many movie goers here considering the quiet post-summer season. However, entertained and pleased as I was, I couldn't help myself but to compare this film with its predecessor and I had to say that I enjoyed the former film a bit better. Also I found surprising, the film has an unmistakenly cheerful atmosphere but it certainly doesn't shy away from deaths and killing (usually, for this kind of film with this kind of atmosphere, the good guys should NEVER get killed on-screen. Off-screen, maybe, but never on-screen. Example, Indiana Jones' original trilogy). Personally, I felt that it doesn't seem right.

iTunes 8 Shuffling Problem

I loved to shuffle my ENTIRE library a lot during the day I'm listening to my iTunes. With iTunes 8, however, I just found out to my dismay that shuffle didn't work the way it used to. Yet, I hope. Floating threads at the Apple Discussion Forum pointed out the very same problem I had with this issue.

From the Grid View, although my shuffle indicator is on, the shuffled playlist stays in the same album. Puzzled, I tried to switch into a list view. Problem? Still there. It bugs me a lot. I hope they fixed it right away.

Hug a Developer Today

From this site. I had a good and fit laugh when the image above shown. "PEOPLE KEEP ASKING ME TO FIX THEIR E-MAIL, SO I HAVE NO TIME TO CODE" Ha. Talk about a personal experience. An abundance of it. :D

iTunes 8

The Apple event today has its announcement, revamped iPod Nano line, refreshed iPod Touch, capped iPod Classic (no more 160 GB iPod), and public concern on Steve's health that seen the Apple's stock slumped for a bit. As an end user who doesn't even have a Credit Card and a resident in one of a developing country a day away from the nation that begins it all, as excited as I was to the news (I had my eyes trained to 16 GB iPod Touch even though I'm totally satisfied with my fifth-G iPod Video 30 GB - and it still had around 5 GB of free space, anyway) the only thing that I could get my hands early on from the announcement is the release of iTunes 8 and I'm not ashamed at all that the first thing I did after I opened my MacBook at the office today is downloading the 50+ Megs of the update right away :)

I love the interface already. Previously, I've never really liked Cover Flow display but has learned to get used to it as opposed to the old-fashioned simple lists which I have been abandoned a very long time ago. Even so, I still disliked it. The new interface, as shown in the image above, is a pleasant welcome for the time being, whether it's going to last or no, only time will tell.

Quite probably the most celebrated new feature that comes with iTunes 8 is the Genius sidebar. Although given its nature, in an over-simplified terms, that Genius is a "Recommendation"-system that has been around for quite some time, in my opinion, the Genius sidebar manages to put this recommendation thingy in a personal level. First, it compiles my Library, sent the information to the iTunes Store (which required an Apple ID that requires a valid Credit Card - I don't have any, so I'm using my wife's) and after a while, depending on the size of your library and your Internet connection, you can start using the Genius bar.

The Genius sidebar worked as follows, first, choose a song and click a Genius button to create a playlist which the Genius thought could go well together. The early reports from the blogosphere has found some disagreement with the Genius' selection. In my opinion, you couldn't really expected that the Genius would work in a perfect harmony with your preference in music. After all, when it boils down to preference, you're talking about style, about personal sense, about the divergence in human genes, about the origin of life, about.. well, things that goes well beyond the machine's logical computation. But, of course, I had to try it for myself.

The first thing I try was one of Kelly Clarkson's song which in my library that mostly consists of 'hard' bands from the 90's could be considered as a minority. Surprisingly, the Genius did a pretty good job. The playlist, as you could see from the image below, suggested an acceptable harmony. It includes "The Unforgiven" from Metallica, "Don't Cry" from Guns 'N Roses although of course, the inclusion of "In Bloom" by Nirvana or "Brain Stew" from Green Day is actually questionable but all in all, it provides a good balance between the soft and the hard. So, yeah, no complaints here.


Next song that I'd like to try to "Genius"-ed is of course, my favorite song from Megadeth (Tornado of Souls). Now this song has a distinction as the single most played song in my library. In this respect, the Genius sidebar made some obvious choices. Alas, as the choices were made by algorithm it's actually more proper to call it an obvious choice with a "wow" attached to it. I mean, from my point of view, the playlist manages to include my next favorite song from Megadeth (Skin O' My Teeth), "Stream of Consciousness" from Dream Theater, "Locomotive" from Guns 'N Roses, and "The Call of Ktulu" from Metallica. It just "wow".


Based on this review and a couple of tries with Genius sidebar, my first impression on iTunes 8 is therefore, positive. Now if you'd excuse me, I'd like to try a few more.

Google Chrome

By the time I wrote this post (4 p.m local time), Google Chrome is already a day old, an old news considering the breakneck speed in which information was exchanged nowadays. It begins with a comic floating in my mailbox yesterday. The comic depicted the technical concept behind Chrome which naturally makes the techies stuff a lot easier to comprehend. I read the comic and actually excited about it. Imagine my surprise when I arrive at the office this morning, to know that the blogosphere is already fumed with the release of Google Chrome beta. Word is, that the arrival of ultra-secret-project that is Google Browser a.k.a Google Chrome has push the ante of web-browser a notch more. The V8 JavaScript VM was reportedly up to 10-times faster than Firefox or Safari and FIFTY SIX-times faster than IE7 (Source: www.wired.com) It is interesting to see how Redmond is going to respond with their IE8 (another "me too"? InPrivate mode? sorry, not interested)

However, as the beta version is only available for Windows (considering that Google aimed to dampen the largest market share first, quite a bold move, if you asked me), I can't get my hands on it just yet and therefore I could only take the news of a blazing fast, clean and minimal design new player in the browser war at the face value. It doesn't make me less excited though.

