September 27

Many thanks for the Dinner and presents from sister, brother-in-law and my nephews Eric and Edward.

YMCA Swimming

My Boy

  

DingDong

  

My Boys

  

Why China isn't biting Apple

I got my news from Yahoo and here is an opinion piece called Why Apple isn't biting China attributed to Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service - IDG News Service.

The author did a good job by pointing out the obvious, lack of pirated software, lack of service and high price. As long as a cheapo PC can get the job done, and oh yes with tons of virually free software (read pirated software) available, why bother getting a Mac at a premium?

If Apple can sell its wares like Louis Vuitton does, a lifestyle, then maybe people would buy it. And I think Chinese in China still not quite get the idea of computing as some sort of lifestyle. If they don't get it, they won't buy it.

The piece may as well be called Why China isn't biting Apple.

Dow is rocking again

Dow is just one hair from reaching its all time high, which is like I don't know.

The real estate market is slowing down now. The median home price falls the first time in 11 years or so. (for exact accurate figure, please search it yourself)

Meanwhile Andrew Fastow of Enron fame or notoriety got a rather lenient 6 years sentence.

People who make a dfference in their own life

People who dare to make a difference in their own life.

See RTHK video here.

Text and video in Cantonese with Chinese subtitles.

More on flight training centre

Too fat, then walk in Madrid

First view, via New York Times. Vlada Rosylakova, above left, with Natasha Poly.

If you can walk Madrid, you are probably too fat. Madrid bans thin models to walk their Fashion Week there. Nobody really cares Madrid fashion week, until they use fat models. It's always New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week .... Madrid steals the spotlight by using fat models, go Madrid.

More When Is Thin Too Thin? New York Times, Eric Wilson

Breaking: Most wanted man might be dead

Reuters via Yahoo news

This is not likely to be confirmed anytime soon. Perhaps wishful thinking from the French. Does the report exist? Is what's reported true? French ministry demands leak investigation. Leak is bad, I know it first hand, my bathroom leaks, my basement leaks, I can't think of any leaks that are good leaks.

YouTube Friday

Chinese School

Taken September 9, 2006

War Photographer's Wish

"The war photographer's most fervent wish is for unemployment"
-- Robert Capa (1913 - 1954)

Arabian Harem Pants

Arabian Harem pants, worn by Medicham and Snejana Onopka for Marc Jacobs Spring 2007
Medicam artwork by Ken Sugimori, Photo by Marcio Madeira.

Nintendo Wii

Sid, get your wallet ready for the Nintendo Wii launch at year end.

Over here, it's available November 19 carrying a MSRP at 249.99. For your DS Lite, did you get any Brain Age or Brain Academy for yourself? I guess I need those. My brain needs a work out. There are just so many things to buy and yet so little money.

September 14, 2006.

[I don't buy CD often at all. But everytime I buy them, I am faced with the challenge of opening the package. It's almost impossible to have a smooth, neat and fast opening]

September 13, 2006, 2 days after September 11, I bought myself 2 CDs from Target each at less than $10, also I borrowed 3 Chinese movies from the library, a magical place where you can can check out books, CDs, DVDs, VCDs for free.

I don't know but I found the movies pretty terrible. New Police Story (San Ging Chaat Goo Si)(2004) starring Jackie Chan, was pure garbage. World Without Thieves (Tian Xia Wu Zei) (2004) starring lookers Andy Lau and Renee Liu, didn't fare any better. The third one was called Initial D (Tau Man Ji D) (2005) starring a male ensemble cast from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the tradition of Chinese playing Japanese pioneered by Memoirs of a Geisha, Tau has Chinese actors playing Japanese racers. I don't think it's really a big deal. What bothers me is the movie sucks and the male actors can't act, or perhaps the movie itself doesn't merit any acting. Of the three, I think the New Police Story sucks the hardest, it's just terrible.

I bought Best of Bowie and FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS, it's like something old and something new. I am old fashioned so I still buy CD, albeit rarely. I mean the Best of Bowie has some 20 songs and it only costs me $10 and why would I bother to pay 99 cents for a track? I saw Justin Timberlake's performance of Sexyback on David Letterman's show and I was sold.

September 12, 2006

Apple's Showtime special event, 5 years and 1 day after September 11, 2001, is what should I say, so underwhelming, full stop.

September 12

That is the day after September 11.

After 5 years and 1 day, Ground Zero is still in a freaking mess, and that begs the question of WTF?

US Open

Roger Federer won the Championship in 4 sets, beating Andy Roddick in 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. It's Federer's third consecutive US Open Championship.

Roddick put up a good fight in the 2nd and 3rd set, but he totally lost it during the fouth set. And Federer seemed winning it without too much as breaking a sweat. So in the match of man vs machine, Federer the macine won. The guy just made it look so easy.

