Winter break 2014

Just got back from my winter break, which was spent in Japan.

It was a working holiday... with time spent cleaning my in-laws place, looking after the kids (mine and my sister-in-law's) and practising calligraphy.

But I got great views of Mount Fuji from my in-law's place.

And great food... high quality wagyu at the nearby yakiniku restaurant.

Also paid a visit to the nearby temple (Kashima Shrine) right after midnight on New Year's Day. We usually go in the afternoon, but this year, made the effort to go in the freezing weather at right after midnight.

And the usual visit to another temple, Kawasaki Taishi. To pray for a good year ahead, and to eat the good food sold by the street stalls there.

And guess what? It snowed on New Year's Day in Yokohoma! First time in 17 years that I have seen it snow in Yokohoma on 1 January.

Here's me redoing the rice paper screens.

Washing the sliding doors (in freezing cold weather...)

Bringing the kids out for lunch and a movie (while their mothers are out with friends).

What better way to spend the holidays?

Bad driver

I am a bad driver.

Bad in how I don't really care about the comfort of my passengers. I guess that is because I am too used to driving myself around, instead of having passengers. So I usually brake too hard, accelerate too quickly, turn too sharply.

But at least I am safe. And alert (most of the time...)

Neighbourhood in the news, again!

The neighbourhood is in the news again! The last time it was in the news too, and so full of heritage. This time, I learnt more about the long history that this particular road (Upper Serangoon Road) has. Good to know that they are going to do something to preserve the long heritage here. The old Simon Road market is gone (replaced by a condominium) but I hope the corner coffee shop (in the photo above) survives!

师兄 Senior...

They call me 师兄 (senior) not because I am older. Not because I have been practising for more years.

No, they call me 师兄 because they acknowledge the effort that I put into my practice.

I may be younger, I may have started learning from my teacher later, but because of the effort I put in regularly attending the practice sessions, and the number of sessions I attend each week, they call me 师兄...

I humbly acknowledge that title, and I continue to put in effort to live up to that name.

The Book of Life (2014 film)

The Book of Life...

Have the courage to be yourself. And write your own life story.

Our biggest fear is when we fear being ourselves. For it is something that we cannot run away from.

Simple lessons from an animated film made for children.

Oh, and today is the Day of the Dead.

Why train?

Someone asked me during pushing hands class how often do I practise taiji. I told him I usually practise about four times in a week. He asked me why I train so often.

I train because I want to be good at something.

There is no shortcut. There is no quick way to success, no magic formula to being good at something. All it takes is a lot of hard work, a lot of practice, a lot of training.

The more you train, the better you get.

Whether it is taiji, calligraphy, language, or my core profession, I need to train hard in order to get better.

And I want to be good at these things that I do. That is why I train.

I want to be good at these things to reassure myself of my self-worth. There are many things that I am not good at, I just hope I can be good at a few things.

That is why I train.

Lots of practice

After more than 150 pieces of practice, I think this should be the one.

I hope.

Don't copy...

Don't try to copy the master...

Back to practice...

Singapore F1 weekend

It's the Singapore F1 weekend, the race just ended, and the haze is back.

Lewis Hamilton came in top for this year's race. Leading the race right from the start.

PSI went above 100 into the unhealthy range... there is a burning smell in the air.

Preparing for the exhibition

After a whole week of practice.

After writing around a hundred pieces.

 

Hopefully this is good enough for the coming exhibition.

Getting the hang of it

After a week of practice, writing 53 pieces, I am getting the hang of it.

I started out with this, before the week of practice.

But it wasn't good enough.

So I practised and practised and practised.

And I finally arrived at this.

I am finally getting there!

Lucy (film)

I watched this film, "Lucy", the other day. It is a science fiction movie, a big monotonous since the heroine more or less became invincible a third into the movie. And then it is just a whole series of powers that she has.

Still, the way the heroine was transformed into superhuman reminded me of the Bene Gesserit and their spice agony. The scene of the heroine touching fingers with primitive man (woman) is trying to recreate the scene from "The Creation of Adam". And in the end, when humans use up to 100% of their brain capacity, they become gods. Man and God are the same.

Okay, getting into theology and philosophy...

Just watch the movie for the fun of it. Don't think too much. Good way to spend one and a half hours if you have nothing better to do.

Calligraphy is an expensive hobby

Practice...

And more practice...

Calligraphy is an expensive and time-consuming hobby. All that time spent writing on paper (which cost money!) that will only be thrown away because they don't make the mark. More money (paper) down the drain...

Practice practice practice

That was what I was told. That I needed more practice before I can even create a piece suitable for display at an exhibition.

And so, I am back to practice.

Paper is not cheap. Calligraphy is an expensive pastime.

My smiley B*)

Back in the BBS days, when I was on Lothlorien BBS, I used to use this for my smiley.

B*)

Back then, I wore glasses. It was in the days of offline mail readers, like BlueWave. Fixed width characters, 80 characters per line, 25 lines per page. ASCII text, ANSI art. Those were the days.