Caught this on channel 5 SYTYCD season 3 Ep 1 and cried for a good 5 mins after it ended:



Great choreography, and great dancers (Lacey in particular)to make this piece looks so effortless and conveyed the powerful emotions that's supposed to come with contemporary pieces.

Lacey's a SUPERSTAR for the way she always convinces the audience on any roles she portrays. Even Benji (her brother and winner of SYTYCD season 2), who was my previous favourite dancer in the show, could not match her at all. I remember telling my sister during the audition stage for season 2 when we saw Benji did his west coast swing with Heidi, and immediately proclaimed he'd be THE winner for that season because of his character and entertainment value. He didn't dissappoint of course.

Lacey's a notch higher: great entertainer, and adding to that she had the superior technique that Benji was lacking. She could adapt so fast to the new dance styles that she has never done in her whole life, and within 1 week performs it like a pro. That's required of all the top 20 of course, but to be SO gd at something that's not your element is definitely mind-bogglingly hard. It's like asking a tennis player to learn badminton within 1 week and play like a pro, and obviously those who has tried it will find it pretty much impossible.

So the Schwimmer legacy in SYTYCD lives on. I'm following Lacey's dances every week on channel 5, and although I know she didn't win it in the end (that's the bad thing about never being in the bottom 3 to do solos before, and hence not connecting on a higher level with the voters), she's still the greatest dancer I've seen so far.

Another of my fav lacey's pieces:



And another:



And another:



Lacey seems to glide through every routine, moving effortlessly, gracefully and weightlessly, floating across the stage as if she's skating on ice.

So You Think You Can Dance is the best show EVER!

Random

Has anyone ever tried reading on while it is obvious that the mind is not exactly cooperating, ie. not focusing on whatever that is before you, and then you keep on reading only to realise that you didn't register/understand a single word when you finally snap out of it?

I guess it's time to sleep when that happens....

P.S. It's my cousin's & Dee's B'day today, so happy B'day to both of 'em! (*Thank God for fb!*)

The trappings of (my) family business...

Working for/with (pick whichever one) my dad has got to be one of the hardest thing I've experienced so far. Just ask Bro. He warned me to try NOT to be involved in biz matters with dad if at all possible, coz he had already been left fuming so many times, & he's not even working for him!

Well I do understand he still has the old school business mindset, and also the fact that our business entails having to deal with the crude people who are still living in their self-built cocoons and have no idea whatsoever on how the world market works.

Lemme explain a bit on our work division. Dad works in procuring the stock needed, and I'm in charge of marketing and the occassional logistics matters. It has been working fine so far as we had our own forwarder and partner who's managing all the packing (sort of like a sub-con) and container loading for us, but right now the cost is escalating too much at indo and our partner decided to call it a day.

No big deal, I thought, and I told my dad we could always get all the packing done in the suppliers' respective factories before sending it out to the ports for loading. These suppliers turn out to be the biggest a**holes and refused to do us the favour even though we've agreed to compensate them for the extra costs involved.

& we've many customers in different regions, and each place demands a certain type of packing. In the past we let the sub-con handle the work for us, so it has never been a problem. Right now I'm having difficulty convincing customers to switch, and in fact only 1 large customer agreed to the switch so far. I could understand their concerns as their own customers have been accustomed to the packing that we did for them, so it'd be a hassle convincing them to switch straight away.

I relayed the message back to dad, and he didn't understand where the problem was and told me to discuss with the customers again on the issue. I swear I have tried it for a thousand times already, and there was still no progress at all. All this while, dad only said there was no other way out other than convincing the customers to switch to the standard packing from all the suppliers. When I told him I couldn't, he'd be complaining and saying that I didn't make the proper arrangements and waited till the last moment before discussing with customers, causing the problem. No matter how much I explained to him, it hasn't been of any use because he simply didn't get the customers' point of view.

