Archive for the 'Hong Kong' Category
June 25th, 2008 by cybrpunk
A severe tropical storm passed through Hong Kong this morning and the goverment instated the highest weather warning of Typhoon Signal 8 at around 10:30pm last night. Because of that, our office along with pretty much everything else in Hong Kong, was shut down until the warning signal was lowered to a 3. It makes sense when you consider that most of Hong Kong is water.
So that means that I was up every 30 minutes or so after my alarm went off to check the Hong Kong Observatory website to see what alerts were raised. As long as the Signal 8 was in effect, the ferries to leave our island wouldn’t run, the busses to leave our apartment wouldn’t run and as far as I know, even if I were to make it out of Discovery Bay alive, the MTR trains don’t run either. So, as I said, Hong Kong shuts down.
If the signal persists to 2:00pm then we can forget about work and do whatever. But if the signal lowers before then we have to come to work within 2 hours. That kind of sucks. So when I saw that the signal had changed back to a 3 at around 11:30am I reluctantly took my smelly self to the shower and got cleaned up. I had to go to work.
It’s not a bad thing. I have a lot to do today.
June 24th, 2008 by cybrpunk
In less than a week Muse and our two dogs and two cats will be flying back to the States. In less than a week I’m going to be quite lonely.
This morning I stayed home to help Muse get all four of the fuzzy kids to the vet for their final health inspection and certification. Because of her flaky friend we had to wait for a hire car to get us to and from the plaza where the vet office is located. Her friend was supposed to help her take the pets to the vet in her golf cart. Knowing how flaky she is, I knew she would cancel so I let work know that I would need to stay and help. Sure enough, two days ago her friend calls and says that she can’t go but we can borrow the golf cart. OK we planned for that so no problem.
Yesterday she called Muse all pissy and gave her this lame-ass excuse about how she had to give up her golf cart for four days starting on the day we needed it. Yeah… right. Like this woman could possibly stand using the standard buses for four days. That would be beneath her. So we had to get a local hire car to come get us and take us to the vet. It’s way to far to walk with them all.
Of course her “friends” golf cart has been sitting in front of her building across from ours all day. It hasn’t moved and it was available the entire time we would have needed it. But oh well. That’s one good thing about consistently flaky people is that you can safely ignore them and plan alternatives in advance.
Whatever. At least its done now. One more thing crossed off the lists.
June 18th, 2008 by cybrpunk
So we’ve watched the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie (which I still say is an outrageuosly long title for a movie). Before that we refreshed our Indy knowledge rewatching Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. [Have you noticed that the first move now has "Indiana Jones and" prepended to the title on the newer releases? It wasn't like that when it released.]
So you would think I’d be all work out at this point of anything with a fedora and a whip. But I really want to play the new Lego Indiana Jones game. Muse and I played the Lego Star Wars II game on Playstation 2 for a bit but we never really got very far. I thought it was a lot of fun though and I can see how the Indiana Jones franchise could really take advantage of the Lego game formula.
I just need to add it to the ever growing list of games I want to buy before I leave Hong Kong. XBox360 and PS3 games are quite a bit cheaper here since the market won’t support the ridiculous $60 USD per title price that is charged in the United States. Most games releasing in Hong Kong start at or around $39 USD per title when they come out and you can always find some older/cheaper ones too. I will definitely miss that when I’m gone.
June 11th, 2008 by cybrpunk
Garsh Dangit: Space Ranger. Hehe. Sounds funny.
It seems that I never got around to making a post yesterday. Which is pretty damn lame if you ask me. Which you didn’t but if you had that would have been what I would have said. I have a stash of jokes and pictures that can be used in cases of post emergencies just like that but it does no good if I just plain forget.
Yesterday at work was insanely busy. I had a big implementation of a Cisco ASA 5510 firewall/Intrusion protection/VPN system for an affiliate company and it took much longer than anticipated to complete. I didn’t even really get to sit in my own office till about 3:00pm when I finally kicked the installers out so I could get some lunch.
Today has been busy catching up on all the things that didn’t get attended to yesterday as well as some things that needed to get done today. I spent some time talking to the guy who will be replacing me out here in Hong Kong once I leave to go back to St. Louis. He’ll be another ex-pat from St. Louis just like me and he has tons of questions just like I did when I was planning on coming here. I think he’ll do OK out here. He’s got some size 10 shoes to fill. Seriously, I’m going to leave him a pair of my shoes. No, not really. I’m all hopped up on sugar right now so anything I say can and will be held against me tightly and I won’t let go. What? Don’t mind me. My teeth hurt.
