Manila Freelancer

Erotic, originally uploaded by hot in buffalo.

The Chanting – Horror

Cast: Julie Estelle, Evan Sanders, Ratu Felisha, Alice Iskak, and Lita Soewardi
Director: Rizal Mantovani
Released by: Mega Films
Year released: 2007
Running time: 1 hr 33 m
MTRCB rating: PG-13
Official web site: http://www.filmkuntilanak.com/

Movie Review: This is one of the best Asian horror film Ive ever seen.. Filmed in Indonesia (in Bahasa but with subtitles). Its story about Sam who chosed to live separate with her step-father who takes advantage of her. Having no job and money, she rented a large and cheap room, ignoring the fact that it is located in a haunted neighbourhood right beside an old cemetery with a Kuntilanak tree in the middle. Upon arrival, the dorm keeper sang an ancient Javanese chant that somehow taps into Sam’s nerve. Whomever she sings the chant to will die a horrible death. Things go out of control when Sam chants about her boyfriend, Agung, who disappears mysteriously.

The ‘pontianak’ or ‘Kuntilanak’ (as known in Indonesia) is a type of vampire in Malay folklore. The kuntilanak is usually a woman who dies during childbirth and her spirit seeks revenge and terrorises villages. Therefore, ‘Kuntilanak’ is probably derived from the Malay words ‘bunting’, which means pregnant, and ‘anak’, meaning child.

Strange things start to happen and Sam sees a white apparition sitting on the chair, combing its hair. She later discovers strands of white hair on the chair. One day, an argument takes place between Sam and a housemate. Shortly after the incident, the housemate dies – right after an involuntary chanting by Sam. Soon more of her housemates join the body count, including her close friend, Dinda (Ratu Felisha). When Sam’s boyfriend, Agung (Evan Sanders), disappears mysteriously, everyone leaves the rented house, except for Sam, who insists on getting to the bottom of the mystery.

Indonesian director Rizal Mantovani has definitely put in a lot of effort in the production of “Kuntilanak”. The sound effects are relatively good – enough to chill your bones; and so is the cinematography. I never expected Indonesians to produce this kind of movie, fantastic. Its comparable to “Sukob”, a locally produced horror movie by Star Cinema. The cast – Julie Estelle, Evan Sanders and Ratu Felisha – are credible, especially Estelle who manages to sustain our attention as a vulnerable student. The unpredictable storyline, and the scenes of innocent people dying with their heads turned to the back, all add up to another horror outing about the myths of pontianak.

Im sure a local film outfit will create something similar to this…. You know who? remember smallville? with a local copycat?

7:00 pm, Yesterday, 拇指山, originally uploaded by yusheng.

Facts :
- Taipei 101 is the world’s tallest building, surpassing the height of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur in late August 2003.
- Taipei 101 holds the world record in three of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s height categories: tallest to the structural top, tallest to the roof, and highest occupied floor.
- The outdoor observation deck is the highest in the world. It is expected to be surpassed by the outdoor deck in the Shanghai World Financial Center.
- This was the first world’s tallest building completed in the 21st century. The next will most likely be Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
- The 89th floor holds an indoor observation area, and an outdoor observation deck is located on the 91st floor.
- Taipei 101 is the first and currently only building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height.
- The highest section of the spire was installed on 9 October 2003. At the official ceremony on 17 October, Taipei’s mayor Ma Ying-Jeou fastened a golden bolt to signify the official topping-out.
- Before the spire was installed there was a separate topping-out ceremony on July 1st, 2003 for completion to the roof level. The president of Taiwan and the mayor of Taipei participated in the event.
- An 800-ton tuned mass damper helps stabilize the tower in high winds and earthquakes. This damper is an enormous ball of welded steel plates hanging inside the top of the building, and is visible from the restaurant and bar which encircles the space around the ball.
- The design is inspired by traditional Chinese architecture, with a shape resembling a pagoda. The sectioned tower is also inspired by the bamboo plant, which is a model of strength, resilience, and elegance.
- The tower’s design specifications are based on the number “8″, a lucky number in traditional Chinese culture; it features 8 upward-flaring sections, and is supported by 8 supercolumns. The Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai also employs this numerology in its design.
- Most aspects of the design, layout and planning were reviewed and approved by a Feng Shui master.
- The elevators are the fastest in the world, rising at 1008 meters per minute (60.48 km/hour) and descending at 610 m/min (36.6 km/hour). The top speeds are 34 percent faster than the previous world’s fastest elevators in Yokohama Landmark Tower.
- This is one of the few buildings in the world equipped with double-deck elevators.
- Each elevator is designed with an aerodynamic body, pressurization and emergency braking systems, and the world’s first triple-stage anti-overshooting system. The cost for each elevator is over $US 2 million.
- Exterior construction elevators and the construction elevator shaft were fully disassembled in late February of 2004.
- The Taiwan Stock Exchange rents 7 floors in the building.
- Inside the base of the tower is the large Taipei 101 Mall, which opened before the tower on November 13th, 2003.

In theory, there are two main benefits of being listed in a web directory:

• Increased link-popularity due to a one-way link from a highly-respected resource.

• Increased traffic due to being listed in a directory that is searched by many people every day.

In reality though, these benefits are directly related to how popular the directory is itself, and how much money you have paid for your listing. Of course, if the link is for free, there is nothing to worry about.

But if you are paying for submission, you need to know some very important facts.

Link Popularity

As far as link-popularity is concerned, you need to factor in several variables:

• The Page Rank of the directory
  
• The Page Rank of the category page on which you are listed
• Where you are listed on the page

• The number of competing websites on that page

• If there are other websites in your niche that can offer you the same conditions for the same price or less (very, very important).

The last point is very important from the cost/benefit angle. A web directory, while being a hub itself, is NOT a niche website or an authority site. Even within categories and sub-categories, the lack of valuable content means that web directories are, at the end of the day, link pages and nothing more.

Where directories win out is the fact that they require one-time fees. In contrast, authority sites (or most websites with a Page Rank greater than 5 or 6) tend to use text links as a source fo revenue, and thus charge monthly fees. A directory listing then becomes a much better option (but only for link popularity).

More Traffic

Directory listings are also used as traffic building opportunities. How this works is that many directories are searchable for their visitors, so that users can look for information. In theory this is great – you can get lifetime traffic for just a nominal payment, but you should not expect a sudden deluge of traffic from just one directory listing. Here’s why:

• Most directories, apart from the top twenty or so, are usually used for link-building and not pure searching. This means that while people may use GoGuides or Yahoo for regular searches, you should expect that the smaller directories are mainly for link-popularity, and plan your investment as such.

• Many directories offer listings based on an alphabetical ordering, or a first-come, first-serve ordering. In both cases, your website has quite a big chance of being lost out in the noise.

• Directory-search algorithms differ greatly. Some directories, like JoeAnt, base their search on keyword relevancy (which makes it more of an exercise of stuffing your directory listing with keywords rather than making a good website), while others take a more “editorial” approach by factoring in editor ratings. And still, many directories display sponsored listings first, reinforcing the adage that even on the Internet, it’s your advertising budget that talks, and not necessarily the quality of your website.

After you factor in the above points, you realize that there are only a handful of web directories where it is a definite benefit to “pay” to be listed. And even then, you cannot just rely on just being listed – sponsor listings get much more exposure. But before we discuss these dozen or so web directories, I’d like to tell you how you can make sure your website is accepted.

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