Selfridges’ Xmas Window Decoration 2013
When it is a Christmas time, there always the special window
decoration of Selfridges is. = It is a long established tradition.
And what sort of theme the decoration this year has, was
the interest of the people. —– It’s always a kind of children’s
fantasy though, it’s attracts as many as grown-ups too.
But this year’s decoration is not from any book or story —– quite
products orientated design = snow scape around the product.
So, the girly doll to audio gizmo.
Fashion(?) shoes to sports shoes.
—– Sports wear or toys ? —– and of cause, they sells pants too. 😀
So, the handbag ! —– I have no idea what is a connection
between expensive bag to a snowy mountain.
Neither I have an idea what the Selfridge to do with
glittering naked woman. 😀
So, I couldn’t find whether it was children’s dream or adult’s dream.
Or, executive’s speculation = effect of Xmas campaign ! ? 😀
(Shot by Canon 5D Mk-III, Fisheye Zoom 8~15mm F4)
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Party Time
On the London Underground I encountered very very colorful
bunch of the people. They said they are on the way to “a kind of Party”
—– later, I found, they are in fact the Government officers !
(Do you noticed, they are wearing 007 type very special glove ?
It might be for Golfing Gold finger’s)
I guess, it may not be a special disguise for a rather elaborated
intelligence operation but more like for a chemical-physiological
assessment project to find a toxicity of the liquid substance.
—– anyhow, to avoid me to become a hacking subject of GCHQ,
I shouldn’t go into too much details.
I wish them having had a very GOOD time
and safely returned to their home now. 🙂
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Black Friday
Everybody knows what Black Friday is. —– So what ?
It doesn’t necessary mean “Everybody became shopping crazy.
But obviously it made Co. to became AD crazy. I don’t mind to
see a kind of business deal ADed by even tech’review site as I
might buy it.
Though, such as Amazon sending me 2 AD / day is too much.
[]
They are funny Co. = on the beginning I bought
Compact flush Memory Card from them as it is becoming
hard to come by item in the shop. —–> from this, to make
connexions to Cameras , Tech’item etc was obvious and I didn’t
mind to see what they got once in few days.
Then “very funny things” happened. When I attempted to buy
Canon type Lithium Battery to other use, not only to enter
Credit-card data etc. but they asked me to type “Promotional Code”
of which I have no idea = hence shopping was abandoned.
(I gave an inquiry “What is Promotional Code ?” to them. 🙂 )
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And this data (my inquiry) has been sold by Amazon or the mail had
been hacked —–> I started to receive offers from VaucherCode Co.
And Amazon’s started to send me more and more ADs. ==> My
Patience has run-out. With a setting of Filter, all of those PESTS were
now blocked and goes to bin straight without me ever know it.
I don’t think I need to use Buddhist’s word “Middle-way”
= Gone too far doesn’t work. I can’t understand, are they such idiot ?
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Fruits Fly
It seems different people call different Fruits Fly though, I’m talking
about very small common Fruits Fly in England. While Googling, I
found that the others are having the same problem of Fruits Fly.
——( Dead Fruits Flies I found, and they were photographed by Nikkor 24mm F2 lens,
Reverse-mounted with extension-ring on Canon 5D Mk-III — as a X5 Macro-close-up)
—– they suddenly appear in mass and start to pest the place.
Of cause, I wouldn’t believe that they naturally generated —– there
must be somewhere something nursing them. But what was that ?
I certainly don’t have rotten fruits or cow-dung dropped in my room.
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When I was in my junior school, there was a kind of out of course
biology project = To receive a bottle of fruits fly and keep them in
a warm condition. Then next week, 10 of the pupil brought back
each bottle and counted the number of hatched fly — how many of
them had black eyes etc. Actuary, we were assisting the researcher’s
study (without understanding what for we are doing. :-D)
Anyhow, still we learned how to nurse Fruits Fly with a gluey
yeast-starch mix and to see them hatch less than 10 days.
= It’s mean, when one female came into the room and laid the eggs,
a week to 10 days later, suddenly the room would have 100 of them
flying around.
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While observing where they are frocking, I realized that the fruits
skin peel etc anything sweet and wet in the bin is attracting them.
