Peter’s Blog V2

Jay released his new album - Capricorn (魔杰座).  As usual, he’s awesome (and still very daring with his outfits…).

The first hit is 稻香.  It’s another inspirational song from Jay to bring positive thinking to the society.

追不到的夢想  換個夢不就得了
Fail to chase down your dream?  Why not simply find another?

So nice having a happy family.

話說當晚夜深人靜，我隻身孤影獨坐單把古箏之前，清心薰陶於傳統國樂之趣。是時，一黑影自我腳畔竄過，雖不速卻高速，雖寂靜卻打斷了我那走調的音階。眼觀四面的我沒失了靈巧，不假思索縱身拔地而起，半空中做了個左擰腰，立時與廝拉開了最大距離。

腳趾尖尚未落地，多年累積的經驗已使我篤定了此黑影鼠輩之身分。他便是那聲名狼藉大江南北，惹惱古今中外多少英雄豪傑，驚動萬叫的張姓匪類，張郎也。我稍一回氣，一面除下修身養性之用的玳瑁指甲，一面口出穢言準備反擊。

此張郎並非泛泛之輩，是當今世上碩果僅存的真忍者。暗中視物術、隱身地遁術、耐苦耐打術等對他都是家常便飯不說，那風林火山四絕技────傳說中的疾如風、徐如林、動如火、靜如山────他也樣樣精通。真忍者大隱隱於市，從忍者龜的地盤到蝙蝠俠的豪宅都少不了他的蹤跡，而那於刀山油鍋都如履平地的身手更使他榮冠滅之不盡的全民公敵。

哼，但大爺我也可非善類。家園遭受如此侵略，若不殺個他死我活晚上又何能闔眼？所謂養兵千日、用在一時。你以為本府上林林總總的刀槍棍棒是留著和小偷拼命用的嗎？我武裝上陣，在門外叫囂一番咒盡其祖宗八十代後，亦步亦趨地踏進了那儲藏室戰場。

首先上陣的是號稱百兵之王的槍。我何其聰明睿智，在敵暗我明的情況下不忘明哲保身，保持適當距離可避免張老賊暗中偷襲。那紅纓槍為我府上最細長之物件，適合於六尺之外撥弄地上種種雜物以探索那廝的藏身處，削尖的槍頭更為挑勾床單等軟性屏障的最佳工具。果然在多番探查之下，縱使他再怎麼的徐如林而靜如山，還是給我探著了門路。

六尺紅纓槍換交左手，掏出兵器譜都不懂得介紹的奇兵────人稱塑膠BB槍。此武器最適合於遠距離下，在狹窄空間之內，殂擊敵人於不備。我一槍不中，卻使敵人稍微亂了陣腳；再開兩槍還未能致他於死地，卻見他施展起動如火而疾如風的絕技，分毫不差的閃開了那些BB子彈。唉，想當年我隻手單發便能擊墜天花板上的蒼蠅，如今三槍竟還無法了結這銅錢大的小賊？只能怪歲月不饒人啊！

眼睜睜的見他施展開了那天殺的縮骨功，從門縫下掙扎躲入了衣櫥之中。手擰銅把猛然甩開了那扇門，悉心觀察後推斷張郎正縮身於我寶貝按摩椅墊之後方。冷笑一聲，放下兩手中雙槍，回我百兵庫中撈出了打狗打貓皆適宜的白楊棍，朝他藏身方向的椅墊柔軟處，以一式狂龍直搗狠狠捅了下去。準頭就差了那麼一丁點兒，張氏忍者傷而不殘，一聲不吭地在那黑色椅墊前前後後、上上下下、左左右右運起絕頂輕功，高速與我的滅張棍法展開糾纏。

都說了真忍者不是個省油之燈。這場漫長的廝殺可是鬥智而非鬥蠻力，講求的是戰略的優劣而非武功的高低。我多番將他殺逼進死角，他也多番展現地遁術之高超，毫不遜色地轉匿於門後、箱缝、布袋下；道高一尺魔高一丈，近乎逼我束手無策。

但也說了，箏曲彈不好槍法打不準的我只不過是深藏不露。當殺他至走投無路，奔逃於地板大平原時，我總算亮出了剋張終極殺手鐧，也就是七月號的美食美酒雜誌。弓步向前，腰馬合一，長期於健身房鍛鍊出的精壯右手抄起雜誌，空中半圈迴旋後鬆開五指，以迅雷不及掩耳之勢使這本兩百餘頁的加厚書刊從天而降於張郎，避無可避，縱使他有再硬的盔甲也被砸個死無全屍，去勢未止在地板上拖屍前滑半尺之遙。

成功殲滅了這江洋大盜後，我彎身翻開那雜誌若干頁，向後翻捲蓋於黏著張郎殘屍的封底之下，便乾淨俐落地裝袋滅跡。除了斷落的那條後腿，我也不屑向這宵小多瞧上一眼。

For the most part, I’m not an artistic person.  But I recently found the following photography by Martin Klimas and was thoroughly impressed:

Click here to see more.

Dubai has not stopped impressing the world with the continuously refreshed list of new world wonders.  This time, it’s the Atlantis hotel:

Dang I love the view from that window.  It’s a much better honeymoon destination than your average tropical beach resorts.  If my salary somehow goes up 100 times next March, I’ll book a room there for sure.

Nearly four years ago I wrote a blog post with this title, and it was about getting my “dream” job offer.  This time around, it’s actually what you might think it is.

Here’s a very subtle picture:

The photo journey of a stone:

Gift from the people at work:

This thing is sure taking up a lot of space in my cubicle!

Storm Riders, my favorite comic series from Hong Kong, has officially set foot across the entire spectrum of the entertainment industry by having released an animated movie - 風雲決 (Storm Riders 2008).

I wouldn’t call it a great movie.  The plot is sloppy (which is the norm for movies), and the voice actors don’t quite sound into it.  However, as an animated version of a classic HK comic story, it’s excellent.  It’s got a good balance between the Japanese anime techniques and the Chinese styled sceneries and action representations.  It gives life to the ink-on-paper heroes that thousands of us have admired.

Storm Rider fans would love this, almost certainly more than the movie with real actors.  It’s got a “new” storyline, i.e. twisted side-line plot from the original series, without losing the heart or soul.  In fact, it assumes a pretty good knowledge of the characters, weapons, and locations in its audience.  It might be hard to understand this movie otherwise.

Check out some previews and commentaries.

For background information, 風雲 = Wind Cloud (AKA Storm Riders) is an HK comic series originated in the 80’s and had been extremely popular in the first ten years.  It’s likely the most well known and most read Chinese comic in history.  Numerous pop culture byproducts were created in the past ten years - souveniors,novel,  a movie (with seriously famous actors; sequel is in the making), two TV series, two or more computer games, and now an animated movie…