Made in Japan, Outsourced Globally

I stepped outside after sunset for the first time today. I was pleasantly surprised by the nostalgic Mountain Dew-bright flickering of fireflies.

My fondest memories of fireflies goes back to when my brother and I were little and used to live in Illinois. At first sight of the butt-lighters, we would grab an empty jar of mayo, puncture multiple clumsy holes, and chase after the slow-moving helicopters with our bare hands. It all seemed innocent at the time, but of course, for the poor insects, we were no more than intruders of their sacred mating rituals. They are on the mission of their lifetime - to burn their lives for the survival of their DNA. Of course, we let them go after a good hour or so of gloating on our pillage and shaking them senseless in the jar.

I couldn't help but extend my hand towards the blinkering light today to touch the memory again. The insect lightly landed on my palm, flickered once, and rolled down to its demise. I decided to just observe the lights from afar.

All around me, I heard the obnoxious crying of the cicadas. Cicadas live 7 years of their lives underground, suckling on the tree saps from the roots. After their precious 7 years, looking like ugly, brown moles, they emerge from their hiding, shed their skin, and blossom as a full-grown adult with magnificent wings. For the next 2 weeks, they cry their hearts out, proclaiming summer to us. And then drop dead. 7 years and 2 weeks.

There was a faint light that suspended in the pine tree nearby. As I came closer, I saw that a firefly was caught in a spider web. There is something chillingly morbid about what the creators had intended for mortals. How many of us will actually accomplish what we set out to do in our lives? Or will we fall prey to fatal obstruction?

Nature is a realist and a great teacher.

I couldn't help squealing when I saw that Andreas and Saurav started their own blogs. Welcome aboard, boys! Now, if we can get Paris, Holly, and Bart to blog... (hint hint).


Andreas does it again with his amazing photos. You can find a plethora of photos on his site.


Swarming lights and uniquely shaped architecture - HK wouldn't have it otherwise.


A typical street scene. The signs protruding all over is something uniquely HK.


And to get away from it all... the beaches.


Love this picture. Soaking up the sun on the deck of a junk boat - what a life, what a life!

Last weekend, Mel and I were walking down Old Town after a couple drinks and salsa dancing. Two white guys in a sports car come to a slow stop and yell, "Heyyyy.... You flom Chaaa-i-na???"

Had we not been tired and walking on cobblestones, they would have never made that mistake.

I love diversity.

Without making anyone nauseous and hate my guts, I just have to say that I've been having a great week.

Count my lucky stars - by golly! - I am getting psyched for what fate has stored for me in the next couple of years.

Housing situation - fabulous.
Da job - stellar.
Social life - a promising time in both PA and NY.

That's all folks. Nothing more to see here.

This will be the 13th time I move to a new city/town. Practice makes perfect, and I have become more efficient and prepared for transitions. It was really nice coming back to the Bay Area for a brief 3 month stay though.

I won't lie - I will miss people, but the brooding period won't last. There are too many new things to discover and many more interesting people to meet.

Each moment I share with those who cross my path are precious and appreciated without a morsel of regret. It's glorious and amazing. The sun rises from the East and the wind of tomorrow will go its own course.


One last infamous night in San Francisco. I was told the next day that I was belligerent with Farid, poured half the martini down Paul's pants, and had another wonderful encounter with the pavement in the Castro. So solly! - I recall no such memories. Chris and Martin, many many apologies and thanks for taking me under your wings, as always.


A nice and quiet dinner party. Come to think of it, I had my last farewell party at Buca di Bepo 2 years ago - good times.


My hot Asian chick. Seriously, who knew that we would end up in the same city spending crazy weekends together? So lucky, KK. So lucky...

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I may have been pretty hammered on Friday, but I saw Kristie completely obliterated on Saturday. I've got one word for you: Electricity. Tsk, tsk...


Amanda - I don't know how many times I've made this girl say, "You're joking, right?" I'm not exactly the most politically correct person in the world, but you'll have to live with that. Oh, and please watch out for the handicapped bachelors for me.


Triple trouble. 'Nuff said.


The P-town crew. Management, education, law school, Nickelodeon assistant production manager, computer engineer, the navy - we're all chasing our own dreams. Until next time...

Hello, goodbye, hello. Bay Area (and the rest of California) is going to have one less crazy person now.

Everything is shipped out and I no longer claim space in the house to call my own. Well, almost everything. There are still pieces of junk or sentimental items lying around that I couldn't pack up.

As I watched the Mexican movers hoist all 35 boxes - 60% books, 20% clothes, 10% sentimental wordly items, etc. - I wondered with devastation and slight disgust, how in the world I accumulated so much.

With that said, my entire family is a breed of collectors. CDs, DVDs, wine, books, artwork or souveniers from where we have been... I couldn't help but mutter, "People these days - they can TiVo shows, order movies on Netflix, buy mp3s online, read books on their PDAs. Less is trendy for the modern man."



Half a world away, some people hardly have property rights for their kettle, let alone the piece of square foot land they stand on. Material possession is something to aspire to. When I was in Veitnam, we were invited to have tea with an entire family of 5 that lived on a 3'x3' floating house and 2 kayaks. The Dad smoked tobacco, lying sideways, because you would hit your head on the roof if you stood up.

