Feel So Good Quitting!

After many months of struggling, I've finally made up my mind and delete my gaming account in Travian. And it feels sooooo good. This is an online game, which you build your villages and conquer the others. The only thing I find thankful to this game is leading us to create our own.

Anyway, after quitting and read a blog from 笨爸 about 也談自殺...和其他. Is it bad to feel good?

I spent more than 6 months on Travian, I believe. And I actually played it ok with my friend. However, the design of the game makes me frustrating. No way out. I don't know the purpose of my existence in the game. So, last night, when some people were trying to attack me, I deleted the account.

That's my virtual life for the past 6 months. Is it bad to abandon it just like that? Will I quit just like that in my real life when I find it boring and no meaning for existence? I guess not. The reason why I feel good now about quitting is I am having time to do things more meaningful. It is a decision for a change than qutting. In real life, if you quit, you will never tell this feeling. In that sense, never quit.

~ Lindberg

Kay @ WildDayOut

Just come back from Hard Rock Cafe seeing Kay in WildDayOut.  I doubt I can move my legs tomorrow.  Standing on a chair without straightening the legs for 1.5 hours was quite an intensive exercise!

We went there early for dinner, so that we could get into the restaurant before the show.  But we still could not find a good spot.  Ended up staying near the bar.  Luckily we had the bar stool.  When standing on it, we could have a nice view of the stage.  In fact, I was so standing out among the crowd with my camera that the host noticed me, and made fun of my long zoom lens.  Anyway...

Kay and Shirley together sang 8 or 9 songs.  Only 1 song, The One and Only, is from Kay herself.  The others are like Forever Love by 王力宏, True Colors, Because of You by Kelly Clarkson, etc.  I could not recognize 1.  I think it's by Alicia Keys.  Not sure.

Kay is very cute when she is not singing.  Just like a 細路女.  The show was a bit short.  But when we learned that she was not feeling well, but still performed so well on the stage, we just hope that she doesn't work too hard on herself.  Hope that she can get some rest after this, and get well soon lu.

~ Lindberg

JA Advisor 自問自答

傻傻地諗起JA，忽然自問自答。

問: 點解覺得自己做到Business Advisor?
答: 做咗咁多年嘢，兼係創業型，自己又o甘多道理，點都有啲嘢同啲同學分享呱。

問: JA有無出人工俾Business Advisors?
答: 一個仙都無。仲要自己貼錢同好多時間。

問: 咁做嚟做乜？
答: 作育英才。Errr... 自己講都有o的唔係好信。想做到少少嘢得到啲滿足感。

問: 點解揀依家間中學？
答: 點指兵兵。

問: 最怕學生什麼?
答: 最怕學生隱形，有問題唔出聲。同埋當自己係阿Sir。

問: 最希望學生做到啲乜？
答: 得到獎故之然係開心。但係只要佢地覺得無浪費咗呢十八個星期已經好好。

問: 過去幾個禮拜中有無啲有趣嘢？
答: 都唔知係唔係有趣。同佢地喺MSN講笑，就以為我話鬼佢地。嚇死佢地之餘仲嚇死我！唔好當我係阿Sir先啦。玩吓之嘛。仲有頭兩個星期等佢地覆email，重緊張過乜。無時無刻check 住 email。返工一定無咁落力。精神差啲分裂！

問: 自己有無乜嘢體會?
答: 雖然只係過咗三個禮拜，但係自己都已經學到好多嘢。至少確認o左自己係中文文盲。試想象一下呢編嘢超過一半係用Yahoo!字典打出來。死未？仲有點同啲十𡃁歲去溝通，原來自己已經唔係十靚歲啦。灰...

問: 餘下來的十多個禮拜，有乜想做？
答: 唔想俾太多壓力俾佢地，盡量俾佢地自主啲。個遊戲始終都係佢地嘅。自己有幾多咪教幾多，盡量享受。雖然都唔係識咗好耐，但係已經有啲掛住佢地。希望完咗之後佢地仲記得有兩個咁嘅Business Advisors (好個一隻)。

~ Lindberg

變變變

When I was young, I was wishing that the next day I woke up, there would be some changes in me.  I hoped that something that I don't like would go away, like the sweaty palms, anemia, etc.  And when I woke up I would become taller, stronger, etc.  Maybe it's from the movie "The Fly", or X-Men.  But of course, I don't want to be transform into a fly.

