Archive for February, 2007

Curse of the Golden Flower Theme Song

February 27, 2007 at 6:41 am · Filed under highly recommended songs

so meaningful… so beautiful, so touching… so full of feeling

Translation/pinyin/lyrics by Ho@multistars.com

Golden Armour

Composer: Jay Chou (周杰倫) (周杰伦)
Lyricist: Vincent Fang (方文山) (方文山)

Notes: This is the theme song for the movie “Curse Of The Golden Flower”

The flag is like a rainbow
The mountains rising upon one another are like peaks
This army slivers like a dragon
The murderous looks are like the wind
The colour of blood is like red as wine

General, my pride is like charging ahead
The look of violence is like fierceness
The golden armour is like loyalty
The rider swift and fierce to my row like a blast
A blast

The scenery is like winter
The bleakness is like maple
The offensive is like a bow
The broken soul as if in a dream
Every movement
Like a pine tree
Unchanging for thousands of years
Like air
Like air
Like air

Blood dyes the armour
I wipe away the tears to kill
The whole city is full of chrysanthemum flowers
Whose kingdom will it be?
On top of the palace
The smoke signal and wind borne sand
Life and death is but
The scar of a knife

Hate stretches long and unbroken like fire
The eyebrows of anxious people are like locks
Feelings float, float
Floating for a lifetime like me
Flourishing this life like yesterday
See each other with weapons like destroying
Thousands of troops, tens of thousands of horses
Tens of thousands of horses gallop, that fratricide is like a mistake

The old battles are like wine
Success or failure, in the turn of an eye it is like Autumn
Beacon fires are all over the place
The memory of beacon fires are like rust
(That memory of beacon fires are like rust)
Whether or not the massacre was overdone
(Whether or not that massacre was overdone)
The memory of beacon fires are like rust
(That memory of beacon fires are like rust)
The royal blood as if cut off
(That royal blood as if cut off)

Blood dyes the armour
I wipe away the tears to kill
The whole city is full of chrysanthemum flowers
Whose kingdom will it be?
On top of the palace
The smoke signal and wind borne sand
Life and death is but
The scar of a knife

Blood dyes the armour
I wipe away the tears to kill
Wielding my sword and rearing my horse
Lets see who falls down
Dialog of love and hate
Remains in history
Who, in the middle of
Chaotic arrows, is elegant

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What Kind Of Asian Are You?

February 25, 2007 at 11:31 pm · Filed under Chinese, Uncategorized

Haha, I found this while I was searching for Curse of the Golden Flower reviews and whatnots. It looked pretty fun to share with you. This is actually an updated list of what I had a few years ago:

Young Asians in America come in many forms. Below are the major categories. Most Asians fit into multiple groups. For example, Rice-boys can also be Fobs and many Tabs are Fobulous. The only groups that are never part of another group are the Twinkies and the Asian-Americans. Claim your Fobbiness! When you see your Asian friend, greet them with “Wassup Fob!” And if your Asian friend says something ridiculous, say “Fob please!” Of course, when a non-Asian calls you a Fob, that is grounds for a fight. Ahahaha… The categories below are to be taken lightheartedly. Read, recognize and laugh.

Twinkie
- Besides your nationality, there is little to distinguish you from white people
- Your significant other is not Asian and never has been
- You have few Asian friends, if any
- You are embarrassed at family events because you cannot speak your language and everyone has to switch to English to communicate with you
- You have no idea that the other types of Asians on this list even exist
- You think Hello Kitty is dumb and do not know what Sanrio is
- You are the only Asian on this list that does not know what Bubble Tea is
- You drive a Ford or some other domestic car and if you drive a Honda, it is stock

Asian-American
- You claim yourself as Asian, but real Asians think you’re whitewashed and non-Asians see you as a foreigner. You fit in nowhere
- You have heard of Bubble Tea but have never actually had any
- You are confused about your cultural identity and express this frustration through spoken word performances at your college
- You read A. magazine and think it’s great
- You do not know who Edison, Jay Chou, Ayu, or G.O.D. are
- You are only vaguely aware of the other Asians below

Yap (Young Asian Professional)
- You are in one of these professions:
a) Medicine / Pharmaceutical
b) Engineering
c) Finance
d) Investment Banking
e) Accounting
- Most of your wardrobe was purchased at Banana Republic
- You go to “mixers” on Thursday nights to meet other Yaps and talk about the Dow Jones.
- You did exactly what your parents wanted you to do and as a result, your life is hella boring
- Your apartment/home is decorated almost exclusively with stuff from Pier 1
- Your parents always talk to their friends about how much money you make. If they don’t, then you’re a dissapointment

