Losing the print

I have a shortlist of authors whose new books I always await eagerly. Unfortunately, one of them posted the following on her website:

"Note that my agent tried to find a print publisher for this book and failed. I have some hopes that we may still do so, provided the novel does well on Kindle. Please remember to post reviews if you like a book. The problems of finding a publisher are related to small sales numbers, and sales depend on reviews and word-of-mouth advertising. Readers decide if books remain in publication.)"

Darn it. I'm still not converting to eBook readers.

Lat ... Kampung Boy ... Town Boy ... Lots of Lat ...

Inspired by my recent drive up to Malaysia (first time in more than 10 years and first time beyond JB), I decided to borrow the Lat comic books from NLB for my daughter ... for her exposure ... as well as introduce her to some elements I was exposed to myself as a kid, not in M'sia but close enough.

I was rather surprised to find the Kampung Boy copies in NLB (all from more recent reprints) left out a couple of pages I remembered from the original.

Namely, when Mat got home and showed his father the tin he dredged and his father's reaction.

I was thinking ... what the heck???!!!!! Censorship? Self-censorship?

By who? Publisher or Lat?

I know it's probably frowned on today, but this strip was done aeons ago.

Yeah, they "modernised" Mark Twain and Herge, so why not Lat?

Grrrrr

I think I'll try to find the original in some used book stores.

Would appreciate any help here.

First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy by Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers: "The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader."

http://sivers.org/ff

I got this from my company's first TEDx event on Wednesday.

What it got me thinking was that
1. My company got lots of managers, capable managers, but not leaders, at the top management and director levels.

2. Guys like Steve Jobs are leaders, not managers (or they suck at being managers). Bill Gates ... I'm not sure ... probably neither.

3. I see the government of Singapore, the Cabinet and the top echelons of Civil Service composed of managers, not leaders.

4. SAF's latest slogan "Every Soldier a Leader" is an embarassing fiasco.

1984 Guy Laroche commercial

I must have seen the TV ad dozens of times when it was aired, but I never made the connection to them when I saw their action flicks.

Yeah, I can understand her being Miss Malaysia then ...

Oh, the roundness of youth.

What warmed my heart today ...

Snowylass came across mention of 《弟子规》 from reading one of the entries in a compilation of primary school students Chinese compositions and asked me what it was.

I explained it to her and even mentioned that I did a translation of it for a publication.

The wide eyed admiration in her eyes when she saw the printed copy of the book, translated by her D-A-D, is incomparable.

I hastily reminded her not to go and tell the whole world about it ... after all ... I didn't do it for the fame ...

And yeah, of course it's just one book, but I'll tell her that some other day.

音樂萬萬歲 李翊君「萍聚」「風中的承諾」5 1(部落格有連載版或擷取圖)

萍聚

別管以後將如何結束
至少我們曾經相聚過

不必費心的彼此約束
更不須要言語的承諾

只要我們曾經擁有過
對你我來講已經足夠

人的一生有許多回憶
只願你的追憶有個我

音樂萬萬歲 李翊君「萍聚」「風中的承諾」5 1(部落格有連載版或擷取圖)

Tintin Trailer #2 (Spielberg 2011) HD

It seems more Biggles than Tintin ...

T.R.O.O.P.S. By Kevin Rubio

Star Wars / COPS spoof - shows how far a fan fiction film can go if done by a real dedicated guy

Babar: The Movie [Part 1]

Durians oh durians

Now I think I know,

what you tried to say to me,

How you suffered for your lusciousness,

how you tried to warn us off,

I would not listen, and I know I'll forget,

I'm still awake at 3 am.

Coming soon ... The Tower

SG soap opera a la Ally McBeal

Set in hi-tech world of finance, IT, FT, vendor and project mgt

Gen-Y wonderland - where like the casinos, they provide everything to enable staff to stay and work 24 hours if needed or wanted

Hard-partying and power drinking at bars and clubs

Young PM initiated to the "real world" where national boundaries mean nothing in securing the contract and keeping the contract

Fast cash, fast cars, fast lives, meaningless corporate digits

All-day trading

Lose a critical talent and close down an entire department, replaced within days with another department with another mission

Banana Boat Song - Harry Belafonte with the Muppets

ROTFL ... poor Harry ...
But it's so classically Muppets!

