dannytalk ™ A Danny Ng Blog

I’ve been a fan of the Harry Potter series since I was like 13 or 14, before the movies came out and spoilt it. Now another recent news has spoilt my enjoyment of the book: JK Rowling announcing that Dumbledore is a gay character.

What a load of bull. I can’t believe JK Rowling is subtly instilling gay content into children’s literature. Well that is how it started anyway, a children’s literature.

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed the news about Dumbledore and said: “It’s good that children’s literature includes the reality of gay people, since we exist in every society.

“But I am disappointed that she did not make Dumbledore’s sexuality explicit in the Harry Potter book. Making it obvious would have sent a much more powerful message of understanding and acceptance.”

I’m not a gay hater or anything as they are still equally human beings which God created, but I disagree with the notion of accepting the practice of homosexuality. Does it mean that we have to accept the practice of rapists and murderers even though they exist in our society?

God made Adam and Eve, not Steve. The male and the female organ was intelligently made to fit together, thus procreation. I don’t think crossing swords would cut it.

She said she regarded her novels as a “prolonged argument for tolerance” and urged her fans to “question authority”.

JK Rowling has definitely kept this quiet till the end to boost her book sales. If she was really sincere in her quest to urge her fans to “question authority”, she would’ve revealed this a long time ago.

I’m pretty sure parents would not have allowed their children to read the book knowing this much sooner. A very disappointing end to the Harry Potter literature.

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Argh! Just spent another couple of hours adding del.icio.us, digg and facebook bookmarks onto my posts. Also added a digg button at the top of my page. Colour looks ugly but I couldn’t be bothered to change it atm.

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Alright I’m back in Sydney and have been busy coding, trying to complete my thesis which is due in a couple of weeks. It’s very exciting to know that you finally finish university education (for now anyway) after five hard years. I totally enjoyed it though I must say.

For those who don’t know what I’m doing in Shanghai, I’m working part-time for a company called Hannover Fairs Australia, the organisers of CeBIT Australia. Our parent company is Deutsche Messe, the organisers of CeBIT Hannover. A team of us have been sent over to Shanghai to do media coverage for CeBIT Asia, CeMAT Asia and PTC Asia, a combined trade show at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.

So back to Shanghai. First three days were a nightmare. Basically got up at 6.30am and sleeping around 11pm-12am. Around there. We were so busy that we usually took work with us back to the hotel to continue uploading content onto the website since there is internet in the rooms.

Working hard in my room.

The hotel rooms were quite nice. I think it’s a 4-star hotel, Rendezvous Merry Hotel. Sounds a bit like a seedy hotel though don’t you reckon? It had a nice view of the city as well. If you’ve never been to Shanghai, it’s a very developed city, much like Sydney. A lot of skyscrapers and construction going around. With a high rate of development comes pollution as well. The city was constantly smoggy.

Day 1 – 3

This is what kept me occupied on the plane. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!

Me arriving in Shanghai, outside Pudong airport.

The taxi ride to our hotel from the airport was quite lengthy. I think it took us around 1 hour to get to our hotel and costed around RMB250. Oh, apparently you’re not allowed to have schizophrenia, and do dumpings in the taxi. You can also refuse to pay the fare if they taxi driver doesn’t say polite greetings like “bye-bye!”. I would’ve taken a picture of it, but it was a night. The flash would’ve made it unreadable.

We were very tired after having our flights delayed by two hours and I think the flight was just over 10 hours total. As a result, we collapsed almost immediately onto our beds.

We travelled by bus every morning for 1 hour through the traffic to the centre.

Each morning we travelled by bus to the centre through the city, which crosses over the bridge. Traffic in Shanghai is terrible, whether it’s day or night. The city also looks very smoggy as you can see from the pictures. There are a lot of skyscrapers and construction though. Lots to see while you’re on the bus.

The exhibition centre has like around 10 huge halls. Weird though how there’s like a huge barren land in the middle. Also there was a swampy house randomly located while we were walking to the exhibition. Hope no one lives there.

This was one of my work areas in the hall. Not very glamorous.

A snapshot of what it looked like inside the hall.

There was a stand which showcased cool modified cpu towers and also had over-clocking competitions. They call it “over-frequency” over in Shanghai.

They were using dry ice to cool down the cpu.

On our way to the opening party, I came across an “engrish” sign. I think it was one of the chinese companies exhibiting. Couldn’t miss the chance to take a picture.

I wonder what they’re selling.

The opening night party was pretty much drinks and food. A lot of it! I would’ve taken pictures of the food but I didn’t want to seem like a loser.

There was a guy also singing karaoke songs on the stage. Would’ve roundhouse kicked him off if I could. Sucked so badly. After several torturous minutes, some other cool performances were presented.

I love German beer.

I can see your thighs there.

These three violinist chicks were awesome.

Do I look tired or is it the beer(s)?

On the second night we went to a reception at the Sheraton Hotel, hosted by the government of California. Not sure if you guys know Lt. Governor John Garamendi. He’s someone who works with Arnie. Well, he was representing California there.