So, somehow, it became my birthday wish.  Quite silly, isn't it?  When I was becoming 16, I thought it should be the time.  But of course nothing happened.  Same for 18th, 21st, and many birthdays after, until my 31st.

Nothing physical had changed (of course).  But 1 phone call changed my life.  After that, I realized I was living in a lie for 31 years.  The outcome of the change is good, however, the feeling of being cheated really sucks.  Ha!

~ Lindberg

A Dialog between a Student and My Partner

My partner and a JA student are both lying sick at home. One of them is actually not sick. But I am not telling who. Todd forwarded me an interesting MSN message between them:

茜: 教我地都有錢收~咪當休息囉
Todd: 有錢收.... ????
茜: 無既咩?@@
Todd: 有鬼
Todd: 義工ma....
Todd: 仲要貼錢買朱古力....
茜: 下......我仲以為junior achivement 呢d咁既計劃一定會有錢收

I guess we may be doing too much and too professionally. Therefore, the students do not believe there is such kind of freebie in the real world.

Of course we don't take a penny from anyone. In fact, besides the time invested, we take some money out of our pockets too. And I am quite sure that both of us don't put as much effort in our real jobs.

I personally don't expect them to win any prize. Just don't want to put too much pressure on them. But they're all smart kids. I don't have to complete my whole sentence, and they know what I want to tell them. If they put enough effort in the project, I am sure they can win a few prizes.

It'd be just the same as doing any volunteer work. As long as we see them learning a little bit from us, we would be laughing.

~ Lindberg

無端端遊車河

As I stepped out of the MTR heading home tonight, I received a call from my restaurant.  Some officers came and looked for the licensee, who is me.  And I am "supposed" to be in the restaurant "all of the time".  So I rushed to take a taxi back to the restaurant.

Sometimes, I find some regulations really silly.  This regulation itself actually has no problem.  I am the licensee, I am supposed to be in the restaurant during peak hours to make sure everything is in order and nothing illegal is happening in the restaurant.  However, the overall process just doesn't seem practical to me.

I guess the regulation was made when most owners operated their own restaurants.  So, they would be in their restaurants most of the time.  Now that there are more and more restaurant chains.  It's impossible for the owners to appear in their restaurant most of the time.  Some people would delegate this to the restaurant manager.  This is a good idea.  However, we cannot guarantee their stay in the company.  The transfer of the license may take more than a month.  And the restaurant cannot live without it.

Therefore, chain operators will use the owners, directors, senior managers, to hold the license.  But then, they won't be in the particular restaurant all the time.

5 minutes before I reached the restaurant, the restaurant called me and said that the officers had left.  And they put an absent on my record.  Sigh... 

So I told the driver to take me back home.  There is only one happy person in this story.  The taxi driver.  $112, I paid.  And for me, 無端端遊車河.

~ Lindberg

打中文打到抽筋

We find that our JA students do not understand our English very well. Therefore, today, I send out an email explaining some concepts we discussed earlier in Chinese. My Chinese typing skill is poor. It took me almost 2 hours just to type 3 short paragraphs!

And to make it worse, my partner told me that my Chinese is bad. It's as if a translation from English. He's probably right. I don't think in Chinese. Shame on me!!! Sigh...

I feel bad that after reading so much in Chinese in the past few years, my writing skill in Chinese is still so poor. And what make me feel even worse is that one of our creative projects is writing a book, in Chinese!!!

But I believe our class should sense the effort I put. And we finally see the first reply from the student. I almost dropped my tear. 

~ Lindberg

JA Meeting #3

After a confusing and frustrating week, we have our 3rd JA meeting today. I was confusing and frustrating because of the lack of feedback from the students. We don't know if it is our problem or theirs. But after the meeting today, I am very happy now. I think we are getting somewhere.

In the past week, Todd and I, have been clicking on our JA Yahoo Group almost every minute. We checked our email all the time, of course not to look for email about work. All we are looking for was the students giving us feedback on some tasks we wanted them to do.

We don't know if there is something wrong with us or with them. Todd thinks it's the attitude problem. I think it's the sense of responsibility, and also our delivery method.

Therefore, we started today with a warm up exercise. A game about communication. Besides understanding the difficulty in communication, I think we wanted them to see the difference in perception, which leads to what we expect from them. The meeting turned out to be a very high energy and effective one. Actually, the girls and boys are very smart. With little guidance, they can pick up our message. I believe we are heading to the right direction. Our target is no longer too far from us.

