Mere Christianity, Chapter 5

In this chapter, CS Lewis further describes what sort of a god is
described in the last chapter - a being that directs the universe,
and he believes, has directed us to behave in a certain way.

He cautions us that we are not yet at the Christian God, that instead
this god may not be interested at all in mercy or forgiveness or any
of that stuff. If he did direct us to behave in a certain way that
we call good, he could be as forgiving of mistakes as a
multiplication table. Lewis puts it this way: "God is the only
comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and
the thing we most want to hide from."

He also explains that this sort of a realization is critical for
Christianity to be meaningful- that there is an absolute good that
expects us to be as unfailing as gravity, and that because we don't
live up to that measure we really should face the same sort of
consequences as if we try to defy gravity or the need to breathe.
According to CS Lewis, that is what Christianity is about -
comforting and giving us hope, despite the terrifying fact that by
all rights, we should be dead.

As I've said, I don't accept the argument of an external Law of
Nature, that there is some sort of universal moral code that
everything can be measured against objectively.

Without this, if God were to exist, it would merely be that thing
which directs the laws of physics, physics which we are no more
capable of violating than a stone would be capable of violating
gravity. This god would be like a personification of the order and
power of physics, something akin to the worship of mathematics, or
nuclear energy.

Logically, then, then there are not any consequences that we should
be in fear of; in fact there isn't a lot to indicate that God would
have any interest in us at all. Lewis believes that he has provided
an adequate basis in cosmic fact for a dive into the basic principles
of religion; I anticipate that with such different starting points,
we will have a lot to talk about further on.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 4

In Chapter 4, CS Lewis brings up two different ways of looking at the
universe, what he calls Materialist and Religious. The materialist,
he says, takes the view that things just happen to exist the way they
are, and that humans arise from chance. The religious view, on the
other hand, sees that the universe is something more than an
incredible amount of chance. Lewis describes it as a mind, and that
description seems as good as any to me.

He then goes on to show that there really is no conflict between
science and religion, because science is limited to asking questions
about how things work, and religion is fundamentally about why those
things that scientists study exist. As a result, one cannot
scientifically prove god, but must extrapolate based on his own
experience.

Lewis' argument goes that since we feel some sort of universal moral
law directing us that comes from beyond the physical realm, then that
implies that there is something directing everything from beyond the
physical realm. This sort of approach seems reasonable, but as I
don't see any moral law coming from beyond the physical realm, his
proof seems to fall a little bit short. Perhaps Lewis need not bother
with the moral element to prove his 'director of the universe' idea.

One trying to prove his argument without morality may observe that
the laws of physics themselves do in fact direct everything, but are
not themselves physical. We call them properties of objects, or
forces that act upon them. But what is are they themselves? What made
them? Are they physical stuff, or just something beyond that effects
physical objects? What about our consciousness? It is what makes each
of us unique, but do we really know what it is?

Perhaps this is what Lewis meant by god - some sort of thing that
directs and moves about all physical things, even ourselves, through
means that we do not understand but can observe the effects of.
Interesting.

The economic approach to the 'greater good of humanity'

In the last post I suggested that a much more likely approach to the 'greater good of humanity' argument is to take a page from economics, and argue that people will be good as long as the benefits of good behavior outweigh the price of that behavior.

This seems to give rise to a challenge: How would a bad person reach this conclusion?  How could anyone know that you will get more out of society by behaving well? 

This is an important question, and on the surface seems difficult to answer. Instead, let us try to put ourselves inside the mind of a bad person and see how the logic might go. Let us consider the worst sort of bad person, one who is sociopathic and supremely self-interested person, who believes himself superior to everybody and cares not one whit about right and wrong.  Let us pretend that this person truly has no compunction about violating even the most basic social norms if it is in his benefit, but is also smart enough to be able to think in advance about his actions and their results.

He would observe that his crimes, if discovered, would not benefit him in the long run. Even if the threat of revenge or jail were removed, if people were aware of the threat he represented, they would avoid him, thus making it harder to achieve the pleasures or benefits that he seeks. The more the person was known to steal, the more people would hide their valuables when they saw him. The more he was known to kill, the more people would flee when he came near.  Thus, if his deeds were known, it would become increasingly difficult to continue to benefit himself at their expense, and he would face ever increasing risk of reprisal. 

Thus, purely out of self interest, the person would realize that it is easier to appear to be behaving well, to maintain easy access to the pleasures and benefits of society than to work ever harder at benefiting from badness. Thus, such a person would behave in a way that appears fully honest for their own nefarious ends, even becoming a trusted friend of the intended victims. 

However cruel the intention, the as the sociopath groomed this facade he would observe a remarkable fact. The more genuine and honest he appeared, the easier it was for him to get social benefits and pleasures. The more honest the person appeared, the less stealing would be required, as people would be more willing to lend him money; the less murder would be required as his enemies would find themselves punished by more of his friends and admirers;  the less rape would be required as more people began to actually pursue his affections. 

In short, In short, violation of social norms has an increasing marginal cost and decreasing marginal utility,  and following social norms would have a fixed or decreasing marginal cost but increasing marginal utility.  As long as the marginal utility increases, any rational self-interested being would seek to remain on the "good side" of the social norms most of the time. 

