We have to talk about it

Toronto passed a new by-law for plastic bags, and that will enforce consumers to pay for plastic shopping bags starting June 1, 2009. What message this new by-law tells us.  You can still use plastic bags if you do not care about spending 5 cents. Money is not an issue for some peopel especially the rich one. Similar result that we charge on using Highway 407. I just doubted the concept on using ‘money’ as the condition – that is not a fair deal. If we are determined that using plastic bags is not good for our environment, then we should not provide any option for using plastic bags but the recycle one.

Quality:  How do you define quality? Some people (i.e. home stereo listeners) will spend thousands of dollars for hi-fi equipment in order to get the perfect sound system, and that is how they define “quality”. However, I do not know if the music itself is of good quality though. I am concerned about the quality time that I can have – time that I can really enjoy and be myself.

Perception: I watched this movie ‘Shallow Hal’ in 2001, and it triggers my perception about physical appearance and inner beauty. In this movie, Hal is a shallow man that falls in love with a 300 pound woman (Rosemary) because of her “inner beauty”. “A woman who appears to him to look slender and beautiful due to her kind, generous nature, but is, in actuality, morbidly obese.” He used to date women who are physically beautiful until one day he was being hypnotized to recognize only the inner beauty of women. In the end, he doesn’t need hypnosis to see people’s true inner beauty. One interesting thing, Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is Rosemary in the film, and she really gives you the perception of a fat person. I have once heard about a woman who was deceived lots of money by a beautiful lady because of her perception of pretty faces will not do ugly things.

The first episode of the second season just aired on CW on September 1, Serena and Dan are finally back together again. Rumour has it: Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester was born in jail, according to scandalous new reports. XOXO

Ownership: Have you ever heard that “To own a thing is a burden”? If you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to worry. Nowadays, more and more people choose to buy a house rather than to rent. This is not just about ownership, but also in consideration of the rising home value. People seldom expect that their own houses will become negative assets one day. Lots of people have suffered from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. I remembered my husband has once said that (before the crisis), the house value has increased to a rate that similar of buying a rice cooker at $3,000 back in 1997 in Hong Kong, which a normal person will not do it. Many owners going bankrupt after July 1997; they bought their houses at the tip of the dropping zone.