Rowie's Scribbles

I'd my doubts about this film. Newspaper reviews said it'd be better off as a musical, the word "Crikey" tossed too much around...After sitting through roughly 3 hrs of that film, I'd say they were DEAD WRONG. I totally enjoyed it! My 1st reason would be Hugh Jackman. *sigh* On to the review! The Plot Set prior to World War 2, Lady Sarah Ashley came from England to Australia, determined to coax her philandering husband, Maitland, to sell his cattle ranch, Faraway Downs. He arranged for her to be picked up by the Drover, an independent cattle drover who "works for no one". However, he was murdered just as they reach Faraway Downs & she is shocked. Fletcher, the station master, informs her that he suspects King George, a Aborigine to be responsible for her husband's death. She then meets Nullah, a half-caste boy; he hides from the white authorities to avoid being one of the Stolen Generations, removed from their families to "breed out the blac...

Wow what a yr. So many milestones in just 12 months...Just gonna run through important events of 2008: 1. My blog: Well, yeah! Here's a new hobby, a great fun, another love of mine... 2. US Presidential Elections: Change has indeed come to America, let's pray that Barack Obama will bring positive change to the US & the world, it is indeed amazing that the US has finally elected its 1st African-American President! 3. Financial crisis: It's part of the cycle, folks, don't lose hope in the shares, some of you may do very well as it recovers! Never let greed overcome you & when there's nothing in your bank, don't go shopping! 4. New friends & loves, you all know who you are, you made my life better & brighter & I'm always thankful for your presence. 5. Princess Sis finally crosses the threshold into uni life. Hopefully she'll settle down & do well!  6. Baby Sis had SPM...nothing to boast about, she'll do well hahaha... 7. Tomb Rai...

The final film during my outing yesterday, I must admit that I was not gonna enjoy this film. Aliens, Keanu Reeves, a remake of the 1951 film...We'll see what I thought at the end of it, eh? The Plot Dr. Helen Benson is a scientist who is recruited along with other scientists by the government to create a plan for the survival of the human race as a huge unknown object hurtles through space towards Earth. When the huge glowing orb crashes in Central Park, the team along with military support rush out to study the object. An alien robot walks out & Dr. Helen reaches out but gunshot is fired & the alien is injured. Another giant alien, Gort exits the orb ready to attack but is subdued by the 1st alien. They rush the alien to the labs for examination; the exterior flesh drops away, leaving behind an alien in a human body. The Secretary of State, Regina Jackson interrogates the alien on its purpose. The alien, Klaatu states that humans have caused destruction on Earth & the...

I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch this film initially: action, terrorism...My brain was terrified, with my lack of knowledge on the issues :p Based on the book by David Ignatius? *shudder* So I beefed up & entered the theater: to my surprise it was the best film of the 3 that I watched yesterday :) The Plot Roger Ferris is a CIA agent stationed in the Middle East. He receives orders from Ed Hoffman, his superior, on carrying out his tasks on their mission to find Al-Saleem, a Muslim terrorist responsible for several terrorist attacks. The challenge lies in detecting Al-Saleem; the terrorist operates almost only on human interaction, ie written notes or face-to-face meetings. How would the US catch this man despite having advanced satellite technology & Internet prowess when the man barely uses neither? Ferris goes to Amman & enlists the help of Hani Salaam, the Chief of Jordanian Intelligence, to track down Al-Saleem. The movie focuses on the doubts Ferris has: can he ...

I went out with Ashwin today, it was really cool, we watched 3 films together, Bolt was the first & it was a fine choice :) The Plot Bolt & his "person", Penny, are stars of a Hollywood TV (?) series; onscreen they battle the evil Green-Eyed Man & Bolt displays his awesome super powers. However only Bolt doesn't know the truth, that he's just an ordinary dog without super powers. When unforeseen circumstances separates him from Penny, he has to deal with the truth that he has no powers & try to return to Penny. Along the way he befriends Mittens, a street smart cat & Rhino, a hamster who's Bolt's biggest fan. They travel together to find their way to Penny, teaching Bolt how to be a real dog & love, friendship & true courage. The Cast John Travolta was amazing as Bolt, the guy's a chameleon! I'm not a fan of Miley Cyrus, but she was good as Penny so the dislike doesn't surface so much :p Susie Essman is perfect as Mitten...

