多謝《給十九歲的我》的參與者。 #終身學習 Thanks Participants of “To My 19 Year Old Self” #LifelongLearning

Thanks Participants of “To My 19 Year Old Self” #LifelongLearning
多謝《給十九歲的我》的參與者。 #終身學習

Related: “Kempton & 張婉婷 給十九歲的我 (National Treasure) To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self – Mabel Cheung 2.5 hrs chat”

Related: “回應張堅庭導演 #給十九歲的我”

0) Thanking ALL participants and not just the leads (“主角”)
1) Dear Shirley (best friend of 「阿佘」Britney),
2)「阿佘」Britney and family
** 2a) Dear Britney’s Mom,
** 2b) Dear 「阿佘」Britney,
3)「阿聆」Ling and family
** 3a) Dear「阿聆」Ling,
** 3b) Dear Ling’s Parents,
** 3c) Dear Ling’s brother Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天,
4)「阿雀」“Birdy” Chloe and family
** 4a) Dear Chloe’s Parents,
** 4b) Dear 「阿雀」 Chloe,
5) Dear「香港小姐」“Miss HK” Katie
6) In Closing

0) Thanking ALL participants and not just the leads (“主角”)

Many have thanked the “lead participants” (“主角”) of the Hong Kong award-winning documentary 《給十九歲的我》“To My 19 year old self”. My thanks go to all appearing in front of camera and behind the scenes, you have taken precious time in these 10 years to shine light on the most precious thing in life, which is life itself.

After taking some time to reflect after watching 給十九 ToMy19 for 6+ times, I’ve found many “Teachable Moments“. I will try to share a few scenes in the film and people that I was deeply touched by. Each of us of course will have moments that touched us more than others because of our own live experiences. And I think that is expected. Here are some of mine.

I will put my thanks in the form of letters addressed to some of the people I watched in 給十九 ToMy19 directly in no particular order. Due to space and time limitation, I’m only able to share small parts of what I want to say so my apologies in advance.

1) Dear Shirley (best friend of 「阿佘」Britney),

Dear Shirley, I wish 給十九 ToMy19 is longer and we audiences of 給十九 ToMy19 get to see more of you on screen in your own words, telling your own stories, including more of you talking about your passion in music. Were you studying conducting in that scene near the end? One thing we got to watch clearly is that you were such a good and loyal friend of 「阿佘」Britney (more on Britney later) in her times of greatest need. Your firm and unwavering support of Britney showed us hope and possibility for goodness in a “Mean Girls” movie-style school environment. Shirley, Have you heard of the “Anne Frank Test“? No? Before I explain it, I want to say you passed the “Anne Frank Test” with flying colours! The Anne Frank Test as told by a Holocaust survivor years ago, is actually a single question: Which non-Jewish friends would risk their lives to hide us should the Nazis ever return? To me, you passed the “Anne Frank Test” when 「阿佘」Britney became an outcast for those periods of time in school and you stood by her all those years when she most needed your support. So much so that years later, Britney remembered your kindness and told others including the Former Principal Ms. Ruth Lee (前任校長 李石玉如) who recognized the good job that you did for your classmate in need. I often quote the Chinese saying, “錦上添花易, 雪中送炭難” and it is rather true for you. These days, I see too many HongKongers who are willing to 落井下石 because they have been primed to quick “Like” and even quicker “Hate” thanks to Social Media (like Facebook) algorithms that have been designed to maximize engagement (another word for “angry”/”hate”/”dislike”).

Thanks Shirley for giving us viewers (young, old, and very old) opportunities to learn to behave like you did for your good friend Britney. In case you and others are interested, I first read about test/concept in The Atlantic, “John McCain Would Have Passed the Anne Frank Test” after the passing of Senator McCain.

2) 「阿佘」Britney and family

2a) Dear Britney’s Mom,

Watching you showing your love of Britney by scheduling and limiting her activities (including limiting her TV time) reminded me very much of the love my own parents showed us when we were little. My parents were busy working like you and Britney’s father and they did not want us children to watch too much TV either “for our own good”. And in the summer holiday, my mom would plan my schedule a little so I would take time to study. You were like my parents, you tried and that was kinda “Universal Truth” of how some parents show love!

2b) My Dear 「阿佘」Britney,

Dear Britney, I wish 給十九 ToMy19 is longer and has more time to explore (even briefly) your current work in nursing. I worry the nursing profession in HK has also been decimated by the Covid19 pandemic like in Canada (shortage of nurses) and US (more shortage). How are things in nursing? Now back to the documentary. Thank you so much for sharing your stages of growth with HongKongers of all ages including students’ parents. So some (not all, but some) of those parents may learn to better love & spend quality and quantity time with their HongKongers students/children. I think every little bit makes a positive difference.

Speaking about parents who didn’t want us children watching too much TV “for our own good”, may I share something with you? Well, when my dear parents weren’t home to stop us from glued to the TV, at one point, they would unplug the TV, tied the TV’s electric cord into a knot, then my dad would tape the whole electronic cord knot onto the side of the TV and signed his name onto the tape itself, yes, as a tamper-proof security feature! Very inventive father! That invention stopped us from watching TV for a few days until I bought an electric extension cord to power the TV! 💞🤔😃💞 Of course, 道高一尺, 魔高一丈, soon they would start to “feel” the back of the TV, and if the TV was hot, it meant we were watching TV “illegally”! And then I discovered water would cool TV down so I just poured cups of water right into the back of TV minutes before they arrived home. Thank goodness TVs weren’t made in China and were more reliable then, and us children did not die from TV explosion from all the water poured into the back of high voltage cathode-ray tube TVs! Kidding aside, we can see in the documentary, your parents worked hard to provide for you. And your parents didn’t get their “training manuals on parenting” as neither did my parents get theirs.

Britney you are so brave in sharing your mental health condition (Depression) and Serotonin medication that may help many HongKongers’ (young and old) in discussing and treating their mental health condition, something that you now know as important given your nursing profession. Mental health condition is something many HongKongers including HongKongers students may have but aren’t brave enough to face or share like you. Britney, you have my deep admiration and I cried (ok, I cry easy) in support of your bravery! In Canada, we are a bit more enlightened as we have the awesome Clara Hughes, a beloved Canadian cyclist and speed skater who has won multiple Olympic medals in both sports. Britney, Our dear Clara wasn’t as brave as you because Clara could only share her mental health condition (Deep Depression) in 2011 after she was a full grown adult and a highly decorated successful Olympian winning multiple medals! Britney, you opened up when you were in secondary school and some of your classmates weren’t your most supportive friends except your best friend Shirley which I think we can agree as super cool! Britney, would you agree that Shirley has passed the “Anne Frank Test” as I described above? By the way, have you studied from your nursing training, the concept of Neurodiversity, a term I much prefer? I recently learned about it from the CBC podcasts “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2). With stories like yours more widely shared, do you think we can be hopeful that HongKongers will be more enlightened in the coming months and years?

