Movie 2007.06.30 - Girls on Top 2

Movie 2007.06.27 - The Suit

Movie is about three adolescent bums and a Gucci suit and how it changed their lives. Interesting premise, but very badly fleshed out. The actions of the youngsters are brash, brazen, cocky, and juvenile for no reason at all. Maybe that's how typical youngsters behave in Russia. To buy that suit, they resorted to washing cars, stealing beer to sell, raiding an arcade place, etc. When these didn't work, they simply walked into the store and snatched it from the customer who was about to buy it. The three take turns wearing the suit, and every time they put it own, they sort of take on a different personal, allowing them to live out their fantasy or help them deal with certain hardships they're experiencing.

Aleksandr Yatsenko plays Peaky, whose Mom is delusional and whose Dad abandoned them. He managed to find his Dad, only to find him leaving on a ship the very next morning. Artur Povolotsky plays Geka, whose Dad runs a photo studio. His Dad recently married a young, sexy, flirty woman (Asya), bringing tensions into the household. Later, Geka was accused of knifing and raping Asya, and was thrown into jail. Apparently, his Dad did it. Asya offered herself to the investigating police office in order to secure Geka's release, then she skipped town. The most tragic of them all is Dumbo, played by Ivan Kokorin. He falls in love with the lady at the fish store, so he applies as a storehand to get close to her. To thwart off an insistent rich suitor, the lady makes Dumbo her boyfriend, and Dumbo happily plays along. Angered, the guy shoved a knife into Dumbo when they were alone and pushed him into the sea.

In the final scene of the movie, Peaky and Geka pack their bags and leave town, leaving the Gucci suit with the village fool.

Hacked!

Just yesterday, my laptop got infected with some malware and trojans. Serves me right. That's what you get for downloading cracked S60v3 applications for your E65. Who would've thought that a self-extracting archive will also come with a batch file that auto-runs, executing all the trojans inside? The trojans are pretty sneaky, too. My PC started slowing down and disk activity started picking up. First thing I thought of is to disconnect from the Internet. Not easy when you're using Wi-Fi. I pressed the key combination to disable Wi-Fi. Nothing happens. Sneaky malware - I'm sure it's their doing. I had to manually walk over to the cable modem to turn it off. Hopefully, the spyware agent didn't have enough time to extract my passwords and bank details and send them off to its master.

Now, this is the first time I personally encountered trojans in my many years on the Internet. A quick look at the Task Manager showed some unfamiliar processes. Not surprising. Spybot - Search & Destroy came up with a few minor culprits, but not the ones I'm sure slowing are down my system. Symantec's real-time scanner popped up a few warnings, but wasn't able to do anything. At the risk of the trojan sending off more data, I re-connected to the Internet to get Kaspersky to scan my system. After downloading an ActiveX control, plus a 7MB signature database, the scan found 5 infected executables. (Kaspersky scans, but does not remove.) I immediately deleted them all after killing them via Task Manager. Of course, I cleaned up their entries in the registry, too. HijackThis identified a few rouge DLLs that are registered as BHOs (browser helper objects) and associated with critical services like explorer.exe and winlogon.exe. You can't simply delete those DLLs because they're in use. Deleting their registry entries and deleting them with FileASSASSIN and HijackThis' "delete on reboot" function didn't work. They just kept on coming back. Killing explorer and winlogon in order to delete the DLLs also didn't work because Windows would've frozen up by then. I also tried booting from a Linux live CD, hoping to delete the rouge DLLs while they're dormant. No such luck. Pointsec encryption is so good, my Linux can't find any NTFS partitions.

So finally, this is how I licked the problem. I figured that since the bad registry entries keep being re-generated after every reboot, then they must be being injected during logoff. Using FileASSASSIN, I flagged the bad DLLs for deletion upon next reboot. Then, I took out the battery pack of the laptop for an instant shutdown. No more proper logoff. Next time I booted up, the DLLs are gone. Problem solved.

Book 2007.06.25 - The Opal Incident

Hacked!

