tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-166868062012-02-16T23:38:16.441+08:00In Hong Kong for vaguely-defined English teaching job. Adventure? Definitely.samnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1531100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-78125250072731861982008-05-01T18:40:00.002+08:002008-05-01T18:47:35.318+08:00

After looking at my front page one time too many, I'm sick of the same look I had all the way back on study abroad. Also, I think whatever website I had hosting my free hit counter thingy stopped working. So I said, to heck with it, let's pack this puppy up and try out a new look.Look! It's like this page, but new!I was going to announce it earlier, but I was in China last week, and it turns out

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-44025147359961786922008-04-14T23:45:00.000+08:002008-04-15T01:00:13.108+08:00

Clutter (room-, desk-, and otherwise-) is like arterial plaque in the coronary vessels of my productivity.... and that tells you the mental sharpness with which I'm operating right now. I don't know what the problem is exactly.

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-57842821401142772852008-04-11T17:27:00.002+08:002008-04-11T17:27:54.268+08:00

Q: When did Hong Kong start to feel like home?A: When I stopped running to the front row of the second deck of the bus every time I got on.

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-58031593288728646252008-04-10T23:30:00.007+08:002008-04-17T15:46:27.011+08:00

and by that, I mean "seasonal change". Though according to KMT Bus TV, it's still spring, I've had to run my A/C at night to clear some of the humidity out of the air in my room. Which means it's only a matter of time before I have to run the A/C at night because it's not only humid but also hot.That means that I've now been here for all of the seasons of HK: air conditioning, pleasant, heater (

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-11436803082071693802008-04-09T22:20:00.000+08:002008-04-11T17:27:00.816+08:00

Indeed, that's the truth of it. Our schedules were light in january, since the primary school hadn't finished their winter break and other activities started slow. February was Chinese new year (one week) and a "reading week" (which meant students didn't show up to anything). March was a two-week easter break. April began with a long weekend for Qingming festival (tomb-sweeping, from which I was

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-17394741361532074562008-04-02T21:58:00.002+08:002008-04-02T22:23:24.715+08:00

But I will get around to that. In a sentence per each trip:Taiwan was amazing, and they love baseball, democracy, and turnip cakes fried with lard in a way that I found touching and wonderful and delicious.China makes no sense, and I was inordinately bothered by their neglect of maps.Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes! Basically, between easter break travel and going

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-84642054705369979012008-03-17T22:08:00.002+08:002008-03-17T22:28:59.182+08:00

Well, I managed to do what every young person is supposed to do while abroad: I lost my camera. I'd gotten a free pass on study abroad during my junior year, if only because I didn't actually bring a camera, but it seems you can't outrun fate. Rather than just stewing about it, I managed to come up with some kind of humorous responses, which I hope you'll allow me to share. Even if they aren't

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-14406878162422939692008-03-12T23:23:00.000+08:002008-03-13T02:27:49.289+08:00

I'm leaving for Taiwan tomorrow for a week of vacation! Plans are, at best, vague -- a couple days in Taipei, hot springs, train to Tainan or so, probably one or two other cities, meeting up with Cathy and Tom in Taipei next week -- but I have my library copy of Lonely Planet and I plan to get a SIM card for my phone, at which point I guess I'll be pretty set. Definitely exciting, definitely a

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-32717378601403129342008-03-08T18:14:00.005+08:002008-03-09T13:19:19.030+08:00

Things I rarely say outside of Hong Kong:"Can I pay and you give me change? I only have hundreds.""I'll meet you in front of 7-11."Things I rarely say inside Hong Kong:"Oh, no, plenty of legroom.""Yeah, I might be hard to spot."--------------------------------------------------I like using errands as an excuse to explore places. Yesterday, I went to Aberdeen (adorably called 香港仔 (very roughly, "

samnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-49103810642133513012008-03-06T22:38:00.002+08:002008-03-06T22:51:53.169+08:00

Dependably, hope-full-y.I'm going to Taiwan in a week, and will get to meet up with Cathy and Tom in Taipei.I'm teaching myself a little html, with the intention of moving on to object-based programming, which replaces unproductive-feeling downtime with productive-feeling skills acquisition (even if the skills themselves are rather rudimentary--the book I'm using begins chapter one with Step 1.

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-52497871682333376372008-03-03T23:47:00.003+08:002008-03-04T02:02:39.528+08:00

And by "links", I mean "link". But, srsly, it's really good.and it's about Wikipedia(!!!1!11), and it's quite long, but it makes me feel a bit better about those "quick changes" I sometimes feel like I want to make that turn into hour-plus quests for (citable) evidence.So, please, humor me on this one.Also, the article is mysteriously post-dated to sixteen days in the future. The future is always

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-85726204867384582232008-03-02T23:28:00.000+08:002008-03-03T03:01:49.510+08:00

I've continued to sleep much, much more than any reasonable person needs to sleep (and it's not as if I'm living a particularly active lifestyle right now to justify it). Hm. We'll see what this week holds on that front.-----------------------------------------------What I really wanted to write about is acronyms. When I interned that summer in DC with Justice (or DoJ, if you prefer), we were

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-63348586027041787762008-02-24T10:36:00.001+08:002008-02-25T10:39:50.648+08:00

The jury's still out on whether "EPS" sounds cooler than "debit".

