Saturday, April 28, 2007
Move Aside Natwest Pigs...
I had a conversation with my bro today about buying a vacuum cleaner for my mum and dad's shop and it led quite naturally onto my suggestion of buying something a bit more industrial strength, like a Henry. At this point, the conversation turned a little surreal as we talked about Henry's mates, so being in the highly deluded state I am in after developments over the past few days, I looked them up and found George, Charles and James. When I was young, people collected Natwest piggy banks (although we were dedicated Midland Bank Griffin Savers - and I still have the dictionary to prove it) - maybe someone out there is trying to collect a full set of industrial strength vacuum cleaners now.
A few very good things have happened to me recently, but when they all come together, then they start interfering with each other and I am feeling a mixture of being overwhelmed and overly worried about things. I really hope I don't have to face a decision between work and family, because I would be totally torn apart. Oh well, I'll just have to see what other challenges life is going to throw at me. Why are things never so simple?
I had a conversation with my bro today about buying a vacuum cleaner for my mum and dad's shop and it led quite naturally onto my suggestion of buying something a bit more industrial strength, like a Henry. At this point, the conversation turned a little surreal as we talked about Henry's mates, so being in the highly deluded state I am in after developments over the past few days, I looked them up and found George, Charles and James. When I was young, people collected Natwest piggy banks (although we were dedicated Midland Bank Griffin Savers - and I still have the dictionary to prove it) - maybe someone out there is trying to collect a full set of industrial strength vacuum cleaners now.
A few very good things have happened to me recently, but when they all come together, then they start interfering with each other and I am feeling a mixture of being overwhelmed and overly worried about things. I really hope I don't have to face a decision between work and family, because I would be totally torn apart. Oh well, I'll just have to see what other challenges life is going to throw at me. Why are things never so simple?
Labels: family, life, shopping
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Slicing Demons
After finishing 'Best Bet', which was a bit of fun and not bad as a series, I had a choice of 'Life Art' or 'Slicing of the Demon' to watch next. To avoid Michael Tse overdose, I decided to watch 'Life' first, but I got to episode 6 and was bored out of my brains and ended up half watching whilst I played Cake Mania, so in the end I just gave up. I don't know if it gets better later on, but it bored me to the point where I don't really care. Shame really, it showed promise - I hope 'Super Cops' will be better and Kevin does a better job as a gay murderer!
So I'm currently watching 'Slicing' and it's quite amazing the difference in Michael's character from the 'laan do yee' in 'Best Bet'. It shows a versatility in his acting that was totally wasted during his stint on 'Virtues of Harmony'. We got a glimpse in 'Legal Entanglement' and 'La Femme Desperado' and I am glad that his time in the number 1 spot has finally arrived. 'Slicing' is quite enjoyable. It's a pretty predictable plot, but the scripting has been done well and Elliott Yue and Michael both do a great job of the 'outwardly good inwardly evil' roles. I love their little facial expressions when they are showing their cunning sides. Sunny Chan is back to his old 'dumb plank' role and he isn't really that convincing as the detective in this, but I guess they need a sub-plot to pad out the suspense a little. Once again, Bernice's role is nothing of note and Benz Hui is good as usual as his official role with his 'brief glimpses of genius'. Angela's role is unusual and another surprise is how Charmaine Li's acting has improved leaps and bounds.
Have also caught a few eps of 'Heart of Greed' and really enjoying it so far. Gonna wait until the whole lot is out before I start on it properly.
Talking of slicing demons, I need to slice a few of my own demons soon, otherwise I am gonna turn into a recluse. Motivation is at a low at the moment though and it seems that if I go out, I will just spend lots of money frivolously. Fortunately, I had some vouchers to use up over the weekend, so I didn't actually spend any real 'money', but they won't last forever. I think I need an outlet for my emotions, maybe I should take up kick-boxing or something like that - has to be cheaper than retail therapy.