June 9th, 2008 by cybrpunk
Today is another obscure public holiday here in Hong Kong. Everyone gets off work for the Dragon Boat races. I have no idea why this is but I’m sure there’s some ancient cultural significance to it all. Or its just because there are 8 billion dragon boat teams and no one would show up to work anyway. Whatever.
We bought our first baby toy today and it was actually for a baby. Our baby. And not for me. I will never grow up. :-p
June 6th, 2008 by cybrpunk
It’s Friday once again and luckily this particular Friday leads into a long weekend. Pretty much every one of our offices in the Asia-Pacific region is closed on Monday for various reasons. For Hong Kong and Mainland China it’s for the Dragon Boat Races. I haven’t seen them but since we’ve sworn off local festivals here in Hong Kong that means that I never will. And I’m OK with that. Seriously.
Muse has created a new mommy blog for the upcoming hellspawn. The title of this new site is Baby Barie. There’s not much there but she has just started it up so head on over and bookmark. You know you want to. I need to get the latest ultra-sound images from her so I can scan them and post them for your amusement.
On a slightly perpendicular note, Muse’s photography site was recently completed and put back into live status. Go check out ShotSauce for a very small sampling of Muse’s photographical talents.
And since I’m busy plugging my wife (in the internet link sort of way you gutter-monkeys!) I’ll take a moment to plug myself (hehehe) as well. The latest comic of A Little Scary went live yesterday as it always does each Monday and Thursday. People seem to like the zombies in the comics so this one should be a treat for those fans. Sign up for the feed while you’re there so you don’t miss a strip!
June 5th, 2008 by cybrpunk
I believe Muse has already let the kitteh out of the bag, so to speak, but we will be coming home to St. Louis this year. Muse will be leaving Hong Kong before me to get the pets all sorted and safe. I was the first to arrive between us and I’ll be the last to leave. I suppose I should take some comfort in that I’ll get to live here in Hong Kong for just a bit longer but I also remember the loneliness of my first month here. But that was a long time ago now and I’m no longer a stranger in a strange land with no idea of what to do/where to go/what to eat. I no longer need to subsist on ham sandwiches and cans of soup. Although I may just because.
Now, when the time comes, I’ll probably spend my free time leisurely walking the street markets and shopping malls without the worry of wasting Muse’s time or needing to feed or walk the dogs. Maybe I’ll go directly from the office to a local bar with people from work and see what the night life is like before I leave. Maybe I’ll go for a hike without worrying about time constraints or anything but my own ability. Or maybe I’ll just sit in front of the computer and play World of Warcraft all night. It’s hard to say.
Actually when I say we will be coming home this year that makes it sound like something that will be happening at some far point in the future. But really it’s nothing like that. Muse may be leaving in a month or less. I won’t be here any longer than mid-August. It’s scary close to those dates already. By the end of August we will be back in the United States of America and trying to figure out life once more. This time with a baby on the way.
When we moved we did so on short notice and also threw in our wedding because it wasn’t a stressful enough experience. Now with a baby coming, I see now that we just really like to complicate things. I can offer no other explanation. We sold our house and our cars and most of the rest of the stuff we didn’t ship to Hong Kong. So add in another layer of sphincter-clenching in that we have a baby coming and we need to buy a house and at least one car but really we need two and baby stuff and furniture and Oh My Gawd what are we insane?
Yes. Yes we are. Nice to meet you.
May 28th, 2008 by cybrpunk
May 26th, 2008 by cybrpunk
So I hear it’s a public holiday back home in the States. No such luck here; I had to work today. Although we do get about the same amount of holidays here in Hong Kong but they are at different times and have different names. Exactly the same only completely different.
I don’t remember actually explicitly mentioning it (and I don’t have much else to say today (OMG filler)) but if you use Twitter, you can follow me there via this link: http://twitter.com/cybrpunk Yeah there’s a feed for it over in the sidebar as well but then you won’t get to see the octopus again as he reigns supreme over my Twitter page. He also will not allow me to post all my Twitter posts as a blog post here as a cheater post. He thinks it doesn’t count as a post. I tend to agree.
Since I’ve got nothing much else to say today I’ll just plug A Little Scary once more. I’ve posted Monday’s comic which you should check out. Remember to check back each Monday and Thursday for new comics. Subscribe to the feed while your there too. It’s a lonely feed.
May 22nd, 2008 by cybrpunk
I have no idea what these are really called in English and I certainly can’t remember what they’re called in Cantonese. But they are edible and available in the seafood and wet markets in Hong Kong. Here they are for your amusement. Mutant shrimp.
