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• I never sleep

  Monday, Oct 22, 2007 2:26AM / Standard Entry / Thomas' thoughts

  For decades now, it's been the same. When I'm left on my own, I don't sleep at night.
  I'm never a party person either. I would just be at home, doing anything else but sleeping. Sometimes I'd just hang around by the window for hours watching the occasional car go by. Lots of thoughts flow through my mind during those long nights though, and I kind of like it.
  What I don't like is, by the end of the nights, when dawn comes, I panic, because I'm not sleeping yet. And when the sky gets brighter, I start to pressurize myself to go to bed and that makes it even harder to sleep.
  From the window of my Beijing apartment, I get a good view of some 10 or 20 ping pong tables. And between 545-615am, the sky turns from dark to light. Some older folks would start coming to the tables to play ping pong. It's also during this time that the pigeons would break the night silence when they come flying in, sliding their feet against the little aluminium roof at my room. It's an annoying noise they make.
  This is the time when I feel a little sad. In that for many others, it's a new beginning. One that's filled with brightness, and noise. But for me, it's the end of my day, as I attempt to close my eyes and retire into darkness.

  Here's what the ping pong tables look like, in the afternoons.

  

  
  

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• almost killed Sakana

  Sunday, Oct 21, 2007 2:36PM / Standard Entry / Thomas' thoughts

  I did a horrible thing today. I almost killed my fighting fish Sakana with my own wrong-doings. What happened was, I tried to change the water in his tank and thinking that he was a tropical fish and since winter has almost arrived in Beijing, I decided to give him some warmer (new) water today. And he almost couldn't take it. When he entered the fresh, warm water, he darted around frantically and I thought he was thrilled to feel the new temperature. Then seconds later, he started to swim sideways and it's never a good thing when fishes start doing that. I got so worry I almost dropped his tank as I rushed him to the toilet (almost needed to type the 'hospital' there) and transferred him to some colder water. It took some time before he recovered from his shock and start eating his worms. I think he's all right now, as he's starting to want to fight with the toy turtles placed around his tank again. Sorry for the shock Sakana!
  
  
  

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• What if...

  Tuesday, Oct 16, 2007 4:11AM / Standard Entry

  I'm turning 30 in about a month and my peers have all been talking about what they call 'the Big 3' like the end of the world is coming or something. I'd heard many foreign friends tell me that the 30s are the best time of one's life for you're then old enough to be taken seriously and still young enough to have the energy to pursue your goals. But I guess in Singapore, turning 30 means beer bellies and balding heads though...

  And one thing I'd observed was, many of them (my peers) had at least one 'what if' in their minds. There's almost always something they wished they had done in their early twenties which they regret not trying.
  I'm happy to think that at least till now, there are no 'what ifs' in my life whatsoever, my 'what ifs' are what's currently happening to me right now.

  
  

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• Dodgy agents in China

  Saturday, Oct 13, 2007 7:06PM / Standard Entry / Thomas' thoughts

  Let me just tell the story through an example here. And let's call the agent in question 'Lisa'.

  Now there are some Lisas in China who represents western actors (usually extras)  and if you would go to her website, you'll find something like 500 photographs of foreigners of all ages and types, with 80% of the pictures looking like they didn't quite know someone was taking a picture of them (for.eg. children playing at playgrounds).

  Then, I also have some foreigner friends who found out that their pictures are up on Lisa's website and don't have any idea who Lisa is. I got to know Lisa through a Canadian casting director who was in town to cast some of her movies and had a coffee session or two with Lisa in the past 6 months or so. Well, though everything seemed dodgy about the way she carries herself and her business, we were able to hold decent conversations during those meetings. And I had since also introduced my good friend Ed to her and Ed since been acting on some TV shows through her, which is good for both of them.

  Then, recently, I  was invited to fill in for the position of casting director for the Hollywood movie 'The Mummy III' that was part shooting in China. It was a job that I eventually did not do but somehow, Lisa got to know of it.

  So, she called me up and said in a rather harsh tone: "Thomas, why didn't you call me to tell me you might be on the Mummy III?! Why didn't you come to look at my actors?!"
  It was like I owed her an apology or something.
  So I told her: "I just didn't think you were professional as an actors agent because I don't think you know anything about the actors you represent."

