新聞改寫練習

依家 D 新聞硬係詞不達意 ，等我幫你改寫下：

#1

終審法院法官包致金的姪女，今年初在司徒拔道一宗交通意外中，掌摑警員，她早前承認襲警、不小心駕駛及拒絕酒精呼氣測試三項罪名，今早在東區裁判法院，被判感化十二個月、罰款八千元及停牌一年，感化期間要到美國進行針對精神問題的住宿治療度假，為期三個月，返港後再進行戒酒治療，並定時提交進度報告，如果感化官膽敢不滿意進度，可要求法庭延長感化期被告可要求掌摑感化官。 裁判官指，被告已有兩次襲警記錄，今次的案情更嚴重，但如果不判罰，會對公眾帶來錯誤訊息，但被告的感化及心理報告指出，她患有燥狂抑鬱症經常哈哈霸霸，導致有酗酒問題醉酒鬧事，考慮到被告有好的學歷及家庭背景我同人地叔父一場同事，認為她應該接受治療，因此不考慮判監。

#2

擁有兩個學士學位、放棄百萬年薪設計師工作的保育人士馮炳德，繼去年因襲警罪判囚兩個月後再惹官非，去年1月他參與爭取雙普選遊行時，被指用手肘撞向警員令其跌倒而被裁定襲警罪成，昨被判囚15周及賠償受襲警員8000元。裁判官判刑時直斥馮視法律特區政府高壓統治為無物，我地喜歡屈你襲警便屈你襲警，又指遊行並非「擋箭牌」咁你有冇法官親戚吖，警員亦無理由受到欺負和虐待演技不被認同的侮辱，最後更拒絕馮保釋等候上訴的申請。

下面呢段就唔改了，只係等你引以為鑒：

退休高等法院法官阮雲道幼子阮家輝，日前疑醉酒中酒精毒暴斃；十年前因涉嫌藏毒而免被起訴、卻惹起軒然大波的阮家輝，本月五日被 鄰居揭發他在何文田寓所暴斃，相信死去多時，初步懷疑是飲酒過度致酒精中毒致命，並無可疑，其父至今仍未能接受愛兒死去的事實，其遺體將於今日進行火葬。

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

Doctor Who Episode 5.13: The Big Bang

Jaw-dropping. Mind-boggling. Magical. Wonderful. Amazing. I don't know of enough adjectives to describe it. This is the work of a pure genius.

So my predictions were mostly right. The episode did start with Amedia in 1996 - but I wouldn't have thought that it was the exact same scenes as in The Eleventh Hour, down to the first shot of a red, revolving pinwheel! (That's the reason why that slot is included in Episode 1...)

Then you have loads of complete surprises in the next 10 minutes, each being so mad that any single one can make you fall off your chair.

And again I was correct that the escape from the Pandorica is timey-wimey, although a hundred times simpler than I thought. I'm surprised that half of the Internet cannot get their heads round about the escape, asking things like "but how did he get out in the first place"! It is just a self-consistent time loop, people! There is no beginning and no end! You're watching a time travelling show and cannot understand a self-consistent time loop?! How did you comprehend the DVD easter egg and the transcript of conversation in Blink?

And the now infamous forest scene. It's not about the jacket, really, it is about the doctor saying something completely out of context and the tone in which he say it.

Just like many other Moffat episodes, you have everything in one episode: fun, sad, romance, wit, and of course, mind-boggling time travel. The emotional scenes with the Doctor preparing to fly the Pandorica, and speaking to sleeping Amelia, is very moving. And of course there is the
"something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" line. Pure genius. From now on this saying will have a completely different level of meaning. Why had nobody ever thought of that in the past 47 years?! I think Steven Moffat must have first thought of it and then constructed the entire series around the idea...

And yes, I predicted it too, that not everything will be resolved in this series.

Some people will complain that the episode makes no sense, particularly with respect to the "remember and people can come back" thing. I still think the series is mostly internally consistent logically (but see below), despite not really offering any scientific explanation. But there were never any "real" scientific explanation anyway. At the end, I think the issue is whether you prefer "logic without science" or "science without logic"; I know which one I prefer.

