Today I learn about hovering

Instructions for this blog post:

1. Check out this hilarious set of ads from Gizmodo (Below is the focus of this study)
   
2. Note the bathroom part, second to last row
3. Proceed to discussion below
   

I was quite amused the girls actually hover over their toilets due to sanity issues. I've always imagined the girls bathroom to be much cleaner than the guys and much more pleasant to step into. Apparently not so. But then study the graph carefully...

When you think about why a guys bathroom is dirty, it's a matter of being able to aim. We don't pay attention, so we create a mess. But girls... they don't need to aim. They just sit down and deposit. Why would it be dirty at all when the route is straight down? Gravity will take care of everything and all the dirty stuff should be in the toilet only.

Now I know. It's hovering. Left hand side 2 pictures of the 2nd last row on the girls side. Study that carefully and ask: doesn't hovering create a dirty toilet in the first place??? As I mentioned above, there's no reason for a mess to be created in the lady's room. Unless... you hover above. When she hovers, doesn't she compromises her aim? Doesn't that mean there's a chance to make the toilet dirty? Doesn't that mean the next user will have to do something about it? Doesn't that mean more hovering? Doesn't more hovering mean more dirty toilets? Why am I asking so many rhetorical questions? My head is spinning...

Ladies: stop hovering, save the toilet. (Hero style)

Food reviews...!

I think my last food review was probably half a year ago. Shame on me. Per my "new year resolution", I need to blog more. Here goes:

Zuma: Japanese fusion restaurant in Hong Kong that was left off the the HK Michelin guide. For a good reason, me thinks. The sushi and sashimi were ordinary - better than average Hong Kong only. There were a couple of cooked dishes as well, but I have long forgotten its taste. I'll skip right to dessert where the green tea banana cake more than made up for the otherwise unspectacular food. Banana and green tea, who knew?

(Note: the restaurant is quite well laid out and the utensils were excellent. Good atmosphere that made you think that you are not in the middle of Hong Kong for 2 hours. I'd pay for that.)

Slightly recommended. Get dessert.


"Food stalls" in Shanghai

There were two fairly famous cheap eats in Shanghai and are conveniently located right next to each other. Both are dumpling places even though the dumplings were different. The first is a fried one and the second is a steamed one. Both have long lines though, at 3pm, the desire to eat seems to be less for most people (not me, I just woke up at 2pm). And both are dirt cheap at a few dollars for their signature dishes.

This is Xiaoyang Shenjian. Their fried dumplings are quite good. The inside is pork with a very tasty (and super hot, ouch) soup. I found the inside to be very good but the skin was a bit too oily and think. Locals will tell you that is the point of the friend dumplings, and that you should enjoy every bite into a slightly burned wrapping. I find it difficult to savour the after taste of burnt dough... anyway, I stuck to the non-brown parts and it was very good. Just be careful with the soup. Very yummy. Highly recommended if there were no line.


JiaJia Tangbao is right across from the friend dumpling shop. I've attempted to visit this place twice and both times they were sold out of their dumplings. This time, at 3pm, it had one type left: their most popular type, pork and crab. I ordered a dozen.

Usually, with steamed Xiaolongbao, you have to be very careful with the soup. The dumpling is delicate and if it breaks, the good stuff is all gone. If you just bite into it, the hot soup spills and your burnt tongue will not feel the next 10 bites. So... as always... I approach with caution. The key is to bit from the top and leave the hot soup at the bottom. Once you've pierced the top, slowly suck the hot soup inside and cool the whole thing down before devouring it in your mouth.

Except this was a bit different. I put on some excellent (and I do mean excellent) ginger sauce and took my first bite from the top. Surprisingly, the soup didn't seem that hot. But the rush of the smell of the meat made me want to gallop the whole thing. I tested the soup again. Okay to put the entire thing in the mouth. Excellent combination of wrappng and meat: thin wrap, big and juicy meat, tasty soup.

And the best part: you can put the whole dumpling inside your mouth without cooling it down! Major kudos to the cook. Highly recommended. Wake up early.

Malaysia

We visited this particular restaurant near the Kota Kinabalu Le Meridien (thank you, Starwood points!) FOUR times during our stay there. Chili crab was the best.

Along with all the other fresh seafood...


Highly recommended!

