Ryu's Blog

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  • Ka-Wing visit

    Ka-Wing’s staying over at my place for a few days. I guess it’s probably a good time for me to take a break before getting back to my thesis and exams preparation. Today we walked around London (literally) from Borough to Bankside, Covent Garden, Soho, Oxford circus, China town, Westminster, and dropped by Bourough Market, National Portrait Gallery, National Art Gallery, LSE, British Musuem, London Eye, and Big Ben. Altogether we probably walked around 7 hours, good calories burning for me, but perhaps a bit tough for my poor young friend who doesn’t need the exercise (by the way, I’ll post the result of my diet challenge soon). I posted some of the photos we took today. Most scenary pictures were taken by him except one (you can try to guess), and obviously we took each other’s photos. And for people who followed my previous story, we went to the Japanese restaurant again, and the people were suprisingly nice to me (or perhaps they’ve forgotten me), so we had a satisfying lunch there and Ka-Wing liked the foods as well. I plan to try a new restaurant tomorrow and a dessert shop tomorrow, and I guess I’ll take it easy tomorrow (in terms of travel), otherwise I’ll feel guilty to make my friend loss weight while visiting me in London.

  • There is Free Lunch

    I went to a Japanese restaurant in China town with two American friends and had a free lunch. The restaurant is known for serving foods with reasonable quality in large portions and at low prices, so there’s usually a long line waiting in front of restaurant at any given time. The services and attitudes of the waiters are generally bad but given the price/quality/quantity combination, it’s a place I revisit.

     

    So how did I end up with a free lunch? My friends and I each ordered a main dish. On top of that, one friend also ordered a sushi dish that he believed was not fresh based on the appearance (he didn’t try it) and his past experience (we both lived in Japan and tried lots of sushi). So he told a waiter he wanted to cancel the dish. The waiter believed the sushi’s fine (it looked fine to me as well, but I couldn’t tell without trying it) and said the dish will be charged even if not consumed.

     

    Given the US’s customers-centric belief, my friend found that unacceptable and said he’d walk out at that moment if he were to charge for it. So after some heated exchanges and the waiters’ consultation with managers, they decided to get us out. All this happened while I was enjoying my bento set. I told them I’m satisfied with my food and am going to pay for it (given they let me finish the food of course), but they didn’t want that and wanted us out. So I had a free lunch, and I should be grateful the quarrel started late enough that I could at least finished half of my food (I should have eaten that last piece of salmon).

     

    Now a bit of economics, the economists are still right that there’s no free lunch (it’s only free on our part, not for them). After walking out of the shop, I initially thought their decision was irrational. They could have just lost the income from one small side dish and get money from our main dishes and drinks (and they’d probably resell the sushi dish later given my friend didn’t touch it), instead they decided to forego all the income, not to mention the potential revisit of the consumers and negative evaluations. But given more thoughts, I think it could be a rational behaviour after all. As I mentioned, the shop is never lack of customers, so there’re little incentives for them to encourage revisit through good services (they’re confident in their price/quantity/quality combo and the long lines prove they’re right). So it’s reasonable to assume that the psychological benefits they obtained were greater than the cost of losing sales and the potential sales.

     

    There’re probably cultural factors involved as well. From my perspective as an Asian, I would find my friend’s behaviour unacceptable as well if I were the waiter unless someone has actually tasted the food and found it bad. I think the frame of reference is different for the two cultures. For the US, the customers seem to have the right to decide whether foods are in an acceptable quality and could decide not to pay for it if that’s the belief. But for us (at least for me and the shop), we tend to think that once something’s ordered, we’ve the obligation to pay for it, unless we could prove that the quality’s bad (even in that case, it’d still depend on which aspects of the quality, if it’s not health-related concern, most Asians would probably still put up with it and pay for it, but never order it again). Given my friend didn’t try the food and the cheap price of the shop; it’s really subjective to judge whether a sushi dish is of acceptable quality. So I wouldn’t side with my friend this time and that difference arises from our different beliefs of consumer rights. But thanks to him I had a free lunch.

     

    So if you want to have a free lunch in China town, go to Misato (the Japanese shop) with a US friend, order your meal plus a side dish, and then say the side dish is of unacceptable quality (or not what you expected), but remember to do this after you finish or almost finish your meal. There you go, a free lunch.

  • 秒速5センチメートル

    I just watched the first part of the anime “秒速5センチメートル(5 Centimeters per Second)” directed by Shinkai Makoto. Shinkai Makoto’s one of my favorite anime makers. The illustrations in his anime are beautiful, with good background music, script, and animation. I’m particularly attracted to the theme in his anime (e.g. The Promised Place Beyond the Clouds, Voices of the Distant Stars). Many of his themes surround distance, loneliness, and connection between couples. I guess I like them as things he portrays seem to be the kind of beauty I’m searching for.

