I’ve spent almost 2 hours on this artwork. Charcoal pencil on A4 black paper.

这幅作品花了两个小时，用白色炭笔作画于 A4 黑纸上。

As an art adventurer my self, I always looking to try out different art creating techniques. This time I would love to try drawing on black paper. Bought this black sketchbook by Daler Rowney for $18 Singapore dollar, when it comes to art supply, quality is always the top priority for me. This sketchbook features 180g/m and generous 40 pages, I will have a long time to spend on it.

The idea of drawing on a black paper initiated by the Hat drawing contest by @helene. The first thing came to my mind was the legendary Michael Jackson and his classic hat.

Ironically, I fell for Michael the day he passed away as the television mourning him with the “You Are Not Alone”. I fell in love with this song and immediately searched for all his songs and MV for the next few months, wondering how could I miss this astonishing artist when he was alive. I wished to draw a portrait of him as a gesture of tribute for a long time and this is the chance now.

身为一个艺术冒险家，我时常在寻找不同的创作方式，这次将尝试在黑纸上作画。这本由 Daler Rowney 出品的黑色绘画本价格十八大洋，算是在店里找到最贵的同时也是最好的绘画本。在创作素材上，我永远把品质放在第一位。

这次的新尝试受启发于由 @helene 举办的帽子绘画比赛。第一个点子就是万古不朽的 Michael Jackson 的经典戴帽形象。

很讽刺的，我真正认识 MJ 就是在他去世的那天。当时电视上播放着缅怀 MJ 的《You Are Not Alone》，听到的当下就立马爱上了。接下来的几个月把他所有的作品和 MV 统统翻出来欣赏研究，对这位传奇般的人物彻底心折了。一直想要画个人像来向他致敬，这次机会终于来了。

Drawing breakdown

First, use a white pencil to sketch with minimal and really light force. You do not want to leave excessive white marks on the black spot which supposed to be dark shadow.

一开始用白笔在黑纸上用最轻最少的线条勾画出轮廓，这样待会会省却很多烦恼。

Starting from the top by toning the hat and face.

然后从帽子和脸部开始上色。

Painting the bright part of the shirt with white charcoal, which should be smudged using kneaded paper.

用更白的白炭笔为衣服的光亮部分上色，然后用纸笔晕染。

Use lighter force for the shallow shadow area. Always remember you are now painting the light instead of dark.

在较浅的暗影部分涂上浅白色，记得现在使用光在作画。

Outline the body with the sparkles of the coat, the little light sketches shall be erased afterward.

把外套闪闪发光的部分点点上色，然后将多余的草稿勾线擦去。

I found that this black paper and white pencil works well with an eraser. Make sure you don’t smudge the white color on the other part as it would be obvious.

黑纸和白铅笔对橡皮擦的效果相当友善，很容易的就把不要的白色部分除去。

Oops, almost forgot the left-hand part and the trouser.

差点忘了加上左手和裤子部分。

Drawing on black paper is fun yet challenging.

As this is my first time drawing on black material, I thought should be easy as I just need to paint the bright part and the original black background will do the rest tricks for me.

But I was dead wrong.

I used to use the black or colored pen to create art, and it already becomes my natural to draw in dark and leave the bright spot empty on white paper. When it comes to black paper and draw with white materials, you need to do exactly the opposite. I was struggling the whole process trying to fight my natural art sense and it all took me two hours to paint the whole figure when I expected to finish it within just one. Nonetheless, I would develop a more comprehensive sense of art creating after this training, not bad.

Lastly, I realized this drawing could be improved to a much greater extent and that’s why I make this the Part 1. Stay tuned.

在黑纸上作画，好玩但有挑战性。

在此之前，我以为黑纸作画也不怎么难，只需要把光源的部分呈现然后黑色的背景就会自动把暗影表达出来，反而会比在白纸上画画容易吧。

大错特错。

作为一个常年都在用深色笔作画的人，本能就是在白纸上把暗色画出来，把亮色的地方留白。但是用白笔和黑纸，需要做的则是恰恰相反。这次的绘画过程基本上就是和自己的固有价值观在摔跤。要表现暗影时自然的加大力度，结果却是变成了最亮的部分。这也让原本估计一个小时预算时间变成了两个小时。没关系，这样正好可以锻炼脑回路和开发新的艺术视角。

画到最后，我发现其实这幅画还有很大的进步空间，会在下回 Part 2 加强此画，敬请关注。

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Challenge the brain by drawing on black paper’

Today I bought the long wanted Grey Book. Got it from a local art store for $20 Singapore Dollar, was hesitated for this steep price for a sketchbook, bought it anyway after failing to find a better alternative. After all, a great sketchbook can produce much bigger value for my art in the coming days.

