i moved to a new place a few days ago, so i haven’t been able to work or blog much, but i thought i really should write a quick blog on this:
asiamedia reports that ohmynews has been launched in japan with the help of softbank, a company owned by masayoshi son (or jeong-eui son), a third generation korean-japanese and currently the richest man in japan, according to this article on forbes.
it’s been 6 years since the launch of the original ohmynews in korea, which became a breakthrough success glocally and globally as a leading grassroots journlism site, attracting both everyday citizen contributors around the world as well as famous figures including howard rheingold.

i remember reading in a journal article a while ago that the level of trust the japanese have in the national news media is lower than that of the korean public, so it’d be very interesting to see how ohmynews japan develops.

went to the inaugural ici research symposium last week.

during the panel discussion session, erica mcwilliam (education) said, “people don’t want to be creative if that involves letting go of what they have. people are lazy that way.” not her exact words, but something along those lines.

during “consumer cultures” lecture this afternoon, christina spurgeon said, “habit is different from mindlessness.”

i feel the relevance of these ideas more acutely these days than ever before. every time i need to make a decision, or simply to live every moment, i find myself having to re-establish and/or refer to my emotional and conceptual frameworks, and sometimes this process feels extremely limiting, especially when i can see that i’m trying to base the “being” on the ”have been.” it sounds like a natural process but depending on the context, the outcome may be pretty devastating - prejudice, ignorance, anger, and fear. so many things can stem from this ostensibly simple procedure.

to achieve the illusion of the present perfect (have been), i sometimes kid myself with the past simple (was) and frequently insist on the present continuous (am -ing). the result is obvious and simple: i can’t see the truth, or rather, i can’t be true. scattered mind - which leads to a ridiculously high level of 1) rash (and wrong) decisions and/or 2) indecisiveness. either way, it creates bad karma by being ignorant and burdening others with my own responsibilities.

like many others, i wish to be simply happy. i wish for more simplicity in life and in appreciating happiness. i really don’t think that reading Eckhart Tolle (who wrote “the power of now”) will help me. i don’t think that seclusion from society will enlighten me either. and drugs wouldn’t be of much help.

i believe that i need to be stop being lazy. i have been lazy. i let others do my work, as in hoping and trying to persuade others that they should make me happy. i’ve been trying to stick to the past, swimming upstream. i couldn’t let go. my habit of mindless repetition of the past tied me to this poorly cultivated habitus of mine. i don’t respect uncreative minds = i couldn’t respect my mind; not all the time, but sometimes, many times. my own fault. but now i also realise that compunction wouldn’t help.

to be — present simple.

i will try — future can be simple, too.

i am trying – yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

not sure exactly why, but i felt very strongly tonight that i had to think about these and find a way to let creativity flow better. i guess life’s more fun that way; “play” has always been my motto. oh, maybe it’s the ekka. the whole festive air of brisbane ;)

had a few celebratory reasons and i’ve been pretty interperesonally-lazy to my sister, so we went to mondo organics for dinner last wednesday. we got there a bit early but it was a warmish brisbane winter evening, so we didn’t mind chatting outside while everyone was busy getting ready inside.

mondo’s been here for quite a few years now. i think they first opened when i was living in hill end - i was an undergrad student doing multimedia at griffith uni, and was living in a little studio near the river. i used to like having coffee alone at mondo, but i didn’t really eat there. i can’t remember how things were price-wise, but at the moment their mains are pretty expensive compared to other restaurants, especially those in west end. we had these:

