Thanks to my great friend Mr. Thomas Huang who generously shared these beautiful Mac icons to the world. I couldn't help but to post them immediately. 2 weeks ago Thomas was being invited to our culture club LOG-ON Togather to share his "10 Reasons to Love TN" to our members. During his presentation, he promised to share some of his beautifully created icons and he did just now. Enjoy! Download here.
這是Thomas在聚會中答應大家的Mac icon。以下是他在Traveler's Notebook Hong Kong User Group面書群組的post:
Phew! So many things happened so quickly in 2014. I still haven't been able to review 2014 yet this new creature called 2015 has arrived already. Been rushing a lot of things, been trying my best, been rewarding.... You can tell how cramped things are when you see my scarce update on Scription and the super delay on Chronodex's 2015 release.
I'm very happy ditching the "back to school" name finally, with a lot of helps from many colleagues, the fair from now on will be called ¬ [DESKBOUND] (the negation of being deskbound). With more people falling in love with Chronodex, I'm happy my company did make it a feature in its online magazine here. We made a lot of improvements in store and fixture designs which resulted in 2 new beautiful stores (City Plaza LOG-ON and Fashion Walk LOG-ON). Finally we could arrange a good enough cultural space for exhibition/workshop/gathering in the busiest streets of Causeway Bay in one of the new store. There we had an amazing release of Traveler's Notebook Hong Kong Tramways edition, gatheirng with TN users, exhibiting 4 professional users' work, etc. I hope to share with you more later. Oh these are just the surface, I had so much to talk and so much to feel thankful, so much more to come.
So, I need to get some quiet time to gather my thoughts. Everything was so packed. If you are in situation like me, things are too noisy around you introverts, do try reading Susan Cain's book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking". May I please get some significant quality alone time please Mr. 2015?
One of the most rewarding thing in 2014 was meeting with TN users in Korea and Hong Kong, being able to share my thoughts in meet-ups and presentations made me happy too. Oh gee, I need to get back to the habit of writing more coz I find it hard to get the words out from my mind lately.
I have a weird habit to torture myself. Visiting trade shows and shops in various countries seeing all those great products, I could've asked makers to send stuffs by post or email, but I always choose to carry all those papers and catalogues. Once I carried them with rounds and rounds of swearing throughout the days and lots of shoulder and body pain, everything became more important and some became treasures. I'm not sure if it is healthy or not, sometimes the habit gets to you in other forms, like fighting unnecessary battles against sick capitalistic minds around you.
(Traveler's Notebook, Bonox eyeglasses, wooden Victorinox, Pilot Capless, Leica M240, Rembrandt water color set, Pentel water brush, Shure headphone)
The torture extends to everyday carry (EDC) stuff too, in addition to my Macbook, I carry way too much in many's standard. But if there is just one beautiful capture, be it an image, a drawing, an idea, on any typical day, it would give me tremendous pleasure.
Is it necessary? Is it because I'm too insecure to let go of things I love? I'd love to know your opinions.
(An opened TN I captured tonight at home. I was inviting people to post their opened TN in the Traveler's Notebook Hong Kong User Group on facebook. If your body carries a soul, your notebook should carry your mind)
(9 books I've recently listened. I was either curious, looking for self-assurance, to be inspired or trying to escape from reality(
Anyways, my therapy is mostly done through spending lone time sorting my mind through, or listening to audiobooks during transit. I'd be interested in knowing how others are doing it too.
We human beings all search for what speaks our mind through all sorts of medium isn't it? Be it an art installation, a photograph, a painting, an article or even a simple desk arrangement; our bodily tools are so limiting simple language, gestures and facial expressions just don't seem to convey enough essence and importance of what our minds have been going through (alright poor English here, maybe it is suffice to say "don't seem to do the justice"). We need the medium viewer to go through similar torture or spend the similar amount of energy, to convey just a bit more, which is fantastic, immensely more liberating and interesting than just hearing the shorten form "I'm sad", BECAUSE there is always beauty springing off from these attempts.
