Really need to blog.

Just went to one of the halls accross the road for the first time since I got here. There is stuff piled all over the corridors, there are people walking up and down the place, they're all really together. Like their own little club. I felt a little foreign. Ok, I felt really foreign. Just like at the canteen by myself. Noone talks to me, and I just eat by myself...it was really terrible. Actually, that is the first time that I have eaten by myself while here. After that, I met some exchange students and it was all good. 

I don't understand this. From a logical point of view, we come from basically most of the points of the globe, but we are actually really together. Separated by interests of course. 

Almost all the girls are going out tonight for ladies night (free drinks). I really wanna go, but I'm making this sacrifice for Macau, and my grades. I am no a B student (once again). My grades cannot suffer because I have already fallen behind on the second week. 

I bought a HP 12C!!!!!!! The ultimate finance geek calculator. It is super awesome. I love how you have to read the manual just to figure out how to add 1+1 on it. It feels really good too. I also have some mooncakes that I am thinking of inviting everyone over to eat tomorrow. Some facebook action? Ok, maybe on Monday, when I'm back from Macau. 

Oh yea, Macau this weekend!!!!! Love it!!!! Booked my Cirque du Solei tickets and the seats are pretty good! Sadly, I can't afford to gamble, but at least I will be legally allowed to gamble there! I checked it out, foreigners are allowed to gamble at 18 and locals at 20 (nice government huh? Looks after the youth of Macau). I am now officially a foreigner. It feels so weird. I am now officially an exchange student. This is definitely not my country. The mainlanders, as many of us as there are, are definitely not really a totally accepted part of the demography. I can't say how, but just the people that kind of snob you, the looks....I mean, I get some treatment for knowing how to speak almost perfect english. Marking me out as a Hai Gui (Sea turtle). I just haven't assimilated into this culture yet. Because I feel a little alienated outside of this exchange students' hall. The locals speak to you, but they don't really speak  to you. Like in China, about the politics, economics, government. I suppose it's because I was really lucky to get opportunities like that back home. Come to think of it, I didn't get conversations like that in NZ either. Perhaps I should have sought them out more. Like I should here. Some financial news. But how? Maybe joining the finance students' association could be a start. Or the investments club. But they might just provide personal trading information.

Yea, as for my plans to trade on the HK stock exchange, it is totally on hold now. With all the parties, travel opportunities, cantonese learning, homework, it is virtually impossible to concentrate. And I need 24hr access to the internet. Which an Eee PC will provide me with I'm sure. I'll get one next next weekend. Will ask around as to which place would be the cheapest. 

OK, it's set, just got my third invite for ladies' night, I am NOT going drinking. It is a waste of time, I will wake up a little hungover, I will lose concentration in class and also when making my summary notes. I'm saving myself for Macau. I hope the drinks there are not too expensive, but if so, then it should be great! 

COMPUTER!!!!!! You are here!!

I am blogging off my old, gigantic laptop. I am back in love.

Bought Struck and White's Elements of Style yesterday at the HKU bookshop. For like, 80 HKD. So, it is my hope that this investment will pay off and I will become more understandable. The books here are so cheap. But not to the folks back home in the mainland. Now, things there are really cheap. I miss it.

Am so exhausted at the moment. The only thing that is keeping me going is the bit of "midnight snack" that I ate at around 10. It is 12.01am now.

OK, it is not 1:26am. I am still here. Am still surviving on those biscuits and that bun. My room is such a mess, and I need to awaken at 7:30 tomorrow (6 hours later). For I made a really dumb mistake. And it's nice to wake at 7:30 on a Saturday morning anyway.

Apart from the adjustment issues, this place has been great! All I really need now is a camera, and I can go out and explore for real! Hopefully Sunday. Actually, definately Sunday either way.

The classes here are interesting. The locals don't really.....listen. They mostly chatter throughout the class. The mainlanders do though. Really throughly. I probably should make friends with some of them. Get their notes? As opposed to leaning forward and copying them when I have missed something important. But that strategy was very efficient too. Next time, when I go to class, I need to be sure that I sit behind some very young looking girls with notebooks. Pass class...no problem.

Living by myself (well, relatively) has been interesting experience. I really need to get my life in order, but an far too lazy to! Actually, I feel that I need my laptop to get my life in order. So that I can plan my days in advance on my computer, and then upload them onto my cellphone....that's me folks. How will I possibly survive in the wild? Now I understand those guys in the computer centres that smell like they haven't washed in two weeks. Luckily, my roommate is super-neat, so she keeps me in check by setting a great example and disparaging looks at my heap.

I now realise, that my handwriting looks a lot like my room. Messy. Should I just accept that as a part of my personality? It was pre-destined I suppose, and anyway, it doesn't get messier. Just stays this messy.

A complaint that I have heard a lot is that the local students don't really interact much with us. But in actual halls and if you can speak Cantonese, it is apparently a real bonus.

