Keeping up with the Shaws

I live across from a mansion that was occupied by the nephew (I think) of one of the most recognizable names in Hong Kong, Sir Run Run Shaw. I've also been spending a lot of time daydreaming at my desk and, it seems to me that SOMEthing is going on over there this week. There have been trucks and minivans hauling things in and out of there, and currently a woman in a fuchsia top and white visor, together with a man in a purple T-shirt, are walking around the grounds of the Shaw mansion talking and pointing at things. It's been on the market for ages now, and last month was the target of a burglary... has it finally been snapped up? And by whom????

Richard Li

Everyone knows who Richard Li is right? Yeaaaaahhh . Well, this is the cheapo who puts these shiny red labes saying "Compliments of Richard Li" onto every single one of the free copies of Financial Times that are given out at our Law School.

When I told my father about this, he said "you should make a rubber stamp of the text on the label, and stamp all of the toilet paper in the bathrooms exactly like that, so that when people reach to clean the poo of their anus..."

I would love to be a part of this prank. Any takers?

Suckers Up

I've always loved this very famous Gloria Steinem quote:

"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."

which became rather relevant during out legal writing and literacy class today. The prof was teaching us how NOT to write and draft like a lawyer, and how to use plain English. Somebody brought up the point that, there are lawyers who write and draft like lawyers!! That is, in a convoluted and sometimes antiquated fashion! Why are you telling us that what we did is wrong when that is exactly what our bosses have taught us to do?

Obviously, the better lawyer you are, the less likely you would need to use language like that.

But UGH! This horrible guy in our class decided that this was the moment to suck up like a vacuum cleaner to the prof and say "oh, when I was a journalist I saw a lot of bad writing too! And we don't need anymore of that. " Ok, so he said a little more than that, but the tone he used was so obnoxious, so condescending, that I feel as if it's something only a guy could ever get away with.

Conclusion: Hell is other people.

Chris' interesting links

Wellp. This a guy who always has interesting stuff in the 'status' section of his gchat profile. This is a post dedicated the care he takes in selecting things to put in that sacred space.

W.H Auden's Poem. From this interesting link http://www.feer.com/tales/?p=893  

Hongkong 

The leading characters are wise and witty;
Substantial men of birth and education,
With wide experience of administration,
They know the manners of a modern city.

Only the servants enter unexpected;
Their silence has a fresh dramatic use:
Here in the East the bankers have erected
A worthy temple to the Comic Muse.

Ten thousand miles from home and What’s-Her-Name
The bugle on the Late Victorian hill
Puts out the soldier’s light; off-stage, a war

Thuds like the slamming of a distant door:
We cannot postulate a General Will;
For what we are, we have ourselves to blame.

AAaaaah. Auden is too good.

Jen, Hong Kong is already pining for your return...

I never saw the Beer Bong when I was in America but now I have.