Another Curve Ball

The application of apartment was declined by my offiice manager because, she alledged, it is impossible for us to produce personal information of the president of the organization I work for. I am a bit stressed out and am really running out of ideas, perhaps I should try to take my stuff to the office and sleep uner the office manager's desk after the corporate apartment expires next Wednesday?

Desparated, I called a gaijin agent who probabaly has better idea how to help another gaijing. (my Japanese agent was really inexperienced and naive, she is useless in helping me to solve my problems). He seems to have something in mind when telling him my situation, I hope things will work out.

In the recent years, I guess the frequency I dealt with estate/recruiting agents is quite high. I was almost dating one of estate agents in London when I was thinking about buying a property, we met every weekend. I also have countless sweet phone conversations with recruiting agents. Agents come in different sizes/shapes/demeanor. But they are all pretty predictable. First, start a small talk to get to know you by prying or asking directly. Secondly, trying to show you things not-quite-up-to-your-standard before showing you the normal standard items. Thirdly, creating the illusion that this flat/job is such a hot commodity. Finally, they disappear without a trace after the commission is paid.

I cannot say they are crooked or anything, that's the nature of their job, all they do is just what the broker/agent handbook has told them.

Tsukiji Tuna

Hanging out with SunGard people, man, I miss them very much.

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I finally went to Tsukiiji fish market today with a friend. This great fish place is only 15 minutes walk away from Ginza!! We went into a sushi restaurant, ordered the tuna plater, which consisted of sushi made of various part of tuna. The middle tuna belly meat doesn't tasted like fish at all, it tasted like, very delicated butter without the milky smell. The meat literally melt on my tongue, perfect with slightly vinigered rice. No soy sauce needed, there is no fishy smell but subtle hint of meat that you have just put into your mouth.

I also like the tuna belly tataki-like sushi. The sushi chef flamed the fatty tuna belly sushi, the surface was slightly cooked and the fat rendered down on the wooden plate. It was sprinkled with tiny salty flakes, a little stringy because of the connective tissues, however, that's where the fat and taste reside. I ate those 2 pieces with dreamy eyes, what a treat.

After the feast of tuna sushi, other type of sushi has lost their appeal.

Kagurazaka

I found an apartment in the same aread the very next day knowing that my application of my first choice has been rejected because I cannot produce a Japanese guarantor. It is so true that when one door is close, the other door would be open! I am a bit stressed but never despaired. It is indeed very xenophobia for the Japanese landlord, but what can I do? I am living on the Japanese soil.

Work is still easy going on my part as I am in the transiting period. It is not yet very demanding. At the same time, I am beginning to lose faith in what I am doing. Risk management seems like a biggest scam in financial history. Credit derivatives allows traders to transfer credit risk form one institue to another, and, how to assess the fair value of the credit risk is still unknow to most practicioners. The vendor and the bank's risk management are still bragging about how well we can help investors to figure out how much the credit risk is supposed to worth. This is just pure bullshit. No one ever predicted the sub-prime market was going to crumble when the central bank is tightening the monetary policy. However, it takes no brain to see when private equity firm gets easy money, they invested in almost everything. Does the risk assessment models tell people how risky it is? Yes, to some extend but people buy the risky assets? Oh yes, for the sake of quick bucks.

The private equity firms and others invested crazily on risky assets because the fundings were so easy, so cheap. If they lose out, no harm is done since the money were borrowed anyways. In this haydays, small fishes like me are swimming between the waves and lies to make livings. But I feel disguised.

Talking to the big guy of professional service from San Francisco, he has been bred and raised in technology since long ago. He mentioned Steve Job who has the miraculous charisma to his followers. As a example, Steve once lured the CEO from Pepsi (or Coca Cola? Don't remember) to work for him "Do you want to change the world or selling soda water?"

Are we changing the world? Or we just convince ourselves that we are?

The Eagle has Landed

I shocked many people when asked who is my favorite actor, my answer is Michael Caine. There is no other reason, not because of his acting ability or anything, it is simply because he is good looking. The classic Anglo Saxon look, cold blue eyes and slim lips, pretty cool.

