Absolute Righteous

Giving a lecture of credit curve construction in New York. People were making fun of my scotish style wool skirt, well, it is a bit on the short side.

______________________________________________

Had lunch with Brian, who is my fellow Canadian and Waterloo graduate. He is the most upright person I have ever met (apart from my cousin, Jennifer). He was telling me one time he was having lunch in restaurant, and the fire alarm went off. People just packed up (some even picked up the unfinished pizza) and leave. No one seemed to have any desire to go back to the store and pay the bills. Brian felt really bad and wanted to go back and pay for his food. Only the thought that the restaurant might ask him to pay for his friend put him off the crazy plan.

I sometime wonder what can breed this righteous attitute? Being honest is of course important but I do believe our being honest is inspired by the fear of being found dishonest by others. Suppose we can get away with the petty crime for sure, I think most people would not give back the wrong change the teller gave you.

Nevertheless, I do respect this quality because I think I am somewhat crooked .

The Tin Bowl

It is interesting that I thought about a childhood friend this morning. His mom worked in my dad's small factory and he was only 4 or 5 years old then, I was 10ish and Mankit was 12. We fought all the time. We basically hated each other and never wanted to make peace. Our small dewellings was seperated into two parts, the front bit was the living room/office space and the back bit was the 3 bedrooms/factory. My parents double bed was right next to 2 or 3 machinaries.

We constantly had guests, workers roaming around our bedrooms, kitchen and hallways. To top up the chaotic situation, Mankit and I collected at least 5 or 6 stray dogs in our garage. Each dog would have to dine seperately. My poor mom fed those dogs with our leftovers in some old tin bowls. We had a new set of identical tin bowls in our kitchen. My mom once serve the hot noodle soup in one of those tin bowl but that little kid had always refused to eat from the bowl.

Good Fun?

Irene spot this-good-looking police officer and took a picture of him without his knowledge. Well, girls are too very visual sometimes.


____________________________________________

When I was few years younger, I thought the real good fun is related to those unexpecting, totally exciting, wild, complete out-of-boundary events or items. A vacation needs to be full of programs, there should be no time wasted. I was like a bold and blunt object, struck any possibility of having good time. I didn't find really interesting things often. Disappointments are abundant.

Some of my friends think I am not aggressive enough to expend my social circle. I am really lazy in that aspect. But I would rather conserve my energy on some good books than try to make friend with a stranger. Being pursued, pursuing and playing the dating game well means good fun? What type of society breeds this type of feeling good factor is beyond me.

I don't like to spend on luxurious goods or gadgets (just read somewhere a London single female celeberity claims she does not like to pay discounted price). It is a very hard concept for me to understand why a few hundred pound hangbag could make someone really happy (I would rather see those money grow in a high-yield saving account).

Good fun is in every day life, a good cup of tea is great fun (only before 3pm), a nice TV program (did you see the BBC documentary life in undergrowth, I was holding my breath for almost the whole hour) or a great piece of scone. Good fun is hanging out with your mates, good fun is meeting a long lost friend on a strange street in another country. Good fun is being nagged by your parents why you are not dating anyone.

Secret Weapon

I love cooking, oh, rather, I love foods.

________________________________



In the cold, windy Friday night, our group were about to leave for the pub near the office. I put on my peruvian hat and joked this is my secret weapon against the cold. David M. immediately replied that he too has a secret weapon then produced a chapstick, lavishly applied it to his lips. "That's so gay!" I cried. He threatened he is going to bring this to HR and I was laughing.

Later as we walked toward the pub, my line manager asked me what David was complaining about, before I finished the story, he too fished out the chapstick, applied to his lips and asked "then what?"

Sam died of age 14

The world's ugliest dog passed away on the 15th November. I am really sad and showed it to my colleagues. Sarig looked at Sam's picture and asked "Is this picture taken after Sam died?"

Running into a Table

I think the really cool stuff working in a bank is that they usually have quite well-maintained canteens. For instance, Nordea Canteen has the most wonderful breads (fresh baked) and tens of different types of salads. Featuring cured herrings, pate, all kinds of cold cuts and fresh leaves. It is very typical Nordic, the ingredients are top quality and not much non-sense about processing.

There is a canteen in my building, serving foods around the clock. In the morning, you can get yourself fried/porched/scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns. At lunch, there are several stations serving pasta, roasted chicken or freshly made sandwiches.

