today20

Have tooken the DVD last night at Pham Ngu Lao, waited for something like Scary movie you know.

And I’ve just found out that it was ranked 2.7/10 on imdb . I don’t “Sống và làm việc theo imdb” like some of you, anyway 2.7 is toooooooooooooooooooo much. But I’ve bought it, so at least when I’m brave enough, I’ll put it in my DVD player.

Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumph. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.

Paulo Coelho

Yup, quite true. I hate sharing my unhappy moments with people that I don’t hang around with in my happy times.

Actually I divide human being which is not me in 4 categories :

– People I never hang around with (people I pass some times with because of work or something but I don’t enjoy the moment are included)

– People I hang around with only in my good mood. In my bad mood, they drive me crazy.

– People I hang around with in my good mood, and in my bad moments, they don’t make things worse.

– People I can hang around with every times: in my good mood, we can have a nice coffee together, and in my bad mood, a coffee with them can cheer me up a little bit.

Nice division eh?

http://www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2004/01/06/#a1

If a person is very poor, there is no doubt that greater income can improve his or her life. But once the basics are secured, well-being does not necessarily correlate with wealth. Findings from the World Values Survey, an assessment of life satisfaction in more than 65 countries conducted between 1990 and 2000, indicate that income and happiness tend to track well until about $13,000 of annual income per person (in 1995 purchasing power parity). After that, additional income appears to yield only modest additions in self-reported happiness.

Most governments make ongoing growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) a leading priority, under the assumption that wealth secured is well-being delivered. Yet undue emphasis on generating wealth, particularly by encouraging heavy consumption, may be yielding disappointing returns. Overall quality of life is suffering in some of the world’s richest countries as people experience greater stress and time pressures and less satisfying social relationships, and as the natural environment shows more and more signs of distress.

By redefining prosperity to emphasize a higher quality of life—rather than the mere accumulation of goods—individuals, communities, and governments can focus on delivering what people most desire. Indeed, a new understanding of “the good life“ can be built not around wealth, but around well-being: having basic needs met, along with freedom, health, security, and satisfying social roles.

So, it’s what they said “officially”. Based on this,  I still can improve my happiness by earning some more money (until about $13,000 of annual income) and then, who knows, perhaps suddenly I’ll find myself with enough money to take the retirement, and then no stress, no time pressure and, you know me, rite,  if I have enough time, no unsatisfying social relationships neither. What a nice dream!!

Last 2 days I watched 2 teen movies in a row so Mom at 16 and Mysterious skin. Today I’ll continue my Teen movie period with Cheaper by the dozen 2.

For your information, I have always a guilty pleasure for teen and kid comedies. Yup, guilty pleasure because I laughed many heads off for their weak points for teen books. Well, no surprise, I’m as self-centered as any of you.

So you can guess, Freaky friday was one of my favorites. I also loved Parents trap, Pay it forward. New York minutes was little bit flat but I also watched it well. School of Rock was not my favorite but viewable. Also 13 turn to 30 and other stuffs…

Back to 2 movies I’ve seen, Mom at 16 is very Hollywood, very educational. You know what I mean, a mostly happy-ending, not as in fairy stories such as  They got married and lived happily ever after but a best end you can hope (and normally things finish not so good).

I like Mysterious skin. Okay you can not put it in the same sack with Freaky friday and things I mentioned above. Brief, it’s not a comedy but about troubling teenage with irreversible things that make you wonder if it’s you, how you will handle it.

Okay, another avowal, I have a crush on the boy you can see in the poster. Poor me, in the movie he’s gay.

Update: so I’ve seen Cheaper by the dozen 2. Went to cinema for it. Companions came for 15 minutes late, they drived me crazy, you may guess. One disappeared totally so 45,000 lost.

Anyway it was funny, quite okay for an evening hanging around. We came out of cinema full of popcorn, then after a Bun bo Hue we have had nice time at Hi-End cafe, talking about all and nothing, you know, Tuan Ngoc and Neil Young, Vespa, tatoos, vacation, Ha Noi and Phu Quoc, how getting married is more difficult than having baby… all that stuffs you know.

I also collected the DVD P.U.L.S.E, which was supposed to be my March 8 present. But although there was a huge title “Pink Floyd P.U.L.S.E”, the DVD turned into L’Ame Immortelle of some Voiceless band, with a guy who spoke a hardly recognizable English.

I’ve just finished this book after a month or so. There’s a good thing about books in comparison with movies: you can read 2 or 3 pages and fall asleep and continue next night and so on. It doesn’t matter if you take 2 or 3 months to finish a book. But you can not watch a movie for 10 minutes and finish it in 10 days. That’s why I don’t watch many movies last time.

The book is nice but sad.

Well, I’ve just read in someone’s blog that Heath Ledger had decided to get married. His fiancée, for your information if you haven’t known, is not that old Naomi Watts but Michelle Williams, the girl who played Ernis’ wife in Brokeback Mountain.

His cute face, as you can see, reminds me about my “allowed list” . If you saw Friends, yes, the series Friends, you’d remember a funny episode (actually every episode in the series is funny, more or less) where the five created their “allowed list” with names of 5 peoples you can… eh… have an overnight party with, allowed by your partner (as he/she has also a list of his/her own).

After seeing that episode, I’ve decided to make my own list . And, you may guess, one of names was Heath Ledger. I’ve fancied him from “A Knight’s tale”. What a cutie!!

