I wouldn't have chosen the same feature wall for my garden: The Great Wall of China. China in pictures coz a picture is a thousand words. Check out a selection of my pics from my recent trip.
a dj ho production

First "Ho Ho Gifts". Now "Ho's fashion" in Hong Kong/China. Next Ho Corporation. H.R.E.A.M (Ho.Rules.Everything.Around.Me)
a dj ho production

Oh to be an emperor! To have your own life-size army collection, all with different individual faces and the power to bury the maker of the statue ALIVE with you so.
a dj ho production

Alien Invasion: The martians have set up. I've seen the future y'all and its Shanghai
a dj ho production

I think i got ripped off, cause this Church only has the front wall! The ruins of St. Paul.
a dj ho production

African Chicken: this stuff is good. A fusion dish @ Solmar in Macau.
a dj ho production

Representin': Local Shanghai Graffiti
a dj ho production

It's Roc tha Bloc 2, Ho down special: A local Jam Session in Xian China.
a dj ho production

What's not cool
* Feeling exhausted/collapsing after playing at the KGV, going to your GF's house, vomiting, going home and vomiting some more.

* Going out on the second day A.V. (after vomit) and downing a Corona as well as a VB tinny.

* NRL players going on a drunken rampage whilst thinking that they can get with any female they feel like (oh wait, weren't the Bulldogs the same?).

* Sending more troops to Iraq.......why? This is dangerous & pointless.

* Spending all day analysing numbers

* Falun Dafa interactive demonstration at Martin Place

What's Cool

* Martin Place as a bump into a you-know-who place. I've bumped into 5 people in the last two days.

* Ben Gordon blowing up like he's Rookie of the Year. Emeka who?

* My new blog format - Pictures, new layout, blogger comments, site counter (at the bottom) which shows 118 visitors since Feb 9th - that's 7 hits a day. I'm doing this for you guys/gals you know. I think i'm spoiling you guys with all these new features.

Question of the day: Do you agree with John Howard sending more Aussie Troops to Iraq? Is this stupid? Vent your frustration!

It's a bird, its a plane, ............it's JOSH SMITH?! How awesome was this dunk. Kid skywalked right over K-Mart who threw a perfect lob, then to top it off, windmilled it home. Oh baby! We have a new dunk champion. BTW have you seen Vince Carter's self alley oop while on the fastbreak? That's elevation baby. If only there was a dunk off between Vince Carter, Josh Smith, J-Rich, Lebron.
 

A different angle. Here you can see him preparing for the windmill. JS can really get up. Did you see also his windmill dunk from outside the key ala Dominque style? Truly awesome. Or the 360 reverse windmill.  

Yes I can, Yes I can....

I can't think. I can't do it. What's going on?. F@#&! Arghhhhh! This is the worst basketball game i've ever played. Please don't pass me the ball. Just let me hide in the corner. Let me guard their worst player so i can at least look average. Don't let my friends see me! This is really embarrassing........
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Sometimes its just not your day.
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Jamie gets another rebound again. And again. Someone screams "grab the rebounds. Two hands!" Their WORST player starts taking me on. I can't do anything right. Please Lord just let ONE shot go in.
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After two tiring games with no success, the fellas ponder whether they should bother guarding "number 32", that Asian guy who seems to be getting worse by the minute.
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Playing basketball is a state of mind. Jamie's and Drazen's voices keep ringing in my head: "It's all a state of mind. You gotta believe that those shots are gonna go in". New game. Let's start afresh again. Gotta psyche myself up.
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I cut hard towards the basket. They chuck me the ball and I instinctively shoot the turnaround J. Money. Will screams: "Don't let him get position".
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I can do this. That was easy.
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They get me the ball again on the opposite side. Hookshot. Second shot goes in.
I feel like a possessed man, doing best impersonation of Rodman and grab the next two rebounds and put them back in. Another turnaround jumpshot. Seemingly i am everywhere. Someone screams "who's guarding 32!?!". Yousef, a confident player with excellent dribbling skills walks up to me.

Yousef: "How tall are you man?"
We stand back to back. He sizes me up.
Yousef: "We're the same height. So why are they throwing the ball to you like your Shaq?"

