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NEWS

Each month I will keep a running list of news items, including info on my schedule, etc. It's in order from LATEST entry at the top on down to the OLDEST entry at the bottom. 

Here are the "News" archives, feel free to browse them for some interesting tidbits:

***This is the archive of the December 2003 news***

13 December 2003

The Santa Train
My godson, Peter, LOVES trains. He's a train freak, actually. So when the Santa Train came to town, you KNEW he was gonna be on it. 

But Peter was there because of the TRAIN, not because it was the "Santa" train. It could have been the stinking "Leprosy Train" for all HE cares -- just so long as it's a train and you can go ride on it...

Anyway, they told me this photo is called "Peter Ignores Santa":

. . .

Xi Lin Church's New Digs
This past Sunday, 7th December, Xi Lin CP Church moved into their new location in Sheung Shui -- to the Landmark North, to be specific. It was a really nice day for their dedication ceremony, and a great time was had by all. Of course I took some photos:

Here's a "wide-angle" shot of the new place, it's really nice and comfortable, and is about twice the size of the old place in Ting Ping Estate. They will continue to have services at Ting Ping, as well, so in fact Xi Lin has now become a church with two locations -- very interesting.

Do you know those pictures/sculptures of people that wherever you walk in the room, it looks as if their eyes are following you? These two boys (from the youth choir) gave me that EXACT same feeling. It didn't matter where I walked while they were singing, when I raised the camera to my face, they turned and smiled. It didn't matter if they were in the middle of a song, it didn't matter if they were looking my direction, it didn't matter if they were talking to someone -- WHATEVER they were doing, if I tried to take a photo they would immediately pause, turn to me, and smile. For this shot, I tried walking to a certain spot, and standing there for almost two whole songs without taking any photos -- I tried to be as casual and "I'm not taking any photos"-ish as I could be so they'd forget about me. They never ONCE seemed to look at or notice me, that I could tell. But the MOMENT I raised the camera, I got this shot of them smiling. They just have an AMAZING ability to sense when someone is taking a photo, we all decided...

Here's another good one. This guy didn't sing a single word, or even mouth the words. He LITERALLY just stood there the entire song with his mouth wide open like this. I am not joking, he stood like this for the entire, complete song. Then when the song finished, he closed his mouth, licked his lips, and relaxed -- just like he'd been giving the performance of his life.

After the service, my friend Tsz Ting (pronounced like Gee Ting) was fooling around and decided my camera bag made a great hat. She ended up wearing my camera bag as a hat for about 5 minutes -- I think she actually did LIKE it... !

. . .

Elliott Smith Is Dead?
Okay, now this might be sort of stupid, but I just now found out that Elliott Smith died back in late October. Why didn't anyone TELL me?!?

Smith was one of the best songwriters I have ever heard -- I read where one reviewer called him "devastatingly brilliant" and I am actually pretty sure I agree with that. He was very, very good. I remember when I first bought a copy of his record XO -- must have been back in 1999, I imagine -- and my first thought was, "Why haven't I been listening to this guy before?"  He had a self-effacing manner and soft voice (seemingly ALWAYS double- or triple-tracked) that made you honestly believe everything he sang, even if you had no idea what he was actually saying. He had a knack for creative harmonic progressions that would make Lennon weep -- WEEP, I tell you. Never one to be stuck in verse-chorus, verse-chorus ruts, some of his songs would turn back over on themselves and then finally come out the other end as sweetly as a lullaby, seldom triumphant and trumpeting, but always in a way that made me imagine him smirking a little "this-is-harder-than-it-looks" smile...  Anyway, I knew NOTHING of the guy's personal life, and still don't -- but I just loved his songs and voice. Last Saturday night, one of my "music" students here in HK asked me to tell them about "someone else who I might like" (I have two guys from Xi Lin Church that I mess around music with). I thought for a moment, wondering if I knew any good artists that would fit my friend's "style" and then said, "OH, you should check out Elliott Smith, the guy is BRILLIANT!" -- I then spent about 5 minutes trying to get him to listen to some of Smith's songs.

I don't know if I actually convinced my friends of Smith's brilliance or not, but I remember thinking after they left my apartment that "I ought to go dig up those CDs and really give them a good listen again." 

Little did I know that the guy had already killed himself two months ago. 

From what I've read, it was a self-inflicted knife wound, and all I'll end with is the thought that I'm always amazed that so much beauty can come from someone who is obviously in so much pain...