  "What do you mean?" she asked.
  I replied: "As a casting person, I would need the agents to send the right type of actors to me. I need the agent to have a sense of which of their actors suit what kind of roles. I need them to have an artistic eye to send me the right candidates. And even if they're not clever enough to understand the requirements of the roles in a scrīpt, if I need 3 white actors who are trained in Kung fu, you don't send all 100 of your white actors to me with only 10 of them knowing any Kung fu. That's behaving like it's more likely that I could choose 3 out of a 100 than 3 out of 10. Which means you are just interested in the money. In short, I just want to work with good agents who know their actors and their jobs."

  "Of course I know my actors. I have all their CVs." Lisa defended herself.

  "Come on Lisa, CVs are easy to read and easy to fake. Let's just talk about my good friend Ed here. You have already found him some jobs by now. But what do you know about him? Have you even bothered to look at his showreel or even know what he is like as a person? The answer is NO! Which means, if Ed was an asshole who's always drunk or a prima dona who treats everyone like shit, the production would find themselves in trouble and you wouldn't even know what went wrong! You as an agent should first screen and know all your actors so that the casting director can fully utilise his time in spending more audition-time with each suitable candidate than waste time on seeing a huge bunch who were obviously not suitable from the start! In short, if I want 2 horses, bring me 10 good horses to pick from and not 10 horses, 20 cows and 15 goats just because you run a farm. I'll have to waste alot of precious time sending the 20 cows and 15 goats home because I will end up pretending to audition them anyway as I don't want to hurt their feelings. And it's wasting my time, your time and their time!"

  Unfortunately though, 90% of all agents in China are Lisa-like. It's sad.

  
  

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• 'The Game' 《失控》 updates

  Saturday, Oct 13, 2007 6:56PM / Standard Entry / Thomas' shows

  Here's an update of the SONY TV drama series that I acted in earlier this year called 'The Game'. I play one of the leads called 'Zhou Fan' （周凡）.

  It should be aired on CCTV early next year and I will post more updates here nearer to that time. I extracted the article from the website http://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/f/shik/index.html and it's completely in Chinese. Sorry about that. There's also a trailer at this website - http://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/bn/2007-08-28/195119664.shtml which might be interesting for the English readers here. The trailer of course, is also in Chinese but does have that Sony Spidermany-feel to it, so everyone can enjoy it regardless. ha.

  I'll try to post the trailer here on alivenotdead once I get my hands on it. Enjoy!

  --

  资料：电视剧《失控》剧情梗概

  　　蓝鱼公司总经理左兆丰酒醒后发现自己身处在陌生的荒郊，而且身无分文。他回想起昨晚是公司与美国代表签订“中国娃娃”销售合约的日子。左兆丰千辛万苦回到家中，才发现是好友兼公司律师翟任伟和海外销售经理吕小洁等人为庆祝他生日搞的恶作剧。

  　　“中国娃娃”合约是蓝鱼玩具公司的大订单，虽然违约条款十分苛刻，但左兆丰急于表现给父亲左柄泉看，没有多加考虑。公司倾尽所有极力赶工之时，却有一位自称是“中国娃娃”创始人的男子(周凡)出现，并将蓝鱼公司和其设计师徐一嘉告上法庭。

  　　徐一嘉在法庭上突然一反常态，指控蓝鱼公司董事上左柄泉唆使她剽窃周凡的设计，休庭之后就人间蒸发。

  　　“中国娃娃”终于赶完工期，但却在海关被扣下，原来周凡的律师向法院申请了冻结封存。左柄泉想用钱息事宁人，但周凡被左兆丰一番冷嘲热讽后，狮子大开口要五百万。左柄泉一边让吕小结想办法接近周凡了解情况，一边找银行梁主任贷款。吕小洁得知周凡和徐一嘉竟然是大学的恋人，“中国娃娃”的确是周凡设计，他来到蓝鱼也是为了要见徐一嘉。

