Jogging at Waterfrontpark Tai Po

Yesterday I have been jogging at the waterfrontpark in Tai Po running van the bridge at the edge of Tai Po to the very end of the Waterfront where I have taken this panorama shot with my mobile camera. If you see some black lines in the pictures and have seen this also in other picture it is either there is a small hair stuck in my phone lens or there is a certain malfunction with the lense causing that small line, however with jogging I would rather take my phone with me then having a DSLR around my neck and bumping it around while running. Also it is a very first time I had made a panorama picture using my cell phone and later stitch it together with Photoshop with photomerge. If you want to see this picture large click here.

At the waterfrontpark there are certain length given from how far it is but the starting line actually is pretty much in the middle of the route while I actually start running from the bridge. So I reckon if you start running from the bridge in total length it would be 2 km in total to run from the bridge till the end. It took me 11 minutes to run that length which I had timed, however it was timed on my last run when I was pretty exh. And I also had to run back and actually I ran the route twice making the total length that I had ran about 8 km.

I also went up the lookout tower of the park and made few interesting picture of the tower and also from the top of the tower. It is pretty high that tower and you can look pretty far from it. I think I need to go there once with my Canon 1000D to take some interesting photo's.

I am sure on a sunny day with a clear blue sky I could make some very intersting pictures here and maybe if I have time to walk instead of running I will take my camera with me instead and take picture of this place and all the people who are either jogging or cycing there.

Adopt Don't Shop

Today saw someone selling 5 puppies on the street however they are cute but it is not a proper way. Even saw people buying one very fast, however you don't know what the puppies background is and if they are well or not. How cute or even some with sad puppy eyes, but they could be sick and also gotten in a unfair way. This is not only happening in Hong Kong but also other places on the earth, however they are being sold instead of left on their own on the street instead which often would happen. However you don't know if they are from puppy mills where dogs are sadly misused to breed small puppies, like chickens laying eggs in a egg factory. While in Shenzhen I had encountered countless of pets sold on the streets from turtles to rabbits, however from the size and looks the rabbits were very small and lickly much too small taken away from their mother. Also puppies that were colored in a certain way so they look cute, but acutally spray painted in a certain way making it have certain stripe patterns.

Adopt Don't shop is certain way how you also could get your pet, because daily there are hundreds of pets found on the street cause people like them for the certain moment but then find it too hard to care for them and throw them on the street like trash. At animal shelter there are daily allot of these homeless pets found and only taken care of for just few days and if there is no one who pick them up or adopt them they would get a shot and killed, cause the shelters don't have enough funding to keep them all alive for a long time or even the space for it. You can adopt a pet at the animal shelter instead and help out these animals.

If you want to purchase a pet read the information on this Myspace page, it contains informations to help you reconsider the choice of purchasing a pet. You are purchasing a living creature and not a toy which you can put or throw away when you don't like it or find it hard to take care of. So think twice before purchasing a pet or find the necessary information about it first.

Actually I did not knew about these kind of informations until Sky Tao gave me a leaflet about Adopt don't Shop, even though I heard the name Adopt Don't Shop who had held a logo design contest at designcontest.net . But mainly the message or what they do or promotion about this issue is not that well known. Basically like the Teflon pans which causes toxic fumes when heated over a certain degrees, which happen to be hidden news in the rest of the world while in America it is now a pretty well known about. While I heard it in a conference in the Netherlands, in Europe and Asia now pans with teflon are still being sold and no news channels have reported about it. I think these things are pretty important for news to talk about instead of chasing celebrities and exciting news of kills,death and such, but show news that people should actually know and learn about which also improves the world.

At the moment there are to many informations which is not taught or spread around enough, but only that people can learn about if they would search it themselve on the internet. I think the media and news should change. At the moment the Dutch news reports does good jobs showing also extra gadget and such and news that are spread over the internet and not just news found in news papers or in other media. But they also show stats, report and things we should learn about. Here in Hong Kong at the moment what I see on the news is pretty boring, mostly about traffic accidents, celebrities, lawsuits, politicy and news around the world. But missing allot of reports and things people should learn about, mostly there are programs special made for those info but mostly only cover a small part of the information. Also I found that they use pretty strict news report like about 5 to 10 years ago which was also in the Netherlands, however the news has gotten more relax and the presentors also got more relax and can talk more open then having to read strict stories, while there are shows about celebrity news which are more like the Dutch news program which are much open with talking and presenting.

