8 posts tagged “everyday life”
Most of my recent posts had mentioned how busy I've been but none of them really said what I've been busy with... Well, I've been busy with a whole myriad of things but I've decided to post a few pictures of some of the objects that I encounter everyday at work and talk a little bit about them while I am at it... LOL (^__^") ... This post is sort of an excuse to post something on the family blog by the way, since it seems to have gone stale...
I'll try to keep this journey short but there are seven pictures to share, so if I do go off on a tangent somewhere - forgive me... (^___^") Also, do forgive me for that fact that I'm not trying to maintain any real lingual or logical flow in this post...! Well, here we go! (^___^)
One of the first few things that I regularly check when I get to the office are my course syllabuses. Thankfully, courses at this university only have one lecture a week although, not-so-thankfully, that also means that the lectures can get really, really long...
Nonetheless, I need to check on the syllabuses because there are also quite a large number of courses that I cannot officially register for because of my position. Consequently, that means that I don't get correspondence from professors because I'm mainly "sitting in" for those courses.
Understandably, the picture seems to suggest a light load of courses but I assure you, there are more syllabuses on the other side of the desk... (^___^")
Something which I stare at a lot more, apart from course syllabuses, is my keyboard. As a matter of fact, I'm staring at these very keys as I type away at the moment...
But it seems that I have grown too accustomed to my keyboard's Japanese layout and size because whenever I am presented with a full-sized U.S. keyboard now, my typing speed can only be described as "clumsily slow".
It is also because of this acclimatisation to the Japanese keyboard that I've come to the realise that I'll likely have to make my way to Japan if I intend to get a new laptop... Luckily, I probably won't need to make that trip for at least another couple of years since the little fella is still going strong despite its age and the abuse it suffers at my hands... LOL
Continuing on with things related to computing, allow me also to introduce my office mouse and its makeshift mouse pad. Yes, it's called the "office mouse" because it stays in the office... which is probably why it's such a nervous wreck...
Before I made the mouse pad, the cursor on my computer would keep wiggling about as if it was suffering from some sort of a spasm attack... Of course, it was probably the desk's glossy surface that made the pointer go wild like that but still... it really seemed like it was suffering from a convulsion or something...
Regardless of this minor weakness, I'll still take an optical mouse over a mechanical one any day... My memories of mechanical mice are dominated by the times I cleaned out their insides only to have them get all dirty and unresponsive again shortly afterwards... (>__<)
But that's not all that I've outfitted my desk with... Indeed, I also needed something I could count on to protect my mobile phone in case I were to step out of the office without it - and there was only one chap that Buttercup and her sister thought was trustworthy enough for that assignment: Panda-Z!
So with that, the charge of guarding my mobile fell onto Panda-Z, the all-powerful panda-like mecha that is commandeered by the super hero robot panda, Pan-Taron (that's the dude behind my phone...). Panda-Z, of course, is a series of short anime clips that investigate everyday life as a robot... LOL. It makes no effort to hide the fact that it is a parody of super-robot animes like Mazinger Z and possesses the charm of never taking itself too seriously...
Anyhow, lodging my phone into the protective body that is Panda-Z's impenetrable armour of some high-tech future material, I feel a certain sense of comfort and security that seems ever-elusive in a city as cut-throat as Hong Kong...
Now, if only I can teach my mute robot pal to take incoming calls too, all will be well with the world... LOL
Although I've been talking about objects around my office, it seems clear that I'm deviating from the subject of work - so, let's move on to discuss one of the things I have to do... Indeed, besides teaching a robot panda to answer calls, part of what I do also requires that I teach human students a thing or two about stuff... (^___^")
In my classes, I want to foster an environment where students come to see themselves as my peers and not just my students. To achieve such an atmosphere though, face recognition and name recall are important since those are the elements that provide a very personal platform for human interaction. Unfortunately, universities can sometimes be really big places and courses usually have a ton of students attending them, so it's no surprise that names and faces could sometimes escape the memory...
Which is why I turned to squiggling all my students as a way to enhance my memory, as you can see from the above picture... LOL (^__^")
As you may have gathered, although I claim that there is much work at the office, there is no shortage of things to remind us that some playtime is called for every now and then... (^___^") Indeed, a symbol that reminds us to intermingle play with work is our trusty office shuttlecock.
To be sure, I've never personally seen anyone play with it nor have I touched it - but standing there unused, it serves as a testament that the office has tons of other things to entertain itself with when we are not at our desks chipping away at the never-ending flood of work.
