The Dustless Workshop（無塵工作室）

Announcement: 27/2/06

2006-02-26T19:58:00.000+01:00

I am currently moving my blog to Wordpress - The Dustless Workshop Version 2.0, so please move to the new blog, start getting used to it, and bear with me while I update the RSS feeds and all that. Thank you very much.

Currently reading: The House of Morgan

2006-02-23T20:11:00.000+01:00

As I've told fellow blogger Wiwiana a couple of months ago that I had my eyes set on this monster of a book (800+ pages full of english with some pretty pictures, enough to scare most HKers away at the mere sightof it), and as a self-proclaimed prolific reader that I am, I'm only half way through reading it because of the sheer size and content, and of course, lack of time on my behalf. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, this isn't a book about Morgan's House, whoever Morgan could be (warning: if you really thought that, then please turn off the monitor now, if you know how to), it's a book on the family who were once the de facto eloquent ruler of the financial universe - namely Junius Morgan, J Pierpont Morgan Sr and their descendents. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, maybe the terms JPMorganChase and Morgan Stanley rings your bell. Yes, for those of you curious lot who, like me from a very young age, wondered if there were ever any relations at all between these two banking giants, there were - they were both creations of JP Morgan & Co and the partners who ran it. In fact, both used to be one bank (under JP Morgan & Co.) before they were seperated in 1933 due to the Glass-Steagall Act, which effectively seperated commercial and investment banking and made American banking industry extremely segmented. But this book is much more than that. The story started in 19th century London when the City was the world's financial centre, and the US was merely a rogue country full of gay cowboys running around fishing (Brokeback Mountain...hahahaha), when George Peabody, who set up a merchant bank in London, effectively set the foundation stone for his partner, Junius Morgan, for him, and his family after him, to take over the world. The story told of a totally different time, when bankers were gentlemanly and rare (the others are the Rothschilds and Barings), companies operated mostly on partnerships and trusts with no corporate structure and relatively weak, currency was still based on the Gold standard, and amongst many things. This colossal epic spanned across a timeline of more than a century, from what the author elegently called the Baronial age - when bankers exerted so much influences on companies and governments, as JP Morgan Sr once did, that they actually lived and behaved like barons; to the Diplomatic age when bankers acted as more or less diplomats for their government clients (From US, Germany, UK, Japan to the Vatican), indulging in the political game, foreign policy making and war finances (in fact, JP Morgan & Co financed both sides of WW1 and effectively WW2), and finally to the Casino age - when bankers lost their influence over to multinational corporations, and became extremely aggressive in their stances (hence the term) with hostile takeovers and LBOs. If I have to state one single bad point of this book, it must be the fact that it's simply too long for some people, but IMHO this length is well and truly justified for the amount of content the author had intended. Bankers nowadays are merely being portrayed as jargon-talking, money-spinning bunch of yes-men dressed in tailor-made suits, but after reading this book readers maybe able to contemplate a different, perhaps more primative but more romantic age, when bankers relied on gentleman's agreement, held long and deep relationships with their clients, sat on company boards as trusts, and was more or less the angel AND the devil. JP Morgan Sr even acted as the central banker who single-handedly saved USA from the 1907 gold panic, before the Federal Reseve Act was ever conceptualised. These stories are what legends are made of, about the decisions real people made, how and why and made them, and what becomest of them. As the great Keynes himself put it, which the author had included in the first page of the book, "It is necessarily part of the business of a banker to prefess a conventional respectability which is more than human. Life-long practices of this kind make them the most romantic and the least realistic of men." The amount of research that the author had contributed his time to, and the vast archive of correspondences, stories, pictures and comments that he unearthed, had already won this book fame beyond its first intention. This book describes a piece of modern history, a story which included the 1929 and 1987 crash, two world wars, The Titanic (which was financed by JP Morgan & Co), Herbert Hoover, Franklin D Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, John Maynard Keynes, Charles Lindbergh Jr, Benito Mussolini and, last but not least, astronomically insane amount of money. Your humble host had actually just got on the Franklin D Roosevelt part, before he enforced the Glass-Steagall Act on the finance industry in 1933. This book had actually aided me greatly on the finance module I'm currently doing for my economics degree, which included quite a lot of financial history (and of course, lots of equations). It painted a colourful picture of the mysterious Morgan family, their business, their conduct, their wealth, their turmoils, and how they made their stash. Of course no single human is perfect - JP Morgan Sr was extremely rash, anti-Semetic, had a funny nose, and basically bullied companies into submission to his almighty command, and Jack Morgan (JP Morgan Jr) was the public-hating, German-hating weirdo with very low self-esteem, who financed both sides of WWI and Benito Mussolini, but through this story one can clearly see that these characters, who only lived in most people's minds as autonomic money-making machines (or simply filthy rich bastards), are real; they too have flesh and bones, real feelings and emotions; although they lived exquisitely lavish lives, their low profile covered them like a smoke-screen - you never knew what went on behind the family doors, and the author deserves great credit for uncovering what really went on within the family, and inside their heads. But readers beware, if you're looking for a book which will teach you how to invest, to win money, to speculate and/or otherwise, I would suggest you look somewhere else, this is merely a documentary (indeed a very long one) about how modern finance came about, how and why it's the most heavily-regulated industry in the whole wide world, and the family of bankers who made this be, whether intentionally or unintentionally. However, if you enjoy reading history (financial or not), then this book is beyond any traditional history books which only speaks of far away times. The author employed a more exciting tone than normal academic history books, and providing you knew your history well this book provides a rare and fascinating perspective on things that already happened. The House of Morgan is no easy book, as I can tell you already after reading only half of it, but it's also extremely rewarding - rewatch (or in my case, watch for the first time) fascinating modern history in the making, and the family of people who made it happen.

Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong?

2006-02-23T05:31:00.000+01:00

Apart from Hong Kong, Korea, Phillipines, Venezuela also got a new Cardinal, along with 12 others like Boston (a total of 15). Of course, since I'm inside the Big Lychee, it's only normal to just hear news about Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong and no one else. However, I always love a conspiricy theory towards this - there's a political motive as well as a religious one (if there ever was one). For a while people thought that the ex-pope John Paul II had elected Zen as a 'secret cardinal' - if appointments are politcally sensitive the Vatican can keep the name of the cardinal secret, but that we shall never know. What we know though from this appointment is the fact that Zen takes politcal stance, and therefore politics can never be left out of this. Hence this is an open gesture, but as military genius Sun-Tzu once said, "What's fake is real, and what's real is fake." One can pretty much be sure that there are political motives. According to some, Cardinals are like consultants to the pope, but given how the Vatican had expressed wants in the past to establish links with China again, having a person who hates China as much as I hate stupid people is hardly diplomatic is it? What comments can Zen possibly give about China that the Vatican doesn't know already? Since medieval times the Vatican has powers to influence politicians, start wars, and topple governments with a click of its fingertips, although this power is dimishing since Darwin and Nietzsche, China is possibly the last place on Earth that Vatican hadn't had its hands on yet. Given Zen's outspokeness against the Chinese government (another words, he fucking hates the grandpas with a vengence) and staunch support for the underground Catholics in the mainland (the other Catholics are basically controlled by the state), if the Vatican really wants diplomatic ties with China, Zen will be the last person one would choose. As we all know, China never takes things the hard way (we have clear examples like 4/6/1989 and how China diminished the stupid falundaga with such force, and how China reacted to Japanese stances, etc etc), the only way forward is the soft and diplomatic way, as China is fast becoming an influential economical and political power. Pope Benedict XVI's stance on this seems clear - to establish links with China, whilst at the same time telling China to not mess with the Vatican (and the Catholics). China is renowned for its censorship and cronic suppression of any form of religion (including the extremely stupid falundafa), believers took this as the fact that the Vatican had not abandoned Catholics in mainland China. As an athiest, I would like to think otherwise. I believe though, there are a couple of key points to bear in mind - a) The Vatican wants to establish ties with, or rather infiltrate, China. There are an estimated 112 million Catholics already in China. China has a population of 1.3 billion; b) Cardinal Zen is now 75, and although he had recently sent a letter of retirement to the pope, he can vote for a new pope until 80 (the Cardinal in Taiwan is too old to vote for a pope). ?Benedict XVI is 78, and John Paul II died at 85; c) Zen hates the Chinese government, and has good ties with Cardinal Shan in Taiwan, who's too old to choose a new pope; d) According to this Chinese BBC news article, there are 3 possibilities as to what will happen to Zen after this appointment - he can stay a bishop until 2007, then move to the Vatican; put simply that anything can happen to him. According to Vatican rules that all bishop over 75 must retire, the pope can choose whether to keep that particular bishop in concern, even if he's too old. Based on the above points, and that Zen would retire in 2007, I have reasons to believe that the Vatican will move Zen to the Vatican and appoint a new bishop to really start establishing ties with China, possibly someone apolitical in comparison. There are short-term and long-term implications from Zen's appointment - a) In the short-term, Vatican wants the grandpas to look out for Catholicism that's spreading within China, and what the Vatican wants is religious freedom from China. Whether the Vatican really isn't afraid of China, and/or whether it cares about those believers is another matter; b) In the long-term, Vatican will remove someone as outspoken and as Chinaphobic as Zen from the political scene and keep him in the Vatican - as far away from China as possible, so formal ties can be established once again under a new bishop and possibly an apolitical one. As long as Benedict XVI doesn't die before Zen is 80, which I think he definitely won't, then Zen's cardinal power where he can choose a pope has effectively been demolished, given how Vatican always spends immense amount of money in keeping the pope alive. Of course, things can also be explained from the other side - since Zen is still the bishop of Hong Kong and will stay a cardinal until he ascends to heaven, the Vatican can keep Zen there until he bloody dies. However, IMHO that won't be of any benefict to the Vatican - as long as Zen is there, then China isn't going to talk to the Vatican at all, and DEFINITELY not to the Taiwanese cardinal either. If Vatican wants China, Zen must go.

Wordpress...

2006-02-22T18:46:00.000+01:00

I got myself another blog hosted by hkbloggers.org, but the problem is the import function...everything is fine except the bloody Chinese font shows up in many weird ways. Are there ways to not go through EVERY SINGLE CHINESE POST and repost it in UTF? Please advice...

Feb 19th, felt ill...

2006-02-19T21:10:00.000+01:00

a) Since I will be starting work as a graduate accountant on March 1st, it's only normal for me to start learning about what one actually does about accounting; since it's mission impossible to get myself up to undegraduate standard in less than a month, I can only do what I can do and learn from the basic LCCI course (my wife had notes leftover from when she did that course), and the rest I shall do once I started working and attend conversion course (which should happen sometime in September); and, of course, the economics correspondance degree... b) I have acquied a PSP from a friend (actually just borrowed), and the game in there is �u�T��L��, which I enjoyed playing very much...no worries I only play it when I was in transit. c) As the title suggested, I fell ill today. Just flu, nothing big...feeling better already, but feeling ill really hampers progress...fucking viruses.

Gorillaz - Demon Days

2006-02-15T18:13:00.000+01:00

(Picture from Amazon.co.uk) Let me tell you what I think first - it's eerie, but at the same time insanely cool. You may not have heard of Blur nor the Grey album, but you probaly have heard of Gorillaz. Their self-titled debut album was a surprise (and indeed massive) worldwide success, with wicked illustration representing this virtual band of 4 - Russel, 2D, Murdoc and Noodles. This 2/3 D Quartet was created by illustrator Jamie Hewlett and Albarn. With them, everything is fictional, even their recording studio, and being the most succesful virtual band on Earth...but I have no wish to indulge on the artistic side, I'm just going to talk about the music. Demon Days, musically speaking, is by far their masterpiece. I didn't much like Gorillaz the 1st album, because the choice of songs weren't very focused, with everything from electronica to punk and a little hip-hop (in their own words, they recoreded everything), the structure of songs were kind of playful, loose but somwhat inconsistent (which bears striking similarities with the Pancakes of Hong Kong). Fortunately they made a huge improvement with Demon Days, it was more focused on electronica, phat bass lines, infused more hip-hop elements (the beats and sampling), even on the verge of being trip-hop due to its eerie darkness. It was clear from the album that Demon Days was going to be darker than Gorillaz, even before listening to one single note - the illustrations were simply much darker, rendering the characters zombie-like - afterall Gorillaz and the illustrations are inseperable. Upon listening to the songs, one cannot stop noticing that the songs, although with structure almost as loose as hits from their first album, sounds just right. All the different kinds of elements - electronica, beats, bass lines, guitar riffs, samples - mixed together without any complication, to the degree of being harmonious. Whilst Gorillaz seemed just too eager to impress, Demon Days gave a feeling of confidence and simplicity; electronically speaking Demon Days was very simple and straightforwad 0 that is, when you compare it to works by masters like Richard D James a.k.a. Aphex Twin, but their styles are inherently different so it's not really an apple-apple comparison when putting them together, but you'll see what I mean when you do. Overall the feeling of Demon Days was very consistent, one can listen to it from start to finish without feeling peculiar (although the music and the lyrics themselves are peculiar enough); they have also merged themselves successfully with hints of dance vibes (from DARE), which made it popular by being so effortlessly cool. However, one shouldn't be confused by the four illustrative cartoon band members - to speak of Gorillaz as a 4-piece is simply meaningless because their music relied heavily on sampling and synthesisers, and many stars had given their fair share of help during recording (as many as 50 at one time) - from Rachel Stevens (S Club 7) to Dennis Hopper, De La Soul to Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays - to name just a few. To be honest, their production method is no different from manufacturing crappy pop music, but that's exactly where they proved themselves far more superior than talentless 16 year olds - they have originality. To sum this album up - it's quite edgy, but beautifully simple, which is the same summary I would give to Dark Side of the Moon, and that says something. Recommended Songs: All of them, they're all just so worth a listen.

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2006-02-15T05:00:00.000+01:00

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WTF!!!!

2006-02-14T21:00:00.000+01:00

Whilst I was checking my online bank statement, I've found that on 1st Feb $5000 had been withdrawn from my account using ATM. This is extremely, fucking alarming because - a) I never take out that much money at once because if I needed to pay that kind of amount I would either use a cheque or a credit card, and avoid cash wherever possible; b) I WAS OUT OF THE FUCKING COUNTRY AT THE TIME, MY ATM CARD SITS IN MY WALLET, AND I TAKE MY WALLET WHEREVER I GO! HOW COULD I FUCKING WITHDRAW CASH WHEN BOTH I AND THE ATM CARD WAS FUCKING ABROAD? MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHAT'S THE USE OF HKD WHEN I WAS IN THE UK? No matter what I'm getting that $5000 back...it's fucking worrying because I was too busy these couple of months to do my usual book keeping...fuck!!! I'm definitely going to start again right this moment!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone...

2006-02-14T16:24:00.000+01:00

...I know it's a little late, but it's still 14th isn't it? What did you do today? Did you receive a big/medium/small bunch of flowers/roses? Did you have a romantic/unromantic dinner? Did you have a good/bad time? If there are things that I am incapable of doing in this world, it will be - art, gambling, and being romantic. I suck at all of the above, no matter how hard I try; my talent simply lies somewhere else. For me, Valentine's day is like a testing, to test how romantic I really can be, but the answer each time is "not very." I just have an innate reluctance towards doing anything romantic or impractical, they're both the same thing to me, damning and difficult. Luckily, my wife understands this, and not only that, we are pretty much the same kind of person - pragmatism comes first. Of course, having been a playah before, I know that sometimes (or sometimes most of the time) women don't always mean what they say (as illustrated by fellow blogger Ana here, which I think is comedial, in a good way), and therefore every year when the time of testing comes (the other one is birthdays), I always try to do what I can, without contradicting myself into doing what I don't want to do - waste money. I went to Seiyu in Shatin, brought 2 "Australian" Kobe steaks (I never knew such things existed, since I thought the town of Kobe only existed in Japan, and hence I'm still very skeptical about those steaks, although it tasted not bad and quite tender) and various things to cook for my wife tonight, at home. Yes, at home. This is the obvious choice since I have nothing to do yet. Also, I really cannot justify my own action by eating out tonight, and/or sending roses to my wife, for me it's just a fucking waste of money - roses price rose by 100% this year, although there was a 20-30% increase in orders from romantic people (I call it impractical); as for eating out, jesus you have no fucking idea how much more they're charging for a fucking 3 course dinner! It's like being raped financially. Nevertheless, since I know how to cook steaks (of course not as good as some uptown restaurents, otherwise I would have opened one myself), the food that I brought, although exquisite (sashimi, nice ice-cream and drinks), it was well within my budget of HKD$350, that's less than $200 each. Ask yourself, those who ate out tonight, how much did your dinner cost you? Was it worth it? That, of course, depends on what you want to get out of it, and most will be satisfied by material things. So was I. I made some soup, sliced up sashimi, and brought ice-cream, cleaned up the house, and brought some cheap candles from Ikea (less than $20), then I went to pick my wife up from work, went home, and had a fantastic night. You may think that I'm unromantic because I didn't buy flowers and/or took my wife out for a romantic dinner, I guess I don't need to explain myself here. My flat was burning real candles, there were no white noise from that annoying fucker who's sitting next to you, just me, my wife and Thelonious Monk - I mean, which restaurent in Hong Kong had such good taste in playing the Monk? We ate some weird but tasty steaks, there were no over-powered air conditioning, no crap waiters, no time limit, and I believe my cooking is great...well at the very least I don't buy crap ingredients, and there were no profit margins to maximise; ok so I had to wash the dishes afterwards but that's beside the point. My wife said something really funny, "If you brought me a large bunch of roses I would have killed you, what a hassle having to take that bloody thing around the place! Into the MTR with loads of people! All for that one moment of glory, and then afterwards it's just trouble...you spend $1000+ on it, and then after a day or two they bloody wither and die. If you want to send me flowers in the future please send me flowers made from $1000 bills..." Wise words. Having said all that against seemingly every couple who went out to dine tonight, and who had a bunch of dying flowers in their hand, I still wish that you had a good time with your other half, and most important of all - you enjoyed your time together. I merely did it in the most economic way I think feasible, whilst trying to be romantic, but without the impracticality. p.s. I'm still playing around with Wordpress, so please be assured that I will be moving out of here soon...

If you want to publish a novel (as a publisher)...

2006-02-13T20:24:00.000+01:00

...then my advice to you is - Don't. Instead, what you want to do is to start publishing academic textbook for doctors/professors. Generally speaking, you can publish two types of academic textbooks. The first of the two kind of books is a 600 page monster epic on a very specialised subject (most famous examples will be journal selections or all of Feynmann lectures on physics), which you can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars per book. You probaly will only be able to sell 100 of them and probably in no more than 2 editions, but after deducting cost of printing etc. you will still make a little profit. Or... Publish the second type - a comprehensive and easily-understandable guide to some academic subjects such as physics or economics, if it's popular and universities lecturers endorse them (just talk to one of them lecturers and see if you can get them to endorse it, they're normally an easy bunch, providing your textbook has substance), then the majority of their students will buy it as well, and hence making a substantial profit. You can sell one for $200, and then print 30 editions (with 1000 books printed). You will also be pleased to know that a professors/doctors who wrote academic textbooks normally don't ask for financial returns or profit share, the pubisher has the copyright assigned to them (that's why so many universities have their own publishing subsidiaries as well) and can therefore retain all profits. A third, previously unmentioned type, is publishing journals. Go to the IEEE website, they're selling journals for something like $20 (that's USD by the way). Of course I have excluded most of the economics of publishing, for example there are loads of costs not mentioned in this little rant, but on a strategic basis, I believe that, with such a high profit margin, how can publishing academic textbooks not sound attractive to people? It's certainly much better than publishing crappy romance novels which only sells for no more than $40 (that's HKD) per book... Publishing academic textbooks has distinct advantages over novels - there are no universally accepted standard as to what a good novel constitutes, therefore people can write absolute crap and get it published by publishers who is taking this serious risk in hoping to make a quick buck. 1) You can publish an academic textbook, but you can be pretty sure that if it's a crap one than no university lecturer is going to endorse it, hence no student market; that means you have a free quality filter working for you for free. 2) Publishing journals is a relatively risky business because most scientific foundings in journals have yet to be testified by the scientific community, but textbooks are basically comprehensive guides, and hence what you're publishing had essentially been testified and approved by many scientists/lecturers/professors great and small - it's relatively less risky, definitely less so than novels where there are no quality assurance. 3) As I've said above, you can pretty much retain all the profits, and even if you're a profit-making entity working with a professor, he's probably not doing it for the money anyway; you have the money, he has the scientific fame that he may or may not want. A win-win situation. 4) Last, but not least, with all those pieces of revoting, craply written, pointless, misleading, incoherent mumble-jumble of meaningless words on toilet paper that some three-legged people seems to call novels, which has no educational or any value whatsoever, that are floating around the gutter of this society right now (I'm certain those publishers who dares to publish these fiends knew what they are doing - they're publishing crap just to cover cost of the previous crap they published, hoping that sometime in the near future they may pick up a novel that actually makes a profit for them, or at the very least break even), publishing academic textbook that can help students study and understand some constructive and useful knowledge and get them through class, is financially and morally better than being a publisher that survives on regurgitating shit until they go into administration. Bottom line is - why not do something constructive and useful today? Those who call themselves publishers, and those who dream about writing novels...

A little note on Alan Greenspan...

2006-02-12T19:38:00.000+01:00

...Mr. Greenspan will definitely go down in history as one of the most prominent central banker of the 20th century by sustaining the longest American bull-economy, however what I'm going to tell you has nothing to do with his reputation. From this (Central Banking Publishing Ltd), one can observe the annual salary of central bankers of the worl including, of course, Mr. Greenspan. What surprised me, however, is this: Central bank governors' salaries (US$) 1) Joseph Yam (Hong Kong) $1,120,000 16) Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve) $172,000 You would have thought that, being the most influential central banker in the whole wide world, Mr Greenspan will be paid a substantial amount of money for what he does, but in fact it seems surprisingly disproportional that our Joseph Yam actually makes more money per year than Greenspan. Maybe Mr. Yam was paid disproportionally high? Or vice verse? Can't believe Alan Greenspan makes the same amount of money as an investment banker (without bonuses)! No wonder Mr Lam from the Hong Kong Economic Journal had specifically noted the amount of money Greenspan make after his tenure at the Federal Reserve.

Reality, in terms of novel writing, viewed from the eyes of a scientist

2006-02-10T19:12:00.000+01:00

More thoughts tonight, but no worries, it won't be about stupid people this time. (It's rather long...) Reality, in terms of Novel Writing I started writing novels when I was 16, and pretty much stopped when I was 21 (although there are on-and-off writings). At that sweet, innocent and tender age, I was told by a mentor (which is a good friend of mine, a published writer and a renowned Wu-xia novels writer - at least on the net - he writes amazing novels and lives in Taiwan) that my novels have more than enough imagination, but not enough substance. At that time I didn't understand a word he saids and just kept on writing. According to him, I kept on producing highly imaginative and experimental short novels, and gladly, he saids, the substances are eventually building up as well. As I read more and more novels, both in literature and on the net, I realise what his words meant, what he meant by substance, where I stood, and where I currently stand. This enlightement didn't come until about last year, and since then I was deprived of any time to write novels, because I simply was too occupied. Substance, in the context of a novel, is probably as abstract as reality itself is, but what a novelist cannot deny is this empirical fact - a novel is about reality, about humans. You can obviously write about a dog's life (someone had certainly done that), but at the most that will only be a personification of a dog, since neither I nor the reader had been a dog before, it's pretty hard trying to determine what constitutes a dog's mind, or the society a dog perceives; we can derive a whole world which revolves around that particular dog, but it's still merely a reflection of reality - our perception of what we think a dog's perception of reality is. You can write a novel in whatever genre you like, but you still cannot deny that it's a reflection of reality, or rather, it's the novelist's perception of reality. Having said that, a novel need not to be truly realistic, in fact it can be as surreal (or in Garcia-Marquez's case, magically real), and/or as absurd as one likes. What is truly realistic? What is surreal? What is absurd? Nothing is truly realistic except the objective reality - events that are happening around us as we speak - even then it's only our perception of it. Our perception of this objective reality is what I term subjective reality, and if you agree with my empirical observation, hence my fundamental assumption that humans aren't perfect and will never be, then subjective reality will always be inferior to objective reality and cannot BE it. There's a strange relationship between subjective and objective reality, because one isn't merely the derivation of another. Rather, what links objective and subjective reality isn't casuality but correlations. Our perception of what this particular reality at this particular time and moment, is actually based on our senses, knowledge, values and morals, which in infinite terms is a derivation from what people before (our parents, our ancestors, or some wise guy like Confucious) had experienced from the objective reality, and what they had empirically learnt from it. We learn in many ways, and in particular pereptions of the reality passed on through human society through many generations, some still exists today, some probably went extinct long ago. On one side, what we have instinctively, or empirically, learnt from the objective reality is a peception, a correlation of it; on the other hand we perform actions (whether by means of action, speech, words or whatever) that directly affects the objective reality, because the society is formed of an astronomical amount of entities like us - humans. You can probably guess by now that the relationship between objective and subjective reality is asymmetric. However, that is then beyond the context of this chain of thought, you only need to know the reception part. We write our novels based on our subjective reality, and what is amazing about novel writing is the fact that when we write we are no longer obliged to confine to correlating with objective reality, but only the realms or our imagination. They sky is the limit basically. In other words, you can derive a novel from your subjective reality and your imagination. Novels are direct derivations of the particular novelist's perception of reality, even if in the end the novel appears surrel to its readers. No one can deny that there are hints of subjective reality in surrelism (or it's lesser counterpart magical realism), it merely messes with the reader's own subjective reality, rather like an itch, which is a disruption of some sort from the neuron sending out false signals. Take, for example, time traveling. Although special relativity told us that time traveling is not possible because of the existence of mass, unless the object that is to travel at the speed of light is massless, like a photon, is special relativity an objective reality? No. In fact, nothing is, and special relativity is only Einstein's perception of reality, which of course is subjective. We have no way of knowing if time travel is ever possible, at least not in our lifetimes because our current level of technology, advanced as it may seem, cannot cope with the testing of such theories. Let's take a little detour. From the previous scenario you may ask, "what about scientific theories?" Theories are likeness of reality - they describe it (At this point, I would like to stress the difference between theories and laws - both theories and laws are technically falsifiable, however, laws, because of their basicness, it pretty damn hard to falsify empirically, that's why they're are called laws, like Newton's three laws of motion and Faraday's law of electomagnetic induction instead of theories). One can see the superiority of empiricism in relation to reason - Aristotle's perception of reality was overtaken by Galileo's because of their different methods of arriving at a theory, Aristotle derived his theories from reason, whereas Galileo derived his theories from empircal experiements; the same difference goes to Adam Smith and Plato, and the difference in their views had eventually developed into different schools of economic thoughts. Put in simple terms, reasoning is what you think with your mind, empiricism is with your learn from your senses and experiences (this definition is noway near the length I need to goto to explain the two, you may try to find something here, found on the net). Although things can be seemed to be reasonable, sometimes it doesn't conform to the subjective reality that's limited by empircism. My definition would suggest that subjective realities will always be inferior to objective realities, because of the method of arriving at the theory - empiricism - derivation by our senses and experiences, although we can say that it's pretty close to it; empiricism therefore poses as a limit to how close to objective reality we can be. As for ensuring that theories are based on observations and derivations that are as empirical as possible, humans employed two major tools - mathematics, which is imperfect but perfect, and a whole community of scientists dedicated to empiricism. Let's get back to novels. Of course writing novel isn't as simple as writing a subjective reality like "I woke up at 7 in the morning and did this..." that's just writing a diary, and most people would find it quite bland and crap. Most novels based on a set of scenarios, and how the protagonists and other characters react to it. In other words - it's the novelist's portrayal of a story and its characters, according to his own perception of reality, which doesn't necessarily have to be realistic. However, there are often complications associated with novel writing in terms of reality, for example, most rookie novelists tend to muddle empiricism with reason. It can be easily seen from teenage writers (but not confined to them, sometimes I saw rookie middle-aged novelists making this mistake), with what they don't know or had no empircal knowledge of, they simply derive it with their reason, and with varying degrees of success. For me it's pretty much a rookie mistake, because it lacks substance. What does it mean when empiricism was muddled with reason? Take, for example, you have created a character that's very inclined to be impulsive; and if you've lived long enough, you will probably agree that because most humans are lazy fuckers, their personality only changes in a very limited number of circumstances, and one of them is if something catastrophic had happened in their lives (what we call life-changing circumstances); therefore, you cannot expect this character to wake up one day and suddenly stops being impulsive, be considerate and thoughtful at the click of the pen. It's simply not empircal. Normally, if a novelist want this to happen, he may wantmake it happen slowly but eventually by inserting scenarios that slowly opened his eyes to the real world (or as I said before, a drastic situation) whilst a rookie will try to explain this sudden change, often without success. That's why I call this a rookie mistake, because if a rookie knew then he probably wouldn't let it happen, because if he came into experience with someone like the character he created, then he would know that his reasoning was in fact wrong in the face of empiricism. What I've learnt over the years of novel writing, about reality, is this - "What you write need not be real, but at the very least it should be empirical." From the above statement and all the crap I wrote before, can we reconcile the seemingly contradicting relationship between realism and surrealism? Does surreality necessarily contradicts with empiricism? Yes, of course it does, but the reconciliation is simple - here's when imagination (not reason) comes in. We all know that, in the reality that's in front of us, a human cannot extend the physical length of one's arm at one's command, but we can certainly make that possible in a novel. But does imagination equals reason? That's a question I will probably try to answer, with my limited knowledge, later. I remembered an open letter written by Jin Yong to some young writers who have entered a novel competition, the essence of it basically said that "young people should concentrate on their study and personal developments than to spend much of their adolescence on writing novels." Harsh words, but I agree with the master. That's it for now, need to think before I carry on writing (damn when can I sleep!) p.s. I have no intention to write a philosophical discussion out of this, I merely want to write down what I've learnt from years of novel writing.