Not that I would turn altruistic and donate all I have to the Salvation Army overnight, but it's something to think about. Every 6 months, I will be moving to a new location - I better become a super good packer or pick up minimalism real quick. My immediate bandaid to all this is eBay, but in the long run, it calls for a lifestyle adjustment.

so, my dog is blogging now.

Yesterday was Hong Kong day for my family. We sauntered around San Francisco China town, much like all the other saunterers. The rush of Cantonese, the fresh & noisy markets, and even the kitchy cluster of tourists had the hint of the real thing.

I got to order food in broken Cantonese-Mandarin-English. It miraculously worked and I even argued the bill. I still can't get used to the taste of congee.

I spent rest of the day clearing everything and anything in my room. I hate possessing so much things.


Mother was right - you make a face and it sticks for life.


The cheeky monkey on the bottom right.

We called "Ookii Mama" (translated as "Big Mama") last night. She isn't faring well, since she wore down her knee cartillage and cannot walk very well. She asks me when I'm coming to visit her in Japan again. She spoils me to death and I really enjoyed my visit last time - she happily showed me all her photos from Hawaii and 'around China' tour with her Women Presidents' club pals.

She has given up on the idea of traveling all together with her health condition. But she is determined to go to the World Expo in September. She says that the attendance is record-high and some pavillions have 6-hour waits. Plus, it's deathly hot & humid in Japan right now. I would recommend foregoing the Expo until kids are back in school.

Watching Chungking Express was like getting a much needed fix of Hong Kong through your veins. Granted this film was from 1994, I could still smell the stench of the bustling streets and the humid, in-your-face steam of the Hong Kong I know. I loved everything about the film - the scenery, the busy-ness of the plot, the subtle humor that doesn't impose.

Enter: blonde Asian Greta Garbo operating an illegal drug trade in the subcontinent island of Chungking Mansion - known to many as a shady building filled with the largest Indian/Pakistani density. Knock-off items, chachkies, and sari shops.

I've been there (and so have Devrim and Kirk) - the narrow concrete walls are like a maze, and decades old porn are shamelessly displayed in the stores along with the cheap calling cards. You cram into the small tin-can elevator like sardines, hardly escaping the body grind and pungent odors that punch through your nostril. Once you arrive at your destination (most likely, you were attacked by a dozen salesmen outside giving you pitches about their restaurant - and you just pick one out of the groping hands and ask him to take you there), which is nothing more than a floor full of apartments. But, as soon as the door opens, you are welcomed into a reasonably organized eatery, fuming with mouth-watering Indian spices.

Fading in: the down-right seedy bar, jukebox with spinning CDs and all. Kaneshiro Takeshi is seducing Brigette Lin in Cantonese, Japanese, English, and then Mandarin.

What can I say... but 'Bonkers'? 2 hours of a drink buffet for less than US$12 is never a good idea. The mood of the place was none other than "seedy," with the black couches, faded red velvet carpet and the big-screen TV, usually showing the races at Happy Valley. Bonkers was a regular activity during my first couple months - and then we ran out of Bonker virgins (see, most people never go to Bonkers after their first time. So Lars and I would have to recruit newbies every once in a while).

Tony Leung is fooling around with his flight attendant girlfriend - you can see people passing by from his apartment. When the girl takes off, she waves goodbye to him from the escalator.

So Tony Leung's character lives right next to the escalator. When you talk about "the escalator," there's really only one place in Hong Kong - which is the Central Escalator (the world's longest escalator) in Lan Kwai Fong. No expat can live without stepping on this escalator. It goes from the bottom of Queen's Rd., through SoHo, even further up Robinson Rd. - I forgot where it stops, but I had to take it to get to Courtney's place (Courtney Estates II & III).

Faye Wong is a short-haired, lanky girl who loves to listen to "California Dreamin" way too loud. She works at a kebab stand near LKF/SoHo.

Kebab stand! Haha. It had completely slipped my mind that this movie evolved around this one eatery, Midnight Express, and the characters who somehow intersect there. Midnight kebab trips were pertty much a constant at one point or another in our lives. My favorite midnight munchie story is when Helen and I went to "home" - a trans/rave gay club and she got this Italian guy to buy drinks for us (he was convinced that he had met Helen somewhere else - she recalled no such memory). Around 5am, Helen goes to the Hotdog stand to satiate her craving, only to find the guy at the stand too. She wanted to get away as quickly as possible. She dribbles ketchup down her white top, and exclaims "Ooo! Gotta go!", takes off her shoes and ran down Hollywood Rd. all the way back home. Brilliant.

Faye Wong is dragging basket full of vegetables through a wet market, bumps into Tony Leung who is eating at a cheap outside eatery with orange plastic chopsticks and plastic plates.

