Improv Everywhere

Recently I came upon a site or rather a blog of a group of people who organise wacky "missions" around the world where their fans or "agents" are available. But most of the time it's held in the US where this kind of gatherings are practically more acceptable. They call themselves IE short for ImprovEverywhere. They claim to be a group of people who "organise fun".


I guess a short introduction of the group would sufficient. The group itself is originally based in New York. The main objective of the group seems to cause joy and chaos in public places and boast to have thousands of agents around the world and have successfully done over 70 "missions".


What amazed me was how I felt when I read all the things they did. Literally, the first thing that seems to came into mind, I am sure it goes the same for everyone else for the first time, the things they do... kinda crazy. But it seems cooler and cooler as I read more and more of the "missions" that they went through. In the end, the whole thing gave me an impression and feeling that "Darn... I am just not living my life eventful and joyful enough".


I mean seriously, imagine yourself attending this "mission" and meeting people and having fun doing them. It's just so amazing it makes me go "Ughh... I wish I could join in".


Some of the famous "missions" are, the No Pants, which they did it like a few times not that it became some sort of celebration of anniversary for them. Basically they all including the "agents" and people who wanted to join in rides the subway and trains without pants, yup... just undies. From what I read, they had some with cops the first few times they did this and for the latest one it was quite well known that cops were actually escorting them and quite friendly compared to the last couple of times. Not my cuppa tea but yeah having a couple hundred people without pants is awesome somehow. Don't ask me why.


Besides that I think the ones that caught my attention the most are the ones that involves big stores and companies. For example, they did a "mission" in BestBuy where they actually got quite a lot of turn outs to wear blue t-shirt and khakis to resemble the BestBuy employee uniform. Mainly the objective is to go in slowly and without being detected and stand in front of aisles and provide assistance to those customers who ask them for it (thinking they are employees of BestBuy). They are also told not to say they are employees when asked but just to politely help the customer. There is a couple of similar "mission". Basically I can sum up that lower level employees are usually either puzzled or amused by it. On the other hand, management and security ALWAYS freak out. Take the BestBuy example, they were running around and talking on the walkie talkie and it involves cops. Seriously, nothing was wrong but they are just taking precautions I guess.


Another nice one is the McD's Bathroom Attendant whereby it involved like only a select few number of people at the area. What they had to do was buy some materials that you usually need when you are in the washroom and basically go into the McD bathroom and stand there and assist people to help them wash their hands, providing soap/anti bacteria solution/hand towel/etc. Which I thought was kinda cool. Seriously, it's a great idea. Why don't fast food joints have bathroom attendants? Most were amazed and amused. As usual, management is puzzled. Basically the funny thing is the manager came in and ask what was going on. The "agents" said they came from HQ to test a new bathroom attendant thing. Not believing them, they called in to HQ and realise that there is no such thing. Since there were nothing offensive or life-threatening, the manager actually thought it was still true and asked maybe they went into the wrong branch. So the "agents" successfully slipped away by agreeing to the manager.


Lots of things you can do in this world. I guess what people need sometimes is a little boost and a good company of people which just makes everything so less awkward, in fact it just might be cool.

Update #2

OK. It's been a while since I wrote something. I was suppose to write some updates on myself for the next couple of post but I guess there have been a lot of things happening that I fear that there might be too many things to cover and there will be too much post and I wouldn't have the time to write them all. So I have decided to cut short everything from where I stopped.


First of all, after two months or so in the new job a lot of things had happen. Some are good some are boring I think. All in all, the biggest news would be my salary was adjusted to a new one which was a 100 bucks more than my original salary. Sweet...


Finally my roomie manage to drag himself to my place and take all of his stuff. Now I have the whole room to myself. I have yet to do anything to it since I am pretty much lazy to move things around so basically I am left with half the room empty still. Probably I will start on it this weekend. Good news is I did wash the bathroom. Sparkle sparkle. Next step would be to plan where should everyting go, vacuum the whole place up and start moving stuffs around. Hopefully I will accomplish this by end of this week. Fingers crossed.


Though I was reluctant to go for the Switchfoot concert that was help two weeks ago, I have to admit I enjoyed myself. Great performance. Really like it when bands change the way their songs go and how they present them during live concerts. The place was indoor and cooling unlike the sweaty smelly stuffy environment of open-air concert. Plus I get to see that everyone I know is still in one piece. Though this could probably remain unnoticed by them but I am really glad that they are fine and doing well even though I have said many unpleasant things about them at times. Again good to see they are alright, that is all that mattered.


