I caught myself  a pleasant surprise.  “Mazinger Hunter” and Chua Lam paid me a visit!  … in my dream. 

I’ve recently finished watching k-drama, The Slingshot (a.k.a. Story of a Man) (see here for my motivation).   I am impressed by Park Ki Woong’s interpretation of “Mazinger Hunter”, aka Kim Shin’s Stock Teacher.  He is adorable!

And 3 days ago, I went straight to bed as soon as my hubby’s home after work.  Tho I felt sick throughout work, I managed to pull through without drawing any attention from my colleagues.  When I got home, I started to prepare for dinner.  I felt more tired but still not too bad.   Then my hero hubby came home and perhaps I psychologically knew I could collapse anytime, my body started crumbling.  I couldn’t even finish making dinner and I went to bed right away.  That night I had many dreams.  There I met “Mazinger”.

In the dream, I was feeling weak.  Mazinger Hunter was sitting behind a work desk.  I was standing next to him, on his left.  Suddenly I fainted and my head fell on Mazinger Hunter’s left shoulder.  I knew he would take care of me as a faithful friend, like how he took care of Eun Soo!

The same night in a different dream, I saw Chua Lam.  Hubby and I joined him on a tour to a traditional Chinese dessert restaurant.  There I saw a tray of bear-figured flakes made of cane sugar.  The store owner explained that these bear flakes are a substitute for cane sugar powder on soft tofu dessert.  Cute…  Then I saw the workers packing sweet rice dumplings into black plastic portable pots – cool-looking, modern containers for a traditional Chinese dessert store…

Perhaps I went to bed empty-stomached… ah I don’t mind seeing them again in my dreams, but hopefully not on my sick days anymore. 

A little more study into Seoul International Drama Awards 2009 yesterday and a little discovery I made.

What the public is voting currently via Yahoo!Korea are really “The Most Favourite or Popular”s – The Most Popular Drama, The Most Popular Actor, The Most Popular Actress.  The “Best” categories have been decided by a jury of 9, comprised of  drama directors, writers, journalist and critic.  The short-listed nominees are diversified – not only do you see Korean / Japanese / Chinese (China, Taiwan (HK doesn’t get into the finalists)) dramas, other countries like Argentina, Australia,  Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland and UK have also been selected.  Congratulations to all!  Regardless of having the award or not, this is a great recognition already.  May your great work be seen by more – let’s get the curve up, shall we?

Since I follow k-dramas, I would like to focus more on the k-drama finalists.

Korean nominees for Best & Excellent Dramas: 

• In the Mini-Series: MBC’s Beethoven Virus, SBS’s The Painter Of The Wind. 
• In the Drama Series: KBS’s The Slingshot (aka A Man’s Story).

Korean nominees for Individual Prizes: 

• Best Actor: Kim Myung Min (Beethoven Virus), Park Yong Ha (The Slingshot). 
• Best Actress: Moon Geun Young (The Painter Of The Wind)
• Best Director / Best Writer : regrets

I watched Beethoven Virus.  You know its impact on me, right?  I am excited to see Kim Myung Min.  He has done a marvelous job as Kang Mae!

I am surprised to see Park Yong Ha in the Best Actor category.  I have not watched The Slingshot yet and I will start this week.   I watched On Air (SBS, 2008).  He didn’t strike me to be maturing to the masters level yet then.  Hence, before I write more, I should watch The Slingshot first.

Needless to say, I am mildly disappointed not to see Park Shin Yang in the Best Actor category.  But I can understand.   Afterall, I am already grateful that he’s made to the Most Popular Actor nomination.  One step at a time (to unban).

So, what do you think:  Park Yong Ha, or Kim Myung Min?

Follow this link to see the results of the preliminary screening for SDA 2009.

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!

I played this piece using the Sandner cello.   

If it sounds bad, it is because… hm…

coz…  the cello hasn’t warmed up yet…  hm…

coz… the phone which was used to record this wasn’t very good…  hm…

coz… oh blame the sound card… hm…

coz… hm… hee hee hee…

… doesn’t fly?…  really… ?

With lots of love~~  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!  (Show Mom the video too, ok?)

Sorry I was quite busy with my other things these days.   I did have many dreams recently but I couldn’t find the time to put them here.

Here’s one which I called my elementary school teacher in Vancouver up and told her about (she laughed a bit) that I think it may be interesting to write here.

In the dream, it was a school exam day.  I just finished writing one exam (forgot which subject tho).  The classmates were of the secondary school but the exam inspector was my elementary school teacher (whom I met in a recent trip to HK – she was co-incidently vacationing there).  Then the whole class was getting ready for the next exam, Chinese penmanship, including the students taking French (whom I also met @HK).  Don’t ask why French-taking students were sitting for Chinese penmanship exams.  O-M-G… I actually forgot about this exam completely i.e. I didn’t know I had to write this exam (this is perhaps one of the most recurring themes in my dreams – not knowing I had to write an exam).  I didn’t pack the brush calligraphy book with me in the school bag…  And – I didn’t have a brush nor an ink pad (or container)!  I browsed around and was trying to see who would have a spare, but honestly who would have a spare of such when these items were considered stinky and ancient nowadays!  My heart sank… Oh dear… Oh no!!  At the end, I had to report this to the inspector.  She basically “blackened” her face, and asked me seriously (read: scolding):  did you turn in the calligraphy exercise book after you turned in the Earth Globe model homework!!!  I hesitated and somehow I knew I probably didn’t, and I told her “you know me… perhaps I didn’t”.  I remembered I rated this response as “daring” in the dream.