So, standing proudly between desks as a symbol of play, it reminds us that if we were ever to exhaust our methods of procrastination, we can always rely on it as a last resort... (^__^")
Come to think of it, despite all the work that is being done, there is a great sense of play in the office - perhaps a little too much of it. In general though, it's a very warm place to be and it's not as if you can't get anything done there... then again... I can't remember getting anything done there either... LOL
Finally, because work and play are very active activities, allow me to introduce you to the monster in my desk...
Activity's enemy and the anti-thesis to any sense of consciousness, this monster is summoned by a mixed spell of drowsiness and lethargy. Once summoned, it effectively acts to cushion my head into its soft form thereby fully restoring my strength and consciousness (called HP and MP respectively in role-playing games... Yes, I finally started playing Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII...(^___^))
This is a very important part of work though and no one should deny themselves rest because of work. I know that that sounds paradoxical but let me explain: basically, recent research has suggested that if we were working hard on a problem and were still unable to solve it, it's probably better to take a break and stop worrying about it. The reason why this helps has very much to do with how different brain waves are associated with our different bodily states and the explanation goes a little like this...
Thinking very hard on a problem requires us to draw extensively from the reasoning faculties of our brain, but if we were still unable to solve the problem then our heads have likely hit a mental roadblock. This intense reasoning is associated with brain gamma waves. Now, at this point, if we simply walked away from the problem and took a breather, that would allow our brains to relax and relaxation is associated with alpha waves in the brain. But alpha waves are also linked to the creative processes of the brain, so it is in this more comfortable state that the mind may begin to look at the puzzle from different perspectives and ultimately lead to its unravelling by more novel means...
So perhaps it was no coincidence that it was just when Archimedes was stepping into his bathtub that he figured out the then-insoluble problem of precisely calculating the volume of irregular objects... LOL (^___^")
Well, I really should stop here... I know I said I'll try to keep it short... Obviously, that didn't work out too well... LOL Anyway, next up, I'll be posting a translation post on Hikki's prescription for depression, Fight The Blues \(^ o ^)/ Stay tuned! (^___^)
There is something about jazz that always seems to elude the popular comprehension. Indeed, the admission that "It's all jazz to me!" serves to exemplify this popular disconnect with the genre and it is probably this inability for the general populous to connect that makes it a genre ripe for those aspiring to higher culture.
As a simple commoner who aspires to normality then, I have no qualms about admitting my love for pop - especially Japanese pop. Nonetheless, last Sunday did see the fourth time I attended a jazz event and although I thought I finally "got it", I realised soon after the performance that I actually didn't.
One barrier to my understanding of jazz may simply be that I don't play any instruments (I don't sing either, and if I intend to maintain the public peace - I shouldn't try, LOL). To be clear though, it's not that I didn't try to play an instrument but I am sure you could understand that when your piano teacher tells you that you are beyond salvation - there is a tendency to gravitate away from the subject...
Nonetheless, although I can come to terms with my lack of musical prowess, it's a lot harder to deny my profound love for music. Indeed, Victor Hugo touched the exact sentiments of my heart when he said, "Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to remain silent." Music, then, is a form of expression that transcends language but is informed by culture and this gives it the ability to touch every heart while still maintaining a character that is unique unto itself.
So, if jazz is music, why does it seem that much more difficult to understand and appreciate? For me, I am quite certain it is my lack of an instrumental affiliation that makes it hard to comprehend because, as Buttercup explained, "Jazz is a dialogue between instruments." On that Sunday evening however, while listening to a concert held by Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi (上原ひろみ), I thought I glimpsed that symposium of instruments speaking in the tongue of music.
It was on that night that I bore witness to the many discussions between the piano, drums, bass, and guitar on the topic of time. The worldwide concert tour was appropriately titled Hiromi's Sonicbloom: Time Control and it would mark the pianist's first visit to Hong Kong. The concert was based on her most recent album of the same name - I have put up a sample of one of her songs, entitled Time Difference, to the left.
The evening began with my expected incompetence in understanding what I was listening to; but, as time progressed, I became increasingly enamoured by the lively exchange of instruments - at one point, I was certain that the drums and the piano were locked in a very heated quarrel about the nature of space and time with the frustrated drums trying to convince an exceedingly stubborn piano that it was right. But the piano had good reason to be stubborn: it had the better point.
But if I thought I had jazz all figured out at that point, Hiromi made sure to demonstrate that I knew nothing of it. In the act that stole the entire show, an unnamed act, Hiromi faced her grand piano - alone. She started the piece with a beautifully soothing melody before standing up and doing the unthinkable. Reaching behind the piano, Hiromi placed her hands firmly on the strings and strummed them as though they were guitar strings. She then continued with one hand playing the keyboard and the other playing the different components that make up the insides of the piano. As the song progressed, she began exploiting the instrument for as many unique sounds as it could register, smacking it and even kicking it at times.
