Life After Death

This area of doubt lingers on my mind since the death of my closest friend.

Is there life after death and can anyone that is alive verifies that?

I know exactly how the typical answer would sound coming from a Christian, so save that if you are one of them, thank you.

Perhaps I should rephrase the question to:

whether we are still relevant to the dead in their fresh existence/incarnation.

1. Can the dead see and hear what we do and say in the life that they left behind and from where they exist now?
2. If we're doing something that they did not agree with when they were alive, do you think we're somehow letting them down if we do it when they are dead now?

Anyhow, I probably am thinking too much as to why would the opinion of someone dead matters more than someone who is still alive (speaking conventionally).

Perhaps the thinking is all part of the healing process for the "closest-friend-departure" package that I am being thrown at.

Ergonomic Computer Chair Wanted

I have always wanted to replace my computer chair at home as I come to realise I spend a considerable amount of time working in front of my computer and hence that chair deserves to be the most comfortable seat in the house.

This is the chair I decided to go for.

It is a typical kneeling chair, with the seat on the left and support for legs on the right. Can't say it's the most comfy but supposedly my best bet for correcting posture and preventing back problems.

Can anyone point me to where I could possibly find one in Hong Kong?

Dozed Off Watching Golden Compass

First of all, I want to thank my sis for bringing me to a nice movie night-out on Christmas Day. I don't think I have been to cinemas for a couple of months and I have been missing quite a few good movies lately.

Here we go with true confession time. I have always struggled with the likings of fantasy movies such as The Lord of the Rings and even Star Wars (but the Harry Potter series is alright). therefore I wasn't anticipating much from Golden Compass. However, the movie is nonetheless an enjoyable one, albeit confusing diversion.

The most interesting has to be the setting of the story - in the early 1900s in Oxford, England (see pic above), each kid has their own “daemon,” that changes shape and species to reflect the always-changing moods of the child. A little girl named Lyra’s daemon starts out as a cat but at times during the movie reverts to being a ferret, then a mouse, and even a moth. Lyra is given an “alethiometer,” or the golden compass, which apparently only she can read and can then reveal the truth.

I dozed off watching some zeppelin-like contraption flying over London and the next I knew was some kids got kidnapped by a sinister group called the “Gobblers” and sent to a secret laboratory in the frozen north in order to be separated from their daemons. I awoke in time to catch two enormous ice bears in body armor going at it in mortal combat. Things really picked up at that point even though I do feel pieces of the story were a bit scattered.

I really enjoyed the spectacular battle scene at the end in which the bad guys evaporate into flames when they get zapped. Then it sort of left there stranded and invites you to wait for Golden Compass II.

Anyway, dazzling imaginery that constitutes to a good novel, but may be not so for a movie plot.

Silent Night

Time flies and I can't believe Christmas Day is tomorrow, which means tonight is Silent night.

Did you know that the original lyrics for the famous carol "Silent Night" is in German, "Stille Nacht", written by Joseph Mohr and melody composed by Franz X. Gruber?

I have picked this acoustic version of the song and I wish to dedicate this to my dear friend, Alda in Vancouver, and her beloved Ginny & Figaro. I chose this version for 1) the snoopy and woodstock attracted my attention 2) because the music to Silent Night was intended for a guitar to go with the simple score, made in time for the midnight mass then.

Simple is always the best I believe and I wish to take this opportunity to wish you a happy festive season and a fruitful year ahead!

6 Days to Christmas

Apologise to the folks out there expecting an xmas song from me. It has been discontinued for 2 days as I have ran out of nice ones to pick.

With less than a week to go, what's higher in my priority, is to complete my xmas shopping list, as underneath our family xmas tree is still pathetically empty.

Information Technology & Social Responsibility

Not often were you given a chance to go to a conference and get to meet with a full tank of thinkers.

I attended one today with academic scholars who came from MIT, Fudan, Tsinghua, Drake University, just to name a few and I must say, they possess great minds and perspectives, which really made me the least qualified to speak of the subject matter.

I sat there for a whole day, listened with anticipation on a close-door debate on information technology & social responsibility. The thinkers had their moments to present their research papers, issues were thrown at each other and thoughts were wrapped up by a roundtable discussion at the end of the day.

When I say thinkers - I am sure you could easily imagine and relate how they look like. They are practically - old. Put it this way, older than the norm if you like. To me, they are great thinkers no doubt, but they simply think too much.

Many thinkers appeared today don't use the internet often enough, do not understand what Web 2.0 entails and they definitely question about internet safety and have a sense of their privacy being breached. Those descriptives already posed a biased view from the start and I felt rather disappointed that the discussion just didn't get any further than where we started off with "Whose Responsibility?"

