nwoT eikgnoH Hongkie Town

Since I have consumer-itis, I am as susceptible to the iPhone hype as anyone else. Since I love my iPod (well, perhaps "love" is too strong a word but you know what I mean), the idea of a phone that combines the functionality of the 8 gig nano strikes me as a good idea. And what I've read about text input on the virtual keyboard tells me it would work quite well for my tired old eyes. The crappy camera and lack of HSPDA seem like the major drawbacks.

With the release in the US yesterday, rumors are swirling about international release. It has been said that Vodaphone will have an exclusive in Europe and that they will release an updated 3G version, no date announced. An Asian release is supposedly six months away.

The current US model requires activation either at the place of purchase or online via iTunes. Since I have a credit card with a US billing address, I have an account on the iTunes store. The product manual states that the SIM card is removable.

So I'm wondering if anyone has actually tried removing the SIM card and putting in a different, non-AT&T card.

Since the Apple US online store says a 2-4 week wait for shipping, I could conceivably have my mother go to an AT&T shop, buy one for me and FedEx it to me. Okay, she's 86 years old. But the way I see it, she doesn't have all that much to do and if there is a line, people would be kind to a little old lady and let her jump the line.

That seems reasonable, doesn't it?

Today the Idiot of the Day is definitely me. Why? Many reasons, most of which I'll keep private. But here's one reason ....

Question I have been giving some thought to lately ... no answers ... recent news concerning China includes reports you have all seen about tainted dog food, poisoned toothpaste, defective tires, tainted seafood. There was even a report recently in Variety that in some cities, tv and magazine censors have been taking bribes. And a recent report on the number of manhole covers stolen in Shanghai and sold for scrap metal. Slave children in a brick factory. The list just goes on and on.

Combine the above with something in today's SCMP that the number of US dollar millionaires in China rose by 7.8 percent last year.

Deng said that to get rich is glorious. As far as I know, he didn't qualify it with something like, "first do no harm." Too bad.

I try to avoid stereotypes but these news reports are piling up daily. Every day there is a new scandal or outrage. I suspect that every day newspaper editors are reserving space in advance for suicide bomber of the day in Iraq and cutthroat get rich quick poisoner in China.

It sometimes seems that there are a large number of people in China who are intent on getting wealthy regardless of the consequences to those around them.

Why don't ethics and morality come into the equation? Why is it seen as okay by so many that getting rich by any means possible and regardless of the consequences to others is acceptable behavior?

Here is the beginning of my theory. And I admit that my theory is completely insane and probably completely wrong. I have arrived at this theory not by doing any research, just by sitting around and thinking about it in my spare time.

Basically I'm an atheist. And I'm against organized religion on the basis that throughout history it has been exclusionary and often more a force more for evil than for good.

On the other hand, most religions do incorporate the concept of ultimate reward or punishment. You have the ten commandments, the golden rule, all of these things that define, often in great detail, social codes.

China, being officially Communist, where religion has been banned for decades, there is none of this instruction to the youth. Of course too large a percentage of the population receives little or no formal education. And for those hundreds of thousands, millions, who do, is it possible that they can go through 15 years of schooling with no attention paid to morals, ethics, philosophy?

Is it possible that the absence of religion, there really are generations of "godless Communists" who are not acquainted with empathy or the, ahem, "milk of human kindness?"

Clearly not, because most Chinese are also very focused on their families, love for their children and respect to their elders.

Is it merely a case that it's the same everywhere around the world and with China having a population 5 times larger than most other places that there are simply 5 times more of these stories to report every day?

Probably so. After all, you have the warlords in Africa content to destroy entire populations to increase their own personal wealth. And similar examples all over the world.

The above has no point at all. I'm just procrastinating because I need to go out and get stuff done and I'm too lazy to put on my shoes.

Should this be a new regular feature?

(And yes, I realize I made some critical typos in my previous IotD, putting me in the running to be a future winner.)

I have never cared for Larry King. I think his "interviews" are crap. He asks puff questions and almost never asks follow-up questions. He gets a wide variety of celebrities on his show because they know he will not embarass them.

Although he apparently did come close with the Paris Hilton interview. This walking mound of air who gives a new definition to the term "dumb blonde" said that she read the Bible every day in prison. King asked her for her favorite passage from the Bible and she was unable to come up with anything.

Anyway, King just hosted a Beatles reunion of sorts. Paul, Ringo (whom he called "George"), Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. The reason was to pimp the first anniversary of the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show in Vegas. The full transcript can be found here. An excerpt:

KING: Do you guys, frankly, pinch yourselves?

(LAUGHTER)

KING: I mean, do you -- do you get up in the morning and say, jeez?

MCCARTNEY: I pinch him.

STARR: Yes, yes.

KING: No, I mean -- you know what I mean?

MCCARTNEY: In the morning.

STARR: And I pinch him.

MCCARTNEY: And he pinches me.

KING: It's getting risky.

STARR: But (INAUDIBLE)...

MCCARTNEY: Yes, well, we're risky kind of guys. STARR: Anyway, no...

MCCARTNEY: ... Even on national television. We just don't care.

KING: (LAUGHTER).

STARR: It's got...

MCCARTNEY: Come on, pinch.

(CROSSTALK)

STARR: ... Once a day, otherwise it gets...

MCCARTNEY: I mean that's my pinch for the day.

STARR: Tell him. He wants to know. Tell him.

MCCARTNEY: Well, Larry, you know what? It is true, of course, we do.

and another .....

KING: Let's get to something current. How are you doing, Ringo?

STARR: Really well.

KING: Life treating you well?

STARR: You know, life is great.

KING: Everything good, the wife good?

STARR: The wife is great.

KING: The wife is gorgeous, too.

STARR: She's gorgeous and she's great.

KING: And you live in California, right?

STARR: No, I live in Monte Carlo.

KING: Oh.

STARR: I have a home in California.

KING: I knew that.

STARR: And I have a home in England, of course, but, that's where we live.

KING: With the swells.

STARR: Yes.

KING: And Paul, how are you adjusting to what was tumultuous times?

Rain rain go the fuck away

Finally catching up on most recent albums by Jesse Malin and Decemberists - two things that I liked on first listen but then never "seriously" listened to until now. And I like 'em both, a lot. Blonde Redheads ain't doin' anythin' for me. Like Arctic Monkeys but 5 listens is enough, it goes into the archives now.

Latest BC mag is out, along with latest column. Again, rather pleased with how this one turned out.

It would be up to Hong Kong and Hong Kong alone to find a way to reposition itself in the 21st century. However, in a territory governed by people whose sole qualification for the job is unflagging loyalty to Beijing and a handful of real-estate billionaires operating solely from a principle of short-term self-interest, the solutions presented to us have fallen woefully short of even the most meagre expectations.

No such promise for the next one though. Don't even have a topic or first line yet. Maybe a thousand words on Barton Fink, the finest movie ever made about writers block? Gimme dat Barton Fink feeling! (Okay, two Coen Bros references in two days, think I must like them or somefink?)

Newly noted blog: Ten Things I Hate About Hong Kong. Not bad, except he seems to be anti-smoking, a mistake that I hope to see rectified in the future.

No, not me. Today's idiot is Mr. K. Singh in Mid Levels, who seems to believe that maids in Hong Kong are paid too much and should not have any days off. Here is his letter in full:

There have been calls for maids to be given a pay restoration.

