| moving...again |
| 08.29.05 (6:03 am) |
So my one year's worth of hosting at tblog comes to an end this September. But have no fear, for I will be switching back to blogspot!
Yeah, so what if everyone has a blogspot.com behind their names. It's still a decent blog host.
So everyone, head on over to the all new http://joelsia.blogspot.com.
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| iCame, iSaw, iConquered |
| 08.28.05 (12:25 am) |
Went to Tun Jugah today and finally summoned up the courage to step into the Osim store and try out some of the massage paraphernalia on sale. Me and my cousin went nuts trying out all the hideously expensive generously priced massagers on sale.
First thing I tried: the iSqueeze calf, ankle and foot massager, which I kinda like. It does the entire lower half of your legs at the same time, which was pretty neat. The vibrator mode (Yes, laugh away you silly perverts) was also a plus. Supposed to improve blood circulation.
The Osim people also set up two units on the ground floor for tired and stressed out shoppers.
Price: RM1,388. But the salesgirl cheerfully informed us that they had a 0% interest monthly payment plan (I thought hire purchase schemes were only for things like cars and houses, but foot massagers?!).
Then I tried the star of the entire Osim fleet: the iDesire. This one syok. It massages your entire body, back, shoulders, legs, arms and even your butt (It squeezes your ass from every imaginable angle, and stops short of a anal probe). Half the time I felt like I was molested by an unseen assailant, but in a good way. The chair even plays soothing music, although I couldn't really hear it. Looks a bit like some cheap airline's first class seat don't you think?
Price: RM23,888. 0% interest payment scheme also available.
Lastly, I tried out the iMedic. After the iDesire, this was a little anticlimatic but still nice. This one does your back and legs, and looks like the business class seat of the aforementioned hypothetical airline.
Price: RM13,000 (I'm not too sure of this one)
So am I gonna buy one? I'd probably just settle for an iPen.
Yes, this little bugger is designed to relieve the tension and stress from your hand after you're tired from writing so much. They think of everything don't they? Just press the button at the top and it er... vibrates. I'm sure some of you out there can come up with more interesting uses for this feature.
Eventually, we didn't buy anything (obviously!) from them, but we offered a weak "We'll think about it" to the salesgirl.
By the way, Osim isn't owned by Apple Computers Inc. is it? It would really explain the naming system.
Imagine sitting in your iDesire listening to iNcubus on your iPod, with your iBook on your lap while you shop at iTunes and sip your iCed-tea in iRaq.
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| i was ward'd |
| 08.23.05 (10:41 pm) |
 My ID bracelet
So. I woke up on Sunday night at 2 a.m with yet another killer stomachache. Been getting those alot lately. So my folks rushed me immediately to Timberland Medical Centre for a checkup.
 The waiting room
Apparently Kuching folks get sick at night alot because when I was there waiting (Yes, had to wait for the doctor at 2 a.m., you'd think the doctor on night duty would actually be up then) two other people came in seeking treatment.
Anyhow, after examining me he suspected an appendix so he warded me for observation for the night, and would check in the morning.
A nurse also came and took my blood sample for tests. She no skill one. She tapped here, tapped there and took such a long time looking for a suitable vein.
 Wasn't allowed any food until the next day
Monday morning bright and early, another doctor came in, wheeled me down to his clinic and did a gastroscope to see whats going on deep inside the bowels of me. Hehe, get it? Bowels?
Anyway... It wasn't an appendix, so they checked for other stuff.
The coolest part was getting sedated before they stuck the tube down my throat. All I remembered was the doctor injecting me with Midazolam (I think) and immediately I was out. Then the next thing I knew, I was in my bed, three and a half hours later. Really handy for when you wanna screw someone without them knowing insomnia. The only side effect was (sighs happily) sleepiness the rest of the day.
 Pictures of my stomach
They found nothing unusual though, no ulcers, no Helicobacter. They did, however find traces of bile, and that was probably the cause of my stomachache.
So after giving me two weeks worth of Pariet (which weren't cheap, thank God for insurance), they discharged me.
I must add, however, that hospital gowns HAVE to be redesigned. It's not very flattering to have the entire world see your bare back, and my ass would be bare too if I weren't wearing shorts. Some more they only come in one size, big-assed large, so I was really wearing a gown.
Needless to say, I spent the rest of Monday sleeping. Great way to kick start the week huh?
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| semi |
| 08.21.05 (5:17 am) |
I may have or have not said it before but I'll say it now: Montoya is a semi-ass. I won't say he's a total ass because he came in third.
