Patience and discipline

About 10 hours after sitting down, I finally walked out of the Grand Lisboa poker room. Some highlights:

• Starting from $2000, after a few small pots, I was up to about $4000... including a J-5 full house that beat a 10-5 full house when the 10-5-5 flop was followed with a J on the turn.
• Ops, I'm back at about $1000 after my K-K was met with A-A. A semi bluff when the flop showed a J didn't work. It made him think though.
• Top pair top kicker lost to trips. I need to re-buy. $3000 more.
  
• It's been 2 hours since my re-buy... and I'm not going anywhere with the cards I've been dealt
• Finally, some decent cards netted some decent pots... current stack at $8000
• Ops, holding top pair with a low kicker, I folded the best hand when my opponent made a big re-raise with a low pair... at about $5000 (breakeven)
  
• Phew... different opponent who has been catching cards all night folded his pocket 10s against my pocket 5s (flop was 7-7-3)
• A few big pots against some players who didn't know what they were doing got me to $9000 again

Well well... the key is to be patient and pick your battles. I'm glad I did this though as it was a good test of my skills under unfamiliar settings.

GSBer alert 2

Hm... after I clicked "Ignore" to the FB friend request a few weeks back... she's back for more! I get another alert, to which I clicked "Ignore" again.

I think PowerYogi is behind all this V V friend requests... save me please.

Facebook, why do you do this?

Hmmm... interesting phenomenon. So, last night, on Facebook, I decided to make certain things more private... such as my relationship status, religious views, what gender I am interested in, what kind of contacts I want to meet, etc. So this is what FB decides to do... it shows the following on the bulleting board (to all my friends and network):

1. "Josekin edited Looking For and Interested In in his profile."
2. "Josekin edited Hometown and Religious Views in his profile."
   
3. "Josekin is no longer listed as in a relationship."
   

#1 and #2 are quite clear. I changed certain elements in my profile. #3 just left me scratching my head.

First of all, while "no longer listed" is correct (that's what I wanted), it shows a broken heart symbol beside the message. Hmmm.. why would one be heart broken when all he or she wants is more privacy...?

Second, during the edit process, Facebook tells me that I have to leave "Status" blank in order to not show the listing.

Third... I forgot just now. Needless to say, I immediately hear from PNGF that I've created the biggest annoyance on Earth, whereby Facebook fanatics are asking her on FB or calling her to ask what's happened. I received one message (and now I know who actually uses FB too much, haha). More needless to say, "Josekin is listed as in a relationship" now.

Anyway, is this how low Facebook has sunk? It's becoming a gossip column where it creates these fictional rumors so its users can further connect on it. Apparently, this has happened to my friend who de-listed that she is married, then had friends calling her to find out when she had a divorce...

How can I complain to FB? I can't find an opinion link.

5 year anniversay of this blog...!

Well, not quite... it's been five years since I discovered both photography and writing to be powerful channels to release emotions.

My current mode:

Life is:

Protest Slogan...

It goes "Fight inflation; increase salary"... for the employees of Watson's (think Poland Spring in Hong Kong). It seems that they do deserve a salary raise, as their commission rates (commission makes up 66% of their salary) were frozen for the past 8 years. Oh wait... but the price has gone up, so their pay has gone up too... hmmm... anyway. Back to the slogan.

"Fight inflation; increase salary"

Um... simple transfer pricing tells me that increasing your salary will most likely add to the inflation of society.

Getting ready for Olympics...

Well, as some of you may know, the Chinese are getting ready for the Beijing Olympics. No, really, they are. There's an Olympic in Beijing this year. Big event.

Among the drastic measures taken to make sure the Olympics go "smoothly"... the Chinese have decided:

• Tighten visa signing process (unlike our friendly Aussies 8 years ago, who relaxed the visa signing into a pure online process - by the way, they beat Beijing for the 2000 Olympics
• Halt all construction work in and around Beijing... since a few months ago
• Halt some factory production... or move those factories away from Beijing

And my personal favorite:

• Allow odd number plate cars to drive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while even number plate cars can drive on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Besides emission problems, there's also a problem of people smoking and also a lack of personal space. So I also suggest the following:

• For people with Chinese IDs that end in odd numbers, you may only leave home on MWF. While you can leave home on those days, you may not smoke on those days. You can smoke, at home, TThuS. The reverse is true for those with Chinese IDs that end in even numbers
  
• By the way, the story behind the Chinese ID is fascinating. It has 18 digits and is a code that contains just about all the information about you...

I'm not done with suggestions:

• Any male should not be allowed to leave their homes on MWF. They are allowed to smoke only on weekends
• Any female should not be allowed to leave their homes on TTh (Sat is okay because there are less females in China's population). They are not allowed to smoke in order to protect the infants.

Ah, a much improved China.

3:11am dilemma

It's been a while since I experienced a time stamp entry. This seems to be a good time to have one.

Tuesday night
21:00 - Manager is heading back home; she wants the slides by 0600 the next day. No problemo. She's had a few tough days and needs the rest tonight. Nothing she can do anyway before we give her the most updated version.
23:59 - well, no one said consulting was easy. Nonetheless, the second/third night pass midnight is always alarming (first time in a year... not bad, I guess). On the bright side, progress is good and all the presentations are coming together quite well

Wednesday morning
1:30 - only two consultants left... RK left after completing her slides as AW and myself are going through the slides just once more to make sure they are error free and good to go for a Thursday meeting
2:30 - I'm the only one left. I'm also waiting for a slide from an analyst. Let's hope that comes in time.
2:42 - Yes. My slides are complete now. Combining the outputs from all parties into one...
2:58 - Checking one last time
3:06 - Checking one one more more last last time time
3:11 - Apparently, the "Send" button on Outlook means send happiness through veins and send brain to sleep; My manager would be pleased.

Just as I thought the night was over and I'm good to go... within 10 seconds of my email leaving the Outbox, the Inbox flashes... the partner on the case sends a new version of the slides: we are to use her version as the master version and all edits should be done on her version!

I mean, good God, I've never felt so defeated as I completed a task!