  　　银行梁主任同意贷款，却在第二天一早涉嫌贪污被抓。情急之下吕小结决定去劝周凡先撤诉。可当周凡看到翟仁伟拟草的撤诉协议时却又反悔。徐一嘉找到周凡，让他不要帮蓝鱼，之后再次消失。

  　　“中国娃娃”不能按时交货要赔付巨额罚款，左柄泉却在此时因涉嫌受贿被抓，蓝鱼公司内忧外患。左兆丰决定放手一搏，用父亲私存下的钱炒期货，但因时间紧迫，所赚的利润对于公司现状也只是杯水车薪。

  　　蓝鱼倒闭，吕小洁受邀到翟任伟的律师楼工作。左兆丰的母亲住进医院，为了筹集医疗费，左兆丰卖掉了一切财产，却不想收到了假币，生活顿时陷入窘迫。

  　　左兆丰在社会上屡屡碰壁，吕小洁想帮他重新把中国娃娃的项目做起来，她找到小龙人玩具公司的董事长，谈妥了中国娃娃的项目。

  　　看守所中的左柄泉总觉得有人在恶意陷害，于是把自己的想法告诉了翟任伟，要他去调查。在翟任伟的帮助下，左柄泉保释出狱，一家人虽然没有了往日舒适的生活，但总算能团聚。

  　　他们不知道，这一切的幕后黑手竟是跟随他们多年的律师翟任伟。

  　　徐一嘉深爱翟任伟，为了帮他完成心愿最后不得不隐姓埋名躲起来。周凡的如影相随让她心烦意乱，而当她察觉翟任伟对吕小洁有好感的时候，开始歇斯底里。翟任伟赴约时误撞徐一嘉，周凡把她送到医院，徐一嘉对周凡说出自己所做的一切都是为了爱一个人。

  　　翟任伟对徐一嘉开始感到厌烦，就找来被他抓住把柄的严晓松，让他勾引徐一嘉。翟任伟看到吕小洁和左兆丰的关系越来越好，心有不甘，他用吕小洁的邮箱发邮件给小龙人的董事长说中国娃娃存在侵权问题并推荐了周凡，署名后打印出来一份给了左兆丰。左兆丰看到后大怒，与吕小洁绝交，并在小龙人做了一名普通的销售。

  　　徐一嘉对翟任伟失望至极，和严晓松在一起，严晓松想用从徐一嘉口中得知的秘密敲诈翟任伟，然后带她远走高飞。翟任伟设计让左柄泉以为严晓松就是真正的幕后黑手。

  　　吕小洁和左兆丰开诚布公，当她得知左兆丰的邮件是翟任伟所给时，大为惊讶。她开始怀疑翟任伟，但左兆丰不肯相信。

  　　左柄泉带人去找严晓松，严晓松惊慌之中误伤了左柄泉，开车逃跑。翟任伟答应会帮助严晓松，但要他录音说明和左柄泉的恩怨。

  　　左柄泉入院，在听父亲说是翟任伟给的地址之后，左兆丰也不得不怀疑起他。吕小洁着手调查翟任伟，被开除。

  　　左兆丰约严晓松面谈，可赴约后发现严晓松已经被杀。由于没找到凶器，左兆丰暂时被释放。吕、左二人怀疑是翟任伟的计谋，一起到翟任伟的老家，发现了事情的真相。

  　　原来，翟任伟的父亲曾是左柄泉的合伙人，因为挪用公款做生意，被前来讨债的工人们逼得跳窗自杀，翟任伟的母亲却以为是左柄泉逼死了他，上吊自杀。母亲死后，翟任伟到了孤儿院，仇恨的种子深深的埋在了幼小的心中，长大后他攻读法律，千方百计成为蓝鱼公司的专属律师，开始了他漫长而缜密的复仇计划。

  　　杀人凶器在吕小洁家被发现，她在警局百口莫辩，这时，徐一嘉出现了。

  　　左柄泉去见翟任伟，向他解释他父亲的死是场误会。翟任伟无法接受这个结果。他约吕小洁出来，明知她在录音，却从容的说出了所有事情，之后自杀未遂，终于伏法。

  　　左家人还是关心着翟任伟，他们给服刑中的他带去了孤儿院葛老师的录音，翟任伟终于放声哭泣……

  
  

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