Update (11.02.11)

Well, it has been quite some time.
Why? Same shit. Wrote something --> Decided not to post it -> Deleted.
The sudden urge of writing this time I hope to sustain a little bit longer so that I can finish whatever I want to say.

So,it began with my sudden resignation from Marcus Evans.
It is so satisfying watching the expression of expressionless on those people.
Dude, I have to leave. Have to do something compulsive before I am too old to do it.
So, I quit.

It has been quite some time as I say.
No update on the blog.
But, basically it was mostly due to everything was the same.
Nothing has changed even after my resignation.

Go back to the original plan.
LIVE FOR THE YEAR. SEE WHAT HAPPEN. THEN DIE.
Sounds like a good plan.

承认自己心情

这个星期，应该说过得不是很顺利吧...
其实顺不顺利又如何呢？
每一天有个醒来到公司上班的...（目的？），
应该很不错了不吧？
比起之前每天无所事事的日子，
我应该要把这样的生活称为“充实”咯！
但是，为什么心里头还是空荡荡的呢？

原本以为有了上班族的生活，
生命会开始有点好转。
但是，还好我之前放的期待不是很高，
现在那么糟的生活...哎，算了吧？
更糟糕的我都过了，这样下去的生活有怎样呢？
大不了三个月后被炒鱿鱼，然后再找份工，再不然就去死，
没什么大不了。

基本生活上，钱还是一个很大的问题。
哎呀...没有钱的日子我过的还算少呢？
大不了到时候就死去。
嗯...就算现在的情况再恶劣，我都有死亡作我的后备，就觉得安心很多了。
生命已经没有什么牵挂了...
家人就算过年也没到来找我，
朋友？不提也罢。
情人？难道等Nicole做我的女友吗？我发的白日梦还不算多吗？
生命真的没什么牵挂了。

只是明明说好要活多一年，就要活多一年啊！
我这一生中对自己实现的承诺不多，这个对自己的最后承诺就一定要遵守啊！
好吧！生活再糟也要活多一年吧！
三月就要到了。
再过八个月...只要再多八个月。

反正就要死了，在这里写再多废话也没用。
哈哈...

笑着...我的泪突然把我的笑声淹没。
我还是要承认自己的心情。
我孤独的心情需要人来陪...
就算Nicole能够陪我又怎样？我配不上那么好的一个女孩。
我只是...我。

无聊

可能是今晚的雨夜让我特别孤单，
也许是今天的礼拜让我更加无聊，
或者是此刻的自己让我终于清醒，
我现在，坐在电脑前，写下了自己的心情。

人生的路，我走了也有二十一年了。
有时，真的很佩服有些人怎么能够活到超过五十岁还每天醒来过日子。
二十一年，我真的很想对自己说：够了！你可以去死了。
公司里的人全都比我老，真不懂他们怎么能够每天这样过日子。
活着，对我来说就是一种折磨。
而死亡，真的是一种福气。

想起明天又要趁太阳未升起就起身，然后到公司等日出。他妈的！
我真的不懂自己要的是什么。
唯一当我自己对所做的事情觉得有意义的时候就是当我在医学院的时候。
在海洋系，我觉得自己应该得到更多。
在病房里，我觉得自己应该要报仇。
带着报仇的心，我走到这里，我觉得累了。
那股支持着我到现在的怒气，我不懂跑到了哪里。
但是，那种怨气让我现在找到了这份工，应该很不错了吧？
他妈的！我现在再也找不到走下去的...那种东西了。

在公司里，遇见了一个女孩子，她的名字叫Nicole。
是个很漂亮，又很单纯的女孩。
只是年纪应该稍微比我大吧！
而且又有男朋友了。
老实说，就算她跟我，撇开所有的不可能，跟我在一起，又能怎样呢？
她是个好女孩，而我不过是个生命的失败者。
现在的我，只不过很需要一个女人在我的生命里出现。
也许到那个时候，我就不会再怀疑自己生存的原因。

每次写心情，都会写到刚遇到的女人，
每一次都是一个女的，只是名字不一样。
可能下一次在这个blog出现的女孩已经不再是Nicole了。

到什么时候，这个blog的女主角是永远的一个名字呢？

Pitch 1.0

Introduction / Greeting
Hi! This is Reno calling from Marcus Evans Kuala Lumpur. Am I speaking to Mr. … the person in-charge of procurement?

