So… as you may or may not know, the Brazilian team had been getting a lot of criticism over the way they’d been playing in the World Cup.  They had managed to with every match so far, but people expected more from Brazil.  Given their legacy of having won the World Cup a record five times, fans don’t just expect Brazil to win.  They expect Brazil to win spectacularly.

Which is why, despite their victories, fans were upset at the lack of flare shown by the Brazilian soccer team.

So it was a bit surprising, if not disheartening to see Japan score a goal with a tenacity & skill worthy of the Brazilian legacy.  Roughly 30 minutes into the game, Japan got the ball, made a run for it, and with a lightning fast shot that caught the Brazilian Goalkeeper off guard, scored a goal against Brazil.  For the Brazilian team, this was THE first goal they had gotten in the World Cup.  For Japan, this was equally meomorable, because they had
scored against the legendary Brazilian soccer team.

Unfortunately, for the Japanese team, the Brazilians retaliated with the skill & tenacity worthy of the Brazilian legacy, and beat the Japanese team, 4-1.

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima scored his 13th & 14th World Cup goals to become tied with Gerd Müller as the all-time World Cup top scorer.

Another game featuring my favorite team, Brazil, was on last night.  This time, against Australia.  Brazil won, YAY!! =^^=, a 2-0 victory doesn’t quite feel “right” for five time World Cup champions.  Ronaldinho, inarguably the man of the match, managed to take the ball deep into enemy territory, but the Australian defenses stopped the Brazilian team cold in their tracks.  Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m whining, but I was expecting a legendary team to be… well… legendary.  And, unfortunately, we got to see old Ronaldo.  Not *the old Ronaldo*, but an *old* Ronaldo.  Once, one of soccer’s feared strikers, his accomplishments in the last two matches was setting up a goal.

Still, there’s hope for him.  After all, it’s not over yet.  =^^=

In an unrelated news, I saw Silent Hill.  I should note, my explorations into the town of Silent are limited to Silent Hill & Silent Hill 2; so correct me if I’m wrong anywhere in this post.  Anywho, I liked it.  And not in a “better-than-the-last-game-to-movie” kind of a way either.  It was also nice to see the movie actually *earn* it’s R-Rating through it’s content, rather than a few cuss-words and a shot of an exposed pair breasts, like Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Story wise, one of the biggest things the Silent Hill series has going for it is it’s lack of continuity; which makes it easier to accept the movie as yet another variations on the main theme.  People lost in a mysterious town, looking for someone.  Had it been a movie based on a franchise with an established mythos, like Spider-Man, any and every discrepancy in the plot would be loudly bitched about by fans.  Personally, I prefer to think of it a re-telling of the story from the first Silent Hill game.  Also, the references to the videogames did not feel out of place; unlike in RE: Apocalypse.

Come to think of it, it’s a bit ironic that Resident Evil came before Silent Hill, in terms of BOTH the movies and the game.  And just like the game, SH the movie showed RE “how it’s properly done”.

Anyways, I liked the story.  I didn’t have any problem with the acting.  I wasn’t exactly all that horrified by the horror; but then again, I’m expanding my knowledge in the art of post production, so a part of my brain started to calculate production costs, light-rigs, color extraction, particle emitters, make-up and costume whenever some of the more horrifying scenes started taking place.

And that’s the way it is.

As you may or may not know, the World Cup tournament is
here, again.  Given the popularity of
soccer in Bangladesh, it’s not surprising that the World Cup has a huge
cultural impact here.  Now-a-days, assortments
of flags flap in the wind, from an assortment of homes, apartments & office
buildings.  Given the popularity of
Brazil & Argentina, it’s not surprising that their respective flags get the
most air-time.  Granted, most of the
flags aren’t entirely accurate in terms of design, but still, it IS interesting
to look out the window to see various flags representing, or trying to
represent, a multitude of countries, flapping away in the wind.

Personally, this has usually meant staying up until 3-4
AM, watching the matches, going to sleep & waking up again at 8:15 in the
morning to leave for work.  On the
upside, the preliminary matches are still going on and there are
“gaps” between matches that are actually worth watching.  The team I’m rooting for, Brazil, has had one
match so far.  Despite their victory, the
Brazilian team didn’t seem like they were in top form.  Hopefully, things will change by the
secondary rounds.  Argentina, a second
favorite, performed much better on field.

Whether for better or for worse, US vs. Czech Republic
game was highly entertaining.  If nothing
else, US team provided comic relief.  A
part of me would like to see a US vs. Iran match though.  But then again, maybe it’s just me.

Anywho, if you’ll excuse me I have to go find a Brazilian
jersey.  An ACCURATE Brazilian jersey.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Not really that big a deal. But then
again, half the fun of today was watching people react to “…you mean you
DON’T KNOW what today is?!?” That and listening to “Number of the
Beast” by Iron Maiden all day long.

In an unrelated topic, I had to convert a commercial from MPEG to AVI format
for a colleague & I noticed… something. By itself, the whole thing would
have been amusing; but given the strict censorship policies & practices in
Bangladesh, it was downright hilarious how something like THIS slipped
past the censors.

Being the nice guy that I am, I decided to share it. (Highlighted, for your convenience.)

The shot itself lasted for a couple of seconds, and I’ve been told, that the ad
has been airing on a couple of the local channels for the last few days.

ants + clothing        = bad
ants + underwear    = even worse

Well… too much coffee and roughly six hours in Illustrator lead to… well, I’m not sure what it is supposd to be, but I think she’s burping.  Anyway, I would have posted the full sized pic here, but it’s roughly 180k in size.  So click on the thumbnail to see my creation in all her glory.

As usual, any kind of constructive feedback will be greatly appreciated.

HAPPY BENGALI NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!  April 14th marked the beginning of the Bengali new year, a.k.a. “Nôbo Bôrsho” 1413.  Ummm… that’s all.

Among other things, most of the local bus don’t come to a complete
hault.  They slow down.  And once the driver feels that all the
potential passengers are on board, he hits the accelerator with all
he’s got.
Needless to say, the laws of statics demand that either the commuter or the driver will make a mistake at some point in time. 
I’ve had a few close calls myself, including a time the doors of a
double decker closed on my my right arm & leg.  The problem was,
the rest of me was still outside the bus, which was moving at high
speed.
Once upon a time, I used to wonder, what happens when things don’t quite work out.
Well, I finally got my answer.  On my way to work, I saw a man, dressed
in formal attire, rolling vigorously in the dust as a bus sped off.

I go home yesterday and Animax is gone…  Just like that my anime is gone… along with 50 of the roughly 70 channels that were previously there…
No Cartoon Network.
No Animax.
No VH1.
…
…WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH…

I’d've poste a cover pic, but the net is acting kinda’ funny at the
moment.  Anyway, if you ever wondered what the Power Puff Girls would
look like if they were drawn as Manga characters, and then got into a
fight with Dexter check out the following link.

http://ppg.snafu-comics.com/archive.php