I am glad that I drag Todd along to this programme. His mindset is a long more organized than mine. Afterall, he is a programmer and receives a lot of formal trainings. My thinking is more... wild and crazy.

We overrun our meeting for 1 hour today, because we have a lot to be discussed. But I believe it's a very rewarding meeting. I am very looking forward to the next one. Hope that their energy will last throughout the week and live up to their promise.

~ Lindberg

New Formula in Tidy Cats Scoop® Cat Litter

In the past 2 months, we have been getting this new Tidy Cat litter for the cats. The new formula is supposed to create less dust. It works well in that aspect. But instead of getting tider, my place is getting messier!

I don't know if the cats are not comfortable with the bigger particles in their toilet. V would jump out from the litter box and carry a lot of sands with his feet. With the old formula, the particles were smaller. Now, the particles are big. And it hurts my feet too if I am not wearing slipper. On the other hand, Julie somehow likes to scratch very hard on this sand to cover her droppings. And she sometimes scratches so hard that the sand drops outside the box! I end up sweeping the floor all the time or as soon as they finish using their toilets.

This drives me crazy! I guess we will have to look for alternatives soon.

- Lindberg

Moonwalkers 盲俠行

I received a letter from Orbis the other day about their fund raising event, Moonwalkers 盲俠行:

https://www.paydollar.com/b2c2/project/orbis/nightwalk2006/eng/main/

The event is quite meaningful, although I misunderstood it in the beginning. You will walk in dark from Central to Repulse Bay. It is quite a long walk. The information said 6 hours. It will start at 11:30pm, and finished at around 6am. And on the bridge outside IFC, you will walk blind-folded. And your partner will guide you along. You get a chance to experience being blind and regain the vision. That's what Orbis does to help saving sight all over the world.

Originally, I thought it's walking blind-folded from Central to Repulse Bay. That could be quite dangerous. But I could imagine seeing the sunrise after walking in dark for 6 hours. What a magnificent view! I guess it would still be a good experience to walk across 1/2 of the Hong Kong island in dark. The sunrise would be the same beautiful, I believe.

- Lindberg

A Dialog in ICQ

I had a funny ICQ dialog with my friend today about writing blog.

Me: Yo. Something scary happened. I find there is a problem in my blog. Sometimes I write too much. More than I tell anyone.... Today, I see the read count suddenly jumped by 20. What if someone I know read it?

R: not surprising lar

Me: So, isn't it kind of contradicting? You want to write about anything. But then you don't want anyone you know to read. Like a secret diary, while you want some strangers to look at.

R: I think that's the reason why so many ppl write blog. No one really wants to hide themselves .. but just don't want to speak it up

Me: Right. Poor modern world.

R: u might confess to a father everyday before but u can write a blog now.

Me: Does he take email confession these days? Err....

- Lindberg

I was not cheating!

When I was in P.4 or 5, my teacher accused me of cheating in an exam.  Actually, it's after the exam.  The teacher gave us back the exam paper to explain the answers. I found her making a mistake for marking one of my correct answers as wrong.  When I brought the paper out for her to see, she said that I cheated and changed the answer.  And needed to see her after class.

The only time I remember myself cheating is during the dictation in early primary school.  I was poor at memorizing the text and very poor at dictation.  So, I'd take a deep breath, and peeked at what the neighbor wrote.  But that's it.  And I begged my classmates for forgiveness afterwards.

I think the teacher had her point.  First of all, no one wants to admit his/her own fault.  Secondly, because of my sweating hands, the exam paper was already quite messy.  And the papers we used at school were very cheap and rough.  The exam was answered with pencil.  And I did rub off some letters during the exam.  But not after!

Luckily, some of my classmates stood up for me.  I was sitting on the most right hand side of the classroom.  I didn't have anyone sitting next to me.  Probably because of the curse I mentioned earlier.  Because there were no one next to me, supposingly no one could testify for me.  But my classmates in front of me, behind me, as well as the one on the next column, stayed after class with me.  Although the reasons they gave, which now I think, was quite....  childish, I really appreciated that.  I remember the one  in front of me saying that she didn't hear me opening my pencil case.  Anyway, at the end, the teacher granted me the points.  However, I felt very bad.

After school, my mom picked me up.  As soon as I saw her, my tears poured out.  Cried so hard that I could not say a word.  Later, I told her that my teacher accused me of cheating, but I did not.  It took me a while to calm down.  And probably after that, I don't like people telling me I do something wrong.  Ha! 

