http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss matrixcowboy@mac.com © DJC Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:00:03 +0900 Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:05:17 +0900 iBlog 1.4.1 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E381637849/index.html Mon, 30 Oct 2006 23:59:44 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E381637849/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E58816055/index.html So once again I find myself in an airport, this time, there seems to be some sort of delay, which is making the normally very crowded narita terminals, even worse than they normally are. This time I'm on my way to nyc for a week of training on IR derivatives, followed by a short stay in toronto for chinese new years.

...My old place was just getting a little too small and a little too inconvenient to get to the office. As such, I took the bite and moved over to a bigger place in smack middle of a downtown (if a word such as 'downtown' can be applicable at all to tokyo, which has at least 5 'downtowns'). the rent is almost double my old place, but I think that the savings in commute and time will be worth it alone.... There was this control box on the side of the kitchen wall that the real estate agent mentioned was to control the gas/water heating. I wasn't sure it did anything more than that, so I left it as 'one of those controls that I should just not touch', and let it be.... I wondered how I was supposed to fill the thing with water if I ever were to use it. Well, it turns out that the control panel outside (and another inside the bathroom) will actually fill the bathtub with HEATED water (you set the temperature) when you instruct it to by pressing the correct buttons.... Better still, when your bath is filled and ready, the control panel plays a pleasant tune and tells you in a cute japanese girl voice that your bath is ready.... It sort of reminds me of Erics apartment which has a emergency panic button in his toilet room that when pressed, emits a cute tone, and exclaims (once again in a cute japanese voice) "toliet ni, ite kudasai!".... As you can imagine, in the middle of a house party, the wall panel suddenly gives off a loud alarm tone, and exclaims, "please come to the toilet!".

...The local don quixote in shibuya is within 3 min walking distance from my new place. For those of you familiar with the bargain sell everything including the kitchen sink store here in japan, oddities in inventory is the daily fare.... But particular to this branch to Don Quixote, the condoms were sold in the head of the isle, right beside the snacks and treats section. It is quite amusing Between cosmetics, and doritoes, you will find the shelf full of condoms.

...Bought another mac a couple weeks ago. Call it bonus fever. Next time I find myself with 2000 bucks with no where to spend it I think I should by more apple stock instead. To my dismay 4 days after I bought tthe iMac G5 apple announces the new iMac Core Duo (intel).... (not many aside from apple's native software right now), which really makes my purchase pretty silly sounding. Oh well, I really wanted to get a new computer in the house to do all the photo processing since the mountain of digital proofs are closely surpassing the number of film negatives that I have in storage now.... Its a great machine though, the migration over from my laptop was seamless. I started up the new machine, it asked me some questions, asked me whether I wanted to migrate over from an old mac, and I did... When I booted up, it had everything installed (all my apps) and worked exactly as they were on the old machine.

...so we go to get sushi for dinner, with some friends in the area, who were really surprised to learn that I wanted to eat sushi after arriving from japan. The truth of the matter is that people don't eat sushi too often in tokyo.... Also, there are certain maki rolls that are not available in tokyo, like spider rolls. So we find this little place in soho called Blue Ribbon Sushi on Sullivan between prince and spring. It was pretty authentic, and I got a tinge of nostalgia when we arrive and the sushi chefs should "irrashaimase!" just like in tokyo, and the waiters have a recognizable japanese accent.

...Not more than 8 hours in nyc, and we already make several sightings of celebrities. Firstly, we see Sean Penn outside a bar called Tom's bar, he's by himself, on the cell phone seemingly waiting for somebody. He's the spitting image of the way he looked in the recent movie "the interpreter", complete with beard and suit and jeans. He looks strange and almost pedestrian by himself, without the following of fans and worshippers that I'd always imagine stars to have around them. I suppose that soho in nyc is the one place in the world where stars can act like normal people, and not have to worry about people hounding them all the time.... there are just so many around, its not anything special anymore.... Its one place that they can just be normal. Speaking of normal, when we left the bar later on at night, around 10pm, Gina, a friend with us, notices that amoung the british sounding folks walking behind us is Tilde Stiltson, otherwise known as Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, or the White Witch in the new Narnia movie. Yep, there she was, walking with some of her friends, acting really normal.... It was really something seeing Galadriel, queen of the elves, shopping for fruit from a corner grocer in soho. The thing that strikes me the most about her looks is that her hair is really really blond.

