Chinatown in London

A few days ago one of my co-workers told me that I should visit the Chinatown here in London. Apparently it was somewhere between Piccadilly Circus and and Leicaster Square. I told her that I would go there that night after work finished and eat dinner there, but when the time came, I was tired, and just trudged back home.

This afternoon, however, I decided to go over to Chinatown, and see how it was. Perhaps eat dinner there (I had slept in late, and not eaten).

I went over to Piccadilly Circus, and found the appropriate road to take. Went east, and found that I was seeing an increasing number of orientals on the streets. Kept going, and found this restuarnt that was serving asian buffet for 6.5 pounds. Considering that just fish, chips, and mushed peas cost more than that, I was impressed.

Took a road in, and found a promenade, complete with chinese-style gateways. Went down the road....

It smelled right. Chinese restuarants, chinese markets... everything has an odor, and this odor provoked all kinds of familiarity. I went through a few markets, and then headed back to the buffet place.

Oh, food! I had not eaten that day yet (it was 5pm or so), so I started eating, and eating... and it was good. The food itself was okay - the sort of stuff that could be expected from a small buffet catering to western tourists. But it was asian food, and there was rice! And vegetables! Tasty vegetables! And meat that had all manner of actual flavor!

So happy. Very good meal, and all for only 7.15 (cost plus service charge).

I then went to the markets, and picked out a number of things. A 6-pack of my favorite Chrysanthemum Tea Drink, a can of Yeo's Sugar Cane juice, a can of Ramboutans in syrup, some dried plum candies, some asian pears, and more. Probably not all that healthy, but enough to make me very happy.

I came back home, and now I am enjoying my Chrysanthemum Tea Drink. Yay!

People.

People, people...

I'm getting to know my co-workers at Africa Recruit better. I went to lunch with my fellow intern, a young lady from Malaysia. Turns out she's from KL, where I've been most years when my mother visits her family. Very interesting history on how she wound up here.

I wound up talking to DolphinCheddar again. She is coolness. We talked about stuff. About relationships, too. Afterwards, reflecting on her, I realized just how much she has contributed to the things I enjoy. Gunnerkrigg Court, Avatar: The Last Airbender, etc.

(Off-topic: Have you ever seen those "Want to find a date in [your city]?" ads? They always have all these pictures of girls posing half-naked, trying to be sexy. But that doesn't eally appeal to myself or DolphinCheddar, so we thought: instead of posting a picture, and trying to look sexily lewd, the people get to post a sentence, and see who they can attract off of that. Probably wouldn't work, but an interesting thought.)

I talked to Christy a bit, too. Told her about my Westnoth victory. We resolved to play a two-person game together sometime.

I found out that my friend Carolyn is leaving on the 4th of July. She's the person whose personality appeals to me the most here. It's sad to know she is going. She's in Dublin right now, and then we have our internships, and then she goes. Sad.

I saw a paraplegic in a ballet/moderndance performance, over in Greenwich. Watching him dance so gracefully in his wheelchair was rather inspirational. I wonder what drive got him there in life?

Two of my best friends want to date me. Don't know what to do to avoid hurting someone, or hurting both of them... At least I'm highly attracted to both of them, so it's not a matter of getting what I want as well.

One of my flatmates had a bad night last night. Did my best to help. I wonder if that means that we will be more friendly with each other now? I guess everyone leaves in a few weeks, though...

Westnoth

Minor post.

I finished one of the campaigns on The Battle for Westnoth. Victory is mine.

I like the music from the game, so I added that to the long playlist mentioned earlier.

More postings later.

Romantic Comedies.

I like romantic comedies. I suppose that's a bit weird for a guy, but they are sweet and nice...

Anyway, watched Love Actually last night. It was good, I liked it.

(this has been moved from the Sad Blogg to the appropriate place)

Playlist

My playlist amuses me.

It's got:

Soundtrack of Shadow of the Collossus. (From the album "Roar of the Earth.")

Soundtrack of Princess Mononoke.

Soundtrack from all three Lord of the Rings movies.

Soundtrack of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. (As preformed by the Hyrule Symphony.)

So nice to listen to...

I approve...

I approve of the Wellcome Institute. It is good.

I also approve of the book "I Will Need to Break Your Other Leg." It is also good.

I got the Book at the Institute, along with a pen.

Voting in cash?

Okay, let's assume I live in a flat that has crappy internet. Not hard for me to imagine, given my current circumstances. Now how much money would it be to hire someone to instead good internet of awesomenes? Some amount, right? A thousand dollars, let's say. Since there are 100 of us or so in this building, that's really only ten dollars per person.