After a day or two, I was finally ready to go home to celebrate Chinese New Year (CNY) with my family. Although it's sad to say my brother couldn't make it again this time. Usually he comes after CNY when I am already back at work. This time however he couldn't make it at all since he is busy with his new job as a lecturer. Amazed still at how he can manage to become a lecturer when his temper is just the same as mine, short. The dinner was as usualy, steamboat. I have to say I am pretty much sick of steamboat and won't eat it anywhere else after CNY every year. I had my dose of steamboat for the year, thank you very much. Strange to see that a lot of people ask me why I took leave BEFORE CNY instead of AFTER. Pretty much my family is not the party hardy type. So basically the only hype about CNY is during the preparation, the dinner itself and the visits. There really is nothing much happening in my family after the second day of CNY. End of story.


CNY also marks the first time I had averagely strong alcohol (I don't drink). During the first day of CNY lunch (yes steamboat... again), my dad suddenly recalled that he had a bottle of blue berry wine that was given to him by my brother's father-in-law during one of his visits to Penang. My dad decided to give it a try since it's CNY. Basically when he got the bottle he realized that he didn't have a corkscrew. As you can see my family rarely drinks and rarely needs a corkscrew or a bottle opener. But luckily he remembered he had a Swiss Army Knife in his toolbox that had a corkscrew. I had a glass. I am not sure how being drunk feels like so I can't say I was drunk. I don't think I was at least. The taste was pleasantly acceptable. Bitterish, sourish, smells nice. But after finishing that glass, I started feeling heaty, I felt my heart pumping blood rapidly towards my head making my face kinda red. The veins on my head feels like they are gonna pop. I couldn't last a glass, bummer. I went for a nap and woke up feeling fine. Not drinking ever again... at least not for now.


After CNY I am back at work, projects are mostly done and I am pretty much relaxing the whole day. In fact I am writing this at work right now. Oh yeah I have to say my latest craze today is DiggNation. A podcast talking about the latest news on a site called Digg.com. I feel that user submitted news are much more interesting compared to the boring news I usually see on TV. Basically the show comprises of two hosts who sit at weekly locations and drink beers and wine and talk about the news they have picked. Funny and informative. I 'digg' that.


Finally I am up-to-date with my blog! That was pretty long I guess but judging from how much information is in here I guess it's not bad. Almost forgotten the main topic that pretty much amazed me. No wait... I think I was terrified by it. Last Saturday while having a full stomach from lunch, I decided to take a nap and listen to songs. The earphone I am using is pretty much a standard edition one given along with my Sony Ericsson mobile phone. It basically a average quality earplug type earphone that cancels off some of the surrounding noises. So after dozing off, I had this dream that after taking the earphones off, I was deaf! Totally soundless, I couldn't hear my voice, my heartbeat, swallowing of my saliva and not to mention the surrounding sound. I was screaming my lungs out but nothing came out, not even a vibration at my neck. Then I realize my mom was in front of me, she was saying something but I just couldn't hear anything and I couldn't quite make out what she was trying to say. I tried telling her I can't hear anything but again nothing came out of my mouth. Then I woke up feeling really freaked out and removed my earphone to make sure I can still hear. Phew. I guess I was OK.

Update #1

I guess it's been pretty long since I actually updated anything. Probably so long that it seem to be unforgivable if I were ever to feel sorry or saying I am sorry to my readers (if any) that only writing down two posts for my updates would barely make a decent package of my I'm-Sorry-It-Took-So-Long-to-Update Combo. So I guess I should just do that.


A lot have happened and there seem to be a lot that I wanted to say that I guess it would actually fit more than two posts. Then again to be save and avoid any suicidal attempts among readers for being too bored. Gosh I really don't want my name or even the name of the blog to pop up in newspaper; "Teens kill themselves with blunt objects to avoid boredom from this guy's blog". I think I can imagine that.


Enough shenanigans and on with the real deal. I guess I would stay away from the usual method of arranging all my stuff in a chronology. That would just be too plain boring I guess. Yes I like being different, sue me.


I guess I should start with my hiatus for the past week or so. Basically it's a mix of a lot of things. Life have been surprisingly good. At some point a break for humanity seems to do me a lot of good that in fact I just don't have anything much to complain about. In fact I feel pretty much at peace. Simple as that... that and the stupid insect attack. Not so much of an attack but rather I came into contact with it... while I was asleep... smearing and rolling around it. I took from the wound I received that it didn't like the contact with me either that it actually smeared toxin from the juices in its body all over my body that supposedly according to Wiki is more potent than a cobra venom. No kidding. Anyhow it was nothing new to me. My room IS facing a palm oil plantation and basically I had it before... at least not this bad. This time I was pretty much having blisters on my right knuckles, along my lower back and my left elbow. Rashes or minor ones on my right hand, upper left chest and left forehead. Yes you can imagine how bad it is. Anyhow everything is well and after being paranoid for a week it's all better.


