Godzilla!

Self-explanatory

Lucky 7's

Icy road ahead

Ignorance is bliss?

Hey. This will be the inaugural post of my revived blog. I used to blog before, but stopped for a while. All the older posts that I wrote are still intact on this blog and probably won't be going anywhere for the foreseeable future. After all, no matter where you go in life, don't forget where you came from! If I do forget where I came from or what I was like in the past, I can just take a look at past posts to reminisce and draw reference.

I've decided to write again, but this time with a little theme to it. As you can see from the title, I am an ignorant Asian person. This blog will, therefore, be used to celebrate one of the few things I am good at - being ignorant and pointing out other people's ignorance.  While it is impossible to know everything there is to know under the sun, there are some pieces of knowledge that the common folk should know or are better off knowing.  Hopefully,  after writing some of this material, I will be a little less ignorant.  And hopefully, after reading prose that I wrote, you can take a little of your own ignorance away...  Socrates was wise in that he knew of his own ignorance (knew that he did not know).  Once we acknowledge our own ignorance, we can truly begin to learn.  

Learn we shall and the first thing to learn is that this blog is entitled "The IgnorAsian" and it is not to ge confused with the word ignoranus.  Yes, "ignoranus" has long been a popular term for one who is at the same time ignorant and an ass.  I wouldn't call myself an ignoranus because though I am a bit ignorant about a lot of things, I try to be a person of humility and treat others with respect.  I know that each and every person out there has their own talents and can probably outdo me in many things so I don't look down on anybody...that is unless they are a lot shorter than I am, which requires my looking down on them to see them.  

Ahem.  Well, that was a lame stab at humor... Ha, you see now that humor is also a thing I'm ignorant of....  

Anyway, this  blog will be about my ignorance as well as other people's ignorance that I see, either online or around my city of residence - Chicago, Illinois.  Speaking of ignorance, I am totally oblivious as to why the city of Chicago has raised its sales tax to a nation-leading 10.25%. I mean I know that the city is in need of money so it raises taxes, but isn't there any other way? Is corruption really to blame for all the deficits in our budgets?   New York is the largest city in the country and yet they have a sales tax of ~8%.  I don't know the answers to the outrageous taxing going on in Chicago at the moment, but maybe someone out in cyberspace can enlighten me.  

Ah, now I realize that I have completely ignored the original title going into this post. "Ignorance is bliss."  It probably originated from some famous intellectual, but the place I remember it from is the movie "The Matrix" as spoken by the character Cypher.  ***I'm not keen on how accurate my facts are so if any good patron is willing to correct my mistakes, I'd be much obliged.***  Now it is better to not know some things, but there are also those things that we should know.  When I say "should,"  I mean that it is requisite to a harmonious existence.  There will be things that other people want you to know in order to get the full effect.  Hence the expression, "You had to be there!" or "Wish you were here."  

Experiences shape our lives and although we would like for all our loved ones to experience all our happy and sad times, it is not possible.  Some people will have opportunities that others will not whether it be enlightening conversations, eye-opening shows, or anythin you can name.  I'm sure if you've lived long enough to be "happy" with where you are, you will have experienced things that you'd want to share with others, be it through story or photos or any other form of expression.  

It is precisely the kind of sentiment in the previous paragraph that I have also tacked on a paypal donation button on this blog.  If there is some kind of experience that you, the reader, would like for me (or anybody I can come in contact with) to also experience, you can donate in any denomination to my "Anti-ignorance fund" by using the donation button and sending funds to my paypal account.  

Now you may wonder why I call it the "Anti-ignorance fund."  I call it that because it is a fund that will be used to afford a person the chance to experience things that they may not usually experience in their regular lives.  Such experiences are only limited by what the reader comes up with.  It can range from eating a specific dish from a fine restaurant to heading out to a show that one wouldn't usually watch, etc.  

Donations and suggestions are welcome, but know that it is a donation and not a business transaction.  Donations do not constitute legally binding contracts for acts, services or products of any kind; they are given as gifts and will be consumed in a manner that is deemed fit by me or whoever I decide to transfer the gift to.  

Ignorance is bliss in some situations, but in others, not.  The donation thing is something that I'm experimenting on.  If you like that idea, you can put one up on your own blog... There are actually many greater causes you can donate your money to so I won't act like my cause is is more worthy than any other.  

Just throwing it out there and letting ignorance recede....           

           

          

Garage sale

Helping out with some free advertising

Handicapped beauty

A pictures paints more than a thousand words

Recently, I've grown fond of photographing things around me. My foray into photography (albeit amateur at best) got jumpstarted by a request for photos of food from the The Taste of Chicago. Now I take pictures of whatever comes across as interesting. Well, I also take pictures of any information that I need to remember since I can just refer to the photo and zoom in on the detail that I'm looking for. This sure beats writing everything down!

Um, I don't actually have much to write about... Just wanted to promote my photostream on flickr.com

Here it is: Xin's photostream

Anybody can view and comment on the photos so be sure to check them out! All the photos were taken with my trusty K800i and are mostly untouched (spruced up pics will be tagged)
That's all for now.

Fantastic finding: fine-feathered friend foraging for food

I don't know who did it, but nice looking painting.