Thanks to Eyeris who managed to source a pair of extra tickets for Iron Man last night, I got to watch this show before the official release this weekend. Before you ask, the movie is awesome and totally kick ass, you have to watch it when it comes out this weekend. Now lets proceed to a bit of a “review” that might or might not contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Tony Stark’s first armour

For those who didn’t grow up with American comics (ie: me, I was reading Chinese version of Doraemon and Lau Fu Tze), Iron Man has his super power not via genetic mutation nor being born on some other planet. Instead, somewhat like Bruce Wayne in Batman, Tony Stark is an industrialist who archive superpower-hood via his engineering brilliance. If you haven’t figured it out, he built the freaking armour that allows him to fly, shoot people, carry heavy loads, etc etc.

2nd version in the making

The story doesn’t stray very far from the typical superhero movies, with the introduction of the main character as an ordinary person to the transformation that makes him a superhero to the final fight with the super villain. The difference is, of course, Robert Downy Jr. fits the profile of Tony Stark perfectly, and Gwyneth Paltrow played a brilliant role in being Pepper Potts.

awesome or not?

Then there’s the absolutely awesome CG that blends it perfectly while bringing the awe factor not any less than Transformers. You’ll love the movie, watch it!

the enemy, iron monger

Tags:  comics,  Gwyneth Paltrow,  iron,  iron man,  ironman,  movie,  preview,  review,  Robert Downy Jr.,  show

Posted by KY | 24 Comments »

First of all, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. In greeting the very auspicious 2008, lets do a recap on what I have done in my life and in this blog through 2007.

• 152 new posts in all category
• 88 new posts under the “KY eats” category
• 356,630 unique hits according to site meter, averaged just over 977 hits per day
• 624,300 page views, translates to 1.75 page per visit

2007 is also a year of freebies, I had free passes to quite a number of parties. Including the Midzone NYE countdown, Speedzone Tour 2007, and most notably, the Dionne Warwick Live & Loud Concert (Thanks Suan!). There were also quite a few free movie tickets and a couple invitations to movie premiers as well. Of course, there was also the 3 crates of free Tuborg beer for the X’mas Party.

my post plastered on ah foong bak kut teh!

As the food entries kept piling up, I saw my blog post being printed and plastered on Ah Foong Bak Kut Teh at Sunway. I was also spotted by the boss of the famous Char Siew and Hakka Noodle place at Aman Suria got a some extra Char Siew and fish ball thrown in from the house. The other restaurants that spotted me were Kangsane Korean restaurant and Hokano Japanese Restaurant, they threw in some extra freebies when I went there. Thanks!

I joined the local blog advertisement network Nuffnang in the beginning of the year when it was launched. So other than freebies, I actually made quite a decent amount of lunch money from this space itself, more money for good food, nice. This blog advertising stuff really works, a win-win situation for blogger and advertisers alike.

2007 is also the year I left my previous company where I spent no less than 3.5 years of my career life. It was difficult to bid farewell to my ex-colleagues and clients whom treated me like good friends. This also signaled the end of the days of traveling to Vietnam, Myanmar, and various regions in Malaysia for work. I must especially thank the hosts of those places who treated me so well when I was a visitor.

On food, I had my first taste of foie gras at Zipangu and later Cilantro restaurant. It was every bit as good as advertised. The other more notable (or memorable) dining experience includes the Char Siew place I mentioned earlier, and the bee’s pupa I had in Vietnam.

Though no long distance vacation, I did have a very good day trip with the gang to the Chiling Falls, and I have something planned for 2008 as far as traveling is concerned.

Thankfully, all my family members and friends are in good health. 2007 turned out to be a pretty good year, and I sure hope 2008 would be more of the same, and maybe better! How was your year?

Tags:  2008,  ky,  kyspeaks,  new-year,  reminiscence,  review

Posted by KY | 18 Comments »

A few weeks ago, David asked if I would like to play with a couple Nokia XpressMusic phones for review. Being somewhat a gadget junky, I take up the offer without any hesitation. He assured me that these stuff come in fantastic “review” package that will impress anyone.

Instead of a paper bag or cardboard box with phones inside, what I received was this mysterious looking briefcase with a very subtle Nokia logo on it. I thought it look more like those used by drug dealers carrying huge amount of cash instead, certainly makes me look a lot more cool than (I already am) if I were to carry this thing and walk around 1-U or something.

the mysterious briefcase

Inside the briefcase were two pretty cool looking phones, the Nokia 5610 and 5310 in slide and candy bar format. A set of very impressive Panasonic headphones, an Altec Lansing inMotion portable speaker, and the very neat JBL portable sound station for 5310 were included.

the impressive package design containing the two XpressMusic phones

The package looks great and all, but I was still very skeptical. I mean, what good are these tiny speakers compared with a traditional hifi system or even a boombox? And then I boot up the phones and hook it up to the speakers.

