Binthinkin

I've been thinking about restarting my blog again: my brain is getting too cluttered with useless thoughts, so I would like to unload them onto you (and clutter yours) instead. What with facebook updates and tweets these days, they seem to be so short a message that it's not enough to get brainfarts out in any decent fashion. And stories are better when they're longer than 140 characters.

iPhone vs the CAA

So ... on the way back to Vancouver some time ago (like 2-3 years ago), I brought my iPhone (2G) with me. And on the plane, like a good boy, I put the iPhone in "flight mode", meaning all the radio transmitters are immediately shut off and they don't emit radiowaves or radiation that might interfere with the aircraft's delicate electronics. Standard procedure, really.

But about mid-way through the flight, I'm using it to skip forward tracks, and one stewardess passing by (pushing the beverage cart) mentions something to another. All I heard was "iPhone", so I didn't think anything of it.

About a minute later, she comes back to me and very politely asks if this was an iPhone, to which I answer yes. She then tells me that I can't use it on the plane.

"Oh, but I put it on 'flight mode', so it's okay."
"No, sorry, you just can't use the iPhone at all on the flight."
"But in 'flight mode', all the radios and wireless are turned off, so it's just like a regular iPod now."
"According to CAA regulations, we don't allow mobile phones to be operated during the flight."
"With all the wireless turned off, it's no longer a mobile phone."
"We're told there's still some radiowaves."
"This is exactly my field of work, and I can tell you that the radio chips are not operating."
"I'm really sorry about this, it's just according to the CAA."

This is even more interesting/frustrating to me because I never had this problem when using my Sony Ericsson W800i on board.

Anyway, I leave it alone for now, pretending to put it away, but I keep using it anyhow, because dammit, I know I'm right. I think about it for a while, and then realize she said "CAA" instead of "FAA". Turns out CAA stands for Civil Aeronautics Administration, and is basically the FAA for Taiwan.

And while the FAA/TSA is quite clear about what you can and can't bring and/or operate during the flight, the CAA is a little less clear in its Information for Passengers. The CAA also doesn't really mention things specifically about airplane modes in their Laws, Regulations, Handbook & Guidelines. Even their Compliance and Enforcement Procedures webpage is still under construction!

Apple talks a bit about their airplane mode for the iPhone, but additionally mentions that you "should" be able to use it on the flights, along with disclaimers about checking with the flight authorities.

So ... has anyone else had any similar experiences with other mobile phones integrated with music players?? I suppose nowadays it's not really much of an issue. Heck, nowadays, I almost never turn my iPhone off on the plane -- I switch it to flight mode, start the music with my buds in my ears, and turn the display off. As a constant flyer, I have a well-rehearsed answer for when the flight attendants come by:

"They're not on; just using them as earplugs."

Which is a little white lie, because they are cutting out the drone of the plane noise, they're also serving as a digital music pipe into my head.

Annual blog entry

So ... seems like every year or so, I come back and promise I'll blog more. I think I really will this time. No, seriously: I'll try. Was just reading over some old entries, and I enjoyed them a lot, and would love to continue writing.

Just have to figure out how to make money at it, and then I'm golden!

Hiatus

It's been a rough few weeks, trying to get used to being a project manager in this firm. It's very different from being a project manager in industry, not the least reason of which is that leading a bunch of clever consultants is just very exhausting.

I really need to take a vacation after this. Even if I don't go anywhere past the boundaries of our new apartment, it would be nice to re-center and re-balance myself in terms of what kind of person I'd like to become in the near term.

Falling asleep, so I'll let you all go ...

Two years of great change

Just wanted to say that these two years have seen dramatic changes in my life, and 2010 is poised to boost that trend even a bit more. I'll post more later on, but I need to visit the bank before they close.

Spam

The other day, a message in my spam box was entitled,

"i videotaped my mom while she was masturbating"

Seriously, who the hell would be enticed by that title?? Nasty.

Hello?

Just wondering, how do you answer your phone (be it work or home or mobile)?

People in my company are all BlackBerried, so their work/personal mobile phones are basically one and the same. And they seem to answer their phones as one of:

"Hello, this is [name]."
"[name]" (without anything else)

Me, I go pretty casual:

"Hello?"

How about you?

Best Valentine's Day conversation overheard (by me)

I step into a random restaurant on rue Mouffetard in Paris on Valentine's Day evening, and am seated beside an American couple. I make eye contact perhaps just once (and unintentionally), but I have the pleasure of eavesdropping on their chat.

"Oh, this [escargots bourgogne] is so delicious. I love this sauce."
"You wanna marry it?", she asks without much emotion.
"No, honey, I'm going to marry you. You got dibs."

I thought it was over, but he gave it a brief afterthought and added:

"I'm going to have an affair with this sauce, though."

