H1N1 (swine flu)

The Hong Kong government has overreacted to the H1N1 threat. According to what I understand, the H1N1 virus is very much like a normal flu except that it has a slightly higher death rate. The Hong Kong government has been dishing out Tamiflu not only to people who have contracted H1N1, but also to people who have been in close contact with those who have contracted H1N1. Besides the fact that Tamiflu represents, to-date, our best chance of surviving a H5N1 (bird flu) pandemic (God forbid), Tamiflu is not that effective against H1N1. In effect, what the Hong Kong government is doing (no doubt unintentional) is assisting viruses evolve in much more lethal viruses against which we have no defence! The Hong Kong government should re-think its strategy against H1N1.

iPod nano 4

I won an iPod nano 4 at the firm's spring dinner lucky draw. It's a great product but I hate the fact that I cannot drag my favourite songs into my iPod. Instead, I must sync my iPod with the collection in my iTunes library. Also, iPod nano 4 can only be recharged via USB which is not as convenient as it could be.

learning Hangeul (Korean)

Having visited Seoul and really liking it, I enrolled myself into a beginners Korean short course. I have to attend 3 hours of class every Saturday morning for 18 consecutive weeks. You see how dedicated I am! We've had 3 lessons already and it is not easy. Our first examination is in 2 weeks time and I better start revising or I'll fail. At this stage, I find listening and trying to distinguish between words which sound near identical the most difficult. An analogous example would be an English beginner trying to differentiate between "their" and "there".