7.1

Ah, what a wonderful morning. I told about the crappy construction work on Hong Kong housing in my last post. Well, last night I got the full joy of it. I woke up a few times because it was cold in my apartment. Cold. Inside. At a weather above zero. I need to buy that damned radiator.

Here's the local temperature-chart from this morning:


You can see that 7.1 there, in the left end of the map. That's me. That's where I live. It's the coldest place in Hong Kong, and ,in fact, the only place under 10 degrees. Well, I still claim it's not too cold but I'd be a hypocrite to say it's not 'cold'. This morning the temperature inside my apartment was quite enough to convince me put on a t-shirt under my long-sleeve one.

I really, really need to buy that radiator. Even if I need to use only a few months per year. It'll be a good investment.

Just realized today is the last day of this year. So, I suppose a farewell to 2007 is in order. Fare thee well. Maybe in my next post I can write up some summary of things, but now I just can't be arsed.

No plans for today nor for tomorrow. I will probably continue my game of the world's most boring strategy game Master of Orion 3. It's so damned boring I can't really understand why I bother playing it so much, but for some reason I just end up pressing that "TURN" button over and over again - waiting for something new to happen. It never does.

Master of Orion 3 is a game which is kind of like Civilization 4 without all the cool stuff and more of the boring ones. It's a game where nothing dramatic happens, except you never really know why the other Empires suddenly go to war with you without any potential for gain. Or why the balance of power is such, that even with the mightiest of armadas you can successfully attack maybe one star system and then get stuck there. To actually win over even one star system takes such an effort and hours of time that you wonder how you could ever conquer an entire Empire of dozens of star systems - or how to win the game and conquer all the several Empires of the game.

When I played Civilization 4, after playing one (or two at maximum) days, I would know if I was winning or not. I've played Master of Orion 3 for five days now, and I have no idea how I'm doing. For all I know, I maybe the scum of the universe right now and it takes another four to five days until someone just suddenly comes and conquers my systems. I don't know. There's no reward in that game. Yet I still play. I don't really understand myself.

The Meaning of Life

Today, I can to the office to finish one simple task. The one and single reason I got out of bed early today. Can I do it as I planned I would? No. The one person I need help from is not in the office today. Not yet, at least. Damnit. Well, at least it gives me time to scribble something here.

I've mentioned it before, and I'll mention it again. The weather in Hong Kong is getting cooler - and I love it! It's quite funny that everyone else (with a few exceptions) seems to think the 'cold' is somehow really 'cold'. So, let's have a look at the 7-day forecast:


We are closing in to the minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. And you see right, the picture is that of a sweater and a scarf to warn us all that we really, really need to dress up warmly. I, personally, will be wearing my normal shirt and a jacket. I mean, sure, it's not warm but it definitely ain't cold either.

I wonder if someone gets lost in the forest here, and has to stay a night out, would that person be in mortal danger of freezing to death as one would be in cold winter of the north. I mean, of course for someone like me who is used to colder climate it's not so dangerous, but talking about a local person. Would this coldness be enough to kill just because it feels cold to them. I mean, seriously now, it's not really, really cold! 10 degrees above zero won't freeze a body; it'll just be uncomfortable.

Of course it's different if your body is weak already from some other reason. Then the stress can be too much for the body to handle. I hear in Hong Kong some elderly people, for example, living in poor conditions can actually die of the cold. Same applies probably to the homeless who haven't had proper nutrition in a long time nor have proper shelter from the night temperatures.

Anyways, it never stops to amuse me to see the locals dressed up for nuclear winter in 15 degrees above zero.

I also will restate my claim that the only place in Hong Kong where it actually is cold is indoors. Reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly, for some reason public places have to have aircon on even during winter when it'd be perfectly sufficient just to keep the air circulation going without freezing the air. Secondly, the construction work for housing is pretty much as impressive as a bag full of plums on table. The apartments have no central heating, and the windows are single layered - which results that there's nothing to make the apartments warmer nor anything to keep the warmth in. So, if it's 10 degrees outside, it's mere 12 inside. And that's a fact. I have now both indoor and outdoor thermometer and I have had the luxury of following this development.

Now, in Finland houses are built so that there is a central heating and double or triple layered glass with proper wall insulation. In Finland even if its 20 degrees below zero, it's still warm inside. You can take a shower and have no cares of freezing once you turn off the water. In Hong Kong, you'd rather skip shower if it was possible.

Well, luckily it's not so bad yet here but it's getting there. I'm seriously considering to purchase a few radiators for the two winter months. That'd make like a lot more enjoyable. However, I worry over the electric bill once all that warmth generated by the radiator starts fading out through the single-layer windows.

Oh, and I'd like to remind that this of course goes like this during summer too. If it's hot outside, it's really hot inside too. And while the aircon can cool down the apartment, the moment you turn it off all the cool air has evaporated through the crappy insulation. I wonder how much this place would save in energy if they just bothered building their housing properly.

I'm sure I can blame the British for this stupid way of building somehow. Those annoying gits.

Well anyway, life goes on. Weekend is up ahead and I've no plans what-so-ever. Don't really need plans either. I'm beyond the need to 'experience Hong Kong'. Live it, love it - sure, but maybe for just a few months a year.

My parents are coming to Hong Kong in late February so I need to start planning something to do for that period of time. I've been to the classic locations so many times now that I just can't be arsed to go again. Well, maybe my mind changes once I start acting a tourist guide again. Anyway, my plan is to come up with some other stuff for them to see. Sure they can go see the tourist areas if they want, but there's much more to Hong Kong you can't find from the guides. Only lately I've started to learn that.

Comparing my two brothers' experience in Hong Kong while I was just newly arrive a few months before to that of my sister and brother who came here last summer and I had lived here already for over a year. Both, I know, had a great time here but as far as experience go, I'm sure the last party to visit got much more out of the two weeks in HK. Now, when my parents come, it ought be even more spectacular as far as cultural and special experiences go.

With my level of knowledge and understanding of this place increasing, I can honestly be a better guide. And I must say, this place is a lot more interesting when you do things a bit off the book (the tourist guide). What the guides offer are the peak of the iceberg, so to say, and are usually packed with other tourists who follow the guides so blindly.

Person A: "I went to Hong Kong last month."
Person B: "Oh, really? It's a really nice place, I went there last year."
Person A: "Yes, I liked it a lot."
Person B: "Did you go to the Peak?"
Person A: "Yes, I did very nice view."
Person B: "I know, isn't it just amazing. Really nice."
Person A: "Yes, really nice. We also went to see the big Buddha."
Person B: "You did, I saw it too. It's very nice."
Person A: "I know, isn't it just amazing. Really nice."
Person B: "Yes. What about Ocean Park or Disneyland?"
Person A: "Oh, we went to both. Really, really nice."
Person B: "I know, isn't it just great. Really nice."
Person A: "Just amazing. Really nice."

Person A: "Look, here's a picture of me at the Peak."
Person B: "That's so very nice. Look, here's a picture of me at the Peak too."
Person A: "Looks like fun. What about this picture of me beside the big Buddha."
Person B: "Really nice indeed. I have one from there too. Look, me and Buddha."
Person A: "Really, really nice. Here's me at the Ocean Park cable car."
Person B: "Oh, I have one too! Look, here. It was really high, kind of scary."
Person A: "I know, it was terrible but fun too! Here's a picture with me and Mickey Mouse"
Person B: "I had a picture too with Mickey. Isn't he just the best!"

What's the point of going somewhere and doing exactly the same things as everyone else? Why do you even bother. You can just ask someone who went before if it was nice. "Yes it was." Well, Ok then. No need to go. I know it's nice.

Besides the places in the guides are more or less rather boring. Better take an attitude of adventure, and try things that are not safely explained in a leaflet you buy for HKD 11 at the local bookstore.

And the meaning of life, as a one crazy Dutch musician so well puts it, is to give life a meaning. Now we got that sorted out too, ain't that nice.