Just yesterday, my laptop got infected with some malware and trojans. Serves me right. That's what you get for downloading cracked S60v3 applications for your E65. Who would've thought that a self-extracting archive will also come with a batch file that auto-runs, executing all the trojans inside? The trojans are pretty sneaky, too. My PC started slowing down and disk activity started picking up. First thing I thought of is to disconnect from the Internet. Not easy when you're using Wi-Fi. I pressed the key combination to disable Wi-Fi. Nothing happens. Sneaky malware - I'm sure it's their doing. I had to manually walk over to the cable modem to turn it off. Hopefully, the spyware agent didn't have enough time to extract my passwords and bank details and send them off to its master.

Now, this is the first time I personally encountered trojans in my many years on the Internet. A quick look at the Task Manager showed some unfamiliar processes. Not surprising. Spybot - Search & Destroy came up with a few minor culprits, but not the ones I'm sure slowing are down my system. Symantec's real-time scanner popped up a few warnings, but wasn't able to do anything. At the risk of the trojan sending off more data, I re-connected to the Internet to get Kaspersky to scan my system. After downloading an ActiveX control, plus a 7MB signature database, the scan found 5 infected executables. (Kaspersky scans, but does not remove.) I immediately deleted them all after killing them via Task Manager. Of course, I cleaned up their entries in the registry, too. HijackThis identified a few rouge DLLs that are registered as BHOs (browser helper objects) and associated with critical services like explorer.exe and winlogon.exe. You can't simply delete those DLLs because they're in use. Deleting their registry entries and deleting them with FileASSASSIN and HijackThis' "delete on reboot" function didn't work. They just kept on coming back. Killing explorer and winlogon in order to delete the DLLs also didn't work because Windows would've frozen up by then. I also tried booting from a Linux live CD, hoping to delete the rouge DLLs while they're dormant. No such luck. Pointsec encryption is so good, my Linux can't find any NTFS partitions.

So finally, this is how I licked the problem. I figured that since the bad registry entries keep being re-generated after every reboot, then they must be being injected during logoff. Using FileASSASSIN, I flagged the bad DLLs for deletion upon next reboot. Then, I took out the battery pack of the laptop for an instant shutdown. No more proper logoff. Next time I booted up, the DLLs are gone. Problem solved.

PLAY! at the Opera House

It's a good thing that after weeks of raining, it didn't tonight. Would be bad if I had to walk from Circular Quay all the way to the Opera House in the rain. Got to the concert hall with minutes to spare.First thing I noticed is the presence of three huge screens onstage. One in the middle, just below the organ, and a smaller one on each side. The concert hall is almost at full capacity. Interestingly, the concert website is still offering an online special offer of $44 for all tickets for today and tomorrow.

Grammy Award-winning conductor Arnie Roth walks on stage and the concert opens with a light fanfare composed by Nobuo Uematsu specially for the PLAY! concert. A few opening remarks from the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Chicagoland Pops, then the orchestra played the familiar and much-beloved Mario Brothers theme. A bit slower than LSO's version, but still very nice nonetheless. While the orchestra plays, visuals from different versions of Mario Bros. are projected on the big screens. See below for the programme (as I remembered it):

• Mario Brothers - Gave me goosebumps when the orchestra played the opening bars.
• Shenmue - Got the Xbox version. Played it a couple of times. Thought it (the game) was a bit dragging.
• Lost Oddyssey - New game from Nobue?
• Sonic the Hedgehog - Knew the character, never played the games. Great visuals, very very nice soundtrack.
• Metal Gear Solid
• Blue Dragon
• Kingdom Hearts - Arranged by Mr. Roth himself. The Cantillation choir provided the vocal backing.
• Final Fantasy VI (Dancing Mad) - Another big number with the full orchestra, choir, and the pipe organ all playing at the same time.
• INTERMISSION
• Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
• Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross
• World of Warcraft
• Silent Hill 2 (Theme of Laura) - Composer Akira Yamaoka flew in specially to play this piece on his electric guitar. Electrifying performance.
• Halo - Another familiar score as I've been playing this for months on the Xbox. Still stuck at the last stage where my warthog is supposed to jump over a chasm.
• Castlevania - And the pipe organ's back.
• Zelda - Another classic.
• Final Fantasy VII (One-Winged Angel) - As the encore piece. Seems to be very popular with the gamers in the audience. New to me.

