Shooting Stars

The Shell Game

2012-01-11T17:39:00.000+08:00

One of the best classic show of all time I think is The Shell Game, 千王之王 in Chinese. This show can be watched in videos form previously (now CDs) and was broadcasted over a period from 15 September 1980 to 17 October 1980. There was a total of 25 episodes for the show. The theme song for this show was Using Love to Steal a Heart (用爱将心偷), sung by Liza Wang. The main actor in the show was Patrick Tse. He was the best gamblers of all time.

In 1980, I was in Primary Three, 9 years old only. During those days, we would follow what the actors in the TV did, and played various tricks with the poker cards.

In the above photographs, these are two of my favorite shows of gambling -- Shell Game I & II.

A Young Patrick Tse in those early time, he looked so dashing. He is very good with his hands in dealing with cards.

These are just some of Patrick Tse's young time photographs. My brother and I would play poker cards together because of the influence of this show. We would tend to act like the character in the show when playing childhood games like that. The card games that my brother and I played were so varied -- besides poker, there were common one like blackjack and various card games of our own.

Nowadays people are hardly meeting up. They interact with their computer more than any other things. They play online poker, they chat on the internet with friends, they also do their work with their computer.

Look at the above photograph of the casino. People are playing poker on the big table. How exciting it is to be able to play together with your friends on the big table. But look at the surrounding atmosphere. It is smoky due to the smokes that the men were smoking. How exciting to think that online poker tournament like that can be done in this way. Regardless of where you are now, as long as you want to play poker, just follow poker rules and you can be interacting with your friends online (meaning you would not be alone). Hear your friends, see your friends (if both of you have webcams), and the thought of this really make me so excited about playing poker games now online! Everyone wish to win, wish to be the gambling king or queen. Try it out!

Louis Pasteur

2011-11-18T18:29:00.001+08:00

Louis Pasteur was a pioneering French biochemist and the first bacteriologist. He invented pasteurization of milk, discovered bacteria are causes of fermentation, decay and disease and developed vaccines for anthrax and rabies.

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was the son of a tanner from Dole, in Eastern France. He graduated from the Ecole Normale in Paris, where the comment on his diploma for chemistry was 'mediocre': possibly because his work was already too independent and original for his masters. He soon proved the judgment wrong, in a succession of university and college posts.

Pasteur's first discoveries came after he was asked by local wine producers to investigate why wine goes sour. He disproved the existing theory of 'spontaneous generation": that things 'went bad' because of the air. He demonstrated that it was the result of the activity of tiny organisms. These organisms (bacteria, or germs) were, he believed, like any other animals, and could be killed and prevented from breeding. He invented a process of killing them by heating, called pasteurization. It was now possible to produce, preserved and transport wine, milk and beer without them becoming undrinkable.

In 1868, Pasteur was partially paralysed, but continued with his research. In 1881, he successfully came up with a protection for the deadly cattle and sheep disease anthrax. He believed it was bacteria that also caused disease, and he isolated and cultivated a weakened version of those that produced anthrax. He injected this into 25 sheep, and some days later infected them and 25 others with the full disease. Only the 25 not treated died. This proved those injected had developed a resistance from their contact with the weakened germs that protected them against the full germs. Pasteur called the weakened viruses 'vaccines' in honor of Edward Jenner, who had used cow-pox (Latin name, vaccinia) to protect against smallpox in a similar way.

Pasteur turned his attention to rabies (called hydrophobia in humans), and after painstaking research produced a vaccine from the bone-marrow of infected rabbits. He used this on 6 July 1885 on Jacob Meister, a 9 year old boy bitten by a rabid dog, and saved his life.

Pasteur created a revolution in scientific method, moving from the laboratory and tackling disease where it happened. He did not rest content with showing what caused disease, but sought to find solutions. He was a close friend of Joseph Lister who justly summed up Pasteur's achievement:"Truly there does not exist in this wide world an individual to whom medical science owes more than to you."

Numbers Speculator

2011-07-19T13:51:00.002+08:00

The Chinese always like to observe "numbers" -- counting numbers especially. This is in fact parts and parcels of life. Don't we need to count money, take inventories or count stock in workplace?

This world is full of mystery. People had invented numbers and the alphabets. Not everybody is born into rich family and have the opportunity to be sent to school. But whether you are rich or poor, numbers is the 'universal language' that is common in everyone. Everybody would know how to recognize the basic numbers from 1 to 10, including 0.

In today's society, a person who is illiterate is so difficult to survive in this world. In any kind of work, you need communication and paperwork. For people who are of less educational qualification, their job is very limited. But to survive in this world, you need to know at least the numbers -- for example, you have to know numbers to work in coffee shops and even in the market. Numbers are just all around us. Even our Identification are labelled in NUMBERS!! (Our Identification Number) and our Date of Birth!!!

This got to show how important numbers are in our life! Numbers are used in communications too -- as in calling phone numbers!

Human beings are such intelligent beings. Their minds are able to decipher so many things and to create so many great ideas as well. People had invented so many numbers games like Bingo, Poker, and various cards games. They had even thought of numbers betting games like Toto, 4D, KENO, and much more.

People love thrill. They love to win. Who loves to work? People want to earn quick money. In time, people thought of so many ways of gambling -- one of them being 12 支 (12 numbers). It is a numbers betting game where by the person bet on any numbers 1 to 12 (Just like 4D or Toto).

Do you know of people who do not gamble in your life? People around me gamble in one way or another. Do you know of no deposit bingo? Bingo is a game of numbers as well. However, it is also a game played by children! But the children treat it as a game. They do not use money to play the game. Once you use money, people often regard it as gambling. But do you know that my life had been a gamble as well? Auspicious numbers were being picked -- the day and the time. I married the man of my life on a great day, and it rained (that was the traditional wedding day)... We used to bet on numbers of our house and numbers all around us. But there is no bingo. There is no winning numbers at all. Go Casino, I might have some luck, but not for 'business'. What really is luck?

Play bingo no deposit! What is on your mind? Is it gambling or is it just another number luck game?

Photograph taken on 7 August 2010: Join the dots and guess the number! What you think? (refer to http://peace-diary.blogspot.com/2010/08/three-jewels.html)

Photograph taken on 7 November 2010: 6 Cranes stood on the lamp post: 4 + 2! The photograph showed 4 cranes. There were another 2 cranes on another lamp post just beside it. What numbers do you guess? Is it 24, 42 or 6? (refer tohttp://www.peacebella.com/2010/12/19/house-of-mary/)

Guessing Numbers and betting on numbers are such interesting game. People just love to win. We feel great to win. God made us in the image of himself. Everyone are created equal, but people just love to compete. Image free no deposit bingo and you can compete with your friends -- loser had to do something (a favour) for the winner. It can be quite fun this way! You do not need to think of it as gambling! So the thing is not to prejudice. Anyone can play free bingo no deposit and enjoy all the fun! Bingo is a great game of entertainment for all ages (young and old, educated and uneducated)!

Bingo Bingo, I had walked this far of my life. Good or bad luck, Auspicious hour or not, I am going to surrender, submit myself to God, my Saviour, Jesus Christ, the KING of Kings who had saved my life -- afterall who is the ULTIMATE PERSON who ASSIGNED us this sacred number of our date of birth!!!

Car of Today

2011-07-15T00:47:00.014+08:00

The Incredible Power Of The Subconscious Mind: Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. ~Napolean Hill

According to legend, a Chinese mandarin, fascinated by the grace and speed of a flower head that the wind was rolling along the road, had the bright idea that led him to invent the wheel. It is only a legend, however, because, unlike many other things, the wheel was not a Chinese invention. All the experts agree that it was invented by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, during the fourth millenium before the birth of Christ and that it then spread to the rest of the ancient world. The wheel probably reached China from Persia; a little later, it spread through Egypt and from there through the Cretan civilization to Greece and the rest of Europe.

Compare this with a car. The most important source of power on the roads today is the petrol engine, which propels the cars and motorcycles.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Ancient people are such intelligent people. People had found cave paintings which were done by these ancient people. With great thoughts like that, tools and machines were made; and through civilization, we have such advance technology that we are able to travel around the world with ease as well as communicate with each other conveniently.

The motor car of today bears little resemblance to the bone-shaking 'horseless carriage' found on the roads during the early centuries. Cars today are sleek-looking with a smooth and streamlined, or aderodynamic shape. With good body streamlining, less engine power is wasted in overcoming air resistance or drag. Car designers had done such a great job! The cars of today are so much bigger and inside the car, you can hardly hear the engine sound. Cars of today are so much quieter than the past. Inside the car, you can even listen to your favourite music, and your passengers can have a joyful ride watching DVD in the car!

Most importantly, car manufacturers are always designing cars to be as safe as possible and carry out crash tests to see if they can improve body design. During the early century, there were very few power-driven vehicles on the roads, apart from a few steam carriages. These were noisy, dirty and because of their boiler, liable to explode! They were considered so dangerous that in Britain a man had to walk in front of them carrying a red flag.

The modern car is highly sophisticated machine, made up of as many as 14000 different parts. Every year new models are introduced which offer some improvement on the previous ones. Visit auto usate milano, http://www.garagedelparco.com, an Italian website where you can view The Car of Today as well as buy used cars (compro auto usate).

Motor cars provide the main form of land transport for people. Be it helping people to travel to another place for business or commercial purposes, motor cars help us efficiently. Without a car, you would need to use public transport to move about. In some countries with high crime rates, it is advisable to have your own vehicles. Garage Del Parco has been in business since 1978 with experience and professionalism in the buy and sell cars industry. Vendita auto usate or Used Cars For Sale! A passion for cars that has been passed down from father (Aldo Antonio) to son(Alexander), Garage Del Parco ensure customer satisfaction through excellent service and assistance -- safe, guaranteed and worthy of trust. Efficiency, competence and thoroughness are our trump cards. The website is in Italian and if you can't read Italian here's the translated English version - http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.garagedelparco.com&sl=it&tl=en

Photograph taken on 16 May 2011, Singapore (Boon Lay Place) -- It shows a place which my father used to park his car while my mother and I went to the wet market. The place (this car park area around the garbage place) is still the same (after 33 years). The cars on the road today are bigger and more stylish than the before (especially compared with the early 70s automobiles).

Chow Yun-Fat ( 周润发)

2010-01-09T10:02:00.021+08:00

Chow Yun-Fat ( 周润发) plays King Mongkut in Anna and the King.

Chow Yun-Fat ( 周润发) is a talented actor. Born on 18 May 1955, on Lamma, a small island off of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor, he is one of the most instantly recognizable faces in Asia. He is seen in action films such as A Better Tomorrow (1987), The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992).

Chow Yun-Fat is a famous person, popular and known to be the coolest actor. He is a charismatic and gifted performer. He was married twice; first to Candice Yu (余安安) for nine months and next to a Singaporean Jasmine Chan (陈萫莲) since 1986.

Anna and the King a remake of Anna and the King of Siam. In this picture, the King (Chow Yun-Fat) and Anna Leonowens (Jodie Foster) are dancing together.

An international fame in both comedy and drama, I had watched several of his shows since my childhood days. Chow Yun-Fat has appeared in over 80 films and 24 television series. I enjoyed watching his Hong Kong Cantonese series during my younger days, especially God of Gamblers. Recently I watched a very nice movie known as Anna and the King. Anna and the King is a 1999 motion picture loosely based on Anna and the King of Siam. Chow Yun-Fat plays King Mongkut while Jodie Foster is a widowed British schoolteacher named Anna. Anna (Jodie Foster) is a strong-willed and intelligent woman. She is summoned by the King to his country to teach English to his 58 royal children. The children were very lovely (see photograph below). Anna and the King was nominated for two Academy Awards in Art Direction and Costume Design, but did not win either. I thought it was such a nice classic film with beautiful and impressive costumes and background scenery -- a really artistic film. I was so enchanted by the beautiful clothes and even the horses (photograph below) looked so nice. For the first time I like am so impressed with Chow's movie. Both Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat acted well in the show. I do not mind watching it another time.

The King (Chow Yun-Fat) looked so cool and full of charisma riding on the horse.

The King (Chow Yun-Fat) surrounded by his royal children.

Lucky Stars

2009-10-14T11:35:00.007+08:00

Today I am so full of inspiration and aspiration. I have achieved, I am successful in 'making people' (produce baby 'company'/'machine'). I have found out the meaning of life. I was bliss I found and understanding of the truth of being human being. With all the signs that I had seen, the first person I had thanked deep in my heart is of course Jesus, my Master.

However, I have not thanked the person who had 'transformed' me.

Wonder who is behind this tissue mask?

This person is full of ideas. Good ideas is called lucrative ideas, bad ideas is called insidious thoughts -- a very flexible person who is very good at dancing and chatting.

A very busy businessman, the CEO walking to Church, St Anthony Church

This is him, carrying a laptop covered with a laptop case on his left hand, and his latest bag with him. On his right hand holding on to iPod Touch. As can see, he is a very high tech person. Everywhere he goes, he must bring his computer along. If no computer or laptop, then he must bring his iPod Touch with him... So you can see how 'mad' I am with this kind of people who always face the computer and hardly moved around the house.

Even on the day where I need to deliver my baby, he still bring along his computer along to the hospital. His laptop bag and laptop accessories were more important than anything else. The photograph below shows him walking into the entrance of Mount Alvernia Hospital, the hospital where I have my baby delivered there -- carrying his laptop bag. Even now, after the baby (Isaac) is born, he still 'treasure' the computer more than the little ones.

The computer is the 'wife' of this man

Without him, I would not be able to find my vocation. Without him, I would not be able to 'meet God'. Without him, I would not be where I am today....

A Good Samaritan offered to take a photograph for us, a brand new married couple.

This is our latest baby, Isaac. Without him, I would not have such a cute and adorable baby.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

2009-10-12T23:55:00.018+08:00

How true it is to say that every baby is a blessing from God. This is Isaac, my youngest son, the latest addition to our family this year. He is a gift from God. As mentioned in my other blog, Happiness Is Bliss ( post titled Double Happiness), I am very much filled with joy by his arrival. I gave him the name 'Isaac' which means laughter. And how true it is. Isaac has such a sweet smile and he is such an adorable boy. Below is the photographs of Isaac.

Photograph of Isaac, taken on the morning of the big day when he was about to be baptized.

His baptism date was arranged. I cannot wait for him to be baptised! Baptism is a word used by Christians for the service in which people join the church, and are officially given their name. Baptism is the first step in Christian formation. After 'seeing the light' (Jesus came to me) and knowing the truth about religion, I could not just wait for Isaac to be a member of the Christian family, a child of God.

Photograph of me carrying Isaac (sleeping) after the Baptism ceremony at St. Anthony Church

Twinkle Twinkle little star. This is my little star, a gift (birthday) from God and a new life to be experienced. This little star seems like a little diamond to me. He is so precious to me.

I am very grateful to Jesus for blessing my baby -- To be able to give birth to a healthy and cute baby at such an age now. Hence, prior to the baptism day, I brought Isaac to the hair salon for a haircut. Shaving the hair and having baptism on the same day would signify a new start for Isaac as a child of God (washing away all his sins/original sins). This baptism day is a very special day. I would want to remember this baptism date every year. I want to visit any restaurants to celebrate this special day for Isaac every year besides his birthday.

Another photograph of Isaac taken at the foyer of St Anthony Church

I am a Catholic and I am proud of my religion, to be a follower of Jesus, the author of life. I love visiting Churches and various historical buildings. Having a new life brings new hope. There isn't any fascinating architecture or great historical buildings here. I would love to visit London one day. London is one of the greatest cities in the world. One of the church which I wanted to go is St Paul's Cathedral. How nice it would be if I can afford to celebrate any of my family's baptism anniversary at London. It would be such a nice experience to dine at restaurants london or even have some funtime at pubs london just savour a cup of hot coffee or chocolate.

Movie Stars

2009-06-26T10:48:00.008+08:00

Drew Barrymore, acted in Charlie's Angels.

I had renewed my contract with Singnet. With this renewal, I had the opportunity to get a mio TV free for a year. mio TV, a 24-hours pay-TV service, is something similar to Direct TV and have many channels available for watching. The channels include free-to-air channels by MediaCorp, blockbuster movies as well as a Cantonese movie channel and also my children's favourite cartoon channel. It also offers HDTV channels!

With this mio TV, our family get to enjoy at least 15 movies every month. Unlike
Direct Satellite TV, which has more than 150 channels (amazing!), mio TV provides about 42 channels. Having such pay-TV service at home provides convenience and more entertainment at home, especially when there are guests at home.

Night at the Museum starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Paul Rudd, Dick Van Dyke, Carla Gugino, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Ricky Gervais, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Patrick Gallagher, Rami Malek, Kim Raver, Pierfrancesco Favino, Brad Garret.

I have not subscribed to any other channels, but only can watch the free Movie Channel. So far, I had watched a few movies. They are Chinese and English Movies. Some of them are 881, Night at the Museum, Charlie's Angels, Marriage with a fool, Tears of the Sun, iRobot and MIB.

Who is/are your favourite movie stars? Is it Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Drew Barrymore, Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci or more? There are definitely a lot more stars to be named. If you cannot find them here, surely you are able to find at least one of your favourite movie stars at any of the pay TV channels. If you love movie stars and enjoy watching movies or TV, DirecTV Deals should be a good choice for you!

Elton John

2009-04-01T14:41:00.012+08:00

Photograph of Elton John

This is Elton John or Sir Elton Hercules John. Elton John is born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947 to a middle-class family. A talented man, Elton is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. Elton John is the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of his generation. Selling over 200 million records, this make him one of the most successful artists of all time. He is considered the 319th richest British person!

Profile of Elton John
Name : Elton John
Birth Name: Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Gender : Male
Date of birth : 25 March 1947
Place of birth : Pinner, Greater London, England, UK
Birth time: 2:00 am
Occupation(s) Musician, singer-songwriter, producer
Height: 1.70m
Nationality: England
Best Known As: Singer of "Candle in the Wind"

Elton John Live performing at the QuestCenter Omaha 10.06.07

Elton John Daniel in Orlando Florida 2007

Elton John Live Concert singing Candle In The Wind

Elton John's love for music began when he was as young as four years old. He took up piano lessons and his natural talent eventually shone through. He won a scholarship with the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 11.

Elton has sustained an inimitable career over more than 35 years, scoring at least one Top 40 American hit single a year between 1970 and 1999. Between 1969 and 2005, his 50 albums produced 86 hit singles. In addition to his rock discography, Elton has written several movie soundtracks. The most famous of which was for 1994's The Lion King -- Can You Feel The Love Tonight. This is my favourite song. In 1994, he won the Best Original Song for "Can You Feel The Love Tonight". Another nice song by him is Candle In The Wind, which he had sung at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997, and the song went on to become an international best-seller.

A flamboyant performer, Elton John has fashioned arguably the greatest career in the history of popular music. If you are a fan of Elton John, like me, then watch out for his upcoming concerts. Tickets are now on sale! Elton John would be performing at Wrigley Field, Chicago, USA on 16-21 July 2009. If you want to buy Wrigley Field tickets to watch Elton John Live, please get your tickets early so that you can have the best seats. acheapseat.com provides premium seating to events without waiting on hold or standing in line. For various events, you can buy your tickets here. For example, buy Fenway Park Tickets to catch Dave Matthews Band or even buy Yankee Stadium Tickets to catch Joel Osteen on Saturday, 25 April 2009 -- A Historic Night of Hope! Catch the stars early!

Talented Star

2009-03-05T21:44:00.006+08:00

Her eyes seem to Sparkle and she is so pretty. Liza Wang is an extremely excellent and talented artist. She is a very famous icon in a string of hits and is the most popular Hong Kong actress. Not only can she act well, she can sing well too. Liza Wang has dominated TV, music and Cantonese opera for decades. She was also an influential political figure in the late ’80s; that aside, her musical talent has drawn in legions of fans.

Liza Wang is entrusted to work with many important missions such as talk shows, TVB's anniversaries, charitable shows, big events, and many more. In 2007, she celebrated her 40th anniversary in the entertainment industry. In 2005, she received the Best Actress award during TVB's 38th Anniversary. She received this award the 2nd time for her breakthrough sassy role in Wars of In-laws. She also received her first Best Actress award for her drama series, An Awakening Story in 2001.

Awards
1. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Silver Bauhinia Star (2004)
2. TVB Best Actress (2001, 2005)
3. RTHK Gold Needle Award (2005)
4. Jessica The Most Successful Women (2005)
5. Mont Blanc de la Culture International Award (2007)

Liza Wang acted in many films. She looks good no matter what she wears. For example, in the first photographs above, she is dressed in traditional Chinese costumes. She looks so sweet and demure. In this above photograph, she looks so modern, with matching clothing, shoes and accessories.

