Friday, May 28
Wednesday, May 26
I just have to be careful that I don't romanticize or get all sentimental over the happier memories, thereby clouding the reality of life here: the high costs of living, the unsettling level of crime, as well as the miserable weather that have plagued my existence here most of the time.
And the truth of the matter is that I've been away from Hong Kong for just far too long. A decade is a stretch in anyone's lifetime, especially when it occurs during a rather pivotal moment (late teens and much of the twenties). I'm excited about the endless possibilities that await out in the Far East for me. Thankful as well to my dear friends in Whence He Camefor giving me the chance to play music and tour around Asia literally the moment I set food in HK. It's going to be interesting playing keys and gadgets in a band for a change. With the guitar or bass I can usually wing it without giving it much thought but in this case I'm going to actually have to focus hard on my playing for a change, which is a good push and challenge for anyone who considers themselves a musician.
The packing has not been progressing as rapidly as I'd like. I'm still shopping around for the cheapest way to send my personal items back. Basically my life in this room. Thankfully we're talking mainly about books, CD/records and clothes here but it will still take some time to distribute and box them up evenly. But until I settle on a freight company, I won't have the boxes to get the job done.
I also have to figure out a way to sell off the 4-5 pieces of IKEA furniture in my room - the loft, the futon, and a few shelves. Ebay doesn't seem like a likely choice as I don't want to go through the hassle of arranging for couriers and all that.
My plan to hit as many seaside towns as possible before my departure is well behind schedule. Hopefully I'll be able to at least do Brighton and Southend-On-Sea. Blackpool is on the top of my list but it's just too far.
Tuesday, May 25
Frequent visitors to this site may have noticed my little blog last week about someone from Singapore by the name of Henry Ang who had blatantly ripped off the design of my site, complete with a liberal use of my graphics and photographs. Not only that, he had the audacity to pull the image files straight off of my web server. And to add insult to injury, he had lifted the text off from my pages (about, links, etc) and made minor alterations on them to suit his own pathetic existence. Here are screen captures of the crime.
I generally don't have any problems with people who decide on using my photos for other things as long as permission is actively sought and credit given. The same can be said of any bits of my HTML/Javascript code. But when people decide to discreetly use my creative outlet and try to pass it off as their own, that's when it gets annoying.
I first noticed the problem when it appeared that my site was suddenly experiencing a great influx of Singaporean visitors, mainly from an arowana fanatic online community. It was odd to say the least as I never frequent that site so why on earth people wouild know about nostalgic.org through there left me absolutely baffled. And there was no sign of anyone promoting my site. A little more digging around brought me to Henry's blog site. And then it made perfect sense... he had done such a lousy job of copying and botching up my web code that he had included the little bit I use for tracking site visitors. In other words, anyone visiting HIS site was recorded as a nostalgic.org visitor, thereby totally screwing up my web stats. But it's a mighty fine thing that it did happen, otherwise I may very well have never known about this act of plagiarism.
Anyway, to resolve the matter I immediately dropped Henry Ang an email to warn him that I was aware of what he had done and that I'd appreciate it if he could take the content offline ASAP. I waited 24 hours for a response as he seemed like someone who'd at least check his email once a day. No answer. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt of not having frequent web access. After all, he had not posted any new blogs to the site.
About 40 hours had passed and I couldn't wait any longer. A quick visit to the arowana fanatic site revealed that he HAD been posting on there throughout the day, thereby proving that he had indeed been online and could easily have spent a minute or two acknowledging my email with a quick reply.
By then I felt it was necessary to point this out on my site. I also decided to notify the folks at blogspot and his image host (SG-community) about the situation. Disappointingly, both wrote back 3-4 days later taking no responsibility for the matter, blogspot claiming to be nothing more than a vehicle for posting content with, whilst SG simply shifted the blame back over to blogspot. Yet both state very clearly in their terms of use that the upload or posting of content that infringes the copyright of another party is prohibited.
5 days had passed and still nothing was being resolved, throughout which friends had been bombarding Henry with (somewhat irate) emails. I had also tried to get in touch with him through a friend of a friend. Still nothing happened. I was just about ready to replace the photos he was lifting off my server with ones of a more obscene explicit nature so that he'd been in for a little shock. Email diplomacy with all involved parties was clearly not working.
Gradually we saw a slight change being made to Henry's site. First was the replacing of my photos with some mediocre digital ones of his own. He also posted a tiny one liner on how he was 'thinking of changing the layout again'. But that simply wasn't good enough. It was still very much my design and my content. On saturday a handful of sympathetic souls, who should remain anonymous, agreed to hit at the 'friends' featured on Henry's links page and scribble their tagboards/guestbooks with a short and simple but effective message. 'HENRY ANG IS A THIEF AND COPYCAT...'. In hindsight it was a pretty dumb thing to do but the situation was getting desperate and we were running out of options.
Within a couple of hours, Henry began to shut down his site and replace it with the one you can currently see. It will have to do I suppose. It's slightly irritating that he has still kept my words but I suppose some people just don't have the resources to inject a unique dose of individuality into their voice.
Saturday, May 15
We had a good laugh/talk about this and successfully traced it all back to one chief culprit: Mika. Yes, yellow fever indeed. She'd been awfully ill in the week leading up to the gig and was actually a complete mess on the night of the performance. I think the combination of her unintentioally showering us in the audience with her spit, the intimate rubbing of sweaty bodies, as well as the hot stuffy room in which all this took place, provided the ideal environment for the germs to get around. And I probably shouldn't have sat right next to her when we went for some snacks and drinks at the Wetherspoon pub right before.
