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).

Sigh of relief...

Someone asked me why I have "sigh of relief" in my status on Facebook, MSN, and GTalk... let's see:

• The summer program ended well despite the typhoon
• I finally got the vacation I wanted (yeah, only 2 days to Thailand, but I'll take anything)... see this piece on what counts as vacation
  
• The Beijing Olympics seems to have ended without any major problems (!!!)

By the way, I really like Jim Caple's coverage of the game. Here's one on the Chinese gymnist age scandal. Here's one on Beijing's final grade. I'll share with you the last sentence:

• "Sometimes, especially at the Olympics, it's best to suspend the cynicism."

Indeed.

Adidas

I have to say, their commercials during the Olympics are really really well made.

This is a commercial from Hong Kong that features some of Hong Kong athletes (yeah, we import them from China in case you wonder) and some Chinese athletes. Here's a similar one from China.

The commercials actually really remind me of Nike commercials that were showed by JWT's Tom Doctoroff while I was still in business school (god I miss school). Family. Group. Nobody is more special than others. We're all in this together.

Good job, Adidas.

Talk about pressure...

Some serious business before the good stuff. Roland Martin articles have always impressed me. This one is no different.

Go-Karting is about the only I did that is ever so slightly related to the Olympics in the last few weeks... twas fun.


In my last post, I sort of mentioned the stress I was under... well, talking about pressure: how about the pressure Chinese 110M hurdler Liu Xiang was under? Dude couldn't even walk straight and he still wanted to participate in the games! Unfortunately, you still have some ultra conservative nationalists (i.e. "internet forums" where you can be anonymous and speak irresponsibly) in China who have self righteously claim that Liu has betrayed the country by not running until his legs break in half.

Although... if Liu insisted on running and limped the last 80 meters before collapsing when he crosses the finish line... he would ironically become the BIGGEST sports icon in this Olympics, going way beyond Phelps (Wow, did you see that guy swim). Imagine the headline: "Defending 110M hurdler champion Liu limps to finish line on half a leg for his country and 1.3 billion Chinese; career in doubt". Okay, so that's a long and stupid headline... but just imagine.

I love controversies. Poor girl whose missing front teeth landed her on the sidelines so prettier girl can be shown to the world. Underaged gymnists? And I'm not sure if this story was being funny or being critical?

Go China! Am looking forward to the Closing Ceremony already. I hope no adult diapers were involved (read my links!).

Detox in Shanghai

Normally, you wouldn't associated detox with Shanghai... Yet, that's what happened in my last training session with my class of consultants.

Until now (on KA802, a.k.a. The best timed flight from Shanghai to HK... Yet I digress), I still haven't quite figured it out. Part of it was our bosses "coming clean" and telling us what I've suspected all along: consulting is a tough business that's not cut out for everyone. Part of it was knowing that I wasn't alone. Part of it was the one day trip to a place that woulc cut me off from work entirely.

And then I listened to Queen's Under Pressure: Its a terror of knowing what this world is about. Watching some good friend screaming LET ME OUT.

How fitting. And I figured it out. I think.

Oh, by the way, the essentials of a detox session is quite simple. Food. Friends. Buddha. Here goes:


And of course this an interesting scene during our retreat in Hangzhou (not posed)... that's 2 people on Texas Holdem and 1 on Brick Breaker:

Get Smart Movie Review!

Talk about a brainless and funny movie. I present to you Get Smart. That guy from 40 year old virgin has really made it big. He's really hilarious. He's not the Jim Carrie type of exaggerating facial expressions and forced humor; it's much more subtle. In fact, it's almost as if he were trying to be intentionally not funny, only everything turns out to be unintentionally funny. I'm not sure if I make sense at all.

Anyway, a good 1.5 hours of good hard laughs. Particularly funny was the dialog on "are you from control." I couldn't stop laughing at his expression. PNGF likes the staple scene. She's kind of juvi like that.

Highly recommended especially for a night where you want to completely shut down common sense and just laugh your ass off.

Olympic-mania!

