Categories
Travel Blog

Hong Kong, Macau Here We Come!

It seems to me that my birth-town is never short of drama.  While Cynthia and I was making our way out of the airport, somewhere on the other side of the immigration area, an attempted theft took place rather dramatically as accounted by my mother. Gossip works wonder when stories from different eye witnesses miraculously form the story that is passed around to everyone nearby.

One man was robbed inside one of the shops in the airport and immediately, he gave chase to the thief who took away his wallet and passport. Not wanting to lose sight of the thief, the victim without a second thought dropped his luggage and backpack. He managed to grab the backpack of the thief and riped that off the running thief. He then grab the jacket of the thief and that too went off. Soon, the victim was close enough to deliver not one, not two, but three good punches onto the thief’s body. At this point, I am not sure who was the victim, or who became the victim. After pinning the thief onto the ground, he yelled for the police (to the extend of why there weren’t any police around). A few bystanders helped to pin down the thief and the victim retraced his path of destruction and regained his abandoned belongings. As dramatic as it was just minutes ago, the thief was taken away in handcuffs by the police.

We took a bus from the airport to home. Bus drivers in Hong Kong have this superb skill in tackling the sharp bends and small roundabouts with such a blazing speed. The empty beer cans were rolling incessantly from one end of the bus to another. One luggage was thrown out of the designated area and crashed onto the front side of the bus. The owner quickly put it back only to see it thrown out of the rack another time, and another time. Empty food wrappers hovered above the bus floor fueled by some circular invisible forces. I kept staring at the empty beer cans, a special light beer that I have not seen in Singapore. I felt thirsty and I am suppose to be on a detox trip.

Familiar places and there are so much to do here. In just 4 hours’ time, I will have to get up and catch a ferry to Macau. It certainly sounds like fun.

Stay tuned.

Categories
I See I Write

Nokia’s N95 8GB – First Impression

The new Nokia N95 8GB, in my humble opinion, is a true beauty. I will tell you why in just a bit. I did not anticipate a phone upgrade. My last phone was a N80 just 1.5 years ago. Since SingTel was kind enough to extend the expiry date of my S$120 voucher for another 3 months (while at the same time issued me another S$120 voucher that lasts till the end of 2008), I traded in my N80 and got my new phone for just over S$300 with a 2-year plan.

The first thing you shall notice is that the screen of N95 8GB is pretty big. Especially so when compares to its sibling N95. Not only that, the charger is really tiny and light – a size less than your normal power plug (again, smaller than its sibling). In fact, the phone is pretty light. More than one friend of mine are surprised by its weight. N95 8GB is lighter than my old N80, thinner as well. I like the “latch” feeling when I slide the phone upward to reveal the keypad (N80 didn’t have that feel) or when I slide the other way to reveal the media player buttons. Once I slide downward, the screen automatically switches from portrait to landscape. Neat! Landscape mode is best for viewing pictures, video clips, and surfing Internet.

I am a big music lover. So the first thing I did with the phone was to play some music. Mind you, forget about the audio format that the Nokia desktop software suggests. Go for a good quality MP3 conversion (by iTune or Windows Media Player) and stick by it. You have 8GB and it is more than enough to store close to 1,500 songs of good sampling quality. On the day I got my phone, I invested in a good pair of Sennheiser headphone. It is a must-have, believe me. The media player of the Nokia N95 8BG allows you to have the audio settings of loudness (good for my car stereo), stereo widening (good for headphone listening), and a standard set of equalizer that caters for different genres of music. Cynthia was pleased with the sound quality of the phone, and she has an iPod player.

One music video clip takes up about 20MB after conversion by Nokia desktop software and the result on the N95 8GB is stunning. Of course, cutting videos from your favorite DVD or CD could be tedious (I will post a how-to article later) but I can tell you, it is worth it.

The browser is a lot faster than my old N80. And thanks to all the free wi-fi network in around Singapore, I found myself connecting to the Internet often when I am outside. Wireless@sg has certainly improved since its first launch. Even at Thomson Plaza, I can access the Internet at a relatively high speed (snail speed when I was at Orchard though).

Some people I’ve talked to are concern about the battery life. Let me tell you one thing. One fine day I was making phone calls, listening to music, watched some videos, log onto Internet to check the stock market and to watch YouTube mobile the entire day, and surprisingly, the battery survived.