On top of those, I discovered that quite number of them penetrated
the polythene bag of Raisin loaf through small gap = they must have
laid hundreds of the eggs on the raisin. = If I didn’t notice, I could
have eaten plenty protein as well. (That was how the Essential
Amino-acid was delivered to the “Strict Vegetarian” 🙂 )
—– then battle commence. Since then, any wet or not completely
dry rubbish, mostly fruits peel kind were lapped-up in polythene bag
and goes to the bin and any soft food goes either fridge or plastic
container with lid. I needed to make my room as dessicated and futile
as a desert, making them to convince “It’s better to go somewhere else”.
( I did composting before though, I have no garden of compost to go,
and it’s bin itself became a center of unpleasant insects, fly etc
= So, I gave up the idea.)
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So that, in reality, to have an ecological, naturally harmonious life =
“Happily Live Together with other small Lives” is = sound sweet but
not practical or ideal at all. In fact nothing but a pretentious fraud.
We shouldn’t forget “To keep hygienic, clean life” is no other than
the practice to persecute against the pests and the germs.
The Bottle-fly or Cockroach are just having their own life that all.
Even AIDS virus is surely the other life-form. They only happen to
cross over the boundary to the human life and created the conflict.
—– People expecting a beautiful Butterfly just fly over their flowers,
still never anticipates their larvae could infest their plant in their
garden. —– if they saw it, certainly 99% of them will kill it.
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It easy to make-up a softy face and preach love and compassion kind
—– Oh ! Really ?
= Better not to be a filthy hypocrite. I rather stay to be a honest tyrant,
killing millions of grains and beans every year, on top of billions of
other invisible small creatures and the germs for my comfort and the
survival. —– To know the real extent, how we are relying on the sacrifice
of other life-form = Exact reality of the Karma, not a convenient pretty
story to justify and glorify ourselves, is the duty to be a real Buddhist.
Scripture spent so many pages to explain about the Oneness (Ichijo —
such as that “Giving, even without having a conscious of giving” ==>
having pretentious mind is too remote from the Buddhism.)
We need to see and think it in person.
___/\___
PS: Since when my flat was made a desert, they just disappeared
and I only managed to find two dead bodies —– Where had they gone ?
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Fancy Vinegar Flask ! ——- ? ? ?
Week ago I’ve bought rather fancy item from Lidl shop.
I don’t know the name which the receipt said Geschenkset. = Anyhow
this is a Glass Flask to serve Vinegar and Olive-oil on the dining table.
They were sold as a gift set (for a Xmas ?) —– Olive-oil and a Vinegar
together with a glass flask for £7.99 !
In fact, I was not interested in to
buy Olive-oil nor Vinegar, but
fascinated by the design of
glass which I can use it to
design strange sculpture kind.
Though, watching this many
days, I still couldn’t figure out
“How to make this” —– how a
Glass Craftsman made this !
Simplified description is, “Small glass flask inside of larger flask”
though, it is an utter puzzle to me = How it was made ? —— through a
hole of large flask, inserts a glass pipe with melted glass on the tip-end
and blow it up to make a small flask inside, and weld two together on
the edge of the hole —– though, as the photo above showed, the neck of
the small flask is not an one-piece straight pipe = inside small flask was
made separately and the outside pipe was welded later. But how ? ? ?
= If anybody who is reading this knows about the way to make,
please put a comment “How it was done” !
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Autumn Color
I popped out to the Greenwich with my friend who just bought DSLR this week
for a sort of photo session. He has been watching YouTube Tuitorial viz kind of
“How to make a good photo” and “How to use DSLR”, though, they are still a
theory or knowledge. = Same as a Buddhist’s idea, it takes enough practice to
sink into a level of spontaneity. = Look into view-finder and see the Matter is
such as That “Depth of Field” what a viz told him. —– Anticipate, if the depth
changed what would be looks like then. —– Then own control starts.
Anyone can learn good composition / framing from the sample “To make Post Card
like scene to Post Card like Picture” though, to make “Nothing Special image to
Interesting Photo” need to have a good photographic talent. —– Exaggerate or
enhance the color would make a photo something looks nice though, its saturated
color gives irritation to the eyes too. = Here is the “Middle way” = the level of
saturation which our brain thinks !!! is always too much to our subconscious, since
our subconscious follow what is natural. (Photos here are over saturated 🙂 )
Are you convinced ? —– Take Middle way.
(Looks unusual doesn’t necessary mean Special.
= in most of the case, it is just odd. 🙂
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Buddha’s Hesitation
Regardless, whether it showed real historical facts or not, still a kind of life history of
Lord Buddha has been well established and well known. = So, everybody knows his young
name, Siddhartha Gautama and a story, after he got his enlightenment, he became Buddha.
