lego city #60000 fire motorcycle

pros:

• N/A

cons:

• stickers
• the cover of the bin is too long
• no idea where to put the extinguisher in the motorbike

the imitation game

The last of the movies to watch in early this year and this is another British one. Luckily watched it before it is going to be removed from the big screen. The main reason in my list is the performance of Benedict Cumberbatch in sherlock and want to see what the difference is another piece of work. Another reason is I'm interested in nearly everything on WWII.

Eyebrows of young turning is so long. For viewers this is the key way to make him distinguish from other pupils in the school. His affair with Christopher really affected his whole wife. Even the machine is also named Christopher. Is really "Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine"? Only thing I can figure of is the concentration they can put when comparing to the normal people.

My memory of Keira Knightley is still back from Love Actually. She is much older here. BTW her last make-up after WWII makes me think of the one in The Duchess.

Another thing in the film related to Cumberbatch is the discovery of the breakthrough is so "House" which is derived from fictions of Sherlock Holmes.

I had a thought that there would be a cameo of Winston Churchill as he allowed the team to run smooth and the best chance was head of MI6 reading the work at Churchill War Rooms.

The handling method of the end was quite similar to American Sniper. Both are sad one. The words from Clarke could only extend Turing's life for one more year. What would happen if he stayed alive longer?

An Acoustic Evening with Jason Mraz & Raining Jane

What a wonderful night. just in time to catch airport express to asiaworld expo arena as the concert started quite early.

started by solo of raining jane but i think they are better with jason together. since we were sitting a bit far from the stage, it was sad that the display was not switched until jason came.

it was a surprise he sang many songs from previous albums. with raining jane, "lucky" was performed with even deeper emotions. and the greatest was during encore, everybody stood up and sang "i'm yours" (captures from different angles by 2 different fans as below) & "i won't give up".

playlist dropped by kkbox

#jasonandjane

Herman Lee（@heiminglee）張貼的相片 於 2015 年 3月 月 27 5:54下午 PDT 張貼

american sniper

The film time-line is very well calculated and very smart to port to the actual footage on pass away of the main character. But I cannot recognise Sienna Miller.

There are few things that can be better:

1. No armoured skirt for M1?
2. Miller's pregnancy belly was very fake
3. Do those rookie marines really suck even don't understand hand signals?
4. Why didn't the team use M203 when they are surrounded by the insurgents after killing Mustafa?

shaun the sheep movie

very good indeed

if you follow the tv series, the difference is seems to be fewer sheep in the flock and the bitzer is not so close with the farmer & the flock.

taken 3

Why did they change the actor of Stuart from Xander Berkeley who is not unknown and also good to act as a bad guy?

As Brian was so smart in the field before, why didn't he think he was set up from someone a bit close to him immediately?

How could Brian leave the lift trunk before the explosion? His age didn't reflect his mobility at all. Also is the Porsche so damned strong?

lego city #60015 coast guard plane

pros:

• the boat is in details. especially the engine of the boat & the plane. also the roof of boat
• the boat can float
• lego fishes
• the printed brick as plane control

cons:

• too many one piece items especially for the plane. there is no door on the plane to let pilot go in & out. only one piece item i like is the boat hull
• stickers are devils when they cannot make the expected painting of the plane
• scale of the plane is a bit abnormal
• too much internal structure for the plane such that no more space besides driving seat

pix are uploaded to flickr.

the amazing spider-man 2

spoiler

i love the concept of using hidden underground terminal at waldorf astoria new york as the lab of spider-man's father.

jamie foxx did a job to be a psychic

death of gwen stacy closed to original story & isreasonable

style of harry osborn likes kazuhiko hanawa in chibi maruko-chan

quality of the film is better than those marvel titles produced by 20th century fox 

the wolf of wall street

• cannot recognize matthew mcconaughey as the boss
• dicaprio is too old to be a fresh joiner. but very suitable for later life
• just fxxking crazy!

the secret life of walter mitty

spoiler below

some said this one can be compared with forrest gump, but i think that is over praised.

background is interesting by mentioning the last period of print edition of life magazine. the storyline is also ok but the details are a bit loose. i'm sorry that in my mind ben stiller does not really suit to act the character.

and how can the daydream make mitty safe to aboard the copter? how come the daydreams didn't make him crash with anything like car until riding the bicycle in iceland? or how come the daydreams didn't make fall from station platform or roof/window of building? but his daydream did make him miss his mom's word on meeting with his favourite photojournalist.

another myth is his cellphone is with so long battery life. and a normal person may not have that strength to first go to greenland, then iceland. after that he takes another trip to afghanistan. anyway he is lucky to find the negative before the last print issue is out.

no matter what the film asks people not to stick into their daydreams and do something real. that's what i need sometimes.

OSX Mavericks

the good: much quicker launch & shut down

the bad: behaviour of power button changed! simply pressing it only makes machine sleep. to have more options, it needs to be pressed between 1.5 sec to 5 sec. don't press longer than 5 sec or everything does not save will be lost due to force turn off. (ref: apple support)

written on osx mavericks

the stolen years

the story is attractive at first, boring before the turning point, and sad after the point. maybe it is too carefully calculated. i have thought whether the girl would become a devil again when she returned to work. the tragedy may not happen if the girl was not so rickless or the hospital did not break the rule to accept the instruction of a disabled person.

it is quite obviously the film is not purely made by taiwanese. the accent of some actors has betrayed everything.

lego city #60020 cargo truck

pros:

• the outlook of cargo truck and forklift truck is full of details
• nice design to open the side panel.

cons:

• too many stickers
• using a rubber to control the forklift may not be good. the rubber may be broken after ages and the forklift cannot be raised again.
• the layout inside the cargo truck is not realistic 
• roof of cargo truck is not sealed due to the hedges like the ambulance

pix are here.

lego lord of the rings #79006 the council of elrond

pros:

• sticker as eye of sauron to protect the brick is a good idea
• rare elrond & arwen
• rare weapons
• nice colours chosen
• structure of tree is better than city house
• not just one ring only!

cons:

• stickers but not many
• scene is too small making everything is too close
• not include the whole fellowship of the ring

P.S.

