Terrorism is a pretty sensitive subject for a movie, especially one that tries to reflect our present reality as closely as possible. In "The Kingdom", terrorists create a bloodbath at a family picnic for expatriates in Riyadh. The attack is coordinated with cold, calculated precision to maximize the body count of civillian men, women and children, as well as security personnel and emergency response crew.

In the attack, we the audience see the confusion and feel the panic of the crowd. We watch in horror as a man is gunned down while attempting to reach his stricken child. We are helpless as a security guard lures people to him with promises of safety, then detonates himself in the crowd. When the gunmen's vehicle gets rammed by a genuine police vehicle and they crawl out of the wreckage bleeding, there is a sense of relief that the carnage has been stopped, and when they get shot because they refuse to surrender, justice has been served. But that little prepares us for the next attack that follows, just when we think that everything's over.

"The Kingdom" puts the camera firmly in the perspective of the "good guys". The maverick FBI team that takes an officially unauthorized trip to Riyadh face innumerable political, linguistic, procedural and cultural obstacles as they investigate the attack with one of their own numbering among the dead. The team's liaison (aka babysitter), a dedicated, competent and resourceful Saudi police officer is likewise hampered by his own superior officer who is little more than an idiot and a brute. When they come under attack by the same terrorists, outnumbered and outgunned, we celebrate each time another terrorist gets taken out and the team comes closer to rescuing their kidnapped team member, and uncovering the mastermind of the operation.

The team has our sympathies as well because we get a glimpse of their families and feel their comradeship with one another while they are off duty. As for the terrorists, they are mostly anonymous; just another psycho raghead popping up to be cannon fodder or punching bag who deserves what he gets.

By skewing the view, the movie goes beyond the simple narrative and pushes us into an emotional response and shows us the motivation behind this cycle of violence. It isn't political, religious or poverty-related. It simply is the desire for revenge. One side can never view the situation from the other perspective. On "our" side, we see fathers getting killed, children murdered, innocents blown up. But in the climactic battle scene, a grandfather is killed, a brother shot, and we realize why a little boy's eyes glint with such malice in the aftermath. It never ends as long as the solution appears as a zero-sum game.

The movie wasn't as political as I had initially expected. The pacing is quick and exciting, with lots of gunplay and explosions to pass off as an action movie. At times, it almost feels like Counter-strike. Because of the pacing, the resolution becomes too convenient; they get the guy they're looking for, case-closed. Things are seldom so simple in reality.

Surfing wirelessly at the airport while waiting to collect the Wongs from their BKK trip. Flight had been seriously delayed, hence this post's ungodly hour.

Must thank NBS and B-lo for their company earlier this evening. They called me out and we had dinner at this steam-boat place on Liang Seah Street, then browsed Bugis Village to shop for girl things. Bugis Village has undergone quite a transformation. It's cleaner and has wider walkways along the main thoroughfares, and entirely air-conditioned. It looks more organized than I remember. Doesn't seem like I might find anything I want in there, but it's worth a closer inspection when I have the time.

The steam-boat came with two soups in a split boiler. On one side we had a seafood soup (strong prawn flavour) and on the other a chicken soup (strong herbal flavour). I suggest boiling the kidney and liver a little longer than what appears necessary. After I took the girls home, I was very grateful to go home myself to take care of my stomach that started doing flip-flops while I was driving.

Ah, the Wongs should be making their appearance any time now...

The bear stretches and yawns, dragging his mangy carcass outside his cave to breathe fresh morning air and blink in the sunlight once again. He'd been hibernating along with his "Heroes Season 1" box set, which is a great companion through the long dreary winter.

He's kicking himself a bit 'cos if he had picked it up at Gramophone instead of Blue Max, he'd have got it cheaper by $15! Doh! Oh, well, caveat emptor.

Heroes is the X-men tale of the '00s. All flawed human beings (losers, dark-siders, freaks) gifted with a superhuman ability. There are consequences, of course, in how they fit into 'regular' society, but to be honest, even regular human beings often find it difficult to fit in with each other as it is.

