Monday, February 28, 2005
Kidnap ad
Here's "Kidnap", an ad for the Marriott from McCann-Erikson Singapore. Funny, albeit very wrong. (Eagle eyes - and ears - will note that although the AdForum page says the language spoken is Malay, it's clearly Mandarin.)
Maybe the man can help out in World Jump Day.
Here's "Kidnap", an ad for the Marriott from McCann-Erikson Singapore. Funny, albeit very wrong. (Eagle eyes - and ears - will note that although the AdForum page says the language spoken is Malay, it's clearly Mandarin.)
Maybe the man can help out in World Jump Day.
World Jump Day
You too can stop global warming! Just jump at the right time. Of course, I don't know how to judge the physics - fact or farrago? In any case it only caters to those in timezones from the International Date Line to +2 GMT (Istanbul), so those of us in the opposite part of the world will just brace ourselves for the impact.
Edit: welcome to all my Belgian visitors! Any chance of sending over mussels and beer?
You too can stop global warming! Just jump at the right time. Of course, I don't know how to judge the physics - fact or farrago? In any case it only caters to those in timezones from the International Date Line to +2 GMT (Istanbul), so those of us in the opposite part of the world will just brace ourselves for the impact.
Edit: welcome to all my Belgian visitors! Any chance of sending over mussels and beer?
Does God care if you win?
Here's an athletics-based theological question, but one that's perhaps relevant on Oscar night (although actors seem less wont to thank God in acceptance speeches than musicians): does God care who wins?
I think there's a level at which athletes who thank God after an athletic victory move beyond acknowledging their faith and towards showboating, almost as though they were saying "God has chosen me and not you", which, regardless of your religious inclination, would be a terrible theological message.
Here's an athletics-based theological question, but one that's perhaps relevant on Oscar night (although actors seem less wont to thank God in acceptance speeches than musicians): does God care who wins?
I think there's a level at which athletes who thank God after an athletic victory move beyond acknowledging their faith and towards showboating, almost as though they were saying "God has chosen me and not you", which, regardless of your religious inclination, would be a terrible theological message.
Observer blog
I just glanced through the Observer blog (via Ben Hammersley). Talk about how to use corporate blogging - this one really lays out the guts of the process of taking a newspaper to press, and is quite open about the choices that have to be made, as well as how they respond to other newspapers:
On the content side, they've gotten some of their major editors and writers to join in, although of course the key is sustaining their contributions to the blog. Check out columnist Nick Cohen's piece, which compares the British political blog explosion to the rise of punk.
I would hazard a guess that those outside the UK who only know the British papers by their web presence might think the Guardian dominates the broadsheets and the Observer the Sunday papers, whereas of course my former local newsagent on the Edgware Road would proudly display the Guardian, the Times, the Independent, and the Daily Telegraph, all side by side. So bravo to the Guardian and Observer.
I just glanced through the Observer blog (via Ben Hammersley). Talk about how to use corporate blogging - this one really lays out the guts of the process of taking a newspaper to press, and is quite open about the choices that have to be made, as well as how they respond to other newspapers:
Not too much to follow, although the Mail on Sunday story about Prince Charles is interesting. We'll change our royal coverage to include the claims in Gavin Hewitt's book on his life as a BBC correspondent to include his transcripts of Charles saying that the British people are obsessed with his private life.It's really impressive what the Guardian and Observer are doing over from Farringdon, they're perhaps the most net-savvy of any major world newspaper. While the New York Times was up online early, they've made it really hard to access the archives, and they took forever to do something as basic as making URLs clickable. Whereas the Guardian and Observer have done such things as creating (very funny) live coverage of football games online with the writer responding to e-mails, which in substance if not form is practically live blogging. And their tech side has already got blogs up the wazoo, podcasts, RSS, and a del.icio.us web feed.
On the content side, they've gotten some of their major editors and writers to join in, although of course the key is sustaining their contributions to the blog. Check out columnist Nick Cohen's piece, which compares the British political blog explosion to the rise of punk.
I would hazard a guess that those outside the UK who only know the British papers by their web presence might think the Guardian dominates the broadsheets and the Observer the Sunday papers, whereas of course my former local newsagent on the Edgware Road would proudly display the Guardian, the Times, the Independent, and the Daily Telegraph, all side by side. So bravo to the Guardian and Observer.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Mega-megaclub
Today's Sunday Times (no online version of the article) has a piece on the planned conversion of the long-defunct St James Power Station, recently the site of such art exhibitions as Reconstruction of a City. The station will be turned into a huge club complex, about 10 times the size of the recently-defunct Embassy. The developer's website notes that in bringing in the funk, the space will hold 3 restaurants and 9 (9!) clubs.
