Mr Bean, J'adore and Technology

Christian Dior had shot a sensually stunning ad that starred Charlize Theron, to market the J'adore Absolu fragrance:

Now check out another version where Rowan Atkinson (of Mr Bean and Blackadder fame) was deepfaked into it:

Lots of people say it is better than the original! 

Yes, technology can be scary!

This morning, I was back to my usual breakfast routine. My nasi lemak and Coke combo: 

Last evening, I was at the D’Utama Advanced Toastmasters meeting in Petaling Jaya, Selangor – my 6th Toastmasters meeting this week. 

And whaddya know, Foong Weng Tuck was the Toastmaster! His baritone voice boomed and echoed throughout the classroom. 

I could imagine it to be akin to a lightning storm with rolling thunder – indeed, he electrified the meeting. You can be sure all of us were wide-eyed and alert, LOL! 

I’ve not seen him in ages and it was good to meet up with him. Still, hensem and looking good.

I took part in Table Topics and it was nice to be voted Best Speaker from amongst the fivesome who took part in the impromptu speaking session: 

Overall, a good meeting:

I Need a Laugh!

I don’t know about you but I need a laugh or two (or maybe, even three) and so I am sharing these videos with everybody. All three feature  the  irrepressible  Rowan Atkinson  (left). 

In case, you don't know, he is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter who is best known for his work on the sitcoms Mr. Bean and Blackadder.

 

Enjoy!

Rowan Atkinson interviews Elton John at Hysteria 3 (1991): 



Rowan Atkinson poses as a teacher and doing a roll call:

A duet between Rowan Atkinson and Kate Bush at the 1986 Comic Relief concert in Shaftesbury Theatre, London:

The London Olympics

The 2012 London Olympics got off to a glittering start on Friday – Bond, Bean, Beatles, Boyle, breathtaking brash and bonkers… an utterly British Olympic production that is a jolly good show! Check out the photos below, courtesy of The Guardian Online, published July 27, 2012 and BBC News Online published July 28, 2012:

The three-hour spectacle, a quirky take on UK life, was viewed by an estimated global TV audience of 900 million people!

The artistic director, Danny Boyle, pledged a ceremony with a theme of “this is for everyone”.

The show took viewers through “great revolutions in British society”, from an agricultural setting through to the Industrial Revolution.

A maypole features in the opening segment of the performance.

Performers play drums during the ceremony.

Actor Kenneth Branagh as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, reading an excerpt from Shakespeare's Tempest.

Steelworkers began forging material that transformed into golden Olympic rings, which lifted into the air to be suspended over the performers.

The Oscar-winning film director added that it contains “a celebration of the creativity, exuberance and, above all, the generosity of the British people”. He said there were to be “no spectators – everyone in the stadium will be part of the magic”.

An actor dressed to resemble the Queen parachutes from a helicopter over the stadium.

British actor Rowan Atkinson in his role as Mr Bean, taking part in a performance of Chariots of Fire.

Research Paper Finally in Print

I received a package from the post today. The University of Hertfordshire sent me the publication “Proceedings of the Fourth International Blended Learning Conference” where our research paper was finally published (pp 20-31). ‘Our’, here refers to the authors of the paper: Sheila Cheng, Dr. Cho Cho Wei and Victor Ong. It sure gives me a great sense of achievement to see our paper in print. And it's my very first paper!

In the evening, I attended the Taman Indrahana Toastmasters Club meeting, and I was the Toastmaster-of-the-Evening – yee sang was served and we were all "tossing" for good fortune! And lots of laughter accompanied this activity. It was not just because LeAnn Tang was the humor master, dishing out ‘impromptu humor’, but an Indrahanian event has lots of laughter befitting a happy meeting. By the way, the International Speech & Table Topics Contest for this Club will be held on March 09, 2010.

Meanwhile, a small group of five HICT Toastmasters also went to attend the Stamford College Toastmasters meeting. This group of young members (and including one would-be member, i.e. Angellica Ling) had a great time, I am told and Mike, Desmond, Vincent, Jamie and Alan can vouch for this!

What if Mr. Bean was an avatar (the James Cameron version)?

A cutie, isn't he? Thanks to Kenneth Lee for this picture.