Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was great. A few things that I did with my friends together were memorable moments.

Saturday we played a bunch of GO games and now Shougi has also become a part of our weekly enjoyment at Japan Club. It’s fascinating to learn something new when playing Shougi, especially the way to protect the weakness of the opening, for example the advancing pawn guarding by a rook. Zaid was really good at this, and he was very careful about the surrounding pieces and thus to win him will be a very difficult task. Now we got Hock Doong and Jimmy joining our small Shougi society initiated by Ryou Takehito, a friend from Brunei.

On the very same night, it was our pleasure being invited to Shino’s sister’s birthday party. It was a warm and lively party, full of her family members and friends. We (me, Zaid and Philip) did enjoy the foods and the relaxing surrounding of it. In Shino’s place, Zaid and me played a game of Xiangqi, although I thought I got better chance of winning, I lost after I did a single mistake by losing a rook without compensation in which I can’t make a comeback and staged an upset to his lead. This shows his formidable strength in concentration.

After that we went to Hock Doong’s place to play RISK, a board game of world conquering. This was my third time playing this game. I and Jacky were playing as a team and we did join forces with Zaid's and Philip's troops. This was to overcome the treaty agreed by Hock Doong and Patrick. RISK is a long game to play and we did manage to finish it in between 3 a.m. to 4 a.m., after being revised by Hock Doong to a simpler version. If not it’ll be at least 5 to 7 hours to finish a single game.

Not to forget our friend in Japan, Boon Ping, was playing as a Malaysia representative. He scores 5 wins and being ranked 20^th, a proud achievement and if I remember well it was the highest we got so far in WAGC.

Sunday, we again meet at Japan Club. The difference between going there on two distinct days was we played with the Japanese players more on Sunday. Mr. Tsuda has come back from Japan and a new strong player, Mr. Imura has been coming to play frequently.

After a few games, Philip and I went to Mid Valley to catch a movie, which we got to watch Star Trek for free, because his friend got three free tickets for it. It was my first time watching Star Trek, even though it was broadcasted in Malaysia long time ago. I was exciting to watch a sci-fi movie; with the idea of speed of light space ship, black hole, teleport or warp, aliens, space travel, mind reading and many more. There’s one thing that I can hardly accept, that’s time travel, imagine another self of yours appears before you. Still I thought it was plausible, since there’s no limit for the unexpected to happen, nothing is impossible.

 

The Butterfly Lovers

Here’s a movie to recommend, Angels and Demons, a must-see movie in 2009.

It’s been weeks after I’ve listen to “The Butterfly Lovers" violin conerto by the composers He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, in Hock Doong’s house. It really touched my heart. After that I’ve been searching for the score and it was very expensive, USD 14 for it from the online ordering sites.

Luckily my friend, Rebecca, got a friend who was in Beijing and she managed to get me an original copy from China which only cost me RM 10. The pictures here were scanned by me and actually the quality is very good, just that my scanner problem that made it looks like a century old.

The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto

Now, the piece was a really hard one and it’s time to practice and memorize it, if possible. For those who are good in violin (at least Grade 8 distinction), please visit this website;

http://violin.ntdtv.com/en/, if you’re interested in joining a violin competition, in New York.

Audition & Movie

Today in the morning I went for an audition in University Malaya. I was playing 2 pieces of songs which were Adoration by Felix Borowski and Fruhlingswalzer by Dmitri Schostakowitsch. It was hard for me that when I started with Adoration, I played it out of tune on the second notes, I try to play calmly after that but I think it was useless since the examiners stopped me in the few next lines. The one which I regretted most was when I played the latter songs, I forget to erase the fingering marks in the score, which was done by the person that I lend the score. With the wrong fingering marks, I miss and can’t play that particular bar.When I went home, I thought for a while, “Is it my lack of practice?” so I started praticing with all I might, and I’m very happy that I manage to play it without any mistake. So it was just that I’m over-nervous and from now onwards I’ll need to rehearse before my friends or in the park forth before any auditions.

Women: are you the exception ... … or are you the rule? : Men

I’ve watch a movie with my sister today, it was “He’s Just Not that into you” based on a book written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo that was published in 2004. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Justin Long, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kevin Connolly, and Bradley Cooper. It was a great movie, many things that you can learn and adopt it to yourself.

Ben Affleck as Neil Jones was a perfect man there and Jennifer Aniston as Beth Bartlett was someone who really deserves him. The most touching parts of the movie comes from this perfect pair.

Ginnifer Goodwin as Gigi Haim was a woman full of drama-loving in her life, which made her quite unlucky with love but miracles do happen when Justin Long as Alex looks her as an exception. Believe in what you believe and although it was painful sometimes, happiness will be ahead.

Jennifer Connelly as Janine Gunders’ husband Bradley Cooper as Ben Gunders was having an affair with a yoga instructor and aspiring singer, Scarlett Johansson as Anna Taylor. Their relation was a total mess, and it was a good lesson to teach us not to chase after two rabbits at a same time. Must take note of a woman appearances in the movie, her experience was awesome. Not to act as a spoiler, better watch it yourself.

Kevin Conolly as Conor Barry and Drew Barrymore as Mary Harris have a naturally-bond relationship. If you have been trusted in faith, then their sparks will assure you more.

Well, to sum it up, it was a totally amazing movie for me as I love this kind of self-improvement type of movie. There were another two movies which I enjoyed it as much if not more than this: Definitely, Maybe(2008) and LOVE Actually (2003). Hope you’ll enjoy these three movies; it’s really heart-moving where at some point will make you tears.

The Ultimate Gift

This was a movie that I’ll never forget in my life, The Ultimate Gift. It freshens up my mind and makes me appreciate life more. After watching it one might find out that every day, every time and anywhere, there could be a gift for you to treasure upon.

the gift of Work
the gift of Money
the gift of Friends
the gift of Learning
the gift of Problems
the gift of Family
the gift of Laughter
the gift of Dreams
the gift of Giving
the gift of Gratitude
the gift of a Day
the gift of Love