Friday, August 22, 2003
tum te tum... more system downtime... more time to blog...
what a great way to spend a Friday afternon, especially as I'm back on my late shift again!
So, what else have I been up to?
That's a tough question really - apart from working, eating, sleeping and fiddling with various internet projects and the odd hour or two of studying, my life hasn't been very interesting lately. I really would like to go shopping, but with a severe lack of funds after the car insurance and road tax renewal, I don't think it's very feasible at the moment. Oh well, there's always the internet to go shopping on. I came across the website recently for Asiapac Books who publish some great translated versions of Chinese comic books, such as the Chinese classics by Tsai Chih Chung (such as "The Journey to the West" and "The Strange Tales of Liaozhai" and some that I have just bought that are the comic strip version of Ni Kuang's "Wisely" series. Looks like my credit card will be going into overdrive on their online shop. Thing is with comic books is that they don't tend to last me very long. Spending about £5 on a book that I read in the space of one day isn't very economically sound.
Then there's the wonderful world of Yesasia, where I order my monthly batch of audio-visual entertainment.... I bought Mimi Lo's new album recently, partially because I really like her as an artiste and a person and partially because she's doing covers of some really fantastic songs and not done too badly either. My fave songs in there are the Jacky Cheung cover (the title escapes me at the moment) and Swing's "Yin Mei Dip" (Swallowtail Butterfly) that are great songs in themselves and well exercised by Mimi. She has such a strong voice and with her being along the same tone as my own voice, it's great stuff to sing along to when I am cooking the dinner every day! I've heard from the guys on her fansite that she'll be doing a musical in HK in December based on the life of Bruce Lee, together with Stephen Au and a few friends from the HKAPA. Shame that my chances of being there during that time are near enough zero. Oh well, hopefully I can catch a decent musical next time I am out there. I went to see Ekin, Gigi, Jordan and Miriam in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a few years back and that was really good. Was so jealous of my dad who got free tickets to see Jacky, Sandy and Michael in "Snow Wolf Lake" though, but caught him later on in concert in London and that was just fantastic!!
If this downtime continues, you might hear from me again in a little while...........
what a great way to spend a Friday afternon, especially as I'm back on my late shift again!
So, what else have I been up to?
That's a tough question really - apart from working, eating, sleeping and fiddling with various internet projects and the odd hour or two of studying, my life hasn't been very interesting lately. I really would like to go shopping, but with a severe lack of funds after the car insurance and road tax renewal, I don't think it's very feasible at the moment. Oh well, there's always the internet to go shopping on. I came across the website recently for Asiapac Books who publish some great translated versions of Chinese comic books, such as the Chinese classics by Tsai Chih Chung (such as "The Journey to the West" and "The Strange Tales of Liaozhai" and some that I have just bought that are the comic strip version of Ni Kuang's "Wisely" series. Looks like my credit card will be going into overdrive on their online shop. Thing is with comic books is that they don't tend to last me very long. Spending about £5 on a book that I read in the space of one day isn't very economically sound.
Then there's the wonderful world of Yesasia, where I order my monthly batch of audio-visual entertainment.... I bought Mimi Lo's new album recently, partially because I really like her as an artiste and a person and partially because she's doing covers of some really fantastic songs and not done too badly either. My fave songs in there are the Jacky Cheung cover (the title escapes me at the moment) and Swing's "Yin Mei Dip" (Swallowtail Butterfly) that are great songs in themselves and well exercised by Mimi. She has such a strong voice and with her being along the same tone as my own voice, it's great stuff to sing along to when I am cooking the dinner every day! I've heard from the guys on her fansite that she'll be doing a musical in HK in December based on the life of Bruce Lee, together with Stephen Au and a few friends from the HKAPA. Shame that my chances of being there during that time are near enough zero. Oh well, hopefully I can catch a decent musical next time I am out there. I went to see Ekin, Gigi, Jordan and Miriam in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a few years back and that was really good. Was so jealous of my dad who got free tickets to see Jacky, Sandy and Michael in "Snow Wolf Lake" though, but caught him later on in concert in London and that was just fantastic!!
If this downtime continues, you might hear from me again in a little while...........