Doomsday (2008)

Doomsday. From what I've already seen, I had a reason to believe that Neil Marshall is at least a supporter of female gender domination equality. Both of his films that I've seen so far shows exactly just that. A heroine or heroines that live up to a task usually reserved for their male counterpart. Not that I'm against it, mind you.

Doomsday takes our world into the UK in the future where a virus outbreak prompted the government to resort into a drastic measure of martial law that seen Glasgow and most of the northern part of the UK quarantined-slash-surrounded with a tall impenetrable steel wall. The idea is simple, let no one in or out of the quarantined area. Soon, the quarantined area - and millions that lived within it - became no-man's land, abandoned, and forgotten. Thirty years later, when the general belief is that nobody left alive within the area that was Glasgow and northern UK, a similar case of virus outbreak that once engulfed Glasgow broke in London. It would seems that a similar drastic measure of martial law was soon to be applied in London. However, as it turns out, the government still has something in its sleeve. It was known - only to the selected few, of course - that started from three years prior, some signs of life was recorded within the wall. It was a sign that there's some way to overcome the virus. Soon, a team was dispatched into the wall. Its mission is simple, to bring back survivor or vaccine or anything that proves that the virus is indeed curable. Led by Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) who given her history deemed fit to the task, the team wasn't expected to survive. After all, it was thirty years since the wall was closed and thus made whatever law or values from its inhabitants are somewhat different.

I actually liked this film despite facts that the heroine reminds me of Charlize Theron's Aeon Flux (which is bad), thugs that remind me to Mad Max or that video California from Tupac, and a couple of inconsistencies that left a gap in my train of logic thought. This film has an ample supply of gore and violence to make horror fans happy (and me, though I had refused to acknowledge myself as a horror fan, enjoyed the severed limbs, and plenty of blood and gore that this film has to offer), bare hands fights, close quarter combat, trigger happy, and high-speed chase with tremendous amount of body counts to make any bloody action film fans happy. Indeed that this film isn't really made to goes beyond the level of an acceptance of action films that requires small attention from the brain and if you could put it where it belongs, you'd be ended up liking it as much as I do.

Doomsday is what I'd called as an "air-tight" film in which the miniscule details are crammed up in a 90 minutes of time frame. The background narrative that sets-up the film took at least five minutes, for example. Now this could prove as a turn-off to some of the casual viewers who are so used to arrive late at the theater (it bothers me, really, I mean if they can't be punctual to something in which they had to pay for tickets, how could they be punctual in other more important aspect in their life, such as work? Sigh, my fellow countrymen)

My rating: **1/2 / **** - Doomsday sets in a brooding future. However, thirty minutes off the mark and the mood was shifted into an action packed gore-fest. Not that I mind that, but it was certainly not something I had expected in the first place. For better or worse, again, if you could put this film on the level of mere entertainment, you could actually enjoy it. Assuming of course, that seeing a bloody slaughter, explicit mutilation, and various manifestation of violence of men against men doesn't put you in a state of queasiness.

Death Race (2008)

Death Race. I had ascertained many times that I love Jason Statham (a bad-ass bald dude with a cool accent that could hurt you with a mere frown) as an action figure. An unabashed love that even if he has involved in that Uwe Boll's stinker (which I had to admit, the ONLY Jason Statham's filmography that I haven't seen and I'm not boasting as well. Nineteen films of his, and Dungeon Siege is the ONLY one I haven't seen), I could very much forgive him and return to the theater for his newest film if it's involve death, carnage, bad-ass fights, gun powders, and the like. Even if the plot and script promises nothing, as long as the bad-ass bald dude that is Jason Statham is doing what he's doing best which is beat the crap of the other guy, we don't really mind. I don't.

Death Race's plot is as simple as you could imagine. In the abysmal future when economy slumped, unemployment rate hits record high, and crime rate is staggering, the crime institution are runs by profit oriented private company. One of such company, runs by a particularly evil Hennessey (Joan Allen), put a race involving full-armor and full-weapon cars, conspicuous female convicts as navigators with one simple rule, stay alive until the end of the race. To attract the inmates to stake their life for profits, they're promised freedom after they had won five races. A fan favorite, masked Frankenstein had won 4 races. However, he killed during his final race. The company covered the fact by saying that he was injured and thus unable to participate. During his absence, the rating drops and the company need someone as good and as bad to replace him. Enter Jensen Ames (Jason Statham), ex-convict who has tried to live an honest life after he met his wife and had a daughter. He was framed for his wife's murder by the company and soon found himself participating in a Death Race masquerading as the masked Frankenstein. But of course, not after he threatens Hennessey with an 'awesome' line, "You wanted a monster? Well, you've got one"

From Paul W.S. Anderson, you won't and shouldn't expect too much from this film. The characters were simply exists as means to advance the plot and nothing more. And here, when I'm talking about "plot", I was actually referring to exploitation action scenes where we, as an audience, giving in to our most primal and raw instinct without any or minimal interference from the part of our brain that cries for "logic!" In that note, the film delivers and serves its purpose as a high-octane hot-wheeled smoking asphalt action film.

It is enough that this film has a totally like-able tough guy we all rooting for and an identifiable face that we could associated with evil that we want to see down, obliterated, and shredded into the oblivion. I mean, you don't need character actors to shoulder this responsibility. However, I've got a particular liking for Ian McShane. Well, he was already an awesome dude in HBO's Deadwood anyway.

My rating: **1/2 / **** - Well, for an action films it serves its purpose. Don't go looking for a breath-taking actor-wise performances or a brilliant script that made you want to go back to that English literature class and you could enjoy this film. Rated R for violence, so leave your kids at home (I was amazed that there's actually a couple who take their kids to see this film. I was muttered, "It's rated R, stupid" as they passed my aisle)