Author Archives: anzyme

Editorial: why does the iPod Touch still exist in 2019?

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Apple once again renewed the iPod Touch, four years after the previous update. Pro Apple blogs like Appleinsider welcomed the update, while more neutral ones like The Verge also said it’s a solid update. But in my opinion, the iPod Touch has no reason to exist in 2019.

The original iPod’s purpose was to have “a thousand songs in your pocket”. In the age before fast mobile network it made sense. Even after the iPhone was released in 2007, the iPod Touch was still a solid choice for those not ready to get an iPhone. I’ve witnessed many who couldn’t afford an iPhone opted for an Android phone plus an iPod Touch in order to use the apps only available in iOS. Others wanted a separate device with more storage for their own, self-ripped music.

But in 2019, the iPod Touch should cease to exist.

You see, in the March Apple event, Tim Cook announced “services” are their next big focus. Apple Music, a streaming service, which requires a constant Internet connection, has succeeded, and in some way cannabilized, iTunes Music Store. Having “a thousand songs in your pocket” is nothing nowadays. When I go jogging these days, I simply take my LTE-enabled Apple Watch and AirPods and I have a million songs on the Internet with me. I don’t mean Apple Watch is the next big thing. I mean Apple Music is (supposed to be) Apple’s next big thing. The iPod touch doesn’t have LTE, meaning it doesn’t have a constant access to the Internet, meaning it cannot fully live the spirit of Apple Music. iPod + iTunes, which were often tied together in the past in Apple’s ads or even earnings report, should cease to exist if Apple truly wants its new “services” segment to fly.

There’s one way in my opinion to make a successful iPod Touch though. Kindles all have free cellular access to the Internet (do they still?) to get new Kindle ebooks. Apple could make something like a radio set. An cellular-enabled device with free internet access for Apple Music. This concept of unlimited data confined to a certain apps isn’t unheard of. In Australia/New Zealand they have plans for unlimited social media access. In Apple’s case it could limit streaming to a low bit rate, and users could download high bit rate songs with WiFi.

But if streaming music is the main purpose of that new device, it doesn’t need to be an iPod Touch. It could be an Apple Watch with free internet access for streaming.

The conclusion? In 2019, the iPod Touch has no reason to exist.

Purpose of life

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College professor Abe Lucas was experiencing an existential crisis. He was depressed, saw no meaning in life, and drank excessively. One day, he overheard a conversation: a woman said she would lose her children in a custody battle because of an unethical judge in family court. Troubled by the injustice, Lucas decided to do the woman a favour by killing the judge. As he began planning for this murder, he got excited about this plan, and pretty much everything else in life. He rediscovered his long-lost motivation. (Irrational Man, movie, 2015)

I saw this movie a few years ago. The plot resurfaced in my thoughts recently. What’s interesting is that the man found new meanings in life from a random cause. What he did was nothing personal. He just perceived it as a selfless good deed. I don’t have a plan to commit murder, but I’d love to see what my motivation would be if I become excited about life and work again all of a sudden.

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I’ve finally got an SSL certificate for this site. No more browser BS saying this site is not secure. Yay!

Music

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I haven’t stressed enough that I love music. And I believe the music we love tells others who we really are. So from the very beginning when we decided to host a wedding banquet, I began curating a wedding playlist. Cherry and I were quite proud of the music showcased in different sessions of my wedding night, especially the music used in table toasting. The central idea was to keep the atmosphere fun and romantic. We hope we did it.

Link for full playlist. Some preview below.

What about our march-in songs? Well we were very lucky to have found some violin/cello covers of fairy tale songs that gave so much hope for everyone. Credit to these great artists.

2018

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Year 2018 was all about getting married. I’m glad after 18 months of preparation, my wedding day went mostly smooth, and more importantly, Cherry and I really got married on 30 December 2018.

I have to be grateful to my best friends’ contributions. Each of them did their part in perfection. MK and Martin were the perfect MC duo. Their interactions, mainly sarcasm, were so natural that they amazed not only me, but everyone else in the banquet. T was the best-suited person to be the IT operator. I needed not worry anything when he’s in charge of music and video playback. Eugene described himself best — he’s the money. But to me he’s more than that. He’s the missing piece. Without him I’d have to find someone else to make four groomsmen in total. So, a big thanks to everyone.

Stressful though wedding preparation was, it’s one of the most creative periods in my life. It’s like a creativity Olympics. I had to work on graphics for invitation cards, backdrop design, photo booth template and so on. I had to work on video production. I had to refresh my skills in public speaking. I had to pick the right background music. I also had to put my fashion taste to the test when I picked not only my suits, but also groomsmen’s outfit. Overall I’m quite pleased with the outcome, but it’s definitely something I wouldn’t want to try again. One more reason to avoid getting divorced.

So, in order to review the many wonderful moments on my wedding day, I’m posting some of my creative elements here, exclusively. Enjoy. And happy new year!

