random meanderings

Amazing Chinese Ink motion graphic

2009-10-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

I just have to post this! It's a pretty cool tv spot introducing CCTV. There's also one other movie opening title that kind of used this fluid ink, but I don't remember where the video is now...

CCTV Ink TV Commercial - Directed by Niko Tziopanos from Troublemakers.tv on Vimeo.

I love good packaging!

2009-08-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

Type oriented chocolate packaging. I would love to buy them just for the packaging...

Simplifying first-aid kit

Procrastination....

2009-06-26T01:53:00.000-07:00

LoL XD This is so very true!! I spend more time worrying, thinking and planning about my projects than the actual time doing the project!!

see more Funny Graphs

Alice in the Wonderland, Tim Burton style

2009-06-24T03:43:00.000-07:00

Ok. So, Tim Burton is making "Alice in the Wonderland" film with a few twist of his own. The cast will include Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, and Helena Bonham Carter. I saw the movie stills and I'm pretty much intrigued and amused at the same time. It's very quirky in a "Tim Burton" style kind of way and the colors are reminiscence of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The interesting thing that Tim is trying out though is he's going to digitally manipulate certain actor/actress features in order to create the quirky wonderland inhabitants. Helena's character, the Red Queen is going to have a large head. The movie is going to be out by March 2010, still another year to go! It seems that in almost every Tim Burton's movie, there's Johnny and also Helena. Johnny has been in almost every other Tim Burton's movie, it's something like Tony Leung has also been in every other Wong Kai War's movie XD LoL

Photos taken from Yahoo.com

(Alice, Mad Hatter, White Queen, Red Queen)

My Recent Obsession~

2009-06-22T01:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, fangirl-ing mode on. Ever since Atashinchi no Danshi, Mukai Osamu has been my recent obsession and shall be added to my Ikemen List :p He especially looks really good wearing a vest and his legs looks so long. I've noticed him when I watched Seigi no Mikata, but it was AtaDan that made me go "kyaa~"

(photo courtesy of asianmediawiki)

We Will Survive~!!

2009-06-20T03:04:00.000-07:00

Classical Music + Comedy = Awesomeness!! I was actually reminded of Nodame Cantabile's "S-Oke" for a bit there.

I don't know how many times they've practiced for this skit! Seriously, if I'm in the orchestra, I might be just annoyed...XD LoL

Not the typical food...

2009-06-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Herbivoracious

What is this?
A. Tuna
B. Salmon

None of both! It's actually a grapefruit! At first glance I thought it's either salmon or some kind of fish meat, but grapefruit? That certainly surprised me~

Just rants and some reviews

2009-06-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

The "Great Firewall of China" is in action again. Just a day before the Tiananmen anniversary-- Youtube, Flickr, Blogspot, even Twitter is reported to have been blocked before the day. I'm guessing the block will probably last another day or two. I remember few years back when I was still in Shanghai, I was so frustrated that Google was blocked for a couple of days because of the annual political meeting (or something like that). I remember having a research paper due the next day and I can't really do the research because of the block! At times, I'm just really baffled by their "protective" policy-- you can't really control information anymore in these day and age. There's always a workaround the ban. It's really getting to a point of being ridiculous.

On a lighter note, I'm currently on a CSI marathon! Warrick died and Grisham left! They will be missed! There's some episodes from season 9 that were really nicely done-- the one with Nick and several case throughout the year. Grisham's departure was handled nicely too. It's nice to have that transition between him and Ray Langston. The way they worked together in a case and how he offered Ray the job makes the viewer accept Ray much better.

Moving on to Asian dramas, I'm currently following several Japanese and Taiwanese dramas. Here's my opinion of them so far.

My Queen (敗犬女王 / Bai Quan Nu Wang): This series is pretty good until the 11-12th episodes. After those, it really gets so draggy and just spiraling downwards. The story is about San Wu Xuang, a 33 years old single career minded women who's appears to be strong but yet inside she's actually a hopeless romantic who can't forget her ex-fiancee. By chance, she met a 25 year old guy who ended up to be her neighbor and become her co-worker later. So, hints of romance started and they have chemistry. But of course, she can't forget her ex, who later showed up and he somehow still love her. So, yeah, the triangle love ensues. The first 11-ish episodes had a good story and plot line. It wasn't until they kind of threw in the unforgettable ex-fiancee that they went spiraling downwards. The beginning of that arch was quite alright, but as they progress on, the love triangle gets draggy and even after that was resolved, they still have a few more episodes focusing on the couple. After the love triangle was resolved, I care less about what happen. I watched the last few episodes in fast-forward just to know what happen. They should have just make the plot more compact and cut down to 13-14 episodes.