• much technic stuff to build the structure & playable functions similar to palpatine's arrest.

pix are here.

lego star wars #9526 palpatine's arrest

pros:

• design with details from speeder to nearly everything
• many golden bricks including microfigures!
• many characters! mace windu, anakin, palpatine & more
• many playable functions
• can be used in various scenes if those involve chancellor's office

cons:

• stickers but not many
• parts are not firm enough including entrance & roof of windows behind chancellor's seat
• too many dark bricks which are a bit hard to distinguish in the manual

P.S.

• much technic stuff to build the structure & playable functions
• the base of the office makes me feel like a plane at first!

pix are here.

the wolverine

i don't really like the movie. few parts are excited.

jane grey is hotter than japanese girls but a bit too old.

yukio is really attractive except wolverine

bodyguard is too stubborn on loyalty. that is the same for eastern ethnics.

eason's life concert

only bad thing is no encore...

lego city #60018 cement mixer

pros:

1. trolley!!!
2. 2 minfigures!!!
3. a gate to stop cement out
4. guided slope to let cement go to the right way
5. great care to driver, a mug for drink
6. the height is lower than #7990
7. the radiator is firmer than the one in #7990
8. doors
9. cab can be opened to show cab over engine

cons:

1. stickers!!!!
2. drum mixer is not stuck to the rotating base properly

pix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hermanwest/tags/60018/

lego starwars #75012 BARC Speeder™ with Sidecar

pros:

1. obi-wan & captain rex!
2. features to play
3. nice printing
4. speeder is better than the one in #7913.

cons:

1. stickers!!!
2. too weak for confederacy of independent systems

pix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hermanwest/tags/75012/

lego starwars #75000 Clone Troopers™ vs. Droidekas™

pros:

1. no stickers
2. new face print
3. a small trick included

cons:

1. a bit expensive

pix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hermanwest/tags/75000/

Windows 8

Obviously Microsoft has lost the soul on post-Wintel world. Windows 8 is another failure even with the advertisement featured with Lenka.

They try to incorporate features of mobile devices to make Win 8 used by both desktop & mobile. But they clearly lose their ground. First Win 8 cannot load everything essential at start even on a device with SSD hard disc. Apple's latest Bootcamp fails to load on time making Trackpad without correct setting. Everyone says it is faster to load but I cannot find it with my latest 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display.

The most aggressive move they have done is using Metro. Now is a mess making user confuse. Sometimes we look at a stylish screen while often we are back to old Windows desktop. They should either use Metro completely and dump the old world or make two merge instead of something hybrid now. That would be a big risk for general users who do not use much of traditional desktop. Simplified layout provided by Metro especially in system setting makes users fail to control & protect their machine. Computer gurus, on the other hand, feel messy switching between the two different layouts based on distinct concepts.

Windows Market is a nice move compared to traditional complex software installation. But how to close an application? I cannot find shut down button / icon. Only the old way (Alt + F4) works?

Compared Apple has made a bit better on incorporating features from iOS to OS X. That seems Microsoft is lacking some guys good at user experience.

django unchained

the marauding masked group who were leaded by the plantation owner hiring brittle brothers hunted by the dentist were damned idiot. that is the second funny thing after the symbolic teeth above the dentist's cart.

the place, candyland, was just opposite to its name. it's rather a hell for black people. there were many henchmen and also ways of brutally punishments for these poor guys.

should the dentist let django meet his wife before the deal? it's hard to say how they would have behaved if they met each other during the dinner. it's so true that every place has someone like stephen trying to betray their fellows for personal gains. i really didn't know jailing broomhilda was for sex slave until reading plot online. it was funny when quentin was dead in such a stupid way.

django was different from normal slaves. he was so much smarter as an expert sniper and shooter at a short time. he wound play the role quite well even though eq was not good enough to prevent the loss of dentist. stephen was another even he's on another side.

my previous mind on leonardo dicaprio was still the young boy in titanic. this film changes the view a lot. christoph waltz made another good job with quentin again while samuel l jackson remained a key guy in quentin's films.

but anyway i like inglourious basterds more. maybe i knew more on wwii than the slavery in the states. and the way of torturing people was much over than the previous one.

Life of Pi

Sorry, I don't have any feeling about the meaning behind the film.

Spoilers below

The worst thing I can spot is the actors' ascent for the protagonist is different. I don't think people change much for the ascent even we can learn for multiple ascent. Do Pi's family have French nationality? And why don't they go to France instead?

Actually Pi is an extreme clever character as shown he can remember the known numbers of pi after decimal points.

Attitude of Pi is right. every religion is a method the god communicates to us. If everyone knows this, there will have much fewer wars, from crusades to war on terror. But his dad was also right, you can only eat vegan if you believe all religions.

I really didn't figure out the cook in the ship is acted by famous Gérard Depardieu. In 70’s, radars were common and early warnings by observatories were available easily, why did the ship still go into that storm?

I thought the zebra was still drugged when it was being attacked. That's why I cannot connect the second story to the first one. How could Pi get the stuff to build the raft & move all stuff to it when Richard Parker was in the lifeboat? Richard Parker should have a connection long before. It did not kill him when he brought a meat to it.

The floating island looks like a woman, the acidic lake at night is which part of the island? I think the knowledge, not just the religion saved Pi to make him leave the island.

That is normal for Richard Parker to leave him when they finally arrived the coast. Don’t look back when there is future ahead, otherwise you will lose the chance forward. But of course that’s grief to separate especially since we are emotional.

lego city #4431 ambulance

pros:

1. look gorgeous; much better than #6666
2. sewage well is printed!!!
3. torso of paramedic is beautiful
4. many places to access the inside of car
5. interior is much better
6. best of the great vehicles in my mind

cons:

1. stickers!!!!
2. sticker for star of life is smaller than #6666
3. helmet is not stylish
4. why is the patient is a man?
5. hedges are too big
6. no back window
7. too much lighting at the back but not front
8. wheels of stretcher cannot be risen

pix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hermanwest/tags/4431/

lego city #4201 loader and tipper

pros:

1. many new parts
2. 2 vehicles covering different functions
3. gold colour
4. design simple & brilliant
5. most value packed among five sets sold in this wave

cons:

1. stickers
2. too many plastic bags & books
3. no doors for tipper
4. a bit too simple for mining

way to the end

i would like to complete my view on the remaining last eight episodes of [h]ouse but some are too boring. even worse is there were no emmys nominations no matter how hard hugh laurie & robert sean leonard performed. i give up anyway to make my memory sticking on good stuff.

the farewell is attractive. nearly every important characters have come back & my favourite should be post mortem.

people don't change!

