The Burn

Yesterday was the second day of this weeks sporting heaven/hell. And so far, I've been doing surprisingly well.

As you may recall, I played badminton last night. I haven't played badminton in almost a year (ever since I sprained my ankle really badly last year) and I knew I was in for trouble. Sure enough, it took me a good 20 minutes before I managed to get back some of my timing.

However, this wasn't what surprised me. I figured that after so little strenous exercise (although I play squash occasionally, I'm not very good hence the lack of strenous exercise) for a year, I would really struggle to last the distance. However, despite being really tired, the adrenaline was just enough to last the whole 3 hours.

After I got home last night, I immediately took a hot shower and liberally spread Bengay over my muscles. Bengay is an analgesic heat rub used to reduce muscle pain. If you have never used it - then either you don't do much sport or you are extremely fit! Anyway, after spreading Bengay, my arm and leg muscles felt like they were on fire. If nothing else, this is a real indication of how much punishment I had put on my muscles.

So far, the above hasn't been too exceptional (and if I'm being honest, I would say it was what I expected). What happened this morning was unexpected.

When I woke up, other than my arm muscles feeling a little tired and stiff - I felt fine. This was wholly unexpected. You may recall this post in January detailing the pain when I first started playing squash. In fact, I was expecting something similar today after such a strenous badminton session last night.

However, I was fine. I guess the squash games have been doing me more good than I realised.

Can't wait till Friday now where I can round off this weeks sporting bonanza and then brag about how fit I am that I can play 3 nights of sports in 1 week.
:p

Sporting Heaven/Hell

Today marks the first day in what will likely be a week from sporting heaven/hell. First off - fair warning to those who don't like sports - you may want to skip the blog entries for this entire week as they will all be sports related.

So why do I call this week sporting heaven/hell? Well, this week, I finally get to have a game of badminton. I haven't played badminton in about a year - ever since I sprained my ankle (and this doesn't count!). By the time my ankle got better, the club I normally play at was full so I couldn't get back in. Ever since then, I have been in badminton limbo, lost in the desert of the interweb, screaming futilely in my blog at anyone who will listen about how unfair life is etc etc etc.

How come I finally get to play badminton? Well, one of my friends has been in the club all along. He is going on holiday this week and so I can take his place for a week. Just goes to show that he hasn't been on holiday in a year! Luckily for me, his girlfriend is part of the same club (but on a different day). As they are going on holiday together, I get to take her place for a week as well! Cool huh?

So if I finally get to play badminton, why am I describing this week as sporting heaven/hell? Why all the melodrama and need for this long post? And why am I asking myself so many questions? And while I'm at it, do I know why I'm here - what my purpose in life is???

Sorry - got a bit carried away there.

Anyway, the reason that I also call this week sporting hell is because after doing very little exercise for a year, playing 3 days of sport in 1 week may very well kill me! I just finished an hour of squash today (luckily, it wasn't particularly strenous). I will have 3 hours of badminton tomorrow followed by another 2 hours of badminton on Friday.

Lets hope I'm still around to blog next week!

Pirates of the Caribbean

Sarah and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End last night. Which is surprising when you consider that we never actually went to see either of the first two films.

Despite not seeing the first two films, I knew enough about the plot to understand the bigger picture of what was happening in this movie. Having said that, you have to give credit to Hollywood writers sometimes. Watching the movie last night, it would have been enjoyable and still made sense even if I hadn't known the back story - a credit which goes solely to the writers in my opinion.

Anyway, the movie was funny (Johnny Depp at his unique best if you ask me) although the action sequences were a bit cliche (Still, it is a Disney production so I guess this is to be expected). Actually, considering how funny Johnny Depp is, it really makes me want to watch the first 2 films in the trilogy as well.

By this point, I guess most of you are wondering why we paid good money to see the third film in a trilogy if we hadn't seen the first two. Well the answer, my dear Watson, is elementary. We didn't.

We got the tickets as part of our Companies SRC (Social and Recreation Club). Occasionally, the SRC actually organises something which I'm interested in. Although to be fair, it was Sarah's idea. I wasn't that eager at first (as I hadn't seen the first two movies) but Sarah really didn't want the opportunity to watch a free movie pass by. In hindsight, its lucky that she insisted we go see it.

In unrelated news - :(

Liverpool vs AC Milan

Beer? Check!
Snacks? Check!
Cheesy football music? Chi lai, chi lai, chi lai, chi lai! Check!

The footy fans amongst you will know that tonight is European Champions League Cup Final night. Liverpool take on the mighty AC Milan in a repeat of the final 2 years ago (which Liverpool won - yay!).

