At the end of 2021, the story of a roll of black-and-white film with ten years of stories to tell.
(Read the full post and see more photographs at https://brown.exposure.co/seeing-double or view the embedded version below.)
Seeing Double by Kin Mun "mrbrown" Lee on on Exposure
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I was very honoured to give the keynote at the SPED Learning Festival 2021 on the 21st of November 2021, and sharing the stage with MOS Sun Xueling and DSEN Lucy Toh.
It was a meaningful time sharing my journey as a parent of a special needs child, and discussing SPED issues with the 3,000 online participants from the education and SPED fraternity.
Thank you all for having me today. May we create a future of hope and love for our special needs students together.
[First image courtesy of Veron Wong]
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Kim Huat catches up on the news and updates us on his latest adventure.
YouTube link: youtu.be/gF-vih2KQ_0
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What were you doing when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down on the 5th of October 2021?
YouTube link: youtu.be/FT7Gyl3Yyrs
The next morning:
YouTube link: youtu.be/JRArpXqGn9A
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Kim Huat looks at the hardest question of this year’s PSLE Maths paper.
YouTube link: youtu.be/ueo9Cu5gPdk
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I went to watch Marvels' Eternals with some trepidation because of all the bad critic reviews.
But I enjoyed it a lot. Beautifully shot, lovely costume design, great performances, and nice action set pieces.
The Deviants were a tad generic but the movie had soul. I felt the feelings.
I don’t get the Eternals hate from the critics. Maybe they don’t like to see a diverse cast like this. Maybe they wanted the usual formula of witty Marvel banter. I don’t know. The hate seems over the top.
Chloe Zhao showed that you CAN bring ten superheroes together that no one has ever seen, and make the ensemble work. And make us feel for them.
There is a lot going on, and you will need to follow the plot a little closely, but I enjoyed the questions and tensions it created.
Angelina Jolie was badass as Thena and I appreciated that Chloe Zhao didn’t let the big stars like Jolie and Hayek hog the limelight, choosing instead to use them sparingly in the background.
Gemma Chan held the fort so well. I’m glad they brought her back after her stint as Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel.
I think this movie looks best on IMAX. Them mountains and landscapes are awesome in IMAX. I’m also a bit of an ancient history nerd. So looking at all the civilizations referenced excited my little mind and made me want to go back and play Sid Meier's Civilization VI.
It looks to be a divisive movie. Some call it the worst Marvel movie so far, as bad as Thor: The Dark World (I did not think that was very bad either) or as bad as The Incredible Hulk (the one with Edward Norton in it, and yes, this wasn't very good). I certainly don't think it is bad.
Some say it is the best movie Marvel has ever made, which I think is a little high praise. I think it is a nice effort to do something different. It is a somewhat more serious Marvel movie than usual (it certainly isn't Guardians of the Galaxy) that stands on its own, unencumbered by ties to the MCU and yet fits into that universe too. You can enjoy this self-contained movie if you have never seen an MCU movie before, but it is cool if you want to know why the Eternals never interfered in the Avengers saga. It is quite convincingly explained.
Stay for the two post-credit scenes, and if you want to enjoy them, don’t look for the leaks.
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I know it is strange to talk about travel in these pandemic times but I am always looking for a good charger that takes care of my needs whether I am on the road or at home. And I have concluded that the HyperJuice 66W charger I own is the best travel charger pound for pound.
The 66W is enough for most things.
30W is enough for MacBook Air and iPad Pro. 60W is enough for 13-inch MacBook Pro. And 20W is enough for iPhone Quick Charging. So if you pack a Hyper 66W, you can charge your iPad Pro or MacBook Air, at the same time as your iPhone, and finally the last USB-A port is for your Watch. 30W+20W+12W, still less than the 66W the tiny charger is capable of.
If you want to, you can also charge the new Apple Watch Series 7 at USB-C speeds with the new protocol.
The latest 2021 iPad Mini now supports USB-C too, and will charge with 20W but can also charge quicker with 30W or more. Just like its iPad Pro brethren.
It is way more useful to have two USB-C ports + one USB-A port than one USB-C port and two USB-A ports, like previous chargers.
As we move more and more to USB-C devices, it does not hurt to have more than one USB-C port on chargers, and the juice to support them.