Well well well... I'd say there were four moments in my life where I remember watching non-stop TV coverage of an event: the June 4th incident at Tiananmen Square, the 911 attach on WTC, the 512 earthquake in China, and then the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Great blog post from Salgar, by the way. Bob Costas, I don't know if it's you, but it certainly sounds like you. You suck.

Interesting input from the Freakonomics blog on the gold medal situation. (Shame on the slight on Chinese and their anti-doping tactics... how about looking in the mirror and inspect American sprinters?) Go China!

On to the mania:

• I'm not ashamed to admit that I watched the Cycling roadrace. Do you know what a pelaton is? (Also, I don't want to see another slow-mo cycle crash.)
  
• Congrats to the Chinese lady who won gold in women's air pistol. But what about the Russian and Georgian runner-ups? Stop war!
• You could really be injured in badminton...
• Michael Phelps cannot be stopped... 5 races, 5 gold, 5 world records
• Speaking of world records, have you read about the technology doping? Apparently the pool is deeper and the lanes are wider to reduce water drag... and of course the now famous "shark swim suit"...
  
• Whoa, the Chinese men's basketball team is leading the Dream Team for half the first quarter... they were happy to lose by 31.
• Diving is fun... cus I feel like I can be judge
• Are those gymnasts 18 or 12? I can't tell...
• My colleague, upon walking into the cafeteria playing a weightlifting competition: which country is that guy from? Me respond: I think this is a women's event... Colleague: Oh......

Olympic Ceremony

Wow. I watched the opening ceremonies of Atlanta (I covered it as a reporter!), Sydney, Athens, and now Beijing. The Beijing one tops them all by far, and, frankly, may never be topped given how expensive it is rumored to be (USD $40B!? Really!? Sometimes you just have to laugh at the media...) and how little economic benefit there is from hosting the Olympics (all rent extracted, low overall long term returns).

Anyway, what a spectacular way to start! Also, huge huge huge props to Zhang Yimou, architect of the ceremonies, whom I dismissed as one who can handle the big scene and big screen. My bad. You did well. Pad on the back. You make me proud to be Chinese.

On to the games... (Two golds so far for China, plus a bronze for Tai... um... Chinese Taipei)

Need better logic

On the eve of the Olympics... by the way, I'm so excite about the whole event. I'm feeling extremely patriotic right now. I'm bleeding red. And, uh, I just hope nothing is fucked up.

Reporting from Beijing, CNN has this breaking news: "U.S. President George W. Bush cut the ribbon Friday on the massive new U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, and said societies that allow free expression tend to be more prosperous."

"Tend to be!?"

The logic used here doesn't dictate the consequences of "societies that don't allow free expression." You know, like Brunei, Saudi Arabia, UAE (Dubai), Singapore, and, uh, Sudan, etc. And you could probably argue the Chinese (both govt and people) would say, well, we've achieved prosperity without your American cowboy democracy slogan.

In other words, have a backbone and speak louder, GW!

By the way, I was trying to re-trace some old links that might have measured prosperity and freedom of expression. No such thing, but it got me back to all time great "super time-suck" sites: Freakonomics (Hey, it was posted on my birthday, great present!), Baby Name Wizard, and the mind bottling Gapminder.

Did The Joker Win?

Well, apparently, the Chinese government is going to play some Lucius Fox.

There was some debate on my last post as to who was the victor in The Dark Knight. I still contend that it is The Joker. Let's evaluate from his major victims:

• Bank robbers: Listening to The Joker's instructions to kill each other off, all were motivated by greed. Score one for The Joker.
• Black mob boss: Token black guy had to die somehow. One of his cronies probably killed his buddies to work for The Joker. Fear ruled. Score another for The Joker.
• Judge and Police Commissioner: They were unafraid of The Joker and die for it. Lady Justice stood up despite not prevailing. Score one for Batman.
• Edison Chan: Just kidding. He's the security guard in Hong Kong (1 second cameo with Morgan Freeman) who once broke all hell loose. The Joker would have scored here.
• SWOT team transporting Harvey: "This is not what I signed up for" sums up their cowardice... though they did try to complete the mission. No winner here.
• Rachel: Sweet girl working as prosecutor sacrificed because Batman thought Harvey, the righteous prosecutor, was worth saving more. Never gave in though. Score one for Batman
• Lau: money laundering business man gets burned alive on a pile of money. How's that for irony. No winner here since Batman would have done the same.
• Harvey Dent/Two-face: Poor Harvey was so betrayed by his so-called colleagues that he turned the other cheek and ignored the law and order that he fiercely defended some 30 minutes ago in the movie. Score one for The Joker.
• Batman, Alfred, Lucius: Score three for Batman.