5 December 2003

Just a very quick note -- my e-mail has been rejecting some messages from people, so if you are wondering, my old e-mail addresses are STILL valid!! I've erased a bunch of things that had been lurking in my "inbox" and taking up space, so now I should be able to get everything okay. 

Sorry for that, if you have had an e-mail to me bounce back, try it again!

Thanks....

1 December 2003

Well, I stayed home sick today. What a drag. I was sick all last night and didn't really get to sleep until about 6am this morning so there was no way I could make it to school. No way. 

I feel better now, though I was feeling a little sick again a while ago. But hopefully things will "settle down" by tomorrow morning. I have a MILLION things to do this week, and no time to be sick!

. . .

Someone wanted to know "how cold is cold in HK?" -- she asked this based on my statement a few days ago that soon it will get COLD here (after being so hot for so long), and my prediction that soon enough I will start complaining about the cold just like I complain about the heat. 

Well, here's the deal. 

In HK, it normally doesn't get MUCH colder than about 50 degrees. I mean, at 50 degrees it will be among the coldest days of the year, I think. 

Okay, so "that's not so cold, Glenn!" -- but you're not understanding how things work. 

The way things work, see, is that buildings in HK do not have heat. "Okay, 50 still isn't THAT cold" -- yeah, yeah, I keep saying it, you're right, it's NOT that cold -- until you stop jogging in place... What I mean is, the next time it's 50 degrees wherever you are, go outside and sit in it, calmly, for about 24 hours. It's okay if you want to wear your coats or gloves or whatever, but try to sit there and read a book, or take a nap... Let your body temperature cool down to it's "idle" level, and just SIT there... I firmly submit that you will FREEZE YOUR FLOWERS OFF. 

You see, in the States, we have something called "air conditioning" -- it's a tool of modern technology whereby we "condition the air" so as to make it more comfortable. Certainly, in the summer, we use it to COOL the air, so we're not so hot. They also have that in HK, though it often doesn't matter for me because the school won't use the air conditioners unless pigs are flying (I'm not SURE that's the rule, I'm just guessing by the fact that they almost never use them). 

But the winter -- ah, the winter!! -- in the winter, we use "air conditioning" to actually HEAT the air, so we're comfortable. In the USA, it can get to be freezing, even below freezing, even with SNOW, but we don't sit in our house actually shivering like some bum out on the street corner. 

BUT IN HONG KONG, YOU WILL SHIVER LIKE SOME BUM OUT ON A STREET CORNER. 

It's because, as I say, they don't have heat. So when you are lying -- ("laying"? I never get that right) -- in bed, and it's 50 degrees, and there's no heat, and it's humid as all get out, you will be COLD, brother. Very cold, and very wet, and very uncomfortable. Then you will get up, take a nice warm shower (the ONLY time you will be warm and comfortable all day), and then you will walk in the cold to school, where again, there is NO HEAT WHATSOEVER. This year I'm going to specifically take photos of the teachers in the staff room, sitting there at their desks, with winter parkas on, and mittens, and scarves, and steam coming out of their mouths, trying to grade papers.

It's one of those scenes that reminds me how good we have it in the States, dude. I don't mean to come off the wrong way by this, (and by the way my earlier comment about "bums on street corners" wasn't mean to be insensitive, either). But man, this is HONG KONG, and it's supposed to be, like, one of the most modern cities of the planet. But still, school teachers sit in their winter coats and mittens trying to grade papers with steam coming out of their mouths, because they can't afford to heat the dang place. They can't even stinking seal up the windows so the wind doesn't come whipping through, blowing papers off your desk. It's like being exposed to the elements 24 hours a day for weeks on end. 

Anyway, this suddenly turned into a little "HK bashing" but that's not my intention at ALL, my friends. Can you trust me on that? I'm only trying to express to you that despite my constant complaining about the heat, it DOES get cold enough here to make you also feel gross and horrible in the OPPOSITE way. It usually is horribly hot and wet from April until December, and then we will have about 4 days of actually COMFORTABLE weather, then it will suddenly drop and be COLD... There is VERY little "between" weather here -- that's my own personal experience, anyway. HOT, HOT, HOT -- then suddenly COLD. 

And the only difference between most HK people and ME, by the way, is that THEY think it's freezing cold when it's 75 degrees, and it takes me until it's about 55 or 60 before I really start feeling it in a bad way... 

Hope that helps you get where I'm coming from a bit... 

Now I'm gonna go say some prayers of thanksgiving for all the things God has given me, and try to STOP acting like a big baby over the stupid WEATHER. 

. . .

I read the following passage literally FIVE MINUTES after I had posted the above:

...(I guess that puts me in MY place)...

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