Recently, helpers have received a 3 per cent pay rise whereas a civil service pensioner, like myself who worked for 40 years here, got just a 0.5 per cent rise. A helper here can buy land within two years working in Hong Kong and then build a brick and cement house in the next two years and then decorate and furnish it in the following two years. Can a single person in Hong Kong do that?

I live in a 400 sq ft flat, raised and educated my two children in it on a single civil servant's pay. I couldn't afford to buy a bigger flat. In Hong Kong a middle class couple finds it very hard to provide for children's education as it is not cheap. Both parents have to work and therefore need a helper to look after the children and the home.

The Hong Kong government makes sure that maids are provided with servant quarters but, on the other hand, does not make any provisions for them when building the majority of flats, which are no better than chicken coops. Maids get Sundays and public holidays with no thoughts to working parents, who also need rest and a social life of their own. Hong Kong children and their parents should enjoy public holidays, away from their rabbit hutches and in the open air.

Those people who have called for better pay for maids, should try living in a typical Hongkonger's shoes - make your children share their room with their helper and struggle to pay the exorbitant mortgage on the doll's house that you live in.

So this guy is complaining that he's so poor he can barely afford a maid. Although as others have noted, the civil service in Hong Kong is among the most highly compensated in the world. The helpers got a 3% pay rise on a salary that's roughly US$400 per month. That means they got a raise of US$12 per year. I wonder how much Mr. Singh's pension is but I'm sure his 0.5% increase represents a larger dollar gain.

I love his assertion that a helper working here for two years can buy land. Let's say the average helper earns HK$3,500 per month. Let's say they're thrifty and spend only $500 per month, banking the rest. And let's say that we're talking about one of the very few who does not send all of that money back to the Philippines to support their family. $3,000 per month for two years is $72,000. WHERE THE FUCK CAN YOU BUY A PIECE OF LAND IN HONG KONG FOR $72,000???? What does that get you? One square foot alongside a road outside of Yuen Long? And then build an entire house for another $72,000? Well, I guess if your house is just one square foot, $72k might be enough.

On a bigger nature, this flake doesn't seek to question why things are so expensive in Hong Kong. He doesn't understand that the real issue is why a two income family can only afford a 400 square foot (government subsidized) flat in our fair city. Rather than write a letter that would attack the real issues, his argument mostly falls under the heading of "I got a shit deal in life so everyone else should be in the shit as well."

Now while I generally steer clear of criticizing the SCMP these days, because I don't want to bite the hand that feeds me, I continually wonder why they devote precious space in their letters page to letters of this nature.

CIA Releases Two Significant Collections of Historical Documents
Two significant collections of previously classified historical documents are now available in the CIA's FOIA Electronic Reading Room.

The first collection, widely known as the "Family Jewels," consists of almost 700 pages of responses from CIA employees to a 1973 directive from Director of Central Intelligence James Schlesinger asking them to report activities they thought might be inconsistent with the Agency's charter.

The second collection, the CAESAR-POLO-ESAU papers, consists of 147 documents and 11,000 pages of in-depth analysis and research from 1953 to 1973. The CAESAR and POLO papers studied Soviet and Chinese leadership hierarchies, respectively, and the ESAU papers were developed by analysts to inform CIA assessments on Sino-Soviet relations.

Link for above

June 26, 2007, 1 p.m. - The full "family jewels" report, released today by the Central Intelligence Agency and detailing 25 years of Agency misdeeds, is now available on the Archive's Web site. The 702-page collection was delivered by CIA officers to the Archive at approximately 11:30 this morning -- 15 years after the Archive filed a Freedom of Information request for the documents.

The report is available for download in its entirety and is also split into five smaller files for easier download.

Top Ten Most Interesting "Family Jewels"

Released by the CIA to the National Security Archive, June 26, 2007

1) Journalist surveillance - operation CELOTEX I-II (pp. 26-30)

2) Covert mail opening, codenamed SRPOINTER / HTLINGUAL at JFK airport (pp. 28, 644-45)

3) Watergate burglar and former CIA operative E. Howard Hunt requests a lock picker (p. 107)

4) CIA Science and Technology Directorate Chief Carl Duckett "thinks the Director would be ill-advised to say he is acquainted with this program" (Sidney Gottlieb's drug experiments) (p. 213)

5) MHCHAOS documents (investigating foreign support for domestic U.S. dissent) reflecting Agency employee resentment against participation (p. 326)

6) Plan to poison Congo leader Patrice Lumumba (p. 464)

7) Report of detention of Soviet defector Yuriy Nosenko (p. 522)

8) Document describing John Lennon funding anti-war activists (p. 552)

9) MHCHAOS documents (investigating foreign support for domestic U.S. dissent) (pp. 591-93)

10) CIA counter-intelligence official James J. Angleton and issue of training foreign police in bomb-making, sabotage, etc. (pp. 599-603)

Link for above

Over at Wired, Noah Schachtman is blogging his way through the documents.

I'm in such a total crap mood tonight and I know there's no real reason for it, it's just me being me, but when I get into these downward spirals it's hard to pull myself out of them quickly.

So in search of distractions from my life, I shop. But when shopping fails, what's left? (Blogging, schmuck.)

Went over to the Wanchai Computer Centre and took a look at the HTC Touch. I had sort of convinced myself that I didn't really need 3G - the only reason I use it is because it roams in Japan and Korea, but how much time do I really spend in either place? And my Blackberry is 3G and has voice service, though I never use it. (I don't even know the number on the thing, could figure it out easily enough, but the point is I've never given the number to anyone and I still get daily marketing spam calls on it.)

The reason that the Touch won't work for me is that the onscreen virtual QWERTY keyboard is freaking tiny. I do shitloads of SMS every day and can't imagine doing them on that tiny thing.

Fortunately, the HTC Kaiser - the upgrade to the HTC Hermes (aka Dopod 838pro) is said to be just around the corner.

• Windows Mobile 6
• 3G
• Slide out QWERTY keyboard with tilted screen
• 400 MHz processor (big upgrade from 838pro)
• 3 megapixel camera (probably crap)
• GPS (but weak)
• WiFi, Bluetooth, HSPDA

This will probably be my next phone. But I fucking want it now.

And so back home. No electronic distraction. Sitting here doing nothing pondering my future. In some ways, my future's so bright I gotta wear shades. In other ways, not so much.

Got the DVD for Hot Fuzz today. 22 deleted scenes. 4 commentaries. 13 "video blogs." 27,000 other bonus features, don't feel like listing them all. That'll certainly distract me.

And ... got the HD DVD for Big Lebowski. Not really expecting a major difference from the standard def version but fuck it, it's the Big Lebowski. Memories ....

Dude: Walter, what is the point? Look, we all know who is at fault here, what the fuck are you talking about?

Walter: Huh? No, what the fuck are you... I'm not... We're talking about unchecked aggression here, dude.

Donny: What the fuck is he talking about?

Dude: My rug.

Walter: Forget it, Donny, you're out of your element!

Dude: Walter, the chinaman who peed on my rug, I can't go give him a bill, so what the fuck are you talking about?

Walter: What the fuck are you talking about? The chinaman is not the issue here, Dude. I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT... Also, Dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.

Dude: Walter, this isn't a guy who built the fucking railroads here. This is a guy...

Walter: What the fuck are you talking about?

Dude: Walter, he peed on my rug!

