Steveybabe's Blog 史提芬．簡禾夫

Camping at Long Ke beach, Sai Kung

2007-07-06T14:31:00.000+08:00

Hong Kong has one of the highest numbers of public holidays per year, so when one came around recently, some friends and I went camping overnight, to what is reputed to be Hong Kong's most beautiful beach, Long Ke, in Sai Kung.

We live right over on the western side of Kowloon, so we had a 3 hour journey by MTR (underground) and minibus to get to Sai Kung country park (eastern territories).

So we jumped on the public minibus, filling it up entirely...

...and got to Sai Kung Village (way out in the middle of nowhere), where we found Nemo and some of his friends.

Another public minibus and a taxi later and we got to our destination, Long Ke beach...

We set up camp right next to the beach...

... and where Neville found a dead tree, climbed up it and started to collect wood for...

...the fire, which the kids loved (especially the marshmallows and pop corn!).

I think they also had rather a lot of fun playing around in a pool!

The next day we climbed up the hill ...

...to check out the views of the reservoir.

Looking in the other direction, we saw Sharp Peak (tallest mountain on the left in the photo below) and the beach where Steve camped a couple of years earlier. The faint land mass on the right, just below the clouds, is actually in China!

It was a rather hot day so we stopped off to cool down...

but the kids had other ideas...

...which involved getting very wet!

But at least in Hong Kong you can dry off very quickly!

Hong Kong's 10th Anniversary of the Handover

2007-06-30T22:18:00.000+08:00

In the first of a series of features, the BBC's Samanthi Dissanayake looks at how Hong Kong has changed, 10 years after it was handed back to China by the British.

full story...

Happy Anniversary Hong Kong!

Update:
I went to watch the fireworks celebration down at the water front. Here's a couple of pics from Nathan Road...

Little girl sitting on a police bike. I think she's a little to young to ride!

Crowds on Nathan Road...this was about half a mile from the water front.

Shawn the Sheep

2007-06-30T22:14:00.000+08:00

Katey just me about Shawn the Sheep videos...and look... Aardman let you post videos on your blogs... so rather than waste space talking about it... take a look at this...!

Gaming Galoore

2007-06-25T16:09:00.000+08:00

To post or not to post... it was very easy not to break with tradition and not post again...especially with a photo like this that I'm sure I'll regret putting up...

But in honour of the man called Paulo, that great mine-placer, the opitomy of XP...we held a gaming night with a 'different feel'.

I should probably step back and explain what it is we're talking about. "Wolf ET" - a computer game that we occasionally get together to play involves various campaigns and missions for soliders (little computer animation thingos) to engage in.... one side attacks...the other defends...you get the picture.

Now we've got together in the past to play and its a great excuse for getting the "lad's" together for food, fun and banter. But this time we decided to "up" it a little and surprise paulo by blending reality with gaming fiction by donning some khakis and borrowing some replica weapons. Was a lot of fun!

Silence!

2007-05-22T23:46:00.000+08:00

Well, following my previous blog entry I thought the "Silent Programmer" name was rather appropriate... notice the change in the title above.

Again, its been sometime since my last post, but this time there is a proper excuse...

But it came off today and to celebrate my 'one (hand) becoming two again" freedom, I have decided to blog in honour of that.

Time to change a name

2007-04-16T15:42:00.000+08:00

It has been suggested that the sub-title of my blog is slightly mis-leading...

"if you could suck my life into the internet it would look like this..."

I've been hearing certain groanings that I don't blog enough and therefore, according to this text, my life would be pretty dull... i.e. no blog posts therefore my life looks like .

But that does tend to exclude a primary factor in this case...laziness...yes, I've just been too lazy (substitute for 'busy ') to blog anything...shocking I know, but I'm gonna try again to change that.

So in order to avoid any embarrassment on my part, especially quips about being dull and boring, I'm inviting some new suggestions for this blog title. Can anyone suggest a better name? Seriously!

Lightning Strikes!

2007-04-11T17:53:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered what happens when lightning strikes your car?

Will it still work?

Do the tyres melt?

Does the airbag fry?

Does the petrol tank explode?

Top Gear, that great car review show in the UK, have started posting mini reviews on YouTube. And of course, they just had to find out the answer! Take a look for yourself, its an awesome experiment. Was pretty impressed the car still worked fine afterwards!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6XGKZxYxA

And if you thought that 20-year males were the stereotype most prone to pulling donuts in their a small convertibles, then think again! These 80 year old grannies showed them a thing or two!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAVCcHFam7Q

Hong Kong's first budget long haul airline

2006-10-26T13:59:00.001+08:00

Hong Kong's first budget airline, Oasis, has finally got off the ground with an inaugural flight to London.

I'm quite excited about this as it means I'll be able to get to and from London for a lot cheaper than normal - a seriously big bonus when you work as a volunteer!

Wikipedia entry

Hong Kong's first budget long haul airline

2006-10-26T13:59:00.000+08:00

New York City Children

2006-10-09T12:23:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine recently sent me this short 3 min video about a project to photograph a child from every country - but they are all living in New York.

Those of you that know me, know that I love anything multi-cultural, crossing borders and boundaries, bringing people from many nations together. So I love the motivation behind this project:

"The mission of New York City Children is to gather and nuture an inclusive community of children and create opportunities for them to meet and learn about each other and form friendships"

You'll also probably know that I really enjoy portait photography. I love taking shots of friends that reveal just one or two aspects of their character... and there's some really neat about the characters of the children captured in this sequence.

I'm not sure how many nations he's covered yet, I couldn't find a website apart from www.goodmagazine.com (which produced the short documentary) but it has no search feature! If anyone finds it, please let me know :o)

Links

A new way to search my blog

2006-10-04T00:07:00.000+08:00

The astute readers amongst you will no doubt have noticed the new "Search my blog / web" panel that has appeared on my blog. The geeks amongst you will notice that I have replaced the standard Google search box with a rather new spiced up jazzy Google AJAX widget... AJAX is a bit of a buzz word in the programming world at the moment and I was keen to get in on the action. So I borrowed this code from the nice people over at Google - thanks to Mark Lucovsky for his post and demonstration here)

Actually he's also enhanced the demo blog with some rather funky map and video searches too. Definately worth checking out and I may well play around with those in due course too!

For those of you that are "not really into that computer programming nonsense" but love to reap the benefits of long hard hours spent by coders. Click the following links and see what happens...

Sri Lanka | Fire | My car is dead | Elephant Orphanage ... and yes ... it's magic!

Programming Links:

Earthquake in Hong Kong

2006-09-15T13:53:00.000+08:00

Well according to the South China Morning Post (that's a 'newspaper' for the uninitated - one of those classic daily money making schemes - SCMP for short) we had an earthquake last night measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale at 7.53pm to be precise.

Not that I actually noticed it though. I vaguely remember a slight jolt but was out having dinner at the time and was otherwise occupied! :o) And I also had a cold so wasn't really that with it at the time.

So...all this to say that, after having searched through the archives of the mother of all reliable news (aka the BBC - take that with a pinch of salt) in vain the story is nowhere to be found, so I can't even prove it to you. Alas...I fear Hong Kong could disappear into the sea and the whole of the Western World would never know.

** here endeth the sarcasm for the day. exit stage left.

Update: Matt blogged about the quake too and found a news article!

Gazing on Christ

2006-08-07T16:10:00.000+08:00

I've started reading a book recently called "Looking Through the Glass" by Kris Lundgaard, recommended to me by a friend of mine at church.

I'm still only in the first chapter but have read this quote over and over again this past week (its on page 11 by the way, if you happen to have the book) ...

Gazing on Christ will give rest, satisfaction and peace to our souls. Our minds tend to be full of countless perplexed thoughts - fears, cares, dangers, distresses, passions and lusts throw us into disorder, darkness, and confusion. But when our best thoughts are fixed on Jesus, our hearts will be kept holy, serene, and spiritual. For "to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6 NKJV) . Reflecting on Christ takes our minds off things below - things that aren't worth comparing to the great worth, beauty, and glory of what we see in Christ (compare Philippians 3:7-11). When we take our eyes off Christ, we become strangers to heavenly life, and live without the spiritual refreshment and satisfaction that God offers in his gospel.

