Where's My Shovel?

I wonder if it is healthy to be solitary for extended periods of time? Is it okay to spend so much time in your room reading anything underneath the sun via the Internet and never once feel like venturing outside the room, what more the house? Should you start feeling wary when it becomes a chore to leave the house for any reason whatsoever?

Can it be blamed to age? Lifestyle? What do you think, Miss Dory?

Sometimes I miss the old me. The old me was a bagful of emotional personality. She was often cheerful, loved the outdoors, enjoyed hanging out with friends for whatever reasons, always sought laughter, cried at the silliest and also not-so-silly things, had tantrums whenever she was angry, afraid of failures, proud of successes, reveled in any attention given to her and passionate about living life to the fullest.

I wonder where she has gone to? I try to dig her out from the burrow she banishes herself to, but so far, attempts have been unsuccessful.

Perhaps the present me does not really want to dig out the old me. Perhaps the present me feels there is no reason to keep searching for the old me because the present me is someone she is more comfortable with. What do you think, Miss Dory?

Where's my shovel? Let's just keep on digging, shall we? I'm sure she'll be back when she feels that she wants to, insyaAllah.

A Quick One

A quick drop to say "Hi". Almost two years has passed with complete silence here. I miss penning my thoughts, but I can't seem to find the time and passion to do so. Let's see how it goes.


My word of the week: MELODRAMA.

Iftar with the Clan

It was a get-together for iftar with our relatives on the maternal side. Mom had actually scrapped the idea as she said she was too tired and too busy to plan anything.  However, Pa asked if we could still have it, just to gather the whole family for iftar and jemaah prayers.

So, last night was the only suitable night to have it. Starting from noon, Mom and aunt worked hard at preparing tonight's dishes. I helped out as much as I can, but I'm not a good cook. The main cooking is done by Mom. I only assisted her with the cutting, chopping, washing, cleaning, grinding, blending, frying and stirring. (Cam banyak je bunyi dia kan? Ahahaha..)

For the main dish, Mom made chicken rice with all its sauces and sidelines. Aunt prepared beef stew as the appetiser. For a side dish, we had some mixed vegetables. We also had a variety of fruits and Mom's famous curry puffs for desserts. I think there was more food served but I can't remember what they were. The ones I mentioned above are the ones I remembered eating.

It was a good turn out last night. Many of our relatives came. After iftar, we had jemaah prayers for Maghrib, Isya', tarawikh and also witir.

My sister managed to sneak a shot of us during prayers. I'm afraid there were no other pictures as we were too busy filling our mouths and stomachs to bother with camwhoring.

I'm a Certified Sap

I was watching a trailer of the athletes at the closing ceremony of the final Samsung Diamond League meeting of 2010 in Brussels, and they gave me goose bumps.

I can cry just by watching the pain and joy on the faces of all those athletes.

I know.. I'm weird when it comes to crying. I can't help it. Big emotions just trigger me in strong ways.

A Letter to Miss Dory

Dearest Miss Dory,

I know you love me and that during the whole six years we've been together, you try your hardest in trying to take care of me and ensure I'm always in good health.

However, the stress of all the heavy duty travelling within the city centre, Klang Valley and the Peninsular has taken its toll on me.

I'm sorry you had to have the water pump, timing belt, air-conditioning belt and radiator cap replaced. I know it costs a bomb.

Thank you for servicing my radiator and adding the coolant. I feel so much better now. Perhaps when you can afford it, you could have my suspension and absorber checked as I seem to be making a lot of squeaking noises recently. I would appreciate that a lot.

I will try to be of good service to you as long as my aging self can allow it.

Many thanks.

Your beloved Gen-2

Happy 53rd!!

All right, folks. I know most of us are cynical when it comes to the 1Malaysia idea. Did you know that you can choose not to be cynical about it? Think about it. There's nothing bad at all about the idea of 1Malaysia. The only thing stopping you from thinking about its positive aspects is not the idea itself, but the politicians who created the idea.

We live in a beautiful, wondrous country. Don't let the stain and stigma of our politicians take us astray from aspiring what is best for our country. Race and religion aside, we are all under God' s roof. If you don't believe in a God, then we are all children under Mother Nature's sky.

Love our country and its people as they deserve to be loved, barring aside the politicians and other parties with all their propagandas and agendas. We can learn to be tolerant of each other, learn to love and respect each other. Don't point fingers at other people. Start with yourself first. If you don't believe it can happen, then it will never happen.

