Ryu2.mind

Back to descriptive narrative for now... my camera had a littleaccident on Christmas eve involving dropping four feet or so onto ahardwood floor and is now temporarily out of commission.  The lens(the real expensive part) is OK... but the body doesn't switch onanymore.  =P  Perhaps Someone is telling me something? Or maybe it's time to get a 20D?  Haha...

Seriously though, you never realize how much you take anything forgranted until it's deprived from you -- cliched but true, but in a way,I realize that I'm at home to relax and not make a documentary, and Ifigure it's time to sit down and really write something lengthyanyhow... so my time thus far:

*** Friday night, had an early "Welcome to Shanghai" dinner at Shikumen Bistro with my fellow game industry friend zoomCrypt and whoever I could round up that was 1. in town and 2. not busy with other stuff: Pui, Gleefully, and two of her friends.  Went to the zoo that was Babyface afterwards and had snacks at Bellagio after that. zoomCrypt's going to be posted here for two years or more to help get the EAShanghai studio off the ground... bring on the competition! =)

But in any case, it's always great to see a new long-term face withinmy community of expat friends, not to mention someone from the samehometown and industry as well, and also to vicariously relive theexperiences of cross-cultural discovery, surprise, and enlightenment -- from apartment hunting to beggar avoiding --that I had experienced myself not a year ago...

*** Saturday, met up with a local friend where we experienced the literal sea ofhumanity that is Raffles City at Xmas eve.  We soon decided toditch it, and explore the back streets where we found a store that soldnothing but stuffed Totoro and other Studio Ghibli stuff near Shaanxi Lu... =) These unexpected discoveries are what really add spice here. After buying some gifts, we headed off to the Xmas eve party put on byour group of friends -- the usual games, performances,  giftexchange, competitions, plus some of us sharing about what the seasonreally meant... 

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the Long Bar in the Portman (a rarityin the SH nightlife scene: nice location, and yet quiet and a place youcan actually chill at) to kick back, share, chill and talk about allmanner of things from management styles to desired attributes in aSO.  Yup, that's one conversation topic that transcendsnationality and culture... 

My 10D had its unfortunate accident about then...

Drinks at Long Bar were followed by some late night munchies at the BiFeng Tang across the street.  All in all, I'm thankful I'mstarting to really feel bonding and friendship with this group of folksthat I really met quite fortuitiously some months ago...

*** Everyone it seems got into the holiday spirit... even thebeggars.  I saw a couple of kids wearing Santa caps.  绝对太过分了！

*** The flight back was actually nice: the plane was 1/3 full atmost, and it was the fastest PVG-SFO run I've ever experienced as well:ninehours give or take, wheels up to wheels down.  We had 200 mphtailwinds pretty muchthe whole time.  Indeed, the captain said we had to delibratelyfly slower than usual, lest we arrive at SFO before immigrationscustoms opened at 7:30.  Of course, you win some and you losesome: it probably means I'm in for a long miserable return heading inthe other direction...

*** Dave's message was refreshing -- nothing earthshaking, but agood reminder of things... worth a surf of the GrX homepage to downloadand listen to.  P and W rocked;something about those Xmas songs done by our W-team, the classic andthe contemporary elements almost conciously teaming up together to stirand inspire...

It was paradoxically reassuring to see not only old friends, but mostlystrange faces at GrX... and to see that there were folks whohadn't known I had moved to Shanghai.  The body is movingon.  And I'm glad for that...

*** As a result of the abnormally short flight, I didn't get as muchsleep as I had hoped, and while I endured during the service, I wasmore or less asleep during dimsum at perennial GrX hangout Joy LuckPlace in Cupertino Village.  I don't remember anything much from lunch except I finally met bigdenis' fiance Janet for the first time.

Went home, slept, family time, slept some more and more...

*** I am now a dual citizen of the US of A as well as the Republic of China Taiwan Province Chinese Taipei that island off the coast of Fujian whatever the term du jourthat pisses the least amount of people off is these days.  Theapplication was simpler than I thought -- my parents just had to get mybirth certificate, their Taiwanese passports, marriage certificate andmake some copies of that documentation and take it to the Taiwanesequasi-consulate in SF. 

Don'tworry, I'm still planning on using my US passport for most things, including mycontinued stay in China -- but I think of it as political hedging: anadded insurance policy in case Bush and co. continue to get America onthe wrong side of countries I'm potentially interested in. ;) Apparently, a lot of HKers did more or less the same thing (get dualUS/Canada/UK/Aussie citizenship) in the run-up to 1997 as well...

*** The usual errands, and a few meetupshere and there.  It's quite possibly my first real time ofextended relaxation since I moved overseas, and I realize that restitself is a blessing -- even He did so after the seventh day...

Here's to similarly peaceful times for all of you as well...