My history of Social Networking

As a kid, the internet was a very strange thing for me. For some reason, after entering some keywords into the address bar, I was able to go to site filled with things of my interest anytime and know any kind of information I wanted. Awesome stuff. I was exposed to the internet as early as 6 years old. Later in my life I was just using the internet to get information on all sorts of things and that's that.



As I get older, When I was in my Form 3 to be exact, I heard of a little thing called Friendster. It is a website that allows you to have your own profile and connect with your friends. Back then, I really don't see what's so fun about it but since it was a fad at that time, I registered myself an account anyway. After a while using it, it was getting kind of fun for some reason. I don't have anything specific that I do there but I just find it fun to be there. Sharing pictures with people, writing testimonials about friends; maybe those are the things that I find joy in doing.



Then came along another new and more deep social networking site known as MySpace. It was getting a lot of attention since it gives you the ability to fiddle around with the HTML and CSS of your profile, which means (for advanced user at that time) you can make you profile look anyway you like. One thing that doesn't attact me to use it at the time is because of the complexity of it. On Friendster, there are very little things I have to manage, such as pictures, friend requests and the occasional testimonials. But here there are many other things to manage such as music, videos and other multimedia things. As I grow older and getting more proficient in HTML, I registered myself a MySpace account. I found joy in making my site as flashy as possible and adding as much people as I can into my friends list; regardless whether I know them in real life or not. Commenting on other people's profile was a blast and fiddling with the elements of my profile was a lot of fun too. I had a lot of things to do and the depth of this social networking site, paired with the (kind of) large friends list that I have, it was something to be proud of back then. And I've also met a lot of interesting people that end up being my good friends up to this day.


Then, came along yet another new social networking site, Facebook. Not many of my friends are there so earlier I just stick to MySpace. Thinking that this thing might be a new fad, I registered myself an account there and just leave it. You know, in case if MySpace became outdated, I already have an account there. As I grow older, MySpace gets kinda boring to me. More and more of my friends are getting on Facebook and so what is the purpose of social networking of you don't have any social to network with. After trying on Facebook for a while, I got hooked on it. It was far more simple, neat, and manageable. It was also very presentable and the profile of other people are much more accessible and systematic. I also liked how it gives us the ability to comment on anything that the person has done; befriend with another person, liked something, changed status and much more. And as I grow older too, MySpace becomes so obnoxious to me with all of its sparkly, blinky, seizure-inducing profiles. Thus, I moved onto Facebook and kept using it until now.


I also have a twitter account. I used it kind of late because to me, it's like another way for people to be able to stalk on you, but then when I think about, who wants to stalk on me anyway. Plus I intend to only update on things that are not really significant. It's a new kind of social networking so it doesn't compare to 3 of the earlier ones.

I think I'm not the only one with this kind of experience though. And I'm still thankful that I had registered on all of those social networking sites. Although the 2 earlier ones are now a pain in the neck for me, I still have them standing, on the brink of deletion of course. They have thought me a few things that I treasure up till today.

• Friendster - early exposure to social networking, picture sharing with friends
• MySpace - thought me HTML, thought me to befriend strangers, a site where comments are the currency of your profile
• Facebook - neat, easy and accessible social networking although with a lot of application notification spam that gets on your nerves

I have nothing against any of the social networking sites if you have to know. Those were the times.

I'm only active on Facebook and Twitter now. Feel free to be my friend on Facebook but I only accept requests from people I know in real life. As for twitter, you are free to follow whoever you are.

FB - Rayza Ridzuan
Twitter - rayza_ridzuan

Compensating for lost times

Ok

I know it's been a long while since I've added a new post. If you think I was being lazy, well, that's because I am. I have a new problem now; the inability to do anything productive. Haha. Anyways, I saw 2 movies while my blog was in vacation, therefore I will review those movies as brief as I can. Sorry to keep you waiting. Well a handful of you anyway. People don't read my blog.

Hello? Hello....?? Echo.. echo.. echo.. echo..

