All the Raptors needed was the Klaw

OMG! The Raptors has won the NBA title! After days have passed, I still cannot believe that this is true. Raptors' title run cannot be better described than as a Hollywood movie:

1st round: Losing their first game against Orlando Magic but the Raptors prevailed;

2nd round: Kawhi's ridiculous game 7 buzzer-beater, which bounced around the rim 4-times before sinking in, to close out the series with 76ers;

Conference Finals: Losing the first 2 games to the Bucks leading by the Greek Freak Giannis himself only to come back by winning the next 4 games straight, and Raptors going to the Finals for the first time the franchise history;

NBA Finals: Ending the Warriors dynasty and preventing them from 3-peat, and bringing the first NBA title to Canada!

At the beginning of the season, with all the circumstances, nobody in the right mind would have predicted this. I mean the fact that Demarcus Cousins joining the already stupidly strong Warriors, it just seemed like the unstoppable Warriors was going to 3-peat.

This Raptors squad is something special. You just cannot hate them. The leading man himself, Kawhi "The Klaw", the Finals MVP and the superstar of the team, is just a very humble guy and you just want to root for him. The same goes for all the team members too. Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Danny Green, Norman Powell, etc.. And also not to forget Jeremy Lin too!

I haven't felt so emotional following the NBA playoffs for a long time already. Not every title run has the same value. This Raptors' NBA title run is definitely historic. Ever since I started to follow NBA, there are just a few NBA titles that I classified as unforgettable: 2004 Pistons, 2010 Lakers, 2011 Mavericks, and 2016 Cavaliers. And now adding 2019 Raptors to the list.

晨雨登高

吾独雨登将军山
想方涉险路难攀
彩云艳阳远初照
欣逢美景使心欢

Blade Runner 2049

I regret that I didn't go to watch it on the big screen in cinema while I could. Blade Runner 2049 by Denis Villeneuve, premiere in Malaysia at the beginning of October 2017 and it was in cinema for less than 3 weeks! It just got off the "Now Showing" list so unexpectedly fast! Then I was waiting for it to be shown on Astro, waiting for almost 18 months, but to no end. Finally I watch the pirated version last week and it is beyond my expectations.

To be honest I am not one of those hardcore fan of the original Blade Runner. To me, it is just "meh". My first encounter with the original Blade Runner was for a school project. As one of the courses during my uni years, I was required to do a film analysis and Blade Runner was the film to be analyzed. Although it is philosophical and stylized, my general feeling towards Blade Runner was and is still the same - so boring... Without a doubt the film is highly influential, culturally. So when I heard about the 2049, I was expecting the more or less same slow pace as the original, the same philosophical storyline, the same style, etc.. With all said, the actual reason I wanted to watch it is because I just admired the audacity of the director to pick up this project - to make a sequel to a cult classic.

Blade Runner 2049 is everything like the original and more. It is B-E-A-U-tiful and it should only to be watched on the biggest screen you have. It won the best cinematography in Oscar for a reason but it should have won more than just that. I complain about the boring storyline in the original, and 2049 remedies it. I have been trying to avoid spoilers before my first viewing because I want an Experience watching the movie. It is not that hard to avoid spoilers though since nobody has watched it and talking about it. Anyway, during my first viewing, I can say that I totally get the story - every ups and downs, every emotion felt by K the main character. The feelings really hit me especially hard during the final scene - a medley of melancholy and bliss, even a drop of tear...

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Besides 2049, I had also recently watched the Annihilation by Alex Garland and it is equally good. I'm just sad that great hard sci-fi, or in general, great films like these aren't getting much attention as they should. The fact that nobody in my circle is talking about these movies is just outrageous. For a moment, I hated the society for going only for movies like MCU and countless obvious cash-grab of remakes and reboots, while ignoring great movies. But again, I can understand that these movies are not for everyone. Hard sci-fi is just not something you can sit down and have a good easy time watching. It is usually thought-provoking and demands some brain power.

I am not a big fan of the original Blade Runner, but to me, Blade Runner 2049 is truly a masterpiece. Sigh... I just hope that people pays more attention to it.