(Faber-Castell Ondoro Smoke Oat fountain pen weighs 42 grams. Beautiful contrast of wood and chrome materials. The only thing I am uneasy of this pen is the "hollow" feeling when it is in use, perhaps due to wood's lower density, every stroke to me generates an echo. Oh "Echo", I may like a pen which echos me indeed, I do)
The tools creating these medium, your hands for an art installation, your camera to create an image, your brush to create those strokes, your pen to flow ideas into an article, we too search for those perfect object-mates, but are we ever sure we have found the perfect match? Same goes, the beauty lies in the attempts. Through attempts you discover yourselves, through attempts you discover what's not, and through attempts you find …. beauty!
(My postman says Kaweco SketchUp 5.6 weighs 45 grams. Just the right weight to spill my idea/graphite onto paper, fingers act as lever to amplify my slight pressure increase from the wrist to produce just enough darkness and width. There is even a sharpener at the back cap. I will probably not be able to finish the graphite until another cool and better one comes along though)
So do lust for your perfect pen or camera, coz it is a noble attempt, but when you are able to find one true love, all the properties don't matter anymore.
(I bought a vegie bag while I was in Tokyo two weeks ago, perfect to host my Traveler's Notebook and Leica M240 inside with great accessibility. Yes I'm afraid my treasures are accesible to theives too. Yes the straps are not for human men. Yes camera and paper are susceptible to rain drops. No, I could not refuse the urge to pull them out every single moment when I experience something new in the trip)
(I had fun to disassemble an iStick, which is great for transferring files between computers and iPhone/iPad, vice versa. Reason to disassemble: I hate the plastic cover and found a way to enclose it into leather. During the attempt, I found a robot cuteness from its core and had some fun attaching my Lego C3PO parts onto it, yup miniature coffee and Traveler's Notebook included)
(Video shot with Leica M240, stablized by youtube)
Imagine flying on a plane looking at my stationery landscape from high above. Beautiful song by Dimitri From Paris featuring Pink Martini. Yup, I was busy flying around HK/Shanghai/Japan/Korea lately. Next trips to Shanghai/Korea in October. Sorry, I'm so slow in my blog, but rest assure the instagram feed is the best place to tag on my journeys.
Syracuse
J'aimerais tant voir Syracuse L'ile de Paques et Kairouan Et les grands oiseaux qui s'amusent A glisser l'aile sous le vent
Voir les jardins de Babylone Et le palais du Grand Lama Rever des amants de Verone Au sommet du Fuji Yama
Voir le pays du matin calme Aller pecher le cormoran Et m'enivrer de vin de palme En ecoutant chanter le vent
Voir le pays du matin calme Aller pecher le cormoran Et m'enivrer de vin de palme En ecoutant chanter le vent
Avant que ma jeunesse s'use Et que mes printemps soient partis J'aimerais tant voir Syracuse Pour m'en souvenir a Paris
Why I did this update? I needed to slow down and turned down going out on Sunday, listening to Jazz radio and dwelling in these beautiful landscapes. So beautiful I had to make a video and bring everybody with me flying for just one minute.
Then all hell broke loose, there are so many stories behind each piece of treasure, I am to write just a little bit here after.
Something annoyed me for a long while, right behind my desk there is this window I hate. Normally I love windows, this one, landlord decided to replace a broken air conditioner with one that must be sealed onto the window, somehow the contractor had to glue the whole thing and the window couldn't be turned open anymore. The heat, the vibration noise, arghhhh, I couldn't even install a curtain anymore, my desktop monitor would be impossible to look at during day time. Anyways, I faced the same problem today, kid just gave me a solution which I never thought of. I got some nice Norens (Japanese fabric dividers) bought from Traveler's Factory and ITOYA, and we just clipped them onto the window and it was almost a perfect day. Beautiful Japanese design. Vibration still goes on, but it is alreay a lot better.
A few days ago, as usual I got pissed off with vague empty monkey ideas which everybody seems to have opinions about how to realize but none could specify exactly how. I could "let it go", but my problem is I couldn't bear such ugly outcome if I were not getting my hands dirty. Luckily I have the experience using SketchUp for close to 10 years now, I found a crack of time and I had to specify it clearly.
Got me into thinking: physical form follows function, conceptual form follows intentions. Yes design is an iteration process, building something starts from fulfilling function with form, great designs infiltrate aesthetics and intentions into the form in the process. Most people forget that the most important aspect of customer experience is YOUR intention, how is that being designed. Losing focus on that, you get a piece of junk sitting around doing nothing.