Long hair or short hair, jeans or dress, as long as her face is beautiful, she really looks good in anything. Any accessories she wears, any types of handbags she carries, all would look good on her.

I had watched her shows since young and she gives me an impression of 'seriousness', the kind of mature and sensible lady, who is very respectable and decent. However, I was taken aback and really surprised when I saw her posing in swimsuit and slinky outfit. I am really not used to see her in this see-through tops, but she looks sexy and seductive.

Liza Wang

2009-03-04T18:23:00.002+08:00

Liza Wang is an accomplished diva, actress and MC in Hong Kong. She is a well-respected, influential and iconic personality amongst the Chinese-speaking communities. She has been nicknamed "The Big Sister" in the HK entertainment circle.

Profile
English name: Wang Ming-chun, Elizabeth Wang
Chinese name: 汪明荃
Common name: Liza Wang
Date of Birth: 28 August 1947
Place of Birth: Shanghai, China
Occupation Actress, Singer, MC
Zodiac Sign: Virgo
Height: 163cm
Weight: 52kg
Blood Type: O
Hobbies: Swimming, Badminton, Singing, Dancing, Reading
Favourite Colours: Green, Purple
Partner: Law Kar-Ying
Family Members: Parents, One Elder Sister & One Young Brother
Marriage: Married to Lau Cheong Wah (businessman) on December 1971; Divorced in the early of 1984; No children

Dedicated, hardworking and blessed with an immaculate voice, Liza Wang made her mark in the Hong Kong television and entertainment industry, initially in drama series and then as a singer. Her success in front of the camera leading to her working behind the scenes and to work in television production.

Filmography:
When Easterly Showers Fall On The Sunny West (东山飘雨西关晴) 2008 (TVB Series)
War of In-Laws II 2008 (TVB Series)
War of In-Laws II 野蛮奶奶之大战戈师奶(2007)
Glittering Days 東方之珠 2006 (TVB Series)
War of In-Laws 2005 野蛮奶奶 (TVB Series)
When Rules Turn Loose 識法代言人 2005 (TVB Series)
Blade Heart 血荐轩辕 2004 (TVB Series)
Let's Face It 2002 无考不成冤家 (TVB Series)
The Awakening Story 婚前昏后 2001 (TVB Series)
A Matter of Customs 2001 (TVB Series)
At the Threshold of an Era II 2000 (TVB Series)
At the Threshold of an Era I 1999 (TVB Series)
Love Story And Fantasyland (1999)
Behind Silk Curtains 1988 (TVB Series)
Legendary of Wud 1986 (TVB Series)
Yang's Saga 1985 as 华山圣母 (TVB Series)
A Woman to Remember - Qiu Jin(秋瑾) 1984 (TVB Series)
Love and Passion (万水千山总是情) 1983 (TVB Series)
The Shell Game II 1981 (TVB Series)
Love Forever 1981 (TVB Series)
Yeung Female Warriors 1981 as Mok Gui Ying (TVB Series)
Yesterday's Glitter (京华春梦) 1980 (TVB Series)
The Shell Game 1980 (TVB Series)
Chor Lau Heung (楚留香) 1979 as Sum Wai San (TVB Series)
The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (倚天屠龙记) 1978
A House Is Not a Home 1977 (TVB Series)
The Legend Of The Book and the Sword 1976 as Fok Ching Tong (书剑恩仇录)(TVB Series)
Legend of the Purple Hairpin(紫钗记） 1975

In parallel with her acting career Wang had,and to some extent still has, a successful singing career. This was a career originally based around albums for her television series consisting usually of the main title song, a couple of subtheme songs, which had been used as incidental music in the series, and a couple of cantopop songs used as filler.

Songs By 汪明荃
My Favourite 汪明荃 Songs
More Lisa Wang Songs
Lisa Wang Song Lyrics

William Shakespeare

2008-08-13T14:26:00.000+08:00

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 (traditionally celebrated on 23 April) in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, the eldest of four boys and two girls born to John Shakespeare, a trader and prominent local politician, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a landowner. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

In 1592, at the age of eighteen Shakespeare married Ann Hathaway, who was eight years his senior. Their daughters, Susanna, was born in 1583, followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585.

Little is known about the next few years other than that he spent some time establishing himself as an actor and that by 1592 he had succeeded to prominence in London as both an actor and a writer. In 1594, Shakespeare became a charter member of the Chamberlain's Men, the theater company which later changed its name to the King's Men and included the famous clown, Will Kempe, and actor Richard Burbage. Shakespeare remained with this stable company until his retirement around 1611. After 1599, the King's Men acted primarily in The Globe, a theatre in which Shakespeare held a one-tenth interest.

The plague closed London theatres often in the years 1592-1594. During this time Shakespeare published the narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece and he also began composing his sonnets. These sonnets eventually came to number 154 and were published in 1609. Like the plays, they retain a remarkable universality of themes expressed in metaphorically rich language.

The sonnets were Shakespeare's contribution to a popular poetic form of the times. Aside from them, however, after 1594, Shakespeare turned all his literary efforts to the stage. He completed an average of two plays a year, including The Two Gentlemen of Verona by 1595; Romeo and Juliet by 1596, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night by 1600; and Measure For Measure by 1605.

On 25 April 1616, Shakespeare was buried within the chancel of the same church in Stratford where he was christened. Above the grave are the lines, perhaps by the man himself:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

William was the first writer to be honored, a hero in people's hearts.

England's celebration of their patron Saint George is on 23 April, which is also the day claimed to be the birth date of Shakespeare. Although birth and death dates were not recorded in Shakespeare's time, churches did record baptisms and burials, usually a few days after the actual event. The infant William was baptised on 26 April 1564 in the parish church Holy Trinity of Stratford upon Avon. He lived with his fairly well-to-do parents on Henley Street, the first of the four sons born to John Shakespeare (c1530-1601) and Mary Arden (c1540-1608), who also had four daughters. John Shakespeare was a local businessman and also involved in municipal affairs as Alderman and Bailiff, but a decline in his fortunes in his later years surely had an effect on William.

Toh Chin Chye

2008-08-12T18:52:00.000+08:00

Toh Chin Chye (Dr) (b. 10 December 1921, Batu Gajah, Taiping, Perak -) was the co-founder and Chairman of the People's Action Party (PAP) and served as the Member of Parliament for Rochore since 1959, Deputy Prime Minister when Singapore attained independence in 1965, Minister for Science and Technology and Minister for Health. He was also the Chairman of Singapore Polytechnic and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Singapore.

Toh Chin Chye (simplified Chinese: 杜进才; traditional Chinese: 杜進才; pinyin: Dù Jìncái; born 10 December 1921) is a prominent first generation political leader in Singapore. Toh is married to Yeap Sui Phek and has one daughter.

An old guard in the People's Action Party, Toh Chin Chye served as the Leader of the House from 1959 to 1968. He was born in Malaysia in 1921 and went to the Anglo-Chinese School in Ipoh and Raffles College in Singapore. He later studied at the University of London, and while in Britain, chaired the Malayan Forum. This was an organisation formed by students from Malaya and Singapore who were drawn together by their interest in current and political affairs. Chief among their concerns was the issue of British imperialism.

Toh returned to Singapore in 1954 and was a lecturer at the University of Singapore. He was one of the founding members of the People's Action Party, which was convened in 1954, and was the party's representative for Rochore in the 1959 General Election. He wond the election and, from June that year to March 1973, served as Deputy Prime Minister. He was also appointed the Leader of the House in 1959, and guided the affairs of the Legislative Assembly and, later, Parliament. Among his other responsibilities was that of Vice-Chancellor of the University of SIngapore, from 1968 to 1975. He was also Singapore's first Science and Technology Minister and, later, became Health Minister. He retired from Cabinet in 1981, but continued as MP for Rochore until 1988.

At a dinner to pay tribute to Toh and other Old Guard ministers who had stepped down to make way for fresh faces in 1988, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew recalled how Toh had made memorable contributions to the PAP and also how he was one who did not flinch in the face of hard times.

One of Toh's legacies is the Singapore flag. In 1959, soon after Singapore became a self-governing state, Lee had assigned Toh to come up with a flag that would be unique and distinctly Singaporean, and which would symbolise a multiracial country. He wanted five stars to represent the ideals of the young nation -- democracy, peace, progress, equalitly and justice. He added the crescent, to represent a new nation, because the stars 'did not look balanced', he said in a 1981 interview. He had wanted to set the white stars and crescent against an all-red background but the Cabinet decided to have a red and white backdrop instead. Red, he said, was picked for its association with prosperity and happiness. The Bill for the national flag, state crest and national anthem was moved by then Culture Minister S. Rajaratnam and approved by the Assembly in November 1959.

Timeline
1946 : Demonstrator, Raffles College, Philosophy Department.
1947 - 1949 : Demonstrator, Raffles College, Chemistry Department.
1953 : Lecturer, Department of Physiology, University of Malaya, Singapore.
1953 : Founder-Secretary, University of Malaya Society.
1954 - 1981 : Co-founder and Chairman, People's Action Party.
1958 - 1964 : Reader in Physiology, University of Singapore.
1959 - 1968 : Deputy Prime Minister
1959 - 1975 : Chairman, Singapore Polytechnic Board of Governors.
1959 - 1988 : Member of Parliament for Rochore.
1964 : Research Associate, University of Singapore
1968 - 1975 : Minister for Science and Technology.
1968 - 1975 : Vice-Chancellor, University of Singapore.
1970 - 1975 : Chairman, Board of Governors, Regional Institute for Higher Education and Development.
1973 - 1975 : Chairman, Applied Research Corporation.
2 Jun 1975 - 5 Jan 1981 : Minister for Health.
1988 : Retired from politics
1990 : Adviser to Steamers Maritime Holdings.

Awards
1976 : Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Singapore
1990 : Order of Nila Utama (First Class) for "contributions to Singapore during those critical times before and during the merger with Malaysia."
2001 : Toh Chin Chye Professorship in Molecular Biology "for his dedication and his contributions as leader, educationist, teacher and public servant."

Toh Chin Chye spends his retirement days away from the public eye. The Straits Times featured Toh twice in 2005 and 2006 respectively, once on May 2, 2005 to pay his last respects to former president Wee Kim Wee. He was seen being assisted by two men and a walking stick as he walked. In February 2006, Toh was featured again in The Straits Times paying his last respects to the late former Deputy Prime Minister S. Rajaratnam at his home in Chancery Lane.

Toh was briefly back into the spotlight when he was mistaken for a culprit in a ‘hit and run’ accident by the English tabloid, The New Paper. He subsequently won a libel suit against the publishers.

Toh is considered one of founding fathers of modern Singapore. Together with luminaries such as Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and S. Rajaratnam , Toh was part of a group that led the tiny island nation through her most critical years, both laying the foundation and shaping the Singapore success story.

Yusof Bin Ishak

2008-08-09T16:10:00.001+08:00

The Late Encik Yusof bin Ishak; First President of the Republic of Singapore (9 August 1965 to 23 November 1970)

On 9 August 1965, Singapore became independent -- Singapore left Malaysia. It changed its name to the Republic of Singapore. The names of some other things were changed too, but the leaders were the same.

Encik Yusof bin Ishak was an eminent Singaporean politician and the first President of Singapore. His portrait appears on the Singapore Portrait Series currency notes introduced in 1999. Lee Kuan Yew was the first Prime Minister and the Legislative Assembly became the Parliament.

Yusof bin Ishak (12 August 1910 – 23 November 1970) was born at Padang Gajah, Trong about 18 miles from Taiping, Perak. Encik Yusof is the eldest son in a family of nine. His father, Encik Ishak bin Ahmad now deceased, was the Acting Director of Fisheries, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States. Encik Yusof received his early education in the Malay school in Kuala Kurau, Perak. Two years later, Encik Yusof was transferred to the Malay School at Taiping and in 1921 he began his English studies at King Edward VII School, Taiping.

In 1923, When he was 13 years old, he came to Singapore with his his civil-servant father. He studied at Raffles Institution. During his educational years in the Raffles' Instituition, he was a outstanding student. He even won the Queen's Scholarship. And he was the first ever Singaporean to do so.

While in School Encik Yusof joined in practically all forms of sport, played by boys. While at the Raffles Institution he played hockey and cricket, and took part in swimming, weight lifting, water-polo and boxing.

Yusof bin Ishak was a journalist. In 1923, together with Ong Chin Beng and Soh swee Teck, he started "Sportsman" a fortnightly sports magazine. And In 1932 he joined the "Warta Melayu". Then in 1938, he started his own Malay newspaper "Utusan Melayu".

Yusof Ishak became the Yang di-Pertuan Negara in December 1959. He took over from Governor William Goode. He then became the President when Singapore became independent.

Yusof Ishak was married to Noor Aishah and has 3 children (1 son and 2 daughters).
President Yusof Ishak died in November 1970 of heart failure. Yusof is buried at Kranji State Cemetery.

Grave of Singapore's first president at Kranji War Memorial

Life of Yusof Bin Ishak
More Information about Yusof Ishak
Bust of President Yusof Ishak (1966)

Korean Ghost Movie (Voice)

2008-08-02T15:43:00.000+08:00

Movie Specifications
Release Date : 11 May 2006
Rating : NC16
Genre : Horror
Duration : 105 mins
Director : Choe Ik-Hwan
Cast : Kim Ok-Bin, Seo Ji-Hye, Cha Ye-Ryun, Kim Seo-Hyung

This is the girls' music teacher, who behave strangely... she was dead on the first day after Young-eon's death...

In a Korean all-girls’ school, a talented student named Young-eon who could sing very well, got killed by a piece of musical note. Soon after her disappearance, her best friend, Sun-min started to hear her voice. Frightened at first, Sun-min tries to help her friend. But she is not the only one who can hear Young-eon’s voice. All the other friends think that Sun-min was under a lot of stress, and did not believe her. Cho-ah, another student who can hear the dead since her childhood, claimed she also heard Young-eon’s voice… and someone else’s… True enough, there was indeed another student who was dead in the lift. She has the same voice as Young-eon.

Rumours said that Young-eon and the music teachers are lesbian... but there are more to that...

It is how amazing the spirits can 'mislead' the eyes and the ears; and the girls went into the lift. Young-oen, the innocent ghost, could hear strange sound, but her best friend, Sun-Min could not. Following the sound, they came into the lift, which closes its door and went downwards.....It was 'hell' they enter, and the 'devil' approached them......Sun-Min fainted...

This is the girl who was killed in the lift, the first death, the one who claimed the life of Young-eon with a musical piece of note.

Cho-ah (Cha Ye-rin), on the left, and Sun-Min on the right. Cho-ah finally agreed to 'help' Sun-Min, but in actual fact, she was hiding the truth as well....

More scenes

Little Stars

2008-07-07T22:20:00.000+08:00

Full of confidence, and proud.

Every child is born with inherited characteristics, born into a specific social, economic, and emotional environment, and trained in certain ways by authority figures Every child experiences significant events such as death in the family, illness, pain, accidents, geographical dislocation and economic crises. These influences contribute to the uniqueness of childhood for each person. No two children, even in the same family, have the same childhood.

Playing Dress-up game and taking photographs used to be our fun time at home.

The natural child is aggressive, impulsive, sensuous, rebellious, affectionate, curious and self-centred. They have values to adults and add charm and warmth to their personality. Every child has a little professor. They are intuitive, creative and manipulative. The Little Professor figures things out and often believes in magic.

The little stars like to fantasize, engaged themselves in various plays -- wearing different types of children costumes such as Halloween Costumes or Animals Costumes, the little children can imagine themselves to be their favourite cartoon characters. At Eastern Toys, there are many costumes categories. For boys, there are Star Wars Costumes, Spider Man Costumes and Pirate Costumes etc. For girls, there are Disney Costumes, Little Red Riding Hood Costumes, Pet Costumes and many more too. I love the Disney Costumes section, the princess costumes are very lovely, especially the Cinderella gown.

Gregory Yong

2008-06-29T01:22:00.000+08:00

Managed to find these photographs of Gregory Yong on the internet. I have no photographs of him. I can only remember him in my brain.

I am no good at words, no good at describing either. My vocabulary is limited, no beautiful words, but honest words from my heart. Gregory yong, the moment he stepped into the church of St Francis of Assisi, it was so dashing, so glamorous, he was full of charisma. I love his smile, it was such a 'Ci xiang' (慈祥 = kind) smile.

I still remembered him wearing the big tall hat, the catholic priest hat, so tall, so nice.

I was very sad when I saw his photograph of this one sometime this year. I had almost forgotten about him, when I was 'filled with Holy Spirit' again, my clock rewinding back. This photograph is Archbishop Emeritus Gregory Yong celebrates 82nd birthday. I was so surprised he had aged so much and totally so different from the time I first seen him at St Francis of Assisi church.

From Wikipedia, I got to know his DOB is May 20, 1925 - June 28, 2008 chinese name: 杨瑞元

Born in Taiping, Malaya on May 20, 1925, he was educated at St. George's Institution and St. Michael's Institution in Ipoh, Malaya. In January 1941, he entered the Minor Seminary and in 1944 graduated to the Major Seminary. He was ordained in 1951 and posted to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Singapore. In 1953, he left for studies in Rome where he was conferred a Doctorate in Canon Law, the very first local priest to achieve the distinction. Back in Singapore in 1956, he was sent as assistant Parish Priest to the Church of the Sacred Heart. In the following year, he joined the teaching stuff of the Minor Seminary. After a short stint as assistant Parish Priest at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, he was appointed to a teaching position in the Major Seminary, again, the very first local priest to be thus honoured. On July 1, 1968, he was consecrated Bishop, and took over the Diocese Of Penang from Bishop Francis Chan who had died on October 27, 1967.

On February 3, 1977, he was appointed to succeed Archbishop Michel Olçomendy as the first of the local clergy to lead the Church in Singapore. On April 2, 1977, he was officially installed as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore. He was the second Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Singapore, which was formed in 1972 when the Archdiocese of Malacca-Singapore split and held the office until retiring on October 14, 2000.

Archbishop Emeritus Gregory Yong died on June 28, 2008 at St Joseph's Home, Singapore.

Amy Winehouse

2008-06-25T14:00:00.002+08:00

This is British soul singer Amy Winehouse,24 years old. She had won five Grammy Awards in February and enjoyed commercial success with her album Back To Black. However, her personal life is a struggle. Her health was deterioriating too. Doctor said her lung condition is getting worst and she will die if she continues smoking and doing drugs. His father said that she has irregular heartbeat and all her conditions were brought on by smoking cigarettes and crack cocaine. In June 2008, it was confirmed that Winehouse has developed early signs of emphysema, an irreversible degenerative condition.

Winehouse has an addiction for alcohol and drugs including crack cocaine. Her battles with substance abuse and erratic behaviour has been the subject of much media attention. During various interviews, she had admitted to problems like self-harm, depression and eating disorders. Winehouse has gone in and out of rehabilitation -- In late January 2008, she entered a rehabilitation facility for a two week treatment program. To assist Winehouse on her road to recovery, his father had also called on drug dealers to stop supplying drugs to her daughter.

Alcohol and wine if put to good use, can add more flavours and fragrance to food. But to consume more than what the body can take is no good for our health. Many people think that drinking and smoking can help them to forget their sorrows and pain. This is a 'habit' and a false belief that is passed down both by their parents and the media.

What is the use of gaining so much wealth and possessing the whole world when you don't get to enjoy what you possess? So what if you have everything but you know that you are going to breath your last in no time, leaving your dear ones behind. Everyone should be educated since young about drugs. They should know what are the consequences of taking drugs. All people should lead a drug free life. If there is any addiction, one should seek early treatment as soon as possible.

This is a bottle of X.O Hua Tiao Jiu, chinese wine...
Jesus said,"Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." When you join into a friendship with Jesus, you can only win. Because of who Jesus is, you will find immense love, unshakable peace, unquenchable joy, and eternal purpose. His rest is for your soul. I am a disciple of Jesus. I had witnessed Jesus came to me. I had witnessed The Merlion Head turned, and my Sacred Heart moved at my house. Even my Four 0'clock flower plant had a Giant Bryophyllum growing on it one day. These are miracles and power of Jesus, he wanted to show me, and I to tell you. This is the real Good News.

Goh Yang Chye

2008-05-15T17:27:00.000+08:00

First Impression Is For Life
First Impression can last a life-time and it was my first impression of Mr Goh Yang Chye, which lasts until now. In 1987, just after my completion of GCE 'O' Level, I met Goh Yang Chye for the first time at Dhoby Ghaut( 多美歌 ) Building, behind the old Cathay Cinema. I 'chat' with him and was impressed with his charisma and his professionalism.