But he's still a semi-ass. And fat. Don't forget fat.
I'm very tired. Will blog more when I recover from my accumulated sleep deficit.
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| rain and road |
| 08.12.05 (6:23 am) |
Wanted to watch Without a Trace this evening but for some reason, I'm not getting Ntv7 on my TV. Must've been the lightning from the heavy rain.
Yes, all you haze-stricken West Malaysian people, it's raining cats, dogs and kitchen sinks here in Kuching.
Muahahaha :D (Not that I derive pleasure from other people's pain or anything) So yeah, I'm really thankful for the rain. If not terpaksa continue baking in the heat.
But then again, it's already the norm for us to have excruciating heat two to three months a year. At this point, Malaysia has three very distinct seasons: Wet; Hot and Very Hot and Hazy, in that order. None of that 'hujan dan panas sepanjang tahun' nonsense anymore. The hujan and the panas decided to split up and conquer different parts of the year.
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The heat also causes somewhat dire effects. And if my observations are to be trusted, a sharp increase in heat will cause a sharp drop in motorists driving skills.
How did I come to that conclusion? Well, today I had the misfortune of running into not one but three separate incidents where other motorists think that they or their grandfather own the road. And it just also happens that all of them were in big-assed SUVs.
Legend:
Blue = Me
Shaded Blue = My original position
Red = Bad driver (all three are different people)
Shaded Red = Bad Driver's original position
Incident One
Happened when I was on my way to school, somewhere in Poh Kwong Park. Now, the other guy could've just taken the green route, which is what everyone else would have done. But NO, he had to assume that the right lane (the lane I'm on) was empty, thus giving him the right to drive on the wrong side of the road.
Then tiba-tiba I appear in my Kancil. So how? He angry lah, then he show hand, show finger, point left and right. Mind you, the road was big enough for the both of us, and then some. So I honked him for all I was worth (note the fireworks). Very stress relieving.
Who asked you to drive such a huge unmaneuverable car?
Incident Two
This one happened on my way back from school, at the Third Mile overpass. I signalled and slowly eased my way into the side road on the left. Then out of nowhere this fellow appeared at the preceeding exit, swerved into oncoming traffic and made his way into my lane.
So I blared my horn again. I tell you, there is no greater tension reliever than honking like there's no tomorrow.
Incident Three
This one's pretty self-explanatory. This SUV was all over the middle of the dual lane road.
So I honked again. But the driver just gave me that tidak apa look, complete with hand gesture and continued down the middle of the road.
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Ah well. In hindsight, I may have been a little to hasty in dispensing my honks. And I'm not actually proud of what I've done. Plus, I may have been guilty of not driving in a civilised manner on a number of occasions. But driving on the road is a privilege, not a right. Even more so if you're in a vehicle twice the size of your house.
Just wanted to point out that Malaysian drivers (not all however) ARE absolutely hopeless on the road.
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| James Blunt - You're Beautiful |
| 08.12.05 (4:33 am) |
My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.
Definately one of the year's best songs. Catch the video here. |
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| 08.08.05 (5:08 am) |
It's so hot. Funny how it keeps getting exponentially hot each year.
My comp is overheating like it's going out of style, even with the side panel off. It's so humid, no joke.
Got 13-chapter Chemistry test on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm so not prepared.
Got STPM in 90 days. That one lagi not prepared.
First week of August barely over and my wallet's already anorexic. I'm broke, so how to survive the rest of the month?
Windows service pack won't install. Dunno why.
Had a dahsyat stomachache on Saturday night. Appendicitis? Food poisoning? I'll never know, everything was alright on Sunday.
Wanna watch a movie, any good movie, in a theatre. But like I said, I'm broke. Plus, I need to study.
DiGi auto-reloaded my phone three times without me asking (at least that's what they wrote on my dad's credit card bill). Will clear it up with them soon.
ARGH!!!!$#@!!!#@**#$!@%!! !!!!
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| airports, physics and desperate spouses |
| 07.29.05 (4:09 am) |
Just came back from the (Kuching) airport (went to send off a relative from Singapore). I noticed that the airport renovations are coming along pretty nicely, and quick too. I love the sloping roof design. But more importantly, it isn't a KLIA clone (unlike the Bintulu and Miri airport).
Or so I thought.
In the middle of the airport they put up a model of what it's going to look like once it's completed. To my horror, the place is going to be KLIA green (you know, that steely, copper rust greenish tint?). Yecchh. No better colour ar?