So here is my list of complaints, or notes about unresolved points:

• The universe takes a rather long time to collapse... 2000 years, no less.
• A restoration field? Why would anyone build a prison which not just keeps the prisoner in stasis, but even restore life (and everything else)?
• The Doctor said Amy "grew up next to the crack for so long". Really? Amelia prayed to Santa, presumably not too long after the crack appeared, and then the Doctor arrived to seal it off.
• Why exactly erasing the Doctor from the timeline makes him travel backwards in time with two of them at the same time/place?
• Who is the shadowy figure in Episode 1? Presumably it is the Doctor, although they choose not to show the same scene.
• I suppose Amy's change of name may even be attributed to the Doctor implanting this to her as he gave his bedside story.
• If the universe is rebooted, why did River Song still remember the Doctor? And she should be sent back to prison at some point after this episode, since she needs to be taken out of Stormcage in the Byzantium episodes. Just in case Moff forgets...

算把啦...

很好，大家都看世界杯，facebook 也沒有人談政治了...

民主黨早已是一個靠「地區工作」(也就是靠飲飲食食，攏絡選民)，面目模糊的政黨，和民建聯在很多方面都差不多。他們提出這個方案，最大的好處是為他們提供「就業機會」。議員也要食飯的，像李華明呀，劉慧卿之類，還有之下各級大小議員，不做議員不知可以做甚麼。還有很多 「靚」 跟你搵食的，你唔食佢地都要食。(所以我從來都反對全職議員，又開辦事處「服務市民」甚麼的。) 現在多了十個議席，直選便容易了，像劉慧卿，要不是上次中聯辦要玩死田北俊，早就落選了。區議員更是這種 「地區工作」政黨的強項。最好加至六百個議席，他們便最高興...

這個黨還經常強調要和「中央」溝通。溝乜X野通呀! 那是一個滿手鮮血，靠屠殺自己國民維繫的政權呀!

可是說了這麼多，唔想咁樣，可以點樣? 和中央「爭取」民主根本就是不可能的事(你以為人家是傻的嗎?) 你要麼搞暴力革命; 不幸大部份人都認為這太「激進」，那就只好認命，人家施捨甚麼你便要甚麼好了。現在民主黨「爭取」到這個，也是聊勝於無，總不比原本差，也不一定對繼續「爭取」普選有太大負面影響(反正也不會爭取得到)。只是你先前話說得太盡，一臉正氣的，甚麼沒有路線圖絕不支持云云，現在轉軚便難看點...




那邊廂社民連也是「爭唔落」。本來我很支持別人以暴(議會暴力，街頭抗爭) 易暴(政權暴力) 的，但你怎能說出癌上腦這種惡毒語言...

Never ignore a coincidence

Doctor Who Episode 5.12: The Pandorica Opens

Moffat once said that The Eleventh Hour will be the most scrutinized hour of their television lives. At that point it sounded like it is because it is the first episode with an entirely new cast and crew, but just like almost any other line of dialogue that he has written, there is another level of meaning: after Episode 12, everyone is now trying to find out what clues have been hidden back in Episode 1. Except that a few obsessed nerds on the Internet has already noticed that right after Episode 1 and proposed all sorts of mad theories. For the first time ever, though, these mad theories have a chance of being actually true: like the fact that something is wrong with Amy's house, and that her entire life doesn't make sense, is now officially confirmed by the Doctor.

This episode does not answer any questions, but instead adds further mystery to them and raises new questions. Just a few examples:

• What's the voice talking about the "silence will fall"? And why exactly the TARDIS explosion and the end of the universe lead to silence? (Other than that there is nothing left in the universe to make a sound - but that's not too meaningful is it?)
• When exactly was the Auton Rory constructed? No matter which point you pick, it doesn't quite make sense.
• Who really is Amy? Why did she change her name?
• Who/what is River Song?
• What exactly are the effects of those cracks? If the fact that Amy does not remember the Daleks and nobody remember the Cyberking is due to it, does it mean many aliens have fallen through it? Why?
• Why is there a damaged Cyberman?
  
• Who controls the TARDIS and makes it explode? And if somebody have that power, why not just go ahead and do it? What's the point of lining up a list of aliens and construct a box? Is that elaborate setup actually something to save the Doctor?
• Are the Dreamlord and the TARDIS-building plot in The Lodger important, as they are the only episodes not featuring in this one?
• Do those wrong badges and clocks really represent something?
  

