Kiite.

some stuff

2010-03-10T11:32:00.003+08:00

I booked my tickets home to Toronto for the summer holiday. I'll be landing in YYZ at 6pm on June 25, staying for 2 weeks (including Gay Pride) and return on the 10th to HKG. For those of you know these things, you'll realise from the flight time that I'll be flying Air Canada (AC 16 & AC 15). I have flown via Cathay (3 flights) and Continental (1 time via EWR). So this is my first AC transpacific.

Now, mindful of the fact that I have friends working for Air Canada (halooo Toshi and Michael) I will try to be diplomatic here, but so far the experience has NOT been nice. They have demonstrated an intransigence that is stunning, either caused by technical idiocy, or just plain bad service. Let me explain briefly.

I was buying a ticket that was a special to Aeroplan members so my ticket name had to match my Aeroplan membership name perfectly. However, their computer system would only pull up my first and last names (despite the fact that my Aeroplan card has my middle name too). This was annoyance number 1. Okay I'm willing to forgive little technical glitches such as that. No problem right? They suggested a work-around that was crude, but would work. Fine. However (here comes number 2) to do so they would have to contact the Aeroplan office in Montreal or Toronto.. (wait for it) by TELEX!

To be clear, Air Canada uses TELEX to communicate to Aeroplan!! I asked the woman on the phone if all her carrier pigeons were busy (no, my humour does not go over well in Hong Kong). Telex was invented in the 1930s!!! For fuckssake Air Canada, REALLY! Telex?!?!?

Fine, whatever, I got over myself, booked the ticket and away we go. I got my ticket via email, and discovered that my seat selection is total shit (25G, centre section, aisle seat - bleh!) So, I called AC to change that. The woman on the phone told me that I could not because the fare type I bought does not allow me to do so. However, when I check in I can ask for a different seat.

Now either their systems are so old and broken down that they really CAN'T change my seat selection (which, considering they use fucking TELEX is a serious likelihood) or they simply WON'T do it because of some arbitrary decision. The first case would be stunning and frightening to consider. And the second option makes me just plain mad.

It seems that many airlines and telecom companies are taking this tack nowadays: we'll sell you a cheap product, but we'll annoy you, and treat you like such shit, you'll buy the expensive option, just to avoid being treated so badly. I don't know if this is the case here. But it feels like it.

So Air Canada is either a captive of old, legacy computer systems that force them to inhibit and annoy their client base, or their intentionally doing it, just to be pricks. THis has got to be a HUGE contributor to why AC has been at or in bankruptcy a couple times already.

And this is not an isolated case. My folks just got back from a trip to Bahamas this winter, when they arrived at the airport to leave for their trip, AC informed them that because they did NOT select a seat (or rather their agent didn't) that meant they were flying stand-by. STAND-BY !?!? for a ticket that is bought and paid for, months in advance, because nobody select a fucking seat!? what kind of retarded fucked up, policy is that!?

Seriously Air Canada!

Things I miss about Toronto #1

2009-11-12T00:25:00.002+08:00

Hong Kong is a noisy fucking place. You really don't even realize how noisy until you get somewhere quiet (as I have mentioned previously, one of the outlying islands in HK, Cheung Chau, is quiet because of the lack of cars) and its eery. I was thinking of this today, and how especially in winter, at night, when the ground and cars and everything is covered by a thick, fluffy covering of snow, it is so perfectly silent. Even a big city like Toronto seems to just sigh, and lay still for half an hour. It's really a perfect moment.
Then you have to shovel the sidewalk and that moment is gone.

230 Dollars and 2 kilos.

2009-11-09T21:59:00.004+08:00

I have been watching the US debate over "socialized medicine" with alternating horror and glee. I wonder constantly how a seemingly intelligent group of people can become so imbecilically stupid when discussing this topic. (Also, as an aside, it may have something to do with the same thinking that allows writers and politicians in the US refer to their medical system or their education system as "the world's best..." when by any - nay, every - objective measure, they ain't. But I digress)

This post is not about that (well it is a little bit). The past few weeks I've been under the weather, so today I returned to see the doctor I saw last week. Unlike back in Canada, I have to pay here (same as any local would). My very cute and well-credentialled young GP saw me in his office with less than 24hours notice. After an examination, some time taking a family history and all the usual stuff, he sent me on my way with 5 days worth of 6 different drugs (MDs here dispense meds as well!). The total cost was $230 Hong Kong Dollars. That's $31.00 Canadian.

