Release of the ISSOM passability placard for public use

Today I am releasing the ISSOM passability placard, which adorns my sprint orienteering maps since 2015, for public use under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.

The license means, in short, that you are free to use the placard in any of your works as long as you attribute it to me (there’s an attribution in the files which you should keep) and use the same license to release the placard.

The placard describes which features are allowed to be crossed and which are not. It helps beginners identify passable and impassable features. Symbols are at 1:4000 scale.

• OpenOrienteering Mapper format (.omap)
• OCAD format (.ocd)
• PDF format (.pdf)
• PNG image (.png) at 600dpi
• JPG image (.jpg) at 600dpi

In transition

The HKOC Open Sprint Event was finally over last Sunday, successfully held save for major delays resulting from a faulty control unit and the resulting surge in results workload. This was my first orienteering event as organizer and I must thank every official and competitor who helped keep the event running, among other people who made it possible, and I apologize for all the hiccups.

Course-wise, much more needs to be learnt (this is my first time setting ranking courses), especially on setting sprints, my favourite orienteering discipline. Another issue is the enforcement of ISSOM-passability – balancing fairness and performance and not have multiple angry disqualified competitors turning up in front of you is tremendously important on the success of a sprint event, especially when it’s part of the Hong Kong team selection. (It is – the selection result is due in May.)

These two years saw a near-complete change of me from musician-orienteer to orienteer-musician. This has tremendously affected my habits, life, goals and aspirations as my search in identity continues. With graduation imminent I have come to miss the music student’s way of life. The future, to me, is still a vast unknown – but to continue on a music career it’s always a sine qua non to learn continually from other people, other experiences and other cultures.

Composition is a tricky discipline in that it necessarily involves some subjective aesthetic judgement. Thus it’s always a good idea to keep trying and finding new opportunities. Networking is a big area to improve given my introvert character. (Don’t wait for opportunities; find actively.)

It is also worth reminding that changing the living/learning/working environment every while or so is an important part in lifelong learning. Getting stuck at a place for too long is seldom a good idea.

And of course, a self-composed piece to be performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic is something I could hardly have dreamed of as a boy, which is however going to happen next Saturday! So do come and listen! (And meet Maestro Sheng)