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-10546570174047911042008-02-21T19:23:00.002+08:002008-02-21T19:28:30.630+08:00

A "lucky draw" sounds much more fun and exciting to me than a "raffle".And "travelator" sounds more futuristic and awesome than "moving walkway".

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-78673117611887628272008-02-19T17:35:00.002+08:002008-02-19T17:57:02.422+08:00

The last week, things have been getting better, weather-wise. We've had a few really clear days, with blue skies, a couple hazy days, but hazy in that kinda light pleasant way. There was definitely a special quality of light that uplifted my soul a little bit. I got more reading done, spent a little more time outdoors, etc etc. And all the winter clothes went on Final Sale.What I'm saying is,

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-79090214232811796562008-02-15T13:58:00.003+08:002008-02-15T14:08:56.594+08:00

After Chinese New Year had me going to bed at like 4 or 5am and waking up the following afternoon for maybe four or five days in a row, I was not anxious to face going back to work at a relatively early time this week (i.e. early as compared to some of the other ETAs, at least one of whom teaches no morning classes).Somehow, though, I was able to adjust things to a more reasonable working-week

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-74863581505178309872008-02-08T09:34:00.000+08:002008-02-08T09:58:46.165+08:00

The former is, of course, the euphemism chosen by the PRC for Chinese New Year -- I guess they didn't feel like it was "modern" enough to have New Year's not on Jan. 1. The latter is what this last week has felt like, and I'm thinking more of freshman year of college than senior year. Beginning with going into town a lot the week before (which, with my commute back home, was itself a string of

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-58251793122513273422008-02-03T23:55:00.000+08:002008-02-04T01:17:51.576+08:00

Because, let me be honest, I am a far from complete person, and would be nowhere without the help and guidance of nearly everyone around me. I figure nobody's just born knowing what to do, so it's good to have honest people around you to keep your head on straight.Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I met someone who works as a career coach. We had been making smalltalk, but there must have been

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-14325645825115924872008-01-25T23:29:00.000+08:002008-01-26T00:59:08.936+08:00

Colorado Lawmaker Censured for KickingNormally, I would say, oh, national media only put Colorado in the news to make fun of us for being hicks or if we're on fire (we = national forests) or something. That may indeed be the case here as well, but Douglas Bruce is an idiot. He used to be one of those right-wing crazies from Colorado Springs, but he was worse than most because he introduced a

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-73977402533850210042008-01-21T23:20:00.000+08:002008-01-22T00:08:42.652+08:00

That I'm deep-down quite introverted. Maybe not like quiet/shy/agoraphobic introverted, but nonetheless: after a social and action-packed weekend, I basically took all day today to kind of decompress.The weekend: WARNING - TRIPTYCH-Dinner in Central with the HK Language and Cultural Exchange Group, which I found out about through Ramon and has become a point-of-contact into meeting new people

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-41568032246136956652008-01-15T12:49:00.000+08:002008-01-15T13:07:13.758+08:00

The most disturbing statistic about the American subprime loan thing:"Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which buy loans from mortgage lenders, have estimated that 15 percent to 50 percent of the subprime loans they bought in 2005 went to borrowers whose credit scores indicated they were qualified for prime loans."Seriously, what? I've seen other numbers about discriminatory lending practices (most of

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-88796460570497909452008-01-12T11:04:00.000+08:002008-01-12T12:51:37.194+08:00

After months of intending to, I finally made it out to Happy Valley on a Wednesday for the races!It's an impressive facility, to be sure--grandstands stacked up, surrounded by high-rises, PACKED with people.I took advantage of the 7:15 start time by playing around with night photography. And by that, I mean I had a beer and took some photos at the railing, most of which are jittery and

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-66316648203481264372008-01-09T23:01:00.000+08:002008-01-10T13:48:41.991+08:00

After a wonderful (if hurried) winter holiday in Denver and an also-wonderful visit by my fam to HK, I'm back in my dorm room again near Tai Po. At least it's not Seung Shui? But more on the whole triptych later. I just can't pass this up.I like reading the NY Times. It's pretty good as a paper of record, as far as "mainstream" media goes, so I feel like I'm not going to miss too many significant

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-30619215334840062882007-12-27T15:34:00.000+08:002007-12-27T15:38:22.098+08:00

Apparently, it's hilarious when I show people my name-card, because I hand it over with two hands and bow my head a little. I understand that that's a presentation specific to HK, but how do Americans exchange cards? I can only envision some kind of oh-too-cool wrist flick or something, like a way that is somehow ironic and a little contemptuous of the role of the name-card in business/daily life

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-80365121899530183982007-12-26T12:00:00.000+08:002007-12-26T12:13:07.920+08:00

hooray!It definitely snowed like four to six inches today. And it was great. Happy holidays!

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-32753041193494864572007-12-19T01:42:00.000+08:002007-12-19T16:55:08.224+08:00

because I need to get up at 6am to fly to boston and visit my grandma tomorrow morning (yay!)-- we spent a week in Guangzhou just before I left for the US. lots to say, but not at the moment.--home is a lot colder than HK, which was colder than GZ. Boston will be coldest of all. *nervous laughter*--America is confusing. Especially American air travel.--I will begin writing and mailing holiday (

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-13614189558190994262007-12-08T22:31:00.000+08:002007-12-08T23:16:19.679+08:00

A bad paraphrase of Sartre: you are always solely responsible for your own decisions. Even if you ask someone's advice, planning to do what they say without condition or qualification, who you choose to ask is in some sense based on your knowledge of them as a person, and what you think they'll say. Example (his): you can't decide whether to collaborate with Vichy France or join the Resistance.

