What I thought of X-men...

well i didn't think the movie sucked at all.... probably because everyone told me how crap it was that i had such low expectations. i kinda expected to see some really bad special effects and cheesy dialogue.... okay some of the dialogue was cheesy but then again, if u've been reading comics for as long as i have, u'll realise that cheesy banter is all part of the comic "experience". i have to say that the special effects were awesome though... they've really captured the essence of the x-men's powers... haha

okay i'm going to go all fanboy on you guys now... so feel free not to read the rest of this blog... why didnt i think the movie sucked? well how can a movie be bad if its borrowing heavily from all the great x-men writers out there. Kudos to Ratner from not bothering with any of Claremont's ideas... in this new millenium, he's an outdated and overrated writer... they should just retire him and let him gracefully be remembered for the great stories that he wrote decades ago, not for the current crap that he's putting on shelves these days. He is essentially destroying the work that Grant Morrison has done, building the X-books into truly great stories. So like i said, Ratner has borrowed heavily from Morrison, Joss Whedon and the guy who writes ultimate x-men (can't remember his name all of a sudden).... and made a movie that is in fact VERY VERY true to the comic.

he basically incoporated storylines that Whedon created, like the cure for mutation and the indian doctor... and the scene with wolverine killing jean grey was SO grant morrison. this movie was heaps dark and brutal. although i do not agree with him killing cyclops.... but maybe he didnt? just let me say that although Bryan Singer did a fantastic job with the first 2 movies, he could have made a crapier version than the one Ratner did... for that, snaps to him. oh and kelsey grammer as the Beast turned out to be a very very good choice, although i dont really see what was the point of giving halle berry more dialogue... she isn't really action hero material... haha

I cannot understand why people like to compare the movie to the cartoon series though... although, it was an awesome cartoon.... its essentially made for kids, the comics are darker and deal with all sorts of issues. Discrimination, alternate lifestyle choices, anger management, death all these issues do not make for happy Saturday morning cartoons... i really do not know what to say to people who tell me the cartoon was much better... haha... read the comic!!!!

as for x4.... bring on ONSLAUGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to the Tsubi Sale

haha, as if i didn't have enough tsubi items in my wardrobe, i headed down to the tsubi sale today to try and hopefully score some items that never went on sale at General Pants. Pretty much went more for the experience than anything else. It was a pretty insane experience to say the least, so much different from the first ever tsubi sale that i went for 3years ago in Sydney. Didn't have to stand in line to get into the store those days, less people to fight with and the staff were heaps friendlier. I guess if i had to work at that kinda environment now, i'd prolly be moody and grouchy too... people running and grabbing every single item they can get their hands on.... it was pretty INTENSE and i have to admit i got pretty lost at times. BUT the discounts were pretty good, i ended with a few t-shirts and shirts that GP's never got and some that I missed out on getting because I thought was too expensive even with my staff discount. Spent a fair amount of coin but i guess if i can talk people into parting with 300 for a pair of jeans retail, i dunt really have much of an excuse not to spend my own cash 'eh

anyways, don't know if it was because i was there on the first day but there were some items that i wished they had that they didn't. Most of the jeans were in the cut that no one really wears anymore, was hoping for some of the more limited editions of the dee dee's and joey's for guys but no go... maybe i wasnt quick enough. Also hoped to find some hoodies and knits, but people pretty much just grabbed everything... also all the smalls were gone, pretty much many people are wearing a small these days, or like to think that they are...

props to ailin for coming along with me and sharing this experience, she was an awesome shopping buddy... at times i felt like i was channeling a bit of my mum when it comes to sales, but i snapped outta it... haha, it was insane... all in all, had loads of fun. Dont think i'll ever do it again.... time for me to stop spending and start saving

cheers all

New Clothes from Rancho Notorious

Okay so i just got paid today, hence decided to blow some of my hard earned on some new clothes. Headed back to my friend's store to pick up some of the t-shirts i left aside on friday. What i like about those tops, are they're a pretty limited release and decently priced. Pretty much what someone would pay for clothes at General Pants. They're not too mainstream and i like that i'm supporting underground artists'. And if it helps my individualism... why not 'eh =)
and yes... i know its pretty lame to blog about stuff like this, but i'm actually doing laundry and so have some time to kill... besides, i love my clothes

The name of the store is Rancho Notorious and this is their logo which i ripped off their plastic bag
By my friends label MontlaRoc... very 80's inspired. Aparently, he got the idea for this design one day at work down at GP's in Chapel St... its all pretty random

The second one i got from my friend's label MontlaRoc... again pretty 80s inspired. Aparently this song "you gots to chill" was one of his fav hip-hop tunes in the 80s. love the hair... haha


Last one is from his friend's brand "Untitled Graphic"... just like the simplicity of it, besides, i look good in white... haha. Don't know what the logo is supposed to mean though

Well and that are the new t-shirts i'll be rocking in around in for awhile... i told my friend, i'd wear them in spore and then tell people where to go get them... haha... he's getting a website done soon too with online sales and all...

peace

Stupid Shoplifters!!!!!