The very small Altec Lansing was actually very impressive, it doesn’t even come with battery and only draws power from the phones yet still able to produce very quality sound to reasonable volume. I can totally see this as a very compact solution for going to picnic or even listening to music in a hotel room when you’re travelling, a very portable solution. In fact, I would buy this now if I know where to find it! (I’ve searched the website to no avail, maybe I should tell David the dog ate it)

Nokia 5610 and Nokia 5310

The sleek 5310 and the JBL portable sound station combination is just perfect for someone who wants an uncomplicated phone with great music ability. Put the phone on the station and it instantly become both a charger and an impressive boombox solution, and I assume, a very good alarm clock that will surely wake you up in this morning. The station can be made portable by using AA batteries too. This baby can go pretty loud as well.

I love the 5310’s JBL Portable sound station

I shall not need to repeat the specs of these phones as you can easily find here: Nokia 5610, Nokia 5310. Both are Series40 phones that has a camera, cool design, and very great music functionality. I think they are reasonably priced too, my ex-colleague just bought the 5310 a month ago and is very happy about his phone, kept showing it off (especially to impress girls)

Tags:  5310,  5610,  altec lansing,  inmotion,  jbl,  mobile,  nokia,  phones,  review,  sound station,  xpressmusic

Posted by KY | 25 Comments »

One of the many good things about hanging out with femes bloggers like suanie is that sometimes I get to indirectly enjoy some of the extra benefits she gets due to her fame. For example, I too was invited to the local movie Cinta’s premier; and thanks to her connection (which type I don’t know) to David Lian I get my hands on a review unit of Nokia N95 to play with.

Top of the line N series phone from Nokia, the N95

I have been using this phone for a better part of a week now, and frankly speaking, there isn’t much that this phone can’t do. I am used to the Symbian operating system as I had previously own a Nokia 7610 prior to the SE K800i.

While the K800i does take good pictures and have very good SMS features, it is lacking many extras the N95 offers. The N95 spots a higher resolution with the 5MP Carl Zeiss optics, then there’s the pretty useful Wifi connectivity, and on top of all these, there are GPS and push mail functions. It also supports HSDPA (3.5G), edge, bluetooth, and infrared.

The most interesting function has got to be the GPS. For the uninitiated, GPS, or Global Positioning System, is a set of satellites that allows the receiver to calculate it’s position anywhere on the surface of the earth with access to the sky. This phone includes the maps and routing program that is similar (or the same?) with the Nokia 6110 navigator that the hot chick has. I’m going to rely on the routing feature when I go to JB for a friend’s wedding and then to Penang this weekend since the Malaysian map is included.

That said, there are some minor weakness of this multimedia super phone. The most glaring being the battery life, while the basic phones could now last for almost a week on a single charge, I have to plug this thing to the wall at least every other day, but this is to be expected for something that packs so many features in it. I suppose if you are not a wifi junky and not using the GPS extensively, the battery should lasts for several more days. While the SMS function is superior to that of the iPhone (no forward, can’t send to multiple recipients), it doesn’t have the predictive words function like the newer SEs.

Still, this is a super phone and I really enjoy using it. I just got myself a car charger to eliminate the battery life issue of using GPS for hours. I wish David all the luck to pry the phone out of my cold dead fingers if he wants it back.

Tags:  3.5g,  3g,  edge,  GPS,  hsdpa,  nokia-n95,  review,  wifi

Posted by KY | 8 Comments »

Perhaps many of you, like me, has never heard of Noni juice before. According to wikipedia, noni is a shrub or small tree in the family Rubiaceae. In a simple term, a type of plant.

Now, traditionally, various parts of the tree (leaves, flowers, fruits, bark, roots) are used to treat eye and skin problems, to contain fever, and it is said that in this country, heated noni leaves applied to the chest are believed to relieve coughs, nausea, or colic. Interesting. Now I am not sure about Noni as a medical product (and one should not use traditional method as the only way of treatment for anything), but it seems that Noni Juice carries some health benefits.

Noni Juice is a company that sells bottled Noni Juice and delivers it for free to basically anywhere in the world. The company is based in New Zealand, and the juice are from the Cook Islands. The juice sold by this company is tested to be 100% pure, without any added water or sugar. I think that’s the way to go, I always hate it that it is so difficult to find 100% pure fruit juice in Malaysia.

You can order bottled Noni Juice, Noni Powder Capsules, Noni Peppermints, Heat Lotion, and several other Noni based product from their website.

Tags:  noni-juice,  review

Posted by KY | 1 Comment »