Movie (experience) review - 非誠勿擾

Well, let's talk about the movie first. Simple and predictable premise: decent man posts ad about looking marriage, meets girl who isn't really interested in him, conflicts between the two, (eventual) happy ending. It's actually a much better movie that what I described, but since it is quite straight forward, I'll skip the details.

Good performances from former best actor (China) 葛優 and former super porn star 舒琪. It's a very calm movie with nothing over the top and totally believable (more on this later).

Anyway, I said the review was on the movie experience, as I have never seen a movie in China. Or maybe my friend who bought the tickets has a cruel sense of humor:

• All the seats in the theater were two-people love seats, with no handle bar in the middle
• My two friends sat together...
• ... so I ended up sitting next to a burly man who slept and snored lightly watching what essentially is a very good date movie

I sincerely hope other theaters are different, or this may be the last time I watch one in China.

I said "more on this later"... "this" being the marriage advertisements. Today, I was taking a nice stroll in People's Square when I saw a massive crowd gathered for... none other than marriage advertisements! While there were a few people who were advertising themselves, most of them were parents advertising for their sons and daughters. I wish I could tell you how fascinating it was, but I didn't want to be too rude to take a picture.

And the answer is...

To my earlier post on interpreting a sign...

Happy new year by the way! Let's review my performance...

• Number of posts in 2006: 173
• Number of posts in 2007: 173 (I kid you not, it was not intentional - shows you that the frequency of my mind striking my keyboard is quite consistent)
  
• Number of posts in 2008: 100

Which brings me to my "new year resolution"... I've never quite believed in new year resolutions, only because of the timing. Why can't I have a birthday resolution? Or a Chinese new year resolution? Or a moon cake festival resolution? Xmas resolution? I don't celebrate much during new year eve besides telling the people I love that I love them and happy new year. There's nothing really special on Jan 1. Nonetheless, this year, I did feel the urge to post some resolutions.

I often wonder why suddenly I did so. Maybe because I didn't accomplish anything in 2008. Maybe because my weight is going up. Maybe because 2009 is the year of the bull(shit). Maybe because I was bored. Or perhaps I felt empty in some parts of my life and that my resolution could fulfill that emptiness. Um... I'm going for the last reason. Without further ado:

1. Blog more (100 is despicable, I apologies to my 2 readers - hi James, hi PNGF)
2. Read more
3. Connect more

That's it! Happy 2009! (Ah the irony that I blog on Jan 10 about the new year... by the way, I'm on pace for 110 posts right now)

Malaysia, Part 2

So you want to know why there are 2 posts for the same subject?? Because Picasa annoyingly only does 4 pictures at a time. Arg. You'd think Google would have sorted this out by now.

Anyway, on with the Malaysia trip.

The Urangutans were cute, but they were still not entirely wild. Here's a wild proboscis monkey ready to make the leap... um... the school of proboscis monkeys were fleeing from us tourists. A moment ago, they were all enjoying a quite morning eating leafs and tree bark. Then one boat spots them, 5 ram up the engines and congregate around the tree, and the monkeys flee from their comfortable rest stop into the dense forest behind. Yup, wildlife tourism. It's great.

Fleeing monkey

All of us have heard about leeches. Here's one that allegedly latched on to my pants, made its way onto PNGF's thigh (to her absolute absolute horror... and to my absolute amusement). This also made my 2nd biggest regret on the trip: not taking a picture of leech on PNGF thigh. Dang it! Nonetheless, my kindness of not squishing it in toilet paper (PNGF Buddhist speech) gave the leech a second life.

And here it is in the morning, climbing the shower curtain in search for more blood.

No trip to a third world country is complete without a native dance. Here's a (fake) headhunter.

Malaysia, Part 1

Well, when I first told PNGF that we'd go hike Kinabalu during our Christmas break, I was met with skepticism: "You mean climb?"

Let the record show that she's right. It was climbing. As in hold on to that rope or you will fall to your death climbing. Or a broken limb. Or whatever. Yeah, the websites did tell me that Kinabalu was "one of the easiest mountains to climb"... I guess I should have read that carefully. It didn't say hike.

I'm not sure if I will be writing a travel blog (I didn't in Korea... sigh... and www.josekin.com has been taken over by some unknown Japanese assailant) this time, although the thought of continuing to fill my world map remains highl motivating for me. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Summit of Kinabalu, without Mountain Guide

That's where we were 8 hours ago

Orangutans enjoying a meal (the one on the left is a homosapien)

You can tell that this one will be trouble

Can stand vs. Cannot stand

In China, I can stand...

