Monday, December 28, 2009
|| Avatar and B&A
I have the fortune to catch Avatar and Bodyguards and Assassins this Christmas season. Completely loved the two shows.
Bodyguards and Assassins is a very engaging action movie (I wonder why my friend told me that it is not an action flick when obviously it is...), but it's not the very best of its kind. Avatar on the other hand is not only the best of its kind, but it is just ground-breaking.
The only flaw is that the theme and message in Avatar is rather clichely environmentalist, anti-imperialist and anti-militarist, but surprisingly James Cameron makes it really touching and realistic. For some reason, I had the same feeling watching this as when I watched Jurassic Park, another groundbreaking sci-fi movie. Movies like this really brought the art of creating a fantasy landscape up another notch.
Bodyguards and Assassins is probably not historically correct. The setting is in colonial Hong Kong, which is kind of interesting for me as I'm born under the very same British rule. British colonialism did benefit China — or at least Hong Kong — in that it introduces western education and the laissez-faire economy to Hong Kong, among other things.
I didn't feel any bit of oppression under British rule. We had got little corruption, a free press, free economy, some political freedom (though more of the result of non-interventionist policy), a sound education system, excellent healthcare system and social infrastructure. And if I remembered correctly they allowed us to sing the China's national anthem once in a while, though most of the time it's the God Save the Queen, which on retrospect is quite a nice national anthem). That's as good as colonialism could get, isn't it?
Alright... Another looooong week ahead. I'm starting to realize that teaching is not for me. I just don't enjoy it. And damn it.
11:53 PMで、風に刻む．．．
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
|| Lost Camera
Just came across a cool concept on the Lifehacker (like to read that website for IT-related stuff - but mind you I'm not a computer geek).
Have you lost your camera before? Andrew MacDonald have a number of files he never deletes on his digital camera, and when viewed in a sequence, it will tell a story which may eventually get his camera returned.
10:21 PMで、風に刻む．．．
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Monday, December 21, 2009
|| Advanced Physics
Tada!!
I'm quite bored during my free time between lessons. There's not many people to talk to because they are having lessons as well. And since I'm teaching science — including physics which I dropped after O levels — it'd be easier to me to read a book on advanced physics (since I would be in the correct frame of mind). Heck, I'd been referring to a physics textbook to prepare for the O level physics lessons anyway. (and I'm quite proud that I am better than most secondary school students in physics even though I have not touched physics for two entire years. That's one thing my school had succeeded in haha.)
One of my biggest regret during JC life (other than some relationship issues) is that I could not take physics due to the contrasting subject policy. While I get the education ministry's rationale to diversify our learning experience, I think it's being excessively restricting for many people. So since I have a truckload of time on my hands right now, I might as well catch up on what I have missed these 2 years due to wicked politics (rawr).
Back to the book. Although it's not as comprehensive as the A level physics syllabus, I guess I would be able to carry out a decent conversation with JC physics student after finishing it and maybe solve one of those more straight-forward questions (I'm currently one-third through the book). Heck, I'm not sitting for an exam anyway so this is just extra reading.
I'm such a constructive person right? *nod nod*
10:29 PMで、風に刻む．．．
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Saturday, December 19, 2009
|| Hong Kong
It seems that I'm going to — returning to, oh well — Hong Kong this new year. I must really contain my impulse to splurge my month's pay on shopping in Hong Kong. This year I'm flying everywhere, first to London for my interview, and then to China to attend my cousin's wedding (damn it he's just a few years older than me!) and to visit my granddad. So I guess that the airfares alone will cost a few thousand bucks, and I will have some serious jet-lag because I won't be staying at any one place for more than a couple of days.
I'm praying that UCL will give me an offer. Fourth-ranking university in the world! How cool it is to study medicine there. And it's in London!! (And of course if I somehow miraculously get an offer from Cambridge I would be literally ecstatic. The architecture is just sooo Renaissance <3)
By the way I've came across this song on a friend's blog. I remembered hearing it in Kbox last time (I think Shi Hui and someone else sang it). The Cantonese version sounds SO MUCH NICER than the Mandarin version, though I like the lyrics of the Mandarin version more.
