Jenga: From 14 to 32 Stories

We were at Starbucks yesterday. Having nothing to do other than sipping coffee, we took out a box of 42-piece Jenga set (14 stories) for a game. On the third attempt, we really took our own sweet time, 20 minutes to be exact (I know that's way too long), and aimed for 30 stories.

Voila!!! A 32-storey re-arranged yet un-toppled Jenga!!!

We don't actually abide by certain Jenga rules. Anyway, we did it just for the fun of it... :-P

Again... Longest And Shortest... Song Titles

I am truly amazed at the outcome of my previous Wiki/Google research, finding out the extreme of movie titles. I cannot believe someone could actually ignore making a summary of the movie in the form of a decently short title. Even my longest blog post title is way less than that. I do appreciate Narnia though, because it is merely an adaptation of a story book of the same title.

And now what? The grandfather of long song titles!! According to Guinness Book of Records, the longest song title would be:

I'm a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin’ Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues (written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1945)

However, my further search revealed an even longer title:

The Sad But True Story Of Ray Mingus, The Lumberjack Of Bulk Rock City, And His Never Slacking Stribe In Exploiting The So Far Undiscovered Areas Of The Intention To Bodily Intercourse From The Opposite Species Of His Kind, During Intake Of All The Mental Condition That Could Be Derived From Fermentation (performed by a Swedish group named Rednex)

Weren't this the case where the song writers simply want everything to be spelt out in the title itself? Why do they ever need to write the lyrics?

The longest single-worded song title is from the movie Mary Poppins. So, what is it? It is none other than Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, lead performers being the lead actress Julie Andrews and lead actor Dick Van Dyke. Tell you what, when I was young, I had a video cassette (yes… video cassette, and not DVD, mind you) of Mary Poppins, and watched, rewound, and watched again (yesss… video cassette needs rewinding one!!!). So many times that I can actually pronounce the word without any problem. I can even do it within 1 second! Haha! How I wish I could do it for Big Mac Charm – I would be fat (from eating the burger everyday) and rich (from saving my money supposedly spent for dinner)!!!

Hmm… how about the shortest ones? There are three of them:

7 by Prince & The New Power Generation
X by Xzibit
U by Loni Clark

Since I am a Chinese, of course I have to name Chinese songs with long titles. The longest in the list is:

《我们连觉也没睡决定连夜赶去拜访艾立克克莱普顿》 by Cheer (陈绮贞)

Erm… I guess this song is very new. So, I don’t quite know how this song goes. I don’t even know if it is famous. But what I know is, nothing can beat the following song, in terms of the fame of the song, the fame of the artiste who sang the song, and the fame of the title itself. It is none other than the late 80’s classic:

《是不是这样的夜晚你才会这样的想起我》 by Jacky Wu (吴宗宪)

The shortest Chinese song? Since Chinese characters are not alphabetical, and many single-character Chinese words can actually carry a solid meaning by its own, it is not surprising to find tons of single-character Chinese song titles. So, if I were to list it down here, the webpage would be super long that it would hang the Internet browser whenever someone try to launch this webpage.

However, the one album which I find to be quite unique was Edmund Leung’s (梁汉文) album named 10号 (meaning "the number ten"). It comprises of ten songs, beginning with a song with title containing “0”, followed by another containing “1”, and another “2”, and so forth. The shortest title in the album is 《八》 (it simply means "eight"). Innovative!

Strange stuff DOES exist under the sun!!

Highway Consumers Ain't Stupid

For the past umpteenth days (or rather, months), toll concessionaire Grand Saga had been building a barricade, forcing Bandar Mahkota Cheras (BMC) residents to travel additional 6km in order to pass through the toll plaza on the Cheras-Kajang Highway (CKH), whenever BMC residents need to travel to Kuala Lumpur City. Well, when a company wanted to force its consumer to 'buta-buta' travel additional route and to pay toll-fare somemore, of course BMC residents are not very happy about it. Consumer rights are being challenged! So, over and over again they have been 'blasting off' the barricades, just to find out that the barricades are rebuilt the next day. There was once where the police have to use tear gas to rid the angry residents.

