boo and poo’s land

i just received this message from our friend, dimby, who’s facing a new political instability right now in his homeland and frankly, he’s quite tired of this… i’m proud to see that dimby has improved his English since we last met him almost 1.5 years ago… he pretty much would like to study abroad here and try to escape from the political mess there.

anyway, here’s what he had to say about the current situation in madagascar:

“Yesterday, Ministry of Health, vice ministry of health, vice education, water, agruculture, tourist and forests, and public work, also leave because the military of CAPSAT forced them. May be Capsat kidnapped 6 peoples ( The highest military graduated and four generals, The pastor president of church of Jesus Chirst in Madagascar,..) friends of Ravalomanana. TV Tf1 and Radio RFI from says Ravaloamanana give the power to the highest military in Madagascar but Andry and CAPSAT are angry. Ravalomanana thinks to leave because he hope peaceful in Madagascar. Yesterday, CAPSAT in Palace of President of Madagascar in Antaninarenina, they weren’t war none blood or dead. Andry visit it yesterday. Embassy the USA, represent of UN, Africa Union etc met. Andry and friends were also there. Ravalomanana letter saying he gave the power to the highest graduated in Madagascar was read but Andry said he is not okay cause the people says Andry is leader in Madagascar. UN, Bank of world, Europe Union etc says, if Andry is leader and CAPSAT in Madagascar, they do not fund Madagascar.Today, Justice say Andry is President of Madagascar now to 24 months.”

i just hope that Andry will get his senses knocked out once he realizes how difficult is it to be a President of a country that hasn’t flourished lately. Ravalomanana has been very smart to step down for the sake of safety of the public. but it’s going to be another LONG road ahead for the country just because this chao has given the country a step back. it’s going to be interesting to see how Andry will handle this country and he’s only 34 years and used to be a DJ!!! he’d need to change the current law which a malagasy president needs to be at least 40 years old to run the country…

little more than 3 months have passed and there’s no update on this blog…  i wonder why…

*clouds hovering around above my head*

well, after more than 5 years of blogging, i think i’ve reached at this point where i’d generally get sick of blogging.  is it pointless to blog when there are so many people blogging and everyone catching up with each other’s blogs?  i feel that i’d rather meet someone to have a long, engaging chat with instead of spending some time on the blog.

after all, i’m sure that some of you read my facebook status (which i do update occasionally) which would be generally good enough to keep you updated of my life.

but why in the heck am i typing this while taking a dump?  i have no idea…

i guess that’s what you get what you read here!

but in the meantime, please do try to check out one of my new favorite artists, matthew palladino, who definitely has original ideas to keep you entertained (or perhaps to some people disgusted).  here are some of his pieces:

You can find more his works at:
http://www.dumbstersf.com/

it has been a month and half since i last posted… here’s what i’ve done in the past 6 weeks:

- sub-teaching an english class at a high school

- laying down my personal goals for the future

- stay rooted to home instead of globe-trotting (*wifey and me patting my back*)

- get a nice screen print done by david choe of obama (see the image below)

what will i do for the next 6 weeks:

- sub-teaching other classes

- bouldering and camping in bishop (anyone want to join us there during gobble week?)

- scouting grad schools

- ditching my web design career (yep, you read it correctly here!)

- vote! (and you should, too, otherwise you’re dayum hopeless!)

we just got back home yesterday all the way from shanghai… we were there to attend our friend’s beautiful chinese wedding banquet, but we stayed there for a week to explore shanghai.  it was my third trip to shanghai and it seems like i’m making a trip to shanghai for every decade (1989, 1999, and now 2008) and i can safely type that shanghai has transformed from a small city to a huge metropolis.  i recalled on my first visit to shanghai, there weren’t that many tall buildings.  the tallest building i recalled was a hotel and there were many two-story hu tongs along the streets.  flash forward to almost 20 years later, many modern buildings have replaced the old houses.  8 new subway lines running with 3 remaining lines left! i think there was only 2 lines back in 1999.  to make more room for the people to live in shanghai, there are many apartment complexes around which definitely looked like a lego city.  too many cookie cutter styles around that i’m little worried that shanghai may not have its own identity at all in the future.  the only signatures that shanghai have is the bund along the river as well as the yu garden, but then shanghai is rapidly changing and finding its own identity, it’ll probably take some time itself to be more attractive in a few years before the world expo takes place there in 2010.   hopefully, i’ll be able to see the completed shanghai in another decade! 

