Latest Spike column for BC magazine is online now, geeky stuff about Blu-Ray DVD.

The front page “Editor’s Bit” is worth a peek. An excerpt:

A good friend has just fallen head over heels in love, I mean movie-style love complete with all the sappiness. They’re both over 40 yet walking around on Cloud Nine. They radiate happiness – I mean, they’re like two mini-novas walking down the street and it’s wonderful to see. The cloud, and it’s a deep black Category 10 hurricane, is her ex-husband.

I don’t know why someone who doesn’t bother to identify him or herself but merely posts an anonymous comment would expect me to care if that person finds the blog boring. This is not a commercial endeavor and I am doing it primarily for myself. If I cared about hit counts and ad revenue then I’d be posting stories about sexual encounters and pictures of naked women. Actually I’ve never quite understood why I continue to have as many readers as I do after changing over to “Redux.” If you find the blog boring, I’m not upset, not going to suddenly change course and change content.

In other boring news, trapped in the elevator (or “lift”) in my building for somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes today. No phone service in my elevator so could not do email or internet. Did not want to listen to iPod since I wanted to be able to hear if anyone was trying to contact me. Cold in there so did not sit down on the floor. Alone so no one to talk to or abuse or get abused by. I decided I would ignore the “no smoking” sign.

Eventually they had to call the Fire Department (or is it “brigade”) who managed to get me out pretty fast once they arrived.

Even though I’m not a Republican, I’m quite happy that McCain won in Florida and that Giuliani had such a poor showing. McCain is the most reasonable of all the Republican contenders and, given the Democrats’ penchant for nominating losers, would certainly be better than Romney or Huckabee. And that’s why the Dems were hoping that Romney would win, because it would be easier to run against his extremist positions and record of flipflopping on a large number of issues. The Clintons’ meltdown in South Carolina and the Kennedys’ subsequent endorsements of Obama mean that the campaign continues to be an interesting one to follow.

Feeling very unambitious with the cold and wet weather. Though I grew up in the relatively harsh winters of New York City (yeah, I know, try telling that to someone in Siberia or Chicago) I’ve become so acclimated to the HK climate that 11 degrees Celsius now feels like frostbite season to me.

Anyway, some misc notes ….

Probably the only record release delayed longer than Guns ‘n Roses’ Chinese Democracy is Neil Young’s Archives project, which I think was first supposed to come out around 30 years ago. It might finally come out this year, though I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Neil Young is also famous for his hatred of the compact disc as a music medium, and has now declared that Archives will not be released on CD – only on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Blog io9 has the tagline “Strung out on science fiction” on their masthead. The blog comes to us from the same company that gives us Gawker, Defamer, Fleshbot, Gizmodo and Gridskipper, amongst others. Sure it covers movies, TV, comics and books. But it seems to have something more going on which may make it a bit more interesting. Recent posts have included:

• The Future Will Taste Like Space Food Sticks
• Everything You Need to Know About the Madness of Nikola Tesla
• Gas Clouds Implode in the Star Factory
• Japan’s Wackiest Inventor Saves the World With Super Viagra

Kind of a nerdier BoingBoing, I suppose. But worth checking out.

If I was still the old Spike, then The FARANG Speaks 2 Much would be one of my favorite blogs. These days I read it as an exercise in nostalgia.

Would also recommend that you read the latest post from 10thingsihateabouthongkong. This whole real estate thing in HK is driving me buggy as well. I think Hemlock used to infer that sooner or later HK will become so expensive that all of those in our service economy will be commuting from Shenzhen. Or, I suppose, Tin Shui Wai. Further reinforced by an article in HK Magazine that says that people working for food chains such as Cafe de Coral earn less than HK$5,000 per month.

Taxi fares, which haven’t gone up in ten years despite increases in costs for things like fuel and insurance, are going to rise a whole US 13 cents per ride this year. I think the average taxi driver only clears about HK$200 per day, working a 12 hour day and working a 6 or even 7 day week.

Add to that the destruction of Wedding Card Street, the planned destruction of Sneaker Street and various other market streets for no good reason in an attempt to eradicate the past and make every street look like every other street, down to Disney-style recreations of a storybook past. Unqualified bureaucrats get to issue these plans to justify their phony baloney jobs and are supported by a non-elected non-representative government that is in the pocket of the major real estate developers who are the only ones who stand to profit from this.

And because local people worship money, the people who buy these shoddily constructed flats then turn around and attempt to charge more than the market will bear in rental so that they can become mini Li Ka-Shings themselves, further adding to the general misery.

My landlord, who is a gentleman and a scholar, especially in comparison to most other landlords, has raised by rent by only 10% each time he’s renewed my lease. 20% increases are more common this year. Why any increase at all? The underlying fundamentals haven’t changed – his monthly expenses on the flat haven’t changed. I can escape this amusement park ride by buying a flat – yet I’m convinced that everything is overpriced, approaching a bubble that will burst.

The stock market has become a dare devil roller coaster ride. After dipping down by close to a third in the past month, it has become subject to extreme daily movements – Thursday one of the biggest percentage and point losses in history. Friday back up by 1400. Monday back down by 1300. Today up by 240. People with vested interests declare that the market will hit 35,000 this year but the fundamentals aren’t there to support it.

So it’s becoming just like that old US Depression-era song, How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live. I predict the middle class in Hong Kong will soon be wiped out. Hong Kong will be the playground of the super rich and those who are allowed to stay because they service the rich in a variety of ways.

But I fear that as the “have nots” increase in number, then something that Beijing fears the most, social instability, will raise its ugly head.

Okay, so I’m a little cranky today. I’m sure I’ll feel better after it warms up a bit and I get some sleep.

My girlfriend is going to ask her lawyer if I can publish the bastard’s name and his company names here.

