the Da Vinci Code

All in all, I found this to be a lacklustre film.
The locations and scenery was great and all... it all being Paris, churches and grand architecture.
But, the movie lacked the pacing of the book.
There was no thrill or any sense of suspense as Langdon and Sophie ran all over the UK trying to crack the code.

It was a sad, sad day for me...

I found that the casting was very weak, with many of the big ticket stars turning in poor performances.
The title character of Langdon was given to Tom Hanks.
Don't get me wrong, Hanks is a fine actor.
I enjoyed his previous works like Forest Gump, Catch Me If You Can,The Terminal nd Castaway.
His portfolio of works is really impressive and I have great respect for the man.
But, his portrayal of Langdon was sadly lacking...
This was largely attributed to the time alotted to Hanks and the rather weak character developement in the script.
Perhaps if the movie was longer or was edited a little better...

In a brief discussion with Flick, she said that Audrey Tatou's Sophie Neveau was a too sweetly sick for her.
It seems that Tatou's Sophie was too much 'lil' Miss Perfectand Pretty' for her.
I will have to agree with Flick that Tatou really looked cute in this movie.
But, I found that Tatou was a good fit in her role... very technical actor, makes for a believable character.

The part of Leigh Teabing was a superb performance turned in by the great Ian McKellen.
I have found this man to have played a very annoying Magneto in the recent X-Men franchise.
I am a great fan of the X-Men comic runs and Erik Magnus Lensherr was never as one-dimensional as the character in the movie adaptation.
He was the sole reason I found the movie entertaining.
He captured the boyish enthusiam of Teabing really well, tempered by the character's inherent weakness of being lame (polio).
On a sidenote, McKellan was also the great Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy...

For me, Silas as portrayed by Paul Bettany was the strongest character in the film.
Bettany very graphically portrayed Silas as a faithful servant of Opus Dei.
This role of his was clearly a shock with his previous roles in movies like Firewall, Wimbledon and the tongue~in~cheek A Knight's Tale.

Mediocre at best...

new beginnings...

first day

at a new job

was so nervous little had I slept the previous night

I can redefine myself...
I am a Business Support Consultant at a local ISP

work hard, work smarter...

life has been better to me this year.
I am eating better, acheiving some of my goals... becoming a better man.



Oh! To walk tall on broken pavements towards a silver road...

ENDLESS STORY

by REIRA starring Yuna Ito













ROMANJI

If you haven’t changed your mind
Soba ni ite hoshii yo Tonight

Tsuyogaru koto ni tsukareta no
Osana sugita no Everytime I think about you baby
Ima nara ieru I miss you
It’s so hard to say I’m sorry

Tatoeba dare ka no tame ja naku anata no tame ni
Utaitai kono uta wo
Owara nai story tsuduku kono kagayaki ni
Always tsutaetai zutto eien ni

Memories of our time together
Kesa nai de kono mama don’t go away

Atatakaku toke dashite tashikameru no
Yasashisa no shizuku kono mune ni hirogatteku
Setsu nai hodo ni I’m missing you
Kasaneta te hanasa naide

Tatoeba kanau nara mou ichido anata no tame ni
Utai tai kono uta wo
Owara nai story taemanai itoshisa de
tell me why oshiete yo zutto eien ni

Tatoeba dare ka no tame ja naku anata no tame ni
Utaitai kono uta wo
Owara nai story tsuduku kono kagayaki ni
Always tsutaetai zutto eien ni

Tatoeba kanau nara mou ichido anata no tame ni
Utai tai kono uta wo
Owara nai story taemanai itoshisa de
tell me why oshiete yo zutto eien ni



ENGLISH

If you haven’t changed your mind
Then I want you by my side Tonight

I’m so tired of always having to bluff
Everytime I think about you baby, I feel so young
If I could just tell you I miss you
It’s so hard to say I’m sorry

You see, I want to sing this song, not for just anyone
but just for you
An ENDLESS STORY that keeps on shining
Always, I wanna show you, forever and ever

Memories of our time together
this way, they don’t go away

Once I knew that the warmth between us had disappeared,
gentle tears started to spread over my chest
This is not where it ends, I’m missing you
please don’t let go of my hand

You see, I wish I could sing this song, just for you
just one more time
An ENDLESS STORY of undying love
tell me why, please tell me, forever and ever

You see, I want to sing this song, not for just anyone
but just for you
An ENDLESS STORY that keeps on shining
Always, I wanna show you, forever and ever

You see, I wish I could sing this song, just for you
just one more time
An ENDLESS STORY of undying love
tell me why, please tell me, forever and ever

here is something inspiring from Steve Jobs, entrepreneur

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

This is the location where you can get the original copy of 'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says





'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says


I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

those who lack in size, have to make up otherwise.... !

by mvc



I just thought it was hilarious...

MI:3

your mission, should you choose to accept...









The premise of the show is a rather unbelieveable one. The movie begins by setting us up neatly into a little world, where Ethan Hunt is now a ex-agent trying to live a normal life. That scenario is a really hard sell but, is redeemed by the many action scenes. The pacing is fast and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Not to go into too much detail... but let's just say there is an extremely breathtaking sequence involving a fulcrum, an amusing one that involves Hunt disguising himself as someone and a fantastic helicopter chase which is utterly awe-inspiring.