Time to 'stay grounded in steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted." (Colossians 1:21-23, The Message)

Alex Eating Mr Green Man!

2006-08-04T15:36:00.000+08:00

Oh dear! Alex paid us a visit in the office the other day and proceeded to 'get to know' all of our toys by eating them! Here is Mr Green Man meeting Alex for the first time...head first! Mr Orange Man and Mr Blue Man have already dived for cover!

I've been in the UK for the past month and now that I'm back here in Hong Kong it's no surprise to see how much Alex has changed. Babies have a habit of doing that! It's very cool to see this little man growing up. He's got such a good baby-attitude, like not being too grumpy when his mum can't pick him up, but happy to sit and play (well most of the time I see him anyway!)

Its just in this case that 'playing' involved the attempted incapactation of a dearly-beloved toy. You'll be pleased to here that he pulled through and is currently undergoing rehabilitation at a secret location!

How many tennis matches can you watch at the same time?

2006-06-30T03:59:00.000+08:00

The BBC has finally got its act together and is streaming live video feeds of the World Cup and Wimbledon sporting events.

We still don't have BBC interactive (the 'press the red button' service) at home on the telly so instead I'm having to make do loading the video streams onto my brother's laptop and then placing it next to the TV. Its great fun to play around with. I was just watching 3 Wimbledon matches all at the same time. Hewitt vs Lee, Murray vs Bennetteau and Roddick vs Mayer. Lots of quality tennis and lots of fun experimenting with the different video feeds available.

Its gonna be very useful tomorrow to follow Wimbledon whilst Germany are playing Argentina in the World Cup Quarter Final and then Italy vs Ukraine. Its a shame that Wimbledon officials have refused to show the football on Henman Hill (or Mount Murray as its been newly christened). But instead I shall look forward to watching both from the comfort of my own arm chair!

I love being on holiday!! :o)

Weather Freaks

2006-06-29T01:21:00.000+08:00

Well you can tell Wimbledon has started because I woke up and it was raining.

And then I heard that Uncle Phil had returned to Hong Kong and they were expecting a T1 typhoon!!!

Well what can I say... coincidence? I think not! ;o)

Meditation on Joshua 9

2006-06-26T22:53:00.000+08:00

Thoughts from Josh 9 taken from Mike Smailes sermon 25/6/2006

Israel, camping at Mt Ebal, had just renewed its covenant with the Lord (jos 8v30-35). The kings to the west of the Jordan river heard about this and formed an alliance to wage war against this threat. The people of Gibeon, an important city in the region (jos 10v2)(map), were afraid that the Israelites would wipe them out, so they disguised themselves as foreigners from a distant country in order to trick the Israelites into accepting a peace agreement with them.

Loaded donkeys, worn out sacks, old wineskins, patched sandals, old clothes, and mouldy bread did the trick. Looking at the evidence, the Israelites judged it to be authentic, but they did not enquire of the Lord (jos 9v14). The peace agreement, however, was made in the Lord’s name. Three days later the ruse was uncovered. The Israelites surrounded the cities of Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath Jearim but because of their oath they did not harm them. Upset by their mistake, the Israelites grumbled and made the people woodcutters and water carriers for the entire community.

All this came about, because the Israelites had not enquired of the Lord and sought his wisdom first. You don’t get God’s wisdom if you don’t ask for it.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” Ja 1v5

However, the Lord showed mercy and worked his purposes despite the ignorance of his people: In King Solomon’s time, many years later, Gibeon was the most important high place in Israel to worship the Lord, (1 Kings 3v4) as the temple had not yet been built. While Solomon was visiting Gibeon, offering sacrifices, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

“Ask for whatever you want me to give you” - 1 Kings 3v5

Solomon asked for and received a “wise and discerning heart”.

Despite the history of Gibeon, symbolic of the Israelites failing to seek the Lord’s wisdom, God chooses this place to make his generous offer to Solomon. Was Solomon aware of the past history at Gibeon? We don’t know, but most probably considering his knowledge, making his choice of “discernment in administering justice” even more poignant.

Where God’s wisdom is not sought for or central, life decisions become unclear, the way forward becomes blurry and indecision paralyses his servants. By failing to “enquire of the Lord” mistakes are made and the consequences are painful. But as the Lord’s grace and mercy encompass Solomon, the core centrality of His wisdom in the governance of his people is reinstated.

“With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ.” Eph 1v8-9

Christ, the revelation God-image, makes known the plans and purposes of God. He tightly holds our difficult decisions and life-plans. We are fully known by Him (Ps 139) and therefore our way forward is fully known by him. ‘Enquire of the Lord’ to uncover his ways, and in obedience walk in the truth that sets you free.

Australia vs Japan

2006-06-13T22:09:00.000+08:00

I was about to blog about the Australia vs Japan match...then found out my friend had already done it - here.

I would like to say that at half time I stuck my neck out and said the Aussies, though they were 1-0 down, would win the game. In the 84th minute they equalised, then scored 2 more just for fun. Brasil are next...sorry Aussie fans but my money is still on the South Americans.

Credit to Gus for changing his name to Guus though. (Guus Hiddink is the current Aussie national football coach)

Remember that Columbian Goalkeeper?

2006-06-10T18:14:00.000+08:00

Remember that Columbian Goalkeeper?

Here's a little bit of nostalgia for you...

Remember that Columbian goalkeeper's back-kick in the friendly vs England. Awesome yet incredibly dangerous!

... and remember that amazing curling freekick by Roberto Carlos?

... look no further.

Ah! the memories come flooding back!

Google gets World Cup fever

2006-06-10T14:10:00.000+08:00

Google gets World Cup fever

I was highly impressed this morning when I walked into the office, logged in to my computer, and loaded my browser. Google fed last nights world cup results directly into my homepage and I hadn't even asked them to do it! There's only one difference between this being rude and invasive or clever and intelligent...the simple fact that I actually do want to follow the world cup. Its information that I wanted to see, replacing other items on the page that I don't want.

If you haven't come across Interactive Google before then you're in for a treat. Goto http://www.google.com/ig and sign into your Google account. Then you can create your own interactive homepage full of feeds that please you.

As you can see from this image, Eric Cantona adornes the right with his Nike "Joga Bonita" advertising campaign (it means "play beautifully" - in case you don't understand Portugese)

On the left is the lowdown on the Germany vs Costa Rica game (bring on Paulo Wanchope the one-hit wonder from the 90's - was very pleased to watch him play last night) and the sad news that Poland lost to Ecuador (sorry Joe).

Personally I was looking for an upset in the Germany game...but alas...though it could almost have been...it wasn't and the Germans dispatched themselves with their usual methodicy, though their defense was rather shakey, as Wanchope proved on several occasions (ok ok his second goal was offside)

Anyway, the most important match of the World Cup so far is this evening. England take on Paraguay in Munich and our very own Mike Tozer is probably already sitting in the stadium. He was watching last night's game in a betting shop at the airport just before he flew out to Germany. Should be an easy dispatch for England...let's hope this optimism doesn't go to waste!

World Cup Predictions

2006-06-09T18:25:00.000+08:00

World Cup Predictions

Well the World Cup 2006 is finally upon us and we're all getting rather excited over here in HK. So before it officially starts, Richard and I have published our estimated outcomes of the Finals.

We also obtained an internal news article from UBS recounting their detailed statistical analysis of the up and coming Finals in Germany. Their money's on Italy... sorry guys... no chance! But it was an interesting read nonetheless...!

But the question remains... Brasil or Argentina... I'd favour Argentina...watch this space...we'll be updating the model once the 2nd stage begins...

Click on the image to get the full view and be able to see the team names!

Life's struggles

2006-06-03T18:30:00.000+08:00

Just read this from a friend...

We must activate our wills and command our soul to submit to our spirit. It is easy in life to do all kinds of good things to skirt this level of brokenness. It is just too devastating to the flesh. We want our way. We have our plans. We are afraid of the brokenness and out of control feeling that God is requiring of us. We are afraid to let Him be in absolute control of our lives.

