o christmas tree II

Happy Boxing Day everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas yesterday!

I passed by the New Town Plaza Christmas display today, and as it probably won't be standing for too much longer, decided that I had to document the existence of the tackiest Christmas tree imagineable. Apparently they were going for a camera theme this year (note the cameras around the top of tree, and the large camera at the base of the tree), with a few Lego-style bear accents.
I went to New Town Plaza to meet up with Myun Hwa, and our highschool science teacher, Mrs. Kraus. She and her family are living in the UAE right now, and are visiting HK for a little over a week. It was really fun to see her, and at the end we got to meet the whole family. Her daughters are so cute!


My sister and her family are arriving in a few hours, so stay tuned for more cute!

o christmas tree, o christmas tree...

I found this picture from my KBCK days and thought it was worth posting. I guess this was taken after some sort of kindergarten Christmas pageant... or at least I assume there's a good explanation for the Christmas tree costume. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the good ol' Christmas tree costume has declined in popularity recently... can't understand why. Does anyone else have fond memories of being a Christmas tree, or any other inanimate object associated with Christmas?

meowy christmas

I found this little outfit today at Fa Yuen Street and just couldn't resist...

the return of li'l brudder

[that was a reference to a classic Strongbad email for those readers unfamiliar with www.homestarrunner.com]

So my little brother, Steve, is back from college. His plane was scheduled to arrive a little after 11 last night, but he surprised us by walking through the door at 8:00. For some reason, he was moved from an Asiana flight complete with Seoul layover, to a Cathay direct flight. How often does that happen?!

The first thing he did upon arriving home was to head straight back out the door to our local Taiwai bbq restaurant, where he successfully satisfied a 3+ month chasiu fan craving.

After being rejuvenated by barbequed pork sustenance, he entertained my mom and I with a few videos that some of his college friends produced over the last semester. I thought they were funny, so I'll put the links here. They're four episodes of a short program called "The Misadventures of Stephen P******," and not surprisingly, Steve is the main character. Just for some background, the first episode opens with a guy in an elevator. The guy is the host of a college variety show called "Late" that Steve has appeared in before. In an early episode of "Late," the host promised Steve that he'd help to make him famous...

Episode One: The Great 'Dini'ty
Episode Two: Shorty in the Hood
Episode Three: Rollover DJ
Episode Four: Behind the Music

If you don't have time to watch all four (they're about 5 mins each), I think Episode 1 is my favorite... but Episode 3 gives you the opportunity to see Steve in a wife-beater and rapping an entire music video.

templeton gets tutored

Not sure if this news is really blog-worthy, but I'll go ahead with it anyway. My little Templeton is growing up, and yesterday went to the vet for a certain operation. I won't go into details, or into the ethics of neutering such a beautiful animal (something my parents and I discussed at great length...), but feel that I should apologize to any female cats out there who were hoping for a chance to bear his kittens.

Templeton was almost too agreeable when I put him in the cat carrier for his vet visit, and the whole thing reminded me of this Far Side cartoon:
When he came home, instead of running out of the cat carrier and treating it with fear and disdain (as our other cats do after returning from a visit to the vet), we were surprised to see him back inside the carrier in no time.

And he seems to have changed the other cats' feelings about the carrier too. I think he's made it the trendy new sleeping spot. Yesterday, after he finally exited, two of our other cats took turns sleeping inside, which is really a very bizarre occurence. And after I took the picture below, the black and white cat, Handsome, actually swatted at Templeton with his claws, in what I can only imagine was an attempt to get a turn in the carrier.

One more shot of Templeton in his new favorite hang-out. He seems to be doing well, by the way.

hope is...

I just came across a short section in my journal titled "Artwork enjoyed at the National Gallery" (I'm not usually quite that nerdy, but was feeling especially inspired that day...), and realized that I never posted this photograph.
This painting covered a whole wall in the modern art wing, and I was quite impressed with it.

Sigmar Polke (1992) "Hope is: Wanting to Pull Clouds"

robots II

I just watched a news story about robots replacing camel jockeys in the Middle East. So I guess robots can be counted on for more than serving food at the Robot Kitchen and future world domination! Besides bringing a high-tech look to the ancient art of camel racing, the robots are also liberating the young child jockeys (many of whom were kidnapped or sold into the sport) from a very dangerous occupation.
Here's a link to a BBC article about this. The robots that I saw on TV weren't quite as sleek as the one pictured above... they were just boxes with walkie talkies (so that the owner could yell at the camel during the race) and remote-controlled whips sticking out the back. Still, they seemed to do their jobs effectively.

think think about it...

This is one of my favorite Flight of the Concords videos. It's a song about "the issues."

science with four-year-olds

In a previous post I mentioned that I teach a science class to 14 four-year-olds. Well, here they are in all their glory! This was right before they went home yesterday, and as you can probably tell from the photos, most of them were pretty wound-up. I should also point out something that I noticed just now -- check out the sign prominently displayed on the bulletin board behind the students. Is that a camera very obviously x-ed out? Oops!

The class with our wonderful TA, Miss Kit.

Making funny faces. I like the scary eye thing that quite a few of them are attempting... excellent choice, kids!

And a very distracted class with Miss Michelle.
Next week is my last lesson with them and, although they're a real handful, I'm going to miss the little cuties!