having a doubleplus good time....

for all you cunning linguists, you'll likely know by the title of this post that i just finished reading '1984' by George Orwell. one of those school-type books that i may have read back 20 years ago, but if so, god help my memory because it was all new to me. no need to worry, this isn't going to be a book report other than to say the book is eerily plausible and somewhat a reality of how society has become so easily accepting of full transparency into one's real-time behaviours, i.e. Facebook. no doubt a classic of a read, i must admit i enjoyed the first half better than the mind-F latter half.
spoiler alert - big brother wins.

speaking of big brother, here comes the point of the post. Hong Kong is a super safe city, i feel totally at ease no matter where i am or what time it is....which isn't something you can say about a lot of big cities. one thing i have noticed though, which may be in part responsible for the lack of criminal intent, is the fact that there are cameras...everywhere. in our building alone, there are cameras in every public area i've been in. the elevators - cameras, which hasn't stopped me checking myself in the mirror. the gym - cameras, which hasn't stopped me flexing in the mirror. i'm pretty sure there is even a camera in our flat somewhere, which would be extremely exciting footage of 18 hours of me on the couch with or without a cat walking around. and though i surely have nothing to hide, i do need to be a little careful when i'm out on the lamb not to spit my gum on the ground or litter for fear that it could be caught on video and i could get my ass caned...literally.
btw, i must thank AOz for hooking me up with free ebooks for the iPod. i may stay on the Orwell bandwagon a little longer with 'Animal Farm', a book i know i have read and i know i have forgotten. until next time, i'm Rich Morgan asking you to give in to the magic of reading!