News & Updates
2002
2001 ---2002--- 2003 --- 2004 --- 2005 --- from 2006 and on
December 26, 2002
Updated various pages within the site. Most are cosmetic stuff like fonts, colors..etc. The "Horrifying Facts" section got some additions in the "Favorite Music" section.
Yippy, another Christmas. I cooked two nights in a row, and man, am I rusty. I roasted a chicken, baked garlic bread, made Russian Soup..etc, and I think they were all pretty bad. Elena kept saying they weren't bad at all. I have no idea if she was being polite. I mean, if her cooking sucked I'd just tell it to her straight(in a nice way), and I'd offer suggestions for ways to salvage it. Am I insensitive? Should I lie?
Being the romantic she is, she lit up all the candles we had in the house, and whenever people called to wish a merry Christmas, she'd tell them with so much pride that her hubby cooked a Christmas dinner for her. What a silly, but cute girl.
Speaking of Chrismas, I have NO idea why the Chinese here are celebrating. They don't even know what Christmas is! You can ask anyone here what's the meaning of Christmas, and you'd get a blank look. It's just an excuse for them to party, that's all.
Man, I'd hate to have keeping writing about these horrible stories, but what the hell, here's another one.
In the papers today, there was a story about the death of a three year-old boy. An apartment community security guard saw a crowd of people looking up at a balcony--a little boy was dangling and about to fall off. The security guard yelled for people to go get some heavy blankets from their homes(the thick Chinese ones) and use it to cushion the boy's fall--if he falls, then, he ran off to call for help. When he got back, not one single person budged or bothered to help. Pissed off, the security guard ran to his own apartment and grabbed his blanket. When he got back, and about to spread the blanket out, the boy fell. He died the next day in the hospital.
Is it any wonder why I have such a dislike for many of the Chinese people in China? They are selfish, corrupt, and can't even be bothered to lift a finger to save the life of a three year-old boy because their Goddamn blankets might get dirty. Man, if I was that security guard, I'd beat some ass .
Is it just me, or are most anime shows getting lamer and lamer? I tried watching Love Hina because people were saying how good it was. What a steaming pile of contrived, meritless, derivative horse manure! I can't believe people actually like that crap. On the other hand, some of the better anime I've seen lately are Cosplay Complex and Agent Aika. What is it with all the "fan service" stuff now in anime? You can't watch thirty seconds without seeing either senseless violence for sight gags, or gratuitous shots of bouncing breasts or panty shot. Not that I'm complaining, but I think it's a bit too much--kinda like a cop out when they can't figure out a better story. They need to produce more quality stuff like Cowboy Bebop.
Elena's been going out of town a lot lately for business trips. I'm so used to having her next to me when I sleep that when she's not here, the bed feels GIGANTIC, and I hate it. I do get a bit more work done when she's not here though, since I go right back to my old habit of eating my meals in front of the computer, and working into the wee hours of the morning.
Speaking of work, I'm getting very impatient and restless with all the concept art I have to do. I just want to jump in and start modelling and animating some shots, but I know I'm being wise by have highly developed concept art. That way, there won't be any guess work and revisions in the 3D stage--which is a lot more time consuming. I know all this will pay off in the end. I just have to be patient.
December 20, 2002
Updated the "goodies" section with a page called "Share the Love!", which was prompted by the following. . ..
Holy cow! There seems to be some kind of a Kawai Sonoko revival going on, and I cannot put into words how ecstatic I am. I've been a huge fan since I got her Rouge et Bleu album back in 1988, and I'm every bit in love with that album now as I was then. Just last year, I had SCOURED the entire internet looking for Kawai Sonoko information, and luckily, I found Japanese used CD shops and ordered all the missing albums from her entire discography. There were practically nothing on the internet about her except this webpage by a fan. Now, there are a lot more webpages, including websites dedicated to her. Check out the following links now on the internet!
http://value.zero.ad.jp/sonoko_web/ This is a site dedicated to Sonoko. Lots of good stuff there. I learned from this site that her reason for taking an indefinite sabbatical in 1991 was to "recharge." I think this might have to do with the fact that in 1990, she released an album that was entirely composed by herself, and she realized that she wanted to study music some more? Now with a "Gold Best" album just released, maybe she's ready to return to the stage after disappearing for twelve years?
http://www.mni.ne.jp/~tady/sonnet/home.html Another site dedicated to her.
http://www.pinky.ne.jp/~eruii/sonoko/index.html Yet another one. I was really pissed to find out from this site that ther was an album called "Degree of warmth of Lolita." WTF? I had NEVER heard of that, and I'm a huge fan! Another site identified the album as the soundtrack for a TV drama of the same title, and her husband(she married Goto, her long time collaborator who is a composer and arranger. He's been writing for her since her debut in 1985. They got married in 1994. Talk about a long courtship!) wrote the music and Sonoko did some stuff on it(I think she only did narration on one song).
http://homepage2.nifty.com/moon-fantasy/sonoko/sonoko.html Haha, this guy actually listed his favorite Sonoko songs by, "Best songs to listen to during summer, spring, rainy days"..etc.
http://mx2.tiki.ne.jp/~muneoka/ This one is pretty funny. He's obviously some head-banging metal freak, yet he's got a page with an 11 part interview with Sonoko that was conducted at an University in 1990 during a music discussion conference.
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/take777/sonoko.htm Oh wow, this guy wrote an ongoing(up to part 12)essay series on Sonoko. Talk about dedicated and passionate fans! Why does it seem that the more obscure an artist is, the more rabid and dedicated his/her fans are? Is it because we treasure their unrecognized talent and feel there's great injustice that these artists aren't more well-known, and we also treasure every little information we can find since they are so obscure?
http://www.windflower-12mt.com/ Another Sonoko site. This one's got an online petition for Sony and other companies with rights to her material to re-release more stuff and make them available.
After going through all the new websites, I discovered that my quest of completing my Sonoko collection is not yet complete. Now it's time to get all the rare stuff. I don't even have any of her live concert videos! No Sonoko fan should be without one!
If any of you reading happens to be a Kawai Sonoko fan, and know where I can get the following concert videos of hers, please email me and let me know!
