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Reel Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

17 May 2013 by

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Star Trek Into Darkness is absolutely BRILLIANT. In fact, the brilliance already started more than a year ago when director JJ Abrams initiated his deceptive cloaking technology and shrouded the main villain in total mystery or erm…darkness. Heh. For months Trek fans and other people were simply adding on to the hype of identifying who Benedict Cumberbatch would be portraying. I saw this magic work with my own eyes when the identity of the villain was finally revealed, the entire cinema hall was filed with loud “Gasps” of shock and surprise!

When the Star Trek movie reboot in 2009 was so successful, many people (including myself) were anxiously waiting…not so much as to see what was the next adventure for the rebooted Kirk and his Enterprise, but also with question marks of how JJ Abrams could top his superb 2009 effort. Like a Vulcan would truthfully tell you…..Into Darkness did it!

The pace of Into Darkness is one frenetic ride that doesn’t let up right from the opening sequence, where Kirk and his crew try to save an entire planet from an erupting volcano…without violating the Prime Directive.  The chase in the jungles ala Indiana Jones, Enterprise hiding under the ocean and the suspenseful rescue mission of Spock from the volcano – all in 10 minutes – sets up the backstory of the movie nicely. Events from this opening sequence results in Kirk losing his rank and ship and seamlessly shifts to our mysterious villain, John Harrison, an agent of Starfleet, who calculatively plots a horrific bombing act in London and thus, officially declaring war on Starfleet. This solo act of terrorism continues when John attempts to kill off all the senior staff of Starfleet in their very own boardroom in a high-octane action sequence featuring a helicopter-like vehicle.

Almost immediately, Kirk and his crew are sent on a manhunt mission to apprehend John, who has run away to a deserted area of the Klingon homeworld, Qo’noS, which sets up some really good drama and action sets involving Klingons (yay!). The plot gets a little more complicated after that when John finally reveals his motives and real identity (YAY!). Suddenly the initial (and simple) ‘revenge’ episode plot is spiraled into something much, much bigger, which eventually threatens Earth itself!

One area with much improvement over the first installment was the chemistry between Chris Pine’s Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock, which was simply amazing. Their banter, insults and friendship is the type of space ‘bromance’ that lifts Into Darkness above the ‘ordinary flick’ level. Throw in the deadpan expressions, insults and colourful metaphors (eg. Jim, you don’t rob a bank when the getaway car has a flat tire..) from Karl Urban’s ‘Bones’ McCoy and this movie just comes to life with its witty dialogue.

“Brilliant…with the numerous plot twists like a Bajoran wormhole, dialogue as sharp as the Kahless blade, pacing as fast as Warp Factor 10, action sequences as explosive as an unstable warp core and bright, colourful character chemistry like Dilithium Crystals…”

Visually, Into Darkness is a feast for the eyes. The special effects of the Enterprise emerging from the ocean in the opening sequence, the fight scenes in space and all the destruction scenes were truly unbelievable and really sensational to marvel at! The action sequences would be another key highlight of the movie. Hand-to-hand combat, starship dogfights, space diving-slalom, gunfights, etc. Phew. As I said before, probably the only time the audience got to take a rest and move away from the edge of the seat was during the opening title sequence bit. Heh.

I also liked how the character of John Harrison was developed. Personally, I thought he was somewhat of an anti-villian-type where there were times in the movie that we could actually feel for him and there were times where we would really despise him. I have to admit there were times that I felt as though John was playing with our minds as well…. manipulating us to cheer for him too, perhaps? Hmmmm. That being said, Benedict Cumberbatch was perfectly cast here as his voice, height and facial intensity makes this mysterious villain very, very menacing indeed.

Another thing that JJ Abrams did well in Star Trek 2009, which he also replicated in Into Darkness was the lace the movie with ‘easter eggs’ of Trek lore – be it the type of costumes, the classic one-liners, references to future trek, etc. – which I feel would really connect well with all Trek fans. Yes! Tribbles are in this movie too! (Yay!) Last but not least, there were quite a number of welcomed twists in the plot that makes Into Darkness a truly rollicking space ride indeed!

