Zoch auf der Hong Kong Toy Fair

Zoch Verlag, a german boardgame company, will be coming to Hongkong for the first time. The exhibition will be held on the 10th-13th January, 2006 in HKCEC.

最近看過的電影

最近兩星期看了三套電影。各自都沒有甚麼好寫（是我懶），不過有一個共通點，就是某程度上是另一套電影的改篇，所以連在一起隨便寫點吧。

The Jacket
主角發現自己有去到未來的能力，並得知自己四天後就要死，要怎做？
看到這個題材就跟上年的The Butterfly Effect相比。去到未來竟然做這種事，自然是立即比下去。
評分：4/10

如果．愛
人生如戲。三個人拍電影，但劇本跟他們的故事一樣。戲，卻一定要拍完！
這部電影看到一半就讓我想起幾年前把Gwyneth Paltrow變成金像最佳女主角的Shakespeare in Love。如果簡簡單單要拍一套浪漫愛情片還好，片中夾雜的歌舞片斷，零碎得像電視MV。
評分：5/10

King Kong
Lord of the Rings成名的大導Peter Jackson說他是King Kong(1933)的影迷，今次打正旗號重拍當年名作。原作沒看過，但以上星期看過新版的觀感，雖沒之前看LOTR的感動，但還不算失禮。
評分：7/10

沒幾多套電影是我會付錢入戲院看兩次的。印像中只The Fellowship of the Ring，The Two Towers跟Shrek 2三套。

Goethe-Institut

Die Zeit, a german newspaper, asks for opinions about Goethe-Institut on her web site. To quote the original message:

The resources for foreign culture and politics, therefore also for Goethe-Institut, is declining. The needs are weak. Should this important organization, who teaches the german language worldwide, spreads the german culture and hence promotes the german image, not receive the support any more?

Some buy stocks; some buy stock markets

From the Economist: Australian bank Macquarie has launched a hostile bid for the London Stock Exchange. Some other U.S. and European financial organizations are interested in that also. The writer suggests that "the era of national markets may be passing." Is this what we want when we talk about globalization?

我還是被李家誠騙了

我一向是個貪便宜的師奶。今天看到早幾天某銀行發來的廣告電郵說信用卡用戶到李氏的網站登記就可得75元現金劵。剛想到不久後要買大量果汁汽水，不如先登記戶口吧。登記完後再看真一點原來的電郵，原來所謂的現金劵，要買400才可以用20元，也就是說只是一個（最多）95折的宣傳技倆。我竟被這種東西騙倒，真白黐！

為甚麼大家那麼喜歡到超市買東西呢？我總覺得是麻煩、費時且浪費金錢的活動。賣的東西全不便宜，且經常要排長長的人龍等前面的大叔或師奶簽信用卡、換優惠劵，跟我喜愛的get-in-get-out模式不合。

例如…

PK&S.COM上說：
　浴室萬潔靈500ml即用裝＝$17.9$15.9
　藍威寶500ml即用裝＝$25.0$19.9
　高露潔MCP(250g)＝$14.9$8.9

上月頭到位於英皇道大街藥房Ａ買清潔用品時的價錢是：
　浴室萬潔靈500ml即用裝＝$13
　藍威寶500ml即用裝＝$17

另一天在橫街的藥房Ｂ買牙膏，價錢是：
　高露潔MCP(250g)＝$8.0

沒有黃色紅色的特價標籤，沒有請明星賣最低價保證的廣告，但價錢卻較便宜。不會刻意將常用的東西放到店最裡面的位置，你要的東西大刺刺放在門邊任你取，且價錢清清楚楚貼在貨品上面，也沒有閉路電視跟保安系統。店員沒有公式的『歡迎光臨』，並不代表待客無禮。可惜因企業壟斷，四處都是便利店、超市，小商店的生存容間愈來愈小，且很多商品在這種地方都沒法買到。

請支持藥房、雜貨店等小商鋪！

How is Google different from Yahoo?

Someone has some observations from their buying stratagies

Antique discovery, part 2

I just got my new bed and book shelf and I finally can afford to "destroy" my old bed, which were 4 large boxes full of books, CDs and other miscellaneous stuff. There I found my battery charger and card reader for my digital camera (which was an antique of its own, by the way). With my camera recharged it is possible to post the history which I carried across the Victoria harbour.

Top Left: a full box of matches, a brand which was only available when gasoline stoves were the norm.
Bottom Left: Lego from the 80s.
Right: The same box of lego, opened to show the contents. The rubber band is still elastic, which demonstrates the production quality of Lego products.

The office might be bad for your health

A Fast Company magazine article by Drew Armstrong says that "employees who felt their supervisors treated them fairly had a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease". Also, Angus Loten revealed to us that a noisy workplace might be dangerous to our health. "A loud workplace can raise the risk of heart attack for men by nearly a third," and "ambient city noises alone, like commuter traffic or air conditioners, may also boost the risk for both sexes -- three-fold for women and up to 50% for men."

Terrible, is it not?

SPL and Creep

I have watched 2 movies this week. The first was SPL, a Hongkong action movie featuring action stars Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen. The second was Creep, another British production showing the Pathé rooster logo.

In Creep, a young lady Kate (Franka Potente, a German actress who also starred in The Bourne Identity) was locked inside a London subway station. She soon found out she had company: an ugly, human-eating monster. What must she do to get out alive?

I was told that they have many unused or retired subway stations in England, and subway ghost stories exist among londoners. However, I am no londoner, and I have problem understanding this film. Blood ran throughout the film, but I hardly find it entertaining. The story was pasted together, people appear without reason. What is good seeing people die in front of me? There may be urban legends about war-time secret experiments in underground laboratories, but I cannot feel the horror, since I live so far away.

Impressions on Creep: 3/10, but I have saved something better:


SPL is about the relentless revenge of a cop in June 1997, a week before the handover of Hongkong. In 1994, Po Wong (Sammo Hung) killed Chung's (Simon Yam) key witness and the wife of the witness. Chung had sworn to protect their kid and put Po in jail. Just before Chung's retirement due to cancer in 1997, he and his colleagues would even temper with evidence and commit murder in order to convict him. Defying the law will do them no good. Instead of completing the conviction, they set him free. Kwan Ma (Donnie Yen), who was the replacement to Chung, must rectify the situation before things got worse.

Bad cop is always a good movie subject. The plot was probably not perfect, but it was good enough for an action movie. The great action stars more than remedied the situation, making it a must-see local movie this year.

It had a strong contrast with another recent movie starring Sammo Hung: Dragon Squad where a couple of very interesting speeches were given: "Each of us has a role in the society. If we rush to avenge our dead colleagues, who protects law and order? Our world will be in chaos," "Give yourself a chance. Drop the weapon and live." The cops in SPL went for a revenge. They sacrificed a lot. They created chaos. Po went too far and did something he regretted at the end. This is perhaps the moral of the story.

Impressions on SPL: 8/10