Importance of First Impression
I still remember his face clearly. A fair guy, Mr Goh Yang Chye was sitting on his desk. His office was neat, if I remember clearly. He is still someone whom I always remembered, the first impression that lasts, even when I was still working at Prudential some years ago. He was representing Prudential then when I first met him. During those years where I worked at Prudential, I came to know that his office was at relocated....

First Impression That Stays Rooted
He has a very special kind of Charisma, just like Dr Tony Tan also. I had forgotten exactly what he had told me, but his words were 'powerful', convincing and he speaks with confidence, real charisma. He is something 'professional' in his work, got knowledge and got not 'forceful' on people, giving true advice I suppose (I only have One meeting with him only). His degree hanging on the wall, that shows his proud achievement. One thing I always never forget is this that he told me,"A professional don't advertise. Do you see doctors advertise? Do you see doctors going around to tell people to come to them?" This may not be the exact words which he said, but the main points are there -- Professionals don't advertise. And over the years, I see that Prudential hardly advertise at all, but there was one time I saw an advertisement of the "LADY HEAD" (Prudential Logo). But today, Mr Goh Yang Chye had left Prudential, something which I had already learned about before I left Prudential.

What's In A Name
Mr Goh Yang Chye, as the name suggest, sound like a 人才 (ren2 cai2 = talent) -- in cantonese, Goh Yang Chye would have sound like Gold 人才, a golden talented man. I am so proud of him. He is so successful now, have his own Private Limited company. He has 出人头地, successful in life already, climax after climax he reached. I am so touched to read about his BIO, CEO Mr Goh Yang Chye, I am really so touched. The word 'Practitioner', what he told me, it was very true at that point of analysis, the handwriting analysis and DISC. Name really holds so much significance in our life.

As quoted from his website, I tried to search for his name, not the first time... he is always on my mind... : " Yang Chye is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of GYC Financial Advisory. Yang Chye graduated with an engineering degree from the National University of Singapore and a Diploma in Life Insurance from the Australian Insurance Institute. He is also a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and a Fellow, Chartered Financial Practitioner (FChFP). He sits on the Board of Society of Financial Services Professionals (Singapore) and he is an affiliate with the Australia New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance. He also sits on the Board of SIAS Research Pte Ltd.

As a pioneer in Comprehensive Financial Planning in Singapore, Yang Chye has developed many financial management models which are transferable and has helped many high net-worth individuals in their personal financial planning. He is a personal financial adviser and consultant to many high net-worth individuals, multi-national corporations, banks, securities firms and public-listed companies in the Asia Pacific region. He has been featured in The Straits Times, Business Times, Zaobao, Today, Smart Investors, Financial Planners, Fundsupermart, IFPAS Coverage, Asia Financial Planning Journal and Singapore International Chamber of Commerce-economic bulletin."

History of GYC is my interest as well, it says:

GYC has its roots in an Organisation established in the late 1980s, which has steadily grown to become one of the leading providers of financial services in Singapore. The company embarked on the expansion of services during the mid-90s, becoming one of Singapore’s pioneers in Comprehensive Financial Planning. We are pleased to have helped shape the industry through our training, feedback, and public speaking engagements during the formative years of the financial planning industry in Singapore. The Organisation has left its indelible mark in many financial institutions, industry associations, established banks and well known entities in the market place.

Today, GYC is the fruit of more than a decade of vision and leadership. Our firm belief is to remain relevant to the market and times. We are geared to the times but anchored to a creed that we must always provide the best solutions to our clients.

Success Is A Journey. Practice Makes Perfect.
What more can I say of him? He has 出人头地 (successful), but I am still in a mess, my life, my children, my family, we are living in debts and....... but I am not going to give up. God will not forsake me, God will help me -- 笑看风云变

Wedding Stars

2008-03-07T08:40:00.000+08:00

This is my wedding album. The stars that shine on the wedding day, the day that starts a new life for the lovers, a day that begins a new chapter in the Diary of Peace, the story of Peace Bella.

Prior to the photography day, shopping for wedding jewelleries, shopping for all the necessary wedding accessories and all the lingerie and clothing and all the needs for the wedding day. It was tiring and boring, I hate shopping. But how lucky are people nowadays, to have a online shopping for their wedding stuff.

Shopping for wedding veil, wedding gloves, jewelleries, wedding tiara, wedding cake toppers, wedding lingerie and everything you need for your lover needs are all found at Advantage Bridal! Click here for Custom Crystal Attire at AdvantageBridal.com and start your painless and easy clicking online shopping instead of all the walking tiring shopping. Shop for Custom crystal rhinestone, t-shirts, tank tops, bikinis and flip flops. Choose from dozens of garment colors and crystal colors, and don't forget to create one-of-a-kind garments that are uniquely yours!

Your wedding day, once in a lifetime. You have only one chance to be a wedding star. Do you want another? Nobody would ever think of having another on the first day and first time of their wedding day. As it is such only once in a lifetime and one and only one, it is a memorable one. Life has so many things to remember. Memories can only be brought back with physical objects to ring the bell. Buy your favourite jewelleries and wedding needs. Shoot your best photographs. These are what you can really belong to you forever, for as long as you live. Even if He leaves you, you still have Him with you.

Chinese New Year Comedy

2008-02-08T22:59:00.000+08:00

This is Stephen Chow's movie CJ7 (traditional Chinese: 長江七號; pinyin: Chang Jiang qi hao). It was a funny and entertaining movie. This is a comedy about Stephen Chow who played the role of a poor coolie(Ti) who had sent his son, Dicky Chow (Xu Jian), to an elite private school. Wearing dirty and tattered clothes, the rich children and his teacher did not like him at all. The children had good laugh when watching the show. They love it, especially the cute alien, CJ7. This Chinese New Year, there are two comedian shows by Stephen Chow and Jack Neo; but we had chosen to watch this movie rather than Ah Long Pte Ltd(directed by Jack Neo).

Cinema Tickets cost $10 now. A family of four would need to pay $41 through online ticket booking. That was what we did yesterday. Saw the Ah Long Pte Ltd CD at the CD shop and it cost about $18 ++. That is much cheaper than watching it at the cinema. However, I did not buy the CD. Now, I don't like this face anymore. He said in Shoot 3 about the "Housewife mentality", and I will always remember that. Richard said his shows never leave any imprints on us. We watched his shows before, but we would not want to watch them again.

His shows are all about Money not enough, that one not enough, everything about Ah Long, fighting, quarreling and always the similar stuff. I wonder what kind of mentality he has then?

However, after watching Stephen Chow's movie, I would still want to watch the show again someday if there is a chance. This is the trailer:

Watch the Trailer for CJ7

This show is definitely worth watching and I think is more suitable for the children than Ah Long Pte Ltd. After the movie had ended, Ricsson and Clara discussed about the movie. He told me he also has CJ1 at home. Then when he got home, he showed me his CJ1.

Gillian Chung

2008-02-04T13:42:00.000+08:00

Name: Gillian Chung Ka-Lai /Chung Yan Tung (Zhong Xin Tong) 鍾欣桐
Also known as: 阿嬌 / Ah Giu (Ah Jiao) / Ar Gill
Profession: Actress, singer and model
Birthdate: 21 Jan 1981
Birthplace: Hong Kong
Height: 160cm
Weight: 45kg
Star sign: Capricorn
Chinese zodiac: Monkey
Family: Younger sister

Wear fashion clothes and crystal belts, Gillian Chung was a part-time model while she was in school. A natural beauty whether she wears western fashion with Bling Bling belts or traditional chinese costumes without a rhinestone belt, she was selected by the modeling agency and ended up for an audition with the record company Emperor Entertainment group, one of the largest entertainment groups in Hong Kong who was looking for a new girl group. That was the time where she signed her contract and become best known as a member of the Cantopop girl group Twins, alongside Charlene Choi, also a former model. The Twins gained popularity since 2001 when they acted in "Tutorial School of Love" and had their first concert in 2002 and so on. They had won many musical awards.

Over the years, the road to stardom was not a bed of roses for Gillian Chung. Her nude photographs were exposed when she was being captured on the camera in the changing room. That was during one of the concert held in Genting, Malaysia. And just a week ago, on 27th January 2008, many netizens from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China were overwhelmed by the famous trio, Cecilia Chung, Gillian Chung and Edison Chen scandal. This is Hong Kong's Biggest Story Of The Year -- Nude photographs of Cecilia Chung, and scenes of Gillian Chung and Edison Chen naked on a bed together.

Real or fake photographs? The police are investigating and the had arrested a Chinese aged 29 years old who was suspected to be the culprit who originated all the obscene photos. These photographs might be real afterall, with many evidences proving to be true and Edison Chen's handphone was lost some time ago!

Photographs of Sexy Gillian Chung

2008-02-03T14:55:00.000+08:00

This is the attractive Gillian Chung who has captured the eyes and hearts of billions of fans in Asia. She is young, sweet, sexy, beautiful, talented and attractive. She is the prey of many men out there. Edison Chen, the Canadian actor who was born in Vancouver is just one of the predator that falls for her beauty and charm. They acted in shows and they acted in their real life.

This is the picture above which show Edison Chen and Gillian Chung.

Gillian Chung's changing scene in the bathroom was being captured. She was grieved and suicidal thoughts crowd her mind.

Obscene Photographs of Edison Chen and Gillian Chung was captured on bed! The process was not known. But photographs were being seen over the internet. In the case of the sex scandal of the Malaysian Health Minister, Chua Soi Lek and his personal friend, I had seen their video being showed on the internet. His personal friend, the bitch woman, had to change into lingerie, sexy lingerie, Plus size lingerie before they can begin their Mission! I do not see the need for Gillian Chung to dress in lingerie. Her beauty is already enough to capture her man, Edison Chen. Her photographs did not show her wearing sexy lingerie, but a normal bikini bra on her. That shows the different between old man sex and young man sex. That of old man like the Malaysian Health Minister is slow, require warm up -- taking viagra and watching porn. Obviously the personal friend had not enough 'charm', 'vitality' and 'youth' like that of Gillian Chung.

Malaysian Health Minister's wife forgave him, but in the case of Cecilia Chung and Nicholas Tse, that was not the case. Rumour said that Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Chung's marriage is on the rock over the scandal now. Nude Photographs of Cecilia Chung was exposed. Her body was full of tattoos and she was indeed hairy. Famous stars do not need lingerie. Their looks have enough charm to let every men 'stand on ceremony'!

A Star Was Born

2008-01-29T12:35:00.000+08:00

This was a picture taken on the day he won the Baby Contest. He was so cute and chubby when he was born. I regretted not enrolling him for more Baby Contest. He would have more trophies now if he had taken part in more Baby Contest during his earlier months.

This is my star, born several years back. He was cute, chubby, intelligent and jovial. I took many photographs of him. That was him wearing the hat which Richard and I had bought specially for him from America. Everyday I could see his face changed. He was so different from birth and on the first month. Capturing his photographs was the only way to compare his changed of appearance and growth.

I never like to take part in any competition. But it is my child taking part, not me. I should have have taken his photographs to participate in baby pic contest since he was so handsome and adorable. He was so intelligent -- by 9 months old, he was fully toilet trained. He was very good with puzzles too.

Our baby is our precious star. If your star is born, do not hesitate to take part in baby picture contest. I have two stars, and I regret I had never had participate in any baby photographs contest. Time flies and if you do not take photographs of your precious stars, you will never have another chance. I have missed my chance, but anyone out there, your baby can be the cutest baby for the year 2008 CuteKid of the Year Contest! If your baby is cute and chubby, do not wait any longer, submit his/her photographs for the contest. Let your star shines!

Khalil Gibran - Life and works

2008-01-28T16:24:00.000+08:00

Drawing of Kahlil Gibran

Chronology of Khalil Gibran's Life
1883: Gibran Kahlil Gibran was born in Bsharri, a village in the north of Lebanon. He originated from a humble family. His father, Kahlil, worked as a tax collector. His mother Kamle Rahme had one child called Boutros from a previous marriage. After Gibran, Kamle gave birth to Mariana and Sultana.

1895: Gibran's mother, Kamle, immigrated to Boston with her four children hoping to flee misery, while his father stayed in Lebanon passing through financial difficulties. In the United States, Gibran met the famous photographer, Fred Holland Day.

1898: Gibran returned to Lebanon to study Arabic and French at La Sagesse College in Beirut.

1902: In the space of fifteen months, misfortune struck Gibran's family three times: Gibran lost his mother, sister and half-brother.

1904: Gibran met Mary Haskel, an American citizen, who will encourage and help him. He published several poems in prose (which would later be gathered under the title of A Tear and a Smile).

1908: He settled down in Paris to pursue an artistic training.

1911: From then on, Gibran settled in New York. He started a rich and an intimate correspondence with May Ziade, a Lebanese intellectual living in Cairo.

1918: The "Madman", his first book written in English, was published.

1920: Gibran founded with other Arab and Lebanese co-writers and poets living in the United-States a literary society "Al-Rabitat Al-Qualamiya", (The Pen-bond society).

1923: The Prophet, Gibran's seminal work, was published. The book was an immediate success.
Gibran started a solid friendship with Barbara Young, who later became his confident.

1928: Jesus, the Son of Man, the fruit of 18 months of uninterrupted work, was published.

1931: Gibran died at the age of 48 in a hospital in New York. His body was transferred to Lebanon. It lies today in his native town Bsharri in the monastery of Mar Sarkis (Saint Serge), turned into a museum.

Khalil Gibran Websites
Khalil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran

The Prophet Came To Live
The Prophet Left

Khalil Gibran books
Nymphs of the Valley (1910, poetry, in Arabic)
A Tear and a Smile (1914, poetry, in Arabic)
The Madman (1918)
The Forerunner (1920)
Spirits Rebellious (1920, poetry, in Arabic)
The Broken Wings (1922, poetry, in Arabic)
The Prophet (1923)
The Procession (1923, poetry, in Arabic)
The Storms (1923, poetry, in Arabic)
Sand and Foam (1926)
Jesus, the Son of Man (1928)

More Khalil Gibran Arts

Kahlil Gibran

2008-01-27T16:09:00.000+08:00

Profile of Khalil Gibran
Name: Khalil Gibran
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: 6-Jan-1883
Birthplace: Bsharri, Lebanon
Date of Death: 10 April 1931
Place of death: New York City
Cause of death: Cirrhosis of the Liver
Religion: Christian
Race or Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
Occupation: Poet, Novelist
Nationality: United States
Mother: Kamilah
Sister: Mariana, Sultana
Brother: Peter (half-brother)

Kahlil Gibran Biography
Gibran Khalil Gibran was born on January 6, 1883, to the Maronite family of Gibran in Bsharri, a mountainous area in Northern Lebanon [Lebanon was a Turkish province part of Greater Syria (Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine) and subjugated to Ottoman dominion]. His mother Kamila Rahmeh was thirty when she begot Gibran from her third husband Khalil Gibran, who proved to be an irresponsible husband leading the family to poverty. Gibran had a half-brother six years older than him called Peter and two younger sisters, Mariana and Sultana, whom he was deeply attached to throughout his life, along with his mother. Kamila's family came from a prestigious religious background, which imbued the uneducated mother with a strong will and later on helped her raise up the family on her own in the U.S. Growing up in the lush region of Bsharri, Gibran proved to be a solitary and pensive child who relished the natural surroundings of the cascading falls, the rugged cliffs and the neighboring green cedars, the beauty of which emerged as a dramatic and symbolic influence to his drawings and writings. Being laden with poverty, he did not receive any formal education or learning, which was limited to regular visits to a village priest who doctrined him with the essentials of religion and the Bible, alongside Syriac and Arabic languages. Recognizing Gibran's inquisitive and alert nature, the priest began teaching him the rudiments of alphabet and language, opening up to Gibran the world of history, science, and language. At the age of ten, Gibran fell off a cliff, wounding his left shoulder, which remained weak for the rest of his life ever since this incident. To relocate the shoulder, his family strapped it to a cross and wrapped it up for forty days, a symbolic incident reminiscent of Christ's wanderings in the wilderness and which remained etched in Gibran's memory.

At the age of eight, Khalil Gibran, Gibran's father, was accused of tax evasion and was sent to prison as the Ottomon authorities confiscated the Gibrans' property and left them homeless. The family went to live with relatives for a while; however, the strong-willed mother decided that the family should immigrate to the U.S., seeking a better life and following in suit to Gibran's uncle who immigrated earlier. The father was released in 1894, but being an irresponsible head of the family he was undecided about immigration and remained behind in Lebanon.

On June 25, 1895, the Gibrans embarked on a voyage to the American shores of New York.

The Gibrans settled in Boston's South End, which at the time hosted the second largest Syrian community in the U.S. following New York. The culturally diverse area felt familiar to Kamila, who was comforted by the familiar spoken Arabic, and the widespread Arab customs. Kamila, now the bread-earner of the family, began to work as a peddler on the impoverished streets of South End Boston. At the time, peddling was the major source of income for most Syrian immigrants, who were negatively portrayed due to their unconventional Arab ways and their supposed idleness.

In the school, a registration mistake altered his name forever by shortening it to Kahlil Gibran, which remained unchanged till the rest of his life despite repeated attempts at restoring his full name. Gibran entered school on September 30, 1895, merely two months after his arrival in the U.S. Having no formal education, he was placed in an ungraded class reserved for immigrant children, who had to learn English from scratch. Gibran caught the eye of his teachers with his sketches and drawings, a hobby he had started during his childhood in Lebanon.

Gibran's curiosity led him to the cultural side of Boston, which exposed him to the rich world of the theatre, Opera and artistic Galleries. Prodded by the cultural scenes around him and through his artistic drawings, Gibran caught the attention of his teachers at the public school, who saw an artistic future for the boy. They contacted Fred Holland Day, an artist and a supporter of artists who opened up Gibran's cultural world and set him on the road to artistic fame...

Lebanese-American philosophical essayist, novelist, mystical poet, and artist.

Gibran's works were especially influential in the American popular culture in the 1960s. In 1904 Gibran had his first art exhibition in Boston. From 1908 to 1910 he studied art in Paris with August Rodin. In 1912 he settled in New York, where he devoted himself to writing and painting. Gibran's early works were written in Arabic, and from 1918 he published mostly in English. In 1920 he founded a society for Arab writers, Mahgar (al-Mahgar). Among its members were Mikha'il Na'ima (1889-1988), Iliya Abu Madi (1889-1957), Nasib Arida (1887-1946), Nadra Haddad (1881-1950), and Ilyas Abu Sabaka (1903-47). Gibran died in New York on April 10, 1931. Among his best-known works is THE PROPHET, a book of 26 poetic essays, which has been translated into over 20 languages. The Prophet, who has lived in a foreign city 12 years, is about to board a ship that will take him home. He is stopped by a group of people, whom he teaches the mysteries of life.

Read More About Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran Wiki
Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran Quotes
Khalil Gibran Arts

Channel U Shows

2007-12-16T17:22:00.000+08:00

This is Professor Yu Dan, talking about the Superior Man and the Inferior Man. This is one of the favourite program I like to watch. She talked about The Analect(道德經, Tao De Ching) -- teaching about the Way of Life. This is a very meaningful and useful programs for all people to watch. However, not many people love to watch this.

I had a playlist of Professor Yu Dan on YouTube. If you would like to watch her, you can go to my website at YrManna.com. The website is still under construction though it is already functional.

Lecture Room - Yu Dan
百家论坛:于丹《论语》心得
(2007年11月6日起每逢周二晚上9时30分首播；11时30分重播)

This is my TV, Panasonic, bought several years back, at least 10years old now. It cost about S$2000-$2200. That was so expensive. With this price, I can get a nicer TV now. The colour was not working well, and the TV will auto-off itself at times. This is so frustrating when I am watching the show halfway. When this happen, I did not know what Professor Yu Dan had said.

Reading Chinese is a headache. I hate to read Chinese. Looking at it, I am discouraged from reading. I do not even want to read it. I have to read one character by one character, it is such a waste of time. I wonder why they do not have English Translation, when they have all the title translation all over the site.

The next show which I like to watch is The Magician of Love, 愛情魔法師. It is getting so interesting now. The songs which are sang by 183 club are very nice too. I like Artzy, Ya Si, he is nice-looking. He and Xiao Bei is very matching. Here are a few episodes from the show:

Magician Of Love Scenes, 愛情魔法師

Claude Monet

2007-12-15T01:28:00.000+08:00

1840 - Born on November 14th in Paris, France. French painter who was the initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style.