—– But, how about a story, that after he found the truth and reached to his enlightenment,
yet he said to have hesitated whether should he tell what he found to the others or just
remain quiet and wait to see own Nirvana, because the truth what he found was
too difficult to make others to understand.
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But the supreme God of the Universe, Brahman was frightened of this, if
Lord Buddha keeps the secret of Truth in him and takes it to his grave, the man kind will
loose only the chance to learn it to save whole man kind from their sufferings, for ever.
(—– Don’t ask me how Brahman did become aware of this —– If Brahman had such
Super natural power to know everything happening in the world, why he didn’t teach
such wisdom to the man, instead to bother the idea of yet another mortals.)
—– Anyhow, Brahman said to have come and begged to
Lord Buddha to teach the truth. —– So, what was that very Truth ? ? ?
(which would save the man, though too difficult to be understood by the man.)
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Many hundreds years after
Lord Buddha’s death, the new trend of Mahayana Buddhism created thousands of
enlightened Buddha and Bodhisattva —- during 2000 years history, they must be hundreds
of the thousands altogether. If there are such number of the enlightened Buddha and
Bodhisattva, among them, at least some of them must had a very bright brain and clearly
aware what made him to get enlightened —– So, has any of them ever elucidated what the
supreme truth was —– Yet still, there was NON at all.
Only something related to this was, that the Zen Masters found it was the Dog Shit.
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Mahayana Scriptures says, the supreme wisdom is
“Panya-Paramita” “Anutra Samyak-SamBodhi” —– So, What ?
= WAS this “Supreme wisdom” the one which gave a headache to
Lord Buddha for how to explain and make others to understand ? If so, did any
one of those mass-produced Buddha ever got eternal life thanks to this secret Truth ?
Or this wisdom ever made any country free from the war ? Nothing !
No such wisdom, called Panya-Paramita had substance.
(Don’t make an excuse, by yet another Heaven’s story such as “Maitreya will tell it in future” )
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Looking through all the teachings in the Buddhism, there is No super-natural mambo-jumbo.
= Everything is easily comprehendable to normal brain, if not some of them are a bit harsh
or not very easy to keep-up, still, it is hard to imagine if there was any
“Hard to comprehend enigmatic issue” was ever existed on top of those,
especially considering that No abstracts or Metaphysical illusion was in the
Lord Buddha’s teachings —– BUT if it was the notion of Selflessness, it was not only against
the common belief then, but also it would be very tricky matter to explain therefore, this
trickiness would best match the trouble as a possibility, in his starting point.
Assuming, —– if it was not a kind of fancy idea with magical power,
but simply the notion of Selflessness.
—– The idea of Selflessness would make a perfect answer to the problem which the people
had been facing then. = Their fear to be trapped in the endless cycle of death and rebirth.
(= It was a belief of New religion in the Brahmanism then = Hinduism now.)
Against this, the answer of “There couldn’t be such rebirth, because there is
NO soul or the Self remain after the death, which
could reincarnate to the next life” was a perfect explanation. ——– But the trouble to
Lord Buddha was, as the Self isn’t existing, there couldn’t be its notion, nor the word “Self”
= He couldn’t explain the phenomenon of the Selflessness without using the word “Self”.
(If he use the word “Self”, in effect it was the recognition of the existence of the “Self”).
Even worse, the phenomenon of the Selflessness is, not only in the depth of
Subconsciousness, but such notion or the word Subconsciousness itself wasn’t existing then.
—– until he found the way “Just let the people DO the things where Selflessness naturally
occur, which makes them to learn it by themselves, without needs of verbal explanation”
= So, with this solution,
Lord Buddha started to teach. = (Therefore, this was the origin of all the Buddhist’s
tradition such as “Selflessness” “Without thinking = Mushin”
“Without Word = but Direct Transmission” “Learn through the Practice”)
Lord Buddha didn’t need to have a push from Brahman to start his teachings in deed !
(Still, making-up of such fancy story highlights the fact, that the original teachings has
been completely mixed-up with Hinduism then.)
___/\___
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Cat’s Story / Haori-chan
When the time to give a birth came, the pregnant Mother-cat come and rub her head and body
against my leg. That is their expression of “I beg you” —– I spread a bath towel on the sofa
and lightly give a massage to her tummy. Then she start to push out the kitten next by next.
So, I take each kitten to her face for her to lick the new-born.
