AGH!

Okay, this is probably stupid, ranting at like midnight, the night before a big flight... More on that later. Anyhow, howdy from, er... Hong Kong, actually. Yeah, I sorta managed to miss resetting and telling you all where I was.. My bad. Anyway, I'm back online, and have a bunch to talk about... Here goes.

Stage 1: Traffic - (Where the hell did that format come from?!) Here in Hong Kong its not nearly as bad, but both here and in Beijing, traffic is a nightmare. It doesn't help matters that traffic signals, when they do appear, are regarded as mere suggestions by the local drivers. The funny part about it is, that even though there is nearly 0 KPH (Kilometers per hour - more on metric in a bit) traffic constantly, people are actually nice about it. You don't yell at the jerk because he cut you off, you respect him for being the better driver and making the gap. You're gonna get there eventually. That seems to be the prevailing logic. And for all the amazingly dangerous-seeming driving done by nearly all of China's one billion people, I've seen not a single accident my entire stay here... Freaky, no?

Stage 2: Metrics - (Don't worry, I won't keep this up any more after tonite...) Why is America still using Imperial Measurements, when the rest of the world has adapted to the wonders of metrics. Metrics, quite frankly, rock. They are like what we use, on crack, or speed, or acid, or all three, or whatever it is that make you see colors and understand the universe better. And no one else still uses the Imperial Measures, even England, and they fucking invented the stuff! Metric are the world standard, and the U.S.'s refusal to accept them just shows what big jerks we are. Ugh, take me now, Australia...

Stage 3: Manga - Dunno if I should be saying this, but, (not like its a top secret project, I guess) I've recently joined up a project with a couple of friends to make a real live manga, hopefully to enter TokyoPop's "Rising Stars of Manga" contest, number 4. Even if that doesn't work, I'm still pushing to get our work published online, the way Megatokyo is. In any case, I unfortunately have no artistic talent at all (even my handwriting is terrible, as anyone who's seen it knows), but I DO have the ability to write. I had an unused story idea bouncing around my head, which involved an imaging effect that a written would never be able to convey fully, so I jumped at the chance to get it into manga format... I'm just hoping my friends can draw the effect based on my crap-tacular description of it. (Don't worry, its not the plague survivors story I mentioned months ago and never got around to starting.) I don't really want to tell you that much about it, because very little has been finalized at this point, and so much of it is up in the air, but... AHHH!!! I'm just bursting with excitement about the project, which I guess gets the code name of "G.S. Calista". (I'll leave you to wonder and guess at the meaning of that title.) I had to tell someone, even if its just to tease you with a lack of information. Hell, if you got me online, I'd prolly spill a little something about it... ^-^

Stage 4 - Departure: Once again, it's time for me to get on a plane. No, I'm not going home, though that reminds me of something strange. The most common question I've gotten while on vacation is "What time is it there?" followed by "Oh, its 'X:YZ' over here." Sigh... But the second most common one is "When are you going home?" or "Are you back home yet?" by people I have never met IRL before... It's downright disturbing, and makes me wonder how bad it will get if I'm ever in Fred's (of Megatokyo) position with Calista. But no, tomorrow I head to Hawaii. WHEE!! People will finally SPEAK ENGLISH! WITH A MOSTLY RECOGNIZABLE ACCENT!!!! Heh. For a place with one of the official languages being English, they really don't speak it that much... It's better here than in Beijing, but still.... Plus, tomorrow I'll be staying in the Japanese Airport for 5 hours... I think I've mentioned this, but... gotta get some anime / manga stuff in Japanese, so I can learn it! Heh... *Puts on "Real Emotion" from FFX-2.*

Stage 5 - More on China: I have had some fun out here, yesterday I went to see the giant Buddha on some island I'll never remember the name of, but, whoo boy was it BIG!!! It was foggy, though, so he wasn't really clear. I got to go up, see the "Relic" (a tiny crystallized piece of the Buddha this temple is made for, or whatever), and then I saw his face. It was smiling. ^-^ My one note, though, and this isn't the only place, but several temples (all the ones I went to) had merchants selling tourist crap to everyone. I just keep thinking back to that one biblical story, replacing Jesus with a chubby Buddha, going "YOU HAVE TURNED MY HOUSE INTO A DEN OF THIEVES!!! *Lifts up table to try and flip it, but is too fat to do it.*" (I know he's not that fat, and could easily take the table, but he's also enlightened, which I'm hoping involves pacifism. It does for me. ^-^)

Alright, Stages complete. For your bonus question, here's a quote from the Jackie Chan movie "The Medallion" I saw tonite:

Jackie - "What are you doing? That's a temple! You can't take guns in there!"
Cop - "It's alright.. See these guns? They're holy guns."