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I'm just feeling it. I''m on fire baby. I've hit like 6 shots IN A ROW including my first three pointer of the game. If there ever was a time i was in the zone, it is now.
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Next possession. Yousef walks up to me "Let me guard this guy. One possession".
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I immediately call for the ball. Fake right, spin left. Pump fake. He doesn't bite. But i release anyway. Ball rolls around the rim, spins out. I've missed, but my confidence is back.
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They changed the matchups, putting a burlier, more physical defender Bruno on me. He's able to deny me posession a few times and he's very active bumping me. I still hit a couple of shots but not so many are going in. DJ Ho's Play of the day: Bruno recieves a pass on the left baseline and goes hard to the basket. He attempts a fingerroll from just below the backboard.
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Where's Bruno? Oh no there he is!
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Like an eagle I swoop in. Bruno doesn't see me coming. I reach out, with my right hand at full extension and knock the ball out of his hands. Ben Wallace eat your heart out! The message has been sent. # 32 is a force to be reckoned with. (Well at least temporarily).
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Was this a dream? Did this really happen? Did i have too many drinks the night b4? Was I in the zone ala Michael Jordan 1988 against the Boston Celtics style?
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Perhaps the biggest respect that i got was from my fellow players and opponents. after the game. Drazen says to me "you were playing really well. First half not so good. Second half you shooting really well".
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Next challenge: KGV this Sunday. Can I do it? Who will I be?

The Alkaholics

Seriously now, what i want to know is, why do many of us drink beer/wine/spirits?

I can honestly say i don't enjoy the taste of any of that stuff. Sure its an "acquired taste" but its gonna take me a lotta drinks to really enjoy a beer!

Check this story from the staff xmas party ages ago. I had my first taste of white wine and it tasted like so bad. It had this texture of paint thinner with this really strong kick in it. In my mind, i was thinking "who drinks this crap? it tastes off". The other people drinking it (who were much more experienced drinking wine that i was) were like "this is disgusting. It has this full fruity flavour". Someone else started drinking it and they were like "this is really good! What are you guys talking about?". Either the majority of us are just uncultured animals that don't go dine at exquisite places or that guy likes drinking paint thinner that's been put into a wine bottle.

Why do people drink? I think its party/cultural thing. Many of us wouldn't drink by ourselves in the comfort of our own home. Its really when there is some social occassion (gathering, going out) that we really get stuck into this brown water. It just happens that whenever you go to a club/bar/pub everyone's drinking and I think "if everyone else is drinking, i might as well too. I don't want to look like some kind of wimp!".

I went to this hip joint "Bungalow 8" last night, which seemed like a happening place. Picture the scene: Dark, mood lighting, candles on tables, looking out onto the harbour, fire flickering from the posts outside the entrance, attractive people dressed to impressed on a friday night having exotic drinks like "malibu and pineapple".

It seemed like the drink of choice was this thing called a "corona" with a slice of lemon shoved into the top of the bottle. Did it taste good? Ummmmmm.....i guess its another one of those "acquired tastes"! Did it get any better with the second drink? I must admit it does taste better than beer because of the sweetness of the lemon.

What someone needs to develop is a good tasting alcoholic beverage - wait they have those - girlie drinks lol. Now you can't be caught drinking one of them can you. That'd just be breaking every male taboo, a sure sign of weakness if you downed of them with their extremely low alcoholic content and high levels of sweetness.

Now tell me, why do we drink in the first place?

Bboys and Bgirls

Introducing the latest b-boy on the scene ............. Kaotic (my lil bro). Here is his review of the OZ B-boy championships 2005 held in Glebe, Sydney last month.

" There are so many words I could use to describe the Oz Bboy Champs but I'll just use one....DOPE!!!!!! The crews were all awesome, especially Fresh Sox from Melbourne (the winners). The other crews were all dope they included Kosmosis (ACT), All Consciousness (NSW), Nervous Breakdown (NSW), Street Kulture Breakers (NSW), Mass Mayhem (Mel), Zou Rok (WA) and Cruise Control (SA). Props to the host Afrika Islam (one of the original Bboys from Rocksteady Crew) and the awesome Judges Juse Boogy and Domes (Massive Monkees, USA) and Katsu (Style Vale Tudo, Japan).

The Bgirl Comp was cool too, i forget the name of the winner I think it was Bgirl Kia or something all i remember is she had a dope set with a round off-backflip and then one hand hops (!!!). I've never seen any other Bgirls in the world do that, so that was sick! Anyway overall the event was just awesome, even though the turnout was quite small since the bboy scene is still small... but its up and coming!"

