Tuesday, July 31, 2007
If you ever open a hotel... -vwv

Recently, I've been surfing the internet, doing some research for my next vacation and one thing I've learnt is that if you ever open a small hotel or bed & breakfast, it pays to have a pretty daughter living there. Just look at these comments on the travel forums.

推荐下车后直接往前走，走到一处聋哑儿童学校的对面有家成都老爸爸开的“仁和旅馆”，整个乡好像也只有他们家是成都的。他的那个20岁的藏汉混血女儿真是漂亮阿，房间很干净...

Here's another example.

到处都是住宿，县城有个丹巴公寓，50/双标间，还不错。寨子里很多人去小拉姆家，冲着她家的3朵金花去的，不过她家人的确很好...

(Note: 金花 is the title given to the winner of the annual county/village beauty pageant. To have 3 winners in one family, they either have really good genes or the contest is rigged.)

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Yiheng made 9:59 PM

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Saturday, July 28, 2007
Inspirational Notes -vvz

It seems like I'm attending more classical concerts this year than usual. I went to another one on Friday named Inspirational Notes, which featured works by Ravel and Tchaikovsky.

Ravel is not a composer I'm very familiar with. Besides Bolero, I've never really heard much of his works. It turns out that the first piece of the concert, Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso was quite a delightful Spanish tune. There are parts where I thought I heard motifs that appeared in Bolero. And I learnt that you can actually bounce the bow on the strings of the violin to produce an effect that sounds like castanets.

The second piece was Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, featuring guest pianist Chen Sa, who is the primary reason I noticed this concert in the first place. I can only describe the concerto as unusual because frankly, I've never heard anything quite like it. It is indeed very different from the Romantic piano concertos most people are used to hearing. After the concerto, the clapping went on for so long my arms felt like they were gonna fall off. Fortunately, Chen Sa came back and rewarded the audience with a short piece by Granados.

The last piece of the night was Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor. I know the title doesn't ring a bell with most people, including me. But this turns out to be one of those tunes that you know you have heard it before but can't really put your finger on it. Anyway, this is good Tchaikovsky stuff.

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Yiheng made 11:50 AM

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Thursday, July 26, 2007
Free Movies -vvz

Guess what? Free screening of Breakfast at Tiffany's tomorrow. Too bad I can't go, gotta catch Chen Sa in concert.

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Yiheng made 10:40 PM

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Free Music Scores -vvx

I can't believe nobody ever told me about the International Music Score Library Project. It is basically the music score equivalent of Project Gutenberg. If you're looking for classical music scores, you can pretty much find what you want there. No need to pay for the National Library premium membership to borrow scores any more.

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Yiheng made 10:55 PM

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I recently discovered this website called www.gangqinpu.com

You can download pretty decent chinese music scores from it for free!
By  Soqcrates, at 12:07 AM  

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Saturday, July 21, 2007
How can anyone not like Dinobots? -vwv

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Yiheng made 5:51 PM

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Funny!! I don't remember transformers having such humour.
By  feathers, at 10:07 AM  

You'd think they would have created highly advanced robots that were abit smarter
By  Soqcrates, at 12:06 AM  

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Friday, July 13, 2007
White Horse complains to Minister -vwv

I'm sure by now everyone's heard about how a certain super white horse jumped the chain of command and complained about another ocifer to minister and a whole bunch of other unrelated people. I was initially quite puzzled by the opinions expressed by some people but then I realized not everyone served NS. People who have no idea how SAF works should just shut up.

I'm not going to say whether what 2LT Lee did was right or wrong but I thought it was a pity he wasn't posted to my old unit. There were so many colourful characters to complain about. Why write about LTA X when you can write about Big Head Lim?

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Yiheng made 10:59 PM

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You Circle or Powder?

Yah I was hoping he was talking about 23SA. There are a couple of white Mitsubishi Lancers I would have loved to set fire to.

Heard that the new CO made Lucy cry.....the power of Mordor is waning...
By  Soqcrates, at 1:30 AM  

Someone's car did get scratched.
By  Anonymous, at 2:00 PM  

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Saturday, July 07, 2007
Scientific American Podcast -vwv

Science Talk is the weekly podcast of the Scientific American podcast. There were some recent shows that I find particularly interesting and would like to point it out to whoever is reading this.

The 13 June 2007 show featured famous author Jared Diamond, who is quite an impressive character. In the podcast, he gave a short speech covering topics related to his latest book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

The 6 June 2007 show featured an essay by Mark Twain rebutting the idea that the world was made for Man. It is both sarcastic and humorous. It's a pity I couldn't find the actual essay but you can listen to the audio version through the podcast.

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Yiheng made 10:15 PM

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7 July a great day to wed? -vwv

7 July 2007 is a great day for wedding, so say Feng Shui experts and fortune tellers. In fact, someone in my neighbourhood is tying the knot today. I noticed the decorated car outside while I was having my breakfast. Too bad it was totally drenched in the heavy downpour. Nice weather to sleep in, bad weather for wedding. Feng Shui master must have overlooked that tiny detail haha.

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Yiheng made 5:23 PM

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Showers of blessing, man. Showers of blessing
By  Soqcrates, at 12:16 AM  

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