Launching a new Wizard theme!

top: Wizard v.2; bottom: Wizard v.1

It's been 4 years since I started this blog. Last year to celebrate the occasion I gave the blog a total facelift with 4 switchable designs. I wasn't going to re-invent the wheel so quickly, so for this year I set my eyes on improving the existing themes. With the switchable system in place, the update was much easier than ever before. Therefore, to celebrate this blog's 4th birthday and Harry Potter's birthday - which is tomorrow if you remember from the books - I announce the launching of a newly re-design Wizard theme!

The old wizard theme was the first one out of the four I designed last year, and I wasn't as satisfied with it as the other. That's why it's the first one to receive a makeover. The idea was to light up the design a bit more. Abandon the gritty feel of it and draw inspiration from the style of the actual Harry Potter movie instead. I particularly spent a considerable amount of time on the title font, re-creating the style based on the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie.

Let me know what you think! :)

Divided up Greenpoint

The boundaries of New York City's neighborhood is always difficult to figure out. No one can tell you for sure the boundaries between East Village, LES and NoLita, or for a even more confusing fight between the Greenwich Village, West Village, Central Village, and Noho~

In North Brooklyn, it seems much easier because of a natural border of McCarren Park - South of the park is Williamsburg and North of it is Greenpoint. However the easy distinction is slowing eroding - First Williamsburg going from just Northside and Southside, all of the sudden craved out a East Williamsburg and then now South Williamsburg!? then now comes this map which divided up Greenpoint into 13 sub-neighborhoods!! Not only that, they all got funny names!! Sewagetown, Garbagetown??? LOL, bloody brilliant! then there's the amusing North and South Vinyl Siding! My favorite have to be the Little Loftland!! it sounds magical~ hahaha~ Can I move a couple blocks over to Little Loftland?? cos guess what? I lived in the most normal/boring named sub-neighborhood accordingly to this map - Historical District!

Running from Voldemort

The night before Voldemort was hunting me down. He first came to my apartment when I wasn't there. Who knew he would play some childish tricks by messing up my apartment? I came back home and turn on the water, well it's not water anymore, it's dirty sewer water! Of course my roommate was mad about that, but I was like, it's not me! You know who did that, it's my nemesis Voldemort!

When I get out of the house Voldemort saw me and started chasing after me. I hided in a memorial of a massacre – it's more like a morgue though, with graffiti on the wall. Even though he couldn't find me but my location was nowhere near pleasant since it's essentially death all around me.

Yesterday night once again I was in the Harry Potter Universe, but this time I am not Harry Potter, just me, the other Harry. All the mayhem caused by Voldemort and his DeathEater pushed the muggles to the edge. They established an Anti-Magic Force which developed technology that can stop all effects of magic directed to regular folks. The populations are also hostile to all things magic no matter its good or evil. Witch-hunt becomes a norm.

I was with Harry, who is now hiding not only from Voldemort and his evil followers but the AMF and the regular folks as well. Harry now has the ability to float in the air briefly without any help, and he also can be invisible for a little while without using the invisibility cloak. We were hiding in the balcony of a giant flea market overlooking everyone. We spotted an AMF agent coming toward us so we float down to the market and making our way to the exit. The AMF agent shot at us, it's not a regular gun – it's more of a anti-magic gun. Once the bullet reaches us it change into liquid form and it was all over us. We immediately fell on the ground and everyone can see us.

We hurried up and desperately trying to run away in such a tight crowded place. All of the sudden we spotted a magical sanctuary in the form of a gypsies tent. We ran in, the old woman inside told us not to look back. She said they can't see you if you don't move, this is your sanctuary. The AMF agent walked in, looks around and left. We can finally relax for a minute but then we realize that's no old woman at all! She's Voldemort dressed up as an old woman!