---

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

To cut to the chase, I don't really find this movie as engaging as the previous movies. Keep in mind that I didn't read the novel so throughout this movie I was struggling to relate and figure out what am I really looking at. The actors were tremendous don't get me wrong and the post effects were top notch. It's just because I didn't read the book. The previous movies were lighter but because Harry's getting older and so does everyone else, the story gets heavier and a lot more people kept dying. Not a bad movie for the readers I guess, but for the non-readers, I guess you'll be in the same boat as I am, dazed, confused and wondering. Owh the movie was almost 3 hours too. So, go to toilet and empty your bladder and bowels before hand ;-)

For me, it's just a 6/10

---

The Proposal

Ryan Reynolds, gotta love him. He plays Deadpool in the recent X-Men movie and he have a great sense of humor too. I loved the movie, so much that I went to watch it twice. The movie was intellectually funny and it was very interesting to watch the progress between these two unlikely couple. The movie was not over 2 hours and is just nice for people with weak bladder such as yours truly. A great romance/comedy movie.

The odd couple gets 9/10 from me

---

Those are the two movies that I've saw before this. Sorry for the short reviews. I will do full fledged reviews after this. And non-review blogs are also coming. Maybe later. Right now I'm pretty busy with my games. Wow, Rayza you're a student, you should be studying. Ouch. I know.

Later peeps.

Public Enemies Review

This was an unplanned movie experience. I was actually going to college to get the results for my previous semester but thanks to the effectiveness of the college, we had to wait for the schedule to be released after lunch which is after 2pm. I got at the college around 11.30am so after taking my results and registering for my next semester (which is Pre-Degree finally!), I still have a lot of time to kill. Luckily I was with a few of my friends. Went to a restaurant and had lunch there and went into the hostel area to hang out with some other friends while waiting for after lunch. There, one of my friend invited us to go watch this movie so lacking of a better thing to do anyway later this day, we agreed. After taking my schedule at 2 something and taking my cheque at 3.30pm, we head for KL. There were 6 0f us including me, going by 3 cars with 2 peeps in each. Parked the car at Berjaya Times Square and then walking to Pavilion for the movie. Since I bought the ticket late, I had to sit on the third row from the screen with Anas. Bought a large popcorn & a couple of soft drinks since we were starving anyway.

The story is about John Dilinger, played by Johnny Depp who is a head honcho of a notorious bank robbing crew who are John Hamilton, Baby Face Nelson, just to name a few. There are very good at what they are doing and they will only rob the bank's money and put away the customers' money. But of course no crime is without it's fighter. With the rise of crimes in the 1920's pf Chicago, a talented police is extracted on the case for Dilinger named Melvin Purvis, played by Christian Bale. Earlier through the movie, Dilinger has also a love interest in a girl in which I don't remember her name in the film nor her name in real life. But she's a big part in the film. Through the course of the film, we see Purvis and his Investigation Bureau chase down Dilinger who is very hard to locate due to his strong influence around his company. I was told that it was based on a true story, and that this particular John Dilinger is the reason why there is FBI today.

I'll tell you earlier, this movie is not for people with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder - the disability to concentrate on something for an extended amount of time) since it is full of story and it is 2 hours and 15 minutes. Yes I know movies nowadays are mostly around 2 hours. Nothing in this movie is improbable as it was based on true story anyway. Therefore for people who's looking for some fabulous hollywood post-effects won't find it here. It's pure movie all the way. The first half of the movie is honestly pretty slow and I admit I am struggling to try to understand what is happening. It's the second half where the first half of the movie really make sense and things becomes interesting. As the law enforcers gets closer to Dilinger the drama heats up and becomes more personal on both side of the party. Gangster life has never been portrayed like this before -- well not this proper at least. And to my favourite part of the movie, the gunfights. They are nothing like you've ever seen in a movie before. If you think you know how a gunfight looks like well watch this movie and get it redefined. They were nothing short of astonishing. it really steals the show. Both sides weren't just spraying bullets as it was absolutely free of charge but rather with a very realistic kind of gunfight. The gun sounds were loud, which is how they supposed to be. And usually during these firearms engagements, there are no background music to give the fake environment. It is pure environmental ambiance in the background. It's the movie with one of the best gunfights I've ever seen anywhere. Every single shot fired in this movie has one thing in which I don't see in many movies, existence. In most movie, they put more attention onto the quantity of shots fired, but in this movie, it's quality, and sometimes both. Johnny Depp was great, Christian Bale too. Great actors as they are. Keep in mind though this movie is not for everyone. It's not the normal action flick you see out there. This is not an action film, it's a gangster drama. And I kinda like it.

