Blog

Updated as often as I can manage

Sunday, September 28, 2003
Yeah, I know, I haven't blogged in forever. There hasn't been much to say really and I have been way too tired to do anything but collapse after work.

My parents, sister and grandfather all left town. This leaves me at home with the kids for three weeks, meaning I'll have to forego the whole "going out" thing and stay back looking after them. Which can be good, given that I really don't see them during the week, or bad, given that my little brother and sister can annoy the living daylights out of me.

Speaking of which, today was a pretty annoying day. I had only two hours sleep before rushing to the airport, and awoke to discover that all the Kazaa/BitTorrent downloads I've had running all stopped and won't restart. Sigh. Took the car straight after the airport run to go to my Mac store in Mong Kok to grab a Bluetooth Mouse, and two minutes from arrival I realised that it was Sunday, and they were closed. Was itching to fulfil my new gadget fix, so we headed off to Fortress to check out the Sony UX50, which I've pinpointed as the next gadget I'm buying (quick rundown: Sony-made Palm-based PDA with a mini keyboard, camera, wireless Internet and kick-ass movie viewing capabilities). While there, my driver fills me in on a 12 month installment plan with 0% interest I can get with my credit card. Given that the UX50 is expensive and I'm not too keen on dropping virtually all of my first paycheck on it, the 12 month installment plan is a great idea. It's painless, he said. Super-easy, he said. While we were there, I figured: Why not get it now? There's no disadvantage to it. So the guy goes off to set up the installment plan when he says the bank want to ask me a question. I had a bad feeling around here, but I thought it had something to do with the fact that I'm a supplementary card holder (it's my grandfather's account). The bank tells me that my card is not a credit card, but in fact a charge card (ie, you pay your bill at the end of the month -- no credit, no rolling over, you pay -- end of story). The only way to tell the difference is when you apply... which I didn't do, and therefore didn't know about. And my grandfather never told me it was anything but a credit card. So I walked away empty-handed. It probably wasn't a surprise then to see Liverpool lose an exciting game 3-2 to Charlton and Michael Schumacher virtually wrap up the F1 championship ahead of my man Kimi Raikkonen. It's not a "BAD" day per se -- my life is hardly worse off -- but just really annoying.

Funny note -- depending on which way you look at it -- was that I somehow managed to get a giant zit on my cheek. I felt like I was 16 again, especially since (despite the attention of three experts in my sisters) it was impossible to conceal. I don't really get them, but they always seem to pop up (no pun intended) at awful times. The last time I had one in fact was my final school pictures... brilliant timing there. Especially since the only "concealer" that actually managed to work was lipstick. Please, I know what you're thinking, and just don't say it.

In better news, The One Ring has the new Lord of the Rings: Return of the King trailer up. Oh my GOD. I loved the first two, and this one just looks insane. I had goosebumps watching it and I know I wasn't the only one. This is going to be an awesome end to a great trilogy.

Posted at 11:33 PM

Tuesday, September 23, 2003
I wasn't going to post today, but I felt rather compelled to. Sorry for the lack of updates (a trend I notice at a few other blogs I usually read), but I'm just so drained from work. It's not work itself but the ridiculous hours I'm keeping trying to get everything done late at night. I meant to sleep early tonight too, but it's now 5:30am and I'm here typing this. Sigh. It's that and the fact that I've been writing at night LOT lately, whether it be long emails, forum posts or actual work, so as much as I love blogging I'm just too tired to do it.

Posted at 11:28 PM

Thursday, September 18, 2003
Funny note from work today. When I worked for CNN.com last summer, I was the first person there with an iPod. Now... everyone has them. I've seen at least five and I suspect a lot more.

Despite the fact that I am not the lone iPod elitist anymore, I don't mind. In fact, I'm delighted to see a lot of other people with them. It's an odd difference I noted between men and women. My sisters frequently go nuts if anyone dares buy the same clothes as them, whereas among us guys we're happy to recommend that people buy whatever stuff we own -- be them clothes or gadgets. I pushed Kavi to get an iPod and Haneal sold me on the Bang & Olufsen headphones I now use.

