Hotpot

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The first night we were going to meet friends for dinner, but we went out for a short walk and had a snack. We found a local food chain.

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We waited in the hotel lobby where there was an example of a beautifully carved eagle from one piece of wood. It wasn’t too long after that our friends turned up to take us for hot pot.

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In fact we did not go to a hot pot restaurant straight away but back to our friends house to enjoy tea drinking as in this part of china, drinking tea is a big custom.

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Tried as I may I could not appreciate the full quality of tea drinking at its best as I was only used to drinking blended Indian teas.

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We went to a local hotpot, very different to Beijing hotpot. Much more moorish.

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we stopped at the local hotel bar for a few nightcaps, some B52’s which went down a great treat before hitting the sack for a good nights sleep.

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the breakfast bar was busier than expected and most of the waitresses were dressed in Santaclause outfits. Christmas spirit may be more commercial here in the sense that its put on to show how international an organisation the hotel actually is than how it is a part of local custom festivities.

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The weather was fantastic and had got better than when we first arrived. We found a local park whilst we were out walking. The town is quite modern and there is not much in terms of local relics or heritage to go and see but we will

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we did find a local ikea store, a rather small one but it was worth taking a picture hahahahaha. we got to the local harbour which was mainly freight shipping industry but there were local people selling shrimp, crab and lobsters freshly caught within the hour.

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We went to our friends in the evening for local cuisines, it was a great night and would have been even better if their little dog had given up on the idea that my leg was highly desirable and was available for sex. I literally spent most of the evening trying to shake him off hahahahaha

Shantou

Shantou - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Website http://www.shantou.gov.cn/

Shantou (simplified Chinese: 汕头; traditional Chinese: 汕頭; pinyin: Shàntóu; POJ: Sòaⁿ-thâu; also historically known as Swátōw or Suátao) is a city of 4,971,000 permanent inhabitants (as at end 2006) in coastal Eastern Guangdong, China, occupying an area of 2,064 km2. With it and the immediately surrounding cities of Jieyang and Chaozhou, the metropolitan region – known as Chaoshan – covers an area of 10,404 km2, and had a permanent population of 13,139,800 at the end of 2006.

Well today we leave Beijing to fly to Shantou, it'll take us about 3 hours to get there. Shantou is not far from Guanzhou, also known as chocolate city because of the number of people from Africa who go there for business as the city was one of the first areas to be opened to the west for trading.

For us foreigners all Chinese are from China but as Chinese know that China is made up from differing ethnic minorities, Teochew and Hakka are the indigeonous population and whilst most speak a local dialect. They all speak the national dialect of Mandarin

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Sanlitun

Sanlitun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sanlitun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Sanlitun (simplified Chinese: 三里屯; traditional Chinese: 三里屯; pinyin: Sānlǐtún) is an area of the Chaoyang District, Beijing containing many popular bar streets and international stores.

The area has been under almost constant regeneration since the late 20th century as part of a city-wide project of economic regrowth. It currently houses many bars and clubs popular with both expatriates and locals as well as international band-name stores such as American Apparel, Apple and Adidas. It is notable for housing the largest Adidas store in the world. The Ya Show (雅秀) market is also in the area, a popular destination for tourists wishing to buy counterfeit clothes. His

Prior to 1949, the Beijing Legation Quarter was the center of diplomatic activity in the capital. After the foundation of the People's Republic of China, the government wanted to move the diplomatic district outside the inner city. Sanlitun was chosen as the area where foreign legations and embassies were to be reallocated in the late 1950s. The area was called Sanlitun to designate its location from Dongzhimen gate (东直门). With tun meaning 'locality', san li meaning 'three li' (a li is 0.5 km), the name translates as 1.5 km away (from Dongzhimen Gate).

Sanlitun's began to grow when, along with the economic reforms of the late 1970s and early 1980s, bars serving expatriates and later locals began to open. International hotels hosted the first bars, but in the 1990s, standalone establishments appeared.

A small lane known as Nan Jie was demolished in the summer of 2005 to make way for new buildings. However, bars and restaurants continue to operate on both sides of Gongti Bei Lu.

The Village and Nali Mall shopping areas opened in early 2008, giving the area many new shops, restaurants, bars and a multiplex cinema.

In April 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics and as part of an ongoing operation to clean up the city, a major drug bust occurred in Sanlitun and many arrests were made. A total of four bars and clubs were effectively closed, including a notorious bar known for its cheap alcohol and availability of drugs. The police operation was widely criticized for its violence and absence of proper due process. A number of drug dealers as well as a barman are believed to have received the death penalty as a result of this operation.

I love shopping in Sanlitun, we have nothing like it in the UK, it has an amazing post modern architecture, something completely different and totally artistic.

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Been a long time

Blog writing tools like Scribefire is something I have been waiting for for a long time. As I have wanted something that would allow me to write what I needed and wanted to write and then let me post up to a website of my choice eg my blog, but not just at the one which I have on the Microsoft website but at any other website. This is important as being in China and having the firewall over there block access to social networking sites makes life really difficult to keep everything uptodate.




Scribefire features

Some interesting features;

• There’s no need to log on to the admin interface in WordPress or
  whatever blog software is used.
• Multiple blogs are
  supported.
• Posts can be authored and saved offline to
  be submitted later
• In split screen mode, it’s possible
  to write a post at the same
  time as browsing the web.
• Partnered with InLinks.com
  to monetization your blog.