Fob (Fresh Off tha Boat)
- You were not born in America
- You know who Edison, Jay Chou, Ayu, or G.O.D. are. In fact, you have seen them at Atlantic City or Las Vegas recently
- You speak your native language fluently and so do all your friends
- You do not have any non-Asian friends
- Your parents do not speak any English
- When you speak English, you like to make everything plural
- You get extremely good grades in school
- You cannot dance
- Your fashion sense comes from whatever country you’re from and you incorporate nothing from American fashion into your wardrobe

SuperFob
- Your command of the English language is minimal and you don’t care
- You like dim sum chicken feet
- You do not own a single CD, VCD, Video game, or DVD that isn’t bootlegged
- Your only hangout is Chinatown
- All the lights in your house are fluorescent
- You dry your cloths outside your window
- You need a haircut
- You either smell like cigarettes or food

Fobabee
- You are an Asian-American or Twinkie who has recently “awoken”
- You have a newly found fetish of Asian girls/boys
- You have taken the Asian Studies course at college
- You are trying to learn as much as possible about your culture to make up for your lifetime of trying to be white (Twinkie ; Banana) or Black (Chigger ; Tea egg)
- If you are lucky, you will grow to become Fobulous

Gangsta Fob (Fobsta)
- You have shot another Asian
- Your favorite hangout is a pool hall
- When you talk, you sound like a cross between a Fob and an urban black kid
- Your hair looks silly, but no one will tell you because you’ll shoot them
- You have a serious gambling problem
- You are a Rice-boy, but your mods are cheap and are never painted to match the rest of your car
- No one tells you your rice ride looks cheap because you’ll shoot them
- You want to have a Tab girlfriend, but can only get Hoochie Tabs

Tab (Trendy Asian B*tch)
- You shop at A/X, Bebe and Club Monaco
- You only wear black and will occasionally wear white to “mix it up”
- You do not weigh more than 105 lbs
- You have never paid for dinner at a restaurant in your life
- Platform heels are your favorite
- You are a makeup expert, in fact, you appear completely flawless
- You do not smile in public
- You are the object of desire of all Asian men and you know it
- You smoke
- Your cell phone is completely customized
- Somewhere in your purse is a Sanrio item
- You only date Asian and will only date a boy with a nice car
- You are often seen with Rice-boys
- You never travel alone. You are either in the company of other Tabs or your Rice-boy boyfriend

Hoochie Tab
- You are an import car model
- Your boobs are not real
- There are naked pictures of you floating around on the internet somewhere
- Clear heels are your favorite
- Your role models are Tila Nguyen and Kaila Yu
- Your boyfriend is a Gangsta Fob
- You cheat on your boyfriend
- Unlike most Asians, you do not do well in school

Rice-Boy
- You drive an Asian import. Usually a Honda or Acura
- Your souped up car (known as a Rice-ride or Rice-rocket) is unrecognizable from it’s original stock form
- Your exhaust pipe is big enough for your head to fit in
- The spoiler on your car looks like it was made by Boeing
- The interior of your car also looks like it was designed by Boeing
- You always drive like you are racing someone
- You are not afraid of dying in a crash, but you are afraid of speed bumps and parking lot on-ramps
- The only other person besides yourself who can sit in your car is your 105 lbs Tab girlfriend. If anyone else sits in your car, the entire bottom of it will be touching the ground
- Even though your car is a Honda, it goes faster and is worth more than a Lotus Esprit

Fobulous
- You speak perfect English and you are fluent in your native language
- You have Asian friends as well as non-Asian friends
- You listen to Asian pop as well as American music
- You are equally aware of both popular American culture and Asian pop culture
- You are a good dancer
- You date Asian by choice even though you could rock the opposite sex of any other race
- You are a good designer and have superior Html skills (for that fly MySpace / Xanga page)
- For you, FOB stands for Fabulous Oriental Being
- You have lots of Asian pride

taken from: http://www.nemesiscorporate.com/AsianRU/

Thanks to Doretta for sharing it!

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A Darkroom fantasy

February 17, 2007 at 6:00 am · Filed under Uncategorized

My own darkroom, ha, if that was ever possible, I guess, I should have treasured it more, I should have not taken that darkroom for granted, I should have not taken the chance to use a darkroom for granted.

I had the strangest dream last night, somehow, I broke into Woburn and got a hold of their darkroom once more, many memories flowed back, it was so wonderful, yet so scary, I dreamt I once more made prints, from controling the paper light and darkness to wiping off the water with the squeeggee. I dreamt remembering the moments I shared with Ross and Sof and Parthi in that very place. It was all so wonderful, till I woke up and realized that it was all a dream, all those memories seem so long ago, so familiar yet so unknown and alien, till my thoughts came to me and I realized that I would never have a chance to go back that darkroom, I cried.