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-86273420272645879972007-12-06T23:55:00.000+08:002007-12-07T17:54:44.010+08:00

I should really go to bed (I have to give a presentation for the Chinese University of Hong Kong Women's Association bright and early tomorrow morning), but I just wanted to throw something out there, since I was encouraged to write more by the way friends actually commented on that last entry. [*cough*]Basically, I've been kind of trying to stay in touch with the news back in the States. Reading

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-75781178843746825342007-12-03T23:22:00.000+08:002007-12-03T23:59:31.145+08:00

I kinda just realized it's december. Why was I deceived? Well, Thanksgiving this year really didn't feel like Thanksgiving. I mean, there were pies (which were delicious, so kudos to Diana and Sarah for that), but somehow the holiday turned into an American Cultural Event, for which small gatherings were held throughout that week (none on thursday). My sense of holiday date was thrown off (

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-9427815160973068002007-11-15T00:12:00.000+08:002007-11-15T00:32:35.827+08:00

... and also because I wanted to scoot down the clip art photo of the dime, which, although topical, should not be left to linger (it's too impersonal-feeling to me). So.There was a little forest fire yesterday near our campus. We're tucked right up against the Pat Sin range, which were lush and vibrantly green in august and now, despite the humidity, have browned quite a bit, and even blurred by

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-72679565635009040742007-11-12T19:36:00.000+08:002007-11-12T20:06:39.723+08:00

So I was reading an otherwise fairly unremarkable NY Times editorial today about policy decisions and happiness. And then, about halfway down the piece: "Happiness seems fairly cheap to manipulate. In one experiment, subjects were asked to answer a questionnaire about personal satisfaction after Xeroxing a sheet of paper. Those who found a dime lying on the Xerox machine reported substantially

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-61877701243107346682007-11-12T10:52:00.000+08:002007-11-12T15:20:18.509+08:00

((Photo from wikipedia: Hong Kong Jockey Club))It's a sign someone is cool when they combine their academic interests with their recreational activities, right? Well, I just spent the last hour parsing this article, and, let me tell you, by the above definition, I'm pretty darn cool. For those of you not particularly interested in reading the whole thing, a summary:It's an econ paper that

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-77948629421569904212007-11-11T23:48:00.000+08:002007-11-12T15:12:39.179+08:00

What better way to celebrate a multi-entry visa (unlimited trips in for the next six months) than to use it, right? So it was a lazy sunday afternoon (I slept in), and I figured, well, why not?It turns out that, adding in time to pass through customs and immigration, it takes the same amount of time to go from campus to Hong Kong island and from campus to Shenzhen. I learned some other things too

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-4658075190753957412007-11-09T02:41:00.000+08:002007-11-09T02:57:10.591+08:00

Actually, that's not really true. But I got talked about on another blog! And by that, I mean, the friend I played mahjong with mentioned me in her blog. At any rate, what I got mentioned for *was* pretty awesome. We were playing a casual, two-player version of HK-style mahjong (which apparently already has the fewest rules of the major regional variants). I got a Special Victory Condition Win,

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-31699797518666755592007-11-03T02:13:00.000+08:002007-11-03T02:46:18.778+08:00

Near as I can tell, I managed to avoid jinxing myself.So, to make a relatively long story short, I managed to hear an awful lot of rumor an innuendo about Mainland China visas. I tried to do some research over the summer, but I couldn't figure out what the rules were for transit from HK to the PRC (since we have HK work visas), so I figured I'd hold off til I got here.Well, needless to say, what

samnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-86701733109686915662007-11-02T02:01:00.000+08:002007-11-02T02:21:44.575+08:00

I bought a mahjong set at the Yau Ma Dei night market. It's quite nice (although the case it came in seems to be used, the tiles themselves are new), and it required some bargaining. Unlike *all* of my previous negotiable-price failures, I came into this one with information gleaned from previous indecisive attempts to buy a set. Suggestion: in all future bargaining endeavors, know how much a

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-28262111573810669532007-10-17T00:22:00.000+08:002007-10-17T00:58:11.174+08:00

I'm sorry for the pun, especially since it probably makes sense to basically nobody. (無 is said like "mou" in Cantonese, and it means "nothing" or "there lacks", and, um, the Notorious B.I.G. wrote this song, uh, anyway... it was funny when it occurred to me walking around this afternoon)Other tangent: Stephanie, Viv, I had a fresh fried dough stick today at a little jook place in Cheung Sha Wan.