I don't know much about how it's run here in HK - and anyone with local knowledge please post a comment and explain - but there is no doubt there is government involvement. Socialized medicine! Eric's entire stay in hospital last year, including surgery, casts, diagnostics etc. cost less than $400 Canadian. Of course he could have paid more for a private room, or private hospital, but the care he got was quick, efficient and did not involve bankruptcy.

But this post is not about that. It's about the fact that if you have some sort of gastro-enterlogical dysentery or whatever - you can lose 2 kilos in 6 days! It's faster than dieting and cheaper than cocaine!

On the Road Again

2009-10-23T09:06:00.003+08:00

Today i'm heading to 杭州萧山国际机场, 萧山区, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It's a business trip as I have a freelance-writing client up there. And it's pleasure, because it's supposed to be a lovely place (architecture, embroidery, good food!). To get there one would fly. And one would fly from HK airport if one could get tickets. However, this one could not, and so is flying via Shenzhen. Today, then will be an adventure in modes of transport. I will take a ferry to china, a bus to the airport, then a plane! I shall post many pics when i'm back.

For those of you reading this on FB, well it's blocked in China, so I'm going quiet for a few days. See you all Monday!!!

9413

2009-10-18T13:28:00.002+08:00

I am starting to do more and more freelance writing here in Hong Kong. It's been a nice year off from that but I am actually enjoying it in a way I didn't for a long time back home. I was talking about this to a few of my teaching clients recently (one of the great things about doing 1 on 1 coaching in HK is that I've met some very cool, very smart people. I've met CEOs and VPs of some of the biggest banks in the world, analysts and traders from big brokerage houses and all sorts of cool folks). One of my very smart clients told me that I should form a company if I'm going to continue to do freelance work, it's fairly easy to do, and If I want to it can be a British Virgin Islands company (isn't that extra fancy!!!).

So in a month or two I will probably register a limited company. The next question then was to find a name. I could use the name i had in Canada, but I want a new one, a clean start for the new country. So I'm asking for suggestions. I initially had an idea to name the company with a number. The opportunity for a misunderstanding or mispronunciation is lessened greatly when you're giving out a name. The thing to remember of course is that the Chinese language is very given to homophones. Words sound like other words and when they do, they kind of borrow their meaning. So for example we all know that 8 sounds like 'fortune' or 'luck' so prices here are always something-88. (as we have .99 in North America). Likewise 4 sounds like "death" so it's not a good number for people. (who wants to live in apartment death-death).

That's where the title of this post came from. It's apparently the worst number in Chinese. Because it sounds like "Nine will die, one will live". Needless to say, that as much as my sense of irony would love that as a name for my company, I fear it would scare off all my clients!

I'm not stuck to the idea of it being a number... I can live with anything as long as it's easy to say and remember. So, any suggestions? Maybe I'll offer a prize if yours is the one I choose!

14th Floor

2009-10-05T23:11:00.003+08:00

I am sitting on the terrace of my new flat in Sheung Wan, on the western bit of Hong Kong Island. it's the last stop (for now) on the MTR subway system, but in a few years 3 or 4 more stops will be opened out here carrying passengers from Kennedy Town and such. Despite being the end of the line it's only 1 stop from Central which is the main business area (or as they refer to them generically in Asia the CBD for Central Business Disctrict because let's face it, uptown and downtown are quite meaningless in some cities, and this is one of those.)

The geography of this city is intersting and quite a stark contrast to what we're used to in Toronto. On paper it does not look that different. In Toronto you have an area of over 600km2 and a population of 2.5million for a density of about 4000 people for every square km. In HK you have 1100km2, 7.5 million people, and a density of 6000 per square km. It does not sound that much different. Until you account for the terrain. You see Toronto is flat. and so, quite in habitable. HK is not. It starts at sea level, obviously, but at its highest point it's nearly a kilometre above sea level. In fact only 25% of HK is actually usable for living on.

In short, you've got three times the number of people packed into an area half the size of toronto. And even the area we do live in is still hilly. So you do get an overwhelming sense of the crowds here. You simply don't know rush hour until you've experienced it in a city like HK (I won't compare it to a place like Manila or KL or some other places, the insanity of those places has as much to do with poverty as it does with crowds - HK it's just about crowds). It can be quite difficult to get used to.