The movie barely allowed me to pause for breath...

Kudos to a Seymour Hoffman for his excellent maliciousness as the elusive and extremely dangerous Davian. The man was shining in his lizard-eyed role and brought this genuine terror to the villain. The character of Davian was one of unassumed violence. He may look placid but, the man is insane.

His scenes aside Tom Cruise's Hunt are superb, as they practically tremble in tension and quiet hatred on both character's parts.

All in all... it was a great movie.

I don't understand why the reviews took a nasty chunk out of it.
Action movies should be appreciated in the context for which they are made.

... heh! enjoy them booms and bangs

last day at SUBWAY...

Last night, on the Sunday... I gave my swan song for an old friend.

It was my last day at SUBWAY.
The last time I will make sub sandwiches there.
I did serve the last customer as best as I could.
He was a regular named George who worked at the accountants across the road.
He wished me all the best in my future endeavours.
A lil' sad I couldn't see Paulie the cabbie to tell him I was leaving.

I remember hating how disorganized and chaotic the way the place was run.
I got shafted more times than I can remember...
Got moved around two of the owner's shops.
I owe Lydia and Chandra so much for the lessons and the experiences.
And, these experiences really build character.
I had learned a lot from my time there...
To show up early and work hard, but work smarter!
I managed people... even finally made it as a senior guy who was trusted to lead shifts and close-up shop.

I mopped the floors as best as I could.
Even filled up the drinks fridge earlier.
Made damn sure the day's tally was accurate.
I locked up the shop tight.
I never expected that I was going to miss the place...

Haha... even Chandra said thanks and good luck for the future.

As Flick puts it... no more sandwich artiste
It's a blessed existance that I lead.



How am I feeling?
I'm feeling... well, it's mixed feelings.

I really expected I'd be a lil' bitter about the whole thing...
Just feel relieved that I don't have to carry the responsibility of cleaning up the previous shift's mess.
But, at the same time, I'm worried whether someone will look after the store after I'm gone.

Hey, Kelly, if you are reading this...
Screw it if they don't want you anymore.
You deserve better than to constantly pick up their shit.
Hope Raj, Ramiya, Swati and Sarjana at your shop do well...
Yea...

Last days are always kinda sad
It's just that the leaving, parting and saying bye to friends that get to me.
Mani, Emma, JD+coke, Rebecca, Saifs, Imran... even the lazy f*kwit Nik.
Life will probably not be the same.

But one has to let go of the GOOD to obtain the BEST...





Want to know what my best memory of SUBWAY is?

Who are the STARS?

"Really... come now, you do not listen to great bands who write creative lyrics layered over melodic guitars?" I asked. This was the end of a discussion I had with a new friend I had made. We were talking about music that she listened to, 'cause she did mention she watched the O.C.

That is the one thing I love about the show... It's not that the show have a great plotline, 'cause ths stories are half-baked in my opinion. The cast go about fumbling storylines past used in older angsty teenage growing up series like Beverly Hills 90210 and Dawson's Creek. And that Micha Barton is not exactly pretty... I don't really swing towards waifs. So it can't be the eye candy. Heck! I never really watch the show but I know about the existance of its brilliant soundtracks.

The O.C. is a hotbed of eclectic bands that make music that (unfortunately) falls through the U.S. pop charts.

Yeap! The O.C. has GREAT MUSIC !!!



My relationship the band, Stars, began after I heard an older single of theirs Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead on the 5th O.C. soundtrack. Since then this Canadian band have released their third and probably greatest album, Set Yourself On Fire. The name is cool... and fits the mood of the songs contained within. Their lyrics really captures the bleak and the sadness of tortured love. Their dual lead Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan have haunting voices that drives in further the break-your-heart feel.



This is what NPR.org has to say about them...


'Set Yourself On Fire' with Montreal's Stars


The Montreal-based indie-rockers in the band Stars have just released their third album, Set Yourself On Fire. The album blends horns and striking keyboard effects to produce songs that are imaginative and melodic.


After first collaborating in New York City, the Stars quartet moved to Montreal -- a pattern followed by another successful act, the Arcade Fire. Stars became part of the eclectic hotbed of music that has spawned groups like the Unicorns and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.


Along with Torquil Campbell as a co-lead singer and Chris Seligman playing keyboards, Stars also shares some members with the Broken Social Scene, the Toronto collective that became an indie-rock phenomenon. Multi-instrumentalist Evan Cranley plays with the Broken Social Scene regularly, while Stars singer Amy Millan chips in. The two bands are even on the same label, Arts and Crafts.


The latest Stars release comes after 2003's Heart, an album that sold well in Canada, won critical acclaim -- but failed to take off in the United States. With Set Yourself On Fire coming after U.S. music fans have grown used to looking north for great bands, there's a good chance Stars will finally shine.