Got me into thinking: form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Buddhist's word.
Got me into recalling: "Who? Who is but the form following the fuction of what and what I am is a man in a mask". V for Vendetta.
Back to stationery. I usually use my Kaweco SketchUp 5.6 for rough draft, Rotring 800+ (which has a nice twist and hide mechanism to protect the needle head and a nice stylus tip, got it from ITOYA a week ago in addition to my Rotring 800) for finer lines drawn on my Traveler's Notebook. Then I move on to SketchUp for simulation in exact measurement.
Which lead me into another project, a space to be created in a new store coming up in December, for gathering with customers having fun together, once in a while with interesting exhibitions. I can't be fully involved but according to some, this space is important to my departments, so if I don't specify it will go astray to my dismay. Then there was this Saturday afternoon having fun and deeper discussion with partner Out of Stock. What interests me is that picking people's brain trying to integrate and elevate something satisfies me immensely.
Got me into thinking: what's the most common pattern in nature? I was thinking of honeycomb hexagon when designing flexible tables, allowing multiple arrangements and collapsable for storage. Turned out there is no such thing as "the most common", there are variety of patterns in nature, spirals, fractuals, chaos, waves, etc. Thank God I have this wondering journey of discovery and linkage back to my science education, which is mostly an intellectual process I enjoy most for the work I do.
Which leads us back in time for a week when I was in Tokyo/Osaka. It was a 7 days travel to visit trade show, meet suppliers and explore places and spaces. At one point I sat down in a nice cafe in Nakazakicho (中崎町), Osaka, which is a really nice area with small shops and cafes. I thought of my extremity being in certain roles at one time but completely another roles in other times crossing disciplines, it felt almost unbearable having my personality and skills split into compartments, unable to manage it I would become a mad man getting nowhere. How to simplify such management was the thought in that very cafe.
Got me into a thought experiment: Can't just be a lighthouse in a tea cup, able to show direction but knowing just that and in a small world. Can't just be an explorer seeing so much there is no place to berth and share what I see into the future. Can't be both at the same time either. What I need to become? Need to be fluid-like waveform and become Schrödinger's cat, observe me I'm a lighthouse, observe me again I'm an explorer. Can I master this meta personality? I have a long way to go.
(Flannagan, Osaka)
Alright Osaka was fun, I wish I stopped by Kyoto instead but it was a rush decision. I thought I hadn't been there for 5 years so I wanted to see what was changed. Visited 15 stores, two most loved ones are Flannagan and Standard Bookstore. Despite unable to communicate in English, staff at Flannagan tried very hard to explain everything I asked. It has no big difference than the last time I visited, but this time I asked more. Except Meister Tools Pen, which is from Japan, all of their products are imported from Europe/USA. The most recent import was from Russia, a 350 yen 2.0 lead mechanical pencil with a sharpener cap, an attractive deal.
(Standard Bookstore)
Standard Bookstore was relaxing to read, to grab stationery and to have a nice cup of coffee. I got a Apartamento magazine and a book called True Portland. Spent more than the usual time to walk around the stationery and lifestyle product sections and of course a cup of coffee in their cafe. There is a certain rawness in it, kind of organized un-neatly yet organized and motivates a sense of discovery. It is a perfect place to spend an entire day, we need these spaces.
(Trans-Lankhe)
Oh there is another place I stumbled upon, a home/interior shop called Trans-Lankhe, close to Flannagan. I feel that this is a shop managed by Dulton, a brand I love a lot, but I'm not sure. I love their cabinets, far-sight eyeglasses, small things like wooden trays and clips as well as those cans and accessories.
(Doutor Coffee, working on Chronodex planning 5 people's schedule for the next day)
Back further before visiting Osaka, it was almost all business and meetings in Tokyo, except in small chunks of time when I was in Doutor Coffee, ITOYA and Angers.
(ITOYA, Ginza, Tokyo)
ITOYA, ITOYA! I lost a lot of blood over there, it is a family in stationery business I admire a lot. There are intentions and histories there. Yup, you can spend a full day there and it is not enough. Currently their original building is still under re-construction hopefully seeing light into opening in 2015, a temporary building is used but you still get a full 7-8 floors full of stationery, an annex close by called K.ITOYA hosts finer selections of fountain pens, art supplies and study room essentials. Be prepared to die in this heaven, I got a wooden pencase called AvanWood there, well and many other stuffs too, its a poison.
