Turn Right? Turn Left?

What do you see? 

Do you see the girl turning clockwise? or anti clockwise?

Answers:

A) Anti-clockwise.

B) Clockwise.

C) It becomes clockwise from anti clockwise after a while, but mostly anti-clockwise.

D) It becomes anti-clockwise from clockwise after a while, but mostly clockwise.

E) It varies from time to time, sometimes clockwise, sometimes anti-clockwise.

F) I could control it clockwise or anti-clockwise.

What’s your answer? 

Explanations: 

In fact, every one of us sees things very differently.

For those who see the girl turns in clockwise, they use their right brains more.

For those who see the girl turns in anti-clockwise, they use their left brains more.

For those who see the girls turns in  anti-clockwise, but change to clockwise suddenly, their IQs are normally higher than 160 !  (oh?!  I am one of those?!  Haha!)

It seems that this little test could reveal whether we use our left brains or right brains more frequently.  For most people, the left brain controls the languages, logic and mathematics, while the right brain controls the emotions, colours, sounds and abstract images.

The existing education systems all over the world focus on the “left brain” training too heavily and have ignored the “right brain” developments.  For the right brain developments, most people believe that come from “talent”.  We just seldom notice that it is the education system which has created such results. 

Nowadays, more and more studies have drawn and called for our attention to the importance of “right brain” developments.  More training in the art appreciation, creative thinking and emotional balance has been used to supplement the traditional language, mathematic and knowledge based education system. 

A more balanced thinking approach, resulting in a more balanced society, would be a blessing for us all.

relaxing sunday - magegoma

here is a cute cartoon created by the san-x of japan,  named as mamegoma.  this character is very popular and there are lots of toys and accessories sold in japan as well as in hong kong. 

i couldn’t stop laughing when watching this lovely comic piece, haha!

sophie’s gallery

Another pretty and lovely drawing done by my friend. 

The baby girl is “walking” much faster than her “lazy bear” toy.  Very funny!

Thanks a lot, my dear friend.  Your drawing is great!

It’s not about how good you are, it’s about how good you want to be!

Dreams and Success

Do you have dreams? 

I think most people have dreams.  We dream about our future, our success and our career, and we work towards our dreams to make our dreams come true. 

But, do we dream about ourselves?

Dreams about Ourselves 

We seldom dream about ourselves. 

Even we have some big figures and big names in our minds, like Richard Brandson, Steve Job, Bill Gates, etc., we dream about their success, but seldom dream about their personal qualities.

This is too true that every one of us could dream, but only a few of us could ever try the taste of success.  What is the magic behind all the big figures and big names? 

When talking about dreams and success, it is always the personal qualities, the characters, the inner strengths, which make the great differences, and eventually bring the success. 

So, why don’t we dream about our personal qualities and work towards it?  Why don’t we think one step forward?  Maybe it’s the trick of our everyday thinking and logic.

For our common logic  of thinking, we tend to think and try to figure out who we are, how good or how bad we are, our strengths and weaknesses, etc.  But our logic seldom draws us to think “how good we want to be? “. 

Of course knowing ourselves better and figuring our strengths and weaknesses are important for our self improvements.  It is even more important for us to think and work out “how good we want to be”, which would give us drive for improvements.

We could never be successful if we have never dreamt of our success.  We could never be a successful and admirable person if we have never dreamt about ourselves, dreamt about how good we want to be. 

Let’s start working on our dreams for ourselves today, let’s start thinking “how good we want to be”.  Very soon, I am sure that you would tell the differences.

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Related posts:

• The magic of feeling good
• The like attracks the like
• The Art of Happiness - the very advice from a great thinker
• Parable of Narcissus: the myth of falling in love
• Let go

relaxing sunday: short cartoon from Yannick Puig

Yannick, a young Spanish CG Artist, has created this lovely and imaginative cartoon piece in 2005.  I wish you enjoy it too.

sophie’s gallery

“Good Day Piggy”, Kansai, Japan, Jan 2007

The World is Flat?! My World is Cracked! Ha!

(cartoon adopted from weblogcartoon.com)

Remember one of the famous scenes in the Matrix series, that the people in the real world can’t get back to the virtual world since the “entry point” (the telephone set) is destroyed?

