Mostly a note to self... a thought that is pertinent to my issues and goals. Maybe a company motto can be extracted from this somehow.

Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.  Set up a fishing business and make it look harder than it really is, and you feed yourself for a lifetime, or at least until people figure your scam out.

It's my opinion that the basic business model of the whole software swindle is predicated on this premise...

(“Again”? Well, I could swear I blogged about it last time :-P anyway, Dongmen is a mind-blowing area near “downtown” (or “downdistrict”) Luohu which I discovered in December, the thing looks like one gigantic mall, you can walk in it for hours and find pretty much anything you can imagine.)

So Dongmen continues to blow my mind. I was walking around yesterday, looking for something to eat, when I walked into a real, honest-to-Raiden... Arcade!!!

Like pretty much everything in Dongmen, it was supersized. Aisles upon aisles upon aisles of (what I'm assuming to be) the newer stuff (since I don't actually go to arcades since 2002ish), side by side with awesome vintage stuff from every generation this side of space invaders. Stuff I grew up with, which pushed (pun intended) all the right buttons.

When I decided my senses were overloaded to my satisfaction and I would take a quick look at the sports section before leaving, I discovered that behind that, there was still another room O.o

I love the sound of arcades. Dozens of different tracks of loud music superimposed over each other plus game sound effects and people talking...

I almost gave in and played some flight sim... but I looked at the machine, the machine looked at me, and I knew I wasn't going to last 8 seconds there, so I decided not to waste of money. Maybe some other day :-)

And btw, yesterday it rained (heavily) all day. I even went out in the rain and got wet. What, me complaining? Absolutely not! After 4 years of Beijing, it was a relief! Go Shenzhen!

[00:32] <someone> Whatever your timezone can be...............my Best Wishes for Happy Christmas Holidays to you all :)
[00:33] <guy> no spoilers please. We're still in the "eve" over here in Canada
[00:39] <me> that doesn't spoil the christmas... sheesh... seriously if you haven't heard about it from the previews and solicitations and hype and last-page blurb and gossip then you don't really read comics!
[00:39] <dude> spoliers
[00:39] <dude> fXXX
[00:39] <dude> I dind't know it was Christmas
[00:39] <dude> does Santa come back?
[00:40] <me> it's about what's going to happen in it, especially what presents you'll get
[00:40] <me> but everybody who's paying attention already knew the next cross-over was going to be christmas
[00:40] <me> sorry, I'm showing my age, it's called "event" these days
[00:41] <me> dunno if Santa is going to be in it... hope so... haven't seen a good Santa story in two years
[00:41] <dude> man
[00:41] <dude> Santa hasn't been the same since they killed the original one
[00:43] <me> at least he's fat again. *That* was bizarre.
[00:44] <dude> no kidding

Just saw the niftiest idea on Jusco (the local hypermarket): Instant non-instant coffee.

Say what?

Well, I tried to take a picture, but it wouldn't have helped at all, unless I bought and opened the thing, and it was a bit too expensive for my budget.

In short: it's “normal” coffee (ground, roasted), in the quantity you'd use to brew a jar, sealed in an airtight bag, sealed inside a second paper bag, of the same paper you make filters, and shaped like a filter. So you rip open the paper bag, and the lower half that remains is your filter; then you open the inner bag, pour the coffee on the filter, and from there you proceed like when doing normal coffee.

Eh, what's the point then? Well, it's portable. You carry one or two in your purse/backpack/trenchcoat pocket, and you won't want for coffee.

Except, of course, that you'll need a filter holder (or a 1 yuan funnel) and a jar or thermos bottle and... oh well, forget about it, silly idea. ;-)

My cousin, who is a lawyer, just spammed part of the family with this very illustrative and educative story, which explained to me something I always had a lot of trouble understanding. I'll translate it to the best of my capacity, for your own edification.

Once upon a time, in a countryside village, a stranger showed up, announcing to the villagers he'd buy any and all jackasses for $1000 each. (Read that as dollars, marks, francs, pounds, yuan, whatever is appropriate.) The villagers, knowing there were a lot of wild jackasses in the area, started their hunting. The man bought hundreds of donkeys, for $1000 each, until the villagers, happy with the extra money for so little effort, relaxed their efforts. The man then announced he'd be paying $2000 per jackass, so the hunting efforts were renewed.

Soon, the donkeys started getting too scarce, and the villagers started giving up. The offer then raised to $2500, and the jackass population got so small that nobody wanted to hunt anymore.

