Oil dilemma

26th June 2008

Ended class at 10am, watched "Red Cliff" with Jo Wee, CX, Carryn, Pei Chern, Yong Hau, Andrew, Kar Kien, Daniel, Beng and Tom. It WAS "THE" SUPREME MOVIE!! "RED CLIFF" a.k.a "CHI BI" is like the bomb of all bombs. Nevermind the actor and actresses, but their strategies, although wasn't really emphasize in the film but was extremely outstanding. The Eight Tiagrams Formation (a.k.a. turtle formation) was really great. The used of the reflective shield and the distortion of the enemies view by creating a sand storm condition before direct engaging them was brilliant. Though in the novel was never written any of this, but to put it in the story, I'll say quite interesting. But I'll comment that the director and producer could actually emphasize more on their strategies cause the presence of Zhuge Liang makes it a trademark to deploy serious and cunning strategies in the battlefield. Overall marks out of ten (10), I'll say a 8.9. Night fall, went out with Adrian to Taipan, "Kayu".

27th June 2008

Night fall went to Li Shin's farewell/birthday barbecue party at her house. Met old friends; Da Qiang, Chai Yin, Mei Ling, Ning Ning, Bik Yun, Ken Hon, Ting Yu, Emily, Ze Ling, and Lester. Barbecued the chicken wings, prawns and sausages. It was so hot handling those chicken wings. Luckily it was raining (drizzling), at least to cool down the surrounding temperature. Chit-chated old times in Seafield.

And now for some serious issue concerning our nation's prestige. Foreign diplomats concentrated their attacks on Malaysia's legal system. Seeking justified explaination from our Foreign Minister regarding Anwar's sodomy case that is said to be tainted with political motives. The usual stuff, Rice (Secretary of State) coming in to meddle around with other countries sovereignty. Typical of Americans, not blaming her but she's just doing her job.

Anyway, I believe most of you all had heard about the good news. Oil price drop till USD$124 from USD$147 recently. Demand is falling, speculators taking a break and supply just keeps on climbing. Every car owners in America is vying to switch to fuel efficient cars and Japan's oil demand is decreasing by day, thanks to the overly speculated oil price. That was last straw for many major and minor oil consumers. The damaged had been done, the demand is going through a reduction. But the question remains, how long will it be? General Motors recent clinging to their smaller profit due to a drastic change of demand for luxurious and petrol guzzling vehicles among the Americans is trying to create more hybrid cars to satisfy the changing needs of their former and potential customers. Today's The Star Biz Week reported several high profile who commented on the coming liken-to-be future prospects in the O&G (Oil & gas) industries. Their general view as I summarised it is oil prices will not go lower then US$100. Thats a good start concerning the demand is indeed really shrinking. At least we will not be exactly directed to head into a stagflation- fears of all fears. Mayby our inflation rate at 7.7% high might not last long if and only if oil prices remain declining. The more the better. Think of it, when everyone cuts down 40% of of their utility on oil in the world, that would deal a severe major blow to those oil producing companies since everyone now is talking about reduction in the use of petrol and switching into trifty lifestyle. A little effort by everyone could be a huge threat. I'm not making a mountain out of a mole hill, neither is it a trivial issue, but more of a setback for our economy as well. We are considered as an oil exporting countries, although our petrol price is less subsidised, and if the demand decreases drastically we are going to fall along with other Middle Eastern countries, such as United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and etc oild producing countries. If the oil price remain high and continues to climb, we are not in a good position; neither would it be any better if the oil price decreasesas a result of reduction in demand. Any outcome, we will still be at the loosing end. Such a dilemma.

