Archive for June, 2007
My GTD set up in Remember the Milk
June 26th, 2007 atschool, atwork
Tags: Context (Call,Action,Waiting for reply, etc)
Task Name: [ProjectName]-Task Description
Location: Work/School/Home
The timelines are a tricky bit. I usually affix a due date instead of leaving it blank so that reminders pop up. I like the reminders into IM and email – which is a big plus over MonkeyGTD (am using the alpha version).
Geektronica and Life Hacker have useful tips.
New job, new GTD
June 24th, 2007 atwork
In my old job where my daily work is to oversee day to day operations and run for intiatives, Wenzani (a souped up excel spreadsheet) is a good system for managing projects, and MonkeyGTD – if you spend a bit of effort in personalising – an effective filing system for discussions. In my new job, where I’m dealing with multiple projects across business units and there is minimal day to day, I find myself relying on MonkeyGTD for grouping discussion and I find myself dropping Wenzani altogether. My day to day is to deal with projects and typically include call for status updates and issue resolutions. These fall out of Wenzani into a moleskine sketchbook, which gets me confused especially when I get ‘call-me-back’/'have-to-talk-to-the-boss’ responses.
A year ago, I signed up for Remember The Milk but never used it. I pulled it up today and found they have added new stuff. It looks pretty powerful.
Beijing Ren
June 24th, 2007 theatre
Men who do not understand a women’s thinking can watch this show and they would emerge from the theatre enlightened and would fully appreciate the endearing irrationality of women who make choices with sub-optimal outcomes.
Unlike Lei Yu (Thunderstorm), where the melodrama borders on high comedy, the tale set during the decline of an intellectual family, is more tragic, more pitiable. The men having no business abilities were in a sorry state: unable to return the family name to its past glory, unable to make something of themselves, they have taken to languishing in the old house. The prosperity of the neighbours angers them. The indignity of the creditors’ harassments were borne with stoic silence. (Does the new China have no need for intellectuals?) The inhabitants call their house a prison but find they found themselves unable to escape. I could not feel a sense of oppression only love and forbearance, which, when it becomes excessive or unnecessary creates emotional shackles. I do not see tradition being their shackle – it does not come across. I also do not see that it was their tradition that prevent them from succeeding in this new world, nor is the problem a the lack of mobility in their skills. It is the lack of aspiration in the men, a personal failure. The women in the play were much stronger characters and I believe them fully capable of rescuing this old house if they felt a great enough affection for it but all of them reserved their affection for the men. The appeal of this show isn’t its message, or the demonstration of a feudal family’s inability to adapt to the modern world but its heart.
Celeb sighting: Robin Goh
Tibits: My mom, when I mentioned I went to watch the show, informed me that the old uncles and aunties in the audience were most likely to have leftist leanings in politics – zuo pai, was the word she used. I thought it rather amusing and bordering on incredible because the older one becomes, the degree of right-leaning increases.
Real writers, fake autobiographies
June 23rd, 2007 Uncategorized
Maybe someone should point James Frey and
JT Leroy slash Laura Alberts in the right direction of public relations directors.
Mabou Mines Dollhouse
June 23rd, 2007 theatre
Dollhouse by Mabou mines is thoroughly enjoyable and I would say, the best bit of theatre I have seen this year. The doll-like behaviour of Nora, her strange helplessness, the men’s obvious comfort in a dollhouse is odd and comedic at first. One also doesn’t know what to make of the comedy the director makes out of melodrama – to be moved or to laugh. The main tool in humour is from the actors winking at the audience. (One scene that drew big explosive laughs was when Torvald says knitting looks a bit chinese and bows repeatedly, holding the needles like a joss-stick. The pianist – who looks chinese – banged the keys and stormed out. “It’s in the text,” says Mark Povinelli who plays Torvald in stopping her. Two glasses of champagne, she is appeased and returns to the piano.)
The show does make the unusual a little suspicious – to the point where one wonders (but never worries) how the director could make it make sense at the end. But later at when Nora sings her speech about being a doll for her husband, it all falls together. The director is literally showing us how much of a doll she is, how strange that she only realises it at the end. The wig and the discarded gown at the end heightens the drama of the climax. (The audience gasped.)
The house was full – there were globs and globs of chattering students who used big words like juxtapositions, symbolism, Ibsen – but only the students hung around for the post-show. (Why no one asked about the oral sex is what I want to know – is this common in their sitting rooms?) Like watching a magic act, one often finds oneself, wondering after a particularly good show, how the trick was performed. Where is the sleigh of hand, the magic trap door, the mirrors that reflect away the goings-on? One is attracted to stay for the post shows where the cleverness of the magician is revealed, forgetting that with truth the enchantment evaporates fast as alcohol. I regretted staying. They talked about fourth wall, feminism, being pushed by the director. I prefer not to be shown the workings. Too much hard work.
Celebrity sighting: Catherine Lim! She has lots of dates that girl! This time is an Indian man.
Heroes
June 18th, 2007 screen
Nevermind that time/space thing doesnt gel: this is the best tv show of the first decade in this Millenia. Two words: Future Hiro.
Inner Lives
June 17th, 2007 books
From Bookslut:
In The Wife, Wolitzer portrays a woman who denies herself a career as a novelist and becomes her husband’s ghostwriter. She understands the unpalatable truths of literary reception, and opts out:
No scalpers in SG?
June 16th, 2007 Uncategorized
Why isn’t there a large and lively scalping market for art festie programs? If the shows are fantastic – I suspect the NAC got a large budget this year – and the prices expensive but affordable to art patrons, a secondary market for tickets would spring up.
Possibly:
Lacking a venue: There are no lines at the box office in SG. Arts festie patrons don’t gather unlike film festie patrons.
Lacking demand: Even with a forum, resellers don’t resell at a premium. Mainly resellers are people who have bought tickets but can’t make it for the event and are hoping someone would take it off them to minimise the loss. Persons with extremely high interest in the show would have gotten the tickets when it was first sold to the public. Persons buying from the secondary market is interested but if unable to purchase the ticket, can live with it without much grumbling.
Perception of fairness: Even sell out events don’t command a premium. it seems that buyers are unwilling to pay a premium for an experience the person on the next seat would get for at a market price. It seems that the price set by the primary sellers for events is taken as a strong indicator in the value of the experience. Higher priced Jacky Cheung concert tickets translates to a high shiok! indicator. However, the ’shiokness’ of the experience isn’t entirely based on the show – because if it would, then, tickets would sell at a premium – but the feeling of being able to afford highly priced tickets without being taken for a sucker. So a reseller basing the tickets at a premium would be ‘punished’ severely with no sales unless the price is bargained downwards.
