The Dawn of A New Year :)

It's 2012!!!!

And I'm accessing Blogger again :D Goodness knows how long this stint will last though...

Happy New Year, anyways :) May 2012 be awesome for all of us!!

So what if Osama is dead? 

There is about a gazillion others out there just waiting to take his place and another gazillion others who are capable of other forms of terrorism. 

Japan's Tsunami Distress

Was just scanning the news to know more about the disaster that struck Japan and when I came across this and did a double take!

Geez... What gives??

I mean, seriously?! Shouldn't the little red box first give info to Malaysians in Japan on how to handle themselves in a disaster instead? With contacts of the embassy, what to do next and what-nots?

Talk about priorities..

If I were a Malaysian stuck in Japan, you think I'll be in a state of mind to give you a blow-by-blow on the situation there?

CSI Miami

I'm a CSI addict.

I've been religiously following CSI: Crime Scene Investigation since its premiere in 2000 and not only have I not stopped, I got hooked on its spinoffs CSI: Miami (premiered 2002) and CSI: New York (premiered 2004) - more on the latter rather the former. To put it quite simply, I love CSI and CSI New York, whereas I tolerate CSI: Miami.
The simple reason being it's just there waiting to be watched and its got the basic principles right.

Looking at the picture as shown above, please tell me if there's anything appealing at all that makes you go "I wanna watch it!!".

Nope?

Yup, you get my drift.

It's just some old skinny dude who's vertically challenged posing with a pair of sunglasses.

I guess it'd be fair to say that the reason I like CSI: Miami least is because of The Cast. CSI and CSI: New York has a pretty strong cast so CSI: Miami kinda just lags behind like a kid with a dripping ice cream cone.

And here's the initial cast of the series (since it's premiere):

Horatio Caine & Eric Delko



Calleigh Duquesne & Frank Tripp (the cop)



Tim Speedle & Alexx Woods (the M.E.)

Of the 6 people in the cast introduced in 2002, I only liked the character Frank Tripp because he's, all-in-all, a cop. And he doesn't have an infuriating way of talking or behaving that makes you want to reach into the tv-screen to smack him.

Horatio Caine - he walks weird, talks weird and behaves weird - with the slanted looks of him peering above his sunglasses and the twitchy little walk.

Eric Delko - he looks good in this photo? you think? that's about the end of the "good-looking" part... in the series, he looks constipated all the time and has this pent up anger and frustration (probably of the constipation).

Calleigh Duquesne - she gets more bearable after Season 1. Maybe it's the bad vibes you get from the rest that discolors her potential.

Frank Tripp - he's ok. looks, talks and behaves like a cop should.

Tim Speedle - this is the WORST character ever on CSI: Miami!! When he was disposed off at the start of Season 3, I thought it was the best move the producers could ever make! He's generally dirty and sloppy looking - doesn't come across as someone you'd trust with your crime scene evidence.

Alexx Woods - also talks annoying.

And then further down the road, CSI: Miami introduced new characters!!

Natalia Boa Vista & Ryan Wolfe

Finally, characters with, well, for lack of a better word... CHARACTER!!! People who don't try to look cool and comes across so obvious that they are acting. With them, I find that tolerating Horatio and his team of ingrates is not so tough after all.

And then, the introduction of 2 more new characters!

Walter Simmons & Jesse Cardoza

As the TV Series evolved, the character of Alexx Woods as M.E. was replaced and the characters Natalia and Ryan phased in and out and slowly came to stay. Then, in Season 8, there was indication that Eric Delko is leaving the team as well!

*hip hip hooray*

Only to be brought back on the final episode of Season 8 .... *sighs in surrender* guess that's kinda the definition of Incorrigible.

What's worse, the final episode of Season 8 (titled "They All Fall Down") made me immediately want to watch the launching episode of Season 9 -- only to be disappointed all over again.

Yeah, CBS killed of the character of Jesse Cardoza.

He's one of the best things that has happened to CSI: Miami. And he's so good looking!! He's the only good looking character on the whole show!!! Why in blue blazes would they want to do that? I don't know. I didn't ever bother googling it. And they brought back Eric Delko *yucks* There goes the series down the drain... again.