Thus even the most cruel person may be transformed into one who behaves in a good and honest way, as long as the benefits of participation in human society outweigh the costs of good behavior. 

Mere Christianity, Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 CS Lewis continues to try to explain and build up an understanding in our minds of his take on the law of nature. He points out that laws for the physical world are simply descriptive - they simply describe what things do, whereas his law describes what people ought to do. He supposes that because this law exists, there must be something beyond the facts of what people do. 

He anticipates that there will be arguments with this point from people who want to keep the natural law within the facts of observable behavior.  Such people will say that wrong action is wrong because it inconveniences us; or they will say that what is right isn't decided by what benefits one person, but what benefits humanity. He tries to show fallacies in each of these arguments, concluding that in each case, one is left with the statement that "Men ought to be unselfish."

Now, I'm not going to say that these arguments are right and he is wrong. In my previous post I outlined what I thought was a good description of the law of nature, as it explained why moral confict exists, and describes what people do. His idea is different, and that is all there is to it. 

What I do find interesting is his argument against the idea that what right is not simply what benefits humanity. He writes:

"Human beings, after all, have some sense; they see that you cannot have any real safety or happiness except in a society where everyone plays fair, and it is because they see this that they try to behave decently." 

Interesting way of putting forth the argument. He gives people more credit that I had expected, believing that people would spontaneously see what life would be like if everyone were good. I have difficulty seeing that image, even when described to me, and I'm a bit skeptical that every average person who behaves decently does so because they see that image.

To me, a much more likely approach to the 'greater good of humanity' argument is to take a page from economics, and argue that people will be good as long as the benefits of good behavior outweigh the price of that behavior. They put a little bit in and get more out, as it were. 

Mere Christianity, Chapter 2

I foolishly just drank a bunch of coffee writing the last post, so I won't be going to sleep anytime soon.

In the second chapter of Mere Christianity, CS Lewis tries to further define the Law of Nature. I thought this was a good summation of his argument in this chapter:

 "If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something - some Real Morality- for them to be true about. The reason why your idea of New York can be truer or less true than mine is that New York is a real place, existing quite apart from what either of us thinks." 

Clearly, the Law of Nature is some sort of standard which we all must measure up against. This reminds me of the Platonic realism, where each chair is but a reproduction of an ideal chair that exists outside of our physical realm. I cannot speak as to whether this is true or not. What I can argue with is the logical conclusion that it typically seems to reach: That there are a number of moral rules which can be inflexibly applied to all situations, without exception. Judgement can be passed based on people or groups based their ability to meet that criteria. This certainly seems to be Lewis' goal.

Here is my complaint: In life, there are conflicts of interest in morals. What do I do when I want to stick up for a friend, but the friend is behaving poorly? When I want to be honest, but am starving and cannot buy food? When I want to have a safe society, but also give a second chance to a criminal  who seems to have reformed? In none of these cases do I see a way to follow the Law of Nature as Lewis has described it: for him, these look like no-win situations where there is no option but to break the law. 

I'd rather look for a conception of the Law of Nature that avoids these contradictions and helps describe human behavior as we actually see it. 

The only way I can see to explain this is that there are multiple values that people have and want to pursue, each equally good as all the others. For example, I value friendship and good conduct, honesty and life, safety and mercy.  In each scenario, I would be very hard pressed to choose between the two options. I may choose one, but could perfectly well understand someone who chose the opposite way. It would be nothing more than a differing of opinion at that point. 

An individual's morality, then, could simply be the ranking of those different values, consciously or otherwise. As the individual pursues their values, they would express those values through interactions with other individuals. Which values are encouraged and which are discouraged would be the result of the social dynamics of the group, an 'economy of morals' if you will. As a group becomes a more structured unit like a tribe or state, it would begin to cast its dominant morals into rules and laws, imposing them onto those that may have alternative moralities. 

Now, going back to Lewis' argument: The law of nature might be some sort of universal moral feeling and measuring stick as he described it. But, it might also be an observation that there are a number of goods to be had, and which people use to guide their behavior and interaction with others. When conflicts arise, people act based on their opinion of which is the higher good. Personally, I prefer the latter definition. 

 The latter definition turns out to be an established theory called Value Pluralism by philosopher Isaiah Berlin. You can read some of his stuff here if you want.

Mere Christianity, Introduction and Part 1

A classmate and friend, Steven Lawrence, bought Mere Christianity to
me, in a half-joking attempt to convert me from my heathen ways. I
brought it along to read on the flights here in Asia, and found it
thought provoking, though I'm afraid not in the way Steven would have
liked.

I found it thought provoking enough that I wanted to make some
comments on it as I read. Rather than taking notes in the margins, I
decided to take notes this way, so that I can revisit and discuss my
thoughts without the inhibitions of bad handwriting and forgotten
volumes. Hope nobody minds.

Chapter 1, the law of human nature

"These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human
beings, all over earth, have this curious idea that they ought to
behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly,
that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of
Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all
clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in." - CS
Lewis (Last paragraph of the chapter)

Let me just start off by saying wow. This opens a whole lot of
possibilities in my mind, things that seem to not make any sense but
that this sort of an argument would seem to imply. Firstly, I think
that it is fascinating that the moral realm can have laws like the
physical realm, but that unlike the physical realm those laws can be
broken. How does this work? I see two possible solutions to this issue.

