Nasi Lemak 2.0

Finally I had managed to watched this very movie which caused so much buzz lately in the cinema. Not it's not Johnny English. It's our own local production called Nasi Lemak 2.0. The movie is directed by non other than the controversial blogger Namwee. I wasn't sure if I wanna watch this movie in the first place but I had a few good response from my friends for the movie and decided to watched it before it was taken down. Damn, booking the ticket itself was damn hard. Almost all the halls are full each day. Even the midnight shows. Finally managed to get some tickets over the new MBO at Subang Parade. 

The movie features a lot of local celebrities like Adibah Noor, comedian Afdlin Shauki, singer Reshmonu, violinist Dennis Lau, local singer Karen Kong, ex-DJ cum blogger Pete Teoh and some veteran actor and singers like Dato' David Arumugam (Alleycats) and Kenny & Chee (babba & nyoya) and lastly Miss Malaysia herself Nadine Ann Thomas. The movie focus on Namwee as Chef Huang who acts like a savior to the neighborhood after being saved by someone when he was young. He and Kak Noor (Adibah Noor) are like fire and water as the latter sells nasi lemak at her stall opposite his restaurant and was doing very well. Xiao K (Karen) came over to seek Chef Huang help to save her family restaurant and this embarks the journey of Chef Huang and Xiao K. 

Along the way they meet with Baba & Nyonya (Chee & Kenny) who teaches Chef Huang how to cook real sambal. Then they went to meet Curry Master (David Arumugam) who only speaks Tamil to learn about spices. Finally they meet with Hero Resh (Reshmonu) and also fisherman (Afdlin Shauki) who has four beautiful wifes and kids. Finally Chef Huang has a final showdown with his former classmate, Lan Qiao (Dennis Lau). OK, maybe the story line isn't that solid but heck it's a movie about our country and the best part is that we can really relate to all of the stuff from the movie in our daily life. Take for instance, electricity being cut off without any warning, how cold our local car's air cond is and how the power window stop working after 2 years. There are a lot of remarks made towards the government but it's all very true. 

It talks about unity and the spirit of 1Malaysia in the movie. How 3 different races work together to achieve peaceful harmonious living. The director did take some shots on some issues like the Lingam case and also the pornographic sex scandal case by one of our local chief. I think, only us Malaysian can truly understand and feel the whole movie is all about. I don't think anyone like Hong Kong or even Singaporean understand some of the jokes being made in the movie. Unless you really do follow Malaysia news a lot. Lastly, the movie does gave me a lot of laugh and something to ponder on. If there's a chance, I would watch it a second time. haha~! Walao Eh Walao Eh Walao Eh~!!!! 

My New Onkyo Home Theater

Finally I'd bought my home theater to go with my 50" Full HD Plasma. I had initially gave up the hope of getting an AVR and just get those Samsung or Panny's home theater system but when I saw this baby, I know I need to have it. It's Onkyo HT-S5300 home theater set which come with 7.1 system. The best part, it also come with an iPod/iPhone dock (charging) to go with it. How cool is that. I had initially plan to get a 5.1 system but since this system can go up to 7.1, I guess I can always use it later on when I have an AV room of my own. 

The HT-S5300 home theater comes with Onkyo's R580 AV receiver. It supports the new HDMI v.1.4a (which support 3D and Audio Return Channel). Although I am not currently using a 3D-TV but at least I am ready for it if I do upgrade in the future. It comes with audio & 1080p video processing via HDMI and I have 4 of those on the input and 1 output. I'm currently plugging in my Unifi TV box and also Media Player into the AVR. I still have two more for future use (i.e PS3 or XBox) and also Blu-Ray player. As usual, the AVR supports the highest level of sound like:

• Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio;
• Dolby Pro-Logic IIz which features 2 more front high speaker input and 
• Burr-Brown 192 kHz/24-bit DAC (PCM1690) for all Channels. 

There's plenty of stuff in the specification sheet but I do not know from one to the other so no point writing it all out in here. 

The home theater come with one big 25cm Cone Sub-Woofer . Particularly like the conic legs underneath. Makes it look so classy. This baby weights 10.7kg. Not that heavy actually.

As mentioned the home theater is a 7.1 sound system so it means there's 7 speakers and one sub-woofer. The top horizontal one would be the center front speaker. It has a max. input power of 130W with 6 Ohms impedance. The two tall vertical speaker underneath the center speaker would be the front surround speakers. And the 4 smaller ones would be the surround and surround back speakers.

Lastly the iPod/iPhone dock for connecting my music with the AVR and also movies (480p only). The dock is so slick since it's a match with the AVR. And most importantly it charges my iDevice at the same time. How cool~!