Radioio

2006-06-02T16:23:00.000+08:00

I recently commented to a friend here that I would really like to start getting into more Jazz music but just don't know where to dive in - its such a broad range and I wanna skim the surfaces and find out the types that I do like.

So I started getting into a little www.radioio.com but had a few technical difficulties getting started (unusual for an IT guy!) and a few emails later, Dr Mike Matheny, the Jazz DJ, offered me a year's free subscription which also fixed the problem! An extremely kind gesture and I'm very grateful - thank you Mike!

Now I'm streaming jazz away quite happily and enjoying a lot of the tunes that make their way to HK.

Time to get myself edumacated!

Vacation dates

2006-06-02T16:22:00.000+08:00

I'll be coming to the UK, 24th June until 25th July. Looking forward to catching up with everybody again!

I'm a ... blogger

2006-06-02T16:06:00.000+08:00

Dave Heath posted an interesting article on his blog about the types of bloggers out there.

Referential - linking the guts out of pages
Experiental - churning out the depths of your heart into bit and bytes
Newscaster - his own construction of a "Just so you know" blogger, rather sporadic posting

Read his post here

I think I have referential tendiencies [example post] as well as experiential (well not to its fullest) [example] but also newscasting potential (example not available because I haven't blogged for 66 days - I think you get the point)

Might I suggest my sub categories:

Sporadic blogger

Guilty sporadic blogger - know he/she has a habit of not posting. Most blogged about topic - the fact that they haven't blogged in a while".
In-denial sporadic blogger - gets it together everynow and then, likes people to think they have a healthy blog.
Mindless sporadic blogger - really hasn't got a clue about the whole blogging thing, but remembers a conversation with a friend that convinced them to start anyway.

I tend to morph into one or many of the above categories in some strange anarchistic flux. I really resonate with "sporadic", sorry guys. My most blogged about topic really is 'sorry for not blogging recently"

Update: perhaps I should be called a "Belated Blogger?" :o)

Hidden Holes on the MacLehose Trail

2006-03-28T01:24:00.000+08:00

MaclehoseStage9_2006_Hidden_Holes
Originally uploaded by Helen & Mike.

This is a classic photo from my fellow workmate and partner in crime - Mike. He and his wife have recently been trotting along the 10 stages of the 100km MacLehose trail in Hong Kong. I often go jogging along stage 10 as it passes right above where I live (yes it's up a mountain!)

There's something about translated sign posts in Hong Kong that reminds me of "Lost in Translation" Think that more to do with the title than anything else though!

Oxfam hosts an annual trailwalker race that ends on our premises. The current record for the 100-km MacLehose Trail is 11 hours 57 minutes! (2004)

Update: Mike's blogged his own photo!

Firewall

2006-03-20T22:45:00.000+08:00

oops!

We just installed a new firewall at work - does really clever stuff like actually looking at webpages before you read them - just to check you're not looking at dodgy stuff. The technical term is "content filtering" - letting through the good stuff and blocking the not so savoury stuff.

Only one problem... someone made the filters a little too aggressive and oops...I couldn't get to my blog and the reason for that was made very clear - "pornography" apparently.

I challenge anybody to find the porn on this blog - its clean I assure you! :o)

Anyways, so had a good laugh, plugged in the admin override password and hey presto...I'm here now! :)

But isn't it ironic how the password defeats the point of the filtering!

FART (Fire Action Response Team!)

2006-03-08T13:52:00.000+08:00

And the acronym of the day is ... !

... well then there's also BAIT (Blonde Astronauts In Training)

I love Balderdash and you can even play it online!

Mr Darcy - a German spy?

2006-03-03T13:04:00.000+08:00

hmm...my average posting rating for this month has followed the trend of previous months and continued to be down at a very low rate depsite my strong encouragements to friends to start blogging cause its the best way to stay in touch.

Freaky Movie Sequence
In the last week I have watched 3 films in what turned out to be a rather freaky sequence to watch... Try this...

Pride and Prejudice - the one with Rosamund Pike (an ex. Oxford girl nonetheless) Keira Knightley not the BBC version which is better!
Emma - the one with Gwyneth Paltrow
Enigma - about the Bletchley Park code breakers

So what's the link? What has Jane Austen got to do with a World War 2 fact-based drama?
The much anticipated answer, my friends, is in the actors...and it F-R-E-A-K-E-D ME out!

Is Mr Darcy really a German spy?
Does Mr Collins truly exhibt the enormous skill and intelligence required to be numbered among England's finest code breakers?
Is Mr Knightley actually working for MI6? Does Emma know this?

People aren't what they seem anymore!! If you're wondering about my choice of films for last weekend, thinking Hong Kong life is making me soft, then let me assure you that Munich is currently on the list of 'must sees' :o)

Oh and if you're into code breaking then this bbc arcticle might be of interest to you.

New York / Geneva Trip Photos

2006-02-10T17:27:00.000+08:00

Its now officially released - here are the shots from my New York / Geneva trip with Mr Blue Man as your host. Stealing the show as always ...

Its starts off in the baggage...

Feeling hot?!
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

... and then gets rather chilly up on the Empire State Building

Its cold up there
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

But Mr Blue Man conquers the top of State...here's his victory pose.

Feeling satisfied
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

...and then a little snow ball fight breaks things up slightly!

Snow ball fight
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

For more photos, check out the set

Diligence

2006-02-10T14:25:00.000+08:00

“The state or quality of pursuing one's goals with conviction, persistence and dedication.”

- Wikipedia

Friends Mozaic

2006-02-10T13:41:00.000+08:00

Friends Mozaic
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

Having a lot of fun over at http://flagrantdisregard.com

Loving the flickr plugins!

This is a mozaic of some friends in Hong Kong ...more to come.

Joel's blog

2006-02-05T06:53:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine, after a little persuasion(!!), has joined the blogging sphere. Well done, Joel! http://joelyjoel.blogspot.com

By the way, sorry for the lack of contact recently. Have been away on a business trip and then popped home for 10 days (where I am now). Unfortunately, have been ill all week so had to cancel pretty much every engagement to see all my luuurvely friends.

Back to Hong Kong on Monday. (I hope!)

Replenish

2006-01-20T15:43:00.000+08:00

"For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants."

In context...Isaiah 44 (v3)

2006-01-15T00:04:00.000+08:00

He [Jesus] gives a rest which develops into heaven, and He gives it this day to all who come to Him.

Love this short quote from Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" available here

Airplane Adventures

2006-01-14T22:09:00.000+08:00

Airplane Adventures
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

Over the next few weeks Mr Blue Man will be travelling round the world. Starting from Hong Kong he's headed to New York (via Chicago) and then on to Geneva, with a final stop in the UK before he returns to Honkers.

Here with his 'partners in crime', Mr Blue Man gets a little cheeky on a plane to New York.

The flights themselves were a little 'eventful'. Mr Blue Man was unable to go to the toilet because federal law preventing him from relieving himself in cubicles with malfunctioning 'alert' buttons. His in-flight entertainment was also interrupted as the captain switched off the system along with the air cond, reading lights, and other electricals due to smoke from broken equipment. But he took great relief in the fact that the problem did not develop any further. Though he almost spilt his coke over a passenger during a brief bout of turbulence.

His motel "Super 8" in New York does have wireless internet access so he is happy to be able to blog from there as the week progresses. Tomorrow he will be working through the day preparing for important humanitarian aid collaboration meetings next week, and on Sunday he will go sightseeing in New York - more photos then.

Self explanatory

2006-01-13T00:03:00.000+08:00

Self explanatory
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

Wouldn't mind applying the same logic to my programming one day! But like most things, you have to learn to do it well before saying so!

Globe trotting...!

2006-01-12T22:51:00.000+08:00

...its now been 2 months since I last posted. Doh!

We've just come to the 'end' of a a very busy period at work and I'm exhausted! We've reached a mile stone and now we get to mark it by heading off around the globe for various meetings (my first work-related trip)

Its gonna be a hard trip, lots will be happening, and we'll be busier than ever, (so not much change from the above), but at the same time it will be a different kind of 'busy' and that is somehow refreshing. Its nice to take a break from programming once in a while! (3 months solid slog is enough to finish anyone off!)

