Moroka's Review

Acer Gemstone: New Acer Trademark

2008-09-19T08:27:00.007+08:00

I'm currently obsessed with this new notebook from ACER. The real name is Acer Aspire 6920G-812G32 but the manufacturer site quote it as Acer Gemstone Blue.

The most awesome features for this awesomeness are:

320 GB SATA HDD / 2GB DDR2 RAM (upgradeable up to 4GB)
16" Full HD Acer CineCrystal TFT LCD that supports 1920 x 1080 resolution
True 5.1-channel surround sound system
Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution
Acer Media Center remote control
NVIDIA GeForce Go 9500 GS (512 MB of dedicated GDDR2 VRAM)
6-in 1 card reader
Blu-ray disc drive
Integrated Bluetooth
Integrate Webcam

Pricing from RRP of RM4499 (with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium), I think this is one of the best notebooks available in the market right now.

For more info, click here

Website: DeviantART Review

2008-08-04T09:17:00.001+08:00

I think someone left a comment in one of my blog entries, and the person wanted me to make a review of fyroo.com. I don't have any idea to elaborate about the website. I just can say that the interface is good enough to my eyes. You can go and check it out yourself. It is really good to have Malaysian version of YouTube, at least it will be much more clean, I hope.

The website that I am really familiar with is DeviantART. I must warn you beforehand that this is not a totally clean website, but you have an option to filter the unnecessary contents of the site. It is up to you though. Internet consists of a very broad networking system, with wide variety of contents. You can go surf everywhere at anytime. It is all up to YOU.

So, about the DeviantART or in short DA. I have been active in this site for more than two years now. I joined the site as a member on my 20th birthday, 23rd of March, 2006. When I think about it, it was just coincidence. At first, my intention was just to download the wallpapers, skin and themes for my Windows.

Slowly, from time to time, I discovered that I can submit my own work there. You can submit almost everything there - photos, digital art, traditional art, sketches, stock photos, wallpapers, skin and themes for various OS, etc, as long as you are the authorized owner of the artwork - DO NOT ever submit other person's work, you'll be banned by the admin or worse, the community will 'bang' you .

What is so good about DeviantART compared to any other websites (Flickr, Fotopages, Photobucket, etc)?

1. You can submit almost everything - even literature (poems, short story, etc) if you're really good at that kind of work. You can even submit desktop screen shots if you like. I submitted quite a number of desktop screen shots when I first joined the community:

2. Your work can be commented and favourited by the others. You'll be notified for every comment and favourite that you get. Most of the time, if your work is good, it will be appreciated with good feedbacks and a lot of favourites. Even if your work is not good, sometimes you can get good critiques from experts to improve your work further.

3. If you think that your work is good enough that somebody would love to buy it, you can make your work available as print, in which you can sell them online, through DeviantArt itself. All the printing and shipping will be handled by DeviantArt staffs, in which they will get some commission from your sale. I think it is fair enough.

4. You can make new friends with people who like your art, or vice versa. You can dedicate your art or photos to them, and they can do the same to you. Fun, isn't it? For me, it is. =D

5. You can join various contests held by DeviantART staffs or members. I think the contests in DeviantART are endless. There will always be new contests every month, if not every week. You have the chance to win a lot of things - subsciption, prints, gifts, digital devices, etc. So far, I joined a lot of contest but never win. There are just too many great artists in DeviantART and I'm not one of them! Hahaha. =p

6. You can have your own blog there. It is called journal. Before I moved to Blogspot, I often express my emotional feelings in DeviantART journal. It was fun to receive support from unknown person from various countries back then. Don't worry though, I like the support from my real friends the most, that's why I moved to blogspot. =p

7. I like how my submitted photos and digital art (called deviations in the site) are arranged. In fact, you can arrange them the way you like. For free account itself, you can create as many folder as you want. It is like you have your own portfolio for your work. For subscribers, more options for customization are available.

I think that's enough. I never regret joining this site, what I really regret is I don't really know how much of my time has been wasted for this site alone. Hahaha.

