Shenzhen bi-products

Working in Shenzhen has its bi-products:

• Better reflexes: I fear for my life every time I get on a car... nobody respects a stop sign and no one uses their turning lights. So one tends to develop really good reflexes on the road even though one isn't the driver.
• Stronger abs: suspecting that every single person is trying to cut in line, all people in Shenzhen line up right behind each other. Makes me a bit homophobic sometimes, actually.Anyway, as a result, I constantly swing my backpack to create personal space. If I don't have a backpack, I'll swing my hips. Works like a charm.
• DVDs... at USD$1 a piece, you tend to just resort to pirated DVDs for all your entertainment. Here goes...

Lie to Me: Loved the end of season 1 with an undeniable dark turn. It lost some steam in the middle as every episode started to feel like CSI. Anyway, good TV but I have one big question... if actors can fake all the truth- and lie-telling faces, how can you detect them in real life? Recommended.

True Blood: I swear, my wife made me watch it. So much nudity that sometimes I thought I was watching soft porn... not that I know what soft porn is...

The Town: When the ending credits rolled out, I was shocked to see Ben Affleck directed! Not a bad effort by him. Shadows of The Heat in some of the bank robbery scenes, right down to the demise of each robber. And Ashley Judd's hand slide. It is, however, not The Heat. Affleck can try to be Michael Mann... but he can't try to be De Niro. And the guy from Mad Men is certainly no Al Pacino either. Good action flick that would have been much better if it was the first of its kind. Recommended.

The American: This is Michael Clayton, assassin version, gone bad. I fell asleep twice and finally finished the movie on the 3rd night. The Italian town is beautiful though - always liked those narrow stone paved European small towns where everybody knows everybody. Except for the new killer in town, apparently. Not recommended.

Eat Pray Love: I thought this would be a boring chick flick. Chick flick it is. Boring it is not. Thank god that Julia Roberts is in this movie as she nailed the role of midldle age divorcee unsure of herself. Negative points for making Bali a tourist madhouse (Our October honeymoon coincided with a book club gathering in Ubud). Recommended.

Oh, and happy new year!