p a s s i o n + r e a s o n

12 simple things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint

2008-05-05T10:17:51Z

I've just uploaded a new website about how we can reduce our carbon footprint. We all can do our part by employing these simple tips everyday.

Please share the 12simplethings.org website with your friends.

There are localized translations in:

Chinese (simplified)
French
Hindi
Bahasa Indonesia
and a Thai translation which will be published shortly.

Oh yeah, stay tuned to the website - the public service announcement (PSA) video will make its way there.

Technorati Tags: 12+simple+things, climate, carbon, climate+change, carbon+footprint, UNDP, development, environment, green

Nuts of and about blogging

2007-12-07T17:59:11Z

In the short while since Ben has started blogging again, one of his last posts has picked up a good track of comments, which seemingly groks the issues between two of the major blog "systems": Movable Type and WordPress.

Now, guiltily, Ben is right that I have been blogging only nominally as of late. (Shame on me, but I think I'm redeeming myself as I have started up again last week after being clueless about where my round tuit had been for the last 9 months, which is the topic of my last post.) So it's a fitting coincidence that this thread comes when I'm renewing efforts to start blogging again and also to update the tools and systems.

Ben is well informed enough on user interfaces to take MT to task for their clunky user interface, although I've found the latest version of MT (version 4) is much improved. This blog is still MT 3.x, however, I have just migrated Art's blog over to MT4 (although she hasn't posted anything in about a year!). This blog post was composed with ScribeFire, a Firefox plugin, so I am dealing with a completely different user interface, which I find useful for composing off-line.

In the last two years, seeing WordPress take the blogging system lead, I've considered whether to stick with MT or make the move myself. One major consideration is that I had invested a lot of time learning and customizing my MT installations. I even started a test WordPress blog to learn about WP. I found the lack of a centralized plugin directory for WordPress, slightly frustrating. But I'm not sticking to MT out of inertia or sheer laziness; MT4 is actually a great product. Of course this can digress into some religious war pitting MT against WordPress, but I won't go there. With my prior "investment" - it should be easier to edit the hacks, hard-coded links and template customizations when I migrate to MT4 than move wholesale into WordPress, given the seemingly scarcity of round tuits in my life. I just read
about on the upcoming 4.1 release, and I'm hoping it'll be out when I start upgrading my own MT installation.

Personally, the licensing issue that SixApart waddled through was a blunder on their part, which probably alienated many MT users and developers, as Ben indicates. Although perturbed, I didn't migrate. I give a lot of credit to the MT community, which I've found to be extremely engaged and a great resource in developing my own sites.

In the meantime, the Tshins will blog with both MT and WP.

Technorati Tags: WordPress, MovableType, ScribeFire, blogging

The discipline of blogging

2007-11-29T15:37:37Z

"Hello World"... errr, I mean, hi, I'm back; that is: back from a 9-month blogging sabbatical. It was less intentional than being not disciplined enough to get a round tuit. Work has definitely picked up and is running me at a full-court press. But I figure I'd better get on with the writing - and also with the showing of my photos!

I've come to realize that I need to discipline my life, especially when life gets busy. Things can fall apart in busy-ness. The Canadian tire (or Canadian male muffin-top) reduction program needs constant attention, relationships need care (we're just celebrating our first anniversary), photos need to be taken - and even more importantly, need sorting, editing and presenting.

All this requires discipline - the 15 minutes a day to 1 hour a day, easy-win kind of discipline. After walking through the 9 Days in the Kingdom photo exhibition a few weeks back, Enrique and I were lamenting the fact that while our own photography has matured and is more-or-less marketable, we haven't put them out enough for friends to enjoy and perhaps for the world to notice (which amateur photographer wouldn't want to finance equipment and travels with their photography). And our lack of self discipline is to blame.

Well, without much ado, here's some of my recent work:

A selection of calendar photos for the 2008 Evangelical Church of Bangkok calendar
Photos from the wedding of one of my groomsmen Alan to Liz.
Press conference of Professor Paulo Pinheiro the UN Human Rights Envoy to Myanmar
A not-so-recent gallery from a shoot in Yaowarat (Chinatown in Bangkok) during Chinese New Year

Do enjoy. I'd love to hear if you have any suggestions and themes for any future photo shoots. Refresh your RSS subscription, I'll have more to come!