I had similar experience: for I had been detained in the real world these few days, trying all means to knock at evey door and still couldn’t find my “entry point” back to the internet world. 

In fact, my boardband connections had all gone wrong and I had been shut up from the internet world totally.  I havn’t been fully recovered my connections yet and my service contractor would need to come to my home to fix the problem tonight.  I hope that everything would go fine real soon. 

Let’s see how desperate I was during my “detention” in the real world:

• I was totally cut off from my businesses, couldn’t manage the websites and couldn’t respond to my clients.
• I could not align and confirm offical appointments and meetings.
• I was not able to discuss with my business partner late in the night through mails and msn as we did every night.
• I could not update my blogs nor reply to my visitors.
• I could not get connected with my friends on line and through msn.  I did not know whether they had sent me any thing or any invitation that would require my urgent attention.
• I could not get updated on what’s going on in my variuos networks and communities.
• I could not even read news on line or to search for the information I required.
• Not to mention all those transactions, personal accounts, payments, bookings, mails, etc. that are all web based and I just couldn’t manage any one of those without the connections.

For the night I found that my boardband services were out of order, the deperate me was just sitting in front of the computer and was getting to no where.  The experience was so terrible for me,  and I think you would all understand how upset I was when I learnt that it would take a few days before my services could be brought back to normal.

I have kept thinking these few days and was ashtonished by how drastic the internet world and the web 2.0 have changed our lives and our daily practices.  No matter we aware or not aware, no matter we intend or not intend, the internet world and the web 2.0 are re-shaping and re-forming our our everyday activities and practices.   I really can’t imagine how I could survive without the internet supports.

Where all the things we need and more and more activities are now web based, the Matrix world is definitely a prophet that comes true to us.

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Related posts:

sophie’s gallery

Bangkok, 2007

Omotesando Hills 表參道山

 
Omotesando Hills, Tokyo, Japan

If you have read my earlier post about the famous and stylish Japan Architect, the Ando Tadao (安藤忠雄) and his signature work “The Church of Light“, and that you find you also love the artistic work of Ando, then you should like this place where I am going to introduce to you, the Omotesando Hills.

The Development

The Omotesando Hills project is located in the Aoyama (青山) of Tokyo. 

The street of the Omotesando in the Aoyama is very pretty, the street is wide and straight, with a mild slope and with lots of green and talk trees along the two sides of the street.  The area is famous for shopping and residential (previously) in Aoyama, which is sometimes termed Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées. 

The project is designed by Tadao Ando, which contains over 130 shops and 38 apartments.  The Complex so built and designed is not a large and huge commercial building, but rather a humble and pretty building complex blending well with the surrounding environment and adopting every design concept and the philisophy of beauty of its creator, Tadao Ando.

One point about the Omotesando Hills project which worths noting is that the project has been marked by controversy, as the new built shopping arcade and the residential block has replaced the Bauhaus-inspired Dōjunkai Aoyama Apartments, which had been built in 1927 after the 1923 Kantō earthquake.  The destruction of the original and antique apartments raised questions about Japan’s interest in preserving historic buildings.

Ando writes about the historic Dojunkai Apartments and his project:

The Dojunkai Apartments were created as a part of the Great Kanto Earthquake reform plans and they were not only important cooperative housing units but also reflected the visions of the people living there and visiting the area.  How to save this vision was one of the main subjects I had to contend with in this reconstruction plan. Although restoration of the original building was physically and economically impossible, the residential apartments located on the top floors of the complex provide each resident with enough distance from the hustle and bustle of Omotesando and at the same time affords them a beautiful view of the tree-lined street. ……

I was careful to incorporate the following two subjects so that the memory of the Dojunkai Apartments would not be forgotten. First, I was careful to make sure the height of the complex was close to that of the row of Japanese zelkova trees adjacent to the complex by constructing half the complex space underground. The second was to use the slope of Omotesando Street as part of the public space of the development. The facade continues for 250 meters following the slope of Omotesando Street. Each floor is created on the gradual Omotesando slope, creating an innovative public city space. Furthermore, the rooftop is covered with greenery that integrates with the zelkova trees. What I aimed for was a ‘re-birth’ of the Dojunkai Apartments.

