Curse of the Golden Flower

Upon another friend's glowing recommendation and after watching the beautifully done trailer, we went to see this movie.

This is a Visually Stunning Film based in the Tang Dynasty - the most decadent dynasty in Chinese history. If you are looking for lots of Kung Fu stuff like Crouching Tiger or Hero, then you might be disappointed. This is more a dramatic story with a lot of internal stuggles and acting. The Action at the end if you are patient for it is a good pay off but if you are impatient, (like myself) then you might think the movie was a little slow.

Gong Li is director Zhang Yimou's muse since 1987 - 1995, this is the first movie that they are in together since their break up. She was absolutely amazing in her acting. I thought she was good in Raised the Red Lantern and Ju Dou but this is the best collaboration I have ever seen.

Apparently, every able body you see in this movie is real and not CGI. Once you realize that, the movie is now an EPIC.

For a holiday movie, it might not be what you are looking for. For being in the theatres in time for Award season, this is a good candidate.

Change is Good

I have finally converted to the new version of Blogger. I have updated most of my older posts with related labels and added some a d s on the sidebar. Please c l i c k on them to support this site. If you right c l i c k and open in a new window then you can still continue to read the blogs.

I have decided to keep the look for now. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Land of the Shrimp Buffets

Here's the rundown of the Buffet I went to in the past week; all have shrimp and crab legs with the exception of Flamingo's :

Bellagio - $$$$ - Wait Time: 1.5 Hours - Dinner
Memorable Item: Finger size peeled Shrimp; No lumps Mashed Potato
Disappointed by the hype: YES! they advertised Game Meats like Venison, Buffalo, Rabbit, Duck, and Kobe Beef etc. - only had the Buffalo Roast available and it was OLD!

Bally's - $$ - Wait Time: 5 minutes - Brunch
Memorable Item: Good Omelete Station; Corned Beef Hash; Crispy Bacon; great servers, fruit that you can take with you
Disappointed by the hype: No; didn't expect much but surpass by enthusiastic Ethiopian waiter that only has been in Vegas for 12 days

Stratasphere - $$ - Wait Time: 10 minutes - Dinner
Memorable Item: Oyster on the half shell; Spanish Rice
Disappointed by the hype: No; great price for the value of food

Sahara - $$ - Wait Time: 5 minutes - Brunch
Memorable Item: Biscuits with Country Gravy; Omelete Station; good California Roll
Disappointed by the hype: No; great price for the food served

Golden Nugget - $$ - Wait Time: 15 minutes - Brunch
Memorable Item: Oysters on the Half Shell, Excellent Dessert Island, Sashimi if you asked for it; Brand New renovated Kitchen
Disappointed by the hype: No; great price for the food served

Rio - Carnival of the World - $$$ - Wait Time: 40 minutes - Linner (between Lunch and Dinner)
Memorable Item: All GOOD; Noodle station for fresh soup noodles, teppanyaki station that will grill you a steak if you ask; great drinks specials (3 Heineken for $9; large 2 for 1 Mohitos)
Disappointed by the hype: No

Bally's - $$ - Wait Time: 55 minutes - Dinner
Memorable Item: Shrimp Kabobs (avg. 8 sticks each with 5 on each stick); Wild Rice; Breyers Ice Cream; Lamb Chops (very tasty)
Disappointed by the hype: No

Flamingo - $$ - Wait Time: 5 minutes - Brunch
Memorable Item: Good Omelete Station and made to order Crepe Station; Crispy Bacon;
Disappointed by the hype: No; slow servers

Most places if you sign up to the Players/Total Rewards Club, they will give you coupons for $5 - $10 off your buffets, etc. It will lower your food cost down significantly.

We also went to the Deli beside the Village Buffet in Paris Hotel. The wait for that buffet was estimated to be 2 - 3 hours at 11am in the morning. We went to the deli next door and the 'Croque Monsieur - Ham and Cheese heated' was delicious. We also tried the Turkey and it was great. Price $6 for Croque and $11 for the Turkey Wrap Combo which includes Clam Chowder and a drink.

We tried to go to a restaurant but the food was unbelievably expensive. Average Appetizer/Salad $12 - $18; Main $28 - $45; Desserts $9 - $15. Prix Fix Dinner at the Eiffle Tower Restaurant $98 per person - cheapest of the Prix Fix that I can find. (They will give you a free tour to the restaurant and the view is great but they have a dress code for dinner and runner and casual is not allowed) Several Bellagio restaurant 3 course meal over $120 per person.

Another place that a fellow tourist told us about but we ran out of time and couldn't go. It is the Prime Rib Dinner at the Barbary Coast for $13.99; the restaurant was quite nice.

The Las Vegas 'Experience'

I find that lately, the buzz word around town is "... Experience" which was prevalent when I was in Las Vegas.

We were at the Star Trek Unveiled: the Behind the Scene Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton; the American Superstars Experience at the Stratosphere; "M" Lost in Vegas Experience at the M&M World; the Penn & Teller Experience at the Rio Suites.

