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