Author: Alex Hung

Independence Day

Today of course is America’s Independence Day. My friend Paul sent me an email wishing me a happy Independence Day with a tongue in cheek comment of “Down the British!”. This reminds me of one of the most ironic photo I’ve ever taken in my life.

In May 2001, Paul paid me a visit and we were on a weekend trip to Boston. We visited all the tourist sites and one of them is the Boston Team Party Ship & Museum! So we did all the usual stuff, listened to the tour guide dressed in costume, etc. Then for the finale, someone from the tour can reenact the throwing of the tea overboard. Of course Paul volunteered himself and acted with great skills and very much into the moment. Me as the photographer had captured the moment for prosperity. The irony comes from the fact that he is a Brit, working at the time for Her Majesty Government’s Inland Revenue, reenacting the act that was caused by the unfair taxation by the then British government.

Of course when I mentioned this interesting fact to the rest of the tour, none of the ‘locals’ seemed to get the irony.

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Divorce by TiVo?

The discussion thread in the TiVo forum makes interesting reading. In there, a husband describes how his wife refuses to delete recordings on their 80 hours TiVo. Recordings that she admits she does not have time to watch. Numerous suggestions are given by other forum users, ranging from upgrading the hard drive in the TiVo, to getting a second TiVo, to finally get rid of the wife!

To me, his wife sounds very selfish to me. It would be OK if the TiVo is for her own use only and thus how much space left on the TiVo does not really affect any other members of the family. But since it is for the whole family to use, she should take other people needs into consideration.

Leah and I do not have this problem, yet. May be never will, since we tend to buy the DVDs for shows/movies that we would like to keep anyway. For TV series, what’s the point of recording them if you know in advance you won’t have a chance to watch it? Logical, but then again a lot of people nowadays lack logical sense.

If only Star Trek is true and I can be a Vulcan…

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Tea for 3?

T3: Rise of the Machine exceeds my rather low expectation. You have to ask yourself, how much more plot line you can squeeze out of the Terminator franchise? Well, after watching T3 last night, I would have to say a fair amount.

The movie does not have the directorial flair of James Cameron but it is action packed. Arnie has a good number of one liner and delivers with great timing. The movie, though good on its own, really requires the audience to be familiar with the Terminator story background to fully appreciate Nick Stahl’s (who plays John Connor) performance.

The female terminator, T-X, was kind of a disappointment. Morphing was all the rage in the 90’s but nowadays, I probably can do the same thing with relative easy using a powerful desktop (like the G5). I feel that the screen writers should have came up with something more off the wall for T-X.

The ending is wide open as many reviews have mentioned but personally I think it is a much better ending than T2. John Connor finally accepted his destiny at the end and the realization of the inevitable resonance with me. Perhaps the events of the last two years in real life influence how one feels with the end of world looms large.

Sequel is definitely a possibility. May be the sequel will tell the human struggles against the machines with John Connor leading his band of human, up to the point where he meets his future (or is it past) father?

All in all, a very entertaining action/Sci-Fi movie. Especially after the underperforms Matrix: Reloaded.

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I've left already…

Interesting point of view from Alan Graham in his blog Trial and Error. I moved from the UK to the US for the opposite reason. I saw too much entitlements in the UK that I think people sometimes need to be left to fight for themselves.

Plenty of my friends have no ambitious to better themselves because there is no need. Their jobs pay for their basic needs and if they lose the job, the government is going to pay for their living cost. In fact some people decide that living on social security (or the ‘dole’ as we call it in the UK) is the preferred choice. They lack the education or skills to get jobs that pay more than what the government pays them.

It disgusts me when my father-in-law’s live in girlfriend lost her job months ago and only recently try to seek a job seriously. Oh she looked right after she lost her job but apparently none pay as much or as close as she wanted. She could have gotten a lesser pay job in a further away town within a month or so. But no, she waited and searched for more. Only now that her financial situation is such a dire strait that she has to take a job, any job in fact, that she is willing to work for less and travels further.

I believe Alan and I want the same thing, which is some middle ground between his experience and mine. I believe that people should have basic to good medical care and emergency help from the government. But yet, help should not be so substantial or everlasting (or almost everlasting) that one can live comfortable on it without the need to get a job.

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iBlog vs. TypePad

As you probably noticed, I’ve added a poll (look to your right) about whether I should stick with iBlog and FTP to my ISP web space, or migrate to TypePad which hosts everything.

Here are the few things I am unhappy with iBlog:

  • Not XHTML compliant
  • FTP not really reliable
  • Need to rely on 3rd party services for things such as polls, comments, etc.
  • Have to blog from my computer

All these things TypePad can provide but of course nothing comes free! TypePad’s fee is pretty reasonable for what it offers, and I can have my own domain name as well as hosting my photo site at the same time. Not to mention the ability to allow me to blog anywhere as long as the computer has a net connection.

The only things that are stopping me right now are costs, both in terms of financial and migration. So vote away or send me comments and let me know which way I should go.

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