Add the fact that he's not the kind of person who can actually sit down and explore the options available, before making an good/informed decision. I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to tell him there's always a way out once we sit down and discuss it, and each time he'll just get all flared up without getting anything solved. Obviously the problem dwells on and we're having a harder time than ever.

I'm tired of having to explain what I think is so self-explanatory, and seriously contemplating of putting myself back in the job market. I might be earning substantially less, but I guess I'd be happier, no? Plus there won't be straining on the family relationship if we don't work together in a biz setting.

Yeah so I'm officially tired, and I find the need of de-stressing very very necessary right now! USA trip in less than 2 weeeks, & I'm so looking forward to it now! Will think about the future work prospect once I'm back...

& in an attempt to de-stress as well, I bought this new gadget from OSIM two weeks ago. It's called UCrown, and it's supposed to be pretty good. I haven't tried a traditional head massage yet, so I have no basis for comparison at the moment. Will try that when I go back to indo next time!

& btw, when anyone is fully geared up in UCrown, they'll look something like the chelsea goalkeeper. In case you're not a soccer fan, here's a pic:

Excessively smart, or just plain stupidity?

The past few days saw the near/collapse of many top financial institutions. Well, actually not many, because the actual number is only three. Add that to the previous Bear Stearns collapse a few months back, and the number increases by one. Still, that's only Four altogether. So what's the big deal?

Considering that those are three out of 5 top investment banks on Wall Street, the word 'many' is not totally misused. Bearn Stearns was taken over by JPMorgan in a move orchestrated by the Fed (which basically guranteed JPMorgan would suffer no losses whatsoever if the assets plunged dramatically in value), Lehman Brothers could not find any loans after its latest round of losses and announced bankruptcy faster than you could spell one of the TWO common words in the financial world (the other one commonly used on Wall Street these days being 'liquidation'), and Merrill Lynch, terrified of being the next victim, basically just sold itself away to BoA, albeit at a 70% premium over the market price, a rarity for any financial firms right now.

Right now, Lehman Brothers ranks as the top casualty in the subprime crisis, which totally dwarfs the previous record by 10 times in market value. The question is, isn't Wall Street supposed to be staffed with the cream of the crops of the financial world, the supposedly 'Ivy Leaguers' of the world? Are those people really as competent as they're made out to be, or are they just merely designing exotic financial items to pick up more fees than ever without considering the safety of its well-heeled clients?

If it is as per described above, then I guess they can be classified excessively and needlessly too smart for their own good, which brought them to their current collapse. It is also a case of plain stupidity, and this is for being totally absorbed in a case that can almost be classified as a scam. Subprime crisis should have been predicted a long time ago when cheap credit are made to people who have no way of affording it, and sooner or later the housing bubble is going to collapse and negate all the equities that people have taken out of their mortgage.

The same people that are handling your portfolio could be the ones who are blinded by the fees they are getting when they sell those toxic assets to unknowing investors, therefore the conflict of interest arises. If they haven't seen the danger coming, then they are not fit to become a financial consultant. Either way, they are still responsible for the mess created and basically shouldn't be trusted. Pity those that are sticking to their job descriptions and still end up getting the sack when their company is taken over, which in these days virtually means 'I'd better start packing my stuff' for many of the employees.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are the only 2 largest surviving investment banks on Wall Street. They have lived on due to their CEOs' foresights to cut the subprime exposure to the minimum when the crisis loomed, and BoA has cemented its position as the largest bank now, having taken over Merrill Lynch to extend its reach to the investment banking, which it has traditionally been weak in. I do have to correct my previous statement on how the top bankers on Wall Street are not that 'super' after all, as most of them work at Goldman, one firm that's definitely not afraid of paying big bucks to attract top talents.

Anyway, considering that these 5 top investment banks have dealings with many banks around the world, be it consumer or other investment banks, the collapse of any of those would have repercussion effect throughout. In fact, it is predicted that 1000 smaller regional banks in USA might be in serious trouble after the latest problem on Wall Street, as they would have taken a serious hit to the valuation of their assets which are similar to those that the investment banks own. Domino effect is likely to continue, and once it is fully played out, only those at the front of the rows are still standing strong to gobble up whatever prime assets there are after all the subprimes are cleared.