Impact Statement
Well, …, this call is pertaining to our 2-day conference and 1-day training on ‘Strategic Procurement and Effective Sourcing’ which will be held on 26th to 28th April in Kuala Lumpur.
You know, we are recovering from economy crisis of last year, every procurement professionals are no longer doing cost cutting. Instead, they are looking for new approach to tap into new sourcing market, understand the regional supply and demand market, and most importantly strengthening relationship with suppliers.
That’s why we’re now having this event to meet with their needs. And more than their expectations, we’ve speakers like Stephen Rowe from Parmalat, Gazali Harun from Telekom Malaysia, and Laurent Petit from FCI, and many other experts who’ll be sharing their intelligence and insights in this field of procurement.

Urgency
As a matter of fact, due to imminent demand of such intelligence, we are now currently 60% pre-booking from our past delegates who attended our conference in Singapore last year. At the same time, my team members are selling this very event as well.
So, clearly, with only 30 seats allocated for this event, we are now basically left with 12 seats. But, our best estimation after … and … have their pending approval done, we’re basically left with only 4 or 5.

Prequalification
From my understanding, you’re the CPO, so do you have the authority to make the decision to send your people to attend our event?

Features and benefits
Good! Now let me help you to understand our event better in short and simple way. Our event will basically focus on 3 main areas: SRM, justifiable procurement, and sustainability.
First and foremost, SRM, suppliers risk and relationship management. You guys are always looking into making strategic RFP and RFQ and then assess to choose the best supplier who can give you the best price, best quality and in the right time. Not only this, negotiating with those best suppliers to continuously commit to your business is another thing. That’s why we’ll be having 5 sessions regarding this, including one from Laurent Petit who will be discussing about designing a CSDP (Competitive Supplier Developmental Program). Do you have a CSDP in your company?… well, this is just a good opportunity to know about this.
Moving on to the next part, the whole cost cutting in the last year are really sucks, right? That’s why we are now talking not only about procurement, but justifiable procurement. After making purchase from your best suppliers, how are you gonna justify to your management about it? Regarding this issue, our event includes how to make good financial evaluation and performance so that your department will longer be a cost unit, but rather a profit unit. Isn’t that sounds good?
Last but not least, even though we are now in economy recovery, Asia market is still very volatile. That’s why sustainability comes into play. We’ll be talking not only about power of standardization and eliminating obsolete inventory, but a new angle which very few Asia organizations realized before, green procurement. A good corporate image which is environmental friendly is better than anything to ensure consumers’ loyalty even during hard time. Don’t you agree with me?



Probing
…, how’s your procurement department doing? I mean, after cost cutting of last year, have you guys coming out with any strategic and sustainable plan to repair the damage and prepare for the future market?

Matching
Fantastic! Like other procurement professionals who agreed with us, this is just the kind of event matching your need. Come and learn about strategic procurement and effective sourcing.

Closing
What’s your say I have your company in my delegate list, like, right now? How many of your guys are coming?

2nd qualification
As I mentioned earlier, our event on ‘Strategic procurement and effective sourcing’ will be held on 26th to 28th April in Kuala Lumpur Prince and Residence Hotel. Will you be able to make it on those dates to come to our venue?
I believe you’ve known that our conference comes with an investment value, which is USD … per delegate. Is this price within your company budget?
Are you the one in-charge of giving green light to attend this event?
(If not) Enlighten me with your decision making process, including how long it’s gonna take? For your information, your facilitation in this registration process may entitle you to get an early bird price of 10% discount, which is about USD … saving for each delegate.

