First day of work was strangely uneventful, it was actually so uneventful nothing happened at all. My first day of work was yesterday, and yesterday there was typhoon signal 8 in the morning. When there is typhoon signal 8 everything is closed and cancelled, and my school decided to cancel all classes for the whole day. So actually my first day of work was not my first day of work, it was only my birthday, and I had the whole day off!
So my real first day of work that should have been my second day of work was today, and I must say I liked it. My school is running on 7 weekday cycles which just means that the schedule is not week based, this makes a lot of sense since there are 7 classes for each grade, 7/7 evens up pretty nicely I think. So of course missing the first day of the cycle creates some problems, the three classes I should have had that day I need to press into my oh so tight (NOT!) schedule. I'm actually only having each class once per cycle and I only have S1-S3, which means 21x40 minutes per cycle at average. The problem is that their schedule is not that light and they only have free time when I'm the most busy, this is not too bad though but next week on Friday I gotta start working at 9.30 instead of my regular 11.30.
OK so basically I have 22.5 working hours per week but only about 10 hours actual teaching, I also have about 30 minutes per day when I will be socializing with students, this is at lunch time so I don't really have any lunch. The rest of the time I guess will go to preparation. There will be other things I need to do as well, probably on a cycle basis, but it doesn't seem to be too much.
Back to second (e.g. first) day: On the second day of the cycle I have to start an hour earlier because of schedule problem, however I only have two classes that day and both are before lunch, so basically I have nothing to do from 1pm and can go home about 3 (yes normal working hours is from 11:30am to 4pm :D). The first class I had was an S2 class and I started off really well with them, lesson was too short for my plan though, or perhaps my plan was too long for the lesson, who knows... The second class was an S3 class and even though there was some items of disturbance (some students that just couldn't stop trying to get attention) it was also a successful lesson.
At lunch I went to HQ, English Land, where students can go at lunch hour or other free time to... well... practice English. A group of boys wanted to play Transformers RISK and I tried to help them but the rules are really screwed up so even they knew RISK from before it took them the whole lunch break to set up the game. After that I spent the rest of my working day to figure out the rules of the game and jot them down in (what I think) a simpler way. We will see if we can actually start playing at lunch tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a lot longer day though, with 4 classes and the lunch thing I'm actually actively working for 3 hours tomorrow. Friday will be like that too as will Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week (because of the 3 missed classes that have to be done at some point). So well, a little bit busy am I at least.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Size, population and density
Sweden is as most of us know a very big country with relatively few people. Hong Kong is, also as most of us know, a very small region with relatively many people. Actually Sweden has a population density of 20 people per square kilometer while Hong Kong has a population density of over 6000 people per square kilometer. But this doesn't really tell us very much, especially since the population in Sweden is extremely wide spread, as example the province Skåne in the south has 5 times the average, 100 people per square kilometer, and Lapland in the north has only .9 people per square kilometer.
So to make this simple we just compare:
Hong Kong has almost exactly 7 million inhabitants and Sweden has a bit more than 9 million, this is in approximation the same (10 to the power of 10), so a direct size comparison feels rather fair so: you can put over 400 Hong Kong into 1 Sweden. You can put as many as 10 Hong Kong in Skåne alone, or 100 Hong Kong in Lapland. Skåne which has one of the most populated regions in Sweden has only one million people, 10 times less than Hong Kong, which shows why the density in Hong Kong is nearly 100 times higher than in Skåne, Lapland only has a 10th of that, about a hundred thousand people.
Keep in mind though that large part of Hong Kong is uninhabitable mountains or very sparsely populated like the island and the regions in New Territories.
I think a more interesting comparison is Tin Shui Wai, where I live now, versus Bjärred, where I grew up. Tin Shui Wai is a small residential town which has been newly developed on reclaimed land (constructed land built upon water or in this case a wetland or swamp area), Bjärred is a small residential town near the University town of Lund and the third largest city in Sweden, Malmö. Interestingly Tin Shui Wai and Bjärred are nearly exactly the same size, 430Ha and 439Ha respectively, Tin Shui Wai is, however, approximately 30 times higher than Bjärred. This is quite funny because every residential building in Tin Shui Wai has between 30 and 50 floors, while the houses in Bjärred has between one and four floors, and Tin Shui Wai has around 30 times as large population as Bjärred, 270 000 (which is rather close to the population of Malmö) and 8000 respectively.
I write this because I want people to get a grasp of how insanely (in our sparsely populated point of view) densely populated this region is. Maybe you think you know the numbers and say: well what about the other Chinese cities; Beijing has a larger population than Hong Kong and Shanghai even more. But Beijing and Shanghai are huge regions, Shanghai about 6 times as large as Hong Kong and Beijing twice of that, and both those regions are pretty much flat with buildings everywhere.
All numbers come from www.wikipedia.org and are not 100% reliable, but for these curiosa I trust them.
So to make this simple we just compare:
Hong Kong has almost exactly 7 million inhabitants and Sweden has a bit more than 9 million, this is in approximation the same (10 to the power of 10), so a direct size comparison feels rather fair so: you can put over 400 Hong Kong into 1 Sweden. You can put as many as 10 Hong Kong in Skåne alone, or 100 Hong Kong in Lapland. Skåne which has one of the most populated regions in Sweden has only one million people, 10 times less than Hong Kong, which shows why the density in Hong Kong is nearly 100 times higher than in Skåne, Lapland only has a 10th of that, about a hundred thousand people.
Keep in mind though that large part of Hong Kong is uninhabitable mountains or very sparsely populated like the island and the regions in New Territories.
I think a more interesting comparison is Tin Shui Wai, where I live now, versus Bjärred, where I grew up. Tin Shui Wai is a small residential town which has been newly developed on reclaimed land (constructed land built upon water or in this case a wetland or swamp area), Bjärred is a small residential town near the University town of Lund and the third largest city in Sweden, Malmö. Interestingly Tin Shui Wai and Bjärred are nearly exactly the same size, 430Ha and 439Ha respectively, Tin Shui Wai is, however, approximately 30 times higher than Bjärred. This is quite funny because every residential building in Tin Shui Wai has between 30 and 50 floors, while the houses in Bjärred has between one and four floors, and Tin Shui Wai has around 30 times as large population as Bjärred, 270 000 (which is rather close to the population of Malmö) and 8000 respectively.
I write this because I want people to get a grasp of how insanely (in our sparsely populated point of view) densely populated this region is. Maybe you think you know the numbers and say: well what about the other Chinese cities; Beijing has a larger population than Hong Kong and Shanghai even more. But Beijing and Shanghai are huge regions, Shanghai about 6 times as large as Hong Kong and Beijing twice of that, and both those regions are pretty much flat with buildings everywhere.
All numbers come from www.wikipedia.org and are not 100% reliable, but for these curiosa I trust them.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Melancholy
Recently I've had upon me an unsettling feeling of sorrow, I don't know where it comes from and even though I have tried to blame some recent events I have concluded that the sadness I feel about other things come from this deeper feeling and not the other way around. Rationally I should be happy now; I'm in a somewhat healthy relationship, work is going OK even if it's not great at the moment, my life is somewhat stead, even my closest friend here has found a happiness that I haven't seen in her for many years and all of this should make me feel happy.