If I could think of anything negative about the movie, it would be the lack of balanced character development amongst all main crew, with Sulu and Uhura getting pretty limited screen time this time around. Surprisingly Scotty had quite a big share of the limelight, and he did so with much comic relief. Ha. But I guess this is only natural considering the focus of the entire film very much centered on the explosive Kirk-John’s hero-villain stand-off. Another gripe is our local censors, which managed to snipped off certain parts of the movie which everyone had already seen in the trailers?!! C’mon!! There are also some very minor plotholes (eg. slowness of news after London bombing, etc.) which were not glaring enough to wreck the movie’s awesomeness. :-)

To sign off my review, I think I could summarise this movie as a magnificent Star Trek mesh up…with the numerous plot twists like a Bajoran wormhole, dialogue as sharp as the Kahless blade, pacing as fast as Warp Factor 10, action sequences as explosive as an unstable warp core and bright, colourful character chemistry like Dilithium Crystals…Into Darkness is certainly worth every single latinum you have to pay for to see it!

 

Plot:

Acting:

Script:

Pace/Flow:

OVERALL:

 

You may also want to read my other blog postings leading up to Into Darkness:

My Star Trek 2009 review!

5 Thoughts on Into Darkness Teaser

5 Possible Villains of Into Darkness

Star Trek Quotes for Everyday Use

10 Things to do while waiting for Into Darkness

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Football Fantasy: Q3 Report Card

19 Mar 2013 by

Phew. 30 gameweeks down with 8 more to go. With the Fantasy Football calendar taking a 2-week rest with international games on the horizon, it is a great time indeed to reflect on my fantasy football management achievement so far.

Since GW 21, things have been sailing pretty smoothly in the 3rd quarter of the season. From the point collection standpoint, I managed to bump it up to 1,786.5pts, averaging 66.8pts/GW in the third quarter span. Disregarding GW 24th’s pathetic 37 point collection, the key stretch for me was the torrid GW 25-28 stretch where I exponentially amassed points of 64.5, 76, 81 and finally culminating in my career-high 107 point in GW 28.

Key factors that helped me during this period was the consistent form of (shockingly) Liverpool’s dynamic duo Gerrard/Suarez coupled with lucky captaincy picks on Bale, Rooney, etc. I also successfully off-loaded RVP at the right time because he is still struggling to find his scoring touch (till now!)

In terms of money, I only managed to add another 2.2M to the kitty, making my current team value at 160.5M. In all fairness to the new system FF came up with, this is still consistent with the fact that after Q2, we can’t expect to increase our salary cap much already. :-(

All this adds up to a global rank of 101, which is quite satisfying considering I had what I thought to be two ‘below-par’ performances in GW29-30 with hauls of 43 pts and 50.5 pts respectively. Surprisingly, I observed that my global rank dipped only 6 places following those two GWs. I guess this phenomena is an indication that I would have achieved what is termed ‘template-line-up’ as with the majority of the players.

I reckon for the final quarter, I could either choose to play safe and opt for the standard tried-and-tested 5-man midfield, which would more or less guarantee my global rankings won’t increase of drop so drastically…OR opt to rick breaking up the midfield 5 and push for a higher global rank.

Starting from GW 31, you may have noticed that I have decided to take the risk and go for the riskier 3-4-3 formation, which is less stable but promises higher returns provided the strikers score…

Planning ahead in Q4 also tells me that the battle for points would be crucially decided between GWs 32-35 where all managers would have to do well to plan and navigate their teams through various gameweeks with no-games and double games. There are also many uncertainties with some top clubs like Chelsea who’s schedule could still be well disrupted by Cup competitions.

