Moving on without you

Looking towards an upcoming wedding, I realize that most of the brothers and groomsmen are now married. This is a vast difference from a couple years ago. Friends are having kids, starting families, or buying apartments. We're all growing up, getting old, moving on with life. At the same time, I feel like I'm leaving my friend behind. He's supposed to be the one who abandoned us, but as we get older, and Kiki stays forever young, it feels like we're the ones who are moving on.

It's been six years bro, but you haven't been forgotten. Boy is it a chore to go visit you every year. Though I'm glad it's so far out in the boonies. You've got fresh air and a great view. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to be in LKF for eternity, but then again you're actually forever 24. All the best.

Another Extreme Solution

Three Hong Kong reporters were beaten and arrested for dubious reasons in Xinjiang two weeks ago. The mistreatment and false accusations triggered protests and demands for clarification. Though I was angry and saddened by this incident, the first thing that came to mind was how to fight back.

As two of the detained reporters were getting beat up, the third reporter was able to record the incident with his camera. Unfortunately, the tape was confiscated during his detention. What to do?

Maybe the awesome TV show The Unit was still fresh in my mind, so I thought of covert operations. When reporters are in a sensitive area such as China, they should bring along a "covert reporter". This covert reporter will be outfitted with sophisticated spy glasses with a built in camera and microphone. If trouble arises, the covert reporter will spring into action and casually record the whole incident.

Regular TV stations can't officially release footage? I agree. The covert operation should stay secret. This covert operation must remain a secret for the sake of future missions. So instead of the TV station admitting it was their footage. First release it anonymously on a Chinese YouTube-esque website, then broadcast the video on the local news, claiming it was taken and uploaded by a random person on the scene. Let those violent keystone cops know that there's always someone watching.

Again, it's one of my bizzaro solutions to one of the world's troubles that will never happen. When you get beaten up and falsely accused of "inciting public disorder".

Common Sense 101

Thieving rich kids get a roasting - Two well-to-do University of Hong Kong students who stole a friend's credit cards to buy computers were slammed by a magistrate yesterday. Patsy Moy Friday, September 18, 2009 Two well-to-do University of Hong Kong students who stole a friend's credit cards to buy computers were slammed by a magistrate yesterday. The scolding came after Michel Yuen Sui-fa, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of theft, while his girlfriend, Li Chi-wah, 21, admitted two charges of obtaining property by deception. Acting principal magistrate Chan Kam-cheong lambasted the pair for their greed, saying he saw no financial pressure that could have driven them to commit the offenses. Yuen, who was raised in France, is a second year accounting and finance student at HKU and lives in a luxury flat in Kowloon with his family. Li is the only child of an engineer father and a teacher mother. Yuen was accompanied by his mother, and Li by her father when they appeared in Kwun Tong Magistrates' Court yesterday. The magistrate said the defendants were privileged enough to enter the city's top university. But he said they had failed to take advantage of the opportunity to study hard, resorting instead to dishonest tricks. "You should feel lucky to have these [caring] parents. Both of you come from relatively well-off families," Chan said. Yuen's theft took place on August 25 at the upscale Elements mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. He had invited the victim to see a movie and have dinner. Yuen suggested exchanging wallets with the friend "for fun," then removed the credit cards from her wallet and handed them to Li. Li took the credit cards to a computer shop in Sham Shui Po, where she tried to buy two laptops worth at least HK$20,000. When the shopkeeper became suspicious and asked for Li's identity card, she panicked and tried to flee. After a brief chase, she was caught by the shopkeeper and later arrested by police. Chan adjourned sentencing to October 2, pending probation and community service reports. Both Yuen and Li are on HK$500 cash bail.

All three of these kids (including the victim) should be expelled from Hong Kong University for being idiots.

Wanna be like Rog

Rafael Nadal returns to the Grand Slam tournaments from injury at this year's US Open tennis tournament. I couldn't help but notice the drastic changes in his appearance. Gone are the sleeveless t-shirts and capri-esque long shorts. Nadal is now sporting a regular collared polo type shirt with regular above-the-knee length shorts.

This is a drastic change for the man who arguably pioneered unconventional tennis attire. Yet more drastic is his hairstyle. Nadal always had longish hair that fell below his chin midway to the neckline. At the US Open, we're perhaps a bit shocked to see that Nadal's hairstyle and length is quite similar to... Federer?

That's right folks. Nadal's appearance appears to be identical to Roger Federer. His Nike shirt, shorts, and even bandana are the same as Federer's. The hair similarities just make things a little bit creepy.