The episode, by itself, doesn't seem to make sense if you think hard enough about it. But nothing is as simple as it first appears, and everything is related to everything else, and hopefully, like Moffat's other episodes in the past, it will make complete sense at the end - only this time it is not one episode, but one series. Though perhaps not everything will be explained. After all, there are no laws in the universe that require everything to conclude within one series.

Next week: my guess is that it will not try to resolve the cliffhanger, but directly shows Leadworth and Amelia in 1996(-ish). The big resolution almost surely will involve some timey-wimey stuff, like the doctor somehow escapes, travel back in time to multiple places to do something so that a whole series of events that lead to the escape itself will happen. It certainly will be mindblowing, and will take at least several days, if not weeks, of the collective wisdom on the Internet to work out a consistent explanation, or to decide that it just makes no sense.

Oh, and "Time can be rewritten." Let's see how the big reset button will be used this time.

Parmars, again

Now that I finally have nothing to do with them, I can wholeheartedly "recommend" this fantastic 1-bedroom flat offered for rental by Parmars Estates. (The link may not last very long but don't worry, I have backups of it.) There are lots of good things not in the descriptions and the pictures though which I think I should highlight to potential tenants.

• The advertised rent is 425 pounds per calendar month. You may naively think the same rent is to be paid across the entire rental period, but actually, the rent will increase by 7.5 pounds after every 6 months. You will be informed of this, of course - after you have paid the application fees (and are thus effectively tied to them).

• And if you think you can quit after 6 months, sorry, the contract length is actually one year, not the commonest 6 months. If you want a 6-month contract then it won't be the same rent.

• It says "white goods" and you will also be told "everything is included". However, when they finally produce an inventory (after you paid all fees, obviously) you will find out that the washing machine is not listed, and when you ask them then they will suddenly tell you that it is not included and what you see is only left behind from the previous tenant. Maybe it is not "white" enough. Don't worry, it works, just that I don't know how much longer it will still work - you will soon find yourself enjoying its screaming.
  

• And if you find there are things, like a TV, left behind by previous tenants when you first view the flat, and are promised they will stay, then be assured, they will disappear when you move in.

• They charge a deposit which is 1.5 times the rent, not the usual 100 pounds+rent. But never mind. Make sure you chase them for proof of participating in the Tenancy Deposit Scheme though. This may come handy when you try to get your deposit back at the end of the tenancy. You will find that your deposit is indeed held very "securely" and will take you lots of patience to recover them.

• Here is what can happen. Two weeks pass and there is no contact. Then they say the inspector is "on holiday" and will do the inspection next week. Next week comes and nothing happened and you only get another "next week" promise. Another week passes and they say the inspection report is sent to landlord and waiting for his approval. But just keep bugging them, at least there is one tenant who got it back in 5 weeks time. And make sure you talk politely too, or else they will accuse you of talking "nastily".

• If I say this I'm guaranteeing myself huge trouble, but this is my true personal experience. All I***** lettings agents are f***ing l***s. Don't get anywhere near them.
  

• I'm not sure why, but whenever you come back to your flat and open the door, there will be a cold breeze blowing out. Scary isn't it. And soon you will notice the flat's level of humidity. Look at some parts of the c******. And look behind the d**** too. And I'm very very sorry about this, I've already tried my best: take note of the b*** s******. Good luck.
  

Funny alien awkwardness

Doctor Who Epsiode 5.11: The Lodger

(Actually I've already watched Episode 12 when I write this but I'll pretend I haven't)

• Nothing much to say here: ok episode, funny light comedy. Matt Smith is really an alien. Only he could have done those things convincingly.
  

• The ending (as usual) doesn't make any logical sense. How did a crashed spaceship land on top of a flat without anyone noticing or without damage to the flat? Why is building a time machine the most important thing to save the ship? And fair enough if they try to build any time machine, but a TARDIS? A TARDIS is a bigger-on-the-inside timelord technology! And now perception filter can alter memory as well...

• I was expecting the ending of this episode to lead into Episode 12 like Utopia and Turn Left did, and 40 minutes on this still seemed to be the case. Which makes the resolution slightly disappointing. (Unless, someone is also building a TARDIS in the non-existent second floor in Amy's house... Or if Amy's house actually is a TARDIS...)

• This is the most boring Doctor Who Confidential ever. A scientist talking super-excitedly about the Prime Meridian, the solar system and wormholes. Anyone who watch this show regularly (i.e. not because they happen to have flipped into this channel), would have known all these already. I switched over to watch football, fortunately. Or maybe not.
  

