The World Cup - the great equaliser

I love the World Cup. The fact that I've only watched half a match in the two weeks since the tournament started doesn't diminish my love of the World Cup.

I watched half of the Brazil-Croatia match on the fifth day of the tournament. It's not that I'm a fan of the Brazilian team, but everybody was talking about the Brazil team, and in Hong Kong, those who aren't England fans are Brazil fans. And yes, it really is a bit odd to see about 5% of Hong Kong men wearing t-shirts that bear the crest of Team England. Anyway, though only one goal was scored in that match, it was quite exciting to watch the shots on goal. It would have been quite boring to watch that match on my own, but it was kind of fun to watch it with the silly boys and girls who chose to stay up until 5:00am to watch it. In hindsight, it would have been more fun to watch Argentina beat Serbia and Montenegro (didn't Montenegro declare independence just this month?) 6-0, though. I was also reminded of why boxing, ice hockey, and NBA basketball are the ONLY sports I watch on TV, and even then, only very very very rarely. Oh, I don't mind women's volleyball too. There's nothing like tall, slim, athletic women jumping around... yum.

While I'm not a huge fan of the Brazil team - I normally like to cheer for underdogs, never overwhelming favourites - I do like that a developing country that is otherwise known for a big river, for tropical rain forests, and (which is even named for) an overwhelming disparity in wealth can be so successful, even dominant, on the world arena. Along with the traditional great powers like England, France, Germany, and even Spain, Italy, and Portugal, there are the relatively insignificant African, Balkan, and Latin American countries, all of which are fully capable of delivering upsets to countries substantially more wealthy than they are.

Today, for example, Ghana, despite the suspension of their two top scorers, beat the US 2-1. I LOVE IT! I absolutely hate seeing the US at the top of the medal tally every Summer Olympics I can remember, but seeing the mighty US turfed from this truly global tournament, in the first round, no less, brings me tremendous joy. And what do you know about Ghana? I bet most of you can't even point it out on a map! I only know that UN Secretary General is from Ghana.

I guess what I love about all this is that it shows that money can't buy everything. What do you need to play football? Just a ball and a flat playing field. No need for expensive equipment. Of course, consultation, coaching, being able to fly around to play talented opponents, and a system that nurtures talent helps, which probably explains why the wealthiest European countries still produce players of such high calibre. But still, most boys in the villages of Africa, the towns of the Balkans, and the favelas of Brazil can probably afford to play football and can all aspire to greatness, to one day beating, perhaps humiliating, their former colonizers on the world stage and to one day earn millions playing somewhere in Western Europe. How beautiful is that?

Been busy

Hello friends,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated this site. Lately, I've been quite occupied with work and have been trying to get my life back together. In the last two weeks, I've gotten quite a bit of work done and have been working quite consistently. I've been going to my office at around 9 o'clock and not leaving until 5 o'clock. Yeah, I know that a lot of you spend 8 hours(or more) a day at the office and that it's not a big deal, but it's quite a change for me. Unfortunately, not too many people go to the office at 9:00pm and leave the office at 5:00am. The shitty thing is that the air conditioning in my building shuts off at around 7:20pm. Fortunately, an uncle of mine was generous enough to give me a fan, which helps a lot more than I expected, and of course, it's slightly cooler at night than in the daytime.

I'm trying to get a few things done before I leave town for 2-3 weeks. Once again, I will be a volunteer for the China Synergy Program for Outstanding Youth, of which I was a delegate a few years ago. When I come back to Hong Kong, I'll hit the ground running, and hope to maintain this momentum for the next 3 years.

I still have a couple dozen half-written blog entries saved up and hope to publish them soon. I really haven't had the mental energy to write new entries, and I feel like I'm letting myself down. It was really fun to update this blog, and though I can't say that updating this blog came at the expense of my work, the fact is that I have some serious catching up to do (for my work, that is). That means that my blog will come at expense of my work. Damn.