I love writing short stories and poetry and now using this tool I can get back to doing what I love the most. Having social writing tools like scribefire and zementa as well as many others is fantastic. I did have zemanta working with scribefire but then upgraded zemanta and lost the inter-connectivity between the two and I really miss it. Oh it does work and its fantastic, there's a little button on the tool bar that was not obvious hahahahahaahaha

Features of Zemanta are:

• On the fly contextual suggestions of related articles, images,
  links and tags;
• Affiliate linking support;
• Re-blogging – cross-platform quoting for blogs;
• Spam-free database of 10000 news sources and blogs;
• Copyright filtering of suggested images.

• Zemanta
  Homepage
• Zemanta for Firefox

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Avatar

Avatar (2009) - Release dates

Absolute awesome film and I cannot wait for it to come out. So it's a damns shame I will be in China and there's no release date for China?


Avatar (2009) - Synopsis

The storys protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a former Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. Jake is selected to participate in the Avatar program, which will enable him to walk. Jake travels to Pandora, a lush jungle-covered extraterrestrial moon filled with incredible life forms, some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also home to the Navi, a sentient humanoid race that are more physically capable than humans, although considered primitive. Standing three meters tall, with tails and sparkling blue skin, the Navi live in harmony with their unspoiled world. As humans encroach deeper into Pandora's forests in search of valuable minerals, the Navi unleash their formidable warrior abilities to defend their threatened existence. Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Navi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies that are controlled by a human "driver" through a technology that links the driver's mind to their Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Sent deep into Pandora's jungles as a scout for the soldiers that will follow, Jake encounters many of Pandora's beauties and dangers. There he meets a young Navi female, Neytiri, whose beauty is only matched by her ferocity in battle. Over time, Jake integrates himself into Neytiri's clan, and begins to fall in love with her. As a result, Jake finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Navi, forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world. [D-Man2010]

Avatar is set during the 22nd century on a small moon called Pandora, which orbits a gas giant, and is inhabited by the tribal Na'vi, ten foot blue humanoids that are peaceful unless attacked. Humans cannot breathe Pandoran air, so they genetically engineer human/Na'vi hybrids known as Avatars that can be controlled via a mental link. A paralyzed Marine named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) volunteers to exist as an Avatar on Pandora, falling in love with a Na'vi princess and becoming caught up in the conflict between her people and the human military that is consuming their world.

Avatar Movie Trailer [HD]

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Manga at the British Museum

British Museum - Search results

Manga

A press release about the exhibition Manga: Professor Munakata’s British Museum adventure. On display at the British Museum from 5 November 2009 - 3 January 2010.
Manga events

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What makes manga

A gallery talk at the British Museum on Wednesday 2 December at 13.15. Free, just drop in.
How and why manga work

A gallery talk at the British Museum on Friday 18 December at 13.15. Free, just drop in.
Manga create a comic workshop

A workshop at the British Museum on Saturday 12 December at 12.30, 14.00 and 15.30. Free, booking required.
Manga create a comic

A free family workshop at the British Museum on Saturday 2 January.
An introduction to the works of manga master Hoshino Yukinobu

A free lunchtime gallery talk at the British Museum on Tuesday 10 November at 13.15. Just drop in. Related to the Manga display in Room 3.
From Hokkaido to Infinity: the manga of Yukinobu Hoshino

A free lunchtime gallery talk at the British Museum on Saturday 21 November at 13.15. Just drop in. Related to the Manga display in Room 3.
Manga: Professor Munakata’s British Museum adventure

Come and see an exclusive new manga by Hoshino Yukinobu at the British Museum. A free exhibition from 5 November - 3 January 2010.
The connection between Ukiyo-e (Japanese traditional wood cut printings) and Manga

A free lunchtime gallery talk at the British Museum on Saturday 14 November at 13.15. Just drop in. Related to the Manga display in Room 3.
Shop products

A wide selection of souvenirs, gifts and books inspired by the British Museum collection

More shop products

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Use Case scenarios

“Use cases” and “user scenarios” explained » Technical Editors’ Eyrie » “Use cases” and “user scenarios” explained how does this relate to animation as there is not a system for users to interact with to measure the 'user experience' with the system. Unless the system itself is the animation then in that case the closes process we have to an event driven system would be the

• storyboard
• sound file
• script
• animatic

please advise me on this

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Storyboading

Storyboarding for my current module was not or is not difficult but I wish I could pump out the drawings more quickly. Not having spent much time in my spare time drawing. I am not a total novice nor am I a professional. The best part about doing the storyboard is that having a visual narrative really helps to develop an emtional feel for the content of the short movie. Basically it is a form or prototyping that takes the testing of the animation a bit further before more time is committed to developing the animation.

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Usability studies and social networking

Streams, Walls, and Feeds: Distributing Content Through Social Networks and RSS (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) In my search for a quick understanding to usability studies I came across this piece of information and information dissemination study by Yacob Nielsen. Which basically that said social and professional networking worked because of The three great motivators are fear, greed, and exclusivity, and social network postings can address the latter two. Users were particularly interested in getting deals (greed). Yet, while users recognize that corporate postings are commercial — rather than friendship-driven — they do resist overly aggressive selling. Finding the proper balance is crucial.

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Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet

Bamboo Fun

For the first time I am using my

Image via Wikipedia

wacom bamboo pen tablet to creat my story boards. the pen is so intuitive that it feels like a natural pen and encourages me to draw rather to try escape drawing.