Don't waste what our forefathers worked so hard to achieve. They wanted us to love this country and together, bring it and its people to heights we CAN achieve and not just dream of.

Believe, people. Because without hope, our country may not have brighter a future.

Happy 53rd Merdeka, everyone. May God bless this country and all its people. InsyaAllah.

SU3D

The pack and I caught another movie last night. This was one we could not miss as we are all buffs when it comes to anything related to dancing.

We watched it in 3D, but I guess watching it in 2D would be just as incredible.

As predicted, it was very thin on plot and substance. In fact, the script was quite weak. But wth, we were there to check out the dancers and the dance moves. And man, were they A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

In the third Step Up franchise, we see Moose (Adam G. Savani) returning as a main character. The storyline has now moved from Baltimore to New York where we see Moose being accepted as an engineering student in NYU along with his best friend and childhood mate Camille (Alyson Stoner).

Early in the movie, Moose already finds himself caught in a dance battle with the great Kid Darkness from the House of Samurai.

The police turn up at the scene and a scuffle ensues, breaking up the battle. Luke (Rick Malambri) helps Moose get away from the cops and impressed with Moose's skills, quickly invites Moose to join his group of street dancers, the House of Pirates.

Luke’s troupe, The Pirates, is in the midst of training for an upcoming dance battle where they will face off against their rivals, The Samurai. The competition is important for Luke as he needs the cash prize to pay off months of outstanding payment to the bank for his private studio which is also a shelter for the majority of his dancers.

As mentioned earlier, the plot is completely predictable and pretty much unoriginal. However, when the dancing steps in, it's absolutely dynamite. You can't help wishing you could dance just like them. They are THAT awesome and inspiring.

There were three standout sequences which I have got to mention and the first one is the dance battle between The Red Hook and The Pirates. The Red Hook were damn cool, man. They used lotsa white powder in their dance sequence. And they had lotsa gangster attitude, which was HOT. If I had been the judge, The Pirates would never have made it through to the next round.

This girl right here, she's damn awesome. She danced in the scenes with the House of Red Hook. I don't recall her name but she was showcased in one of SYTYCD auditions. Her popping skills are outta this world. The judges in SYTYCD loved her but she had difficulty picking up choreography and didn't make it to the Vegas callbacks.

The second sequence is the Battle of Gwai with a flooded dance floor. In this instance, I agreed with The Pirates going on to the next round as their dance sequence here was cooler. Ahahaha.. Of courselah, if not the story would end here.

And the third is the last climactic sequence performed with lighted costumes.

The dancing sequence with the lights were pretty incredible. The Samurai could not have won against The Pirates climactic dance sequence with the lights. Again, another "of courselah!".

Even thought the storyline is pretty elementary, I wouldn't have missed this movie with all it's awesome dancing. Madam Mermadia and I must have irritated the guys sitting infront of us to no ends with our constant oohhing and aahhing. Ahahaha.. Tough luck, fellas. We're die hard fans of awe-inspiring dancing and there were loads of them in this movie. We can't help but oohhed and aahhed throughout the story.

Now, I've gotta talk about the dancers.

Moose portrayed by Adam Sevani.

Adam Sevani is one of the best dancers I've ever seen. He is a goofy looking kid with lotsa hair but when he dances, it's very impressive. He is fantastic in all the dance scenes given to him. There is this scene in the movie where he does some classical dancing with Alyson Stoner. It is a great 2-minute Fred Astaire-like dance number through the streets of New York, without any edits. The camera follows them down the block as they interact with people and objects and the whole thing was pretty amazing.

I also loved watching him in the dance sequence with the flooded dance floor. Moose was cool tahap gaban, hokey.

This is Kid Darkness from the House of Samurai as portrayed by Daniel "Cloud" Campos.

Cloud is actually well known as one of Madonna's dancers. I was kinda wondering why he looked kinda familiar. You can find him in Madonna's Hung Up, Sorry and Jump videos. He also toured with her on her Re-Invention and Confessions world tours. You can also see him in Shakira's Did it Again video.

In SU3D, we see him first in the New York park dance battle with Moose. Adehhh.. I couldn't stop oohing and ahhing everytime he took the floor. Yes, Moose is ultra cool, but this fella right here, he is oozes dark intensity and sex appeal.

Damn, if I have to upload a picture of him with no t-shirt on. Hensem wehhh..