What I think these great minds should be doing, is to continue exercising their brains, but at the same time, engage in all of the followings:-

• go surf the web, upload and download something
• buy reference books from Amazon
• check out the auctions at eBay
• forget about queuing at the bank and transect in the cyberspace

Instead of nagging about the digital divide on how the poor can't access the internet, they should really be spending more time in investigating what's readily available for them from the internet. That would really help balance supply and demand (thus minimizing the digital divide).
I suggest they can own a blog for a start, make themselves heard by contributing articles online to encourage exchange of viewpoints.

Last but not least, the world is transforming and with change as the only constant, they should realise the old rules just doesn't fit the new ruler. In other words, there will always be risks walking on the streets, but does that prevent you from going out? Banks can go bankrupted but does that prevent you from putting money in the bank?

I am very tempted to say to these thinkers - go get a life! In Second Life!

Day 8: Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)

Are we too grownup to feel a thrill
As we light the Christmas tree?
Are we immune to cookies,
Christmas cards and Christmas glee?

Are we too adult to "Ooh" and "Aah"
At the Christmas candle's glow?
Are we blasé about our gifts;
Do we shun the mistletoe?

Are we too mature for carols,
For merry or for jolly?
Do the decorations leave us cold,
The ornaments and holly?

Fat chance! We'll never grow too old
To love the Christmas magic.
A year without a Christmas
Would be boring, even tragic.

So bring it on! The candy canes,
The feasting and good cheer;
O Christmas, lovely Christmas,
You're the highlight of the year!

Day 9: Last Christmas...

If Wham! is to Christmas of 84,
What is it to Last Christmas?

With Christmas just round the corner, I fancy a little rhyme:

I hope this Christmas enriches your life;
May each day be happy and bright,

Overflowing with pleasure and love;
May your Christmas be filled with delight.

Here comes my all time favourite from Wham!
Making this my countdown No.9.

Day 10 Countdown: Jingle Bell Rock

Now this is getting interesting and I am enjoying this daily xmas song dedication exercise - can't go to bed before this task is completed.

Today's inspiration came from a friend who loves the movie Home Alone. I bet you will come across this blockbuster on tv again running up to xmas.

Let's get ready to rock the Day 10 countdown with today's pick "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms - a truly delightful choice full of Christmas spirit.

Day 11: All I Want For Christmas Is You

I have enjoyed Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You all along, but since 2003 when Olivia Olson sang the same song in the movie Love Actually, I have basically fell in love with this version.

Olivia has this gifted voice and her singing was so perfect that the movie director was afraid that the audience would not believe a ten-year-old kid could really sing the way she did.

Here's my Christmas song of the day for you, on the day 11 countdown to Christmas. Please enjoy!

12 Days Till Christmas Day

Took this shot downstairs in the office lobby on my way to work and wanted to blog it right away as my Day 1 pic of my 12 days countdown to Christmas Day.

Not sure about you, but I have been receiving more Christmas cards this year than the last 2 years' aggregate. The thoughts are definitely there, but my mood ain't there yet - kinda numb about the festive season.



Anyhow, being an amateur disc-jockey before, I decided a way to boost up the festive feeling for myself, is to dedicate a Christmas song to everyone, each day from now, which means I need to pick 12 songs from my list of favourites.

OK - here you go, the first has to be "Ding Dong! Merrily on high" - a secular dance tune that is upbeat and spiritual, I recall singing that song merrily in the school choir and the "Arhhh...." in the chorus seems to take forever.

Wait a sec, I found out one can only post videos and photos in blogger.com but not music, now that's a vast disappointment as a starter!

An Escape

Offered a brief bike ride at lunch today...thought no one would recognise me with the helmet on, yet I got spotted! The shocking green colour to be blamed.

Snapshots of Music

A friend declared "Help Needed" in finding music that represents each decade from the 30s to the present, for she is trying to make a slideshow for her boss's 75th birthday next week. How very sweet of her and I just couldn't resist to offer some opinions.

Here were my picks straight from my head...


30s - Bing Crosby (White Christmas)
40s - Patti Page (Tennessee Waltz)
50s - Elvis Presley (Blue Suede Shoes)
60s - The Beatles (Love me Do)
70s - The Carpenters (Top of The World)
80s - Madonna (Like a Virgin)
90s - The Spice Girls (Wannabe)
00s - Eminem, Gorillaz, Craig David, Avril Lavigne, Mika....

How about you? What would be your picks?

Facebook 40 Years Down The Road

Have a good laugh!

The Perfect Pic Buddy

I came across this product in the States earlier and love it ever since.

