I’m trying to decide what kind of digital video camera I am going to buy to use to make films I can enter in festivals and the like. Right now I am looking at the Canon GL1 and the Sony VX2000. Does anyone have experience with either one or both of these cameras? If so, let me hear what you think. I’ve heard good things about both, and they both seem to have what I want in a camera. I’ve heard about sound problems for both as well, and in general it seems that the Sony has the sharper picture, while the Canon is more popular for some reason none of the reviewers seem willing to discuss, like it’s either a secret of so obvious they don’t have to explain. The Canon uses the same CCD as the XL1, which has a good reputation. The three shorts I have on this site under the films section were shot with an old Arri-S 16mm camera, which I used for my ‘film’ icon on this site…I love working with film, and I would love to continue doing so, but the cost is just too high for me to afford. If I could, though, I would work with film, 16 or 35mm, and cut my movies on a Steinbeck editing table like I did in New York. It was frustrating, but the limited number of options meant that the filmmaker has to know in their mind exactly what it is they wanted. In short, they had to have a vision. Now, with digital, it is possible to go into a project, shoot whatever it is you want, and then think about what it is you want to create in post production. Both are viable ways of production; I just happen to think the discipline involved in the former seems to produce a more concrete realization of a solid vision. But I could be wrong.

As I was looking around the parts of the old city where they sell cameras and electronics, I heard really young people discussing various cameras as if they were disposable toys. Despite the highly popular cry of “Oh, our economy is so baaaad! We have to act like it’s bad and fire all our staff and pull out all of our investment and make it worse ’cause we’re idiots”, there is still a lot of money on this island and a lot of people willing to spend it.

The weather was nice this afternoon so I rode up to Tianbao Temple, one of my favorite spots. It is just a few blocks past the World Trade Center and up near the 4-Animal mountains, but it feels like it is miles outside the city. The only sounds, apart from the distant roar of traffic, are the insects and babbling streams which trickly down from the moutains. I walked around and took pictures with my new camera, which is doing well. Almost too well, for I am going to run out of web space really quickly if this keeps up, and I may have to buy more.

At one point my hairstylist friend Vidal(what else did you think his name would be?)called me on my cell phone and said he had a customer, a foreign woman, who was into making movies and who wanted to talk with me. I said ok, but she was talking with someone else, so I said for him to give her my number and my website. Curious.

I climbed up Elephant Mountain, from the top of which the whole city is visible, and then through some jungle-like paths down the other side. At some points the path was only a faint trail, but thankfully it didn’t disappear before it led me back to the temple.

I rented Nurse Betty, The Big Lebowski and the Emperor’s New Groove on DVD this weekend. I just watched Nurse Betty, and I really wanted to like it, but somehow it didn’t hold together. The acting was good all around, as was the casting, but the music was mushy and horrible, and the editing could have been a lot snappier as well. It felt like a good idea that had gone through too many producers and was spoiled, which is a shame, because I think Morgan Freeman gave one of the best performances I have ever seen from him. Chris Rock wasn’t bad, either. I keep wondering when they’re going to get around to making a movie starring Chris Rock and Chris Tucker together. It seems inevitable.

The rehearsal for “A Man for All Seasons” is tomorrow. I finished reading the play, and I have to say that, while I enjoyed it and it was very well written, I still don’t know if I should take a stab at it. It would be interesting to see if I could pull it off. I will go tomorrow and see what the situation over there is. I presume that Carl isn’t especially keen on keeping the character in the play at all, which is, of course, his prerogative. He’s the director, after all.

The good news today was that we got off work at basically noon. The bad news was that we had to attend our company’s anniversary party. You know, the one I was supposed to wear a ski jacket to since that is the only red and black thing I have(red and black are our company colors, in case you forgot). I dug through my old clothes and found a red button-down I could wear with a black T-shirt(is there anyone out there who grew up in the 80’s and doesn’t have one of those?). I figured, since my motorcycle is red and black, I could always ride it up into the theater where the party was being held. Would have made it a lot more interesting than it was.

First I stopped by the Ministry of Truth where friends Dean, Steve and Brian work to drop off my resume personally to the person in charge of the department Steve works for, since he is leaving and I would like to take over for him. The reason I had to do this in person is because I seem Chinese on paper, and they aren’t looking for a Chinese for the position, so I had to put my non-Chinese self on display for them so as to avoid any confusion on the matter. Anyway, apart from an email and a couple of phone calls, it’s out of my hands now. All I can do is sit and wait and imagine myself doling out Truth to the Masses on a part-time basis.