Sonoko no natsu (68LH-142)
Aphrodite no yume (68LH-127)
Sonoko genkidesu (68LH-104)
Sweet Contrast (42LH-245)
For those of you that have no idea who she is, I'll just let her music speak for itself by presenting to you some of my favorite Kawai Sonoko songs(or you can read the short biography I wrote on her in the Share the Love section):
Jessy's Tragedy (From the album "Rouge et Bleu") You MUST crank up the volume--I mean REALLY crank it up for this song, or else you might as well not bother. It is that good.There's a singles version with different arrangement and lyrics, but this version is much better. The arrangement is so powerful, and the lyrics so emotional and dark. You can just hear the hearbreak from Sonoko voice on this song, and ...I'll just shut up since I could write a whole essay on this song.
Silent Revenge (From the album "Rouge et Bleu") Actually, her songs are not usually this dark, but the overall mood of the "Rouge et Bleu" album is definitely the darkest of all her albums.
Somerset Maugham Over the Equator (From the album "Rouge et Bleu") I think Kawai Sonoko might be the only singer to ever use Somerset Maugham in a song. If you don't know who he is, then you probably didn't pay attention in your English classes.
Tears of Jasmine Love ("Dedication" album version) Love the vocal melody for this song. They don't write songs like this anymore.
The mp3's are encoded with the LAME engine, with minimum set to 128 kbit/s, maximum set to 320 kbit/s, high to normal mpeg quality, and VBR quality set to 3. I was going to use Ogg Vorbis encoding, but as most of the popular media players don't support it yet(except Winamp), I decided to stick to mp3.
Here are some pics of Sonoko I got from various Sonoko websites:
Aint she a cutie? God bless her for breaking the "cute idol" mold and becoming a full-fledged composer/producer. It's sad there are so many "talentless idols" who are way more famous than she is.
I made a new page in the "goodies" section called "Share the Love." It's basically where I upload cool stuff to share with everyone.
While searching for info on Sonoko, I came across an article titled "Cuties in Japan." by Sharon Kinsella. It is an incredibly detailed analysis of how the "cuteness" trend began in Japan, and how it had evolved, including the influence it has on Japanese society past and present. It's quite long, but if you have any interest at all in Japanese pop culture, you MUST read it.
December 17, 2002
Hahahahahaha! I came across this Steve Vai song, and I just about wet myself listening to that song. Be warned, it's not a polite song. I'd recommend a headphone if you listening to this with people around.
Man, I've been in Fuzhou for a year and three months, and not one single western style restaurant is tolerable. Steaks are like beef jerkies, and I'm too scared to even try the spaghetti. And the music they play...just kill me now. No wonder Elena and I pig out when we go to Hong Kong. Food there is so damn good, and so diverse in style that it gives San Francisco some serious competition.
Elena just got a deal to be the exclusive distributor of another cosmetic brand called "Milan." I almost popped a vein when I saw the advertising material for it. The chick they picked as the model looked like a cheap prostitute, and Elena told me she's just some chick that worked at a shoe store that the owner of the cosmetic company spotted(or boinked, I would venture). Man, if the photographer was any good, he'd have saved the ad, but the photographer was a hack too, so... Anyway, we decided to shoot our own ad and pass on theirs, and if the headquarters like what we come up with, they are welcome to use it for the entire ad campagn of "Milan." How much they pay us for providing the new ad would be negotiated later. I don't even care. I'd do it for free since it's my wife's business, and a good ad campagn could only benefit the sales on her part. We debated whether or not it's narcissistic of us to be putting Elena face on the ad, but Elena's defense was, "I've been shooting commercials and modelling/acting since I was a teenager. Just because I'm an entrepreneur now doesn't mean I all of a sudden lose the right to be a model still." Yep, she's right. She makes most of these so called models look like dogs anyway.
December 10, 2002
Imagine this:
It's six a.m. in the morning, and just outside your building a marching band proceeds to trumpet and drum away for two hours non-stop, only stopping to light firecrackers--one long string of them after another. On top of that, you went to bed at four a.m.--just two hours ago.
Now, honestly, would you be in a BLOODY MURDERING RAGE if that happened?
Well, it happend this morning.
It was either some celebration or a funeral--the crowd was wearing all black, with red sashes. Man, if it was a good marching band, I might have even enjoyed it just a little, but the band was horrible. The drummers and the trumpet players were not even in sync! Hell, the drummers weren't even in sync with each other! And the tunes they played! Ugh!
It amazes me that the security guards allowed this kind of intrusive, disturbing B.S. "tradition" to happen in an apartment complex community in the 21st century of the modern age. I keep joking with Elena that after we get back to the States, I wish an Atom Bomb would be dropped on China--especially Fuzhou.
Now I change my mind. I want a Nuclear missle. (Of course, I'm joking.)
December 6, 2002
Today, Elena told me a sad story. While she was out doing some business, she passed by a shrine and decided to pay her respects. A girl wearing tattered clothes with a limp was collecting junk from the trash, and when she passed by Elena, she asked her to spare some change. Elena asked her what happened to her leg, and that led to the girl pouring out a string of sad stories. Her leg was infected and swollen--result of a car accident, but she didn't have money for treatment, so the wound just gets worse with each day. Then when Elena asked about her family, she started sobbing and told her this chilling story:
Her father is a drunk, beats her mother constantly, and is obsessed with his two daughters sexually. He tried to rape the girl, but she ran away. Her father then tried to rape her younger sister. When the mother tried to stop him, he put a knife to her mother's throat and threatened to kill her. After her younger sister was raped, she also ran away from home.
Elena was on the verge of tears after hearing the girl's story. Being a kind soul, Elena dug into her purse and gave the girl some money. The girl, seeing the generous amount, was extremely grateful and immediately got down on her knees to thank Elena, who quickly helped her up and got out of there before she lost it to a river of tears.
Since I've been in China(Sept, 2001), I've seen and heard countless stories like this one. I've posted them at forums I visit regularly, and I think I should dig them up and repost them here in the journal so that I can loosely "document" my experiences in China.
December 1, 2002
Updated the "Work In Progress" section of the "Paintings & Drawings" section with portraits of Satan's daughters: Beelzebella, Apollina, and Lucifina.
*Starting from November 30, 2002, a seperate weblog section was created to be seperate from the News & Updates section*
November 30, 2002
Added an online journal in the "About Me" section at the request of my little brother. I highly suggest you do not read it unless you are REALLY bored. I live a boring life, and nothing interesting ever happens.
I've begun construction on the official website for my short film. I started keeping a production journal, which will document every step of the entire production of the film. Hopefully it'll prove to be extremely helpful to others who will be attempting something similar in the future.
I've put the "Textures" section back in the 3D section. Hopefully people won't download them like crazy as before.
November 27, 2002
Made some banners for linking to my site, and also added a splash page. The banners can be found in the "Goodies" section.