Book 2007.06.19 - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Finally managed to finish Robert Pirsig's philosophical book after months and months of on-and-off reading. I read each and every word, although I understood only about a quarter of the book. You have the narrator doing a road trip across the US with his son and two friends. During their stops, he would ponder about technology and wonder why some people are averse to it. His main philosophy is that people's outlook in life is either romantic or classical. And this is where most tensions arise. He believes that one can aim for a middle ground to get the best of both worlds - like understanding how a motorcycle functions as a complete entity and still knowing all the nitty-gritty details down to the nuts and bolts of the machine.

The author also talks a lot about the concept of quality - what it is, what it means, how we can identify quality, how we can achieve quality, etc. I have to admit these are a bit over my head already, especially the parts where he has flashbacks and becomes Phædrus.

We're Going to PLAY! W00T!

PLAY! A Video Game Symphony comes to Australia. Saw the announcement from one of the mailing lists I subscribe to. Went to the Opera House's website, and there it was. June 19-23 at the Concert Hall. I quote: "Performed by the Sydney Symphony, conducted by Arnie Roth and backed by choral sensation Cantillation, PLAY! brings to life the award-winning music of the biggest and best games around – while massive screens, suspended over the orchestra, capture stunning gameplay sequences."

Better still, the organizers are having a special weekend web offer. Instead of the regular ticket prices of $49, $59, or $69, you pay only $44 if you book your tickets during the weekend. I really wanted to buy the tickets, but the procrastinator in me forgot all about it till Monday morning. As I feared, the special offer is gone. Not one to give up easily, I searched around the Internet until I hit paydirt.

Acting on a tip I picked up from the Atomic forums, I found out that there's a special last-minute offer for the concert. 500 tickets at $45 each - good only from Tuesday till Thursday. Simply quote 'GAMER' and you're on. (Booking fee of $7.50 applies.) Called up the box office immediately, and got my tickets.

Movie 2007.06.17 - Pan's Labyrinth (a.k.a. El laberinto del fauno)

Set in post-civil war Spain, the movie is a grown-up parable on the terrible effects of war. To cope with the harsh reality, Ofelia creates an imaginary world of fairies and fauns, where she is the long-lost Princess Moanna out to revive her magical kingdom. While battling giant toads and cannibalistic monsters, she has to deal with her cold-blooded stepfather Captain Vidal, her frail mother Carmen who is due to give birth, and revolutionaries who have infiltrated the household. In the end, the captain shoots her point-blank in the nearby labyrinth for stealing his first-born son. By the time he came out of the labyrinth, the guerrillas have overrun the mill and taken over his camp and was waiting for him. As Ofelia lays dying, she arrives at the majestic court of the underworld, and her royal parents tell her that by sacrificing herself instead of an innocent (her brother), she has passed the final test. Happy or sad ending, you decide.

Trivia: Did you know that the stick insects used in the filming are credited as Cheech and Chong?

Movie 2007.05.14 - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Another inane movie in The Fast and the Furious franchise. The main character is this clueless do-gooder named Sean who has a penchant for racing cars (even though he's no good at it). Because of his do-gooding, Sean always ends up in hot water, and he and his mom have to keep on moving town so he won't end up in jail. Left with no options, his Mom bundles him off to Tokyo in the care of his Army Dad. The very next day, he races with wannabe-Yakuza DK (Drift King for all you gai-jins out there), and manages to totally trash Han's (his business partner) Nissan Silvia.

Being the horny schoolkid that he is, Sean starts flirting with DK's too-hot-to-be-in-school girlfriend Neela, and vice versa. DK gets wind of this, and gives Sean a good beating. Anyway, DK's Yakuza uncle comes around and inspects the books. He tells DK that there's a discrepancy in their funds. DK is no good at math, so he figures it is Han who's been short-changing him. An adrenalin-pumping street chase ensues, and Han dies in a fireball when his car crashed.

