CNY in HK.  Resource Sustaining, anyone?  That's a whole continent of plastic right there!!

The Clintons doubling up on Obama.  All three of them always have such witty things to say.

If you look at the gender distribution of democrat Vs. republican votes in each state, most democrats are female and most republicans are male.  I always thought that it is segregated age-wise or geographic-wise only.

PS: Out of town every weekend for pleasure and for training till Spring.  This job requires travelling, a big appetite (3 parties worth of food every party), and the right amount of real work.  Awesome! 

ALSO READ: FRENCH PREZ MARRIES BRUNI Rate the Story SMS NDTV Also Read

Agence France-Presse Saturday, February 2, 2008 (Paris) France's new first lady Carla Bruni is a rich Italian heiress who moved from a successful career as a supermodel in the 1990s to that of a ballad singer with a hit record. The mayor of the eighth arrondissement of Paris - which takes in the Elysee presidential palace - said on Saturday that he had married President Nicolas Sarkozy and Bruni, after a whirlwind romance of barely three months. The tall 40-year-old brunette has been romantically linked to a string of famous men including rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton as well as tycoon Donald Trump. ''I am a tamer (of men), a cat, an Italian,'' she told Le Figaro magazine in February last year. ''Monogamy bores me terribly.'' ''I am monogamous from time to time but I prefer polygamy and polyandry,'' its female equivalent. She briefly paired up with Paris lawyer Arno Klarsfeld, who later became a member of Sarkozy's inner circle, before starting a relationship with editor Jean-Paul Enthoven and later becoming involved with his son. Bruni has a six-year-old son, Aurelien, from her relationship with philosopher Raphael Enthoven. Enthoven's ex-wife Justine Levy, who is the daughter of philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, published a 2004 novel with a character based on Bruni: a man-eater described as ''beautiful and bionic, with the eyes of a killer'' and ''an immobile face, as if sculpted in wax''. Born into a wealthy Turin tyre-manufacturing family, Bruni made a second fortune in modelling, becoming one of the world's best-paid models at the height of her catwalk career. According to an industry magazine, she was earning more than seven million dollars a year in the late 1990s, alongside the likes of Claudia Schiffer, with clients such as Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabbana. Bruni was raised by Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, a classical composer, industrialist and theatre director while her mother Marysa Borini is a concert pianist and actress. Her biological father is Italian businessman Maurizio Remmert, who had a six-year affair with Borini and currently lives in Brazil. Bruni was the youngest of three children; the eldest, a brother, died of cancer in 2006, while her elder sister, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi is a successful actress. The family moved to France in the 1970s when Carla was five, at a time when wealthy Italians faced a real threat of kidnapping from the Red Brigades, a left-wing militant group. The young girl attended a finishing school in Switzerland and then studied art in Paris. She is fluent in Italian, French and English. With age catching up on her fashion career, Bruni branched out into music in 1999 by contributing lyrics to an album by French singer Julien Clerc. Her first album, released in 2002 under the title ''Quelqu'un m'a dit'' (Somebody told me), was a surprise hit, selling over one million copies and earning her in 2004 the title of top female music artist in France. But her second offering, ''No Promises'', released last year and based on texts by poets such W B Yeats and Emily Dickinson, did less well. Bruni places herself firmly on the political left, making her an unlikely match for the right-wing Sarkozy.

LOVERS

The Enthovens

While living with Jean-Paul Enthoven, Bruni fell in love and started an affair with his son, philosophy professor Raphaël Enthoven (track 2, Raphäel, of Carla's album Quelqu'un m'a dit is named after him), who was at the time married to novelist Justine Lévy, daughter of philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy.^[7] Bruni and Raphaël Enthoven had a son, Aurélien, born 2001. They have since separated.

The affair and the subsequent ending of her marriage were the inspiration for Justine Lévy's best-selling book Rien de grave (Nothing Serious), published in 2004. In the book, Lévy paints a vitriolic portrait of "Paula", the female who steals the protagonist's husband, as "a praying mantis" with "a Terminator smile".^[8]

[edit] Other lovers

Bruni's former lovers include notably Léos Carax, Charles Berling, Arno Klarsfeld, Louis Bertignac, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Kevin Costner, Vincent Perez, Donald Trump and former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius .^[9][10] She has said she is easily "bored with monogamy", and "Love lasts a long time, but burning desire - two to three weeks".^[10] Jagger's wife acknowledged his affair with Bruni was one of the reasons for the separation.