- Lindberg

Canadian Brass Workshop and Concert

Just came back from a workshop by Canadian Brass. They're really good. I went with my classmate and his girlfriend. He kept saying that it's just the difference in equipment between them and us. I told him not to dream, considering we are practising so little.

http://www.canbrass.com 

Actually, the local students playing in the workshop were very good as well. One of them, I guess probably 7 or 8 year old, played a french horn. The horn was almost as big as his body. It's just amazing. I almost wanted to dig a hole to hide myself. But considering an late beginner, I am still happy with myself. HA!

After the workshop, they had an hour concert. Those 5 pieces of brass equipments really played some beautiful notes. I chose to learn trumpet because I think violin is just like singing from a lady, while trumpet is like that from a man. It can be loud like roaring and soft like weeping. Those 2 trumpet players played really really well. Seeing the fingers dancing on the valves, listening to the high and low pitches, it is just lovely. And best of all, it's free! It's an event sponsored by Yamaha. Nice!

Tape

In my late secondary school life, a couple of my very good friends left me to study aboard. At that time, we didn't have email, and not to mention ICQ or even Skype. The long distance call at that time was also not as cheap as it is now. Therefore, we wrote each other letters. But most of the time, the letters were from me, as they were busy adjusting their lives (and lazy).

One day, I'd found that there were too many things I want to tell them both. They were the same stories. But it's kind of rude to send a photocopy letter to a friend. So, I took out an old tape recorder and recorded a 60 minutes audio tape for them.

Since then I made quite a few more. And the monolog got longer and longer. I ended up buying 120 minute tapes. I also got a walkman, which could do recording. Then I brought it everywhere with me and record whatever I wanted to tell them. Pretty much the same as how I am blogging with my Treo now.

In that 120 minutes, besides my attractive voice, I also recorded some songs for them. Felt like a disc jockey at that time. Ha! My friends told me that even after a long time they received the tape, they'd still take it out to listen again and again. I really appreciate that. I wonder if I can still get them to give me back a copy. I am sure there is a lot of silly (and embarrassing) things inside which I can have a good laugh about. Hmm... Second thought. Maybe I should kill my friends and destroy the tapes first before they used them to blackmail me... He... He... 

JA Meeting #2

We had our 2nd JA meeting.  So far so good.  I understand that these F.6 students are very busy.  I remembered I was also very busy with school activities back in those days.  We were the only people who were free and "mature" enough to take up the responsibilities.

There are so many things I want to teach them.  I am glad that at least some of them are showing interest in the game.  And some of their ideas are actually not bad at all.  The programme is supposed to teach them how to create a product and set up a company to sell it.  If we only need to teach them how to win the game, it's easy.  But I believe running a successful business is a lot more than that.  And I want to pass this belief to them.  Hopefully, it'd be beneficial to them somehow in the future. 

手心冒汗

I have a pair of sweating hands. Everyone's hand sweats. But mine just sweats a lot more, and regardless of the conidtion. It happens to some people too. I saw 古巨基 once on TV demonstrating his "ability". He put his hand a a pile of stamps. And all stamps were glued on his hand.

As an (ex-)biochemist, I was trying to figure out the function of sweating with hands and feet. I know cats do that to lose heat, as they don't have sweat gland elsewhere. But for human, besides losing some water from the body, I don't see any advantage in evolution. In fact, there is a lot disadvantages. I noticed the problem when I was in Primary 2.

When I was in Primary 2, there was an outting to visit the general post office in Central. We lined up in pairs. I was the first in the queue, because of my surname (not my height). Next to me, the teacher assigned the class monitor to walk with me. As soon as I knew that, I almost wanted to kiss my teacher. It's because the monitor was a gorgeous girl in my class. I was so happy to be able to walk with her. And the teacher asked us to hold hand in hand throughout the trip in the post office. At that minute, I was the happiest kid in the class. But the next minute, the nightmare came. My hands were really wet. No matter how I wiped it off from my shirt, it was still so wet. I felt so embarrassed. The girl kept shaking me off to wipe her hands. Since then, I really hate my hands.

At one point, I thought the evolution was trying to eliminated people with sweating hands by making them not able to find a mate. But I don't remember since when, I have ignored this "problem" of mine. At work, if you care to work with me, you will still shake my hands. In love, same thing. It's something more than the appearance.