...At first it seemed that it would be painfully hard to get up that early every morning, but actually, as it turns out, due to the jetlag, I fell asleep at 9pm most nights and woke up at 5am every day.... And every morning, at the training room, there were a selection of bagels and croissants, coffee and tea.... And they don't skim on the cream cheeze in america, each little packet held enough cheeze to feed a family in china. I only used about half of each packet, and that was after lathering my poor bagel to dairy heaven.

...Then it hits me like a derailed train carrying cinderblocks; the initial wince of pain, then the successive shots of panic and adrenaline as each of the cinderblocks slam into my skull in a rapid like succession.

...i clean up my things, rush out of the hotel, and make a mental note not to lose anything carelessly in the rush.... There was no way I was going to rush through the line, there wasn't any agent calling out flight numbers or escorting passengers.... Some how, I felt that it would be okay (on the cab, I had read the terms of my eticket and all the fine print.) So I calmly waited in line, and took the time to also repack my bags (I had overweighted my carry on, thanks to all the starbucks frappacino coffee's that I had taken on. When I finally got up to the counter, I met with a friendly coloured woman.... I think I'm going to be one of those trouble customers" I tell her.... I continue to tell her how I was supposed to be on the 9am flight, and she looks a little sad and worried, while she checks her terminal "I think you are too late for the 9" she continues, sympathy in her voice, "the next flight is at 11:50, -- its going to be a long wait"...... Then, to strike up a conversation, I ask her whether or not people nornally bud the line when they are rushing for their flight. She starts tell me about how sometimes customers get all riled up when people do that, even when the agents were calling the flights. She starts laughing jovially when describing some folks who were really rude in the past, quoting typical new yorker responses, and laughing in that jovial coloured woman laugh that is made famous by hollywood. We have quite a pleasant conversation, and I left the ticket counter feeling a bit nostalgic about new york, and the kindness of strangers, if you just spend a little time to talk to them. I think New Yorkers are just as friendly as most people, its just that they have a shell that you have to break through first.... I always seem to be missing flights or having close calls, but I seem to emerge out all for the better. ]]> Sun, 22 Jan 2006 10:59:45 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E58816055/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E441326851/index.html Some odd keitai shots that didn't really warrent a journal entry of their own.

...finally they are going to make smoking outdoor illegal in crowded areas!

...And interesting add that was designed to look pixelated, but was actually 5 feet in size. the nize made it really easy to scan the barcode into my phone though. too bad the sweepstakes contest it was advertising was in japanese though. ]]> Wed, 26 Oct 2005 01:32:09 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E441326851/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E2017841837/index.html It was 1 year since I last stepped foot on the mainland, last delved into the abyss of excess and glutton that was China.

So you can imagine my excitment when it was once again time to return to the land of cheap food and cheap "labour" (and pretty much cheap everything else you could want). This time, it was to be a proper vacation, which meant of course, in my sheltered yuppie life, GOLF TRIP.

And what better way to do it then to go to the best golf course in all of china! Spring City in Kunming is ranked one of the top golfing resorts in the world, no doubt due to its stunning views for one, and secondly due to its economical prices and world class facilities. a 5 day 4 night stay, including 4 rounds of golf ran us a cool $600 usd, which is not bad at all, considering that's normally what we would pay for a 3 night snowboarding trip up to hokkaido.

...We were to get there flying from Shenzhen, across the HongKong border, after playing a round there with the HK coworkers. Though swelteringly hot and humid, somehow I managed to score 104 that day, dispite my terrible slice.

...I was travelling with Stuart, a true golfer in spirit (insofar as for the fact that he is scottish) and further meeting up with my partner in crime from the other side of the asian divide, Will. The first day we were to arrive in Kunming we were to muddle through on our own as Will was going to join us the day after from Beijing.

...After Stuart and I got to Kunming, and took a taxi to our hotel (which was filthy by the way, but at least she took us there without incident) we decided to walk around town to get a feel for things. We found the major shopping street (heck Kunming was one big shopping street) and behind that was a canal that was lit up by blue neon lights from the side.... the water was soo still, that the illusion was such that even staring straight into the water, I thought for a second that I was looking into an underground parkade or shopping area. After a couple of blinks, I realized that the shops I was seeing down there were really the reflections of the shops across the canal on my level.