It's the tension in wanting to be part of a larger society versus the desire to stand out from anonymity and homogeneity that makes Heroes so appealing. That, plus the drive to find some meaning in our special circumstances -- but nothing less than "sav[ing] the world" will give us that meaning.

That's a nice ideal, but the danger is that we sometimes feel that we need a superpower before we can save the world. Instead of developing and using what abilities we have, we sit around and wish we we had more while the world goes to heck around us.

So if Ando, the amazing no-power man (his only skill is that he can speak English), can get caught up in the adventure, why not us, whomever we are? All right... slowly... put your hands in the air... step away from that cave... and go up, up, and awaaaaaayyy!!!

Gorgeous women's dates tend to be guys who look like crap, observes Julia Allison. She's right! Take a look at the horrendous monstrosity June ended up marrying:

A pudgy, unglam, balding (hence pathetically attempting to cover up by wearing a fish on his head), drooling troll of a human being whose very visage would scare a vampire if they met face-to-face in a dark alley at midnight.

June has her own pet theory why gorgeous babes hang out with mirror smashers, and she'll say that Allison has got it backwards. The uglier the guy, the less likely other women are likely to come sniffing around him and try to take him away. Pragmatic, and makes sense.

Whoever's right, for the guys, the obvious lesson is this: as soon as you get picked up by a gorgeous woman, get ugly real fast and you can hang on to her for life!

While the Wongs are away in BKK, I'm dogsitting Mimi, the canine Wong. Mimi's not the type that likes to be left alone, in fact, she's a bit of a Screamin' Mimi when everyone leaves the house without her. So because I was thinking of entertaining myself this evening outdoors, I took her and Q-tip to the Botanic Gardens for a long afternoon walk to tire them out. The idea was that while they were asleep at home, I could sneak out and look for a good dinner at some dog-unfriendly establishment.

Phase One of the plan worked. The dogs and I kept exploring path after path in the Gardens, Q-tip huffing and puffing like a steam engine almost immediately we began walking. I rewarded them with a plastic cup of iced-water close to the end of our walk. They drank like I've never seen them drink before. Dogs dog-tired -- check!

Phase Two, unfortunately was an abject failure. We came home and the dogs fell asleep where they stood. But guess who else also fell unconscious alongside them and didn't wake up until past dinner time? Cup noodles for dinner again. :P

Drama Club got a first look at Steph, the new instructor. On Mel's invite, I dropped in to see how things would be getting along between Steph and the kids. I must say, they warmed up to each other pretty well. Steph got them to play with lots of simple improvisations to see what kind of a script they'd like to devise for Drama Night 08.

Drama this year has the most forward, ready-to-go, dare-to-bare kids I've ever encountered in its history. They devise scenarios quickly among themselves, play, rehearse and perform at the drop of a hat. No cajoling, no threats, no freezing on stage like a deer in headlights, they just do whatever their imaginations lead. I thought they'd be best suited for all-out comedy, but given the right combination of cast, I think serious drama won't be beyond them either.

They have the desire to perform, performance discipline, and they can make the rules work for them. And I think Steph is the right person who can get them working. One of the exercises the kids did was to speak a line that someone had hurt them before with. If what the kids delivered was real, there's a lot of pain they carry inside them. I'd sure hate to be the recipient of some of those things they said. Then they had to speak a line that someone made them feel happy with. Oddly enough, it was these lines that made me feel more like crying. Guess I'm a sucker for happy endings.

Looks like Drama Night 08 is going to be very interesting...

"Beowulf", who gave me nightmares in 1st year uni because of its convoluted narration in ye Olde Englyshhe, is now finally a CGI animated action movie, a medium I can understand. Isn't it just typical that one of the oldest stories in the English language would be a hack 'n slash, swords 'n socery epic?

Zemekis' movie was all just a main-points synopsis of the major action in the 3000+ line standard literary text. Scriptwriters Gaiman and Avery bundle the unweildly tale into a neat package -- Gaiman has a knack for writing in smooth scene transitions -- and it all makes sense now!