I've had it...

2006-02-09T20:41:00.000+01:00

That's fucking it! I can't take it anymore, I'm going to move out of blogger. Any suggestions?

Thoughts

2006-02-09T19:55:00.000+01:00

1) Ever since I experienced the dark side of things, and been in some extraordinary situations (well for a kid anyway) for the first time since my adolescence, nothing much can surprise me in this little world, and my firm belief is that there is a dark side to everything, absolutely fucking everything. So I came back to HK from London earlier than I thought because I wanted to attend the gathering hosted by Marky and Blacksnow, at that time I was really tired and didn't realise one or two things - from some people's blogs there were words written with sacarsm (save you time finding it, it's here, and possibly more that I didn't know of); before the meeting I didn't really know Marky that well, and of course I didn't see this either. Of course I didn't know enought about what went on behind the screen to bother or comment, but I think I can guess, and I'm bloody good at that. From a very early date it was clear to me that so-called HKBLOGGERS would fall into three main categories - those who do (or not) mind their own business, those who do (or not) have points to make, those who do (or not) seclude themselves within their own little social circles. Ah HA! Just like reality. The longer you write blogs, the more people you know, and the more people you saw starting to write blogs, you will know that the so called blogosphere is really nothing more than a reflection (or an interpretation) of present day society, namely the Hong Kong one. That means - like you read a newspaper everyday - hope for the best, but expect the worst, from people, because shit happens. As things become more in line with reality it becomes, at the same time, more colourful and there's often more than meets the eye. For example, just because you have a little something you can then project yourself as the eventual master or God, using the same principles of projecting a company's future earning power based on current performance. This allows you to acquire a fan club of mobbish followers (namely readers or cult fanatics) and, when somone better than you comes along and start criticising you, you can command your horde of stupid fuckers to stop whoever's in your way. There are mobs like these all over the place, from ICQ to MSN to forums to blogs, they're like cockcroaches who just won't fucking die. Nobody knew why they have to attach themselves to idols and present themselves as inferior fans or volunteer slaves; maybe they were abused by their parents when they were very young, and in need of totemic comfort or just simply lacking self esteem. Though these little mobs reminds me of a Beyond song (which is in Chinese of course), which goes as such: ��A�@��RBeyond�@��R�L��j ��U�H�g ��z�} �]�˦h�L�@�� h�t�s��§ ��U�H�g �o��D �Y�Ϥ��|�q�� L4�\�� ܡI��ܡI��ܡI��ܡI �A�b�I�g ��H�c�� @�A��o ��I�L�^�� N�ñ��g �A�]��D �l��l��}�� \�� |�I��ܡI��|�I��ܡI WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!WHAT YOU SAY? �ڨS�H�g �u�Q��U�� @�Ǥ߸̷Pı ��g�ƻs �i��±� �n��걡�� 4�t��8 ��]�˰�� G�|�I��L�I�G�|�I��L�I To be honest, musically speaking this is only an average post-Koma era Beyond song, but what really surprised me was that the lyrics were written by the legendary Mr. Lam...never knew he had that kind of fire in him - that spite against stupid people who glorified themselves as fans. I guess what I really wanted to say is - the so called HK blogosphere isn't as pure and clean a place as some would otherwise think, and it should really comes as no surprise, because afterall bloggers, who write blogs, are real people (regardless of what they wrote were true or not), and real people behave like they always do - like fucking animals. There is a dark side to everything, even writing blogs and immerging oneself into an internet community that's more deregulated than reality. And if you're a parent of a child, then be prepared because this is the global trend that people have, in fact, two realities - a real one and a internet one. People don't seem to be who they are when they're in front of a screen, even I don't seem as the foul-mouth dick who bitches at everything, but frankly put there are just two sides of me - the usual one and the dark side - just like everybody else. 2) WTO ruled (in an interim report) that EU banning of GM food violates international trade agreements (read news here). I don't know if HKers knew anything about GM food, but if anyone eats any crop-based products that's from the West side of the Atlantic (That's USA, Canada et al) then it will probably be GM. There are currently no HK legislation that I know of that bans or regulates any GM food that are being sold in Hong Kong. You may think it may not concern us who live in HK, far and far away from the Atlantic, think again - China is also thinking about developing GM food to feed its own people. The whole case is ironic - whilst American bans stem-cell research, growing GM crops was one of the major triumph of 21st biotechnology, currently a thriving industrial sector in USA; and whilst EU is more open to the former, most Europeans are aversive of GM foods, probably manipulated into it by their governments and environmentalist nutters with scare tactics. EU has a de-facto ban on all food that's got GM written on their pack, and USA et al claimed that the EU was using safety concern this as a trade barrier against them because their safety concern carries no scientific justification. The Europeans of course fought back with their safety concerns (who knows? Maybe it's because they had read too much H. G. Wells or Michael Chriton or something? Probably mad cow cases), but this editorial comment from the FT had summed it up - this WTO ruling didn't, or rather not asked to, look specific into any safety concern that's associated with GM food (another words, whether GM food is really safe or not), but to investigate whether the EU had followed reasonable procedures in forming regulations. Put simply that means - if their safety concerns were proved to be unfounded, then they were obviously wrong in drawing up regulations equal to a de facto ban on all things GM; don't get me wrong - regulations are fine, but reality is that it obviously pissed many people off because it seemed too excessive. So, if you have read about this somewhere else and/or by pro-green organisations, don't believe a word those environmentalist nutters said about WTO legitimacy, those are just useless white noise and from people who hadn't a clue about, in fact, anything. No one is fucking complaining about the EU in the wrong for being scared about GM products, but the fact that they had put up excessive regulations that hampers international trade. Any suggestions for webhosts and blog platform? Because I want to move out of blogger, the downtime is really pissing me off...

The blogger meeting today...

2006-02-05T14:40:00.000+01:00

I went afterall, and had a couple of pleasent surprises, which I may or may not talk about later (kinda tired right now). We talked about a few things, and overall it was a nice experience and my curiosity was fulfilled (finally!). As to whoever wrote that comment about me at the gathering - I should try and write more post in Chinese in the future. :P Time to sleep... Update with my side of the account of the meeting: (Ok, I will bloody write it in Chinese this time; I think Stackey wrote that comment about me...) ��W�T�I�Q��!M�ڦ]��ɮt��Y��ӤF�C ��`�ӻ��M��f��~��^��䪺�H��|�g��y��]�A�ˡz��ɮt��D�]�S�O�O�F��Z��^�C�ڨëD��H�M�۵M�]��|�ҥ~�C��]�A�˪��N��²��w�w��_�ɡM�U�Ȯɤ+K�}�l��W�ΡM�O�H�C�@��q�^��^�ӧڳ��|��@�a��]�ߤl�C�ߤ@�ѨM�ɮt��G�k��K�O�Q�Τ@�ܨ�ӬP�aM��ղz�ίv�ɶ��Q�S�Ϊ̥i�βr�Īv��f�M��j��Q�h�p�ɪ��ίv��A��ܤȩ]�C �]�\�O�ڦ~��ɱ`�`�βr�Īv�o��f�a�S��M�~��ٻ��~�g�Ө�F�Q�]�]��`�ȥͯf�M�ҥH�K�u�n�C�C��v�ɮt��D�C �Q�ѤU�Ȳz3�O�ڪ��ı�ɶ��M��F�X�ubog-you��իȻE�|�M�K�i��ťX�h�F�C�Ʊ�ڱ˨��]��H��R�A�T�j�N�Q�O�T�^��ߥi�H��ʲ��H�C�]��꦳��n��ʪ��S�^ ��ƫe�ڥu�O�h�ۤK��ߺA�M�Q�ݬݨs��իȬO��ˤl�}�F�M��L�̫��٬O��o�D�`�ɿ��C�_��X�u�o�ӻE�|�G�M�O�ȱo��C �N�p��e�һ��M�E�|��X�ӥO�ڦL�H�`�誺��ߡM�b��P�P�Q²��g�X�C ��M��3�ӬO�̿��F�E�|��@�H�M��I�}�l�M�M�ӧڤT�I�~��i�@�ثǡC�_��٦��I��i�M�]�\�t�a�̧ڹﲳ�H�h�ۤ��ִq�w�w��j�a��ڦb�ո��̻{�Ѫ��j�a�@�ˡM�S��'O�C ��F��~�y�@�ثǡM�Q�ӭ��3�⶧�x��M�ڥ^�^�ƤF�H�Ƣw�w��G�Q�ӭӡC�L�̤��|�H��ڦ�b�R�'a�S�A�Q�ۤv3�ӬO�̿��F��@�ӡM��ɮg�Ӫ��إ�3�Ӥ��֡C ��i��x�M��M�Pı��|�g��R�C��ı�T�O��ı�TShit�T ��H��n�ݧڡC�y�A�O�ְڡT�z��n��ӷ��h�h�M�o�{��DVC��Ӥ��N�O�m�Y��s�D�n��L�l��S ��W��W��]��줣�Ρy��^��谥��z�O�S�^�M�b��Ҧ��H�J�M�y��T�z�F�@�n�C �A�̷F�ܡS��D��H��a�ܡS �y�`�`�ʤf��ӡS�z�L�l��ݧڡC ��S�ڱ`�`�ʤf�ܡS �ڥu�n�W��ۧ_�{�F�L��D�M�M��ۭӨ�{��@�ǧ��a�觤�U�C ��M�³�Marky��ѡM�L�̵��ڪ��Ĥ@�ӦL�H�O�w�w�y�¥��١S�z �ڤ]�M�M��F�X�y�M�i�O�K�K�o�å��a�O�Өk��S�k�H�Ѫ��o�ئW�r�S��L�ܻ��^�ӥL��y�թMStackey��ٯu��C Ana�MSinfairy�M�ڷQ�H��@�Ҥ@�ˡQ�̱�M�賣�O�즸�{�ѡCDan Ryan�MStackey��ڷQ�H��~��C �ݵۧY�N��b��L�l��X�ݮɩ��M��F�]�g��׭�M��E�|�W�K�F�Y�ª��^�M��L�L��ı�o�ܦ��M�i��O�]��L�o��I�{�u�ҥHı�o��CSinfairy��ڤ]3�ӥh�@�Ѳ��M�ڥu�n�W��ۻ��Q�x��]�O�o�˼g�a�S�^�]�O�즸�{�Ѫ��իȡC �L�l��Ӵ'ک��ɮɰݤF�X�Ӱ��D�M�y�A��M��W�g�F�誺�A��ɬۦP�S�O��ʮ�5�a�S�z�ڨS��ߧY�^3�L�M��M�}�x��ӳX�ݡM3�Ӯ�ѵ��F�L��ðݡC��ɸ��U�ťաM�u�n�ɥL��~�M��L3�ӷ|�Q�L�R�ŧa�S�L��O�絹�ѱC�ݪ��]�o�O�gThis Teacher Blogs��իȡ^�C Marky�ݧڳܤ��ܭ��b�w�w��O��b�D�w��@�W�իȸ��e�Ӫ��M��ۤv�{�b��ܰs�ҥH�u�n��ڤF�C��ӵo�{��Ӱ��F��b�ٰe�Ӥ@��}�G��A��M�u��߫䪺�k�ġCMarky�S�i�D�ڦb�ȤW�g�U�ۤv��w�ΰQ��իȩM�P��M�O�X�ߵ�i�H�o��~�Q��U�ťաM�u�n��v��g�C �M��o�ͤF�y�B�E�s�ƥ�z�w�w�̱��MDan Ryan�M�ڳ��M��Q�k�̻ͭz�ٻŦ�B�E�s�Q��|�O�S��ı�o3�ӬODR��ˤl�̹��M�̱��k�M�O�Y�ӥx��ҢءQ�ڶܡS�֤]��M��H�U��ݩx��o��]�o�ODaytona��᪺�E�|�Ӥ�^�C�n��ܡM�٬OAna��ӡy��°��ϬY�g�z��!]�ڥu�O�o��°� :P�^�C �̫�M�کMDR�o��y�B�E�s�S�̡z�y�Q�G�z�ۻ{�M�ƽ]�D�`�C ��F�\Ū�P��ɶ��ɡM�X�{�F�@�Ӹ��Ԫ�|�Ϣw�w��@�i�o��P��S��H��]��L��o��̬ODR�MJacky�^�M��]�O�y��׹L��E�P�M�o��̮��ͩR�M�I�z�]�o�@�q�j�a��3�ӷ|�b�L�l��podcast��ݨ�M�G��ء^�Q�ٽЦ��ߤH�Ѷ}�ڳo�κðݡC �|�I�b�M�쥻��U��w�g��o�C�C�K�K�M��M�y�j�i�z�]�j��q�i�^��W�q�x�X�ݮɫo�O�V�ӶV�s��r�M�󦳩��M�ΤO�MRyan�MĬ��]�S�q��a�S�^�M�e�N��M�M��MSherfield�]�ëD�իȡM�o�O�y�}�W�Өӡz��ǴC�H�T�^�@�_�Q�פ��ǴC�M�g�ո��D�M��q�}�h�Q�b�o�̦h�¤j�a��_�Q�P�W�쪺�N��M�u�Ʊ�j�a��Q�ڪ��o�ܴe�ˡC �]�p�G�Qťť��e��ܡM�y�}�x�z��N�|��o��podcast�X�ݡ^ �쥻��I��E�|�M�j�a��줻�I�٬O��h�M�D�`��ɿ��Q�̫�M�³��j�٨��F�X�y��K�̨̤��˦a��}�@�ثǡC ��ӻE�|��F�ګܦn��Pı�M�ߤ@�P��Ѫ��O�M�]��֩M�t��Y�S��n�n�M�X�u�E�|��Ҧ��իȲ�ѥ��D�M�S�O�O�šMStackey�M��H�]�٦��@�ǨS�ӱo�λ{�Ѫ��իȡ^�M�Ʊ��A��ͪ��|�C �]��S��^�W�s��իȹD�p�^ ��¤j�a��d��M�Ʊ�u��̪��ڨS��j�a��]��]�j�a��ڳo�p��l��q檺�ܡ^�C �M��ݧڡR�y�Aı�o�A��άO�^�ꪺ�v�T��j�S�z �ڵ��R��!M��̤]��M��L�^��v�T�ܤj�N�O�C�ڪ�q��診�@�M��}�񪺱Ш|��k�M�q�ӾǷ|�F�W�ߪ��ҼҦ��Q��䪺�v�T�٬O�b��M�_�X�ک��l��٦��ۤ��H��M��a��Q�M�y��I�N�O�y��X�z�z�C �ڤ��|�W��ۤv�u��H�@�M��Q�M�u�n�O�A�αo�y��Q�ڳ��|�ĤJ�ۤv��ͬ��C

This is the end, my only friend, the end...

2006-02-04T02:56:00.000+01:00

Touched down at HK international airport today, after an 11 hour flight. Yet again confirm my developing cronic hatred for long haul flying. My ears are still fucking hurting from the abrupt change in cabin pressure - afterall from 30000 feet to ground zero is quite a considerable drop, and the pilot probably felt obliged to fly straight down to the runway instead of slowly circling down, which contributed to my pain. I swear, if either/ or both of my ears popped due to landing procedures (or rather the crapness of it) I'm going to sue the airline company (whichever one I happened to fly with at the time) for a couple of billion dollars in physical damages, just for fun. Since the Eygptian car accident involving Hong Kong tourists a couple of days ago, this happened - even more hardcore than your car accident, a fucking cruise ship was sunk in the Red Sea! Yet many more people died, which kind of makes you think "Are these merely isolated incidents whose inadequete safety measures are at fault, or rather these are coordinated (terrorist) actions?" I love a consipiracy theory... My life as a full-time irresponsible student is officially over, and a new, more challanging, phase of my life is going to unfold in front of me, so watch this space. Meanwhile, should really tackle the jetlag so I can goto the blogger meeting tomorrow...

News today...

2006-02-02T18:40:00.000+01:00

...As I've done pretty much everything there is to be done before I return to Hong Kong, I've come to a couple of pieces of news that's fascinating to read: 1) As for the HKers who were killed in Egypt in the New Year holidays, I offer my most sincere condolences. These things do happen, and although we can't really help them to get through this tragedy, the best we can do is to learn from them - that means buying travel insurances wherever you leave HK for travelling. 2) Shell announced record profit for financial year 2005, which stood at 13 billion pounds. Hardly surprising really, considering how high the oil prices are now, and just another confirmation of the manipulation of the oil market by multinational oil giants...having said that, Sinopec, PetroChina and CNOOC are probably good buys for this year. 3) Saudi Arabia had boycotted Danish goods import, and members of Hamas in Gaza had surrounded the EU embassy, both demanding an apology from the EU, for allowing the Danish Newspaper Jyllands Posten to post offensive images of the prophet Muhammed, founder of Islam. Shown below are pictures that I can find from the internet on those cartoons; but if you want my opinion, they aren't that blasphamous really, not at least compared to some of the images people made against the Catholic and Christian churches (what can be more sick than a gay priest fucking a little boy from behind?). As a Chinese capitalist dog who was brought up in the secular United Kingdom (or even the Confusian China), I think the last caption presents a very strong point.

If you want a great response from a muslim on this matter, read this.

1/2/06...

2006-02-01T22:13:00.000+01:00

...booked my return flight - friday morning. Something happened in HK so I have to go back earlier than expected (nothing bad, so no worries). Listening to the ever-so-depressing Lost Souls by Doves, suddenly feeling a great sense of nostalgia and distances...

30/1/06...

2006-01-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

...I touched down at London Heathrow at 620am today, and after being awake for 14 hours (I vaguely slept on the plane for about 11 hours, which was God blessed) I've done pretty much what I came here to do...all except packing. I have arranged everything to change over to my fellow housemates who will be carrying on living at the house without me. I'm very grateful to have 2 very understanding housemates who aren't too pissed off about me ditching them and working in Hong Kong. I felt that I owned them loads because you know how tenents are always binded by that fucking tenency contract and its terms, and therefore I should do as much as I can without putting too much burden onto them and their work. As my last days in the UK become imminent, suddenly I started to miss this God forsaken country. Although it's always cold, always bloody raining and always make you feel shit, afterall I have given more than a decade of my life growing up at this place, from just a little boy to now an independent adult - in England's green and pleasent land, as William Blake put it. There were memories both good and bad about this country - I made lifelong friends, experienced life that I never could have in Hong Kong, fell in love (and heart broken) for the first time, blah blah blah. It's in this country, because of it's freedom, that I was encouraged to pursue my interests, things that I wanted to do where I wouldn't stand a chance elsewhere. In the end my mother was right, if I stayed in Hong Kong I will probably either end up in jail or fail at school and live on doll money because of my personality just wouldn't survive within the Hong Kong education system, and hence becoming a reject. Now that I have 2 degrees and climbing loads of ladders at the same time, I wish that my mum would be proud of her son should she be around today. As many bad points as there exists, and how I severely bitched about this country, it and its people developed me into who I am today, and I am always grateful for that. My life, and the country I grew up in, showed me how lucky a person I am compared with some people. All I need to do now is to stay awake...

The New Year comes...

2006-01-27T17:42:00.000+01:00

Just want to wish everybody a happy new year, live long and prosper, make loads of money, have lots of kids, and suceed at whatever you want to do in the coming year, meanwhile I will be leaving HK for London on Sunday night to go back to pack...

A little note about the hkbloggers meeting...

2006-01-25T15:37:00.000+01:00

...although I don't really who will be going to that bloggers meeting (only two bloggers I know will be), but I will probably be going (although I haven't paid yet). PROBABLY in this case means that I am coming back from the UK on the 5th of February, so I don't know if the jetlag will get me, but I believe plenty of sleep before and Red Bull will help me through it - it's a Godsend that 7-11 now sells Red Bull in Hong Kong, that yellow stuff had helped me through some hardest times before...

The verdict:

2006-01-25T05:24:00.000+01:00

GOT THE JOB, WILL BE STAYING IN HONG KONG. Now it's time to go back to the UK and pack, and then I may have to desert this blog for 3-5-7 years working/studying towards being a chartered accountant in Hong Kong...or maybe not, I will find time to write something uesless and bitch, however hard it may be in the future. But, Shatin - Sheung Wan everyday? Jees...

Midnight of 21/1/06...

2006-01-20T17:57:00.000+01:00

...as usual and not surprisingly, I can't sleep again. It hadn't happened to me for a while now (since summer anyway), although that doesn't necessarily means that I am cured from such occasional insomnia (whether the origin of it is incidental or psychological is beyond me), sigh... It probably has something to do with my intensive use of brainpower lately - thinking about mortgages, cash flows...money matters, and my life in general. It may sound melodramatic and too sentimental at times, but constant self-assessment is one of the most effective way to improve on any matters, after all being criticized is one thing, but realizing where one has gone wrong oneself isn't as easy as it seems; some people are vain enough to think that they are, in fact, perfect. "Life, just take it as it comes man, what is there to contemplate about?" A friend once said this to me. Am I simply thinking about meaningless things too much or otherwise? One thing that confuses me is this - Is thoroughly planning one's life really exclusive from phrases such as 'take life as it comes'? I used to face things as they comes, and react according to how I felt at that time, what situation I was in, and possible consequences my actions may provoke, or even evoke. As I gain more and more experiences and caused yet more blunders to myself and others, it's becoming increasingly impossible to just take things as it comes - at the very least, I realized that one really can't be reactive to the outside world. Bruce Lee once said, "When someone attacks you, don't defend, attack!" If one takes proactive approach to problem solving, then it implies exerting control, before you're being controlled by outside forces. Socrates was the proclaimed man of wisdom because he knows truly that he knows nothing, and I guess what I am going through also happens to other people - as one knows more and more, one cannot stop having the feeling that even though one is no Socrates, at least one can try ones best to control whatever is happening and/or will happen in front of ones eyes. As I take more and more control of my life and what I project my life will head, it's blatant that there are some things which are totally in my grasp, and some that are totally out of my control. Ever since I was young I was exposed to both sides of the science-religion argument - my boarding school was an Anglican school and my education was based heavily on science - I hold no religious belief that everything has a creator and all things then and now serves a purpose; if Quantum mechanics can explain even macroscopic phenomena by purely statistical measures, why is it so hard to accept that things happened by chance? (Please note that I have no wish to debate about the first cause here, so don't) There are things in life that are imminently close in sight - things that will happen today, tomorrow or in no time; and then there are things that are really fat-fetched, either way in the past or way in the future. For us who are mere mortals, is it really that meaningful to search for the (non-)existence of God? Even if we manage to (dis)prove God's existence, will that feed our families? Probably. How about discovering the meaning of life? Probably not, because the society we live in runs with a different mechanism. If you're starving, will that same answer save your life and put you out of misery? Probably will, but not in a constructive way. Fortunately I have no imminent problems that I cannot solve, only those with outcomes that I seemingly cannot control at all. These couple of years I have taken my life literally with my own bare hands and took it towards a direction that I kind of intended it to go, but lately that doesn't seems to be enough, because there are too little proportion of it that I can control, but too much that I can't. If I had less ambitions in life I probably would have gladly accepted the fact that there are things that are simply beyond my control, then give up and live the rest of my life as a normal human being just like other people; at one point in life I really did feel that my life was fulfilled, I was living pretty much in peace and at one with the situation I was in, until one day my mother suddenly passed away...I still can't forget what that whole tragedy meant to me; I guess it all comes with constant self assessment - my mother's death had taught me more things than she had actually taught me whilst she was alive, and how much of an influence she had on me, both good and bad. Like it or not, we are like a sponge that absorbs very much from what's happening around us (especially when we are young, but not confined to adulthood), and we apply it into our daily life - that's one of the most fascinating aspects of psychology, and whatever decisions we make we are conscious of it, because we made that decision based on our conscious streams of thought. Freud categorized consciousness into the famous 3 - id, ego and super-ego. We pretty much base our decisions on those 3...and also outside influences. One of the things that changed me is that there really is nothing that I cannot do, only things that I don't want to do. I have already changed some of the habits some people struggle with all their life; some of the things I've done is a prove that my new found philosophy in life is at least applicable on my own matters. At least now I know that I can influence myself, I've done one half of Sun Tzu's most famous proclaimation, "Know yourself and your enemy, and you shall win in every battle." (in this way, Sun Tzu seems to have even more wisdom than Socrates because he went one step further) Lately one comes to realize that although there really are things one cannot control, one can at the very least try to influence the outcome; When I was young, because of my sometimes unhappy life experiences I tend to turn inward for self-comfort, and although such symptoms seemingly cured itself during university times, my mother's death had totally shattered my mentality and I retreated inwardly for quite a while until I can regain some sort of composure. It's not until very recently that I realized that even outside forces can be influenced one way or another - whilst I was working for the previous job I had (which lasted 2 weeks) as a credit analyst trainee (frankly speaking it's just interviewing company directors and compiling a credit report based on the information obtained) I interviewed directors of companies big and small...ok so I haven't interviewed any big bosses from multinational corporations, but some SME (samll and medium enterprises) are bigger than I thought, and as I interviewed those so-called directors, it suddenly daunted on me that these people are merely human, and most of the time words alone can already influence them into giving in formation that I needed to do my job (given how reluctant some people seemed when asked about sensitive information about the company). Of course I didn't excel at a job that I've only been doing for 2 weeks, but I've already learnt more than I thought I would. What that means is - those so called outside forces that I cannot control are actually no more than forces exerted on me by other people, and if I am ever able to get to the person who exerts these forces on me, then at least there's a chance of influencing them, and hence the outcome (providing they're the cause). For example, there are reasons why I wasn't considered for a particular job - the interviewer thought that I wasn't suitable, or someone else was better qualified than I was at that job. With hindsight, I could have influenced the outcome of that interview by being better prepared, know someone that can get you the job, or kill the other candidates. Whilst the last possibility is only one of the extremes, it really isn't that hard to network with other people right? And being better prepared is even easier. Of course there are no guarantees that I will eventually get that job, and that's just to prove my point that even outside forces can be influenced, simply because us humans are such inferior being that can be influenced one way or another. We live in a society intensely overpopulated by humans, and therefore it's only reasonable that we sometimes feels the effects from causes not by us but by other humans...basically speaking, if you don't have a clue what I've just said above, I can summarize it for you in two words - Chaos Theory. In our society, so much is happening that it becomes mission impossible to trace every single cause and effect back to its origin, however if you've studied Chaos than you will realized that although chaotic actions are in no way predictable (it's unpredictable in the fact that once the starting conditions were changed, even by the slightest amount, the latter chaos is in no way the same as the previous chaos), most of them are observable, and if one thinks hard enough a relationship can be derived from it, eventually; our brains has a natural talent for spotting patterns, even seemingly chaotic ones - a maths professors room is like hell to his students, but he can find everything that he had eer published in those Everest of papers. The latest range of HSBC adverts had one line which I think gives food for thoughts - a different point of view is simply from a place where you are not. Referring to my first questions, I simply hold a different point of view - my life had told me that contemplating about life isn't necessarily exclusive from the reactive attitude of take life as it comes, if one had planned and anticipated what could and would happen imminently, and then one can afford to relax and be reactive, because chances are you already attacked it. Maybe that's another part of what my mother's death taught me - in planning one can anticipate things that can happen, and to do that different perspectives have to be thought out. Good night. Thank you for listening.

My life as a movie...

2006-01-20T16:00:00.000+01:00

Erotic Thriller

You've made your own rules in life - and sometimes that catches up with you. Winding a web of deceit comes naturally, and no one really knows the true you. Your best movie matches: Swimming Pool, Unfaithful, The Crush

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

Jees...that thing just makes me a fucking pervert...

Some thoughts on New Year Resolutions...

