So You Think You Can Dance (Australia).

I've been quite addcited to the television programmes over here. I now spend most of my evenings and nights in the hall, attempting to do some work while being (mostly) distracted by what's on the tele. Of course, some programmes just so wonderful that I'd conveniently toss the laptop and books aside, empty my mind of work, and simply glue my eyes to the screen. (And usually, never resume with work.)

And one of my favourte show's "So You Think You Can Dance (Australia)". I really think the dancers here are all really really good. Here's my favourite dance routine out of all that I've seen so far. I love the song, I love the choreography, I love the dancers (Kate and Graeme), I "loved it, loved it, loved it." And yes, I cried while watching it. So emotional, so connected.

Materialism vs. Motivation.

I often mock those who splurge on expensive clothing, fine-dining, and cars with engines huge enough to power a jet plane. However, deep inside, I know that I sometimes spill those words out of envy. I have heard more that enough people who have said similar things, whether or not they really have the desire to 'live a simple life', but I guess that only a handful of them really resist living a luxurious lifestyle if given the chance to. I really cannot imagine how many people, if given the chance to at no cost, would choose to live a totally frugal lifestyle over one of immense luxury. Granted, money does not buy you happiness, but you cannot really insist that money brings misery, can you?

Maybe it's true sometimes, in an attempt to protect or dignity and self-identity, that we condemn those who can afford to live differently form us. It might be our subconsciousness at work, telling us that spending $50 on a dinner is 'an utter waste of money', even if the person is essentially drawing a salary 10 times of ours. I would suspect that if each of us had our chance to earn the same salary as the top 1% of the population, we'd sooner or later learn to induldge in their lifestyle.

I am not suggesting that materialism is not a moral threat to society, neither am I encouraging people to spend money excessively. Materalism is still a big threat to society if left uncontrolled and our children uneducated of the ill-effects of it. Maybe we just need to learn to look from different perspectives, letting such dreams be a form of motivation, rather than condemning the rich in a hope to keep our children 'on track'. I don't think any parent would want their children to live a simple life and not strive for anything higher, right?

Mariah, I hope you've seen this.

Having been in a choir, I learnt something that I just realised was of utmost importance: Sing only if you know what you are singing.

Here's why.

I Ken Lee..... tulibu dibu doucho...

Awareness test.

A cousin of mine sent me the link to this video. It really amazed me by showing how unaware one can be to his/her surroundings. Watch it!


Awareness Test - Watch more free videos

You mught have gotten it the frst time, but I definitely did not. Freaky.

Blogspiration.

It's really tough sometimes when you want to keep a blog that is full of decent-quality posts while posting regularly. I find that searching for inspiration can sometimes be a little draining, and the problem is that whenever I get any inspiration to blog, I need to be able to get it written almost immediately.

If any of you can remember the time you had this really great thing to blog about, only to return home pondering for the next 3 hours before bedtime what you wanted to write about? Or by the time you get home and start writing, whatever you thought of does not seem to look or sound as nice as it did in your mind? I get that pretty often, and it irritates me sometimes. I do not enjoy writing lame-ass posts like "I went out today and blah blah blah" stuff, but yet I cannot stand leaving my blog un-updated for a few days. Although I have heard people tell me that it's better to not write anything if you do not have anything decent to write about, I tend to disagree.

Writing isn't purely about entertaining or impressing people. Yes, it is good if you can do so, but if you are blogging for your own personal reasons, why make thing so difficult for yourself? I find that some bloggers take blogging a tad too serious that they sometimes force content out of themselves just so that they can keep their blog active and 'fun'. Well, I for one cannot seem to put in that kind of effort and energy to do so. Maybe it's just me.

I guess blogging means very different things to many people. For me, this little text-box I'm currently writing in is just a physical playground for my mind, a place for me to put everything from my mind into text. I quite enjoy typing away while my mind goes into cruise control, turning back once in awhile to make minor alterations, be it in vocabulary, content-wise, or just simple sentence-construction. Call it "Writing Practice" or anything you want, I just prefer it this way. (I bet no one runs blogs just writing entries one-off without editing at all anyway.) The only problem I find with this style is that I tend to wander off from the very original direction I wanted to head towards. Not that it's totally off, but it just sometimes sound slightly incoherent by the time I reach the end of the post.

Maybe there are different ways to write blog entries, and perhaps it's time I took a look and learn how other people write their own blogs. Guess we could all learn something from each other.

One long tiring day.

