French ‘Spiderman’ scaled the world tallest man made structure; Burj Khalifa

Two days ago (28/3/2011), the famous French climber commonly known as the Spiderman had made the first attempt to climb to the top of the world tallest building, Burj Khalifa. With a height of over 828m, it is by far also the world tallest ever man made structure.

The climber is Alain Robert, whom have climbed many skyscrapers around the world including former world tallest buildings, like Taipei 101 in 2004, Petronas Twin Towers in 2009 (first and second attempts in 1997 and 2007 failed due to arrest) and Sears Tower (now named Willis Tower) in 1999. With his age of 48, he is still energetic and strong enough to continue his interest on climbing tall structures eventhough it is very dangerous and life-threatening. In some attempts, he did not even use safety ropes, but luckily not for this one in scaling Burj Khalifa as the government wanted him to be safe.

He spent 6 hours and 15 minutes in climbing to the top of the spire of the tower. Imagine yourself climbing at such a height with the angle directly vertical from the ground! This must be impossible for a lot of people except him. 6 hours of climb would be very tiring and among the longest for him. This would be a great achievement for him, as previously he scaled building of around 400 and 500 m the most, but this time it’s over 800 m! Many people took photographs and videos of him climbing the tower, which he successfully climbed to the top after midnight. Can you spot Alain in the picture below? I don’t think so…

It must be very exhausting for him, but he still managed to do it! He could have just taken the world fastest lift to the top, but he wanted for a breakthrough access to the top, which is by climbing the exterior. Of course, he went back down to the ground by lift. I would definitely praised for his effort on climbing to the top of Burj Khalifa, and now he is surely very famous for many records he hold now, especially the latest one; Burj Khalifa!

Pictures and some information from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370889/French-spiderman-scales-Dubais-Burj-Khalifa-worlds-tallest-tower.html)

Construction of London 2012 Olympic Stadium completed

It’s on the newspaper today…that the construction of the main venue for London 2012 Summer Olympic Games is completed. It’s called as Olympic Stadium, London and it will be the third largest stadium in Britain after Wembley and Twickenham. With maximum seating of 80 000 people for Olympic to host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletic events, the stadium will be scaled down to a stadium of 60 000 seats. Part of the upper tier will be dismantled after the games as a solution for a more environmental and economically friendly structure.

The construction of the stadium is stated to have completed today with the final piece of turf laid on the field of play. Construction started in May 2008, and less than three years, the stadium is now completed with some final touches like landscaping, wall finishes, and laying of running tracks to be done before the end of the year. It is definitely a great achievement to the builders and contractors that over 5000 in number. The stadium is definitely completed on time and under budget as well as with exemplary safety record.

There is nothing interesting on the architecture of the stadium which is designed by Populous firm without any international design competition going on. Hence, there is no exciting or interesting idea out from this boring-looking design. It seems to be more like a structure than a work of art, unlike the main stadium for Beijing 2008 Olympic, commonly known as Bird Nest Stadium for its distinctive architecture. Many people gave bad critic on London Olympic Stadium, basically on the issue of design as well as is the stadium truly economical and environmental friendly which is arguably not so!

Fine, it’s still a magnificent structure in terms of the scale and the purpose it is built, which is for the world largest sporting event. So, everyone would still turn their eyes towards this structure too no matter how boring it looks like when the next Olympic comes in 2012. However, this structure won’t last long in terms of identity to London and it even won’t last long visually and technically due to the scaling down of the stadium after the Olympic.

The day my second nephew born…

My feeling would be definitely not as exciting as my eldest sister’s feeling as she gave birth to another baby boy for her (her second son) this afternoon. She is now eventually mom to two babies, which she hold very great responsibility in taking care of them. Congratulation to my sister for bringing another precious life to her family! I think my sister would be wishing for a baby girl next time, but surely not that fast…family planning is the priority now for them…

Ohh…the baby boy’s name is Jordan, younger brother to my first nephew, Joseph by over one year. Joseph is currently only 1 year and 2 months old, and he is now the elder brother to Jordan whom is now only few hours of age, not even a day. I’m kinda happy for having the second nephew…one more baby for me to play with…haha…but not at the moment yet, because Jordan is just too young now. Wait few months later then only I can start playing with him like how I treat Joseph.

Still small, still tiny with only weight of 3kg, this baby is going to see a whole world right in front of him, accompanied by my sister, my brother-in-law and his brother. He is going to be my another nephew, which I should admits that I’m old to many people already. Let me see…oopss, I am an uncle to over 10 people already, one even older than me…huh… I did not manage to visit my sister’s today as she is not transferred to patient’s room yet. I will go by tomorrow to take a first look at my second nephew. He is going to be another cute, adorable and lovely baby of my sister. She is going to have a hard time handling two babies at the same time, but what to do…mom is the greatest! We salute all caring moms around the world…

Congratz to my sister once again and hope she would have a good rest and quick recovery after the operation…

Went for early Qing Ming Festival…Hot and tired!

