Movie: Battle in Seattle

It was the last September. When I was in Vancouver, I was just lucky enough to catch the VIFF '07. Staying in Vancouver HI downtown in Granville (Where is Smallville?), here came an indie film maker from Montreal and he talked about this "Battle in Seattle".

I did not make it for the movie even I had managed to have covered "Atonement", "September", "Control" when I'm busying in visiting different areas of Vancouver.

It was not until now that I just have finished the movie. The story is about several L&Gs in pursuing their truth, about husband/wife and their unborn, about a journalist and her selfawareness, about politics/human rights/business interest, about a battle in the streets, about a battle of everything.

The film tries to touch all the possible aspects from the chaos and out of the chaos, but not let me felt as heavy as Crash or Babel. You must to see it if you have the chance.

The tribute to John Williams

The original music is from here http://www.moosebutter.com/starwars

Jian Kou Trip

Jian Kou
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

As a hurry decision made at Friday almost mid-night, we agreed to carry on the long planned trip in Jian Kou.

We arrived at the small village at the foot of the mountain at noon. After finish one not cheap country lunch, we spend 1 hour climbing up to the first tower of Jian kou. Spent 2 hours on the wall, and spent another 1 and half hours descent down the village from the wall with the aid of the Waxing Gibbous Moon and one single LED powered by a button battery.

All the five people safely and hungrily returned home at 10pm.

Boy A

Stars Andrew Garfield (Jack Burridge), Peter Mullan (Terry) and Katie Lyons (Michelle). A boy who re-entered the society and struggling with his new life. Another quiet but touching movie.

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The children of Qing Hai

When we drove back to Jin Yin Tan the second day, what was waiting for me is not the yurt of the Mongol any more, but the children who are in their teenage but in some expect are more adult then me.

With the very limited income to their own families, they were struggling to run the family with their parents, looking after their younger sisters and brothers, and have to keep up with their studies, even competing for the top one position with others.

I could not remember exactly each stories of these young faces, but from their smiles, I could tell they are still teenagers expecting a wonderful life in future despite the hard road lying ahead.








What we can do, is to do something from us who are enjoying a very comfort and joyful life in big city, to give the hope to let them continue their journey towards the life they are dreaming but could not get if they do not have the support from others, to leave the poverty behind.

Thanks my friends and colleagues for giving the chance to have this trip along with them. Actually they are keeping on such charity activities for such a long time solely from their heart without any self benefits. They require anonymous from the others but only want to be continuing the work without outside interference.

Qinghai Lake

Qinghai Lake
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

Have spent 4 days and 4 nights in Qinghai. More photos and stories will come with spectacular scenes and stories.

The Fan's power

Gael MONFILS
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

After I uploaded my photos during the Tennis match up to flickr, put the big stars' name as the searchable tags and pushed the photos into a "Beijing Summer Olympic Games 2008 (Pool)", the views rate pumped from less than 5 per photo straight to 40 views just in one day.

It is quite an advantage that you buy the tickets for the pre-final matches. first, it's cheap. Second, you will see so many stars than in the final. FEDERER, NADAL, WILLIAMS S. , Li NA, Zheng Jie, ..... If you buy the final , not only it is expensive, but also some of those celebrities will got kicked off and you will never expect who you will miss.

I'm not so called a fan, but it is really exciting to see those faces even you are just told they were the stars minutes ago.
BTW, Federer was kicked off the court by James Blake at round 4

NADAL Rafael in Beijing 2008

NADAL Rafael in Beijing 2008
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

So lucky we got the tickets at last minutes. Tennis round 3 took place at the National Tennis Central at Aug-13 starting from 4:00 pm.

This is the first time I entered the Beijing 2008 Facilities. Carrying a small bag with 200mm lens permitted without tripod allowed is just difficult for me to get bigger images of those blinding super stars.

I've enjoyed the competitions even the match was not as close as between Rafael NADAL and Roges FEDERER (may be in the final, maybe not). The show ended in the center court with Gael MONFILS defeating David NALBANDIAN, which made Mariana so disappeared since she waited until midnight for her country hero. But yeah, the show was wonderful since it was also the first time for me to watch the stars playing just in front of my eyes, just for 300 RMB.