All that made me think of Berghain, a converted power station in Berlin that Geeta over at The Original Soundtrack described as "ten Fabrics stitched together - the most full-on place I've been to in my life, both vibe-wise and architecture-wise". If the new place is even half as good as that sounds, I'd be psyched.
But then, power station conversions are always exciting, as Tamsin Blanchard noted a while back in the Guardian. It's like loft conversions writ on awesome scale. Heck, a good conversion can even win you a Pritzker.
Tangential links: Galinsky on the Tate Modern | Beauty and Waste in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron
Today's Sunday Times (no online version of the article) has a piece on the planned conversion of the long-defunct St James Power Station, recently the site of such art exhibitions as Reconstruction of a City. The station will be turned into a huge club complex, about 10 times the size of the recently-defunct Embassy. The developer's website notes that in bringing in the funk, the space will hold 3 restaurants and 9 (9!) clubs.
All that made me think of Berghain, a converted power station in Berlin that Geeta over at The Original Soundtrack described as "ten Fabrics stitched together - the most full-on place I've been to in my life, both vibe-wise and architecture-wise". If the new place is even half as good as that sounds, I'd be psyched.
But then, power station conversions are always exciting, as Tamsin Blanchard noted a while back in the Guardian. It's like loft conversions writ on awesome scale. Heck, a good conversion can even win you a Pritzker.
Tangential links: Galinsky on the Tate Modern | Beauty and Waste in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron
Linksfest
Spent part of Saturday night watching Everton run rings round Villa. They really are Champions League material this season, and I couldn't be happier. Funny thing about Cahill, Osman, and Arteta is that they kind of have a pretty-boy look, but they definitely play tough...
Anyway, on to random things: via Indri, here's the Environmental Working Group Report on beauty / cosmetic products - find out which ones are dangerous for you... Edwyn Collins, frontman of Orange Juice and singer of "Girl Like You", had a severe brain haemorrhage. Get well soon... The New York Times has an article on Gary Brolsma, the random "Numa Numa" fat-dancing-guy... the Gadget Guy talks about the Tweel, Michelin's quite revolutionary new non-pneumatic tyre/wheel. A tyre without air! No more checking tyre pressure or fixing flats, and lots of space in the boot/trunk.
Spent part of Saturday night watching Everton run rings round Villa. They really are Champions League material this season, and I couldn't be happier. Funny thing about Cahill, Osman, and Arteta is that they kind of have a pretty-boy look, but they definitely play tough...
Anyway, on to random things: via Indri, here's the Environmental Working Group Report on beauty / cosmetic products - find out which ones are dangerous for you... Edwyn Collins, frontman of Orange Juice and singer of "Girl Like You", had a severe brain haemorrhage. Get well soon... The New York Times has an article on Gary Brolsma, the random "Numa Numa" fat-dancing-guy... the Gadget Guy talks about the Tweel, Michelin's quite revolutionary new non-pneumatic tyre/wheel. A tyre without air! No more checking tyre pressure or fixing flats, and lots of space in the boot/trunk.
Gardening green
I'm a BlogClicker member (sign up here), because I like the randomness of blogsurfing without the ridiculousness of Blogger's Navbar, which inevitably launches fake blogs selling pharmaceutical products and teens with thecursors that change into a crosshair. One thing that intrigued me was this guy's effort to turn his backyard into a "wildscape" - a good way to "go green", I think, and one that's not so often talked about.
The "wildscape" idea made me think about the big difference between parks and gardens in England and those in France - English green spaces tend to be woodsier and wilder, French ones tend to be more manicured. (You could say you see the same pattern in London's irregular street patterns and Paris' Hausmann-designed geometric patterns.) I know nothing about landscape architecture, but presumably it would be a big philosophical split in the field, as (quick Googling here) this little article implies.
I'm a BlogClicker member (sign up here), because I like the randomness of blogsurfing without the ridiculousness of Blogger's Navbar, which inevitably launches fake blogs selling pharmaceutical products and teens with thecursors that change into a crosshair. One thing that intrigued me was this guy's effort to turn his backyard into a "wildscape" - a good way to "go green", I think, and one that's not so often talked about.
The "wildscape" idea made me think about the big difference between parks and gardens in England and those in France - English green spaces tend to be woodsier and wilder, French ones tend to be more manicured. (You could say you see the same pattern in London's irregular street patterns and Paris' Hausmann-designed geometric patterns.) I know nothing about landscape architecture, but presumably it would be a big philosophical split in the field, as (quick Googling here) this little article implies.