23 of us went Go-Karting today. Really fun, albeit a tad pricey: $60 for almost 30min of driving. They have a qualifying round followed by the actual race, and the winner even gets a little award. Quite professionally done, I must say.

Soccer in the park after that, and I am totally exhausted. I bet I'll lie semi-paralysed in bed tomorrow. Good, at least I can catch up on some work. 1 week to finish everything I listed before, less 1 accounting tutorial.

Whoever ever said that studying overseas is more "relaxed than one can ever imagine" apparently does not have an accurate sense of imagination. Wait, that was me.

Rule number 1,000,002 of relationships.

There are a million and one rules to relationships, rules that many people can list off hand and some less obvious ones that we may learn of during the course of one, or (un)fortunately, in the twilight period of one.

We hear of them, we speak of them, and we claim to practice them. But if all those were true - claims and the rules we claim alike, then where is the justification for so many failed relationships? Surely we followed the advice Jack gave. How about the advice given by Kathy, our best friend from school a decade ago? Did we forget anything? Did we miss out one name in the phonebook to call to ask for help?

The problem with us is probably that we take anything that sounds intellectual or formal as sacred advice, strict guidelines, or even as panaceas, especially in the current context. If so, let me just add the 1,000,002th rule to the list.

Every relationship has different needs and works differently (If I may also add that some just never do), like how different diseases require different medications, and swalling 1,000,001 pills will only result in death. No doubts about that at all.

Of course, the optimist has a wonder-drug named Happy-1,000,003 - "If all else fails, so be it."

Easter.

Happy Easter.

So yes, the break's here, and we are all supposed to have a whole week off from school. Supposed to.

Look, how on Earth am I supposed to 'take a break' when I have 2 upcoming tests, 3 assignments, and 4 tutorials to prepare for.

How about you really give me a break.

Movie: Vantage Point

When I first saw the trailers to the movie, I decided that this movie would be on the top of my "To watch" list. It seemed like a really interesting action film that would involve secret agencies and really complex crime-solving, but I was somewhat disappointed when I finally watched it. However, the disappointment only lasted a couple of minutes, and after that, I got totally engrossed in the film.

Vantage Point is essentially a story of a well-organised assassination attempt on the president of the United States by a rebel group, told through the perspective of 8 different individuals. Different eyes, different minds, and different perspectives, that all converge at the same point eventually.

The movie is definitely well-directed and brilliantly planned. The delivery is such that the entire event is repeated through all 8 perspectives, revealing more information each time it repeats. Effort was definitely made by the director to ensure that certain details and scenes are found in multiple perspectives to tighten everything together, and as each individuals story is told, more and more information is revealed, allowing you to piece everything together. The movie tricks you into making plenty of assumptions that would seem realistic, but shortly after, prove you wrong, leaving you to ponder again on what exactly happened, right till the end of the movie.

I personally got a little bored of the transitions between perspectives, but putting that little flaw aside, I totally appreciate the amount of effort put into filming and producing the entire movie. Lots of logistics and detailed planning must have gone into the production. Also to mention, the cast was rather decent, with William Hurt looking quite suited for the role of the US President. Same thing goes for Matthew Fox, who plays one of the presidential bodyguards. Of course, it was rather nice to see Sigourney Weaver in the movie as well, as a 'commercialized' chief reporter.

If you are planning to watch the movie, try to figure out whose perspective was first shown. I did not qute manage to get that. Great movie, definitely worth a watch. I still cannot believe who the 'superhero' of the day was though.

I am tired.

Football today with a bunch of people, and yum-cha tomorrow morning. I am so tired, I don't know if I can even wake up to make it down tomorrow. I guess I just have to drag myself out so that I can go have nice food and also collect some stuff.

And I have not done my studies for two entire days. Bad.

I hope I have some time to do so tomorrow. No lagging behind.

Results from the showdown, plus more updates.

We are all alive. No casualties or instances of food poisoning. Phew.

So I am sad to announce that AKA does to have a third episode. Yet.

I have yet to upload some photos from the fireworks show we watched a couple of days ago. Maybe tomorrow. School's pretty hectic.

A lot of things happning, inside and outside school, things I have never imagined myself doing, or never really put an effort to. I'm glad for now that things are changing, and mostly for the better - at least that is what I see in them for now.

I'll most likely be flying home this coming June, after my examinations. Thinking of it, exams aren't exactly very far away, and we have the entire module to complete, which covers what I did at 'A' levels over 2 years.