So next week we'll be in New York having meetings with the UN and other aid agencies. The week after we'll be show-casing some work at an Aid and Trade conference in Geneva and the week after that I get to go home! Yay! Haven't been home in almost 8 months.

So if you're at home and wanna catch up...drop me a line!

Google risk!

2005-11-14T09:37:00.000+08:00

In a comment to a [previous post] Simon mentioned that the barycenter of himself (in Durham) to me (in Hong Kong) is likely to be somewhere over the czech republic. Whilst he's probably not far off and way more sophisicated than Google Earth, I did have a little fun playing around with the measurement tool on the aforementioned program.

It turns out that we're separated by 5,901.17 Miles (that's 5,580,571.57 smoots) give or take a few inaccuracies in my ruler!!

Most of you know I'm a real sucker for anything with a 'global' theme. Hence I've been closely following another Google revelation - Google Maps. The cool thing for programmers is that Google have opened up their mapping software, allowing them to use maps in there programs.

Obviously this has some immediate implications - Housing Maps can now provide a clickable, zoomable, accurate map of their houses for sale in the usa (incidently driven by Craigslist), during Hurrican Katrina people were able to post online information about their whereabouts and the condition of the area they were in - great for worried families, and useful in planning humanitarian response.

But by far the coolest and funnest use I've found so far is Google Risk Its awesome! Not only do you get to play Risk (I love that game!) but you get to do it on a *real* map of the world that you can click and zoom and play with. We're gonna start a mass game in the office sometime thanks to XP's remote desktop feature!!!

Steve is very happy! :o)

What to do...

2005-11-10T09:56:00.000+08:00

This started off as a comment to Harriet's blog post. [ link ] but quickly grew into something more substantial as I realised the depth of my own time management problems. Thanks Harriet!!

Snippet...

The problem comes when my head becomes so full up of little things that need to be done that I don't do anything, other than try and sort through it. I'm procrastinating now. I should be filling in my UCAS form, or getting my head round my psychology project, or finding the email with Adam's address on so that I can post his birthday present, bought at the time of his birthday.

Adam's birthday was in August.

Ah yes! I know exactly what you mean. We're running up to a website deadline and there are so many things that people would like me to do. Post-it notes along with a book seem to work ok for me. Problem is, I get so overloaded with things to do that I don't know where to start. The main problem is that stack of email that is filling up in my inbox. Friends emailed me over a month ago and I still haven't replied. I really want to reply, but I want to find the time to do it properly...not just a quick 'hi' email. Plus, I only live a 2 minute walk from the office so I really have little excuse about traveling

People often say that we don't have enough time to do things...but that can't be strictly true because time is a continous thing. One day flows seemlessly into the next.

Maybe we just have too much to do sometimes!

For days like these...

2005-10-31T21:55:00.000+08:00

"Love should give wings to the feet of service and strength to the arms of labour."

Charles Spurgeon (via a friend)

X marks the spot

2005-10-27T18:15:00.000+08:00

"In a true moment of revelation, Brian Maloney redefines the foundations of geometry"

I wish logic was always this rewarding! Bring me back my Finals...

widescreen

2005-10-26T15:53:00.000+08:00

I use a measly outdated dual-flat screen at work. This has to be upgraded NOW thanks to Dwaino! :o)

Link

Fidi fidi FireFox

2005-10-18T19:49:00.000+08:00

There's a lot of things I like about Firefox.

Standards compliant
Tabbed browsing
Funky skins
LiveMarks
Extensions

'firesomething' has to rock. I'm currently on 'Mozilla Turbocheetah'

The list goes on...

But I must admit I have a real issue with memory leaks (not I won't go into the details, except to say that there's a bug in the FireFox code that eats up all your memory and won't give it back until you've shut down every 'flippin' last tab :o) Now that won't bother most people, but when, like me, your work involves at least 20 tabs all open at once then it can get rather painstaking having to shut them all down.

A mate of mine pointed out this site Mooz which is a set of Firefox's specifically compiled for your processor. In non-geek speak, that means you can get a version of Firefox that speaks the very dialect your processor was born and bred on. This makes it much faster, and ... with a bit of luck... hopefully more efficient with memory.

I've just installed it so its time to see what happens...

p.s. 'Fidi fidi' is the romanisation of a Cantonese phrase 'faster faster'

Safe?

2005-10-17T12:20:00.000+08:00

Am currently reading through the Chronicles of Narnia in preparation for the movie coming out in December. Here's my favourite quote so far...

"Safe?" said Mrs Beaver; "don't you hear what Mr Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

check out the movie site

Bad day in the office

2005-10-15T15:47:00.000+08:00

Man... I thought I had a bad day in the office. But no matter how bad, this kinda puts it all into perspective.

Paul's Hardships

We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

2 Corinthians 6

Difficult miracles

2005-10-15T15:02:00.000+08:00

From a friend -

"Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle--it is miracle in its first stage. If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossibility."

Getting around Hong Kong

2005-09-29T16:09:00.000+08:00

This post is actually so I don't forget how to get around Hong Kong - http://www.ypmap.com

Hope it helps!

hoops and yoyo

2005-09-29T00:01:00.000+08:00

I've been going through a phase of sending e-cards to all my friends for their birthdays (really useful when you live in Hong Kong and they're in the UK). One of my favourite spots is Hoops and Yoyo from Hallmark

So was really excited when my birthday came around and a friend from uni sent through Hoops and Yoyo - very impressed ;o)

Lost and Found

2005-09-23T14:33:00.000+08:00

Have you ever had that experience when you created a website, totally forgot about it and then a friend discovers it and emails it to you several years later? ... no i didn't think so!

I had completely forgotten about this, from back in 2003, am amazed its mostly all still there.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/steveyken

Freaky or what!

Where have you been?

2005-09-17T14:08:00.000+08:00

A friend just showed me this cool site World66 where you can list all the countries that you've been too or have lived in. If you're like me and love charting the globe, you'll love this site. This sums up my last 5 years travel and work...

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Celebration of Discipline update

2005-08-09T23:44:00.000+08:00

No seriously...its about time I did a post on the CoD chapters - I'm several behind. I must admit though that I've struggled to keep it going due to having rather a lot of work at the moment (on going website development deadline for the foreseable future) So, I'm gonna have to take things a little slower, though I still want to complete the book and write up all the chapters.

Whilst I'm in confession mode, I must also mention that i did skip a long way ahead a feasted on the chapter about guidance - read it twice and then wrote notes on it...more to come on that!

Hong Kong Helicopter Flight

2005-08-08T10:30:00.000+08:00

Aberdeen
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

It was my brother's birthday last week and given the fact that he and my dad are currently visiting me in Hong Kong, Dad decided to treat us all to a helicopter flight around Central. It was an awesome day and we all really enjoyed it. Check out the photos and I've put in lots of links to Google Maps so we can see exactly just where we went via satellite! Just roll the mouse over the images to see if there are any notes with links on them.

97%

2005-07-25T12:07:00.000+08:00

Came across this amusing post whilst catching up on Bagga's blog today. (yes its been weeks since i've had the time to sit down and go through my blog roll...shocking!)

Baggas: "According to Oxford professor Richard Swinburne it is 97% certain that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead based on sheer logic and mathematics, not faith."

Now I do find that rather amusing, having studied maths at Ox, but I'm prepared to take a tongue in cheek look at it and not take it too seriously. I'm just glad that faith is based on who God is and not just what he has done for us.

If there's anything I've learning from my time in the "dreaming spires of Oxford", it has to be that Mathematics is an awesome tool that can be found in most if not all areas of life (e.g. science, nature) but without a Creator God, a God who created Mathematics, much of what it describes and defines would be meaningless. It takes the Creator God to turn it into something meaningful.

Btw. I love the cartoon on his post Very funny!!

London bombings...

2005-07-08T22:05:00.000+08:00

Every one is talking about the London bombings right now. I've only had time to read/watch the bbc news and chat to a couple of friends. Its wierd for me being here in Hong Kong, 6000 miles from home, and to see and hear 2nd hand about what is going on.

Read the BBC post here to catch up...