[edit] Nicolas Sarkozy

As of the end of 2007, Bruni was reported to be in a relationship with French president Nicolas Sarkozy^[11] after photographers took pictures of them visiting Disneyland Resort Paris, as well as during a vacation in Luxor, Egypt and Petra, Jordan during the Christmas holidays.^[12]

During a press conference at Elysée Palace on January 8, 2008, President Sarkozy confirmed their relationship and hinted at a possible wedding. ^[13] They married on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The marriage is Bruni's first and Sarkozy's third.

TEN YEARS AGO, I remember a nobody from Dawson's Creek was being interviewed (We had a Dawson's Creek fans club in our highschool). 

She said that she was always being mistaken as Britney with dyed hair (I did too).  She said that she wishes that she TRULY IS Britney. 

See what TEN YEARS can do to you - when you do the right things and when you screw up.

***

TEN YEARS is a long time.

Ten years ago, I just turned 16. 

Ten years since, I haven't done much besides studying and working .

Was it ten years well-lived?  Are you content with what you have done to yourself? 

 

Don't rush into old Careers - b3108's blog

THE pressures on teenagers today are immense. Many are convinced that their entire lives will be determined by one number — their ENTER score. A life of success or failure seems to hinge on it.

What a cruel message to send to young people — cruel because it is wrong. Many who do not do well at school or university go on to have highly successful careers. And many who perform brilliantly at school and university somehow end up living obscure and unsatisfying lives.When I failed year 12 the world did not end. I hated school and it showed. I was lucky that I had the chance to repeat the year, but I still only scraped into university. I envied my peers who seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do with their lives and went off and did it. But after a while I realised that they are a tiny minority and even they are sometimes mistaken.Most of us have no good idea of what we want to be or where we want to end up. How can we with so little experience of life?

Nothing is more demoralising than to hear a cocky sports star declare that "you can achieve anything you want as long as you want it badly enough". This is manifestly untrue. The implication is that all of those who came second, third or last did not want to win badly enough. And it sends the message to everyone else that if they have not realised their dreams it is because they have failed a test of character.

It takes most people many years to work out who they are and what they should do with their lives. I began to work it out only when I was nearly 30. Some become stuck in a rut, dug for them at school, and stop asking the question. They may be very successful on the outside but die with a lifetime of regrets.

Far too many students want to get into medicine or law simply because of the status. I have lost count of the number of disillusioned young lawyers I have met who start work at one of the big law firms and soon realise that, for them, hell would be ending up like their bosses. And next time you visit your GP look into his or her eyes and ask yourself whether they are feeling it was all worthwhile.I interviewed one woman whose parents were determined she should be a dentist. After studying dentistry at university, she realised she hated it. But under pressure she persevered and qualified as a dentist. After another five years of looking into people's mouths, she said to herself: "I am not going to do this any more."

So she summoned her courage, faced up to her parents' disappointment, and abandoned dentistry to retrain as a career counsellor — a pretty good choice for someone who had made such a big career blunder. She gets paid much less but the non-pecuniary rewards are enormous.

In a way, she had to become a dentist before she could figure out what she truly wanted. Many people go through several phases before they work it out. The thing is, there is plenty of time — 40 years or more. Most generation Ys can expect to have several career changes in a life of work, often interspersed with time out to care for others.

And it's not so much that we have to keep searching until we find the one thing we truly want to be; what we truly want to be may change as we mature. A radical life change does not mean rejecting the past but building on it. The renewal of our calling can be one of the most exciting and enriching aspects of life.

Many young people discover that not getting what they want is the best thing that could happen to them, because they had their hearts set on something for the wrong reasons — parental pressure, money hunger, fad-following, or sheer ignorance about what certain occupations involve.

Within the first two years of a degree, about a quarter of students change their courses or leave university. For many, they are fixing a mistake. Or they may find they are not ready for university life. This is why a gap year is so valuable. Students who arrive on campus after a year or two of working and travel are no longer exhausted by the trials of the VCE. They have some life experience and know why they are at university.