2006-01-19T17:58:00.000+01:00

(felt like writing something tonight, so I am risking a late night writing this, in expense of the busy day that's ahead of me tomorrow...) I never bothered with new year resolutions. From a very young age I've already discovered that life doesn't work on a 'you get what you want' basis, so I remember once when my primary school teacher asked me what I wanted to do as a new year resolution, I simply answered "nothing." Doing nothing is the simplest way out of everything, well at least for a kid of 5 anyway. Although that would probably make people think I'm lazy bastard because I don't bother, I beg to differ. I'm a kind of workaholic - I can work for a whole working day without eating a single gram of food, just living on water or sometimes sugary drink, and I've done it throughout my education, dissertation projects and at work (except for a summer job when I was working as a warehouse assistant, you really can't do those jobs without eating anything). The thing a workaholic dread most is that there's nothing for him/her to do - when I was in UK trying to find a job, I got so bored because I simply had nothing to do that I started draining all the alcahol in my house, in order to kill time (some people call this functioning alcaholism). However, if I'm working on things at home I simply don't eat at all, even though the fridge is only steps away from my study. "How can you mistreat yourself like this?" Whenever my wife found out that I didn't eat whilst doing things at home she puts up her angry face. I don't blank out messages from my stomach, when I'm hungry I do feel it like a normal human being, but since I am only doing work with my brain and not my body I tend to ignore/tolerate those seemingly meaningless messages; after a while the hungry feeling will die off, and then I can work without thinking about food for the rest of the day. I love eating, and it's a known fact that I have a bossy taste for all things edible, however, for me food simply isn't as important in the hierarchy of life as other things like money, and having lots of it. Back to the main point. Although I don't make up new year resolutions in particular and on purpose, I do set myself targets - my degrees and other things that I'm learning and doing right now are all set according to what I want to do with my life and money, and luckily I always get to complete what I wanted to do. People set new year resolutions because they want to do them, but how many actually gets them done? Something like saving money for a house is a long term thing and is therefore understandable if it wasn't completed in under 1 year, but how about simple things like stop smoking, stop swearing too often, stay happy and be nice to people, make friends, learn to cook and make cocktails etc? For me, new year resolutions are perfect examples of how life works - if you want something, you must pay for it (one way or another - with money, time etc.) - and how many people simply misses the point. Or put it this way - if you didn't set a target, then there won't be disappointment at the end of the year if you didn't complete it, because you fell short of your own expectation. That may comfort most people. I had a friend who always claimed that he wants to stop smoking, and that became his new year resolution and motto...but after 5 years, to this very day he's still smoking. I stopped smoking cold turkey about 3 years ago, and I didn't even make it a new year resolution. Of course, I also have targets that I haven't yet succeed - work in the investment banking industry, but for me that's one of my long term targets and I am now finding other ways to equip myself with knowledge and experience, and prepare myself for this long term target. My life told me that if you want things done the target itself isn't really that important - that's simply your starting point - it's hard enough for some people to realise what they actually want to do with their life; the most important thing for completing any target is perseverence and constant self-assessment. I guess the former is the point that most people don't want face because it implies hard work; I am also one of the victims at times - I always felt that 24 hours just aren't enough to do all the things I wanted to do, so I was forced to give up doing things like writing and reading (I still read, but at a much slower pace than before), which I don't want to give up at all. If I need a new year resolution, one of them will definitely be to sleep less, because it seems that I must sleep a lot if I am to retain enough energy to start the day, but as I said before, there's only 24 hours in a day, and if I need more time to do things then I must give up my sleeping time (averaging at 8 hours+ so far), and probably in expense of my health in the long run...probably not, I am sleeping more now because I don't have to wake up early to goto work, when I get a job (again) I will probably have to sleep less and work more anyway. Speaking of which, someone once told me how the relationship between money, family and health changes with age - When you're young money > family > health, if you don't have money you simply can't feed your family, and therefore money was earned in expense of family (less family time etc.) and health. As you reach middle age family > money > health, as you accumulate more and more money in the bank, with investments and insurances and all that, money becomes less and less important and you can concentrate more on your family, but since you're still working the issue of health just seemed too far-fetched to bother yet. When you're old health > family > money, when you don't need money and your family don't need you anymore, health suddenly becomes more important than anything - the rapid deterioration of health with old age can be very daunting for most people. The above relationship doesn't only show how money becomes less important with age, but how family is always more important than the other two, and how much people tend to neglect health because we have it. My grandpa-in-law (and indeed, many old people) is the perfect example, his colourful life story confirms the saying. However, what I couldn't agree with is what this person then say to me, "therefore you should take more care of your health now, before it's too late." Damn it! If I start to be scared of ill-health and dying now, then how am I supposed to work towards all those things that I want to do? What good is health if one has no money and can't feed its family? Can I eat my own body or my family if I get hungry? (theoretically yes, legally no) Thinking as I wrote, another reason why I don't set new year resolution is because there are simply so many things that can happen in one year/the future that can put you off-course your targets - last year I would have absolutely no idea that I will be in Hong Kong moving house and all that. Because there are simply so many possibilities of things happening, and everytime something happened it brings up new possibilities of doing other things, it seems to me kind of meaningless to set petty targets because you never know what will happen to you, and how you will react to it, and what the reaction means - it may mean giving up your previous target. What will you do when that happens? Give up your old target so you can pursue the new one? Or vice versa? If you set rigid targets then you will be bound for doom because most people will spend most of their time either struggling with the decision and/or regretting their reaction because they can only choose one or the other. Nike had a great motto that it used for many years - just do it. If you just do it and not waste time worrying about what if and what if not, you maybe more comfortable facing the road ahead of you, kind of like what I'm doing now. This is not to say that one should be a hot-headed fool because that implies eventually failing at everything; just as my wife always nags me that suitable risk management is desirable, but be bold once you laid out what you want to do. New year resolutions or not, targets are, afterall, starting points, one still has a long way to go once the whole thing is started. Time to sleep. Thank you for listening.

Update: 18/1/06...

2006-01-18T14:11:00.000+01:00

Just got back from a 3 day trip to Beijing, went sightseeing, ate weird food, did things, and froze my bloody bollocks off (it was -5 c on Tuesday). Before I leave, I decided that I should try my best to goto the hkblogger's meeting, although I wanted to stay anonymous, eventually curiosity got to me and I decided that I should take a mental picture of what everybody looks like, and if they're similar to what I think they should be like... Lately I got myself into some cash flow problems because of the soon-to-be-my-new flat, and therefore for the time being taking out a mortgage is inevitable (unless you can get a personal loan equal to the price of the flat from the bank, which I deemed unthinkable since I don't have a limited company), and since I foresaw the problem to solve itself by May matters maybe more complicated than I first thought (early repayment penalties and intestest and all that); but no worries there because your humble host already has the solution in hand...it's all in the plan (smile).

More days without blogging...

2006-01-15T14:30:00.000+01:00

...searching for a place to move lately, found a great flat at below market price (which is quite hard to do in Shatin, I was busy at it for about a month), it's in central Shatin and I will be moving by April, and meanwhile doing more stuff. The place I'm living in right now is too big just the two of us (that's me and my wife), and transportation and mangement fees and all that are too expensive for my current financial situation; plus I am living in one of the most under-priced place in Shatin, I need to move to a designer flat, because I need to free up capital and really implement my long-term investment strategies. I really don't know when I will resume normal blogging action, but I have so much stuff to bitch about - education system reform, gold, January effect and Ben Bernanke etc...damn! Sorry folks...

Yesterday, I had an operation...

2006-01-10T14:04:00.000+01:00

...yes, a real medical one, however, no worries because it's only a little one. I had a keloid scar on top of my left ear, therefore I had it removed by corrective surgery. Normally I won't even give half a nanolitre of fuck about these things, but you know how traditional Chinese people believes in ear luck...you probably had guessed it by now, I was nagged into doing this operation by someone like my grandma, and to be honest I had no choice but to do it. So, the operation took 3o minutes, and I was only under partial anesthetic on my ear, and then I was free to go! I was going to keep that bottle of meat (it was a cartilage with some meat attached) in saline, cut off from my ear, as a trophy at home, but my wife had already thrown it away...even before I had a chance to take a picture and post it up here...damn!

My 50 minutes at Hang Seng Bank (Shatin New City Plaza Branch), plus other things...

2006-01-05T06:11:00.000+01:00

1) I just found out that Blog-You has a gathering on 5/2, unfortunately I will be leaving Hong Kong on the 4th, I can't go, but maybe it's for the best for one reason or another; keeping The Dustless Workshop anonymous is one of the reasons why I keep writing to this very day...although I wouldn't mind showing up under another alias :P 2) Although I will be returning to the UK after the Chinese New Year, hopefully it won't be permanent - if my plans turn out the way I forsaw it, I will only be going back to the UK for no more than 2 weeks, whilst I pack my things and finish off any business I may have in the UK, and return to HK and work permanently here. Like they say, if the Goddess of Luck takes a liking on me today, it will probably be the last time I go back to the UK for a very long time, and doing a dream job in a place where I belong. 3) Networking is more important, and more effective than I ever foresaw it to be. This I have my mother to thank, she maintained such a large social circle during her life, and like all other things, if it wasn't for my mother I wouldn't be who I am today. 4) I have reached a mutual agreement with my boss that I won't be going to work anymore after the new year holidays (that was a couple of days ago), because I have to return to the UK 'soon' and have an operation (yes, medical ones) in just a couple of days, therefore it's probably for the best that I quit that job, and for them to find a new guy. I liked the people there, especially my boss because he's friendly and an immensely funny guy, shame I couldn't work for him for a little longer. 5) I'm planning on something big (well it really isn't that big, but certainly big by my own, and most ordinary people's standard), and I shall publicise how the whole thing came about, and the result of it by summer, when it supposedly finishes. 6) If any of you have been reading my blog regularly you will probably know that I hate banks with a vengence, even though I would like to work for one. On a cloudy Monday afternoon I went into Shatin's New Hang Seng Branch to deposit some money into an account, as instructed by my dear wife. If it was in cash I would have done it on a machine, and if it was cheque I would have just stuck the cheque into the letter box (both of which I did), but there are also other transfers that I need to do (cashing cheques and depositing etc.), so after the easy job I came to wait in the queue. If any of you ever tried to deposit and cash of cheque in any of those banks in central Shatin (especially the big ones like HSBC or Hang Seng) you will know it's a fucking nightmare, literally, because there are always so many people, even with the so called premium account I sometimes have to wait for a while if I want complicated instructions to be carried out. Normally banking matters wouldn't be a problem for me and my wife because we have a joint premium account so that none of us will ever have to wait in those queues. Not today, because I have to deposit money and cash cheques and more deposit and more transfers in Hang Seng bank, and since I haven't got any HS account therefore I will be treated the same as everyone else, which means long queueing time. Whilst waiting, I figured that if a person wastes 1/10 of their life waiting for things, 1/8 of that time will probably be wasted waiting in a fucking bank; so therefore it's only fair if the banks actually do something about this matter. I've been to literally all the banks in central Shatin once trying to find out which bank has the highest HKD deposit rate (as of 19/12/05 it was Communications Bank), and I have observed how different banks tried to tackle these issues - the most memorable one is HSBC where it has a ticket system: you take a ticket, and then come back at a certain time slot to be served; that's an ok system as long as you aren't in a hurry; but that's about as much as they can come up with, other banks simply does nothing, or try to encourage people to use ATMs. This Hang Seng branch is a little different - since it's a new branch, up to New Year's eve it's been quite empty (I've been there once already), first of all because most people don't know it existed yet, and secondly they haven't actually advertised the existence of that branch, to give breathing space for the employees working there - they're all trainee officers. Back to the main point - it's forgivable to let trainee do their job slowly until they pick it up, and since most of them are trainee I tried my hardest not to lose any patience; however I have discovered two things whilst I wait - most account holders who uses counter services holds savings booklet; and second (the most important point), they put the experienced counter officers on HS's own premium account counters. Why on earth would they do that? I can understand the need to give the trainees training, and the best way to learn is by doing it, but not when the bank is packed with people and most of all are getting anxious if not angry! They should change over and let the experienced lot sort out the queue, and put the trainee to serve the premium account holders. I did a quick headcount, there were a total of 5 people waiting for premium account counters, whilst there were almost more than 40 people waiting for normal counters! Who's the manager of that branch? Fire that bastard for wasting people's time. You may think that the manager can't let the trainee handle those premium customers because the customers needed to be kept happy (and they certainly won't be if they know they're at the mercy of immature trainees), but in my view that's exactly when the manager should come in. Normally counter officers work with a counter supervisor/manager-type person so they can clear them to carry out certain instruction (normally the card-swiper you see), and to be honest most banking instructions are no more than cash deposit and/or withdrawal, sometimes bankdraft making, transfers, changing money etc.. If the manager is good, he/she should come out and manage his/her workers at the busiest time - let the experienced lot handle the queue, let the supervisors keeping close eyes on the trainees who should be serving the premium customers, and the manager him/herself should run around inside his/her bank like a fucking horse, trying to get people to use the machines if they can - chances are those machines can deal with most people's needs, and they simply don't know how to use the bloody thing and needed to be taught how to. (N.B. Cash deposit ATMs don't need a bank card to operate deposits, you just need to have the account number...and BLOODY YES THEY DO PRINT RECEIPTS!) The other long term solution to the queueing problem is to scrap saving booklets altogether, and just let everyone have a plastic bank card so that whenever they need something they will be forced to use the ATMs (which means that the bank must have more ATMs), and counters are reserved for the more complicated tasks - people make more mistakes than machines anyway, so in this case one should trust that machines are better and more accurate at counting money than people. Although HS bank wasted another 50 minutes of my life, after careful thought it may not be so, at least I've observed a few things and used my brain whilst waiting. 7) Finally, apologies to those who left comments but I have yet to reply, I am busy with other things right now, and I shall return very soon, I promise, if you care to wait.

Can you see what I see?

2005-12-31T02:35:00.000+01:00

Saw this recently on Sony HK's website advertising their new Bravia HD LCD TV. Whilst everybody had been embracing HDTV for a while, and no doubt Sony lovers will want one of these, I saw this ad with a pair of different eyes. As an optics MSc graduand, I can't help but to think to myself - this advert can only be described as weird at best, crap if I was in a bad mood today; to me, this ad shows how little about scientific development the advertising & marketing people Sony hired for this ad knew. Having said that, I think that the most likely case will be the that these data will be given by Sony themselves...so why is that?

Let's see if you can spot the weird thing about this ad. I will post what I think shortly after some of you have answered.

Meanwhile, the European version of the Bravia HD LCD ad is much better, good music as well.

p.s. If anyone ever wondered why my recent blogging action had been so limited, it's because I've got a temp job at the moment, and preparing my way back to the UK after the Chinese New Year...Happy new Year everyone!!

What's the point of this?

2005-12-26T16:36:00.000+01:00

A barrel gun that fires 1,000,000 rounds per minute, watch this video and tell me what is the point of this thing - why do people make such a thing?

Google and Microsoft settled over employee...

2005-12-23T06:36:00.000+01:00

Finally...(from Yahoo news).

Little comments on the WTO meeting and people's reactions...

2005-12-18T15:20:00.000+01:00

...as expected, there was rioting, and police used such force as tear gas against the protestors. I have been following this piece of news the whole week, and saw countless HK bloggers reporting on what they saw. I admit, I have only been watching the cable TV news at night for a round-up because during the day I was running around HK attending job interviews. On Tuesday when I was in Causeway Bay I saw protestors marching on the street, looking really peaceful, someone came up to me and offered me a white plastic wrist band, I showed her mine and kindly refused - her's had stuff like 'No Excuse', 'Down with WTO' written on it, whilst mine was from Oxfam in the UK, and had simply 'Make Poverty History' on it. I have always said, especially to Wiwiana, I am a pro-WTO person, and part of the reason I am interested in Economics is because I sincerely believe that economics and trade can improve these countries - just look at China, it was in shambles after the cultural revolution, when Deng decided to open up to the world, look where it is now...ok so there are great perils lurking just around the corner, but that's another matter. Trade wise China had gained a lot from free trade. Whilst I saw all TV channels in HK going to great lengths to cover what the protestors did and/or how the police reacted - I think the police had shown great curtesy and tolerance in general against these protestors, who are renouned for self-multilation, self-sacrifice by setting light to themselves, throwing petrol bombs etc.. Just check how we did compared to the WTO meeting in Seattle 4 years ago, and don't slag the police off, compared to the Americans we did one hell of a job - I was quite surprised (unpleasently) that the mainstream media (including all newspapers, except �H��) had very little coverage on the minutes of the ACTUAL WTO meeting, and sadly most bloggers seemed to missed this point, instead focusing on the Korean farmers and the bad points about the WTO. No one seemed to give a shit about the economics of it all, and this is a sad sight because it seems that we HKers only go as far as pitying the farmers, instead of thinking constructively about how to help them...rioting with them doesn't really count as helping. In this Hong Kong meeting, this was achieved. It's not much, but one little step is better than no step, as with the case of the WTO meeting in Mexico, which totally broke down. I am also against protectionist measures, but I don't think that the WTO was in a conspiricy with the US and EU to let them set hefty tariffs and huge subsidies to cover their arses - the WTO is simply powerless to intervene with a specific country's economic policy; just like the UN, the WTO is merely an organisation, it doesn't have any political powers. In fact, Hong Kong is a free trade economy, there is no such thing as tariffs, and labour can come in and out freely - if we don't have a free labour market, how did those Pilipino and Indonesian maids ever managed to get into this little city? They certainly didn't emigrate illegally, and think about what will happen to those maids if they can't come and work in HK and have to stay in their own country? Prostitution? Starve on the streets? Don't look down on those Phlipino maids, a large number of them are university graduates, they know more than an average kid or even university student in HK, yet they are here to become a maid, why? There's not even any need for economics here - wherever the money is wherever they will go, simple as that; same as what I'm doing now in fact. I have nothing against those Korean farmers, and I think they have every right to protest against WTO simply because their lifes are at risk, however rioting with violence doesn't solve the problem, free trade and government compensation does. In case you don't know why those rice farmers are angry about WTO, they used to be subsidised by the Korean government, and therefore the price of rice in S. Korea is 4 times more than the global market, recently S. Korea made the move towards free trade and cancelled those subsidies, the farmers feel at stake, and hence the protests. Developed economies like the US and EU have huge agricultural subsidies for their farmers and have very rigid labour market, and it was alleged that they abuse the Anti-Dumping clause (imposing hefty tariffs or providing export subsidies). This is a different case with China since we did it more subtly by keeping the exchange rate cheap so as to make our products extremely competitive in the market (even so China had always been victim of Anti-Dumping). Again, for those of you who don't know what Anti-Dumping is read the simple definition here, and then here. Government pays all kinds of subsidies to keep the price of a commodity (rice, sugar, whatever) up and to keep their own people happy; the beneficiary has no need to worry about market prices, the government will cover their arses, instead of letting the price determined by the market - supply and demand (and/or speculation). The recent cancelling of the sugar subsidies saw EU sugar prices plummeted, which angered much of the Caribean Sugar farmers. What interests me is what people thinks - because rich developed countries have abused this Anti-Dumping clause, and WTO didn't stop them, it must exists solely to serve their evil rich deeds, it is just as corrupt as they are. However, what I want to know is - even if WTO isn't as corrupt as these people think it is, what tangible power does it have to stop a hyper-power like the US and EU to stop their sudsidies and tariffs? "When you're weak there's no diplomacy, you can only do as they say; the only possible way to use diplomacy is to have REAL power." And this is why countries like N. Korea and Iraq, India and Pakistan is trying so bloody damn hard to have nuclear weapons. One interesting question is - is fair trade necessarily free trade? If you want the answer, don't just read what people say on blogs or online, READ THIS BOOK! I've said it many times, Professor Bhagwati (from Columbia University) presented both sides or the argument very clearly in this book objectively, and he isn't biased towards either side, and ultimately came to the conclusion that free trade is actually the better solution than fair trade. I believe that free trade can really improve these poor countries, but cooperation is the key, that's where the WTO comes in, that's why I refused that anti-WTO wrist band and stuck to my Oxfam wrist band instead - I believe WTO can make poverty history. Anti-WTO people should start to have some basic economics lesson. Opening up the market is good, but the S. Korean government should compensate those poor farmers by, for example, buying their land at a much higher price so that they can do something else apart from rice farming, even if they can't do anything with the money they can at least educate their siblings so that they can earn money in the economy. (And come on, farmers only form less than 4% of the global economy, how much compensation can that be?) China had been relatively quiet and mild throughout the meeting, I believe they simply don't want to piss off EU and the US, the two biggest consumers of Chinese produce on this little planet. That's all for the moment, it's back to reality for me tomorrow. p.s. I watched "King Kong" today, it's bloody great, and more things to bitch about tomorrow.

Finally...

2005-12-13T11:01:00.000+01:00

...MY KEYBOARD IS FIXED!!!

�p�G�M�R (Perhaps Love)

2005-12-10T17:11:00.000+01:00

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Hong Kong or the UK?

2005-12-09T06:50:00.000+01:00

That's the question I've been asking myself lately, it refers to where I should work in the future. It should be a rational choice - wherever the job is, wherever I will stay, but somehow I am still asking myself this question today, and couldn't come up with an immediate answer. There really is nothing that I want to do in the UK - with high tax on everything, and most of all it's wet, miserable and bloody cold, the only consolation I get is that I maybe able to get some sort of scientific job there; on the other hand, if I stay in HK to find work, I have to start from the bottom, which means mainly working experience build up, but at least everything is cheaper here, and I get to stay with my wife, and living will be of no problem. I always thought I could try and enter the investment banking industry one way or another (I still do), however after careful thinking I realised that being an investment banker isn't really what I want to do - a really well paid salesperson. On the other hand, even on my own I love number crunching and researching companies' background by reading their financial reports and/or public offering prospectus etc. Although I have no quantitative knowledge in finance, I am more than willing to learn; I registered for an economics and not banking and finance correspondence degree...therefore everything points to financial research. Even the CFA modules look attractive to me. However there is a problem - how to get into it? I may try graduate applications again next year, after thinking about it, I think networking is the key. My mum befriended a couple of investment bankers while she was alive, so it's time to reconnect...if they still remember her, that is. My wife always believed that if I worked for a while in the UK before coming back to stay in HK for good I will stand a better chance of finding a job, maybe she's right. Anyway my return air ticket isn't due until 20th of next month; I already applied for jobs in HK, if I get to work before then, I can then decide whether to stay in HK or goto UK (you don't need notice to leave during probation right?). I also remembered that my mum tried to convince me to do an accounting degree, I refused and did physics - Gosh she was right for once! But if I did accounting then, I couldn't have met my wife, and I probably wouldn't have liked it anyway...so it all comes around in the end. So, if I finally decided to stay in HK, apart from work I will have to study a lot of things - the Economics correspondence degree first of all, and then CFA, and probably LCCI to gain some basic knowledge on accounting, and eventually moving onto ACCA...Gosh that sounds really ambitious! But the problem with these qualiffications is the fact that you need the relevant working experience as well; how about research in optics at HKU? Haven't thought of that before... My mum always told me to get out of HK because she thinks that it has no future, but I always begged to differ. I think that HK has a future (although some people refuse to think that it has), and since I was born here I do feel a sense of belonging, more so than in the UK. Don't get me wrong, if there are opportunities to work overseas (or in the UK) I will still work there, it's just that with Hong Kong everything is more comfortable. I was on the star ferry fro TST to central 2 days ago, the weather wasn't that good and the sea was quite rough, but the moment I saw that huge mother they call the 2IFC building, and imagining that Joseph Yam is working on the top of that building...how is it possible that people think that Hong Kong has no future? The future is right there! Now is time to wait for replies, if any at all, and just keep looking for jobs until I find one. Some people can get a job really easily, unfortunately I don't seem to be one of those lucky buggers, so convoluted it is then!

Busy I am...

2005-12-06T14:25:00.000+01:00

...Lack of post, and I know not many people cares, but I've been lingering around the idea of moving house to free up capital lately (and mainly because my wife wants to move into central Shatin) - rising interest rate is coming to an end, and the US seems to be on its way towards a recession (hence interest rate coming down as quick as going up). I went to a few showings and still thinking about the money side of things. Apart from that, playing around in the stock market, buying/selling bonds and gold, and applied for some of Li Ka Shing's REIT...hoping to make some money obviously. I also went to take the test for some government job on Saturday, which didn't go so well (apart from the English part). Well, it's back to applying for jobs for now...and waiting for rioting to break out when the WTO meeting starts...pop corn is already ready.

Another fascinating incident!

2005-12-02T01:40:00.000+01:00

http://sidekick.myblog.hk/archives/2005/12/02/699/ (Sidekick's page, in Chinese only) I saw this at Sidekick's place. Basically the root of the problem is - she thinks the design of the 4/12 march poster looks very similar to Apple's iPod nano poster (and check it out here, it does look a lot like it), which could lead to copyright infringement. However, what I found fascinating is this - where this row started (in Chinese only), some people leave fascinating comments: It doesn't harm sales of iPod nano, do we really need to waste time on this? I know the person who designed this poster, he's only a student. Pro-democratic movement has only very limited resources, we don't have professional designers, and aren't rich like the pro-CCP people. Copying isn't illegal! And anyway this isn't blatant plagarism, HK people have little knowledge of the law... It's very irresponsible to shout like this if you haven't seen copyright laws. Have you heard of fair Use/fair dealings? Ok so I shouldn't say that HK people lack knowledge of the law...also, copyright isn't absolute. You really can't say that the poster above broke the law, if Apple thinks that it's profit was hit by this, it can sue them... WHAT THE FUCK? OH MY FUCKING GOD! I couldn't believe what I saw from these replies. Since when does copying to achieve political motives becomes fair Use/dealings? As I've said before a long time ago about ��'s case here, the definition and allowed use of fair dealings are only very narrow (first of all, fair Use is the US law term, fair Dealing is the UK law term, both have different definitions, and therefore can't be confused with the other), and if your use don't constitute to the definition, then you're infringing copyright. I will list the definition for fair dealing here again: 30. (1) Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work or of a performance of a work, does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement. (2) Fair dealing with a work (other than a photograph) for the purpose of reporting current events does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that (subject to subsection (3)) it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement. (3) No acknowledgement is required in connection with the reporting of current events by means of a sound recording, film, broadcast or cable programme. You see how narrow the definitions are, and achieving a political motive doesn't count as any of the definitions above. Who decides that a use of copyright material is fair use/fair dealings? Not the person who copied it and thinks he's only using it for fair use, but for the court and the judge to decide! One thing Sidekick said I think is very right: Why are we having the 4/12 March? Isn't it because the Basic Law gave us the right to vote, but the government hadn't gave us so? Whilst we care very much about law-making, and respect the essence of law, we can't just simply ignore creativity and copyright laws right? Why can we just snatch a picture from other and don't think it causes problems? You're damn right Sidekick. These people have no respect for the law! They aren't people, they're what Gordon Wu referred to - fucking mobs! Most of all, these mobs have the guts to use their stupidity to stand up to the thing that's right - that's the law, and don't even think that they are the problem. Stupidity can't even describe how dumb they are, what a waste of space. Maybe Gordon Wu is right afterall, if you let these people have election rights it will really be mob politics - election? What election? Fuck the law! Let's just have anarchy! Yeah! Mobs who don't respect the law don't get to make the law, said I, and these people have shown just that. What a load of shit, democratic movement my arse, they can't even think with their brains, instead with their arses, and Yes, I am very pissed off with those stupid people. When I was writing the previous piece about Gordon Wu's comments, I had the heart to think that maybe these people are good people, they really care about democracy and are respectful people. Until I saw that poster on the side of the pavement in Central, and how these people replied to a voice of reason (that's Sidekick), I changed my mind. How stupid I was! These people don't deserve democracy, because they don't even respect the law that gives us democracy! Update: Fair use and fair dealings. Friends are already asing me about the difference between fair use and fair dealing and why does it matter - Well, first of all, HK law is derived from the UK law, therefore HK's copyright laws uses fair dealing and not fair use like the US. Given that the definition of fair dealing is very narrow (unlike the flexibility the fair use clause has in the US), if what they copied doesn't conform to the definition above then there's a great chance that it infringes copyright. Why does it matter? Because this happened in HK, therefore if Apple sues, then they must file their lawsuit in Hong Kong (just like how Sony sues Lik Sang for exporting PSP to Europe before the official European release date), and therefore we must use HK copyright law, not the US. For those who want to have a look at HK copyright law click here.

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2005-12-01T08:31:00.000+01:00

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Back in HK...

2005-11-29T23:34:00.000+01:00

I was actually back on Sunday, but because of jetlag I am still struggling with sleeping hours, it's 20 to 7 now (in the morning in HK) and I've been awake for about an hour or so....damn it! I will write something very soon (which I always do when I get really bored)...

The current hot thing in the Chinese speaking HK blogosphere...