There is one annoying thing about DeviantART, though. I just don't like this message that appears almost everyday!:

"System Maintenance"

deviantART is currently performing system maintenance.
Please try again in 5 minutes.

Fair enough for free service, I guess.

Okay, enough about my favorite site. So, my friends, I wanna ask you, what kind of site you are addicted to? If you don't like the word "addicted", I changed my question to : what is the site that you surf the most everyday? If you want to make a review of that site, go ahead, see if you can make me changed my DeviantART to your Flickr, let say. =p

Photography: Stock Photo Review

2008-08-04T09:15:00.000+08:00

Stock photos are photos that can be used by the public to produce their own works, applying certain rules and restrictions made by the original photographers/artist. According to wikipedia, stock photography consists of existing photograph that can be licensed for specific uses.Publishers, advertising agencies, graphic artists, and others use stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative assignments.

One of the most famous stock bank or stock providers is SXC.HU. The site provides stock photos for free with certain restriction according to the original photographers' rules. The same goes for the stock photos in DeviantART. The photos are available for FREE, but crediting the original photographers/artists is a MUST. Sometimes, you will find that there are some photographers who don't require any crediting. However, for me if you use other people's work, then credit is really necessary.

Some site provide stock photos for sell. You must pay certain currency values to get the photos. The values usually depending upon the quality of the stock photos. For larger file resolution, you have to pay more. These are some of the site that provides stock photos for sell, ShutterStock and iStockphoto.

I never know the world of stock photography until I eventually used them in my own work. Before knowing the digital art world (digital painting, photo-manipulation, etc), I never used stock photos except for desktop wallpapers purpose. It is not that I am so good at that particular area (digital art), but I would love to discover it a little bit more everytime I open the Adobe Photoshop programme.

I posted some stock photos in my DeviantART account. It is not something that really high in quality to sell, so I just provide it for free. I am trying my best not to spoil other high-quality stock photography, so I submitted some of my best photos. It is really fun to see what other people did with the stock photos. Some of them are really good with extraordinary ideas and artworks. You can see some of my stock photos here (some of them are already manipulated by me):

Any confusion regarding stock photos? Feel free to ask.

Hindi Movies: Award Winning Movies

2008-08-02T22:59:00.001+08:00

After watching the Devdas movie, I feel like doing a review of my favorite Hindi movies.

These are some of the best Award-winning (Filmfare Award) Hindi movies that I enjoyed, and I think these are some of the best Hindi movies out there. (well, that's why they won the best movie awards)

1996: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol Mukherjee
Simple love story; meeting and falling in love, but the path to love and to be loved is very challenging since you fall in love with a wrong person. Nice movie with a lot of wonderful songs.

1998: Dil To Pagal Hai
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit
A little bit complex, but still entertaining. A lot of wonderful songs.

1999: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol Mukherjee, Rani Mukherjee
Love is friendship, friendship is love?

2000: Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
Starring: Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan
Love is sacrifice. At the end, you will know that without sacrifice, love is nothing.

2001: Kaho Naa..Pyaar Hai
Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Amisha Patel
Wonderful acting and dancing by Hrithik Roshan, with lot of wonderful songs.

2003: Devdas
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai
Why it is so hard to be together, regardless of wealth and status? Great movie with great costumes, nice locations, and wondeful story of how love is not always exist for good reasons.

2006: Black
Starring: Amitabh Bhachan, Rani Mukherjee
A very different Hindi movie, I think it is somewhat related to Helen Keller, the first deafblind person who graduated from college. Regardless of challenges and difficulties, she managed to overcome them, along with a lot of pain and tears.

Source: Wikipedia

Japan Drama: JDrama Worth Watching

2008-08-02T22:57:00.000+08:00

I do watch J-Drama sometimes, and some of them are far too great than the K-Drama, while some are crappy enough for the time that you have spent on it. So, here is the list of my personal favorite J-Drama (according to my own ranking). I haven't watch J-Drama as much as K-Drama, so forgive me if I'm not being fair enough for the short list:-

1. One Liter of Tears (One Liter no Namida)

"To be able to smile and tell everyone this; i have, at least, cried one liter of tears.