Thor

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

Right, I must say, cool graphics for Asgard. Top marks.

Jotunheim could use a bit more work. I mean, yeah, it's suppose to be a frozen place not meant for vacationing tourists, but it totally lacked showing the Frost Giant as having a civilisation in their own right.

The storyline though, is a bit weak, and lacking in direction.

I can accept that this is not meant to take place in Marvel universe 616, so Sif didn't try to take Jane Porter's head for kissing Thor.

The character that actually stole the show was Loki.

His was the best developed character in the show, and by the time the show came to the climatic confrontation between Loki and Thor, I was not sure which of them the cinema-goers were supposed to support.

I commented to Snowylady that the female cast of the show were little more than "flower vases" and she agreed.

What disappointed me this GE ...

The woman behind the successful man was not successful.

Perhaps there is such a thing as greater mortal after all.

I thought inheritance only comes after passing of the owner

Snowylass has been devouring storybooks like locust swarms ... Geronimo Stilton, Enid Blyton, Archies, Nancy Drew etc.

Snowylady just decreed henceforth that *my* collection of Three Investigators are going to belong to that precocious girl too ...

GE 2011 ... and it looks like I still won't get to vote

Why?

No other party wants to contest Tanjong Pagar GRC ... though where I live is actually quite far from Tanjong Pagar ...

Challenges of having a precocious reader of a child

Snowylass reads the newspaper left around the house and asks a lot of questions, especially about the crime sections ...

Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Comics & Graphic Novels
Author:	Don Rosa

From April 1994 to february 1996, Walt Disney published bimonthly, written and drawn by Don Rosa, the epic saga of how Disney's most famous plutocrat Scrooge McDuck grew up from a poor Scottish lad into the richest individual in the whole world.

While I always liked reading comics, I never considered buying normal releases, and TPB were then not very common and very expensive. I only bought TPB if I chanced upon them second hand.

My reading was still limited to catching up Alistair MacLean from the libraries (sadly, no longer carried there today), as well as Forgotten Realms (it was in its heyday then).

I totally missed out on this classic when it was first published.

More than 10 years ago, I chanced upon a second hand copy of "The Recluse of Duckburg", which was also the last installment of the series. By then, the series was no longer carried in the main bookshops.

This volume opened with a scene right out of the opening scene of Citizen Kane. It was not a death scene though, but aptly set the background that Scrooge was an old recluse. He invited his only direct (and estranged) relatives, Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie, to meet him for the first time in their lives (actually, 2nd for Donald, but he was a mere toddler the first time).

Agitated that Donald thought he was cash poor, Scrooge brought them to his hitherto sealed money bin to show them it was full. Unfortunately, the villainous Beagle Boys had apparently been patiently stalking Scrooge for years for such a chance and surprised the ducks.

Locking them up a storeroom in the money bin, the villains made off with sacks of money, and the No. 1 Dime.

The ducklings found mementoes of Scrooge's past, including miner's tools which Donald proclaimed aloud were "bought" souverniers.

Agitated again, Scrooge not only used the miner's pickax to break down the door, but also managed to chase down and captured all the villains, re-using all the skills and tools he acquired throughout his life.

In the end, while Donald still doubted Scrooge had a worthwhile life, the ducklings convinced Scrooge that he still had life in him and Life itself still offers more exciting experiences for Scrooge.

The last page showed Scrooge McDuck recollecting significant moments of his past, indicating he had a rich life of adventures around the world while making his fortune.

I resigned myself to "c'est la vie", that often in life, we might catch the beginning, or the middle, or the end, of an interesting story, and never get a chance to enjoy it its entirety.

Well, I'm sure for reasons of commercialism, Disney published the collection once more in two volumes through the comic house Boom Kids.