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Tagged by Sophie! :)

February 15, 2007 at 5:52 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged by Sophie…

—10 Firsts—
First Best Friend:: Nicky
First Screenname:: Stephanie_Ng18
First Pet Name:: birdie, buggie, (hahaha I wasn’t creative)
First Piercing:: no piercings
First Crush:: A guy from grade 4
First CD:: Spice Girls’ first CD
First School:: Dorset Park Public School
First House Location:: Scarborough, Toronto. (yes, I haven’t moved any where farther)
First Kiss:: no first kiss
First Car:: don’t drive

—9 Lasts—
Last Time You Smoked:: never did
Last Food You Ate:: diced Cataloupe
Last Car Ride:: From Diana Seafood to home
Last Movie You Watched:: Fearless (Jet Li’s)
Last Phone Call:: … don’t remember
Last CD You Listened To:: Jay Chou’s Still Fantasy
Last Bubble Bath You Took:: just 4 hours ago :)
Last Song You Listened To:: Hidden Track by Jay Chou
Last Words You Said:: OMG! I feel so happy

—8 Have-You-Evers—D
Dated A Best Friend:: No
Been Arrested:: no way
Been On TV:: sort of (cause it was some game show… I don’t know if I was filmed)
Eaten Sushi:: yes
Cheated On Your B/F or G/F:: never had a bf, so can’t say, but in advance hopefully… no
Been On A Blind Date:: no
Been Out Of The Country:: yes
Been In Love:: yes

—7 Things You Are Wearing—
1:: pants
2:: polo shirt
3:: sport wear jacket
4:: glasses
5:: gold bracelet
6:: French manicure (nail polish)
7:: a necklace

—6 Things You’ve Done Today—
1:: slept
2:: studied pin yin
3:: study for Chinese
4:: ate
5:: drank tea
6:: emailed tons of people

—5 Favorite Things (not in any order)—
1:: Canto Pop | Mando pop
2:: TVB
3:: Friends
4:: Hong Kong
5:: books, computer, internet (haha am i cheating? lol)

—4 People You Most Trust—
1:: Parents
2:: myself
3:: close friends
4::

(in different aspects obviously)

—3 Things You Want To Do Before You Die—

1:: Get to with the person I love the most
2:: Get back at those who hurt me in the past
3:: (I’ll tell you later… I have no clue… lol)

—2 Choices—Vanilla or Chocolate:: Chocolate

Hugs or Kisses:: both
1 Person You Want To See Right Now:: of course it is the person I can’t see right now.

Tag-Tag- Tag Christine, Lisa, Junior, Meiling, Minty, and anyone else who is reading this useless info!

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Tearless cries?

February 14, 2007 at 5:05 am · Filed under Health and Wellness, Uncategorized

I remember watching a TVB show which insisted that if you are sad to a point, you would not be able to cry tears out.

I use to sort of believe that, as, most of the things TVB says is usually true. But I kind of thought that was just something the writer of that specific show made up in order to create a sympathetic/gloomy atmosphere for the audience.

For those of you who are close with me (which is not a lot, I am guessing only 9 people know in this world) about the relationship crisis (I should not classify it as a relationship since technically nothing has started, perhaps a crush?) I have with me currently.

When I cried for the first few months, there were tears, but now as I realize, I am heartbroken to the point of crying without tears. It surprised me, I was shocked, I was like… why isn’t there tears? I even had a box of kleenex ready for me to wipe the tears from my eyes, but nothing. not a single drop. my nose doesn’t even go sour anymore. I… I find it devastating, sometimes I cry for the sake of crying, as those salty tears roll down my cheeks towards my lips and into my mouth. I know you might think that it is weird, but… I guess that’s how I live on with the stuff I am constantly pressured against. After crying I would get a sense of satisfaction as if those salty tears are an award for my sadness, and I shall live on with life after I had received my allowance for the suffering I had tolerated against.

The human body is all full of wonders, and I think this is one of those wonders I have discovered.

I suspect you probably find it weird why I insisted on publishing this on Valentine’s Day, actually, I do not know myself, you could say it is just a coincidence (or not).

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A Strange dilemma

February 13, 2007 at 11:22 pm · Filed under Health and Wellness

People should treasure what they have:

When people are healthy, they try so hard to make themselves look good by going on diets to make themselves look fatter or thinner.

When these same people are sick, they try so hard to keep themselves in good health by eatting anything nutritious. If the person gets thinner: relatives and friends would say: aww, poor you, your health is so bad now, you are so sick, look at how you are thinning.

If they vice-versa make themselves fatter: relatives and friends would comment: my, look at you now, you look so fat, you should go on a diet. You use to be so perfect, but now… I guess that’s the cost of keeping your health isn’t it?

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Dreams

February 12, 2007 at 10:45 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

inspired by ChrisBean’s Why?

