OK. I am back to give my 2 cents worth on The Amazing Race. As usual, the race has been exciting, especially with the teams competing against one another in Italy.
It's great to see Italy (though I have never actually been there) because of its marvelous variety of architectural styles which have been preserved since about 700 BC. It's interesting to see the heterogeneous mixture of buildings from the ancient times and the Renaissance and Victorian periods. What's really sad is that only a few teams actually bother to appreciate the beauty and rich culture of the countries they go to. Most are just interested in coming in first and winning that million dollars, which I think is not so important because these teams are getting the opportunity to visit the many different countries in the world for free, a privilege which most of us can't get.
Right now, my favorites are still BJ and Tyler. Those 2 really know how to enjoy every moment of the race. Everytime they visit a new country, they impress the locals with their ability to speak in the language of the country. They are also willing to thank locals profusely for helping them, a trait that is missing in many other teams. Moreover, they are one of the very few teams which respect and appreciate the various traditions, cultures and attractions of the world. Not only that, they are also very helpful to other teams even though this is a competition. Many consider this a stupid move, but I wholeheartedly praise it. The best thing one can do is to help someone even if you know he's your rival. It shows that you are not a selfish goon who wants to hog the limelight for yourself, but a kind-hearted soul who wants to help people get out of trouble (Btw, BJ and Tyler have always been either 1st or 2nd on this race so far, in spite of all this kindness they have shown which can help the other teams. This shows how good they are as racers, so for those of you who have been thinking they are stupid, think again.). I have been betting my money on BJ and Tyler to win, and their performance last week shows that I chose wisely.
The only thing that irritates me though is their goofy attitude which makes them look like lunatics on TV. Granted, they are trying to enjoy every moment of the race and keep up a positive attitude, but those wacky antics really look so lame that sometimes I find it annoying. Guys, you can be happy all you want, but quieten down a bit and become serious, ok?
So, my next favorite team, Fran and Barry (aka the old couple) have moved up from last to 4th place and have been able to maintain their lead. Everytime I see them , I just hope they don't screw up because they really are a wonderful team, but because of carelessness or some brain retirement, they lose focus and start dragging their feet. However, for the past 2 weeks, they have been doing really well, so congrads folks on a job well done.
Only problem I have with this team: please keep an eye out for that damn clue box! If you guys can't find it even though it's only a 100 meters away from you, it's going to be a tough one for you. Look all around you carefully next time folks. Thank goodness though that this time they only wasted 5 minutes in looking for the clue box.
By the way, kudos to Ray and Yolanda for your wonderful performance at the detours. This dating couple are special, because they challenge the process by choosing detours which a team would rarely choose to perform and they do those detours exceptionally well and still manage to come in as one of the top teams. In week 1, they chose to assemble the motorbike instead of traveling by helicopter (though that was easier). In week 3, they chose to search thousands and thousands of dolls instead of washing Moscow Public buses and last week, they carried a 110-pound heavy bell to a church up a hill (Ok, they did that because they are physically fit.). Moreover, unlike other couples they are decent and do not explicitly show off their lovey dovey on TV. Instead, they are one of the most decent teams that take the race seriously and put in a lot of effort to win.
So far, the Amazing race has been good, but some things still have to be changed. First of all, can the producers get rid of the concept of Yield? The yield is an absolutely selfish, crude and cheap stunt pulled by the producers to allow a team to stop another team from racing for a certain amount of time. It's a move that encourages the potential teams to be cutthroat and hog the finish line first. While I agree that the Amazing Race is a competition and will thus be cutthroat, it is absolutely evil for one team to prevent another team from gaining ground when that other team has not committed any major offences or broken the rules of the game. Everything has a limit, and so does cutthroat competition. In a cutthroat competition, it is all right to refuse to help other teams, but it is absolutely wrong to hamper the other teams' efforts even though it is legal. The only one who has the right to impose a penalty or yield is Phil and no one else, because he's the host and the judge.
When I saw the previous episode, I was absolutely appalled that Lake and Michelle chose to yield Danielle and Dani who were far behind and would never have been a threat to their position. I really wanted to smash the TV when I heard Michelle say, "oh I'm so sorry girls, but we have no choice. Please don't hate us!" So, Michelle, you have the cheek to yield, but you don't want the girls to take revenge on you. How logical is that? If your conscience really felt strongly against yielding, then you shouldn't have even done it in the first place. This is what I meant by the selfishness the yield encourages. Although I did not like the double Ds much, I could not bear to see the amount of stress they had when they knew they were yielded.