P.S. Who will kill thirteen when her huntington worsens? last time house agreed to kill her but now house has hidden away for last moment of his best friend.

road before last eight

chase: he just blamed everyone for making him stabbed in last episode. but he forgot that's his decision to treat in that way to get himself hurt. his clinic session picked this episode's patient, a postulant. and he then slept with her & then made operation on her.  it's funny too see actions between house & taub. taub got trained to prevent being attacked & house tried to prove that's coward. another episode is without wilson.

man of the house: haha finally administration checked house's so called "marriage". wilson & park tried to help but eventually failed. luckily his "wife" saved their asses. except taub, all team members were stupid to fight for the team leader post. if you don't wannabe getting angry easily, simply follow the patient, kick the crotch.

love is blind: house's mom is cool. her lover is also cool. wilson is also cool. birthmark cannot prove anything, how house can be so stupid. i also like park getting drugged. everybody lies even still loving you. please don't think there is no cheating when you want some private space.

nobody's fault

patient: the diagnosis patient originally had should be shown in the show more than once
chase: stupid when he knew patient becomes aggressive after injected steroid
cofield: hypocritical. patient's wife changed the game
foreman: more to be house. wanna getaway from trouble by using his mentor as hearing judge. but he brought the patient to the team
house: he's still true. but is his method right? steroid made his team dangerous

does anyone find there's no wilson?

runaways

patient: even she's 19, she's still too old to be under 18. she still meets the view the creator thinks, people don't change
b story: another funny story with differential analysis. why to use real bullets in re-simulation?
adams: win house (shooting) & lose (studying people's mind)
wilson: he's right on house to protect patient & on taub to connect the kids by making common ground
taub: work hard to be a dad
foreman: another strange guy, formal outside but silly inside. wants an affair with other's wife in private only?
chase: so damned true about "men love commitment-free sex"
park: just only losing $100 on silly game

last episode was everybody lies, this one is people don't change. to remind us the backbone of the show

better half

patient & family:

• did her wife cheat?
• the "boyfriend" story is a bit too short.
• actually he should be dead after going out into freezing temperature
• the sickness is a bit simple

house & team:

• house knows portuguese? house's wish finally comes truth. winning wilson for n times & taken off the monitor
• chase is so dark, wish to see him more in his episodes later
• no matter what i think park is poor
• foreman finally cracks post-cuddy behaviour after the card game? welcome back to the team

patient b & wilson:

• asexual only priests & buddhist monks can do. all others are illness. that's what his wife shows
• wilson subconsciously asked house to handle patient b as he doesn't trust that too. but his moral behaviour cannot resolve them out & find house to solve. that US$100 is worth to pay.

house

so far we still don't know whether this season will be the last...

twenty vicodin: i like this episode to start this season. that introduced how house lives after crash into cuddy's house. no friends visited him, but he is as smart as always. how he handles twenty vicodin is cool. i even don't know the gang leader is 24's mike. first member of his new team appears who i think she is prettier than jennifer morrison or olivia wilde.

transplant: lung made thing worse. i don't know why there can be a story on a lung for lung transplant. either use it or waste it should be known long before the transplant. it is strange to let it stay in the midway with no fluid surrounding it. and also how house can practice directly back from prison? bring in another team member. new one is as odd as house but i like masters a bit more. it's funny wilson cannot live without house.

charity case: celebrity's episode with prison break lead actor and last appearance of thirteen. house needs money to rebuild the office & his team so to choose this good guy. thirteen is back for guilty and a nice move to leave her guilty free.

risky business: another fund raising case for house. fixed park's mind so to concentrate to work on his team and further understand adams' background. finally house used a bit trick to get enough money to run the whole team and get the office back from disturbing noise by cutting off plaster.

the confession: new series theme with new full team. omg taub is in trouble with two babies from different moms. are both daughters from him? so strange chase didn't need to work for an year. still everybody lies and it does so well! funny to see how house makes the wall between his office & wilson's office removable.

parents: why do people lie? there's a good reason for the case. but the kid is poor for whole life. know why adams behaviour is a bit different from those are wealthy. taub finally fixes his stuff did in last season. wilson is cheated by house & foreman! but conditional release can allow them to go to another town?

dead & buried: i like this story as it focuses on two cases instead of one making the story not so dull. but how can foreman be so rude to house while cheated with house last time? would this the final quote of cuddy until she's back for one more time?

perils of paranoia: can park be with chase? or adams with chase? is that girl the first after foreman with thirteen?  but foreman will be in trouble both in his personal & work if he is still with that girl. another funny house wilson game.

btw good to see the cool clinic cases back

lego kingdoms #7189 mill village raid

pros:

1. new animals
2. another set not purely for military
3. no sticker

cons:

1. windmill design is too weak. the base can rotate?
2. barn cannot hold the horse and the car together...
3. box is too small to hold even half completed stuff inside

some pix taken

torchwood miracle day

1. jack took back the device stolen by his former lover angelo from torchwood institute, but there is no further development in this series?
2. is phicorp collapsed?
3. can doctor explain the blessing?
4. does jack has blood type? so rex does not reject?
5. rex leads another torchwood?
6. what is plan b?

btw how come langham place relocated to shanghai?

mission: impossible – ghost protocol

five years after the last one, i went to see it due to brad bird's brilliant stuff in pixar, the incredibles & ratatouille and the film doesn't break my glasses.

story is reasonable and also shows their gears do not always work! & that's a bit odd for jeremy renner to ask tom cruise how to escape from attacak in order to make tom believe him as an analyst instead of a field agent. ghost protocol... is just barely related to the story.

btw how come tom's female colleague is not beauty even this one is much better than the one in mission: impossible ii. on the other hand the female assassin looks much better and cool who really did the right job. checked she is a french and maybe the reason why to have this feeling in my head.

i like the character portrayed by anil kapoor rather than the one in 24. if there's another mission: impossible film, will jeremy renner be back?

last few months

finally finished assignment so have time to get updates. yup, i go to back to school (the same university i graduated) to study master of science in finance. part is for work while another is for my own.

but my health is not good after big changes in many things and need to regain. but progress is not fast at all. lucky still have some money to spend on stock investments. hope my choice is right and be fruitful later on.

