Stuff

The Clintons and North Korea; setting Americans journalists free — a curious story indeed. There’s even a touch of Clinton/Gore relationship analysis (umm, it is supposed to be about the journalists Ling and Lee and their return, isn’t it? The homecoming was emotional to watch on tv – and must be strange for journalists to make the news that they’d otherwise cover themselves). The story is still unfolding, with details to be determined, however.

The planet of Jupiter saved Earth from destruction.

(first) Gulf War pen pals get married, after finding each other again on… Facebook…

Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her family will be coming to DC.

And, a link to other links on how Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner cursed out at the Fed and others for not getting more on board on regulating the finance industry. I kind of agree with Time’s Justin Fox in the link – yeah, cursing is wrong, but I also have to have a little sympathy for Geithner. His job isn’t easy and we’ve all piled on him for awhile now. Plus, he’s from New York, so he probably got the cursing thing down really well. (ok, maybe it’s not a NY thing, but these finance people are kind of begging to get a good yelling from somebody already and I just doubt that their lovely world is oh-so-polite and full of good manners anyway). And, really, cursing’s just not that big a deal when the substance is more what’s at stake. Or did Wall Street Journal forgot about that while making it so very clear that the shouting was “expletive-laced”? Oh well.

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!

Seoul

Staying at the JW Marriott in Seoul.  Nice city and a nice drive in from Seoul/Incheon airport.  Very “american-like” infrastructure.  Cold now, but a nice cold…. made me think of States.

Big day long meeting tomorrow.  Going to be a long one.