Spiderman 3

We finally had a chance to watch Spiderman 3, one week after its official opening. Apparently the tix were sold out everywhere for the first few days following the opening, which was understandable given all the hype surrounding the movie.
The opening credits were cool, which gave a little summary of the past two movies. I thought the movie was a little rushed, addressing too many issues in the 140 minutes. PP & MJ's relationship, newfound powers with the black symbiotic suit, Gwen Stacy, 3 new villians. They didn't dwell deep enough into each of the issues, but instead opted to add bits of everything without explaining much. At certain points it all became like one big rojak with stuff tossed all over the place. But that's just me who has been reading the Spiderman comics. Penny thought it was alright and liked the movie pretty much.
If I was Sam Raimi, this is how I would have broken it up. Just deal with the PP/MJ relationship and black suit, with Sandman (Flint Marko) and the young Green Goblin as the villians. Explore deeper about the circumstances surrounding Mr Marko and Mr Osborn, how they became what they are, blah, blah.
Part 4 will have Peter Parker going to Dr Curt Connors for help regarding the symbiotic suit (although in actual fact he actually went to Reed Richards for help), how to exterminate it, blah, blah. And they succeed! But, suay only, it moves on to take over Eddie Brock who becomes the bad ass Venom. And all this while you have Dr Connors dabbling with lizard DNA in an attempt to grow himself an arm and as a result becomes The Lizard (duh). So BAM! Two villians again.

So that leaves Shocker, Kraven and the rest of the baddies for Parts 5, 6, 7, etc, etc (I am somehow of the opinion that the Demogoblin is too diabolical for the genral audience and all the kids will start crying in the theatres).

But the best part I think would be in time to come, they will make a movie with the Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, etc) trying to stop a rampaging Hulk, with cameos by X-men, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Spiderman, Blade, Nick Fury (this time definitely will NOT be played by David Hasselhoff) and all the Marvel characters they've turned into movies.

You just wait. In 2003 when I told people there was a Ghost Rider movie in the making, everyone say I siao cos there was no way in hell they would make a flaming skull look believable.

Food glorious food

More proof of my earlier statement that Singaporeans are all bonkers and will do anything to get their grubby paws on all things drool worthy.

This is the queue at the famous People's Park hawker centre yong tau foo stall during lunch on Sunday. Those of you who swear by Koo Kee Yong Tau Foo Noodles, this right here is the original one. The Koo Kee people just stole the idea and added noodles.

Yes you heard me right, this stall just serves the soup without any noodles/rice/whatever. These people very atas, and rightfully so. Just look at that long queue. You complain they'll ask you to FO. Just like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

"If you can't wait, then don't eat lor," their face will seem to tell you.

And these people are the masters of suspense. We were there at about 11.30am and wanted to order. They just said, "Not ready. Come back at 1pm." Just like that. No apologies, no nothing. And at 1pm, BOOM! This queue appeared from nowhere. Then they'll take their own sweet time to serve you.

The Chinese always say man kong chu si huo, which literally translates to 'slow work produces fine products'. But seriously, this stall's food is waaaaay overated. If you like yong tau foo, there's a reaaally old man (and I mean like Yoda kinda old) in the Chinatown food centre who makes a killer yong tau foo soup. And it comes with noodles! At his age, you can't blame him for being slow. But when you put the stuff into your mouth, you will finally realise what man kong chu si huo actually means.

Makan in Melaka... or Malacca?

We Singaporeans are siao one, willing to go through fire and brimstone just for good food. The numerous programmes on our local channels promoting food in various corners of the island is testimony to that fact. Take my family, for example, who drove all the way to Melaka over the weekend just to eat. Apparently, my parents and my brother had already been doing this on a regular basis, so I was a little slow to jump on their bandwagon.

Our trip started off on the right note. Nice, not too sunny weather with white, fluffy clouds crowding the sky. Minimal traffic at the Second Link, which was quite surprising given the potentially long Labour Day weekend if one were to take leave on Monday. Once we cleared the Malaysian immigration, we shot off like a bat out of hell and just went ZOOM! I was doing about 120 all the way, occasionally changing lanes to slow down when I lost sight of my dad's car in the rear view mirror. Or when I was being tailgated by a souped up Kelisa with an exhaust so loud it would put any WRX cowering away in shame.

Vel fell asleep 10 mins into the ride. Which meant we didn't have to worry about entertaining her. She only woke up when we stopped for a toilet break (my brother's SMS read: Stop at next toilet, mummy is leaking) at Pagoh. A little stretch, a quick pee and some drinks later, we were on our way again, comforted at the fact that we were nearing our destination.

We were driving quite fast, so we reached Ayer Keroh in a under an hour. From there, it took us another 30 mins to reach Melaka town itself. Passing by landmarks along the way like the famous waterfall and the Melaka zoo, I started to salivate with the thought of getting closer to all that yummy food. Which made me drive even faster, zipping in and out of traffic.