• Lack of personal space - this is the number 1 thing you'll notice in China. In the West, your personal space is basically beyond arms length. In China, it's your shoulder length. Thank God HK is considered in between.
• Spitting - I've mastered the skill to know when and where the spit is coming from... and ignore it. Trust me, these people have spit in public for decades and they won't miss their target - the ground. Your shoes will be fine, don't worry. Just ignore it.
  
• Smoking - most of Chinese men are going to die of lung cancer. I am sure of this. While I do miss the nice clean air in HK and US clubs, it really doesn't bother me that much. And somehow, they don't blow the smoke at you. I'm still perplexed.
  
• Drinking games - I'm not sure why the Chinese insist you must get piss drunk to prove that they are good hosts. Since I can act drunk, along with my bright red face, I've been able to duck the most ridiculous drinking games
• Pushing - see lack of personal space. A side product is where everybody just pushes you all the time when you are lining up (if there is such a thing as a line... most of the time its a mob). I'm not ashamed that I've landed a few special elbows to the groin to those who push me. And my suitcase serves as a good divider in taxi lines. They hit my suitcase with the legs, and I turn around and push the suitcase right up their calves. It'll hurt.
• Speaking loud - Apparently, they understand "Shut the fuck up"... or maybe it's just my angry tone with a finger on my lips.
  
• Squat toilets - no problemo. I can hold it.
• Attitude - most service industry people don't care about you. All you have to do is yell at them and curse. It works. (Loving the big city, eh? I've been reassured that away from Shanghai, it's much better)
• Inefficiency - I guess coming from Hong Kong, we can never be satisfied. Luckily, I lived in Chicago and brought expectations to a new low. You see, it's all relative!

Only one thing I cannot stand in China:

• WHY DO PEOPLE TALK TO YOU WHEN YOU ARE DOING YOUR BUSINESS IN THE LU?

One more, actually:

• WHY DO PEOPLE TALK TO YOU WHEN YOU ARE DOING YOUR BUSINESS IN THE STALL? I CLOSED THE DOOR ALREADY. SHUT THE FUCK UP!
  

Life after Lost

I finished the ridiculously good season 4 (I do not like the Hurley episodes) of Lost... and am at a loss afterwards. What do I do in my very little spare time at night?

Considering that DVDs are $5 a piece, maybe I'll just buy all the sitcoms. Imagine that.

By the way, I had a very interesting insight today... in China:

• $ double stroke is US dollar
• $ single stroke is Hong Kong dollar

• ¥ double stroke is Japanese Yen

• ¥ single stroke is Chinese Yuen, or Renmenbi, or RMB

Upon knowing this, my analyst asked why the Japanese copied the Chinese symbol... (um, no dear, the Chinese copied the Japanese symbol.) anyway, not quite a LTFU (lunch time follow up, for those of you who aren't from AG - Analysis Group, for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about)... but I dug in to these symbols of currency:

• The dollar sign, HK dollar, Japanese yen, and renmenbi
  

So the Americans copied from the Spaniards, and the Japanese copied from the Europeans... although the name yen comes from a Chinese character meaning round.

That's enough learning for the morning.

Mother of all cliff hangers...

My god Lost season 3 just ended on a ridiculously good cliff hanger. I've tolerated the show through its first 2 seasons because of the Momento similarities and the generally okay plots. But Season 3 has just turned the whole show around. Wow.

Anyway, I wanted to make a quick comparison on why I like Lost much better than other conspiracy dramas such as 24, Prison Break, and Heroes (Note: I'm still in love with Law & Order, CSI, and other gruesome detective shows).

• 24 was novel for the 1st season. Real time TV! Who would have thought. Anyway, by season 2 the side plots and general stupidity among CTU agents, government bureaucracy, and bad guys was just too much to overcome. At the end of season 2, when President Palmer was poisoned through a handshake (Note to bad guys: there are much better ways to assassinate a president if you are that good at it already), I lost interest.
• Prison Break. First season was phenomenal. I did wonder outloud though: once they break out, there wouldn't be a season 2 or 3... and of course the producers had it in for us: we'll put them in another prison! Season 2 (the escaping act) deteriated quickly as all the characters started to drop like flies. Season 3... I won't dignify it with more than a sentence. Ops, I almost did.
• Heroes. Save the cheer leader, save the world. Great plot to bring different fractions of the story together and having the audience put the plot together for them and keep everybody's attention. Season 2 was a downer due to the strike, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in season 3.