Why toned paper over white paper for drawing? One reason, toned paper is able to show the white you adding in the drawing. I will draw a simple sphere to demonstrate it.

终于卖到心仪已久的 The Grey Book。虽然价格不菲，花了我二十大洋，但由于找不到更好的替身，对艺术创作又不惜代价的我最后还是买了。相信这会是一笔很好的投资。

为什么要使用淡色纸作画？一个原因，就是淡色纸可以很好的显示白色，接下来我会用圆球型简单的示范一下。

The papers inside is grey in color, you can tell that by comparing it to the white label.

这本绘画本是淡灰色的，跟封面标签的纯白色比较不难看得出来。

Recommended by my favorite artist, I also acquired these four Copic markers for $5 each, the most expensive marker I ever had. They are made in Japan anyway. I will be using them in the illustration below.

跟随某位大师的建议，我也入手了一支价格五大洋的 Copic 马克笔，所拥有过最贵的马克笔。买了才发现是日本生产，难怪。以下会用这四支来作画。

The drawing

Use the lightest W2 marker to draw the base of the circle.

用最浅的 W2 笔来画出大致圆形。

W5 marker to highlight the shadow to indicate the light direction.

用 W5 笔勾画出影子和光源的方向。

W8 marker will deepen the main shadow.

用 W8 笔加深影子。

And the darkest 110 black marker will be used to outline the sphere, now you might think this should be done here, but we’re not.

然后用最深的黑色笔把轮廓再加强一次，看到这里你会以为大功告成了吧？还没呢。

With the help of a white pencil, I added the white color at the brightest spot of the sphere, and the whole figure stands out now. The overall effect would not be as strong if I draw this on an ordinary white paper.

Now you know how a toned paper can really make a difference.

最后是用白色铅笔涂在圆形中最亮的地方，现在整个圆球看起来就立体多了。除了白色笔的功劳，淡色背景更是功不可没。要是同样的图画在普通白纸上，效果肯定没有这次来得突出。

现在你知道淡色纸的强大了吧。

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘We should draw on toned paper 今天开始就用淡色纸作画’

The most signature food in Melaka would be the Nyonya cuisine, or Peranakan cuisine.

Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine comes from the Peranakans, descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Indonesia inter-marrying with local Malays and combines Chinese, Malay and other influences.

We were going to visit this restaurant claiming to serve authentic Nyonya food in town, the Nancy’s Kitchen.

娘惹餐是马六甲的招牌菜色。娘惹文化可以追溯到早期近1800，中国华人南下移民定居于槟城，马六甲，新加坡和印尼，和当地的马来土著的结合而衍生出来的文化。所以娘惹等于是华人和马来人的结合体。今日来到马六甲城中有名的娘惹餐馆，Nancy’s Kitchen。

The typical Nyonya style lantern, which is much different from the typical Chinese lantern. The price of making one was costly since the procedure is complicated and hand-made only.

典型的娘惹式灯笼，很明显的和传统的华人灯笼不一样。听说由于纯手工制作，程序繁重，价格也不菲。

The mixed culture of Malay and Chinese can be clearly seen in the decorations as well.

墙上的装饰也可看出结合了中华和马来文化。

The Food

总的来说，这间店的性价比还是不错的，七个人消费 RM100 。味道也和从小吃到大的没太大出入，不熟悉娘惹餐的我表示原来平常吃的家常菜就是娘惹风味了啊。

Address: 13, Jalan KL 3/8, Taman Kota Laksamana, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia

Lastly, happy birthday to my dad!

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Melaka Nyonya Food 马六甲娘惹餐’

It’s been our routine to play at this court once in a week right after work. We were the first batch of users at the court completion day which was three years ago, everything else is fine but the rims are aging badly. It would bounce up and stuck at the up right position.

We were mid way in a game and have to end the game after trying hard to fix the rim but to no avail. A batch of teens is working on it after us.

这篮球场在公司附近建成以来已经快三年，我们也是第一批用户。如今每个星期工作后必定来打一晚上。球场一切都还好，只是篮筐的状态每况愈下。一次激烈的弹动就会让它卡在上方的尴尬位置。

这不得不让我们终止进行到一半的球赛，尝试解救无果后就放弃了。后来来了一班充满热情的小伙子也努力的在尝试，加油！

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Unpleasant malfunction of the rim 老旧的篮筐还换一换了’

I learn about Byteball back in the August right after the July airdrop. Airdrop is the way Byteball addressed the free distribution of the token as they believe mass adoption requires wide distribution. And that’s the reason 98% of all bytes and Blackbytes are to be distributed for free. I would say this is a genius yet generous way, it got my attention by this very method after all.

