Monday, April 22, 2013

No Comment

People are weird.

For two and a half years, my blog was wide open to anyone and everyone. Anybody could read it and leave a comment without having to type in a secret code or wait for me to approve anything. Now because of just two people, that's all changed. Comments are now moderated.

I seem to have offended someone when I said bad things about terrorists. A very hateful comment was left on my blog. They were even more offended that I deleted it. Then came a flood of pure hate and hostility, in comment form. I've never said a single word to these people. I've never done anything to fuel their anger, except for saying that terrorists are bad people and deleting all of the hate speech and bullying comments. During this string of hate, one of them wrote “get a life” in response to all the comments I was deleting. I thought that was kind of funny. I almost didn't delete that one, but it's not as funny without the context of all that hateful ranting and raving.

I don't know what set them off. It can't just be because I don't like terrorists. Is anyone pro-terrorist? Is it really controversial to say that terrorists are assholes? Either these two people are playing a game I'm not interested in or they have a psychological condition I'm not licensed to treat. I sincerely hope they get whatever help they need. I also reserve the right to delete any and all comments as I see fit. This is my blog. No one is forced to leave comments here, or even read it. If you think my deletion of your comment infringes on your freedom of speech, feel free to contact your congressman and tell them the United States government is violating your First Amendment rights because some stranger in China deleted a blog comment. See how well that plays.

I'll never delete a comment just because I disagree with an opinion. But I will always delete hate speech, threats of violence and bullying. You're going to break into my house and stab me while I'm sleeping? First of all, no, you're not. Unless you're a 10-year-old, that's just stupid. Second of all, delete.

I probably don't care about your political opinions, and if you genuinely feel the world needs to know every talking point that you copy and paste from your favorite partisan websites, there are a million other places to post that. You can even start your own blog and post whatever the hell you want. In the meantime, hate is not welcome here.

And to reiterate, terrorists are asshole.



Thursday, April 18, 2013

Boston Bombing

What's wrong with people? Why would anyone want to blow up the Boston Marathon? I can understand terrorists blowing each other up in areas controlled by other terrorists. It's still stupid, but maybe they can gain control of some patch of dirt if they kill enough of their enemies. It doesn't make any sense to attack places like Boston. If you're a terrorist, you're never going to control Boston. There's no way in hell you're ever going to take over the United States. Our military would blow up the entire world before they let that happen. Maybe you can take over parts of Pakistan or Afghanistan, or some former Soviet republic, or chunks of Africa, if you're lucky. You're never going to make a dent in America.

Attacking the World Trade Center made sense. It was a cowardly act by a bunch of assholes, but attacking the financial center of the world will get you loads of attention. How many Americans knew anything about al Qaeda before 9/11? They're international superstars now. Attacking a marathon isn't going to bring a world power to its knees, or even a city. The point of terrorism, other than to kill, is to terrorize people. It's in the name. You're never going to make people in a city like Boston bow down in fear. Anyone who thinks that has never been to Boston.

Attacking a marathon is not even a great way to kill a lot of people. Taking down giant skyscrapers turns them into death traps from which escape is difficult to impossible. Far more people died when the towers collapsed than in the initial impact. Marathons are out in the open. People can escape in every direction.

If your fundamental goal is to bring the American imperialist dogs to their knees, you need to get a lot smarter. Bombing the Boston Marathon was stupid.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

My Agent part 3

My agent got me an audition. I think that's pretty good since I only met him a week ago. It's for a speaking part in yet another action movie. I don't know why everything seems to be an action movie. I know that's what makes the most money, but that's not what I watch. No one really makes musicals anymore. I would be in heaven if Gene Kelly called me up and asked me to be his next leading lady, or simply shoot a dance scene. Unfortunately, I'd really have to be in heaven for that to happen.

My only concern when my agent called, other than all this action nonsense, was what language the part was in. He was unsure. He had to find out and get back to me. Then he told me it's in English. He also said I should learn Chinese since I would be open to infinitely more parts. I know he's right and I'm working on it. Chinese is a bitch of a language to learn. Learning French was like playing “Chopsticks” on the piano. Chinese is Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 3.

Monday, April 8, 2013

New Neighbor part 3

I've been flirting with my new neighbor in the building across the way. We both keep our curtains open, which is pretty rare in Hong Kong, and we see each other from time to time. It's all fairly harmless. We can't talk to each other. We don't have each other's contact information. It's not like you can just open the window and scream. You could try, but Hong Kong is a busy city. I'm not sure anyone would hear anything.

Today I was putting away my laundry, which I always seem to be doing whenever we see each other, and I made sure he could tell I was folding my bras and panties. I don't know why I did it, but he didn't seem to mind. Maybe I do know why. I've been accused of being a tease once or twice. I don't know that I am, but I'm not averse to a little harmless tease between neighbors. We can't borrow cups of sugar, so we might as well be neighborly somehow.

There's no harm in it. There's no way he could ever find out which apartment I'm in. The way the buildings are set up, the most we could ever tell is what floor we're both on. Even if he had a key to get into my building or someone just let him in, there's no way he could find my apartment without knocking on random doors and hoping to get lucky.

I don't get the impression he's the stalker type anyway. I've never seen him with binoculars or a camera. Everybody has cameras in their phones now. I've never caught him trying to sneak a picture. Ninety percent of the men in Hong Kong already would have tried, and my curtains would be long closed.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Hailey’s Bali Diary part 3




The e-book edition of my book will be available for free at Amazon on Wednesday, April 3rd. I think it's from midnight to midnight Pacific Standard Time, but I doubt they're very exact. It's definitely their time zone and not my time, so part of April 3rd will be April 4th here. If it starts at midnight in California, then it's 15:00 in Hong Kong. So it will be midnight April 3rd to midnight April 4th California time and 15:00 April 3rd to 15:00 April 4th Hong Kong time. Or something like that.

When in doubt, buy early and buy often. You can't beat free.

USA and everywhere else

UK and Europe

Canada

Japan

Monday, April 1, 2013

My Agent part 2

I met my new agent. He seems like a nice person. The image of Hollywood agents isn't much better than lawyers. Everyone thinks they're leeches who lie, cheat and steal to get whatever they want. But that's in Hollywood. Chinese culture is different. There is plenty of lying, cheating and stealing, but they're much more polite when they do it. This guy seems genuinely interested in getting me parts, and he should be. He found me. I didn't find him.

One of the things I liked best about him was that he speaks English. You could fill a stadium with the people in Hong Kong who claim to speak English but can barely put more than two words together. I can't complain. Their English is often better than my Chinese. But I would never claim to speak English if no one who speaks English could understand me, just as I have never claimed to be fluent in Chinese. My agent's English is great.

He says that being American will both help and hurt me. I always assumed it was a plus since I don't look like most of the other girls here. The problem is that in Chinese culture, they want people who look like everyone else. Conformity is the thing. Being unique is frowned upon.

The good news is that the younger generations of Chinese people like being different. They go out of their way to dress differently and get crazy hairstyles, just like in any other country. In the film community, that means there are rising actors, producers and directors who don't want to look and act like everyone else. They will be more interested in me than most of the older filmmakers. Of course, I'm not the only foreign actor here. Now that I have an agent, I will probably be up against all the other foreigners for the same parts. At least with Americans, you get a wider variety of looks and styles. If they want lighter or darker hair, I can wear a wig. There's nothing I can do to look Chinese.