Hey me! Talk to me!
Just now, I felt earthquake, twice. Each for almost a minute! I thought I was feeling dizzy at the beginning. When I looked at my chandeliers, both of them were swaying heavily! The number to the Hong Kong Observatory is busy.
Update (8:46pm) : It was Taiwan at about 8:29pm. 6.7 in the Rickter’s Scale! So it took about 12 minutes to get here.
On Dec 16, I followed Tin to Hac Sa, Macau to visit an excavation site. Due to news release restrictions, we have to delay the release of these photos.
The site primarily contains artifacts of quartz and jade from what seems to be a few workshops or a refinery dated back more than 4000 years.
I have always been fascinated by archeology, anthropology, and paleontology. This visit has been most enlightening.
Many thanks to Professor Tang for showing us the correct way of excavation and explaining the finds, and to Tin for letting me know and bringing me to the site.
Just before we headed to Macau last weekend, I started coming down with a flu. Medication kept me normal but I had to watch out not to drink anything cold and to keep myself warm at all time. I couldn’t sleep at the site that night but at least I was warm. Coming back from Macau, I wasn’t all that fatigue physically but was relieved that we headed back early.
At the pier in Sheung Wan, I went down to take the MTR back to the Kowloon side. When I got down to the tracks, all signs say “Line 1 Chai Wan”. The problem is, everywhere else in all other MTR stations on the Hong Kong side there would be 2 different signs, one for going toward Chai Wan and one for going the other way toward Central. So after seeing “Line 1 Chai Wan”, naturally I was seeking out the “Line 2 Central” sign because I would need to transit to the Kowloon route at Central. Just when I was getting confused with not being able to find the correct sign for the correct route, an old lady asked me which route is to the Kowloon side. As one could also actually ride the Chai Wan direction and transit at the Quarry Bay instead to reach the East side of Kowloon, I asked the old lady which side of Kowloon she wanted to go and explained that I am trying to find the correct route to the Kowloon side myself.
Luckily, an nice lady noticed our confusion and pointed out to us that there is only one single direction at the Sheung Wan station and it had just dawned on me that Sheung Wan is the end of the line. The question is, why do all signs say “Line 1″ when there is no “Line 2″ at the Sheung Wan MTR station currently? I wonder if all the other end stations have the same type of signs.
Sang by John Denver
(But I just heard the Jheena Lodwick version from her All My Loving CD – excellent)
—
Perhaps love is like a resting place
A shelter from the storm
It exists to give you comfort
It is there to keep you warm
And in those times of trouble
When you are most alone
The memory of love will bring you home
Perhaps love is like a window
Perhaps an open door
It invites you to come closer
It wants to show you more
And even if you lose yourself
and don’t know what to do
The memory of love will see you thru
O love to some is like a cloud
To some as strong as steel
For some a way of living
For some a way to feel
And some say love is holding on
And some say letting go
And some say love is everything
Some say they don’t know
Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict full of pain
Like a fire when it’s cold outside
A thunder when it rains
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you
And some say love is holding on
And some say letting go
And some say love is everything
Some say they don’t know
Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict full of pain
Like a fire when it’s cold outside
A thunder when it rains
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you
In regards to my office computer, thanks to Toby and MoLoi’s suggestions, after switching the power supply transformer to my old home computer’s SPI, it no longer hangs.
Incidentally, the dying transformer of my office computer is a “Cow Devil” brand which is only about 3 years old and also 2 years younger than the SPI that has the same power rating! The shop owner didn’t have any SPIs when I bought the office computer and he assured me that the “Cow Devil” is just as good. I had my doubts back then and this incident confirms my suspicion.
Lately, I have been receiving many calls with no caller IDs that I don’t want to receive. So I needed some Profile settings such as those on Nokia 2G phones. I am not sure if Nokia 3G phones also support Profile functions.
My previous Nokia phone was a 6230 which is a soap bar type phone. The problem with soap bar type phone is that even with Keyboard Lock and with Any Key Answer set to off, it is very easy to have the send/answer button pressed accidentally inside the pants pocket without my touching it. So about 1/2 year ago, I bought the Samsung SGH-E870. A clamshell type flip phone.
The problem with buying new phones in Hong Kong however, especially with a model that is not available in the official channels like the SGH-E870, there is no knowing what functions they have. One doesn’t get to test the phone without actually indicated one will buy it on the spot; unless one has a friend with the same phone.
