Yup we're screwed

HK Observatory will be hoisting typhoon signal no. 9, this afternoon, then 10 later? I don't even know if I've been in a 10 typhoon.

Can't my hair look like this more?

Typhoon 8 Day

Super cute cat outside this restaurant near my apartment building. There are quite a few stray cats in HK I've noticed, as well as cats adopted by street-level stores.

Today is the fourth day in HK this summer of typhoon signal no. 8, which means no work/school. And it's oddly nice this time, because our publication was supposed to be done by today and it was major crunch time, but because we knew today would be no work, everyone worked at breakneck speed yesterday (Thurs) to finish everything. So September issue is done and we get a three-day weekend yay. So I can blog and listen to the Mix and eat junk food and read and not be stressing (except about the weekend which I find SO stressful. Every weekend should be typhoon 8).

Shite, I love listening to the Mix stream in the morning here, meaning nighttime in Chicago, because there's no talk. I love mainstream American pop rock. Like just now they played Spill Canvas's "All Over You." I like that kind of song. And Rihanna's Umbrella, I used to hate it, but I love it now because it reminds me of... I dunno, it makes me happy. Just now they played Viva La Vida, and I actually know multiple people who are obsessed with that song. OK, now it's Pink. I love Pink, because I'm a dork. Ooh now it's Lifehouse, whom I only have lukewarm feelings toward. I mean yeah their songs are "nice" but nauseatingly cheesey and technically simplistic.

People send me all kinds of random stuff at work (by courier! People use courier here like it's free or something. I know, it's because HK's so small and labor is cheap, but still). A few days ago I got, of all things, VODKA. Snow Queen Vodka to be specific, which is from Kazakhstan. Well I can probably tell you everything there is to know about Snow Queen Vodka from Kazakhstan now, so it worked, but the thing about those little bottles of alcohol are they're so cute. Miniatures rock! Ooh yeah, that's me at work, I am a Post-It fiend.

Shut up

First thing I can't stand about the Olympics coverage: the use of the term "country team" or "national team" in Chinese ("Gwok Ga Dui") - even on the news. It's so dogmatically patriotic and ignorant-sounding. UGH. It's as if the Chinese team's name is "Country" not "China." Just feel like they are shoving it down my throat.

Thing I miss most about good ol' NBC Olympics coverage: the super cheesey montages about the athletes. Every single one is a tear-jerker. And I miss American gymnastics, which they don't cover extensively here since they're so busy with China being the greatest country in the world.

Second thing I can't stand about the Olympics coverage:

"Liu Xiang couldn't run, China is heartbroken." W T F ? For reals? This is, like, irresponsible headline writing. Although this sentiment has been reiterated ad nauseum, which I find to be total BS, what does one celebrity athlete's performance have to do with the psyche of a country of over 1 billion? And don't go around telling me how to feel with a sweeping statement. What about the 40+ gold medals? Suddenly no one cares that "China is the best country in the world!" because one dude can't run? Everyone had been made aware that he was injured! Helloo?

Ugh.

Took this pic yesterday, which has some of the most beautiful objects created by humankind: lanterns in the shapes of goldfish, rabbits, flowers, etc., for Mid-Autumn Festival.

Problem is, it seems like when I have to write about something (I write for a tourism magazine, you see), it suddenly becomes a groan-inducing subject. I would still love one of these lanterns and hang it up all year round, except right now the sight just makes me go... UGH.

My story is on the "new" traditions, meaning plastic lanterns with lightbulbs, which are grrr hard to find right now and it's been a bitch trying to photograph them.

possible transgender.

There are several questions about my company / job / “work situation” that are often swimming around my head which I haven’t gotten around to asking anyone, or find it inappropriate to ask out loud, from the mundane (Is our office’s only bathroom unisex or is there a men’s bathroom of which I am unaware?) to the obvious (Am I underpaid?). Some are skill-related questions (There’s a difference between “specialty” and “speciality”?!) which I should be able to answer on my own. But the biggest question of all… Is the person who sits two cubes from me a man or a woman??? I have been wondering about this since day 1 and plan to find out when I hear someone refer to this person as “he” or “she” in English, since there is no delineation in Chinese. I’ve collected evidence over the past two months, and just when I’m sure this person’s a woman, new findings arise that make me think “man for sure.”

Email from V. Li... 2 days ago

"Vanessa, I am so, totally convinced about this. (Well you know me, I am hyper.) We should host a radio show. It'd be so easy. Let's just have a show where we simultaneously discuss/slag off pop culture (both US and HK "culture") OR a girls' show that's like gofugyourself but in audio. (Okay that's hard cuz discussing fashion w/out pictures is hard, but maybe we can slag off HK's ppl obssession with labels and getting the latest gadgets like iPhones or something). WE SHOULD DO THIS. We have a moral duty. It would be our call.

Argh I so want us to have a radio show right now."




(And this conversation went on and on. This is just the beginning of how we will be famous or infamous or just lame!)