If you are a fan of Star Trek and all the different spin off series; the Behind the Scene Experience was worth every cent. We bought the package that included the 2 rides - Borg Invasion 4D; and Klingon Encounter; Entrance to the Museum; the Behind the Scene Tour; Pictures on the Star Trek Next Generation Enterprise Bridge and the Borg Regeneration Chamber. Even after the tour, we were still thrilled by the rides and have a better understanding of all the items displayed in the museum.

The American Superstars is the typical impersonators tribute show. Elvis, MJ and the back up dancers were good, Britney Spears, Madonna need to learn their lyrics and dance moves.

"M" lost in Vegas was the only free show. It was quite good. We resisted not buying anything in any of the 4 floors of super cute M&M products and candy store. I was impressed of the will power we had.

Penn & Teller was the only show we had reservations for and they do not disappoint. If you like their type of no BS magic, this is a great show.

All in all, we had a great 'Experience' in Las Vegas!

Positive Affirmation and Basic Courtesy

Lately, I have been playing this free game online called Bejeweled 2. I have played it before but never really had time to play for very long. I found this game while I was trying to improve my typing by playing Typer Shark.

Clicked on the Play Now button on the left and play right away. No need to download.

The reason I like Bejeweled is that I like the baubles and the positive affirmation every time I play. Who wouldn't want to hear - 'Good';'Excellent'; and 'Incredible'; every time you make the jewels cascade.

Since I work for myself, it does look kind of silly every time I did a great job and 'High 5' myself and say Excellent Work :)

I like saying Thank Yous to most action I receive from someone else. I say 'Thank You' to the bus drivers, tickets takers at the movies, and even hosts at restaurants that just took down my name. They might feel unappreciated in their jobs or have a bad day and you will be surprise how a simple Thank You will cheer them up. I have to admit sometimes I might forget to thank my friends for a kindness and I obsessed about it and then I will call them and thank them again just in case I forgot. (Yes, I have a slight case of OCD, no one can be that perfect ;p )

Saying Thank You is the easiest form of appreciation you can give to someone and it does not cost you anything other than a smile. Some of my friends accuse me of being too polite and worry that people might take that as fake sincerity. It really does not bother me what people think, I just feel that common courtesy is not something that you learn from school and someone needs to maintain the politeness of it until the rest of the world catch up.

I met some wonderful people just by smiling and saying 'Hi!' to complete strangers. Some people are weary but most of the people I met usually return the smile and you will have a nice chat with someone when you are both waiting in line for something and not get frustrated at the poor teller or cashier that is running behind due to a faulty piece of equipment that is out of their control.

Try it next time you are out for a walk, smile at every other person and see their face smile back at you. It is a great feeling to give and receive.

It's a Small World After All.. now try to get this song out of your head

I recently saw a report on Prime Time - Six Degrees of Separation - Fact or Fiction

This is a feature experiment about complete strangers finding each other based on a picture and most basic information - name, location, and occupation. The catch is you cannot look them up on the telephone or look for them directly, the connection has to be actual human contact based on the people you know and the people they know.

This show was inspired by an experiment that has been running at Columbia University in New York. You can check it out here. It is quite interesting to play.

Here's an article in Business Week how small this world is in Corporate Business

I always believe that 'What goes around; comes around.' Therefore, I do my best to treat everyone I meet the way I like to be treated in case Bad Karma hits me on my way to collect my 30 Million Super Seven Jackpot :)

You never know who you know until you meet them... so help those in need when you can.

Body Worlds 3

I was always fascinated with human anatomy; I recently went to the Body Worlds 3 exhibit at the Science World.

You might recall seeing some part of it in the new James Bond movie - Casino Royale.

I have to say, it is not for the faint hearted and they DO show everything. All the display are from actual human donors.

I am amazed at how each one is constructed almost free form. (i.e. The only thing 'The Hurdler' is touching is the top of the hurdle and the hurdle itself is mounted to the floor. The Hurdler is in mid action so only the back of the thigh is touching the hurdle) You really have to see it to understand what I mean..

I enjoyed the healthy specimens and then the sick and disease right beside it for comparison. It really hits home that smoking really damages your lungs completely. They also have cross sectioned like plastic slices of different parts on display so that you can actually touch it..

I am amazed by the intricacies of the human body and how it all function together. I almost want to take an anatomy course just for the fun of it; I was then discourage by the amount of homework to expect and the lab portion might not be as pretty as the show.

I didn't have time to catch the IMAX show but I am sure it will be good.

If you want to find out more, here is their official website.

Hooked on The Pretender DVD Series

Since the weather has been awful lately and I have caught up with most of my work, I decided to catch up all the DVD series I have been purchasing and never have time to watch.

I bought all four seasons of 'The Pretender' - its about a genius that was being exploited by some secret government section called 'The Centre'. He escaped and tried to right all the wrong he has done.

This series was very popular on NBC several years ago, before Alias.

I thought I will watch a few but I have forgotten how good the series was and I couldn't stop watching - which is about 88 episodes in total.

Now that I have got that out of my system, I have 4 seasons of Alias to catch up on.

If you are a fan of The Pretender, here's a great fan forum with loads of information and posts.

Also, there are some great Music Videos produced by AtlantianDream; worth a look - here is a sample done to Walk Away by Kelly Clarkson. Another producer also have some great videos with lyrics.

Here is an extended movie promo with great music compliment. Enjoy!