Interesting Link of the Day is an oldie, but a goodie from The Onion. It's an incredibly funny story involving Hong Kong, Jackie Chan, and 1997. Well worth a read so click here!

Posted at 11:05 PM

Wednesday, September 17, 2003
I'm having a really... "off" day today. I figured out that the reason I've been having mysterious phantom reboots of my computer is because I'm hitting a loose cable under the desk. So I dive down to try and fix it, and in doing so I managed to unplug the mouse (hey, it's dark and there are plenty of wires down there). In trying to fix the mouse, I totally screwed over the keyboard. Reboot, reboot, reboot, argh...

Posted at 9:36 PM

Monday, September 15, 2003
I hate fax machines. I hate printers. And I HATE dishwashers.

See, I consider myself technically literate. Computers, the net, MP3s, DVDs, games, blah blah... all that stuff is easy and comes naturally. Mind you, I'm not THAT good -- I'm no programmer or hacker -- but I reckon I have a good understanding in most areas and at least know the basics in the advanced areas. Want me to turn some home movies into a DVD, complete with a proper menu system? No problem. Need a wireless broadband connection set up? Sure thing. But can I send a fax? Hell no.

For some reason, all that knowledge somehow doesn't translate into using other electrical devices. And this boggles the mind. There are some things that I really just can't figure out. Fax machines are the most recent example. Fax machines are vaguely simple -- put paper in, dial, watch paper feed through, finish -- but the problem is, they're so simple that even minor differences tend to be showstoppers. For example, some fax machines require that you get a dial tone before you dial the number. Some want you to punch in the number and then hit Start so it'll dial for you. And after it dials and connects, modem-style, some want you to hit Start to actually start sending a fax... while some don't. And hell, some do it all in utter silence so you don't even know whether it's dialing or whether it's got the right number or not. There are tons of differences between fax machines, and none of them TELL YOU what to do. There's never any indication of help anywhere on the device (really, how hard is it to flash the message "Press Start to send" on the fax's little screen?). Today I was totally caught out by the work fax machine because every machine that I'd used before usually wants the second page fed in as soon as it's done with the first. This one wants you to put all of the pages in first... but it doesn't tell you that. I think I sent the cover page three times before I figured that one out.

Dishwashers are another good example here. I pretty much never used my dishwasher in London because I could not for the life of me figure the thing out. It's simple enough, alright, with something like six buttons across the top... but what do any of them MEAN? One has an icon of two plates stacked on top of each other and a pot on top. Er, and that's supposed to tell me what? Another has a picture of a sprinkler. Common sense would indicate that that's the "Wash" button, but er... it's a dishwasher. Surely most of the buttons are dedicated to WASHING anyway? In any case, I did use the dishwasher once. All my dishes were coated with a uniform yellow slime layer. Needless to say, I never used it after that.

As for printers... we've all had our share of inexplicable printer problems (usually when we need to print something out), so I really don't need to elaborate here.

So what's the deal here: Am I just stupid, or are these supposedly "simpler" devices harder to use than your average PC?

Posted at 11:54 PM

Sunday, September 14, 2003
We just found out that we have a new Cable TV channel. It's only a week old anyway, and Cable added it to our roster free of charge. It's the Super Soccer Channel, so I think you already know that it's the perfect channel for me. This weekend, I've already watched live games from England, Germany, Italy and Spain, and before I sleep I'm going to finish off this game between Chievo and Juventus before switching to Barcelona and Albacete. Of course, not having to work until 3pm does have its merits: This week the Champions League (elite competition involving all the top European clubs) begins, and with live matches starting at 3am I'd never be able to watch them otherwise!

Oh, and Liverpool and Milan both won this weekend, so I'm happy.

I leave you with the wisdom of Billy Connolly:

"Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? He's a mile away and you've got his shoes."

Posted at 11:57 PM

Friday, September 12, 2003
John Ritter died. I almost can't believe it. Three's Company was a HUGE institution in the early 80s with my family and was effectively a part of my childhood, really. You know how people associate movies and music with an age? Same thing I guess but with TV shows for me. That and the Muppets Show (which I got to see a lot of in Australia, thankfully). Good times...