Gunshots still ringing in my head, 7.5/10.

One Sentence Opinion

Out of thinking too much, I've thought of giving out one sentence opinion of the things surrounding our lives. Might update if I feel like it.

Religion - guidance
Knowledge - drive
Mind - gift
Money - necessity
Social - companion
Men - perpendicular
Women - complicated
Courage - boost
Time - medium
Food - fuel
Rain - forgiveness
Heat - torment
Hatred - weakness
Love - madness
Hugs - embrace
Kiss - exclusive
Lies - diversion
Truth - reality
Hypocrisy - cowardliness
Drama - unnecessary
Life - redemption

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen Review

Just for the record, at the date of writing, I've already saw this movie twice. Initially at the Berjaya Times Square and the next at KLCC. My review will be based on my first experience since the second time I saw it, I fell asleep for 10 minutes not because the movie was boring but because I had a long and exhausting day before.

This movie was waited by everyone. Waited so much that the GSC website that offers earlier bookings crashed that they had to divert it to another simplified site for reservations. Even then you will be lucky to be able to book anything before midnight. Holding to that fact, I've decided to book the one on the 10th floor of the Berjaya Times Square. Thank goodness there were still an ample amount of seats available. Probably because not many people know about the place. It is actually a better experience there compared to the conventional cinema because the screens are bigger and all the seats hand rest are retractable. The sounds were also blasting loud but the right kind of loud. Bought the ticket one day earlier. I got a nice view of the movie. Unfortunately I came in about 10 minutes late. So I missed the opening but I could only hope that I didn't miss out much. Since I was kind of thirsty, though I had breakfast at Old Town White Coffee Cafe at Pavilion, I bought a large Coke. The place is big so it is a while before I reach my seat.

The movie, from the beginning should be concluded with one word, colossal. Right from the beginning you could see them getting the bad guys with no excuse to the environment around them, blowing up with anything that is possible to be blown up. The movie is mainly about the hunt for the last shard of the Allspark and the Decepticon's attempt to revive the ancient Prime that went rogue in search of Energon (power source), The Fallen. The quest was littered with battles among them in the most flexible battle I've seen between hundreds of tons of metal. It is kinda hard for me to follow to since most of the Decepticons have very dull colours compared to the Autobots. All the Transformers stay true to the first movie except for Megatron (and another one in which I will not enclose here) in which as we seen in the first movie was terribly damaged, in which he got his spare parts from another Decepticon. This time he's a semi-tank-semi-jet but still pretty much the same. There were also a few goofy Transformers thrown in the movie to slow the movie down since when it is not slowing down, something is blowing up or metals are clashing. The Transformers were so big of a part of this movie that the rest of the human characters that are not Sam & Mikaela seems so puny. And should I say the designs of these Transformers were astonishing. Looking at made me wonder how long did it take to do all that. The details were just eye popping. If you really want to see what they did, it's either you see it at the movies a lot of times or wait for the High Definition version of it is sold to actually see it. There are also a lot of Transformers now and some in which is a lot bigger that the Transformes themselves. Always a sight to behold. There were also so many Transformes that it is not very easy to keep track of. Not that it's a bad thing, I'm just mentioning it.

Well, what more can I ask. Great action, incredible effects, long duration. Great. Just what the doctor ordered, a real action CG movie. Aside from the fact that there is one Decepticon that shifts into a human female that I do not agree as it is already been done by The Terminators, the rest were just beyond words. As a kid, most of us love Transformers, boys especially. Having to see them duke it out on the silver screen with over the top effects is just a dream come true. It's like a little kid walking into toy land. It's that kind of feeling that you get when you this movie. An incredibly tall recommendation from me for those who haven't seen it. Wonder what was all the craze about this movie? Well because it is good and people know it. If you haven't seen it, well you better be soon. Epic.

