My hubby wanted to buy a shelf for the rear speakers.  He wanted to check out Ikea.  That was last week.

So I searched if there’s any sales - I vaguely remembered Ikea had weekly sales on wednesdays.   Ah – they would have a midnight madness sale on June 19th.   “Great!”  Then I persuaded my lovely hubby to go shopping on this evening.

We went last night after dinner and rested a bit.  When we arrived Ikea, it was around 9 pm.   We strolled around casually.  We were also looking for a small gadget to put our face towels.   I stopped by the bedroom section and checked out the beddings (I love their print designs – but they don’t feel soft and they don’t look durable… too bad.)  When we were ready for check out, it was around 11:20 pm. 

We got 3 items – a Gorm shelf (new home to the rear speakers) , a clip light (new toy for my hubby), and a orangy/yellowish cushion (I’ll mask it over my yucky old chair at work).   Only the cushion was on sale; the other two items were on regular price. 

All check out counters had long lines.  Our line looked average.  There’s a young oriental couple in front of us.  Then 5 minutes later, 2 more couples showed up with their trophies.  Apparently the friends of them, they ”rightfully” jumped the queue.   Hubby and I looked at each other speechless.  Then two girls, with their cart full of big boxes, wanted to pass our cart.  The girl in the front said, “Someone is waiting for us up there.”  I was quite tired to respond instantly.  And she repeated that one more time, “Someone’s up there already”.  Then a guy showed up, saying “they are with me; we have a place up there.”   Ah.  They came in a group.  Knowing the check out line was long, they sent someone to line up first.   Again hubby and I looked at each other speechless.   No wonder the line seemed not moving after 15 minutes.  Perhaps there were many doing something similar up there.

Guess how long it took to pay?  Hm… around 40 minutes.    How much did we save?   $5 (cushion was $10 regular; it’s 50% off).

Lessons learned – unless you can take advantage of the sales, don’t visit the store when it’s having a big sales event.

Oh well.   Shopping out @ Ikea on a Friday evening still got me certain excitment but we won’t do it again (probably).

The Toronto Association for Democracy in China has organized a series of activities for the Torontorians to participate starting May 31, 2009 in commemorating the most courageous acts of Chinese students 20 years ago in the Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China when the peaceful and patriotic month-long demonostration ended as a massive, merciless blood bath on June 4th, 1989.

Many parents lost their single, only child of the family – mostly students. Some children (now adults) lost their parents as well.

The goal of these commemorating acts is to get this tabooed event redressed – these students and citizens were not rioting mobs; they were not scheming a coup; they simply wanted a better-run country. The decision of ordering tanks and soldiers to crush and fire at the weaponless crowd was the biggest mistake that generation of the government has made, and any prisoners should be released and no one should be refused for re-entering their mother country just because they expressed that they wanted a better-run country. The families of the deads should be relieved from pain and grievances – only if the government can admit that their officers had made a terrible mistake 20 years ago.

Money cannot be used to exchange silence on this matter. If the past mistake is not admitted, how do one expect that the mistake won’t happen again?

There are so many (too many!) people still think that this massacre (government against its own citizens) did not happen. There are so many still accuse the deads that they deserved what they have done. If the government has done something so wise and so right, why is this still a taboo? Why arm Tiananmen around June 4th – if it has done something so brilliant and just? Why?

平返六四 . 毋忘89.06.04

I heard that there will be a vigil held in the Canada parliament to mourn for the June 4th casualities. I look forward to see the news coverage.

Lest not forget, and please don’t stop having/joining these commemorating events (2009)  till the goal is reached, however long it takes.

I won’t name names but I sincerely salute those who put in the heart and mind and soul on keeping this going. 20 years is not a short time. May you see the harvest you sow – a better-run China so all its citizens can have a better living. May you see your dream come true!

Exactly a week ago tonight, I had my 16th cello class.

Exactly a week ago, I changed my cello class schedule to every two weeks.

Then I haven’t touched my cello since last class, thinking, “Great, now I have 2 weeks’ time to practice…” Guess what…. I just had an half-hour practice today – first after the last class… I wasted one week!

My homework for next class is:

1) G arpeggio 2-octives – wow this is fun – starting on the C string playing G! The fingering is super cool.

2) Finish the entire Minuet #3 by J.S. Bach

My teacher was laughing at my shifting technique last week – seriously he’s laughing. He said when I shifted up, my first finger (i.e. index finger) was hurrying to reach the next note and my thumb was too slow. He said, “How would you know your position if your thumb’s not there? Your thumb is your anchor!” In my experience, I am not using my thumb as my anchor to know the fingering… I use my ears more to guide how much my hands should move… I guess I’m not too “mechanical” after all!

And I realize another thing (again): your treasure is someone’s garbage! In my experience, any song with a note playing on any open string is my best gift – I play open string notes best now. But my teacher told me, sometimes composers would deliberately change the fingering so a note is not played on open string. In first reaction was – WHY?!! Then my teacher said, “Composers esp those romantic ones would usually avoid open string.” I asked again, “WHY?!!” He then said, “It’s because they can’t manipulate open string notes.” Ah -coz they can’t put vibrato on open string. I got it (I got it myself! .. bragging… yes I am… hee hee) now.

I still love my open notes!!!

One may be banned physically, but one’s mind cannot be stalled.

Park Shin Yang, a top-list Korean actor received a ban from CODA in Dec 5th, 2008 because he filed a lawsuit against the production which owed him contract money from a TV drama production completed in 2007.  Park Shin Yang won this lawsuit last month (May 8th, 2009).  Right after the court in Seoul gave this verdict, CODA once again claimed that the production company was a victim and the ban is still on.

This ban may only stop Park Shin Yang from doing what he is really good at doing for the Korean TV drama audience.  But this ban cannot stall him from meeting his fans and contributing to the acting industry.  He held two fan meetings at Japan (Tokyo, and Kyoto) last month.  Both had great success.  Next, he is going to he a guest lecturer in NYIT starting mid-Sept 2009 for 4 months, till mid-Dec, 2009, teaching Master Acting and Directing with Professor Bruce Baek.  That’s the announced plan so for.

Here I quote the Serenity Prayer – let’s all learn from it:

Waste no time sitting around, whining why unjust things happen to him, Mr. Park took the time to do something positive and constructive.  A fighter whom uses dandelion to symbolizes his “you-can’t-rid-me” spirit.

Hollywood producers, I don’t need to remind you that Mr. Park is available for grab, do I?   Here is his profile for your quick reference.

Mr. Park’s half-year ban anniversary is coming up this Friday.  Please join the “Counter Ban for Park Shin Yang” for their 5th email campaign on June 5th - email CODA and its members on June 5th, tell them you are not happy with this unfair and unjust ban decision, and ask them to give Mr. Park back to you.

Mr. Park, fighting!!