Currently it’s the Qing Ming month in Chinese lunar calendar, and it’s the tradition of many Chinese to pay a visit to graves of deceased ancestors and burn incense and joss sticks to them during the month. It is the tradition of my family too, to two destinations, first is my grandpa’s grave at Hokkien Cemetery, Cheras, and another one is my mom’s one at Nirvana Memorial Park, Semenyih.

We didn’t decide to go early because we are worried by traffic jam caused by more people going in early morning. So, the consequence is that there is no traffic jam at all which is good, but we are going to stand under the scorching heat from the sun in the afternoon for few hours. Umbrella is our best friend at the time. Going down to my grandpa’s grave is quite difficult with the need to climb down a steep slope. Ooppss…I accidentally stepped on an improper grave which I thought that it’s only an empty land there. Sorry for that…

Then, it’s quite a far journey from there to Nirvana Memorial Park, so called the world largest memorial park. It is huge, scenic and beautiful there, and so every plot of land on sale is very costly. It’s serious traffic congestion leading up to the park there, beginning with a temple for Dai Bak Gong and a long dragon sculpture, the icon of the park. As the park is very huge, we have to find the section where my mom’s grave is located. At last, found it! Mom, it’s me…Time to settle all those traditional works; preparing oranges, food, tea, white wine and burning joss sticks, red candles, and incense which includes many paper-made gold and a box of stuff like car, handphone, shirts, etc to my mom. It’s a bit not environmental-friendly but tradition has to be followed somehow.

Yes, finally finished all those stuff, and we have the time to look at the others, especially those with firecrackers explosion that caught our attention. It’s very hot under the bright sun and it’s time to leave. Ohh..it’s already over 2pm, and I just reached home and took bath at 4pm. My body and shirt is full of smell of ashes and even my hand is hurt by the falling hot ashes from joss sticks. More than half of the day is gone for this traditional thing. Luckily, it’s only once in a year.

Earth Hour 2011 update in Malaysia

Over 7 hours ago, the first city to organize this event, Earth Hour marked the beginning of another cycle of the event for the fifth year in 2011. It’s the major city of Australia, Sydney with famous structures such as the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge had their lights turned off for an hour between 8.30pm to 9.30pm on their local time.

Around 4 hours ago, it’s time for majority of Asian nations like China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and my country, Malaysia to take part for the global event. In Malaysia, specifically on the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, the famous world tallest twin buildings, the Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower had their magnificent lighting turned off to support the event. Some other notable buildings in the city do joined the effort too. This is a picture from The Star Online that showed Kuala Lumpur before and during Earth Hour 2011.

As usual, many people around KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) surrounding the Petronas Twin Towers will scream when the lights turned off of the twin buildings. Maybe it’s a form of excitement to them but I don’t think it is worth a scream. The facade lightings are only turned off…it is no big deal, right? Anyway, it is good to live up the atmosphere too. Maybe the foreigners would like this kind of situation; people screaming in darkness…haha…Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower have their own different time version, and so they won’t coincide by switching off lights together at the same time. This is a video by gyeoblogspot.com showing the twin towers and the KL Tower turning off lights for Earth Hour 2011.

As soon as I stepped out from finished watching a movie in the cinema in Cheras Leisure Mall, I can’t see anything different in terms of lighting because it’s all over. The time is almost 10pm by that time I stepped out of the cinema. So, I can’t see any of those non-essential lights being turned off. I only realized that no plastic bags are given in purchase at GSC stall for the day and the lighting at the GSC counters is still closed even the time is already 10pm. Anyway, during the time of the Earth Hour, I’m in darkness too (in a cinema’s hall…haha) but the light is very bright from the movie screen ahead…haha

So, everyone has their own way of passing through the Earth Hour. Some would be going out with friends or family. Some would be having usual or unique dinner that time. Some would be dating or wondering around in KL streets or wherever possible. Some would rather stay at home alone, and some would be ignorant too by having all lights turned on as usual. It’s up to you, but please think again; why not support this global event! I believed many Malaysians are supporting this as I see very few people going for movies on Saturday night when is usually flooded with people. These people most probably celebrating Earth Hour somewhere else. That’s good…no need to queue at the GSC stall there…haha…

Earth Hour 2011 is still not over yet, for the west part of the world (America and Europe region). Few hours later, Earth Hour 2011 would be then over for the whole world. Then, we will continue supporting the event by participating for next year in 2012. Anyway, go beyond the hour in loving Earth!