Though there are still quite a number of functionalities I have not explored (such as the GPS and Podcast), by and large, I am glad that I have this new phone. The only complain I have? It doesn’t run on the standard Java platform, only a scaled down version I suppose.  That would have been nice because I book movies online often and I buy and sell stocks in the Internet too.

Categories
Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Why Do Grown-ups Watch Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium?

Today (21st) was TK’s birthday so I gratefully let him choose what he wished to watch. “Can you choose for me? I have a Christmas party to attend,” said TK over MSN. I looked at the list of movies available and we have almost covered all of them. “Erm …,” I replied, “We can have National Treasure, a Thai comedy, or that Natalie Portman movie.” Turned out that TK has watched National Treasure the day before (and according to him, that wasn’t good). “Good, we have two choices then. Hang on, I am sending the trailer of the Thai movie over. Personally I think the Thai movie may be a better choice,” I said. The beauty of Internet technology, the beauty of YouTube.

“Let’s support Natalie,” said the birthday boy. “Let’s support Natelie then,” I concurred. TK and I are both big time Natalie Portman fan. I have literally followed Natalie’s career from her debut as Mathilda in Léon (aka The Professional) to Evey of V for Vendetta. My personal favorite is Closer. What is yours?

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is a straightforward fantasy movie with Portman as the toy store manager and Dustin Hoffman as the … 243 years old boss. Okay, there is suppose to be a lot of magic inside the store and the computer graphics is top notch. The kids may enjoy the movie. Not for the grown-ups, I suppose. There are other better fantasy movies out there such as Enchanted and The Golden Compass.  Unless you are like us who have covered most of what are out there …

Categories
Announcement

My Site Is Almost Back Up, Last Installment From Our Mount K Trip, And Our Upcoming Trip

OK. It has been a real painful experience migrating the blog entries. It is even a more painful experience migrating the articles. What is the difference between blog entries and articles you may ask. To me, articles are not time sensitive, don’t have to be arranged chronologically, may contains a great number of words and pictures, and hence, not suitable to be put onto the front page. If you notice the header of my site, there is one link to the blog and I have just added another link to the article section today.

My previous blog engine was a proper content management system. To replicate that in this blog engine, it was tough. Try pick one random article, say Our Mount Kinabalu Experience and scroll to the bottom of the article. See that drop-down list box? I have to code that myself and link all the sub-pages together! Cool thing, eh?

On a side note, I know it is long overdue to release the personal journals of our Mount Kinabalu trip. The fact is, we have been waiting for our friend TK to write his. However, our hope diminishes as time goes by. So, it is a high time to release ours. Cynthia’s journal is her first article contribution to my site. You can read our personal journals through our Mount Kinabalu article.

Enjoy.

PS. Cynthia and I will be flying to Hong Kong / Macau coming this Saturday till the end of the year. I will try to keep up with your blogs and to post something in mine from time to time.

PS. Why only 95%? Ain’t you done? Not quite my friend. I intend to write a proper profile page and perhaps, find a way to construct a site-map. Besides, I wish to tidy up the side bars. Seems a bit too crowded, eh?

Categories
Diary

A Roller Coaster Ride With Hyflux Water Trust

My virgin foray into the stock market is best described in the following analogy.

Once upon a time in a remote village, a young boy grew up listening to the legendary war stories of his ancestors. How those legendary heroes won battles, pillaged other villages, and took home the women as their own. Barely able to shoot anything – set aside to avoid getting shot – this young boy could not hide his excitement when one day, he got to join rank with the rest of the comrades for the battles somewhere far away (does it sound like a number of movies that you have watched?).

The battlefield was nothing like what this young boy has imagined. Suddenly, all the stories of how people got blown up into pieces, the casualties of the war, and the fact that not everyone who joined the campaign came back in one piece made sense to him. Feeling lost, this young boy took cover, observed, and uncertain of the next cause of action.

When I opened the trading account last month, I had no idea what to do with it. One day, I noticed the promotional counter right underneath my office for the IPO of Hyflux Water Trust (HWT). I personally like the branding of Hyflux (as well as Olivia Lum) and I believe that human beings are over-populating the planet. We are not going to have enough clean water for our next generation. Hence, I am a believer of treating water is the way to go. Besides, HWT’s current projects are in China and China is a high growth region. Through the ATM, I subscribed to 11 lots of HWT share that was priced at S$0.78.

