Happy New Year Everyone!

Happy New Year and here's hoping for a better decade!

Lights of Christmas

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone!

By my irresponsible tradition and lack of a sense of responsibility, I have once again decided to post right before the end of Christmas Eve and at the beginning of Christmas day! 

Asian Ukulele Kid

Putting guitar players around the world to shame with his eagerness and confidence all the while being cuter than a paper Acguy.

Twilight according to a Grade 8 boy

Last Sunday, while attending church, I got a chance to ask a grade 8 boy some questions about Twilight and here's how it went.

Q. Have you seen the movie?

A. Yes.

Q.What did you think about it?

A.Awful.

Q.How many girls in your class have read Twilight?

A.All of them.

Would you like a Jelly Baby?

While attending the Toronto Hobby Show 2009, it was something other than the scale models and hobby models that caught my attention. There was a stand, a candy stand that was selling imported sweets and snacks from UK, and immediately I thought of the one single thing I knew about English snacks. Jelly Babies.

Aren't papier mache cuts the worst?

I was asked this random question when setting up my profile. Thought I'd share my opinion regarding this subject.

Paper, big deal.

Not really, no. As a matter of fact, I can never understand why it seems like such a big deal to many people. I mean, sure it hurts, but there's many other things that is much more painful. If it's about the blood, heck, I've seen too much of it to be really bothered anymore (from a combination of nose bleeding for no reason, to be exceptionally clumsy), unless it's hardcore gore, of course, which is quite disgusting. In fact, the only plausible reason why paper cuts could be so terrible of an experience wouldn't be physical at all, but rather psychological.

Like I said, there's much more things that could hurt you more than being cut by a piece of paper, but that's just why it sucks that much more to be hurt by it! Think about it this way, of all the damned things that could have not only cut you, but also make you bleed, it just had to be an apparently harmless piece of paper! A damned piece of paper not only cut you right open, but also made you bleed and feel surprisingly painful!

FFFFFFFFFFFFFUU- PAPER!!!

Damn you paper! Damn you to hell!!

... ahem! Although I regret the overreaction, these basically is my thoughts on paper cuts.

Good day.

1/100 Gundam DX

I finished this a while ago, but it remains one of my favourite among my gunpla collection. The simple shape of its silhouette coupled with fine details in every part of the MS makes it one of those designs that just seem to wear out no matter how many times you see it! Although my modelling skills are still a bit lacking, but there's certain things that I experimented with this model that I think turned out quite nicely.

Balance: The one thing that many newer kits should pay more attention to!

I usually don't like a lot of panel lines on my kits, but this is definitely one of the few exceptions. Unlike some of the Wing 1/100 kits, the panel lines on this kit just look so bloody good!

The internal parts for the Microwave Receiver has been detailed with metalic paint. It looks quite nice in person, but doesn't show up too well on camera though.

The way the white panel lining lit up the otherwise black armour pieces contribute quite a bit of detail to the overall look and fell of it.

Satellite System On!

Action Poses and Angle!

Overall, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. White paint for the panel lines was a huge game for me, but it gave the dark armors a very refreshing look, which suits the rest of the model quite nicely. I also extended the neck by a millimeter or so to give the head a bit more range of motion, which also worked fantastically. The DX is deiniftely one of the MS that could use a bit more attention from modelers.

What is a man's worth...

...save for the value assigned to him by others? In other words, is there such a thing as self worth? A value that will hold true independent of external

factors?

Well?

PhotoSynth (Microsoft's Got Groove!)

For the last few years, it had seemed that Microsoft's has lost what's left of its zeal with the fiasco of Vista and numerous plans to at once salvage what they can from that terribly broken system(SPs anyone?) and to, against all rationality, "improve" the Vista system by completely failing at integrating various features(lol "Are you sure you want to_____?" message boxes) and softwares(Live everything, except for even the slightest chance for success) into its cruddy Vista OS.

For the last time, I am DAMNED SURE that I want the goddamned file to be moved the recycle bin!