This is one of my personal favorites; a simple healthy soup which never fails to make me happy :p Here's a simple how-to-make this soup :) Ingredients 2 potatoes 2 sticks of carrot 1/2 onion 4 pips of garlic (see I love garlic) 3-4 pcs of chicken drumsticks (well you may use pork as well, the quantity is up to you) Procedure 1. Boil the meat in a pot of water. The main purpose is to remove the scum that'll float after the meat's been boiled. Remove the scum. 2. Chop the potatoes, carrot & onions into cubes & put into the remaining meat+soup mixture. Add in the garlic. Heat up. 3. When the soup's boiling, turn the flame down & allow it to simmer. Add in salt & pepper (the quantity to your liking, I usually add in 1 tablespoon of salt & a dash of pepper). 4. Once the potatoes & carrots are soft enough, turn off the flame & serve. Simple eh? Nothing like a hot bowl of potato carrot onion soup (I can say that really fast haha) to warm the bones!

Watched this today with the sisters, in lieu of steak *sob* They didn't like it but I thought it was okay. By the producers of Shrek, this was IMO better than Shrek 3 *hides from loyal Shrek fans* I didn't have high expectations of this film but I enjoyed it more than my sisters haha... The Plot Ham III is the grandson of Ham I, the first chimpanzee to space. He's a circus entertainer; fun-loving, daring & cheeky, he is recruited to join Lt. Luna & Commander Titan, 2 other chimpanzees to find other signs of life in outer space. They land on a weird planet controlled by Zartog & in their quest to escape, they helped to free the aliens from the grasp of the evil Zartog. The Cast I've NEVER heard of ANY of the voice actors from this film. Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, Cheryl Hines, and Andy Samberg lend their voices for this film; what more could I say? They did the job pretty well, the characters were likeable, even the evil Zartog is adorable in his weird sill...

So...to be honest this isn't the best film I've watched this yr. I'm gonna try to be constructive with this review: Twilight fans, don't kill me. Adapted from the best selling book written by Stephenie Meyer, the film brought in nearly $140million in the 1st week. The target audience are generally female & young with a soft spot for vampires & romance. The Plot Bella Swan is a teenage girl who moves in with her father, Charlie, in the sleepy & perpetually rainy town of Forks. She adjusts to her new life there; being pretty, practical & honest, she attracts many of the people from her new school. Edward Cullen is mysterious, handsome & isolates himself from the general population. She's drawn to him when he shows a weird aversion to her presence. As the story unfolds, she learns that Edward is a vampire; however he & his family feeds on animal blood. He can also read minds, but somehow is unable to read her mind, hence his fascination with her...

Spinach *sighs* This is truly my favorite vegetable, Popeye can go to hell for all I care, nothing can take away my love for this leafy green vegetable! Rowie likes it best when it's stir-fried with garlic, I'd never turn it away for the world! It's cheap, green, delicious...The family thinks I'm weird because I never tire of eating the same dish every night, they wince when they see me dip bread (with garlic/butter) into the spinach sauce, or eat the spinach without rice. I've no idea where my obsession came from, but I'm head over heels in LOVE with it :p I won't have it in any other way, only homemade spinach does the drooling job for me :p So how do I prepare my favorite dish ever? Ingredients: 1 bunch of spinach (bayam in Malay); I seldom go for baby spinach, way too fine & takes too much time to clean up hehe 6-7 pips of garlic; I never stinge on the garlic, me love it! Procedure: Clean the spinach, separate the leaves from the stems. Chop the garl...

William Butler Yeats is one of my favorite poets, plus he's Irish :p This is one of my favorite poems, I first came across it in the book "Valley of Silence" by Nora Roberts: Aedh Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." The last 3 lines are my favorite; the words speak for themselves, beautiful simple words ;) WB Yeats FTW!

Sigh. It's sad that some people, even my family members, prefer to comment on the surface rather than the substance when they see me. It annoys & frustrates me that I take the trouble to go out with people (yes honestly, I prefer to be at home than to dress up & go out) only to be told that I'm fat. So here's an emo account of Rowie & how she HATES being told she's fat. Yes I am overweight, yes I am not as slim or pretty as the other skinny Chinese chicks out there but I feel my accomplishments so far should make up for these deficits, if they are indeed deficits. It angers me because when people say I'm fat, I immediately think that I've to starve, I'm worthless & crappy thoughts like that. It is a personal issue because when I was younger *sigh* I had spent 1 yr starving to get that perfect figure; it took a toll on my health, mentally & physically, luckily I stopped before things got out of hand. The idea of losing weight is a bitter s...

