Happy in Hong Kong

Project Everlasting and new HK village house

Finding the secret to enduring love....what is it?  Well, my sister has crossed paths with a great man from the US who is devoted to spending a lot of time, energy, and money to go out and look into this ageless and priceless question. The bedrock ideas that this guy asserts are clearly inspired from a superior source of good. There is no doubt in my puny little mind about that.  Please look into his videos and "cool as" inspirations.  I can't wait to meet this guy some day to share with him and pick his heart, brain, and soul.

....and I also wanted to share pictures of our new house, which puts us very near the HK-China border now.  we are loving life and looking forward to the new possibilities this move has opened for us.

video blog 1.0

living the fast-paced Asian life.  kindergarten, mass transit, tourist destinations, shopping, and heaps of info on how to come and thrive in Hong Kong. we're a family who is doing it and want others to benefit from our experience. God called us to this place, and we know his plan is majestic and worthy of following with all our hearts...enjoy all Hong Kong and Asia have to offer

  Quicktime video -- Download here 

  Windows Media Player DivX video -- Download vlog_intro7.avi 

China Visa from Hong Kong

have just gone thru this whole ordeal for the 3rd or 4th time, and it can be complicated at times, depending on what type of visa you request (and your nationality), so I thought I'd put the relevant information here all in one spot for easy understanding.

Chinese Foreign Ministry (HK) website:  click here

PDF file of general visa application form:  Download ChinaVisaApp.pdf

Basic info for China Resources Building (HK) -- Chinese consular office:

26 Harbor Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island  (across from Immigration Building -- red brick one)
Monday to Friday (except public holidays in Hong Kong)
Morning:  9:00 am - 12:00 noon
Afternoon:  2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Tel: 3413 2424 and 3412 2300

Enter the China Resources Building on the side of the exhibition center at street level for the elevator. From Kowloon the easiest way is to take the Star Ferry to Wan Chai ferry pier.

CAUTION:  by exception, US passport holders must already have their visas before reaching Lo Wu or they'll be fined (others can get a one-journey visa at the border crossing). In Hong Kong, they should apply for it at the China Travel Service (there are a few branches in the city) or at the Chinese Visa Office in Wan Chai North and wait 1 1/2 to 2 days for it to be processed. One-journey, two-journey or multiple-journey visas can be obtained here.

more to come on shopping and travelling to China places...

Flat Stanley in kindergarten

for all those kindred spirits....(family or those desperately looking for children activities)....my most recent kindergarten video is ready to view.  you can view it and read info about the activity on my video page

iTunes videocast

well, finally figured out what was wrong with getting iTunes to pick up my video feed enclosures from Feedburner.  I just needed to include the actual video file's URL location within the blog entry, which I am storing on Revver's site, since they allow download.  So Revver takes the bandwidth burden, the storage burden, and they compensate their video-sharers when their audience clicks on the ads placed at the end of videos uploaded on their site.  no videos yet on my global finance page, but my video page and this main page have nearly all their videos available in the iTunes store in the podcast section.  You can find a link in the sidebar on both pages to subscribe to my video updates via iTunes!!

internet browsing accountability

Who is Covenant Eyes?

The Covenant Eyes program was established to change people's lives. They want to make available to everyone the ability to foster self-control, self-discipline, integrity, and personal accountability when using the Internet. Job 31:1 states, "I have made a covenant with my eyes." CE's purpose is to provide a tool enabling Internet users to maintain that covenant, regardless of whether their temptation is to pornography, gambling, or simply time spent on the Internet. The goal is to honor God, our families, and our relationships in the way that we use the Internet by establishing accountability with others. Covenant Eyes is the tool that accomplishes this goal.

Click below on ad to get more info, or view their intro video on my videos page. 

And I use and have used this program for 3 months now, and I can vouch for its usefulness and viability.

podcasting learning curve

I will be posting some new tutorial videos on how to use your videos to set up your first video podcast, videocast, video blog, vodcast -- whatever you choose to call it.  Look for them on my video page. People are still deciding about what to call it when you post videos to your website/blog and allow people to subscribe to receive updates as your new videos become available.

Please bear with me as I also am learning right along with you.  Most of my videos are finally available in the iTunes store, either under Happy in Hong Kong or Videos from Asia. I no longer recommend using FireAnt, as they are still working many kinks out of their new download-able viewer.  You can also use other podcatchers if you find a better one than iTunes or Podnova.  still trying to work thru how to use flash embedded videos from YouTube for iTunes podcasts.  Anyone with ideas or solutions would be much appreciated.

Video blog tutorial

Everything you need to get started videoblogging now -->

this is a great basic video blog dedicated to teaching people who are just starting out in making blogs and then adding videos to them.  i just had to share it with you because it would have answered many of my Q's earlier if I had seen it sooner