First, they aren't being broken, we just have the incorrect
viewpoint. This is like saying that gravity appears not to work when
you watch someone throw a rock in the air but turn away before it
begins to fall - for all the viewer knows, gravity appears to have
been broken. The solution, of course, is to take a longer look at the
effects of throwing the rock, and observe that it does indeed fall.
But how do you presume to do this over the course of human lives?
What is the long run effect of some small misdeed, unnoticed and
unpunished? When does the rock fall on their deeds, and give them
their deserved reward? Many times, it does not seem to. To salvage
this argument, one must then invoke some sort of karma or heaven and
hell in the afterlife, essentially arguing that the rock falls, but
it just falls out of sight of the living. That creates a circular
argument: it is a law because its inviolable, but you can't see that
its inviolable unless you accept that it is a law.

Secondly the argument can be made that the moral realm is
fundamentally different from the physical realm. In the physical
realm, things like mathematics and physics and science make sense,
because they have predictive qualities aimed at discovering rules
that seem to bound our observations. If the moral rules are mutable,
then we really have no predictive capability whatsoever, and we
therefore can never hope to understand or master the moral realm any
more than we can master the weather, where the air currents and
weather patterns are also mutable.

Let us concede the point though, and chalk it up to our own
shortsightedness. Let us say that there is a Law of Nature, that it
does exist, is somehow breakable and yet coherent, even predictive.
What other laws might there be? If the physical world has physics,
and the moral world has the laws of nature, then might there also be
laws of spirituality? Might there be laws of consciousness, laws of
intelligence? What would these laws look like? Would they be mutable?

I find myself speculating, imagining a universe where physical laws
were flexible, or where even the creator was rule-bound, or where
perhaps transcendency or infinite intelligence was possible. Yet,
however hard I try, I cannot take these with anywhere near the same
certainty as I can gravity. I cannot genuinely believe that I will
wake up one day able to fly, or read minds, or having reached perfect
intelligence or consciousness . I cannot sincerely imagine that I
will spontaneously become immortal the way I can genuinely believe
that I will wake up one day and gravity will make a rock fall to the
ground. Maybe I just don't have enough faith.

Eating and Drinking while Traveling

I was going to include this in the previous post, but it turned out to be a long enough aside to warrant its own attention.

Humans are basically the same, and variations within a population are bigger than variations between populations. Travelers Diarrhea and associated nasties seem to be caused by different bacteria entering the digestive tract that the body isn't used to, either from food or drink.

So, based on that information it seems safe to surmise that the food borne bacteria that cause Traveler's Diarrhea should affect locals just about as badly as tourists (though, perhaps not as strongly due to repeated exposure.) As a result, the 'food poisioning' or 'something not agreeing with you' that each of us have experienced at some point at home should be a mild version of the same phenomena that causes travelers diarrhea. As even locals will notice stomachaches and stuff from a bad local restaurant, it stands to reason that anywhere that could cause sickness wouldn't be packed with locals, and that the places that are packed must be pretty safe to eat at.

Places that sell only to a migrating population (places in tourist traps, or restaurants near big hotels) can actually be chancier, because they know they will have a steady inflow of new people regardless of their quality. A good way to tell if they're targeting locals or travelers is by what language their people speak, and if they're priced for travelers or for the local market. Really bad places will get shut down eventually, but tourists traps are full of expensive-but-mediocre places that are just not good for your taste buds, your stomach, or your wallet.

The one thing to be careful of is the water. Many locals 'live with' and eventually adapt to the effects of untreated water if they can't afford the alternatives (treated or bottled water). Like living with lice or worms, it probably won't kill you, but will probably make you uncomfortable for a long period of time.

 However, most places where this is a problem have figured out ways around it. Many homes have water purifiers built into the plumbing. Those that don't have plumbing or can't afford to put purifiers in the plumbing have storage tanks available somewhere. I've seen them on rooftops in India, and at the end of the hallway in Chinese dorms.) Some people get so paranoid that they brush their teeth with bottled water. I understand their concern, and my response is only that I've never done this, and never had a problem, even in places where I've known the water was bad, and even gotten sick from not boiling it long enough.

When going out, carry a bottle of water with you, or buy sealed drinks (ie soda or sealed water bottles) from a street vendor. (Places where water is an issue also have people who realize that you can make money from thirsty people.)  When eating out, always order hot drinks, and avoid ice. The restaurant will undoubtedly have a kettle of hot water on in the back somewhere for just that purpose, and chances are it has been hot long enough to kill anything in the water. Ice, on the other hand, doesn't kill a thing. 

So, a quick recap: To be safe, eat at places where you see lots of locals eating, and bring a bottle of water with you.

Thoughts about travel

I keep getting emails saying that what I'm doing is somehow impressive. I have to admit that I think the issues that I'm battling with here are no different than if I was flying to, say, Texas or Nebraska or some other city that I'm not familiar with. The issues are always the same, and even in the same order. I guess that in my mind, its sort of an application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

The first questions are always about survival. Where to sleep and leave my stuff, so that I will survive and not be robbed? These are easily filled- hotel rooms, friends couches, any place people are sufficiently comfortable and safe. Food and water is a natural concern, but if local people who are identical to me can eat something, it stands to reason that I can as well. My solution when traveling tends to be to find a place where a lot of locals are eating (safety in numbers) and order whatever the guy in line in front of me gets, or the guy at the table next to me. Sure, I run a slight risk of Traveler's Diarrhea, but that comes from differences in intestinal flora and cannot be avoided, even at home.

