9 posts from May 2008

New York Taxi

May 25, 2008
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Just came back from New York Stationery Show. Wanting my son to understand where I'd been, I took many photos of NY city and bought a toy taxi for him. Now here's a new plan to open up his mind, in addition to showing him through Google Earth where I travel, I'm gonna collect taxis to give him a more vivid view of the globe.

New York Taxi

To him, yellow taxi is totally new, I wish I bought a London toy taxi for him last year. He is now spending time with his NY cab day and night, holding it to his afternoon nap too :) Happy childhood son!

Micro Trends - Mark J. Penn

May 25, 2008
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Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes

Mark Penn

The first "micro" trend I encountered was "micro-commerce/economy" back in the internet boom era while I was doing ecommerce projects, we imagined a world with individual little choices interacting with each other forming up the whole commerce model. More and more the world is opened up to even more individuals through developments on the net - paypal, ebay, blogging, eshop, etc. As Mark J. Penn put in his introduction "people have never been more sophisticated, more individualistic, or more knowledgeable about the choices they make in their daily lives". Today, viral marketing seems an essential part of any business, the Butterfly Effect, the Tipping Point, the Long Tail, Think/Blink, the Cluetrain Manifesto, etc all these models and practices move us forward to an even more connected and instant world. This book Micro Trends presented in small chapters real world examples how small ideas can lead to large changes. A great read for me on my 15 hours flight to/from New York. Can't ignore that 1% population man!

Nice Camera for Kids, None Exists

May 13, 2008
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Interested in Camera Too?

Today's short trip to Vietnamese afternoon tea: My son was carrying my Rollei 35SE camera with a Lomo LCA leather carrying case. Instead of just viewing the result of a digital camera, he seems to start getting interested in all those cameras sitting in the glass case in our living room. So I picked one and allowed him to carry it for me.

Son Holding Polaroid

I was looking at my glass case full of analog cameras and he asked "may I get that one?" So I pointed to a plastic camera and he said "no no, that one". "This?" I said pointing to yet another plastic camera, "no the big one". He aimed at the biggest, a Polaroid Highlander. It was too heavy for him to hold up to eye level so finally I laid it on sofa for him to play with the shutter. After 30 seconds playing with the shutter he switched his attention to the flash unit. "What's this?" he said. "It's supposed to be a flash unit but we don't have the bulbs here so it doesn't work." Then he made canon firing sounds by clicking on the switch. Time to go afternoon tea, that's when I shortened the strap of the leather case to fit his size and made him carry a Rollei compact for me.

Tonight I searched on the net and found some cameras for kids. But none of them looks good enough. All but super colorful and weird shapes like game controllers. Why don't they make some classic looking digital cameras with colorful shells? I hate to see game controllers invading into a kid's world.

Rickshaw's Moleskine Case Update

May 11, 2008
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Here's an update from Mark Dwight (Rickshaw's Founder & CEO) on his progress to make a case for Moleskiners. His messenger bags will be available online in about 3 weeks' time, do check out his beautiful web site and sneak peek on some of the very distinct designs. In the mean time, please comment on the Moleskine case by posting on this or youtube site or email to him directly. I will meet him at NYSS/ICFF next week to check out the actual sample.

Rickshaw Moleskine Case

Here's a history of its development: M.bian Moleskine Case - an abandoned project, Responses to M.bian Moleskine Case, M.bian Case Meets Rickshaw's Mark Dwight.

Moleskine Moly_x_10 Group: My Book

May 6, 2008
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Here's a Moleskine Japanese Album I started for the Moly_x_10 group. The topic here is: What has nothing to do with TIME. I'm going to send it to the next artists inviting them to add their drawings/writings to enlighten me.

Moly_x_10 My Book

I believe TIME is the greatest invention by human consciousness to cope with the ever changing world of uncertainty. Many of the things we all treasure have nothing to do with TIME. What are they? Imagination is one of them I contemplated. "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world - Albert Einstein".

Moly_x_10 My Book

For this Moleskine I punched a hole on the front cover and added an eyelet holding a string. I found that many of my old Moleskine have problem with the elastic band deteriorated, so I customized this one this way, not as handy but won't be ugly in *time*. The external pocket was also fixed on the cover, which holds a tag, a note to other artists and a scrap photo.

There are two ways to do the enclosure, like an envelope or like a parcel. I hope it will travel safely back to me opening new windows of my consciousness.