besides study & work, i paid a lot to expand my stocks on lego. sometimes i have luck on getting special designs on minifigures series but more often i'm in bad luck... besides i got another winter set, 10216 winter village bakery, an year after it launched. in hk we can only get winter sets through official channel an year after.

only one cd was brought, speak now world tour live by taylor swift. she rocks for the whole year and that is a good collection of her performance for her tour.

tvb peral finally played shaun the sheep 2 but they played the xmas episode one month earlier to xmas. what a shame. btw home sheep home 2 is cool. wasted me some time to crack the levels. and now trying to finish torchwood miracle day within this year. but don't think have time to watch house...

journey of poirot is still in progress but in slow move. currently being struck at hallowe'en party which i had watched the tv version on sky above middle east (one of the favourite place of agatha christie)

lastly i'm typing in front of a new monitor after facing old one for 7 years...

all of you

summer time we need something simple, fresh, energetic and optimistic. the previous two albums i think the compilation of the songs are not very good, but this time is much better. but this album by colbie caillat can make you feel that. especially you cannot enjoy sunshine while others are staying under the sun & playing around.

apple mac os x lion on mid 2009 13” macbook pro

one of the greatest things for apple inc this month should be launch of latest osx, lion. there is no need to introduce it here as apple’s site does a better job.

today the curiosity has driven me to the app store & bought the latest os x. download was not long for over 2.7gb stuff. before installing, un-mounted boot camp partition and stopped running non-apple default applications to make sure installation going smooth. around half hour later, the installation was complete and it is rebooted.

i love the new login screen, the background is simple & also showing the machine is connected with wireless or not and how much battery is left. first time running was a bit frustrated, speed was a bit too slow. and the new multi-touch gestures make the old geeks unconformable. two-finger scroll does the different way as it was in slow leopard.

the biggest problem i hit was related to boot camp. unlike others, i don’t have problem to get boot camp partition mounted. but since there is no more disc for lion, latest windows drivers for boot camp 4.0 are needed to download instead. but the download does not support wireless lan! i needed to unplug the connection to router and plug it directly to the macbook… anyway windows experience index increases by 0.1 point with update of display driver.

launchpad, the idea from ios, doesn’t impress me much for those new functions i tried. maybe i’m out-dated. the old presentation is enough. but mission control rocks, it’s much better than the old expose. and lion runs smoother later. seems something was fine tuning at first one.

lego city #3661 bank & money transfer

pros:

1. rare – only 3 sets including this one are related to bank. this is the only one with theft & police to have a complete story;
2. nice colouring;
3. design of bank is mixed of modern (glass window) & 60s (sign);
   
4. with safe inside;
5. with ATM in details;
6. with an impressive look of security transport;
7. i love the thief’s motorcycle design. a few more we can have a motocross

cons:

1. why is there no cctv? there is only alarm & staff wait for police car nearby;
2. front top cover of security transport is very loose;
3. police with hat cannot sit straight in his car;
   
   
4. ATM still differs from reality;
   
   
5. interior of the bank is too weak in order to emphasize the safe. and there are too many flowers;
6. design of the safe is not safe enough. there is a big gap between ceiling & the top of the gate;
   
   
7. last but not least, in order to be environmental friendly, the box is made too thin. how can i pack the things up without breaking them completely?

P.S. why the driver of security transport is also a policeman instead of coming from private security firm?

&... am i so lucky or quality is really worse? another faulty part is received.



P.S. replacement is received

last 4 episodes for [h]ouse season 7

changes – i think it’s in quite traditional [h]ouse style except having too few clinic scenes. It had enough cuddy, wilson, the team especially thirteen (their new selling point). and even cg on medical is back.

cuddy’s mom actually loved house to be her daughter’s partner. they obviously had similar personalities.

and the team but not taub who was already miserable with his ex-wife were also miserable. chase wanted to be clean on sex before finding a new true love but failed. foreman wanted to show he is not controlled by house but also failed. thirteen was even more worse after her brother’s dead. she even said, “miserable is miserable, we are who we are, lottery is stupid”.

 

fix – luckily had arranged two patients (actually three) to make the episode at okay level. main one was typically detective drama way but handled badly. second one was from house & wilson gambling to fix huddy break up & it’s ok with that length of story. 3rd one was putting himself in real danger even he’s done a lot of dangerous ways before. but he should be fine or otherwise you cannot see him in the eighth season.

cuddy only made a cameo again…

 

after hours – seems like they need to bring few story lines together in one episode in order to make it attractive. this time the combination is quite nice. thirteen finally broke her own barrier due to murdering on her own sick brother with help from chase. taub faced the truth finally after all these years cheated his ex-wife rachel. he’s finally a man. house was stupid in order to get back his muscles. wilson was right on house but what he needed more is cuddy!

 

moving on – finally watched this over a month after it’s out … medicine for this season finale sucks. even layman can find the problem.

mental problem of the patient is a bit better. it was written that her mind was like house, but that part is not easy for normal audience to understand. both thought themselves miserable, but patient can pass thru it easily while that’s not for house

he told cuddy he was hurt and then said it’s not  your fault. so cuddy moved on and house saw she’s dating. he got mad and finally figured how to move on. that’s cut the connection completely.

so that’s normal for cuddy not to come back in next reason.

i don’t like 13’s hairstyle in this episode… but she will be much hotter in cowboys & aliens.

how will taub handle his babies? which one will be legitimate?