(Angers in KITTE Marunouchi, Tokyo)
Angers originates from Kyoto since 1993, it is one of the stores with stronger intentions you can tell from product selection and merchandise mix, things are right beside each other for reasons, unlike Loft and Hands which are more commercially oriented and you would have no interest to find out who's behind them (they are still far superior than many Western stationery businesses IMHO), Angers shows telltale signs in every corner. To put it simply, signage speaks character, as to what character you can perceive from the store, you just have to visit it.
Oh of course there is the Traveler's Factory in Narita Airport. This time I brought two colleagues to see it, every corner of the store speaks of details. You know all the signages there were painted by hands from the original designer, factory only products, rubber stamps, etc all guarantee a few hours of stay even though it is a tiny shop comparing to the flagship factory shop in Meguro.
Why TN is loved by so many? In addition to the flexibility for customization, the leather, the paper etc, I will tell you why: Serendipity. It's a long story by itself of where this TN movement came from, it is other long stories of how things evolved around my life with it. Simply said, I met a lot of friends from around the world because of it, you too have to step out of your zone and meet other users, it changes your perspectives and I mean it.
(mini meet-up in Tokyo with Shigeru and Rocketman, together with Suzuki and Rita)
For a while, Mr. Shigeru follows my instagram and I thought he only plays Ukulele, nothing to do with stationery or TN. Then this July I saw his feed showing Traveler's Factory Narita in construction as well as Designphil's booth construction in time lapsed video, I got curious and asked if he is involved in the same industry. Turned out he is a contractor for Designphil helping to build these things and he has been a TN user for many years. Alright, let's come out when I visit in Sep I said, then dispite the language barrier we met in Nonbei Yokocho for a drink, together with my visiting colleagues. Then Rocketman joined all of a sudden, I knew him only on Flickr liking his photos and he is actually a TN user too, he is probably uploading the most TN photos to the Flickr group and what a surprise I could finally meet him in person. Rocketman sings in a hobby band, catalogs his meals meticulously on his TN, loves photography just like me and tries to visit new places every year.
Aren't we all connected? Yes but if you are connected to people just on the net and never met any one of them, you missed a lot. There are so much more in each of us that's worth sharing and peeking.
(mini meet-up with Traveler's Notebook Korean users)
Each TN is a conversation starter. Last year I had a great time visiting Korea to join a TN user gathering and we couldn't have enough. So far, users in Korea are way more willing to show and share their TN usage than people in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This year I visited Seoul again for business but at the end of the last day my friend and business partner Mr. Shin said we should head back to his office for discussion, alright we were tired but no problem, a few more hours of hard work will pay off. Turned out it was a surprise gathering with familiar and new faces! I was so happy despite being tired. We swapped TNs to see what's happening lately to each other and how each one added personal touches to their TNs, be it customization or usage.
Who they are? Mathematics teacher in University, fashion industry mercahndiser, fountain pen fanatic with a background in theoratical physics, tour guide, fine art student etc. See the diversity and how everyone enjoys sharing? I learned a lot too.
One unexpected nice gift was from a fine art student who painted in very fine lines my avator onto a TN refill!
Earlier this year, Voloymyr from Ukraine came to Hong Kong travelling with family, we knew each other briefly on facebook only but when he said he was going to leave Hong Kong the next day, I couldn't resist to come out very late a night just to catch up chatting with him. I wondered what is happening in Ukraine, how he can spend 6 months working and then 6 months of vacation with family year after year, etc etc. Stories and life diversity again and again. Well, he didn't really go away, he left for Indonesia with family and filled up 128 pages of his TN and came back to Hong Kong for yet another brief meet up. Amazing, he is back to Ukraine now, hopefully I will meet him again.
August this year, I was in Shanghai for a brief stay to help set up our ¬ [DESKBOUND] campaign (I would love to tell you more about this but maybe later). On the last day I was carrying my luggage walking around the campaign area for a final glimpse, "Breeze in May" came and poking here and there in the TN zone, I was trying to answer her questions as much as possible in such short time. She finally became a TN user, at this moment I think she is working on her USA vacation itinerary on TN :)
I met many new users in Hong Kong too! During the ¬ [DESKBOUND] campaign in Hong Kong in early August, I brought my Kingsley machine to Times Square for a pop-up event, helping customers to emboss their TN with gold foil. A family from Singapore, a secretary, a TN couple, etc etc. We are going to have a great meet-up in Hong Kong soon I promise! How about December when there is a new space we can use?