Today's been kinda odd... for some reason I have been quietly content with everything and it's such a nice feeling. Call me superstitious, but nice things usually happen to me on the 22nd of the month and although it doesn't happen every month, it has been a nice 22nd today, so far anyway.
I'm blogging at a weird time because system problems mean that I can't get on with my work... so while everyone in the teams sit around chatting and waiting for something to happen, I man the desk and get on with my own thing. The forums are pretty quiet, so I may as well type away for a bit here, just so that it looks like I am up to something constructive.
I upgraded my site hosting subscription yesterday... I've been meaning to do it for a while because Homestead are being quite nice to me and giving me a hefty discount because I've been with them since the start. So for an extra $45 a year, I get an additional 10GB bandwidth (which was a good job seeing as I ran out for the first time yesterday!!), my own domain name (I have registered www.tvbspace.net as emspace has been taken - must go and see who has that site) and a few other pretty cool things. People ask why I'd rather pay for my site hosting, but I believe in paying for a quality service. It would seriously annoy me if my site was littered with stupid ads and popups and I am sure it would seriously annoy my visitors as well. Also they have a pretty smart sitebuilder program so it means even the totally html-unenlightened like me can create a half decent site! It's been upgraded recently so hopefully you will start to see some cool stuff springing up on my site pretty soon, once I get my head around it....
I have put together my Roger Kwok site now and with the first three pages up, I am pretty pleased with it so far. Went a bit berserk with my scanner the other day after digging out all my old pics of him so there will be more old pics of him soon. I was so surprised at how little of him there is on the internet that it prompted me to spring into action. I kinda assumed that after his success in Square Pegs there would be lots of sites springing up left right and centre for him, but I guess that the internet friendly youths of this generation are still more interested in the teeny bopper stars like Raymond and Sammul to devote time and energy to the more mature actors. Oh well, at least there are a few oldbies like me who will be able to create simple sites for them. Something quite fun came up yesterday though when a netfriend and fellow Roger fan Yuki suggested we should start a fan club for him.... that would be interesting and maybe entice him to come and visit us European fans! (Em feels like she's reverted in years by about ten....) *Sigh!* Another distraction from my studies - roll on assignments in September and exams in October... eek!!
I'm blogging at a weird time because system problems mean that I can't get on with my work... so while everyone in the teams sit around chatting and waiting for something to happen, I man the desk and get on with my own thing. The forums are pretty quiet, so I may as well type away for a bit here, just so that it looks like I am up to something constructive.
I upgraded my site hosting subscription yesterday... I've been meaning to do it for a while because Homestead are being quite nice to me and giving me a hefty discount because I've been with them since the start. So for an extra $45 a year, I get an additional 10GB bandwidth (which was a good job seeing as I ran out for the first time yesterday!!), my own domain name (I have registered www.tvbspace.net as emspace has been taken - must go and see who has that site) and a few other pretty cool things. People ask why I'd rather pay for my site hosting, but I believe in paying for a quality service. It would seriously annoy me if my site was littered with stupid ads and popups and I am sure it would seriously annoy my visitors as well. Also they have a pretty smart sitebuilder program so it means even the totally html-unenlightened like me can create a half decent site! It's been upgraded recently so hopefully you will start to see some cool stuff springing up on my site pretty soon, once I get my head around it....
I have put together my Roger Kwok site now and with the first three pages up, I am pretty pleased with it so far. Went a bit berserk with my scanner the other day after digging out all my old pics of him so there will be more old pics of him soon. I was so surprised at how little of him there is on the internet that it prompted me to spring into action. I kinda assumed that after his success in Square Pegs there would be lots of sites springing up left right and centre for him, but I guess that the internet friendly youths of this generation are still more interested in the teeny bopper stars like Raymond and Sammul to devote time and energy to the more mature actors. Oh well, at least there are a few oldbies like me who will be able to create simple sites for them. Something quite fun came up yesterday though when a netfriend and fellow Roger fan Yuki suggested we should start a fan club for him.... that would be interesting and maybe entice him to come and visit us European fans! (Em feels like she's reverted in years by about ten....) *Sigh!* Another distraction from my studies - roll on assignments in September and exams in October... eek!!