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Not sure why I was dreaming of Voldemort, since I am reading Twilight's sequel New Moon at the moment~~ It has nothing to do with the wizard world~

iPhone 2.0 OS impression

After a week of the use of the new iPhone 2.0 software, my impression is actually mix even if I love the ability to install new apps. The biggest problem I have is that now it takes 40mins to an hour to backup every time you connect it to iTunes. It seriously takes more time to backup something less than 8 GB than let's say, a clean install of OSX on a Mac! Ridiculous!

Other than that, I am quite positive about the upgrade. The Chinese input system is good for me because it can let me practice how to write the mostly forgotten characters – it can force me to try to remember how to write Chinese. The multiple calendar, the mass delete email, youtube clips on webpage can now opens in youtube app are all welcoming improvements.

Of course, the main attraction is the ability to install third-party apps and the App Store. It works so well that one could quickly fill up 4 or 5 pages of [free] apps on your iPhone! Of course a significant upgrade like this would definitely has bugs, even though the name is iPhone 2.0 OS, it is actually like a brand new OS, so expect 1.0 performance! (It's stable if you don't install anything else~) But if you combine the fact that all the apps in the App Store are version 1.0 products – you can see it is becoming a problem – crashes of apps do occur and sometimes it even forces your phone to restart (I am looking at you! New York Times app!) But the good news is, you'll get free update for all the apps, so we know if there's any problem, it will get fix eventually, we just have to be patient! (If you got a dedicated and committed developer, you'll get update and fix in no time! Praise to Facebook!! They really listen to complaints and get want people wants!! Their app were patched and improved with new features in a week!)

As for my favorite apps so far and my experience with them – I'll wait for the next post to tell you~

Midtown East Lunch Report

Ever since I started my new job, my cheap Japanese lunch choice has been cut in half. My usual choices when I was working at 43rd and Madison were Oms/B, Zaiya and Zaiya in Kinokuniya. Occasionally Chiyoda and Yagura. Now that I work right on the same block as Oms/B by Lexington, it's way too far to walk to Kinokuniya at 6th Ave. The regular Zaiya, Chiyoda and Yagura are doable even though they are all the way at 41st St and Madison, but during some hot crazy temperature days, it is so much more convenient to just walk down to Oms/B.

So for the past month or so, I pretty much eat at Oms/B everyday sans the days that I would be at some more expensive restaurants like Totto Soba, Sakagura, Sakae Sushi, or Menchanko-Tei. Or the days that I would be meeting Scott at the original Zaiya.

Well I am so happy to find out from my friend (Thanks Philip!) that Zaiya just open up a new branch called Café Zest at the the previous Japanese convenience store location on 47th between Lexington and 3rd! It's selling the same food as in the other Zaiya location but more~ (Nice pasta!!) not to mention it's as nice looking as the Kinokuniya location! According to Midtown Lunch, Zaiya will also open up an actual restaurant on the second floor called Nonoca in August. That brand has already appeared in the pre-packaged lunch in Zest, so I can't wait for Nonoca to open as well!

I didn't take any picture as today was still their grand opening days and it was packed and the line was ridiculous. So borrowed some from Midtown Lunch.

尋人

昨晚我又再哭了，只因是自己傻。安裝了一個Whitepage的App在我的iPhone上。打開這個App看見放名字的空格，不其然地便放進了他的名字。誰想到真的找尋到他的資料。 原來他搬了，搬到他以前常提到最理想的地方。不知怎樣，心一痛眼淚已經不知不覺地流下。或者是因為這令我驚覺他以前提到將來的生活，我已經不包括在內，已經 無法參與了。雖然四年以來我還是有斷斷續續地和其他人來往 ，但是對他的記憶我還是無法忘記。是我真的這麼長情嘛，還是自己愚笨，根本不懂得去忘記過去? 他早就已經不在我的身邊，但是原來每一天他還是在傷害着我。到抵是他在傷害着我嗎 ?還是自己沒有停止過去折磨自己?

真的不知道原來自己是這麼的恐怖， 還是在渴望可以再一次去遇見他。

Apple's promotion teaser of Chinese store

Apple's marketing department always come up with something simple and yet to-the-point, elegant promoting materials. Just look at their promote teaser for their first store in Beijing, China: I just love the simple graphic of Apple's iPod earbuds that got twisted into the shape of a lantern!



