Holographic TV

The future of TV could be nearer than you thought.

Russell Peters Stand Up Comedy -- China Man

Orthodontic retainers

It should not be surprising for those of you who had undergone orthodontic treatments in the past to know what a retainer is; otherwise, it is an appliance used to hold teeth in its new position after orthodontic treatments.

The retainer only needs to be worn a night once a week depending on the person's condition. The teeth is always shifting back to its default, unmoved, and prior to treatment position and the retainer helps to prevent that likelihood. This can be proven whenever it is time to put back on the retainers as you will feel a tightness of misfitting as if like your index fingers to your pinky fingers invertly coming together (see illustration below).

I have always felt this and I still wonder when will the time come when I will be liberated from putting on retainers week after week. Once I asked, "Was the orthodontic treatments effective at all? I mean, if so, why did the orthodontist advised to apply retainers for the rest of my life?" I freaked a little at his last few words. Well, then I told myself that will not happen because then I could have just lost all of my precious teeth and already had a set of detachable fake teeth (like those of old people's) as I approach my golden years.

Over the years, I realised something which I think is significant -- that the body remembers what has been moved and what has NOT be moved; OR what has been different. This body memory has been giving me nightmares about my teeth! I know it sounds very odd but I believe this condition can be related to The Invisible Cripple Syndrome. Often when I do get nightmares about my teeth, I will almost always be in a situation when I will feel a virtual lost or impartial lost of my oral assets OR that horrible feeling of a loosened teeth that is due to come off in all of my teeth and the only thing that is holding them back is its nerve and vein endings still attached inside the gums.

Already in that condition in my dream, to make matters worse, the dream follows a desire to eat; i.e. invited to a party, just stepped into a restaurant, offered some sort of food etc. However, I know (consciously and subconsciously) that that "loosened teeth" condition (teeth falling out) will soon subside and I can do whatever I want with my mouth.

This is the only nightmarish dream that I remember and may seem to be common among teenagers but I attribute this to the fact that the body remembers what it was like before and wants it to be in default its position but it can't because it is being controlled and maintained by this appliance called retainer.

After all, agonies such as the above was for the sake of a good and confident smile. Worth it? In the long run, yes, it is worth it.

Defeat Darth Vader the Japanese way

Intersexual Chimerism

Life at the moment

One year has past since living in the city centre and thankfully I need not move, maybe not just yet and hopefully I don't have to. I recalled the many times I have been moving lugging all new and old things to the new place at least twice a year throughout university time in Canada. It did look like that initially when I moved in and settled in Leeds but I'm praying for peacefulness, at least for the moment.

It was Canada Day yesterday. I sent a postcard of Leeds University featuring the Parkinson Building on a clear sky to my host family who is in Saskatoon. They have a white huskie with blue eyes and I think that was the reason they named it Blèu. The last time I saw Benjamin he was much taller and have grown lots. I am sure he'll be as tall as Jerôme, if not taller. They are all great musicians. They used to bring me to their Mennonite church whenever there was an event going on. We would find ourselves playing boardgames after. That was how I rediscovered my likings to boardgames; e.g. Cranium, Balderdash, Settlers of Catan, Seafarers, etc.

At the moment, life seems to be stalled with no jobs and I'm living out my days at the gym and outside of home. The broadband service at home has ceased due to some miscommunications over BT's end. When broadband is on, we (as in all of us generally) would spend most of our time doing nothing productive. When there's no access, we feel something's missing. So, in short, I guess we're just loving to do nothing. Life without broadband seems empty and HF has just related that she felt empty too.

Been thinking of getting on the road again. I need a job to pay off some bills that comes with the maintenance of the car. That way, HF and I can go just anywhere without relying on others, i.e. public transportations.

I guess that will be all the rantings I have for today.

Is Leeds Metropolitan University good?

I believe many alumni's as well as prospective students would have at one time asked themselves the above question. While there can be no general or specific answer, there can be opinions that may be suggested as answer and the reader will draw his/her own conclusion of what s/he thinks the answer might be.

Still Young
In all honesty, LMU is still considered a young institution. It does not change the fact that although the university is staffed with some experienced employees in the academic fields, the efficiency and the quality of education received by students are below average. Although my conversations with over 20 students cannot be sufficient to prove the preceding statement, it does, however, indicate dissatisfaction among the students for the amount of tuition fees they have paid for -- almost as much as universities in the top 10 rankings per annum.