3) 「阿聆」Ling and family

3a) Dear「阿聆」Ling,

Dear Ling, It was a breath of fresh air watching your open, fair, and hard fought school election that determined which of two teams would get to lead the Ying Wa Student Council. Documentary film doesn’t exist in a vacuum. And 給十九 ToMy19 exists in 2022/2023 when the Hong Kong 47 are being accused of breaking National Security Law of Hong Kong for their election related activities and some had been put in prison without bail for 700+ days. Under this context, watching your open, fair, and hard fought school election campaign and the insightful & emotional speech given by Vice Principal Ms. Siu-Fung Chow 周小鳳 became deeply touching & insightful as good documentaries can do sometimes. Maybe I cry too easily, but I cried watching you and your schoolmates’ school election campaign. I want you to know those election campaign scenes touched me.

And watching the clear love between you and your younger brother Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天 is an example of the “Universal Truth” that is the unconditional love that exist between siblings. Which led me to fondly remember some experiences with my own sibling. We love each other unconditionally. You and Mr. Wong also taught me more about the further need for inclusivity in Hong Kong which I will expand below.

3b) Dear Ling’s Parents,

Dear Ling’s Mother, You showed and taught me about unconditional motherly love in every frame you appear in the movie. I’m not a smart man but I think and hope your on screen actions has inspired and give solace to other HongKonger mothers who have their own life experiences to live.

Dear Ling’s Father, We got to watch you in a few places in the documentary and I appreciate your special fatherly love. As us children (we are ALL children of our parents, so this includes you, Mr. Ling’s Father) get older, we learn that parents are not given “training manuals” of how to be good parents and sometimes even our own parents make mistakes and that is another “Universal Truth” I myself discovered when I got older. My own parents tried their best. And so did you. The difference is that, I now understand that fact of “parents make mistakes too” better, the change of understanding happened inside me.

3c) Dear Ling’s brother Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天,

Dear Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天, Thank you for sharing precious moments of your life with us. Thanks especially to you, I have taken the initiative (a few hours) to learn more about Neurodiversity. In the film, your mental health condition is described as autistic (自閉症), of which I’m now more comfortable in using the term Neurodiverse to describe after listening to the CBC podcasts “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2). And I’ve put a library hold on the book “Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity” (see also audio NPR segment). I know some HongKongers are more progressive than others, and as we learn more about ideas like Neurodiversity so we can, ultimately, bring out fuller potential of Neurodiverse HongKongers to contribute to communities in unique ways as Prof. Temple Grandin (who is neurodiverse herself) talked about in details in the CBC podcasts “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2) that I hope readers of this post will take time to listen. To quote Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” I will tell people reading this to not take my words blindly for it, have a listen to “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2) and decide for yourself.

4) 「阿雀」“Birdy” Chloe and family

4a) Dear Chloe’s Parents,

You both show your clear unconditional love of Chloe. And in the documentary, Chloe even explained she is not going to leave Hong Kong so she can take care of you both. So sweet.

Dear Chloe’s Dad, You got up everyday to give Chloe rides to school (until the school moved to the Sham Shui Po) reminded me of how my loving late dad took care of us by driving us around to where we needed to go. The pair of scenes that touched me deeply were the ones you held Chloe’s hands when she was little. And then on that rainy day when Chloe was older, she pushed your wet hand away. This is another moment that I call “Universal Truth” as we children all do “this” at some stage of us growing up. Inevitable. Part of “growing up”. This scene made me cried a little as my own 80+ years old dad passed away last year. I wish I had more years to hold my dad’s hands but Covid19 and Hong Kong’s isolation policy robbed us of the final years, final months, final days, and final hours as I watched him over video as he passed on.

4b) Dear「阿雀」Chloe,

Dear Chloe, Watching 給十九 ToMy19, I feel (rightly or wrongly?) you are easy going and yet very principled. Your scenes bought lot of joy and insight to me personally. After watching your wonderful role in “The Nightingale”, I even Google to find and sample longer segments of “The Nightingale” Part 1/2 and Part 2/2 to watch for fun! And watching the scene of you, “Madam”  Karen, Ying Wa’s First Police Inspector Ms. Sheila Tong (湯玉英, 英華首位警務女督察), and others discussing the then “Live” Hong Kong protests (“佔中” in the words of Karen) also show your independent minded personality which I admire deeply. I’m almost certain that when I was your age, I would not have the clarity of mind and wouldn’t be able to explain my reasons as clearly as you to a person as experienced in policing as Sheila.

5) Dear「香港小姐」“Miss HK” Katie

Dear Katie, It was heartbreaking watching many scenes of you growing up alone in Hong Kong as it also shines light on real life experiences that more and more families of blended families and parents not living with the children. Of course, it was heartwarming to see you adapted to your American life really well.

6) In Closing, I wish I have more time and words to write about more people in 給十九 ToMy19 that touched my heart and taught me insightful lessons. I think the nice thing about good documentaries is not unlike other things in life, we ultimately decide what we see as “Teachable Moments” to learn from. Good luck and I hope you find your own valuable “Teachable Moments” in life.

“… it fractures you as a human.” – New Quote I Love

Interview – #EmiliaClarke ‘The best place in the world is backstage at a theatre’
by #KathrynBromwich @kathryn42

Reading this #CoolInterview of #EmiliaClarke: ‘The best place in the world is backstage at a theatre’ by @kathryn42 //Ahead of her British stage debut in The Seagull, the Game of Thrones star talks about her self-doubt as the hit show took off, her decision to write about her brain aneurysms – and showing her love through baking//. And I’m adding a new addition to my collection of Quotes I Love.

“In stage work, it’s every cell of your body, it’s a 360 feeling. On screen, it’s so often your left eyeball, your right shoulder – it fractures you as a human.” – Emilia Clarke (1986- ) (interview)

Uplifting #Superbugs #ThePerfectPredator #Phage #SaveTheHusbandSaveTheWorld story told by Steffanie Strathdee, PhD @chngin_the_wrld

Watch this Global TV segment and I think you will find it Dr. Steffanie Strathdee‘s experience saving his husband’s life very uplifting and yet has great potential impact to our world of #Superbugs!

Global TV, 2022 Feb 12, “Superbugs: The global health crisis that threatens modern medicine“

Here are a bunch of other resources, articles, videos, etc I found & enjoy.

Time Health Care 50 (2018?), Steffanie Strathdee, Solving Superbugs (K’s note: I added important and useful links to the following text not presence in the original article)

“In 2015, her husband contracted an antibiotic-resistant bug on vacation and almost died. But Strathdee, a University of California, San Diego, epidemiologist, saved him by appealing to researchers of an obscure treatment that uses special viruses called phages [Bacteriophage] to kill the bacteria. In June, she helped launch the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics Useful Twitters: IPATH, Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, UCSDMedSchool], which she hopes will make more superbug treatments possible. —Mandy Oaklander”

In Steffanie‘s own words in a 2017 posted TEDx Talk, “How Sewage Saved My Husband’s Life from a Superbug | Steffanie Strathdee | TEDxNashville” (ref wiki, Acinetobacter Baumannii)

What Steffanie did was kinda “#SaveTheHusbandSaveTheWorld” moment for me which is a phrase I borrowed from the “Save The Cheerleader, Save The World | Heroes” scene.

