Friday, April 23, 2010 @ 8:17 PM

Facebook Photos

[I feel weird, so, I'll type in improper English today! i.e. Singlish. :) And with different, *unique* spellings. Farewell to standard proper English for the next 5 minutes!]

MSNoobSterZ

To the 7 people who use Facebook arh, go and check more lar.

I uploaded some new pictures regarding our guild, in my opinion arh, very nice to look at de leh.

So go look lar. And do not be afraid of 'wasting' bandwidth, because you're not, and Facebook is free, kind of.

So go! now. Before I make you, MUAHAHAHA.

I MISS MSNOOBSTERZ!

]: Looking forward to 7 May,
Rock.

Sunday, April 11, 2010 @ 7:56 PM

More updates!

Hello,

Updates!

I've been working on the header picture quite a bit yesterday, and I'm proud to present to you a sneak peek!

<<<

(Please ignore the grey border, I cropped this from the original screenshot. The original one failed to upload. :/)

How is it? Please tell me!

Rickz, I amended your hat. :)

Now, just need to edit the text, and do some final touching up.

Yay, I think I did an okay job, so... I'm pleased, no doubt. :)

Comment comment, thank you!

Cheers!
Rock[:

P.S. I've temporarily reverted the new blogskin back to this old one, because the header picture of that one says "Happy Chinese New Year & Valentine's Day", which passed nearly 2 months ago.

Labels: Website-related

Monday, April 5, 2010 @ 9:07 PM

Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon

I have two words for you:

GO WATCH!

I watched the 2D version of "How to Train Your Dragon" at one of the Golden Village cinemas yesterday.

Let me just say that, as any ordinary movie-goer, I can understand why it's the top ranking movie as of last Thursday's LifeStyle! movie ratings.

Okay, I'll tell you all what the movie's about, both a short and a more detailed version. The more detailed version will include spoilers!

The short version:

This movie is about wimpy Hiccup, a young teen who just wishes to do his father, the chief of their Viking village, proud. However, when Hiccup befriends a dragon and takes it as his pet, things start taking a turn even he never expected. Watch the movie to find out more! Grah, go watch! It's still in the cinemas now, and I highly recommend it. We all need a good heartwarming film now and then. :)

Now, the long version:

The movie starts off with a voiceover by our protagonist, Hiccup. Hiccup is what you'll picture as a wimp, the unlikely hero, who all along has harboured thoughts of becoming something great. He's always mocked, and..you know that kind of thing. At the beginning, he uses quite long words, which will probably be too cheem for younger kids to understand. However, fret not, younger kids, the long words get replaced quite soon. :)


The opening is very interesting and cinematic, with Hiccup describing the 'pests' in his Viking village - dragons, not the usual rodents and insects and whatnots. But dragons! I can almost picture everything in 3D. It'll be WOW. It'll knock you off your feet, haha!

Hiccup describes his village, a coastal community, probably not far from Iceland. You know, where Vikings live. Apparently, the Vikings treat the Dragons as pests, and will not hesitate to kill them. However, one type of Dragon has yet to be seen nor hit. Known as the NightFury, none of the Vikings have yet to see one - or maybe they did, but didn't live to tell the tale.

Ironically, Hiccup's father is the chief of this village. Hiccup, being an apprentice blacksmith (I hope that's the right description), wants to live up to his father's name, and do him proud. So he ventures out, despite the obvious danger outside. He brings along a net-firing machine, and when all is quiet, he sees a shape flying in the sky. He aims, and fires!  The net hits the dragon, and it spirals out of sight. Just as he is busy rejoicing, a dragon comes out, and Hiccup's dad, who sees the dragon, quickly lunges forward and save his son from imminent danger.

As his father carries - yes, CARRIES - Hiccup back to the house in front of all the villagers, our protagonist keeps insisting that he has shot a NightFury, but of course, he must have said it many times before, so his dad does not believe him.

The next day, Hiccup sets out to find that dragon he shot down, so that he can prove to his father that he was right. Ha! He ventures, and eventually comes across the creature entangled in the net. As Hiccup saunters forward with a small dagger in his hand, he trembles as he stands in front of the beast, hesitating. In the end, he drops the dagger, and ends up freeing the dragon. The dragon quickly pounces on Hiccup, but instead of killing him, the dragon then fled. Hiccup faints just moments after he stood up.

The scene reopens again at his house, where he had just entered, and had saw his father. His father and him both start speaking at the same time. The father announces to him that he has allowed Hiccup to attend dragon training classes, just as Hiccup did not wish to anymore. Why this is so, we can only guess. But we do know that he has a soft spot for the dragons - he didn't dare to kill one just now, so he was not too sure of dragon training classes, where you fight dragons and may eventually have to kill one.

From this scene, we can tell that Hiccup is not very close to his father. They do not seem to understand each other very well.

When he shows up at dragon training class next day, nobody there seems to like him. Of course, his crush, Astrid, is there. But like the others she does not think anything of him.

Hiccup sets off to find the freed dragon, having confirmed with his teacher the fact that dragons will never let humans go alive. So the dragon yesterday... Hiccup is confused too, and decides to find that dragon.

He eventually finds it in this bowl-like area with a small lake in the centre. He realises that one half of the dragon's tail had been torn off, and the dragon was thus unable to fly out.