November 24, 2002
Been working on the pre-production of my animated short film. I got stuck on some of the concept designs, but eventually I got my head around the limitations and worked everything out. Pre-production is always slow, since so much has to be decided, or else production will suffer. It's been a lot of fun though. I'll be posting them when they are done.
Took a break from work and did some tests in UT2003. Check it out here.
November 12, 2002
It's been a while since I shot any photography of anyone buy Elena. Today, I did a session of Sao-Ling, one of Elena's employees at her cosmetic shop. I think this is one of my best sessions yet. Go check it out in the photography section.
October 22, 2002
I finally got all the wedding and honeymoon photos sorted. Go take a look here.
October 11, 2002
I got hitched! The wedding was on the 9th, and it went fairly smooth. I'll be putting up the pics as I get them ready. In fact, the plan is to make a newlywed web page, but that needs to wait until after the honeymoon(we're going to Shangri-la). We invited my little brother to come along on the trip, since he spent money he didn't have to fly all the way here from California. What a great bro!
October 4, 2002
Pre-production on my animated 3D short film is coming along nicely. At this point, I have the screenplay and the rough draft of the storyboard completed. All the shots are finalized right now--I just have to clean up the drawings for the storyboard, and actually paint all the key shots in each scene to establish the mood/lighting. The first draft of the concept art is all done too. I did a shot count today, and it looks like I've got 13 scenes, and 148 shots total. That's an INSANE amount of work for one person to attempt. I refuse to cut anything from the script though. The story is the heart of a creation. I'd rather do the extra work than cut any scenes.
While all this is going on, I'm also preparing for my upcoming wedding too. Yep, I'm getting hitched. If you are wondering who this unfortunate girl is, just take a look in the Photography section and you'll have a pretty good idea. Man, I gotta say, preparing for a wedding sure aint easy! I ended up designing the wedding invitation, her evening gown, the decorations..etc. I would've designed her wedding gown too if we didn't find a perfect one that she looked ravishing in. Guess my creativity finally became of some use this time. :-p
My mom, dad, and baby brother are flying in from California, and my older brother and God-mother are flying in from Taiwan for the wedding. Isn't that just awesome? Too bad none of my buddies can make it.
I'll update when all the drunken pictures are in from the wedding.
September 19, 2002
Uploaded a photo-session that's been sitting on my harddrive. Elena wearing a chi-pau.
August 24, 2002
I finished a new painting today. I'm still striving for that alla prima look, and I'm still falling short.
August 15, 2002
I got Princess Ruu's ears modelled. I really HATE modelling the ear. It is the most dreadful thing to model in 3D. I will never model another ear ever again for as long as I live. I'll just use this one over and over and over and over.
I've finished the final draft of the screenplay for my 3D animated short film. I'm now doing the storyboards for it. I actually don't enjoy doing storyboards that much. Reminds me too much of my comic book days, and those were some of the darker days of my life so far.
The Ordinary Heros painting is driving me nuts. I think I'll hold off on finishing it for a while and finish another painting instead.
August 5, 2002
I did an OC session(Open Canvas) with Jr today. It was pretty fun. I uploaded it so check it out.
August 3, 2002
I uploaded some test renders of the model I'm working on. Man, once you throw some lights on a model and render it out, all kinds of mistakes become amplified. . ..
July 30, 2002
I finished the Black Wolf Ronin painting today. Go check it out!
July 28, 2002
I uploaded an Open Canvas session I did with Mike May. It was pretty fun.
July 28, 2002
A new photo session added!
I made another trip to Hong Kong for four days. I took a little detour to ShengZhen to visit a couple of 3D artists (Roy and Jack Tan) that works at IDMT on a 3D feature film based on Mobius's work. It was pretty cool hanging out with those guys.
Picked up a Takamine EAN 10C at Tom Lee music store while in Hong Kong. It was a killer deal--almost at half of the listed price. The sound of that guitar is nothing short of amazing. Great full range with clarity and full body at the same time. The delux case that came with it was quite beautiful too.
July 20, 2002
I'm so pissed off. I just realized Final Draft (a screenwriting software) messed up the format of the two scenes I posted of Cathy Morgan in the Writing section. The last scene had the dialogue and the characters all jumbled up into the same paragraphs. I hate it when that happens. Anyway, it's fixed now.
July 19, 2002
I did a major update on the website. I added new sections (music, writing) and expanded older sections. There's a FAQ section now too. Woo!
July 17, 2002
I've been modelling like a madman in Maya. Ruu (Melancholic Princess) is coming along almost as I envisioned. I know it was absolutely insane of me to attempt a model of a beautiful girl as my first 3D model, but for some reason, I just knew I could pull it off. I'm not blindly confident or anything, it's just this weird optimism I have. I think being positive really pulls me out of a rut when things get rough. I also have this ridiculous tenacity when it comes to accomplishing something I setout for myself. I absolutely would NOT give up until some undeniable fact points out that what I'm attempting is PHYSICALLY impossible to achieve. If not, I just push ahead until my health gives out. I know. I'm weird like that.
Anyway, I've uploaded some wireframes of Ruu in progress.
July 8, 2002
I made a bunch of custom Maya starup screen just for fun. As with the majority of Maya users out there, I can't stand the ugly starup screen. It looks cheap and half-assed, and as clever as Alias/Wavefront's marketing department think they are, they just don't sit well with most of the artists the use Maya. Anyway, it's minor thing considering how awesome Maya is. Grab the screens here.
July 3, 2002
Did a photo session today. It was a fairly short session, but I got some nice shots out of it. Go check it out.
The 3D section is also now officially open. Nothing up there yet except for a short introduction on my current project. I had thought about putting up the textures section again for all the previous textures I've done for various games, but I decided not to for now. For a while, some people were downloading ALL of them, all the damn time, and I suspected they were using them to get jobs--which is NOT cool with me. I didn't put them up for people to steal them for their own portfolio, and all those downloads were eating up my bandwidth like crazy too. Besides, the main reason I had them up was for employment reasons, but now that I'm on a long-term sabbatical, I don't really need to have them up anymore.
July 2, 2002
I finally completed the treatment for my 3D film project. The complexity of the plot now feels more like a TV series than a feature film. I'll be ready to upload some stuff about it in the 3D section very soon. I'm in the middle of doing the storyboarding, concept designs, and modeling right now. It'll probably still be a bit longer before I get to animate anything. I can't wait to start rendering out some nice shots of the characters. I spent 3 days planning out the shots for the trailer, and it all syncs very well with the music. Yay!