    Here’s the theme song of the anime I recently translated:

    【One more time, One more chance】by Yamazaki Masayoshi

    Link of the song on YouTube

    これ以上何を失えば心は許されるの
    どれ程の痛みならば　もういちど君に会える
    One more time 季節ようつろわないで
    One more time ふざけあった時間よ

    What more should I lose? To get my heart’s forgiveness
    To what extent does it have to hurt? To meet you one more time
    One more time, seasons please don’t dissappear
    One more time, the time when we fool around
    くいちがう時はいつも僕が先に折れたね
    わがままな性格がなおさら愛しくさせた
    One more chance 記憶に足を取られて
    One more chance 次の場所を選べない
    Time when we different in our opinions, I usually gave in first
    Self-centered personality, still all the more I love you
    One more chance, memories bind my steps
    One more chance, the next place can’t be decided

     

    いつでも捜しているよ　どっかに君の姿を
    向いのホーム　路地裏の窓
    こんなところにいるはずもないのに
    願いがもしも叶うなら　今すぐ君のもとへ
    できないことは　もう何もない
    すべてかけて抱きしめてみせるよ

    I’m always searching, for your appearance somewhere
    The home across the street, the back alley by the window
    Even though I know you couldn’t possibly be there
    If my wish could come true, at this momentI will go where you are
    Things that couldn’t be done, there’ll benone
    I’ll bet on everything to show you my embrace
    寂しさ紛らすだけなら　誰でもいいはずなのに
    星が落ちそうな夜だから　自分をいつわれない
    One more time　きせつようつろわないで
    One more time　ふざけあった時間よ
    If loneliness is what I want to avoid, anyone should be fine
    Nights that the stars seem to be falling, I can’t feign myself
    One more time, seasons please don’t pass away
    One more time, the time when we fool around
    いつでも捜しているよ　どっかに君の姿を
    交差点でも夢の中でも
    こんなところにいるはずもないのに
    奇跡がもしも起こるなら　今すぐ君に見せたい
    新しい朝　これからの僕
    言えなかった「好き」という言葉も
    I’m always searching, for your appearance somewhere
    Whether at the crossroad, or in my dreams
    Even though I know you couldn’t possibly be there
    If miracle happens, I want to show it to you as soon as possible
    A new morning, my self from now on
    The word ‘I like you’ that I couldn’t say
    夏の思い出がまわる
    ふいに消えた鼓動
    Memories of the summer are revolving
    Unexpectedly, the pulsating beat vanished
    いつでも捜しているよ　どっかに君の姿を
    明け方の街　桜木町で
    こんなとこに来るはずもないのに
    願いがもしも叶うなら　今すぐ君のもとへ
    できないことは　もう何もない
    すべてかけて抱きしめてみせるよ
    I’m always searching, for your appearance somewhere
    At the dawn of the street in Sakuraki town
    Even though I know you couldn’t possibly be there
    If my wish could come true, at this moment I will go where you are
    Things that couldn’t be done, there’ll be none
    I’ll bet on everything to show you my embrace
    いつでも捜してるよ　どっかに君のかけらを
    旅先の店　新聞の隅
    こんなとこにあるはずもないのに
    奇跡がもしも起こるなら　今すぐ君に見せたい
    新しいあさこれからの僕
    いえなかった“好き”という言葉も
    I am always searching, for your pieces somewhere
    Stores in my journey, at the newspaper’s corner
    Even though I know you couldn’t possibly be there
    If miracle happens, I want to show it to you as soon as possible
    A new morning, my self from now on
    The word ‘I like you’ that I couldn’t say
    いつでも捜してしまう　どっかに君の笑顔を
    急行待ちの　踏み切りあたり
    こんなとこにいるはずもないのに
    命が繰り返すならば　何度も君のもとへ
    欲しいものなど　もう何もない
    君のほかに大切なものなど
    I end up always searching, for your smile somewhere
    Somewhere around the railroad crossing
    Even though I know you couldn’t possibly be there
    If life could go back, No matter how many times I’ll go to where you are
    Things that I want, there’ll be none
    Besides you, not any more important things

  • Diet Challenge

    As I mentioned in the previous entry, I’m on a diet now (actually more a challenge/self-experiment). And just in case some friends might worry, it’s meant to be a healthy, sustainable diet. I’ve started the challenge for a week now, got some positive results (see below), and surprisingly find myself enjoying the process.