A pile of good things

Doctor Who Episode 5.10: Vincent and the Doctor

• I was not expecting anything from this episode, believing it is the usual historical character episodes where they tack a (very unconvincing) alien explanation to whatever mystery that character was involved (Agatha Christie's 10 days disappearance, Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Won), but was pleasantly surprised it wasn't the case.

• On reflection, that would be wrong, so so wrong to stick those ridiculous jokes to someone who suffered from mental illness. In fact the episode tackles the issue of mental illness at a Saturday 7pm slot, to the point of giving a helpline at the end; this bravery should be commended upon.

• In the "lots of sunflower outside van Gogh's house" scene, Amy was very... "inviting". (I mean, very inviting to be portrayed...)

• Richard Curtis. Big name that I don't know. Nor the films he has written. I suppose now I know how those films are like. Dr Black's 100-word speech, when read on paper, may not appear that outstanding, but the way Bill Nighy delivered it, the acting from everyone, the direction, the music, all added together. And the next scene showing Amy's sadness when she found out that, after all, history have not been changed and van Gogh still killed himself. And the Doctor's speech. Very moving, beautifully and marvelously written and shot. As good as "Father's Day". They will go down history as some of the best scenes this show has ever made.

• The giant chicken monster is poor, but this is completely irrelevant. The sheer brilliance of the last 10 minutes overcomes any shortcomings of the previous 35 minutes. Though one have to ask, why does it always have to be like this (Utopia, Cold Blood, ...) But still, I'm more than happy to take this. To quote the Doctor:

The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things.
The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa,
the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.
And we definitely added to his pile of good things.

Perennial war

Doctor Who Episode 5.8/5.9: The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

• Unlike many others I don't think these episodes are too bad, possibly because of me never seeing the classic series. Usual monster-of-the-week type episodes of course, nothing too complicated and even a bit silly, but most episodes are like that anyway.

• Humans and Silurians sharing the planets? That's obviously impossible is it? Certainly no human would agree to it? But I wasn't too bothered about this point. Then just before the Sunday BBC3 repeat, the news was reporting the Israeli military operation of the Gaza aid flotilla.

  The Doctor should really take a closer look at human history. Humans are totally hopeless.
  

• The final scenes are epic, of course. But the most important question remains, who is the big bad that caused the crack? It couldn't be a returning aliens this time, I suppose; if it were then everybody would have known it by now (The Master and Davros were all over the Internet before Series 3 and 4 even began to air.) Is it the Doctor? The TARDIS? River Song? (I recently accidentally discovered that "song" (or more precisely "sông") in Vietnamese means "river" in English - I suppose this is just a very very big coincidence...)

民建聯成功爭取唔認自己成功爭取免費電視播世界盃

張國鈞報警﹕邀功banner純屬網民惡搞

Truth is probably here:
http://forum3.hkgolden.com/view.aspx?type=CA&message=2348732

England squad

Um, did that man actully say that he only takes players who play regularly and are in form? Look at the list and it is all "safe" choices (i.e., big names) with quite some players starting maybe less than half of the matches for their clubs, even when not injured. When I looked at the starting line-up against Mexico, it felt very refreshing, and for one moment I thought he would really ditch "the system" developed around Rooney-Gerrard-Lampard (who invented it anyway?), otherwise known as put-in-11-star-players-first-and-then-work-out-a-formation. But I quickly realised it is just a friendly, in a real match he is likely to revert to the tried and tested system which has been proven to give you partial, and only partial, success.

As for individual player selection:

Heskey: By dropping Bent they now officially bring three strikers to the World Cup. I mean, one of them score even fewer goals than the Columbian goalkeeper Higuita or the Paraguay Chilavert, how can you seriously count him as strikers...

Walcott: But never mind, in 2002 they also bring effectively three strikers since there was never any real intention to use Walcott anyway. He is a tragedy, really; had he not included in the 2002 squad, and hence not under that much spotlight and ridicule, there might just be a chance for him to develop into a better player. Given that SWP seems to play rather well at the national level, perhaps Walcott's exclusion is justifiable. (Btw, if I'm not mistaken, he was a striker, not a winger. Why do some Premier League managers seem to always fashion strikers into midfielders (Walcott, Kuyt, Babel)? )

A Johnson: should be given a chance really.

