A little rain must fall in everyone's life....

These are the famous words of wisdom uttered whenever things don't go too smoothly with life...but yesterday, I was at the movies and this RAIN...I don't mind if this RAIN kept falling into my life...everyday heehee.

I was feeling very tired from work the last few days...meetings after meetings and the work after each meeting was really weighing me down. So, yesterday to forget the stress of work, I went to watch a movie with Tobiyama. Actually, I also had an ulterior motive too.. I wanted to collect the Prince Caspian glass which GSC (Golden Screen Cinema) is offering as a promotional item from starting from 8th May 2008 until 4th June 2008. Got the 1st one already, Prince Caspian himself :)


Back to the movie I watched last night. It was Speed Racer. Actually to tell you the truth, there was not much of a choice as I have already watched Iron Man the Movie and Forbidden Kingdom. I am not a horror movie fan and none of the Chinese movies appealed. So, when I agreed to go for Speed Racer, I didn't have any expectations at all.


It was a rather interesting movie actually. I had no idea that it was going to be a Roger Rabbit kind of movie.. real life people with cartoonish backdrops. No cartoon characters here but a lot of the other stuff are quite unreal. The movie is actually adapted from a Japanese cartoon (back then, hardly anyone used the term anime) about racing. There is so much to read from Wiki if one is interested but I have never seen this cartoon but the music sounded somewhat familiar. Not sure where I have heard it but it is rather catchy.

Speed Race Soundtrack




The movie was entertaining. As I didn't really know who was acting in the show, to my delight, the first familiar face in the movie was Susan Sarandon. She is one of my favorite actors ever. She is Mom Racer (Speed Racer's Mom and she is one cool mom).


The 2nd familiar actor was John Goodman (Pop Racer). If you were to google him, you'll find that he has appeared in loads of movies. To me, he will always be Fred Flinstone ..



Then came Rain, Jeong Ji-hoon the Korean singer, actor. Wah.. this movie is getting better and better :). Wah... he very "chun" lah.. in his racer costume.. real eye candy for the girls (*grin).

Rain in his world tour

Rain in his racer suit in Speed Racer

To round it off, when Racer X unmasked himself, it was Matthew Fox. For those who have been following LOST, he is good old Doc Jack Shepherd.



Mmm.. what an interesting cast plus the movie is rather entertaining too. Worth every dollar for the ticket, as I didn't ever blink my eyes haha (unlike Forbidden Kingdom but a little kid was snoring away, 2 seats away from me...but he is only about 3 years old).


Go catch this with the family over the weekend. Highly entertaining :).

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When evidence of laziness is so clear

I have been going through a real bout of laziness. Have not really done anything exciting in the kitchen since Labor Day holiday. This piece of labor is definitely not laboring out as she should be. Must be the scales at work here.... heehee... yah, you've guessed it. This is true Libra in action. The scales are definitely dipped towards LAZY at the moment.

I was chatting with JW yesterday over MSN and was talking about baking something for her and her sister since she was coming by KL for lunch the next day. But by the time I got home, the lazy bones inside me were lulling me to sleep. Fought it all the way and in the end, managed to move this set of bones into the kitchen. What shall I make that would be fast and not too laborious??

Found this neat little recipe for Shortbread which took less than 4 steps or so. Just the right piece of recipe for me. Started off at about 9pm. Got everything done by 9:30pm, that is only the shortbread batter. Now for the cookie shaping. This is where I really started to feel the laziness slip in.

When I first started, I picked up a cookie cutter shaped like good ole Mickey's head. Didn't realize that the dough was rather soft. Hence, making Mickey's head took a bit of effort as they kept going out of shape. I did about 10 of these and decide, hey, why make life hard for oneself. So, I decided to change the shape of the cookie cutter. Attempted to do the hearts and the flowers. These were worse as the shape totally went off the minute I transferred them into the baking tray. Sigh.. chuck the 10 Mickeys into the oven to bake whilst I contemplated over the next cookie cutter to select.



Mmm... not that I had a lot of cookie cutter shapes to select from... I decided on the bolster shape. Looks easy enough...but after doing about 15, the going was going to be slow. The reason being that these shapes are taking quite a fair bit of space on the next baking tray that I have (which is fairly small). It'll take me all night to do at the speed I am going....sigh.


When the Mickeys came out, the bolster (bantal) shaped ones went in. This time, I decided... what the heck, this baking tray was bigger and if I made them all round, 1 more round of baking is all I need and I can go to zzzzzz (slumberland) after this. So, the last tray went in all round...haha.