However... in the mean time, Lost Season 4!!!

Taking pictures of a crowd

Taking pictures of a crowd is a test of patience and luck. As a photographer, you are waiting for a moment so you can "capture the moment." For a picture that is filled with heads, you may look for unity: everyone focused in one direction. You may look for uniqueness: I still remember the picture of a lone German fan (in yellow, or white) in a sea of red shirt Korean fans during the 2002 World Cup.

In this picture, I find the diversity in anticipation.

And yet to have this picture taken the way it is taken, you need things to fall in place. You need the two people in blue (they do stand out, don't they!?) to look back for their friend. You need the ladies in frnt to be lookng for something in the bag. You need that bored looking man in dark grey. You need the little girl in red who is loosing patience. You need all the folks on the left to all be in anticipation.

And that is life. Sometimes things just fall in place. All you have to do is click. So click whenever you can.

What is this...?

Well, I saw this attached to my analyst's phone. Quite normal right? Female sign with headphones, perhaps...?

Except that when it first caught my eye, this is what I saw:

So, what is this?

Services in China

Restaurant services in Shanghai are notoriously bad. Most of the time it's a matter of attitude. And then there's this:

Josekin: May I have a glass of warm water?
Waitress: I'm sorry, sir, we only serve bottled mineral water.
Josekin: Not warm, right?
Waitress: No.
Josekin: Do you serve anything warm?
Waitress: Green tea or red tea.
Josekin: I'll have green tea then.

About 10 seconds into me sipping my nice and warm green tea did I realize... didn't she use warm water to make the green tea (RMB 38, by the way)!?

Stupid Josekin? Stupid waitress? Or smart business?

Trade off analysis

I'm a huge fan of The Sports Guy. Despite his decline as a writer since he joined ESPN, I always read his articles religiously. Thanks to Google Reader, I'm extremely updated on his articles... as opposed to checking into ESPN every 10 minutes to see if The SG posted a new article. Ah, the good times.

Anyway, this morning I saw that SG put up a whooping TWO articles! The first one was on home field disadvantage... which should really be the home field betting bias given the lack of advantage that home field really has. The home team is overly favored, not that the field is useless. Whatever, he's a journalist, I'm an economist. Anyway, back to my trade off analysis.

Damn I digress too much.

I've never delayed reading SG articles... except that I was watching Lost Season 2 this morning. The show was getting good, and I did the very unexpected: I stopped reading the article!! And let me tell you, it was quite a struggle.

The problem with the SG is that his articles are usually constantly good while a TV show like Lost has ups and downs. When the cliffhangers are good, it makes Lost so irresistible! Of course, as I turned my attention to Lost... my mind would wander back to the article. Perhaps I should finish the article before I watch the TV show. It's going to take only 5 minutes...

So I went back to my laptop and started reading... except that I was completely distracted. Back to Lost.

Literally, this went on for 2 minutes before I realized the obvious solution... play the DVD (by the way, RMB 5 per DVD, RMB 30 for the whole 4 seasons of Lost!) and take my laptop with me. This will work.

Not. I ended up watching 2 full episodes (the cliffhanger was too much for me to press the stop button) before I turned my head to the laptop to read the article.

Oh, dilemmas in life.

Different perspectives

Dug up an old picture and really liked it. It seems like the girl in dark (AL) has a bit of a photofront (i.e. she's reacting to a camera being pointed at her)... nonetheless, I like this picture quite a bit.

Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge is indeed quite photogenic from all sorts of angles. I remember seeing it for the first time about 10 years ago when I visited NYC with FK. We took a ferry tour that went under several bridges. Only the Brooklyn Bridge caught my eye (and the Statue of Liberty). On this visit, PNGF took me to the Brooklyn side and we walked back to Manhattan.

Lots of patterns to play around during this nice day out on the bridge. I think I took about 100 pictures before distilling it down to about 8 to 10. I especially like the last one.

Signs from New York

Wall street, what have you done...???

How would you read this?

In Obama, we trust?

Meet THE Brand in China: Me & City

Several weeks ago when I arrived in Shanghai for my new case (yes, I've moved on to skin care from telecom), I was surprised to see Wentworth Miller of Prison Break to be plastered all over the city, starting from being on EVERY SINGLE in-cab TV. In the biggest shopping street in Shanghai were his posters everywhere.

