Archive for February, 2008

[Version5] Saint Valentine (0 ♥comments)

Valentine’s Day is around the corner. I was inspired to make a Wordpress theme suitable for this occasion.

First, get the background and the boxes drawn first. Then, insert the 3 different shapes of hearts to the sidebar.

Added a little pattern which I’m most satisfied with and I used it for one of my client’s project.

Create the word “LOVE” with different sizes and shades.

But the banner was still too plain. So, I created heart shapes with retro colors. Then, added a few circles to create a movement from the flower pattern to the heart.

Added different shades of hearts to the main bar.

Created GIF file with the retro heart shapes.

[Movie Marathon 1.5] 200 Pounds Beauty (0 ♥comments)

I heard about the story of 200 pounds beauty before but have no time to watch it. Yesterday (CNY Day1), went to auntie’s house and managed to watch the movie. This movie is based on a Japanese manga, Kanna-San, Daiseikou Desu by Yumiko Suzuki. The story tells the tale about a large girl that undergoes an extreme makeover to become a pop sensation.

Rating (5 stars MAX):

The story

An overweight phone sex employee, Kang Han-na (Kim Ah-jung) was also a secret vocalist for a famours Korean pop singer, Ammy. Han-na hides behind Ammy’s performance stage and sings during Ammy’s concerts, and records all of Ammy’s songs.

During the music company’s director Sang-jun’s (Ju Jin-mo) birthday party, Han-na overhears Sang-jun telling Ammy that they are just making use of Han-na for her voice. Heartbroken, Han-na contemplates suicide but is interrupted by a phone call from one of her phone sex regulars who happens to be a top cosmetic surgeon. She decides to get a head-to-toe makeover instead. Han-na puts herself in seclusion for a year as she recovers from the changes.

Han-na changed her identity as a Korean-American from California named Jenny, and earned her own recording contract. Meanwhile, romance begins to blossom between “Jenny” and Sang-Jun. But he then realised that “Jenny” is actually Kang Han-na.

So, will Sang-jun expose Jenny’s real identity? What will happen next? Watch 200 pounds beauty and you will know.

G Chinese New Year Lunch @ Metropole Herbal Restaurant (2 ♥comments)

Courtesy of Robert J. Steiner

Stepped in to the restaurant, you will see this wooden medicine corner at your left. This reminds me of Jay’s music video - Ben Cao Gang Mu (Herbalist Manual) - see at 1:44.

Courtesy of Robert J. Steiner

Courtesy of Robert J. Steiner

Dish 1: Metropole Raw Fish Salad   
Of all the Yu Sheng I ate in my whole life, I like this the best. Normally, I would just take a small portion of it and that’s it. But this time, I had my refil of it. The golden pillow(represents gold and wealth) was crispy.

So, we started to “lao” 鱼生(yu sheng). Yu Sheng is a Chinese-style raw fish salad. It usually consists of strips of raw fish with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Literally translated, “yusheng” means “raw fish”, though it can also be taken to symbolise abundance, prosperity and vigor. It is a chinese new year custom for families and friends to gather around the table and toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious wishes out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year.

Dish 2: Winter Melon Soup 

The display of the food was great. The chef made the effort to scoop winter melon and carrot into small balls. It looks more appetizing for me.

Dish 3: Egg White with Dried Scallop, Polygonatum & Ladybell Root 
WOW! didnt know that egg white can be used to cook such nice food. Remember my pineapple tarts making with Ah Hong Jie Jie? We used a lot of egg yolks and left a lot of egg white. So next time, when we make pineapple tarts again, we will donate our egg whites to Metropole Herbal Restaurant.

Dish 4: Braised Chicken with Red Date & Chestnuts  

Dish 5: Sauteed Chilli Prawns with Walnuts & Chinese Wolfberries 
Spicy big prawns but a bit hard.

Dish 6: Fish 
Sauce with peanut bits

Dish 7: Stir-fried seasonal vegetables with Wild Mushroom

Dish 8: Braised Home-made E-Fu Noodle with Seafood and Chives   

Dish 9: Glutinous Rice Cake with Sesame Seed  
Another WOW! It was served hot and the rice cake was soft and sticky. The appearance was great. Sugar was made as the topping for the rice cake.

Dish 10: Yam and Sweet Potato coated with Malted Candy 
We had 3 bowls of water on the table and were told that we will need to use it for our dessert. “Huh? how do dessert and water come together?” Then the waitress came with a plate of yam and sweet potato cut into small pieces, coated with Malted Candy. Then the waitress used a chopstick and dipped the small pieces of yam and sweet potato to the bowl of water. Then, out of the water. It was crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. It’s something I never eat before.

[Movie Marathon 1.4] Kung Fu Dunk (功夫灌篮) (0 ♥comments)

I was one of the 100 lucky people who got to watch Kung Fu Dunk movie preview. This movie will be out on the first day of chinese new year (7 Feb 2008), together with Stephen Chow’s latest fiction comedy, CJ7. So, these two movies will be fighting to be listed in the top chart.

The story Kung Fu Dunk is inspired by the Japanese manga - Slam Dunk. The main character, Fang Shi Jie(by Jay Chou) is an abandoned child and was found beside a basketball court by one of the Kung Fu teachers and was brought back to the Kung Fu school. Shi Jie practiced excellent Kung-Fu and was equipped with a good sense of feel.

Shi Jie then knew Wang-Li who had wicked ideas and made his living in the streets.On the excuse of helping him search for his family, Wang-Li invited him to play basketball at the first university so as to make use of him to make money.

Shi Jie joined the basketball team and learned to combine the foundation of Kung-Fu into the basketball skills, which brought his skills into full play and helped team go through the critical competitions.

At this time, the team was constituted by a group of horrible men who were withstood to join any basketball games in the United States. They also bribed the referees, which made the basketball team of the first university become the living targets and face the situation of crushing defeat. When the situation was in danger, Wang-Li made great efforts to persuade four grand masters with excellent martial arts to take up a challenge at the last moment.

How did Shi-Jie reverse the situation and lead the team to create a miracle? Will he find his family? Who would be his lover at the end?

My two-cents worth comment
My Ratings (5 stars MAX):
What I like about this movie: It is about Jay, and about basketball. These are my favourites.
What I dont like about this movie: There wasnt any impactful climax. Abit dry.
SPOILER ALERT..
This movie is not all about basketball and kung fu. There’s also abit about loyalty. Like what I mentioned in THE STORY section, Wang Li was using Shi Jie as his money tree. In this case, Wang Li still treat Shi Jie like his own son, took care of him and protected him from the bad people. In the end, Shi Jie got to know his family background. He is a rich kid and his father is going to bring Shi Jie back to London to inherit all his assets. Between money and loyalty, Shi Jie decided to stay with Wang Li. I have not met someone who is willing to give up his fame/wealth because of loyalty.

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