Damned econs.

Showdown.

Tomorrow's the day whereI put my skills to the test.

Hopefully there will be no need for AKA episode 3.

Tomorrow's dinner menu, Pasta Alfredo. All ingredients from the supermarket, so I doubt it should go wrong. Doubt.

Shivers.

A.K.A. Episode 2.

Welcome back to another episode of AKA. Today, we feature yet another new dish, something really easy, almost idiot-proof. Almost.

Sunny side up with sweet sauce.

1. Fry egg.
2. Add sweet sauce.
3. Stare at the sauce drying up and carbonizing due to a high flame and lack of oil.
4. Serve with the less black side facing up - we call it presentation.
5. Swallow your creation - bitter-sweet, two-coloured egg. (Think ying-yang.)

At this rate, I can really write a book.

Adrian's Kitchen Adventures (Read: Accidents)

Welcome to the first episode of the new AKA series, Adrian's Kitchen Adventures (Read: Accidents).

First dish of the day, DIY Bread-based pizza.

1. Take bread.
2. Add anything you can find in the kitchen.
3. Top with cheese to make it look like a pizza.
4. Send it in the microwave for some time. (I tried 1min and it works fine.)
5. Exclaim in horror for not toasing the bread beforehand.
6. Swallow your creation - Solid dough with loose ingredients topped with cheese.

A drink to compliment, A&W-inspired cocktail.

1. Pour A&W Root Beer into cup.
2. Add Baileys. (Original, or mint if you want some kick)
3. Figure out how much of each you added and try to adjust.
4. Admire the swirls, then stir it to mix well.
5. Swallow your creation - Alcoholic milk-tea.

There you go, a total culinary disaster for the start of the season.


Maybe school ought to add "Intro to cooking for dummies" as a breadth module.

Melbourne Motor Show 2008

Went down to the Melbourne International Motor Show 2008 last weekend before sending my dad off at the airport. Quite a large collection of cars from many different manufacturers from all over the world. The expected names are there as usual, from Japanese names like Toyota, Mitsubishi, to European car-makers BMW, Renault, right to high-end supercar-makers Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, etc. The list goes on. Even given the size of the entire venue, the crowd is still large enough to make the entire hall rather packed.

Largest few booths would probably belong to Toyota, Ford, Holden and BMW. And with the supercars right in the centre of the entire venue, you'd expect the crowd to gather around to take photos (they put low fences so that people keep a 'safe distance' from them though). Quite intersting to see one or two 'brave(-and-very-rich) souls' walk into the fenced area to enquire about their dream cars.

They had the Lamboorghini Murcielago Roadster there, but not the Reveton. Darn. But the recently announced FT-HS Toyota Hybrid that manages 0-100 in 4 seconds was present. Other cars included the BMW M3, BMW M5, Nissan 350Z Fairlady, Mazda RX8, Ferrari 340 Scudera, and many many more. I missed the Bugatti Veyron though. Dang.

Grear cars, great crowd, great venue. You really can't ask for more. Managed to snap a few shots (an excuse to test my phone's camera).

Train stations.

I've taken wrong trains before, I've missed trains before and I've fallen into the tracks before. What's next?

Recovery.

It made me doubt myself and what I said.
And made me realise that I was lying to myself all these years.

You never really recover from a fall until you get up and start walking again.

Pressure.

There is an unspoken pressure that pushes me. It is a pressure born from the amount of time, effort and money put into coordinating everything that has led to today; it speaks to me like a parent - in fact, in an even more uncompromising and grave tone - constantly reminding me of what failure encompasses. Failure in this context isn't just sinking below the 50th percentile, it's way beyond the means of measure I got accustomed to in the past. Staying afloat isn't just what is required of me; that is far too simple and far too undemanding considering that fact that I have made this choice to take this particular route.

Everyone claims that results don't matter and that having a complete learning experience is far more important. They bring attention to character development and the likes, to the ability to think critically, and to many other traits deemed important and significant. Not that I would like to challenge their views, but fact is that at your job interview, your employer looks first at your resume, and with that your results, even before knowing how you look. Keep it Asian - it's all about results.

Everything in life is all about balance. (No, this isn't a tai-chi-inspired post, nor is it the writings of some guru.) A balanced lifestyle would definitely bring you a greater and more enjoyable experience. And once again, I am stuck wit trying to figure out this point.

Tough fight.

Tough fight.

If you win, you smile, yet feel bitter inside.
But if you lose, at least you feel happy inside.