743 Skateboard

Sometimes very suddenly I come to understand what I wish to do. For this couple of days all of a sudden, skateboarding have been standing out in my mind, since I saw some skateboarders practicing in a quiet and comfortable evening at the large park in front of a museum. I have never experienced it and I know I have been wishing if I could play it. I have been wishing to do certain kind of things, from horseback riding to flying a helicopter. I don't say I will never be able to experience those, but it's true they are something that I cannot enjoy today. How about skateboarding? I'm sure I cannot play it today in terms of my skill, but it's really something that I can try now if I want. 

Skateboard itself looks nice to me. It's always the one of the coolest street icons and at the same time it's portable, familiar, and super simple. It makes me somewhat happy when I see people holding it in their arms, as if the board is a good friend, a team, a buddy. Maybe snowboard or surfboard might be such thing to those who play it, but the skateboard sounds more convenient, casual, friendly, and airy, while it's always edgy. If I really want to try it, why not?  

742 A tale in the Air #2

The plane started to descend. I make it a rule to listen to music during take off or landing. I was listening to my iPod playlist. The tune "Around the World" by Daft Punk, one of the finest dance music in the past 20 years, started. Instantly a very funny, hilarious idea came to my mind, that it would be super cool if every passengers in the airplane starts to dance to the music, in the air, especially in those limited allocated space with sitting on the seat. The idea kept captured my mind and made my flight much more happy. That will be really fun. I always believe any people can dance to its own style if the music is excellent, and people can do it if they are on airplane, in a elevator, in classroom, or at the crossing in the busy street.        

741 A tale in the Air #1

I seldom fail to get the window side seat in airplane because more than half of the delight in flight is to watch the sky from the window all through the trip. But sometimes I came across a new angle by not having that privileged seat. The other day I found myself sitting in the mid-seat and next to a large, stout man. I was bit disappointed and felt so selfish as to think that his large head and body might almost hide the scene from the window. 

However, shortly I noticed how he was thoughtful --- even if he was curling up in a small economy seat, he always fold his arms and kept it crossed, so that I was able to use the armrest between us, without stress. I was interested in him and kept watching. The plane started to move forward to the taxing way and as always, several technical crews and ground staffs are waving to the airplane wishing the safety of the flight, the usual sight which most of the passengers doesn't care much any longer, and surprisingly he smiled a bit and waved back his hand for a very short time. Maybe they didn't notice it but it made me look at him with more interest and sympathy, as I am also the one who dares to wave back.  

Minutes later I was reading an inflight magazine and found it interesting, I put it into my bag for further reading after the flight. He noticed it and instantly (as if he was encouraged by my action) called the cabin attendant and asked if he could take the clean one if any. I have no problem bringing back an used inflight magazine but he seemed to have more delicate taste.

The plane was about to pass the high mountain in the dusk light. I wished to shoot one picture and asked him to allow me to stretch my arm with my iPhone to reach out to the window. He nodded to show full agreement and I took this photo.

It is not always nice to know people who is a total stranger, but sometimes I have good luck to be good at it in airplane.

740 Redefine Yourself

I had an interesting conversation with my friend the other day. Both of us are in mid-late 30's and both of us feel like that the inner growth of our identity, sense of value, or the way we see the world or ourselves, has not been changed so much in the last 10+ years. In a sense it's a truth that each of us probably have one and only certain, stable identity that will not change easily, but I noticed through our discussion that the sense of "growth-stop" was around the time we started working. It's likely that we had no choice to prepare our "grown-up" self that would well fit to the society, organization and community and for a long time we have been serving as a diligent workers and as a good citizen as "grown-up". 

It's so truth again, but do we have to keep this? It might be also true that the we build and fix our own "grown-up" framework of our identity and then move on to sort of stick to it, to get along with so many life events off and on. 

I don't mean it's sad to learn to train yourself in the workplace and establish your own image of a good businessperson or any kind of worker but that might fall into the idea that makes you think yourself a bit conservative. If you face a difficult task in your project, you know well that it takes you a lot of time and effort from your experience. You will just stand up to undertake it just to deal with it (to the extent it is required). You do not apply suck idea that your experience, skill and talent actually makes you a bit greater than you feel, and you might have a good chance to end up with doing a great job that you never imagined. 

We have limit, physically and mentally, that's for sure. But I feel we can always redefine ourselves and have more faith in what we do and say. I hope we do not keep tied up to the self image that we created at the very initial stage of our professional life, and our personal life. A car might fly and we might be the one who is beyond our expectation. 

739 Transparent Transportation

We spend most of our living time in buildings. Sure, we walk on the street or climb the mountain, and jump in the sea sometimes. But now, I'm writing this in my place and you might be reading this in office, store, theatre, classroom, locker room, cafe, or baggage claim. We live in building. But it's also true that we spend good amount of our lifetime in transportation. Everyday we get on the bus, train, taxi or airplane. It's a happy feeling for me to move in such speed that is much beyond my physical ability (airplane can bring me further to the extent I am free even from gravity). When we are in transportation we are out of building. It's 

So I sometimes imagine it would be fantastic if all the transportation we use has glass roof or glass wall and we can always enjoy seeing the sky and outside world once we get on board the transportation, once we are out of our routine life inside building. 

738 Butterfly

In my childhood I used to learn swimming. I never wanted to become an athlete in swimming and frankly didn't like to swim in the sea or river. But I remember I did like one or two of specific features in my little swimming days. That feeling was the one and only sense of speed and dynamics that human can only experience in water. I especially liked the two ; one is the accelerated and exciting speed experience when I strongly kick the walls in the water to make a turn, and the other is the uplifting feeling of when I swim butterfly. To a little kid butterfly seemed to be the most difficult and complicated way of swimming - and so I hated to practice it at first, but shortly I got excited to learn swim it. 

Butterfly swim looks very powerful and straightforward. It creates the biggest splash with a powerful move of arms and shoulders. The mechanism is based on the smooth joint of waist and legs that leads to "dolphin" kick. In this form you can feel the stream of water and the sense of riding on the wave you create, which is a really nice feeling. One thing I wonder and cannot understand is why the name is butterfly, not dolphin.      

737 A Cut of Diamond

I love travel, no matter how short it may be. In a way I love the sense of travel as an extraordinary moment in ordinary life. The clear contrast of ordinary life, my everyday place, my role and my stable base, and the sense of being a stranger, an adventurer, a photo-journalist, and above all, a pure child who can be embrace and enjoy everything. I always feel that one trip is like one cut of diamond. Travel is like to shape and sharpen my mind from a rough stone one by one, so that I can find something really precious and wonderful. A trip may be short and sometimes not so brilliant, but it always ends up with making me feel like I have got a swoop of refinement each time.