David Beckham, no doubt the world’s most famous footballer to retire.

I have this question that comes to my head since when I was a kid; how can a man who plays football and nothing else can get to such level of popularity that I believe none in this world have not heard of his name before?! The person I mentioned is none other than David Beckham. He had played football for many clubs or teams before, but it was at the time in late 1990s till early 2000s when he was under Manchester United that shot his fame unbelievable remarkable.

 

(Image source: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/16/article-2325558-13D4A83E000005DC-395_634x473.jpg)

When I was a kid, I remembered seeing posters of David Beckham everywhere. He is somehow the first footballer that gets to become a superstar, a celebrity that none other could match his status. In 1999, he married Victoria, a very famous model and fashion designer, whom is also one of the members in Spice Girls, the popular all-female pop group in England. The couple had four children; three sons and a daughter. David Beckham was born in 2nd May 1975. Ohh…his birthday was just not long ago.There’s a bit of his background.

Well, he is the reason for woman to start watching football. He gained attention not only because he did played well on the field. The other main reason is because he had a very good and charming physical look as commented by almost all the women in this world. He is not the best footballer in the history of the last twenty years, and yet, his fame outshines all others, including many who performed and had better records than him in this particular sport. Girls are crazy for him. I’m a boy, and I’m not that interested into football, hence he means nothing to me. However, since he is a huge icon, a huge celebrity, and is breaking the news of his retirement today, hence I took this opportunity to write something about him here.

I have met him. Yes, I have met him. Is it? Do you believe it? No..I meant that I have met his wax figure in my trip to Madame Tussauds’ London Wax Museum early this year. And I had even taken a picture with ‘him’. Haha…his wife, Victoria Beckham is there too. I remembered at that time of my visit to the museum, countless of people were queueing just to take a picture with him. Yes, he rise to popularity and success back in over a decade ago, and yet his fame never gets diminished. All spotlights are still on him when he made any appearances or announcements lately.

He is just too famous. An icon. Not a sport’s legend, but a superstar that comes from sport. And after around twenty years in the career whom he enjoyed, he announced to the world today that he is going to retire. His current age is 38, and I think it’s quite a suitable time for him to make such a decision. He is rich enough, thanks to the money gained from heavy advertising jobs he had over the past years. Hence, there is actually no need for him to get back to field anymore. He can enjoy his life further on. You may not be the best or the greatest footballer, but you somehow leaves a huge impact to the world beginning from this sport. You are no doubt a unmatchable global superstar. Happy retirement, David Beckham.

(All information in this post are from various credible sources throughout the world wide web)

Construction update: One World Trade Center topped out!

On May 10th, 2013 (that’s few days ago), the One World Trade Center officially topped out to its final height of 541 metres or 1776 feet. The figure (1776) is in reference to the year of American independence, hence making the height of the this iconic tower very symbolic to the nation. Construction started in 2006 after all the clearing works had been completed on the site where the 911 tragedy struck that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001.

One World Trade Center, or famously known as Freedom Tower, is designed by David Childs from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. It is to contain 104 floors of office space with a three-storey observation deck occupying the top portion of the tower alongside with mechanical levels which will goes up to 110th floor,  in another symbolic reference to the 110 stories of the original Twin Towers. Its roof stood at a height of 417 metres, which resembles the roof height of the former Twin Towers too.

The building has a square foot base, nearly identical to the footprint of the original Twin Towers, and from the 20th floor upwards, the square edges of the tower’s cubic base are chamfered back, transforming the building’s shape into eight tall isosceles triangles, or an elongated square antiprism. Near its middle, the tower forms a perfect octagon in-plan, and then culminates in a glass parapet whose shape is a square oriented 45 degrees from the base. A 408-foot (124 m) sculpted mast containing the broadcasting antenna – designed in a collaboration with lighting designers and engineers – is secured by a system of cables, and rises from a circular support ring. At night, an intense beam of light will be projected above the spire into the sky above.

Like I said before, on 10th May 2013, the final component of the spire was installed atop the skyscraper, making 1WTC the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third tallest building in the world by pinnacle height. Now, let’s take a look at the current progress of the building’s construction from these very recently taken images from the others. The building is now at its final stage of construction, and is expected to be completed before end of this year.

