Iron Man 3: Missing the 'wow' factor

Seems that many are interested to know how Iron Man 3 was.  Some have said it was great, while some said it was awesome.

I went "it was okay", that even my significant other debated with me by saying "What do you mean? It was amazing!!".

Here's the problem with Iron Man 3: It was typical.

While the trailers did the movie good by making us curious of what the whole storyline was, it also painted an image of Iron Man 3 being badly defeated, demoralized and weak. Not sure how that felt? Well, think Batman (The Dark Knight Rises), where Batman was defeated, demoralized, weak, jailed, and injured.

How he recovered from that spinal damage has yet to be figured out by doctors, but his (Batman) tragic defeat to Blaine was far better than what Tony Stark experienced in Iron Man 3. Seriously, the Iron Man 3 trailer made me expect more.

One thing I found interesting about the movie was how Marvel synced "The Avengers" with this episode. So it did feel like a trilogy+1 or sort... but still, it was inadequate.

I also had a problem with the Aldrich Killian, the villain in Iron Man 3. If you wanted a true blue villain, nothing beats 'the Joker' played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Dude was as bad ass as can be, and I somewhat hated him so much at the end of the movie. Now my friends, that's how you make a villain!

Killian, the villain in Iron Man 3 was somewhat soft, and the fact 'Killian' rhymes with 'villain', and does nothing else but 'killing' is a bit cheesy.

I didn't have any reason for hating him, and the only thing he seemed good at was blowing up people for no apparent reason. He also had 'the Mandarin', a hired actor to play an 'Osama bin Laden' look-alike on TV to scare everyone, but for what? Nothing there.  -- Truth to be told, I was expecting Killian to have a huge personal vendetta against Tony Stark, and he would stop at nothing to kill him.  This was portrayed meekly in the movie, but it was mixed round with world domination, creating fear, and being a terrorist, that Killian seemed so confused of what he really wanted.  The girl? the fame? the world? You tell me.

So yeah, I know I am being overly critical over this movie, but its largely because I expected a huge 'wow' factor.

Unfortunately, Iron Man 3 didn't have it, and with the bulk of fictional comic characters making its way to the movies nowadays, there is a need for these sort of movies to really be significantly different from the rest of the gang.

If not, they'd be as boring as listening to golf on radio.

Best superhero movie so far: 'The Dark Knight (2008)', mainly because the Joker was such an asshole to be hated.

A good renovation contractor in Kuching

So it's really no secret that I have been working on the renovation works fro my new house. The kitchen of my new house, which is open, had to be closed, and merely putting up glass doors isn't a long term solution as the kitchen was still vulnerable towards thieves.

[caption id="attachment_40" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The 5th kitchen plans. Any comments?[/caption]

With that said, I decided to build a proper wet kitchen, and an open space for family gatherings. I quickly drew up a plan as you can see in this previous post.

[caption id="attachment_181" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The left is the design I made using a computer. The right is photos of the completed kitchen extension.[/caption]

After searching for a few contractors willing to take up the job, I finally decided to go with a friend. He is a Bidayuh, and people from his village is known for their fine works in construction. After a brief discussion, we agreed to proceed on the ground works, and I accepted his initial quote of RM29,000 until everything is completed.

The figure seems steep for some, but he assured me that he built things to last, and that the extension of my house will be done with care. I am also quite a believer that most of the times quality does not come at cheap prices.

[caption id="attachment_183" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Earth works underway[/caption]

Anyway, work started immediately on 4 March 2013 with three local workers from Bau asked to do the ground works. The ground works took about two days as my backyard was filled with stone. Apparently the main contractor for the housing project dumped all the excess materials at my backyard. *Sigh*

As days went by, these three workers worked hard to complete the extension, and I paid them a daily visit to check on the progress. One thing interesting was the fact they took extra care when they were constructing the new kitchen extension. The care they took to ensure the works were done with great precision pleased me. At some point I also noticed they were very tactful when having to negotiate the original house, and ensured no damage came to the original structure. They also constantly kept the house area clean, tiding up after every days work.

[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Bricks starting to be laid in place[/caption]

After 13 days of work, the kitchen had already taken shape and even without paint, the extension looked good. At 20 days, the roof was already up, and the extension looked beyond perfect, despite being unfinished and unpainted.

Work progressed even further with tiling works starting. I took the advice of my friend to use acrylic for the kitchen cabinet doors, and took the advice of the 'uncle' to use a black kitchen table top.

[caption id="attachment_184" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The house extension without paint[/caption]

Turned out that their advice was good because after 43 days of construction, the extension was completed, and it was indeed pleasing to see how the whole project turn out at the end.