Except for one small problem: there's no attachment! Holy Bain, what should I do!? Ah, the dilemma I face:

1. Scenario 1: Do I pretend that I didn't receive the email? Or ask for the attachment after I get home? The work can be done the next morning, I suppose.
   
2. Scenario 2: Do I recognize that it is 3:11am and that any instructions at this hour should be simply deferred and then acknowledged the following morning (and doing it)?
   
3. Scenario 3: Do I alert her to the fact that there is no attachment? I foresee several iterations of this:

• Scenario A: partner does not receive my alert in time. Consequences similar to 1 or 2.
  
• Scenario B: actual file sent to me. I follow scenario 2.
• Scenario C: actual file sent to me. I consolidate all versions of the file and send the final result to my manager before 0600

3:12 - Honestly, I thought about all the above scenarios at 3:11am. I considered all the options. My heart had hoped for Scenario 3A, where I do what a good employee should do but not have to do the work (heh heh). Of course...

04:11 - exactly one hour after the double whammy (well, to be exact, it's a single whammy), I sent out the final consolidated version.

It wasn't funny at 3:11am then. But it is now. =) And it makes for a great blog entry. What would you do...?

GSBers alert...

She found me. VV found me on Facebook!!

TV Programming

Well, one thing is for certain: I desperately miss ESPN.

There's no much TV going on for people like me. There the TVB (oh, only 90% of the market share) that caters to viewers who demand a brainless experience. I'm not saying that they are brainless; they just want a brainless viewing because their jobs have been so stressful. At least that's my theory. Stupid and dumb soap operas that make no sense and always involves a love triangle rule the TVB channel.

Yet I digress...

On the English version of TVB, there are some US TV like CSI and 24 (and the sad sad sad Prison Break season that should never have been made)... and then there is this at 2am. I just got home from work and I just want to relax before getting into bed.

What do I find on TV? "How to masturbate an elephant" It's a program about helping endangered animals reproduce. The captivating title kept me watching for about 15 minutes. And then the visual feed from the tube that was poking in the Great White Rhino's vagina in search for an egg so that an extraction of it may help save the species (that was a long phrase) lost me. It really did. I just don't think I need to be watching Rhino vagina at 2am.

Goodnight.

与我常在

Just caught a Chinese movie on TV about a cancer patient rediscovering life through the person who is organizing her funeral. The funeral person of course is suffering from cancer himself, and succumbs to it while encouraging the other cancer patient to live on herself.

Cliche, but very good. I like the simplicity of the movie. Highly recommended.

Kung Fu Panda...

Well, it was exactly what I expected. Good fun times all around. Since it was a company event, each of our seats was filled with a hot dog, a set of nachos, pop corn, AND coke. As a firm believer in spending for value, I've almost never eaten at the theaters (even though that's where they make most of their profit).

Apparently, it's very difficult to watch a movie and handle all the food at the same time. And pop corn taste real bad after you're full.

Yet I digress... the movie: the story of the underdog overcoming himself never gets old. Don't expect anything outside of family fun. Brainless humor. I like. Recommended.

One thing I really miss about the USA: two fers. Hong Kong has assigned seats.

Um... it's 8:11am

Oh great... after covering the (lack of) take off of the plane... they're having live coverage of one plane parking at the gate. It's the flight arriving in Taiwan! Awesome! From Guangzhou to Taipei! Oh, the pilot stuck his thumb out from the cockpit! He's so satisfied with the flight! Oh my god, he is smiling!!!!!!!! (Emphasis added) The flight number is CI1957.

(Awkward silence)

Damn, this is good: the CEO of the company is flew the flight (huh!?)!!!!!!!! Oh, and there are two more flights arriving at different airports. Where's the SPLIT SCREEN!? The pilot (is that the CEO? I'm beaming with questions again) is coming out now. The passengers are coming out. They look sleepy (commentator comment - I kid you not). That's because they had to wake up at 4am to catch the flight. Some of them are tourists (really!?).

By the way, it is the CEO flying the plane. And I have to shower and get ready to work. What's happening in the rest of the world...?

Hong Kong news coverage

It's 8am in Hong Kong... when I wake up, I usually turn on the TV and watch the news.

Apparently, today is the first day where there will be direct flights between Taiwan and China. So when I turn on the TV, Channel 1 has a shot at a plane taxiing the tarmac. The commentator explains that this plane is going to so and so place, and that this is the first time there are non-holiday direct flights, blah blah blah... and "we are waiting for the flight to take off..."

5 minutes later, the camera is STILL ON THE PLANE! The commentator is running out of things to say. Most of the time I'm just staring at the plane moving a little with no sound. She's made a few sparse comments... I mean, what model is it? how many people are on it? who's the pilot? how much is the seat? is fuel expensive? how's the safety record? I'm beaming with questions.

Finally, and thankfully, after another minute (yup, that's 6 minutes with the camera on the freaking plane... who knows how many minutes they spent before I turned on the the TV), she finally commented that "the plane has not taken off..." and returned to regular news.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Hong Kong media!

Summer Movie Season

Not a good start for the summer season. Somehow I've missed Ed Norton's (Only my favorite actor of my life time) Hulk. Sigh.

The Sparrow: From a pure artistic viewpoint, this is a pretty good movie. A good combination of music and scenes taken from the streets of Hong Kong. However, the script was weak and I watched two hours of non-sense. Like I said, at least it was artistic. (Just not two hours of it) Verdict: not very recommended.

Wanted: Hands down the dumbest movie I've seen this year. Since when do studios stop making movies for people who are 25 to 40? There was Atonement for a mature audience. Then there's this piece of shit for young males. Apparently the tag line is "Choose your destiny." (Same as the deep and somewhat disturbing No Country for Old Men). The last line, I think, is "what the fuck have you done lately." To Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie, I ask the same question "WTFHYDL"... to those who are thinking of seeing this movie, I say "choose your destiny." Verdict: Do not see.

You know what, I'll even give you the picture of a pretty naked Jolie so you won't waste your money... I couldn't find a picture that had her butt as well. I think this is the studio's ploy to make sure you buy a $70 ticket (HKD, lads, HKD) to see her butt.