We know Nadal doesn't need Federer's game to win, but adopting Federer's appearance an attempt to stay injury free?

Old vs. New. Still got the fist pump.






His barber finally has work to do.

"Chinese People Suck" Revisited

Original post can be found here.

Mandy said...

Chinese people have a self concept of being "polite and modest". This is their national identity anyhow. I do think this rather ironic at times.

I have trouble knowing what to say when they say to me "Chinese people are more modest than westerners" (many Chinese I've spoken to feel Americans are "opinionated"). For Westerners, sharing ones personality, ones likes and dislikes, are a sign of friendship and trust/ a willingness to engage enthusiastically. To them it is seen as arrogance. Misunderstanding? Maybe.

I think they feel extremely fortunate to be, as they see it, of a more morally and culturally superior culture (I am reminded of this often).

Chinese tell me about the racist Americans that made black people sit at the back of the bus, then, in the same breath tell me they "don't like Indians because they are too dark". (BTW I am not American). There are different rules regarding what is PC and what is not. Perhaps some westerners share these kinds of prejudiced sentiments but they are sure as hell not going to voice this! This is an amusing point.

You have to be so hard and tough in China. I am far too much of a softy and friendly person I guess. People at markets manipulate and force one into situations one doesn't want to be. They do not take "No thank you" for an answer. I feel very uncomfortable with being cornered. In these setting the Chinese can be uncharacteristically confrontational. Wow. I avoid markets now as it is traumatic and I feel bullied (although maybe this IS a cultural misunderstanding on my part, I'm try to be diplomatic!)

People are guarded and they fight for their territory (spatially on trains etc but during bargaining too). I think it is related to the trauma of the revolution and the fact that there are toooo many people (upping competitive/grabbing mentality). The people are not very trusting- not just with westerners but with each other too.

The public behavior is not very refined to the Western eye and the Chinese are FIERCELY practical people (hence the supposedly rough tone during speaking- not a true indication of attitude). When I think of things from this perspective I don't really take offense to being pushed out the way by charging people rushing to the seat on the subway.(-:

While I DO want to tear my hair out sometimes, I have developed affection for a lot of people here in China!

Keep engagements light-hearted is the key here I think.

SEP 9, 2009 1:15:00 AM

Re: Mandy
Wow! This piece was written over three years ago and I still manage to get a response about once a year. At first I thought the title might be a little too strong, but now I'm kind of glad I used it. Perhaps I have a new found respect for the word, suck.

I first wrote this piece out of anger and disgust. I was unhappy that my own people were such an embarrassment. It's been three years and I admit that I haven't mellowed out one bit. Something has changed though. Instead of getting angry, I'm getting even. Instead of avoiding people or trying to snake my way through crowds, I find myself bumping people and giving a helpful nudge now and then. Rest assured, not everyone gets this type of treatment. I never push women or children, and I only bump the people who are doing something blatantly wrong like cutting the cue, or blocking the way for no reason. Hey, I even forgive those people with lazy feet who are unable to walk in a straight line.

In these three years I've seen worse examples than my plane debacle. There is a lot of wrong in China, and there are plenty of Chinese wrongdoers. At the same time there are some examples of good, and despite the title I used I think it is obvious that not all Chinese people suck.

Anyhow, followers of this blog will realize that I have moved on from this subject, as there are much bigger fish to fry. Bad manners are the least of China's worries. Defeating corruption and taking care of the underprivileged Chinese citizen takes precedence.

Thank you for your insightful comment.

Back to Basics

I am for the most part a Firefox user when it comes to web browsing. My second choice is Google Chrome. However, there's always this rare (or outdated/poorly designed) site out there that requires me to dig out Internet Explorer once in a while.

I'm not entirely against IE. It's just that it is so damn slow. Both IE7 and especially IE8 run at snail speed. Is my computer too slow? Possibly. If that's the case, shouldn't the other browsers run slow as well?

I decided to downgrade all the way back to IE6. I remember first using the IE6 beta back in 2000. That's almost ten years ago. The downgrade process required me to delete the XP Service Pack 3, which took forever. I was left with a ten year old web browser that had none of the bells and whistles of Firefox or Chrome or Opera, but it ran smooth and fast. Though because of major security issues and Firefox superiority, I won't be using IE6 very much at all.

I appreciate new functions added to upgrade software, but I think developers should really make speed and usability more of a priority.