The old proxy becomes fragile again. Yesterday I gave up after trying several times via different proxies over an hour. I just found another one which seems to be fairly stable. Only then did I realize that the post I 'published' was nowhere to be found. It must have been lost between those servers. Have to do it again. Anyway, it worked this time.
Voila, France is out. I do not care who did that. I simply do not like too many super stars in a soccer team. It is team sport, not talk show.
Visited an old friend's home. A few years back I was also there browsing through their engaging photos. Today his room is empty and the other one is with a third man. Things change really fast.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Friday, June 25, 2004
Finally I am feeling normal a few weeks after I came back home.
Before I left Mountain View I kept telling people that I would be absolutely fine when I got back to the place where I have stayed for over 20 years. I was wrong though. I got sick even before I disembarked the plane and was almost quaranteened as a SARS suspect in HK. Then I went back to my hometown in the southwest but I was so allergic to the air full of construction dust and unburned gas that I fell sick the next day and my nose was on and off for over a week. I could only comfort myself by saying that by the time I go back to CA I will be immuned to virtually anything.
For someone with over two decades of experience the humidity still rules: I feel exhausted without air conditioning, so does my wife. I had respiratory problems at younger ages and I thought I was cured, but I could definately feel the same thing during the first few days. No wonder my father is showing some simptoms of my childhood disease. Industrial pollution from local factories is much less after these years, but since the entire city is under construction thanks to the improved finacing, the air is unbelievable. When the plane was descending and approaching the airport, I could not see anything for about 5 minutes and then realized all of a sudden that we are only 300 meters above the ground @@.
Before I left Mountain View I kept telling people that I would be absolutely fine when I got back to the place where I have stayed for over 20 years. I was wrong though. I got sick even before I disembarked the plane and was almost quaranteened as a SARS suspect in HK. Then I went back to my hometown in the southwest but I was so allergic to the air full of construction dust and unburned gas that I fell sick the next day and my nose was on and off for over a week. I could only comfort myself by saying that by the time I go back to CA I will be immuned to virtually anything.
For someone with over two decades of experience the humidity still rules: I feel exhausted without air conditioning, so does my wife. I had respiratory problems at younger ages and I thought I was cured, but I could definately feel the same thing during the first few days. No wonder my father is showing some simptoms of my childhood disease. Industrial pollution from local factories is much less after these years, but since the entire city is under construction thanks to the improved finacing, the air is unbelievable. When the plane was descending and approaching the airport, I could not see anything for about 5 minutes and then realized all of a sudden that we are only 300 meters above the ground @@.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Schumacher complains that he cannot watch the Euro Cup while he is in Indianapolis for the US Grand Prix. Poor Michael. I watched world volleyball held in Switzerland, Euro Cup in Portugal and Formular One in Canada consecutively on one night, all live, at home, in China. I was wondering which contry is more open, at least in some aspects. I know there is censorship here, but at least we hear something about Europe, middle east, southeast Asia and America every day while news on CNN, NBC, ABC, FOX cover nothing but domestic strangling and Iraq (not a domestic issue?) My cable service in CA has over 40 Channels, ESPN has basketball, football, baseball, golf, Nasscar and a few other things. On Chinese TV there are basketball, soccer, volleyball, badminton, table tennis, tennis, golf, baseball, bowling, WRC, F1 ... Many of them are live, and some of them are even free.
I love proxy servers.
Not very convenient. I have to try a dozen times before I can get a reliable connection and keep doing this every few hours. But this can keep me connected to the real internet.
Some IPs are blocked by the big guy for some reason, but othere are blocked for no reasonable reason at all. By accessing my bank account and personal blog, I cannot possibly affect public opinion or propagete any sensitive infomation (not exactly though, my bank account is kind of sensitive at least to me).
But I can always find proxy servers, and I believe many other people also can. Every burned book lit the world. That was in the middle ages. Centuries later the public is more educated and rational. Making judgements for others is kind of unnecessary.