But then again, you can also find, quite quickly and easily, such amazing nature and serenity here. It sounds like a contradiction, but that 75% of the land that is unusable for building, is quite useable as parks and beaches and nature areas. So in minutes, you can find yourself lost in areas of striking beauty. You can take the MTR to the other (east) end of the island and go surfing, or take a bus to sai kung and sleep on a beach, or go hang-gliding.

This all came into my head this evening as I sit on my terrace and look out and up the mountain at apartments, that where they on the same level as mine would be 80 storey buildings, but, because they're half way up the mountain, they're half But they're still tall. Hong Kong has the most people living above the 14th floor of any city in the world. I dont' know what's more weird: that it's true, or that someone calculated that.

News and stuff

2009-09-04T10:40:00.003+08:00

No highschool smut for far-flung pervs this post. Just updates. Summer has been going well.It's hot as hell here (literally I think) Hong Kong is the only place I know of where rain storms will actually make things MORE humid after than it was before. But there's been no relese of a good typhoon lately. That just sucks. Work was slow for me for the last little while, but that has changed. The next two months will bizzy bizzy bizzy. I'm goign to be teaching all over bloody HK.I've been spoilt lately with only teaching Central, now I'm going to Kowloon and the friggin' airport. Oh and starting next month I will be teaching at the Polytechnical University (so I guess I can rightfully say that i'm "teaching at university"). In other news, I'm off to Singapore again this coming week for three days. That should be a bit of fun, I'm taking an extra day so that i can do some, um,er , sight-seeing, yah that's what I'll be doing. However, if it is sunny i will go up that bloody ferris wheel finally.

Also a freelance writing career seems to have sprung up fully formed infront of me. Hard to say how that happened, but in one case I'll be translating the website and marketing material of a tech company in Hangzhou, China from 'Chinglish' into English, and the press releases of a financial company from shit into readable here in Hong Kong.

I am thinking of a trip for my birthday, I've booked the time off and am now scanning the travel agencies for a good special. Australia's out as it would be more expensive to to there than to fly to Canada or the USA. Europe's a possibility. But then again a hot-spring in Hokkaido also sounds amazing.

But for now, it's off to Singapore next week, then packing the week after, then moving, then unpacking, followed by an awesome housewarming on the patio !!! Then either a trip to Beijing in October, or a biz trip to the new client in Hangzhou (near Shanghai). And yes,I am making FULL use of the fact that HK is a hub for travel in Asia. It's easy and cheap to go, and frankly its so much part of the culture to just take wee trips to places.

But for now, work!

Lunch rush in HK

2009-09-02T12:34:00.001+08:00

for Steven!

Timmy's in HK

2009-09-01T08:43:00.002+08:00

Tim Hortons in HK.

If this was Jesus...

2009-08-24T14:44:00.000+08:00

see more Political Pictures

New Post

2009-08-18T12:27:00.003+08:00

We found a new apartment this week. Our current one is lovely and the view is simply breathtaking (you've all seen pictures) but it is also quite small. When we rented it last year it was at the height of the rental market here and nobody knew that a few weeks later the market would tumble and everything would be cheaper. So as our lease is coming up at the end of next month we thought we'd poke around and see what was out there. One really rents a flat in HK in under a month (most landlords expect this and so won't usually hold it for more than that, also because for some reason I don't get, flats are empty usually when you're looking at them)

But we thought we'd have a look and do some preliminary recce work. Then Sunday afternoon, after being taken by agents to some very nice places that didn't excite us terribly, we managed to convey to one agent that despite being quite westernized we did not necessarily require a flat or building that was completely sanitized/westernized/bowdlerized. That was when she mentioned that she did have a place we could see, with a terrace. The entry way, she warned was shitty (my words, not hers) in a commercial building, but the flat was recently reno'd.

We went there and fell in love. It is bigger, has a 200sqft terrace and is HKD3000 cheaper than what we're in now (that's about $600 Canadian) we will move in one month, we're dead pleased. Last year we saw 70 apartments before settling on this one, this year we saw fewer than 10! So now the furniture buying and decorating can begin in earnest. Oh and we're buying a barbecue!!!

Something special for 40

2009-07-24T21:01:00.002+08:00

So. I'm turning 40 in November. I want to do something special, and I want to spend it with some friends. I'm trying to come up with ideas for it. And I'm happy to hear yours. So far here are my ideas:

1. Snorting rails of cocaine of a ladyboy's ass in a grotty gogo bar in phuket!
2. Partying back in TO with all my friends and family around (cocaine optional)

or....