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1358614649821490782007-10-13T23:27:00.000+08:002007-10-13T23:56:43.937+08:00

So I'm sitting in my Hong Kong Studies module (the word they use for 'course' here) the other day. This is, first of all, notable, because although we're all signed up for the course, we're not actually being assessed at all, so absenteeism runs rampant. The other students in the class are all on semester- or year-long exchanges from various countries, and they don't seem to really pay much

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-23290711780751755252007-10-07T01:14:00.000+08:002007-10-07T01:47:38.318+08:00

From Saul Bellow, Herzog (1964), I'd been meaning to write this down someplace, and I know I read it as the epigraph to another book, somewhere else (maybe one of the ones Sophia recommended?):"In substance, however, he understood that she was trying to teach him something and he was trying (the habit of obedience to teaching being so strong in him) to learn from her. But how was he to describe

samnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-29780241991136820542007-10-02T01:52:00.000+08:002007-10-02T01:54:29.251+08:00

Remember when I said my email at work was "samuel@ied.edu.hk" because they must only have one samuel who has ever worked here?Well, I just tried to email something to myself in outlook. I typed "samuel" into the "to:" field, pressed the "verify name/email address" button, and came up with six matches, six people in the system THIS TERM named Samuel, both staff and students.I guess on the one hand

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-70971004546924253292007-10-01T23:45:00.000+08:002007-10-03T20:19:50.314+08:00

... putting in my retainers I-don't-know-how-long since last time... trying to fix my hair in the mirrored glass in the back of the elevator (it needs a trim), then remembering all the elevators have security cameras... getting laughed at by a KFC employee. My request for a side substitution in my family bucket meal was shut down by her manager, and she laughed at me. And clapped, as one does

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-12050092886155501172007-09-29T00:25:00.000+08:002007-09-29T00:51:58.405+08:00

Last week, I went to the Wong Tai Sin temple complex in kowloon. It's a pretty big tourist draw (including groups wearing same-colored nametags led by young women holding flags), but I thought it would also be a good occasion to burn some incense to commemorate the death of my grandfather. So I bought a package of little sticks outside, and walk to what looked like an appropriate site, lit the

samnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-91199839631903730242007-09-25T00:31:00.000+08:002007-09-25T02:43:42.355+08:00

One of the things that had me most excited about going to Hong Kong was the chance to learn Cantonese. It feels like a language I can claim (my grandparents speak it, although it wasn't their local dialect), "sensible" people don't want to learn it (since putonghua is rapidly catching up even here, where Canto has long been both a colloquial and official language), and it's challenging. Basically

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-16993587990050195232007-09-20T01:36:00.000+08:002007-09-20T01:38:36.547+08:00

Sidenote: the hit counter that I put on back in August 2005 (or so) has me at 4998. It is taking EVERY LAST CELL IN MY BODY not to just reload the page a few times to see it turn over.Also, I'm optimistic we'll hit 10000 before, say, October 2009. Open question: where do you think I'll be by then? (optional part b: where do you think you'll be then?)

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-89240522361909116402007-09-20T01:12:00.000+08:002007-09-20T01:35:56.237+08:00

Tomorrow morning will be the morning when I complete all those tasks on my to-do list left over from earlier this week. Familiar. But I guess it's nice to know that you can move me halfway around the world and I'll still keep all my bad habits intact. List-making does help a little, but it'll always make the biggest difference in what I do with my tomorrow morning, which is the day I swear I'll

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-86646162651614034922007-09-11T17:36:00.000+08:002007-09-11T20:41:06.507+08:00

So the other day was my friend Joe's birthday. He's interested in astrology, numerology, Daoism, etc, and so I thought it would be a nice thing to go to a fortune teller to celebrate. We went to literally the tiniest office I've ever seen (room for him, a desk, and two chairs for us only), in Mong Kok, on the sixteenth floor of what looked like an old apartment building, with sketchy little

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-44531908077466070502007-09-01T10:59:00.000+08:002007-09-01T18:39:49.855+08:00

Since I'd almost forgotten: the scooter plan is pretty much out. Not for road-handedness reasons (though I'm sure it would make things more difficult), but rather because of the remoteness of our campus. I could get to the Tai Po town center from here no problem, but basically everything else requires highway driving. Oh, and for LA people, whose understanding of "highway" may be influenced by

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-24815567693489350522007-08-31T01:47:00.000+08:002007-08-31T01:48:34.715+08:00

Or as Wikipedia calls it, "right of way"; the side of the road people drive on. Hong Kong, as a former British colony, requires cars to drive on the left (and drivers to sit on the right side). Other than a harrowing terminal transfer shuttle at Heathrow, I'd never been in a right-hand drive vehicle, and so in this last month or so, I've had quite a few questions answered.1. Will I, as someone

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-35977077971338193132007-08-28T13:28:00.000+08:002007-08-28T13:42:13.744+08:00

I had a dream this morning about eating Mexican food.In the dream, I was in Vail for some reason, doing orientation for a job overseas. I remember saying,"So this was my train of thought: oh, we should have Mexican food every night, because we're leaving the country. But then I remembered, we're going to be *in* Mexico, so it'll be even better than being here. This is gonna be so great; whenever

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-46292712882098173342007-08-20T12:41:00.000+08:002007-08-20T12:44:59.273+08:00

Is "samuel@ied.edu.hk", because apparently nobody here has ever been named Samuel before. Other ETAs have FirstInitialLastName or just LastName as their campus user name (as in, it isn't standardized), but for some reason I got this one. This may be related to the program being disorganized, but I'm not one to point fingers.

