色即空：空即色。

the abstraction gives birth to the instance, and the instance is exactly like the abstraction. you cannot see the instance, but you can know it is alive. you can see the form of the abstraction, but it is not alive. so which has more form, the instance or the abstraction?

just like the runtime is the program, the source code is the program, the binary is the program, but the source code is not the binary, and the binary is not the runtime.

that's why computing to me is both philosophy and engineering.

万物の
リズム読めれば
壁はなし

the easy solution to having too many icons on the desktop. use this wallpaper.

Abstraction n., 3. the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances (WordNet)

Abstraction must be the greatest achievement and sin into which the whole history of civilization has cumulated into. One professor once told me that it is the essence of computing. It must also be the motivation of mathematics. It tries to give one answer to all questions. If art were a lie that told the truth, abstraction, would be the truth that told lies.

I was listening to the BBC, they were airing a program on colour. And it made me realize that the whole spectrum of colours that we take for granted, choosing the colour of anything we like, once upon a time, were not given equal treatment, simply because, it was technically harder to make some dyes. Blue was once a big deal, cos it had few sources - indigo and lapis. Now it has become just another colour on the palette. We have drawn all the colours so close and given them equal treatment that we forget the truth behind them. We give ourselves the power to choose equally, but forgot the passion behind these choices.

Maybe you would understand better if I speak of the Internet. The Internet has abstracted the physical world, making distance inconsequential, reshaping the whole world into a different logical structure, one governed by numbers rather than by physical location. .com sites often redirect us servers in our own locality but we wouldn't care less (those manning the servers would, because less physical distance actually means less internet traffic and therefore higher overall performance for all their servers). But when main gateways (servers) in and out of the country gets hit by disaster, we start feeling the reality that sits under the 6 networking layers (network technology has a well-known OSI 7-layer abstraction that attempts to provide a platform where software can talk to one another without having to bother about physical location) that are so effective in making the world appear nearer.

So what is the problem, really? Abstraction is like specialization. It attempts to provide a common platform on which all issues within a known domain can be addressed easily. Which also means that, when it has become easy to deal with issues within a known domain, consistent exposure to a high volume of issues, alienate you from these issues, the way a worker in a diamond factory sometimes starts to forget what exactly is so great about these stones or <<insert your own analogy here>>.

Ok, put it in another way. If you have abstracted (ie, formularised) a method that can bring any group out there onto a top selling band on the music charts, it wouldn't matter anymore who the band were. Passion wouldn't matter anymore. It is simply machinery.

Yes, machinery is what we want, to get the nitty gritty details of life out of the way, so we can spend our lives doing better things. That's why Abstraction, to me is such a great achievement. It allows us not to have to think about how to extract oil to cook, walk through jungles and rough terrain when we travel, make clothes, but just be able to have the choices in front of us: what we want to have, where we want to go. But hey brother, you forgot all this nitty gritty detail shit, is life. In another words, abstraction alienates us from life itself. As much as we have decided that all these troublesome parts of life is a chore and thereafter figured out how to get over and done with it, we have also gotten rid of all these small bits of life from which we would have had the greatest chance to learn what it takes, to be happy. I think that's what fishing and evening walks are all about. Although I've never been fishing.

The "simple life" you see in movies is never so far away if you start realizing the lowest common denominator of life, and start enjoying every bit of it, like crushed nuts in a bar of chocolate. I used to hate nuts in my chocolates. But now I like them everywhere.

Well, next time you need to run an errand to wherever it is, for whatever reason, for whoever... be happy.