What's the meaning of a life you just do everything like everyone else does? How was your life at all meaningful?

Haha, this is getting too philosophical. Maybe I better end this post with a cute picture so you can all feel a bit better.

Thirteen Revelations of Evolution

I'm currently reading part 5 of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. It's a good book, it's called Memnoch the Devil. Highly recommendable. Of course I recommend to read all the books prior to this one, but only so all references could be understood. As such, reading this book requires no knowledge of the books before. Anyway, it's a good read. Interesting points-of-view.

My reading hobby has taken me to read the Vampire Chronicles exclusively. As said, I'm now in part 5 (and almost done), and I've read all the previous parts too: Interview with the Vampire, Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief. Next it'll be Vampire Armand. Albeit they are popular books among young, they are gothic and about vampires, they are still very, very good. I doubted them myself at first, but so far they haven't let me down.

The reason I started reading these was actually Bram Stocker's Dracula. While reading the book, I remembered once seeing a vampire-movie that I liked. That of course was the Interview with the Vampire. I also had a small recollection that it was based on a book. And I liked the characters of the first book so much that I'm still reading about them. Simple as that.

But enough about books. Read some if you want, don't if you don't want. Simple.

Christmas was and is no more. I'm back at office for the day to do the daily necessities and work on a few projects that need to be finished. Because they're truly hyper ultra important.

Christmas was quite nice even without the atmosphere we have in Finland. I got plenty of presents from back home and a nice watch from Chi. I had time to meet friends of Chi, and friends of my own. It's been really nice to have more free time since lately I've been doing a bit more work than I'd like. Got to do some cooking (though not Finnish Christmas-foods) and light some candles. Hah.

Also made a phone call home after such a long time since the last time. Now I even bought myself a nice microphone headset so I can call more often. My excuse so far has been my crappy laptop microphone that doesn't really work well for internet calls, and that I don't really want to make such calls from office. Well, the time of excuses are over.

Ah well, so life goes on. Now we wait for the changing of the year. It'll be 2008 soon, and I'll be 26 years old. Damn.

More to come later.

Have a happy one

Hereby falling into the cheesy standard of everyone else in the Western world, I wish you all a merry Christmas. Period. Have a happy one.

Plans for today are to have dinner with friends, and just basically socialize until evening. Then evening is for giving out presenst! Hurrah. Even being 8,000 kilometers from home I managed to get a good pile of stuff. Ha! Fun.

Gotta go now, however, before too much time passes.

Have a nice Christmas.

Christmas at 20 degrees Celcius

It's Christmas time in Hong Kong and the skies are white and the earth is green.
It's Christmas time in Hong Kong, it may not be right but I'm happy as a bean.


It's been a while. I've been working like a mad-man to get as much stuff off the way as possible so I can take the holiday season a bit easier. Next week I still have to go to work, but thanks to my extra-effort, I don't have too much stuff to do anymore, so I can pretty much take it easy for the whole next week. Nice.

This is my first Christmas not being at home. Feels a bit strange. But then, everything has changed since last January when I moved to Hong Kong, so why would this be any different. It's just a matter of circumstance. I did hope to have enough money at hand to visit Finland, but well, that never happened. Doesn't matter that much, I suppose. I can go during summer, and I still got some visitors coming in before that - bringing some fresh air from home.

There's not much of a "Christmas-mood" in Hong Kong for a Finn, I must admit. While the locals seem to be more or less committed to their local way of celebrating this religious spending-fest, as I Finn I just can't find "Christmas" from Hong Kong. I'm not saying it's very important to me right now, but it's just a notion I've made: It's Christmas but it just mostly annoys me here. In Finland, even if I didn't really care for Christmas, it still has that special little atmosphere. Oh, and I do like the atmosphere in Finland during Christmas - religious or not, commercial or not; it's just a nice season.

Well, have to make the best of it here. I was planning to buy some Christmas decoration to my apartment but finally voted agaist it. Too expensive, too much of a fuss to arrange everything. I will, however, probably try make-shift some food. It may not be traditional Christmas foods (I mean, ham is the only really good food during Christmas) but at least something Finnish. I can get ham of some sort from a few supermarkets, and maybe I can do some simple dishes to accomodate it. Since it'll be just me and Chi eating then, however, I need to keep everything to rather simple level not to exceed my budget and buy food that'll just end up in the garbage. I must think of the kids in Africa. And my wallet.

Sign of the times

Christmas is coming. In Hong Kong that is clear for anyone with functioning eyesight and hearing. This means, if you're not blind you can't miss the cheesy over-done Christmas lights and decoration; if you're not deaf you can't miss the cheesy Christmas tunes playing everywhere.

The irony is: the more they try to 'create' Christmas, the further they stray from what would be more authentic.

In fact, the only place in Hong Kong that even slightly has a 'Christmas'-feel to is the decoration outside one big office building, The Centre. There, simple layout of lights, white light in the trees, blue lights in the bushes, and no damned pictures of Santa Claus everywhere with his merry faggoty reindeer, and no damned "Christmas cone" (a Christmas 'tree' so overly decorated that it just looks like a cone with flashing lights and shiny decorative balls). Yes, The Centre is simplistic and hence much better than anything I've seen so far.

And that's all about that.

I made some rice porridge yesterday. I wanted to try how it comes out with the local rice and local milk. Albeit I probably kept it over the stove a bit too long, making it a bit dryer than it should be, I think it came out alright. The taste was good, and adding some sugar and cinnamon made me feel almost like home. A warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling. Add some cookies and a Christmas ham and you'll have all you need for a Merry Christmas.

Anyway, I offer some to Chi too. She, at first, is worried I'm again trying to poison her with the exotic foods from Finland. However, having a small taste of the porridge, she finds it surprisingly eatable, and even familiar in taste to the rice buns locals eat during Dragonboat festival. Then she added some soy sauce and tuna to the porridge. Come again? Yes, soy sauce and tuna.

Next time she cooks, I'll add ketchup to everything.

And to stop you wondering what's so awfully wrong about having some Christmas lights around, gaze upon the picture below and tell me it's not wrong, wrong, wrong.

Is it safe?

"Oh, we have one more here."
"Hmmh, ok."
"Yes, we need to fix that one up too."
"Hmmh, ok."

Drilling. Slight pain.
"How are you doing; does it hurt too much? Should we give you a shot?"
"Hmmh, no need, it's ok."
"Ok."

More drilling. More pain, not too bad though.
"Oh, this is a bit worse than I thought."

A bigger drill. Pressure. The familiar sound of a mosquito. Pain.
"There, that should do it."

I went to the dentist today. On Monday a filling chipped so I had to get it fixed. I can't honestly even remember when I last went to check my teeth but I know it's been a long time. I'm quite sure I've been at a dentist at least once after the army, but I've no recollection when.

It was a private clinic I went to. A really nice setting, as likable as any clean medical clinic. No fuzz. I signed in and waited for to be called in.

The experience itself was ok. The above conversation took place. Two cavities were found to company the chipped filling. Awesome. The ultimate dentist-drilling-experience was on its way. I never thought it too painful when they operate the drill, but I never liked it either. It's not of my favorite things, you know. I'd rather have my face put into a basket full of angry cats.

To those who are interested, the pricing of dental procedures is as follows:
- HKD 100 for a check-up
- HKD 500 for a filling
So, my little adventure cost me HKD 1,500. Nice.

I forgot to mention a few interesting things from my yesterday's post!

During the 10th anniversary ceremony, 10 young couples were also married. It's one of those group-wedding things I've seen in the Chinese media from time to time, but never saw it before live. And I suppose the number of the couples wasn't an accident either. They just wanted to do some silly gesture the Chinese love so much too. Stupid symbolism. It's their style though, so I let them have it.

During the Chinese banquet, a number of interesting foods were served. My policy towards exotic food has been such that I allow myself to try anything - as long as I see someone else eating the stuff before. A kind of a safety procedure to keep myself at bay from jokes on the stupid gweilo.