 

P.S. every computer in the show is now mac. but why not cell phones are also from apple inc?

lego city #8403 city house

pros:

1. modular
2. a new way to present civilian home
3. with enough details from outside to inside with limited size, i.e. rubbish bin, post box, bbq stand, tree house etc

cons:

1. stickers as always
2. house is a bit small when compared to the garden. minifig doesn’t have enough room for cooking
3. why is there no rat? raised base of the house is a good place for rats

let them talk

i still don’t have time to finish latest season finale of house md yet (spoiler: a main cast will not return!!!). but i have got another stuff by hugh laurie and keep playing & playing again.

that’s his debut album, let them talk. not only he sings, but also he plays piano. and there is a song featuring tom jones! anyway i think the blues make this summer much cooler!!!

btw i don't think there are many stocks left in major cd stores as they are directly imported from britain under normal price.

turkey

like:

• hospitality
• historical scenes
• flowers
• balloon
• food
• & more

dislike:

• hotel in rural areas
• rural roads
• also food

turkey in flickr

lego city #7684 pig farm & tractor

pros:

1. rare colour & components
2. many pigs!!!
3. nice tractor design
4. no stickers

cons:

1. no base for pig farm
2. no door for tracker

lego city #8401 city mini-figure collection

pros:

1. chair design
2. nice use of skate as cover of traffic light
3. nice design of minifig face

cons:

1. stickers
2. still with cassette recorder?
3. too top of traffic light

thirteen back, masters gone

the dig – it’s a little simple for the case but that made more sense for the case. & it's cool to introduce thirteen back. masters should be also credited to get the final hint. taub & his life were actually the same type of persons! it’s nice to keep them in the loop. it’s not odd in this episode without wilson or cuddy passing by. i loved the spud-gun competition. it shows how rock thirteen can be after shooting troy & cowboys and aliens. and how house handled his trouble in a ‘smart’ way.

last temptation – masters is a freak. she started to ‘boot’ her mind into medicine just after wake up. she should be the smartest among house’s diagnostic team members but also the one who stuck the rules most. that’s what house loved and hated. but she cannot stay anymore: 1. thirteen is back at least up to the end of this season; 2. masters is no longer a med student and there’s no internship in house’s team (if that big rule can be broken, she can bypass that internship); 3. she cannot accept the rules house sets. she will be mad and may end like kutner… after huddy, what can cuddy do? just a cameo on masters’ decision? she should know masters’ stuff in surgery and did something on that. btw the chicken competition is so damned funny. how come house’s chicken was not caught after security notified and blocked masters’ way???

pixar 25 years of animation

computer animation obviously is one of the methods to present the idea to audiences. even that can show some details while other methods cannot, other things are also important to make an animation successful.you can find one or two in this exhibition.
there are two things interested. first is the draft of some characters is different to the end product. Like kevin in Up, there were few different looks. And lotso in toy story 3, the original was much more cute which the characteristic was not finalized.
another is some drawings are covered with another layer of paper. some were forming the final part of drawing like for the birds. another seemed to cover the original one as in ratatouille. linguini was back to us but what he had faced in the original?
there is something cover the coming short, hawaiian vacation, which is about barbie & ken from toy story 3. will it be uncovered after launch of cars 2?
it’s worth to buy the related publications which simply costs HK$24 and contains much descriptions shown inside the exhibition. but it’s sad that memo pad gift is out of stocks…
p.s. moral standard of hk people is disappointing. how can we ask other organizations to support exhibitions in future?

lego city #7641 city corner

pros:

1. design is ok for bus;
2. street light stand is cool;
3. cool details include fire hose, pizza oven, cctv, flood light;
4. pizza restaurant building is in modular.
5. pizza oven is nice;

cons:

1. it’s a bit strange for bus even much better than before, like doors for bus not realistic; seats layout is odd;
2. 2nd floor of pizza shop is wasted;
3. where can the bicycle be displayed in the shop?
4. there are too many stickers and they are hard to be placed well!

[h]ouse before 150th episode

family practice – script was good on foreman!!! masters made me feel a bit like cameron.

you must remember this – too good memory the patient is… but the story is a bit dull. this episode wasted the boost of super bowl ads

two stories – ti’s not so normal style episode. script was good to make abnormal scenes forgotten. old performance of huge laurie was shown in front of him & cuddy and i love that. but there were too few wilson scenes. and content was too dirty especially in front of fifth-grade. does house really grow up? favorite: Who password-protects a computer they keep in a locked desk in a locked office? Someone who works with someone who thinks it's okay to break into other people's homes?

recession proof – what a sad story. masters is not dull on social matters anymore? house should be miserable in order to be smart? that’s the 2nd time house thought that issue. and seems long time the team does not use the white board to study the symptoms

bomeshells – is that a good time to make joke on two & a half man? btw story style cannot be used for another episode. sorry for house to face that event so early (after last episode he failed to show up in gala. cuddy should expect he doesn’t show up this time. he needs something to support him but he may choose the wrong one)

out of the chute – patient is interesting, master is interested in the patient (one is outgoing & vice versa) after being a bookworm for a long time. house is interested in being free from borders. he is doing what he can do after being dumped by cuddy. but medicine is not exciting.

fall from grace – house & cuddy can be professional after breakup? do wilson & cuddy have a chance to be together? will masters be in danger after being interested by a murderer?

lego starwars #7913 & #7914

finally got some lego starwars products!
7914 – Mandalorian™ Battle Pack: it should be the only lego set dedicated to normal mandalorians. but lego wastes with poor design of squad automatic gun and stupid speeder.
913 – Clone Trooper™ Battle Pack: design of barc speeder is much better. color of bomb squad is a bit odd anyway and by the first time receiving a defect helmet. hey how can trooper see thru helmet???

mar 26: return of the useful helmet!

the king’s speech

even script is not fully accurate to the history events, it’s still splendid. timing is fit and events chosen are dramatic enough.
colin firth is not young or handsome enough as compared to the real king, but he’s got the right experience and talent to act in a perfect way.
what i knew for helena bonham carter is her crazy character in the films directed by his boyfriend, tim bunton. this time she is as good as the true queen mother.
a few scenes of geoffrey rush make me think of his role in pirates of the caribbean. but the film needs an australian with good acting skill to portray the king’s speech therapist.

lego 3365 space moon buggy

if you wanna get one of the four collaborations between nasa & lego, space moon buggy is a must to have!!! you just have a look & you will know why.

of course last year #10213 space adventure is far more better than the sets sold this year

house in january

first one makes me laugh even more than little fockers. and it is the debut of cuddy’s mom who expects to appear more in later episodes. she seems ok to house. and taub finally realized how much he did hurt her wife.

second one is back to normal. actions have consequences is the theme. anyway consequences are not bad at all. chase was played due to his attitude to women on wedding night few episodes before. but he may finally have a chance to change his behavior due to departure of cameron back to a respectful one at last. patient finally has gut to tell his son he is the father after pushing his son very hard as an instructor with no connection. and house finally likes cuddy’s step daughter after his “teaching”. this is nearly a well balanced episode except we miss wilson a lot.

little fockers (with spoilers)

this one should be the worst in “meet the parents” series. casts are great while the script is plain & loose. there is nearly no sparks between the actors as there was in “meet the fockers”. the only exceptional is the scenes between de rino & ben stiller. that seems smart for dustin hoffman not to reprise his role at first.

there may be too much showing of jessica alba. it looks like the debut casts are aging too much and use alba to give some juicy shots. but what don’t they match alba & owen wilson to give a happy ending? clip in credit is a lovely dessert after a fast food meal.

lego city 8398, 7567, 7666

these three are cool except the trolley in 7567 is a bit weak. it’s too big in size while carry only two cases.

more pix are on my flickr.

lego city 3177 small car

this year i had bought many new sets but this is the one i would build as i can put it back into the box without disassembling it.

the design is based on smart fortwo. For course it is impossible for holding two minifigs into the lego car. And maybe the limitation of lego bricks, the real world one looks cooler. btw i don’t like the hairstyle of the minifig.