The goal, Olympics, cubes, free stuff, hair flowers, bars

I failed at July's Goal of the Month. It's now my goal of this weekend.

Yup I AM excited about the Olympics. Slightly. Except unfortunately I am sitting in a cubicle on Friday evening, waiting for the opening ceremony to start at 8 p.m. before I can actually leave for the bar (long story). I might go shopping (read: kill an hour at HMV).

At least I have a really high cubicle. I think I have the best cubicle in the office. My boss and the company owner have offices with doors, but as far as cubes go, mine's the best because it's one of only 3 high-walled ones in the office. As in, the walls are a lot taller than me. All the others are really low, and the designers have no cubes at all. And the reason it's the best high cube is because one of the other high cubes is laid out in a way where people can see the person when they walk by (whereas no one can see me unless they actually step into my cube), while the third high cube sucks because TWO people share it, AND it's next to the pantry (which I always find sketchy considering the prevalence of cockroaches in HK). OMG that is so crappy.

Ooh but I'm a little excited because this super expensive cosmetics company sent me (actually the previous Editor) like HK$2500 worth of face stuff for no reason other than a glimmer of hope that I'd write about them. Like a good employee, as stipulated in my contract, I handed it over to my boss, who said I could keep it. Yays!

Something I came across at work while going through the hundreds of product pics those companies send me... Chanel, love, love, love this:

So back to the Olympics. I am conflicted about my plans for tonight. Because it involves bars and clubs. Hmm. I've pretty much decided to go home without the clubbing/drinking/losing my voice part and hang out with Korben, so. Everyone I talked to all seem to be watching the Olympics at home, but I have to go to a bar, sort of (long story), argh.

My mom sends me random emails

Subject: 3 Questions
____________________

Hi Vanessa,
1. Why does Dexter pretend to be a recovering drug addict?
2. Do you want to join us for dinner Friday night? If so, please brinig the birdie trees if it is not raining.
3. Have you seen that You Tube film on The Last Lecture? If so, can you forward it to me?
Mom

____________________
[my response]
1. Because he's trying to hide that he's a serial killer from Rita so saying he's addicted to drugs is just easier. Then he finds that going to the AA meetings actually helping him.
YOU HAVE TO START FROM THE FIRST SEASON THOUGH! Rent it!
2. Yes dinner on friday
3. I've seen it, I'll send it to u

anal about writing

I had a very interesting weekend... but let's not go there.

Friday night I had dinner with a friend from high school I haven't seen in 10 years. We got very caught up. Life is insane. At times it's good. Anyways, she told me that after she ran into me a few weeks ago and got my business card, she went home and told her mom this story:

"I ran into an older sister ("tse tse," even though I am only half a year older) today from boarding school, and she's editor at a magazine now. Funny thing is, back when we were in choir together and passed notes, I would write her a note and she would respond back to me but having edited what I wrote. And now she's an editor, how appropriate."

OMG I found that really funny but embarrassing.

Batman... The Dark Knight... ooh finally!

As expected, the Dark Knight was really good. My husband is calling it possibly his all-time favorite movie.

The Hong Kong bit was quite random, but I very much enjoyed seeing Christian Bale by the Soho escalators… I was completely unable to think of this person as Bruce Wayne but rather Christian Bale. “Wow, Christian Bale’s by the Soho escalators, and they hired all these extras to just walk right by him like nothing unusual was happening!” Watch out for the two white tourists with cameras around their necks.

But 95% of this movie takes place in Chicago, oh oops I mean GOTHAM. It’s just that it was SO NOT GOTHAM. It was SO Chicago. In Batman Begins, they disguised it in a way where you couldn’t tell it was Chicago by having all those scenes filmed at night or in the dark underground area and by digitally adding slummy things at a distance. But this Gotham was… I mean, all the cars had Illinois license plates, and the El was so obvious, and all the normal shininess around the downtown area, they didn’t mask any of it. And they even mention Chicago street names, such as Cicero, and I’m sure they’re paying homage to the city… but when I watch it, it’s a lot easier for me to think that this whole thing takes place in Chicago rather than in Gotham.

I’m not going to give anything away, and I am really impressed by Heath Ledger and everyone, but Maggie Gyllenhaal was really great and all the parts that had her were done really well… ar so this movie involved many plotlines and it might’ve still been good without one or two of them, but they covered a lot of ground in terms of emotions and humanness and Bruce Wayne’s psyche… and really developed a lot of characters, so you can blame the length on these merits…

Well that’s all I have to say for now… P.S. Katie Holmes sucks!

Wanna know something hilarious?

I suck at writing British English! Like, OMG!

The nuances are crazy. I probably only spell proper British spellings about 1/3 of the time when there is a difference in American and English spelling, when trying. I thought I knew punctuation, but turns out... there are all these different things to be anal about! Obviously, there's the punctuation marks inside or outside the quotation marks, of which I was not aware of all the sub-clauses to the rules (but am now well-informed!). Then there are times, which I have to write a lot; for example, in American, the proper way is 7:30 p.m., whereas in British, it's 7.30pm. Even something like street names, for example Hollywood Rd., in American there would be a period after the abbreviated "Road," but not in British.