Black & White (痞子英雄 / Pi Zi Ying Xiong): I think this might be the first Taiwanese drama that I watched beyond 13 eps and haven't fast-forwarded any of the episodes. It's still airing right now and I'm anxious to see how the story will unfold. Zai-zai plays a rogue cop called Chen Zai Tian and he's partnered with a very straight and honest cop, Ying Xiong. The two opposites character will have to work with each other through a series of cases that's somehow related to each other and solve certain conspiracy-mysteries. There's also some plot twists along the way and I think that what makes it really interesting. This is probably the closest that Taiwan gets to HK police action movie/series. The actions and explosion were pretty nicely done. What really kept this series together is the small cases that interconnected with each other leading to a big case. The mysteries of what is that conspiracy and who's the insider involved were the ones that kept me coming back for more. Overall, this is a really good action/thriller drama to watch.

Meitantei no Okite (名探偵の掟): A really funny drama done in parody style poking fun at the drama/detective genre. The story follows Tenkaichi Daigoro, the "famous detective" and how he solve his cases. The 3 main characters (including Tenkaichi) are all self-aware of their roles and that's partly what makes it so funny. They have a "room" that's serves as a "backstage" to the story where they would explain things and discuss the "cliche" of detective stories XD I'm a fan of detective/mystery stories which makes this series really appeal to me. Even the music was really similar to the ones that Detective Conan used. I think this is probably one of my favorite Jdramas this season (the other one being Atashitachi no Danshi :P )

Atashinchi no Danshi(アタシんちの男子): 1 girl + 6 guys= reverse-harem shoujo type of drama XD LoL The story follows Chisato, a homeless girl who agreed to marry the CEO of a toy company just 1 month before his death. After his death, she's "forced" to live with his six problematic sons as their mother. You can probably guessed where the story is going with this. The plot was actually pretty common (having read numerous of shoujo manga that have similar type of plot line), but it was the way they shot the drama that makes it so fun to watch. It was really manga-ish and comical that it's entertaining. The quirky characters and sound effects makes it even funnier. Having 6 good looking guys on the show helps too :p and you know that more than one of the guys will inevitably fall for the girl! I think this drama is somewhere along the lines of HanaKimi...

Summer is here!

2009-05-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

This is a really cute summer special Kleenex tissue packaging done by Hiroko Sanders for Target Stores (via The Dieline blog) I want one of these~!! I probably wouldn't open and use it though...

New Sherlock Holmes...

2009-05-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

I just change to another template~ I'm having too much fun with these blogger templates and knowing how to read html and css kind of help...I guess I could just make my own, but I'm just too lazy to :p

On another note, I just found out that a new Sherlock Holmes movie is coming out! I think it's probably the first Sherlock movie in years! So, I'm quite excited about it though I've got some complains when I watched the trailers. That's not the Holmes and Watson that I know! Well, first off, it seems to me that Jude Law is more fitting to play Holmes than Watson, and Robert Dawney Jr. is a little bit too rogue for Holmes! The cast have said that it's more of a "reinvention" and a fresh look at the classic. But still, the Sherlock fan in me still want to see a more faithful adaptation. Oh, well, this looks really promising though.

Countries Id Map

2009-05-03T23:19:00.001-07:00

I was searching for phone themes, but somehow come across this:

I've seen people did an all type maps, but not in this way. I think it's pretty cool. Now, if it use Helvetica, it would be perfect :p

Food songs

2009-04-29T04:15:00.000-07:00

Procrastinating by looking at design blogs...and come across this:

http://www.publiccollectors.org/FoodSongs.htm

It's really amusing...I thing I might be stuck there listening to the different type of songs about burgers, peanut butter, gravy, potato, chicken if I'm not actually trying to DO my assignment...

New Look!

