Stanley Cup Finals - bad business this year?

Finally, the final four. Just one step closer to the Stanley Cup Finals. No clue what I'm talking about? NHL hockey, goddamit! Well, I guess only Canadians will appreciate this post.

This year, the later rounds of playoff hockey are a bit more boring than usual. The conspicuous absence of teams like the New Jersey Devils and the Detroit Red Wings and of superstar players like Jaromir Jagr makes this year's playoffs seem rather quiet. I know I'm not going to watch, but that's because games aren't aired in Hong Kong. Not that I EVER watch hockey in Canada, though, heh. Anyway, this year's playoffs will not only prove disappointing to fans, but also the hockey business.

This year, three small-market teams and one team from suburban Los Angeles have made it to the conference finals. The small-market teams have metropolitan populations of approximately 1 million, and the LA team, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, competes with their more established crosstown rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, for a fan base. Compare these markets with New York City-area teams (metro pop'n: 21 million) and mid-sized market teams like Detroit (metro pop'n: 4.5 million) and Denver (2.8 million). Not only are there more people living in these metropolitan areas, but they also tend to attract larger television audiences. Some teams, especially the ones that have been around for a lot longer (the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, for example), or those that have dazzling superstars on their rosters, are nationally popular. On the other hand, newer teams and teams in smaller cities are often only popular in their home markets.

I assume that Canadian small-market teams have larger fan bases than American cities of comparable sizes, though; I could imagine the Calgary Flames selling out (selling all of the tickets, for you non-native speakers) more often than the Carolina Hurricanes can. And perhaps the northeastern part of the US is more interested than people in the south are. I really can't imagine people in Nashville or Phoenix taking to hockey, but perhaps people in Pittsburg and Buffalo feel differently.

As for business, let's think about what I assume are the three main revenue streams in hockey: ticket sales, merchandising, and television rights. Profits from ticket sales largely go to the individual teams (and which, I assume, is also tithed by the league) while revenue from television rights goes to league coffers; I'm not sure about merchandising, though. Let's imagine that Edmonton will win in the Western Conference and Carolina will win in the East. Who will watch the Finals? Fewer people than would watch the Detroit Red Wings vs. the New Jersey Devils, I tell ya. So the beer companies and the crappy North American carmakers that buy advertising time won't be happy. And the more reluctant companies are to advertise for what seems to be a declining market, the weaker the bargaining power the league will have to renegotiate terms with TV networks. Well, at least the small-market teams will probably sell-out during the playoffs, and the unprofitable ones just might break even. And sales of hats, jerseys, and bobbleheads don't hurt either.

21st century nomads

Last weekend, two old classmates of mine moved to Hong Kong. One is a Beijing native who went to Ontario for a Masters degree, then to Vancouver for another Masters degree, then back to Beijing. The other is a Calgary native who lived in Japan for a couple of stints, then went to Vancouver for a Masters degree, then to Beijing. They got married there last autumn. And now they're both working in the financial services industry in Hong Kong.

It's amazing how so many of my friends and I have not only travelled all over the place, but who have also lived all over the world.

My two best buddies from high school are now medical students. Keith did an internship in Montreal and a couple of months of volunteer work in Guatemala during university before going off to Toronto for medical school, and even managed to spend a summer in Shanghai for a research project. Trylon was born in the US, moved to Canada as a kid, then did army training somewhere in Cowfuck Alberta, then fought forest fires somewhere in Ploughcousin BC, before going to Sydney, Australia for med school.

Grace, arguably my first girlfriend and another best buddy from high school, was raised in and went to university in Vancouver, earned a couple more degrees in Halifax, did an internship in Toronto, and is now an architect in New York City.

And my buddy Judy, born and raised in BC, has been quite the jet-setter in recent years, constantly shuttling between Vancouver, Hong Kong, and Australia. She's been in hot demand as a researcher and writer, and is considered an authority on war veterans. She's now doing her PhD in Australia.

My buddy Victor, who was born in central Russia, studied in Moscow, continued his studies in Beijing (where he then worked for a decade), studied in Boston (we all know what THAT means, right, Courtney?), worked in Beijing again, then went to Vancouver for a PhD. He'll be moving back to Beijing very soon.

