Monthly Archives: January 2009

Daily Scribble

First ski of the season

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I had my first ski of the season today. I have been itching to go skiing in the Christmas holidays, but the weather condition is pretty bad for the past two weeks. The weather forecast for this weekend looked good, it said it would be +5 degree rain. I seize the chance and went to Whistler with my friends. The weather was pretty good in the morning, we have some fresh powder snow over the week. The snow base is not enough, there are still rocks and tree tops on some runs, so we have to stay in groomed runs. It’s not too bad for the first ski, since I haven’t ski for almost a year. The lack of train makes my legs get tired easily and I need to recall the muscle memory. We should take it easy today.

However the weather turns bad after lunch. Its windy and getting cold. It is so cold that we rather ski further down the mountain to take the gondola up instead of taking the lift chair. We only had 3 runs in the afternoon and decided to call it a day. The traffic coming back is very bad. We left on 3:30p and took us 3 hours to arrive Vancouver. It was already snowing in the city. Many cars got stuck in snow and blocked the traffic. The rear-wheel drive cars are very annoying. The driver don’t realize their car can’t go up slopes in snow. Yet they still try their way up and blocking off everyone behind. I finally arrive home at 9p.m. safely. If I know it’s going to snow this afternoon, I would probably stay home instead of go skiing.

Daily Scribble

Demanding professor

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Next semester, my life begins getting back to normal, I am talking another philosophy course. I had class with this professor before, she is really demanding. In her class, she forbid any students using laptop, even for taking notes, because she think anyone with a laptop would be distracted by surfing the web. The course work load was normal, but her lecture expect us to do the reading before coming into class without explaining much background details. I didn’t do very well in that class, but that’s OK, I won’t really care about my grade.

My first class is staring on Monday and the professor already sent out email to the class to assign next week’s reading. I don’t even have time to buy the textbook yet. Luckily the textbook is available online at Google books, so I have to read the two assigned articles on my laptop this week. The work load of this course is not too bad, just two essays on top of the exams. I did introductory political philosophy last year, I thought the intermediate course would be more or less the same. However, I already found I am learning new ideas on the first two essays. The previous course taught about the all the -ism in political philosophy, this course talk about political theories, which is one layer deeper than the -ism.

電影

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 奇幻逆緣

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Benjamin Button 這個聖誕假約老婆拍拖看電影﹐可是去到戲院卻沒有多少選擇。她不看動作片恐怖片﹐我不想看愛情片﹐上映Jim Carry和Adam Sandlers兩套笑片又似乎不好笑。幸好記得早上看報紙談論《奇幻逆緣》。這齣電影獲八項奧斯卡提名﹐主角Brat Pitt勢似將會勇奪最佳男主角﹐故事又頗吸引感人於是便購票入場。我心想就算電影不好看﹐至少故事題材有趣﹐是寫評論的好材料。

這部電影改篇自F. Scott Fitzgerald的短篇小說﹐不過除了保留主線的構思外﹐劇本由《阿甘正傳》的編劇重新操刀。這套戲給觀眾很強烈《阿甘正傳》的感覺﹐也是以回顧主角的一生作為故事的主線。《奇幻逆緣》的故事很平淡﹐只是敘述主角一生的遭遇﹐出世母親難產死被生父遺棄﹐幸得在老人院工作的好心黑婦收養。童年時遇上一生最愛的小女孩﹐不過兩人半生兜轉才走在一起。主角年少時行船工作﹐在西伯利亞的塞凍搭上有夫之婦初戀情人。二次大戰爆發被徵召入伍﹐在海上見盡生敵死別。戰後回老家安頓下來﹐幫養母打理老人院。機遇下再遇上小情人﹐情路岐嶇最終有情人終成眷屬﹐還生了一個可愛的小女孩。豈料在女兒一歲生日那天﹐主角拋妻棄子一走了之﹐去了第三世界浪流。直到臨終前再重遇變了婆婆小情人﹐一起入住老人院走過最後年。主角的經歷普通到無可再普通﹐唯一特別的地方是他一出生便是個八十歲老人﹐年紀越大越返老頑童﹐由老人變成中年再變回少年﹐到最後變成嬰兒﹐在婆婆的懷抱中入睡死去。