21: Standard Hollywood. I really have nothing to add besides that I was watching it with friends I met in Outward Bound. One of them mentioned that she reads my blog. Thank you very much, vanity. Anyway, it was nice to make friends via these unconventional methods. Um. 21. Yes. What? I forgot. It was a decent movie. Why did Morphius not hit the 21 kid in slow mo? I keep waiting for him to draw a sword and start doing Matrix things. Verdict: sure, go see it, why not...

Weekend in Hong Kong

Before I talk about the weekend, this link will absolutely blow your mind. I think it's going to be the next generation of consultant presentations.

One of the greatest advantages that Hong Kong has as a city is the contrast between East and West... oh, that's so cliche. How about modern and nature. When you think Hong Kong, you think buildings. You think neon lights. You think clubs and karaokes.

Here's my weekend:

Saturday, on my way to the office to pick up some documents

From my seat, I can see the busy harbour, keeping HK as the #1 (or 2?) busiest port in the world

Sunday: I'm off to Sai Kung to hike some marvelous hills; Here's the South China Sea.

(By the way, don't hike the route when webs are formed across the path: there's a good chance that the rest of the hike will be going through vegetation and sliding down steep slopes with no real visible road. Not good times.)

Hong Kong, where crazy city meets serene nature.

Celtics win!

I know I know, I'm a bit late on the eventual Celtics post. Boston sports fans have been truly spoiled by the recent (super) success of the Red Sox and Patriots. And now the Celtics!

Curt Schilling (Red Sox! Sadly, he might be retiring...) stirred up quite a controversy after Game 2 by "talking about" Kobe's tendency to yell at his teammates after mistakes and his teammates non-responsiveness towards their best teammate. Which got me thinking: what makes the best leader? Though Schilling caveats his own observation by saying that he doesn't play the sport and maybe basketball is like that, he clearly has taken a shot at Kobe. Allow me to take another.

What happens when a teammate makes a mistake on his or her task?

Option 1: Critique, tighten control, do it yourself, minimize mistake, move on
Option 2: Critique, seek common solution, give another opportunity, tighten observation

Kobe seems to choose option 1. In fact, many people choose option 1. Why? Minimize mistakes cus asses are on the line. What's the downside? The teammate has all of it. Well, he or she did make the mistake in the first place, so maybe he (screw the he or she) deserves it. Nonetheless, that's bad for the teammate and bad for the team in the future. Can he still be trusted? Will he ever do stuff that is even slightly important? Will the team be able to leverage this resource?

I say no when you choose option 1. Disagree? Ask Sasha and Lamar.

When this happens... you're getting old

Thanks for all the well wishes around the world. I was surprised twice in the past week by surprise parties (if you can call them that).

Despite my prediction that Facebook won't be able... it still remains the number one medium for wishing me happy birthday. Sadly, FB didn't benefit from it...

Anyway, this happened on my birthday when I got back home. I'll let you make judgments.


Haha! You can also guess the solution.

Chris Mihm plays

Man, the moment I mentioned Chris Mihm... he actually played THREE minutes in the NBA finals!! (??) THREE MINUTES! That's like subbing me for the boys who mop the floor and have to be quick enough to vacate the premise when a fast break comes the other way. And I'm not even fast enough for those... I'm truly perplexed by the Zen Master.

And then I get this from PNGF: "hey, mihm is playing!" She now knows 6 players on the Lakers, plus the coach.

Oh, and she knows Pierce, Kevin, Posey, and that guy who was in a movie with Denzel. However, she doesn't know Paul, Garnett, James, and Ray Allen.

A friend of mine messaged me the other day: you've been blogging a lot lately! Well... I've always wanted to blog more since I have many silly thoughts. I just don't have time or I don't gather my silly thoughts in one place. Will try and improve for sure.

Let me remind myself blog about Facebook and birthdays next time... next time.

Celtics!! (and a movie)

PNGF is a Lakers "fan" (She was able to name one player on the Lakers. Chris Mihm. Go figure. Just kidding, she knew Kobe... and also knew Phil Jackson), so it's been a frosty relationship the last week or so. I watched Game 2 in its entirety and worked a bit of sweat as the Lakers came back from 24 points down to fall just short. Phew.

Game 4 saw the Celtics fall behind by 24 early. Unfortunately, I couldn't watch the game as I was at work. I did, however, watch one play as I went to lunch. Ray Allen driving right past Sasha (whatever his last name is) and putting in a lay up that was so easy I might have been able to do it. I think Pau Gasol's finger nail might have gotten in the way though, so kudos to him. What a joke. How did that Laker defense get anywhere in the playoffs!?

Celtics are up 3-1 and need just one more win. Go Celtics!

More frosty relationships. Despite PNGF's horrible review, I decided to give The Vantage a try. This is one of those movies where the preview was so good that it really drove me to see it. With my rock bottom expectations, it actually wasn't that bad. We spent the first hour watching the same story 3 to 4 times, almost deciding to cut the TV feed before the 5th (4th?) loop of the same story gave us a twist that was pretty good. I enjoyed it to the end... and almost forgot that the movie bore us for an hour before turning somewhat exciting. Note to producers and directors: you're not Momento. You cannot play the time line trick unless it is all exciting all the time. Slightly recommended.

This is how you do it

It being analyzing a media report. This article highlights the importance of being educated and informed before you jump to conclusions. I understand it is human nature to gather as little information as possible to make the right decision (I'm sorry, I meant it is consultant nature). The key word being right. And sometimes, you just need to dig a little deeper.

Poor Hilary (by the way, I'm excited about Obama, though slightly worried. His experience reminds me of GW's experience when he ran for his first term) can't win. I think she heard the question multiple times and then decided to be prudent and added "as far as I know". This is like my boss asking me if I'm sure the growth is 10%.