And then there's Simon. I forget where he was born, but he was raised in Victoria, BC, did an undergraduate and Masters degree in Vancouver, lived in India (and played a British officer in a Bollywood film!) for an internship at least once, taught English in Taipei to save up some cash, and is now blowing this cash on law school in Montreal.

And then there's Raf.. I don't know if anyone can beat Raf. This guy was born and raised in Toronto, but while doing his undergraduate degree and during law school, he went on exchange programs in Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. During his Masters degree (which, along with his law degree, he earned in Vancouver), he worked on a research project in Melbourne. After that, he moved to LA to work at a law firm, and just this week, he moved to San Francisco to be a lawyer there. Wow, 8 cities! Crazy, huh? I've only notched 4, or 5, if you include my month in Seoul.

Many more of my friends have moved around this much, and maybe even more than this. It's pretty cool.


I envy my friends who go on business travel, especially the ones who get to fly on business class and who stay in 5 star hotels or luxury serviced apartments. Even the flight attendants get a generous per diem and usually stay in decent hotels too, AND they get some time off between flights. But while I envy the luxury and comfort they enjoy, I still prefer staying in one place for a relatively lengthy period of time in order to explore the neighbourhoods, talk to the people, root out the good restaurants, learn the local history, and get a feel of life in each place.


Some of my friends really dig the cosmopolitan style of lives they live abroad. To tell you the truth, I don't really enjoy hanging out with fellow expatriates at bars. I do enjoy eating different food, and having Western food available to me when I want it, though. Most of my friends are quite adventurous and inquisitive and prefer to life as the local people live.

For some people who have rather valuable job skills, working abroad can be very very lucrative. But even those who don't have extremely high-paying jobs gain very valuable cultural and life experience. I know I haven't saved a penny while living abroad, so I guess all I've earned is experience, which is still quite valuable to me.


I suppose there are drawbacks to being rootless, though. Some of my friends my age have started to buy houses and get married (though none my age have had kids yet!). Even my younger sister bought herself a brand new car.. a couple of years ago! As for me, my most valuable material possession is my laptop, and it's not worth that much after 2 years of depreciation. After that, it's my mountain bike, and at 10 years old, I'm sure it's worth almost nothing now. Well, I guess instead of my mountain bike, it would be my cell phone, or perhaps my glasses. In other words, I have no assets. Oh, don't even mention my bank accounts...

Still, we all die someday, and some of my friends will die possessing more than they or their families will ever need. I don't mind dying with nearly nothing, and I'm sure my family, old and new, will be smart and tough enough to take care of themselves. But if I die tomorrow, I will be happy with the life I've lived. Happier than if I stayed Vancouver. aloof to the world out there.

I hate cockroaches

One thing I've always hated about living in Asia is cockroaches. The cockroaches here are huge, with bodies more than an inch long, and antennae even longer. They aren't only freakishly big, but they also move freakishly quickly, darting across the floor and even up and down walls at dazzling speeds. Just looking at them, even from dozens of metres away, makes me shiver.

I'd rather wrestle a bear than deal with a cockroach. Or deal with a pack of ferocious guard dogs.

I've been fortunate to almost never have cockroaches in my bedroom. Only once did I see a cockroach in my ground-floor dorm room in Taipei, and I was spared cockroaches in my 8th floor rooftop apartment when I went back 2 years later, and I didn't even see cockroaches in Beijing, let alone in my apartment there, and so far, I haven't seen cockroaches in my dorm room in Hong Kong, thank Allah.

The one time that I saw a cockroach in my dorm in Taipei, it was around 3am, and I was just about ready to go to bed. As I returned to my dorm after brushing my teeth, I noticed two antennae sticking out from the top of my slightly ajar closet door, and they were MOVING! I slowly, but cautiously opened the closet door, and there it was, a big huge cockroach in front of my eyes. I SCREAMED, and the Korean guy who lived next door came into my room right on cue. He saw the cockroach, grabbed a broom from the lounge, then brushed the cockroach to the ground, then swept it out the door. My hero. Except then, the Korean guy decided to toy with me, and proceeded to play "cockroach hockey" by swinging the broom like a hockey stick and delivering a slapshot to my then-closed door. The cockroach was still moving after two slapshots, but on the third, it disappeared under the gap between the door and the floor! Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night. Thankfully, I was due to leave Taipei in a month or so.