Then the man announced he didn't have all the donkeys he needed yet, so he'd pay $5000 each! However, he had to go to the city to get more money, and until he came back, he'd leave his assistant taking care of buying the animals.

As soon as the boss was away, the assistant confided to the villagers:

“You see all these donkeys my boss bought from you? I can sell them to you for $3500 each, and when the man comes back from the city, you sell them back to him for $5000.”

The villagers ran home to get all their savings, and bought all the animals from the assistant.

And they never again saw the man, the assistant, or their money, only jackasses everywhere.

And this, my friend, is the story that finally helped me understand how the stock market works.

Ok... Melissa and Suzy both asked for the tuna salad spread... here it is.  (Seriously this is too simple to be called a recipe, but if you insist...)

Clarification on terminology first: this is the “fancy” spread, which I call tuna salad spread.  The alternative, which I call tuna spread, goes basically the same, but no frying, and less veggies — only onion, or spring onion, or Chinese spring onion which works best.

So yeah.  You want:

• 1 or 2 cans of tuna.  You can use tuna in oil (easiest to find), in spring water (healthier — but don't add the water to the spread, drain it first), or in spicy oil (delicious!).

• 1 large (700ml) jar of mayo or “miracle whip”.  Or three small ones, I guess :-P
• Vegetables of your choice, chopped very small.  On today's batch I used:
  
  • Two bell peppers (one green and one red), the long kind with stronger taste
  • Half a carrot
  • Half an onion
• I like to add a bit of garlic too, but it's optional.

Stir-fry (preferably in a wok) the vegetables in the order that's most effective.  (Garlic is always first, peppers of all kinds should fry longer than most other vegetables to bring up the taste.)  Here's what I did today: first the garlic, just for a few seconds, then the peppers, fry a minute or two, then the onion and carrot, fry about 5 min.

Crush the tuna very thoroughly with a fork.  You can do that in the can or on a plate.  Then add it to the veggies, stir-fry until it's all well mixed and the tuna is dark-brownish.

Turn off the fire and add the mayo or miracle whip.  Mix well until it's uniform; the mayo/whip should have absorbed the oil and look a yummy light brown.

Store as much as you can fit back into the mayo/whip jar.  It will keep in the fridge for about a week, but it rarely lasts that long ;-)

Well ok... I know there are literally thousands of cookie recipes on the 'net... but this one worked so well for me, I want to preserve it :-)

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup softened butter or margarine
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (350cc) semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
or 1 to 2 cups something else chopped small (optional)

First sift in the soda, salt, and flour together.  In a different bowl mix the butter and sugars until uniform; then add the vanilla; then stir in the eggs one by one until uniform; then GRADUALLY stir in the mixed dry ingredients.

Finally, after it's all homogeneous, add the extras — chocolate chips, chopped nuts, dried fruit, whatever you like in your cookies.  It may look like that's too much chocolate chips or nuts or fruits, but the cookies will grow a lot when they bake, and the chocolate/nuts/etc won't.

Shape the cookies in a baking tray, leaving good space between them, and between the cookies and the wall (remember they'll grow).  Size is a matter of personal taste and experimentation, but I like to make them about 5cm, which makes for a really good size after they grow.

Pre-heat oven to 190C; bake for about 8 minutes or until nicely brown.  Note if you never baked cookies: when you take them out, they should still be soft! (And it's the best time to eat them ;-) with coffee or milk...) They only get hard later after cooling down.

Shenzhen seems to have pretty much the same “vibe” as Rio.  It also has a lot of personality and “soul”, for a city this young.

Seen more overtly gay people on the streets in two days than in 4 years in Beijing.  What's up with that?  Maybe the Beijing gays are more afraid of coming out?  Or maybe they all join the army?  (j/k j/k j/k)

Oh, dumpling-based fast-food chain = win.

On the last few years I've seen a number of anecdotes about buying deodorant in China, topped with a post by Chris about the product apparently being “seasonal” (srsly?????), and lived a few myself.  Well, this morning I beat that one.  I asked my guide/real estate agent about buying some.  He couldn't understand the word.  I got my dictionary.  He read the definition, shook his head knowingly, and told me he never heard of the concept.  He later took me to a large, fancy, “laowai-friendly“ market, as we would have described it in Beijing, where I did indeed find the product.  Then I left for the cashier, while he remained behind studying the shelf in anthropological fascination.