0.5 shy of a perfect score due to the cameo of a Terminator. [9.5/10]

Remembering birthdays

Today in a time where almost everyone has a social networking account, access of one's info has been anything but tasking. This includes birthdays. In social networking, often that the birthday of your friends are reminded to you up to a week earlier. Not necessarily a bad thing, at least the people who knew can think of something to say or maybe even something to give. For people who likes to receive birthday wishes (and presents) this is a welcomed feature as it gives the ease of informing her/his friends without having to tell them physically.

But aside from that, that will actually give the reason to not really remember the actual date of one's birthday. Just like the number of other people in your phone, if you don't have your phone, you wouldn't know the number of others unless you opt to memorize them or write them down somewhere else. Here is the age where even friends of friends can be able to know and wish someone on their friends list a happy birthday without having to memorize or even have met the actual person in real life. Although that sound great on paper, how about the thoughtfulness and the heart and genuine care that comes with the wish?

Once, before the boom of the social networking sites, birthdays are often remembered, therefore only friends, close peoples, or loved ones who really cares would remember the date of one's birthday. This way, we can really see actually gives two cents about us. We could really see if someone genuinely cares or if someone is merely trying to impress. Birth dates consists no more than a series of 6 digits placed together forming a specific date in a year with the year born indicating how old one will be on the given time. Having a lot of friends would mean it'll be difficult to remember them all but for that, it is excused. It's for the select few of the people that needed to be memorized their birth dates, for acquaintances or other usual friends, it is not a must to remember them but even if one do remember them, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

Having social networking helps in reminding one to others birthday unable us to actually know if someone's wish is purely based on his/her memory or whether on of check, therefore eliminating the hard work. Like I said, not necessarily a bad thing or maybe even something not necessary, but for something that comes once a year, the sincerity, love and care in a birthday wish is truly none of the quality it used to be.

Or maybe I'm just over-analyzing. Haha.

Night At The Museum 2 Review

Since I watched the first movie, I have always wanted to see more of this movie. And now it's out, and I went to watch it of course. I actually saw this movie last Monday (01/06) with my regular movie partner. It was the starting of the school holiday and as expected the line for the movie tickets were long and it's coiling. Having to be one step ahead, I've reserved some tickets, which require us not to queue at all, only for an additional RM 1. I haven't got my lunch and since it was just quarter past 2, we went to the nearest food court to have lunch. I had the Dory Fish Pasta at the western corner there and guess what, it was pretty good. The fish were succulent and the pasta was moist and flavorful. You should give it a try if you want a breath of fresh air of all of the usual chicken rice, hot plate, claypot, mixed rice affair of many food courts. Window shopped around the area to kill some more time before the movie starts at 4pm. Weird thing though the only kind of window shopping I enjoy are games, computers & gadgets. Hehe.

The movie starts with Tim Daly the (once) guard of the Museum of Natural History now off having his own career of inventing stuffs such as a glow in the dark torchlight. Long story short, some events made him required to present at the museum as the artifacts in the museum he used to work in recognizes him. Some artifacts needed to be moved to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, which is the new "playground" for Tim. He's not an official guard of the museum but as the story goes, it doesn't really matter. The Tablet of Akhmenrah, the artifact that brings the creatures to life after sunset was unintentionally moved to the Smithsonian which happened to be the largest museum in the world. With some of the artifacts from the Museum of Natural History meeting the Smithsonian artifact should produce some interesting meet ups, and that's pretty much what the rest of the movie is about. Artifacts with attitude.

