My Adventure in Blogging Incoherently

I'm currently suffering from nicotine and caffeine withdrawals. Food I can go without. Water is not a problem. It sucks to be a coffee drinker and smoker during Ramadhan. I'm guessing that the main symptoms of this particular problem is to blog incoherently; and post a fav movie's list. No, don't worry. It's not a meme and I'm not tagging anyone.... yet. Heh.

Top 5 Personal Favourite Yet Awesomely Bad Classic Movies

5. Commando

What’s it about? :

Colonel John Matrix (Arnie) has retired and is living with his 10 year old daughter (a very young Alyssa Milano) in a nice cabin in the middle of nowhere. Long story short, some South American kidnaps Alyssa and is holding her hostage. The rebels wants Arnie to assasinate the president of a their country so that big-boss rebel can take over the country. Why Arnie? Dude, do you really need to ask that question?

It’s obvious that the rebels have yet to see Terminator or Conan yet, else Arnie would be the last person on earth for them to piss off. It's just not healthy. So, being rebels and not being very bright, they managed to piss our hero off and it’s not long before Arnie gets angry and goes on a killing spree.

He kills his minder on the plane and then finds himself in a race against time i.e. He has to find out where the scumbags are holding Miss Milano, before the plane of his lands and rebels find out that he's flown the coop. With the aid of a stewardess he befriended/kidnaps (?!?), he raids a gunshop for suppliers and steals a plane to get to the rebel's hideout.

The movie's concept then takes on a consistent pattern.

Arnie killing everything that he sees.

Why I love it? :

It’s just brainless violence. This was Arnie at his best. Don’t try to figure out on the logic though, just accept the fact that the rebel's aim sucks big time, and Arnie is bullet-proof, and just sit back and enjoy as this walking gun store punishes the bad guys for laying their grubby hands on Alyssa Milano.

4. NICO: Above the Law

What’s it about? :
Before he became obese and started to make movies with rappers, he was the Man! This was his very fist movie and did he kick some serious arse! This is when the world was introduced to Aikido. Screw the roundhouse kicks, Steven showed us that it’s cooler to meet your opponents in close-range combat… and proceed to fracture their fibulas.

Steven plays Nico Toscani, a cop who used to work for the CIA (don’t they all) during the Vietnam War. He gets into some tough shite with the bad guys when he finds out that someone is smuggling C4 explosives, which is kinda worse than drugs.

Surprise! It’s his old pals from the CIA who’s been cashing in the drug trade and they have friends in all the right places. Suddenly, he finds himself being thrown-off the case and none of his cops pals want to help him.

No worries, being the bad-ass that he is, he tells everyone to go stuff it and proceeds to lay some Aikido smack down on the bad guys.

Interestingly enough, Sharon Stone (pre Basic Instinct) plays the "Man's" wife in this movie.

Why I loved it? :

It’s Steven’s first movie and we are introduced to a new style of martial arts. Practically ends Chuck Norri's carreer and his roundhouse kicks. Oh, and if your Aikido instructor informs it otherwise tell him to go stuff it!

Aikido was indeed created by Steven Seagal. Where did you think that Morehei Ueshiba learnde Aikido. He bloody watched this movie.

3. Waterworld

What’s it about:
The polar ice caps have melted, and the earth is covered by water. Well, serve them right for not taking care of the planet properly. Reduce, Recycle and Reuse!

So anyways, the surviving people live and travel on the seas, because dry land is now practically a myth. The people are living on man-made atolls and calling themselves Drifters. The bad guys are led by the ever menacing Dennis Hopper, who has adopted the Exxon Valdez * as his official residence.

Kevin Costner is the Mariner, a mutant freak (not to be confused with Freak & Geek) who has webbed hands and feet which makes him a bloody good swimmer. His ride? A very cool Trimoran. He minds his own business most of the time but due to some unforeseen events finds himself being the guardian of a little girl, who by chance, happened to have a map of dry land on her back tatooed on her back.

Now, Dennis wants the directions to dry land because let's face it, living on a rusty oil tanker sucks big time. So then it becomes a chase, whereby Kevin tries to protect the little girl and her hottie minder as well as trying to find dry land before Dennis gets his filthy hands on them.

Why I like it? :

I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic themed movies, the idea of a post-devastated earth because mankind has screwed-up the planet and now the animals are in charge.
* 1989 Prince Willian Sound, Alaska. Ring any bell?

2. Dark Angel

What’s it about? :

Dolph Lundgren works vice in the city of Houston, ridding the city of drug dealers. His previous partner died during a drug bust and they’ve replaced him with a geeky, pencil-pushing FBI agent to investigate some mysterious deaths; normal non-junkies dying of massive heroin overdoses and bearing the same horrific puncture marks on the forehead.

The culprit is actually an alien drug dealer from outer space! WTF?! He goes round and pumps alien narcotics into the body of his victims and then extracts the by-product from their brain. WTF?! Apparently, that stuff is some good shite there. The alien bloke doesn’t say much though, only ‘I come in Peace’ a lot, before killing his victims. WTF?!

Oh, and he has a big freaking gun which, from the looks of it fires artillery shells while those tossers at the PD only provide our heroes with only a 9mm. No fret, as it turns out, alien drug dealer is being chased by an alien cop. When the former gets killed off, Dolph was able to get hold of the alien cop's cool gun. We're all even now? Good, let the smackdown begin.

Why I loved it? :

It’s a murder mystery in itself, and it’s original. You’ll be exclaiming” WTF?!” throughout the movie but it’s quite entertaining. The movie takes the concept of your usual Cop v Drug Dealers scenarios and SCI Fi-ed it. Furthermore, how on earth can you not love the dialogue?