I realised I had never actually seen a border.  It's weird to be in a highway and look out of the window, over a fence, and think that on the other side, people speak a different language (well, dialect), follow different laws, don't have their internet and movie theatre selection randomly censored, and drive on the left side of the road.  Gives you a new appreciation of how arbitrary the whole thing is...

As planned, I did some pretty decent writing on the flight.

But I didn't write the chapter(s) I planned to write.

Predictably enough, I found myself writing about Edward's feelings and trepidations as he leaves Calcutta to establish the Hyde Park house.  How obvious is that?

So maybe that's not entirely autobiographical, as, after all, for him it's a return to the country of his birth... and his feelings about the move (as I discovered when I wrote them) are a lot different.  But:

• He lived in his home country all life without any thought of leaving, then suddenly uprooted himself and went to Calcutta.
• When he got there, he was planning to stay less that he ended up staying.  Then a few months later, he had made up his mind to stay “forever”.  Neither thing ended up happening.
• The move from Calcutta was also very sudden.
• And after this move he started the best, most pleasant, and most important phase of his life.  Let's expect this one comes true for me as well ;-)

Ok... I feel a little guilty writing this, since I should be putting all my writing mojo into NaNoWriMo... but I have to get it out of my chest.

Whenever I'm about to leave a city for good, destiny likes to take me through many of the places I used to frequent, that meant something to me.  It's a strange feeling; sometimes just passing by it on a taxi, and thinking “wow, I had forgotten the good old Tuanjiehu McDonald's, guess I'm not eating there again.  Wow, my old bank got renovated again, cool.”

Other times it's more, well, interactive.  The last Writers Group, and last visit to the Bookworm.  Last purchase at Jenny Lou and April's Gourmet.  The last visit to the bank to get my salary.  The last Futurists Meeting.  Last time walking through Sanlitun, last time in my favourite DVD store.  (Dang, I should have had a last Paki curry-chuanr!)

Then there are the people.  Bridget and Justin I plan to keep in touch and cross-visit, but of course “plan” doesn't mean “will”, so there's a small chance this was the last time I saw them.  Others, like Rui, I'm quite certainly seeing for the last time.  Tomorrow I'll see most of my co-workers for the last time, and make one last visit to the place that has faithfully been feeding me electronics for the last four years.  Friday, last Beijing chuan'r and last time I see a bunch of the Bluggers...

And then, Saturday, a final goodbye to Norman, a last look at Hujiayuan and a few other familiar environs, a final trip through the Beijing subway (if I don't get lazy and decide to pay a taxi), and a last departure from the Beijing International Airport.

Oh well...

(Re: On open phones)

Dear Google:

Good try.  But after one year, Android is still shite.  Srsly, Java is just not the way to go, for anything.  No matter how cute your UI is, if I can only code for it in one language.  Plz refer to www.openmoko.org.

KTHXBYE

After two years in this apartment — more than I lived anywhere in this century — it's finally time to move on.  I knew that; I've been anxious to go to Shenzhen as soon as possible.  But now we actually told the real estate agency that we're not renovating the contract, and it somehow feels... real.  Eva will be here until the end of November, and I will only be here another 10 days!

Goodbye, Norman.  I will miss you.  With all your quirks, you were a true friend, and we went through great times together.  You won't be forgotten.

I had a liberating experience last week.  I went through such a wide range of feelings about it, that I thought it would be best to express the “conclusion” in writing.

When I finally got feedback on my writing, last Monday, my first (reflex) reaction was of anger and disappointment.  I couldn't help it; what I was hearing was overwhelming.  But I'm not one to dwell on reflex reactions.  I immediately started to put it in context and think about it.

So my next reaction, or the first reaction that I allowed myself to act on, was of excitement and relief.  See, the problem with my writing is that I very rarely got good, usable feedback, ever since grade school.  I had an editor who would change anything he didn't like, without ever telling me why.  I had a partner who would read any %(*&#% I'd give her and say it was great.  I had another partner who was “hypercreative” like me, so she'd get carried away on the creative possibilities, and the proofreading would metamorphose into a brainstorming session.  I did get some minor useful feedback with the LNH, but those guys generally have better things to do with their time than improve my technique.  So now, finally, I had concrete, objective weaknesses pointed out to me; clear points where I could improve, and better, I believed I knew how to do it.

I left the meeting very excited, ready to start a novel or rewrite something I already had.