One might think that the passing of my grandmother could cause these blue feelings but I think even death is a sad thing it is in the end always inevitable and in this case it wasn't what you would call unexpected even, I think it can even be rationalized to be a good thing; the end of her pain and suffering (I still miss her though). There are always other causes for grievance; like unstable work causing personal financial instability, but work is getting better, or the loss of something, but only an illusion. There is nothing to explain my recent low mood.
No after rationalizing and over analyzing it as the true Virgo I am a have come to the conclusion that the only reasonable reason is the currently too slow pace of my life; things or not progressing as I had wanted them to and this leaves me with nothing to do a lot of the time, I do kill a lot of time and still manage to procrastinate some things that I have to do, but there are a lot of things that I want to do that I just can't do at the moment. I guess I'm not patient enough and I'm bad at waiting.
One might think that the passing of my grandmother could cause these blue feelings but I think even death is a sad thing it is in the end always inevitable and in this case it wasn't what you would call unexpected even, I think it can even be rationalized to be a good thing; the end of her pain and suffering (I still miss her though). There are always other causes for grievance; like unstable work causing personal financial instability, but work is getting better, or the loss of something, but only an illusion. There is nothing to explain my recent low mood.
No after rationalizing and over analyzing it as the true Virgo I am a have come to the conclusion that the only reasonable reason is the currently too slow pace of my life; things or not progressing as I had wanted them to and this leaves me with nothing to do a lot of the time, I do kill a lot of time and still manage to procrastinate some things that I have to do, but there are a lot of things that I want to do that I just can't do at the moment. I guess I'm not patient enough and I'm bad at waiting.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Limits
Everybody can agree that if I come up with a song I'm allowed to sing it to myself, right?
And also that I can sing it to my friends.
I can also with my own song sing it to audience.
I can record it and give it to my friends, share it with strangers or even sell it.
If my friend comes up with a song am I also allowed to do this? Perhaps not sell it, at least not in my name.
If I buy a song I am allowed to listen to it?
Am I also allowed to listen to it with my friends?
Can I let my friends listen to it without me?
Can I even lend this song to my friend so they can listen to it? Or give it?
If the song can be copied, can I lend a copy of it to my friend? Can I give a copy to my friend?
What if I write down the lyrics of the song, isn't that also a copy of the song?
Can I write the lyrics to a song I bought here in my blog?
I cannot copy the song and sell it?
But what about copy it for a friend and ask the friend for the cost of the copy?
What about using a song for a hobby project; put it as background in some interactive flash presentation or PDF or music to a video of you and your friends wakeboarding, just to make the show slightly more appealing, nothing commercial about it.
What if I didn't buy it?
Can I sing a song I heard?
What about a song my friend heard and sung it to me?
What about the lyrics of a song I haven't heard, can I sing that?
What if I sing it to my friends?
Can I sing it to an audience?
Can I sing it and record it and then upload it on internet for others to enjoy my wonderful voice?
What about radio then?
I assume commercial radios pay license fees for all the songs they play, but what about internet radio? There is a lot of software that allows me to open a channel and play my playlists for anyone who likes to surf into my IP and listen. Then they can copy the song that is currently playing and listen to it again whenever they want.
I think I have a quite good sense of ethics; you shouldn't kill, steal or hurt people, don't take something which doesn't belong to you and such. I've always reacted against the commercials where they show someone stealing a movie and then the message piracy is theft, I honestly don't agree; I think that as long as there is no financial gain for the copy and there is no material loss for the creator (it can't be proven that whoever copied something would ever buy it) then it is fine.
I realize there is a financial loss for those behind a product when it is copied but there is also a gain; as in if it is actually something worth buying (which is a rare case #1) it will spread like wildfire throughout the world. Sure this might not sell really as well as it would have without the copying but I for one does not believe it makes much difference, and for the crap that would never be heard of at all except in small specific groups it can only be beneficial, in the end I find it hard to believe that selling CD's, DVD's or even softcopies of an entertainment product is anywhere near the main source of income for the creators. I just have a feeling that commercial endorsements, concerts and cinema tickets stand out higher. This leaves out literature though, but literature isn't yet hurt in the same extent as the other fields.
I can also see all the problems my mindset might create as it would not be entirely agreeable, but then why is there no better option? I haven't checked this up personally as I'm not interested but I heard that buying one song online costs about 1USD, that means a whole album would cost about 10-20USD and a decent playlist would go for about 250-500USD, is that reasonable for something you might enjoy for a week, perhaps a month, or if it is music you don't personally like but suits a party - just one single night? Is it reasonable to pay 10-20USD for a movie you will see once? For the cinema I could agree to that as I personally like the cinema experience. The one field that is reasonable and that has this more or less under control is the game industry; particularly with online games you can copy as much as you like, but you can't play without subscribing to an account, ergo paying for playing, and with a sum of 10-20USD per month and maybe a starting fee of 30-50USD you get several actual hours and days per month of entertainment #2.
Now there are alternatives for movies and especially TV-shows; the creators of South Park has clearly shown what can be done, and several TV networks do the same, with South Park Studios website where you can stream and watch every episode ever made with the only cost of about 2x30 seconds advertisement. South Park has also twice in their show, Episode 709 - Christian Rock Hard and Episode 1204 - Canada On Strike, taken up this problem and I was personally surprised to not find a reflection of recent developments when I saw the latest episode, Episode 1307 - Perfect Pirate Club, today.
This can be argued back and forth forever and better people than me have already decided that the line is drawn slightly lower than my mind wants it, my wakeboarding video is already off facebook for containing copywrited material (Let's dance - Lady Gaga, a song which even though good I would never in my life pay money to own, I'm happy enough to hear it on the radio or in a club).
But one question remains, why is my fish video still on with music from Final Fantasy XI? Is that not also copywrited or do people just not care if it is Japanese music?
#1 Among all the hundreds of thousands of items that is downloaded online only a small fraction is worth the time it takes to "enjoy" (be it listen, view or both) it, from this small fraction there is only a tiny fraction that is worth more than the time it takes to "enjoy" it, thereby worth spending money on.
#2 Compare 15 songs for 15USD which might in total be 1 hour playtime, should equal about 10 hours worth of entertainment, a movie for 15USD would be about 2 to maximum 6 (you don't want to see a movie more than once or twice generally) hours worth, World of Warcraft players who spend 15USD monthly generally spend 2-3 hours daily (completely depends on the player, can be once every other day or 12 hours a day too, I just want to simplify) spend probably 50-100 hours in a month, giving 5-10 times as much value compared to downloading songs and 10-50 times as much value compared to buying a movie. I'm sure there are people who enjoy listening to music and watching movies much more than they enjoy playing online games, that is not the point though but it is that buying music and movies is way too expensive, (I just bought a book for about 10USD, I will enjoy that book for about 24 hours at least).
And also that I can sing it to my friends.
I can also with my own song sing it to audience.
I can record it and give it to my friends, share it with strangers or even sell it.
If my friend comes up with a song am I also allowed to do this? Perhaps not sell it, at least not in my name.
If I buy a song I am allowed to listen to it?
Am I also allowed to listen to it with my friends?
Can I let my friends listen to it without me?
Can I even lend this song to my friend so they can listen to it? Or give it?
If the song can be copied, can I lend a copy of it to my friend? Can I give a copy to my friend?
What if I write down the lyrics of the song, isn't that also a copy of the song?
Can I write the lyrics to a song I bought here in my blog?
I cannot copy the song and sell it?
But what about copy it for a friend and ask the friend for the cost of the copy?