So sad - consumer rights were challenged and mocked just like that.

Read MalaysiaKini news about the Cheras Grand Saga here. Also, see map below. Red route marks the simplest route from BMC to KL, free of toll charges. Blue route marks the additional 6-km long route which passes through the toll plaza - in the event a barricade was built on the red spot.


But then, there is still a peaceful solution. No need to fight with Grand Saga. No need to vandalize their belongings. And, no need to be rough. Just be a good citizen, and travel just a little bit further, possibly another 2-km route, into Cheras Perdana before coming out to CKH. Free of toll charge. How ah? Aiyoyo... KL people should know and be adventurous a bit la... See pictures below.


So, problem solved. Haha!

You may try to argue with me. But before that, let me tell you - I have traveled from Mid Valley to UNITEN and back, without paying a single sen on toll fare. Umpteenth time! Wanna argue? Try it first yourself before you do that!

Maps and pictures are courtesy of MalaysiaKini and Google Map.

Super-Humongously Long Movie Names

I might have missed some long names in between, but, just for the fun of it, here's the list that I found. I am going to change the following font to Courier.

1. Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Hellbound, Flesh-Eating Subhumanoid Zombified Living Dead, Part 3
2. Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Terror
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
6. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
8. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
9. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

On the other hand, no movies can beat the following:
O
Z

Followed closely by:
It
P2
10
21

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: A Review

Dr Jones is back! New adventure. New artifact. New villains. But the same old men. Yes, men! Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas!! And, of course, this movie we would see something different - the artifact is not Christ related. Well, Temple of Doom is also NOT Christ related, you may say; but let me tell you - it is very different! Further mentioning of it would become spoilers. Also, introducing the Transformers' fame Shia LeBouf, and Cate Blanchett (LOTR, Babel, Elizabeth) as the villain! Huh!?

The story was set in 1957, way after WWII, but in the midst of Cold War. Stalin was of course mentioned in this movie, and this strange "Ukrainian" woman named Irina Spalko (Blanchett) was hired by Stalin to research and attempt to harness psychic powers in order to control the world. In the beginning, they captured Indiana Jones (Ford, of course!) to help them find some sort of mummified body - hoping to get some mind juice out of it for telepathic research I guess... ugh! He escaped. In the later part of the story, Jones was called by this rough teenager Mutt Williams (LeBouf) to save his mom (Karen Allen) and Professor 'Ox' Oxley (John Hurt) from the same person who captured him - Spalko. In the process, Jones and Williams teamed up to solve s clue left by Ox, a clue that led them to the lost Crystal Skull - a treasure known to point to a lost city built of gold and wanted badly by Spalko. But Spalko - crazy for psychic powers - could not have wanted gold? Or could she? Or was she looking for something more? Something that might lie behind the skull itself?

If you have not watched the past movies, you may just wonder who this Marion Ravenwood was, and maybe you'd find it strange when people laughed at scenes such as Jones saving his hat or Jones landing on an enemy truck. And maybe strange to find the old-fashioned method of tracing on a map with red lines and dots whenever Jones traveled on a plane. These scenes are common across all the 4 movies! And Ravenwood was part of the first movie!

And, as usual, Dr Jones cannot die one! Innumerable gunshots were fired on him, but always missed him and left him unscathed. He was left just a few miles from ground zero for atomic bomb test, and a few seconds to escape, yet he survived the deadly furnace of atomic blast (how ah? how ah? Duh... save it, I'm not gonna spoil the fun here!). He and his team fell of three waterfalls, and yet suffered no harm other than getting themselves wet and slightly traumatized (especially Ravenwood).

And not mentioning romance at its fullest! Enough said here.

And, Shia LeBouf - he simply made me recall Jonathan Ke Quan (Ke Huy Quan) and the late River Phoenix. They just simply want a youngster in almost every movie. Anyway, he did have a significant role here, far more significant than Quan.

