It so happened that a blogger, whose blog I frequent, went into some headwinds in his life after he came back from a free trip to Japan last month. The frequency he updates his blog has gone way way down than normal and you can somehow sense quite a bit of anxiety and upsets. By law of attraction, as I am attracted to his blog, and now I am attracting anxiety, as well as some bad luck.
Just when I got comfortable, somebody came up to tell me I must go and my current comfort is not what I deserved. Too many bridges have been burnt, and I obviously didn't put up some grand fireworks for the grand show, so many are disappointed. An actor who can't put up a great show will be punished by audience, he will become box office poison that everybody tries to avoid.
It is sad sad sad. If you are not successful, people don't even want to befriend you, people will only belittle you. Success is the only way out.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Dave Wang's World Tour Concert - Singapore
Formerly I mentioned I would be going to Dave Wang's World Tour Concert in Singapore on 23 Oct, 2010 in this blog entry, and so I did last night.
The Max Pavilion at Singapore Expo was almost fully filled up. In an interview with the media, Dave mentioned he worried sick about his concert's ticket sales, and he was afraid his concerts may not get more than 50% filled. Now there is really no worry about that. The concert attendees are mostly in their 30s and older. The generation grew up with Dave's songs.
There were also fans coming all the way from Hong Kong and Japan to give their support to the star. They were the only ones came with flash board cards. Singapore fans are a lot more quiet and reserved, but they gave their support with their wallet :)
The concert started at 8pm, Dave appeared on stage in jeans and a jacket, that's all. Nothing fancy. No stunning opening, no stunning ending. Through the entire concert, there was nothing glamorous, nothing fancy, it is a 'naked' concert, devoid of everything but music.
Dave sang 20+, close to 30 songs in the 2.5 hours concert. He was singing, singing and singing, with the occasional chit-chat with the audience. His songs usually have very high key, and extremely taxing on the voice. Yet he managed it beautifully. At the age of 40+ close to 50, his voice has deteriorated a bit, no longer as smooth as when he was a 20+ young man, yet it is still remarkable good.
The audiences, although mostly in their 30s and above, were surprisingly cooperative when Dave asked them to sing along, especially of those of his famous pieces such as A Game A Dream (一场游戏一场梦).
It was a night of pure music, a night of good old feelings from a super star.
The Max Pavilion at Singapore Expo was almost fully filled up. In an interview with the media, Dave mentioned he worried sick about his concert's ticket sales, and he was afraid his concerts may not get more than 50% filled. Now there is really no worry about that. The concert attendees are mostly in their 30s and older. The generation grew up with Dave's songs.
There were also fans coming all the way from Hong Kong and Japan to give their support to the star. They were the only ones came with flash board cards. Singapore fans are a lot more quiet and reserved, but they gave their support with their wallet :)
The concert started at 8pm, Dave appeared on stage in jeans and a jacket, that's all. Nothing fancy. No stunning opening, no stunning ending. Through the entire concert, there was nothing glamorous, nothing fancy, it is a 'naked' concert, devoid of everything but music.
Dave sang 20+, close to 30 songs in the 2.5 hours concert. He was singing, singing and singing, with the occasional chit-chat with the audience. His songs usually have very high key, and extremely taxing on the voice. Yet he managed it beautifully. At the age of 40+ close to 50, his voice has deteriorated a bit, no longer as smooth as when he was a 20+ young man, yet it is still remarkable good.
The audiences, although mostly in their 30s and above, were surprisingly cooperative when Dave asked them to sing along, especially of those of his famous pieces such as A Game A Dream (一场游戏一场梦).
It was a night of pure music, a night of good old feelings from a super star.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Foggy Singapore
It is the second day Singapore is being covered under a thick layer of smog. The air quality has deteriorated with PSI rising up to 108 points in the evening.
This is the annual forest burning season in Indonesia, and Singapore and Malaysia both have suffered badly from this barbaric activity.
