Last weekend was spent at Zhuhai, China at a dragonboat festival that our team didn’t do too well at – but we had lots of fun! My favorite part of the weekend was the Lion Dance before the big introductions.

XKCD is a cheeky webcomic about romance, sarcasm, math and language. It reminds me of a day not too long ago when I, being the adult I am, decided that now that I was grown up I would consume Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Ice Cream for breakfast. It was very yummy while it lasted, but soon after my tummy understood why my mother never let me have such a meal.

Laura of Curious Doodles has hit Hong Kong! We’re planning to collaborate on something, perhaps another stop motion video or a series of images. Laura is in the latter portion of a long journey through India, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and soon Japan. Her main focus was learning more about Yoga as well as Eastern medicine and massage. In that regard, we’ve been inspired today by Gerhard Joren’s Urban Yoga series and gleaned a few ideas from Philippe Ramette. For tomorrow, Gideon the keyboardist for Noughts & Exes (and the Merriweather Deer) was cool and gave us his tickets to see Syd Matters and Chapelier Fou as part of Le French May. In terms of getting things moving, Wednesday will be brainstorming and Thursday looks good for bringin’ it all together through actual production. For now, Laura’s working on collecting many numbers to put together at a later time.

Portrait below by me, number photography by Laura of Curious Doodles.

And the countdown:

Evasee.com gave me my own post with a number of images I took at the Semipermanent Conference in Hong Kong.

Justin, who just recently left us made a number of brilliant graphics to begin his last blog posts. These are below:

My new living space

Will work for bone marrow

Faith and Positivity

Smart Cookie

The Plot Thickens - this last image isn't as doom and gloom as it looks. Justin was a bit humorous in that he had already come to terms with the possiblity of death, but he was really annoyed that he couldn't find his green hat.

I recently heard Stefan Sagmeister speak in Hong Kong and he said some things that were very provocative and quite fun, if not also deeply wise and just a step away from intuitive. I’ve heard most of what he had to say before in a TED talk he did a while back. He finds a lot of power in not time off alone, but sabbaticals that keep him creative. Stefan keeps a diary and makes artwork based on his realizations he calls Rules for Living.
Here is a complete list:
Rules for Living:
Helping other people helps me.
Having guts always works out for me
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
Starting a charity is surprisingly easy.
Being not truthful works against me.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Assuming is Stifling.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Keeping a diary supports personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
Worrying solves Nothing.
Complaining is silly, either act or forget.
Actually doing the things I set out to do increases my overall level of satisfaction.
Everybody thinks they are right.

See the video below for how he manifests those realizations into publicly viewable creative typography.

*What I really didn’t know before is that Stefan lived in Hong Kong in the early 90s. Seeing as he is on a quest for happiness, Hong Kong perplexes him. It’s commonly said and intellectually know that money does not make one happy, yet Hong Kong is on a never ending quest for money likely at the expense of other seemingly lesser goals.

Stefan Sagmeister interview by Simon Birch

The participants at Semipermanent were really awesome! There was Simon from Goods of Desire, speaker and filmmaker / photographer Nabil Elderkin, Tweeting up the conference was @AnjKan and we even ran into some Cosplay folks from the nearby Comic Convention. Goodtimes!

This morning is preparing for the Noughts & Exes show here in Hong Kong on March 19th as well as being excited about the Industrial Light & Magic workshop I’m attending this afternoon as part of Semipermanent.

Pictured below, violinist at Hidden Agenda at a CD-release show with Noughts & Exes.

The Creative Conference Semipermanent starts today featuriing the likes of Kayt Jones, Stefan Sagmeister and Nabil Elderkin. Check out this music video by the latter of those folks. It’s high production value over a simple yet epic song.

Just two blocks from Wan Chai MTR in Hong Kong, a new art space is opening up courtesy of the Urban Renewal Authority. It looks like a promising space as the outside wrapping (for lack of a better word) is full of artwork by Start From Zero, among other HK artists. I was attracted to this area because of the interesting use of typography in Chinese, which is unfortunately lacking in general. Enjoy this typography and a few other images shot the same night at Times Square.

word.