Lost Season 5

I was watching Lost today on my PC and wondering what season 5 going to be like. I have finished season 1 and season 4 and still have season 2 and 3 to watch. I’m not really a big fan of TV shows and thats probably why I’m taking so much time to finish a series. 

Lost is probably one of the most popular series and many people are waiting for season 5 to come in January 2009. After watching 1 until 4 we all know that the six will go back to the island to find the answers they never know. What are the stories going to be like in season 5 or will there be some new people coming in season 5. They all know that they need to come back to the island and there is a reason why they were brought there in the first place by fate or destiny. 

Lost fans has been waiting for quite sometimes now and Jack and his friends will back again to the scene this coming January

18 months for the world to recover

18 months is the time needed for the world economy to recover. That was the prediction at the APEC meeting today in Lima Peru. There is still a very bumpy road ahead of us, still many bad scenarios we yet to see and many more unpredicted things ahead. What would it be like from now? Lets make some good prediction.

USA will have a new President in January 2009. January is always a good time to start something new not only it a new year but also the start of a new season. Schools will start in April, companies financial year will start in April as well and so are seasonal sports events like baseball, golf and formula one.

January will be a point when things starts to recover. We will still facing many challenges and not everything will be smooth. Energy crisis will still well inside everybody’s mind but oil price will be more stable price range. Many companies will report huge loss for the financial year end in early 2009 and the world will once again back to some uncertainty for a while. Things will start to pick up early summer with technology industries leading the way. The Dow Jones will recover but will not break the 10000 mark.

In Asia, China will shine more than others, once again the industries are back producing cheaper goods for the US and European markets. The share market will be one of the fastest to recover in the region. Due to low interest rate the carry trade from Japan start to taking in yen to be invested in China. However not much are to be seen in the South east Asia region as big China is doing so fine.

By the end of the 12th months, things looks very promising in the USA and next year christmas promise a lot for many people. Dow Jones will break the 10,000 points and new technology industries will still be the main flavor of the day.

Hopefully we will not forget of the recent turmoil and learn every lessons from them. There are many things need to be tackled fast like the energy crisis and the more serious global warming which will eventually the most fear disaster that could happen to this world. The world need to work together right from now. Maybe this is just a simple warning from our creator that a slight heat from the economic turmoil can make our world in a disaster, a real heat from nature will more than that. We need to do something…

The danger of a deflation

We are in the danger of a deflation as the numbers showed in the recent week in the US. A deflation is the opposite of a inflation where people refuse to spend money and keep as much cash as possible. During an economic turmoil where confidence level dropped and consumers started to take a very conservative approach by spending less and keep as much cash as possible. 

This will result in drop in demand and traders will need to drop their price in order for people to buy goods. Thus deflation occurs. As demand drop, the industries will need to drop their production. This will lead to down sizing in operation and cut in labor force. These reaction will continue and many people will be left without a job and with no spending power. It will worsen the whole situation.

Policy makers will need to intervene in situation like this and introduce stimulus package like in China recently. Banks will lower down their rates so that people will not put their money inside the banks for little returns and many will be able to borrow as lending rates are cheap to buy houses and cars.

First of all confidence level need to be put back to the market so that people will start spending again. More jobs need to be created so that people will not fear for their future. Governments may need to bail out those big troubled companies and even though this is very much against capitalism, in order for the whole economy not to be torn apart, these are inevitable steps to be taken.

We have not seen any deflation data in ages and in fact I have never seen once. Could this be the beginning of a new great depression. 

The day I knew golf

As many non golfers would have thought, golf is a stupid game where some stupid people torture themselves in the scorching heat of the sunlight trying to heat the ball into the ball. I was one of those people who thought that golf was a stupid game. In fact when I was in school I was a slave for football. In those days we were not fortunate enough to have the EPL matches to be live telecast every week. We only have live telecast maybe once or twice in a year during the FA Cup final. I would wait till the middle of the night for the game to start.

I had my first touch with golf in 1996 when the sports world was talking about Tiger Woods. It was one of the tournament that he won that year that I gave some interest just to watch the game. In my mind golf was still a game for the rich people and I could never afford to play the game. I still watching football as football game was shown live on every weekends and of course my interest for formula one has been there all the time.

It was in the year 2005 that I hold my first golf club at the driving range. I hit some bad shots and all my swings were wrong. A week later I bought myself a golf set and it was considered a good deal for a beginner. Soon I became a regular at the driving range and not too long after that I was a regular weekend golfer.

