Big decisions. Such as, which e-reader to buy?

The much dreaded deadline (contract end) for deciding has come. My boss beat me to the punch and approached me first about renewing it until 2013, which is a very long time from now career-wise (I'd be in my mid-twenties!), but in retrospect really isn't a very long time if you think about it. As you know, I have been wanting to change careers for awhile so this was prime time to talk about it. We had the conversation which lasted about 5 minutes, and settled on extending it for just 6 months during which time I would offload my work to another colleague and look for a new job. Great solution, and super happy it worked out. Now comes finding a new job... I will get my masters by then, but I don't know what to do with it.

Another decision I agonized over was which e-reader to get.

Torn between the varieties on the market, including the Kindle (3G?? Wifi only?? keyboard or touch screen?), Kobo, Sony PRS (and if so, which one?), Nook, and the gorgeous but pricey iRiver Story, I created the below chart, which was supposed to make things easier. (As you can probably tell, I did a lot of research about this, moreso than my wedding banquet. Speaking of wedding, I took a little break from planning/thinking about that.)

I even got into an argument over the e-reader with my boyfriend.

He was convinced that these things should be priced at below $1000 to which I vehemently disagreed. After all, they were black and white. Of course they are. That's why they're superior to things like ipads and tablets in my opinion...ie they don't kill your eyes or distract you from better things in life, like reading. Plus, you can't really compare the two kinds of products. I got angry at how dumb he was and slept late that night, waking up grumpier than usual. My colleague called me 'angry bird' the next morning as I consumed some mind and body soothing caffeine.

So the Sony PRS 600 won out according to the below chart. It was cheap at least on ebay, and other than the fact that it had no connectivity whatsoever, suited my needs just perfectly.

But I ended up getting the Kobo Touch, available in HK when my dad mentioned warranty. Warranty isn't included when you get stuff off ebay. My Nokia Xpressmusic, for example, which I drop on a regular basis on the floor by accident (this thing actually bounces), was fixed twice, covered by warranty. I love electronics that don't mind my abuse.

SO beautiful. What it needs next is a cover which I will probably make myself.

My decision chart.

Forgot if I ever posted the ring. Well here it is...













This is my artwork (it's plastic and transparent, to be stuck on glass). Pretty isn't it?

Some interesting snacks from colleagues from mainland china. "rare delicacies horsefaced fish".

I've graduated from Grade 3 Chinese...

happy birthday to myself, and some less happy musings

I was feeling emo when the clock hit 12 am, sad that life can be such an uphill climb. I was thinking to myself... perhaps I'll sacrifice quality of life for an easier time in my career. Who cares about making a lot of money. I never loved money that much in the first place. I don't need name brands or to eat out so much (bad for health). I don't need a huge house (will take forever to clean anyway). I am quite capable of living simply and humbly. In fact, that is more environmentally friendly.

This half a year has chipped at my resilience, motivation, self confidence and ambition. When I was in co-op in Canada, I felt encouraged, and uplifted because I knew what I was doing and everyone else acknowledged that I knew what I was doing. I thought I would be able to accomplish so much in the future. But even back then, I've always had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that some day the top will topple, or the coin will fall off the table, or the ground will break under my feet (or some other lame analogy). Life can't possibly be that smooth. Eventually I will fall into a hole. I mean, everyone falls into a hole at some point in their life. They go into the wrong field, the wrong job, which theoretically should have been perfect for them (or was perfect for them at the time) and later realize that wait a minute...it's totally opposite of what they were meant to do. Yet, switching out is difficult and risky. What if that's already the best option out there? My friends my understand but how can I explain to my parents?

I haven't quite fallen into said hole, but I feel like I'm close to the edge these days. I wonder if something will sweep me in, or if something will plunk me completely out of the situation.

And miraculously, something DID come my way (ie a random job offer without my applying for the same job description) that can potentially plunk me out of the situation due to different surroundings. But it takes a choice, and it may not be the best one either, considering how similar the job descriptions are. I'm at career crossroads. I have options. Yet I don't know what's best, and my intuition isn't telling me much, except that it will probably be a difficult end of the year. I pray that God will give me peace no matter what happens and the wisdom to discern the good path from the bad.