"Just being alive is such a lovely and wonderful thing.."

"Even though I have been hurt before by those heartless glares this also helped me to understand that around me, there still exists some gentle glares. Therefore, I definitely won't run away. That's what I'll do. Definitely. Always."

"Reality is too cruel, too brutal. I don't even have the right to dream. As I think about the future, the tears will come out again."

You must have remember these sentences in this drama. It is a really sad drama. Why?

This drama is based on the real-life struggles of a 15-year-old girl named Aya who suffered from an incurable disease, but lived life to the fullest until her death at 25. The script is based on the diary Aya kept writing until she could no longer hold a pen. The book that later followed entitled One Litre of Tears has sold over 1.1 million copies in Japan alone. Aya Kitō proved her courage and positive attitude towards an uncertain future when suffering such an illness, spinocerebellar ataxia.

This drama really makes me appreciate my life even more than before. Recommended to anyone.

2. Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)

This is a really enjoyable drama. A lot of unexpected things occur among the high school students, and only a great teacher can solve their problems, in a way that you have never think about it.

3. Attention Please

It is not easy to be a cabin attendant or stewardess, and it is even more difficult for a girl who is not lady-like. Whatever you wanna become, you choose. The successfulness of your job, however depends on how much you put yourself into it.

4. My boss my hero

This is a really funny drama with a lot of actions. It is about a man who can only inherit his father position as a gang leader if he can graduate from the high school. The fact that he left the school since he was little, it was a great challenge for him to graduate.

5. Gokusen

This is a delightful series about a young female teacher who just happens to be in a yakuza family. Starred by one of the ex-Morning Musume, this is a very enjoyable drama. This drama is quite similar in concept with GTO but I put this after GTO because for me the level of fun in it is lesser than the latter. :p

6. Engine

I like this drama because the story is really good. It is about love and sacrifice. And love here does not have its limit to man-woman relationship, as in most of the dramas. What is so good about Takuya Kimura? I'm not really sure. My sister who happens to be so much of a fan of him said that he is so cool. Acting like cool, talking like cool. Whatever.

7. Beautiful Life

Sad thing about the real life; sometimes you just don't have so many choices. You can just do some things to help the person that you love, with your limited abilities, and limited time. And when the time comes, you have no more choice, but to let go.

Movies That I Enjoyed Recenty: Part 3

2008-08-02T22:48:00.003+08:00

List of movies that I enjoyed recently:

27 Dresses

Very sweet movie. I watched it because of Katherine Heigil (one of Grey's Anatomy stars). I couldn't comment more, watch it yourself, and you will know how sweet it is. :D

Just like heaven

Very nice movie. I have watched this movie twice. Very sweet, romantic, and at the same time stirred my emotion away. At first I thought it is a ghost movie, but then I realize it is a love-never-ends movie.

P.S. I love You

What can you do when you lost someone that is really close to you, someone that you really love, forever? If you want to start again, how do you plan the first step to it? Not everyone is so lucky to have someone, who can put you back together even though he/she are no longer with you.

Iron Man

A good movie from Marvel, in par with Ghost Rider. It reminds me of PC Game Marvel Ultimate Alliance. If compared to X-Men, I do think X-Men is better than this movie, but as a Marvel fan, I think this movie brouhgt the Marvel name into something marvellous.

Korean Drama: KDrama Worth Watching

2008-08-02T22:25:00.004+08:00

This is my all time favourite korean drama list (according to my own ranking), recommended to any korean drama lover. Even if you're not, you can start to watch it now, maybe you will know why we like korean dramas.

1. Dae Jang Geum/Jewel In The Palace - the longest and maybe the best korean drama that I have watched so far. Consists of 70 episodes with total 54 hours of show. With a lot of moral values, great story of a great woman, great costumes, and totally great inspiration this drama is a must watch show.

2. Full House -the first korean drama that I watched. I simply love it. I didn't remember how many times I have watched it over and over (it must be more than 5 times for sure..=D). I started to watch other Korean dramas after falling deeply in love with this drama.