Smart/Conditional payment is their killer feature, it enables two parties to deal with each other via this feature thus replace the trust between strangers as no scam could be done. For use case example, you may buy a flight delay insurance through the contract and if the negative event happens, you unlock the contract and get paid. Sounds like with the Ethereum Smart Contract but I use neither so cannot comment on them.

Byteball has no blockchain and miners (like the IOTA), has chatbots to facilitate operations, features the untraceable Blackbytes, and so on.

I won’t go into the whole detail of how Byteball works but you can their official site if interested. They have a really nice build Byteball Wiki site as well.

So what happened is, I bought 2G of Byteball at the price of $300 thinking that I could take advantage of the pump before next airdrop. Then our dear BTC went crazy shooting up from $4000 to $6000, and the Byteball dropped to $180 too. I was cold by the fact I made the wrong move and didn’t bother to keep a busy eye on it anymore.

Last Monday I opened up my Byteball wallet, felt strange looking at the amount I have first, then realized I have gone through 2 rounds of airdrop.

• For every 16 BTC you receive 0.1 GB (1 gigabyte = 1 billion bytes),
• For every 1 GB you receive additional 0.1 GB.

According to the official statement, you get 10% extra of your Byteball holding. The 262.56 MB and 288.816 MB was my free distribution from the airdrop. Using today’s rate where 1 GB = $188.17, I have earn [(262.56 + 288.816)*188.17/1000] = extra $103.75. Not bad at all.

It is worth mentioning that Byteball is one of the few projects that is extensive at the wallet development. iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux are all supported. Together with their interesting features, this could be the real deal. Anyway, I’m holding for the next airdrop which will be announced in mid-November.

雪球（Byteball）是一个高度利用空投系统的币种，高达 98% 的币都会通过空投的方式发送给特定用户。因为团队相信广泛的持有分配才是变成主流货币的不二之道。这策略还真的是有效，我就是这样被吸引进来的。

先说说雪球的主要功能，其中 Smart/Conditional payment 就是官方号称的杀手锏。陌生人之间无需信任就可以通过这种交易条约功能交易，不会有诈骗的可能性。真实用案里你可以为自己的航班买延误保险，要是航班真的延误了，你就可以解锁条约得到赔偿。听起来其实很象 Ethereum 的 Smart Contract， 由于两者我都没用过所以不予置评了。雪球也不使用传统的区块链，所以也就没有矿工（和 IOTA 很像）。钱包内有内置机器人可以协助日常操作，还有另一种可以躲过所有追查的黑雪球（Blackbytes）。

如果有兴趣了解更多，请前往官网，他们也有着很完善很好读的 Byteball Wiki 。

话说回来，以为下次空投时价格就会大涨的我在三百元时买了 2G 的雪球。不久后比特币就开始暴走了，从四千一路高歌到六千。雪球的也从三百掉到 180 。有点心冷的我就没心情在天天关注了。

上个周一，打开雪球钱包一看，怎么总数变多了？查一查才发现不知不觉度过了两次的空投。按照今天的价格，总共拿了一百元，还是很不错的，心情也没那么郁闷了。

值得一提的是，雪球团队在钱包支援方面做得罕见的好。从 iOS，Android， Windows， Mac， 到 Linux 都有相应的钱包。加上有趣实用的功能特点，相信未来还是大有可为的。不说了，准备接收十一月中旬的空投了。

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Byteball airdrop aka free money 雪球派糖好好吃’

When I was on my way to lunch, I passed by a small park and saw these three guys. Not afraid of people, they must be the usual host of this domain.

Despite their calmness, what interested me more was their difference in their “skin” color. Which linked my first thought to the three big races in Malaysia. United, stick together in a direction. Harmony, share the joys and sorrows.

Oh, how absentminded is me, those were the past.

These birds do better than us.

某天中午去午餐的途中经过一个小公园，看见这个小家伙。遇人不惊，看来倒是我闯进了它们的地盘。除了那份从容的淡定，更吸引我的是它们各自有着不同的肤色，直接让我联想到了大马的三大种族。

团结一心，上哪里都保持队形。一片和气，悲哀歡樂一起度过。

噢，有点走神了，那是以前的马来西亚了。

这三只小鸟比我们都强。

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Bird racism 鸟的种族主义’