Parker and Huddlestone: these are poor people included in the preliminary squad only to make up the numbers.

Dawson: a pity, can't figure out any reason why Upson is preferred.

Overall, the team feels more or less the same as in 2006, although less injury-worn. But still can't see this team going any deep.

Quotes 20100530

... 然而我以為問題永遠不該是「為什麼下一代不能忍受」，而是「為什麼上一代可以忍受」；我們不能把這種環境看作正常的環境，接著質疑下一代人不能吃苦的理由，反而該如實看見這種環境的苦，然後探問是什麼使得上一代人身在苦中不知苦。

說穿 了其實很簡單，那就是希望，以及對希望的想像。流水線上機械化的動作確實難熬，但上一代人仍然盼望回家結婚蓋房子，每一個小時的工作都能換算成未來的磚 瓦，每斷一根手指都意味著樓上的房間多了一扇窗子。所以這種苦是值得吃的，再多的犧牲也都是有意義的。
...
現在呢？你現在回到農村生活還能算是一個好生活嗎？替孩子付出和城裏人差不多的開支，帶父母到城裏看和城裏人一樣昂貴的病；還有哪一位工人會希望 回村安家過日子？住在城裏吧，你不知道要等到何年何月才能憑積蓄住得起一間自己的房子（更 不用說戶口變遷的困難）。... 回去是不行了，留下來也看不到往上流動 的道路，眼前的勞動就真的只能是勞動了，猶如每日推石上山。

假如一代真的不如一代，那實在不是下一代的意志力的問題，你應該問他們要意志力來幹什麼。

梁文道：這也叫一代不如一代？

* * *

工人十二連跳，都是九○後的小青年。他們來深圳打工，與上一代民工不同。老一輩的，從農村到大城市來賣力，省吃儉穿，儲了現金回鄉下買地蓋房子。但現在，農村的土地已經給別人圈掉了...

國情通識課，陶傑

* * *

即使借用航海術語，政府也不敢說意義明確的「向普選出發」、「普選起程」或「普選啟航」。政府沒有路線圖和目的地，只能說意義模模糊糊的「起錨」。起錨不 一定是出發，起錨之後，是可以再下錨的。船隻停泊，初次下錨，鈎得不穩，也會再下錨，令錨頭鈎緊海床，泊得穩固。因此，「起錨」模糊得很，可以是再停泊一 次，預計原地踏步，很蠱惑的口號啊﹗

此外，海盜要綁架停泊在海中的船隻，也會命令船長起錨，隨賊船而去的。政府的起錨口號也有大吉利市的時候，就是香港的「民主號」慘被中共的「集權號」海盜綁架，不准原地停泊，要跟他們回賊巢，使到立法會的功能組別用區議會方案「溝淡」之後，禍延千秋萬世。

陳雲：是起錨，不是起程

Championship playoffs

Disappointingly but not too surprisingly, Leicester did not make it to the Premier League. It is a very good chance this time, particularly with Nottingham Forest being knocked out; and one of the Blackpool player is on loan from Leicester so he won't be eligible to play should Leicester meet Blackpool in the final. Next year it would probably be much more difficult. It has to be said that the quality of the football we are playing is simply not as good as the other teams.

I would have preferred Cardiff to beat Blackpool, depsite Cardiff being the one that knocked Leicester out. Blackpool was not even in the top 6 until the very last week (?). More importantly, their boss is Ian Holloway.

One thing that has been puzzling me for quite a while now is how some apparently idiotic managers have good results in the Championship. I don't know how well Ian Holloway did it in Blackpool, but back when he was in Leicester he always appeared like a clown, giving nonsense answers to questions. In contrast, the current Leicester City manager, Nigel Pearson, seems to behave sensibly, knows what he is doing and do not speak nonsense. I hope he continue to do well for the club.

Weird dreams

Doctor Who Episode 5.7: Amy's Choice

• I have only watched very few X Files episodes. I quite like the episode Field Trip ("hallucinogenic mushrooms digesting humans with yellow goo"). In some ways this episode is similar to it, with a twist that after waking up from the "first" dream, they are still in a dream. Here they could have made the two dreams much more equally believable, but the outcome is that one is completely obviously fake. Still, the premise is an interesting one. So the idea is interesting, but perhaps not executed very well in this episode.