Anyway, that’s the Q3 report to-date….here’s me pushing forward into the final 8GWs with confidence! :-D

 

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10 Things to Fill Your Waiting Time for Star Trek Into Darkness

15 Mar 2013 by

If you are just like me – itching in anticipation of the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, you’d probably be searching for useful things to do whilst waiting for the movie to open, huh? Or perhaps that’s just me..heh.

Anyway, if you DO fall into that category, then you’re in luck because today, I offer 10 best ways to fill your time whilst waiting for Star Trek Into Darkness to open…

1. Scour your attic/basement/racks for your Star Trek movie collection and immerse yourself in a non-stop Star Trek movie marathon…. OK, you are allowed to skip some of the odd-numbered editions too..:-p

2. Brush up on your Klingon language. This online Klingon Translator and Dictionary might help…

3. Continue to put in additional hours of research to try to identify the main villain of Into Darkness.. I have already tried to do so but I think I would probably be very well far off the mark!

4. Continue to practice and incorporating Star Trek lingo into your everyday life…

5. Re-visit your Star Trek book collection and re-read some of your favourites!

6. Sign up on online Trek forums and have meaningful discourse with other Trekkies.

7. Challenge yourself to some essential Trek trivia. One of my most highly recommended books is this:

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8. Load yourself with critical Star Trek knowledge by extensively studying the most comprehensive wiki site for all Star Trek info – Memory Alpha

9. Download the unique Star Trek Into Darkness app on your iOS/Android devices to get the latest on the movie!

10. Repeatedly stare and gawk at this awesome ‘motion poster’ teaser of Into Darkness:


Motion Poster Credits

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Star Trek Quotes for Everyday Use!

26 Feb 2013 by

Fan Art Into Darkness Credits

With Star Trek Into Darkness looming ever closer to its opening, I can’t help but get more and more excited everyday. Thus, to build up the momentum or hype for Into Darkness, I thought it might actually be quite good fun if we started to incorporate or adapt some of those famous Star Trek quotes into our everyday life whilst we wait anxiously to watch the new movie!

Don’t know where to start? Here a couple to help you along:

1. When your PC suddenly crashes, proclaim dramatically..“It’s dead, Jim.”

2. When getting frustrated with terrible service at some counter or bank, heave a huge sigh and say smugly “The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe..”

3. When dark clouds appear and rain drops start to fall, stand up in an urgent manner and yell..“Yellow alert! Raise shields!”

4. Instead of using modern vulgar curses, you could try..“Up your shaft!”

5. Whilst trying to decide where to go have lunch with your office colleagues, you may smartly offer “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”

6. If your office suddenly becomes eeriely silent, try slamming the table and gasp “My God…is this an office or a morgue?!”

7. Upon the completion of a team project or event, during the team meeting or project evaluation, try making a dramatic face and whisper..“Did we….make a…difference?”

8. At networking functions, parties or when making new friends, you could say the following, “Our neural pathways have become accustomed to your sensory input patterns..”

9. When lured by temptation of food, entertainment, etc. it is always effective to use “Resistance is futile”

10. When asked the evergreen question ‘Would you like fries with that’, seriously answer, “Make it so.”

11. During office meetings when  competitors are being discussed or dissed, it could prove rather eloquent to spew, “Revenge is a dish best served cold. It is very cold in our air-conditioned office…”

12. When driving in a car and asked to drive faster, etc., quickly let out a hopeless “I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain!”

13. When faced in a hopeless or challenging situation, adapt to the scenario and cry out “Dammit Jim! I’m a <current profession>, not a <Blank>!” Eg. “Dammit boss! I’m a technician, not a robot!”

14. When noticing a colleague on the receiving end of a lot of work, assignment or stress, gingerly walk up and offer these words of encouragement, “Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want…”

15. To exclaim surprise over just about anything at all, simply use Spock’s famous “Fascinating!”

16. To project good manners whenever you need to cut into a conversation, instead of the boring ‘Excuse me’, why not try, “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

17.  When being accused of lying, coolly defend yourself by saying, “I do not lie. I was merely exagerrating the truth..”