How come they only provide slick tyres? it’s not a mini countryman wrc…

minifig is not feeling comfort inside. he needs to raise hands, sit straight without back support or otherwise hit the top.

finally is a pix of 3177 and 6633, showing generation of lego for around 30 years nearly. of course the new one is smooth on surface and designed on consideration of aerodynamics.

after 3 more episodes of house in nov

only content of one & half episode was strong enough to make the show to be renewed for the next season.

the first one was quite boring, what i can remember are cuddy found house had lied to her and there were too few scenes with wilson.

the second one was the best one among the three. the drama is often crossing the line. this time was discrimination on black & oz. chase was comin' late but didn't tell why. has cuddy found house paying prostitute to translate dutch online instead of finding a formal translater? she didn't like him to keep in touch with prostitutes even behaves right. wilson & sam was goin' on so well.

the last one was not very brilliant compared to the one before, but i think it's still fine. look of taub's wife has changed a bit, and i like the old one. there should be more on this couple. the one acted as patient did a good job however this episode was not focused on him or his illness. should house check patient's daughter cancer history more to fulfill his curiosity? the story is still dark on marriage & faith. chase was so enjoyable on his one night stand, taub was jealous on his wife but he didn't have ground to support. foreman was so dumb and wilson lost sam again. will wilson & foreman behave same as chase?

hope thirteen be back soon, otherwise she might miss the last chance to play in house

not only my pc having this problem

i've got the same thing as described in this forum message. those solutions provided cannot solve the problem. is there any way to fix it?

more on vba problems in excel for mac 2011

there are problems related to vba being found after i installed excel for mac 2011 on my machine. not 100% excel coded in excel for windows 2007/2010 with common features (i.e. not include active-x or ribbon change) is accepted in excel for mac.

there’s a bug in instr function which makes excel for mac out of memory. when you use an if function & one of its criteria is based on result of instr function, it fails. the code is like below:

if instr(1, cells(x,y), zzzz, 1) = 0 and cells(a,b) = “ccc” 
  …
end if

another scene is if the cells are filled with date, the date format is affected & overridden by mac os x language setting. vba cannot detect those fields either or make excel out of memory.

and when you make changes in excel for mac, digital cert included in the spreadsheet is lost & you need to mount it back in windows version again before you can make the code live again.

new wave of ms stuff on mac

messenger for mac 8:
good: supporting video call; file & photo sharing; new contact request not shown every time after you don't add that contact

bad: not supporting multi-login with clients on other computers at the same time; not supporting other social features

office for mac 2011:
good: return of outlook; support of vba; use of ribbon; faster respond time; nice templates; quick search in document; support of office web apps
bad: still missing other apps like visio, access; not fully compatible of vba written for office 2007/2010 (at least i got some problems for fields with dates & said overrun...); too simplified macro/add-on security control than windows version

speak now

it should be the must buy album in this year. the songs extra in deluxe version are also worthy.

the favourite is speak now, the title song.

house season 7 up to october

premiere – should it be a 3-hourr season 6 finale instead of putting it in season 7? at least two things could be put in season 6: huddy finally come together which means of many sex scenes, and there’s temporary leave for thirteen to allow olivia wilde to focus on big screen. anyway the team could still solve simple cases even without guidance of house. and we can see the new opening credit (old one) after change of casts (why not execute the option of showing cameron a little bit more). the episode is still ok except of too juicy.

2nd – many people may have the same feeling when your loved one is your boss / co-worker. and the story came to a sad ending which made me feel a bit like how amber died. in total, it was not so juicy as the premiere!

3rd – this one so far was the best one in the season. it came back to the root of detective story which it’s based. the patient who is a detective story writer is actually a tribute to arthur conan doyle & agatha christie. it showed how the mind of writers is and made us remember “everybody lies”. you could also hear famous star wars phrase from wilson,  “i have a bad feeling about this”, & dr cockroach’s  laugh as in monsters vs aliens by hugh laurie aka dr cockroach.

4th – it’s quite dull. huddy tried to do a step further while chase was too focus on finding a partner in personal rather on work

5th – it’s another sad case. rachel was cute. will there be any following on what had happened between her & house?. good job robert sean leonard, wilson was so funny in the first & this episode. And is this so hard to find a new member for house’s team?

dream of you

a year after releasing of the first single, the album is finally here and the release date in hk is earlier than that in australia! the track listing is still the corrs’ style. it is a mixture of forgiven, not forgotten, their first album & vh1 presents: the corrs, live in dublin, their live album. there are twelve songs within which three are instrumental and two feature with other artists.

everybody’s got to learn sometime, the second single and also the cover version of the korgis, is quite odd when the music is passing to chorus thru headphones. but using speakers to play that part the feeling is much better.

it is good for mná na h’éireann to be instrumental as it is a bit controversy. and you can find the contribution from famous jeff beck.

maybe it’s a bit hard for her to sing smalltown boy in live every time as part of lyrics needs her to sing in very high pitch.

the arrangement for cooley's reel is same as that of other traditional songs presented together with her siblings.

my favourites include it’s not dream, so long ago, dream of you.

for die hard the corrs’ fan like me, this one should please us much more than the one sung by her sister andrea when we are still waiting the siblings to get back to work together.

temp fix for ipod detection error after upgrading to itunes 10 in win xp

1. uninstall every apple software per instruction in apple support site.
2. install previous version of itunes (i.e. don’t remove setup file asap or simply use auto update function)
3. install latest version of itunes
4. done!

