Since I started writing blog, I have been writing reviews and critics for books I read, movies, TV series and anime I watched.  Writing reviews and critics force myself to reflect on the informative I receive.  Instead of passively consume the materials, and then forget all about it in a few months, I produce something in return.  The books, movies, TV and anime are stimulus to my mind, through the story or ideas in them, they help me to discover the world.  Recently, I found I had reached a plateau in writing reviews and critics.  My reviews and critics is becoming more and more mechanic and I am repeating myself.  It could be the case that most of the stuffs out there are more or less the same old stuff.  Just mass entertainment product created from the talent assembly line of Hollywood or the publishing industry.  But it is more likely I am the person who run out of creativity.  I read reviews and critics on the internet writing about the same stuff I wrote, I found others reviews or critics are more lively and have much more in depth analysis.  My writing skill needs improvement, but simply writing more of the same crap won’t help.  There isn’t any class to take nor any tutorials on writing good reviews or critics.  I can only learn by imitating the master minds.  I should start paying more attention to the good reviews and critics I come across, remember their forms, the perspective of the author and the use of vocabularies.  I will need to start a note book to jot down those writing techniques for reference and try them out in my new writings.  Once I forced myself to use the writing techniques a few times, it will become part of my writing style, so my writing will be more rich and lively.

Tonight is the last class for my badminton lessons.  Over the 8 weeks course, I found my badminton skill has improved alot.  I have been playing badminton for years but never learn the proper technics.  I have signed up with the beginner class, although the name is a bit embrassing but it suits my level.  I start learning the very basic of badminton, the focus of the beginner class is only foot work.  The coach is trying to help us build up our body memory so when the birdie comes, we would at once know where to move and position myself to return the serve.  Now, I stay in balance more often in the game and my speed has improved a little bit.  The most useful thing I learnt is linking my moves, after I return the birdie, I can prepare for the next return.  I have signed up for 8 more lessons starting next week.  In the up coming intermediate class, I will learn more about racquet control, so that I can hit the birdie to wherever I want it to go.

Edward Said is one of the intellectuals quoted by the right and the left in cultural issues. His major work orientialism is criticize how the west see other culture only from their own perspective. His thinking is a hallmark for the post-colonial theories and is heavily influenced by post-modernism. I watched his speech The Myth of the Clash of Civilization about his critics on the clash of civilization theme in the post cold war era. Some intellectuals, especially the right wing claim in the next century, the world conflict will be from the clash of civilization, the West, the Confucianism and the Muslim are the three major players fighting for global domination. Edward Said is right that this view is too simplified by categorize people into the we vs them. There is are difference inside a civilization and generalizing everyone within under the umbrella of a single culture is misleading. Moreover, culture and tradition are not static, they are in the constant flux of change. His conclusion and the suggested route seems too naive, everyone just hug each other then we will have world peace. His post-modernism background misleads him to reject there exists universal value. I follow the enlightenment tradition and think different civilization are in difference stage in finding the universal truth. The core of all civilization are the same universal value, on the surface there are different culture preferences service difference taste of the people. The West are not imposing their culture on the Muslims, the more advance culture are just helping the slower culture to ascend into the next stage. Japan is a good example of successful transform, China is following the same path. The conflict is not between the difference of the cultures, rather it is the force holding back all the cultures and the force move them forward.

The video is separated into 5 parts. It is interesting that the first part is watched by over ten thousand people, while the last part is only watch by two thousand people. Looks like most people cannot sit thought a pure intellectual speech on serious topics.

Today, my company have a massive layoff, 15% of the employee is gone.  I have been stressed out for the whole week.  Since the beginning of the month, there were rumors about the company is having a layoff plan.  The rumour is leaking more and more information out, and we even know the numbers of people to cut last week.  It is 180 out of 1200 employees, probably the biggest cut since 2001.  My project team has been idling since we finished our project in january.  Some of us are working in feasibility work, and myself was on loan to help out another project.  Seems like the whole team is the redundant overhead that can be chopped away.  I would expect my team have lots of causality, but it term out only the director and one guy is laid off.  I guess closing down the remote sites helps save our job.  The company still need someone to take over whatever tasks in the remote site.  It is cheaper to keep workers in the headquarter than in the remote sites.  The productivity of the company drop to the lowest level due to the layoff rumour.  I havn’t been doing any real work last week, just waiting for the day to come.  Some people can work as usual like nothing is going to happen, probably their brain is built differently, they just couldn’t feel there is something wrong in the atmosphere.

It was raining, we don’t need the sign to tell us the ground was wet.