3. My Girl - this is not the second or the third Korean drama that I watched but it gives a very big impact on me after the Full House. It is very enjoyable for sure. A lot of unexpected incidents occurred throughout this drama and I simply enjoy the funny things done by the main actress.

4. Love Story in Harvard - the theme for this drama is quite serious. It mainly concerns on a story of college life, career life (doctors, lawyers and related issues) and love story which is very challenging. It is very serious, and if you're looking for something funny in this drama, you will hardly find it. I think this drama is worth watching because of its great ending. All the seriousness just disappear and a life full of bliss appears. :D

5. Bad Family - It is not about a family that involves in mafia gang, or something like that but it is a story of fake family that was being set up to help a girl who has lost her memory as an impact of a car accident. The girl also lost her parents during the accident. In this drama, it is really good to see that the fake family eventually becomes real.

6. Fantasy Couple - worth watching because the story is unique and one of its kind. It is totally different from other Korean dramas. What you will see in this drama? Expect the unexpected. Vengeance can turn into love and care, and vice versa. I simply love it. :D

7. Super Rookie - you're not excellent in study, doesn't mean that you will not be excellent in your career. It is a very funny and inspiring drama. :D

8. Wonderful Life - Life is so wonderful, even though there a lot of pain that we must endure before we can achieve that wonderfulness. Small mistake sometimes leads to greater problem in the future, but it can also teach us to be more independent, and be more mature. And, the little girl in this drama is very cute =D

9. Winter Sonata - i think everyone knows about this drama. Once, it was very famous that I had the chance to watch it more than once. The theme of this drama is sadness, so you can expect that there will be tears from time to time in this drama.

10. Successful Story of A Bright Girl - a story about egoistic man and a happy go lucky girl. What if they are meant to be together? That is the interesting part of this drama. It is more about how they face the challenges together, in a very different approaches. :)

11. Sweet 18 - What happens when you got married at a very young age in the modern world. 18 is considered young nowadays. It is an enjoyable drama. :D

12. Stairway to Heaven - the concept of this drama is quite similar to Winter Sonata. It is more or less in par with the latter. Sadness most of the time since life is not always about happiness. That's the truth.

More review will come next, if I have time to watch other dramas. :)

Movies That I Enjoyed Recenty: Part 2

2008-08-02T22:19:00.003+08:00

The Italian Job
IMDB Rating = 6.9/10

Someone insisted that I must watch this movie. So, I stopped my routine for a while, and watched this movie. It turned out to be quite good. This movie reminds me of Nicholas Cage's, Gone In 60 Seconds but I think this movie is better than the latter because the way they do the 'job' is unpredictable. What kind of job? You must see it yourself. =p

By the way, the BMW's Mini Cooper S in this movie is very cute. You will want to add this little car to your favourite car list after watching this movie. At least for me. =p

Run fatboy run.

IMDB Rating = 7.0/10

I watched this movie not long time ago. Nothing much to say, but I enjoyed watching it. Some parts are funny, some other parts are quite serious, and some other parts can be an inspiration. I love all of the parts though. It's been such a long time I didn't watch this kind of show, maybe that is why I love it very much. How to win your love back? Run fatboy, run! =D

I love the song 'Everyday I love you less and less' by Kaiser Chiefs from this movie. And of course, you should hear the song 'Ruby' from the same band, too. It's very good.

Van Helsing

IMDB Rating: 5.4/10

I like this movie because of the fun adventure throughout the story. It is an action-packed movie with a lot of mystical characters. So, why is the rating in IMDB so low? I think that is because of the ending which is not-so happy ever after. Remember the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? These two movie in my opinion is quite similar. Action packed, but not-so happy ending. And yeah, IMDB Rating for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is also 5.4.