At the moment there are also certain trends that I am concerned with in Hong Kong but need to get some more details on to talk about. But for sure some people need to change their attitude and help out the world for the better then just helping them self for money. However earning money is pretty much a must to survive in a hectic country like Hong Kong but should not be in the cause of others or animals. So be nice, play fair and help out those who are in need.

DJ Sky Tao at One Room

After the Earth Hour I went to the Mira Hotel to see what was happening there cause Sky had posted in the event list that there was something happening till 1AM. So I went to check it out, might had been special if I had came earlier during the Earth Hour. Still it was interesting to meet Sky Tao who was working there behind the turntables as a DJ at Room One and exchange our business cards, her card is the top one and bottom is the card of Room One.

Room One is an interesting lounge bar which is a part of the Mira Hotel. The whole bar uses allot of special lightings even the tables at where we sat had lights in it and at the bar each bottle have their own lights which reacted a bit with the music. They have a big menu of different cocktails and beverages, however I don't drink alcohol and did not wanted to order just a cola, they introduced me a special non alcoholic cocktail mix with orange juice, cream mix with vanilla on the rocks. Which actually was pretty interesting cause it tasted like a certain ice cream I know which is called a split. So pretty interesting drinks there, if you want to try something new. If you are interested in going to this bar, the address is 118 Nathan Road, Entrance Kimberly Road Tsim Tsa Tsui Kowloon Hong Kong.

The music for sure if pretty good and done by Sky, she's got a pretty good list of songs that she played. She sure made a great atmosphere with great songs with good beats. Also Sky is a pretty interesting person who help out charities that improves the world like Adopt Don't Shop and WWF Earth Hour. She is DJ'ing every saterday at the Mira Hotel and during the rest of the week at other events and places and helping the world or modeling.

Guai lin go medicine pudding

Actually this pudding contains several herbs and kinda taste close to 24herbs beverage but less stronger. One part of the herbs is a turtle, not sure which part of it but they often show the shell of the turtle. This pudding is also a kind of Chinese medicine which cleanses your body so you can also eat it even though you are not sick. However cause of the special herbs this is not a cheap thing to eat, it cost 50 HK Dollars for just this bowl. You can get it warm or cold, depending on the kind of weather you could choose which you prefer. I choose warm cause never had warm one before and it pretty doable it slide down your throat fast so you won't get to taste much of the nasty medicine taste. Also they have a bottle of syrup on the table that you could ad to make it less bitter, however people say it is better without so the medicine part of the pudding would work better.

However it is not really something I would like to eat daily I eventually had to eat up the whole bowl. However I rather eat the cheap canned versions, which taste better but actually taste like another sort of pudding. However nobody knows if those canned are good at all or even is the real thing or not. Pretty much have now reviewed the extremes of Chinese medicine stuff, will not jump further into those drinks or things you have to eat with extreme gross taste.

Earth Hour WWF

Yesterday night around 8:30 to 9:30 PM there was a special event held in Hong Kong, the Earth Hour with cooperation between many buildings on the Hong Kong Island and also the Mira Hotel in Tsim Tsa Tsui. See here above the result a almost total black out Hong Kong famous skyline, only few companies did not shut down their lights and advertisement signs. However not all the light were off cause there are still people working, but you can see there is less light pollutions then when everything was on. However the most lights that went out were the outer neon or spotlight and the ads banners. But mostly could see that allot of office light stayed on.

This was actually taken after the 60minutes of Earth Hour, cause when I arrived at 8PM allot of buildings had already shutdown their lights. Also there wer announcement made that the lightshow was stopped cause it would had started at the time of the Earth Hour. If you want to view the panorama bigger click here for during the Earth Hour and here for after when everything went on again.

What also was interesting was that the building were that high that they reached the clouds or actually disappears into the cloud/mist. And mostly came to a waiting game to get the show of the tops when the cloud was cleared. However if it was less cloudy I think it would had been better so that we could see what is behind the buildings. For you see there is mist covering it. Also would had been cool if it was a clear sky and would get a starry sky. However this event was reported in the news not allot of people arrived to see it. Actually after a while allot of photographers came and then crowds appear cause of the many photographer people didn't knew what was happening.

After a while I got bored so I went taking pictures of people who were taking picture hehe. 60 minutes was pretty long however was not much to photograph then few boots that were passing and pretty much the same building in other angles.

