Me! MiNdBOx - What Do You Got?

What Do You Got? is the latest song by Bon Jovi from their upcoming Greatest Hits album. I like the song, tempo and lyrics but you ain't gonna be jumping around ala "It's My Life". Still, this rock ballad has been repeating in my playlist the whole day ☺


Check out the mv below.

"Everybody wants something, just a little more
We're makin' a living and what we're living for
Rich man or a poor man, a pawn or a king
You can live on the street, you can rule the whole world
But it don't mean one damn thing


What do you got if you ain't got love?
Whatever you got just ain't enough
You're walkin' a road but you're goin' nowhere
Tryin' to find your way home but there's no one there
Who do you hold in the dark of night?
You wanna give up but it's worth the fight
You can have all the things that you've been dreaming of


If you ain't got someone you're afraid to lose
Everybody needs just one someone to tell them the truth
Maybe I'm a dreamer but I still believe
I believe in hope, I believe that change can get us off of our knees


Chorus:
What do you got if you ain't got love?
Whatever you got just ain't enough
You're walkin' a road but you're goin' nowhere
Tryin' to find your way home but there's no one there
Who do you hold in the dark of night?
You wanna give up but it's worth the fight
You can have all the things that you've been dreaming of
If you ain't got love, it's all just keepin' score
If you ain't got love, what the hell we doin' it for?


I don't wanna have to talk about it
How many songs I gotta sing about it?
How long you gonna live without it?
Why does someone somewhere have to doubt it?
Someday you'll figure it out


[Repeat Chorus]


(Whoa oh oh oh) Ohh, what do you got if you ain't got love?
(Whoa oh oh oh) Ohh, what do you got if you ain't got love?
(Whoa oh oh oh) Ohh, what do you got if you ain't got love?
(Whoa oh oh oh) "

Mid-Autumn 2010

3rd year in a row now..I see this becoming a yearly tradition ☺

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!! 

Enjoy your mooncake with a cuppa tea under the moonlit sky!

P/S: This is BC's newest 2010 addition - Grand Ruby. Haven't tried it yet though but I like the mould featuring lotus and the moon..afterall its contents are red yeast, lily bulbs and olives. 

What's around the corner?

Sept 22nd 2010

When You Can't Pay

Artificial limbs, and ventricular assist devices (VADs); these are already available today. Now what if, in the near future, every organ in the human body has its artificial counterpart? Knee caps, corneas, ears, you name it, they've got it. And they not only come in different  types, they are better enhanced too. There's the different colored-eyes,or the ears that are more sound-sensitive. Heck, you can even plug in a headphone so your friend can join in the listening fun...

All these are made possible  in Repo Men which takes place in 2025 where everybody can go on living their lives like normal by just replacing worn-out/problematic parts/organs with bio-mechanical ones. Come on, "You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your family", right? That's the sales pitch..

But what they don't tell you is what's written in the fine print - payment. If you fall behind in your payments (most people do because mind you, the interest sky rockets year after year), a "repo-man" is sent after you to reclaim the organ. Just like if you fail to pay your car installments, you can bet it'll be towed away. Only in the former, its the organ they are repossessing and to get to it means they'll have to CUT you open. In most cases these results in d-e-a-t-h.

So what makes the movie an action-thriller? The action begins when one highly-skilled repo-man (Jude Law) gets fitted with an artificial heart (after what seemed like a malfunction accident) and suddenly finds himself unable to cut people open anymore. Not able to perform his job equals zero income equals overdue payments equals running away and hiding from other repo-men, one of which happens to be his best friend (Forest Whitaker), who takes his job rather seriously (so serious that he'll not think twice about cutting his own grandpa up if he needs to. His philosophy - "A job's a job." And....

...you'll have to watch the movie to find out what happens after.

Well, I'll tell you this much. It's 2 hours of adrenaline rush and blood and gore. It'll also have you in stitches. Can you imagine, I was laughing away at a bloody fight scene? You must think I'm psycho to lol when people are getting killed but you gotta watch it to be in my shoes. The gore and humor manages to go hand-in-hand really well. The ending also elevated the movie to another level and honestly it kinda caught me off-guard too.

A must-watch, I'd say. My 2 friends, who are no fans of horror/blood, clearly enjoyed the movie as well. Or perhaps their gore-acceptance level have gone up? Time to ask them to watch Devil next then *teehee

My Rating:

You Win (or You Die!)

I just had to blog about this. I'm not sure if it's new but it sure was my first time watching an interactive movie on YouTube..And it's way cool and crazily funny! 

