Ryu's Blog

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  • Follow your heart: Lyric from Persona 5 Royal’s Hoshi to Bukura to

    In the endless days
    We lost our place of belonging
    and wandered around aimlessly

    Streets of yesterday
    are reflected in the mirror
    Even if I try connecting
    the mingled pieces of the past together–

    No matter how much I try scooping them up
    They slip through my fingers
    like grains of sand

    But even so
    The things I can see
    aren’t all there is to them
    It’s in my heart

    I will search for tomorrow
    from here on with my heart

    Under that sky
    We were able to come across each other
    through mutual attraction

    I lived every day
    spilling my feelings
    Even if I try to only add up
    my overflowing memories

    They say that physical things
    are all that exist in this world
    But where they begin or end
    shouldn’t be decided by anyone
    I will follow my heart

    Let’s return
    to the future we aimed for

    Anytime, anywhere
    We can meet if you wish for it
    From now on
    We don’t need to make promises

    We’re looking at the same stars
    even if we’re apart
    So that’s why we say goodbye today

    No matter how much I try scooping them up
    They slip through my fingers
    like grains of sand

    But even so
    The things I can see
    aren’t all there is to them
    It’s in my heart

    They say that physical things
    are all that exist in this world
    But where they begin or end
    shouldn’t be decided by anyone
    I will follow my heart

    Let’s search for our future
    with our hearts

    I will follow my heart

    It’s in my heart

    Follow my heart

  • Adaptability and Minimalist lifestyle

    I like the idea of living a minimalistic lifestyle free of clutter.

    One finding from the myriad happiness research is that we adapt to changes, so whatever lifestyle we are used to become the norm.

    This suggests that if we live a somewhat ascetic life on a daily basis, the occasional pleasures would become more enjoyable.

    Even better, if we can handle inconvenience and other discomfort with equanimity, that might increase our confidence and ability to face other adverse situations.

    Although living a minimalistic lifestyle sounds nice in theory, reality tends to be messier. We buy things for a reason. And often they bring us pleasure and make our life easier. We also strive to improve and experience more things in life that might not be fully compatible with a ‘simple’ lifestyle.

    Knowing what we value and then striving a balance seem to be key.

  • Be Nice

    We know relationship is ultimately what matters. So why do we get impatient so easily? No tolerance for incompetence or laziness? Helping others to develop better habits or to improve? All these might be legitimate reasons, but often they are self-serving. And usually they don’t facilitate long term behavior change and just worsen relationship. So less shaming and punishment, and more love and kindness.

  • 2014 Review

    Baby Sky: This little chap is a wonderful addition to the family, who brings me many first-time experience and an additional reason to draw.

    Sport: The NYC marathon was a great experience, not just the event itself but also the training process and the feeling that some part of me has changed. I continue to practice Muay Thai but plan to start Wing Chun or Tai Chi in the coming year to focus more on the meditative side. Also plan to play more basketball going forward.

    Travel: Iceland is a beautiful place, and its 18+ daylight during summer is fantastic; also did my first ice-climbing there. Tokyo remains my perennial favorite city, and this year I happened to be there during the Sakura season. With the yen at current level it makes sense to visit more often. It’s also nice to catch up with friends in Singapore, Xiamen, and London, and I hope to do more joint trips with friends next year.

    Moving: I moved to a new apartment on the HK Island side. Walking/Jogging was a great way to explore a new neighborhood. I’m happy to be around a public library and a big park (with many basketball courts), not to mention the cafe and eateries.

    Book: Highlights include The Power of Glamour, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman, The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, The Art of Stillness, and On the Shortness of Life.

    Movie & series: Movies I watched recently and like include Lee Ang’s Pushing Hands (old movie) and Intersteller, which prompted me to watch the 2001: A Space Odyssey. Other movies I like include Her, Begin Again, Boyhood, The Great Beauty, The Wind Rises, and The Lunchbox. The Americans is good (watched the first season). I also like this short sci-fi Numbers. There are probably many others that I like but had forgotten because I didn’t record them. Maybe I should keep a comprehensive list of all the movies I watched. For now this blog helps.

    Article & Podcast: I find it useful to review the articles that I like and excerpted. The recurring themes include mindfulness, creativity, ageing, education, parenting, and life design. Since walking has become a more important part of my daily life, I’m also listening to more podcasts. The Tim Ferriss Show is a recent addition that I listen to regularly.

    Hong Kong: I like many aspects of the city, past and present, but this year’s protests make me more pessimistic of its long term outlook.

    Learning: I learn a lot about the HK property market, although prices are moving in the opposite direction from what I want. Also learn about HK’s education system. I plan to spend more time next year to brush up on my Japanese. One easy way to start is by watching more Japanese drama.