I have sadly, been asleep in a lot of classes lately. Actually, I fall asleep in all my classes, even the ones where I really like the lecturer. And the two hour sessions here are seriously tough. Especially if they don't give you a break. I'm dead at one hour mark on the dot. Like clockwork. I need to tune out for five minutes and go off into the land of the sleepy person. Maybe it's because I haven't had coffee these past few days due to laziness. Don't worry, now onwards, it will be different. I have my computer now. Now, I just need to figure out a good printing method. I think I will use the "secret" computer lab next to my lecturers' offices in the KKL building level 7. It is near impossible to get an elevator up and down there, but it's well worth it. I mean, I could always walk the 7 floors. It would be good exercise.

I'm so terrible. I have joined NO clubs. Well, back at Auckland, I joined heaps of clubs. And never went. I think this will be pretty much the same thing here. For some reason. And I haven't checked out the gym facilities yet. I have heard that we need to get a special training session before we can get in, but can't seem to find any information. I should ask about that.

Right now, the most important thing for me is probably to sleep. See y'all later on today!

Back from the Dead

And very frustrated. I can't find my course website. The one for my sole course today that has the assignment that is due on Monday and I don't have a credit card, a student card, nor do I have a computer, nor a camera......at least I have money. That I have trouble accessing....but still. I should look on the bright side of life.

The computer system is screwed up. And I thought nDeva was f*cked up, but dude, you should see this one. You know those Asian news websites with about a million different thing to click on and it looks like ergonomics was (well, in fact is) a foreign concept? Yea, that's our adminstration system.

Nothing is clear. The course material are all online, but google doesn't come up with many hits.

Am now at the HKU library. Where they have some pretty old looking hps. But at least they have more than the 40 or so at the so-called "Computer Centre". That ain't no computer centre baby.

Ok, so the main reason why I'm like this is that I am not used to this climate and my skin has broken out. It's ok. I had around twice the recommended daily dose of cooling tea, plus that chinese herbal medicine stuff. Yea, I think I'll take it easier from now on in case I over do it.

This place has to be the world most maze-like university. You know the Science Building...yea, only it covers the entire uni, and it's on a hill, so there is a height thing to consider.

Maybe I'm just annoyed that I have to go to class now. Oh yea, I also have no textbooks nor exercise books. And you should see the line in the bookstore.

Ok, perhaps my expectations have been let down. I actually previously thought I had none. Ok, another reason why I'm frustrated, is that I really want to get all of the above, but have not done so, due tor stupid reasons like price, convienience, etc. I have missed a lot of opportunity.

Overall, I need to go out and do stuff. I shall go to Mong Kok on Wednesday and just get that camera.

Eastern Love vs. Western Love

Well, for the past few days, I have been watching chick tv shows. And, since they are all about love, I have found that there is a distinct difference between the english speaking ones, and, the chinese dubbed, korean speaking ones. On a side note, Korean and Japanese cultures both embody, in a MUCH fuller form than what China has at the moment, elements of what chinese culture used to be. Korean being the more recent past. This was a part of my museum education by the way. So, if you want to understand traditional Chinese culture, they are probably good places to start. Ironically.

Anyway, what is different, is in the words of a Yao Ming video biographer, that "sweet, lingering eastern love". Versus the brash, brief western version. Let me elaborate a little. In trad. E culture, a girl and a boy is more love at first sight. They are supposed to talk to each other, get to know each other, the boy is expected to do good things for the girl and their family. Gifts, errands etc. The girl on the other hand, is supposed to act shyly, accept gifts grudgingly and be absolutely innocent of the boy's intentions. Well, I'm talking about love, not arranged marriages. This can drag on for YEARS with no action, before they get married. Thereafter, she cooks, breeds and looks after the children, and he goes on with his career, plus some one to cook, clean and breed for him. She then tries to live her life through him and her children. Quote from a movie I saw this morning : " Men conquer women through conquering the world, and women conquer the world through men". It's so....waste of time. Inefficient even.

Brash western: meet, like ea other, stay together, don't like each other anymore, separate. Split everything down the middle and find a new situation to be in. Maybe in a developed economy, one can afford to do such a thing more. But con: perhaps through years of trials and tribulations, emotions run deeper.

Anyway, I've been meaning to write some long, irrational post about if for ages, but then, after some slow, lingering music that I fell half asleep to, it hit me. We are all looking for the same thing in different ways. Someone to cross that wide, wide ocean with, and through mutual feelings of terror, find comfort. And also for one to catch the other in case we fall.

I've always told myself that no matter whether or not I'm scared, I have to cross it. Being not scared will improve my performance and minimise chances of falling. What is there to be scared about anyway?

What my life might have been:

5.00 Wake up, brush teeth, early pre-reading

6.00 Breakfast, walk to school, tie hair on way there

6.15. Start school.

• No of subjects: 9
• Papers needed to be completed per day: 2-3 per subject
• Time needed for one paper: avg. 30-45 mins
• 9*2.5*37.5=843.75mins ~14 hours
  

12.00 Lunch (one might want to use this opportunity to skip lunch and do a paper)

12.30 Finish lunch

21.00 Class finishes, Night revision

23.30 Let out, go home

00.00 Sleep.

True schedule. In small town boarding (and non-boarding) high school such as my father's old school. With a 95% University entrance rate. This is how it happens folks.