林峯 , 泳兒 - 明天以後 (粵)
9:49 AMで、風に刻む．．．
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
|| Personal finance
I've decided to open a bank account to trade stocks. In fact this is not entirely my idea, but rather my mom's. Surprisingly she's the one encouraging me to start trading stocks now. Nothing too risky for now. I just need a capital appreciation enough to offset the inflation and maybe profit a little — that's about 3 to 4% annually.
I thought the timing is quite apt as well, seeing how I would have close to $10k of saving by the time I start my university next year from all the tuition jobs I'm doing now.
To be honest I'm not quite ready to start risking my hard-earned money in stocks now. I would rather dump them into a fixed deposit account and just be happy with capital preservation. However I reasoned that since those money are quite "disposable" anyway, as in I don't NEED them urgently anyway and there's no real harm losing some money here and there — I won't go broke — I might as well pick up on some skill on personal financing.
There's so much things to do for next year. Good to be busy.
Maybe I'm a workaholic.
10:02 PMで、風に刻む．．．
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Monday, December 14, 2009
|| The Storm Warriors
Throughout the film I thought it was quite lame. There was no real plot in it and almost the entire 112 mins is packed with action, action and more action. But on retrospect I thought that maybe the whole point of the movie is not meant to be a drama, but rather as an action extravaganza with dazzling special effects.
And yes, the special effects are awesome.
It is so awesome that it can easily rival that of many Hollywood productions. In fact one of my first impression after 5 minute of watching the film is that "wow, Hong Kong directors have really huge budgets nowadays".
But having said that, unless you are a hardcore fan of Chinese kungfu comicbook — I'm not — you would probably find the action here an overkill and the plot almost non-existent. I can summarize the whole plot in four short sentences in fact: An evil warlord wants to conquer China. Two heroes rise to defeat him. They fight. The evil warlord is defeated.
And as a side-note: I just realized that there's another cinema company called Film Garde in Iluma. I know I'm slow, but I don't go there often.
8:53 AMで、風に刻む．．．
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|| First week of tuition
This marks the end of my first week as a teacher in a tuition centre.
It was quite slack. On average I have about 2 one-and-a-half hour lesson everyday, and they are on O-level physics and chemistry which I can manage very easily after two-years of drilling in JC (and O-level physics is easy).
I had two Vietnamese students there, and the others are mostly PRCs. I guess the only period of nightmare is when I have to teach them how to read newspapers and to write their opinion on it. If I have to find a word to describe my experience, I would pick "fucking horrendous" — okay that's two words. From that day onwards I swear to Buddha and Jesus and The Hindu Elephant God that I will never do anything that involves both PRC and English.
But mostly I've enjoyed myself there. The workload is really very manageable, and for all the free time I have I'm actually earning money. Besides my tuition centre job I've got myself some private home tuition to top up my allowances. And after giving some private home tuition I realized why the pay is so much higher — you have to talk and talk for the whole of 2 hours. In tuition centre we usually give them a short lecture to summarize and then just throw them the assessment book to do, and in the meanwhile we can go out to get a coffee and talk to the boss or other teachers. It wouldn't drive you mad.
Oh well at least there's a sense of purpose in my life now, instead of just rotting away at home.
8:45 AMで、風に刻む．．．
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Friday, December 04, 2009
|| Got a job.
Yay. Got a job at a tuition centre as assistant teacher. 5-day week and monthly pay 1k for the first 3 months but may raise to 1.2k after the 3 months. Though it's nowhere as good as the pay for private tuition (which I have a few "clients" in mind also), it is quite reasonable at $50 per day (about ~$10 per hour on average). It will boost my portfolio so that I can raise my price for private home tuition in the long run.
So yes!! I'm suddenly so occupied for the next one year!
11:11 PMで、風に刻む．．．
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