http://www.stanleyng.net/hkscene/Kowloon_Walled_City/index.html

Comic

Popular music-reflective of society, voice of the people, impact on people, influence, how does the music industry affect popular music, trace the origin of the popular music of Hong Kong, audience,

Historical building-purpose, style, impact of people life, social significance, reflective of culture and history,

http://www.vimeo.com/1559450

I had a dream that I was driving on the freeway back in LA and at first I was driving a 4WD, a truck, I think and it had slowed down a bit as it was going up a hill. Then I switched car and was driving a Porsche Carrera 911 and it was really swift and strong. I could hardly feel a decrease in power as I was going up a hill. I think I was suppose to go to somewhere in downtown, possibly the Dodger Stadium but I went to the wrong exit. There was a sign. I was going on the 210 and it suppose to meet 10 but there was this new sign, which I wasn't familiar with which said something about 80 and how something had changed and I can't go on the 10, at least not the same old exit. I ignored it because I passed by quickly and couldn't read it or comprehend it in time. I had that old feeling that things would be okay and I came to this new mall or casino or theme park complex they just constructed and I went around the parking lot. I was trying to get out of the parking lot after entering it. I took a ticket and got right out and the person at the booth said I had to pay like 2000 something. I was shocked. To my relief, 2000 points or something like that which actually cost like a quarter to a dollar. She was nice enough to feel sorry for me and gave me a 50% discount after I explained how I got lost with the new signs and construction and where I was suppose to go.

I went on, and drove on a hilly road that overlooked the Dodger Stadium and saw the most fantastic sight, while the baseball game was going on in the stadium, migrant workers or mostly Latinos were playing on the stadium cover or lid (which must be new or in construction) on top of the stadium and nobody down in the stadium knew about this. It looked dangerous but the Latinos were having a lot of fun. It was a full blown game. I took out my cellphone and took a picture.

With the dominance of the latest USA Basketball Team, aka Dream Team 8, there had been a lot of comparsion with the original Dream Team. Some even say that the this collection of NBA stars is perhaps greater than the original. I disagree. As good as Kobe, Lebron and Co are, they can't match the original Dream Team. The original Dream Team was a much more complete unit. Everyone from 1 to 5 were top-notch if not all legendary (with the exception of Christian Laethner).

Let's expliot the weak point of the current Team USA first, at the 5.

The answer is that the '08 Team USA does not even have a real center. Dwight Howard, as talented and strong as he is, is not a center. He is a big, muscular power forward. Luckily, his superb atheleticsm is enough to compensate against bigger centers. The original Dream Team had David Robinson and Patrick Ewing at their prime. Two major forces of two elite NBA franchises. Robinson was more mobile than Howard, was a better passer, a much better shooter and a much more refined player with better basketball IQ. Ewing was not as atheletic as Robinson or Howard but he was no weakling himself. We might be used to watching the the injury-prone Pat in the late 90s and early 00s that we have forgotten how mobile the great Patrick Ewing was back in the early 90s. Unlike Howard, who was limited to the area 15 feet around the basketball, Ewing was a threat up to the three-point line and had an a range of arsenals Howard could only dream about (as of now). The original Dream Team could put Ewing and Robinson in the paint as twin towers and shut down any penetration (not that it was necessary).

Looking back, Liu Xiang went to the line at the Olympics. If it wasn't for the false start, he would have raced, and probably ended up crashing into a hurdle, further injuring his Achilles tendon and ruin his atheletic career. It was probably what meant to be, the false start, so Liu was not able to race. Maybe it was written in the sky. He briefly covered his head with his warm-up and lifted his head up before taking it off to change into his jersey as if asking the heaven for guidance. He was already in pain. Should he still race or not? I think for Liu Xiang, the false start was heaven's answer to Liu's question.

A mad man who pretends to be normal.