Then, the next day, it hit me.

I have big plans.  I have stuff I want to do.  And I have a roadmap of how to get there.  Writing isn't really an essential part of these plans.

In this light, is it fair to myself to spend so much time on it, seeing as, clearly, I'm not as good as I thought I was?

There's something about that logic that doesn't feel right, though.  It feels a bit negative, and I'm always on my toes with negative thoughts, because they may be the depression speaking.  So I was cautious.  But looking inside, I didn't feel negative about it; the feeling was still one of excitement.  So, what was missing in the picture?

I thought about it.  I talked to people who know me and whose opinion I can respect.  And that good old feeling that often tells me the best path to follow was only getting stronger: forget writing, at least for now.  Keep it as a hobby, if you really want, but only if it's sincerely, really fun.

Then for a day or two I tried not to think about it at all.  I filled my head with other stuff.  That's usually the best way for me to make a serious decision.

Today I finally got it.  It's about freedom.

Here's the problem: I had an excessively inflated opinion of myself as a writer.  Maybe the truth is that I'm great at making up stories, and lack technique to tell them?  Most of what other people saw, and gave me feedback on, was story ideas, or plots; and the feedback was almost always positive.  Maybe that's what made me think I was better than I was.  Or maybe not.

See, some people might think of an inflated opinion as mostly-positive; it would keep your ego up, inflate your self-worth, specially for someone with depressive tendencies.

But for me, it was a cage.

I was permanently uncomfortable with myself about it.  The way I see (saw) it, I have this skill, and I'm not using it.  If I'm so good, why is it that I'm not using it?  I should be publishing.  I should be writing novels.  It's a waste.  What, I have other plans?  Better ideas and opportunities that don't involve writing?  All right, but it would be a waste of talent!  I have to fit writing in those plans somehow!

But now, I'm just another amateur.  I write because I enjoy it.  I don't have an obligation to myself or the world to publish it, to improve my technique, or to make money out of it.  And that frees me a lot of time that — let's face it — I'm going to need desperately, when my other evil plans start to mature.

It's good to be free.

One of the three basic premises of modern science, as I see it, is that the "laws of nature" are constant over space.

What if they aren't?  What if the "laws" we observe here are an effect of a very specific set of features, say, of our galaxy?

Can you imagine that?  Can you conceive that another galaxy, just "over there", has a different speed of light?  Or that "their" atoms are not held together by electromagnetic force, but something else?

Take a moment to fully believe this.  Try to come up with at least 3 more ways in which it could be different, and yet that we'd be unable to perceive from here.

Did it?

No seriously, did you really do it?  Did you really believe it, at least with a part of your mind?

Now tell me this: what would happen if "your" galaxy were to "collide" with the Milky Way?

(well ok, this is "daily" in some alternate universe)

In our universe, the spatial dimensions intersect at a 90 degree angle.  If that doesn't immediately make sense to you, think about it for a moment.  A line has one dimension; a plane has two.  If you trace lines that "define" those two dimensions, they'll have a 90 degree angle.  OK?  Follow?

From this angle, flow a huge number of properties.  The angles that form regular polygons, for example.

Can you imagine an universe where dimensions cross in a different angle?  How does that work?

Mr. Mxyzptlk claims to be "from the 5th dimension"; anyone with a scientific background knows this doesn't make sense, though.  Maybe what he means is that he's from an universe where dimensions cross at a 60 degree angle?  And does this paragraph even make sense?

What's the strangest reason you downloaded music?  I guess this applies to going out to buy it as well, but since downloading is so much easier and quicker, I figure it opens the way for much odder motivations.

Recently, a pr0n flick reminded me of an ex-girlfriend.  Well, this ex was an early-adopter mp3 collector — her hobby was to spend much of the night on IRC trading files, and burn categorised CDs... and... I suppose our relationship kind of started because of a song.  I mentioned I liked it but didn't know the name or artist.  She (probably already interested in me) made me a CD.  Cute.  So I'm here musing and I realise I didn't have this song anymore.  Well, the piratetubes are your friends, and now I do again.

Typical Web 2.0-era business plan:

1. do something
2. do something else
3. ???
4. PROFIT

Sexy (read, my) business plan:

1. do something; PROFIT
2. do something else
3. do something more; PROFIT
4. ???
5. singularity

If it's not immediately obvious to you how much this is better...

Had this huge fight with someone I love... over money.  Not going to say who, because it doesn't matter, as it will become apparent once you finish reading this.