Donny: He peed on the Dude's rug.

Walter: Donny you're out of your element! Dude, the Chinaman is not the issue here!

Off to the bedroom to watch some DVDs. The dude abides.

No, this is not the reason. Won't go into that. In lieu of that, I'll mention this.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't get promoted, in spite of all of my considerable accomplishments.

Last week I found myself in a meeting that included the #2 and #3 people in my company. The topic turned to downloading, electronic sell through and video on demand. Naturally the topic of DRM came up.

At that point, I spoke up. I said that DRM is anti-consumer, it doesn't stop pirates, only hurts honest people, reminded them of Sony's 2 recent DRM debacles and the PR messes that ensued, how it hurts peoples' perception of our company, how we should take the lead in our industry by issuing our products without DRM. They looked at me like I told them that I just landed from Mars to conquer their planet.

Sometimes I don't wonder why I don't get promoted.

But at least I can sleep at night.

Sort of.

This first batch is from Manila, two weeks ago.

I love that there's a disco there called The Bronx. It's on P. Burgos in Makati. As you might expect, when I went there and girls asked me where I was from and I told them I'm really from The Bronx, I got a lot of blank stares.



A blind band, "rendering" some nice tunes, at Park Square behind the Glorietta Mall.



The Glorietta Mall in Makati, as seen by day and by night.



Sign at the airport. I thought this was kind of uniquely Filipino until I saw a similar sign at Sydney's airport this weekend.


A few quick snaps from Sydney. The first is the view from my hotel room.


And here's a view of Sydney from our office at Neutral Bay:

And zoomed in a bit ....

Background - since I've often expressed my admiration for Anthony Bourdain and since I sometimes write about movies and TV and DVDs, someone thought it would be a good idea to send me the DVD set of the Kitchen Confidential sitcom for review. And being an occasionally responsible adult, I'm going to follow through and review it for you now.

The thing about situation comedies is that they often require time to come together, especially in ensemble comedies. The actors and writers need some time to get to the essence of the characters and for the situations to develop. Take for example Seinfeld and Cheers, both of which were promising in their first seasons but weren't really "there" - in terms of the eventual heights they would hit and in terms of attracting an audience. In those situations, the networks saw enough promise there and stuck with the shows and eventually they became massive in the ratings as well as two of the best series ever aired.

Kitchen Confidential was not so lucky. While a full 13 episodes were filmed, Fox canceled the series after airing just 4 episodes, and a 5th was streamed over the internet. The rest of the series went unseen. Now, all 13 episodes are available on DVD.

Kitchen Confidential is "based" on Anthony Bourdain's book of the same name. By that, it means that it takes place in the kitchen of a high end restaurant, featuring a head chef named "Jack Bourdain" who had previously burned out his career in a haze of booze and drugs. Given one more shot, he's assembled a motley crew of misfits to staff the kitchen of the "Nolita" restaurant.

When the series first premiered, I downloaded the first episode, watched it, thought it was horrible, and made no attempt to follow the show. With the TV in hand, I've watched all 13 episodes. And guess what? The four shows that aired are all pretty awful, actually kind of a second rate Scrubs. The fifth show, the one that streamed on the net, was an improvement. I didn't have a "laugh out loud" moment until episode 6 or 7. The unaired episodes show consistent improvement and promise, to the point where I'm convinced that if they had come back for a second season, this could have really developed into something.

The first few episodes don't spend enough time in the kitchen or with the staff. There seems to be almost nothing there that matches up to Bourdain's book. But as this goes along, there's more time in the kitchen, the characters are better developed and both the plot lines and the look of the show start to get infused with the tales and attitude behind the book.

As a key example, the third episode doesn't focus on the cast at all. It focuses on a guest star - John Larroquette - who is 180 degrees away from the hipness that the show aspired too. It's almost as if the producers were saying that they didn't have faith in the cast of the show and that they were trying to attract attention by bringing in a big TV name. It completely backfires. Fortunately, this was a mistake that was never repeated. Other episodes keep the focus squarely on the regular cast.

(As another example, Bourdain's book is filled with praise for the people from Central and South America who do all the real work in the kitchens of NYC's restaurants. In the first few episodes, with the exception of John Cho, the kitchen is exclusively Caucasian and male. As the series goes on, the kitchen staff starts to look more "real" and Frank Alvarez gets several good moments.)

Jack Bourdain is played by the very likable Bradley Cooper, whose past credits include Alias, Law & Order and Jack & Bobby. Other regulars include Owain Yeoman (Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Nine), Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), John Francis Daley (Freaks and Geeks), Jaime King (soon to be in Sin City 2) and Bonnie Somerville (NYPD Blue). Also in most episodes, though listed as a guest star, is John Cho (Harold and Kumar).

Appearing in 5 episodes, as the owner of Nolita, is the phenomenal Frank Langella. His appearances chart the growth of the show because in the first episode he's little more than a clown with an over-the-top Italian accent. By episode 12, he's a figure of respect with just a hint of an accent.

The series was created by David Hemingson, who worked on an assortment of shows including American Dad and Just Shoot Me. The long list of producers includes Darren Star, one of the creative forces behind Sex and the City.

Bonus features include a 3 minute "tour" of the kitchen set with Cooper, a 13 minute short called "A Recipe for Comedy" that's kind of light weight (though interesting because the interviews were clearly done after the series was canceled), a one minute "trailer" for the series and commentaries on the first and last episodes. Of course the true meaty extras are the nine unaired episodes.

So I can't give this an unqualified recommendation but if you do like Bourdain or consider yourself something of a foodie, it's worth checking out. Just remember to stick with it beyond the first few episodes. It does get better, it does show promise and it's a shame Fox didn't give them more of a shot.

(Hey, an entire review with no bad food or cooking puns! "The ingredients were all there." "This simmers but never boils." "If you can't stand the heat, get out of Kitchen Confidential." See how I spared you?)

After the suite upgrade at the Shang in Sydney, I was upgraded to first class on CX for the return flight to HK, only the second time this has happened to me. Beluga caviar. Quaff-able champagne. No lobster on the menu but respectable lamb chops. Shanghai Tang pj's. Down blanket. Two attendants for a cabin of just 8 passengers. And then, back home, a limo driver happy to let me roll down the window and smoke in the car on the way home.

So it's all good.

Until I roll into the office on Monday and see what's waiting for me there ...

Thanks to Mr. Bijou, who gives coverage to the book Land and the Ruling Class by Alice Poon, as well as linking to reviews by Learning Cantonese and Hemlock. After reading those three pieces, I'm writing about it here, not in any attempt to steal another blogger's thunder, but to ensure this information gets exposed to the widest possible audience.

Hemlock reviews both the Poon book and Uneasy Partners – The Conflict Between Public Interest and Private Profit in Hong Kong by Leo Goodstadt on a special page on his website. These reviews do not contain any of the humor generally found in his blog postings; he's dead serious here.

In his discussion of the Goodstadt book, he writes:

Hong Kong in 1997 had an outdated colonial political structure in which officials used appointments and consultations as a substitute for representative government. This was bad enough, but a shift in favour of business in the local balance of power proved seriously damaging economically and socially. Tung Chee-hwa did favours for fellow tycoons, such as propping up house prices after the property crash so they could unload their inventories, while cutting spending on health and welfare. He sidelined the civil service, further reducing the quality of post-1997 decision-making. Feeble attempts to co-opt the middle class (at Beijing’s urging) failed to address the unfair dynamics of the cartel-dominated economy and the demand for democracy. Then there was SARS, Article 23, the July 1 march and the dashing of hopes for political reform. Hong Kong’s exceptional people, Goodstadt says at the end, deserve much better.

