For some reason todays Dilbert strip struck a cord with me - perhaps it has something to do with the Project Management course I’m taking?!
Unfortunately, even with my relatively small experience of the workplace, Dilbert is all to realistic - it’s a little wonder that anything ever gets done in business & industry considering the way some managers work! When it comes to my position as technical manager for one lucky SEG team this year I actually plan to baffle my team with multi-leveled buzzwords and other nonsense just as a little experiment to see if they actually accept it! If they do then my worst fears about humanity will be proved true 
Nothing else to report this week really but I should hopefully have some interesting content for the weekend conditions permitting etc.
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Continuing on from yesterdays decidedly Chinese theme I thought I might pass comment on Jean Michel Jarre’s latest sound and light spectacular in Beijing’s Forbidden City last Sunday. Obviously I wasn’t actually there but managed to get hold of a recording of the show via BitTorrent. The very fact that it was held in the location it was is pretty astounding considering its historical significance (Tiananmen Square is right next to it) but it was pulled off amazingly well.
Along with the trademark lasers, images and colours were projected onto huge inflated white cylinders, cones and spheres over the area which changed in time with the music. Most of the music was from his latest album ‘Aero’ (which I reviewed here) and thus was presented in surround sound live (quite a feat of technical ingenuity)!
The concert also featured the Beijing Symphonic Orchestra and a collaboration with soloist Cheng Lin who played her erhu (a traditional Chinese stringed instrument). More than 15,000 people turned out to watch the event and even more via a live TV broadcast.
If you get a chance it’s definitely worth a watch, whether for the amazing electronic music or the beautifully choreographed display.
On a slightly different, but still very oriental note I had my second Japanese lesson today. Again it went very well although I think I’m going to have to put quite a bit of work into learning Hiragana which is a totally new experience for me (as with the rest of it!). Today we learned more introductory stuff and basic numbers which annoyingly have different forms depending on what context you use them in!
In case you’ve ever wondered (!) the above is my name (David) in Chinese as written by Echo-san during the class - it makes my head ache just imagining how you go about translating it although it does look a lot cooler than the romanised version!
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As I promised here are a few more pictures from the oriental side of Newcastle (more of a street than an end really!), specifically ‘Wing Hong Chinese Supermarket’ where you can find a variety of weird and wonderful things which I doubt you’ll find in Sainsbury’s any time soon!
One of many shop’s in Newcastle’s China Town but probably the only one worth having a look round if you’re not Chinese!
Behold a variety of different ‘Hello Kitty‘ branded pastas - this is one fad which doesn’t look likely to end any time soon! This said, I find the thought of eating cat-shaped macaroni rather disturbing!
Hell Money - according to sources this is burn as an offering when you die. Apparently it’s name was a bit of a mistake as those who called it so thought ‘Hell’ meant ‘afterlife’ in English! (In case you were wondering, no I don’t have blue fingernails - it’s not my hand!).
I spotted this in a window of a health shop nearby - it begs the question of weather ‘Slim Tea’ is actually any thinner than your average cup, and how exactly does that work?! What I especially like are the photo testimonials of people who have hair regeneration therapy just below the sign and happy people who have lost weight just above it!
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Yesterday afternoon me a few other people ventured into Newcastle for a little excursion and for once I got a few pictures I’m quite pleased with - it’s amazing what a few tweaks in Photoshop can do to a photo! I was trying to experiment with light and shadow a bit but as I discovered trying to do this in a hurry is not so easy - it would have been nice to take a bit more time over it.
Img 1. Probably my favorite photo of the day - I tried to purposefully place the sun behind the subjects head to create the sharp silhouette and capture the shadows created by the window on the floor.
Img 2. Here I wanted to capture the shadows and reflections going across the chairs and wall in the empty gallery. It didn’t really work but I like the low-level angle of it.
Img 3. I had to mess around with this one quite a bit and sacrificed some of the foreground detail to enhance the amazing sun-rays coming though the clouds. In the high-res version you can see birds flying around just above the bridge which look quite good.
Overall I took about 50 pics - the above are my ’serious’ ones, I’ll post a few more ‘lighter’ photos tomorrow if I get time! More of the same (in a higher resolution) can be found in the photo gallery - please tell me what you think of them 
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Are you an aspiring megalomaniac or simply have a few million $’s going spare? If so then here’s the investment opportunity for you! Some people own real estate now you can own a sizable chunk of ‘The World’!
Nakheel, a real estate developer in Dubai, is undertaking a mammoth project to construct a cluster of 300 islands in the shape of continents just off the coast. It’s a project straight out of a Bond film but according to the web site it’s already happening. I think it would take a certain type of ego to live there, kind of an Essex man’s dream I would imagine - definitely not where I’d want to live out my days!
Found via hippoblog.
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