In the case of AIG, the largest insurance group in the world, its collapse would bring about the largest financial catastrophy in the history, far surpassing the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Other than insurance, it also dabbles in swaps and hedging, and in fact one prominent analyst pointed out that:

'AIG may have more say over the oil price than the Saudis do'

Since Maurice Greenberg vacated the AIG hotseat a few years ago, it has taken a change of direction under the new boss, and did much worse than ever. This year alone the stock plunged 92%, and after the latest Fed's USD 80 billion bailout in exchange for 80% equity, the equity for the existing shareholders is almost non-existent.

As Warren Buffett once said of the exotic derivatives:

'in our view, derivatives are weapon of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal'

The Sage of Omaha has again been proven correct in this instance, and would no doubt be laughing all the way to the bank as he seeks to pick up precious scraps of large firms while inspecting the financial ruins on Wall Street now, which is most likely going to spread all over USA soon.

Deep in the blues.....

This title represents 2 contrasting moments that I've experienced in the past 2-3 weeks, but I'm gonna write about the darker side in this post as it's closer to what I'm feeling right now.

For some pics on my Bangkok trip, on which one of the higlights is the HUGE aquarium at the basement of Siam Paragon, click on the picture below:


A single picture tells a thousand words, so I guess it'll be much more informative than my minimal descriptions if I do end up writing about it here.

WARNING: INCESSANT RANTING & WHINEY SELF-ARGUMENT AHEAD! PLEASE TURN BACK IF YOU ARE NOT READY!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

All right it's not exactly that bad. Just one of the days when I have nothing planned, so I got out and settled some admin stuff ahead of the work week (depositing cheques, posting letters & documents, etc). It took less than an hour, & I was contemplating what I could do with the few hours till I had to go back. Thought of catching a movie, but decided against it when I realised my mind was in a mess and I just wanted peaceful, soothing moments.

While I was walking around aimlessly, with Ipod earphones firmly plugged on to my ears, I contemplated the meaning of life once more. & I tell you, Ipod has got this innate capability of sensing one's mood, playing all the 60s & 70s music that I hardly knew that they existed. Brought out the melancholic feeling which made the atmosphere even bleaker.

& I was pretty much thisclose to the border of sanity. It wasn't the first time I had too much free time to have my mind wandering off everywhere, so I already knew how to pull the plug when it got too serious for my liking. When that happens, I can just snap myself out of it by observing intensely on something nearby, therefore giving the brain something to focus on instead of letting it roam everywhere.

What exactly is the point of being able to control my own mind, when I consciously give it the chance to rest, and therefore allowing to leave carefree, you ask? For one, I find it invigorating as it unearths and gives me new ideas that I've never thought of. Brain is part of a person all right, but so much of it is being locked away as a treasure trove of information that we're definitely not fully utilising it. When I go into 'trance' mode, albeit still fully aware of the whole process, I find that the mind actually unlocks those data and puts it into the conscious part of the brain, making it available for use.

I asked myself, would life be easier if I didn't try to control it as much, and to let it go with the flow? People around me appear to be comfortable with what they have, & that's definitely something that I haven't achieved yet. Judging by reports on the newspaper on the top income range of different jobs, I should be quite comfortable with what I'm getting currently, but again I have no idea why I'm always striving to get more, to the point that I get fed up when I can't get some ideas working for me. If I'm not comfortable with myself, then I believe other ppl wouldn't be either. Having said that, knowing the problem is 1 thing, but solving it seems to be an entirely different matter altogether *sigh*

Is it the environment that I'm in that makes it hard to appreciate my own & other people's achievement? Should I seek to remain among the elite, or should I be comfortable & live a happier life instead? Why can't it return to what it used to be, when financial achievements don't matter and life's simpler?