He introduces his review of the Poon book with something that we already know, though it's nicely wrapped up in a single paragraph:

It is possible to trace many of Hong Kong’s problems to its peculiar system of land ownership and property development. In a nutshell, the government owns all the land and leases it sparingly to a cartel of property developers. By keeping supply tight, it auctions the leases for high prices, which serve as a hidden tax, keeping visible taxes low and the civil service addicted to this source of revenue and power. The developers make huge profits yet provide Hong Kong people with probably the worst quality and most over-priced homes in the developed world. The system leaves us with a densely crowded and overdeveloped urban environment, while large swathes of empty land sit idle. The government ends up subsidizing housing for half the population.

Near the conclusion of his essay, Hemlock writes:

Taken together, the two volumes should leave no-one in any doubt about who stands to lose from political reform. The ‘civil service-property cartel nexus’ (journalist Philip Bowring’s phrase) should pray that no-one translates them into Chinese and sends them to Beijing lest the leadership gets an idea about why people down here are so dissatisfied. Maybe Beijing is getting the message. We never did find out what Wen Jiabao meant when he warned Donald Tsang at end-2005 about Hong Kong’s ‘deeply rooted contradictions’.

I feel that conclusion may be quite realistic. The mega-billionaires are the loudest to proclaim their love for the tyrannical system of government in China. Since they don't do anything out of any motive other than pure self-interest, it would seem that these proclamations of love and fealty are done in the interest of keeping China at bay. Yet Beijing has frequently shown a willingness to attack elements of greed and corruption - if only for the purpose of keeping the mass population relatively happy and docile. Beijing could reach the decision that scores of others have already reached, that the existence of the mega cartels and super rich is harmful to Hong Kong. And while Donald Tsang will never do anything to upset the status quo, Beijing will not operate under that constraint.

But I don't believe that change is around the corner. It will be years of ever increasing misery before they will be moved to act.

Since Tsang is essentially an idiot who seems unaware of the consequences of his actions, he may be bringing about his own downfall. Here's how. Let's say that his call for HK to increase its population to 10 million is taken seriously. Where would those extra three million people come from? From the mainland, of course.

These three million would not be peasants or slaves, they would be among the better educated, hoping to find opportunities in HK that are not available in Shanghai or Shenzhen or other mainland cities. China will be motivated to move them here for the same reason they have moved so many to Tibet - to make Hong Kong more Chinese, more "loyal," more consistent.

In the short term, this will represent an enormous windfall for the billionaires. The government will release more land in order for them to build housing for these people. And there will be three million more customers for Wellcome, Watsons, PCCW, etc.

The question then becomes - how will those people react to HK once they find out the truth about who runs this place and the way in which it is run? Is it possible that they will raise their voices in a tremendous outcry to the Beijing government, which will respond by forcing break-ups of these cartels?

Or is it just that it's 2 AM, I can't sleep and I'm hallucinating wildly? I don't think so.

And now, before I go, just to add a bit more fuel to the fire, check out this very well written piece from Living in Hong Kong on the air pollution here. When you come across a paragraph like this:

In an interview with CNN's Anjali Rao on "Talk Asia" in March, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang said, "The sky here now is a lot brighter than it was in 1997. Now, that's a fact. The air now in terms of quality is much better than it was in 1997. It is not perfect."

then you surely must wonder, "Why would Tsang make such bold lies?" The answer is simple. Cleaning up the pollution, which includes putting a cap on all of the huge architectural monstrosities going up around our once beautiful harbor, as well as caps on emissions from factories and power plants, will only hurt Tsang's true masters, the billionaire cartels.

So Tsang lies and the cartels finance huge disinformation campaigns.

Sometimes I really have to wonder why I remain in Hong Kong.

Especially on nights like this, when I had dinner with a friend sitting outdoors at Sydney's Darling Harbour, looking up at the sky from the central city and able to see the moon and stars, smelling the air and smelling nothing but the food on my table and the tables around me, watching happy people, both tourist and local, strolling around the quay and enjoying their Friday evening. This is a series of pleasures that we will never be allowed to have in Hong Kong as long as the Li Ka Shings and Hong Kong Lands and Sun Hung Kais and Swires remain in power and the government remains in their pockets.

The American Film Institute has released their updated list of the top 100 American films of all time. The top ten are:

1 CITIZEN KANE
2 THE GODFATHER
3 CASABLANCA
4 RAGING BULL
5 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
6 GONE WITH THE WIND
7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
8 SCHINDLER'S LIST
9 VERTIGO
10 THE WIZARD OF OZ

For whatever it's worth, I have seen all 100. I didn't count but I suspect I have at least 90 of the 100 on (legal) DVD.

There are several on this list that I think do not belong there (especially Forrest Gump, possibly Saving Private Ryan and Spartacus) but that's to be expected. A bit too sleepy now to think of which movies are not there that I think belong there. Most of my personal faves that come to mind - Godfather, Raging Bull, 2001, Wild Bunch - are there. Wait, nothing from the Coen Brothers, no Big Lebowski. I'd trade a hundred Forrest Gumps for one Big Lebowski any day.

This is seeming like a long trip.

The following lyrics, Peter Green, Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown), are quoted and I won't tell you why and yet they are incredibly pertinent to some aspect of my life today and several times over. Most people know Green from Black Magic Woman (and then they think Santana and not Fleetwood Mac, dickwads), and not only did he have this voice and this guitar, he wrote lines like this:

Now, when the day goes to sleep and the full moon looks
The night is so black that the darkness cooks
Don't you come creeping around - making me do things I don't want to

Can't believe that you need my love so bad
Come sneaking around trying to drive me mad
Busting in on my dreams - making me see things I don't wanna see

Cause you're the green manalishi with the two prong crown
All my trying is up - all your bringing is down
Just taking my love then slipping away
Leaving me here just trying to keep from following you

Anyway, it's interesting to flip through local magazines and see how Hong Kong is promoted abroad. Hello, which is the Australian version of People, carries an ad from the Hong Kong Tourism Board. "Hong Kong is the world's hottest shopping destination" blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. "Alternatively try the diverse cuisine or just immerse yourself in the timeless living culture and heritage that is Hong Kong." Exsqueeze me?

So I went to the web site, clicked on "Heritage" and then selected "Cultural Kaleidoscope." The options then are Ride in a Chinese Sailing Junk, Meet the People, Museum Visits and Tours. Meet the People includes "Jewelry Appreciation Class" and "Duk Ling Ride," which seems to bring us back to Ride in a Chinese Sailing Junk.

Okay, let's try Declared Monuments. Duddell Street Steps and Gas Lamps. The KCR Clock Tower - better hurry on that one. Well, dig around yourself, there's some valid stuff there, and some stuff puffed and PR'ed up, but that's the same anywhere I suppose.

Oh, wait, Business Travellers Guide to Relaxing in Hong Kong. Oooh, Entertainment/Bars and Clubs. A-ha. The window title now reads "Discovery Hong Kong - Meeting Your Needs." (italics mine.) Let's scroll down a bit, shall we?