It may all sound violent in writing, but having seen it live, I can assure you that there was no sense of violence in the theatre - instead, as Buttercup observed, she appeared to be in a deep embrace of pure and unadulterated love with her instrument. It was there that I recognised how at one Hiromi was with her piano for as she expressed herself through the instrument, it became clearer that Hiromi herself was also an instrument of expression for the piano. In this powerful display of unison, both artist and piano went on to articulate every emotion under the sun.
By the end of the concert, I was dumbstruck with what I thought was an expanded understanding and appreciation for jazz. But as Hiromi and her band took their final bow, I realised that there was little in the way of a standing ovation for what I thought was an amazing concert. I admit, I failed to stand too, but the fact that very few people around me stood up intimidated me... Usually, everyone is just standing up and clapping at the end of every jazz concert I've been to (including those that effectively put me to sleep)... Maybe this wasn't the final bow? Maybe there will be another encore?
Alas, it was the final bow and it was no accident that the standing ovation appeared reserved: the jazz connoisseurs of the evening were unimpressed. A child in his little tuxedo behind me, a master maestro of tomorrow, concluded that "I could only say that she has the passion," as if to imply that Hiromi was missing something fundamental in her work. As I made my way out of the auditorium, I overheard a British couple arguing over whose fault it was that both of them had to sit through the event. Shuffling through the crowds, I noted another well-dressed Chinese woman explicating to a friend that this was simply an unacceptable form of jazz.
It was a strange experience since my heart that seemed almost ready to burst with praise and the excitement that I had felt seeing the appeal of jazz started to waver. The overwhelming acclamation that I had expected from the audience came to the sum of nil. So there, I just don't get it. When the jazz-going crowd is so obviously unimpressed while I was jumping up and down screaming like a little girl as well as buying up her CDs on the spot, it's unmistakable that I just don't get it.
But whatever... I know that music is a deeply personal experience and so Hiromi, although it may be late, please take this post as my standing ovation to you. Seeing you in concert was an experience so mind-bending, mind-blowing, and mind-opening that it unreservedly justifies another visit into this ever-elusive world of jazz.
Perhaps one day, I'll really get what jazz is all about but until then, I think I'll sleep on the matter. (^___^")
For now, I'll leave off with another sample piece from Hiromi's third album, Spiral, above. The sample song is titled, Old Castle, by the river, in the middle of a forest. This album was awarded Jazz Album of the Year by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) in 2006.
Links:
Hiromi Official English Website (maintained by Telarc Jazz)
Purchase Time Control online (via Amazon.com)
Purchase Spiral online (via Amazon.com)
I've been terribly busy and sick these past few weeks, so do forgive me for this oversized post... LOL... I did notice that, somehow, two words kept cropping up in every segment... and they are "Sony" and "touch" ... Is this really all there is to my life!? (O__o) LOL
Anyhow, this post is really as pointless as it is long, so if you do decide to scroll down... don't say I didn't warn you... LOL (^__^")
Birthday and Christmas Rolled into One Giant Gift
After six years of loyal service, the time has come to decommission my Casio Exilim digital camera to make way for my new Sony DSC-T200. This camera came as a gift from my sister and mother, both of whom got it for me as a combined birthday-Christmas present.
My jaw dropped when I first got it... I never expected to get something like this as a gift and it seemed almost sinful to accept it! But being the sinner I am, I took it nonetheless... LOL. Seriously though, "THANK YOU" to the two of you... never in my dreams would I have thought that I would get something like this as a gift! m(_ _)m
The functionality found in this camera really made me feel out-of-date... My previous understanding of point-and-shoot cameras are simply that they have standard buttons to operate the camera with. After receiving the T200 though, I realised that times have changed and touch is really the next big thing in input interfaces.
Yup. As if it was a recent discovery to me, the T200 uses touch screen technology to up the ante on its competition. It may sound like a novelty at first but after playing around with it, it's clear that the touch panel provides more functionality than previously possible.
Functions such as pointing out a subject to focus on even if it is not at the centre of the viewfinder and editing specific areas of a picture with the touch screen, instead of editing an entire picture.
Beyond the advantages of touch however, the T200 is also equipped with several nifty features like the "Smile Shutter".
In "Smile Shutter" mode, the camera only snaps the picture when it detects that everyone in the picture is smiling. The way it's set up actually makes for some really reliable results and frankly, I've gotten more pictures of big smiles under this mode than I've ever had with my old camera.