Nagoya (3)

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No trip is complete without some photography. I chose to visit Shirakawago and Takayama in the middle of this journey.

Shirakawago was nice. Not as nice as it would have been in winter with all the snow and the light-up festival. But I was happy there seemed to be more gweilo and HK people than mainlanders. I had a great time taking photos and flying my Mavic.

For Nagoya, sadly I couldn’t find any place photogenic. I didn’t go to the Nagoya Castle. In fact I avoid all ancient Japanese castle because they all look the same. They have the same architecture style, the same guard rivers, the same foundation stones, the same white walls, and the same green-coloured roof. Instead I went to two museums on the only full day I was in Nagoya.

One of the museums was a good surprise. After my unagi lunch at Houraiken (蓬萊軒), I saw a poster of a Doraemon exhibition in the very same building. I went to the exhibition and it was about how other artists depict Doraemon. One artist imagined what would it be like to be with Doraemon in the digital age. She showed pictures of her and Doraemon dating and taking HK girl-style selfies and posting them on social media. There was also this gorgeous big backdrop made by Takashi Murakami (村上隆). Imagine what it would be like if the same exhibition was held in HK? Well I don’t have to imagine. I’ve seen the crowd in Pixar exhibition and the anicent Egypt exhibition. You can’t properly experience art in that crowd.

When I briefly browsed around a lifestyle store, there was a corner explaining their company’s history. This company, Noritake, makes all sorts of stuff, from household utensils to electronic chips. Then I was attracted to this: porcelain dental crowns and tooth stone models. It turned out (according to them) their porcelain was so good it found its way into dental application. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the little bit of dentistry in this trip.

Nagoya (1)
Nagoya (2)

Nagoya (2)

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My blog and my Facebook/Instagram pages are about “coffee, food, photography, and a bit of dentistry”. We’ve talked about coffee in the last post. What about food in Nagoya?

Well I have to admit I’m a bit boring in this trip. Instead of looking for local delicacies (like miso soup udon and chicken wings, I just looked for nice Japanese food in general. I had sushi, unagi and sukiyaki again. I did have some Hida beef which is famous in this area. (Two meals in fact, one BBQ and one French style).

I said earlier it’s my mission to look for the best unagi restaurant in Japan. I reported that I found one in Okayama. But now I have to make a correction. The place in Okayama was best for its Shirayaki Unagi (白燒鰻魚), but for the ordinary Kabayaki Unagi (蒲燒鰻魚), I’ve found my new favourite — Houraiken (蓬萊軒) in Nagoya. I was reluctant about visiting it at first because it was famous among tourists, meaning a long queue is expected and food may just be overrated. However the truth is it’s also famous among locals and indeed over half of the queue comprised the Japanese. The unagi was crispier than other unagi I’ve tried, and the Kabayaki source was richer. And if you want to elevate your unagi experience you have to try Kimoyaki (鰻肝).

If you think that travelling is all about the surprises you encounter during the journey, I have to remind you there are both good surprises and bad surprises. The nice cafe I encountered in Takayama is for sure a good surprise, but the restaurant I’m about to mention is a bad surprise.

Determined to try something new, I booked a whole new beef restaurant to have sukiyaki all the while knowing there’s a branch of Imahan (人形町今半, the first sukiyaki I had ever) in Nagoya. That restaurant was as inhospitable as a restaurant in Japan could get. My goal was to have sukiyaki with Hida beef. I made a reservation one week ago. I arrived on time. I was seated in a table for four, which wasn’t surprising in Japan at all. I ordered a sukiyaki set (the menu said ¥xxxxx/pax). All seemed smooth. But then I was told that sukiyaki can only be ordered for two people up. What’s worse, I was later led to a smaller table because apparently they had a group of four. I eventually had to resort to BBQ Hida beef, which was still good, but the experience I got meant this restaurant will never be ranked top of my list.

[TBC]

Nagoya (1) – Food

Nagoya

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Nagoya is rated the most boring city in Japan.1

That’s what I learnt after I bought my ticket to Nagoya one month ago. Well, I didn’t expect anything in the first place. I just thought after so many Tokyo trips, I should really go to somewhere new. So, what’s Nagoya really like?

For a start, it doesn’t have nice coffee. When I do research for my trips, the first thing I’ll find is adorable cafes. While I’ve been to many good ones in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and even Sapporo, there were none I could locate in Nagoya. The best coffee I could find was in my hotel room, where I brew drip bags from Urban Coffee Roasters. The second best coffee was at Starbucks Reserve, where they serve single origin small lot coffee with their Clover machine. Well, that’s better than none.

Speaking about coffee in Japan, an honourable mention is that at 7-Eleven. It’s often said that each convenience store brand has a famous item. 7-Eleven is for its coffee; Lawson is for its fried chicken. I still haven’t found what is from Family Mart though. Let me know if you have your own favourite.