Oh, in a related story, child molester Gary Glitter may be getting an early release from prison in Viet Nam due to health issues. He has said that he’s considering settling in Hong Kong. One reason he is apparently considering Hong Kong is because HK does not maintain a registry of convicted sex offenders.

Up to now, I’ve been quiet about my girlfriend’s situation. But I don’t intend to stay quiet much longer. People are going to find out about how calling her ex-husband an asshole would be unfair to all of the assholes in the world. There are other very public venues aside from this blog that may be available to me and I intend to take advantage of every one of them. When a man who cheated on his wife attempts to throw not only her but their two young children out into the street without a penny, people should know.

Before I went down to Bangkok for my annual medical check, I’d told my girlfriend that I’m so ludicrously happy that something bad is bound to happen and that more than likely they’d find cancer.

Well, they didn’t, but the past seven days have held an extreme amount of small annoyances that taken together have pushed my stress levels sky high. This includes:

• an altercation with my new boss’s new boss, who seems to feel that his recent promotion has bestowed divinity upon him and woe unto those unable to recognize same.
• camera broke
• car overheating – and if I want the repair done for free under warranty have to wait until Monday, which means no Sai Kung for me this weekend
• MediaMan (box with hard disk that hooks up to TV to let me watch downloads) died
• First replacement for MediaMan was piece of shit, second one being set up now
• No NOW-TV for one week (granted, a mixed blessing)
• Slow internet for five days followed by no internet for two days

and there’s probably more that I’ve left out.

The thing is, all of those things taken together don’t add up to 1% of what my girlfriend has been put through in the past week (not by me, ok?). Kudos to her for keeping it together in the face of some truly horrendous stuff.

Last night marked 7 weeks since we met and we ended up spending the evening at the same bar where 7 weeks ago I told her, “I could be Mr. Right.” I think it’s fair to say we both had too much to drink. I seem to recall that after this guy showed his ass tattoo to everyone, I was inspired to remove far too many of my clothes for public consumption on Jaffe Road. My apologies to all who were forced to witness this unsavory sight.

just got the call that my internet will not be fixed today. Saturday? Possible but doubtful. Further posting and replies to comments on hold until this is resolved.

First off, just wanna mention that if like me you’re fed up with HSBC, a friend recently introduced me to Patrick Poon at Citic Ka Wah Bank, Wanchai Branch on Hennessy Road. Patrick is an old fashioned banker in the best sense of the word – he takes the time to listen to you, works with you to come up with a solution and then delivers on his promises.

Now, internet. Saturday my internet speed slowed down by 75%. And it was too slow to support NOW-TV, that was completely gone. Since I couldn’t get anyone on the phone, I resorted to a stream of emails to their customer support mailbox.

It took until Tuesday to get someone out to my flat. He banged around for awhile and then said the problem was with the outside cable and it would take two days to replace.

Thursday he comes back, bangs around some more, goes out, says he’ll be back and never returns. I come home from work, no internet service at all.

I call the PCCW service line several times but cannot get a human being to answer. Finally around 2 AM I succeed. Except I get someone who found the English language challenging. She bravely attempted to read from the script in front of her, blithely ignoring everything I said.

I knew I was in trouble when it took 10 minutes for me to get her to understand my login ID. Then I said, “check my records, I’ve been having trouble all week, someone was here today.” Then another 10 minutes to get her to understand the brand name and model # of my PCCW-supplied DSL modem.

“I have no service.”

“What error message do you get?”

“I have no service. My WAN line keeps blinking.”

“Is your power light on?”

“Yes”

“Is your WAN light on?”

This was quickly turning into a Bob & Ray routine. Finally I had to say, “look I appreciate you are trying to help me but you clearly don’t understand what I’m saying. Is there anyone else I can talk to?” Asked this one three times before she wrote down my number and said someone would call me back.

Someone called me back ten minutes later. After begging and pleading for an immediate appointment, I managed to get one for this morning.

The same guy who’d been there on Thursday returned this morning. He thought everything was fixed. He is surprised it is not working. “It never worked!!!!!” He banged around some more and then said there must be a problem with the new cable.

He’s gone out to look at the cable or something. I’m in the office now so I have internet from here. I have no idea when this will be resolved.

dial 1833-833

listen to the menu selection of languages … if you hit the wrong key, you then get to hear “sorry you made a mistake” in three different languages again before you get back to the menu

press 1 for english

input your hk id.

listen to them recite your hk id and press 1 to say you put it in right

listen to an ad about their hdtv channels

menu of choices

select 2 for technical support

select 4 for problem with web browsing

select 0 to talk to someone

the phone rings for awhile

get a recording that says “sorry all lines are busy please hold on”

listen to the phone ring 100 more times with no one answering and no further recording

give up, hang up, wait until 3 AM to call when the line is less busy

this is customer service?

Read together or separately, these two blog posts should make one stop and think about the true implications of online social networking.

Loose Wire – Who Needs Enemies When You have Facebook Friends?

the application is also now able to access the private data of your friends. To be clear about this, I’m not talking about friends who also agree to install the app; I’m talking about all your friends, period. … by accepting someone’s friendship on Facebook, you’re agreeing to allow all the third party apps they install to access your private data. … this data is stored, not on Facebook’s computers where you and they might be able to keep an eye on it, but on the computers of the third party apps.

Hong Kong Phooey – International Delete Your MySpace Account Day

3. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east.

5. You have to make redundant clicks to perform simple tasks because Myspace keeps taking you to advertisement pages where you have to click on “return to myspace profile” in order to continue what you’re doing.

8. You read yet another news account about how some child predator using Myspace has abducted a little girl or that some hoax myspace account has caused a teenager to commit suicide.