But we had to make a quick stop at Jonker Walk to check out the famous popiah stall which, according to my mum and brother, was supposedly very shiok. However, the stall was closed by the time we got there about 6pm. So we end up buying cincalok and other local favourites at a nearby shop before heading off to hunt down our dinner. But we ended up going in circles because my poor dad, whose hunger probably affected his sense of direction, took a wrong turn. Some giddy turns later, we finally arrived at Newton food centre. Like its Singaporean namesake, this place also offered tons of yummy favourites.

All of us came to a consensus: to order bits of pieces of everything so that we would have space to chow down more rubbish at the Jonker Walk pasar malam later. In the end, our 'bits and pieces' came down to 10 sticks of otah, two plates of oyster omelette, one portion of Hainanese chicken, one plate of bean sprouts, two portions of Portugese BBQ stingray, two bowls of curry noodles and 6 chicken wings. We were all quite stuffed by the time we finished everything and went through a round of drinks. The logical way to end all this was... CHENDOL! So we all hopped into our cars and made our way to Jonker Walk.

When we arrived, the place was already bustling with people. And it was really hot! We milled about for a bit, stopping here and there to buy nonsense for Vel (a Chinese fan, a stick of maltose candy, a toy and those retro throw-on-the-floor-to-burst crackers) and a 100gm bag of sotong bakar for a freaking RM$10. But it was gobbled up within minutes by the endless pits we all were.

We settled on a dessert stall down the row and we all ordered chendol (or cendol as it's known in Melaka). Mummy, not being a big fan of coconut milk, decided to be safe and go with ice jelly. Vel, as usual, was curious as to what the hoo-ha was about and shared my chendol with me. My parents and bro, being disgusting as they are, decided to squeeze more gula melaka onto the already very rich dessert. I didn't even manage to finish everything cos it got very heeby-jeebly after a while with all that sugar and coconut milk. When we were done, it was already past our ETD (we were targetting to leave at 8.30pm) so we headed quickly back to our cars to make our way home.

A quick pit stop at the Shell station at Ayer Keroh for a final toilet break, fuel top up, chewing gum and Vel to change into her PJs. Then off we went! Zoom! Back to Singapore at 140. I shot past my dad at some point along the way and never saw him after that. An uneventful 2 hours later when we cleared the Malaysian and Singaporean immigration (no jam!) on the AYE headed for home, my brother SMSed to say they were still at Abu Bakar.

We put Vel to bed and fell asleep as soon as we finally hit the sack at 12.30am.

Outwit, outplay, outlast... my ass!

Office politics suck. Period. No matter which way you look at it, be it a matter of 'survival of the fittest' or other such similar gobbledygook. Is it too much to ask for a job that we can truly enjoy and find satisfaction in contributing to the company's growth and profitability?

Recently, two of my colleagues have been the subject of this said politics and were left with no other choice but to tender their resignation (word on the street is that they received news of their impending termination by a 'politician' of higher stature). The company pulled a little stunt by issuing a memo notifying everyone of the reduction of notice period from 3 to 2 months, paid them off and bid them adieu. Just like that.

This has left the whole office in a state of disarray and those that are truly aware (i.e. me) of their true reason for departure feel disappointed and incensed all at the same time. This sense of disarray has left me suddenly feeling somewhat drained of any motivation to work.

'Will I be next?' I wonder. Word on the street is that there are more of such similar 'executions' in the pipeline. Will I be asked to go or will I be left behind to clear up the mess, or as the Hokkiens like to say 'kio sai' (pick up the poo-poo)?

**For the benefit of those who heard the rumours floating around: My colleagues were NOT terminated for any dishonest/cheating/embezzlement cases! They left of their own accord and the company merely paid them off for their notice period.**

Top 10 lessons I learned from Hollywood movies

1. German cars are ze best because I can drive off the top floor of a multi storey carpark, crashing through a brick wall and land on the opposite building without a scratch on the car, while the police look on helplessly in their American made cars.
2. Never take a shower behind a curtain because there'll be a surprise waiting for you when you draw the curtains apart after you're done.
3. Never swim at night after the swimming pool is closed because ever so often (again) there'll be a mutated creature/serial killer waiting for you in the washroom or around some dark unlit corner.
4. If somebody screams their head off for you to 'RUUUUUN!', you jolly well run and don't kaypoh and turn around to look-see-look-see because whatever it is you're supposed to be running from will most definitely bite your head off/eat you up/suck the juices out from you and toss your shrivelled up carcass aside like a rag doll.
5. Never point a gun at a vampire/werewolf/alien because not only will it be futile, it will will just piss them off even more.
6. If you're poor and dropping out from school, you'd better have another non-academic talent to save your sorry ass and bag the chio bu at the end of the day. Dance, race cars, hack into computers, ANYTHING!
7. Don't get big headed and take on a lao jiao bad guy just because you obtained newfound powers which you never knew existed. You're just gonna get your best friend/loved one/si-fu killed and spend the rest of your days lamenting and vowing revenge.
8. Always carry A LOT of ammo when you're involved in a gun fight. Murphy's Law will just catch you with your pants down when you finally reach the bad guy.
9. When you sell your soul to the devil, make sure you have all angles covered in the contract so that he can't play you out later.
10. Never get involved in an illicit affair with your boss's daughter/wife/mistress because if she winds up dead, you're gonna have problems explaining yourself.