1832 - Monet's choice of Algeria for service was perhaps a result of his admiration for the Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix, whose colouristic work had been influenced by a visit to Morocco.

1845 - When Claude, the eldest son of Adolphe Monet, a grocer, was five years old, the family moved to the Normandy coast, near Le Havre, where his father took over the management of his family's thriving ship-chandlering and grocery business.

1855 - Monet's first success as an artist came when he was 15, with the sale of caricatures that were carefully observed and well drawn. In these early years he also executed pencil sketches of sailing ships, which were almost technical in their clear descriptiveness.

1859-1860 - He first visited Paris, where he was impressed by the work of the Barbizon-school painters Charles Daubigny and Constant Troyon.

1861-1862 - This informal training was interrupted by a call to military service; he served in Algeria, where he was excited by the African light and colour.

- Monet returned to Le Havre, perhaps because of illness, and again painted the sea with Boudin, while also meeting the Dutch marine painter Johan Barthold Jongkind.

1863-1866 - One of the most ambitious of these early works (which was never finished, supposedly because of negative comments by Gustave Courbet) was Déjeuner sur l'herbe (“Luncheon on the Grass”), named after Édouard Manet's notorious painting shown in the "Salon des Refusés".

1870 - At Trouville, in broad, assured gestures, Monet painted a study of Camille on the beach. It is as animated an example of visual realism as had ever been painted: grains of sand remain embedded in the pigment.

- In order to avoid the Franco-German War, he left his son and Camille, whom he had just married, and traveled to London.

1872 - Monet discovered Japanese prints, the decorativeness and flatness of which were to have a strong influence on the development of modern painting in France.

1876 - A liaison began between Monet and Alice Hoschedé, the wife of a department-store owner and collector. Monet had incurred a burden of debts in Argenteuil, and Camille was pregnant and ill.

1879 - At Vétheuil the Monets were joined by Hoschedé, who had left her husband, and six of her children. Using funds from her dowry she assumed Monet's debts and cared for Camille, who died in September.

1883 - Monet, Hoschedé, her children, and Monet's sons, Jean and Michel, settled at Giverny, a hamlet near Vernon, 52 miles (84 km) from Paris, on the tiny Epte River. There Monet purchased a farmhouse surrounded by an orchard, which was to be his home until his death and is now a French national monument.

1899-1904 - The first (for which he made at least three trips to London) was the extensive multiple series representing the River Thames, the Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges, and the Houses of Parliament.

1908-1912 - The second and last of the architectural motifs Monet pursued was the canals and palaces of Venice. Monet began this series and continued, although he worked on these subjects at Giverny.

1915 - The concept of embracing spatiality, new to the history of painting and only implicit in the first water-lily paintings, unfolded during the years until the artist's death into a cycle of huge murals to be installed in Paris in two 80-foot oval rooms in the Orangerie of the Tuileries.

1926 - Died on December 5th in Giverny.

Other Links
Giverny
Intermonet
Claude Monet's Paintings

Biography of Claude Monet

2007-12-14T01:24:00.000+08:00

Claude Monet
Also Known As: Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet
Born: 14th Nov 1840
Birthplace: Paris, France
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Painter
Nationality: France
Mother: Louise Monet
Son: Jean Monet
Wife: Camille Doncieux (m. 1870), Alice Hoschedé (m. 1892)
Son: Michel Monet
Death: 5th Dec 1926
Location of death: Giverny, France
Cause of death: Lung Cancer
Remains: Buried, Giverny Church Cemetery, Giverny, France

Biography of Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a French painter born in Paris, 1840. One of the creators of impressionism, Claude Monet is the eldest son of a Parisian shopkeeper. His paintings captured scenes of middle-class life and the ever-changing qualities of sunlight in nature. His technique of applying bright, unmixed colors in quick, short strokes became a hallmark of impressionism . He told a critic in 1880; innocence and spontaneity were the basis of his art.

The family moved in 1845, and he spent his childhood in the port town of Le Havre. Young Monet had a talent for caricature. He took his early painting lessons there from the painter Eugen Boudin, who specialized in scenes of people strolling on beaches, worked up sketches out-of-doors. Boudin took an interest in him and showed him how to paint landscapes in the open and advised him to seek further training in Paris. Monet went there in 1859, but ignored the guidance he had gone to seek.

Monet's formal art training began in 1859 at the Académie Suisse, a studio that provided models for aspiring artists to draw or paint, but gave little direct instruction. Another future leader of the impressionists, Camille Pissarro, was a fellow student there, and the two soon became close friends. After serving briefly in the French military in Algeria, monet joined a Parisian studio run by Charles Gabriel Gleyre in 1862. Gleyre's studio was essentially student-run. Like the Adadémie Suisse, it encouraged students to draw from models, rather than from plaster casts of ancient Greek and Roman statues, which was the common teaching method of more conservative academies. In Gleyre's studio monet met several artists who would become fellow impressionists, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille. Bazille, who came from a wealthy family, gave monet regular financial support during the 1860s.

In 1865 monet had his first works—two ambitious seascapes—accepted by the Salon, a juried art exhibition sponsored annually by the official French Academy of Fine Arts. Thereafter he had a checkered record of acceptance and rejection by the conservative Salon jury, although his works received praise from critics such as French writer Émile Zola and were purchased by discerning and influential buyers.

Monet's canvases from the mid-1860s were massive. The unfinished Luncheon on the Grass, a picnic scene begun in 1865, was originally intended to measure roughly 4.5 m by 6 m (15 ft by 20 ft). For two other large paintings from that time, monet's future wife Camille Doncieux posed in elegant attire: The Green Dress (1866, Kunsthalle, Bremen, Germany), which was shown in the Salon of 1866, and Women in the Garden (1867, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). After the Salon rejected Women in the Garden for its 1867 exhibition, monet may have reconsidered investing so much effort in a single painting that might not sell, and he began to work on a smaller scale.

In 1869 monet and Renoir painted a series of landscapes en plein air (outdoors) at a fashionable bathing place, La Grenouillère, on the Seine River near Paris. In these small works, monet's quick daubs of fresh colors aptly capture the movement of the water and gaiety of the scene.

Despite his father's disapproval, in 1870 monet married Camille, who had already borne him a son. To escape the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), during which German troops threatened Paris, the couple went to London, then to Holland. They returned in 1872 and settled in Argenteuil, a sailing center on the Seine River outside Paris. Monet painted numerous vibrant, light-filled views of this fast-growing suburban town; he also produced more intimate family studies.

The painters who became known as impressionists began exhibiting together in 1874. They held eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, and although Monet did not participate in all of these, he became the most celebrated member of the group, and remains so today.

In the 1874 exhibition, Monet showed four pastels and five paintings, among them a work entitled Impression: Sunrise (1872-1873, Musée Marmottan, Paris). Inspired by this title, French art critic Louis Leroy coined the term impressionist in a satirical review of the exhibition. His comments criticized the artists for painting so loosely and neglecting to blend their brushstrokes carefully in order to achieve the polished effect that was then expected. Although Impression: Sunrise is an elegantly balanced composition, it demonstrates much of what was radically new about the impressionist manner. Monet's swift strokes capture a momentary effect of light on water in a busy port, while mist and smoke blur the angular forms of sailboats.

Monet's first wife, Camille, died in 1879, and soon afterward Monet set up home with Alice Hoschedé, the wife of one of his most important patrons, and their respective children. The Hoschedé family had recently suffered a disastrous bankruptcy, and financial concerns seem to have directed many of Monet's career strategies in the years that followed.

In 1880 Monet decided, to the great annoyance of his fellow impressionists, to exhibit once again at the official Salon. He also began to sell his work regularly through private dealers. Monet traveled throughout France during the 1880s, tackling new and challenging motifs, such as the rocks off the island of Belle Île, the stormy Atlantic coast, and the more idyllic atmosphere of the Mediterranean seacoast.

In his late years Claude Monet suffered from physical problems. After 1907 a bad eyesight and rheumatism made it more and more impossible for him to paint. But he continued until the year of his death. The great project over the last years was centered around his garden with a pond of water lilies and a Japanese bridge. He had even constructed a studio in his garden, so that he could paint more easily without being exposed to the weather outside.

In February 1926, at the age of 83, he could finish the last great challenge of his life - a commission by the French government for 22 mural paintings of water lilies. On December 5, 1926 Claude Monet died from lung cancer.

Taylor Dayne

2007-09-28T00:45:00.000+08:00

Taylor Dayne: Top selling pop artist of the late 80s and early 90s.

Birth Name: Leslie Wunderman
Born: 7-Mar-1962
Birthplace: Long Island, NY
Gender: Female
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Height: 5' 2" (1.57 m)
Occupation: Singer
Nationality: United States
Father: Jack Wunderman
Mother: Laura
Brother: Has two brothers named Robert and Hugh.
Boyfriend: John Enos III (dated 1999)
Children: Taylor becomes a mom for the first time after giving birth to twins, Astaria and Levi. (30 December 2001)

Had 7 back-to-back top 10 singles: Tell It To My Heart, Prove Your Love, I'll Always Love You, Don't Rush Me, Every Beat Of My Heart, Love Will Lead You Back and I'll Be Your Shelter.

Née Leslie Wunderman, Taylor Dayne was born March 7, 1962, in Long Island, New York. Having harbored an interest in singing from an early age. Dayne began singing professionally after graduating from high school, singing in rock bands such as Felony and Next. However, both bands failed to become successful. She began singing solo after finishing college, and as Les Lee released the dance single "I'm The One You Want" in 1985. Signed to Arista Records, her first song to crack the top ten was the dance-pop hit "Tell It to My Heart" in 1988. The song was an instant smash worldwide, peaking in the top-five of most major markets worldwide, and achieving a peak of number one in many countries, including Germany.

"Love Will Lead You Back", a Diane Warren composition, was a #1 pop and adult contemporary hit for Dayne. The song deals with the complications surrounding a breakup, and focuses on the intense hope that love will find a way to save the relationship.

Official Website:
http://www.taylordayne.com/

FILMOGRAPHY /ALBUMS
Jackie's Back! (14-Jun-1999) Herself
Stag (27-Jun-1997)
Love Affair (21-Oct-1994)
One Moment in Time: 1988 Summer Olympics Album (1988) - song: "Willpower"
Fried Green Tomatoes soundtrack (1991) - song: "Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead"
The Shadow soundtrack (1994) - song: "Original Sin"
Searching For Jimi Hendrix (1999) - song: "The Wind Cries Mary"
Flawless soundtrack (2000) - song: "Planet Love"
Circuit soundtrack (2002) - song: "How Many"
The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack (2003) - song: "Supermodel"

Ratatouille

2007-09-24T13:27:00.000+08:00

Although each of the world's countries would like to dispute this fact, the French know the truth: the best food in the world is made in France. The best food in France is made in Paris and the best food in Paris, soem say, was made by Chef Auguste Gusteau. Gusteau's restaurant was the toast of Paris, booked five months in advance, and his dazzling ascent to the top of fine French cuisine made his competitors envious. He was the youngest chef ever to achieve a five-star rating.

As Gusteau himself once said," Good food is like music you can taste, colour you can smell. There is excellence all around you; you need only to be aware to stop and savour it."

Chef Gusteau's cookbook, Anyone Can Cook, climbed to the top of the bestseller list. But not everyone celebrated its success.

Anton Ego, noted food critic, was one of the naysayers. "Amusing title, Anyone Can Cook!" he once said with a sneer. "What's even more amusing is that Gusteau actually seems to believe. I, on the other hand, take cooking seriously, and no, I don't think 'anyone' can do it."

But who was right? Was it true that anyone -- regardless of upbringing, training or type of kitchen -- could cook a meal fine enough to satisfy even a notoriously impossible-to-please man like Anton Ego?

Remy is a rat who enjoys the finer things in life. When a happy accident lands him in the kitchen of a Parisian restaurant, he cannot resist helping a hapless cook create culinary masterpieces that have all of Paris waiting in line for a taste. With a little encouragement from an imaginary master chef, Remy gets his new friend out from under the thumb of the restaurant's cruel manager and follows his own drams of becoming a great chef.

Ratatouille, a very nice and interesting show, our family had watched over the weekends. I would rate it a five stars. My niece loves the show too. I thought it was a children show, and that audience who comes to watch the show must mostly children. However, I was wrong. Most of the people who came to watch the show are adults. Most are couples and there were only a few children who actually came to watch the show. I must say it is a very entertaining show. Good for both adults and children.

Gambler Stars

2007-07-18T15:25:00.000+08:00

There are so many Hong Kong series and movies on Gambling. Singapore had its own too. Some of them include the Saint of Gamblers, Dicey Business, The Shell Game and The Shell Game II etc. One example of a popular one would be the God of Gamblers. A comedy, action and quality drama, the Film God of Gamblers starring Chow Yun-fat as the legendary Do San, or God of Gamblers.

In these gambling shows, all the characters want to win. They want to be the King of Gamblers. Very often these characters have special skills such as the ability to listen to dice rolls, ability to shuffle cards in a amazing manner, ability to select any cards they called for and so on. The ambitious one would want to be the casino owner.

You can also be a gambler star. There are many online gaming sites. They are online casinos sites and even Mac Poker sites where you can enjoy all the thrill and fun of gambling. You won't be feel lonely in online games anymore. Now in most online casino games, you can feel the presence of the crowds. There are many ways you can interact with other gamblers on the internet. There are poker rooms or tournament rooms in most sites such as that of Mac Poker Online. Visit the site, enjoy Poker Bonus and give your chance to be a Poker Star now. Meet other Poker Stars too!

Pictures Of Mr Bean

2007-03-29T21:13:00.000+08:00

Rowan Atkinson in Universal Pictures' Bean II - 2007

After university, Atkinson toured with Angus Deayton as his straight man. The show was filmed for television, and its success allowed him to develop a successful stand-up, writing and radio career.

In 1978 he was offered his own television series by ITV but turned it down in favour of Not the Nine O'Clock News, produced by his friend John Lloyd, in which he starred with Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith. Atkinson was one of the show's main sketch writers.

Rowan Atkinson in Universal's Johnny English - 2003

Atkinson's other famous creation, the hapless Mr. Bean, first appeared in 1988 in a half-hour special for Thames Television. The character of Mr. Bean has been likened somewhat to a modern-day Charlie Chaplin. Several sequels followed at irregular intervals, before the character transferred to film in 1997. Entitled Bean, it was directed by Mel Smith, his former co-star from Not the Nine O'Clock News. It supposedly made Atkinson £11 million in fees as writer and actor.

Rowan Atkinson in Universal's Johnny English - 2003

In 2003, Atkinson was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Rowan Atkinson and Natalie Imbruglia in Universal's Johnny English - 2003

Atkinson's film career began in 1983 with a supporting part in the James Bond vehicle Never Say Never Again and a leading role in Dead on Time with Nigel Hawthorne. He appeared in former Not the Nine O'Clock News co-star Mel Smith's directorial debut The Tall Guy in 1989 and gained further notice with his turn as a verbally bumbling vicar in the 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral; the same year he featured in Walt Disney's Lion King as Zazu the Hornbill.

Kristin Scott Thomas and Rowan Atkinson in ThinkFilm's Keeping Mum - 2006

His television character Mr. Bean debuted on the big screen in 1997 with Bean, an international success. 2001's Rat Race saw Atkinson continue in slapstick style. He then took the lead role in the James Bond parody Johnny English (2003). That year he also appeared in a small role in the star-studded Love Actually. Keeping Mum (2005, released in the U.S. in 2006) was a departure for Atkinson, starring in a straight role. Work on a Bean sequel completed in 2006 and the film is set for a March 2007 release. Atkinson says it will be the last time he plays the character.

Rowan Atkinson and Wayne Knight in Paramount's Rat Race - 2001

Atkinson was a stutterer as a child, a condition which sometimes returns when he is in stressful situations. In particular, the letter "B" posed a problem for him. He managed to overcome this through over-articulation; however, this evolved into one of his trademark comic devices (his pronunciation of "Bob" in Blackadder being a famous example). His other trademark is his Received Pronunciation (RP) British accent.

Atkinson's comedy style, which is rigorously planned and scripted — partly to ensure his stress and stutter is minimised — is often visually-based. It results in comedy as performance — like Charlie Chaplin — rather than as observation or discussion, as many of the routines of the time were. Atkinson's talent for visual comedy has seen him described as "the man with the rubber face".

Rowan Atkinson

2007-03-28T20:04:00.000+08:00

Profile of Rowan Atkinson
Real Name: Rowan Sebastian Atkinson
Best Known As: Comic character Mr. Bean
Birthday: 6 January 1955
Birthplace: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, UK
Occupation: Actor
Sign: Capricorn

Biography
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Rowan Atkinson has become one of the best-known British comic talents of his generation. Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is an English comedian, actor and writer best known for playing Edmund Blackadder in Blackadder and for playing the title role in the British television comedy Mr. Bean.

Atkinson was born to Ella May and Eric Atkinson, Anglican farmers in the town of Consett, north-west of the city of Durham. His oldest brother is Rodney Atkinson, the outspoken eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election to Jeffrey Titford in 2000. With wife Sunetra Sastry, Atkinson has fathered two children, Lily and Benejamin.

He was educated at Durham Choristers School, followed by St Bees School, and studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University. He continued with an MSc at Queens College, Oxford, first achieving notice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1976. At Oxford, he also acted and performed early sketches for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), the Oxford Revue and the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC), meeting writer Richard Curtis and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.

Although he'd first appeared at Edinburgh when he was 17, Atkinson was spotted at the 1976 Festival by television producer John Lloyd, who went on to produce him in his first starring role - as one of the four members of the Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch team. This was followed by the huge success of Blackadder and its sequels which propelled Atkinson to star status.

He then went on to create Mr Bean. A walking disaster, Bean was purely physical comedy, the opposite of Edmund Blackadder's polished dialogue. This clumsy character was a huge success and became another national treasure.

Atkinson made his big-screen debut in 1983's unofficial James Bond picture Never Say Never Again. Despite this film receiving mixed reports, he has continued to juggle TV and film roles. In 1997 Bean came to the big screen, and Scooby Doo topped the US box office in 2002. This was followed by spoof Bond feature Johnny English in 2003.

As a long-time collaborator with writer Richard Curtis, he has regularly contributed to Comic Relief. He even played the 9th Doctor, in the 1999 Doctor Who spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death.

Filmography
Atkinson made his major feature film bow with a small, yet comical role in the James Bond thriller, Never Say Never Again. In the late '80s he starred in a few films penned by Curtis. It was while they were filming The Tall Guy that Atkinson and Curtis created Mr. Bean, an average British Joe with a clumsy nature and a nasty streak and launched a series. With virtually no dialogue, the comedy and its star became famous worldwide. Running for six years, Mr. Bean developed a cult following and by the late '90s had spawned a feature film.

Although he made strong showings in films like The Witches and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and lent his voice to the popular animated feature, The Lion King, Atkinson went back to television, with a new series, The Thin Blue Line. Based on the comical adventures of a police station, the show didn't fare well with audiences and only lasted two seasons.

During the late '90s he started having some commercial exposure for products like Barclaycard and M&M chocolate candy. Back into films by the start of the new millennium, Atkinson has landed roles in Maybe Baby (2000), Rat Race (2001) and Scooby-Doo (2002).

Mr. Bean's Holiday: 2007
Rat Race: 2001
Scooby-Doo: 2002
The Lion King IMAX: 1999
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball: 1981

Fashion

2007-01-08T12:09:00.000+08:00

"It's the fashion" we often hear. The fashion may be short skirts, a certain make of car, Swedish interior design, the colour blue, folk music or anything else which happens to affect our lives. The fashion may be a book which enjoys ephemeral fame, or a turn of phrase, or a person. Even ideas and attitudes alter with the passing of time.

There is nothing more certain than that a sudden, widespread enthusiasm will wane, it will "go out of fashion" and return to oblivion. The objects of such interest almost always end up by being abandoned. People tire of them and they are forgotten. Tastes change rapidly. Fashion expresses the desire for novelty and change.

The word "mode" is often applied to fashion, usually to fashions in dress. If something is à la mode it is fashionable. "Mode" is a French word, from the Latin modus, and was first used in England in the seventeenth century.

Paris Hilton Fashion Show

Yet the phenomenon to which it refers occurred long before the word came into use. Fashion was always existed, inspired and encouraged by man's vanity. Every season the designers (or "creators of fashion") produce new models, promoting a particular style or colour, and these gradually affect the clothes people wear. Sooner or later, we accept the changes. Think of the changes there have been in skirts in recent years. It was "unfashionable" for a woman to wear a skirt of the "wrong" length, but today the situation is more flexible and skirt lengths vary considerably.

