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http://sugoideas.com/drama-2011/in-time-with-you/

In Time with You / 我可能不會愛你:

On her 30th birthday, Cheng You Qing received an email on “the symptoms of premature aging” from Li Da Ren, her best friend of 14 years. Unable to accept that Li Da Ren is like a fine wine that will get better with age and she is like a grape that will dry into a raisin as years go by, she made a bet with Li to see who will get married first before they turn 35. As she looked around for a potential husband, she discovered that she was surrounded by unacceptable candidates, like gay assistant or cheating ex-boyfriend. The only man who could love her despite her ill temper and stubbornness is her best friend. The only problem was that they both swore that they were not or will ever be romantically attracted to each other.

方头狮_square-headed-lion

熟女魅力第十二条:
至少要有两本存摺
一本储蓄财富，一本储蓄老朋友

Charms of a mature woman, Rule 12:
Have at least two deposit books
One to save wealth
And one to save old friends

自言自語

作曲：范晓萱
作词：范晓萱

天是灰色的 雨是透明的
心是灰色的 我是透明的
爱是盲目的 恋是疯狂的
痴是可悲的 我是绝对的
你是自由的 我是附属的
她是永远的 我是错误的
梦是美好的 你是残酷的
我是灰色的 我是透明的

天是灰色的 雨是透明的
心是灰色的 我是透明的

Mumblings

Sky is gray-Rain is transparent
Heart is gray-I am transparent
Love is blind-Yearning is insane
Foolish pining is deplorable-I am absolute*
You are freedom/whole-I am supplementary
She is forever/for always-I am a mistake*
Dreams are beautiful-You are cruel
I am gray-I am transparent

Sky is gray-Rain is transparent
Heart is gray-I am transparent

[*anagrammatic sentence]

A song from the 90s. So simple. Misty and gray.

范晓萱-Mavis Fan. She could had been the Sinead O’Connor of her time.
In a way, she did…alas…
The little imp.

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And this is the song, used in a recent drama episode (less than half a day old!), which brought me back to Mavis Fan and memories…

范曉萱: 氧氣 / Mavis Fan: Oxygen

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2011/11/03/Singapore-should-get-credit-for-G-20.aspx

The University of Toronto’s history of the G20, which Sam refers to in his post, was commissioned by the South African Chair in 2007 and was presented at the G20 meeting that year; the Lowy Institute is actually cited a couple of times in that paper.

It is as good a source as we have at the moment in establishing how the G20 came into being. It shows very clearly the fairly accidental nature of its establishment. Following the Asian Financial Crisis (and the earlier Latin American financial crises) it became clear that the G7 group of finance ministers and central bank governors needed to consult with increasingly important emerging countries.

The AFC demonstrated that the developing world was, by the end of the 1990s, firmly entrenched in the international financial system; crises in the developing world now had major impacts in New York, Frankfurt, London and Tokyo.

But the G20 wasn’t the first port of call. A G22 was called together in 1998 and met twice. The University of Toronto’s G20 history credits Singaporean Prime Minister Goh for suggesting to President Clinton that he call together a wider group of countries. In 1999, a G33 was called together and also met twice.

…

So, perhaps credit for the creation of the G20 should in fact go to Singapore, a non-member country. Singapore has received invitations to the last two summits (Seoul and Cannes) in its capacity as Chair of the 3G (Global Governance Group) countries.

李清照_Li QingZhao

李清照/Li QingZhao, the very talented Song dynasty poetess; Mum’s favourite classical poetess and her ideal heroine.
English wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Qingzhao
Chinese baidu: http://baike.baidu.com/view/3066.htm

For Mum, Li QingZhao was the historical role model all modern women can look to, especially during the fiery women’s Lib movement of the 60s and 70s which Mum was a part of. The emancipation that comes from an education, the freedom to choose and love; all these were not just issues facing modern Asian women, Mum used to argue, Li QingZhao in 11th century Song dynasty China faced down all these challenges and was already a prime example of liberation and triumph over conventions.

Mum used to wax lyrical about 李清照/Li QingZhao’s poems, and especially how the love between Li QingZhao and her husband, as well as their shared love for literature and their precious collection of etchings of ancient epigraphs, was the kind of love and relationship she dreamed of as a young girl.

