If only War is just a game of Football

Yep , just chilling in the room listening to some Euge Groove tunes , a lil bit of Musiq Soulchild , a touch of Tompi and a few sprinkles of Notorious B.I.G on this calm afternoon :) . Been watching ( and recording :P ) a lot of football friendlies these past few days . Suddenly this mind wonders ' hmm if only War is settled through football or any other sport ' . Crazy ? maybe it is .

I watch a lot of BBC , CNN and Bernama in my workplace . And reports about wars occur every single day .. even minutes ! War is overrated nowadays . Greedy folks looking to gain more foothold in the world's economy by taking other country's resources in the name of War Againts Terrorism seems like a normal Modus Operrandi nowadays . War is an expensive campaign . You develop weapons , deploy thousands of soldiers , properties get destroyed etc ... Such a costly campaign for such an unhonourable act on humanity . Getting rid of people from their homes , violating them , taking away their economic resources and comitting genocide seems to be the core ingredients when cooking up this campaign .

And to shift the world's focus from the real bad guys are these 'terrorists' ..or Islamic terrorist :P . Terrorists who are so-called Holy Warriors fighting in the name of religion but not realising the damage done on normal everday living Muslims in this world . Now the world thinks that every Muslim is bad or either has a bomb strapped underneath his shirt .

Sad picture .

Look , these guys are hot headed in nature , piss them off and they'll attack you , simple as that . So the real bad guys , being smart , uses these terrorists to do their job . Pissing them off , they attack , the world cries for justice ... and then these real bad guys would be able to start their campaign and not being seen as evil to the world's eyes . They go and invade in the name of War Against Terrorism when their actual motive is not really on gaining more territorial ground , but more of an economical one . Killing 2 birds with 1 stone ? maybe so .

Now , when you think that it is slowly getting calmer , they start to become greedier . They start looking at other places . What a vicious cycle . The sad thing is , soldiers die for nothing nowadays . Why waste your life on some greedy quest ? When will it all end ?

That's why I have this idiotic idea of settling disputes through a game of football hehe .. instead of saying : " We have developed a new biological weapon , able to wipe out cities in a single blow " ... we can hear something like : " We have found a new young striker who can dribble , score goals and is very fast " . And all is settled on the pitch . Very minimum damages done , less money spent on destruction , more towards sportmanship and unity .

But we all know that will never happen , as long as money is the driving force for success and power . Please do not take my writing too seriously , this is what I do when I have that little bit of free time hehe . .. coming up with crazy ideas .

Looking forward to a good World Cup 2006 , but , there are more important things to look forward to in my books :) ..

X3 : The Last Stand - a review by a comic fan



May 26th 2006 is a sad and shameful day for comic book inspired movies . In Marvel world , there are few titles you should never ever mess with .. and that's Spiderman , Avengers , Hulk and especially the X-Men ! . I believe FOX , Brett Ratner and even Marvel themselves have a committed a crime to us fans of the comic book .

I was pretty psyched up when I heard they were making X3 . As explained in X2 , Bryan Singer perfectly laid out the foundations at the end of the movie for a possible 'Phoenix Saga' for its next installment . I was ecstatic , because this would mean that my favourite character Cyclops is finally going to be given the proper treatment he should've gotten , which were lacking massively in the first two X movies . So I started investigating online to find out more on updates regarding the movie .

So finally its clear and 100% accurate as explained in some websites about the plot of the story . I knew about the plot months before its screening . So it centers around a cure , Magneto's waging a war and Jean's return from the watery depths of Alkali Lake . I went to see this movie with my fellow hardcore comic buddies and let's just say we all felt absolutely betrayed . What I'm about to write next from here on might come as a spoiler to those who haven't seen it ..so I strongly advise you to not continue reading this if you haven't seen the movie .

Remember the crime I was talking about ? ok , they have committed a crime by killing 3 most influential and pivotal characters that us fans grew up with since the 80's in just a matter of minutes !