If I could draw a graph of productivity level, it is definitely a downhill chart....

which has an inverse relationship with my laziness graph...

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It is all about living...... not dying

Of late, there have been news of people passing on and mostly from cancer or heart attacks. I have lost an uncle last year from pancreatic cancer. Just last month, I've lost a colleague to throat cancer and my friend JW has just lost her uncle last week to cancer too (throat cancer too, if I am not wrong). A couple of days ago, we read of the demise of one of Malaysia's illustrious sons, Tan Sri S.M. Nasimuddin S.M. Amin, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Naza Group to lung cancer. Apparently, his wife Puan Sri Zaleha Ismail is also undergoing treatment for cancer. And I just got a sms from my brother telling us that another of our uncles have just passed on in Ipoh. May have to make plans with the family to attend his funeral.

Sometimes, things happen which can be classified under "meaningful coincidences". Whilst I was just thinking about death, I received this email from my friends Zul and Fathiah. They sent me an email about a 10-minute talk given by professor named Randy Pausch, who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and only has a few months left to live. His talk is not about death however, it's about achieving your childhood dreams and how to live your life. This was taken from the Oprah Winfrey show.

Watched the video and found that this man didn't wallow on the fact of his imminent death. Instead he talked about how he has lived life and how he intends to live it today, tomorrow and every day. The 10min albeit short, was very inspiring. I wonder if I would have the strength he has if I knew that I was going to dying within the next few months or a year. Or would I be like a pig, wallowing in a sty full of self pity. My Rinpoche has told us often enough that "Death is a certainty. Only the time of death is uncertain". But we choose not to think about it until someone else passes away.


The Last Lecture



I tried to google for the latest status on the Professor. Apparently, he is still very much alive. His original intention was not for a lecture series for hundreds of people at the Carnegie Mellon University, but for 3 important persons in his life, his 3 children.

For more reads on the Professor, click on these:-

A Final Farewell (ENCORE)
A Lesson on How to Say Goodbye
Randy Pausch Update Page
Wikipedia - Randy Pausch
Carnegie Mellon University - Randy Pausch's Web site

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Eating a Fusion Course.... at home

Sunday nite is never a nice time of the day or week for me ... especially when the next day is a working day. Maybe that explains it.. just cannot get myself off to do anything exciting in the kitchen. Simply not in the mood.

I bought some nice smoked salmon on the Labor Day holiday plus some "Viktoria" from Ikea. I think Viktoria is some kinda of wholemeal bread thingy. Decided to put some zucchinis, a dash of mayo and some slices of salmon, and that was a dish already.



Boiled a simple ABC soup but as there was no chicken pieces left in the fridge that was defrosted, put in spare ribs instead. The recipe is simply the same as that for the chicken soup.


The final dish I made was the Crispy Deep Fried Prawn. This is a very easy dish to do and I believe a favorite with the children. Instead of normal breadcrumbs, I bought a special bag of Japanese Breadcrumbs. Tasted much nicer and crunchier than the normal. Will take a photo of the bag and post it later.


Well, that was another meal in the bag...fuss free. I wonder how long more I need to get my lazy ass off the sofa to do a some baking? Sigh....

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IRONMAN vs JET LI/JACKIE CHAN

I didn't really do much baking or cooking over the last few days. Was feeling rather lazy. Instead of spending the evenings baking, I spent most of them at the cinema. I watched Iron Man and The Forbidden Kingdom.

Iron Man was very exciting and even though I am not really that much of a comic fan, I totally enjoyed the show. Before Iron Man, I think the only other Man(s) I knew were Spiderman, Batman and Superman. Now, one more Man on my list.

However, I was quite disappointed with The Forbidden Kingdom. Even though the movie boasted of 2 mega Kung Fu Stars in the form of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, it was supposed to be a fast paced and highly interesting. But sadly, I actually fell asleep at least twice during the movie. Sigh...yeah... I might have been sleepy as I was watching the 11:10pm show, but I watched Iron Man even later, at 11:50pm.

I went into Rotten Tomatoes's website this morning just to find out if there were others who shared the same view as I have on the 2 movies and hey.. I am of the same opinion as the majority of the movie goers. Iron Man has all the new moves, whilst Forbidden is all the same old stuff. I had the feeling that they were just selling Jet Li and Jackie Chan and that was where it all stopped. Watching the Forbidden movie was really a yawn from start to end.