Anyway, among the interesting stuff at the banquet, I faced a new delicacy: Roasted sparrow fledgling. Yes, it was the whole small bird, roasted dark with its head and everything. Tasted like chicken.

Below some new picture material of the Christmas campaign of that local electronics store, Fortress. I know now it's not just in my head; there is something awfully wrong going on.

So, I was in China again....

So, I was in China again. Doing stuff. Being important. Doing my thing.
I honestly never liked going to China much. It's ok of a place, but it just doesn't feel comfortable to me. Maybe if I spoke the language more it would better, but as it is now, I just find it too alien. And yes, it's a lot different from experiences in Hong Kong.

First of all, China is gray. Actually, it's not gray but more like a khaki color. You know, the kind of brown-greenish color. No matter what time of the day, it just seems depressing. Ok, the nights are a bit better because you can't see so clear what a dump the place is. And I'm not saying this because I'm cruel - I'm saying this because that's how it seems to me.

This is probably a phenomenon in the "developed" parts of China where they are in a hurry of destroying everything in the way of progress, and investing only to the core structures - not cleaning up the mess. Maybe the best description of China is that it looks "unfinished". It's going somewhere but it ain't just there yet.

Second, the fact that the only Gweilo around gets staggering amounts of attention might sound like fun at first, but walking alone in the streets at evening makes you really of aware of the fact, that you're also making about 100 times more money than everyone else around - and you stick out like an albino black bear in a black bear convention. And you're basically inviting all the attention, both good and bad. Not a warm and fuzzy feeling, not feeling like a bear at all.

Going around in a group, of course, is ok. There's power in numbers.

Anyway. I received a good collection of funny memories from China again. It's a place where you never know what you'll get.

I saw three different Chinese men, who all looked and talked like Timo Kahilainen would, if he wanted to do a funny Chinaman character.

I saw a man, wearing a shirt that said "Sell the children for food". I don't know why, but I found that amusing.

I saw a car in the highway that had the Nazi coat of arms and a big black swastika painted at its door. I wanted to take a picture so bad but I was too late with my camera.

I saw many funny Japanese people, and they always do make me smile. Japanese are a completely own race of people, you know, they have a completely different way of going about.

Also, I went to a rather big celebration of a manufacturing company's 10th anniversary of operations. I went there with a few representatives of an partner company of ours who are one of the manufacturer's biggest clients. So, we were one of the honorary guests. That was fun albeit of no real benefit. Anyway, there was a big banquet again, like it is tradition, with lion dancing, singers, traditional dancers, musicians, and all sorts of performances. And a lot of food, of course (including one of my favorites, which is a small complete pork that is roasted and still has its head on and everything. And to make it less gruesome, they put cherry halves to cover its eyes), I really honestly like the banquet food.

I like China. I like a lot of things about. I like the idea of China. I just don't like the reality of China. Hong Kong is better, much better.

For me anyway.

Coming back to Hong Kong is always like coming back home. The streets feel safe, I know where I'm going at every turn, and I know I can survive with English if need be.

Oh, it's already December. I need to do some shopping for Christmas next weekend so I still have time to send the stuff to Finland. I don't yet know what I'll buy, but just walking around should give me good enough ideas. This place is full of stuff you can't get in Finland.

The Christmas-thing is actually quite interesting here. In America the politically correct way to say well-wishes is to wish "Happy holidays" because Christmas is a Christian holiday, and wishing Merry Christmas could offend a non-Christian. Silly, in my opinion. I never really understood the big issue of political correctness.

Anyway, in Hong Kong and also in China Christmas is Christmas. They don't give f*ck about it being a Christian holiday. They just want to spend money and give presents to everyone. They like the decorations, they like the theme of Santa Claus, and they like holiday spirit of Christmas. Of course despite the name, the Chinese don't consider Christmas being the birthday of Jesus our savior Lord. They don't give a rats ass about that either. It's just another shopping spree.

This is for the privileged of China, of course. Try wearing a Santa Claus costume in China countryside and ho-ho-ho! the people into Christmas spirit and you'll probably just get shot for being an annoying asshole.

If you got the money, you can have your spending experience that is called Christmas.

It's actually funny. I think many Chinese don't even understand the meaning of the word Christmas and it will probably end up a synonym for spending - perverting the original Christian idea completely. Ha, that's some anti-Western-culture-influence at works there.

So, let's all get our biggest Christmas socks, shove them up where the sun don't shine, and go out for a shopping spree! Christmas is here once again!

crapshoot pt2. thursday's child

It's been a busy week but soon it'll be over. I will go to China today afternoon and will stay there for a few days. Quite nice actually, to go and see Mainland again, but actually I'd rather not go. Going to China is not that big of a deal but I'd just rather spend my weekend in Hong Kong. Of course, I will be coming back already Saturday afternoon so it'll leave me with half. And there's a birthday party of Chi's friend, so it'll make my weekend a bit more than a casual "stay at home"-solution.

Nothing much to write about. It's been busy and I've been doing work mostly. Nothing more to report.

Except, yesterday I was walking in TST and saw that the Christmas theme of Fortress (the big electronics/home appliance-chain) is really, really as weird as I came to think after the experience with the plastic bag. Below, a new picture from their shop window where the same snowman-elf-thing is pissing on a Christmas tree. Quaint. What on earth is this theme supposed to tell me about Christmas?? Except what I already know, that is sucks.

Hangovers on Mondays

Person X: "Good morning"

Me: "....."

Person X: "Oh, you don't look very happy."

Me: "....."

Person X: "What's up?"

Me: "....."

Person X: "It looks to me you're suffering from a case of Mondays"

Me: "Sod off before I brutally murder you with a puppy."

*This conversation never took place, and thus is fictional.
However, it is a very realistic portrayal of what
could've happened on this fateful day.

crapshoot

So, the US Navy aircraft carrier (Hello) Kitty Hawk will dock in Hong Kong for Thanksgiving, and some 8,000 seamen will flood the streets of WanChai and LanKwaiFong. Those are two places I will know to avoid for the next five days. If I had wanted to see drunken idiots in heat, running after everything that even slightly resembles a woman, I could've stayed in Finland and go to any music festival.

I remember the last time we witnessed the invasion of American idiots to Hong Kong and I really, really, really don't want to see it again. It's just one of those things that make me hate all of humanity oh so much more. Idiots... drunk idiots, everywhere. Sigh.

We come in peace, shoot to kill.

Anyways, it's Friday again and soon I can retire myself to the comfort of my home, sweet home. With the (Hello) Kitty Hawk in town, I dare not go outside, so I'll just raid the grocery store and get enough supplies to survive the weekend.

Christmas preparations are well on their way here in Hong Kong, by the way. The first Christmas lights I saw already almost one month ago but now everyone seems to be getting into the holiday spirit! Ain't Christmas just super!

Light everywhere, trees, special prices, sale, sale, sale! Consumer heaven, tradition hell.

Below a plastic bag from a big local electronics store. It's a snowman-Christmas-elf-kind-of-thing that is shooting snow from his ass at another snowman. How cool is that? No matter how I look at it, I can't make myself see it in any other way. It's a snowman-Christmas-elf-kind-of-thing that is shooting snow from his arse. Maybe I have some brain disorder. If someone sees something else in this picture, let me know.

Lo and behold!

So, somewhere things work oh so finely! Yesterday I told about my broken laptop. Well, yesterday afternoon I received a call from HP Repair Centre that I can pick it up already. It took them two days to get it fixed, and one of them was Sunday. Sheer amazement.

And to those who are interested: they replaced the motherboard, but everything else was left the same.

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same here.

Many people have been asking me about weather so I might as well say a few words about it here. First and foremost it's getting colder every week. Like I've said before, winter can be rather cold here. It's not cold as Finland, of course, but it's still cold. This morning, for example, it was just 17 degrees when I left home so not really a t-shirt weather anymore. I don't mind, I can wear a jacket, and you all know how I like to wear jackets.