What about using a song for a hobby project; put it as background in some interactive flash presentation or PDF or music to a video of you and your friends wakeboarding, just to make the show slightly more appealing, nothing commercial about it.
What if I didn't buy it?
Can I sing a song I heard?
What about a song my friend heard and sung it to me?
What about the lyrics of a song I haven't heard, can I sing that?
What if I sing it to my friends?
Can I sing it to an audience?
Can I sing it and record it and then upload it on internet for others to enjoy my wonderful voice?
What about radio then?
I assume commercial radios pay license fees for all the songs they play, but what about internet radio? There is a lot of software that allows me to open a channel and play my playlists for anyone who likes to surf into my IP and listen. Then they can copy the song that is currently playing and listen to it again whenever they want.
I think I have a quite good sense of ethics; you shouldn't kill, steal or hurt people, don't take something which doesn't belong to you and such. I've always reacted against the commercials where they show someone stealing a movie and then the message piracy is theft, I honestly don't agree; I think that as long as there is no financial gain for the copy and there is no material loss for the creator (it can't be proven that whoever copied something would ever buy it) then it is fine.
I realize there is a financial loss for those behind a product when it is copied but there is also a gain; as in if it is actually something worth buying (which is a rare case #1) it will spread like wildfire throughout the world. Sure this might not sell really as well as it would have without the copying but I for one does not believe it makes much difference, and for the crap that would never be heard of at all except in small specific groups it can only be beneficial, in the end I find it hard to believe that selling CD's, DVD's or even softcopies of an entertainment product is anywhere near the main source of income for the creators. I just have a feeling that commercial endorsements, concerts and cinema tickets stand out higher. This leaves out literature though, but literature isn't yet hurt in the same extent as the other fields.
I can also see all the problems my mindset might create as it would not be entirely agreeable, but then why is there no better option? I haven't checked this up personally as I'm not interested but I heard that buying one song online costs about 1USD, that means a whole album would cost about 10-20USD and a decent playlist would go for about 250-500USD, is that reasonable for something you might enjoy for a week, perhaps a month, or if it is music you don't personally like but suits a party - just one single night? Is it reasonable to pay 10-20USD for a movie you will see once? For the cinema I could agree to that as I personally like the cinema experience. The one field that is reasonable and that has this more or less under control is the game industry; particularly with online games you can copy as much as you like, but you can't play without subscribing to an account, ergo paying for playing, and with a sum of 10-20USD per month and maybe a starting fee of 30-50USD you get several actual hours and days per month of entertainment #2.
Now there are alternatives for movies and especially TV-shows; the creators of South Park has clearly shown what can be done, and several TV networks do the same, with South Park Studios website where you can stream and watch every episode ever made with the only cost of about 2x30 seconds advertisement. South Park has also twice in their show, Episode 709 - Christian Rock Hard and Episode 1204 - Canada On Strike, taken up this problem and I was personally surprised to not find a reflection of recent developments when I saw the latest episode, Episode 1307 - Perfect Pirate Club, today.
This can be argued back and forth forever and better people than me have already decided that the line is drawn slightly lower than my mind wants it, my wakeboarding video is already off facebook for containing copywrited material (Let's dance - Lady Gaga, a song which even though good I would never in my life pay money to own, I'm happy enough to hear it on the radio or in a club).
But one question remains, why is my fish video still on with music from Final Fantasy XI? Is that not also copywrited or do people just not care if it is Japanese music?
#1 Among all the hundreds of thousands of items that is downloaded online only a small fraction is worth the time it takes to "enjoy" (be it listen, view or both) it, from this small fraction there is only a tiny fraction that is worth more than the time it takes to "enjoy" it, thereby worth spending money on.
#2 Compare 15 songs for 15USD which might in total be 1 hour playtime, should equal about 10 hours worth of entertainment, a movie for 15USD would be about 2 to maximum 6 (you don't want to see a movie more than once or twice generally) hours worth, World of Warcraft players who spend 15USD monthly generally spend 2-3 hours daily (completely depends on the player, can be once every other day or 12 hours a day too, I just want to simplify) spend probably 50-100 hours in a month, giving 5-10 times as much value compared to downloading songs and 10-50 times as much value compared to buying a movie. I'm sure there are people who enjoy listening to music and watching movies much more than they enjoy playing online games, that is not the point though but it is that buying music and movies is way too expensive, (I just bought a book for about 10USD, I will enjoy that book for about 24 hours at least).
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sister visiting Hong Kong
Instead of doing a day by day posting I find it more interesting to post by activity and summarize what can be done when visiting Hong Kong.
I have divided our activities into:
Culinary Hong Kong (e.g. what we eat and sometimes cook here).
Play in Hong Kong
Tourism in Hong Kong (e.g. the obvious tourist attraction that everyone does)
Party in Hong Kong
and Shopping in Hong Kong
So far I have written part 1 only but I will update eventually and add more photos when Maja has given them to me.
I have divided our activities into:
Culinary Hong Kong (e.g. what we eat and sometimes cook here).
Play in Hong Kong
Tourism in Hong Kong (e.g. the obvious tourist attraction that everyone does)
Party in Hong Kong
and Shopping in Hong Kong
So far I have written part 1 only but I will update eventually and add more photos when Maja has given them to me.
Party in Hong Kong (part 1)
As of yet we haven't really been out partying; we had a few drinks near my home the other day and last night we drank some beer with the BBQ but otherwise we have taken it easy. On Wednesday we have plans to go out to a club with a friend and on Saturday I have arranged a big local party and BBQ to show Maja how we really party here, should be quite fun.
Tourism in Hong Kong (part 1)
So far we have hardly done anything touristy at all; we only went to Wetland Park near my home in Tin Shui Wai. But tomorrow we will go to Tung Chung and do the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and see the big Buddha and on Wednesday we will go to the peak. I also have plans to go with her to Ocean Park on Friday and we will see what we can do next Sunday.
Shopping in Hong Kong (part 1)
Maja was very eager to go out shopping as soon as possible when she came here, the only problem was that I have actually no idea where to take her to shop. We did however go out to Causeway bay and walked around inside SOGO and around that area for a while without finding anything particular, actually the main problem was that whatever she found and liked it was always too short for her. We also went to Mong Kok and I ended up buying a few t-shirts and cologne, Maja still didn't buy anything.
Today Maja is in better hands; she is out with Joyce shopping in the nearby smaller town of Yuen Long, I hope she can find anything suitable there. I think next week on Tuesday I will take her around on a shopping mall tour; New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, APM in Kwun Tong and perhaps Mega BOX near Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong. We will see how that goes. I will also try to take her to some outlet stores; there are some outlet sport stores in Tung Chung where we will go tomorrow and I think there are some in Aberdeen also, might go there on Sunday. Tomorrow we will also go to the night market at Temple Street in Jordan and maybe the ladies market in Mong Kok as well.
Today Maja is in better hands; she is out with Joyce shopping in the nearby smaller town of Yuen Long, I hope she can find anything suitable there. I think next week on Tuesday I will take her around on a shopping mall tour; New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, APM in Kwun Tong and perhaps Mega BOX near Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong. We will see how that goes. I will also try to take her to some outlet stores; there are some outlet sport stores in Tung Chung where we will go tomorrow and I think there are some in Aberdeen also, might go there on Sunday. Tomorrow we will also go to the night market at Temple Street in Jordan and maybe the ladies market in Mong Kok as well.