2005-11-25T13:58:00.000+01:00

As Donald Tsang, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, plans to move Hong Kong closer to her motherland China with his political reforms, large amounts of HK people (including bloggers) were planning to get on the streets of Hong Kong yet again at 4/12 and demonstrate against the government, demanding a general election at 2008. All was fine until Gordon Wu referred to mass protest as mob politics, and pressed the berserk button on these mob, situated at the top of their heads. Suddenly everybody is going to have a fun day out on 4/12! Yeah! General election! Yeah! Down with the corrupt tycoons and government! That's what the HK blogosphere is talking about. Since I hold a HKID card, but practice my voting rights in the UK, and I don't know how my health will be on that day - maybe still really jetlagged - I will just watch it at home, just like what I did on 1/7. However, what fascinates me the most aren't those hot-headed reactions from everybody, but the reason behind Wu's speech, and what his speech had achieved. Want to know why the man said what he said? Look no further than here (from Nude King on the Blog). One genius of an explanation, which got me thinking on three questions - Why did the mass reacted so angrily to Wu? Why do all those people suddenly wanted to go on the street after that comment? And most importantly, what the fuck does Wu have to do with the HK government? The main purpose of this demonstration is to go against the political reforms porposed by Tsang, so no matter what other people say nothing should change the purpose of that right? However, Wu's comment suddenly made more people wanted to go as well, that I failed to understand. Is it because those people don't like being called a mob or otherwise? One blogger commented that Wu is behaving like a kid (in Chinese only), which is right on, but I feel the same can be said about the mob as well - being scolded by their parents, so they decided to rebel against them. But wait! They are implying that what Wu said stand for what the HK government thinks. Why is this? Is it because he's standing up for the government? I don't think so, not after how the HK government screwed him over with that silly bridge. He's not a stupid man you know, but people seems to think that these comments are just like them - hot headed - but in fact it isn't. And finally, why would people listen to what Wu said, and then decided that I should goto this demonstration, against the government? This is the most fascinating thing, Wu said those words, but instead people are going against the government. Hello? You lot should go that way, against Wu! Not the government! Well, yes, the government as well, but do it because what Tsang did, not what Wu said. You think what Wu said was madness? This - people reacting to his comment - is madness! To me, the mass seemed to automatically assume that tycoon = government, in fact all Wu does is to build things (sometimes not very good things), and not a government official, so why does his words matter? This is another classic case of (media) manipulation (just like Tianmen Square and 1/7 demonstration), done consciously by Wu and the media, for whatever reason. The government is the ultimate loser. Why is Wu doing this? Possibly a gesture to remind Donald Tsang that tycoons, not the government, runs this city. Ah! How easily manipulated! December is going to be a fun month in HK, first the WTO meeting and demonstration, the Xmas and New Year celebrations (pretty much the same as a demonstration), and now this. Not to mention that my B-day is on the last day of the year as well. Update: Just talked to my wife on the phone, she offered a much more reasonable view on Wu's intention behind the comment. Instead of focusing on how HK government screwed him up and hence conspiracy theories, we should instead look at his background and what he does. Gordon Wu, she said, isn't just your usual money loving tycoon like the Li Ka Shing, instead he builds roads, highways, all of which are fundamental foundation blocks of our modern societies. Without these roads, it doesn't matter where you live or how cheap your goods are, because there's just no way to transport them around the place. In a way (here comes the crunch), he IS working for the people and society. All in all, he's a pragmatic person. She then said, he's also old, when he's that sort of age, he really doesn't care what people think of him because he's been through more than the rest of us. (This is me, not my wife: I saw some stupid comments from one HK blogger claiming "Does Wu actually know what mob politics is like?" (in Chinese only) I say that's stupid because dude! He was here in the fucking 60s, where there were actually people RIOTING in HK!) Therefore, knowing his background and his pragmatism, his words can be interpreted as follows: If you think that having 1 million people on the streets on 4/12 is going to make the CCP give HKers election rights in 2008, that's just plain stupid. Demonstrating peacefully doesn't ACTUALLY achieve anything, the only form of demonstration that achieves something is by RIOTING, beating the government into submission. Hence Gordon Wu's mob politics comment. In a way, there's a certain element of truth in his comments, and maybe why the people reacted to him so badly, not because he referred to them as mobs, but because his words are hard truths, and it fucking hurts. Update 2: Another friend offered a much simpler explanation - although some people whole-heartedly want to demonstrate against Tsang and his reforms, those who were particularly angered by Wu are doing it out of revenge, to prove him wrong. HKers are proud of how they handled the 1/7 demonstration march, and therefore when Wu commented that people who demonstrates for reforms are mobs, they got really angry and therefore all decided to go out and prove him wrong. People FIRST want to prove Wu wrong, and MAYBE then they will think about demonstrating against Tsang's political reforms. Wu can say those things due to his pragmatism, or he can be consciously manipulating the HK mass, who knows? This is getting a little like Rashomon (Kurosawa film). No matter what it's going to happen, and let's see how Tsang and CCP is going to react.

RIP George Best...

2005-11-25T13:54:00.000+01:00

1946 - 2005.

Chavez gives oil to the US???

2005-11-25T10:57:00.000+01:00

News from Bloomberg here. Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, one of the Axis of Evil as described by George W. Bush, is going to help the poor US citizen living in Boston through the winter by giving them discount hearing fuel - something that neither Chervon nor ExxonMobil (they do EVERYTHING from exploration to petrochemicals) ever thought of doing. In fact, I believe that it's suffice to say that these oil giants were one of the many conspiritors who pushed up oil prices for the last 2 years, until the Bush administration threatened them with windfall profits tax - think about this from another point of view, if only speculators are playing the oil futures market there was no way the Bush administration can threaten them with anything like a reactive tax regime (if that was so then the US market isn't as free as one thought it was), and coincidentally the oil prices started tumbling once Bush had barked...only a coincidence? Chavez is doing this via Citgo Petroleum Corp., which is owned by Citgo, the Venezuela state-owned oil giant, and I believe this is largely a political-friendly gesture, aimed at the Bush administration. What? You think that Venezuela and Citgo didn't profit from the last two years? Look at the Saudis and look at the Russians, they are sitting on a mountain of cash (the Saudis I will talk a little later on, on their exchange rate peg), those are all profits from record oil prices; and do you think Chavez suddenly starts liking Bush and the US because God told him to? Not at all, Bush named him Axis of Evil, and now Venezuela is doing business with China (last year's news from BBC), which the US didn't like, it beggers belief that Chavez suddenly turned into a Christian missionary and kiss US's arse again, they were trying so hard before to cut off any influence from the US (www.venezuelanalysis.com). Therefore, something is up, just needs to find out what. Spain most recently had a deal to sell weapons to Venezuela (International Herald Tribune), which can be vetoed by the US, therefore this could be one of the reasons why Venezuela had turned their attitude around - they don't like the US, but they still fear it, and therefore a little friendly gesture never harms anyone. I suspect that there are other reasons as well, and when I find them I will keep you informed. Citgo, being a US floated, Venezuelan state-controlled oil giant, is helping citizens in the Land of the Free to survive this winter, the land and its markets are so free that Chevron and ExxonMobil couldn't help because it's bad for the free market economy. Money is more important than the poor. Compelling stuff. On the other hand, I believe China and its state oil giants can use this incident to their advantage (or the Russians, and even the Saudis to that nature). True, there's Chinaphobia right now in the US, but what Chavez did was to show the Americans that state-owned oil companies need not be bad motherfuckers, Chevron and ExxonMobil are the big bad wolf, and we all know that in hard times, state-controlled markets helps the people to pull through. Although there is still the other major issue of National Security, but in the future the phobia could be more subdued than it was back in the summer. When you're perfectly capable to do something, but in the end someone else did it for you, it really makes you look bad.

What Advanced degree should you get?

2005-11-24T19:17:00.000+01:00

You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy)

You're a great thinker and a true philosopher. You'd make a talented professor or writer.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Not in physics? Oh well...

Another fascinating incident...

2005-11-24T16:48:00.000+01:00

"There are many interpretations to the same thing, but there's only one damn thing." - The Dustless Workshop, just a minute ago. If you can read Chinese or are a Chi-Eng bilingual person, you probably didn't miss the Chinese post that I wrote bitching about some of the issues surrounding the publishing industry in Hong Kong. Basically, what I said was that it lacks originality and it's very fragmented, a hellhole for all aspiring authors, and those who are unlucky enough to enter as a fiend, well they lack the skills that will make them a true master of literature, merely doing it for a living so they won't starve and pick litters off the street. There have been replies, some agreeing to what I said, and some don't (only one so far alas). (a sidenote, thanks to Ape 3 and Ape 4 who put that little article I wrote under their latest reading column) One comment fascinates me though, from the dear visitor who calls oneself Kumquat, I will translate his comment into English below: There are a few places where I don't agree with you, And frankly I think that your comments has a sour grape taste. First things first, I hold no grudges against Kumquat, he is entitled to say whatever the fuck he like, and so am I, so this post certainly won't contain any hard feelings, I will be analsying this incident from an objective perspective; there will probably be a load of sarcasm, but hey I was brought up in the British private educational system, being nasty is like my second nature (just go and ask Hemlock, he's the master of satire and sarcasm on the HK english speaking blogosphere), and I just can't let go. The most fascinating comments are those who are the shortest, provides no level of reasoning and/or just sounds plain stupid, because it's always a great field day out trying to analyse what these people are getting at. Yes, the same can be said about doctor Gregory House in the US drame series House, played by no other than the great Hugh Laurie, but let me assure you that I have no OCD, I am just plain bored sitting at home. Let me first analyse what I've said - I've pointed out by empirical means (that means looking at the layout of the bookstores in HK. Ok so that's not as empirical as looking at every single bookstore in HK, including the little ones, however, when you look at the pattern of books that the big chain bookstores have against the little ones, one can spot a similar trend, and by inference the same can be said to bookstores throughout HK) that the HK publishing industry lacks originality and the market itself is fragmented. The former being the fact that HK lacks original novels because of the imbalance in the proportion between books that are new and those that are old, and most of the new original novels that are unfortunate enough to be published are sub-par (to my standard, my standard of a good novel is something like 1984 by George Orwell, there you go), and the latter being the fact that strangely the HK publishers only publish certain kinds of books - books on astrology, getting thin, romance stories, ghost stories, and all of the above but written by famous authors. Not much of anything else, in comparison to all the mainstream. To survive in Hong Kong's publishing industry is simple, and any marketing professional can tell you that write any of the above and you shall survive. However, if you want to write literature, unless you get a Nobel Prize you're certain to die lonely and cold, sleeping on the streets of Hong Kong. I have expressed a more sensitive side of me, claiming that since I have published a book with friends I have not much desire left in me to publish another, and I have more important things to do. However, having said that, I would still like to write novels and improve until the right time comes. A rock star has to die young, but a novelist need not to, just look at Stephen King. Even though I have more people agreeing with me than disagree this time, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm right. In fact, when most HK bloggers are debating about the definition of a blog I said that I simply didn't give a shit, and see the noise I got. Now, the first flaw from Kumquat's comment is - no backing reason, and I don't know where he doesn't agree with me and where he does, so I am safe to assume that he doesn't agree with anything I said. Of course, he's entitled to disagree with me, however if he doesn't agree with the main points I pointed out, then Hong Kong's publishing industry must be a perfectly healthy one, with no genre fragmentation and no suffering whatsoever; it's a fair place where everybody can publish whatever they like. But it's not a nice happy place, it never was, it never is, and never will be. It's dark and bleak, period. The second, and most fascinating point, is the sour grape allegation against me. Sour grape implies jealousy, jealousy against something that I can't have, in this case, having works published, get money and possibly fame from it, and just because other people can publish theirs. Jealousy is the reason why I say what I said, why I bitch about the apparent crapness of the HK publishing industry, because I am jealous that I can't be a published author. First of all, I have published work, it's crap (because I wrote it when I was 17, what were you doing when you were 17?) but it's still published, and has an ISBN, therefore technically I am a published author. Can you be jealous about something that you already are? That's compelling stuff. Since I already have (crap) works published, then what about the jealousy about money and fame? Money? I have a load sitting in my account, I have a flat that needs no mortgage, and I have stocks, bonds and other financial instrument, I have signed up to a premium account where you normally need to pay a monthly but because of the amount of investment I have I don't. So money is out of the question. Fame? What fame? Which author achieved instant fame when they published their first works? One Hundred Years of Solitude was Garcia Marquez's most celebrated work, got him a Nobel Prize, but it wasn't his first. Same goes to George Orwell, before Animal Farm and 1984 he was a journalist writing about something else. Gao XinJian with his Soul Mountain won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000, but before that he was a playwright. Therefore, can I unrealistically expect instant fame when I published my first book? No, therefore, having known that consciously, fame is out of the question. Which leaves the final one - jealous because other people can publish theirs. I would be jealous, even admire, if the new works from new authors out there sitting on bookshleves are better written and better expressed than those I wrote myself, or are at the same level, but the truth is most stuff out there is a load of crap, craply written without any substance whatsoever; you can't possibly call that compelling stuff right? What about jealousy against those works that are worse than mine? If I never had anything published, then true I will be jealous, but since I already had something published I am already in there psychologically, therefore seeing those shite in bookstores makes me pity those lowlings who likes to read those things; I am also sorry for those who read my stuff, and that's why I try my hardest to improve, unlike some irresponsible people. I have unleashed some monster into this world, and it's up to me to deal with it. From the above analysis, it can be seemed that the sour grape allegation against me was in fact invalid, because all points break down upon reasoning. In my reply to Kumquat I have replied that I was indeed red-eyed, which implied jealousy. True, I was jealous about the low level of the HK mass, their low level of literacy and their unusually high level of tolerance against reading incoherent words jammed together into what they called a novel, and liking that shit. And dear, if you can't smell the sarcasm, then I'm sorry but you aren't British enough. Some can even go as far as saying that the mere act of replying to such comments implied jealousy because if you don't care, you don't care. True, I do care, but what I care about is something else - I care about someone who have provided no reasoning whatsoever, and falsely accused me of jealousy. In the end, it all comes down to the quote that I used at the beginning, said by myself. Misinterpretation is a dangerous thing, especially when you say stupid things against something that has backing reason and most of all empirical backing, that just make yourself look really stupid. So look out in the future. One can always learn something from fascinating incidents, and this one is no exception. Finally, my motto - I bitch, therefore I am. If there's no bitch, then it's not me. Sinan once shared with me on how he used to argue a lot, and now he doesn't because he has more things to do. Oh I just love being bored.

Yet again!!!!!

2005-11-24T15:06:00.000+01:00

At the beginning of the year 2005 (just before the chinese new year), I went to a shrink (Chinese Astrology in the form of ziweidoushu - ��L��) - I was forced to do so by my wife - to kind of analyse this year for me. One of the main point the shrink said was "�氨�P��" - that means that I will be moving around the place a lot. But I never know it was to such an extent! What the shrink predicted had been pretty much true so far...moved from London to Bristol, then from Bristol back to London, then from London to Hong Kong twice...well you should have guessed it by now, I have to go back to Hong Kong again, for the third time this year in two months! I really should own a commercial flight company or a private jet before I do these sort of things again shouldn't I? Well at least I get to see my wife again, and finish off whatever I have left off last time I left. Who knows? I may even be staying longer this time, since I don't know when I will be needed in the UK again (but don't bet on that, chances are that I will be needed very soon...fingers crossed). One thing is for certain - I FUCKING HATE JETLAG!

�ڬݡmOld Boy�n�M�m��n...

2005-11-23T21:56:00.000+01:00

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�z�Q��H...

2005-11-20T19:19:00.000+01:00

Got nominated by Ana, so might as well do it, although I'm a married man already... Ana actually has a point, what kind of a male doesn't want a physically beautiful and clever woman? It's in our instinct to be attracted by such mass perception of beauty, but to be honest, I have reservations about such requirements. Say I found the perfect woman, will there be more personal development for the rest of her life? Will she find me both mentally and emotionally inferior to her? My wife isn't perfect, but I love her, and she tries hard to improve because she loves me, and although I am nowhere near perfect, I will improve for her because I love her. We have mutual trust in each other, and commitment to stand aside each other in sickness and in health...and all that's cheesy. To me, it's not what your other half is (or what you want your perfect partner to be) that's important, but what you two are willing to do for each other.

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2005-11-20T12:21:00.000+01:00

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Harry Potter and the Globet of Fire...

2005-11-19T22:14:00.000+01:00

Saw it today...hmm...the best in the series so far...

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2005-11-18T12:07:00.000+01:00

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Final Fantasy Advent Children...

2005-11-15T20:57:00.000+01:00

OMFG!!! I know CG nowadays is good, but I didn't know the Japanese pretty much has CG sussed!!! This movie...I am speechless after seeing it. The plot is ok considering it's less than 2 hours long, fight scenes are great and Gosh! I miss Tifa! Need to download the game to play now :)

Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai...

2005-11-14T13:12:00.000+01:00

(Googled this picture, so don't ask me where it's from...) I had no previous experience on Kurosawa as a director - I've heard of films like Ran and knew what it's about (basically Shakespeare's King Lear X Kurosawa's portrayal of medieval Japan) but just didn't get around to watch it, partly because before DVDs are out it's pretty damn hard to find Kurosawa (or much Japanese) films in the UK, and asking a 15 year old kid to watch these films is difficult enough. Lately I downloaded (yes, I'm a bad person) two Kurosawa films Rashomon and Seven Samurai, and I've watched the latter first, and will watch the former later. Rashomon was based on two short stories written by the enigmatic Japanese Novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa (which I have a couple of his collections at home), and Seven Samurai...well it's something else, but one hell of a monster! Possibly the most famous film Kurosawa ever made, Seven Samurai influenced Western copycats like Magnificiant Seven (which I thought was relatively shite) and countless samurai movies and comics (Rurouni Kenshin? Does that ring a bell?). It must feel great to be a true pioneer. I was totally blown away by the sheer power of the film, the plot, together with good cinematography and great actors, drags you into the world of the war-torn historical Japan that Kurosawa created, whether you want to or not, and experience a piece of life that one never imagined. The plot is simple - villagers hired 7 samurai to protect their village against bandits. That's it. However, the film itself is 190+ minutes long. Sin City blew my away with its sheer Ultra-Violence, but Kurosawa can match that, with tonnes of thought provocation, that already sets him apart from all those Hollywood directors he influenced. Ok, to Seven Samurai isn't THAT violent by today's standard, no blood and not much gore, but remember this film was made in the 50's, and what violent films are there in the West during the post-war era? Not many, and they certainly can't match up to this, not until at least 10 or even 20 years later. When I saw the film I really believed that, if I was living in the 50's I would be freaked out by this film. Kurosawa made a film that's years ahead of it's time in terms of it's violence, the plot and the cinematography. If Gone with the Wind is a bestselling novel (which it is), then Seven Samurai is definitely a literature masterpiece - not to everyone's taste, but certainly a field day for literature students to read, needless to say people had written volumes on Kurosawa's movies. He is a true master of the camera, just effortlessly building up the suspence and the tension from start to finish, from samurai searching to total showdown against the bandits; not a single frame was wasted on unnecessary crap like mindless dialogues, sex scenes or just boring background shots, unlike some Hollywood crap they make today. That in itself is an achievement, and I haven't even got onto the best bit of the movie yet. Until one watched this movie, one can't even start to contemplate all of the thoughts that lied beneath the surface plot, what Kurosawa was trying to convey. He portrayed a harsh reality of war that's not really seen in Western cinema, where most war films are tarnished by stupid heroisms, incomplete plots and one-man armies; there's nothing like that in this film I tell you. War is harsh, it's violent, it brings out the worst in man, and people die like flies, the only way to survive is to stay alive, and Kurosawa captured all the essence of war/conflict on camera - so the battle scenes are no way as majestic as Lord of the Rings or his later works like Ran, but the cinematography combined with the BGM, with real sword play killing actions was how they did it in the good old days, brute force, no CG whatsoever - when cheesy Western films uses stage sets in a warehouse for location, Kurosawa did none of that, he just stuffed the actors in a remote mountain location and filmed them. How they did it? They lived there for some time whilst filming I would have guessed; LOTR was nearly as real as this if they didn't have those surreal CG that was required for stunningly fantastic locations. Kurosawa's realism instantly justified the violence he employed, for Kurosawa violence isn't just eye candy nor something heroic, but a necessary portrayal of life itself; stripped to the bare bones it's just bloody ugly, but we cannot deny that it exists. In fact, the film looked so real that I thought I was watching a history documentary (maybe shooting in black and white had something to do with that as well). As we all know, great scripts and great directors are nothing without great actors, and vice versa, all three needs each other to function as a film. All seven main characters are absolutely outstanding in the film, not for a single second did I think that they were acting, all seven were genuinely samurai, whether it's their form (their sword skills) or their spirits. Although latter day movies, and especially mangas like Rurouni Kenshin, sometimes glorifies samurai as hero with swords with near-superhuman powers, Kurosawa portrayed another side, if not more realistic, of them - they were merely hired muscles that gains nothing from conflicts, and they are used like a tool/whore, to be disposed of when they become useless. Characters in the movie is a big yes-yes, and Kurosawa wasn't afraid to spend large amounts of time and film to paint these characters and bring out their unique personalities. Shichiroji, for example, the wannabe samurai who was born an orphan, was the most fascinating character in the film because although he seemed unimportant at first, he became the sole plot driver towards the end of the film. His actions and comments seemed mad to all viewers at first, but as the film progressed it turns out that he's right afterall - when he discovered that one of the farmers had hidden swords and armours and was scolded by the other samurais, he condemned the farmers as foxy beasts, because they are simply not what they seemed to these outsiders; in the end it turns out that the farmers had in fact hidden many things. He seems to be the only character who truly understands what those farmers really think, being a farmer himself (there was even a scene when he was harvesting estatically), and he became the only conscious voice in the whole movie, which stood out from other characters. What's amazing about the film is, although it was more than 3 hours long, you wouldn't feel bored at all watching it, considerable amount of time was spent portraying the characters and laying out the plot so that the characters weren't mere actors acting out a script but actual living human beings. The main characters - the seven samurai, were all unique in personalities and you can immediately distinguish one from the other, even thought you may not remember their name by the end; with this film one watched a page of their lives unfolding as if knowing a friend, and then when they die (4 died in the end) one feels a great loss. Death, as filmed by Kurosawa, is harsh, bare and damn ugly. There were no heroic tear-jerking last speeches, they died pretty much straight away, body laid dead, and the next thing they were buried under the ground, and life goes on without them. That's what death really is - no afterlife, no heaven and hell, just a lump of meat rotting underground. The effects on the viewers was simply utter awe at the realism set by Kurosawa. There are just too many good bits of the film, and if I go over them one by one I will end up writing a book on the film, but one theme I found most fascinating is the affair between Katsushiro, the youngest of all seven samurai, and Shino, a young peasent girl. The affair between them, although romantic it may seem - a pretty young girl falling for a young aspiring samurai - was the ugliest of all themes in the movie for me. Let me go through the theme briefly here - Katsushiro and Shino met in the mountain when he thought that she was a boy (her hair was cut short by her father afraid that she might attract the samurai), then it daunts on him that he was in fact a girl. Their affair developed when they returned to the same place where they first met, Shino throwing herself onto the flowerbed, getting hysterical, breathing heavily and covering her face, waiting for Katsushiro to break into her. She then kept appearing in front of him here and there until before the final showdown she lured him into a barn, told him that she was afraid to die when the bandits come tomorrow and made a move on him. When her father found that they made out he beat the crap out of her in front of everybody. Then at the end when the bandits were all killed and the samurai leaves, she avoided Katsushiro and go back to the field to work with other women. The theme seems fine to me - two young lovers whose love can never be because the boy was aspiring to become a samurai (basically he's going to travel around the country) and the girl was just a peasent, but this theme wasn't per se but mixed with other themes as well, which gave this a little tint. At those times if your daughter made out with a Ronin (a traveller, most associated with a samurai) then that probably means that she can never be married to another person, so her father was justified in beating her up. One of the samurai then (can't remember his name) said to him, "When a man sees death in his path, he feels the need for a woman's arms, just before a battle, it happens even in a castle." Even the father thought it was Katsushiro who seduced her. That's conventional wisdom alright, but as we have seen from the movie, it wasn't the poor boy who made a move on the girl but it was in fact the other way round. Then, right at the end of the movie, after Shino deliberately avoided Katsushiro, he just gazed mindlessly in the field where all the farmers are, Kambei (the leader of the seven samurai) said, "Again we're defeated, the winners are those farmers, not us." One of the main realism that Kurosawa portrayed in this movie is that these samurai weren't in anyway heros, they were merely hired with food to save them from those bandits, and once the bandits were defeated, life goes on and no one cared about them anymore. They were used like a tool. There maybe love between Katsushiro and Shino - the boy obviously fancied the girl, but what about the girl? How much of that was the girl's love for him? And how much of that was merely comfort seeking? The conventional wisdom listed above seemingly as applicable to women as to men. That poor boy, his love for the girl was gentle and pure - he was speechless and did nothing when Shino lied on that flowerbed and thought that he was going to rape her, and he was heart broken when Shino avoided him. He was just as bloody scared as she was. Everyone thought that Katsushiro seduced Shino but it was the other way round, and in the end Shino's reactions, and Kambei's words shed new light on what was portrayed as tainted love. These poor samurai were really used by the farmers, one way or another. It showed the extent of how the women were restrained back in those times, and Kurosawa brought a little twist to the movie with this theme - a beautiful, and at the same time ugly, misunderstanding. All in all, this is a perfect masterpiece, and Kurosawa's movies seems radically different to how the West make their movies, although his movies also influenced countless directors after him, he was a true pioneer and set the standard not just for all future samurai movies, but movies in general. That's all for now, if you haven't done so, go see it for yourself. p.s. I also watched Old Boy, the breathtaking Korean film which won the 2004 Cannes film festival Grand Prix, will talk about that later, but I still have many films to watch...

A man in London 'cured' from Aids!!

2005-11-13T11:36:00.000+01:00

Astounding piece of news, if not fake...anyway, does this mean the beginning of the end of the Aids era, and now we move onto the Bird Flu era? Enough said, take a look at this (from the BBC news).

A list of missing bloggers (��ܳիȦW��

2005-11-10T13:57:00.000+01:00

Since last night, more and more bloggers who went missing, and whose blog I visit regularly, just kept coming up in my head, therefore I would now like to start by compiling a list of missing bloggers, and hoping that if someone saw it and knew that blogger personally, they would like to inform people who gives a rat's arse about them where they are and what they are currently doing; why they go missing and choose not to blog anymore, or whether they want to blog again or not is none of my business (be it busy at work etc.), I am just curious in finding out if they're still alive or not (that doesn't invade privacy right I hope?), so the mind of those who worries about their folks can be laid to rest. Anyone who went missing for over a month and/or suddenly abandoned/deleted their blog is eligible to go on this list, but anyone who still leaves comments around the place and just don't blog anymore doesn't count. 1) GP from GP's place - away to study 2) Lilya from Subtle Shocks - back by December 3) Bromgrev from dreamsplinter - Taken over by a porn site... 4) Miss Mouse from Survival Mouse 5) A very distant Island 6) HH from Deoxidised Water 7) iMacrider - moved to here 8) Ms. Kwok from This Teacher Blogs - Back in blogging action 9) Henry from Waah! - Back in Blogging action Those are the ones I know at the moment, however if you also want to know which blogger you knew went where and want others to help finding out where they are, or if you have information on anyone else who went missing, please feel free to leave a comment with their info., or in the latter case please provide information on their current status. Any nationality is welcomed. Lovely, cheers. And finally, please spread the word so that others will know about this. All help is greatly appreciated. p.s. I will also leave this page on the side so everybody can look at them and see if they knew any of these bloggers, and update regularly update 29/11/05 - Many thanks to Argleblaster, who pointed out that Lilya (from Subtle Shocks) promises to return by December :)

Suddenly...

2005-11-09T23:53:00.000+01:00

Suddely thought about GP. She was one of the first bloggers I knew online, a nice lady having a respectable job in HK, and then she went through a kind of rough times, alas I was tangled up in my own little things so didn't have time to care about her, and now she's away from HK and her blog seemingly abandoned. Only recently did I found out where she went, and whatever she's doing, just want to say hi. :)

Today's thoughts...