PIMPLE is a store apparently.

"sweet but greesy, fragrant but charred, crisp and tasty"

Scared of salespeople

My mom bought me a $600 handbag. I went to thank her, as it was very nice (as one would hope for $600 HKD), but she demanded that I pay her back in cash. I said "in that case, can I opt out of taking the bag?" since I felt rather broke at the moment, but seems like it wasn't an option.

The wet summer months have arrived, which reminds me of some of the things I don't like about HK:

1. umbrella spokes in eye. Many people in HK are vertically challenged. Mind you, I'm not very tall, but when I wear heels (which I usually do on rainy days), the spokes are at eye level.

2. layers of sweat that form due to multiple entry-exits from excessively air conditioned indoors into the dirty sauna that is outdoors

3. vulture like salespeople. I like to look at things for no reason...and take ages to make a decision about what to buy. salespeople fly over and start explaining whatever I happen to be looking at, and the every other related product.

4. perverted men on the subway. especially when it's crowded.

5. clipping of nails on public transport.

6. Milk beverage. what the heck is "milk beverage"???

7. Hello Kitty, with alternate spellings.

8. Very young couples arguing in broad daylight. Actually, this could be kinda entertaining.

9. Food dipped in oil. They are prevalent.

10. TV on buses. They blare weight loss ads non-stop. I hate the weight loss ads at the MTR station too actually. They all feature a half naked woman, and somehow I don't think it's healthy for society. I will rant about this in detail in a future post (refer to point 4).

More student-artwork, all over his piano book (they're all drawings of a creature called 'cherry' whom he's clearly a fan of)

Bad english. To quote some highlights from the below:

Please prevent clothes from being infected by powder gel liner.

Do not use if skin has hurt or eczema

Please prevent other occasion of using it besides drawing powder gel liner

Crocheted draw-ribbon bag (salvaged a failed beanie):
Surprise!
Hanging next to the dirty wall of the lab (my office)
I did my nails again.

FFXIII versus : ) and offer!

woohoo! I got the offer! I sound more enthusiastic than I really am though theoretically, I should be; it's an awesome job. Although I'm happy about it, I wasn't getting the 'woohoo' feeling. I just calmly accepted the fact, and answered her email.

Seems like my stagnation period is over...well not really stagnation per se I guess, I was studying chinese most of the time, teaching and maintaining a social life... It was also nice to see some friends from Canada in HK. The weather has been improving too...nice to be able to walk around out there without breaking into sweat.

I'm so out of it sometimes... living life like it's a movie, not fully experiencing everything, not really paying attention to dates, details, big events...planning only when necessary. I'm emotionally calm, because I want to avoid excess ups and downs.

Hm, now I sound more depressed than I really am. Well actually, I'm not depressed at all... I'm very much happy and content.

Other than watching 'superlover' repeatedly, I'm also watching FFXIII versus, the extended trailer. It looks soo awesome (yeah yeah, I know...just impressed by white haired and angsty in a suit swinging around and looking bored while slaying heaps of soldiers)!! Yoko Shimomura, composer of the soundtrack, is also very awesome! I've been listening to her before I knew of FFXIII. I am so getting this game when it comes out. Maybe I need a passion that's simple, like a game or a movie.

Beware of your belongings... they're out to eat you in your sleep.

In Class, being entertained by what should not be very entertaining

I'm in class, perfecting the art of tuning things out.

I'm so entertained by the occasional word I catch from the student presenters.

microbes --> mico bobs
fluctuations --> fuk u asians
vegetarian --> veget alien
formaldehyde makes you disease? dizzy? --> formel deehai makes you dieselless

So I acknowledge the fact that I'm being mean, laughing condescendingly down at the poor HKers who are already trying their hardest to learn the language, but it goes to show exactly how bored I am in class, being so readily entertained by the smallest of things.