Boss: Is the growth 10%?
Me: Yes, it is. I validated it with industry experts, competitive interviews, and third party data source.
Boss: So you are sure it is 10%?
Me: Yes.
Boss: There's no way it isn't 10%? Can it be 12%?
Me: as far as I can tell from all the research, yes, it is 10%

(The above is a fictional conversation, please continue to hire consultants)

Be informed before you pass judgment.

做人不能太... 没有主张

Well, vanity (my favorite sin according to the devil!) takes over on June 4th. My post a while ago somehow got picked up by some website on the "media revolution" mission on Western media. Fascinating stuff. Here we go again.

It's been 19 years since a child in Hong Kong wrote a Chinese essay on how sad he was to know about tanks crushing students in Beijing and received the highest marks in his class (maybe even historically - maybe) for his writing. I wish I kept that essay somewhere.

What ever happened to the June Forth Incident? To Tibetan Riots? To Beijing Olympics? Well, the Earthquake happened. Poor Pro-Tibet supporters all scatter for cover as the Chinese free media machines wakes up to show the world how bad Sichuan is and how normal compassionate people ought to help the suffering Chinese. Pro-China advocates sigh as they use the earthquake as shield against pro-democratic protests. Beijing sighs as the spotlight switches. No, this may not all be politically correct. But you and I know it's the objective truth that happened.

Me? After 19 years, I'd like to take a moment to remember those who perished or forever scared in Tiananmen Square.

Moment.

While I was in Korea, I actually saw the Kyung Lah piece on the one-child policy on CNN again. Offended again, I wondered why she didn't report on the "extra" sadness that some children have due to the "one-parent" policy. Thankfully, on the same day, I read this objective report on human rights.

做人不能太... 没有主张. Reading media news these days takes a certain art and objectivity because the articles lack them (art and objectivity).

Take the Sharon Stone debacle. Stone wondered if the earthquake was karma. Despite her apology and explanation, I believe she used karma as a proxy for "revenge" despite karma being a Buddhist term that explains the circle of life (Go see Andy Lau's 大只佬 if you are interested, highly recommended movie). Was it wrong?

• Super yes, especially when Dior takes her commercial dollars away.
  
• Yes, since anyone would be accused to be un-American (thanks, Bushie!) if they thought 911 was karma
• No, since this was just a politically incorrect personal opinion
• Super no, why can't I say what's on my mind

Does Stone deserve all the extreme angry responses? I say only if you are ignorant. The enemy is ignorance, not fear. Nowadays, I find it especially true. If you read the transcripts and really learn about the context and situation, you can find a humble Sharon Stone trying to make the point that "you ought to be nice to people, even when they are not nice to you." Her example, Earthquake = Karma, is horrible but nonetheless reflected a portion of her opinion. Anyway, she's entitled to her opinion, me thinks.

• Here's a good Chinese article on the non-sense, and the English translation (sort of)
• More word by word analysis in Chinese
• Note that the Western media has very little covereage of this (rightfully so) non-issue. I found this to be semi-interesting

Read news, take it with a grain of salt, read different perspectives, be educated, and then, maybe, maybe form an opinion. Don't be ignorant.

And now, allow me to remember victims of man-made and nature-made tragedies. Of the world.

Moment.

Movie

With traveling to Korea comes movies on the airplane... I chose to watch movies that I would never pay for:

National Treasure 1 & 2: well, it was entertaining. That's about it. Nic Cage was actually kind of convincing. Amazing up and down career he has had so far! Recommended if you have a lot of free time in your hands AND if you want to learn a little bit of trivial history AND if you like to see some PG-13 action and explosions.

Rambo: not that I remember anything from Rambo 1 to 3... but this one was quite atrocious. I did, however, enjoy the awkward conversations between Rambo and the missionaries...

Rambo: Leave.
Missionary: Do you have a purpose in life?
Rambo: Leave.
Missionary: But you must have a purpose in life!
Rambo: Leave.
Missionary: But the purpose in life is the most important purpose in life!
Rambo: Leave.

(Note: I made up the last two lines)

Or the all important "do you want to die for nothing or die for something" dialog... (Jack Bauer, how I missed you in Korea!)

Think Saving Private Ryan... except that you reply the first 10 minutes of the movie over and over and over for 2 hours. It's great. Trust me. Not recommended unless you like to see blood splattering and limbs flying everywhere.

Traveling in Kimchi Country

Sadly, Kimchi is not a very photogenic food. Oh well. I have other pictures to share. And the travel site will be updated in due time...

PNGF and I spent a whole week in South Korea touring the current capital (Seoul) and the ancient capital (Gyeongju). Here are some summary statistics:

• Number of palaces visited: 3
• Number of temples visited: 3
• Number of ancient tombs visited: Many many
• Number of traditional ceremonies to celebrate the King's birthday: 1 (1 per year)
  
• Percentage of UNESCO World Heritage sites visited: ~90% (we skipped a castle near Seoul and that's about it)
• Number of North Koreans encountered: 6
  
• Number of North Koreans spoken to: Zero
• Number of South Korean soldiers encountered: ~8
• Number of South Korean soldiers who smiled: Zero
  
• Number of empty cabbies that drove past us in disgust: Many many
  
• Number of hours spent of subway per day: 2
  
• Percentage of people watching TV on their mobiles on the subway: ~20%...!!
• Number of Korean restaurants frequented: All the time
• Number of Korean restaurants with kimchi: all
• Number of Korean restaurants with more than 10 dishes to order: none
  
• Number of Italian restaurants frequented: 1 (Reminder: considering that PNGF doesn't like Italian, this is a huge breakthrough - more on this later)
• Number of Thai restaurants frequented: 1
• Number of Korean restaurants that masked itself as a Japanese restaurant: 1
  
• Number of man purses observed: Too traumatized to count
• Number of Nikon D3 cameras observed: Too envious to count

Since working as a consultant, I can only talk bullet points and frameworks now. Key learning:

• Recommend to visit for 5 days with 2 days outside of Seoul
• If Korean food is your thing (it is mine), recommend to extend trip to 8-10 days
• If you speak Korean, 2 weeks would do you good.
  
