August 2005 Archives

My Hong Kong adventure continued on Sunday, when Marc, Claire and I took the tram up to Victoria Peak. (Oh, I skipped lunch for all you food people: it was Japanese fast food.) It had been cloudy all during my stay up until that point, and since Sunday was only mostly cloudy, we played our hand and went up for the view. The tram runs on a cable with two cars balancing the weight of each other. The steepest angle of assent is 27 degrees, though it feels much higher because your body is so used to being on level ground.

The top of the Peak gives your a beautiful view of downtown Hong Kong and Kowloon, with some outlying areas in the distance. The fog obscured some of our view, so instead of soaking in the vista, we hiked around the top of the Peak. We passed several residences of wealthy people -- I hope they telecommute...otherwise that's one heck of a trip to and from work. The nature of Hong Kong is interesting: in addition to some pretty flora, we encountered butterflies and salamanders. The end of our hike led us to the Peak mall, where we did some shopping, and bought some McFlurries from McDonald's (sometimes you just can't beat American food).

On Monday, Claire and I took the MTR to Wong Tai Sin, a popular Taoist temple. This was by far the least touristy place we had been to--for the first time we were the only white people on the subway car. Speaking of white people and the subway, several of the ads on the MTR are blatantly racist, displaying white people as dumb and foolish. One (video) ad has two white salesman trying to sell a copier by rapping to 5-year-olds. Another has a picture of two Chinese teens in bed, with two white (computer generated) parents sitting on the sides of the bed with blank expressions on their faces: the text of the ad encourages parents not to be shy about talking to their kids about sex. I guess since we ruled them for long enough, they're allowed to make fun of us? Or something like that...

Back to the Taoist temple, while I did forgo lighting incense with the Chinese, I partook in drawing numbers. There are sticks labeled 1 to 100 in a "Que Bueno"-sized can, which you then shake until one of the sticks falls out. I drew 13 numbers, they were: 79 97 1 40 34 46 50 46 34 100 54 12 51. I had two repeated numbers, which makes me think my shaking was not random (a random shake would produce at least two repeating numbers only 16.5% of the time*). I seem to be a centered person, given my numerical distribution:

1-20: 2
21-40: 3
41-60: 5
61-80: 1
81-100: 2

Of course, Claire insists that each one of the numbers has its own special fortune for me, but I don't really believe in that stuff.

Tuesday I went to Lantau island to visit the largest sitting, outdoor, broze Buddha in the world. The Buddha is right next to the Po Lin monastery, who served me this great vegetarian lunch for under $10. After paying my respects to the Buddha and wandering around the monastery, I decided to hike Lantau Peak (the second highest peak in Hong Kong). Lantau Peak is best known for its sunrises, because most sane people would not hike it in the afternoon heat. I am, however, not most people, and I readily helped prove the prevailing wisdom here that white people are idiots.

Slowly but surely I climbed the winding stair to Cirth Ungol stone-stair path to the peak, desperately hoping that the clouds would cover the sun. (Somehow I managed to pick the one mostly sunny day to climb the peak.) Though there was vegetation on the path, it provided little shade. I finally made it to the top, at which point I was rewarded with an indescribably amazing view. (I half expected there to be a Buddhist monk waiting for me there as well: I had decided that the one question I would ask him/her would be "what did I have for breakfast.) Lantau Peak is above a cloudline, which makes it really cool when a cloud breaks upon the mountain, similar to waves on a rocky beach.

The flight to Hong Kong was a good 16 hours, with only a slight delay before takeoff. I didn't get as much sleep as I had hoped, but it was enough to set me on a reasonable Hong Kong time zone schedule. My current routine is to stay up late, go to bed early, and take a nap sometime during the day. This works well since I'm usually pretty tired after our mid-day activity.

The first night was uneventful. My brother picked me up from the airport and I rented a cell phone (not as cheap as one would hope given the ubiquitous technology here). We headed back to his place where Claire, Marc's girlfriend, joined us and we watched an episode of the Office. I didn't get a glimpse of the city that night, but the subway system (MTR) is (1) very clean, (2) efficient, and (3) very handicap accessible.

As I found out the next morning, the city itself is nowhere near as scrubbed-down as the MTR. I explored Hong Kong a bit and watched Tai Chi (there are 1-hour lessons for tourists this week which I plan to do). The city is very compact and has started to be built on levels, somewhat akin to the futuristic visions of Asimov, the 5th Element writers, and some Star Wars series. For instance, one of Marc's co-workers lives in a high rise whose front door is on the ground floor and whose back door is on the 15th floor. But, instead of the levels demarcating socio-economic status (as in the sci-fi literature), pedestrians of all stripes use the second level to get away from the traffic.