As I rode over to the West Gate District, I was stopped at a red light when a cream-colored Rolls-Royce was heading for the intersection as its light turned red. Somehow I guessed that it wouldn’t stop, since Rolls-Royces tend to be full of pompous asses who think they are above everyone else, including traffic laws (I realize that I am generalizing here, but as is usually the case when I generalize, I don’t care). Heck, even people in black Benzes here think that, so I was pretty sure the Rolls would run the light. So I made a point of proceeding about a foot into the intersection when my light turned green, causing the Rolls to brake suddenly and honk at me. I caught a glimpse of some guys in suits and a couple of young girls picking themselves off the floor of the back seat as it passed. Victory! Unless, of course, the car contained the owner of one of the few South American nations that still recognize Taiwan, who doesn’t take kindly to such interference and is right now finding out where I live so he can fire a missile into my window. Also, they are still driving a Rolls while I am still on my crappy motorcycle. But I do what I can.

I got to the West Gate district without further incident and parked a couple of blocks away from the “Sound of Music” theater. There were lots of kids hanging out there, which is not unusual, but wait until the college entrance exams are finished; then that whole area will be completely packed with them.

The party was about halfway over by the time I got there. It was being held in the theater, and included the cheezy skits by the various departments, songs and stupid prize contests. There was a company-wide ballot taking, and one of the most anticipated events was the “Sexiest Woman” contest. Basically the candidates were a group of some of the better-looking women who work at our company, plus our boss, who is a middle-aged woman who had no business being included in that contest. Believe me, if you saw her, you’d agree with me. I didn’t take a picture of her, because I didn’t want to waste flash memory on her image when I could take pictures of people I thought more attractive, such as this picture I snuck of one of my co-workers, on whom I have a small crush.

Of course our boss won the contest. It was embarrassing how blatant the brown-nosing was. After the party they showed a french movie “All about Women for all the Stupid Males Out There” or something like that. I don’t speak French and didn’t feel like reading subtitles, so I left. On the way out I met the English copyeditor for Results, a friendly Australian girl from Sydney named Lee.

I went to Tower Records for a bit and then planned to head over to the Minsheng District for sword class. But a sensational sunset was brewing, so I went down to the riverside park and took pictures like this until the show was over.

I was late to sword class but got a bit of practice in and even took some photos. It went pretty well at first, but I felt like I was getting sloppier every time I did the form. I will have to work on that. I’d also like to get back into contact swordplay, like Seamus, Dean and I used to do in the park across the street. But Seamus, our teacher, is in India being a Sadhu right now, so Dean and I will just have to slash away at each other instead. Here is a panoramic picture of the park I took from my room, by the way.

On my way home I passed this restaurant. As I said, I don’t speak French, but doesn’t this mean “A Good Pain”? Is this really the best name for a restaurant?

“How was your meal, Monsieur?”

“I’m in pain.”

“Monsieur?”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s a good pain!”

Of course, if this actually makes sense in French, feel free to tell me I’m an ignorant bastard.

After work I rode down to the riverside park behind the Tri-service Hospital in Gongguan and took some pictures with my new camera. I posted two of them in my photos section. I was pleasantly surprised with the camera’s low-light capabilities as well as its accurate colors. I’m glad I got the S300 instead of the S100, too, because I need at least a 3x zoom.

As I walked around the park, followed by swarms of mosquitos, I noticed that there was some construction equipment under the bridge. There was no sign of the guy who had made his home there before. He had quite a setup there, with a gate, a shack, tables and chairs spread out under the bridge, with more space than most people in this city. I even considered going to interview him for the newspaper, but I couldn’t get past his attack dogs. I wonder what happened to him.

Speaking of dogs, this sign, if you couldn’t read the Chinese characters for ‘basketball’, might just as easily be interpreted as “Beware of small dogs who leap into the air and try to bite off your hands.”

There was just an announcement on the speaker concerning the little party our company is having tomorrow afternoon. It’s our anniversary party, and we are being bused over to the West Gate district to the “Sound of Music” theater for the celebrations. We are supposed to “dress in an outrageous fashion using only red and black(our company colors)”. Since I usually dress in an outrageous fashion, then, for me, dressing normally would be considered “outrageous”, wouldn’t it? I think the only article of clothing I have that is red and black, however, is a ski jacket. I don’t think they pay me quite enough to wear a ski jacket in 40-degree heat.

Management. Can’t live with ’em, can’t suffocate them with plastic bags.

Why is it lately that all the wierd stuff happens just as I am getting ready to get off work? Within the next few weeks, no doubt, I’ll be writing something like “I was just about to get off work yesterday when a giant lizard wiped out the entire accounting department with its tongue.”

I can hope, anyway.