Also check out Steffanie & Tom’s book The Perfect Predator – A scientist’s race to save her husband from a deadly superbug (book website, book review).

Will try to add more over time. To be continued.

xxx

Joy of Business Case Study Authorship – iStockphoto US$50 million Calgary success story

Let’s walk down memory lane. Almost 15 years ago in November 2006, I had the joy of writing and publishing my first business case study about iStockphoto, a Calgary based company acquired by Getty Images for US$50 million in cash in February 2006. If was amazing meeting, interviewing and learning from iStockphoto founder and first employee/ex-president to write the case study for the site Startup Review thanks to its editor Nisan Gabbay.

Before I repost my 2006 case study, let’s put “Stock Photo” in a bit of 2021 fun context by sharing screen captures of search results of “stock photo simu liu”. Yes the same star Simu Liu of Kim’s Convenience and Marvel Superhero Shang-Chi fame appeared on the covers of way too many accounting textbooks if you ask him! HuffPost article “Simu Liu Was A Stock Photo Staple Before He Was A Star” quoted Simu screamed well in an adorable tweet, “PLEASE STOP USING MY FACE FOR YOUR ACCOUNTING MATERIALS!!”

Here is a version of the iStockphoto business case study that I rediscovered thanks to the trusty internet archive. I hope you learn as much as I wrote it in 2006 and as I re-read it now in 2021! 15 years have gone by since I conducted the interviews and wrote the case study, it is an insightful read even for me now in 2021, if I may shamelessly say so. Enjoy!

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iStockphoto Case Study: How to evolve from a free community site to successful business

written by Kempton Lam and Nisan Gabbay, posted on November 26th, 2006

Note from Nisan Gabbay: I am pleased to announce that this week’s case study is the first to be authored by a Startup Review reader, Kempton Lam. Kempton is a management consultant who specializes in assisting start-ups. Please see Kempton’s background and blog for more information. Kempton followed the same process that I take in creating these case studies, and I served as editor to ensure that the format is consistent with the Startup Review format. If you’d like to become a guest author for Startup Review, please contact me.

Why profiled on Startup Review

iStockphoto is both an online community for photographers and a source of high quality, low-cost stock photos. As of October 2006, iStockphoto’s stock photo library contained ~1.1 million images contributed by 23,000+ photographers. In 2006, iStockphoto expects to sell 10 to 12 million photo licenses from this library, at prices ranging from $1 up to $40 per image. iStockphoto’s success opened up a new market segment for stock photography, catering to customers who could not afford traditional, high cost stock photos from the likes of Getty Images and Corbis. This success caught the eye of Getty Images, who acquired iStockphoto for $50 million in cash in February 2006.

Interviews conducted: Bruce Livingstone, founder & current CEO of iStockphoto. Patrick Lor, first employee and ex-President of iStockphoto. Paul Connolly, independent consultant specializing in digital media and the stock photography market. Special thanks to Kara Udziela and Yvonne Beyer of iStockphoto for helping to support the creation of this case study.

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Key success factors

Offered a free alternative for a previously high cost service

iStockphoto established the market for “microstock” photography by providing high quality stock photos at extremely low price points. iStockphoto’s innovation was offering all its photo licenses royalty-free, available via easy download over the Internet. The notion of high quality photos licensed for free was a game changing development in the stock photography market in 2000. iStockphoto enabled the distribution of photos from budding and semi-professional photographers to reach a large market for the first time. iStockphoto also drastically reduced the cost of stock photography for a slew of customers (graphic designers, small businesses, non-profits, etc.) that could not afford traditional sources of stock photography.

As iStockphoto increased in popularity, hosting and bandwidth fees for the site grew proportionally, forcing a decision upon Bruce as to how to pay for bills approaching $10,000 per month. Bruce opened the discussion to the iStockphoto community, ultimately allowing the community to determine an acceptable solution. In February 2002, the community decided to charge $0.25 per photo mainly to cover site maintenance fees, with 20% of charges going back to the photographer.

iStockphoto has since gone through several iterations of its business model, but continues to offer photos at a relatively low price point. The first iteration occurred in 2004, when iStockphoto officially became a for-profit entity. At that point iStockphoto charged 1, 2, or 3 “credits” (priced at $0.50 per credit) for photos of different sizes, offering a 20% commission to the contributing photographer. Today, iStockphoto offers photos at a myriad of price points and has a more robust photographer commission structure. For example, photos are offered at price points of 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, or 40 credits (priced at $1 per credit). Commissions vary from 20% – 40% based on sales milestones reached and whether the photographer grants iStockphoto exclusive use of images.

Fostered a loyal and active community

iStockphoto was started as a hobbyist site by founder Bruce Livingstone and it remained so for several years. The fact that iStockphoto wasn’t created as a business venture from the start was a big factor in iStockphoto’s success. In many ways it parallels the start of another popular online community, Craigslist. Just as Craig Newmark’s personality has had an influence on Craigslist, so too has Bruce’s personality and passion for photography had an influence on the iStockphoto community. Bruce was always a core user of the site, and as such attempted to nurture the needs of its users.

iStockphoto consciously fostered its community from day one through forums, emails and face-to-face meetings. iStockphoto has many active online forums where new users can post questions and get help from experienced users. These active forums have made the iStockphoto community welcoming to new users and engaging for experienced users. Secondly, iStockphoto makes a point to provide very prompt responses to user questions submitted via e-mail. Even as CEO, Bruce routinely takes the time to send emails to users to offer encouragement or help. Thirdly, iStockphoto hosts a series of trips (called iStockalypses) where users can shoot photographs of interesting places and share knowledge about the stock photography trade.

The iStockphoto site itself has many features that help to get users engaged with the service. For one, it provides transparency around how active certain members are with the site, specifically around number of photos uploaded and number of paid downloads. This enables new users to learn from the success of power users, providing examples of the types of photos that get the most traction. iStockphoto also creates a sense of positive psychological exclusivity amongst users by only approving photos that meet certain quality standards. This process helps users improve their photo taking skills and makes them feel that they have “earned” their place within the community.

Emergence of low-cost “prosumer” digital SLR cameras

In the winter of 2003, the Canon Digital Rebel (a 6.3 mega pixel prosumer digital SLR camera) became available at a price under $1,000. Both Bruce and Patrick viewed the availability of these cameras as a turning point for iStockphoto because they created a great influx of high-quality photos. iStockphoto was in a great position to capitalize on this emerging trend through the infrastructure they had developed over the previous years.