It is well known that a mature-age student whose entry score was so-so will usually outperform the school leaver with top marks. Taking some time off, studying at TAFE or working for a few years may be the best path to university. Mature students know what they want and have the life skills to make sure they get it. So for those students contemplating their futures with doubt and anxiety, just remember — there's plenty of time.

Dr Clive Hamilton is executive director of the Australia Institute, a Canberra think tank. In February, he will leave the institute for a career change.

Saw a bunch of friends, hung out with relatives, brought Kwan around, attended a wedding.. Nothing over the top, but you just never get bored there.  They are still good times, except for a few moments when I can't jump over barriers that not many can, or should be willing to jump over.  Everyone should have basic standards right?  I feel so alive walking in humid, warm weather!  I don't like how the people there think.  They can't be too happy and free thinking and acting the way they are.  So rigid.  They think 1st world values are crazy, 1st worlds think that they are ignorant, that kind of thing. 

Taiwan was fun times as well.  Saw a few good friends, bought things I liked, visited the admirable Guo Fu Sun yat-sen etc., enjoyed hotspring soaking, good food, good service, cheap entertainment.  Taipei doesn't look as advanced as I thought, but it is the fun and people there that matters.  People there are more traditional chinesey than mainlander chinese.

Every time I travel to Asia, my eyes are opened.  More things happening in every level, more examples, more merchandise, more time, more place, more activities, more food, more friends' stories.  I don't know if it is a good thing, but for someone who has been in isolated for 2 - 4 years now, being involved and having an active mind is indeed a good feeling.

After Ottawa, I can explore all I want.  

I want to have enough people and things around me, enough to cast away my fear of being alone, of relying on a few people who care, to care.  I don't know if I can, but I know I can't have the ability to being in my situation right now.  I am slowly fading away... started at the age of 21.   

What I want doesn't have to be realistic.  I want to work in my family business.  The idea of having the luxury to work for yourself, or your parents, your family, or even your in-laws appeals to me.  improve the business of your own, improve people you like's lives. 

I want to be able to look at someone, the way the bride looks at the groom one day, and it doesn't when the day is. 

I want to have properties to play with, esp. if I can't own a business.

I want to have lived a full, meaningful, exciting life, at different stages, at different ages.  Age doesn't define when you change fields, when you study another post-grad degree, which stage you should enter.... well, but I do get influenced by the society. 

I guess the timing is right.  My term for this particular position ends end of March.  I have more to offer this time around compared to 20 months ago.  Got a couple of opportunities for interviews across Canada, in HK, London.  None that is right yet but I just started 3 days ago.  What if I get an offer in HK?  Do I give up on my western living days?  What if I get a good offer in any of these places?  Do I give up on my pursue to be an inspector in toronto/vancouver?  I am already in the inspectorate.  In both public and private sectors, I can go into clinical, regulatory affairs, inspections... I even applied to a paralegal job (do IP / RA work) at Baker & Mackenzie (but I have been asking for a ridiculous amount of money so that I don't need to decide now).  People with earnings of $15k/mth, with no family support, has to change $8k bags every season.  For bags with lame names such as MandarinA duck?  I can save so much bag money for playing if I work there!  Reminds me of the spinning arrow in Pochahontas.

Going to Toronto for an inspection course Jan28-Feb1~~  The gov't is so good, I'll pay my taxes on time.

Asians on Plane

On the 16 hours plane ride from New York to Hong Kong, I was placed in between a very mouthy 35 yr old filipino, and a nice American Taiwanese urologist from Harvard Medical.  The filipino tells me how many men she meets on eharmony.com and that she is a professional nurse and can leave her children in the philippines and date anyone.... How she phones surgeons every 30 minutes at night to ruin their lives, how she called other girls and called them b**ches everyday and got them fired.  Physically, she is short and fat.  She didn't let us talk and was proud to be bossy and spoiled.  I just found her very unattractive.  She is marrying a blonde hair blue eyed guy working in the navy. (It seems most of the filipinos I know dates that type and finds that to be the most desirable mate.)  She travels around the world with kids back in her hometown (liability, she puts it).  She has friends and freedom.  The very nice smart family guy, has been married to a korean disaster once (because he was approaching 30 back then) and is now engaged to a HK girl.  He worries about his patients everyday.  He has money (I hope), but perhaps not as rich in other aspects of life.

The take home message is, Live our lives the way we want it to be.  Age does not put a requirement to anything.  I myself, want to live in England or learn French in France for a bit.  Have a chance to live life.

