Just a funny while travelling

As you may know, I'm now studying in the University of Edinburgh. To get to Edinburgh, we have to transfer at London. Once, I was in London waiting for my connecting flight. A lot of us sat down next to the gate. We sat there waiting for the announcement ready to board.

20 minutes from departure nothing.

10 minutes from departure "This is the final call for British Airways flight BA1xxxx"

The entire seating area by the gate jumped up and ran towards to gate.

In the end, we all managed to get on to the flight. I was sleeping most of the time on the airplane since I've just got off an international flight from Hong Kong.

Right of abode in Hong Kong- The 2011 Debate (Very Long post… sorry!)

What is the Right of abode?

In simple terms, the Right of Abode is the right to legally reside in Hong Kong. To have the right of abode in Hong Kong, they must be Hong Kong Permanent Residents. Under the Hong Kong Basic Law, permanent residents are:

• Chinese Citizens born in Hong Kong before or after the establishment of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)
• Chinese Citizens who have ordinarily resided resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period not less than 7 years before or after the establishment of HKSAR
• Person of Chinese nationality born outside Hong Kong of those resident listed in point (1) and (2)
• Person who does not have Chinese nationality but has entered Hong Kong with valid travel documents and has lived in Hong Kong for 7 years continuously and has taken Hong Kong as a permanent resident before or after the establishment of HKSAR.
• Person under the age of 21 born in Hong Kong of those resident listed in point (4) before or after the establishment of HKSAR
• Person other than those resident listed in points (1) to (5) who had the right of abode in Hong Kong before or after the establishment of HKSAR.

All permanent and non-permanent residents will be issued an Hong Kong Identity card. Having an HKID does not mean you have the right to abode in Hong Kong.

So… What’s this debate about

http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20110930/news_20110930_56_787778.htm

In simple terms, a Foreign maid has won a legal battle which now gives ALL Foreign maid the right of abode in Hong Kong.

What are the problems with this ruling?

(The next section will all be my point of view)

Being as objective as I can, the new ruling will cause a huge strain on the already stretched Hong Kong social security services. Even though Hong Kong has been in a budget surplus for the last 7 years (so Hong Kong did not have a deficit during the 2011 financial crisis), with more and more of the population moving towards their retirement age and reduced working class people, I can only see the tax revenue falling, sooner or later, the government may be in a huge deficit like the United States currently.

When you consider that most domestic helpers tend to have poor families in their home country, you can imagine what would happen when they bring their whole family over to Hong Kong. They will all ask for social security. With this surge of demand and no change in tax revenues, you can see where this is going.

Doing my best not to deter any new immigrants, but there are still PERNAMENT RESIDENTS without proper housing. The government is not doing a good job creating housing for the poor (I'm not alone in this point of view, the Chief Executive said it himself), imagine the surge of new poor immigrants, what will happen to the permanent residents without proper housing? They will most likely never going to see a proper housing.

That’s all I can say. What do you think? Post a comment below.

Manga review- Mirai Nikki

WARNING: Mirai Nikki is a HORROR/TRAGIC manga, and it’s not for everyone.

I will be constantly referring to Elfen Lied in this review

Screenshots are taken from: http://www.mangareader.net/384/mirai-nikki.html I do not own any of the images on this post.

Introduction

Mirai Nikki (or known as Future Diary in the west) is a manga by Sakae Esuno. It mixes horror, psychological and action into one series. It follows an everyday student Amano Yukiteru, where he sees his own life as a bystander, which is reflected in his diary written on his mobile phone. Due to his way of life, he lack social skills. One day, while hanging out with his “imaginary” friend Deus, he is given a phone with the ability to show the future. With 11 others with the same power, he will need to learn who to trust and survive till the end.

Storyline

The storyline of Mirai Nikki is relatively fast paced and no filler episodes. Some may say that the story goes too fast as characters die as soon as they appear, however, I find it quite a nice pace to read at, with slow-downs in some parts of the story to emphasize the emotions. Jumping back and forth to different places to create tension. It definitely wants you to keep reading, and to be honest, it succeeded.

Although the storyline did not stir up any emotional responses like it did in Elfen Lied, it is still quite powerful.

Artwork

I personally find the artwork quite pleasing, it’s relatively light on the lines and shading in normal scenes, and dark when necessary. The artwork gives the manga that extra eerie when necessary.

Unlike Elfen Lied, the artwork is very continuous and the quality never drops.

Wrap-up

I did enjoy this series, even though it was relatively short. The final moments of the manga was expected since half way, but the way the manga ends is quite refreshing, but definitely doesn’t fit the style of dark and gloomy as seen in the rest of the manga.

If you are into manga in the same genre, I would recommend Bitter Virgin and Deadman Wonderland, since both of them share common themes.

The series is due to have an anime adaptation. I hope the animators don’t screw up the storyline like in many other manga adaptations.

Sketching Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. IB has overwhelmed me with the workload and I haven’t been able to do any blogging.

Anyways, since it’s summer, I might as well talk about the plan. I have quite a lot to do this summer and I might not have time to complete all the sketches.

As you may know, there is a new Baka to test season. The OP is quite nice. There isn’t a decent one on YouTube right now. But here are the screencaps that I might vector. (Ordered from most likely to least likely)

I’ve already started work on the first one!

Anyways, the amount I manage to get through will depend on how well I manage my time and the amount of progress I made on other work. I will work on it one at a time.

Enjoy your summer! Also, screw Blogger internal posting thing. It sucks, written on Windows Live Writer.

Feeling a bit happy right now...

... because I've received a shipment of "To aru kagaku no Railgun" light novels! I've ordered them through Taobao for around ~$25 HKD.

 

科學的電磁炮 (or A Scientific Railgun) 

Of course they're in Chinese, I've ordered them from a Chinese firm.

又写信…

主题：你们学校的校长希望知道你们即将毕业的学生觉得他/她最应该为学校做的最重要的一件事情是什么。写一封信告诉他 /她你的看法，并说明为什么这事是学校校长应该做的最重要的事情。

敬爱的校长；

　　您好！

　　 不知不觉我在学校已经度过了五年，和朋友老师的关系也非常融洽，在这里度过了很多美好的时光，就在我要步入人生的另一个阶段，突发其想想写封信给您，把我的一些内心感受真实的告诉您，让我生活过的校园越来越好。

　　平时我们的学习已经很辛苦，希望在课余时间可以有一些室外的活动。但是我们学校的地方有限，让我们不能进行一些活动。我想校长可以扩建我们的学校，给我们一个更好的学习环境。

　　学校最大的问题是食堂的食物不仅难吃，而且价格很贵，还不干净。我希望校长考虑更换食品公司，适当调整食物价格，保证食物安全。这样我们在学校用餐更放心。

　　在此，我希望我们的学校越办越好。希望校长认真考虑我们的意见，把学校变成我们另一个家园！

祝工作顺利！

陈浩培

２０１１年３月１７日

Just a heads up…

No, I haven’t affected by the Japanese earthquake as of writing, however, what I fear right now is that the radiation may travel as dust particles to Hong Kong.

Anyways, keeping a record of what’s happening in the nuclear power plants here: http://12phjntc.blogspot.com/ Reason? Higher Physics teacher wants me to keep record, so I’ll update it regularly.