There was a Korean restaurant hidden in a side street near my school in Taipei that my buddy Bill and I loved to frequent. We ate bibimbap (stone pot mixed rice) or the grilled beef set menu every day for a couple of months... UNTIL one day, I saw a cockroach climbing up the wall at that place. That same day, I went to the washroom to wash my hands, and was shocked to discover brown water coming out of the tap. I did go back to that place though, 3 years later. Fortunately, they renovated the place, and it wasn't quite so dingy anymore.

And I remember one day, when I had just arrived in Taipei in 2000, I was walking in the side streets in front of Taipei Main Station and it suddenly rained HEAVILY. So heavily that some streets there were flooded with water at least 1 foot deep. I was wearing sports sandals that day and didn't mind (and didn't have much choice but to go) wading through this shin-high water to cross streets. Even some of the sidewalks were flooded with a couple of inches of water. Anyway, as I passed a restaurant and a "love hotel" that were adjacent to each other, I saw HUNDREDS of cockroaches swarming out of the doors and into the water! Needless to say, I walked back from whence I came and took another route. And of course, I never ate at that restaurant, or rented a room at that love hotel.

I've only had physical contact with cockroaches once, in a supermarket, and once again, in Taipei. I was standing in a check-out line at Wellcome, and I suddenly felt something on my shoulder. Thinking it was a mosquito or a low-hanging sign, I turned my head and brushed my shoulder. To my horror, a cockroach fell to the ground and started crawling around at my feet! I couldn't move for at least one minute, and was so shaken with fear that I shivered for about half an hour after that.


Summer in Hong Kong is characterised by thunderstorms (and intense heat and humidity when it's not raining), and after the summer comes the typhoon season. Weather forecasts have been warning of thunderstorms almost every other day lately, but the thunder, lightning, and rain rarely materialise. But in the case that they do, people have to be extra careful right before the storms come. Hong Kong is usually quite free of cockroaches (compared to Taipei), except for the few hours before a heavy rain. Cockroaches seem to know when rain will come, and they come out of hiding and torment me on sidewalks and darkened staircases. During such times, I suspect anything that moves on the sidewalk of being a cockroach. Many a leaf blowing in the wind has made me stop in my tracks and shiver. I laugh at myself, especially since 9 times out of 10, it's just a leaf. But when it's actually a cockroach, I'm at my wit's end! I've jumped many feet up in the air before, making friends and people around me wonder which mental hospital I've escaped from. I've had the fortune of never letting out a scream in public, but people wonder why a tough-looking guy sometimes looks so petrified. Anyway, I've got months of this ahead of me, and I will probably never be safe, but will at least be somewhat more safe in the late autumn. Oh damn! Once I move out of this dorm in this clean dorm building on this clean university campus, I'll have to rent substandard housing which will be sure to have cockroaches. Damn, I'd rather wrestle a bear. Or deal with a pack of ferocious guard dogs.


NOTE: I wanted to post a picture of a cockroach on this page, but when I googled for pictures of them, they really freaked me out!

McVitie's chocolate-covered digestives

I ran out of chocolate, so yesterday, I went to the tiny on-campus Park N' Shop supermarket whose manager I'd like to slap around and looked around for some. There aren't any promotions on chocolate like there are at Watsons - they usually have some special deals on huge Nestle chocolate bars that are made in Brazil or Indonesia and originally destined for Spain or Malaysia - so I bought some McVitie's chocolate-covered digestives instead, on sale for $11+ HKD, down from $17 HKD. I've had a few already, and I've come to realise that I prefer it when the biscuits are a bit soft and soggy. This time, the biscuits are a bit too crispy for my taste. I put the pack into a sealable container, but I think I'm going to leave it open for a couple of days. Let's hope I don't end up finishing the pack before the biscuits even have a chance to soften.