Below 7-day weather forecast:


You can see how the weather is changing. This a real-life climate change. In a month or so I will need to see about getting a radiator to my apartment. Especially bedroom will require heating up. Not very nice to wake up when the room is just 14-15 degrees.

The best part about the weather changing is seeing the cute little Hongkongese turning into little Eskimos. I mean, imagine a Finnish person in a -30 degrees. Now imagine the Finn's clothing worn by a Hongkongese person, in +15, on a sunny day. And the Hongkongese person still looks like being cold. Then imagine me, wearing a t-shirt, standing next to the Hongkongese person and pointing my finger and laughing... And then I stop and apologize to Chi.

Ok, the above never happened but the clothes thing is true. The people here dress up for nuclear winter and the weather hardly goes below +10 degrees Celsius at any given time (except for a few nights during the winter). It's funny. Today I saw a girl who was already wearing a woolen cap and all sorts of thick and warm clothing. I should take some pictures at some point of the people here.

Well, I shouldn't make fun of them. It's their way of life and if they don't deal with cold so very well, it's not their fault as such. I can't place the blame on these cute little critters, who so zealously strive through their daily lives. No, I blame the communist conspiracy and climate change!

Now contemplate on old Chinese poetry:

"The round soul's climbing into the cold void,
They say it is the same in all four seas.
How can one know a thousand miles away,
If they do not have rain and wind?" - Li Qiao

"Trees shed leaves, and geese are flying south;
The north wind blows, here on the river it's cold.
My home is at the bend of the waters of Xiang,
Far beyond the edge of the clouds of Chu.
Travelling, I've exhausted my tears for home,
I watch a lone sail at the heavens' end.
The ferry's gone- who can I ask where?
Darkness falls beside the level sea." - Meng Haoran

The end of civilization

I always thought the worst thing that could happen is losing internet connection. You know: coming home after work, putting on the computer, opening the browser, and not getting anywhere! What is a computer worth without internet anymore? Seriously, it's like a lame kitten (maybe cute, but very sad to look at).

So, what could be worse than a computer without internet? Being without a computer, of course! And that's exactly what I got.

Wednesday evening was like any other, and I was casually browsing the internet and chatting with friends like I always do after work. Suddenly the screen goes all hippie-acid-trip-colors on me, and I'm like "wtf?" Well, I don't panic, I just turn off my computer to boot it, but what's this? The computer doesn't turn on anymore! The damned thing doesn't turn on anymore!! Curses! Curses!

Well, there's no drama to it. On Friday I took the computer for maintenance (I still had plenty of warranty to go) and left it there. As I sign the papers, they let me know it'll take about 5-10 days to get it back. This means my weekend was without a computer.

So, I watched TV instead! How creative! I watched a ton of movies and I learned fascinating things from Discovery Channel, like about how the Great Wall of China was built.

The movies I watched this weekend:
1. Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom
3. Jadesoturi
4. Appleseed
5. Patlabor the movie
6. Patlabor 2 the movie
7. Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade
8. Lady in the Water

Sad. Isn't it?

I went to sleep Friday evening, I woke up, watched some movies, and it was Monday morning. That's how my weekend was.

Anyways, I hope my laptop gets fixed soon enough and there are no big problems that would, for example, require them removing my hard disk. I have a lot of stuff on my HD, and it would be a totally up-in-the-arse job to find and download all the stuff away - and to rip all my CD's again.

Just when you thought things matter

So, you had a bad day. You had one of those days that everyone and everything just seem to be concentrated on making your life crap. The stress, the grumpiness, the tiredness, the feeling like nothing really goes your way...

Well, I got something that might cheer you up!

Consider this:

There are more than one hundred billion galaxies in the Universe. In one galaxy, depending on its size, there are from ten million to about a trillion stars in galaxy. And our little blue planet is going around one of those stars. So, there are 1,000,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe, with an average of 10,000,000,000 stars in each. So, in total there are about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars and our small planet goes around one of them.

Additionally;
The known universe is about 92–94 billion light-years in diameter. Our earth is 12,742 km in diameter. The largest distance you probably ever covered, by walking at a single walk is, at max, about 20 kilometers (and even that is a grand achievement). And you, of course are by average around 1.7 meters tall.

Remember that one light year is 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers. That means, the size of the known galaxy is 92- 94,000,000,000 times 9,460,730,472,580.8, so about 889,308,664,422,595,200,000,000 kilometers (if I got it right).

The universe, according to mostly agreed data, is about 13.7 billion years old, our planet is 4.54 billion years, and you're lucky if you reach 80 years. Homo Sapiens has been around for about 200,000 years, about 6,000 years ago we started agriculture, and a few hundred years ago we started what we might call "the modern era".

Furthermore, there are about 6 billion people on this earth right now. You are one of them, and on global or even national level you probably don't have any significance. You are a number and a name in files, and you matter only to the people you know.

So, you are an insignificant member of an animal species that has existed only for 200,000 in a universe that has existed for 13,700,000,000 years. You're an insignificant particle (of 1.7 meters tall) of a planet that is orbiting one single star from the mass of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, in an universe that is 889,308,664,422,595,200,000,000 kilometers wide. So, how significant do you think your bad day really is? Does anyone care? Would anyone know if you didn't even exist. Do you even realize who unlikely your whole existence is? Don't worry, be happy.

If you're feeling a bit down today, don't feel sad. It's ok. If you feel insignificant and that no one cares, don't feel sad. You are insignificant and nobody gives a f*ck.

“We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.” - Charles Darwin

I want to believe

So, on the topic of pirates vs. ninjas. Seems there's a lot of commotion going around that, and people debate who are better, worse, deadlier, etc. And though this debate hardly pertains to me, I do want to ask this simple thing:
Are you out of your f***ing minds? I mean, who cares?

Anyway, today is a rather uneventful day. No grannies to be pissed off about, and it seems the climate hasn't changed at all during today either. So, this kind of uneventfulness only leads to apathy. And apathy leads to tiredness, tiredness leads to grumpiness, grumpiness leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.......

My collection of DVD's has been growing nicely within the last 10 months or so, and finally I made the best decision of all. I bought the Indiana Jones trilogy pack with a bonus DVD for HKD 270, and it's the best thing ever. Indiana Jones is one of those childhood favorites of mine that never seem to grow old - like the classic "old" Star Wars. There's a lot of action and a lot of things going on, but everything is kept to a realm of realism. The action is awesome because there were no computers to 'improve' peoples' physical attributes, or to 'enhance' the visual effects.

Best explained with the comparison of the "old" Star Wars with the "new" ones.
1. JEDIs;
In the old Star Wars Jedi's are knights. They fight with swords and they rarely jump around or do anything too fancy. They are well trained and well disciplined fighters but they are still mostly human - even with their 'force' that aids them against normal people. Both feet on the ground, they hack away like a knight of old Europe.

In the new Star Wars Jedi's are ninjas. They fight with swords (can't really understand why with all the special powers they have) and jump around like anything from a Kung-fu movie. They spend 14% of their time on the ground, the rest they are flying around. They are stupid ninjas and no better than anything in the contemporary Hollywood movies with kung-fu fighting scenes. I liked the knights better.

2. TECHNOLOGY;
In the old Star Wards the technology is credible and rather restricted. The ships look realistic and the designs are rather simple. A certain level of technology is set and what you see in the movies does not change that much.

In the new ones, the technology is (for some reason) a lot more developed than in the old ones (that are supposed to happen, in the movie time line, after the new ones). There are gadgets, droids, weapons, ships, etc., that all surpass the level of technology of the old movies.

I can understand the urge to show-off the latest tricks you can do with computers but they could've done it in a more subtle way. Now it just pisses me off. With these stupid changes they made for the movies they totally disconnected them from what I originally liked about them. The new ones are not natural nor credible. They don't 'feel' real. I don't relate to their universe.

Now I heard they are making a new Indiana Jones. Unlike most people, I'm not worried whether Harrison Ford is up for the role again. I'm worried they'll screw the whole movie over with stupid effects and other stupid contemporary crap.

