Wednesday Night Movie

was recommended the thomas crown affair to watch for a wednesday night's entertainment. it was a kind offer since i continually drool over pierce brosnan openly. :p but i forgot that he only acts in cliche chauvinist movies such as bond and the likes. and the movie was getting a little unsettling.

slick and smooth. those are the exact words my friend used referring to the movie. no, one more thing. rich and slick and smooth. "fugitives with means, it makes all the difference." he obviously has the means to make many things happen. amusing himself, or the woman he likes, by stealing paintings, causing panic in the museum, playing hide-and-seek with the cops who have better things to do, or hiring eastern european despos and send them into the police station. after all, why are the rich people so bored?

the most irritating thing, is that the director actually gave the woman some brains, no matter how artificial they look on her. but, nay, no matter how clever the woman gets, the man has to be cleverer, one jump ahead of her in everything she does. and this time he even has some heart. with the expected turn of events with forger's daughter to whom Crown was the guardian, the movie just went straight down into the insipid pitch of darkness.

it's after all a male fantasy. power, status, intelligence, money. and the ability to keep everything in control, including when a woman should smile, when she should cry.

Where in the list is your motherland??

In the List of countries by income equality, China ranks 88th according to a 2001 survey, whereas Japan ranks 2nd according to a 93 survey. The States ranks 92th, among the developing countries.

try your hands on this...click on picture to enlarge

Look at how other people shoot.

the new israeli weapon, CornerShot that enables you to shoot around the corner.

Evolution

the key to pretty nail polish finish

is to put a lot layers of clear topcoats.

it's the independence day in argentina today. just a thought. if argentina had carried through and won the final of fifa world cup, this day would be so much more joyous.

and another piece of news that i stumbled upon on wikinews
Jarosław Kaczyński, the twin brother of President Lech Kaczyński, is nominated to be the next Prime Minister of Poland.
think about it, a pair of twins leading a country. isn't it comical.

bill maher

it's flight tale time again.

so i was waiting for my flight back to shanghai at LAX... a young caucasian boy struck a conversation with me. he looked about 18, was of very fair complexion and had ultrablue eyes. he asked me why my power cord was wound up in a horrible mess and i replied that i had finals the whole of the that week and didn't have time to unwind my cord. as i was was undoing the knot, he asked me where i went to school. "i just came out of high school", he said. and he took out a yearbook.

-- i was trained to be a marine. a marine. no, not a soldier, a marine. soldiers are from the army. i am a marine. this is my school. this is the book that we got from our school when we left. (pointing to a photo between the pages,) this is my wife. see, this is the rifle we had. you have to clean it and assemble in 5 mins. that's PT. they keep making us do it. everyday. everyday. it's tough. pull-ups. push-ups. this is tear-gas training. you'd think that with the gas mask you'd be fine. oh no. they make you go into the room full of tear gas with the mask on, and then they make you take it off and spell your name aloud. you could vomit from that. so strong. this is obstacle course. see this pond? there are alligators in there. really. before we went in, they had to go poke with a stick to scare them away. and we went in. this is the medal you get for shooting 190-200, this one for 200-225. but if you are like me, and shoot between 225-250, you get this. the highest score possible is 250. oh yah, there are women too. but we are not allowed to see females. when the females came over to our platoon for something the commander will make us move the other way. we are not allowed to see females. yup here's the family day. that one day we get to see our family. look, this is our graduation. yah we are looking serious and all that. yeah. cos it's our graduation. once you get out of this place, you're a marine. and you never ever want to come back here again. we all live together, my company. 90 men. living together. look these are the photos of all the men. 1, 2, 3, .... we all live in one room. we are like brothers. we are the best. if there's a base, we take over the whole damn city. oh yeah, i'm going to iraq in a month's time. and yeah, USMC.. is the united states marine corp. --

the whole time that kid was talking to me, the father looked away. couldn't quite describe his expression as indifference. maybe impatience. i don't know. the mother kept smiling at me apologetically.