hello!
just finished a long and tedious day working on our first project here in hong kong. we had to select a product or idea that we think could and should be used in america. my group chose bamboo, a sort of 'wonder-plant' depending on the climate it's grown in. here are some fact about bamboo you might not know: totally kidding, i won't bore you with that stuff. although it is an amazingly versatile plant that we should definitely start growing. we're relaxing back in our rooms now, about to head out for a group dinner in hong kong. indian food! woohoo! i was thinking today, "man, you know, i haven't really farted a lot since i've been here. i would really like to be constantly having to run off to a corner, pretend like i'm taking a picture, and rip a big fart." NOT. so thanks in advance, indian food. i'm sure we'll have a great day tomorrow crop-dusting the design studio with some butt squeaks.
i've already kind of grown to liking this city, i'm gonna be sad to see it go on sunday. i think it has kind of sealed the deal for me that i'd like to live in a city when i leave college. there's so much to do and see and there's always something going on, but if we need to, we just hop down three stops on the train and we have the solitude of our own rooms. it's nice to have that kind of freedom. so, add that to the list: buy motorcycle, keep up with the body decoration when applicable, move to a rad city. hopefully i'll get some pics up later tonight/tomorrow. dinner time! later
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
ramen, minus the microwave and the shame
just finished a great dinner with some of my group members and the two teachers from the trip. it's always awesome to hang out with professors outside of the classroom and get to know them like real human beings. we had a great meal (japanese chicken, teriyaki style, with a bowl of ramen. take the stuff you buy for 55 cents at kroger and multiply it by about 11,000 and thats what the ramen here is like). i found out that sam, one of my favorite professors i've had (who grew up around DC as well), saw black flag and 7 seconds at the old 930 Club in DC, back when it was in a superbly ghetto area. thats awesome. time for some relaxation, which probably means just reading a few pages and falling asleep. i know, i know. it's only 10pm (or 22 over here), but running around Hong Kong all day takes it out of you. i'm beat, see ya later
photos are up!
woohoo! i've edited a small bit of the photos i've taken so far (like 10% of them) and posted some to flickr. more on the way, so stay tuned!
Ryan Ford on Flickr
Ryan Ford on Flickr
Monday, July 27, 2009
Mong Kok East - i can smell it from here
whatup fools?
the internet situation is still a little sketchy in the rooms, but in the computer lab we have a solid hook-up, so i'll use this for the mean time.
yesterday we made the trip from the hotel in Hong Kong to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, about a 30 minute train ride. the view from our room is insane, we're halfway up the side of a mountain, overlooking the bay. the way they use space here is incredible, we could and should definitely take tips from their design and resourcefulness. we got the run-down on the computer labs and workshop here at the university, then got cut loose to run around the city and work on projects. we got off the train, saw some great graffiti, and were thrust confused-American-face-first into one of the most densely populated places on the entire planet.
we walked the blocks, through the shops and tents and markets and alleys, grabbed some grub and beers, and headed back out. after adventuring for a while, we popped into the 7-11 and grabbed some more beer (two tall-boys for HK$11 - about a buck fifty american - awesome!). somehow in the middle of this huge gaggle of people and buildings and cars and awe, we found a tiny, quiet park where we enjoyed our beverages in the company of some locals and some people doing yoga. at 9 at night. wow. found our way home, walked back up the room.
woke up this morning and basically our teachers just said, "well, go work on your projects, see you tomorrow at 9am." so we got to go nuts around hong kong today. explored some alleys, some markets, got a bunch of sweet/goofy crap for super cheap. god bless capitalism. we saw some more really awesome graffiti, and now we're chillin' in the room getting a little work done on our project. i'm gonna try and remember my flickr password and put up some pics, so look out for that. tonight? hmm, i think me, jake, and paige (group members) are heading out to dinner and drinks with sam, our professor. i'll keep you posted.