With the great wealth polarization in Hong Kong, the poor and especially the children of the poor are finding it ever harder to compete. They are being discriminated financially. Average amount of money spend on a middle/upper-middle class kid per month is $8000. That's basically the entire monthly budget of a low-income family. In this age of technology, tutoring and


如有需要，用戶可把信箱複製至 PC 硬碟，在伺服器上只儲存重要的郵件，而較次的則存放在自己的硬碟內。此做法的好處是減少信箱於伺服器上的容量，而又能保全所有信件，缺點是在 PC 硬碟內的信件不會有備份。
做法是：
在選取了信箱後，選<檔案>→<資料庫>→<新複製>，之後在標題上加上「備份」（其他欄位不用理會），然後按<確定>。
電腦會替用戶把伺服器上的信箱抄至用戶硬碟（注意，用戶硬碟至少要有和信箱容量相同的空間），完成後用戶的工作頁面上會多了一個「＜用戶名稱＞的備份在本區」的圖示（本區即用戶硬碟）。
之後，用戶便可把＜於Mailserv＞上的信箱中不重要的信件刪除（因信件已在本區），及在＜於本區＞則刪除必須存在於伺服器內的信件。完成後的 Mailserv 區及本區兩個郵箱的信件等如原先電郵主機上的全數郵件。
日後用戶可用和把信件直接從<於Mailserv>的信箱抄至<於本區>的信箱內。

There is still light in your eyes. I look around and that's disappearing, but you still have light, life, dream, hope...in your eyes. I can see fear, but not defeat. There is a lively soul in there. There's curiousity there. In a lot of people, that had already died.

Why do we fight for peace when we know there there will never be any real peace? Why do we attempt to eliminate hate when there will always in hate? Why do we try to be generous when we are selfish? Why are we trying to do the impossible? Attempting at impossibilities? Put ourselves in the work of self-defeating causes?

Tears of China flow for Liu Xiang
11:59 PM Sun, Aug 17, 2008 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Kevin Sherrington E-mail News tips

Liu Xiang was China's greatest hope in these Olympics, and because of it, no athlete here carried a greater burden.

He was on the cover of Newsweek and the Chinese edition of Sports Illustrated.

But now his Games are over, and the emotions are spilling out everywhere.

The defending gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles, Liu pulled up lame in his heat today with an apparent injury to his Achilles tendon. At a news conference afterward, one of his coaches attempted to talk and then broke down. He buried his face in his hands and shook his head.

"Three doctors on the field tried to help him," the coach said, "and no matter what they did, they could not help him stand."

Asked how the Chinese people would react to the news, another coach cited a poll taken six months ago. In it, fans were asked what their reaction would be if Liu did not win a gold medal. Sixty percent said they would understand, which the coach considered favorable.

"I believe all the Chinese people will understand," he said, "and encourage him to overcome this problem and run track again."

The coaches said they expect Liu to miss the upcoming European season.

Comments

Posted by Doug Doodlebug @ 12:55 AM Mon, Aug 18, 2008

I hope he's not faking it. That is, I will be thrilled to see China out of the picture.
report as objectionable


Posted by Mr Dallas Cowboys @ 1:04 AM Mon, Aug 18, 2008

they can use CGI to show the chinese viewers he actually won gold.
report as objectionable

THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY

A number of people have come from Turkey to work in Germany. Some are second- and third–generation now, perhaps more. They have, in many instances, melted their beautiful skin tones, black hair, and blazing brown eyes into the already-beautiful peoples of the Nordic countries. There doesn’t seem to be a “typical” German, nor has there ever, I suppose, been. Blonds, brunettes, and occasional redheads. Talk, lean, angular men and women. Shorter, thick-chested robust types appear to be able to lift their own weight in gold or work endlessly.

There is a Muslim population even in the smaller towns, so women are often seen in the customary Muslim attire, complete with head cover. We find the clothing interesting and often, beautiful. In platz life, the only thing that appears to be different is that they may wear head covers or other clothes of their customs, but they talk and intermingle with those who do not, and the camaraderie is returned, as though no differences exist. Perhaps differences really don’t exist. Unless we make them.

I like the way men dress here. They often wear casual sport coats, slacks, and you don’t often see — except, occasionally, in the teenage segment of the population — “sloppy” dress on the streets, the baggy shorts or pants, the sweatpants, teen-sneakers, the sort of things you see men wearing in public places in parts of the U.S.

It’s not pretension. It seems just to be a slightly higher degree of pride in one’s appearance.

In any case, the elderly here are robust, and continue to be mobile well into their late years. The young and middle-aged people are, suffice it to say, beautiful, no matter the genotype.