Playing in Hong Kong (part 1)
My main friend and contact for doing outdoor fun things in Hong Kong is my good friend and colleague from UK, Marc Rimmer, he has worked with outdoor sports in Hong Kong before and made some good friends in the field. So he arranged for us to go out wakeboarding with one of his friends and we had an awesome day playing in the water yesterday, but so exhausted now and muscle aches all over.
I think there won't be any more play like this but perhaps we will do something in the weekend and we should go to Ocean Park on Friday.
Me trying to wakeboard, I did get up on my second try
but I couldn't manage any other impressive feat.
Maja trying to wakeboard as well, and in fact she was better than me.
Marc testing out as well.
Finally Marc's friend and our instructor showing us how it is done.
Culinary Hong Kong (part 1)
Food comes in plenty in Hong Kong and so far we have managed to cover quite a few nationalities and styles; the first evening after Maja arrived we went out to a local Chinese restaurant (one of those with a spinning platform on the round table) and had a huge Chinese cosine dinner with Joyce and her family, I also got to try the weirdest Kung Pow Chicken I've ever seen, not even close to the real thing. We have also done Thai food in Thai Orchid in Langham place in Mong Kok, great spicy curry and some other stuff that both enjoyed together with Almen (Joyce's third sister). We went for an enormous lunch buffet at the Gold Coast resort hotel with one of the companies I’m involved with, spending nearly two hours constantly eating I managed to finish five plates; starters, main dish, salad, cakes and dessert and finally some more of the starters. Saturday we went to celebrate Almen's and Maja's birthdays with Indian food in Yuen Long, together with all of Joyce's family and also Ariel and Man, and after that we all went back to my place to enjoy two cakes, one that I made and one that Shirly's (Joyce's second sister) friend made for us, mine with chocolate and the other with mango and passion fruit, very yummy. Finally last night we had a huge outdoor BBQ buffet and spend about seven hours constantly eating and drinking.
This of course has resulted in some weight gain but I hope to fall back to my normal weight once Maja has left again.
We have a few more things to try out before Maja leaves; tonight we will have Joyce's own home cooked food, I think one day we will try another Indian food and probably one day for another restaurant I enjoy where you can get really nice white curry, I will post about the rest of her time here later.
This of course has resulted in some weight gain but I hope to fall back to my normal weight once Maja has left again.
We have a few more things to try out before Maja leaves; tonight we will have Joyce's own home cooked food, I think one day we will try another Indian food and probably one day for another restaurant I enjoy where you can get really nice white curry, I will post about the rest of her time here later.
Friday, April 3, 2009
The Comedian could have taken Ozymandias
There are three kinds of heroes; compromising heroes, uncompromising heroes and heroes who are willing to give up everything. There are no uncompromising heroes.
Heroes are more or less a symbol of human nature at its best but with a romantic prowess to do more than we are generally willing to do. The compromising heroes are those who are trying to save the world but not exactly willing to go all the way, they are giving up some things but not everything. Self sacrifice is not a stranger to them but there will always be something they will not give up, and when there is no other choice they will fall in line like everyone else; when the heroes who are willing to give up everything have become the villains who gave up everything a compromising hero will fall in line and accept this as fate. The uncompromising hero is those who will not accept even the inevitable, "No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.", but in the end they will allow themselves to be slain for the greater good; like Batman in his self-loving/self-loathing hypocrisy (which Cartman illustrates brilliantly in "The Coon") gave himself up to allow Harvey to become the saint and Rorschach met his death in Antarctica. And the heroes without any remorse are those who will kill one life to save two or a million to save a billion.
This leaves the omnipotent who cannot be seen as heroes as someone who is omnipotent has no place in making a though decision; nothing is though if it doesn't have any consequences and how can anything be of any consequence to anyone omnipotent. An omnipotent will not endure a life in a compromising world and uncompromising world is a dead one. But the omnipotent is so detached in his prowess that he cares as much of a single human as the whole world; like in Vietnam when he Comedian kills the woman carrying his child he says: "Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Pregnant woman. Gunned her down. Bang. And y'know what? You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury or the bottle into snowflakes! You coulda teleported either of us to goddamn Australia...but you didn't lift a finger! You don't really give a damn about human beings. I've watched you...".
We do love those who try to never compromise though and even such a wicked figure as Rorschach is probably the best of heroes in our eyes; even in the mind of the creator he managed to convert Doctor Malcolm Long to his thinking. And The Comedian was loved too, Rorschach expresses is admiration of him in several occasions, which is explainable due to their kinship of mind, Dr. Manhattan too talks about his curiosity in him, "Blake is interesting. I have never met anyone so deliberately amoral.", and even The Silk Scepter who was raped by him had only fond memories left after his death,
And yes, I really think that The Comedian could have beaten Ozymandias had he wanted to; in his death he did not put up a fight to allow Veidt to go through with his horribe plan, this was Blakes final and only compromise, his punch line.
Heroes are more or less a symbol of human nature at its best but with a romantic prowess to do more than we are generally willing to do. The compromising heroes are those who are trying to save the world but not exactly willing to go all the way, they are giving up some things but not everything. Self sacrifice is not a stranger to them but there will always be something they will not give up, and when there is no other choice they will fall in line like everyone else; when the heroes who are willing to give up everything have become the villains who gave up everything a compromising hero will fall in line and accept this as fate. The uncompromising hero is those who will not accept even the inevitable, "No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.", but in the end they will allow themselves to be slain for the greater good; like Batman in his self-loving/self-loathing hypocrisy (which Cartman illustrates brilliantly in "The Coon") gave himself up to allow Harvey to become the saint and Rorschach met his death in Antarctica. And the heroes without any remorse are those who will kill one life to save two or a million to save a billion.
This leaves the omnipotent who cannot be seen as heroes as someone who is omnipotent has no place in making a though decision; nothing is though if it doesn't have any consequences and how can anything be of any consequence to anyone omnipotent. An omnipotent will not endure a life in a compromising world and uncompromising world is a dead one. But the omnipotent is so detached in his prowess that he cares as much of a single human as the whole world; like in Vietnam when he Comedian kills the woman carrying his child he says: "Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Pregnant woman. Gunned her down. Bang. And y'know what? You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury or the bottle into snowflakes! You coulda teleported either of us to goddamn Australia...but you didn't lift a finger! You don't really give a damn about human beings. I've watched you...".
We do love those who try to never compromise though and even such a wicked figure as Rorschach is probably the best of heroes in our eyes; even in the mind of the creator he managed to convert Doctor Malcolm Long to his thinking. And The Comedian was loved too, Rorschach expresses is admiration of him in several occasions, which is explainable due to their kinship of mind, Dr. Manhattan too talks about his curiosity in him, "Blake is interesting. I have never met anyone so deliberately amoral.", and even The Silk Scepter who was raped by him had only fond memories left after his death,
And yes, I really think that The Comedian could have beaten Ozymandias had he wanted to; in his death he did not put up a fight to allow Veidt to go through with his horribe plan, this was Blakes final and only compromise, his punch line.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Things you need for a home, priority!
