Movie Review

This summer, I have watched: Shadow Wariors 2, Time Traveler's Wife, Avatar 3D, Sherlock Holmes

Shadow Wariors 2

I didn't see the first Shadow Wariors movie till after, but this was a separate story anyway.  But it did have a feel that there was no start or finish - a Shadow Wariors 3?  They did a poor job at introducing the characters and did not explain how they got from the first to the second movie.  The story line was incredibly simple, stupidly straightforward, and everything seem to just fall in place and happen.  But the fight scenes are entertaining, filled with special effects, but prob not worth paying to see.

Time Traveler's Wife

I can't believe I didn't know this movie was a chick flick (the title should have given it away - the wife part).  The Time Traveler hooked me and the plot seemed interesting enough, as I'm very intrigued with time travel.  This one rates as a slightly above average chick flick, the time travel aspects do make it interesting.  There are no major holes with the storyline caused by the time traveling which is usually present with these movies, and the story was entertaining enough.

Avatar 3D

I had no idea coming into the movie what it was about aside from seeing a poster of a blue man that reminded me of Nightcrawler from X-Men, and having heard it was very good in 3D.  Indeed the 3D was done exceptionally, unlike Superman 3D, nearly the entire movie was 3D and I hope more movies will do this in the future.  Unfortunately, the movie was essentially a Sci-Fi Pocahontas.  To sum up the movie, the Trailer (which I saw later) really does give away the entire movie, the humans (white Europeans) come to Pandora (America) and want to cut down some trees.  The Aliens (Native Indians) object to this citing nature tree-hugger stuff.  A guy meets an Alien girl (Pocahontas).  They fall in love, the humans (Europeans) attack, and theres a battle at the end.  No singing though, but like all disney movies, this has a happy ending.  Although it was an entertaining movie, I though this could have been much more action packed like the Aliens movies, and less of a disney movie.

Sherlock Holmes

This was great.  I haven't seen any other Movie or TV renditions of Sherlock Holmes aside from the cartoons, but this movie really did capture what Sherlock Holmes is about.  An enigmatically smart detective who can hold his own in a fight, takes on Lord Blackwood, a practitioner of the dark arts seeking to take over the world.  They set themselves up for a greater sequal by not having Holmes face Moriaty in the first movie.  The only downside was the casting of Rachel McAdams as the female lead, I find her incredibly anoying - see her other movies; The Hot Chick, NoteBook, Time Traveler's Wife.  But the performance of Robert Downy Jr and Jude Law is incredible, and this is by far the best movie of the summer.

Turn your webcam into a Security Camera!

I finally got round to setting up my own security camera.  Basically its a webcam pointing outside, that takes pictures when the motion sensor goes off.  It stores the pictures and sends me an email.

Here's what you'll need

A Webcam
A computer
Webcam software (I used this one http://www.yawcam.com/)

Point the webcam at where-ever you want it to pick up.  The computer will need some hard drive space to store pictures (if you want it to store pictures)  Using the software above, you can configure it to store pictures with the date and time as the filename.  You can get it to take pictures at set intervals, or just when the motion sensor goes off.  You can even set a scheduler for these.  One point to note is, you should add the program to the computer's start up, and leave the computer running almost 24-7.  Alternatively you can switch it on every morning or just when you need it.

I set mine to be take photos when the motion sensor goes off, and scheduled the motion sensor to activate every day from 9am to 6pm.  I also set up the motion sensor to store and email me photos when it goes off.  You can use GMail's SMTP to send stuff to yourself or a friend.

Other configurations you can set up, is LIVE streaming.  I don't have this set up as it uses too much bandwidth.  But for those that don't mind you can set it up to host LIVE capture Online, so you can view whats on the cam from anywhere on the Internet.

Finally I recomend getting a sign that warns people that there is a security camera - you can make your own too!

GMail Drive - use your GMail as storage space

I found a site for a GMail Drive Shell Extension, which allows you to use your 6GB+ storage space from GMail as an FTP storage, accessible through the Windows Shell.  Yes its quite old, I used to use one with FF but the windows shell is much easier to access.

Download it here.

Merry Christmas!

Its actually boxing day now... but Merry Christmas anyway!

Thanks to all those that follow this blog and I hope you find (at least some of it) interesting to read.

Follow me to see what 2010 brings...

Random Pictures from HK Trip

Pinapple Rice

Noah's Ark from the front

Christmas Deco at Langham Place, Mong Kok

Dedicated Smoker's Room at Incheon Airport, Korea

Bibimbop (before mixing) on Korean Air

After Mixing!

Mango Sago!

Hustle Bustle in Mong Kok

Dog on a skateboard

Christmas Tree at Tsim Tsa Tsui

Rice Burgers from Moss Burger

Re-Release of the 97 Penny Hardaways!! These were my first ever basketball shoes.  Also one of my favourite NBA players

Giving tips to Tiger Woods - "See that woman, thats not your wife!"

My man Mohammad Ali

 

The King lives!

MJ

Teresa Teng

Opening of the 2009 Asia Games

Edmund is recovering from sunburn...

Hong Kong Trip 2009

I just got back from Hong Kong yesterday and am incredibly jet-lagged.  Having flown Korean Air, the flight left HK at midnight and arrived in Seoul, before finally getting back to NZ.  Although my sleep patterns are way off, Korean Air has been the best airline I've flown (having flown just Air New Zealand and Air Brunei).  The food was fantastic!  Bibimbop for mains and the service was great, unlike other airlines, they were actually keen to give out food.

Anyway, in Hong Kong we did plenty of shopping, visiting most of the major shopping areas, eating as much street food as possible, and visited a few trourists sites like The Peak, and Noah's Ark, and even got to see the opening of the Asia Games.

The above pictures are; view of Hong Kong from Tsim Tsa Tui, Eddy and Eddie at the Wax Meseum, Snoopy Land entrance, Portugese Egg Tarts from Macao.

What I miss most about Hong Kong will be family and food.  Sure the shopping is great, but there is only so much you can buy, and there's only so much someone needs.  The food is available anytime anywhere.  Its great that shops are open so late and there is food every few blocks.  But my extended family is what is most important in Hong Kong.  I had the privilidge of attending my cousin Shirley's wedding.  Seeing my grandparents (gong gong and por por) in such great health.  Seeing my cousin's Kevin and Vivian reach the next level of education. 

 

The pictures above are; Inside the Grand Canal Shoppes, The Venetian Hotel, Macao, 1:1 replica of Noah's Ark, Kathy and me with my cousin Regina at a bar in Lan Kwai Fong, at my cousins wedding, Shirley and Edmund (same name!) the two lil ones are my cousin's children - Shirley has two older siblings and they each have 2 children each and just a few months apart!

For anyone going to Hong Kong and want to go shopping, I would recommend Mong Kok; Langham Place and Argyle Center for Girls, and there are plenty of shops on the streets.  For the guys there are two Computer shopping malls, one cellphone shopping mall, and "Sports shoe street".  Other shopping malls include Harbour City in Tsim Tsa Tiu - a gigantualan shopping mall actually made up of three shopping malls stretching 3 kms.  Festival Walk - Kowlon Tong, CityGate - Near the Airport, something like Dress Mart.

For those looking for food, MongKok offers the best range of street food like siu mai, skewers, and smelly tofu.

Some of the best sights to visit; Noah's Ark - the world's only 1:1 scale model with a great exhibition inside, the Hong Kong Laser show that starts every night at 8pm which can be viewed anywhere on the harbourfront, check out the business district in Central, theres The Peak for a great view of the city scape, Wax Museum.