The Bat

A song, any song, when played at the right moment can be truly magical. In a previous blog about Memories, I wrote: "Often, the most intense, the most important, emotional memories are not photographed... Some of my memories, ... are captured through songs." Die Fledermaus Overture by Johann Strauss II is one of these songs. 

Listening to this piece by Johann is not only able to bring back my memory, instead, just like Auguste Gusteau first tastes the ratatouille by Remy, it instantly teleports me back to the Vienna State Opera where I first heard this song. The grandeur of the opera, the majestic entrance hallway, the live orchestra that was better than any Dolby surround sound, and there I was, at the top storey, miles away from the stage, and worrying how underdress and out of place I was. If you are wondering whether you've known this place, yes of course, Vienna State Opera is where the assassination scene in MI5: Ghost Protocol is shot. 

Die Fledermaus, also known as The Bat, by Johann Strauss II is an operetta combining ballet and orchestra. There is no dialogue, just an amalgamation of classical music and body movement. That was the reason why I chose to watch this show among others during the time I was in Vienna. That time I was traveling solo from Bratislava to Prague while stopping by Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich. I knew I wanted to watch a classical show in Vienna just like any tourist would, but I knew nothing on the list of choices. The only one that didn't involve knowing the language was Die Fledermaus.

So I went into the show with no knowledge and no expectation. But once the overture hit, I was stunned, goosebumps to say the least. Time passes, and if you would have asked me about the story now, what is it about, I totally forget already. I don't think I can say that I understand the whole story either. What's left of the show is just a feel, more precisely a Disney feel. To describe the show, it would be wise to compare it to a classic Disney film like Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. Now I can see where these classic Disney films gets inspiration from.

What else is left in me of the show is the overture song. Probably the setting, or probably I heard it live, the biased me still think this is one of the best classical musics ever. In fact, listening to this song, it not only teleports me back to the Vienna time, it also reminds me of the amusement rides in Genting Highland during those rare times my parents brought me there when I was small. Rare because we were poor. I got older now and I now understand the sacrifice of parenthood. We were poor but they still squeezed out whatever they had to bring my siblings and me there. 

This book is just not for me

 

"Why I dislike this book?" I always ask myself while reading this book. "Youthquake 4.0 : A Whole Generation and the New Industrial Revolution", a book by Rocky Scopelliti, a futurologist, trying to look into the future by taking in account of two global forces: Millennials and the fourth industrial revolution characterized by distributed trust in the form of blockchain, big data, and A.I. Ironic that the book talks about trust equals to reputation but I don't know much about the author himself.

The first thing that strikes me is just how many graphs are there in the book. Charts after charts, histograms after histograms, I just feel like being bombarded with statistics. I am sure that the author did his homework. With all the graphs and statistics, I am sure that the points the author wants pass to the readers are no doubt well researched. He has points but just fails in the "passing" part.

 

That's pretty common pitfall of a scientist. Whenever scientists try to convince the wide audience, they just think that by showing more data will do. What makes thing worst is the lack of metaphors. Despite the simple language used, the author makes sure that none of the trendiest technological jargons is missed out. To me it just seems like it talks about many things, but at the same time nothing at all. 

Then I realize that this book might not really aimed for a wide audience. To quote: "The insights in this book are for the individuals, leaders and policymakers seeking to unlock opportunities by developing specific adaption or transformation strategies from the interplay between Millennial mind and the emerging technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution." To put simply, this book's target audience is the managers! One must keep this in mind only then the book makes sense. In fact the book does present itself like Power Point slides compiled into a book, slides interweaved with graphs and histograms. Plus, each chapter is completed with a bullet point summary, exactly like a Power Point presentation, which further affirms that this is a book for manager. The entire book just feels like those boring high level meeting that I have during the work.

So why I dislike this book? Simply, it is just not my cup of tea. May be, just may be one day in the future my point of view will change or may be when I myself become a manager, I might eventually like this book. But come to think about it, the actual main reason why I dislike it is that, I feel like I am being "forced" to read it by upper management. Manager bought it as a "gift" for us, we have to read it, and we have to do a presentation about it. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it as a gift. But to me, reading is my hobby, so I prefer to choose my type of books to read.