Confidence came back. But the hands are still sweating. Sigh... Even getting used to it over the years, handling stuff could still be troublesome with all those sweat. But on the bright side, I do find them sometimes useful. For instance, opening a new plastic bag that sticking together, counting new bank notes, etc. Ha! But if you know kids having that problem, you may want to seriously think about surgically removing some nerves to make it stop. It is really quite disturbing, both physically and mentally. My hands do get dry once in a while. Sometimes, it could be dry for days. And I wish that it will go away forever. This was actually my birthday wish for some years, which hasn't yet come true. 

膚淺 * 創作

I like to write. But I don't like to read. From time to time, I get very stuck at my creation. Is it because I am too shallow?

I don't like to read. It is because I think reading someone's work will affect my own creation. Same reason why people who want to gain positive energy should stay away from newspaper. I read that from a salesman handbook. But I don't understand how a salesman not knowing anything happening around could do well with the customer.

Anyway, not limiting to writing, I find it the same for any creation. See less, create more. With such a piece of mind, I do have a few neat ideas. Some turned my company around. Some were never carried out, but proven to be working by the others. Some are under development, which I think should work if I put enough effort in it. But even so, I still find myself very stuck and being shallow from time to time. Sometimes I even found the things in my head silly or naive. It's as even I haven't grown up for all these years. 

Back in F.5, we had a wonderful Chinese language teacher. But it seems that only me believe so. Without him, I couldn't pass my HKCEE Chinese language subject. He didn't really teach us how to study, but to appreciate every piece of story. Then in F.6, we had another great English language teacher. That's when I started to write. I don't remember how much time I spent on writing that science fiction of mine. I just remember sitting in front of my PC using Word Star typing and typing.

After writing over 100 pages, somehow I got slower and slower. I passed the unfinished piece onto my teacher for comment. He gave me a smile. And asked me to work harder.

Many years later, I watch this movie, 耳をすませば, in Chinese 夢幻街少女. I see myself in that girl. Because of the influence of the others, we want to test our ability. We want to show people that we can achieve something as well. However, limited by the things we experience and know, there is no juice in our story. That's why my progress got slower and slower. And finally, it's stuck.

When I look at my unfinished work again, I found myself impossible to continue that story, even with the things I see all these years. Part of it is due to some silly things in the story. But it's also because I lose the vision of a 18 year old. It wouldn't be the same story if I continue now. And shame to say, my English was much better before.

And I read a lot more now. But I still don't like it. Ha!  Every once in a while, I still get stuck in my thinking. And when I do, I like to start reading again. Nothing specific, as I am not looking for answers from those books. Just like the reason why I like seeing the photos taken by the others. It's as if seeing the world from different eyes. It is not telling you what you should see, or what you see is right or wrong. But when you look at the world again with your own eyes, the perspective will not be the same as before.

Moving My Blog

After all these years having my blog in blogger, I am moving my blog to sina. I feel that my blog is sooo messy. I've used sina for about a week now. It does help me to categorize those messy thoughts. So far so good. :)

jojit.mysinablog.com

30mething Crisis?

I read this from Mingpao this morning:

【明報網站】今日是世界防止自殺日，在本港，生命熱線指今年四月至八月收到的自殺求助個案，較去年增加兩成多。
預防自殺的生命熱線表示，今年由四月到八月，他們收到逾萬宗求助個案，較去年同期增加兩成三，其中四分一人表示想自殺，求助者以30至40歲最多，佔四分一，男性略多於女性，四成半個案是受情緒困擾。自殺第二最多的年齡組別為19至30歲人士。

I am not surprised that most of the help requests are from 30methings. Being one of them, I also find this a very confusing period of time. And the report is only talking about asking for help. 30至40歲 are mature enough to think, and ask for help...

When you are before 30, you're still young. You think about opportunities. You learn from mistakes. You enjoy your time with the people around you. But after 30, if you think your life is screwed, you'd also think that it's difficult to return. Your career is going nowhere. You are hunger for recognition. Your friends are having their own family, and you get isolated. You're stuck. I don't know what if you get passed 40, as I still have many years to go before that.  But I guess after that, it's pretty much fixed. And you would probably be scared of dying than killing yourself.

Why would people choose to end their lives? I think part of this is due to the mentality in the TV games, which grow up with us in these years. If I am stuck in the game, I can always quit. No more worries. It's a clean exit. But what does that exit leads to? If you believe in God, you know it leads to nowhere but down under. But of course, if you believe in God, you won't be thinking about suicide in the first place.