2005-11-09T18:50:00.000+01:00

1) Heard on the HK government news today that some tin fish products are found to obtain Malachite Green - recently outlawed in HK (and apparently one particular famous brand tinned fish was found with this banned substance more than a month ago, but the government said nothing) - some sort of cancer-inducing fish medicine, and saw a debate of the news in this HK blog. Needless to say, the HK government screwed up again, and I basically agree with what they said, but I have my reservations for developing organic farming in HK. Geography is one HUGE issue - where are they going to grow organic farm produce? In drawers and cupboards? Most importantly, how sustainable is it? Organic agriculture, the only reason not every farmer flocks to this green idea is because of the high cost - it's definitely marketable (the UK is already doing it), but without big $$$, no company is going to endorse the idea. Oh yes they can explore into the possibility of organic farming, but unless something drastic happens to the world no one is going to care. Take the EU for example, European farmers are still living on government subsidies and tax breaks, organic farming won't have that luxury. Respect to them though. I picked up one interesting sentence though - Food and environment is the most fundamental fact of life, not work and money. I just wish things are that easy... 2) Meanwhile, this chinese atricle is extremely absurd. It's basically an article slagging off mass preventative-vaccination measures in response to the possibility of bird flu (H5N1) mutation, hence becoming humanly contageous. The article claimed that it does us more harm than good. The author used reasons such as viral-resistance, poor production methods, wrongful perception of vaccination (i.e. it's a lie and merely a way to make money) and harm to the environment (by pharmaceutical companies) to slag off such schemes. However the main point behind the article is even more absurd - slag off western medicine and proclaim environmental protection. Normally I have nothing against nutters like this author, everyone can say whatever the fuck they like for all I care, but the method of reasoning the author employed in that article can be a nice field day for medicine and science students - to see how stupid people can be. That article was neither rational or empirical, and I doubt if that guy ever knew any medicine at all. One point he made was extremely funny because it was so stupid: Western medicine emphasises on surface symptoms, using the "treat where it hurts" principle, whilst missing the relationships between different parts of the body, socialogical, emtional and psychological issues (��ǵ۲��󤤤��x��A�H�Y�h��Y�B�}�h��}��h�A��骺��Y�A��7|�ʡB��B�믫��]��). He even went on to proclaim that people have wrongful perception of Western medicine. Hello? Who's having a wrongful perception here? I guess the author never heard of differential diagnosis then. I am no medic student, but most recently I watched House, an American drama series about diagnosticians, and the diagnostic method they used are hardly "treat where it hurts" is it? I know I shouldn't use a TV series as an example, but my point is the same - Western medicine isn't just about treating where it hurts, for simple diseases yes because that's all you need to do really, but it's NOT the only diagnostic/treatment method available for doctors to use. To think that Western medicine is only a simple treat where it hurts case to me, IS THE WRONGFUL PERCEPTION THAT THE AUTHOR WAS TALKING ABOUT, AND WHAT A HYPOCRITE. I laughed so much when I saw that that my stomach still hurts. There are a couple of huge no-no's from this article as well- a) there are misquotes, and some of the figures quoted are just plain wrong (corrected by Chainsaw here, in Chinese), any science student knows that there are golden rules for scientific writing such as get your facts and figures right, and your reference must be traceable in the end, the author hasn't done any of that as far as I can see; b) the fact that the author never considered any alternatives to mass vaccination - as I said, the author can slag off mass vaccination in whichever way he like, but in this case he's slagging off the only measure that us humans have against a worldwide pandemic, and boy he better comes up with a better alternative than please care more about the environment and don't use vaccination because it's a lie. I mean, that's not even a fucking alternative right now! Ok so we should be kinder to the environment, however this imminent threat of bird flu pandemic isn't going to go away even if the whole world starts being nice to this planet tomorrow and hereafter, and when the feared H5N1 pandemic breaks out, I will be the first one to bust his arse for incompetence. Basically, the whole article doesn't stand up to scrutiny because fundamentally, the author had the wrong perception of oversimplifying western medcine, there were no empirical evidence backing his points, and his points can hardly be called valid because his fundamental assumptions aren't so. However, one of the funniest things I saw wasn't this article, but in one of the comments left in regard to this article here: "I never believe in vaccines! Our ancestors had never needed them." - But our ancestors never had to deal with bird flu! Just fucking Smallpox, German Measles and all that stuff that can be treated nowadays. Yes, our ancestors never had vaccines, but how high are the death rates back then? We cannot even contemplate the benefit medicine did to the human race, and ok so viruses like TB and cold can never be alleviated because they constantly mutate, however what about smallpox or pneumonia? If you're going to make an argument next time, please be sure that you consider both sides of the argument. I suddenly think that, all governments should make a list of people who are against such vaccinations and want no help when they're ill, so that when a pandemic finally break out they can all fucking die first, and use their body for experiments. If they want to die, who am I to stop them meeting their creator? All in all, I have nothing agaist people who cares about the environment (although I think most are hypocrites and nutters), but now isn't the right time to say that kind of stupid shit. Instead, what we need to do now is to minimise the damage that this pandemic can potentially do to the human race, not slagging it off and provide useless alternatives that won't save one single human. Maybe once we're over this we can think about sustaining the planet.

My 300th post...

2005-11-08T17:04:00.000+01:00

I've reached my 300th post, which means that blogger now cannot show all the entries I ever wrote on this blog in one page. I can't believe that I sustained that long on blogging and haven't moved on (is it a good thing? I guess so). During the process I've made new friends and enemies, but nevertheless it's really an experience for me, to share my feelings, emotions, and most inner thoughts to total strangers. 300 posts aren't revolutionary, but nevertheless it's a milestone for my puny little blogging existence, so I decided to do what I do best - reflect on my own life, which I did before here. (Don't worry, I'm not depressed, as a matter of fact, since I now live with 2 good friends, I hardly have time to ponder on my own life except living it.) On my Idol I never chase idols, most probably because I'm a bloke and a grown man now, although I enjoy listening to good artists, I don't idolise them as much as young boys and girls like to. However, I remembered when I was younger (like 6 or 7 years old) I also chased idols, and that's probably because I had no real person in my life who I can idolise on - my mother was one, but since I'm from a single parent family, there was no father figure. When 6 or 7 year olds watched their anime (it must be Dragon Ball Z and Doraemon, because I watched them too) and sing kiddie's songs, I listened to Beyond (Beyond is a rock band from Hong Kong). I still do, because I strongly feel that they're one of the best things that ever came out of Hong Kong, and no doubt, like other angry teenagers at the time, I idolised their late frontman, Koma Wong (�.a�s). As far as music goes, Beyond's music wasn't as good as the Tat Ming Clan's (�F��@��), but lyricly speaking Koma was one of the best lyricist of his time in Hong Kong. His lyrics are both introspective and thought provoking, this is rare because most 80's Canto pop concerns love stories and nothing else. Of course at that age one can't really understand all his lyrics, but there are some exceptionally good songs that even moves a kid like �u��R�A, a tribute song to all mothers. As I grow up I appreciate his music and lyrics even more, and I became emotionally attached to Koma and Beyond's music, I'm one of those little fans, but he has much more than stage persona and a good voice, his lyrics opened my mind up to many things. I tried hard to love my mum even though I never saw her around, and I started giving money to charities to help those people who need it. Koma was no doubt the soul of Beyond, he was the one with lyrical talent (although I must admit that Paul Wong is very good as a guitarist), and can write songs that moves people and resonates with them. Through Beyond's music I learnt their emotions - happiness and laughter, rage and sorrow, their social awareness and sarcasm, whether it's on a personal level or directing their emotions (rage mostly) at a particular social class and type of people. It enhanced my life, and it also opened my eye to the world of music, and that there exists other types of music aside cheesy Canto pop, real music like Rock N' Roll. It's because of them that I'm ultimately open to most forms of music, play instruments and form bands and writes music. Then that day came - June 30th 1993, the day Koma died in Japan. I was 9. I cried, I cried for three days, just like a little child. In retrospect, the only other times I cried when I heard someone died was my gradnfather's and my mother's; I didn't shed a drop of tear when I saw the heartbeat rate of my father dropped from 70 to 0, nor when any other person died on TV. It may sound stupid, that's what emotional attachment does to one person, but as a person who opened my eyes for the first time to the outside world, it was well worth the sulk. I never had the chance to see them live, even in the post-Koma era when they're more famous than before, mostly because I was in the UK studying, and now they are probably split up, I wonder when I could see them live at all. Paul's music has grown too alternative for HK, and since they now have their own bands and works, it can be assumed that they finally moved on. Maybe I've grown out of the emotional attachment as well, maybe I haven't, but I will never forget a band and a person's life and works that changed my life. Even when I was indulging in narcotics, listening to Beyond when I was writing reminded me of a time when I was just a naive little boy who chased a idol, and sometimes I even cried... If you want to visit Koma, please feel free to do so. The location of his grave is �N�x�D�ؤH�û��X��Q��q��x�G�Q��. I've visited Koma only once due to laziness, but now my mother is also buried in the same location (she was cremated), I will definitely go every year when I see my mother. Call me a mad fan, but I cried singing Beyond songs in karaoke, also I cried when I saw that Hong Kong Broadband advert with Koma in it - he was in it along with Princess Di, Qiao Hong (�짻), Mother Theresa and Bruce Lee (Gosh he's nearly another idol of mine). With a line like "life is limited, but in hoping that living is unlimited can one touch life" (�ͦ��M��@��L��M�~��Ĳ�N�ͩR), how can anyone not be touched by that advert? Having said that, my broadband in HK is i-cable, however if anyone can teach me how to upload videos I will upload that advert because I have it in my computer. Someone asked me for a favourite Beyond song before, I couldn't name one then, I still can't today, but I can give the top 5 (in no particular order). I really can't decide which is the best between them, they're all exceptional in their own ways: 1) �A��z�Q 2) ��Z�� 3) �L�n��i�O 4) ��Ѫ� 5) �� Honourable mentions include (again, in no particular order): ��i�@�@�M��H�M��w�A�M��R��M�û��ݡM��O�R�M��Ŭ��M�ȩ]�g��M�ڬO��M��ݨg�H�M�A�aM�j�a�M��M�ԳӤ��]�M�O��]�A��!M�֦�� M��L�n�M�R�B�O�A�a�M�Ǧ�y��M�L�ɪŵ�M�N�B�]�M�ڭ��M��ԧB��R�k��... there are just too many to even mention! Even if I didn't mention them here it's only because I'm currently listening to these right now (because they're sooooo good) and the exceptionally good ones stick to my head like shit on a blanket. There are some good Beyond songs in the post-Koma era, however I seldom listen to them, to me, without the soul of the band Beyond really isn't as good as they were (just like the Manics really), hence most songs I like are from the earlier era, before they obtained their star status and Koma passing away. Even if people say that Beyond sucks now, they can't deny that Koma wrote amazing music and lyrics, and Beyond fans are even more die hard than kiddy fans today - after 12 years, there are sill Beyond fans who visits Koma's grave (each and every year), let's see if twins or Joey Yung can make their fans do that. Finally, the HK post office are due to release a new set of collectable stamps for influential artists, Koma is one of them, due to release this month, I will definitely order them by mail.

British Citizenship Test...some thoughts

2005-11-08T12:08:00.000+01:00

About a week ago I saw this (from The Times online), and most recently this (also from the same website). If you're too lazy to read them, the former is about taking a British Citizenship test, the latter is about the riots in Paris. The French government deserved it, years of government policies against and oppressing these ethnic minorities caused such outrages (remembered the time when they're trying to ban Muslim girls wearing headscarves in school?). For once I am so glad that I actually live in Britain, just across the channel. Ok, so discrimination and racism exists in the UK as well and there's no denying it, I feel it sometimes, but so what? The moment I decided to stay in this country the moment I accepted this as a part of this country. No country is perfect, and as far as HK goes, we are racially discriminating against Indians and Pakistani as well. What? You think calling them "Ah Cha", or calling white people "Gwai Lo" isn't racist? Think again, it's the same as them abusing us, or the Brits abusing Indians, Muslims and blacks in general. Surely there are devious people and terrorists around the place, but just because they share the same nationality and/or the religion with those dispicable people it doesn't makes them the same as the bad people (This goes with the comment I gave about stereotypes). Again, on another level, it can be clearly seen that the British government is trying to cut down on immigration (they even consulted the possibility of employing the Australian points system) - by cutting down that means filtering out most of the applicants who just want to come here because they want to live on state benefits, or unsuitable candidates who neither has money nor skill. The UK has a relatively liberal labour market, but unfortunately the folks here are far from that, and when foreigners come and take over their jobs, they get a little pissed off. From deductive reasoning, the government's ideal applicants are those who are highly-skilled, have money to invest or save in the country, and who genuinely likes the UK. By the way, I got my citizenship because my mum worked for the police force in HK, I don't really like this country (by that I mean I hate the tax system), but I'm highly qualified, so although I am nowhere near the ideal candidate they wanted, hey! I'm already a citizen, so I don't really give a rat's arse. This HK blog also wrote about the test (in chinese only, but most comments are in english), however they seemed to have missed the point by not thinking from the British government's perspective enough, and this point is so painstakingly obvious. I will tell you what obvious point they missed by asking you one question - Do you really think the British government gives a fuck WHY the applicants want to emigrate to the UK? Because they want a passport that hardly needs to apply for Visas, or because the living condition is better than that of their home country? You got it, they don't really give a fuck about these people, but what they really give a fuck about right now is has he/she got any money, is he/she highly-skilled, is he/she a terrorist? The first question is used to determine whether he/she will put more burden into the already over-strained state benefit system; the second question is used to determine whether he/she will take up jobs in the labour market that should be for British people - if he/she is a doctor or a teacher then there's no problem because these are gaps needed to be filled, but if he/she are lowly-skilled then they will take over jobs that the poor in this country do, and eventually they indirectly put more strain into the state benefit system; the third question is currently the most important agenda in government policies right now. The answer to those three questions will help them to determine whether they want to have you in the country or not (most probably won't), because they want to cut down on immigration applications. Given that they can do statistics on what type of people are currently trying to get into this country, you would think that these questions are aiming at filtering them out no? Because the truth is, the British government doesn't really like the majority of people who are trying to get into this country right now, not because of their many, many, many, many reasons, they just don't fucking want them, period. And if they don't want these people here, they will make pretty damn sure that they won't even get into the country. Ok, so answering 24 bloody questions doesn't automatically mean you like it here so much that you won't blow up London, but at least it can filter out (to a certain extent) who likes and doesn't like Britain; if you like the country enough (or have answered all the questions right) at least, in their little heads, they think that you won't blow up the country just yet, and at least you can blend in with the countryfolks here; on the other hand, if your english sucks, and don't know jack shit about this country, you probably won't have a happy time here, because things over here are so different from your own culture, and there's probably a greater chance of you being marginalised (depending on each individual's will power) and become a terrorist. The government knows that these questions imply Britishness, but really, they don't give a rat's fuck, they just need to make the statistics look good so we won't complain no more. Besides, those questions are really easy anyway. If you would like to know a little more about this country, you wouldn't mind taking a little trouble to learn a little about it. When you do, there really is no way that one will fail those test anyway. Some people didn't like these questions because it doesn't have British history in it. First, history is for the schoolkids who are here to learn, second, the British government doesn't give a fuck whether these people are really British - national pride a plus, but not compulsory. What's important for the government now is a drop in citizenship applications (and rise in successful applications). My point of this being - the British government really is no different from the French government, but because we are subtle in our policies on foreign immigrants/ethnic minorities, therefore we have no 11-day riots breaking out in this country (just yet). If you ask me though, on a personal level, I think that, like the immigrants or not, the government put managed to tie themselves in one more round of red tape. Finally, please bear in mind that I have nothing against people wanting to get into this country.

What is the possibility of having a full scale music festival in HK and/or anywhere within the Asia Pacific region?

2005-11-03T13:39:00.000+01:00

What is the possibility of having a full scale music festival in HK and/or anywhere within the Asia Pacific region? This question came up to me a little while ago when I was walking around in HK. No I don't mean those little festival (Rock It I think it's called) organised by Heineken in Hong Kong, which I don't even know if it still exists (it still does, don't worry), but a full 3 day festival like Glastonbury (picture above). Normally these festivals are packed with bands and acts big and small, and nowadays you also have dance tents filled with great DJs and drug users, amongst many other alternative things (pot smoking) going on inside a festival - drugs, sex, rock n' roll are what make these people flock to the festivals. I've been to Glastonbury twice and Reading once, the atmosphere there is great (although I've heard that Reading isn't as good as it's used to be) and they always had great bands playing there, which I think is worth the money. Can you use the same formula in HK? I personally don't know how many good bands there are in the Asia-Pacific region, but there must be some good ones out there right? Not to say the least, May Day (��) and Beyond...and most probably some Japanese bands as well. However, since there are already music festivals within Japan itself (the Fuji Rock festival), I don't know the possibilities for these bands to play abroad (will talk about that later). Well, if one can get Japanese bands to play abroad, then bands from the west aren't really that difficult. Geographical location is one primary concern. Based on geography Hong Kong really is too small to organise a full scale music festival. It really is quite hard to find a large, flat plot of land (like a big farm, as with Glastonbury) to host these events. I remembered the Heineken's festival in Hong Kong used to do it at Victoria Park (the only green bit that's flat and accessible in HK), however there's only 1 stage and really cannot compare to the scale of Glasto or Reading. It's a good effort nevertheless, however the underlying problem, I think, is quite clear. How about Singapore, Taipei or Beijing? I don't know either places very well, so any comments are welcomed. However, my ideal choice within the Asia Pacific region would be Beijing. China being the only major farming country within the region, it has vast plots of land, and if money (and the commy party) permits, one can even organise some sort of a muic festival inside Mongolia, whether people will go though is another matter. Having said that, a music festival inside the modern day Communist+Capitalist China is still a really strange idea, where the extent of censorship is still very visible; if you want space though, China is your ideal country. The music culture over the region is also another issue - little HKers listens to rock music, let alone good quality alternative music in general, therefore the prospect of a (rock) festival doesn't seem too attractive to the locals. I knew a couple of Taiwanese fans that participates in the local music scene in Taipei, but in general the scene is still very much secluded; from what I've heard the Japanese scene is also as secluded. Generally speaking, the alternative music scenes in the Asia pacific region aren't as developed as the west, and everywhere is still very much like a brotherhood - secretive and hard to get in, therefore you don't see alternative bands breaking into the mainstream much, as with the case with Nirvana and the whole grunge movement. In the west, people wishing to break into the music market in the UK can start out inside the alternative scene (most famous example would be Dire Straits back in the late 70s), but in Asia if you want to break into the main scene you can only be a popstar. Sad isn't it? Seems pretty bad that the geography and the culture itself already won't permit such a large scale music festival. However, what I think is possible for a small place like HK is by promoting more urban style music (what people called R&B etc.) because these are more accepted by the locals than indie or rock music, and therefore one can gain much publicity if they want to invite R&B acts within Asia (not Jay Chow �P�N�� because he's too big already, but aspiring ones). Of course, being a music festival, diversity is the key - only playing alternative music isn't diverse, one can even hire some edgy pop acts - how about some traditional Chinese music? I think some ethnic tribal music within an Asian festival is also acceptable (of course these acts aren't goint to be on the main stage), it shows the Asian character. The most important thing, I believe, is profitability. Glasto and Reading keep coming back and back because it's profitable - the organisors and sponsors, even the acts themselves, make money out of it and everybody is happy and want to do it again next year - if one loses money organising a festival, who the fuck is going to do it in the future? Major revenue will be ticket sales and any sales going on within the festival itself - Reading, with Carling being the major sponsor, only sell Carling beer within the festival premise, if Heineken does that in HK as well then they are pretty clever. As I thought before, there really is no one you can't invite to play at a festival, the key points will be how much you are willing to pay them, and how much are people willing to pay to see them. Having said that, reputation is also important - people are only going to come back if they felt that the price they pay for such events is worth the hassle. Big bands make big bucks playing at festivals, small bands also make big bucks (relative to what they can earn) playing at festivals, therefore the money the organisors have to pay bands aren't cheap. Renting the plot of land, sound and stage equipment, promotions, hiring people (especially those part-timers), any deals with the sponsors and people who are doing their alternative stuff within the venue. The devil is in the details, and that's why Glasto and Reading tickets are so expensive, and I suspect one of those Rock It tickets won't be cheap either. Maybe I should stay longer in HK so that I can have a go at that Rock It festival (starts on 12th November weekend), well too bad I'm already in the UK...maybe next year.

I started writing on blog-you.com's Musicblog...my first article

2005-11-03T06:56:00.000+01:00

A big Thank you to those who replied to my last rambling post, I haven't written Chinese in a while so I ought to practice really (I still couldn't be bothered to write my novels yet). Lately I have registered on blog-you.com's musicblog (finally! I was anticipating this already when they released their film blog). However there's a little twist - as a rocker I hardly listen to pop music, let alone Cantonese pop, therefore I will stick to what I know most and best - rock music. I struggled for a little while as to which language should I write this little piece in, after a nanosecond, I've decided that I should write in English...hehe~~ Anyawy, here it comes. (Picture from amazon.co.uk) Opeth's (�xĶ�y�ݤ��]�z) Damnation isn't what the band usually write when it comes to music - they are, afterall, a Sweedish Death Metal (��`��) band (for HKers who don't know what death metal is, imagine a rock band like X-Japan, Slayer or Metallica, but 10 times faster and 100 times louder, with lyrics constanly refering to Satan, death, or simply some incoherent words jammed together that it really doesn't matter if you can't hear them. If you like it it's death metal, otherwise it's noise). There are also three types of Opeth fans - those who like their death metal riffs, those who like their melodic interludes within their death metal songs, and those who like both. Well, I hate to disappoint, but this album is nothing like what they wrote, ever - for starters this is an acoustic album - no death metal riffs and certainly no screaming. For those death metal fans out there this album is a definite no-no, but for the rest of us, this album is more than worthy of listening. It shows you the breadth and depth of how far rock music can venture into other music genres. It turns out that Damnation was written at the same time as their 2002 album Deliverence (which is REALLY heavy), although released a year later. This is not to say that Opeth have suddenly gone mellow and happy, the 8 songs in this acoustic album is still soaking with their usual depressing-sounding melodies, the main difference being that what they put in mere interludes of a song now became the songs themselves, and it created a totally different chemistry. A sidenote: If you're heard the new version of Beyond's ��R��, it's about 100 times as dark as that, but because it's mellow it doesn't hurt your ears. This mere deed shows that Opeth aren't your typical Scandinavian death metal band, whose names are frequently associated with crap music, church burning, murder and weird gags. The lyrics here are dark alright, and since there is no screaming at all, we can finally comtemplate what frontman and singer Mikael Akerfeldt are trying to sing about, and they aren't your usual love songs like �k�H�̵h. Musically speaking though, there are hints of folk music within those songs, but melodies are much darker than your usual folk stuff (others refer to this as Dark Folk). In a couple of the songs there are blues-like guitar rhytms and solos (Windowpane and Ending Credits etc), but for most of the songs Opeth stuck to what they do best - psychodelic chord and melody progression which can never be found in the HK music industry because of it's alternativeness. Last, but not least, this album's production value. Opeth are like perfectionists, and since they have death metal roots, they know how to write songs that have tight timing (try jamming a fast death metal song, it's not as easy as one thinks) - everything fits perfectly like a jigsaw, from volume to tone to the whole abstract feeling of the songs; as we all know, good production is nothing without good music, and suffice to say that Opeth has both, and is bloody good at it - afterall, these are what the band is renowned for. I used to criticise Mikael Akerfeldt's singing as being crap and better stick to screaming, but his voice showed considerable improvement in this album (compared with older acoustic songs like to bid you farewell), which I am most impressed. In fact, I was so impressed with this album that I dare to rate this album on the same level as Led Zeppelin IV (�ٮ��) based on production and musical genius. Conclusion: If you're a genuine music lover dying to listen to something that's different and that can make your day, then this album is your choice; however for those who only likes a certain type of music, you better stay away from this adventure. If you really want a listen, I will upload the album into my radioblog very soon. Recommended songs: ALL of them. Update: atgig.com is down, so I can't log in and upload anything....I'm sorry about that, may have to get it from HMV or BT...

��ƿW(Su Doku)�ɪ��@�B�I��ҡK�K

2005-10-31T16:16:00.000+01:00

Foreword: I haven't written much Chinese lately (in fact, I haven't written anything lately), so this little piece will be written in Chinese just for fun. Also, FYI: I'm back in HK again, arrived on last Tuesday, and the jetlag had only been cured this morning, and I'm leaving again on Tuesday (that's tomorrow)...and jet lag all over again. I really need to think about how to solve this problem, this could earn me big money... Here it is: �@�@��ڬO�̪�~�}�l��ƿW��C�q��]Su Doku�^�ݨӡM�ƿW3�ӬO�u�ۤ饻��8�]��M��D��ɭԶ}�l�y��^�w�w��L��ơM�o�{�ƿW��u��󯪨��O�Q�K�@��h�ۦW�ƾǮaEuler�]��M�L�o��8�S��{�b�ڭ̩Ҩ��^�C �@�@�y�ƿW�z�h�~�Q�@�뭺��b�^��ɳ�]The Times�^��X�{�M�ڻ��O�@�ӭ��j�k�x�b�饻�ݨ�o�ǫ�ϡM�M��$��^�ꪺ�C�o��8�j�X�{�K��ꦨ�d�W�U��W�Z�ڡM�C�@�ѧڭ��a�U�K�ɤW�Ǯɳ��ݨ줣�P��H��۹]��P�@�ӼƿW��ϡM�Ө��]�ݨ�ܦh�q��ǲβզr��Ϫ��H�b��C�ɦܲ{�b�^��w�g�n�X��ȥi�H��ƿW�M��H�ٶX�۳o��X�F�X��ϻP�оǪ��y�C��L�M��ɧڦ]��uŪ�]�g�ɳ�]Financial Times�^�ҥH�L�t�@��Q�A�̧ڥ��H��ꤣ�ӳ��w��ϡC �@�@�j��~��|��M�}�l�b��W�ݨ쭻��blog�Ͷ}�l��ƿW�]�{�Ѫ�blogger��Jaycy�MWiwiana�^�w�w�q�^��Ǧ^��h�F�C�S�O��O�M�ڶ}�l�ݨ�ƿW��k�M�]��H�ιq��{��g�Ӷi�ƤF��֡]�ݹL�@�ǳs�׽u�]�n�W�߼Ʀr��^�C��ɧڭn��~�𪺢֢ެ�s�ҤW�Z�M��h�a�ڤu�@��ԣ��o�n��]�]��۶X��ɬݤ@�~��q��@��w�w�pHouse�M��MStargate�^�M�ҥH�M�ƿW�l�׬O�t�Ǥ@��C �@�@�q�B�ͤf��o��M��@�ӼƿW��ݭn�G�Q��fܤ@�p�ɪ��ɶ��M��ɪ��ڨӻ��b�Ӫ�F�]��H�ҡR�D�T�֨C�ѳ��X�Ӥp�ɼgblog�S�^�C �@�@�̪�@��^��ɤ~��Ĳ�ƿW�C��Ѧ]��ԤJ�h��Ӵe�F�M�K��ߤ@��b��ѩ��̶R�U�@��@�ʭӼƿW��Ϫ��ѡ]��ɥ��H�S��>P�^�C�Ѥ��Ϫ��ױq�J��W��]��C�_�쨺�Ǥ��M�Ʀr�ݱo�ګܽk��w�w��@��Y�M�s��ӫ�򪱡S��n��ϮѪ��X��K��J��оǡM�ФF�j�a�@�ǫܰ򥻪��޿�k�]�٬�slicing and dicing�^�M�M��@�y�y��L��N�o�a�ۤv�o��F�z�K��F��C �@�@�b��ȵ{��ڪ��F��Q�ӫ�ϡM��٥]�ŴX�ӡy�W��z��ƿW�C��M��ۤv��F�j�v�M��L�q��_�a��Ʀr��]�o��X�@�Ǥ߱o�C �@�@��M�i�H�Ϊ��֤ܽ��Q�ΡS�u�O��ɨ��䧤�ۤ��W�y�j�n��z�@�W��y�P�f�H�M�ӥB��entertainment system�n�e�M��K�K �@�@��ܡM�ƿW�u��񴶳q��զr��Ϧn��o�h�F�M�ӥB�]�i�H�ǵ۴�8��m�޿�ʫ�ҡM�Ѥ֫w�y�C��L�M�ѥ��оṊ̀��@�y��ܨϧڦL�H�`��w�w�y��ƿW��Y�O��a��ܬO��ݭn�M�q��M�Ҧ��Ʀr��m��i�H��²�檺�޿�:�X�ӡM�ӥB�C�ӫ�ϥu��@�ӥ��T��סC�z �@�@�b�o�̰ݰݪ��L�ƿW��j�a�M�s��q�̪챵Ĳ�ܲ{�b��_�xսM�q�L�S��ܡM�_��ڬO��M�q��M�]��u��4��C��L��o�[�F�M�⮩�F�@�ǮǺV��;��k��M�M�q��{�p�K�V�ӶV�p�C �@�@��o�_�Q�M�p�G�{��]�O�o�˪��ܤ]��ڡM�N��_�n��ˡR�y�u�ۥu��@�ӡT�z �@�@�q��ƿW��L�{��M�ڵo�{��M�ڭ̪��`�ͬ��'O��j�w�w�n�F��ڭ̪��ؼСM��F��Ӧa�V�e�~�M�ٱo��_�ǺV��;�Ӯ��@�ǡy��z�M��ۤv��F�Ѧۤv��y�e��p�C��²�檽��Ҥl�N�O�[�ݧO�H��y��M�M�F�ѪѶ׶Űӫ~��y�g�٪��V�F�w�w�ڭ̨C�@�ѳ��O��N�ѩM�L�N�Ѧa�ݧO�H��y��M�M��3�Q��y��Ȧ�C�@�ѳ��b�Q�εL�ƪ��ƾǩM�]�g�ҫ��h��ѩM�H�᪺��I�{�סQ�b�֢޸̻{�Ѥ��ַ��s��H�M�L�̮ڥ��N��D�ۤv��s��F��_�ܦ��ӫ~�M��ǬƦܤ��D��s��F�観�S��N�q�M��L��٬O�z�L��_�a��Mtrial and error�M�O�L�̩M�L�̪��s��p�󬰲M��]�D�~�ܡR�s�ѢӢݤW��²�ƥH��L��M�e�j��֢ޡM�ҥH�p�G��R��Ѫ��j�a�i�H�ݢ֢ޭ��եH��Ҽ{�@�U��Q�֢ެ�s�Ҥ��s��F��ܦh��D�`�F�`�^�C �@�@��M�ܦh�H��R�yI don't give a fuck about other people�z�M��ڭ̳��|�b��N�L�N��d�N�ۥL�H��@�|�@�ʢw�w�ڭ̳��|��D�O�H��ɭ԰��M��ɭԼ��M��ɭԷQ��~�ڭ̡C�H��F�Q�λy��@�q�~�٦��״I��y��M�ҥH�ڭ̫ܮe��K��D�O�H��Q�k�w�w�O�H�b��򱡪p��U�@�X�Y�@�ت��y��C�F�Ⱥt�ɥ��b��R��еۡM��L�̪��y��g�L�V�m�M4�o�b��ɭԧ@�X��˪��ʧ@�Ӷǻ��T��ڭ̲�ť�̡C �@�@�~��*R�M�޳N�*R�M�M��O�ǺV��;�ѥ��k�Mť�ۧO�H��ܤ覡�M��e�M��y��]�O�ǺV��;��k�C��M�M�p��h��Ū�o�ǰT��N�o�ݭӤH��g��M��ѡM��ڭ̳��_�{�o�ǰT��s�b�M��Ҫ�F��覡�C�̭��n��t�O�K�O�ڭ̨s��4��4�o��Ħa�\Ū�M�z�ѥ��̡C �@�@�ڦ��t�@��}�M��L��ɨS��}�i�D�j�a�M�]��ı�o��ꤣ�ǦӥB�ܥ��`�w�w�ګܳ��w��b�c��D��@�Ǭݳ~�H�M�Ϊ̧��b�a�U�K�̬ݵۤ@�Ǧb��Ѫ��H�M�xեh�F�ѥL�̷�ɪ��߱��w�w��ǤH��Ѳ�o�ܰ��ܧn�x�Q��H�Q��t�@�ݪ��n��ܽ|�ۡM��Y��Q��@�ﱡ�Q��b�N�ԡM��M��O��鱵Ĳ�Ƥ֡M��X��Q��H��b��K�󭵼ַ�M�Y�`�ܦ��`��a�ʵۡQ��@�W�ѱC�C��֤ۤk��M�|�ۨp�y�K�K �@�@�_��گd�N�~�H�O��F�g�p��M��F��M�ǲߤ@�U�p��Q�ΰ��g�Ӫ�F�@�Ө��⪺�߱��M��L��K��H��y��P��C�ڬݨ줣�P��H��P��ʧ@�M��@�ǩ��㪺pattern�禳�t�O�B�M��L�o��঳�Ħa�N��̰O�U�]�ڬݧ��K�ѰO�F�^�C�̪�R�F�@��y��ѮѡM�ODesmond Morris��Manwatching�]��~�N��^�C�p�G�j�a�Q�{�Ѩ��y��ܳo��ѬO�@�ӫܦn��}�l�C�ڵo�{�Ѥ��̭@�H�M��@�I�O�w�w�]��U�qڻP��Ƥ��t��M��P�qڪ��ʧ@��p�P��B��ä��@�P�Q�ݧ��o��ѫ�M�u��ᮬ�ۤv��S�h��߲z�ǡCMorris�O��y��Ǫ��󯪡M��M�ۥL��w�g��ܦh��s�M��LManwatching�o��ѬO�@��i�ʤ֪��{�O�C �@�@�^��ƿW�C�ڻ{��ƿW�M�{��̤j��'O�M�O�ƿW��y��ܩʡz�M��S��y��Ԧ]�!z�C��ƿW��ϫK��M�i�H�A��t�@�ӡM�ӥB�u�n��F�@�B�M��ӫ�ϫK�S�k��Q�{�ꤣ�O�p��M��Ԧ]�7|��k�ܦh�H��H��Ʊ��ݪk�M�ҥH�~�ݭn��I�޲z�C �@�@�ܦh�H�{��ƿW�M�{�ꪺ�'O�O�ƿW�u��@�ӵ��סM��{�ꪺ��צ��ܦh�Ǧ�a�a�M�Ʀܤ��@�Ӣw�w��ʤj��o�o�y�L�o�)�z�Q��ƬF��b��y�g�ٰe�W��L��a�o�L�ର�O�C��T�M�ƿW�O��諸�M�{�ꤣ�O�M��ƿW��ϤW��Ʀr��|�ܡM�{��o�C�(C��b�ܡCBlack-Scholes method of option pricing�]�o�H��variables��ܦӧ@�X�վ�]�Ҧp�]��z�פ��i�T�ݬ��w�ơM�T�i�T�T�ק��ܮɥ�ݧ@�X�վ�^�M�o�ѱq��p�쪺��׬O�諸�M��o�ӵ��ר�F��٬O��ܡS�o��O��ץ��ܤF�ҥH��ܡM�ӬO�g��ܤF�ҥH�~�ϵ��ܢw�w�ڻ��ù��g�w�Ƣ��~�ì�ѥ��m�]�¦�P�d@�^�M��L�d��F�ƥ�o�ͪ��ǡM��M�ѥ��̲��٬O�p�L�Үƫ��m�C �@�@��j��qù��M��Lù��ݨӥu��@�ӡC�A��a�M�{��ܤƱo��򪺧֡M�ڭ̳o�ӳ��w��κA��U�ڥ��N�L�ҾA�q�M�Ҧp�ܦh�Ʊ��b�q��X�{�e�ڭ̮ڥ��S�i�ા�D�C �@�@�{��M���@�ӵ��עw�w�@�ӾǥͦҸեi�H�ܧV�O�a��ѡM�]�i�H��M��i�H�u��@�b�M�T�$@�M��$��Q�L��i�H�ܦn�]�i�H�ܮt�M�]�i�H��L��Q�ӵ��G�L�Ҹժ��<ƬO�s�&ܤ@�ʤ!C��ץi�H��ܦh�ӡM��L�O�O�H�M�ۤv�y��N�z��ץû��u��@�ӡC��Ѫ��Ѯ�i�H�Ѵ��i�H�U�B�i�H�p�ɥi�H�U��i�H�@�ɥ��M�p�G�S��w�i�M�Ϊ̧ڭ̤�4�o�ݤѦ⪺�ܴN��|��D�M�u�y��ڭ̦��W�Źq��C �@�@��ѥ��o�̡C