Movies That I Enjoyed Recenty: Part 1

2008-08-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

Enchanted (2007)

Combination of Disney's animation and the reality, really makes this movie very special. Actress Amy Adams really put on a great performance in this movie. She contributed her voice in some of the songs, too. I am really happy to see Disney once again produced high quality movie that I must say, is very entertaining. I don't see a reason why you shouldn't watch this movie. It is a very adorable family movie.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

The first zombie movie that I really like. Unlike Resident Evil sequels, which are full of unnecesary CGI (I admit that the Resident Evil sequels are good), but this movie really frightened me at some point. Resident evil sequels are more on to Action-Thriller film anyway. This movie is more on to Horror-Thriller. So there is no wonder, it keep gives me some nerves. I keep thinking of what if this situation really happens in the future? I just could not imagine how it will be, but this movie shows it quite well.

Naked Weapon (2002)

I found similarities between this movie and the comic that I once read, 'Harimau Laut 007' written and illustrated by Tony Wong. The plot of the story is similar to the comic, where a group of young girls were kidnapped, and being trained to be the most incredible fighters, eventually to be the infamous professional killers. If you have read the comic, maybe you will realize it. Even the training methods used in this movie are similar to those in the comic. I really enjoyed the matrix-like actions in the entire story, and most of all, although this is not a great movie, it is still enjoyable. It is an action-packed movie anyway.

Korean Drama: Dae Jang Geum

2008-08-02T22:13:00.001+08:00

Dae Jang Geum also known as A jewel in the palace

I've watched this drama twice. For me, this is the best korean drama that I have encountered so far. It is a real masterpiece.

Lee Young Ae as Dae Jang Geum

Ji-Jin Hee as Min Jeong-Ho

What I love the most about this wonderful drama?

I love the main theme, which is about injustice in life. Element of how dirty the politic and cronyism is, how life is not fair for some people, and how the good and evil survive in this world, are strongly stressed in this entire drama. It shows the real truth about how life is now and then.

I love the ways how the main character, Dae Jang Geum faced the problems and difficulties in her entire life. She's so cute but at the same time very cool and calm. She handles everything nicely and the main thing is, she never has the words 'give up' in her life vocabulary, regardless of how big her problems are. Her endless will in learning is very impressive.

I love how the drama ends. (It is a happy ending - who don't like it?) The main thing is that it makes me realize that revenge is not everything, but it is just something; something that can make you satisfy momentarily, but on the other hand you'll see the others suffer by your dirty hands. Revenge makes you as bad as the person who has wronged you. What is good about revenge, anyway? I just love how the karma principle works in this story.

I love to see how Jang Geum, who has suffered most of the time in the story, finally found her happiness at the end of the story. She chose happiness over the wealth and high position offered in the palace. Well, wealth and high position might be some sort of 'happiness' for some people. But I do think that this kind of happiness comes together with other bad elements. Probably.

I love everything about this drama. Almost all of the aspects are covered in this historical story; love, family relation, friendship, justice, etc. I learn something valuable here. Yes, sometimes a person can be very cruel like Madam Cui, but just remember that another person can also be very kind just like Madam Han. And yes, sometimes some persons can be two-faced friends like Yong Non and Geum Young, but just remember that another person can be a very true and honest friend, just like Yeon Seng.

A quote from Dae Jang Geum:
''I choose happiness over living without happiness, but recently I just couldn't escape myself from having a lot of difficulties.'' - happiness and sadness; sometimes it is not our choice to determine which one we can choose, either one can come and go without further notice..ewah.

Too good to be true, this story is based on a true story of a legendary girl, Seo Jang Geum, who became the first woman to be the supreme royal physician of her times (Chosun Dynasty).

I would like to recommend this drama to anyone. This is a very wonderful story about the truth that lies beneath our bittersweet life. My Rating 10/10. (IMDB Rating = 9.0/10.0) =D

All About Review

2008-08-02T21:59:00.003+08:00

This blog content will be nothing personal. I will post about something related to movies, series, dramas, hand phones, gadgets, websites, etc. It is just something that I want to share with the others who may have the same interest with me in those particular areas.

As usual, I really appreciate comment as long as it is not expressed in negative ways, which may hurt my feeling, as well as the others.

Thank you for viewing. :)