There was a big launch of the brand Me & City that was hosted by Mr. Miller sometime in October, and the buzz apparently lingered until now (and possibly beyond), hence all the advertisements.

There was only one problem: I've never heard of Me & City! It sounded like an old European brand that's trying to revive itself or something. Or a very new US brand.

Luckily, there's Google! Ops, I forgot, this is China. Google isn't very good in China. Luckily, there's Baidu! Ah yes, a much better search result.

Turns out, Me & City is a "high end" brand for a local Chinese apparel retail company, which of course is called Meters Bonwe... don't laugh... I actually think this may work.

I mean it'll definitely work in China. But the brass at Meters Bonwe must have a much larger view for M&C. Their "mass brand" uses Taiwanese singer Jay Chou as their spokesperson. Upgrading to Wentworth Miller is a whole new ball game that has eyes on exporting the brand abroad more than on preying on the Chinese middle class with overpriced over designed products.

I took a quick look at the store and the products. Not a bad selection but quite expensive for China... if I never did any research, I would have thought it's a foreign brand with a good local twist. Price wise it's similar to Esprit and slightly lower than Zara.

Not bad, not bad.

A Chinese brand that may compete with the likes of Esprit and Mango? I'm excited already. (Though I wouldn't buy from it)

You win, and then?

Obama wins as expected. Now what? For Obama's tireless supporters, I hope they find something to fill their lives. For Joe the Regular, I'm definitely looking forward to a new presidency that will act competently. That's all I ask: competent.

Obviously Obama is a fresh force with a nice and clean resume for the White House. It doesn't seem like he is just another politician (that's you, Hilary). It seems that he will bring about change. After all, that's been his campaign for the last 2 years! It seems that he can bridge differences. It seems that... all this is very Utopian and idealistic.

Many people interview very well; only a fraction of those people will actually do the job well.

Many couples have a galmorous and perfect wedding; only a fraction of them will have the long lasting perfect marriage

Mr. Obama, people say you've ran the perfect campaign with the perfect events (e.g. financial crisis, lame duck president, Sarah Palin) going in you favor. People say your speeches are among the best (his speech at Chicago was very good and almost moved me to some tears). People say you are the agent of change. People say you will bring perspective and humility to the White House. It is now your chance to do it.

"Yes we can"? "Yes we did"? All this will be bullshit if you don't "yes here goes".

Bad Blogger and Election Day!

*Note: you MUST read to the end and click on the link... it will put the smile on your busy day

I am a bad blogger. Last post was on October 19th!

Since then, I could have shared...

1. Beautiful pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge... I actually think my photography has improved a little bit for whatever reason. I've been more patient in preparing my camera for the photo instead of snapping away
2. The end of my 7-month telecommunication case
3. The my half day beach time (sigh)
4. Attending a recruiting session as a recruiter or (welcome, former IB recruits!)
5. Attending a recruiting session for Chicago GSB (welcome, laid off bankers!)
6. Finishing the ironic book "Damn it feels good to be a banker"

Anyway, I was watching US elections on CNN in Shanghai and just heard the following:

• Commentator X: Let me share with you what we know for sure based on our projections
• Commentator 1: As you can see, McCain is leading Obama in by votes...
• Commentator 2: These numbers mean nothing since only a very small number of votes have been counted...
• Commentator Y: We've just beamed in from Chicago. What you are seeing here is the hologram of ... this is the first time on cable television....

(Josekin: so... do you know for sure? or are you projecting? Did you just report for 5 minutes something that doesn't even matter? why do I care about a Hologram?)

By the way, the analysis on early results on Indiana was excellent. They went into the State, looked at county by county votes and compared it to the 2004 election, showing that some of the key Democrat counties have not been counted, that Obama is actually winning some counties that were previously Republican, and that he's only losing by a few percentage points in counties where John Kerry lost by a landslide four years ago. Therefore, Obama is doing quite well in Indiana. Now THAT is what I call a good analysis.

(I know you don't care... but I'd vote for Obama. As PNGF aptly put, President Palin just sounds like a real disaster. My precinct is in Mass and my vote doesn't really change anything. Um... or does it matter...!? This is HILARIOUS!)

Top 10... not quite... movies

10 - Indiana Jones: I swear, typing about this makes me feel dumb. On the bright side, I didn't pay a dime for the movie (on flight) and it did give me some sleep. Why Steven Spielberg let his name be used in connection with this movie is beyond me. Not recommended.

