.

Britain’s Definitely Got Talent – Think you have it too? Why not? Maybe we can have our very own Malaysia Boleh reality show too featuring amateur performers.

Anyway, with regard to the post title, I wish to encourage everyone to be confident with your own ability and do not doubt yourself even when others are laughing at you. Also, do not judge a book by its cover and give everyone an equal chance to compete. If you have not attained success yet, keep on working hard and getting your attitudes right, your big break may just be around the corner, surprising you (and others). I know I seriously sound like paraphrasing some wisdom pieces like the poem ‘If‘ but trust me, I am not.

Here is the story of one Susan Boyle, a Scottish spinster aged 47. She is now the favorite to be winner of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent and is in the running for a prize money of £100,000 and also a chance to perform in front of the Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance. Hers is a beautiful story of self-believe and perseverance. Considering her choice of song to perform, I think she was sad and dissatisfied with her achievements in life. Life takes an unexpected turn for the better though for her, in stark contrast to the theme in her ‘Cry Me A River‘ song, she had received overwhelming accolades and approval from people around the world. She gave a such a stunning and polished performance that the people who had doubted her in the beginning were wowed within the first 5 seconds of her song!

Unfortunately I could not share the video from YouTube here. It has been viewed for over 26 million times! To get a full footage of her debut song on Britain’s Got Talent, do check out the video below:

Susan Boyle’s Debut on Britain’s Got Talent (link to YouTube)

Here are the lyrics of the song, for you to ponder and sing along if you fancy.

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high,
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
When dreams were made and used,
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung,
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dreams to shame.

And still I dream he’ll come to me
And we will live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather…

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seems
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

I wish her luck and all the best, may her age not be a hindrance for her to achieve whatever she wants with her life now. In the distressing reality life and gloomy economy outlook now, it is great to be able to dream and sometimes the impossible reward just falls to the right persons, I believe success hardly deserts those who work hard and dare to dream (OK, this small part is from ‘If’). There was then a William Hung and now a Susan Boyle. Isn’t life just wonderful and unique?

OK time for a little community message from The Volgograd Times (TVT) – appreciate life and avoid excessive intake of alcohol and avoid smoking at all times. Let good health be one of the priority of life and also think of the health of your family and friends.

Thank you and farewell, until next time…

No, this is not talking about unfit HO or graduates who couldn’t practise (but partly about it). Amateur Transplants is out with their new album! ‘Unfit to practise’. If you all are aware with their previous hits like Eternal Clerking, London Underground and Final countdowns, remember to listen to their new album!

This time, most of the songs are short and names according to subjects. Like Paediatrics, Urology and Department of Surgery. They are the songs’ name.

Personally I like the song ‘Paediatrics’, have a look at the lyrics -

You need a little patience,
When you trying to examine a child,
It is source of such a frustration,
When you need them to keep still for a while,
They fiddle, they gargle, they giggle, they struggle, they wriggle,
No matter how many times you give them,
They’ll cryyyyyy
God knows whyyyyyyy
You must employ cunning tactics,
when you do paediatrics,
just tryyyyyy,
when you have a little patient.

Enjoy!

Reigning Miss Russia Kseniya Sukhinova has just been crowned Miss World 2008 in the 58th Miss World Pageant held at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 13, 2008.

Beauty pageant has never been universally accepted, generally we behold the beauty of the pageants and enjoy watching the contest on television but there are people who are unhappy with the way beauty contest is run. Besides, there has been countless allegations of corruptions and vote buying in most beauty pageant contests.

To say the truth, Miss World bears no significance to most of us. However, winning the title or just participating in the contest may be a significant part of the contestants’ life experience. Miss World represents a symbol to the rest of us, to the whole world, something wholesome and beautiful and we are supposed to come together and behold the beauty of the pageants regardless of race and social status.

Therefore it is not surprising that Miss World is often sent to do charity work and to spread the important message of unity and world peace. Ironically, the Miss World Organization decided to hold the event in South Africa instead of the originally planned venue in Kiev, Ukraine due to the ongoing crisis between Georgia and Russia concerning South Ossetia. Perhaps the organization is concerned about the safety of the pageants, spectators and other workers involved. No matter, perhaps the newly crowned Miss World could still help to spread the spirit of peace to the two countries in particular and to the world in general after this.

109 pageants from all over the world competed for Miss World 2008, marking the biggest turnout in the 58 years of the pageant, surpassing the previous record of 107 during Miss World 2004. Miss World 2007, Zhang Zilin of the People’s Republic of China crowned her successor Ksenia Sukhinova of Russia as the brand new Miss World.

Ksenia Sukhinova is a Siberian blonde who represented Russia to Miss World 2008 after winning the 2007 Miss Russia Pageant exactly a year ago (December 14, 2007 in Moscow). She is the second Russian contestant to win Miss World, the first was Julia Kourotchkina in 1992. Unfortunately she was unable to represent Russia at Miss Universe 2008 due to her college work, so her 2nd runner-up, Vera Krasova, replaced her in the pageant. Vera is the 3rd runner-up in Miss Universe 2008.