Prof Charles Xavier
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Phoenix killed him . Now this is like killing Yoda in Star Wars . How could you kill him in such a manner ? Yes , there are versions in the comics where he was deceased but the writers in the comics did a good job explaining why and threaded very carefully around this idea to not upset the fans . But in this movie , he died cheaply . At least he got a proper funeral service compared to the other two .

Scott Summers a.k.a Cyclops
-----------------------------------------
My favourite X-Man . How I pity this first X-Man and LEADER of the X-Men being treated in such a shameful way by the movie writers . As if he never existed in all the X movies you know . He NEVER dies in the comics ! even if there is , it would definitely not be in a 'Phoenix Saga' !! to me , the 'Phoenix Saga' is one of the best chapters ever written in X-Men folklore and it provided us an insight into Cyclops and his struggles . Non-fans might not understand it , I don't blame them . Imagine a Star Wars movie without Luke , a Power Ranger robot with no head , a bus full of people with no driver , a compass with no arrow .. you get what I mean ?

Imagine a toy where you need to assemble them with a glue . But theres no glue , the toys will fall apart , rite ? see that's who Cyclops is . As their leader , he's the glue that sticks everyone together , the driver that steers the vehicle , the arrow of the compass to give it a direction . Sadly , this was not evident at all in the movies . In more lame-man terms , think of him as the strict 'Penolong Kanan' teacher in your school . Although he might not have a lot of fans , but deep down you need him and imagine your school without him .. havoc rite ?

And yes , he dies in the movie .. at the hands of Jean , the woman he loves the most . He was the only one still mourning over her death unlike the rest , but gets killed by her first . WTF ??

Not only that , the writers added more salt to the wound by adding a steamy scene involving Jean and Wolverine !! not only you killed the guy , you let his girlfriend kiss another man after that ?? It didn't stop there . Wolverine is given by the writers one true thing that Cyclops supposed to have that the other X-Men did not have - leadership . Imagine a Romeo & Juliet play , but Romeo gets killed early in the story , only to be replaced by some other character to be with Juliet . Yes , that's how ridiculous this is . And for Wolverine to be the center of focus in a freaking 'Phoenix' storyline instead of Cyclops is just plain wrong .



Tell what's wrong with this scenario - Good Guy loves Girl , Bad Boy also loves Girl , Girl kills Good Guy , chooses Bad Boy , Bad Boy kills Girl ..... ??????

Jean Grey / Phoenix
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Gets skewered like a kebab by - again , Wolverine :P at the end of the movie .

I feel like all the X movies shouldn't be called X-Men , instead 'Wolverine And His Amazing Friends' would've been a more appropriate title . What's the point of making a movie about a team when the main focus is on one individual ? wheres the teamwork that was so evident in the comics and cartoons that people have grown to love ? . This is exactly like Tom Cruise in MI . Everything is about Wolverine . FYI to non-fans : He was not even an original member of the X-men in the first place . Instead the line up was : Cyclops , Jean , Beast , Iceman & Angel . Period, the original 5 . Not even Storm , not even the rest .



I know many neutral moviegoers would find this a very entertaining movie with all the special effects . By now , 'normal' people would have the assumption that Wolverine is the hero while the rest are all just extras .

I feel like the movie was done in a rush . Every clip seems to move at a quicker pace compared to X1 and X2 . A lot of errors and misleading information were portrayed in the movie .

1) Juggernaut is not a mutant . He's Xavier's brother . Magneto knows it . However , in the movie , especially during Magneto's 'rescue' and the visit to Jean's old home ... Xavier and Juggs didn't utter a word to each other .. like they don't know each other . Another one was when Magneto released Juggs from his cell ... again .. they act as if they just met . ???

2) Why is Beast the first X-Man ? it was written everywhere in Marvel pages that Cyclops was the first .

3) Angel was supposed to behave like a flamboyant rich playboy , not a wimpy teenager . Bad casting and character direction .

4) What happened to Phoenix's flames ? Bryan Singer perfectly set up those at the end of X2 .