Collection agency
I thought I was fairly obsessive with my collecting (and attendant cataloguing). But this guy is the uber-pack rat - he's got everything from key rings to decanters.
I thought I was fairly obsessive with my collecting (and attendant cataloguing). But this guy is the uber-pack rat - he's got everything from key rings to decanters.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Tech humour
Fun links from slashdot: the first picture ever put up on the web was... a picture of four women. No, get your mind out of the gutter. And some random folks at Berkeley used Post-Its to recreate a scene from NES Super Mario Brothers in their building:
Fun links from slashdot: the first picture ever put up on the web was... a picture of four women. No, get your mind out of the gutter. And some random folks at Berkeley used Post-Its to recreate a scene from NES Super Mario Brothers in their building:
Rasher decisions
For us carnivores, Bacontarian is a bacon-eater's blog. Nothing like the sizzle of a rasher as you throw it smack onto the pan.
For us carnivores, Bacontarian is a bacon-eater's blog. Nothing like the sizzle of a rasher as you throw it smack onto the pan.
Pimp My Surf
Firefox domination grows, judging by the fact that Internet Explorer 7 is now divorced from Longhorn. I'm just hoping it has tabbed browsing and removes ActiveX. And clearly so do some of the commenters on the IE7 blog.
Randomly, if you think Firefox's default look is too sedate, there's always PimpZilla, which adds the bling-bling.
Firefox domination grows, judging by the fact that Internet Explorer 7 is now divorced from Longhorn. I'm just hoping it has tabbed browsing and removes ActiveX. And clearly so do some of the commenters on the IE7 blog.
Randomly, if you think Firefox's default look is too sedate, there's always PimpZilla, which adds the bling-bling.
(Our Love is Like a) Heatwave
Feeling too sparse to parse anything too long, so here's some itinerant thoughts, springing from the recent heat:
When you take the MRT to work, it's quite clear that Singapore is under a dry spell. From the fleeting vantage point of the train, you can see fields of dried-up grass, bleached blonde, stripped clear of moisture. Rainforests, deprived of the thing from which they derive their name.
Today, as I left the office, a fog of carbon particles greyed the world, an acrid smell hung in the air: blowback from yet another fire, presumably. And "bush fire" sidles its way into the common Singaporean lexicon.
Words. I flipped through a copy of Asterix and the Magic Carpet in Popular bookstore this week. I suppose the random forces that pushed me to the book decided to go for something apposite: the story of an Eastern land, parched, awaiting Cacofonix, the ill-voiced bard, to bring upon rain by killing the clouds loudly with his song.
Song: Martha and the Vandellas, "(Our Love is Like a) Heatwave". Well then will you lovebirds with your Valentine's Day stuff please be quiet please? Still, at least we're not in SoCal "if it's yellow, it's mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" territory. These are the tropics, and a hard rain's gonna fall soon.
But monsoon season is over. Boy, is it over.
Tangential link: Army friend Zhang Wenjie prays for rain.
Feeling too sparse to parse anything too long, so here's some itinerant thoughts, springing from the recent heat:
When you take the MRT to work, it's quite clear that Singapore is under a dry spell. From the fleeting vantage point of the train, you can see fields of dried-up grass, bleached blonde, stripped clear of moisture. Rainforests, deprived of the thing from which they derive their name.
Today, as I left the office, a fog of carbon particles greyed the world, an acrid smell hung in the air: blowback from yet another fire, presumably. And "bush fire" sidles its way into the common Singaporean lexicon.
Words. I flipped through a copy of Asterix and the Magic Carpet in Popular bookstore this week. I suppose the random forces that pushed me to the book decided to go for something apposite: the story of an Eastern land, parched, awaiting Cacofonix, the ill-voiced bard, to bring upon rain by killing the clouds loudly with his song.
Song: Martha and the Vandellas, "(Our Love is Like a) Heatwave". Well then will you lovebirds with your Valentine's Day stuff please be quiet please? Still, at least we're not in SoCal "if it's yellow, it's mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" territory. These are the tropics, and a hard rain's gonna fall soon.
But monsoon season is over. Boy, is it over.
Tangential link: Army friend Zhang Wenjie prays for rain.
Friday, February 25, 2005
How to hack an heiress
Apparently Paris Hilton's cellphone was hacked because her "secret question" to reset the password was "what's your favourite pet's name?" Duh. Even non-Simple Life viewers could look Tinkerbell's name up. Heck, Ms Hilton even feuded with Britney Spears over whose dog was cuter not too long ago. (I don't watch the show, but a steady diet of Us and People magazines from ComicsMart - bias warning: relatives own the store - has kept me au courant with the monickers of pampered pooches.)