Apart from that, I also left it to them (the uncles and my friend) to advice on the drainage system, the  type of roof, the type of windows and the piping works.  Turned out that using the pre-mixed cement blocks you normally see being used in building works is not good.  Here they cemented the drain manually, and so far, no water stays in the drain after rain, keeping it dry.  The roof is not the thickest of material, but as my friend said, you can play tennis up there.  The windows were changed from my initial plan to use swing type windows to 'sliding windows' because they claim it saves space.  The cement floor also consist of at least of 4 inch of concrete mix, which to me is quite thick.

[caption id="attachment_182" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The completed kitchen on the 43rd day of construction[/caption]

The total damage however had increased to RM35,000 but then, I was indeed satisfied with the works.  They also accommodated my request to make the house extension look similar to the original portion of the house. There was little to complain about, and it was obvious that the material used is not cheap.

[caption id="attachment_186" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The external view of the new extension.[/caption]

Uhhhh.. isn't it a beauty? Can't wait to use it for my house warming!

The 'fixed deposits' in Malaysia

Another political post, and just in time for the dissolution of the Malaysian Parliament.  I have said this before here, but this is the more elaborate post.  Non-political interested readers, give this post a skip, and check out this blog.

[caption id="attachment_166" align="aligncenter" width="500"] More about Sabah and Sarawak being 'fixed deposit'[/caption]
You know, there has been a lot of talk about Sarawak (and Sabah) being the 'fixed deposit' for someone.  It has been said, repeated, and stressed out again and again.

I find it annoying, and in many ways insulting because the only fixed deposit I know comes in the bank where you put in money, keep it for a while, and cash out the profit on a later date.

So, if Sarawak (and Sabah) is a fixed deposit, does this mean that we are getting somethings just so that someone gets something back in the coming future?

Does this mean that we are easy to buy and bribe?
[caption id="attachment_165" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Benefits of fixed deposits[/caption]
Probably these people think that we in Sarawak are loyalist, and we stick to them through tick and thin, but we shouldn't be called 'fixed deposit.

Well, with all honesty, you don't win hearts by calling them yours, and you definitely do not do so by telling them you are expecting to collect back anytime soon.

...and by the way, gaining votes by using personal attacks on your opponent is in no way cool and matured. Childish adalah....

I wonder who started calling us 'fixed deposit'?

We can't trust the Malaysian mass media anymore

April fool. You can say I'm an old fart just being too sensitive. Go ahead. I don't mind, but this is my blog, and I speak things.

I was told that the news below is an April fool's joke.

[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The news which was said to be an April Fool's joke[/caption]

I don't find it funny. There was no disclaimer, and such news gets some people with interest hyped up. As a fan of Sarawak football, I am pumped, although the news is far from being true, at this age, anything is possible. Beckham is 37, and you never know. Some say it's too good to be true, but not impossible considering Johor signed Guiza, a Spannish football star.

A few months ago, a friend made an online joke using Twitter. His attempt was less credible as the account he created to impersonate the so called 'Uncle Swee Kang' was known to be a fake and was just merely to 'troll'.

It was not long after when the troll was picked up by another known 'troll' site based in KL, and it became huge news.

[caption id="attachment_150" align="aligncenter" width="500"] HarianMetroll, a popular troll blog[/caption]

Those not familiar with these sites were quick to believe, and free loaders were eager to make a beeline at Swee Kang for their free ice kacang.

Among them, were reporters who were eager to get the news for their paper. You'd guess what happened when they found out the news was not true. They were furious.

Soon after, a column was written about the incident with the headline "Grow up, pranksters". The reporter obviously found it not funny. In the column, he was slamming the joke and the pranksters, while trying to understand how was it 'fun'. He definitely found it not funny. Even the ones making the joke stopped laughing after knowing it had gone too far.

But then again, it was a known joke/prank, and as I said above, those knowing the sources will know it was not true.

Today is the first day of April, and I was told that a local newspaper with a publishing permit has decided to post the news above. I was told it was not the first time. I'm too lazy to dig up the old prank, so I'll just believe when I was told so.  I MUST NOTE that I may be wrong about this being a prank.

But the circumstances are different to the prank about Swee Kang.

While the prank posted above may not bear such serious consequences, but it would make a few people look like fools when they, with all their might try to justify the fact that the news is valid. I bet these people would be angry if they knew it was a prank. To make it even worst, they got the source from a well known newspaper. It wasn't a blog, or an online forum. It was a proper newspaper portal. To many unsuspecting readers, it was news 'good to go'. It was believable.

I am not sure how many of you would feel, but I felt somewhat betrayed.  I would be much more welcoming if such news or prank came from a blog, because we have been told again and again to 'not trust blogs' and 'social media postings', but THIS...

Guess the opposition parties got it right. We can't trust our mass media anymore.

DISCLAIMER: Until now, I am not sure if the article by the paper is a prank, but lets wait for tomorrow and see if an apology is written. Either way, the article is written with no credible sources quoted.