from the bottom Neil Gaiman's journal post "...when you live in a godless universe of pain. If the universe was ordered, Neil Armstrong should :

"I'd like to ask a small favour of those of you who have read down this far. Would anyone reading this, anyone with a blog or a website that is, mind linking to the last post -- http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2007/02/and-in-time-it-took-to-say-that-neil.html -- with the link text Penn Jillette? Given Penn's recent rant about the power and ubiquity of this blog on his radio show, I'd like to mess with his head just a little and see if we can actually google-bomb it so that that entry shows in the top few entries if you google Penn's name.

And sshhh, don't anyone tell him. I want it to be a surprise."

so Penn Jillette.

Hi, I'm still here, still square, and still care that I haven't been blogging much.
Today I saw something that I haven't seen for a while, snow in January in London. Snow seemed to come later in the year for quite some time now, around February / March instead of December / January as it used to.
I wonder if it's because of climate change, global warming, or that El Nino with the squiggly accent.

Well, it looks like that year of time again, does it seem the same as last year to you? Outside I can hear some fireworks.

Following a meme a couple of years ago, I try to make a note if I do anything new during the year. Looking back, I would say that the only new things I did this year was go to the theatre to see 'Wolves in the walls', followed by meeting a few people that have blogs.

Hope you have a good new year.

As I sometimes do, I saw that there was something going on in London, I had the free time, and decided to go take a look. A postsecret book is now available in UK, and Frank Warren (the author) was going to open a PostSecret exhibit at Foyles Gallery, Charing Cross Road, London (November 20th to December 10th).

Went and had a look round, it's been a while since I last visited Foyles bookstore, didn't know they had a gallery (could be new I suppose). The secrets were interesting, some sad, some amusing. It seems strange being privy to anonymous confessions, as I think that some have a lot of emotion involved.

At one end of the gallery was a chair and a table with some cards and colouring pencils. You could use the blank cards for making your own postsecret to be left in a jar there, and later added to the wall nearby. The other side of the cards had areas for an address and text / secret.

There were about 30 or 40 cards shown, which I presume were also in the book. Happened to be there before Frank Warren was going to sign copies of the book, so he signed one for me. I seem to be buying signed books these days.

Not sure how much is custom or cultural tradition, but I was asked about the rituals a (long) while ago. Anyway, it was a nice sunny day to go visit the cemetery, though we had some delay due to traffic.

I was told that there are two dates of the year for paying respect to the dead in Hong Kong - one roughly near Easter : Ching Ming Festival and one around Hallowe'en : Chung Yeung Festival. As I can only visit on a Saturday, so we went this day closest to October 30th.

First thing was to clean the area, cutting the longer grass, pulling weeds and tidying up. Two candles were lit, then the flames from them were used to light some joss sticks. The candles, joss sticks and paper items used later were bought together in a pack I believe, probably available in china town.
The candles were on sticks so that they could be inserted into the ground or container to hold them up. They were placed one on each side (in a pot), with the joss sticks placed in front / in between them, in three bunches.

Using flames from the candles, representation of paper money was burnt on the ground in front. A metal tray was used just to place the burning money on, and there was quite an amount of paper that had to be completely turned to ash and cinder.

While the 'money' and other paper things were burning (I don't know what they represented), food and drink were placed on the sides. A plate with some favourite things on the left, and on the right were three small cups of tea (favourite drink I suppose) and three cups of some alcohol. I don't know if the groups of three things meant anything, or it was because there are three of us.

The paper had to be burnt completely, so had to use a stick to turn them over to check for embers and light any paper still intact. We had brought a lighter rather than matches for our burning needs. It was interesting to see the patterns of the embers moving, like little red worm shapes as they burnt the paper.
Three small bows then waiting until the candles and joss sticks had all burnt down, before we finished up. The alcohol was poured slowly across the ashes on the ground, one by one, in a line from the left to right, followed by the tea in the same fashion.

Finally we cleaned up the things we brought with us, packed up and left.

I cut my finger accidentally. Well, actually it was just a scratch on some sharp edge, but it went deeper than I thought and some nice blood oozed out. Had to press on it to try and stop the blood flow. Was bored so I took a photo of my cut finger tip.

Maybe I could use that in a line somewhere, as I still have some works not in progress that I have trouble finishing. Must make a note of it as I could use it in the 'Dear Jane' idea I had.

"I thought that it was just a scratch, but you cut me deeper than I realized.
While a bandage could patch it up, it could not heal the hurt inside."

Guess it is a slow day, when all I can write about is a cut finger. Just hope there's nothing like tetanus lurking around the corner.

I know that I am somewhat nosy and secretive - I prefer to find out more about others than I am willing to share about myself.

In September, New Scientist magazine had some reports on Living Online about online social networking, such as MySpace, and one was entitled "The end to privacy?" (you can only read the first part of the article in the NS archives, but found that someone had a copy of the whole text).
Articles like that one, and ones like How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger mention how public the information that you put online could be, unless you expressly make it otherwise.

It is these kind of reasons that makes me reluctant to write much about things that may be personal or revealing, but that could be said in public (I tend not to write private posts and few friends only ones).
Perhaps I feel that talking about some things or 'opening up', could be make oneself vunerable to having what has been said used against them. So I tend to limit what I write about.

So why don't I write more? The main reason is probably laziness, and perhaps I'm not that good at communicating with others.

I can't really use the excuse of not having something to say, as when I don't feel my day to day is worth writing about, I can think up a topic to write a few words on. Free time is not that much of an issue, if I have time read others people's journals, then that is time I can make small comments or posts. You could say that while I may have the means and opportunity, I probably don't have the motivation.

There may also be a case of 'the longer you leave a task, the harder it is to do', and it feels easier just to not say anything much, the times I might have said something being overruled by the habit of keeping quiet.

Anyway, just a few lines as a friend wanted me to post more (not a nudge but a snug), so here I am in October.

It's Friday, so it must be September.

I shouldn't really ask "How are you doing?" as it might be a rhetorical question since I could get an answer from looking at current blog posts of my flist. Perhaps instead I should be telling you what I have been up to, with me being quiet for a while (although the answer is "not much").

Today, went out to see the film Superman Returns. It was good, I liked it, my friend thought it was better than X-Men 3, but I haven't seen that so can't say. While there were thoughts and questions on one point or another, I didn't bother about them and just watched it. Liked how the theme sounded in the cinema, how I remember it from watching the previous films on television (never saw them at the cinema).

Afterwards, went for a walkabout along the Thames, from about Embankment to look for the Tate Modern, friend wanted to look in the shop there. It was a nice walk and relatively quiet, as the other side of the river was mostly pedestrian with no major roads in range to cause too much traffic noise. Need to go visit there again sometime, now that I know where it is and how to get there.

Had camera with me, so took snaps at anything that looked remotely interesting, or just things like notable landmarks and structures at certain angles. I don't take enough pictures usually, as sometimes feel self-conscious snapping any small thing that takes my fancy, or other times when the batteries are flat from periods of non-use and need recharging.

There are times, such as at new year's day, anniversaries and birthdays (or after momentous events) when people might look back over the previous year, and think about what has happened during that time. If they have medium or long term plans, they may consider whether they are on schedule, and if things are going according to said plans. I'm of the no-plan type, not knowing where I want to be in say 5 years time, only the vague notion of 'some where better'.

Well, when I look back, I see that I'm still where I am last year, and probably the year before that. Practically nothing new has changed much here, with most weeks and months about the same as the ones before.

Contemplation probably makes it sound more thoughtful than I really am at the moment. I wonder if I should look for another job. Been at the same place for a few years now, and the little things that are annoyances could eventually lead to resentment (and the dark side) and wanting to go someplace else and do something better.

Of course, thinking about something and actually doing something about it are two separate things. Lazy as I am, that's how I got here in the first place, by taking whatever temporary work came along at the time (within reason).

Let's see where I am next year.

So we went out to yum cha (and have dim sum I guess), which we have not done for quite a while with family (a number of years I think). Went down to Chinatown, picked a restaurant (we don't know which ones are good) though sibling had thought a buffet style might be a good idea as well.
I think it would have been nice if you could have a friend to help with ordering food, to describe what things are so you have some sort of idea if you might like them or not. But as we didn't, we sort of went with things that we have had before and thought we liked, or things we knew the names of.
Afterwards, we just went and looked at the shops before going home with some cakes and stuff.

One of the things about being the sort of person that doesn't go out much (I'm the stay at homey type) is that I can sometimes miss out on happenings that I might have been interested in. Take for example the other week, when there was a visit by The Sultan's Elephant. I only found out about after the weekend, when it was all over, as people started mentioning it. That is to be expected (missing things) as I don't catch them mentioned on tv, or read the entertainment guides as what's happening out in London (although someone did think that Sultan's Elephant wasn't very well publicized).

This weekend, I decided to visit some place I had not been before in London (and there are plenty of those places), went to Covent Garden to have a look see. What is unusual I guess is that it's only a short walk or one tube stop (London Underground station) away from Leicester Square, which is one place I go to often-ish (has cinemas there and London's Chinatown). Need to go and visit there again when I get the chance, has nice things. Street performers, lots of stores and stalls of interesting stuff.