Two years ago, I purchased a nice original print, “Get Acquainted by a Faile Girl” by this artist, Faile, for only $275.  It was a huge print, 38″ by 24″.  It had been stored in the basement for a while since my wife wasn’t so fond of this print.  She was concerned that we’d get a few oldies visit our home with my parents, so not quite an appropriate print to hang out in our home for a while.  Check out this print:

Fast forward to now… just recently, I had to part this print out as I need to finance a purchase for an original art piece by Bruno 9Li.  I’ve placed this print in E-bay recently, and in almost two years, the price has appreciated exceedingly more than I could have imagined.  Count to the final seconds, a bidder has won this auction with a staggering bid of $5001 for this print!   So, this print was quite a nice investment in exchange for this Bruno 9li’s original painting that I’ve been eying toward.  Here’s the painting:

See Bruno 9li’s painting

Finally, our painting has found a new home in our dining room which will probably be a nice conversation starter since the painting is somewhat huge… at least 56″ by 24!

So, while I find stocks to be boring, I go for art ’stocks’ here where I love to research on artists’ background as well as their works and having art in our home does keep me entertained often on the contrary to those stock certificates!

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080613/153276/

now, if the us politicians can sway their eyes into producing new innovations for the future instead of depending on petroleum.  imagine how much US history would have changed…

now sorting the pictures for a slide show someday soon…

today is the last day of my teaching days for now! earlier, i told my boo that i was feeling so chained to work that i wanted to get out of SF for a while and travel DOMESTICALLY (not internationally!) she said to go ahead and do it! but yet, i get the feeling that i should just simply stay local and finish some errands that i’ve been meaning to finish, but never did! sometimes, i feel so lucky to have susie hold me as a balloon because i could be a balloon that just flies away to reach for the higher sky, yet sometimes it’s really nice of her to knock my senses out and focus on our long term goals…

lately, i’ve been hitting a plastic rock gym and getting myself in shape for some fun climbing. my grips aren’t as strong as they used to be yet my techniques have improved lately. i’ve noticed myself that i’ve been trying to conserve my energy as opposed to powering myself up like i used to… i guess my 10+ years of experience has shaped my climbing mentality. hopefully, i’ll be able to do a great session at castle rock near santa cruz someday soon!

every time i walk along the busy sidewalks in the heart of san francisco, my mind keeps telling me to come to these same spots during the wee hours of the mornings with my camera. that way, i’d find many great photo ops with no human beings in my sight. i just truly love how the san francisco runs without human beings in my sights. last night, after we were kicked out by borders as it was closing at a local mall, we were one of the last people to leave the mall’s grounds. i told my darling to take a glance at the empty floor of the mall’s 3rd floor. all the shops were closed in and it was pretty dead yet i knew that the photo would look wonderful. but i didn’t bring my camera with me this time. that lead me to me thinking, how wonderful it’d be to work as a graveyard janitor for a few months with my camera daily. i’m sure that a regular janitor may not even care about how lucky he is to see all eerie, quiet moments everywhere. i think that’s something i’d LOVE to be in his shoes just for that moment because many people don’t even get the opportunity to get that glimpse of moment in their lifetimes.

blah blah blah… i guess it’s just one of those things that keeps fluttering in my mind occasionally because very often, i don’t see many photos of these kinds of eerie moments anywhere…