It's End of the Year Folks

It's end of the year, and you know what you have done. Basically it's like last year or the year before: nothing except getting older and getting stupider that much for sure.

It's also this time of the year that big or small media organizations try to give out awards, for the most part self-serving gimmicks to boost traffic or attention. Top 10 songs, Top 10 movies, Top 10 websites, Top 10 people, you name it. Since I don't get any awards or nominations, I say they are all bull$hit.

The Webby Awards is perhaps the only one I know that is kind of meaningful, or perhaps not.

Talking about year end, that makes me think of a very famous or to some infamous Cantonese saying about how a whore spends her New Year....forgetabouit.

Fort Totten

Bird Watching 

Bronx Zoo

Bronx Zoo

Bronx Zoo

Bronx Zoo

This Week in Review

This is Movie Week.

Not that I saw a lot of movies, but I managed to blog more than I saw, dangerously so.

Murdoch decided to let public opinion trump freedom of bad press. He pulled the plug on the Juice man's "If I Did it." Western civilization has hopes.

Daniel Craig, the seriously bad-ass (to quote my friend Mikey) latest 007 lost out in the opening weekend to Happy Feet, a cartoon.

Happy Feet, a cartoon or computer animation if you prefer, whatever, is boring. I tried to enjoy it but I just found it totally boring. When you are a parent, you are bound to bring your kids to see one of these stinkers. Adults should be banned to review kids' movies. OKAY, Harry says he likes the movie, what can I say? Ticket was $6.75 each for first show. The animation was actually impressive.

It's Thanksgiving, I took a week off to prepare for the dinner. I did a turkey at 425F for 2 hours plus. The result was agreeably good.

Happy Thanksgiving

I don't know, if I am the pilgrim or the Indian here but I am serving the turkey. This is turkey prior to 2 hours of 425F high heat.

Thanksgiving is about pilgrims, the Mayflower, Indians, turkey and Christopher Columbus who mistook North American Natives as Indians from East Indies.

My Thanksgiving is about eating, family and friends, counting my own blessings and hopefully some shoppings.

UPDATE:

I am like preparing the Thanksgiving dinner now...

Rocky Balboa

Guys, if you are old enough you know who Rocky (1976) was, yours truly small time blogger certainly does. This winter, Stallone is bringing back the dead, resurrected Rocky for the 6th time. The 60 years old Oscar winner Sylvester Stallone is going to reprise his role as Rocky Balbo in you guessed it, Rocky Balbo (2006) Christmas this year. People always like the story of an underdog. I don't believe I ever watched the first Rocky on big screen, I was too young back then. I did remember the one Rocky fought the Russian guy. I saw it in Hong Kong with my post secondary friends, in a theatre in Mei Fu or Ocean Terminal. My memory is hazy, you know the side effect of getting old.

As if Rocky 6 or Rocky Balbo is not enough for nostalgic baby boomers then we will have Rambo in 2008. Stallone is bringing back Rambo in Rambo IV: In the Serpent's Eye. Just like Coca Cola, Stallone realizes change is not necessarily good, you do what you good at and stick with the original formula of success. You can tweak it a little like adding Diet Coke to the mix but don't overdo it. Or Stallone thinks there are still room for Rocky and Rambo besides characters like 007, Jason Bourne and Scientologist Ethan Hunt.

Rocky Balboa, I think is a true underdog story both on screen and off screen. I hope Stallone pulls it off just to show that elderly people can still be relevant.

Casino Royale

Jay Maidment/Sony Pictures

Before there was Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne, there was Bond, James Bond. Amid all the controversies, manufactured or not, Casino Royale is opening to pretty good reviews. And Daniel Craig seems to be on his way to quiet his critics. I have yet to see the movie to form an opinion.

UPDATE:

I did see the movie.

It was good but not as good as I wanted it to be. It's definitely more physical than the previous Bond movies I remember. I am not a Bond fan so my memory of Bond is pretty limited to Brosnan. I remember in Die Another Day, the special effect in which Bond kind of "snowboarded" his way to safety really made me laugh. The special effect was awful and out of place with the whole Bond's franchise. Right there, Bond lost its credibility. Craig's Bond, if anything, put some serious muscle and action back to this old franchise. Craig, more than once, showed off his physique on screen, which I must say, almost reminds me of the young Arnold Schwarzenegger (okay, may be two sizes smaller but you got the idea). The first half of the movie got some awesome actions despite a bit mindless but not so much toward the second half. The second half Bond plays the 007 version of The God of Gamblers or Du Shen (1989) minus the Hong Kong style of humor, sort of, okay maybe not Du Shen as there's no cheating, it's just that it involves high stake card games and bluffing.

Daniel Craig is not Piere Brosnan, he is just another Bond, James Bond.

For who: People who like action and excitement. Children: The film is rated PG-13, so don't expect anything seriously adult. But I won't bring any 7 years old to see it. It has a ball whacking torture scene that involves a very naked 007. If you are into outlandish gizmo and gadgets, invisible car anyone? Then this one is not for you. The only gadget in the movie is a cardiac defibrillator.

