Oh, hey.

I am actually a "President" of something now. Yay.

Work In Progress.

Couldn't be bothered to update my blog lately. It's become a chore at the moment so yeah, I won't bother. Working on a sparkling new template. Hopefully that will add some style. Woohoo.

P.S. - Nevermind.

Diversifying.

I'm pretty sure History is now the "in" thing for me. I've always loved Ancient history (Specifically Greco-Roman) but I'm getting the hang of anything related to it. Perhaps that's not very wise. I ought to specialize in something. Know everything, know nothing. Hmm...

The Incredible Hulk

Those who liked Ang Lee's one might dislike this. Those who hated it will certainly love this one. If the first Hulk was at one end of the spectrum, then The Incredible Hulk is right at the other end. As such- for someone who liked the first one- it is cheesy, tired, overblown, tiring and the remarkably stilted dialogue (contrast Iron Man's) does no help. When a certain person cameos for a few brief seconds, he certainly sticks out...in a good way. Which just goes to show how dull the cast were.

Always an exception.

Making absolute claims may be quite fun, but there's always an exception.

Hence the phrase "exception to the rule". Which can tend to become a way of explaining away evidence that contradicts the rule. So which is which?

As Kuhn long ago noted, we tend to fit everything into our paradigms which are - once enough contradictory evidence is cumulated - is overhauled. So how much is much?

Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends

Yes, I've sneaked a peek at Coldplay's latest thanks to something called...well, you know what. Anyway, I'm very pleased. Those who thought Coldplay would do a near 360 in terms of style would be wrong. It's still quite the same, albeit their style has been augmented into what many reviewers like to call (disparagingly) U2ism.

Coldplay has had their fair share of anthemic, "stadium rock" tunes, but now they've turned up the notch and apparently landed in Bono territory. They've even chided its "Joshua Tree"ness as if that's a bad thing. I guess it's up to you to determine whether the resemblance is bad or good.

It opens with the now somewhat mandatory instrumental (required for any band to be seen as cutting-edge nowadays) which happens to be quite catchy. The rest are pretty much standard, but the mellow and bombastic tunes tend to be few and far between. Instead, we are treated with neat rockish

As for me, I like it anyway. All hail nice music!

P.S. This interview gives a good insight on the shaping of the album. It's funny to hear Martin say things like "The best bands in the world today are probably Arcade Fire and Sigur Rós. I think Coldplay is only the seventh best in the world." You can't get more self-deprecating than that, for a band that has sold 30 million albums and won 4 Grammys.

While Malaysia cried, he stood there smiling.

I'm sure those who pay for their petrol are crying. Which means a whole lot of people. Anyway, one of the most funniest moments today while working at KLCC (besides seeing the tagline "Opening new possibilities" above a paper shredder) was seeing our dear Pak Lah checking the booths of the SMIDEX convention. Expectedly, we all whipped out our camera(phones) to capture a picture of his smiling mug. Yes, he was smiling. Wide and beaming.

Sure, everyone has to smile on such occasions. But I find it ironic. :P