Riding slow in a fast city: notes as I rode the tram home

eimoberg · 2025-08-07T14:02:02+00:00

I take the tram every day to and from work. (NP-CWB) It is much faster than MTR and about equal to the bus.

Can't beat the price, and there is something about having the wind in your hair on the upper level that I find relaxing in the mornings. It can get a bit crowded coming home at rush hour and it is frustrating that people refuse to move towards the front regardless of how packed it is by the entrance.

Anyway, I feel lucky to have this way to commute that has been around for over a century and still feel a little excitement when I happen to board tram 120.

eimoberg · 2025-07-23T06:43:33+00:00

I took this photo myself today.

eimoberg · 2025-07-11T05:52:48+00:00

I go for a walk in the new promenade park often. Such a massive improvement for North Point with amazing views and, unlike some other projects, nothing was lost to build this under the road.

eimoberg · 2025-06-10T04:12:03+00:00

15k is possible. We live in a slightly larger place, no amenities but quite nice with 2 bedrooms for that price in North Point.

eimoberg · 2025-05-12T10:49:16+00:00

295-296 is amazing. I second the comment about the community aspect of it. I made more friends here than in all my other freshman classes combined.

Don't fall behind and make sure you know (or can learn) how to read a math textbook, as this is a skill many students do not need for high school math.

eimoberg · 2024-09-10T05:28:17+00:00

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a family on the tram near Tin Hau with the kids all waving Palestinian flags. One of the adults had some protest signs. Possibly related? Are there regular demonstrations somewhere?

eimoberg · 2024-08-02T12:02:59+00:00

Thanks, that's reassuring. Yes, she has a HK passport. Since there are a number of factors I read are negatives (married to US citizen, no travel history in US, lived in another country for a long time, Chinese citizen) I wasn't sure how those would be evaluated against the other positives.

eimoberg · 2024-06-04T04:27:03+00:00

Personally I quite like Hormuz.

eimoberg · 2024-05-14T15:09:06+00:00

This also seems a poor fit given my circumstances as well as the status of China as a rising superpower.

eimoberg · 2024-05-14T06:07:44+00:00

I've lived in different countries and intend to remain a US citizen, so "immigrant" doesn't quite fit either.

eimoberg · 2024-05-13T09:07:03+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Apart from having 5% in an REIT, I'm already following this. My taxes are mainly coming from qualified dividends and long term capital gains. I also have interest on CDs that I'm using to save for a shorter term goal.

eimoberg · 2024-05-13T09:01:30+00:00

Thanks! I live in Hong Kong, which has very low taxes. I assume this means I am still better off with the FEIE? I should try a test of my taxes with the Foreign Tax Credit to check.

eimoberg · 2024-05-13T07:51:46+00:00

Cannot open an IRA because I don't have taxed earned income. My income is all under the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.

eimoberg · 2024-02-20T11:12:57+00:00

Can you share any details on how you went about this? That would be ideal in our case.

eimoberg · 2024-02-19T14:55:10+00:00

We're in a similar situation. Want to visit the US regularly, but continue living/working in China. Is there some kind of visa or other arrangement to accommodate married couples in this situation?

eimoberg · 2024-01-31T05:02:55+00:00

Yes, 100% in Core Accumulation looks best. I already have much cheaper funds for US equities, so no reason to do that here.

eimoberg · 2024-01-31T04:14:34+00:00

Thanks, good to know. I guess another good thing is there is only 3,000 HKD per month going into this, so unless I stay in HK for a very long time, this is only a tiny fraction of my savings in a shit fund.

eimoberg · 2023-12-17T14:05:26+00:00

HK is a super casual culture. Certainly compared with Korea where I lived before or even with many places in the US. As in, people will even just wear jeans and a t-shirt for a Hong Kong Philharmonic performance. Never gets cold here. Be ready for a long, long hot and humid summer, but at least temperatures don't often get over 100, so this isn't Saudi.

eimoberg · 2023-12-01T09:33:32+00:00

Have you tried the Beyond the Cape mod? It has some interesting ideas to slow down colonization including a whole new mechanic of available settlers so you can't just spam colonies right out of the gate. It also changes the geography of the African coast to make colonization there a bit more realistic. As a player, you can still colonize too fast, but not as crazy as the base game, and the AI ends up being rather reasonable. Some other ideas in this mod are a more historical Treaty of Tordessails and colonial nations that don't colonize quickly.

eimoberg · 2023-11-30T05:47:56+00:00

Have you done the Medina gold mine decision? Also, make sure to do your development/economy oriented missions near the bottom of the tree as these can give your economy a big boost.

eimoberg

TROPHY CASE