William Chong

Hope your tail-end of semesters are going well, or your work doesn’t bore you, or you’ve done something good to yourself today.

Was a bit peeved yesterday (for a total of about 14 minutes between start and end of lunch) when I tried to return a magazine which I couldn’t open instore and found it wasn’t worth the money I paid, and found out there was a no returns policy for them.  Oh well.

(end rant) See, that wasn’t a very convincing rant, haha.

Teaching was fine, it’s interesting how I have two beginners’ classes that started off exactly the same, but each class has a totally different dynamic.  My favourite student is a 7 year-old boy who reminds me of me when I was 7 and just starting the violin as well!  He’s very cute.  Kinda like me when I was 7, though that’s a totally qualitative statement with absolutely zero objectivity whatsoever.

I’m currently working on a presentation for Tuesday, on the content analysis of lots of sports and gaming magazines.  It’s worth 10%, and a final report worth 25%.  And a 5% proposal completed earlier means that this study is worth 40% of my 307 grade.  *sweats*

What would I like to do in the near future?  Graduate.  Then take some time off, perhaps see some of the world.  Might do that start of the year when the madness of Christmas and New Years’ is over – you see, this is the time when everyone is most busy working and playing.

I’d most likely be working.

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I’m glad to say that there’s good food to be had in Auckland’s well-known revolving restaurant, Orbit. With this year’s rare shipment of Alaskan King Crabs on offer, Chef de Cuisine Jeremy Schmid has crafted a special once-in-a-lifetime entreé and main meal to savour. Massive crab legs that rival your own forearm for length and girth, two at our table took the chance with this as a main (served with a chive buerre blanc sauce and baby roasted potatoes) and were sumptuously rewarded with a rare taste of delicacy from the depths of the unforgiving Bering Sea.

Tender crab flavours aside, the spectacular Auckland City views afforded by this Skycity-based unique revolving setting encourages diners to chat and while away the time across ever-changing cityscapes. Take nothing away from high-flying architect Andrew Lister though: his refurbishment and decor on the inside matches the classy feel of this place. With intimate dining tables interspersed with lounge chairs to watch the city lights slowly revolve about, our waitress was gentle and approachable as well, answering questions we had about the menu matter-of-factly. Service was unhurried and relaxed, and you couldn’t tell that the restaurant was fully booked at the time.

My main was eye fillet steak, which came on a kumara mash that was down-soft and creamy as if it was prepared just minutes before I ordered. The red wine jus rounded the dish off nicely. Other mains at our table included a very rich mushroom and truffle oil risotto; and a salmon fillet on roast fennel, red onion and baby potato salad with bell pepper sauce.

With such stellar gastronomic experience, one could be excused for stretching out a meal across to desserts, and that’s exactly what we did. Their selection didn’t disappoint either: though a honey and mango brûlée was a touch on the bland side, a freshly pressed hazelnut and apple crumble with apple sorbet and calvados (an apple-based spirit) sauce was as rewarding as forbidden fruit. A selection of boutique chocolates offered flavourful bursts such as coffee, pepper and mint. The coup de grâce from the “sweeties” selection though was undoubtedly the semi-frozen mascarpone cream – caramel flavours surrounding a soft, almost tropical-like centrepiece that tasted so good, you’d swear that summer would be back again tomorrow.

Take yourself there – Orbit @ Skycity.

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Hello everyone!

Wrapping up the tail-end of classes for this semester, my penultimate one before I can safely graduate from higher education!  Other than that I’ve been good.  We recently acquired a poker set with really nice-feeling chips (those clay-compound ones that clunk together with a nice “chip” sound…), and opened it out a couple of times.  I have discovered that betting with fake money is much more fun than anything money could buy, hah!  Oh and also you can trick yourself psychologically into thinking you’re part of the James Bond crew by declaring each chip to be worth 1000x its original value:

“… raise by 5000!”

“… match and raise by another 10000!”

You will realise following this post that the main reason I took the time to type this entry up was not to make this site to reviewy… too many reviews recently.

What?  You like?  OK, next one’s a review.

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18th May 2007

It was a night where three up and coming young musicians well and truly took centre stage. The combined forces of Raymond Chan on the piano, Ryan Cha on clarinet and a guest piece by classical guitarist Brian Lee gave the 100-strong crowd an evening of masterful music.

Current Macleans College student Raymond Chan already has a growing list of accolades to his name – NZ Chamber Music Contest finalist in 2006, APO and NZSO Fellowships and undoubtedly more to come.

The audience lapped up Chan’s solo work during the 1st half, but equally admired the virtuosity from Brian Lee, who opened the 2nd half of the programme with Prelude by M.M. Ponce and Morel’s Danza Brasilera. The latter showed Lee’s excellent grasp for the flamenco-style techniques on show.

Chan’s performance of Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique was a bold choice to start the evening. His nerves showed with passages not as con brio as it could be, as well as a couple of slipped notes – but Chan was able to regroup for the rest of the movements, eventually warming up to the occasion.

Brahms’s Intermezzo was calm and composed rendition, Chan able to coax each stately step on the piano. Berkeley’s Concert Study in E Flat showcased his nimble hands with thrillseeking passages akin to some form of manic pointillism, and Ravel’s Sonatine was well-played, evoking a very pleasing French sound.