On the first day, Claire and I explored Kowloon via the Star Ferry. As will be the weather for my entire stay here, there were scattered showers, but we just went inside occasionally to avoid the wetness. The good thing about the weather this time of year in HK, is that if you don't like the conditions, just wait five minutes and they will change. We ventured into the Museum of Art and the Museum of Space (the latter of which needs some serious updating). There was a nice Indian market with some good cheap eats as well.

That night, we explored the longest series of escalators in the world and found a synagogue that hopefully I will be able to get to on Friday for Shabbat. We ate some Thai food and then went out to the infamous Lan Kwai Fong for a drink and then a nearby club for some dancing. The night scene in Hong Kong is pretty rockin, though space constraints severely limit dance floor size.

Got up early yesterday to start off my birthday celebration with some jogging. This city bustles even at 8am on a Saturday. On Chu's recommendation, I tried some egg tart, which lived up to its reputation. We met up with Marc's former MIT lab partner who is from Hong Kong to shop in quaint Stanley market. Supposedly, you were supposed to bargain with the shopkeepers, but (1) the items were tagged at *very* reasonable prices, and (2) the store owners didn't show a disposition to bargaining. Several times I expressed interest in an item and walked away. In Israel that would elicit a lower price, but not here.

Saturday night we had dinner in Stanley market and watched some of the Ashes, the yearly cricket match between England and Australia. After a nap back at Marc's place, it was off to Lan Kwai Fong again, this time for some Jazz. There was no dance floor to compliment the jazz, so the night continued with bouncing to Indian beats at Club 97. I notices a few gay couples there, and as I Googled afterwards, club 97 is a "gay club" on Fridays. That would somewhat explain why I got hit on in the bathroom... Certainly a birthday unlike any other I've had.

I leave for Hong Kong/China in a few hours and as I was packing last night I got a call from Karen and Mike needing hints on their present! (They had to wait until after their honeymoon to give them enough time to open it.) I set up a series of riddles that they needed to solve in order to reach their present. Displaying their teamwork skills (which I'm sure will come in handy later in life), Karen and Mike solved the first three riddles with no help from me (which I thought was very well done). Those riddles led them to a USB stick and I'm sure they were frustrated to find that there was yet one more riddle to dissect. The forth riddle had a mistake, and they had one number wrong, so a help call was needed; but the situation on both sides was quickly remedied and they unlocked their present last night! Here is the (revised) forth riddle so you can entertain yourselves in my absence--when I get back I'll post the file that was actually their present (they gave permission for me to do so last night).

I'll try to blog once or twice from HK, but if I don't, you'll hear from me on the 6th!

I've been procrastinated unpacking/preparing for my HK trip by researching two very useful web software updates.

First, MovableType and LiveJournal now both support OpenID. The MovableType plugin is here and simple to install. You then login at this LiveJournal page. So now I have a LiveJournal page, so all you LJ users can "friend" me (or whatever you call it in your universe). The benefits of this new standard are that I can easily comment on LJ posts and now have one page to view all my friends' recent LJ updates. However, I'm not sure how to syndicate this blog to my LJ page...perhaps some Google searches will reveal the answer.

Second, GMail now supports multiple accounts, which is perfect timing for my move to Princeton. Now, instead of having to use Princeton's webmail to get my "From:" address to read abstraus@princeton.edu, I can use GMail. I noticed this feature when I was setting up another GMail account for myself, and looked at the Settings page. Instead of having just an "Google Account Settings" tab, GMail display an "Accounts" tab with the option to add email addresses. I checked my main GMail account, and this tab was nowhere to be found, so I wrote Google Labs asking for this feature, and today when I checked my GMail, there it was. Coincidence? Hard to say, but if you don't have this feature on your GMail account, just wait a couple days.

The one downside is that you have one "default" account, and you have to switch mail to other accounts manually. I assume, though, that filters will soon have an "assign to _____ account" option.

Well, I'm back at school. The feeling hasn't sunk in yet, since classes don't start until mid-September and I have an intervening trip to Hong Kong. Miranda (along with her family) and I loaded all our stuff into a Budget truck on Friday, and drove at 45 mph up to Princeton, NJ that night.

Saturday morning we checked into our apartment only to find that we are on the third floor without an elevator. This is problematic as Miranda has a lot of heavy furniture, and all our stuff combined barely fit into the truck and three cars. But Miranda's brother (who lifts 100 lb. scuba tanks for a living) came through big time. The move-in took about eight hours, but we came out with a very nice place. I anticipate hosting several get-togethers (a little West Wing Night: "NJ style" perhaps).