(¬ [DESKBOUND] event in city'super, Times Square, Hong Kong)
(a sample TN I drew on the cover with gold acrylic for display)
Alright, I'm writing too long and heading nowhere. Before wrapping up, let me give you a little tip on TN.
If you have bought the brass index clip, have you ever wonder how other people are using it so that it won't fall off from the edge? I did. Here's a simple solution for you, just tape the back of the clip onto the page with masking tape, that's it. Masking tapes are easily removable and you can relocate the index clip very easily. Securing the clip using masking tape also helps to prevent excessible movement of the index clip which can easily damage the paper on the edge. Good tip eh?
Finally, back to the Stationery Landscape topic. I travel relatively more than other people, yet I feel seriously not enough coz most of my trips are on very tight business schedule, leaving me not much time to explore with people and places. But life is like that isn't it? Not enough not enough not enough, when can we start to enjoy more? Let's steal time, find cracks, take moral advantages and be explorers meeting new people and making new friends on those common landscapes, I'm sure through that, we can be lighthouses to other people once in a while.
If you have reached this far of this blog post hahahah, its time to go back to the video and enjoy that one minute fly over with me once again, over the stationery landscape of mine.
It's been a slowest blogging year, things happen to you, you thought you were not whining but you were. You thought you would deal with them one by one with methods but they just keep coming at you. With all the good intentions somehow attracting me negative energies, I started to realize that good intentions without positive emotions didn't do any good. Everything went downhill coz I chose to fight giants, to look down on poor quality, to prove myself by winning battles, etc all these did me no good, in terms of health and effects on people and family around me.
(Pencil, pencil and pencils, nice colors and wooden barrels)
So at one point, I was near break down coz everything went nowhere, with increasing number of triggers lying around to set me off on anger and despair, I finally screamed in front of the mirror. That was scary, that was the point I realized I had to re-wire my brain.
(that scream happened on 16th March 2014)
While I'm doing that, please stop by my Instagram and twitter feed.
(Traveler's Notebook experience corner, inside 5F Raffles City, "Life by city'super" store)
Short update you don't need to read: just finished setting up new "Life by city'super" store in Raffles City, Shanghai 2 weeks ago, loving the new furnitures and zoning I planted, thankful to friends and colleagues helping out a lot. 1st May we will launch a huge store in iAPM Shanghai, so next two weeks I'm flying there again. June is Travel Photo Cafe 2014. Early July is stationery show in Tokyo I hope I can visit, but in that month a new store will be launched in Hong Kong which we've spent a lot of time perfecting, plus a relocation of another store. August is Back To School, huge project. September is launching of a range of limited edition Traveler's Notebook which is stuck at certain stage right now. Close to the end of the year is another new store I'm hoping I could spend a lot more time on planning, not to mention crazy Xmas season for gifts, cards, diaries, etc…. Wife's last chemo shot will be two weeks from now, then there will be a series of radiotherapy. Poor boy got his elbow broken 2 days ago and his arm is in plaster cast, oh gee he signed up for swimming competition. Tons of small projects to seed, track and execute. I love doing all these, if they were not all cramped together, I thought last year was hell hahahah. And my Chronodex stamp, sorry that the maker of a special part went bankrupt and I couldn't find replacement yet, got to do it got to do it. And yes the 2nd half of the 2014 weekly Chronodex should be on its way.
(nano Traveler's Notebook)
Did I manage to have some fun with my Traveler's Notebook? Yes, I made the world's first nano Traveler's Notebook :)
Scription has been very slow in the past year of 2012. I thought situation at work would become smoother but it didn't. Simply opening too many stores too fast, losing important connection between sourcing and customer wants/needs. In addition to under staff situation in my departments, I had a lot of tedious problems to tackle for developing new stores in Shanghai. That left me essentially no time in cultivating people and projects at work, let alone my own Chronodex adventure. 2012 was a very tiring year.
