OIHK!

I just attended a friend's birthday dinner at D17, a small seafood restaurant in Hong Kong. It was good food, good company and overall a good experience. But there was one experience that I had to snap a pic of and document.

That experience would be when I went to the men's room which is represented in picture to the left. While snapping it, I thought how Hong Kong this image is. Only in Hong Kong where space is at a premium would I see them fit such a narrow door in a tiny corner. Hong Kong is nothing if efficient. But in most other cities this space would barely be enough for a closet much less an entire bathroom with a working urinal, toilet and sink.

The restaurant staff told me no one has ever had trouble going to the men's room. But I would imagine any large or overweight person would have to use the ladies room.

In the mainland, several Westerners told me they have a shorthand saying, OIC or Only in China. While Hong Kong is part of China, there's still a menality the Hong Kong is a not China. So perhaps I can start a new term, OIHK! I prounounce that like a pig's oink, only with a silent "n".

Yeah, it's late. Time for bed.

Chinese Internet Maintenance Day! Woohoo!

Today, I sit here writing on "Chinese Internet Maintenance Day." After all in a country of billions, sites such as Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail and Bing require at least a full day (probably more) of maintenance so as to better serve the people.

My own words fail to express the gratitude the Chinese people must feel for this great day. So today, I had to look to a certain Barack Hussein Obama to help express the un-expressable. How ironic, that it takes a man from half a world away to express that which can not be expressed. Yet he is so eloquently forthcoming on this issue.

Where words fail. Hopes, spirit and sentiment do not.

Admiralty 2.0

Nearly three years ago, I embarked on my journey to directing. Since then I've directed several commercials and a music video. Today, I'm directing my latest commercial, developing my next batch of commercial projects and writing my first feature film.

None of my current projects would have been possible had I not taken that first step by directing my first live action piece, Admiralty. I never finished that particular piece. Despite the many months, weeks and hours that several volunteers put into it, I never saw it to completion.

That has always bothered me.

There have been many excuses. The biggest excuses being a lack of time and money. Which is largely true considering the experimental FX and animation ambitions of the project.

I've thought about keeping this project shelved. After all, it was shot years ago and I'm a different person and director now. But those are just excuses too. So after several fits of starting and stopping the project, I've started again. In fact, I plan to re-shoot much of the short that I originally shot on Beta with the much-hyped new Red One camera.

Above is a photo I took from a rehearsal for Admiralty 2.0. My buddy, Ian will fight choreograph the fight sequences and a large FX studio in Beijing will handle much of the FX and animation. Given the upgrade in camera, fight choreography, FX studio and director (that would be a slightly more experienced me); I'm hoping this won't look like the first thing I've ever directed.

To be continued... and finished!

What's on Your "Kindle?"

Last year, I held off on buying the Amazon Kindle, because I knew the new and improved Kindle 2 was on its way in '09. So when the Kindle 2 was released a few weeks ago, boy was I ready to jump aboard the e-book bandwagon.

Only, I didn't jump.

Call me cheap, but despite the many great reviews about the Kindle 2, something bothered me about spending $359.00 for a specialized device that's designed for one main function. Then a couple of weeks ago a free Kindle was offered.

This time I jumped.

Well, it wasn't exactly a Kindle. More like a free iPhone app provided by Amazon that allows you to read Kindle formatted books. To be honest, this isn't the first time I've read an e-book. That disctinction goes to my Palm V days of yore. Nor is it the first e-book I've attempted to read on my iPhone. That distinction goes to "The Heart of Darkness" which I read last year. But it is the first time I've become hooked on reading an e-book

The image above is a screen shot of my free "Kindle." As you can see I've downloaded many a free chapter. And I've even bought a few ebooks. I finished my first Kindle book, Neil Gaiman'"s "Coraline" in slightly less than half a week. Granted that's a children's book. But a week and a half later, I'm almost halfway through a book on geopolitics by George Friedman called "The Next 100 Years."

Over the weekend, I saw an interview with the author of "What Would Google Do?" Within minutes I downloaded the sample chapter and read it over lunch. There's something to this Kindle stuff. So I'm back to my fundamental question: 2 Kindle 2 or not 2 Kindle 2?

Given the great experience I was pretty convinced I was going to Kindle 2 it. But then the rumors for an Apple Netbook has been hitting critical mass lately. So, I guess I can wait until the rumored Oct release date of the Apple iBook, iPod Touch HD, iPod Air or whatever they end up calling it.

Yes! I've decided not to decide.

Who Runs on What?

I'm a terrible blogger. At least I'm a terribly infrequent blogger. It's been over 4 months since my last blog entry. Sheesh!

So I'm planning to rectify that this year. Starting now. What could possibly be worthy of a blog entry since my previous entry when Obama was elected? The answer is: Nothing of any major cosmic or global significance. But it was something that brought a slight chuckle to my day.