I bought the SGH-E870 over the Nokia 6131 for its good looks which is much better than any boring looking Nokia, including the Nokia 6131. Also, when I considered the two phones back then, originally I want the silver/pink version of the Nokia 6131 as shown in their website but unfortunately, only the black was available. Now, about 1/2 year after its introduction, the Nokia 6131 is still only available in black or plain silver. The Silver/Gold and Silver/Pink have even been taken out of Nokia’s website!
The problem with the Samsung SHG-E870 is that it has no Profile settings. It does have Group settings where one can put a very limited number of contacts in 5 different Groups only. The number of Groups is not enough, and the limited number of contacts that could be put into each Group is way too limited. Other than having a different ring tone for each Group, the Group function in the SHG-E870 is completely useless. Without the Profile function, I cannot set the phone to only ring on calls with Caller IDs that match a contact within a selected Group in the address book. Utterly useless! Another problem with the SHG-E870 is, while the flip phone prevented it from any accidental answering, it took over 300 photos all inside my pants pocket! Good thing I havn’t been watching any porn with the SGH-E870 inside my pant pocket! And oh yeah, while the Micro SD memory card on the SGH-E870 can store indefinite number of songs depending on the size of the memory, the Music Player can only play the 20 songs on each of the 4 playlists! That’s 80 songs only!
A couple of months ago, Sunday offered me an incentive of HKD$1200 off on any phone purchase with them if I renew M’s $70 monthly plan contract for a period of 18 months at the same time. It was not bad a deal at all considering the price of the plan is reasonable enough and I am relatively quite satisfied with Sunday’s services. I didn’t take on it back then because I wanted to see what the Apple iPhone is like.
Even though there still hasn’t been any official photos on the Apple iPhone, I thought unless it were made by Nokia, which is highly unlikely, it wouldn’t have the Profile function that I need. Besides, the latest rigged photos on the iPhone suggest that the iPhone would be a slide phone. Slide phones have the same problem as soap bar phones where their send/answer button is also located on the outside of the phone which could be tripped easily. So I gave in and took up on Sunday’s offer for for a mere HKD$988 on the HKD$2188 black Nokia 6131!
Initial feelings on the Nokia 6131? A Nirvana of a phone’s user interface!
Everything works just right. Be it text entering, auto capitalizations, menu flipping, contact entering, contact transfer, organizer item entering, shortcut keys, and that the GPRS settings had been preset and works with Sunday out of the box… everything is a joy to use. With seemingly unlimited number of Groups and unlimited number of contacts in each group as well as 6 adjustable Profiles and one preset “Flight” Profile, I am in business! There is no sudden miss-typed-a-key-and-wiped-out-all-the-previous-text-entered, no what-do-I-press-next, no plain “huh?!”, no where-is-that-damn-setting-hidden… problems. Big screen, large font, and clearly labeled keys. Incidentally, the black Nokia 6131 has a rubbery coating which is more scratch and slip resistant than the plastic silver model.
I just found out that it had blocked (simply without ringing or vibrating) today’s first no Caller ID call. Screw those who had blocked their caller IDs and do not leave voicemails. No more “who is responsible for your stationary” calls, no more “health sociaty” calls, no more “hairloss remedy”, an no more “fantasy boat cruise” calls.
Back to my tranquil self.
More photos here.
While stuck in traffic to the airport for a plane ride, a guy driving his BMW admiring the guy driving a Mercedes next to him and keep saying to himself how it isn’t the same when that guy next to him could keep driving his Mercedes with a Kompresser he himself would have to park his car away since BMW doesn’t make a car with a Kompresser.
Suddenly a guy zoom by them both on a Dahon and he realizes he could have been riding that Dahon himself as well get to the airport on time in this kind of traffic yet still be able to fold the Dahon into a bag and carry it on to the plane. He couldn’t bring himself to buying a Mercedes despite a Kompressor is all he ever dreamed of. Yet he buys a Dahon thinking he might be better off with it than his BMW.
While his rides his Dahon to the airport the next time, at the airport folding his Dahon he noticed a guy with a folded Bike Friday and how much more neatly folded the Bike Friday is compared to his Dahon, and while wanting to have a Bike Friday instead, he asks himself, “Hey! Where is the air-con on these bikes anyway?!”
WhaUSay?!