    How it started

    A friend told me if I could help her lose weight she’d treat me a meal. Since I also gained some weight over Valentine and Chinese New Year and feel like I’ve been eating excessive snacks/sweets lately, I came up with the competition plan to see who can successfully lose a certain amount of weight within a timeframe, and the loser have to treat the winner a meal.

    The Goal

    To lose 5 kg by the end of March (six weeks interval). Why 5kg? Because it’ll get me back to the weight I maintained at EIS (or first year at APU). I’d be interested to see if I could get rid of the facial fat (see EIS photo below)

    Duration: Feb. 20 – March 31

    Initial weight: 70.5 kg

    Goal: 65 kg

    Motivation

    Where does my motivation come from if I’m just helping a friend? I’m no altruist, so what would keep me on the goal? Anyone would know that a meal’s not enough to sustain a person on diet. So here are few more reasons. 1) Being hungry might make you smarter (see here) 2) It is a challenge. If I could achieve this goal, I’d have more confidence in my ability to achieve anything I set my mind on, which would also act as a boost to my next upcoming goal of getting a distinction. 3) It’s fun. I’m enjoying the process of keeping detailed record on my dietary life and body condition, and it’d be interesting to see what’ll happen (See Seth’s blog for more on self-experimentation. There are useful dietary findings as well). Various bloggers have mentioned the simplicity of losing weight (here’s one). But most people seem to struggle with diet goal. Since I’ve never tried to diet seriously, it’d be interesting to see whether I can achieve it.

    Strategy

    Basically lower calorie-intake and continue doing exercise. Here’re the specifics:

    1) Plan what I want to eat and keep record of what I eat.

    2) No junk food and dessert (the term might be a bit vague here, but people who’re honest to themselves should have no problem in distinguishing food with high nutritional content from the junks). Since I do not want to miss out everything, I allow myself to ‘taste’ food if I want, which means I could try a dessert I’ve not eaten before but only limit to one piece (or a bite depending on the portion). Generally I won’t buy any and won’t eat them even if freely available.

    3) No alcohol (wine, beer, etc.)

    4) 5 liter of water per day. I started with 5L as that’s the amount that worked for Seth.

    5) Not adding sauces and spices in cooking.

    6) Eat smaller meal and spread them out.

    7) Monitor progress, which include checking my action against these strategies and keeping track of weight weekly.

    8) Adjust strategy if necessary. Since this is the first week, I haven’t changed anything yet. Other strategies to consider include using olive oil or fructose water to suppress hunger and Sushi! (see Seth’s paper for details).

    Result 1st week:

    Weight: 69. The weight tends to flutuate a bit depending on when and where I measure it. And because I don’t own a scale, I can’t consistently measure it. But since my goal’s to lose 5kg, there’d have no problem seeing substantial differences in the end.

    It seems like my body has been getting use to eating less. I’m much less prone to feeling hungry and get full more easily. Not sure if this is due to my slowing metabolism, change in dietary habit, or just body adaptation. I suspect after this initial phase it’d be harder to lose more weight (since I gained some weight in the past weeks, so it’s likely now I’m just shifting back to my usual weight: roughly 67). But so far the result’s encouraging, and my mind does feel sharper.

    I’m taking photo every week as well. Unfortunately I forgot to take one at the beginning. So I’ll post the most recent photo I took before the diet and one taken a bit earlier (near Christmas) as an approximation of my initial look. I won’t post my progress photo as I think it’d be more interesting to see them all at once in the end.

  • Update on Job Application

    Following up on my previous comment on the ‘gruelling and soul-destroying’ process, here’s the statistics I have so far.

    Applications sent: 38

    Interviews (with different companies): 7

    Rejections: 29

    *The numbers doesn’t add up as there’re pending interviews and responses (or perhaps silent rejection).

    I recently received a formal contract from a prestigious investment bank. Given everything goes well (i.e. obtaining my work permit in UK), I should be working in London as an summer intern. And if luckier, I will receive a couple more offers (either from the same company or from other ones) by the time I finish the internship. But for now, I’ll leave job hunting aside and focus my mind on getting a distinction (I also just embarked on a new challenge related to diet, but I will save the details for the next entry).

    Hope the job stats will bring some comforts to friends who’re looking for a job. As I mentioned before, the process’s gruelling and time consuming, rejections are common, and there’re lots of random factors involved. When we see people getting offers from prestigious companies, remember we only see the final result. And as one of my most respected mentor said, life is not about competing to have an excellent CV or high paying salary, as both are just means to some ends (e.g. more choices, autonomy to choose satisfying work or to pursue activities that bring personal satisfaction). So never lose heart.