9 - Body of Lies: Sure, it's sexy when you say Russel Crowe and Leonardo Dicaprio together. But if you fly them back and forth between 10 cities in the world and flash the new city's name for less than a second and expect the audience to follow everything, you're dreaming. Oh, and Russel Crowe gained about 100 pounds from his Gladiator days. Not so good for Mrs. Crowe. Not recommended.

8 - Hulk: Look, I'm a huge huge huge Edward Norton fan. But I can't stand him doing movies like these: slightly soulless (half empty) with some slight action (half full). Like it or not, The Hulk is about action. Perhaps Norton is the right man to play the conflicted Banner... if only Banner never turned green and kept being emotional. We can have a movie about that and Norton can truly shine. By the way, Tim Roth is awesome, and whoever is playing General Ross sucks. Not recommended.

7 - Fracture: Anthony Hopkins is creep as usual. The movie is completely predictable. I'll even spoint it for you: I immediately noticed the gun problem. And it takes a phone to remind you of that, Mr Big Shot Lawyer and Detective!? I even had the double jeapardy (I miss you, Ashley Judd, you need to stop going to Kentucky games and start making half naked movies) angle figured out once the wife died in the hospital. Yet... entertaining. Slightly recommended.

6 - Cars: Predictable cartoon where hot shot race car is lost in the middle of nowhere and befriends a bunch of losers... finally realizing there's more to racing in life and that his friends aren't losers. Realizes something bigger in life. Yadiyadiya. Slightly recommended.

5 - Hancock: First thing to clear up... this isn't a movie about Superheros. It's about destiny. Now if you have that expectation, maybe you might slightly enjoy the movie. You will, however, enjoy Charlize Theron. Anyway, back to the movie. It's quite ironic that when the Superheros get together, they slowly lose their powers. For all the other pairs, they chose to stay together, grow old, and die. That is the power of destiny to them. To Will Smith, he chooses the career of being a Superhero. And with that he has to stay away from his destiny... sad really. By the way, Mr. Director, why even have a felon in the movie? It serves absolutely no purpose. Make it into a struggle between love and protecting the world... oh, I forgot, this is Hollywood and you always need a villain. Slightly recommended.

4 - Connected: this is a Chinese movie that's a remake of the Western Cellular. Not a bad movie at alll and kept me entertained most of the time. Kidnapped lady makes one last call to random man who must save her. Cliche, but it worked. I just wish people were smarter and use the police more rather than doing it all by themselves. (Sorry, I sometimes forget that I'm watching a movie) Slightly recommended.

3 - Iron Man: Robert Downing Jr!? I admit that was my first reaction. Then I watched it on my way to NYC and I thought he was the perfect prick to play the role! Thoroughly entertainly and kept me at the edge of my seat for 2 solid hours on the flight. (Oh, and he makes a strange appearance at the end of The Hulk...) More fight scenes please! Recommended for all the explosions and the very cool Iron Man outfit.

2 - Blood Diamond: Sadly, what I remember from this movie is the Mummy is playing a role that is not the mummy! Anyway, a fine performance for all involved despite DiCaprio's horrible horrible African accent. He must have practiced it many times, cus it was very annoying. Who knows, many they do speak like that. What I sincerely hope is that people take the fictional scenes in this movie and think seriously about what their vanity (in this case, for diamonds) has driven others (Sierra Leone warlords) to do. There's so much evil in Africa: wars, ethnic cleansing, child soldiers, slavery (ironic, ain't it), poverty. And the world looks around and is still in search for those big diamonds. Recommended.

1 - Kite Runner: there are many things you can learn from Kite Runner, one of the best movies I've seen this year (After Dark Knight, discussed first here, then here). Don't ever abandon friend. Don't be ashamed of who you are. Don't be ashamed of who your friends are. Don't give those who are ashamed of you or your friend anything to work with. You can't change them, but don't give them more reasons to be ashamed of you.

James, dad, and I had a mini discussion on why he went into Afganistan to save the child. (A) Guilt from his childhood days for not saving his friend. (B) Guilt from his father's actions. (C) Realizing how his father's and the general's condesending looks on him were exactly the ones that he cast (unsuspectingly) onto his friend.

I say (C). A person always reacts more strongly when he or she is subjected to the same prejudice and then will realize that it is wrong.

I apologize

To the Red Sox.