Tadao Ando/Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
安藤忠雄建築研究所

The Design Features & Concepts

Fair face concrete, one of the most favourite materials used by Ando, is again the main material used in the Omotesando Hills.  Clean, minimal, natural and basic, are the elements that Ando would like to inspire us through his creation.

If you are familiar with Ando’s work, when you visit the Omotesando Hills, you would immediate recognise Ando’s architectual signature: the use of simple forms, the straight lines and structure, the harmonisation with and even highlighting the beauty of the surrounding environment, the invitation of large amount of natural lights and the feeling of quiet and comfort inside the building. 

The height of the complex is carefully designed, it equals to that of the adjacent zelkova trees, creating a harmony between the complex and its surroundings.  The complex provides the visitors with an open-air feeling which blends in with the surrounding environment. 

The rooftop of the Complex is covered with trees and plants, forming a connection with the Japanese zelkova trees in the street.  The Complex in fact draws visitors’ attention to the lovely and pretty trees around and it highlights the pretty of the natural colours and forms of the trees. 

The inside of the shopping arcarde is built with a spiral slope winding around the center atrium, which evokes the gradual slope of Omotesando itself.  The inside spiral slope serves as the entry way to numerous shops that form a continuous row, as if they were street shops. The spiral form of the Slope creates a feeling of openness and provides visitors with the excitement of walking the streets of Omotesando, giving a unique feeling unlike any in the area within the complex.  It is as if the complex welcomes you with Omotesando within itself.

Let’s see another small and tricky element of Ando, using light and form: the straight lines formed by the spiral slope inside the Complex converts into a single point with natural light source.  The resulted visual effect is like many light stokes coming out from the light source.  A feeling of uplifting and spiritual is successfully created.

Another feature of Ando’s design is the “Re-birth Complex” which uses the walls of the Aoyama Apartments, to provide visitors with a look into history and nostalgia. Omotesando Hills was established not only as a new facility, but as a means to continue and pass on to the next generation the warm atmosphere and picturesque views of Omotesando.

The Shopping Arcarde

Apart from the artistic complex building, the luxury shops in the Omotesando Hills are also spectecular.   The shops and their show windows are all artistically designed and it’s really a pleasure to walk along the slope inside the shopping arcade slowly and to do some window shopping alone.  Here are some  gorgeous show windows and shop design inside the Omotesando Hills.

Although there are many new and exiciting shopping malls and arcades in Tokyo, I still keep going back and visiting the Omotesando Hills.  If you like something hip and well designed,  the Omotesando Hills is surely your cup of tea.

Omotesando Hills:

• Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Chiyoda Line, Hanzomon Line Omotesando Station Exit A2, Two min on foot.
• Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, Meiji-Jingumae Station Exit 5, Three min on foot.
• JR Yamanote Line Harajuku Station Exit Meiji-Jingu, Seven min on foot.

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Related posts:

• Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (美ら海水族館)
• Talk of Tokyo
• Light & Form

Carrie Chau - the black sheep collection

Carrie Chau, an illustration artist in Hong Kong, just finished her “Black Sheep Exhibition” at Hong Kong Times Square in the Causeway Bay.

Starting as an illustration artist, Carrie’s art work is full of decorative elements and details.  The characters in her art creation are somehow colourful, childlike and similar to the characters on stage or in a circus.  The characters maybe some metaphors to ourselves, i.e. there are always abnormal and yet pretty elements in ourselves.

In a radio programme just rolled out today, Carrie talked about art: “the teaching of art, i.e. the true, kind and beauty (”真善美” in Chinese) is important, since those are the senses of true, kind and beauty which could improve the world.”  This is the objective of Carrie’s art work, and this is the objection of her lovely characters.

Some photos from the Black Sheep Exhibition:

Carrie’s latest exhibition just ended in mid September 07, “the Black Sheep”, was very well received. 

There are some accessories and products from Carrie now being sold in various retail shops in Hong Kong.  And Carrie has opened her own shop in Central of Hong Kong, I do love visiting her shop and saying hello to her lovely characters.

If you like Carrie’s work, you may check her out at her blog: Carrie Chau’s Blog.

Some drawings from Carrie:

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Related posts:

• b. wing - a child lost in the city