I was about to get off work yesterday when I got a message from my friend Dean. “Uh, we’ve got a bit of a flood here, so I won’t be able to meet you for dinner,” I heard him say, the sound of a large waterfall almost drowning out the sound of his voice. This called for action, so I immediately gathered up my things and headed for Subway, where I purchased three foot-long subs. Flood-fighters need food, I reasoned. Then I headed over to Dean’s apartment.

When I got there, water was trickling out the door of the building, and there was evidence of a much larger flood. Dean’s apartment is on the 7th floor. Not daring to take the elevator even though it was still working, I navigated the waterfalls that threatened to take over the stairwell. People with incredulous looks on their faces stood at their doorways.

The apartment itself was like a mini waterpark. I had to take off my shoes and roll up my pantlegs to wade through. Water covered the floor, splashed down the stairs and coursed from the chandeliers. Eoghain’s room upstairs, including his computer, was under about a foot of water. He was the one who discovered the flood when he came home and had the presence of mind to shut off the electricity.

Apparently someone had opened up the emergency fire valve behind the large-screen TV wall, which nobody had known existed. The plumber examined the situation with a critical eye and immediately said his professional conclusion was that there was a ghost in the apartment.

We packed up and headed out it got dark and went to Buca Buca, where we met up with Brian and Nicolas, who work with Dean at the GIO. Brian proceeded to drink a long series of martinis as a live band of questionable talent but undeniable volume challenged our eardrums. Eventually word came that the water had for the most part been pumped out and the electricity restored, so Dean and Kay headed back rather than try to find a cheap hotel, as they had originally planned. I returned home and really appreciated the fact that my room is warm and dry.

If it had been my room that was flooded, I would have been on a rampage, but Dean and the others seemed to be taking it quite well. Apparently the landlord has insurance which will pay for the damage, so they’ll at least get new carpeting. If I were them, I would have a word with the ghost about paying back rent, though.

Since you’ve seen the site of my blogging from work, I figured you might also be interested in where I blog from when I am at my humble abode. This is where I am sitting right now, typing this entry. Creepy, ain’t it?

What, exactly, is the “A-list”? Is there an actual A-list, or is it some half-mythical group of people whose names are part of some secret blogging elite? Is it like Metafilter, which everyone adores but which doesn’t accept new members? I keep hearing about it but I have never seen it, sort of like the show “Sex in the City.” Can anyone tell me what is so darn-tootin’ special about the blogs which are so fortunate as to belong to this legendary ‘A-list’? Is it like the ‘A-team’, where a group of bloggers break out of a maximum security prison and blow up things to help the less fortunate as well as their own ratings? That, at least, I could believe.

Just before I got off work, my boss called me into her boss’s office and I got a good talking to. It seems that some people don’t like coming back to their cubicle to find that their cell phone, which they left on and unattended so that the entire office could listen to its unabated ringing, is lying, turned off and/or partially dissassembled, on their desk. So I said I would stop. Drat!

She also said I should stop scaring people. I don’t go out of my way to scare people, it just happens. I thought I was being professional, but apparently I am just being scary. Some people might be of the opinion that this is bad for office productivity, but I think just the opposite. They should promote me so I can scare even more people. Everyone says I should smile more, that I have a nice smile. The reason for this is that I only smile when I genuinely feel like it, so every smile is real, not faked. I can’t even bring myself to make that lips-pressed-together face people who have already seen each other several times make when they pass each other in the hallway. And this makes me scary? That, friends and neighbors, is what is truly scary.

By the way, here are pictures of where I work, the scene of much of my blogging and other antics: this is a picture of my desk at work. Whiny Woman is at the desk in front of me. Here is our building from the outside and here is the street where I have lunch every day.

I went out and took some pictures around the office and outside, but as my computer here at work doesn’t have a CD-ROM, I can’t upload the software for my camera right now. I’ll have to wait until I get home. Try not to be too dissapointed, ok? It’s not like you are stuck in an office listening to your babbling office-workers who never stop talking in their high-pitched whiny voices even for a single second and you forgot to bring any CDs to listen to, now is it? Or maybe it is, in which case you have my empathy. It’s my fault for forgetting to bring music to drown them out, though, so I can’t really complain. At least it isn’t too cold in here. There were a couple of air conditioning company guys poking around in here this morning, but apparently they haven’t figured out how to restore the igloo-like atmoshere. I suppose it could have something to do with my using superglue on the air conditioning controls, but really, it could be anything.

It is storming outside right now, the whole thunder-and-lightning, dark-clouds-and-wind-and-rain sort of thing. I do love summer thunderstorms.