Next comes the need for a plan - I think this roughly correlates to a need for stability and safety with Maslow. Plans guide my focus through the day, giving me an outline of things to do, and a way to fill the higher needs (the really fulfilling stuff.) You know that sinking emptiness that people feel when they are alone in a foreign city? I think that comes from not having anything to guide their action. The usual things that people have to focus on (work, family/friends, hobbies) are removed, and I think that the 'not knowing what to do with yourself' that results is the source of that emptiness.

As for the rest of the hierarchy, all that stuff- love, recognition, and self actualization is long term, and can't really be pursued directly except through what we do each day. That's why, when I ran out of stuff to do in Hong Kong, I really started to feel badly. What reason was there to get out of bed?

here in shanghai, though, I'm relatively better. Because I speak the right language here, its much easier to do everything, and because its a city 3x the size of Hong Kong (with other famous historical cities only a few hours away) There is a lot more to do and discover.

Simply put, my goals are as follows:
1. Find a Job (meet with every person involved in Financial services I can find)
2. Improve mastery of the language (go a day without hearing or speaking an English word)
3. Improve knowledge of environment (develop a mental map of the city)
4. Improve cultural embeddedness (understand and accept things that develop from 2 and 3)

The trick for me now is to get these set into some sort of viable routine to fill my day.

Shanghai, Day 1

Yesterday I went exploring around Shanghai. In my previous visits, i'd always been to the same places and parts of the city, so I wanted to link up with those places and then explore out into the rest of the city. So, with that in mind I first walked over to Sun-Yatsen park (中山公园), about 2 miles away, and then ate at the same jiaozi place across the street from the hotel that I'd eaten at in May. then, I bought a subway pass and jumped on the train down to the people's square(人民广场). From there, I walked down Tibet road (西藏南路) toward what lonely planet had described as 'Old Shanghai.'

Old shanghai, it turns out, meant the traditional sort of shikumen buildings (石窟门) that were the ubiquitous form of housing through most of chinese history, but have ended up getting replaced by more modern multistory apartment buildings. Similar to the Hutongs of Beijing, Shanghai's linongs (里弄) tend to be where most of your 'everday' lower and middle class people live. As such, it tends to be much busier and livelier than the fancy multistory apartment buildings that seem to replace them. It is also that liveliness that makes them fun to visit - seeing all the little shops and restaraunts or people hawking things in the street makes for a much different and more engaging experience than say, going through a mall where every store is its own little world.

As I wandered around, I found myself at a Taoist temple called baiyunguan (白云观 ) which had apparently just finished a major celebration or ceremony of some sort prior to my arrival. Unlike the temple I'd described in Hong Kong, this one was formulaic, but still impressive. It had huge carvings of the Main Taoist deities, and walls full of minor immortals. I took a bunch of pictures, which I will upload them onto flickr at some point. Probably after I've made them look better in photoshop - it was raining and getting dark, so they're pretty bad quality. After exploring around the temple some and watch them rearrange and put everything away after the ceremony, I wandered out and back into the linongs.

One place that I particularly liked yesterday was a pair of buildings that were, for lack of a better word, bazaars. The first one I wandered into on a whim, and it was full of little booths selling animals - birds, turtles, crickets, and fish mostly, along with their assorted cages, food, toys, etc. the bazaar must have been about the size of a basketball court, but was divided up into lanes so small two people could not pass each other without turning sideways. between the lanes were small booths. The booths were not actually all the same size: in the the smallest the seller could probably sit in the middle and touch all four walls without moving, if said walls didn't have whatever they were selling hanging from every square inch. The largest, usually situated along the exterior walls of the building, were large enough that customers (maybe 3 or 4 at a time, in the biggest) could stand inside with the sellers.

I found the animal bazaar quite a lot of fun. I can't imagine trying to choose what pet to buy there, though. I ended up wandering out and down the road to another one, this time focused on everything else: booths there ranged from cell phones to sink faucets and clothes.  At this point, it was really starting to get dark outside, and the streets were full of people heading home for work. As I was not entirely certain where I was, I decided it would be better to try to head home earlier rather than later, so that if I got lost I could ask for directions and not just find myself wandering around shanghai aimlessly in the middle of the night.

Getting home on the train i noticed that the line was indeed open to the stop only a half mile from where i'm staying, and so I took the train there. I got out of the train stop, and asked for directions to the intersection near the apartment, and headed off. Unlike the linongs, which were packed with people heading home, the area where i'm staying was fairly deserted - the few people that I saw were in auto and metalworking shops, and each had a family eating dinner on a folding card table in the middle of the shop while watching a little 10" TV in the corner. A rather dull suburban feeling came over me.

Across the street from the entrance to the development that I'm staying in is a street with a number of restaurants - I stopped for some little snacks to eat for dinner (totaling a whopping 9元， or $1.25) and went home. Predator was on TV, so I went to bed.