Took measures to ensure that submitted photographs met quality standards

As the popularity of the iStockphoto service grew, the number of photos submitted exploded. At the same time, customers came to expect a certain level of photo quality from iStockphoto. As such, iStockphoto developed detailed guidelines for what constituted acceptable photo submissions. iStockphoto views this both as a quality control mechanism and a means to provide feedback to photographers. iStockphoto takes time to explain to contributors why their photos are rejected. According to Patrick, sometimes a new user may only start with a 25% acceptance rate but with constant feedback and guidance are able to improve their acceptance rate to 75% – 90% within 6 months.

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Launch strategy and marketing

iStockphoto was originally started as a hobbyist site in May 2000 by Bruce Livingstone. Bruce created the site as a means to share and publicize his portfolio of photographs. Initially seeded with 1,600 of Bruce’s photos available for free download, the popularity of the site prompted Bruce to open the site to other photographers who also wanted to contribute their photo collections. This transformation took place 6 months after initial launch, creating a thriving community of contributing photographers.

Bruce initially marketed the site by word of mouth, telling friends via e-mail. One of Bruce’s friends, web design guru Jeffrey Zeldman helped publicize the site from its early days by blogging about it and using iStockphoto images in magazines like Macworld. Mr. Zeldman’s influence in the designer and photographer communities was highly instrumental in popularizing the use of iStockphoto for royalty-free stock photos.

As the iStockphoto community evolved, its photographer base served as the main marketing vehicle. By promoting their own iStock photos, these photographers create publicity and word of mouth marketing for the service. iStockphoto provides them with some interesting marketing tools (like free, customizable business cards) to help them self-promote their portfolios. Today iStockphoto has 23,000 photographers that are the cornerstone of the company’s marketing efforts.

Later on its lifecycle, iStockphoto began advertising its service on the Internet, in print, and at trade shows. An extension of this advertising strategy was to maintain good long-term relationships with influential book authors within the design community who could provide increased awareness for the iStockphoto service.

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Exit analysis

iStockphoto was able to support its operations for many years from the revenue generated by photo sales. However, during business planning in late 2005, the company realized that they needed about $10 million to meet their future growth expectations, including $3 million for hardware expansion costs. With this new capital requirement, the iStockphoto management team sought venture funding for the first time. After securing a term sheet from a VC, management became hesitant that this was the best option for the company. The team feared that they would not be able to maintain product control or nurture the community in the same fashion that iStockphoto had been built upon. Thus Bruce decided to seek other options, and contacted Jonathan Klein, CEO of Getty Images. After some positive conversations regarding company strategy and cultural fit, iStockphoto was sold to Getty Images in February 2006 for $50 million in cash. This represented a valuation substantially higher than the valuation placed on the company by the proposed VC investment. Hence the sale to Getty Images made both financial and cultural sense for Bruce and the rest of the iStockphoto team.

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Food for thought

I was surprisingly struck by the parallelism between iStockphoto’s company history and evolution, and that of another successful online community, Craigslist. Both began as a hobby fueled by the passion of their founders: for Bruce it was photography and for Craig Newmark it was local events. The popularity of both services grew beyond anything the founders had envisioned, largely driven by creating a free service where only high cost options existed before (high end stock photography and print classifieds respectively). Both grew to a point where the services had to be sustained by incorporating small fees into the service, all with the support of the community itself.

Some great lessons can be learned by the examples set by these two successful companies. For one, the needs of the user base will tell you when is the right point in time to add fees, rather than implementing a revenue model prematurely. For iStockphoto, as the level of sophistication of its users grew, so did the necessity for more advanced pricing and commission models. For Craigslist, they began charging for some categories of online classifieds to improve the user experience. In both instances, it was actual user needs that drove the revenue model and timing of the revenue model.

Secondly, you have a sustainable company on your hands when you have created or contributed to the financial livelihood of a segment of your users. One reason that iStockphoto has such an active community is that their power users have personal, financial ties to the overall success of the company. For example, the top iStockphoto photographers have had hundreds of thousands of their photos downloaded – that’s real money that iStockphoto is putting into the pocket of its users. eBay and Google are probably the best two examples of Internet companies that have also created significant personal wealth for individual users. iStockphoto has created it as well, albeit on a much smaller scale. Can you create a service that contributes significant personal income to your users? If you can, chances are you’ll have a successful service.

On a separate note, both Bruce and Patrick credited much of their success to having great mentors and advisors involved with iStockphoto. Both Bruce and Patrick have been reading, learning, and applying business concepts and ideas from the business guru Guy Kawasaki for years. After meeting Guy in 2003, he became a close personal mentor for the iStockphoto management team. Having great advisors and mentors can be critical to the success of any company, but particularly a start-up. No entrepreneur can possess all the skills and experiences necessary to succeed themselves; it helps immensely to have the right mentors to act as a sounding board.

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Reference articles / additional reading

Additional thoughts on iStockphoto at Kempton Lam’s blog.

“The Rise of Crowdsourcing”, Wired, June 2006 (the paradigm shifts initiated by iStockphoto and others)

“2006 Fast 50 nomination of Bruce Livingstone”, FastCompany.com (a glowing nomination, and a long list of supporters’ endorsements that make for a fascinating read)

“Interview: Bruce Livingstone, CEO istockphoto.com”, Decker Marketing blog, January 2005
Nice interview with Bruce who has some insightful responses on what makes the istockphoto different from the competition and why it was initially successful.

“The stock photo community”, DesignMentor Training website
Has a few detailed paragraphs on Bruce’s background and how iStockphoto got started.

“Some days, we write good stories. Some days, we just write paragraphs around great quotes” – New Quote I Love

Here is a new addition to my collection of Quotes I Love.

“Some days, we write good stories.
Some days, we just write paragraphs around great quotes from insightful young men
Today was one of the latter days” – Doug Smith‘s tweet on 20200825

20200825 TorStar story by Doug, “After the Jacob Blake shooting, some Raptors wonder if the NBA needs to send an even stronger message” (excerpt)

More David Cronenberg

More video interviews with  David Cronenberg. Quote I LOVE, “To be faithful to the book, you have to betray the book”.

Cronenberg on Cronenberg (~1 hr 27m)

David Cronenberg SHIVERS on CBC | David Cronenberg Virtual Exhibition

David Cronnenberg : Lifetime Interview 1986 (The Fly)

2014, “VIGGO MORTENSEN & DAVID CRONENBERG | In Conversation | TIFF Bell Lightbox 2014”

David Cronenberg on Jonathan Ross – an episode of Tonight with Jonathan Ross, he interviews director David Cronenberg about his new film Naked Lunch.

Maya Lin – Great minds of our time

As I’ve been doing some #ThoughtExperiments for a “Covid19 global memorial”, I can’t helped but be inspired a lot by the amazing Maya Lin‘s design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial! After learning more about Maya Lin, I’m totally adding Maya to my long list of Great minds of our time  Here in this post, I capture some great videos, etc that I’ve come across and try to learn from.