I guess every post-KLIA airport built in Malaysia will have some of its genes, no matter how subtle.
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So Mr. K, the sadistic jackass of a Physics teacher came into class on Wednesday and started teaching full speed ahead (as usual).
One thing (probably the latest round of dismal exam marks) led to another and suddenly he quipped:
"You people are the best students!"
So we're thinking: is he drunk/high? Did he fall on his head? But he doesn't look stoned what. Maybe he finally cracked? Pretty controversial stuff.
Then he continued:
"Among the worst!"
Oh.
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Damn. Out of the three Desperate Housewives episodes I downloaded (no Astro or 8TV mah), only one can play. Dunno what's wrong with the other two.
!#$!!@#&*!!!
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This is a dull Friday night. (o_O)
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| it's been a long weekend |
| 07.26.05 (9:55 pm) |
My name is Joel, and I'm a netaholic.
I realised this when my computer quit on me last Saturday.
When I realised that I would not have any access to the internet until my computer was fixed, I panicked. I hyperventilated and I could not sleep. It was terrible.
The next day, Sunday, I was still fidgety. That afternooon, I found myself sitting in front of the blank monitor and typing aimlessly on the lifeless keyboard.
I was scared immediately knew I needed help.
I tried distancing myself from the computer room in the house, but it was to no avail. Whenever I had nothing to do, I would automatically drift towards that area of the house.
This kept up until today, when my baby came back from the repair shop.
Ah, self control be damned. I'm gonna make up for four days of internet deprivation.
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| the one mostly about the weekend |
| 07.18.05 (9:10 pm) |
Whoops... haven't put up anything new in ages.
So what have I been up to? Not much (compared to say, saving the world or discovering radium), but I like how things have been going. Never before have I managed to balance studying and playing so perfectly. Well, almost anyway.
Spent exactly half my weekend with Wai Peng and half my weekend studying. I kid you not...
Friday afternoon: Physics tuition.
Friday night: Played DotA with WP, got ass kicked until kau kau blue black by other players. Then watched The Matrix on Tv3. Then tried playing LOTR in co-op mode but my second PS2 controller was whacked.
Saturday morning: Had breakfast with WP.
Saturday afternoon till night: Studied. (Woot!)
Sunday morning: Went to church, charity sale and lunch with WP and Deborah. Ate at the coffeeshop opposite the Chinese temple in Carpenter street. [Hey you (you know who you are), yeah I saw you there =)]
Sunday afternoon: Tried studying. But ended up playing DotA again until night.
Sunday late night: Studied.
So like that lah.
Got my MUET (Malaysian University English Test) results yesterday. 265/300 (Highest in my school being 277/300). Not bad, but I'm sure I could've done a whole lot better if it weren't for the spoken exam, which I fumbled quite badly.
Then I sat for this English test by the University of New South Wales this morning. Wasn't easy but still managed to finish within the time limit.
Back to the books... *feigns glee*
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| RWMF |
| 07.12.05 (2:21 am) |
Here it is, the obligatory RWMF 2005 post.
Went on Saturday only. Could've gone for all three days but room reservation plans went askew at the last minute. Ah well...
Didn't manage to take too many photos... did take a whole lotta videos though. Excuse the blurry pictures too, the stage was a little too far away to take any clear shots.
 The banner at the entrance.
 One of the guys from Shannon, a Polish band that plays Irish music.
 Sunset.
 Product placement gone berserk.
 The Old Spice Boys. You've got a snare drum, a ukelele and a one stringed bass made out of what seemed like a broomstick and a nylon string. Very witty stuff.
 The group from who knows where that played who knows what. Funky stuff though, sounded trancelike at times.
 The fat lady sang, and she sang good. Bullerengue owns!
Then there were some other groups but I didn't take any pics of them. One was a group from Pakistan and all their songs were heavily spiritual (constant repetitions of 'Allahu' and 'Muhammad'). Ironically all the angmoh revellers were dancing along to it. I doubt they had any idea what the music was about.
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| guess who's back? |
| 07.06.05 (8:28 pm) |
In the pre-internet/email/instan t messaging/sms-ing days, when someone you haven't seen (or much less spoken to) in more than a year gives you a call, you'd normally get a little excited and have a lengthy conversation about everything that has been going on.
Thanks to broadband (perpetual 'online' status on msn) and the handphone (smses anytime, day, night and everything in between), this is what you get when someone is back in town after quite a while.
[sms beep]
"I'm in town. Gimme a call."
[calls friend]
"Yeah, what thing?"