5) Multiple Man was never a baddie . Why is he a villain in this movie ?

6) Callisto has an eye patch and is very lesbian , gothic looking . Not a sexy latino babe who has Quicksilver's powers .

7) Psylocke never ever joined Magneto . In this movie she does .

8) Wolverine does NOT heal that fast . An injury such a your flesh being taken off would take him days to heal , not in minutes !


I just feel that a lot of attention has been given to Wolverine already in the previous two films . I expected him to take a back seat on this one and let the others shine . How I would treat his character is that he will have his moments with those claws ... but let the emotional roller coaster ride being taken cared of by Cyclops and Storm .

I would love to see Cyclops' reaction if he finds out that Xavier , his mentor and father figure, has been manipulating Jean all these while and whether he would have what it takes to kill the woman of his life , after all the mourning and suffering . Sadly , Angel had very little part to play . I would be jumping for joy if theres a scene involving the original 5 in action . The teamwork . An ode to the classics :) .



Too bad . Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn - writers for this movie , supposedly comic book fans just couldn't even think of that .



This is a pipe dream , but deep down here's hoping that someone would translate X-Men into movies that way it should be . Instead of making a movie for the sake of marketing purposes and profit , maybe what viewers want is not just a movie with special effects galore , but a movie with good storytelling .

Fly High or Fly Low .... A Rocket or Hovercraft ?

I think it is a general assumption that when you're happy , you lift your spirits up .. yes ? However , sometimes when we let ourselves get too happy .. we tend to fly too high like a jet to the skies . When something bad happens , we'll get a long fall down back to earth .. we become a total wreck . It's hard to piece everything back together from such a disastrous fall . But if we control ourselves well enough , we can dictate how high we fly and the best bet is to fly low . Like a hovercraft , barely flying .. just floating . In that way if anything happens , it'll just be a small fall .. lesser damage and with a higher possibility of flying back again .. yes ?

I think the same goes with our lives . I think we should'nt get too carried away with happiness or good things because there will be days of sorrow to balance it out . Like a close friend once said to me , " Once you're up , the only way to go next is down " . Now I dunno to what extent the truth of that statement is , but I guess it's a good way to keep yourself grounded and be extra careful . Think of it like a mental preparation of what's coming next . Sure , we should learn from the past , focus on the present and plan for the future , .. but sometimes I think we should screw all those wise words and enjoy the reward that we deserved based on our own efforts . Perseverance , hardwork and guts .

I worry when things are too comfortable ... too serene . I worry because things have not been like that for so long and suddenly everything is so nice .. too nice . Once in a while , I ask God " Ok... all these are wonderful .. thanx .. so what's the catch ? " hehe . Yep , I dunno , maybe coz I'm used to have things not go my way and suddenly everything falls into place . Like a bat released in daylight . My eyes needs some readjustments . Nevertheless , I'm grateful and it makes me wanna work hard to maintain this new gift from God . God , you surprised me again :)

But I will not let my guard down , I will be alert . That's just my nature .

Maybe you need to fly high sometimes and maybe you need to fly low once in a while too .. adapt , coz you'll never know what's ahead . A good pilot will always know when and how to fly . Just like us - how we control ourselves when we experience happiness :)

Peace .

Review : Tompi's Friday Night Performance @ Alexis , Ampang 13/05/2006

Since I'm on a 2-day MC , I thought of writing . Yes , I went to watch Tompi's debut performance here in KL . I found out about it a couple of days in advance , so I made the necessary calls .



2015 hrs
Got there bout 15minutes before the reservation time . They gave us front row seats . I think we were one of the earliest , considering his performance starts at 2215hrs . Well we would 've preferred to reach slightly later , but reservations are reservations you know . And it was a supposed to be dinner , not supper :P

2130hrs
While enjoying the main course , the place began to be filling up fast ... as fast as how I was chewing the lamb cutlets in my mouth . We could see Tompi and his band doing the sound checks with that classic looking , one-directional mic of his . Lewis Pragasam , yes the legendary drummer in Malaysia (and probably Asia?) was on drums , this white dude by the name of Chris was on guitar (someone apparently was in love with him ..ciss ) , a mysterious old malay guy on bass and a young lady on keyboards ( I forgot both of their names ) .