I have to say again that I never dared to wish for a gift as cool as this. So once more, a million thanks to my mom and sis for this super awesome gift. You can expect pictures from this little baby to be posted here in the near future! \(^ o ^)/
Continuing on with all my Sony praising (it's hard to say I'm not a Sony fanboy... but I really try not to be... LOL), we return to the Playstation family in the next segment...
The Chronicles of Firmware: The Blessed Son(y) and The Poisoned Apple
It wasn't very long ago that I was singing praises about firmware updates and how they expanded functionality on the devices they were on. Certainly, it's hard to fault Sony for continuing to push the limits of what the Playstation family could do with updated firmware.
In the latest Playstation 3 firmware update, Sony expanded the types of files it was capable of playing to include DivX - the format in which most of my drama is encoded. The best part obviously comes when combined with Remote Play, which allows you to stream all your media from wherever you are!
On the right, for example, the hugely successful 2007 comedy 有閑倶楽部 (Yukan Club) is being streamed over to the PSP via wireless network.
Also buried in that firmware bundle is an awesome music visualiser called Gaia. It's a deviation from the normal trance-like music visualisations in that it's a visualiser that simply features our blue planet floating in space. The picture below is of one among several aspects where the sun rises from the Earth. The fact that Aya Kamiki (上木彩矢) was singing A constellation in the picture is, in fact, coincidental... (^___^")
At this point, I doubt I could be any clearer about my allegiance to Sony, LOL, but they are treating me so well - why hate? In fact, it's probably because Sony is treating me so well that I'm so very unimpressed with Apple...
"Unimpressed" actually seems like an understatement considering how annoyed I am over the whole affair. I can understand that Apple is a poor company and needs to milk customers for maximum profit, but deciding to charge so high a price for a minor iPod touch firmware upgrade borders on the ludicrous.
If it's only the price though, I'd be fine with that since I simply won't pay, but the darned upgrade installs itself into the iPod touch and just sits there - dormant. Sure, I was annoyed but not as annoyed as when I found out that my album art was getting messed up all of a sudden! (>__<) (A quick Google search made me realise that I am not alone)
Seriously, everything was fine until I installed the blasted pay-me-to-work update... Both my iTunes and iPod nano have no problems with the album art and neither did my iPod touch before this... Really, there is something very disturbing about listening to Ai-chin's 恋愛写真 while staring at Sum 41's Does this Look Infected? album art... *sigh*
Anyhow, I should stop ranting now - being upset isn't good for the health, so instead, let me turn my attention to Ai-chin for a dose of instant relief! (^___^)v
Ai-chin and avex's First High-Definition Excursion
On January 1st, 2008, avex trax released their first concert on high-definition disc mediums, that is, on HD-DVD and Blu-ray and it would be Ai-chin that would lead the charge with [LOVE IS BORN] ~4th Anniversary 2007~ at Hibiya-Yagai Ongaku-Do on 9th September 2007. (You can see that the Japanese don't really mind their titles going on and on and on... LOL)
To date, she has had two [LOVE IS BORN] concerts - one in 2006 and the last, well, in 2007. These concerts are special because they fall on her birthday and provide her with a vehicle to celebrate the occasion with her biggest fans. The concerts also celebrate her time as a musician because it was one day after her birthday in 2003 that she debuted in the Japanese music scene. This entire concept took shape in 2006 because that was the year she celebrated her 24th birthday, which is significant only in that that is the age in which an individual reaches the second cycle of their Chinese zodiac sign. (Like me, Ai-chin also has a dog for her zodiac, LOL (^___^"))
In general, the mood of these concerts are actually very different from that of her other concerts because she is a lot more relaxed here and the audience is always super in-tune with Ai-chin. Seriously, she only has to lift a finger and everyone in the audience knows what to do! Heck, even in the beginning when she still had yet to show up, everybody knew what to do! How is that for artist-fan synergy? (^___^)v
Also in these events, she will treat fans with an early live performance of her then-upcoming single as well as deliver touching renditions of her other works - such as an acoustic version of プラネタリウム (planetarium) and a solo piano version of 夏空 (natsuzora). She would also go ahead and do things that she probably won't do in her more "official" concerts... things such as playing team skip rope in the middle of a song and things like this...