But enough rambling about my sickness. Yesterday I happened to catch Matt Putman on MSN for the first time ever and it was real neat catching up with the guy. Apart from a few brief exchanges on Friendster, we hadn't really talked properly since the Unwed Sailor tour last summer. Gosh, can't believe it's been almost a year. I've always admired his incredibly tasteful drumming and been a firm believer that he would eventually enjoy much success through music. Based on what he's told me, it looks like it is on the brink of happening with either Lovedrug or Snailhuntr, both of which are amazing and talented bands that you should really keep an eye out for.
He also suggested about the possibility of collaborating on something together in the near future. Oddly enough, it was the very thing that had popped in my mind the other night whilst listening to the Album Leaf, how I would love to get him involved with creating some mean beats for my still yet to be christened 'secret' solo project. We'll see how that goes. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we can both record our seperate parts within the comforts of our own bedrooms, in any corner of the world, so the long distance will be the least of our worries.
Sunday, May 9
Still it was a good time, thanks mainly to the chaoticness of it all, although I actually ended up having more fun out front watching the band with Wataru on bass. He could of course take a few lessons from yours truly on how things should be done (hehe) but I suppose his charismatic stage presence and Billy Idol/Dragonball Z hair more than made up for the incredibly high percentage of wrong notes and sloppy executions.
Tonight was also the first chance I had at testing out the Lomo Colorsplash camera that I won a few weeks back. So in between bopping along with all those sweaty yellow fever fans, I'd blind the individual band members with an assortment of... well, colour flashes. I'm still not quite sold on the validity of this camera but it'll be interesting to see the results that I'll end up with.
After the gig, no one seemed to be in much of a staying out late mood, so after helping the band load out and put everything into the van, Daniel (aka DJ Kyukyusha) and I went off in search of some late night munchies. The predictable kebab was probably on our mind but since we had to drop Ann off at the Mean Fiddler, we ended up sticking around that part of town and settling for one of the two Burger King joints that stare offensively at each other on Tottenham Court Road.
Pretty disgusting I know but boy did the Whopper taste good at 1:30 AM...
Friday, May 7
Source: Cineasie
Tuesday, May 4
Anyway, I'm at work, not feeling particularly wordy but I thought I'd share on here an excerpt from my dear friend Eric 'Dubya' Layman who seriously writes the most hilarious mass emails:
The following poem is displayed prominently on a large poster in the back of one of the classrooms where I teach. It was presumably written by one the Taiwanese English teachers there. It reads:
"Learning English can be serious
Learning English can be fun
Learning English
Can open up windows
To lots of different views
Or putting up sails and
Sail across the seven seas
If you just keep going
If you don't give up
The yummy English pie is for you to bite"
In order to give you a "taste" of what this "yummy English pie" involves, I have selected a few choice one-line excerpts from some student essays of a writing class I teach where the students were instructed to write about themselves or about their
teacher (me). Here goes:
ON LIFE PHILOSOPHIES, DEEP: "Happy is the most important thing in life."
ON HOBBIES, RARE: "I think eating is a big enjoyment in my life."
ON ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT TEACHER'S PREFERENCES IN WOMEN, ACCURATE: "He likes girls that has eyes."
ON WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE OUT OF VALIUM: "I got more elegant and sedate by drawing and dancing."
ON I HAVEN'T ASKED ANYONE ELSE BUT...: "I feel I don't have any annoying."
ON VOCABULARY CAN ENRICH YOUR WORD POWER: "I had a happy time with my grandma. It was very happy."
ON GRATITUDE, OF TITANIC PROPORTIONS: "I was so gratitude for my parents and my heart will go on."
ON OFFERS, TEMPTING: "Beside, I can see clearly and understand thoroughly everything. If necessary, I can become your consultant."
ON...CAN YOU RUN THAT BY ME ONE MORE TIME?: "I was fond of freedom because it was unrestrained from one's childhood!"
ON, HERE'S TO THAT: "I believe my life will more happiness!"
ON, I'LL BET YOUR TEACHER'S PRETTY EXCITED ABOUT IT TOO: "Now my school have a English teacher in my classroom. And I was learned English very happy."
ON, MAN, THAT SUCKS: "My favorite person is my aunt, but she was dead."
Saturday, May 1
The truth that once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God! - Epilogue, Les Misérables
No visit to London is ever complete without a visit to one of the West End theatre productions and so last night I decided that it was imperative for my guests Jamey + Chad to catch the recently relocated performance of Les Mis at the Queen's Theatre.
It was probably my around my 15th time to see the musical in London (heh), but my first at the new location. In terms of size and aesthetics, the Queen's was clearly no match for the Palace yet the exceptional cast (featuring pretty much the same one I saw with Andy back in November) more than made up for any inadequacies. There was also the occasional hiccup involving lighting and sound but we can excuse this
Today we'll probably hit Notting Hill and a couple of art galleries, although one glance at the lousy weather outside is enough to keep one under voluntary house arrest. At the moment there are a couple of magnificent exhibitions at the Photographer's Gallery pertaining to the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution that are definitely worthy of a visit or two. Also not far from the Soho branch of Metro Imaging is the Blink gallery, a must see for anyone wishing to see an impressive collection of iconic photographic images that includes the Stones, Nirvana, Marley, Sid Vicious, Hendrix and Madonna.
Speaking of Metro, I got back my 120/135 negs from the Amsterdam trip. The Horizon panoramics have been uploaded onto my Lomo.Home and I'll try my best to upload these other ones on here when I get around to scanning them in. Some pretty promising images from what I can tell via the negs. Stay tuned.