This afternoon I went for a run as part of my battle against the weight I've gained from the holiday bingeing and traveling I've done during the period from November through February. It was a rather nice day and despite having rather tight and sore legs from a previous workout, it wasn't a half bad run.

After my run, I stretched out in front of my apartment. Just as I was finishing up an old lady walked by and gave me a rather strange look. As I was finished with my stretches, I followed her inside and rode the elevator up with her. While in the elevator she asked me what type of work was I doing. I replied with a question, "Now?" To which she replied, "Yes." I told her I wasn't working, but was exercising. At least that's how I interpreted the conversation.

This might be a good time to say that I'm still living in Beijing at this time and this entire conversation took place in Mandarin. There are subtleties of language and culture that I'm so used to in U.S. English, but I just don't have in Chinese. So it's in that context that I thought I may have misunderstood what she meant with her question. This thought was further reinforced by the fact that as she exited the elevator, she looked unsatisfied and confused by my answer. Her reaction in turn made me unsatisfied and confused with my answer as well.

As I exited the elevator and shortly afterward, entered my apartment, I noticed my outfit. As the accompanying photo shows; I was wearing a blue "America Runs on Dunkin" t-shirt with a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath and my sunglasses. Seems innocuous enough. But it's all about context. I don't live in a neighborhood with many other Asian Americans or expats. Most people in my complex seem to be local folk. They often dress in pretty drab grey or dark colors during the winter and I don't remember seeing anyone wear sunglasses. It struck me that I must look like a multi-colored freak doing these strange things in front of her apartment. She may very well have thought I was wearing some strange uniform and wondered what the heck I was doing in front of her apartment. I'm pretty sure I stood out like a sore thumb dressed as I was while doing strange things in front of her apartment building.

So I had a little chuckle about the matter and snapped the accompanying pic from my iPhone to commemorate the incident. I could very well have been suffering from the effects of a runners high and completely misinterpreted the situation. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have. But it gave me a chuckle and I deemed it blog-worthy enough to break my 4 month non-blogging streak.

Watching the Election from China

I am experiencing an online media ORGY!

I am a self-professed media junky. So I've given myself a surreal media experience while I'm watching the US election from China. I'm currently simultaneously watching CNN live from a Slingbox feed from New York, CNN International live feed from cnn.com, Fox News Web page updates and MSNBC live over msnbc.com while popping between Google News and Facebook updates. I pop audio on and off between video feeds as I see something interesting popping up in each window.

I find it surreal that I have access to so much live information while I'm in Beijing, China. At this point I have access to more live newsfeeds in China than I did during all my years living in the US. That includes my short stint working for a news organization in Florida where I had access to live newsfeeds and AP wires. I find this experience to be an astounding statement on the state of global media, technology and telecommunications.

Some observations I've made while subjecting myself to this early Beijing morning media orgy:

* Whiz bang graphics and technology
Every network is using huge touch screen technology with GUI driven maps and graphs

* Touch screen
There's just a lot of touching and sliding around going on. I'd say that John King on CNN is the king of the touch screen

* Live interaactive maps
Each Web page has constantly refreshing information. But I really like Fox News map that shows the graphs and numbers growing and changing live. The mouseover on each state also brings up key stats and graps for each state.

* 3D graphics the reporters can walk around
CNN supposedly will use a sophisiticated technical setup to allow reporters from around the country to be virtually in the same studio space. i haven't seen it yet, but I'm waiting for it.

* Virtually projected reporters
So far my favorite are the MSNBC 3D virtual graphs that the reporters can walk around. So far it seems gratuitous, but I'm waiting to see if ther's a new, dyanmic way for the reporters to present news and data.

Finally, I find it interesting how Fox News live map updates. It currently puts McCain ahead of Obama, but CNN, MSNBC and Google show Obama ahead. It's almost like they're in denial with the wave the Obama seems to have.

A Cool Beijing Day

It was actually quite a warm day in Beijing. This is my first October living in Beijing, but even I know today was unseasonably warm. But I thought I had a pretty cool day. So why not chronicle it? Why not indeed. Here's a quickie bullet-point run down:

• I woke up to a sunny, warm morning in Beijing with blue skies

• While preparing for the day, I listened live to the 3rd U.S. presidential debate

• Dealt with my university duties in a conference call with a software team in Silicon Valley

• Had a call with LA to review dailies for an independent film

• Headed off to a pre-production meeting for the latest film starring one of the biggest Chinese stars in the world

• While witnessing test shots for the Chinese film, I remotely supervised FX shots for the US independent film and a shot for a major Hollywood studio film

• Headed to a design conference where I played journalist for a Beijing design magazine by helping them interview two US companies about sustainable design
  

• Headed off to my friend's art gallery and bar to meet about our development of several intellectual properties

• Had a call to Japan to follow up on a commercial where I'm directing the animation

• Headed home to work on my screenplay, deal with taxes and write this blog

It wasn't all roses and happiness. There were several problems and a few fires to fight. But overall, it was a full, but productive day.

Just another cool day in Beijing.