on a brighter note, i should record down what i saw on tv last night.... there was this food and travel show where bobby chinn went to taipei. i liked his style, visit and experience local stuff instead of the touristy stuff. this is one funny guy... he was commenting on how taipei youngsters are into trends and fads, so the business need to keep up by offering new interesting stuff. so to experience it for himself, he went to the toilet themed shop. he just couldn't comprehend why they would want a toilet themed food place. when the waitress explained a bit of the menu items to him, haha... "this is like piles in blood.. this one like diarhoea" and you could see that look on his face. when the food came, he just deadpanned "this is one place you can't complain about the food... because if it tastes like poo poo, well, what can you say?" hahaha... and later he picked up a piece of i-dunno-what that really looked like... whatever they wanted it to look like. and bobby just held the chopsticks, looked into the camera and paused "....... don't ask." later on he went to some hawker place and had a lot to drink with the street food he was served. one dish was the chicken testicles, which he didn't really like that much. but it was nothing compared to the betelnut. he absolutely hated it and just spit it out. "this is an acquired taste which i fail to acquire... *spit* THIS is why you drink!" and washed wine down his throat.... haha he also tried smelly beancurd. he was confident he'd be able to swallow it, so he was telling the camera, "now remember, i'm half chinese." and when he really did swallow one, he was so proud of himself, and proceeded to say "ok, i think i've got full marks already, thank you, goodnight taipei!" this is one helluva funny guy... hahahttp://www.pilotguides.com/tv_shows/world_cafe_asia/bobby_chinn.phpWorld Café Asia: Bobby Chinn Biography"I am an ethnic mutt and it did not take me that long to figure it out on my first day of school. I am half Egyptian, half Chinese born in New Zealand, educated mostly in England and San Francisco. I have lived my life like an algebra equation. You find out the answer through the source of illumination, finding out what you do not like versus doing what you think you will like. I tried planning it all out, but it never really worked out that well when ever I did, so I just stopped planning and started to feel my way through it all.In my life, I have been through many schools on 3 continents and had many jobs. My first job, I was a shoe shine boy at the age of 12 in the financial district in San Francisco. I worked the mail room when Charles Schwabb was called 'Chuck', flew a kite on Fisherman's Wharf for $20 a day, and sold t-shirts on the Wharf. I was an elevator operator in the Fairmont Hotel, until I refused to send the owner of the hotel up a couple of stories. Numerous jobs as part time work in the restaurant industry.I graduated from Richmond College in London with a BA in Finance and Economics, and worked in many positions in the securities industries, to realise that I really did not care for it at all, much to the displeasure of my parents who paid a fortune for my public school boy education. I left, pursuing an interest in anything outside of wearing a suit and a tie. I sold seafood to the mob and was reintroduced to the restaurant industry. I studied improvisational comedy at The Groundling and ended up doing a little bit of stand up in L.A. and San Francisco. To support myself I waited tables and eventually found my passion in the kitchen. There I worked and trained under some great chefs in San Francisco and France and decided that I wanted to be a chef.I sustained a very serious injury working as a saucier and was crippled for one year where I was bed-ridden and supplemented my lack of education with cookery shows and cookbooks. I was diagnosed as 'permanently disabled', and could no longer work as a chef.I ended up moving to Vietnam to learn Vietnamese food with the intention of returning back home to open my own restaurant. 10 years on, I am still in Vietnam having the time of my life. When I am not cooking, running a business, I am travelling, getting inspiration from new ingredients, techniques, from the vendors that are willing to teach me. I also like to enrol in cooking schools where ever I go. Bali, Thailand, Cairo, France, you name it, I am not afraid to fail anymore! In my free time, I play in a band travel, read listen to music." Travel philosophy"Travel is pretty much my philosophy towards life. I like to live on the edge, and sometimes you see more that way. No one gets out of here alive, and you are not going to take anything with you when you die, except the experiences that you had. I spend most of my money on services, travel and dining. I like to stay in swank hotels, but eat street food. I like to visit markets, museums as it is an express lane into a culture. I like to eat street food - eating cheap food next to the locals because there is an added sense of acceptance as well as better sense of the people and the culture. I am also more generous in poorer countries, as I fee it is good karma building."Favorite Places"If it is a no-brainer: with my family. My mother has a place on the north coast of Egypt, southern Mediterranean. You can see the milky-way at night, and migrating birds from Europe in winter. It’s off-the-beaten-track and it is nice place to getaway from the rest of the world.I love San Francisco. I hold a lot of memories there and when you leave a place for a long time, there is a nostalgia that comes with age. Best restaurants on the face of the planet.I love London when the weather is good. Museums, theatre and music, plus it is nice to visit a country where they speak EnglishBali, Ubud, Koh Sumia, Thailand, New York city, I can live anywhere, and love it. I presently love Vietnam."Sound adviceWith the philosophy that paranoia is a heightened sense of awareness, the following:Never ask to get seated as close to the black box as possible, it is not funny and they notify security.Have an extra couple of scanned copies of your passport with your luggage.Keep the big notes in the left pocket and smaller notes in the right (depending if you are left or right-handed of course).When you haggle, always smile and act a little mental - they might feel sorry for you and give you a better deal.If people that you do not want to deal with come to talk to you, are trying to sell you something or hassle you, pretend to be deaf - they generally leave you alone very quickly.Never say you are an American, if you look like one, dress like one and are one, say you are from Canada, If they ask you where, tell them a very small town 60 miles north of British Columbia, then make up a name.When travelling through the Middle East, learn the phrase ‘Allah uh Akbar’ means ‘God is Great’. If you hear someone scream it… duck!When travelling through Asia, always offer your passport with two hands and bow your head down as a sign of courtesy. Just do it, and observe, it is fun to watch and gives you an opportunity to get a sense of a culture quickly.Carry a handbag (this includes men). Most terrorists do not look gay so you generally get processed at security checks quicker. It is also much quicker for you to put all your metal objects in a bag quicker then trying to remove them from the stupid silly plastic baskets they give you. posted by Yee 2:26 PM . . .