Posted at 11:06 PM

Thursday, September 11, 2003
Sorry about yesterday's non-post -- I completely forgot to update. Part of the reason is that I'm STILL sick, and I fell asleep as soon as I got home last night (only to wake up again to watch the Italy game, but that's another matter). Thanks to a heavy dose of antibiotics I seem to be on the mend, though.

I wanted to post today without mentioning the date, but given that everything around me right now (and indeed most of the events in the world right now) are focused on September 11th, I will say that though I still think we as a society are overdosing on 9/11, and though I've seen the footage time and time again... watching the planes smash into the WTC towers still jars me.

Otherwise, things are still quiet here. It's a public holiday tomorrow but I still have to go to work... it'd probably bother me more if I was working on normal hours. Since my hours are somewhat weird, I don't feel as... "in-touch" with what's going on outside the office. The fact that I really don't see many people other than my immediate family (most of which are at school when I wake up and asleep when I come home) also helps.

And a quick programming note (heh): Blogger rolled out their Blogger Pro features to regular users of Blogger... like me. Some of the features (like RSS) are still in the process of being released for free, so hopefully soon I'll have an RSS feed here for all you blog enthusiasts out there.

Posted at 9:31 PM

Monday, September 08, 2003
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while... the week has been hectic but uneventful, and so there hasn't really been much to blog about.

Work is going well. I know my way around everything now, everyone's still friendly and helpful, and overall I'm settling in just fine. The only problem is that I have no social life anymore. Conveniently enough, as soon as I start work the days of gathering in Haneal's house to play games until 3am stopped as everyone just started going to bed early. So I was rather looking forward to Friday night, where I'd surely have a few hours to spend with my friends... right? Wrong! It being Haneal and Kavi's last Friday, both got wasted instantly. Kavi was already home by 11, and Haneal was ready enough... so I just went home. Very, very annoying.

It didn't help that I managed to catch the dreaded "Weekend Flu" from the office. You know the one: You get the warning signs on Friday, it hits you Friday night, keeps you miserable and bedridden through Saturday and Sunday, and magically clears up for the most part by Monday while leaving just enough to irritate you through work.

Posted at 6:55 PM

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

It's been a rather insane day, and the typhoon was at the centre of everything. I did say yesterday that it was headed for a direct hit on Hong Kong, and for once the forecasters were dead-on correct. And they had more ominous news too, talking up the sheer strength of the storm and the damage it caused in Taiwan on the way here. Ooh. Ahh.

By the time I left the house at noon, Typhoon Signal #3 ("Strong Winds Signal") was up, with most people expecting it to be raised further. I had a training session with the Bloomberg machines at their office at 12:45, so I figured I should try and be there early to beat the traffic. Squally showers and blustery winds were the order of the day, but nothing too serious. I go upstairs to Bloomberg's office only to find out that I was given entirely the wrong day -- I had to come on THURSDAY, not Tuesday (a quick call home to double-check the email I received confirmed that it wasn't me screwing up -- this time, they screwed up!). By the time all this is conveyed to me, my car has already sped halfway home, and I'm marooned alone in Central for over two and a half hours with nothing to do.

Lunch seemed like a good idea right about then, but by this time word had snuck out that the Hong Kong Observatory had made a "Pre-Announcement" that they'd raise the signal to #8 in two hours. Basically, since ACTUALLY raising the signal to #8 means that a whole host of laws and actions suddenly take effect -- workers are sent home instantly, ferries are stopped, etc -- if the Observatory knows for certain that they will be forced to raise the signal due to severe winds within the next few hours, they'll issue the "Pre-Announcement". Or as it should really be known, the "Get the hell home" announcement. This time though the timing was awful, since most people were on their lunch break, ensuring maximum confusion as nobody quite knew whether they had to come back to work after lunch. And so to cut through the confusion, people turned to their mobile phones. Given that Central arguably has more mobile phones per square foot than any other location on the planet, this only caused more confusion as the mobile networks were so swamped that nobody could get through.