1. Bed - check (had that already).
2. Internet - check (included).
3. Sofa - check (just bought and will receive on Wednesday).
4. Curtains - I will go look for that on Sunday.
5. Wireless internet - check (bought my router today).
6. Wardrobe - half check (I have one piece but it just isn't enough, I can live with this for quite a while though).
7. Entrance storage, like hangers and shoe storage - soon I hope.
8. Table - probably next item to buy.
9. Storage furniture - like more wardrobe and some other storage units.
10. Upgrade bed - you spend a third of your life in bed; the bed you stay that time in should be great.
11. TV and TV furniture.
12. Wall hangings, painting or nice photos to put up on the walls.
13. Balcony furniture - just something to sit and relax on the balcony.
14. Gaming consoles - your mandatory PS3, Xbox 360 and Wiki.
15. Workspace and stationary computer.
16. Music system - Amplifier and speakers (this stuff costs way too much though, 3-4 years in the future perhaps?)
2. Internet - check (included).
3. Sofa - check (just bought and will receive on Wednesday).
4. Curtains - I will go look for that on Sunday.
5. Wireless internet - check (bought my router today).
6. Wardrobe - half check (I have one piece but it just isn't enough, I can live with this for quite a while though).
7. Entrance storage, like hangers and shoe storage - soon I hope.
8. Table - probably next item to buy.
9. Storage furniture - like more wardrobe and some other storage units.
10. Upgrade bed - you spend a third of your life in bed; the bed you stay that time in should be great.
11. TV and TV furniture.
12. Wall hangings, painting or nice photos to put up on the walls.
13. Balcony furniture - just something to sit and relax on the balcony.
14. Gaming consoles - your mandatory PS3, Xbox 360 and Wiki.
15. Workspace and stationary computer.
16. Music system - Amplifier and speakers (this stuff costs way too much though, 3-4 years in the future perhaps?)
Friday, March 6, 2009
Buying a Sofa
I had picked out my "Karlstad" sofa, received the deposit from Gary (former flat mate) and had enough time to actually go to IKEA and buy it. So I set out in the mid afternoon with a clear goal and high spirits. However, once I had arrived at Kowloon bay IKEA and written down exactly what I wanted the woman (or I should say girl) found that they didn't have the 2-seat part frame in stock, neither did they know when they would, later it turned out that they should have gotten it last month but hadn't yet and after pushing the girl about it she guessed it would take at least another month.
So I had to consider my options; IKEA also has a sofa called "Kramfors", it is similar size and price but with a few drawbacks; 1. It doesn't come in any color that I'm looking for (closest is a dark gray), 2. It is about 15cm wide than "Karlstad", that is 15cm I don't really have and 3. It is not nearly as comfortable as "Karlstad". There is "Tylösand" from IKEA as well, this one comes in a reddish purple that is close to the brown I was looking for originally and it is only 7cm wide than "Karlstad", however this one costs 2000HKD more. Or as a final option I could look in other stores.
I set out to MEGA-BOX where they have a B n' Q, another furniture/hardware store, they didn't have many sofas to pick from though and all of them were quite bad, they did, however, have a wide selection of other interesting stuff, for later. Next we an exhibition centre near MEGA-BOX where they exhibit and sell stuff, and two floors are for furniture. Most of these are actually selling designed homes rather than separate furniture, some did though and actually the first place had these really cool luxury sofas in leather where the two side seats in a 3-seat sofa had an electronic unfolding, and these were actually price worthy; the original price ranged from 15 to 18 thousand HKD but they were mostly down to 6 to 9 thousand, e.g. within my limit. I decided against this though, it might be cool but it wouldn't really suit my home, it is something of a combination of luxury and tacky TV-comfort and it just don't go with my vision.
So after several hours of sofa searching I ended up in IKEA again and was close to buying "Kramfors" despite the negative points when another idea came up; most of IKEA's sofas are actually unit based and can be combined a little bit like you want it, this basically means that you can buy one part now and another later, and in the case of "Karlstad" it was only the 2-seat frame unit that was missing. Unfortunately the lounge part (the 'L') is an add-on and cannot be used separately, so this idea failed, but "Tylösand", which is actually slightly more comfortable than "Karlstad" suddenly became possible since I could buy a 2-seat part now and but the lounge later when I have more money.
After serious consideration I decided on "Tylösand" 2-seat unit and the footpad for it, together with a "Lack" coffee table and a knee "table" for my computer I know have what I need to survive for a while. This actually turned out cheaper than the original plan but the total cost for the sofa will be higher, e.g. today I had planned to spend about 6500HKD, or slightly more, for sofa and coffee table but finally only spent 6300HKD, I will have to buy the lounge later though for about 4000HKD more, can be much later.
So I had to consider my options; IKEA also has a sofa called "Kramfors", it is similar size and price but with a few drawbacks; 1. It doesn't come in any color that I'm looking for (closest is a dark gray), 2. It is about 15cm wide than "Karlstad", that is 15cm I don't really have and 3. It is not nearly as comfortable as "Karlstad". There is "Tylösand" from IKEA as well, this one comes in a reddish purple that is close to the brown I was looking for originally and it is only 7cm wide than "Karlstad", however this one costs 2000HKD more. Or as a final option I could look in other stores.
I set out to MEGA-BOX where they have a B n' Q, another furniture/hardware store, they didn't have many sofas to pick from though and all of them were quite bad, they did, however, have a wide selection of other interesting stuff, for later. Next we an exhibition centre near MEGA-BOX where they exhibit and sell stuff, and two floors are for furniture. Most of these are actually selling designed homes rather than separate furniture, some did though and actually the first place had these really cool luxury sofas in leather where the two side seats in a 3-seat sofa had an electronic unfolding, and these were actually price worthy; the original price ranged from 15 to 18 thousand HKD but they were mostly down to 6 to 9 thousand, e.g. within my limit. I decided against this though, it might be cool but it wouldn't really suit my home, it is something of a combination of luxury and tacky TV-comfort and it just don't go with my vision.
So after several hours of sofa searching I ended up in IKEA again and was close to buying "Kramfors" despite the negative points when another idea came up; most of IKEA's sofas are actually unit based and can be combined a little bit like you want it, this basically means that you can buy one part now and another later, and in the case of "Karlstad" it was only the 2-seat frame unit that was missing. Unfortunately the lounge part (the 'L') is an add-on and cannot be used separately, so this idea failed, but "Tylösand", which is actually slightly more comfortable than "Karlstad" suddenly became possible since I could buy a 2-seat part now and but the lounge later when I have more money.
After serious consideration I decided on "Tylösand" 2-seat unit and the footpad for it, together with a "Lack" coffee table and a knee "table" for my computer I know have what I need to survive for a while. This actually turned out cheaper than the original plan but the total cost for the sofa will be higher, e.g. today I had planned to spend about 6500HKD, or slightly more, for sofa and coffee table but finally only spent 6300HKD, I will have to buy the lounge later though for about 4000HKD more, can be much later.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A new home.
For a few nights now I have slept on the 50th (actually 44th) floor in a Tin Shui Wai Central Park Tower One. The rent started on the 1st of this month but I got 7 days for free so I got the keys on February 22nd and on the Tuesday after (which was a day off for me) Shirley (who also was not working) helped me to buy some cleaning stuff and clean the place up. Moving went really smooth, day after Janice's birthday party (last Wednesday), which really was a lot of fun by the way; I could get help from Ariel who had taken the day after the party off. A group of movers, skillfully arranged by Man, came and carried my stuff downstairs and loaded it in a truck, 45 minutes later we arrived in Tin Shui Wai and they carried my stuff up and it was done.