2009-04-28T04:29:00.000-07:00

I'm experimenting Blogger Templates...It looks pretty cool, but I might need to make some adjustment.

Reviving?

2009-04-26T01:56:00.000-07:00

It seemed that I've completely abandoned this blog for almost..hmm let me see, 1 year and a half? I guess it's time for me to revive this blog again! So, there you go, after a hiatus of 1 and half year, I'm back! I'm not sure how often I'll post since I'm not actually updating my xanga blog too...perhaps I should start updating that too? Anyway, here's a funny video clip that I just laughed my way through it when watching:

Worst Music Video Ever

Ok, I have to admit, maybe the music wasn't so bad (it actually reminded me of Jewish folk songs melody).....at least it wasn't as distracting as those background dancers. Seriously, they need to go away! At one point I was going, "whaaa??" "whyy???" It's so distracting but it was so funny at the same time.

Reviews

2007-12-27T02:45:00.000-08:00

This is a review post. Lots of dramas and movies reviews...so without further adieu, here it is....

Starting off with a Taiwanese drama, Romantic Princess with Wu Chun and Angela Zhang as the main leads. The story is adapted from a Japanese manga called "Romance Godan Katsuyou" by Kazuko Fujita. I think most Taiwanese drama are adapted from Japanese manga these days (thanks to the success of Meteor Garden, Hana Kimi and ISWAK...) The story is about Xiao Mai, an ordinary girl turned into a "princess" in one day when she was discovered as the surviving granddaughter of a very rich family. The first couple of episodes focused on how she adjusted her life in the super grand mansion as she was taken in to live with her grandfather. There's also the 4 "potential to be heir" guys whom she have to deal with. Now I realized that the common number of guys that were on the shoujo mangas heroines especially on those mangas that have "wealthy families" are 4! Anyway, the plot is pretty predictable since it pretty much follows the usual shoujo manga plot lines. It was quite entertaining until the episodes where they decided to go on to "what happen" after the main character got together. It's a little bit draggy from then on since it's just a matter of gaining approval and whatnots. I don't really need to know how they continue their life after they got together, I just want to know how they get together and if they got together or not, maybe just a peek on the afterwards, but not too much. It got a very high rating in Taiwan though I think it's a just a bit overrated. Wu Chun's acting is alright, but that bow tie that he wore in the beginning episodes really looked silly on him. They should just give him a normal tie and it would look fine. Angela's acting is quite alright too though I like her better in Bump Off Lover 17 better.

The highest rating Japanese drama for winter 07 season is Galileo with Fukuyama Masaharu and Shibasaki Kou as the main lead. It's one of the best mystery drama in the recent years (still can't beat Trick though) The story is about a super smart physicist, Yukawa Manabu who helped a rookie cop, Utsumi Kaoru to solve difficult cases that seemed to have a supernatural phenomena on them. I think some of the cases that they had are interesting but some are just quite unlikely. There are a few "trademark" stuff that I found a little bit annoying after a few episodes or so. The "revelation" sequence is one of them. On the first episodes I think it's pretty cool with all the graphics and stuff, but after the second episodes and on, I just find them annoying. The funny part was the impulse on writing out those formulas and equations on anything; windows, walls, chalkboards, streets,...I wonder how relative is the formula and equations in trying to figure things out because sometimes I just think it's a matter of figuring how things fits in within the puzzle instead of science. Anyway, the chemistry was a little bit slow at first, but after a few episodes, they had a great chemistry together. SMAPXSMAP recently just did a parody of the drama and they did such a good job of it!

Another mystery drama this winter season is Mop Girl with Kitagawa Keiko and Tanihara Shosuke in the main leads. Kitagawa is Momoko, a girl who got transfered to a funeral service company and just figured out that she had the ability to transport back in time. This drama is surprisingly good. It's quite a surprise seeing Kitagawa who played the cool Sailor Mars in Sailor Moon Live Action played as a very careless Momoko. She did a pretty decent job, but I still find it a little awkward sometimes. She's no Ueno Juri for sure. Another surprise is also seeing Tanihara Shosuke played a harsh and strong character, it was very different from the characters that I seen him in a couple of dramas before. I always see him in the kind and soft gentlemen roles so it was quite a surprise seeing him played something other than that. He did a good job on it though. The bantering between them both is entertaining and the comedic timing is good. The drama got some episodes that end in a pretty reflective mode and some in a very light hearted manner. Overall, this is a good and entertaining drama.

