• Lee Teng-hui cries foul over KMT report (Taipei Times)
  Funny - perhaps it’s better to be accused of being corrupt than financially incompetent.
• ‘Kill Shih’ plot a pro-China strategem (Taipei Times)
  Political hijinks in Emerging Asia. A never-ending source of farcial entertainment.
• Self-Playing Virtuoso Violin, World’s First (Allegedly) - Gizmodo

• A Letter from ENCORE School for Strings

• Taipei Times: Morticians show off skills in contest using real corpses
  Ewww.

• JonesBlog
  A good photography blog.
• Associated Press Business News: Hong Kong’s Exports Fall 0.1 Percent
  - MSN Money
  Shameless self promotion
• Another Dell laptop ignites - Engadget
  This is kinda scary, actually - e.g. I brought my laptop home. How do I know it’s not going to spontaneously combust while I’m sleeping?
• The World’s Most Photorealistic Vector Art
  
  I guess they’ve done this for a while in Hollywood, but that you can do it on your home PC, or laptop…
• Goodwoodenship: Heroic Inebriation
  A blog of a classmate from SAIS. A superb and entertaining writer. This blog post, case in point.

In writing the previous post, and wikipedia’ing Vickram Seth, I came across this:

An Equal Music
Seth’s third novel, An Equal Music (1999), set in contemporary Europe, focuses on the lives of classical musicians and their music: so integral to the novel is the discussion by the characters of their performance repertoire (some of it very slightly obscure) that Seth successfully marketed a companion double CD containing performances of all the music referred to. Readers and critics without musical knowledge occasionally complained that Michael, the protagonist, was simply not a likeable (or unlikeable) enough character to sustain interest throughout a substantial novel and that the focus on the music for its own sake can be trying for the uninitiated. Musically knowledgeable readers, especially those who perform, were with rare exceptions unstinting in their enthusiasm and praise. Paolo Isotta, one of Italy’s most significant music critics, wrote in the influential newspaper Il Corriere della Sera of the Italian translation that no European writer had ever shown such a knowledge of European classical music, nor had any European novel before managed to convey the psychology, the technical abilities, even the human potentialities of those who practise music for a living (Silvia Albertazzi, 2005).

It reminds me of the fact, that after reading this novel, I proclaimed it to be my favorite novel, then and forever. I still list it as one of my favorites, although seven years later, I can hardly remember the plot (I must re-read it sometime soon). The parts of the quoted description that I bolded above is why the novel resonated with me to such a degree. To me, one of the key purpose of art is to reveal fundamental truths about self, humanity, and experience, in such an elegant or subtle way, that we actually learn and understand more about ourselves and our world, as our consciousness is expanded that much more. This is particularly the case when I consider the more narrative art forms, mainly novels, poems, and film.

To me, Seth’s “An Equal Music,” made more real the emotional and sub-concious passion I have for music, particularly in playing music, and illustrated to me how, what I instinctively feel when I play music, can be expressed in words. This is why, after reading this book, I bought a copy for each of my quartet members, and why I have encouraged my closest friends to read this book. And this is why I am happy that I no longer own a copy of my book - I gave it away to someone who understands me better than anyone else* and who I hope will understand me even more deeply after reading it.

* outside of family

Below is a snippit of an email I got from Amazon.com. Amazon has been innovative in developing a 1:1 personalization user experience. The example below is the usually well regarded suggestion engine, which takes the history of a person’s shopping and browsing, to make suggestions for other books. The theory is that the more targeted an advertisement is, the less annoying and more receptive a potential customer will be. And for the most part, I can vouch that it works quite well. I’ve bought several books based on suggestions from Amazon.

So imagine my surprise that Amazon is trying to push a technical manual on medical surgery, based on the fact that I’ve bought books by Vikram Seth.

…Surgery…. Vickram Seth….

If one doesn’t quite get the irony and perplexity, here’s a brief bio of Vickram Seth:

Vikram Seth (pronounced sayt), born June 20, 1952 is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children’s writer, biographer and memoirist. An unusually forthcoming writer whose published material is replete with un- or thinly-disguised details as to the personal lives of himself and his intimates related in a highly engaging narrative voice, Seth has said that he is somewhat perplexed that his readers often in consequence presume to an unwelcome degree of personal familiarity with him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Seth

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We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased books by Vikram Seth often purchased books by Roberts. For this reason you might like to know that Roberts’s newest book, Colorectal Surgery, An Issue of Surgical Clinics (The Clinics: Surgery), will be released soon.