As I had said to a friend, that although I'm living in a city like London with lots of stuff to see and visit, it's a shame that I don't actually go visit and see some of these things and places. It's not quite like a 'familiarity breeds contempt' type thing, just that sometimes don't have time or energy to go explore places (go off the beaten track etc.) and see what's out there (and do touristy type things).

So now we have digital cable television. We had cable tv, but lately it has been on the fritz, so had to call the provider about it. They said that they would send someone round to fix it, so it was decided that they could come and upgrade to the digital service while they were at it. We were offered digital before, but didn't want the bother of someone visiting to set it up (we were okay as with what we had, and tend not to want visitors seeing our messy place).

Any how, having lots of extra channels (going from tens to over one hundred, possibly two hundred) can consume a lot of time. There is the usual trying to check the channels that are usually watched, as well as changing channels to find something interesting to watch (as though having a short attention span, hopping from one channel to the next).

Have to try to resist spending too much time in front of the telly (and stay in front of the computer instead).

1. Leave me a comment expressing interest in being interviewed
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. (Subject to time and the possible running out of inspiration)
3. Then update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others ask to be interviewed, ask them five questions.

I was interviewed by miss__scarlet( Read more... )

and interviewed by kittygopounce( Read more... )

"Someone told me about the art of conversation, but I wasn't listening."

Nothing like a good conversation with friends.
Met up with Vladimir again, cellardoor28 and snowking. Those two are a nice couple, and the first LJists that I have met (at least London ones, Vladimir is mostly on greatestjournal now, so not sure he counts :).

The weather was okay, so we went to a pub to chat. I can see why people like to go to pubs, and have a nice conversation in amiable company. Though public houses would not be my first choices, as I prefer a less smoky noisy atmosphere, but we sat outside so was fine.

Been a while since had a sit down and nice informal chat, was fun. They talked about lots of things, while I was my usual quiet self and let the others talk, because they are more interesting. So far, when people first meet me, I'm not very chatty, but can get talkative when I feel more comfortable. We spent a few hours watching the people go by and discussing this and that. As was remarked, the things people talk about help form a different image to the impression one gets from just reading their journal online.

Hope to see them again sometime.

Short version : Met Vladimir. saw Wolves in the Walls, was good, liked it.

Long version :
vladimirsever was in the UK for a short break, and was in London for a few days this Easter weekend.

Met up and went to a pub to chat, nice bloke. He managed to get some tickets to Wolves in the Walls play and there was a seat available. He asked if I wanted to go see it and I said okay.

Got there a little late (how late is fashionably late?), didn't miss too much of it.
Was my first time to a theatre. The show was good, fun, funny. The audience liked it, the children and adults grown ups alike laughing at the different parts. There was 3 bows at the end, because the audience kept on applauding.


Oh, and Dr. Who's back.

It is strange hearing someone's voice for the first time, especially if you have never met them before and only communicated through text on the internet previously. Seeing their face in a userpic is one thing, but you can only hazard a guess to how they sound before you to hear them on the phone, and then decide if they sound like how you imagine their voice would be.
Kind of related to how I try to guess an actor from their voice in an animation, or when you cannot see who they are (V for Vendetta would be a recent example, though I already knew who it was). Trying to match the voice to a face can be tricky sometimes.

I don't want to sound like I'm unfeeling or unsentimental, but I don't seem to miss people much when they are not around. Perhaps it is because I don't mind being by myself, or that I have gotten used to not seeing family all the time every day. Starting with going to school and not seeing family until home again, up to working and being away from home for most of the day / week.

Another factor could be knowing that sometimes the people you used to know and see at school or work tend to leave (or you leave them) and not likely to see them much again after that. I have seen a few old schoolmates and occasionally spot someone from my past, but the majority of people I knew I have lost contact with.

With family, if someone goes on a trip or is away for a time, I don't seem to feel unduly worried (but still hope they remain safe). Similarly with internet friends, as long as I think they are okay, I don't have to worry that they haven't made much contact or updated their blog for a while (I just have to assume that they are busy, and 'no news is good news').

I don't want to think that 'familiarity breeds contempt' but maybe I just haven't found someone that I miss when they are not around.

Hee, banned_wagon. :)
Just created it because someone said it was a good name. Apart from that, I don't have much of an idea why I should have a community if no one is going to feed and take care of it.

It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks here, mostly because my mum has gone on a well deserved holiday with friends. So that means there has been less nag telling us what to do, and means some tidying up before she gets back.
Yes, I actually did some hoovering yesterday. I know that doesn't sound much, but if you knew how lazy I am and that I hadn't done any in about a month, then it's quite an announcement. :)