London's 8-minute Slot

While Beijing relied on vast numbers of participants to impress audiences in the Beijing Olympic Games, London used fame and pop culture in their 8-minute slot to fusion into the closing ceremony - heralding the start of the four-year countdown to theirs.

The child of London gave a football to David Beckham, who then kicked the ball to those Great Britain athletes gathered in the stadium.

Honestly, I had no idea what that meant in that instance.

I then searched online just now and found out this actually symbolized the power of sports to unite the world and the importance of sports for young people, a central theme of the London 2012 Games.

Was it only me? Did you guys get that, cuz I didn't quite.

Glorious Triumph

The three top-seeded table tennis players from China have duly booked their gold, silver and bronze medals with outstanding performances.

It's just an awesome feeling and prideful event to see China's national flags raised in the air....not 1, not 2 but 3.

Can history repeat itself tonight in the men's single?

Liu Xiang Limps While Nike Beams

Liu Xiang has been China's secret weapon - an athlete who bore the hopes of 1.3 billion people on his shoulders and simply not allowed to lose.

Well, yesterday in the Bird's Nest, incredibly, he lost.

Guess who's the biggest winner?
I'd say the advertisers.

Liu advertises everything from milk to Nike, Cadillac to Coca-Cola - are on every hoarding, on the side of every bus and features in numerous TV ads.

The bespoke pair of Nike Zoom Aerofly LX spikes, which made its debut yesterday got all the attention "on the side-track", as opposed to "on the track".

Not due to its distinctively colours, it was because Liu was limping and all cameras naturally zoomed in to the limping feet wearing the tailor-made spikes.

Didn't that alone enough to make Nike the biggest winner?

See You in London!

The entire nation looked forward to this moment for years - The defending Olympic champion lining up to run the 110-metre hurdles at the Beijing Games.

Liu Xiang made it to the lanes, but pulled out at the last minute. I'd think no one other than himself would be more desperate.

Well, we can only wish him well and see him back in shape in London in 4 years time.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Pictograms

You can see strokes of Chinese characters and a hint of Chinese tradition; you can feel a display of distinct and graceful asethetic motion mixed with an embodiment of modern graphics.




These are the pictograms of this year's Olympic Games - so recognizable, rememberable and easy to use - I think it is a very successful piece of marketing and communications tool - with style - and it's the best.

Boring, Mystifying and Soporific - Not

The words "Boring", "Mystifying" and "Soporific" spotted in headline news in the past days could signify the Olympic Equestrian Games currently hosting in Hong Kong hasn't got what it takes to persuade local spectators to hang around till the very end.

For me, I don't know anything about the trotting, passage, piaffe, pirouettes and what not. Nonetheless, I do utterly respect the trainers who teach horses to do Ballet dancing or make them to do Tai-chi!

To show support for my home city hosting its first ever Olympic event as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic, I decided I'd bid a ticket online and go enjoy a live game in Dressage.

One facet of the jewel in dressage has to be the harmony presented between the horse and the rider. It is that harmony which has kept me wide awake throughout the evening.

Ultimately, I'd say last night's dressage was the most gloriously enjoyable Grand Prix I've ever watched. It's like witnessing beautiful living sculptures dancing, conquering space and defying time.

The only downside was: I now need to sort out more than 600 shots taken in that 4 hours!

China Did It!

August 8 usually carry a 50% chance of rain in the city of Beijing and the $400 million, 91,000-seat Bird Nest has no roof.

The Chinese government just cannot sit there and let the rain ruin what could be the most spectacular Olympic Games Opening Ceremony ever.

While everybody just talk about the weather, the Chinese actually did something about it to guarantee clear sky for the Opening Ceremony last night, as they know a brilliant Opening means everything for the success of the Beijing Olympic Games.

They manipulated the weather by firing over 1,000 rain dispersal rockets on the day to blow away rain clouds. As a result, no rain during the entire Opening while the suburbs of Beijing had torrential rain throughout the evening.

The Opening Ceremony was attended by thousands watched by millions more on TV last night. The nitty gritty details of the showcase, the breakthrough and the creativity within, are going to be the talk of town over the next few days or even weeks.

China did it. They explored and orbited the moon, suppressed the rain, organised their first Olympic Games.

I think they are up for anything now.

A Killer App in Facebook Killing Your Time

The Chinese version of the Mob Wars named "古惑仔 Online" is no stranger to many. It's an epic game of Mafia war game, played on Facebook.

The game earned quite a reputation within a short span of time introduced and has the ability to lure thousands of players online each minute of the day. Not only that, the game requires you to form alliance so players with more buddies stand a higher chance of winning in the gangster fights, granting you an advance to the next level.

That's what facebook is after - network participation - and there's no stopping it.

A word of advice, for those who are not prepared to invest your time online 24 hours a day, 7-days a week, don't attempt to go anywhere near it.

Players all started with petty thieves and work their way up the ranks to build their almighty criminal empire. I started playing this game a week ago and this has been the most sticky game in facebook for me so far.

For someone like me, who doesn't quite manage to master my assets in real terms, find it a challenge in doing so in the game.

For instance, I have bought weapons and arms which I don't need; made the wrong choice in cars and sold properties which can otherwise give me a better ROI.

Other times, I have wasted precious time on the wrong strategy and most often than not, have forgotten to deposit my hard earned cash in the bank before I logout at nights and ended being stolen.

The game is all about opportunity cost and this is what I like about the game.

It serves as a reminder in real life, that we are to make decisions every minute. We are faced with opportunity costs all the time and there's no time to sit back and regret about a wrong move you have mistakenly made.

That's life, you gotta move on.

In this game - the most you get is being knocked out and be unconscious for a while, you will wear out but no, you won't die after all that constant fighting.

I guess that's the only difference between online game and reality.

My 3rd In A Week

I've been to the cinema and watched 3 movies in the last 6 days. Now that's my personal record.

"The X Files: I Want to Believe" - is the third.

It's hard to admit to the fact how time flies, when this movie reminded me of how I used to glue to each episode, expecting the extra-terrestrial lives in the 90s.

This is still one of my best loved television series of all time, which explained why I need to watch this one-off monster episode before it comes down this week.

Mummy 3

Imagine Jet Li defeated by Brendan Fraser in a hand to hand combat.

Well, this was what happened in Mummies 3 - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

I have seen the first 2 Mummy films before and so I wasn't expecting too much for the third film of the series. To make a difference in the 3rd one, I gathered the director tried to throw in everything that they have got and hope it worked.

So what have we got? We have Yetis, we have an ancient Chinese emperor played by Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh as a witch. A setting in the Himalayas, Shangri La, England and Shanghai in the 1940’s. Wrapped with the mandatory special effects and English humour all over it.

I personally think the mix worked quite well, accept for 1 thing.

I miss Rachel Weisz as the plucky librarian/adventurer. Can anyone tell me why isn't she returning to reprise that role?