Happy Saint Valentine's Day

"Porque el amor de por sí no es lo bastante complicado"

Today is 14th February, that means Saint Valentine's Day. It is also my dear friend Agustín's birthday. It is the good thing of having been born on such special day, nobody forgives your birthday.

I know everybody speaks bullshit about how commercial this event is and stuff, but let's to be honest about this, girls particularly love it!!! (I think because girls in general like to received gifts , men too, but a few less). So you guys don't forget today to give a little gift to your loved ones. As for me, I sent a bunch of flowers to my sweetheart Stacey today. Hope you liked it honey!!!

Turning to other topic, the image above is today's webcomic at www.xkcd.com. I just discovered this website a few days ago and I must recognize it is totally hilarious. As its author stands a "webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language". If you are in witty and intelligent humour this is definitively your thing, totally recommended. Also about love, I like this one very much (I think because it reminds me a little bit of me...)

"Mi manera habitual de resolver las cosas es inútil aquí¨

Kowloon Walled City , insane urban monster

Today post at Kirainet.com talks about horrendous buildings in Japan, with an special mention to Hong Kong which according to Kirai's opinion has the ugliests buildings in the world. Well, I know most of the few who read this blog may live in one of those buildings...To be honest I was really struck when I got to Hong Kong and started to search for an apartment. But people's mind change fast and rather quickly I get used to Hong Kong living standards and its lack of room.

But when it comes to really ugly buildings I cannot help thinking of Kowloon Walled City (九龍寨城公園) , a really urban monster.

For those who have never heard about it, let me put down some background first.

At the Convention of Peking on the 9th June 1898 Britain obtained the New Territories under a ninety-nine-year lease. There was one exception, Chinese officials could remain in the Kowloon Walled City (...) The following year local peasants rebelled, and attacked colonial traders in the new region. The then Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Blake, asked the Viceroy of Canton for protection (...) The viceroy sent in 600 troops, half of which, unbeknown to Blake, moved into the Walled City. Deadlines for their removal were not met, finally British troops were sent in to remove them.

This military intervention would set the stage for eighty years of political argument, and claims and counterclaims over actual jurisdiction. In the meantime the population of the Walled City continued to grow...

Kowloon Walled City about to be demolished

For years the Kowloon Walled City became a no go area. In the control of Triads and drug dealers, with an estimated population in excess of 30,000. Many residents were illegal immigrants; exempt from extradition, encased within its walls (...) Only after Margaret Thatcher had signed away Hong Kong’s sovereignty did its future landlords, the communist Chinese have the ability to finally evacuate the Walled City’s stubborn population between 1988-92 and then destroy its derelict, decrepit, rat infested shell.

Nowadays Kowloon Walled City has turned into a peaceful and calm wide park nearby Kowloon Tong. The best way to get there is by taking the MTR and stop at Kowloon Tong station. From there take a taxi to drive you Kowloon Walled City. Remember to bring with you the name of the park written in Chinese characters since many taxi drivers on Kowloon side can rarely speak English.

Kowloon Walled City nowadays, a pleasant park to spend a quite Sunday afternoon

Warning: Hong Kong & Macau Lonely Planet Guide do not issues transcriptions in Chinese of places or landmarks, so you better bring it with you.

More information at Tofu Magazine, Wikipedia and Hong Kong Tourism Bureau.

Do you fancy a Second Life?

Dave Sifry is the CEO of Technoratti, a blog search company regarded as one of the flagships of the Web 2.0 movement.

From 24th till 28th of January World Economic Forum has been held in Davos. Several topics have been on the prowl, and one of them has been Web 2.0, of course. Therefore, the most important world-wide IT CEOs have attended the meeting.

On this interview Dave Sifry is being asked for his opinons on new tendencies on the web and IT in general. As Second Life is on the mouth of everybody now, David couldn't avoid being asked about it. Here is the link. All the interview is worth, but if you are in a little bi of a rush set the player to 8:30 and listen to his remarkable quote. Absolutely lovely!

Hong Kong

I like Gorillaz very much and also like Hong Kong very much. This is what happen when they meet each other. Lovely vc, best music!! really touching...

Un campeón en Lan Kwai Fong

Jesssus!!! I cannot believe it. I found it! at least! and it was pretty amazing how I did it indeed. But first let me tell you the story behing this picture.

De izquierda a derecha: Juan, Alfonso, Clara, Ivan, Fernando, Diego (yo), María Vera

So here we are...This picture was taking on our first days in Hong Kong. If I am not wrong I think it was taken around 9th October 2005, more than a year ago. On that day Alfonso, second from left on the pic, brought us to Lan Kwai Fong to have lunch. I still remember we had malaysian that day, partly because it was my first contact with those annoying pushers on that little alley in LKF where there is a host of Asian restaurants for expats. They were all of the over us, so rude!!!

So, after having lunch, as we went down the street we came across world F1 champion Fernando Alonso. Suddenly, we stared at each other and wonder:

- Wasn't that guy Fernando Alonso?
- Oh yes he is...
(Silence)
- Damned! Let's take a picture!!!

So as he was going up, not very far away yet, I managed to stop him and asking him for a picture after putting some things in context, who we are and stuff. I got the feeling he is a really shy person. I remember he didn't even say a word, just smile.

So from that day on I never saw this photo again. It seems nobody liked it, apparently we were not on our pretty faces here, but I think it is no so bad...

How I found this picture today it is simply another story. The point was that I was uploading some old stuff to flirck, about my time at ICEX in Madrid. Then I decided to try out the tags and performed a search. I searched for "icex" "informatica" and this pic came up as first result. Thank you very much Iurgi!!! It is the power of the Internet!!!