So here's a rough diagram showing how a 7.1 surround system is being place. Being the geographical nature of my current living room. I am not able to place the 4 remaining surround and surround back speakers for the time being. Maybe I really need to do some modification on my plaster ceiling to pull the cables back from the AVR. For the time being, just gonna enjoy the current 3.1 system (which sound sound good on DTS). Tested my new home theater on Resident Evil and Ip Man 2 on DTS. Damn the sound system was so blardy loud. But as the technician said, the speakers need to be season in due time for better sound quality. Well let's see then. For the time being, gonna copy some DTS movies from my friends to test my new baby out.

(Picture courtesy of Cbiz)

Les Mill's 3rd Quarter Review

It's been a while since I updated my Les Mill's GX launches. Well, I am not that much of a hardcore comparing to last  time maybe. I still join the classes more than ever but I don't really bother or craze for the upcoming releases anymore. Just finished doing all the new releases for the program which I normally joined, Body Pump 79, Body Combat 49, RPM 52 & Body Step 85. Actually I did Body Pump 79 unofficially few weeks back under some instructors class before. Had a feel of it and I really like it. So let me go through briefly on the releases. Again, these are just my opinions and do not reflect on the program itself. 

Body Pump 79 focuses more on core workout. Well actually all the Les Mill's program this time around focuses on core muscles anyway. Warm up was nice with the cover music from Taio Cruz's Higher. We're finishing off the warming with a bicep roll this time around. We have a squats combo of 4 singles and 4 bottom halves this time around. 2 sets of those combos and 2 more sets of additional 4 singles and bottom halves to the end. This track really kicks to the heart. We can sing along with Sean Kingston's Party All Night with the Chest track. Nothing particular special here. 8 singles combos with 2 sets of 4 bottom halves. There is a break after the 3rd set though so you can load up. 

Now here's the nifty part of the Back track. The over head press is back (I think it's called that technically). We have 3 over head presses then down for 3 singles before going up again for two more sets. There are a total of 2 sets of those combos before finishing off with just 2 sets. Your heart should be on the 80% mark by now at least. Triceps is a bit easy as we start with triceps extension and down triceps push and some bottom halves before going to dips and over head towards the end. And you can definitely sing your heart out with Lady Gaga's born this way in Triceps. Biceps isn't that tough this time around too. I like the music from Bon Jovi's livin' on a prayer for Biceps. We have quick up and slow down then 8 bottom halves. The combo is around that. 

The killer track would again be the Lunges. We have Fireworks on Body Pump 78 now we have Bruno Mar's Grenade. Let's see, we start off with squats then lunges back to squats then lunges (2nd leg) back to squats then lunges (right leg) and lunges (left leg). We have singles and two bottom halves, down and hold, singles and 8 bottom halves combos in between. Yes, it's that freaking crazy. After killing your legs, we continue with our shoulders. Scooter is back and we have the new standing back move with the plates which we normally do on our knees. We start with push up and end with push ups too. The raises are similar to Raver's In the UK actually. 

Warmup: Higher – Logan S. feat. Mandy Brewer
Squats: Closer To The Edge – Mekon Garden
Chest: Party All Night (Sleep All Day) – Sean Kingston
Back: Written In The Stars (Sunny Dee Remix) – Jason Born
Triceps: Born This Way – Southern Light
Biceps: Livin’ On A Prayer – Altiyan Childs
Lunges: Grenade (Damn-R Mix) – Jason Born
Shoulders: J’Adore Hardcore (Extended Mix) – Scooter
Abdominals: We’ll Be Alright – Travie McCoy
Cooldown: The Crow & The Butterfly – Shinedown
Alternative 5 – Triceps: If We Ever Meet Again (Hans-O-Matik Bigroom Radio Cut) – Pandora BX

Thanks God that the new Body Combat 49 is a good one, or at least I do think so myself. For me it's back to the basic. We have a good warm up track from Jay Sean's Down for the upper body and Linkin' Park's New Divide for the bottom. This is one hell of a long warm up track. It's close to 10mins. I realized that we did the knee twice for the warm up. It is said to warm up our legs for the later tracks since we have lots of kicks and lunges. Track 2 & 3 are quite short to compensate back to the long warm up I guess. I particularly like Track 3 because of the song Barbra Streisand. There's not much lyrics in it but the tempo and the beat really goes well with the chorey. I did this release twice but I don't really remember the chorey much now. All depends on muscle memory nowadays. LOLX!! 

