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LEGO & Lord of the Rings

LEGO stand decoration at the London Toy Fair

LEGO & Lord of the Rings = Please just take all my money already!

Just found out that LEGO will be releasing LOTR sets and minifigs. Initially there will be 7 sets released in August:

9469, Gandalf Arrives: 2 minifigs: Gandalf and Frodo, Gandalf on horse and cart with fireworks and snake in the back. I think the price was £9.99.

9470, Shelob Attacks: 3 minifigs: Frodo, Samwise and Gollom! Gollum looked great, hunched over with movable arms, a bit like skeleton arms but different. Shelob the spider looks fantastic and scary!

9471, Uruk-Hai Army: 6 minifigs: Eomer, Rohan soldier and 4 Urak-Hai. The set consists of a small section of wall, a horse with moving legs and a small siege machine. The wall can be joined to the Helms Deep castle, apparently, so this will make a great battle pack to extend the castle and build your armies.

9472, Attack on Weathertop: 5 minifigs: Frodo, Merry, Aragorn and two Ringwaiths on horseback. The set builds a small section of Weathertop with spiral staircase and ruins at the top.

9473, The Mines of Moria: 7 minifigs: Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, a cave troll and two Moria orcs. The set builds a selection of sub-assemblies for mine walls, doors, pedestals etc.

9474, The Battle of Helm’s Deep: 8 minifigs: Gimli, King Theoden, Haldir, Aragorn and 4 Urak-Hai warriors. The castle itself is fairly substantial, complete with the ’side door’ used to gain entry

9476, The Orc Forge: 5 orcs with a forge, various metalworking tools and weapons.

 

More about these sets can be found here. It seems like I have to get all the 7 sets in order to collect the entire Fellowship of the Ring minifigs. Well, like I said, just take all my money already!

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By wenjie – January 27, 2012

Chinese New Year

When I was much younger, I love Chinese New Year. New clothes, food, soft drinks, red packets, which kid does not like these? It was only during wedding dinners and Chinese New Year that I was allowed to drink soft drinks, and soft drinks served at that time were usually F&N Orange. This is why I still have a soft spot for this drink.

As I grow older, I begin to dread Chinese New Year. After the food, the soft drinks and the red packets, there wasn’t really much for me to do at my relatives place. My father would spend the entire day playing the customary mahjong, while the rest of us will be bored stiff. We usually end up watching TV. And we always stay till late at night, sometimes reaching home only after 3am. I will usually end up sleeping in my cousin room’s floor. I was tired, smelly and bored.

And to add on to all these, my relatives have a tendency to throw tantrums, even to their own brothers and sisters. People will come late, and when they arrived, their face was as black as charcoal. People will quarrel with each other, yes, on Chinese New Year. There was hardly any laughter, nor joy.

As I grew older, I was allowed some freedom. I was allowed to join my friends at the movies, or some fast food outlet after staying at my relatives place for a while. I remember I can’t wait to leave the place.

So when I stopped contact with my relatives (another story for another time), Chinese New Year became much better. Sure, there was hardly any visiting, nor any red packets, but I get to spend it with people I love, my family which really mean a lot to me, and people I really care about. The laugher, the joy that are associated with the Chinese New Year, were all coming back to me.

I think once you start to remove all the negative and toxic people from your life, then you will start to feel lighter, happier and living the life that it was meant to be.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone, and may you have no more negative and toxic people in your life.

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By wenjie – January 23, 2012

Changing The World

There are two types of people in this world, those who want to change the world and themselves, and those who wait for the world to change to suit them. This year’s new year resolutions is all about changing myself so that I can change the world, one baby step at a time. Next month will see me taking the first baby step in one of my new year’s resolution.

Thanks to you Steve. I may not change the world in the scale like you do, but I will do it, albeit on a much smaller scale.

 because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

 

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By wenjie – January 15, 2012

Sex Sells

During a dinner conversation, we somehow talked about writing a book and publishing it, and how people’s ego will be severely damaged if the book did not sell well. So I suggested writing a soft porn book instead, as sex always sells.

Back in the late 1960′s, a newspaper journalist wanted to prove that standards of literary and artistic taste were decreasing rapidly in the US. In order to prove his point, he had others writing a chapter each for a book, there will be no plot, no character development, no verbal skill. Instead there will be lots of kinky sex scenes. The book was named ‘Naked Came the Stranger‘. It was a bestseller.

You can read more about it here.

Which just proves my point, sex sells.

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By wenjie – January 14, 2012

The Word “Culled”

I am always quite amazed at the word ‘cull‘. The word has two meanings that are totally different and unrelated:

        • Select from a large quantity; obtain from a variety of sources
          • - anecdotes culled from Greek and Roman history
        • Reduce the population of (a wild animal) by selective slaughter
          • - he sees culling deer as a necessity
          • - kangaroo culling

 

Somehow when I read a passage like this,

  Culled from the diaries of some of the most famous…

My brain automatically registers the ‘cull’ word with slaughtering of animals. I wonder why. Do our brain always have one meaning of a word that is always registered first every time we read? And only after reading the whole sentence, our brain then search for the other more appropriate meanings?

Or maybe it is just my brain only.

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By wenjie – January 12, 2012

Intelligence

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” - Stephen Hawking

I may not be as intelligent as some of the people I met, but if I can adapt to change, then I, too, can have intelligence.

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By wenjie – January 11, 2012

Orwell’s Six Rules on English Language

George Orwell’s six rules on English Language:

  1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
  2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
  3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
  5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
  6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

I shall try to remember.

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By wenjie – January 2, 2012

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