Not very convenient. I have to try a dozen times before I can get a reliable connection and keep doing this every few hours. But this can keep me connected to the real internet.
Some IPs are blocked by the big guy for some reason, but othere are blocked for no reasonable reason at all. By accessing my bank account and personal blog, I cannot possibly affect public opinion or propagete any sensitive infomation (not exactly though, my bank account is kind of sensitive at least to me).
But I can always find proxy servers, and I believe many other people also can. Every burned book lit the world. That was in the middle ages. Centuries later the public is more educated and rational. Making judgements for others is kind of unnecessary.
Hong Kong, the last day.
We had a lot of stuff. Five huge suitcases, two back-bags but fortunately, a friend just arranged someone to pick us up from the hotel so me and my wife did not have to carry everything to take the ferry to Shenzhen.
But we did not know this early enough and we just bought 2 turbo jet ferry tickets in the morning. My wife called the ticket office and asked to return the two tickets and get the refund. The answer was "no way". The sales rep claimed that no ticket can be returned within 48 hours of departure. A little absurd, isn't it? Because we got these tickets from the "advanced booking" window this morning, about 20 hours before the departure time.
Although the sales rep was a little rude to my wife on the phone, we really want to get something back and did not want to give up right away. This time, I picked up the phone.
They were much nicer to me. Instead of hearing a "absolutely impossible", I was transfered to their customer service department, the manager, a higher manager and then back to the customer service department and was greeted with 4 or 5 apologies for the "inconvenience" within 15 minutes. Eventually, of course I can get 70% back and the manager even made an appointment with the ticket office and even gave me the name and phone number of the guy on the night shift.
My wife was shocked, so was me. We called the exact same office, same person for the same reason. My wife called in Chinese, but I was speaking English all the time (except that I faked some British-Cantonese accent to pronounce a local street name).
I do not know what the sales rep was thinking when I showed up in his office telling him that the boss of his boss said that I came to collect the refund. I do not know if French or German will have the same effect, but I strongly recommend against some languages of the world while travelling in HK, if you know what I mean.
We had a lot of stuff. Five huge suitcases, two back-bags but fortunately, a friend just arranged someone to pick us up from the hotel so me and my wife did not have to carry everything to take the ferry to Shenzhen.
But we did not know this early enough and we just bought 2 turbo jet ferry tickets in the morning. My wife called the ticket office and asked to return the two tickets and get the refund. The answer was "no way". The sales rep claimed that no ticket can be returned within 48 hours of departure. A little absurd, isn't it? Because we got these tickets from the "advanced booking" window this morning, about 20 hours before the departure time.
Although the sales rep was a little rude to my wife on the phone, we really want to get something back and did not want to give up right away. This time, I picked up the phone.
They were much nicer to me. Instead of hearing a "absolutely impossible", I was transfered to their customer service department, the manager, a higher manager and then back to the customer service department and was greeted with 4 or 5 apologies for the "inconvenience" within 15 minutes. Eventually, of course I can get 70% back and the manager even made an appointment with the ticket office and even gave me the name and phone number of the guy on the night shift.
My wife was shocked, so was me. We called the exact same office, same person for the same reason. My wife called in Chinese, but I was speaking English all the time (except that I faked some British-Cantonese accent to pronounce a local street name).
I do not know what the sales rep was thinking when I showed up in his office telling him that the boss of his boss said that I came to collect the refund. I do not know if French or German will have the same effect, but I strongly recommend against some languages of the world while travelling in HK, if you know what I mean.
Holy..........
Could not access my pages after leaving HK. Within mainland China I can not even access my blog. Besides that, the connection to citi bank and BOA are also very fragile although I am using broadband access. Many IP addresses are blocked.
Have to finish this quickly. The previous proxy server I found worked for only 2 minutes.
Could not access my pages after leaving HK. Within mainland China I can not even access my blog. Besides that, the connection to citi bank and BOA are also very fragile although I am using broadband access. Many IP addresses are blocked.
Have to finish this quickly. The previous proxy server I found worked for only 2 minutes.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Got up, no jet lag at all.