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-71323911790601677812007-08-15T23:31:00.000+08:002007-08-16T00:11:51.377+08:00

Plans for the rest of the week/weekend:--get Hong Kong Resident Identity Card saturday morning: I have to take the train really really early in the morning to make sure I arrive at my appointment on time. There are only five bureaus where you can get a card, and they're very helpful to have, so appointments are hard to come by. I lucked out getting one during a time slot when I won't even miss

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-33700704513626178802007-08-10T15:42:00.001+08:002007-08-10T15:45:25.921+08:00

Note the little loop and then how it just kind of settles in over the city... (Tai Po, where the school is, is about in the same place as the 11pm forecast X)On the plus side, class got out an hour early when the staff had to "evacuate" because public transportation shut down. On the minus side, our collective ETA movie and social resources are spread among three non-connected dorms, and we're

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-51356938663299818582007-08-10T02:19:00.000+08:002007-08-10T02:31:06.682+08:00

typhoon was a bust--lots of rain, warm air, few winds... apparently its thunder got stolen by another typhoon moving northward that glanced off of it.We went shopping again tonight, and I managed to stay strong and not actually buy anything. Orientation continues to consist of a lot of vague discussion of potential future job responsibilities (that seem like they'll take a lot more time than

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-39299820197782958622007-08-08T15:22:00.000+08:002007-08-08T15:37:26.447+08:00

Tomorrow is now the target date for getting all my writing done, for two reasons:1. tonight, despite initially planning to stay in, I think I'm going to Festival Walk in Kowloon for more shopping. Oh yes, the shopping here is amazing and I'm loving it and we've been to like three different malls already. Although the impetus for clothes-buying is mostly about lighter fabrics for the insane heat,

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-76721273339016861872007-08-06T14:30:00.000+08:002007-08-06T00:31:30.953+08:00

I really wanted to write a lot today, but I'm waaaaaaay tired and there's just no way things would stay coherent. Think of this as a teaser: photos, etc will come later. However:food has already been really good. xiao long bao, green tea bun with red bean inside, tofu-and-duck dish ordered by pointing at random to menu, shanghai rice cake... some photos to follow in next entry.sights are really

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-25076602599814714202007-07-31T15:38:00.000+08:002007-07-31T15:45:58.116+08:00

I'm thinking I might buy a used scooter (like a vespa, only not name-brand) when I get to HK. I could wear a silly helmet when I ride it, paint it a ridiculous color, use it to get into the spacious mountain parks that seem to make up a lot of the new territories. In most countries, scooter engines are small enough that you don't need an actual drivers' license. And even if you do, I got one of

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-60605187384475963212007-07-31T15:32:00.000+08:002007-07-31T15:38:37.966+08:00

And I leave thursday at 7am. Well, that's not technically true: depending on how you measure, I'll have to leave the house at like 5:15 for the 7am flight to LAX, and I won't actually leave the country until 1:35pm, when the LAX - Narita flight takes off. Whatever. It's approximately two days, and that's exciting and nervous and scary. They all just kind of feel like adrenaline to me.I can't

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-86958886045882757872007-07-10T15:36:00.000+08:002007-07-10T15:51:57.089+08:00

Visiting family is worthwhile, but definitely stressful. We'll probably end up talking about it over the phone if you're the sort of person that's interested.Deadlines really are what make me kick things into gear. Honestly, if I wasn't going to Miami on thursday (hi, Vicki!) for a week, I would probably be sleeping til noon or so every day. However. The truncation of "days left at home before

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-87677509921167129312007-07-02T12:56:00.000+08:002007-07-02T13:09:13.613+08:00

Going to Boston tomorrow. Staying on grandparents' apartment floor, most likely, for lack of space. Packing so far: underwear, jeans, two black tshirts, one other tshirt, Thermarest pad. Add bathroom stuff in the morning. Esp with recent "incidents" in Glasgow, London, not interested in fighting overzealous TSA personnel on orange-red alert--bag will be checked.Family business, not really fit for

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-57008058994954693772007-06-29T13:26:00.000+08:002007-06-29T13:43:44.375+08:00

One day at a time, apparently. Ha. Waste = not working, not volunteering, failing utterly to make the world a better place or to figure out what I want to do with my life or to prepare for next year in HK. It is the quieter hours that make me realize how much summer has already passed me by, how many days I've spent the majority of in my parents' house, how many mundane, basic tasks I have left

samnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-7283406479499578662007-06-29T04:26:00.000+08:002007-06-29T04:35:51.775+08:00

I was reading an article in today's "Denver Post" about my hometown Denver Nuggets, and, lo and behold, it was awful. It was grossly inaccurate, it lacked a meaningful point, and I would have to say it's part of what fans the fires of ill-informed "fans" deluging the sports section and the radio with inane opinions that would destroy our team's chances of competing. So yeah, I don't like most of

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-7662141244825612582007-06-27T06:52:00.000+08:002007-06-27T08:25:58.195+08:00

Technical Narrative:So I've been mowing the lawn again this summer (after a two-year hiatus). Since I last recall using it, our mower--which I remember going with my dad to buy, brand spanking new from Home Depot, a vast improvement over the one I learned how to mow with--has fallen on hard times. The engine now vibrates, painfully, whenever it is in operation. The first time I tried to use it (

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-59463808858283373542007-06-24T16:04:00.000+08:002007-06-24T16:24:42.257+08:00

I had two really good conversations back-to-back today. One of them was meeting someone for the first time, while the other was with an old friend (this being a relative term, meaning "since the beginning of college") (respectively). I definitely feel less nervous about all of the meeting-people and adjusting-to-life I'll be doing in august, because the first one went so well. The second reminded

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-12940488858305158402007-06-20T23:56:00.000+08:002007-06-21T00:40:45.305+08:00

This is less about introspection... who ARE you in the sense of shock/awe/ironic horror at the existence and/or life situation of some people. In the last day, I shook my head at:--Prominent local newspaper columnist, who consistently includes at least one sentence-paragraph that makes NO SENSE when read the first time, and only sort of seems to be a coherent thought by the third reading or so.