Mischa Barton at Fashion Week in Paris.

Fashion needs time to become accepted. It arouses curiosity, desire, imitation and even envy. Public opinion always has to overcome an initial rejection and hostile amazement. In the twenties, the first women to bob their hair were frowned on and regarded very dubiously. This may make us smile today, but think of the scandal caused by topless sunbathing on some Mediterranean beaches, which is only a fashion. Before it was generally accepted, as it is now, the other great bathing scandal was the bikini, which is bound to be with us for a very long time.

There are occasions when by the time the last people have accepted a fashion, those who were enthusiastic at the beginning have already tired of it and are turning to something else. The time required for this to happen has varied through history and used to be very much longer than it is now. Styles of clothing, jewellery, furniture and houses, for example, lasted for decades or even centuries: think how long the Roman toga remained in fashion.

In the past, fashion was only the concern of the aristocracy and the rich; it never affected the poorer people who for generations continued to wear the same kind of old rags and were content with the same poor objects. Usually some eminent personage was indirectly responsible for instigating a major change, using a great ball, an evening at the theatre or some other society function to display a new style. It was enough for the king to forget to do up the bottom button of his waistcoat or for the Prince of Wales's manservant to turn up the bottoms of his master's trousers because they were too long, for these details to be copied immediately by everyone in society.

Today fashions change more quickly, accompanied by reports and comments from the press, television, radio and of course, by advertising. We can open any newspaper and see dozens of new suggestions and ideas which are seized on by the trade. Suppose one season there is a fashion for blue and yellow stripes. The shops and stores are immediately supplied with clothing in stripes of these colours, to suit all tastes and requirements, in varying quality and at a variety of prices.

At Belisi.com, you can find various topics which interest you. From Bartender to Bigshot – fashion forward designer learns from the Palm Beach elite Bartending in Palm Beach, Peter Belisi served the trendsetters who embodied the luxury lifestyle he craved. Struggling to support his family with no savings, he needed a novel concept to start his own company. Emulating his high-end clientele, Belisi invested any extra money in a tie collection. Before long, co-workers and clients looked to him for inspiration.

Belisi took pride in never wearing the same tie twice, and through his appreciation of fine ties, an idea took shape. Accessories are the finishing pieces to any well-heeled look—done the right way, you present a polished picture to the world. The image conscious not only want to fit in among their peers by wearing high-end accessories, they want to give back to society.

The Belisi Brand was founded to enhance luxury wardrobes, while making the world a little brighter for everyone. Belisi—a name already synonymous with beauty—has earned a loyal following for its high-end, quality ties, and most recently scarves and handbags. Belisi’s guiding principle is to create Luxury with Meaning.

Every time you purchase a Belisi product, you put the finishing touch on a put-together look, while fighting poverty, protecting the environment, seeking justice and funding medical research. Put simply, Belisi stands for good living: great style, quality accessories and giving back to the community.

About the brand: “Belisi unites the luxury and prestige of Palm Beach with Italian beauty and sophistication. Inside Belisi we cultivate a passion for exquisite materials and skilled craftsmanship. Each dramatic detail, represents our unwavering quest to fashion products of truly enduring value.” – Peter Belisi

Bingo Sports Stars

2007-01-05T18:26:00.000+08:00

Bingo Smith is one of only five Cleveland Cavaliers to have his jersey retired. The number 7 of Smith hangs proudly at the Gund Arena today!

Bingo Smith
Robert "Bingo" Smith (born February 26, 1946 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a former professional basketball player. A 6' 5" guard/forward from the University of Tulsa, he played 11 seasons (1969-1980) in the NBA, mostly with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He retired with 10,882 career points.

Position: F
Height: 6' 5"
Weight: 195
Born: 2/26/1946, in Memphis, TN, USA
High School: Melrose, in Memphis, TN
College: Tulsa
Number: 7(retired)

Robert Smith, or more fondly known as as Bingo Smith had a stellar career at the Cavaliers. Drafted out of the expansion draft for the original Cavaliers team, Smith had spent his rookie campaign with the San Diego Rockets. Bingo, would then spend his next 10 years in Cleveland, until traded to the San Diego Clippers in his final NBA season. A solid scoring swingman (13ppg over his career), Smith's role offensively was diminished when Cavalier legend Austin Carr joined the squad.

Smith played an integral part of the Cavaliers rise after some poor initial seasons. This culminated in the 1975-76 season, when the Cavaliers went from a losing record and 20 games out of first, to the infamous Miracle of Richfield squad with a 49 - 33 record and 1st place in the East. This team also included fellow stars, Austin Carr, Jim Chones and Campy Russell. Bingo's role from then on was reduced, however he remained a solid double figure scorer for his remainding seasons.

Over his long tenure in Cleveland, Smith has achieved many individual feats. He sits 4th overall in points scored, 2nd in field goals madeand attempted, 10th in free throws made and attempted, 6th in total rebounds (great for a 6'5 guy), 10th in overall assists. He also had the misfortune of picking up the most fouls in Cavalier history.

Bingo DeMoss
Elwood "Bingo" DeMoss (September 5, 1889 - January 26, 1965) was a baseball player and manager in the Negro Leagues from 1905 to 1943. He began his playing career in 1905 with the Topeka Giants. After retiring from playing in 1930 he began his managerial career.

Elwood "Bingo" DeMoss
position: 2B
career: 1910-1930
Teams: French Lick Plutos, West Baden Sprudels, Indianapolis ABCs, Chicago American Giants, Detroit Stars

HT: 6'-2"; WT: 180 lbs
batted and threw right
Born: Sept. 5, 1889 in Topeka, KS
Died: Jan. 26, 1965 in Chicago

Bingo was the best second baseman of the first quarter century of the 1900s. His size puts him the same class as two other great second basemen of similar stature, Sammy T. Hughes and Ryne Sandberg.

Bingo DeMoss was the Pokey Reese of his era - an excellent defensive second baseman with very good speed, a very poor bat and a cool nickname. DeMoss was also known for his small-ball skills such as the bunt or grounding runners over. As these skills used to be considered far more important, his play won raves that do not stand up under more advanced statistical analyses of what constitutes a good skill set.

DeMoss began his career with the West Braden Sprudels in 1912 after several years with lesser teams. The 22-year-old hit .231. Playing for five different clubs in '13, he hit .091 against top black teams. DeMoss joined the Indianapolis ABCs at age 25 in 1915 and hit .243; he was tied for third among western black teams in doubles (8) and tied George Shively for the lead in steals (23). He hit .328 in a series in Cuba that year.

In 1916 Bingo batted .231 for Indianapolis and went 0 for 3 in a game against Art Nehf and some white minor-leaguers. The next year he moved to the Chicago American Giants, where he achieved prominence on a team built around speed and bunting. He hit .168 in 1917 and led western teams with 7 steals. Chicago did play in a pitcher-friendly park and no regular hit over .258 with just one over .223, but DeMoss was just about the worst on the team. He was 1 for 5 against major-league white pitchers that year.

Given a "fourth class" draft classification, DeMoss was not called to serve in World War I. He hit a meek .103 for Chicago that season. Improving to .189 in 1919 and replacing Pete Hill as captain, Bingo went all the way up to .281 in '20. At age 31, he hit .241. Offensive statistics were improving just as in the white leagues, but Chicago remained a pitcher's paradise and the veteran was a decent 3rd on the champion team in hitting, well behind Cristobal Torriente (.346) and Jimmie Lyons (.295).

In 1922, the second baseman batted .256, fourth on the top team. DeMoss hit .252/.309/.332 in 1923, fielding a pretty slick .971. He hit .219 in '24 then .228 a season later. With the ABCs struggling, the Negro National League tried to bolster the team by sending other players to help out. DeMoss hit .282 for the club.

1927 brought Bingo to the Detroit Stars as a player-manager. The 39-year-old hit .210 in a hitter-friendly environment and guided the Stars to a 70-53 finish. He hit .155 for the team as a backup the next year and they were 58-38. In 1929 he hit a surprising .314 in limited time while the Stars were 38-39. Hitting .256 off the bench in 1930, he led the club to a 58-37 season. Laying down the glove for good, his Detroit team fell to 23-30 in 1931.

Let go by Detroit, Bingo managed the Cleveland Giants in a bad 1933 campaign, then managed minor black teams later on in his career. Advanced frequently as a Hall of Fame candidate by those enamored with defense and small ball, DeMoss was even rated the greatest second baseman ever by Bill James. It is clear that many Negro League experts disagree, as they have selected several Hall-of-Fame 2B from the black leagues without picking DeMoss.

Hayden And Ferrari

2006-11-14T14:33:00.000+08:00

Driving Darth Vader: How CNY put a star back in his race
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
By Pam Greene
Staff writer
Source

Hayden Christensen probably wishes he had a space ship to take him from Syracuse to Toronto Saturday night when his Ferrari broke down on North Salina Street.

Instead, the 25-year-old actor who played Anakin Skywalker in the last two "Star Wars" movies, spent eight hours in a flat bed truck with an Oswego County tow truck operator.

Christensen was driving in Bullrun 2006, an invitation-only, cross-country tour from New York to Los Angeles. The week-long tour costs $14,000 to enter and features 100 of the most exclusive cars in the world. Christensen was driving a $125,000, 1999 Ferrari with only 6,000 miles on it. At about 6 p.m. Saturday, his transmission broke down while driving on Interstate 81 in Syracuse. He pulled off the highway onto North Salina Street, near St. Joseph's Hospital, to call a tow company.

Steve Burdick, who owns AAAA Burdick Discount Towing, was probably the first guy Christensen found in the phone book. Burdick didn't know Christensen was famous when he pulled up to the scene.

"I just thought he had a rich daddy," Burdick said. "I asked him what he does for a living and he said he was studying to become an actor, so I didn't think much of it. I asked him if he knows Tom Cruise and he said he did."

The pair spent more than an hour trying to figure out how to load the Ferrari onto the truck. It was stuck in second gear, Burdick said, and wouldn't start. Finally, Burdick ran to a convenience store, bought a bottle of Wesson cooking oil and lubed the tyres so they'd slide onto the flat bed.

"I've never hooked up a Ferrari before," he said. "It took some fancy maneuvering to hook it up to the truck."

The tow to Toronto was going to cost $1,000: $3.95 per mile plus a $75 hook-up, Burdick said. Christensen agreed and they began the roughly 240-mile journey into Canada. Burdick still didn't know his companion was the young Darth Vader.

Burdick told Christensen that he was a born again Christian and asked him if he had given his life to the Lord, he said. Hayden told Burdick that he believed "people came from monkeys," Burdick said. The conversation got a bit deep and heated at times, Burdick said.

They listened to cassettes called, "A View from the Top" by born-again Christian motivational speaker Zig Ziglar. They stopped for gas in Rochester and Christensen bought Burdick a Burger King Whopper, he said.

It wasn't until about 10 p.m., when they were about to cross the Canadian border in Niagara Falls, that Burdick finally realized his passenger wasn't just the son of some rich guy.

Christensen joked nervously that Burdick should pray for him that there would be no paperwork issues to delay them at Customs as they crossed the border. The Ferrari dealership employees were waiting for them in Toronto, he said. But there were no paperwork delays whatsoever.

"The girls at the border knew him," Burdick said. "Two of them got his autograph. . . . That's when he told me about "Star Wars.' "

Burdick immediately called his children, who own the "Star Wars" DVDs. They took turns talking on the phone with Christensen. "He was a real normal joe," Burdick said.

By 1 a.m., they pulled into the Hilton Hotel in Toronto, Burdick said. The Ferrari people and Christensen's parents were waiting for him in the parking lot. So were a crowd of fans.

"Everyone wanted his picture and autograph," Burdick said.

As Burdick said his good-byes to Christensen, the actor's father insisted on paying for his son's tow from Syracuse to Toronto. Burdick said he hopes to stay in touch with the young celebrity and plans on sending him a gift: a Zig Ziglar disc set.

Burdick drove back to Syracuse and spent the next day watching his kids' "Star Wars" DVDs.

"He seemed like such a nice fellow," Burdick said. "So down to earth. . . . When I shook hands with him, I could feel the warmth."

Pam Greene can be reached at pgreene@syracuse.com or 470-3033.

Towing In Moreno Valley: Established in 1980, Pizzo Brothers Towing is located in Moreno Valley area along with Riverside, Ca. Great towing service for many years in Moreno Valley area, they have a 24hr emergency service. They do jump starts, lock outs, and tyres changes. They also use flat bed trucks. Providing a 24 hour emergency service towing, they are available for all your towing needs.

Hayden Christensen, Star Wars

2006-11-13T16:25:00.000+08:00

Star Wars is a science fantasy saga and fictional galaxy created by writer / producer / director George Lucas during the 1970s. The saga began with the film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), which was released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox. The film became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon - spawning five more feature films, three spin-off films, five television series and an extensive collection of licensed books, comics, video games, action figures, trading cards, card games, and other products - all of which are set within a fictional "galaxy far, far away".

Plot Summary For Stars Wars
In a galaxy far, far away, a psychopathic emperor and his most trusted servant - a former Jedi Knight known as Darth Vader - are ruling a universe with fear. They have built a horrifying weapon known as the Death Star, a giant battle station capable of annihilating a world in less than a second. When the Death Star's master plans are captured by the fledgling Rebel Alliance, Vader starts a pursuit of the ship carrying them.

A young dissident Senator, Leia Organa, is aboard the ship & puts the plans into a maintenance robot named R2-D2. Although she is captured, the Death Star plans cannot be found, as R2 & his companion, a tall robot named C-3PO, have escaped to the desert world of Tatooine below. Through a series of mishaps, the robots end up in the hands of a farm boy named Luke Skywalker, who lives with his Uncle Owen & Aunt Beru. Owen & Beru are viciously murdered by the Empire's stormtroopers who are trying to recover the plans, and Luke & the robots meet with former Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi to try to return the plans to Leia Organa's home, Alderaan. After contracting a pilot named Han Solo & his Wookiee companion Chewbacca, they escape an Imperial blockade. But when they reach Alderaan's coordinates, they find it destroyed - by the Death Star.

They soon find themselves caught in a tractor beam & pulled into the Death Star. Although they rescue Leia Organa from the Death Star after a series of narrow escapes, Kenobi becomes one with the Force after being killed by his former pupil - Darth Vader. They reach the Alliance's base on Yavin's fourth moon, but the Imperials are in hot pursuit with the Death Star, and plan to annihilate the Rebel base. The Rebels must quickly find a way to eliminate the Death Star before it destroys them as it did Alderaan.

Hayden Christensen is a young Canadian actor who has gone relatively unnoticed in the United States up until the announcement that he was signed as Anakin Skywalker in the next 2 Star Wars prequels. Although the United States has had little exposure to Hayden, he is far from being just a beginner.

Christensen started out as a child actor at the ripe age of 13 in various TV dramas since 1994. His biggest break before Star Wars was being casted in the Fox Family network's "Higher Ground" where Hayden plays Scott Barringer; a character who turned to drugs after being seduced by his stepmother. In "Higher Ground," Hayden plays one of the central characters and gets a lot of exposure.

Filmography
Star Wars: Episode III (2005) - Anakin Skywalker
Star Wars: Episode II (2002) - Anakin Skywalker
Life as a House (2001) - Sam
Trapped in a Purple Haz (2000) (TV) - Orin Krieg
"Higher Ground" (2000) TV Series - Scott Barringer
Freefall (1999) (TV) - Patrick aka Angst über den Wolken (1999) (TV) (Germany)
Virgin Suicides, The (1999) - Jake Hill Conley
No Greater Love (1996) (TV) - Teddy Winfield aka Danielle Steel's 'No Greater Love' (1996) (TV)
Harrison Bergeron (1995) (TV) - Eric aka Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron (1995) (TV)
In the Mouth of Madness (1995) - Paper Boy aka John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1995) (USA: complete title)
Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story (1995) (TV) - Fletcher #2
Street Law (1995) - Young John Ryan aka Law of the Jungle (1995)
"Macht der Leidenschaft" (1994) TV Series - Skip McDeere aka "Family Passions" (1994)

Star Wars Website

Pictures Of Hayden Christensen

2006-11-12T16:05:00.000+08:00

Hayden Christensen (born April 19, 1981) is a Golden Globe-nominated Canadian actor. He appeared in Canadian television programs when he was young, then diversified into American television in the late 1990s. He moved on to minor acting roles before being praised for his role of Sam in Life as a House. He gained international fame playing the young adult Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars films.

Early Life
Hayden Christensen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to David Christensen (a Canadian software programmer) and Alie Nelson (an American corporate speechwriter). His father is of Danish and English descent and his mother is of Swedish and Italian descent. He has one brother and two sisters.

Raised in Thornhill, Ontario,outside Toronto, Christensen attended Baythorn Public School for his public schooling as well as Unionville High School in Unionville, Ontario, Canada Where he attended the Arts York Program for drama. He was "discovered" when his older sister Hejsa, a former trampoline champion, was shopping around for an agent after she landed a role in a Pringles potato chips commercial.

Career
Hayden has had quite notable performances in such films as The Virgin Suicides (1999) and the television movie Trapped in a Purple Haze (2000) (TV). His role as the troubled, misunderstood teen Sam Monroe in Irwin Winkler's Life as a House (2001) won him 'Breakthrough Performance of the Year' from the National Board of Review. The film also placed him as a nominee for 'Best Supporting Actor' at both the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards. George Lucas had already set his vision on the young and talented actor for the role of Anakin Skywalker in his final two Star Wars films, which became one of Christensen's most memorable roles.

Hayden then set out to star in Shattered Glass (2003), quoted by some of the real Stephen Glass' colleagues as giving an eerie and uncanny portrayal.

Devoted and loyal, the family man currently resides in both Toronto and Los Angeles. When not working, Hayden enjoys spending quality time with his family - such as big brother Tove, hanging out with his friends, and exploring other hobbies such as the blues, jazz and piano.

Christensen was the subject of part of London photographer Sam Taylor-Wood's photographic series called Crying Men (2002-2004), which also features 26 other actors in private moments of reflection. He was named one of People Magazine's "50 Hottest Bachelors" of 2005 and was chosen by Teen People as one of the "25 hottest stars under 25" in 2005.

Christensen will soon be seen in Virgin Territory, opposite Mischa Barton. The film, based on The Decameron, is about a group of people who escape the Black Plague epidemic by hiding out in a Tuscan Villa in Italy. He will also star in Awake, with Jessica Alba, which tells the story of a man who remains awake but paralyzed during heart surgery. He will also be starring in Factory Girl with Sienna Miller and Guy Pearce as a character based on the legendary Bob Dylan.

On July 22, 2006 at Comic-Con Samuel L. Jackson announced that Christensen would be starring with him in the upcoming film Jumper, the story of a young man who discovers he has the ability to teleport. Christensen would join Jackson, Jamie Bell and Teresa Palmer in the cast. Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) is attached to direct the sc-fi thriller.[1]

Personal Life
Christensen played competitive AAA hockey and tennis in Canada before giving up both for acting. He enjoys architecture, lasagna, pizza.

Since Attack of the Clones, Christensen has been persistently targeted with rumors and tabloid speculations about a possible romantic involvement with Natalie Portman. He has openly stated that he did not have any previous relationship with his co-star beyond friendship; however, he is notoriously protective of his private life.

In September 2006, he spoke with V Man magazine about a range of matters, including rumours about his sexuality. He said, "To me, masculinity is the ability to flirt with the effeminate. According to news reports, "The Star Wars star won't reveal what his sexual orientation is - to him, it's none of people's business except those he's close to and can relate to. With everybody else, it's just a catch game of cat and mouse. He said, "People I relate to know who I am."

Hayden Christensen

2006-11-11T14:33:00.000+08:00

Name: Hayden Christensen
Nickname: Den
Date of birth: 19 April 1981
Place Of Birth: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Height: 6' 1½" (1.87 m)

Biography Of Hayden Christensen
Hayden Christensen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 19th, 1981. The young Canadian actor started his career at the age of 13 starring in several TV dramas. His biggest break was a starring role on the Fox Family network's "Higher Ground" (2000). On the series Hayden shows off his acting talent as a teen who was sexually molested by his step-mom, and turns to drugs in despair. Later he appeared in the television movie Trapped in a Purple Haze (2000) (TV), where he co-starred with his friend Jonathan Jackson.

On May 12, 2000 Hayden announced that he would be starring as Anakin Skywalker in the next two prequels Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). The star was chosen by director George Lucas because he felt that Hayden had raw talent and good chemistry with actress Natalie Portman. Lucas stunned the movie world by picking the then-unknown actor after he had turned down such big names as Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonathan Jackson, as well as 400 other candidates.