Again, I discovered this only by accident when I brought my kids to Kinokuniya, and made the uncharacteristic decision to purchase Wizards of Mickey and Double Duck. A catalogue at the backpages indicated they are re-publishing some of the old classics going way back to 1940s, and in comparison, Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck was practically a latest release. Then again, it was a 1995 Eisner Award winner.

Kinokuniya did not carry the series, but agreed to order it for me.

I waited for 2-3 months. In the meantime, I discovered that the National Library had the first installment in the Repository, which I wasted no time reserving and taking out.

Today, I got the whole series from Kinokuniya.

Reading the commentaries, I understood that Don Rosa had scrupulously researched all the past Disney publications with references to Scrooge McDuck since his first appearance.

Scrooge first appeared in a 1947 comic story Christmas on Bear Mountain, already the wealthiest duck in the world.

Throughout his appearances, there were offhand remarks he made about his past, indicating he had been all over the world in his quest for wealth, and participating in many historical events such as Yukon gold rush.

There were even some stories told in flashbacks of certain parts of life, most notably about his lost love, Goldie.

Don Rosa made a careful note of all these, especially those from Carl Barks (Scrooge's creator), sometimes expanding them into full stories, and sometimes just attributing them in his series.

I recalled when I first read of Scrooge McDuck in the late 1970s, he was still portrayed as having insatiable drive to make more money as well as being economical. His only real worry was who would be able to handle his wealth after his passing.

As time passed, the story became lighter and Scrooge was shown displaying with increasing kindness.

The series brought readers back to Scrooge's roots and more realistically portrayed him with normal "human" qualities. Having decided at an early stage to earn his money "square" after being "duped" on his first day of work, Don Rosa's Scrooge kept the integrity in the younger days.

Despite cheated many times and suffering numerous setbacks, losing hard earned fortune many times due to "bad luck", Scrooge never gave up his honesty. Ironically, it was when he finally succeeded that he began to compromise this quality, and led to the estrangement with his sisters.

Having finished the series now, I looked back and can't help but admit the fact that I am probably much better to appreciate Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck now than if I had read the series when it was first published in the mid 1990s.

I had gone through a lot more and experienced ups and downs. While still in my supposed prime, I am not looking for new adventures but is concentrating on my responsibilities to my family.

Would I have traded my life for that of Scrooge? Of course not. If I had not lived my life the way I did, I would be a very different person today, doing something very different and thinking something different.

Do I wished I had taken more chances when I was younger? Looking back, yes, I was too comfortable and complacent.

There is nothing I can do about the past, I can only make the most of the present and be true to myself. Well, maybe not the last part since I'm not such a great guy, I can certainly strive to be a better person and I should.

What I should not do is try to shape the future - I just need to make sure the decisions I make today are the right decisions, no matter what the future may be.

Sby1 02-3

World without Borders ...

Stephanie Yap from Straits Times today wrote in the Culture Vulture section "Buying books without Borders", pondering on the evolution/revolution of bookshops in the light of bankruptcies of both the US and Australia Borders companies.

She is able to take it in stride because she buys books from Kinokuniya and BooksActually.  I don't think I've been to the latter, but since it moved to Tiong Bahru near my in-laws, I think I could make a trip down soon.

She also outlined 2 types of shops "serious buyers" go for.  One would be where the buyer has a clear idea of what to get, and the other is where the buyer hopes to find something interesting.

I asked myself - what kind of a book shopper am I?

Well, I do buy books, and I am not partial to either bookshops like Borders or Kinokuniya, or to used book stores, or antiqurian as some tries to pass themselves off.

Given practicalities like budget and space constraints, I cannot afford to buy just any book I fancy.

Most of my purchases are books I read from my childhood days, especially those no longer in print, such as Biggles and Three Investigators.  When I was young, it never occurred to me they might not be available in most bookshops.

Recently, I also bought some Boomkids comics - Walt Disney comics, some translated from Italian - I learned my lesson that these are the type of books that contain interesting stories and will also be likely not commonly available in time.