just feel like writing today. michael jackson died of cardiac arrest. this is like the one of many deaths i've heard in recent months. there have been so many that i'm feeling so depressed. first it was my senior. it was such a shock. i had to read it on the papers online. and late. it was just so sudden. all the things that haven't been said or done yet. the one affecting me most was how he always said he wanted to see in person one of the profs in the dept, that we should point out and show him if we ever see him in the canteen. but it never happened. every time i see that prof around now, i think of my senior. what a pity. it's even sadder than missing company for lunch. upon comparison, lunch company seemed so much more trivial a matter. his was the third death at ntu in 25 days for that period of time. it was a highly depressing period. and then recently there has been another suicide of an ntu student. he was a local student who had been under immense pressure, who couldn't seem to pass his exams and graduate. it actually got so bad that he couldn't cope anymore. nus had its share of tragedies too. an exchange student died in hostel, and more recently a phd got killed in a traffic accident while he was crossing the road with the green man on. there's been so many deaths on this level. even more depressing was the disappearance of the air france airbus 330. whole plane simple disappeared on the radar, and i had been hoping they'd land safely. turns out... they couldn't escape tragedy. all on board died in the crash, some debris had been found, and some bodies too. but the rest of the people on board are still missing. couldn't even find their bodies. farah fawcett died after her battle with cancer. michael jackson simply collapsed and died in his rented home. it's quite sad for michael jackson. sad, ironic, yet twistedly good for him, in some sense. we always say, death cannot solve your problems. yet here, for the time being, it seems solved to a certain level... there is no denying his talent and power, he is still THE most famous king of pop. there's no fight on any level. yet his talent and accomplishments had been so overshadowed by all the scandalous news. his numerous plastic surgeries had changed his face beyond recognition, not even like a normal human anymore. it had made him a standing joke in the world, a laughing stock and receiving end of snide remarks in all forms of the media and small inane conversations. he had been dogged with rumours and reports of child molestation and the like, serving as more ammunition used on him. various collaborators had started suing him, and his lifestyle had landed him in endless debts. he was actually so in debt that he had to put on 50 shows to raise that money. not that he wouldn't be able to do 50 shows, his talent and fan base (despite all the scandals) would be enough to guarantee audience numbers. but to be forced to do it despite him not really wanting to... (of course i dunno how true this is) it's just so tragic. someone of that calibre, being reduced to such state... he was in such a desperate need to make a comeback. yet he didn't have the time to do so. and YET, it seemed that with his death, all that wouldn't even have been necessary in the first place. his shocking death jolted people out of their cynical and coloured view. suddenly, everyone could once again clearly see his talent, and remembered his achievements. suddenly, everyone realised how they had missed the music he made, the dance moves he put on, his unbelievable rise to fame at a young age. instead of the usual snide remarks and butt jokes, now everyone seems to want to pay tribute to him, and respect. the treatment he so wanted, the reason for the comeback, all suddenly bestowed upon him when tragedy took away his chance for a comeback. lose the chance, but gain the result yearned for, guaranteed. who would have thought? it was a gamble for him, there was no guarantee. but now there isn't even the need to anymore, though he doesn't have the chance anyway. it's sad for him, yet in a twisted way, bittersweet victory. =========================================================if you were to die today, what would go through your mind? how do you want to be remembered? who would you want to speak to? i don't think there's anything i want to say to anyone which i haven't done yet. i think people i care about all already know how much they mean to me. it may not be mutual, some of them may not care as much, but at least i have let them know. but there's no way i can die without worrying and missing people. dying is not scary, even with the unknown. it's leaving behind the ones you love that is scary and miserable. you'll never be able to see them again, and you don't know whether they can cope. makes me wonder, is it any less horrible if you die without knowing you will? like, not even the conscious mind to see memories flash through? i guess it will be... that's why they always say, to die in your sleep. but of course, if you had gone to sleep with a heavy heart and troubled mind..... that's a different matter altogether... what would you see in the mirror of the erised, anyway? i thought of this yesterday. the mirror only shows you your heart's deepest desire. no matter what it is that you'll see, you're bound to feel miserable, i think. bcs it would be your deepest desire only bcs you cannot seem to achieve it. and seeing it in the mirror, your conscious mind can only torture you by telling and reminding you that you can never attain that. ever. or, how difficult it would be to achieve it. if you have the mirror in front of you, do you actually want to see it? can you live normally and peacefully? posted by Yee 1:20 PM . . .