咲き誇り
疲れた夜は
花も寝る

In their passing,
They are always great;
As if we now understand
What mountains had burdened our dear ones that have made them
Socially incompatible with us.
We honour the moment
The news is spoken
Our lips and ears
Respecting that space of silence that follows
Allowing it to somehow summarise within us
The length of years of their rising and falling
Into a single moment of forgiveness.
We know that tomorrow,
We will be giving speeches about how great he had been
In our lives,
Now that he's gone,
And then in a few hours,
Return him to the air and the sea.

music... makes me believe that something like magic does exist. music makers are like faith healers. funny how energy waves entering your ears can make you feel relaxed and the energized. if you're looking for healing music here's my current listening tracks:

森山直太郎　 －　風待ち交差点
Mr Children - HOME

Went swimming and realised that most of the better swimmers are locals. Is it:

(1) Foreigners think swimming as a past-time instead of a sport so more foreigners who don't really swim visit the pool than locals who think swimming is a sport?

(2) Locals really made full use of the swimming facilities and thus more locals can swim than foreigners?

(3) Locals who don't really swim have better things to do than soaking in water?

(4) There are just more locals than foreigners who go to the pool anyway?

eddie is not a collection of habits;
   more like a philosophy.
but eddie is not a philosophy;
   more like a framework of thought that can hold philosophy.
but eddie is then again not just one framework;
   but more like a collection of frameworks holding together thoughts that almost disagree and thoughts that disagree.
but eddie is not really, a framework;
   but also all the varied bits of thoughts scattered all over that give form to this framework.
but eddie cannot be just a collection of thoughts;
   but the invisible laws that make sense of all their apparant randomness.
but eddie is not just a set of laws;
   but a set of laws so much part of being that it's almost habit.

But eddie is not a collection of habits. oops.
Let's try this again.

Starbucks Beijing
Starbucks KL
Starbucks Yokohama
Starbucks Hong Kong
Starbucks Singapore
Starbucks Osaka

そして、今日Starbucks Dalian。

と考えると、心強い。同じ値段すら払ったら、同じ環境、同じサービス、同じ味、同じ落ち着きが味わえる。でもよ～く考えると、アジアばかりやけど、こんな時はアメリカに感謝したくなる。アメリカの極力なコーヒーカルチャーの世界への進出は、まるで国際人的生活そのものだ。アメリカ文化＝国際文化とは考えたくないけど、今日はStarbucksがあってよかった。

Once upon a time when Malaysia money was as big as Singapore money...

大当たり
イカなるうまみ
冬の味

仕事後大阪の同僚と事務所の近所でおいしそうなところをさがして、とりあえずここに入ろうと思ってたどころか、大当たりで、凄くおいしかった。普段口に入れたら吐きそうになるイカも想像できなかったほどおいしく、たくさんいただきました。寒くて忙しかった冬の出張の最中こんな味と出会えて、いくら頑張ってもかまわない程に幸せだった。

Suddenly, at twenty eight,
I have seven days to turning twenty-nine
And I have been in Asia and going to all the same places
I have seen so little of the world.

Suddenly at twenty eight,
My parents seem to have decided to age
Mum looks much older, so suddenly,
Was it because I made her worry too much last year?

Suddenly at twenty-eight,
I realise I don't make enough for retirement
And have no idea how people manage to save so much
They can stop working at sixty.

Suddenly at twenty-eight,
I wonder when I can step out of this country
Into that country I had been wanting to live in _
from the time I was a child
And I wonder if everyone will be alright when I leave them behind.

Suddenly at twenty-eight,
I realise how time is running out everyday
I ought to be giving myself more truly to my God
But I still can't seem to get sorted out.

Suddenly at twenty-eight,
I realise again I don't hold the future in my hands
I still dream
And everyday still feels as endless as school.

Suddenly at twenty-eight,
I could just die too,
But I don't know which would rest me better,
Leaving those I leave behind having them
Having had or not having had enough of me.

Suddenly at twenty-eight,
I don't want to turn twenty-nine,
But nothing in this world can stand forever,
And no, I shan't be left behind and still be writing this next year.

food for the body, the body for the sport, the sport for the mind, the mind for the art of life...

or did you get it the other way round?