Today, my legs were sore, and so i didn't do much of interest, just hung around and read, and watched what seemed to be a mini-marathon of Journey to the West. If you've ever heard of the Monkey King, he's the 'trickster hero' of that story, and The Monkey King is often used to refer to both the character and the whole story. Both have become main staples of east asian lore - now the character and bits of the story appear even in video games and anime (Dragonball Z is actually based on the story, with goku as 孙悟空).

Tomorrow, I'm going to start the job search, and then go explore some more.

Safe in Shanghai

I safely arrived in Shanghai yesterday afternoon at about 2pm. The weather here is colder than Hong Kong - 40s to 60s rather than 60s to 70s. Very quick recap of yesterday: Traffic into the city from the Pudong airport was terrible, so I didn't get to the place I'm staying until nearly 6. At the apartment, the driver said that he was going to get the apartment manager to show me around the place, and to stay put until he came back. He flicked the TV onto an English channel and left, and I settled in to unpack. Channel surfing, I saw that an episode of Journey to the West (one of the most famous traditional Chinese stories) was on, and so I watched that. Then, some James-bond style action movie, then Harry Potter. At some point, I looked at my watch and it was 10pm. I gave up on the guy, and found a packet of ramen noodle in the apartment, ate that, and went to bed.

This morning I unpacked, discovered an unlocked wireless network that I can piggy back on to send emails (sometimes) and am now headed out to explore the city. First up on my list is figuring out the transportation system here. Shanghai has been massively expanding its subway system (it makes the big dig seem downright small by comparison) and one of the new stations looks to be about a half mile away. If the expansions aren't done, then the nearest station is about 2 miles in the opposite direction. Second on the list will be groceries and maybe buying a light wear jacket (I didn't pack a wintry jacket, wanting to save as much space for dress clothes as I could. Oops. After that I think that I am going to start going through the lonely planet that I bought at the airport, seeing what sights there are to see, etc.

My phone number here is 135-2427-7025.

Hong Kong, Day 6

Time for another update. Today I followed up on the leads from Tuesday, which consisted mostly of leaving messages with secretaries and such, and calling one new lead at Texas Pacific Group (called twice, got no response first, left a message second). All told, the work only took about an hour, leaving me with the rest of the day with nothing to do except wait and hope somebody would call me back.

With nothing of significance to do for 2 days, I'm starting to get itchy for a project to keep me busy. I expect that restarting this process in a new city will keep me fairly well occupied for a few days, but I'm starting to get wonder what I will do from next Wednesday until I head back to Boston in 21 days. Simply put, I'm concerned that an hour's worth of phone calls per day isn't enough to justify staying over here - I might as well be back in the States making these calls. However, this is also the holidays, and maybe things will pick back up after the new year. At any rate, I'm not sure what I should do, any and all advice would be most welcome.

With the rest of the day to kill, I spent most of it in the library learning about various figures and deities in chinese popular culture, following up on things that i'd run across in the temples. Now I'm going to make another round of calls to see if any of the people I met last friday night at dinner would like to go out for drinks, and then try to figure out how to shift 4 pounds of weight out of my suitcase and into my backpack for the flight to Shanghai.

A side rant about flights from Hong Kong to the Mainland: For some reason the carriers use nonstandard size and weight limits on these routes and are super anal about them, often charging people large overweight or over-baggage fees for a pound too much weight on a suitcase or for having to check an international standard carry-on that is an inch longer than their size limit. Worse, enforcement seems to be haphazard at best, as I've seen people with large carry-ons get by and people with smaller ones get stopped. On the other hand, it is only in the leaving Hong Kong that this absurdity occurs, so even if I do run into trouble it will be a one-time bite.

Anyhow, I don't want to pay any more than I have to, and my bag needs to go from 52 pounds as I packed it in the states to 48 pounds for the Hong Kong meanies. As most of what I packed is dress clothes and toiletries, it will be interesting making the choice of what comes along in my backpack.

When I arrive in Shanghai tomorrow afternoon, I will have to go through the whole Find a sim card for the phone and internet access routine again. Don't be surprised if you do not hear from me for day or two - it will probably take me that long to get things set up unless everything goes really well or really badly.

Guiding Principles

I was just feeling reflective, and wanted to write down some principles that seem to be especially important to me.

1. Hope for the best but plan for the worst.
2. Pursuit of passion breeds success, and pursuit of comfort breeds mediocrity.
3. There is nothing wrong with compromise, except when you compromise yourself.

I'm not sure quite how these relate to whats going on these days, but I wanted to keep them around for future reference.

Voicemail woes

So, I'm leaving for Shanghai tomorrow, and since I've given my phone number to half of Hong Kong I want to try to set up a voicemail message to receive all the job offers that will be coming my way. Unfortunately, setting up voicemail here is much much harder than it should be. This seems to be complicated by 3 factors: I am using a prepaid sim card, i have my own cell phone, and said cell phone can't load websites.

Apparently, the only way to set up voicemail for prepaid sim cards is to go to the service providers website from the phone, and then request it there.  However, without a phone that doesnt go on the Internet, it puts me in kind of a bind - the best that the people at the cellular company could offer was to borrow someone elses phone, replace the sim card and use that for the setup. Unfortunately, I haven't got anyone who has an internet-capable phone that I can borrow for a minute.