18. When you plug in your phone, PC, tablet or any other gadget to charge, proudly command in a stern, strong voice…“Energize!”

19. At home, when you sit down to relax on your sofa, pick up the the TV remote to turn it on, put on a serious note and exclaim..“On screen!”

20. Whenever asked if you can or cannot complete a particular job or assignment, put on your most dramatic facial expression, hold up your hands as if in agony, and let out the most famous Trek exclamation: “CAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!”

21. And finally, do continue to regularly use the universal Vulcan greeting wherever you go and with whoever you meet: “Live long and prosper”

 

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10 Event Management Lessons from PSY’s Loh Sang Rejection

20 Feb 2013 by


VIDEO LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmemYrrSPY4

When PSY came down to Penang to perform at the highly politicised BN Chinese New Year concert recently, it triggered numerous videos that went viral, including the above video, which highlighted the very poor and inept event management skills of the company that conducted the concert.

Picking myself up from the floor after laughing too hard, it suddenly struck me that apart from the humourous, epic-fail  side of this video, it could also be very beneficial to everyone in the event management industry – as a superb real-life case study of what NOT to do when managing any event!

Without further ado, I proudly present 10 event management lessons you can instantly learn from this video:

1. Prioritize your event agenda: If the main highlight of the entire event was PSY’s concert, it wouldn’t be a sin to discard some items on the agenda…like this Loh Sang activity. After all, having too many items on the agenda would easily dilute the main highlight, on top of eating up too much time and also cause too much discomfort to the people in the sweltering heat. Which brings us to point no 2…

2. Take care of your audience: Personally, I would think the Loh Sang activity would work if it was a CNY Dinner or some makan gathering, where every other table in attendance also had its own set so everyone can lou hei together-gether. In a concert setting, it would seem quite illogical to conduct the activity for just the VVIPs whilst the rakyat watches on under the hot, hot sun!

3. Make sure the size is right: And even if you were somehow forced to conduct the Loh Sang activity, it would be best to ensure that the portion set before the VVIPs is big enough or sufficient. I don’t know about all of you, but the entire segment where the big horde of VVIPs hovering over the small Yee Sang dish seems so, so wrong…

4. Plan the event flow, and stick with it: The video highlighted what the entire mess of the program flow. Should the Yee Sang come out first? Was there going to be any speeches before the ceremony? How were the VVIPs supposed to stand? When were they supposed to start? Should PSY be invited too? It was quite clear that the program flow was certainly not under control…

5. Confirm (and confirm again) the roles of the guest of honor: It seemed quite evident that PSY wasn’t pre-warned or informed of the Loh Sang ceremony. His ‘rejection’ to participate could very easily be avoided if all his roles and responsibilities were spelt out clearly, even before he arrived in Penang.

6. Designate a floor manager to control the workers: You know you have a complete mess on your hands when you see the ministers on stage start to order the workers around. This has got to be well communicated from the start that all the event workers will only take instructions from a designated floor manager for more effective implementation of the event.

7. Filter your event emcee: It was just plain downright comical how the emcee was allowed to wander all over the stage in the middle of the planned Loh Sang ceremony. To top it all off, I don’t know just how long more the VVIPs nor the crowd could stand her high-pitched screaming and meaningless commentaries..

8. Be conscious of prop movements on stage: Watching the Yee Sang table being carried here, there and everywhere is really BAD, and EMBARRASSING….

9. Be time conscious: It was already bad enough that PSY refused to join in the Loh Sang ceremony. What was worst was this awkward 5+ minutes of DUH? time when the (already sweating and tired) crowd and the VVIPs stood around and did nothing but clap and hoped that PSY would turn up. An easy cover would be for the emcee to apologetically announce that PSY was still getting ready backstage and quickly proceed with the Loh Sang cermony. Timeliness is always key in any event management.