Dead Parrot with bird flu in the UK...

2005-10-22T11:22:00.000+01:00

...As HKers we've been living with bird flu (and SARS for that matter, I even have a t-shirt made just for SARS, having 1 made now for bird flu) for years, however Brits here in UK had never experienced bird flu before, so when people heard that bird flu had spread all the way from Thailand to the EU, some people got a little rattled. Bird flu will come to the UK, it's just a matter of when. Well, went out drinking with my housemate last night, and just before going to bed I heard the news that a parrot died from bird flu whilst in qurantine (news from the BBC). Ministers on TV are currently down playing the fact that bird flu had already arrived (do you really believe that there's no illegally smuggled wild birds in this country?), I'm a little skeptical against that, given how HKers came to experience bird flu - mass killing of chicken. Let's hope that UK really has a more regulated (hence safer) poultry farming system than HK. On the other hand, this news is so ironic that it reminds me of this legendary Monty Python Sketch - for those of you who don't know who or what that means, click here and learn.

Where am I?

2005-10-19T15:00:00.000+01:00

Hana dropped me a line asking what I was up to recently, and so I probably can't keep quiet any longer. The last month had been more hectic than ever, first I went back to HK, and sorted out everythging that needs to be sorted out (solicitors etc.) - except contact people - I had stomach illness (some form of gastiritis) and have to do things whilst being quite ill, then just I was cured I received an email from UBS (an investment bank) asking me for an interview in London in impossible time, so I flown back to UK and attended that, which fell through in the end - I simply didn't sleep :(, however the best thing out of that was the much-needed feedback and experience, at least I'm not as incompetent as I thought I always was, and got me thinking harder, and want that investment banking job even more. And then, guess what? I fell ill again. Now I'm half way through sorting out the house (gas, electricity, broadband, TV license, Council Tax etc.), stuggling between trying to find a job (which didn't go so well) and forcing myself to live on a tight budget. I was actually on the internet pretty much once a day, just applying for jobs, and that eventually expanded to trying out recruitment agencies, and to looking for possible PhD's (some really hardcore applied physics, possibly engineering doctorate) - all these, in the middle of a new correspondance degree...remember that BSc economics I talked about? I am just as busy as ever!!! How silly I was thinking I could finally take a rest after that intensive year!!! Anyway, to everybody 0who left me a message and still remembering me, thank you very much, I'm still alive and kicking, and still loving you all. Finally, if anyone knows any job vacancies around, drop me a line, and I will blow you a kiss. Ciao for now.

Holy mother...

2005-09-20T00:58:00.000+01:00

Just moved house, no phone, no internet, and I'm going back to HK in 5 days, so I won't be doing anything but managing the new house...it's bye for now. By the way, got the iPod nano from my classmate today...HOLY MOFO!!! IT'S MUCH, MUCH, MUCH SMALLER THAN I THOUGHT IT IS! (I think those pictures in Apple are in fact 1:1); however, as expected, Apple headphones suck so bad, so I just use my usual ones instead.

Last day at HP labs...

2005-09-16T12:05:00.000+01:00

...I'm actually going to move back to London (well, ok not London, but Egham Surrey is close enough) after the intern and start living with my old classmates who are starting their PhDs, meanwhile I have to find a job. It's quite melancholic really, I do miss this place - flexible working hours, nice food, nice people, nice house, nice neighbours; as I've said, the only bad part about Bristol is that God-ugly town centre, everything else is fine, even the much despised people - Londoner's manners cannot even begin to compare with how nice and friendly the locals were...ok the people at town sucks a little (still better than Londoners), but since I was living in the suburbs, the reception had been warm. I miss this hosue damn it, and Nick had been a wicked housemate as well, he's moving back to London to find a job. Shame I couldn't land a job or PhD at HP, came at the wrong time I guess, just when new CEO Mark Hurd got busy sacking people, HP share price rocketed ever since...I shall have that in mind. Industry research environment really isn't so bad, however it can be a little boring at times, and I only get to work on one thing at a time; having said that, I have no idea if I can find a job that is comparable to this internship, or find a place and company as good and as big as HP to work for. Oh well, at least I'm off the studying for a while....wait, the Economics degree! DOH!!!

Disney - the land of dreams...of course it comes at a price (1)

2005-09-15T00:42:00.000+01:00

Countless bloggers had despised Disney and their deeds, currently the only blogger I know who openly defended Disney was Dong Dong, and now, unofficially, me. I'm a nosy fuck, and whatever people talk about, I like to join in as well and offer my own views, if you don't like it then don't read on. This post (chinese only) was particularly interesting to read - the blogger started by quentioning the parents' discontent against the negative vibes against Disney (parents claimed why despise a place where their kids can have fun?), and it has many links to the negative posts against Disney. She used the moral highground to question these parents who want their kids to have fun - do you want your kids to have fun in a place where they mistreats the employees and HKers in general? This somehow reminded me of the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal, which ended in the former US president being impeached. Some of you may ask - what's the connection between the two? A Chinese person will question Clinton's ability as a president because of his immoral deeds - us Chinese had this embedded value that if a person behaves immorally, how can he do his job properly? (�L�欰��I�M��Ӧn�`�ΡS) A Westerner would argue otherwise - as long as he's a good politician and a good policymaker (which he is), what does his morality has to do with it? His personal life is his own problem. In other words - culture clash. The Chinese way of thinking is Confucian - to be a good person, you need to be good at what you do AND your personality is good; everything starts from within, therefore if you're immoral chances are you won't be a good person. Western thinking is more liberal, simply put - morality and ability are mutually exclusive. Franklin Roosevelt and JFK were no perfect people, the former was an alcaholic and the latter had affair with Marylin Monroe, but they were both bloody good politicians and policymakers; Tung Chee Wah is a good person, but that doesn't make him a good ruler or policymaker. The US society belives in meritocracy - ability is everything, and that puts personality down, but do bear in mind that there is a proportion of US citizens who are conservative and endorse traditional American family values; Chinese society OTOH preaches morality above everything, a good person is better than a clever person. You may be surprised, HKers were always criticised for being opportunistic and economically driven, but some of us still have those Chinese values embedded in us. See the link? Basically, us Chinese link Disney's business conducts with their moralities, hence we hear talks in and out of HK of boycotting Disney because of this, meanwhile Westerners don't tend to do that - they go to Disneyland to have fun and relax, so why think about those things that Disney do to their workers? They're smiling see? What's the problem? Ok, so some can argue Disney should be more culturally sensitive, and these people are right, however Disney still has a lot to learn from the Chinese culture, they aren't even past their first year yet. So put culture aside, it's back to the age long dilemma - corporations, and should they take on social responsibility? We all know that Disney is nowhere near the perfect company...that is if a company's goodness is based on its social and moral sensitiveness (but let me ask, is there such a company?); no, far from it, Disney is an extremely good company because it makes a lot of money, and it knows how to market their brand - the mouse IS the God in the land of dreams. However, I'm astounded why bloggers confine the neagtive arguments of Disney to Hong Kong, as the new CEO Robert Iger said on BBC news last night, "Although the Disney brand is global, the company itself had always been a US-centric company, I believe that by building Disneyland Hong Kong and beyond, in 10 years' time Disney will be a truly global company." First, not just HKers, EVERY SINGLE NATION ON THIS PLANET have sheep mentalities, just look at my post before about panic buying petrol in the UK, and me - I went to get an ipod nano as soon as it came out. So why think that HKers are particularly prone to sheep mentalities (also in Chinese)? We have to account for the fact that Disney is a US-centric company (I can't seem to stress it enough) - that's how they run their business in the US. Disney is no HSBC, they don't have 100+ years experience in running business in the Far East, and different nations means different cultures, their success in Tokyo doesn't mean they can just copy the formula to run HK, or even China in the future. This news (in chinese only, Yahoo! news), for example, showed the workers at Disneyland complained that the working conditions were harsh, with harsh things like not allowed to drink in front of customers, can't use customers' toilet etc. I want to ask these workers, have they ever been to the US Disneyland? The US workers basically worked under the same conditions, basically customers come first. Don't get me wrong, Disney was also at fault, because they haven't accounted for the culture factor - Americans who work in Disneyland love their job, I've talked to a few when I was there, and they had thoroughly enjoyed their job, and what's more, they're proud of it - but don't forget, ex-CEO Eisner wasn't a good CEO either. How about HKers' work attitude? Well I will take an educated guess - they are merely doing their job, and basically have no affection at what they're doing. That's only one of the difference in attitudes and culture between US and HK. There were also complaints about how Western Disney workers are biased to other foreign customers - imagine that you're a white American worker in Disneyland HK, you are new to this exotic country, everything is so different to the US, and you don't know anything around the place; all day long you are surrounded by HKers/Mainlanders who are loud mouthed, don' know jack shit English, points their fingers around, and shout at you non stop; you had a really frustrating and busy day, you're tired, and you're constantly surrounded by noise and people who you can't communicate with at all, how would you feel that this particular moment? Now, if you see some white customers, Americans in fact, who you can talk to, how will you feel? My guess will be relieved. I'm not baised against Chinese people; but when I was younger and my english wasn't that good, I always felt more comfortable around other HKers or Chinese people who speak my own language - �L�m�J�G�� (meet your own countryman in a foregin land). Disney workers are humans as well, and they are nowhere near perfect, so you can see them getting pissed off blah blah blah, however using these 'Gotcha!' attitudes against the company is just like picking at holes. As for picking at holes, theworkplace accident investigation (in Chinese only) in one of GuangDong's factory which is under license to produce Disney's products, it's a case of you have your policies, we have our own way to deal with it (�W��F��M�U��ﵦ). Social responsibilities? Hmmmm...you know I'm always against that, and anyway those abuses are by the Chinese contractors (factory owners) towards the workers and not really directly owned by Disney. True Disney should check harder, but in the end there's only so much they can do, the working culture in China will have to evolve as well. Meanwhile, do bear in mind that Disney itself is going through a transitional phase - new CEO Iger to replace the bad one before, and changes had yet to take effect...I suspect when Eisner closed the deal for Disneyland HK he was basically taking his best shots at Tung, and Tung being desperate like he was, was literally beaten into submission, otherwise how did we come to such a crap and expensive deal? US$ 3 bil for 53% stake, Disney paid minute amount of money, and got 47% + royalties from the HK government. Damn it! I was initially going to talk about the economics of Disneyland HK, but it seems that I will have to leave it til tomorrow...I still have proof reading to do. Manwhile, for some figures on Disneyland, goto here and read (from SimonWorld). Now, come on people, let's not be short sighted and see the bigger picture.

Panic buying...sigh...

2005-09-14T20:42:00.000+01:00

My friend phone me on Tuesday night to ask one question, "Should I go wait in the queue to buy petrol?" (For those of you who don't know what had been happening in the UK for a couple of day, read here (news article from FT), then read on.) Even though I don't have a car, I have been following petrol issues closer than some, and formed my opinions already amid those media frenzy. I told him, "Yes." "Really? You think there's going to be a crisis?" I said, "Well, no. I don't actually think that there will ever be a supply crisis in the next few days, first there were no seriously organised threats against the oil suppliers; second, the farmers association who were the main protestors last time in 2000 aren't going to be in it this time, and with such short notices I doubt there will be a lot of protestors this time; third, the police will definitely do something, one way or another." "Then why do you say yes?" He asked. "Because not many people actually share my view. They saw what the papers say - people are panic buying - and then they got scared and went to queue. More and more people will see those queues, and then they too will get scared and queue. It's a vicious circle. So although I don't think it's ever going to happen, if you urgently need oil then go queue up, otherwise don't bother." "ok..." He then hung up, however there were uncertainty in his voice. As more news emerge today, the protests are little more than feeble attempts to stop international oil giants, the media frenzy was totally unfounded, and people realised how stupid they were...well a couple of petrol stations were wiped out of petrol by these people. In fact, less number of hauliers turned up this morning than expected, because some of them claimed that they were threatened by police - if they turn up they will lose their haulier's license...good job police. Some people blame the media - damn right. Then Channel 4 news interviewed one psychologist, and he claimed that although many oil companies and the government told us not to panic buy, people simply didn't trust them...What? People simply got scared - when they panic they can't think rationally, and when they see scared people queueing they get more scared, the media hyped it up, and people get even more scared. It's just simple sheep meantality. Now this never existed problem is gone, let's go back to the usual problems...watch the oil prices here.

Microsoft vs Google...or not?

2005-09-14T14:25:00.001+01:00

Remember Dr. Lee Kai-Fu's defection from Microsoft to Google which sparked a string of lawsuits? Well Microsoft yesterday offered to settle all cases with Google on the controversial Dr. Lee case, so both of them won't get tangled up in Court. (News from Bloomberg) Currently, Google filed a Federal case against Microsoft in California, and simultaneously Microsft filed a State case against Google in Seattle Washington. Microsoft offered Google to settle both cases - basically they will let Lee go if Google uphold the non-compete agreement clause ruled valid by Washington Judge Stephen Gonzalez. The non-compete agreement clause prevents Dr. Lee to work in competition-sensitive parts of Google or participate in any decision making, but he can work in Google's non-essential operations - he can go and open the R&D centre in China, hire researchers etc., but he can't do anything hardcore...basically he becomes a HR manager and not the hardcore research scientist-executive he was wanted for. This clause expires in July 2006, after that Lee can work for Google properly. If Google accepted this offer, then This will definitely delay their invasion into the Chinese market (afterall, that's what Dr. Lee was initially hired to do). There is a hidden agenda here - Microsoft is betting that Google will be held back for (at least) 11 months, and during that time they will definitely come up with something that will put themselves ahead of the game; they may even have the solution in hand, or simply buying time so they can think up one fast. What's Google going to do? Waste $10 million (Dr. Lee's wages and potential revenue loss) and 11 months (until the clause expires), or a duel to the death with Microsoft, at court, which will potentially cost more money and time? Either way Google is going to lose, because the non-compete clause was already upheld by the Washington judge; unless they want to fight it out with Microsoft in the Californian federal court, which could result in invalidation of the clause, or they lose. I will stress again - either way it's a waste of money and time for Google (even if they win they lose time, if they lose the case they're going to lose a lot of money and possibly reputation, and time), and it's a risky bet, should they choose to goto federal court. There's no doubt that Microsoft is shit scared of Google, so meanwhile Google loses time (a prive to pay for their strategis mistakes) they can use that advantage to re-establish themselves, if they can that is. I think Google will think further ahead, take the offer and suffer potentially less loss. If Dr Lee is really worth the money then it's Microsoft who will lose out in the long run.

Finished the first draft of my report...

2005-09-13T19:52:00.000+01:00

Nothing more said, I'm going to watch Stargate SG1 and play guitar and chill out after a year's hard work, I will go through it again tomorrow...YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Oh yeah, my black ipod nano was shipped to MIT, where my good classmate is right now; since I ordered 2 day delivery, he will receive it on thursday, and coming back on monday, I will have it by next monday!!! Can't wait!

This is funny...but I'm laughing at the person who did it...

2005-09-13T01:10:00.000+01:00

From Channel 4 news. Jeremy "the tall nob" Clarkson, famous BBC2's Top Gear presentor, got a custard pie thrown at his face at his own degree ceremony as Oxford Brooke's University - no that university has nothing to do with Oxford University, and his degree is only an honourary one. Ahha! Gutted Clarkson! Yeah I don't like him, although his jokes are cruel and very funny at times, but what's more is that I'm jealous of him because he gets to do all the cool stuff in all the greatest cars ever built by man - Aston Martin DB9, Ferrari Enzo, Ford GT40...you name it, he'd probably driven it, bastard. But what's more funny about this incident is - it turned out to be a female environmentalist who threw the custard pie at his face, in protests of his recently performed stunts such as driving a 4x4 (Dustless: that's the new Range Rover Sport for those of you who didn't watch it) through an environmentally-sensitive peat bog in Scotland and inciting people to break the law by hiding mobile phone use while driving. Now THAT is funny, not because Clarkson got the pie, but because of this stupid bitch. I mean, lighten up people, what the fuck is wrong with you lot environmentalists? Clarkson is a TV show presentor, and of course he must think up outrageous stunts to keep folks like me watching! Anyway, what's wrong with driving a 4x4 in a peat bog? It's not like Britain is ever going to run out of peat bogs...go and fucking protest to Ford, they own and make Land Rovers! Tell you what, go and protest to the fucking Army as well, because as well as the 4x4 (with Clarkson), there was a fucking challenger tank hoarding through that bog chasing the 4x4 as well! What? You're scared that they will just shoot you down? Gutless wonders.

England won the ashes from the Australians...first time in 18 years...

2005-09-12T18:43:00.000+01:00

Knowing the Australian team is absolutely amazing at Cricket, with Shane Warne being the best spin bowler in the world (Brett Lee's bowls were bloody fast as well), England still managed to win the ashes from the Aussies!!! 3 - 1. This ashes series had been most exciting, the best I saw in years! However scorewise this series was very close, and the prospect for England was still pretty gloomy before lunch with a mere 127 - 5, but after lunch the wind anazingly blew England's way. Kevin Pieterson scored a magnificiant 158! With the whole England team rests on his shoulders (and to be honest, he wasn't playing too well throughout the series) he suddenly turned into Superman, got his maiden century at the most crucial time possible...how the fuck does he do it? He just went berserk and whacked 7 sixes! The whole England team worked so hard to beat the mighty Aussies this year no doubt, but if any one man who ensured England wins back the ashes today it was definitely KP. But throughout the series Andy Flintoff is your man...amazing performance. Good game to both teams, and victory is sweet!

a sign of things to come?

2005-09-12T17:44:00.000+01:00

Read the PCWorld news here. Samsung had announced that their new flash drives - with max. capacity (so far) of 32GB, will be in production late next year. That's ridiculous, they have as much storage capacity as HDDs couple of years back!! Now, what I realised straight away were two implications - Apple iPods and future of computing. a) Apple uses Samsung flash drives for their flash-based iPods - the shuffle and the nano. When 32GB becomes available HDD based iPods will go out of fashion because the nano can essentially have the same capacity without the downpoint of bulky size. 32GB iPod nanos by next year, imagine that...and beyond... b) With the advent of PDAs and palmtops nowadays the downpoints are only storage capacity and volatile memory. If you have 32GB flash drives then it will simply mean that these PDAs can potentially invade the laptops market, because they had become so powerful in terms of capacity; one can even manufacture PDA docks that can eventually resembles a proper desktop, effectively invading the PC market as well... Of course this is a little far fetched, and it literally ignored the temporary and delaying effect of manufacture costs and retail cost, however these things are never impossible to think about - when flash drives came out at 64MB and 128MB, who would have thought they can go up to GBs?

I suddenly felt really trapped...

2005-09-11T16:22:00.000+01:00

Therefore I cleaned out the radioblog, and wrote something...well, it's not really writing, just improvising on a 12 bar blues riff, and did some soloing on the guitar. If you really want to listen to it, you can go to the radioblog here or click on the one of the right of thr page (be warned). It probably sounds like crap because there's a lot of noise, and I haven't got good recording equipment - only guitar, amp, lead and laptop; however, I don't really care right now... ...ok, let it all out on the guitar now, I'm getting back to the report.

Sigh...

2005-09-09T17:59:00.001+01:00

(from ESWN) The verdict of the Zhao Yan vs. Robert Rhodes trial, in which Rhodes (a Homeland security officer) had allegedly assaulted Zhao (an entrepreneuress who was a tourist in the US at the time) in unprovoked circumstances, came today - Rhoades was found not guilty. Fair enough, the law is the law, especially when it was not a criminal law trial. What annoyed me are the post-verdict reaction in China here. Remembered I talked about stereotypes? Well when this sort of phenomenon appeared over and over again on Chinese BBS (you can see some at Yahoo! HK BBS as well), I started to look at things differently, and came up with a few different thoughts. 1) One civil court case provoked so much outrageous comments amongst the Chinese internetsphere, and the more outrageous these comments are, the more these Chinese people, who aren't rich enough to go traveling, will take into mind - stereotyping. And anyway, I doubt that these Chinese can distinguish an American from and English, or a German from an American. Wherever they direct their hatred on, I suspect it will be mostly at white Caucasian male. 2) Can I say all US court cases are like this? Of course not, at worst this is an isolated incident, one out of a million - a gay American cop versus a Chinese entrepreneuress, now you don't see that everyday, not even in UK or the US. Using one court case and condemning mindlessly not only the American law system but the whole US of A is just, simply put, fucking stupid. 3) "It is the American police in a country where they protect human rights! We should learn from them to let the police beat people! It is like that in all countries that protect human rights; for example, in England, the police can execute an innocent citizen from suspicion alone! And then you only have to say "I am sorry" and that's enough!" This particular comment is very interesting (albeit annoying at start) because it is exceptionally stupid and shallow it's hilarious. First of all, although most Western democracies are similar in essence, British democracy is different than the US - one out of many example is that UK provides state help for the lower class; America, having abolished the class system, is a pseudo-meritocracy, which means no state help except those dimes you put in the kitty yourself. Second, the police in China don't beat people? Gosh! Which part of China does he live in? Hong Kong? Even Hong Kong police beats people to the ground during a chase - remember there were valid evidence suggesting that Zhao was resisting arrest at the time. Human rights aren't considered when people are suspected for breaking the law (ok so there is always a possibility of a false arrest). It's very interesting how these Chinese, who were living in a country lacking in human rights, where the country's policies violates and disrespect human rights, criticising America on human right issues (just like the ex-PM of Indonesia criticising UK and US for human rights issues). What do you think comes first? Human rights or law enforcement? (assuming Rhodes' suspicion for arrest is justified) Of fucking course law enforcement comes first; if human rights came first, we wouldn't be shooting the criminals, they will be shooting at us. Third, the case in UK - British police aren't allowed to carry guns (some law passed in the early 90s prohibited possession of firearms, including the law enforcers), except in hostile circumstances (where the suspect has firearms), and at that time was basically under state alert after the 7/7 bombings, and the shoot to kill policy was put into force by the chief of the Met (Metropolitan Police). Ok, so the special squad marksman fucked up and tried to cover it up (also failed miserably), it's an isolated incident. Otherwise British police don't have fucking guns at all. The point of this post is - next time, before you criticise somebody, please remember, at the very least, to do your fucking homework, otherwise you will just make yourself look extremely stupid, as in the cases above and many more. Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War more than 1000 years ago - know yourself and your enemy, then you will win everytime. Why don't people learn? Speaking of British police, I remembered a couple of years ago I've seen one of the most amazing sights in London - British police in action. It goes a little like this - I was walking down Leicester Square (central London) with a friend when we suddenly saw about 3 people running towards us and passed us. They looked pretty drunk, and these scenes were pretty normal in London on a Friday night anyway. Then we saw, from about 20 metres away, a cop running after them. Those three drunken sods were running laughing and shouting; at this point we both just stopped walking (along with some others), our eyes followed their wobbling trajectories, and our bodies turning. Something's going to happen. Then, out of a sudden, 2 cop vans stopped right by us on the road, whoosh! Out came 20+ cops, armed with nothing but sticks they raged towards the 3 drunks. Looking back at the drunks, their facial expressions changed, and before they realised that their time was up, said anything or shat themselves (they were too drunk to react), 20+ cops already bundled onto them, and held them down firm onto the floor. They didn't stand a fucking chance - 2 cops sitting on his back, 2 holding each of his arm, 2 on each leg, 1 put a stick on his neck; likewise with the other two. Two minutes later they were dragged into the car, the scene cleared. A lot of people were watching at that time, and when the cops left people just stood in utter awe for about half a minute before dispersing... You would have thought - 20 something cops against 3 drunks? Well it is more entertaining to watch than a full scale shootout right? 4) Finally, there were some replies on the BBS who claimed that Zhao deserved it because she's rich and all that - now that's a bit more normal; feels just like Dicken's Victorian England.

