FEB 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -
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LEGO Minifigs
My studio neighbour stopped by on Mon. and talked about a project that needed to make figurines for a diorama display. After some discussions, he decided to make custom Lego minifigs.
While experimenting and prototyping, I got carried away and shrunk my studio’s mascot into the scale of Lego minifigs. When the custom designed and 3D-printed DEXTER successfully snapped onto standard Lego bricks, a new world of opportunities seemed to have unlocked instantly! I never expected my cheap 3D printers to be able to fabricate objects precise enough to work with standard Lego bricks. And now knowing that it does, I could more easily and quickly design and prototype new objects in the smaller Lego scale. I could also use the loads of Lego bricks I’ve accumulated over the years to facilitate prototyping without having to wait for parts to be printed!
This exciting Lego minifig opportunity came right after I got back into doing 3D design work and completed upgrading my studio’s mascot to use a more flexible frame system. It seems God may have something fun lined up for me to work on this quarter. May God help me to make a breakthrough in my long unsuccessful career. 🙏🏻
Tired Week
My sister’s family is visiting town, but I felt like I had seen enough of them already in Toronto last summer. My sister in HK and my mom had dinner with them separately, I declined the invitations and kept myself busy with work. Finished re-engineering my studio’s mascot, DEXTER, to use a more flexible frame system. It felt good to be doing 3D design and prototyping once again.
Friday marked the 4th anniversary of the Yuen Long 721 incident. I was once again reminded of the preamble of our city becoming a suffocating police state. So much evil and injustice continuing to accumulate since, yet there’s so little we can do to help. I decided to go for a long evening run. Persevered a slow 1.5hr 12k run. The sweat and self-conducted torture resulted in some temporary relief, it’s probably just the dopamine from exercising.
Had dinner with some fellowship brothers on Sat. Everyone seemed to have their own issues to share. Rather than adding to the heap of burden, I decided not to talk about my own family issues and just gladly be a good listener.
Couldn’t avoid my family issues forever. Today was the big test when I was forced to visit my brother’s lavishly renovated private suite to take a family portrait. I never really liked seeing myself in pictures since young, and it was especially frustrating that I had to put on a fake smile in that setting and posing in the seemingly thousands of photos that were taken. I pulled it through miraculously and was only slightly late for my “art therapy” session. Thank God. 🙏🏻
Hot, Busy, and Active Week
The hot weather warning seemed to be hoisted day and night nonstop for the entire week this past week. Read a news snippet about a pro-democracy member who’s still under detention (no air-con) and felt too drained to even pick up a pen to write letters. I empathize with the many ppl who are persecuted and are detained or imprisoned in non-AC chambers under this extreme hot weather.
As though trying to make myself feel less guilty, I packed myself with work and things to do. The first Q3 project I started was re-engineering my studio’s mascot to make it more sturdy yet flexible, customizable, and sustainable. It was good to pick up some 3D modeling work again after focusing on the KOKB.site calligraphy project for much of Q2.
Registered for a short term course about HK Comics. Started school and attended the first 2 of 6 classes already. The talks or sharing sessions turned out more interesting than I thought. It felt good to be back in an artsy environment and learning new things without the pressure of assignments or exams.
Despite the hot weather and a relatively packed week, I managed to complete two short running practices on Mon. and Thu. evening. The dopamine from exercising was important to help me stay sane in this hot and deteriorating city. Joined the UW group to play some badminton yesterday because the venue was just across the street. I haven’t played for years, and to my surprise, I could still find and hit the bird at a somewhat intermediate level. I was amazed by the power of muscle memory. But perhaps due to years of inactivity, the muscles in my arm, waist, and legs were very sore today, more so than after my running practices.
Hot Week
It was a hot and muggy week. My biggest accomplishment at work was reviving my studio’s old Etsy shop to make available some hand-drawn artworks for online order. Not really expecting to make many sales, but happy that I was able to check off a Q2 task and wrap up one of my biggest projects for Q2. Revised the Q2 project list and wrote out a new list for Q3, will start working on them next week.
The past week was full of depressing news for the pro-democracy camp. Eight of the exiled members were openly and disgracefully put on a government bounty list, but the move was disapproved by their current residing countries. A day or two after the bounty list was announced, a platform that offer reward programs for many pro-democracy shops (yellow shops) was closed down following the arrest of its owners. The news shook up the small community who had been trying to battle the ongoing political persecution and economic downturn together.
Living in this depressing and deteriorating city, I could do nothing to help other than trying my best to stay productive and healthy. After more than 3 months of weekly calligraphy classes, I’ve completed learning the 100 Chinese surnames in 3 different scripts. And after missing my running practices last week due to rain, I completed another 10k practice on a super hot and muggy Fri. evening. It was one of my biggest personal achievements this week. The dopamine from the run can hopefully help me stay sane in this suffocating city until my next run.
A Canadian friend and his wife was visiting town for a business trip, me and another couple of friends met them up for a dinner buffet at their hotel restaurant last night. Enjoyed seeing and catching up old friends in person. The social energy provided an extra boost of positivity to help me survive a city that seems to be draining my energy without end.
Bye-bye Q2
After writing out the last character from the book of 1000 Chinese character samples on Mon., a huge relief was immediately felt. The rest of the week was taken relatively lightly as I soak in my greatest achievement of the Q2 projects! Most other Q2 projects will carry on to Q3 untouched 😅.
Before getting started with Q3, I lavishly took some time off away from the studio to see some exhibitions and bidding farewell to a few “yellow” businesses. Managed to catch the Joan Miro exhibition just a couple of days before it was taken down. The Spanish artist’s playful and colorful sculptures seemed to have revived my inner child playing with Legos and plastic models. I now want to remodel my studio’s robot mascot (Dexter) as soon as I step back into the studio next week!
Visited a “yellow” clothing store on Thur. before it was closed down for good on Fri. I am not particularly a fan of the store nor do I have any fashion sense whatsoever, but still sad to see a 33 yr-old brand disappear due to political reasons. Visited a co-working space, another “yellow” business, near my home on Wed. as it was having a liquidation sale of its used furniture before closing down its business for good on Fri. I had no need to buy extra furniture, but managed to buy a couple of interesting postcards as souvenirs.
I seem to have a peculiar interest in visiting businesses before they close down for good. It’s not that I’m interested in buying cheap liquidation stuff, I’m more interested to reminisce about the aspirations of the founders in starting the businesses in the first place. Dreams and ambitions vanishing after years of sweat and tears poured into their founding businesses. It’s kinda like going to a funeral to remember someone and trying to fathom about their lost dreams and aspirations. It makes me think about my own dreams and aspirations, what is it that I really wanna do? And what is it that God wanted me to do?
Oh God, please continue to guide my steps ahead. 🙏🏻