I ran a lot of errands today (phone, cable, bank, ID, parking, etc) and crossed many things off my to do list. I also spoke to a Professor about a part-time programming job--the standard grad student rate is quite the pay cut for me, but a little extra spending money never hurts. The best news of the day was that I have an office, with my name already on the door. No view of the Potomac (as I had for a few months in Georgetown), but it seems that they know how to treat us right here.

I helped Miranda with her homework tonight (all Woody Woo students have a "math camp" rite of passage). I really need to finish unpacking tonight as tomorrow will be spent preparing for my Hong Kong trip (I leave on Wednesday from Newark).

The wedding was in Sturbridge, Mass, just outside the colonial village. The ceremony was outdoors, and the weather could not have cooperated better--clearly the sun and clouds were pleased to see Karen and Mike wedded. And I'm happy to report that I know Karen's last name now :)

While Karen and Mike skedaddled off to Vancouver for their honeymoon, I continued north to Camp Wigwam, where I spend 12 of my childhood/young adulthood summers. There I serendipitously met Andy Tobias, DNC Treasurer/author, who was a Wigwam alum in the 1960s (and helped bridge the traditions from the Pop and Mandy era to the Strauss era).

Oddly though, traditions that had remained constant for decades were changed this year, thus messing with my schedule. Camp started and ended on a Friday (a bit unusual, as the season usual traverses Thursday to Thursday), but what was really strange was that Color War started and ended a day early. Once in my twelve years did the Color War break occur a few hours early--all other years it started on the evening a week before camp ended. This precise timing leaves room for four days of color war, beach day, packing day, and traveling day.

Thus, I timed my trip to coincide with the final day of Color War; but, when I arrived I discovered that my uncle had prematurely started the competition (leaving an extra day at the end of camp). Thus, I caught the tail end of the last event, group one soccer, in which Grey beat Red in a penalty shootout. However, the disappointment for Red soccer players was short-lived as they realized that their team had amassed enough points in the final afternoon of competition to guarantee victory.

The last night of Color War is "Song and Cheer Night," where both teams sing their original song and cheer and then everyone embraces to celebrate the end of Color War. (The traditional chants include "it just doesn't matter" to signify that there are more important things in life than winning, "we're going to the beach" because the next day they are, and "Toga! Toga!" because the movie "Animal House" will shortly be shown.)

So instead of my trip ending at Song and Cheer night, I traveled with the camp to Old Orchard Beach, where I ate funnel cake, played air hockey, and swam in the Atlantic. Adam (another alum) and I challenged Noah and Nick (counselors) to a game of skins mini-golf, where we were narrowly defeated 10-8.

Then, after a short stop in Boston (where I met up with Diesel at a HoDean event) and NYC (where Seth was kind enough to play host), I came back home to Arlington. My joint going-away party with Miranda on Saturday was a success--lasting a marathon 7.5 hours and including about 50 people. (K Hicks even made a surprise appearance!)

But I must pack and stop procrastinating.

I'm on a road trip to New England, with the primary purpose of celebrating Karen and Mike's wedding! The only problem being that I now don't know how to spell Karen's last name...Ch...Chme..Chmielew...something or other

Shot...

"You go back to, what's her name, well, Gloria Steinem, but I'm trying to remember I can't remember the woman's name. It's terrible. Anyway..." -- Santorum, on the names of some radical feminists who are on a "mysogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only marker of social value and self-respect" (This Week, 7/31/05).

...Chaser

"Gloria Steinem? Who's Gloria Steinem?"
"Gloria Steinem's a famous feminist! She says there is no separation between feminists and housewives! She says you can be a housewife AND a feminist!" (Sour Juice and Rhyme)

Paul Hackett, former Marine who has spent time in Iraq, is running for Congress in a Republican district of Ohio. Despite the nature of the district, he is making waves and won the endorsement of the Cincinnati Post. You can read much more about this race on Daily Kos or the official campaign website.

Importantly, the election is tomorrow, and if you don't happen to live in Ohio's second district, please contribute instead of voting. (Don't worry: ActBlue does not take a cut of your contribution.) This post details how your contribution will be used in the next 24 hours. If we win, Congress would get its first member with first-hand experience in Iraq. Now that's a cause worth fighting for.

QOTD: "How many AEPi guys does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
"10?"
"Hah! You think AEPi guys do any screwing?"