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-11848483351841330492007-06-19T16:01:00.000+08:002007-06-19T16:11:43.155+08:00

I definitely update this thing more often when I feel like the last post was whiny. This happens reasonably often, all things considered, so I can only conclude that I am a whiny person who is embarrassed about it.The other thing I like to try to do with a post-whiny entry is marginalize and dismiss the problem that was the previous subject of complaint, preferably in a clever or creative way. So

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-85400532962931015272007-06-17T14:03:00.000+08:002007-06-17T14:33:36.392+08:00

I feel kind of restless already, eight days after getting back from Mexico. The main problem, I guess, is that I don't have any Big Thing To Do that will take up most of my time/energy, get me out of the house, give my time structure and obligations to someone (specifically, someone who could fire me).I've thought about looking for a summer job, but have found a lot of ways to rationalize not

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-44160820975635908242007-06-10T10:00:00.000+08:002007-06-10T10:11:12.223+08:00

So, being sick and lying around the house all day, I'm wearing my old red "i are scientists" tshirt that I got at that We Are Scientists show freshman year. Back then, they were a band of claremont alumni, and so we welcomed and cherished them. It was not an obvious thing that they would go on to play venues larger (and nicer) than Grooveline.And then I was watching "Real World/Road Rules

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-3943703417002709042007-06-10T07:11:00.000+08:002007-06-10T07:28:23.846+08:00

* * authorial interjection: apologies, but details on Mexico trip will come later * *Dear Mr. Stromberg,I am pleased to offer you employment as English Teaching Assistant (ETA) of The Hong Kong Institute of Education (the "Institute") on the terms and conditions listed below.Your employment is conditional upon you obtaining and maintaining a valid visa to work in Hong Kong.Your "Commencement Date

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-17910686055428712872007-05-21T11:03:00.001+08:002007-05-21T12:29:54.802+08:00

So this is the sort of thing I do all the time: forget to write about the big, important stuff while saving my words for the little (arguably even trivial) things. This, the first paragraph, is used to skip over all the big stuff; the weird is how big the big stuff is. So: I graduated. College ended fine academically, I got a chance to see a lot of people, start to let go, etc. I also started to

samnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-3725210351624250052007-04-25T16:01:00.000+08:002007-04-25T16:11:56.081+08:00

I didn't get a migraine today. I also slept in til 1:30. I don't know what the relationship is between the two events, if any.Monday, I woke up at 7, ran errands/ate breakfast/went to class and then completely blew off the day after about noon. I'm getting a better sense of how much recuperative downtime I need after flurries of activity. The problem is that it needs to change if I'm going to

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-89926188791112551892007-04-22T04:27:00.000+08:002007-04-22T04:19:25.678+08:00

The big thing this week that was a one-time deal (hopefully) was my History Senior Comprehensive, the three-hour essay test on "everything you were supposed to have learned about Asia since freshman year." I think it turned out ok, though like most academic work I know I could have done a little better. In addition to doing some culminating theory-type reading (which I deep down enjoy), I tried

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-28105792158790422722007-04-21T14:11:00.000+08:002007-04-21T14:47:21.208+08:00

Stephanie and I talked recently about how we both tend to channel negative emotions (fear, despair, disgust, etc) into anger. I don't know that this is inherently good or bad--everyone responds to bad stuff in different ways, and being angry about things doesn't seem a lot more or less productive than locking yourself in and just sleeping or whatever else people do to deal with things. I realized

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-4621021753367805752007-04-17T09:03:00.000+08:002007-04-17T09:09:06.093+08:00

When I was younger, my family took road trips across the country to visit relatives for vacations. I have only the barest recollection of the sandy-colored Volvo four-door we drove during my formative years. In 1992, it was blindsided by a car turning left against a red light and subsequently retired. Then we drove a cobalt blue Dodge Grand Caravan, the minivan in which I spent countless highway

samnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-11824688543420034822007-04-13T18:06:00.000+08:002007-04-13T18:20:59.719+08:00

Thesis is over, so now I can confidently say that I will get this shit started again. Life event summary (large-scale): I got a Fulbright to teach english in Hong Kong, I had a birthday and am still not accustomed to reporting my age as 22, I ate a lot of pho and was happy.I'm hoping to do less chronicling of the crap that I do (those of you who took yamashita's seminar with me last spring likely

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-63086261667277161552007-03-08T12:29:00.000+08:002007-03-08T12:48:00.303+08:00

No, the title doesn't mean "Why is there a snake in this room?!" It's the best I could come up with for pneumatic decompression, the hiss of escaping air.Basically, over the last couple days, I realized that I need kind of a lot of time off to sort of turn things over before I can move on. In terms of Discussing Big Issues, I end up half-assing things most of the time because I drive myself to

samnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-43454335673927329372007-03-01T15:25:00.000+08:002007-03-01T15:33:58.133+08:00