Technorati Tags: blogging, photography, discipline

On the way back home

2007-03-28T17:47:42Z

We're sitting in one of the Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounges at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International airport, waiting to board.

We arrived at the airport with lots of time to spare, but the lines were ginormous.

We persevered, and ended up getting an upgrade to Economy Premium, although we're not in the same row. We'll try nicely to get seats next to each other...

Anyhow, it's a good 17 hour flight before we land at JFK and then taxi over to La Guardia for a flight back to Toronto.

Technorati Tags: Thai+Airways, upgrade, Economy+Premium, Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi

International Women's Day photos

2007-03-09T07:04:55Z

Yesterday (8 March) for International Women's Day, Ending Inpunity for Violence Against Women, I was asked to take photos during the UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot's address at UNESCAP.

The message is sobering because as real development progress has happened in developing countries, violence against women has not been fully tackled and building a real awareness in developing countries is still a challenge. I believe that this major issue will be a drag against development and progress if it remains underground and/or ignored.

The photographs are highlighted in the featured story on UNAIDS website.

View the photo gallery

Technorati Tags: International+Women's+Day, UNAIDS, Peter+Piot, UNESCAP, photography, violence+against+women

(A very belated) Happy New Year

2007-03-05T16:16:58Z

Happy New Year... well, Happy Chinese New Year of the Pig?

I've been very much absent from any writing and blogging as of late, so here are my so-called good excuses: I've gotten married, work is more-or-less consuming, my hobbies (photography) are starting to ramp up, and oh... I just got married.

I can't believe it's been over 3 months since our wedding, and time has really seemed to have flown by. During this time, I felt that my blogging and photo posts were on hold until I could finally get myself a round tuit. So, here's a post to get the new year rolling.

Miniature Earth

2006-11-01T08:13:10Z

Miniature Earth - If the world's population were reduced to 100, it would look something like this...

I just came across this excellently well done Flash movie/presentation. It's quite stirring and sobering. At the UN, we've just finished the Stand Up Against Poverty campaign (as part of the Millennium Campaign) which set a Guinness World Record involving a total of 23,542,614 participants in 11,646 events around the globe.

There is so much more we can do to eradicate poverty... and to make this a better world for all. "Do your best for a better world."

Other notes: I've been off the blog radar, but working on consolidating my photography, developing some flash (FLV) video skills at work (watch these PSAs), and thinking about some photojournalistic ideas, on top of wedding planning. But I'm being drawn to tie my media/photography skills and dreams to development work. For a season it has seemed that my desire to make a difference in and through development work was dimmed by the sheer busy-ness of my life and work. Slowly, I've been making investments in time and energy to make this a larger reality in my life.

Technorati Tags: development, poverty, Miniature+Eart, Millennium+Campaign, Stand+Up+Against+Poverty

Photoblog is online

2006-10-04T19:04:29Z

My photoblog is finally up and online. Please have a visit and drop some comments.

The first set of photos are my post-coup shots.

Technorati Tags: photoblog, coup, Bangkok

Bangkok coup blogging part 3

2006-09-20T06:11:49Z

The Thai capital wakes up to a calm and rainy morning after a bloodless military coup overthrew the government.

Some additional information that is being broadcast on Thai TV channels include:

There is a ban on gatherings of 5 people or more.
There are guarantees of safety to international organizations, diplomatic missions (embassies).
The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs has has invited all embassies to an information session at 13.00h (06.00h UTC/GMT) at the Army HQ, where information to be translated in English and distributed. The MFA will also coordinate with all embassies to allow their staff to the meeting.
The ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Ministry is also monitoring telephone lines and possibly internet.

From the beginning of the coup and throughout the night, information has been hard to come by on TV, as all international news stations have been blacked out. Thai TV has also been playing clips of the king interspersed with communiques from the military. As of this morning, Thai TV channels have slowly started their own programs. In the moments before the coup, caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's statement (issued from NYC, as he was attending the UN General Assembly meeting) that was cut off after some 10 minutes. The military had moved into several of the TV stations.

Sources of information
Currently, the Thaivisa.com forums are very active with its many expat and Thai members posting translations of the communiques, information and some analysis of the situation.

I'm also trying to list some fellow bloggers tracking the news, although news from overseas is admittedly the main way I'm following developments here.