Seeing that his end is near, Sean goes to the Yakuza boss with a bag of money that Han left for him, and tells him that there's only one way to settle the matter once and for all. You guessed it - a downslope drifting race down a treacherous mountain pass. Loser leaves town. Yeah, big deal. DK's Nissan 350Z vs. Sean's Dodge Charger with a Nissan Skyline GTR RB26DETT engine. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who wins this race. Funniest part of the movie? All these kids at the sidelines videoing the race and monitoring the progress on their tiny mobiles. Don't tell me those phones can capture and multicast simultaneously. Cheesiest scene? The cameo by Vin Diesel at the end of the movie. If not for his bald pate, I could've sworn it was Stallone mumbling and grumbling a la Rambo.

Movie 2007.06.11 - Zodiac

burgers

Movie 2007.06.09 - The Illustrated Family Doctor

The movie is short. The pace is very slow. The plot is all over the place. The characters don't say much. The mood is dark. And I quite liked the movie. It is billed as a dark comedy, though it has more dark than comedy.

Story is about this guy Gary Kelp whose Dad passed away. He and his sister go to the morgue only to find that their Dad is not "whole" anymore, as their Mom has agreed to donate his vital organs. He's all dazed and confused. Back at the InfoDigest office, his boss Bob asks him to condense "The Illustrated Family Doctor," a graphically-illustrated medical textbook chock full of gross graphic bloody pictures. The more he edits the book, it seems like the more he starts to get the symptoms mentioned in the book. Ultimately, he ends up in the hospital, where he was diagnosed with renal failure.

By the time he got back to work, he's looking and feeling much better. Unfortunately, his mentor-friend Ray disappeared - most probably killed off by this gangster, whose exploits Ray's supposed to document in a true crime series. Anyway, Kelp gets a kidney from a donor, and realizes that life's too short to slave away in the office.

$99 Target Bike

On an ipluse, I bought a mountain bike at the Target store in Westfield Burwood 3 months ago. I don't really ride bikes, and the last time I rode on one was like decades ago. Yet, it's such a good deal I had to buy it - Northern Star, 65cm. (26"), 15-speed, dual suspension. Original price is $199; selling price is $99.

Hauled it back home. Spent a whole morning assembling it. Parked it in my room; has been sitting there ever since. Anyone wants to buy a fully-assembled, brand-new mountain bike for only $199?

Book 2007.06.06 - Area 7

Matthew Reilly doesn't write bestsellers, he writes movie screenplays, hoping some Hollywood bigwig will come along and buy the rights. Very likely that'll happen, too. You don't even need scriptwriters to do the adaptation because it's all ready to go. Heck, even the sets are described and drawn in detail in the first few pages of the book, so that that all the actors and extras know where they should be when the cameras start rolling.

If you like Dan Brown, you'll like Matthew Reilly. Start off with a hare-brained scenario. Pepper it with some little known trivia, so that it all sounds authentic. Mention a few conspiracy theories to keep things interesting. Once in a while, freeze the action and let the protagonist get on the lectern, so the reader can understand the ludicrous plot better. Populate the story with one-dimensional characters, so the readers would know who is who. Inject a little love angle to satisfy the romantics in the audience. Don't bother with character development - the plot is convoluted enough.

I'll let you in on the plot, so you can decide for yourself. Disgruntled Air Force general rises from the dead and takes the President hostage while he's inspecting a top-secret military base called Area 7. The whole base was locked down and the President and his security detail were given the chance to duke it out with the General's crack 7th Special Operations Squadron to prove their worth. Unknown to the President, a nano-sized transmitter is attached to his heart. The moment it stops beating, 14 plasma warheads spread across the country's airport hangars will detonate. Not only that, the bad guy has in his possession the Football, the President's briefcase that contains the codes and the activation switches to American's nuclear arsenal. If the Prez tries to take the easy way out and escape, thar she blows. So what's Area 7 for? This is where scientists have been experimenting with Komodo dragons and Kodiak bears, searching for a cure to the Sinovirus developed by the Chinese. Death-row prisoners are used as guinea pigs and they genetically-engineer a boy whose blood holds the vaccine.

What have these got to do with the General's diabolical plot? Nothing. I guess the author felt a need to justify the existence of Area 7, so he came up with these sideshows.