So that last post was in all likelihood really juvenile. I think I do that sometimes when I get stressed or angry, I just want something written down so the entry just writes itself. And when that happens, I feel like the writing is really underdeveloped and generally bad. I haven't been able to steel myself enough to look back at it and edit, and I think I'm just gonna leave it, another internet

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-19352203121605639112007-02-28T15:51:00.000+08:002007-02-28T17:21:03.639+08:00

This is gonna be brief and completely unrelated to anything, but I need a break from my math thesis (draft due tomorrow, not near done). Too much math thinking and I get this localized pressure headache about halfway back on the right side. I kinda hope that's a part of the brain related to some kind of spacial cognition, and that it's out of shape or something. Thesis is Feel The Burn, and

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-76998054829120819012007-02-19T11:19:00.000+08:002007-02-19T11:44:55.049+08:00

Weeks like this remind me that things can really pull together, that there's a direction that all those other weekends spent trying to make progress on some godawful thesis-related reading. Wednesday night, like I mentioned, featured the reading of my piece in writing class, which was honestly just validating on so many levels. I feel like I'm starting to bridge the gap: I've been having ideas to

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-36566349089854674982007-02-15T15:48:00.000+08:002007-02-15T16:17:06.360+08:00

My creative writing class used my piece for this week as one of its to-be-critiqued samples. While I know that we're methodically going through the class, and everyone's will be read once or twice over the course of the semester, I couldn't help but be a little thrilled inside. Prof Klinkenborg reads both of the selected pieces to the class aloud before we start in on the critique, and I was all

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-44040411854803555592007-02-13T17:45:00.000+08:002007-02-13T18:14:49.493+08:00

Specifically, when the News of the Day involves me meeting someone in person. I think that's where we went wrong, ending up with a country too big to meet the people who we deem most fit to be in charge of several important areas of our lives. I still have my autographed Ken Salazar sign on the wall of my dorm room, from the time we campaigned for him and I made it in the Denver Post shaking his

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-51012252535961594452007-02-10T09:02:00.000+08:002007-02-08T22:54:26.643+08:00

So I went to bed last night at like 4, fell asleep in both my classes, went to see mary rose's really good presentation for lunch, fell asleep during senior thesis presentations, and then got reamed by my thesis advisor on the work I did last night. And now I have fifteen minutes to pack before leaving campus for the next 24 hrs on a retreat things with the 5-college asian american student

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-56255666440346590692007-02-07T02:40:00.000+08:002007-02-07T03:13:34.944+08:00

So I just got back from one of those free psychotherapy sessions at our student health center, and I'm feeling pretty good. Good not so much like happy, but like everything that was rattling around loose inside of me is in its right place after all. I don't know that either of us said anything particularly novel during the session, so it's not that I had an epiphany. Rather, the source of my

samnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-20470409062143573142007-02-04T15:35:00.000+08:002007-02-04T15:58:05.657+08:00

This will, in all likelihood, be a bad week. I like to think of saturday at a litmus test for the next week's motivation: I rarely get a lot done, but the important issue is more why things didn't get done. Next weekend, for example, I have actual, honest-to-god plans, so not getting stuff done is an unfortunate but necessary part of next saturday. This week, though, I had dinner meeting and not

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-90534559309579858022007-01-23T16:59:00.000+08:002007-01-23T18:00:45.104+08:00

So we had to turn in our first creative writing pieces tonight by midnight (via email to everyone in the class). Although it would take a lot of ego-stroking by classmates for me to try putting it up in this space, I'm still happy with how it turned out. It seems to me that a lot of what is worth working on in the class is balancing the need to create a voice/explain my subject position while at

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-46865405430562310922007-01-22T15:46:00.000+08:002007-01-23T18:00:29.586+08:00

College courses, like so many other things, have become an intrinsically and impossibly tricky complicated part of my life. I feel weird about the realization that I judge courses as 'good' or 'bad' before the end of the first hour. I feel weird that I'm a math major, but I haven't taken a single math class all year. I feel weird that I really really enjoy hearing what my science-major friends

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-40063897932561322712007-01-15T07:51:00.000+08:002007-01-15T08:33:14.149+08:00

Sorry, Grant, that I didn't make Jambalaya, but I did have a chance to use the rents' kitchen/grocery budget to do a little cooking over break. Now that I'm back at school, and far from any kind of well-stocked kitchen, I thought I'd give myself a little dash of food-related nostalgia.-I tried turkey enchiladas one night, because turkey cutlets were on sale. Cooking with the adobo (the sauce in

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-7150329379674408902007-01-12T05:19:00.000+08:002007-01-12T05:46:28.382+08:00

Considering the enormous amount of productivity that has not emerged from my month off, I'm not surprised that my originally blistering pace of writing for th[is] public domain didn't hold up. Basically, I had a math thesis I was going to write, but haven't, I have some movies I was going to watch, books I was going to read, and skiing I was going to do that didn't happen, and I have some dinners

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1166639473195187842006-12-21T02:21:00.000+08:002006-12-21T02:31:46.066+08:00

