business meeting

A few idle moments on Youtube and I found this SNL clip:



It's under 2 minutes, and if you haven't seen it already, definitely worth a watch.

I love the progression... hehe.

my first "wildlife" documentary

No, it's not another cat video, don't worry. My neighbors have been on vacation for the past two weeks, and I've been looking after their lizard -- a bearded dragon. I'm not sure if I've ever been told her sex, but I've started affectionately referring to her as "Lizzy," and I guess I have subsequently projected some feminine features and qualities onto her. Voila, the lizard is a girl! I really enjoy feeding Lizzy. She'll occasionally eat greens, and she loves blueberries. But her favorite food at the moment is meal worms. I probably wouldn't enjoy feeding her so much if I had to feed her something cute and/or furry. But as it is, I'm not feeling much of a connection with the meal worms, let alone any sympathy.

Here's the video. It's of Lizzy grabbing a couple meal worms with her sticky tongue and chowing down.

"you're so beautiful -- you could be a waitress..."

(That's one of my favorite lines from a Flight of the Conchords song. And in case you were wondering, no, I've never been paid such a compliment.)

I've liked FOTC ("the #4 folk parody duo in New Zealand") ever since Mike and Helen first introduced them to me months ago (you may remember some of my previous posts about them...), and was thrilled to hear that they now have their own sitcom on HBO. I don't think they're on HBO in HK yet, which is unfortunate, but one small consolation is that the first episode of their show is available on this website (another thank you to Mike and Helen!). I watched it last night with Amy and Aaron, and not surprisingly, we all laughed a lot. The premise of the show is that Jemaine and Bret have moved to NYC and are trying to make a name for themselves. To work in the songs that FOTC are known for, they do Bollywood-style montages and spontaneously burst into song. I think more shows should do this. Or better yet, I think this should happen in real life. On the show, they also have an obsessed fan, Mel, who seems like an interesting character. I just checked out the FOTC HBO website, and it turns out that Mel has her own fan blog -- sounds promising.

So check out the show if you haven't already and have 20 or so minutes to spare. The website also has links to a large number of other TV shows that are available online... I'm afraid to peruse the site too closely for fear that I'll get sucked in and come to consciousness days from now with a haze of TV catch-phrases as the only recollection of how I spent my time.

strange amusement park ride

Here is a very very short (2-second!!) video I took in China 3 years ago. It shows the strangest (and scariest?) amusement park kiddie ride I've ever seen, and very well could be the strangest ride in existence. After watching this video even once, you'll see why video was the media required for capturing this precious oddity. And I should warn you: it's hard to watch this just once.



I was recently reminded of this video and realized that it'd been sitting on my disused laptop, where it would never get the recognition it deserves. Enter YouTube. (On a funny note, after writing that I ended up having to use Yahoo videos... my attempt at uploading on YouTube kept failing).

In case anyone's wondering (or wanting to make a visit themselves), the amusement park is in Yulin, a city in northern Shaanxi province... or at least it was there a few years ago. I can't promise that it hasn't been torn down for some new French-baroque style townhouse development.

sunset peak panorama

I just got back from a quick trip up to Sunset Peak with Jon. I intend to post photos at some point, but am finding the idea rather daunting because of the shear number we took. So in the meantime (and because I want to avoid another post-free day), here is a quick video I took from near the top of Sunset Peak.

Warning: watching this video more than two times in a row will make you dizzy.




As you can see, the weather was gorgeous, and Lantau was the perfect place to enjoy it.

Jon, have a safe trip back to Edinburgh tonight!! I'll start planning a visit soon. :)

gabe does the robot

I just watched these videos posted by Amy and Aaron on Youtube -- hilarious! They're of Gabe doing the robot and some other yet-to-be named dance moves (as part of a children's dance session at McDonalds). He's on the far right in both videos. I love the way he's sort of off on his own, gettin' down...

crazy kitten

Well, I had decided that I wouldn't post any more videos or photos of the kitten, but that was before I managed to capture this on video. If you're wondering whether or not this footage is worth watching, wait till you hear the words I chose as youtube tags: kitten, funny, crazy, falling. Yeah, that pretty much sums up the video...

funny

I just saw this video for the first time today, though it's from the 2005 MTV movie awards (where have I been?). Jimmy Fallon as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 3.

little britain

Little Britain has become a favorite of mine. Here are a couple sketches with a character called "Mr. Mann" (the customer who knows exactly what he wants) that I thnk are especially good.

spoiled rotten

Templeton loves to be brushed. He has his very own brush (marked with his name) that is not used on the other cats.
Check out the videos.