Some of you might already know what I'm talking about ~because I sent you them links~ but if you don't, then let me enlighten you..

There's this short zombie movie on YouTube by HellPizzaNZ. The movie started out with some zombie/human killing scene and a lady managed to escaped by climbing up onto a container. Safe for the moment, what did she decided to do? She ordered pizza - delivery.. LOL

The scene cut to the pizza parlor where the dude who received the order had no choice but to deliver. On his drive there he was stopped by a guy surrounded by zombies in a shirt covered with blood. The guy pleaded "Please let me in!" 

That's where the interactive part comes in..you get to decide to either "Let Him In" or "Leave Him To Die" (most of my friends - actually all of them - chose to let him die..talk about saving yourself in threatening situations hah!) So you make a choice by clicking on the screen and you will then be linked to a different clip. Depending on the option, you either survive  i.e continue on with your journey, or you die - HORRIBLY.

No worries though if you end up dead as the clip will rewind back to the decision making point and you can then choose the other route. There are 5 decision points throughout. Just out of curiosity, yours truly had tried all possible options to see what happened :P And I must say the last decision is the most hilarious of all. Choose wisely or it'll be the worst decision ever made!

To get you started, I'll post the first clip here...have fun and hopefully you'll survive to tell me about your experience XD

(Oh and it's gory and bloody but definitely B-Grade)

A final note, kudos to HellPizzaNZ for such a brilliant advert. It really does make you wanna try out their pizza the next time you are in NZ/UK/Ireland/Australia..apparently its the "best damned pizza you are likely to eat in this lifetime."

The Floating Order

I was overjoyed when I found out I'd won a hard-copy book from LibraryThing's Member Giveaway. Erin, the author was gracious enough to send me a signed copy together with a personal message in a card too. ☺

The stories in the book however are far from cheery. But not in a bad way. In fact, the stories are well-written that I needed moments to digest at times at the horror that befell some of the characters in there.

The Floating Order is a collection of 19 short stories that revolves around children and the stuff they face; there's the mom who drowned her babies (which reminded me of the scene from Shutter Island; no wonder Leonardo's character went nuts!), a choir practice gone wrong, a dead girl inside a piano, a film camp that wasn't, and many more.

The stories start out almost harmless and you're pulled in by the magic weaved by Erin with her words and out of nowhere you realize "Oh, gosh!" I like Drift and how an earlier story, Park, is creatively mention in it as a  scary bedtime story about why kids should not talk to strangers. Digging made me thought of Hansel & Gretel and I would love to read on on why the mother did what she did and what happen to the children after.

An interesting read but don't expect happy endings. Some of the stories might even haunt you long after you're done with them.

My Rating:

Snail's Pace

It's the long weekend afterall... ☺

Xuan

My first graphic novel and I finished it in 2 days - although it meant pushing back the books in queue to make way *guilty as charged

Forget Sorrow is really an impulse buy i.e. read an article about it in the papers in the morning and got it that same evening @ Borders.

Fortunately, it isn't something I regretted buying. 

Forget Sorrow is a true-life tale of the author's life (an American-Chinese) that mostly focus on her father's recollection of growing up in China through WWII and the Communist revolution. And yes, all in drawings, sketches, comical/heartfelt dialogues and all. Very creative I must say. 

It opened up my eyes to how bad life was back then in China where many of the people lived in poverty. And also how even your own family members could turn their backs at the first sign of a disappearing wealth. 

It was the bleakest Spring Festival in memory. In the previous year we were worried that there were no New Year Eve's dumplings. This year, we were fighting with the mice for the grain fallen beneath the floorboards.

A refreshing way of reading a memoir rather than the usual hundreds of word-filled pages to burrow through. The only thing I am not too keen is the few not-too-clear writings in the speech bubbles. I think I squinted a bit trying to read those. Overall though the story is good. Engaging and fascinating.

By the way, Xuan is the author's Chinese name which translates as "Forget Sorrow".

My Rating:

Freedom

Pompeii Revisit

Six months on....

...and I am still as fascinated as the day I stood there ☺

An Idea

One word to describe Inception.
Exceptional.

Exceptionally good that is. I can't say more. I won't say more. Seriously you've gotta watch it for yourself. 

But if you're done with it or if you don't mind spoilers, I'll share with you this much. In the end I say the top kept spinning i.e. you-know-what. Why?

