Daniel - ProfilesArchive

About Me

My life is a very very simple thing lived by extremely transparent principles: I want what I want---I do things that I like, I don't do things that I don't like--- I don't complain.I am 3/4 Italian and 1/4 Irish, though I was raised near Boston, USA. I speak English(naturally), Mandarin (learned in school), Shanghainese (lived there for 4 years), Japanese (lived there 1.5 years), Spanish (school again), Italian(much less than I should @_@) and Cantonese (basic taxi/food/swearing/drinking games use only)Generally I like being active as much as possible, I don't watch TV and I don't watch many movies either.I am currently reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Nahan by Lu Xun, an Abe Kobo novel called 'the Discovery of #R62' some Italian textbooks, and memorizing Cai Gen Tan and of course always listening to music. When I have time I am also practicing hard to beat 5-kyu on DS kanjiken...

My Interests

Reading, Philosophy, Economics, Bboying, Music, Drawing, Capoeira, Mahjong, going to the beach, language hypnopaedia, clubbing, eating at cha can ting, riding my bicycle, travel, frisbee, Wu Taijiquan, Taiko, Kendo

I'd like to meet:

---people who like what I like, obviously

Music:

Trance, Techno, Chillout, House, Hip Hop, Classical, late 60's/ early 70s-era Rock, Di Ke Niu Zai, Beyond, Wu Bai, Andy Lau, Kick the Can Crew, Kiroro, Dreams Come True, Chemistry, Southern All Stars, Joe Hisaishi, X Japan, Zilent Zpott, Rebel9, anything good to sing at K

Movies:

"Xin Dong", Ghibli Anime, A Clockwork Orange, Interstella 5555, Raging Bull, the Muppet Movie, Baraka, Chongqing Senlin, Withnail & I, Blade Runner, 24 Hour Party People, A Better Tomorrow, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Stephen Chiou movies, HK romance, Beat Takeshi, The King of Hearts

Television:

Black Adder, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Sasuke, Produced by Uchimura, Space Battleship Yamato, Wo Cai Wo Cai Wo Cai Cai Cai, Initial D, Speed Racer, Voltron, Dragon Warrior, Exosquad, London Hearts, Gakkou E Ikou

Books:

Xiao Ao Jiang Hu, Watchmen, Cai Gen Tan, Zhuangzi, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Silmarillion, Griffin&Sabine, Tensai Yanagisawa Kyouju no Seikatsu, Jack Vance, Nietzsche, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Journey To The West , Illuminatus! Trilogy, Guns Germs and Steel, Duzhe Magazine, China Securities News, Umberto Eco

Heroes:

Li Xiaolong, Ken Kesey, George Soros

My Blog

Too much rat racing...

I described my job to someone yesterday as: "Well, I run on a wheel for 10 to 12 hours a day" The metaphor of the rat race is really a beautiful way to describe big business. Alternately (as I a...
Posted by Daniel on Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:44:00 PST

fast

I had dinner with some of my classmates from Nanjing on Monday night. It's funny to think that it is already 2007, and that I have been back in China since Autumn 2003. It really really doesn't seem l...
Posted by Daniel on Wed, 23 May 2007 08:14:00 PST

well that went quick

7 days in Japan felt like about 2 days. I did a lot of stuff including: 1) Travel: I rented a car and drove to a hot springs on the top of a mountain in Yamanashi prefecture west of Tokyo. It was very...
Posted by Daniel on Tue, 08 May 2007 11:40:00 PST

2 more days

Last night I had dinner with my friend and his friend, a DJ from Australia. I was a bit late getting to dinner, which was all you can eat Japanese at Uminosachi, which, along with Itoya, is one of the...
Posted by Daniel on Sun, 29 Apr 2007 07:11:00 PST

in which I justify my existence

By my rough calculation this morning, I have to bill only 7.5 more hours this week and I will have billed my entire yearly salary. This really takes a bit of stress out of my life as lately I have bee...
Posted by Daniel on Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:44:00 PST

it rained yesterday

so the weather in Shanghai is really great today. Last night I had dinner at the ma la tang restaurant across the street from my house. The restaurant is run by a bunch of people from Henan. While mos...
Posted by Daniel on Mon, 23 Apr 2007 08:15:00 PST

one of the best things about my day

Mornings I like lots of things about mornings. I like the quiet. I like the nice lighting for taking photos. I like the feeling of a new day. But I sure as hell don't like waking up in the morning. Of...
Posted by Daniel on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 07:30:00 PST

interesting article in FT Sunday

The Financial Times ran an article yesterday about the fact that apparently now the US is putting pressure on China through the WTO to open its media markets (DVDs, CDs, books and software). This seem...
Posted by Daniel on Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:45:00 PST

And the things I bought at Ikea

Mugs, glasses, knackbrod, mackerel fillets in garlic sauce, abba kalles fish roe paste, salmon paste, double chocolate cookies, 3 kinds of swedish chocolate, 1 bottle of white glogg (tried it, tasty!)...
Posted by Daniel on Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:55:00 PST

My Trip to Ikea

On the way to Ikea, I hopped a taxi at Huaihai Zhong rd., across from HK plaza. It was quite difficult getting a cab, so I jumped in the front. For about 10 seconds after I got in, I didn't really say...
Posted by Daniel on Thu, 29 Mar 2007 07:57:00 PST