What in the world was the use of the Sidekick phone storing all the phone numbers online anyway? I can't see that as a very useful feature.
Apparently Paris Hilton's cellphone was hacked because her "secret question" to reset the password was "what's your favourite pet's name?" Duh. Even non-Simple Life viewers could look Tinkerbell's name up. Heck, Ms Hilton even feuded with Britney Spears over whose dog was cuter not too long ago. (I don't watch the show, but a steady diet of Us and People magazines from ComicsMart - bias warning: relatives own the store - has kept me au courant with the monickers of pampered pooches.)
What in the world was the use of the Sidekick phone storing all the phone numbers online anyway? I can't see that as a very useful feature.
EU-ASEAN anti-spam initiative
The EU and ASEAN recently signed an accord to clamp down on spam, according to EUbusiness:
The EU and ASEAN recently signed an accord to clamp down on spam, according to EUbusiness:
At an EU-ASEAN conference in London this week, the EU's 25 member states and 13 Asian partner countries agreed notably to boost legal tools to fight spam as well as constantly seek new technical means of blocking the unwanted mails.Buried in that article was this nugget:
The EU commission cited experts' estimates that 20 percent of global spam - typically involving bulk marketing or pornographic offers - originates in in China and South Korea alone.It's times like this that I'm glad I don't have the Asian fonts installed on my computer - every so often I get an e-mail from an unknown person that's just goobledygook. From the few things I can make out I presume it's Chinese spam, but hey, I can't buy what I can't read, yeah?
Another quiz - 80s music
Well, American 80s music - the Stock/Aiken/Waterman stable are clearly not represented... sorry Rick Astley and Kylie.
Well, American 80s music - the Stock/Aiken/Waterman stable are clearly not represented... sorry Rick Astley and Kylie.
Writing blogs
Found a blog by Martha O'Connor, a writer who's getting a book published by SMP in May. Cool stuff. And I also just discovered this piece by Edward Nawotka on literary blogs in USA Today, which mentions blogs like MobyLives and Maud Newton.
I know the market for reading about books isn't that big, which is why large-scale publications like the Boston Globe have cut back on their book coverage (although Salon Books and the New York Times Book Review both continue to do a good job). Those that do like to read about books, though, probably do so passionately, which means blogging seems to be to be just about the right medium to write about books.
Found a blog by Martha O'Connor, a writer who's getting a book published by SMP in May. Cool stuff. And I also just discovered this piece by Edward Nawotka on literary blogs in USA Today, which mentions blogs like MobyLives and Maud Newton.
I know the market for reading about books isn't that big, which is why large-scale publications like the Boston Globe have cut back on their book coverage (although Salon Books and the New York Times Book Review both continue to do a good job). Those that do like to read about books, though, probably do so passionately, which means blogging seems to be to be just about the right medium to write about books.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Virtual girlfriends
Now I see where the money is in rolling out all these 3G mobile phones... virtual girlfriends! I think it's funny that the virtual girlfriend sounds fairly high maintenance:
Edit: the article also says "she is now scheduled to become available, so to speak, in Singapore and Malaysia by the end of April". Ah, us Singaporeans - early adopters of fake girlfriends.
Tangential link: South China Morning Post article on Vivienne.
Now I see where the money is in rolling out all these 3G mobile phones... virtual girlfriends! I think it's funny that the virtual girlfriend sounds fairly high maintenance:
Vivienne likes to be taken to movies and bars. She loves to be given virtual flowers and chocolates, and she can translate six languages if you travel overseas. She never undresses, although she has some skimpy outfits for the gym, and is a tease who draws the line at anything beyond blowing kisses.Are there really people who would go for this? I guess having "Vivienne" around as a translator might be useful, but otherwise, are people really into paying to get a haranguing mother-in-law? Somehow I don't think that's what most men fantasise about.
If you marry her in a virtual ceremony, you even end up with a virtual mother-in-law who really does call you in the middle of the night on your cellphone to ask where you are and whether you have been treating her daughter right.
Edit: the article also says "she is now scheduled to become available, so to speak, in Singapore and Malaysia by the end of April". Ah, us Singaporeans - early adopters of fake girlfriends.
Tangential link: South China Morning Post article on Vivienne.
