US Consulate: Hong Kong

I woke up late today because I was really exhausted after yesterday's Hong Kong "Concentrated Tour + Visa Application".

But I am really glad that just now, "out-of-my-expectedly fast", someone from the post office has already sent me back the passport from the US consulate. According to what they say, the passport should be expected to arrive at my home by next Monday. But I just got it today! (ha) The visa is gonna last for five years, luckily. So far, everything is just great, going according to schedule. Here is my visa, haha!



Yesterday I woke up at 5:45, took a shower and brought along all the documents ready the previous night, and headed toward the pier. Ernest and I took the 7:00 jetfoil, took a taxi and arrived in the US Consulate exactly 8:30, its opening hour. There were more people than my expecation, already around 60 odd when I was there, and people actually kept on reaching the embassy. Another thing that was out of my anticipation was that almost all of the people who were applying for the visa were not allowed to enter the inside of embassy, but instead finishing all the procedure on the outside. (with roof, of course) It was just like depositing money in a bank, where forms are submitted through a window. And even meeting the counsel was the same - through a window. Everyone was standing, no seats. That was kinda fun. The counsel just asked me three simple questions and then I was told to go to the next window and paid the fee. That was it, and by the time we were done, it was just 9:10, far earlier that we had expected.

Since we knew that during that time, most of the shop were sill closed, we decided to go to Starbuck to grap a cup of coffee (I had a large chocolate mocha, to be exact). The coffee shop was inside one of the commercial building, and I could see many "black-suited" people just came and bought a cup of drink continuously. I wondered how much could Starbucks earned every hour. Ernest and I chatted for an hour or so, and then we took the MTR from Central to Causeway Bay. The first thing we did was visiting PageOne, the bookshop and spent a couple of hours there. I swore that I was not buying any books anymore because there are still a lota books unread at home, and I kept my promise. At 13.00, Jacky, who went to HK on the same day to get his flute fixed, along with Louis, came to join us after finishing business in Tsuen Wan.

We looked around a bit and had lunch, and continued walking+shopping/window-shopping (me). I particularly like CitySuper selling all kinds of accessories/little gadgets and Designer Group selling all sorts of Apple/Macintosh products. SOGO was our next destination, where the flutist bought Dior Addict for his little Yakult. ($300/25 ml) We enjoyed an icecream puff and we went to the nearby HMV. It was OK big and I kinda enjoyed there. Louis and I had the same feeling that even it had been quite a long time since we visited a CD shop, lot of pop music on sale was not strange to both of us. (^^) Jacky spent another $1200 something on classical again, as if he has to do some shopping spree everytime he visits a music store.

After that, we entered the maze of IKEA and enjoyed ourselves - by sitting - after walking for quite a long time. Just by looking around for funny things and gadgets could we already spend another hour...

May 1 Firing

There was a very good RTHK TV program tonight on TVB Jade, discussing the issues on the recent Macau "May 1st" conflict and the overall social environment in the last couple of years. The hot topic recently, of course, is the "five firing" by one of the policemen during the demostration. Personally, the way some of the local workers speaking out, especially like throwing things to the policemen and attacking officials, did not seem to be a much civilized act. Maybe you may be think I'm not condsiderate enough toward the reduced circumstances of the local workers, but actually I do understand that their situation is not that satisfactory. My point is, I'm sure there were also some other remonstrators who did not hope the demonstrations to turn out into a fight, or any form of tragedy. They simply want to be listenend. Those people who inflamed local workers' anger and encourage them to take emotional steps were irresponsible. When a lot of people gathered together, they could be really powerful in terms of strength in fighting - and destruction. A person alone cannot do much, but many people together could created a different atmosphere that might make individuals losing their self-consciousness and be aroused to perform inappropriate actions - and that is what happened in May 1st. Some of the LegCo members also said things that was politically incorrect, but I'm not commenting on it here.

On the other hand, the policeman who fired was kinda unlucky. He seemed like a siner now: people are blaming him as if he did something really bad - and the coincidence of hurting one of the motorcyclist who was 300 meters away could only prove that May 1st was definitely not his day. People are spreading email with modified pictures - like the one shown here. I sorta sympathized him, but what I'm saying here is, THINK before you fire next time.


I'm ending here and I will be talking about casinoes and macau outlook in the next entry.

Why switch?

Switching your primary email address or website address, just like changing you cell phone number, is always a stupid idea. People love to go to the same address and look for the same website, send email to the same address and call the same number to find the same person, even after a couple of years. If any one of this is no longer available, the one who wishes to contact you would simply give up - and that certainly would be your loss.

The reason I used xanga as my blog was due its popularity. Vast majority of my friends/classmates have been using them, thus creating a seemingly powerful community/blogosphere. One of the good thing is that everyone can make easy comments in xanga. Of course, comments are appreciated by the author as a kind of support and communication. And more comments seem to prove one's, well, somehow, popularity. But the funny thing is, users in xanga (esp chinese users) would go to others' blog and say things like"pass by, cm", hoping others would drop by and leave comments in return. A way to make him/herself popular through the blog? Maybe.

I spent some time in modifying the appearance on Xanga, but when I switched to mac a couple of months ago, xanga started to get me frustrated. The way of presentation of my blog was no longer the same; support for Mac users is poor and I just cannot choose font style and size which I'm fond of. I feel so good when I use Blogger: the original template is already nice, and after some easy amendments, it looks elegant and pretty damn good. Besides, I don't have to use the HTML tag every now and then when I wish to do something as easy as skipping lines.

Same thing in here, the scattered pieces: jc...*, comments are appreciated. But most important thing is, hopefully you can get something out of what I'm writing here.

Science

I've been reading Dan Brown's another famous work - Angels & Demons.

Basically he is a great and experienced writer who is fully of knowledge in various fields. Because only being really knowledgable can someone write something as sophisticated as the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. A lot of history, art, language, science are involved in his stories, and the complexity and abundance in content/reference should be one of the main reasons that his books are so popular. Nonetheless, I'm not saying I totally agree with the ideas in his productions, particularly in terms of the history of the church, Jesus and Opus Dei,he is simply making up some kind of story that really sounds genuine. If only considering his books as a way to kill time, one may find it a pleasure. Thought sometimes the content and history are so abundant and intricate that you may not be able to fully understand all of them. Anyway, just give it a shot if you haven't.

There is one paragraph about science that I've come across and I find it quite a perspective to look at science.

"Science's victory has cost every one of us. And it has cost us deeply. Science may have alleviated the miseries of disease and drudgery and provided an array of gadgetry for our entertainment and convenience, but it has left us in a world without wonder. Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathmatical equations. Even self-worth as human beings has been inhabitants are a meaningless speck in the grand scheme. Simply A cosmic accident. Even the technology that promises to unite us, divides us. Each of us feel utterly alone. We are bombared with violence, division, fracture and betrayal. Skepticism has become enlightened thought. Is it any wonder that humans now feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in human history? Does science hold anything sacred? Science looks for answers by probing our unborn fetuses. Sciecne even presumes to rearrange our own DNA. It shatters God's world into smaller and smaller pieces in quest of meaning... and all it finds is more questions."

- Angels & Demons, Dan Brown

I'm not saying it's completely right, but this is one of the paragraphs in this book that seems to support Divinity and oppose science as a new God.