Artist Walter Martin and Palmoa Munoz construct eerie detailed artistic scenes inside of snow globes. They sculpt miniature figures set in snowy outside scenes that depict sometimes horrible situations. Each snow globe tells a story and it’s up to the viewer to fill in the blanks of those stories. Some of these miniature people seem trapped in a fairy-tale like story. Traditional snow globes house relaxing winter scenes of Evergreen trees, snow-capped houses and horse drawn carriages, however, these haunting snow globes tell a different story. If that doesn’t leave you shaken and stirred, then I don’t know what will.

To view more of Martin-Munoz’s works, check out at www.martin-munoz.com.

If you are not in mood for Christmas cheers, these creepy snow globes are perfect for you. You can have it for about $750 if you look for it via internet somewhere.

Sources: Gizmodo, Dvice, InventorSpot.

Mad Props to David Friedman for coming up with this incredibly clever idea for a bar name, The Progress Bar. Ideally, this bar could be a great addition to the newly constructed Park Point complex at Rochester Institute of Technology campus. Apparently, we spend too much time on our computers as it is, but I think this bar is a good way to vent and get loose. I’ll have to ask David for his permission to pitch this idea to somebody in charge of the Park Point. David Friedman’s blog is at Iconic Sans.

I’ve been meaning to post this blog about Japanese seafood buffet restaurant called Minado a while ago. My girlfriend and I went to New York City for our Christmas shopping for about a week while visiting our friends there. Well, yeah before I got really broke, we decided to do the final damage to my wallet at pricey Minado, which is located on the Long Island (Carle Place, NY), to satisfy our sushi fix before heading back home to Rochester, NY on the next day. It was well worth the trip.

Minado serves a variety of all you can eat dishes including sushi, tempura, beef or chicken teriyaki, barbecue ribs, savory udon noodles, and meaty selections of seafood. Don’t forget about delicious Japanese salad and desserts as well. The bite size sushi allow to try different ones til you’ve had your fill of ‘em.

Of course, the “buffet” term may cringe some because of quantity-graded foods that you would normally find anywhere else. You don’t often align the words like fresh and quality together when it comes to buffet, but it really does at Minado. The buffet foods are being replaced constantly before they even lose any freshness just to maintain its high-quality reputation. As a proof of this, I’ve snapped few pictures before having my camera banned (which is quite surprising).

www.minado.com

These Japanese dancers can really move and they be poppin’ too.  Seriously, the moves at the end are among my favorites and it left me awestruck. Watch and y’all be trippy, yo!

I’m sure you probably have already heard of Free Hugs movement that began in 2004 by Juan Mann, right? Well, it has already reached the part of Asian countries long before even as I started blogging about this. For now, I’ll just talk about what the Westerners are most familiar with, which are Japan, Korea, and China. Needless to say, these countries are aptly known as the “East.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be a cultural anthropologist or even pretending to be one, but I do know the real significance of public display of affections in the Asian countries. The Asian countries are generally not touch oriented societies and that hugging in the public is relatively new to them in their respective countries.

Maybe it’s because in recent years, the Western and contemporary values and ideas have become more popular and has either influenced, altered, and even replaced, some of the more traditional gestures. So, understanding human behavior is tricky stuff. We see a lot of Western-influences in Japan and South Korea, but not so much in China (except perhaps for Hong Kong).

Hugging may be universal, or at least the Olympic events proved that, but it appears to me that Westerners are more willing to give hugs than Asian people in their respective countries as you will notice in some of the videoclips below. These videoclips will show Free Hugs movement that took place in Japan, South Korea, and China. Watch and see how these people react bit differently in each of their countries.

Free Hugs in Japan

Free Hugs in South Korea

Free Hugs in China (this guy got arrested at the end of this videoclip)

As the global village continues to shrink and cultures collide, it is essential for all of us to become more sensitive, more aware, and more observant to the myriad motions, gestures, and body language that surround us each day. And as many of us cross over cultural borders, it would be fitting for us to respect, learn, and understand more about the effective, yet powerful “silent language” of gestures as hugging.

If you think you have an idea for the next big Reality TV, then there’s a chance that your big idea could be bought directly from John de Mol, the big-time producer who brought us Deal or No Deal, Fear Factor, and Big Brother. He is looking to solicit the concepts from people like you for the next “big” reality TV. Interested? You can participate by submitting your ideas or responding to focused creativity assignments at TalpaCreative.com. According to John de Mol, there is no cap (no limit) to how much you could potentially be making from this.

Source: Usatoday.com

I marvel this at freshome.com and it’s quite mind-boggling. Here goes:

According to the less alarming forecasts of the GIEC (Intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th Century). As a solution to this alarming problem architect Vincent Callebaut came up with this ecotectural marvel that could serve as a luxurious future retreat for 50,000 inhabitants seeking refuge from rising waters due to global warming. He believes the world will be desperately seeking shelter from the devastations of climate change, and hopes the auto-sufficient amphibious city will serve as a luxurious solution. To bad that right now we are close to 7 billion people and this luxurious future retreat is just for 50,000 inhabitants ( just for rich people ).

Vincent Callebaut called this project “Lilypad“, but this ecotectural marvel is also called as “Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees”. The whole structure is covered in green walls and roofs, the top portion covered in grasses with the inner portion featuring a palm oasis, and the under portion serving as a bed for natural sea planktons and oceanic plants. Finally if you were already planning to reserve a place to this luxurious future retreat stay calm, because Vincent Callebaut hopes that “Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees” will make the transition from design to reality around the year 2100

This hermit blogger here will be making a-comeback to the blogosphere after a 2 years hiatus. Where have I been? Well, let me just say that lot has happened since then and has been absorbed by it. I won’t be bothering you with mundane details, really it’s mostly mundane stuff honestly (blah! I’m using too many adverbs here, please don’t mind ‘em or my faulty grammar for that matter either). Already a self-depreciating, am I huh?

Anyhoo, let me start off with some topics that might catch your fancy. I could start off with some Asian-themed topics simply because I am simply an Asian guy. I could do the food blog here because I absolutely relish every good foods. I could even try to garner a traffic into here by being more controversial blogger, but nah, I couldn’t dare to do that because it’s not me. I’m sure that by time you’re reading this, you’re probably getting to the point where you’re saying, “come on, what’s your point? you’re mumbling nonesense…” You’re probably right, I am. And I won’t waste any more of your precious time and get right to the point. The point is I don’t even know where to begin.

Ah! I could even do some words playing like this, “my tennis racket slices through the air, rams the poor fuzzy yellow ball over the fence and shaving its fuzzy hair as it hits the court floor at the speed of sound…” How’s that? Nah? Okay hmm.

Sorry guys, I attempt to be a coherent blogger with a pathetic effort to impress those who even care. Thank you for staying with me until the end of this blog. I shall do my best to keep your curious mind fanciful with my amusement. I think I shall do mostly Asian and Food (sometime both at the same time) blogging from now on. Hm.. ah and the movies as well. I love a good lively debate.

Nonetheless… I’m back! *fists to the chest* Word! *grabs crotch* unh!