During this shoot were few noucenses one came from a small Aviva boot that took advantage of people looking at the harbour to the other side. They used a big major bright banner and drove each time closer and closer to the docks. Also it was ruining the shots and also bit in the way. Rather had they also shut their external banner light.

The other was this boat who actually docked in front of us, to let people in for money to get a better front view of this event. It did also left fast, so we had to move to somewhere else. But when it left is was pretty in the way until it went far far away. After the Earth Hour I went to Mira Hotel (who also shut down their light for one hour)to meet Sky Tao at Room One which is a lounge bar where Sky is playing DJ, she is quite good at playing DJ with a great song list with good beats ( ,way better songs used then the guy who played DJ at the Adidas Party). Also she gave the area a great atmosphere almost want to party and dance there, however there were not that many people , also people were more lounging then partying.

The Earth Hour seem not to attracting allot of people watching it. But main point is that Hong Kong needs to change and be more sustainable. Like using an own shopping bag instead of plastic bags, I myself uses my of handbag with inside a folded shopping bag when I go to the supermarket or the normal market. Also unplug everything when I leaf home to be safe plus it does not use any energy, cause when somethings is plugged it still drains energy. Be green be sustainable it will not only save you money but help the environment.

Fried Chicken Rice Dish

Today went out eating alone but not at a normal fast food place but actually tried to order something simple at a smaller kind of restaurant. I went to Tai Po supermarkets upper floor where there are several small restaurants. And ordered Kei Ba Faan, which is a fried Chicken breast in a certain sauce with rice and few pieces cabbage.

The cost of it is just 24 HK Dollars which is pretty much the same as a Big Mac menu here in Hong Kong, but this is much more and you get pretty stuffed when you have aten it all. It is a simple dish but much better then Mc Donalds and also healthier. Also would recommend this place cause I have been to several places to eat but this is one of the good and taste places I have been. If you are in Tai Po close to the market go to the top floor and try out the food there.

SheOne X GarageWorks

Last night I went with a friend to Cheung Wan Des Vouex West to visit GarageWorks where a special exhibitions was held. They were displaying the works of SheOne a legendary graffiti artist from London.

I arrived at the exhibition pretty late around 9 PM while it already started at 8. However probably missed quite few interesting persons like Tim Tsui and Pal Wong who are famed for designing toys. However I did not missed the Live Art performance held by SheOne himself, also I had the perfect spot to take picture because I actually stood in the middle and front row. And made a pretty impressive set of pictures.

After the live art performance SheOne signed few of his designer toys that he had made and few people bought.

I got to say SheOne have a very interesting autograph that he had designed cause of his grafitti and tagging background. His typography is quite impressive.

Here are the two figures that he had autographed and waiting to dry so they can be put into a special SheOne bag. He also draw a piece of art in one of his fans black book.

However the exhibition was not all that big but the design is pretty interesting. Cause I know SheOne make things just by doing it and without planning or actually have a certain meaning to it. Just that it looks good and impressive, and that is just how art sometimes could be.

I got to know about this exhibition by Chris Kong who added this event to Alive Not Dead. Thank you for this interesting exhibition and hope to see more of them in the future. To see even more pictures of this event visit my Flickr to view more.

Mozaic art in the Hong Kong subway

Today while traveling to an exhibition of SheOne a legendary graffitiy artist I spotted this other piece of art on one of the platforms while waiting for the subway, so I took a picture of it. However the piece of art is pretty big so I had to make multiple shots to capture it and then later merge it together to form one single picture of it. However the girl seems to be in the way but also made it interesting. I doubt there would be allot of time to shoot the same place with almost nobody around. This art work actually is portraying the view on Hong Kong Island in the past and now. As you can see the art is a very old style of Hong Kong in the paste while over on the horizon you can actually see the tall buildings of Hong Kong now with allot of the formiliar buildings on it. If you want to see this more close up and bigger click here.

Second submission to Ella Koon Logo

I had asked Ella Koon if people could submit more then just one logo entry and you can send more then just one. So I made a second design however the first design seem to be pretty powerful and might be hard to top even by me making a second or third design. Even this second design is a good logo but seem to have a less stronger effect on the eye then the first one entry.