French Neighbours

I got home about 30 minutes ago, and found an envelope taped to my door, with "EN URGENT" handwritten on it. I opened it up and saw a letter:

Je suis Fabienne Xxx, votre voisine "en dessous". Ce matin at 6h30, j'ai trouve une fuite au dessous de l'evier. Le symdec est prevenu et le plombier m'a signale que la fuite, en partie, venait de chez vous. Auriez-vous l'amabilite de me telephoner au 01xx62xx34 pour prevoir une visite du plombier et eviter que les degats ne persistent. D'avance, je vous en remercie.

Had to get Google to translate it for me (after I deciphered some of the words because the penmanship is just horrible):

I'm Fabienne Xxx, your neighbor "below". This morning at 6:30 am, I found a leak below the sink. The [symdec] is accused and the plumber has said that the leak, in part, came from your place. Would you please call me at 01xx62xx34 to predict a visit by the plumber and avoid the damage that can persist. Thank you in advance."

I left her a message on the answering machine and left my number, and on Monday I'll get the rental service people to handle it.

Hi

Hi.

It's been a while since I've blogged about anything. And it's not for lack of anything to write about. Rather, it's a lack of motivation to write about that stuff.

Sorry.
It's not you, it's me.
Really.

I'll get around to blogging again, when I finally sort out everything in my head. In the meantime, know that I do still keep up with yours.

Nuri

I'm in Hong Kong right now.
See that furry white ball there?
That's a typhoon, Typhoon Nuri.
It has decided to park its ass directly on HK.

My head is in the windy wet ass of a typhoon.

Up in the Air

Travel plans all amuck.

I'm applying for a Chinese entry visa (again), so that means my passport and everything is sitting in some visa processing office. ETA is tomorrow afternoon, so then I can hop on my flight tomorrow night and go home for the weekend (before hitting Shanghai on Monday morning).

The Hong Kong weather folks have issued a T1 signal because of Typhoon Nuri. According to Hong Kong's Tropical Cyclone warning signals, a T1 signal apparently means that it can still be sunny outside and completely devoid of any resemblance to a breeze. But it also means everyone should be on standby for a real doozy of a typhoon.

It also means that, if the typhoon gets really bad tomorrow, I can't get my visa (and passport) back by tomorrow -- it would then be processed by Monday instead. And that means I can't go anywhere for the weekend: if I get my visa after the weekend, I have to stay in HK this weekend and fly straight out to Shanghai again on Monday.

This is not good.
I want to go home!

Crybaby

I still tear up when I think about how my mom missed my wedding, and how much she was really looking forward to it before her life ended abruptly.

In the middle of watching The Mummy 3, there was a medium-sappy moment between Brendan Fraser's character and his son. I thought about my mom, my dad, and how much I miss them (in different ways). And I lost it: I started crying quietly to myself in the middle of the theatre.

I find that my emotions are bubbling just beneath my surface, waiting to fill my eyes with more tears. There's still a lot of hurt inside me that needs to be released. I just hope the trigger isn't at an inopportune time.

No Thanks a Mint

Imagine that you're on a trip, and you stay at a hotel. At the end of the day, you wash up, done brushing your teeth and all that, ready for bed. You walk over to it, and ... there's a chocolate sitting on your pillow.

What exactly were they thinking when they came up with that? Why would I want a chocolate (or a mint) as I'm about to sleep? Who's the clever one who came up with that idea?

The only origin I can think of is maybe some twisted play on "sweet dreams".

Yes

I know: I haven't blogged for a long, long time.

It's just that, every time I think of something to blog, it's usually a fleeting thought of a subject. And it's usually when I'm not near a computer (or don't have time to cozy up to the keyboard because I'm in a rush to leave). So by the time I'm actually at the Mac again, I forgot what it was I wanted to say.

That's the gist of it.

Though I will say that I'm thinking about buying a Time Capsule (still undecided on the 500GB vs 1TB) and an Airport Express pair. For home, and for travel, respectively. Advice?

Getting into China

Things are a-changin'. My status in Taiwan is currently in flux: my resident visa to stay in Taiwan is about to expire (since I've quit), and my new one isn't ready/active yet. And somehow, amidst all of this, I'm supposed to get a business visa to do my training in China, and soon.

End of Days

After having filled out three different forms and visited no fewer than five separate departments for signatures, I got all the "approvals" I needed for the requisite paperwork.

So I sent this yesterday.

Subject: My Days Are Numbered / 後天是我最後一天

"Hello, my esteemed colleagues!

It is with mixed feelings that I inform you (by an impersonal email such as this) I have decided to leave This Company. This Thursday (June 12, 2008) will be my last day in the office.