UPDATE:

How could I not mention the very lovely Eva Green? She plays Bond's love interest in the movie. I think the New York Times says something to the extent that she proves that her talent is bigger than her breasts. Considered that a compliment. I must say I didn't know she starred in Bertolucci's softporn Dreamers (2003), I didn't see it as I was not sold to this arty farty kind of movie anymore, if I saw it I must have remembered her. She is probably the only Bond girl who appeared totally nude in a major motion picture prior to casting as a Bond girl. This being a work-safe blog, I am not going to link to her arty soft-porn stills from Dreamers. I may just need to check out Dreamers just so I can better understand her body ... of works.

My Blueberry Nights

Photos Macall Polay/Jet Tone Films

My Blueberry Nights, Wong Kar-wai's first American movie starring Jude Law, otherwise known as the combed-over who screwed his kid's baby-sitter and singer-songwriter Norah Jones. If you are a Wong fan, then you've probably heard about this movie already. If not, like yours truly, you can read about it via the New York Times article The Master of Time: Wong Kar-wai in America by Dennis Lim published November 19, 2006.

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Thank you for the candies, Ching-mei.
More Ching-mei.

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 - Nov 16, 2006)

American economist Milton Friedman was dead at 94.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_friedman

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/business/17friedman.html

Democrats control Congress

Now with Democrats having total control of the Congress, should Americans expect change for the better in the years follow? Or we shouldn't expect anything. It's not like the Democrats really have anything appealing, I guess it's just people who are fed up with the war in Iraq. People voted the way it was to punish the president.

Rumsfeld was the first to honor the "stay the course" no more, he quit. Now that he's out of the way, I wonder if anyone is going to right the course given the mess we are in in Iraq....

The Washington pundits and career politicians need to come up with a solution fast. We owe it to our troops and the Iraqi folks to get out of this jam.

Wall Street

I always believe Wall Street is in the business of making rich people richer and along the way, these masters of the universe make themselves very rich too.

Again, big bonuses were expected for 2006 according to a New York Times article.

Here are some interesting statistics that probably will make you green with envy:-

Just out of college first year, total compensation including base, bonus and long-term compensation for ...
associates, from $200,000 to $270,000;
analyst, from $105,000 to $145,000.

In 2005, Wall Street accounted for 4.7% of jobs in New York City but 20.6% of the wages.... A top hedge fund manager took home 1.5 billion, while a top 25 manager could take home $130 million.

Anyway, a top hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs by the name of Raanan Agus still drives a Honda minivan. That kind of makes of feel better I guess.

Are you One? Are You Two? Are You Three? ...

Birthday Boy

Birthday Q&A ...

Harry being in a public school in Queens, his classmates are mostly of Asian decent, if you look at the picture, you almost thought it's a "Chinese" school. Flushing has plenty of Korean and Chinese immigrants. It's Harry's birthday and his classmates got to ask him questions, like what's his favorite TV show? what's his favorite color? Does he have a sister? Does he have any pet? When you were kids you asked interesting questions, when you grew up, you asked boring questions, like how much you make? what car you drive?

Birthday Q&A

Pastel Karaoke Is on 158th Street and Northern Boulevard

The New York Times is determined to put and keep Flushing on the map.

The paper first reported on October 9 a young man got killed just outside Pastel Karaoke on 158th Street and Northern Boulevard.

Then today the paper reported the incident again but erroneously said it was 157th Street. Now I live on 158th Street, and I feel like the Times just took the edge off of my street and frankly I am not thrilled. 158th Street earned its street cred by having a murder and the Times can't tell the difference between 7 and 8?

More Flushing news here.

Wishlist

Computer:-
A MacBook with a least 1GB of RAM, scratch that, make it a MacBook Pro with 3gb of RAM...
iPod:-
A 30GB iPod video is nice.
Camera:-
A Nikon D2Xs or A Canon 1DsMkII, or both
Lens:-
Only professional prime lenses or zoom lenses. A half dozen will do.
Tripod:-
Some Bogen or Gitzo will do.
Ballhead:-
Some Bogen will do, Arca Swiss or Really Right Stuff would be great.

BREAKING: MacBook just updated the Intel processor to Intel Core 2 Duo, whatever that means. It's said to be 25% faster. Details see http://www.apple.com

Games I play

Galloping Pigs. A rather simple game that even I manage to play with my children.

The Book of Classic Board Games. This has been hard for me. I just played along with my children. Whatever they said I believed and then I pretended I knew how to play.

Scrabble. We have the classic edition. This is an easy game in the sense that it's easy to understand the rules. When it comes to knowing the words that's a different question.

Monopoly. I think we have the classic edition as well. I never played Monopoly until now.

I never enjoyed playing any games. It's just the kids love them. I am a pretty boring person.

Alex now knows how to do a bit of algebra.

2a + 20 = 30
solve for a
and he knows the answer is 5

Kissena Park

Kissena Park again.

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shot with my good old manuel 50mm f1.4. I really love the lens. It's just better. Except I got into focusing, and metering problem with my Nikon D70. Either I get a D200 or I get a 50mm f1.4 AF for easy and faster focusing.

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Here Mr. Harry is cutting up the spiderman playing card carton.

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