10. Advise the VVIPs on stage protocols: In the midst of waiting and waiting for PSY, some of the VVIPs actually started to fiddle with their smartphones, taking pictures of the crowd, possibly tweeting, etc. Personally, I don’t think it was rather appropriate at such a function.

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5 Possible Villains of Star Trek: Into Darkness

08 Feb 2013 by

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With all the hype surrounding the upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness, it is safe to say that everyone, especially all Trekkies/Trekkers is STILL groping in the darkness about the identity of the VILLAIN of the film.

Today, I thought it would be fun for me to join in the bandwagon and offer my 5 best educated guesses into the identity of this mysterious villain.

What I did first was to come with with a simple checklist on the available data/info on the villain, scoured from all current trailers, teasers, Superbowl spots, interviews, etc. to narrow down my list of suspects:

- Villain wears the Starfleet uniform

- Villain seems to know Kirk and NOT the other way around

- Villain is immune to Spock’s nerve pinch

- Villain is mentioned as ‘John Harrison’

- Villain is super strong and can handle a really huge gattling-type gun

- Villain fights with Klingons

- Villain has some unexplainable power to heal

- Villain can be quite persuasive or possesses some charm to manipulate minds

- Villain is a one man weapon of mass destruction?

- Villain has some kind of personal vendetta against Kirk or the Federation

- Villain is from the Star Trek canon

After that, I did some research and came out with my top 5 picks of the villain for Into Darkness (in no particular order):

1. Robert April – Being a sucker at overanalysing stuff, I admitted that I tried to put myself in Abram’s mind and probed myself – if I was Abrams, who would I want to bring back as the key villain to my successful first Star Trek reboot? The first thought that came to me head would be someone who had some history with the Enterprise before Kirk took over. Eventually that led me to my first guess – Willard Decker, who captained the Enterprise in The Motion Picture (TMP) and eventually became a part of V’ger, yada, yada, yada. Then one day it occurred to me that TMP would not take place or had NOT taken  place in Abram’s Star Trek reboot!

Then about a month ago, it was revealed that the pre-movie comic tie-in showcased this relatively unknown Trek character, Robert April. In an episode of the Animated Series titled ‘The Counter Clock Incident‘, April was instrumental in reversing the accelerated ageing process onboard the Enterprise.

My theory is that the villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch is none other that the YOUNGER version of April, since Kirk couldn’t even recognise him from the trailers! Taking cue from the Counter Clock Incident, April could have discovered some formula to reverse ageing, heightened senses and strengths, etc. His feud with the Federation? Perhaps he got pissed that they retired him too early! After all, April did make a comment in the episode that ‘because someone is 75 years old, doesn’t mean they are ready to stop giving service to the galaxy..’ His fascination with Enterprise? Well, one of his quotes in that same episode was ”No matter where I’ve traveled in the galaxy, Jim, this bridge is more like home than anywhere else.”

2. Khan Noonien Singh – Perhaps the most highly favoured probability of the villain has to be the rebooted version of everyone’s favourite Khaaaaaannnnnn! Naturally endowed with superhuman strength and charm to manipulate people, it would seem that Khan would be spot on to battle Kirk in Into Darkness.

For me, I sincerely hope that it will NOT be Khan. Firstly, it would make the rebooted version look TOO similar to the previous movie franchise route. Next, it is almost sinful to mess nor reboot a successful villain of the past! My hope is that Khan will be forever left as a classic villain in the original timestream!

3. Garth of Izar - Another popular character in the Original Series lore, Garth was a decorated, highly-regarded officer in the Federation Starfleet, who rose to rank of Fleet Captain in the course of his service through the mid-23rd century. His career dissolved in a dramatic descent into madness and attempted genocide, resulting in his commitment to the Elba II asylum for the criminally insane. (Source: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Garth_of_Izar)

The X-factor of Garth is that he is also endowed with some form of  ’transformative gift’ which allows him to heal, assume appearances of others (voice, clothing, etc.)

