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Everyone is talking about Sudoku and it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of the popular Sudoku game. I remember my girlfriend used to rant about Sudoku occassionally, and my response to her was “Oh, ok” or “Hmmm…ok”. I never really felt like knowing the game ’cause I thought Sudoku was just a nothing-special-to-shout-about number game.

However, thank God I managed to completely change my perspective of Sudoku. On this one fine evening, I came across a Sudoku puzzle while I was flipping through a local newspaper. I decided to try it out despite the doubts and hesitation. It’s dangerously addictive for God’s sake! After understanding the rules of Sudoku and trying out a few puzzles, I managed to learn a few tricks along the way and I got myself turned into a Sudoku fanatic. You know, sleepless nights and mealless days. I even play Sudoku on my cell phone when I get stuck in a traffic jam. The real attraction of the puzzle is that the rules are simple, yet the line of reasoning required to solve the puzzle may be complex.

In fact, Sudoku is not just a number game, it’s a logic puzzle standardly consisting of a 9×9 grid of individual cells. You are provided with an incomplete grid and you need to deduce what number from 1-9 goes where in each row, column and box until you have completed the puzzle to form a valid Sudoku grid. Ground rules: Each row, column and 3×3 of the grid contains the number 1 to 9 once, meaning that, only one of each digit can appear in a row, column or box.

Sudoku has quickly become a big name everywhere, it’s flooding airport gift shops and even rivaling crosswords in popularity. The puzzle was first introduced in Japan by Nikoli, run by the self-proclaimed godfather of Sudoku, Maki Kaji. The world’s first Sudoku championship was held in Lucca, Italy from 10 to 12 March 2006, and it was won by Tylová, a 31-year-old accountant from the Czech Republic. The second world championship is currently being held in Prague, Czech Republic from 28 March to 1 April 2007. Click here to go the official website. There’s also a live internet broadcast of the event if you want to follow the event. I’m looking forward to taking part in the third world championship. *wink*

Sudoku involves a process of elimination, narrowing down the possibilities across different variables in order to have a better chance of recognising the patterns. It is widely regarded as the world’s most prolific wellspring of logic games and brainteasers. Sudoku is good to keep the brain in good working order and to prevent brain atrophy and most importantly it’s FUN.

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(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

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I watched The Lake House (2006) a while ago, am thinking of giving it a review today. How’s the movie? I watched it about 2 months back but I can still remember every little thing in the movie, so what do you think? It’s indeed an impressive love story, and most importantly, the main actor is Keanu Reeves, one of my favorites.

As a matter of fact, The Lake House (2006) is a remake of the South Korean motion picture II Mare which was made in 2000, starring Jun Ji-Hyun and Lee Jung-Jae. The Lake House swirls around Alex (Keanu Reeves) and Kate (Sandra Bullock) in the pursuit of love and happiness. The interesting premise is both of them live in the same glass house on the lake but one in 2004 and the other in 2006, however, they are able to communicate to each other and start the romance by exchanging letters, with the help of an old letterbox on the grounds of The Lake House. And, oh, they also share the same dog, Jack (What?! The name of the character of Keanu Reeves in Speed?!).

Since the story is set simultaneously in two different years, it can be a bit of struggle to keep up with what is going on and where. Every now and then you will get lost but if you concentrate and follow the clues closely you can soon regain your grasp on the story. The pacing is a little slow, and I admitted that I fell asleep once for less than a minute, but then I managed to follow through and keep up with it although there were some twists and turns.

What? It’s a chick flick? Nah, I don’t think so, men and women can enjoy it. I enjoyed it and it will have you guessing about how the story will end. At the beginning of the movie, you think that of course everything is going to be fine and there will be a happy ending. However, as the story goes on, you begin to wonder how it could possibly end well. Thanks to the great scriptwriting, it makes us think hard and to have us hanging on the edge of our seats and driving us to really care about what is going to happen to them next. The performances in the movie are absolutely fantastic, with sentimental scenes coming off beautifully touching. The most romantic scene of the movie is Alex plants a tree for Kate to look at out of the window of her new apartment in which she moves two years later. And, the twist that makes me go crazy is when Kate realises that the guy who is going to be hit by a bus at Daley Plaza is Alex, she rushes to the lake house and leaves a desperate note in the letterbox, telling Alex not to cross the street and just wait. Of course, in the end, Alex waited. Phew, what a relief!

It has been a long time since I watched a heart warming and romantic tale. The last one that impressed me was “You’ve Got Mail (1998)“, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The Lake House (2006) is such a beautiful romance movie with a new slant, it is Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock’s second movie together, it is certainly the best one I’ve come across for a while and I recommend it.