I would probably post some gross pictures of it like in a couple of days time just to show how bad it was and also something pretty funny about the scars that it left. Here I was thinking that the first image was going to be one of my very first art that I am proud of that I make myself but instead it's going to be an image of insect bites. Great. End communication.

Joyous Sin...

Recently there is this idea or rather a proposal that I had for God. Why not make Joy a sin? I mean everyone should be miserable as shit. At one moment I thought I have gone completely insane by thinking so. But slowly my idea only make more sense as time passed. I'm not talking about what good does Joy give to you but rather what your Joy give to others?


I mean I have to admit it, there were times when intense feeling of Joy filled me. But it's long gone along with time. During that time, I have to admit that I forget certain people's well being when I was having the time of my life. There is just so much Joy that somehow it clouded my mind preventing me from thinking about those who needs a little attention from me, a pair of ears to listen to their woes. Sadly I was a jerk and I feel ashame of being joyful.


When I think back the only time I ever turn to people is when I needed something; when I was bored, when I needed a ride, when I needed something done that I can't do. You name it. The times of need brought me closer to people and I was able to share with them my misery and they were able to do so as well. I got a chance to listen to them. But I guess I screw it up everytime I have Joy.


I thought this only happen to me. Sadly it happens everywhere. When people are having the time of their lives, they tend to forget a certain someone that just didn't cry out loud enough to catch their attention. Joy is just too loud.


Part of me felt the need to have Joy. Part of me felt that it's slowly poisoning me and everyone else. Just this mix of emotion that makes me can't seem to decide. Maybe one day I would be able to make the decision. Maybe one day you will be able too. Right now I feel like the person crying out loud to my friend. Now I feel how people might have feel when I forget about them for the joyous moments that shrouded and blinded me. Call me crazy for I feel that I want to let go of Joy and lend you my ears. Would you ever do that for me in my time of dire?

People That Ticks Me Off... 2

Probably this is one of the people I missed out when I was talking about. Probably being the most harmless yet irritating at the same time. I would call this dumb if the word even fits him but then it would only be a disgrace to those who are dumb not by their own actions but fate itself.


Probably dumb would be a word best combine in a pot of gumbo full of words that would normally have taken a blow at the person who holds them individually. I guess dumb would be the word best describing a person who would probably be unaware of what is up and what is down. But to be someone who knows the meanings of those two simply words and still do mistakes regarding them keeps me in a speechless mode that goes on for the rest of the week.


I just came back from a lousy day I might say. Though in reality nothing bad actually happened. I had a great chat with people I want to chat with. I guess that really make my day. Now I am not someone who believes in superstitious stuffs but I guess the incident today proves me wrong. I was complaining to my friend about how bad the past couple of days were. Especially with a pair of sore legs. The thought of it keeps me out of focus for the whole day each time I took a step and stretch the muscles in my leg. I wouldn't say it excruciating but it does hit the spot in my mind. To add to the leg issue, I realized my upper chest, my right hand and left forehead is covered in blemishes with blister-like pain when rubbed. Most probably due to insect bites. I wouldn't go into that since it's going to be extinct anyways in a couple of months so why bother right?


Well basically that was pretty bad luck for me to have them all at the same time. I told my friend I was having some bad luck this couple of days. I of course was just kidding. But I guess the laughter stops when I took a step out. Planning to take my daily detour to the food area in my workplace, I took the left path instead of the right which leads me back home. Just a couple of steps and I heard it... the weird tapping sound as though small small objects dropping on metal sheets. Indeed what I heard was none other that what I feared most (I don't like bringing umbrella so I don't prefer rain)... yup rain. I mean talk about coincidence. It wasn't heavy at that time so I decided to cut the plan of getting dinner of my to-do list and head back fast before it gets heavier. It did indeed get heavier... while I was halfway back. Honestly I think I am having a shit load of bad luck. I need I guess purify my luck? Or some sort I don't know.


Anyways the post wasn't suppose to be about this yet it still takes up three quarter of the post. Weird stuff happens. Anyhow I was already not in the mood. I went in the elevator and press the button for my floor. After a couple of floors came in this guy with towel, short pants and a used t-shirt.... going up? Let me tell you this... a person carrying a towel, wearing short pants and t-shirt don't go up unless they are soaking wet. Basically you can guess from the look of him, he is going for the pool. But wait there is no pool upstairs. Great... though it didn't bother my trip to my floor (it did actually since my elevator ride had to stop and let him in so I just let that go, no biggie), the thought of how people think that being in the elevator on a pointless ride up and then back down can be of any help to them in shortening they travel time to the pool.