Seriously, she's been practising that for three months... LOL... and it was in front of this crowd that she finally showed off her prowess in the field of strings. It wasn't quite Vanessa Mae, but then again, ample warning was given to anyone who dared listen before she put bow to string. (^___^")
In the end, it's nice to see that the Japanese music industry is slowly but surely moving on into the high-definition age. Sony Records, unsurprisingly, led the charge with Mika Nakashima's (中島美嘉) LET'S MUSIC TOUR 2005 but like avex trax, other record companies are slowly picking up the technology to deliver the high-definition experience to consumers... and seriously, I will take Ai-chin no other way... well, that is until NHK comes through with their UHV* technology
*In Japan, high-definition is called Hi-Vision, so UHV is UHD which is ultra high-definition... preliminary tests have shown that because the image quality is so clear and so real, viewers get nauseous watching it... not a good sign at all, but Ai-chin in UHV? I'll live through it, LOL. (^__^")
What a long pointless post... (-___-")
Right, it really is about time for me to bring this post to a close. I've been going on for what seems like an eternity on relatively pointless stuff - but stuff I really wanted to share nonetheless, LOL.
Anyway, be sure to tune your frequencies to UH21.2 "the HEART STATION" because a translation post will be coming shortly on the heels of this post. (By the way, ayaka's coming single is also the pinnacle of awesomeness!!!!!!!!!!! ARRGGHHH~~ so many pinnacles of awesomeness, what am I to do!? LOL)
Rain, heavy as bullets, beat down on men in battered fatigues. Bursts of gunfire sketch lighted outlines jousting, as if in rotoscope, through the streets of a war-torn Middle Eastern city. Flanked from all positions - options now a luxury - we moved on reflexes, scrambling from wet alley to wet alley while trading bullets with militiamen.
Suddenly, the cacophony of crumbling brick turned into the sickening sound of tearing flesh and crunching bone.
Thud.
Alvarez. It was Alvarez!
The barrage of gunfire kept pouring in beat with the droplets of rain - must keep moving.
Cover. Have to get to cover. Cover...
...Right... This is why a Writers' Guild is needed - to ensure pieces like this are banned from ever reaching the public sphere! Anyhow, that's my attempt at Call of Duty 4 fanfic... (-___-")
Well, It's been quite a busy month in terms of work as well as leisure time as the past month or so has seen a massive amount of excellent gaming titles released... The amount of games I have bought has led to a very big disagreement between me and my wallet, LOL. (^___^") In short, my wallet is very displeased with me...
And although I so desperately want an XBOX360, it's good that I do not have one... otherwise, I would be more broke than broke can be (well, I am still waiting for an indication that Microsoft has fixed their hardware deficiencies... unlike in North America, XBOX360 customer support isn't stellar here...)!
Overall, 2007 has been a great year for games and gamers of all platforms. But there is bad news ahead - the year is still not over and there is still a handful of highly anticipated titles to be released... Sorry wallet... please, please, please bear with me... m(_ _)m
Games aside, I also wanted to talk about firmware updates. For the uninitiated, firmware is basically the software that makes most electronic devices function the way the are supposed to. It's called "firmware" because it is proprietary software that is tailor-made for the device in question.
In seeing a more connected world, corporations have taken to updating their firmware from time to time in order to add functionality as well as bolster security on their devices. It is with that then that I come to talk about the recent firmware updates to the Playstation 3 (PS3) and Playstation Portable (PSP).
I will admit that when I first heard the features that will be added to the update, I was actually very disappointed. Of all things, Sony still has yet to add in-game messaging to the PS3 - having to exit my game in order to read and send messages to friends is not my idea of fun...
Nonetheless, when I finally did get the update, my heart warmed and I began to realise just how cool Remote Start is, LOL. Remote Start allows the user to turn the PS3 on and off with the PSP from anywhere in the world. Understandably, turning the PS3 on and off isn't all that cool - but being able to access my media and applications on the PS3 from wherever I am is downright awesome!
To exemplify, the picture of Ai-chin pouring her heart into 恋愛写真 on the PSP above was taken after turning on the PS3 via the internet and then using it as I would at home. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's just been announced that the PS3 will soon be able to play DivX video files... which means that I could soon utilise this to watch drama from wherever I am! ~~\(^ o ^)/~~ So yea, thank you Sony!!!
Keeping with this firmware talk, another company that needs to be blessed for a firmware update is Apple and the iPod touch's upgrade to version 1.1.2 of firmware. The major function added in this update is the ability to edit and add calendar events directly on the iPod touch.
I have to admit that I wasn't half excited for the iPod touch when Steve Jobs announced it a short while back... At the time, I was actually looking for a PDA to keep myself more organised with since I was suffering from a terrible bout of appointment-forgetfulness syndrome...
As things would have it though, Hong Kong isn't a place for English PDAs... No, every PDA sold in Hong Kong only functions in Chinese (I could speak and listen alright but according to my girlfriend, my reading and writing are handicapped at best - heck, most recognition of Chinese characters come from an understanding of Japanese kanji... (-___-")).