Posted 2016, American Academy of Achievement, Maya Lin 2000 (interview conducted in 2000) (~62 minutes)

Via “The Film Archives” Youtube channel posted 2015, Maya Lin: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Architecture, Biography, Design (2000) (~57 minutes)

2017 TIME, Maya Lin On Being A Female Architect: ‘I Didn’t Want My Gender To Become An Issue’ | TIME (~3 minutes)

2018, WoodrowWilsonCenter Youtube Channel, The Battle Over a Vietnam War Memorial (~18 minutes)

2014, Maya Lin, Architect and Artist: Talks at GS

#Obit is Never For – Another poem by Kempton Lam – Poem2 inspired by Mr. #JerryStiller (92)

Obit is Never For – Poem2 by Kempton Lam inspired by Mr. Jerry Stiller (92) (1927-2020) – (version 1.0) (original Tweet thread version 1.0) (20210217 update: ver 1.2 posted on Reddit)

Obit is never for the dead as the dead seldom read.
Obit is for us the living
to grieve,
to pause,
to rethink,
to laugh,
to learn,
to redo,
to do,
to learn how to live on forever
in hearts & minds of others.
For what is important is not what we own,
it is what we leave to others.

==== Notes ====

* 20200511, NYT Obit:

“Mr. Stiller and Ms. Meara’s swan song as a team was a series of web-only video clips produced by their son and posted from November 2010 until March 2011. Each clip lasts about two minutes and consists of the two of them discussing a single topic. One topic is obituaries.

In that clip, Mr. Stiller says he is “shocked” that The New York Times might have already prepared their obituaries and wonders whether the newspaper is “up to date” on his having worked with Veronica Lake in a production of “Peter Pan” (about six decades earlier). And Ms. Meara reveals that years ago Mr. Stiller had persuaded The Times to publish her father’s obituary by falsely claiming that he had written material for their comedy act.

Mr. Stiller’s agitated response: “What you just said is going to get us in trouble with The New York Times! I may never get an obit!”

He needn’t have worried.”

* 20200511 Ben Stiller’s tweet, “Thanks so much for the incredible outpouring of love and appreciation for Jerry. I know how much it would mean to him. And he would have loved this beautifully written obit in the ⁦@nytimes ⁩.”

* 20200511 Jerry Seinfeld’s tweet, “Jerry Stiller’s comedy will live forever.” Another tweet photo of the comedy album “The Last Two People in the World”

* 20200511 “George Shapiro @georgeshapiro So sad that Jerry Stiller left us at the young age of 92. There was no one sweeter than Jerry. He was a joy to work with and brought countless laughs to the set of “Seinfeld”. One memory was so vivid with him & Julia breaking each other up doing “You want a piece of me” bit (Red heart)”

* 20150526, Guardian, “Anne Meara obituary – Actor and comedian who teamed up with her husband, Jerry Stiller, to form a favourite American entertainment duo”

* 19950201, NYT, “THEATER REVIEW: AFTER-PLAY; When the Dinner Conversation After the Theater Gets Crazy”

* 20110105, “Theater Talk: Stiller and Meara Extravaganza, Pt. 1 of 2”

* 20100114, “Theater Talk: Stiller and Meara Extravaganza, Part 2 of 2”

P.S. In life, it is ALWAYS up to us to learn whatever we want to learn and what we think we can learn. If we think there are nothing new to learn in life after age 60 (or whatever age you think that is), then we will indeed learn nothing because self-fulfilling prophecy is as powerful as you think it is!

Still learning from Ms. Anne Meara and Mr. Jerry Stiller (1927-2020) as their loving words and insights will remind in my heart and mind for the years to come!

P.P.S. SATC S06.E14 “Miranda’ Family”
In this clip: Anne Meara, Cynthia Nixon, David Eigenberg, Kim Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis.

What If the Slowest Horse Win in a Burning Racecourse Challenge? #Covid19

Slowest Horse Wiin Tweet Challenge + Co-opetition book

(#GameTheory Part 1 of 2) The #Challenge: 🔥Fire🔥 struck @KemptonParkRace Course during imaginary (NOT real) 10-horse race! Instead of Fastest horse winning, the SLOWEST horse will WIN this race! 9 horses have human jockeys. 1 horse is ridden by #covid19. Suggest an idea to save ALL humans+determine a winner at the same time?
#TeamHuman vs #TeamCovid19 Challenge #FuckCovid19 (version 2.0)

#MySolution: So my solution is first recognizing the name of the game is suggest ***any idea***. Any idea including changing the “game itself”. So I suggest this (there may be other ways):

Instead of everyone standing there, including covid19, waiting to find a winner (the slowest horse) while being burned. Tell everyone to switch horses. So one of the human jockeys have the covid19’s horse. In fact, send the best of the human riders to ride covid19’s horse to try to “win” the race , guaranteeing it will NOT be the slowest.

And the other 8 human riders’ jobs are, well, think of it, can do anything! Doesn’t matter. I originally think of the 8 riders working together trying to block covid19 from riding to cross the finish line. But then as long as covid19’s horse get pass the finish line the 2nd, then well, it won’t win!
The core #OutOfTheBox idea is to change the game that they are playing. From riders riding their own horse to try to be the slowest. To riders riding others’ horse and to “win” to race fastest.

I saw this idea some years ago but adapted it to this challenge.

If we Think #TeamHuman vs #TeamCovid19 Challenge …
the idea is once we realize #TeamHuman should really work together. who “win” in terms of inventing or discovering a vaccine (making lots of money), who “win” in terms of making a lot of ventilators needed by the world (again making boat load of money), etc DOES NOT matter that much because all humanity wins! We just want to get #TeamCovid19 to lose.

====

Think about it some more. Once the idea of suggesting the 9 jockeys and covid19 switch horses. The game is OVER for covid19. It will take super stupid humans to let Covid19 win. Because they have to let covid19’s horse to be the slowest which I hope #TeamHumanity is NOT that dumb to have let happened!

====

Yeah, it is game over when covid19 horse is first to finish in this new game! And in fact, it is game over for covid19’s horse to finish from 1st to 9th. Just, please, the human riders don’t let covid19’s horse to go 10th because that means covid19 win.

So by changing the rule of the game, or putting the game in a different mindset, all humans win. Instead of everyone sitting at the racecourse waiting, waiting, waiting to be the slowest …
Kinda like an anology for we different countries (China, Taiwan, USA, Iran, …) fighting each other while covid19 infecting and killing us 24/7 non-stop around the clock and around the world! Super horrible!

====

In Game Theory, there is an idea call Non-Zero Sum game. And if we don’t like the game we are play, we can and should just try to change the game! Remember, in real life, we can strive to create Win-Win games and play those instead!

====

(#GameTheory Part 2 of 2) Years ago in my MBA school days, I took a class in Negotiation. In the first class, we MBA students were put into groups of two and told to conduct an negotiation exercise. At the end of these group exercises, the professor asked what negotiated outcome we came to at the end.