I debated whether or not to make it public what I'm working on, but in the end, I think it's good to announce it, since it'll put even more pressure on me to not slack off. :p
June 19, 2002
I just uploaded a fun collaboration I did with Dr. Bang. We had fun painting the piece, and it's really neat to see how obvious the piece contained both his and mine style.
June 9, 2002
I did a major overhaul of the entire website. I added some new stuff, restructured the directories, switched out many files that could've used some more compression. I would never sacrifice image quality for efficiency, so all the new versions are still at a high image quality . My rule of thumb is this: thumbnails should be around 5kb, and never over 10kb, while large images should never exceed 100kb. If any are over the limit, it's not by much, and the those images needed the extra 10~20kb for maximum clarity.
June 7, 2002
Holy cow, cgchannel.com emailed me today and told me I was featured on their front page for June 2nd! That really freaked me out, since cgchannel is a high-profile 3D industry website, and I don't even have any worthwhile 3D work to show! Apparently, the guys at cgchannel really liked my digital paintings. Let's hope when I start posting my 3D work, people will respond with the same entusiasm. :D
I have mel scripts and tools from plugins in my Maya tool shelves that don't have icons, and that really bugged me, so I made a bunch of icons today to beautify my tool shelves. I've uploaded them in case other Maya users are interested in using them. You can get them here.
May 31, 2002
I uploaded a painting in progress today titled "Angel Wars." I had a lot of fun working on that one. I hope it'll turn out nicely.
After months of struggling with Maya Unlimited 4.0.2, I'm beginning to get the hang of it. I love getting new mel scripts and trying them out. I downloaded all of the bonus poly tools, and I'm having so much fun trying out all the new modelling tools. I'm looking forward to posting some of my 3D work, but I'm not going to do that until I have something that I'm truly proud of. Idealy, I don't want to post anything that can't compete with some of the best 3D works viewable on the internet.
May 27, 2002
I updated the paintings&drawings section with some new works in progress, and a new sketch.
May 22, 2002
I did a painting that I'm pretty proud of today. It's a breakthrough piece for me. I've always wanted to do a digital piece that looked indistinguishable from a traditional oil painting, and I think I've finally done it. Go check it out.
May 21, 2002
Made another attempt to paint that Alla Prima look, and I failed again. Something is just not clicking. What is wrong with me?
May 5, 2002
I did a tutorial on my latest painting, Nude1. This is the first time I've actually made a complete tutorial. I stayed up all night painting and recording the steps, so I hope some people will get something out of it. *yawn* I REALLY need to get some sleep now.
May 3, 2002
I felt like painting a portrait today, so I took about 4 hours and painted one of Elena in Painter 7. It didn't turn out the way I wanted, but I don't think it sucks either.
May 2, 2002
I uploaded some photographs that I had previously rejected. At the time I took them, I felt they didn't capture what I wanted at the time, but looking at them now months later, I feel that they weren't really bad, just different than what I had wanted.
April 29, 2002
Today I shot my first photo-session since December last year. I was a bit surprised when I realized that I haven't taken any formal sessions for almost 5 months. Guess I've been too immersed in my paintings.
I just got back from my second trip to Hong Kong to renew my visa(gotta do this every 4 months). I picked some CD's and books while there. Rialto's second album totally blew me away. They've gotten more electronic, and now they sound like a combination of Beatles meets New Order(I know, isn't that weird?). I'm now reading A Pale View of the Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the books I picked up this time.
April 15, 2002
I did a quick vampire chick drawing today just for fun. I havn't done any straight pen/ink style work for years, and I was rusty as hell. It didn't help that I was doing it digitally either. The Wacom still has a long way to go to compete with a Winsor Newton series 7 brush.
I tried out Soldier Of Fortune 2's multiplayer demo, and I quite liked it(it was a leaked copy, as the demo is not even officially released yet). Let's hope the official release is as good.
I've been playing quite a bit of Global Operations, and I must say, as much as I didn't care for it at first, it really grew on me. Now, I no longer see it as a Counter-Strike clone. It's more like a Counter-Strike/Team Fortress clone. :p
April 13, 2002
I shot a quick session of Elena this afternoon when we were about to go meet another artist for dinner. She wore a new top she bought, and I immediately told her to freeze while I set up the simple lighting and clicked away for about 10 minutes. Go check it out in the session titled "Curtain."
My mom's dog died yesterday. We're pretty torn up about it. "Shao-houng"(Little-Red) was such a good girl. She was always energetic, friendly, healthy and normal, but her brain-spasm suddenly errupted and she died within 30 minutes. She was crying and jumping around like a mad dog, and then laid on the ground convulsing in spasms, foaming at the mouth. When the vet arrived, he immediately said there's no hope for her. It's a very common dog disease in China, and it can happen unexpectedly. Once your dog gets it(either from other dogs, or from the virus traveling in the air), there's no hope to survive. Even a vaccine won't guarantee anything. We'll miss her.
I finally got to see LOTR. I have many thoughts about it, but in general, I thought it did certain things better than the book, but failed in other ways. I liked it, and still look forward to the next two with eager anticipation.
April 4, 2002
I added three more unfinished paintings in the Work In Progress section. All three are fantasy paintings. It was brought to my attention that I havn't done any paintings with complex composition for a long time, so I went ahead and tried to do that with these.
Saw a bootleg trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers today. Even though the image quality was bad(some guy snuck a video camera into the theater), it still brought tears to my eyes. Wow. I can't wait. I still have to see first one! It won't be coming to China until later in April, but I'm NOT going to watch it in dubbed Chinese. HELL NO. I'd rather wait for the DVD than watch it in any language other than English.
March 27, 2002
I've been in creative overdrive. I keep getting new ideas and inspirations, and it's getting a bit frustrating. Why is it a bad thing? Well, because I already have too many unfinished paintings, and I keep adding to that pile with new ideas and sketches. If you want to see these works in progress, head on over to Paintings/Drawings.
March 12, 2002
The guy I pissed off wrote me back, and it seems we are now having a constructive, polite conversation, and reached some sort of understanding. Here's his reply:
"Hey, heheh. I don't mind you posting my e-mail. It's
good to see such a well thought out and intelligent
reply. Actually, to tell you the truth, it's not
really what you said that really bugged me, but how
you said it. I don't mind strong opinions. as you
obviously could tell, I have pretty strong ones too.
I just don't like seeing someone with intelligent,
coherent thoughts give off the impression that he's a
rather mean-spirited, un-nice person. Also, I don't
like mean-spirited, un-nice people.