TVU networks broadband streaming TV player - only has a limited selection of channels, including CNN.
Steve Cross - my friend who has been blogging about Thailand in general.
Thai Visa forums news clippings.

Technorati Tags: Bangkok, coup, military+coup

Bangkok Coup blogging part 2

2006-09-19T19:47:10Z

Another news announcement. This time from a female news announcer, reading the fourth announcement as well as repeating the previous 3 announcements.

Generally, it was stating that Lt. Gen. Sonthi staged a coup to take over the Prime Minister's office.

Information is hard to come by right now, except for trying to watch streaming news on CNN (I'm trying right now to access via TVU player) - even CNN.com is giving me a gateway timeout - either it's suffering from a slashdot effect, or it's been blocked by censors.

There is a rumor (from pantip.com) and from CNN that mobile phone networks will be shut down in 2 hours (that would be around 3 am or 20.00h UTC/GMT).

Technorati Tags: Bangkok, coup, military+coup

Bangkok Coup blogging

2006-09-19T19:00:42Z

"The Thai military have taken control of the city and a state of emergency has been declared in Bangkok."

- security bulletin received

I'm safe right now, trying to monitor the news, however, the news just got blacked out. On the Thai news TV stations, a short recorded video was just announcement. The loose translation is as follows (thanks to Art):

"The reason why we are doing this is because we want peace back in town. We do not want to replace the current government, but we will give democracy back to the people as soon as possible. However, the rest of the courts have not been removed. No troops will move unless commanded by us. The constitution and the constitutional court has been cancelled. Ministers have been removed from posts. Senators representatives have been annulled."

-Lieutenant General Sonthi Boonyaratglin (Art's translation)
Additional information about the announcement is also on the BBC website here.

I first received a call from Art when I was at the guy's group around, and another one from a colleague alerting me to head home ASAP.

Initial reports were being filed on TV (CNN and BBC World), however, they've since been blanked. The internet seems to be holding up, as I've called my dad and IM'd with several friends and colleagues. It's quite amazing that news spread very quickly. When I was leaving work, my friend told me about some rumors of a demonstration around UN ESCAP. (Note: the UN Bangkok office is next to the Army HQ and is near the Government House.)

Two friends of mine (Jon and Lyd) just had the luck to arrive in Thailand today. I ended up waking them up at their hotel room with news of the coup. So far, we've been told to stay at home, until the situation is further assessed.

More news to follow as things develop, if the infrastructure (international internet) holds up.

Technorati Tags: Bangkok, coup, military+coup

In a Bangkok minute

2006-08-31T17:50:01Z

This past month has been full of friends leaving Bangkok. Although life as an expat is full of these inevitable movements of friends, it is not really easy to see friends go.

Helen, a colleague and friend has left to join her fiancé in London before they get married at the end of the year. Jeb has left for NYC. Mark - who has hosted the guy's group - will be leaving with his kids for a new job in Massachussets; his wife Mari will be following shortly. And tonight's farewell get-together was a send-off for Margaret who is heading to NYC for a post at DPKO. I think that certainly life doesn't really run at New York hyperspeed, but sometimes I wonder. Bangkok has a touch of a bright-light, big-city feel, although its Thai culture (charm to some, curse to others) tempers it down.

Anyhow, this weekend, we will be having some pre-wedding photos done. Thanks to the generosity of John Cordova co-founder of Cha Spa, our photos done on location there will be free of cost. Cha Spa is a beautiful Chinese heritage spa located on Thong Lo Soi 25, specializing in Chinese medicine and Tui Na, a form of Chinese manipulative therapy (i.e. massage) using accupressure techniques. We haven't yet tried out any of the treatments, but with such reasonable prices, we'll try it out soon. I marvelled more on the fact that I live in a small world when I found out that John is a good friend of a friend of mine, Catrin, in London - they are both employed by the same global law firm. She was gracious to let me crash at her place almost two years ago, when I went through London to visit Toronto.

Also, out of gratitude, I'm passing on their flyer for their promo with hu'u.

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Click on thumbnail to view full image. To save image, right click thumbnail and select 'save link as...'

