Halloween Pictures
(Monster Mash)

So I'm up at 4 am in HK. Jet lag still hasn't subsided. Here are some picture from the Halloween party.





The rest of the picture can be seen here...

i am stanadian

faster than we thought we'd go
(Smashing Pumpkins - 1979)

This song always reminds me of driving around the neighborhood during my teenage years with the window down, the music blasting and my head stuck out the window. That's the key to a great song. It captures a period in time and brings back waves of memories you would have never remembered on your own.

So I'm back in the Honger. I mean Hong Kong. Day 1 of 25. It's gonna be a long month for me. This will be the longest I've been away from my family and friends since the early 2000's when I moved to Virginia to live with uncle. Luckily Sonia is flying down to visit in 9 days. Something to look forward to. I do have some friends in the area as well so it'll be nice to catch up with them.

Saturday was the Halloween party and SD and I dressed up as Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon. I'll have to upload those pictures some time in the next week. Was a fun party but definitely felt rushed since I had to wake up the next morning and pack to leave. I really need to learn to cherish those times a little more. Live in the moment and not the future so much. I don't mind living in the past so much since reflection never hurt anyone. That is as long as you don't reflect and regret so much.

Sunday I got on the plane and bumped into Irene. She's here for work as well and she does this trip every other month she says. Is this the trend of our generation or is this just a trend within my circle of friends? It seems we're all jetsetting all over the world for work. I don't remember my parents ever traveling for work. Then again, they were never in technology/business. They were also married with children at a much younger age. My generation is all about career first, family second.

So if you're ever on a plane full of old Chinese people, try not to freak out at the really odd behaviour and poor manners. This one old guy kept leaning up and rubbing his groin against my shoulder as he got things out of the overhead compartments. He did this about 5 times during the flight and not once did he say "excuse me". There was also this lady in one of those face masks who kept getting up in the aisle near my seat and doing stretches for 10 minutes at a time. I'm sorry lady, it's not a pilates class. When we landed, I think I opened the door for at least 5 people at the airport and hotel and not a single thank you. Such a culture shock for me but I'm learning to deal with it one awkward moment at a time.

I just hit the 7/11 here to stock up on snacks and supplies. There's a 7/11 on every corner and they're very convenient. Especially convenient for a jetlagged North American who just woke up from a 5 hr nap in the evening. The terriyaki chicken with cucumbers and instant noodles definitely hit the spot. Now time to do some reading and back to sleep so I can be semi-conscious in front of the client tomorrow.

Good afternoon N. America.

seems somebody turn out the lights...
(Lights - The Listening)

Update on the bathroom lights :

1) You have to put your room key in a slot at the front door.
2) You have to switch an unmarked switch...wait for it...DOWN. Cuz UP is what people do in the western hemisphere apparently.

Tomorrow I look for that bar of soap I lost in my nook...or cranny.

I'm so scared right now.
(Aladdin - A Whole New World)

I'm on the other side of the world right now and want to curl in the fetal position and cry myself to sleep. I suppose it would help if I could cry.

Landed in Hong Kong about 2 hrs ago and just got checked into my hotel. Everything is so backwards here. People drive on the left hand side of the road. The taxi driver didn't speak English and couldn't figure out where my hotel was. He also nearly hit 2 cars on the ride to the hotel. When I got to the hotel they didn't have my reservation, couldn't get my visa card to be approved and then they ran out of king sized beds. After finally getting into my room and looking forward to a much needed shower (15 hrs on a hot airplane), I couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights in the washroom. I showered in the dark. First time ever. I hope I got all the soap out of those nooks and crannies. I feel like singing "a whole new world."

I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid.

I wanted to iron my work shirts for the week and couldn't find the iron or ironing board in the room anywhere. It's not standard with the rooms here. I asked them to bring one up and got them to turn the lights on in the washroom for me.

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no, or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming

The plugs here are weird shaped. Luckily they provided me with a converter. The bathroom also has clear glass so you can watch people shower and poop. Kinky.

So now I'm almost settled in and getting ready to prep for tomorrow's day at the client site. I'll update a little later on this week...

I am...
(Cranberries - Animal Instinct)

On my way to the airport to fly back to Toronto. It's been a long week and I've got a lot more travelling to do before the end of this year. Trying hard to teeter this work-life balance over to the life side but work is such an obese kid.

Did this search this morning for "I am" on google...the first two items on the auto complete were exactly how I felt. It's a sign from Go....ogle.

Insomnia
(Electronic - Twisted Tenderness)

In the past I've dabbled in a bit of creative writing here and there but never really took it seriously. It was more an exercise to free my mind from living within the confines of perception and the world around us. Sometimes life lulls you to sleep and you need to wake up before you become a victim of the mundanity of it all.

Here's a short story I started about 6-7 years ago but never really completed. Ironically it was called "Insomnia" -- something I've never experienced in my life.

It's a bit rough so don't mind the grammar and spelling mistakes.