The keywords that jumped straight  at me: hatred for Starfleet, genocide, healing powers, manipulative powers, vendetta with Kirk. His powers of assuming another identity could also explain why Kirk couldn’t recognise him…

4. Gary Mitchell - A Starfleet personnel that grew up with Kirk would set up the back story of the villain’s vendetta against Kirk quite nicely. Mitchell is well known for having esper-oriented abilities that was psionic in nature, giving him God-like abilities like telekinesis, mind control, ESP, energy-control, matter control, etc.

When I thought about the massive destruction seen in the trailers, Mitchell’s name popped up with ease because he IS literally a one man weapon of mass destruction.

Vendetta with Kirk? Checked. Unhappy with Starfleet? Checked. Wears Starfleet uniform? Checked. Ability to destroy cities at will? Checked. Immune to the Vulcan nerve pinch? Checked. Unrecognized by Kirk? Hmmmm.

5. Roger Korby – Another angle in the Trek verse that is seldom explored is the Eugenics Wars, which basically is the result of a scientific attempt to improve the Human race through selective breeding and genetic engineering. Khan was one example bred through this era.

The more I look at the movie stills and trailers, the more I feel that the villain may not be so human after all. his steely eyes, movement, posture, strengths, etc. seems to suggest that he could very well be android in nature. I don’t know about the rest of you but the similarities of the face gestures of Data and this villain looks too similar!

That put me on a path to guess if Arik Soong could be a part of the movie as well. Since the timeline was a little  off, I would have to take a stab at a character in Kirk’s time, ie. Dr. Roger Korby. If you read his wiki from the link I provided, it is clear that Korby could very well the android villain in the movie, since he would be super-strong, unrecognisable in an unidentified android form (John Harrison), has medical knowledge and the additional threat of creating and populating our world with more androids.

 

Any other guesses whilst we are still in the dark? :-p


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Star Trek: The Exhibition

07 Jan 2013 by

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Being a self-professed Trekkie, I was crazily excited ( to say the least) when I read about Star Trek: The Exhibition being showcased right here in Malaysia!! Currently on-going from 13 Dec 2012 till 31 Mar 2013 at the National Science Centre, it is something I simply cannot miss! :-P

Star Trek™: The Exhibition is the largest collection of authenticStar Trek artifacts and information ever put on public display. A truly impressive array of exhibits featuring sets, costumes, priceless museum pieces and props from all five Star Trektelevision series and 11 Star Trek feature films, including the 2009  blockbuster film directed by J.J. Abrams. Together these components offer Star Trek fans and novices alike an opportunity to experience first-hand the imagination, artistry, technology and meticulous craftsmanship that have made Star Trek the most enduring science-fiction franchise in history. (source: http://startrek.emsexhibits.com/about-the-exhibit/)

After plotting out my calendar, I decided to take two of my older children to experience Star Trek first hand through this exhibition on 27 Dec, right after our Christmas break. So I did go in with high expectations of a full Star Trek immersion experience, but unfortunately I came out feeling as if the exhibition should have been titled Star Trek: The Ferengi Exhibition instead…

Having paid RM20 (adult) and RM10 (child) tickets, I was disappointed that cameras were not allowed in the exhibition. Instead we were given a piece of paper that promotes three specific locations where we could get a photo-op of the Exhibition..

The above card was supposed to be a lanyard which we could keep as a souvenir later, but since it didn’t come with any neckstraps, mine ended up slightly crumpled in my jeans pocket. :-P

These were the three ‘exclusive’ photos which we took at the exhibit:

Kirk’s Chair

The Bridge

Transporter Room

Although the exhibition did showcase almost the entire history of Star Trek, its artifacts, costumes, starships, history wall, etc. pretty comprehensively, I walked through the entire exhibit with a niggling feeling that the entire exhibition wasn’t quite as interactive as I had hoped it to be.