Am I a vampire? I sure as hell sleep like one

Here I am, once again, sitting at my desk in my dorm room. To my right is my window, 2 metres by 2 metres, which affords me a view of Sai Ying Pun, Victoria Harbour, and West Kowloon. I'm watching the sun come up. It's 6am already. Yes, I'm still up. For the twenty-something-th time in the last month, I've been awake to witness the sun rise. No, the sun does not rise abnormally early, and no, I haven't been waking up abnormally early either. I just can't sleep.

I normally keep rather late hours. Since moving into Graduate House, I've been going to bed at 4am and waking up at 10am; after taking my time to wash up and have brunch, I COULD make an appearance at the office in the afternoon (if I felt like it) and ATTEMPT to get some work done. No, this does not happen every day, but I DID sleep from 4-10am every day.


Last month, I had to write a paper for the first time in 2 years. I gave myself 2-3 weeks to work on the assignment (only 3000-4000 words, or 15 pages) so that I could read thoroughly, cite carefully, and write diligently. Unfortunately, in the 10 hours or so I'd spend at my workspace in the daytime, I'd get less than 2 hours of work done. After midnight, however, my productivity was as different as.. well.. night and day. After the clock strikes midnight, I can get a lot of work done and tended to refrain from distracting myself with reading news, replying to emails, and instant messaging. If I'm at my desk for 5 hours after midnight, I'd get 4.5 hours of work done. Therefore, I stayed up later and later. I found myself going to bed at 5am, then 6am.

By the time I submitted my paper 2 weeks ago, I thought the worst was over. Boy, was I wrong. I arranged a Graduate House excursion to Macau the day before the deadline, and had schedule the gathering time for 8:30am. Since I was used to sleeping at 6am by then, I figured it would be slightly better to stay up all night rather than to sleep for just 2.5 hours. Anyway, that was the first of my attempts to stay up all night and all of the next day in order to correct my cycle by sheer exhaustion.

The first of 5 attempts in the last 2 weeks. While this solution seems brilliant in theory, it can end in failure in practice. In fact, my brilliant solution managed to make things quite a bit worse. Somehow, I began to sleep at 8 or 9am, and once, I fell asleep at 10:30am and woke up at 5pm. How did this happen? It's exhausting to stay up all night, let alone all day. My energy levels sank, my eyelids felt heavy, I was constantly yawning, I retained a lot of water, and my gastro-intestinal system gave me grief. Needless to say, I couldn't really concentrate on anything, so I didn't get any work done, and could barely manage to write blog entries. I also felt too weak and too bloated to do any exercise, which would probably help me sleep better.

The challenge was in staying awake - napping or sleeping during the day would negate my efforts to exhaust myself enough so that I'd sleep extremely well at a decent hour of, say, midnight, or more realistically, 4am - which became nearly impossible because of my accumulated exhaustion and because nothing could keep me awake. Caffeine never works on me. Actually, caffeine (and alcohol) can make me sleepy. I ended up reading a lot of news and watching a lot of movies just to pass the time. Sometimes, I went to my office to TRY to get some work done. Whether watching movies in my dorm or reading in my office, I invariably fell asleep at my desk, either with my head resting in my folded arms, or leaning back in my chair, my neck tilted backwards at an uncomfortable angle. This kind of napping is exhausting and painful, yet I was able sleep like this for hours, up to 5 or 6 hours. Of course, this messed up my cycle even more.

Last Thursday/Friday, the last time I stayed up all night and all day, seemed to finally work. I went to bed before the sun came up, then woke up before noon. Until today, that is. Now, I'm wondering when this will end. Will I live this way for the rest of my life? I might as well become a night watchman or a taxi driver or a Hong Kong-based investment banker who deals with African stock markets. It would be perfect if a vampire bites me, since I practically keep vampire hours these days anyways.


NOTE: I know for a fact that some of you will suggest that I drink warm milk or to read a boring book. Been there, done that, and guess what: I'm still awake!