Strange

Had a couple of strange incidences lately.

• Got hit on by a chirologist.

Was trawling a health bazaar in campus with my colleagues, YN and LB, when we passed by a stall with this really HUGE palm banner peppered with testimonials in all possible languages. As my colleagues pressed me to read a Japanese article hanging from the banner, the chirologist uncle, who was till then sitting languidly with no customers to serve, snapped his head around and asked to see 'the fish' in our palms. As if to convince us, he held out his palm and pointed knowingly to a Stickman-sketch of, what we were told to believe is, a fish. Really, it's just lines on the palm that so happen to criss-cross to give the man an illusion of a flipper.

As he scrutinized our palms, he confidently threw us into default categories with his diagnoses.

To YN, "You are a very efficient and strong-willed person. Your boss won't sack you, you will sack your boss."
YN stared at him, both incredulous and amused.

Turned to LB and said, "You are a dreamer. And will have problems with your relationship."
LB looked undecidedly wary and bemused.

Finally he took my palm and said, "You know how to enjoy life. And you are highly adaptable. Yes, you are adaptable." He nodded.
I stared at him, looked at my palm, and then back up at him.

At that point, a customer called out to him and he disappeared back to his stall, leaving the three of us staring after him, unsure whether he was for real.

Maybe he was just 'fishing' business afterall.

• No olives.

It baffles me to no end the quality of service at certain fast food outlets.
I was putting my order at a sandwich bar, where you can ask for your preferred bread and fillings. So, when I got to the 'filling' section, this was what transpired:

Me: All vege, but no onions, more lettuce.
Sandwich lady: Okay, no onions, no lettuce.
Me: No, no, no! No on-ions, more let-tuce.
Sandwich lady: Okay, no onions, no olives.
Me: .....

For your information, we were standing only about an arm's apart.

I want olives with my sandwich!!!


The world has gotten so strange.

～みはる～

The X Files: I Want To Believe

Wanted to blog on this for almost a month now, but hadn't the time.

"Mulder, why are we here?" "To find the truth, Scully"

Okay, just in case you didn't know, I was and still am a big X-Files fan. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, I was one of those booked the TV and couch on Sunday primetime, indulging in an hour of paranormal and Mulder-Scully-ness. Everybody else in the family can have TV at anytime, except X-Files time. I just love watching Mulder & Scully (or is it David & Gillian) chasing after monsters, aliens, conspiracies, mutants,.... and whatnot.

Gruesome yet thrilling monster-busting. Scandalous government secrets. An odd pair of investigators with contradicting yet complementing characteristics. Scary yet funny. What's not to love about X-Files?! In fact, Scully's embodiment of intellect and science fascinated me to the extent I considered a future in scientific research. (Oh wait. I am in scientific research!)

When the series ended (beautifully) at season 9, as a fan, I was devastated at the notion of discontinued X-Files fix. Imagine my elation, when this second X-Files movie was released. Finally some Mulder-Scully after 6 years. Thank you, Chris Carter!

Mulder and Scully googles 'pedophile priest'

So I spread the love of X-Files and towed all my lab colleagues to the cinema for some Mulder-Scully goodness. Frankly, I was a tad disappointed by the plot of the movie. It was not as powerful as the series, but hey, for a stand-alone X-File, I think it was not bad. Nevertheless, I felt it could've been better. The climax was too short and the element of Dr Frankenstein is... not X-Files-worthy kind of paranormal. However, it was well above the X-Files standard of gruesome. There were many scenes I could easily tag with the label "GROTESQUE".

"I can't look into the darkness with you anymore, Mulder."

The best element of the show is, yet again, Mulder and Scully. It feels like homecoming watching them again, as pair with conflicting ideas who counter and complement each other. You just have to hand it to David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson for the sterling performance. After 6 years hiatus, they still exude every molecule of Mulder-Scullyness in every possible nuance. The relationship was so well played, it appears the dynamics between the two leads did not fade one iota.

"I'm done chasing monsters in the dark." "I need you in this with me."

Another aspect I find wonderful about this film is the foresight of Chris Carter to tell the story in the flow of time, and at the same time so exquisitely capturing an air of timelessness. In the movie timeline, 6 years has passed by since Mulder and Scully escaped as fugitives. The movie didn't just pick up where the series left, which is great because it leaves you wondering what the hell happened to Mulder and Scully in that 6 years. We see them aged, we see their lives changed, we see the level of their relationship developed; and yet, the essence of them is still there, unchanging. I find this balance of forward-progression and stand-still very intriguing.