An interesting thing I noted: some teams find it very difficult to drive manual-transmission cars! Although I sympathize with these teams, I can't help laughing when they get frustrated over shifting from one gear to the next! And by the way, the inability to drive a manual car is a fault of the team. When you still have manual transmission driving lessons around in this world which is rapidly shifting to automatic cars, there must be a reason as to why such lessons are there. It's because in some countries manual cars still make up the bulk of commercial cars available. So a lesson I learnt from this (and a lesson all future drivers should learn): always learn how to drive a manual car first. Then after you have owned a manual car for about 2 to 5 years, shift to automatic if you want. This will enable you to remember how to drive a manual car because you will get very used to driving one in 5 years. So even after you have driven an automatic for about 30 years and you find yourself in a situation where you have only a manual car available, you can still drive it.
OK, that's all people. I have had enough of boring you people with my recap, so I will be back next time with something else.
posted @ 12:04 PM
I am now currently playing with Google Earth as I am posting. Just watched the Amazing Race about 2 hours ago and I just can't get enough of it. Also, I am eagerly waiting for the Apprentice this Sunday, after seeing last week's task really heat up.
Now I shall comment about this controversy that Excel was unethical in "stealing" capital edge's megaphones during the Shania Twain perfume promotion task. Since I had heard about this business ethics controversy in the US after this episode was aired, I really wanted to see whether Randal and Rebecca were unethical, so I paid attention to every itsy-bitsy move of the candidates from both teams.
In my opinion, Randal and Rebecca did nothing wrong, but instead, they were so smart and quick (though Rebecca had a broken ankle) that they eventually managed to beat Capital Edge to those megaphones. In fact, I should say, Capital Edge made a whole lot of blunders on this task that were advantageous to Excel.
Let's look at it closely.
Yes, Adam had reserved megaphones from Radio shack first and told the Radio Shack staff that his team would collect them the next day, but he made a big mistake: he did not confirm his order with a credit card. Darn, he had not even left his name or his team name over at Radio Shack! All he did was to say, "3 of us would come and collect the megaphones." At least Excel had the courtesy to ask who reserved it and when the Radio Shack said that they didn't know who it was, they were absolutely smart and quick to carry out according to Randal, "Operation Sabotage!" Nice strategy of you guys rushing there early and buying all of the megaphones available and crippling the other team.
And there came Alla crying over this whole affair saying that they would win because the other team played dirty. No way; they played fair, but because they played smart, you lost.
In business, it's all about making the smart moves. If you make some careless blunders such as not reserving things under your name properly, then obviously you are bound to lose out. The margin was way too close: Excel beat Capital Edge by just 5 calls, but consider this: Rebecca had a broken ankle and this was a street task. So according to me, in a street task, if a physically able team with 3 people can lose to a team which has only 2, and one of them has a broken ankle, then the loss is embarrassing and huge.
OK, now to the Boardroom: I felt Adam certainly deserved to stay for another week because so far, I have never seen anyone participate in this interview process with as much grace as he did. Not only did he show that ethics are important in business, he also contributed as much as he could to the success of any task, especially this one. I can't agree with Bill's comment that he didn't have any fire in his belly. He actually did. Yes, his horse carriage idea was useless, but that was not really the reason Capital edge lost. They lost because they did not employ enough advertisers to promote Shania's new perfume. Moreover, the advertisers were all Spanish speaking people who didn't even know how to pronounce a single word in English. And who's fault was that? Felisha's. She was in charge of the labor but she did a bad job of not getting a large group of English-speaking advertisers. But she too was not responsible. In fact it's the project manager Alla who spent 60 % of the budget on horses and hence she should have ben fired. As a leader, you have to know how to maximize the use of resources; if not, your team is going to suffer. When you know that the horse carriage idea is going to be a big drain on your budget, scrap it, or try to work out a tighter budget. This move shows poor planning skills.
Ok, that's it for now. I will talk about Amazing race later...
posted @ 2:13 PM
This post should have been made 17 days ago, but obviously, being a lazy person as I always am, I will create it now.
So, 17 days have passed since my birthday on 4th March and I am officially 19 now, and I still have not even started learning driving yet (don't ask me why). Every year during this time, a thought always crosses my mind, as to whether I really like having been born at this time of the year. After serious and careful consideration of various historical events and the birth dates of some personalities I find acceptable to my taste, I am proud to have been born in March.
Let's start on a less important note. Firstly the celebrities. Sharon Stone was born in this month (though I know nuts about her). Our oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon was born in March as well (and I like her because she's probably one of the most beautiful and decent actresses I have ever seen and has the brains too: she attended Stanford, my dream school.)