Normally, I wouldn't send out an e-mail to a person
just because he's an @$$hole, god there wouldn't be
enough time in the day, but I figured you probably
weren't really like that, and I thought you deserved
to know what people might see you as.
As for your comments, since I've never lived in China,
I really can't say anything about that, BUT when it
comes to commenting on negatives, I'd have to disagree
with you in some ways. No one responds to only
negative critism. Giving only negative critism is
just like giving only positive comments. You really
need both to make an impact. Giving only negative
comments puts a person or people on the defensive, and
generally makes them unreceptive to your comments.
(Which often leads to people thinking of the nay-sayer
as an @$$hole). People who give only positive
comments eases a person in to believing you (of
course), but also makes the person lax, and thus the
person will not look at how to improve.
Giving both is really how you would bring change. On
your level, I would say the fact you only commented on
the bad, saying china (and it's citizens) are horrible
people, without saying what you enjoy about China
(assuming you do enjoy some things) makes your opinion
seem fairly bias, and makes you look like all you want
to do is bitch. Considering your beginning sentences
stated that you were simply commenting on your life
there, people (like me) will mis-interpret what it is
you are trying to say.
On the elitist thing, it doesn't have anything to do
with what you said, again, it had somehting to do with
how you said it. In your original comments you seemed
to detach yourself from the rest of the chinese
population, and presented the information as "they"
and "I", as two seperate entities. You then went on
to bash "them". What makes you sound elitist is this
separation. Why is this?
I'm not sure if you noticed this, but you make "them"
sound pretty bad, and contrasting that with "you", who
you made sound fairly good. You seem to be saying
that you, an American-Chinese (not ABC), are in no way
like them, Communist China-Chinese. Yet, you are both
chinese. Don't tell me you don't see any
similarities? In your reply you added that most
people you talk to would agree with you. If they
would agree with you in that way, how is it that they
are such horrible people like you stated?
It just seems that you have seperated yourself from
population. Just remember, you ARE part of the
population, and so are the friends you've made, and so
are the people who want a better life. You are all
part of the same group.
(Eg. You all seem fairly materialistic, heheh ;)
You might not agree with me, but if you were to try
to be more empathetic with the supposedly horrible
chinese public, you might understand more of what I'm
trying to say.
Of course, this isn't limited to just this issue.
Being more empathetic just seems to make your views
more objective, less harsh, and more understanding.
Of course, I am by no means a master in empathy, but I
figure it might be something both you and I might work
harder on. Actually, that sound's harsh, obvious and
stupid advice, and I apoligise in advance if you are
the most empathetic person that ever lived. Just try
to show it more on the net ;) (Also note, your reply
seems a lot more objective than your first comments,
which is why I'm replying).
I have read up a bit on the cultural revolution, and
tianamen square (although not enough, I have to
admit), but I think you also might note how not only
CHina, but the whole world has changed since then. I
don't think that all of that change is for the worse,
and I dont think that 50 years of communist rule can
change the values of chinese people so strongly that
they are as bad you seem to make them out to be. Of
course, I could be totally wrong, but it's something
to think about.
In the end I'd basically just like to say that I don't
think you are an elitist asshole, but your the way
your original post was worded didn't help your cause.
I'd also just like to say that maybe Identifying with
and being more empathetic might help you out with
sounding less harsh.
Hope that helps,
-Aylw
PS your reply was very well thought out, I hope this
reply doesn't really turn you off! its 5 in the
morning, heh :P"
And my reply to him:
"Hey, good to hear back from you.
I agree with you on a lot of points. I think being angry and disappointed is definitely not better than being sympathetic and understanding. I suppose my "us vs. them" attitude needs to be banished. We are all just people after all. I guess I was blinded by my disappointement and digust with many things I see here, and I threw my capacity for tolerance out the window. I became the kind of person I dislike--an intolerant and irritable person. Not that I lashed out to anyone around here or anything--in fact, I'm always very polite to people. I just criticize a lot when having conversations with like-minded folks. The kind of people that agree with me are the same type of people that protested at Tiananmen Square--the disillusioned people that are tired of all the corruption, lower standard of living, lack of freedom..etc.
I don't really believe in racial loyalty, so it makes no difference to me that I'm criticizing people that's of the same race. I believe in the Global Village, having grown up in a wonderful place like San Francisco. My close friends all know that I don't tolerate any form of bigotry, and I think I might've disappointed myself this time, having criticized the Chinese people in China so severely. But, I think you should realize that I didn't criticize them based on their race. If that was the case, I wouldn't have made friends here at all. What I'm really criticizing is the poor quality of people that this horrible government had created. The blatant display of greed, corruption, apathy, ignorance..etc is what bothers me.
To make things worse, Chinese people are extremely arrogant. They believe they are the smartest, wisest, and the most enduring race on the planet. They toot their own horn way too much, and they look down on all other races. I used have fights with my mother whenever she displayed reverse racism. I would always tell her that, "NO. Chinese people are NOT better than anyone else. It's wrong to think like that." They are brought up to believe all that B.S. about how three thousand years of history makes them better than anyone else. It's common ignorance like that making it easier for me to have a distaste for what I encountered here.
It's no secret that I'm not a fan of modern Chinese culture in general(especialy the communist Chinese)--all of my friends know that. However, I'm a fan of the kind of culture that was prevalent in the Tong Dynasty(the Chinese Renaissance). The modern Chinese people have long strayed from the beauty of that older culture, and if anything's left, it's been perverted so much that the beauty no longer exists. The people of communist China are especially guilty of this, being the victims of having the cultural revolution thrusted upon them. Hell, I can't even look at the simplified Chinese writing system the communists use here without feeling a slight tinge of anger. I mean, how DARE they pervert and destroy the beautiful writing system of the traditional Han written characters? It has remained in tact for thousands of years until the communists f*cked it up.
I'm definitely guilty of being headstrong and opinionated. I think I've been this way all my life. I'd like to believe I stand on the side of justice, and that's probably what makes me look like a holier-than-thou elitist a$$hole. I'll try to be more objective and less self-righteously discriminating in the future.
Anyway, I'm glad you wrote me in the first place. It gave me a chance to step back and be more objective. Thank you.
Rob"
March 8, 2002
It seems what I wrote about China in my last update pissed off someone. Now, I'm going to be objective and post his email so you can see why he was put off by what I wrote.