There's one white guy in the class; everyone expects him to be the most fluent. Actually, he came from Canada. From Quebec. "Bonjour? Ca va bien? Merci? J'adore la mal anglais? " were the meagre French I still remember and once threw at him. "Why are you here?" I asked him (nicely), to which he confidently answered "Why not?" Well, good for him. It's not easy not knowing chinese and being a big white guy sticking out like a sore thumb in HK. I, on the other hand, look so local I often get asked for directions. And I do mean often, like over what is statistically reasonable. We all know I'm probably the worse person to ask. (recalls the many hours of getting lost on the world map in FF)

People are staring and wondering what is up with that girl with the laptop typing fast and loud and laughing to herself, clearly not paying attention....

My group is up.

We're presenting phytoremediation (an interesting topic actually) about using plants to suck up contaminants from the soil so they don't end up in our water, and subsequently, our babies, who will grow up with genetic disorders.

The class looked at me glassy-eyed. It was like talking to a bunch of dolls. The prof seemed fascinated by our powerpoint slides, so fixated on them that he did not once look at me speaking, and trying damned hard to make eye contact, as all good presenters do (theoretically).

No matter, not important.

What's important is this cute seal, called "ODaisy", painstakenly named by me and my bf. (yeah I'm aware that it's not grammatically correct but I think it sounds better that way)



OH, this is me but it looks NOTHING like me. It's the sunglasses.


O--O

"Stealing" in Macau

I lugged my 3 hole puncher all the way across the ocean, and find out that the new standard is 2 holes. I was dismayed. I've been using 3 holes all my life! It doesn't even make sense! 2 holes!! What about the edges that flap around, untethered? What about 'aiming' for the middle when punching? What about 'aiming' when you want to quickly snap the pages in place? But anyway, I eventually stopped grumbling and organized my notes into a binder.

About a week ago (at least I think it was a week ago....bad sense of time), I went to macau for a day.

Pork buns... serradura...portuguese dinner...biscuits and beef jerky to bring back to loved ones as souvenir...actually, I didn't experience any of the above macau trademarks. When pork buns showed up at a random street stand, my stomach was full of apple green tea. When serradura showed up, my friends were 10 meters ahead of me gawking at some building. When portuguese dinner should theoretically have been the next item on the to-do list, there was cirque du soleil, which was at the other end of Macau. When biscuits and beef jerky, nicely wrapped and fragrant reached my nose, I ran out of money.

But. Cirque du Soleil was crazy awesome. I was so impressed by the beautiful vocals, shimmery colours, and crazy acrobatic feats that I bought the CD (which was very very expensive, even by Canadian standards), AND unwittingly 'stole' another CD. My friend thought I'd forgotten to pick it up from the cash register, so I headed back, grabbed whatever was lying on the table with conviction and marched out of there.

Ooops....

I've been craving pork buns since then.

School started. For the first two weeks, I diligently 'sat' through all the courses in my program so I could pick what interested me the most, and also for learning's sake. 3 hours at night 4/5 days/week + 2 hours travel time was actually quite tiring, so I stopped.

My University's entrance.


Random shipping dock in HK


Macau casino - lots of tacky gold paint






Anyone up for "bungy" jumping?


the venetian...

Some free show.

Living in the moment

I am obsessed with to-do lists. It's like my comfort, an assurance that I'm being a productive and effective person.

But some time after landing in this hot and smoggy place, I stopped living out of an agenda. I just stopped caring whether or not I'm hitting my personal benchmarks. I got sick of planning. And my scribbles were illegible anyway. So screw that.

So what if I wasn't reading as much as I should be? Or eating out too much? Or not paying attention to the job market? Or being more serious at work? Or reviewing biochemistry because I'm feeling the stuff leak out already?

Meh.

Anyway, I finally have a home and it would be my last move. And I have my piano back. I don't realize how much I need the piano until it was gone. It's true. You don't realize what you have until you lose it.

I'm just living each day as it comes; it moves way too fast for me to reflect on it.

Views from windows:







It'll take awhile to excavate everything...

HK style barbeque. It looks fun, but it's not. It's hot as hell cuz you're right over the smoke and rising heat, and I gave up early in the process.

Pass the memu!

Random cosplayer on the subway, the day before a WEEK LONG anime convention. Anime cons are HUGE events in HK.

The most complicated instructions I have ever seen in the washroom: