Neutral Red

FYP is almost done! its been a royal pain in the hindquarters, doing mathematics, trying to get SPSS (hence SPAZZ) to work and hunting for non-existant things on google.com. had so many ups and downs in the course of 2 days that it's been absoultely draining...

2 overdue movie reviews! the first is V for Vendetta. i'd first like to state that i think Natalie Portman looks better with hair. now with that out of the way, on to the movie itself. i've always been a sucker for good music usage, and Vendetta makes liberal usage of a popular piece of classical music, giving it significance. 1812 overture as a backdrop for the demolition of some of London's great landmarks was an excellent concept. the characterisation was well done as well, with the enigmatic V gradually becoming humanised, and Natalie Portman's Evie gaining some backbone. other minor characters, such as the comedy programme host and the little girl with the pink t-shirt added depth to the plot. visuals were excellent. considering that this movie is more thriller than action (please do not ever compare this to spiderman) there is much less fighting and exploding. but when it comes, it doesn't disappoint. V's showdown deserves to be ranked up within the best fight scenes ever. and if you've been paying attention to everything, it just gets better because you feel for the character by this time.

our second review is Failure To Launch. this might be considered chick flick central, but it does indeed have a story to it. it could have been developed more, especially concerning Trip's prior life, and his 'nephew', but this did not present any jarring loopholes at time of viewing. characters looked comfortable and believable in their roles, and watching animals bite Trip was always fun. the scene where ACE gives CPR to a mockingbird stole the show.

a few days ago i made the discovery that PJ can paint. and well too. dragged my poor neglected painting gear and some minis to her place, intending to give a painting tutorial. my student truly has natural talent. pictures to follow!

Pictures At An Exhibition - Modest Petrovitch Mussorgsky

Chaconne

in a few days the continuing saga of our class will reach another exciting climax. so why do i feel so apathetic about the exams? i think i'm just tired of the whole study routine. people keep saying i should be on the dean's list but i don't know anything! and the lack of DotA is driving me nuts. cant wait to get my computer repaired so i can enjoy the simple joys in life like non-laggy web page loading and fuss-free boot cycles. and yeah... its probably going to cost. far as i can tell the on-board chip is dead. Soh says its as good as 'hello new motherboard' which is so nice to know... that also means byebye to quite a few Yusof Ishaks. damnit...

went to the ACJC/ACS(I) concert today. amidst all the memories and inevitable comparisons of playing standard, i just wonder what it would have been like if i'd stayed current with my playing skills. like, say, if i'd been an ordinary science student with enough time to devote an evening a week or so to go down and play. it's one thing to spot the flaws in people's playing and another to realise that if it was me playing i dont think i could produce the same standard, or even that which i used to be able to put out. and for the record, i miss the days when they used to play the school anthem before band concerts. its a school concert, of course it should have the anthem. some things dont change, driven rhythm makes ACS players sound miraculously better.

need battletech... need to roll dice and blow stuff up...

Cao Cao - JJ Lin

Radeon

have just been wrestling with my computer for the better part of a day. yesterday morning, c/o laptop interrupted boot cycle w/BSOD re: ati2dvag.dll creating an infinite loop. presented to the IBM care centre, at which point my stupid laptop didnt wanna reproduce the problem; a desperate roll-back was (temporarily) successful. in the afternoon the infernal machine proceeded to die on me repeatedly, and rollbacks were instituted repeatedly to no avail. this morning, searched whole damn room to look for original windows discs so as to format C: and get on with life. com then revived itself again and i tried to reinstall drivers. discovered to my horror that ATI no longer supports my little on-board chip. bastards... reinstalled the IBM driver (4 years old, btw) from website. com proceeded to BSOD me again. finally, as of 30min ago, have used a 3rd-party fix that allows the more updated ATI drivers to run for my little, now officially-old, laptop. i'm tired now. and theres still the matter of the broken M key and the possible huge repair bill for fixing that. assholes... hope my laptop can last out until i can at least find my discs. i have a really bad feeling that this might be a hardware problem.

Move This Mountain - Sophie Ellis-Bextor