okay... had my first encounter with a shoplifter today, well not really my first shopliftter, i've had others before, but this one pissed me off the most. The f**ker stole a pair of tsubi jeans from the store, one of the most expensive ones, its like $370 a pop, and they're really nice ones too. I've actually bought a pair for myself and those tsubis were one of the more popular ones that i've been selling... simply because customers see that it looks so damn good on me... haha

anyways, here is how today went. this guy came in to try a pair of tsubi's on, i was serving him and gave him 2 sizes, a 32 and 36. i thought it was a bit strange because of the weird size choice. Anyways, he grabs the tsubis and goes into the changerooms. Given that we provide good customer service, i kept on going to check on him but he was being very aloof. But i kinda lingered around the change room because i did think something was wrong and also because i really had hoped to make another tsubi sale. So i had my eye on the changeroom and when he came out (it was all quiet, the other people trying stuff on had left and he was the only one remaining), i went straight to him, he chucked me a pair of tsubi and another pair of LEE jeans which looked similar to the tsubi's he tried on and made a dash for the door. Obviously, i knew something was up so i gave chase and once he left the store, i yelled at him to let me check his bag. He flung the bag at me and started running. Once i opened the bag and looked inside, there were 2 shirts that i don't recall him trying on. Those were actually stolen ralph lauren shirts that he probably took from another store. He had the tsubi's inside his pants, i thought i had managed to get it back and in the split second it took for me to realise that he was wearing the tsubi's he bolted and me wearing flip-flops, i couldn't possibly run after him. Besides, short of detaining him, there is absolutely nothing i could do. I couldn't yank his pants down to get to the tsubis and that left me really really really PISSED off.

if he had only given me the chance, i would have told him to keep those damn ralph lauren shirts and give me our tsubi jeans back. Some other store benefited from my keen security sense.

i hope that dick never ever shows his face in the store again

Friday Night @ St Jeromes

Okay, since Yiming is in town, Tian brought us to this little bar in a dodgy alleyway called St Jerome's. Wouldn't even know it existed if not for someone pointing it out to me. It looks kinda seedy but the vibe inside is pretty awesome. They have a shit selection of alcoholic beverages but what the lack in choice, they more than make up for it with atmosphere. This place gave off a cosy vibe and we totally relaxed there for a couple of hours before heading back to Tian's house to relax some more =). You kinda feel like you're somewhere else once u enter St Jeromes, its easy to forget that your in a busy city like Melbourne, you feel isolated from all that buzz that comes from a busy city and you can just hang there for hours. They've got grafitti done outside on the walls, people's creative expression, which unlike Singapore where you get canned for it, is appreciated.

Next to the bar, is an eclectic little store that sells clothes and art by Melbourne-based designers. It was totally random and I bumped into one of my friends who was working there. Didn't know he worked there as well as General Pants, it made more sense when i realised that he actually stocked his own clothing label there, which is called "mont le roc" (i think thats how its spelt). I bought one of his designs which i reckon was pretty mad. He claimed that Andrew G., those Australian idol hosts flew all the way down to get his hands on one of them, also, he said that one of the Beastie Boys might be wearing it... haha, but i bought it because i liked it not because B-list celebrities were wearing it.

Another Weekend has gone by.....

Didn't do much this weekend, spent most of my time "trying" to finish my assignments that were due... well not really, had an extension for one of them so that gave me an incentive to slack off during the weekend instead of working on it like i told myself i would. oh well... need to kick start my brain into study mode, exams are coming up and i really need to start the studying =( Gotta get those damn assignments outta the way first. So i ended up just lazing at home with books and dvds in my messy messy house, i prolly should clean it soon... haha

on sunday i picked up yiming from the airport early early in the morning and we had a good breakfast. went home to sleep again before meeting up with them again to head down to crown casino for a good dinner. the food was decent but the waiter was rude and creepy... kept imagining he was spitting into the food before it was served, that was pretty dodgy. The manager however came over to the table for a chat and he was sharing his life experiences with us, that was good though, i really wish i had the chance to go to the places he has been to and doing the stuff he has done. maybe later on i guess

well, another weekend here in melbourne gone by.....

daz

Okay... pretty eventful weekend. Went to my friends' house on Sat for a get-together / house-warming sorta thing. Was pretty chill, drank some booze and socialized. Got to meet some really interesting new people and catch up with old (but really are actually quite new) friends. I mean thats what I'm here in Melbourne for... a new adventure sort of, trying to widen my circle of friends and keep my life interesting and not falling into stagnation. My mate had a really cute doggie called chino and he helped him out with the entertaining, always coming up to you on occasion to make sure that u were alright. All in all, the little doggie made a pretty good host, he kept everyone entertained. Also he brought along 2 of his little doggie friends, they were still puppies and still in that cute/adorable stage. Made me really wanna go out and get a dog... haha... needless to say, got pretty wasted last night but since I didn't have to go to work the next day, it was all good. I'm glad I managed to drag myself outta the house, it was worth it.

Here are some random photos taken that night




Tian and Yuhan (laughing?!?!)


Why is Tian so afraid of me =(



Raj, Jermaine and me



Notice the ciggie cocktail in my hand (i blame the flash for the ambiguity)



Yuhan, Wermy and me



*note that i probably spelt some peoples names wrongly, but thats because i'm an idiot... so forgive me =)

Drinks @ Robot

Okay... today was pretty decent despite the crappy weather outside. Woke up early this morning and spent some quality time playing my new computer game (The Battle for Middle Earth 2) I'm pretty much a LoTRs geek sometimes. Had lunch with my old friend Nick who is in town for a few days. Good to catch up with him, its weird that i don't really meet up with him in Spore and it takes him to come down to Melb before we actually meet up, but its all good i guess, at least we're staying in touch =)

Headed to Uni in the evening for a group meeting =(... that kinda sucked but at least we got a massive amount of work done. Went for viet noodles after that and ended up at this pretty cool bar for drinks afterwards. It was called Robot and it had a really neo-japanese vibe. Totally awesome vibe, its what i love about Melbourne, u get these sorta niched places here that sets it apart from the rest of the world. All in all, a pretty decent day i guess... off to bed now so i can wake up nice and early to go to work tomorrow

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...