Keep it simple, keep it real.

a moth hits the fan, and on the other side of the globe the climate is changing!

So we were eating lunch yesterday at one of our regular places, Modern Cafe, when a moth comes to bug us. It was going totally berserk for a while and then it flew straight through a fan that was blowing next to us. Now, lucky for us the fan was blowing to the opposite direction from us because we had just received our food and this way we didn't have to pick up pieces of the moth - now totally sliced into microscopic pieces - from our foods. Nice.

This, however, reminds us all of the fragile nature of our meager lives. At one moment we are flying around carelessly minding our own business and suddenly are hacked into tiny bits by a mechanical monster that scatters our remains all over the place.

As we stroll around our lives, we should take pleasure in the simple things as every moment could be our last. How sweet is that, aye?

So anyway, I've got some shocking news for ya all!! I stumbled on a well-hidden secret they would rather I not expose. Yet, I feel it's my responsibility towards the human race and all animal kingdom to speak what I know to try my best to save us from the the terror of CLIMATE CHANGE!

We are being told that it is a man-made phenomenon but it's just a conspiracy! The real reason relates to man, but is far more profound than anyone could've expected.

I am of course talking about the connection between the decrease in number of pirates and the increase in global temperature!

Here's what I found:

According to the Pastafarian belief system, pirates are "absolute divine beings" and the original Pastafarians.[4] Their image as "thieves and outcasts" is misinformation spread by Christian theologians in the Middle Ages and Hare Krishnas. Pastafarianism says that they were in fact "peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will" who distributed candy to small children, and adds that modern pirates are in no way similar to "the fun-loving buccaneers from history." Pastafarians celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day on the 19th of September.

The inclusion of pirates in Pastafarianism was part of Henderson's original letter to the Kansas School Board. It illustrated that correlation does not equal causation. Henderson put forth the argument that "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800's." A chart accompanying the letter shows that as the number of pirates decreased, global temperatures increased; the absurdity of this demonstrates how statistically significant correlations do not imply a causal relationship." - Wikipedia

Here's a graph to support the claim:

This all relates to the Pastafarians, who are the followers of the great Flying Spaghetti Monster.

With this amazing proof, do I need to say more?

Adding to everything, I figured out a new kind of chaos theory (or theory of complex systems) and it is: "A moth hits a fan in Hong Kong, and the Climate will Change in Europe, flooding the tulip-farms."

Of Automatic Teller Machine Grannies and the sorts

So, I've mostly been overly positive about things in Hong Kong. Yes, I do feel Hong Kong is great in many ways. But to say it was perfect would be a lie. Of course it's not perfect. But why would I tell you about the bad things about Hong Kong? Saying Hong Kong is crap won't make people jealous of my life. And that's what we all want;

We want to tell stories that generally give a positive image of the things we experience. Even the sacrificial tourists who tell exaggerated stories of their experiences try to keep a positive tone to their stories even if telling about something that would be deemed "disgusting", "weird", or "outrageous" - like eating something exotic, like chicken pawns, or monkey brains, or telling wild stories about the local cultures, etc.

So, I won't tell about the bad things about Hong Kong - I mean the really bad things. Instead I will do a little comic relief and tell about the people of Hong Kong.

I love the people here. In general, I have nothing against anyone - but of course we have some types of people that make things annoying for us all.

PART 1: The Automatic Teller Machine Grannies

Hong Kong has 7.5 million people and only 30 ATM's (or so it seems). The queues are long and slow, and only in the early morning or late night can you skip the 10 minutes wait.

In Hong Kong usually there are a few ATM's next to each other, so each has an individual queue. In my case example there's 3 ATM's.

So, you walk towards the ATM's. You see the normal queues. Two of the ATM's have 5 people in queue for both, one of them has only one people in queue. So, naturally you pick the shortest queue. A big mistake.

You stand in line for 5 minutes. Most of the people in the queues next to you have done their business already and you see new faces. You look at your ATM and the same person is still there. "Ah! She is taking her card away now. Good the line will move on." Wrong! She will insert a new card.

Another 5 minutes. Another set of new faces.

She takes her card away. Finally!.. No, another card goes in. Good lord, what is happening!

You have just been hit by an ATM Granny.

In Hong Kong internet banking is still a rather new thing (or so it seems) and a lot of people pay their bills at the ATM. So, what you have is a person who steals the ATM for tens of minutes to pay bills - ignoring the fact that there are several people in the queue. They have several different accounts and cards that they go through in a peaceful and calm manner.

There are no certain ways to detect an ATM Granny but there are clues you can look for:
1. If there are several queues and one of them is clearly shorter, don't take it!
2. If, in front of you, you see a person holding a stack of papers that you suspect could be bills, change lines quickly before it's too late!
3. Generally avoid having old people in your queue because even if they don't turn out to be ATM Grannies, you'll probably end up waiting longer because old people are helpless when confronted by any technology invented after 1930's.

If you do find yourself waiting for an ATM Granny to finish, don't stay. Find another ATM or change the line. There is no telling how long you might end up waiting, so before you commit yourself to the wait too much, leave.

PART 2: Agitos Tardus, also known as the "Granny le Pedestrian"

In every crowded place you can find them and Hong Kong is no exception. Slow walking people are everywhere. A general human mass that moves inhumanely slow. One step every two seconds, average length of one step 30 centimeters. Suppose you are not a strolling tourists wanting to see everything, but you actually want to get somewhere - not fast, but in a reasonable speed. Impossible. You are caught in a mass of people who won't let you go faster.

Now, imagine this same mass of people, some moving and some stationary. You are moving in a flow of people, following the person in front of you. And suddenly the person stops. Without any clear reason, he just stops in the middle of the pathway. You try to get past him but there's no room because of furnitures or other people. You have to stop too and wait for what ever short-circuit he had in his head to pass. Within a few seconds, the traffic will resume.

Now that is extremely annoying. It would be ok if was a random event, but one it is something faced almost every day.

There is nothing that can be done, it can just be tolerated. You can't avoid the masses. The only thing you can do is act arrogantly and force yourself past people ignoring their individual objections.

PART 3: Mass Transit Railway Grannies

So, you're going to take the metro home. Because of rush hour, you don't want to take the first train leaving to ensure you get a seat. It's a long way home and standing for the whole time is not nice. You queue for the second train and there's not many people there yet. This means you are well on your way getting a seat.

The first train leaves and people start massing up behind you, queuing for the second train. Still a good position in the line, seat ensured.

In Hong Kong, like in any crowded society, the fight to have seats is a brutal one - everyone wants one. So, as the train comes, the lines compress as everyone wants be close to the door. You want to start squeezing into the train already when the passengers are still getting out. This is not polite, but it's WAR!

And just as the train is arriving the worst possible thing happens: a granny skips in line and forces herself in front of you. You can't do much, I mean, it's a granny. And no matter how it pisses you off, you must control yourself; the last thing you want it a pissed of granny shouting at your face in Cantonese with everyone looking. Swallow your pride, let it go, breathe easy.

Of course, what the granny does is screw up the plan of squeezing in. As a master of the art of slow walking, the granny gets inside just in time to get a seat for herself but too late for you to find a place to rest your arse. You'll be stalled at the very doors of the train and the seats are taken. Ain't that quaint. F*ck it all.

Unless you're rude and shove the granny away, you can't avoid this happening. Just swallow your pride and stand all the way home.

PART 4: Ganea Ganeum Granny, also known as "Those grannies next to 'girl-bars'

So you're out, having a good time in Wanchai or Tsimshatsui. You head for the street and go walking. The purpose of your walk does not matter: you might be walking home, or to another bar, or restaurant, or you might just be walking for fun. No matter the reason, you will be like a wounded gazelle to the Ganea Ganeum Grannies.

Now, I wouldn't go to a girl bar anyway. It's not my style nor what I want to do. But the logic of this yet eludes me. If you have a bar, where supposedly beautiful young girls are doing striptease and other things of the sorts, why would you have ugly old grannies outside to hawk people in?! Why, oh why?

