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.