Leeds Law School (or LMU's Law School)

Educator's standard

Organization/ Orderliness

Your tuition fees' worth

Special days

People call days like Mother's day, Father's day, and birthdays as special days and celebrations to commemorate such days usually entails.

Oddly enough, till today these special days are still as mysterious as the word mysterious is to me. It is not unlike appreciating camera equipments, lenses, or photography where I know the meaning and its value of appreciating it. It is also not unlike having the person you love & cherish around.

I don't look forward to birthdays, not even on my birthdays, and I do not think I have ever looked forward to my birthday since as far as I can remember until recently because of HF. She has somehow sheded new light onto the meaning of birthdays to me. Strange but true. I have tried to understand why some people looked forward to their own birthdays so much and I found that the reason some do that was because they know it will be their happy day where family and friends would gather together and celebrate that moment just for that person; knows that gifts will be received; happy moments created and sometimes perpetuated; add new meaning to life rather than riding on the monotonousness of life.

If this is or has been a problem, then I guess this is just my problem, otherwise this could just be me. I guess my growing up environment was much more than simple comparatively. I guess in our family, we haven't really take occasions such as Birthday celebrations (or any of the Special Days above) as seriously as others. However, I should not make this as an excuse for not doing what should be done. Am I making any sense here? Sigh, maybe all these are just my other empty rantings.

Uranus landing

I know it is totally uncalled for to mention the following, but I have been getting a lot of hits lately to this site from people searching for porn, sex toys, vulva, vulvology, masturbation, escorts, sex, teen sex, Jenna Jameson, etc.

They are NOT here! NONE!

I know I am going to get more hits from this moment forward now that those extra search querry keywords are written down again. Oh, bugger!

A short and significant comment

Previously, I wrote my dilemma and I mentioned that "HF is holding me back with emotional blackmails and threats", well, that is no longer valid.

She was/is not holding me back but is now more supportive & confident in trusting our relationship as I have managed to convinced her to look at things more openly and with a more objective mindset. In fact, she has never held me back as those emotional blackmails and threats could not amount to the natural meaning of being held back, but rather a state of feelings in which I felt really bad about having made my decisions without much explanation as to what I have decided.

Therefore, this short posting would have negate the words "... is holding [me] back" in that posting.

Pillars of stories

At the foot of Christ, this pillar is one of the many pillars of Notre Dame that tells a tale of Genesis Chapter 3 where the deception in The Garden of Eden happened. 

Dandelion Says Caress me Please

I simply love the way HF reacts in this video. Makes me laugh everytime I watch this.

Musée Louvre

One of the hundreds or thousands of sculptures inside the Louvre museum. This one is found in the Denon Access area while on our way to meet world renowned Mona Lisa.

Tour Eiffel

Focal length: 50mm prime
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/250 s
Exposure compensation: +/- 0 EV
Mode: Manual
Date: May 28, 2006
Time: 16:30

Shot along Port de Suffren and Avenue de Suffren, heading towards the steel tower.

Later, decided to jump on the river cruise at 17:00 on Pont d'Lena and returned an hour later to have a crepé along Avenue Gustave V de Suède.

We went all the way to the top of the tower. It was a 30 minutes wait in the line but the queue moved rather swiftly.

The ape that I am

Aping in a souvenir store. I just couldn't help comparing my tummy with this ape, albeit not as large as the ape but it's symbolic!

HF paused when she saw this ape sitting on its photo throne then called for me in excitement. She just had to have a photo of me with "cute ape". I know exactly what that insinuation meant. *wink*

I vowed to myself that I shall not become any where near the size of this ape, especially on the belly's area. 

Are you going to Paris?

The Experience
We have been for a short vacation for some time now and actually got into finalising our plans. We planned to travel in May. That was also the examination month. I wrote my last paper on Friday's morning May 26th and we flew off to Paris, widely knowns as La ville lumière, later that night. I was already on the edge of losing 'it' all as my stress of examinations was mixed with excitement of our Paris retreat. So, yes, we are going to Paris.