Click for spoilers [+/-]

Because what are the odds the children are squatting at the exact same positions as in his memories of them? And wearing the same clothes? Both of them? And no signs that they have aged (or grown) since the last time Dom saw them which was probably months ago. Only explanation - they are just his memories. And the faces you might ask since Dom insisted he never got to see their faces when he left? Well, afterall they are his kids. Which dad don't remember the faces of his children? So that part of "reality" can easily be created by Dom, the architect-pro.
thinkb4aftertot.blogspot.com
Good or bad? I guess he no longer cares as long as he got his happy ending. If not in the real world then in la-la-land. It's kinda sad actually. Which makes this movie even more impressive overall.
thinkb4aftertot.blogspot.com
So much so that the movie was still swirling in my mind as I drove home and prepared to go to bed. Then it popped into my mind. They never really explained how the rest of them appear in someone else's dreams? Sure they are connected to the same machine that sedates them but how does one determine whose dream to enter? Somewhat impossible to me. Maybe that's why they chose not to dwell on it aka minority report. Though not so cool anymore, huh? *minus half a star  ~ lol
thinkb4aftertot.blogspot.com
Still,

one wonders if sometimes the only way is to dream away...

My Rating:

A-Team

Nurse: Mr Murdock, why are you out of your ward?
Murdock: I smell gas..is that gas on you? [sniffs at Faceman's sleeve]
Faceman: Ward? What do you mean ward?
[Takes a look at Baracus' arm - featuring a lighting bolt-stitch]
Faceman: Did you ask him to stitch a lighting bolt?
Baracus: No, I din...Is your arm on fire?
[Faceman checks arm and immediately starts beating out the fire on his arm before shouting at Murdock]
Faceman: ARE YOU CRAZY??!!!!

Most hilarious scene on A-Team.
On the other hand, Jessica Biel is just there to look good holding a gun in sky-high stilettos and trench-coat dress...

My Rating:

Blurred By The Mind

Paranormal Activity

So I decided to watch Paranormal Activity after in possession of the film for >1/2 a year (I first heard it in Oct '09). Actually I only thought about watching it after the trailer for Paranormal Activity 2 came out. Ppl whom  I'd mentioned the film to, well, I think most of them had already watched it and their feedbacks were...

..they fast forwarded through the boring bits and just looked out for the scary scenes ~duh

Because it was meant to be home video aka documentary style, there were indeed some boring dialogue parts. Anyway I was determined not to do any fast forwarding so I could actually listen to them talking and better understand the whole movie. I wasn't looking for some cheap scare, no sir, I wasn't. Not went I was sitting about 2-3 feet away from the screen just to be safe.

[spoilers beware]

In truth the film isn't really that frightening. First, you don't actually see the "thing", its just the happenings that convinces you there is a "thing" there. Slamming doors, blinking lights, swaying chandelier..you get the drift. But of course if I had had experienced any one of the above, trust me I would not be staying there for 2 weeks trying to capture it on camera! And just 2 person in an entire house...BIG mistake. 

The most creepy for me would be the leg-pulling scene. Totally unnerving.

Also I din particularly like the part Micah showed Katie something he found about some Dianne who was possessed in the 60s. How on earth was he able to find a clip of the girl chewing her own arm off? An no one to stop her but just continued recording away? Disturbing yes but didn't really make sense. 

When I was done, a friend asked me how it was and mentioned something that I had no idea at all. I was like "Uh, no I never saw that scene..maybe you saw something "extra"?" *nervous laughter

Turns out there are actually 3 different endings to the same movie! There's the original ending (which I watched), the theatrical ending (by Spielberg), and then there's another with some throat-slitting. If you'd only watched one, I recommend watching all 3 just for the fun of it *winks

How this low budget film is one of the biggest scare in America beats me. They should watch more Asian horror films and I don't mean those American-remakes. Perhaps Paranormal Activity 2 might overcome that since I saw something in there.

Still, you won't catch me filming anything at night anytime soon....

My Rating:

Wish

Toy Story 3

certainly does not fail to entertain. Plus there's a little Spanish number to spice things up.

And at the end of it all, it makes you wanna go home and give your toys a pat on the heads, your teddies a hug and a squeeze, your barbie(s) a stroke or 2 of her long silky hair...

Oh, but wait. 

You recall most if not all of them are already in the incinerator...

C'est la vie.

My Rating:

Byousoku 5 centimeter

"It's the speed cherry blossom petals fall at. They fall at five centimeters per second.  

Rain falls at five centimeters per second. Clouds fall at one centimeter per second."

One of the best anime movie I have ever seen. A favorite.