...So we found this quite popular 'dah been low' place or hotpot or steamboat or shabushabu (pick one), the kind that has a divided metal bowl of soup, normally one is very spicy and the other is mild, and you throw bits of meat and veggies into it to cook.... You have a little sheet of paper with all the items, and you check them off with the number of which that you wanted. With my limited reading ability, I could make out "beef" (more precisely, "cow" but you asians out there know what I mean), "pork", "vegetable", "fish" but I had no idea what the other words were. Of course, Stuart was as clueless ( or moreso ) that I was, so we decided to employ the tried and true method perfected in Japan of 'picking the most expensive stuff on the menu, since that is normally the best stuff'. In shabushabu, normally the expensive items on beef were, say, kobe beef or special beef from australia or something.

...So we hand the order form back to a waiter, with some of the most expensive beef, pork, lamb, fish, etc. After looking at it, she commented something, but I couldn't understand her, so I just nodded and said yes. I then tried to order us some beers to start, and I now recall that I was calling beer "biru" in a japanese pronouciation, and also "beejou" in cantonese.... She rushed off after some moments of confusion, as the place was busy. After some moments, she came back with a fellow who was not a waiter by the way he dressed, probably a maitre'd or some equivalent.... We glance it over, and it was about 3.5 seconds later that our jaw drops to the floor.

Boy we would have lost our lunches if that showed up on a plate all raw and in its full majesty.

We quickly cancelled our order, and submitted a lesser, more tame selection.

...We did end up ordering a couple of exotics, just so that we wouldn't put our trip to china to waste, so we bit down and got us a plate of beef tripe (new for Stuart) and Dog flesh (new for me).

Dog tasted like venison, a little gamey, and very tough, so I ended up eating most of the tripe, and Stuart ate most of Old Yeller.

Here are some shots of the hot soup and other meals we had in beijing. The fruit with the dry ice smoke was in Hong Kong, the following week after the china trip.

The first set of pics are from the hotpot meal we had in Kunming with Will. It was basically mushroom soup with all these different kinds of exotic mushrooms, and they threw in 2 bullfrogs, (whole, skinned) for good measure. when the waiter sloshed them in, I thought they were fish, judging by the size of the head, but the eyes were too far apart and the shape of the head too flat. and normally you don't see both eyes of a fish at once. Well, in he went, head first into the soup. He wasn't too bad tasting, but way too many little bones (those little froggy legs of his) for my taste.

...They look great from afar, but they will fall apart after a couple of uses, or in the case of workmanship, you see tell tale signs of workers cutting corners and saving materials or effort whenever they could. A great case of this was the bathroom door in our 5 star hotel that wouldn't close.... I mean, you could really shove it in, but then you would be locked in the bathroom case you were unable to get out.

That being said, when we got to the Spring city resort, the villas there were the exception to the "china quality" rule, everything was world class, including the bathroom doors, and I even checked the caulking around the shower.

...Given that my game was pretty terrible, we decided (after some coercing from Will) to play skins for money. I lost a couple of hundred rmb the first day, but the next we tried to do stroke play. With stroke play, you payout x for the number of strokes you fell short of your handicap goal relative to your opponents. In this, I lost some more the second day, but was offset by some wins from Stuart. Will is a good player, scoring sub 100 on a good day, my average was bleeding into the 120's while Stuart's was around 136. As we were all progressively getting worse as the days went by, the money was won by whoever scored the least bad.... Will came out on top, but he subsequently lost most of it when we returned to play 1 more time in beijing against one of his workmates.

...Spring city is about 1 hour out of Kunming, where roads quickly became dirt paths, and farmers laid their grain on the road so that cars could drive over them to do the work of crushing it for them.

...The resort had shuttle bus driver that looks like Zhinny.

...So on our second night in Kunming, we decided to hit a KTV place, which is basically karoke with a choice of female accompanment. The club is more like a bar/lounge/showroom, complete with cosy chairs and even a stage.... I heard "yer-bun" mentioned a couple of times which is the mandarin word for 'japan', so I asked will what the guy was saying. Will told me that he was talking about how he went to japan, and enjoyed the comfort of some japanese hookers, to enact revenge for china.... I guess china has the freedom to insult japan, they did get the short end of the stick during ww2, and now they have nukes while japan is once again in china's shadow.