Appalling speech from forner PM of Indonesia

2005-09-09T15:09:00.000+01:00

Reuters article here. Hmm...like Indonesia was ever a country full of human rights, democracy, peace and all that. Remember this? Although the whole riot and assault (gang rape and all that) had been sexed up by some people over the internet, the incidents were true and real, as captured on CNN. Check out the Human Rights Watch page on indonesia here. Speak about human rights...haha my arse. I admit, the US and UK had done many wrongs in Iraq, getting rid of Saddamm hussein purely for his oil fields (the rise of neo-mercantilism). I feel for the poor Iraqis who are being plunged into chaos, but we will deal with Blair ourselves ok? If you have so much energy criticising other people, why don you sort your own country out first before criticising anybody?

Council tax...

2005-09-08T19:22:00.000+01:00

Problem after problem for the new house - first there's the problem of guarantors (well I don't need one, but two of my housemates are PhD students, and for some reason the tenent checkup people think they still need guarantors), that's fixed (so far); the second problem concerns me and me only - council tax. It was my own stupid fault really, because I forgot that these taxes are rated by the value of the property, and it's a 3 bedroom house, so it can't be that cheap; what I didn't realise was because I will be the only one paying the tax, instead of paying (what I thought) 1/3 of the tax, I ended up having to pay 3/4 of the tax...that comes to 108 pounds per month. Personally I think it's ludicrous! What cost them so much to run? I know the policing and all that, but gosh it's still too much! I was thinking about utilising some of their money by applying for jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit (in other words, for unemployment benefits). I did some calculations, the money and the finance is fine, however the problem lies in practicality - they do check up every 2 weeks to see how I'm getting on finding work. Not that I won't find any, it's the fact that I will be going to HK on the 25th and not coming back for a month, therefore the 2 weeks checkup is quite hard to do until I'm back into the country. Ben, one of my housemates and extremely good friend, offered to go dutch on the Tax - damn it! I don't know what to say...what a good sport! I don't know how to thank him at all! I have to think of a way...maybe I will still go for dole money until I actually find a job, because I feel really bad putting my financial burden on Ben. Once I find a job, I can cope with the council tax a little easier, with a tighter budget. I've also tried to look for other places to rent in London and around as well, however the rent is pretty much the same (after addition of council tax), so might as well stay here...

F**k the iPod Shuffle, Nano is the new boy in town!

2005-09-07T19:44:00.000+01:00

(picture from Apple, obviously) Fuck the shuffle man, I set my eyes on this, read about it here :) This is an awesome piece of work, the world never saw that coming did they? That phone everybody was hyped up about looked shit...what do you expect? It's a bloody Motorola...boy, this blew me away, perhaps more than the iPod itself.

��W�J�T�U�ǥͦb�@�T�|ĳ��Ѱ��Ҥ@��...

2005-09-07T19:06:00.000+01:00

News from TaKungPo. To all anti-globalisation protesters: Before, you goto the Hong Kong convention centre to protest, read this book. If your english aren't good enough or can't read then tough, LEARN IT. I will tell you what kind of book this is - this is a pro-globalisation book written by an economist, however the book had laid out two sides of the argument (that's good and bad if you don't know) so well that the analysis is indeed objective and scientific (I know because I've read it). If you don't have an open enough mind to read it and appreciate the pros as well as the cons of globalisation, then you fucking suck and have a small brain, just like a little gold fish. Tell you what, those protests are for far-left babarians who have no brains and no minds of their own, who can only shout mindless groundless rant of corporate exploitation, if you go, then you're certainly one of them. I agree with the author of the book, globalisation can be better, but the anti-globalisation propaganda is invalid in many ways. If you think globalisation is bad, the anti-globalisation is just as bad. How? Read the book, I gave you the link again. Yours faithfully The Dustless Workshop

WTFFFFFFFFF?

2005-09-07T17:08:00.000+01:00

Read this, and be appalled. I don't know how independent that independent inquiry group led by George Bush can be, but someone is going to fucking pay, someone's blood will be spilt and drank by hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims. Impeach Bush? Well, I don't know, but FEMA is definitely going down...

A third degree...

2005-09-07T13:58:00.000+01:00

I've noticed that there are a lot of university students (and also secondary school students) within the HK blogosphere, but this has nothing to do with them. I have just been accepted to do a part time (say part time, but it's really an external programme thing, so no lectures at all, just books and notes) BSc degree in Economics with LSE (London School of Economics). This will be my third, after my Physics BSc at Royal Holloway and Optics & Photonics MSc at Imperial College. Some of my friends are already screaming, "WTF? Are you out of your fucking mind? Another one?" or "Why not do a PhD at Imperial, Oxbridge or the US? Surely with a MSc degree from Imperial you can try them..." or simply "Gosh, you're trying to hide from having to work aren't you?" I don't know if I've told you before, but I really can't see myself doing a PhD just yet - If I wanted to, I can nail a PhD at Imperial or Oxbridge and stay for another three years, but really, what good will that do me afterwards? Ok, so I will have the title of Dr. and specialist knowledge in what I researched for. And afterwards? What's in it for me? More research? I did the Myers Briggs test in class back in Februrary, it was extemely accurate, I'm an ENTJ (E(3)N(5)T(35)J(15)). According to the results, people with such mentalities are executives. Now, I'm not implying that I'm destined to be that sort of people, I just want to stress the following point - the inclination for my Extrovertiveness is about 5 (as oppose to a inclination of 35 for Thinking T), which means that I am threading on the verge of extrovertiveness and introvertiveness; I guess the low inclination on intuition (N) is because I have been practicing novel writing for many years, which relies heavily on sensing (S) rather than intuition (N). I also read up about the INTJ personalities - scientist. To be honest, I have a bit of both qualities. My personality was screaming at me when I faced the prospect of scientific research (PhD, and whilst working at HP) - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! As good as they are, and I am genuinely interested in doing researches in Optical Displays (that's TVs for the rest of you), I want more than that. I searched myself, I wanted to apply the scientific knowledge that I gained from those degrees, but not in carefully controlled experimental environments, I want a dynamic environment where theories don't always work, which means that I will have to stand up to testify my predictions, and risk being shot down. My ideal situation is finance - what environment can be more realisitic and dynamic than the ever changing world of finance? I told Sindy that I wanted to get into investment banking, and I'm trying my absolute hardest to get in. Knowing that merely reading articles here and there and reading books won't get me very far, I have decided that I should take time and do a third degree, in economics. I was initially thinking more about a degree in banking & finance, but at I've always said, I'm ever more interested in international macroeconomics than the accounting and statistics of it, however when I looked at the available courses I can do, I have chosen a few finance modules which I can do (including international relations). Why a degree? Because it's what this world ranks people who don't have much work experience with nowadays, and therefore whilst I will be working to gain experience I will also do more learning. Yes, call me a boffin, but I just love learning new stuff. Days without learning for me is like starving my brain, and it will just bloody die, along with the rest of me. If you stick around for long enough, you can watch my eternal struggle as I try to get into investment banking (which will probably span over many years). I may suceed, I may not, but the day I give up getting into finance will be the day I die...no, no! It doesn't mean that I will kill myself if I can't get in, it merely means that I will spend my whole life trying. (no financial sales please, as I've already turned down that route. I am always more inclined to use my brains than to use hard sell tactics) A part time degree doesn't have to be finished in 3 years like a full time degree, so I am thinking about using 3 to 4 years' time to complete the degree. Also, one funny point - having seen many undergraduate students in Royal Holloway graduated with a BSc in Economics without attending to many lectures (of course I know a friend who's got a first honour degree, and he's now working for PwC), how hard is that part time BSc going to be? Same situations, no lectures, no notes, but I'm more prepared to work than them lot; all they had were A levels when they went in, I have two science degrees; half the friends I know who did economics don't even know why they're doing that degree - I know exactly why I'm doing this degree. Therefore, I do strongly believe I have distinct advantages over them. Yes, I can do it, and I am going to do it. Just watch.

Oh God, please spare my F*****G eyes!

2005-09-06T15:06:00.000+01:00

After that hermaphrodite freak show from Mainland China's internetsphere known as �ܻT�j�j (Sister Lotus), there's now Sister Water Lily (��P�f�f), you can see it from ESWN (I refuse to acknowledge it as a Homo Sapian). Jesus fucking Christ, when will this stop!?!?!?!?!?!??? Read some of the excerpt from ESWN, I have literally nothing to say, I was gobsmacked like I just got hit by a fucking hurricane. I refuse to upload any of those photos here because they are just absolutely fucking revolting, and it insults my existence as a Homo Sapian - who the fuck do they think they are? Do they think all men will really fuck anything that walks? Well fuck you! This really is a national disgrace. Confidence is a good thing, but look at them, they are as fucking ugly as Shrek's shite. It's vanity at its best, humanity at its worst...spare my fucking eyes please, what have they done to deserve this? All they have been looking at are my wife, beautiful women, words, the surroundings and many more, but never this. I take good care of my eyes, and they never harmed anyone! I'm really aggravated by those picture right now, sorry about that...I will get back to work now (I am busy lately writing reports).

The day New Orleans turned into Baghdad...

2005-09-03T15:31:00.000+01:00

Aid started to pile in after one bloody week...dispicable! What the fuck were they doing? People were looting in shops and markets in New Orleans, but who can fucking blame them? No state help at all, and judging from the pictures from CNN, they aren't looting anything else but everyday essentials. No electricity, no food, no water, no telephone, suddenly they went back to 1 million BC. The US army, where the fuck were they...oh yeah, Baghdad, Iraq. There were no one to take these people away, not before the hurricane, not efter the hurricane struck. Poor sods (literally). The first thing Bush did was to release strategic oil reserves to stop oil prices rising higher...what about the people who were stranded in New Orleans and in the path of mighty Katrina? Those pictures were devastating...can someone explained to me why didn't the private sector helped at all? One other thing that stuck me as odd was the fact that the law enforcers and the army kept people INSIDE New Orleans, instead of getting them away as soon as possible... p.s. Dear Dong Dong: Petrol prices don't reflect how local petrol are supplied, so even though Californian petrol doesn't come from Louisiana area it doesn't mean anything; rather, the petrol prices reflects what the companies think - the hurricane aftermath and the supply problems (26 countries had agreed to release strategic oil reserves to try to address the short term supply problem caused by Katrina) gave them an excuse to raise prices. Note though, that most companies aren't big multinationals like ChevronTexaco, BP, Shell or ExxonMobil who do crude exploration AND refinery (therefore the profit they made from rising crude prices can offset decrease in supply; refinery damage are most likely to be insured), some smaller companies who only have refineries, can only distribute petrol after they had received crude oil and refined them. Therefore this supply problem struck petrol prices more than crude prices - chances are these companies sustained damges or had shut down refineries when hurricane struck. You can go to the New York Mecantile Exchange, and see how the crude and petrol prices changed these couple of days on the little graph on the right. There's also the problem of supply and demand - the relationship between the two is relative and reflexive, when supply is short, demand goes up, and this cut in supply, as well as surge in demand, is evident on the prices you see around California (just like in HK when people stir up prices of things that are in high demand but low in supply). However, sometimes it doesn't mean that companies simply want to make more profit by putting up prices in these situations, rather because it's harder to get hold of crude (have to bid higher prices for it), or since their refineries' production were halted for a couple of days (or completely stopped), they don't have that much in stock to give to more and more people who wants petrol. The people who will most certainly make profits from these situations are speculators (hedge funds etc.), who uses these negative news to push the prices even higher. They have been responsible, for the last year, for pushing crude prices from $35 per barrel to $70, as well as real increase in demand from China (althoug this is decreasing). There are two ways to stop oil prices from rising - increase supply, or decrease demand. The first solution was tried for the last year, and it simply didn't work, now the second must be tried.

Petrol prices in the UK...and one problem

2005-09-02T19:04:00.000+01:00

Since Europe (including the UK) is shipping oil to the US for emergency, us Brits will feel it when petrol prices rises further (in fact, I have noted that in 2 hours the petrol prices of a Shell where I was viewing houses jumped 3p to 91.9p per litre). Dong Dong was worried because petrol prices reached $3 a gallon in California, I feel for her. Well darling we charge petrol by the litre over here (1 US gallon = 3.78 litre), and it's going up to 92+p already, accounting for exchange rate (1.8434 USD to 1 pound today) as well petrol in the UK is more than twice as expensive as the US. Haven't seen any HK prices yet but I suspect it will be just as ugly. Yesterday whilst I was commenting on petrol prices, my friend asked me a question which I thouhgt was immensely funny, hence I'm sharing it with you. He asked, "How are the pumps going to cope when petrol prices go over a quid? I mean, some of them only have 3 digits and a decimal place, does that mean peices can only top at 99.9p?" I couldn't stop laughing when I heard that question. You see, petrol prices are shown in pennies here, for example per litre price of 92.9p. Now, the pumps, as you should know, aren't the most sophisticated of electronics, and it needn't be, some of the older dials still have 3 digits and 1 decimal place in between. Newer stations, mainly those opened by supermarket chains have newer pumps, and hence more digits, but for those companies, especially the small players who only refines the crude, changing them over will mean more financial burden because replacing those pumps don't come cheap. They need to start charging in pounds, but that will be REALLY scary...when analysts at Goldman Sachs predicted that oil prices will jump to $100 if there's a superspike of some sort (another storm or something) everybody just laughed it off. Who's laughing now bitch?

Sorted...so far

2005-09-02T00:25:00.000+01:00

If some of you wondered why I was a bit quiet today, it's because I went to London again today because I have to pay for my air ticket and find a place to live for life after HP and Bristol. Perfect house, right price, flexible contract (very hard to find in this country) - sorted. Air ticket - sorted. Now all that's left is the job that I will have...

Creative seeks royalties from Apple?

2005-08-31T10:43:00.000+01:00

This article from the FT reported that Creative Technology aims to take a chunk out of Apple's recent iPod success by claiming that they have just been awarded a patent for a user interface that enables users of portable media players to efficiently and intuitively navigate among and select tracks on the players - which is the current system that iPod uses. (If you want to have a look at the patent it's described here by the way, and if you want to view the actual document, just click view as multi-page pdf at the top) Some of you may think �V WTF? Apple has been selling iPods for years! True, Apple started selling iPods from as early as 2001, however note that this patent was filed on 5th January 2001, iPods went on sale on October the same year, so strictly speaking Creative Technology has the right to either seeks royalties from Apple (for using now what is their technology) or sue Apple for liability. Why this patent took 3 years to get awarded is a mystery though, because normally patents only take about 18-24 months to file (here in HP there are patents filed regularly), 4+ years is a little too long. The article also reported that similar things happened to Apple with Microsoft, who had beaten them recently filing a patent for generating playlists from a library of media items (news article here). The patent was allegedly filed by John Platt, a research scientist working for Microsoft Corp. His inventions include handwriting recognition systems and many more (he��s an expert in machine learning). This patent was filed in 30th May 2005, 5 months before Apple filed theirs for the iPod. This sparked a number of lawsuits as Apple appeals against the rejection decision by the patent office. The difference between Microsoft��s patent and Creative��s patens is that the former is an idea for software which generates playlists; the latter is a user interface which sorts music out in hierarchical order �V both of which the iPod has. Ouch! Very ouch! Don��t think that the industry research environment is as friendly as academia, it��s just as dark as the business world�Koh wait, that IS the business world. Call Microsoft dirty if you want, but I think it��s bloody genius of them, which is saddening.

Credit - the big bad wolf? Or misunderstood? (4)

2005-08-30T23:54:00.000+01:00

(The previous parts can be found here (1), here (2), and here (3)) This constitutes the final part of what I wanted to say about credit. I have taken the length of my own time to describe to you what credit is and what their characteristics are, because I strongly believe what Sun Tzu, the legendary military strategist, said in his book The Art of war, ��v��M�ʾԦʳ��. It means that if you know everything about yourself and your enemy, inside out, you are bound to win the battle; even if you don��t know your enemy, if you know yourself then you will still have a 50/50 chance of winning the battle; conversely, if you don��t know jack shit about yourself or your enemy, then you��re doomed to failure because of your own stupidity. You don��t have to agree with what I say or think, but can you say that, without my ramblings, you truly understood what credit was all along? How would you deal with it in times of need? Dismissing it as just mere evil is a pile of nonsense, because we will all need credit sooner or later - be it for mortgages or funding our children��s education. For me, there��s only one way to tackle this seemingly seductive phenomenon of credit �V know it inside out, look through it, see what it entails. Sure it can help you out or curb your desires, but you need to also understand why there are interest rates involved, and what the companies really want from you by borrowing their money �V in any case, profit, and how they make such profit. Once you understand how they work and their mentality, then whatever they say will simply have no effect on you, they are merely gentle persuasion to lure whoever needs to money, or whoever stupid enough to drag themselves into the lion��s den. As long as the nature of money doesn��t change, everything they put in front of you is just smoke screen which isn��t real. Understanding how credit works won��t win you the world, but I believe it will certainly help you to face credit should you need it; or when you see something you really want but you can��t afford it, you will know how to avoid giving into your desires and put yourself into the shit pit (however, if you want to borrow to spend, and you neither give a shit about your financial situation nor your future, then you really shouldn��t be reading this. This is for people who really want to help themselves). Understanding yourself and your life is just as important as understanding credit, because YOU are the only person who truly understands you, not even your other half can understand you 100% (but I believe something like 90% is already exceptional). Understand what you need, and then you can plan accordingly, and distribute whatever money you have according to your need, only leaving over whatever��s spare to get what you want. So, here comes the final question: e) What can we do to prevent our own downfall? There are millions of reasons why people go into debt, but whatever it is, there��s only one way out �V repay it. You can choose to commit suicide, but it really depends on what sort of loan you��ve taken out, if it��s a mortgage then there��s no escape even if you kill yourself because your next of kin will have to carry on paying for you; conversely, if you choose to kill yourself so you don��t have to repay that $3000, then there really is no place for you in this world. One can even say that it��s a privilege to be able to utilise credit. Think about the poor farmers in mainland China, or the starving families in Ethopia, they can��t even feed themselves, and they have no way of saving themselves except to wait for aid or just die of starvation. In that case, credit REALLY is a privilege for us fortunate souls, and it��s unforgivable to abuse it. We should only use it when we need to. Of course, I would say that THE best way to tackle credit/debt is not go into it in the first place; however, as fellow blogger Chainsaw Riot had shared with us, sometimes people simply don��t have a choice but to go into debt. I have always stressed that it��s ok to borrow money and go into debt if it��s for a good reason �V to survive because you currently don��t have a job (the obvious solution is to find one and then restructure the debt), or to fund further education etc. These are perfectly legitimate reasons for borrowing money, because what��s wrong with it? It��s simply investing in yourself (HR investment, just like how big companies train their staff), and when you get a better education out of the loan you borrowed you will have a better chance at landing a better job (which is certainly going to be better than previously). In fact, that��s what most youths in the UK, US, and now HK do. Chances are some of us can��t afford to go to university, and to be honest with you, with loads of undergraduate degree holders walking around the globe these days, it��s extremely difficult to get a job with just F.5 or F.7 education �V if you have bags of work experience then that can be of certain advantage, however it can only get you so far. Getting a job for most of the youths these days are like a catch 22 situation �V they have the necessary qualification, however what the employers are really looking for is that they have some sort of work experience, and employers are greedy, they want both; so if you have both, then good for you. However, what about those who only has a degree with not much work experiences? You can never get a job because you never had a job before. Chances are they have worked very hard for their academic work and got a good degree, therefore they have no spare time to gain work experience. What to do? Do the lowest paid job where work experiences aren��t necessary, and gain some. I know many people choose not to do it because it hurts their pride �V I��ve got a degree, why can��t I do that job which pays me $12000 or more, when I have the necessary qualification? Work experience is very important as well, and that��s what I��m struggling with as well. Luckily this 4 months working at HP can really help me a lot in the future. Back to the main point. For those unfortunate souls who are in debt and want to get out of it, one can only restructure the debt and repay until clean. It��s a long dark path that one must go, seeing the mere interest rate can make some people weep like a baby, but at the very least, it��s a necessary evil, afterall who wants to be in debt if they don��t want to? One can jump into the pit, but one can only slowly crawl back out. And as Chainsaw Riot had kindly noted, one should only restructure once, if you carry on restructuring it��s just like using one credit card to cover the debt from another credit card, in the end there��s only certain doom waiting for you. No fun there. When I restructured my debt it took a couple of years to clear, and I was living on a really tight budget because I have no substantial income at the time (only temp jobs and pocket money). Basically I lived on congee through all those times, until my slate is clean and things started to improve. There really is no easy way out, but it would help if you can get a job so you have income to pit against debt repayment, as well as essential spending. I would also argue that merely getting rid of the debt isn��t enough, we have to understand how we got there in the first place �V like me if I overspent to the extent that I was in debt from various overdrafts and 3 maxed out credit cards, I have to change the way I behave and spend much less money. I have to start monitoring how much money I spend each month and logging them, that way I can know how much money I spent and what on, say, food, entertainment, luxury items, or just basically cash in the pocket. It really is nothing hard, level 1 LCC stuff, simple book keeping. When you��ve done that, you can compare how much you spend against your income, so you know how much money is spend on essentials, and then if you��re lucky and have some leftover every month, you can give yourself an entertainment budget to spend on things you want, or save them up for bigger things (I will talk about investing later). Don��t think that you can remember it all without logging it down, when you start asking yourself questions like ��where did all my money go?�� but couldn��t come up with an answer, then you really should smack yourself on the head and start monitoring how those money leave you; money don��t have legs, there��s only one reason why they disappear �V they were spent, most certainly by you. One more thing - be honest about where you spend your money, there really is no point deceiving yourself that there��s �G50 spent on a night out, but didn��t put it down on paper. If you do that, even to your own self, then mate you have big problems. Go and see a doctor. I��ve been doing this for a couple of years, I know exactly where my money went, and I don��t ask question such as where did my money go anymore, which was nice. I never thought I can ever do that �V be the master of my own money and not working just to repay back debt �V my mother, although with a substantial wage, works because she has to repay back the debt she had. Ok so there are times where I need a lump sum of money for cushion �V for example, you need to put down deposits etc. when you move house, and it would be best if your budget do include a little money that will go into saving as well. Monitoring, however, isn��t enough; the spending habit has to change as well. I use to buy shoes when I see a good pair, now I only buy when they break, and anyway I have so many pairs to go through before they all break; same goes to clothes and underwear, and if I really need to buy underwear now I will just go and buy cheap ones that are discounted �V I used to have drawers full of Calvin Klein underwear, and I only wear CK underpants and socks; buying food is essential, and you simply can��t not eat, but you can always cook for yourself, and food almost certainly cost cheaper when you cook, especially when I only cook for myself (remember my wife is in HK). I remembered when my mother-in-law found out about my debt restructuring and my tight budget, she was really angry at me, but she wasn��t angry because I put her daughter through this, she was angry because we weren��t eating healthily (really, how healthy can eating congee day-in-day-out be?). When our financial status got better, we moved on from congee to eating $9 rice boxes, she got even more angry �V this time because we were stingy - we had money but we rather eat very cheap. From that time on she forced us to go to her place eat with the rest of the family. Basically, spending habits that got you into deep shit must go, and has to be replaced by more restrained habits. Of course if your financial status eventually improved, then you can go back to your old habit if you want to, but you have to beware how you spend your money, and not to get yourself into shit again. Meanwhile I look further, I don��t just look for ways to restrain my spending, I have to find way to make money as well. Of course, if you need money to invest, the most basic and necessary thing to do is to save, and this savings cannot be touched for whatever reason �V if you planned your budget properly then you will have accounted money for cushion as well, so these savings don��t have to be touched. How much one save shouldn��t be up to one��s own will, instead it should be decided by their budget, and how much they can afford to save. Even saving $200 a month is saving, although not much. To invest is a totally different matter, and it requires a totally different mentality. For anyone who wants to invest, I strongly recommend ��Rich dad, poor dad�� (�I��M�a��), as I��ve said many times (and especially to Sindy), this book is life changing (at least it changed my life). It doesn��t teach you how to invest �V in fact, apart from learning it yourself no one can teach you how to do that �V but it teaches the necessary mindset towards investment, and how to prepare oneself for investment. Saving is a very important factor, because when one doesn��t have money, they can only accumulate money by saving up. There��s this one part which I think is essential to saving �V always pay yourself first, before paying others. What that means essentially is (for those of you who haven��t read the book) �V whatever your budget is, however you spend your money, YOU (meaning your savings and investment) always comes first, because if you pay all the bills at the start of the month after your salary is paid, chances are you don��t have much money left to do anything else that you want to do. So the thing you should change is when your bills are going to be paid �V pay your bills at the end of the month instead of the start, that way you can put all the money you want into necessary investments (such as savings) and then pay your bills accordingly. This has more of a psychological implication than a practical one, because days after you paid your bills you��re paid again! Then money goes into investments, and then pays bills, and a few days later I��m paid again. Doesn��t that make you feel much better than waiting for a whole month before getting paid again? One important thing though, which I think it��s perfectly reasonable, is combining with the use of credit. Cash flow problems are likely to be only short term, maybe over a month or two �V if one experiences long term cash flow problems, then one must start asking oneself some questions about the future ability to earn money; unexpected spending comes in a random nature. Credit in this case can ease temporary cash flow problems, which I think should be the main use if one isn��t in a bad financial position, and wants to fully utilize credit. This conforms to the main use of credit cards. I can tell you now that my wife has about 6 credit cards, all of them are from me. She��s not a big spender, far from it; she spends so little that I sometimes have to force her to spend some of our money. The reason I gave her 6 credit cards is because of one thing �V she is the queen of the household, and therefore it��s inevitable that she has to use money to pay bill and all that essentials. One thing to note is that all 6 credit cards has different monthly cutoff dates which spans across the month, so whenever she needs to spend money when it��s urgently needed she can use the card which has just past the cutoff date, so it will be about 1 month before she starts paying (and also because of the free and tacky gifts). This means that she automatically has a 1 month interest free period before paying anything �V not just a specific benefit of one card �V some of my big spender friends also uses this, but for completely different reasons. There are also some credit cards that do interest free periods (6 to 9 months), one can utilize that as well, providing one will repay all the outstanding amount before they start charging you interest. Spending habit should be responsible, and it��s very much like a discipline, because chances are we always see things that we want to get, which is of no use to us whatsoever, but we are finding it hard to resist. It��s all up to one��s will power and self control to not to buy that �V of course, if you think you have spare cash to buy it, feel free, otherwise, it��s life. Life��s not fair, sometimes you just aren��t rich enough to get the things you want, deal with it. It��s always better to be poor but without debt, then to be middle class but with debt, because debt can suck a person dry, if they don��t know how to handle it. Thank you for listening, time to finish this crap off. I��ve probably written more 10000+ words for this, but nevermind�KI like writing.