Paris Hilton's T-Mobile hacked
So ugliest-celebrity-around Paris Hilton had her cellphone hacked. I just thought some of the list of contacts that she kept on the phone was funny: Ashley but not Mary-Kate? Hmm. Southwest Airlines? Does she need to fly budget? Um, not that I've seen the list. Anyway, they've arrested the guy who did it.
And are the numbers real? Let's just put it this way, if they were fake numbers you'd think you'd have heard from at least one irate person who was being prank called by mistake...
So ugliest-celebrity-around Paris Hilton had her cellphone hacked. I just thought some of the list of contacts that she kept on the phone was funny: Ashley but not Mary-Kate? Hmm. Southwest Airlines? Does she need to fly budget? Um, not that I've seen the list. Anyway, they've arrested the guy who did it.
And are the numbers real? Let's just put it this way, if they were fake numbers you'd think you'd have heard from at least one irate person who was being prank called by mistake...
Quarter life crisis
I turn 27 today, and it feels like there's so much I haven't done that I should have by this point in my life... time to make some resolutions.
I turn 27 today, and it feels like there's so much I haven't done that I should have by this point in my life... time to make some resolutions.
Kottke goes full-time
One of my favourite bloggers, Kottke, has decided to quit his job and become a full-time blogger. I like Kottke because kottke.org remains one of the few major "personal" blogs i.e. he just blogs about and links to anything he finds interesting - as he puts it, "I'm interested in too many things to settle on design or programming or writing or a particular topic" - which is what I'm interested in maintaining for dsng.net (although my baseball thoughts will remain in another realm).
I was actually thinking about this as I walked home today, actually, before I read the news about Kottke: there are so few blogs with an all-inclusive (polymathic?) slant. I guess it's like the New Yorker vs most other magazines - the general trend is to be specialised, but once in a while something comes along that's so interesting to read it can cover anything across a whole spectrum.
Edit: Wired weighs in on the topic.
One of my favourite bloggers, Kottke, has decided to quit his job and become a full-time blogger. I like Kottke because kottke.org remains one of the few major "personal" blogs i.e. he just blogs about and links to anything he finds interesting - as he puts it, "I'm interested in too many things to settle on design or programming or writing or a particular topic" - which is what I'm interested in maintaining for dsng.net (although my baseball thoughts will remain in another realm).
I was actually thinking about this as I walked home today, actually, before I read the news about Kottke: there are so few blogs with an all-inclusive (polymathic?) slant. I guess it's like the New Yorker vs most other magazines - the general trend is to be specialised, but once in a while something comes along that's so interesting to read it can cover anything across a whole spectrum.
Edit: Wired weighs in on the topic.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Closer to Fine
Got my eyes checked on Thursday - the Neuro-Vision thing that I blogged about seems to have worked. I'm down to 6/5 vision in the left eye and 6/9 in the right, which means effectively with both my eyes open I'm at 6/5. Good stuff. Who'd imagine that staring at a computer screen could improve vision? And the concept of being better than 6/6 (that's 20/20 for those Americans among you) is weird but cool. Just call me Hawkeye.
Got my eyes checked on Thursday - the Neuro-Vision thing that I blogged about seems to have worked. I'm down to 6/5 vision in the left eye and 6/9 in the right, which means effectively with both my eyes open I'm at 6/5. Good stuff. Who'd imagine that staring at a computer screen could improve vision? And the concept of being better than 6/6 (that's 20/20 for those Americans among you) is weird but cool. Just call me Hawkeye.
Moshe Safdie
Got to see Moshe Safdie today giving a talk at a HDB-organised conference on community bonding. Moshe Safdie! Man, I love his buildings, like Habitat '67. Back in the day, I wrote a paper on his Class of 1959 Chapel at the Harvard Business School (pictured above), comparing it with Eero Saarinen's Kresge Chapel at MIT.
Class of 1959 Chapel photos.
Got to see Moshe Safdie today giving a talk at a HDB-organised conference on community bonding. Moshe Safdie! Man, I love his buildings, like Habitat '67. Back in the day, I wrote a paper on his Class of 1959 Chapel at the Harvard Business School (pictured above), comparing it with Eero Saarinen's Kresge Chapel at MIT.
Class of 1959 Chapel photos.