Perhaps the most famous nightlife district in Hong Kong, Wan Chai continues to attract people looking for a place to unwind. Its variety of pubs, nightclubs and hostess bars can match any taste and many of the bars and clubs offer live music and dancing. Head to Lockhart, Luard and Jaffe roads. You'll find what you're looking for.

Again, italics mine. Can't argue with any of that.

And so, I'll just close with some more Peter Green lyrics.

I can't help about the shape I'm in
I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to

Oh well

Now, when I talked to God I knew he'd understand
He said, stick by my side and I'll be your guiding hand
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to

Oh well

Though tonight, we broke at 4:30 and partied at The Oaks for a couple of hours before heading off to dinner, which was at Quay Restaurant, which apparently was twiced named best restaurant in Sydney by the Herald and was awarded "three chef hats" by the Herald. They have a 4 course menu at A$135 per person and here's what I ate:

• Toro of Blue Fin tuna, Jamon Iberico de Bellota, juniper and horseradish cream, beetroot stems, hazelnuts, nasturtiums
• Rare breed suckling pig belly, gentle braise of green lipped abalone, artisan tofu, Japanese mushrooms, chive flowers
• Poached fillet of Rangers Valley beef, baby spinach, fresh Tasmanian wasabi butter
• Five texture chocolate cake

While I didn't see the wine list, the Australian red selected by someone at our table had a very classic, smooth taste. Very easy to recommend this place if you're passing through Sydney and I think the price is quite reasonable for the food, setting and service.

Then a quick stroll back up the hill to the hotel after dinner, and passed out for four hours from the drink and the very rich food. It's now 3 AM and I'm wide awake ...

There are several writers in my family. Perhaps none are well known but they are quite talented indeed.

Tomorrow, the first book by my cousin Glenn Kurtz will be published in the U.S. It's called Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music, and is being released in hardcover by Knopf, so this ain't no dimestore pulp fiction. Here's what the great Rosanne Cash had to say about the book:

“Practicing is elegant, methodical and deeply engaging. It is science and poetry in one book. One sentence in the book, ‘Repertoire is destiny’, gave me a tremendous amount of inspiration–and unease. I have to thank Glenn Kurtz for revealing the inner life of a musician in a such a unique and compelling way.”

And here's the blurb from Publisher's Weekly:

Waylaid from an early career as a classical guitarist, a teacher of the arts recounts his reimmersion in his music by undertaking an intensive regime of practicing. A serious artist is constantly plagued by the fear that he either has the gift or he doesn't, notes Kurtz, and that no amount of busy work can redeem him. Growing up in Great Neck, N.Y., in the 1970s, Kurtz tapped into the Guitar Workshop and mastered folk songs by the time he was 10; inspired by seeing Andrés Segovia perform, Kurtz envisioned a life devoted to music. He studied at Boston's New England Conservatory, where the key to success was constant practicing, and where he had to overcome a sense of the guitar's inferiority to other instruments. Trekking through Europe with other players, he was confronted with the economic exigencies of a musical career and eventually ceased practicing, to his great sorrow. In his mid-30s he took up the guitar again and gleans the painful lesson that although musical artistry may seem divine, mastery of the instrument is humbling and mundane. Kurtz's work contains a rich history of the classical guitar, including the work of Bach, Fernando Sor and Scott Joplin.

It's currently listed at #5,153 in sales at Amazon, which I think is extremely respectable for a first non fiction book by an unknown author.

I doubt HK bookshops will stock this but here's the link to it on Amazon.

UPDATE: It has just been reviewed in the L.A. Times and they call it "a lovely, unique book":

Yet, in its way, "Practicing" is a fantastic example of what memoir as a literary form can best deliver: a person delving honestly, profoundly and fearlessly into one aspect of life, not necessarily coming up with answers so much as struggling in the face of life's big questions. The core of memoir is a supposition about the unity of human experience. It is the arc of the writer moving into deeper levels of self-understanding and awareness. Magically, although it is a personal journey, it becomes universal, elevating all in the process.

==================================

Another cousin was a popular newspaper columnist in Philadelphia and San Francisco for many years. He now works in PR.

I just found out a third cousin had a book published just two years ago - and she's around 90 years old! I suppose it's self-published, but it is on Amazon:


==========================================

And me? I started writing when I was in college (university if you're of the British persuasion). I took various creative writing classes, contributed to school magazines frequently, and through most of the 70s and 80s I wrote for a variety of small publications. The most famous was Trouser Press magazine.

In 1986, I had a contract to write a book on the films and career of Roger Corman. I'd written an outline and a first chapter and a publisher was actually interested enough to sign me and give me an advance. I'd also contacted Corman and received a letter approving the effort and assuring me of his cooperation. Unfortunately this came at a time when I was also opening the CD shop in NY's Greenwich Village and it soon became patently obvious that I couldn't do both, and chose the one that would pay the rent.

Blogging has been a nice way to return to writing again, and it's led to my current side gigs with BC and SCMP. I'm particularly proud of the work for BC, because they let me write about almost anything and they don't use too heavy a hand when it comes to editing my copy. The current issue has my "weird shit I've eaten" essay. And I'm actually pretty proud of the next one, which will be in the 10th anniversary of the handover issue.

And yeah, one of these days, I just might try my hand at writing a book again ... though this time I know it will be something far more personal.

The weekend turned out a bit better than usual. Met someone on Saturday and there might be some possibilities there. But of course flew out the next day and will have to wait a week to see what's next, email and SMS will have to suffice.

On the flight, CX actually had one movie that I wanted to see, Zodiac. But not having slept much the night before, I couldn't keep my eyes open for long. And by the time I woke up, there was less than 30 minutes till landing, not enough time to watch it to the end, very annoying.

I really hate it when you ask someone if they've seen a particular movie and their answer is, "yes, i watched it on a plane and hated it." How can you judge any film when you're seeing it on a three inch screen and being interrupted every five minutes by a meal service or your seat-mate needing to go to the toilet?

So how can I judge Zodiac, watching it on an airplane and not even seeing it to its conclusion? I can say this ... Fincher does an amazingly good job - with a huge cast and a wide variety of locations, you always know exactly where you are in the story and who's in front of you and the look and feel for the era is exactly right.

On the other hand, this combination of police/newspaper procedural seems rather ordinary and a little bit less than what I'd expect from Fincher. Having already redefinied the serial killer picture with Seven, Fincher goes in a completely different direction here. I'll have to see it to the end to to be able to get the full impact (the NY Times review said it was "magnificently obsessive" and a "testament to ... (his) gifts") and figure out what it was that attracted him to it. All of the cast are quite good - Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, but I particulary liked Brian Cox's depiction of Melvin Belli (but then again, I seem to always enjoy his work).

Ah well. In the hotel now, upgraded to a suite overlooking the Sydney Opera House, always seems like such a waste when one is alone. I have some pictures of the girl I met on Saturday but, like Johnny Thunders once sang, you can't put your arms around a memory.

Couple more things I want to link to today.

First is this NY Times review of the movie DOA: Dead or Alive, based on a videogame and directed by Hong Kong director Cory Yuen. As it stars Jaime Pressly, Devon Aoki and Holly Valance, I figured it was well worth the 8 RMB I paid for a pirate copy. I attempted to watch it and, despite having a copious amount of babes in bikinis, found it unwatchable after about 5 minutes.