Ooh and apparently, the Brits say "at the weekend" not "on the weekend." And "knock someone up" in Brit-speak means "wake someone up." HA. Confusion is likely.

The Plastics

Last Thursday I went to a gallery exhibition opening (for work), which featured the photographs of Ken Heyman. One of my favorites:

I hate schmoozing

I stumbled into this job that turned out to be probably the best job possible for me. Well except it could pay a whole lot better, but I won't complain.

I've never had a job where I felt like I knew what I was doing. I feel like I know what I'm doing 95% of the time now. Writing simple prose, being picky about layouts, those things are like breathing. I do this type of thing for fun. The other 5% of the time is when I have to be a socialite and salesperson at the same time, my two kisses of death.

But then I feel like, as an overall "assessment of life," I'm still drifting... I dunno it's weird. I think most people are supposed to be thinking about saving enough money to buy a house, which actually is what I used to think about all the time, but now I have no desire. Not that I don't think it'd be great to own instead of throwing rent money away, but I don't have that desire to have that and to nest and get ready for retirement... or something... ack, life is so finite, it's the insanest thing to be alive. It's the insanest thing to go around thinking, I have to buy a house and have kids and retire, when you're just gonna die. I know I'm sounding like a broken record (possibly?) but... it's insane.

u know what sucks

I really don't mind people knowing this, just 'cause it's so common. I've been getting an abnormally frequent number of UTIs, which is a kind of infection that can be very uncomfortable. Thing is, not to sound super spoiled by general good health, but the things you are supposed to not eat when you have a UTI are sugar and caffeine.

Which... is... erm... very ungood... or er... bad... okay terrible... for me... if you know me... you'd know what I mean... concerning chocolate... namely Maltesers... and tea... and milk tea... and coffee... and coffee-flavored ice cream... and "tofu fa"... and "belly button cookies"... and HK McDonald's apple pies... and chocolate cake... and I guess all carbs are sugar... bread... pre-packages cakes...

argh.

this makes me happy

As Dexter Says...

"I'm drifting... but not to sleep."

No offense to the Brits

but British English is pretty whack.

I've been writing British constantly for work, and I've picked it up surprisingly smoothly. Well I DID grow up here. I have to write "centre" a lot, as well as "flavourful" and "colours" and "realise." Then there are the periods and commas that come after the end quotation marks, although question and exclamation marks come before. All this makes me realize British English goes against commonsense. (Not that American English makes total sense either.)

But I still blog in American!

Goal of the Month:

Open and start using an iPod. There, it's in writing.

I'm not sure how many people on the planet can say they have owned three unopened iPods. At one point, I had an iPod mini and never opened. Then Mac gave me the nano when I helped someone buy a Mac laptop. So I sold the mini on eBay. Then I acquired the iPod touch. So I've had the nano for two years and the touch for half a year, both unopened. Erm, so confusing.

I've been reluctantly going to the gym in my building because they have the step machine, which I tolerate much better than any other cardio machine. This is because you can't stop. Like, the bicycle machine, if I get tired I'd just sit there. I dunno how on earth people do the bicycle without stopping. Same with the elliptical--in addition to the fact that the last time I tried the elliptical, I couldn't even do level 0 for 1 minute without feeling like my thighs were going to die. Then there's the dreaded treadmill. Has one ever stopped to ponder on the "mill" part of the word? They really know how to name 'em. One definition is "a slow, laborious, or mechanical process or routine." But OK I really don't know why I hate running, it's just not something I like to do or feel determined to do. But with the step machine (and I don't mean the other torture device of the stair machine), there's something about sinking to the floor that sucks and pushes me to keep going. So anyway it's good that they have the step machine in my building because I actually workout.

However, I think I will be much happier if I could listen to music whilst stepping.

Dear World,

Last night I finished "The Year of Magical Thinking." Girl26 said it wasn't depressing. It was a good read, but a downer! I mean I feel all depressed now! In the end the author tries to come to terms with the fact that people die, it's a fact of life. In a way, she sees that the world is bigger than our own egos; I would be the first to admit that I'm the type of person who needs to "get over myself," as readers of my blog must have noticed, how I love to wax poetic about my own inner turmoil. But sometimes, in the midst of existential crises, I see what Joan Didion is saying:

"Leis go brown, tectonic plates shift, deep currents move, islands vanish, rooms get forgotten."

And people die. In fact, everyone dies, in the same way that tectonic plates shift, maybe on a different scale, but it's the same darn thing. That's just part of the deal.


[Changing the subject] One time I had a dream I was here. It's not a situation of seeing that pic then dreaming about it, but rather I had that dream first, suspected it was Ireland, and when I google "Ireland" pics, I'm not kidding, this is where I was: