Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS really roooocks!!

Just saw the new Michael Bay TRANSFORMERS movie and I must say it lived up to all its hype and it REALLY ROCKS!! BIG TIME!! I was sceptical about a live action TRANSFORMERS movie at first since I'd grown up with the Japanese toys, the Marvel comics and the Hasbro toys that followed. But the Dreamworks team pulled it off really well and this movie actually works. Unlike Spiderman 3 and Fantastic Four 2, which had very poor pacing and run-of-the-mill storylines, this movie kicked ass from the start with a Decpticon attacking a US Army base and watching all hell break loose as the humans first encounter the TRANSFORMERS.

While the robots mainly stole the show (literally!), Shia LeBouf did an amazing job of portraying Spike, the quintessential insecure teenager trying to find himself in a cynical world. And Megan Fox was, well, just another walking push up bra advertisement. Although the relationship between Spike and Bumblebee were not fully delved into, there was a strong vibe that this was the beginning of a very strong friendship which would probably extend into the sequels (of which I'm sure there will be, given how the movie ended).

And the robots done up by ILM were, WOW, amazing!! Although insufficient screen time was devoted to the Decepticons (like Bonecrusher who came out looking scary and shit, only to get sliced by Optimus a mere 5 mins later), getting an eyeful of the Autobots was good enough. You could make out every nut, screw and bolt moving and turning as if these were real, living organisms. Kudos to the folks at ILM for an amazing job!

After OP gets whacked left, right and centre by a seemingly more powerful Megatron, how they killed the Decepticon leader just made me go 'Huh? That's it? What the...?!'.

But the ending, which left me squealing with delight (like the fanboy that I am), promises of a sequel (or two) to come cos there are so many things left unexplored. Where's Soundwave and his evil litttle cassette thingies (more importantly, how are they going to make cassettes relevant in the 21st century)? Are they going with the Headmasters in the sequel (that'll be fun!)? And will Megatron be revived as Galvatron?

So many questions left unanswered... Can't wait for TRANSFORMERS 2!

Toy report #2

Still fooling around with my REVOLTECH Optimus Prime and Megatron mentioned in my earlier post. These things are so much fun! Very good for a little stress relief at the office! Just makes me want to buy the rest of the series. I imagine all the robots having a battle on my office desk! Haha! How to get any work done like that?!

On the same note (toys, not tummy aches), just went to Taka's toy department on Saturday night and as usual, they were clearing the overstocked items. All TMNT were 20% off (still no Leonardo though I was tempted to just buy the van), LOST figures from McFarlane were at $10 each. For some reason they didn't have the Shannon figures left; probably snapped up by all the pervs since she's only dressed in a skimpy bikini.

I ended up with the LOST Hatch Boxset (a steal at $20!) and the Flinstones Drive In Movie Boxset (another streal at $15!), both from McFarlane.

This Todd McFarlane is an evil one, I tell you. He keeps making all these wonderfully crafted toys, of which I'll always find lelong-ing at Taka. Next up, he's gonna make a couple of action figures and vehicles from the video game HALO.

How liddat? Got kid to feed at home and so many toys to buy??

Church Camp 2007: Day 2

Woke up at 7am for a quick jog before Morning Devotion. It cleared my head quite a bit for the games that I had planned for the dinner that evening as well as the meditation verse (Mark 9:49-50). By the time I went back to the villa, everyone was up and about. So I took a long shower, made my hair and when I came down, ALAMAK! Everyone was waiting for me to start the villa devotion. I quickly settled in and we all prayed and sang some songs together before proceeding to the function room again for sharing of the day's meditaion verse.

After that was the usual breakfast where I chowed down some fruit, a salad, half a dozen chipolatas, a sunny side up, baked beans, milk and a bowl of cereal. I had to gobble that down in less than 20 mins because I had to go back to the function room to help Auntie Esther with setting up for the next corporate game: the Paper Aeroplane Factory.

At about 10am, people started milling in for P&W. Somehow, this morning's P&W seemed different; more powerful and moving than the previous day's. I had this sudden compulsion to cry so I just let the tears flow. Perhaps the sessions that we had done proved to be a motivating factor for all who participated? It was great to see everyone singing and shouting with no inhibitions!

We started the corporate game at about 10.30am. Auntie Esther had tasked me to MC the whole game as she had to tabulate the scores. Again, the memebrs were broken into men, women and youth. It was great fun tekan-ing them and watching all hell break loose as they scrambled to get their planes made and delivered. All in all, it was a very fun, insightful sessions which the youth won in the end.

Lunch was after that, same old buffet food again. I started off with the usual salad before moving on to attack the roast duck. Desmond, as usual, couldn't help but whack the crabs. The desserts were yummy too, with cream puffs, brownies and other forms of delectable pastry. Couldn't eat much as most of the breakfast was still in my stomach.

Headed back to the villa to get my socks before heading to the bowling alley. Couldn't get my form right as I couldn't find a ball that would fit my big knuckles nicely. How I miss the Superbowl at SAFRA Mt Faber! After getting an embarassing score of 101, I rushed back to the villa to make preparations for the night's games. Managed to finish it in under an hour and a half before heading for a nap. Could feel my head pounding already.