Book Description

In this issue of the Surgical Clinics of North America, the authors explore several recent advances in the workup and treatment of patients with benign and malignant colorectal diseases. This issue begins with a review of the genetics and recently identified genetic events and pathways associated with colorectal neoplasms. This issue will examine various advances in both radiological imaging and therapeutics, as well as gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures which have in many instances replaced traditional surgical procedures. The Editors have included a discussion outlining the evidence,…

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Admittedly, this is probably not quite as out-of-left-field as it seems. Most likely is that BSD*, proud 2nd year surgery resident, used my computer one day (or more than one day) to browse, and even purchased books for school, and thus, created an erroneous association between my book tastes and BSD’s med school syllabus.

* BSD = big sister D

In lieu of writing something fresh, I’m posting up something from the past. This article on the odyssey of identity is something I started writing, but never finished. It was almost three years ago, when I was in a unique environment, studying alongside mainland Chinese classmates, in the University of Hawaii. I came across it recently, and am posting it now, as the moment is passed, and though it’s merely an preamble, it can stand on its own.
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This article is about the search for identity, and it’s going to bore you. Because, you see, the topic of identity - especially the search for identity - is something many people (most, even), just don’t really have to contend with. For most people, it’s intrinsic, intuitive, and unquestioned. A (white) American is born in America, grows up in American culture, and is “quintessentially American”. A Chinese national is born in China, grows up in China, grows up in Chinese culture, and is “quintessentially Chinese”. Any deviation is for the pure joy of discovery and exploration, and will not really challenge your fundamental identity. Quantify, qualify, slightly butress or alter, yes, however the core of your identity remains.

This is not true for me. Nor is it true probably for at least a sizeable portion of Asian-Americans like myself (not to mention Latino-Americans, Middle-Eastern-Americans, and all those other groups for whom the standard has not yet been universally set that these people are definitely part of the American fabric. Typically identity is formed throughout childhood, buttressed in the teens, and refined or evolved in college. For myself, the formation of identity took a relatively regular path through childhood - the environment my parents created for me (distinctly Asian-American) formed an identity for me, and for the most part I was comfortable because I did not differentiate my environment with those around me. As in, I did not see myself differently than those surrounding me (although being called “Chinaboy” in first grade did confuse me a bit).

However, this formation never solidified into foundation that it normally should be, for as I grew through my highschool and college years, I became more and more aware that as an Asian-American, I could not confidently call myself a generic “American”, because my experience growing up was not like others around me, but especially because I knew that I couldn’t assume that I accepted as a “generic American” by other “generic Americans” around me. Thus began my search for my identity. I resisted identifying myself as the separate distinct “Asian-American”, probably because I unconsciously doing so would create too much of a distinct separation with being a “generic American”. Ultimately I decided and declared that I was “Chinese and American” or sometimes “American and Chinese” - equal parts - both, yet neither.

As an aside, it must be admitted that everybody’s identity is a hodge-podge coglomeration of sources of identity. However, as stated above, in the normal case, there is a fundamental or core identity which is slightly altered, evolved, or qualified. My main point here is that as an Asian American, there is no such fundamental core.

Part of my daily job, is to track which opposition leader is being forced to have non-consenual intercorse by which junior opposition coalition partner:

“Ma has been raped by Soong one time. I appeal to Soong not to rape Ma again,” KMT Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said, referring to when Ma swapped his initial hesitation regarding the recall motion to become its supporter, because of pressure from pan-blue camp leaders.
Soong plan annoys some in KMT The Taipei Times

It has been my rule of thumb, to not discuss Taiwanese politics unless I am forced to, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Life has been going well, and at a swift pace. Take today, for example. Today, I pumped out four pages of research to be published from scratch (complete with clever subheadings such as “Wild Tech Swings”, and “2004 deja vu not so visible”), had a quiet lunch away from the desk, ran 7km (4.36 miles) at the gym, and still managed to eat dinner and have a beer with a friend and co-worker on the roof of the fancy-pants IFC mall. And now I’m home, a bit pumped, but probably will still manage to sleep before 1:30 to get my 7 hrs of sleep. And while today was a bit on the extreme side, it’s not that far of a stretch from normal. I’ve always had a slight tinge of workaholism, and a whiff of overachievism - I’m feeling quite content at the moment.

Now, if I could only figure out a way to pick back up the violin, amid my, working running life…

“In the latest attempt this week female Democratic Party legislator Wang Shu-hui grabbed a motion paper, put it in her mouth and started eating it.

Her actions, which prompted a melee among government and opposition lawmakers, stopped a vote on two amendments to Taiwan’s rules on government relations with China that, if passed, would have fully opened direct links. “

This is not uncommon among the hijinks that prevails in may of the region’s democracies. It’s just that the phrase, “grabbed a motion paper, put it in her mouth and started eating it” is so damn funny. I bet the journalist writing this article had a field day. I would post a link to the actual article, but it’s off of Factiva, which requires a password.

This is my first post since early January - hope everyone who may or may not read this is having a wonderful day.