How frustrating!

Hong Kong, Day 5

Not much new to report. Yesterday I was so proactive that I basically chewed through all my leads, leaving me with not very much to do today. I figured that with no substantial leads, and not wanting to be overbearing with the people who I am talking to, the best thing to do was go find a local temple and appeal to higher powers for help! (Not that they aren't helping me now, but to keep it coming, ya know?) So with that in mind I wandered around and checked out some of the temples in the area around which I'm staying. The temples here are hard to describe in words, and pictures are frowned upon at most places, so i'll just leave all the work for your imaginations. ;-)

First, the temples that i visited today were much smaller than the ones i'd seen before - maybe this is a north/ south difference, or maybe its just that all the ones i'd seen before were all attractions because they fit the "big exotic temple" stereotype. The two that I saw today were small, maybe 3 or 4 rooms at most, and fairly compact - there weren't any huge thresholds or doorway guardians or intricately carved columns or any of the stuff that i'd usually seen associated with temples. Instead, these places were small, unassuming, and peaceful. Humble, I think is the right word. Beyond that, the two temples didn't have much in common, but trying to explain the differences will be a small book. Oh, you still want me to give it a go? Okay, but you've been warned.

So, of the two temples, the first was to my mind much more engaging. it was first erected in the 1700s, burned down, and rebuilt, as things are wont to do. from the front, it looks like your standard square temple setup - you go in the doors, theres somebody selling incense on your left or right, a couple of lines of tables for offerings and incense, and then a statue of the deity. Usually theres some more stuff thrown in, like hanging things or artwork or big door guardian carvings, but your basic temple has a fairly consistent layout. Not today. This thing starts off normal, with a front door and incense seller, but then goes haywire. the incense seller is almost in the open, because theres a (for lack of a better word) indoor courtyard stuck in the building about 15 feet in from the front wall on either side! Even more curious, these 'courtyards' don't have any doors to close in case of bad weather, although they do have a wall with a round traditional doorway towards the center of the building. it was strange, both inside and outside at the same time. anyway, the other thing was that the temple was very dark inside, and full conical coils of incense hanging from the ceiling. The primary deity was the goddess of seafarers, you can read about her here. also, there were figures for the god of wealth, and a deified judge renowned for his kindness. It was a very cool temple.

The other temple was a lot more standard, with one notable exception - half the altar was a story above the rest of the temple, perched on a big boulder. You actually had to climb a staircase to get to the back of the temple, to see the statues of the gods. They also were brightly lit, with yellowish floodlights lighting the whole thing up like a christmas tree. This second temple, clearly much newer and shinier than the other, was also more active - while i was there, maybe 6 groups of people showed up to leave incense, paper flowers, fruit, etc. The deity for this one was originally apparently an indian prince of some sort, but apparently through the ages and has become worshipped as a woman for some reason. While interesting, it left me rather confused.

I'll be busy tomorrow with following up with everybody I contacted yesterday, and preparing to head up to shanghai on friday.

Hong Kong, Day 4

I'll try to keep this update short and spare you all. Last night I crashed early again (mental zombie by 4pm, in bed by 6:30) but woke up relatively late (3am again - that's 9 hours of sleep!!) I am starting to think that it is because I'm not eating right or something (maybe I'm tired because of low blood sugar or something?) At any rate, I'm going to try to go out this evening to see if I can't break the routine. I'm hoping it works, because as much as I like getting up at the crack of dawn, the hours before are just dull ;-)

Anyway, enough about my bizarre biological clock. Today was the real whip-cracking day for me on the job hunt. I got up feeling like i was ready to beat down some doors, and so I tried to just walk into Merrill Lynch and HSBC to meet some people.

At Merrill, I got as far as the receptionist, who informed me that company policy dictated that not only was nobody allowed past her without an appointment, she was also not allowed to make appointments or suggest names of people that I should talk to. Drat. Oh well, worth a try. Since I was only 2 blocks away from HSBC's head office, and its a really cool building, I figured I'd give them a try as well.

I got past the receptionist, only to get directed to the 'international banking center' which tailored to foreign individuals and businesses day-to-day banking, rather than investment banking. After asking a number of people where the heck the Investment banking group was, someone finally explained it to me: that department worked out of an entirely different building. Oops.

By the time those two rounds were over, it was time for lunch. I called a girl from Citibank and a guy from Lloyd George who I'd gotten numbers for to see if they wanted lunch, but they had meetings. So I got Filipino food and hung out in a park downtown, and then wandered aimlessly around for a while. At 2pm I met with the guy from Morgan Stanley, who basically reiterated what I'd heard from the boss guy in New York. However, he did hold out more hope in that he said he would pass my resume around to some other people he knew, and suggested that if I could 'build my network' here I should find something 'in an unexpected place.' He also implied that I came up in the conversation with said boss guy at the annual off site in NY, which I also considered a big plus. Clearly both boss guy and this guy remembered me! (That may not sound like much, but in every Interview I've had I seem to hear how for every job they start with a 2 foot stack of resumes and a paper shredder... Sticking out seems to be half the battle there!)

On my way home, I called the secretary of the head guy from UBS, and was informed that she was unavailable. After trying her twice, I left a message, and headed back to the library (where I am now).