It was in that way that I was left with a choice between a Chinese PDA or a smart phone like the Blackberry... But I wasn't ready to end my love affair with my current phone (true, it's not very smart but I'm not all that smart myself, LOL). In that way, I decided to snoop around the internet to see if I could find anything on this - it wasn't long before I stumbled across people talking about using the iPod touch as a PDA and the rest is - well - history.
Anyhow, thank you Apple for the update - I now forgive that whole bait-and-switch fiasco! LOL. Also, a HUMONGOUSLY OUTRAGEOUSLY GIANT thanks to Mammy for making that pretty pouch for me to carry it around in!! YAY! m(_ _)m
Finally, in case anyone is remotely interested, the picture of the iPod touch shows it playing an artist I have yet to introduce to this blog - Misachi Kyushima (久嶋美さち). She's got quite a distinct style of music that seems to be a mixture of rock and Japanese folk songs at times. She is but one giant list of artists that I hope to eventually introduce to this blog through samples and translations, so stay tuned! (^___^)v
Anyhow, on to spotlighting something that I did more recently... LOL
Dinner at a Central Dai Pai Dong
Rising in the background is the HSBC building and in the fore stands the LegCo building in Central. The HSBC building is said to be built so that it could be easily dismantled and relocated in the event of a dispute that may occur during the handover of Hong Kong (HSBC is, of course, a British bank despite its name). The LegCo building is the place where politicians go and slug it out on legislation and what-not... the seat of government as it were.
Not long after taking that picture, my girlfriend and her friend arrived and it was time to head off towards that dai pai dong experience. A dai pai dong is basically a hawker store that is characterised by cheap food and an environment that is incapable of passing basic hygiene standards, LOL. But even with that understanding, I didn't quite expect to find how "old-school" this dai pai dong was...
Meandering the streets of Central, we came upon a darkened alley with a concrete river of open drain water coursing by. Dimmed lights revealed a haphazard cluster of plastic chairs and tables surrounding an outdoor kitchen that seemed too small to accommodate the size of their own menu. As we took our seats and our orders were taken, it was difficult not to notice two cockroaches engaged in what seemed a game of cops-and-robbers along one side of another closed stall, LOL.
The food was fair in general - not outstanding, but fair enough. The only thing that stood out to my palate was the spicy salt pork cubes... mmm mmm... Spicy salt dishes are so very bad for you but they are always so very good too. (^___^")
Nonetheless, it was encouraging to see the alley become increasingly populated by the area's inhabitants as the night went by - inhabitants like this feline fellow on the left. The whole experience proved to be quite nostalgic as I recall my childhood being marked with visits to such establishments in Penang.
Alas though, one can only run from the law for so long and I have heard that the authorities have asked these fine restaurateurs to relocate into a small vacant shop down the road or face closure. Perhaps I would have sympathised with that feeling of nostalgia and wished more that the authorities leave them be, but having felt something crawl past my feet before my meal was done, I became adamantly supportive of the relocation, LOL. Nonetheless, it was a very nice all-in-all. (^___^")
Game Over
...Behind these fragile walls, the crackling of gunfire seemed a distant memoir. I reached into my pocket to find strength in the amulet Alvarez had given me just days ago. I propped up the rifle against the sill and looked down its cold sterile scope.
The flashing outlines now shape themselves in human mould through the vision of night as I placed the cross-hairs on one of these monstrosities of man. I listened to the slow consistent rhythm of my heart and calmed my breath.
May God rest your soul, Alvarez, as surely as He will rest this man's.
In the last moments of that man's life, I took a long deep breath... and became myself a consequence of war.
(Guess what my next post will be on? LOL)
Six years ago when I was still a secondary school student in Hong Kong, the term "Halloween" held a position of indifference with most people here. Sure, the expatriates celebrated it but that was usually in a very reserved manner - for the most part, Halloween was merely another reason for them to drink. An expatriate, especially one with Caucasian features, is known as a "gweilo" in Cantonese which translates to "ghost person" - so in some way, it was fitting that they celebrated Halloween, LOL.