Recently after I injured my elbow I decided to take some rest from golf. It may take 6 months or more for my elbow to be completely cured. But during this time I can build up my lower body strength so that it will help me when I get back to the game in future. It would be nice if I can play better and to travel and play golf all around the world.

 

The new Mizuno MP52

As a golfer, the golf club is the most important things in life and it’s usually the only thing we hold in our hand whenever we are free. I used to browse for informations on golf clubs and the new technologies especially on drivers and any new iron sets that are being released. I am a hard core fan of Taylormade and almost everything inside my bags are from Taylormade. I even declared that I will live and die under taylormade.

But now another big Japanese manufacturer is giving me a headache when they release the latest MP52 recently and this time it came out with an all brand new dual muscle technology and made of the best of 1025E forged material.

Retail at around USD1,000 it is certainly too heavy for the pocket now. The semi blade look, it is an iron for the mid handicap players. I would want to have one, but my Taylormade forged is still my faithful partner in golf.

Just awesome ..

For specifications

http://golf.mizunoeurope.com/irons/mp-52/local/

The game of Solitaire

I am not a computer game enthusiast or a fan but I do play computer game and its the solitaire. I don’t why I like to play the game and I play it almost everyday on my PC. There is nothing to do with the song Solitaire but as I was driving home today, the radio was playing Clay Aiken’s solitaire and he actually sings it better than the original one by Elvis. Well Elvis has his own way of singing the song, but Clay’s was very much suiting to the style of modern music now.

Bad things happen during a recession

I was watching the local TV news today and was very shocked when I heard on the news that a man in the US shot his ex-ceo because his service was terminated. Everyday we hear about companies laying off workers and many more a closing down due to bad business. The motor industries in the US are said to be down sizing their operation and that means that more people are going to be without job.

Locally there are news that many companies and factories are cutting their operations and some factories only operate 4 days a week and workers are force to take annual leave or leave without pay. People will have less income and have to opted for other source. There are many people become petty traders at night in order to earn some extra money.

There are also rapid increase in the number of crime. We can almost hear or read in the paper that banks and goldsmiths are robbed. It is almost the same as the time during the old western where outlaws robbed banks. Even in the wide sea, pirates are actually controlling the sea water and hijacked big ocean vessels almost every week. It seem that there is also a cycle for this just like the economic turmoil. Bandits, pirates, robbers and back in the street again. We do hope that this cycle will not last any longer as we want back our peace and properity.

The Vacation is Over

It’s over, the vacation. Its a time which we took some time off to fund ourselves again. To detach ourselves from the pressure of the world and everything else. We know that the time come where we have to get into our feet again. This time the vacation is over and I hope that the answers are found.

Vacation is the time we give to ourselves when we feel that life is not going any where for us. It is simple, just take a rest by not taking it too tough on yourself, life itself will find it’s way. But after that vacation we have to push forward again but with more energy and wisdom.

Kanda Gawa

I came across a very old Japanese folk song in the 70s name Kanda Gawa or Kanda River. I really like listening to this song over and over again even though it is a bit old but it is still beautiful as ever. The song was released by a group Kaguyahime and was a great hit in those days and will hear them in karaoke nowadays.

The song is about a bittersweet experience of a young man living with his girlfriend in a small room at Kanda Gawa. They will always go to the public bath together along the alley. Every time he has o wait for her outside the public until she came out although they always promise to come out together. While waiting his hair that he just washed would become chilly and the small soap he was holding will be making clapping sound. Suddenly she hold him tightly and just said its very cold. At that time they were very young and not afraid of anything except the kindness of each other. He also wondering now if she remembers of the color pencils he gave her which she used to draw the picture of his face. But the drawing was never like him. That was the time when they stayed at a small 3 tatami room and below it is Kanda Gawa. At that time she asked him if he is sad…………

More reduction on oil price to come

As the global oil price is hovering at USD60 per barrel now, we can expect that the retail petrol price to come some more in the next few weeks. This is indeed some very good news to many people. Many hypermarkets has taken some positive steps to lower down the price of goods in the last fews weeks and the latest good news is that some restaurants and eating outlets will also lowering down the price of food.

Today Airasia announced that they are going to abolished the fuel surcharge to all destinations and the first airlines in the world to start such a move. It mean that people will need not to pay those extras when they books a flight and flying will be more cheaper now.

Many stimulus package were announced recently and China announced a big sum of 800 billions stimulus package to boost up their economy back. Interest rate are expected to stay low or even lower than the present rate and we shall able to see the turn around to come by early of next year. 

Oil price is expected to hovering at USD50 per barrel in the coming months and a more stronger dollar is very much expected. However Dow Jones may not be able to break the 10000 points but investors confidence will be restored back.