David Cook wins...

After 19 weeks of waiting, the results of this year's American Idol came last night. And as a huge David Cook fan it came as a surprise that he won. Every survey, every vote that I came across through the net all pointed to David 'Archie' to win the finale. Even the judges were on 'Archie's' side on Tuesday's final performances. But hey, I'm not complaining. The better man and singer won. Another high point for me during the finale show was the Gladys Knight's and 'The Pips's never seen before audition. Who on god's earth could have thought of that idea must be a genius. Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert 'Iron Man' Downey Jr.'s dancing antics was just hilarious. Apart from the results, this segment was not to be missed. 

Finally, 'Mr' George Michael's performance blew me away. Though having a flu at the time, he managed to mesmerise everyone in the Nokia 7000 seated hall to a stand still. He was able to belt out 'Praying For Time' flawlessly. Rarely do we see Simon Cowell giving a standing ovation, but even he was awed by the performance. Now since American Idol is over, I'm left to ponder what to do on Wednesdays and Thursdays evenings. Oh well, it will start all over again in January 2009. Not holding my breathe though...

Hit me!!!

Just wanted to share with you guys this new poster from the upcoming Dark Knight movie. The Joker putting on a dual faced make up scheme reflects the direction of the movie is going (hint: coin tossing villain). I just can't wait for July to come around...

I vote for DC...

A true talent in the making. David Cook has exhibited originality through out this year's American Idol. Good luck David. C!! 

Mission:Metallica...

The countdown has begun... 4 months to the new album and counting...

Yesterday's storm...

As the saying goes, 'a picture says a thousand words'. Ok, ok since there are 3 pictures, there'll be 3000 words.. hehehe. Yesterday's early evening storm came from no where, and it came as a surprise. One minute it was bright and sunny, another minute it's already dark... Mrs. SandMan went into panic mode as she was in the process of preparing dinner.  But as I told her, 'What to do?' It's not like we can just go somewhere and switch off the storm. The only thing we can do is be patient and hope for it to settle down. I've read incidences of flying sign boards in Gadong and a few more in Serusop. Alhamdulillah, in Brunei these 'minor' storms are what we are used to. Unfortunately, other parts of the region are not so lucky. Starting off with the cyclone in Myanmar (100k dead and counting) and the earthquake in China (3k dead and counting). My prayers are with those who are affected... 

By the way...

Wishing all mothers out there, a Happy Mother's Day.. May you all be blessed and showered with all the love in the world. As for my mother, thank you for being there for me. I love you Ma.. and for Babu, I will never ever forget you..

This is my card...

A'kum all. Just a short one today as I'm still very tired from yesterday's Ulu Temburong visit. Anyways, just want to show you guys one image from one of the most anticipated movies from this summer block buster season. Can you guess who it is?? (such a give away... hehehe)

Always Be My Baby...

Luq's Birthday...

Another year passes and its that time again where I pay homage to one of my closest partners in crime, Luq. Happy 30th (you wish you were younger... NOT!!) mat.. a year older a year wiser *wink*. Semoga panjang umur, murah rezeki and capat2 kawin.... oppsss, did I say that out loud?! Anyways, hope you enjoy your special day bro and many happy returns... AMIN...

Update:

Sorry about the surprise mat, but I was sworn to secrecy... But it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, right??? Anyways, Happy Birthday bro...

Productive Saturday...

Hello friends... What a saturday it turned out to be for yours truly. Don't get me wrong, nothing bad happened or anything. As most you guys now, I'm a Civil & Structural Engineer by profession and have a few ongoing project in the 'pipeline' to over see. One of which is the Development of the National Park in Ulu Temburong. And yesterday was one of those days the other consultants and myself had to do a site visit to Belalong. As usual the day started off early where I had to be in Kianggeh boat depot as early as 730am. Though I was a few minutes late (no thanks to the traffic in Jangsak) everyone else was too. Anyways, the site visit took longer than expected. Hoping to get back to bandar around noon time, I could only get back by 330pm. Had to inform Luq (partner in crime) that I was running a bit late cause we had plans to visit DST road show. Luckily Luq understood and continued with our plans just before 5pm. 