WALKING

I speculate that, due to the nature of this walking culture, body types remain the same longer than in more sedentary or automobile-driven cultures. A walk each day is almost mandatory, and not just a stroll, but long casual, well-paced foot tours. This means the pedestrian streets are always full of people strolling, marching, moving at what proves to be — if one tries to match it — nothing less than a brisk pace.

A note here. The other day, we were trying to cross a wide street, and the light was soon to change. I tried to hurry, quickened my pace, but I swear to you, not to make a joke of it, that I was beaten across the street by a heavy-set disabled person who had both arms engaged in a walker. That’s not saying much for me, is it? I can’t keep up with them. But pounds mysteriously melt away, despite the enormous amounts of food we eat here.

DONNER AND BLITZEN

Did you know that two of Santa’s famous reindeers are named Thunder (Donner) and Lightning (Blitzen)? The significance of donner and blitzen is this: The other day, on a perfectly normal day, we took the bus downtown, walked around the (I’m running out of adjective here) magnificent miles-long park near downtown. We fed the ducks that live in the river, we sat in the shade, mesmerized by the views of mountains and parks and vineyards and river valley. Then, when the notion of eating came to us (which it often does), we walked back to town and sat at an outdoor restaurant right on the river and ordered food.

It was my birthday. The plan had been to go to Cologne, but we’d expended just a bit too much energy the day before and needed a bit of down-time. So the day in town was a nice way to spend #66.

The food was perfect, as was the river view, but as we sat there, the skies began to darken. An almost imperceptible rumble rolled across the valley. “Was that thunder?” I asked. Dalia said she wasn’t sure. But there was no question about the next sound. As we sat there, under the huge industrial-strength umbrellas, the ducks became agitated, a breeze picked up, and the sky darkened more. Then the flashes began. How fun is this!? I LOVE thunderstorms and so does Dalia. What a nice way to punctuate the afternoon, my birthday, a great day in Europe.

The storm intensified. The ducks vanished as the water began first to dapple with raindrops and then appear as if it were under attack by millions of Gatling guns. Lightning ripped the sky all around us. One bolt was so close, you could actually hear the electricity in it. The smell of ozone began to intensify. Soon the rain was so intense the water was splattering everywhere, so we, and three other couples who had been dining, made a dash for the covered bar area, one couple at a time, ushered by a brave waitress with an umbrella.

For another hour, we sat at the bar listening to and watching the storm with the others. We chatted with a couple from Holland who were biking through the area.

For another hour we sat, thinking the storm was one of those transient cells that attack with violence and retreat with humility. But, no, this one outstayed its welcome and the couples at the bar, we included, began to get chilled. Yet, for us, it was no less a perfect way to spend not only an afternoon, but it seemed to be an appropriate caveat to my birthday. (Thou shalt live a while longer, but not without surprises.)

After almost three hours, the rain, the thunder, and the lightning subsided and we were able to go back into the streets, which, immediately upon completion of the storm, were being attacked by hoards of store workers who used the opportunity to clean the area even beyond its usual cleanliness.

That night, back at the apartment, another storm rolled through, this one of furious intensity. The light show from the apartment window was hypnotic and even a bit of hail pelted the building. Off and on the next day the storming continued, but by Sunday, the sun came back to reclaim the Rhine valleys and we were off, on another Rhineland adventure.

ENERGY USE

I came closer to an understanding of why some Europeans are a bit miffed at people in the U.S. because of their gratuitous energy consumption. I’m not sure I can explain it well enough, not to have it come off as sour grapes, or a change in my own thinking (though I’m certainly reconsidering a lot of things), so bear with me while I have a go at it.

Extreme energy conservation is normal in Germany, as is extreme recycling. People walk where they can (some ride bicycles; even the elderly are often seen peddling effortlessly about town), and where they can’t walk, they use public transportation. That is not to say there aren’t cars in Germany, but when the family has a car, it is most often a small one, economical on petrol, because what we call gas in the U.S. is, here, the equivalent of well over $8.00 a gallon.

It’s normal for people to walk miles here, to pull along behind them little shopping carriers (they look like little suitcases with a flap on top), and you do not get bags at grocery stores. If you don’t bring your own bag, you’ll find yourself walking to the parking lot with arms full of your groceries.