Maybe you think the eternal pain in hell cannot match the trouble you have got now. I guess I won't challenge you on that. If it's eternal, it's nothing to worry about. But let's face it. Eternal means no choice. If you have a choice now, why make the silly one? Difficult doesn't mean impossible.

If you consider death as something like shutting the game off forever, it's an even worse decision. It's not like your PS2 at home that you can turn it back on when you feel happy to play again. And if you think you would never get interested again, are you really THAT sure?

I guess it's also hard to convince someone living for the livings. If they're selfish enough to think about ending their lives, they don't really care about the others. But in the rest of the report: 

【明報網站】香港大學防止自殺研究中心公布本地第一項有關自殺者家屬的研究，結果顯示，大部份自殺者家屬在家人自殺後情緒大受困擾，遺屬自殺率偏高，研究中心呼籲社會大眾共同關注這個問題。
港大防止自殺研究中心的報告指出，雖然香港人的自殺率有輕微下降趨勢，但自殺者遺屬的自殺率偏高，較一般人高出一至三倍，情況令人關注。

Now, second thought? 

I also feel that life is not that great for myself from time to time. Some experience is really bad. And I got confused as well. Maybe I just don't remember about 知足:

我無論在甚麼景況、都可以知足、這是我已經學會了。我知道怎樣處卑賤、也知道怎樣處豐富、或飽足、或饑餓、或有餘、或缺乏、隨事隨在、我都得了祕訣。我靠著那加給我力量的、凡事都能作。 - 腓立比書4：11－13

I guess I am not quite there yet. Knowing and exercising is 2 different things. Ha! But what I think is life is different for everyone. Somtimes, life does suck. It really depends on how you view it. But one thing for sure is living is good.

Poor Julie

Notice anything wrong with Julie?  Something is missing on her face.

Probably difficult to notice with something to compare.  Try to look at an old photo of her:

Spot any difference?  The eyebrow has gone missing!!!  And who is responsible for this?  Her brother lor:

V licks Julie all the time.  I wonder if it's because the big brother wants to teach the little sister how to clean herself.  Or if it's because V thinks Julie smells bad.  Anyway, as he licks her, he chews away all her eyebrows!  Bad big brother!  And because they sleep together at night, there is no way we can stop him licking her.  As soon as Julie's eyebrow grows a little bit, it gets chewed away.  Poor Julie.  Now her head looks so roundish without the eyebrow.   It just makes me laugh when I look at her. 

A Rough Day

Today started with having a dead rat next to my car.  It probably laid dead underneath the car next to mine for ages.  Yuck... 

I went out today because I need to get something to wear for a ball on the coming Friday.  I hate ball, as I have nothing to wear!  But I have no choice on this one, as it's a ball from SPCA and I am a committee member.

Talking about SPCA, I was chatting with my trumpet classmate last Monday.  He hates SPCA.  It's because we somehow killed his friend's dog before.  I cannot tell if it's a malpractice.  But I don't recall any serious problem with our vet in the past year other than 1.  Although there are things that I am not comfortable with them as well and there is little I can do, I can see that they have done a lot in animal welfare, which most Hong Kong people cannot see everyday.  But of course, there is no excuse for any malpractice. 

Back to my day.  I went to China Arts in TST, hoping to get a shinny 唐裝, as I don't want to get a tux.  But then I don't want to be underdressed.  Therefore, it's a good reason for me to hate going to a ball.  At one point, I almost wanted to pretend sick on that day.  HA!  I found a red and shinny 唐裝, which cost $1,600.  Not cheap, and didn't really look very good.  So, I decided to hold it off as my last resort.  I may end up renting a tux.  Sigh...  Why can't they make it simplier?  I'd be happier to donate the money away than putting it on my body.

And because walking back and forth in TST for the whole afternoon, I ended up not able to meet Ronnie in Crema.  I miss a good cup of cap.

The last stop was Cannon's showroom.  I used my points to redeem a cap.  I like cap, but I just can't wear one.  My head is way too big.  24 inches!  Almost the same as a lady's waist!  Therefore, I actually should not wear any hat. End up being a collector.  HA!

It's the first time I'd been to that showroom.  It's quite amazing.  Lots of "dangerous" toy to play with.  Dangerous in the sense of temptation.  HA!!! You can play with any camera with any lens.  The shutter noise of 1D is beautiful!  Of course you won't buy directly there, as it's bloody expensive.