I got 3 lots of HWT share that worthed S$2,340 before the trade started. A few friends congratulated me and wished me the best. On day one, the share price dipped and I lost S$210 on paper (-10%). On day three, the share price rose and I made S$375 on paper (+16%). As the US market went down, many counters went down too. So was HWT. Last week, I gathered enough courage to put a buy order of 9 lots at S$0.76. It was not easy to stare at the potential S$7k investment and submit the order. The feeling is hard to describe. It was like my heart beat faster, my mind was preoccupied with tons of “what-if”. Looking back, it is fortunate that the market closed at S$0.765 and my order did not materialized. Today, HWT share closed at S$0.74 (a paper lost of S$120 with 3 lots).

I do not intend to speculate. All I want to do is to stock up a bit more on HWT because I truly believe in its potential. It is hard to decide when to buy and when to sell. At times I wonder, there is no announcement on the progress of HWT as of today but yet, the share price swings up and down. History tells us that if one was to invest S$10k in Cosco or Raffles Education five years ago, one would have been a millionaire today. History also tells us that many get burned in the stock market and some of them now invest in managed funds instead. One thing for sure is that these are the battles I wish to participate. But meanwhile I have to learn how to shoot … and to avoid being shot.

Categories
Movie Reviews

Hero, Enchanted, and Warlords

I thought “Hero” and “Enchanted” are both not showing in cinemas now but I am wrong. So, what the heck. I will do a three-in-one review then.

Takuya Kimura was great in the samurai movie Love and Honor. In “Hero”, he plays a rather usual prosecutor who doesn’t dress up like a typical lawyer and defies the higher power. He enjoys slow trials because he believes that only then, the accused can fully appreciate the weight of their sins. Together with him was a team of prosecutors who take on this bizarre case of murder that ultimately involves someone politically influential. The Korean actor Lee Byung Hun (so good looking!) is in the poster of this movie but his appearance is too brief. I think the part of the Japanese prosecutors’ visit to Korea is probably the highlight of the movie. Quite a number of scenes are a bit too far fetched. The entertainment value is there. However, some may find the pace of the movie a bit too slow.

“Enchanted” is a surprise to me. I watched “Enchanted” because it is nominated for the Golden Globe award. A rather forgettable storyline aside, the transition between the animation and the real life acting is pretty interesting. I especially like the acting of Amy Adams. Where does she come from?! She acts as though she was a cartoon character. Awesome! I personally didn’t like the cockroaches and rats but besides that, “Enchanted” is a very entertaining movie. I was laughing all the way till the end. A decent comedy-fantasy-musical film I must say.

It’s been a long time since TK watched a Chinese movie (not for Cynthia and I as Lust, Caution still lives vividly in my mind to say the least). “Warlords” is a well made Chinese movie. Perhaps one of the better ones in recent days. There is nothing groundbreaking in terms of storyline. The same kind of treachery, betrayal, bonding, honor, and sacrifice. Andy Lau plays the honored one who believes in righteousness and he is all for his people. Jet Li plays the General who believes that so long as the means justify the ends, people will understand the truth in the end – even if they have to die for it. Takeshi Kaneshiro plays as the loyal and obedience one who takes promises seriously. Together, they sworn in as blood brothers and have decided to wage war to the Chinese cities that have fallen to the hands of the warlords on behalf of the Empress. The acting is top notch. So is the filming of the war scenes. Nothing groundbreaking like I said. Nevertheless a good Chinese movie to watch in recent days.

Categories
Diary

Okay, My Today’s Blog Entries Will Probably Read Silly 10 Years From Now

Ever since I changed the blog engine not too long ago, every night I painstakingly convert one blog entry after another. Then I stumbled on stuffs that I wrote 10 years ago and I got goose bumps all over my body. Tempting not to convert those old articles into blog entries but I think, perhaps what I write today will read silly 10 years from now anyway. So I park these old entries in the category of From The Attic. Back in those days, I kept an email group of friends and family and I broadcast my materials regularly, and I received feedback regularly. From The Attic is a tiny potion of what I was used to have (imagine the amount of goose bumps I would have … I could die from it). Looking back, I am amazed in how Internet has changed our lives. The self-managed email group is out, friendly and anonymous traffic are in.