Nature has decided to repudiate my snow demand of earlier this week by giving Denver a full-scale blizzard today through whenever it all gets cleared off. I awoke to probably 4-5", it's still snowing real hard, and we still have a second front to pick up where the first storm leaves off.Positives: as they said on the news last night, we get a guarenteed White Christmas. Everybody's offices are

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1166461328599872102006-12-19T00:57:00.000+08:002006-12-19T01:02:08.620+08:00

Well, the snow didn't pan out. Denver didn't get more than the lightest see-it-swirl-in-the-headlights flurries last night. At least it's staying cold--I see it almost as a necessary condition for Christmas. My winter break goals of 1. regularizing sleep schedule 2. seeing friends 3. writing math thesis 4. cooking have not been achieved yet. In fact, my sleep has been stunningly irregular (woke

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1166416590886351162006-12-18T12:33:00.000+08:002006-12-18T12:36:30.906+08:00

ohmygod, it's snowing! Just a little bit, but it's been smelling like it'll snow all day today. I really hope we get enough to get that amazing quality of light at night, with the moon and the clouds and the snow all glowing faintly and softly and making me want to run around in it, but wishing I could do so without leaving any tracks or sign... all those little bits of wonderment from childhood

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1166386982938472762006-12-18T03:10:00.000+08:002006-12-18T04:23:03.013+08:00

Over Thanksgiving break, I flew for the first time since coming home from study abroad the previous December. In the interim, I've driven a ton of miles on a car that feels and sounds like it's coming apart, but I'd managed to avoid the ushering in of the era of Having To Check Your Luggage Because You Brought Shampoo on Your Trip for nearly a year. Following my flight home, I was prepared to

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1166382608911048792006-12-17T15:38:00.000+08:002006-12-18T03:10:09.006+08:00

Wow, so this story has kind of blown up, as far as NBA storylines are concerned. And, although the game may not have gotten good tv ratings (i.e. wasn't seen in many households), everyone's going to offer opinions about what happened based on poorly-shot and endlessly-replayed video clips online. I just wanted to say: being home in Denver for the holiday, the game was available via our local

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1165830034690408112006-12-11T17:01:00.000+08:002006-12-11T17:40:35.006+08:00

Actually, it may even be anxiety about the future. Um, I'd sorta had this germ of an idea as I was doing some for-school writing last week, but a combination of a lot of words submitted for credit and a lot of other stuff going on has left me without enough sort of standing-in-the-shower thinking time (my most productive 12-15 minutes of the day) to really close the ideas out and get them ready

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1165198801425543422006-12-04T09:53:00.000+08:002006-12-04T10:20:01.556+08:00

To a slimmed-down and stylized (and logically coherent) post that parallels what I'm trying to say/do about basketball with this space. Basically, I got love and admiration for the writers over at FreeDarko. While I would love to speak with that same level of authority, they have the NBA League Pass cable package, whereas I am 1. busy 2. sick and 3. the tvs at college are all in public use, so

samnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1164916027817929842006-12-01T03:27:00.000+08:002006-12-01T03:47:07.876+08:00

Due to time constraints, there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to successfully apply for JET this year. I was jolted out of near-sleep last night in appilcation-related panic, and after reviewing what I still needed to do (lots), I realized that I still needed to get an Enrollment Verification Form QR-96 from the registrar's office. By tomorrow. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a problem;

samnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1164878156690182882006-11-30T16:19:00.000+08:002006-11-30T17:15:56.763+08:00

I've also been meaning for a while to start posting little things about basketball; I really enjoy following the nba, and the nuggets in particular, and I feel like all those hours I waste away watching games or even just highlights and box scores should feed into something a little more meaningful than my fantasy basketball league... the problem is I feel like I need to qualify/preface

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1164700509079776322006-11-28T15:02:00.000+08:002006-11-28T15:55:09.926+08:00

I want to go a lot of different directions with this thing. I mean, I know the internet (teh internets? intertron? I'm not cool enough to know exactly what the proper slang would be) is public, but I honestly feel no obligation to write about one thing or another *for* somebody; it makes me happy to know people read, and occasionally enjoy, the blog, but it doesn't have the sort of pedagogical

samnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1164266518188957502006-11-23T16:06:00.000+08:002006-11-23T15:21:58.293+08:00

Thanksgiving, especially in the context of Thanksgiving break, manages to include everything I like about a celebration: spending a day with extended family, eating way too much, the collective watching of sports (Broncos - Chiefs, in this case), and cooking. These activities generally seem to be so rare in contemporary American society (except the overeating one) that circling a day on the

samnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1163497327804834352006-11-14T17:07:00.000+08:002006-11-14T17:42:07.943+08:00

... and my consumption of it. If we (and I use this not in the presumptuous/royal sense but in the you, reader, and I, Sam, sense) have ever been someplace to which I brought a book, you may have noticed I set it on the table cover-down. This may have come up because you wanted to see what I was reading and had to physically handle the book to get a look at the title, or it may be because you are

samnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16686806.post-1163399411724655872006-11-13T13:35:00.000+08:002006-11-13T14:33:06.943+08:00

Because not everything that happens to me results in whining/ranting. I'm actually really pleased at the amount of quality time I've been able to spend with people this semester, especially compared to last spring. I've had a chance to meet a lot of new people, drink a lot of coffee in that social way that makes it take upwards of an hour to get through the cup, and I've had a chance to try a

samnoreply@blogger.com0