Iconic Mulder-Scully shared look.

While I love this movie nuts, it's not exactly over-the-top fantastic; except maybe, for the dynamic performance of David and Gillian. I have one complaint though: that Scully should never had used Google to search 'Stem Cell Research'. That is pretty unprofessional. They could have scripted her to use scientific literature databases like PubMed or something. Except for this blooper, I'm all over the movie.

Nevertheless, I want to believe that we'll get a third movie which will deal with the December 22 2012 dead-line postulated in the final episode of the final X-Files series (The Truth). I'm dying to know whether the aliens will invade the Earth and turn us all into a slave race.... and how Mulder and Scully's son, William, may have a hand in this.

The truth is still out there.

All images from official website The X-Files: I Want To Believe

～みはる～

Beijing Olympics 2008

The 29th Beijing Olympics opened at 2008-08-08, 8.08pm.

Honestly?
I don't really care.

My athletic-sense is zero and I never held interest in sports longer than the Omega advertisement on TV. Especially in an international sporting event tainted with politics and pollution.

However, I get caught in the tide. Very easily.
With the olympian fervor going on, it's difficult not to get excited about the Games. Especially when your country has a good shot at winning a gold medal; and the unbelievable record-breaking trails.

So I watched the Opening Ceremony. Impressed, I was. The fireworks especially. And the performances were pretty cool. Except that I personally think that the use of humongous number of performers was akin to an overzealous hammering of the notion that the host have people power. Literally. "Don't mess with me, I can outnumber you in a blink."

But I digress.

Nonetheless, I was awed by the show. Had new found respect for the country that has been struggling so hard to prove herself in the eyes of the world.

Until news came pouring that the glossy performance was rigged with piracy.

Fake child songbird on stage.

Fake fireworks.

Fake ethnic child performers.

I do not particularly care about the latter two piracies, but the first really disgusts me. Had a pretty girl to fake the performance simply because the original talent had no looks deemed suitable to be on stage? What kind of message are they trying to send across in a G-rated international event?

The opening ceremony aside, competitions thus far had been amazing. In that we are witnessing some really marvelous sportsmen and sportswomen. However, it's swimmer Michael Phelps of USA who had grabbed the thunder of the Beijing Olympics 2008.

Phelps, the new God of the Pool

Golds in all 8 swimming events he participated, of which 7 were world record-breaking, and 1 by 1/100 second victory; giving him a total of 14 Olympic golds. This is the new history.

Not to be outdone, Kitajima Kousuke of Japan emerged as the Asian superstar in the pool, with 2 golds, in what I understand was a performance Asians were very proud of.

Pride of Asia in the Pool

Closer to home, Malaysia managed to enlist into the finals of badminton men's singles via Lee Chong Wei's brilliant performance. Thanks to him, Malaysians were given an opportunity to be hopeful and to be proud of in the international arena. He pushed his way into the finals, and like many Malaysians in the motherland and all over the world, I eagerly followed the finals match. How can I be not excited, when the athlete from my homestate is playing for gold in the Olympics. The catch, however, is that he has to play against the person seeded above him: Lin Dan of China.

So, I started off ambitious.
Slam the top seed in his home ground and bring us our first gold.
Maybe not so harsh.
Just bring us our first gold.
But Lin Dan is a great player and not ranked top seed for nothing.
Okay, play 3 games and win 2 with slim majority.
Lin Dan had been playing pretty effortlessly so far.
Fine, silver medal, but play 3 games. 21-18, 18-21, 20-21.
Alright, silver with 2 games still okay. 18-21, 20-21.

Ultimately, we lost 2 games: 12-21, 8-21.

I had wanted that look in the finals

Pretty disappointed that it wasn't a good game at all. Lee Chong Wei made a lot of errors, the most vexing one being the gold medal point: Lin Dan got it free due to his mistake. Sien. Lee Chong Wei didn't appear to be in top form, but to be fair, Lin Dan was really good. He simply outclassed Chong Wei. The smashes were evil. And during the first game, he had Chong Wei running all over the court whilst he appeared to barely break a sweat running.

Oh well, a silver is better than none. Thank you, Chong Wei.
At least, he made it to the final game.

Thus it appears while my athletic-sense is zilch, I do still enjoy watching sports. Heeh.

～みはる～

Disclaimer: None of the images are mine. All were google-d.