Now when will there be an official store in Hong Kong?

Feist on Sesame Street

Looks like Feist can only count to 4! lol

Ghosts in the cafeteria

I was running down the heavily wore out staircase. The maintenance staff was trying to figure out which piece of the wailing fell out. I told Janet the piece that she has in her hand should go on the side. We chit-chat a bit and she mentioned the condition of the staircase will get worst when the security will station permanently on the staircase itself on the 3rd floor.

I walked down to the basement where the cafeteria is located. Many students were already there. I had an important news to announce to them - ghosts are coming! Two ghosts are coming to attack and they will take two souls. There were no way out since all the doors to outside are locked. So everyone huddled together by the corners and against the wall, their eyes all locked on to the entrance waiting for the inevitable. Soon enough we heard noises coming from outside of the entrance, two hooded figures appeared. They looks like demeantors from Harry Potter and yet they have faces like Mr. Croup and Vandemar from Nail Gaiman's Neverwhere~ They walk straight to the students targeting me. I froze in front of them, not sure how I can escape them from sucking out my soul. Suddenly the copy guy Mr. Wong yelled out, "Don't let them touch your watch! they can't get to you if they can't touch your watch!"

I was frozen due to the overwhelming fear that these two figures brought. I can barely move my arms. After some struggles I covered my watch with my right hand. They were determine to pull my right hand away and my hand can barely hold on. Mr. Wong yelled out again, "Smash your watch against the table and scratch it! if it's all scratched up they can't get in!" I really didn't want to follow the advice because I love my watch, but under the threat of two horrifying ghosts, I have no other choice. I smash my left wrist to the table as the ghosts pull my right hands away. I scratched my watch against the surface of the table over and over again. As the two figures realized there's no way they can get to me, they backed away and disappeared.


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This nightmare combined the villains from Harry Potter and Neverwhere, it's probably the scariest combination~~ The cafeteria seems like the one back in my high school, while the two other character, maintenance staff Janet is from my previous job, while Mr. Wong is from my college library. A strange mix up of people and location from my past indeed~~ But the scariest part of the dream was the destruction of my favorite watch!!!!!!

Attack of a washing machine

This dream takes me straight into Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, where the accident-prone Bella once again face another dangerous location – the Laundromat! I wasn't sure why she would be in a Laundromat, given that her house would definitely have a washing machine. But here she is, putting all kind of clothes in the machine, no matter if they are light colors, dark colors, big or small. Then she poured the wrong amount of detergent which would result in a total destruction of all her clothes. To top it off, she put penny in the quarter slot. Amazingly though the machine started working! However within minutes the door swing open and hit Bella's head, she flied across the room to the other end. All her clothes flied out of the machine as well. She broke her arm and her head was breeding. The washing machine was making terrible noise as if it's gonna explode in any second. Luckily Edward appeared with his vampire strength and picked up Bella, ran to safety just as fire came out of the machine!

Strange dream given that I always just drop off my laundry at the laundromat~ Just pay a little and someone will do it for you~ Why would I go through the trouble and deal with the machine myself? Plus, I am pretty much just as accident-prone as Bella~ This dream pretty much served as a warning - I shouldn't do laundry myself! :p

Doctor Who Finale Part 2

The problem with the Journey's End is that the resolutions of everything came just a bit convenient: Sarah Jane Smith was saved by Mickey and Jackie who happened to teleport just by her car? Okay, fine, I accepted it. The Doctor just pointed the regeneration energy to the severed hand after he healed himself so that he won't be fully transform, fine, that's okay too. But to have Gwen and Ianto saved by Toshiko's completed Time Lock mechanism is just too convenient, not to mention contradicting. I mean, what is it activating now? You don't see it activating in the finale of Torchwood when Toshiko herself was attacked by Gray? And since it was a fatal attack that killed her, when did she actually have the mechanism completed? Then there's the whole cloned Doctor that is half human. The writer can't find a way out of the romance storyline of Rose and the Doctor, so they conveniently created a clone that is half human that can stay with Rose in the parallel world? That's kind of like since the real Buffy isn't ready to be with Angel, so let's have a Buffybot for Angel!