Can dreams die?

Everybody has dreams. Even a cynic like me has dreams sometimes.

Dreams don't always come true, but it's been known to happen sometimes. It's not that my dreams are so unfeasible - I don't dream about becoming the president of the United States or walking on Neptune. I'm not really too much of a dreamer. Well, I dream of Japan apologizing to China, Chinese people becoming more civilized, of scientists coming up with emission-free technologies, an end to war and hunger, etc., but that stuff is beyond my control.


My only dreams, my real dreams and not my silly or unattainable ones, are to write for a living; and to meet, fall in love with, and spend the rest of my life with the girl of my dreams.


A little while ago, I met and fell deeply in love with the girl of my dreams, and she fell deeply in love with me. Life was so idyllic then.

Not long after starting to live this dream of mine, I was suddenly awakened from it. I still stubbornly refuse to believe that it was all just a dream.

The pain has not subsided, and I'm still in disbelief. I have to face reality, but as much as I want to move on, it's not something I can achieve at will. Believe me, I want to move on almost as much as I want to re-live my dream. Actually, my new dream is to re-live my old dream. I dream that in a few days, or a few weeks, or a few months, or perhaps even a few years, we will be together again.


If you knew what I've been up to lately, then none of you would ever say that I haven't done enough to try to win her back. And I do so at the risk of losing my friendship with her, which is very precious to me. I do so at the risk of rendering the memories I've given her meaningless, and these memories mean so very much to her. I can't and won't let either of these things happen.

Even though she has let it slip that she will probably never stop loving me for as long as she will live and that she actually does want to be with me, her conviction in her decision is so strong and her reasons for making this decision in the first place are so compelling that she feels she must sacrifice our happiness and our love.

I've even asked her silly things such as, "If we are told that the world will end in 5 years, would you spend the rest of your life with me, since all that stuff won't matter anymore?" And she said yes. I've wished and wished and wished that the world would end in 5 years.


I have been told to forget about my dream. To expect that it won't happen. To accept that it will never happen.

Goals can be unfulfilled, we can fall short of targets, and promises are not always kept. Our beliefs can change, our tastes change, and our desires change.

But can we kill our dreams?

Flossing my teeth before I sleep and checking email and as soon as I wake up

It turns out that I'm a creature of habit, and I have some habits that I wouldn't consider unhealthy, but any disruption to my routine can really mess me up.

For one, I absolutely must floss my teeth before I go to bed. If I don't floss my teeth, I cannot fall asleep. I once made the mistake of not keeping extra dental floss in the house, and when I ran out, I discovered that I couldn't sleep that night. Another time, I made the mistake of not packing some dental floss when I went on vacation, so I had to resort to using toothpicks, which don't do the job, that first night before buying some extremely expensive floss the day after. These days, I always keep at least a year's supply of dental floss with me.

Another habit I have is I absolutely must check my email as soon as I wake up. Before I go to the bathroom to release my bodily fluids, I switch my computer on, and as soon as I come back, I log on and check my email. I don't necessarily have to reply to any of them, and I don't even have to read any of them - sadly, they're mostly news alerts. I just want to see if any of my friends and family members have written to me. Anyway, I've discovered that I can't do anything until I've checked my email. If there are problems with my internet connection or with my email server, if my computer isn't working, I won't be able to concentrate on anything until I've sorted out my email. I can't fully concentrate on reading a book or writing a paper. And if I have to rush out before I can check my email, I'll think about my email all day, wondering if my mom sent me anything, or if my friends have replied to me. Wow, more and more, I feel that I'm a very lonely person. I absolutely hate being alone, and the irony is that all these years, I've been doing exercise that I can do alone (cycling, hiking, etc.), I've been moving from city to city all on my own - it seems as though I'm trying to become a recluse. But I guess this blog entry isn't supposed to be about my loneliness.