How about we pick a city in Europe (Amsterdam or something) and anyone who wants to come could come. I know that for Hamish and Damien it would be a fairly easy jump over, our friend Gord lives in Prague, so that's not far. Melanie and Warren have expressed some interest in smoking collossal amounts of weed in the 'dam... You can see this idea has legs. So I guess i'm putting the word out. Who would be interseted in meeting up in Europe in a fun city for a week or weekend in November (yes the weather will be complete and total SHIT, but I'm not flying to Mexico in flu season) I'm willing to create this as a community and see what happens, so counter-offer with a city choice and let's hear it.

Special message to Damien and PJ - you guys never comment, but I'm asking you to break your prohibition this time so we can all see comments. PJ it's your b-day too darlin' so it would be dreamy if you'd come.

and Hame and Damien you guys could bring along the new bf's that we're all dying to meet!!!

so whaddaya say boys?

Rust

2009-07-16T16:27:00.001+08:00

DSCN2450 copy, originally uploaded by HKTorontoGuy.

The old police building in Soho

Sunset Junk

2009-07-14T23:50:00.001+08:00

DSCN2384, originally uploaded by HKTorontoGuy.

A close-up of an old junk in Victoria Harbour. Alas I got to my camera too late. When I first saw it, it was right in that patch of sunlight on the water. But it was moving quite quickly and was out of position before I got to it. So what could have been a great pic is merely an interesting one

Teresa Cosgrove R.I.P.

2009-06-19T19:08:00.003+08:00

Yesterday, while I was in Singapore teaching, my father's mother died. The end was both slow and quick. Slow because, after 85 years, and a few in declining health, including the last 18 months in a care home, with arthritis, osteoporosis, pneumonia and probably other problems; after a few scares she, to nobody's surprise, died. Quick, because it's a binary thing, you're either there or not, and she was, and now she's not.

Dad and Mam are in the Algarve on holiday, I'm in Hong Kong and Paul's back in Toronto. So I felt a bit disconnected and lost last night when I heard the news. It's a very weird feeling. I loved my grandmother, even though we didn't know each other very well. I left Ireland when I was 4 and other than her holidays in Canada and mine in Ireland - and the one year I spent in Dublin in university - we didn't spend a lot of time together. But what we did spend I loved.

My memory of her is different from her other grandchildren, and different again of her children. She was for each of us, who knew her at different times, a different woman. For me she was quiet, sweet, funny, generous and kind. When I was in university my college was around the corner from the flat she and my grandfather had. A few times a week I would bring over a loaf of bread and some ham and the three of us would have lunch in their tiny flat in front of the electric fire. That's the memory I'm keeping in my head today as I remember her.

The last night that she lived,
It was a common night,
Except the dying; this to us
Made nature different.

We noticed smallest things, --
Things overlooked before,
By this great light upon our minds
Italicized, as 't were.

That others could exist
While she must finish quite,
A jealousy for her arose
So nearly infinite.

We waited while she passed;
It was a narrow time,
Too jostled were our souls to speak,
At length the notice came.

She mentioned, and forgot;
Then lightly as a reed
Bent to the water, shivered scarce,
Consented, and was dead.

And we, we placed the hair,
And drew the head erect;
And then an awful leisure was,
Our faith to regulate.

Emily Dickinson,
(1830 – 1886)

Why I Hate R&B

2009-06-12T08:14:00.002+08:00

I'm sitting here listening to a lovely song, sweet melody by a lady with a beautiful voice. But, more importantly she's singing something sweet and nice, love-songish. Then of course the obligatory rap interlude comes up (because it's always "Some Chick, feat. Some fucking rapper" on these things.) And I'm treated to 30 seconds of rap. Now, if the guy had listened to the song, and put together some thoughtful ruminations on the same bloody topic, then it would be a nice stylistic juxtaposition. But no, he's too macho to do that, it'd be gay to, you know, write about love and stuff. So instead we go from a woman singing a sweet sultry voice, to a guy rappin' about how his baby-girl is gonna love his 'thang'. ugh. It's like hearing Nina Simone doing a duet with John Belushi from Animal House.

