2012 Movie Roundup

Excellent!

Marvel's The Avengers (easily 2012's best! my eyes were glued to the screen the entire movie, and through 5 subsequent viewings)
End of Watch (bro movie of the year; even more onscreen chemistry than Lethal Weapon)
Premium Rush (made me want to start riding; reality check)
Wreck it Ralph (Bad Guy Anonymous, ha, hilarious)
Men in Black 3 (very good twist at the end)
The Dark Knight Rises (could be a lot shorter though)

Pretty Good
007 - Skyfall (M kicking ar$e)
Battleship (quite enjoyable, though not much of a storyline)
John Carter
Prometheus (a.k.a. prequel to Alien; some storyline hiccups and a heroine who is more irritating than charismatic)
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Pitch Perfect (rough in some spots but music really stuck in my head)

Okay
Brave
Flight (a bit draggy in places but Denzel turned in an excellent performance)
Looper
Man on a Ledge
The Bourne Legacy (actor was too wooden)
The Hobbit (too long by an hour, and this is just 1/3 of the book adaptation!)
The Hunger Games (Running Man was so much better)

Forgettable
21 Jump Street
Arbitrage
Dredd
Killing Them Softly
Mirror Mirror
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
The Iron Lady
The Sweeney
Total Recall (2012)
Wrath of the Titans

Argh.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
Ted

To watch
Argo
Cloud Atlas
Rise of the Guardians
Red Dawn
Life of Pi
Jack Reacher

Google makes it easy...

Google, and Youtube, makes it so easy to find an answer, then be led down the slippery slope, through the rabbit hole, over the waterfall and finally float helplessly in a pool of blearily sated sensory overload.

It started with my favorite web comic. Copyright prohibits pasting the comic here directly, but here's the link http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-11-29

Curiosity about what this musical number sounds like led me to google "now these points of data make a beautiful line" (hugely popular soundtrack from the video game Portal, by the way).  Naturally, I clicked on the Youtube link: 

It sounded so good that I just couldn't stop there.  First there was the video response (hey, there's someone playing the piano, so it's a good bet it's an instrumental, usually worth checking out):

After watching the other iterations, including a fun choral arrangement,

a Japanese version (!!),

and an orchestral cover.  Not to mention all the live video recordings at video game conventions, sing-alongs and all.  A huge time-waster, but oh what fun.  And I got a new ring tone out of it.

Happy Year of the Dragon!

恭喜发财 (Gong Xi Fa Cai)!



Continuing our Singaporean family tradition of having a steamboat reunion dinner on the Eve.

Movies of 2011

Top five:
Contagion - It could happen.  Again.
Captain America: The First Avenger - Pulled all the right strings to make it a good action/adventure movie.
X-Men: First Class - Hard to resist a good origin movie to a classic franchise.
Source Code - A very well done time-travel / do-over movie. Avoids most of the pitfalls of the genre.
In Time - The only reason this movie made it to my top five is because it strikes a chord within me.  The feeling of always not having enough time. Irony of spending time to watch it is not lost on me.

Enjoyable:
Moneyball - Good underdog story.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Battle Los Angeles
Cowboys and Aliens
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Cars 2
The Ides of March
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Friends with Benefits
The Muppets
Paul
The Adjustment Bureau
The Three Musketeers
Thor

Could have done without watching (in no particular order):
Shaolin
The Darkest Hour
Drive
The Smurfs
Green Lantern
Fast Five
Kung Fu Panda 2
Sucker Punch
I am Number Four
Hanna
Another Earth
Tower Heist
Larry Crowne
The Mechanic
Priest
Johnny English Reborn
Rango
The Eagle
The Resident
Mars Needs Moms
The Green Hornet

Plan to watch:
Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Adventures of Tintin
The Iron Lady
1911
Sorcerer and the White Snake

2011 January-June Movies

Following up to my January movies-watched post

Very Good

Source Code

- pretty much knew that the twist at the end would happen but getting there was an excellent ride.  Suspense was kept up through the movie.

Super 8

- kinda like Goonies without Data (yah, I'm that old).  Storyline and kids' acting are engaging.

Thor

- another great comic book adaptation.  Good characters that are true to their mythology.

X-Men: First Class

- a good villain (and villain in the making) does make up for a legion of superheroes.

Good

Battle Los Angeles

- action is pretty good.  Gritty alien tech is impressive but aliens themselves are just there to be blown away.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

- much better than POTC 2 and 3, which were just confusing.  Stuck to a decent story and ran with it.  
Rango

- very good animated movie.  Westerns are not my thing, but still quite watchable.

Tron 2: Legacy

- decent movie but too much Gladiator-styling for the games instead of Tron-but-updated computer game setting.  Should have gone MMORPG.

The Social Network

- fast pace good.  Too many spoilers from reviews and real-life.

OK only
Bridesmaids
Priest

- forgettable
Centurion

- forgettable

The Resident
 - Not creepy enough
The Adjustment Bureau
- characters lacked chemistry, liked the doors.
Fast Five
- super-bad-physics alert.
I am Number Four
- teenage angsty.
Mars Needs Moms
- typical disney.


Yawn
Green Lantern
- why oh why did they bother making this.
The Expendables
- all those action stars and that''s the best they could do?
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps
- enough with the self-righteous exposition on how the recession happened.
Sucker Punch
- confusing.
The Mechanic
- forgettable.
Season of the Witch
- slow.

Home Project over 4th of July Holiday Long Weekend

The U.S. Independence Day holiday (4th of July) fell on a Monday this year, a nice 3-day long weekend.  Unfortunately, it also had bright cloudless skies and 33-35C high temperatures almost all 3 days.  This meant what I had originally planned as a one-afternoon home improvement project stretched out to almost 3 afternoons. Every 30 minutes I spent outside, I had to cool down inside for 1 hour!  (Why didn't I do it in the mornings while it was cool?  Would you wake up early during a long weekend?)

No, the project wasn't planting flowers.  Credit for the nice foliage goes to Jia Nin (check out her Flickr site here and here).  My contribution is the red-brick that line the walkway.  


The issue is that those flower beds slope away from the house.  Normally, this is not a problem as it helps shed water away from the foundations of the house.  Unfortunately, it also means that good top soil and compost is washed away when there are ultra-heavy rains, like during a few of the spring storms this May.  This exposes plant roots and flower bulbs, not to mention messes up the walkway.  So I decided to hold back the soil by adding a raised brick edge.


The process is well documented on the internet, which is where I did the research, naturally.  Of course, since each DIY site has their own recommendations and methods, deciding which to use is a challenge in itself.  After a bit of trial and error the first afternoon, I chose this method.


I'm only half done right now.  The far end of the line of bricks has to turn the corner in a 90 degree arc.  The long-ish brick we chose did not follow the curve close enough.  Time to go back to the stores and see what they have!