If I did actually want to see beautiful young girls doing striptease and pay higher price for every drink I order, I would not go in because an ugly old granny tells me to. I mean, come on! Well, it's not important. I avoid them. Though sometimes it's nice to hear I'm handsome. It boosts my self-esteem.

THE END

Ok, that's about it. There are more things I could write, but I'll do that later. Today's post is long enough as it is.

“We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” - Charles Darwin

a blog with a twist.

Back to work. Back to routines. Back to blogging. HA!

It's been a hectic last month but now the dust is finally settling down. I was so utterly busy I can't even belief all the things that took place. It's like I had no real life last month, aside from work. But now I'm done. Now I can finally breathe in peace again.

I'm starting to run out of everyday-life stories from Hong Kong. As Markus, in his blog, so well puts it: everything is pretty much routine by now and as such there is very little 'new' things happening, and repeating the old stuff again and again serves no purpose.

So, I will stop writing just about life here and henceforth write anything that comes to mind - not just HK stuff. I have, actually been doing that for some time now, but I just thought I'd make that clear so there is no disorientation.

Of course I will still write about life in HK or China as it is, when new topics arise; I will write about my views in politics or current trends in the world; or any other thing I find interesting. Don't expect much consistency. And don't expect me to be politically correct, because I'm not. And I don't expect you to agree with me either. But it's all ok. HA! I don't care.

Oh, and just a small additional remark on yesterday's topic:

"Hippies.They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad." - Eric Cartman

I am glad to tell you that, according to todays news, Mr. Arhinmäki, the Vice-Chairman of Finnish Left Alliance is disappointed in Finnish government's procedures to stop the climate change.

I, too, feel we should stop the climate change. I also think, we should plant a huge kick-ass rocket-engine on one side of our planet, and blast ourselves from the Sun's orbit, and maybe go hang out with Jupiter instead.

I think the sole reason why everything seems to get worse with the climate change is simply that no one knows what will happen, so it's easier to predict everything. The "climate scientists" are like modern-day Nostradumuses who give us their projections of what will happen by placing bets on every possible outcome - and if even one of them comes true, they can say "HA! We warned you!!! ... oh, and don't mind the things that didn't come true."

The planetary climate system is too complicated for anyone to make any kind of estimates of what will happen. We are told that 1+1 = 2, but what we are not told is that it's not so simple. There are countless variables and countless different outcomes that may happen. No one knows!

Oh, and once more. I do think we should protect our planet and reduce waste and pollution. But I think we should do it just because then our planet would be nicer to live in, not because of climate change. We can't stop it. We can adapt to it, however, and that's what I think we should do.

I mean, if the sea-level rises, I'm sure we can grow tulips somewhere else. HA!

"I hate hippies! I mean, the way they always talk about "protectin' the earth" and then drive around in cars that get poor gas mileage and wear those stupid bracelets - I hate 'em! I wanna kick 'em in the nuts!" - Eric Cartman

Excerpt from a bum's diary, November 5th, 2007

Dear Diary,

It is Monday once more. It was a rather chilly morning and like a couple days in the past, I was able to wear a jacket. Totally sweet. The weather has been rather nice lately, albeit the wintry smog is slowly falling on us. When the temperatures go down, the smog comes. We scarcely see the sun directly anymore, though it does shine through the thick gray mass. I don't mind. As long as it cools down a little, it's all good.

We had a small get-together of friends on Friday evening. A friend of mine (ours) came from China for an evening's stay in Hong Kong, and we gathered to another friend's place in Tung Chung, and had a charming evening. It's been a while since last having this kind of an old-fashioned house party. Of course, it was much more controlled than those when we were younger, but nonetheless, playing music loud, talking, drinking and eating, and generally having a good time are things that always result from such elements.

Saturday we slept late and didn't do anything, on Sunday Chi had to work and I remained home - and didn't do anything. The perfect weekend. Nothing to do, doing nothing.

Anyway,

I've been waiting for one thing to happen, and it happened on Sunday morning as I was watching Discovery Channel. See, it's no secret I have rather controversial thoughts about many things, one being the on-going discussion of climate change.

On Sunday morning, on Discovery Channel, they promised more earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis - all because of climate change! Hurrah! Now, officially the world is going to hell because of climate change! Good for us.

What a wonderful time we humans have managed to come into existence. We come be and the world is like a paradise, everything is fine and good, everything is in balance. But unbeknown to us, our planet is like a fragile little flower. We live on a thin threshold of sweet paradise surrounded by hell on earth! Deviate one step from this line, and the shit will literally hit the fan.

Well, isn't that all quite quaint.

So, we have the perfect world now. Everything is super-fine! We are super-duper well-off and we have absolutely no problems here what-so-ever ... except those caused by man (like poverty, war, and such).

But here comes the man-caused CLIMATE CHANGE!! In a few hundred years of industrialism we have managed to change our planet to a point that it will warm up a staggering few degrees over the next few hundred years!

And what this few degrees does to our wonderful Eden of a planet? Well, what DOESN'T it cause? If I'm to believe everything that is said by the "scientists" our planet is going to all but blow up. We will have drought, floods, disease, poverty, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, cancer, spaghetti monster, war, volcanic eruptions, shifts in continental plates, mass extinction of species, massive death-tolls on human population, chaos, massive forest fires, lack of food and water, etc.

All this because we get a few degrees more?

Even with the violent reality of the universe - the fact that our planet is more susceptible to things that take place outside this little blue ball of ours, than inside, like the Sun (our main source for warmth and light) - we think us humans are the sole cause of this climate change. Ignoring the fact that the climate changes anyway.

And why is it that all the effects are negative? Or is it just because people are so damned stupid that they always want to see catastrophe? Good news aren't interesting so let's give 'em hell!

And on another note, I'd like to point out that most people care about climate change because of selfish reasons. They don't care about the planet; for some it's a popularity tool (politicians, activists, corporations), for others it's a source of income (politicians, activists, corporations, "scientists"), to some it's a smokescreen (politicians, corporations), and to the general population it's just another hype they have to be concerned about.

For example, from 50's to 90's we had Communism to fear, or other maybe feared Capitalism. In the 80's we were told a new ICE AGE is coming, but now nobody seems to care or worry about that anymore. In 2000 we had Y2K which was said to literally end our contemporary way of life. And after 2001 we had Terrorism and now we have Climate Change. It's all very nice. There are others but these are the best known and the first that came to my mind.

Haha, seems I went a bit further on the topic than I intended... My original point was this: tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are now going to increase because of Climate Change. Our planet's temperature increasing by few degrees will, in fact, affect how the continental plates shift!!! Imagine that. All this over a few degrees Celsius. How delicious.

I suppose I need to go eat lunch now. I try not to worry too much about my carbon-footprint while I eat - I'm sure I could stop climate change if I tried harder. But for some reason, I just don't see it happening.

Maybe when I'm 50 years old and the whole world's gone to hell, I'll regret these words I've said. But with my unlimited humane feelings towards the ever-so-great human race, I can't say I feel sorry for anyone - except maybe my close family and friends. Whatever comes, comes for a reason. And if indeed humankind has CHANGED THE CLIMATE, we can all pat ourselves on the back and I can say to everyone's relief: "gosh, we do hold some super-human powers after all. I can't believe Gore was right... though he did receive the Nobel PEACE price and everything for his struggle for.... peace, so I suppose he actually knew what he was talking about in the end. I suppose I owe you all an apology for being so blind."

HA! Lunch-time.

EDIT: After lunch... I must add that I am all for environmental protection and that pollution should be decreased. I'm just starting to get pissed off at the never-ending discussion of climate change. If the climate changes we need to adapt to it!! We can't control the climate - that we could is the stupidest thing I've heard in a while. What we need to do is decrease pollution and improve our waste-management systems to clean our earth. And realize, that even if we stop every polluting activity, and hug trees, and sing songs by a camp fire, and take responsibility over our actions towards nature, THE CLIMATE WILL STILL CHANGE! It does that all the time, status quo never remains, and the climate is always changing. Period. End of story. The End.