More Facts About Hayden Christensen
Younger brother of Tove Christensen.

Has a younger sister, named Kaylen (b. 1984), and an older sister, Hejsa.

Was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine in 2002.

Was discovered when his older sister Hejsa, a former trampoline champion, was shopping around for an agent. No one was home to baby-sit him so he went along and it was suggested that he get an agent himself.

One of Teen People Magazine's "25 Hottest Stars under 25" in 2002.

Resides in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Attended Unionville High School, Markham, Ontario.

He fractured his hand during the filming of a rather violent scene in Life as a House (2001) in which his character hits a wall.

Grew up playing competitive tennis and hockey.

A digital rendering of Hayden appears in the 2004 DVD version of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), as the spirit of Anakin Skywalker. This replaced Sebastian Shaw as the ghostly image that appears beside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda at the end of the film. Hayden said in an interview that he had been unaware of this change.

Born on same day as Colombian actress Catalina Sandino Moreno, the lead in Maria Full of Grace (2004).

Graduated from Baythorn Public School in 1995.

Was a "ball boy" at the Canadian Open tennis matches. Jumped out too soon during a match in which John McEnroe was playing, causing an interruption in play.

He, his brother and their friends "kidnap" one another on each of their birthdays, drive to a location unknown to the birthday-boy and then spend the day riding dirt-bikes.

Supports Manchester United Football Club.

His Canadian father is of Danish and English ancestry, while his American mother is half Italian and half Swedish. His Italian maternal grandmother hails from Brooklyn.

Named one of Teen People Magazine's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" in 2005.

His favorite scenes to film in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) were the scenes in which he acted with Ian McDiarmid.

Named one of People Magazine's "50 Hottest Bachelors" in 2005.

Competed with his sister Hejsa Christensen (the captain), brother Tove Christensen and a family friend in "Eco-Challenge Fiji Islands" (2003). The Eco-Challenge consists of a 500-kilometer (300 miles) race that included the tasks of hiking, swimming, kayaking and mountain biking their way through the Fiji archipelago. Only 23 out of 81 teams finished this race. Christensen was one of the youngest competitors in the race.

One of the youngest competitors in "Eco-Challenge Fiji Islands" (2003).

Is the only actor to have portrayed Anakin Skywalker and his Sith alter ego, Darth Vader, in the same movie, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). All other times, Anakin and Vader have been played by different actors.

One of Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars under 25" in 2002 and 2005.

He and Jessica Alba visited Bellevue hospital and spent time with little children, bringing them Christmas cheer while filming _Awake (2006)_ .

Shares a birthday with James Franco.

Is one of three Star Wars actors who has also appeared in a film directed by a fellow cast member. Frank Oz directed Ian McDiarmid in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) and Terence Stamp in Bowfinger (1999). Hayden appeared in The Virgin Suicides (1999), directed by Sofia Coppola.

Is the third actor to play "Anakin Skywalker", and is the only who has played the non-Vader Anakin more than once. Sebastian Shaw played the role only in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), and had died by the time the prequels were made. Jake Lloyd played Anakin in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). Hayden played the young adult Anakin in both Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

On the set of Factory Girl (2006) in Louisiana he shared a house with co-star Sienna Miller.

Official Website Of Hayden Christensen

Hayden Christensen

Sexy Pictures Of CoCo Lee

2006-07-26T22:03:00.000+08:00

In 1995, CoCo released her album entitled Brave Enough To Love English as well as Woman In Love, an album in Mandarin. She was also named one of Taiwan's best artists. One year later, CoCo signed a contract with Sony Music Taiwan. Her CoCo Lee (Former Day's Love) Mandarin album was also released in 1996, as was her English album CoCo's Party. The Channel (V) Chinese Top 20 and the Golden Dragon Chart Awards in Taiwan both awarded CoCo's hit single "Former Love".

In 1997, CoCo released her third Mandarin album entitled Each Time I Think Of You as well as a Cantonese album called Be Careful Next Time. She was again awarded Best Female Artist by the Best 10 Artists Awards.

1998 was an even bigger year for her. Her Mandarin albums DiDaDi and SunnyDay: Feeling Good were released. It was also the year CoCo's DiDaDi won the MTV Asia Music Award for Best Album and Best Music Video.

In August of the same year, she performed in Taiwan to a concert audience of more than 30,000 fans, the second largest concert audience in Taiwan (a feat that only Michael Jackson has claimed in the past). CoCo was the voice behind Mulan, the title role of the Mandarin version of Disney animated feature, co-starring Jackie Chan. She also sang the Mandarin theme song of the film.

After having enjoyed huge success in Asia, CoCo's newest album release is the English album Just No Other Way, under the record label 550 Music. Released this year, the album has already spawned hits such as "Do You Want My Love" and "Can't Get Over You" and features R&B sensation Kelly Price. With the combination of CoCo's unique voice and R&B tinged music, it's clear that her Asian and American fans will not be getting over the former Miss Chinese America any time soon.

Beautiful Pictures Of CoCo Lee

2006-07-25T21:28:00.000+08:00

CoCo Lee, née Ferren Lee, was born in Hong Kong on the 17th of January 1975. Although she was born in Hong Kong, CoCo was raised in San Francisco where she grew up with her mother, stepfather and two older sisters (her father passed away when she was young). She shared her singing talent with her two older sisters and her mother, who was a doctor. Although the mother of the Lee sisters wanted her daughters to pursue more practical careers, the youngest CoCo knew at a young age that she would become a singer.

During her free time, CoCo would practice her singing abilities by singing material from her favorite pop artists, such as Madonna, Whitney Houston, George Michael and Debbie Gibson.

Despite their mother's former disapproval, the elder Lee sisters put their musical talent to the test by entering local singing competitions, which proved to be successful. Being the youngest sibling, Lee followed in her sisters' footsteps and entered singing competitions as well, since she looked up to them. Her winning performances at the local singing contests are what eventually paved the way to her musical career.

Her success at singing competitions was not the only thing that fueled her desire to pursue a singing career: She performed for her class in junior high and received a standing ovation, and sang at a local karaoke place at Fisherman's Wharf. Her karaoke singing was what really proved to Lee how well she can sing, after her friend started playing the tape of Lee's karaoke performances in the restaurant she worked at and people wanted to buy the tape.

After CoCo graduated from high school, she went on a vacation to Hong Kong and enterred an annual singing contest, which is where most of the country's stars got their breaks in the industry. CoCo entered the contest just for fun but ended up winning second place with her version of "Run To You" by Whitney Houston.

The next day, a local record company approached CoCo, asking her to sign with their label. Not only was she the only performer to sing in English at the competition, but the record company noticed that her voice stood out compared to the rest of the Asian contestants.

Why CoCo Is Famous

2006-07-24T20:40:00.000+08:00

CoCo Lee may be a new voice in the American market, but she has already made her mark in the Asian market with hit albums in Cantonese and Mandarin. We love spotting new talent, especially those with refreshing looks.

Formerly Miss Chinese America, CoCo Lee has broken through the English market with her album, Just No Other Way, and provided the voice of Mulan in the Mandarin version of Disney's animated feature of the same name.

Worldwide Recognition

CoCo sang the theme song "A Love Before Time" for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She received worldwide exposure when she performed the song live at the 2001 Academy Awards ceremony. Comments on YouTube and other internet media forums commented that she hit the high C6s right on, and delivered solid vocals. Her singing on the stage was skilled and she did not over-sing the song, bringing to the West the lovely beauty of Easternized music and culture. Her exquisite red dress, which she wore to the Academy Awards Ceremony for the movie nomination, and her graceful stage presence also gained her much applause in the West.

In 2002, CoCo was the featured performer at a Houston Rockets NBA game. She became the first Chinese singer to ever perform the US National Anthem at a major global sporting event.

In addition to her mega-star status in the Mandarin and Cantopop music market, Lee's English-language performance has also received recognition. Her song Before I Fall In Love was included in the soundtrack of the movie Runaway Bride.

She was invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to perform Phantom of the Opera in China.

Also, Walt Disney Pictures hired her to sing the title song and be the voice of the heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin Chinese version of Mulan. She recorded the song "Reflections", which she also sang at the 2005 opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland A "Reflections" Chinese music video was also filmed. While the Christina Aguilera version of the English version is more widely known, CoCo did also sing the English version, including one which she sang together with Christina.

CoCo also does part-time acting. This all-rounded entertainer co-starred in the Chinese movie comedy Master of Everything (aka Bamboo Shoot) with John Lone, which won the Best Foreign Film award at the 2005 Beverly Hills Film Festival. In character in this movie she sang one of her own hit songs, "Di-Da-Di", which was a cover of Maria Montell's "And So The Story Goes".

In the world of fashion and commerce, CoCo was an Omega Watches Global Ambassador in 2004, and fashion house Chanel named CoCo its first "Asian-Pacific Celebrity Ambassadress". This brought Ferren's story full circle somewhat, as she got her nickname CoCo from being an admirer of the firm's products. CoCo, as the YouthAIDS ambassador had been to Bangkok, Thailand for the global AIDS conference in year 2004. She attended the conference as the representative of the Asian artists to meet various youth groups discussing what she can do to educate and protect them from contracting AIDS.

In June 2005 CoCo's engagement to millionaire Canadian businessman Bruce Rockowitz was made public, apparently having taken place some months earlier. Despite Bruce being 15 years her senior, CoCo's mother approved the marriage, it should be noted that she didn't approve of many of Coco's past boyfriends.

As of 2006, CoCo Lee has yet to break the US Market with a big single.

CoCo Lee Song

2006-07-23T17:47:00.000+08:00

Coco Lee performed a serial of classic Cantonese love songs

Coco Lee is the stage name of Ferren Lee-Kelly (李美林: Lǐ Měilín; also 李玟 Lǐ Wén) (born 17 January 1975). She is a C-pop star who has also recorded albums in English, contributed to several movies and represented internationally-known products to the Asian market. Her voice, especially in Just No Other Way, has been favourably compared with that of Mariah Carey and Regine Velasquez.

CoCo Lee was born in Hong Kong with ancestry from Harbin, China. Her father died when she was young, and CoCo moved with her mother and sister to California at age 10 and went through school while experimenting with her singing voice and following her older sisters in entering several local singing contests. CoCo has often spoke of how close she is to her mother, even now. She has said in interviews that her life in the past was not easy, and she had always tried to save as much money as possible, doing errands to earn some money. While she was not of rich background, she was not so poor to the point that she had no roof above her head, or no food on the table - she says in an interview.

After Lee's high school graduation in 1993, she took a holiday in Hong Kong, and while there she came runner-up in the 12th Annual New Talent Singing Awards. The following day, she was approached by local record label Fancy Pie Records, recording four studio albums with them in 1994-95

CoCo Lee was in Fancy Pie Records, a local record label, from 1994 to 1995, before being picked up in 1996 by Sony, who has continued to represent her ever since. There are claims that her record company does not see much potential in her, a reason for the lukewarm marketing and making of her recent albums since about 2003

Fun Facts Of CoCo Lee

2006-07-22T20:25:00.000+08:00

CoCo entered the "New Talent Singing Contest" (新秀歌唱比賽) on the advice of her mother back in 1993, when going back to HK for a vacation and she won second prize! She had entered singing contests originally because she had wrecked her mother's car and used her prize money to pay off the damages....
CoCo never intended to be a singer, but she was offered a recording contract by Capital Artists (華星) after her runner-up placing in the New Talent Singing Contest and took the opportunity
CoCo was majoring in Biochemistry and Bioscience at University of California Irvine as a pre-med prior to entering the music business and managed to maintain a GPA or 3.8 (nerd alert!!! :P)
CoCo is not the only singer in her family, apparently her mother and 2 sisters can sing as well!
CoCo's father passed away when she was quite young unfortunately. But however, CoCo has a step-father
CoCo owns a white Maltese name Milky
CoCo was the volleyball team captain for most of her years in high-school
CoCo's mother owns a medical clinic in San Francisco but has put aside that occupation to focus on being her daughter's assistant
Contrary to popular belief, CoCo is NOT an "American Born Chinese", she came to the U.S. when she was 9 from HK
While CoCo was studying at the University of California at Irvine she had to read at least 100 pages of readings everyday..hehehe...she tried her best to disguise herself from students, but was recognized easily as 1/3 of the population at U of C at Irvine is Chinese- as a result, CoCo was constantly hassled for autographs and on Valentine's Day (1997) she found a bouquet of roses on the windshield of her car...that freaked her out as she didn't know what to expect from the giver...hehehe...
CoCo prefers to do her own make-up, because she feels that she knows her face best....
when first starting out, CoCo sang back-up on Andy Hui's (許志安) song called "Let Me Treat You Better" (Åý我對待你好一點) and also did a duet on Edmond Leung's (梁漢文) "First Place" (第一位) Greatest Hits Compilation CD
CoCo believes in "love at first sight"!
CoCo's mother made CoCo take Tahitian dancing lessons to incorporate "butt-shaking" into her dancing routines!
People who have *partied* with CoCo in Taiwan tell me that CoCo prefers to be called "Ferren", not receiving so much "star attention"
CoCo drives a silver Mercedes Benz sedan apparently and keeps a volleyball in her car:)
CoCo does not have a license in Taiwan
CoCo was once considered for the role of "Snow" in Jacky Cheung's "Snow Wolf Lake" musical...(the part subsequently went to diva extraordinaire Sandy Lam)...CoCo however was too busy at that time so she turned down the offer
Rumours have it that CoCo's mom put out an estimated 6 digit figure USD to end CoCo's contract with "Fancy Pie" and to go with Sony, but it has also been rumoured that Sony hired top lawyers to ensure CoCo's move to Sony was seemless
CoCo's mom and step-father have rented a condominium in L.A. to live with CoCo while she is studying....CoCo also has a home in HK as well
Word from staff in HK is that CoCo is quite "fussy" about how she wants things done and has "stepped on quite a few people's toes" back in HK as CoCo is known to be quite the perfectionist. Other sources claim that CoCo is actually quite sweet and is just being professional behind-the-scenes
CoCo surfs the internet every chance she gets...

CoCo Lee Favourites

2006-07-21T20:21:00.000+08:00

CoCo Lee is amazing. Jaws inevitably drop in disbelief whenever the striking siren sings for those who would judge her solely by her Asian looks. "They cannot imagine what I'll sound like," admits Lee, who is blessed with a soulful set of lungs that simultaneously devastate listeners and change the preconceived notions of who can or can't sing R&B. "But always when I'm done singing, people are very surprised."

Dance Moves:	Hip-Hop grooves
Artists:	Mariah Carey, Madonna, George Michael, David Huang, Whitney Houston
Saying:	Life Is To Be Relax And Be Happy!!!
Foods:	Âû³J¥J, Chocolate, Watermelon, Mangoes, McDonald Fries, Japanese Food, and Strawberries
Drink:	Water
Animal	Dogs
Book:	Wuthering Heights
Movies:	RainMan, In The Name Of The Father
Actors:	Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Russle Crowe
Colors:	White and Colors that stand out
Instruments:	Piano, Percussion
Songs by Herself:	Perfect In Everyway, °T®§
Sports:	Volleyball, Football, Basketball
Place in the World:	Taiwan, Hawaii, Disneyland
Compliment:	on how cute she Is

Lucky Number: Number 3

Bad Habits: Loves To Sleep, indecisive

People CoCo is scared of: Her Two Sisters

What CoCo likes best about herself: Her Smile =) /d^_^b

CoCo thinks her best facial features are her: Lips

Preferred Occupation: Doctor (just like her mom)

Role Models: Her mother and Mariah Carey

Most Memorable Moment: When her mom didn't sleep for one whole night just to fix up CoCo's dress for beauty pageant

Most Interesting Experience: Being Student Council President for 4 years in a row

Things CoCo Likes To Do: Taking care of dogs or little kids, helping out elderly

When CoCo Gets Bored She: Likes to look at herself in the mirror

When CoCo Gets Upset She: Listens to music, especially listening to her makeup artist sing

Dreams & Goals: Gain recognition as an international artist, work in the medical field and find cure to cancer

Most Hated Places: Public Washrooms

Beauty Secrets: Eat lots of vitamin C and get lots of exercise!

CoCo Lee

2006-07-20T17:20:00.000+08:00

Profile

Birthname:	Ferren Lee-Kelly ( 李美琳 )
Stage Name:	Coco Lee ( 李玟 )
Birthdate:	January 17, 1975
Birthplace:	Hong Kong
Weight:	47 kg (104 lbs)
Height:	5'3 (162 cm)
Measurements:	34C, 22.5", 33"
Blood Type:	O
Astrological Sign:	Capricorn
Chinese Zodiac Sign:	Tiger
Religion:	Buddhist
Family:	Mother, Step-Dad, Two sisters (Nancy & Carol)
Citizenship:	American citizen of Chinese descent;also has citizenship in HK
Education:	University of California, Irvine (biology)
Highschool	Raoul Wallenburg Alternative High School (San Francisco)
Languages	English, Cantonese, French and Mandarin
Hobbies:	Studying Skeletons (biology), drawing, singing, poetry, dancing, choreographing, listening to music (R&B & Soul)
Personalities:	Naive, Natural, Energetic, Modest, Obedient, Hardworking, Respectful

Biography
CoCo Lee, née Ferren Lee, was born in Hong Kong on the 17th of January 1975. Although she was born in Hong Kong, CoCo was raised in San Francisco where she grew up with her mother, stepfather and two older sisters (her father passed away when she was young). She shared her singing talent with her two older sisters and her mother, who was a doctor. Although the mother of the Lee sisters wanted her daughters to pursue more practical careers, the youngest CoCo knew at a young age that she would become a singer.

During her free time, CoCo would practice her singing abilities by singing material from her favorite pop artists, such as Madonna, Whitney Houston, George Michael and Debbie Gibson.

Despite their mother's former disapproval, the elder Lee sisters put their musical talent to the test by entering local singing competitions, which proved to be successful. Being the youngest sibling, Lee followed in her sisters' footsteps and entered singing competitions as well, since she looked up to them. Her winning performances at the local singing contests are what eventually paved the way to her musical career.

Her success at singing competitions was not the only thing that fueled her desire to pursue a singing career: She performed for her class in junior high and received a standing ovation, and sang at a local karaoke place at Fisherman's Wharf. Her karaoke singing was what really proved to Lee how well she can sing, after her friend started playing the tape of Lee's karaoke performances in the restaurant she worked at and people wanted to buy the tape.

After CoCo graduated from high school, she went on a vacation to Hong Kong and enterred an annual singing contest, which is where most of the country's stars got their breaks in the industry. CoCo entered the contest just for fun but ended up winning second place with her version of "Run To You" by Whitney Houston.

The next day, a local record company approached CoCo, asking her to sign with their label. Not only was she the only performer to sing in English at the competition, but the record company noticed that her voice stood out compared to the rest of the Asian contestants.

In 1995, CoCo released her album entitled Brave Enough To Love English as well as Woman In Love, an album in Mandarin. She was also named one of Taiwan's best artists. One year later, CoCo signed a contract with Sony Music Taiwan. Her CoCo Lee (Former Day's Love) Mandarin album was also released in 1996, as was her English album CoCo's Party. The Channel (V) Chinese Top 20 and the Golden Dragon Chart Awards in Taiwan both awarded CoCo's hit single "Former Love".

In 1997, CoCo released her third Mandarin album entitled Each Time I Think Of You as well as a Cantonese album called Be Careful Next Time. She was again awarded Best Female Artist by the Best 10 Artists Awards.

1998 was an even bigger year for her. Her Mandarin albums DiDaDi and SunnyDay: Feeling Good were released. It was also the year CoCo's DiDaDi won the MTV Asia Music Award for Best Album and Best Music Video.

In August of the same year, she performed in Taiwan to a concert audience of more than 30,000 fans, the second largest concert audience in Taiwan (a feat that only Michael Jackson has claimed in the past). CoCo was the voice behind Mulan, the title role of the Mandarin version of Disney animated feature, co-starring Jackie Chan. She also sang the Mandarin theme song of the film.

After having enjoyed huge success in Asia, CoCo's newest album release is the English album Just No Other Way, under the record label 550 Music. Released this year, the album has already spawned hits such as "Do You Want My Love" and "Can't Get Over You" and features R&B sensation Kelly Price. With the combination of CoCo's unique voice and R&B tinged music, it's clear that her Asian and American fans will not be getting over the former Miss Chinese America any time soon.