  • Why is everyone so busy?

    From The Economist:

    The problem, then, is less how much time people have than how they see it. Ever since a clock was first used to synchronise labour in the 18th century, time has been understood in relation to money. Once hours are financially quantified, people worry more about wasting, saving or using them profitably. When economies grow and incomes rise, everyone’s time becomes more valuable. And the more valuable something becomes, the scarcer it seems.

    ……

    So being busy can make you rich, but being rich makes you feel busier still. Staffan Linder, a Swedish economist, diagnosed this problem in 1970. Like Becker, he saw that heady increases in the productivity of work-time compelled people to maximise the utility of their leisure time. The most direct way to do this would be for people to consume more goods within a given unit of time. To indulge in such “simultaneous consumption”, he wrote, a chap “may find himself drinking Brazilian coffee, smoking a Dutch cigar, sipping a French cognac, reading the New York Times, listening to a Brandenburg Concerto and entertaining his Swedish wife—all at the same time, with varying degrees of success.” Leisure time would inevitably feel less leisurely, he surmised, particularly for those who seemed best placed to enjoy it all. The unexpected product of economic progress, according to Linder, was a “harried leisure class”.

    ……

    Alas time, ultimately, is a strange and slippery resource, easily traded, visible only when it passes and often most highly valued when it is gone. No one has ever complained of having too much of it. Instead, most people worry over how it flies, and wonder where it goes. Cruelly, it runs away faster as people get older, as each accumulating year grows less significant, proportionally, but also less vivid. Experiences become less novel and more habitual. The years soon bleed together and end up rushing past, with the most vibrant memories tucked somewhere near the beginning. And of course the more one tries to hold on to something, the swifter it seems to go.

  • Beauty & slowness

    December is a good time to slowdown and reflect. And three short books – Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life, Pico Lyer’s The Art of Stillness, and Henry David Thoreau’s Walking – helped put me in a good mindset. In 2015, I hope to develop routines that would give me more time to walk, meditate, and pay more attention to the little beauty in life.

  • Misc. links

    Pixar’s Andrew Stanton,  on story telling – “And that’s what it really is, is that we all live life conditionally. We’re all willing to play by the rules and follow things along, as long as certain conditions are met. After that, all bets are off.”

    Meghan Daum on Nostalgia, Aging, and Why We Romanticize Our Imperfect Younger Selves – “But here’s what Older Self will not have the heart to say: some of the music you are now listening to — the CDs you play while you stare out the window and think about the five million different ways your life might go — will be unbearable to listen to in twenty years. They will be unbearable not because they will sound dated and trite but because they will sound like the lining of your soul. They will take you straight back to the place you were in when you felt that anything could happen at any time, that your life was a huge room with a thousand doors, that your future was not only infinite but also elastic. They will be unbearable because they will remind you that at least half of the things you once planned for your future are now in the past and others got reabsorbed into your imagination before you could even think about acting on them. It will be as though you’d never thought of them in the first place, as if they were never meant to be anything more than passing thoughts you had while playing your stereo at night.”

    Pico Lyer and The Art of Stillness – “Going nowhere … isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply…It’s only by taking myself away from clutter and distraction that I can begin to hear something out of earshot and recall that listening is much more invigorating than giving voice to all the thoughts and prejudices that anyway keep me company twenty-four hours a day. And it’s only by going nowhere — by sitting still or letting my mind relax — that I find that the thoughts that come to me unbidden are far fresher and more imaginative than the ones I consciously seek out.”

    Brain Pickings’ Maria Popova on Tim Ferriss’ podcast

  • Boyhood

    Boyhood_film

    A fascinating movie about various stages of life: childhood, growing up, parenthood. Richard Linklater is one of my favorite directors/screenwriters, and the Before series my all time favorites.

    Here’s what actor Ethan Hawke said about the film:

    It’s Tolstoy-esque in scope. I thought the Before series was the most unique thing I would ever be a part of, but Rick has engaged me in something even more strange. Doing a scene with a young boy at the age of 7 when he talks about why do raccoons die, and at the age of 12 when he talks about video games, and 17 when he asks me about girls, and have it be the same actor — to watch his voice and body morph — it’s a little bit like timelapse photography of a human being.

  • NYC marathon, Done

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    03:45:38

    Despite the strong wind and cold weather, my first marathon was overall a great experience. I was surprised by the number of people cheering throughout the five boroughs. The city is beautiful. If timing’s not a concern, it’d be nice to stop and take photos along the way (like what some participants did).

    I didn’t come across any celebrities during the run, but managed to beat economist Justin Wolfers.

    Training matters. I suffered much less from this marathon than any of my previous 10K runs.

  • Hong Kong

    Pro or anti, for the better or for the worse, a historical moment nevertheless…

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