Monday, April 30, 2007

Start from Hong Kong

Almost everyone I know watched On the Road 向世界出發 on TVB Jade. I don't think it is all that good myself.

I think Start from Hong Kong 從香港出發 on ATV is much better despite the lack of celebrities. I watched every episode of the series last year. (The whole series concentrated on different places in China last year.) This year they shot in other countries as well.

The places they chose are a lot more interesting, they spent more time on the places than on the celebrities (well, there are NO celebrities, haha!), and they did NOT show every interesting details in the trailers (unlike TVB, I am so bored while watching On the Road because I have watched all the interesting stuff in the trailers already.) Probably because they have more fascinating stuff in each episode.

And the director/cameraman are much better. The sceneries were beautifully shot. Much more so compared to that in On the Road. Wow, they are simply breathtaking.

For people who love traveling. Remember to watch ATV every Sunday at 9pm.

P.S. I just realised you can actually watch the previous episodes on the ATV website, here and click on 影像播放.

Embarrassed by parents

I guess this is a fairly common thing, to be embarrassed by what your parents do? (I don't know, maybe you'll all disagree.)

I still don't know how to handle this kind of thing though.

I went to this lecture with my mom in the past few days, I think she was quite bored, although she has listened to the speaker numerous times before (because I listened to all his lectures on CDs, mp3 at home, HAHA!), but I suspect she doesn't really understand most of the stuff. And we need to wait for more than 1/2 hour every day (there's a long queue waiting for admission EVEN with the tickets), she always tried to talk to strangers, some of whom doesn't even want to talk to her... sigh... And talked about stupid stuff...

Initially I tried to ignore their conversation, but usually after the intial period, when she started to ask really stupid questions, I could no longer remain silent... and told her to stop... sigh...

Can I handle this a bit better?

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Indulgences

The only two things I indulge in are books and travel.

That is why I feel quite guilty about taking taxi home this morning after leaving work. I usually sleep until public transport is available before leaving.

I was so tired this morning, I didn't care.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Unhappy

I have never wanted to be scolded UNTIL today.

I don't know what happened today, I made so many mistakes at work today, some due to ignorance (I had little experience in the stuff I did today), some due to inattention, I felt so bad.

My senior did NOT even raise her voice during the whole day. Though I could sense her being unhappy.

I felt so bad, I ACTUALLY wanted her to scold me.

Usually I got scolded for trivial stuff or things that didn't even matter or mistakes of my senior.

Today, I actually deserved getting scolded, but I didn't. I am extremely unhappy now.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Dancing competition

How can two handicapped people do the impossible - dance? Watch this video on CCTV.

Love at first bite

I read this from the news from Reuters...

An Israeli woman accidentally bit off part of her boyfriend's tongue during a heated French kiss, an Israeli hospital that reattached the tongue said Thursday.

And remember Pui said eating ox tongue is like French kissing... For this woman, it's the opposite...

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The White Tower (The Hospital)

Anaesthetists in Taiwan really called themselves 麻醉師? I hate this term...

Really liked the first scene where the anaesthetist injected some saline instead of muscle relaxant when the surgeon got mad about inability to close the tense abdomen... but it's like a trick everyone knows... haha! wonder why the first guy did not know about it? =P

(Warning: technical stuff in the next two paragraphs, normal afterwards)
They use a Drager machine, Cato edition (never used it before looks like an older version of Primus), the monitor is HP...

Why on earth did they cardiovert the woman when she is in asystole?!

Overall, it's slightly more realistic than the medical drama produced in Hong Kong.

And Jerry Yan is good looking! haha!

This is the first time I've seen anaesthetists play a major part in a medical drama, not just A & E doctors or surgeons! WOW!

The worst commercial of the year

I seldom pay attention during commercial time.

One commercial catches my attention every time it airs... it must be great?

NO, IT IS THE WORST COMMERCIAL OF THE YEAR!

The song is so awful, I want to turn my TV off every time the commercial is on.

Can you guess which commercial I am talking about??!!












WHITE FLOWER OIL!!

I told a colleague that song (and the commercial) could never help selling the product, it simply stops me from buying it. White Flower Oil simply doesn't need any advertisement, it's so effective, everyone buys it.

My colleague said after listening to the song, everyone becomes so dizzy that they need White Flower Oil.

......

What you've never seen the commercial?! Impossible, but if you haven't watch TV for a while, click on the video below... Don't tell me that I didn't warn you...

Friday, April 20, 2007

Sammi Cheng

Sammi Cheng's interview on sofree.net

On herself and on her faith.

Part 2 coming next week.

(Chinese, of course)

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Rude vs gentle

I am a very blunt person, people who have just talked to me for a short while often mistook me as a rude person. =P Today, I just found out someone thought I am rude AGAIN! I have only spoken to that person for less than 1 minute on the phone with that certain person, never talked to her in person... that person complained to another person that I was really impolite...

Nothing new, coz this kind of misunderstanding is fairly common. :)

Ironically, today someone told me that I am very gentle... WHAT??!! Yeah! I can't believe this either... Whatever I am... definitely NOT gentle...