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Another week and another spell of late shifts all on my own... well, it's not really that late, but having to man the desk (just in case) between 4:30 and 6:30 when most of the people around me have gone home is a rather heedless task and not having much to be getting on with doesn't make it go any faster. Oh well, at least blogging will keep my eyes open and brain ticking over.
The curry last week was quite nice, very fresh and the meat was melt-in-the-mouth. Totally recommended: the restaurant is called the India Gate and it is near Westhoughton in Bolton. So if you are ever stuck for somewhere to go eat and you happen to be wandering around in Lancashire, then go give it a try. Good to catch up with a few of my hubby's friends, except the aircon was on full blast thanks to the heatwave and dozy here forgot to bring a jacket so I sat and shivered for most of the evening... even the curry didn't warm me up! Ended up sending my hubby out for his jacket, which looks more like a tent on me, but it prevented me turning into an Em-cicle.
Had my first appraisal for the frog job yesterday - seems to be going fine, even though I don't really feel to be doing much. Have been thinking about what my dream job would be and realising that I can go and do my dream job already. It probably wouldn't pay me enough to cover the bills and the house and would most likely wreck my marriage though, so I guess that is the reason why I am not doing it. I wish I had the resolve and dedication to write a novel. A proper mainstream 364-page book that I could see on the shelves one day. However, my typical Dragon/Aquarian nature means that I would never see such an important project through to the end and moreover, I don't have that kind of time at the moment with everything else I seem to be doing.
Opened my latest addition to the emspace family last week - HK Entertainment News Roundup and a big shout out here goes to my first volunteer translator lepra (aka mich) who has very kindly offered to help out with some of the articles for this site. It won't be updated as often or as thoroughly as the TVB news site, but I am hoping that this will provide a home for those odd articles that might be interesting to the readers. And what a readership it has become. In the short space of less than three months, my little site has gained a bit of notoriety, so much so that people actually have discussions (and the odd argument) on the Tagboard! Crazy crazy...
Not mentioned my TVB series for a while now - finished watching "Survivor's Law" and "The W Files" both of which exceeded all expectations I had from them, especially SL - I love all the characters, the stories were quite refreshing and that theme tune just rolls around in my brain. Conversely, "Greed Mask" was a little disappointing, which is a shame because I used to be such an avid Roger fan in my youth. I'm currently watching "Virtues of Harmony II" that is growing on me and going back to the old series "In the Realm of Success" - both on the recommendation of MetalAZNWarrior, who thinks they are great. What next? Hmm... nothing really appeals at the moment, but I will probably check out "The Legend of Love" because it's visually very appealing.
Well, as all the teams have gone home now I think I am justified in unmanning the desk and heading home.... hope the sun's still shining outside!
The curry last week was quite nice, very fresh and the meat was melt-in-the-mouth. Totally recommended: the restaurant is called the India Gate and it is near Westhoughton in Bolton. So if you are ever stuck for somewhere to go eat and you happen to be wandering around in Lancashire, then go give it a try. Good to catch up with a few of my hubby's friends, except the aircon was on full blast thanks to the heatwave and dozy here forgot to bring a jacket so I sat and shivered for most of the evening... even the curry didn't warm me up! Ended up sending my hubby out for his jacket, which looks more like a tent on me, but it prevented me turning into an Em-cicle.
Had my first appraisal for the frog job yesterday - seems to be going fine, even though I don't really feel to be doing much. Have been thinking about what my dream job would be and realising that I can go and do my dream job already. It probably wouldn't pay me enough to cover the bills and the house and would most likely wreck my marriage though, so I guess that is the reason why I am not doing it. I wish I had the resolve and dedication to write a novel. A proper mainstream 364-page book that I could see on the shelves one day. However, my typical Dragon/Aquarian nature means that I would never see such an important project through to the end and moreover, I don't have that kind of time at the moment with everything else I seem to be doing.
Opened my latest addition to the emspace family last week - HK Entertainment News Roundup and a big shout out here goes to my first volunteer translator lepra (aka mich) who has very kindly offered to help out with some of the articles for this site. It won't be updated as often or as thoroughly as the TVB news site, but I am hoping that this will provide a home for those odd articles that might be interesting to the readers. And what a readership it has become. In the short space of less than three months, my little site has gained a bit of notoriety, so much so that people actually have discussions (and the odd argument) on the Tagboard! Crazy crazy...