It is normal here to conserve.

On the other hand, people who live in the U.S. tend to believe that, if they can afford gas, use it and drive. This is not without necessity in far too many cases, because our country, by contrast to Germany, is huge, spread out, with small towns, bedroom communities, and unavoidable long commutes in some areas. The open road is consider by many to be one of the essential freedoms.

So when you have a German who’s just pulled a shopping basket two miles home, or navigated a rather intricate bus route, and that person sees or knows of Americans who drive three blocks to the store, or 40 miles to work each day, you can see why they might be a bit confused (to put it lightly) as to our intentions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7424782.stm

"This week, in Wiesbaden, and other places in Germany, they’re commemorating the Berlin Airlift that took place 60 years ago, just a few years after the war ended, when other countries might still be carrying a major grudge and trying to hurt their former enemy any way they could. That’s what the Soviets did. But the Americans came to keep the people of Berlin from starving, by making an heroic series of flights that have never been equaled. The flights were what the German kids back then called the “candy bombers,” because the pilots would always throw candy out of the big planes as they passed over. Americans have a right to be proud of what they did. But, building pride wasn’t their objective; their main objective was to get food and fuel to the Germans so these former “enemies” could make it through a brutal winter.

I remember, even as a kid, being extremely proud of the fact that Americans would do such a thing — reach out to people and try to save their lives — even if they weren’t Americans, even if they’d once been “enemies.”

A lot of us vets paid big prices for the freedom of other people, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. But to hear people in the U.S. talk today, no one has any responsibility to anyone else, except themselves. That’s not what our founding fathers said. They said that all people — not just Americans — are created equal. And I still feel it’s our responsibility to reach out and help — with our own lives, if necessary — other peoples of other countries realize their dreams of freedom.

The help can go both ways.

I went over a bump today with my walker today and my canes went flying. A lady, not self-conscious or hesitant at all, came running over and picked them up for me. It feels to me like there’s still a sense of neighbor-helping-neighbor over here — helping each other survive, even when they might not know each other. Are we losing that in the U.S.? I hope not.

When we got back to the apartment this afternoon from walking around this beautiful little city, I was exhausted and I fell asleep, just lying there, listening to all the children playing outside of the apartment complex, playing games like we used to do when I was a kid, with all ages of kids participating. I can’t think of a more wonderful thing to fall asleep to that kids playing. Germans, Turks, blacks, Muslims, all children, all playing like the world hadn’t a care in it.

We could learn a lot from playing children. I walked by a one-year-old today who was sitting in a stroller while his mother shopped. His eyes followed me so intently, so I slipped in a little wave and a wink and a smile at him. He responded with a smile that spread quickly to its breaking point and then he erupted into a peal of laughter. For no reason than just the joy of life, I guess. Joy, just for joy’s sake.

And we could learn what real peace really looks like simply by looking at the face of a sleeping baby.That’s real peace. That’s the peace the world needs."

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://williamroddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/candy_bombers.jpg&imgrefurl=http://williamroddy.com/index.php%3Fpaged%3D2&h=373&w=600&sz=87&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=tmXvkI-WKSf-RM:&tbnh=84&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dberlin%2Bairlift%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:zh-TW:official%26sa%3DN

Life is just somewhat meaningless in the way I am living it. Well not meaningless, but so shallow and unfullfilling (much better word). The best part of my day is spent sitting in office doing my best to concentrate while thinking or dreaming of doing other better things. After work, I struggle and rush home to eat...dinner to spend time with my family. It's like a ritual. And that's it other than watching television. And then go back to sleep. It's a sick life and such a waste of human potential. Of course, work is somewhat meaningful in which I am helping to compile a textbook for high school students. Yet it's not very fullfilling. Maybe because there's little result and feedbak.

Sometimes, I feel like that we are all just living in this unreal world.