But some time (1 in 5~6), a still-born kitten came out. Once, there was a very hard deliver of
over-grown kitten. Only the head came out, I knew the trouble, and I pulled it hard.
When the whole body came out, the Mother-cat screamed.
That kitten was pretty big —- may be over 400g but I couldn’t save him.
Among the 3rd litter, Haori (of cause, named later) was the most miserable kitten.
In fact, she was yet another (almost) still born. I just took minuscule odds and revived her.
= As in the most of the case, kitten seemed to have drowned by the amniotic fluid, I shook
the body, head down to drain the water, and insert a small paper stick made out of toilet
tissue to the nose of kitten, for sucking out the water further. And massage the body in
a warm water while blowing the air into the nose several times. —– in minute or two, three,
the kitten started to move. = Voila’ one life was saved.
(— Sound, and looks may awful treatment though, I’m not intended to play “Tender Buddhist
posture”, —– if the matter was to drain the water, I needed to use centrifugal force, hence
shake the kitten’s body in Karate speed —– To drain the water from a drowned human by
putting the hand into the throat, it neither be a nice picture, nor revive a person in hypothermia
in the mountain, it is more of the battle field operation than a “hart warming tender story” =
What-so-ever, my practice was very effective and altogether 4 out of 6 kittens has been saved =
this is the fact.
Life is not for talking an imaginary sweet story, but just go through hard act. Just Do.
Revived though, Haori was still the smallest and weakest, hence couldn’t compete with other
5 kittens on the milk-sucking battle. I’ve tried as many times as possible, by taking other
stronger kittens off from tits and gave it to Haori, still, it was not enough, and needed to give
her supplement but, ordinary cow’s milk caused her diarrhoea and needed to buy special
“Kitten formulated Milk”.
On top of those trouble her eyes had infection and having eye-glue stacked on her eye lids.
When Mother-cat try to clean her eyes, she chew-off the dried eye-glue, but in the same time
her whiskers had been chewed-off as well.
(Poor Haori-chan, photo left ! / Photo right, Haori and Pino)
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A month past, when all the kittens started to change to the solid food, I trained Haori to eat
Kitten-milk-powder mixed with cream-cheese. Then cheese mixed with cat’s food but Haori
refused to eat cat’s food. —– (One theory said, that the baby (kitten) acquired the taste
(= what to eat) through the minute chemical in the Mother’s milk —– like Haori, who couldn’t
have enough milk from the Mother, hadn’t developed the taste for cat’s food.) Therefore, I
had to feed her frozen Coley Fish (lightly boiled) mixed with cheese. —– sound very special
treatment though, nothing special to Haori herself. It was her norm and she just grown-up
to an ordinary cat. (She didn’t grow Golden Fleece. 🙂 )
She behaved more or less the same to other cat but not so interactive, just sitting and
watching out of window or me. = only not ordinary was what she was eating.
And because of her expensive diet, she couldn’t be adapted by others.
In addition, another cat, once adapted by other family had came back, because she, Pino was
a too clever trouble-maker. Such as to jump to a door handle and open it etc. she was the
expert to open and sneak into anywhere, hence made a lots of mischievous. (= get inside but
couldn’t open it from the inside then shit there, kind of trouble. 🙂 )
(— Though, I could anticipate what she is going to do, hence such as to make the things on the
shelf to fall easily, she instantly learn and never attempt it again.
So, those two, Haori and Pino were the cats lived with me longest, and left many wired stories.
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Battery Story
Battery is an animal among the electric devices because of it is an electro-chemical device
which is using “on-going chemical reaction”inside, therefore it comes with all sorts of
unpleasant temperament. Despite their name dry-battery, they are hardly dry solid thing
but contain half wet compound. Such as a common Zinc-Carbon battery, its inside of
Zinc-can was filled with black Manganese-oxide which was wetted by the electrolytic
chemical, Ammonium-chloride, and while producing electric energy, they produce hydrogen
gas as well. (Its pressure causes leak, and it could even explode = when they explode,
popped-up cap break the battery case. ! )
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Even though the battery was evolved into Hi-tech age and instead of humble Zinc, Lithium
is in fashion, still it is the same “electro-chemical device” so that, very fancy activity of the
chemical, such as crystallization cover the electrode etc. could be happening inside etc.
