on the screen: How to Train Your Dragon 3D

urgh. Back at work, after a relaxing holiday in Krabi. Couldn't wake up this morning for work, but oh well. Managed to catch a flick last night at GSC Midvalley.

How to Train Your Dragon was one of those movies that didn't have much hype surrounding it, at least not here. Saw a large billboard for it near my house, but it wasn't promoted by the cinemas nearly as much as any of the other recent blockbusters.

After a few good reviews, though, we decided to give it a whirl and see if it really was any good. And it was. This is one of the few movies that actually seems like it does have a point in being in 3D, unlike some other movies that were all hyped up in 3D but just didn't really seem to be effective in that medium.

A heart-warming story and excellent graphics along with good voice acting make for a good experience, despite the corny title. I'll give it a 7/10

hanging in there

Wednesday is almost over, weekend is imminent. Whoop-dee-doo! : )

hates people cutting in, either in person or on the road

A common sight, especially at traffic lights, is cars blocking another lane while trying to jump queue and cut in front of a line of cars that are patiently waiting for their turn. Sometimes, it doesn't even need to be a traffic light, it could simply be a u-turn or some other place where people have to slow down.

It really gets me very mad at these people. Is their time more precious than mine? Do they have fewer hours in a day? Do they have their pants on fire or something? The thing is, it's easy to blame this on the 'bengs' but lots of people do it, young girls, older gents, even family men with their entire families in the car, all swoop in at the last minute and just cut in and cause even more traffic to build up with their selfish actions.

The worst of the lot, if you honk them, will simply slam on their brakes right at the intersection and not allow anybody else to pass for a minute or so. As if it's your fault that they're downright rude and have the manners of a Neanderthal. Actually that's an insult to Neanderthals, I'm sorry.

And sometimes, they will block an entire lane that's actually free to turn, simply because they want to get ahead of a few cars. The complete selfishness of these people astounds me. How can they actually go about their business and all and even sleep at night? Would they be angry if someone did it to them?

So, because of the actions of a few idiots, who can't wait, honest drivers who have been waiting for 5, 10, 15 minutes, get forced to wait longer, simply because some uneducated idiot can't wait a bit.

Meanwhile, I have the same peeves with people who try to check out baskets full of items at express lanes in supermarkets. I mean, can't they READ when the sign says 8/10/whatever items or less? If there were like 11 items or something I'd understand, but I don't understand how they are going to try to sneak like 102 items through the express lane.

The beauty of this is, when the cashier has the guts to stand up to them, they get upset. They either argue with the cashier, or sometimes they just leave in a huff and leave all their items behind. Yeah, way to go, getting all upset because someone had the temerity to stand up for what was right. They can go without their groceries, for all I care.

Pos Malaysia, finally actually doing their job

Finally got two out of the three parcels I was waiting for, this week. Two months overdue.

Checked the order number, they were both the re-sent parcels. Which means that the original ones are still missing (after a month, I told the senders that my orders did not arrive so they sent another shipment, FOC). Some thief out there has them, and is probably enjoying the use of MY stuff somewhere. Brill, absolutely brill.

I still have some guitar picks that I ordered from the US that are supposed to arrive sometime. Even that order was re-sent. I hope they actually arrive.

hey yo! Air Asia and other pet peeves

hi hi! back again, decided to move the blog back to this domain and keep my own custom domain to myself for my own nefarious purposes. So for all intents and purposes, I'm back. at least for now.

so! a while ago I booked a flight through Air Asia, got the booking number through my confirmation e-mail and everything. Decided to try checking the baggage allowances and in-flight meals and stuff through the website.

BUT IT WON'T LET ME!

I entered in the booking number, flight dates and airport information correctly as requested, exactly as it's given me from the confirmation e-mail. The website tells me there's no such booking number.

So I e-mail them (as directed by Air Asia's website).

No response.

I e-mail them again a couple of weeks later.

Still no response.

So I guess I'm gonna have to call them? I would have thought that actually just following instructions would get the job done.

Or does that not work in this country?

I have no idea how these airlines win any actual awards.

Angels We Have (maybe) Heard!

I've gotten a few requests for the weird (and maybe funky) chord progression I used for the Christmas service on Angels We Have Heard on High. Well here it is, for anybody to try out.

F                      C/E         F
Angels we have heard on high
Dm        Bb      F/C      Dm
Sweetly singing o'er the plains
F/A       Bb          C    Dm
and the mountains in reply
Bb   Gm        C        F
echoing their joyous strains

Dm7 C#dim7 F/C G/B  Bb2
Glo---------------------ria
F/A          Dm  C
in excelsis Deo
Dm7 C#dim7 F/C G/B  Bb2
Glo---------------------ria
F/A          Dm  C   F
in excelsis Deo

There you go. If you give it a go, let me know what you think.

on the plate - Ninja Joe @ Tropicana City Mall

Anything to do with pork is relatively scarce over here in this country. For fans of "the other white meat", it can be hard to find pork outside of Chinese food, so having burgers with REAL bacon (not the beef bacon stuff) or decent pork chops or baby back ribs (Tony Roma's, yes, I'm giving you the evil eye for forsaking your signature dish here) is a rarity, comparatively.

Surprisingly, pork makes pretty good decent burger meat, so some places do serve a good pork burger (Sid's Pub, Ribs@Oasis) but pork burgers are also quite costly as pork is pretty much the most expensive locally produced meat here (let's not count Australian beef, but face it, how many burger places actually use that over Indian or local beef?).

Enter Ninja Joe, another unique joint to Tropicana City Mall (is it just me or are there so many good places that are only in this mall?). The menu is simple. Pork burgers. That's about the extent of it. Seriously.

The burgers are pretty small, about the size of a colonel burger at KFC (just for reference). The pork patty is tasty and has onions in it as well, and garnished simply with some lettuce and a slice of tomato. You get a choice of flavors - original, black pepper, teriyaki, oriental, sweet & sour or spicy. One burger costs RM5.95, two will set you back RM9.95, three costs RM12.95, and well, you get the point. The more burgers you order in one order, the cheaper each burger gets. The idea here since the burgers are small is that you can order more than one, and try different flavors.

In addition to that, you can also make it a combo meal by adding RM3 for a drink and fries. You get to choose between cold green tea or lemonade, and you get crinkle cut fries. They also sell shuriken, which are nuggets made of mashed potato and pork (I tried that, and it was more potato than pork), green salad is on the menu but they haven't started selling that yet.

I haven't had the opportunity to take pictures yet. Will add them sometime! Ninja Joe is located on the LG floor of Tropicana City Mall, if you're facing Carrefour, it will be towards the right, just keep heading down that way and you'll see it around the corner.

Food: 6.8/10

Drink: 6.0/10

Service: 7.0/10