At the heart of it, there isn't much of a story, despite the liberties the movie takes in the relationships of the main players. Our hero kills a monster, takes on said monster's mom, then goes dragon-slaying in his old age. Maybe it's time to pick up the text again and have another read, if only to experience the richness of the telling from the first time around.

Invigilation duty is officially over. It's a good thing they give us a little extra moolah for this service. I'll need it to pay for that traffic violation of last week. Yup, this criminal genius got slapped with a $120 fine plus 3 demerits for that little misadventure. Guess it could'a been worse.

Nope. Not a good week at all...

The ban on "Mass Effect" is over and cooler heads have prevailed. We're starting to realize, perhaps, that we don't need to have our decisions made for us by some self-appointed central authority; and that we can muster enough will and advocacy to negotiate a more equitable and satisfactory outcome for ourselves.

The grounds for the original ban were interesting, to say the least. Associated Press reports, "Players can engage their avatars in a variety of sexual encounters during the game, though none between men or between men and male aliens, according to reports on several blogs. The human-alien [lesbian] duo are depicted kissing and caressing each other in a sex scene that The Straits Times English-language newspaper in Singapore reported ends with the alien saying, "By the gods, that was incredible, commander."

Considering that most video games involve creative ways in which characters slice, dice, eviscerate and detonate other characters as the main component of gameplay, it's amazing that a short cutscene like the one described above could have been construed as unwholesome enough to ban the game. How often do we have video games promoting positive character interactions with each other? If we disregard their "gender", the two are actually engaged in a cooperative, non-violent, mutually beneficial activity of a social (instead of an anti-social) nature.

Between the characters, there is mutual acceptance -- appreciation, even -- of each other, despite their differences in species(?). The scene concludes with a genuine statement of gratitude, an acknowledgement to religious values, and a marked breaking down of the walls between different social classes. Aren't these refreshing traits to promote in our society of escalating xenophobia? In real world S'pore, we already draw lines between ourselves simply by the accent we speak with.

Rating the game with an M18 is a step in the right direction. Why deny ourselves a learning opportunity simply because at first glance, things don't look like what we think they should look like? We should know by now that life is never so simple.

Not that the X-box game was ever on my Christmas list, but the ban has certainly put the game on my radar now. I'm looking at the official website, and it looks gorgeous with quite some complexity and depth of gameplay. Wonder if it'll ever be released on PC?

At another industry-organized symposium, we had experts in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ITC) studies lecture us on knowledge construction with new technologies. In summary, the speakers couldn't have devised a more balanced view on the topic.

Speaker 1, a science/math/aesthetics guru, told us there was "a lot of crap" out there on the Internet. Not that there wasn't a lot of crap in books either, but there's much more crap on the 'net since everybody can publish any nonsense they wanted, and the authority of a site's content depends on its ranking in search-engines which is determined by popularity rather than reasoned discourse.

Speaker 2, linguistics and research expert, said that we need to develop our students with stronger critical thinking and research skills so they can distinguish knowledge from scholarly knowledge. He showed us some examples that looked like fun discussions to have in tutorial -- can't wait to try them out. Hope the kids are feeling cooperative.

Speaker 3, ICT boffin, had lots of prizes to give away to people who responded to his questions about the interactivity of the 'net, and how we could use what's available (& free) on the 'net to make lesson time more practically useful and relevant to our plugged-in, multitasking, broadband, frivolous info sharing community generation. Idea being, if they can already share frivolous info, then why not make them share and interact and play with important info as well?

So: the 'net is full of crap, people need to be able to think through stuff for themselves, the 'net is great! I think I got it.

1 more thing among a number of others to meditate on for a month. Perhaps my not going away on holiday this year is a blessing in disguise after all?

I can do no wrong. That's because if I ever did anything wrong, no matter how relatively insignificant, I will get caught for it. Like today when I decided to finally ditch my "Invigilator" security pass after faithfully wearing it day after day while on duty, this seriously officious-looking official -- who looked like everything he uttered had to be typewritten in triplicate -- actually stepped into my path, stopping me in my tracks, and inquired as to the whereabouts of my aforementioned security pass. Despite my unsatisfactory response he let me proceed, with a smirk that suggested that I won a bet for him. Hope I didn't get Chief into trouble for that.