Now I'm scared. But I don't know where to start! Do you really expect me to redo 2 years worth of math? I mean, my cousin's stuff is, I think mostly covered by Math250. But our questions were really easy....unlike hers. What do I do? I'm not a B student!!!! I refuse to be a B student. >:-(

Media bias: Concrete evidence and contra-evidence.

Oh yea, found this on Economist forums by a certain "Maeglin". Yea, I'm totally addicted to Ex-communist v West discussion boards:

". . . But I have to ask you this - gentlemen, why do you trust your media? It has lied to you about WMD, it has lied to you about Kosovo and about 1st war in Yugoslavia.

We do not trust our media. We have learnt it the hard way. Why not take a piece of advice and not learn it the hard way yourself." :-) Lmao.

There are different approaches to the matter, the kinds of people are:

Ex-communist:
1. Trys to tell the truth as it is! (Yea! Go go go!)
2. Rebutts every comment (has gotta be a i-bank analyst, who else is smart, educated, able, interested in politics and also has so much forced screen time to spare?)
3. Trys to reconcile the truth and what is written from the two points of view.
4. Writes in non-English to tell everyone to chill. The westerners are a cult, they will never believe you
5. Writes about how disappointed in the economist they are (as if it has ever been any different)

Pro-western:
1. Arrogant American
2. Righteous American
3. The "understanding" American (I have lived in xxx for so many years.......)
4. The debater: dude, seriously, you could not scream "high school geek" louder if stuck a tag on your forehead and posted your picture along with your melodramatic, far too long, unoriginal, so-called ideas.
5. The historian. Speaking from his/her high and mighty pedestal of(biased) history textbooks. As if who won in the past matters.
6. Special case: Tibetans exiled, Georgians killed etc.....

Now....if only the wsj has a discussion board....sigh.


OMG. UNBELIEVEABLE! This from the WSJ.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121876874842643523.html?mod=djemITP

"Using the past week as a guide would indicate that the worst fears might be overblown. A combination of favourable winds, rain and strict government pollution controls have managed to keep Beijing's air quality below the government's threshold for safe air since the games began Aug. 8."

Damn, I'm becoming a western media watchdog. I need to read some Chinese media and post some translations of the "Chinese truth" on my blog.

Media bias

I've wanted to talk about this for ages now. I don't know if I have said it and am repeating myself, but seriously, please, don't believe the crap they feed you. I mean, I think I have understood why AMUNC was not that pleasurable an experience for me beyond the fact that I didn't stay up all night drinking with everyone else. It's because actually despite all that "debate" crap, most of them just parroted the western media line.

I mean, when I hear someone gushing about Al Jazzera, I just feel pity. They actually believed all the lies they have been told. I mean, Chinese people do to, but we have been obviously lied to so much, we leave room for doubt. A lot of people in the West actually believe that the media does their best to report the news. The free speech BS, and democracy BS. Newspapers are a business. Now I understand William Randolph Hearst: "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." Power, power, power like no other. Money is not power. Politics is not power. Broadcasting rights are power. Think about it. If on a BBC commentary was outraged at a foul or a PK in favour of the opposing and England loses....riot. On the other hand, if BBC commentator didn't mention, or said something to mollify the crowd, perhaps smaller riot.

Hmm...is that why the church was so powerful in renaissance europe? It is the ability to fool people into believing in you to make their lives better. But not so much, that, when they almost inevitably get disappointed, they will not be so disappointed that they want to revolt against you.

Is that why Obama is falling now? Like I have always maintained, he is way too n00b. I mean, there are avenues of getting things done. The Clinton camp, before their connections were torn by Obama's popularity, had them. Now...somewhere in between. I don't think America need new, better ideas. Bush's were not all that bad. Education reform, endless supply of oil secured, trade tarrifs to protect the mid-western industry so that they may have some time to change to other industries where the US has a comparative advantage even bio-fuel, while not good, is still a solution to what is probably the biggest question of the 21st century. Energy.Yea, what America needs, is someone to implement and fix up the irregularities in the system. NOT someone to think up brand spanking new ideas and try to layer them on top of the old ones...ergh......

Oh well, it's a democracy, so, if he gets elected and screws up, it means that the people has spoken, and they obviously want a president that can screw everything up further for the next four year, so it's alright. Right?

On the subject of bio fuels, I mean, we used to spend more than half our income in food. Now I think, in NZ at least the average is less than one fifth. So what if we spend more if the price to pay is to be able to run our cars? I mean, economic growth is a miracle. As Robert E. Lucas so vividly illustrated for us. Resources are limited. It just gets recycled, I mean there must be a physics law, energy conservation? That means that economic growth must stop at some point. Oh yea, the steady state rate of income in economics. Haven't reached that yet, but, it's getting closer and closer right? Because it has to be finite.

Btw, if you are heading towards something that is infinitely far away, can you say that you are getting closer to it?

In closing, take the media as a bit of a guideline to the situation. Don't naively think they are telling the truth. Like I used to. I actually used to read every sentence like it was a literary masterpiece or something. Now I scan the first two sentences of each paragraph and if it doesn't interest me i skip.