"Hey. You free or not?"
"Today cannot. Tomorrow night go out la."
"Aight."
(click)
This is merely a dramatisation of actual events. No animals were harmed during production.
If this keeps up, we won't have anymore 'When I was your age we had to walk ten miles to school' stories to tell our grandkids.
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| the way i see it |
| 07.06.05 (8:11 pm) |
Was gonna blog about this but kennysia beat me to it. Bleh.
Anyhow, it's kinda true don't you think?
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Blogging in Malaysia is also very similar to a stereotype American high school you see on tv or in the movies.
You've got the popular and cool crowd, the ordinary mortals and the plain weird.
The ordinary mortals go about their daily business, hoping (occasionally) to be noticed by the popular people. Once the populars see something they like about/speak to/interact with them, they (the ordinary mortals) are automatically part of the 'in' crowd.
Once they're in, most work their way up until they're just about at where the populars are, but they really can't match the superiority completely. There's just an air of elite-ness about them.
The plain weird ones are just shunned by the entire community.
Then there are the geeks. But most only go to them for tech advice.
Yeah, I've been pretty bored.
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| smallville |
| 06.19.05 (10:18 pm) |
Welcome to the town of Sebuyau
Went to Sebuyau with a group from my church over the weekend. Sebuyau is a small town in the middle of nowhere the division of Sri Aman in Sarawak. She went too.
It's so small you could take your first smoke and the whole town would find out by the next day. It's so small you could say "f*ck" and the your parents would know within the hour. It's so small... you get the idea.
Other than it's size, it's an interesting place to be. Of course I'm just saying that to be nice.
Anyhoo, fish here apparently outnumber people 4 to 1 (Fishing is the main source of income) and coffee shops outnumber schools 20 to 1. Oh, and there's only one school.
I'll let pictures tell the rest.
 The jetty that connects our side of the world to Sebuyau via express boat (which you can see at the end of the pier)  We had ice kacang there, and it came in cups. That was when Deb saw a brown jumping snake/toad/cow.  Uncle Richard's place, where we stayed. Don't let the facade deceive you, for inside we had a...  (I have no idea what it's called) Gym?  View from the balcony. Postcard material eh?  Main St, Sebuyau Town.  View of aforementioned street from the other end.  The store owner must've had athletic fowl trainers for parents.  Went to the nearby village on that. No, not in, on.  Interesting looking fish they have.  Three monkeys. Note my unusually large forehead (thanks to bad lighting in the express boat). |
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| hehehe... =D |
| 06.13.05 (4:34 am) |
Whats wrong with this picture? (Click to view)
Laughed my ass off when I figured it out. =D
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| things i want to do before i die |
| 06.08.05 (7:09 am) |
- Make a million buck$.
- Attend a Sarah McLachlan concert.
- Attend an Oasis concert.
- Make another 999 million buck$ to make it an even billion.
- Own a Porsche.
- Then a Bentley Continental Flying Spur (or whatever incarnation it is by the time I can afford it)
- Go skydiving.
- Be able to play a mean piano.
- Eat fugu fish (I'll leave that to when I'm 70, just in case it isn't done properly).
- Listen to the Beatles live. What...? They've split up?! When?! And TWO OF THEM ARE DEAD?! What the...
- Be a licensed bartender.
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| help me II |
| 05.31.05 (8:59 am) |
The best cereal in the whole world. Too bad they don't have it here, so I've only got very limited supply.
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Got this flyer advertising health screenings in the mail the other day. It advertised, among other things, free total cholesterol worth RM10. And a coupon for that too. Sweet.
Hmm... great country we live in.
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Found this on the net. Tried it out on her site. Utterly hilarious. The result:
Joel told me that tha dude practically threw da entire dictionary into tha dude's MUET exam, 'n that reminded me of da gravy ol' times when I used sit fo' Malaysian English exams, know what I'm sayin'? I kid yo' ass not, SPM wuz child's play n' shit. Sometimes, I feel that bombastikness in language counted mo' than actually effectively conveying da message in English essays back crib n' shit. I'm making a generalisation here, because I know that there are many teachers back crib who are mo' focused on delivery of content rather than how pretty that shiznit looks on paper n' shit. But my gosh, I still remember muthas who practically memorised da entire dictionary of words 'n idioms fo' English, Malay 'n Chinese, so that they could slot in da most impressive sounding phrases into they essays! o_0
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| hmm... |
| 05.28.05 (11:40 pm) |
Ah...the junk that abounds on the net.
