Former nationality(ies)

A tweet led me to a blogpost about a new Chinese (PRC) visa application (V.2013). I haven't applied for a Chinese visa for several years and was surprised to see it is now 4 pages (PDF).



One the first page, question 1.7 asks you to fill in your 曾有国籍 or former nationality(ies). I guess if I had to fill out this form now, I would write Canada in the box, but not sure how to continue. Do I write Taiwan? China? Republic of China?! Question 1.8 then asks for your 出生地点(市、省/州、国) place of birth (city, province/state, country). Again, do I put "Taipei, Taiwan, China" or go for broke and put Republic of China for country?

For my dad, this becomes even more confusing. He was born in Chengdu, China in 1941. Since the People's Republic of China didn't exist until 1941, it was definitely 中華民國 or Republic of China. He has a passport issued by Taiwan but nothing from PRC. I'm pretty certain if either of us put Taiwan or Republic of China for country or nationality, our visa application will be rejected.

BTW, if you google "Republic of China" you will get the on the results page:



It clearly states the Taiwan is a country, a "state in East Asia", and the "first constitutional republic in Asia." Heh, Google in going to stay on China's shit-list for a long long time.

JWA Parking

I parked my car at the off-site lot at John Wayne Airport for ~5 days and the total cost was $70 ($14/day). A taxi ride from my house in Orange to the airport would have been about $36 each way so it was a wash. Unlike at LAX, there are not that many options for off-site parking so it's fairly expensive.

The only bonus was the lot is directly below the landing flight path. I caught a Southwest flight coming in for a landing while walking to my car.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Over this past weekend, I visited my sister in Portland. Part of the trip was spending a few nights in Newport and we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.


Cleaning shrimps. I've bought quite a few of these when I had a salt-water fish tank.


Obligatory jellyfish shot. The tank was quite small; nothing compared to the huge tank at the aquarium in Monterey.


Not sure if the fish was resting or dead.


On our way out, I saw a small group of Japanese tourists. The group was mainly teenagers plus a few adult chaperones. Interestingly, most of the kids were wearing Converse All Stars. I didn't know they were "in" in Japan.


We got to the aquarium early so the lines weren't too bad. By the time we left around noon, there was a huge line to buy tickets (quite expensive at $19 for adults). I guess there's not much else to do in Newport.

Flying Fish

Salmon...



and Orcas

Go Wong Wei

So I was at Imperial Hill taking some photos today and saw a Singapore Airlines A380 pull out of a gate at TBIT and head towards the north runway. Out of nowhere, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 turned into the same jetway, blocking the A380. All sorts of funny Asian names popped up in my head but I'm not posting any of it, because that would be racist or something.

The Asiana 777 pulled into a gate so disaster averted.

ChinaJoy

Speaking of China, I signed up for a Sina Weibo account recently and have been checking it once in awhile to see if it's still there. I posted a few things that may be censor-able but I only have 11 followers so no one seems to care. Anyway, I think Weibo signed me up to follow some random people (Edison Chen?!) and one appeared to be a photographer. Well, it seems all "model" photographers and trade show booth babes are in Shanghai this week for ChinaJoy 2013. I think it's a mobile gaming trade show but it just looks like a lot of T&A and cosplay.

I found this collage on a Weibo feed. Some of the girls are cute but others look weird in a plasticky way. Real question is how many are moonlighting as mistresses for some corrupt CCP government official or business owner.

If Mr. Anon Y. Mous would like more, I can find some better pics.

Working too much

I haven't posted that much this year since work is super busy. It actually takes a lot of time to compose a serious post, though most of my posts aren't really that thoughtful. Also, I think I'm numb to all the crap that happens in China these days so I'm too lazy to repost stuff here. Ya'll can check out chinaSMACK by yourself.

Finally, I've been putting K-pop stuff on Tumblr (68monkeys) so there's really nothing left to post. :)