So what about this kind of solution: You get a secure box, paypal account, whatever, and then you put the total cost of the installation onto the box. People put in however much they want to contribute, based on how important better internet is for them. 5 dollars? Ten dollars? Twenty dollars? Then when the money reaches the threshold, install internets with the money, and invest any surplus into a trust which feeds maintainance costs.

Obviously there are some logistical problems, but I really kinda like the idea.

But what if we could implement that better? Say with free money-transfer, digital boxes, etc. Organized. For local government, say - you want a road someplace, you go dedicate money to the fund, when it fills up enough, then it would be made. Only the people who want the road will pay for it, and in the amount that they value it.

Traditional taxation is still important for maintainance money, health/social care, etc., but for initiatives, it seems like a nifty system.

I wonder where all the places in which this sort of thing could be applied...

Job

Job is good in a variety of ways.

First off, I can do it - this is a definite plus. Right now I'm really only doing digital stuff, but I think I'll be able to build up my confidence as a worker, and probably manage... okay. But I am very happy that the instructions and goals are clear. If I know what I'm trying to do, and I know the resources at my disposal, then it's just a matter of optimizing a complex system, no different from, say, winning at MTG.

Second, it seems to be right up my alley, in terms of what SGS teaches. My organization promotes a healthy relationship between African governments and their expatriate diasporas. So all those Tanzanians living abroad send back remittences in their mail... but AfricaRecruit steps in and has the government make a formal process they can do it. How is this useful? Well, if it is properly processed, then you have paperwork of past payments, so if you want to apply for a loan, then you can show your income is steady... including the remittance payments you might be recieving. It also promotes reversing the brain-drain - instead of all the smart people leaving the country to find opprotunities in first world countries, those same people are being attracted back to use their western-trained skills in their country. Or to invest in their former state's industries. All kinds of cool stuff, and exactly the dynamic that SGS is striving to describe.

Third, it's doing a good thing. I am not a fan of giving to charity. I see these people with signs of how your 5 dollars can save a life in Africa, and I don't really care. In fact, I resent such organizations.

Why? Because they are giving people fish, rather than teaching them how to fish. (Metaphorically.)

Don't buy medicines for sick Africans, build a healthcare system that will provide for them and their children and each generation there on. Don't buy food for someone - invest in Africa argriculture. Don't see a disaster happen on the news and send money - invest in disaster prevention/mitigation/recovery governmental organizations. Invest in African companies, invest in African schools, invest in sustainable industries (Avoid mining/drilling, though).

That's what AfricaRecruit is doing - it works with the Diaspora and African governments to help build capacity via foreign direct investment, skill-placement (a very related organization is FindaJobinAfrica.com - they are across the table from where I sit), and mutual assistance. And building capacity is what will bring Africa into the first world, not aid.

I am proud to work for AfricaRecruit, even if I am doing grunt labor.

Bad Eggs (MTG)

So I was relaxing after an apparently successful interview, and thought I would make a deck with that new Thopter Foundry card. I thought, hey - maybe I could put it in extended, with Roar of Reclaimation! Then I wondered how to get plenty of artifacts in my graveyard and get the Roar. But I was going to use Etherium Sculptor/Eggs, I probably would need something to get them to go faster, so I found Rings of Brightheath, and went for a "I draw my library, I now have everything I need to win, I win via infinite Conjurer's Bauble recursion." But it turns out that Rings could be used the way I was hoping, so I downgraded the draw engine and found it couldn't draw the whole deck anymore. So I changed the win condition so that I need a combonation of cards, and not an empty library to recur things on. So I came up with Myr Retrievers and Grinding Station and Etherium Sculptor combo.

It's such a horrible idea--the combo uses 5 pieces--but somehow I have been going off anywhere from turn three to turn 8. The mean is about 5, and the mode is 4.

I don't know why it works, but it does. I might buy this deck, actually...

Bad Eggs.

---------------

Qty Name

// Lands

3 Blasted Landscape

4 Crystal Vein

3 Lonely Sandbar

4 Saprazzan Skerry

2 Island

// Artifact Creatures

4 Myr Retriever

4 Etherium Sculptor

//Artifacts

1 Mossfire Egg

4 Skycloud Egg

4 Chromatic Sphere

4 Cloud Key

3 Grinding Station

4 Fabricate

4 Chromatic Star

4 Conjurer's Bauble

4 Darkwater Egg

4 Mishra's Bauble

[New: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1206519 (The Deck's threat on the Wizards forum. Looking for some advice...)]