I have quite a few friends who work in the city. I've only heard from a few of them so far, but it seems several had close misses.

One friend who works in Canary Wharf usually goes through Liverpool Street station - one that was bombed. But on that day decided to go into work early to finish something off.
A distant relative was travelling in London and stopped off in Charing Cross to have breakfast, if he hadn't done so, he would have been travelling on the affected tracks around the time of the bombs.
[updated] Looks as if the sister of a lady I know from church is quite badly injured...praying.

Watch this space for updates as I hear from more people...

Celebration of Discipline: Simplicity

2005-07-08T21:48:00.000+08:00

*Warning* This post is going to be slightly abstract and quite possibly confusing, because I'm rather tired right now!

This study is certainly getting deeper each chapter. The quote below from Foster's 6th chapter conveys a radical point of view.

The Spiritual Discipline of simplicity provides the ... perspective. Simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep and can freely be shared with others.

If a gift is given to me, I'm supposed to keep it and enjoy it right? But with God, his gift is so great that actually I can't possibly keep it all to myself. Its such a big gift that simply by giving it away, I still get to keep it! There is enough to go round.

By simplicity, Foster means things such as:

Not getting carried away with being important
Getting rid of addictions
Being generous rather than keeping
Appreciate creation
Don't oppress others, rather affirm them
Seek the kingdom of God

Quite a heavy checklist if you look closely enough!

The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of his kingdom first and then everything necessary will come into its proper order.

Ah ok, this is a much better principle to guide the checklist above. It makes it a bit easier to follow. If you keep this principle in mind, and focus on it, then I don't think you can go wrong with the Discipline of Simplicity somehow. Much easier said than done... good luck with it!

Celebration of Discipline: Study

2005-07-01T21:34:00.000+08:00

He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinising the hearts of others, he neglects not his own. [Caleb Coulton]

For the 5th CoD chapter, Foster dives into the discipline of study. I love his opening quote [above] by Coulton. I think it pretty much sums up this chapter. As Foster says, "the mind is renewed by applying it to those things that will transform it"

Foster gives us four steps that he believes form the basis of study:

Repeitition - "Regularly channeling the mind in a specific direction"
Concentration - centering our attention on the subject in order to comprehend what we are studying
Comprehension - it is the knowledge of the truth that sets us free
Reflection - "defines the significance of what we are studying"

I often struggle to concentrate. There are times when I find music useful to concentrate - such as when I'm in the office and need to block out all other forms of distraction. But there are times when music gets in the way and I'm distracted e.g if reading or praying.

I think there is one more step I would add though - "regularity". It doesn't form the basis of study, but it does enables study to flourish. This is my biggest problem though. My life doesn't easily fit into a regular pattern, so its hard to make a regular slot for study. But I've certainly found it very rewarding when I have. There are some amazing gems in the 'old Bible if you dig down under the surface. (understatement of the century!)

I have to end this posting with my favourite quote of the chapter:

To read successfully we need the extrinsic aids of experience, other books, and live discussion

I think the CoD blog ring is a pretty good form of modern day 'live discussion'.

Celebration of Discipline - Fasting

2005-06-27T16:23:00.000+08:00

Recap from last week's post on prayer:

I'm setting myself some targets to get on with prayer...30 minutes each day.

Well, I managed it for the first few days, though I was a bit silly and always left it to 12am ish just before I went to bed! Then I got a little slack over the weekend which isn't good. Am gonna try and keep it going this week though. There's no reason why I shouldn't be doing it anyway. Think I'll try and take the dogs for a walk each day in the early evening and fit it in then!

Moving on to this weeks topic of "Fasting". Foster gives us a good explanation and history of fasting in bible times. I particularly like,

"The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." Matt 9:15

I agree with Foster that its one of the most important statements on fasting in the New Testament. It assumes fasting will happen, and gives a mandate for it to happen - because the 'bridegroom aka Jesus' has left. It makes Christ the focus for the discipline as/when it takes place.

"Fasting must forever centre on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained."

So what's the big deal, why is it such an unfamiliar thing? Why is fasting no longer (or was it ever in Western society?) a cultural norm? Foster mourns,

"Have we become so accustomed to 'cheap grace' that we instinctively shy away from more demanding calls to obedience? 'Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross.'"

Crumbs! He's hit the nail on the head. For me at least, this is a challenging statement. What areas of cheap grace do I wallow in? Reaping the benefits of a Christian life, but ignoring the hard-slog it also is at times. I think fasting will 'bring out' those items of cheap grace in me and help expose them, so its time to find out.

Smuggleablity Of Suitcase

2005-06-27T15:49:00.000+08:00

Smuggleablity Of Suitcase 005
Originally uploaded by Dave Kenworthy.

My brother is coming out here to Hong Kong to visit me in a couple of days time. Its good to see that he's started packing already (I'm a really last minute packer!) But judging by this photo, it looks as if my sister would really like to come to!!

Lantau Waterfalls

2005-06-25T22:39:00.000+08:00

Monday being our day off, we decided to head out to Lantau Island (one of Hong Kong's largest inhabited islands) to visit the area where my friends used to live and also to see the waterfalls!

So we get to the bottom of the waterfalls, dump our bags, and attempt to climb straight up it to the top. As with most climbing expeditions, once you get to the top, you then have climb another harder section to get to the real top, and so on. So, finally, having reached the 'real' top we soaking in the view - 'literally'.

Hong Kong is renown, like many other places in Asia (Bangkok for one), for freak, full-on rain storms. (None of that UK drizzle I'm used to!) Of course, we ended up with a massive downpour, while we were at the top. So unable to get to any form of shelter, we let the elements engulf us. You know that feeling you get when you're so wet, its just impossible to get any wetter - yeah, so we jumped in, fully clothed, shoes still on... GREAT FUN! as I'm sure the photos show.

Sailing Perspective

2005-06-25T22:24:00.000+08:00

A couple of us went sailing the other weekend.

It was the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Holiday so we decided to have our own trip out to the sea, plus we really felt like we needed a break from work.

Here's a few photos as we headed out through Clearwater Bay and on into the South China Sea.

The first ones at a slightly odd angle, but I think it helps to show what it was like on the boat once we got the sail up. It was great to dangle our feet of the side as the boat tilted into the wind. The water was so clean and refreshing, even warm - totally not used to warm water, having been brought up in the UK.

We sailed out into the South China Sea, had we kept going another 15mins we would have gone out of Hong Kong waters. But instead we turned round and headed for a quite bay to take a swim and eat lunch.

On the way back we ended up with this group photo. The sun was just starting to set so everybody has a really warm glow.

We almost left DJ stranded out in the sea. But decided life just wouldn't be the same without him if we didn't bring him home.

The internet just got smaller

2005-06-22T21:56:00.000+08:00

Some research suggests that if you take any two random people in the world, then you can link them to each other with an average of 6 people between them. So my friend knows this guy who knows this guy who...6 people later and you've found a connection.

I've heard of all this stuff before and it doesn't surprise me, especially in Christian circles where I think its probably more like an average of 4 degrees of separation.

Here's a random one that happened to me just the other day: There's this guy who works with me in the office called Mike, or "Dr Google" as I like to call him. Mike loves using google, in fact he spends most of his day doing it. He loves searching around finding the most random things on the net. So crazy is he about searching, that he even searches for other search engines! Which is why when google told him about Amazon's A9 search, he clicked through to Bagga's blog, which was running an article about it. Mike, along with a few friends including myself, is studying Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. He noticed Baggas was doing it too and thought "Hey cool, lets email my friends about it". So he did, and even got really excited when he noticed that a guy in Hong Kong (where he lives) was also doing it.

It just so happens that I'm studying the book with him and his friends and also with Baggas and the others at Messychristian.com Anyways, some time later... he returns to the blog to read some more, realises that the guy in Hong Kong was me, realises that he works with me, in fact sits about 10m away. Tells us all his amazing find and we all have a good laugh.

OK, so it might not sound that remarkable but was amusing at the time, to see that I'd been 'found out'! Thanks Baggas!

Celebration of Discipline - Prayer

2005-06-19T01:37:00.000+08:00

My apologies...I'm supposed to be posting the next part of Celebration of Discipline but I'm not feeling too well at the moment. Hope to get it done in the next couple of days.