Carrie Underwood was born on 10th March, just 6 days after my birthday (but in 1983). Somehow, I admire her not just because she was born in March but also because she's a great singer, talented yet humble. And unlike Madonna and all those female pop stars of today, she's pretty much a decent and traditional family kid, which is something I look for in any artiste (ethics are important you know).
And of course, today,(or yesterday) is Ronaldinho's birthday. It's wonderful to know that such a great soccer player (one of the winners of FIFA players of the year and one of the 5Rs of Brazil) was born in March.
Unlike most people, I am not really a huge fan of celebrity worship or anything of that sort, but I can't help but admire these ethical ( well, almost all. I am not sure about Ronaldinho) people who have accomplished a lot and the fact that they were born in the same month as I was makes me admire them even more.
More importantly, some of the most important events in history have taken place in March. It was only a few days ago last week that Albert Einstein published his famous Theory of Relativity 85 years ago. A few days ago in 44 .B.C., Julius Caesar was murdered and the famous words come out of his mouth (though not in English): "You too, Brutus?" (Of course I am not a sadist to celebrate Caesar's death. It's just that Caesar is such a revered personality in history that his death is worth remembering.) The world's first heart transplant patient died on March 23rd.
And there is a reason why I feel more grateful to the Lord than ever before for having created me on the 4th of March. For exactly, 145 years ago, on the 4th of March 1861, America's greatest President (and probably one of the world's greatest) Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States. In spite of his many flaws which I will talk about later, he was probably the most trustworthy, incorruptible leader who was a servant of the people.
That's all now, but there's 1 week left to the university admissions results of 2 more US universities, and I am anxiously awaiting for that day.
posted @ 12:08 PM
I am finally back after a long break. I have been too lazy to update and I have writer's block, so I don't know what to write. Okay, enough of those excuses...
Where do I begin? Ah yes, the A-level results...Indeed, the results just keep getting better and better every year for RJC. This time, it is the best in 25 years, with 59.6% 4As and 76.4 % 3As and above, as all of us know by now.
First of all, congratulations to everyone of our class of 2005 (though it's coming really late)! It's great that we have produced the best results so far. I am happy with my results as well and I hope that from now on, everyone will have a great future.
For my results, first of all, I would like to thank God. For without Him, I really could not have done well and performed my best I ever could. Thank You O Lord for being there always to support me and help me.
Yes, and I would like to thank all my teachers for their hard work and dedication, without which I could not have come this far. Thanks a lot to all the teachers, who have helped me clear many doubts and made learning at school fun.
Thanks too to my parents, who have supported me morally throughout these 2 years and for the past 19 years. I could not have had this much encouragement from anyone else but you that could have helped me perform this well.
Ok, now that the A-level results are over...
I have now started watching another reality show besides the Apprentice, The Amazing Race. I am a bit late though, cos the 9th season is the 1st one I am watching. Too bad, what a pity that I have never watched the first 8 seasons of this wonderful show because I had no time about 3 to 4 years back and I always hated reality TV. I just decided to see what this race around the world is about and I was really impressed that I am now addicted to this more than I am addicted to the Apprentice. Of course, why in the world do people want to give emmy awards to a show thrice in a row if it is not good? It's great to see teams race around the world with all this heart pounding action and stamina, but what impresses me is that I can see the rest of the world and appreciate the various countries better.
Right now, my favorite team is the hippie team, comprising BJ and Tyler. For recaps and my commentary of the Apprentice and Amazing race, stay tuned, cos I will do them when I have the time (and mood.)
So there they are, BJ and Tyler. They look kinda cool and hip and are actually a bunch of hyperactive, excited, wacky and friendly guys on the show. And surprisingly, they are intelligent too! Of course don't be fooled by their looks, like I was at first glance. BJ ( the guy with black hair) comes from Harvard and Tyler ( the blonde guy) is from University of California. Sure, they don't look like they come from those schools, but you can never judge a book by its cover. And btw, these 2 are the best racers so far, with them coming in 2nd last week. They are also doing pretty well in the race, so watch out for them, the instant favorites!
posted @ 7:50 PM
I am finally back after about a month now. I was pretty lazy updating due to my addiction to computer games which I have been playing for hours together, and just lazing about doing nothing except eating and sleeping. As a matter of fact, I have already gained 2 kg, with absolutely no exercise.
Whoa, you people should have watched the apprentice this Sunday: 4 people were fired in a row in what was perhaps the most heated and the most powerful boardroom ever, .a.k.a. the Mother of All Boardroom Battles. The Donald just went: "You are all fired, all 4 are fired...! Go home ! Go home!" and Josh, Jennifer, James and Mark huddled together in the taxi back home.