• More importantly though: are they *still* in a dream? (Now this is the maddest theory ever...)

• They are seriously showing old people getting beaten and being thrown down a roof at Saturday 6:30-ish? I know they are alien-possessed but still...

• It is entirely possible to get out of a dream by realising it is a dream. During my school years I used to have regular nightmares that feature a succession of unfortunate events that any single one of them is plausible but together it is just impossible to happen. The typical scenario would be: on route to an exam, I discover that I've forgotten to bring something, but there is enough time to get back home to get it. But then when I'm getting back home there is a traffic jam caused by some accident. Then I decide to take another mode of transport and then discover the thing I want to get is with me all along. Eventually I managed to arrive the exam venue just on time, only to discover to my horror that I have been revising for the wrong subject all along. Or something like that.

  One day it suddenly occurred to me that since it is simply impossible that such things happen together, as soon as the second unfortunate event happens it must be a dream. The next time I had that sort of dream, I got out of it by recalling this reasoning. And then the same dream never happened again.

低水平抄襲與浮誇演技

某發展中國家之抄襲風氣，向來絕不遜於自稱「大國堀起」之天朝。

最近某人 review 一份該國「學者」之論文，看了老大半天，最後才忽然發現該文乃是 100% 抄自另一篇論文。還說是 assistant professor 云云 (雖然該國大部份 assistant professor 也不見得須要甚麼 qualification...)

查該某人於海外任教已有相當時日，學生多來自該第三世界國家，早已見慣該國學生抄襲之事。

最近又有一人，被揭發整個 project 每一行 source code 皆是抄襲回來。該(男)學生被 tutor 召見，先是無言以對，繼而悽然淚下，掩面飲泣，煞是可憐。及至步出門口，更是步履蹣跚，須扶牆而行，彷彿突聞至親噩耗一般。其演出卻是略嫌浮誇，況且他還沒行至走廊盡頭便已回復正常。他可不知該 tutor 閱人無數，三個月前才見另一同國籍之學生也是如此這般演出：上午得知 fail 了 degree，下午才猛然醒起自己母親身患重病，三日後再見此人已是不似人形，像三天沒吃沒睡，每一步皆可倒下一般。

該某人對自己任教之科目，更早已採「隻眼開隻眼閉」之態度，唯近來抄襲之水平實在太低，該某人一時技癢，竟連捉十多人。其中一位明顯為 source 者，已被不停給予機會從實招來，他卻含着一泡淚水，硬是不說，真是使人愛莫能助。

該人任教之學校也相當詭異，學生的祖母永遠只在考試季節去世，學生心情未能平復，大大影響考試成績。

The "Name of a mediocre monster" of "Location of a filler episode"

Doctor Who Episode 5.6: The Vampires of Venice

• Actually, I just moved house and did not have time to write this. In any case, there is not much to write. Very typical, "average" episode, with CGI monsters, explosions, lots of running around, lots of jokes, etc. Probably good enough for an 8-year-old. Not bad by any means, just that we've seen too many similar episodes.

• The pre-title sequence, though, is the weirdest ever.

The time traveller's wife/murderer and the not-so-nice assassins

Doctor Who Episodes 5.4/5.5 - Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone

• Steven Moffat's son referred to the scene where the angel jumps out of the TV as the scariest thing he has ever watched on TV. Well he clearly haven't watched that Japanese horror film. Having watched so little film and TV, I initially didn't realise this is where the idea came from, though.

• I don't like the fact that they now changed the physics of the angels (if there is still any physics that is):
  

1. First, in Blink an angel cannot move when someone watches it, in a way similar to the standard quantum mechanical interpretation of a wave function collapses into a single state when an observer measures it. Now the angels don't seem too bothered looking at each other, they can move while the audience (us) is watching, and they may even freeze just because they think they are being looked at! (Maybe Moffat is trying to tell us that the Copenhagen interpretation really doesn't make any sense...)
   
2. Secondly, they no longer kill "nicely" by pushing people back in time (although it never made much sense to me.)
3. Thirdly, you will now die if you look at the eyes of an angel. The idea of "that holds the image of an angel becomes an angel" is nice, but I'm quite sure Sally Sparrow has taken some images of the angels...
   

• Actually, imagine if there are two different species of angels, one of those you must look at them without even blinking, and the other you cannot even look at them or you will die, and the two species look identical...
  

