There is a nostalgic smell from my past, a smell i always associated with Chinatown. I could never quite pin down what it was. It is a slightly acrid smell, not from food or incense, but something else. For the longest time i thought it must be some kind of exotic packing material that only existed in the warehouses of Hong Kong through which all ( Read more... )

Dune appears to be a book tailor-made for teenage boys. The main character is a lonely prince who discovers he has superhuman abilities. His parents move him to a far-off land for their own political reasons, while he mopes about, dreaming of an exotic girl who is fascinated by him. "Tell me of your homeworld, Usul..." Soon enough the political ( Read more... )

I can't remember exactly when it was, or what prompted it, but earlier this year i went back to watch the most-maligned (and my most fondly-remembered) Star Trek - Voyager. I loved it, and i especially loved how strongly it stood in contrast to the newer Star Trek shows of the past 5 years or so. 26 episode seasons. Lots of standalone episodes. ( Read more... )

I really hate the idea that such a thing as "an addictive personality" exists, and even more the idea that i have one. But i do often find myself getting sucked quite deeply into a particular thing for longish periods ( Read more... )

I was hoping to make another food post today, but things didn't turn out that way ( Read more... )

I have been on holiday all week. This week was a twofer of Children's Day and 清明節 Tomb Sweeping Day, so i took a couple days annual leave and made it a full week off. My plan was to do some traveling, although i was discouraged a bit when colleagues told me it'd be even harder to find a hotel over 清明 than it was over the 228 holiday. Well, i would ( Read more... )

An expat friend here on LJ recently made a post about feeling a bit alien in Japan, and it reminded me of that Sting song.

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Sting - Englishman In New YorkSting is the favorite singer of my step mother. One of the sweetest birthday gift stories that i remember is that when she turned 50 (i think?) my dad and her sisters got together to secretly ( Read more... )

Something that has been driving me nuts for years is that every time i listen to the Escape From New York theme, it doesn't quite sound like what i remember it sounding like. I bought the soundtrack album in the early 00s. I listened to it over and over. I posted a couple tracks from it last night ( Read more... )

I am trying to put together a cyberpunk playlist that does not include John Carpenter.

It is difficult because in my ears, John Carpenter is essentially the ur-cyberpunk. David Bowie, Billy Idol, pfft. Singing does not belong in cyberpunk.

So far i have Alexander Brandon (Deus Ex), and his tracks NYC Streets and The Synapse (Hong Kong Streets).

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( Read more... )

As a follow-up to my last post, i was thinking about cities and population density ( Read more... )