Due to the nature of the defeat, AC Milan will be desperate for revenge and this could be a real grudge match. Even if I weren't a Liverpool fan, this would still be a game worth watching.

The game is taking place in Athens and kickoff is in the evening. Which roughly equates to sometime in the early morning in HK. However, in view of the above - who cares! This is a game worth staying until the early hours for. In order to watch a game like this, I am willing to forego computer games for the duration of the match (and trust me, that is a huge concession on my part).

Except for one small problem. The game isn't being shown on terrestrial tv. And I don't have cable.

FCUK!!!!
>:(

War on Terror

From looking at the title, most readers will probably guess that this post will be talking about the USA's war on terror (despite the fact that I am way late to the party!). And most readers would be wrong. I'm actually talking about Australia's war on terror.

Hold on - did Australia have a war on terror? Well, apparently they did. However, either no-one ever heard about it (due to all the noise from the USA) or I really need to keep more abreast of international events (which admittedly, is also true). Of course, the more likely explanation is that there is no Australian war on terror and I am exagerating for the purpose of a good headline!

Anyway, as with the war on terror in the USA, there are plenty of opportunities for jokes and hilarity. Check out this video link.

Obvious message to terrorist - don't look like an arab.

PS I deliberately used singular for terrorist (as opposed to terrorists) because I'm guessing there is only 1 terrorist in the entire world who is stupid enough to scout out your target dressed as a cliche from a comedy show!

Male = Macho

One thing you can pretty much guarantee is that most men are macho pigs. We will do any stupid thing if we think it makes us look like big macho guys. I was reminded of this yesterday during dinner.

As you know, some of my friends are over from the UK. Yesterday, we went to Balalaika - this russian restaurant located in Knutsford Terrace. Now, one of the more unique features of this restaurant is that it has a cold room. Basically, the room is set at -20 degrees. Once in there, the idea is that you can have a shot of vodka and appreciate why the russians like drinking vodka so much. The restaurant provides you with furry hats and jackets and you can put these on before going into the cold room if you are afraid that it will be too cold.

Except, one of the guys, being from chilly Glasgow, said that "-20 degrees? Thats not that cold - I can go in just wearing my short sleeved shirt".

Game on baby!

As a result of this one statement, the four of us trooped into the cold room without putting on any of the furry hats or jackets. At which point, we all started to shiver. We have photographic evidence of this as we tried to take a picture - didn't turn out too well though as the photographer was shivering!

Not long after, one of the guys immediately rushed out to put on a furry hat and jacket. Naturally, being macho guys, the rest of us immediately slagged him off silly. I tell ya - you could cut the testosterone in there with a knife - admittedly, mainly because it had frozen ...

At that point, it became a contest to see who could shiver the least. You could see everybody eyeing up the other person to see how badly they were shivering. Luckily for me, I had a t-shirt and long sleeved shirt on (what I wear to work) whereas the others were all in short sleeved shirts.

I was able to tough it out until the wimps said "okay, lets go back out now". Losers!

Victory for moi! Me is lion - hear me roar!
>:)

Wil Wheaton

Those of you who watch Star Trek: The Next Generation will already be familiar with Wil Wheaton. Wil is the actor who played Wesley Crusher - the annoying kid - in the TV series. Wesley was one of the universally hated characters in ST:TNG. In fact, for a while, this also caused a lot of hatred for Wil himself as the actor portraying Wesley.

Now, I have to agree that Wesley is one of the worst characters on the show. In my opinion, Wesley never got any decent shows until after Wil had already left the show as a regular (he got some great shows after he became a guest appearance though!).

Having said that, I have never understood why there was so much hatred against Wil as an actor. Everytime I hear criticism against Wil, it is always with regard to the shitty Wesley lines or the shitty Wesley stories. I mean, its not as if Wil is the guy who is writing all the shitty scripts and corny lines that Wesley has to speak! Remember, the guy is an actor.

The only criticism you can lay against Wil is that he isn't a good actor. However, bear in mind that during the TV series, the guy was a teenager. How many good actors do you see in their teens? And if you mention Macauley Culkin - I will never speak to you again!!

Anyway, recently, I came across Wil Wheaton's website. There is a link to his blog on his website which I recommend you read. The guy has a great sense of humor and this comes through in his blogs. In particular, he has started writing some reviews of the Star Trek TV shows. You can find them here and again, they are hilariously written.

If you only read one blog this year, then read mine! However, if you have time for another blog, give Wil's a shot - he might surprise you.

Wanya

At the moment, I am on Annual Leave from work for a couple of days. The reason is that I have some friends over from the UK so I took a couple of days off work to hang out with them.

Anyway, for dinner last night, we headed out to one of my favourite Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurants - Wanya. The place is in Central and, although expensive, is a great place to go if you like Japanese food.

