De Dominee

There are few opportunities to enjoy a Dutch movie. Hence, I watched The Preacher with élan, which chronicles the life of Klaas Bruinsma (allegedly a notorious gangster in the Netherlands). Its plot is quite familiar, reminding me of 上海滩.

A gorgeous Chantal Janzen (a leggy blonde with freckles) plays la femme fatale Annet, whose betrayal devastated the ruthless kingpin (who wrongly ordered the execution of his falsely accused friend Adri). I still don't fully understand her motives to frame the loyal Adri (revenge out of jealousy?) as Annet seems genuinely in love with (and fiercely possessive of) Klaas. Her own demise is surprisingly mute: he just pulled out a gun and quickly shot her twice while she's asleep in bed. She didn't even get to open her eyes before her brutal death. Despite its genre, I wonder why the film teems with gun violence. Is Holland so terrible?

For me, the most memorable scene is a toddler jumping to his father's embrace: the naïve boy standing on the tall stairs looked down trustingly at his father's wide-open arms and jumped when urged, but the father instantly sidestepped. Then with a cruel sneer, he coldly told the young child in pain on the floor, "No one is trustworthy" (I don't know the original Dutch). Such a vicious murder of innocence!

What's new?

How things have changed in China! Here's a telling story in the post today. I'm amused by its headline.

Two commentaries caught my eyes:

• Apple's Blueprint for Genius makes an effective counterargument to those outsourcing-bashers.
• I think that China has already become The Wild, Wild East because of those ubiquitous foreign joint ventures.

I noted an encouraging progress, just another case in point that the Chinese cohesion is very much alive and well. Though I heard many similar acts of compassion, this is the first time (to my best knowledge) that an organized effort by overseas Chinese volunteers devoted to children's education in rural China received wide attention in the US. It's wonderful.

Cheer Up

I watched Man of the House last night. Its plot is barely plausible to the stretch of my imagination: a grumpy Texas Ranger moves in with a group of scantily dressed cheerleaders who witnessed a murder. What a dream assignment for a guy! Tommy Lee Jones plays the tough officer: crusty, hard-nosed, and no-nonsense. This role makes his courtship with the demure Anne Archer (playing a professor of literature in the film) laughable. After "The Fugitive" and "US Marshals", however, I found his demeanor boring for a comedy. I still think that his most comic movie remains "Men in Black". One interesting tidbit gleaned from the farce is that the job of a cheerleader is to inspire and electrify. Powerful words indeed.

AdSense

I observed that Google has so far served only blog-related ads. I was hoping for at least one movie ad by now. I'm very curious about the AdSense algorithm. I guess that it includes a dictionary (English only?) of keywords. If so, will a better vocabulary make a profitable difference?

Intellectual Entropy

因为太喜欢、太在意了，才会不快乐。

	美人迟暮，也还是美人嘛。
	…爱情在某种意义上是人生必要的推动力，否则人活着就显得很没有目标。
	…越对年龄恐惧，反而会老得越快，保持愉快的心情，才会使自己年轻。
	…其实做人要豁达一点，不要有那么多的仇恨，明天要发生什么我们不能知道，保持开心就好。
	…其实每个人的感情顺不顺都是命，只有顺其自然。

Only time can judge this grumble on the rise of China.

wxPython

What a great product! For someone who cannot afford Qt, wxWidgets is a lifesaver. I like it so much that I contributed to wxPyWiki with my recipes on:

1. SplashScreen
2. StopWatch

I find this collaborative wxPython knowledge base friendly and helpful. I also learned these tips from a high-volume mailing list:

• StatusBar: frame = wx.GetTopLevelParent(self)
• Menu: menu.Enable(.GetId(), False)
• TaskBarIcon turns a window into a tray icon
• These programs inspired me to develop similar applications.

Braquage à l'italienne

I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust.

Freaked-out
insecure
neurotic
emotional

Most memorable:

So nimble!

It always strikes me as wicked that Hollywood enjoys such a penchant for glorified crimes.

Hello World!

I have always strived to be an early adopter of cutting-edge technologies (I was the first student on campus to have an email address in college). However, it's taken a long time before I decided to become a blogger, because I think it herculean to keep a blog interesting and up to date (which troubled Bill Gates too). But my desire to be a more effective writer provided the strongest motivation in the end. Hence, this first post in the geekiest fashion.