The failure of last year's trip to Rome escalated our worries that we might not go to Paris this time because of Schengan visa problems. But thank God everything went well and pictured above are the two of us, HF and I, waiting at our departure gate 7 Manchester International Airport, filled with exciting anticipations and I have reasons to believe that this moment was one of HF's most ecstatic moment.

It was an hour's flight to CDG Internationalè and got on the RER train to the city, which took about 50 minutes. A French gentleman, who looked like he just returned from a business trip, helped us determined which station we should get off when we both looked lost & confused with the train map still held in our hands each.

Our experience in Disney park, a 45 minutes train journey, was exhausting but every minute in the park was so worthwhile filled with childish joy & happiness as we walked back on memory lanes that we were not even aware of time.

That would be my first Disney experience. Everything was déja vu and they were all quite magical, really. Pictured on the right is a photo when we just arrived on the grounds of Paris Disney by train. The weather did not look very promising but after a prayer's request, everything went the way we wanted. Some little magic there.

HF were photo-crazy most of the time and it was not quite uncommon under the circumstances; even I was not an exception.

I have surely realized that when you're happy and and your surrounding never stops that encouragement, the essence of time departs from you. When the sun was setting and the beautiful twilight skies became evident, it struck me that we've been on the park for already the past ten hours and we were still not tired. I have a flat-feet condition and oddly enough both my feet did not complain as regularly as when I'd accompany HF out for shopping, which would otherwise bored me and reduce me to a complaining slop. Thousands of people then congregated before the castle waiting for the fireworks show of Magical Disney. Lo and behold! The experience was awesome!

Displayed here are some of the pictures taken. Do drop by http://www.flickr.com/photos/xenodat/ for the rest of them.

Our Disney experience was over that night and I realized that we were amongst the majority who have been at the park since morning. But it was not quite over for us as the experiences gained lived on.

The following days, we visited:
1. Funiculair de Montmartre
2. Moulin Rouge
3. Arc de Triomphe
4. Champs Elysees
5. Louise Vuitton store
6. Boat cruise on Seine river
7. Eiffel Tower
8. Notre Dame
9. Musée du Louvre

Ever heard that Paris is the most romantic place on earth? I still think that any place (must be tourist's hot spots) can be as romantic as long as you're with the right person and right place. The Funiculaire de Montmarte was one of such place to me at the time.

At the top, there was a harpist playing his melodies, just perfect for the occasion. Every tourists just sat and relaxed at the steps while he plays on the plateau as though it was his little orchestra with amphitheatre seatings. It was just perfect. It was romantic. I believed the tunes have strummed the strings of HF's heart; well, mine too.

The cathedral was awesome. We arrived just in time for the Catholic Mass. One should experience this as part of one's travel.

There is, however, an important note that must not go unnoticed. There are a lot of black people hanging around this place seemingly waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of. BE CAREFUL! They are very convincing to lure you into their/his trap where you will be ripped off. Each of them will have colorful strings/threads in their hands and will approach you to "just try this on" and if you allowed, he will start to weave the strings into a braid either on your finger or around your wrist. He will keep talking to you and when he finished braiding, he will ask you for a small donation of at least 50 EUROS (€50) and you cannot help feeling extorted for money as he will not accept anything less. In this picture (left), the girl in the pink handbag has been victimised. I overheard her conversation to her partner saying "... but I don't want this stupid band. He asked a lot of money for this stupid thing..." after the entire ordeal was over. She threw away the band. There a lot of these bands on the ground, all of them unwanted and thrown as rubbish. Do you want to spoil your holidays over a small colorful 3-4 inches band?

When you arrived at the Abbesses subway station (Green line: Porte de la Chapelle), just go to your destination and ignore any person offering you "try on" some braided rubbish. Thanks to my girlfriend who warned me beforehand.

Moulin Rouge is in Paris?? I thought it existed only on the silver screens! Moulin Rouge is Paris' red light district area (Pigalle station)?? I was dazzled by the fact that HF brought us there just to check out the place. The Can Can dance was popularized here, I guess. HF noticed some very good looking French hotties but only later did she realize they were actually "working" -- prostitutes. We were there to take a shot of the red windmill as seen in the musical film of Moulin Rouge (Nicole Kidman).

