Remains of the Day

I'm so pissed today

2010-10-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

How could people manage to go through 300 slides in a two-and-a-half-hour lecture? That's ridiculous! Why should I sit there and listen to all that monotone rambling? It's a totally waste of time. You can't just stuff things into one's head like that. Bad teaching. Very very bad!

I really don't see why they have to do things like this. No structure at all.
I can't help but start comparing the teaching staffs in Hong Kong to those I met in Canada. I'm so pissed. Seems like I'm wasting both my time and my money here in UST. I planned to go to grad school in HK a few months before moving back here and spent so much time on researching and picking between schools. And see what I finally got!

By the end of the semester, there will be over 1000 slides. Crazy~

Say No to Bottled Water

2010-10-01T05:01:00.000-07:00

Bottled water is so prevalent nowadays. It’s everywhere in the city. Just try to ask someone near you if s/he has ever consumed bottled water. I’m pretty sure 9 of 10 times the answer is yes. In 1970s, the volume of bottled water sold around the globe was just1 billion litres, and by the year 2000, it had already increased to 84 billion litres(1). Bottled water industrial has expanded enormously over the past 3 decades, and so as the amount of plastic waste produced.

275 million litres of bottled water were sold in Hong Kong in 2008, which is enough to fill the volume of Two International Finance Center(2). Can you image how many plastic bottles we waste each year? Do you know where do they go eventually? How much energy does it take to create one bottle of water? Despite its omnipresence, we actually don’t know much about bottled water.

A recent research shows that the energy needed to produce one bottle of water is up to 2000 times more than that needed to produce the same amount of tap water(3). This is insane, and we still haven’t taken into account the energy required to dispose billions of plastic bottles! If you care about climate change, you definitely need a second thought next time when you are tempted to buy a bottle of water from the convenient store. Bottled water industry is energy intensive beyond doubt. The more energy it takes, the more green house gases it produces, and that eventually speeds up the process of global warming. Save our planet, stop drinking bottled water!

Alternatives?

To go green, you can buy your own reusable water bottle. There are lots of stylish, durable and safe reusable water bottles available on the market. Personally, I prefer a water bottle made of high quality stainless steel because water never smells funny in it.

1) Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke. (2002) Blue gold : the battle against corporate theft of the world's water. Toronto, Stoddart.
2) Dinesh Sadhwani, Jonas Chau, Christine Loh, Mike Kilburn, Andrew Lawson. (2009) Liquid Assets: Water Security and Management in the Pearl River Basin and Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Civic Exchange.
3) Gleick, P.H. and Cooley, H.S. “Energy implications of bottled water.” Environmental Research Letters 4 (2009) 014009 (6pp).

Pacific Institute estimates that the oil needed to produce one bottle of water equals roughly to 1/4 of the bottle's volume.

In Support of Local Artists

2009-11-30T23:54:00.000-08:00

I invite you to listen to this beautiful song created by Nicole Scoffield, a talented Canadian musican.

Nicole is a graduate of the University of Victoria School of Music. She is an accomplished violinist who has been performing and teaching in British Columbia for over 15 years. She plays in numerous bands and orchestras and is a rounded performer who composes, arranges, and sings lead.

Go to http://seatoskyway.com/

This is her tribute song for the 2010 winter Oympics.

Biofuel Displacing Food Crops May Have Bigger Carbon Impact Than Thought

2009-10-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Biofuel Displacing Food Crops May Have Bigger Carbon Impact Than Thought

Besides food crops displacement, it raises a very good point about N2O emission from the production of nitrogen-based fertilizers. N2O is a very potent ozone layer destroyer, and it also contributes to acid rain---an equally serious environmental problem as global warming. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to replace fossil fuel by biofuel, if it's equally unsustainable environmentally . Why don't we put our priority on cutting down fuel consumption first, then to consider other renewable energy sources?

Remember the slogan: reduce>reuse>recycle

Reduce should come first.

Buzzy Things

2009-10-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

I like bumble bees. Their fuzzy coat is cute, but unlike honey bees, they don't make nice and tidy nests. Few months ago, I stepped on a bumble bees nest accidentally while I was doing some measurements out here in the forest. I was totally freaked out because two of them just wouldn't stop chasing me, and I didn't know if they were wasps or what. Forturnately, they were bees. I would have got stinged if they were wasps. Bumble bees are way less aggressive than wasps.

Let's compare the nest of the honey bees to one of the bumble bees.

Bumble bee's---real messy. Photo by S. A. Cameron

Honey bee's--- real neat!

Purple people

2009-10-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Since an angel's face is so tricky to wear constantly, if

one day, I can keep my sanity no more

then will they eat me alive

will they want me to die?

---------------------------

Well hey do you do Judo

when they surround you

A little mental yoga

will they disappear

It's grim but never dubious as motives go

One thing she'll always promise promise

is see a show

Thunder wishes it could be the Snow

Wishes it could be as loved as she can be

These gifts are here

for her for you for me

I watch me be this other thing and never know

if I'm marooned or where the purple people go

then lily white matricide from vicious words
it doesn't leave a scratch so therefore no one's hurt

Thunder wishes it could be the Snow

Wishes it could be as loved as she can be

These gifts are here

for her for you for me

And don't you know

The nurses make it clear

Just when you've escape you have yourself to fear

a restaurant that never has to close

Breakfast, every hour

it could save the world

so hey do you do Judo in your finery

an angel's face is tricky to wear constantly

Thunder wishes it could be the Snow

Wishes it could be as loved as she can be

These gifts are here

for her for you for me

For her for her

by Tori Amos

A very very interesting book---Our History is still being written

2009-06-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Just finished reading the book. It based mainly on the oral history presented by the three generals--their personal experiences of the pre-revolution and the post-revolution times. There're lots of less-heard anecdotes, but the most interesting part is when they talk about the problems faced by the Cuban society nowadays.