I can see why Koizumi is defiant (when it comes to the shrine visits) but at the same time, japan is right... chinese in general have a very open hatred of japanese, where for the most part the opposite is not true, japanese people are tolerant, honest, and friendly towards their asian neighors (probably because for the most part, the general population doesn't know the full extent of what really happened in ww2) so they are naive yet innocent.

...for instance, in Japan, very often korean and chinese actors are celebreties, appearing on shampoo adds to fashion tv. Zhang Zi Yi is a good example, while in China, not one japanese star is seen.

...Schitzo because half of the time, one side of japan doesn't know what the other side is doing. On one hand, the father should forgive the son for his past transgressions, on the other side, the son should see therapy for his anger management problems, and also medical attention for his neurosis. When they finally both start talking to each other and being truthful and frank, that's when we will get reconciliation.

So while japanese people should be more open about what they were responsible for during the war, chinese should be more forgiving of them given the current circumstances.... One side doesn't understand why the other hates them, while the other side doesn't understand how to put the past behind them. Anyways, the situation needs to be reconciled, if Asia is going to become the next world power, China and japan need to work together.

After Kunming, we bid Stuart good bye and good luck, for he was going to return to shenzhen and make his way back to hong kong by himself. Beijing, was even more advanced than when I remembered it 1 year ago. More buildings have sprung up, and I caught glimpses of a new mass transit system being constructed. One thing you have to hand it communism when it comes to getting stuff done.... All the preparations for the 2008 olympics look to be well on their way.

...I, after getting used to the dirty and can't care less attitude in kunming, was not prepared for the asshold nature of most commoners in beijing. The cab driver we got obviously was pretty proud of his car, even though it was not a terribly nice one. Being that we had a lot of luggage, our golf bags filled the trunk, so our bags had to go into the front seat just like in kunming. So I started to help myself in puting my bag in the front, but unlike the kunming driver, this guy seemed to care that my bags wheels touched his seat (which, I may point out, was decked out with a thick tacky covering) and I guess he didn't like that.... so he started saying shit, to while I had to clue, but Will stepped in to defend me and starting shouting back. It turned into a big shouting match for which the guy started foaming at the mouth and I swear Will was about to call his police "friends" to beat the shit out of the guy. Will got his license number and demanded the airport authorities report this incident and (though I can't be sure...... The driver backed down, though still shouting profanities, we took our stuff out of his car and got another taxi. after which will proceeded to call his taxi company to try to get him fired.... They gave him some sort of lame excuse that they didn't know this specific driver and that he wasn't registered with them (probably to save their own ass...... It was very interesting situation though, and it showed me how common courtesy is still very much lacking in chinese society.... The difference in culture in the 2 societies are comparible to a bitter old man (china) vs naive little boy (japan).

...On the middle of the highway, at the junction of an interchange, there stands a man with a sign.... Not to even mention that if anyone wanted to take advantage of his service, they would have to STOP THEIR CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INTERCHANGE which only has 1 lane.

...and people walk into exit ramps too, and you'll see them running across the highway sometimes.... The safest place to be on the road in china is behind the ass of a horse. people actually seem to drive slowly around the horses. probably cause car insurance pays for damages to your car, but you have to pay for the horse if you kill it.

...A good board can run you upwards of 400bucks in japan, so I figure that it would be a good idea to pick one up in china where everything is cheap. Will and his friend take me to the International Wei Chi association, the MECCA of Go, where all the international tournaments are held. We head into the building, which reminds me of an old school, and the old man at the front (I think in other countries he would be a security guard, but here in china, its just an old man who looks like he is waiting for his takeout dinner to arrive) asks us where we are going. Will says the shop where you can buy the boards and equipment.... Man replies a negatory response, Will just says "4th or 5th floor, 405?

...The little shop was a tight room with many boards on shelves lining the walls. On an opposite wall, 2 large wall boards (the kind you see on tv when people are doing those live go tv tutorials) hangs.... when it comes to boards, the solid wood kind (vs veneered) are more expensive but well worth the investment if you are planning to keep your board for life. I didn't think the ones with legs would be too easy to carry back, so I opt for a table board, or the kind you set on a table. Even though only 2.5 inches thick, the thing still weighs a good 20 pounds. Its going to be a fun plane ride back to tokyo, I think to myself.