(A Room vintage cafe: dolls from the 50s meet present day Traveler's Notebook)
(A Room vintage cafe: Tri-eyes of different ages. Bell & Howell model 333 8mm movie camera vs #turtlejacket on iPhone. 3-lens turret)
(GZ cafe: which I brought a dear Korean Traveler's Notebook super fan/friend there)
I did managed to stop by a few nice places during my business trips, which is like Shanghai every month, such as Le Jardin Secret (秘密花園) restuarant, A Room which is a nice cafe flooded with vintage stuffs and GZ cafe which the owner is always there to chat with.
(Shanghai airport lounge)
(Shanghai airport: roof window looks like leaves from certain angles)
I did managed to steal time, like I said before, to do something I like in small chunks of time too, but that's not too fulfilling and I always feel like missing a lot of things. Like bringing personal projects to business trip hoping I could work on them in hotel but eventually too tired to do so, like I needed to organize ideas floating around but there was never a quiet moment I could use productively. Despite what you think apparently, I myself feel like losing myself bits and pieces here and there. 2013 new year resolution? Be smarter.
Smarter! Like forget about Apple's Map, use Baidu in China once and for all. For the rest of the world, Google Map rocks. Yup, Apple led somebody in Australia to a dessert, it led me to a wrong building too. Not smart to roll out an app like that. Not smart when you don't know you are not ready for it (I'm reminding myself).
(Sensu brush is the best stylus I've ever found! Writing with it on iPad is effortless, not to mention the amazing low friction digital painting in apps like Paper)
(Words notebook: made in USA, carefully chosen paper and ink, size the same as Moleskine Cahier, unique system of notation for tasks and bullets. Fountain pen will bleed through pages, finer rollerballs, pencils and ballpoints are perfect. I would say it is the tasks/bullets version of Field Notes)
(Varacil mechanical pencil PUZZLE, HK$108 kind of challenging to finish, but it is our 2012 Xmas TOP seller! 砌死人嘅鉛蕊筆)
As for product reviews in 2012, I believe I did nothing at all. Did managed to post some pictures with short comments on Instagram/Twitter feed, but no analysis and comparison, zero. Well, Scription is not about product reviews afterall, I am sure you trust what I share here or on Instagram/Twitter has some points of interest. Maybe I filtered too much, should have revealed a little more.
(Kaweco props for retail display: sick and tired of data analysis and fighting against biased opinions on that day, so I played with tihngs on my table for a few minutes)
(Frame and lenses: I was just posting something I stare at for a long time, bet they are pleasing in some ways, to you too)
(Headphones and cameras cleaning day of the year)
Yes I posted porns on my feeds too, judging from the responds I get, I figured people really don't mind. I hope in between these porns, you can see tibits of my life and practise perhaps something good will come out of the sharing.
(Love film, no edit great colors and texture, not too real. Mangrove in Tainan. Canon F1 85mm/f1.2, AGFA Vista plus 200)
Oh meeting people in 2012 was fun, great fun. I took the liberty to further disrupt my work boundaries and went to Tainan University of Technology sharing my retail experience, hope I had inspired some students there. They are very polite and teachers are super friendly, I appreciate the opportunity. I also went to a forum to speak to dozens of secondary school students in Hong Kong, sharing thoughts about creating a sustainable campaign for their Chinese New Year projects. I love sharing, which is part of my very own learning, I just hope I can have more time to do that in our industry as well.
(Thanks world Traveler's Notebook fans @fishball and Colin for sending me lovely greetings! Merry Xmas!)
Lastly, thanks to all of you Scription readers and Chronodex users whom have been heart warming and supportive. Let's continue the Scription journey in 2013!
Please do comment for the Scription content so far, I'd like to see what I can improve.
What? My Instagram follower @ditzy_klutz said he/she is up to 700pcs of masking tape collection! Talking about obsession and world record. Anybody can top that? True, you never know when to stop lusting.
And tonight I went to a beautiful music performance by Hong Kong Philharmonic in the New Central Harbourfront grassland. The final piece was a feature of firework demonstration with Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks.
Heading for business trip for the next week, gotta update you what's been going on diligently.
My world has become smaller in 2012. Well, everybody's world is, when we became so connected through the net, we know things instantly across the globe. In another sense, my world dwindled quite a lot due to long and gruesome projects at work. Makes me wonder what "small" really means.