Today, like what I do every once in a while, I put my banana into the fridge, and a colleague said to me, "You are not suppose to put banana into the fridge." I responded, "I just proved you can put a banana into the fridge" and explained that I like my banana cold. Another said she rarely seen people put banana into the fridge. I think it would be wrong to me, yet so convenient to say that HK people are just square. I actually would like to hear about what's wrong with putting a banana into a fridge. Is there some food safety hazzard that I do not know of? Don't Basket Robbins and other ice-cream shop put banana in the fridge too, to make sure they are not warm for banana split and stuff? The way things are or routine often become the "right way", the truth, or worst, the "only" way to do things here.

People are not that open-minded, many of them believe so strongly in certain beliefs passed down to them, or from isolated experience and etc...that they would uphold them as absolute truth. I still wonder at people who so strongly believe in their personal beliefs, laws and etc, to a level that they would do all they could to defend them.

For example, there is a young man who just recently graduated from college and recently accepted a job as a Research Assistant at an university. Seems educated and able to think on his own with logic right? Well, this young man, believes that when there's a typhoon no.8 warning, nobody should leave their shelter (apartment) disregarding actual condition at his area. It doesn't get to him that some malls, cinemas, restaurants are open during typhoon no.8, that train and subway still operate and that it might not be that dangerous in the area that he resides. He disregards all that and faithfully stick to his personal belief and stay home despite that his whole family went to dim sum. Yeah, he just went to college and is a Research Assistant.

It's strange for me how people can have such strong feelings for their personal beliefs that are so meaningless yet have such a lack of consciousness for social values that are so much more important for the collective whole. I think that's what selfishness is.

Over lunch we discussed it a bit about it, the stubbornness with how things should be done (meaningless tradition), and it seems to run in Chinese society. Wendy, the intern, now part-time gave the example of the Late Qing Reform. We were discussing about creativity of Chinese. Wendy said that Chinese gymnists do worst in free form on the mat because they lack creativity, at least they are boring. But then I pointed out how Chinese are creative people, just look at the Bejing Olympic opening ceremony.

Every once in a while, I think of film I have seen and the one in my mind is AI by Steven Spielberg as a project left by the late legendary director, Stanley Kubrick.
AI isn't Steven Spielberg best or better work, but it has a powerful message, that we are here to love. David, the child robot, played by the excellent Haley Joel Osment Jude Law,Cybertronics Sam Robards, Jake Thomas and William Hurt

I was introduced to the assignment for the new Liberal Studies textbook and it's gonna be a lot of work. Man, what did I get myself into? But I will do my best. It looks messy and there will be a lot of translating. 30% of it. That gonna suck. Translating is a mind-boggling task.

I thought of a story. well not really. I was just thinking of someone who struggling with the question of what he was chosen to do. he has a friend who became a missionary, went throught load of troubles including sickness and suffering. At some moments his friend complained and felt betrayed. Yet he stayed as a missionary. These two friends would meet every once in a while, maybe once every year or two. As the same time and man is still pondering about his career, life, feeling that something is missing in his life. He saw his friend as one in a jail, trapped and can't get out. But as he finds out later, although his friend went through suffering and great challenges, he doesn't feel like he missed anything or got the short end of the stick and was content with his life.













This is a two part project which would raise awareness of owrking poorand those in poverty in the city of Hong Kong, China. Despite being one of the region with the highest GDP per capital in the world, over a million people in Hong Kong are living in poverty. More socking is that only mang of these people are not unemployed , many of these are the working poor. They work many hours yet struggle to support their families and thier living in one of the most wealthy cities in the world. I propose to make a full length documentary film that would raise awareness of the condition. The documentary will be backed up by research, statistic and of course the voies of those unheard. Many of these working poor or unemply are hidden in the background of a glamorous city. They are the people who keep the city running yet are often benefiting least from its prosperity.

The problem of poverty in Hong Kong is a epdemic problem that wois getting worst. Despite of the recent ecnomic recovery with the economic growht of China, poor people are getting poorer, and ever had so many people live under poverty in Hong Kon in the modern era.

