Archive for January 2012

About Me Version 1

As I am constantly updating my site, I like to keep an account of changes and revisions made – for personal record. This was

Hi there!

If you stumbled to my blog – its a high possibility you either know me or heard of me offline. Thank you for taking the initiative to google my name and visiting my site.

I have many interests, I like to see myself as a consultant of sorts:

I am an urban monk – I enjoy practical spirituality (thus the word “urban”), meditation, comparative religion. I tend to lean towards ancient gnostism and Buddhism – but I believe all religions do point to the Truth, just misinterprated (deliberately or otherwise) to meet different agendas.

I am an avid reader – I enjoy reading about religion, spirituality, technology, marketing, finance, PS3 gaming, Blackberry, inspirational, history, and I can go on and on. I enjoy learning new things – trivial or otherwise.

I am an idea pirate – I believe all new innovations / ideas are just rehashes of old concepts being made new. I love ideas – in all shapes and sizes – no matter where they come from.

I am a writer – I do copywriting in the fitness, self help, and personal development niche mainly. I also write opinion pieces – I hope this blog can be depository of what I have read, my thoughts and pretty much a portfolio of who I am.

I am a dreamer – I dream of a life where everyone can find balance in their existence and nobody is hungry.

I am a business thinker / marketer – I am very interested in what drives supply / demand, buying consumer mentality, and how do we drive campaigns and businesses to be optimum. I think marketing is cool because it is both a science and an art.

I am an aspiring speaker – I am a Toastmaster and enjoy listening to myself speak (who doesn’t?). I hope to speak in a TED or TEDx events before I am 30.

I am a fitness enthusiast – Call me a health nut, I think taking care of your body is equally as important as taking care of your mind. I enjoy vegetarian food, marathons (ones that I prepare for at least) and working out.

This list will most certainly get longer as I love enriching my life with new interests.

The Great Magician Movie Review

I did the most random thing at 6.40PM on a Wednesday evening.

It was the first time I got to go off work early – I ended up watching a “delightful Chinese New Year movie” or so the tagline describes Derek Yee’s latest offering “The Great Magician”

"Look ma, who says I can't play with fire?"

Yes, I do admit I am a fan of Tony Leung and Lau Ching Wan. They have a track record of making pretty decent movies. Movies that talk about humanity and that has a deeper message behind the usual storyline.

Movies that deal with magic is usually a hit and miss – if done well – it challenges the way we look at what is real and what isn’t. The US counterparts have been quite successful with The Illusionist and The Prestige.

Fortunately, The Great Magician manages to deliver the essence of awe and wonder in magic. It even had a few scenes (or rather lines) that was profound – questioning what is real or fake and searching for the Truth. It starts off great with a good premise, good cast, great special effects and a promising storyline – only to trail off to something else midway.

The story follows a crazed warloard Bully (Lau Ching Wan) who is seen conspiring with the Japanese to expand his territory just to win the affection of his seventh wife ( Zhou Xun). Along comes a mysterious stranger Chang Hsien (Tony Leung) who just returned from overseas with more than just his bag of tricks. A hidden agenda, conspiracy and a love story all rolled into one – good premise right?

Unfortunately, it seems to outrightly “borrow” steal plot elements from The Illusionist and The Priestige – two great movies on magic. Heck, even the poster seems to be an Asian knock off from The Illusionist!

It steals the plot of being a “love story” from The Illusionist and the plot of vengence from The Pristige.

But towards the middle – the lines of what is real (or serious) and what is fun (comedy) starts to blur out. It seems that the writers have finally given up on the originally intended storyline and decided to follow the safe, tried and tested slapstick comedy route.

Besides the 101 plot holes that one can uncover even while half concentrating – I feel the movie did deliver on what it set out to do in the first place – to entertain and maybe throw some mystical gems of wisdom.

I would give it a 3 star rating for just entertainment value. Whether or not its worth to spend RM8 for a ticket? Well, if you are looking for a movie to shut your mind off for 1 hour 50 minutes and can tolerate ridiculous and zany plots – sure go ahead and watch it.

 

Notice how simmilar this poster is to The Great Magician?

To tempt fate and destiny…

The tarot card reader stared at the cards, took a gulp and stared back at me.

Hmmm...how should I cold read this one??

Probably ran out of cold readings to spin.

She did however tell me that I can choose to stay in my current job – which I feel is dead end or do something else.

The choice is mine. Or so it seems.

She did quickly add that I should look for something to do where I provide solutions to people. Where I bring harmony and order into lives and help people take control back over their lives. Sounds like being a cult leader. LOL.

I am always intrigued with the mystical – part of me really wants to believe them that life is indeed easy. Life is as we will them.

While the scientist in me is critical and sceptical about it all. Sometimes it just drives me up the wall ‘choosing sides’.

That’s the danger of the current information age – where everything is so easily available.

Where everyone claims to be an authority of something, when more often or not – they are just like you – trying to make ends meet. Trying to make a living.

Its a double edged sword.

Back in the past, only with sufficient contacts or authority can one be of an authoratative nature. Thus, we are not consistantly bombarded with new information. Heck, I think the appropriate word is rape. Being fed information right, left, and centre and having to piece togather – what makes sense / what doesn’t / what is applicable / what isn’t.

As much as there are cheats out there – I still believe there are the genuine articles amongst them. People who really care to make a difference in the lives of others.

Sincerity.

Such a rare trait. I hope to be able to find rare jewels amongst the dimes in the dozen.

2012…Starting Afresh

According to the Hopi Indians, the world will undergo a great purification and the world will undergo a period of destruction and renewal to enter the new age.

"These bastards are going to die come 2012"

To quote the Hopi Indians:
“The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands — with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.”

Unfortunately (or fortunately), the Hopi Indians have a proven track record of getting their predictions right.
They even predicted the world wide web for heaven’s sake! Again to quote the Hopi Indians:
“This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.”

Of course, this is from what the History Channel feeds me.
Which information value I have begun to question – they should just stop pretending to be a “documentary channel” already!

But that is besides the point – the point I was initially trying to make was that my blog has died a few deaths already – some natural, some due to laziness.
I guess it is only apt to start a blog when the world is about to end to at least document the last few months of borrowed time that we have before the world ends – or not.

Many lifetimes ago, I used to be an avid blogger with LiveJournal – I practically LIVED on LJ! I started getting a life when I moved on to university.

Life got pretty much more complicated enough as it is than to share it with the world.
I tried writing a few times – only to drift off my initial intent of writing a blog.
So here I am – trying again – even when the world is supposedly going to end – I have not given up on you, my dear readers.

Then again, from the words of the Hopi Indians – only the white man will be affected – it might not affect yellow ones.