Being told that I'm gentle and rude on the very same day...

Life After Death by PowerPoint

EXTREMELY FUNNY!!

Life After Death by PowerPoint

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Liviu Librescu: Holocaust Survivor & Campus Hero & Why this happened?



From Time Dispatch

The puny human mind looks upward and begs for an answer that doesn't come to the question, "Why?" If everything were explicable there would be no need for faith.

AND YET coincidence, it has been said, is God's way of staying anonymous. By coincidence this past weekend was the occasion of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Where, one might ask, was God when the Nazi henchmen were gassing the Jews in Bergen-Belsen, in Treblinka, in Auschwitz? Some of those who answer that God was nowhere to be found end up like Itzhak Zuckerman, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, who said bitterly: "If you could lick my heart, it would poison you."

Others have said that God was there there, in the gas chambers, cradling the dying. Evidence for the latter view comes from Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, where -- as Devorah Ben-David, co-founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum, reminds us -- liberators found a scrap of paper with a prayer on it:

"Lord, remember not only the men of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have bourne be their forgiveness."

Those most agonizingly seared by yesterday's massacre at Virginia Tech may be, for now, inconsolable. Let us hope their hearts eventually heal, and that someday they find solace in the fruits of their suffering.

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

I can't believe with all these campus gun shot incidents, people in the States can still be against gun control.

I heard on the news yesterday, a recent survey showed most people thought the upbringing of the kids (by their parents) were the main factor contributing to these occurrences.

I don't deny that parents played a major part, however, if no guns were available to them, EVEN IF THEY HAD WANTED TO KILL, they could just kill with a knife or something, and the casualties would be much less!!

sigh... there're poor parents and violent computer games everywhere in the world, but only the States have so many campus gun shootings...

Monday, April 16, 2007

Mail...

I just received this promotional mail today! Noticed any familiar names??!!

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Wong Tak Yu (I think it is the reporter who quit TVB News to study Chinese medicine) is going to practise at her husband's clinic (I think her husband's name is Roland Leung??) hmm...

Famous reporter =? Good Chinese medicine practitioner??!

If I ever needed to see a Chinese medicine doctor, I would not go and see her...

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Horrible Day

Today I decided to wear a pair of shoes that I haven't worn for a long time. After leaving for work in a hurry, I realised the shoes were partly broken... but I figured it'd be okay and I was in a hurry.

As the day went on, my shoes became worse and worse... I couldn't even walk by the time I arrived at Jordan after work... so I went to buy another pair of shoes...

After not being able to find a suitable pair of shoes in one store, being treated badly in another one, I bought a pair of shoes that is clearly not worth the price, but the saleslady was very nice and kind...

I can't believe I didn't do any studying for 3 days (even though I got off work early in the past few days), just busy doing church stuff, making arrangements for my Auckland trip... sigh... dead tired...

Thursday, April 12, 2007

The best English teacher I have ever had

I have never really had a bad English teacher, unlike the one I mentioned yesterday...

Just like many students from my school, he made such a strong impression on us, not just on English =P

I still remembered I got my first FAILED (!) English essay from him... That happened in Form 6. (My grammar has never been bad, it's the lack of style and boring content that he hated). I worked hard to write really good essays after then. I learned to write with a good beginning line and in an idiomatically correct way. Finally I got 8 out of 9 for an essay in Form 7! I still have that essay at home! (I could write better then compared to my blog now, because I put more time and energy into it then.)

No one dared to say "in the society" anymore after two years :), and his jokes on our poor English is still fresh on my mind: "If you say 'make me to cry', you will make me cry." =P

I don't remember reading any essays that he wrote, until I received this FSA newsletter today! I don't think my school is really good in building character =P unlike what he said in the newsletter. I can see he does what he preaches in writing essays though.

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WOW! This phone looks great!

If you know me, you'll understand why I like this phone so much. haha!!

(What I don't understand is why- before I bought my mobile phone last year, I've been waiting and searching for more than one year- I can't find a single phone with a purple/burgundy colour!! Now the market is flooded with them... The design of this one is really exceptional... but I'm not going to buy it. =P)

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Sentiments

culture club invitation

Miss Poon??!!

I cannot stand this ANYMORE, HAVE to turn the TV off 10 seconds ago!

This certain Miss Poon, presumably an English teacher? SHE IS TEACHING ENGLISH on ATV NOW!

She pronounced shrimp as "shim"... and tell kids they can go to "see movie"... the word "bun" is only used for Chinese "bread", the white kind, e.g. steamed barbecue pork bun, for Western "bread" we should use the word "bread", e.g. sausage bread... ??!!!

...... WHAT KIND OF ENGLISH TEACHER IS THIS??!!

BLUE Potato chips

...maybe I'm just ignorant...

but I have never seen BLUE potato chips before...

It tastes quite good, not quite as oily as the usual potato chips. And according to the packing, it's healthier than the usual ones, no transfat! and less fat!!

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Monday, April 09, 2007

Dead Witch Walking

My holidays are over!! I can't believe I haven't done much in FIVE days!

