Having found out that the Hollywood release of My Sassy Girl is slated for release in our cinemas in just a couple of days, I cannot help but scream HOLLYWOOD, YOU SUCK.

You just do not understand what our movies mean to us. All you people are concerned is profits profits profits and more often than not, imposing your western ideals on us. I saw the trailer, and I am sure for those who have watched the original, after watching this, will have the feeling of being raped in the eye socket by a gorilla wearing a sandpaper condom.

Yes, with due respect, you’re one of our major sources of entertainment. But I cannot fathom why would you wanna do something about love when all (most of you, damned) you know is to screw and get drunk. Maybe you won’t understand the point till some asian filmmaker does a remake of batman, or godfather, and release them in your screens right at your front door, only you’d know.

Please, people, if you’ve forgotten about My Sassy Girl already, or you haven’t watched it before, I urge you to save your cash and 2 hours of your life and instead donate the moolah to an aspiring filmmaker who might just get famous producing an asian remake of The Hottie and the Nottie.

Korean original

Remake w dubbed audio

Hollywood, SCREW YOU!

Just as when the talk of the town is PM Lee’s National Day Rally speech when he spurred Singaporeans on to have more kids, there was this one little lovely who drew smiles on the faces of the people, who are known to be uber stressed, wearing sullen and glum ones most of the time.

She was scurrying about in the cabin, taking interest in a boy at the opposite row of seats, oblivious to the stares and smiles by other commuters of the lunchtime crowd. And she had not yet mastered the art of balancing so whenever the train braked, she’d fall on the floor and sit there, stunned momentarily, thereafter breaking out into a smile and resumed being busy.

Her mum was busily engaged on the phone for about ten minutes or so, and fellow commuters had a hand  at babysitting this cute little joy somehow.

Ahh, let’s have babies, shall we.

Shine your light

Ah Siu on the extreme right, making merry with us in Hong Kong, June 2007

It saddens me to find out that a fellow comrade has fallen in the line of duty. Even though it has been 2 years after ORD, memories of those firefighting days are still firmly etched in my mind. But unfortunately, two years on, these unsung heroes still have no tune.

Often when people talk to me about SCDF, the first thing they go is “damn slack! shiok ah!” Why? It’s because they see the firefighters on standby in the fire stations, rarely in action. Oh well, how many people have actually seen firefighters live in action, bearing heat and smoke as if they were men of iron, barging into apartments to save people who were neither kin nor kith to them.

Ah Siu died of smoke inhalation when he rescued an old lady from the fire, sharing his oxygen mask with her in order for her to live. Leaving behind a wife and a daughter, people would question why exactly did he sacrifice himself when he had such huge responsibilities as a father and husband to fulfil for at least 30 more years, and yet to sacrifice himself for an elderly lady some more?

It was dilemma at that very moment – whether to act blur and walk on leaving behind the old lady to die because “I-am-still-young-and-I-still-have-my-family-to-take-care-of”, or to rescue a life that may be important to someone else (maybe a son, a father, a daughter) regardless of what race, gender, religion, age that person would be.

It was choosing between living with the regret for life to know that because of you someone didn’t live, and “because of your sacrifice, fulfilling your ultimate duty as a fireman, you made another person live to see another day,” that decision being even more difficult to make when you know you have other greater duties to fulfil like being a father.

In that situation, I know that Ah Siu never hesitated to make the latter decision.

You are our hero. Everybody’s hero.

–

Fire in Downtown Hong Kong Kills Two Firemen
Posted August 10, 2008

Two firemen who died in the smoke- filled Mong Kok nightclub inferno may have made the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their own oxygen to save the lives of those they went in to rescue.

An elderly woman, surnamed Tsang, who was trapped on the 8th floor, said two firemen – who she believed to be Siu and Chan – knocked on her door and guided her and others to safety.

“I feel pain in my heart. I am already very old and should be the one to die, not them,” Tsang said.