On my last day, I meet up with Grace, Will's friend who worked at MTV and now at an ad agency. She is as beautiful as I remembered her from last time, its good to know that for some, time stands still.... Actually, come to think of it, women in china are very very career minded and successful compared to the domesticated japanese equivalent. They are not content with just being a mother, and in many cases make more than their counterparts in the corporate world.... at any rate, grace is funny in that I know she understands what I am saying (she is partially fluent in english) but she only speaks chinese... actually, as this was the last day I would be in china, I had grown accustomed to listening to chinese and was actually more or less understanding the topic of discussion going around the table at dinner, even though I didn't understand the whold picture.

...Subway seemed a little more worn down than 6 years ago. But still clean. It was on the tail end of a business trip, but I made it, and it was great seeing some of the old gang again.... They even convinced me (they have a way of convincing me to do things I'm not too keen on doing normally) to do a all night mahjong marathon.... :) I did end up doing a little shopping, and Joanne (hweekans fiance) convinced me to buy 2 pairs of shoes...

...Big joe, Brian, Mike and Joe while we enjoy our late night prata and milo peng!

Finally me, after the all night mahjong, and enjoying some kwe teow and sugar cane juice at a hawker centre.

...basically you can open the window, step outside (there is a clothes line out there, and 1 meter away is a 32 story drop to a very terrible messy death. Pat (Joe's gf) also pointed out that it was actually the top of a car park that you would spat onto, so nobody would actually see your dead body (the car park is 8 floors up from the ground) and since not many people venture to the roof of the car park, the only people who would notice your corpse are people looking down from their balcony, which, given that its without railing, won't be too many people.

I was too scared out of my shit to step outside, but fearless HweeKans went out there to sit on the chair, and demonstrated the open air (and suicide friendly) concept in singapore.

...One shot on long exposure just to prove how crazy it is, and how crazy Kans was to sit out there.

...Notice how ( and I say this expecting you to understand ) Joe's apartment looks strikingly like the hall common room that we holed ourselves into 1 week while studying ( mugging ) for exams.

...I think Pat has the ability to tame the freelancing Joe.

Somewhere along the way the subway station between City Hall and Tajong Pagar a guy sucker punches me in the belly.... You know, the same old geezer with the stinky breath and toothless jaw.... I just took a golf trip to china, I just made a trip to Hong Kong a golf club shopping trip...... and I still need to get myself a new putter and a gap wedge.... the days of the simple life of computer games and coffee time at tim hortons was over.... Its sometimes good then to go back to the old stomping grounds like singapore and canada and china to get rebased in reality again. ]]> Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:16:32 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E2017841837/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E2006311307/index.html yeah, that is the double take I took when I looked at the menu, just to make sure that I wasn't reading some japanese translation wrong. I was in the virgin airlines lounge, so you would expect the english here to be on the up and up, so I attribute the blatant reference to a pigs business end as a quirky british-ism.

...Man, no wonder people in the western world have such a weight and cholesterol problem!

...While in london, I manage to sneak off of work for an hour on Friday to walk around london to take some proper touristy shots.... Paul's cathedral, and crossing the millenium bridge, I find the Tate art musiem Walking through the impressionist and modern art floors, I see a couple of old friends, John Rothco, Frank Stella, Rene Magritte, Claude Monet, Henry Matisse, and of course Salvador Dali., The best was Waterlillies.... I seem to have remembered seeing waterlillies in the MOMA, and it was larger, but perhaps I was just remembering wrong, and it was moved since then.

After the Tate museum, I continued to walk down the riverside, towards london bridge and the tower bridge. I passed Shakespeares Globe Theatre, the london dungeon, and the war museum.... the ship which Sir Thomas Cooke took around the world and pass the horn of argentina.... Finally the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge.... So I just absorb al that I can with my eyes, making note that the tower of london is more like a FORT, and not a tower at all , at least, not any tower worth mentioning because it is so not impressive in height. But it is very old looking, and I could almost imagine the serfs running through the open fields getting shot down by the archers defending the catle from invaders I continue the walk back to the office feeling a little dissappointed, and in need of a bathroom.

...So after a week of work at the office, I am ready for my 1 day trip into Paris, my first foray into real continental Europe. I hire a cab from the hotel in the morning and make sure the wakeup call is sufficiently early to make the 8am train. Ironically, my last night in england was spent having French food at the Admiralty restaurant, which was, incidentally, the new winner of the most expensive dinner I ever had contest.... It was really too much food for me, and it was very rich and saucy with 7 courses.