Credit - the big bad wolf? Or misunderstood? (3)

2005-08-29T19:11:00.000+01:00

The first two posts can be found here (1) and here (2). c) How do we obtain credit? Obtaining credit is easy for most people, and most companies/banks will only require you to have some form of identification, and some form of documents to show that you have the power to pay back in the future, e.g. payroll slip, or account statement showing that you have a substantial amount of money in the account. With these information the companies then set to work - assessing your credit history/record. Depending on the amount and how the company conducts their business, a guarantor, or collateral, is sometimes needed - probably when they don��t really trust the applicant��s financial background, and wants reassurance that someone, in no particular preference, will pay back the money should the applicant defaults for whatever reason. That was how they do business in the old days. Nowadays borrowing money from finance companies is easier than ever, providing you have a job. Some companies don��t even need you to have a job, you simply nominate someone who will repay the loan for you if you can��t repay. You can take out a loan with the click of the finger (well, actually more like signing a piece of paper). It's basically (cheap) money for all! The procedure itself had been simplified greatly; this in a way had greatly assisted the emergence of the credit market, and this has a direct effect on the way we spend our hard earn cash/borrowed money. The easiest of them all must be credit cards, because credit card companies don��t have to give you a lump of money upfront, all they need to do is to pay for whatever you paid for now, and you will repay later, whether in all or in installments (with interest). Also, depending on the amount one borrows, different finance companies adopt different strategies regarding repayment. Take simple credit cards, for example, if the cardholder dies, then whatever debt they have left can be wiped out, providing the cardholder��s relatives don��t take up any cardholder��s estates (hence liability); for mortgages the case is a little more complicated, even if the payee dies, their family will have to carry on repaying the mortgages. Sounds ludicrous, but it��s true because it says clearly in the contract that in the unfortunate case of the payee went up to heaven, the bank can pursue the payee��s next of kin for repayment, which happened to me (unlike credit cards, it's not up to you if you want to repay or not - that's one of the reason why I was angry at my mother even after her death, because I was never informed of this - even if you choose not to take up the estate, they can still auction the collateral, and then charge you for what's leftover). Of course, these companies�� application procedures greatly affect the repayment method. It��s a well known fact that there��s no free lunch on this planet, what goes in must come out, and if it goes in easily, then watch yourself on your way out. The company who made the controversial advert in concern (�w�H�H�U, Prime Credit Ltd., website in Chinese), for example, you can even apply for a loan with SMS on you mobile phone; all they need from you (preliminary) are your name, your ID card number, and the amount you want to borrow. You can even apply for a loan online, just like you register an email account. It��s really that simple! Repayment method looks simple as well, all you need to do is have a bank account, and they will take money from your account each month, at a pre-agreed amount; sometimes the finance companies even advertise their payment method as interest only repayment (also from Prime Credit). Sounds very nice huh? Alas, the catch is in the interest rates. Why is borrowing money so easy nowadays? This beggars belief because lending money is a high risk business �V risk of non-payment, and because it��s such a high risk business, procedures in theory should be difficult to filter out those risky individual. The main reason is intense competition within the industry itself. Companies want customers, customers means profit, but who the hell is going to borrow money if it��s difficult to do so? Humans want a house for the psychological feeling of security, however it��s relatively difficult to take out a mortgage (having said that, it��s much easier than it used to be), so taking out mortgage requires a long hard think; however borrowing a mere $10000 doesn��t require much thinking, something we want can easily cost that much, for example a plasma TV. Finance companies know that very well and therefore to open up that market they all simplified what were tedious application procedures. Easier borrowing means that more people will have the incentives to borrow money when they need to, or when they simply want something. Most of the marketing methods used by finance companies either taps into the individual��s need or desire to lure them into borrowing money. In a way, competition is good for the customers because it forces the companies to lower down interest rates and promote attractive repayment terms, however when competition gets ugly finance companies will be forced to take up riskier customers, and seemingly more attractive repayment terms means profit margin squeeze. However, what about people who don��t qualify for such loans? i.e. genuinely poor people. Well, there are pawnbrokers, of illegal lenders (loan sharks). Borrowing money using illegal methods, especially from loan sharks, carries great risk for the poor soul. There was one Cantonese saying which describes how much interest loan shark charges, ��E�X�Q�T�k��, which means that if you borrow 9 dollars from the guy, you have to pay back 13 dollars, which comes to an interest rate of 40+%, and most likely higher because there��s simply no pre-agreed interest rate, the rate are assigned purely at the loan shark��s will. These transactions are done mostly in cash. Updated 30/08/05 - thanks a lot to Chainsaw Riot, who corected me that when we borrow $10 from loan sharks, they will only give us $9, that missing $1 is service charge (if you ever wondered why it's an awkward $9 instead of $10). Even if you repay straight away, you still lose $4. In fact, most loans comes with early repayment penalties - you cannot repay too early. For a mortgage, the normal repayment penalty date is within 3 years. d) Why do people abuse it? Who��s responsible for this credit culture? As the credit system becomes more and more organized in structure and application procedures becomes simpler, it��s bound to be more prone to abuse. However, what counts as credit abuse? Does excessive spending counts as credit abuse? If that particular applicant��s financial history tells the company that this guy is risky, they won��t take it. Of course, most of the time these risks will be disregarded by the finance companies in favour for higher revenue and profit. Afterall, most of the profits these companies make are from the interest rate they charge. Interest rates nowadays mostly follows the interest rate that the central bank of that particular country sets, for example the federal funds rate of the US Federal Reserve, the prime rate (known as simply p) of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the interest rate set by the Bank of England. The modern day monetary structure allows the central bank (not necessary independent from government control) to set interest rate according the current course, or the project course, of the local economy, and all banks follows these interest rates (variable rate loans/mortgages). There are also fixed rate loans and mortgages, but interest rate will be charged higher than the market rate; however that also means that the interest rate is insensitive to economic indicators, whereas variable rate loans follow central bank rates. The increased popularity of variable rate loans means that lending is also tied closely with economic cycles and interest rate hikes. When rates are high, less people tend to borrow money, vice versa with lower interest rates. Banks and finance companies, being capitalistic companies, require profit, and therefore they charge interest rates. However, remember that they also have to provide funds to the applicant before they make any repayment on interest, therefore this business is quite risky from the company��s point of view, and these risks are reflected by the interest rate they give to their customers. There are three main factors affecting interest rates: cost of fund (the amount that applicants ask for, which they have to provide upfront), quality of collateral (a flat? A car? Or stocks and shares?), and risk of return (this is dependent on the applicant��s financial history). Before the emergence of the organized credit history system where the companies can assess the individual��s financial history, the business was generally very risky. In fact, the above factors will tell us why mortgage rates are lower than personal loan rates, because properties have intrinsic values determined by the market, and the fact that repayment will span many years, so they can afford to charge lower interest rate (but it also means that it��s relatively more difficult getting a mortgage); meanwhile small and short loans�� interest rates are higher, because the corresponding risks involved are higher �V think of it this way, if the application procedures and requirements are easy to meet, then it means that more people who aren��t financially worthy will also be able to borrow these money, all they need to do is sign something and nominate someone. What are the chances that they will go default? What are the chances that these customers�� nominees are in as bad a financial situation as the customer? In times of prosperity the company can afford to take higher risks, but eventually these risks will take their toll when the economy is going downhill, and everybody is affected, lose their jobs or whatever, the companies lose money if the number of non-performing loans increases (bad debt), there��s a risk that more people will file for bankruptcy etc. If one observes the British economy, the number of bad debts is already rising due to the fact that people simply can��t repay their loans. This also happened with HK before the 1997 property market crash, and is currently happening to the US right now. To lower some of the risk factors, the companies offer attractive repayment schemes to lower the possibility of people defaulting �V they don��t want to lose money afterall, so if the customer can repay, but only over a longer time with lower interest rate, they will take it. This is why customers can bargain with finance companies. Credit seems to have incorporated itself with our daily life; it became a way of how modern human functions �V who doesn��t have a credit card on them? Who hadn��t taken out a mortgage for their flat? I have argued that there��s no immorality in using credit, providing one knows how to use them. One can say that the over-simplification of the system contributes to this culture of seemingly exessive spending, but I beg to differ. We should all know that credit relies on essentially one fundamental concept �V buy now, pay later. Desire is an incurable disease for most people, when they see something they want it straight away, be it a new car or just a new LV handbag. Whilst most people blame the finance companies for luring people into borrowing money and work them hard to pay back, I would argue otherwise �V it��s exactly the weakness of these people that are to blame. Marketing is merely gentle persuasion, but they don��t force you to take out money; it��s not as if they point a gun to your head and claimed that they will pump a cap up your arse if you dare not to borrow any. In other words, the ultimate decision of whether or not to borrow money lies under the individuals themselves. It��s simply supply and demand, people need money, and sometimes some of them want the money to buy things but can��t afford them, finance companies almost always appeal to that need (or desire). It's perfectly ok if you really need the money, but if you don't need it and you fell for it, it��s your own stupid fault. There are laws punishing misleading information, and finance companies aren��t stupid, therefore they are careful to cover their arses to not get sued should something goes wrong with their marketing strategies. Finance companies were portrayed as evil bastards in the past, and even up to this very day, but to be honest, they don��t want their customers to go bankrupt, because if they do the company loses money. In the UK the finance companies themselves are calling for greater share of customers�� financial history to better assess each customers�� credit worthiness, this helps them and their customers, so they can assess credit history more thoroughly (Britain lives in its own little red taped world). What I fail to understand most of the time is the fact that people always use moral arguments to blame finance companies for the popularity of credit and the degradation of our spending culture. Why should capitalistic companies take on social responsibilities? If people use credit properly, there is no way they will put themselves in bad situations. One blogger did exactly that, she questioned that why shouldn��t capitalistic companies take on social responsibilities? Is this not questionable? (blog in Chinese only); I would suggest that she read this and try to understand what the characteristics of capitalism are. It��s true that morality often clashes with the incentive to maximize profit, but let's have a situation �V say, these finance companies should tell people not to borrow money because they will eventually abuse it. This way, the banks will make some, but less profit; what' more, it benefits everybody. What��s wrong with the above statement? Moral arguments will claim that the banks should do exactly that, because they can prevent people from doing wrong. No! What��s wrong with the above statement is the word abuse. The credit system is fine; it��s a perfectly valid system, it's mature and had been developing for thousands of years; nothing will go wrong if one uses it properly (what's wrong with borrowing money if you really need it?), it��s the people who abuse it are to blame. As I mentioned in the introduction and many times before, we humans have will power and self control, and since we��re moral beings, WE should know for ourselves that we shouldn��t abuse the system at all. When did we ever have outsiders deciding what��s right and wrong for us? Don��t we have a brain? We should be responsible for our own actions, not other people; blaming the finance companies for something that we fucked up is therefore childish and irresponsible, it means that we humans are simply incapable of making our own decisions, but we're not, some of us even consciously made that decision - that's why I always say it's our own stupid fault. When we were kids, we weren��t capable of making our decisions, we had our parents to teach us values and all that morality stuff, but as we grow older we developed our own values and judgments, our parents simply can��t make decisions for us anymore, so why should companies make these decisions for us? An 18 year old is an adult, and therefore he/she should be capable of his/her own thinking. People should be allowed to make their own decisions, and if they eventually abuse the system, why should the finance companies be blamed for it? Therefore, IMHO finance companies plays no significant part on credit abuse, it��s the people themselves who abuses the system, and got themselves into deep shit. And if the finance companies use aggressive sales tactics, too agressive perhaps, then we have the power to complain right? However in the end it's us who make the decision, not them. Even without clashing with capitalism, morality arguments are invalid against credit because it's exactly morality that makes most people not to borrow money without thorough planning, as oppose to mindless excessive borrowing practiced by some. Also, imposing so called morality also diminishes our freedom of choice - the freedom of choice includes our freedom to choose evil over good. We want human rights, we want freedom of choice, but how come we want finance companies to do things for us? Doesn't that clashes with freedom of choice? It's US who should be moral, not the companies, they are merely money making machine. If we don't take care of ourselves, no one will. Excessive spending, no matter how many people are doing it, is still the exception and NOT the norm. The norm is spending money responsibly, and there's always a larger proportion of people who spend responsibly than excessive spending. Those who spend more than they earn are simply stupid. Therefore, before we criticise the finance companies and banks, ask ourselves, do we know money? Are we managing our own money properly? I will be back with the final question. Read the final part here.

Let's hope that the poor souls in New Orleans make it through...

2005-08-29T14:24:00.000+01:00

...just heard news from Bloomberg that part of the roof on top of the Superdome in New Orleans, where thousands went there for emergency shelter, had been blown off. It's hard to imagine what's happening over there now...

Today's ramblings...

2005-08-29T13:17:00.000+01:00

Not much to do today, so I'm not going to use my brain. Hurricane Katrina is a Cat 5 storm, and became one of the biggest storms the US had ever experienced. At the same time, fear that Katrina will hit the Refineries on the Mexican gulf, drove oil prices up to new historical high of $70 per barrel (end of Asian trading hour crude stood at $69.42). Whether the Yanks will react to that is another matter waiting to unfold. This drove most of the Asian market down (all reds), HSI is no exception (in fact the only exception is Australia�Kby the way, haven��t they been bullish for a long time?). Since China Mobile (0941), everybody followed suit (in fact, China Mobile alone contributed to more than 72 points of today��s 146 point drop); oil hits airlines and motor makers, but helps producers like CNOOC (CNPC��s acquisition of PetroKazakstan didn��t go so well); HSBC closes $124.3 (I brought mine at $125), and just put in a couple of testers to see how it will turn out tomorrow. Although HSBC��s prices had been dismal since their interim financial results, however they��re still going about their business �V raising stocks on Bank of Communication, and they just announce last Friday the acquisition of Financomer, a consumer finance company in Panama, for an undisclosed sum. Upon looking at their investment strategies, it seems pretty stable for me, no over-aggression. It��s bank holiday today in the UK, so FTSE isn��t going to react until tomorrow, all eyes are on the US, and it doesn��t look good; on top of that, there��s the textile row between the EU and China, the further cooling down of the UK housing market, the higher than expected (2.3%) inflation rate, and the lower than usual gilt rates. Although everything in the short term all is pointing down, none of the currencies moved much with comparison to the stock market; note that, after the RMB revaluation against the USD, the HKD - USD exchange rate had become more and more volatile, and going up slowly, in line with the RMB (in fact, this started in Mid May this year), which can only mean one thing, and better prepare myself for it.

Credit - the big bad wolf? Or misunderstood? (2)

2005-08-27T19:01:00.000+01:00

The last post was basically just me giving you an introduction on what I think and what I��m essentially going to talk about. Last night I have found a couple more website about consumer education (mainly from the US), this one is Federal Trade Commission��s site on consumers, and topics span a huge range, from credit to travel. Again, although these reports aren��t in as much depth as I anticipated, the advice was there �V be careful and be on the right mindset; again, the lack of such information for HK consumers is a rather worrying sight. Anyway, here it goes: a) What is credit and what��s its use? The word credit actually has many meaning, from academia to accounting. Surprisingly there��s no one definite definition of credit, but rather the definition we rely on today is based on one concept - The ability to borrow or to purchase goods and services with payment delayed beyond delivery. Credit is nothing new, in fact, the ancient civilizations uses credit, as early as 1000 BC in Mesopotamia area, where most of the ancient civilizations started. Of course their system is no way as widespread and as sophisticated as the credit system we use today, but there��s no doubt that the underlying concept is there �V the act of lending money. It��s basically meaningless to talk about credit without talking about money, because credit is a manifestation from one of the many uses of money, therefore I will start with a short and incomplete history of money. Of course, the currency that we see today (coinages and paper money) wasn��t invented till sometime way after the ancients, but since the concept never changed much, neither did the way money was used. The ancient Chinese has currency tokens as early as the Warring States Period (�԰�ɥN) and throughout Chinese history we use coins and lumps of gold and silver, with varying degrees of quality, as our currencies. The Last Monarchic dynasty Qing (�M), there are different coins minted with each different emperor, for example emperor KangXi (�d��) and his successor YongZheng (�l��) both have different coins made for them �V the format is the same, just with different names printed on them. Before the time value of money was discovered, when one lend money to the other, they merely ask the same amount to be repaid over time; when the ancients discovered that value of money changes with time, they started to develop the concept of interest paying �V a premium the debtor pays the creditor for borrowing that money, on top of the amount borrowed. The creditor makes money this way because if one lends money, and then the value of money decreases, then effectively the creditor will loses money in time. However, without a regulated monetary system, the interest rate was determined solely at the creditor��s will. So the evolution of money went as such �V token, coinage, commodity, paper, and last but not least, electronic money. Credit (and conversely, debt) always existed alongside money as one of the main uses of it. One interesting thing I found is, when the first paper money was issued, the banks must have hard money of some sort (gold and silver) in storage as reserve, because having those paper money means that you can exchange it with hard commodity, in fact that��s why the current British Pound was called a pound �V with a pound note you can exchange for a pound of Sterling silver, before they move onto the Gold standard; nowadays these papers that we use so regularly are nothing more than government debts �V the government promises to pay the bearer the same amount of what the currency is worth that day (most of the Western currencies nowadays are no more than fiat money). Present day money is a kind of law �V it��s illegal to refuse payment by money in favour of other things Let��s talk a little about credit. As soon as you ask for credit you are basically taking out a debt, with repayment obligations, most probably with interest as well. Credit doesn��t conform to currency because it��s not a unit of account �V it can��t be used to denominate debt, and has no intrinsic value �V its value is specified by comparing it to something that has a unit of account. Before the widespread popularity of credit, borrowing money is done mostly by contracts, or simply IOUs. IOUs are more informal than written terms and therefore has no legal binding, whilst contracts have - If I borrowed money, say 5 pounds, from you, and at that time I personally promised to pay back later, however when you try to find me to get that money back, only to find out that I ran away without paying you a single penny, there��s nothing you can do; therefore most modern day credit/debt agreements are all nicely written down on paper, so when you refuses or incapable of paying they can sue you arse for liability. b) How many methods of credit are there? The simplest form of all credit is simply IOUs, and people who need money will borrow money from friends and family this way, eventually promising to pay them back in the future, with or without interest �V a mutual agreement. These methods of crediting carries quite a high risk because if the debtor refuses to pay back, the creditor can neither sue them for liabilities nor seize whatever property they still have. This form of credit is based solely on trust of the debtor, although the modern day credit industry is very organized, IOUs still exists amongst the society when the debtor cannot qualify for credit. The same goes for loan sharks and illegal lenders, however since these are underground operations they are mostly likely to be run by gangsters, and in the case of the debtor unable to repay the loan, there��s no law protecting the debtors at all (i.e. get your arse capped by them). Also in the old days are pawnbrokers, where you take something to give the pawnbroker in exchange for money, he gives you an agreement (a ticket), and when you have the money you can go back and redeem what you gave them for the money, with interest. However, most of these brokers are ill-organized because they are mostly unregulated (people turn to them because they simply have no other choice), and doesn��t guarantee redeeming even when you have money to redeem the goods; chances are they have sold it off already. There are still some pawnbrokers around today in HK and the UK, however as credit cards become more and more popular, and as average individual wealth increases there are less and less room to survive for these brokers. The concept of pawn broking is a little more advanced than mere agreements as there��s something to collateralize on already even if the debtor didn��t pay back debt. Debt agreements charges interest if payment wasn��t received when payment is due, and when the debtor was declared default, then by law their possessions will be auctioned for repayment �V pawning saves the hassle of what can be lengthy legal pursuits; note that bankruptcy laws in the early days (medieval ages) are quite different from the modern day counterpart �V for example, only the creditors can file the debtor for bankruptcy, only merchants can become a debtor, an individual cannot file for bankruptcy, and Citizens can be imprisoned for debt etc.. Other words, in the old days the bankruptcy laws offer relief for creditors rather than protection (elimination of debt) for the debtors. Before things like credit card and electronic money appeared, debt agreements are done in hard cash �V you sign a contract, the creditor gives you a bag of money. Loans are still done this way, but since the appearance of electronic money the debtor will probably credit your account with that money; if you take out personal loans with banks however, the banks may simply agree an overdraf with you where your account can go into the red. In a way, credit cards revolutionized consumer culture because it no longer requires the consumer to carry cash with them (convenience) �V before cards become widespread transactions are done mostly by paying cash upfront, or cheques. Note that credit card is no more than a form of credit purchase �V what qualifies as credit is the fact that no hard cash is paid upfront, in fact the credit card company pays for your goods, and you repay the company at a later date. Normally the credit card companies don��t charge interests if payment was made on time every month, interest rates are only charged when the consumer didn��t pay what he was indebted for. Credit card companies can take legal action if the debtor ever defaults. Credit card issurance, frauds, as well as fraud prevention, are both lucrative industries nowadays. There are also installment plans and mortgages, both evolved from the concept of pawning �V because the debtor cannot afford the full fee for a product, be it a sofa, a car or a property, they will pay the price in installments (with interest), using what they��ve brought as collateral, and in the event of debtor defaulting, the creditor can cease the collateral and auction it for money the debtor owned. We are living today where a very organized, modernized credit system exists, and something like this ever happened to you, then your credit rating/score will plummet, hence getting a loan, installment or mortgage in the future becomes very difficult. Last but not least, there are bonds issued by government or corporations. These are no more than a debt agreement where if you buy these bonds, you're literally lending them money, and will receive interest paid to you each month, and should you wish to hold on to the bonds until maturity, you get what the amount of money that the bonds originally were paid for; the fact that you can trade bonds in the bond market sets it apart from your usual debt obligations - try trading your personal loan agreements with others. In a convoluted way, you are effectively trading property mortgages if you're selling your porperty , with or without a profit, whilst still under mortgage obligations, you're just trading a mortage with another mortgage...and another property as well. More later. Read the next one here.

Credit - the big bad wolf? Or misunderstood? (1)

2005-08-26T13:44:00.000+01:00

(This is the first time I��m using the Blogger for word plugin, provided by blogger, so I can be unproductive without the feeling of guilt. This sentence is to commemorate this great invention) Introduction The controversial loan advert currently on TV had been talked about by quite a few bloggers now, including Rururu, Duke, Sinan and me. However, topics mainly revolve around the moral implications these adverts have on our society as a whole, and with me on the other side seemingly defending capitalism (well I actually argued that these adverts aren��t the cause of descend, but it stems from the effect of our spending culture). Moral standards are subjective, what Rururu don��t like doesn��t mean that I don��t like it, however I strongly feel that merely talking about what effects HK��s credit culture has on us, or protesting against capitalism, without sufficient observations and analysis is simply meaningless; I read from an article posted by some bloggers somewhere some time ago that most Chinese speaking HK bloggers seems to express anger and discontent really well, but on the analysis level there��s a huge lack of it (or we just simply suck), meanwhile Western bloggers do a bit of both. Regardless of quality, I would like to take the initiative to turn this trend around - in fact, that��s what I��ve been doing ever since I started blogging. Enough of the sentimental bullshit, let��s go straight to the point. Before I start, I took a walk down cyberspace, to try and find something that will at least give us a vague idea of consumer/credit culture in different countries �V as usual, since I am a Hong Kong born British Citizen, it��s only reasonable for me to compare the credit phenomenon between UK and HK, and maybe adding a little bit from the US as well. I��ve found two major websites, there��s The National Consumer Council of the UK and HK��s very own Consumer council (and for the sake of information, this non-profit US organisation about consumer education). I entered these websites to specifically look for consumer educations �V basically for information that will educate consumers (that��s us by the way) about money matters, or reports of any kind. Whilst the UK council has dozens after dozens of reports on consumer spending culture and lots of researches being carried out (for example, this report on the Youth��s spending culture, or this introductory page about money matters from the Welsh consumer council), however online the HK consumer council site lacks such in depth research reports, only little articles like this one, which talks about what to look out for when choosing the best tax loan deal; note however, that the HK Consumer Council has a consumer advice centre and conducted some researches, it just wasn��t put online, and I have to pay for them! (Reading the CHOICE magazine published by the consumer council) By now you may think �V hang on a minute, why the hell are you suddenly talking about consumer culture instead of credit? The answer is simple �V our spending culture now ties closely with our credit, and the way we use credit. We all know why corporations borrow money (I mean we do right?), companies borrow money (or obtaining capital) for mainly two reasons: to expand the company (by M&A etc.) or to cure short term liquidity (cash flow) problems; unlike everyday consumers, companies don��t tend to spend for pleasure (if they do, then there��s going to be some problems between the CEO and the shareholders) whilst we do it all the time �V one wants that LV handbag, or that pair of Gucci sandals, just to name a few. Do we really need them? Well, not really, we can also buy cheap handbags and sandals, so why bother with the brand? Are they better? No, in fact, I felt really uncomfortable wearing Gucci sandals, whilst the much cheaper Birky (Birkenstock) is a better and more comfortable option IMHO. I call all those non-essential spending - consumers spend money to pay for various utility bills, to acquire essential items (like food, toothbrush etc.), that��s essential spending. If we spend money on luxury items - things that are classed as non-essentials, that we aren��t buying what we need, merely what we want. There are many compelling reasons why people get into debt, some are good reason �V need money for a hip operation, for example; and some are just totally bullshit �V I want that car but can��t afford it, therefore I borrow money from banks or loan companies. However we get into debt depends on our spending habits and our needs, but judging from how lucrative the credit business is �V I took a walk around Shatin once, and I was approached by 7 different credit card companies! Do I look like a person who can��t manage my money so I need 7 different credit cards? No! I have one card, and that��s just to assist my cash flow in the time of need. From observing some of the structure of credit cards and loans, one significant trend can be deduced �V the procedures for borrowing money becomes easier and easier, and this isn��t just a HK phenomenon, it happens in UK and the US as well. As credit becomes more and more accessible to us, more and more people will be tempted to take out credit when needed, or when they want to buy something but don��t have enough money to pay yet. As usual, I will start by talking a little about myself �V I used to be a victim of money �V I have wardrobes full of clothes and 40+ pairs of shoes, I myself, age 18, was in quite a lot of debt �V three credit cards all maxed out, overdraft and personal loans etc. (you would be surprised how easy it is for us students to take out overdrafts or loans in the UK); and when my financial status collapsed a couple of years ago I got shit scared, luckily my mother helped me to repay some of the debt, and my wife (still girlfriend then) gave me a hand in managing money. I literally was shot down, from a luxury lifestyle to eating congee solid for about 2 years, until the situation starts to improve. One indication I always used for my personal credit status is taking out mobile phone contracts. In the UK if you want to buy a new attractive mobile phone at a cheap price, chances are you have to take out a 12 month contract, and when there��s contract involved, the company gets careful, and they will do a credit check on you to see if your records tells them that you can afford to take out such contracts; the situation is basically the same as when borrowing money or applying for a credit card �V it��s quite scary the fact that there��s a database maintained by the credit companies and banks with all our financial history. As you can probably tell, my credit history was a bit crap, and whenever I wanted to take out a mobile phone contract they always have to ask me for some sort of additional verifications, with a hefty upfront deposit (in fact they do this to most students), and sometimes even declining me; as my financial status improved, and money starts going in instead of leaving my accounts, taking out such procedures becomes easier and easier (not being a student also helps a great deal) �V the most recent contract I took out was no hassle at all. To me, there��s nothing wrong with borrowing money �V it��s merely a business proposition, you borrow money, you repay with interest, simple as that. Morally there��s also nothing wrong with borrowing money, providing you have the right reasons for borrowing money, and alas I don��t regard because I want that thing as a right reason. If it��s for some urgent medical operation or for investing that��s forgivable (even for investment we have to ask do we really need to borrow money to invest �V taking out margins and leveraging is a dangerous game). Conversely, if a family has to rely on loans for everyday essentials, then one must also ask the question how to they manage their own money to put themselves into that position. Luxury items are, as they say, luxury, they are not only not essential to everyday life, and sometimes quite bloody useless. So who should buy luxury items? Well, those people who have the spare cash to buy them, depending on each person��s need; what about if I can��t afford it? Well, one way to buy them is to work your arse off, save up for some money, and buy them when you have the money; but what about borrowing money and then pay back later? Isn��t that much easier than saving up, meanwhile watching that LV handbag goes out of fashion? You see, that��s the essential concept to the big spender��s attitude �V buy now, pay later, banks, credit card and loan companies see no shame in promoting that mentality, or should they? I admit, a business proposition should be amoral, banks want business and revenues and hence profit, and therefore they market credit as something that��s really worth using, because we all have urges and desires, and what better solution is there than to curb them? From the banks�� viewpoint that��s great marketing, but what about morality? To be honest with you, I see nothing wrong in the concept of credit; it��s the abuse of credit that��s to blame. Are we right in saying that the banks are at fault for marketing and spinning credit into something that ultimately misled us? I don��t think so either. Rather, the question we have to ask is why people choose to go into debt, if they��re neither in debt nor want to go into debt, no matter what the banks say or spin them simply won��t take out a loan for no apparent reason. Just because the banks do their marketing this way it doesn��t automatically put them in line with the devil, we humans have something call will power and self control, if we know too damn well that we can��t afford it, then don��t buy it. Ok so the banks to promotions for cheap loans and credit card and stuff, but the decision ultimately lies with us. We have to sign that piece of paper as well, not just the banks, and if the present day humans choose to go into debt because they want that LV handbag or plasma TV and can��t afford it, but will get it anyway because their mentality rest on the concept that one can always buy now and pay later, then that��s their own stupid fault, not the banks. Corporations have no need for social responsibilities, rather if one of us should take care of the nation it should be the government because that��s their sole existence �V to govern, right? Referring back to the websites I visited above, you would have thought if any economy will be full of with money advices for their citizens it will be Hong Kong because we just recovered from 7 years of sustained economic downfall and deflation, but alas that��s not the case - accessible information on consumer education (especially on credit) is lacking; the UK is a little better, they have carried out researches on consumer culture and pin pointed the trend in taking out loans and credit. The case is even worse with youths �V we were taught languages science, mathematics and art at school, and we become specialist of what we want to do in university or postgraduate degrees, but what about education on money management? It��s true that spending habit, good or bad, will heavily influence the next generation, you humble host is a perfect example; when my mother accidentally passed away, excluding the mortgage of the flat she was about at least 700,000 HKD in debt, which eventually I have to repay (the mortgage is about 3 mil HKD). Hence I made a large effort from that point on to manage my money properly, luckily with some success. Some of you may say �V if you want to know about money, then you should do a business and finance degree; wrong. Graduates with a business or finance degree don��t seem to be better at managing money than others; I know big spender friends from all walks of life, and what they did for their degree or what they do for a living is uncorrelated to their spending habit. Rather their influences mostly lied in family, peers and their surrounding environment. My wife came from a family whose members are all very good at managing money, with my father-in-law being the creme de la creme, so she is very good at money management, and that in turn influenced me and my attitude towards money, for those of you who don��t know already, my life changing book was ��Rich dad, poor dad��, a theme which that controversial advert spun and caused outrage amongst us HK bloggers. Let��s end this introduction with me asking with some simple questions - What is credit? What��s its use? How many methods of credit are there? How do we obtain credit? Why do people abuse it? Who��s responsible for this credit culture? What can we do to prevent our own downfall? I will try and answer them next time�K (I��m sorry, because of my workload, I can only write so much for the moment, I will carry on investigating these questions tonight, when I have time, I promise.) Read the next one here.