I forgot what happened next , but that gave my teacher a good laugh and she told me that the exam theme was one of those recurring ones for her as well (and akham…  should I write this… would she kill me… the other recurring theme was being late for school… hee hee!).  I had that (running like crazy coz I was late – the road to the school etc) once in a while (and it was a big thing then) but I guess not as frequent as my teacher’s!

I have been taking some vacation time off, hence I get a bit lazy to share with you my dreams.  Sorry. 

Today is the third month since Park Shin Yang got his unfair and unjest ban – please support the March 2009 – Email Campaign and continue to support the work of “Counter Ban for Park Shin Yang” until his ban is lifted!

Fighting, participants of CB4PSY!  Fighting, Park Shin Yang!!

I thought the Year of Rat is finished.  So should it be.  Now we are in the Year of Ox now, aren’t we?  How come I can’t get rid of the rat in my house?…

AHHHH I have a mouse problem!!!

I think we discovered its trace (akhem… poos) last week.  So we set up 2 glue traps last Friday.  One in the location where the last mouse was caught couple years ago.  One near the garbage can.  We even changed the location of one trap to the family room where most poos are sighted (behind the sofas), and most unfortunately that’s where I practice cello!  Still no luck – argh – this is driving me crazy!  I haven’t been able to concentrate on my practice since then.  Every time I looked into the mirror, I wasn’t looking at my hands, I was looking at my feet – I was a little afriad it would attack my feet…  crazy!!!  I’m gonna suck in tonight’s lesson… 

Last night it even haunted me in my dream.

HEY you, Micky II, your year is finished!  Leave my house immediately 당장 나가, will ya?!

Last  evening I had my long-waited cello lesson.  The first class was 3 weeks ago.  Gosh, I have never been this diligent as a student! 

Perhaps I was so anxious about this that I actually dreamt about having the 2nd class last week.  Since the last class, I had so many questions that I reminded myself repeatedly that I had to ask them.  One of them being how to and when to apply rosin to the bow.  So in the dream, it started off with the teacher talking about other things for a long time, and when I raised this q up, he said it’s time to wrap up the class. 

So surely, this was the first thing I asked.   And now I know:  slightly drag the bow and it should leave a mild white trail.  He “demonstrated” that with his hand.  And he confirmed my suspection that my bow did need much more rosin than it had.  So he applied the rosin on my bow, and now I also know that the rosin may only leave some scratch marks, and it shouldn’t be like “butter spreading over the bow”.  He said I can use sand paper on the new rosin first if wanted.  Anyways, I did hear the difference in the volume of sound the bow produced after – it’s louder.  Voila!

Then I showed my teacher the fruit of my practice:  legato bowing and he’s pleased (!!!!!!).  (calm down, girl!!)   He said I played to softly.  Then I asked if I was supposed to make loud sound by “digging” the bow onto the string, and he said yes.  So I asked him why the sound I heard on concerts / or k-pops was not loud at all.  Then he said those musicians used controlled force, which I think I understand – meaning – that will come with practice like months or years.  Kay.  “a la saw”.  Got that.  So I will be “digging” harder, until then.

In the middle of the lesson, my teacher, once again, suggested perhaps I should try out a three-quarter sized cello, and I, once again, ”enthusiastically” declined / postponed / objected (eh… did I just said object…) by saying I would practice very hard and asked to see if I really should use a three-quarter in a month’s time.   This is like a blow to my confidence to need to down-size…  I will really try hard.  I will!

So this week, my homework is to do an one active D major scale.  (oooooo  that’s so exciting … … …)

My fingers (left hand) hurted like crazy. I most probably just used excessive force.  I know it will be ok in time.  I also, once again, “prove” to myself that I am not a genius in cello, for as soon as I started to use the left hand, my bowing sucked big time!  Oh boy, the sound I made was embarrassing even to myself.  :O

I was so happy that my hubby accompanied me last night so he watched how I played and witnessed all the bad postures that I needed to correct.  He was my USB and I’ll ask him to upload his memory when I sit in front of a mirror practicing.  So good.  Of course, he volunteered to carry the heavy case for me all the way.  “good boy.”  Hee Hee.

Oh I also had my first official cello book ($10).  I took a look at home and recognized some songs I played (on the piano) as a kid like Long Long Ago, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Now I have more questions for the next class – the notations seem different.

Ah.  Dinner time.  My smoked duck smells good.  

Thank you for visiting my dream site. 

Wish you a very merry Christmas.  Wish you find the meaning of life this Christmas.

Love came down.  Jesus loves you.  Seek and you will find.  Don’t forget.

Cheers,

Jean@jeansdream

Last night I had a dream of having a poached egg. 

Not just any ordinary egg, but one, instead of a regular yolk, had red-bean paste and small chunks of sweet plums.  The red-bean paste was just moist – not too dry and not too greasy.  And there were some pieces of red beans among the paste to bite on.  Then came the “spirit” – the sweet plums with a slight wine scent.  Ah!!!  These two ingredients blended perfectly with each other and gave such an unique taste that sticked in your memory!

Just when I thought too many eggs would get me too much cholesterol, this “egg” meal was a truly yummy and healthy one.  It’s a memorable bite – the flavour of sweet plums and red-bean paste – I could still feel it in my mouth – ah I am going crazy now!!!!!!