A resident who was trapped on the 12th floor during the fire claimed alarms on Siu’s and Chan’s oxygen cylinders had sounded as they climbed the stairs to search for trapped residents.

“The fireman looked very pale when they carried out the rescue operation,” she said.

Another witness, who was a guest at a budget hotel on the 7th floor, said at least nine people had escape
d because firemen had shared their oxygen with them.

According to the Fire Services Department, firemen are trained to leave the scene and replace their oxygen cylinders once the alarm sounds.

Fire Service Department Staffs General Association vice chairman Chiu Sin-chung said it was standard practice for firemen to share their oxygen with victims.

According to another vice chairman of the association, Lo Shik-chung, an oxygen cylinder contains 1,800 liters of oxygen, lasting approximately 45 minutes.

An alarm sounds 10 minutes before the oxygen runs out.

–
Tributes pour in for `role model’ heroes who died
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The two firemen killed in the line of duty were yesterday elevated to hero status by their peers and superiors.

Senior fire officer Siu Wing-fong, 46, and fire officer Chan Siu-lung, 25, died of smoke inhalation on Sunday while saving residents trapped in the No 5 alarm blaze at Cornwall Court in Mong Kok.

Siu left behind a wife and 12-year-old daughter. Chan’s mother was emotional when identifying her son’s corpse at the mortuary yesterday.

Fire Service Department Staffs General Association vice president Chiu Sin-chung said he had known Siu and his family for 17 years as they were neighbors in the Fu Tei married quarters.

He said Siu was a helpful person and everyone had only good things to say about him.

“Siu was an active figure in the department and enjoyed good relations with his colleagues,” Chiu said. “He was nicknamed `Gentleman Siu’ because of his good looks and he often stood as a model for Fire Services publicity activities and publications.”

Siu was one of the motorcycle escorts when the Olympic Flame was carried through the streets of Hong Kong on May 2. He also served as a department sports coach and represented Hong Kong in the 2006 World Firefighters Games.

To his juniors, Siu was an unselfish and protective mentor always willing to share his 24 years’ experience. To his family, he was a responsible father, disciplining his daughter well, and had a harmonious relationship with his wife, Chiu said.

The Fire Service Department Staffs General Association has set up a condolence fund account at the public’s request for the families of Siu and Chan.

Robbie Robertson – Shine Your Light

The cry of the city like a siren’s song
Wailing over the rooftops the whole night long
Saw a shooting star like a diamond in the sky
Must be someone’s soul passing by

These are the streets
Where we used to run where your Papa’s from
These are the days
Where you become what you become
These are the streets
Where the story’s told
The truth unfolds
Darkness settles in

Shine your light down on me
Lift me up so I can see
Shine your light when you’re gone
Give me the strength
To carry on, carry on

Don’t wanna be a hero
Just an everyday man
Trying to do the job the very best he can
But now it’s like living on borrowed time
Out on the rim, over the line

Always tempting fate like a game of chance
Never wanna stick around to the very last dance
Sometimes I stumble and take a hard fall
Lose hold your grip off the wall

I thought I saw him walking
By the side of the road
Maybe trying to find his way home

He’s here but not here
He’s gone but not gone
Just hope he knows if I get lost

Happy Birthday, Singapore.

“You can give a fool a thousand intellects, but the only one he will want is yours,” says an Arabic proverb.

When we start planting the garden of our life, we glance to one side and notice our neighbour is there, spying. He himself is incapable of growing anything, but he likes to give advice on when to sow actions, when to fertilise thoughts, and when to water achievements.

If we listen to what this neighbour is saying, we will end up working for him, and the garden of our life will be our neighbour’s idea. We will end up forgetting about the earth we cultivated with so much sweat and fertilised with so many blessings. We will forget that each centimetre of earth has its mysteries that only the patient hand of the gardener can decipher. We will no longer pay attention to the sun, the rain, and the seasons; we will concentrate instead only on that head peering at us over the hedge.