Today though, as if the importing of McDonald's and Coca-Cola weren't enough, Halloween has become a staple on the Hong Kong calendar and the theme seems prevalent throughout the city. It's an odd feeling but I can now say that I am celebrating Halloween in Hong Kong - something that was previously unheard of. So with that: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I am hoping to keep this post relatively short, but I have been wanting to post for some time - though I haven't been able to get round to it recently. I just finished an extensive course of medication that my doctor prescribed me for what he called a "minor throat infection" - I had been coughing continuously for the past few weeks, so it was really time to get it checked. The problem though is that all that medication seems to have made it worse... I find myself coughing more than I did before taking the meds and now I will have to go back to get it checked out again... *sigh*
Anyhow, keeping with the theme of Halloween, I am planning to fill this post up with pictures more than words (as if that is possible with someone as talkative as me! LOL). First, allow me to share a photo I took about three years ago when I was walking back home from work while I was still an undergraduate at Queen's. I remember taking this picture on the Queen's campus around the time of Halloween - the tower on the left extends from Grant Hall.
Ah, this brings back memories from the good ol' undergrad days! Roughly a year after that, after I had finally completed everything I needed to complete to get my bachelor's degree, I went down to Boston with an invincible trio - my girlfriend, my room mate, and one of my best friends from Japanese class who I got close to thanks to endless sessions of Winning Eleven, K-drama, J-drama and a crazy Korean game show called X-man. (^___^)
In Boston, we were given a place to stay by my gracious aunt - an aunt who I took the liberty of codenaming: Auntie M. I would have called her "M" if only she had been willing to call me "double-oh seven", but then again that would be really disrespectful in our culture (not that she minds though, I am sure). In fact, me and my sister are already pretty disrespectful in that we don't call our aunts and uncles by their appropriate titles in Chinese - I still have problems remembering which aunt and uncle are which by their appropriate titles... LOL
Anyway, during this time in Boston, we took some time out to head over to my aunt's other home in Stoughton. Although it was nowhere near Halloween at the time, the resulting picture does evoke some feeling of Halloween, no?
This is my aunt's Stoughton home - I can't remember why I walked out to take pictures in the middle of the night but I do recall that shortly afterwards, me and the aforementioned invincible trio engaged in a grand struggle for resource domination in a game of Settlers of Catan. The time we spent together that summer was brief for all the time we had while in university, but those were times that made memories immemorial.
More recently now, I did spend time doing some "Halloweeny" things in Hong Kong - the biggest of which was going to Hong Kong Disneyland since they had decked the park out to fit the theme of Halloween. The park generally closes at 9pm but for Halloween they extended their hours to 11pm and had promotions to try to get people into the park.
On the right is a picture of one segment of the water fountain that greets visitors to Disney here. The park is extraordinarily small for a Disney - a day is more than enough to do everything there is to do there. It was a lot of fun though and the experience is actually quite nice because they really do make you feel as if you have left Hong Kong and went on a journey to the magical kingdom that defines Disney.
If there is to be a major problem with the experience though, it would be the proportion of Mainland Chinese that are also visiting the park at the same time. This may sound racist, but I am not trying to be racist - the reason it is a problem is that a large proportion of mainlanders cannot completely grasp the concept of queuing for something. I don't fault the mainlanders for this because it is likely a problem with the social education they are receiving. The Chinese government has acknowledged this problem however and to counter it ahead of the 2008 Olympics, China has designated the eleventh day of every month until the Olympics as "Queuing Awareness Day"... I'm not kidding... they even reasoned that they chose the 11th because it looked like two people in a line, LOL.
On a slightly separate point I have to admit that I never really liked Halloween, horror movies, or horror games because they remind me of my experiences as a child. Now that I think back to it, I can't say for sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me but when I was a lot younger, I recalled being traumatised by the spirits...
I can't really say for sure that these things exist but I can't really say they don't either. Perhaps it was my head playing games with me, but at the time it was all very real to me and even today, I can never really be sure if my head is all in the right place sometimes.
I still hear the same girl's voice whispering in my ear.. so very clearly. I could cover my ears or play my music louder, but that whispering voice would drown them all out... It was only a whisper but a whisper so very loud. Perhaps I misheard and it was really something in the background - but it's always the same voice... the same voice that is so very close and still draws cold from my very heart.
It seems I need to work on my horror writing skills, LOL... Anyhow, the point is that I am not a big fan of horror because of some of my previous experiences. Personally, I can't separate fact from fiction and can never really know when my mind is playing tricks on me. This also explains why I have no ability to separate my dreams from the real world - I never know when I am dreaming and worse, sometimes I recollect my dreams as if they were real events that actually took place. Thank goodness then, that there are people around me to set the record straight, LOL.