One amazing thing was (I would rather say, a deliberate goof), a magnetic object was less effective in its magnetic effect when it was covered. Why? It was very clear that the crystal skull was highly magnetic, yet when it was covered, its magnetic effect was not as strong as when it was exposed. Also, about magnetic effects, it seemed to be selectively attracting metals like guns and weapons and only at certain times. It did attract for sure gunpowders and shotgun bullets. It would never attract metal cars. Something that really, really caused me to reduce my rating of the movie due to its fakeness.

I think George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had lost their creativity. Several ideas actually appeared as they were borrowed from other movies. I am not going to mention any here, because I received feedback that the list was enough to spoil the movie, even though it is just the tip of the spoiler iceberg.

Hey, they accidentally exposed the lost Ark of the Covenant (the one in the first movie) during the first fight-and-escape scene! I thought that it might have a slight significance in the movie, until I remembered the title of the movie. Ha!!

Nevertheless, Indiana Jones movies always came with comedic scenes, and Skull is no exception. The trailer had spoilt some. Others include Mutt spreading his legs across two parallelly-running vehicles and having occasional plant from underneath hitting on his private; Mutt initiated a gang fight, making it a diversion for the escape; and, I must say, the Indy hat scenes. :-)

Okay, okay. Too much of a non-spoiler. I would give an eight out of ten. Erm... slightly more than eight. Won't mind watching it again.

Corpus Christi

DISCLAIMER: I am no theologist. This is not a professional theological article. The contents are mainly my personal opinions. Nevertheless, readers are welcomed to comment on their views, as well as suggest corrections on my article which might be erroneous in some way.


Yesterday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). A celebration of the Holy Eucharist, Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, Bread of Life, the Most Precious Blood of Jesus.

During Mass, Fr. Fab's sermon was, as usual, interesting. Although there are three parts in his sermon, I am not going to elaborate everything here - as some would be common sense to Catholics. In fact, what he is eventually led us to opened my eyes.

He quoted St Augustine's words, or I'd say, a prophecy from Jesus Himself. It sounded: "You would not change Me into yourself as you would food of your flesh, but you will be changed into Me." Amazing? Or not? Think about it... we normally partake food so that the food that is eventually digested becomes part of our body - muscles, bones, fat tissues, and, at some time, for repairing the parts of our bodies that are scarred/loss - for instance, skin, hair, blood. Most of the time, the food is transformed to the very basic need of our body - energy. That is true for all kinds of food, except one, or rather, the One. Which is the Body of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, Flesh of Jesus Himself. St Augustine's prophecy stated, when we partake the Body of Christ, we are instead transformed into the Body, in communion with Christ, through the Grace of God and (of course) our faith! We are called to be holiness after entering the Communion in Christ Jesus! A point that I always overlooked.


During the sermon, something struck me in an intellectual way - the type of blood Jesus carried. I knew that, through the many mysterious manifestation of the phenomenon of Transsubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, it was scientifically examined, confirmed, and announced that Jesus was having AB+ blood type.

I did a little bit of research on blood types and groupings through Wikipedia ([1], [2]), and I found out that people with AB+ is the universal blood receptor. Which means, Jesus in His human form can receive blood from any human alive, and in a way, 'transformed' the received blood to His. However, from St Augustine's prophecy, Jesus did something quite different. He gave us His Life, and poured to us His Precious Blood to us, transforming ours into His! Instead of receiving and transforming, He was giving and transforming!

Also, I also learnt that, there are a total of 29 human blood group systems are now recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT). Each grouping system highlights certain existence or deficit of certain type of proteins or antigens. The most common blood groupings are the infamous ABO-grouping and the Rhesus (Rh) grouping, which give us the various blood types of O+, O-, A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, and AB-. According to what I found out, AB+ blood type means the blood contains Antigen-A, Antigen-B, and Rhesus antigens. O- means the blood is deficient of the aforementioned antigens. If we take the existence of antigens as dominant (or in a layman term, superior), then AB+ is highly dominant, and O- is highly recessive.