After finishing 'Best Bet', which was a bit of fun and not bad as a series, I had a choice of 'Life Art' or 'Slicing of the Demon' to watch next. To avoid Michael Tse overdose, I decided to watch 'Life' first, but I got to episode 6 and was bored out of my brains and ended up half watching whilst I played Cake Mania, so in the end I just gave up. I don't know if it gets better later on, but it bored me to the point where I don't really care. Shame really, it showed promise - I hope 'Super Cops' will be better and Kevin does a better job as a gay murderer!
So I'm currently watching 'Slicing' and it's quite amazing the difference in Michael's character from the 'laan do yee' in 'Best Bet'. It shows a versatility in his acting that was totally wasted during his stint on 'Virtues of Harmony'. We got a glimpse in 'Legal Entanglement' and 'La Femme Desperado' and I am glad that his time in the number 1 spot has finally arrived. 'Slicing' is quite enjoyable. It's a pretty predictable plot, but the scripting has been done well and Elliott Yue and Michael both do a great job of the 'outwardly good inwardly evil' roles. I love their little facial expressions when they are showing their cunning sides. Sunny Chan is back to his old 'dumb plank' role and he isn't really that convincing as the detective in this, but I guess they need a sub-plot to pad out the suspense a little. Once again, Bernice's role is nothing of note and Benz Hui is good as usual as his official role with his 'brief glimpses of genius'. Angela's role is unusual and another surprise is how Charmaine Li's acting has improved leaps and bounds.
Have also caught a few eps of 'Heart of Greed' and really enjoying it so far. Gonna wait until the whole lot is out before I start on it properly.
Talking of slicing demons, I need to slice a few of my own demons soon, otherwise I am gonna turn into a recluse. Motivation is at a low at the moment though and it seems that if I go out, I will just spend lots of money frivolously. Fortunately, I had some vouchers to use up over the weekend, so I didn't actually spend any real 'money', but they won't last forever. I think I need an outlet for my emotions, maybe I should take up kick-boxing or something like that - has to be cheaper than retail therapy.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Doing my bit...
Been spring cleaning recently and clearing out some of the junk from my cupboards, mainly because I have had some time off from work to do this (part of my de-stressing plan) and also because there is a prospect of some more of my old junk coming over from my parents that has been displaced from my brother's renovation plans. Another motivation is that I have finally found an excuse to curb my tendency to hoard. I think it's genetic in my family to collect 'stuff' because we feel it is such a great waste to throw things away that is still useable. Hence when I discovered the Freecycle network, where you can give away things that you no longer need to prolong their working life and reduce the amount of unnecessary waste going to landfill, this plugged the hole in my conscience about throwing away perfectly good stuff. Well at least it becomes someone else's problem. And so, the last few days I have been busy freecycling - so far I have given away some futon mattresses to a lady who collects them (I think she works for a homeless hostel or something like that), some paint to a couple who have recently moved house and are trying to save on decorating costs and I have someone coming soon for some cardboard boxes and an old monitor. All good stuff, saves my petrol driving down to the dump and it's doing my bit for the environment as well!
If you have things to dispose of that don't deserve to go to the tip, then definitely get involved. It's an international movement, made up of local groups, so click on the pic above to find out about your local group!
I've finished watching "Devil's Disciple" now, so I'll jump on the bandwagon of DD reviewers and add my tuppence to the debate. I was quite looking forward to this series because I like Bosco and Sharon and of course there is my fixation of kung fu dramas, but I made the mistake of catching the last episode before watching the bulk of it and that put me off a little. If you are considering watching this series, resist the temptation to watch the last episode before the rest of it because you will be very disappointed.
The storyline is quite simple as far as kung fu dramas go, parental vengeance, the clash of good and evil and friendships and brotherhood. The look of the show was unconventional, but the girls looked pretty good and I could live with the weird hairstyles of the men. The 'academy-like' set up of the kung fu school was a bit strained, especially with the silly uniforms and the whole setup around the 'Saintly Sword Sect' was so cliched, from the silly blue neon signs, the sword graveyard and the insanely jealous 'dai see hing' (elder martial brother) and I found it quite annoying. Some great veteran talents were wasted - Ko Hung, Lily Lee, Lee Kwok Lun etc, and I could see why Patricia Liu got fed up after this series and defected to ATV. Their roles were just so immaterial and pointless, yes even the big bad guy wasn't much to talk about.