• If you don't like spicy food, recommend to reduce stay to 2-3 days in Seoul
• Palace 1 is the same as palace 2 is the same as palace 3; All are same as Chinese/Japanese palaces
• Take a cab before 12am or after 2am (this is not negotiable)
  

Oh, pictures:

Main building in Changdeokgung, Korea's best preserved palace - if you're visiting one palace only (I recommend that), this is the one to go to

Gyeongbokgun, the most famous palace is so because it is the first, holds ceremonies on the day we visited; it does have something the other palaces don't have: change of guards

Changgyeonggung is worth a visit, mostly because it is attached to an ancient temple

DMZ is well worth a visit: use the USO tour as they have military personnel as your tour guides; here's one North Korea... he looked at us with binoculars sometimes

In Gyeongju, Korea's ancient capital, the Bulguksa temple is the site to visit

Anapji is the summer palace for the Silla kingdom... many sites are open till 10pm with good lighting

The gate to Seokguram Grotto, which was very difficult to get to but not all that impressive. Also, no pictures allowed of the Grotto... they should make it no flash.

Korean food - love the side dishes...!

Temp report from Korea...

So far so good in Korea... quick thoughts:

• The entire country could use some hygienic education: like covering your mouths when you cough or sneeze
• Public trash cans can eliminate privately "built" ones
• Love the small dishes - hundred of them
• Real kimchi is much better
• BBQ is good anywhere in the world, but especially in Korea
• Unfortunately, there's only Korean food in Korea...
  
• Reminds me of Japan and China... I guess the influences never stop
• King tombs are quite a sight... endless temples and palaces are fun since you can actually tour them all given their smaller sizes!
• Student protests (witnessed one today, no idea what they are protesting for)
• SM games... don't know why teenagers like to slap each other on the wrists so much

Share some pics: kalbi, traditional Korean ceremony (King's birthday), all those small dishes, and a temple.

Inside that stall...

I don't care what you do inside... but... when you are inside the stall:

• don't use your laptop
• don't use your blackberry
• don't talk on the phone
• don't tap your feet
• don't snap your knuckles
• don't make any sounds

I'm just saying.

The Savages

Long overdue movie review on The Savages. Seems like I've been watching many similar independent movies: Little Miss Sunshine and Juno. LMS was a dark comedy masked by an innocent premise. Juno was a serious topic masked by a light comedy. Both had the same message: be who you are... and people will love you for that.

The Savages is the story about a dying father. Brother and sister come together to deal with the inevitable. The stress and pressures build and both of them learn more about themselves. Even though they didn't care too much about their father, his death ultimately struck them into caring more about others.

Typical indie movie, I guess. Recommended.

Coincidence...

Here's a link to all those maps... forwarded to me by a colleague a day after I hawked it off a former friend's blog. Quite interesting. Reminds me of GSB classes on the reasons and dangers of stereotyping.

Watching the news coverage on the Sichuan earthquake somewhat reminds me of watching the tele after 911. 7 years ago, EVERY channel had the same news going. It was mildly disturbing that there was so much desperation surrounding every media all the time.

Well, one reason why 911 isn't quite reminiscent of the earthquakes is that in 911, there was no hope for survivors and there wasn't even a body to be found. Meanwhile, people's bodies are being pulled out of the rubble all over an area that is similar in size to California. In Hong Kong, doctors are starting to advice people to see the psychiatrist if they feel uncomfortable watching earthquake news.

I have to admit, there's a certain devastation and negative energy if you watch too much news on survivors... oh well. The tremendous outpour of support serves as some good and positive energy to negate the bad. I'll take both.

Pictures from Outward Bound

Before heading out to sea... still fresh. Ah On is our leader in front

Parking attendants assist canoe coming ashore

Daryl and I need to figure out where we are rowing to

Back at base camp, we're all cleaned up. Behind the group is the storage room which has everything we needed for the kayaking

"Graduation" is great...

Trail of thoughts...

Reading a former friends' blog and found this link that is quite funny if you can read Chinese... its a "The World According to Taiwan" map. I followed another link to find some hilarious "The World According to..." maps.

Anyway, I was typing to above paragraph when I subconsciously noted that I used "former friend" to address my former friend. We were friends once. Something happened and we were no longer friends. While I regret some of the circumstances and also the result, I don't regret what I did. Perhaps I could have handled it better; nonetheless, I think I did my best.

It did get me thinking though... how many "former friends" do I have? Friendships diluted by time don't count. Girlfriends and boyfriends don't count. Wives and husbands don't count. I might just have only one former friend. How many do you have?

More Media Comments

Fascinating responses from my last post. I wonder where all those people (same one?) picked up my blog post and then left so many "anti-CNN"/"support China" comments. A Google person has been consulted.

Would these people who leave comments be offended when I once chastised Chinese who cannot open an ear to anti-China voices?

Anyway, noticed some differences in media trends on their coverage of the earthquake:

• CNN headlines usually involve "Death toll exceeds xxxx, state media says"
• BBC headlines is the same: "Death toll exceeed xxxx, state media says"
• Hong Kong headlines try to create a sense of desperation... something like "Region devastated"
  
• China headlines are much more positive: "PLA reaches epicenter", "1 Survivor pulled from school rubble", etc

(I don't think this post will get much comments... Shmoo?)

做人不能太CNN...

"You should not be so CNN..." is a popular phrase that ironically has its roots in "You should not be so CCTV..." (CCTV being the Communist media mouthpiece). CNN replaced CCTV after its reporting on the Tibet riots.

Anyway, here's some irresponsible reporting that touches my heart. Headlined as "Parents' losses compounded by China's one-child policy," this news (Main page, main news, with pictures and all) seems to attribute compounded pain to China's policy. Fine, let's look at those two components then:

Now... I'm no expert on measuring pain, but I have experienced it first hand. I promise you that the loss of a family member cannot be compounded. The pain is already maxed out. Losing one is same as losing two is same as losing one of two. Perhaps there's some study that shows more pain is suffered... though the report doesn't mention such studies.