His email:
"Just something you might want to look into:
Upon reading your website's News/Updates (found the
link from sijun forums, where you made some
nasty-sounding comments), you seem to come of as an
elitist-holier than thou, close-minded, complete and
utter prick. Now, this may sound a bit harsh, but let
me explain.
The fact that the first thing you need to comment on
is how your Mandarin is better than the MOST people in
China is the first hint. It's not so much what you
said, but how you said it. You make it sound like
they are a disgrace (Ironic that you are correcting
them), and the whole fact that you feel the need to
correct them all makes you sound like an anal bastard.
Unless, of course, they are asking you for
corrections on their Mandarin. If you simply offer
your advice...
Next, you comment on the friends you've made, who are
considered the most "intelligent, educated, and
talented, young people in the city". I'm sure that's
just the common view, but the fact you keep mentioning
how much better you are than "Chinese people in
general", and that you (or your friends) are the cream
of the crop, so your opinions must be right(I filled
that in for you. I'm guessing that's what you're
trying to say), well, that makes you sound like a
flaming jackass.
Also, it's funny you call the Chinese people in
general "ignorant... narrow minded, materialistic",
and then comment on how another bad thing is that they
aren't clean enough to meet your standards because
they have greasy hair. Hmmmm. Actually, I agree. They
are disgusting. Why don't they make sure they are
clean according to our American standards?
I also love this line. "I almost always know more
about the things I'm buying than these ignorant folks
that try to sell them to me." Do you get what I'm
trying to tell you?
Then there is the paragraph where you say chinese
people say : "... really ignorant and stupid things
like, "Finally someone showed America who's the boss.
The Americans had it coming, always telling the rest
of the world what to do." blah blah blah..." We stick
our noses in other people's business? Well, what is so
wrong about lending a helping hand to countries in
trouble, even if we help the side that is beneficial
to us, aren't we still HELPING? "
See, I find this paragraph most funny, but I guess you
can't be American to see why. And while it's true the
victims did not deserve such a tragedy, on the other
hand, America as a country? I'm not so sure. And if
you think America (acting as a country, which is what
the chinese people are talking about I assume, not
americans, they probably call americans much different
names) Only controls people to HELP them... Well,
then, just don't call ME ignorant.
Really, though, that paragraph is OK, because most
Americans would think that way, and I don't want to
piss of Americans, cause I wouldn't want to get beaten
up.
It occurs to me, after the paragraph,
" If you want to find the good that's left in the
Chinese people, try countries like Taiwan, Singapore,
Malaysia, and other countries with a large Chinese
population. To the rest of the Chinese people around
the globe, mainland China is a source of shame and
disgrace. ", That you only seem to be looking at China
in a pretty close-minded view. It's like you haven't
even TRIED looking for anything good about China,
before you bash it (except your intelligent,
successful friends, which don't count). Its like you
are comparing their culture to your culture, and,
since Americans already exist in a perfect culture,
any other one must be worse. It makes me wonder
(especially since you seem to praise knowledge-based
intelligence) if you've even tried to understand the
culture you are living in. Sure there are probably
going to be some things that are worse, but there HAS
to be SOMETHING that mainland China and it's residents
have to offer.
The first time the white-man met the... well, I was
going to use the classic example "Native-American",
but really, any non-white culture, they saw only the
differences in the two ways of life, and assumed
theirs was better. Since you came from a white-based
culture(USA), are you sure you aren't doing the same
thing with main-land China? Are you sure you are
looking at Mainland China after knowing everything
there is to know about China? And if all your friends
agree with you, are there people who don't? If they
don't agree with you, why don't they?
Now, I don't know you personally, so for all I know
you could very well be the nicest person in the world,
and what you wrote was the result of lack of sleep and
a raging anger, but all I'm saying is three things.
1)If you haven't yet, try asking questions, and
searching answers for those questions. I don't
believe that Main-Land China, and all it's residents
(aside from your friends that are considered some of
the most intelligent, educated, talented, and
successful young people in this city) are evil. It
sounds like you aren't having much fun in China.
Maybe you aught to focus more on the good parts of
China and the "general populace"? Kinda play devil's
advocate. Even if your opinion does not change, you
will come out sounding a lot more knowledgable, and
your comments will carry with them much more
refinement and weight.
2) Kinda ties in to 1, It's always good to know BOTH
sides of the story. Sure, 9/11 was a tragedy, but
what was the reason the suicide bombers were able to
live in American society for years and still go
through with such a horrible crime? It might be that
everyone who hates America (god there are a lot of
them) are all either evil, ignorant or brain-washed,
or they might have ACTUAL reasons to dislike USA! Of
course, there IS no reason to hate the US. I swear.
3) Some (or Many) people reading your homepage will
think you are an elitist-holier than thou,
close-minded, complete and utter prick. You might not
be in real life, and this is just the persona that
seems to come out over the internet. Or you may be.
In both cases, you might want to read over what you
have written, and ask yourself, if you changed a few
nouns, and pretended it wasn't you that had written
it, would you think you were a jackass?
Of course, it just might be that you ARE an
elitist-holier than thou, close-minded, complete and
utter prick, WITH NO intention to change because you
enjoy to be. Well then, more power to you, but I
don't think you are.
If you want to discuss what I wrote, you can send me
an e-mail. Don't worry, I am an elitist,
holier-than-thou, close-minded complete and utter
prick, with NO intention to change, so I can take any
comments.
-Aylw
PS... crap, It just occured to me that your whole Feb
20, 2002, News post might be a clever and subtle joke,
ALL in itself. damn, I feel stupid."
And here is my response:
"Hello there,
I understand where you are coming from, but realize, what I wrote is my personal opinions and feelings at the moment I wrote it. Sure, I think China is seriously lacking in many ways, but if I found it painful to live here, I would just leave, right?
I don't know about your background, or if you know much about Chinese people, but my views about mainland China is universally shared by other Chinese people--and this INCLUDES the people that live here. They all agree that this place sucks, and they would kill to move to another country, but they can't get out. When I have conversations with people here, they all agree that it's wrong to spit everywhere, litter, not follow traffic laws, bribe, lie, cheat...etc, but they always say, "that's just the way things are here. I can't change how things are by myself, so I must play their game to survive."
As far as for sounding elitist, I ask you this simple question:
If people were to suppress their critical thoughts about their living enviroment and then never discuss them openly, how are things suppose to improve? The society is improved when someone sees things that are dissatisfactory, then speaks out about it, and other people who agree would begin voicing their own discontent. It acts as a catalyst and then actions are taken. If I were to be so forgiving and tried to see just the good, then how will things get better? I wrote about many other things other than their hygiene. What about the fact their society has allowed them to stand around and watch people die and not lend a helping hand? What about all the corruption, lies, and manipulation that goes on here constantly?