However I find this second design have a more feminine design with a face of a lady or the face of Ella Koon with a crown on her head. However if you look at the picture in a different way you could see a flower instead of a face. Also more mysterious, however the first seem to be more alive and popping like the funny and bright side of Ella.

Also finally some logo designs haven't done much the last few months so need to do bit of catching up and make sure my skills are not getting rusty. Cause one skill of mine got rusty and that is my skills to draw persons realisticly, I can still draw humans but the faces are that of a human and geometric correct but the face looks like someone else instead. It is pretty hard to discribe but also bit ashamed to show them. Will show some when my skill of drawing has come back and can draw people realistic again.

But who knows the deadline is on 13th of April, so there is allot of time left to enter and design a logo for Ella. Please submit and support Ella she is a great singer and actress.

Ella Koon Queen Mean Bee

Ella Koon who is a Chinese singer, actress and model had placed on her blog on AliveNotDead.com a contest for designing her a logo and she also has a nickname called QMB, which means Queen Mean Bee. However I don't think she is that mean but mostly funny, with allot of joking about and work in comedy movies. I made her logo in the specification of QMB and showing a heart in a bee colorsheme with black and yellow lines, with showing the queen part with a small crown. I added gradient and web2.0 effect to give it more dynamic feel to it.

Also I was the first to submit and Ella really liked it and placed it on her AliveNotDead and Facebook. But the contest is till 13th of April 2009 so you can send in your designs till then. The prize that can be won is a surprise so I wonder what it could be?

Ghost gum bottle

Just something I photograph with my phone and no photoshop used. It just caught my eye looking outside of the window that my chewing gum bottle looks like it was standing on the building, in a pretty cool position that it really and blend well into. On the rook of a building and with a big enough opening and trees branches wrapping around.

Cucumber porkchop bento box

Had been eating bitter guord almost each day since I am in Shenzhen, now some change in ordering bento boxes. Cucumber with pork, it smelled superb when I opended the box and saw this. However they managed to even spice this up, however it is not that extreme spicy. But they didn't took the package of tea with them. Normally you would get a juice box but then with Chinese tea in it, but sometimes they forget to bring it. However this is a pretty good dish and I like the taste, but I rather like a non spicy version of it. In the picture below you can see they added some spicy seeds to make it spicy.

I should actually look for a book about how to prepare these kinds of dishes myself, who know I might be come good at it, for sure I got the taste buds for reviewing food. However having things too spicy is from my point of view not a healthy thing, however there have been tests about having a better metabolism or burning fat faster with spicy food. Cause that the food is spicy you might sweat and burn calories. However I rahter stick with non spicy.

Interesting buildings

This is probably a shot that allot of people make that is making a picture outside the apartment and just see only tall buildings and not horizon at all. However I zoomed in a bit cause I actually do a have a nice view of the mountain a bit and of the shopping mall. However it is a pretty interseting sight for me because in the Netherlands we don't have so many talk buildings close to each other that often. Where I live in the Netherlands is also a tall building but I have a view that stretches for miles and can see a horizon in the far distance and city that are miles away when the sky is clear.

The mall has a extreme interesting roof it contains of allot of pyramids shaped windows and all next to each other giving this interesting scene. To make it even more interesting I made one where I held my camera in an angled and capture all the panels in one.

Not sure how there is a package on the roof but sure spoiled this picture a bit otherwise would had been only the pyramid shaped roof window panels all over the picture.

FJS Schilderwerken

FJS Schilderwerken is a painter company in the Hague or in Dutch, Den Haag. They had requested a professional logo with a high class and a feel that would be close to the the logo I had designed for King's Poker Card Casino.

The design I made is a paint roller with thick to thin lines that I drew, the paint roller also has a hidden message if you haven't spot it, the clue is that certain parts are actually the letters FJS. For a high class feel I used the typeface Trajan Pro, which fits perfectly with the design cause it has certain serifs that fit the lines art. The split is for making it possible to use the logo without the extra word Schilderwerken. I have divided the word schilderwerken in to two because otherwise you would have a short name FJS with a major long subtext. Either the logo would be very long shaped or you would not be able to read the word schilderwerken.

Colors for this design are dark navy blue and yellow that is a tad darker ( otherwise it would disappear when using on a white background). Dark blue for intellect and professionalism and yellow for golden and friendly services.
In the end came out a very clean design that is for sure giving a high class feel to it, and it is another piece of art that I can be proud of to put between my portfolio.