Track 6 which suppose to be a conditioning track, well is not. I think Les Mill's had long decided that they are going to scrap that. We have a lot of front and back kick couple with block combos. It's tiring but I like it. Muay Tai track is a fan track. We have lots of knees again. Yup, just go crazy with this one. And finally the final peak track. We have the 8 singles jab cross and two single punch each combo. Then there's double upper on each side and back to the punches. Lots of fun indeed. For the abs track we have the circular push up back again. Well technically it's called circular-square. You will know when you sees it. Overall it's a cool release. 

1a. Down - Studio 88
1b. New Divide (M & Ace Remix) - Rivendell
02. Kick In The Teeth - Badlands Inc
03. Barbra Streisand - Northern Accelerators
4a. Lord Of The Rings - Nick Skitz vs Blissphoria
4b. Hava Nagila - Alex M vs Marc van Damme
05. Don’t Need - Hixxy & Technikore feat. Intraspekt
06. Unfaithful (Nivara Remix) - Comeea
07. Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) – Swade
08. Turn To Me (Supreme & MOB 2010 Remix) - Trinity
09. Dance With Me - 3OH!3
10. Somewhere In The World - Altiyan Childs

Before the release, some instructor told me that it's not going to be a good release to teach. Damn~! But once I did it for the first time, I can still accept the whole release. Well except Track 1, 4 and 6 at least. After the second time of doing it, I can accept all the tracks accept track 1. Really~! What the hell is that? That track totally lost me. I don't really feel the motivation in it. Luckily track 2 is a strong one and managed to bring the whole class back to the peak. I can really feel the motivation in this track. The first hill belongs to Lady Gaga again with Born This Way. Totally love this track. Mixed Terrain takes time to grow I guess. Nothing special. Interval is just pure intensity. You go up and you go down. It's a short spark and off you go. Nice way to shock my heart in this track. Speed work is a bit plain for me. It's similar to some previous release to the extent that I think it's an identical twin (even the chorey). Finally we have the last Mountain to conquer. We have a new move called Benchmark Resistance. Well to put it simple, we ride with the climbing resistance. Don't we all? haha! 

Pack Ride: Beautiful People (Club Version) – Chris Brown feat. Benny Benassi
Pace: Take Over Control – Martina Lorene
Hills: Born This Way (Kris McTwain Remix) – Other Ego
Mixed Terrain: All In – Badlands Inc
Intervals: Witchcraft – Blau
Speed Work: Disarm Yourself (Club Mix) – Dash Berlin feat. Emma Hewitt
Mountain Climb: Discover (Club Mix) – Paffendorf
Ride Home: Science & Faith – The Script
Stretch: The Lazy Song – Bruno Mars
Alternative 3 – Hills: Rhythm Of The Night (Alex K Remix) – Frisco vs Corona
Alternative 9 – Stretch: Choose You – Stan Walker

Finally, Body Step 85. I like the We warm up. Cause some of the recent releases do not have a good warm up. I am talking about the music selection (or remixes) to the chorey. This time around, we have Chris Brown and Maximum for the warm up. We start the warm up with a vertical board orientation. Actually I don't really like vertical orientation for the warm up. Sigh~! Step Athletic has a nice song to it. At least we don't have something silly like the quick burpee like the previous releases. Mixed Strength is similar to One Night in Bangkok actually. We have a lot of triple movement on the floor. Power Peak has a new move AGAIN. We have some push ups towards the end. Argh~!!! Really anti-climax. Step Recovery was nice and easy. We have the usual knee lift and repeaters on each side. Party Step was alright if I remember right. Didn't do the Speed track since it's a 45mins class. But the instructor did told me it's a really nice one. Final Peak track is a good one. Reminds me of Final Countdown actually. We have 8 repeaters on each side then cut down to 4. Lots of over the board even from the start. At least there's no silly chorey with the plates again. 

Warmup: Here I Go – Maximum
Step Warmup: Yeah 3x – Chris Brown
Step Orientation: The Call – Graffiti Girls
Step Athletic: Sure Fire Winners – Solar Collective
Mixed Strength: Who’s That Chick – Ultimate
Power Peak: Jump! – Mickey Index
Step Recovery: Muscles – Annie Lee
Party Step: Show Me How You Burlesque – Carla Cross
Speed Step: Objection – Mirage
Peak: Real Things – DJ Riddle
Recovery/Leg Strength: Uprising – TransNoise
Cooldown/Stretch: Rocketeer – Original Fire
Alternative 8 – Athletic Circuit: Revolution – Colorbox
Alternative 9 – Athletic Circuit: Last Train To Trancentral – Bodytronixx


PS: tracklist and posters courtesy of nzglen