Wolfe, meet Hunter
Wow, Tom Wolfe writes a HST obit:
Wow, Tom Wolfe writes a HST obit:
Hunter's life, like his work, was one long barbaric yawp, to use Whitman's term, of the drug-fueled freedom from and mockery of all conventional proprieties that began in the 1960s. In that enterprise Hunter was something entirely new, something unique in our literary history. When I included an excerpt from "The Hell's Angels" in a 1973 anthology called "The New Journalism," he said he wasn't part of anybody's group. He wrote "gonzo." He was sui generis. And that he was.In the Wall Street Journal, of all places.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
It was Mr Brown with the candlestick in the conservatory
A warm welcome to anyone who's stumbled onto this site via Mr Brown (thanks mb!). This here blog is where I publish random thoughts about anything under the sun, although I do maintain separate blogs for film/music/book reviews and baseball. And you don't have to be a registered user to post comments.
However, contrary to Mr Brown's description, I'm not an "all round nice guy". Sure, I'm not as skinny as I used to be, but I'm hardly "all round". Heh....
A warm welcome to anyone who's stumbled onto this site via Mr Brown (thanks mb!). This here blog is where I publish random thoughts about anything under the sun, although I do maintain separate blogs for film/music/book reviews and baseball. And you don't have to be a registered user to post comments.
However, contrary to Mr Brown's description, I'm not an "all round nice guy". Sure, I'm not as skinny as I used to be, but I'm hardly "all round". Heh....
Monday, February 21, 2005
Fare thee well, HST
For my final year of JC (aka high school for Americans or sixth form for Brits), I took a class where you could design your own reading list and basically set the syllabus. So I decided to do "American novels of the mid-20th century", and these were my books:
For my final year of JC (aka high school for Americans or sixth form for Brits), I took a class where you could design your own reading list and basically set the syllabus. So I decided to do "American novels of the mid-20th century", and these were my books:
- Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King
- William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
- Richard Farina, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road
- Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
- Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
- Thomas Pynchon, V
- Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn
- Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson suicide
Awful news, especially since it was his son that had to find the body. Farewell to the gonzo pioneer.
Awful news, especially since it was his son that had to find the body. Farewell to the gonzo pioneer.
Wishing tree tired of granting wishes
Sometimes, even trees need a Lunar New Year break.
Sometimes, even trees need a Lunar New Year break.
People from across Hong Kong and nearby mainland China, as well as tourists from around the world, have long come to light incense and make wishes beneath the spreading limbs of a huge Chinese banyan here in Lam Tsuen, a bustling village near the mainland border. Respect for the banyan, which is hundreds of years old, is based partly on feng shui, a Chinese system of philosophy that emphasizes harmony with nature, and partly on centuries-old local beliefs about the mystical value of trees. The tree is so popular that it shows up on highway signs and has its own expressway exit.The article also quotes Victor Li, a feng shui guy over here in Singapore. Weird - doesn't Hong Kong have enough feng shui experts to interview?But the tree's main limb suddenly broke over the weekend with a loud crack during Chinese New Year festivities.
The entire limb fell to the ground, breaking the left leg of a 62-year-old man. (NY Times)
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Best in Show
Speaking of dogs, I've just been watching the videos of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show judging. Funny that even Championship-level dogs get all excitable and just want to play.
Why dog-show dogs have such pompous names.
Speaking of dogs, I've just been watching the videos of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show judging. Funny that even Championship-level dogs get all excitable and just want to play.
Why dog-show dogs have such pompous names.
Dogs playing poker
If "The Gates" wasn't your kind of art, maybe this might be:
But only if you pony up 590 grand at auctions! Ouch. Why not buy a nice reproduction?
If "The Gates" wasn't your kind of art, maybe this might be:
But only if you pony up 590 grand at auctions! Ouch. Why not buy a nice reproduction?
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Band names
The San Francisco Chronicle has a fun article on band names (thanks to Michelle for the link). It's true, not everyone can play guitar, but everyone has some random ideas for band names. Imaginary band names are, I think, our tenuous way of clinging on to the adolescent dream that we, too, could be rock stars.
In the article, Peter Hartlaub comments on the dearth of originality in band names:
Whereas the Beatles have, to be a honest, a fairly cheesy name for a band, a reference to Buddy Holly's crickets combined with the "beat" play on words. Clearly there's no correlation between name quality and band quality.
And why do people make fun of Usher's name as unoriginal? It's his real name! You shouldn't make fun of real names...
The San Francisco Chronicle has a fun article on band names (thanks to Michelle for the link). It's true, not everyone can play guitar, but everyone has some random ideas for band names. Imaginary band names are, I think, our tenuous way of clinging on to the adolescent dream that we, too, could be rock stars.