Technorati Tags: Cha+Spa, Tui+Na, massage, Bangkok, expat, hu'u

Asian American (or Canadian) Emergents Skypecast

2006-08-23T12:16:54Z

I was just doing a bit of surfing at DJ Chuang's website/blog today and came across info that he'll be hosting the 2nd Asian American Emergents Skypecast this Sunday, August 27th at 9pm EST (8pm Central / 6pm Pacific / August 28 10 am Bangkok).

Having chatted with DJ Chuang (a good year or two ago now!) about this, I'd really like to converse with him and others some more on what's going on and how Asian-American/Canadian churches have responded and explored these issues. Has our orthodoxy and praxis become more Christ-centered in imaginative ways (that is really what emergent movement is all about, anyhow)?

I do feel that I've been out of the loop having been away from "home" for a while now (3 years this week!), however, I believe the leaders at my church in Bangkok are also grappling with east-meets-west issues somewhat similar to what I've observed within Chinese churches in the Greater Toronto Area.

Anyhow, this is a bit of fortunate timing, as Dan Stine, a good friend of mine and I are considering starting a group to read through some emergent books and prayerfully discuss orthodoxy and praxis.

I hope the word is spread and more people join in. There are 3 questions and 1 article that is the conversation starter on DJ Chuang's post.

Technorati Tags: Asian+American, Asian+Canadian, emergent, emerging+church, skypecast

Bangkok traffic complaint

2006-08-15T18:13:00Z

Writing about Bangkok traffic, complaining about it or otherwise, is like saying "green is... green", or something obvious. Come to think of it, there are probably many reasons to measure traffic in other cities against Bangkok traffic. I'm pretty sure Bangkok is a good metric, since it's such an extreme case (although some colleagues tell me of worse - and personally, I think Jakarta traffic is pretty bad, as well.)

I now live some 6 km away from work, but it's not unusual to take 30 minutes to get to work. And yes I'm thinking of cycling - I've even mapped out a bike route using the Gmaps Pedometer (Thanks Tim - and a possible route here).

One time, the work commute was so bad I had to Google "bangkok traffic flow analysis" as soon as I arrived in the office (this was triggered from a conversation with a colleague who mentioned that the World Bank had done some studies in Bangkok a couple of years back). Unfortunately, there isn't much academic research done in Thailand (western-style research doesn't seem to be very strong here - I think it's a reflection from ingrained Thai cultural and social values), but one of the papers noted that Thai values of "jai yen" (cool hearted) and Buddhist concepts of suffering and fatalism (a bit extreme, but you get the idea) has been a major factor of how slow the government has been attempting to improve traffic (and never mind the relative corruption). Anyhow, I thought that was some good ethnography at work there - and there are many other factors at work that infuriates a westerner like me (at heart).

Well, tonight, I was heading to a gym at Siam Paragon, and it took me 45 minutes (this was the readout under "time spent under 5 km/h" on the taxi meter) to go some 4-5 km. I probably should've walked instead!

Anyhow, I know complaining does squat. However, I really hope there are more studies and real substantive work done towards alleviating the insane traffic in Bangkok. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Technorati Tags: Bangkok, traffic

Blasted Blisters

2006-08-09T13:11:28Z

A new pair of Timberland TravelGear shoes I recently purchased have given me horrendously painful blisters, almost rendering me unable to walk. These shoes are a replacement for a pair of slip-on GEOX work shoes that have stretched too much (perhaps from unsuccessfully navigating flooded Bangkok streets). Those shoes replaced another pair of shoes lost to the gods of Bangkok klongs (canals) as detailed previously. Although the convenience of slip-on shoes are obvious, the changing weather (combinations of sometimes wet, usually humid, and almost always hot) slip-ons get significantly stretched.

So I know shoes need to be broken into, but this was by far one of my more painful experiences. I also realize that the TravelGear line of shoes are nowhere to be found on Timberland's website, or in North American stores, apparently. Even though it won raves, design awards and good reviews from an acquaintance of mine, I really wonder not only why it was taken off their website, but I can barely find any more information about the line. They're still being sold in South-east Asia, however.

So tomorrow, we're heading up to Pai and Chiang Mai for an extra long weekend (Monday is a public holiday) for a much-needed R&R break from (killah!) work. And we'll be doing photography, hopefully some good stuff for our wedding website. My blisters gotten better (after spending much of last night doing heel triage) and I hope they'll be gone by the end of the weekend.

Technorati Tags: timberland, travelgear, blisters, Pai, Chiang+Mai