But that's not all. First, check this out...

Cool right? It's my new seatbelt cover I got as a promotional gift from my weekend purchase. Hurm...

Drove over to June's office to collect some merchandise she's bringing over to the Philippines tomorrow. But where I usually stop on the side of the street to meet her, there was this TP just standing there looking like he couldn't wait to book the next unsuspecting errant driver to pass by.

In my panic, I STOPPED at the side of the road, blinked my hazard lights, and fumbled for my mobile phone in my jeans pocket. Phone was too tightly jammed in, so I unfastened my seatbelt to reach it. I called June to advise her that I couldn't stop where I had stopped (duh!), and arranged to drive around again, and this time June had to be there already waiting for me. Having come to an understanding, I hastily took to the streets again, but in my haste, I forgot to refasten my seatbelt. Upon realizing this oversight, I took my hands off the wheel and continued to drive while my hands were busy with the *)#$% seatbelt, made all the more uncooperative with the new seatbelt cover (which makes a great character reference as a driver, now I think about it). With no hands on the wheel, I wobbled my way past the TP -- who was staring intently at me and my license plate -- and as I passed him (another officious-looking fellow) he was grimly scribbling in his notebook.

OMG. How many traffic violations did I commit in the last paragraph? Did I mention that where I stopped to call June it was a jagged double-yellow line? If anyone remembers to wonder where I've disappeared to in the next 10-20 years, they could probably find me in Changi Prison, maximum security, probably with a security pass permanently stapled to my chest, and being the favourite bi*ch of Dragon Long, or Long Dragon, or whatever he wants to call his thing.

Y'know, if the TP wasn't there in the first place, I wouldn't have done all that crazy sh*t. Wonder if the police cause as much crime as they are supposed to prevent?

Never had such a sudden onset of the flu before. I was feeling fine all weekend then >bam!< bug hits me with the works last night. Just returned from the clinic with an armful of drugs and a temperature reading of 38.8°. That has got to be an achievement. Bleh... feeling sick... :P

What was going to be a lazy, uneventful Saturday quite unexpectedly became an evening at Mount Vernon's Funeral Parlour 1. June's long-lost uncle whom she's not seen in years (yes, that's what 'long-lost' means...) passed on after a couple of months of health complications. From what I could understand, he finally succumbed to MRSA.

This evening, we attended the wake. It was something of a family reunion for June who hasn't seen many of her relatives for years either. While June was doing her catch-up, I was doing my best to glean whatever I could from several conversations that alternated between Mandarin and Cantonese. Fortunately, no-one tried to speak to me directly or June would have looked like she had married the village idiot with a speech impediment.

One thing I noticed about relatives who haven't seen each other for a while is that their conversations tend to turn towards how much things cost. Property, health-care, elderly care... not that people volunteer the information but because people will ask. People want to know how much things cost. Wonder if that's a typically S'porean concern?

After quite a few aborted attempts (this year), we finally got to meet Vince, Anthony and Des over dessert. Q-tip was with us, so we had to find a dog-friendly location. Happy Daze in Gardens was what we settled on.

It was great to talk nonsense and catch up with gossip again. Not a bad wind-down to a long day.

Partied with B-lo at Seoul Garden, Taka. It's quite a relief that she liked her pressie and wanted to use it immediately. So yesterday's shopping expedition ended well after all. Phew!

After dinner, June and I went down the hall to BEST Denki to try out an... appliance that I've had my eye on for a while. Since Sony's having an end-of-year sale, the price has come down quite a bit and since payday's coming, well, you know. The design's sleek and cool, the functions are versatile and idiot-proof (a very important consideration), and I was thinking, why not?

This was the first time ever that the sales guy actually talked me OUT of buying that which I came to buy. He basically told me -- based on previous customer feedback -- that the product had a great design, pretty with lots of bells and whistles, but was short on delivery. It is so idiot-proof it takes control out of the user's hands and makes its own decisions based on what it thinks is right. Too much software, not enough fidelity for me.

