Nothing Fishy

Haven't posted any where near my usual level of 3D stuff. That's because with the full time job I haven't had the time to play.

For the past 3 months I've been ideally tinkering on trying to make a 3D fish. They are surprisingly hard it turns out, and so far I've hit only limited success.

They are an annoying combination of texturing and model. Their shape has to be perfectly smooth and unified, yet it is made of dozens of pieces (especially in the head). In good news I finally tackled this issue with my full concentration and figured out a textural cheat within 20 minutes (should have really focused earlier).

Let me know what you think. He is supposed to be a rough Tarpon analogue.

They keep coming round (pun sadly intended)

You know your desperate this Valentine's Day when you buy her this ring...

This ad was in a major subway station by the way!

Their mental about safety in Hong Kong...

Aparently a prerequisite of being a construction worker here is to be a telepath...

That's all folks...

Is it just me or is it creepy Porky is offering me his brother to eat?

The things you'll see in a mall around here

A lot of my Hong Kong posts are bound to be just random things I see or discover, with no excessive details.


So here is the view of one of my favourite mall complexes I've been too. Man there are a lot of malls in HK!

The levels in here all spiral upwards. So you can physically walk up or down without using stairs of the escalators.

Every level has a few robotic astrology statues...

Not sure why, but they're cool.

Mind you the three eyed Mickey Mouse in the lobby was a little off putting.

Mid-Autumn Festival: Downtown Hong Kong

More mid-autumn festival celebrations. Here was the setup in downtown Hong Kong.

They had the world record largest fish lantern, which was made of smaller lanterns.

To get an idea of what it actually looked like here is a video.

Mid-Autumn Festival: Around my place

I'm going to try and catch up my Hong Kong adventures here on the blog in the course of the next week. Possibly a herculan task, but I'll give it a go.

Almost immediately after arriving in HK, our local park began major preperations for the big mid-autumn festival. Two weeks to the day of our arrival I had a day off school, and we were able to take in this local cultural tradition.

It is celebrated by the lighting of lanterns everywhere. The ones in our park were a bit above and beyond. I'd call them carnival float sized rather than lantern, but that is just my opinion.

There is a story behind all the creatures and characters you see here. The problem is no one can or has properly told me...

My wife attempted to tell me from memory, but it reminded me favourite retelling of the Scorpion and the Frog ("There was this Frog and Scorpion once. I can't remember what happens, but the Frog dies, so we want to be the Scorpion").

The story revolves around a girl who goes to the moon (for some reason), and it has something to do with rabbits.

The white sphere you see in the middle of that menagerie of lanterns is the moon.

As promised here is one of the many Rabbits. Although unhinted at in the brief story I was told, these Rabbits have wheels. Literally! Look at him! I've seen many like this around town too!


So that's really all I can say of use about the reason behind the festival (for now).

It should be noted that this was quite the large setup. The lanterns were setup along the main thoroughfare of our park that has about 20 fountains along the 1/3 km path.

Hong Kong Birds are all Angry!

So as you probably know about me, I like to bird watch. Normally within a matter of minutes of entering a new country it is hard to keep me from chasing after the local bird life.

I didn't manage it in Hong Kong, right away, sadly. My insane initial schedule (I had to start teaching withing 20 hours of landing), the intense heat, and very urban neighborhood all kept me from tracking down birds for a week or so.

Yet in the meantime I wasn't without "bird" contact. For the locals are into the most bizarre trend I have ever seen.


Almost as an entire culture, Hong Kong is obsessed with Angry Birds the video game... Yet no one here plays the game, and most don't even know it started out as a game (or at least I assume it did anyways).

Yet everywhere you go you run into Angry Birds. I'd say 10-20% of the population (at least!) have some sort of Angry Birds related merchandise (not a small number when you think about even the most massive of trends in Western culture!).

What really boggles my mind is the sheer range, number, and availability of these products. They are everywhere you turn!

I have been casually collecting snaps of it all everytime I get a chance. The majority are admittedly from the markets. I didn't feel comfortable snapping shots of these products on people. However I assure you I have seen every single item here owned and used by MULTIPLE people each!

So enjoy my sampling of the true local bird life.

This one is one of my favourites. Note how the bird has the same hair buns as the girls beside him :P

Oh man I wish I could do a photographic survey of the people I see wearing Angry Birds clothing! It'd be a staggeringly large percentage of people I see in the street! I even picked up my own (with batman and superman clad birds!), but sadly it didn't fit...

So I'll keep you updated on this trend, and whether it is long term, or just a fad (if it is only short term what will the next one be?!?)

I've heard rumours you can even buy a car with a bird face on the hood... Have to find one of those if they exist!!!