Since then I have visited IKEA like 5-6 times to check out furniture I want, the only thing I can actually buy is a "Karlstad" 'L'-shaped sofa which I will buy as soon as I get my salary next week. I did buy a lot of kitchen wares (IKEA has a set called "Tillaga" start set which contains most of the basics for a kitchen) and other small stuff. I have looked at stuff and drawn plans for how I want it and calculated the total price; I will probably be able to pay back Mom and my friend within a year and furnish this apartment, excluding the very important TV, stereo and game consoles that will decorate some of the furniture.
Since then I have visited IKEA like 5-6 times to check out furniture I want, the only thing I can actually buy is a "Karlstad" 'L'-shaped sofa which I will buy as soon as I get my salary next week. I did buy a lot of kitchen wares (IKEA has a set called "Tillaga" start set which contains most of the basics for a kitchen) and other small stuff. I have looked at stuff and drawn plans for how I want it and calculated the total price; I will probably be able to pay back Mom and my friend within a year and furnish this apartment, excluding the very important TV, stereo and game consoles that will decorate some of the furniture.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Super humid
It is actually only about 85% (it can be as high as 98% in summer I think) but the whole world seems to be covered in a shade of white mist; when I look outside my window now I can't even see the water just a few hundred meters away, and just barely make out the buildings next to me. This also affects the drying of laundry; for example I haven't had a dry towel in 4-5 days now and it gets very sweaty very quickly these days.
Anyway, last week I made my final decision to move in to that great view flat in Tin Shui Wai, I'm still not entirely certain that it is a great idea but when it comes to work and transport I will be able to save a lot of money and time. So next Sunday I will put down the deposit and the first payment (I get one week staying there for free and will have the billing date on the first of each month later), get the key and I think even stay there the first night, since I work early there on Monday morning. Then over the week I will move myself and my life from Tiu Keng Leng to Tin Shui Wai.
Unfortunately it will probably be a while until I can afford furniture, but I can live with that for a month or two I think. That time I can spend planning what furniture I will get, admittedly I'm pretty excited about moving there, my own flat. I want to say that it is the first flat I will have alone, but I did stay alone in the flat in Chengdu, maybe that isn't counted though as it was a studio apartment without kitchen, and it was furnished already so I didn't get to do that.
Work is still quite slow, as it is now both February and March is around 10000 but I haven't lost hope to fill up my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays also, When I finally do that it should double what I make now. April will be a slow month either way I think, with Easter and a long holiday I don't have many commitments at the moment so if I don't get more it before then it will be bad, still a long time away so it should be fine.
Anyway, last week I made my final decision to move in to that great view flat in Tin Shui Wai, I'm still not entirely certain that it is a great idea but when it comes to work and transport I will be able to save a lot of money and time. So next Sunday I will put down the deposit and the first payment (I get one week staying there for free and will have the billing date on the first of each month later), get the key and I think even stay there the first night, since I work early there on Monday morning. Then over the week I will move myself and my life from Tiu Keng Leng to Tin Shui Wai.
Unfortunately it will probably be a while until I can afford furniture, but I can live with that for a month or two I think. That time I can spend planning what furniture I will get, admittedly I'm pretty excited about moving there, my own flat. I want to say that it is the first flat I will have alone, but I did stay alone in the flat in Chengdu, maybe that isn't counted though as it was a studio apartment without kitchen, and it was furnished already so I didn't get to do that.
Work is still quite slow, as it is now both February and March is around 10000 but I haven't lost hope to fill up my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays also, When I finally do that it should double what I make now. April will be a slow month either way I think, with Easter and a long holiday I don't have many commitments at the moment so if I don't get more it before then it will be bad, still a long time away so it should be fine.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Apartment search
I've been looking for a place nearer to my work and there is a new estate in Tin Shui Wai (where Joyce lives) that I'm extremely attracted to, it happens to have exactly the same style and very similar layout to the place I'm staying in right now. So over the last few weeks (first time was actually in early December) I went to see different flats in those buildings. There are two very different sides to the buildings; at the North side they are still building club facilities for the estate and three more towers, this won’t be complete until sometime and 2010 so living on that side pretty much sucks (once the construction is finished the higher flats should be ok as it will give a kind of sea view), on the South side however is Tin Shui Wai park and most of the flats have a really nice view of that, especially the Easternmost tower is very close to the park centre and even the lower flats there are nice.
I have basically discarded all flats on the North side despite them being slightly cheaper and when I finally got to see a bigger selection of South flats this week when I went with Shirley, one of Joyce's sisters (not to be mistaken with Almen). I saw a really awesome 3 bedroom flat, quite high and in the easternmost tower, this one is way too expensive for me though. After that I saw three other flats, all 2 bedrooms and pretty decent layout, I didn't like the last one because it is quite low and located by a busy street, it will make it pretty noisy there especially in day time. Unfortunately both the other two was lost to me before the evening was over; I found out the owner had rent the second one out already and the first one was under negotiation and if I started to bid I would just push up the price.
That's when they told me they could show me a fifth flat. So Shirley and I went back again and we went up to the 50th floor in the Easternmost building and was suddenly enchanted with this amazing view that is very hard to describe but I will try my best; just below you is a big green park that extends to a small (small as it is very far down) stadium in the East, but when you lift your eyes a little you reach above all the other buildings in the region and you realize that you have a view of the mountain range around the town. When you start looking around you realize that you have a panoramic view of the landscape stretching all the way to the sea in the West and mountains and sea in the South. And of course I got there in the evening so we got to watch how the sun was sinking down over the sea.
I want this flat! The rent is reasonable, 6500HKD for about 666sqf (70sqm), two bedrooms, a decent bathroom and a kitchen, compare with I’m paying 4500HKD now for the smaller bedroom in a similar apartment with one and a half hour travel time to work instead of 30 minutes and 10HKD instead of 60HKD per working day. The one drawback is that the kitchen is one of the smallest in this estate. However 6500HKD is just the rent, before I can rent it I must put down a deposit of two months’ rent and pay the agent one half rent for their service, this adds up to 22500HKD, which is a lot. They also want me to make a quick decision, have me put down some money (just a minor amount) to not show it to more prospectors. I don't know what to do but I know I want that flat.
I have basically discarded all flats on the North side despite them being slightly cheaper and when I finally got to see a bigger selection of South flats this week when I went with Shirley, one of Joyce's sisters (not to be mistaken with Almen). I saw a really awesome 3 bedroom flat, quite high and in the easternmost tower, this one is way too expensive for me though. After that I saw three other flats, all 2 bedrooms and pretty decent layout, I didn't like the last one because it is quite low and located by a busy street, it will make it pretty noisy there especially in day time. Unfortunately both the other two was lost to me before the evening was over; I found out the owner had rent the second one out already and the first one was under negotiation and if I started to bid I would just push up the price.
That's when they told me they could show me a fifth flat. So Shirley and I went back again and we went up to the 50th floor in the Easternmost building and was suddenly enchanted with this amazing view that is very hard to describe but I will try my best; just below you is a big green park that extends to a small (small as it is very far down) stadium in the East, but when you lift your eyes a little you reach above all the other buildings in the region and you realize that you have a view of the mountain range around the town. When you start looking around you realize that you have a panoramic view of the landscape stretching all the way to the sea in the West and mountains and sea in the South. And of course I got there in the evening so we got to watch how the sun was sinking down over the sea.