Saturday and Sunday are difficult, I have to go to church. Ching Ming Festival, I went to the cemetery and then watched the Pursuit of Happyness with friends. Five days of leave, actually there are only two days left...

Friday, I spent my day fixing the computer problem I found on Thursday... (If you ever have the problem opening a streaming windows media file, AND you're using Windows Media Player 11, uninstall it and reinstall WMP 10... this is what I learnt after WASTING HOURS!!)

Most of the time, I spent my holiday in bed... sleeping... I am exhausted... I woke up at 10:30am this morning, and went to sleep again at 2:30pm today =P

All the things I planned to do during Easter, but did not, includes:
1. Preparing the lesson on the Book of Esther for Children's Service two weeks later...
2. Online Bible course I have applied (this is the origin of the Windows Media Player problem), I just had one lesson, sigh...
3. STUDY, STUDY, STUDY... I have just studied a little bit... sigh...

Yesterday I cannot stand the idea of NOT EVEN reading one novel for the holidays. I picked Dead Witch Walking from my TBR (to be read) pile. I have picked this one up earlier on, but stopped after 10 pages... quite a boring beginning but once you got past the first few chapters, it just gets better and better.

So many people like Kim Harrison, so I thought I have to try one out. (Not to mention her books were said to be a mix of Anita Blake and Stephanie Plum. I AM a fan of the EARLY Anita Blake books and Stephanie Plum's series have gorgeous and exciting guys, hey I'm shallow, don't tell me you read them for Stephanie instead of Joe and Ranger.)

The plot is fast-paced after the first few chapters, but the heroine, to be honest, is not a smart girl... She has no plans AT ALL. Unlike Anita Blake, who's talented, Rachel Morgan just have lots of smart friends... =P (Though she is slightly smarter than Stephanie Plum...)

I am looking forward to the other books in her series. I don't normally like vampire/paranormal books other than the Anita Blake series, but I think if you just want to enjoy an exciting ride, this book is a good choice.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Friday, April 06, 2007

MSN

I don't know if you have noticed, I have virtually disappeared from MSN these days.

I am trying to start studying for my exams next year, so I appear offline most of the time. I think I don't have time to finish studying all the notes, Part 2 is MUCH MORE than part 1, sigh...

And I have lots of work at church as well.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

The Pursuit of Happyness

No, that's NOT a typo, and why the unusual spelling? You need to go and see the movie yourself. :)

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It's about Chris Gardner, how he took care of his boy living on next on nothing (They even slept in toilets inside the subway at times.) and in the end become a successful stockbroker and later on an entrepreneur.

The two most memorable lines (for me) from the movie (not verbatim, I can't remember them exactly =P)
1. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it, not even me, you have a dream, go on and pursue it.
2. Thomas Jefferson wrote about protecting the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence, and I don't know how he knew to use the word "pursuit" because this is really a pursuit of happiness, one could never get it.

I have been poor, but never that dirt poor. I have worried about money when I was younger, but never like that, so I really admire Chris Gardner. To achieve such success under those circumstances.

I read this from a news report on Chris Gardner from Fortune. "But I do believe, with all my heart, that some of the things that I had to go through were God's way of getting me ready for what He wants me to do."

I think the most successful people are the ones who need to go through difficult times.

As for the pursuit of happiness, I think we can never be totally happy, I'm sure even after Chris Gardner got rich, he is still unhappy at times. Joy is a totally different thing. I think we need lots of things to be constantly happy. To be joyful, we only need God.

Check out his real story, just slightly different from the movie version,
from his biography here
from CNN here
from Fortune here

P.S. To those who went to see the movie with me (except one), Chris Gardner's son is really younger than us, he was 20 month old NOT 5 years old when he slept on the streets with him... =P He was 25 last year... And the year this story took place was 1982... =P

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

China Church Visit 2004 (Photos)

None of these photos were taken by me, I haven't bought my first DC then... =P

China Church Visit 2004

China Church Visit 2005 (Photos)

Some of these photos were taken by me, some not, but I've mixed them all up... (even I can remember which ones were taken by me) haha!!

China Church Visit 2005

China Church Mission Trip 2006 (Photos)

As I am preparing for another China Church mission trip in June, I started digging out photos taken from the past trips...



China Church Visit

Monday, April 02, 2007

Chaotic Desperation / A Wasted Life



Courtesy

When you hire an assistant using low pay, you do not expect an assistant to be smart and he/she probably cannot learn stuff quickly... and well, everyone makes mistakes...

I admit I have a temper myself, but I rarely show my anger at work. And these people can be courteous, they are courteous to me, but they are just obnoxious to people they consider more "inferior" most of the time...

This is a short part of what I have witnessed today: (The new staff has already been scolded for numerous times since she started work today.)

Supervisor: Cut the tape a bit longer, that is too short!

(The new staff cuts the tape a bit longer.)

Supervisor saw the tape: I TOLD YOU to cut it a bit longer! Why is it still so short??!!!

Me (finally cannot stand this): I think she has already cut it a bit longer, just not long enough.

Supervisor:......

Do you think the supervisor will hate me??!! =P Not that I'm going to care.