My classmate J (I don’t want to embarrass J but I think there is nothing to be embarrass of) and I came to a result that has such a massive big differences in the whole class! Basically, I “gained” the most advantage over J on the surface! The professor and the whole class likely came to the simplistic conclusion that I managed to majorly and royally screwed J.

My professor and my classmates were WRONG if they thought I had screwed J. I only play WIN-WIN games even then!

I, at the time, had done some “for fun” studies of negotiation by reading some business books and articles about negotiation. I was NOT merely playing the basic game of the single negotiation task that the professor assigned the whole class.

I explicitly and deliberately CHANGED the game that my classmate J and I were playing by expanding it. I suggested, which J and I agree to expand the figurative “pie” we were playing by making it 30x or 100x times bigger than before.

So effectively J and I were making a ton more $$ (or whatever) when the game itself was expanded massively.

I wish my MBA professor was more knowledgable and recognized that I was playing a different game. But then the professor had a course outline and stuff to cover so she missed a good #TeachableMoment.

Anyway, by me Turning the professor’s Zero-Sum game into a NON-ZERO-Sum game, it makes a world of a difference!

As a funny aside. I was such a rebel that the class paper she assigned us to write, I instead wrote about something else. She scored me badly like a “B-“ or something which is OK. I got to write about the more important things I learn about Negotiation which I LOVE and the ideas were from the great book:

“Co-opetition: A Revolution Mindset that Combines Competition and Cooperation” by business strategy, and game theory professors Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry J. Nalebuff.

I went to MBA school to try to learn, not just to get “good” grades. Good “grades” by themselves are pointless. Anyway, sorry my dear MBA professor for dissing you in this FB post so many years later. I bet you don’t remember me. And I didn’t name name.

Hope you are well and healthy in our covid19 time!

True Face of #Humanity, Deepfake of #Tedros #Covid19 #Avengers #InfinityWar #EndGame #TheEnd

In “Humanity: Infinity War” against #covid19, Humanity got exactly one out of 14,000,605 futures to defeat #covid19! And we stupid humanity is now looping, wasting valuable #time fighting amongst ourselves so badly, that the movie production of “Humanity: Endgame” is basically being cancelled because we all (you, me, the smart people who made the deepfake video of Dr. Tedros & Xi Jinping, everyone of us) do not really deserve to have a slightly happier ending remotely like what “Humanity: Endgame” could have been.

At this rate, all we deserve is “Humanity: The End” as a sequel. And you know what will that movie show? You see, “Humanity: The End” is not even a brand new movie but just a duplicate copy of “Humanity: Infinity War“, so no one need to waste time doing another deepfake video. We just need to show half of humanity dead like Avengers: Infinity War. We all happy?

I wrote my first-person narrative documentary poetry “I am the F**King Virus” (now a short film), this is how I ended my poem, no one can accuse me of sugarcoating it:

//Unless Humanity stops her infighting and work together as One to end me now
I will be back//

It turns out my documentary poetry has been written based on solid provable science (so far) and too painfully real observations of humanity and how stupid we are!

#FuckingStupid

deep fake of Dr. Tedros, WHO (merging with Xi Jinping)

====

Note: I wrote this post originally as a comment for a wise friend but I like it enough to share it publicly.

“I am the F**King Virus” – a #Covid19 Pandemic Documentary Poetry short film

(the “14,000,605” reference) Doctor Strange Looks into the Future| Avengers Infinity War )

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I am the F**King Virus – a Pandemic #Covid19 Documentary Poetry short film

“I am the F**King Virus” is Kempton‘s first foray into Poetry, specifically Documentary Poetry (see note below), and even more specifically the form of Documentary Poetry short film.

==== See Director’s statement plus more reference notes below after the documentary poetry ====

I am the F**King Virus – a Documentary Poem by Kempton

(20200417 version 2.48163264128256512102420484096)

I am the F**King Virus

You covered me up. And let me killed thousands

Thank you. Xie Xie. Or is it Xi Xi

WHO studied me and recommended how to beat me

but few read her report so I infected 100,000s more

How do I say thank you in Italian, Spanish, German, Persian, French, Korean, and Trumpian

I am the F**King Virus

We shall fight on the beaches

We shall fight under the cherry blossom trees

We shall fight in the churches, mosques, and synagogues

We shall fight in close combat less than 2 meters apart (with no Physical Distancing)

We can stop fighting now IF you accept my price of 1.4% of you ALL
(mostly elderly, the weak plus some healthy young human beings)

I am the F**King virus

I am on the Edge of Tomorrow or is it Live Die Repeat

I am the F**King Virus – a #Covid19 Documentary Poem

20200413 Update: See this link for the latest text and video short film of “I am the F**King Virus – a Pandemic #Covid19 Documentary Poetry short film”. The following text is NO longer updated with any further changes.

20200403 Update: Kempton has now written his second poem, “We are Your Tomorrow, with love“, another #covid19 poem.

====

(Written Sat & Sun March 21-22, 2020 as the world fights the deadly covid19. My heart is broken. Witness data on two screens captured 4 hours apart this morning on March 22nd. I write without malice but with hope. Never Give Up! We can and will win this WWIII of Covid19 together! Inspired by poet & reporter Yuri‘s poem “I AM THE VIRUS“. Many thanks to Yuri for her encouragement plus wonderful feedback & suggestions for improvements. As I tweeted, “Life is too short so I’m going to make a fool of myself by attempting my first poem! I hope I won’t die of #shame before #covid19 kills me!” Will see about that.)

I am the F**King Virus – a Documentary Poem by Kempton

(version 2.481632641282565121024)

I am the F**King Virus

You covered me up. And let me killed thousands

Thank you. Xie Xie. Or is it Xi Xi

WHO studied me and recommended how to beat me

but few read her report so I infected 100,000s more

How do I say thank you in Italian, Spanish, German, Persian, French, Korean, and Trumpian

I am the F**King Virus

We shall fight on the beaches

We shall fight under the cherry blossom trees

We shall fight in the churches, mosques, and synagogues

We shall fight in close combat less than 2 meters apart (with no Physical Distancing)

We can stop fighting now IF you accept my price of 1.4% of you ALL (mostly elderly, the weak plus some healthy young human beings)

I am the F**King virus

I am on the Edge of Tomorrow or is it Live Die Repeat

You are now awakened. You want to act brave and play Emily Blunt or Tom Cruise

You have finally found those bottles of deathbed messages on your empty beaches

You finally care. WHO cares. Really. Always

Give up now. My first offer of 1.4% of you ALL is gone. Now my market price has gone up to 9% (thank you China, Italy, Spain, Iran, France, and the good old US of A)

I am the F**King Virus

I am not your “Chinese Virus”. But I love your infighting. Hatred is my Superman’s yellow sun

My name is COVID19. My friend WHO gave me that lovely name.
WHO talked to me, cared about me, and studied me when few had heard about me.
I am the Fun King of Virus. Your Holocaust 2.0.
How Game of Thrones should have ended.
Your World War III genocide of humans.