I actually switched off the ESPN browser in the top of the 7th inning when Paps gave up the 2-run single. Then something magical happened. The Red Sox roared all the way back to win the game on JD Drew (JD DREW!) ground rule double that scored Youk. Besides the game, the Sox also won the crucial momentum that they've been lacking all series.

Too bad I'm off to Shanghai Sunday morning and won't have the chance to enjoy Game 6.

Think you've seen it all!?

You'd think you've seen everything already... but then there's Sarah Palin as a potential Vice President!! I have to admit... I first saw the SNL skit and thought it was really funny but probably just more joke than reality. Then I saw the real thing (take your pick here - nothing taken out of context). MY GOD IT'S THE SAME SKIT!

I wonder how many foreign leaders are praying for a McCain win and heart attack? (Putin is probably practicing sky diving into Alaska and debating Palin) I've never been a big fan of Republicans, but I did have a lot of respect for McCain for putting his brain in front of "ideology". Seems like his brain was misplaced when he picked Palin. Two things need to happen: either Obama wins or Palin drops herself from the ticket.

In sports: competing for the World Series... DEVIL RAYS!? I'm telling you, this world is not the same anymore.

As the $700B failed in the House last Saturday, this is me on a junk trip.

Beautiful Sanya, Ugly Markets

Bain retreats to beautiful beaches of Sanya for the weekend! I must say I didn't have any expectations for the "Hawaii of China". Like many other popular Chinese tourist spots, it usually is overrun with people, poluted, and with squat toilets (I have a really funny squat toilet story that I can't share... sigh). Not at all. We stayed at the brand new Hilton (room situation could have been better) and the entire facility was beautiful and actually quite nicely designed.

Twas good for Detox 2.0 (1.0 was pretty good too). I even took out a sail boat.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

While we frolicked in Sanya, the Financial Markets rallied behind a massive $700B bailout plan by the US govt. I'm still reading up to understand what is going on. Anyway, I wanted to share the following articles that are quite good.

• Diamond and Kashyap's layman analysis is a good place to start
• Zingales, my former professor, also has a pretty good layman analysis
• Becker and Posner blog posts are extremely good big picture view on what the financial crisis really mean (And Becker calling Stanley Morgan a bank)
• This one, however, is closest to my heart...

The last few days in Hong Kong we find a bunch of investors crying foul over CDOs they bought from banks that had Lehman as one of the gaurantors. Why didn't the government regulate these financial products? I was lied to! The bank didn't explain the risks! The government should have regulated this shit! I want my money back!

One guy said it best: I can't read. The bank told me these were safe investments with good returns. So I just signed on the dotted line.

Signed away his life savings. As a rule, if you don't read, try not to invest in something that is 20x the risk free returns without knowing the risks.

Why do I have to bail out greedy people?

Uh huh, you feel this way too?

On my way to work... (pardon the fuzziness, was on a bus)

That's the feeling when I finally gave in to Google and paid $20 for 10GB storage on Picasa. Arg. I've been fighting it (irrationally) since a few months ago by limiting my uploads and deleting pictures from before.

Fuk Tat!

So with my new space for storage, I've uploaded pictures from the Hong Kong harbour, around Hong Kong, hiking in Sai Kung, and a Hangzhou getaway.

False advertising

It's been a while since I posted. Must say I've been busy lately (not to mention the financial market shock waves...).

Anyway, PNGF was in town a week ago and on our "last meal" in Hong Kong was a visit to IFC's I-Scream. Understand that Hong Kong does not have Cold Stone, so I-Scream Gelato's offering of mixing ice-cream and fresh ingredients was extremely tempting.

(OpenRice of Hong Kong is the equivalent of Citysearch, though the spin is more for Chinese clients... I hear WOM is with a western twist, but their coverage is limited and requires a membership... I have too many passwords to remember, WOM folks... anyway... I digress as usual)

OpenRice's comments are generally positive with some really nice pictures of their ice cream. Here's what we experienced...

First is the tempting advertisement. Choco Nuts, yummy! PNGF and I forgot to think about why the chocolate gelato looks... um... too purple.


Anyway, I won't dignify these with words. The making process...




heh heh. (Sh)It wasn't bad at all. A bit sweet. But we couldn't stop laughing as the man made the the mixed ice cream.