Honestly speaking, I felt it was just way too extreme to fire 4 people just like that. This has never happened in the Apprentice so far and it has always been the weakest player that was fired. But looking at the way these guys performed, the 4 of them had to be fired at one go. Not only did they lose, they also lost badly, with a decline of 34 % decrease in sales, while the other team boosted sales by 71 %.
So what went wrong?
Well, from what I observed on Sunday, these are the 2 main reasons Excel lost:
1. They chose the wrong sport. Indeed! It is important to choose a sport which is up, coming and rapidly becoming popular to boost sales. As all of us know, baseball is one of America's national sports and so it is absolutely unnecessary to promote this sport in a sporting store, because almost every house will have an extensive collection of baseball cards, caps, balls and bats that no one will want to buy anymore baseball merchandise. So this in turn will lead to a poor sales event. And it was made worse by the fact that the baseball season was over in the US. Perfect timing...for the boardroom that is!
2. More importantly, Excel lost the main focus and objective of this task. This was supposed to be a sales event, not a baseball clinic. Form the setup of the store, it looked like an indoor baseball stadium and the teammates performed more like coaches teaching kids how to play baseball instead of promoting the sale of bats. This is NOT a baseball center, it's a department store! If you just set up the batting cage so large to try out bats, it's like giving these kids a free baseball lesson, but not promoting the products. It's good to try out bats, but you must also have come up with a marketing plan so that people would buy them. Indeed, as Marshawn and Rebecca noted, the products were pushed off to the side that no one ever saw them. To make matters worse, Jennifer was selling hot dogs and other foodstuff, changing this whole sales event into a family baseball carnival. Food was so popular that many potential customers bought food and did not buy the sports products, resulting in a huge loss of revenue. Oops, poor strategy...resulting in a huge loss. I have to admit though, the candidates of excel were enthusiastic and worked hard, but they failed to work smart.
So Josh would have felt very bad that he could not choose who to bring into the boardroom like other project managers did before him. Yup, it is indeed a big blow, but sorry, this was the worst loss in Apprentice history that Donald had to do something to prevent this from happening again.
OK, back to other matters...
Somehow this wait for the A-level results is taking away a load of energy from me. I can'thelp but just get more and more worried as the time goes by. It's quite sad that the results did not come out 1 week after the O-levels, as had been the practice in the past. It's probably going to come out at the same time of the year, on the 1st week of March, which is a very LONG wait.
And I have started reading storybooks, finally! I never used to like them anyway because I have always hated fiction but I decided to read Robinson Crusoe properly from start to finish, and it's actually quite interesting, contrary to what I thought....
Well, that's all...
(P.S. Jennifer M's photo was taken from her official website:
www.jennifermurphy.biz. Photos of Josh, James and Mark were taken from the
Yahoo Apprentice Website.
posted @ 3:00 PM
I decided to shut down my blog for a while as I was sick of my previous posts and the templates as well. So now, it is back. Finally I got the perfect skin: the Porsche Boxter! Somehow, by God's grace I got this perfect skin of one of my favourite cars and will keep this skin for a long time.
Two days ago, I finally watched the movie I was waiting to watch this holidays: Chronicles of Narnia. The movie was wonderful, with all the stunning graphics and cinematography. The storyline was creative and emotional, showing the love between the brothers and sisters. And of course, who could forget the fantasy elements such as the centaurs and magic? The battle was marvellous and spectacular, with both sides showing passion in fighting. But the most unforgettable graphics were those of Aslan. I mean, it is absolutely wonderful that the animators could create a lion which really "talked" some words and the voice of liam neeson matched Aslan's lip movements exactly! That really takes a lot of skill and expertise. Overall, this was probably the best movie I have watched so far.
And of course, the Apprentice is finally back with its 4th season. I've been waiting to watch this season as this is the best so far. For those of you who have not been watching the apprentice, this season is a must watch! here are a few reasons why:
1. Like it has been mentioned over a million times, The Donald has handpicked all the 18 candidates himself. So these people must obviously be professional and good.
2. You will see Donald to be a nicer and kinder person than before, but also a stricter side of him, as compared to other seasons.
3. You will see 2 star candidates I have talked so much about. Yes, they are my role models Randal the Rhodes Scholar and Rebecca the University of Chicago Graduate, 2 academic superstars who have achieved so much in life.
The season started this sunday, but it's not too late. You would have only missed one episode, so start watching from this Sunday at 10 pm.
That's all for now.
posted @ 4:32 AM