Given the circumstances, the young leads bore their focus pretty well and of course there was plenty of eye candy in the form of Bosco and Kevin. Shirley and Sharon did very well too and there is consolation in that Sharon is finally getting some meatier roles to get her teeth into. I'm indifferent about Bernice, she is a great promo model and has healthy looks and image, but on the acting front, she still needs an awful lot of work, especially with the more classical lines of an ancient drama. Wayne Lai was another redeeming factor for me, his character was so likeable and he displayed a great chemistry with Bosco. The scenes between them were the highlight of the show for me and the touching scene when Wayne's character died was for me the best bit of the whole series.
Knowing a bit about the background of producer Lau Ka Ho, I could see elements of this series being a homage to the greatness that was "The Final Combat" with Stephen Chow. Whether intentionally or not, there were elements of Chow's Duen Fei character in Johnson Lee's role in this series, from the silliness, extremeness and abrubtness of his actions to his very modern language and gestures. However, having seen it done by the master that is Chow, then as much as I like Johnson, it really didn't appeal and it was such a waste to have him in Chow's shadow rather than creating something new for Johnson to be remembered for. I have the feeling that TVB's producers are relishing far too much on their past successes and becoming lazy in creating some present-day classics for us to enjoy.
Overall, I wasn't too taken by this show and although it didn't turn out to be as much of a disappointment as 'CIB Files' last year, thanks to Bosco and Wayne, I felt that it really was a waste of what had the potential to be an attractive CG-heavy martial arts series along the lines of 'Golden Snake Sword' and 'Gods and Demons from Zu Mountains' from the past. If I was to re-watch it, I'd probably just fast forward to the bits with Bosco, Wayne and Sharon in and forget the rest of it.
Currently watching "Best Bet", which I feel is quite refreshing and underrated. Not a sparkling cast line-up, but with the right frame of mind it is proving to be very enjoyable. Michael Tse and Wayne Lai just prove that with great acting skills and perfect comedic timing, then eye candy is not so important after all.
Been spring cleaning recently and clearing out some of the junk from my cupboards, mainly because I have had some time off from work to do this (part of my de-stressing plan) and also because there is a prospect of some more of my old junk coming over from my parents that has been displaced from my brother's renovation plans. Another motivation is that I have finally found an excuse to curb my tendency to hoard. I think it's genetic in my family to collect 'stuff' because we feel it is such a great waste to throw things away that is still useable. Hence when I discovered the Freecycle network, where you can give away things that you no longer need to prolong their working life and reduce the amount of unnecessary waste going to landfill, this plugged the hole in my conscience about throwing away perfectly good stuff. Well at least it becomes someone else's problem. And so, the last few days I have been busy freecycling - so far I have given away some futon mattresses to a lady who collects them (I think she works for a homeless hostel or something like that), some paint to a couple who have recently moved house and are trying to save on decorating costs and I have someone coming soon for some cardboard boxes and an old monitor. All good stuff, saves my petrol driving down to the dump and it's doing my bit for the environment as well!
If you have things to dispose of that don't deserve to go to the tip, then definitely get involved. It's an international movement, made up of local groups, so click on the pic above to find out about your local group!
I've finished watching "Devil's Disciple" now, so I'll jump on the bandwagon of DD reviewers and add my tuppence to the debate. I was quite looking forward to this series because I like Bosco and Sharon and of course there is my fixation of kung fu dramas, but I made the mistake of catching the last episode before watching the bulk of it and that put me off a little. If you are considering watching this series, resist the temptation to watch the last episode before the rest of it because you will be very disappointed.
The storyline is quite simple as far as kung fu dramas go, parental vengeance, the clash of good and evil and friendships and brotherhood. The look of the show was unconventional, but the girls looked pretty good and I could live with the weird hairstyles of the men. The 'academy-like' set up of the kung fu school was a bit strained, especially with the silly uniforms and the whole setup around the 'Saintly Sword Sect' was so cliched, from the silly blue neon signs, the sword graveyard and the insanely jealous 'dai see hing' (elder martial brother) and I found it quite annoying. Some great veteran talents were wasted - Ko Hung, Lily Lee, Lee Kwok Lun etc, and I could see why Patricia Liu got fed up after this series and defected to ATV. Their roles were just so immaterial and pointless, yes even the big bad guy wasn't much to talk about.
