The Grandmaster

All directors are self-indulgent.  But Wong Kar-wai takes it to a whole new level.  Wong spends ten years researching "The Grandmaster," ten years shooting it on and off, another ten years shooting the Matrix-like trailer and yet another ten years flip flopping between whether to make the English title plural or singular, struggling whether the story is about the only man that matters in the whole universe, the one and only Man,  Yip Man or it is really more about a number of grand masters.  After forty long years and countless broken spareribs from Leung Chiu Wai, Wong finally decides it's just "The Grandmaster," without the ass.

When the flag drops, the bullshit stops.  We hear enough of the back story.  So how is the movie?  Here is what my friend has to say.  I have nothing to say about the actual movie as I have not seen it yet or if ever.

QUOTE

I saw the Grandmasters 一代宗师 today. Kind of underwhelming. Not up to my expectations. I think Wong lost the plot somewhere. Not a great piece of story-telling. Would it be better had the movie been four hours long? I don't know. Anyway, Wong said that wouldn't happen in the next ten years. Was he trying to do to much in one movie? Possibly. The movie is educational in some ways, like introducing us to the various schools of Kung Fu, and there is romance, some fight scenes and hilarious elements as well. In the end, I was kind of lost. Zang is stunning as usual. The snow scene is very beautiful. That part should have been longer. The part of 宋乔慧 should have been longer too. No wonder she is pissed. I think Wong has taken too long to make the movie. Kind of funny because Wong only took 2 months to make the Chungking express, and yet that movie is such a classic. For all I know, this Grandmasters, with all its relative commercial success, won't become a classic despite some outstanding performances from Tony Leung and Zang ziyi.

UNQUOTE

I think I share the sentiment.

CVS Photo develop, print, scan minor disaster

I never learn.  I took a chance with CVS photo processing hoping and wishing that they would just do the work right, somehow on the first time, if not, then the second time.  But of course there was no miracle, not even a minor one.

I left my 160VC film there to develop, print, and scan.  I was able to drop it off at lunch and picked it up after work. The color came out awful but I can't argue with that because it could be anything but their error.

Then after I took the prints home, I found out they were all printed dusty and laterally inverted, i.e. mirror images, including the scans.  By the way, the scans were pretty awful too.  But I would only comment on dust.

The following day I brought back the whole envelop to the shop and the lady at the counter just wanted to examine the negative ... with her bare hands, running her well manicured fingers on the negative, not so much as caressing or holding on the edge but just as if holding on toilet paper or something.  Anyway, I dared not say a word except whining here.  She agreed to have it redone.  But somehow, she never said "sorry" or anything to that extent.

The machine was kind of broken so I had to call to make sure it's available.  And it was available after work.  I went there to pick it up again.  The pictures printed out right meaning they were laterally correct this time.  But they didn't give me the CD-ROM.  So the guy did it on the spot, burned one CD for me.   I couldn't check it on the spot so I went home, and found out the images were all laterally inverted.  Bravo.

They just couldn't do anything right the first time or even the second time.  I should know and it's my fault.  Would I let them do my film photos again, maybe.  Who knows.

Me Fixing the Odyssey 2001 Sliding Door

The sliding door hasn't been working since the snow on New Year day.  And I didn't bother to fix it.  And this time around it simply didn't fix itself when the temperature became warmer.  Today I finally got to see my mechanic on my way to Home Cheapot.  My mechanic told me I needed to re-seat the battery so as to reset the electronics of the power sliding door.  But he needed to have the code to unlock or lock the alarm system, which I didn't have it committed to memory nor did I have it with me 24 by 7.  Anyway, being the least handy man on earth, I am very reluctant to un-seat the gigantic battery myself, anytime I need to use a wrench and a screw driver is just too much, plus adding electricity to the mix just gave me pause.  http://www.hightechdad.com/2007/01/17/fixing-a-honda-odyssey-automatic-sliding-door/
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_to_make_Honda_Odyssey_sliding_doors_lock_open#ixzz194e9ncWQ
I did my Google search on this problem some time before but never before did I find this easy fix:  pull fuse number 13 and push it back in.  I was ecstatic to read that except I had no idea where fuse 13 is.  Further search returned the result I was looking for.  The fuse is located on the right hand side of the front passenger leg well.  It's definitely  meant to be user serviceable.  I tried to pull it out with my bare hand but it was too snug, so I wondered if I needed a pair of pliers or something; at the same time, I was wary that I might break something if I didn't pull it out properly.  The manual came to my rescue.  Actually there is a fuse puller provided, inside the fuse box under the hood on the messenger side.  Armed with the fuse puller, a torch light (my eyesight isn't great) I was able to pull fuse #13 which says nothing about the sliding door but does say clock on the manual.  I pulled it out using the fuse puller and plugged in back in after some 30 seconds or 1 minute.  And everything just worked.  The power sliding door roared back to life.

Thanks Internet, thanks Google.  And a big thank to myself.

Warning:  if you somehow, screwed up, destroyed your car, causing property damage, injury, or even death to yourself or others, you are solely responsible for your own stupidity and misery, not me.

Where Are We Now?

1984

1987

notes:  to see them bigger?  right click and open in new tab then max it to full size.  it is possible to read the jpeg's.