Woke up at 6pm and headed for the function room. It was HUGE and provided me more than enough space for me to tekan everyone again. Haha! I proceeded to place on all the tables the props needed for my games later. I was shaking with excitement, I couldn't wait to unleash my nonsense on everyone! Bruhaha!

We didn't start the dinner until about 7.30pm when everybody was seated. We started off the dinner with a closing speech from Ps Don followed by the presentation of trophies to the winning team from the bowling session. I kicked off the night with the Fake Bingo game to get everyone riled up. Fortunately the crowd were so enthusiastic about completing their score sheets to realise that they were all doctored to enable EVERYONE to win. Ha!

The food, surprisingly, was the best we had so far. I conitnued with the Jigsaw puzzle game which saw everybody clamouring to put the pictures together. We carried on with the lucky draw, with myself winning an Electric Kettle (2nd prize). It sure seemed odd to receive a lucky draw prize at a dinner I'm MC-ing!

I called representatives from each table up on stage to share about what they had learned from the camp. After they were done with their turn, I thought it was only fair that I shared my view too. As I did, I suddenly felt really emotional and started to break down when I addressed my 'speech' towards the youth, the usual hoopla about how they had so much potential waiting to explode. But this time, I really meant it and I felt so much for them. A bunch of enthusiastic youngsters wanting to be taken seriously, bursting at the seams with so much energy, but yet were equally misunderstood at the same time.

I ended the night with the Pop Quiz game, where only one table (Ps Don's) got the Snuffleapagus question right. We gave away prizes to the winning table (Thomas') of which I was a part of. For the second time that night, I was receiving another prize, this time an NTUC voucher.

After laying hands and praying for me, I made my way home at 10pm with Uncle Desmond (he hitched a ride 'cos he also had to go back to work the following morning).

By God's grace and divine protection, I finally reached home at 11.30pm. What a day!

Church Camp 2007: Day 1

After being postponed for a year, we finally went for our church camp at Tanjong Puteri Resort. I only managed to join the group on Tuesday morning due to work commitments on Monday.

Getting there was quite a bitch. Got played out by the stupid flyover outside Carrefour (that is FINALLY complete after taking forever) along the Tebrau Highway. So after getting lost and braving some unexplored territory, I finally arrived (with my friend Isaac in tow who probably almost puked in the car!) at about 8.30 in time for Morning Devotion! Yippee!

After breakfast, we broke into groups to do our stuff. I handled the youth to share about the Power of Praise: what it can do and why we should do it (this is my own unofficial title for the presentation lah). It was really fun sharing with the youth and in the midst of doing so I obtained fresh revelation about P&W that I never knew before.

Lunch was buffet with the usual spread. I chowed down quite a bit of salad since I had been pigging out quite a lot the few days before. After lunch, we all headed back to our villas to prepare for the corporate games out in the field, under the scorching hot sun!

As a bystander (and supposed referee who didn't do much), it was hilarious watching the teams play the games. R&R time followed but I didn't have much time to rest with the night session still left unprepared. I put together another simple presentation entitled Who Am I?: Realising your full potential & putting it to good use. With that done, I had barely enough time to catch a quick nap before dinner happened at 6pm.

Not one to complain, but dinner was quite horrible so I didn't eat much. It was hilarious to watch Desmond tease the waitress about having kambing soup instead of the planned 'egg drop' soup.

After dinner was back to the villa with the youngsters again. This session saw them doing a SWOT analysis about themsleves and pairing up to find out certian things about their partner that nobody knows about. The results were surprising, funny and mind-boggling all at the same time.

Topics we touched on included (but not restricted to): benefits of boxer shorts, dangers of eating too much junk food, gays and tranvestites, clubbing, passing gas after eating certain foods. We all had so much fun talking and sharing that we didn't even realise that time had gone by until Uncle Larry and Auntie Teresa came back with their snoozing kids. I didn't have time to finish up what I had planned!

Ending the session with a prayer, everybody returned to their respective villas to do their own stuff. Me, I showered, had a short discussion with Auntie Esther about the following day's corporate games, went through the meditation verse and decided to sleep after not being able to decipher the meaning.

It sucks to be sleepy.

Toy report #1

Like all women who can't resist handbags and shoes in a sale, I couldn't help but part with $55 of my hard earned money as this offer was too good to pass. And the uncle in the shop telling me 'This is my last pair' didn't help much either.

Jumping on the whole TRANSFORMERS bandwagon, I grabbed these two buggers off the shelf faster than you could say 'More than meets the eye'. Made by Japanese toy company Kaiyodo, this is a new range of super poseable action figures called REVOLTECH. Other figures in the series include the robots from EVAGELION, Trigun, Revy from the anime Black Lagoon (who gives Lara Croft a run for her money with her, er, 'weapons of mass destruction'. Heheh!), the police robot from PATLABOR and other such similar gems. They are ball jointed at the appropriate places, which gives them their super poseability.

I have been resisting the temptation to buy one of these little babies as they don't come cheap; they normally retail for $30 each. Damn evil, then, of the uncle to offer such an irresistible bargain! These little guys also come with interchangeable hands, heads, etc, so that, like clothes, you can customise them according to your mood. Megatron comes with an extra head featuring his trademark evil grin. Optimus, well, doesn't have much facial expression to speak of so he only comes with one head.