Saturday, October 21

Abracadabra

"Secrets, are my life.."

people have secrets. and people want to know other people's secrets because they ARE secret.. had it not been secret, it would lose that only mystery behind..

but what if somebody lives his whole life with secrets.. that even the people closest to him cannot see through him.. is it illusion.. is it reality.. how do you see the difference? how do you know the difference?

i have just watched "The Prestige" - a new film directed by christopher nolan of Memento and Batman Begins. do not confuse this with The Illusionist which was released a few weeks earlier.. (i haven't seen that one so i can't really compare.. but reading the synopsis gave me the idea that the stories are totally different) my reaction after i watched prestige was.. wow, i liked the movie a lot! attention grabbing, scenes after scenes you keep discovering something behind. and then you start putting all the puzzles together.. leaving you with that one missing piece.. of course i won't tell you and spoil this favorite movie of mine.. see 'til the end.. you might find it, you might not..




"Every great magic tricks consist of three acts:

The Pledge..
when a magician shows you something ordinary
but of course, it probably isn't

The Turn..
when he makes that ordinary something
into something extraordinary

Now you look into the secret, but you won't find it

That's why you have The Prestige..
where things twist and turn
and you'll see something shocking you've never seen before."

Tuesday, October 10

autumn in my 'evanston'

took a walk around campus with the gang the other day.. here are some of the shots of evanston in the fall.. the leaves are not as colorful as it should yet, maybe have to wait a bit.. it is part of our plan to go photo taking every now and then, just to capture our last 'seasons' here.. once we go back, seasons don't change much anymore.. jing ma? ^^




Tuesday, October 3

good to great

"All companies have a culture, some companies have discipline, but few companies have a culture of discipline.
When you have disciplined people, you don't need hierarchy.
When you have disciplined thought, you don't need bureaucracy.
When you have disciplined acion, you don't need excessive controls."

from "Good to Great" by Jim Collins

Interesting quote from the book I'm reading for my leadership class. The book basically tries to compare good companies with great companies, and how you can become great instead of just good. I kinda like this discipline idea, and I really think ideally it would improve the health of organization.. thought some of you might find it interesting and thought provoking as well :)