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August 26, 2007
youtube video
Hand of Sorrow - Portrait of the Half-Blood Prince
great video,
the lyrics suits Severus Snape perfectly
The child without a name grew up to be the hand
to wach you, to shield you or kill on demand.
The choise he'd made he could not comprehend
His blood a grim secret they had to command
He's torn between his honour and the true love of his life
He prayed for both but was denied
CHORUS:
So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrified
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?
So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?
The curse of his powers tormented his life
Obeying the crown was a sinister price
His soul was tortured by love and by pain
He surely would flee but the oath made him stay
He's torn between his honour and the true love of his life
He prayed for both but was denied
CHORUS: So many dreams etc.
Please forgive me for the sorrow, for leaving you in fear
For the dreams we had to silence, that´s all they´ll ever be
Still I´ll be the hand that serves you
Though you'll not see that it is me.
CHORUS: So many dreams etc.
Posted by renh at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)
How can I just let you walk away (against all odds)
Phil Collins
Against all odds
How can I just let you walk away,
just let you leave without a trace
When I stand here taking every breath with you, ooh
You're the only one who really knew me at all
How can you just walk away from me,
when all I can do is watch you leave
Cos we've shared the laughter and the pain,
and even shared the tears
You're the only one who really knew me at all
So take a look at me now,
'cos there's just an empty space
And there's nothing left here to remind me,
just the memory of your face
Take a look at me now,
'cos there's just an empty space
And you coming back to me
is against all odds and that's what I've got to face
I wish I could just make you turn around,
turn around and see me cry
There's so much I need to say to you,
so many reasons why
You're the only one who really knew me at all
So take a look at me now,
'cos there's just an empty space
And there's nothing left here to remind me,
just the memory of your face
Take a look at me now,
'cos there's just an empty space
But to wait for you,
well that's all I can do and that's what I've got to face
Take a good look at me now,
'cos I'll still be standing here
And you coming back to me is against all odds
That's the chance I've got to take, oh, oho
Just take a look at me now
Posted by renh at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2007
weekend treats
#1. steamed pork rib
half a rack of babyback ribs, ask the butcher to cut both across and along individual bones. marinate the meat with soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, suger, prickly pepper, and a little bit five spice powder. refrigerate half an hour and room temprature half an hour. put 蒸肉粉 in a bag, shake the meat in the bag to coat evenly. peel a couple potatoes and slice (not too thin). put potato slices at the bottom and ribs on top, steam for 45min.
#2. veggie curry
small dice onion, saute with EVOO until transluscent. Add cut celery, carrot and potato, continue to saute. add water to boil. add curry cubes and stir well while boiling.
Posted by renh at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)
tilapia soup #2
I tried the lemongrass tilapia soup several times. The taste became less impressive to me, maybe it is because I have it everyday. So yesterday, I tried something new.
I have some lemongrass stalk used for the soup once, which I took out from the boiling soup and stored in the refrigerator. boil water with used lemongrass, fish filet, ginger, fresh basil, and fresh thyme. add salt and 鸡精in the end. add vinegar and sesame oil in the bowl. instead of the subtle flavor of the lemongrass soup, this one gave off a very aromatic fragrance, strong but not overwhelming. Very nice for a change of taste.
Posted by renh at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2007
turmoil
CNN - Mortgage meltdown contagion
A grim forecast has economists more pessimistic over how far the collapse will spread to the rest of the economy.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The outlook for the housing market looks even bleaker than it did a week ago. Last Friday we reported that foreclosures were skyrocketing, home prices falling and recovery forecasts were being scaled back.
And now this week, the mortgage meltdown spread to the financial markets with ebola-like speed, sparking fears that tighter credit will have a broader impact on consumers, markets and the economy.
The U.S. government continues to downplay the danger. When the Federal Reserve met this week, the central bank said that inflation is the greatest threat to the economy, not the mortgage crisis.
Yet, Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender by volume, reported Thursday that "unprecedented disruptions" in the mortgage market were forcing it to cut way back on the number of loans it was securitizing and selling in the secondary markets.
In the financial markets, credit, including corporate bonds, has become harder to get. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, had been loath to call it a "credit crunch." Instead, he called it a "liquidity squeeze," that had spread to corporate bond and other financial markets. The difference: In a crunch, nobody can get a loan; in a squeeze, only the riskier borrowers are cut out.
"I think it's still a liquidity squeeze," Zandi now says, "but it has elements of a credit crunch, affecting much of the mortgage market."
It has yet to severely disrupt the prime loan market, however, according to Zandi. The situation will continue until financial institutions revalue their mortgage-backed securities to what they're actually worth.
"They're faced with redemptions and margin calls, and they have to value their securities to their market prices because they have to sell them," said Zandi. That will determine how hard a hit the investment community will take.
Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital Inc. and author of "Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse," has said the problem goes way beyond subprime.
"It's a mortgage problem," he said. "Subprime is like a little leak where the underlying problem is the integrity of the dam itself. Most of the mortgages taken out during the past few years will fail."
Schiff expects huge losses in the housing market with home prices falling by half in some areas, which he said has to affect the overall economy. He said he'd been expecting the financial markets to start taking hits long before this week's drop.
"This week is making more sense," he said. "The economy is a basket case."
Most economists are nowhere near as pessimistic. Standard and Poor's chief economist, David Wyss, and Moody's Economy.com's chief economist, Mark Zandi, have forecast 8 percent price drops in the housing market, peak to trough.
Zandi does not believe a consumer spending slowdown is enough to trigger a recession, but he hasn't counted it out. What it will do, he said, is "ensure that the economy grows at a pace below its potential. I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of a recession. I put the possibility at one in five."
