When is Nudity Becomes a Taboo

Naked Baby
Just read the article, When Do They Need a Fig Leaf?, on New York Times. This brought up an issue that I see fairly frequently. That is the presence of kids of opposite gender in washrooms.

The article asks at what age should kids be prevented from running around in public or private home naked? Should children ever allowed to be running around naked?

I think these are questions that have different answers depending on your cultural up bringing and the social acceptance of the city/country where you live.

In the case of public washroom I think any children older than 5 should not be allow to go into washroom of opposite gender.

It is unfortunate, but our society has too many weirdos and bad people to allow our children to maintain their innocence. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for children maintaining their innocence as long as possible. I think we should teach our next generation to respect our body and others, educate them on the differences of their body as early as possible, and the appropriateness of when they can be naked.

What do you think? Love to hear your comments below, on Twitter, Facebook or FriendFeed.

My Life Without My iPhone

iPhone 3G imageLast Saturday I decided to sell my 1st generation iPhone. Believe me this decision did not come easily.

Like most early adopters, I had been a user of the iPhone since it’s launch in June 2007.

This was not easy given I live in Hong Kong. Back in those days; sounds like a long time ago, but in technology timeline it is indeed. The iPhone unlocking/jailbreaking process took about an hour and a half with 24 steps that you cannot not miss or mess up.

Of course now this process of has been greatly improved, to a 15 minutes process with a single program and several clicks. Anyway you can read all about my iPhone exploits in my other posts.

Getting back to my decision to sell my iPhone. Ever since the first day after returning with the iPhone, purchased at the New York City, Fifth Avenue Apple Store, there had been a minor defect in the screen. This resulted in an area of discolouration. Unfortunately, I had hacked the phone and I was not about to fly back to NYC to bring it back to Apple. So I lived with it.

Continue reading “My Life Without My iPhone”

Old Lady Playing Piano

Old Lady Playing Piano

Originally uploaded by Vinko T.

I found this old couple setting up an electric piano on the sidewalk last night (around 21:00) in front of one of the busiest MTR (subway) station exit in Wanchai and Minibus stop.

They are in their late 70s moving very slowly with many pieces of equipment, including their own mini battery to power the electric piano.

All this are their attempt to make a few bucks from the passerby on one of the busiest streets in Wanchai.

Has our economy come to this? Even the elderly have to be working on the streets. Mind you I am not sure why this lady chose the piano, because she is really bad at it. Most people would give her money because they feel sorry for her and/or may be to stop her from continuing.

This may also a sign of the audacity of Hongkoners to survive no matter how tough things get.

Make Over

PlasticSurgery

I was sitting at Starbucks enjoying my English Breakfast tea. Next to me was two ladies speaking of plastic surgery as if they are choosing the latest pair of shoes.

Pouring over plastic surgery before and after photos as excited as little boys looking over the latest edition of a comic book.

Are these ladies exceptions in the our female populations? Are there just as many young women contemplating the same surgical procedures as these middle age ladies?

My opinion is that people should be satisfy with their looks as they are born with. There are various cosmetic surgery that are justified for recovery of accidents, but other reasons for cosmetic procedures should be considered very carefully.

Make Over

PlasticSurgery

I was sitting at Starbucks enjoying my English Breakfast tea. Next to me was two ladies speaking of plastic surgery as if they are choosing the latest pair of shoes.

Pouring over plastic surgery before and after photos as excited as little boys looking over the latest edition of a comic book.

Are these ladies exceptions in the our female populations? Are there just as many young women contemplating the same surgical procedures as these middle age ladies?

My opinion is that people should be satisfy with their looks as they are born with. There are various cosmetic surgery that are justified for recovery of accidents, but other reasons for cosmetic procedures should be considered very carefully.

Public Facilities

Broadwalk

Recently, with the help of The Community Chest and HSBC, they built a brand new wide broadwalk in Stanley to replace the crowded sidewalks and roadway that were occupied by the restaurants which lined the main street at Stanley.

Restaurant

I assume this facility is for the enjoyment of the general public. But upon closer inspection I realized not every member of the general public are allow to enjoy these facilities.

Signage

I found numerous copies of this sign posted every few feet along the broadwalk.

Has our society come to a point where we must live with so many explicit restrictions for the majority to be able to enjoy a public facility?

NoLaundry

By the way, only in Hong Kong will you see this sign.

Unfortunately, if this sign was not posted there would be people who will hang their laundry along the broadwalk. This occurrence in Hong Kong is something I really do not understand.

Are the people of Hong Kong that selfish? I still try to convince myself that is not the case.

New Gestures

Do you live in one of the many countries around the world where the Nintendo DS-Lite had taken the populations by storm? Well I do and Hong Kong is one of those countries.

People playing games on these consoles have developed a set of very interesting gestures. I will attempt to describe them to you here:

  1. Blowing in the Wind

    The players would blow into the microphone of the device. When they do this the game would recognize their action and react accordingly. For example, there is a game where the player is the owner of a virtual pet, they can cause soap bubbles to scatter round the pet by blowing into the microphone, which will make the pet happy.

  2. Scribble Scribble

    The player would rapidly scribble on the screen of the NDS. The purpose of this action is normally when the player is playing the cooking game. They would need to toss the dishes they are cooking in the wok of cutting vegetables.

Unfortunately, I do not have photos of these gestures, but one can now see these gestures around Hong Kong, in MTR (subway), Starbucks and streets.

Another console that had introduced new gestures is the Wii, another console also from Nintendo.

These gestures are:

  1. Pump Pump Pump

    This is where the player holds the controls in both hands and rapidly moves them up and down in opposite positions. In one of the game that requires this gesture is in a game where the player has to control the on screen character’s arms while it run through the course of the game.

  2. Twist & Shake

    This is where the player takes the control to pick up a container in the game and shake it rapidly to shake the creatures out of the containers

The Internet and the services found there had brought us new words; fit for the Webster dictionary, like:

  • goo·gle – ‘gü-g&l, transitive verb
    to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

Now it is changing the way behaviours.

Why Does Women Wear High Heels?

In recent years I have noticed the high heels that women wear are getting higher and higher. From the typical 2 inches to the whooping 4+ inches. This trend is happening on the streets of Hong Kong and in the retail stores. With the heights in the stores going even higher.

I do not have any problems with women wearing high heels. I personally feel that majority of women looks good in high heels. Of course there are exceptions.

I the the shoes designers should remember why high heels were invented. In the 1500s it was designed for ridding shoes so that the wearer’s feet will not slip forward when riding. During the 18th century it was used to lift women off the muddy grounds of the streets London, and to accentuate the legs of women to make them look more slim and elegant. It is not for the purposes of adding height to the wearer.

Keeping in mind of the original intention of the invention. There is a very specific range of heights where the average wearer’s legs will look good. Any higher it will not only make the wearer uncomfortable but also cause the leg to deform to compensate for the angle in which the wearer is placed by the angle of the shoes.

Not to mention all the physical harm one will suffer from wearing very high heels for extended amount of time.

So I call on shoe designers and retail buyers, to lower the heights of the shoes back down to the 2 and 2.5 inches range.

I also call on women to put pressure on the shoe designers and retail buyers by stop buying high heels above 2.5 inches for your own sake.