And in the midst of the rain, the wind, confused employees either running back to the office or to lunch or to go home (or all three) and the complete failure of the mobile network... I was trying to contact my cousin Kavi and find out his lunch plans. Predictably, I had no luck. Since his office was next to Bloomberg's, I figured I'd go there and wait for a few minutes in the off-chance that he just might be ready to go out for lunch. And magically, he did turn up. He already ate lunch but had another 30 mins to kill, whereas I just wanted to eat, kill time and get out of the damned rain. So he offered to take me up to the HSBC canteen and buy me lunch. It's super-cheap up there -- HK$12 for a sandwich -- but you'll soon figure out why. HSBC's caterers are incredibly stingy. Where even low-end sandwich shops like Oliver's give you a generous helping of stuffing, HSBC's people literally give you the bare minimum. One slice of ham. Two pieces of lettuce. Two pieces of cucumber. Two pieces of tomato. Next!

With Kavi also stuck in the do-I-stay-or-do-I-go conundrum, I left him at work and browsed the nearby shops, waiting for his call... which duly came. His boss -- surprise! -- released him early. I needed to take advantage of my temporary Foreign Correspondents Club membership, so we headed there for a drink. Not a bad place, the FCC. Great location, but there's something unsettling about the colonial-style bar and the apparently colonial-era regulars that inhabit the place. There is something fitting about the crowd of them gathering to usher in the newly-raised Typhoon Signal #8 with a beer, though.

Riding the MTR to work wasn't the pain I had expected it to be, but then again, I was the only person actually heading TO the office. It was weird to see everything closing up and boarding up during the middle of the day though, with the glassy walkways connecting CNN's building with the others in the complex all being shut down and braced for the storm. Work did actually continue as normal, and the topic of conversation was the typhoon still barreling straight for us.

After the first show, the signal went up to #9, prompting more excited talk of a direct hit. And then the implications became clear: It's dinner time, and nobody's open. The clever folk who thought about this in advance and brought food from home were happy. The rest of us were screwed. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I went hunting for food anyway. I figured that at worst I could grab some food from 7-11 (the emphasis here is on "worst"), but instead another saviour emerged... McDonalds. In the middle of the pouring rain and gale-force winds, McDonalds was still open.

The big surprise during the show was that the typhoon was suddenly downgraded. Basically, it fell apart. In side-swiping Taiwan on its way to Hong Kong it dumped a lot of its rainbands on the island, imbalanced the typhoon, and destroyed it. After all the talk, the predictions of a direct hit, murmurings that it was almost super-typhoon intensity... it blows out half an hour before it's due to pass over the city. Typical.

Posted at 9:41 PM

Monday, September 01, 2003

I've just finished my first day at work, and... not bad. Not bad at all. I can definitely get used to this.

So, what do I do exactly? I have something of a dual role there. Most of my time is spent working with CNN's Technology correspondent, Kristie Lu Stout, on her upcoming segments. It's anything from researching to pitching to producing those pieces. It's a good fit for me because I love technology and I've worked with Kristie before, but being for TV I get some fresh experience in a field I've never really worked in before.

My second role is mundane, but it's probably more important: Running the teleprompter. Hey, someone has to do it!

The last thing to note about work are the superb hours: 3pm to 11pm. This, needless to say, is totally awesome. I get to sleep in, have lunch, get a bit of time to do whatever shopping/errands I need to do in town, and then go to work. And once I'm done with work, I can go straight out to enjoy HK's nightlife, not worry about having to sleep early or get up early, and generally enjoy. It really doesn't require any serious modifications to a "normal" person's lifestyle; if anything, it's much better. The only thing I'm missing out on really are evening movies or going out for dinner.

So, all in all a good first day at work. The second day promises to be even better though, because as you've probably seen above Typhoon Signal #1 has been hoisted and at last check Typhoon Dujuan (azalea in Chinese) is heading for a direct hit on Hong Kong...

Posted at 11:14 PM