I have officially moved to Tokyo, trying to find my own flat before being kicked out of corporate apartment in Ginza. Life suddenly became very neat and clean. I spot one guy spitting on the street today before meeting the estate agent, I almost wanted to run over and give him a slap. Do you know how much I sacrifice to come to a no-one-spitting environment? Why are you ruinning it?

Looking for a flat is not a easy thing, given that the rental prices are very high in the city. But I am prepared to live in the closet size apartment. I even called my mom to get some backup on my decision to live in the small apartment. My mom was much patient and understanding (I later think that she is just trying to please me, let the conversation ran into the stream I favored), and gave me 100% support. Citing from the little flat she used to share with 4 other brothers and my grandmom in Hong Kong, she reckond I am having a very good deal.

I will have up to end of this week to find my residence for the next year, time is running short.

Man are Natrurally Shy?

Sometimes I think my blog is almost like the log of XiaoHo's growing history. I cannot help but discover a lot of interesting way of seeing things from his eyes. Perhaps that's part of the fun of parenting?

XiaoHo always likes to play cool, even after my mom came back from a week's trip in Hong Kong, he would refrain himself from breaking down but kept playing his toys as if he's not seen NaiNai had turned up. He would then inched close to my mom, got warmed up slowly and the melted on her laps.

One time Grace told me that she was really angry with XiaoHo then she said "I am not going to talk to you ever". After a couple of second silence, XiaoHo asked "OK then, we are not going to talk to each other forever from now on?". Grace had calmed down then started to decode XiaoHo's statement, yeah, XiaoHo didn't realise that he's made Grace angry yet he is trying to please her thus the agreeing statement.

I-lan is really getting old

Meeting up with my U Waterloo friends in Hong Kong. In fact we were housemates at one point of time. It's been almost 6 years we haven't seen each other. That's really something....

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I was stroking I-lan while sitting in the small bench in the balcony and found the huge bug in his right eye lid. Geez... That's the blood sucking lice. The female ones can grow as big as your pinky figer nail, grey and puff with blood. It is very hard to get them off, since they bite into the skin, pulling them off forcefully (due to extreme disguistion) often results in tearing off a piece of meat or skin from your beloved pet. I-lan was bleeding after I pull the female bug off his eye lid, I felt so sad about it.

I aslo found a group of male bugs reside inside I-lan's ear, I cannot stop the urge to ge them all off, although knowing there might be other thousands eggs laid in the hair shafts. My dad came around to see his best friend, mumbling that he didn't know that I-lan was infected because of his poor eyesight. I asked for a container to store those lices, he gave me his astray and vowed the lices will not ever get out of it because he is going to deal with them later. I did my best to clean I-lan's both ears, he is not very happy that I am using my eyebrow twiser working my way through. Yet, I get them all out, I hope. We still need to bath I-lan with the medicien to kill those eggs, or at least, stop them from reproducing.

The next day when I was sitting in the living room, trying to finish my movie "the crying game", to my most horror, I saw the red little male dog lice crawling on the floor. I ran to the astray and found there were no lices in the tray. "Dad, I thought you have dealt with them already", my dad looked up from his newspaper with very sorry face "Oh, I forgot". The lices were all out at large, may have gone back to I-lan (or me, I squrried to the bathroom and wash my hair frantically).

I also noticed that I-lan's eyes are not as clear as before but having a light, greyish green cloud inside. He is losing his vision as my father told me. It is very sad. Is he aging happily?

Why is Sex Fun Part II

I was recommended the book "Naked Ape". The book suggested that the reason men are obssessive with breasts because it somehow resembles the rear end. Since all in animal kingdom seem to do it from behind, wow, that's so kinky. Suppose taping over the nipples and trying hard to create the cleavage would make woman more attractive?

Another theory that we usually find lips are sexy because they look like viginas sideways. However, how to explain I sometimes find men's lips sensual?