Well, no visit to Disneyland would be complete without seeing Sleeping Beauty Castle - this next picture is Hong Kong's version of it in all its spectral glory. The light effects were quite nice, they used lights to super impose webs, spiders and ghosts onto the castle and changed the lighting of the castle from a eerie blue to a hellish red. In the picture, they were superimposing ghosts onto the castle... I feel bad for Sleeping Beauty... having her castle turned into a giant light show... Hopefully she slept through the whole affair - it doesn't hurt them if they don't know, right? (^___^")
Well, it seems that I managed to get this post in before the month is out. Hopefully, I will have more time to get more posts up in November - this month was hectic and we also had visitors to our home near the end of it which meant less time on the blog machine. Uncle KC and Auntie Lan, I hope you enjoyed your stay - perhaps I will see you both in Melbourne next year!
The next post, when I get it down, will be a translation of YUI's LOVE & TRUTH. I guess this is a good place to leave off - HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!
The day before yesterday was Chinese National Day and, as anyone would expect from a great nation like China, there was a dazzling fireworks display to mark the occasion. The effect, however, seemed a little lost on many Hongkongers as a good number of them had no idea what the occasion was, LOL...
Though the fireworks may seem nice and spectacular, I have to admit that the fireworks three months ago were somehow more impressive (those were launched in celebration of 10 years of Chinese rule in Hong Kong). On the catalogue of fireworks on display was one of the oddest fireworks I have ever seen... I don't really know how to put it but my girlfriend said that it looked like phlegm slowly oozing from the sky. Though I don't completely agree, I have to admit that she wasn't too far off the mark from what I thought...
She also managed to point me to an all-too-common yet definitive moment that occurred after the show was over: without warning, the harbour suddenly filled with random boats all moving away in a mass exodus as if to flee a doomed city... somehow, the scene harkened back memories of 1997 when people fled Hong Kong in fear of the handover. There is really no relationship whatsoever between the fireworks and 1997, but it did remind me about the speed at which Hongkongers undertake their tasks and decisions. I took a picture of what I saw but I don't think it really depicts how odd the scene actually was:
I should expect no less from Hongkongers... always wanting to be first to get anywhere. I do wish that people will calm down sometimes but this sense that there is a lack of time seems contagious in a city like Hong Kong. Even though Monday marked the beginning of the long holiday in China called National Day Golden Week, it matters little to Hong Kong since it's business as usual here. This exhilaration of staying two steps ahead is, perhaps, what Hong Kong thrives on...
In that way, it seemed that there was no getting out of going to the university yesterday despite my recent recovery from illness. I was listening to Ai-chin's クムリウタ ("kumuri uta"; I can't translate this because "kumuri" is not a word in Japanese, but it's a clever title though - more on this in a future translation post) as I was waiting for the bus and I happened to look up into the sky. To make this make sense, it requires to be said that the song is a very moving piece that evokes powerful images of a cloudy sky. Looking up at the distant sky, this was what I saw:
Indeed, the more I gazed up at the restless clouds, the more I began to understand what Ai-chin must have been looking at as she wrote the piece. Feeling as if I have reached a heightened level of transcendence, my mind begin to drift away... but no sooner had my soul begun to float away from my body that I had been rudely smacked back into it, LOL... (-____-") It seems that my earphones have given out on me - and in the oddest manner possible too...
Sure, I bought them at a really low price for earphones but it is manufactured by Panasonic - which is supposed to be a brand name, no? Anyhow, I've been through a good number of earphones in my lifetime and most of the time I know that it was due to improper care that they deteriorate to the point where you have to fiddle with them to hear your music. I am used to that and have tried to change my habits to prevent it from happening...
What I am not used to though is having earphones malfunction into "karaoke-only" mode... It seems odd, but these earphones have malfunctioned in a manner in which they only play the background music to all my songs - effectively, I heard the unofficial instrumental version to kumuri uta and a handful of other songs... (^___^")
I really never thought that such things were possible but now I'm a believer. Well, it looks like I will have to go get some new earphones, but I will save these ones, just in case I feel like practising for a karaoke showdown, LOL.
Anyhow, if things go according to plan, the translation to Ai-chin's Cherish should be up in a day or two... I can't wait to translate kumuri uta at the moment, so I am planning to finish up this batch very soon (^___^)
This Moment in Life
This is pretty much going to be a photo post accompanied by random rambling - you have been warned (^__^"). I guess I should start posting my "Life" posts to the "family blog" since there seems to be very little activity on that side of things... But first off, let me wish everyone a very belated Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Before I go on though, allow me to share this photo that I managed to snap of the Hong Kong skyline last Sunday, just so one could see the little city I've been running around in lately...
It's a great pity that normal mooncakes don't actually have any wise messages written within them though as I am usually in need of deep guidance (perhaps a great revelation of truth like, "The greatest danger could be your stupidity" would help enlighten me). Disappointingly, I am usuall