Many of Li QingZhao’s lines and verses have entered into common Chinese language and usage, especially of words describing the sorrow and melancholy of her partings from her husband, and of the grief and loss of her early widowhood and the vicissitudes of war.
[And I will always remember Mum's lesson on Alliteration, using Li QingZhao's magnificent treatise to Melancholy, the slow numbing repeating 声声慢/Sound sound slow.]

And here is one of Li QingZhao’s more famous poem, on the full moon theme, the sad and sorrowful 月满西楼/Full moon over the west chamber, sung to a modern tune:

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月满西楼/Full moon over the west chamber:

《一剪梅》

紅藕香殘玉簟秋，
輕解羅裳，獨上蘭舟。
雲中誰寄錦書來？
雁字回時，月滿西樓。

花自飄零水自流，
一種相思，兩處閑愁。
此情無計可消除，
才下眉頭，卻上心頭。

–李清照

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(To the tune of ) 《A stalk of plum blossoms》

Scent of the red lotus wilting, jade-green mat feeling autumn chill,
I slowly loosen my silk robe, and boarded the (ornamental) boat alone.
Who is it that sends a (precious) brocaded letter from across the clouds?
Wild geese returning (flying in their 字 formation, bearing news), the full moon fills the west chamber.

Flowers are blown and wilt away, the waters flow and continue along its course,
One same love and yearning, brooding and lamenting in two places (hearts).
This sorrow has no means to be eased,
Just at the moment it seems to be lightening from my brow (easing), it is weighing upon my heart.

–Li QingZhao
(Another bad translation by dustysojourner)

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Here is a youku video of the same poem-song, with images of Li QingZhao-inspired paintings which portray the poetess’ melancholic dignity even more poignantly:

http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMTIxODcxMTI=/v.swf

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This flash video is a must-watch. The creator lovingly painted his/her impression of Li QingZhao’s poem above, and set it to the same song but sung by a different singer. Very well done. Exquisite.

http://photo.sohu.com/05/77/Img148197705.swf

fullmoon

It was the mid-autumn full moon, the largest full moon of the year, over the past two nights. Unfortunately, with the returning haze and overcast rainy night skies, there was to be no large and looming, wide-as-a-double-yolk-mooncake, and right in your face, full moon this year. So sad.

Nevertheless carrying on family traditions, for about a fortnight or so, I have been following the young nascent crescent moon as it began to wax and grow into the proud mid-autumn’s full moon that has so many peoples and cultures celebrating it as a mark of season’s change:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok

As I walked each night, I watched the shy young moon, at first hiding its slim face and only daring to peer bashfully from behind the dark veil of the night sky, grow slowly larger and bolder with each passing night, getting less and less timid before finally stepping forth to reveal herself in her entirety and gazing proudly down at her admirers below.

And following a family tradition, each night as I watched, I will recite in my mind any one of our favourite poems on the full moon theme, paying homage to Chang Er, ancient poets, and family alike.

Here is a much beloved couplet poem on the moon, from the late Tang period by one of my favourite poets, the master of masters when it comes to allusive imagery, the enigmatic 李商隐/Li ShangYin:

[Poems taken from father's well-worn and filled with margin-scribblings copy of A. C. Graham's beautiful translations of Tang poetry.]

LI SHANG-YIN

The Lady in the Moon

‘Ch’ang O Stole the herb of immortality and fled to the moon. Because the moon is white, she is called the White Beauty.’
‘In third autumn month, the Dark Maid emerges to send down the frost and snow’
(cf. Tu Fu, The Autumn Wastes, No. 4).

(i) Ch’ang O

The lamp grows deep in the mica screen.
The long river slowly descends, the morning star drowns.
Is Ch’ang O sorry that she stole the magic herb,
Between the blue sky and the emerald sea, thinking night after night?

(ii) Frosty Moon

First calls of the migrant geese, no more cicadas.
South of this hundred-foot tower the water runs straight to the sky.
The Dark Maid and the White Beauty endure the cold together,
Rivals in elegance amid the frost on the moon.

–translated by A. C. Graham

Father’s favourite way to learn a language is to read its acclaimed literature and poetry, especially well-regarded translations and to ‘improve’ on them with his own translations. And A. C. Graham’s beautiful and very sensitive translations of Chinese poetry was one of father’s primary sources for refining his grasp of the English language, with father being of course very intimately acquainted with the old Chinese poetry and literature that was Graham’s main material and subject. And father’s old copies of Graham’s books and translations are filled with notes of his own translations back and forth between the two languages.