I'm assuming you haven't lived here, so you can't see how things are. Standing from the sideline is very different from actually being in the arena.
As when I call them ignorant and stupid, it's because NO ONE should applaude an act of terrosism. Heinous crimes against humanity should never be cheered on and approved. If that act of terrorism happened in China, Americans would NOT have stood up and cheered.
It seems to me you are not a fan of United States. Well, as much as anyone wants to bash the U.S., they cannot deny the fact the Americans sacrificed many of its own people to help other countries in the World Wars(and many other wars). And look at the Marshall Plan after WWII. Man, we really tried to keep Europe from falling apart. I mean, Americans cared, and tried their best to help. There aren't a lot of countries on this planet that does as much to help other countries. That is just a simple truth. (And no, I'm not blind to the questionable things the Americans have done, I just think the good far outweighs the bad.)
I don't know if you realize this, but I AM Chinese. I speak, read, write Chinese just as well as any native Chinese person. I also understand the Chinese society and traditions as well as I should, having grown up in a Chinese family. I'm NOT an American Born Chinese that is completely ignorant of their own heritage. I read Chinese novels, watch Chinese movies, read the Chinese newspaper. I have no problem with being Chinese. I just have a problem with communist China and the kind of society they spawned.
I think you might want to read up on the following and have a better understanding of the history of modern China. After that, you might begin to understand more of my disposition:
The cultural Revolution
Tiananmen square massacre
From reading about those, you'll gain a better understanding of how I feel.
And I think you should also know that my views are not singular. Not only do many of my friends here share them, there are also scholars, philosophers, and educators that have published books with similar disposition. Chinese people in general are NOT happy with the way things are here, and they want a better life.
I'm sorry if you think I'm an elitist asshole. Maybe how I presented my views are a bit harsh. I'll see if I can remedy that.
Rob
BTW, I hope you won't mind me posting your email on my website. I want people to see where you're coming from, since I'm sure there are others that feel the same way you do. It's a good thing to show the opposite view just to be fair."
So, I'm going to do as he suggested and list some things I like about China. I even smoothed out some of the more "glaring remarks" in the last update by making them slightly more digestable.
Things I like about China:
1)Things are REALLY cheap here. I can get things for sometimes less than 1/10 of the price I would spend in the U.S. But, there are also other things that cost around the same.
2)People here generally are respectful to foreigners. It stems from the fact they look up to foreigners and are huge fans of western culture. It's a bit of a paradox, since they blindly worship American culture, yet bash it at the same time.
3)The friends I have made here.
4)Um. . . I'm still thinkng. . ..
Oh well, I tried. I mean, I got THREE things in, right?
Well, I guess the first thing I listed provides me with the perfect chance to take a long sabbatical and work on my own stuff instead of working fulltime to just afford the expensive housing in the Bay Area. Now, I spend my days doing the following:
1)Paint my own stuff.
2)Hone my 3D skills.
3)Write my screenplays/novels.
4)Compose new music.
5)Improve my photography.
So, it's all good. : )
Anyway, I'm not some angry person who only spews harsh diatribe. Those of you that knows me know that I'm actually a really down to earth and easy going guy.
I'll try to be less critical and more forgiving in the future. : )
February 20, 2002
After checking out the newer strips by Derek Kirk, I realize I haven't been ranting about my opinions on China for a while now. So, here we go.
I've been here since September, 2001, and this is how I feel about this place right now:
First of all, I speak impeccable Madarin Chinese--way better than most people in China. I have to constantly correct them on their pronunciation(isn't that ironic? Me, a guy that's been living in United States since age 11 is going around correcting the natives on their mother tongue). This is because most places in China speaks local dialects(along with Mandarin), and they are so used to improper pronunciation from each other that they no longer notice their own mistakes. Not that there's anything wrong with them speaking funny sounding Mandarin--it's just kinda funny to me, that's all.
I've made local friends here, and we sometimes sit around and criticize Chinese society. These friends are considered some of the most intelligent, educated, talented, and successful young people in this city(very friendly and kind as well), and how they feel about their own city/country is similar to how I feel. We agree on many of the following observations.
Chinese people in general(I'm talking about Chinese people in communist China, not the rest of the world)are usually ignorant, selfish, greedy, dirty, narrow minded, materialistic, and immoral. Sounds harsh, right? Allow me to explain.
Let me give some examples on why we feel this way about Chinese people in China. First of all, poverty and lack of education is not the fault of the people, but the fault of the government, so we'll skip on how low my opinion is of the communist party dominated China. Let's just say that they are all greedy, corrupt, and power hungry evil villains.
Hygiene is directly related to poverty, but in most cases I've seen here, it is just inexcusable. Fuzhou is one of the modern cities, yet you still people who walk around with dirty, oily hair and disgusting sweat-stained clothes. Now, these people have bathrooms and showers, yet they don't use them often enough. I can't even buy floss here because no one knows what the hell it is. Even the dentists here don't use floss! People also spit on the floor constantly, and pick their noses and ears in public. God, that's just disgusting.
Selfishness and greed is the common trait of the Chinese people here. People will literally stand in a circle and watch someone getting beaten to death and not bother to lift a single finger to help. I'm not making this up--it is a common occurrence. I've heard so many stories about how so-and-so's friend was beaten to death in public, and no one even bothered to call the cops or tried to help. My friend's uncle had a heart attack in the middle of a crowded street, and everyone just stood there and watched. Not one single person bothered to call an ambulance or offer to drive him to a nearby hospital. By the time a police car drove by and picked him up, he was already dead. He would still be alive today if someone just had the slightest human decency. It really pisses me off that these selfish and immoral people treat these events as spectator sports instead of urgent human tragedies that needs the help of strangers. These people are also some of the greediest I've ever seen. They seem to think that it's their right to take from others, and if you are successful, you owe them what they don't have. People lie and cheat here more than other places I've been to.
Chinese people are famous for their reliance on "connections." You will NOT get anywhere doing anything in China if you don't have connections. You can be the most intelligent, talented, and hard working person in the world, but if you don't bribe or kiss ass, you will not get a single thing accomplished. In fact, if you don't know any official asses to bribe to kiss, no matter how much you want to do it, you'll still get nowhere. There are way too many people in this country that do not deserve to be where they are, and people that are qualified cannot even make a decent living. You think you have it tough in a country like United States? Think again. At least us Americans have the saying, "If there's a will, there's a way." There is no such saying here. People will just ask you, "So. who do you know and how much money do you have?"