Main objective for the roadshow visit was to speed test the GO! broadband hailed by DST to have 7.2Mbps download speed. Expectations were high but (yes there is a but..) it was not to be. 3 kiosks tested, 3 results obtained and average speed was.... 900+ Kbps. Luq and myself was hoping to see at least 3megs on the speed test, but to no avail could only achieve 1.7Mbps on one of tests. Reasons were given by the attending staff member that they are clearing the cache servers and that normal speed will resume shortly. As I mentioned in my earlier post, it is still early days to jump the boat and migrate. We'll see in next few weeks...

Dinner was a totally different affair altogether. I wouldn't say it was subdued, but it was a totally different fun and obviously filling. Mrs. Sandman and myself decided to take my young girlfriends (cousins Adik Nisa and Alai Era) to The Airport Restaurant. The food as usual was excellent. They are currently having the Singapore theme nights until next week. So it was an opportunity for myself to minimise my food cravings. The Kolo Mee and Chili Crab was awesome. Credits to the chef!! The young ones certainly enjoyed their dinner and the smiles on their faces was enough to make my day. I certainly hope that each weekend would be like last night, but we can't expect the same thing every week. However, to spend quality time with Mrs. SandMan after a long day at work was definitely priceless.

Need to get Go! 'ing'...

Hi all... leave it to me for not listening to what DST had in store. Not being properly connected to the world wide web took its toll about a few weeks ago (E-Speed roadshow) when I took the jump and applied for the unlimited access plan. I've been a happy bunny for the past few weeks, until an advert in the local paper hinted that DST had something huge coming. At that time, all I thought was they were planning to launch their 3G service for the Prima and Easi subscribers. But little did I know, it was something more special than that. Not until recently, about a week ago did most of us find out that DST are launching their all new GO! broadband service nationwide. And did it ever impress... 7.2Mbps on the 'go'!!! Now that is what I call fast surfing. Though the dedicated speed hasn't been proven to reach that fast, but just the thought of being able to surf (downloading movies is the more correct term here...) several times faster than our existing speed is just mind boggling. And the price for unlimited access... BND78!!! Now that is what I call a good deal. But it's still early days for me to jump the boat and migrate to GO! However, the temptation is clearly present to say the least. I'll probably drop by to DST's road show in the next few days and have a feel on how 'reliable' the new service is. Congratulations are however in order for DST in introducing a long awaited competitor into the local broadband service provider market. Healthy competition is always good for both the provider and the consumer. We'll have greater choice, and the providers will always find better and more attractive ways to keep or gain more costumers to join their 'band wagon'. Let the price war begin... Happy days is certainly upon us...

'Starky' Fun..

A'kum all. It has been quite a while I have reviewed a movie on my blog. Either lack of any good movies released or just lack of good movies (did I say that already?). But hey, last night was the start of this year's summer movie season. And what a start!! A few more to wait for ie. The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones, (Get Smart).... but Iron Man was an excellent start. Robert Downey Jr. played Tony Stark to perfection. He was witty, charming though purposely clumsy at times but when he introduced the suit for the 1st time, it was like being in the comic book itself. It was mesmerising (well, for me it was... nerd alert!!). The Mark III suit was brilliantly translated to the wide screen, with a touch of 'hot rod red', of course. The CGI was flawless, dare I say it... was 'transformers' territory. You'll get engulfed in the story line, the supporting cast was top notch. An almost unidentifiable Jeff Bridges played Tony Stark's business partner. For you guys not in the know, Hogan (Tony's personal driver) was played by the director himself. Anyways, though the ending was a bit predictable but 98% of the movie was wall to wall 'oooooo's and aaaaaa's. All in all, 9/10 from me. Now where's my Audi R8?