Sunday, December 19, 2010

Lately, quite into emotions and facial expressions. It's fascinated how people react to fear and express their emotions on their faces and gestures. Some are subtle, but being able to read this without verbal communication is powerful in certain situations.

I've told myself not to step into people's lives too much but to be more concerned about myself than others instead; it does not pay when people don't appreciate your concern or effort. But when people/friends are too shy to express their inner feelings and try to deceive you by saying otherwise, reading their fear, anger, hatred etc implicitly will still help ease my unrest or worry of them.



Paul Ekman, my favourite author and the pioneer in the psychology in reading facial expression, emotion and deception, once said that," Most lies succeed because no one goes through the work to figure out how to catch them."

~~~

Was reading TODAY paper and came across this commentary. In this short commentary, Georgina Chang says that "we all can learn to be less selfish and to deal positively with the baggage from the past."

"
Many of us want closure from those who hurt us before we can really let go and move on. But, chances are, we're never going to get it. The only closure that's attainable is in your own mind. It decides that chapter of your life is over, and you want to leave it in the past where it belongs."

Read It Here:BAGGAGE CLAIM

~~~


Godsis, her hubby and little darling princess visited my family today. Little princess is so adorable. Her chuckles and giggles just melt my heart. Carrying her on my arms was an experience that was filled with warmth and joy.

Males and females are great! Females are great in the sense that we experience the pain of monthly ovulation and pregnancy for the joy of bringing a new life to this world. If there's anything that we should be worry about, it would be this funny chart below:



I just can't help think this as a depreciation in our net value as the years go by. The peak in our net value is at 20 years old and after that it nosedives drastically after 35 years old, so despite the cash inflows..the NPV for profitability will still be zero or even negative due to the large lump of cash outflows (facial products, expensive lingerie, anti-aging pills??). It's scary and exaggerating, but not sure how true this is.



Sunday, December 12, 2010


It's TVB 43rd anniversary and somehow I realized that without great HK drama productions, my life would be so boring. It's through dramas that I get to see stories that I wouldn't expect and to see emotions and feelings that wouldn't be expressed so vividly in daily life.

Recently just completed watching 幗梟雄之義海豪情 (No Regrets) and 蒲松齡 (Ghost Writer aka Po Chung Ling).


No Regrets - The second part o
f Rosy Business, it tells the political turmoil and rampant opium trading in the 1930s; in which everyone experienced their darkest times with the WWII that followed when the Japanese troops invaded China and Guangzhou fell under the Japanese army.


Ghost Writer -
Po Chung-Ling was born in Jinan in a family of New Year print. He is very bright, his father, Po Poon, had therefore always hoped that he could one day carry on the family business. However, Chung-Ling never liked doing business and detested the corruption of high officials. The drama tells the story of how Chung-Ling met Sum-Yu and the little female fox goddess. Of which he spent the rest of his life writing "The Strange Tales of Liao Zhai".

Very glad that No Regrets won many awards in the TVB Drama Award last Sunday.


Sheren Tang - The character of Cheng Kau-Miu is such a complex character and I admire her guts and bold spirit. She eludes a kind of female protagonist charm that I really think she deserves the best actress award.

Wayne Lai - The male protaganist in the drama, Lau Sing. His pair of eyes has expressed all sorts of emotions and he too deserves the best actor award.


Fala Chen
- Lau Sing's bed-ridden sister, Lau Ching, who has heart disease in this drama. I think guys would have gawked at the scene where she stripped naked in front of the Japanese soldier. Lau Ching's character isn't as rich as Kau-Miu or Lau Sing, but I think she still acted well despite the simplicity of this character. She's beautiful even with minimal make-up. Happy that she won the best supporting actress award.

A flashback on some of the best TVB dramas that I've watched.


At the Threshold of an Era
(1999) - Despite being 105 episodes long, it was my first glimpse of the dark side of business world where villains plotted scheming tricks for fame, greed, and glory. Gallen Lo, Louis Koo, Kenix Kwok, Florence Kwok, and Ada Choi were my idols back then.


Reaching Out (2001) - Another long drama of 50 episodes telling the story of 3 orphans. The most prominent character was Hiu Guan/Hiu Nga both portrayed by Kenix Kwok. The first drama that I watched twice.


Seven Sisters (2001) - A classical Chinese ghost stories between a scholar and female spirit. The first drama in which I fell in love with Charmaine Sheh's character, Yuk-Tsan: A willful and spoil-brat but kind-hearted girl with a tragic ending.


Country Spirit (2002) - The story takes place in a winery in China in around 1900-1930. It tells the scheming merchants in wine-making, as well as the touching love story between a widow, who is part of a ghost marriage, and her husband's house servant. Back then, the dramas were produced in video tapes and it was kind of old-school to rewind the tape before viewing. It was the drama that sees the break-through of Charmaine Sheh's career in the entertainment industry. Her character of Shun Fung reminds me of Jeanette Aw's character in Little Nyonya. Together with the breathtaking scenery shots in Guangxi and the nice theme songs, it was one of my most memorable HK period drama.



Sunday, December 5, 2010


Baby, when will you be mine?

Car COE prices hit 10-years high as of Nov 19th. I was hopping like a mad cow and what will lie ahead in 2 years time? Second-hand or OPC? Singapore really have so many cars? Unbelievable but it turns out to be true on one of the evening at Orchard.

It was just 6pm on a normal weekday and from level 5-8, only 4 miserable parking lots were left at Ion's multi-storey car park. Took half an hour to find a lot and took another 40 mins to leave the car park. My friend tried to act smart by turning out to Orchard Turn instead of Orchard Boulevard, but we were faced with the same traffic jam. Imagine if someone's cash card is faulty or of insufficient cash, I think the cars behind would have gone seriously mad.
  • On Old Uncle
Call me egoistic, lime-light wannabe, whatever. Was rushing to some place and hailed a cab. At first, the cab driver seemed like a lecherous driver who thinks he can sweet-talk innocent females. He asked me lots of strange questions and I just gave him a polite smile or ignored him completely. Then he looked at the rear mirror and made a comment that inflated my ego, "You've a sweet smile. A genuine smile that I suppose will attract lots of friends." Me? A plain girl-of-next-door? Have a sweet smile? What loads of rubbish!

But sometimes..sometimes..old uncles are really friendlier and he boosted my long-lost confidence. Not only did he charged me $2 less, he made me realized what beauty really means. What are all those beauty campaigns and advertisements trying to sell/tell us? Is it a distorted sense of beauty? It isn't difficult to know that this sense of beauty is a pack of lies, but repeatedly, we know these lies but persisted with our false sense of beliefs. What's your definition of beauty?

Take a look at these website: Comprehensive Study of Asian Woman's Attitude Reveals (especially Japan).
  • On Relationship
Sometimes the greatest lesson in life is not from the an education institute, but from our own observations, experiences, and sharing sessions with friends.

I have mixed feelings for this tricky topic and experience a plethora of jealously, hatred, guilt, betrayal, etc. But what's yours will be yours. While we as observers might think to ourselves with exasperation, " What the hell is this female/male doing in the name of love? Is she/he losing his/her sanity?" But love is like a poison "lustful" fruit, where you continuously experience a roller-coaster of happiness, bitterness and sourness. It's through this poison fruit that you learn to grow stronger and more sober.

As I listened to my bro's recount of his past relationships, I realized that even if you know that some actions are incorrect, you will still commit them. When I try to be in their shoes, I realized their dilemma. It takes two to dance; likewise, it takes two to make a relationship fail down a slippery slope or work magic (just my opinions).