I love sports. See you in Tokyo Olympics. Yes to “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, especially Faster. Like Bond, James Bond. Faster, Spread Faster

Time helps me kill you exponentially fast. But time is also fair. Time told me I cannot mutate faster to kill you better

I wish I am not illiterate. I wish I can read the WHO-China Joint Mission report, your letters/research papers in The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, Stat News and so much more. I wish I could stop you from researching for cures. I wish there is no SOLIDARITY global megatrial. I wish I could stop you from “Testing, Testing, Testing”. I wish I could change my battle plans to fight you better. Most of all, I wish I could stop you from washing your damn hands. I wish, I wish, I wish. I kill, I kill, I kill

I am the F**King virus

I am COVID-19 of the House SARS, the Second of Her Name,

Reigning Fun King of Virus, Stopper of Flights, Builder of Walls, Destroyer of Alliances

Divider of United “PPE for Highest Bidders” States, Breaker of Supply Chains and Mother of Bats.

Unless Humanity stops her infighting and work together as One to end me now

I will be back

at 10.19.08 AM 20200322 (318,209 confirmed, Total Deaths 13,664, Total Recovered 94,700) – Screen Shot

at 6.12.58 AM 20200322 (311,988 confirmed, Total Deaths 13,407, Total Recovered 93,790) – Screen Shot

#covid19 daily press briefing 20 March 2020 – Live from WHO Headquarters (with timecodes to Q&As)

#covid19 daily press briefing 20 March 2020 – Live from WHO Headquarters

List of timecodes to help quickly access specific sections where Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Dr. Mike Ryan, and Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove answered questions from the press:

0:00 Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus starts press conference
11:52 Q1 by reporter from China state owned Xinhua News Agency
12:28 A1 Dr. Mike Ryan answer re implication of China has no new cases since yesterday.
14:07 Q2 from Iran re Nowruz [which means “new day”/Iranian New Year, a holiday marking the arrival of spring]
15:12 A2 from Dr. Mike Ryan
17:38 A2 from Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove
18:48 Q3
19:24 A3 Dr. Mike Ryan
22:30 A3 Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove
23:38 Q4
24:16 A4 Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove
26:02 Q5 Email question from India
26:35 A5 Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove
28:08 Q6
28:35 A6 Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
29:30 Q7
30:00 A7 Dr. Mike Ryan re lack of supply globally
34:55 A7 Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
35:34 “Some countries are banning exports and that cannot be a solution”
37:00 A7 Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove re recommendations on the use of masks on an individual level.
38:18 Q8
38:44 A8 Dr. Mike Ryan 41:00 These are the healthcare systems collapsing …
42:20 A8 Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove
43:22 Q9 from Greece
44:02 A9 Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove
45:00 A9 Dr. Mike Ryan
47:38 A9 & Concluding comments from Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Steve Martin and Martin Short – Brief But Spectacular

I LOVE the Brief But Spectacular series from PBS (and now also from CBC also). Because I’m a geek, there are TWO versions (in a sense) of Steve Martin and Martin Short – Brief But Spectacular.

Steve Martin and Martin Short on faux flattery and genuine compliments (4:45)

The enduring and spectacular friendship of Steve Martin and Martin Short (6:31)

Oh man, THANK YOU internet, here is “Jiminy Glick Interviews Edie Falco” (the “shhhh” comes at ~4:35 timecode)

Another bonus – Hilarious Steve Martin and Martin Short | 60 Minutes Australia

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The most personal is the most creative. – New Quote I Love

Here is a new addition to my collection of Quotes I Love.

‘The most personal is the most creative.’ – Martin Scorsese. As Bong Joon-ho, Oscar winning director of Parasite, quoted his film-making hero Scorsese in Bong‘s acceptance speech (~1:13).

#Oscars Moment: Bong Joon Ho accepts the Oscar for Best Directing for @ParasiteMovie. pic.twitter.com/b7t6bYGdzw

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 10, 2020

#Oscars Moment: Bong Joon Ho accepts the Oscar for Best Directing for @ParasiteMovie .

#Oscars2020 Best Picture #Parasite #BongJoonHo

Here are a few things I collected related to Oscar winning director Bong Joon-Ho and his Oscars 2020 Best Picture Parasite!

Tweet video via @TheAcademy “#Oscars Moment: Bong Joon Ho accepts the Oscar for Best Directing for @ParasiteMovie .” (LOVE Bong quoting and thanking Martin Scorsese in his speech, “The most personal is the most creative.” And also thanking Quentin Tarantino for spreading words of his works.)

#Oscars Moment: Bong Joon Ho accepts the Oscar for Best Directing for @ParasiteMovie. pic.twitter.com/b7t6bYGdzw

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 10, 2020

The quote here.

A few words from a winner… #Oscars pic.twitter.com/q6rt98eC2y

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 10, 2020

Tweet video via @TheAcademy “#Oscars Moment: @ParasiteMovie wins for Best Picture.”

#Oscars Moment: @ParasiteMovie wins for Best Picture. pic.twitter.com/AokyBdIzl5

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 10, 2020

Oscar Winers for ‘Parasite’ Full Backstage Speech | THR (Kwak Sin Ae, Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won)

BAFTA Guru: Bong Joon-Ho on Writing Parasite | On Writing

[SPOILERS] PARASITE Cast and Crew Q&A | TIFF 2019

via Directors Guild of America (2020 Jan 25), “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award nominees Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Sam Mendes (1917), Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood), and Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) joined moderator Jeremy Kagan onstage for an in-depth discussion about their work.”

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P.S. 20191231, Nerdwriter1 “Parasite’s Perfect Montage”

“As Bong so memorably said in this clip, “We all live in the same country … called Capitalism.”” ===> Bong Joon-ho Discusses PARASITE, Genre Filmmaking And The Greatness Of ZODIAC

20200102 Guardian “Sharon Choi: how we fell for Bong Joon-ho’s translator”

“Choi – a 25-year-old Korean-American, also a film-maker, currently living in Seoul – has only been working with Bong since May, when her skills made her an indispensable part of his team at Cannes. But her scene-stealing has shone a light on interpreting, an overlooked aspect of film’s promotional circuit, especially on the arthouse side. It is a high-grade post, combining two-way linguistic expertise, formidable memory skills (good for keeping hold of rambling directorial musings) and a head for PR. Ever-present, as Choi has been as Parasite does the rounds, interpreters sometimes become a mouthpiece for certain directors. The fresh-faced young man that Takeshi Kitano had on hand during junkets in the early 00s was very conspicuous amid the retinue of yakuza-like goons who would hang around the director during his interviews.”

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News Clippings 20200118

I’ll try to add to my collection of News Clippings regularly if I can. Here are a few added on 20200118:

– Vanity Fair, 20200111, “Greta Gerwig on the Lives of Little Women—And Why “Male Violence” Isn’t All That Matters – The filmmaker, who drew on Louisa May Alcott’s life and letters, dives deep into a particularly resonant page of her script.”