In the article, Peter Hartlaub comments on the dearth of originality in band names:
Among the most popular musical groups are the spelling-challenged (Linkin Park; Ludacris), the painfully unimaginative (Usher; Creed) and various combinations of the two (Lil' Jon & the Eastside Boyz). There are also inside jokes that everyone forgot a decade ago (Green Day) and metaphysical nonsense that will make your head hurt even before you listen to the music (Destiny's Child). Good Charlotte? Bad name.As he notes though, creative band names are a "harbinger of doom" - well, not necessarily doom, but bands with seriously creative names don't often make it big. Of the top of my head, that theory seems to fit these bands: ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, !!!, Sorry About Dresden - all of whose records I own, all of whom I think are pretty decent, and all languishing in mid-table obscurity, as soccer/football fans like to say.
Whereas the Beatles have, to be a honest, a fairly cheesy name for a band, a reference to Buddy Holly's crickets combined with the "beat" play on words. Clearly there's no correlation between name quality and band quality.
And why do people make fun of Usher's name as unoriginal? It's his real name! You shouldn't make fun of real names...
Woo hoo! Struck Toto!
Yes, I am a Toto winner. I matched the numbers in the Chinese New Year draw. I am Luck personified.
...
Okay, so I only got 4 out of the 6 numbers and won $30, putting me with 96897 other schlubs, but it was still nice to make a profit.
Yes, I am a Toto winner. I matched the numbers in the Chinese New Year draw. I am Luck personified.
...
Okay, so I only got 4 out of the 6 numbers and won $30, putting me with 96897 other schlubs, but it was still nice to make a profit.
The American remake of "The Office"
Having just watched the clips on NBC's website, I would say the American remake of "The Office" looks like an awful idea. For one, it's too shiny. By this I mean - the clips have a certain overly polished sheen, whereas the original version had that brilliantly awkward mockumentary feel to it. And for another, it just seems to be trying too hard to hammer in the "office life is terrible" theme. Of course, you can't judge a show by a few clips, but this does not look promising for a show whose original incarnation I love.
I'm no Britcom snob - anyone who knows comedic history can see the American antecedents in "The Office" (This is Spinal Tap, clearly). But the American remakes of "Coupling" and "Men Behaving Badly" were terrible. And they were on NBC too, if I recall correctly...
So Google gets it right:
Hell yeah, I meant "the office" BBC.
Having just watched the clips on NBC's website, I would say the American remake of "The Office" looks like an awful idea. For one, it's too shiny. By this I mean - the clips have a certain overly polished sheen, whereas the original version had that brilliantly awkward mockumentary feel to it. And for another, it just seems to be trying too hard to hammer in the "office life is terrible" theme. Of course, you can't judge a show by a few clips, but this does not look promising for a show whose original incarnation I love.
I'm no Britcom snob - anyone who knows comedic history can see the American antecedents in "The Office" (This is Spinal Tap, clearly). But the American remakes of "Coupling" and "Men Behaving Badly" were terrible. And they were on NBC too, if I recall correctly...
So Google gets it right:
Hell yeah, I meant "the office" BBC.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Trends in baby names
I've always loved the names application on the US Social Security website, which lets you see the relative popularity of names over the years, at least in America - it's an interesting sociological exercise. Well, the Baby Name Wizard lets you track the info visually - so for example, my name peaked as a baby name in the 60s at #179, and didn't do too shabbily in the 70s at #207 (and I am, indeed, a 70s kid who knows a fair number of fellow Daryls), but has been declining in popularity ever since. The alternative spelling, Darryl, seems to have peaked and fallen similarly.
The graphs sometimes show sociological and demographic trends: for instance, the growth of the Hispanic population in the US is mirrored in the increasing popularity of baby names such as Alejandra or Jesus.
You can also use the app to see what names have fallen in and out of fashion... clearly Gertrude, Hilda, and Ethel are names of the past, while people nowadays seem to really like names that suggest hoity-toity soap-opera characters: Alexis, Madison, Sydney, Brianna, and Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn? That sounds like too many people trying too hard to avoid the supposedly more usual spelling of Caitlin.
I know those are all girls' names: that's because fashions in girls' names tend to fluctuate more than boys' names, at least according to baby-naming experts:
I've always loved the names application on the US Social Security website, which lets you see the relative popularity of names over the years, at least in America - it's an interesting sociological exercise. Well, the Baby Name Wizard lets you track the info visually - so for example, my name peaked as a baby name in the 60s at #179, and didn't do too shabbily in the 70s at #207 (and I am, indeed, a 70s kid who knows a fair number of fellow Daryls), but has been declining in popularity ever since. The alternative spelling, Darryl, seems to have peaked and fallen similarly.
The graphs sometimes show sociological and demographic trends: for instance, the growth of the Hispanic population in the US is mirrored in the increasing popularity of baby names such as Alejandra or Jesus.