Two short movie pieces preceded the entrance of clarinettist Ryan Cha’s set: A Mozart Reincarnated by Morricone, and Romance based on a Paganini theme by Green. Both were light and perhaps a bit too easy for Chan’s abilities, though still coming across as an acceptable Schumman-like sound.

Mark these words: clarinettist Ryan Cha, learning under 175-Easter Andrew Uren, is going places. With accolades rivalling Chan’s own, his tone and technique show a dedicated and sensitive approach to the instrument. Chan proved as adept an accompanist to Cha’s animated playing: their instruments dovetailed about each other impressively during Lilburn’s Sonatina. But audience members offered a standing ovation to the excellent finale of Weber’s Concertino. Cha’s dexterous passages were matched by Chan’s sensitive accompaniment, and both players even attempted Gerald Finzi’s infamous Fugue from Five Bagatelles – no mean feat for an encore!

All in all an excellent concert with some of East Auckland’s rising musical stars.

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If you didn’t know, I’m tellin’ you. We got a new TV! Now this isn’t an open invitation to come take it away in a truck, mind you. It looks huge but don’t be tryin’ to steal it ya hear?

It’s 42″ diagonally, and uses a projector at the back of the TV to give a nice clear HD display. Sony Bravia – stands for Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Appliance (is it still a TV?)

And then you can do things like this:

(Playing a video of “Haruhi” in the background whilst surfing the net. Multiple desktops means I can do my work while entertaining you guys – oh the joys of multi-tasking!)

Some good things about this TV:

• Huge screen size for amount of money. An equivalent LCD-TV would cost $4000, but we snapped this one up for less than half the price.
• Supports my mac.
• It’s a Sony. It’s… like.no.other.
• (what a ridiculous tagline…)

And some cons:

• As with projectors, it has a silk-screen effect where it looks like you’re looking through a silk screen rather than straight at the image.
• Doesn’t let me play C&C on the big screen (though that’s a Mac problem, not the TV)
• With such HD quality it means normal TV looks bad in comparison. It’s gonna push us to get digital TV la…

In other news, Kenny is making a big deal out of climbing a mountain. Yea, whatever. We went up without power bars, walking sticks and with $5 Countdown gloves. Yes it was hard but it was good. Just for memory’s sake.

 If you don’t already know, this is my younger brother.

He is one of the select few to have gone to the Macleans Ball more than twice.  HOW is that possible??  You can also see that the car door has been left open.

What do I want to do once I’ve graduated?  Hmm.  I’ll get back to you on that one.

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Yes, I was supposed to be in class that day. But look outside! The sun is shining! Isn’t it?

Finally got that cheque in the mail. From Apple people What’s be happenin’ with everyone?

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I’d firstly like to say that I enjoyed the first two Spiderman movies. So I expected to watch a decent movie last night.

Now that I got that out of the way… I didn’t like Spiderman 3. Here’s a couple of standout points from the movie:

• a lot of plot points were explained by 30-second scenes.
• Peter Parker doesn’t go evil, he goes emo (no, they’re not the same).
• MJ (Kirsten Dunst) suddenly becomes frail and vulnerable in Spiderman 3. Yet again has to portray the “damsel-in-distress”. I know it’s a comic-book story, but please.
• Eyeliner on Toby Maguire. ‘Nuff said.
• Cliche. Cut and paste answers to conflicts.
• Though I’m glad they resolved Peter Parker’s inner conflict re: his uncle’s murder. That means there’ll be nothing to base another Spiderman movie off.

I’d say at least half of the story arose from very deus ex machina circumstances (e.g. James Franco becoming a good guy because his butler suddenly speaks up). Director Sam Raimi seemed to enjoy putting in action sequences, which were very polished.

One of the main things I was looking forward to was to see Toby Maguire actually act evil. In the story a symbiote (poorly explained plot point) binds to him and should’ve caused his character to be evil. However, all you got was a emo-haircut, cringe-worthy playboy antics and showing MJ up by playing on the piano. Perhaps it was intentional to make the point that nerdy people can’t turn evil… but then again, Raimi had the potential to really craft out a vicious side of Spiderman/Peter Parker. The end result was more comedy and cheese. I’m not sure whether it’s the script or the directing, but one/both of them definitely needed improving.

I’d rate the cringe-ness of some scenes to be nearly as bad as Legally Blonde 2, the Family Stone and anything from the Wayan Brothers. For a 2 1/2 hour film, there was a good 5 minutes of Peter Parker doing hip-thrusts in the streets of NYC; really long-winded sympathy-seeking expositions for the main villains; 10 minutes of “will-she, won’t she” scenes where a lot of time was wasted with shots of MJ looking out the window, Peter looking in, turning away, looking back and forth, etc etc; cheesy lines like “this pie tastes goooooood”. And a swinging Spiderman into his final battle suddenly does so past a huge American flag. Intense patriotism? ech.

Lots of things not up to scratch… so not very happy even though it cost $10 to watch it. Spiderman 3 would be about the same as Batman and Robin, in terms of depth and campiness. The first two were more concise and resonant.

Anyways. I appreciated other films more. C-.

With this set of pics, you get the behind-the-scenes look on the awesome birthday cake!  Then some pics from the “Asian Invasion” – very cool group photos.