 

 

The elevation of the tower looks very similar to Shanghai World Financial Center as you can see from the last image above. Previously, there was a change in the design of the tower at its base and on its spire even when it is already under construction at the time of the revision. But the part that affects my impression to the tower is its spire’s design now. Previously, there should be a glass radome below the spire which gently acts as a beautiful transition from the massive building block to the thin and slim pinnacle above. Now, that is omitted, and it leaves the building in quite an awkward feeling. The fully glass-clad building that ends ‘suddenly’ with a long spire. Ehh…Luckily, the circular ring at the roof is still there. I’m looking forward to the lighting design to the tower. Hmm…this building looks massive to me, but not that impressive. Anyway, it’s a very clean, bold and symbolic tower to United States. Now, it towers above all of its neighbouring buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

(Images and information in this post are from various reliable sources throughout the world wide web).

 

I quit watching ‘Bullet Brain’ and ‘Beauty at War’

‘Bullet Brain’ and ‘Beauty at War’ are two TVB dramas that are currently airing. ‘Bullet Brain’ is a period fantasy drama that stars three-time TV king, Wayne Lai as the titular protagonist character Columbo, a detective inspector whose IQ shoots up to 283 after getting shot in the head by a bullet. It is produced by Lee Tim-Sing, whom is already well-known for his masterpiece like ‘Rosy Business’. Hence, after finished watching ‘A Great Way to Care 2′ which is quite a good series, I continued with this one, anticipating for something great from it.

A drama centers on an extremely brilliant detective should be interesting, but I was wrong. Honestly, I expected this to be something as exciting as ‘Rosy Business’. But it looks like the total opposite. From the first few episodes, it appears like there is nothing going on, and things went too weird. The script is weird. The acting is weird. The whole idea is weird. Even Wayne Lai’s presence here couldn’t save the drama at all. I also look forward to Pierre Ngo’s performance but the story just screws everything up.  Then, I do a bit of search to find out what this drama is going to be all about and why is it turned out to be such a failure. Hmm…I found the answer.

TVB producers are now trying to implement new approach to series-making. Which means, new direction to how a particular story is to be carried out, or how a story now focuses on other unexplored dimensions. ‘Bullet Brain’ is Lee Tim-Sing first attempt to this, with intention of giving a fresh outcome to audiences. However, that approach ended with very bad response and critics from viewers, including myself. The drama is too ‘plastic’. There is like no point of doing such a silly drama like this. I couldn’t describe further. I was just too disappointed from its first five episodes itself, and then I made up my mind, to quit watching it. Now, it just ended up not right in all ‘dimensions’.

Later on, there came another highly-anticipated series entitled ‘Beauty at War’, a sequel to the highly successful ‘War and Beauty’ back in 2004 which centers on scheming between concubines in palace. Both stories took place in the parallel universe and this latest production stars Sheren Tang, Ada Choi, Moses Chan, Christine Ng, etc. Quite a heavyweight line up of artists (but not as ‘mega’ as its predecessor). Okay…I’m looking forward to this one since ‘War and Beauty’ left a very good impression to me even after so many years. I was then disappointed again. Everything is so complicated. It’s so hard to understand every dialogues spoken in this period drama.

And then, the worst thing is that there is nothing exciting going on as the story progresses. No serious battle. No serious palace tricks on which I’m looking forward to. The main actresses appeared to have been sidelined with more emphasis given on those minor casts which are a lot in number. The story is all on boring gossips within the palace and the opera performance. Really frustrating watching it. No climax or intense scenes. So, I’m dropping this series off after ten episodes. What’s happening to TVB now? These two series were receiving very poor rating and negative feedbacks from a lot of people now already. And I’m one of them. Their new directions really obviously didn’t work well at all. All gone wrong. So now, no more TVB series for me to catch up.

(All images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Movie review: Jack The Giant Slayer (2013)

‘Jack The Giant Slayer’ is a fantasy adventure film based on a fairy tale of similar title. The movie tells the story of reignition of the ancient war between humans and a race of giants when Jack, a young farmhand fighting for a kingdom and the love of a princess, opens a gateway between the two worlds. I didn’t have the opportunity to watch this film when it is released early this year. Once hearing positive feedbacks from my sister regarding the movie, I went for it and I’m glad that I didn’t miss out this film. It’s a very entertaining and wonderful film.

First of all, the film had a very efficient story-telling. I like the way how the story is carried out and developed. First it started with bedtime story informing on the legend of giants above the sky as well as introducing the two main characters, Jack and Princess Isabella when they were kids. Then, after 10 years, the princess ran out of castle and met Jack who accidentally had the magical beans, and accidentally dropped one below his house. Downpour occurs and the bean is grown to a huge tall tree that connects the Earth to the giants’ world. From there on, the story continues to build up interestingly. Spoiler stops here.