soundtrack to the day-
against me! - sink, florida, sink
bruce springsteen - mary queen of arkansas
the replacements - alex chilton
lucero - san francisco
the avett brothers - salina
sam cooke - summertime
see ya soon
the internet situation is still a little sketchy in the rooms, but in the computer lab we have a solid hook-up, so i'll use this for the mean time.
yesterday we made the trip from the hotel in Hong Kong to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, about a 30 minute train ride. the view from our room is insane, we're halfway up the side of a mountain, overlooking the bay. the way they use space here is incredible, we could and should definitely take tips from their design and resourcefulness. we got the run-down on the computer labs and workshop here at the university, then got cut loose to run around the city and work on projects. we got off the train, saw some great graffiti, and were thrust confused-American-face-first into one of the most densely populated places on the entire planet.
we walked the blocks, through the shops and tents and markets and alleys, grabbed some grub and beers, and headed back out. after adventuring for a while, we popped into the 7-11 and grabbed some more beer (two tall-boys for HK$11 - about a buck fifty american - awesome!). somehow in the middle of this huge gaggle of people and buildings and cars and awe, we found a tiny, quiet park where we enjoyed our beverages in the company of some locals and some people doing yoga. at 9 at night. wow. found our way home, walked back up the room.
woke up this morning and basically our teachers just said, "well, go work on your projects, see you tomorrow at 9am." so we got to go nuts around hong kong today. explored some alleys, some markets, got a bunch of sweet/goofy crap for super cheap. god bless capitalism. we saw some more really awesome graffiti, and now we're chillin' in the room getting a little work done on our project. i'm gonna try and remember my flickr password and put up some pics, so look out for that. tonight? hmm, i think me, jake, and paige (group members) are heading out to dinner and drinks with sam, our professor. i'll keep you posted.
soundtrack to the day-
against me! - sink, florida, sink
bruce springsteen - mary queen of arkansas
the replacements - alex chilton
lucero - san francisco
the avett brothers - salina
sam cooke - summertime
see ya soon
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The ratio of sleep to miles
hello!
well, this was a blog for class, but i've conveniently renamed it to suit my travels
day 1-2, travling, landing, beaching
me and the rest of the design in asia gang peaced out of columbus international airport yesterday (read: god knows how many days ago due to the crazy time traveling), skipped through chicago to tokyo, and landed safely in Hong Kong at about midnight today. first reaction to the plane rides: UGH. man, nothing says 'will there be free alcoholic beverages on this flight?' like a 13 hour plane ride to tokyo. anywho, we got up this morning at 7:30, had a nice asian breakfast (steamed shrimp dumplings...excellent) and exchanged some currency. right off the bat, this city is amazing. endless skyscrapers, huge mountains, fog, rain, heat, sun, people, etc. maybe its just because i'm a city guy, but i love the fast paced nature of it. right now i'm enjoying the free wifi of repulse bay beach (don't have time to post pictures right now, but google image search it, it's very amazing) and gettin' my tan on with the rest of the crew. agenda for tonight: tram ride, dinner, relax, beers, enjoying life and being thankful we made it safely here and could even afford to come here in the first place. the internet situation might be sketchy for the next few days, but i'll try and keep this updated. i'm gonna try and keep the touchy-feeling emotional crap to a minimum, but lame as it may be, i enjoy a good heart felt description to give you the full experience of everything i'm feeling and seeing. word.