Despite all these complaints, I still do like the episode. The epic scale is truly epic, not only the massive cast, but I mean, it's not just the whole universe was in danger, but every single parallel universe and everything in reality as well! That really is everything!
Donna's fate in the end is tragic. I don't mean herself because she won't know about it for the rest of her life, but for the people that are in the knows, especially the Doctor. To erase her memories and make her go back to what she was, a selfish, clueless, rude person, instead of what she has become after traveling with the Doctor, it's a punishment that is worst than killing her.

The ending was desperately sad for the Doctor, he's truly alone, more than ever. More than at the end of series 2. Back then even though he and Rose were separated by the parallel worlds, he know he's thinking of her and she is thinking of him everyday. And if one day he was able to overcome the obstacle, he and Rose can be together again. Not this time though, because Rose don't need him anymore. She got the Doctor-clone. Someone that is the same as the Doctor, with the same memories, same personality and physiques. How heartbreaking it must be for the real Doctor to see the person you love kissing a clone of yourself, someone that is exactly you but not really you. Knowing that you have no reason to come back because the person you love don't need you anymore. Then there's Donna, the one friend he has that truly understand him, someone that can snap the Doctor out of it with her attitude, someone that he can truly have fun with without worrying any romance complication. Donna's unique because unlike Rose, Martha, Captain Jack, and Sarah Jane, she is the only one that the Doctor is close with that wasn't in love with him or had a crush on him, ever. And yet she's brutally taken away from him forever. With the rest of the gang all found their own lives to live and their own calling. The Doctor is all alone.

Points of interest/excitement:

1) I always wonder why on earth would the controls of TARDIS so difficult that you need the Doctor dancing around in circle to control it~ most of the time he don't even have enough hands to handle it~ Now we know! Cos there's suppose to need 6 people to control it at the same time!
2) Everyone in the TARDIS! That was the best moment!
3) K-9 made an appearance finally!! Awesome robot dog!!!
4) Finally the mystery is solved – Gwen Cooper and Gwyneth in the 18th century is truly related!
5) They didn't forget about Pete Tyler, he was mentioned!
6) German speaking Dalek!!!!!
7) Captain Jack's suggestive remarks: When running into Mickey and then giving him a hug "Good to see ya!...and that's a beefcake…." "Mickey replied uncomfortably, "and that's enough hugging"; When Captain Jack heard about there are 3 of the same Doctor: "I can't tell you what I am thinking RIGHT NOW!" LOL, aside from saving the world, he only has one thing in his mind~ haha~
8) Martha's touching reaction to see Rose on the screen: "Oh, my god…he found you."
9) The Doctor told Donna's mother that it wouldn't kill her to let Donna know once in a while that she love her.
10) Martha and Mickey walked away with Captain Jack…hmm….Torchwood lost Toshiko (technical support) and Owen (Medical support) in their own finale earlier this year….I see replacements!!
11) Rose storyline comes to an end, with Donna lost her memories and can never regain them otherwise her brain would burn out, and Martha leaving with Jack, Sarah Jane goes back to her "son", will the Doctor travel with someone new? Or old? If it's someone new then I can't really speculate, but if it's someone old – what about Sally Sparrow from the excellent Blink episode? Or the Doctor's own daughter Jenny? Or will we finally see the future adventures of Professor River Song?

Doctor Who Finale Part 1

After watching the series 4 finale of the new Doctor Who, it's safe to say that I still would rate series 2 finale Army of Ghosts/Doomsday as the best out of all 4 finales. Series 4's Stolen Earth/Journey's End is a close second. Given we won't see the next series until 2010 and all current creators of the show are stepping down after this year. I am giving an overall review of all 4 finales of the new series.