Alien baddie: I come in peace
Dolph: …and you go in pieces (Ratatatatat!)

1. Universal Soldier

What’s it about? :
What happens when you take two bad-asses, namely Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren and have them duke it out?

An Awesomely Bad Classic Movie!

Jean Claude and Dolph are two soldiers serving in Vietnam. Dolph is a bit mental because he likes the killing a bit too much and starts a hobby by taking trophies off the bodies of dead Viet Cong, ears, nose, and such. Both are killed during a village raid when Jean Claude tries to prevent Dolph from massacring the whole population.

Listed as MIA, they are actually flash-frozen and shipped to a top-secret facility where a team of scientists turn the two, along with other select specimens, into super-soldiers known as "UniSols”; reanimating the dead bodies of its dead soldiers to create a more a powerful and unique form of weapon.

Obviously, someone has forgotten to remind the military the shit always hits the fan when you screw around with the natural order of things.
Well the shit does hit the fan when Jean Clause starts to have flashbacks and suddenly he remembers who he was and goes AWOL from his chums. Dolph also remembers that he was a complete psychopath in his previous life, takes over UniSols and chases after Jean Claude to finish what they started years before.

Why I loved it? :

It has Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren! What more can you ask for. The acting is shite of course but it's an action movie about zombie soldiers, what do you expect. It has Dolph and Jean Claude beating the crap out of each other. Ahhhh.. bliss. :p

My Adventure Doing Some Charity Work

Young Reef Explorer 2006 @ Aquaria KLCC, 9th September 2006.

It was probably due to the fact that most of us were broke and couldn't afford to go off on a dive trip somewhere, or it could be that we were bored and had nothing better to do. Thus, we decided to do a bit of charity work. Not any charity work, but something interesting that would benefit us financially as well.

We decided to take some underpriviliged kids and introduce them to SCUBA. We also decided to have someone else bear all the expenses. Clever eh? *wink*

Therefore, under the banner of the Malaysian Society for Marine Sciences (MSMS) we approached Aquaria KLCC and pitched the idea to them. The powers-that-be at Aquaria thought that it was a bloody good idea and promised us the use of their facilities as well as sponsoring us with the expenses. We then approached Yayasan Bakti Khidmat Masyarakat of Malaysia to provide us with 20 kids, aged between 12-15 years, to introduce them to SCUBA under Aquaria's Dive with Sharks programme.

Well, to cut a long story short, the kids had tons of fun, eventhough the basis of the event was chucking them all into Aquaria's main tank with the sharks, and err... manta rays. I had the dubious honor of taking the kids on a tour of aquarium but unfortunately, I was only able to provide them an explanation on the herpetofauna species while the fishes were limited to, "ikan nih goreng pon sodap".

Aquaria was so pleased with our contribution in making them look good that they pledged RM50K for our future scientific projects. Currently, we have one Reef Check Project off the waters of PD slated for the end of the year, and a Crown-of-Thorns clean-up in Tioman next year when the season opens. Our financial quandries are sorted out as both projects are fully sponsored. Aren't we all a bunch of clever buggers, then. *wink*


The project committee members and participants.


"Really.. I AM a babe magnet!".


"See how they try to bite my fingers off everytime".


The universal sign while having your pic taken.


See what I mean?

My Tribute to a Fallen Comrade

(Steve Irwin, 22 Feb 1962 - 4 Sept 2006)

He started the whole TV wildife conservationsist phenomenon; common sense-deprived, hyperactive individuals who chased after animals which were more than inclined to bite your head-off based on general principles, and they all did this in the name of conservation. Steve Irwin shared his excitement about the natural world through his exploits on TV. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals as well as the threats to them, most notably on the loss of habitat for these animals.

Even before Animal Planet brought his infectious enthusisasm to the couch potatoes the world over, Steve was already knee-deep in his conservations efforts and had already boughta a crap-load of land in his native Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and US. He turned them all into nature preserves. He had urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells, or sharks-fin soup. He built the Australia Zoo to be one of the most famous zoo in the world which concentrated in educating and creating awareness amongst the public.

His death on 4 Sept 2006, was a massive blow to the wildlife community, however he had already built the foundations in which his work can be continued, not only by his family and friends, but by ordinary folks like you or I. As such, we should not mourn his death far too much but to celebrate what he did in his life and to take up the work in which he left behind. I never met the man personally. Now, I never will. However, I believe he still lives on, in the hearts of those who carry on the torch of wildife conservation.

Crikey! *wink*

My Adventure at the Turtle Hatchery

The WWF/Malacca Fisheries Turtle Management Centre (26-27 August 2006)


MNS volunteers posing for a grop shot.


Sarah's entourage, Me and the Centre's Caretaker (chap in white)


The rescued Hawksbill & Green residing in the Centre's Pool.


The Turtle Hatchery itself.

We released about 113 Hawksbill hatchlings during the 2 day stint, with the hope that these unique & wonderful creatures will continue to survive. We were joined by 20 from Taylor's college to add to the 10 MNS volunteers I brought along with me.

Unfortunately, there were no nesting females that night, but we did receive 90 hatchlings in the early hours of sunday morning. The massive thunderstorm prevented us from releasing them that night. We had to wait till 6am till the rain stopped before releasing the current batch (the 90 was joined by another 2o or so late 'diggers' ).

We're probably going again after Hari raya, so any of you out there who are keen to help out and do your bit for conservation, drop me a line then. Let's save our natural heritage before it's all gone.