7 Years...

Today, I was walking in Central earlier tonight when I suddenly realized it was 911. I lose track of time these days since I'm so busy at work. It got me thinking... apparently 911 doesn't mean much in Hong Kong.

What does 911 mean to the world?

• Democrats & Republicans: The day Bush started being a real president, for better or worse
• World leaders: The day Bush starting being a real president, for worse
• USA: The day people got to know Osama Bin Ladin
• UK: The day we became US's bitch in war
• Afghanistan: The day that is the start of the end of Taliban
• Iraq: The day Saddam started digging his hole
• .
• .
• .
• Travelers: The day airport security became serious business
• .
• .
• .
• so on and so forth

Shopping in Hong Kong

Random links: ought to have been a banker... Tibet monastery reopens (finally - with spies, of course)... and the Aussies mimed during the Olympics too (Don't get confused... I'm not justifying the Chinese replacing the poor little girl cus she wasn't good looking enough - the Aussies did it for the sake of the event... the Chinese... I don't know what they were thinking)

Anyway, PNGF is in town and naturally, we go shopping.

• Target: mobile phone that can browse Internet
• Shops: all are fair game

Well, apparently, what they call a "Shopping Paradise" is not really. We spend half the day walking around Hong Kong and this is what transpired:

1. Fortress (Central): okay, so with my expertise in cell phones (laugh), I recommended the HTC Diamond, LG KS20, Samsung F488, Nokia E-66 and E-71. PNGF put all of them in her hand and ruled out LG KS20 immediately. Can we try browsing Internet please? NOPE. Is there any phone we can try? NOPE. Jeez.
   
2. 1010 Shop (Central): Nobody really helped us... Can I try some phones and brwose the Internet? You can try the Diamond over here. Is there one that can use English? Over there. It's not working... The Chinese one can work. Can you change the language menu? NOPE. Anyway, I got to the browser and tried to use the touch screen to type in www.cnn.com. Couldn't do it. PNGF is not liking it.
   
3. Elements (Kowloon): Hong Kong's hottest mall is also the biggest disappointment. A poorly design mall that felt more like a chamber than a nice stroll among stores. The five elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) hosted different types of store and blah blah blah. Frankly, bad mall with no reliable map to tell you where you are and what else there is. Given the success of other malls (Times Square, IFC), I can't believe a mall designer won't use an open space to show case shops on differnet floors and also create a sense of openness. And of course the two electronic stores that were there were completely useless (Fortress and Broadway). PNGF was able to test the F488 at Fortress a little bit. Saleperson had no idea how to type English though (nor teach us).
   
4. Nokia (Causeway Bay): Back in shopping mecca Causeway Bay, we finally were able to browse the Internet on an E-66 and E-71. Took the staff a while to change the phone to English and also activate the Internet though. Staff was very helpful and we got very good attention and was finally able to test browsing on a phone. PNGF liked the QWERTY keyboard very much. E-71 it is for now. She still wants to try a touch screen...
5. Fortress: This is truly frustrating. Can we try the F488? Here you go. Oh, can you switch the menu to English? No, this is my personal phone. PNGF: Forget it.
   
6. Broadway: Again, there's only a demo for F488, and nobody can use it in English. The other phones didn't have any demo. Josekin: that's why Broadway will never be #1. I meant to say that about Fortress too... but they are #1 for no good reason.
   
7. Chung Yuen: The salesperson with a mask was very helpful. He showed us two Sony Ericssons (which I knew weren't very good) and had a good demo on how we can browse Internet. The only problem is that we need to use a keypad to enter the alphabets and it's slow. Oh, and the masked man was also very helpful in answering all our other questions about other handsets. No demo, but at least the answers are helpful. PNGF has narrowed it way down: HTC Diamond and Nokia E71.
   
8. 1010 Shop: SAM KWOK. Mr. Kwok was extremely helpful. We asked for a Diamond demo (We've only gotten a very unhelpful one in Central), and Mr. Kwok took one out. He showed us how to play with it, let PNGF handle it (I like the wow factor on this phone, she says), and answered all the little questions we had (like how do I find out about the weather in New York). Um, we got greedy... can we try the Blackberry Pearl and Bold too? Mr. Kwok: no problem. My colleague will assist you. 5 minutes later, PNGF decided the HTC Diamond was for her and I decided the Blackberry Bold will be my next phone. Finally, the shopping odyssey ended.

Lessons, as always: LET THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IT. And if it's good, they'll be sold in a second (okay, a few minutes).