Given the circumstances, the young leads bore their focus pretty well and of course there was plenty of eye candy in the form of Bosco and Kevin. Shirley and Sharon did very well too and there is consolation in that Sharon is finally getting some meatier roles to get her teeth into. I'm indifferent about Bernice, she is a great promo model and has healthy looks and image, but on the acting front, she still needs an awful lot of work, especially with the more classical lines of an ancient drama. Wayne Lai was another redeeming factor for me, his character was so likeable and he displayed a great chemistry with Bosco. The scenes between them were the highlight of the show for me and the touching scene when Wayne's character died was for me the best bit of the whole series.
Knowing a bit about the background of producer Lau Ka Ho, I could see elements of this series being a homage to the greatness that was "The Final Combat" with Stephen Chow. Whether intentionally or not, there were elements of Chow's Duen Fei character in Johnson Lee's role in this series, from the silliness, extremeness and abrubtness of his actions to his very modern language and gestures. However, having seen it done by the master that is Chow, then as much as I like Johnson, it really didn't appeal and it was such a waste to have him in Chow's shadow rather than creating something new for Johnson to be remembered for. I have the feeling that TVB's producers are relishing far too much on their past successes and becoming lazy in creating some present-day classics for us to enjoy.
Overall, I wasn't too taken by this show and although it didn't turn out to be as much of a disappointment as 'CIB Files' last year, thanks to Bosco and Wayne, I felt that it really was a waste of what had the potential to be an attractive CG-heavy martial arts series along the lines of 'Golden Snake Sword' and 'Gods and Demons from Zu Mountains' from the past. If I was to re-watch it, I'd probably just fast forward to the bits with Bosco, Wayne and Sharon in and forget the rest of it.
Currently watching "Best Bet", which I feel is quite refreshing and underrated. Not a sparkling cast line-up, but with the right frame of mind it is proving to be very enjoyable. Michael Tse and Wayne Lai just prove that with great acting skills and perfect comedic timing, then eye candy is not so important after all.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
For Posterity's Sake...
Times move on and my American site hosting company is now providing me with pretty poor service and value for money. Moreover, I don't trust the Data Protection Policies in the states after I found out recently that my personal details had been disclosed by them for all to see on the net, so it's nearly time to wave goodbye to them and make that long distance call to bid them farewell.
Before I do that though, I have the tedious task of transferring all my stuff over to my nice new British hosts. As the old stuff is in some kind of funny old 1999 coding, then I'm just gonna leave some of it behind, but before I cross out the 'thoughts' page from my list as one I can wave goodbye to, I thought I'd copy over some stuff out of it that I wrote back in 1997-99 when I first set up my website in what was a predecessor to this blog.
So here's the stuff from the time capsule:
About 1999....
When I was a little girl, I watched a TV programme where they buried a time capsule for the year 2000. I think I was about 10 at the time. I remember working out that I would be 24 when it was unearthed and thinking that was VERY OLD!!!!
Now it is 1999 .... but I am not old, yet.
About the Internet....
I used to have loads of penpals from all around the world.
Unfortunately I don't write as often as i used to - I spend too much time writing on the internet instead.
I wonder what we'll be doing when computers become outdated.
My Accent.....
People who know me say that I do not have a scouse accent. Northerners say that I speak like a posh southerner, southerners say that I am distinctly northern. I had a neighbour at university who is from Yorkshire and I come from a Chinese background, so I have had influences from both of these - and yet, my cousins in Hong Kong say that I sound like the woman on the cassettes they use for their English lessons. Maybe this diversity has produced neutrality in my language.
No other in the world - Eason Chan
This is a translation of the lyrics from one of my favourite songs.... enjoy!