So if you're keeping score, it's The Joker 4, Batman 4! It's a tied game (with some Jokerish rigging)!

Which brings me to... dun dun dun dun

Ferry of good people: the good citizens of Gothem voted ~400 to ~100 to blow up the criminals and save themselves. Score one for The Joker.

Oh, only they didn't pull the trigger! Why not, you ask? Because they were too hypocritical to do so. Their image of "good citizens of Gothem" would be tarnished. When it was an anonymous vote, good man wasn't afraid to show some evil (to save self, nonetheless, and I do have some sympathy here). When it was public display of evil, the good man was too hypocritical to actually do it (no sympathy here, sorry). You can't do it in public but you can vote behind a mask? Score two for The Joker.

And that is why The Joker won: 7 to 4...

Red Sox fans...

I wonder about oversea Red Sox fans... a similar study on HK people when Man U and Liverpool play would be quite interesting.

It's typhoon day in Hong Kong and we're all "working from home." Whatever that means. Anyway, me being me, I of course was quite oblivious to the typhoon fact. Out on the streets, the buses have stopped and there was very little transportation around. Taxis were the only ones. $200, said one, for my usual $35 trip. I was so amused that I swore at the driver! Eventually I was able to get another cab for $55, of which Bain is paying for anyway.

I hate it when free market works.

Red Cliff vs. Batman & Joker

Before I go into the biggest Chinese and English movies of the summer, let me just say that Sunday is not a good day for sushi. Of course I know this already, yet I still did it. Inagiku, only known as one of the best in town, was disappointing. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt due to the day for now.

On to the movies.

Red Cliff - I know its difficult to put spectacular history onto the movie screen, so John Woo has indeed done an admirable job. Nonetheless, it didn't satisfy me. Too much dialog that's more cheesy than insightful. The battles were spectacular but cliche. Way too long for its own good. The last 30 minutes were just too much of a drag to keep the movie crisp and efficient. Oh, and there's a part II to this part I, where the main battle is going to take place. I'm still looking forward to it. Final score: slightly recommended only because I love the history too much.

Batman - wow. Where do I even start. It's been a while since Hollywood came out with a Blockbuster that actually stimulated thinking (No Country for Old Men and Michael Clayton don't count as a Blockbuster; Juno and Little Miss Sunshine were indies)... anyway, I suspect you all know which part of Dark Knight I want to highlight.That's right, Prisoner's Dilemma! the Joker puts normal good citizens on one ship and criminals on the other. They are each given a bomb trigger to blow up the other ship. If neither pulls the trigger, the Joker pulls both. While our friend Batman determines that people are good when neither ship pulls the trigger... it is actually the exact opposite. Both wanted to pull the trigger: the good guys didn't because none of them wanted to bear the reputation of the person pulling the trigger; the bad guys just knew that the Joker wouldn't spare either ship so pulling the trigger had no point. Couple that with the depressing end for Harvey two face, The Dark Knight is an intense and dark and slightly depressing movie.

The morale of the movie is that you need Batman, an outlaw who performs justice while disregarding rules and laws, and that the Harvey Dents of the world, those who insist on doing everything the right way while performing justice, cannot persist. And the movie might be right. How's that for depressing.

Highly highly recommended. Oh, and I haven't even talked about the possibility of a postmortem Oscar award for the great performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker. Oh, and don't forget Christopher Nolan, the director who was also behind the great Momento. You know what, I'm going to watch it on Imax...

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.