Even when we reached the end of the hall, there was a miserable collection of Star Trek merchandise for sale, which I felt was such a put off! Even the processing speed for our 3 exclusive photos was definitely NOT at Warp speed as we had to wait more than 30 minutes to get our photos. I seriously do not know how they will manage the crowd during weekends…

Anyway, since I love Star Trek, I will not only gripe about it but offer some suggestions for improvement for such exhibitions in the future:

1. The entire exhibit feels so old school. Whilst it may have entertained people from a decade ago, may I remind that the world is already quite technologically advanced now and thus the exhibit should be made more hands on and interactive.

2. Have fully functioning turbo-lifts to access certain decks or quarters.

3. Don’t just display Klingon high thrones without allowing us to sit on it?! Sigh.

4. Hands on or interactive game using the Kahless Blade; or Starfleet phasers.

5. Have a better range of Star Trek merchandise for the public. Heck, even the collection of Trek books or movies should also be on sale here!

6. Holodeck? hello?!!

7. A simulation of the Replicator would have been a nice touch. We don’t expect the REAL food to be produced, but I’m pretty sure a simple voice search for teh described food can be displayed in visual form (as a start!)

8. 4D ride on the Enterprise Bridge…complete with flares lights! :-P

9. Hands on try out of the communicator. It’s just an enhancement of our walkie talkie today! I’m sure this could be re-produced right?

10. Virtual trying on of Star Trek costumes/uniforms – with pictures too, of course.

11. Real-life working universal translator to say translate English to Klingon! That would be way cool! :-D

12. It would be nice to also walk through various significant areas of the Enterprise like the Sickbay, Ready Room, Engineering, etc.

13. The Star Trek classic pinball machine should be here too!

14. Having a huge map of the Trek galaxy complete with all the known quadrants would be good. :-)

15. Have a replica of Quark’s bar where we can have a ‘taste’ of Romulan ale or some classic Earl Grey…:-D

Sigh….anyway, guess I can’t expect much for a RM20 entrance ticket. Great exhibition overall, but could have been better if it was more interactive:-D

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Football Fantasy: Q2 Report Card

03 Jan 2013 by

The Football Fantasy Q2 report card always seems to show up much faster, no thanks to the super hectic Christmas-New Year game frenzy!

Anyway, by GW 20, I had more or less stabilised my team and brought it back up from the miserable 1,454 global rank to a more respectable 271th position, accumulating a total of 1,185 points in the process. In terms of budget, I managed to slightly increase it by 5.1M to 158.3M. Though it may not be as good as my trading skills of previous seasons, I guess it is pretty OK considering the volatile market this year.

Having a deep bench probably helped me get through the festive game weeks without much significant damage. As a whole, I still lead my friends with the second placed team about 100 points away. Of course from GW21 onwards, it will be really tougher to climb up the rankings because the so-called ‘template line-up’ would have been covered by most of the top teams. Only key differential would probably be choosing the right captain for each GW.

How has your fantasy team been faring thus far?

 

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5 Thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser

13 Dec 2012 by

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 Woo Hoo! The new Star Trek film – Into Darkness – is all and well into production and scheduled  to beam into all cinemas in May 2013! How excited are you?

For a Trekkie like myself, watching the franchise rebooted by JJ Abrams a couple of years ago was simply amazing. Abram’s Star Trek managed not only to breathe refreshing air into the adventures of the Enterprise, it also drew in new crowds of fans as well!

Even the brief synopsis of Into Darkness sounds engaging enough:

“When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.” (Source: Paramount)

Now, with the launch of the official teaser trailer  (below), I am more than itching to watch it already! The teaser just oozes with enough thrills and mystery that kept me wanting to see more. Check it out..

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diP-o_JxysA

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Now, THAT’s what I call a TEASER!….and check out the Japanese version with some additional juicy bits at the end…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrHlQUXFzfw

Video Credits

Here are my five key thoughts after watching the teaser trailer..

