I've been working on this new project. It's too early to tell if it'll go anywhere, but I've been pretty psyched about it and have been throwing myself at it lately. I would really like to share it on the web, but I don't think it's okay to end up "anywhere" just quite yet. A good idea needs to be in stealth, I wonder if mine is any good.

Tenori-On - Oh! I want one!

I want the noodles on the left...

Louis Vuitton Sound Walk

I want to see this but am not going to pay for it...


Louis Vuitton has partnered with Soundwalk to produce a series of surreal audio tours that whisk listeners through some of China’s most well-known cities: Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The tours offer a strange and captivating mix of music, sound effects, and narration that are sure to enhance any traveler’s visit to the country. Listeners stuck at home can enjoy the tours as well - simply relax and watch the stories through your mind’s eye.

Three of China’s most well-known actors (Gong Li, Shu Qi, and Joan Chen) supply the narration, which blends instructions (walk down this road, open the door) with heartfelt and nostalgic story telling. Each city essentially serves as a stage for a different tale of love and longing that helps bring the tour’s destinations to life. It sounds weird, but it works.

Learning to get Lost (cont'd)

I decided to step up my game and take the bus home from 中关村 today.

Wow. Now that was a trip. Total 'ask passerby for directions' tally was 22. The best thing was that nobody had the same answer (or at least most of them didn't). I swear a few of the directions were so bad even I knew better ways to get home without consultation ; why would I want to travel further away from home so that I can get back home? I think I ended up doing pretty well (very luckily), just one bus change from 中关村 mall to 光华桥.

I'm going to know Beijing at the back of my hand soon.

Dancing with Robots

~~~ NERD - Sooner or Later ~~~
~~~ NERD - Happy ~~~
~~~ Eagles - I can't tell you why ~~~
+++ Coldplay - Viva la Vida +++
+++ the Dodos - Visiter +++

Learning to get Lost

For those who know me, it isn't new news that I have a thing for exploration (or as some like to describe it as 'getting lost'). I think it is the way I learn most effectively. I learn through doing and adjusting to the feedback I receive from doing.

I recently got back into the gear of exploring, and it has served me well while I adjust to Beijing. I have walked home from all the nearby subway stations, wandered through random streets and paths, and peeked around street corners just to see what's happening. Those experiences have all been incredibly rewarding in this city. And more so than my experiences in Shanghai I might add.

Back to learning through getting lost, one of few actually useful ways to get around which has worked like a charm for me in the past is to ask passerbys (compared to deciding based on intuition). Though, I've found that the method has required a bit of tweaking lately. I have received contradicting directions from the locals multiple times and have unconsciously begun to ask different groups of people at once to get a consensus. Maybe it seems like the right thing to do, but imagine an idiot like me walking up to each person and hawking for directions while they all wait at the same crosswalk...

SYNTHETIC TIMES – Media Art China 2008

I visited the National Art Museum of China earlier today to check out 'Synthetic Times', a digital media exhibition.

Being a little bit of an artist and a little bit of a techie, I've always been fascinated with mixtures of these two fields. I think it's because technology always evolves while art takes a big role in making history.
As usual, there were hits and misses throughout the exhibition. The good news is that most of them were fascinating in at least one way or another (otherwise I would be blabbering only about a certain piece).
I was surprised to see a lot of old Chinese people at the exhibition; I wouldn't have any idea what is going through their minds at the time. It must have been quite weird for them; to see computers and electronics put to artistic uses. But then again, maybe they're already used to seeing radical changes given the speed and amount of change that has taken place in China over the last 10-20 years.

You can find out more about the exhibition and the works on display via the link above.

NBA Finals 2008 Game 4

The Celtics are up 3-1 against the Lakers this series.

Who is to blame? Lamar Odom.
I've been following the entire series so far, and the one only game Odom has put up anything on the stats board is game 4. Oh, and did I mention that was throughout the first half of game 4 when the Lakers were comfortably up 10+,20+ points. Where was he during the 2nd half? The answer is nowhere to be found in action.
Kobe is super-human, I think most of everybody will agree with me on this fact. This makes MVP of the year well deserved, but MVP does not equal a championship. And in my opinion, no team can win single-handedly with just a MVP. The rest of the team needs to step up. Gasol has played his part clogging up the lanes and grokking points in the paint. Fisher and Vujacic have made big shots between them.

What has Odom done (supposedly the 3rd best player on the Lakers)? Absolutely nothing. Nothing come clutch time. Watch the video above and notice Odom throughout the Celtics comeback.

A Frozen Yogurt Recipe to Rival Pinkberry's Recipe

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe

First off, remember it is important to use good-quality whole-milk yogurt. This time around I skipped out on the vanilla yogurt, opting for straight, bright white yogurt with the sweetness playing off the tang of the yogurt. I also used slightly less sugar than called for here, more like 2/3 cup - but you can go either way depending on what you like.

3 cups (720g) strained yogurt (see below) or Greek-style yogurt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla (if using). Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

To make 1 cup (240g) of strained yogurt, line a mesh strainer with a few layers of cheese cloth. then scrape 16 ounces or 2 cups (480g) of plain whole-milk yogurt into the cheesecloth. Gather the ends and fold them over the yogurt, then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. So, for the above recipe start with and strain 6 cups of yogurt.

Makes about 1 quart.

Thanks Heidi at 101cookbooks.com. I must go buy an ice cream maker....

Ark, Ray

I ripped these dual L'arc~en~ciel albums into my nano lately. They definitely stand their test of time; both incredibly good albums w/ great singles.

+++ N.E.R.D - Seeing Sounds +++

10 Mistakes from My Last Startup

This post has been running through my head for a while. I think it's time...

1. At work too often too much - since the first day we took BPG seriously, we never took "working hours" seriously. We worked 14-16 hour days 7 days a week. We definitely got a shit load of work done, but we started to fatigue 12+ months later. And since we were so used to working all day everyday, anything less than the 14-16 hour days started to make us feel like we were slacking. It was not healthy culture.

2. Not hiring with my instincts - I made the fatal mistake of making a blind hiring decision. Not only did I make a mistake, but I ignored the problem until it was way too late. The team is a priority, it was written in stone since the very beginning of the mission statement (when we were still joking about snorting coke and hookers in a garage) and yet it was ignored. The mistake cost the entire venture.

3. Delegating leadership too early - it seemed to me at one point that one of my goals was to instill leadership among the partners. That was a great idea at the wrong time and possibly the wrong people. The startup was not in a position to pay for those lessons yet.

4. No concrete analytics - We had a good idea where users were funneling out of our product, but we never had numbers to demonstrate it. If we had better analytics in place, we would have been able to prioritize and focus on what mattered to us most. As a startup, we have to be as efficient with as resources as possibly possible.

5. Not learning from version1 - I'm not the techie of the bunch so I can't say for sure, but I feel we were making technical decisions without enough information. In hindsight, I feel we made the same mistakes on version 2 of the product as on version 1. It was not my decision, but it also wasn't impossible for me to seek consultation from outside (especially when version1 was trouble).

6. The business world is relentless - businesses are about profits, advantages, cunnery, pros and cons, etc... The business world does not give a f*ckin shit if you are left to die on the streets. They will con you to put themselves ahead.

7. Surround oneself with those in the know - consultants, experts, advisors, mentors are all incredibly useful resources. They are wisdom and expertise you do not have the time and resources to pay for (otherwise you are already a millionaire). Get one get many, I realized this and took advantage too late.

8. Technology can never be perfect - we spent so much time and energy chasing the perfect technology. There will always be something better, and your team will always find out there is something better out there that we has missed out on using when it's already too late.

9. Business research - Would things have changed if we had performed more business research? Probably.

10. Goodwill only brings you so far - our company was idealistic. Not a bad thing if you're Google and already incredibly profitable. But we weren't and it didn't matter we had built up plenty of goodwill that was worth nothing at the end.

I feel like i'm at the end of my wound licking. They say entrepreneurship is like learning to ride a bicycle, I guessing I'm stubborn enough to keep trying. I tell myself it's okay as long as I spend the time to reflect and not fall for the same traps in the future.

the CCTV station is huge when seen up close...

Dining @ Ushi-ya in Beijing.

Here's a random pic of some huge okami-styled painting on one of their walls. They also served home-made sake tonight which was pretty good.

My first mobile entry

Live art from the ed banger show

20 Things I Wish I Had Known

If you don't want to live life with regrets, digest the link above.

+++ The Avalanches - Since I Left You +++


I've been learning how to play 'Stop this train' by John Mayer lately. I saw him at the Coach party last weekend where he played a few songs from the side. He's great on a record but overrated live. I don't think he really gives a shit; I wouldn't if I were him.

+++ the Shins - Wincing the night away +++
+++ the Shins - Chutes too Narrow +++
~~~ Some lessons - Melody Gardot ~~~
+++ Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight +++