Insteresting welcome message for people from the sunny state: it is raining and it is cold which reminds me of the weather in hometown. Hope it does not rain for days, it usually does.
We do not even have a umbrella. I had a sunburn a few days ago and dead skin is still peeling off from my face.
Insteresting welcome message for people from the sunny state: it is raining and it is cold which reminds me of the weather in hometown. Hope it does not rain for days, it usually does.
We do not even have a umbrella. I had a sunburn a few days ago and dead skin is still peeling off from my face.
Am I getting old?
I seriously missed HK MTV while staying in CA. If my memory is not leaking, it was always rap, 24-7 (except, of coz, all my Mexican neighbours play some sort of periodic sound signals all year round). I still remember some nice pieces from HK in the mid 90s, good. Tonite I left the TV on in the hotel room and local entertainment stuff reminds me of the date today: June 1st, Children's Day. Is everybody starting hight school or what?
I saw F4 on TV again today. I was F1, and that is as far or close as I can stay from them without chocking on my own puke.
I seriously missed HK MTV while staying in CA. If my memory is not leaking, it was always rap, 24-7 (except, of coz, all my Mexican neighbours play some sort of periodic sound signals all year round). I still remember some nice pieces from HK in the mid 90s, good. Tonite I left the TV on in the hotel room and local entertainment stuff reminds me of the date today: June 1st, Children's Day. Is everybody starting hight school or what?
I saw F4 on TV again today. I was F1, and that is as far or close as I can stay from them without chocking on my own puke.
The high-capacity battery on the ibm last almost 7 hours reading documents and organizing my emails and addressbook with radio turned off. Not bad. It is a little larger than the stadard battery which comes with t41, except it sticks out an extra 2cm which is hardly visible espacially for myself because the battery is behind the sreen. Actually I would like to have a even larger one if it can go beyond 10 hours. The t41 with the big battery is still *much* smaller and lighter than my friend's new compaq.
I was allergic to the air-conditioning on board the 747. It was not too cold, but the wind was blowing so strong and smells not very good. Result: I stared to have a congestion a few hours into the air and ended up sneezing real bad, even got a light fever. Remember sneezing and body tempreture issues in HK? Yeah, dude, SARS. I was taken to another officer for further inspection after my thermal image on the sreen turned up Ferarri Red. Plus my face looks real messed up due to severe sunburn which I got two days ago watching USAF Thunderbird above Moffect Field, I am the perfect suspect for SARS. Fortunately I was no longer under suspecion after the officer took my body tempreture through my ear (yes, my left ear...), otherwise my folks can finally see me on national TV for the first time.
Can't keep from mentioning the subway station on HK island. Pretty sophisticated in every aspect except there is no lift, no escalator, no ramp, no handicapt people. Unbelieavable.
Lots of teenagers on the street, I mean *a lot* of them. Is the population much younger than other places I've been to?
And after all, people drive on the wrong side of the road, thanks to the British.
Can't keep from mentioning the subway station on HK island. Pretty sophisticated in every aspect except there is no lift, no escalator, no ramp, no handicapt people. Unbelieavable.
Lots of teenagers on the street, I mean *a lot* of them. Is the population much younger than other places I've been to?
And after all, people drive on the wrong side of the road, thanks to the British.
Arrived in HK.
I simply walked under the nose of the customs officer without passing the inspection point. I was happy of couse, but am I supposed to be able to?
The hotel staff are nice. But the stupid subway station across the hotel has no escalator, not even a ramp. Me and my wife ended up lifing 300 lbs of luggage up to groud zero. Damn it.
The only successful conversation was with the hotel staff, local people are kind of hard to understand.
I simply walked under the nose of the customs officer without passing the inspection point. I was happy of couse, but am I supposed to be able to?
The hotel staff are nice. But the stupid subway station across the hotel has no escalator, not even a ramp. Me and my wife ended up lifing 300 lbs of luggage up to groud zero. Damn it.
The only successful conversation was with the hotel staff, local people are kind of hard to understand.
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