Arrange callback
Good! Here’s what I’m gonna do. I’ll send you our brochure attached with the registration form in 5 minutes. E-mail or fax, which one you prefer? Now, let me have your email address/ fax number.
When you get the registration form, I need you to fill it up and send it back to me within one hour to my fax number, which is ... .
…, it’s been a pleasure talking to you. I’ll call you back in the afternoon to see how things going on. Thank you. Bye and have a nice day!

Invictus (2009)

Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienaa. Hm… A political movie? Not really. A sport movie? Not exactly. A perfect blend of politics and sport. I would say yes. Clint Eastwood exceeded my expectation here by delivering such a nice piece of movie, that I think the most inspirational movie of the year 2009.

When the President of South Africa, Mandela (Morgan Freeman) and the captain of South Africa rugby team Springbok, Francois Pienaa (Matt Damon) crossed their path, that’s also when the post-apartheid democracy and sport spirit came working together to bring a nation that torn apart so long towards unity. The plot is just as clear as the message in this film. It did drived my spirit high just like a rudgy game when it started with how a ex-political prisoner took over the office of the damned nation till the victory of South Africa in Rugby World Cup which the whites and the blacks cheered together as a united nation. It clearly showed us how sport can bring a country together, abandoning the past (apartheid). Too bad for its release for the year of 2009 when apartheid issues were florished with blue-skinneds (‘Avatar’) and prawns (“District 9’) by the others. But, it gives us no excuse to miss this movie as well.

Frankly, I’ve no idea about this dude Mandela, but Morgan Freeman did a fantastic play here protraying as the first democratically elected South Africa President with a lot of country damage to be repaired and a passion for rugby to be dealt with. He must have done a pretty much of preparation to really speak like a leader of a nation, especially one well-known for his unique monotonous speech. On the other hand, Matt Damon’s acting was just fair enough. Though one-dimensionally as a national rugby team captain, but his role is crucial as being the channel of the president to influence the team as a whole representative of the country. The only thing that not so convincing to me is his body size that I think too small to be a rugby player. Forget about the height, he’s doing just fine.

Cinematographically, the scenes selected in this movie gave me a sense like being in South Africa, especially the slums and the post-apartheid tension everywhere in every characters, not to mention the heavy breathing in the rugby fields that gonna make you breath in labour as well. Part of the movie’s successful portrayal of this nation during the time of 1999 is the music score that I’ve to acknowledge. Indeed, those musics make you pscyhed during the rugby math, and most of them indirectly tell you to be ok to have faith in the nation even though the world are in doubt that you’re in a lot of shit after the aparthied falls.

Screenplay wise, ‘Invictus’ is apparently more interesting and easy to follow compared to other Clint Eastwood’s work. Everything was taken care of, from the individual dialogues to the whole cheering crowd, and not to mention the national antheme of South Africa. As the theme for this movie is kinda heavy, the screenplay well balance the two main things in the movie, which are politics and sports. Both interwine smooth enough to produce the end result of inspiration.

In a nut shell, if you’re looking for a movie that has thems like sports or inspirational unity, this is your perfect cup of tea. Even though the movie is more than two hour, you just have to sit back and relax as the background of the story is bring forth before everything started. No worries about this is a political factual movie. Just follow how Mandela shows you the path to bring both parties who hated each other for so long to sit down and watch a rugby match together. I’m ready for my sorry for its lost in Oscar later, but let’s show some compassion by supporting this movie.

THE RATING:

Story – 3.5 stars

Casts – 3.5 stars

Cinematography – 3.5 stars

Effects – 3.5 stars

OVERALL – 4.0 stars

The Informant (2009)

Jason Bourne…sorry, Matt Damon is out again taking down powerful bad people, only this time merely for his own interest (greed, maybe). Another dark comedy of the year directed by Steven Soderbergh, who we’ve been missing since ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’.

As an adaptation of a book, the film managed to capture audiences with its unique narration by the main character, Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon), who from the high ranked executive of ADM turned into a FBI informant, who later became a prisoner of states convicted of frauds which involves 9.5 (or 11) million dollars. The plot centers on the personal agenda of Mark with surprising twists throughout the story. At first, the plot unfolds in a fast pace and involves too many characters that you may need some times to get used to it (just like the ‘Oceans’). However, once everything is in place, watching how Mark double cross both ADM and FBI is a hell of a joyride full with humorous dialogues and comedic moments.