I rewatched "Xin Dong" and a movie with Nick Tse as a rebellious police (again).  You get a different flavour when you watch a movie at 17, and at 25.  The movies and our conversation further confirmed to me how rigid our standard of how we should live our lives.   We were taught that pretty, smart, successful men and women with desirable personality and skills will lead to "success".  We always find it to be not even close to the reality.  

Looking at asians only, we have a stringent standard on beauty.  If you have watched korean drama, you would know.  I took a chinese and english and aptitude exam in Toronto for the HK gov't.  It is seriously to test my language skills because I am not interested in working in the post-97 HK gov't.  The kind of questions is very narrow and rigid I wonder what kind of drones they are screening in.  I also observed blind asian obedience towards the senselessly rigid authority such as the stupid examiner and fake fire alarm.  We should loosen up our stringent rules and adapt.  Many times, different cultures have opposite rules.

These questions come across our minds regarding relationship. 

Dare to love or be loved more?  American dream or gratitution to gratitution? 

Asians are less romantic?  Cohabitation? 

In regards to relationships, do you know how many ppl you have affected?

when we can be elevated, we should let it all out

you are just falling from medium to low

... Because when you are happy... you attract more happiness. When you are unhappy, you attract more

Money

Financial Goals

Money is an important topic because some of us work our whole lives for money.  I have financial goals too and I am supposed to reach a certain amount by 25.  I have reached it this October or November!  Close to my birthday!!  I am also supposed to buy a house by 25.  I almost put in an offer last night, but my agent told me to hold off until today.  Even closer!  If I don't get it before I go to HK/TW, I wouldn't be able to reach my real estate goal in terms of timing.  I really like the house, but there are things to be considered. 

I want to be proud of myself for the financial achievement but frankly, all I did was saving childhood money (with the help of my personality and papa back in the day), investing (with the help of fund managers), and working in my cushy job (with the help of union workers fighting salary increases for me every 3 months or so).  God or karma king will take these things away from me to show me what gratefulness means...

Priorities

Having lived in HK where money is very important, I can't say that I view money as "not an object".  I have never needed to budget (I budget anyway) or worried about money nor have shopping or other big habits, so I can't say that it is a big object either.  Then I wonder,

1. Why do I have financial goals? 

b/c if not, I am just not ambitious enough.  b/c I have learnt sayings like "all you need to do is to work hard" or "if you don't improve, you are useless and will be looked down upon" some time somewhere.  I intend to continue my real estate dreams, flipping houses (earning money from hobbies is the only way I want to earn money...) maybe have my future mate earn even more money, and?  And buy a big big house and give it to maybe children, niece and nephews if they exist?!  Don't think that will be it.  You can buy a big big house with not much here in Canada.  Traveling?  Traveling doesn't need THAT much money..  On the kids?  and if I want a childless lifestyle??  Donating for a great cause is probably the best feeling I will get and the best thing I can do... 

Why are YOU earning your money?  To sustain life.. To entertain ourselves while we are alive... To sustain other people's lives..

to be continued... after work maybe.

Rochelle, through the eyes of another kid
 
Who is Rochelle?  To me, Rochelle is the first girl who gave me a Christmas card.  The four year-old even personally signed it!  In fact, she was my classmate and playmate throughout nursery, kindergarten, and primary school.  As little Rochelle, she was disciplined, smart and mature, yet active and fun. She was the kind of girl who had charisma at a young age. Being a tall, skinny girl who excelled in multiple sports and in English further added to her charm. 
 
Later on, she pursued her studies in England while I pursued mine in Canada. Luckily, we somehow managed to get back in touch during our university years.  She was still the young Rochelle I knew, but a wiser version.  We still share common interests and we talk about our views every time I visit Hong Kong. I admire in particular her ability to enjoy life and to look at life from a broad and worldly perspective. 
 
In June 2004, over Chinese tea, Rochelle described to me a friend who would take care of her and guide her through life.  I was slightly surprised, but I found it to be very sweet.  Until this day, I have yet to meet the groom in person. However, Alex must be a great man indeed if he has been able to charm this charmer.  

Marsha

Within Health Canada, I work in the Health Products and Food Branch, which is the equivalent of the FDA in the states.