I've cancelled quite a few sourcing trips due to various reasons, all somehow points to the fact that I'm part of some ill conceived and badly executing projects. My world is smaller, I became smaller, couldn't allocate enough time on interesting projects like Traveler's Notebook special edition, Invitation of a Japanese stationery commentator to Hong Kong for talk, craft events, etc. I'm pushing quite many limits, including my family's tolerance of my absence. I've also put on hold some of my personal leather projects and stationery production too. In certain context, pushing limits made me even more creative, that was the past. I am currently in the state which I lack energy to fight long battles.
It is obvious I haven't had new instant photos to stick on my photo wall for a long while. Realizing this, I decided to carry my film cameras even more, even though in many instances I was too busy to take even just one shot. Well, at least last week I have two photo booth prints came out from visiting Joyce fashion store in Hong Kong. The booth was there to celebrate Joyce's collaboration with i-D magazine, a Soul i-D Exhibition to be held in Beijing soon. Everybody can just go there and take a cover star i-D portrait.
I didn't do it right for the portrait though, should've winked/covered my right eye. The idea was to portrait a photographer being angried at after he took a photo of a subject and later hurt by the subject.
One of the fun project I participated last Friday was being one of the judges for an instant photo journaling competition called Instant Only. Participants are encouraged to use instant photos like Instax or Polaroid to capture their moments and journal about them. I was amazed by some of the participants' work, the winning entries are obvious despite the organizer's complicated rating system which rendered judges spending long time to mark, I enjoyed reading those journals in those few hours.
Earlier in October I went as usual to Shanghai for a week for work. The happiest time during that trip was a visit to Xing Guang Photographic Equipments shopping arcade (星光摄影器材城), got some nice deals on analog films, including FP3000B to be used with my modified Polaroid 110a.
I managed to join a few colleagues for a day trip to Yangcheng Lake (阳澄湖) for a hairy crab feast! It was just an hour and a half away from Shanghai, not as beautiful as I imagined, but it was a great chance to find some nice photo angles.
Too bad I forgot to bring my Lenspen to clean the lens, some photos had weird shadows when developed. Like this one. I could only give it a proper name to explain: "Soul leaving". The other photo I took of an old lady washing bowl on river side, her face was taken away, too scary to show here.
Thanks to Fujifilm keep rolling out films, FP3000B is great for indoor and out door shots. In many occassions, especially wedding banquets, converted Polaroid camera using FP3000B is a great combo to give out instant photos to friends. Many people have never seen this in action so the peeling apart moment always astonish them.
For those of you who never had hairy crab (大閘蟹) before, it is a delicacy. October and November is the perfect season to try. The benefit of going to the source in Yangcheng Lake instead of buying from the market is that you get to meet the local people there and get a glimpse of their lives. In addition, it costs only RMB 150 per person to have 2 crabs (1 male, 1 female) and 17 dishes shared by 6 people! Great deal!
Many of the 'restaurants' are operated by small families, it is like having lunch in their very own home. You book in advance and drive there, they pick you up from shore using these small boats, arrive their homes and enjoy the feast.
(boat shed)
(old boat)
(boat shed reflection)
We had such a great time. The family's grandparents picked some fresh sugar canes for us as desserts too.
So, gruesome work on ill conceived projects? Gotta enjoy myself a bit more in between, using "small" chunks of time. Now I figured, you fight giants using "small" stones and "small" moves.
Blake Mycoskie: Start Something That Matters I don't know why I couldn't finish this book, maybe it was the tone it was being written. Gotta get back to it someday, or not. (**)
Paco Underhill: Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping--Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond Read this book 10 years ago. To read this updated copy is to refresh my memory of how things were done back then and what's changed recently. Although at the beginning it is kind of boring and you may not agree with their research methods, but later in the chapters you will find hidden wisdoms. Just follow the author's logic and see what you can learn from it. (***)
Walter Isaacson: Steve Jobs Love hearing the stories all over again, some of them especially what happened in the past few years are new to me. Most importantly it is a closer portrait of Steve than all other books about him. Isaacson recorded audios during his interview with Steve, check out 60 minutes special and you will hear Steve's own voice. RIP Steve. (****)
Richard Branson: Losing My Virginity Read it like a novel coz you'll find it attractive as a story to follow through. Learn from his character through stories! (****)
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