So up I get at 6am, finish packing, check out, and I am off to Waterloo train station.

...I'm wearing my travel clothes again, so its comfortable, linen shirt and pants, hikers. Also I use the new lynx deoderant spray that I bought with the shampoo that I left. You know, the one that is supposed to have women falling all over me.... Anyway, it smells pretty good, so I get a couple of cans to bring back to japan.

When I get to the station, I find out that there are nice electronic machines that Ill spit out your ticket. I have no problem getting my tickets, but when I check for the gate number on it I get a sinking feeling.... I had forgotten that the train to paris left at a much earlier time than the train back, which was 8am.

...I walk up to the ticket counter, there is no line, and smile sheepishly at the ticket lady.... I give her the most innocent puppy dog eye look I can manage, She is an attractive british blonde, the kind that could pass off as a typical air stewardess on any western airline. I pass her my ticket, while she checks on her computer.... "Well, I sorta forgot that the departing leg was earlier than the returning leg of the trip" blink blink more puppy dog eyes and look of remorse and humble guilt. "Well, hmm I think I can change you to the 8:10am train... you know you normally can't do this, I'm just going to give you a special break this one time."... I nod and thank her several times, while she gives me the new ticket.

...So I get into the train, and the first class cabin is mostly enpty, without anyone there, but I end up sitting in front of this one red haired lady. She has the sort of university student look about her, except that she looks early 30s. She pull out her laptop, and it turns out to be the same as mine...... since mine was completely out of batteries, and was refusing tto even boot up. She is kind enough to lend me her plug to charge the laptop, as there is ac plugs on the train.

...First thing that I notice is that the road signs that they use are the same as in japan!... Its a cloudy day in paris, but the sun still peeks through the clouds.

...Well, the pictures say it all. Its a beautiful city, architected by some famous guy named Braun (correct me if I am wrong) who defined the look of the entire city. Namely no building in central paris can be built unless it matched the Braunian look, which was white neoclassical with motifs and a black ornate roof. The effect of which is that the whole city is uniform in look and it looks very rustic and european. Also, the roads and monuments seem to be very well laid out. the Arc de Triomphe, has 12 main streets shooting off it like a giant hub of a giant wheel. Most of the monuments were built (or stolen) during Napolean's reign, the last major era where the French were an influential world power. the Louvre was all it was chalked up to be, except that the line up wasn't that bad. I walked right in, and got a ticket (8 Euros) and went straight to see the Mona Lisa. She had a moderate crowd around her, but it wasn't too bad. It was strange since you can take pictures in there, which was strange, since in galleries in Ottawa and in the MET, they disallow cameras with flash. But in the Louvre, you can go camera nuts. Many famous old friends that I remembered from art history classes were also there, like Geurricault (I am spelling it wrong) Liberty Leading the People, and Raft of the Medusa.

...History lesson aside, I had the most fully experience in the paris metro. i went in, and I lined up at the attendant booth to ask her where I bought the tickets from. when I got up to the front, I started asking her how to get to the Louvre in my bad french. Half way through, some lady just interjects in front of me and starts asking the attendant something.... But the attendant got agitated and told her that she was occupied (talking to me), then what ensued was a full blown shouting match where the attendant was trying to tell me which station to get off, while the bitchy lady was screaming at her about her ticket, it was quite a scene. All the while I just wanted to get out of there, but I couldn't understand the attendants french, especially since she was shouting and talking really quicky thanks, while the bitchy lady was swearing at her in french. I ducked out, without my answer, and found a closeby computer terminal, and thankfully, it had an english button, so I figured it out myself.... Don't get on the wrong side of a french woman.

...I almost picked up this cute french girl who was walking along side me for most of the way from the Louvre to the Tour Eiffel. We shared a couple of sideways glances while we walked the couple of blocks up to L'invalides, she looked like a student, with nice tight jeans and a sweet smile and the signature dark french hair cut short.... After we crossed the street though, we split ways, and I looked on a little dissapointed. then, lo and behold, after 1 block, I saw her walking back towards me from the cross street.... When we finally got to the next red traffic light, I stood up beside her, she looked up from her book, and I smiled a familiar smile and waved. She smiles back and comes closer.