The development of the story engages the viewers consistently, including myself, and I find not a single part from this movie is boring. It’s entertaining and reasonably fun all along. Good job. I like this kind of fairy-tale story which is not too ‘child-targeted’ and can sometime get dark and intense too. And then, this one comes with adventure. My favourite. The performance by the casts are satisfying, but I find the supporting casts have performed better than the two main leads whom I find not impressive enough but still capable of handling the roles.

The visual effects are astonishing. This kind of story involving huge beanstalk tree, castle-like backdrop, a group of giants, and out-of-this-world setting needs good CGI effects and the film did quite well for it eventhough it’s still not at the state-0f-the-art level. Generally, it’s a very relaxing, interesting and entertaining film to watch for. There are also some exciting scenes especially in the final part involving encounter and battle of giants with the people in the kingdom once the giants successfully descended down to the land. The movie stays on a pleasing and light fairy-tale storytelling approach while goes on a bit adventurous to meet current appeal and on the other hand not going off direction like in ‘Snow White and Huntsman’ when the latter goes to a much darker yet unsuitable tone to convey the Snow White story.

 

It’s not a too childish nor a too mature fairy-tale film adaptation. Had an enjoyable night yesterday watching this which successfully helps to get rid of my stress from work on that particular day. A light and fun movie, generally suitable for kids and adults too. Definitely worth-watching and highly recommended. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Jack The Giant Slayer’ a total of 7.5.

(All images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

I’m currently in post-election mood.

Today is the first day after the general election. Okay..Malaysia’s 13th General Election is officially over, with result in favour of Barisan Nasional as expected. Too bad, change cannot be observed at this point of time yet, but let’s hope for that to happen in the next GE. Okay? This 13th GE is the first election I covered in my blog here, and I believed I have written quite a number of posts regarding this widely-discussed topic. The previous 12th GE was in March 2008, half a year before I started this blog, so there is no information of that election covered here. This 13th GE is my first as mentioned earlier.

So, I’m quite nervous and exciting over the arrival and building up of atmosphere leading to this 13th GE which is seen as a very tough fight between BN and PR. That is proven in the outcome. Another political tsunami to BN after the event in 2008 eventhough it still retains the majority in parliament. Najib feels not very happy about it as earlier he expressed confidence to win big but relieved that its coalition still win in the end eventhough only a simple majority. Check out my previous post regarding my analysis of the 13th GE’s result. Now, even after the election, I find my mind still overwhelmed by election-related thoughts. Right now, particularly, those reported frauds during the election process caught my attention and I’m getting angry that my country is still not practising clean and fair election. Big disappointment. Election Commission, what’s wrong with you!

Today, I have to admit that I felt very moody and down. Firstly is because today is Monday blues, and secondly due to the lost of Pakatan Rakyat in this election of which I am hoping for to win. However, I’m still grateful that Pakatan gains more and more seats and that the election yesterday provoked no intense fights or riots. Even if there is, I believed those are in small scales and are not serious like the May 13th, 1969 riot incident that has put a black mark on the history book of Malaysia. Unity and peace comes first.

Hah..today’s talk in office is all about the election’s result. As expected. Everyone must be talking about it for at least a week. Then, all political stuff would have to settle down and life goes on as usual. No more political excitement. Political banners and flags which had been obstructing my views on roads nowadays would be brought down in stages soon. New Chief Minister for respective states is sworn in beginning today, and new cabinet committees will be formed. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak continued his position as the Prime Minister alongside with Tan Sri Muhyiddin as Deputy whom his presence is hardly felt. It’s all on Najib. Sometimes, I do pity him for taking such a huge burden all by himself.

In my area, Teratai zone, a woman from DAP (I forgot her name) won the seat here. It is her first time contesting here and it’s quite surprising that she won in a big majority over a young Chinese guy from BN by over 13 000-vote margin. Jenice Lee on the other hand whom is the former Teratai seatholder contested as independent this time and lost. Conclusion, many votes based on party, not based on individual. For parliament level of Pandan, a young Malay guy from PKR won. Then, overall, my state, Selangor is also won by opposition. Good. My area is fully governed by opposition. I’m happy for it.  I can only see improvements in my area once the opposition takes over from BN in 2008. Something to keep myself a bit joyful apart from always thinking of the the dark truth behind BN’s manipulation to the outcome of the 13th GE.