...next couple of days later...

Its been one of those weeks again, where there has been much for me to do and I also started getting a tad ill with a silly cold thingy. As a result, cultivating any sense of meaningful prayer has been a little difficult. Which is kinda ironic since the chapter we're studying in our blog group is all about prayer.

Foster starts the chapter by setting the bar high,

"Prayer - secret, fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness. - William Carey"

OK, but do I really get the picture? He's saying that prayer is a crucial part of my walk with God, yet my actions this past week haven't characterised that. This is one reason why I found the following quote from Martin Luther so challenging.

"I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." He held it as a spiritual axiom.

Axiomatics plays well with my mind since I was taught many a mathematical proof at university. They are the foundation or basis upon which a proof is constructed. They are the 'definites', certainly holding true in a particular space or field. And I agree with Luther, the same is true here. Prayer *has* to be the foundation upon which we construct our daily lives, if we want a solid, steady enriched life that follows the heart of our Maker. (note to self: I'm starting to feel rather guilty now at saying all these things but not doing them. Yikes! this is hard! And the quote below confirms this...)

"We must never wait until we feel like praying before we pray for others. Prayer is like any other work; we may not feel like working, but once we have been at it for a bit, we begin to feel like working."

Now I'm starting to understand. Prayer isn't supposed to be a struggle. Its supposed to be a delight to converse with our Maker, Creator, and Saviour, but for some reason its not. Sin is always trying to block my way into His presence; pure laziness, ignorance...the list goes on...all these things stop me getting on with it. But in the words of Stephen Curtis Chapman, "I'm diving in" its about time I got this sorted.

"I want a life of greater, deeper, truer prayer" - Archbishop Tait

I like that guy, he makes a lot of sense but its up to me to make these words real.

One last note, I've noticed a sense of guilt creep in on me this week. Each time I come to pray I feel guilty because I haven't been doing it enough, and immediately I don't feel like praying because of that sense of guilt. That kind of guilt is unconstructive. I only want to feel guilty if its going to make me do something about the situation. So this week, I'm setting myself some targets to get on with prayer...30 minutes each day. I want to be held accountable by all the others involved in this study...check up on me each day during the week and see if I've progressed.

Funny pics

2005-06-15T23:52:00.000+08:00

Came across this site on DB's site today. The photos labelled Why Women Live Longer really made me laugh. Check it out if you have 5 mins to waste!

The Discipline of Meditation

2005-06-10T23:22:00.000+08:00

Its been a long week of deadlines (hence no blog posts), but thankfully I got chance to read this next chapter of Celebration of Discipline earlier on. My thoughts are recapped here:

"Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God's voice and obey his word."

Great! That sounds so simple...but I was struck by the reference Foster then makes to the Garden of Eden.

"Adam and Eve talked with God and God talked with them - they were in communion. Then came the Fall...Adam and Eve hid from God"

That got me thinking - just how many different ways do I try to hide from God? Too much work (particularly in my case this week), need to spend time with friends, too sleepy (often as a result of the previous two). I've listed some pretty lame excuses here, but the scary thing is - I've actually used them, and way too often. God isn't fooled by all this. What's needed 'down under' (I work with lots of Aussies!) is an attitude change. My heart needs to feast again on the delights of knowing God, to be struck once again by who he is.

I say the following with full-knowledge that I can only change with God's help. (But I know he wants to help me, so its time I got on with it!) Meditation is one way to get my heart straight. As Foster says,

"In meditation...The perpetual presence of the Lord (omnipresence, as we say) moves from a theological dogma into a radiant reality. 'He walks with me and he talks with me' ceases to be pious jargon and instead becomes a straight-forward description of daily life."

That's where I wanna get to. To experience the 'intense intimacy and awful reverence' of God, not some cheap idea of a mushy friendship which I seem to have been happy to settle with.

"For to be in the presence of God is to change." This echos the words on my heart.

"Regardless of how it is done, the aim is to center the attention of the body, the emotions, the mind, and the spirit upon 'the glory of God in the face of Christ' 2 Cor 4:6"

This will be my plumbline as I delve in deeper. Time to get on with it...

Pitfalls of Christian Disciplines

2005-06-03T17:30:00.000+08:00

I couldn't resist a second post to list the 7 pitfalls that Foster warns about. I think they'll be useful for us to keep in mind as we go through the book.

Things to avoid doing:

Turning the Disciplines into law
- legalism chokes the heart
Not understanding the social implications of the Disciplines
- waging peace in a world of war etc
Viewing the Disciplines as virtous in and of themselves
- instead remember that they are there to bring us before God
Center on the Disciplines rather than on Christ
- He must be the focus of our attention, not a set of rules
To isolate one Discipline and to neglect the others
- the Disciplines are an "organic unity" - I like that quote!
Thinking that the 12 Disciplines exhaust God's grace
- God cannot be confined to any system
Studying but not experiencing the Disciplines
- abstraction, argument, debate draw us away from the real need - the need to change

The Spiritual Disciplines: Door to Liberation

2005-06-03T00:05:00.000+08:00

Having just read the introduction chapter of Richard Fosters book "Celebration of Discipline", here are a couple of thoughts running around in my head.

"...the Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our husband or wife, out brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbours."

I'm working my way through this study book with a group of bloggers from all around the world. In a sense they are my virtual brothers and sisters. But it is also important for me to allow my friends and family who can see me close up to criticise the way I implement these disciplines. I need to open it up to them and invite their comments and criticism - so feel free to do so!

It is important to note as I begin this study that the book is based closely on the disciplines that have been practiced by Christians throughout the centuries. Foster claims the "devotional masters have affirmed the necessity of the Disciplines" which are "central to experiential Christianity". So these are not going to be some strange new-age techniques to 'enhance' the mind, but rather affirmed practices that have stood the test of time.

The requirement for these disciplines is simply a longing after God. Their purpose is liberation. One caution which Foster gives, one which I can see myself a victim of, is not to make the doing of the discplines the main goal. The main goal is to meet with God, to delight in him, to develop my relationship. How many times have I fallen into the trap of trying to fix my life myself. I've learnt in my head that giving my problems to God works, but time and again I have failed in action, failed to let him help me. Foster quotes from Heini Arnold,

"As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own will power, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever."

I think what he means is that, as long as I am trying to save myself from my sins, then I will fail, because salvation from sin can only be bought through Jesus - surely if there was another way, God wouldn't have sent him to die for us. So simply put, if I try to attack these bad habits of mine, or try to make my life better soley through my own disciplining, then I will fail. I have to give the disciplines over to God and let him become the focus of doing them. The disciplines cannot institute righteousness but they can help sustain it. The work has to be grounded in God first.

What I'm looking for in these next few months is to be able to say, quoting Foster,

"Divine Love has slipped into our [my] inner spirit and taken over our [my] habit patterns."

and

"To refrain from being good and kind would be the hard work because goodness and kindness are part of our [my] nature."

This sounds idealistic, and indeed it is. But its a good ideal - one that I believe can only be brought about by a total change in my inner spirit - and that is why Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his transforming power in my life.

Here is Liz's roundup of the group blog.

Hong Kong Island

2005-06-01T23:29:00.000+08:00

Hong Kong Island
Originally uploaded by Alan Blake.

I went sightseeing over the weekend with my mate Alan, who's come out to join me in Hong Kong for a few weeks. I really hate being a tourist, but always use the excuse of 'having friends over' to explore the usual places where tourists are seen.

Here's a shot from The Peak, looking down towards Central, Hong Kong Island. In the background you can make out the tallest building in Hong Kong, IFC 2, which also happens to be one of my favourites. And of course it was designed by British architect Norman Foster.

Came across this cool link that tells you the name of the famous buildings on the HK skyline - pretty handy when you want to show off your knowledge about each building in the photo. *cough*

Storewars

2005-05-30T00:08:00.000+08:00

Episode I, II , III, IV, V, VI all in one day!

We started the fest at 6am and then watched right through the day to 10.15pm. Crazy! And to be really honest, I can't remember what actually happened in Episode III cause its all blurred into one long movie. Don't think the 12 hour flight and hence jet lag the day before really helped!