The smog is so bad that the visibility has significantly reduced, the air is filled up that burning smell. It irritates your eyes, throat and nose.
May this smog disappear soon!
This is the annual forest burning season in Indonesia, and Singapore and Malaysia both have suffered badly from this barbaric activity.
The smog is so bad that the visibility has significantly reduced, the air is filled up that burning smell. It irritates your eyes, throat and nose.
May this smog disappear soon!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sutera Mall @ JB
Went over to Sutera Mall in JB yesterday. Sutera Mall is one of the suburban malls in the outskirts of Johor Bahru downtown. The mall is not very big, there are only two stories. The anchor tenant is CarrFour hypermart, so you can expect there is quite a bit of crowd here. In its annex, there is a Peiking Restaurant with two or three wedding halls catering to traditional Chinese wedding banquet, so there is even more crowd. However, there is a pity that there is no cinema in the mall. Well, you should guess by now what is the most popular industry here :)
The shops in the mall are quite normal, and you can find similar restaurants in Bukit Indah mall too. For example, you can find Tang Shifu here, you can find Stone Grill here too!
Highlight of this mall for me is actually JB Archery, a small little archery sanctuary tucked at one corner on the mall on level 2. Here, you pay RM 10 for 18 arrows, or RM15 for 36 arrow, or if you are strong enough, you can pay RM20 for 60 arrows! This is a lot cheaper than in Singapore.
The bowls they have are the cheaper normal bowls, not the carbon fibre type, which is quite understandable. One carbon bowl costs like a couple of thousand dollars. They also have assistants there to provide guidance and advice.
It is the first time in almost a decade for me to pick up a bowl. All that I learnt in my archery course somehow has gone down to the drain and I could hardly remember anything :P Anyway, after shooting for a while, I started to pick up a bit of the feel. But, after shooting, my left hand pains like hell.
Anyway, it was quite fun doing shooting again.
How to get there? From Singapore, you can take CW4s from Jurong East MRT station. Under normal circumstances, it takes only 1 hour to get there. However, if you go on Sunday, the CW4s service is partially combined with CW3, and you have to change bus after you arrive at Geylang Patan, change to bus 666. Bus 666 takes a big big big detour and it takes another hour to reach Sutera Mall.
The shops in the mall are quite normal, and you can find similar restaurants in Bukit Indah mall too. For example, you can find Tang Shifu here, you can find Stone Grill here too!
Highlight of this mall for me is actually JB Archery, a small little archery sanctuary tucked at one corner on the mall on level 2. Here, you pay RM 10 for 18 arrows, or RM15 for 36 arrow, or if you are strong enough, you can pay RM20 for 60 arrows! This is a lot cheaper than in Singapore.
The bowls they have are the cheaper normal bowls, not the carbon fibre type, which is quite understandable. One carbon bowl costs like a couple of thousand dollars. They also have assistants there to provide guidance and advice.
It is the first time in almost a decade for me to pick up a bowl. All that I learnt in my archery course somehow has gone down to the drain and I could hardly remember anything :P Anyway, after shooting for a while, I started to pick up a bit of the feel. But, after shooting, my left hand pains like hell.
Anyway, it was quite fun doing shooting again.
How to get there? From Singapore, you can take CW4s from Jurong East MRT station. Under normal circumstances, it takes only 1 hour to get there. However, if you go on Sunday, the CW4s service is partially combined with CW3, and you have to change bus after you arrive at Geylang Patan, change to bus 666. Bus 666 takes a big big big detour and it takes another hour to reach Sutera Mall.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Ip Man 2
Ip Man 2 is sequel of the hugely successful movie Ip Man. As usual, the sequel is not as good as the first movie, and Ip Man 2 is, unfortunately, of no exception. Still starring Donnie Yen as Ip Man, he is still so skillful in both fighting and acting, and still a man of manners, but this time the weak point is in the story. The story is on the plain side and cliche. Nonetheless, it is still a good movie, especially when you look beyond the surface.