Not mentioned my TVB series for a while now - finished watching "Survivor's Law" and "The W Files" both of which exceeded all expectations I had from them, especially SL - I love all the characters, the stories were quite refreshing and that theme tune just rolls around in my brain. Conversely, "Greed Mask" was a little disappointing, which is a shame because I used to be such an avid Roger fan in my youth. I'm currently watching "Virtues of Harmony II" that is growing on me and going back to the old series "In the Realm of Success" - both on the recommendation of MetalAZNWarrior, who thinks they are great. What next? Hmm... nothing really appeals at the moment, but I will probably check out "The Legend of Love" because it's visually very appealing.
Well, as all the teams have gone home now I think I am justified in unmanning the desk and heading home.... hope the sun's still shining outside!
Friday, August 08, 2003
Jeez - talk about neglect.... it has been a few weeks since I updated my personal blog and if anyone is still reading this out there.... sorry!!!
The reason for this is a simple one, like I said to my dad last Saturday when he asked me "Why are you always typing?" and "Can you live without your pc?" - I just take on too much. What with the news site, my studying and of course starting my new frog job (let's see what the next three months bring), then I guess this little diary has taken a bit of a back seat.
Work my first Saturday tomorrow (in real work, not camping out at my parent's shop) for months and not really looking forward to it. It's been a good two years since having to work regular Saturdays and I've gotten quite used to having a 'proper' weekend. Oh well, just have to keep tempting myself with the two three day quasi-weekends I have coming up (hurrah for August bank holiday). Weekdays off aren't that bad though, at least I can go shopping without having to battle with a million other people and spend hours in the queues before getting squished to death on the packed bus on the way home. Oh memories of my days working in retail when Tuesdays were just bliss... hahaha....
I got called a nasty name by one of my readers today - ouch! Strangely I wasn't affected that much by it, normally I'd be really upset and start threatening to close down the site or something. Maybe I have toughened up a bit lately and am becoming more flippant about these things. Either that or the support that all my other readers and online friends show me just far outweighs these little events. It is so nice when strangers start to rally round you, shows that there is a great human love that is what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Talking of animals - watched a documentary about scorpions the other day - intriguing! Don't like creepy crawlies, but the show was so interesting and compelling, I simply had to watch it. My hat really goes off to David Attenborough and the Wildlife on One team. Amazing stuff!
Better go for my curry now - this place I am going to tonight with some friends is supposed to be the best curry house in Britain. I'll let you know how good it is later!
The reason for this is a simple one, like I said to my dad last Saturday when he asked me "Why are you always typing?" and "Can you live without your pc?" - I just take on too much. What with the news site, my studying and of course starting my new frog job (let's see what the next three months bring), then I guess this little diary has taken a bit of a back seat.
Work my first Saturday tomorrow (in real work, not camping out at my parent's shop) for months and not really looking forward to it. It's been a good two years since having to work regular Saturdays and I've gotten quite used to having a 'proper' weekend. Oh well, just have to keep tempting myself with the two three day quasi-weekends I have coming up (hurrah for August bank holiday). Weekdays off aren't that bad though, at least I can go shopping without having to battle with a million other people and spend hours in the queues before getting squished to death on the packed bus on the way home. Oh memories of my days working in retail when Tuesdays were just bliss... hahaha....
I got called a nasty name by one of my readers today - ouch! Strangely I wasn't affected that much by it, normally I'd be really upset and start threatening to close down the site or something. Maybe I have toughened up a bit lately and am becoming more flippant about these things. Either that or the support that all my other readers and online friends show me just far outweighs these little events. It is so nice when strangers start to rally round you, shows that there is a great human love that is what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Talking of animals - watched a documentary about scorpions the other day - intriguing! Don't like creepy crawlies, but the show was so interesting and compelling, I simply had to watch it. My hat really goes off to David Attenborough and the Wildlife on One team. Amazing stuff!
Better go for my curry now - this place I am going to tonight with some friends is supposed to be the best curry house in Britain. I'll let you know how good it is later!