June 2007

IF anyone ever tells you Hong Kong is a really hot place….

Believe them. Prepare likewise.

We’ve been having an awesome time so far, going crazy visiting sights. Hong Kong is  a truly spectacular city, the way the skyscrapers interact with the mountains is fantastic.

Yesterday was a scorcher but many inhabitants don’t seem to notice it. We were in Hong Kong Park and I saw a white guy in a shirt, tie… But then I looked closer and he was wearing an under-shirt too! And he was looking very comfortable as well. I didn’t like these people. I liked the businessmen who were almost dying underneath the weight of the humidity. It made me feel more human.

Food-wise we’ve eaten a grand total of one Chinese meal so far which was nice! There’s so much to offer though.. the Soho and Lei Kwan Fong (sp?) districts have fantastic restaurants and bars… every one of them looked inviting and appetising.

I’m off now, going to go exploring the smaller towns on Hong Kong island, should be a ball.

It’s not all that well known, but there’s a plug-in for Skype that functions as a lie detector, by detecting tension in the voice.

 The only problem is this - to prevent mis-use, at the start of the call the recipient is told that a lie detector is in use. Depending on your intention (such as mine), I think this defeats the purpose.

 However, what you CAN do is make an ordinary call over Skype to your buddy (or shady underworld contact, where it will be more useful) but tape it using audio capturing software. THEN you play that back through a Skype phone call and watch the lie detector thing light up like a Christmas tree. It could work, theoretically.

I’m overseas on Tuesday, to Hong Kong, Beijing and Mongolia

That in large part explains my disappearance from this blog.. I was having fun but realising that my travel plans were going to stop me posting regularly and building a readership, as all good bloggers are meant to do.

I’ve made a few mistakes with this blog - mostly the community I have tried to ingratiate myself with, online business, as opposed to the one I should have been communicating with, which is style and fashion.

 When I get back from O/S (in July) I hope to take this blog down a slightly more personal path (as was my initial intention) rather than try and be a blogger that .. you know.. does all that business sort of stuff, monetises posts etc. When I put up those guests posts by Pete Aldin, while they were great it really made me consider where the blog was going.

The main problem was I didn’t feel what was happening here at MatNewton.com was 100% me - as in, it didn’t reflect the way I see myself. I’m 22, and although I have one I’m not a serious businessman - yet - I have a quirky sense of humour, I like to wind people up…. you get the point. Because of that difficulty I ended up over at my MySpace page (yes, I made one… quite sad really) doing posts that were what I actually wanted to say. That’s stupid, because MatNewton.com IS my space on the web, so to speak.

I’m considering doing something like The Satorialist or Melbourne Fashion Runway, which have a picture every day of someone snapped in the street looking stylish. Except, it would focus on men interspersed with little style topics such as ‘How to button your suit.’. This is what I’m interested in. I love to see what people are wearing on the street… it’s not a shallow thing, either. I think it’s a great creative and intellectual challenge to figure out what looks good and what doesn’t.

In the mean-time I will probably put up a few posts from Hong Kong, Beijing and Mongolia. It should be good.

Regarding the competition for a free shirt

That is still available. Two people have solved it but both were ineligible to enter if you follow basic ethical rules about running competitions.