The fool who loves giving advice on our garden never tends to his own plants at all.

- Paulo Coelho, Like The Flownig River

fire! fire!

“Big fire razes factory in Sungei Kadut”

The biggest 7th month offering in 5 years. Picture – Straits Times

I could’ve imagined the expression on the officer’s face in the first arriving fire pumper. Balls shrink, man!

And I heard that the front bonnet of one of the engines totally melted, lah. Luckily, the 18 other appliances were not affected and the 70 firemen were okay. Eh, woots, that is alot of manpower.

“doing nothing is doing something.”

But what amazed me was the complete lack of empathy to the situation that had evidently manifested itself right before my eyes. Subconsciously, I was aware that these two deadly sins had completely overtaken my body, mind and soul. And yet when I reached down deep inside and tried to feel my way through this imperceptible mess I was in, all I found was mere emptiness.

The past three months had been one of the more challenging times in my life. It was a time of exploration, what I really wanted to do, what kind of lifestyle I wanted to have, and what did I want to achieve, given that excessive amount of time I had on my two hands. Even before the holidays had started, I had already laid down my pledge not to work, and instead devote my time doing more “meaingful” things, but I probably didn’t understand what that meant at that point of time. Though it was a mere three months of almost complete freedom, without being to be tied down by commitments, which I refer to as answering to bosses and assuming responsibilities, I was put to task with a test of discipline, determination, and peseverence, those I thought could give me very valuable life lessons a long way down the road.

It was a hefty price to pay, when I had an overwhelming amount of time on hand. With poor discipline and no clear vision of what I had to do each day, everyday was just stumbling across any passing breeze, asking it to pick me up to wherever it wants to go. I basically spent this three months in sloth, almost idling away, sometimes indulging in newspapers, some books, and a small amount of freelance projects. Envy was the next deadly sin that caught up with me. I saw my peers taking up internships, part time jobs, meaning they had lines into their portfolios and bank account books and I didn’t.

But what amazed me was the complete lack of empathy to the situation that had evidently manifested itself right before my eyes. Subconsciously, I was aware that these two deadly sins had completely overtaken my body, mind and soul. And yet when I reached out deep inside and tried to feel my way through this imperceptible mess I was in, all I found was mere emptiness. Then I started to wonder: was it due to my sheer disrespect for time, or was it ultimate complacency, with my ability to generate that meagre amount of passive income from my stock dividends without lifting a finger?

After some time, I realised it was neither.

I’ve said umpteen times and told countless people that I want to be a filmmaking trader. For those who don’t know what that is, it means I aspire to be a full time trader and part time filmmaker. And it was a sudden realisation, that if I really wanted to be a filmmaker, I cannot make films all day – I’ll need inspiration. And I cannot trade all day as well – I need to wait for appropriate prices and signals to execute trades.

Which means I will have time on hand to do my own things, and that was my intention of choosing that that path in the first place. I’ll have freedom to do things that I like, pursue my dreams, and devote time to more important things in life rather than slaving away for businesses I don’t even own.

And even before that comes, I know I still have a long way to go. I’m thankful to people around me who’ve been my continual inspiration, some of them which consist of old friends I haven’t met for ages and fortunately had time to catch up with this holiday. At at same time I’m hearing news of some getting scholarships, switching jobs, embarking on new phrases of life. I am happy for them, to know that they’re all doing fine, and I really hope to see them one day becoming prominent figures in the corporate or government sector.

While I somehow still lament over the absolute disregard for pragmatism over the past three months, I’d say it has been an exhilarating (a right word to use, or not) experience engaging in activities without monetary attachments. As bad as the holiday had initially sounded when I started off this entry, I am thankful that I am blessed with good health, great family and great, supportive people around. At least I know that no matter how bad things can be sometimes, there are still little things in life worth being happy about, and to be worth living for.