And after a day of walking and driving, the feet really hurts.  But I still insisted doing some exercise.  Need to lose some weight!!  Now, the only parts of my body that still work are my fingers.

亡命之途

For the MSN at work, I have recently changed the description behind my name to 亡命之途. It's nothing related to Kay's song, and I am not a van driver. To make more sense, I should use 徒 instead of 途. But for the meaning I have in mind, it doesn't really matter.

亡命 always ties with something negative. Say, 亡命殺手 or 亡命天涯, etc.. You may lose your life trying to do something. And again, this something is usually something bad. You lose your life to kill someone. You run for your life from being caught. But when I think about it, maybe it's something I am missing. No matter what's the reason behind. Maybe the van driver is willing to put his and (regrettably) his passengers' lives at risk to earn a few more bucks for the family. Maybe it's the terrorist setting off a bomb on himself for something he thought it's right. It's a passion towards a goal.

Of course, I am not talking about any of those improper goals. For me, I guess I am lacking that one specific goal for me to pursue at work. When the company expanded, it could fully "utilize" my SKA, I was very happy. But at the moment, it's BORING!!! I guess that's why I fill up my time other than work with many other stuffs. This is to keep myself busy and the engine running. But I know that this is selfish. And it's not fair for the people around me. Besides, boring work still occupies most of my time. Sigh... Therefore, I wish to find this path, 亡命之途. Somewhere I can borrow the wings from Lindbergh to fly at full speed and live with no regret.

Green Beans with Bacon

I was trying to replicate a dish we have in our restaurant at home the other day.   And being lazy, I tried to minimize the hassle as much as possible:

The result is actually not too bad, but not quite as I expected.  The beans were not tender.  Should have used 四季豆 instead.  But I couldn't get any that day.  Then the Kraft Italian dressing wasn't really good Italian dressing with herbs in it.  Anyway, the dish was still edible, and not poisonous.

First JA Meeting

We had our first Junior Achievement meeting yesterday. I believe we had a good kick off with this 15 students. The school we go to is not the best school in term of academic. But the students we met yesterday are all quite smart. What they impressed me is that they know what they're doing, and what they want in the future. It's not something out of reach, but down to earth. If you asked me what I wanted to do in the future when I was in F.6, I believe the answer would be something really stupid or childish.

The idea of the programme is to have a group of F.6 students forming a company, design and sell a product in a trade fair, and liquidate the company in 18 weeks. And of course, with the help of business advisor, me. I've drag Todd along with me. I am glad that he enjoyed the class yesterday. It's a very good experience to meet all these young people.

17 more weeks to go! We really hope that we can achieve something with these students, and definitely have some prizes to win from 75 participating schools!!!

Messy Desk

Can a desk be messier? Don't ask me why I need 2 computers. I was preparing the notes for tomorrow JA class on my laptop. The desktop is playing Kay's music and having ICQ. I am as multi-task as the Intel Core Duo in my macbook. Ha! (Stupid me.)

And before this, we've just finished celebrating V's birthday. He is now 5 year old. I will post some of his photos is his own blog at vlikeit.com later.

A Piece of Memories: Run, Forest! Run!

I have never been a good athlete. The only sport I play well is squash. But there is no doubt that I put my creativity in sports.

In the primary school, there weren't really a lot of different sports we could try. The one I still remember is running. The memory is actually not that nice, as I always finished last. But instead of giving up, I was thinking hard to make myself run faster. What I did was leaping like a deer. It's actually quite logical. At that time, I believed the burst of power in each leap by the thigh muscle would make me run faster. Of course, it didn't. First of all, I didn't have the thigh muscle like those in the deer. Secondly, when you're in the air, there is no power generated by your legs. Therefore, it's actually slower. Stupid...

But I didn't stop there. In the secondary school, my "creativity" continued. My theory was if leaning forward, my legs had to produce enough forward and upward force to keep my body from falling. As a result, it would force my muscle to outperform. Logical, isn't it? But the problem was I could not accelerate forever. Without acceleration, there is no more forward and upward force. And I fell. That was actually quite a painful experience. I lost 2 of my teeth. Sigh...

Lucky that there is no more Physical Education lesson in the University...

(Need to work harder on writing the dreams. It's much difficult to bring back dreams than memories!!!)