Did the Chinese policy cause this loss as implied by the headline? Well, not quite. First of all, I think the earthquake is the main culprit." Losses compounded by China policy"? Really? There are parents who would have had one child anyway... in fact, given China's much improved life expectancy, studies (from Freakenomics!) have shown the parents will choose to have less offsprings since the success rate of raising a child is high. What about the parents who have lost two children in the earthquake? Three children? Are their pains not compounded then, Ms. CNN reporter?

Such personal/political agendas that get worked into the frontpage of a major media outlet is ridiculous. Yet so little of it gets scrutinized (Oh, yeah, if I did the same on HK or Chinese media, it would be just as bad).

What happens when the horse dies?

Well, you walk. 马死落地行. The Chinese proverb is meant to describe that people can always find a way. It may not be as great or as efficient, but you can still reach the destination.

And that's the lesson I learned from watching my teammates in Outward Bound. To me, it wasn't that challenging physically. Don't get me wrong, the kayaking is still exhausting... it's just not extreme exhaust, like I've experienced hiking in Tibet or towards the end of the Green Power 50km hike. Anyway, even though some of my teammates claimed to be unable to continue, after a little rest, they can still re-engage. Whatever the so called limits are, you can always break them and establish another limit.

Insticts

Part of being good at what you do is having the instincts, the nose for value, the gut, the sixth sense, the seventh sense of what the future holds with respect to what you do. Blink author Malcolm Gladwell and the scientists that he has interviewed would call that "thin sliced experience". I happen to like "instincts" better.

About two months ago, I was in the lowest point of my professional career (no, it's not that long of a career; yes, I do expect that an even lower point to occur in the future). Think... Murphy's Law. It was a bit of TARFU but not quite FUBAB.

Anyway, my instincts kicked in. There were a million things that were going wrong, but I locked into one of them: "O" If I were to come out of the spiral, I would have to fix "O".

Well, as the story goes, I never could quite fix "O," which led to the lowest point of my professional career. haha. But in a very Ah Q way, I've determined that I have the instincts to survive this business.

Couple of updates:

• I'm taking photography lessons... improving just a little bit though, so I may stop those $70 a pop lessons
• Instead of many poker games, I'm doing more sports for the weekend. It makes me sore. But it really makes me feel better the next few days
• In fact, I'm doing a 3-day Outwardbound outing starting tomorrow
• I'm looking for any travel to Korea tips (end of month)
  

The Good News is...

In a speech, GW Bush says "The economy is not as robust..."

"But the good news is... we anticipated it!"

Great, GW, thanks for the prediction earlier.

Mourning Mr. 柏楊

It's hard to say when I learned to use irony in my writing. But reading 醜陋的中國人 definitely had a huge impact on how I use writing to make my points. Mr. 柏楊 was jailed for 9 years because he translated Popeye to Chinese.

(Um... nope, not the Communists... it's the Nationalists, aka modern day Taiwan, pre-democracy. CNN might report that Mr. 柏楊 was "jailed by Chinese" in their current mode of reporting "news." Don't be fooled!)

无独有偶... The Torch "around-the-world" Rally has sadly proven Mr. 柏楊's point again. Sadly, I am not surprised. Sadly, it won't serve as a lesson for the future.

• It's sad that overseas Chinese have resorted to violence against those who hold a different opinion on Tibet
• It's sad that Chinese who hold a different opinion are targeted as non-patriots (let's not even discuss the follies of "being a patriot")
  
• It's sad that most Chinese can't be open to different opinions
• It's sad that some think violence against "non-patriots" makes you a patriot
  
• It's sad that Western media has chosen to present partial facts to push opinion
• It's sad that so many organizations have chosen to politicize the Olympics, even though it is indeed effective
  
• It's sad that so many athletes will be ignored because of the continued political debacle
• It's sad that while the Chinese government says the Olympics shouldn't be politicize, quite a portion of the people participating in the rally are politicians and/or businessmen. In Hong Kong, only 30% are athletes and the rest consists of politicians, important businessmen, and stars. Really? We shouldn't politicize the Olympics?
• It's sad that Western world has developed such a misconception of the Eastern world
• It's sad that we rely so much on media "news" and not on facts; go see for yourself

You will be missed, Mr. 柏楊.

He was 89.

Is this staged...?

Enter the world of Shmoo. Follow the instructions. (I'd add to move forward to look back to see what is happening). I promise it's worth 5 minutes of your time.

On Motivation...

I never imagined blogging being so difficult!? I've had two posts in the last month or so! There is so much happening in the world and I have so little to blog about... actually, I have a lot in my mind. Just no time to share.

Instead of saying "You shouldn't be so CCTV" in China (CCTV being the Communist Party mouthpiece), the common phase is now "You shouldn't be so CNN." I have many thoughts on Tibet, a place where I would love to go back and spend even more time there as a spiritual tourist. Looks like that won't be in the near future. Here are some of my travel logs from Tibet. Hm... I even had thoughts on it! More on this at another time.

On motivation. Two weeks ago, I was involved in a meeting where I had no business being in. I was asked to do a list of stuff as a result of the meeting, and I was definitely not thrilled about it. In fact, I felt a bit duped. I did what I had to and got the shit done and I thought that was that. Not quite. More requests come my way. Anyway, in an effort to get out of these unwanted obligations, I went to the higher ups to see how I can get out of it.

It was not to be. The higher ups first praised my efforts for helping in the first place even though I didn't have to and provided a set of very compelling reasons on why I should continue to help.

Well, with this new set of reasons, I'm suddenly much more motivated to help. I was again involved in the same meeting where I (originally) had no business being in. Very different ending though, as I was psyched to help and eager to please.

And that's why the higher ups are the higher ups. Motivation. That's all it is.

About to give up on HSBC

It's mid-April, aka TMUDIATWWTAF.

What? You don't know what that is?

The Most Unnecessary Day in America that We Want to Avoid Forever.

That's right, it's tax day for most Americans! Me being in Hong Kong, that doesn't mean I don't have to pay taxes. In fact, it means that I have to make extra efforts to make sure that I file taxes correctly given the different tax laws. Oh, and I have to do the same for Hong Kong tax day as well... except that it will only be a four page form that takes no more than 10 minutes to fill in. Instead, I'm stuck with Turbo Tax trying to find the definition of "bona fide residence" and "state residence" to see if what my filing status should be.

