on justice -Benedict/James Orbinski

''Justice only fails when we fail to imagine that it is possible. But like so many things, it depends not only on imaginings but on what we do.'' - James Orbinski

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

IKEA hotel - and it's FREE!

IKEA白天賣家具 晚上變免費旅館
更新日期:2007/07/27 22:26 記者:張喬青
逛家具買床的時候,如果能試睡一晚,該有多好?真的就有這麼好康的事,挪威的IKEA家具店,想出了一個新點子,白天繼續賣家具,晚上這裡變身免費旅館,邀請大家免費來試住。甚至還提供早餐服務,許多人試睡一晚,覺得很滿意,隔天就買回家,IKEA發現,他們的業績因此變好了。

IKEA除了是家具店,現在還變成了旅館,挪威首都奧斯陸附近的這一間IKEA,推出IKEA旅社服務,歡迎大家到這邊過夜。這一家人,擠在同一張床上,享受溫馨的家庭時光,這一位女性,一個人來,點盞燈,躺在床上看雜誌,這一家四口,在床上擺張小桌子,吃起宵夜。消費者凡嘉 :「今天晚上我們要玩的盡興。」裡面一共有30張床可以選擇,幸運的人,還可以挑到主題式的房間,這對夫妻,就待在用蕾絲布簾圍起來的小空間,頭頂上還有水晶弔燈,非常浪漫。有的人為了好玩過來住住看,但是大部分的人,都有實際目的。消費者希聚 :「她想要一張沙發床,她可以試躺一整個晚上。」睡覺前,還有大姐姐說床邊故事給小朋友聽,賣場裡面,各式各樣的玩偶陪伴下,小朋友就像在童話故事裡面過夜,滿足了童心。早上起床後,工作人員還會用現場器材,準備早餐給大家吃,許多人試睡、試用了一整晚,很滿意!把東西直接買回家,雖然住在IKEA旅社不用錢,但是銷售業績,卻是嚇嚇叫。

Source: http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/070727/8/hwqt.html

Monday, July 30, 2007

stumbed upon RELUCTANCE



Robert Frost - Reluctance

Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last long aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Fun times! and more to come.....

Summary of this past week and a half -the Brief Visual Version:


Wei, my Iken-man brother drinking Plum Wine "illegally" in Japan.


At my favourite Cafe -SONIC CAFE with 店長!
Kaiten Sushi.... Now I don't know which dazzles me more, the SUSHI display or the chunks of meat on my bro.

太宰府南小学校: here we have another overgrown giant kid, see how he's trying to blend in?


DELICIOUS [!!! by Wei] dinner with the 大塚OOTSUKA Family. YAKUNIKU.

And, more drinking at KARAOKE! Pic taken by Wei who refused to share his beautiful voice with the rest of us and hence was struck with absolute boredom. But nice pix, Og!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Miłość od pierwszego wejrzenia



Miłość od pierwszego wejrzenia

Oboje są przekonani,
że połączyło ich uczucie nagłe.
Piękna jest taka pewność,
ale niepewność piękniejsza.

Sądzą, że skoro nie znali się wcześniej,
nic między nimi nigdy się nie działo,
A co na to ulice, schody, korytarze,
na których mogli się od dawna mijać?

Chciałabym ich zapytać,
czy nie pamietają -
może w drzwiach obrotowych
kiedyś twarzą w twarz?
jakieś "przepraszam" w ścisku?
głos "pomyłka" w słuchawce?
- ale znam ich odpowiedź.
Nie, nie pamietają.

Bardzo by ich zdziwiło,
że od dłuższego już czasu
bawił się nimi przypadek.

Jeszcze nie całkiem gotów
zamienić się dla nich w los,
zbliżał ich i oddalał,
zabiegał im drogę
i tłumiąc chichot
odskakiwał w bok.

Były znaki, sygnały,
cóż z tego, że nieczytelne.
Może trzy lata temu
albo w zeszły wtorek
pewien listek przefrunął
z ramienia na ramię?
Było coś zgubionego i podniesionego.
Kto wie, czy już nie piłka
w zaroślach dzieciństwa?

Były klamki i dzwonki,
na których zawczasu
dotyk kładł się na dotyk.
Walizki obok siebie w przechowalni.
Był może pewnej nocy jednakowy sen,
natychmiast po zbudzeniu zamazany.

Każdy przecież początek
to tylko ciąg dalszy,
a księga zdarzeń
zawsze otwarta w połowie.



AMORE A PRIMA VISTA

Sono entrambi convinti
che un sentimento improvviso li unì.
E' bella una tale certezza
ma l'incertezza è più bella.


Non conoscendosi prima, credono
che non sia mai successo nulla fra loro.
Ma che ne pensano le strade, le scale, i corridoi
dove da tempo potevano incrociarsi?


Vorrei chiedere loro
se non ricordano -
una volta un faccia a faccia
forse in una porta girevole?
uno "scusi" nella ressa?
un "ha sbagliato numero" nella cornetta?
- ma conosco la risposta.
No, non ricordano.


Li stupirebbe molto sapere
che già da parecchio
il caso stava giocando con loro.


Non ancora del tutto pronto
a mutarsi per loro in destino,
li avvicinava, li allontanava,
gli tagliava la strada
e soffocando un risolino
si scansava con un salto.


Vi furono segni, segnali,
che importa se indecifrabili.
Forse tre anni fa
o il martedì scorso
una fogliolina volò via
da una spalla all'altra?
Qualcosa fu perduto e qualcosa raccolto.
Chissà, era forse la palla
tra i cespugli dell'infanzia?


Vi furono maniglie e campanelli
in cui anzitempo
un tocco si posava sopra un tocco.
Valigie accostate nel deposito bagagli.
Una notte, forse, lo stesso sogno,
subito confuso al risveglio.