One More Night

by the Stars


try as he might he's unable to speak
he grabs her by the hair, he strokes her on the cheek
the bed is unmade like everything is
dark little heaven at the top of the stairs
take me like that, ruin it all
then build it again by the light in the hall
he drops to his knees says please my love, please
i'll kill who you hate, take off that dress, you won't freeze

one more night, that was a good one
one more night, I dreamed it was a good one
one more, one more night, that was a good one
one more night, the end should be a good one
a good one

he starts with her back cause that's what he sees
when she's breaking his heart she still fucks like a tease
release to the sky, look him straight in the eye
and tell him that now, that you wish he would die
you'll never touch him again so get what you can
leaving him empty just because he's a man
so good when it ends, they'll never be friends
one more night, that's all they can spend

one more night, that was a good one
one more night, I dreamed it was a good one
one more, one more night, that was a good one
one more night, the end should be a good one
a good one

ever had a relationship...

that was a drawn out one-night-stand?

This song is really so... how should I describe it?


OH MY GOD!
And, my heart literally shatters again.


Perhaps, some memories are worth burying and never remembering. I remember the feeling of being pulled towards opposing ends of the continents, my head says east but my body moves west. I knew that she was wrong for me, always running about... never still. She was at the clubs every night and sleeps, smokes and burns grass in the daylight.


We really lived like vampires, enjoying the cool nights and sleeping in the daytime.


I can remember the vivid scenes of driving about... with her at my side. We always used the valets 'cause it was daddy's BMW. Her little dresses and those short skirts nearly never hid much. It was ever just the smell of cigarettes and her perfume.

I remember wearing her brother's jacket cause it matched my shirt. The guy had A|X all over his closet. But that jacket was never as warm as her breath on my neck. How she would smile back at me when I gave in to her. There was always sunlight coming in through her blinds, but she never really cared. Ever the tease as she glides manicured nails down my back.

She had pulled on my chain and that it had broke on the street. The beads fell all over the road. The look she gave me when she was annoyed at me. How she ate so little and drank too much.

I always said, that life was never enough...

try as he might he's unable to speak
he grabs her by the hair, he strokes her on the cheek
the bed is unmade like everything is
dark little heaven at the top of the stairs

You never really think about anything else...

The moments were really like drugs. I've never tasted anything so potent, yet it was so wrong. You never really care about the sunlight or about the night. You are too intoxicated with the drinking and the dancing. It was all about the partying and the stumbling home... into her bed.

And you simply forget that you have your family, your job, your purpose in life...

I still remember stroking her cheek...

take me like that, ruin it all
then build it again by the light in the hall

I remember teasing her, stroking her hair.
She had held me close and whispered into my ear.
Carnal desire... I probably was never in love with her.
I never really fell asleep after...
It was just a prelude... the another beginning, and to start again

I just wanted to be with her. It was an unnatural desire that was never based on the logical. It was just to stay in her shadow and cling to her body.

I remember kisses the shade of burgundy...

he drops to his knees says please my love, please
I'll kill who you hate, take off that dress, you won't freeze

Would I have killed for her?
Just to spend one more night in her arms...

I don't think I'll ever know, don't want to know...

one more night, that was a good one
one more night, I dreamed it was a good one
one more, one more night, that was a good one
one more night, the end should be a good one
a good one

one more kiss...
one last embrace...
just give to me, one final taste...
And, I will be going... that I will be gone

But...
Please draw down my back, whisper in my ear...

I remembered wanting just one more night...

he starts with her back cause that's what he sees
when she's breaking his heart she still fucks like a tease
release to the sky, look him straight in the eye
and tell him that now, that you wish he would die

The end is now just a really hazy recollection.
I had a marlboro lights in my right hand
I was holding her across her waist.
We were trying to talk over the music.
She said something, and I had replied... and she had walked off.

I still remember how I wanted one more night.
I chased after her and caught her dress.
We ended up in back of the club.
And, I woke up in her room.

She sat up and told me she was bored of her life.
The doing nothing and getting everywhere...
The just going out and yet have gone nowhere...

She said that she was bored of me...
She said that she wanted someone who could give her some meaning to her life..
She said that that she wished I would just die...

I was unable to speak, I just sat in her sheets.

Yea... even when she broke my heart, she still fucks like a tease.

you'll never touch him again so get what you can
leaving him empty just because he's a man
so good when it ends, they'll never be friends
one more night, that's all they can spend

This is so true...
so good when it ends, they'll never be friends
This is so true...
one more night, that's all they can spend

This is so true.
I never kept the phone number.
I've gone as far that I have forgotten her face.
Deleted the messages and burnt her contacts.

But, on occasions, I still smoke the marlboro lights...

one more night, that was a good one
one more night, I dreamed it was a good one
one more, one more night, that was a good one
one more night, the end should be a good one
a good one

Move on...
One should ever move on...

Never again... this one more night.

All But Gone

by Sarah Mcleod
former front of the Superjesus

So, don't wait for me 'til the journey is all but gone
And we'll sing songs about each other 'til the journey is all but gone
For this dream to bleed, it's gotta know where it went wrong
And we'll sing songs about each other 'til the journey is all but gone

And now... the journey is all but gone...

~guitar riffs~

So, before we go our separate ways, I'll thank you
It's been such a lovely way to have you...