Yet I started to think understanding all these motivation and drives behind human behavior makes us happier? I mean, would that make us a better person at the end of the day?

Government Official, Farmer, Craftman and Business man

In the ancient China, these are the ranking of social status. The business men were viewed lowest amongst all yet the men who are educated enjoyed the highest rank.

I have thought about my father's family line, after the great culture revoluation, the family was broken apart. My grand father fled to Indonesia, left behind my grand mom and 5 young kids. The master of the household, my father's grand father, committed suicide to save himself from being insulted and tortured. My grand mom was selling blood to raise her kids, yet she couldn't take the hardship and got remarried (this is still supposed the dark side of our family's history, no one openly talked about it). My father risked his life, swam to Hong Kong and the rest of the family were struggling only to survive. In short, the family crumbled to pieces, my uncles denied they have any links to the family, they disassembled the family house and sold the bricks and woods for money. No one cares to carry the family name and has honor. My father is the only one who cares. strange?

I never had good impression about my father's family memebers, they are dishonest, greedy and ruthless in the name of survival. Yet there is nothing left in my father's family line. I mean, no one feels the obligation to prosper the name, I guess we are not going to do it either after my father passes away.

What is the key of a family's survival? I started to think that my father's grand father was the only one who was well-educated (studied law in Japan in early last century and became the followed Dr. Sun in Chinese revoluation). He didn't build the family value system and network of trust. Suppose a real robust and decent family should have more intensive netowrk of support from relatives/friends and a stronger family bonding induced by a united, centralised family teaching? It is hard to imagine this to happen in families without schooling and education? That's the way to make sure a family line can survive?

Serious Typhoon

My going away party in Beijing, this is Lanfang's coffee shop. Very good people I have worked with.

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My plane was not touching down smoothly yet I thought I was just unluckily having the bad pilot. Not until I was waiting for my mom in the pickup area than I realised it's windy and raining very hard.

The super Typhoon hit Taipei city the second day I arrived. My home was shaking, moving as the wind blew, really scary. I thought it might snap in half. Yet I was told it is a good thing that it moves around, otherwise the energy would be stored and built up large enough to crumble the building. I was really feeling dizzy at home, my headache was worse seeing my father standing against the big french window in the living room. "What's the matter, dad?" "The window is going to break" came reply. "That's not a solution to support the window with your back the whole day". I then helped to move the big bookshelf to the position against the window (my dad's knee is not doing well, can hardly walk without support these days), with a pillow in between as cusion. My mom came out and saw what we did with her living room, went completely ballistic. Oh well, I tried to console her better be safe than sorry.

The wind was so strong that our building was out of electricity for a while. The worse is that the lift is not in operation, getting down to ground floor would be challenging since my home is on the 19th floor. However, all these didn't stop me from going out. Grace, Kevin, XiaoHo and Grace's mom came to pick me up, my father was really not too happy to let me go out. He thinks it is so dangerous if anything falls while we are driving. As usual, we ignored him and proceeded as scheduled. Great day to go shopping, the shops are empty and the most amazing thing is that shops are still open!

Flying to the Moon and Back

I had taken another view of Hong Kong just recently. Feeling deeply guilty about how my resignation would screw up my manager, I agreed to spend my in-between-job vacation to help training my replacement. This was the first time I actually come to Hong Kong as a growu up, not tagging along with my mom and no relatives dimsum session, I am not even in Kowlong at all, I was lodging in the hotel next to Victoria square, over looking the harbour and going to work in the prestigeous Central.

The office is right next to the most exquistic shopping and business area in Hong Kong island. English is more frequently heard than Cantonese. Everyone is dressed in designer clothing (handbags alike), with the big-swing dick attitude. Out of blue I felt a bit scared and thought I might not be made for this. In fact, the fashion and prestige are both more on-the-surface than wall street, at least from my point of view. Yet you can still steal a glance of old colonial Hong Kong in the little street. Very fascinating and dynamic environment.

Perhaps I should re-work my wardrobe and stop using my plastic hello kitty bag?