Click here to see the photos of some of the contestants of Miss World 2008

Miss World 2008 Official Site

Bolt is the latest computer-animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and it was recently released on 21st November 2008 (26th November in Russia). The film has reportedly raked in over $30 million dollars during its opening weekend.

Bolt marks a new chapter in Disney Studios’ history. This is the first full computer-animated film produced by the studio. Previously all animation films by Disney Studios are hand painted. In recent years, Pixar Animation Studios has been producing more popular animation titles compared to the pioneering animation studio. Pixar is now a subsidiary company under Walt Disney Animation Studios. Bolt utilizes a new technology, Disney Digital 3-D to be unique and to differentiate the film from the works of Pixar Studios.

Let’s see why I find Bolt so interesting.

Bolt Chase Scene
Special Sneak Peek

The video above is the Official Preview of Bolt, while the other 2 links contain more scenes from the film itself, which I prefer not to show to you just to keep the (main) plot of the story secret a little longer. If you have not viewed the preview, I shall try to capture your attention through words here.

So what makes me think this film will be a major hit?

Firstly, it stars the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus and fans would be happy to find a Bolt score sang by both celebrities. Next, this film is bound to be successful due to the sheer amount of talents working on it. Bolt is based on the idea of Chris Sanders (director of Lilo & Stitch) and directed by Chris Williams (script writer of Mulan). This will be Chris Williams’ directorial debut. The whole project is managed by John Lasseter, the Chief Creative Officer at Disney (who also held same position while he was with Pixar).

Apart from the castings and background staffs, the preview itself convinced me that this film will be very successful indeed. Not all ideas in the film are original but it incorporates the elements of some highly-popular movies in recent years and these are presented in an unique refreshing style. I would not reveal the plot here but if you do watch Bolt, you will probably recognize elements and plots similar to films and works such as “The Truman Show“, “The Incredibles“, “Spy Kids“, and “The Matrix“, “The Flash” (recognize the thunder?). There is also little (real) surprise to find that the main protagonist in the film is a white german shepherd which is named as Bolt (suprise!) after strings of controversial protagonists in previous animation films such as a lion in The Lion King, a racing car in Cars, toy figurines in Toy Story, a clown fish in Finding Nemo.

I have no doubt that Disney has made an ingenious move in acquiring Pixar Studios and appointing John Lasseter as the Chief Creative Officer at Disney. Starting from Bolt, I am sure there will be many more quality and humourous animations to come from Disney Studios. I sincerely hope Disney and Pixar would thrive for many long years to come and produce more quality works. DreamWorks Animation is arguably the closest competitor to the two giant studios and it has to come up with an idea as original as the first “Shrek” film to challenge them.

Click here to download Bolt wallpapers, icons and screensavers. While you are there, do play some Bolt games too!

So will you be watching this Bolt animation? Do share your thoughts with us when you have watched the preview or the film itself.

It is official now, Football Manager 2009 and Football Manager Handheld 2009 will be released on 14th November 2008.

Fans across the globe are lining up in anticipation of this highly popular simulated football management game. Some die-hard fans have even resorted to pre-ordering the title in an attempt to be the first to experience the new version of the game. Are you one of them?

As usual in all new games, there are many new and improved features in Football Manager 2009. The following features have been confirmed while others will be announced later:

• Widescreen support
• Improved training options
• Female manager mode
• Improved media and press conferences effects
• Enhanced assistant manager role and feedback
• TV View
• 3D Match Engine

Don’t get too excited now, these new features will keep you busy for a while before you get bored of them. In particular, there are already feedbacks surfacing on the internet regarding FM09′s demo version, saying that the new media and press conferences simulation gets a little irritating after a few days. As for the 3D Match Engine, it is new and there is still room for improvement. Some demo testers reported that the 3D Match view does not really reflect one’s tactical configurations and its 3D graphical display is still immature.

We are sure that many fans will rush to buy FM09 regardless of the shortcomings. Hopefully the screen shots above will help you make your decision. We shall try our best to get a copy and do a comprehensive review on Football Manager 2009.

“Happy Managing”

What do you think about the new features in Football Manager 2009? Will you get yourself a copy?

This cool song by Amateur Transplant!

Lyrics

Everybody wonders what anaesthetists do
While the patient is asleep
Everybody wonders what we do for three hours
While that machine goes beep
Everybody reckons we drink coffee and we gossip
And we’re generally subversive
Everybody reckons we do crosswords and Sudoku
And we chat up all the nurses

But you do you really think that’s all we do?
Well let me tell you now it isn’t true
Cos we sometimes check the screen
And every now and then we write stuff
And if we have to intervene
We inject a bit of white stuff
And we offer to alter the lights, or the height of the bed
Or fiddle with the radio, change the CD
We even check the patient occasionally
And if they move we’ll turn up to vapour
And then we go back to reading the paper
Cos when the patient’s asleep
We just sit and listen to the beep
We just sit and listen to the beep

Once upon a time I took pride in my job
But now I think it’s time to depart
Cos I just sit here every day and listen to blips of the heart