Not only the product (battery) is animal, to produce it is really a messy business. This is the
reason why, most of them were produced in the country where environmental, health-safety
regulation is not strict. (Such as to refine Zinc, its process need to use Cadmium which was
washed out to the river, hence in China, Cadmium contaminated rice, food in general is the
serious but hidden problem) —– Imagine, when the battery was mas-produced, somewhere
rather low-standard factory, how about the purity of the chemical, or how minute but crucial
additive such as a rare-earth material was evenly mixed = some got more and others got non.
= It is easy to see that why each individual battery is never the same.
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The trouble of the inconsistency of the battery become really a big problem in case of
rechargeable battery, especially when it was used in numbers such as 4xAA batteries
in a camera or a flash-light.
The situation is exactly the same in case of rechargeable lithium battery-pack, of which
in most of the case, battery-pack contains 2 lithium cells. —– After ten of the charge cycles
the difference of each battery started to show-up.
In case with the 4xAA, and if you are
using a charger which is charging each
individual cell (Individual type has
4 separate LED indicators), you must be
noticed that not all of them become Full in
the same time = some of them takes longer
to be fully charged.
This is the inevitable fate of the battery =
some loose the original capacity much sooner
than others. ( So, I can say, the reliability is exactly what we have paid.
= What you can get from a set is, what the worst one gives, not their nominal capacity. :-D)
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When the battery has this character, and if you charge them all together, while roughly checking
the time such as 5 hours, 7 hours kind, or worse until they become very hot, you are destroying
them. —– When one battery lost the capacity (such as 2500mAH drop to 2000mAH) that battery
become FULL much earlier than others and became hot. Still if you didn’t noticed and keep
charging, it will be over-charged and makes that battery further deteriorate. — (So, which is the
safest way to charge them. = Use the charge current 1/10th of the Capacity x 15 hours =
If it was 2500mAH Battery —- 2500 x 1/10 = 250mA current for 15 hours. = Standard Charge ! )
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Even worse situation is, such as 4xAA were
used in an equipment, when the one which
lost the capacity became empty, its polarity
reverse (Yes, + became to – , same as you put it
wrong-way) then other batteries’ energy was
sucked by this empty battery ! —– Of cause,
it devastates that empty battery further =
in fact, kill-off. ( With the same reason, a
battery-pack of rechargeable tool never last
more than a year or two.
And when we need replacement pack, the same type may no longer in the market.
That is why the professionals only use such as Makita or DeWalt who keep selling the old type
many years. We never seen the same type again among the cheap Chinese tools.)
This worst situation may not occur in a case of latest DSLR because the camera monitor the
condition of the battery, yet still in its battery-pack, one of lithium cell has deteriorated earlier
than the other = So, when I disassembled old battery-pack which lost capacity and no longer
usable for the camera, I found the one of the cell was still usable = I reconstructed an usable
battery-pack out of 2 old packs. (Think about, it worth £50 ! —– though, I wouldn’t recommend
you to try the same. Unlike a simple battery-pack of rechargeable tool, lithium camera battery
has an additional safety device connected between two cells, hence a bit trickier to work-out,
and any mistake could cause expensive damage to the camera.)
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So that, when I buy Ni-MH battery, I buy 2 or 3 sets in the same time, and use them in rotation.
And time to time check their capacity to select best 4, which got same capacity to make a set.
To check the capacity, discharge each individual
battery through 1 ohm register and measure
the time how long it takes the voltage to drop
to o.8 V. —– But for most of the people, this
method is too awkward = So, my advice is,
Buy an “individual charge type rapid-charger”
and check the charging time, when one reached
Full, write the time on the battery, —– if the one
become Full, much faster than others, reject
that one. (It’s mean you need to keep a spare,
ready to replace with it. —– In long run, this tactics is cheaper and even if it is the second class,
there always a spare-set is in hand.) —– More easier method is = check the voltage of each
battery with Battery-checker before charge them, (Unlike an ordinary test meter, Battery
Checker measure the voltage while drawing the current, hence it shows the condition At-work)
and mark bad apple (s) and make a selection of “Good 4s” and “Bad 4s” 😀
—– Yes, battery is really a necessary evil. Unfortunately I still need them —- a lots.
——————————————-
Photo above is a battery pack which was dead. Five AAA type batteries inside,
3 were completely dead. —– Anyhow, I replaced all 5 batteries with new set.
It is possible to do like this though, I wouldn’t recommend you to do this.
—– Without a use of Spot-welder, it need to use the soldering = the heat of
soldering would melt the insulating washer and would cause chemical leak and
cause much more expensive damage to the camera than the cost of battery. 😦
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