Iron Man rated 94% whilst The Forbidden Kingdom rated 62%.

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Please support WWF Malaysia - For Our Future Generations

Do support the WWF Malaysia in whatever way you can. It does not necessary always have to be money, though that would help a lot too. Help by spreading awareness, Help by constantly reminding.

I happened to be TV channel surfing a few evenings ago and managed to catch the interview with Al Gore on the documentary film about global warming "Inconvenient Truth". If that was not a wake up call, I don't know what is.


This is the comment by janos451 from San Francisco with regards to the documentary

"Is Al Gore is doing a Chicken Little act in "An Inconvenient Truth"? I wish he were. This stunning documentary about global warming is a well-reasoned, clearly-proved, intelligent, cogent, irresistible torrent of scientific data, in a curiously warm, engaging, often funny presentation. What an entertaining horror movie this is! Unexpectedly, improbably, Gore is doing a Hitchcock act here, all affable and chummy... before scaring the hell out of the audience. And that he does, with charts, statistics, projections coming from hundreds of peer-reviewed studies, none challenged, while allowing how some 50% of mass-media treatment of global warming *is* subject to questions. There is even a cute animation segment about exaggerated global-warming claims. There is no need to exaggerate. Unchallenged studies are showing an extraordinary rise in ocean temperatures, the disappearance of glaciers, the melting of the poles - and then Gore twists the knife with a series of graphics showing areas to be inundated by rising waters. In a flooded Manhattan of the future, Gore says, the site of the World Trade Center will be under water. "Terrorism," he says, without drama or overemphasis, "is not the only danger we must face." The threatened catastrophe is not in the distant future. The US Geological Survey predicts that by 2030, Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left. In the last 30 years, 400,00 square miles of Arctic sea ice have melted; polar bears today drown when they cannot find an ice floe to rest on. What has Congress done about global warming? Absolutely nothing. Davis Guggenheim's documentary is based mostly on Gore's multimedia presentation on climate change, a lecture he has delivered hundreds of times in recent months. While Gore is managing the show with powerful efficiency, there is nothing dry or tired about it. The film is virtually flawless, even some of the cornier visuals fit in. Gore's personal remarks are affecting: the death of his sister from lung cancer, after lifelong smoking, forced the family - after generations of tobacco-growing in Tennessee - to quit the business. No overt statement is heard, but there is an inevitable comparison with the world's addiction to many activities directly contributing to climate change. Political references are at a minimum. The only strong criticism of the Bush presidency is in the context of the Republican rejection of the Kyoto Treaty, making the US one of two countries in the world to do so (Australia is the other one). Following a huge list of countries paying at least lip service to the cause of climate control under the treaty, Gore shows a similarly large list of US cities where local government is taking measures not supported by Washington. Gore is clear about the danger of being overwhelmed by the danger of what's happening, and he concludes the film by saying that going from denial to despair without pausing to see what can be done is the wrong course of action, or rather inaction. "Political will," Gore says, "is a renewable resource." Gently, but firmly, he calls for attention to a clear and present danger that cannot be ignored... even if faith-based denial of the evidence before us remains largely the order of the day, with all the comfort of darkness behind closed eyes. An alternative is at http://www.climatecrisis.net/."



And before this, I was at Arch Lancer's blog and when I saw his Infra Red Photos, that was kinda of scary. My comment to him was this : "i find some of the photos quite disturbing..it is like what we could see happen to our mother earth if we continue to pollute and not care about the environment. brrr…scary but good to wake us up to this fact that we are responsible to keep our earth safe, clean and beautiful".

So peeps, if you could, please help save this mother earth of ours, if not for ourselves, for our future generations... :)

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Satay Kajang Hj. Samuri

I was with my family in Kajang recently and we wanted to have satay there. We normally frequent the old place near the Shell Petrol Station but one of my brothers suggested this place called Sate Kajang Hj Samuri. According to him, it is quite good. Hrrummph...we found out that he had an ulterior motive too....haha.. trying to sell them some POS system or something like that.


We have not even ordered the food yet and I was totally impressed with the place. It was like a mini-museum as there were many antiques decorating the place. We parked the cars at the back of the restaurant and got in via the side entrance. Hence, I didn't realize that there were so many more items up front until we finished eating and my brother asked me to go to the front to have a look. Wow.. I totally like what the owner did to preserve and showcase these items.



Oh yeah, the satay was great too. The mee Hainam was a tad too spicy for my liking though.

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