Lack of professionalism is rampant here. You can easily walk into any place and find store owners that have no knowledge about what they sell. They make false claims about products, and will pretty much lie to your face about a product in order to sell it. The employees of stores receive almost no training, and their customer service skills are nonexistent. I almost always know more about the things I'm buying than these folks that try to sell them to me. Why don't they bother to just research a little bit into the products they are selling. Shouldn't they be prepared when customers ask questions about what they sell?
These ignorant folks actually cheered when United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. They say really spiteful and stupid things like, "Finally someone showed America who's the boss. The Americans had it coming, always telling the rest of the world what to do." I suppose they'd love it if the rest of world turned communist and started gunning down its own citizens with machine guns as China did during the Tiananmen massacre back in 1989? If the terrorist incident had happened to China, no American would stand up and cheer such a heinous crime, no matter how much the Americans disagree with China's policy on human rights. United States had it coming? We stick our noses in other people's business? Well, what is so wrong about lending a helping hand to countries in trouble? When was the last time China helped anyone?
For the fans of Chinese culture, let me tell you something you should always remember: the communists already destroyed all that's good about the Chinese culture with the cultural revolution more than thirty years ago. If you want to find the good that's left in the Chinese people, try countries like Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and other countries with a large Chinese population. To the rest of the Chinese people around the globe, mainland China is a source of shame and disgrace. They make Chinese people look bad, yet they represent the rest of us. Why the hell do you think Hong Kong was terrified and angry to be returned to China? Thank God China didn't do too much damage to Hong Kong, knowing if they did force their evil ways on Hong Kong, the rest of the world would be pretty fucking pissed.
I'm sure that if the people in China didn't have to live in such a corrupt and unjust enviroment, they would not end up the way they are now, but much nicer and less calculating. In their world, the greedy and power hungry people without morals rise to the top, and they make everyone else's lives horrible. Then, the average folks would have to adhere to the calculating and selfish ways of everyone else just so they don't get shafted. It's an evil and destructive cycle that won't break unless some drastic changes are made. Sure, China's changed a lot in just the last ten years, but they still have so much more to go. Economic growth alone won't be enough--they have to improve the quality of the people too.
anyway, once I leave this place, I'm never coming back. After living in a place like this, I can honestly say that I'm proud to be an American. You can say what you want about United States, but at least the people there believe and practice peace, justice, and human decency.
February 18, 2002
Finished a new painting. I'm starting to get the hang of Painter now. Version 7 makes life a bit easier too.
Been decapitating people in Rune: Halls of Valhalla. It's refreshing to do melee battle after all the gun toting I've been doing.
I seem to have developed an unhealthy addiction to Korean Pop music. *Sigh* Who wouldn't like really cute girls with beautiful singing voices?
February 7, 2002
I've worked on a lot of paintings lately, but none are finished yet. I've gotten into the weird habit of switching back and forth between Painter and Photoshop for no apparent reason other than it keeps things interesting. Go check out these unfinished pieces in the Paintings & Drawings section.
Metal of Honor: Allied Assault kicks ass! That Normandy Beach level in the single player is... WOW.
January 12, 2002
I didn't think I would ever play another FPS single player game that impressed me as much as Half-Life did, but man, Alien VS. Predator 2 came pretty damn close. Good story, fun action, heavy atmosphere, and FEAR. The marine story was the best, because you are actually SCARED playing through the whole story. But as alien or predator, you just feel like killing a lot of humans. The multiplayer is a blast too, especially the dynamics created by having three distinct species that uses different combat styles. I was playing a couple of other FPS single player games simultaneously, and only AVP2 managed to keep me intrigued enough to finish the whole thing. I got tired of Red Faction pretty fast, and despite a pretty good multiplayer design, I decided to uninstall it to make some room. I snickered through Return to Castle Wolfenstein for a few hours, and decided I couldn't stomach another stupid "Hollywood German" dialogue. It also pissed me off how much damage the AI enemies could take before dying. I mean, it's a military themed game, which means it should be just a tad more realistic. Operation Flashpoint seems fun enough, but the horrible voice acting and dialogue was really distracting.
Been experimenting with Painter again, and it still bug me enough to make me want to stick to Photoshop for good. Maybe I need to spend more time with it.
Trying to learn all the nitty gritty of the Korg Triton LE Workstation, and it's pretty damn complex. I miss how simple it used to be to compose and arrange a song with my old Roland D-10 and the PR-100 sequencer. It's going to take a LONG time to master the Triton LE.
I've been writing fantasy again, after concentrating on pretentious contemporary literature for a few years. I've always wondered why no one writes fantasy/sci-fi with a heavy literary style, but then I realized a book like that would be pretty hard to swallow(and probably not that much fun to write either).
January 7, 2002
I went to Hong Kong to have my visa renewed, and my impression after visiting it was good. When I was there, I really felt like I was in an international city. Most people in stores spoke English, and you can find many English things there(books, music, DVD..etc). I shopped at HMV, of course, and found DVD versions of La Reine Margot, Trois Colours: Rouge, and Lovers of the Arctic Circle! I couldn't find those on DVD just months ago, but I guess they all got released around the same time. I also found some Korean films I've wanted to see(La Belle, Momento Mori, Christmas in August..etc). I also picked up some CD's. The best one by far, is Lisa Ekdahl's "Sings Salvadore Poe." What a beautiful album! The new Orbital album, "The Altogether," was disappointing. "The Middle of Nowhere" was excellent, and this follow up was just...flat. The new Curve album, "Gift" is nice. No breakthroughs, just kinda extended the softer side of "Come Clean."
I picked up a Korg Triton LE workstation in Hong Kong. Time to start composing music again! Woo hoo!!
I've finally broke down and purchased LOTR in paperback. I never wanted to read it, because I thought it was too old in terms of pacing and style, especially after I grew up on modern fantasy. But, I think I should read it before watching the movie.
Black Hawk Down was showing two days AFTER I leave Hong Kong, so I didn't get to see it. Damn! I don't even know if both LOTR and BHD will be showing in China. . ..
I updated the Mystical photo-session with a sepia toned picture I had forgotten to upload. It's a really cute picture of Elena. She looks about ten years younger in the picture--not bad for someone who's 31. . ..
2001 ---2002--- 2003 --- 2004 --- 2005 --- from 2006 and on