2009-06-09T20:54:00.002+08:00

I got better things to do with my time
I dont care anymore I dont care anymore

-Phil Collins

It's rare that I will reach for the words of a poet to express myself, but my mood today calls for the (ahem) brilliance of Mr. Collins. Back in Toronto I was a news addict. I would read websites, papers and sometimes watch TV (although TV news is horrible most of the time, so I preferred news magazine shows that showed some depth). Of course, living in North America, most of the news is US-centric. Then last year I od'd on the US election and was happy as shit when Obama won. But now, not so much.

I have to say that i'm going off news in a big way. And especially off news of the USA. Nothing wrong with America, it's a lovely place but right now i'm 10,000 miles away, and the news is all stupid political bullshit. I can't bear anymore to hear no-nothing talking head idiots going on and on about the economic mess that the US is in (and is causing in the world). I really don't care anymore.

The world will go on, and what will happen, will happen even if I don't read this crap. So I'm going to break my habit, cut the cord, go cold turkey. It's a mental and emotional waste for me and I realise it's not making me smarter or more interesting to give a rats fuck about any of it.

So, good-bye, Slate, Salon, boingboing, Consumerist, Huffington Post, Globeandmail, BBC, ananova and all your pals. From now on I'm reading Cracked.com and Lol catz, with the occaisional geeky read through wikipedia.

Dispatch from HK

2009-06-07T22:01:00.002+08:00

It's very warm and wet here in HK. It seems to be a standard state of affairs here, that except for the period between Christmas and just after Chinese New Year, you will either be rained on or sweaty. It makes sense to me now that you see athelete's foot referred to as "Hong Kong Foot".

I'm not complaining, but it's hard to maintain your composure in a suit in this place. There's not much news from here to tell.. which is why in the last few days we've been planning stuff and trying to schedule more interesting things to do. Not much point in flying all the way over here and getting into the same kinda rut we were in at home. But still life's fun and different here. I'm being sent off to Singapore next week for work again. Eric's going into China about once a week these days for work.

I'm really digging the work I am doing. The teaching is fun, and I'm branching into doing some course design for them too. What I wanna do is do more workshop kinda things, and less directly ESL and more soft skills kind of thing (communication skills etc.) As well i'm negotiating with someone in Canada to bring over a course that is produced there, and localising it for China. It's terribly exciting and I hope it comes together.

oh oh oh. I did have one kinda funny adventure. I went for dinner with an ex student of mine, with whom I kept in touch after class finished. We met for dinner occasionally, and last week after dinner he suggested we go for a beer and asked if I knew of a gay bar in the area. I guess my credibility as a gay beacon is safe. So we took him to his first gay bars on Friday and I think he'll be fine!!

Welcome to the sisterhood!!

Life in HK

2009-05-25T17:36:00.002+08:00

Since returning to HK things have been crazy busy for both of us. Eric has been up to China a couple of times an down to Australia, and I was in the Philippines. But of course, not at the same time. It's been a bit whirlwind and will probably continue to be so for a while. He's off up to China this week for a day or two, and there's a small chance my work will fly me to Singapore again in a couple of weeks for another course. But it's good, we're enjoying it.

Right now is rainy season here. After a dry April we're getting wet now. It's been raining for 3 days without let up and will continue through the weekend before we see the sun. Things will dry up later in the summer (right in time for typhoon season) I'm told. It's incredible to believe we've been here 10 months already. Crazy!!

Work is going pretty well, it's busy but not unbearable, and I have the strange sensation of actually liking what I'm doing. I am looking at starting a couple of new projects here with my company. They're trying to expand what they offer, and I'm hoping to be part of that.

After the adventure of the broken ankle and the dog, and the travel home etc. this month seems pretty tame by comparison. But i like it that way. I get to explore more of the city that way and enjoy life. it's sweet.

Wedding Bells

2009-04-20T23:58:00.003+08:00

From Singapore

2009-03-22T10:19:00.002+08:00

I'm at the airport now on my way home to HK from my 4 day trip to Singapore. I have to say i'm not super impressed with Changi Airport (side note, just saw the crew board my plane YUMMY!!! i seriously thing the HR manager at Cathay must be gay!). It's not particularly well organized, the immigration stuff is a nightmare, and it's generally confusing. That said, the restaurants are plentiful and no more of a ripoff than they are in town.