我感得這套電影不是特別好看﹐阿甘雖然傻但他很正面很開心。這套電影的主角則很灰很不開心﹐可能他未老先衰想法像個老人。故事也有加插一些笑位﹐但改變不到電影悲傷的主旋律。那七次被雷劈也不死的老伯﹐主角童年時老人樣小孩心﹐少年時照鏡發現自己生毛也很搞笑。不過最全套戲最爆笑的場面﹐莫過於小情人與主角重遇﹐女主角想色誘他上床﹐他馬上很急色地答Absolutely。對女性觀眾來說﹐Brad Pitt不用扮老人﹐回復靚仔小生的模樣後﹐那幾場火辣辣的露股床戲﹐當然是這齣戲的賣點。

電影開場頭三分二其實不錯﹐導演拍出主角年紀與外表相反的那份矛盾心情。可是當主角回到年輕與女主角結成一對後﹐電影的情調急轉直下無味如嚼蠟﹐主角拋妻棄子的理由更是荒謬。他害怕自己年紀越來越輕﹐不能正常地當女兒父親的角色﹐於是叫女主角另結新歡替女兒找個代父。主角生女兒是三十多齡﹐還有十多年才會退化至小孩子。老年人扮後生難﹐但青輕人扮老則易如反掌。若果他化粧染白頭髮扮老﹐根本可以繼續當女兒的正常父親。到了外表太年輕再也不能隱暪女兒時﹐她已經是個懂事的成年人﹐可以體量明白父親的身體問題了。不過最後婆婆與主角在老人院重遇﹐婆婆拖著變成小孩的主角漫步﹐則很溫馨感人。雖然畫面是婆婆與小孩﹐但感覺與在看一對年老夫妻分別不大。

看完這套電影散場出來﹐我覺得其實人生就好像一個循環﹐人老了也像小孩子般無助。有人說愛情無分年齡界限﹐不過電影好像卻在唱反調。主角外表年老時﹐他只能夠找個中年女人投懷送抱。他人到中年時的外表﹐也吸引不到在紐約過慣花花世界的女主角﹐要到了兩人年齡相若才會走在一起。或者若果主角可以早些承繼父親的遺產﹐在還是老人時已有一大筆財產﹐也許可以吸引年輕少艾也說不定。可世主角當時人又老錢又冇﹐恐怕除了當老女人的小白臉外﹐他也找不到其他女人垂青。

Daily Scribble

New Year Resolution 2009

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Last year, I did not make any new year resolution. My attitude towards new year resolution swings between two extremes. In some years, I think it is a great motivator, but in other years, I think it is totally useless. Last year I have accomplished quite a few things. My biggest accomplishment was becoming a married man, moved on into the next stage of life. The next biggest accomplishment is that I spent almost 3 months working in India. It’s tough, but it is really an eye opener. I haven’t accomplish anything after I move in with Pat in the last two months. Probably that’s why I am feeling anguish recently. In order to find peace in mind, I should start making a plan for 2009. Here is my to-do list for the coming year.

– Have a baby
(Oh well, this one is out of my control)

– Write the PMP exam
(hopefully, the company is paying for it)

– Take CSIA level 2 exam
(I might fail, but I still want to try)

– Get the hunter license
(I just need 1 weekend free time, probably do it after the ski season)

– Take one philosophy course per term
(my challenge is to find a quiet study time)

– Practice shooting once a week
(probably lack of shooting practice is another reason why I am feeling anguish)

– Learn how to maintain my AR-15 first, so that I can try it.
(haven’t touch it since I got it)

– Upgrade the WordPress installation in horace.org
(my blog system is really out of date)

– Toronto trip in May for Leon’s wedding

– HK/Asia trip in X’mas for Mingwai’s wedding

– More India travel (?)

– Balance my TV/anime/movie/books appetite
(In 2008, I only read 15 books and watched 17 anime and 45 movies/TV)

– Stop wasting time watching Fairchild TV every night.

– Write blog everyday!