However, despite Microsoft's shortcomings during the Vista era, it seems that somewhere along the way Microsoft has finally discovered its inner zeal. This ofcourse would be puntuacted by the tremendous success of Windows 7, but this article, like its title suggest is not about Microsoft's newest money grabbing flagship, but rather a software that appeared during the same year of Blackcomb was renamed Windows 7. This is software, the Photosynth, is Microsoft's new and much groovier approach to personal computing.

Photosynth is a software that allow you to create 3D environment simply by providing the program with a sufficient amount of overlapping pictures taken from a single point of view. In other words, all the user have to do is stand in one place, take pictures of the surrounding environment and the rest of the work is done by the program, which will analyze the pictures for edges and recreate a 360 view of the entire area. This innovative way of viewing pictures not only allow the artist to show more than just one part of a whole, but also it may also technically allow truly 3D films to be constructed and shown in real time. As of now, it already has the ability to zoom into a certain object within a whole panorama and rotate around it independently to allow for a truly 3D view of, well technically, any given object within the scene, really.

Enough talk, since if one picture is worth a thousand words, I'm sure that the 205 pictures that make up the world in the link below will do a much better job at explaining potentials of the Photosynth.

Enjoy the show.

￥500/kg(or $160/lb) Beef Sold in China

Recently in China, various super markets started to appeal to the high-end luxury consumers by importing various food products from other countries and sell them as luxury food items in China. As the market becomes more saturated with numerous small super markets intended to appeal to the general public with the main strategy of lowering prices, competition between stores rose and big companies soon began to realize the much higher potential for profit at the other end of the spectrum. Thus, the luxury super markets are born.

Various stores such as the "International", the "BHG" and "Olé" import their products from countries over the world and redistribute them for a much higher price. According to reports various items like import fruits from Thailand sold for 100s of yuan per kg, imported European bread sold for 10s of yuan per loaf and even imported beef from Australia being sold for nearly five hundred yuan are now becoming a common sight in these luxury stores.

To put that into perspective, one US dollar is equal to 6.82 yuan. Which means that import fruits with price tags of up to $44/kg or $97/lb or higher(from a 300 yuan price), bread sold for $7.3 per loaf and beef sold for up to $73.22/kg or $161/lb are being sold as luxury items in China, where the average wage is approximately ￥1500 or $220 a month.

This may seem like a shocking development in the Chinese economical structure, but in reality, it was only a matter of time before the businesses recognized the business opportunities the growing upper middle class provided. With newfound wealth the demands for high quality products imported from foreign provided business with nearly limitless opportunities for profits. As of now, China is the world's second largest consumer of luxury products, having just surpassed in the most recent survey. Additionally, a research survey published by Abrams Research recognizes China as the largest potential market for future luxury products. At this rate it's no wonder why there's market for those beef.

But still, $161/lb beef?

Holy. Shit.

Sources: http://news.sohu.com/20091021/n267576727.shtml;http://www.abramsresearch.com/files/abrams_research_luxury_industry_survey_0609.pdf

While in Sunrise Restaurant on Jane Street

Monday about 4pm.

Was looking for a washroom, so I went to Sunrise Restaurant on Jane Street and Falstaff. There was about three people there, the customers of course, as there weere about four more employees, I'd reckon. There was music playing in the background and some birds flying over the telephone poles, with numerous cars passing by on Jane, it feels frankly quite nice. The chicken itself was not delicacy, but the friendly server and the simple taste of the food makes the afternoon snack experience a very simple and comfortable one. Everything felt right.

Time in China, Time well Quarantined.

Quick post about my time spent in quarantine. How I got here? Had a cold and it turned out to be swine flu, so when I got back to China, boom, I was in the hospital for islolation. Overreaction much aside, this is pretty understandable, seeing what happened the last time China got a pandemic. Now, I'm just hoping to get out of here asap and actually do something.

Pictures after the break.

EDIT:
As promised, here are some pictures of my room in the hospital. Size is fairly good and accomadation is decent. I'm, of course, the only person in the room so it does get a bit boring quickly, but meh, that's just nitpicking. The food is decent and is usually served with soup. There's a TV mounted on the wall, but as you can see from the pictures, the colors are quickly fading and makes it a bit of a chore to watch. Air conditioning is a huge plus and the bed is decent. Enjoy the pictures.


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