A Piece of Memories: Boat Accident

There was almost 1 car accident occurred everyday in the past week. 2 of them which I found most horrible. 1 was by a stationary truck, which moved backward because of a malfunctioned break or whatever. The other was with a truck going backward. Both hit someone, and were fatal. Some people may think why the pedestrians wouldn't run away as the truck coming their way. I think it's not easy. Accident is accident.

The closest incident happened to me is a boat accident. At that time, I was having a training lesson on Otter, a 2 man sailing boat. We were having a capsize training. Although it was not a very big boat, it's still very heavy when the sail was underwater. After the second time, we were exhausted. When I was hanging myself on the side of the boat, I saw a group of toppers coming towards us. Those were 1 man sailing boat. And apparently, those were all beginners. One of them was coming directly towards me. Being exhausted, I could only shut to ask the guy to change his course. But he could only panic and didn't know how. And before I could do anything else, the tip of the boat was point directly at my chest. Time was like stopped. I could swim away. But to which side? I could dive. But could I dived deep enough with the life jacket on. And if I dived, it could be coming directly to my neck or head. At the end, I did nothing. The boat hit my chest. I was like a sandwich with our own boat at the back. It was quite painful. But with the life jacket as a cushion, at least it didn't crush my rib cage. Despite the pain, I could still have a good yell at that guy. But when I think about it, if it could be avoided, it would not be an accident.

I don't know what would happen if I chose to do something else. But I felt blessed when we got the boat out of the water and sailed back to the shore.

Scary Photo from Photo Booth

I don't want to scare anyone, but this photo taken by Photo Booth of myself is just crazy. Couldn't stop laughing at myself after it's taken. Silly thing!

2006-2007 藝康國際攝影大賽

Ardy and I went out last night trying to take some photos for the following event:

http://www.nikon.com.hk/announcementarticle.php?announcementid=20

And we come back home with empty hands (or empty CF). We started in Mongkok, hoping that we could see some people walking under neon light, traffic light, etc. But the street was just packed with people. It's almost impossible to get a clean photo. After getting frustrated, we went down to TST, hoping that there were less people there. But then, there was nothing interesting there. I guess we just cannot go to anywhere turning to take a specific topic in mind. We need to find a special place in a special occasion to maximize the chance to take a good photo.

Then we ended up going to Crema. That's the best part of the eveniing. A nice cup of cap. Here is my boring photos taken for the past 2 nights.

http://vlikeit.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=13160

At the end, we went back to our own homes, and picked 4 photos from our old library to Nikon. Sigh...

Napoleon Dynamite

Just finished watching this movie someone recommends, Napolean Dynamite. It's by far the weirdest movie I have ever seen. And I actually love it.

The movie is all about the "unique" things Napolean and his family did. Those are really hilarious. Although it doesn't really have any storyline, the turning point at the end of the movie raises my eyebrow. He was trying to help his friend on the class president election. After the speech given by his friend, they're required to do a performance. Although his friend had decided to give up, Napolean stood out on the stage and did an amazing performance.

That scene actually ties with something Napolean taught his friend to say in his speech. "If you vote for me, all your wildest dream will come true." And the performance by Napolean is the wildest dream.

And for some reason, I feel that I have watched this movie before. But I am sure that I haven't. Maybe I am the same silly person myself. He..

A Piece of Memories: Tape

In my late secondary school life, a couple of my very good friends left me to study aboard. At that time, we didn't have email, and not to mention ICQ or even Skype. The long distance call at that time was also not as cheap as it is now. Therefore, we wrote each other letters. But most of the time, the letters were from me, as they were busy adjusting their lives (and lazy).

One day, I'd found that there were too many things I want to tell them both. They were the same stories. But it's kind of rude to send a photocopy letter to a friend. So, I took out an old tape recorder and recorded a 60 minutes audio tape for them.

Since then I made quite a few more. And the monolog got longer and longer. I ended up buying 120 minute tapes. I also got a walkman, which could do recording. Then I brought it everywhere with me and record whatever I wanted to tell them. Pretty much the same as how I am blogging with my Treo now.

In that 120 minutes, besides my attractive voice, I also record some songs for them. Feel like a disc jockey at that time. Ha! My friends told me that even after a long time they received the tape, they'd still take it out to listen again and again. I really appreciate that. I wonder if I can still get them to give me back a copy. I am sure there is a lot of silly (and embarrassing) things inside which I can have a good laugh about. Hmm... Second thought. Maybe I should kill my friends and destroy the tapes first before they used them to blackmail me... He... He...

- JAY