Ip Man, as a Chinese kungfu master, has fought Japanese in episode 1, now fought a British in episode 2. How much fact in the movie does not really matter, but Ip Man is actually the embodiment of China, China including both sides of the Taiwan Strait. China had fought Japanese invasion, China had fought the British and won back Hong Kong, although a bit late, in 1997. And now China is fighting with the descendants of the British - the Americans. Ip Man's fight in the movie is a direct reflection of present day China's struggle to become strong and to stand equal to the super-powers, economic and military wise with the Japanese, British, & American.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
detective dee and the mystery of the phantom flame
Detective Dee is another one of the star-studded, big production movies. The stars are good, including Andy Lau, Liu Jia-ling, Liang Jia Hui and some others. Their acting skills are not bad. Then the director added in quite a bit of western style of dreamy fairy kind of computer graphics to make the movie more like happening in a fantacy land, rather than on planet earth.
However, the story is not that great. It is ok, but too lengthy, and they don't have much suspense. I couldn't tell who the bad guy is until towards the end of the movie, but then somehow there is very little ups & downs and the movie simply doesn't attract your attention.
You can watch this movie in a low cost way when you free and have nothing better to do :)
Friday, October 15, 2010
随笔（3）- 快乐
常常听人说我们要去寻找快乐，快乐是可以寻找的么？ 快乐是什么？ 它看得见，摸得着，有定价钱么？ 好像都没有， 那要到哪里去找呀？ 说实在的，也没什么好找的， 快乐就是一种心理状态，你说你快乐，你就快乐；你觉得你快乐，你就快乐。 快乐也是一种选择，你选择快乐， 你就快乐， 别人想抢，想偷，抢不到，也偷不了你的快乐。
赤贫的小孩生活很苦，但是他们也有快乐的时光。 抛下心中的忧愁，他们一样欢快玩耍。 富裕的孩子，拥有赤贫孩子没有的物资，无后顾之忧，他们也可以很快乐。 赤贫的小孩， 富裕的孩子都可以快乐，只要他们选择了快乐。
多少人总是说他如果有了什么什么，他就会很快乐； 如果他达到了什么目标， 他就会很快乐， 但结果呢？ 到头来他还是很不快乐。 快乐很简单，如果你选择快乐，你就会快乐，这一刻就选择快乐吧！
赤贫的小孩生活很苦，但是他们也有快乐的时光。 抛下心中的忧愁，他们一样欢快玩耍。 富裕的孩子，拥有赤贫孩子没有的物资，无后顾之忧，他们也可以很快乐。 赤贫的小孩， 富裕的孩子都可以快乐，只要他们选择了快乐。
多少人总是说他如果有了什么什么，他就会很快乐； 如果他达到了什么目标， 他就会很快乐， 但结果呢？ 到头来他还是很不快乐。 快乐很简单，如果你选择快乐，你就会快乐，这一刻就选择快乐吧！
25% Cash Machine
Title: 25% Cash Machine
Author: Bryan Perry
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc 2007
In this environment of super low yield, investors are constantly looking for high yield and safe investments, in place of the traditional safe but low yield investment products.
The book was published back in 2007, a year before the arrival of the great recession in the states, as a result, some of the investments do really look very favourable, high yield although they are, their prices have come down by more than half. However, this book is still quite an eye opener, opening your door to a new world of high yield investment. Some of the investment principles are still valid in this post crisis world.
It is a book worth reading.
Author: Bryan Perry
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc 2007
In this environment of super low yield, investors are constantly looking for high yield and safe investments, in place of the traditional safe but low yield investment products.
The book was published back in 2007, a year before the arrival of the great recession in the states, as a result, some of the investments do really look very favourable, high yield although they are, their prices have come down by more than half. However, this book is still quite an eye opener, opening your door to a new world of high yield investment. Some of the investment principles are still valid in this post crisis world.
It is a book worth reading.
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