2230hrs
Showtime . Started out by singing tracks from his Bali Lounge album like 'Apa' etc ... This guy is just simply awesome . He scats really well , has a chameleon-like voice and the music was just off the hook ! He even sang one of my favourites , a Stevie Wonder track called 'Isn't She Lovely' .. yep .. gave me goosebumps . Maybe I'm just into live jazz/R&B .. I felt so alive .. not to mention I had an excellent company to experience it :) ..

2315hrs
End of session one .

2335hrs

Session two starts . He got the crowd goin with M People's 'Ain't No Sunshine' , then his signature track from Bali Lounge called 'Something's Wrong' . Later on he would introduce the band and belted out a smooth rendition of 'Selalu Denganmu' .. cair man .. 'cayak habeh' :P .. Plus the crowd was a cool bunch and such a sport , participating in his impromtu jazz freestyle sessions .. part of me was itching to join ... but volunteering wouldn't look good hehe ...



0130hrs
2 hours of mesmerising Jazz and R&B was exactly the perfect way for me personally to relax . What a nite .

After that , I went up to him to get the CDs he's selling .. took photos and got him to sign on my CDs . He was a humble chap . Told me that he's coming back again next week . Told him that I'm definitely bringing my friends along again . He nodded humbly , smiled and said "Please do that .." .



The scenery ? plenty of nice views for the guys hehe but too bad not for the ladies ..unless a bunch of gay guys or a Shawn Yue lookalike is your cup of tea . The gay guys sat right next to our table by the way ..and NO nothing happened to me :P . All in all , it was a night to remember and one that I look forward to in the future ... with lesser gay guys and more ladies I hope hehe ...

Peace .

Thank You 1433 for making it all happen :)

Tag me baby one more time !

I have been tagged in a very sophisticated way , ala Da Vinci Code style . I wished I wasn't that sharp to have noticed it ...hmm. Anyways , here it is :

1) My mother once : had no idea how to sms ...

2) Never in my life : have I ever hit a member of the opposite sex or being beaten by my dad ..

3) When I was five : I played Tigger the Tiger in a school play .. my first step to stardom :P

4) High school was : an excellent learning experience both in life and studies

5) I will never forget : the night of 18th April 2006 ;) ..

6) I once met : someone who made a big impact on me positively ..

7) There's this person I know who : has a car filled with soft toys .. like a mobile kindegarten ..

8) Once, at a bar : err.. bar ? me ? salah orang kot ...

9) By noon I'm usually : up and reading the newspapers ..

10) Last night I : had great company :)

11) If I only had : ripped abs and the ability to swim .. sigh .. hehe;

12) Next time I go to salon : I'm gonna get a trim ?

13) Brad Pitt : is a guy that girls seem to go crazy about .. which I don't get it :P

14) I like : good people , good things , good food , good music , good movies ..a lot of things

15) When I turn my head left, I see : the other side of my room

16) When I turn my head right, I see : my books , comics , dvds ..

17) You know I'm lying when : hmm .. like Shay always said ' A magician never reveals his secrets ' ..haha

18) In grade school : I get free McDonalds every week .. and Sustagen drinks ..

19) If I was a character written by Shakespeare : I wouldn't know , not familiar with it ...

20) By this time next year I : might be driving a car of my own , yup , all in the plan :)

21) A better name for me would be : Mine's cool already , it means ' angel of death ' in a few biblical religious books .. how cool is that ? hehe

22) I have a hard time understanding : superficial people , U2 and Bjork's music , heavy metal..

23) If I ever go back to school I'll : make sure the school provide better toilets ..

24) You know I like you if : I talk to you . Simple as that .