Ehh…I couldn’t vote at this 13th GE and yet, I’m so excited and interested about it. No more…no more! Okay…I guess beginning from now on, no more political-driven posts from me anymore since the general election is over. The next one would be on five years later. By that time, I can vote already, then…let’s hope an extra vote in 14th GE from me could help PR to further strengthen its position in government stage for better Malaysia.

(Image in this post is from other source throughout the world wide web)

Ruling coalition, BN continue its win in GE13, but the opposition, PR continues rising.

I promised to update my blog over the latest result of the 13th General Election of Malaysia yesterday’s night but I failed to do so because I felt too sleepy when the final official outcome has not even been announced yet by 2 am. Usually, overall result would be known by around 12 am, but for this time, it takes much longer. Possible reasons will be discussed later. Let’s move on to the highlight of the general election that took place smoothly on Sunday, 5th May across the country in over 8 000 polling centres. GE13 saw the highest turnout of voters in history of Malaysia, with over 80% of the approximate 13 million eligible voters fullfill their responsibility as a Malaysian citizen to cast their vote respectively.

Out of 222 parliamentary seats, Barisan Nasional, the ruling coalition won a total of 133 which gave them a simple majority to form the new federal government for the next five years. It is a reduction of 7 seats to BN compared to the previous general election in 2008. Similarly, BN couldn’t achieve the two-thirds majority in the parliament due to much stronger presence of the opposition. The opposition pact, Pakatan Rakyat won a total of 89 seats, an increase of 7. Out of the 89 seats, DAP is the biggest winner in the opposition pact by winning 38, PKR winning 30 and PAS winning 21. In percentage, BN took 60% of the parliament seats in federal level while PR took 40%.

For state level, BN won a total of 275 state seats while PR won a total of 230 state seats. In percentage, BN took 54.4% while PR took 45.6% on which the gap is quite narrow and worrying to BN. Let’s move on to the hot seats; Lim Kit Siang of DAP won Abdul Ghani, the caretaker Johor’s chief minister in over 14 0000-vote margin. Nurul Izzah of PKR won Raja Nong Chik in over 1000-vote margin. Kong Cho Ha (BN – MCA), caretaker Transport Minister lost to Mohd. Imran of PKR. Liow Tiong Lai (BN – MCA) won over DAP’s Wong Tuck by 300+ votes only on which this case, many believed fraud has occurred as early counting revealed Wong Tuck leading by at least few thousand votes. Feel some dirty tricks there? It is indeed.

Brief conclusion in 10 points:

- BN continued to win places they used too, but also losses out part of its stronghold particularly in Sabah, Pahang and Johor.

- BN took Perak and Terengganu states in a very slim majority with only one to three seats difference. Ahh…luck is not on PR.

- Similarly to 2008′s 12th GE, the opposition won mostly in states at the western side of Peninsular Malaysia, which experienced more development and account for much of country’s development.

-Opposition pact had gained two-thirds majority easily in Penang, Selangor and Kelantan that enablem them to govern the three states. DAP won most number of parliament seats contested in Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (country’s capital) with very significant increased or big majority.

- DAP emerged the biggest winner among the opposition pact, winning a lot of state seats as well. PKR’s performance is steady while PAS’s performance dropped which allows BN to wrestle back Kedah.

- A lot of independent candidates contested this time, but overall failed to attain any seats from both BN or PR.

- By counting on popular votes, PR is actually leading with 5.6 million votes while BN only garnered 5.2 million votes. This indicates that BN won many seats covering areas with only small populations.

- Najib blamed the setback in BN’s win in two words; Chinese tsunami. This remark has been publicly criticized as being racist-based. Najib who continued to be the Prime Minister has called on for national reconciliation. No matter how much hard work he put in, how famous his One Malaysia slogan is, his coalition’s performance still decreases.

- MCA under BN suffers greatest defeat in the history of the party by only winning seven (two of them are believed to be win from frauds) seats out of 37 parliament seats contested. It lost a lot in state seats too. Above 80% Malaysian Chinese are now rooting for DAP instead.

- Opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim couldn’t accept the result of the election due to various reports of frauds accompanied with evidences as well.

So, what are the frauds?

I guess this would be the most interesting part. In the early counting stage, it is reported that PR wins quite a lot. But from news reporting through media last night which is controlled by the government, mostly only Sarawak’s result is released as BN is very confident on winning a lot of seats there while buying them some time do some manipulation to votes counting at other states that worried them. You realized it too that during yesterday’s live news telecast, mostly only results in favour of BN is announced? That’s a trick there.