I watched this film on the VCD, I was skeptical about it because, c'mon: a musical based on songs by the Beatles, the protests against the Vietnam War, young love...I had doubts to whether I'd enjoy the film or snore before it was over. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was better that I expected so here goes... The Plot Set in the 1960s, we are introduced to young Jude from Liverpool who goes to America to find his father. He then meets Max, a rebellious young man from a privileged family. They become great friends & move to New York to savor the fun there. Lucy is Max's sweet & innocent sister whose boyfriend was killed when he was in the military. She is then drawn to the anti-war movement, especially when her brother was called to serve the country. Lucy & Max falls in love & their relationship is battered with Lucy's obsession to protest against the war & Max's jealousy that she spends more time with the protests than with him. Othe...

Rowie's not a Christian but Christmas has always been a season of cheer & joy :) I type this as the TV plays old Christmas songs...Frank Sinatra, orchestra...*sigh* Earliest memory... I remember sitting at the piano & playing the Xmas tunes. It was never something religious, but rather, it was a musical joy to play these songs. Singing along, again, was never religious, but for the joy of singing such lovely tunes. It probably drove the neighbors mad but, oh well :) My personal favorites are Silent Night, Ding Dong Merrily On High & Good King Wenceslas, among others. Today... Shopping malls are becoming Xmas fantasy lands, with beautiful ornate decorations & props to bring the spirit of Christmas to their halls! We hear Xmas tunes all over the mall; red & white are the colors of the season, various presents to be bought & shared with (despite the global financial crisis)...Food...Oh boy, who wouldn't like Xmas pudding & whatnot! Plus wine...oh yes......

The results are out! I scored what I needed to achieve my goals! Here they are! Whoop! BIOPROCESS ENGINEERING B+ CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB II A CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING II A- ELECTRICAL TECHNOLOGY A ENGINEER & SOCIETY A ENGLISH DYNAMICS 3 A SCIENCE & ENGINEERING MATERIALS A UNIT OPERATION I B+ My GPA is 3.76, my CPA is 3.78! I've finally reached that 1st class honors mark! Yayy! I want to thank all my friends & the lecturers for supporting me & helping me to achieve what I needed! Thanks all! Family, you're the best! Rock on! I'm cheery, aren't I? Who cares! Woot!

Due to the lack of choices, we went to watch the movie Wushu yesterday :p The Plot A fairly simple story: the Jing Wu Men (Gold Medal Group, or something like that, I'm a banana, remember?) is a group of good friends who grew up together in a martial arts school. Set in modern day China (me thinks), the school is organizing a competition to select the representatives for district level. As they prepare for that competition, young love blooms & you can see the determination they take to reach their ambitions. A series of child kidnapping draws them in when 2 kids from the school went missing. Of course, there's a happy ending & all goes well for them. The Cast Sammo Hung plays the father & a trainer who has faith in his sons' capabilities to succeed. The other younger cast ( Liu Feng Chao, Wang Wen Jie, Wang Fe, Zhang Jin, Mao Jun Jie) are genuine wushu athletes, they fleshed out their roles pretty well, I personally thought the male actors are good looking ...

What an experience. My team (UMP S2) comprised Chi Chi, myself & Sunil. Here's a short summary of the best debating competition I've been to so far :) Round 1 : UMP S2 vs UNIMAS J1 THW require parental consent for underage abortion Winner: UMP S2 Chair: Faye Sarah Round 2 : UMP S2 vs UNIMAS S1 THW maintain the ISA Winner: UNIMAS J1 Chair: Hafiedz Round 3 : UMP S2 vs UKM S2 THW limit the amount of money a sports club can spend in a season Winner: UMP S2 Chair: Faye Sarah Round 4 : UiTM J1 vs UMP S2 THBT we need state-owned vernacular universities Winner: UiTM J1 Chair: Riasat Round 5: UMP S2 vs UTHM S1 THBT Japan should apologize for its past atrocities for the sake of East Asian reconcilation Winner: UMP S2 Chair: Lufti Round 6: UMS S1 vs UMP S2 THW suspend the 30% Bumiputra quota on housing development Winner: UMP S2 Chair: Yem Quarterfinals : UIAM S1 vs UMP S2 THW stop subsidizing biofuel Winner: UMP S2 Chair: Dr. Chandran Semifinals: UKM S1 vs UMP S2 THW televise the cou...