However I did go to a nice cafe that serves speciality coffee during this trip. It was when I was in Takayama, a truly remote place (judging by its lack of street light during the night). This was a real surprise because I didn’t plan the visit in advance. I just walked past that place and thought it was nice. What’s better? I was the only customer during my visit, meaning I could really enjoy a peace of mind while I was there. This is something Tokyo couldn’t offer.


Traveller Coffee House

[TBC]

1. https://www.hk01.com/即時國際/239122/名古屋再獲選為-最無魅力城市-市長無奈-不認真思考不行

Millennial fever

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I created a new iTunes Apple Music playlist called “Millennial Fever” lately. As its name suggests, it’s all about hit songs in the 2000s. More precisely, it contains songs I used to play on loop all day. Curating new playlists is one of my favourite late night activities. I got so excited as I revisited those long-forgotten songs, and I thought that would make a great car playlist.

I was wrong.

I’m not going into details about which songs I exactly picked, because some of those old favourites really embarrasses me. But it did include some usual suspects from the 2000s, like Twins, Jade Kwan, etc.. I ended up skipping lots of songs in that playlist as I drove to work. I then realized there had to be a reason songs are forgotten — maybe they really suck. Henry Ho used to say if a dental material exists, it must be of some use; otherwise it would have become obsolete. I guess this principle applies to songs too. If one doesn’t listen to a song anymore, the song really sucks.

Or maybe it doesn’t. You see, in the movie Inside Out, Ping Pong was forgotten spontaneously. Ping Pong didn’t suck. He was forgotten because Riley had new and more important memories. When Ping Pong died, his spirit lived on. He sacrificed himself so that Joy could go and save Riley. He made Joy promise she’d help him take Riley to the Moon. Old music were forgotten to make way for the new. Instead of going away all of a sudden, old tastes evolve into new, better tastes over time.

Unagi

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I came across an old Friends episode on YouTube earlier. It says there’s a concept in Karate called Unagi, which refers to having a constant awareness of danger and being prepared to fight. The episode itself was hilarious. But of course as in typical Friends fashion what Ross says is totally untrue. Instead it reminds me of something else.

https://youtu.be/jbRVoTL5djs

I don’t know Karate, but I shoot photos. In photography it is important for the photographer to be constantly prepared for the decisive moment. How? Shooting with the best camera possible is a good starting point. But as the old saying goes, the best camera is the one that’s with you. In the case of an iPhone, try shooting in RAW. The problem with iPhone’s stock camera app is that it applies noise reduction too heavily and the picture loses too much detail. Lightroom’s iOS app solved the whole problem in this case. It shoots sharp RAW files, then it allows you to edit a photo easily. As a matter of fact one of my recent Instagram uploads was shot on iPhone, and it became my instant favourite.

I shoot RAW all the time, even on the iPhone. — May 2018

But in photography the photographer’s side isn’t the whole story. The subject also needs to be constantly prepared. There’s no better example than the one and only @MartinHo. You see, we’re all used to seeing Martin’s camera face ready the moment he noticed a camera is pointing at him. It brings some inconvenience to other fellow subjects in the same photo at times, who may not be ready as fast as Martin got, but his proficiency at posing is notable.

Speaking about Unagi, it sort of became a mission for me to search for the perfect Unagi restaurant when I go to Japan. I think I found one in my trip to Okayama in February. While the Unaju there was very impressive, the most surprising dish was Shirayaki Unagi. Without the typical Kabayaki sauce the taste of the Unagi itself became more prominent. It’s not an overstatement to say the dish brought a new taste to me. I think my new mission is to find an equally impressive Unagi restaurant in Tokyo that does Shirayaki Unagi so that I can have that every time I go on my annual Tokyo trip.

Best quotes in 2017

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Two years ago I published a post called “Best quotes in 2015”. Let’s update that shit here in order to increase our word count as 2017 is coming to an end. And since I didn’t have such a post for 2016, why not putting shit said last year as well?

西方大愛左膠最愛嘅 unisex toilet，早已在香港的茶餐廳實現 — Aug 2017

想喺公立醫院住一人病房，住ICU咪得 — May 2017. Well I don’t know what are the policies at public hospitals, but I guess you can’t complain too much when you’re in one.

On second thought I’m not calling my son Pierre. I should call him James instead, so when he acts childishly, I can say “C’mon James, 可唔可以成熟少少？” — Feb 2017, when I saw bad-behaving kids at a restaurant.

Me: Perhaps you can show Isabel cartoons which promote friendship.
My sister: Is there any cartoon that doesn’t promote friendship?
— Nov 2017, me suggesting to my sister on how to boost my 3-year-old niece’s social skills.

Had Beethoven not written anything when he composed, you wouldn’t have masterpieces to perform. — Mar 2016, when commenting on @HarryMak not jotting notes as we studied MFDS.

Expert opinion is also evidence-based, even though it’s just in the lowest level of the evidence-based hierarchy. — Mar 2016, also as I prepared for MFDS.