Moving blocks, blogs

Stepping on a moving block
Northward to The Bund
Where the Great Fire Wall
keeps the rest of the world
Out
So I'm moving blogs
So long, blogger, for a while
Hello, spaces, for a while
before you get shut down
Jan 2011
And then I'll seek out other
blocks on the blogosphere
to lay the building blocks
of my new blog yet again
But till then,
here it is
http://write-n-left.spaces.live.com
See you, See me.

10.10.10.10

Gonna take 10 secs
at 10.10.10.10
in tribute of those perished
on 9/11 at WTC

Why I still need my NB

Another sign of our over-reliance on digital technology, and the convenience of which, is the ability to modify travel plans at whim. Especially when everything is readily available online.

Just booked myself into a wonderfully sounding hostel "Wanderfalls Guesthouse" at Niagara Falls, plus Amtrak tickets to get me there and back into New York next week. This is, of course, after checking that everything agrees - the weather, schedules, prices, how to get there ...

All of that can be done on the iPad too, really, perhaps even more enjoyable for the hi-res photos that fellow travelers have posted. But the motion of filling in the forms, as of now, is still a mouse-pointing, finger key-in sort of activity, meaning laptops are still necessary. So on this wonderfully sunny and warm Saturday morning at Central Park, I wonder how forms might eventually evolve to indulge my spontaneous travel habits even more?

Maybe I should just be able to call Amtrak with that number on their website, quote my Facebook code, so they can retrieve my profile right away and have my reservation completed in under a minute.

Good to be back

But friggin tired. 20-hour flight + 2-hour layover at Frankfurt + 2-hour city tour on SuperShuttle from the airport ... kinda regretted getting that, but oh well, a city tour on whees wasn't all that bad.

I don't think New York has changed much since 2001. Not at least the bustling Times Square and Rockefeller Center. Only in the place of Virgin Music (if I remember correctly) is now H&M at Times Square. But in all my recent fascination with China, Japan and Asia, today I realised I've lost touch with the "western" or "American" side of me. Listening to the radio hits on the way in from the airport brought back fond memories. I haven't heard those songs for so long!!

Gee, really tired. Just checked into Jazz on the Park on the west bank of upper Central Park. I think I'm just gonna take it easy for today, check out some places to hit tomorrow and the day after and after ... but not before I get a quick nap. And ponder the implications of going to Shanghai in Nov instead of my beautiful 20.10 cuz HR screwed up and couldn't get my work permit processed in time. I don't understand though, why they require that we hand over the documents from China to the embassy here to issue the permit, shouldn't the China side have the final authority to issue or refuse since I'll be working there, not here ... oh well, red tape ...

New York, here I come!

Whoa, I'm finally going back to New Yorka after 9 long years. At the airport now, ain't got much time cuz was fiddling with the free wireless which had changed service provider and I didn't know that I had to use the new extension ... oh well, I dun hv time for that. It's been a very tiring day of mad rush - health screening, change money, pack ... looking forward to snooze a bit on board.

Ciao!

2 weeks ...

Can I believe it's just two weeks?
Two friggin' weeks left
I'm gonna miss all of you
I'm not sure already
I look forward to seeing you
What sort of conflicting
feeling is this?
I've never been unsure
I'll take each step in stride
Every step is a part of a journey
Once embarked on, I enjoy
No looking back
A new race begins
In just friggin' 2 weeks.