Free of blood, bruises and visible trauma, “DOA” revels in its fakery. And though the film presents more exuberant female flesh than hiring day at Hooters, it’s strictly for titillation. (A typical scene is a volleyball game so innocently buoyant that it might have been choreographed by Benny Hill.) Mr. Yuen has yet to learn that all that jiggles is not cinematic gold.

And now for something completely different. An article by Dave Marsh on FBI documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act about the harassment that James Brown received from the FBI in the 1980s. Some excerpts:

The charge that sent James Brown to prison was a so-called "blue light violation." It's all but unprecedented to be given six years in prison for such a crime (refusing to pull over for the cops), let alone receive that punishment from two states. (A young white man sentenced for the same violation the same day received a suspended sentence.)

The FBI report also reveals that Brown did not lead cops on a high speed chase through two states. The police admitted that they followed Brown but they never "chased" him - they never even turned on their lights or sirens. Nevertheless, there were 17 bullet holes in the cab of Brown's truck when it was over. Brown did have a shotgun, of course. It was unloaded and "inoperative."

Brown's version of the incident that sent him to prison conforms in its essentials to his wife's. Brown adds that, while handcuffed, he was punched in the jaw by a cop.

You may think that this is just James and Adrienne Brown's attempt to rationalize his misbehavior. That's what you're supposed to think. You're also supposed to think that James and Adrienne Brown had a terrible relationship, that he abused her and may have fired his gun at her. If that's true, then why would Adrienne step up to try to get James out of prison? Why do James, interviewed in prison, and Adrienne Brown, interviewed in an FBI office, tell essentially the same story? Why is there no record in the FBI report of a contrary version of the story from the police? Because the Feebs held it back to protect the guilty officers? Or because they didn't bother to talk with the Georgia and South Carolina police on the record?

First thing to note is that I have a friend, Filipina, who was formerly working in Wanchai (and I'm sure you know what I mean by working). She's just completed nursing school, passed all of her final exams, and now is working a sort of internship in hospitals leading up to her final certification in the fall. It does sometimes happen, but not often enough. I did remind her that when she is giving some old guy a sponge bath that she shouldn't forget what she's doing and end up giving him a hand job. Best I could come up with (no pun intended).

And now for something completely different. I don't think enough people know about this web site. Walk To Tibet. My good friend Graham Earnshaw is walking from Shanghai to Tibet. And of course he's photoblogging the journey. Some excerpts from his introduction:

I am walking from Shanghai to Tibet. It a great line, a conversation stopper, and it is true. Not contiguously, because I have other things to do. But the rule is that I always start from the last place I stopped, and literally walk every step of the way. On one level it is simply a series of strolls, or rather hikes – 15 to 20 km is not a short distance to walk in a day, at least for me. But the concept of a walk right across China is an amazing thing. And my thanks go to Mr Dingle for giving me the idea.

I started the Walk in mid-2004, and more than two years later, I have covered more than 1,000 km, and have traveled through one municipality and four provinces. I have talked to thousands of people, taken tens of thousands of photographs, seen places that are hidden in their ordinariness or remoteness from most Chinese people, let alone people from other parts of the world. I have experienced the spontaneous hospitality and openness of ordinary Chinese people, the rapid changes that are taking place in China at all levels, talked to kids and old people, farmers and traders, madmen and nuns, about everything under the Chinese sun. I have planted rice, winnowed grain, eaten beancurd on tiny street stalls, and paid my respects in field shrines to Buddha and other assorted deities. Nothing wrong with hedging your bets.

I have a problem with my right leg. I limp, and have limped since I was operated on at the age of 11 to cut out tuberculoid diseased bone in my right hip joint. The walk is my message to God, a little way of saying to Heaven: fuck you.

People ask if it is lonely on the walk, and the answer is: you gotta be kidding. There are people everywhere. I say "Ni hao" to someone once every 5 minutes at least and have dozens of conversations every day I am out there, even when the weather is bad.

One of the wonderful things about the Walk is its interactive nature. I hand my name card to everyone I meet and suggest they contact me. I get sms messages and telephone calls from farmers and tea traders in the middle of our nowhere – their world - asking where I am and how I am doing.

I am looking forward to seeing again some of the young kids I have met. I give them all my name card and I say: "When you grow up and go to Shanghai, give me a call." With some, I hand them my namecard and say: "This a key to the future." It will be a pleasure to see them all again.

(Update/Addendum) And once again, this reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld. Graham is someone who has accomplished more with his life than I can hope to do in 5 lifetimes. In one Seinfeld episode, George is dating a girl who has mono. They cannot even kiss for four to six weeks. Freed from always having to think about sex and able to use the rest of his brain for the first time in his life, George becomes a super genius capable of effortlessly mastering foreign languages and explaining the intricacies of quantum physics.

With all of the hubbub surrounding the upcoming tenth anniversary celebration of the Handover Return to the Motherland, I've been trying to figure out what reasons there might be for said celebration. Okay, there's a date on the calendar. I suppose one could say that we have survived an almost nonstop onslaught of catastrophes - whether or not others might have handled them better is a good topic for discussion - and the rich have certainly gotten richer. Overall I have not seen any improvement in the Quality of Life for the average person in the past ten years, but maybe that's just me.

Anyway, the whole thing sort of reminded me of this bit from Monty Python's Life of Brian. Jewish revolutionaries are plotting a strike against the Romans and it leads to this discussion. Change just a very few words here and there and the conversation could be taking place almost anywhere in HK today ....

Reg
They bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we
had. And not just from us! From our fathers, and from our father's fathers.

Loretta
And from our father's father's fathers.

Reg
Yeah.

Loretta
And from our father's father's father's fathers.

Reg
Yeah, all right Stan, don't delay with the point. And what have
they ever given us in return?

Revolutionary I
The aqueduct?

Reg
What?

Revolutionary I
The aqueduct.

Reg
Oh. Yeah, yeah, they did give us that, ah, that's true, yeah.

Revolutionary II
And the sanitation.

Loretta
Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be
like.

Reg
Yeah, all right, I'll grant you the aqueduct and sanitation, the
two things the Romans have done.

Matthias
And the roads.

Reg
Oh, yeah, obviously the roads. I mean the roads go without
saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation, the 
aqueduct, and the roads...

Revolutionary III
Irrigation.

Revolutionary I
Medicine.

Revolutionary IV
Education.

Reg
Yeah, yeah, all right, fair enough.

Revolutionary V
And the wine.

All revolutionaries except Reg
Oh, yeah! Right!

Rogers
Yeah! Yeah, that's something we'd really miss Reg, if the Romans
left. Huh.

Revolutionary VI
Public baths.

Loretta
And it's safe to walk in the streets at night now, Reg.

Rogers
Yeah, they certainly know how to keep order. Let's face it;
they're the only ones who could in a place like this.

All revolutionaries except Reg
Hahaha...all right...

Reg
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine,
education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water
system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Revolutionary I
Brought peace?

Reg
Oh, peace! Shut up!

Sicko is the latest film from Michael Moore. As it is a documentary about American health insurance companies and the 50 million Americans who do not have health insurance (and the millions more who do have it but have to struggle for reimbursement), there is the probability that people in Hong Kong will think this film has no relevance to them.

Moore, incidentally, is currently being investigated by the U.S. government for filming part of Sicko in Cuba. The U.S. government is taking the stand that Americans are not allowed to go to Cuba for commercial purposes. Moore has countered that Americans are allowed to go for journalistic purposes, that filming a documentary falls under that law and that this investigation is politically motivated. The film, which has already screened at the Cannes Film Festival, opens shortly in the U.S.

