Random Thoughts

Other things I noticed about Hong Kong....

All the apartments on Hong Kong have a heavy reinforced gate that is closed outside of each front door. That gets locked separately. THEN, the front door itself has a chain lock, a dead bolt, and then finally the normal keylock. It makes you think....how dangerous IS Hong Kong if each apartment must use all that to be secure? WHO in the WORLD would go through all that effort to break in a house, and then what in the world are HK thieves packing to even require all that security?

There are SO many people in HK; close to 8 million people, packed in a city that isn't very large. I think I overheard it might take just about an hour to circle the city. So there's no room to be polite over there. If you're too slow for something, you've lost it. By the end of my trip, I was just as bad as everyone else...I'd be pushing old ladies aside just to get a seat. What an ass. But everyone else was doing it!!! I'd be getting crazy looks if I DIDN'T do that.

Some restaurants you basically have to find an open seat anywhere. Forget waiting on a table because you'll never get one. If there's an open seat on a table where other people are eating, you just hop your ass over there and sit down. While I got used to this in some of the whole-in-the-wall eateries, I didn't expect this in other places.

In Disneyland I was sitting happily at a table eating with my girl, and suddenly these 2 China guys just pushed their tray on to our table and starting eating in front of us. I'm like "WTF!?" But my girl explained to me that it's "typical" that they do that. That's what everyone does. I don't know if I'd ever get used to that. I tried shooting them the evil eye...pfft, yeah like that does anything. I'd probably get kung fu chopped finding out one of these suckers were from Shaolin or something.

Cleanliness.... almost everywhere we ate, my girl advised me to clean the chopsticks and spoons first with tea. It's another one of those tips that make you go "HMMMMMM". Do they not wash their utensils at the restaurants? They looked clean.... but I'm not about to question anything. I know my mom does that with her chopsticks and everything here too....so maybe there's something universal about Chinese restaurants that I am better off not knowing about.

Going postal in Hong Kong

OK, ignore the fact that this trip was mainly to spend time with my lady...the trip to Hong Kong itself was pretty fun. I didn't really plan to see anything in particular, but nonetheless I got to absorb a few more things this time then I expected.

First, the flight over to HK was HELL as I expected. In all about 16 hours to get there if you count all the stops. I had 2 transfers on China Airlines to get there. The first flight over was ok for about the first 5 hours where I thought to myself "Bah, this is cake...easy!" I had my zip pac with me and I was all ready to go.

By the time I was on the last 3 hours of this journey, my head felt like exploding, my back was killing me, and I was about one notch away from spewing the contents of my zip pac. Unfortunately I didn't spot one barf bag around me.

The flight back was much easier, only about 11 hours to get back.

You don't go to Hong Kong to relax. Of course...coming FROM the world's premier destination spot for relaxation, I don't expect to really go anywhere else and to expect to "get away" from anything. Everyone is moving, everyone is doing SOMEthing there. It can be 10pm at night and in some areas of town there are still crowds of people at some department store shopping for sales on designer clothes.

I ate a lot. I probably immediately sweated it all out of me as well. Average temperature while I was there was in the low 90's with very high humidity.

Did I buy anything? Not really. I DID pick up a few design books for work. I know...sad isn't it?

I picked up this little gem of a design book called "How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul" It's a great little book that has ground rules and opinions from other designers about everything from design all the way to customer relations. Rarely do any of us get the opportunity to just be able to sit down and talk to others in our fields about how we run our businesses. So this book has been great so far...

The bookstores in HK are about 3 times bigger then any Borders or Barnes & Nobles we have here in Hawaii. I imagine because there are both asian and european sources for the materials they keep. It's pretty cool...

Back to work.

Back to reality

OK I'm back. Uploaded my new gallery here:

Hong Kong Trip 2006

Yes, I'm now engaged too. Not sure if it's fully absorbed yet. My fiance can look at her new beautiful engagement ring now and I came back with the same things I left with hehe. Nah, I came back with a big smile on my face.

Major jet lag right now though, I'm might end up working nights for a few nights and sleeping during the days. But either way I gotta get back to work.