I even forked out for a new ligne claire style comics Rainbow Orchid. I regretted not buying a first edition of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen just because I thought the bookshop was asking too high for USD 15 back in 2002.

One thing I'm certain is that I'm not going on the eBook bandwagon.  I still want to hold a conventional book and read from paper instead of electronic screen.

I am also thankful that I am instilling in my children a habit and a love for reading.  Even my younger son who cannot read many words enjoy looking through old Sesame Street Dictionary and Encyclopaedia.

Singapore is already experiencing decline in 2nd-hand bookstores.  Perhaps in this decade, it will see a decline in mainstream bookstores too.

But I suspect there could be a revival of independent book retailers.  By then, my family might be more settled (hopefully), I'll have some more personal time to go "treasure hunting".

Yamato Trailer

WOW!

Childhood fantasy come true ...

The uniform seems a little cheesy now ... but heck, as long as the movie is fun ...

Memory is so strange ...

When I was young, I watched a Mandarin-dubbed Japanese anime series whose title I could not recall, but I retained vivid memories of the gist, especially the beginning.

It was set in the late 19th century about a girl who recently lost her father.  The family was apparently en route overland across Europe to the father's hometown.  Her mother was Indian, and they travelled in a caravan.  For livelihood, they had a camera which was a rare instrument at the time, taking and selling photos of people wherever they travel.

Tragically, her mother died along the way too, and the girl made her own way through many hardship to finally reach her grandfather's hometown.  Her grandfather, the Baron, was owner of the main business in town, a cotton factory.

As her father was long estranged from her grandfather before her birth, the girl followed her late mother's advice and avoided directly approaching her grandfather, and instead became a worker in the factory.  As conditions in the workers quarters were appalling, she made a home for herself in an unused cabin.

I never got to watch every episode though, especially the last few.

But it was buried deeply in my memory and surfaced just yesterday.

But memory is indeed strange.  I could have sworn the factory was supposed to be located in Russia.  I googled unsuccessfully for the Anime title with the few key words, but only got the right hit after removing Russia from the key word.

The title of the anime is ペリーヌ物語, Perīnu Monogatari, (The Story of Perrine).  In Mandarin, it was 《佩琳物語》，又譯《小英的故事》.

It was based on the novel En Famille by Hector Malot (1893).  The town where the factory was located was "Maraucourt" (I got it from Gutenberg project http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27690/27690-h/27690-h.htm), which I can't seem to find. It probably refers to Malancourt in Meuse, based on the name and the map produced by a fan below of the route taken by Perrine, which was the name of the girl.

Well, after nearly three decades, I finally got to watch the last few episodes and read the ending of the original novel (translated to English).

Guys wrestling against girls ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110218/ap_on_sp_ot/us_girl_wrestler_default_10

I got no issues sparring against girls in karate, but if I had done wrestling, I'd have opt out too.

Yeah, if the girl was prepared to wrestle, she's prepared to roll with whatever can be reasonably expected from it.

Well, that's her.  Not me ... against a female opponent anyway.

Doesn't matter if she's built like Roseanne Barr or Cindy Crawford (in her heyday).

Is population decline a bad thing for a country? Must greying population necessarily a hazard?

The population of the world is growing at an unmatched pace in history.

Though I believe that the world is still producing enough food and issue is about distribution, I don't think the world can support endless increase of human population.

If seen from a simple matter of physics and chemistry, our bodies are just atoms composed into self-replicating cells, sustained by input of additional materials.

Given finite number of atoms in the world, production of food is simply a matter of converting matter from one form to another, powered by solar energy of course, but overall, there is no real increase in amount of matter (not that significantly, solar energy can theoretically be converted to matter, but most solar energy used go into converting matter from one form to another).

Hence, it is only a matter of time, if human population is to continue to grow, for the Earth to run out of matter to be converted into food.

Of course, if by then humans can colonise other planets in other solar systems, shortage of matter would not be a pressing problem.

Still, it is only practical to acknowledge that at the present, it is wiser for Earth to look forward to declining population.

