Day: December 22, 2007

Xmas in HK

B- and I are headed to HK to celebrate Christmas HK style. Not exactly the same as NYC but pretty good alternative. We used Hotel Travel.com to book our accomodations at Cosmopolitan Hotel @ Wan Chai. Sitting in Taoyuan International Airport now typing this, using my CHT HSPDA modem to get online.

Been quite a month/week/day. Pooped out is more like it. I got hooked onto facebook despite my best efforts to resist. But then B- got into it with the cities thing and it was over. I spent way too much time jazzing up my facebook page despite the fact that putting bad stuff on there could ruin your career (as posted in various newspapers recently). This past week was so full of meetings. I facilitated on Thursday a workshop on strategy and then Friday immediately flew to Seoul (on CI) for another meeting. Just came back to TPE in the afternoon and waited in the airport for B- so we can then fly to HK this evening via CX.

Looking forward to some QT with B- in HK… she’s been great through this whole few months with the changes in BAT which has made me uncommonly busy. Looking forward to the challenges in 2008 but it’s quite daunting so hopefully the days off from now until Jan 2nd will help me recover, re-energize, and renew myself toward the projects ahead.

I’m reminded again what blessings B- and I have had during 2007, both personally and professionally. The good friends, church, and colleagues who have helped make Taiwan much more like home.

So wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Stuff

What minimal tv I’ve been watching; but can I really attribute it to the writers’ strike?

Good Deal with Dave Lieberman – I’ve been watching much of this show. Such a cutie, this Dave Lieberman! 😉

Learn so much from Alton Brown’s show Good Eats. I’m get glued to the tube when it’s on.

Now, if only I were to actually cook, after watching all these cooking shows.

So glad to know that I’m not the only one who re-uses shopping bags – and that some department stores design their bags with that intention.

Can the SUNY system be anything like, say the UC system (with Berkeley) or UMichigan (with the Ann Arbor campus)? Well, that depends on the state, doesn’t it? The fact that our elementary and secondary education systems leave much to be desired, I’m not certain how would the state transform the higher education in the public realm.

Hmm, interesting op-ed in the NY Times’ Week in Review by Adam Freedman on the commas in the Second Amendment, and what kind of trouble this may lead in trying to predict what will happen to the whole right to guns thing.

NY Times’ Holland Cotter, on the eve of leaving the neighborhood, talking about the Cloisters. I really liked it when I went up there this summer, so I’m linking to the article.

NY Times’ Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman on how to be even more minimal in making holiday party hors d’oevres, if that’s possible. If I could cook (or would bother), this might actually be fun to do.

NY Times’ Roberta Smith on the Matisse exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

And, on politics (since I didn’t resist linking to the NY Times on Joe Biden) – an interesting NY Times article on Bill Richardson by Jodi Kantor. I do admire him (putting aside the Wen Ho Lee debacle back when Richardson was Dept. of Energy Secretary) for having so much experience in politics; whether that’ll lead to much in the primaries remain to be seen.

And, last but not least, an unusual but fitting slide show on guys in Santa suits and other winter scenes to Christmas music on Slate.