Geico TV Spot

GEICO being an insurance company can be freaking boring. But their TV spots seems to be the only spots that are rocking. Their latest "celebrity" campaign is really funny.



I don't know if they have the lowest premium or best value but their TV spots sure are entertaining.

The Martin Agency is responsible.

Maria Sharapova Won the 2006 US Open

update: Sorry guy, the link is dead. Apparently, USOPEN doesn't know how to do permanent link or they don't want to publish the picture anyway.

Photo by: Jonathan Fickies/usopen.org
Maria Sharapova won the US Open in two straight sets beating Belgian Henin-Hardenne 6-4, 6-4. The 19 year old Russian won her second Grand Slam Championship.

The Departed

The Departed trailer is getting some airplay here and the HD trailers are available from Apple's Quicktime webpage.

The Departed is Martin Scorsese's remake of The Infernal Affair, the Hong Kong 2002 hit starring Tony Leung and Andy Lau. The Hong Kong original version has a very consistent gray hue sleeker than steel look. Judging from the minute long trailer, Scorsese's The Departed has a totally different look, it's more like a throw back to an older era with no hint of being modern or being sleek at all. I think what makes the The Infernal Affair such a success, is the overall color of the movie. I am no movie buff by any stretch, but I think one of the main jobs of the director is to decide what color the table cloth should be.

US Open

A friend of mine is giving up on tennis, at least on watching the US Open. He's more attuned to Latin Dancing now. I don't blame him. As anybody who is aspired to be a gold digger or simply want to get rich quick, I think they should seriously consider Latin Dancing, go to Hong Kong, seek out HSBC's Wong. You might just get lucky, who knows?

Back to the US Open.

Agassi is gone for good. He will be fondly remembered at least once every year during the US Open, especially when there are rain delays.

The major upset so far is Nadal, the ugly capri pants lover. Number one Federer keeps advacing and his latest victim was American Blakes. A Rod with the help of Jimbo aka Jimmy Connors is playing his best tennis so far. Federer is just a tennis machine. And in the game of human against machine, I think Federer is going to walk away as the Champion.


On the women side, "half of a man" Mauresmo is my favorite. Serena got soundly beaten by her in this Open. The "I am pretty" Sharapova is a crowd's favorite, or not. Her Dad is pretty annoying, what's the deal with that banana and water thing? Her Nike $3,500 cocktail little black dress is interesting ....

UPDATES:-
Sharapova won and there was no "bananagate."

Fashion Week

Fashion Week is beginning today.

Apple Released Updated HW Again

Apple just announced some souped up iMacs with Intel Core 2 Duo chip. Guys, I don't know about you, I really have a hard time keeping up with the latest development of Intel chips and brandings. If you add AMD to the fold, I will get a splitting headache.

And the new iMacs and minis are immediately available. In these days, it's just rare that things are available when they are announced. Vista, anybody? Corporate release is scheduled to be sometime in November and then general release for sometime next year. The price of PC or Windows based notebooks and desktops are really attractive price wise and may I add performance as well. But Mac really has that X factor, that's OS X literally.

And on September 12, another special Apple event.

How to create Hyperlink in Blogger's comment

You can type the following:-

    I love <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>.

And your browser should render something like this:

I love Google.

You can go to http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ for some 10-minute HTML guide.

Couric debuted at CBS Evening News

Katie Couric made her debut as the 6.30 CBS Evening News sole anchor tonight. CBS made a big deal out of it, they doctored her picture to make her look, what else, slimmer and younger. CBS is so embarassed by her look they don't do the Evening News in HD. If Diane Sawyer of Good Morning America can appear in HD, I can't see why Couric cannot. It just shows CBS sucks, again, like Leno was in HD for a long time, then Letterman finally was on HD. CBS, you screw up for a reason.

Also making television debut was Suri Cruise, as cover of the up coming Vanity Fair, i.e. tomorrow. Mystery of missing Suri solved.

UPDATE: can't help to shoot some JPEGs directly from the TV. Very cute baby indeed.




... Vanity Fair just put up the cover.

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I brought half of a tent to camping. Our original plan was to stay in a tent for 2 nights. But with half of a tent, there was no way we can do that without the canopy, plus the non stop rain. So we ended up moving in a cabin as well, just like the other family we went with.

The cabin we had was deeper in the camp site area so it was actually better. If we were to stay in the original site for tent, we would be really close to the motor way. Last year in Lake George, we did stay in a tent.

It took us about 3 hours to get to the camp site, Jim Thorpe Camping Resort.

Camping 2006

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Camping 2006

Harry is OKAY, we didn't barbeque him.

Fishermen

This was the lucking fishing rod. 

Fishermen

You have to look really close to see the fish. 

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Camping

The cheapest way to have the greatest fun, camping.

Camping 2006

 

Camping 2006

 

Camping 2006

 

Camping 2006