Oh no. I've turned into a hilton-whorish, kutcher-ish, white-trashy, poppy, tad gay, garage rocking, online quiz taking geek.
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| 1.2 x 10^7 |
| 05.15.05 (10:32 pm) |
So I passed a Toto outlet downtown yesterday and saw that the 1st prize jackpot was RM10,000,000.
Today, it is nearly RM12,000,000.
Yeah, not one, not two, but TWELVE million big ones.
Oh, the things I could to with RM12,000,000.
I wonder if I should try my luck... after all, it's only RM1.10 per ticket, and all you have to do is randomly select any six numbers between 1 and 49. Would beginner's luck rub off on me?
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| you player! |
| 12.24.04 (5:07 am) |
Bought an MP3 player today. Which is ironic because I'm using it to play WMA files. To be politically correct, they should call them MP3 and WMA players instead. WMA files are so much more smaller (by about 50%) than MP3s, yet the quality's just as good, if not better.
It's no iPod but it gets the job done. All 128MB of it. With all my songs in WMA format, I've managed to get about 45 songs in. Even so, the sound quality is still as good as the full MP3 version. It's got an FM tuner too. I've got mobile entertainment!
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| odds and ends |
| 12.19.04 (7:02 am) |
Had Japanese food for lunch with my aunt today. Absolutely wonderful, albeit very unhealthy. Why do good food always come with a catch? But anyway, cholesterol and sodium can be put aside when having miso soup, salmon, eel and lots of seafood. Oh wow, I'm getting delirious just thinking about the grilled fish.
I've been spending a minimum of five hours on the PS2 each day for the past three days, muddling my way through Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Yup, Hideo Kojima (creator of the game) has done it again. It's another great installment in the Metal Gear series.
This time, Snake (the character you play) has the ability to ensnare, then slaughter live animals for food. And he has camouflage too. Only one minor setback in my opinion though: the apparent bisexuality of the main villain, Colonel Volgin. Quite disturbing.
In six days it will be Christmas. After that, I'm off to camp. Then hours after I return, it's gonna be a new year, 2005, and with it comes my 'A' Level exams. Can't say I've been working my butt off for it. But I've got to.
Ugh.
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| this 25th |
| 12.17.04 (7:42 am) |
Wow, it's almost Christmas again. I swear, when I'm not looking, somone speeds up the clock by a factor of 10. And I'm not one who pays much attention to anything.
You'll know it's that time of the year. Stores all over play horrid renditions of otherwise pleasant sounding carols. Garish green and red decorations all over the place. Blinking lights adorn every square inch of space. National level Christmas celebrations are planned (this year, it's gonna be in Petaling Jaya, Selangor) but with biblical phrases, the name 'Jesus Christ' and other religious symbols banned from being used.
Yeah, thats what it said.
Bloody scandalous isn't it? Hey, all year long you people running the country promote racial and religious tolerence and you come up with this? How on earth can such an abomination happen? Once again, the workings of this country are way beyond me.
I mean, it's a great idea, having a Christmas celebration on a national scale. You don't see that in most Asian countries. I'm all for it. But this? It's sacrilege. For someone to actually conceive such an idea, he'd have to be drunk and high on meth and marijuana all that the same time. I'll not mention the other slightly more obvious reasons.
Guess all we can sing there on that night is 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'. No wait, we can't. There's a 'Christ' in the title. Oh hold on, there's 'Christ' in Christmas too. Hey, lets just call December 25th 'Formerly Known As Day'.
Darn right I'm mad. Guess we'll just have to see how the dust settles on this one.
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| 12 |
| 12.15.04 (6:42 am) |
Just watched Ocean's Twelve. If you haven't watched it, exit the browser, turn off the computer and go directly to the nearest cinema. Upon reaching, immediately buy a ticket for the movie.
Yes, it was good.
It would help if you had already watched Ocean's Eleven. Some of the jokes and banter between characters had something to do with the previous movie, hence you won't be laughing your head off if you had not seen the prequel.
Won't babble much about the movie. Wouldn't do it much justice. I'll just say the the producers and director did a good job of keeping me guessing, then second guessing all throughout the two and a half hours. Which didn't really work because the ending was nothing like what I had in mind. I'll also say that the movie has a killer soundtrack. I'd get it if I could. Very much 60s baby.
I am now imprinted with the notion that stealing priceless works of art and robbing casinos is a cool, respectable and lucrative way of life. And very lucrative indeed.
"Do I look 50 to you?"
"Well, yeah."
"Really?"
"Uh...just...from the neck up."
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