(Josekin's note: I still don't know... but I'm going to fill in the form such that I get the most money back... IRS, are you reading this? I'm just kidding. Just kidding, you hear me?)

Back to my returns. I've earned interest in Hong Kong through my HSBC savings account in Hong Kong... so I called them to find out how much interest I earned in 2007. No problem, they can fetch the data out from a database. And it will cost me HKD$150.

WHAT!? I don't think I even HAVE $150 in interests last year thanks to HSBC's 1% or so interest rates. WTF!?

Can I download all my statements in 2007? No, you can only download the last two months.

Okay, then maybe I should just give up on your bank.

How did it get up there...?

View from my office. How did the get up there...?

The Southern Tip of Hong Kong

Couple of weeks ago, went hiking at the Poi Toi Island, at Hong Kong's southern tip. Here are some pictures. (I know I know, this is a cheap blog post... how can I not blog in two weeks!?)

All the pictures from PT Island.
All the pictures from Miami.
And I uploaded some new pictures into my favorite pictures... finally having some for 2008.

Basic people living basic life on the island...

Seaweed is a specialty...

Strange rocks around the island... Buddha's Palm

Tons of reviews...

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead: look beyond the plot (Brothers conspire to rob parent’s jewelry shop turns horribly wrong) and you will find some very fine acting by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawk, and the lawyer boss from Erin Brocovich. The story is pieced together using a time line approach, jumping to different times with perspectives from different characters. Sorry, Mr. Director, this isn’t going to work for a predictable piece. Momento remains unscathed. Needless to say, not recommended.

Atonement: The best revelation is that, for better or worse, I am not a “mature audience” yet, as this film is meant for. Too long, too slow, too boring. Not even Keira Knightly kept me interested (her coming out of the fountain barely clothed notwithstanding). Not recommended.

Charlie Wilson’s War: As SW put it nicely, “this is such a typical American movie.” Tom Hanks plays a congressman with slight character flaws (women and booze, can we blame him?) but finds a conscious while visiting a refugee camp. As a result, he funds the Afghan people with enough weapons to beat the Russians, only to find the funding dry up when it comes to building a school in Afghan. Philip Seymour Hoffman (again!) stars again with some excellent dialogs with Tom Hanks. You gotta love it when two great actors are having fun together. There’s a certain chemistry that cannot be replaced. The same thing can’t be said of Julia Roberts, who plays some Texas woman fighting for the Afghan cause. A character that should have been, in consultant talk, rationalized. Recommended only if you understand some US politics to appreciate the humor.

Joe’s Stone Crab
I had no idea that the “Key Lime” in Key Lime Pie meant lemons from the Florida Keys. Had I known, I would have ordered them from Joe’s Stone Crab, which claims to have the best in town. Their stone crabs are the other draw, and they were delicious. Get the jumbo size ones cus they have the best meat. Get one order for two people so you don’t get sick of crab meat after three big claws. Here's a picture for 2 orders (yes, that's too many claws, we got all crabbed out)


Crepeville (can't find it... maybe it's called Crepevine...)
I miss brunch (American brunch) so much that anything can satisfy me. This particular establishment near the San Francisco airport (thanks to AA and CX ineptitude) rose to the occasion. Salmon crepe was great... more importantly, there's a hot chocolate that taste like chocolate, not water! What a concept! Yummy brunch.


H One (new review site in HK... problem is it doesn't give a rating)
Pretty decent meal at the IFC. Duck breast were tender and just dry enough to be well complimented by tangerine orange. Excellent appetizer. The main dish was a prawn dish with naan. I love naan. No pictures for the tiramisu-coffee ice cream combination though, since it wasn’t pretty and, frankly, wasn’t very good.

Bain Train

Did I ever mention that the MBA was like a dream? Well, it seems like I'm finally waking up from the dream. Waking me up? None other than "Training in Miami"...!

Allow me to explain. Training is not taken lightly at Bain. The fact that they flew us all the way to Miami for a week and put us all up at the very expensive Intercontinental (Completely and utterly overrated... some might call it piss poor) shows their commitment to training. We worked for six days straight, usually past dinner. Anyway, with serious training comes serious thoughts.

Many would argue that working for the big banks (sorry, Bear Stearns) and consulting firms is like a continuation of the MBA. Your peers are fellow MBAs from similar programs. The life is sort of un-real with all the money and travel straight out of school. Everybody is smart and you always feel dumb. Speaking of this feeling, a PhD friend of mine tells me that Stanford has sessions to settle the new PhDs down since they always feel dumb among their peers. Point is, you feel dumb when you hang around smart people. Yet I digress: back to the parallels.

Bain training is sort of like brining you back to the MBA. Lots of learning in a very low risk environment. And yet, you are constantly reminded that these are the tools that you will need to be able to do well at Bain. Some may be left behind if the tools are not learned and performance is not good. Clearly, it's not an MBA anymore. This is serious business. The real world has always been harsher than the dream world.

I'm a spoiled brat...

Or is it too much to:

• Have no mechanical errors on a plane?
• Have more than one staff handle over a dozen people who missed the connecting flight due to the mechanical error?
• Have a dedicated staff to handle your best customers so they don't have to fight in a crowd to get ahead in line?
• Give everybody the same vouchers instead of some people getting hotel AND meal vouchers and others (me, that is) getting only a hotel one because others didn't ask?
  
• Release the luggage when people miss their connection flights? You know, just so they can change clothes and maybe brush their teeth?
  
• Make sure the luggage stuck in storage is on the next flight?
• Make sure the luggage is on the flight after you promised the customer that it would be on the flight?
• Not blame something else (weather, other airline, other department) and admit some guilt?

That's all a loyal customer asks, really. Or am I a spoiled brat?

Arg, I'm so angry, I can't even blog about Bain training in Miami.

Other signs...