oh, also, i had this kind of neat idea i think, so check this out:
soundtrack to the day-
reverse the curse - exit 193
brian fallon - the blues, mary
skip james - sickbed blues
band of horses - funeral
the lawrence arms - the revisionist
bruce springsteen - lost in the flood
otis redding - mr. pitiful
gallows - rolling with the punches
catch you later
ryan
well, this was a blog for class, but i've conveniently renamed it to suit my travels
day 1-2, travling, landing, beaching
me and the rest of the design in asia gang peaced out of columbus international airport yesterday (read: god knows how many days ago due to the crazy time traveling), skipped through chicago to tokyo, and landed safely in Hong Kong at about midnight today. first reaction to the plane rides: UGH. man, nothing says 'will there be free alcoholic beverages on this flight?' like a 13 hour plane ride to tokyo. anywho, we got up this morning at 7:30, had a nice asian breakfast (steamed shrimp dumplings...excellent) and exchanged some currency. right off the bat, this city is amazing. endless skyscrapers, huge mountains, fog, rain, heat, sun, people, etc. maybe its just because i'm a city guy, but i love the fast paced nature of it. right now i'm enjoying the free wifi of repulse bay beach (don't have time to post pictures right now, but google image search it, it's very amazing) and gettin' my tan on with the rest of the crew. agenda for tonight: tram ride, dinner, relax, beers, enjoying life and being thankful we made it safely here and could even afford to come here in the first place. the internet situation might be sketchy for the next few days, but i'll try and keep this updated. i'm gonna try and keep the touchy-feeling emotional crap to a minimum, but lame as it may be, i enjoy a good heart felt description to give you the full experience of everything i'm feeling and seeing. word.
oh, also, i had this kind of neat idea i think, so check this out:
soundtrack to the day-
reverse the curse - exit 193
brian fallon - the blues, mary
skip james - sickbed blues
band of horses - funeral
the lawrence arms - the revisionist
bruce springsteen - lost in the flood
otis redding - mr. pitiful
gallows - rolling with the punches
catch you later
ryan
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Web 2.0 and Mary Zajicek's Whiny Attitude
The elderly can't aren't going to be able to bedazzle their names for their myspace pages! oh heavens!
that was certainly a rude, cheap shot, but in all seriousness Mary Zajicek does bring up some valid points about the recent explosion of web 2.0 services and those being left behind. Her main overarching theme is accessibility, something we as media studies students have never had to worry about. After reading her article, It was a bit eye opening to sit down and think about how many groups are being excluded from this new phenomenon because of circumstances of accessibility. While Zajicek does discuss the influence of web 2.0 applications in regards to certain groups like the visually and physically impaired, she tends to focus a lot of her paper on the elderly and their ability to adapt to these new technologies.
To be brutally honest, and this is going to sound very mean, so I apologize, I really don't think there are many web 2.0 services that are worth teaching to old people (sometimes I impress myself with how subtle i am). Her excerpt on Skype was interesting, as I think this is one of the only applications that could prove useful for the elderly. It's a fairly simple program, and it has astounding money saving potential. No elderly person is going to find solace in the depths of myspace or facebook, I don't think. Now, I'm sure there are more than few tech-savvy grannies out there chalking up the friends, but for the most part, it's not worth teaching these people through the accessibility barrier just so they can wonder what the hell tagging a picture means. It would be more trouble than its worth to instruct the elderly on what these applications are let alone how to use them, and even if we did, there is no real positive that could become of their new knowledge.
that was certainly a rude, cheap shot, but in all seriousness Mary Zajicek does bring up some valid points about the recent explosion of web 2.0 services and those being left behind. Her main overarching theme is accessibility, something we as media studies students have never had to worry about. After reading her article, It was a bit eye opening to sit down and think about how many groups are being excluded from this new phenomenon because of circumstances of accessibility. While Zajicek does discuss the influence of web 2.0 applications in regards to certain groups like the visually and physically impaired, she tends to focus a lot of her paper on the elderly and their ability to adapt to these new technologies.
To be brutally honest, and this is going to sound very mean, so I apologize, I really don't think there are many web 2.0 services that are worth teaching to old people (sometimes I impress myself with how subtle i am). Her excerpt on Skype was interesting, as I think this is one of the only applications that could prove useful for the elderly. It's a fairly simple program, and it has astounding money saving potential. No elderly person is going to find solace in the depths of myspace or facebook, I don't think. Now, I'm sure there are more than few tech-savvy grannies out there chalking up the friends, but for the most part, it's not worth teaching these people through the accessibility barrier just so they can wonder what the hell tagging a picture means. It would be more trouble than its worth to instruct the elderly on what these applications are let alone how to use them, and even if we did, there is no real positive that could become of their new knowledge.
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