Within HPFB, I have worked in the BGTD and am now working in the MHPD.  I just got an offer for a four-month assignment to work in the Inspectorate.  Basically, my bureau is lending me to the inspectorate.  Working in the inspectorate has been my goal. I said that unless I get a job in the inspectorate, I will work in other cities / countries.  I am happy, but slightly lost because 1) I like my current director, 2) I am working on important projects here, 3) I need her to extend my term end of March although she might feel that I might stay in the inspectorate, 4) and that means I won't be living in other cities for at least another few months. 

I am doing a preliminary screen on 180 out of 1009 applications to 5 positions the same as mine.  I better be grateful. 

I have an enormous desire to really live life the way I want it to be.  Fear and craving for stability shouldn't govern people who already have stability (ppl who have the ability to afford what they want and sustain themselves, who live in first world countries with social benefits, who does not fear temporary loneliness, who has opportunities).  Whoever you are, I am sure you can fall back on teaching english somewhere in Asia, selling houses, taking extra courses and be a nurse etc.  The older generation usually agrees with my route so far and thinks that others are unrealistic.  I tend to believe that none of them will end up starving and being unhappier than the ones who are not following their hearts and dreams. 

FEAR of WHAT makes you sacrifice your happiness. desire?  Disapproval?  Will you REALLY regret?  What do you really want now, at 40, and at 55?  Do you really need to stress over what you are stressing over?   If your fear doesn't make sense, it is paranoia, not fear.

*I didn't write this article*

Relationships between white men and an Asian women seem to be not only quite common but also accepted far more than the other interracial relationships.  I’ve noticed most Asian women with white men at my undergraduate school, graduate school, and law school as well as the legal community and in my neighborhood.

Many of my Asian women friends and colleagues have told me that they don’t have a preference as to what race they date but that it’s usually white men who ask them out. [This has been my experience as well].

On the other hand, I know quite a few white men who prefer to date only Asian women. Their reasons are always the same. They prefer the Asian looks: straight black hair, slender builds, almond-shaped eyes, and smooth golden skin. They like the culture, the art, and the traditions of Asia. And they say that they find Asian women to be more feminine. Many of my Asian friends and colleagues [jokingly] say that these men have an “Asian fetish” or “yellow fever.”

Recently, I had a couple of conversations on the topic of white men who prefer to date only Asian women. So I looked online for articles and comments concerning this topic. Many of the articles on this topic were somewhat offensive, and many of them just confirmed my belief that certainly there are many men out there with “yellow fever,” whether they want to admit it or not (see, for example: Why White Men Prefer Asian Women and White Boy Speaks on Dating Asian Women.

I then came across an article, Tiny, Flat-Chested and Hairless: A White Man Extols the Wonders of Asian Women. However, like many people who wrote letters to the editor (see Letters), I found this article also to be quite offensive because she implied that men who prefer to date Asian women must be pedophiles. One of the first things that came to my mind when I read this article was that this author (a white woman) must not like Asian women very much (or white men who date Asian women, for that matter), since she exhibited a better-than-thou attitude.

So I got curious about the relations between Asian women and Non-Asian women. And wouldn’t you know it? There was an article exactly on point: Relations Between Asian and Non-Asian Women. The article points out that some white women have negative impressions of Asian women because they see Asian women either as sexual threats (the exotic temptresses/sexual predators stereotype), or objects of pity and condescension (the passive victims of sexist cultures stereotype), or as superhuman competitors for grades and promotions (the grinds-with-no-lives stereotype).

Yes, I know I’ve digressed. But what the heck? They’re just my random thoughts on Asian women, white men, non-Asian women, yellow fever, Asian fetish, and everything in between.

Cellphone honesty test: HK the lowest, Toronto the highest

Now are HK people proud, or embarrassed with this report?  It doesn't seem to be directly related to the wealth of the people b/c other poor cities scored ok.  Like my mum says, 'You are dumb to be honest' and 'he is dumb to believe in my acts'. That while you are expected / noble to do so in Canada.  Socialism versus Capitalism.  I always find the two cultures to be very conflicting cultures.  It will probably score 0 out of 30 returns in Mainland China cities, and 29+ out of 30 in Ottawa, Canada. 

We have a really good government you know.  You should be thankful that you don't need to draw strings before eating the steak at restaurants and before choosing hospitals.