Ending the week with another 30-episode series done!

I have just completed a 25-episode series in the last weekend and within a few days I have completed yet another series, and it has more number of episodes; 30. I started on this new series on Tuesday and I finished it today. It took me only 5 days and an average of 6 episodes a day (one episode is about 40 minutes long). This is easily done in this period when everyone is stuck at home most of the time. And thank goodness, finally, I am no longer that occupied with work after 2 months busy handling my job assignments. Hence, I have more free time to binge-watch.

The series is called ‘Flying Tiger 2’ (飞虎之雷霆极战). It is a sequel to the original series released in 2018. I didn’t watch the first one but it doesn’t matter as the story in this sequel is independent and not related to the former. The story revolves on a special police unit formed to tackle unprecedented or special cases. The series starred Michael Miu, Bosco Wong, Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Oscar Leung, Yoyo Mung, Dominic Lam, Kelly Cheung, Joel Chan, Lee Pace, etc.

The whole drama only centers on one large terrorism case involving multiple nations. Storyline do gets a bit complicated near the end with many subplots surfacing and more connections between many characters. I couldn’t follow through in details but I do feel that is necessary to add more depth and a little more complexity to the story since the whole 30-episode only revolves on one case. On the other hand, I’m also impressed with quite a number of exhilarating action scenes; properly executed chasing and gunfight scenes.

It’s also nice to see 3 of the former 5 very popular young TVB actors back in 2000s collaborating again. Kenneth, Bosco and Ron are here (missing ones are Raymond Lam and Sammul Chan…Raymond did sing the ending theme song for the series though). It’s near impossible to get all 5 of them back to collaborate in one series/project but at least now we get to see 3 of them in one series. They are all in their 40s already, and their acting have certainly improve and mature over the years. Michael Miu is now typecast in senior police officer roles for many years. He is perfectly fine for such roles (and he matches such roles very well too) as his bland acting is sufficient to carry on these type of characters which are usually only needed to be very composed, firm and deliver lines in serious manner. Yoyo Mung…I couldn’t see a single tear from her eyes when she acted in those emotional scenes (when both of her parents died). That explains very much on her acting.

The male cast members are great but the female lineups are lacklustre. I knew those female characters are not central to the story but at least look for a slightly more famous actresses to pair up with the boys. Overall, this series is pretty good. A big-budget production (involves also a Hollywood actor in a major supporting role…a rare occasion for Hong Kong series) that has decent story, action scenes and good performance and chemistry by the male leads. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Flying Tiger 2’ a total of 7.8.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

R.I.P. Germanwings Flight 9525. Flying seems no longer that safe anymore.

One after another. This is something no one wants to see or hear of but unfortunately, it’s happening again and again. Aviation industry is in its darkest in recent years when more and more planes were involved in saddening tragedies lately. Last year alone, we witnessed the disappearance of MH370, then shooting down of MH17, crash of QZ 8501, and several others. Just when we hoped no major airline disaster would happen in near future, we were left shocked again.

Yesterday, a Germanwings Flight 9525 en-route from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf, Germany crashed in the French Alps region, killing all 144 passengers and 6 crew members on board. The reason for the crash is still unknown, and is currently under investigation. What we all knew now is that the plane descends to quite a low altitude and then crashed in the middle of the flight with no distress signal issued. The crash site is in a very remote area within the mountains at French Alps and the plane had disintegrated into a pile of wreckage so heavily that you can barely recognize it was a plane.

I express my sincere condolences to all the family, relatives and friends of those on-board the ill-fated flight. My thoughts and prayers for them and to the deceased. Rest in Peace, Flight 4U 9525.

Now, we cannot avoid ourselves from asking this question; ‘Is flying no longer seems to be that safe anymore?’. I believe the answer now is ‘Yes’. I was once told that the probability of an airline accident is one in a billion. Now, I don’t think that figure is right. I used to take flights for at least twice a year for my oversea holiday trips annually. Now, I don’t enjoy flying anymore, but still longing for holiday abroad. But you can’t do that without flying?! It’s the only efficient mode of transportation to travel over countries. So, I will still have to take flight in future but with a heavy heart, worrying and always-thought-of-prayer attitude from now on.

In the meantime, I do hope that the worldwide aviation industry would look seriously into all possible angles and measures to prevent airplane disasters from happening again (or at least not that frequent). Have a check and be strict, updated and fully prepared on all aspects from pilot training, airport management and security, air traffic control, plane tracking system, plane maintenance, etc. Please remember that our lives are on you when we are in flight. Wouldn’t want to comment further since I’m no expert in this field.

 

Sometimes, we couldn’t prevent such unfortunate events from happening, but at least we can work out to reduce its possibility to assure for a bright and promising flying experience for all in the future.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Today is the day…Flying Egg Project!

the first assignment of the Architectural Design 101 module is called as Flying Egg…the period of this assignment is only three days…very insufficient time…

these few days stay late at university to complete this assignment which carries no mark to the whole module…just a pass or fail for this project (which had not much effect on the study)

The assignment:

1. Creating a flying device by only using newspaper, strings, masking tape and balsa wood.

2. The flying device can be of any size and any form.

3. The flying device should be able to fly in the length of approximately 12 metres.

4. The flying device should carries an egg on it while it is flying.

5. At least 50 percent of the egg must be exposed to be seen while the flying device is flying.

6. Sketch out some sketches regarding this and explain some concepts behind it.

7. make a prototype (mock-up) model before the real model (if possible)

8. the flying device should flies with its own method and is on track while flying.

———

We have to work in group of five students and have to work and get advice from three senior students..

luckily we got some good seniors, mainly the one which is very pro in phyiscs (all those aerodynamic, centre of gravity and bernoulli’s principles) which are very important in designing the flying device…

we created design a mix out of bird, plane and glider…large wings, little aerofoil shape, and form of a glider…and that is why our flying device can fly…we need to maintain the balance and centre of gravity of the device too…hard task to do…but we learn a lot from this project too…

wasted a lot of time on it…wasted a lot of eggs on it (we have done a lot of experiments before)..wasted a lot of newspaper on it….this is the look of the flying device we have created…

the video below shows the final testing of our flying device before the real presentation….

quite successfully..because we flies with the wind…the wind flew from the back of our starting point…not much resistance then…it flies, flies, flies until towards the opposite staircase..very successful…surely exceed 12m…

but then, it’s time for the real presentation…so many people came to the courtyard and watched the show…and this time, need to fly from the staircase of the other side..so against the wind…more resistance..and it is bad…

our group is group 7…the first six groups all failed to make it even more than 6m..until our group, the first group to make it to 8m..everybody cheered on the flying device we made eventhough it flies out of track..hurray..very happy…

and the egg didn’t break at all..then they give us the second chance….the second time was better…actually it flies out of track again due to the opposite wind, but then it hits at people at flies back in track…of over 9m…slight improvement…everyone satisfied with it this time..

sorry…videos quite blur…recorded them through phone…and there are so crowded…unable to see the landing…eventhough we can’t make it to the best…but our group is still in top three…there is one group of our friends which is the only group able to reach the marking line of 12m..they are so lucky, at first their flying device is already out of track but then the wind helps it to pull it back on track and slides towards the line..how lucky….

there is another group getting on 10m line…better than us..but nevermind…our flying device is still satisfying…the lecturer looks good on our flying device too…

very tired and hot after the presentation…before that, just sketch up some last minute work (because we don’t know earlier that we need to prepare sketches regarding it) and paste it onto the wall…but then the lecturers don’t even look at it…they just don’t care and forget about it…meaningless!

next week, have to start with other assignments..more terrible and challenging assignments ahead!