Red Cliff

Wow! Semester 1 finals done. 4 papers gone. what should I say...hmm...freedom? Exactly wow! At 11.45am, went to Taylor Business School with Esther and Melisa to fetch Gun, Wei Liang and Joseph to go to Pyramid for lunch. Ate KFC, actually was supposed to eat at Wendy's but there were so many people in there, majority was busines students from Monash. Yeap right after exam they too went for their celebration. Anwyay spent sometime in KFC, till we waited for the engineering students to come and join us. BUT later they said they don't want to come, cause too expensive to go to Pyramid, crisis. Anyway at last only Kar Kien came. So 7 of us was the official amount of S7 present there. After lunch, Gun took us go to the "In Q Box" shop, cause Esther and Melisa was talking about it while we're in KFC, and I never knew such shop existed in Pyramid. The concept is ; the items in the shop were supposedly to be custome made -individuals who modified a presented object based on their creativity, so every thing in there suposed to be different. The whole thing is that when you created something new and you want to sell it but you don't have a platform to promote your product so you go in to that shop, rent a box and let it be promoted by the shop itself. Then get paid for it and also pay a little amount of commission to the owner of the shop (the commission part I think got la, no idea just wild guess).
Anyway after that we went for a few rounds of Daytona, RM3 finish in like seconds of playing only. Money value had became so..so..so small nowadays. After that go home. Finish.
John Woo's film coming out on 31 July 2008. Battle of Red Cliff/ Romance of the Three Kingdoms/The Great Battle of Red Cliff/ Chi Bi; those are the titles of the movie. Watch the trailer a few times, cause it looks freaking good. Anyway in order for one to understand this show, one must posses a historical background knowledge of the entire show because there will be so many names to remember and each with its own distinct role to play for this particular battle.
To cut short, here is my simplified characteristics of each of the main character;
Cao Cao: Last Chancellor (Prime Minister) of China, he initiated the invasion to the South to unite the Southern Land (The Wu Kingdom). Therefore the whole battle of Red Cliff is about the battle that had taken place for Cao Cao's unfication plan. He summoned a naval armada consist of nearly 100,000 troops.
Zhou Yu: Viceroy, naval commander, external affairs minister, Supreme Grand Commander of the forces of Wu in the batlle of Red Cliff. He was supposed to withstand the attacks from Cao's army. He plan with Zhuge Liang to use fire as their superweapon during the war. He is married to Xiao Qiao.
Zhuge Liang: Future Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Shu, ,military advisor to Liu Bei. He was the envoy sent by Liu Bei to the Kingdom of Wu to form an alliance to takedown Cao Cao. He was bitterly jealoused by Zhou Yu for his astounding abilities in warfare. He had predicted the change of the South East wind during the battle whereby the wind had assist to spread the fire that he and Zhou Yu had planned to burn Cao's own armada.
Huang Gai: Veteran General that is currently serving under Zhou Yu's command. Loyalty towards the Wu Kingdom. He faked his surrender to Cao Cao, and instead he lead about 100 ships carrying dried hays and oil to be set aflame before knocking Cao Cao's chain ships.
Zhao Yun: One of the Five Tiger Generals of Shu. Close bodyguard to Liu Bei. He plays a vital role in securing the victory at Chi Bi and also later attempted to catch the fleeing Cao Cao under the orders of Zhuge Liang.
Lu Su: Main advisor to Zhou Yu. He plays a special role to bring together Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu who are both bitterly hatred against each other. He administered the stay of Zhuge Liang in the Kingdom of Wu. he would be the future successor of Zhou Yu to lead the Kingdom of Wu.
Sun Quan: Ruler of the Kingdom of Wu. Brother to SunShangXiang. He gave the entire naval command to Zhou Yu under the pretext of securing a victory in the battle of Chi Bi.
SunShangXiang: Youngest sister to Sun Quan. She attempted to join the battle against Cao Cao. She is later to be married to Liu Bei as a form of conspiracy to assasinate Liu Bei, but fail. She was living with Liu Bei untill one day her brother lied about the death of her mother (Dowager of Wu) to force her return to the Kingdom of Wu. After that, she never got the opportunity to meet Liu Bei forever as the kingdom of Shu and Wu was in constantly at war.
Xiao Qiao: Wife of Zhou Yu. She was greatly admired by Cao Cao who wanted her so much that, she was one of the coarse the battle of Chi Bi had taken place.
Ling Tong: Another calibre general under Zhou Yu.
Liu Bei: Imperial Uncle to the current Emperor. Future Emperor of the Kingdom of Shu. Husband of SunShangXiang. Sworn brothers of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Guan Yu: One of the Five Tiger Generals of Shu. Sworn brother of Liu Bei and Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei: One of the Five Tiger Generals of Shu. Sworn brothers of Liu Bei and Guan Yu.

This is only the main characters in the battle and as you can see its already overwhelming with the numbers of it and their individual distinct roles. Can you imagine what would happen in the show that consist of so many other characters.