Giving me confidence when nothing goes right
Sending me warmth when it's wet and windy
Comforting looks sooth my troubles and tiredness
Never changing heartbeat doesn't feel sour
Wherever the long road of life may lead
Having you gives me harmony in living
Hard days don't make me feel bad
'Cos you are with me, you are my dearest
Not once do I count my troubles or tiredness
Not once do you count what you do for me
You give and give again, you start but never end
Without condition, you share all my hardships
I've never said it before, but I will say Thankyou
I am complete because I have the love you give
Who is the dearest and most important in my life?
Of course it's you, you're the greatest,
You're my dearest
If I'm asked who has no duplicate in this world
Who can make yesterday and tomorrow shine
I'd reply there is no-one but you
And be so thankful that we are a pair
Celebrate for a lifetime, that on this earth
I meet you amongst millions of people
Want you to know that on this earth
I want to run to no other, but you!
Just 'cos I'm a girl.....
...old people think I don't know about technology.
...people will get the item on the top shelf in the supermarket for me.
...I can dream unashamedly about having the dream wedding day.
...I can get away with saying that I don't know about cars, or driving, or gardening, or DIY.
...I can't get away with saying that I can't cook, or sew, or iron, or do the dishes.
...it's great!
Times move on and my American site hosting company is now providing me with pretty poor service and value for money. Moreover, I don't trust the Data Protection Policies in the states after I found out recently that my personal details had been disclosed by them for all to see on the net, so it's nearly time to wave goodbye to them and make that long distance call to bid them farewell.
Before I do that though, I have the tedious task of transferring all my stuff over to my nice new British hosts. As the old stuff is in some kind of funny old 1999 coding, then I'm just gonna leave some of it behind, but before I cross out the 'thoughts' page from my list as one I can wave goodbye to, I thought I'd copy over some stuff out of it that I wrote back in 1997-99 when I first set up my website in what was a predecessor to this blog.
So here's the stuff from the time capsule:
About 1999....
When I was a little girl, I watched a TV programme where they buried a time capsule for the year 2000. I think I was about 10 at the time. I remember working out that I would be 24 when it was unearthed and thinking that was VERY OLD!!!!
Now it is 1999 .... but I am not old, yet.
About the Internet....
I used to have loads of penpals from all around the world.
Unfortunately I don't write as often as i used to - I spend too much time writing on the internet instead.
I wonder what we'll be doing when computers become outdated.
My Accent.....
People who know me say that I do not have a scouse accent. Northerners say that I speak like a posh southerner, southerners say that I am distinctly northern. I had a neighbour at university who is from Yorkshire and I come from a Chinese background, so I have had influences from both of these - and yet, my cousins in Hong Kong say that I sound like the woman on the cassettes they use for their English lessons. Maybe this diversity has produced neutrality in my language.
No other in the world - Eason Chan
This is a translation of the lyrics from one of my favourite songs.... enjoy!
Giving me confidence when nothing goes right
Sending me warmth when it's wet and windy
Comforting looks sooth my troubles and tiredness
Never changing heartbeat doesn't feel sour
Wherever the long road of life may lead
Having you gives me harmony in living
Hard days don't make me feel bad
'Cos you are with me, you are my dearest
Not once do I count my troubles or tiredness
Not once do you count what you do for me
You give and give again, you start but never end
Without condition, you share all my hardships
I've never said it before, but I will say Thankyou
I am complete because I have the love you give
Who is the dearest and most important in my life?
Of course it's you, you're the greatest,
You're my dearest
If I'm asked who has no duplicate in this world
Who can make yesterday and tomorrow shine
I'd reply there is no-one but you
And be so thankful that we are a pair
Celebrate for a lifetime, that on this earth
I meet you amongst millions of people
Want you to know that on this earth
I want to run to no other, but you!
Just 'cos I'm a girl.....
...old people think I don't know about technology.
...people will get the item on the top shelf in the supermarket for me.
...I can dream unashamedly about having the dream wedding day.
...I can get away with saying that I don't know about cars, or driving, or gardening, or DIY.
...I can't get away with saying that I can't cook, or sew, or iron, or do the dishes.
...it's great!
Labels: lyrics