Public Enemies

If the name is public enemies, then I expect an elaboration when the name comes from? Why are they public enemies? If it is simply because they robs banks or they escape from the jail, then I guess any story of bad guys can be called public enemies. There is no public opinions about this event. Yes, there are some clips when people in the government cannot do much about them because of the regulation, so maybe it is better to be 'governmet enemies'.

There are too many scenes of chasing and gunshots. The director could have saved some gun scenes and tried to develop some stories. Why did Billie end up loving John Dillinger? There is no story. At the end of the movie, John walks into the police station, to the office of the team that tries to catch him. He askes some guys that are still in the office what the baseball score is, but then that's the end of the story. Nothing developed further. This is a purely waste of time. And then after this, we see that last scene at the theater, when an army of police surround the theater, and all it takes is bang bang, 2 shots. John does not even have a chance to fight back. This simply shows me how poorly the screenplay is written, and because of that, there is not much room to show acting either. Johnny Depp only had to stay cool, wear his poker face, bang bang, people bleed and die, the audience see blood and they are happy.

Bitan

2 movies last Sunday. First one with MM at 12, and then the second one with J at 6. I had a few hours to kill between 2 movies. Went to Gongguan first, trying to look for travel book, but was not able to find the one for British Columbia by Lonely Planet. I did not bring my own bottle of water, so stopped at an ice shop, and had some shaved ice. It was not very good, compared with the one I love at Shilin night market. Would probably not go back anymore. After that I decided to go to Bitan.

This is just my second visit to Bitan. My first impression for this place is from a novel I read when I was 10 years old. The main female character was heart broken, ran to this place in the rain, without a raincoat or an umbrella, of course. She got sick in the rain, and her boy friend came to rescue her, of course, and they made up, of course. It was funny when I was there thinking of this story again. When I was 10, the characters in the novel were already 23 or 24. I thought they were so mature, and wondered what it's like to be in love. Now I am 38, but they are still 23 or 24, and I realize that kind of love only exists in the romantic fictions.

It was nice and cool, some sprinkles of rain sometimes, a perfect day to visit Bitan. Hard to imagine what a scorching hell it could have been if the temperature had hit 35, and there had been no shed there. I walked up and down the suspension bridge, looked out at the river watching people playing with the peddle boats, sat on the steps watching college students playing group games, and strolled down the food court trying to find out if there was anything interesting. It turned out to be a wonderful 2-hour trip, alone.

Then I went back to the MRT, our mass transmit system, took the train, and realized it was still to early. I sat on the bench, took out the newspaper I had not read yet, and started to read in the subway station. It was nice and cool. Train came by every 5 minutes, so it was so easy to measure time. I was out for 12 hours and felt completely relaxed when I returned.

Same Old

Got another sad story about immigration from Facebook. It is so sad that people cannot even take the jobs that only pay minimum wage, just to help pay the bills, because they are so well educated, and they are supposed to take jobs that no Americans are qualified for. Not sure if structural engineer is one of the professionals that Canada needs from immigrants. After all, Canada has already tightened their immigration requirements. If it isn't, then it is too late for them to think of Canada as a viable option, and they just end up paying the laywer a lot for nothing. No one should go through such turmoil.

the Reader

I finished this book a while ago, was thinking of writing something about the book versus the movie. The movie leaves something to be desired, especially about the motive to read for Hanna. However, few weeks later, I don't remember too much about the motive, the verdict, or, even the guilt. I just remember what comes to Michael's mind when he thinks of Hanna and the smell.

Hanna bending over to wear her socks, Hanna's skirt flying in the air when biking, Hanna's fingers flowing through books in Michael's father's study, and the smell of Hanna.

Photos may do a very good job taking a snapshot of life, but if you close your eyes, and try to think the ones you loved, what do you see in them, how do they appear in your memory? It is shocking for me to realize the images are still so vivid, something it flows just like a movie.

Smell is also an important part in a relationship, and that is written pretty well in the book, from when Hanna was a mid-aged woman, to when she became an old lady.

Plurk Captures

We just had an earthquake, and when it happened, I heard a lot of dings on Plurk. Many people start to write message about it on plurk, and I am one of them. It's funny to see people writing the same thing at the same time, and the timestamp is so clear on Plurk, 2:05am.

Keyboard Layout Not Right

I remember when Steve Jobs released iPhone, he rediculed in his keynote smart phones with physical keyboards, and claimed iPhone had been well designed with software keyboard when keyboard can be customized. My question is, so can you customize the keyboard to be 2 rows? or even 4 rows?

Apple just released iPhone OS 3.0. One of the much anticipated features from me is new way to input Chinese characters, either Phonetics, or Changjei, or something else, and it did. However, when I activated it (Settings->General->International->Keyboards->Chinese (Traditional)->Zhuyin) and tried, I just could not believe my eyes. The keyboard layout is completely wrong. The second photo attached here shows the keyboard of my mac. The layout of our Zhuyin keyboard is from top to bottom and then left to right, instead of left to right and then top to bottom, as shown in the first photo, and we use 4 rows of keys. So I am not sure if Apple is only able to customize the keyboard in 3 rows, or they can do 4 rows but did not want to bother with the format that local people are used to. I don't know. Apple has been so careful in the details, but this time they are lousy. If they had had any keyboard from Taiwan, or asked any of their Taiwanese employee, they should not have made this outrageous mistake.