While I Still Remember

Diary entry, Jan 30, 2012

2012-01-30T15:59:00.001Z

A swarm of school children taking the tube. Humans, as creatures, are pretty loud. Chirpy, not unlike those flock of birds you see in documentaries, perhaps brooding on cliffs or something.

Grown up humans, however, when compelled to use the tube on a Monday morning, are as quiet as the grave.

Regarding the differences in community between London and Hong Kong by looking at their McDonalds

2012-01-18T11:28:00.000Z

In both places, the fast food chain is an import, but I feel that in either case they are well integrated, and different to the ones in America.

I was in Hong Kong couple of weeks back, for a couple of weeks, lived near Sha Tin. Its McDonald's is in the mall that grew around the transport hub, between glassy retail units. Hong Kong is a land of malls with glassy retail units. I was there a few times, where the breakfasts are Fillet'O Fish and some sort of macaroni in soup. The restaurant is where kids study do their mountains of homework, and where the elderly read their morning papers. I saw a girl painting a card (Pink with Hello Kitty).

Where do kids in London do their homework anyway? The underlying tone of the place seemed to be productivity and community.

Last weekend, I was back to the McDonald's at Walthamstow, at the edge of London. It was a Sunday early noon, the place was still half empty. There were kids running around. Kids here appear in public to be either livelier or more feral to the kids in Hong Kong, depending. I was concerned with the family next to me: across them a strange elderly man splitting and making airplane noises. A lonely harmless crazy, something that tends to stay hidden in Hong Kong.

Tube daydreams, alternate timelines

2012-01-15T16:53:00.001Z

I'm wondering about time travel and alternate time lines, about how that time when I was in Elizebeth's room back in university. Is there a past where I kissed her, and is there a future we were together?

Out of this World: again

2011-07-23T18:21:00.001+01:00

Second visit to the Out of this World exhibition at the British Library. I've spent another hour in there, and I was still nowhere near finishing seeing the whole thing. Maybe I'm a slow browser, but I'd like to think that it's due to the sheer amount of material on display. It always astonishes me how London can provide us with such high quality exhibition for free.

So far, I've browsed the sections on space travel and aliens, and on future societies and humans. It's interesting to read about how right and wrong these writers were, and how our society really is more futuristic beyond their imagination (perhaps with the exception of space travel and flying cars).

Science fiction, and exhibitions like this, highlights a pretty overlap between history, science and art. It also reminded me of religion. Some the ideas presented can easily take a mystical persecutive rather than an intellectual one. And inversely I feel that some of the prophets or oracles of the olden days can perhaps be good science fiction writers, if given the chance. I guess at least one modern cult has its origin based on science fiction.

I'm looking forward to go there again another day, to look through the section on parallel universes.

Weekend routines II

2011-07-16T18:47:00.001+01:00

I have the perfect excuse to not wake up and stay in bed and do nothing today. I suppose 'it's Saturday' is as valid excuse as any, but I tend to guilt trip myself if I don't give an elaborate reason to 'why a you wasting your life', though I do give myself a lot of practice these days. Today I actually have two almost reasonable excuses.

I skived school yesterday, and went Lovebox, a festival at Victoria Park. I know none of the bands playing, and no one I know is going, save some girl I met once, because 'she wants to go but doesn't want to go alone', a sentiment I once had before I become good at being a loner (though I understand not everyone can be as awesome as I). As for the festival, it focuses on DJs, and club and dance music (totally out of my scene, but I'm adaptable), though the headline act is misleadingly indie. The weather was uncharacteristically glorious, and I pity the revellers to that festival today. I find those dance and DJ sets have strange similarities to classical music, in that each 'piece' is long, repetitive, and are just variations of a theme, and that new comers to it will think 'everything sounds the same'. Still, I had to dance and everything and enjoy myself, anyone can do that if they wanted to, which leads to my first excuse: I don't wanna wake up because my legs are still tired, even after sleep.

The second excuse is a lot more universal. No one sets their alarm clock on weekends anyone, though I idiotically slept with my phone next to bed, and someone decided to text at 7am. It could've been a good thing, I had half a mind of going to a festival at Shoredich, if the weather is good. It wasn't, and it's still bad now. I didn't even have the look, the rain was rattling hard on the windows. With no reason to get up, I went back to bed, until I really needed food.

Out of this world: prelude

2011-07-09T17:37:00.002+01:00

First of all I decided that Nando's is so delicious, I'm going to have it every week. Saturdays, in fact. Euston station may not have the nice huge ceiling of Paddington, or the posh new St. Pancras bit near King's Cross, it does have a Nando's, making it my station of choice for food purposes.

I am current sitting in the Starbucks overlooking the British Library. I planned to visit the 'Out of this World' exhibition there right now, but by the time I negotiated myself out of bed, got myself to Euston, and sated myself on Nando's, it's a bit after 4pm. The building closes at 5, which means I have to leave, after only got through the section on Martians and half way through the rest of the aliens. I am planning to go again tomorrow, since I'm curious as to what the big blue police box next to the mechanical walker is about.