修行は何のためですか？

と、一度剣道の先生に聞いた。しかし返された答えは、「修行のためです」だけ。そんな回答に満足できるはずもなく、ずっと気になっていた。今の僕にはわかった。これが修行の真意です：

　　ありのままの人生のすべたは、修行でありながら、
　　　　　　あらゆるの修行は、おもいがままの人生が過ごせるようになるためである。

これは無意味な循環ではない。「おもいがまま」の人生は、もし手に入れられても、ずっと続けられるものではない。何かの成功を収めれば、その後も同じように成功していくのはああいう簡単な事ではない。人間的に進化しなければ、何かを身につけなければ、できない。一回目の成功は、多分努力次第ですが、次々との成功なら、「自然体」の磨きが必要だ。成功なら、成功しかできない自然体を身につける必要がある。そしてその「自然体」を磨くのは、まさに修行である。

一年以上かけて水泳の一大成果です。泳ぐとき、スムーズに進みたければ、綺麗な姿勢が必要です。しかし、その綺麗な姿勢を身につけるには、日頃泳ぐとき、必死に綺麗な姿勢を保ちながら泳ぐトレーニングが必要です。

もう一つの意味がある。それは、人生は決してすべてを予想できる直線のような方程式ではない。しかし、その予想の付かない人生を、生きたいように生きていくには、なにかの力が必要です。どんなときにも、生きたいように生きられる力は、それは上記の「自然体」の強さです。

あなたの自然体を、どこまで維持できますか？

i think american/singapore/wadeva idol sucks.

the truth is that the media moulds us as much as we make the media. and if we put bitches on TV, that's what our children will become. is that what we really want?

we all know that everything on tv is make-believe. yes, it is true that the recording music world is full of bitches and the road to success is arduous and bitter, but isn't trying to duplicate that on the screen a little too simplistic? it's the same thing what all the survival/reality shows are doing. make-believe. so you can't succeed out there. so let's give you a chance to belive that you can make it here. ok, sure, some do make it. but at what price?

i think we have enough bitches around. and i don't think i want our future generation to be some low-class bitch that only knows how to critisize people in front of them. they've gotta learn some humility, some patience, some forgiveness. true, sometimes, some people just need some truth shouted in their face for them to improve. but most people, for most of the time, just need someone to encourge them, and to believe that they can make it - and if you believe in them enough, many of them do.

american tv sucks.

今日は大変幸せだった。散歩ができて、幸せだった。

僕にとっての幸せはね、大変簡単なものだ。簡単すぎたかもしれない。それは、風の効くいい天気に、ＭＰ３の入った携帯、一人での散歩。音楽のリズムと風の涼しさと僕のリズムと周りの景色や音のリズムが重なり合うとき、なんだか映画みたいに美しく、それだけ感じたら、僕はつい笑ってしまう。一人でいてもそんなに幸せなんて、想像できないでしょう。いいえ、これは一人でできる幸せではない。音楽を作った人たち、仕事が順調に進んでいるように支えてくれた人たち、町を作った人たちも、その幸せの為に努力してくれた。でも、こんな幸せを感じるには、一人にいて、周りのことをいちいち気づくのが大切なんだ。

そう、気づけば、一人で雨を見るだけでも十分に幸せだ。複雑なことではないけど、簡単すぎて、おそらくできない人もいるでしょう。でも僕にとって、人生の一番幸せな時は、そういうようにすごせた時間だった。別に人と付き合うのがいやではないけど、僕にとって、人といる時間より、自分でいる時間の方が大切、かな。

Sitting here by the window
With the company of the sound of the rain
There must be something about this moment that makes it feel
Like poetry
Without having to break lines
Without rhyme or meter.
It must be how simple it all is
That has made it a little profound.
When i lean my cheek to the window grill,
I can feel the breeze brushing by.
I don't know how else to put it,
But for this moment, everything feels complete,
Like the rain, the breeze and i were all that existed
And we were each a stanza in a poem,
Conversing.