And I love Graham’s books and translations. He has to be one of the finest Sinologist with a keen grasp of the nuances of the Chinese language. His essay “The Translation of Chinese Poetry” contains some of the most insightful analysis I have seen on Chinese prose and verse.

Li ShangYin (pitifully short): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Shangyin
李商隐: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/李商隐

shibumi_by_Trevanian

Summary from the writer Trevanian’s own site:

http://www.trevanian.com/books/shibumi.htm

Nicolai Hel was born in the turbulent China of the First World War, of an aristocratic mother and a mysterious German father, and educated in the spiritual gardens of a Japanese Go master. Surviving the destruction of Hiroshima he appears as the world’s most consumate and artistic lover – though better paid as an assassin. Genius, mystic, master of cultures and languages, Hel’s secret is his determination to reach that rare personal purity and state of perfection known as Shibumi. Living in an isolated mountain stronghold with a beautiful Asian companion, he meets his most sinister enemy, a vast monolithic spy organisation. The battle lines are drawn: merciless power and corruption on one side, and on the other…

Originally published in 1979, Shibumi has made the greatest impact among Trevanian fans and remains today his most revered novel.

And, commenting on this novel which became a cult classic and launched an entire genre of the Oriental-Mystic alternative spy thriller, the writer said:

In his own words

Trevanian, (answering written questions from Judy Quinn of Publisher’s Weekly, in 1998) said about it.

I was still obliged to give my publisher another book. Another “Trevanian” book. I swallowed this bitter pill and decided I would indeed write another book within the super-spy genre, but although it would be published under the name Trevanian, it would be written by an altogether different persona. Like The Main before it, and like the books that were to follow, this would be a real novel hidden within a popular genre.

I dug back into my youth in Japan and worked up a writer for Shibumi, a book just barely within the conventions of the slam-bang super-spy, but one that offered the reader a virile style of excellence that had nothing to do with force, braggadocio, or violence. It blended a good yarn with a life-philosophy, and was an instant international success. After this book — a bestseller all around the world, even in such languages as Finnish, Hebrew, Turkish and Polish — I had abandoned the super-spy genre. After the definitive exercise of the genre that was Shibumi, there was no point in me writing further in this genre … or anyone else, for that matter.

In other words, by abandoning the genre just after writing one story which became a trendsetting bestseller, Trevanian had exercised the very essence of Shibumi he was writing about.

From Wiki’s entry on the novel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibumi_(novel)

Structure

Shibumi is, broadly, a parody of the spy novel genre, but Trevanian also incorporated pieces of philosophy and highly-specific cultural observations in the work, most obviously with his portrayals of American (and, more generally, western) culture after World War II. Trevanian himself echoed his hero Hel’s dislike of western materialism in the few interviews he gave to the press.
The book contains 6 chapters of unequal length, each of them bearing the name of a go game figure:

1. Fuseki : The opening stage of a game when the entire board is taken into account.
2. Sabaki : An attempt to dispose of a troublesome situation in a quick and flexible way.
3. Seki : A neutral situation in which neither side has the advantage. A “Mexican stand-off.”
4. Uttegae : A sacrifice play, a gambit.
5. Shicho : A running attack.
6. Tsuru no Sugomori : “The confinement of the cranes to their nest,” a graceful maneuver in which the enemy stones are captured.

Trevanian’s (Whitaker’s) character Hel was supposed, in the novel, to have written an analysis of Go which was in fact a spoof of the game. In the book-within-a-book, the commentator’s attempts to attach spurious significance of life and philosophy to what were, in fact, clumsy and amateurish maneuvers was a part of the spoof. The use of subtly mis-stated Go figures to rationalize the structure of a novel that was in itself a spoof of the incompetence of people who believe they run the world is an indisposable pillar of the satire.

And while I definitely picked up this book as a high-adventure minded boy for its obvious appeal in genre and rather intriguing alternative oriental theme (Nicholas Hel is no James Bond or Dirk Pitt!), what really drew me was that the book opens with a scene set in a Japanese-occupied Singapore in the 1940s.

Although Trevanian was rather off the mark with some of the descriptions of the game of go or weiqi and its associations, as well as of martial traditions and practice, his expression of meditation and its potential to bring about heightened senses/awareness, especially for a pugilist/practitioner, was startlingly penetrating.