It has no doubt been a fruitful experience to have worked at this firm with all the different types of people in the company. I only regret not having met more of you outside of the office environment. To say the least, these past 14 months have given me much experience (and about 5lb of body fat) which I will bring with me into my future endeavours.

I plan to remain in Taiwan with my next gainful employment for a few more years, so I'll still be around (though suffering painfully longer working hours). Please don't hesitate to contact me by my personal email below. Other contact methods available after you email me first: mobile phone, IM, facebook, Flickr, shoe size, you name it! I would, of course, also appreciate you passing me your private contact information as well so that we can keep in touch.

With that note, I bid you farewell, and hope we'll meet again soon. Take care!

I also provided a brief translation in Chinese.

各位同事們,你們好!

時間到了, 我得離開這家公司了! 這個星期四(2008年6月12日)是我在這家公司的最後一天. 在這家公司過了十四個酸甜苦辣的月, 我在這裡成長了很多也學習了很多. 我相信這些經念對我的未來會有很大的幫助. 以下是我的聯絡資料, 請大家保持聯絡! 希望各位都好好保重, 再見囉!"

Now I wait my time out in anticipation of a few weeks' break. In the meantime, I'll clean out this computer: clean the cache, delete the cookies and bookmarks, uninstall unapproved software, and generally erase my existence.

Black Rain

Continuing the recap ...

Because we slept late, we woke up late -- typical of our weekends, of course. I'd researched a number of walking tours for Macau (澳門), and we set out around noon (after navigating our way out of the casino labyrinth).

Huddling under our umbrellas, we made our way up San Ma Lo (新馬路), through Leal Senado Square (議事亭前地), stopping for food only at the milk pudding joint (義順燉奶). We're up at the famous stone facade ruins of St. Paul Church (大三巴聖保羅教堂), and head into the Museum of Macao to hide from the rain.

That's all fine until we leave the museum to see that the lightning storm had gotten orders of magnitude worse! The lightning cracks and the sky fills with a brighter grey for a split second.

"One mississippi,
two mississip--"

The thunder follows almost immediately after: we're pretty close to wherever the lightning is hitting, and my guess is it's at Guia Hill (松山公園).

Running from tree to tree, our umbrellas serving as feeble rain protection, we retreat hastily down the hill.

Every one of the Church's steps is overflowing with a river of water some inches deep. Every one of my steps rewards me with a squelching noise and water flowing in and around my toes ... inside of my sneakers.

Completely soaked.

We duck into a Quiksilver store where I buy my souvenir for the trip: a pair of Quiksilver flip flops. (Alongside us are 20 other couples doing the same thing.) We decide to call it a day and head home: we spend the rest of the day wandering through the resort and mall stores, and then eat eat eat.

Afterwards, we head back to the room.

"Okay, let's shower, rest for a bit, then head downstairs and hit the tables."
"Cool."

Not an hour later, we fell asleep in front of the TV.

I, Macau

Quick recap.

Picked up the wife on the way to the airport on Friday evening: a weekend getaway to Macau (Macao)! She says she read on the internet that the Macao Airport is closed due to inclement weather, but called the airline and they said it's business as usual for our 8:20pm flight.

We get to the airport, and get this at the check-in counter:

"The Macau airport is closed right now due to bad weather, so we are unable to check you in. We don't have more information at this time, sorry. Here are some vouchers for Burger King, so please go have a bite to eat, and check with us again at 7:10."

That sucks. We cram into BK with the other 200-300 people who have flights bound for Macau.

7:10pm rolls around, we go back and they have no definite news. One lady (leading a tour group) is livid, gathers up a lynch mob, arguing loudly, demanding all sorts of compensation. A group of uneducated people who don't understand how customer service works (nor the concept of disempowerment) start complaining loudly too, yelling at the top of their lungs at the messenger.

I watch and take pictures from a distance. We call the travel agent and the Venetian in Macau to explore alternatives: maybe take the trip later, or have part of the pre-paid fees refunded if things don't go our way, to no avail. The angry mob subsides, and about 30 minutes later, police and security arrive to a calmed crowd lining up in orderly fashion.

We get on the earlier of two re-routed flights, taking off at 11:30pm. Free shuttle busses to/from the Venetian ended at 11:30pm, so we take a cab to the hotel.

We're in the hotel by 2am, where they tell us they have no more suites with king beds and are upgrading us for free to a two-bed suite. Turns out, "upgrade" in this instance means "trade your single king bed for two queen beds which are in no way better (though not worse either).

Shower, and sleep by 3am. Weather forecasts rain for the next day too. Lovely.

---
On another note, these love handles are getting out of hand. I'm a cow. The crash diet starts today.

No Calls

I woke up this morning and I wondered why my mom hasn't called recently to ask me why I haven't called recently.