ChrisBean asked this question: “Why can’t reality be as romantic as my dreams?”

in which I replied “dreams are meant to give us hope”

honestly, this is how I really feel, the reason God gave us the ability to dream, is so that we have a chance to believe that we still have hope. The dreams give us an illusion of what we want, or not, so that we may live on through our sorrows, our fears, following a belief that one day, our dreams would come true, and all the sorrows we feel would be worth our suffering.

I remembered Kelvin had once reminded me that God also speaks in our dreams, I find that so amazing, yet I do not know how to interpretate those dreams, God is able to speak in our Dreams, so is Satan, and ofcourse our own inner voice, how is it possible to tell which dream is from God, and which dreams are from Satan and our inner voices?

Kelvin said: say you get a phone call from your father, as you talk more and more, if he is not your father, you would soon realize it.

But is that as simple as listening from God?

Kelvin explains: remember the story of Adam and Eve? Here is a little Background information fromGenesis 2: 8-17 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin [f] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. [g] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Now getting to the part of the story The Fall of Man Genesis 3: 1-6 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

I think the rest of the story, I need not go on, but if I could follow the same concepts, and know the pattern of Satan (or the Serpent from the story) I would easily distinguish the voices from God and the voices from Satan.

But what about my own inner voice? how am I able to distinguish the dreams I dreamt which is from my own inner voice and the dreams God had put for me to know His message?

I am lost.

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Movie Plot Comparison

February 11, 2007 at 5:33 am · Filed under Movie Refeel

Similar Plot between The Devil Wears Prada and Curse of the Golden Flower:

Both show the important lesson: Life, fame, wealth is nothing without someone to share it with.

The Devil Wears Prada:
-Andy was pretty lucky to find this moral before things worsen, when she quit her job as working as Miranda Priestly’s assistant.
-Miranda did not quite get the point till it was too late, she chose to be a Ruthless Career Woman in the end.

Curse of the Golden Flower:
- unfortunately the emperor took too long and thus he was left without a heir, or anyone who would truly care about him.
- Prince Jai realized this moral, without a feeling of caring, he is nothing even if he could be the heir without his mother, and knownly having to feed his mother poison every day (or slowly killing her) until she died. Atleast he died a great death.

This leads into a discussion: It is hard to determine what is good for a certain individual, everyone has different values. Perhaps for Miranda, her career is most important for her, for Andy, it is having a bunch of good friends and a boyfriend who loves her, for Prince Jai, it is being a piety son, and for the Emperor it is all about winning.

There are too many different types of people in this world as a Chinese saying: There is one type of rice feeding hundreds of people to eat, and there are hundreds of people feeding on one type of rice.

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Weirdness…

February 10, 2007 at 11:10 pm · Filed under Health and Wellness

I don’t get people, let me start off with a list, and you would know why…

-People who are thin want to be fat,
~People who are fat want to be thin.

-People who are healthy want to be sick,
~People who are sick want to be healthy.

-Girls/women with A Cup bra sizes want to be B, C or D cups,
~Girls/women with D cup bra sizes want to be C, B, A cups.

-People who are ‘white’ want to get a tan,
~People who are ‘dark’ (coloured) want to be ‘whitter’.

-People who are short want to be tall,
~People who are tall want to be short or taller.

-People who have blond hair want to dye it dark brown or black,
~People who have dark brown or black hair want to dye it blond.

-People living in warm climates want to have cold weather,
~People living in cold climates want to have warm weather.

-People with curly hair want to perm it straight,
~People with straight hair want to perm it curly.

-People who are rich envy the lifestyles of those who are poor (or not as fortunate),
~People who are poor (or less fortunate) envy the lifestyles of those who are rich.

-People who are famous want to be treated “normal”,
~People who are normal want special treatment.

-People who wear glasses/contacts envy those with perfect vision,
~People with perfect vision want to wear glasses/contacts.

the list doesn’t stop here but I feel you get the point.

so ridiculous!

can’t people be happy with what was given to them?

(on a lighter note: if I find any more examples, I would post them up in the near future)

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Online Relationships

February 9, 2007 at 4:43 am · Filed under Relationships

I find these problematic, I do not get how people could form a intimiate relationship,

I was talking to a friend of mine’s who had ‘adopted’ my friend as a sister

 

“yes, we hardly see each other, but this doesn’t mean we cannot be close ma…”

 

meeting=knowing true self, chance of being close, chance of never really talking

no meeting= knowing a type of self, unable to be close

 

I really do like the tools like the internet, and other communicative tools we have access to today, but they are only tools, and not the main form of communications, cause it is still not the real thing.

 

I confess that I would normally put on a talkative and outgoing mask when I am online, which mediates me to makes friends, either reality friends or friends I meet online. However, as much as I am ‘real’ there is still a ‘wall’ that I am not exactly meeting the person.

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