I am reading through ‘A Man for all Seasons’, and I must say it is quite good. Consider this passage:

MORE: Childish.

RICH: Well, in suffering, certainly.

MORE: (Interested) Buy a man with suffering?

RICH: Impose suffering, and offer him–escape.

MORE: Oh. For a moment I thought you were being profound.

Delicious.

Is it just me or do women make a lot more noise when they inhale during laughter than men do? Or is this just a Chinese woman thing? Or maybe it’s just the women in my office?

I know, it sounds like the women in my office are driving me insane because I am some kind of misogynist, but I assure you that that is not the case. They’re driving me insane because they’re evil! No, seriously, there’s nothing wrong with inhaling loudly when one laughs. It just happens to drive me up the wall, eclipsing whatever it was that prompted the laughter in the first place.

Speaking of laughter, I have tried to use the most light-hearted sounds for my email inbox’s incoming mail alert, but whatever I choose, within a short time it comes have the same effect on me as the sound of an enemy unsheathing a scythe. I used to have an unnaturally happy blond woman’s voice saying “Excuse me!”, but I grew to hate that woman with a passion for her interruptions. Now I have Curly from the Three Stooges making the “Whoo-whoo-whoo” sound he used for filler when he forgot a line, and as hard as it is for me to hate Curly, I still cringe when I hear it. Indeed, I fear that I have robbed myself of any enjoyment I may have had from certain portions of The Three Stooges in the future. Damn this job, anyway!

I rented High Fidelity, The 13th Warrior and Dark City on DVD this weekend. High Fidelity was a bit whiny at times but on the whole a good flick that probably only John Cusack could have pulled off. Not as good as Grosse Point Blank but still entertaining.

I loved The 13th Warrior. Antonio Banderas might have been a little out of place, but it wasn’t typical Hollywood fare, despite ‘authorship’ by Michael Creighton. We were allowed to see some real development of character, and my two favorite themes are the ‘fish out of water’ and ‘road’ themes, both of which were combined in this movie. I’m sorry I missed this in the theater, because the DVD was a crappy Taiwanese pan-and-scan-and-chop version.

So, for that matter, was Dark City, but I didn’t enjoy this film much in any case. The editing was crude, the camera angles uninspired and the casting haphazard. The story was probably one of the influences for The Matrix, which isn’t a problem for me. I liked the story and some of the acting, but the movie failed to suspend my interest despite the pull of the story. Scenes were cut off too soon and badly framed, but this, I admit, could be due to the bad DVD transfer.

The weather today was strange. Half the sky was a brilliant, unfettered blue, while the other was brewing with thunderstorms. I took the MRT up to Chiyen station and climbed the hill there to take some pictures, but approaching thunder and lightning caused me to cut my hike short. I walked instead through some nearby suburbs that smelled of stale zhongzi and fresh paint. Besides the sound of one obnoxious man yelling at his wife, the place was pretty quiet.

I got on the MRT to go back to the city to buy a back-up battery for my new camera, but suddenly I felt like going somewhere I hadn’t been before. I ended up taking the blue line out to Hsinpu station in Panchiao, where it was raining. I walked around a bit but it was too much like Sanchung, so I returned. I hear that that line will reach all the way out to Tucheng, almost to Yingge, which is famous for its pottery, within the year. We’ll see.

I am still considering the part in the play. I have promised to decide within the week. I know I am not that good an actor, but it does sound like so much fun. And it scares me, which probably means I will regret it if I don’t do it. Still, Carl may yet find his Cardinal Wolsey elsewhere.

In the meantime, our wonderful three-day weekend, my respite from editing the same things over and over again, has come to a close. Tomorrow we will resume our scheduled job-related drivel. Thank you for your patience.

Just returned from Dean’s Airport-side Bar-and-Grill, where he, Carl and I gather to watch Star Trek TNG episodes every Sunday. They want me to consider playing a part in the play they are putting on, “A Man for All Seasons“. The request took me by surprise, I have to say. I am used to directing rather than being directed. Still, I enjoy the challenge of doing things that scare me. The main thing for me would be remembering that many lines and avoiding stage fright.

It is so comfortable knowing that I don’t have to go to work tomorrow, which we have off because it is Dragonboat Festival and a national holiday. Having Monday off makes Sunday so much nicer.

The camera I bought seems to work just fine…I still need to get the hang of the controls, since the manual is in Japanese and is therefore mostly useless to me. Here is one of the experimental pictures I took with it this afternoon in the park across the street. Here’s another. It has a 3x (optical) zoom, which is pretty decent for its small size. The colors are kind of strange, but I need to figure out the white balance and other aspects.