• wine: chrismont ‘lazona’ pinot grigio (2005)
• appz: antipasti of roast pepper harissa, baccala, almond verjuice pesto & ciabatta bread
• main: gnoccho fritti w sage pesto, roast vegetable & ricotta almond cannelloni, tomato passata // sicilian cinnamon spiced fried tofu, sweet potato panelle, mixed leaf salad,agro dolce dressing vegan
• dess: vanilla pannacotta, passionfruit gelo, caramelised apple, almond crostini,honey saffron syrup

i think red would’ve been a smarter choice for the food we had, but i’d been meaning to try the wine for a while so i was happy. mondo is the very first licensed organic restaurant in australia, so you can be assured that the actual ingredients are nice and healthy. our appetizer had cod in one of the dips (baccala) so it wasn’t a completely vegetarian dinner, but we had a fabulous culinary evening. i’m a semi-vegetarian (or a fake vegetarian as someone once insisted); i eat veges and eggs and sometimes seafood. i don’t eat meat unless i’m accidentally given. for example, if someone’s prepared a meaty meal for me without realising that i don’t eat meat, then i wouldn’t say anything and eat it. but on a few occasions, i have consumed meat. for example, i ate a whole steak with tears in my eys after a breakup last time. there’s something cathartic about crying and eating steak at the same time.

anyway, i absolutely loved the sicilian tofu - the smokey aroma gets quickly dispersed in your mouth with soft tofu texture, which is nicely contrasted with the crispiness of the fried tofu on the top and fresh salad on the bottom. amazing. it reminded me of the time i tried brazzo mercedes at sprout for the first time. that impressive dessert was so sexy i thought i was going to faint. the vanilla pannacotta we had at mondo was really nice as well, not as miraculous as brazzo mercedes, but very tasty. coffee was as excellent as i remembered. the girl who served us was very friendly and efficient, and extremely cute. my sister wanted to know where she’d got her hair done (my sister’s doing a hairdressing course at the moment), and she very kindly explained where and how to get there.mondo also runs a cooking school. one of my friends has done it once and highly recommended it, so i think i’ll definitely try this month.

the bill was pretty demanding as expected, but there are some other cheaper options available. i’d really like to try their soup (A$10), which is actually one of the entrees but it’s huge and there were quite a few people having it as their main. i’ve been in my soup mode for a while now, and been trying different soups at different places, so i’d really love to try mondo’s - i have no doubt it’d be really nice. highly recommended if you’re relatively flexible financially.

Mondo Organics
166 hardgrave road
west end
+ 61 7 3844 1132

fresh from sony is mylo, which combines media player with wifi, skype, browser, and messaging, according to this gizmodo article. functionality wise, it’s pretty cool. just like a nice little clie (ok, not little) in a psp suit!

(original image from gizmodo)

it features 1GB of flash memory (+ MS Pro Duo slot), 2.4-inch LCD (320 x 240). so functionality wise, it’s not all that bad. it’s nothing so fantastically amazing but it’s ok. but really, i’m not sure what’s going on witn sony’s design department. sony’s been putting out all these really disappointingly unintersting looking products like

this mp3 player (ouch!)
and

this walkman mobile phone (err… boring!).

(original images from www.sonystyle.com)

sony used to be (and still is) well respected for their quality products and excellent design. i used to be a big fan (whose fondness was significant enough to spend most of her savings to purchase a sony silver flat-screen tv, which back then looked beautifully cutting-edge). well, ps2 wasn’t bad when it came out. it had a futuristic feel to it (hmm.. how long ago was that? about 6 years ago?). psp was slightly disappointing with no pleasant visual surprises or appeal. and such an unpleasant shock: they thought it was a great idea to recycle the psp design for mylo! wow. just what are they thinking?

samsung and lg have been working really hard to catch up and despite some design hiccups, they’ve been doing a pretty good job. if sony’s design department doesn’t wake up and realise how crucial it is to do something about it, i really don’t see how sony would be able to continue on. alvin toffler coined the now-ubiquitous term “prosumer.” consumers are no fools. i guess sony did know the importance of this power transition, as evidenced in their previous fantastic design efforts. but somewhere along the way - possibly when “prosumers” became “prousers” as axel bruns calls them - they lost the plot. seeing aesthetically pleasing things is great. i really hope that sony will smarten up and come up with more clever designs like they used to.