Sun Set

Sun Set
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

7 days before the open ceremony for the XXIX Olympiad, the wind came, tore the clouds into pieces. Sun had the chance to give its last flares before the sun set, while being eaten by the moon behind the clouds.

Tennis Court

Tennis Court
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

Every Wednesday evening at spring and summer time, is the tennis time for company. Usually we will rent all the four courts at DaYunCun. Today we had 20 some people gathered here, really unusually, and lots of new faces. But all faded if I used 5 seconds exposure for this image.

THUMB show at DuFeng Bar

Casts
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

Those boys and girls enjoyed their life after the exam or thesis defending were done. Excellent performance and all the thumbers enjoyed. Here is the casts. And more photos if you click into my flickr.

Shoes on the lawn

Shoes on the lawn
Originally uploaded by littlemalt

Here came an old friend. We enjoyed the sunset on the lawn outside our office. The lawn was nice cut and wet because of the rain weeks ago. She slip off the shoe, and, I clicked the shutter.

Movie Review for H1, 2008

It is so unstable that the G@F@W@ regularly open and close the connection with the blogspot. Anyway, I even did not regularly update my live spaces.

Here is some movie which I watched in the recent half year:

There will be blood.
Into the Wild
Stop-Loss
Beowulf
Kungfu panda
Jumper
The Golden Compass
.

Google Reader,

Nancysisi was very excited that night that she saw my blog again, accidentally. As one of the offer holders, she also got a google reader subscriptions including all the blogs owned by those who were called as "SLBer" or current Chinese SLB FEs. I just realized not how the communications changed since the so-called Web 2.0. In that list, not only some who I have been known for long time, but also some of new SLBers. It came to my mind that how our mindless words can give a different image of the general SLB working life to those new comers, by which way the traditional recruiting methodologies could not control how the image of a company could be seen by all the applicants. And also I'm happy that not only my friends, but also others who I will not know now or for ever would be interested to my only words.

So, to everybody who is now reading these but haven't met me before, I am not a FE right-now. And actually there was no words could give you a better image of what the FE's life would look like, but your own living in that life.

New Year

New Year

Dec 29th

I went to Tanggu with Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, The new Japan Minister while unfortunately, the Beijing-TianJing-Tanggu Highway was entirely closed. I was late than him, so he went to and back from Tanggu by high-way while I have to, as well as other hundreds and millions Chinese have to take detours.

The main reason I went to Tanggu in my day-off was to clean up my HSE certification, but it only took less then 15 mins. While waiting for the coach, I visited my dear colleague, YanXia, and King, who generous gave me an invitation for the New Year party while I doubt if I could be able to pick my old stuff up.

It was almost 8 pm when we got back to office. I felt I had done one good decision that I had canceled my HuKou plan just two days before departure. But I know it was my weak point or laziness. How would I be afraid of going alone there that I had covered the whole Canada just month ago?


Dec 30th,
A late waking up from the bed and I found it was sunny out side. I had almost taken the whole morning checking the LowePro camera backpack. The price is not low, even much more the rent I have being payed for more than one year. But the real problem I must face to is, What is the true object for me to travel? To enjoy the absence from the job? To be able to record everything which might have been taken by millions of other tourists already. Maybe just a small camera toploading is enough(?).
I did not go out until after noon. It was 3 pm when I get to BeiHai Park. Maybe the last time I have been to here is more than 20 years ago when I was still a child. There is no more boat rowing but the almost iced lake. Birds were chasing for the food fed by tourist in just the un-iced corner of the lake. It was windy and everything was covered with a thin layer of sand, just like everything in Beijing. I took some shots and not satisfied at all. Then, started to wait there hoping there would be light in the night for the white Buddha tower.

I was almost iced until I decided took a walk around 5 pm while the sun had gone already and it was getting dark. Went to the east gate and asked a park staff about the light for the tower. The answer was what I was expecting, - May be there will be no light tonight - Great, that means I could go to my lovely bed sooner.

Dec 31st,
I canceled the day-off for today. Went to the office as normal.

2008 Jan 1st.
Another late waking up. Spent whole morning checking up the V-Drums from Roland. The HD-1 from V-Lite and the TD-8KW from V-Tour seemed suitable for my current level. V-tour's value/price smart, but requires more space. So the pratical step for me is to rent a bigger apartment.? Or just get a dummy drum-pad to pick up my stuff first.



So, that's all the lazy new year for 2008.