::Wondering Mind::

I just had an epiphany: my life now revolves around batteries!

My iphone is my ultimate tool! I’m constantly making sure that it is charged so that I don’t run out of power and fall off the grid or can’t access my information.
My macbook pro is my other tool of choice! god forbid i forget my power cable at home as it would spell tragedy… I never got the 7 hours advertised battery life, more like 4 hours under moderate/heavy use.
My camera has also been an essential part of my armada since beijingdaze.com took off: I have documented almost every meal I’ve had and every show I’ve gone to. No camera = no post most of the time.
Now, for the new addition, my e bike: Battery life is now dictating where I go and how fast i get there most of the time! If I’m out, I literally have to stop and pull the 29kg battery out, go home and then recharge the damn thing before i can use the scooter again.

oil dependency? I don’t think so…

(yes, I know oil is used to get electricity yaddi yadda.. it’s still battery life as far as I am concerned)

my oh my! how the mighty have fallen! I remember roaming around the Southeast United States on my Yamaha virago, racing clouds and trucks and what not! Now, I have joined the ranks of e-bike riders in Beijing with my very own Yamaha Metis Max…. more on this puppy after I’ve spent extra time riding it around!

how about that?

Been a while but no worries, i’m still around! I think blogging over at BeijingDaze is taking up most of my disposable time but fear not… u still get some pieces of my wondering mind!

Right now, it’s crunch time with preps on the way for the world cup! yeas, yours truly managed to secure tickets to a few games and i’m planning to have a blast! So far, I’m scheduled to catch Germany-Serbia, Germany-Ghana as well as a round of 16th game between 1H and 2G… how about that?

There is a bit of doubt though because I’m hitting South Africa in their winter and that is a word i don’t really want to hear about for another few months considering we just came out of the winter-that-never-ends in Beijing with temperatures flirting with the 0 Celsius in April.

Nevertheless, the prospects of going back to what has become one of my favorite countries is quite thrilling. I get to spend loads of time hanging out with a person i care deeply about/for and also visit parts of the country i have not seen like Port Elizabeth.

here’s one toworld cup fever baby!

A good friend of mine suggested a few weeks back that a few of us get together and do an old fashioned music swap. It would be a great opportunity to bring together a dozen people around the globe and discover new exciting music ( or remember why we’re not listening to a particular artist/type)

The rules were simple, pick at the most 25 songs that represent your journey through life!

yeah, simple my ass!!! How am i supposed to sift through an entire itunes catalog with songs in over 10 languages and decide on the 25 that changed my life or represented milestones? tricky tricky!

The first go netted a little over 100 songs. Thing is, these were 100 songs that i love, not songs that meant something in particular. That wasn’t gonna cut it! I deleted that playlist and started over with a new criteria: The song had to bring back a memory, good or bad! This process netted about 45 songs that I managed to work down to 25 but it wasn’t easy! The result actually surprised me… certain names are on there while others i expected to make the cut were nowhere near!

Here is what came out:

The front cover is a picture i took a few week ago at the Black Sand Beach in Langkawi, Malaysia. I couldn’t get it out of my head for a while and kept drifting back to it whenever i thought about a cover for this mix. At first, I couldn’t think of a way to connect the water, sand, music and all. Of course, I could just put it all together just like that but I wanted the whole thing to flow. One late night sipping rum, I got the right inspiration and that’s what came out of it. I absorb music the way sand absorbs water… it comes in and becomes part of who/what I am.

The back cover is a bit of funky idea on its own, I d be curious to see if anyone figures it out

I had a little chance to catch Confucius (孔子） yesterday at the Megabox in Sanlitun and while i did not necessarily come out of it a better man (maybe the whole patience angle), it was better than expected!

Of course, most people are aware of the controversial decision to pull avatar out or the 2D screen in favor of the local production but more importantly, said local production has been slaughtered by foreigners and locals alike. I heard so much criticism of the movie that made it sound like one of the worst cinematographic products of recent memory.

The prominent Chinese blogger, Han Han (as translated by chinasmack) wrote that :

Finally, I want to say that the movie Confucius, whether it is from the perspective of cinematographic meaning, business profits, artistic merit, what it explores, its educational qualities, its historical accuracy, its entertainment value, its emotional resonance, etc., is completely unnecessary. It is a film that could be completely done without.

what? I mean come on, give me a break! I’ve seen plenty of movies in and out of China but I’m not going into that right now.

Maybe it was a byproduct of my low expectations but I can’t say I didn’t like the movie, at least from my limited perspective as a foreigner. I really wished I could actually follow the whole thing without needed the subtitles as there were times when I caught myself concentrating too much on what was written and forgetting the picture.

so, a few notes:

• I liked that they showed more than just the philosophical side of Confucius. I’m not sure he waged war with such ability but but it was good to see that aspect of his life/personality emphasized. One could even argue it was too much of an emphasis
• Too much politics, not enough philosophy. Then again, that is in many cases representative of the real situation in China even nowdays.
• G.O.L.F: Gentlemen only, ladies forbidden! The one somewhat meaningful female part was more or less meaningless. The empress is assassinated without explanation as to who or why.
• The was a sense of rushing through the story without tying loose ends… a cinematographic equivalent of the Chinese “deng deng deng” or etc..
• Chow Yun-fat did a decent job with the acting.. I honestly like the guy much more so than I like Jackie Chan.
• I don’t see what the fuss is all about either way
• The movie will get a decent reaction from overseas markets. They’r hungry for anything China and Confucius could use some PR. It’s also nice for the general mass populi to get a bit of education and have their stereotypes replaced by others that are closer to reality but nevertheless stereotypes.

what did you think?