OK, back to work. Not surprisingly, the videoing and the posting are just a sorry excuse to procrastinate. I have an assignment due tomorrow... and another one the day after.

know your percussive keyboard instruments

I was walking across a pedestrian walkway on my way to the Hung Hom KCR station the other day, when I saw this interesting sight:



It's pretty normal to see people busking on this particular walkway, but this was definitely something new. Besides being impressed with this musician's skills, I was also quite impressed by the logistics of him lugging this large percussion instrument around town.

So, what is this large, percussion instrument, you might ask? Well, it might seem obvious to some, but it took a little bit of looking into for me to be certain (thank goodness for dictionaries!). My initial thought was "glockenspiel." I considered the fact that it could be that trusty old x-entry in all children's alphabet books -- the xylophone -- but that just seemed too obvious. Then I showed the video to my mom, and she was certain it was a marimba. Were either of us correct? Check the comments to find out.

gabriel john: future broadway star

Amy, Gabe and Anna went back to Tianjin on Sunday. But since Amy's birthday is coming up this week, we decided to go out for an early birthday dinner. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the birthday girl herself, but have quite a few of her progeny. :) Here is Gabe enjoying some ice-cream.
With Grandma.
After we'd left the restaurant, Amy and I noticed that Gabe was singing a song, and after some close listening, we determined that the song was most definitely a Gabe original. But then I could be wrong. Has anyone ever heard a song with the lyrics "golden deliciously warm" repeated over and over again?

Here he is singing it.


As you can see, "Golden deliciously warm" is quite a catchy song. Soon I was singing it along with him, and after we got the technical side of the music down, we started working on choreography.

don't let the pigeon drive the bus!

This is a really cute book, and I've been very entertained seeing and hearing it read to Gabe.
On the back cover is the following sentence: "Finally, a book you can say "no" to!" And judging from Gabe's responses, it's true! Check out the video:

catherine tate

I was telling a few friends (and faithful readers) about The Catherine Tate Show today, and thanks to Youtube, will embed a few videos here. They're only a couple minutes each, and very entertaining.

In these first two she plays an extremely melodramatic mother...




In these next two she plays Helen Marsh, a woman who is always eager to volunteer for things that put her way out of her league...

think think about it...

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

robots

According to the Tozers, there's a new restaurant here in HK called "Robot Kitchen," which is "staffed by a trio of robots." It sounds interesting and I will probably try to go there soon, but then it begs the question: isn't this new dining concept bringing us dangerously close to a world dominated, nay I say, ruled by robots?

Here's a video (to embed or not to embed?) of a duo called Flight of the Conchords singng a song that echoes some of the fears expressed above. It's called "The Humans are Dead" and was apparently written for the "post-apocolyptic robo" market. Thanks again must go to the Tozers for introducing me to FotC.

templeton hits youtube

So, it looks as if I've found a new time-waster... I mean hobby: making videos and putting them on YouTube. Here's one of Templeton that I just took. It's short, and not all that interesting, but boy is that cat cute!

trying out youtube

I had a sudden surge of motivation to download some videos onto YouTube this morning. They're videos I took a few months back of Olivia and Gabe singing. I tried to embed them in this post, but was told that my "tag is not closed"... whatever that means. Anyway, click on the links below and prepare yourself for some serious cuteness.

Olivia singing "Jesus, Name Above All Names" (complete with actions)

Gabe's rendition of "Little Boy Blue" (with very appropriate attire)

And Gabe singing "Ba ba black sheep" (listen for the "woof")