Frigging cold!

!!!GENERAL ALERT!!!

Hong Kong temperatures ARE below 20 degrees Celsius! All citizens are advised to stay indoors and wait for this change in climate pass. A fresh to strong northeast monsoon is affecting southern China and the northern part of the South China Sea. Weather forecast for today Cloudy. Bright periods during the day. Fresh northerly winds, occasionally strong over offshore waters.

Outlook : Becoming fine over the weekend.

When I woke up this morning, my apartment was cool. I don't mean it was cool like a new pair of sunglasses and wearing an overcoat open, and posing in a way that your one knee is slightly bent and you're leaning back a little, which a cool smirk of a smile. No, I mean the other cool which is the one step before 'cold'.

Super-duper hot; hot; warm; ok; cool; cold; freezing. That's how it goes.

For the past few weeks we've come from 'warm' to 'ok', and now we are about to step over to 'cool'. This, of course, means only one thing:
JACKETS! Oh, godly super awesome jackets!! I can finally wear them again! After being in Finland this summer I have not worn a jacket on a single day (wearing a jacket with a suit not included)!! This is just so damned ultra-mega sweeeeeeeeeeet!!!!

Of course this means also, that general population of Hong Kong will start dressing up like Eskimos, but I don't really care. I can wear my jackets! I may even have to buy a few more.

The cold brings one problem, however. The Hong Kong apartments (like I've mentioned in my old posts) are not built to retain any heat (or cooled air for that matter) and this means that if it's 10 degrees outside, it will probably be 13 degrees inside. This means it's actually quite cold inside!

I mean, in Finland, even if it is -30 degrees outside, the houses are still kept warm in a nifty nice +21 to +23 degrees. So, if you choose, you can stay inside and keep warm. That is not an option here by default. I need to buy a radiator to ensure good night sleep as the apartments don't usually have in-built heating systems. They do have AC's for hot weather, but nothing to save us from cold! I seriously can't understand the logic but then again, this is probably yet another thing that I can blame on the British... those sons of bitches.

Below is the 7-day Weather Forecast from my pals at the Hong Kong Observatory.



So, anyway, winter is coming to Hong Kong too. I know it doesn't sound bad, but I can guarantee that it is a lot colder than what it sounds. I will remember to bitch about it often enough to make the point.

The unspeakable horrors of Hallow Een.

"If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?" - Steven Wright

I don't like Halloween. I don't like it one bit.

As such, there is nothing wrong in it but mostly this has to do with my hate towards imported and/or superficial holidays. I mean, come on! The Scottish and the Irish brought the Halloween celebration to America where it thrived - and now this tradition is pouring back to, well, everywhere.

In Hong Kong, Halloween is everywhere! I went to a bar yesterday after work to have a beer, and the staff was dressed up in stupid costumes and the place was decorated accordingly to match the theme. This could also be seen in numerous other places too, like grocery stores, cafes, and so on.

Why do these people celebrate Halloween? They have no cultural background for it. It's just imported because it's seen in TV, and it looks 'fun'. They don't need it, they never did. It's just another stupid consumer party. Buy all this crap you don't need and have yet another excuse to 'go wild'.

I wonder what will happen when the corporates runs out of new ideas; will they start to do two-part holidays. We could have Valentines Day in the spring, and then in the autumn we could have 'Valentines Day 2 - the special day for true friends'.

If people really worried about the effects of climate change, or the growing influence of communism, or the general stupidity of human race, they would stop these damned stupid superficial holidays.

My solution is simple: to provide all that crap you buy during these special days your local stores need to buy them cheap from China. In China, as we all know, all evil is brewed and they release tons of toxins in the air while making these products. Also, the stores are paying nifty for the products, so China's wealth increases and so does the power of Communism! So, by educating people not to buy the crap you don't only make them smarter (like me), you also stop the climate change and destroy communism.

In fact, I've been lead to believe that Halloween is only an evil joint-conspiracy of the Capitalists and Communists to take over the world! Both their names start with a 'C' --- what other proof do you need!??

Again, it's all very simple:
'C' as in Candy
'C' as in 'triCk or treat'
'C' as in 'JaCk the Pumpkin King'

So, you see... all these words and phrases have the letter 'C'. And the list goes on! It's amazing I'm the only one who has noticed these incredible similarities. I can't believe this all could be just a coincidence.

I'm sure it's a conspiracy.

Oh, and at our local McDonald's there's a sales person by the name LeTurbo. But there's nothing funny about that.

updating the un-updatable

So, time keeps passing by quick. No time to write, no time to do anything but work and trying to relax during the few hours of the evening spared. Nothing has changed at work and I'm still quite busy. Lucky for me, however, the tide will soon turn, and the work-load should decrease a little after this and next week. I'm so looking forward those times.

To break free the vicious circle of work, we had a three-day weekend. Friday was a public holiday and since I had been working like a madman for the past few weeks before it I managed to arrange everything in a way that I could actually have the whole weekend off without having to go to the office.

The reason for the holiday remained a mystery to me but I didn't really care why I was having an extra day off, as long as I could keep it. I asked my local colleagues for the history behind the holiday, but I couldn't really get a clear answer from either.

The first explanation was that a virus (plague, perhaps?) was ravaging in the old China thousand(s) years ago, and people took themselves and their cattle, and material wealth up to mountains to survive it. And so this holiday was somehow celebrating the survival story of these people.....
I don't know, it just sounded a bit weird, and I'm sure there must be more behind a national holiday.

The second explanation was that once there was a Chinese man called Bill, who had long hair and he did some cool stuff. And this day was to celebrate Bill.

Whichever, doesn't really matter.

Having three days off was great! Really, really, really awesome to have a little time to other things again and not worrying about work-stuff. So, me and Chi went around Hong Kong for Friday and Saturday - and on Sunday we did the ultimate relaxation-day-of-total-awesomeness!... so on Sunday we basically just sank into the sofa and watched TV all day.

Unlike an average tourist, we went to random places you wouldn't really go to if you were following guidebooks to Hong Kong tourism. Our weekend contained places like Tsuen Wan, Shum Cheng, and Tuen Mun - traveling with a taxi, bus and a mini-bus (which was way cool!).

I think I've mentioned this before but it's really great having a local with you to show you around. Of course it takes some time to go through the traditional tourist-sites which are, I suppose, a must visit - but after a while all that is very boring and you yearn for other things. So, with a local to guide you, you can find yourself in places that normally only the locals go to. You get to see the local life-style, you get to see how what the life here is really like - not just the surface.

A workable example would be a tourist going to Finland for a week. First few days in Helsinki in some semi-good hotel - walking in the shopping areas, and cultural areas. Then, a remaining days in Rovaniemi (or other tourist location in Lapland), seeing Santa Claus, skiing a little and taking pictures of reindeer. Then going back to their home country and saying: "oh boy, oh boy! Finland is such an awesome place!"

Granted, Finland may be an awesome place - but that person only saw the surface and knows nothing of the actual life in the country. Instead of going to Helsinki, go to a city like Valkeakoski, or instead of going to Lapland, go to a cabin to swim/sauna/barbecue. Instead of doing something fun, just stay at home and do nothing - that's what Finns do. Hah, or whatever. The point is, as a tourist you only see the place as it was designed to be seen by outsiders. You never see what truly lies beneath the surface. Ok, so most people actually don't care about that and really only want to see the surface, the monuments and churches, and famous sceneries, and all that. I don't. I want to see life.

Ah, getting off-track a little.

So, anyway it's nice to see these kinds of things. Going to restaurants where I'm the only gweilo, going to areas where I'm the only gweilo. To my surprise I've learned that many expatriates who come to Hong Kong know very little of these things. They stick to their own group of people, and have a bit of an elitist attitude towards local customs - and of course both these reasons lead them never to try new things. You won't be able to experience Hong Kong to the fullest from LanKwaiFong, that is my point.