Ken Goldstein, an economist for the Conference Board, has said he doesn't believe the subprime contagion is enough to send the economy off-track, and that "the idea that average consumers are quaking over the prospects of losing their homes or much of their equity is wrong."
Your Home: When to cash out
The mortgage market adds up to about $10 trillion, according to Goldstein, with about 10 percent to 15 percent of that in subprime. Of that, some 15 percent or so is imperiled, he said.
"It's big, but not the tipping point that will bring the whole housing market down."
But on Friday Goldstein did concede that "The panic and concern over credit is even spreading across the pond to European markets."
On Friday the European Central Bank (ECB) pumped extra cash into the system for a second day in a row, as a means of calming nervous traders. The ECB added $83 billion in liquidity Friday.
The Federal Reserve followed suit, adding $19 billion in temporary reserves. The move was the biggest single temporary open market operation in four years, the New York Federal Reserve said, according to Reuters.
Subprime problems have not, so far, slowed consumption down much. The pace of consumer spending is still brisk, although growth slowed in June. And the Conference Board reported last week that consumer confidence is at a six-year high. Steady job growth and low unemployment (between 4.4 percent and 4.6 percent since September) have kept it that way.
Consumers don't really care much about changes in housing prices or, for that matter, in the stock market, according to Goldstein.
"If you really want to screw up consumer confidence," he said, "go for the jugular - the labor market."
Said asset manager Mark Sirinyan of Ineo Capital, "I don't think there will be a recession because of private equity or the credit markets. There are lots of [positive] things going on. We're fighting a war and spending money."
Schiff, however, said, "What [the optimists] don't realize is that consumer spending has been a function of easy credit and the high housing market. The idea that Americans will keep spending is wrong. With [lower home equity and less access to credit] where're they going to get the money?"
Steven Cesinger, chief financial officer for Dewberry Capital, said, "People think liquidity will carry us forward. I've been in financial markets for 25 years and i've seen that the faucet can turn off as rapidly as it turns on."
According to Goldstein, though, as long as employment stays strong and workers' earnings grow substantially (4 percent annually, according to him), confidence - and spending - will remain high and the economy will chug along.
"Consumers can continue to stay resilient in the face of lower stock and home prices," he said. "Not only is the economy strong enough to survive the crisis, it's strong enough to quiet it."
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from boston gal:
"Talk about moments of truth. That's when many owners will become renters, and many lenders will become harried owner-sellers. Then, not now, is when the housing market should start to bottom. It's also when consumers will be tightest with their spending, so we're likely to see the economy grow weaker.
How can we avoid getting caught in such cycles in the future?
First, don't borrow money just because a lender makes it available.
Second, ask yourself whether you'll be able to pay it back. Your lender is clueless, so it's up to you to know.
Third, don't plan on being able to sell anything quickly because these jokers can't be relied on to provide a steady and reasonable flow of financing. When their own foolishness comes back to bite them, they invariably make things worse by reducing lending, making a bad situation worse."
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Posted by renh at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2007
For the first time in 12 years, Toyota's Lexus luxury brand has to share its top rank in J.D. Power and Associates' annual Vehicle Dependability Study.
And it has to share it with an American car.
General Motors' Buick brand tied Lexus in the study, which measures the number of problems owners experience with their cars after three years of ownership.
Following Lexus and Buick in the rankings were GM's Cadillac luxury brand, Ford's Mercury brand and Honda's Honda brand.
Toyota's mass-market Toyota brand ranked sixth.
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Cerberus Capital Management LP is one of the largest private equity investment firms in USA. The firm is based in New York, N.Y., and run by 47-year-old financier Steve Feinberg.
Posted by renh at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2007
"What is important is that they have invested over a long period of time. Any future investments you make will work to diminish the impact of having picked a bad day.
I struggle with this a bit myself when I invest my Roth IRA contribution. Generally I do just invest the total amount at once, but I have sometimes wondered if I would be better served spreading the investment out. But then I do dollar-cost-average in my 401(k) plan at work... I guess the really important thing is to just keep saving and investing over the long haul..."
"Spend less than I earn for the month - save and invest the excess - repeat."
"The Williamses have 72% of their retirement portfolio invested in bank accounts, money market securities and bond funds. Ferrara estimates that their portfolio mix will generate average returns of 6.75% to 7% annually. Being so conservative carries its own risks. "Their assets are not likely to grow fast enough to keep pace with inflation and let them get to where they want to be financially," Ferrara says. "It's a prescription for disaster.""
Posted by renh at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)
August 07, 2007
go against the grain
-to do something that is the opposite of what is usually done.
eg: It's not easy to go against the grain and buy stocks when others are selling them.
Posted by renh at 07:16 PM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2007
lemon grass soup
After searching the foodnetwork for recipes containing lemon grass, I decided not to use any of those. because there are quite a few ingredients that I don't have right now.
Cut one lemon grass (the white part) open and add to boiling water together with some tomato.
Add a tilapia filet with some fresh ginger.
Add cilantro and 鸡精 just after turning off the heat.
The aroma from ginger andn lemon grass cured my headache instantly. Very nice, I'll definitely make this again.
Posted by renh at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)
How often do you find the right person?
ONCE
Note: go to foxsearchlight/once, you can listen the songs online.
If you want me
are you really here or am i dreaming
i cant tell dreams from truth
for its been so long since i have seen you
i can hardly remember your face anymore
when i get really lonely
and the distance only calls as only silence
i think of you smiling with pride in your eyes
a lover that sighs
if you want me
sadness found me
if you want me
sadness found me
are you really sure that you'd believe me
when others say i lie
i wonder if you could ever despise me
well you know i really tried
to be a better one to satisfy you
for you're everything to me
and ill do what you ask me
if you let me be free
if you want me
sadness found me
if you want me
sadness found me
if you want me
sadness found me
if you want me
sadness found me
Posted by renh at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)