• The countdown bit is quite surprising and creepy.

• The sequence inside the forest doesn't quite work for me: the angels thinking they're being watched? The Doctor getting angry in The Beast Below is fine, but again here (twice) seems too much. But there are two good things: the "angels turning their head" moment is going to become a classic. Also, clearly there is a future doctor jumping back to this point in time! ("Clearly" when you watch it for the second time that is...)
  

• There are more and more evidence that Moffat is playing his timey-wimey ideas throughout the whole series, so instead an episode making sense in the last minute, it might take an entire series to make complete sense only in the last few minutes of the finale! (at which point all the mystery about Rory's badge, the wrong clock, duck pond, future doctor holding Amy's hand, two men in black appearing in a deja vu manner, etc. will be solved!)
  

Obesity of the Daleks

Doctor Who Episode 5.3: Victory of the Daleks

As you see, here I follow the tradition of setting the titles to "xxx of the Daleks"...

• Bringing Daleks back once and for all is clearly the right thing to do. You just can't keep on
  killing them off completely (apparently) after 45 or 90 minutes every year, only to invent more and more convoluted ways of bringing them back again next year...
  
  
• Redesigned Daleks: I don't really like them, but clearly I have no say about this, I don't even watch the classic series. The main problem is that they are now too plastic-y; they should be metallic. Also the head and the neck's proportion isn't quite right w.r.t. the rest of the body. But I'm not too bothered by it: in any case, Daleks are the sillyest alien that humankind have ever created (come on, pepperpots?? with a sink plunger?!) so no matter how ridiculous looking they are it doesn't matter too much.

• Plot: the story barely makes sense, but this is like other alien stories where the aliens always create incredibly convoluted and stupid plans when they could just blast the Earth out of existence in 30 seconds (or 20 minutes... according to the Doctor anyway.) But then you don't have a story to tell so I suppose this is not avoidable.

• Spitfires in space: I can just about accept the "gravity bubble" technobabble; after all the purpose of the episode is to put all British icons (Churchill, daleks, spitfires) together.

• Daleks with union jack: this is pure genius.

• I don't like Mark Gatiss' writing. Last time "The Lazarus Experiment" was a disaster to me. In that story and in this one, it is like "Crisis 1 arises, solved after 10 minutes, then Crisis 2 arises, solved after another 10 minutes, and so on", rather than developing slowly towards one big climax near the end. Daleks pretending to work for humans is a potentially very interesting idea, but they revealed their true intention after 15 minutes or so into the episode!
  

• I don't know what Steven Moffat is doing in this series: they are releasing far too many trailers so that when you watched the episode, it feels empty because all the good stuff have already appeared. I mean he was the one who put in the "spoiler" joke in the Series 4 Library episodes! Imagine if the Smilers and the spitfires in space were never in any trailers...
  

All in all, we have 2 fairly weak episodes. I hope the next one will be good; even half as good as Blink will be magnificient. Otherwise I should probably stop writing this as it is going to
embarrass myself...

Snooker World Championship 2010

So I was at Sheffield again to watch the first session of the Marco Fu vs Martin Gould match.

I arrived very early and while walking up there, Mark Allen (who was going to play at the other table) walked right across in front of me.

I sat in row G this time, a bit closer to the tables. Probably wasn't caught on TV, I hope.

As for the match itself... well. Fu never failed to disappoint me. It started quite well for him, but perhaps it was only the other guy starting rather shabbily. At one point Fu was leading 4-1, but he did not manage to take advantage of this; during the latter half of the session Gould clearly showed sign of much increased confidence and pull it back to just 4-5 behind. It was therefore not surprising that when the match resumed the next day Fu eventually lost 9-10.

It appears to me that Fu's playing style has always been very "forced" and uncomfortable unlike many other players who play much more naturally. He is having a dreadful season; I have no idea how he managed to get into top 8 last year, and it looks like he may still be lucky enough to hang on to a top 16 place.

On the other hand, I can't quite believe what I'm seeing about that Martin Gould: at the time of this writing he is already 11-5 up against Neil Robertson. He just gets down and makes all sorts of insane pots and never misses a thing!

"Forget" or "Protest"

Doctor Who Episode 5.2: The Beast Below

The following is the message I recorded for myself. After typing them, I will press the "Forget" button and forget about this episode...

