Deluge

Been too long since my last post. You could chart my posting frequence on a chart and it would be a downward curving slope. At the beginning I posted once a day and now it's once every two months. It's all intentional - yep. My next will be in 4 months.

The deluge has been so overwhelming that to begin to tackle it was daunting.
Simple english: The amount of work necessary to write an update has been too much for me, that I have avoided it (the work) and not updated.

Not that there is lack of news, but things are settling rather well. I was asked by one of my bosses at a banquet last week how I was settling in in Hong Kong.

You know, I wake up here and it's like I've been here for a long long time. But when I was in Canada, I'd wake up and forgot I had been in Hong Kong for nearly a year.

Let me recall a quote:

The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

I hope I make a habit of not developing habits, but as I'm settling into things here, things are becoming a bit more routine, a bit more usual, a bit more whelming.

My updates, I expect, will be more frequent. I am surprisingly lazy when I am before (in front) of my computer, less intent on writing for my blog as I would just clicking through articles of news events and philosophical blabetty bla (bla bla bla). My first posts were facilitated with the use of my old PDA, a first series Handspring. All but smoke has been rising out of it after its 5 years of dedicated service that ended a few months ago. The burial will take place soon, but since its decommission, I have been rather limited in my organisational abilities. I am looking to buy a PDA this evening, and if I don't, it will be within the next two weeks.

I provide a quick update about things going on.

• I miss my friends and family.
  
  
• My favorite diner moved away 4 months ago. I have since visited twice, the daughters are growing up very fast and the food remains very good.
  
  
• I am taking a Kung Fu class with my best friend Apple.
  It is called "Practical Wing Chun Kung Fu", which is quite a misnomer since no one there speaks English. Not quite practical if you can't learn it. Perhaps the name of the place should keep the word "Practical" in the Chinese name, and "Impractical" or "No no" in the English name. "Impractical Wing Chun Kung Fu".
  
  
• I am becoming increasingly troubled and fazed by the nature of my work (teaching orphans) as I become more familiar with their backgrounds and my working routine.My solace is that I am doing very real work benefitting lives of the most disadvantaged in Hong Kong society.
  
  
• I have been stopped AGAIN by the police - but this time I asked for it. I suspected if I use English, I wouldn't get the same problem I had before. So I look suspicious in my attempts to get police to stop me, then stick with English. "Oh, you Englissy?" he stammers "Yes! What do you want?!" "Nothing! Go! Go!" and while I'm just barely still in earshot I say "bastard" in Chinese. It's fulfilling.
  
  
• My electronics have collectively taken a stance against me. My iPod doesn't scroll, my cellphone doesn't respond, my laptop is slowing down, my PDA resets, and my wireless mouse found a wire and hung itself. I am suspecting the humidity of Hong Kong is terrible on electronics and causing the disturbances in the force, Luke. I am not caving into the contractual demands of my electronics.
  
  
• My Cantonese level is causing me problems. My pronunciation is good enough that people think my mistakes are intentional, causing laughs, insults, finger-pointing and an old woman at work to chase after me, violently. My boss is steadfast convinced I am fluent despite my insistences I cannot understand anybody...now can you please ask the old woman to stop chasing after me?
  
  
• I am doing web design/web development work for a start-up in an expat-popular area in Hong Kong. It's interesting work.
  
  
• At the Annual Sea Cadet Exchange camp, I presided over a 1000+-member game of Simon Says (my initiative), conducted in both official languages of Hong Kong - English and Chinese. English was for the directions, Chinese was to tell the kids to sit down and stay seated down if they lost. It was a very fun game. Sit down! Do I have to come down there?
  
  Me getting ready to host the game
  The crowd of Sea Cadets
  
  The remaining winners in a Simon Says-have-a-deathmatch shootout (you can see me on stage in the background with judges)
  
  
• I went to a dinner and social event at the top of the Central Plaza, a Hong Kong landmark building that has a tremendous view of all Hong Kong, where I met the superintendent of the Hong Kong Police and superlieutenant (or something). They gave me a gift to thank me for my work with the Hong Kong Sea Cadets and the Simon Says game. Now sit!
  
  
• I was invited to a banquet and live concert of the Beach Boys that was raising funds for the program I am working with. At the Grand Hall in Hong Kong (with a ceiling so high you can hardly see it - there's clouds - and doors so big, the tree giants from Lord of the Rings could walk right in), I got to see big-wigs and CEOs of Hong Kong, most I didn't know. I did get to meet the Chairman of the PLK, a TV anchor of the popular horse races that go on, and of course, see the Beach Boys (at this $300 CDN/ticket event...)
  
  
• I met the biggest star of Hong Kong, Stephen Chow (Director, Star of "Kung Fu Hustle" and "Shaolin Soccer") when he came to visit my class at the PLK (teaching the orphans). Photographs and video of us was in all the big media outlets - so much so my friends saw my picture in the newspaper parents saw me on Chinese TV in Canada. It was very interesting. (Here is a link to a story from Yahoo! ...only in Chinese, sorry.)
  
  
• I have had my class filmed twice. The first time was for a corporate video for a world-huge financial co. to get funding for the program. Sorry, can't get into much more details about this though I'd sure love to - considering how many digits are involved with the sought-for funding.
  
  
• The second time I was filmed, I was interviewed for a documentary about my workplace and the program I am working with. They also filmed my class and stuff. The director was flown in from the US. I am learning more and more how important is the work I am doing and the program I am working with.
  
  
• My insights about the way the world turns, the way the world works and the rules of social interaction of people dependent on class system dynamics of Hong Kong are all correct. All of them. Unfortunately the Hong Kong and Chinese government will not let me publish my conclusions, so I can only make veiled references that are by no means dismissive, but reflective of the rules of concision that makes blogging an effective outlet of self-expression.
  
  
• Your lucky numbers are 7, 9 and 14. You will live long and fruitless life.
  

So, as you can see, each is a blog entry on its own. They are here for me to expand on, should I want. Hope this will do for now.