You can also use the app to see what names have fallen in and out of fashion... clearly Gertrude, Hilda, and Ethel are names of the past, while people nowadays seem to really like names that suggest hoity-toity soap-opera characters: Alexis, Madison, Sydney, Brianna, and Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn? That sounds like too many people trying too hard to avoid the supposedly more usual spelling of Caitlin.
I know those are all girls' names: that's because fashions in girls' names tend to fluctuate more than boys' names, at least according to baby-naming experts:
Lansky said boys' names shift "glacially," while girls' names phase in and out of fashion.Ultimately, I guess anything's better than calling your kid ESPN.
Damien Hirst
Since I'm pottering around the New York Times website, here's their review of Damien Hirst at the Boston MFA. Unfortunately, they don't have the cows, man - the pic's from an exhibition at the Tate Britain last year.
I'm kind of torn on what to think of Hirst, whose work I first saw at the Tate, back in the days when the Tate was in Pimlico. Sometimes I feel he's just too obvious about modernity and soullessness, other times I really like the clinical nature of his work.
Since I'm pottering around the New York Times website, here's their review of Damien Hirst at the Boston MFA. Unfortunately, they don't have the cows, man - the pic's from an exhibition at the Tate Britain last year.
I'm kind of torn on what to think of Hirst, whose work I first saw at the Tate, back in the days when the Tate was in Pimlico. Sometimes I feel he's just too obvious about modernity and soullessness, other times I really like the clinical nature of his work.
50 Cent's crib
This New York Times article on 50 Cent's life in the sleepy suburb of Farmington, Conn., is quite wry -
This New York Times article on 50 Cent's life in the sleepy suburb of Farmington, Conn., is quite wry -
But a cook at China Palace said Mr. Jackson could save 10 percent on any order over $30...Ah, the privileges of fame... 10% off Chinese takeout!
For the party, Mr. Jackson ordered more than $5,000 worth of liquor, including "a lot of Baccardi," according to the owner of a Farmington liquor store who spoke on the condition of anonymity "to protect his privacy."Sipping Bacardi (ooh, caught a Times misspelling) like it's his birthday. How anonymous could a liquor store owner in a suburban town be? It's not like there're hundreds of liquor stores in the town, I'm guessing. I like how they keep referring to him as Mr. Jackson...
Thursday, February 17, 2005
King Burger
Anyone who knows me knows I love my burgers. Best burger I've had in Singapore? Brewerkz's King Brew Burger (two patties (480 grams) of beef with cheese, bacon, sautéed mushrooms and beer chili). Best burger in Boston, at least while I was studying there? Dead heat between Bartley's, my favourite burger joint, and the poshness of the Harvest.
Which is why I was all excited when I read about the "Hamdog": a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions, topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries, and served on a hoagie bun. Mmm. Be still my beating heart. (Okay, not that still.)
Fortunately, one of the blogs I dip into from time to time, Texas Burger Guy, has a great pic of said Hamdog. Mmm. Arteries hardening... hardening...
Anyone who knows me knows I love my burgers. Best burger I've had in Singapore? Brewerkz's King Brew Burger (two patties (480 grams) of beef with cheese, bacon, sautéed mushrooms and beer chili). Best burger in Boston, at least while I was studying there? Dead heat between Bartley's, my favourite burger joint, and the poshness of the Harvest.
Which is why I was all excited when I read about the "Hamdog": a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions, topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries, and served on a hoagie bun. Mmm. Be still my beating heart. (Okay, not that still.)
Fortunately, one of the blogs I dip into from time to time, Texas Burger Guy, has a great pic of said Hamdog. Mmm. Arteries hardening... hardening...
Life in plastic, it's fantastic
You know the thing about Barbie creating an anatomically impossible standard to live up to? No guy finds Barbie attractive. Not that women have to do things to please men, but just thought that should be mentioned.
Anyway, that random thought allows me to segue into this news report that Lindsay Lohan is having a Barbie doll of herself made. First the foray into becoming a teen pop star, now this. The plasticisation of Lindsay Lohan continues. And she was such a good actress in Freaky Friday.
You know the thing about Barbie creating an anatomically impossible standard to live up to? No guy finds Barbie attractive. Not that women have to do things to please men, but just thought that should be mentioned.
Anyway, that random thought allows me to segue into this news report that Lindsay Lohan is having a Barbie doll of herself made. First the foray into becoming a teen pop star, now this. The plasticisation of Lindsay Lohan continues. And she was such a good actress in Freaky Friday.