This and that...
Topic of the day: Random thoughts and observations
Due to a lack of creative writing juice, here's some random ponderings and observations as of late, in no particular order…
- The government is helping to make Beijing rain. I don't know how, but apparently they shoot some chemicals into the air. Apparently, Beijing's airport has already cancelled 600 flights this summer due to the bad weather (thanks, Digs, for the article).
- Been doing some more shootings of the Beijing hutongs. The hutong residents I've met while walking around have been very nice and kind. Twice in two days, I was invited by the random people that I met, into their homes to take shots and tour a traditional hutong house – great experiences. I think my skin is growing thick as well. I hardly flinch now when I get shoo-ed away from taking a shot (from pedestrians, albeit). So far, I've enjoyed working alone as well. Will do some more shoots in the coming weekends.
- Most hutong residents do not want to move from their homes – not only are they not being compensated well, they also don't want to move away the homes that's been in the family for generations. They are sad about the history that will be lost once the houses will be demolished. I guess these are the kind of things that everyone kind of "knows" - rationally, it's easy to figure out. However, for me, it wasn't until I met people who expressed to me their feelings that these sentiments really drove it home for me. Encounters can be powerful things.
- This summer has been the ugliest summer I've seen in Beijing – barely any blue sky days – every day is cloudy, gross, and most of the time raining. Why is the government making it rain? Hmmm…
- Lots of people are leaving nowadays – I think I have these periods twice a year – where heaps of friends decide to take flight and leave Beijing (or China). First, there's Nick, Mads left today, Kathleen in Shanghai will leave this weekend, Rachel will leave in less than 2 weeks, and Adam will be moving to Xi'an in a few weeks time as well. Eduardo and Soraya will also leave in a few weeks. Oha!
- I'm addicted to Lost. Enough said. Now, I can't get enough of the antics of all the survivors of the Island. I heart Jack!!! :-)
- I was watching a Tarkan VCD that I bought in Urumqi this morning. One of the songs on it is a remix he did with Fabulous (yes, the rapper). It was pretty interesting – I liked it. But what I was most impressed about the video was the way Tarkan danced... Man, he can shake his tail feather well...
- I was flipping through this month's MetroZine when all of a sudden, smack in the middle of the magazine, was a picture of Mark (the intrepid Irishman who we met up and traveled with in Xinjiang)! In the picture, he's standing in a scenery that's much like Kanas Lake (only warmer looking). It turned out the reason he was in it was because he wrote the article, about traveling in Kazakhstan. He popped online a few days ago where I chatted with him - he was logging in from Tehran, Iran.
Due to a lack of creative writing juice, here's some random ponderings and observations as of late, in no particular order…
- The government is helping to make Beijing rain. I don't know how, but apparently they shoot some chemicals into the air. Apparently, Beijing's airport has already cancelled 600 flights this summer due to the bad weather (thanks, Digs, for the article).
- Been doing some more shootings of the Beijing hutongs. The hutong residents I've met while walking around have been very nice and kind. Twice in two days, I was invited by the random people that I met, into their homes to take shots and tour a traditional hutong house – great experiences. I think my skin is growing thick as well. I hardly flinch now when I get shoo-ed away from taking a shot (from pedestrians, albeit). So far, I've enjoyed working alone as well. Will do some more shoots in the coming weekends.
- Most hutong residents do not want to move from their homes – not only are they not being compensated well, they also don't want to move away the homes that's been in the family for generations. They are sad about the history that will be lost once the houses will be demolished. I guess these are the kind of things that everyone kind of "knows" - rationally, it's easy to figure out. However, for me, it wasn't until I met people who expressed to me their feelings that these sentiments really drove it home for me. Encounters can be powerful things.
- This summer has been the ugliest summer I've seen in Beijing – barely any blue sky days – every day is cloudy, gross, and most of the time raining. Why is the government making it rain? Hmmm…
- Lots of people are leaving nowadays – I think I have these periods twice a year – where heaps of friends decide to take flight and leave Beijing (or China). First, there's Nick, Mads left today, Kathleen in Shanghai will leave this weekend, Rachel will leave in less than 2 weeks, and Adam will be moving to Xi'an in a few weeks time as well. Eduardo and Soraya will also leave in a few weeks. Oha!
- I'm addicted to Lost. Enough said. Now, I can't get enough of the antics of all the survivors of the Island. I heart Jack!!! :-)
- I was watching a Tarkan VCD that I bought in Urumqi this morning. One of the songs on it is a remix he did with Fabulous (yes, the rapper). It was pretty interesting – I liked it. But what I was most impressed about the video was the way Tarkan danced... Man, he can shake his tail feather well...
- I was flipping through this month's MetroZine when all of a sudden, smack in the middle of the magazine, was a picture of Mark (the intrepid Irishman who we met up and traveled with in Xinjiang)! In the picture, he's standing in a scenery that's much like Kanas Lake (only warmer looking). It turned out the reason he was in it was because he wrote the article, about traveling in Kazakhstan. He popped online a few days ago where I chatted with him - he was logging in from Tehran, Iran.
7 Comments:
Hi there. Firstly your pictures around the hutongs are fabulous, put my work to shame. It's great you are making friends and not enemies as I did find lots of paranoid people in China when they see a camera, but now and then you find a nice friendly person like the old guy I took who was deleighted to be photographed.
The rain making procedure I think is called cloud seeding. I think they do it because Beijing is so dry otherwise, unlike say, Shanghai. I used to welcome it but I guess it sounds like they are overdoing it now.
I also heard some people got injured once when the cloud seeding failed and exploded on the ground - scary!
Ok just passing through and thought I'd say hi ..... Peter.
Hi Peter, thanks for the note! Very interesting about the cloud seeding... very glad I'm not around when it exploded on the ground... you're right, very scary!
Sheila - please don't forget to charge your batteries for next weekend. I'm pretty sure you don't get fancy ass digital camera batteries around a migrant worker settlement. :P
Sheila....
lets trade...obviously I get the better part of the deal... :-) :-)
I give you shantaram to "read" and you give me all the episodes of "lost" you have.....
I dont want to go through the headache od downloading them....:p
What say???
Cheers
oh by the way some more indian movies are now with me that you like...:-) K3G???
Pierre: Dork.
Jitu: How about for the 1st season of Lost (I only own the 1st season), you give me Shantaram and all the bollywood films you own (especially K3G!). ;)
HELLO...?! did anyone bother to find out if i've finished reading the book first?
Sheila - get chirpy and i'll make the school principal think you're into kiddy porn or something. :P
heyhey~~ i luv ur sexy pic on facebook~~ ;p ahah~~ n adore these b/w pix as well ~~ u must look like a real journalist now v*^*^*v giv me a call we shud go out stime!!!!!!!!(for drink==>n i wont tell ya mom how drunk u got ;p) 13911946296 <3 miss
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