The main reason I like Wanya so much (in addition to the quality food of course) is the style of the restaurant. Most all-you-can-eat restaurants are buffets. The chef cooks the food in great vats and plumps them onto a tray where everyone immediately dashes to grab the best pieces of meat. I guess its kinda how prehistoric man felt when he had to hunt down his own food.

However, in Wanya, you sit down at the table and the waiter gives you a menu. You choose what you would like to eat from the menu. At this point, the chef cooks a small portion of whatever you just ordered. This is a great way of eating Japanese food.

Everything you order is made especially for you - rather than being cooked in larges vats for the masses. As you can imagine, the also means that the food is much better quality than you would normally find in a buffet restaurant. At the same time, you get to try out as much different types of food as you like. Its a great system.

Thumbs way up on this one!

Spider-Man 3 - the mistake

This is so funny I had to blog about it. You may recall a couple of days ago, I blogged about the Spider-Man 3 game. At the time, I said I thought it was a mistake to rush a game for the purpose of cashing in on some quick sales.

Well, it looks like I'm not the only one to think so. Upon release of the Spider-Man 3 game, the shares of Activision slumped. Which really makes me think - nyaah nyaah nyaah! Serves you right!

However, this does raise another question. What is more important to a listed company - the short terms sales increase from releasing a rushed game or the share price slump from releasing a poor game?

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Encounter at Farpoint

I can't remember if I have said this before, but I am a Star Trek fan. My first exposure to the Star Trek franchise was the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. Can you believe that ST:TNG first aired in 1987? I wasn't even a teenager at that point!

Anyway, I recently managed to get hold of the complete 7 seasons of ST:TNG and watched the pilot episode (Encounter at Farpoint) with my wife. I have seen all of the ST:TNG episodes before so I know how these characters end up (in terms of character development). However, this is the first time that I have rewatched the pilot.

What really strikes me as fascinating is looking at how "clumsy" the characters are in the pilot. Obviously, this is because it is the pilot and everyone is still figuring out who the characters are, how they will interact with each other etc etc. Also, you can tell that the producers don't have a clear idea yet of how to develop a good story for TV - for example, the pacing (way too much exposition) isn't very good.

Having said that, I still enjoyed the pilot very much (can't say the same for Sarah!). Perhaps its because I know what the series will develop into, given time. Maybe I can find the pilot interesting because I know how all these characters and stories will develop, given time, into a fantastic sci-fi TV show. I can see the future and it is good.

Or maybe its just cos I'm a geek.

Spider-Man 3 - the game

A couple of days ago, I blogged about the new Spider-Man 3 film. Having enjoyed the film, I was really looking forward to playing the video game version (I know, I know - this is game related but bear with me as there is a wider point to this post).

I really enjoyed the Spider-Man 2 game on the old Xbox. With the Spider-Man 2 game, Treyarch (the developer) had managed to create a really good control system whereby it really felt like you were swinging around Manhattan. Even though the reviews were mixed (some didn't like it while others loved it), all of the reviews were in consent that the web swinging portion of the game had been done brilliantly.

Which really made me look forward to the Spider-Man 3 game. Also developed by Treyarch, I figured that the additional experience of having made several Spidey games, together with the additional power of the next gen systems would give us a really good game. Unfortunately, based on the reviews, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Although the web swinging is still stellar, apparently the game is quite buggy (I'm guessing they had to release the game before it was fully ready in order to cash in with the movie release date). Although the Spidey 2 game also had some bad reviews, the key difference this time is that all the major review sites have panned it whereas with the Spidey 2 game, only some of the major review sites panned it (sorry if that doesn't make much sense - its late and I'm tired).

Which finally brings me to my wider point (remember, I mentioned at the start that I had a wider point?). I'm really disappointed that this game got rushed. In my experience, anything which is rushed is generally of sub-standard quality. As far as I can tell, this applies to everything - my work, work which I have to review, products which I have to use etc etc.

Now here's the thing, I don't believe that rushing work leads to a bigger pay-off. I know that some argue its important for the game to come out at the same time as the movie - that way, you can cash in on the Spidey sentiment and get more sales. However, I think this is a bad strategy in the long run.

I can't remember where, but I recall reading that although the sales of a rushed game may not be affected (ie Treyarch will still sell loads of Spidey 3 games), future sales by may well take a hit. Basically, the argument is that the poor buggy game resulted in a loss of faith in that developer from the gaming community - resulting in people not being willing to buy future games.

This argument was based on a very small sample analysis of poor sequels - the writer had found that when a developer released a hit game, it was the second game from that developer which sold really well regardless of how good that game was. However, if the second game was a pile of cack, then sales of the third game would drop severely even though it was a good game.