Image of the Invisible God

2011-07-06T17:07:00.001+01:00

There are some cool bible verses, ones that read like a passage from a magic book, inspiring a whole hierarchy of heavenly beings.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1:15-16 KJV)

This is from a bigger part of the text read out during some bible study session I tagged along to. Instead of talking about the more awesome aspect of the 'invisible' world, the bits where angels and stuff being summoned, they fall back on just grovelling about how amazing their God is. I live in a world where leaders who demand grovelling tend to be evil/mad, and I find it disconcerting that Christians seem to attach that quality to their God.

It's the 'invisible' that drew me to this text, and the ironic use of 'image'. I'm pretty sure Paul is not a natural philosopher, and when he said 'invisible' he really meant ghosts and demons and angels and stuff. Mystical things.

There are other kinds of invisible though. Forces, fields, spectrums. Space, time, logic. Maths. I like the irony of how we can wield these 'mundane' powers to achieve what priests and shamans do in the past using gods and magic. Here we have an oracle that can predict the weather, and work out when the sun would go dark. We can heal the sick. We can kill from a distance, and destroy cities. Maybe now we know what the invisible God really is.

Weekend routines

2011-07-03T18:17:00.001+01:00

There were plans. There is so much to do in this city. The weather is great. Despite of all the splendid reasons I gave myself, I find it hard to wake up and be useful at weekends. There is no reason why I should listen to The Archers or Desert Island Discs in bed before I decided to get out, out of sheer boredom. DID is a fine program, by the way, it's just not a good reason for inactivity.

There are things to blame of course. The tube line that takes me to London was suspended. What I wanted to do will still be there when transport works again. No one is going with me. Why do I want to do stuff anyway?

Well here I am, sitting in a Starbucks, scribing random stuff on the blog, before deciding on where to go next.

Testing

2011-06-18T22:08:00.001+01:00

Hello world

Commander prerelease

2011-06-18T21:15:00.001+01:00

Staring at Euston station. I've just had a Nando's dinner. Now that I'm less hungry, I can think straight again. I'm thinking about the weather, it's probably not raining right this instant, but it is close. I'm annoyed that I'm starting to have a cough again, and I blame the rain. I shouldn't be catching a cold so close to the summer.

I'm thinking about how I spent £60+ on what essentially is cardboard. Today is the release event for the Commander theme decks for MtG, and I purchased a couple. I'm wondering if it is adult behaviour to splash out like this, or if it's a savvy way to spend money since I had half a day of fun.

Finally I'm thinking about the route home, how the engineering work on the tube means that the usual train that goes exactly where I want doesn't work today, I can either endure the hell that is 'replacement bus', or find a lot more complicated way back. On the cusp of being ill, neither makes me happy.

Back to diary enties

2011-06-16T21:14:00.001+01:00

ThinkBook is a good app to make notes with, but to write continuos pros really Notes is the best one to use. Probably better than Pages for what I wanted to do, jotting down random fripperies while I wait for my food.

I have voluntarily got myself off the back of my supervisor by saying that I would just make a start on my thesis while you focus on get the simulation package ordered. I'm going to regret it, I bet the form is still on his desk.

I have proven to myself that I do not want to be a writer, by counting the cobwebs gathering at the science blog I tried to write. I love writers, I love storytellers. It is just that I can never be one.

Next to me is a couple, who can't be much beyond their first date, judging from the conversations they're having, still probing into each others profession. Not sure what the man does, but the lady is probably an arty designer type, talking about how she tries to incorporate 'deliciousness' into her fashion designs, to go against the industry's demonising of food. Actually the guy is probably also an artist, now explaining some installation he is working on or something.

Another cool profession I'm not designed for.

Lost

2010-11-14T01:55:00.001Z

I'm missing London, mostly materialistic, like my bed, shower, private space, my flat in general. Friends I have there, the routine, and knowledge that I know where things are, where I stand, where I belong.

The last two points are pretty ephemeral, I noted that I don't actually like doing the things I have been training to be an expert at. I know that I can only change so many times in life, and I only have so many chances, but what can I do?

Until then, I will focus on this short term placement, work out what needs to be done and do them, the finish off this slightly longer term PhD. Then be properly lost.

Coffee

2010-11-12T04:02:00.000Z

There are at least three coffee shops on this road, outside Downtown Berkeley station. The Internet at the hostel is pathetic, so I decided to go to a random coffee place and wish for the best. Over my time here I guess I will eventually try all three coffee houses and more, and probably discovered that they all have good wifi. Probably. And render my deliberation this evening completely redundant.

The access to coffee at the office here seems to be less readily than at old Imperial. Seriously how academics function when low on caffeine is a mystery. When I finally found the coffee vending machine in the basement, it took my dollar without giving me coffee. Not an amazing start.

"Hello World"

2010-11-11T03:16:00.001Z

Just me here, testing to see if technology works.