In fact, if you don’t carry anything more than a 13-inch MacBook Pro, you don’t need more than this charger. Only the 16-inch MacBook Pro needs 96W. Which would mean using the Apple 96W brick, or the HyperJuice 100W charger.
I would just carry one HyperJuice 66W for my travels. Or a pair of them, if I kiasu. Two HyperJuice 66W chargers will give me FOUR USB-C charging ports and two USB-A. More than enough for the devices.
And this The HyperJuice 66W is only slightly larger than my 30W Anker PowerPort Atom PD-1, which was my previous hero charger. It is tiny and 30W. But it is a SINGLE port only. The HyperJuice 66W is way better size to port to power ratio.
And no, this is not a loan unit or a sponsored post. I bought two of these HyperJuice 66W chargers with my own money recently at the 9:9 sale.
And of course, these things are very fluid. Even as I type this, the new HyperJuice Stackable GaN 100W USB-C Charger (and the smaller 65W one) is out. So many new innovations in the travel charger space.
Now all I need to do is travel.
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I highly recommend you watch Tony Leung in Father of Shang-chi and the Legend of his Ten Rings.
I really enjoyed the movie. It’s a firm step into Phase 4. The action was spot on, the martial arts set pieces looked great, and I was even moved in some scenes.
The third act was a little much but overall, they did a fine job making this Hollywood version of a Hong Kong action flick.
I also liked the strong women portrayed in this movie. Very badass.
There was also a significant amount of screen time where the characters spoke Chinese, with English subs. Heck, the movie even opens with a Chinese narration. That added to the authenticity of the movie, I felt. Instead of trying to make everything in English.
You can tell they spent a lot of time getting the martial arts right, and the look right, so that it does not have a Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders cringe.
Oh, Simu Liu did a good job as Shang-Chi too. But we all know we are going to see my man Tony do his thing. So let’s not be shy about it.
I hope to see some prequel movie or tv series on Disney+ about Wenwu in future. You can’t have too much Tony Leung.
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Encik has a mission for his men. A do-or-die mission.
(The inspiration.)
YouTube link: youtu.be/yOtHz6AZI-s
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As you return to dining-in, Kim Huat wants to remind you to kindly clear your table. Don’t eat eat eat and then blur blur forget to do the right thing hor. Wait kena fine.
YouTube link: youtu.be/y8MZf75fu_Q
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Found some of my old comics from the late 80s at my late mother’s home. Longshot was a personal favourite of mine. I have all six issues of the limited series. I also had a thing for comics done by Bill Sienkiewicz and John Byrne.
Also of note, my collection of Mai the Psychic Girl and Lone Wolf and Cub. At some point, certain issues of Mai and Lone Wolf were banned in Singapore. But they aren't anymore. I, er, had all the issues back then.
A lot of my allowance and tuition salary went into this comic hobby. No wonder I was so broke all the time.
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As the KTV Cluster grows, and so will the excuses, Kim Huat thinks.
YouTube link: youtu.be/huZ-RNrHny4
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Kim Huat is excited about the easing of social restrictions in the days to come.
YouTube link: youtu.be/7ODVpMs5X5A
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Video version of the podcast chat with Colin Goh, about his SHN, flying in the midst of a pandemic, life and kids, and his Dim Sum Warriors app.
Get a free six-month subscription if you download and sign up now: https://www.dimsumwarriors.com/app
Listen to my daily podcast at:
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/mrbrown/
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mrbrown-show/id1257186706?mt=2
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4to1LaQmDX2ffXJRmTEjEb
YouTube link: youtu.be/GUfj3tuwTnU
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Amazon Prime’s Without Remorse was a serviceable action flick held together by Michael B. Jordan playing Navy SEAL John Clark. Or more like Michael B. Jordan playing Michael B. Jordan.
But it is NOTHING like the original Tom Clancy book that fans loved. Fans of the book may even hate it for the dumbed-down cliched plot that you could see from a mile away.
And the movie is so obviously trying to set up a Rainbow Six franchise as well.
I would watch this as an action movie but not as a Tom Clancy movie. I doubt we will get anything better than The Hunt for Red October.
The problem with Tom Clancy books is the sheer amount of detail in them, and perhaps the stories are better told in a tv series format than a movie.
I thought the Amazon Prime Jack Ryan series, at least for season 1, captured the feel and tone of Tom Clancy's legacy even if they updated the plot. But so far, very few movies have done his books justice.
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