Then, the thriller drama this season that I enjoyed watching is Joshi Deka! with Nakama Yukie and Izumi Pinko as the main leads. Yukie is Hatakeyama Kurumi, a rookie detective who's really good at shooting and she's partnered with Sakura (Izumi) a veteran detective. They somehow have to work together despite the fact that Sakura is very difficult to handle and they're very different from each other. The one thing that I found this drama interesting and different from the rest of the detective dramas is that the fact that this drama got one continuous case going on throughout the whole season instead of a case-per-case episodes that most "job related" dramas had. Though it also had some additional cases on the side, but they all relate to the one big case that they were working on. That really kept me wanting to know more each episodes because each episodes reveals a new discovery about the case. They also begin the first episode with an intro to the ending sequence. It got me interested because I was wondering what was that all about and how did they got there. I've successfully guessed who the murderer is towards the ending! Ryu Shi Won, a Korean actor/singer also acted in this drama and I have to say that his Japanese is pretty good though it's a little accented but he have a lot of dialogs so it must be quite a challenge for him. I wish there's a little bit more romance, although it was hinted and sprinkled on every now and then, but I just wish there's more.

Anyway, I watched Enchanted today. Even though it already opened since November but I didn't really know it until a week ago and once I saw the trailer, I wanted to watch it so bad. The story about Giselle, an animated typical Disney fairy tale character got thrown into the real world by the evil queen who happens to be her yet-to-be-mother-in-law. She met a divorce lawyer and he helped her while she was lost in trying to figure out the real world. Meanwhile, her charming Prince Edward followed her to the real world in attempt to save her and bring her back for their wedding. I grew up with Disney's fairy tales so once I knew the premise, I can't wait to see it. The opening sequence made me laugh! It was so Disney! I just love it how they kind of poke fun the "Disney fairy tales stereotypes". It's like Shrek, but better since this comes from Disney themselves. There's many funny scenes and it's just really entertaining to watch, especially if you know Disney's fairy tales well. The part where Giselle calls out her "friends" to help her clean out the apartment was really funny. In the typical fairy tales, the friends would be deers, squirrels, and various forest animals, but in this it's those "city" animals like pigeons, rats and cockroaches. Then, the whole dance number in the park, Disney style! LoL That was really funny. It's like watching a clip from Disneyland parade or something. Amy Adams really portrays the naive and simple minded Giselle really well. She had a natural charm that made her likable although her character acted like an airhead sometimes (naturally, just because she's from a Disney character) It's just funny how silly it actually looks if real people acted like Disney cartoon characters: breaking into songs every now and then, and just dreaming to be "happily ever after". Patrick Dempsey played Robert Philip, the divorce lawyer and he acted well too. It was fun seeing him all frustrated and annoyed on how weird Giselle was acting in the beginning. James Marsden's Prince Edward was also fun to watch. I really like how Giselle develop as a character, from a completely two dimensional straight from the story book to a more believable real person. In the end, everyone gets their happy ending ^^

Heroes: end of volume 2

2007-12-06T11:18:00.001-08:00

I finally watched Heroes episode 11 (aka the end of volume 2) yesterday. I'm not happy with the endings. Seriously, what is wrong with them trying to get Nathan killed again? The end of season 1, we're not sure if he's alive or not, and it's still same situation now. Volume 2 was really sluggish from the start and the writer himself also noted that he did some mistakes and should have just moved the story a little bit faster.