I know you must be thinking, "what the heck is she ranting on about!?"... It's just that I am frustrated and I had high hopes for CSI: Miami and now after watching Episode 1 of Season 9, I find that it's a MOOD SPOILER! And I have nowhere to complain about it and nothing to take it out on. So I'm doing it on my blog.

At least I've started blogging again *hah*!

Catching Up

I totally forgot about my blog.

I mean, not really, cos then there are those times (say, once every month or so..) when I receive 'smart' comments from friends about the livelihood of my blog, but I guess that was when selective hearing came into the picture.

THAT was 2009,.... and the first half of 2010 *ahems* ok... the ENTIRE 2010. Please note that when I FIRST drafted this post, it was August 2010, but after that, I was overwhelmed with a truckload of other 2010 issues, hence the task of updating my blog was booted of the list.

But I promised Mel and Zeeko that I would at least ATTEMPT to revive my blog. I mean, I'm not talking about a full-hot-blood-coursing-though-veins kinda revival - I'm a realist, not an optimist *roll eyes*. Rather, I'm looking at an occasional-beep-on-heart-monitor kinda revival which MAY in future (not sure how soon), lead to a full hot blooded revival (oh gee, looks like I'm an optimist after all.. haha)..

Guess I haven't lost my touch on crapping...

Will create a post soon to summarize the 2009 and 2010 what-not's..

Now, CSI New York Season 6 and 7 is just waiting to be watched.

Europe Sept '09 - France (9th - 12th Sept)

And the journey continues... and we've arrived in FRANCE :D it was close to 6pm and we were stuck in the jam all the way to the hotel.

After we checked in at the Hotel (which was located at Marne-la-Vallée), we took a night drive to Paris around 8pm...

The view of the Eiffel Tower at night - from afar and up close

It was also that night under the Eiffel Tower that Chin Aun proposed to me. But I will not go into that because it's not any of your business. Haha...

10th Sept 2009 - Day 1

We spent the first day in France in the town of Paris going to the local must-sees...

At the Arc de Triomphe:

Up on the Arc de Triomphe:

The view was magnifique

Where Next???

At the Musée du Louvre :

The place was ridiculously crowded and it took us forever to take this photos

And finally... the time that we have been waiting for has finally arrived... Time to scale the Eiffel Tower!!

The man who took this photo decided to add a little artistic flair by slanting the camera...

View from the deck of the second level of the Eiffel Tower...
If I thought Musée du Louvre was crowded, this was even worse!

And since we went all the way to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, of course we went to the third level! We saw Kuala Lumpur being featured to have one of the tallest buildings int he world standing at 10,433km :)

We spent a few good hours at the Eiffel Tower just taking in the sights and the people before heading to our next destination...

Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) :

On the Outside of the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

I know that I don't have much photos taken of the Cathedral, especially of the inside, but I personally thought it was rather disrespecful to be taking photos inside a place of worship. But I obviously was quite alone in my opinion because the rest of the revellers were busy snapping away with flash and all..

We spent the rest of the day walking around Paris people watching and taking photos... Of course we also went to famed Louis Vuitton shop that was situated on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. No trip to Paris would be complete without that, and NO, unfortunately, I did NOT buy anything. The shop was chock-full with Asians lining up to make a purchase of something LV to bring home.

Tha about sums up the first day we spent in France...

11th Sept 2009 - Day 2

More than half of the day was spent shopping in Marne-la-Vallée. Our first stop was at theVal d'Europe shopping mall followed by several hours of outlet shopping at the La Vallee Factory Outlet. Let's just put it this way... We spent so much time shopping that the only thing we had for lunch was a Ciabatta. But if you ask me now what we bought and what it was that took us so long to shop for, I seriously do not know...

So after the hours spent shopping, we drove to the Château de Ferrières and my word... it was Beautiful!

The best part was that it was closed to the public on that day as there was preparation in progress for a private function that night. However, the nice lady at the reception/entrance admitted us because we travelled so far to see it...

At the driveway and yes, Chin Aun is striking a rather odd pose.. Hehehe

I really love this photo... and I totally fell in love with the place. Let's just put it this way, I could spend hours walking on the grounds of the chateau even though there are no shoes for sale there.

After we left the chateau, we went for dinner and went back to the Hotel to freshen up for a late night drive through the streets of Paris, for some coffee at Montmarte and to go to Hard Rock Cafe of course!