25) If I won an award, the first person I'd thank would be : God

26) I hope that : I can improve myself further and change the general perception of us malays :)

27) Take my advice : Life is about making decisions , live with your decision , respect everyone ..

28) My ideal breakfast is : Scrambled egss , beef bacon , hash browns and apple juice

29) A song I love, but do not have is : this song by an old-skool Indonesian singer , Harvey Malaiholo .. I think its called 'Pasti' or something , always on 105.7 ..been looking all over for it ..

30) If you visit my hometown, I suggest : you don't waste your time ..

31) Tulips, character flaws, microchips & track stars : ???

32) Why won't anyone : realise that money is not everything we should pursue

33) If you spend the night at my house : don't mess it up , clean up before you go ..

34) I'd stop my wedding : hmm.. we'll see one day when we cross that bridge ..

35) The world could do without : racism , egos , materialism , jealousy and fear

36) I'd rather lick the belly of a roach than : lick the belly of a rat :P

37) My favourite is : relaxing ..

38) Paper clips are more useful than : a bunch of soft toys :P

40) And by the way : I'm contented with my life at the moment :)

41) The last time I was drunk : how bout never ? peer pressure hasn't got into me

42) My grandmother always : likes to make sure I eat and pray ..

43) I'm tagging : Arman & Ati ( payback time ) ..

Secret Societies - Protection or More Danger ?

Apologies for the lack of blogging as of late . I've been attending other more important matters lately and therefore didn't really had the chance to update . Plus , surprisingly , there are not many things that bother me to the extent of writing about it .

Recently , I managed to catch a chinese , triad flick called 'Election 2' . Basically its about who gets to take over the secret society with the title of 'Chairman' . I've always been fascinated with the underworld and how their system works , still searching for a good book that can further educate me with . After watching the movie , I can't help but feel pity to those who are involved in these secret societies . You don't get to live long . Life is always on the edge . The higher you move your ranks up , you get a lot more people to get pissed and want you waking up with the dead fishes .



I really feel for the main character in the film , played by Louis Koo . He's a gangster who wants to go straight , yet is unable to do so because once you get involved with the nitty-gritty traditions within the triad , you can't get out . The ending of the movie was an eye opener , it makes you think and say "Wait a minute , who's the bad guy now ?" . You'll end up questioning who was right and who's wrong at the end of the day . I must say that it is a violent and cruel world in these secret societies . There are betrayals coming from left to right , greed for money , murders , revenge and etcc in these so-called 'brotherhood' .

Kinda made me wonder why I see youngsters and some old friends I know , who join these kinda societies . They will promise you a lot of things , especially wealth , but not peace . Yes , they will give you protection , but you have devote yourself to do their bidding like a trained animal . Once you join up , consider your life won't be the same anymore . There goes your life , you're throwing it away man . I'm just dissapointed that some teens do not get the BIGGER picture concerning their lives . Why would you need protection if you behave nicely and not looking for trouble in the first place ?

When I look at the structure of these so-called brotherhood , seems like its either you're a foot soldier , a small boss or a territorial boss . And the danger keeps adding up together with your notoriety when you move up . So either by being a foot soldier or a boss , you'll still live a life where one day you will either get beaten up or killed . When you join a gang , you have to live and eat Fear .

'Strength in numbers' is the name of the game . You will not see a gang member going one on one with that other person like a man . You will not see a gang member talk so much shit without his gang around him . When provoked to confront like a man , many would hide and summon their gang of 20 ++ guys to beat up 1 single guy . Cowardice ? fear ? or 'unity in brotherhood' ? Is there fairness ? 20 against 1 ? incredible odds .

I know this one's a bit of a departure from my previous themes , I dunno , I just felt like writing about it . The way I see it . I can totally understand why people join these things : Protection . You do need that extra bit of help when confronted with 20+ thugs or something right ? I mean of course there's the police , but sometimes you just need that little extra backup .

Oh well , those are just my two cents . Join at your peril , 'brother' ....