• There is one thing good about this episode: the pre-title opening sequence was brilliant. Probably the best since, er, Turn Left? Genuinely terrifying.

• Plot is the most important thing I look for in any science fiction/fantasy. One of the reasons that I like Steven Moffat's scripts is that they all begin in a completely mad and bizarre manner but by the end of the 45 minutes everything fit together and actually make sense. Unfortunately, this episode doesn't make any sense, as already pointed out by so many people so I won't bother repeating. What a disappointment when this is something from Moffat.
  

• He has another usual problem of tending to put too many ideas into one story when any one of them is good enough for an entire episode, resulting in many good ideas being casually thrown away. Sometimes it works great like Blink: time travel and several "predestination paradoxes"; "quantum locked" stone statues; DVD easter egg with one half of some dialogue; that half dialogue fitting in two different situations; all in under 45 minutes! But perhaps there are cases that don't work... I had thought that these brilliant ideas will be "diluted" as he took over and became executive producer with 6 stories to write instead of 1 or 2. However here it is not diluted, in fact there are enough stuff to give 2 episodes. The Smilers are terrifying, but do not tie to the plot whatsoever.

• The part where Amy votes is confusing: the fastforwarding gave the impression that the information is somehow fed to her so quickly that she made the choice subconsciously, when in fact (apparently) it isn't the case.
  

Amy (is about to be) in Wonderland

Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 1: The Eleventh Hour

I don't usually write Doctor Who reviews since (i) so many people have done this and there is really nothing original I can add and (ii) this will take too much time. Instead of writing a coherent article I will just write down some random points.

• As usual Steven Moffat has a remarkable ability to turn everyday objects creepy. From stone statues in Blink, to cracks in the wall this time (by the way, there is plenty of that in my flat...), and invisible (or rather unnoticeable in this case) room in your very own house. Enough to scare any kid. This also taps directly into kids' terror, like the "monster under the bed" thing in The Girl in the Fireplace.

• At the same time, as the Grand Moff and many others have said so many times, it was indeed also very "fairytale", not just the story concept but also the visual effects and music.

• Moffat has created a complex character in Amy Pond; there is much more to analyse then her skirt length. Unlike most other stories, time travel is always an integral part of Moffat's plot, and it is "The Girl in the Fireplace" all over again. This time the little girl was disappointed by the doctor, and her personality was consequently shaped in subtle ways while she grew up, which are all very reasonable when you think about it, and gives a more natural explanation as to why she is willing to go with the doctor, comparing with previous companions (a kid believing in a time machine is much more plausible; and she waited 14 years...)

• The heart of little Amelia, though, was still inside the grown-up Amy. The doctor's return allowed Amy, and the viewers, to let out their "inner child" again. This is best summed up in the dialogue:
  

  "I grew up."
  "Don't worry, I'll soon fix that."

  Moffat is in fact the one who fixes this for every grown-up viewer!

• I was skeptical about Karen Gillan's acting, but it seems so far so good. The "then why did you say five minutes!" speech was quite powerful. And the girl who played young Amelia deserves special mention; her performance was so excellent it is hard to believe she had no prior acting experience.

• Murray's Gold's music for the episode is once again superb. (Sometimes you have to wonder why these people are working for the BBC; surely they are destined for bigger things?) From the scene where Amelia packed her little suitcase waiting the doctor to come back; to the TARDIS left Amy behind for the second time; to Amy finally walked into the new TARDIS; all are accompanied with little sequences of music that are exceedingly simple but very effectively conveys the emotion and that are also, once again, very fairytale, very Tim Burton, very Alice in wonderland (never in my life have I thought of writing these words in my blog! "Alice goes down a rabbit hole" is the first and last thing I know about it. I know the other Alice, the one who cryptographically communicates with Bob, better...)

• The alien plot was somewhat disappointing. Although many would say this is not the main point in this episode, one would expect Moffat to pull out something better than this, given the quality of all his previous contributions. Still, you never know; numerous mad conspiracy theories are already being rumoured, based on (quite reasonable) observations like contradictory signposts on which years the events happened and the crack pattern shown on the TARDIS console etc. In the past it was always fans reading too much into these, but this is Moffat, he never put things in for no reason. The "silence will fall" etc are far too straightforward, clearly Moffat is up for something more twisted than this?

• Nobody seem to question why this is called the eleventh hour? Even this makes sense, in three different ways at the same time!