I want this flat! The rent is reasonable, 6500HKD for about 666sqf (70sqm), two bedrooms, a decent bathroom and a kitchen, compare with I’m paying 4500HKD now for the smaller bedroom in a similar apartment with one and a half hour travel time to work instead of 30 minutes and 10HKD instead of 60HKD per working day. The one drawback is that the kitchen is one of the smallest in this estate. However 6500HKD is just the rent, before I can rent it I must put down a deposit of two months’ rent and pay the agent one half rent for their service, this adds up to 22500HKD, which is a lot. They also want me to make a quick decision, have me put down some money (just a minor amount) to not show it to more prospectors. I don't know what to do but I know I want that flat.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Procrastination
Since a very long time I've had a project called Procrastination; Procrastination is a stat-builder game I started working on in 2006 and I tend to fall back into that once in a while, its work in progress and not going very fast but I use it to kill time anyway. Recently I decided to start another project; I call it Irresponsibility and it's a strategy RPG game. I also decided I should log my work on this so I created The Procrastinator, another blog, for this.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Omelet
Last night I had a small "Spring Festival" dinner with Joyce and Ariel and I came up with the, according to me, great plan of making omelets. The great idea about this is that we could do several omelets with different ingredients, satisfying everyone's wants and needs. With my small frying pan two eggs is more than enough for one omelet, still I tried with four in the first one and that was simply too big. I made spicy omelets, which I like but Ariel don't like, Ariel made one with mushrooms, which I can't eat, and Joyce did a rather normal one.
Museums
With the Spring festival holiday and more time on our hands Ariel and I decided to check out some of the museums in Hong Kong. So on Friday we went to Tsim Sha Tsui and to the museum of history and the museum of science, which are in adjacent buildings in TST east. We did go about it in the wrong order but basically had to since the history museum closed earlier; first we did Hong Kong's history and then the very boring French revolution part that is visiting until next month. The science museum was a lot more fun; they have loads of stuff you can play and at the end of our visit we found a section where you test your health buy doing simple tests like blood pressure and jumping as high as you can and stuff. I don't think the tests are very reliable but it was still fun too.
Since we had bought a one week ticket for all the museums in Hong Kong each and Ariel work the whole next week we figured we should do one today as well. We went out to Sha Tin in east part of New Territories and visited the heritage museum there. Some of the things there were very similar to the history museum in TST but a lot more focus on culture and especially Cantonese Opera, which sounds really boring and I think it is, but I tried out a costume and took some photos.
I will check out the space museum and also the art museum in TST by Victoria harbor someday next week, since I have the one week pass and quite a lot of time to kill still.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Pancake workshop
Finally I got to make pancakes in my new flat, or actually it was the second time since I did a trial run last weekend. We were only three people, Joyce, Almen and I, because all others invited were busy with other things or too tired, but that is all right, two to three (or maybe four) is the appropriate amount of people for pancakes. Joyce also made some paste that turned out really great and the pancakes became desert. Also as appropriate we watched a movie, Beerfest, which turned out to be really fun.
All in all it was just as it should be! And the leftover pancakes, because there were quite a lot. Well they became a very steady Sunday breakfast :D
All in all it was just as it should be! And the leftover pancakes, because there were quite a lot. Well they became a very steady Sunday breakfast :D
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Waiting
House season 5 continues - 19th January
Lost season 5 begins - 21st January
American Dad season 4 continues - 25th January
Family Guy season 7 continues - ? (probably same as American Dad)
Heroes season 4 begins - 2nd February
Robot Chicken season 4 continues - ? (season 4 started in December and has aired 4 episodes so far)
Southpark season 13 begins - 7th March
Entourage season 6 - ???
Californication season 3 - ???
Lost season 5 begins - 21st January
American Dad season 4 continues - 25th January
Family Guy season 7 continues - ? (probably same as American Dad)
Heroes season 4 begins - 2nd February
Robot Chicken season 4 continues - ? (season 4 started in December and has aired 4 episodes so far)
Southpark season 13 begins - 7th March
Entourage season 6 - ???
Californication season 3 - ???
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Promiscuous lies
People lie because people want to hear lies. Or rather people don't want to hear the truth. The truth is always there to be seen but we tend to be very selective in what we see.
It is like with how the eye can actually only register a tiny dot at any single moment and how the imagine of the world we perceive is built out of a series of dots and moments. But there is never enough time to see every dot so we try to select what is most interesting. We are still somewhat blind.
So we build up our world out of all the information we have and it is not as flat and static as our vision and that means there are so much more dimension to be versatile.
Everybody lies. But is hiding the truth by leaving it out also lying? Or saying one truth to distract from or have another truth distorted? I think morally it is easier for us to just neglect to tell the truth and easier yet to cover one truth with another.
We think we want to know the truth about everything but the truth is that is just lying to ourselves; we still know that we don't want to get hurt and the truth is all too often very painful.
So do you think you are the only one for him? You believe it because you want to, because he never told you otherwise. He never told you that either but that is easy to forget. You need him to lie to you because there is actually only a small chance that he is telling the truth, if he can have others he has.
She is just as bad though;
who lies more, men or women?
who cheats more, men or women?
You have your own answer I'm sure but mine is that it probably is the most equal thing there is between the sexes.
who lies better then, men or women?
Here I think women are better; it is actually "proven" (it can be discussed how that is proven) that women are more orally inventive than men which should make it easier for them to lie. I personally think women are better liars because it is harder for them to cheat; it doesn't take much creativity to come up with a 'no' anyway.
We still want to trust people, and we don't want to be proven wrong about them so we want them to keep lying to us. And I will almost completely trust anyone I make friends with, at least to a point where it doesn't jeopardize my security. I'm also very open with my friends myself but I have discovered that it is not very appreciated all the time, and there is always a point when I don't like to share everything anymore and lies starts to come easier.
Even though everybody lies not everything is promiscuous though; there are still people out there, both men and women, who don't have to lie about those things. But isn't it rather naive to think that your partner or target of interest is one of those?
It is like with how the eye can actually only register a tiny dot at any single moment and how the imagine of the world we perceive is built out of a series of dots and moments. But there is never enough time to see every dot so we try to select what is most interesting. We are still somewhat blind.
So we build up our world out of all the information we have and it is not as flat and static as our vision and that means there are so much more dimension to be versatile.
Everybody lies. But is hiding the truth by leaving it out also lying? Or saying one truth to distract from or have another truth distorted? I think morally it is easier for us to just neglect to tell the truth and easier yet to cover one truth with another.
We think we want to know the truth about everything but the truth is that is just lying to ourselves; we still know that we don't want to get hurt and the truth is all too often very painful.
So do you think you are the only one for him? You believe it because you want to, because he never told you otherwise. He never told you that either but that is easy to forget. You need him to lie to you because there is actually only a small chance that he is telling the truth, if he can have others he has.
She is just as bad though;
who lies more, men or women?
who cheats more, men or women?
You have your own answer I'm sure but mine is that it probably is the most equal thing there is between the sexes.
who lies better then, men or women?
Here I think women are better; it is actually "proven" (it can be discussed how that is proven) that women are more orally inventive than men which should make it easier for them to lie. I personally think women are better liars because it is harder for them to cheat; it doesn't take much creativity to come up with a 'no' anyway.
We still want to trust people, and we don't want to be proven wrong about them so we want them to keep lying to us. And I will almost completely trust anyone I make friends with, at least to a point where it doesn't jeopardize my security. I'm also very open with my friends myself but I have discovered that it is not very appreciated all the time, and there is always a point when I don't like to share everything anymore and lies starts to come easier.