Ogni inizio infatti
è solo un seguito
e il libro degli eventi
è sempre aperto a metà.

Monday, July 23, 2007

GNITIAW

“Between the wish and the thing life lies waiting.”



有時候覺得自己太過遲鈍了。
要懂得把握時機,
學著趁機大膽,
就如選蛋糕一樣。
太過疑遲,太多矛盾,
導致等到最後連一塊都不剩,
懊惱的也只有自己。

The point?
不顧一切的狂吃吧!

...........................


哇哈哈,沒有人看得懂也無妨。

Saturday, July 21, 2007

2nd half of July 2007...

I have visitor from Canada!


... my IKENMEN brother, Weix2.

One of my favourite elementary schools, in my favourite class, 5-2.

Make Funny Faces! i said, and there it is.


my crazy kids & I enjoying our HUGE slice of watermelon. Ryo, the kid beside me, kept stealing mine, and only stopped when i threatened to drink his milk.


After lunch, Kanta came up to me with a black marker and asked me to draw on his face. 'Really??' i asked, and he nodded enthusiastically, placing the marker in my hands and then added 'Just draw anything you want!'. I didn't have this much fun since the Isaiah Fellowship Christmas sleepover almost 10 years ago.


And then, a DINNER/DRINKING party yesterday, with Saori, her brother, and other wonderful people.

More to come....

Sunday, July 15, 2007

優客李林 - 認錯

Here's the song!

'I DON'T BELIEVE IT, 是我放棄了你 ...'

A very quiet weekend...
Reason 1) tired from being too busy last week
Reason 2) broke from buying ticket home, new laptop, taxes to pay
Reason 3) cleaning can be fun!

okay, Reason 3) is only 70% true.

And, since I stayed home, I finished watching ICE PRINCESS (hoho.... yes, I still fantasize about my Unachieved Olympic Figure Skater Dream.) and BEFORE SUNRISE. The first one, 6.5/10 - I generously added the 0.5 pt because it made me teary - I'm still not sure why. And 8/10 for BEFORE SUNRISE, a very laidback (plot-wise) and intense (character-wise) movie. I liked it from the very beginning and liked it a little less because of the abrupt ending. But that's fine, because there's a SEQUEL to it, BEFORE SUNSET. Something worth mentioning, the Director of the movie also directed SCHOOL OF ROCK, a movie which my Humor Companions, Og and Hiukei found quite enjoyable.

'But isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?' - Celine from BEFORE SUNRISE, 1995.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112471/

And, I also had some YouTube fun, and found an old song 認錯 by 優客李林.For some reason, this song calls back old memories in Taiwan, and though the lyrics have nothing in relations to my childhood, it's somehow very familiar.

Lastly, Random as Random gets, here are some old pictures taken in Kagoshima by Maggie. Found it in my long-abadoned, spam-infested Hotmail account today. ^^

Good times, good times.


Saturday, July 14, 2007

Blogging during Typhoon Weather

This friday, I went to one of my favourite classes in Kokubu, 3-2! These are the kids who I often meet up during cleaning time last year. The little boy wearing the orange pants in the first row is one of my favourites, Kazuto! I mentioned him in one of my previous posts. And after class, I had lunch with his table and we had the most random conversation. We talked about our favourite food, favourite colors, future dreams, the fastest eaters in the class (I'm one of the slowest), and gave each other nicknames. Because I persisted in calling Kazuto, Kazu-chan, my nickname is now Mame-kun. And, I should mention here that I'm not the fastest nor the neatest eater, and towards the end of lunchtime, the kids at my table insisted that I literally pick up every single rice in my bowl and lick it clean - Kazu-chan was the most enthusiastic of them all in seeing me do that.


And here are pictures from two weeks ago, at Dazaifu Elementary school, also 3rd graders. At my table were the more mature kids in the class, who decided to play SHIRITORI during lunch.




And they are ALWAYS excited whenever I take out my flashy cellphone.... 'CHEE-ZU!'



Last Sunday, a good friend of mine came to visit from Hong Kong. We met in a Winter Retreat Camp in Toronto, 4 years ago. Were roomies, and clicked right away. We met up 5 times (including this time) in the last 4 years, but if anyone overhears our conversation, it would seem as if we are old friends since Elementary - silly jokes, good old memories to think back to, girly chats, long chats...

Miss ya, Fi! Come again.... and remember our BET?

p.s. Today, TYPHOON in Fukuoka! For the first time in weeks I didn't use my bike at all. Wind's a bit crazy outside, but no rain!

p.p.s. Wei's coming on Monday!.... this post cannot express how excited i am to see my brother. But this picture shows just how much he loves Fukuoka.


(Taken last December, when Wei had his first HAKATA RAMEN in the RAMEN MUSEUM in Canal City.)

Saturday, July 7, 2007

MacBook

This is a long story short.

-The laptop my dad gave me finally proved itself no longer adequate for tasks over 10 minutes. Really, I'm not joking, after 10
min, it will automatically blackout and shutdown by itself. The sad truth is, the poor fan just can't take it anymore.

-Then, I bought a MACBOOK. A very pretty, white, slim, not exactly light, but WONDERFUL laptop. I am unofficially broke. I will, be OFFICIALLY broke, when Og comes to visit. =p

-So, this morning, Matt & I biked to the nearest Starbucks, and the MacGenius gave me many essential tips, and taught me how to use the cool gadgets that come with this beau-TI-ful computer.

-The pictures below, are taken from PHOTO BOOTH.



Wednesday, July 4, 2007


最近都是在教初中,有時候真的還滿懷念小學的。來幾張照片吧!