That's all about that.

Now, just for fun I'd like to put in a few funny facts to put things into perspective for you all.

Tuen Mun was one district in Hong Kong I just visited for the first time. I had thought it a smallish town, much like Tung Chung. When I got there, I was instantly in a humiliating sense of awe. This "smallish town" is actually home to 502,000 people (Helsinki: 565,000). Why this was such a surprise to me was because the area is over one hour traveling from the central areas of Hong Kong so I expected it to be rather unfavored location for living.

What about Tsuen Wan, then? I had been there a few times before but found it a really shady and not very welcoming. I thought it must be a bit poorer neighborhood and for low/mid-income local people. Well, I was wrong again. Tsuem Wan population is 288,000 (Tampere 206,000) and "Its residents enjoy the highest income in the New Territories. " (Wikipedia)

Ah well, so I don't know much about this place after all. I just need to go to these place and see for myself. Within Saturday I passed several towns with size equal to the Finnish capital and major cities and didn't even know it.

Below a map of Hong Kong for reference.



Returning to my closing paragraph of last time, I can now say the danger is over and the missing tile has been replaced. As seen from the picture below, pedestrians can once again step on the steps without care of danger!

"Well, I looked in my mom's closet and saw what I was getting for Christmas, an UltraVibe Pleasure 2000." - Eric Cartman

Long hours

Here I am again. Office at 19:00, one hour overtime done already and no certainty of when I can go home. Hopefully within the next hour anyway.

Now, some of you might think 'how come I am doing overtime but still can write to blog. It'd make more sense to do work first, go home and then write to blog.' Well, I am now working with 50 to 250 megabyte picture files, and with my old hamster-powered disgrace of a computer it takes a whole-lotta time to do anything. So, while I save, resize, render, open, close, whatever, I can write. Cool.

Anyway, I've been working a lot with pictures now as I am designing some marketing materials and stuff related to that. I must say I love this part of my job. It's actually the one thing I volunteer to do! If, in this company, there is a task that requires creating some new images, edit old ones - or whatever related, I'm the man for the job! Actually, one of the best things in this company I work in is, that I can try a lot of different things and slowly I've been starting to find out the things that I actually do like to do, and the ones I'm not a big fan of. Hence, when I - in some inconceivable future - decide to change to another company, I will already know what I really, really, really want to do. So, I know what kind of training I should get, and what kind of jobs I should seek for.

My life just got better: I found a 0.6 liter can of Carlsberg from the office fridge. Yummy, it's cold too!

Anyway, I must repeat myself again from my previous posts and note that nothing much has happened here. Being busy and doing overtime continuously makes decreases the amount of 'normal' life a person can have. In fact, for the last few weeks I have been working both on Saturday and Sunday too (albeit not full days) and it is likely I will work this weekend too - and definitely next weekend. I can't actually very clearly remember doing anything specific during the last few weeks. Mostly I just remember working. Sounds like a fun life, doesn't it?

It's funny how just some years back, if someone had told me I'll be a "business man" working in Hong Kong, in an office and doing overtime until nervous breakdown, I would've probably laughed at that person. Yet, here I am. And the strange thing is, I don't really mind about it. Sure it's a pain in the ass not being able to do the things I like, but after a while you kind of just go numb of doing work. With such little personal time you don't really bother making any plans - and with no plans for the afternoon, it suddenly doesn't feel so bad to do a few hours extra.

It's a sick world we live in. I'm glad my workload will ease down a little after few weeks. Then I can take a bit easier again - I hope!

Ah well, I'm almost done with my work for today... Almost ready... Still need to do some print-outs to check if my designs and coloring is ok.

So, I'll just leave you now with a picture taken in Hong Kong a few days back. You can ponder upon whether it was absolutely necessary to have all those road cones with blinking lights to warn of a missing tile. Or whether they could've fixed it with the same amount of trouble than putting those cones there. So, yeah.. ponder upon it.

At the calm between the storms

"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect." - Stephen Wright

So, finally I decided it's time to do a little post again. It's been a long time, I know, but I couldn't help it! I'm so overloaded with work I simply don't have the energy to write, nor the time. Or if I did have the time, I couldn't write anything with a clear conscience knowing there's work to be done - and it won't get done if I'm writing my stupid blog.

I won't go into details of what's keeping me busy as it's all work-related and not within the general topic of my blog - nor do I want to tell too much about my work anyway in public. Let it be said, however, that I am currently working on a number of things in which I have no prior experience so it's been a hell of a learning process to get all things sorted - and going back to fix things I did poorly not knowing better. Well, maybe next year when I'm given a project such as this, I will be better prepared.

Anyway, today is Friday and though I plan to come to work tomorrow - again! - I think I can take one half an hour to update on things. Friday means, in theory anyway, that I can take a bit easier and relax. Hah, we'll see about that.

Mostly things are the same in Hong Kong. Our whole office is packed with work at the moment, but aside from that things haven't changed much. Markus now lives far enough from my place, apparently enjoying his time (read his blog: he's the happiest and most up-beat person I have ever met! /off sarcasm)! Other than that, my free time is mostly about balancing time between dosing off at my laptop or going out with Chi. Both OK options.

For a long time I've been reading a lot of books, and for a while I had a higher goal for it too! See, I wanted to read books that had movie adaptations made of them - just so I could finally take part in conversations of "which is better: the book or the movie?" and actually know what I was talking about!

So, about what I found:

I started with Michael Crichton's books (surprisingly many books of his are adapted into movies), and I actually read most of his work. Jurassic Park, albeit a really good movie does not come even close to the depth of the book! I couldn't believe the book could be so much better but it was! Usually what I have is a good book and a crappy movie - much like it was with one other Crichton's movie adaptations, Congo. The sequel to Jurassic Park, Lost World was, as a book, almost even better than the first one - while the movie already was going down. Actually, the movie and the book have basically nothing in common. I can't understand why they'd make all those changes from the original work, which just made so much more sense. Other books with movie adaptations from Crichton: Eaters of the Dead (13th Warrior), Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Timeline, Rising Sun, and some others I probably forgot.

With Crichton, every single movie adaptation was worse than the book. Jurassic Park as a movie was great, but not as great as the book.

After I ran out of Crichton books to read, I started with Bram Stocker's Dracula. Again, as a movie, Coppola's version with Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves and other people I don't remember by name, is totally awesome! I through-heartedly enjoy the movie every time I see it. And until I read the book I thought it's the best thing ever! Ha, fooled I was! Read the book, damnit, it's so much better!! The plot-line is roughly the same as in the movie, but it's in so much depth, the characters are better (not as shallow as in the movie) and it has a lot of cool details that keep you reading the pages way past your bedtime.

After Dracula, I came to the possibly worst book I have read all this year. I mean, it's a classic and highly appreciated work of literature, and has one of the world's most famous protagonist and arch villains. However, what every book-enthusiast has missed is that the book sucks like nothing has sucked before. I'm talking about Shelley's Frankenstein. It's crap. I should watch the movie (it's been so long since I last saw it) so I could finally say I've seen a movie that was better than the book. The problem with Frankenstein is that you don't really give a damn about anything that happens in the book. You don't care about the main characters, you don't care what happens to them, and you don't give a damn about the personal hell of Victor Frankenstein. Love of his life dies at the end half of the book (sorry for the spoiler); by the time it happens the reader knows exactly what will happen - and when it does happen, it's said in just a few sentences. There's no emotion to it. "Whoops, she died. Oh, well.. let's keep going." This repeats all-through the book. You are not surprised, you are not connected to anything. I bet the movie is better.

After being betrayed by man-made monster, I decided I'll go back to Vampires. I watched the movie Interview with a Vampire and finding it an excellent movie I though the book must be even better! I was right, and now as I'm just finishing the book - first of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - I can't wait to read the rest of the Chronicles.

Vampires are cool and saying that probably makes me goth. But being goth is better than being a damned emo.

"All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand." - Stephen Wright