Now, in advance of its opening, a perfect quality DVD screener rip of the film has appeared on the internet. No, don't ask me where to find it. I am almost willing to believe that this is on purpose, that Moore is so paranoid that the government will attempt to stop the screening that he wants to ensure that it is as widely seen as possible. Almost willing.

Anyway, I do hope that Hong Kong people will watch this and then start to ask questions about the health care system and insurance companies here.

I had one experience in a public Hong Kong hospital 12 years ago that was so horrible that I vowed that, given a choice, I would never set foot in a public hospital here again.

As far as health insurance, I have complained to the HR weasels in my company about the insurance that we HK employees receive, which is far below that given to US employees. I have asked, time and again, why we are discriminated against, and I am told that what we get is commensurate with what other local companies provide.

For starters, we are not covered for annual physical check-ups. It is beyond my comprehension that we would not be covered for basic preventative health care. Better to get ill and then seek compensation, which the insurance company would attempt to deny at that point any way?

Like most insurance plans around the world, you are 100% covered if you visit a participating doctor and get reimbursed on a schedule if you visit a non-participating doctor. I tried going to a participating doctor once - there's one near my office. Her hair was dyed 8 different colors and for a slight fever and runny nose she gave me EIGHT different types of pills. She spent all of five minutes with me. I prefer to choose my own doctors now.

Except that private doctors are horribly expensive. I had to make a few visits to a neurologist recently. Each 15 minute visit to his office costs $1,500. At least he is competent. I can recall visits to a dermatologist who charged $1,000 per visit - his office was littered with high end stereo magazines. Every time I would say, "doctor, I have this thing," he would ask me to wait and then he'd dig out his medical journals from under the magazines and look up my symptoms. I might as well just buy the books and do it myself.

And the whole bit about needing referrals. One cannot visit a specialist without first visiting a general practitioner and getting a referral letter. If I have a skin rash, I know I need to go to a dermatologist. Why should I spend $500 to go to a GP (and get perhaps $50 of that reimbursed) to get a referral letter? Aside from being out money, it slows down the entire process as I first have to get the appointment with the GP, take time off from work to go there, wait around, get the referral letter, and then have to make an appointment, take time off work, etc.

Dental insurance - we are covered for one set of x-rays, one cleaning, a few cavity fillings per year. We are not covered for root canals but we are covered for extractions. Given the choice between saving a tooth or having it yanked, we're supposed to choose removal.

What bothers me is that (a) the cost of more comprehensive coverage is prohibitively expensive for my firm and for most residents and (b) the company does not have a global standard for coverage and people in the U.S. are provided with far better benefits than those abroad.

Yes, there are supplemental packages that individuals can buy - the fact that these packages exist and that there are companies that sell this stuff is implicit proof that standard health coverage is inadequate here.

Are my experiences and feelings about this unique here? Is this not a concern for most HK people? One way for me to find out is to ask for comments here.

An old Marvin Gaye song, I believe one of his last before his father shot him.

One of the reasons that I'm so distracted from blogging at the moment is the enormous amount of shit swirling around in my workplace. While very little of it impacts me personally, the fact that the company is being so ineptly run in so many ways is just weighing me down.

One personal example from this week - as some of you know, I do a little bit of writing for one of the local newspapers. We recently were lectured about conflict of interest. Following that lecture, I decided that this writing could be construed as conflict of interest under the very broadest possible definition of that term. So I contacted the proper people and informed them of what I was doing, they took two months to get back to me, after which they issued a legal letter saying that what I'm doing is okay.

A copy of this letter was sent to the Human Resources weasel in the home office who looks after my division and this weasel then gave a copy of it to my boss, telling him essentially that I was a bad person doing a bad thing and that I got caught and that they decided I could keep on doing this bad thing but that I'm a bad person and they need to keep an eye on me.

And when I explained to my boss that I was the one who told the company what I was doing, he was also like, "I don't know what's wrong with that guy," and the answer, simply put, is that 90% of people who work in Human Resources are subhuman.

At any rate, at the same time as all of this, I've been watching Season 8 of Seinfeld, finally released on DVD. Yesterday I watched episode #140, "The Fatigues." One of the subplots of this episode is described as: Jerry is intrigued that his girlfriend has a mentor - that is, until he finds out that the mentor is dating Bania (a bad stand-up comedian whom Jerry hates, he does 10 minutes on Ovaltine).

And so I decided to call the person whom I used to consider a mentor when we worked together in the early 90s. Luckily he is still alive, still at the same phone number and still remembers who I am, or at least did a reasonable job of pretending.

And, wise person that he is, he told me exactly the things that I needed to hear: that every job sucks, every company is poorly managed and every company is filled with weasels; that in the overall scheme of things I've got a pretty good thing going right now and if I was to make some sort of change, there's no guarantee that it would be for the better, odds are it would be even worse.

And so I calmed down. The temptation to drink myself into oblivion (or into the arms of some wanton Wanchai wench) faded away. I burned some DVDs. Fixed myself some tuna salad on a bagel. Read another 100 pages in a book. Finally fell asleep around 4 or thereabouts.

I cannot explain the situation as it is the sort of work-related issue that I should not publicly detail.

X represents someone in my company working in one of the territories. Y represents a very senior person in the company who departed earlier this year. Z represents Y's replacement.

So I was speaking to X today, who is in a difficult position, and has the options of cowering in a corner and developing an ulcer or standing up and doing what's right. Before I could stop myself, I said to him:

"Do you know what Y would say to you if you told this to him? He'd say you're supposed to be a man, grow a pair of balls and use them."

"But what would Z say?"

Like I said, it won't make any sense to you. Which makes me wonder why I blog this. Except that the acting of typing it out releases some small amount of frustration. "There , I've showed them. I've told the world, even if there are no names and no explanations."

But after a long and aggravating phone call with my boss late last night and a series of emails today with someone who works in the Human Resources department (who, oddly enough, may not be human), this exchange just did me in. Laptop in bag, bag in car, me home. Much like J. Peterman in season 8 of Seinfeld, I feel like packing it in and running off to Burma.

Failing that, tonight there may not be enough whiskey in Wanchai for the way I'm feeling now.

I'm having trouble working up the enthusiasm for blogging at the moment. I'm doing this now because I just finished a series of late night calls with the home office and I'm not quite ready to go to sleep.

The rest of my trip to Manila was rather dull and disappointing. It was actually a welcome change to be there and spending my entire time with just one person. Just that, as it turns out, it was not the right person.

Probably the most exciting event of the entire trip was today's taxi ride to the airport. The driver tried to save time by making an illegal U-turn, and chose an intersection with two police hiding behind a column. They jumped out in front of the taxi and I got to sit there while the driver negotiated with them, finally getting off with a 100 peso bribe. "Cartoon police!" he grumbled all the rest of the way to the airport.

The second most exciting event was buying a new pair of sneakers. That should give you some idea.

For those who care about this sort of thing, Greenbelt 5 will be opening soon. And construction has started on the lot next to the Shang. Formerly an overcrowded parking lot, it will become some sort of addition to the Glorietta Mall. Manila, for all of its extreme poverty, pollution, crime and corruption, is also the shopping mall capital of the world. It seems like every other street has some big box from Ayala, SM or Robinson - like HK, these feature essentially the same goods inside of each (except perhaps Greenhills, the piracy mega-mall) - and they keep building more.