But declining population is seen as a problem by the governments of developed nations, including Japan and Singapore.  The fear is a greying population will pose a burden on a shrinking base of productive members of the society, or lead to decline in economic competitiveness.

To me, human beings have been progressively equipped to take care of themselves in the old age such that older people rely less on younger people.

Of course, it is a matter of personal responsibility for individuals to keep themselves in good health and have financial security when one's income declines.

Modern workers are far more productive than those in the past, and we do rely on fewer to produce the same amount of goods and services.

Rather than anxiously seeking to maintain population levels by immigration, it might be better to consider how fewer people would allow more living space for the citizens, especially in an already crowded city-state like Singapore.

Even if people earn less nominal income, a better quality of life with the increased living space might be just what would prompt them to have more children.

In all things, there is such a thing as a natural balance, and artificial measures working against natural principles are never effective.

Deliberately adding more foreigners just increases the stress and may put more citizens off having children.

As a migrant myself, I got nothing against migrants themselves - migration is part of natural activity.  But when governments seek to manipulate it for certain ends, the results are often counter-productive.

Project Blue Earth SOS (ProjectBLUE 地球SOS)

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Animation

As many reviewers noted, a bit of the 1996 film "Independence Day", a bit of "Captain Scarlet", and some even suggested Futurama.

The genre is "Retro-Futurism", a new term I came across describing a sort of steampunk in the 20th century.

During the last decade of 20th century, a "G-Reaction" technology was invented and harnessed to be the primary power supply to almost every need, from providing electricity to cities, to powering land, sea and air transport, for both civilian as well as military use.

Mysteriously, several ground-breaking prototypes disappeared in a flash of rainbow coloured lights.

Two young science prodigies stumbled on a plot by strange aliens intending on world domination. When the aliens finally showed their hand, it was also revealed that the Earth government had secretly been taking counter-measures, creating a clandestine strike force to defend Earth.

But the few years of preparation was inadequate for Earth to resist the overwhelming numbers and advanced technology of the aliens.

Their only hope was for the prodigies to decipher the cryptic clues to the origins and true nature of these aliens.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This anime was first released in 6 episodes in 2006.

The artists had great imagination in putting in "old" technology such as propellor blades on planes and trains, as well as rotary dials on telephones in the imagined year 2000.

Still, it would have been more logical though to set the show in the 1950s rather than year 2000.

There were a number of loose ends unaccounted by the end of the show - such as why the aliens chose to project an image of a human female to deliver cryptic messages to the Earthlings, or more specifically, to the two prodigies.

Still, the show did manage to get across the message of universal mankind, as well as consequences of mankind's hubris in pursuit and worshipping of technology.

百家讲坛20101204 -- 太原降将 01

Exercise and snacking are inversely proportional

I am quite confident now, from experience, that exercise and snacking moods have an inversely proportional relationship.

When I wasn't exercising regularly, I had "attacks" of snacking spells at all times of the day, morning, night, at work, net-surfing etc.

After I began seriously jogging 2-3 years back, not only did my desire for snacking decrease, but so did my taste for "junk" food such as fries and fried kway teows.

But whenever my fitness regime got interrupted - work, addiction to online games. children's holidays etc., these snacking moods come back.

Well, got to confess it's been like a yoyo-trip for 2010, with lots of things interrupting my exercises, including a bad knee.

If my transfer do get through, it's gonna be another challenge too 'cos I'll have to start work much earlier.

Another reason for keeping my fingers crossed ...

Where to go ... where to go ...

Apparently, as part of staff rotation (which has a KPI), HR is transferring me to Customer Affairs ...

Well, I have been considering getting out of my current group.  I do enjoy my work (generally) and working with my colleagues, but there has been some ... ethical issues ... in some of my assignments.

Going to CA will be a big change, not to mention significantly more commuting to the HQ.

Another colleague quickly whispered to me her group is in need of people and I won't have to change office building if I apply to move to her group instead.  There'll be other issues of course, namely, I'll still be in IT (so no big change) and future prospects are more limited when compared to CA.

*sigh*