I've posted up some photos below of him doing his stuff. He trains every week at the local YMCA finetuning his craft. A true professional! Enjoy the pics.

don't try this at home folks  

where's the water: diving into thin air 

Ahhhhhh, i'm about to hit the groundthe butterfly walk 

Some interesting yet random stuff

Firstly, did anyone know that Rass Kass (the rapper) just got released from jail? Or the fact that he went to jail for 19 months? I had no idea until i read a blog by obifromthesouth, who has a really funny blog btw. I'm seriously so behind in the rap scene, i need to pick up a copy of The Source or soemthing.

Secondly, who remembers the "he's pumping up the shoes" and the no look dunk made famous by Dee Brown? . Check out Dimemag for the latest interview with the dunking legend who put Reebok pumps on the map (which incidentally are coming back)

Speaking of dunks, you gotta check out the NBA website which has selected some of the best dunks in each dunking contest era. You need a superfast computer which i thankfully have, and you can watch and review dunks Dr J, Spud Webb, Jordan, Dee Brown, Harold Miner and you'll soon have the urge to play bball and wish you had 48 inch hops.

You know how you might bet something stupid/ridiculous soemtimes to your mates yet never follow through with it? Well this guy gives new meaning to this practice by LITERALLY doing it.......find out more click here or just read below.....

" Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at a social club, "If Wales win I'll cut my balls off," the paper said.

Friends at the club in Caerphilly, south Wales, thought he was joking.
But after the game Huish went home, severed his testicles with a knife, and walked 200 yards back to the bar with the testicles to show the shocked drinkers what he had done. "

Ewwwwwwwwwww. Gross. Guess no one could say he doesn't have balls or can they? hahaha.

On a different note, I'll be starting work soon - Monday in fact. I'm contemplating several things.
1. What should i spend my first paycheck on? I'm considering spending it on a Playstation 2 or a new basketball ring (so i can practice my MJ free throw line dunk).
2. What should i wear? How should i act? Importantly, when do i get PAID!!!

Should i have majored in finance instead of accounting? Looking at the awesome jobs that Ip/Chris have, maybe i should do a course such as the Graduate Certificate at the Securities Institute. I've been eyeing it for a while and have spoken to one of their peoples (or should i say some dude who calls me up from out of the blue who tells me that i can still enrol).

Having watched the top 3 movies of 2004 at the China/HK Box Office being:
1. Kung Fu Hustle (sorta like Shaolin Soccer, watched it twice, excellent!)
2. House of Flying Daggers (sorta like Hero/Crouching Tiger)
3. World of Thieves (Romance/Thief action/Sob story)
All three were interesting and worth watching. If there is any connection is that Andy Lau is in two of them and that all involve martial arts and some romance story. Therefore, it may be possible to derive this formula: Andy Lau + Martial Arts + Side Romance Story = Asian Smash Hit.

I was thinking the other day, who is in the ALL BLAKEHURST SQUAD? That is, who are the top 5 players that ball at the Blakehurst cage, with some regard to position.

Center - Jamie: tall, really lanky, fast slashing drive, a nightmare to box out.
Forwards:
Sleepy eye: this guy really annoys me cause he constantly just steps back and drills threes like they are layups.
Kiwi guy: impossible to guard, incredible hops, drills TD bankshots.
Guards:
Baron Davis - short, compact dude with the english and the nasty handles.
Drazen - that Croatian dude with the really annoying driving hook shot/layup.

Special Mention or maybe the all blakehurst second team: Tim, Hoi, Ken, Bruno, Big Bird (but he don't play enough), Yousef, that Yugoslav guy with the glasses/kneepads/armsbands who looks like a huge nerd yet has huge game who i play with at UTS.

Go the East All-stars!!!!!!
I have always supported the Eastern Conference in the annual NBA all star competition. A major reason is because Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen were in the east. Since Jordan retired and the Eastern Conference weakened, I have continued my support for them - they kinda had the underdog status.

Eastern All stars

This year, I think the East have their strongest team for yonks. With Lebron in the side, Vince Carter playing his ass off, Gilbert Arenas winning games for the Wizards, the emergence of Dwayne Wade and the LCL (last center left) Shaq playing the pivot position, the East will be able to match the West even better than b4.

