Pew! Pew! Pew!

*laughs*
This is so cute. You wanna have a kid now don't you....

Disney's Hall of Presidents.

Stumbled upon this very interesting clip of Disney's Hall of Presidents. Check out how life like the Audio-Animatronics figures are! They're almost scary. I've studied animation but they were all digital. I am curious what it must be like to animate animatronics. Must be much harder as it has many limitations but by the looks of it, it has improved tremendously. It's things like these that remind me why I studied to be an animator.







Hmm, seems like I'm in a Disney mood as the last two posts were Disney themed.

Fallen Princesses

I thought this was pretty cool.

Dina Goldstein replaced the '...happily ever after' with a more realistic outcome... We all know if you read the original Brothers Grimm versions, they don't exactly have happy endings like the Disney counterparts.

I'm sorry kids, the world is not such a happy and beautiful place after all...

I'll let her pictures speak for themselves.

The Sleeping Beauty

Not so Little Red Riding Hood.

Rapunzel.

Snow White

Cinderella

Belle

Princess Jasmine.

By Dina Goldstein
8 June 2009

These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.

The project was inspired by my observation of three-year-old girls, who were developing an interest in Disney's Fairy tales. As a new mother I have been able to get a close up look at the phenomenon of young girls fascinated with Princesses and their desire to dress up like them. The Disney versions almost always have sad beginning, with an overbearing female villain, and the end is predictably a happy one. The Prince usually saves the day and makes the victimized young beauty into a Princess.

As a young girl, growing up abroad, I was not exposed to Fairy tales. These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of Fairy tales. I explored the original brothers Grimm's stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney's perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.

There are 2 more to be shot for this series which is going on exhibit on Oct. 15/09

Source : JPmag.com

Kenwood DDX7034ZBT

The Panasonic CQ-VD5505W head unit I installed not to long ago (previous post, Panasonic CQ-VD5505W) kept giving me problems. For some reason, the screen kept getting stuck and non responsive to touch. This really annoyed the hell out of me as it was practically new.

After trying to get it repaired a couple of times as it was still under warranty, it was time to return it and move on. Aaron stuck this new Kenwood head unit in and it seems to be working pretty well so far...

Garmin GPS still available on this unit.

Aaron decided to stick in some better quality speakers along with a pair of tweeters and chuck the factory ones out too. Not to worry, I'm not going to start fiddling with ICE. Just want something decent in the car.

Sunday Routine

Had a very quick drink with Bryan, Wern Shen, Eugene and Fariz today. There was another white Skyline...

Shot by Fariz with my camera phone.

Same black and white theme. Black rims. Black rear wing stands. Top Secret front bumper. Flared arches. I must say, it doesn't look bad. Not bad at all...

I think the black and white theme is getting to be a little overused. Everyone seems to have it done to their cars. Urgh...

Just a couple of days before, I saw this...

The Antera Motorsports R34. Has the same black and white theme going on. Even had the 19" TE37's donned in black.

Maybe I should get a new look...

First Gundam, now Tetsujin 28-gō 1:1!

Source : AnimeNewsNetwork.com

"The project costs 135 million yen (about US$1.40 million), although the city has pitched in 45 million yen (US$470,000). The sales of "Tetsujin Curry" contributed to the cause. Under the project's revised plans, the statue will weigh 50 tons. (Because the statue is not "standing" straight up, it actually rises 15 meters or 49 feet from the ground.) Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Mobile Police Patlabor, The Sky Crawlers) wrote and directed a stage play adaptation of the manga with a six-meter-tall (20-foot-tall) robot replica earlier this year, while Hong Kong's IMAGI studio (TMNT, Astro Boy) began streaming its computer-animated teaser video last month.

Bandai is constructing a Gundam statue of similar size on Tokyo's artificial Odaiba Island. Unlike the Gundam statue, the Tetsujin 28-gō statue will be a permanent installation with no moving parts.”

Source : Kobe Tetsujin Project

The Warung, Reviewed

The Malaysian Insider did a write up on The Warung....

Wednesday June 24, 2009
Food

Warung food at warung prices... and it’s in a mall!