Casting wise, Matt Damon did a really great job by portraying as a bipolar sufferer and at the same time lies to and manipulates everyone around him. Matt’s hilarious acting plus his effort of putting on almost 30 pounds for the character, just for comedic purpose; I would say it’s very brilliant as it blows our mind by telling us he is not just merely a amnesic spy, but also a funny informant. For other members in casting, their roles are fair enough with contribution to the story flow, especially their unbelievable faces when realizing all of them were fooled by an ordinary-outlook man – they make you laugh. But, I’ll bet you may put on a similar looks as well every time you discovered more about Whitacre’s agenda.

The screenplay is a straight chronology with unexpected turns every now and then. Almost every dramatic dialogue is concerned with the story. The only thing I found hard to digest is the part of the narration which hardly related to the story arch (anyway, the narrator is a bipolar after all). A story of corporate crime (thriller) – thanks to those creative screenwriters, it’s not a John Grisham-type of things but a perfect blend of comedy and crime which everyone will enjoy it.

To sum up, ‘The Informant’ is a very laughable dark comedy, compared to its competitor nominee in awards ‘Up in the Air’, just lack of insights than the later. A movie that will lighten your day up and definitely worth your time watching Jason … sorry, Matt Damon on the screen playing a secret informant not for CIA this time, but FBI. How a highest level executive to ever become a FBI whistleblower who tried to double cross both? Check it out in ‘The Informant!’

THE RATING:

Story – 4.0 stars

Casts – 3.5 stars

Cinematography – 3.0 stars

Effects – 3.0 stars

OVERALL – 3.5 stars

Case 39 (2010)

A perfect failure example of demon-disguise-as-child horror flick would be an understatement to this film. To summarize it, I would say it’s a combination of ‘Drag Me to Hell (2009)’ and ‘The Orphan (2009)’ but just much worse than either of them.

The beginning of the story plot was ok and successfully creates an aroma of mystery. However, the story line became kinda boring when it failed to break from the typical flow which is:

1. The main character(s) found a child who is supposedly adorable but with a mysterious background.

2. The child (demon or whatever) shows signs of evil and the protagonist starts to be afraid of her.

3. Protagonist investigates the reasons and past of the child.

4. After several failing attempts, the protagonist eventually successfully/unsuccessfully kills the child.

Apparently, the plot of this story is a recycle of things that others already used (many times) in the past. So, do not expect anything else but poorer plot.

Well, without much hesitation, I’m gonna reward the casting members for screwing up even more the story. Renee Zelweger’s acting was poor and too surface comparing to my expectation from the ‘The Bridget Jones’s Diary’ actress. Moreover, Jodelle Ferland is definitely unsuitable for the role as the demon-disguise-as-child character, despite her good acting in ‘Silent Hill (2006)’. Jodelle’s acting; I would say it’s more irritating than horrifying. First of all, she looks more mature (taller) and less adorable comparing to similar actor/actress in ‘The Omen’ and ‘The Orphan’. Second of all, I can almost see her desperation to put up an evil smirking smile that I found it annoying (no wonder she wasn’t featured in the promotional poster). The only character that helped me bear with the movie was Bradley Cooper, though his character was totally insignificant at all.

No long lasting terrifying scenes from the movie. A copy cat of ‘Drag Me to Hell’ by using bees (instead of flies) but … there’s nothing to be horrified of – at all. I have to warned you that many scenes in the movie that try to shock you but turn out to be something dumb and not related to the story – they may annoy you. So, please, don’t go in with popcorns.

There’s nothing worth watching about this movie at all – really. My piece of advice: save your time in the cinema queue and re-watch ‘The Orphan’ or perhaps ‘The Omen’ (I mean the classic one) will even be more enjoyable.

THE RATING:

Story – 3.0 stars

Casts – 2.0 stars

Cinematography – 2.5 stars

Effects – 2.0 stars

OVERALL – 2.5 stars