There were not many tourist that stopped by here as we did but rather, passed through this area in their tour buses. We went into this Supermache Erotique, which is a stone's throw away from the Can Can girls showroom (Illustrated), to do some contemporary shopping. I was surprised that HF liked the big ones more, I felt a little intimidated. No, I was just pulling some legs here. The surroundings of this area was slightly different from other places we've visited.

To sum it all up, it was all a memorable experience that we have each taken home with. Will we come back again? Definitely, but next time we will dine in a proper French restaurant and I will be able to place orders in French!

Excuse Me, Can you photo us?
In this era of digital photography, the question above is a question that you will not have NOT heard of. Even I have defied that trend by boldly going up to a french couple and say "Do you want me take picture for you?" accompanied with some Italiano sign languages. Hereafter I have learnt my lesson and that is to mind my own business and not intervene because they both said no. I guess they were happy with the pictures. *laughs at myself*

HF and I were the only couple with a big & heavy tripod and I was the only person with a SLR camera; and everybody else thought I was some sort of photographer maniac (more like an expert as I would prefer). I even overheard someone exclaimed, "Tripod! A tripod. I should have (&*^%$&@$(* brought mine...!" after walking past us. In a tiny place with not much space up on the top of the Eiffel tower, I bet some tourists have already recognized us as we have circled the top for more than 10 rounds.

Many have came to me asking for a little favor. Some approached the amicable and pretty HF for the same favor but she kindly passed the favor to me. One person, probably a Lebanese, just turned to me and spoke, "Uhh, do you know why I cannot take picture of there", pointing out to the scenic city view of Paris in the night. "Everything black!", he continued. After much explanation about how flash photography is a bad idea for night photography, he tried it without flash and still didn't work. When asked him how much he got his camera for, he said £49. I was like "No! Seriously?! No wonder!"

Even though I brought my own tripod, when we left Eiffel tower's park and headed back to our hotel, I actually thought I have been a walking tripod for most people. Bring your own tripod next time!

Parlez-vous Anglais?
I was exicted and was looking forward to practise my French but little did I know that I did not even have the confidence of a mustard seed to speak out because I did not understand what was spoken. I could speak the language and understand some parts but not entirely but I was confident enough that I did not make myself a fool.

Are the French too arrogant to speak English? I would like to believe this widespread of French arrogance rumor is not quite true. The answer to "Parlez-vous Anglais?" would usually be a "Non" followed by a silence so uncomfortable that one would just walk away cursing him/her as arrogant. Firstly, not everybody knows the English language. Secondly, the French are not as arrogant as people think (language per se) but the tourists themselves are ignorant of the language.

If one goes to China, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, or Indonesia, one would naturally assume the locals either do not speak English well, or do not speak English at all. It is not their language.

Arrogance in behavior in the French people? Maybe. I'm not too sure about that, so this will not be discussed.

You might be interested to know that, generally, we got around Paris with English... of course, with some difficulties. I stepped into a French restaurant wanting to ask for their menu. A french waitress walked towards me and said,
"Je peux vous aider?"
"Bien sur", I replied. "Parlez-vous anglais?"
"Non.", she turned her head and walked away immediately and muffled something under her breath. Nobody came to us in the next couple of minutes so we decided to help ourselves to the menu and looked. We left the restaurant anyway.

Vivian stopped by a pastry store and was enticed by them. I took her in and we were greeted in French, thereupon I asked "Parlez-vous anglais?"
"Non.", she replied and kept silent.
I was confused as I did not know what else to say in order to ask what was the pastry called and its contents.
"Yes? How can I help you?", the lady who said no to us decided to speak to us again in her French accent.

Bottom line is, as a tourist, try to look as innocent and modest as possible by admitting that you do not speak French well. Ask politely if you can communicate in English with him/her. You will get turned off a few times but not all the time. They all know Paris is a tourist hotspot and over the years they have learned a few basic conversation in English. However, there was a little incident on our arrival where I actually felt I was being bullied just because I couldn't speak French. Ironically, the snob was not French-French, but an Arabic French bloke who was just showing off he spoke French so well as a foreigner with the intention of putting me to shame.

The weather
Through out the days of our visit, the weather was quite favorable but was not perfect on the last day. It was mostly cloudy and strong breezes but thankfully there was not even a drop of rain.