There were really nice desserts there. Took a few pictures of them. Gosh I love digital slr cameras. Too bad it’s the company’s and not mine :(

On the third night, we went for a Shanghai river boat cruise. Some other corporate function. This was when I was craving for some local Shanghainese food already. Already had enough of eating hotel/catered food! Anyways, the night city views were beautiful. All the buildings at night were brightly lit up.

FYI, the wine and beer tasted horrible.

The media team. (L->R) Emma, Gilad, James, Kae Yen, Me.

Me and Gilad.

Not sure if you can see it, but that’s actually a boat carrying a big ass advertisement!

Day 4

We finally finish early on Saturday and looking forward to actually spend some time enjoying ourselves and not attending corporate functions or doing work! As a treat from the company, we were taken to the Hyatt Hotel, a very luxurious bar on the 88th floor. I ordered campari and lemonade/lemon juice. Very nice!

Beautiful view from the top I’d say.

Remind you of Gotham city?

Michael and the media team.

Looking down the atrium. Beautiful isn’t it?

Emma and I (aerial shot).

Next we headed off to Nanjing Road and the Bund. Touristy areas. Pretty lights all around. Shopping area too but didn’t shop there since they’d probably charge tourist prices as well.

Whilst walking on Nanjing Road, couple of guys came up to me asking if I wanted “female-company”. Pretty funny since they were pretty persistent. Oh btw, something that you’d notice is that if you’re with foreigners, a lot of these street sellers will come up and ask you “You want watch? Want bag? Prada? Gucci?”.

The Peace Hotel.

Mao and I go way back…

Yes they do have adult shops in Shanghai. Only saw one though.

Nanjing Road.

Day 5

Shopping shopping shopping! Finally we get to pick up our tailored suit and shirts. The tailored stuff we got at the “Spinning Market”, apparently on Qi Pu road. Other stuff, we got at the new copy market.

The tailored suit cost only RMB500, including two pants. That’s around AU$75. The tailored shirts cost RMB100, which is around AU$15. Pretty good if you ask me!

Can’t remember what’s this place called. It’s above the copy markets.

That’s how you use a gun, son.

Satay anyone?

Trying on my newly made tailored suit.

Hungry after a day’s worth of shopping!

Me outside “Spinning Market”.

Our friendly tailors and their baby.

Me about to be measured.

After all the shopping, we were about ready to head to the airport and fly back to Sydney. But not before we have some local food! Finally!

Bowl of La-Mien (hand-made noodles) was RMB7. That’s like just above AU$1!

It was pretty funny cos while we were having dinner, a lady was arguing with a guy from the shop. Obviously I didn’t understand them. Then a police came to hear them out. Was too scared to take a picture in case that was illegal :S

So what’s the quickest way to Pudong airport? Did anyone say magnets? I sure did. Shanghai has a popular train that goes to and from the airport using magnets. Yeap, apparently the train hovers on magnets. This of course uses electro-magnetic principles which I refuse to regurgitate what I learnt 4 years ago in my physics class.

Takes less than 15 minutes to reach the airport and travels at around 300km/h.

Queuing up to buy tickets.

In the magnet train.

Fast and smooth.

And thus concludes my trip to Shanghai. It was fun and would’ve loved to spend more time there but unfortunately I got a thesis to write and an university to graduate from.

Gosh, I think I spent nearly 2 hours on this post. ><

Farewell Shanghai!

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I’m meant to be doing my thesis (which is due in 2 weeks!) but this sudden urge to get a mp3 player has crept up. Usually I’m not an avid fan of apple products because

1. Their new products usually have defects and problems. It only gets fixed after several revisions and complaints from the consumers.
2. Apple‘s extended warranty is so expensive but so essential as you’re bound to get tangled with battery, hard drive and display problems.
3. Apple products and accessories are so proprietary oriented. I love open source.
4. I once owned a mini ipod and I totally hated it. Had a lot of battery and hard drive issues. It got stolen when my car got broken into. I was glad the mini ipod was stolen and upset that my car window got smashed.

So why am I still considering the iPod Touch and iPod Nano? Well, I must admit that I really do like their design and interface. Pretty cool. Just bad hardwares. There aren’t any decent competitors out there as well. If there are, I’d definitely go buy them over Apple to help topple Apple from their reign over the mp3 player market.

So what’s the verdict? iPod Nano has been out in the market for some time now which means the hardware and software would’ve been improved and hence more stable. The new design looks pretty cool as well.

iPod Touch looks sexily awesome. Big display screen. Very thin body. Downside? New product. I smell disappointment. Also with new products come bigger price tags and the older products get cheaper.

The nano looks slightly promising at the moment.

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I think China has blocked my ability to check blogspot blogs. Can’t seem to be able to view any of my usual blog stops while I’m here. Not even my own!

Anyways, the show is over and we’ve finally got some rest. About to spend a day in Shanghai shopping and exploring the city, taking the usual touristy move. Will be flying back to Sydney tonight and arriving Monday morning.

Its kind of disappointing but I haven’t been able to grab hold onto some local Shanghainese food. Been hotel and catered food so far! Urgh, how I hate it.

More to come when I get back and can actually view my own blog. I’m not even sure if this one will get through. Perhaps China will intercept it. Perhaps.

Over and out.

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