I feel so volatile. Maybe that's a side effect of being in probably the most risky phase of my life. Anything can happen when you experiment. I think there is simply too much chaos to reflect upon, and the best you can do is make the most out of the few hundred balls thrown at you.

I'm a dreamer. I think moving to Beijing will assist in keeping my perspective long.

Brand Tags

Brands are the difference between a 300USD polo shirt with a 'BAPE' embroidery and a 20USD polo with any custom embroidery of your choice.

Easy way to reset your sleep cycle: Stop eating

I know shitloads of people who have trouble with their sleep cycle...

Not eating for 12-16 hours can help people quickly reset their sleep-wake cycle, according to a new study from the Harvard Medical School. This discovery can drastically improve a person's ability to cope with jet lag or adjust to working late shifts.

Scientists have long known that our circadian rhythm is regulated by our exposure to light. Now they have found a second "food clock" that takes over when we are hungry. This mechanism probably evolved to make sure starving mammals don't go to sleep when they should be foraging for food.

The lead researcher Clifford Saper explains:

The neat thing about this second clock is that it can override the main clock ... and you should just flip into that new time zone in one day.

It usually takes people a week to fully adjust to a new time zone or sleeping schedule. To think that this new "food clock" hack can help you change your internal clock in one day is mind boggling.

Something about Us

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem is why I heart Daft Punk



Something About Us

It might not be the right time
I might not be the right one
But there's something about us I want to say
Cause there's something between us anyway

I might not be the right one
It might not be the right time
But there's something about us I've got to do
Some kind of secret I will share with you

I need you more than anything in my life
I want you more than anything in my life
I'll miss you more than anyone in my life
I love you more than anyone in my life

L'Arc en Ciel

Yesssss. Going to their show tomorrow.

Lots of crazy things are going on in the online social networking movement lately. Never mind that nobody has really figured how to truly monetize off of social networks, we've got facebook starting to look more and more like a walled garden due to google's open social.


Found this interesting "world wide social networking market share" picture (above). Thought it would give some of us a better perspective of who the market leaders really are.

Unless Facebook pulls off something game changing. I think it's going to end up like Friendster... i suppose it's why i don't waste my time on either.

Pixel Art

I just recently bought some pixel art for my brother Edwin's apartment in Beijing. I personally like the top one (LA) more than the bottom (Tokyo). They remind of my collages, very colorful and plenty to look at it.