  • Birthday 2007

    It’s been a week since I turned 24. And although I didn’t plan any events or celebration for my birthday, it was a peaceful and enjoyable day. My flatmates surprised me when they knocked on my door at mid-night and sang me a birthday song. We then went to the kitchen to have some chocolate over a glass of wine and spent the night chatting, playing guitar and sang songs together. Then on the 7th, I received a call from my buddies from Bangkok, which was very sweet as I haven’t heard their voices for a long time. They was celebrating my birthday for me in Bangkok (having dinner and cake together) and sent me a video afterward.

     

    Since I didn’t get myself anything during birthday, I treated myself a free day today. After my morning interviews, I went to the National Gallery to see the exhibitions on Velazquez and the Impressionists. Then I walked around Covent Garden (for the first time), tried out a restaurant in China Town, and got myself a hair-cut. Given a full day rest, I’m ready to get back to work happily and productively (hypnotizing myself).

     

    Even though I’m 24 now, perhaps because I’ve never had a full-time job, I never feel like I’m an adult. Lots of people I know don’t want to grow up. Being a child allows us to dream, to do foolish things, to take risk and to enjoy life. Growing up, on the other hand, entails obligations and responsibilities. Most of all, we’re afraid that we might get used to the society’s norm, living an aimless life, forget our dreams, become a cynic, or lose our once hopeful and romantic self.

     

    I don’t mind growing up. Being self-sufficient and having autonomy are important to me. And as long as I’m working on things I enjoy and do them well, I should be happy. But I would try to make sure that I don’t let myself get carry away and becoming what society expects/wants me to be, but rather to always keep my perspective and live and enjoy life my way.

  • Stay Strong and be a Man

    “If”
    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
    But make allowance for their doubting too,
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
    If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
    If all men count with you, but none too much,
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

    By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

  • Trap in my little universe

    A year passed by since I wrote about my insignificance in this universe, my thoughts on the topic haven’t changed much (except becoming more skeptical of any significance I might truly have). I feel like I’m creating my own little universe through which I interact and see the world. It’s like a movie, which I view as an abstraction of the world. Movie tends to focus on a certain aspect of life it wants to emphasize and manipulate the temporal and spatial experience to convey a story. Similarly, we tend to abstract from our experience to create a story we like to live, and our brains help us to achieve this through our subjective memories and experience of time. Science, religion, cultural and moral teachings as well as popular media all help shape the story we want to create in life and the way we see and experience things.

     

    Now I don’t think there’s any particular meaning in asking the meaning-of-life type questions. I’m also content to know that there’re lots of things I’ll never be able to know and probably won’t matter (life as we know will eventually cease to exist). I don’t think there’re any absolute moral or ethical standards. They exist to serve a purpose but are easily dispensable by most people under conditions where survival’s essential.

     

    So what am I left with? I probably can’t escape from creating story that satisfies my hypocrisy. But I’m content to make it consistent enough so I can enjoy myself and strike a balance between transient, superficial/sensual pleasures and the sustained, deeper satisfactions gained from accomplishment brought by personal effort.

     

    On that slightly cynical note, I’ll end this year’s entry. Happy new year to all.

    *it’s likely I’ll disappear for a while again to reorient my life and focus on my studies.

     

     

    ‘All scientific view of the world is really just in our minds. When you look at it carefully, it is not something that is out there in the real world.’

     

    -Robert Aumann

  • Without Limits

    After the Christmas Eve night out to the Cathedral I hadn’t leaved my room (except to the kitchen) till yesterday, when I found it hard to concentrate and study effectively, I went out for a run. I ran along the embankment to the Big Ben and return via the millennium bridge. The whole trip took around 1 hour and made me feel great. I can understand why so many people are obsessed with running: bankers who wake up 7 am Saturday to run a 50 miles marathon after only four hours sleep before heading back to work, or runners who just want to challenge their limits. Here’s the trailer of a movie about Steve Prefontaine that I’d love to watch (friends, download it and send it to me please), and here’s an article on Karnazes, who could run 350 miles in three days without sleeping.

     

    Although running is never my main sport, I found it rewarding: the freedom and confidence it brings, not to mention the benefits it has on health. Perhaps I should add running to my regular schedule and use it as an opportunity to see more places in London (people around me will know that I’ve only been to very few places in London, basically just from my dorm to school; most tourists would have seen more places in London than I do). And maybe one day I’d be strong enough physically and mentally to challenge and break my limits.

     

  • Blog entry of the day

    The related links on profession choice and innocence are highly recommended as well.