airlines suck

I'm going to New Zealand! Okay, it's not happening until December, but still, I'm excited. I'm also going to Taipei afterwards, which should be fun; I haven't been in a year and a half already.

I do have to complain about international flight scheduling for a bit, though.

It's much more expensive to book a round-trip fare between two international locations from the US than to book it through a foreign travel agency. This applies even to websites like Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia. I don't understand why.

It's much, much more expensive to book a three-legged itinerary from San Francisco to Auckland to Taipei and back than it is to book two round-trips. I guess this is a known oddity. However, the only decently priced round-trip flight from San Francisco to Taipei arrives at 10:05pm, five minutes after the last flight to Auckland departs. Plus, direct flights from Taipei to Auckland only exist on odd dates, and for some reason, the one-stop flights are much more expensive than the direct flights (there's a first!). Anyway, the upshot of the whole thing is that according to my flight plan, I'm leaving San Francisco and not arriving in Auckland until four days later. Yes, some of that is due to crossing the international date line, but it still sucks.

Also, I'm being forced to choose between getting United frequent flier miles (and regaining my Premier status) and saving five hundred bucks. Bleah.

ice hockey returns

I'm playing (non-checking) ice hockey, again. No, I'm not any good, but it's fun anyway.

Luckily there's only one more wedding to go this summer, so I'm not too worried about all the bruises.

Hong Kong protests

I've got lots of stuff to finish before the three-day weekend, so this is going to be short.

When Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997, some people predicted that everything would be fine, and that Taiwan would soon see that it should also accept the "one country, two systems" proposal. Some other people, mostly Taiwanese people, predicted that everything would go to shit, and the international community would soon see what folly it would be for Taiwan to submit to any kind of Chinese governance. It's still too soon to say, but from anecdotal evidence, many Hong Kong natives are starting to incline towards the latter view.

A friend of mine sent me a forward today that included this NYTimes article: Security Laws Target of Huge Hong Kong Protest.

Her mother had commented:

"Daddy and I were forced to wait in the Victoria from 2:00PM to 6:30PM under the hot sun and heat. The HK police closed the 10 exits except 2 trying to stop the procession of the demonstration. We are among many young students, middle classes and professionals to witness the anger and hopeless feeling toward Tung's government in first hand."

"I wish that this day will be a solid evidence for those Taiwanese people who still wrongly mislead to believe in unification with China will bring a better life. If there is any good outcome came to Taiwanese people due to HK people's massive protest, our hardship on the 7/1 will be well worth it."

'Nuff said.