If we take this context into Jesus' Blood, His Blood is highly dominant! I am not saying that all people with AB+ blood group has equal dominance and hence does not need Jesus' Blood for redemption, because:
1. This is merely what medical science has so far confirmed on the scientific aspect of Jesus' Blood.
2. There are 27 other recognized blood grouping methods unverified on Jesus' Blood. Chances are, Jesus' Blood is dominant across all the other 27 blood groupings as well.
3. God created science. Who are we to determine scientifically the dominance of Jesus' Blood? And, who are we to equate blood dominance with redemption through the Blood?


What I am trying to say is, Jesus' Blood is beyond price. That Jesus' Blood is Precious and is a price God paid for our sins. Through faith, we know that He poured out His Blood for the redemption of mankind. We are called to partake the Body and Blood of Christ worthily. Which means, we have to live a holy life in order to be worthy of the Eucharistic Feast - for God is Holy. The more we lead a holy life, the more worthy we are in front of God, and the more we are transformed into His Image through the Eucharist! Amen!


At the end of the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the Monstrance for silent reverence by the congregation. At that time, I did feel the tingling *bzzzzt* feeling all across my body! What an awesome experience! Amen!

May Twenty-Second - Part 2

KDU Penang was organizing a charity buffet dinner called Symphony Of Love. Its purpose – a fund-raising project for St Joseph’s Orphanage, Penang Road, and as a practical exposure to the students of the Catering and Hotel Management course (Pat, I know this is not correct, please do correct me in your comments.). Pat was one of the organizing committee members. So, must go there and support la… :-)

The food that they prepared was superb!

I had the pasta…
Spaghetti bolognaise – my number one item of the night
(According to B, the cook was one of the lecturers, which explained of the great taste.)
The Char Kuey Teow (fried fettucini-like noodles)…
(The bean-sprout was not well-done… that’s the bit of my comments)
Cream of mushroom… – my number two item of the night
(Definitely not from Campbell’s which are whitish… the cream that they serve was freshly made and authentic, as they were greyish in color)
[ Forgot to take photo of the following ]

Bain Marie…
With nasi minyak, curry chicken, fried chicken, fish, Japanese beancurd, and mixed vegetables
(I love the fried chicken the most – my number three item of the night)

Desserts…
Tartlets and Swiss rolls
(Not bad)

I missed out the puddings… well, I was too full then.

They had games as well. First was the folding of newspaper into half, and have two persons standing on it, and then further folding it into half and so on. The second game was when D got trapped and forced to play. It was a game of guessing of movie names and characters just by acting it out. So, D got this: “Neo of The Matrix”.
And so, he pointed at himself, and then he did the infamous bullet-dodging-in-slow-motion scene
and the one-hand-stopping-all-bullets scene.
Haha… I thought at a moment that D would do the Trinity-froze-mid-air-in-180-degrees-camera-angle scene!

D received another birthday present - a gift for the correct guess. Of course la, who does not know the Wachowskis' trademark action? Hahaha!!!
There were also several rounds of lucky draws. B got a complimentary lunch for two in Sarkies Corner, E&O Hotel!! That is cool!

B and Pat, hope you’d enjoy the meal this weekend!
Well, it was indeed a great evening! D, on his birthday, got to meet B’s girlfriend at last. We occasionally joked of D’s mole in front of Pat. Haha…

May Twenty-Second - Part 1

A busy day. Also, a happening day it is.

It was my first time organizing a birthday lunch for my group of colleagues. It was a monthly event, when the whole group will treat the birthday babes of the month. Normally this was organized (or co-organized) by the supervisor of the birthday boy/girl. However, this month, 4 of my colleagues, including my own supervisor, was celebrating their birthdays. So, I was assigned to organize for this month.


We went to Ribs BarBQue Restaurant on Burmah Road. I had been there twice, so I knew how good the ribs were. Indeed, the food was not bad.

Barbeque Full Ribs…
(trust me, AP can finish this!!! Hahaha…)

Babyback Ribs…
(humungous, but equally juicy and savory…)


Ribs and Lamb…

Rib, Salmon and Prawn…

Roasted Chicken…

Fish and Chips…

The birthday babes.
CWC, SO, CWP, and AP.

The team. A happy family.