On one hand, that was a lot of honesty in a sales pitch. On the other, maybe his strategy was to get me to consider purchasing another more expensive option. Whichever it was, I left without making a purchase, but with a resolve to research a little more, and be a smarter consumer when I return another day.

Jack's Place has opened a franchise at SAFRA Yishun. It's called Eatzi Steakhouse & Bistro and it occupies the space that once housed the food court. Through the glass panels, there's a nice view of the swimming pool. Because of its air-conditioned comfort, this looks like a great place to have a lazy tea slightly later in the afternoon after the lunch crowd has left.

The pix shows the executive set lunch. Everything arrived at the table just minutes after ordering. As you can see, the baked potato is overflowing with a generous dollop of sour cream and a healthy sprinkling of bacon bits. The chef understands the concept of "rare", and there under a layer of brown sauce lies the ribeye on a bed of chopped onions.

One problem: they could have chosen for me a better cut of ribeye. Sad to say, this one was rather stringy with quite a bit of tendon material making it quite a chew-fest. Eventually, I took to cutting small chunks so it could go down easier. I'm not making too big a fuss about this though, because the meat itself was tender, it was the sinewy stuff that I could have done without.

Later, I went to explore the Central, looking for a gift. Central seems tres femme to me with so many stores for cosmetics, women's fashion and accessories. Thought that would be ideal to find the kind of gift I was looking for, but I got overwhelmed by the number of options and possibilities. So I went back to the mall I knew best, Funan Centre. Hence, this matching set of i-pod accessories.

Amy, HP, JY, Mel, Wayne, look what we've pooled our cash on for B-lo! See y'all at dinner tomorrow!

"Lamb" is a wicked retelling of the life of Josh the Nazarene through the perspective of Levi bar Alphaeus who is also called Biff, who has been friends with Josh since they were boys. Read "wicked" as you wish.

Author, Christopher Moore, takes the opportunity to fill in the gaps left behind in the Gospels regarding Josh's growing up period to the beginning of his ministry, then follows Josh behind the scenes to his eventual betrayal and execution on the cross. Biff's version of the Gospel story is, however, a very down-to-earth one focusing on Josh's humanity though not denying his divinity. In fact, the juxtaposition of human divinity is where the fun begins.

Biff is Josh's perfect human foil. Biff is foul-mouthed, violent, carnal, but also imaginative and a great improviser in times of trouble. Hence, he tells his version of the Gospel in like manner. His language we may describe as vernacular vulgaris in its crudest form, because 1) that's how Biff is, and 2) his newly presented "gift of tongues" gives him the ability to speak like a common profanity-spewing New Yorker, all the better to communicate with us in the modern world 2000 years after his death.

About the transitional years from boy to man that's missing from the Gospels, Biff picks up the story and relates their quest to find the wise men who visited Josh in the stable where he was born. From each wise man they study philosophy and discipline themselves in the skills they need for Josh's later ministry. To divine his Father's will, Josh focuses on developing his spirituality, while Biff studies poisons, explosives, the tantric arts and kung fu.

It's wonderful how Moore's imagination weaves together Josh and Biff's experiences on their travels to bring Josh to his particular insight into the nature of God, and the point of his ministry. Part of it is through coincidences in the texts of other holy scriptures, part is through life experiences Josh later recalls in his parables, and part is by making horrible puns. For example, because Josh absolutely refuses to hurt anyone, Gaspar's Himalayan monks have to develop a whole new martial arts style for him to practice. It's a style that uses the energy of an attack against itself. They call it, "Ju-do", meaning, "The way of the Jew". Arrrrggghhh! But when Josh is eventually tested and questioned by the Pharisees later in his life, the way he replies to them is a form of intellectual, rhetorical judo, isn't it so?

While all this mental juggling might sound pretty dry, Lamb is hilariously funny. Moore takes liberties with scriptural references, taking them out of context and using them in highly unlikely situations. He fleshes out the Apostles by assigning them each a fatal human flaw which they often tease each other about, and portrays them as extremely dense in the way that they don't get Josh's parables, and in their hopeless attempt to rescue Josh from his impending execution.