CoCo Lee.com

Anne Frank

2006-07-19T15:56:00.000+08:00

Along with everything else she came to represent, Anne Frank symbolized the power of a book. Because of the diary she kept between 1942 and 1944, in the secret upstairs annex of an Amsterdam warehouse where she and her family hid until the Nazis found them, she became the most memorable figure to emerge from World War II — besides Hitler, of course, who also proclaimed his life and his beliefs in a book. In a way, the Holocaust began with one book and ended with another. Yet it was Anne's that finally prevailed — a beneficent and complicated work outlasting a simple and evil one — and that secured to the world's embrace the second most famous child in history.

Profile Of Anne Frank
Name at birth: Annelies Marie Frank
BirthDay: 12 June 1929
Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Nationality: German
Gender: Female
Occupation: Diarist, author
Death: March 1945 (typhus)
Best Known As: Author of The Diary Of Anne Frank
Place Of Death: Belsen, Germany

Biography of Anne Frank
Anne Frank was a Jewish girl, born June 12, 1929, and lived through the time that Hitler was ruling Germany. Her family escaped to the Netherlands, to start a new life where they could do what they wanted. She had a father, mother, and a sister that was three years older than her. She was in the Netherlands at the time she celebrated her 13th birthday. On that day she received the best present anyone could give her...a diary.

Anne had dreams of becoming a writer, and was delighted with her gift. Instead of writing "Dear Diary", like anyone else would, she named her diary. She wrote to Kitty...as she called her diary.

On the first page of her diary she wrote this:I hope I shall be able to confide in you completely, as I have never been able to do in anyone before, and I hope that you will be a great support and comfort to me.
Anne Frank

She continued writing in her diary two days later. She wrote in it for over two years. That diary became one of the most published books ever, and had been translated into over 60 different languages.

Anne had many friends in the Netherlands, and she played with them every day. Her friends and she played pranks on other residents, like pouring water on their head from a building above.

Then Hitler and the Nazis invaded and took over the Netherlands. The Jews had to wear a special star, so everyone could see who they were, and they had new rules to live by. They weren't allowed to do much of anything that they used to be able to. They even had a curfew.

The Frank family continued on with their lives until Margot was ordered to go to a concentration camp. The family went into hiding in the attic above Otto Frank's office. They had friends bring them food and keep them hidden. The only people who knew about the hiding place were Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, and Bep Voskuijl. They didn't want anyone to find them, so they had to keep extra quiet. They shared the attic also, so it was very crowded. Anne mostly wrote in her diary. They had to keep the windows blacked out; their only sunlight was a skylight that Anne would spend hours looking out of. She hated being trapped in that small space. On September 28, 1942 she wrote:
I can't tell you how oppressive it is never to be able to go outdoors, also I am very afraid that we will be discovered and shot.

Anne spent a lot of time with Peter Van Pel, a boy that was in hiding with her. They became very close. The last entry Anne wrote in her diary was on August, 1, 1944. Three days after this was written, the German police found their hiding place, and they were taken to concentration camps. The diary was left behind. Margot and she were forced to work horrible jobs, such as smashing batteries. The acid burned her fingers. About one month before the Jews were freed Anne died of typhus. Margot died.

Margaret Thatcher

2006-07-18T23:39:00.000+08:00

The Iron Lady of British politics, Margaret Thatcher was the longest continuously serving prime minister since 1827. Her conservative politics led to the implementation of such radical policies as the poll tax.

Profile Of Margaret Thatcher
Name at birth: Margaret Hilda Roberts
Nickname: "The Iron Lady"
Date of Birth: 13 October 1925
Place Of Birth: Grantham, Lincolnshire, England
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Head of State
Executive Summary: UK Prime Minister, 1979-90
Nationality: England
First entered Parliament: 8 October 1859
Age became PM: 53 years, 204 days
Maiden Speech: 5 February 1960 during the second reading of her Private Member's Bill
Total time as PM: 11 years, 209 days
Education: Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School and Somerville College, Oxford
Family: Margaret Thatcher is the younger of two daughters. She married Sir Dennis Thatcher, and has one son and one daughter
Father: Alfred Roberts
Mother: Beatrice Roberts
Sister: Muriel
Husband: Denis Thatcher
Son: Mark Thatcher (DOB 15 Aug 1953, twin)
Daughter: Carol Thatcher (DOB 15 Aug 1953, twin)
Interests: Music, art, opera and reading
University: BA Chemistry, Oxford University (1947)
Administrator: Chancellor, College of William and Mary (1994-2000)

Biography

Breaking the barriers

Margaret Thatcher was the longest serving Prime Minister for more than 150 years and was the first woman ever to take the role.

Her father, a shopkeeper and Mayor of Grantham, was a major formative influence.

Thatcher was educated at the local grammar school and at Oxford where she studied chemistry. She also became president of the university Conservative association.

Mrs Thatcher later read for the Bar, before being elected in 1959 as the Conservative MP for Finchley.

She held junior posts before becoming shadow spokesperson for Education, and entered the Cabinet as Education Secretary in 1970.

In Opposition she stood against Edward Heath for the party leadership in 1975. Her victory was considered a surprise by many. In 1979, the Conservative Party won the General Election and Margaret Thatcher succeeded James Callaghan as PM.

Thatcher's first two years in office were not easy. Unemployment was very high, but the economy gradually showed improvement. She brought more of her supporters into the Cabinet, and bolstered her reputation by leading the country to war against Argentina in the Falkland Islands.

Landslide victory

The Conservatives went on to win the 1983 election by a landslide, aided by a fragmented opposition. Margaret Thatcher's government followed a radical programme of privatisation and deregulation, reform of the Trade Unions, tax cuts and the introduction of market mechanisms into health and education. The aim was to reduce the role of government and increase individual self-reliance.

She also became a familiar figure internationally, striking up a famous friendship with US President Reagan and gaining the praise of Soviet leader Gorbachev.

One great difficulty during her time in office was the issue of Europe. Her long-serving Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe resigned in November 1990 in protest at Thatcher's attitude to Europe.

Final downfall

His resignation speech set in train events which were to lead to Thatcher's downfall later that month.

Michael Heseltine challenged her for the leadership, and while he failed to win, he gained 152 votes - enough to make it evident that a crucial minority favoured a change. Thatcher was eventually persuaded not to go forward to the second ballot, which was won by her Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Major.

She left the House of Commons in 1992, and now sits in the Lords as Baroness Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher's writings include two volumes of memoirs: The Downing Street Years and The Path to Power.

The Baroness is still seen at Tory party gatherings and has endorsed party leaders such as William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Life Of Helen Keller

2006-07-17T22:41:00.000+08:00

Helen Adams Keller was born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, a small rural town in Northwest Alabama, USA. The daughter of Captain Arthur Henley Keller and Kate Adams Keller she was born with full sight and hearing.

Kate Keller was a tall, statuesque blond with blue eyes. She was some twenty years younger than her husband Captain Keller, a loyal southerner who had proudly served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

The house they lived in was a simple, white, clapboard house built in 1820 by Helen’s grandparents. At the time of Helen’s birth the family were far from wealthy with Captain Keller earning a living as both a cotton plantation owner and the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the “North Alabamian”. Helen’s mother, as well as working on the plantation, would save money by making her own butter, lard, bacon and ham.

Helen falls ill

But Helen’s life was to change dramatically. In February 1882, when Helen was nineteen months old, she fell ill. To this day the nature of her ailment remains a mystery. The doctors of the time called it “brain fever”, whilst modern day doctors think it may have been scarlet fever or meningitis.

Whatever the illness, Helen was, for many days, expected to die. When, eventually, the fever subsided, Helen’s family rejoiced believing their daughter to be well again.

However, Helen’s mother soon noticed how her daughter was failing to respond when the dinner bell was rang or when she passed her hand in front of her daughter’s eyes.

It thus became apparent that Helen’s illness had left her both blind and deaf.

The following few years proved very hard for Helen and her family. Helen became a very difficult child, smashing dishes and lamps and terrorising the whole household with her screaming and temper tantrums. Relatives regarded her as a monster and thought she should be put into an institution.

By the time Helen was six her family had become desperate. Looking after Helen was proving too much for them. Kate Keller had read in Charles Dickens’ book “American Notes” of the fantastic work that had been done with another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and travelled to a specialist doctor in Baltimore for advice. They were given confirmation that Helen would never see or hear again but were told not to give up hope, the doctor believed Helen could be taught and he advised them to visit a local expert on the problems of deaf children. This expert was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, Bell was now concentrating on what he considered his true vocation, the teaching of deaf children.

Alexander Graham Bell suggested that the Kellers write to Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, and request that he try and find a teacher for Helen. Michael Anagnos considered Helen’s case and immediately recommended a former pupil of the institution, that woman was Anne Sullivan.

Anne Sullivan

Anne Sullivan had lost the majority of her sight at the age of five. By the age of ten, her mother had died and her father deserted her. She and her brother Jimmie were sent to the poorhouse in February 1876.

Anne’s brother died in the poorhouse. It was October 1880 before Anne finally left and went to commence her education at the Perkins Institution. One summer during her time at the institute, Anne had two operations on her eyes, which led to her regaining enough sight to be able to read normal print for short periods of time.

Anne graduated from Perkins in 1886 and began to search for work. Finding work was terribly difficult for Anne, due to her poor eyesight, and when she received the offer from Michael Anagnos to work as the teacher of Helen Keller, a deaf-blind mute, although she had no experience in this area, she accepted willingly.

Helen meets Anne

On 3 March 1887 Anne arrived at the house in Tuscumbia and for the first time met Helen Keller. Anne immediately started teaching Helen to finger spell. Spelling out the word “Doll” to signify a present she had brought with her for Helen. The next word she taught Helen was “Cake”. Although Helen could repeat these finger movements she could not quite understand what they meant. And while Anne was struggling trying to help her understand, she was also struggling to try and control Helen’s continuing bad behaviour.

Anne and Helen moved into a small cottage on the land of the main house to try and get Helen to improve her behaviour. Of particular concern were Helen’s table manners. She had taken to eating with her hands and from the plates of everyone at the table.

Anne’s attempts to improve Helen’s table manners and make her brush her own hair and button her shoes led to more and more temper tantrums. Anne punished these tantrums by refusing to “talk” with Helen by spelling words on her hands.

Over the coming weeks, however, Helen’s behaviour did begin to improve as a bond grew between the two. Then, after a month of Anne’s teaching, what the people of the time called a “miracle” occurred.

Helen had until now not yet fully understood the meaning of words. When Anne led her to the water pump on 5 April 1887, all that was about to change.

As Anne pumped the water over Helen’s hand , Anne spelled out the word water in the girl’s free hand. Something about this explained the meaning of words within Helen, and Anne could immediately see in her face that she finally understood.

Helen later recounted the incident:

“We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honey-suckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.”

Helen immediately asked Anne for the name of the pump to be spelt on her hand and then the name of the trellis. All the way back to the house Helen learned the name of everything she touched and also asked for Anne’s name. Anne spelled the name “Teacher” on Helen’s hand. Within the next few hours Helen learnt the spelling of thirty new words.

Helen’s progress from then on was astonishing. Her ability to learn was far in advance of anything that anybody had seen before in someone without sight or hearing. It wasn’t long before Anne was teaching Helen to read, firstly with raised letters and later with braille, and to write with both ordinary and braille typewriters.

Michael Anagnos was keen to promote Helen, one of the numerous articles on her that he wrote said of Helen that “she is a phenomenon”. These articles led to a wave of publicity about Helen with pictures of her reading Shakespeare or stroking her dog appearing in national newspapers.

Helen had become famous, and as well as again visiting Alexander Graham Bell, she visited President Cleveland at the White House. By 1890 she was living at the Perkins Institute and being taught by Anne. In March of that year Helen met Mary Swift Lamson who over the coming year was to try and teach Helen to speak. This was something that Helen desperately wanted and although she learned to understand what somebody else was saying by touching their lips and throat, her efforts to speak herself proved at this stage to be unsuccessful. This was later attributed to the fact that Helen’s vocal chords were not properly trained prior to her being taught to speak.

The Frost King

On 4 November 1891 Helen sent Michael Anagnos a birthday gift of a short story she had written called “The Frost King”. Anagnos was so delighted with the story that he had soon published it in a magazine hailing its importance in literary history.

However, it was soon discovered that Helen’s story was the same as one called “The Frost Fairies” by Margaret Canby. This was ultimately to be the end of Helen and Anne’s friendship with Michael Anagnos. He felt he had been made to appear foolish by what he considered to be Helen’s deception.

There had to be an investigation and it was discovered that Helen had previously been read the story some years before and had obviously remembered it. Helen always claimed not to recall the original story and it should always be remembered that Helen was still only 11 years old, however, this incident created a rift that would never heal between Helen, Anne and Anagnos. It also created great doubt in Helen’s own mind as to whether any of her thoughts were truly her own.

In 1894 Helen and Anne met John D Wright and Dr Thomas Humason who were planning to set up a school to teach speech to the deaf in New York City. Helen and Anne were very excited by this and the assurances of the two men that Helen’s speech could be improved excited them further. Helen thus agreed to attend the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf.

Unfortunately though, Helen’s speech never really improved beyond the sounds that only Anne and others very close to her could understand.

Helen enters Radcliffe College

Helen moved on to the Cambridge School for Young Ladies in 1896 and in the Autumn of 1900 entered Radcliffe College, becoming the first deafblind person to have ever enrolled at an institution of higher learning.

Life at Radcliffe was very difficult for Helen and Anne, and the huge amount of work involved led to deterioration in Anne’s eyesight. During their time at the College Helen began to write about her life. She would write the story both in braille and on a normal typewriter. It was at this time that Helen and Anne met with John Albert Macy who was to help edit Helen’s first book “The Story of My Life” which was published in 1903 and although it sold poorly at first it has since become a classic.

On 28 June 1904 Helen graduated from Radcliffe College, becoming the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

John Macy became good friends with Helen and Anne, and in May 1905 John and Anne were married. Anne’s name now changed to Anne Sullivan Macy. The three lived together in Wrentham, Massachusetts, and during this time Helen wrote “The World I Live In”, revealing for the first time her thoughts on her world. It was also during this time that John Macy introduced her to a new and revolutionary way of viewing the world. And in 1909 Helen became a member of the Socialist Party of Massachusetts.

In 1913 “Out of the Dark” was published. This was a series of essays on socialism and its impact on Helen’s public image was immense. Everyone now knew Helen’s political views.

Helen tours the World

Helen and Anne filled the following years with lecture tours, speaking of her experiences and beliefs to enthralled crowds. Her talks were interpreted sentence by sentence by Anne Sullivan, and were followed by question and answer sessions.

Although Helen and Anne made a good living from their lectures, by 1918 the demand for Helen’s lectures had diminished and they were touring with a more light-hearted vaudeville show, which demonstrated Helen’s first understanding of the word “water”. These shows were hugely successful from the very first performance, a review of which read as follows:

“Helen Keller has conquered again, and the Monday afternoon audience at the Palace, one of the most critical and cynical in the World, was hers.”

At this time they were also offered the chance to make a film in Hollywood and they jumped at the opportunity. “Deliverance”, the story of Helen’s life, was made. Helen was, however, unhappy with the glamorous nature of the film and it unfortunately did not prove to be the financial success that they had hoped for.

The vaudeville appearances continued with Helen answering a wide range of questions on her life and her politics and Anne translating Helen’s answers for the enthralled audience. They were earning up to two thousand dollars a week, which was a considerable sum of money at the time.

In 1918 Helen, Anne and John moved to Forest Hills in New York. Helen used their new home as a base for her extensive fundraising tours for the American Foundation for the Blind. She not only collected money, but also campaigned tirelessly to alleviate the living and working conditions of blind people, who at that time were usually badly educated and living in asylums. Her endeavours were a major factor in changing these conditions.

Helen’s mother Kate died in 1921 from an unknown illness, and this left Anne as the sole constant in Helen’s life. However that same year Anne fell ill again and this was followed in 1922 by a severe bout of bronchitis which left her unable to speak above a whisper and thus unable to work with Helen on stage anymore. At this point Polly Thomson, who had started working for Helen and Anne in 1914 as a secretary, took on the role of explaining Helen to the theatre going public.

They also spent a lot of time touring the world raising money for blind people. In 1931 they met King George and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace, who were said to be deeply impressed by Helen’s ability to understand what people said through touch.

All the while Anne’s health was getting worse, and with the news of the death of John Macy in 1932, although their marriage had broken up some years before, her spirit was finally broken. She died on 20 October 1936.

When Anne died, Helen and Polly moved to Arcan Ridge, in Westport, Connecticut, which would be Helen’s home for the rest of her life.

After World War II, Helen and Polly spent years travelling the world fundraising for the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind. They visited Japan, Australia, South America, Europe and Africa.

Whilst away during this time Helen and Polly learnt of the fire that destroyed their home at Arcan Ridge. Although the house would be rebuilt, as well as the many mementoes that Helen and Polly lost, also destroyed was the latest book that Helen had been working on about Anne Sullivan, called “Teacher”.

It was also during this time that Polly Thomson’s health began to deteriorate and whilst in Japan she had a mild stroke. Doctors advised Polly to stop the continuous touring she and Helen did, and although initially they slowed down a bit, the touring continued once Polly had recovered.

In 1953 a documentary film “The Unconquered” was made about Helen’s life, this was to win an Academy Award as the best feature length documentary .It was at the same time that Helen began work again on her book “Teacher”, some seven years after the original had been destroyed. The book was finally published in 1955.

Polly Thomson had a stroke in 1957, she was never to fully recover and died on March 21, 1960. Her ashes were deposited at the National Cathedral in Washington DC next to those of Anne Sullivan. It was the nurse who had been brought in to care for Polly in her last years, Winnie Corbally, who was to take care of Helen in her remaining years.

The Miracle Worker

It was in 1957 that “The Miracle Worker” was first performed. A drama portraying Anne Sullivan’s first success in communicating with Helen as a child, it first appeared as a live television play in the United States.

In 1959 it was re-written as a Broadway play and opened to rave reviews. It became a smash hit and ran for almost two years. In 1962 it was made into a film and the actresses playing Anne and Helen both received Oscars for their performances.

Helen retires from public life

In October 1961 Helen suffered the first of a series of strokes, and her public life was to draw to a close. She was to spend her remaining years being cared for at her home in Arcan Ridge.

Her last years were not however without excitement, and in 1964 Helen was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, by President Lyndon Johnson. A year later she was elected to the Women’s Hall of Fame at the New York World’s Fair.

On June 1, 1968, at Arcan Ridge, Helen Keller died peacefully in her sleep. Helen was cremated in Bridgeport, Connecticut and a funeral service was held at the National Cathedral in Washington DC where the urn containing her ashes would later be deposited next to those of Anne Sullivan and Polly Thomson.

Helen’s legacy

Today Helen’s final resting place is a popular tourist attraction and the bronze plaque erected to commemorate her life has the following inscription written in braille:

“Helen Keller and her beloved companion Anne Sullivan Macy are interred in the columbarium behind this chapel.”

So many people have visited the chapel, and touched the braille dots, that the plaque has already had to be replaced twice.

If Helen Keller were born today her life would undoubtedly have been completely different. Her life long dream was to be able to talk, something that she was never really able to master. Today the teaching methods exist that would have helped Helen to realise this dream. What would Helen have made of the technology available today to blind and deafblind individuals? Technology that enables blind and deafblind people, like Helen, to communicate directly, and independently, with anybody in the world.

Helen Keller may not have been directly responsible for the development of these technologies and teaching methods. But with the help of Anne Sullivan, through her writings, lectures and the way she lived her life, she has shown millions of people that disability need not be the end of the world.

In Helen’s own words:

“The public must learn that the blind man is neither genius nor a freak nor an idiot. He has a mind that can be educated, a hand which can be trained, ambitions which it is right for him to strive to realise, and it is the duty of the public to help him make the best of himself so that he can win light through work.”

Helen Keller

2006-07-16T22:59:00.000+08:00

The Miracle Helen Keller
She altered our perception of the disabled and remapped the boundaries of sight and sense

Profile Of Helen Keller
Date Of Birth: 27 June 1880
Birth Place: Tuscumbia, Alabama
Date Of Death: 1 June 1968
Best Known As: Famed Blind and Death Activist

Helen Keller Biography
Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When she was 19 months old, she contracted an illness that left her deaf and blind.

Despite her handicap, and despite the fact that it was nearly impossible to educate such a child, her mother found Helen to be an intelligent youngster. Her mother's determination to do the best for her child would be mirrored in Helen's determination to overcome her obstacles.

At age seven, Helen began her specialized education in reading and writing with Anne Sullivan of the Perkins Institute for the Blind. She was taught to read by the Braille system and to write using a special typewriter. She even learned to speak, with only one month's instruction.