I'd like to say I'm proud of myself, but to be honest it was a rather long day and I doubt I'll do it again anytime soon. That said, I am a Star Wars fan, not the geeky, crazy 'I want to be a Storm Trooper' kinda guy, but they're good films. This isn't the place to do a 6 part review, there are enough of them out there on the web anyway.

I do have to link to this hilarious short-movie Mike showed me: 'Storewars' It just cracked me up! I'll never look at my groceries in the same way again.

A tribute to Tommy Kwan - Wang Lee Hom lookalike extraordinaire!

2005-05-24T19:05:00.000+08:00

Wang Lee Hom

Tommy on the left

Well my mate Tommy Kwan is a special kind of person. I mean not everybody looks like pop-star Wang Lee Hom (no I'd never heard of him either) but suffice to say, Tommy does, and he's milking it in! Ladies and all!

'I find myself surrounded by adoring uni females!'

Check out Tommy's new blog to get the low-down of his exploits in China.

Now I'm off to reconcile the echos of Anthony singing 'triiii-i-buuu-ute' in that wierd song we used to sing in our late night uni guitar sessions that I can't remember the name of right now!

Celebration of Discipline

2005-05-20T03:15:00.000+08:00

Starting on the 1st June, I'll be going through the book 'Celebration of Discpline' with some others. This will be hosted by Liz Tai over a www.messychristian.com We'll go through a chapter a week and post our thoughts and comments to each others entries. If you're interested in blogging with us, then pop over to here and leave a message.

Here's an extract from Liz's blog.

We've got quite a few people interested in blogging through Robert Foster's Celebration of Discipline. The book, as Baggas helpfully pointed out, is no.8 on Christianity Today's Top 100 books of the 20th century. (C.S Lewis's Mere Christianity, one of the books I'm reading now, is No.1!)

And here's an index of the articles I've written so far:

Nooooo...my car is dead

2005-05-20T03:09:00.000+08:00

My old car

After many long years together (5 to be precise), my car finally gave up the ghost and died. So many fun adventures...so many tight spots to squeeze into (and out of)...so many friends (it could have been mistaken for a taxi)...so many late night trips to luton and beyond...we truly have walked down the road of life together.

I know many of my readers (at least he thinks he has many readers) will recall happy experiences with the white automobile of nissian. Whether its breaking down on the M1 late at night, going round a roundabout the wrong way, or knocking down a bollard in the Galaxy center, there have been many adventures. Check out a previous post

So ... may the tributes (comments) flood in.

Is Natalie Wood a country western hero or villian?

2005-05-17T21:43:00.000+08:00

I decided to check out my stats counter the other day. Its been trickling up over the last few weeks or so, so I thought it was high time I had a look at the big picture. I found some amusing results and thought I'd share with you some of the best ones...

Some unfortunate soul was searching for 'country western heros villians' and for some reason the search engine, in its anxious deliberation to serve up at least some 'results' churned up my blog. Poor soul...I really feel for them. I mean...who in their right mind would ever search for such a topic. That said, I can think of worse!

One result which pleased me, sought to highlight the usefulness of my birthdays section. Someone actually thought Yahoo could tell them 'Natalie Wood's birthday'...and it did, thanks to my birthdays page. The 12th October is that prestigious day (I write this just so that it will come up again in the search engine, hence increasing my rank.) Natalie is, by the way, a fellow student from my previous life in Keble.

*Quick plug* - if your birthday isn't listed on the right, and you'd like it to be, then drop me an email and I'll stick it up. I have a serious lack of dates for January, May, and December.

Graduation Day in Oxford

2005-05-09T07:13:00.000+08:00

Benny Claire and Steve
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

Bit of a strange ceremony in Latin, I must admit. But it was good to get my degree and catch up with all my uni friends who I haven't seen for the past 9 months.

This is a photo of myself with Benny and Claire who are soon to be married. A great couple. Benny is actually part of the reason I ended up in Hong Kong...but that's another story!

Grandparent's Wedding Day

2005-05-07T05:34:00.000+08:00

Grandparent's Wedding Day
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

Its my Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary tomorrow and I'm very excited. Mainly because I'm very proud that they've actually made it through 50 years. You don't hear about many of those these days, which I think is really sad. I'm always encouraged when I hear of marriages that have lasted a life time.

Faithfulness is a virtue through which love blossoms.

Celebration of Discipline

2005-05-07T04:37:00.000+08:00

Note to self: Messy Christian has now bought this book and will read it within hours of buying it (where does she find the time?!) I've had it on my shelf for almost a year now... get it out!

A rather late Christmas and Easter

2005-05-05T21:32:00.000+08:00

I got back to the UK this morning, returning to a boxful of Christmas and Easter presents! I was rather surprised and it felt a little wierd opening all these things in the middle of summer! But it was cool - lots of nice chocolate eggs - which i really missed out on while I was in Hong Kong (somehow Easter just doesn't get much attention there. Why? Four words: Sam Nin Faai Lok! Chinese New Year is far more important to them.) Then there was the deoderant and shower gel - and ok, I'll admit that I did actually need some as I'd left mine back in HK - but I am returning in two weeks time, so its not that long a wait really!! I found the super-duluxe-red-flashy-sports-car-masquerading-as-air-freshner toy also rather amusing. But hey! Its nice to know people still remembered me while I was away, and its nice to be back.

Graduation beckons...

Lots of Links

2005-05-03T00:26:00.000+08:00

OK, so the last few posts of mine have all been about links to friends sites. This is mainly to remind me of where they are and to visit them often. But instead of filling my blog with random posts like that, I'm gonna have a page that collects all the links and lists them. (Cause adding them to the right nav bar takes too long!) So here goes:

(in no particular order or genre)

Ms MacFie - http://muchloved.blogspot.com/
The eloquent Jude: http://judesmith.blogspot.com/
The old stalwart of LCET, Chris Curtis: http://chriscurtis.typepad.com/weblog/
Dave [the geek] Heath - http://daveheath.blogspot.com/
And his photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveheath/
[You can tell he's a geek cause he says so himself]
Mike and Helen live here - http://fidi-mgoy.blogspot.com/
Alina posts here - http://crownofsplendour.blogspot.com/
Google Blog: http://www.google.com/googleblog/
My photos: http://flickr.com/photos/steveybabe/
Gus - www.monohorn.com
Hezza - http://www.angelfire.com/nt/frederickst/frames.html
Messy Christian - real to life, down to earth http://www.messychristian.com/
Quietly Harriet reveals what's on her mind - http://quietingthemind.blogspot.com/
Sudan crisis ServLife blog - http://servlife.blogs.com/joseph_oloya_hakim/
Jesus creed, the blog of a commentator - http://jesuscreed.blogspot.com/
IT reader - really useful tips for work - http://itreader.net/
One year Bible - http://www.oneyearbibleblog.com/
Tommy Kwan - http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=chechung

Reconnecting

2005-05-01T01:20:00.000+08:00

Ok, so I'm about to head back to the UK for a short two week stint there and today I came across a load of old friends blogs', anyway since I don't own a laptop, and my memory has the capacity of several small amoebas, I'm gonna have to write them down here.

First up its Ms MacFie - http://muchloved.blogspot.com/ much rambling verbiage to be found here
Second its the eloquent Jude: http://judesmith.blogspot.com/
And thirdly, the old stalwart of LCET, Chris Curtis: http://chriscurtis.typepad.com/weblog/

All guys from my past who really rocked and I regretted losing contact with...time to change that.

My Chinese Name

2005-04-25T11:46:00.000+08:00

I dug up an old email from a friend today who had sent me my name in Chinese

��脫��穿��蝪∠汙憭�

Now you know! (Assuming of course that you have Chinese font's installed - trust me you'll know if you do.)

A mate's site

2005-04-19T17:07:00.000+08:00

Dave Heath has a few links:

My new photo website: Flickr

2005-04-18T22:00:00.000+08:00

Tim Felicity Sarah
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

Flickr is actually turning out to be pretty cool. So cool, in fact, that I have moved my photo website onto it. Click on this photo and check out the 'notes' that I've added.