Another stupid habit I have is that I end up putting off haircuts - I just feel that getting a haircut is kind of expensive - until a big date, a job interview, etc. So I often get a haircut the day before or the day of a big date, a job interview, etc. As we all know, haircuts seldom look good in the first few days after you get one. It may look good at the barber shop/hairdresser's, but as soon as I go home to wash it, I realise that it's too short, too thin, a bit uneven, and rarely the way I want it, and it takes a few days to grow into something that looks and feels decent. History always repeats itself. I got a haircut on the very day of the Graduate House High Table Dinner last November, a haircut that was a bit too short and a bit too thin. There will be another one tonight, and guess what - I got a haircut yesterday, a haircut that looks equally bad.

UPDATE: Here's a picture of my haircut, taken yesterday. I bumped into a friend, and she happened to have a camera handy, so she just had to snap a shot of me and my crap haircut. AND I didn't shave that day. AND I was so sweaty earlier that day. AND I only got about 3 hrs of sleep the night before. AND I gained 5 lbs in a week. That sweetheart there is Kelly, a CSP buddy, and the lucky lucky guy is Kelly's boyfriend.

The joys of writing

Although I've considered myself to be a very good student in the last couple of years I was in school (in Vancouver, not here), I still had some pretty bad habits. Although I'd think about my term papers as soon as they're assigned, and I'd come up with a broad topic a couple of months before they're due, and I borrow and read dozens of books on the topic, and I start writing a few weeks before the due date, and I try hard to come up with an argument as soon as possible.. I always ended up writing the bulk of each paper in the couple of days before the deadline. I'd stay up all day and night, get bloated on snacks and drinks, nearly go insane at times with extreme fatigue, but can still manage to do decent work. The problem is that I'm so damned indecisive when it comes to picking a stance, picking the best evidence, picking the best quotes, etc. But when I'm finally forced to choose, I normally make sound choices. Then comes the task of cleaning up. Even though it can be tiring, this is a part that I truly enjoy. While sculptors chip away at their work with progressively smaller chisels, I replace and rearrange words (and sentences and paragraphs and even entire sections) until either I'm satisfied or until time runs out. It's usually the latter. I don't think I ever come up with any brilliant ideas, but I know damned well that I can make a point damned clear and damned convincing by the way I arrange and rearrange words.

Anyway, my paper is going okay, even a bit ahead of schedule, for once. I have no choice. Who knew that so many things would be happening in the few days before this damned paper's due? I'm bringing Graduate House residents on a day-trip to Macau the day before the paper's due. In the 3 days before that, an old friend is coming to visit Hong Kong (arriving in a few hours, actually), and I'll show her around a bit. And there's also the bore-a-thon High Table Dinner tomorrow, but at least there's free steak in it for me.

There is one distraction I wouldn't mind having, and that is a girlfriend. Too bad I don't have one of those at the moment. Doesn't look like I'll have one in the near future either. More on that another time.

I really really want to post here more consistently. It's not that I haven't been writing anything for this blog, it's just that I haven't been POSTING anything here. In fact, I've written at least a dozen half-written entries in the last couple of weeks. The problem is that I don't have the energy or the discipline to finish writing them. I'd think of something clever or interesting, quickly jot it down (can I say "jot down" if I'm typing rather than hand-writing?), but then be too lazy to write the background information or to structure anything properly, or to take out superfluous words, to simplify complex ideas, to elaborate vague ones, and to.. to.. finish incomplete thoughts.

And here I am at 7:00am, writing this. No, I didn't wake up early. I'm up "late". Too worked up by arranging and rearranging. Not this blog entry, though, as you can probably see.

This paper is going to make me go bald

I'm sitting at my desk in my dorm in nothing but my underwear, glasses, and slippers, writing this damned Sociology paper. I've got dozens of books and articles strewn across my bed and my already cluttered desk.

I feel so frustrated because I haven't been updating this blog. I would have felt too guilty to write anything until I've gotten some work done, but it has taken me 1-2 weeks to even get started. Well, at least now, I've come up with a topic that will deal with some of the theorists that I could actually understand.

I knew that Modern Social Theory was going to be challenging, but perhaps I forgot about the pain of writing term papers, ESPECIALLY when it comes to discussing theories. In the past, that only involved a small part of each paper, but this time, this being a theory course, the whole paper is about theory.

I can't wait till I finish this damned thing.