She enrolled in Radcliffe College, and graduated with honors in 1904.

As an adult, Keller raised money for the American Foundation for the Blind, and traveled and lectured throughout the world.

Keller's story was told in a 1957 television play, The Miracle Worker, which later became a Broadway play (1959) and then a 1962 film starring Anne Bancroft as Sullivan and Patty Duke as Keller; both Bancroft and Duke won Academy Awards for their work... In October of 2002, Alabama announced that Keller's image would be placed on the state's quarter, which would begin circulating in March 2003; it is the first U.S. coin in circulation to include Braille.

Helen Keller Quotes

S.H.E Video

2006-07-15T17:14:00.000+08:00

Bu Xian Zhang Da

Profiles Of S.H.E

2006-07-14T20:37:00.000+08:00

Profile Of Selina
English Name : Selina Ren

Chinese Pinyin : Ren Jia Xuan

Birthday : 31 October 1981

Birthplace : Taipei , Taiwan

Height : 163cm

Weight : unpredictable (no constant value of course )

Blood Type : A

Favorite Singer : Coco Lee Wen

Hobbies : Windows Shopping (common for gal )

Favourite Food : Baby Food

Profile Of Hebe
English Name : Hebe Tien

Chinese Pinyin : Tien Fu Zhen

Birthday : 30 March 1983

Birthplace : Hsinchu , Taiwan

Height : 161.5cm

Weight : unpredictable (no constant value of course )

Favorite Singer : Faye Wong

Hobbies : Sleep !!??

Favourite Food : Sweets , Fruits

Profile Of Ella
English Name : Ella Chen

Chinese Pinyin : Chen Jia Hua

Birthday : 18 June 1981

Birthplace : Pingtung , Taiwan

Height : 163cm

Weight : unpredictable

Favorite Singer : Sun YanZI

Hobbies : Basketball

Favourite Food : Corn Soup

Photographs Of S.H.E

2006-07-13T20:58:00.000+08:00

Latest News Of Mavis Hee

2006-06-29T23:12:00.000+08:00

Mavis Hee admitted to Institute of Mental Health for a week

Singapore singer Mavis Hee has been warded in the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for a week.

Doctors Channel NewsAsia spoke to say it is normal for patients to be kept for observation for at least a week or two.

Hee has always seemed quiet and kept a low profile, so it's no wonder that many found her behaviour last Thursday puzzling.

The police had sent the singer to the Mental Health Institute after she created a ruckus at Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Doctors said patients, who are referred to IMH by the police, usually have to go through a series of tests and observations.

But it doesn't mean they are mentally ill.

According to IMH consultant psychiatrist Dr Lee Cheng, causing a racket in public places could be a symptom of schizophrenia, severe agitation or even severe depression.

All these may cause mental instability.

Mavis Hee

2006-06-28T22:49:00.000+08:00

Profile Of Mavis Hee

English Name:	Mavis Hee
Birth Name:	Xu Mei Feng
Chinese Name:	Xu Mei Jing
Nickname:	Baby
Birth Place:	Singapore
Birth Date:	27 September 1974
Star Sign:	Libra
Blood Type:	O+
Height:	170cm / 5'9
Weight:	48kg
First Love:	17
Lucky Number:	7
Family:	Father, Mother, 1 brother, 1 sister, (Mavis is the youngest)
Eyesight:	150 degrees short-sighted
Ambition:	Air-stewardess
Hobbies:	Singing, Writing Music, Photography, Listening to Music, Watching Movie
Acted in:	TCS Drama Tofu Street, Away With Words, S.N.A.G

Fav Place:	London, England
Fav Food:	Chicken, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Mango and Prunes
Fav Actor:	Tom Hanks
Fav Actress:	Meg Ryan
Fav Film:	Forrest Gump
Fav Sport:	Jogging, swimming
Fav Flower:	Cactus
Fav Accessories:	Silver Accessories
Likes to Buy:	Handbags
Fav Animals:	Dogs, Koalas

Biography Of Mavis Hee

Mavis Hee is a Singaporean singer and also known as "Faye Wong of Singapore" .

Mavis first started on her path to stardom when she was awarded the titles of Miss Photogenic and Miss Amity in Singapore's Miss Chinatown Pageant in 1992.

A former student of East Payoh Secondary school, Mavis took part in an island-wide search for singing talents and was selected by music director Chen Jiaming. Then she left her job as a photographer's assistant to become a singer.

Mavis Hee Arrested

2006-06-28T00:06:00.000+08:00

The Straits Times
Jun 28, 2006

The Singaporean singer, known for her 1990s Chinese hits, was reportedly arrested for harassing a hotel guest

SINGAPOREAN singer Mavis Hee was arrested after she was said to be harassing a guest of a six-star hotel in Marina Bay last Thursday, reported Shin Min Daily News yesterday. Hee, who was famous in the 1990s for songs like Cheng Li De Yue Guang (Moonlight In The City), was alleged to have trailed a guest in the lobby of the hotel on Thursday night, said Shin Min.

An apparently agitated Hee later charged into the guest's room and shouted at the latter. At one point, the singer reportedly said in English: 'Call me God!'

The hotel alerted the police, who arrested her. The report did not say if the guest was male or female.

Shin Min, quoting an unnamed source, said Hee, 32, was speaking incoherently at the time of her arrest.

She made a name for herself in the 1990s when, with Kit Chan, she achieved a degree of success in foreign markets like China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Working with mentor Chen Jiaming, she released hit records like 1994's Ming Zhi Dao (Even Though I Know). She was known for her sultry, husky voice and kooky dress sense.

She had a role in the Channel 8 serial Tofu Street in 1996. In 1999, she starred in the movie Away With Words directed by acclaimed cinematographer Chris Doyle.

But she disappeared from the limelight in recent years.

In 2004, there was talk that she was pregnant and taking a break from showbiz, said Shin Min. But this was not confirmed.

Contradiction By Mavis Hee

2006-06-27T23:40:00.000+08:00

FLIRT Magazine August issue

Ice queen Mavis Hee is very much a down to earth Singapore girl.

On TV,Mavis Hee looks tiny.But she's even tinier in person.Suprising indeed considering that after the interview,she wolfed down the largest packet of mee goreng we'd ever seen.

"I feel what makes me really Singaporean is my love for food," she laughs. "I am not picky about food.It dosent have to be the best or top quality food.I eat anything I like.I love all local food,like satay,laksa,chicken rice,rojak and the mee pok at marina square.The best local food is definitely at the hawker centres.I put on weight easily.But my hetic schedule keeps the weight off."

Over the breakfast table,make up artist Andy Lee compliments her on looking oggd on television,for the PSC show."Thank you," she says,brightening up."That was the first time my mother praised me.She rarely does.She is a bold and sweet woman,but sometimes not very kind when giving me suggestions and opinions.Communications used to be difficult,but it's a lot better now."

In her seven years,Mavis had six major hits.The most memorable being Moonlight in the city,which was named Best televivison serial theme song for drama serial,Tofu street. She describe her music as, "a mixture of all feelings.They consist mostly of love ballads and melancholic tunes,and they give people a light hearted feeling." Last year,she was invited to sing the National day song.

"It was a great honour and a dream.I used to watch the National Day parade at home and never dreamt that I would become a local singer one day and sing during the National day parade! It was a memorable experience," she says fondly.

Mavis dosent describe her success in terms of sales figures.She considers herself successful for being able to survive "in one piece" in the music scene after seven years.She hasnt held her own concert yet."I am not ready yet," she says."I look foward to that day but now my priority is to do my best in my music.I want all my albums to leave a deep impression with the listeners."

She turns 27 this year and is currently single."Im good at getting along with people,but when it comes to relationships, Im not so confident.It dosent bother me that I dont have anyone yet.Maybe I should learn to flirt more.I'm still young,and I should understand more about life,the a relationship", She says.She breaks into a silly grin and makes the victory sign during our interview to demostrate how she cheers herself up.

Mavis is very much a child.Looking down at her chewed up nails with remnants of black nails polish,she acknowledges that she dosent take very good care of her body."I dont apply miracle creams.I do put on sunscreen,pratice a proper skin care regime and eat less meat and more vegetable and fruits.This also means giving up favourite fired food."

Mavis has remained steadfastly quirky in her style.She carries off haute couture like she was born to it,as in evidence on album covers and public appearance."Onstage,I dress in anything I like,even things that might look weird to others.I like exploring casually.""But my favourite piece of clothing is really nothing-being totally naked.Being naked shows the real me.The human body is the most artistic thing ever created.No matter what shape and size you are,the body is simply fascinating.It allows you to look at yourself in a close and personal way.Also you are truly responsible for your own body."

Facts About Mavis Hee

2006-06-26T23:25:00.000+08:00

Mavis' road to stardom began when she was crowned Miss Photogenic and Miss Amity in Singapore's Miss Chinatown Pageant in 1992.

Did you know .....

Mavis won the "Miss Photogenic" , "Miss Friendship" , was the second runner-up in the "Miss CTC" , all in the 1992 edition of the Miss Singapore Pageant .
Mavis was discovered in the "Sun Gao Yao Record Company / Shenjiayou Record Company 1992 Talent Search" .
Mavis took only 2 years to become popular . She released her first album "Knowingly" which did not have much impact on the charts , but 2 years later , after expanding to Taiwan , she finally started gaining recognition in 1996 .
In 1995 , Mavis was called to replace Eric Moo as the "Best National Artist Of The Year" in Singapore as Moo's national identity had been in question .
Mavis had won the title of "Best Singaporean Artist" at a local radio station , defeating one of their top singers , Kit Chan in 1996 .

She turns 26 next month, but Mavis Hee is going places that people her age can only dream of. Last year, she was voted top local artiste by Compass (the Association of Music Composers). She's considered one of Singapore's prominent Mando-pop export - up there with Kit Chan, Fann Wong and Two Girls.

And to top it all off, she is set to sing the theme song, Shine On Me, with former Kick! member Jai at NDP 2000. Mavis gushed about the ultra-grand showing on August 9. "Wow, I'd probably be so high that I wouldn't feel the pressure at all," she laughed.

It seemed the Twiggy0like singer was, ahem, a flasher at her younger years. Raising her well-pencilled brow, Mavis said, "I took part in a flash card display in Secondary Two in 1988, and it left a very deep impression. After my school days, I never thought that I would have another opportunity to take part in NDP celebrations, what's more as a singer and performing the theme song. I feel very proud to be able to contribute.

"Previously I'd only worked on post-party activities; this is my first attempt at a theme song. You know, I find that the grand finale at the NDP is very touching, especially after I sing the last verse and the fireworks come on…it's tremendous."

When asked about the ballad, Shine On Me, Mavis said, "It is a very meaningful song, it speaks of our national flag - the symbols of stars and crescent. The song exudes a sense of belonging, which is so apparent, especially after having worked abroad. You really feel the warmth of home. At the moment, I think I'll continue to do my part. Singapore is already 35 years old; I don't know what I'd be doing at 35 - be it singing or something else. I would definitely give my best shot."

Besides gracing the grand affair at the Padang during National Day, she is knee-deep in prep work (compiling tracks and penning lyrics) for her upcoming album. Her schedules are jammed pack with performances in China and promotional tours around Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing. She may be busy jet-setting around the world, but we all know where her heart is. As her song says: In my heart lies my homeland/I share this joy with my families and friends.

Juggling the hectic demands of work, the singer told us that she, too, misses home during those buzzing times abroad but "it is something you have to overcome slowly. It's a lot of hardship when you're missing home, the pressure is mounting high and workload can get heavy. But it feels good knowing that Singapore is your home, and your family and friends are all here waiting for you. It is a place where you can come home to".

Nothing beats a successful homecoming and so, wherever you may be, stars and crescent are shining on.

John Constable

2006-05-20T18:29:00.000+08:00

Born: 11 June 1776 Birthplace: East Bergholt, Suffolk, England Died: 31 Mar 1837 Location of death: London, England Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Painter

Nationality: England
Executive summary: English landscape painter

Father: Golding Constable (miller, d. 1816)
Mother: (d. 1815)
Wife: Maria Bicknell (m. 2-Oct-1816, d. 1829 consumption, seven children)

English landscape painter, born at East Bergholt in Suffolk on the 11th of June 1776. His father was a man of some property, including water-mills at Dedham and Flatford, and two windmills, in which John, the second son, was set to work at the age of seventeen, after leaving Dedham grammar school.

From boyhood he was devoted to painting, which he studied in his spare time in company with John Dunthorne, a local plumber and glazier. While working thus he made the acquaintance of Sir George Beaumont, a mediocre painter but a keen patron of the arts, and was inspired by the sight of Claude's "Hagar and Ishmael" and by some drawings of Girtin which Sir George possessed. His passion for art increasing, he was allowed by his father to visit London in 1795 to consult the landscape painter Joseph Farington, R.A. (1747-1821), who recognized his originality and gave him some technical hints. He also made the acquaintance of the engraver J. T. Smith, who taught him etching, and corresponded with him during the next few years, which were spent partly in London and partly in Suffolk.

In 1797 he was recalled to work in his father's counting-house at Bergholt, and it was not until February 1799 that he definitely adopted the profession of painting, and became a student at the Royal Academy. The few existing works of this period are heavy, clumsy and amateurish. Recognizing their faults, Constable worked hard at copying old masters "to acquire execution." The remedy was effective, for his sketches on a tour in Derbyshire in 1801 show considerable freshness and accomplishment.

In 1802 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, and was much helped and encouraged by the president, Benjamin West, who did him a further service by preventing him from accepting a drawing-mastership (offered by Archdeacon Fisher, of Salisbury), and thereby greatly stimulating his efforts. The manner of West appears strongly in the altarpiece painted by Constable for Brantham church in 1804, but Thomas Gainsborough, the Dutch masters and Girtin are the predominant influences upon his landscape, especially Girtin in the year 1805, and in 1806, when he visited the Lake District. From 1806 to 1809 Constable was frequently engaged in painting portraits or in copying portraits by Reynolds and Hoppner. The effect on his landscape was great. He learned how to construct an oil painting, and the efforts of the next few years were devoted to combining this knowledge with his innate love of the fresh color of nature.

With the year 1811 began a critical period. He exhibited a large view of Dedham Vale, in which the characteristic features of his art appear for the first time almost fully developed, and he became attached to Miss Maria Bicknell. His suit was opposed by the lady's relatives, and Constable's apparently hopeless prospects drove him again to portrait painting, in which he acquired considerable skill.

It was not until the death of his father in 1816 that he was able to marry and settle in No. 1 Keppel Street, Russell Square, where a succession of works now well known were painted: "Flatford Mill" (1817), "A Cottage in a Cornfield", and in 1819 "The White Horse", which was bought by his great friend Archdeacon Fisher for £105, as was the "Stratford Mill" of 1820. In 1819 two legacies each of £4000 diminished his domestic anxieties, and his talent was recognized by his election in November to the associateship of the Royal Academy. The series of important works was continued by "The Haywain" (1821), "A View on the Stour" (1822), "Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Garden" (1823), and "The Lock" (1824). This last year was a memorable one. " he Haywain" was sold to a Frenchman, was exhibited at the Louvre, and, after creating a profound sensation among French artists, was awarded a gold medal. In the following year "The White Horse" won a similar distinction at Lille. In 1825 he exhibited "The Leaping Horse" (perhaps his masterpiece), in 1826 "The Cornfield", in 1827 "The Marine Parade and Chain Pier, Brighton", and in 1828 "Dedham Vale."

In 1822 Constable had taken Farington's house, 35 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, but his wife's failing health made him turn his attention to Hampstead, and after temporary occupation first of 2 Lower Terrace and then of a house on Downshire Hill, he took No. 6 Well Walk, in 1827, letting the greater part of his London house. In 1848 his financial position was made secure by a legacy of £20,000 from Mr Bicknell, but the death of his wife towards the end of the year was a shock from which he never wholly recovered. His election to membership of the Academy in the following year did not lessen his distress: he felt that the honor had been delayed too long. His chief exhibit in 1829 was "Hadleigh Castle", and this was succeeded by the great "Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows" (1831), "The Opening of Waterloo Bridge" (1832), which had been begun in 1817, "Englefield House" (1833), "The Valley Farm" (1835), "The Cenotaph" (1836), and "Arundel Mill and Castle" (1837). Constable had long suffered from rheumatism and nervous depression, but his sudden death on the 31st of March 1837 could be traced to no definite disease. He was buried in Hampstead churchyard, where his tomb may still be seen.

In May 1838 his remaining works were sold at auction, but fetched very small prices. Many were bought in by his children, and through their generosity have passed to the English nation, as the national collections at Trafalgar Square, Millbank and South Kensington testify. Nowhere else can Constable's art be studied completely or safely, since forgeries and imitations are common and have crept into the Louvre and other famous galleries. Much of the power of his work survives in the noble series of mezzotints made after his sketches by David Lucas, and first issued in 1833. Though a commercial failure at the time of publication, this English Landscape series is now deservedly prized, as are the other plates which Lucas engraved after Constable. Constable himself made a few desultory experiments in etching, but they are of no importance.

As already indicated, the mature art of Constable did not develop until after the year 1811, when he began to combine the fresh color of nature, which he had learned to depict by working in the open air, with the art of making a picture, which he had learned from painting portraits and copying those of other masters. His development was unusually slow, and his finest work, with but few exceptions, was done between his fortieth and fiftieth years (1816-26). During the last twelve years of his life his manner became more free, and the palette knife was constantly used to apply spots and splashes of pure color, so that his technique often suggests that afterwards employed by the Impressionists. Yet his direct influence upon French landscape has sometimes been overrated. When Constable first exhibited at the Salon in 1825 Theodore Rousseau, the pioneer of French naturalism, was only twelve years old, and the movement of 1830 was really originated in France by Gros and Gericault, while in England the watercolor painters led the way. Constable's death in 1837 removed the man and most of his work from the public eye for another generation, and he became a famous shadow rather than a living force. So Monet and the Impressionists, when they sought after the secret of painting air and sunshine, looked to J.M.W. Turner rather than to Constable, and in England the eloquence of John Ruskin pointed in the same direction.

Since the British nation came into the possession of a large portion of Constable's pictures and sketches, his work has been better understood. Though limited in range of subject to the scenery of Suffolk, Hampstead, Salisbury and Brighton, his sketches express the tone, color, movement and atmosphere of the scenes represented with unrivalled force and truthfulness, and modern criticism tends to rate their spontaneity above the deliberate accomplishment of his large finished works. His treatment of skies is specially notable. Here his early experience as a miller told in his favor. No one has painted English cloud effects so truthfully, or used them as a compositional quantity with so much skill. Though in looking at nature he was determined to see with his own eyes and not with those of any former master, he found that the science of his predecessors was necessary to him before his sketches could be translated into large pictures. In these pictures his vivid tones and fresh color are grafted upon the formulae of Claude and Rubens, and it is a common error to regard Constable as an opponent of the great old masters. His pictures, like his writings and lectures, prove just the reverse. His dislike was reserved for the painters who took their ideas from other painters instead of getting them directly from nature.

Paintings Of John Constable

More Paintings by John Constable

Beautiful Photographs: Angelina Jolie

2006-05-17T00:50:00.000+08:00

"I need more sex, okay? Before I die I wanna taste everyone in the world."
-Angelina Jolie

Born June 4, 1975, Angelina Jolie Voight, daughter of Oscar winning actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand, used her middle name as her last name (the French translation of beautiful), probably in order to succeed, independent of her father's success as an actor. At age 11, Jolie began studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, six years after making her film debut in Lookin' to Get Out, starring her father.

Angelina is smart; whether you hear her plug her upcoming movies or you check her out as she engages in a one-on-one with Barbara Walters, you can't deny that she's a good person with a strange side. I mean anyone would think it bizarre if their wife gave them a grave plot for their anniversary (that's what she gave Billy Bob).

Angelina Jolie starred in thrillers like The Bone Collector and Taking Lives, blockbusters such as Gone in Sixty Seconds and Tomb Raider, and bombs like Alexander. She's also famous for her headlining way of life. From her well-documented marriage to fellow actor Billy Bob Thornton to her need to constantly tattoo her body, Angelina is famous for her personal and professional life.

She's beautiful, she's eccentric, and she's highly intelligent. She questions what goes on around her and she's not afraid to be sexual. Not to mention, she's a great actress and proved it time and time again with movies like Gia and The Bone Collector.

Angelina Jolie is an exotic combination of beauty, talent and deadly charm. You want to kiss her all over, even though she may pull out a knife on you at any time (she has a fascination with them). She is open to anything and has proven, through her diverse film career and choice in husbands, that she's willing to try anything at least once.

More Pictures of Angelina Jolie