Marketing guru says... #2

I seriously think Marketing professionals are the most taken for granted in any corporation by their bosses. For the same reason why I love this job so much, they seem to be the people to go to when it comes to addressing any form of ambiguious query which does not fall under anybody's jurisdiction because Marketing people are expected to know everything and anything that goes on in order to function well in our job.

Sometimes, this taking for granted also extends to running errands for Accounts/Admin/Whoever because we are also supposed to be out of the office walking in the trade (checking up on our own products, stealing ideas *heheh!*) instead of sitting in the office all day and pretending to act busy (but in actual fact playing Halo with the volume turned down).

Product cost? Ask Marketing! Trade margins? Ask Marketing! Consumer can't find your products in the trade? Ask Marketing! Import procedures and AVA clearance? Ask Marketing! Cross category promotion? Ask Marketing! Buy stamps? Ask Marketing! Computer can't work? Ask Marketing!

At the end of the day, people can't exactly fathom what Marketing people actually do. Some actually think Marketing people should actually fall under the Sales Dept. Others don't even see the need to hire Marketing people, their Ah Beng salesmen just double up as Marketing personnel, thus the designation of 'Sales & Marketing Executive' was created. Seriously, whoever started this trend doesn't have an inkling whatsoever what Marketing really entails.

'Eskew me, bluller, I want to do a TVC campaign for my new plo-luck. How much har? Buy more got liscount or not? Ask your meh-jeng-jer can?'

Just like the argument of Branding vs Advertising, many people are not actually aware of the difference between Sales and Marketing, which is really sad. Like many other customs and mindsets deeply entrenced into our consciousness, Marketing people will conitnue to be seen as a bane more than a boon to many.

*MORAL OF THE STORY: It's tough to be a Marketing guy. Sales people justify themselves by bringing in sales numbers, but Marketing's sole purpose of existence is to spend the company's money to build the brand. Like Marketing Magazine's article, these ROIs are not always measurable as there are other intagible things to be taken into consideration. Shit happens (shouting matches and vulgarities involving spiders fill the air) when your boss doesn't understand that.

Nevertheless, I still love my job. Nothing beats hearing satisfied consumers raving about your products and seeing your brand go from 0 to 12% market share within a year.*

Nice day to get sunburnt

Still sleepy from the night before (Mummy and I went to watch Ninja Turtles!), we wake up one Saturday with screams of 'Mummy! Daddy! Wake up! Go beach oredi!'. Eyes still half-closed, our little monster pushes us out of bed at 9.30.

So we wash up, pack our stuff and get dressed, amidst Ah Ma's incessant nagging. 'She just recovered from her cough, hor, so why you bring her out, blah, blah, under the sun so hot, blah, blah, better don't come back sick ah, otherwise have to take medicine again, blah, blah'.

So we pack the whole troupe into the car, have some breakfast and we're off! Headed to our usual spot near the sailing club where it's less crowded and found a nice tree to set up our stuff (three straw mats and a little mini tent for Vel). Vel and I head out to the beach to play with the sand, but a short 10 mins later, I buay tahan 'cos the sun was so bloody scorching, we move our little sand play under the cooling shade of the tree.

We got bored after while, so we brought Vel into the water and just sat there to get slapped silly by the waves. Didn't last long too 'cos she got quite freaked out after a while and scurried off back into the security of her little tent.

So it's back to the lazing around on the mat. We wash Vel up and give her some milk to keep her warm, but after a while she says she's hungry (she takes after her Daddy's dietary habits) so Mummy whips out her yummy lunch of porridge with pork ribs. Me, I just laze there and look up at the sun through the trees (a weak attempt to, er, suntan my face) and it soon lulls me into a short nap.

At about 3pm, we decide to head for home. Vel is tired while Mummy and I are chao tah, beginning to feel the stinging sensation of our sunburn. And besides, the gray clouds were looming. But not before we swing by Marine Parade to pick up some stuff for our BBQ tonight. Heheh! True to my rheumatoid afflicted knees, it rains REALLY heavily by the time we leave. So much for the BBQ...