2nd MY ASTRO Music Awards 2011…lack of attending singers and intense competition…

This is the award show beginning last year that replaced the annual drama awards by Astro Wah Lai Toi. Astro is now more oriented into music for recent years. The 2nd MY ASTRO Music Awards 2011 was just held and ended an hour ago in Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands, the place where I am in there last week for Sammi’s concert.

Too bad, I didn’t know how to get the free tickets to attend the awards show. It is aired live on Astro AEC channel as well as radio station MY FM. I did watched the last half of the show after finished watching a movie in cinema. There are way too much awards presented. There is actually to be exact a total list of twenty songs to be awarded the best 20, but at last, they picked 25 songs. They even mentioned out they are wishing for 30. Huh…how can there can be so many songs for the past year so deserving?!

The artists coming are in very few number and the organizers kept mentioning that there is a strong artists’ participation this year. I still think it is way not enough. There must be at least 20 international artists to join for this awards show. Since there are only very few and limited number of famous Taiwanese singers coming (notably Wang Lee Hom, Jolin Tsai, Fahrenheit, Ding Dang, etc), these singers grabbed a lot of awards respectively until they even feel bored of going to the stage again for another not-so-recognizable award.

The competition of who will win this award could not be felt as the winner is always expected, whom must be one of them sitting there, present on the awards show. It is not intense or exciting at all. For example, the last two major awards of best international Chinese male and female singers whom go to Lee Hom and Jolin are very much expected and predicted as they attended the show and they sat at the very first seats. The last major award, the gold artist award goes to Lee Hom, whom basically won it due to his fame especially on his latest song on his film of Love in Disguise which I liked the song too.

This awards show should be continued annually and won’t be having the same fate like the Astro Wah Lai Toi Drama Awards which had been terminated last year. Astro should be bringing up music industry of Malaysia to a higher level through awards show like this, which is recommended to be made on par with those music awards in Taiwan or Hong Kong with presence of more singers. Local Chinese singers should do their best too. As for film industry in Malaysia, there is still no hope at this time and for drama industry which depends solely on TVB cooperating with Astro on Demand currently, the new Astro on Demand awards should be made into a more grand show, something similar to TVB Awards Presentation.

As for this 2nd MY ASTRO Music Awards 2011, I didn’t see any of Hong Kong singers attending the show this time. I remembered for last year, many Hong Kong singers came. I think that they felt bored already by winning too many awards respectively without any sense of competition, and so they are all absence this time. More Taiwan singers attended this time, and it seems that they are facing the same issue; they would be scared of having their names called over and over again to receive numerous awards. Probably we will not be able to see them again next year…haha…So, whose left? Ahhh…those not-so-talented and infamous local singers who can’t make it to international level! Sorry for saying that but it’s true!

I won’t list down the results here. Check it yourself by just searching for it from google. It is very easy to do that. I wrote this post just to write down my opinion and comment on this awards show which can be said as being done successfully too. Congratz Eason Chan for winning the top award last year and Lee Hom for winning the top award for this year. It is still a stunning awards show by entertainment industry of Malaysian Chinese. This awards show is still young (only two years old). Next year have to be way lot better!

Movie review: Men Suddenly in Love (2011)

We spent the time during Earth Hour watching this movie, a comedy film by director Wong Jing, whom is famous in directing out-of-sense and crappy films (to be honest). However, I like many of his films as his main objective is just to create funny movies, and he did it quite successfully in almost all his films. I like funny movies and so I’m going for this one too.

Men Suddenly In Love is about five married men (one young and four middle-aged men) being tricked by their suspecting wives whom paid five women to seduce them. This movie is definitely for people aged 18 and above as there are too many, or I should say excessive amount of dirty or yellow-minded things going around in the film. Many of the humorous things from this film came from this source which is only for adults. Don’t think negatively…there is no exposure of explicit things in this film. All the things brought up to attention in this movie is only for entertainment purpose.

So, the story deals with 15 + 1 people. The 15 people are the five husbands, five wives and the five young women used to trick the husbands. The special one added is the old teacher of the 5 husbands who taught them on sex relationship between men and women. So, the story won’t go one-sided; it revolves from one character to another. Hence, it is interesting, as the style of the plot switched on from this to that.

This movie is not really that crappy or nonsense. The story is still logical, and the acting is satisfying by the main casts like Eric Tsang, Chapman To, Maggie Cheung, and even the director himself, Wong Jing. This movie is of course not for kids. Don’t think that middle-aged men can’t give us laughter! It is proven from this movie by their brilliant performance. Some scenes are quite lame…as predicted from a creation by Wong Jing. Out of 10 points, I gave this movie 6.9.

Time to off lights for Earth Hour 2011…

It’s 8.30pm on the last Saturday of March 2011, so it’s time to join the global event of Earth Hour by switching off non-essential lights for an hour of the night.