Singapore is a fun city; it’s warm and damp, and tropical. Not much different from Kuala Lumpur last December, except less chaotic and dirty. On the plane I was talking to a local businessman and he described the difference between HK and SG as “In Hong Kong, until the government bans it, something is legal, in Singapore, until the government gives you permission, it’s illegal.” That does seem to be the case here. It’s funny you really do get a sense of control in this city. Funny but you can really feel freedom sometimes. In my head I have a picture of oppression taken from novels about the cold war. People in grey clothing line up at shops for nearly non-existent food rationed by dour functionaries of a totalitarian regime. But Singapore is bright, clean, well-stocked (in fact I’m told that Orchard St is a shopping orgy – I’ll avoid it for a number of reasons). Gays are illegal but relatively un-molested, prostitution is illegal and yet easily, obviously, wonderfully available (there are a dozen side streets in Guylain that host the hookers, and # 16 is the one for ladyboys), and yet people are not really free here. They’ve had one party in power for their entire 50 year existence, with 3 Prime Ministers, (1 and 3 are father and son). Oh, and they kill drug dealers here, and cane vandals. I don’t know if I’m being paranoid when I say I can feel it, but I think I can.

I am sure that you make accommodations when you live here, but I guess that’s the definition of freedom: when you don’t have to make any. But that makes me wonder if we make such accommodations at home in Canada, but we’re just so used to them that we don’t notice anymore. I’m not sure, it’ll be easy to see how we react when we return to Canada permanently.

So since arriving I’ve seen a number of hipon (Filipino for shrimp) with lovely bodies and not so lovely faces. I love the distinction (shrimp are served in asia with the head still on, and you tear it off and eat the body, so a guy with a hot body but a so-so face is a shrimp or hipon). I’ve also seen some just plain lovely boys here. WAH! As Steve would say.

I bought a new pair of flip flops. From what I’ve seen and read that’s the national footwear here in SG. I will post some pics when I get home and can upload them.

OH and on another note, Eric and I are in cell phone hell. It started when I bought an LG phone in December. Turns out it was a piece of shit. After turning it in for repair - twice - it is still no better. It's in again and they called to tell me its fine. As I tried to explain to them either it's working as it should, in which case it's a crap design. Or it's not working as it should in which case it's a piece of crap phone. However, sarcasm does not work. In the meantime Eric bought a blackberry recently and gave me his old iphohe. I was the one who originally opened that one up and got it to work in Canada and here. So i decided to re-open it and upgrade and fiddle with it. And in so doing I think i've fucked it. *sigh* so tonight when I'm back in HK I will spend a few hours working to fix it. In the meantime I have been using a Motorola that has been my backup, but on Friday night I went to plug it in and recharge it and discovered that it won't take a charge at all! So I've been phoneless for 2 days.
Fucking technology!!! THEN Eric discovered that the Blackberry he bought is still locked to the old network for email. So unless he can get a hold of the person he bought it from, it's only ever going to be a nice phone and not the email device it was kinda of designed to be.

Technology (and our reliance on it) sucks.

Boarding soon, see you all back in HK (and TO in a few short weeks)

Things I am thankful for about the recession.

2009-03-09T08:31:00.004+08:00

Renewal comes with destruction. It's natural, it is why forest fires, if natural and limited are not bad things. With this recession/depression thing, we'll hurt for a while, but there are a bound to be a few benefits. Here's my list of what I either think will or hope might happen as a result of this economic downturn.

1. The death of the big box. Circuit City in the US is closed. I hope many more follow it. I hate these warehouses of huge, bland lack of choice masquerading as choice. They are, generally a blight. Aside from the philosophical reasons for hating them (are they really offering everything? or just everything they want to sell you?), there are practical reasons: the service is usually shit. They are staffed by minimum wagers who do not give a shit. Here in HK there are no chain stores selling electronics (or much of anything besides a couple of department stores). Instead there are thousands of tiny shops competing. There's one place in Mongkok where it's an entire 4 storey building dedicated to electronics (it's on Shoe Street - an entire STREET for shoes). It's fun, messy, risky and you seem like you're a participant in the purchase process not a spectator.

2. Banks Other than the fact that we need them, and if we let them all die the economy would tank even further, I cannot think of one good reason not to let (force) all banks everywhere to go under. They are almost without exception, pure evil. The labyrinthine regulation, exorbitant rates and fees, and customer service that was based on the practices of de Torquemada. They are all fuckers and the sooner they're out of business the better we'll all be.

3. American Cars There's simply no good reason for GM to exist. They make bad cars badly. There concept of a single company owning 15 brands that compete with each other is retarded. Kill it. Put the whole thing into Chapter 11, and come out the other side as 1 brand (pick the most valuable? Chevy?) and go from there. But first they have to learn to make the kind of cars that people want, not what they think they should want.