This innovative tripod secures digital cameras to just about anything and doesn't require an elevated flat surface and the flexible joints allow 360º bend and twist.



Look how it opens up a lot of new poses and angles for shots for you without the crazy acrobatics and precarious positions for your valuable digital camera.




For the serious photographers, the Gorillapod SLR-ZOOM is now available too. Its sturdy prehensile legs is designed to go hand in hand with any SLR and zoom lenses and can support a whopping 6 pounds!

Don't you just adore innovations?!

Casino War

My first time to play Casino War last night and it has to be the easiest and mindless table game I have ever played in casinos which requires no brain work, hence I thought it would not be a bad way to end my hectic work schedule. The game work’s as follows:

• One card is dealt to each player on the table and one to the dealer


• If your card is a higher value than the Dealer’s, you Win!


• If your card is the same value as the Dealer’s, you get the chance to ‘Go to War’ and try to beat the Dealer with a second card

OK I heard you ask - so where does the house edge lays in this game?

You are right, it is absolutely true that the probability of winning is 50%. Where the edge comes from is when there is a war you either win one unit or lose two.

In my case last night, I held up wars several times and 1 grand vanished in just a few minutes. Eventually, it was a bad decision to end the day feeling miserable like that.

Me & My Piano History

Yesterday, a friend of mine came out of the blue and asked me for a favour - to be the Pianist in her wedding ceremony. I was flattered that she approached me, but the keys are really starting to look a bit foreign to me, so I hesitated in responding.

I learned to play the pianoforte the way most people do: guided by the traditional approach that stemmed from the good old Royal Academy of Music, with Grade 1-8 to be attained in preferrably 8 years (12 for me). The traditional approach requires students be able to read music before they can actually play anything that sounds like music. Lessons were attached with a string of the world's most boring theory, scales and arpeggios (we need to brush up a bit of Italian as well). This traditional approach fails more often than it succeeds, and indeed, many youngsters scared the hell out of it and quit so soon after they began.

The only reason I didn’t become one of those statistics was because my mother forced me to stick with it throughout the 12 years of my childhood. It wasn’t much fun for me and it was certainly less fun for my mother. I’ve avoided touching the piano for years after I turned 18 even when I have nothing better to do.

Before I seriously think about turning down my friend, perhaps I should revisit my long forgotten sight reading skills and if, and only if my fingers aren't rusted yet, I might consider playing at the wedding. In that case, my friend would have my mother to thank for, not me.

Aunt Maida's Annual Letter

Our family can always expect either a letter or an email sent from Aunt Maida towards the year end, summarizing everything that happened in her and her family life during the past year. To be frank, I never pay much attention to every details of what she wrote but this year, I read every single word.

2 days ago, I received the annual letter from Aunt Maida, I then realised she has skipped the tradition of writing it in 2006, as according to her own words - "inconceivable to write last year, therefore here's a combined effort for 2006 + 2007". She really had a tragic time coming to terms as her husband left her quite suddenly with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

The biggest and devastating discovery I had in 2007, has to be the fact that I found out Cancer is in general, incurable - as contrary to my belief that many cancers can be completely cured under modern day treatments. Doctors typically offer treatment only in the hope of prolonging cancer patients' life, not for the sake of curing the cancer itself.

No offense, but the medical world can't master the disease as yet, even for the most experienced cancer specialists. When asked about questions on life expectancy or, the most suited drugs to take, their partyline is almost always uncertain and very average than average. They will most probably respond by saying, every patient is a unique individual and will be affected differently by their illnesses...even two people of the same age, with the same type of cancer, which has spread to the same extent, can have very different effect on the same drugs...the most expensive drugs do not necessarily work better....etc.etc. Therefore, if you are ever faced with the same scenario - be prepared to get a vague answer, or at most a reluctant feedback with no substance.

So here's my one-liner for my year 2007:
We can fly people to the moon, but we can't cure Cancer on earth. How very ironic!

The Years Flow By

This lovely sunset was taken at my friend's place just then. She gets to see this spectacular 180 degree harbour view from where she stays yet she doesn't quite give a damn. Well, I can understand why but that's not the point I wanna make.

The thing is, an old song pops up as I write, which describes this photo and also matches my feelings in perfection. It is so right that I must jot this down to memorize this very moment in time.

望著海一片滿懷倦　無淚也無言
望著天一片　只感到情懷亂
我的心又似小木船
遠景不見　但仍向著前

誰在命裡主牢我　每天掙扎　人海裡面
心中感嘆　似水流年
不可以留住昨天

＊留下只有思念　一串串永遠纏
浩瀚煙波裡我懷念　懷念往年
外貌早改變　處境都變　情懷未變

Union with Pauline

After, gosh...how many years?