Recent
Updates
TRAVEL
& FOOD
- (Oct 14, 2008) A
dear long time
friend and his family passing by New York City the other day, returing
from their
vacation to Scotland and
Ireland. We met and went to a popular Chinese Szechuan
restaurant Wu
Lian Ye 五粮液
in
midtwon. Food and service were ok but I certainly had a
higher
expectation given its popularity. Of course, perhaps we did
not get their best dishes. For the record, we
had: Spicy
Mungbean
Noodle Salad 成
都涼粉, Campur Tea Smoked Duck 樟茶鴨,
Ma Po Tofu 麻
婆豆腐, Crispy Tangerine Prawns 陳皮大蝦,
Kung Pao Chicken 宮
保雞丁, Sauteed Filet Mignon with Black
Peppercorn
Sauce 黑
椒牛柳.
ARTS
& LITERATURE
- (Oct
28, 2008) Continuing with the weekly oil paininting class, I
transferred the sketch from session 1 to a 18"x24" canvas and started
to learn the
colors and mixing of colors. Here is the result of sesson
2.
- (Oct
21, 2008) I have always been interested in painting. Thanks to a lead
from a friend, I recently signed up with an oil-painting workshop by Grace
Graupe-Pillard.
Equipped with the intro kit, a retirement gift from my
daughter,
I had my first lesson and started my first project.
Here is the experimental result of my work from the first class -
session 1: sketch of still life objects.
- (Oct
9, 2008) While
channel
surfing, I came across and watched an incredible German movie Leben
der Anderen, Das, aka The Lives of Others. It was released in
2006
and won the Best Foreign Language Film
of 2007 Oscar. The main
character of the movie - an East Germany
secret police who uttered probably no more than a dozen or so sentences
in this 137 minutes long movie after the initial interrogation
class lecturing scene. However you can feel in the air the
increasing intensity as he got absorbed into the
world of the couple on whom he was eavesdropping. At the end,
the fundamental human decency triumphed
over quitely the
doctrine and cruelty of a distrustful authoritarian
communist system. My vote: one of the best movies ever!
SOCIAL
& POLITICAL
- (Oct 29, 2008) The
'08 presidential election is less than 1 week away. Like
many, I am eagerly awaiting for a landslide electoral victory and
mandate of Barack Obama who is bringing us the hope of change for a
better nation and people. I am also offering my humble observation why
McMaverick was doomed to loose the election for a bigger reason than
the economic crisis...
Read
More
- (Oct 26, 2008)
There weren few biopic films about American presidents and none of them
was made when the subject was in office until W. - the newly
released Oliver Stone film on George W. Bush... Read
More
- (Oct 24, 2008)
Since the Oct 15 presidential debate, Joe the plumber
had become the most famous political symbol overnight. As McCain's
campaign shifted and focused its attack on Obama with the S word and
returned to the slogan of tax-cut, the question is will it stick this
time or is it too little and too late...
Read
More
-
(Oct 10, 2008)
NBC's
Saturday Night Live has
regained its popularity; thanks to this year's exciting Presidential
election.
Tina Fey's impressions of Sarah Palin are insanely
well-done and hilarious. If you'd like to get some good
doses of political reality and fantasies through exaggeration, see
those skits on the SNL website.
- (Oct
8, 2008) The
recent financial crisis and market roller-coaster rides have got many
people across
the globe on the
edge. Although it is a little late to do anything for my own
accounts for this round, I decided to get myself educated a bit more in
economics to get a better appreciation of the basics at the least...
Read
More
