The Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony begins at 8:08pm at the National Stadium in Beijing, which is also known as the Bird’s Nest.

At the time of this writing, various cultural performances are being staged in the stadium. Contingents from participating countries will march in later before the games is declared officially open and the cauldron lighted up.

Back here in the Klang Valley, Malaysia, various F&B outlets organize public screenings of the opening ceremony. This has caused severe traffic congestion in various parts of the Klang Valley when many city folks chose to watch the games opening ceremony live at these locations.

Updated at 21:16

The Malaysian contingent has marched into the stadium. It is the 10th contingent to march into the stadium as the order is arranged according to Chinese characters rather than English alphabetical order. Earlier, Greece became the first contingent to march in as in tradition while host, China will be the last contingent.

Updated at 23:36

The games is now officially launched by the President of the People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao.

Updated at 23:51

The Olympic flag is raised at 23:46, accompanied by the Olympic anthem. This is then followed by oath taking of the athletes, led by Zhang Yining and oath taking by games officials led by Huang Liping.

Updated at 00:05 (9 Aug 2008)

The Olympic Flame is successfully lighted at the cauldron by Li Ning. He is lifted by strings to the stadium roof, “running” around the roof as video clips of the torch relay stages, including the one staged in Kuala Lumpur in April is projected on the roof.

He then lighted a wire string which sparks the flames across to the cauldron not far away, thus lighted the flame.

Fireworks then followed.

If you have watched either one of the two series of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Forbidden Kingdom, you will notice two main similarities between them despite having different stories altogether.

In the first Narnia series, The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, Peter, Edmund, Susan & Lucy entered a wardrobe into the land of Narnia, fought the Evil White Witch with the help of Aslan, the lion. When they emerge the victors, they ruled as kings and queens of Narnia for a long time, became fully grown ups, and one day, they came back to where they entered, exited the wardrobe and realize, no time has passed where they came from, and they became children again.

In the second Narina series, Prince Caspian, Peter, Edmund, Susan & Lucy reentered Narnia after 1 year, however, it’s 1300 years later in Narnia. They helped reinstate Prince Caspian to become the ruler of the land of Narnia, of course, with the help of Aslan. Similar to the first series, they return to England to the time they reenter, i.e. at the train station.

Now, if you have watched The Forbidden Kingdom a month ago, Jason, with the powers of the magical staff belonging to the Monkey King, transported back into ancient China, fought the Jade Warlord and his army and return the staff to the Monkey King. When he returned to where he came from, again, no time has passed.

So, we read on the papers that politicians are doing their pre-election campaigns on Valentine’s Day by capitalizing on it to win the hearts of potential voters. One catchy theme is Love Democracy messages by DAP leaders urging people to love their family, friends and democracy.

While newspapers on Friday headline the nomination and polling dates of the 12th General Election, we read on the front page of The Star and The Sun of how a man spent RM40,000 for a billboard advertisement proposing marriage to his girlfriend. Come to think of it, I personally feel such an amount of money is better spent wisely on more important stuff. There are many more meaningful ways to show our sincerity to our love ones that do not require a huge sum of money.

Personally, I don’t celebrate Valentines’ Day. I feel that if we are to show our love to our love ones, we should show it constantly, daily, not once a year. Besides, Valentine’s Day is so commercialized where florists, chocolate sellers, restaurants, etc. are capitalizing on it for huge profits. Do you still remember that nearly 9 years ago a man drove all the way from Penang to Cameron Highlands to get roses for his girlfriend amounting to thousands of ringgit?

Instead of spending on flowers, chocolates, expensive dining, or even a billboard advertisement, why not keep the money for other purposes such as providing a better life to your eventual spouse? Perhaps a bigger house, a better car, better environment for future generation, etc.

And you probably read that there are mass weddings being organized on Valentine’s Day. And from the press, you probably noticed they are Chinese couples. And a check on Joey Yap’s 2008 Tong Shu Monthly Planner, 14 February 2008, Valentine’s Day is a Month Breaker Day. We should not engage in any important activities on a Month Breaker Day or Year Breaker Day according to Chinese Astrology. This includes marriage!

Today is the 7th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Rat and the 7th day is also the common birthday for all humans!

The only CNY-related activity I had today is to watch another movie released in conjunction with Chinese New Year, i.e. Kung Fu Dunk starring Jay Chou, Eric Tsang and Charlene Choi. The theme of the movie is mainly a mixture of the game of basketball, kung fu, love, money and triads.

And the joy of Chinese New Year today has been overtaken by the announcement of the dissolution of the Parliament which stunned the nation when only yesterday the Prime Minister said the Parliament will not be dissolved today. The dates for nomination and voting will be fixed by the Election Commission tomorrow. It is speculated that nomination will be on 21 February (Chap Goh Mei Festival) while voting on 1 or 2 March. We’ll know tomorrow if these dates are correct.

Back to PJ this morning and the only thing today as part of my Chinese New Year celebrations was to watch the movie CJ7 at GSC 1 Utama starring Stephen Chow.

CJ7 is a fantasy tale featuring state of the art visual effects, CJ7 is a comedy about a poor laborer father played by Stephen Chow and his young son. When a fascinating and strange new pet enters their lives, they learn a poignant lesson about the true nature of family and the things money can’t buy.