It’s time to:

• click or press on buttons to switch off your non-essential lights of your home or building for an hour.
• get yourself into the darkness of the night with the only source of light from the beautiful moon.
• turned off your computer/laptop too…gets offline for this hour to save electricity. Many sites will be closed down for this hour as support too.
• appreciate the real feeling or atmosphere of being at night with no artificial influence (sound, visual, touch), the real nature!
• ask others (friends, family, neighbours or even strangers) to support Earth Hour not only for this year, but every year.
• show your love and care for the Earth beyond this hour too!

Let’s make this hour a symbolic hour to mark our awareness on the world’s climate. Take action now before it’s too late.

When this post is published on the blog, I am actually at outdoor already, watching movie in cinema with my family. So, I will be in the darkness too and all the non-essential lights of my home will be switched off since no one is at home. Even GSC is supporting the event too. There are many other ways to enjoy the night in darkness.

Earth Hour 2011 beyonds the ‘hour’

I believed most of us knows about this Earth Hour, an annual global event in switching off lights for an hour from 8.30 to 9.30pm on the last Saturday of March to create awareness among the people for an action in climate change. The event began in 2007 with only participation of Sydney, Australia. In 2008, over 30 countries joined the event. In 2009, the number of countries participated exceeds 80, and in 2010 (last year) the number increased to over 130 countries. For this year, I believed the number would be keep increasing as it is the world largest voluntary action to switch off the lights for one hour at their respective time.

Malaysia is among the first nations participating for the event in 2008, but at that time, not many are introduced to it. In 2009, many side-events were organized in conjunction with Earth Hour that brought the attention of many people. Same will come on this upcoming Saturday (yes, it’s tomorrow) when as usual, non-essential lights turned off for an hour alongside with some parties or events organized at some places.

The participation is just not within that hour between 8.30pm to 9.30pm tomorrow. Of course, it seems to be impossible for lights to be turned off longer like 2 or 3 or even a day. That one hour is just a symbolic meaning of unity between people of all participating nations in caring for Earth. Our action for climate change should be more than that, more than that hour. Save consumption of non-renewable energy, or even water as there are recent news that Malaysians used up a lot of water. Plant more trees, save the forest, practice 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle), don’t create more waste, and use environmental-friendly applications. There are many other things we can do to care for the fragile Earth daily. I think I don’t need to make it as a reminder, right?

You may or may not participate in this global event, or probably you might be outdoor so, you would have no switch to turn off light. It is your choice, but for support to the event, why not? Just a simple step, a press or click to turn off the lights, especially non-essential ones for only an hour. Let’s be in the dark on tomorrow’s night for an hour and enjoy the true essence of night which is totally dark and with the only source of light from the beautiful moon. It’s a good time to be in silent, think of what you can do for Earth and appreciate the nature.

As usual, many buildings in Kuala Lumpur will switched off the facade lighting for the event, notably the world tallest twin buildings, Petronas Twin Towers, KL Tower, Sunway Pyramid, etc. As I have mentioned on the header for my blog for the month, it’s a global move in loving Earth. Simple phrase yet meaningful enough to convey the message from Earth Hour. Notice the addition of a cross to the official Earth Hour logo (from 60 only to 60+ now) which means that our support should be beyond the hour.

So, tomorrow’s night is the time for it! Do your part and we will make make a change!

Movie review: World Invasion; Battle Los Angeles (2011)

Another extra-terrestrial movie after ‘Skyline’? Yes…but this time, this movie is more specifically on the war against the aliens with mainly those shooting actions. I wonder why everytime a movie is on extra-terrestrials or the end of the world, the setting would be definitely at New York or Los Angeles. The title of this movie itself tells the location already. Comparing this with ‘Skyline’, I think that ‘Skyline’ is a better movie, unlike many others who prefer this over ‘Skyline’.

Battle Los Angeles is about a group of military men as well as a female on duty to save civilians while fighting against the violent extra-terrestrials. I expected a lot of shooting, firing and explosion scenes from this movie, but I think it’s a bit too much, driving the movie into a merely war film rather than dealing with issue like the end of the world. I personally dislike war-based film except Pearl Harbour. So, I kinda get bored throughout this movie too eventhough there are quite a lot of action-packed scenes. The plot seems to be very much expected, especially the ending when human would finally prevail to dominate back the land while the enemies retreat (not fully dead).

This is just an ordinary movie that fills up my Sunday’s afternoon. Not very exciting, not very interesting and also not very touching eventhough there are some scenes of people crying over death of their family members or friends while being consulted by the main character. It goes all out to achieve all the aspects it wanted too but finally it turns out to be isn’t that good or successful. Luckily, some other aspects still reached satisfactory level like the visual and sound effects as well as the performance by the casts eventhough they are not famous (I don’t recognize any one of them). Out of 10 points, I would rate this one 6.7.