I think the problem with volume 2 was that they have multiple plot lines with 2 villains running at the same time. The first volume establish that Sylar is the villain. Then there's the "save the cheerleader, save the world" which completely points to Sylar trying to get every power that he can get and save NY from the "bomb", that's what everyone was trying to do in the first volume. In the second, it's just all over the place. First we still have Sylar alive with no abilities, when we're wondering if they're going to redeem him in the second volume, we figured out that he's not going to do that, it's very un-Sylar like. Then there's Hiro in feudal Japan and I completely think that he spend his time too long there. I think what makes that part painful to watch at least for me was how unconvincing was their "feudal Japan" set/portrayal. If their portrayal is much more convincing and authentic, I think I wouldn't mind watching it since I love historical periods. But, no, their feudal Japan feels like Western Middle Ages to me and the fact that Takezo is a westerner doesn't help either. Next, Peter lost his memories. An amnesia? How cliché is that? No matter how much I like Peter, I found myself skipping a lot on his story in vol.2. I'm not interested in this Peter for some reason. I just want my old Peter back! When he's back, he's choosing on the wrong side....it's not even funny! The more interesting thing was, Caitlin somehow disappeared and never came back...and Peter after meeting with Nathan, didn't seemed to worry about her anymore. Well, I don't really care about her anyway. Another plot that I can't stand was the whole Claire "Daddy is suspicious" again. I'm watching and going, "wait, where's the trust that you guys gain at the end of season 1?" It now seemed like season 1 repeats itself again with Claire not trusting her Dad. On top of it all, there's the Shanti virus. They were trying to do a lot of things in the second volume; finding out who the murderer was and trying to stop the Shanti virus. Sylar is on the side because he's not as dangerous now, but still he killed 3 people along the way. I really don't like the fact that they made Takezo from 400 years ago the murderer. I was really disappointed when I know that because to me, it just sounded silly. I was expecting something better, not this kind of silly plot twist.

Now I'm not really sure if I want to follow Volume 3 or not when I saw the beginning of vol 3. Sylar is back, with his powers. I'm tired of him, seriously, he's probably going to do the same thing in season 1 and tried to get all the powers he can get. Then, maybe some new characters are going to be introduced, and there's another world destruction risk that they probably have to stop. It's getting repetitive now if it's going that way. I just really wish they killed Sylar on the first season. Move on, man!

I think that's probably the fault with American TV series. They followed the audience's demand so much and as long as it's successful, the series will continue on no matter how absurd and silly the story has become. If it's episodic like CSI, I don't mind because it's episodic anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But with stories that continues on like Heroes or Lost, I don't think many seasons will do them good. Season 1 of both Lost and Heroes are really good. I was really into the stories. But starting from season 2 and on...they were losing it. Heroes season 1 is really good and the ending of volume 1 just tie all the plot together. I wish it's just going to end that way. I don't mind if Peter and Nathan died, because they died heroically. Lost season 2 is still bearable, but the story is going to a place that got me really confused and by season 3, I'm totally LOST! I'm not even following it anymore now. Let's see when Heroes come back in volume 3, I might just watch the first episode to see if I'm going to follow it or not. I think there's a bigger chance I won't. This is probably the reason why I watched a lot more of the Asian TV series. Yes, they're lower quality, they're in no way can compare to the U.S TV series, but they didn't drag the whole story out until a few seasons (except for some....) Even in Asian TV series, I prefer Japanese series because they're short (11 episodes roughly) and they moved in a pretty quick pace and didn't drag the story if not needed.

Kungfu is "IT"

2007-12-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

Apparently after Shaolin Soccer's success, the "kungfu" mixed with "sports/other activities" theme become quite famous. There's "Kungfu Mahjong" from Hongkong. Then, next year there's going to be "Kungfu Dunk" starring Jay Chow and from the look of the trailer, it's probably something similar to Shaolin Soccer with lots of cg works. Jay Chow is a better filmmaker than actor though. His acting sucks. Seriously, he doesn't have much expressions at all. But him as a director, works better. I watched his directorial debut movie expecting a pretty crappy movie, but it turned out better than my expectation. He should just either stick with directing or improve his acting. Anyway, aside from that, Japan is also producing another kungfu-sports movie called "Shaolin Girl". Stephen Chow is producing it with some actors from Shaolin Soccer also staring, so it really felt Shaolin Soccer-ish, except instead of Soccer, it's Lacrosse.

Kungfu Dunk Trailer

Shaolin Girl Trailer

Randomness abounds

2007-12-02T15:06:00.000-08:00

First try at Blogger. I just set up an account at Livejournal and decided to move to blogger instead because the interface is much more simpler. My other blog is at Xanga and blogger's interface is similar, so it's easier to use.

Anyway, so why another blog? Well, this blog is for my own random meanderings and musings on miscellaneous topics: entertainments, pop cultures, design, or anything under the sun.