I'm actually quite surprised by the selection of Big Z and the omission of Steve Franchise. The East lineups are as follows:

Gilbert Arenas
Vince Carter
Grant Hill
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Allen Iverson
LeBron James
Antawn Jamison
Jermaine O’Neal
Shaquille O’Neal
Paul Pierce
Dwyane Wade
Ben Wallace

If i were in charge of the eastern team, i'd use the following starting lineup -

* Center - Shaq in the middle - no brainer.

* forwards - i think you have to go with Jermaine O'Neal to match up with Tim Duncan. It's a lot better than grant hill. Who should be small forward - it's a tough choice cause Vince Carter has been playing so well as of late and so has Lebron. I'd put Lebron here becoz of his all around versatility - he's the best player in the game at the moment

* Guards - Carter and Gilbert Arenas. Both players are scoring like crazy and are the primary reason that their teams are doing so well as of late.

I'd rather use D-wade & Allen Iverson off the bench and bring them in together to change the tempo of the game because of their explosiveness and quickness. i'd be tempted to put Steve Franchise in the team and boot out Big Z too but he sorta covers the same position as the above mentioned two and does similar things. And a extra 7'3 body does help!

Also, having Big Ben on the bench to back up O'Neal is awesome as well as having Antawn Jamison a combo forward who can create headaches for the other team with his inside/outside game.

Starters: Arenas/Carter/Lebron/JO/Shaq
Second Unit: Wade/Iverson/Pierce/Jamison/Wallace
Outer: Franchise/Big Z - omission grant hill


Western All stars

For the western all-stars, their line up is so strong, so formidable. if you glance at the names, its just like some killer lineup with no weaknesses - i look at it, and i'm like woahhhhh. their team lineup is as follows:

Ray Allen
Kobe Bryant
Tim Duncan
Kevin Garnett
Manu Ginobili
Rashard Lewis
Shawn Marion
Tracy McGrady
Steve Nash
Dirk Nowitzki
Amaré Stoudemire
Yao Ming

again, if i were in charge of the western team, i'd use the following rotations:

starters: Nash/Kobe/Nowitzki/Duncan/Amare .Every single player here is just on fire. a bigger lineup and i'd like to see Amare's quickness versus Shaq's power.

subs: t-mac/allen/marion/garnett/Yao - a quicker, mobile fast breaking team. I'd prefer to play Yao in this faster lineup to negate his weaknesses.

Outer: Lewis/Gnobili

I was actually quite surprised that Rashard Lewis made the squad. He's been having a good season but i thought we wouldn't get the props he deserved. I was hoping he'd make the squad then again i also wanted elton brand to make it was well to reward him for his consistency and stellar play for the last couple of seasons.

The All-star game should be awesome. In fact, maybe we should all take a sick day and watch the game?!
 

MELBOURNE IN PICTURES

Featuring yours truly and his partner in crime......

Is this Circular Quay in Sydney or Melbourne's Southbank?

Breakfast @ Foo doo's: A big serving of eggs, bacon rashers, 2 chunky slices of toast, sausage, mushrooms, tomato. Ummmmm beautiful! 

OZ or The Old Melbourne Gaol: The place where Ned Kelly was hanged.  

Thumbs up! She likes the leather!  

Eerily farmiliar to Sydney? This is Bourke St, one of the main streets in the city of Melbourne 

First online purchase!

I think generally i'm pretty slow to catch onto new trends. i'm the type to sit back, watch other people try it out and then join in. It's just my personal nature.

So I feel excited having purchased my first book online from Amazon.com. It's one of the first things that i have bought from the internet (aside from airline tickets). The book that i got was "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America: A Citizen's Guide to Democratic Inaction". It was highly recommended to me by some American buddies, Sean and Alison from my China Tour.

Having scoured ebay, amazon, comedy central website, i found the best deal buying a "very good" copy from the amazon marketplace, a place where people/stores sell remainder or secondhand books. The actual price of the book is $9.95 US compared to the $14.95 US . What killed me was the shipping and handling costs as international shipping was $9.95US for a book. I can't wait to get it! I used the same principles as shopping on ebay, looking at the seller ratings, feedbacks, other sales, total amount of sales. I felt more comfortable buying a copy that was $1 more expensive from a retailer that had sold like 9000 books with good feedback as opposed to "brand new seller" that had 0 feedback.