---

Insomnia

As I laid in my bed that night doing the one thing I hated most -- thinking; I realized how completely empty my bed was. I had that bed since my freshman year at university and I remember the day I bought it. I had desperately needed a new bed for my room after waking up on numerous occasions with backaches from my old mattress. The life of a student -- always pinching pennies, scrounging around for tuition money, yet always having enough money left over to go drinking. I decided to buy a futon, which would serve as a couch as well. Surprisingly I haven't used it much as a couch. Possibly a combination of my laziness and my lack of friends. Trust me, it depresses the hell out of me as well.

My bed has seen its share of visitors though. Some were girlfriends and lovers and some were merely friends who needed a place to crash after a night of drinking. On this particular night I wish I had their company. I quickly threw piles of clean laundry and old stuffed animals on my bed. Still felt empty. It's been awhile since I felt this way. Even though on most nights I slept on this bed alone, it still felt as though I was sleeping in a crowd. That's the comfort and feeling of companionship. Having someone there for you even though they're not physically there.

A while ago that feeling left me and I struggled with bouts of insomnia. I would lie in bed looking from dark corner to dark corner. In one corner, a bookshelf filled with books. Some were given to me by her. Books that we both read and shared. In another corner, a computer filled with letters we wrote to each other, conversations that seemed to never end and pictures that are gradually losing their significance. I wish I could just fall asleep at normal hours like everyone else. Instead I lay here, staring in the dark, letting my imagination run free and seeing subtitles in everything that passes by.

The first night of insomnia, I found solace in listening to music. Music has always comforted me. It's the feeling that someone out there understands what you're going through, and that you're not alone -- even if you are. It's also about self-loathing. There's something completely intoxicating and addictive about self-loathing. We're all masochistic beings. Maybe we need to see the contrast between sadness and happiness to really enjoy happiness when it comes. I don't know what it is, but it can sure be depressing. I swear to God.

And as the hours passed by, the music became more of a backdrop to my insomnia and I could start to see the glow of the sunrise behind my white Venetian blinds. When I could hear the shuffling of feet in the hallway as my family prepared to go to work or school, I would decide to finally fall asleep. I slept in hopes of waking up with selective amnesia -- forgetting the last 3 years of my life -- but it never happened. Just like that old movie with Bill Murray where he kept waking up on the same date everyday. I think it was Groundhog's Day. I always woke up remembering vividly the day before and yet I couldn't distinguish the day before from the current day. When you're up 21 hrs of the day, that tends to happen.

Every morning I'd wake up thinking about the very thing I didn't want to think about, along with all the poor decisions I made in my life. I've always had good intentions; they just never panned out the way I intended. Have you ever noticed that whenever someone talks about good intentions, it never ends up well? "Mom had good intentions. Too bad the cold medicine she gave the dog killed it." All my life I've been taking a headlong rush down the road to hell, stubbing my toe on every poorly paved intention in my life and I am just now coming to terms with it.

So I've lost track of how many days it's been now since the starting of my insomnia. But I know it's getting better. I think. My bed is still empty and my ex-girlfriend hasn't come running back to me yet, but the dark corners of my room are no longer laced with bad foreign film subtitles. They're just dark now.

Last night I caught myself talking. The sound of my voice scared me. I'm not sure if I was talking to myself but I had a phone to my ear. And the person on the other side seemed to care. They seemed to understand. They too had insomnia. The voice soothed me. The voice told me a story about a man named Fas, who sailed across the sea in search of a new world. He had imagined a world with bright beautiful hues. Where no one spoke yet knew how each other felt. Love there didn't need to be heard, it only needed to be felt. Time -- it seemed to move half a step slower. Fas never came back. No one ever heard from him again. Some say he found the new world and stayed there. Some say he died at sea chasing his foolish dreams. No one really knows for sure but you can always tell whether the storyteller was an optimist or a pessimist by the ending they chose for the story.

I'm not quite sure if I really talked to anyone that night but I didn't feel quite as lonely. I think I fell asleep before the sun rose that morning.

I'm slowly finding that one is sometimes more than two.

Jetsetting
(The Fray - You Found Me)

Back in the cold winter of 1980, a young 4 year old Vietnamese boy arrived in cold, snowy Regina, Saskatchewan.

That was the last time I was in the eastern hemisphere. Growing up in a middle class family we never had much money to go on vacation. The furthest I was able to go was a 24 hr drive south to Dallas, TX. Ironically, I didn't step on a plane again after arriving in North America until my early 20's when I met a girl who was also living in TX.

Now while most of my friends are very "worldly" and have travelled all over, I've always kept my feet grounded wherever I called home. Mostly out of necessity. And it wasn't til the last few years that I've had a chance to expand my horizons with opportunities to travel for work, vacation and special occasions.

A few years ago I travelled to Hawaii for one of my best friends' wedding. I've been to California, Florida, Vancouver, Jamaica and Cuba for vacation. I've been to Arizona, Minneapolis, Massachusetts, New York and California for work. Next month I return back to the eastern hemisphere after 25+ years. I head to Johannesburg, South Africa for work in November and then shortly after that I head to Thailand for a 3 week belated honeymoon.