Writing this out, it looks like a lot of losses, which is odd, because I felt like I won today. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the guts to cold call people, to risk embarrassing myself in front of a bunch of smart people. I'm pretty proud that I managed to get past the receptionists at HSBC, even if I was in the wrong building. Mostly, I'm pleasantly surprised that the Morgan Stanley guy actually offered to help me, and confident that the UBS people can't dodge me forever - I'm on the hunt for them.

Now, its 6:30, and I'm thinking dinner, and then going out in some fashion. Now I just have to figure out what fashion that is.

Hong Kong, Day 3

Whats new here since yesterday? After sending out emails until my laptop died (i forgot the power cord at home) I got some groceries (Apples, bananas, pears, and oranges, for HK $38) and went home to eat, read, and settle in for the night. After all, I was exhausted from being up from 3am the night before, and what nightlife is there really on a Sunday night? I ended up noticing that there was a couple of movies in the apartment, and realizing that I needed some drinking water, and that I had no idea if the tap water here was drinkable. So, to be safe, I boiled a pot of water for drinking, and put on one of the movies that was laying around. Exciting, I know!

Let me just say that I'd forgotten how hit-or-miss buying dvd's here could be. The movie, Tomb Raider: Circle of Life, was bad cubed: A camcorder-in-the-theater recording of a bad movie with deafening-then-whispering sound. I'd been considering buying a bunch of movies to bring back to the US, but now i'm not sure that it is really worth it. I may just stick with my Netflix account. Or, I may give the buying movie thing one more try, hoping that the reason last nights movie was bad cubed because it was one of those 'still in theaters' pirated versions.

Today is my chance at kick-starting the job hunt. This morning I was supposed to meet a VP from Morgan Stanley at 11. Thing is, we'd never confirmed and I was stuck between going to library to confirm or making it to unconfirmed meeting ontime. It all worked out in the end because the security guards in my building took pity on me, and let me use their office workstation for the moment to snap off an email asking for him to call and confirm. As I was upstairs dressing, his secretary called back to reschedule for tomorrow at 2pm.

So, I'm spending the rest of the day figuring out where all the offices for the big banks are, so that I won't be dependent on my hit-and-miss internet access to figure out where I may need to be and who I should be calling to get interviews. I'm also trying to work up the courage to just walk into a bank here and ask for their Investment Banking recruiter. Maybe that will be in the cards for this afternoon at a bank where I don't have any leads. Merrill Lynch fits that category...

So thats the up-to-the minute news here in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, Day 2

Just a quick update on what happened yesterday afternoon and this morning: Not much!

After finding a sim card for my phone and getting online to send some emails, I had lunch and went home and 'took a nap' from about 2pm until about 3am. I guess that I wasn't so adapted to local time after all! When I woke up at 3am I was up and ready to start my day, but unfortunately the rest of Hong Kong wasn't up yet. So I unsuccessfully tried to roll over and go back to sleep until 5, but finally gave up and turned on the news (they have a channel that runs a mishmash of American programming - First Bloomberg, then ABC nightly news, then Discovery Channel or something), studied Chinese, and read a novel that i'd brought for reading on the airplane. Finally, at 8am I figured that the rest of the world was sufficiently alive, and went out to find breakfast, a metro pass, and something to do.

I ended up wandering over to Central to try to figure out where I was in relation to where I'd been on previous visits, and then to kill time climbed up and down Victoria's peak. It was good exercise and left me ready for lunch. Now, I'm back in the library, trying to come up with a new things to do until 10 or 11 tonight. So far on my list: Find someone to press my dress shirts, which are all wrinkly from my poor packing, and buy groceries, so i'm not eating out 3 meals a day.

I also need to get contact information from some of the people I met last friday, so that I can try to call them tommorrow and get referrals for finding jobs - unfortunately, I was so flustered from the quick transition from plane to restaraunt that I didn't get business cards or numbers. I'll have to call Joseph, the gentleman who invited me, and see if I can't get that information from him. Tomorrow I'm supposed to meet with a gentleman from Morgan Stanley around lunchtime, so we'll see how that goes. I will need to call and confirm with him, probably tomorrow morning would be better than tonight (even if he is working sunday, wouldn't that be a bit rude?)

Safe in Hong Kong

I wanted to let you know that I arrived safely in Hong Kong last night.

My flight got in on time, but by the time I got my luggage, cleared customs, and found my pick-up i was running late for the dinner that I had arranged with Joseph Chang. I ended up getting to the place where I was staying and having to just drop the luggage and run because I didn't even have time to change!

The restaurant that we ate at was very nice, we had a private room for a party of what turned out to be 10 people. It was a wonderful opening to what I'm sure will be a long month, with people joking, telling stories, and even discussing politics and language all in Mandarin. It reminded me how rusty my mandarin has become, but simultaneously encouraged me to continue to speak and practice and learn. What an enjoyable experience!

Today I am focusing on getting up to speed in the city: Getting money, a subway pass, Internet, and Phone. In the afternoon I hope to explore around and get a feel for where I am and where I've been before, to try to consolidate my disparate recollections of the city into a contiguous map so I won't always be getting lost for the remainder of my stay.