...Dave, being an idiot, seeing that she was on the cellphone, turn away, and notice the light is green, and start walking across the street. What Dave SHOULD have done was said "bonjour" or hello or ANYTHING, as she walked closer with eye contact ready for an opening line. Instead, I just start walking across the street.... I look back when I crossed the street, and see her there, looking confused, then looking into her book. A little voice tells me that I should go back over and ask her where she is headed. But another voice tells me "what are you going to say?... so I continue walking, hoping that she would eventually follow, so that I can make the first move.... It occured to me afterwards, that she was probably following me for over 5 blocks just to see if anything would happen, deviating from her original destination (from where we originally split ways), and when all I could do when we finally meet is to offer a meek smile, wave (goodbye??) ]]> Sat, 27 Aug 2005 18:06:39 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E2006311307/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1243502655/index.html Fri, 01 Jul 2005 09:30:13 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1243502655/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1790187177/index.html Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:34:37 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1790187177/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1081091774/index.html its not often that one finds himself slapped upside the head with a fact that catches you completely offguard.... For about 2.5 years now, I have known the popular drink only as cassis, and compared it to the likes of compari in the category of 'mysterious red liqueur'. But today while I was buying a coffee at one of those fancy places that have many different flavourings in a bottle to add to your coffee, which so happened to all be in french, with small english translations, I discovered the naked truth.... To think that I had glorified the drink so much and commented many times on its interesting and original name.

...Some of you may have heard the commotion on the newsfeeds about the violent protests in China about Japan allowing a new bunch of modified tetxtbooks go into schools.

These books gloss over some of the atrocities that Japan committed in WWII, labelling such things as the massacre of Nanking an 'incident'.

...but I do have one comment for the Minister of Japan, who claims it is the "responsibility of the private companies who write the textbooks, and not a statement from the Government of Japan itself".... I myself have visited Yasukuni Jinja and the war museum located there (top that irony! the national war museum located in the 'peaceful country' shrine!) which last time I checked was a government supported operation -- and it indeed calls the Nanking massacre an 'incident'.... I took a picture with my keitai last year, because I found it rather amusing and disturbing at the same time. But I'm not going to say anything more than that.

So Japan wants to re-write the books, and China doesn't want to apologise for the violent protests...sigh.

...I say, put the guys into a steel caged ring and let them fight it out.

...its been a while since I have written anything about my mac, and indeed, the thing I love most about it is that it just works as expected, gets the job done, and doesn't require the countless maintenance that my old pc did. Though the recent spotlight of macs and their growing popularity have inspired me to spend a couple of minutes of them today. As I just mentioned, the best thing about my mac is that it seems to understand me and do what I want it to do. A lot of people say this and windows users are always making references to mac users being flaky art students or tree hugging hippies when they make such unquantifiable statements such as this.... I didn't understand it at first, but after using a mac for a while, you soon understand. I'll give you an example: when I tell my mac to shutdown, it shutsdown, its a command from me the user and littlemac* obeys. Take windows, the shutdown command is more like a meek request. Windows is in charge, and it will shutdown if it wants to, and not without asking you 5 times whether you want to END TASK or whether you want to save that document you are working on before you exit.... Do you really need to ask me whether or not I want to END that task?... And the request to save the documetns... what if my secretary asked me whether I wanted to throw my half written documents in the draft file or the garbage?... Well, if we can only fire our computers for stupidity.... Its a bunch of programmers who know nothing of human computer interface designing things in a strictly engineering manner.

...did you know that that was an actual hobby/obsession amoung a select crowd in the UK?... This level of obsession makes model train builders seem as normal as pecan pie. ]]> Tue, 19 Apr 2005 02:02:36 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1081091774/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E943605552/index.html Wed, 02 Mar 2005 01:32:53 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E943605552/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1641626705/index.html Sun, 12 Dec 2004 23:53:11 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1641626705/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1157585678/index.html Tue, 26 Oct 2004 12:19:03 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1157585678/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1338361842/index.html Mon, 11 Oct 2004 01:00:24 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1338361842/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1840195071/index.html Fri, 17 Sep 2004 13:23:07 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1840195071/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E468167035/index.html China Street
Phone gadgets ]]> Sat, 14 Aug 2004 05:55:34 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E468167035/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1057511385/index.html Just the same old musings ]]> Mon, 31 May 2004 00:23:26 +0900 http://homepage.mac.com/digitsu/iblog/C1128441717/E1057511385/index.html