Anyway, we will see whether Treyarch regret this (although tbh, they probably didn't have any choice and were forced to release by the publisher). As for me, will I buy it? Probably not yet - I may but it second hand in future (hence cheaper) but will probably pass for now.

One last parting comment - my favourite quote on this topic comes from Tim Buckley, author of the Ctrl+Alt+Del webcomic. He says ...

"In 2004 Treyarch proved to me that a movie and/or comic book license video game could be good. And now in 2007 they've reminded me that slaving your release date to marketing does nothing good for a video game. Just release it when its ready."

Eating out in China

As my regular readers know, I travel quite often to China. While I'm there, I get HK$200 per day which is used to cover all our travel and food expenses (except for travel to and from the airport).

In order to avoid eating fast food, I would normally either eat in the hotel or go to a reasonably large restaurant. However, as you can imagine, this is quite expensive. In order to offset the cost, and keep within my budget of HK$200 per day, I would take some meals at a small local restaurant (prices in these small restaurants are incredibly cheap - just a couple of dollars for a meal!).

However, I think it might be time to reconsider my diet. This article talks about how some China street vendors take leftover food from trash bins and resell them to customers. eww... gross!

Although the article is very specific about the fact that it is street vendors, I really don't want to take a risk with some of the local restaurants especially considering how cheap they are. To be honest, the only reason I ate at such small local stores was because I wanted to save some money.

Looking at that article, I think I would rather spend the extra.

Venom - anti-hero or plain villain?

thwip! whooosh! Kapow!

That is the sound of a web-line being shot out, followed by the swish of air as a man-sized object swings through the air to be met with the eventual wallop as a pair of legs crashes into the bad guy! Yes - spidey fans - I have seen Spider-Man 3 and it is good. :)

As usual, stellar special effects and fight scenes, Some wacky nerd moments with Parker and the usual screams for help from MJ. Considering she always gets captured by the bad guy, you would think she would get tired of dating Spidey! Ah well, Love is, as they say, blind.

All jokes aside, Sam Raimi has done another fantastic job with the Spider-Man licence. The script for the movie is good as well (I really liked the end battle) - allowing all 3 villains in the movie a fair shot of camera time, quite impressive considering its just a 2 hour movie. Naturally, Venom doesn't get much screen-time due to the back story having to be laid with Eddie Brock and the alien costume. Which is unfortunate as the special effects for Venom were really cool.

Anyway, in case it wasn't obvious from the above - I really liked this movie (I've always been a Spidey fan!) and I definitely recommend you go see it.

Now thats out of the way, time to get to the main point of this blog post - Venom.

WARNING - DON'T READ ON IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH VENOM OR HAVEN'T WATCHED THE MOVIE AS I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE BACK STORY OF VENOM



Still here? Okay, lets continue...

Venom is generally considered one of the most popular Spidey villains ever created. This is due to a number of factors - including the back story. For starters, Eddie Brock was originally a reporter who had been misled - he thought he had an exclusive series of interviews with a serial killer. Turns out it was a fake. This was discovered by Parker and Brock was discredited and shamed - hence his hatred for Parker. Meanwhile, the alien costume just wanted to bond with Parker (it just wanted to be loved!) - remember, it is a symbiont and needs to bond to survive. The rejection by Parker is the reason it hates Spidey.

When Venom was first introduced, he looked like another run-of-the-mill bad guy - out to kill Spidey and do other bad deeds. However, as Venom developed, he very quickly became more of an anti-hero rather than an outright bad guy.

Basically, Venom considers innocence to be precious. This is because both Eddie Brock and the alien costume believe that Spider-Man took innocence away from them (which is also the reason Venom wants to kill Spidey). However, other than trying to kill Spidey, Venom generally tries to help people who he considers to be innocent (he even had his own comic mini-series). Unfortunately, he is less than scrupulous in his methods hence the anti-hero tag. This was the original Venom.

However, as Spider-Man is so popular, the character has been reimagined numerous times for new comics, TVs and movies etc. For the newer versions of Venom, the writers have changed the back story of Venom quite significantly. For starters, Eddie Brock is now trash. In the newer versions (and not just the current movie version), Eddie is deliberately lieing for personal gain - albeit his ultimate objective might be noble (eg he wants cash to marry the girl he loves - I tell ya, girls are the root of all evil!), his methods are definitely trashy.

Meanwhile, the alien symbiont has also become evil. It now enhances negative emotions like hate and aggression and makes people generally do nasty things. Naturally, with the new evil versions of Brock and the alien costume, Venom becomes unequivocally evil in nature.

Which is a shame because I much preferred the anti-hero version of Venom.