1959 was not an end. Despite all the marvellous progresses that the Cuban people have made since the triumph of the revolution, struggles still continue.

2009-04-17T20:47:00.001-07:00

Chagall Ehret

Have to listen to her music someday.

2009-03-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Evelyn Glennie: How to listen to music with your whole body

2009-03-21T01:16:00.001-07:00

Touch the Sound

2009-03-21T00:25:00.000-07:00

Evelyn Glennie, a brilliant percussionist, has lost her hearing since the age of 12, but she managed to "hear" with other parts of her body. I didn't plan to watch this documentary tonight. Once I got home, I turned on the TV since I was too tired to do anything else. Wanted to shut off my brain, I pressed the button without thinking. But she was improvising, rubbing a metal disk against a bow. Then, in the next shot, she was rubbing a large metal plane.

I was deeply touched by her notion of music. Silence is the loudest and the heaviest sound, she said. Most people just don't notice. Breathing in and breathing out, and I'm listening.

2009-02-27T16:24:00.000-08:00

"However, ‘certified organic does not mean ecologically sustainable’ – sustainability would involve the recycling of nutrients and developing strategies concerning products exported outside of the country ..."
Cited from
"Cuba Sustainable Agriculture Study Tour
May 21 - 30, 2003
Sponsored by Washington State University
Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources
Led by Food First "

Interesting. I got to think about that.

You need to be watched

2009-02-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

You were so glad that your friend came over and studied with you today. Otherwise, you would have wasted the whole day listening to music, watching TV. I knew it because: Ching, you are not discipline! Especially when you are under pressure. You need to be watched by somebody. But this is not as bad as it sounds since you know your own weaknesses. It's good for you to invite your friends to study together. At least you're taking some positive steps now. The next thing that you should do is to stop here.

A lovely album

2009-02-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

When I first listened to Metric, I didn't like them very much. I thought the vocal is too girly and soft. But after I listened to "Grow Up and Blow Away" a few more times, I had to admit it--this is a great album. The lyrics are smart, or I should say, very intellegent. I was first attracted by their title song, "the suicidal song". That's how I call it.
If I were given a chance, I would love to do" white gold" at least once in public. I would probably setup a red table at the middle of the stage with a projector on the side. I picture myself sitting behind the table, singing clamly.
I'm so happy that I discovered another great Canadian band. Now I listen to them everyday. Thanks ant.

Leon Bakst

2009-02-05T00:37:00.001-08:00

Somehow it resembles Amano Yoshitaka's printings, which I like.

In addition

2009-02-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

Something that I need to add to the previous post. In hindsight, while I was blaming everyone, I have to admit that I hadn't been all that great. During the time in HKUSU, my self-righteousness and arrogance had made me looked stupid. I had no patience for people whose opinions were different from mine. Stupid, but anything "in hindsight" is pretty pathetic.

We get to move on.

GG

2009-01-26T08:11:00.001-08:00

All right, I have a 3-hour break before class.

Three weeks ago, I was in my best friend's house in Hong Kong. She's a newly-wedded, and I missed her wedding because of the final exams. Plus, she didn't invite me. If my brother didn't tell me, I wouldn't have known that she was getting married. Computer! I haaate computer! She thought that I had somehow replied a thread on her blog, and somehow she thought that I had learnt about it a long time ago. Anyway, I will take her excuse. Well, you know, I love her very much. I could only be grateful to have such a friend, I guess.

I met her in HKU when I was a undergrad. We were the executives of the student union. We had the worst, and yet, the greatest time together in that ghetto. "A ghetto", that's how I would describe HKUSU, and by which I'm talking about a psychological or a spiritual state. I was too young to realize that universities were actually not the place for people who believe in justice, not even for people who enjoy life. I couldn't remember how many times we were scorned and turned down by the union council just because we wanted the voice of the minorities to be heard. Conflicts between the executive members in the HKUSU also drove me crazy. Countless time was well wasted on the most trivial debates. Up till now, I still not quite understand how could those student bodies be so narrow-minded, so bureaucratic and conservative in nature. Young people ain't you got any dreams? Hopefully, the situation has changed now. Me and her have been standing up for each other since then.

While she was giving me that wedding presentation (yes, it's a multi-media presentation, with photos, videos, sound clips and tears), I started to put those pieces and bits together to recreate the whole scene. My eyes didn't wait until she finished to fill with tears. I personally have no fantasy about weddings, and I've been to a couple of boring ones before. However, the one she had was totally original. I'm impressed. They didn't "buy" a wedding as many people do. They started everything from sketch. If not for love and passion, I cannot imagine how they could possibly put so much effort into that. I should stop right here because I've already chattered too much.

GG and SS, I wish you two a wonderful life together.

A Preliminary

2009-01-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

Here's my New Year's resolution. Put my thougths into words. It's not easy. The fact that I couldn't write as good as I wanted to had successfully prevented me from trying. I gave up writing a few years ago, since then I had been emotional detached from words. The only kind of writings that I could still do was very techincal, such as lab reports and assignments. "In this experiment, 8 subjects were tested..... no significant difference was found between the control group and the experimental group...... similar to the effect of oxytocin, when acetylcholine with high enough concentration was introduced to the reaction chamber......" Impersonal and precise.

Not that I hate functional writing, but once in a while, the other part of myself will yell at me, saying "merely by not touching it won't make it go away, you idiot." Now I don't care. Let this place be flooded with words. No more self-judging. Like music, writing has its healing power.

I'm learning to be a better person.