And a freak too, if you ask me. But an absurdly sexy, hot freak! Look at that pose! Is he human or an alien?

And not forgetting one of my all-time favourite SYTYCD stars, Stephen "Twitch" Boss.

What can I say about Twitch that we all don't know? When you see him in SU3D, you can understand how he got the role. He can actually act. But his dancing is what made me fall in love with him. This guy is just cool 101.

It's good to see him in a role where his talents are not wasted. He had some large chunks of dancing scenes too. Not bad huh, for a SYTYCD first runner up?

Remember this fella? Yup, it'ts Jonathan "Legacy" Perez.

He didn't really have a solid role in this movie, but they sure gave him lotsa scenes to showcase his dancing abilities. And his body too. Ehemmm..

I fell completely in love with him when he was on SYTYCD. But one thing I've gotta say about Legacy is that he's another David Beckham. He's absolutely gorgeous to look at but once he opens his mouth and talks, FAIL. The voice so doesn't fit the face.

Gorgeous smile, huh?

And a gorgeous body to go along with it. But, please Legacy, keep the talking to a minimum, k.

Vladd or better known as the Robot Man is portrayed by Chadd "Madd Chadd" Smith.

The were some robotic dance sequences he was involved in. He's just unbelievably robotic, man. Ahahaha.. Of course. And cool also.

And not bad on the eyes either.

Madd Chadd became quite well known via a web series written and directed by Jon Chu called The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers or also known as The LXD.  In this series there are two groups of rival dancers, the heroes being The League of Extraordinary Dancers and the villains being The Alliance of the Dark. The dancers discover they have superpowers, which is referred to as "the ra", through their dance abilities. Members of The LXD have a wide variety of specialties including hip hop, krumping, contemporary, tricking, and ballet. If you check out the series, please note that all choreography and stunts are real, and that there are no special effects or wire work. You may recognise some of the other members of The LXD: Christopher "Lil C" Toler (SYTYCD Judge and Choreographer), Travis Wall (SYTYCD Season 2), Jonathan "Legacy" Perez (SYTYCD Season 6), William Wingfield (SYTYCD Season 4), Nick Lazzarini (SYTYCD Season 1), Daniel "Cloud" Campos (SU3D), Harry Shum Jr. (Glee, SU2, SU3D) and Nicholas Braun (Sky High), just to name a few.

I believe the Santiago twins deserve a mention. They are portrayed by Martin and Facundo Lombard. Not only do they look alike, they dance bloody hell alike too. And their characters in the story were kinda cute and funny.

And this is one chick worth mentioning. Kendra Andrews. She plays Anala. The first thing you'd notice about her is her red hair. The second thing you'd notice about her is her incredible dancing.

This girl is not small. She's tall, at least 5 feet 8 inches, and has a kinda buffed and athletic build. But when she moves, she seems to defy gravity. And she's got the attitude to go with it.

I've also gotta mention these two dancers: Beau 'Casper' Smart and Aaron 'Deuce' Cooke. They were the two krumpers in the last dance sequence between The Pirates and The Samurais. Some krump fans were unhappy that they came out krumping "dog" style, but whatever style that was, it was STUPENDOUS. I don't think I've even seen Lil C, the krump legend, krump like that. Hats off to these two. They were seriously bucc.

I could go on and on talking about the dancing and the dancers in this movie. Well, actually, I almost did.  Ahahaha.. *Lame joke.*

Guys, if you don't mind seeing a story with a slob of a script but with some fantastic dancing, go check this one out. You won't regret it. I might try to catch it again if I can. No dancing like in SU3D is enough just watching it once.

Operation Spring Clean

I'm on a spring cleaning mission at the office.

Right now, there's a bit of lull at the work place and I have some time to spare to sort out all the clutter in my office.

This picture should give you an idea of how my office table looks like before I began spring cleaning.

I've managed to:

1. unpack and sort all the stuff that were in those stacks and stacks of boxes;

2. arrange and rearrange all the stuff that were in those stacks and stacks of boxes into the filing shelves;

3. throw out all the unnecessary files and papers I've been storing since 2005;

4. organise all my files into a systematic order so that they are easier for to find;

5. arrange all the files and documents in my filing cabinets into a more fathomable order;

6. clean and organise my table so that it looks much neater; and
7. finally get my room vacuumed as I can now finally see the carpet.

Everything now is in spick span condition. I'm very happy with the outcome of my efforts.