Simply put it, it's just like the first movie. If you have saw the first one, this is a very similar movie with the difference only being the setting and the repertoire of living artifacts. If you liked the first movie at all and wanted for more, this movie should fix you up, but if you're looking for something fresh and innovative, you're not gonna find any in this. This movie is like a haunted train ride; the first time you get on it, all the scares worked and you did get scared for your money, and this movie is like taking the same ride, albeit a little more variation. This movie was very average for me, probably because I was expecting too much from it. Probably because there were so many characters that they want to feature, the focus of story-telling has really suffered from that. If you haven't watched the first one, don't be afraid to straight ahead and jump into this movie. Past knowledge from earlier movie will only give you some neat things to pick out but nothing crucial to the story. The jokes were average, best be watched with your closest peeps so that you can laugh along with it. This is probably because during the first movie, you really had no idea what was going to happen but in here everything were quite predictable. All and all, this movie is not to be taken seriously. If you have some time to kill with your friends and you really can't come up with anything ingenious to do, maybe you should watch this. For the peeps who've watched the first one, be prepared to ride the same ride again. Not a bad movie, just very average. For me.

This movie scores a low 7/10 for me.

How I believed in love at first sight

If you've read my review on the Star Trek movie, you would've known that I went to Pavilion last Saturday to watch the movie. After the movie ends and after my lunch, me and my movie partner is still strolling around Pavilion, which is as we know it, a place where no typical everyday man (or woman) could afford from or maybe only buy from once in a while. After our lunch, it seems that our wallet is empty. Yes even the food court that we ate at is somewhat more expensive than a typical food court that you would find in any other average shopping malls. Pavilion and The Gardens are the two of the luxurious shopping mall in the capital which I know. All I can afford here is window shopping (and some stuffs from shops that have branches) and the boutiques around here will have us laughing out of the store after looking at the price tag. Well, at least that's the case for me. Ok, I'm going far out of my context here. I'm going to tell you how I believed in first love. When we were going to EON Bank to draw some money from the ATM there, we had to go past by a parking bay (with valet service nonetheless) where I laid eyes on probably the most awesome creation the motor world has to offer...



And I was mesmerized. Mesmerized as if I've forgot everything I've ever had. Mesmerized like I never had been. It's an honor to lay eyes on such radiance, such sophistication, such contained wilderness... I never believed in first love, but this machine proved me wrong. Looking at it, I forgot to breathe for a while that my face turned pale, stunned by its resonating beauty. Under the spotlight of the bay, this machine shines it's beauty into the eyes of its looker. It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But this kind of beauty is universal, and the kind of beauty that language is not required. I was in disbelief. I lost to my own belief, my own stand of "love at first sight is not love". My stand was shattered but I am glad, because my love at first sight is this Italian tailored madness under an ivory armor;

Lamborghini Murcielago...
I bow down to your supremacy

Star Trek Review

Yes at first glance, even I thought this is not a good idea to watch Star Trek. I've watched Star Trek: Nemesis before (Google it). The movie was Boring with a capital B. I tried so hard to like it because Star Trek is a big franchise but I failed to and fell asleep almost halfway through. But that was Star Trek: Nemesis which was still in the original canon of Star Trek. This movie however is a reboot to the canon. Hollywood tries to make it accessible not only for nerds, but also normal people alike. And the movie reviews I saw all over the internet says it was unexpectedly good. This time around, I watched the movie with my regular movie companion at Pavilion in KL, just for a change. We've been to other places before. Our movie starts at 12.15pm. Had our breakfast at Oldtown White Coffee: Signature there and their toast are one of a kind. The price was reasonable too. You should try it once in a while instead of the normal fast food restaurant breakfast. Walked around the Pavilion a little before going to the cinema for the movie. And I must say the air-conditioning in GSC Cinemas has been less cold. Probably because there has been complaints. Anyway at least it's cozy.

Being someone who never saw or liked the actual movie, my hopes wasn't really high for this one. The movie starts with the U.S.S Kelvin, which is one of the mega-spaceships like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars. It stumbled upon one of the Romulan (a race in the Star Trek universe) ships and it started attacking. The captain of each ship decided to make truce with the captain of the U.S.S Kelvin boarding the Romulan ship. George Kirk was appointed as the captain of the ship while the original captain went and board the Romulan ship. The U.S.S Kelvin lost and also does George Kirk but he got the chance to name his son, Jim Kirk. The story then proceeds about the story of Jim Kirk and also Spock, a half human half vulcan and their story in the institute and the U.S.S Enterprise.