Debates
When couples go out traveling, they often run into little arguments and would normally engage in little debates over the final decisions. I like to keep it simple. Anything to do with directions should always be left to the man, whereas, planning travel routes and where to go next (travel iteneries) to the woman.

HF was trying to read the tube map!! And she was dictating to me where we should get off and switch stations to continue our journey! I was like, "No, honey, we're now on this line, we should get off here to switch to that line, then get off here to switch to this line and we arrived!". And she was like, "Hey, why don't we try... umm, okay, you said we're on this line, so why not take this line at this station, then take that line... uh, Danny, where are we now??". By this time, I was already confused because we would be going in cricles had we decided to go with her suggestions.

Before we left for Paris, she told me once that we have to stop by Louis Vuitton store in Champs Elysees, to which I agreed. We were at the store and she totally, totally lost grip of herself, which reminded me of a scene in Ice Age: The Meltdown when Scrat entered the gates of the Heaven of Nuts. The million dollar (or Euros) question for her I bet was "Should I buy?? Or Should I really, really buy now?". I do enjoy watching her fashioning up herself with those leather bags and seeing a different kind of smiles and emotions flashed out knowing that she was in her dreams. Spent an hour in the store. I enjoy my experience too, watching at people spending hundreds or thousands just to get a leather bag or other apparels with the LV insignias imprinted all over on the exterior, especially HF. However, I felt a little regret that I had to bring reality back to her and she understood and it took another 30 minutes before we arrived the exit.

Another warning worth knowing: There will be some people around this area coming up to seemly innocent tourists with a request to help them buy any leather products from the store. They will give you a credit card or something making it looks like you're not losing anything. I was told that your passport information will be noted down whenever you purchase from the store for either security reasons or for certificate of authencity or tax reclaimation purposes. DO NOT help! You will get into trouble with either the local law enforcers or the immigration department when you leave the country. To stay safe, just mind your own business. Being nice is being gullible to those people.

Yet another debate was over the exchange of English pounds to euro currency in desperate time. We were running out of time as we have to catch our train from Louvre Rivoli (station) to CDG and HF was still running about looking to buy a souvenir for her parents. We both ran out of euros for any more souvenirs and just the right amount for train tickets to the airport. She wants to get the little Eiffel tower that cost €3.00 but they would not accept English pounds. I found a Bureau d'Exchange and HF only wanted to change £1.00 coins to the equivalent of €3.00 but the person at the bureau said he doesn't take coins. HF has a £5 bill and I told her to change it for the euros she needed to get the souvenir but she was reluctant and refused and said "What am I going to do with the remaining euros?? I don't want to have the extra euros! It's a waste!". We were on very tight budget so I understand what she meant.

At that point, I was determine to grab her £5 bill and just hand it over to the bureau for some euros and I did. We went back to the souvenir store. She, on the other hand, was still sulking at the fact that I took that £5 bill and wasted the remaining euros. We got that souvenir and rushed to the subway station and was IN TIME for our flight. Had I not grabbed her £5 bill, we would have been late; we would still be arguing and debating whether or not that little Eiffel tower should be purchased. I asked her, "Look, what do you want? A souvenir for your parents? OR, to save your £5 bill and no souvenir for your parents?"

The answer under that circumstances was not very difficult to answer. Identify which is the bigger regret if you did not do, and avoid; choose another alternative. Woman, wake up!
Later, on the train, she admit she did not make the right choices given the situation. Everything was sorted out and we were pleased. We learned more of each other in this trip and I'm glad of the outcome too.

That's that.

Goofing Goofies

Goofing Goofies,
originally uploaded by davte.

I miss Goofy! I miss goofing around like this too. Much regrets now as I did not bring back my goofing Goofy's hat.

First and Last

First and Last,
originally uploaded by davte.

This is the first building we saw upon entrance, and the last upon exit.

Even after all the magical experiences Disney had to offer to everyone, the place and atmosphere still remained as magical.

I was really happy to be a part of Vivian's actualization of her childhood dream. It will NOT, however, be the last.

A last look

DSC03488,
originally uploaded by davte.

Just before leaving a whole days' of amusements and joy of walking down childhood's memory lane. In front of me and a few more steps will be the exit. It was really magical at Disney park.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.