Then, out of sudden, many polling centres experienced blackout during the votes counting. Once the lights are back on, few new ballot boxes (not counted yet) appears. It’s what we called as Najib’s magic. And those boxes are the main twist to the result which early favours PR but finally landed the win to BN in many areas. Obvious cheating there! Then, in the morning during the voting period, some people spotted several foreigners trying to vote. They are stopped by the locals but they give excuse that their appearance might look like a Bangladesh but they are actually Malaysians. Then, the locals asked them to sing national anthem, but they couldn’t even say a word out. But too bad, they had IC (given by government) and police allowed them to enter to vote. Back to the night of vote counting, many people posted photographs of a taxi carrying several ballot boxes (contain over thousands of ballot papers out of nowhere) in the late night carried for counting. This is obviously suspicious.

Then, the indelible ink can be washed off within the day itself. What’s the point of spending few millions to buy that ink (which only cost the most few hundred thousands…the other sum of money goes to..ehhmm) There are quite a number of suspicious events or frauds during the overall election process. But what we can do? Nothing. Many have voiced out yesterday’s night that democracy is dead in Malaysia. Yes, indeed. I felt ashamed over such embarrassing and unfair way of how the election was held. Very disappointed and all that gets me extremely angry. BN, you may win the majority of the votes, but you lose the hearts of many Malaysians.

Eventhough the opposition couldn’t take over the federal government from BN which had been controlling the country for over 55 years since independence, but everyone felt the power of the opposition is rising, particularly to young voters. I believe many elders had also waken up learning and realizing the true face of BN. But too bad, quite a portion are still within their own dream without thinking for the future of Malaysia. Next time, in 14th GE, PR will rise and I give my promise as early as from now on to vote five years later. I believed more and more Malaysians begin to think and choose wisely now on which political direction they head to, as observed from the country’s general election from the past to the present. And I would like to thank every Malaysians who have voted yesterday for the 13th GE eventhough the result is quite disappointing but I expected that kind of outcome due to certain ‘things’ did behind! Hmm..Rosmah must be very happy now as she can continue to buy more bags and jewelleries worth millions!

Honestly, a full stop to all that shit! Change can’t be done this time. But I’m looking forward for the ‘change’ effort again in 14th GE expected to be held in year 2018. Not going to give up. Go..go..go…all Malaysians!

(Images and information in this post are from various reliable sources throughout the world wide web)

GE13 now! Happy voting day to all Malaysians today!

  

Yes, finally, today is the day of polling for the 13th General Election of Malaysia! For Malaysians above 21 years old and have registered as voters, kindly get out to your respective polling centre, queue for a while, then cast your vote today between 8am to 5pm. Don’t do it at the very last minute. Who knows the polling station might close early or bad weather predicted later in the afternoon would delays your time. Fullfill your responsibility as a Malaysian to vote for a better Malaysia. Thank you.

I think today would also be the day in history of Malaysia having the highest number of cross drawn by Malaysians in a single day. Haha…Over 13 million Malaysians are eligible to vote, with over 8000 polling centres opened across the country. A total of 1,900 candidates (579 parliamentary, 1,321 state) will be contesting for 222 parliamentary and 505 state seats. The first results are expected to be announced at about 7.30pm. Hmm…the final result is predicted to be announced by midnight. I think I’m going to wait till the announcement (very looking forward to it) before going to bed.

This is it. This is the day. A very crucial day that will affects the future of Malaysia in the next five years while the country is approaching closer to Vision 2020. Think wisely and make the right choice. Your individual vote make a difference. However, no matter you are supporting the transformation programme or the reformation/ change agenda, kindly ensure this day to be a peaceful day without any unwanted incidents or riots. Peace and unity come first above all.

My Facebook home page is flooded with images of finger already applied with indelible ink indicating that many have voted in the early morning when I’m still asleep. Good job! Some have also posted complaints like having to queue very long, ink on finger can be washed off, encounter with foreigners at the polling centres, etc. Hmm…I wouldn’t want to explain further on the dirtiness of the election which still exists no matter how many time all Malaysians demanded for free and clean one.

No matter what it is, all Malaysians, kindly proceed to the voting to determine the fate of our beloved nation in the next five years. I couldn’t wait till the night when the result would be announced. Would it be in favour of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak with his ruling coalition Barisan Nasional or would it goes to the Opposition Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with his opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat? It’s a tough fight. But everything would comes to a conclusion tonight after weeks of tiring campaigning. I’m going to write a post tonight regarding the election’s result too!

To all Malaysians, happy voting day! Happy GE13!

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)