4. MBA Perhaps it is unfair to tag all of them at once. What I really mean is that I hope with this colossal fuck-up, this monumental buggeration of the world economy we can stop treating the investment bankers and guys with MBAs as if they are the pinnacle of human achievement. For years now an MBA was seen as the ticket to success. For years arts degrees have been declining at universities as business degrees have been in the increase. We taught and entire generation of people that the only worthwhile education is one that directly prepared you to join the business world and become a titan! Well thanks MBA guys, now we are all fucked. And you know its going to take the kind of creative thinking that someone with an arts or science degree can exhibit to drag our asses out of this mess. So one side effect of this depression that I would love to see, would be for the entire world to snort with cynical laughter in the face of anyone with a business degree who tries to give us advice.

These are just some of the things I'd love to see gone.

HK Photos

2009-02-25T18:09:00.003+08:00

The future has been found ... in Hong Kong

2009-02-12T21:46:00.002+08:00

In many ways the future that we've been promised, that never quite seems to materialize in North America is here, in Hong Kong (and I'm guessing probably even more 'here' in Japan). You know the shows you see on TV, usually on the Discovery Channel about al the wonderful stuff that people are developing? The cool neato shit that is 'just around the corner'? It never seems to materialize. The TTC still uses paper tickets for cryin' out loud!

Hong Kong is a weird mixture of old and new, but today I want to talk about the new part. I got my phone bill today, and it had a barcode printed on it. I went to the 7-11, they scanned the barcode as if it were a package of smarties, up came the balance on the bill, and I paid it. I could have paid with cash or used my Octopus card (the same thing i use to get on the transit system). It was exactly as sensible and simple as you'd think it could be. It seems that here they've spent the time and the energy to integrate systems and put things together in a way that makes friggin' sense.

The Octopus card for instance, I've raved about it before in my blog, but in short, it's a credit card sized piece of plastic with a smart chip in it; you load it up with money pretty much anywhere (at the transit stations, or 7-11 or other convenience stores), and you can spend that on any bus, mini bus, subway or ferry. You can also spend it at the same convenience stores.

The smart chip is tiny and doesn't need to be in a card, i got hte keychain version, about the size of 2 postage stamps. You can also buy a watch with it inside. It's bloody smart.

So between that and my phone bill today I am reminded how cool stuff can seem to be out here in Asia for us rubes from North America.

HK Dispatch

2009-02-03T23:56:00.004+08:00

Forgive me friends, it has been a month since my last blog post....

Sorry, it seemed an appropriate opening.

Things are going well for us here so far. We welcomed in the new year, then the other new year. Last week we had 3 days off for Chinese New Year. It's a strange holiday. it's all about family dinners so we did none of that. But it is also about New Year's fairs. WHich seem to sell the weirdest assortment of plastic shit. Stuffed, or inflated, on a stick or in a bag. i saw a 3foot plastic iPhone, a huge inflated Ferraro Rocher on a stick (inflated alas), and a waffle, about 4 feet across. The oddest was the inflatable pink poo. So weird plastic 'shit' indeed.

Work is great right now, I'm tutoring mostly now instead of teaching, which means a LOT less work for the same pay. All my clients are in the main business area (last term i was traveling to butt-fuck HK (and no that's not as sexy as Heipel thinks it sounds) for classes). So things is pretty good. Eric's finally mobile again and that's moving.

LIfe here is much like life there really. Funny how that is! If anyone is curious HK is going through the same financial shit as anywhere. We're all holding our breath for how it will turn out, how deep it will be. I was reading this week that negative equity is the highest it's been in a few years here. However, it is nowhere near the high-water mark it hit during Sars in 2003. Rental prices have dropped seriously, in some areas as much as 20%. Which sucks as we negotiated our rent right before the arse fell out of the market. Which means we'll probably move at the end of this year once the lease is up, unless they reduce the rent drastically.

In other new I am being sent to Singapore in March (Steve I will land in SG on your birthday, I will do something memorable in your honour) for a biz trip, that'll be lovely. Then in April we're back in Toronto for two weeks and a bit. Lots of travel for us. I want to get to Japan this year and possibly Taiwan too. But we'll see how the money holds up, and the holidays.

So we're all well, Lucky's as cute as ever, a bit needy and cuddly, but he spends a lot of time with me so that's to be expected. Here we are. Love to all.