Click here to buy “The Lake House (2006)” DVD
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(4 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
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It’s such a sunny afternoon and I’m having a cup of icy ‘Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino’ while sitting comfortably on a sofa and utilising the speedy Wi-Fi access at Starbucks. I’ve always wanted to write a review about Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino, but never had a chance, so I think this is the perfect time doing it while drinking the world’s best green tea smoothies.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine always got herself a green tea frappuccino whenever she visited Starbucks. I was a little curious and I once teased at her drinking a greenish and grassy beverage. I was wrong. My curiosity actually urged me to try it out, the first sip really surprised me, oh God, it’s so creamy and rich, it’s the most wonderful drink I’ve ever had in my life, I was impressed. I now have it at least once a week ever since the first try, and yes, I’m addicted to it. It’s been an interesting habit rewarding myself the cool treat after working for a long week, especially perfect for our hot all year round weather, despite the overdose of cream and sugar. I won’t hesitate to say that the refreshing feeling I got whenever I drink this is right up there with the time I had spending fabulous meals in a high-class restaurant in chelsea.

Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino is indeed a Matcha Japanese green tea blended with milk and ice, topped with whipped cream. Melon syrup is also one of the primary flavors used. When you first try the green tea frappuccino from Starbucks, it’s a little sweet and you don’t taste any green tea, personally I think it’s buried by the melon syrup. Therefore, if you’re a person who prefers less sweet or more green tea taste, I suggest order it without melon syrup and whipped cream, ask for one extra scoop of Matcha green tea powder, double blend it, and it will taste fabulous. Give it a try. When I first did this, the girl behind me thought I was a weirdo, and the next time I bumped into her, she was with a Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino without whipped cream in her hands, did she copy what I did? That makes two weirdos, LOL.

Besides the secret recipe, make sure they blend it well enough. My tongue once got hurt by the shaved ice, ’cause it wasn’t blended completely. Everytime I see the incomplete blending job, I will request it to be re-blended, that’s our right, it’s the consumer’s right.

Green tea is healthy, whipped cream is a nice touch, and Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino is a complete enjoyment. So, if you ever wondered whether you should try the drink, prepare yourself and go get one, it’s very addictive.

Click here to buy the matcha green tea powder
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(21 votes, average: 4.86 out of 5)
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Today, I participated in a futsal competition organized by my company, and it was real tiring. As a matter of fact, it’s the first time I played futsal. Huh? What? Playing futsal for the first time but in a competition, am I nuts? I had no choice, my team didn’t have enough people to form a team, so I was dragged to make up the headcount. Duh!

The moment I reached the venue, quickly I went around to get a futsal ball and started kicking it. Let me practise and get myself familiarized with the ball and environment, ’cause I don’t wanna embarass myself in front of the crowd during the game. Well, to my surprise, the futsal ball is harder than a soccer ball, and of course it’s smaller. It’s played between two teams of 5 players, one of whom is the goalkeeper.

Futsal is indeed an indoor version of soccer, just that the rules are slightly different from soccer (I don’t play soccer but I watch). Some rules really puzzled me, for e.g
I) You cannot hold a ball in your possession for more than 4 seconds
II) If your team’s goalkeeper pass you the ball, you cannot pass it back to him again
III)There’s no throw-in if the ball crosses the touch line, a kick-in is rewarded instead
IV) If the ball hits the ceiling, your opponent team will then be rewarded the possession

In total, I played 5 matches. After the first match, which only lasted for 14 minutes, I sweat a lot, I mean, a hell lot. Thus, you can imagine how tired I was for the rest of the matches. Although our team did not manage to score a goal, it was indeed a job well done, there’s team spirit and team work among the team and I really love this feeling. Big applause. This serves the purpose of sports.

Futsal is indeed a very good sports and exercise, it’s very easy to play but it requires good stamina. It helps football or futsal player build the fundamental skills and stamina, you might not know that Brazilian soccer players like Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho started out playing futsal. It made me feel stronger and healthier after the matches, and I think I’m going to play futsal as often as possible ’cause I think I fell in love with the game. You should try futsal.

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(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
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With a choice of three eye-catching colours, Luster Black is always the best choice. Airy Blue looks unique, but it doesn’t really look that good(in my opinion), whereas, some people like to be different. Rose Pink is real nice for ladies.

The sleek mirror finish on the front cover is a good reference to take self-portrait photos. One of the features that I like the most is definitely the hidden external OLED display, which can only be seen when in use. Basic information like reception signal, time, battery life, missed call/sms and song information can be displayed on the hidden OLED. It illuminates as soon as any sms or calls come in and it gives the effect that the caller-ID information is floating on the face of phone itself. Brilliant stuff. Another job well done by SE.

I’ve been using the 3G feature on the phone for normal internet surfing, and the speed is amazingly fast. I’m not too sure about the exact speed, but when I connect my laptop to 3G with Z610i, it gives me a 1Mbps speed, which is sufficient enough. And I love the RSS feeds reader which is a new feature added on. The only setback is that, it’s not easy to remove the battery cover. The first few attempts took me nearly 10 minutes to open the battery cover, and made me almost want to throw the phone away. You need to know the tricks to do it. “Turn the phone upside down, press the battery cover, and push” will do the trick. Remember that. Practice it until you get used to it.

In conclusion, Sony Ericsson Z610i is overall a good phone with its basic features and urban and fresh style. It is definitely value for money, except that you need to buy larger memory card as it comes with a mere 64MB M2.

**Warning** User with sweaty palms will have to think of ways to get rid of the smudgy fingerprints or stains that can be caused easily.

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(5 votes, average: 4.4 out of 5)
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