The second name in my list was Gael Garcia Bernal. I have always a soft point for hispanic (although I’ve never known any properly ). Anyway, hispanic or not, the only “Motorcycle Diary” is already a good reason for my choice. I’m still looking for his “Y tu mama tambien”, I’ll put it in my next wishlist :-D

I’ve just taken 5 minutes to recall my third and forth names. So Tony Leung. Not bad eh, my love begun with Infernal Affairs and Hero. And Johnny Depp. For this one, perhaps no intro necessary. He was in good movies and also in shitty ones, he has had funny life and I like his face.

The fifth one, I’m a little bit ashamed, was Bill Clinton. Don’t laugh my head off, I have already removed him from my list because he was as coward as any politician and, yes, he is a little bit old too.

Xin giới thiệu đây là trang Thế giới muôn màu của báo Thanh Niên Chủ Nhật, số ra ngày 5/3/2006, và tác giả, như các bạn cũng thấy, là bác Hiếu . Nếu anh Hiếu hiện đang băn khoăn không biết sử dụng tiền nhuận bút vào đâu, em sẵn sàng giúp anh .

Ngoài ra các bạn nào có ảnh vui lạ, sẵn sàng đăng ảnh lên trang Thế giới muôn màu này mà không care chất lượng in hơi tệ, xin liên hệ với em, rất trông chờ vào sự hợp tác của các bạn

PS: cái 360.yahoo này up ảnh lên nó resize lại bé tý thế này, khổ ghê. Với những ai không đọc được dòng chú thích ở dưới, thì nó viết:

“Tưng bừng mùa Carnival

Chùm ảnh lễ hội Carnival tổ chức tại thành phố Delft (Hà Lan) do cộng tác viên của báo Thanh Niên Đặng Quang Hiếu thực hiện vào ngày 3.3 vừa qua.”

Seems everybody are MPDs in some ways. With each interlocuter, people shows just an aspect of their personalities, and they’re very insistent about each of these. With A, you have always this face, this kind of talking, this subject…, and with B you always have that face, that kind of talking, that subject… How does interaction create all that faces? Curious.

Last evening, asked by Ech, I checked out Xu restaurant, one of unfortunate restaurants designed by her (or at least a part by her) :p

She asked me to do it for quite a while, but I was lazy and recently I don’t frequent chic places. But yesterday, while searching a place for dinner, I fell on this link and unwisely sent to Ech http://ngoisao.net/News/An-dau/2006/01/3B9B5457/

So she insisted in checking out thing, alluded to the perfume (or something of this kind) she would send me as compensation and as last time I’m quite a cosmetic whore, so evidently I’ll not skip the occasion.

So, okay, Xu, 75 Hai Ba Trung, first floor.

From outside, it’s just a narrow alley guarding by 2 big unpleasant guys. Following the alley, we arrived to comfortable carpeted stairs, looks like stairs in big movie houses. At first floor, in the reception (oh yeah, there’s even a reception), a glamorous white girl (by white, I mean Anglo-Saxon or Franco-German or something but Asian) in white apron came to ask if we wanted to take directly a table or a drink at the bar first.

The design looks okay, cold colors, nice light, the style reminds a little bit Cafe Terrace or the Italian restaurant in Park Hyatt. Very nice and friendly bar.

After taking a table, another girl, who could be considered nice by foreigners (tan, boned, you know what I mean) with excellent English came to take order. I did ask if she was Vietnamese so I could order peacefully in my native language :D She was.

Regarding the menu, there was nothing for 54K VND. The link above, I guess, is quite out of date. It costs about 65-70K for appetizer and 180-200K or more for a main dish (taxes are not included).

So you can imagine after a little hour there, we’ve spent 50 bucks for a dinner for two. When we finished, the tan boned girl came up with a dessert menu, but I wisely decided to take a coffee somewhere else.

PS to Ech: Hey, as I told you, taking pictures in restaurants is not my style :p so no picture for you. But if someday you wanna buy me a dinner there, I’ll be more than ready to accompany you. And think about my property which will come this summer :-D

Các bạn đang có dự định tặng quà cho em nhân ngày 8/3 :-D

Nếu các bạn chưa nghĩ ra nên tặng quà gì, thì dưới đây là wishlist của em. Nghe ra thì có vẻ hơi… trắng trợn, nhưng thực ra wishlist này đưa ra với mục đích trong trắng là giúp các bạn đỡ mất công suy nghĩ, tiết kiệm thời gian, tiền bạc và công sức (hí hí)

Vanity Fair (các thứ giúp mọi người có hình ảnh đẹp về em)

Gương bỏ túi (dạ cái gương cũ của em hình như đã rơi mất đâu đó bên Campuchia, nên em đang cần 1 cái mới)

Sáp thơm (nhà em sắp hết)

Dầu massage (nhà em cũng sắp hết)

Son phấn nước hoa nữ trang các loại

Illusions (các thứ giúp em có hình ảnh đẹp về bản thân mình)

DVD Hair

DVD PULSE

Webcam (em cũng muôn muốn có 1 cái nhưng chưa đủ muốn để tự mua)

Melancholia và Thanatos của Ryu Murakami

Are you experienced? của William Sutcliffe

Vé đi xem Rock Sài Gòn ở sân Phan Đình Phùng

(wishlist sẽ được cập nhật thường xuyên) :-D