String/Ribbon/Cloth/Bead/Button Streets

May 6, 2008
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Strings From Sham Sui Po

I had an a great day-off today. Went to look for some strings for a friend and market researched several stationery, art/craft stores. Strolling in Sham Sui Po area where there are hundreds of outlets selling all sorts of fabric/fashion related materials, I rediscovered the area which once were part of Hong Kong's textile industry success, feeding 625,000 residents directly or indirectly in 1960s. There is no place in the world having such high concentration and variety of textile materials. If you are not familiar with Hong Kong, we even have streets full of retailers dedicated to selling birds, flower and fish.

String/Cloth/Button Street in Sham Sui Po

I could've spent hours but the weather was so hot I had sweat all over. So I just bought several yards of interesting strings, some coated with PolySomething (wax they said), some leather and some Polyurethane based. I couldn't even concentrate to take better photos due to the heat.

String Wholesales/Retail in Sham Sui Po

Price sold in small quantity varies from HK$1/yard to HK$5/yard for those I selected. Many stores allow you to cut a maximum 2 inches piece per style for sampling.

Later I went to Tak Cheung Stationery in Sham Sui Po, Chung Nam Book & Stationery in Mong Kok, Hands ARt & Craft in Wan Chai and lastly Paper Art in Central. Believe me, in such a tiny little place, Hong Kong is truly a shopping heaven. I turned out bought over HK$1000 Hero Arts stamps from Paper Art and became their permanent member :)

Moly_x_10 Entry

May 4, 2008
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Moly_x_10

Participated in Moly_x_10, a group to draw stuffs on each other's Moleskine Japanese Album. Today I received Kelly's book and drew these pages based a theme she specified - the view from here. Her drawing is a girl sitting on hilltop in front of a tree looking at clouds. I added clouds to continue her theme, but two of the clouds became breasts stemming out from a female tree body. The words: Human and Nature is all but one, imagine recomposing our reality in most unusual and creative ways, all but really possible.

Lomo Workshop Today

May 4, 2008
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Lomo HK Mailbox

During Lomo Neverland event we collected dozens of newbies who would like to learn more about shooting skills, today we finally have the workshop held at Lomography Asia's shop. Hidden beside the old building's staircase, their mailbox looks beautiful contrasting their orange/red storefront. Dream said the mailbox was brought from Malaysia. This Polaroid photo was shot with one step brighter on 600 film using SLR 680.

Ming Hui sharing double exposure fun

Senior Lomographer Ming Hui shared with us the fun of doing double exposure xpro by swapping films with friends in different cities. Dream and Alex talked about long time exposure and film types. At the end we played some games and the atmosphere near the end was great. I wish I joined their Pinhole Day.

St. Louis School - Unforgettable Years Which Shaped My Life

May 3, 2008
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It was very emotional for me to attend my secondary school's 80th Anniversary Thanksgiving dinner tonight. A lot happened back then before and after I graduated 20 years ago. Looking at the 'school uniform' souvenir already brought back a lot of great memories, it was such a kind and loving school to me. From club scout to venture scout to being a leader/instructor training up the next generation, I had great unforgettable adventures (wild camps, 3 days hiking camp, competitions, knotting, foot drill, crafting, hiking at typhoon #8, etc etc) and learned survival skills and leadership. Was vice chairman of the photography club which rooted my love of photography and journaling. Being a debate team member I exposed my weakness - public speaking, and learned to face it, now I am proud to do impeccable presentations to anybody. Was a treasurer of student council (I.C.A), my first financial management experience. All these....... really shaped my life. I was never good academically, in fact I was the number one student counting from the last, but this school really opened up my life in all aspects, gave me chances to discover who I am. I love SLS!

St. Louis School 80th Anniversary

And Father E who passed away several years ago was such a great person. I was never religious but I had great time going to his room listening to him preaching, such a loving Father, he taught me that I could be a good person. He also organized Sunday activities, which was amazing. Anybody, not only schoolmates, could go to our school to play snooker, ping pong, cycling, drink ugly but tasty cold orange juice from concentration camp type of container in the summers, oh man those were the days. One great success of the school is its policy "The school door is always open" and it is so true. We had some great overnight adventures in school too, chit chatting with seniors on roof top, movie nights, oh so much happened. I wish I could fly back to see myself and others to enjoy those stuffs one more time! Just one more time.