Mar 6 2011: itunes problem should be finally fixed in 10.2 by asking user to reboot the machine after installation

still in dreams?

• is the whole thing a dream & it keeps looping until the right cobb finally meets the right saito?
• even the core story is about cobb' mind on his wife, don’t know why that’s the weakest part in the film. its made me feel dull when this shows again & again.
• the plan to make fischer mind change is very dangerous, which one of the scenarios was shown by what happened to saito.
• it’s so terrible that you need to & know how to defence dream.
• actually i don’t think saito knows the mission is accomplished as he didn’t witness fischer finished the task the team assigned. so final scenes probably are cobb’s dream. how come his kids are sill so young? obviously the totem would not stop.
• i think it’s a bit tough for nowadays dicaprio to film the cashing scenes in africa. if he was still the one in titanic or romeo + juliet, that’s fine.

bye andy

thx to steve jobs & roy disney, disney did acquire pixar so that disney dropped her own idea of storyline of toy story 3. toy story 3 should be the winner of this summer movie season.

for those who watched toy story & toy story 2, time-line of toy story 3 fits them which they have the same problem as andy has. woody and the gang are still misunderstanding each other. and their world is so humanized.

every toy dumped was rescued, it is quite environmental friendly. their life is reborn, so cool. i love buzz in spanish mode and ken is very attractive, both how he reacts to barbie, and also his girlish way.

but is that necessary to make the film as 3D? and a bit sad to cut some characters to make the story smooth.

and sid the villain is the garage truck driver?

p.s. is andy's computer a mac? bonnie's one is a must, but the map finder is not by bing, google or yahoo? will it be future apple's map?

the pandorica opens & the big bang

seems david tennant is too successful on being the doctor, matt smith still makes me feel the difference between two incarnations even he has more facial expressions.

karen gillan's amy pond is designed to prevent tenth doctor's problem happening again. the companion has a husband so there's no way to have another rose loving doctor so deep and making doctor regret for a period of time (even that's so tiny for his 903-year journey!).

but there are something not quite reasonable:

1. how can sonic screwdriver open deadlocked pandorica? and pandorica can be opened by little amelia so easily?
2. how can river song keeps enough memory to wake amy's mind on doctor?
3. will the crack appear again after doctor coming back? i.e. is problem really solved?

egl kcja05-0622

• food: ok thru agency arrangement even only last included (beef steam pot) & self paid ones are good
• accommodation: lotte world jeju is very good. courtyard by marriott seoul times square is new, but a bit small. and the design of toilet sucks. glass door of shower has a gap between ground & lower hinge so water keeps running out… btw we can watch now tv & cctv 1 in courtyard.
• scenes: quite balanced
• time arrangement: as best as they can
• tour guides (egl’s wicky, local agency’s joy & photographer peter): excellent. can accomplish nearly every needs and provide lots of side info

=> target: 25-35 years old couple. they have energy, start to have money to spend, and start to know how to enjoy the trip

P.S. Pix on flickr

will house end after season 7?

season 6 got many new tries, these includes:

• the change of house behavior;
• separate of foreman & thirteen;
• fairwell to cameron due to chase;
• house & wilson completing with cuddy on new home;
• special episode for wilson & cuddy;
• changing of foreman’s brother;'
• lockdown of hospital to discover many secrets between the team;
• affair between wilson & 1st ex-wife, sandy;
• open marriage for taub?;
• relationship between cuddy, house, & lucas;
• using canon 5d to film whole finale;

but the ratings keep falling.

coming season opening follows last year’s style, 2-hour episode instead of one. even omar epps said the script cool and starts filming next week which means more time to fine tune, this year’s is difficult to get as good as last year. we had house in psycho hospital for treatment which was very funny & interesting, this year what we can expect is only the spark between huddy after being together.

and casts are another issue, olivia wilde is busy on movies and takes a long break from the show. jennifer morrison only returns for three or four episodes in this season. the feminine main cast now only remains lisa edelstein, which is very abnormal for the show. this is not show for military, it needs more women to make the show well balanced. and the key man, hugh laurie, keeps yelling to go back to england or end good. this seems the show cannot last long after he can win an emmy. actually not few shows end not long after winning emmy desperately, from friends to recently 24.

00:00:03-00:00:00

not as bad as people said for the ending. it's reasonable for president taylor to change her mind. any people from administration will show in the movie? how about aaron pierce or ethan?

pillar is not as strong as jack. & his skill to search evidence is not good enough. chloe's way to hide the card is quite simple.

logan cannot be dead so easily!

er’s dr benton is the useless secretary general...

lucky for jack not be killed in order to bring story to movie. so cia & fsb is all around for him. hope kim is safe under chloe’s custody. if tony is set to be in the movie, as he knows about jack, kim is in much danger.

the pacific

the miniseries shown in hbo is now over. many people were comparing it with previous one produced by same team, band of brothers (brb). obviously they would be disappointed.

band of brothers focuses on whole of easy company, 506th infantry regiment, 101st airborne division from low to high rank while the pacific aims on three companies of marine corps in pacific theatre with three enlisted corpsmen as the core characters serving in different companies. the front line time is different for two groups. brb only has a timeframe of around an year and at that time germans were falling already after failure of african & russian campaign. but corps fought for nearly three years and their enemy, japs, were becoming stronger and stronger after each battle. so the storyline of the pacific is relatively dull at the beginning and cannot show the big picture of front line. writers already used other methods to make the story hot, from censored screens, to language.