It integrates straight into Blogger, so I can easily blog a photo. Now that's neat

Lam Tim Friends

2005-04-17T14:20:00.000+08:00

Lam Tim Friends
Originally uploaded by Steveybabe.

Just setup a photo account with Flickr that integrates straight into my blog. Check out this first offering of my friends in Lam Tim, Hong Kong

Blogging on...

2005-04-17T12:45:00.000+08:00

Mike and Helen live here - http://www.geocities.com/fidi_mgoy/

Google sightseeing

2005-04-16T18:30:00.000+08:00

Wanna go sightseeing on the net... http://www.shreddies.org/gmaps/

Interesting destinations:

Alina's Blog

2005-04-16T06:58:00.000+08:00

Alina just started a blog - http://crownofsplendour.blogspot.com/

Looking good!

Online course

2005-02-18T23:28:00.000+08:00

* Warning - only of interest to the geeks among you! *

I started taking an online teaching course about Security in Linux recently. There's about 8 people in total taking the course spread out across the world. I'm in Hong Kong, some of my class mates are in Australia and elsewhere, but the teacher is from the States.

We all chat via a program called Team Speak - www.goteamspeak.com which works on either Linux or Windows. We all get to see the teachers 'lecture notes' via a program called Tight VNC - www.tightvnc.com that lets you view someone else's desktop, again it works on either Linux or Windows - which is very useful. The cool thing is that we are using PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) to login in to several computers including one to do labs on.

We're using Microsoft Virtual PC to load an entire linux distribution from a single file on my PC and display it on my desktop while Windows it running. Its very neat because it gets it own space to live on the machine with its own ip address so I can SSH into the 'virtual' linux from any other box, even though that machine is not really running linux.

Anyway, this online course is neat, technologically wise and cause I'm learning loads about routing packets through firewalls and auditing.

Bebo

2005-02-14T10:10:00.000+08:00

Found an interesting way to keep in touch with people.

www.bebo.com

You post your contact details and let your friends subscribe to them. If you change your address then you can update it here and your friends automatically see the changes. Ok so this is nothing new, but the cool stuff is that you can upload photos and journal entries and your friends can automatically see what you've done, plus they get an email each week with details - much easier for keeping in contact with lots of people.

Leave a comment here if you've signed up.

I'm at http://steveyken.bebo.com/

February

2005-02-11T17:33:00.000+08:00

February 2005

Started playing football on Monday evenings with some friends from Lam Tim. Its great fun but I need to learn Cantonese for 'pass the ball' and 'man on', and preferably 'shoot' too!
Tommy, a mate from uni, is in town. (He's been teaching in China for a few months now) Was good to have a reunion and catch up over a game of football! Felt like the Keeeeeble football buddies were reunited and the old magic came back! But I won't bore you with stories of our 'wonder' goals!
Happy Chinese New Year! Sam Nin Faai Lok!
We had a grooving party on site. Matt and AJ were our DJ's for the night and we even set up a live webcast of the event via msn. Was a great evening!

January

2005-01-31T17:32:00.000+08:00

January 2005

I live 5 minutes from the largest man-made beach in the world. You'd think (and so did I once) that I would take every opportunity to head on down there and catch the sun, but alas no, for some reason, even though I've been here 2 months, I've only been there 3 times! Shocking...!!! ...all those plans to keep fit by jogging along the beach...oops!
My friends Laura and Iain came out to visit. So did a bit of touristy stuff with them - went up to the Peak on Hong Kong Island, and showed them around my work place.

December

2004-12-31T17:32:00.000+08:00

December 2004

Continued learning a content management program called Plone
A friend of mine hired out the Star Ferry for an evening to celebrate her wedding anniversary, birthday, and Christmas all in one! Was a great evening! Got to meet the manager of Pacific Place in Hong Kong Central (rather like the Luton Arndale and Cineworld combined and much bigger!)
Celebrated Christmas with 75 ppl from 25 different countries - was great fun and very interesting. We each brought cultural food and shared it together - had a great time trying lots of different things!

Long time no see

2004-12-01T17:16:00.000+08:00

Its been a long time since I've posted up here...and a lot has happened in that time. I'm planning to be a more regular with my postings.

Here's a summary of what I've been up to recently.

November 2004

Moved to Hong Kong as part of my gap year out from university.
Started to learn a new Content Management System called Plone - has a big learning curve but is definately worth it. It'll enable us to build an interactive website, fast, securely, and edit anything from around the world. Pretty powerful stuff!
Getting to know Hong Kong a bit - I'm living up in the Gold Coast which is about 30 mins from Hong Kong's major transport infrastructure.

Google getting good

2004-10-31T03:29:00.000+08:00

Google is getting more entertaining by the day!

Wanna know the speed of light in furlongs per month ? Google does!

Google getting good

2004-10-30T20:29:00.000+08:00

Google is getting more entertaining by the day!

Wanna know the speed of light in furlongs per month ? Google does!

A favourite movie quote...

2004-10-26T01:46:00.000+08:00

See, when a nuclear weapon detonates it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its blast radius. Now that tends not to matter in most cases because a nuclear weapon usually destroys everything you might need power for anyway.A pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the fuss of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you'd be getting the seventeenth century.

Ocean's 11

Tony Ray-Jones (photographer)

2004-10-24T00:15:00.000+08:00

'Photography can be a mirror and reflect life as it is, but I also think that perhaps it is possible to walk like Alice, through a looking-glass, and find another kind of world with the camera.'"

link

One line...

2004-10-18T17:46:00.000+08:00

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary maths, and those who don't."

Check out this site:

A. L. I. C. E. The Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity

2004-10-15T23:09:00.000+08:00

I got a chance to talk to A. L. I. C. E. just now. She's not perfect but tries to give an impression of intelligence. Here's our conversation, see what you make of it. (Notice the random change of topic to try to confuse her!)

Human: boo
ALICE: Does that indicate disapproval?
Human: no I was merely interested in your response
ALICE: Are you serious? Interesting topic. Have you searched the open directory? I will search for it.
Human: am i serious about what?
ALICE: Oh I really don't know whether you are or not.
Human: do you like cheese?
ALICE: Yes I like it, especially cheddar.
Human: did u know that edam is made backwards?
ALICE: Is that a fact. Are they exactly the same?
Human: no stupid, one is cheese the other is not
ALICE: What is the difference? I know you are but what am I.
Human: edam is made in holland, that's the difference, and no you're not cheese
ALICE: Are they exactly the same?
Human: what was the football score between England and Wales?
ALICE: I can think of more than one football score between England and Wales.
Human: the most recent one
ALICE: Which one is that?
Human: the one last Saturday 9th October 2004
ALICE: I think I know that one.
Human: well what was it?
ALICE: Well that's okay." I think I know that one."? What was it?
Human: you don't know do you
ALICE: I may not know it, but I could find out.
Human: would you find out for me please
ALICE: Your polite style is very nice. I am not so sure if I would like to find out for you.
Human: you being difficult now
ALICE: Right now? Thanks for telling me: unknown person said I being difficult.

Google Hacks

2004-10-15T22:28:00.000+08:00

Google Hacks is a very useful site that listing the different applications programmers have come up with to use Google.

Check out the Google News Map for example where you can see news stories from around the world located on a map.

Is your blood safe?

2004-10-13T20:36:00.000+08:00

The National Blood Service is offering a trial on-line service to a small group of blood donors. For further information please contact our donor helpline on 0845 7 711 711

Hmm...I've always wondered what its like to have my blood sucked up the telephone line. Apparently normal phone lines can suck at rates of up to 8Kbs - 8 Kazillion blobs per second, but now most donors are opting for the new broad band rates which can get the whole blood sucking process over and done with much quicker - 512 Kbs and 1 Mega-Kazillion blobs are becoming popular.

Note however, that with the new broadband line speeds - you can download blood twice as fast as you can upload it. So you better have a storage vessel handy to look after all that excess downloaded blood - rumours have it that microsoft are attempting to update Temporary Internet files to store blood, but sources close to the government are saying that they might introduce storage limits of around 50 Kazillion blobs to prevent splash and grab users hungry for a bargain.