I know this is weird for a Star Trek movie but everything is understandable. Yes. Everything is! Including all of the intergalactic warp space time travelling thingys. The movie was action-packed, sprinkled with some comedy and drama. In one word, it was Epic! This movie has changed my whole perception of the Star Trek universe and if they decided to make a sequel for this, I'll definitely watch it. The new actors are nothing short of amazing. Kirk with his rebellious nature, Spock with it's logical explanations, have them as a team and you got yourself one heck of a duo. Much like Starsky & Hutch but they're in space. A very very good movie. If someone invites me to watch it again, I might just accept it because it was really good. Nothing short of amazing. "Dif-tor heh smusma" (which is "live long and prosper" in vulcan).

This epic movie is worthy of a solid 9/10

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

As usual, my reviews are not usually up at the same day I watched it but better late than never. Saw this movie at Mid Valley (again! I know I'm getting bored myself) with a friend of mine. Saw the first show of the day. Had my breakfast first at the nearby McDonald's while waiting for the ticket counter to open. Oh I forgot to mention that I got at Mid Valley around 9.30am. I just like being early for no particular reason. Had some good ol' Big Breakfast. Did you know that Big Breakfast is the MOST unhealthy menu in McDonald's? Yikes. I can't eat them often. We had booked for it at the first place but since my partner has conveniently forgot to copy it and the line was still fairly short anyway (because it's still very early) we decided to just queue. The lines here move rather quickly despite of its length so I wasn't really complaining. Plus we save RM1 on the booking surcharge. Ehem. Got the tickets, killed some time by window shopping and entered the cinema 5 minutes before 11am. The theatre was only half full though. Or was it half empty? Hurm. You decide.

The movie started with the child life of Wolverine and his elder brother Sabretooth. Living in a family full of conflict he Wolverine eventually killed his real father after his real father shot his fake father. The claws coming out of his hands at first were made of his own bones and he used them to stab his pops. Starting from this moment on they lived as vagrants, trying to survive by using their best skills, killing. The opening montage shows that they have participated in various combats in history from the American Revolution until The Vietnam War and they haven't aged a bit. This is to show that these brothers are practically invulnerable and that they had a very long lifespan. This movie also feature some of the other heroes from the X-Men canon such as The Blob, Bolt, Deadpool, Gambit and some other early appearances from the juvenile X-Men heroes to be. The movie was action packed, the story was easy to understand, the plot was straight forward, and there was very little dull moments along the movie. I love watching the double katana wielding Wade Wilson or later Deadpool in action and I'm really interested to see more of him. Heard news that there is going to be X-Men Origins: Deadpool too but I don't know because I also heard about X-Men Origins: Magneto. So whichever comes out I'm still going to go watch it nonetheless. But he is probably my favourite character in the movie after Wolverine and just like Stryker said, "If it weren't for his mouth, he'd be the perfect soldier". And also Hugh Jackman is incredible as Wolverine and I really can't see anyone who can do it better. He has the charms and the looks. Very good lines and very convincing and quality acting. I was also very eager to see Gambit actually since this is the first time that he ever appeared on the big screen. Sadly there were very little scenes with him and few of which is key to the story. I want to see him fight more. Maybe against Deadpool. That'll be awesome. And as everybody knows, Wolverine has adamantium skeleton which are ores from outer space. And he has regenerative properties. He is just entertaining to watch because his fighting style is so different than most superheroes that evade from attacks, Wolverine just goes to it head on. Sheer excitement and a sight to behold. He's someone you'll never want to mess with I'll tell you that.

Overall, it was a great movie. Better than my expectations actually. I was thinking I aws going to see another comic book franchise going to milked and rehashed but certainly I was wrong. My partner loves it too, and this partner of mine don't like films easily. That's good I guess. At least this partner of mine is happy and thinks it's worth it. Well so do I. I give you high recommendations to go see it. It's an entertaining movie and whether you like X-Men or not, just give it a try. You might like it afterwards.

This movie deserves 9/10