In guadalcanal, japs were just like enemies in electronic games, rushing to death with no means, since they had got the land easily. so what americans could do were just getting enough ammo & rifles to kill them. that’s why john basilone became hero & famous. just thought there would not be good results between corps and girls in melbourne since servicemen didn’t stay forever, but at least one pair can have a happy ending.

cape gloucester was a mess to the corps due to the environment, where they faced more in iwo jima & okinawa, making many with metal problems. so retreatment is a focal point of the episode. in peleliu, they finally faced the well prepared japs while two of main characters finally met each other. you can say that quality of those two episodes can be comparable to that in brb. but in history both cape & peleliu may not be so important for the campaign.

too little front line actions were shown for iwo jima in order to end the line of john basilone, and other two were not fighting there. iwo jima actually is very important for the corps, what people remember the corps action in wwii are mainly due to that battle. they should try to put a bit more on that.

land at okinawa really shows the bad side of japs like terrorists nowadays. using citizens as a weapon, they hurt a lot of troops even making corps friendly fired before japs were eliminated . newbie made the move even harder, they were not smart & tough when compared to those fought before.

why are nowadays veterans discharged easily misbehaving and becoming a threat to others? seems uniforms are no longer as respectful as before. after wwii, servicemen can wear uniforms in the street without any discrimination at all. of course every one thought they are saving the country but not serving for a person only. and life is not so tough that they can have enough time to take recovery from the effect of war. nowadays people just rush and rush, no one can have a rest. soldiers discharged from front line actually need a lot of relieve before back to society.

p.s. richard winters should be worth for medal of honor.

the choice

soap opera is cool for this episode.
starts great from thirteen reaction on all patient said we are straight, to chase talks about marriage, then on how taub handles his marriage.
something strange for the male nurse to take away the thing house doesn't accept from taub.
house is still miserable on cuddy btw but wilson kicks him out even wilson tries to find ways to compensate.
next one we can see someone comes back to follow house status.

the clone wars season 2

anakin becomes even darker. some skills used by vader in episode 4 or 5 were shown.
how will ahsoka end her jedi journey? she is not shown in episode 3.
hondo ohnaka is the most attracted pirate/bounty hunter in the series, even more than cad bane; but possibly cad can break the prison again to get aurra sing/boba. and even bounty hunters have a good side.
captain rex is more humanize than expected, that’s why he is not shown in episode 3?
will there be any more development on obi-wan & duchess satine? it’s a bit bored to watch anakin & padme only
just thought tera sinbue would be shown again in season finale to lead ahsoka to search in scummy areas. where is yoda & obi-wan by the way? when mace & anakin are hurt
wish boba escaping from prison, they don’t simply follow the same way as ziro the hutt
how come zillo the beast didn’t have luck to hurt palpatine a bit (to force him to show some sith power)?

lego toy story garbage truck getaway

the latest garbage truck specially built for coming toy story is out. compared to other garbage truck by lego solely (like my 7991), it seems toy story’s one is more cool at all (as it’s wider to show the size). but one thing it can be shown in the film only, the way to collect garbage will make both truck & environment polluted. the driver cannot go in or out his driver seat without getting some dirt. omg

lockdown

actually a recap & point for House to run more episodes

• thirteen is a real liar & so liberal on some points
• ex-no 1 of wilson will show up! that will add something more to the relationship between house & wilson
• finally ends for chase & cameron. a bit sad but happy for both
• foreman keeps shining even the path is not easy while taub is fading
• patient relieves house a bit
• will this lockdown change cuddy a bit on the relatonship with lucas? or her wise? she learns a bit of skills from lucas? she does notice a lot of details to solve the mystery and releases everyone.

non-mainstream choices

1. even riot on the empty street is not my best favourite (but i was really attached to misread), kings of convenience has attracted me anyway. so when declaration of dependence is out, it's already in my mind. my recommendations are: boat behind, rule my world.
   
   
2. fireflies really shine. ocean eyes is another album i feel i like in a whole. owl city makes it in well balanced. so there is no need for me to make any recommendation even though everywhere are fireflies.

24 s08e10

1. hope the body not be found if there is season 9. cole was a bad guy before?
2. just a few cameos for tim woods. really not enough
3. hastings really changed?
4. paramedic, "let me do my job!!!". jack's yelling does not work in 24 either
5. how will be the line for hassan & renee if the bomb detonates

24 s08e08

• Jack is rambo again
• Dana finally takes action to get rid of her old history
• Sergei is easy to co-operate (maybe for future of his family)
• but Josef gets mad on him & makes the case more complicated.

wilson & 5 to 9

there were two house episodes not focusing house himself recently. one is wilson, another is 5 to 9.

wilson obviously is talking about house’s best mate, wilson. but it still focuses on medical mysteries on wilson’s patient instead. and robert sean leonard said he doesn’t want wilson being focused again despite wilson’s first life will make an appearance soon.

5 to 9 is about another main character, the one with complicated relationship with house (huddy), cuddy. there are quite minimal drops on medical, but mainly focuses on her life as a step-mum, and as a leader of a small teaching hospital with freak genius house. how can she have time to do yoga & make love with lucas? how can she find out & handle drug stolen from pharmacy (this should be first time to show all staffs of pharmacy? but actually it’s out of control, otherwise house could take vicodin so easily.) with the help of two jerks (house & lucas)? how can she fight back from insurance company and board of directors’ of hospital (this should be the first time the board shown after kicking out billionaire edward vogler)?

i think if they develop a bit more on her with lucas/hosue, there is a spinoff opportunity instead of just on lucas solely.

24 s08e07

• hastings is a dumbass
• line on dana is ugly…
• how can jack be recovered so quick? coz his body was contaminated in season 7? george mason’s dead is unlucky then
• russians are cleverer than americans obviously

24 s8 4-8pm

new CTU looks like the set used in la femme nikita. but armoury looks suck, like personal collection of enthusiast only. they used to use dell, now they use apple. the director tries to be cool & smart but fails.

madam president is alone finally. daughter is in prison & her husband has left her.

ethan is taking medicine…

the journalist, who has an affair with president of irk, looks a bit like secretary of former president daniel

kim really grows up. but is this good to let jack back to ctu? last time he was dead if without her help. how about this time? either jack or ortiz cannot survive after season 9. they are quite alike. & renee is even darker than jack, she cannot handle it.

everyone keeps sayin, “damn it!”

dana’s ex-boyfriend may be connected to russian guys in the jail… i believe her role will be soon replaced by chloe.

the men who stare at goats

• my mind of george clooney still sticks into the age of er. time flies a lot.
• the script is quite funny but actually is a bit short. george clooney did a good job. there are too few cameos for kevin spacey especially he is in dark side.
• it’s a tribute to star wars. they called themselves jedi warriors. the power they use has good & dark side. and use ewan mcgregor as one of the actors and how he learns the force. it is funny when george clooney to tell obi-wan what the force is (of course it is also funny after showing how to use the force to make cloud dissolved)! and finally ewan becomes jedi master again!
• the film i think is saying something more, like job & family affair; vietnam war, hippies & drugs, internal politics of military, private contractors; operation iraqi freedom.