“This discussion I’m having Amy and Jo have is, in some ways, my thesis. Or at least part of my thesis. Initially I was worried it was going to be too on the nose, this discussion of writing, but it seems to be something that people fold into the emotional arc of the story, that it doesn’t stand out in blinking lights, like, HERE IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT. In any case, this discussion of the subject of fiction as either conferring importance or reflecting it, is at the heart of my understanding of the book. It is one of the reasons this book is the book that so many female authors and creators point back to and say, “That is my book; Jo March is my girl.” […]

The very last two lines, about Amy being wise, aren’t directly from the book, but they are an extrapolation of one of my favorite lines of Amy’s—she says, “I don’t pretend to be wise, but I am observant.” That was one of the lines that I underlined and put little stars and exclamation points around because it was another key to the puzzle of Amy. She has always been seen as such a bratty character, with no depth or backbone, and yet when I revisited the book, I found her to be amazingly insightful and compelling. I wanted her to deliver some knowledge to Jo—sometimes creators don’t know what they create, and it is essential to have someone else reflect it back to you. And then of course Amy’s response to Jo, “You were just too busy noticing my faults,” is me in conversation with the 150-year-old audience of Little Women. It’s me—Greta, the author—saying, “WE MISSED HER! SHE WAS WISE ALL ALONG!”

In some ways this entire scene is that—a four-way conversation between me, the modern screenwriter, Louisa May Alcott, the characters of the book, and the audience as it spans across time and space. And I’m saying, it matters what we write. It matters what we make films about. I can because Louisa May Alcott did.”

20191226, 92nd Street Y, “Greta Gerwig on Little Women: Reel Pieces with Annette Insdorf”

20200106, THR Directors Roundtable, (I especially LOVE segments with Lulu & Greta) “Todd Phillips (‘Joker’), Martin Scorsese (‘The Irishman’), Lulu Wang (‘The Farewell’), Noah Baumbach (‘Marriage Story’), Greta Gerwig (‘Little Women’), and Fernando Meirelles (‘The Two Popes’) join Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter for this season’s FULL, uncensored Directors Roundtable.”

20190529, CBC Radio As It Happens, “Remembering Velma Demerson — the woman jailed in Toronto for living with her Chinese fiancé”

“Velma Demerson was a young woman in love with a baby on the way — and for that, she was jailed for nearly a year.

It was 1939 in Toronto and Demerson, a white woman, was engaged to Harry Yip, a Chinese man.

Police showed up at the couple’s home in May 1939 and arrested the then-18-year-old under the Female Refuges Act of 1897, a since-repealed law that allowed authorities to jail women for “incorrigible” behaviour such as promiscuity, pregnancy out of wedlock and public drunkenness.”

20200108 CBC News, Brief But Spectacular – Morgan Barense on Our Memory

“University of Toronto neuroscientist Morgan Barense has created an app called the HippoCamera, which mimics part of the brain compromised in Alzheimer’s disease. She offers her Brief But Spectacular take on how to improve our relationship with those suffering from memory loss.”

More info of Prof. Morgan Barense & her team’s research work at the University of Toronto.

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Being happy isn’t getting what you want, it’s wanting what you have. – New Quotes I Love

New additions to my collection of Quotes I Love. I and these are all from the wise and insightful late Carrie Fisher (1956 – 2016). All quotes found from this Inc. post so I seriously hope they fact-checked them all.

“I haven’t ever changed who I am. I’ve just gotten more accepting of it. Being happy isn’t getting what you want, it’s wanting what you have.” – Carrie Fisher (1956 – 2016)

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” – Carrie Fisher (note: I fact-checked this one via Google books search with hep from this 2017 Quote Investigator post)

“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.” – Carrie Fisher

“Going through challenging things can teach you a lot, and they also make you appreciate the times that aren’t so challenging.” – Carrie Fisher

“No motive is pure. No one is good or bad — but a hearty mix of both. And sometimes life actually gives to you by taking away.” – Carrie Fisher

“It’s the most amazing thing to be able to forgive.” – Carrie Fisher

“I heard someone say once that many of us only seem able to find heaven by backing away from hell. And while the place that I’ve arrived at in my life may not precisely be everyone’s idea of heavenly, I could swear sometimes — I hear angels sing.” – Carrie Fisher

Two Observations about Fashion

Two Observations about Fashion: 1) I’v long “liked” and “followed” Vogue Runway and I think (if you love fashion) should too. Beats watching shitty news in HK, US, Canada, … and you need the balance!

2) Style is always what you wear that makes YOU feel comfortable and nice. Never about the BRANDS and definitely NOT about the price you paid for them IF my YEARS of watching the late Bill Cunningham‘s epic cool “On The Street” videos have taught me anything! 🤣👗👘 And please don’t get me started on beautiful 👠 shoes! I will tell you I miss my late French friend Laurent Jean Phillipe (bless his heart) who was a family friend of the designer Christian Louboutin.

P.S. Laurent, you left us too soon as I was counting on you to introduce us to Christian and some nice French food in Paris. Sure, my better half and I ended up eating at Adeline Grattard‘s one Michelin starred (2010 and still 2019) Yam’Tcha (thanks to your recommendation), and ended up having a brief chat with Adeline herself and had a nice and long friendly chat with Adeline’s husband Chi Wah at their take out store. But Laurent my dear, it was not the same without you being our personal guide! :(

See this 2015 post “Paris Calgary friends Google Hangout the day after Paris Attacks” which got us talking about that sad day in Paris and defiantly talking about food that led me to Yam’Tcha.

P.P.S. Another post with an extra bonus video at the end featuring Laurent and me video Hanging out (he in Paris and me in Calgary), “Christian Louboutin – Great minds of our time“

#DailyPositive Bianca Andreescu vs. Elise Mertens

#DailyPositive #GoBiancaGo #GoCanadaGo

20191002, Bianca Andreescu vs. Elise Mertens | 2019 China Open Second Round | WTA Highlights

20191002 (The Canadian Press), Bianca Andreescu wins 16th match in a row at China Open

“After the world No. 6 beat Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 7-6 (5) in a second-round match at the China Open, Andreescu said she has to focus on stressing the positives.

“Today was more of a battle mentally with myself than anything,” said the 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont. “I felt like I was getting very down on myself. I expect a lot from myself in general, but I have to realize not everything is going to go the way I want it to.”

Andreescu fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the second set and then fended off a set point to beat Mertens in a rematch of a U.S. Open quarterfinal. The Canadian also won in New York last month en route to her first career Grand Slam title.

“I can improve on a lot of things, but I think the main thing right now is definitely keeping a more positive approach to things,” Andreescu said. “Even if there are 100 positives in something, if there is one negative thing that happens, that triggers something in me and I then I totally forget about all the positives.

“I just want to think of the positive as much as I can and just work with what I have.”“

20191002 Ashleigh Barty vs. Zheng Saisai | 2019 China Open Third Round | WTA Highlights (For the record, Bibi will next play Barty, currently ranked #1 in the world.)