Melbourne: Cafe central

Having spent 3 days on a short visit to melbourne with my boo, i feel like I miss the city and should have spent more time there. My impressions of melbourne are that there are stacks of cafes around with a lot of single men sitting around with their legs crossed, reading newspapers. Ok, maybe that's not the best image to relay but melbourne is a bustling city a lot like sydney. They've got a Chinatown area with lots of fobs (of course), a Greek town area, a little Italy town with heaps of italian restuarnts, and a huge casino - the Crown.

Going away with my girl was a nice and sometimes stressful experience. I had a great time overall even though at times I might not have showed it when words to the effect of "let's go to another shopping street!" were heard. Relationships are give and take, so for every place that she wanted to go to, we then got to one I wanted to go to. I think travelling with someone else makes the experience a lot easier, more fun and more comfortable, especially when you are lost! I'll have to plan another trip seeing how cheap plane tickets are these days and the good time that we had.

I stayed within the City circle area (kinda like Sydney city circle) and there's this cool free tram which goes around the city. On the same street was the Greek Precint. It had this awesome Greek restaurant called Stalactities which was open 24 hours. I went there at 6am on a monday morning and 10pm on sunday night and it was packed out. The speciality is lamb souvlaki, and this baby is tasty and huge. Similar to a kebab but shorter and fatter, with chunks of lamb and tzaziki instead of homous.

The transport in Melbourne is interesting. Intially i got confused as to how it worked, but essenentially you can buy one ticket which covers bus, tram and trains. Quite similar to a Sydney Day tripper and much more convenient than buying everything separately, as is the norm here. A day trip ticket costs $5.90, and will cover as many rides as you would like on bus, trains and trams. So very cool indeed, maybe Mr Costa can pay attention (although nothing beats Hong Kong Octopus card!).

Wat about the tourist sites? I checked out old Melbourne jail, where Ned Kelly was hanged and that was crappy. It just had storyboards inside each of the cells of some of the famous inmates. I was expecting something cool like OZ, with the hacks, the shanks, and Tim McManus but alas no such thing. Interestingly, I bought two pairs of thumbcuffs (little handcuffs which fit on your thumb) which were confiscated by the airport staff. HMMMM.......i can really takeover your planes with toy thumbcuff which can be opened without keys.....yes i really am a terroist and this is my way of imprisoning hostages.......

The Crown Casino was much like Star City, with heaps of shops inside. I ate at the all-you-can eat buffet and this is not highly recommended. It costs $12.50 and seemed more like expensive pizzahut without the pizzas.

Rest in bullet points

You know how if you run out of time in an essay, the teachers always tell you to use bullet points? Well the American Super Bowl has already started, so i'll just jot down the essentials>......

- Lygon Street: A street in Carlton with literally hundreds of Italian Restuarants. A Melbourne Norton St. Ate at the Correta Cafe. Had the correta special pizza but wasn't so special as there was an italian brown hair in there. YUCK!

- Queen Victoria Market: Similar to Paddy's market except its more spacious and open, with less people. There's a cool produce section with nice deli food. Anyone for AFL? I got a hawthorne AFL football which seems exactly like a NRL ball.

- Chapel St: A uber cool fashion area with all the expensive Sydney shops/brands. I couldn't really afford anything from here except from the store Substance coz it was closing down (which by the time of writing may not be there anymore) where I bought a pair of jeans and a denim jacket - $30 each.

- Smith street: fashion outlet street with a Nike Factory (very similar to Auburn's) where I picked up a Leeds Football jersey for $10. I was starving and looking from some good breakfast and found Foo Doos, a mad little cafe which serves breakfast ALL DAY! I had the Foo Doo Breakfast for $12 which had two massive slices of toast, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomato, sausage and a some nice bacon rashers. It was pretty busy and a favourite with the locals and this kind of Newton feel to it with plenty of posters stuck to the wall.

- Bridge St: A more upmarket fashion outlet area with outlets for Industrie (got three shirts for total of $45), Cotton On, Jeans West, Sports Girl, etc.....Had some very tasty and very huge servings of Japanese Ramen Noodles (about $8.50) at some very busy restaurant which won heaps of cheap eats awards.


Year of the Rooster: Chinese New Year in 3 days

Gung Hey Fat Choi! Sun Nin Fai Lok, Sun Teh Gin Hong! Bo Bo Go Sing!

Translation: Wish you getting rich! lucky new year, have good health, walk one step forward (continually get promoted in your job)!