There's much to be said about the "streets" part of HK - the wet market is just fascinating for the fact that you are in one of the most modern cities, yet you have this beat-down-bargain bazaar of fresh vegetables, fish, and raw meat (with huge meat cleavers and the joint-breaking "whack!" sound) one alley over. And you learn to haggle, shouting "gei dou chin a?" "n-mai, n-mai!" - it's just a given, if you want to experience HK.

Then, there's the cheap food, like the HK$10 (US$1.25) wonton noodles and rice dishes with lots and lots of meat - duck, succulent pork (knuckles), chicken, beef... Mmm... They aren't the cleanest places, but you need to have an attitude adjustement if you want to immerse into a different culture.

It's hard to describe, but I definitely gravitate to Hong Kong.

After half a dozen sexual ennuendo-laden e-mails and a quarter score of phone tags, I finally managed to kidnap karma out of his coup. The boy is twice the size I remember him. His 17-year old cat died of cancer, and two 4-week old kittens are now in the house to compensate for the loss. We both lack leadership and sensibility of knowing where the "hip" places are in this old town - so we resort to the wise one for advise. We somehow end up at Borders. The guy working at the counter recognizes the Space Ghost T-shirt and grins.

There's something about a niche group of people you hang out with. You instantly dye a certain shade, blending into something familiar - yet does not tell the whole story of who you are. We talk of tranqualizine pets during transports, the engagement, apartment hunting (that you cannot make too much money sometimes), and evil evil RFID.

I never thought I would have friends with jobs I couldn't explain in one breath, but I can count on karma. Actually, he is a GUI designer for some leading-edge microchip fabrication software startup. The semiconductor industry is hitting a brick wall - as we speak - with everything becoming so nano- & micro-. So the technology being developed here is smoothing out the gap between design and output. China's definitely got the hots for such technology, and he says that there are European companies with piqued interest. They're getting loads of investments and if the company turns IPO, it could be a big breakthrough (and I would have a rich entrepreneur friend). I'm not an engineer, but it's just fascinating to see the overall effect this will have to the industry.

After Liz left us, we lollygagged around Borders - our favorite past time. We can't believe they actually have "Sex for Dummies". The boy picks up Tenacious D and I get Chungking Express for bargain price.

Sorry I'll miss the actual homecoming, but it's sure good to see you again.

"Woa... deja vu."
"What?"
"He just got up to the bathroom and said 'powertools' in my ear. And I look up, and you're in front of me."
Pause.
"What do you think causes deja vu? It's so weird."
"I don't know. Maybe there's a bend in a time continuum - it loops and intersects."
"Or, maybe you think of it so much that you will it to happen."
"Possibly. Or maybe you never saw the image, but your brain is telling you right now that you saw the image before?"
"Hmm... But in any case, most deja vu's seem to be such insignificant things."
"Like 'powertools'"
"Yeah... it's always the passing moments that mean little to you that become deja vu"

They argued and joked the rest of dinner like a married couple. I didn't feel uncomfortable. We didn't fall back into place like peas&carrots either. What is it that makes our lives intersect - with or without significant meanings?

Deja vu, all over again

When you’re on a holiday
You can’t find the words to say
All the things that come to you
And I wanna feel it too

On an island in the sun
We’ll be playing and having fun
And it makes me feel so fine
I can’t control my brain

San Diego had that nice balmy, 'Island in the Sun'-ish feel to it. Carefree, laid back, and so much fun! It definitely made for an enjoyable 4th of July weekend.


A fabulous calendar shoot, ladies


This image describes about 2/3 of how we spent our time in SD


The 'out of towners' - Kristie kept on having to clarify "well, I'm from San Francisco, but originally from Colorado." She still doesn't like SF that much - I don't blame her with all the attention she was getting from the cute fellas' :) The downside to SF is its lack of cute men, if not, the lack of cute straight men.


Da boys - a.k.a. Guys Gone Wild


Now, this made us cry - if you're underage, don't be dumb and don't drink in public space. Also, not having your ID penalizes everyone - what a waste of beer!!! (The Colorado girls turned a whole different shade when they poured the Coors in the sand)


Kelp woman emergeth - craziness... I was warned about this girl's craziness, but nobody quite knows how to describe her until you meet her. Amanda was off the wall - I mean, do you know anyone who can get a bike for a can of beer?


This sums up how we spent the other 1/3 of our time - eating hot dogs, drunken jenga, and Amanda (Crazy) cracking us up.


Jenga without vodka? No way. "C Hug for 10 seconds," Sam.


I have these fabulous girls to thank for inviting me down to SD. It's so true KK, I am so lucky to get to hang out with you after knowing you all these years. Look forward to more misadventures with both of you - perhaps in NYC.

Who needs 'the Club' when you have this.

I was so thankful to hear back from Duncan this morning. He happened to be back in England this week for interviews. He was scheduled to head into Central London, but had heard the news before he executed on the plan.

"It seems pretty scray stuff... I can't understand how it wasn't worse though, it's really bizarre. The attacks, devastating and awful as they are, could have been far worse - so why weren't they? Anyway, let's be thankful so few people were killed and injured."

His comment is not out of disrespect, but a matter of fact feeling in the crazy world today. The notion that danger lurks at every corner is something we are, sadly, normalizing to.