A book I thoroughly enjoyed as a boy, despite its annoying (double-reversed) cultural bigotry and historical inaccuracies.

Glad that Trevanian wisely terminated the franchise at just one book.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1149594/1/.html

Dr Tony Tan has been elected Singapore’s seventh President, winning by a 0.34 per cent margin, or 7,269 votes.

He secured 744,397 or 35.19 per cent of total valid votes, while Dr Tan Cheng Bock received 737,128 or 34.85 per cent of the valid votes.

Anyway, many Game Theoretic applications and takeaways from this presidential election; from the initial (hidden) structuring/framing/gerrymandering, the subsequent announcements of candidacies, the drawing and redrawing of OB (out-of-bounds) markers during the campaigning, and finally to the actual voting and results tonight.

Like an auction-based signaling process, similar to the theory of Conjoint Measurement applied to event arbitrage outlined here:
http://dustysojourner.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/conjoint-measurement-part-i-risk-arbitrage/

Sigh, a bit sad.
Wrongly played by the anti-Estab crowd…what a pity.

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert.

…

I thrive best on solitude. If I have had a companion only one day in a week, unless it were one or two I could name, I find that the value of the week to me has been seriously affected. It dissipates my days, and often it takes me another week to get over it.

–Thoreau

I agree wholeheartedly and unabashedly with Thoreau. My life thus far has been of trying to fulfill my obligations towards Man and Society, and managing the resulting Dissipations that wash over and assail me after.

…

For me, reservist training are usually dry, methodical and entirely dissipating affairs. Men in green are strange creatures; it seems that once you put on camouflage uniforms, your IQ drop 30 points, you lose half of your vocabulary, and you restrict yourself to neanderthalian colloquialism and philistine issues of the day.

But occasionally, you may lay down that facade and have a couple of decent and interesting conversations with other sapiens.

This time, I met a fellow alumni who though not of the same cohort, was also a product of a specialized education programme, and who is now working in policy-making in the education ministry. And we had a very interesting conversation on Jean Piaget‘s educational and child developmental psychology. As well as quite a spirited discussion on Hans Eysenck‘s take on the famous (too famous? too entrenched?) Spearman’s g factor, on tests of general intelligence ability. Piaget’s The Psychology of Intelligence and Eysenck’s The Structure and Measure of Intelligence, are of course titles which have been fixtures on my book shelves ever since I first read and used them in my General Paper class discussion on Tabula Rasa, Nature vs Nuture and Eugenics, so many years ago. And of course, on that same shelf from years ago, are Galton, Arthur Jensen, Charles Murray, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Lynn, and definitely not in the least, James Flynn.

[Can't help but mention here on how ironic it is that Charles Spearman's construction of the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and of Factor Analysis, now the main tools of the trade of so many disciplines and especially in quantitative-based trading, was initially meant to provide for a rational, mathematical/statistical evidence-based justification and useful numeral unit for the original Binet tests.
]

{Coincidentally, these ideas and themes were referenced and in my mind when I commented on a DailySpecs post here, regarding overpopulation, evolution and eugenics. My comment was interjected wholly tongue-in-cheek and framed in a divergence/convergence lens using H G Well’s The Time Machine. I really should do more to put together a post regarding this deliciously taboo theme.
}

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Another and rather more delightful conversation I had was with an oil trader from a bulge-bracket investment bank. These last few years of market turmoil, especially with crude going from 30 to 140, back down to 30 and then back up to 100, had been very very good to him. Between working hard in front of the trading screens, and wisely investing his spoils by picking up choice property in prime city locations, and less wisely adding to his collection of fast cars (I still think that driving into a military camp in a brand-new all-white Porsche 911 is in bad taste), he has apparently been doing some exotic adventure travelling.

While talking about our obvious common interest in the markets, we discovered that we share another interest and almost-obsession with history, overlapping especially in the classical antiquity history of Mesopotamia and Central Asia. And coincidentally, the one area in geography and the one spot in time which lit both our fires, was the ancient kingdom of Bactria, especially the ‘later’ years of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250 to 125 BC, largely located in present day Afghanistan), when they were squarely and solidly in the centre of the the overland trade route between China in the east and the Mediterranean countries in the west, profiting immensely from their facilitative and middleman role to become the richest kingdom sitting astride the ‘center of world trade’ (centuries before other regions and cities like Samarkand were to assume the position), and leading eventually to the mesmerizing myth of the Bactrian Gold.

We both enthused and agreed that after the discovery of Qin Shih Huang’s Terracotta Army (and even more tantalizing, the as-yet-unopened main tomb) in 1974, and of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922, the 3rd most significant archaeological find of the 20th century has to be Viktor Sarianidi’s discovery of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex and of course, the Bactrian gold hoard found within it.

Bactrian_gold_princess's_crown

Viktor_Sarianidi_opens_vault__bactrian_gold

And my oil trader comrade-in-arms, while on garden leave before joining his present firm, managed to score a visa and apparently visited Afghanistan with the specific intention of touring the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex and seeing pieces of the Bactrian Gold hoard up close. And of course, since he was already there, he took in the Bamiyan Buddhas and Xuanzang’s travel route as well.

bamiyan_buddha

[Well, as least some good came out of the US invasion of Afghanistan.]

I was green with envy. And shall be updating my travel plans accordingly.

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Ending here with some more words from Thoreau:

You think that I am impoverishing myself by withdrawing from men, but in my solitude I have woven for myself a silken web or chrysalis, and, nymph-like, shall ere long burst forth a more perfect creature, fitted for a higher society.

…

I do not know if I am singular when I say that I believe there is no man with whom I can associate who will not, comparatively speaking, spoil my afternoon.

–Thoreau

In case Thoreau comes across as a little too high-sounding and aloof, here are rejoinders from the self-deprecating Lin YuTang:

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.

…

A man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o’clock has the whole afternoon from one to five ruined for him already.

…

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

–Lin YuTang

Context:
The government in 2010 announced a reward and incentive scheme of S$9000 for reservists. Unfortunately, the reward will not be paid out retroactively for reservists who had already completed their service.

Glossary:

wa lau eh — A Singlish exclamation; actual meaning too coarse to place here; refer here for full definition.

boh sui — not good, undesired (Hokkien).

NSF — Fulltime National Service personnel; referring to the compulsory enlisted period of military service (used to be 2yrs 6mths, now just 2yrs) for all Sporean males, usu. from age 18 to 21.

ORD — Operational-Ready-Date; the date all NSFs countdown towards, when they finish their enlisted military serivce period, leave the army and return to the ‘real world’, and become Operationally Ready NSman.

NSman — National Serviceman or reservist; what an NSF autonatically becomes after ORD (note: the accumulation of fat during this period varies from man to man and is highly optional).

ICT — In-Camp-Training; the main form of reservist training for NSmen; frequency vary but can range from multiple callups in a single year to once every two years; can be disruptive to work and family life. Tough luck.

ROD — Run-Out-Date; the date that all NSmen countdown towards, when they finally finish their reservist service obligations and are officially discharged from the military; usu. accompanied with a letter of commendation and watch for service rendered; date of discharge varies upon the meeting of stipulations but offically is age 50 for officers and age 40 for all other ranks.

BMT — Basic Military Training for all new enlistees/recruits.

gahmen — government

one kind — narrow minded

lau peng — old soldier (in Hokkien)

dowan — don’t want

lau cheow — old bird (in Hokkien), meaning old and experienced, grizzled veterans.
[as opposed to sin cheow/new bird: raw and young recruits, inexperienced and gullible]

frus — frustrated

No. 4 — the main standard dress code for army personnel: camouflage shirt and trousers and boots.

Tekong — The island of Tekong, the main offshore island used for military training; in the older days, the BMT training carried out in Tekong’s old and creepy Camp One with its longhouse bunks, was famous for its tougher training compared to other camps in Spore island with their newer camp facilities.

Drop twenty — to perform twenty pushups

chiong sua — charge the hill (in Hokkien)

2.4 — to run 2.4 kilometres, part of the basic physical proficieny test standard

sign extra — to perform punishment duties

PC — platoon commander

kiwi — to polish with Kiwi brand leather wax

welfare — to be well taken care of

tekan — to be punished, to get picked on, to come down hard on (in Malay)

teh kosong — tea without sugar (in Hokkein+Malay)

2359 — 11:59 pm; the usual deadline timing for booking in and reporting back to camp; in the video, used to refer to reporting back to the wife.