I had promised to give her $500.  I meet her a few days later.  She wanted the money, I said I already had given it, she didn't remember getting it, things got ugly.

Well.  Now that things cooled down, I want to say I'm not mad at you, and you know what, we were both right.

How is that possible?

Simple: it was a dream.  In dreams (well, mine at least), reality is not solid and everything is possible.  That's how I met you in the "wrong" city, living in a place you never lived (and IMO never would) -- yet, the Friday prior, I had met you (and given you the 500) in my granma's old house, which my subconscious mind insists on putting on pretty much every dream.  At least this time there was candy.

So yeah.  I not only "dream-remembered" giving you the money; I had also actually dreamed of giving it to you earlier on, so I definitely was telling you the truth.  On the other hand, if you swear you don't remember getting it, that's probably because you didn't get it.  Dream stuff, go figure.  And since you're really a dream creature, existing only on that dream, and I'm now awake, then I have no idea who I'm talking to, since you clearly don't exist anymore.

Oh well.  At least there was candy.  (Citron, for some reason, not sweet potato or even pumpkin... but whatever.)

On a tangential note, I'm kind of happy with my subconscious mind.  Yeah my strange dreams still "have" to be in São Paulo and involve my granma's old house, but at least this time the money was RMB.  (I'm not sure I even remember what BRLs look like.)

Still get Zorro and the Lone Ranger mixed up? Never fear! Print this handy cheat sheet and never be confused again, kimosabe!

What	Zorro	The Lone Ranger
Costume	Black, loose	Grey, form-fitting
Queer accessory	Cape	Red scarf tied around the neck
Hat	Black Andalusian hat	White cowboy hat
Where	Los Angeles	West, mostly Texas
When	Early 19th century	Late 19th century
Name	Don Diego de la Vega	Reid (first name unrevealed, probably Dan or John)
Weapon	Rapier, occasionally bullwhip	Pistol with silver bullets
Trademark attack	Cutting a Z on the enemy's clothes	Disarming with a shot
Behavior	Witty, cunning, "fox-like"	Honorable and mysterious
Sidekick	Frei Felipe	Tonto
Horse	Tornado	Silver
Talking to the horse	Long loud whistle calls Tornado from anywhere	"Hi-yo, Silver, away!"
Genre	Gentleman thief	Mystery cowboy
Likely inspirations	Arséne Lupin, Robin Hood	Zorro, pulp Western books
Influenced, notably	Batman, The Lone Ranger	Bill Cosby, a number of Marvel Western comics, the X-Files

(I'll be posting those more or less every day, until I grow tired of the idea.)

MEotD: can you conceive an universe with a different value of pi?  How does that work?

DC's Trinity #10 has a villain called "Sun-Chained-in-Ink".  Pronounced "All reasonable names were taken".  Come on, DC, really?

So, while studying up on SEO, I decide to go take a look at the state of my own sites.

It seems Asteroid L ranks at #9 in a search for "sevensome hardcore sex".

Wow.  Just wow.

What's the correct expression again?  Oh yes.  "Ur doin it rong."

(Yeah, I do know why, as does (probably) anyone who reads my blog.  But it's funneh anyway that I'd rank so high.  Guess there aren't enough sevensome pr0n sites out there.)

Eva shows me a video made by CCTV (for those not-China-savvy, that's the state network, not "Closed Circuit TV") about WoW and MMORPGs.

I see a room full of young people in army uniform (and some concerned-looking elders, presumably moms, in the back) watching a video of WoW in a big screen.

Me: What, they're teaching the army to fight dragons?
Eva: They're trying to convince them, and us, that MMORPGs are evil.
Me: No.  You must be pulling my leg, my theory was less ridiculous.
Eva: They say if you play WoW you lose your humanity.
Me: No, hmm, that would be Vampire the Masquerade.  (Sorry for the geeklings in the audience who don't have the background to get this one.)

Cue scene of human character massacred by creatures I can't identify (because I'm not a WoW player myself) -- orcs?  Giants?

Me: Well yeah, it doesn't look too good for humans if you suck at playing it...

It's ridiculous and a bit infuriating, though.  Any other place (well, almost), this would be an instant lawsuit.  But of course, it would be a bad idea to sue the state-operated TV network in a state that's still partially totalitarian.  It's times like this that I'm really tempted to go invest my money elsewhere... (well, when I have any!)