Well, insofar as traveling goes, Asia indeed has a much better value proposition. I was a bit unfair to the USA in my last top 10 list. Here are some signs that you are in the USA:

10. waitresses calling you honey
9. great beer collection
8. flip flops
7. bikinis
6. blue skies... oh wait, since I thought this, Miami has been cloudy... WTF!?

By the way, BIG BIG BIG kudos to the new Cathay inflight entertainment. Basically, it's an on-Demand system with a 12-inch screen. The movies weren't top-notch, but did include two academy-worthy movies, Juno and No Country for Old Men. There were also episodes of CSI: New York, Heroes, etc.

I watched No Country for Old Men. Very violent. Intense throughout. Excellent movie... though I can't really pinpoint why. There was a vague point about making choices in life, as opposed to life making choices. It was one of those things that was crystal clear during the movie, getting murky towards the end, and Tommy Lee's last speech just confused everything. (The only thing I do remember is the gas station bet) Couple of thoughts:

• I won't flip the coin unless you tell me the W and L. I can run multiple models in my head to determine whether there is an expected positive return.
• I will flip only if the terms can be measured. Life, for example, cannot be measured.
• Don't talk to strangers (laugh)

Also watched 6 episodes of Heroes Season 2. Not nearly as good as Season 1, where there was actually a theme! Note to the networks: you can't just slam random stories around and expect the viewers to tightly follow the plot and guess what the story line is going to be. I have to be "very interested" for it to work. And I'm not.

Breakfast time. Hopefully Miami will have some sunshine today.

You are back in the USA when...?

Top ten signs that you are back in the USA (from a traveling consultant's point of view):

10. You find extra time to blog since the lines are so freaking long AND slow
9. Strangers talk to you at strange times
8. Screaming flight attendants
7. Overrated expensive hotel rooms
6. No complimentary water... or complimentary anything on flights
5. Lines for economy class are longer than that for business class
4. You feel quite fit, especially when eating at the airport food court
3. Butt cracks... back hair... arg...
2. "Take off your shoes please and put them in the X-ray"
1. Instead of elbowing for the arm rest, an Asian special, it's spilling fat over to take possession of an arm rest

Juno

Today, someone spoke about the Google Bomb... apparently its something that scams Google to rank its website higher. Anyway, just to test the case, I typed in Josekin (yeah, search yourself in Google... bet you've never done that!) to see what would happen. My home page and blog came up on top... and then this happened:

http://www.teenwag.com/profile?user=josekin

Yeah, I'm a bit disturbed. Maybe if you all click on this, it might become the top site, over the real Josekin.

Anyway, I watched Juno last week with YT. Remember the ridiculously good Little Miss Sunshine? (Not much of a review) Juno is the less dark version of Little Miss Sunshine. A very depressing topic (teen pregnancy) is used to reflect what could be great things in life. I know nothing about the regular American family, but I imagine it being quite close to Juno's family. Humorous parents (great supporting act from the editor in Spiderman and the woman from West Wing) dealing with crisis like nothing is a big deal... I mean, it is a big deal, but they just don't act it in front of their daughter. The entire family's dry humor is just hilarious. Ellen Page does a courageous job of playing Juno. I don't think a teenager can really deal with pregnancy with the calmness she displayed, but I guess that was needed to make the movie work. The gorgeous Jennifer Garner does an okay job as a desperate mother-wannabe. I didn't feel that the role fit her.

One of the themes of the movie, like the one in Little Miss Sunshine, is to love a person for exactly who they are. There is no need to fake and become someone (something?) else to please others. Just be yourself. If he/she doesn't like that real you, then why bother? Unfortunately, reality is that we all try to please. That "real me" can sometimes be quite scary!

Well, what to do... I'm sure we all aspire to be the "real me" and not worry about how others view us all the time. Some of us can do that a bit more than others (oh, thick skin and dumb brains can help), but we all slip a little bit sometimes. Anyway, back to the movie: highly recommended.

How we hiked 50 km

Well, I did advertise that our team of 4 is hiking the 50km Hong Kong trail. (We're still accepting pledges, by the way) Here it is... step by step! Oh, and thank god for digital photography.

8:25am, Start of the Hong Kong trail - The Peak (Left to right: John, Kwun, Heng, me)

11:38am, ~19km, stretching to loosen tight muscles (So far, moving at 6km/hr... on the easiest part of the Hong Kong trail)

3:42, 30km, John is the last to arrive at this check point... revised speed: 4.2km/hr (lunch and a big break included)

3:44, 30km, requisite group photo

4:02, 30km, requisite medical attention (same spot, revised speed:4km/hr)
6:46, 41km, last check point. We're hiking on empty gas. Speed: 4.04km/hr
7:09, 41km, hiking in the dark takes a lot of focus and energy (especially without a light!)
9:48, 50km, we're done! Final speed is 3.75km/hr

We're still tallying the pledges... it'll probably be a $5,000 (HKD) donation to Green Power. Thanks for all the support and enjoy the pictures.

Hiking in 2 days...

Wow, we're actually doing this! The 50Km hike around Hong Kong to support Green Power (much better than Green Peace in my idealogical map!) is going to be exciting and fun.

(By the way, please support us by making a pledge here!)

Here's the start of the trail:

We'll be taking pictures along the 50km hike... pledge to support us!

Holy... my life just might change...

I can read my blog post via Google Reader on The Crackeric (that's right, I just named it)! Wow, this might really have a large impact on my life. Did you know I subscribe to about 60 different RSS feeds of different blogs and websites? This means I can read SG articles on the run. SG ARTICLES! ON THE RUN!

I think this might have a bigger impact than "my boss can locate me at any given moment via email." (And you think I'm kidding!?)

(Also important to note: I will read this post on The Crackeric later tonight when I am having a foot massage!)

On Crack...

That's right, I finally got my first blackberry. A partner warned us that it is life changing. We'll see.

In fact, one of the main reason that I am writing this post is because I want to see if the post will show up in Google Reader.

I've moved into my new home for 2 weeks now; today is the first day that I took a non-cab public transportation from the office to the new home. I don't know why this is important to disclose.

Let's see if the Crackberry picks up the new blog post...