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0068.html

http://www.filmmonthly.com/Behind/Articles/AIinDepth/AIinDepth.html

http://hk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/leisure/travel/article.html?id=art_489e8cd1

Lech Walesa in 1981

"I told the gentleman who came to arrest me, ' This is the mement of your defeat. These are the last nails in the coffin of Communism"

I feel like I am being deprived of oxygen everytime I am set to work on something...boring.
I think I need to do something more exciting. Something that I can be expecting something different everyday. Something like that, maybe as a reporter for news broadcast. I can come back to this job later. Jobs needed for some other jobs can be applied to other jobs. Can't waste my youth at a desk job. I need to think for myself, explore a bit. Get to where I really wanted instead of the sideshows. Know it once and for all where I fit in term of careers. I am a very curious person.
What do I really wanna do? Write the history of certain things like vitasoy, a game...oral history, events, a time period.

Minimum time it takes to get myself working after arriving to work: 7 minutes, which include a trip to the men's room, time to the pantry to get a morning drink, time to turn on the computer and the mini USB fan and time to firgure out what I am suppose to do.

Normal time it takes to get myself working after arriving to work: 23 minutes, which include a trip to the men's room, time to the pantry to get a morning drink, time to turn on the computer and the mini USB fan and time to firgure out what I am suppose to do.

From my desk I can see this girl across from me who is always smiling and laughing to herself at the computer monitor. You can't be having so much fun working right? I am pretty sure that she's chatting online or reading something funny.

I think I am just very amusing to some of my coworkers. I could see how they smile to themselves.

My mind is in scramble. AHhhhh.

What path to take? I think I need to know more people to know about myself more. Expose myself more to others in order to know myself. I feel like i m in the middle of the ocean with no idea of where the shore is, which way to swim towards.
I am gifted in several ways but I always have been busy in getting the technicalities down.

A few years ago there used to be an English version of Hong Kong Yahoo! It was discontinued several years ago to my disappointment.

There is a news section on Hong Kong Yahoo! with 5 tabs. One for breaking news, finance, entertainment, popular and English news. A few months ago, the English tab was taken off. Afterward, there would still be English news under breaking news and finance tab, and there were still links to news from the two English newspapers in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post and The Standard. Well, I checked the main Hong Kong Yahoo! news site and those links are gone! There's no trace of any English news on Hong Kong Yahoo!'s pages. Sigh~

Is it a wonder that English level of Hong Kong students is dropping?

I think different people measure others with different standard. Treat you with different standard. Christians should be FREE of that. We are all equal. All sinners.

Despite not being a democracy, Hong Kong had some of the most ideological democratic and idealistic politicians in people such as 李柱銘
Martin Lee, Anson Chan, Emily Luk, 司徒華 Szeto Wah and others. However, fate has it that most of them would not be exercising the law under any level of real democracy. Universal suffrage would not happen until 2012 at the earliest.

Quite recently, I was disappointed in my friend who said he was doing it for the less fortunate when he was entering into medical school. I am not sure if it was a lie to begin with, but several years later today, he seems to have forgotten his pledge. It was not only me but also others who remembered that he was going to go on missions. His mother told us. And we all believed except for me, I was a bit of a skeptic but I was hopeing that I was wrong. Dead wrong. I made my conspiracy theory that he opted for medical school to get out of working for his dad in China.

When he asked me about a good plaec to work as a doctor. I somewhat realized that either he has forgotten what he said or he never intended to use his profession to spread the Gospel or go to mission in less fortunate places. He just wanted a good life. At the back of my head, I realize that he is a pretty smooth talker, a good PR, somewhat selfish.

I hope I can wrong about him again. I am disappointed and sad because he was given so much, yet he had also forgotten or ignored. So much.

When I told him that this is a better place to serve because of China, he said that well, I can serve in church everywhere. I wasn't even talking about that, and a person of his intelligence should have understood what I was talking about, I wasn't talking about local churches, I was talking something that only people like him could do. Medical mission. He has everything, as I look at it. He has connection through his dad in China, he has financial backing, a foreign passport for protection, a citizenship of Hong Kong for easy and cheap entry, supportive friends and church community and spiritually strong and protective family from both sides. Yet he is opting to be secondary citizen in a foreign country with an easy life (well, not that easy).

Sometimes, I think back. What with this dog fight we have on here. There are so much people with more power and resouces who aer sitting back, doing their own things, while some of us, the less comfortable ones are beating the streets, throwing and giving up so much for a battle that is not ours alone.

I think that's what comfort do to you. It makes you forget about things.

Guess I am more angry at him for not showing any rememberance