Even though everybody lies not everything is promiscuous though; there are still people out there, both men and women, who don't have to lie about those things. But isn't it rather naive to think that your partner or target of interest is one of those?
Friday, January 2, 2009
Kiu Kiu's birthday
1st of January, the very first day of the year, celebrated with fireworks and parties all over the world and as it happens it is also Joyce's little cousin's birthday. So when I talked with Joyce on New Year's Eve she invited me to come over and have cake with them on New Year's Day.
Rather tired after the long night of celebrations I still headed out in the "morning" to buy him a little gift; I found a nice Thomas & Friends puzzle after a not very long time of searching and as soon as I had my breakfast after that I headed out to take my 15 minutes MTR ride to Kwun Tong and one hour plus bus ride from there to Tin Shui Wai. The day was absolutely wonderful, the sunniest day of the year so far (and in a few weeks) and fortune had smiled on me so that I came just in time to join them all for two o'clock dim sum, which I reached strangely hungry, felt nearly starved despite the recent breakfast.
I teased Kiu Kiu with the gift for a while and ended up having to carry it around for most of the day because of that as we parted after dim sum and Joyce and I stayed out in the sun and Kiu Kiu lined up (or had his uncle and dad stand in line) for a inflated jumping tower. He got his gift later when he got back home, since we actually got there before him, and I helped him lay it out. After that I was beaten miserably in Chinese chess by a 7 year old, very embarrassing, and we had dinner and after that a splendid mango cake.
It was a very nice day and really warm but when I made my one and a half hour ride home at about 9pm it was really cold. It was a very nice start for the new year.
Rather tired after the long night of celebrations I still headed out in the "morning" to buy him a little gift; I found a nice Thomas & Friends puzzle after a not very long time of searching and as soon as I had my breakfast after that I headed out to take my 15 minutes MTR ride to Kwun Tong and one hour plus bus ride from there to Tin Shui Wai. The day was absolutely wonderful, the sunniest day of the year so far (and in a few weeks) and fortune had smiled on me so that I came just in time to join them all for two o'clock dim sum, which I reached strangely hungry, felt nearly starved despite the recent breakfast.
I teased Kiu Kiu with the gift for a while and ended up having to carry it around for most of the day because of that as we parted after dim sum and Joyce and I stayed out in the sun and Kiu Kiu lined up (or had his uncle and dad stand in line) for a inflated jumping tower. He got his gift later when he got back home, since we actually got there before him, and I helped him lay it out. After that I was beaten miserably in Chinese chess by a 7 year old, very embarrassing, and we had dinner and after that a splendid mango cake.
It was a very nice day and really warm but when I made my one and a half hour ride home at about 9pm it was really cold. It was a very nice start for the new year.
New Year in Hong Kong
As this post might seem like complaining I must first announce that I have finally decided that I like Hong Kong; there are some things about the general state here that is not all great but all in all it is good. Basically I like it here and I intend to stay for a while.
The holidays however are not great, this is just my view of things and is because Christmas (especially Christmas Eve) and New Years are the most important holidays in Sweden and even though New Years Eve is always completely over-rated it still has that special charm of being so. So well I have been a bit home-sick these days. But we have to make the best out of situation and I already told about my Christmas experiences so now let's cover New Years Eve:
From the very start I decided that I did not want to end up in some extremely overcrowded area of Hong Kong where millions of people gather up to watch the fireworks over Victoria harbor. I tried to arrange some small party in my flat again but this time I hardly got any support at all, only Steve, one of my new Hong Kong friends were up for that idea. Instead Steve invited me to join the normal (normal as in same as always) group of people for a party somewhere else but since I didn't want to bother them too much, being the only gwailo (foreigner), I had my dinner alone at home and didn't head out until closer to 11pm.
This was a big mistake though because even though they were in a private flat (an office it turned out) in TST the only entrance was located just by Ferry pier which just happens to be one of the best locations to watch the fireworks, ergo the streets where massively crowded and police had set up roadblocks. I did manage to get through a few of those roadblocks, the first one by walking inside a shopping mall and the second by having Steve explain that I was heading to a private party (and delivering ice-cream), there was a third one that I never got passed though so even if I were only a few hundred meters from my friends (actually a lot less if we were to draw a straight line through space) it was impossible to reach them.
So at about 11.45pm I got stuck on street with thousands of strangers, it was also nearly impossible to get a signal but after about a hundred tries I managed to get hold of a semi-sleeping Joyce and greet her Happy New Year prematurely and then I managed to do the same with Ariel even closer to the strike of midnight. And close as I was to the harbor and the event of the night, the fireworks, I couldn't see them either because of the massive building at the end of the street. It is not as bad as it might sound though, basically I just had to wait 20 minutes to get to the party and it is just another party after all, I didn't have any expectations at all for this night anyway.
They opened the blockade at about 12.15am and less than 5 minutes later I was up at the 16th floor where my friends had a perfect view of the harbor and I'm guessing they must have enjoyed the fireworks a lot more than I did. After that it was mainly drinking and games and we kept playing until about 3am when I had had enough and went home.
HAPPY NEWYEAR EVERYBODY!!!
Ps. this year I will not get stuck on a random street on the other side of the world, I am coming home for Christmas and New Year.
The holidays however are not great, this is just my view of things and is because Christmas (especially Christmas Eve) and New Years are the most important holidays in Sweden and even though New Years Eve is always completely over-rated it still has that special charm of being so. So well I have been a bit home-sick these days. But we have to make the best out of situation and I already told about my Christmas experiences so now let's cover New Years Eve:
From the very start I decided that I did not want to end up in some extremely overcrowded area of Hong Kong where millions of people gather up to watch the fireworks over Victoria harbor. I tried to arrange some small party in my flat again but this time I hardly got any support at all, only Steve, one of my new Hong Kong friends were up for that idea. Instead Steve invited me to join the normal (normal as in same as always) group of people for a party somewhere else but since I didn't want to bother them too much, being the only gwailo (foreigner), I had my dinner alone at home and didn't head out until closer to 11pm.
This was a big mistake though because even though they were in a private flat (an office it turned out) in TST the only entrance was located just by Ferry pier which just happens to be one of the best locations to watch the fireworks, ergo the streets where massively crowded and police had set up roadblocks. I did manage to get through a few of those roadblocks, the first one by walking inside a shopping mall and the second by having Steve explain that I was heading to a private party (and delivering ice-cream), there was a third one that I never got passed though so even if I were only a few hundred meters from my friends (actually a lot less if we were to draw a straight line through space) it was impossible to reach them.
So at about 11.45pm I got stuck on street with thousands of strangers, it was also nearly impossible to get a signal but after about a hundred tries I managed to get hold of a semi-sleeping Joyce and greet her Happy New Year prematurely and then I managed to do the same with Ariel even closer to the strike of midnight. And close as I was to the harbor and the event of the night, the fireworks, I couldn't see them either because of the massive building at the end of the street. It is not as bad as it might sound though, basically I just had to wait 20 minutes to get to the party and it is just another party after all, I didn't have any expectations at all for this night anyway.
They opened the blockade at about 12.15am and less than 5 minutes later I was up at the 16th floor where my friends had a perfect view of the harbor and I'm guessing they must have enjoyed the fireworks a lot more than I did. After that it was mainly drinking and games and we kept playing until about 3am when I had had enough and went home.
HAPPY NEWYEAR EVERYBODY!!!
Ps. this year I will not get stuck on a random street on the other side of the world, I am coming home for Christmas and New Year.
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