Just updated to WordPress 2.8. Posting an entry to make sure it works with my current theme.

May 2009 be the year of recovery for all!

It’s near Chinese New Year, and if you think the global recession is affecting consumers and businesses in Hong Kong, you’d be wrong. Everywhere I go, there are tons of people. I’ve been trying to get tickets to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for two days in a row, but they’re sold out, even for a matinée. I have to wait to be served to buy underwear at Calvin Klein, and it’s not even on sale. Even Pacific Coffee at Festival Walk was full when I walked in, and this place is huge. To be fair, I read that fewer people are traveling during CNY because of the economy, so that could account for the crowds at home. Anyway, it’s great to see that things look booming during the new year, and I hope it can keep it that way throughout.

“Invest in and for the future. Right now. Pass it on.”

It’s 12:30AM in Hong Kong, and I’m getting ready to go over to my friend’s house to watch President Obama’s Inaugural Address. All the TV stations here will be broadcasting the event live. I don’t remember ever getting this excited over any president giving out talks to the public in the past. Let us all witness this history in the making.

It’s a new year. A new day. Though 2008 was a year of losses, I’m still thankful for the much that I have left. I am also thankful the global crisis hit early in my life, where I can still recover, and learn the signs to stay away from the next one. Not so lucky are those who are near or at retirement age.

Finally, I am thankful that my losses are only financial, which are not nearly as important as losses that are personal and dear to my heart. To put things in perspective, 2008 was a year of big losses, but also a year of big personal growth and gain. I am forever wiser for it.

Happy New Year! Happy 2009!

2008 has been a year of big losses for me, at least financially. I lost big on my properties, and even bigger on my stocks. Yet, I am only one of the many casualties of the global economic crisis. Never have I experienced anything that hit so swiftly, so hard. Sure, I read about it in books, and heard from elders who lived through it, but it never registered, as though it could never happen to me.

Now that I have experienced it first-hand, I can learn to respect its ferocity, its impartialness. Everyone is a target. We can’t stop it when it hits, but we can try to get out of the way early, to cut our losses.

Patience is a virtue, not a cliché. Don’t rush into decisions when they are money decisions. If you spend more time picking clothes than you do stocks, then that says a lot about your lack of taste in stocks.

Love your investments but don’t fall in love with them. It clouds good judgement. It makes you hang on when it’s time to let go.

Those are the rules I shall live by to prevent myself from becoming a casualty again when the next crisis hits.

Just updated my WP blog to 2.7. The update took only minutes via DreamHost’s One-Click Installs, and the result is visually stunning. Everything in the Dashboard is clear and invites exploring. Things can be moved around, shown or hidden. Its manageable surface hides the complexity of the database. In fact, it looks so good, I might want to start using it to write my blog entries, rather than using a desktop client. It definitely looks better than ecto, which I just bought a copy yesterday. I am glad I decided to use separate blogging platforms–WordPress and Movable Type–for my two blogs. They teach me their differences and similarities, their strengths and the weaknesses, their pros and cons. It forces me to learn beneath the surface, and that’s always a good thing.

 

Lup Chong Christmas

Originally uploaded by kwong

So I was downstairs having dinner with my friend, when after, we walked up to the cashier and found this unique ensemble encased in a see-thru display. Inside laid sliced and glazed preserved pork and duck sausages on a lighted bowl, while some made into flowers that hanged in the air. On the bottom is a golden ribbon streamer wrapped around beneath the bowl for that special festive look. My friend found it extremely ugly, and told the cashier so, but I found it one of a kind. Who would have thought of such tasteful/distasteful decoration?

It’s windy in Hong Kong today. It feels like Autumn is finally here. Only problem is it’s November and we’ll already be entering Winter next month. Scary.