For most people, travelling to new countries and experiencing new cultures is exciting. For me, I find I'm somewhat indifferent to the experience. I don't know if it's just a matter of being so sheltered all my life or if I just don't have any legitimate interest in travelling.

So here are the top three things I like about travelling...

1) spending time with friends

The best part about spending time with your friends is that they make you forget about the things that stress you out. You can throw out your everyday inhibitions and fake work facades and be normal around them.

2) not worrying about time

How many times in a day do you look at your calendar to figure out where you have to be, who you have to see and what you have to be doing? Most of us live such a fast-paced, time oriented lifestyle that requires a lot of effort and organization to maintain. Whatever happened to just going with the flow and coming in with the breeze?

3) enjoying new physical activities

I'm an active person and I enjoy physical activities that are mentally stimulating. If I can't lie around and let time pass aimlessly, then I'd like to be involved in an activity that challenges me physically.

And the top three things I don't like about travelling...

1) planes

I have a fear of flying. Wait, actually I don't have a fear of flying. I have a fear of crashing and dying.

2) site seeing and touristy activities

I've lived in Toronto for almost 25 years and I haven't seen 90% of the tourist sites here. I can read about history and see pictures of architecture and monuments. I don't need to see it for myself just to say I was there. If the experience is just to say you've experienced it, then is the novelty really worth the effort? I'm not one of those people who needs to take pictures standing in front of old buildings and monuments.

However, what I find interesting about people taking these kinds of pictures is that they're capturing 2 different periods of history with one photo. The history of them travelling and the history of the building/monument they're standing in front of. Here's something interesting to do the next time you're travelling -- carve your name into the building or monument you're in front of and take a picture of it. Then show your children/grandchildren the picture. If they ever travel there when they get older, they can take pictures of your vandalism and capture 3 different generations of history.

3) rigid agendas

The reason you're on vacation is to get away from meetings and appointments. Don't set an agenda that requires you to run from site to site to get in everything you want to see. It quickly becomes a chore and your vacation turns out to be just another regular appointment in your calendar.

So right now I can't say I'm overwhelmed with excitement to travel to either S.Africa or Thailand because I haven't really planned out any activities that would interest me but I am however glad to have the opportunity to a) travel to the other side of the pond and b) share the experience with Sonia. Hopefully on these trips, I'll be struck with the proverbial travel bug and come back excited for the next trip.

Well this just sucks...
(Lights - Drive My Soul)

Wanted -- Life Coach
(Josh Groban - You're Still You)

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not a people person. I don't interact well with new people. I tend to hide in my shell and sometimes come off as too irreverent for my own good. I've even been accused of being stand-offish. However, I am also easily inspired by people who are smart/talented/unique/funny. People who make me forget how awkward I am simply because their personalities demand to be noticed. These are the people that make it easy for me to open up and share with them. These are the people that inspire me to do greater things with my life. If you're not born with inspiration like myself, you feed off of these types of people.

My company CEO once told me he spent 13 months trying to arrange a meeting with a famous advisor to Microsoft, Apple and the other Silicon Valley companies. The reason he did it was because he was looking for inspiration and advice from someone who obviously had more insight than he did. He said, "I am new at being a CEO and I need all the coaching I can find." How's that for humility?

Part of my growth as a human being largely depends on who I surround myself with and the people I extend my hand out to and ask for help. I need to reach out beyond my own social comfort zone and find inspiration in the people that have oodles of it.

So if you find an awkward little Asian guy stalking you, it's just because I'm impressed by your mojo and am looking to learn how to get my own -- not because I am a weird, little Asian stalker.

Find Your Own Light
(Killers - This Is The World That We Live In)

On religion...

I don't want my kids learning about religion at an early age. I feel kids are far too impressionable at a young age and they need to pick a religion with their own free will. When we introduce it to them too early, they can't distinguish between what we want them to believe and what they have a choice in.

So what's the story about my own religious beliefs? I was raised a buddhist by my parents and grandma. I was baptized in a christian church that my family's sponsors went to. I was never pressured by either my relatives or our sponsors on what I should or shouldn't believe. As I got to university, I realized I needed to explore my spiritual beliefs a little more. So I took a few religion courses figuring that if I learned a little more, I could make an educated decision. What I found out was that my beliefs are not streamlined to one religion. My beliefs are just a patch work of multiple religions.

I think as long as this still leads me down the right path, I am ok with it. The right path though is defined by my own conscience and not anyone else's. I think the key to this is that I was raised well by my family and they instilled in me a good set of values.

So where does that leave religion? When should you have religion in your life? I don't think there's a real answer to this. I believe if religion adds value to your morals, then great. Or if you weren't brought up with a good foundation of morals and need religion as some guiding light, that's ok too. If you feel lonely in this vast universe without knowing that there's someone looking over you, then religion might be the answer.

What I don't believe is that religion is absolutely necessary for everyone and I don't believe you should just adopt the religion that's first presented to you. Educate yourself, understand your choices and then embrace it.