Over the next few days, hilarity ensues as Hiccup tries to befriend the dragon, whom he names Toothless. Heartwarming scenes of boy and dragon will surely touch your heart. Hiccup manages to fly the dragon - how he did so, I won't say. Go watch. He also discovers some neat tricks, like where to tickle a dragon such that it'll fall asleep etc. All this comes in handy during his classes, where his teacher believes in hands-on training. By now, his classmates had warmed up to him, and were starting to be friends with him.

However, always aiming for the best, star student Astrid gets suspicious of him. In the meantime, Hiccup's father, along with many of the Vikings, have set off to find the elusive dragons' lair, to put a stop to all that stealing of food and animals. They didn't find anything. Hiccup and Toothless form a close bond.

However, when Astrid discovers the 2 of them one day, Hiccup has no choice but to tell her, and make her keep a secret. They fly on Toothless, who unexpectantly brings them to the dragons' lair. :o Where they discover that the dragons are only stealing food to feed a giant (bully) dragon. Sort of like worker bees and a queen bee.

In the meantime, having excelled in all his classes, he has been chosen as the one with the honour to slay a dragon in front of the whole village, yay. Hiccup knows he cannot do it, and wonders about it. He also makes Astrid promise not to say anything about the dragons' lair, yet.

During the test, Hiccup decides to prove to the whole village that dragons are harmless, and that they have been seriously misunderstood. However, his plan goes awry when his father and some villagers anger the dragon. As the dragon pounces on Hiccup, his screams of terror awaken Toothless, who immediately starts frantically trying to get out of the bowl-place to save his best friend.

Toothless shows up and wrestles the dragon. The villagers watch in shock, and finally, the dragon is put away, and the elusive NightFury has been pinned down and subdued by villagers, much to Hiccup's horror and pleas.

Whilst Hiccup pleads with his dad to release his pet, he inadvertently discloses the fact about the dragons' lair, implying that he had been there with Toothless. His father immediately plots a course to the lair, chaining poor Toothless and getting him to lead the way.

Hiccup can only stand and watch as the fleet of ships make their way to the dragons' lair. Astrid, however, comes over and comforts him, motivating him to take the next step. Hiccup makes a bold move, bringing his classmates flying on dragons to the lair to help.

Meanwhile, the Vikings had found the lair. A skirmish ensues between them and the big dragon, and just as all hope seems lost, the teenagers fly in and start distracting the dragon, whilst Hiccup goes to find Toothless. As Toothless was chained to the ship, and the big dragon had engulfed the ships in flames, causing them to sink, Toothless was drowning!

Hiccup dives in to save him, but his hands are just too weak to break apart the wooden cuff thing. His father dives in and brings him out. He then dives back in and rescues Toothless, even managing an apology to his son, for misunderstanding him. Aww~

Hiccup, on Toothless, decides to lead the big dragon to the sky, with a plan in mind, of course. Toothless blasts the dragon's wings and tail, and quickly comes in front of the big dragon, tempting him to open his mouth. However, just at that moment, Toothless turns around and blasts the dragon right in his mouth. As the dragon struggles, he panics. He opens his wings, only to find that the holes in them grew bigger, and as he falls and hits the ground, a giant explosion occurs.

However, Toothless and Hiccup are falling, too, as the substitute tail Hiccup made was going up in flames. Oh no! Hiccup accidentally falls off his dragon, and as he falls into the burning inferno below, Toothless dives in to save him...

The scene reopens again with Hiccup's father coming into the smoke, desperately trying to find his son. He discovers Toothless hunched up, and fears the worst.

Toothless unveils his wings, to reveal Hiccup in between his claws, safe. And almost in one piece.

When Hiccup comes to, he realises he is in his house, and Toothless is with him. In a final twist, Hiccup realises that the part of his leg, halfway below the knee, has been 'amputated', and had been replaced with a metal device.

As he hobbles on his dragon to make his way out of the house to the cheering village outside, it is interesting to note that both the dragon and his owner are handicapped, now, in a certain way - Toothless' left tail (which has been gone all along), and now, Hiccup's left leg as well.

It is indeed, I feel, a fitting ending to things.

As Hiccup stands outside his house amidst a bustling village, he realises that there are dragons everywhere! Now that they have no 'master' to serve, they do not steal food anymore, and the villagers have befriended them as well. Hiccup's teacher/mentor hands him a replacement tail for Toothless, and as he mounts his dragon, along with his friends, and flies off, he makes an equally fitting ending.

He ends the movie with a narration too, similar in style to the opening, just that the situation he described was exactly the opposite.

The movie makes use of a lot of reiteration and emphasis, which I feel is very commendable.

Especially the opening and the end - narrating in the same style as the beginning, it does serve as a good closure to the end of an equally good movie.

[end]

I spent 1 hour typing that! So don't complain I keep jumping from point to point! D:

Cheers,
Rock[:

P.S. And, I have 2 words for you:

GO WATCH!

Labels: My 10 Mesos' Worth

Sunday, April 4, 2010 @ 10:36 AM

More updates

Can see right? Hahas, okay. If you've already guessed, that's roughly how the new picture will look like. Of course, with the hair and gradiented sky filled in. =)

I hope you like it, kindly click on it to enlarge.

See whether you can spot yourself!

If you can, please tell me whether the colour scheme is wrong, so I can change.

Of course, please do so ASAP, because I can't wait for too long.

Have been doing this for the past few mornings and afternoons, I really really hope you like it.

Cheers!
Rock[:

Labels: Website-related