Despite all the profanity flung liberally around the pages, it's used as linguistic humour with no intention to insult the faith. Josh may be portrayed as quite human, but his character is respected. Biff himself, is almost always the butt of the jokes, and since he's never mentioned in any of the Gospels, Biff's the perfect straw-man to build the humour around.

Lamb is not going to be well-accepted by everybody, unfortunately. Because it plays on the sensitive issue of religious faith, it will highly offend those who feel that to take such liberties with sacred texts is sacrilegious. But those of us who can stomach it, Lamb's a terrific read.

It's hard to catch a falling star, but it helps if you have a magical binding chain and if the star could walk behind you on her own two legs wherever you wanted her to go. In "Stardust", everyone has a reason for desiring a piece of the star, Yvaine, who though minding her own business, gets accidentally knocked out of the sky in a contest for succession of the throne of the magical kingdom of Stormhold. And that's a simplified version of the movie plot.

To avoid overcomplication, the movie version of Stardust wisely keeps the focus on a single theme: no one is who they appear to be. Some, like the seven princes, have yet to achieve their potential and will kill and be killed trying. Others have their true identities taken away from them by enslavement or enchantment. Captain Shakespeare keeps his secret identity behind a mask of "reputation". Tristan's adventures are partially a discovery of his true heritage and partly a quest for his heart's desire.

Everyone experiences a transformational change, and though they don't necessarily welcome change, they simply accept it and cope with it as a matter of fact. The only ones that don't accept change are Lamia and her sisters (and probably Sisterhood as well). They are driven by their mania to freeze themselves in time, at the point when they were at their most beautiful, by hunting and consuming the warm, glowing heart of a fallen star. In their 400 years of existence, they have no other passion than lying to themselves that time can be cheated; and that's probably why they've ended up such bitter, malicious old biddies -- they never get what they desire.

And Yvaine herself, fallen star, is the only one who has no problems with her self-identity. She knows who she is and isn't shy to make full use of her self-knowledge. She becomes the movie's hottest quest item because of her extremely rare magical qualities, but her real value is in her power to be herself, true to herself at all times. Though that might sound boring, she's also sarcastic, short-tempered and entirely human, which rounds her out, and makes her quite a lovable character.

The plot may be complex, but Gaiman is quite a coherent storyteller. With gorgeous landscapes as a backdrop, and the occasional visual effects surprises (I was quite taken by the drowning-in-air sequence), Stardust is a thrill to watch. It's star shines especially bright as one of the few movies in 2007 that is not a sequel, and is not written to spin-off one either. It's a movie that practices what it preaches -- write it, shoot it, can it, and move on.

The recent gay debate has been very lively. Sparks flew from both camps with some very heated exchanges from people out to make a name for themselves adding spice to the contention.

For the rest of the population, frankly, we don't care. Perhaps today we are more aware of homosexual activity within our society, we are aware of the religious sensitivities of the more conservative segments of our society, we are aware of the tension that exists between the two poles. But as a people, we walk the deadest of the neutral line.

We don't have a problem with the issue. If no one says anything, we're fine. Everything's cool. It's all good. What we do have a problem with is when we feel we are being forced to take sides, to stand on one pole or another -- in critical thinking terms, we call that a "false dilemma". If it ever comes to that, we know what our stand will be: dropkick the extremist, and carry on pax status quo Rex, pardon my Latin.

Despite the vocal energy of both camps, I doubt that our society might be fracturing along the line drawn by Section 377A, like some people think. We're too apathetic for that to happen. Thank goodness.

The little monsters are beginning to twitch. Chief was livid this morning with the number of complaints she received about us. Did we ever get an earful. Most of the complaints were generally about how the kids got distracted with the things we were doing. Well, excuse us for breathing.

Someone (no, not me) got complained against for walking along the aisles, so today all he could do was to stand in the back of the venue and glower throughout his duty.

Kids, a word of advice: focus past your distractions and on your exam. Don't look at us as an excuse if your results don't turn out like you want. You have your job to do, so let us do ours.