Hong Kong

Hot as hell. Think it get's hot in Hawaii? Nuh uh. I think when I got here it was about 86 degrees....at night. The humidity makes a huge impact. It's like when you walk outside the heat hits you, just like in Las Vegas. Except picture someone blowing hot steam in your face too.

I'd take a shower in the morning and the minute I step out the door I'd be all sticky and sweaty again. And I seem to be the only one that feels this... nobody else looks like they're suffering. My GF says, "oh it feels fine!"

I'm still on Hawaii time. So I end up waking up at 5:30am and thinking, "let's GO let's GO!" But by the time it's 6pm at night I'm like a walking zombie.

Other things I'm not used to:
Water -- you have to boil all your water here. It's like Survivor.
Shower -- they have gas heaters. The problem with gas heaters is that it operates very inconsistently. So you get water that's constantly going hot-cold-hot-cold. I either get scalding hot water, or freezing cold. I can't seem to get it just right.
Elevators -- for some reason, elevators in HK are always super small. Pack about 5 people in one of them, you're practically rubbing up against someone. I think I have minor claustrophobia, this doesn't help. By the time I've ridden down 23 floors packed up against a couple of chinese people, I'm ready to scream.

Well, I haven't had a chance to take many photos yet, I'll try to upload some soon.

New Projects

Centerscale Automation Hawaii, Inc. Website.

BrioMaglus Logo

15 hours

It takes 15 hours to get to Hong Kong from Hawaii. 13 hours from here to Taiwan. About an hour stop-over, then another 1:45 to HK.

While I love travel. The flights are the most torturous part of the whole affair.

To think that I used to LOVE flying planes when I was younger. How did it change?

I think the whole thing obviously has to do with physical comfort. Now that I'm taller, it's the worst. My knees touch the front seat, my big feet have to twist uncomfortably at weird angles, and my back has to arch uncomfortably to fit in the tiny seat.

I can't sleep because I may end up flopping over to my neighbor's shoulders, the air dries up my sinuses, and the airplane food is even worse then my own cooking.

I got every trick in the book to counter all these problems. I'll have a good book, an iPod, a PSP, a Zip Pac meal, Betty's Best cookies, sour patch candy, and a warm jacket. I bet my iPod and PSP batteries will last only about 1/2 of the trip, but it's better then nothing.

It'll all be worth it though. This will be a fun and memorable trip!

Email problems

I stumbled across the fact I may not have been recieving any emails lately from either one of my business addresses. "[email protected]" and "[email protected]".

Both of these addresses come to my Gmail account. Because I don't notice anything wrong from my end, I couldn't tell if anyone had been sending messages to me. And here I thought I had a few days of light email! :P

After a quick search of Gmail's support boards, I notice a few people had been reporting this problem as early as June 6th. I understand they are looking into this recent bug.

If you have sent me any requests or messages within this period and have not received any replies from me. Please accept my apologies. Please temporarily send all requests directly to my gmail account at this address "[email protected]" and I will do my best to respond. I've tested that and it seems to be working fine. Of course you're welcome to call me directly as well.

As a reminder, I will be leaving town for a few days from the 13th - 25th. I will be checking email periodically while I am overseas.

Sorry for this inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. What will we do these days without email?....................

Shhhhhhhhhh!!

This is the metro map for HK. I gotta take one of the rails from the airport when I get there before I meet my GF at the first stop. I hope I don't miss my stop and end up way in the middle of nowhere. I told her to wear a big bumblebee outfit or something so I can pick her out from the crowd...

The metro there is super clean and precise. I think this is true of all metros in Asia. So far from the bus system we have here in Hawaii. The bus come late...and then when it arrives it drives right past you because it's full. UGH I hated that.

OK, I'm trying not to turn this into a video blog. But this is just too funny to pass up. I was laughing so much at this last night...I was even in my bed laughing to myself after this one like a crazy nut. It's a Japanese gameshow where they dare each other to do fearfactor-like stunts while remaining quiet in a library. So classic! Japanese reality shows are golden...

Weekend Funny

A cop forgets our national anthem. If this is real I at least give him credit for sticking it through to the end. hahah.