I like series 2's Army of Ghosts/Doomsday because of its tragic love story kind of ending, especially its close resemblance of Philip Pullman's ending for His Dark Materials. Lovers separated by two parallel worlds that were once connected. The scene where both Rose and Doctor lean against the wall on both side of their perspective parallel world, hoping to hear the "other" side while knowing they will probably not see each other again was one of the saddest scene on Doctor Who. In addition, the scene where Cyberman and Dalek talking to each other - priceless!

Series 3's The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords was more epic in scale but less in the romance department, but the scene of danger was so great that it keeps you on the edge of your seat – until the end when the writers hit the "reset button" to erase almost everything that happened in that episode, no one in the whole world remembers except the few on board. It's a cheap trick that I hate very much, which pretty much knocked the otherwise fantastic finale down to my least favorite of all 4 series.

Series 1's Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways was good, but the problem with it was that it sets in the future in a satellite/battle station. In addition, the attack on Earth was only mentioned on a map therefore the emotional impact is much weaker than any other episode. The sense of epic scale is just not there.

Series 4 finale Part I Stolen Earth set the expectation so high that there's no way the resolutions in Part II Journey's End would satisfy the viewer. Indeed, it didn't. Not that it's not good, I can't tell what exactly disappointed me. It is kind of like when LOTR the Two Tower set the bar so high that the Return of the King just can't compare, especially with its many goodbyes in the end. Journey's End is actually similar in structure with the Return of the King because it also featured many goodbyes in the end after the main fight.

I know I sounded like I don't really like series 4's finales, but it's not. For Part I, I absolutely love it. I think it's the best Part I of the finale of the show. Seriously who can argue when two spin-off of Doctor Who – Torchwood and Sarah-Jane Adventure both merged back with the parent show! I am not talking about just the lead character Captain Jack and Sarah-Jane Smith, because they had cross-over back to Doctor Who before, I am talking about the rest of the cast and locations of the shows! It was exciting to see them all worked together! Add two previous companions of the Doctor – Rose and Martha back in the mix, you got the biggest story of all. Another of my favorite part of this episode was the reappearance of Harriet Jones, former prime minister. I always like her, even after the Doctor change history and deposed her, I still think she has a valid point and means well. This time around it proves that her worries were correct, the Doctor will not be there to save the Earth all the time. Her heroic sacrifice to contact the Doctor is quite touching. The cliffhanger of the episode was also probably the biggest given the Doctor was regenerating, Sarah Jane Smith and what's left of Torchwood – Gwen and Ianto facing annihilation.

continues on next post

Celebrity Sighting

The good thing about being in New York is that you can run into a celebrity or a film set in the most ordinary day and place. You don't need to goto the hottest new club or restaurant. (but of course if you do u will meet even more celebrities~) So let me recap the recent celebrity sighting.

1) Lance Bass? - this is I actually not so sure about since it was only seconds before I realize who he is, so I didn't get a good look of him to confirm. But I did see him being touristy-like walking into the fame Public Library with a "guy friend", which is a clue to who he is~ :p

2) Victory from the Lipstick Jungle~ Lindsay Price was filming Lipstick Jungle on my street. It's too bad it's just a scene with her storyline only. So none of the other stars of the show is around~ What a bumper! I want to see Kirby (Robert Buckley) walking around shirtless like he always do in the show!!

3) George Takei - yup, of Star Trek and Heroes fame. He was in the Pride Parade last weekend along with his newly wed husband~~ He was still doing that star trek hand sign~~

4) Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell - I was having dinner at this red-hot people watching restaurant in Chelsea - Cafeteria~ So it's obvious that I would be watching people that are passing by - because nine out of ten are pretty! But who knew I could spotted this gorgeous couple walking by the restaurant! both seems to be really tall and Rebecca is as pretty as she is on TV~ And I am so going back to Cafeteria to people watch again~~

Update: Other celebrities sighting that I don't think I written down here and here and here and here includes: Robin Williams (at Time Warner Center) , Keven Spacey (at Washington Square Park), and Hanson (all 3 of them, on Broadway and 9th street).