So, clearly the fact that I am sending this means that I have found Internet access - I am writing this email from the Hong Kong Central library, only a half hour walk from where I'm staying. I expect to be checking email daily here at the library, but I'm not entirely certain of their hours. I'm sure that I can find a fallback location if needed.

I also got a local SIM Card for my telephone, which should be pretty helpful for setting things up locally. My number is 6399-0124. I'm not sure if there are area codes or anything, but that is what shows up on a local Hong Kong Caller ID if I call them.

Flying dead

You'd think that on an 18 hour flight that one would struggle with boredom. You'd think that after the first 6 hours, when you're only 1/3 of the way through, that you'd be crawling up the walls. You'd think that you would read more than 10 pages of your book. I thought all these things, but i have to admit that I thought wrong. I had only got about 4 hours of sleep the night before, and that only after taking an exam and then trying to quickly think of and pack everything that I'd need for my month of travels. So, when I got on board the flights, my body decided that it was a good time to unwind from all the stress and nervousness of finals and packing, etc. I was out maybe 16 of the 18 hours, and those two hours consisted mainly of meals and snacks. It was a good way to pass the time, and I highly recommend it to all travelers.

Of suits and suitcases

I'm getting down to packing for my trip and I'm not quite sure how to
pack my nice clothes so that they don't get mashed in the suitcase.
I'm also worrying about how much casual wear I should bring - will I
need to bring jeans or no? Ah, the decisions!

Parking

The thing I hate most about driving is trying to find a parking space
when I come home. I spent nearly 45 min. Trying to find a space only
to find one that I thought was available because it was illegal.

Fortune Cookie

I just found an old fortune cookie fortune: "There is no education like
adversity." It seemed fitting given where I am at right now.

Central park, NYC

Patricia Rowley, because she hasn't put a picture on her facebook.

Patricia is a classmate, and just started a facebook account. She hasn't put a picture up, thus defeating the 'face' part of facebook, and so I'm putting her picture up here, so that people know who she is and because i think its a cute pic. Internet, meet Patricia!

Suit Shopping

I'm going traveling for a month, and hope to be doing lots of interview stuff. I only have 2 suits, and i'm concerned that that isn't enough. I'm going to buy another two today, if i can find some that I both like and can afford. I'm asking Jose to come help me pick, as he has a ton of good suits and i like his taste.

What to do in NYC at 5 am on a Friday?

Yesterday I took the 2am-6am bus from Boston to NY to go get my visa from the Chinese consulate. However, the bus arrived early and i'd given no thought to what I would actually do in NYC from when I arrived until the Consulate opened at 9. So, when the bus arrived 45 minutes early, I was left wondering: What do you do when you're alone at 5am Friday morning in NYC?

My best answer- Sit someplace warm (like Penn station) and watch movies on the iPhone until things opened up. Next time, I'd like to find a better answer.

Sometimes you just don't want to win

I just found out that my team won one of the five finalist spots for
our class' business plan competition. While I am proud that my hard
work is recognized, it means that we have significant amounts of
preparation to do prior to the final round Friday, and I am concerned
about time constraints. Specifically, I've a major project due
Thursday, and I need to get my visa for shanghai on friday, forcing me
to miss the competition entirely. How ironic that the one time that I
win something, it only adds to my burden!

Sore throat ?

I noticed last night that my throat felt a little tight, and it just dawned on me that i have a sore throat. I think i got it from Steven, a teammate in 3 classes who said he wasn't feeling well last night. darn! i guess I'd better whip out the Orange Juice and vitamin C for the rest of the week. Yum.

Interview

"we'll definitely be in touch soon"

That's always a nice thing to hear at the end of an interview. I think
that I really hit it off with the interviewer, and performed ok on the
more technical parts. Here's hoping!

Crash!

Apparently the ice that I wroteabout last night is causing problems
for everybody. On the way to the T I saw evidence of two accidents,
and this morning I witnessed a nimble of sliding cars. Its an exciting
bit of weather, and I'll be treading very carefully.

Glad I'm not driving to class.

I'm on my way to class and the streets and sidewalks are slippery with
a thin sheet of ice. The warmth of the day melted last night's snow,
but now that the sun has gone down it has turned into something much
less friendly.

Snow!

So, last the night was my first snowfall actually at my apartment. When it snowed before i was out of town, so last night was my first experience with it at the new place. this morning was warm, in the 40s, and so the snow seemed to be melting off, as though we were headed for a brown christmas. however, a few minutes ago the weather changed its mind and its coming down again.

Part of me is happy and enjoying the snow, and part of me is worried about how the whole urban winter thing is supposed to go. will plows plow snow into cars? how do you parallel park with an ice hill created by the plows? I wonder how this is going to work when you can't just plow into the empty grass at the side of the roads...

Moblogging

I've just realized that I can use my new iPhone to post to my blog
while I'm out and about. I'm excited, as the time when I'm waiting for
or riding the bus is usually down time for me. Now I can post whatever
random thoughts come to mind. We'll see if this actually translates
into more posts in the long run. Also, a disclaimer: typing on tiny
phone keyboards is an art I have not yet mastered, so expect poor
spelling from clumsy fingers.

Now, let's see what I can do!

Photo from thanksgiving

Test

This is a test post
Sent from my iPhone