1. Who is the main villian – the one man weapon of mass destruction, featured jumping here and there with that HUGE cannon? Still the biggest mystery to date, many have suggested it to be Khan, but somehow I feel that Benedict Cumberbatch (of Sherlock fame) isn’t quite Indian nor Hispanic or exotic even to pull off a Khan. I mean…Khan can’t be British, right?! Besides, I seriously hope the villain is NOT Khan! In decoding the trailer and synopsis, it would seem that the villain is someone who has some uncanny power of destruction or knowledge of unknown origin. He is also someone who was with Starfleet and is now coming home..so, my best guess is the villian to either be Gary Mitchell, who weilds some psionic abilities that is close to God-like powers or Willard Decker, the oft-forgotten captain of the Enterprise from The Motion Picture who eventually joined V’ger as the next step of its evolution. Whoever it is, as long as it’s not KHAAAAAAAANNN…..:-D

2. Can the Enterprise function underwater? Whoa….

3. No starship dogfights in space ala Enterprise vs Reliant? Sigh. Lack of space scenes in the teaser is leaving me a little worried. :-P

4. Spock! It is simply NOT logical to run around the city streets! Take a cab or something! Also, it is also not very logical to wear a spacesuit and go into a volcano! The suit is already making things hot enough! Sigh. guess Spock must be spending too much time with Kirk….:-P

5. A glimpse of a remade tragic sacrifice scene from Wrath of Khan at the end of the Japanese teaser? Knowing Abram’s penchant for surprises, there’s definitely going to be a twist here…as in Kirk saying goodbye instead of Spock, etc. But then again, wasn’t there a funeral scene in the teaser with Kirk giving an eulogy? Hmmmm…question remains…whose funeral?…

Whilst we are all still groping into darkness in search of the answers, I for one can’t wait for more light to be revealed as the opening day nears.. :-D

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Fantasy Football: Q1 Report Card

12 Nov 2012 by

Well, 10 Gameweeks (GWs) have passed since Fantasy Football started, so it’s that time again for me to provide a full 1Q report how how I’ve fared so far…

In brief, I got off to a really blistering start on this year’s FF competition. Not only did I score back-to-back 80 points to push me to top 88 globally by GW3, it was probably my career-best position ever! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to consolidate my high position nor push it up over the next couple of weeks. I did hover up and down around the 100 – 400 ranking range globally, but that would be about it.

Then disaster struck in the final GWs of 9-11, where I performed miserably, scoring 41.0pts, 31.5pts and 44.0pts respectively. These sub-par scores sent me spiraling down the global rankings from 135th to 1,454th!! Totally kicked out of the top 1,000! SIGH.

The entire 1Q of FF simply proves how unpredictable and cruel football management is. Haha. By GW5, I seriously had super high hopes of achieving my personal KPI of Top 500 this year (an improvement from last year’s 789th ranking). Suddenly, three straight bad GWs, and I’m dumped out of the top 1000! :-o

Some notable changes to this year’s format:

1. Volatile player prices – It’s almost impossible to increase one’s budget this year, for whatever reason. The prices keep dropping and increasing so quickly that the overall budget for most managers should hover around the original budget of 150M. I used to be able to reaped and grow my budget by a couple of million by 1Q, but this year, my budget has only increased by $3.2M. Still quite OK when I noticed many managers are already in the red (ie. below 150M) by this period!

2. Additional scoring parameters – Not sure if this has made things more fun or complicated things further, but now we have a whole list of new stuff to look out for, like Shots on Target, Fouls Conceded, Fouls Won, etc. After a few GWs, I have concluded that the PAR-score for GWs should now be 50pts (compared to 40pts previously). These new parameters would ensure that more points can be scored each GW – making it more tense and also easier for people to catch up (or runaway too!)

Although I’m currently on a ‘losing streak’, thanks to my blistering start, I still carry a lead over my friends who are playing with me. Of course, my lead of 100+ points at one point has now dwindled to just about 34 pts by GW11, where Friend Z is patiently whittling away my lead. Gasp!

An exciting 2Q ahead? You bet! :-D

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