Heart STOMPing

If I need to express my experience of witnessing Stomp in one word, then that word does not exist in any dictionary. Truly, my expectations on the show was nowhere near what I actually experienced.

The resonating sounds... the meticulous timing... the stamina... the showmanship... the humour... Sure was worth every sen of the RM150 that my friends and I each forked out. Heck, I'd say it was worth more, but we got center seats immediately behind the row of RM200+ tickets. You could say the poor ppl in front were suckered, but:

• It could be the lack of availability. Cheaper tickets sell like hot cakes :P
• In a way, the extra money was still well spent

Best part about the show was the audience, or more so on how we were made to be involved in the show. There are parts similar to what you see in a concert; The singer clapping or swaying his hands to get the crowd to follow. Here, however, they took it a step further. They're playful, and make us clap to a certain cue. If we get it wrong, you see an act of (humorous) disappointment from the performers. Heck, towards the end... they even upped the ante. The lead claps/stomps/snaps a tune.. and the audience are supposed to follow. Sure was fun when he made it trickier and trickier... but it almost always ends when he does something downright bizzarre... a way of saying "There's a reason why WE are the performers and you're here to watch!".

When the show ended after approximately 100minutes of non-stop fun, it was indeed a standing ovation. Sure, we wanted more; but they already had one encore performance so that'll have to suffice. What mattered was that we were all clapping with pure amazement, clapping so proudly and enthusiastically that my palms felt warm for at least 30 minutes after it all ended. It wasn't one of those customary applauses. It was one of honest awe and appreciation... and the clapping itself went on for minutes.. minutes after the performers already left the stage :)

If I ever get an opportunity to check out Stomp again in the future, you *bet* I'll go again... and again if I must. And then maybe again... :P

To Flash or not to Flash

Wowsers~!
Flash 8 is officially out! Well, I suppose not many would be as enthusiastic as I but as a regular user of Flash, the current release is irresistable. Have always wanted to have a site whereby I can post my 'In-20-Minutes' experiments on a regular basis. Its a good way to train yourself in scripting/programming; to do tiny experiments that are technically worthless aside from pure learning experience and fun.

Which begs the question: *can* we post up swf files into our blog site? Anyone knows the answer to that?

Chaos theory

Sure sounds nice to use that phrase for a title, but I ain't touching on anything related to theory though :P Well, this post will be about 30 seconds of life on Monday, 12th September 2005 -- 19:42.

I was headed home on the LDP, just getting off the Puchong Perdana fly-over. I use the route passing USJ to reach Kesas/HICOM, so at this point I'm already on the left most lane as I head down the fly-over.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of screeching tyres. I looked to my rear-view mirror: Nothing! I tried looking at my side-view mirror... then I caught a glance of something that made me look all the way to my right... skipping the mirror altogether.

What I saw was the REAR of another car... just beside my car. Then the next 30 seconds was like watching a Hollywood movie. The car was skidding at high speed, and at that point was on the middle lane headed straight for the wall/divider of the highway. Near-90degree impact. Upon impact, the car was skimming along the divider, sparks everywhere. Next thing I saw, the front of the car tilted up and off it went... flipping in the air and landing on its roof.

It didn't end there. The car was upside-down and still skidding due to its tremendous momentum. Bad news was, this time it was skidding towards my lane. Sure, it was now at least 2 cars ahead of me (which wasn't much, mind you), but take into consideration that it was slowing down predictably... and you can see what I was dreadfully aware of: it will soon run straight into my car *shocked*

Brakes down slowly, look at left mirror, cursing the motorcycle in front of me, and move into the extra lane on my left. And then it was time, time to see if I got through or not. I missed the car shy by half a metre at most when I desperately stepped on the accelerator.

And all the while, I clearly saw rain of sparks from start to end...
It was a slow, cold, and silent drive home after that...