I am sorry but I just don't see the logic of it. How on earth does going up, press the ground floor button (oppsss wrong button) and lower ground button, arriving on the 11th floor (*ding* buttons reset) and again pressing the lower ground button (I am assuming that he didn't make the same mistake again) be any faster than wait for the elevator on his floor like every other people and just pressing the lower ground button once.


I am not trying to be whinny or anything but it just makes me speechless. I have only the right to assume that:

1. He don't know which button is up and which button is down
2. He don't know what is up and what is down
3. He thinks the pool is upstairs and only realizing it when it reached my floor
4. He REALLY thinks the pool is upstairs
5. He would probably have had quantum physics major and somehow calculated that going up and down again is faster than going down only.
6. He watched too much Narnia-like stories and thinks that the upper floor has a magical portal to a breath-taking swimming pool in another world.
7. He is just another typical dumbass who just can't wait for elevators and pressed both up and down button cause he think he owns the elevator and God I also think he might think that he owns my couple of seconds that he wasted just to let him in the elevator for a joyride.

You decide I guess which person is he. I know which one I am picking.

New Year 2008...

Strangely the fuss wasn't there this year. I asked a couple of people and practically they weren't interested or lazy to go out anyways. I guess after so many years of hyping over it makes it kinda dull somehow.


For me new year is a terrifying thing... at least that's how it is in my thoughts. Basically new year just brings me closer to a lot of deaths and endings. If new year is the start of a new chapter, then the epilogue is just around the corner.


Lately by my own observations, it seems like the end is getting closer by the minute. There is just so much restlessness in the world. Freak accidents, clashes between piles of flesh we call human, natural disasters happening at awkward times, so much signs. There is just so much uneasiness in the world it felt like the world is giving out it's last will.


Trust me, I wish I was wrong, I really want to live forever. But then again it's impossible with the current situation. Everything, if I predicted correctly will fall apart in a matter of years. I hope my couple of years will be meaningful and I hope that I don't owe anyone anything by then. Preparation underway.

Art In Me...

Recently like I have said, there have been a spark that is tingling around my mind especially in the area where art ideas and interests are coming from. Part of the reason is I was fortunate enough to meet two things in my life recently. One living, one well... not alive you might say. First would be a book, I've never said anything about it before but there are a few artists, whether it may be fantasy artists or comic artists, but there are a few of them that I really really admire and I do follow their work. No... I don't remember their titles and stuff, but just from looking at them I know it's their work.


One of them would have to be Alex Ross. There really is no set of words that can describe his work. Basically he is a comic book artist, or rather a comic book painter to be more specific. The interesting thing that sparked my interest is his airbrush works. Seriously, you have not seen The Flash, Shazam, Justice League and many other famous characters till you see his artwork. Most of the time, they pretty much look alive as if it was a photo. I remember when I first see his work it took me a while to realize they were drawn and colored instead of a photo with effects. Really really amazing artwork from him.
Some example artwork in Wiki

Second guy would be Imperial Boy. Nope it's not his real name... d'oh. I am not very sure what his real name is, been looking for it but failed. Probably because I don't read Japanese. Yup the guy is a Japanese manga artist. His work is breathtaking and detailed, the colors are usually very milky soft tones, Wow... just wow. Basically what really makes me go nuts over his work is the background. His landscape and background work is amazing. Usually his artwork consist of characters drawn in a pretty normal and dull way but the background is simply amazing which really makes me speechless sometimes. Now when I say drawn in a pretty dull and normal way doesn't mean his character sucks, just that his landscapes/scenery/background really just makes me speechless each time. In fact I stumbled upon some of his work in a famous book that I wanted so badly last time in MPH. Bought it and it was great. The book is titled Robot Volume 2. Basically it's a collection of works by many young current manga artist with they really really really amazing work.
Some example of his work in Wiki
Some example artworks from robot magazine/book
Another site with robot magazine/book stuff


Another artist caught my attention recently and I have practically downloaded his tutorial videos and I watched it and it was really really great. The guy I am talking about is Carlos Cabrera. Practically the guy does digital artwork mainly most of the ones I saw was using Photoshop. Really amazing work. Most of his videos which are an hour to two hours long shows how a blob of nothingness turns to an amazing art. Don't really know much about him but he seems to have a lot of projects from pretty famous companies. Some of his works are in fact for games and advertisements. His works are usually concept art, fantasy themed, monsters etc. That kinda stuffs. And the artwork really looks amazing.
Example of his artworks in his portfolio

I wish I am as good at these artists. Hopefully one day. Living here, specifically in this country really doesn't spark much motivation for me to come up with ideas on what to draw in the first place. I don't know why but everything seems so geometrically straight and dull and artificial. I want curves and a sense of nature. But then I still try my best to get myself going sometimes. Just want to be a bit more hardworking in it, that's all I ask for.