By Eu Hooi Khaw

JUNE 20 — Sitting at the new Warung in the MidValley Megamall brings on a wave of nostalgia. The zinc-aluminium covered tables, the wooden benches and stools are all part of the kampung ambience that Sue Ong has put together for this “stall” that sells anything from coffee, kaya toast and roti canai to mee rebus, nasi lemak, and even Ramli burgers. I told her we used to have a round table covered with zinc at home, and which was great for making mee koo (a Chinese red bun), and cookies.

Sue pointed out the older stools, and two benches she had rescued from her father’s sawmill in Taiping. “They used to lay wood across them for cutting,” she said of the benches. Six old jars came from a neighbour’s house (we used to store rice in one of these), and the pretty “warung” plates she got from Kelantan near the Thai border.

Sue laughed as we both recalled how those little ladles at her warung were used to pour red and brown syrup over the iceballs we used to enjoy.
Sue was helping her son Bryan to achieve his dream of a food business. It looks like his and his mum’s efforts are paying off. There are regulars who can’t seem to get enough of the food and drinks here, sitting in a bright and cool, not hot and sweaty warung, and enjoying their meal at warung prices.



We helped ourselves to the kuih from the woven trays and I drank Muar coffee (freshly ground every day) while waiting for our kaya toast. The serimuka was especially good: a thick, creamy pandan layer over santan-flavoured glutinous rice. I also liked the banana kuih that tasted like a bread pudding. The kuih is from well-known Malay kuih maker in Ampang Village.

The kaya toast was thin and crispy, with a thin slice of butter and kaya on top. The kaya had the right sweetness, aroma and consistency. That was for starters. (Enough to know that the toast is just RM2.50, iced coffee RM2.60).

Fried Chicken is very popular here, fried expertly and a la minute by someone who spent 18 years in KFC. The light and fluffy roti canai is served with a tasty dhal curry (RM2) but you can also have it with the hot and fragrant chicken rendang. I had this chicken with the Nasi Lemak that had also fried ikan bilis, a sweet sambal and a fried egg on top. Overall it’s a nasi lemak to come back for, and at only RM6.90.

I nibbled on some Fruit Rojak which had a rather sweet sauce, but is obviously liked by many.

I absolutely loved the Mee Rebus, made to a recipe from food consultant Rohani Jelani. The yellow noodles were in a delicious gravy blended with sweet potatoes. It’s a thin gravy with the hotness of dried chillies coming through, and fresh turmeric, coriander and shallots. Small chunks of potato and prawn fritters, fried beancurd and egg are in the Mee Rebus which has such a superfine quality about it, that you would want to drink the gravy up.

Rohani’s personal touch is also in the Curry Mee which I will try on my next visit. The Soto Ayam is done to a recipe supplied by another of Sue’s friends.



It was the first time I had a Ramli Burger and I must say it tasted good: chicken patty with egg and cheese. It was surprisingly light, not greasy. There’s been a conscious effort to reduce the oil and grease in the cooking of most of the food here.

If you’ve never had a Three-layer Tea, here’s the place to have it. It’s got gula Melaka at the bottom, evaporated milk and tea. I feared that it would be very sweet, but it wasn’t. Everything was well-balanced. The fragrance of the tea came through and blended superbly with the milk and gula Melaka. No wonder tea wins over coffee at this Warung.

It’s early days yet for the Warung, which intends to have Nasi Tumpang as one of its specialties. It’s one layer ayam terutup at the top, one layer rice with cucumber and egg, and serunding at the bottom. Note that the serunding is from Kelantan.

The Warung is located on the first floor of the North Court of Mid Valley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur, towards the Jusco side. It opens at 8.30am for breakfast of eggs, kaya toast, French toast, coffee, tea or Milo Warung Special that has a lot of the Milo powder on top.

Thank you Eu Hooi Khaw for the lovely write up.

The original article can be found here.

1:1 Mobile Suit Gundam

Japan finished building it's life sized Mobile Suit Gundam celebrating the it's 30th anniversary for the mecha anime. The 18-meter Gundam will stand for two months in Shiokaze Park before being disassembled. (why do that?!) Perhaps they of course mean taking it to their secret underground laboratories where they'll finish the design and make it fully functional! We know what you're up to Japan! *laughs*



Call me a geek but I think it's fucking cool...