And it was the malicious anonymous traffic that brought down my previous site. I am still in the mist of converting my entries. As you can see from the bar above, after staying till wee hours every night (last night I worked till 5am), it is now 31% complete. Still quite a way to go. I need to go through each entry and manually change all the links, upload all the images into the designated directories at the server, re-size some of the over-sized ones to fit the standard template, and etc. After which, I will think of what to do with some of the timeless entries (a technical term by WordPress to indicate that nature of the entry that is different from the time sensitive blogs, not that they are literally timeless). Perhaps I will put them as pages.  Stay tuned.

Categories
Documentary Movie Reviews

Nanking – A Powerful Documentary Inspired by the Late Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking

When I first saw the bombs landed on Iraq’s capital Baghdad on CNN, I felt the tears at the back of my eyes. I had the same feeling when I watched the Japanese in “Nanking” dropping the bombs onto the city of China, Nanking – even a more intense feeling. I was gasping for air. It is hard to watch because wartime documentary films are not Hollywood films. Those were the real houses built by real people lived by real people and the corpses scattered on the ground were real. The crying of the survived ones was as real as those who were dead. Since young, I spent lots of time reading the history of China during WWII – especially on the Japanese invasion. The atrocity of the war and the suffering of the people. I have read pages and pages of historical articles and I have probably seen more gruesome pictures of the execution of the Chinese by the Japanese than I should have at that young age. One picture that still vividly lives in my mind till today is a sea of dead semi-naked Chinese women lying flat on the ground with long sticks inserted into their private parts. I read that the Japanese wouldn’t want to waste bullets on Chinese women, sticks would do the job.

War is horrible and of course, I don’t despise the Japanese (though I am angry with them for not admiting what they have done in the past till today). I despise the war. The documentary film “Nanking” was played out by a group of contemprary actors taking the role of the missionaries, university professors, doctors, and businessmen. These foreigners witnessed the cruelty of war and they stayed behind to establish a safety zone for the Chinese refugees in Nanking. The interviews of the war survivors were conducted with the real people who did survive the war. Hearing them recounting what they had been through made me want to tear. The emotion is so real and overwhelming. These are people of over 80 years of age and you could visualize the scenes with their words.

“Nanking” also displays some of the video clips taken during the war and some, I would suppose, are unofficial interviews with the Japanese soldiers. What “Nanking” has brought out is aligned with my expectation on how the history should be told. At the end of the film, my friend and I turned to each other and hope that we won’t see a war at our doorsteps in our generation, and the next, and the next after, and the …

Categories
Announcement

Re-categorize My Blog Entries

recategorize.jpg

Since I have been handed this golden opportunity by the hackers to re-organize the contents of my site, I have taken the liberty to re-think most of the entries I have written and to come up with a new set of category. After all, we are unable to migrate the old category structure into the new one. One friend of mine told me that I should have classified my movie reviews into different genres because those who don’t like horror movies for instance, will never watch another horror movie no matter how good I think it is.

There are still lots of things to be done. Of course the folks at Osbob.com will continue to find ways to improve my site or at least offer the similar level of functionality like I used to have. While for me, I shall go through each and every blogs, to examine and update the internal links accordingly and to re-link all the images.

Certainly sounds like a new job. Hopeful there will be enough investors to show me the money.

Categories
Announcement

Site Maintenance And Seeking Of Feedback

After my site has been hacked three days in a roll, the team at Osbob.com and I have decided to adopt a different strategy and go for a more robust blogging focused engine rather that the content management system we used to have. We are still in the mist to try out new things and certainly, by the look of my site now, there are still plenty to be done such as the look-and-feel, the article section, the categorization of the hundreds of blog entries, the re-linking of all the content items, and etc. Hopefully by Christmas this year, we will return to normalcy with a fresh look. We thank you for your patience over this episode and support over the years. Please do return from time to time to see the exciting features coming your way.

Meanwhile, if you could drop in a few comments and suggestions on what this site has been doing well in the past and what can be improved, we would greatly appreciate that.

Yours,
Wilfrid + The Osbob.com Team