Watched the final episode of Sopranos on my laptop while waiting for the plane. As I watched the minutes and seconds tick down on VLC's counter, I realized that David Chase was going to end the series pretty much as anyone should have reasonably expected - with an extremely high degree of ambiguity. I loved it.

Also finally caught 28 Weeks Later. I didn't think the original needed a sequel but I rather like what they did with it here ("bracingly smart, both in its ideas and in its techniques" NY Times). Just wish the ending wasn't such an obvious "stay tuned for part 3."

I often wondered if it was possible for Cathay to sink any lower than the lunchtime meal that they serve in economy on the HK/Manila run. Said meal consisted of a microwaved ham and egg sandwich on a cibatta-like roll. I don't eat eggs, there's no other choice, and these eggs certainly have the look of something reconstituted from a powder.

Well, tonight I sampled the dinner. A hot meal. Five small cubes of ham in a nondescript sauce, two shreds of cooked-to-death red and green peppers, and some white rice. With a roll and a dish with some bits of fruit. And a half-filled cup of the beverage of your choice.

The HK/Taipei run is shorter and they serve better food on those flights.

Now it looks like I get to spend six nights at home before heading off to Sydney.

The cover of the current issue of FHM Philippines edition, spotted in a 7-11. Yes, I bought it. No, none of the pictures inside come close to this cover shot. But they ain't bad either.

In Manila. Flight was delayed by an hour plus due to yesterday morning's heavy rains and lightning.

On arrival, went to the taxi counter for a ride that had been reserved for me by my local office. I had been told that the ride would cost P4,400, which didn't sound right at all. So I wanted to use a credit card. The taxi company accepts Visa but the person working there didn't want to to do it - apparently the effort of swiping the card and making a 1 minute phone call for an approval number was too much effort but arguing with me about it for 5 minutes wasn't. However, I insisted and she finally did it and then handed me the credit card slip to sign - P370. Mild embarassment on my part but I just thanked her and quickly jumped in the back of the car.

As I have friends who work for the Shangri-La chain, on my arrival at the hotel I was greeted like returning royalty. I suppose that other people at the front desk at the time were looking at me and thinking to themselves, "Who the fuck is this guy?" Too bad there were no local pop stars or supermodels standing there to witness this and be properly impressed. I also received a free gift as this marks my 20th time staying at this hotel - I it was even more than that, but it's the thought that counts and it was a nice added welcome.

Since I've got a DVD player in the room, I decided I'd pick up a few things for the weekend. I selected three discs from a pirate vendor, who informed me that the price was P50 each. I asked if there was any discount and he told me it was fixed price. That seemed quite funny - this was a guy with a folding table on the street, not a department store in a shopping mall. I asked him who had fixed the price, the government? "No, me." Can't argue with that, can you? At least the white guy price for pirate DVDs here has dropped to a reasonable level.

Then went to Matrix, a bar that used to style itself after the movie but has become more generic as the film fades into memory. You can sit outside here, which means that one can smoke and also observe the comings and goings. After watching one ladyboy fight that unfortunately did not descend into an orgy of ripping and tearing, mostly just flipping hair and screaming in phony high voices, I decided that was enough for the night and grabbed some food and returned to the hotel.

Sign observed last night outside an internet cafe, saying they offered speeds of 256k, "the fastest in the country." Holy crap. That may explain why, when looking at Variety.com today, the little media window had a warning that my connection was too crappy for streaming video.

So, so far, all good. If I manage to get dressed today, going to head over to Rockwell and the book store there and then possibly follow a friend's recommendation to have sizzling blue marlin belly for dinner.

Last night, I had occasion to look through some posts I'd written back in December, 2005. As I read through them, I was thinking to myself, why would anyone read this stuff?

At this point, it seems like everything I touch breaks. I'm afraid to go to the toilet.

And I'm thrilled that CNet Asia blogger Doug Crets linked to my previous post about my phone issues. I have mixed emotions about him saying that my blog is about "sundry and tawdry affairs in Hong Kong." On the one hand, that should certainly drive traffic here. On the other hand, I don't think I've been either sundry or tawdry for quite some time. But, as I commented there, I suppose that tawdry is in the mind of the reader.

If nothing else, I'm back in one of my calmer cycles of life. I went for a massage today and purposely picked a place, Cherdchai, that does not provide happy endings. (I was unhappy to discover that my favorite masseuse has left that place. Her replacement was okay, but the massage was nowhere near as brutal as the torture sessions that I had grown used to.)

And tonight a friend tried to lure me out to Laguna and I immediately said no thanks. Sad to say, at the moment my favorite haunt in Wanchai could well end up being the Canny Man. I resisted a friend's efforts to lure me into there for at least a year. Having finally gone down there, in the basement of the Horny Wharney Hotel, I found it to be an extremely relaxing and comfortable place.

Yes, I know, it's probably cyclical. The pendulum will probably swing in the other direction again. But for now, I'm not in the mood to play the "Hello hansum man, what you name, where you come from" game.

Anyway, tonight's main event:

Dopod - I've now installed Activesync on a different computer. I get the same error messages when I try to sync. I believe that the problem exists on the phone. I would do a hard reset but I'm leaving town in the morning and afraid that if I do the hard reset and still cannot sync, it means traveling for four days without any of my basic information at hand.

iPod - Interesting new development. After I sync my iPod, I try to unmount and I get an error message telling me that it can't be unmounted because the files are in use by another application. (I do not have the iPod configured for hard disk use.) It looks like the iPod is locking up following each sync. I have to just yank it out of the cradle and do a reset. I probably need to do a full restore but don't have the time now.

Laptop - While on the road, my Thinkpad X41's audio capabilities cut out. I brought it to the help desk guy in the Shanghai office who promptly told me that the X41 is crap and I should have gotten the X61. Well, first, I don't get a choice. And second, the X61 was not available when they gave me the X41. He couldn't get the audio working.

The Hong Kong help desk tried emailing the audio driver files to me. Except our email system thought these files were a virus and quarantined them. So then they emailed the drivers to my person email. But they still wouldn't restore.

After three weeks of travel, back to the office and hand my laptop to the help desk guys. It took them two days to get the audio working on it.

All finished?

After getting the laptop back, the first thing I noticed the fingerprint scanner was no longer working. It was working fine before they fixed the audio. They sent me the files and I got it going.

Got home tonight and WiFi is kaput. I went to network connections, right clicked on wireless networking, clicked on enabled, and within seconds got the message that "the operation failed." This was also working okay as of last week.

Help desk people wonder why end users make fun of help desk people. The above may offer some insights.

I need to wake up in 5 hours and go to the airport. So I probably should be sleeping now. However, my frustration at all of this techno-crap will probably have me up all night.

Blogging for the next few days will be either non-existent, light or normal, it depends on factors which I will not list here but are probably not what you're thinking either.

If you have any interest in photography and the future of manipulation of images or creation of communities on the internet, then you need to see this - the coolest bit comes in the second half.

Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. "Perhaps the most amazing demo I've seen this year," wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.

As I watched, I found myself thinking, "If I didn't spend all my time trying to get laid, I could have come up with something like this by now."

Was looking for the lyrics to Looking for the Magic, dug out 1977 power pop masterpiece album