I decided to indulge myself with the greasy fried egg. Dressing in skirt and heels prevented me from looking too keen and ethusastic about foods. I waited impatiently for the cook to fish the egg out of oil sea. "Just let the oil drip a bit more" I instructed the cook, "Well, don't worry about the plate, just put it on top of my bread". Very confident and in control I was.

I then turned away from the egg station briskly only ran into the ledge of the adjacent station. I cried "OUCH" because it really hurt, but luckily my egg and bread were still intact. It must appear painful because some of those queueing for eggs gave their condolence with giggles.

I Love Alcohol

Coming back from Tahoe, it was a one day trip (set off at 4am and headed back from the slope around 5pm, by the time we got back to bay area, it was usually 11ish). Taking a break in a small town before Sacremento. The picture was taken almost 5 years ago. There have been so many changes...

________________________________________

There is a type of Chinese rice wine, its name means "Daughter Scarlet". When a girl was born, the family would make the wine, store it in big pottery jars and barry them under ground. The wine would be dug out and served on the girl's wedding day.

If the girl couldn't live up to the age of getting married, the wine would still be dug out and sold for money (I don't know if this is true, I just make it up. It is only logical that Chinese would not waste anything). The wine is then named differently, it means "Flower Fade". I always think the name is so tragic yet beautiful.

Because unmarried girls would not have a proper position in a family worship practices (in other words, her existence could not be acknowleged, thus, she would not be remembered), wealthy families usually pay a man to marry a piece of wood with her name engraved on. Many spine-chill ghost stories sterned from this practice.

Toilets Stories

The distance from China to high tea might be long...
_______________________________________


If you have spoken to Irene, you would immediately understand she is very "Green". In Taiwanese political terms, Green means those who do not want to see unification and who do not like Mainland-related things.

As the super salewoman and manager to her father's garment business, she worked in Mainland China and managed the factory with few hundreds workers. The first thing she did when going on board was to install partitions in toilets and insisted in seperating female and male ones. I have never been to those areas, it is very hard for me to imagine why. She then explained to me, in her factory, there were hundreds of people coming from rural inland provinces, where education and information were not accessible. Doing the business in open space is so convenient yet no one thinks inapropriate. What surprised both Irene and me is the fact that women did not feel the need to hide themselves.

My mom went to my father's home town in late 80s. It was still very conservative and communism-geared. Government officials praised non-stop my mom's beauty because she is chobby. Anyhow, she couldn't use the open-air toilet (which is a hole on the floor), she then unfolded her umbrella but this act attracted more people to watch.

Irene was travelling to the medium size city near ShangHai in early 90s, the queue to a single toilet was consisted of people of both genders. They all dressed nicely but there was one woman, still waiting in the line, but had her skirt pulled up and panty-hose down. I guess it does save some time if you are really in a hurry.

I don't understand what could make a woman losing her sense of being a woman. Is it the great culture revolution? Or is it the hardship all Chinese went though from beginning of this centry until recent?

Allergic Induced Eczema

Never used facial cleanser or toner at my graduation

_______________________________________


The breakout was unbearable on Friday. It is funny the skin condition is only bad during weekdays. On Friday, during the lunch break, I was determined to find a cure in Boots. I tried to explore the stair well in our building, finding the entrance to the stairwell was a no brainer, I just followed a guy, but he then walked out to the first floor, which I have no access to. The only exit to the ground was alarmed, I cannot risk my reputation on that. I finally gave up and went back up to my floor and then took the lift... 10 minutes gone.

I ran to Boots, spoke to the pharmist and showed her my face. I can see her sympathy welling up in her eyes "how did you do to your face"... Yeah, it was really bad. She recommended some allergy drugs and it worked!

Interesting thing is we only get to know our body when something really bad has happened (we then realise we need to find the source of the problems). Also, it could be age-related.

I find myself keep looking at people's face sometimes, thinking, how nice it would be to have skin like that. Inevitably, I turned to some more immediate cure this Saturday. I bought myself the first pack of concealer! The powder is so magical that my face start to glow under sevearl blush strokes. Cosmetic industry is like a dream factory. Wow!!

Names Are Very Important...

Chinese parents have lots of imagination and creativity when coming to find a good name for their child. Unlike western parents, who has only limit set of name to search from, Chinese parents are free to roam around the hundreds thousands of Chinese characters, putting together any 2 characters (the combinations are limitless). There is never any restriction or custom how a name should be. You can create the most interesting yet unique name ever... What an exciting thing just to think about it!

Some of my friends have very good names. For example, Irene's name, Yuang-Ying, means "a delicate and graceful study" + "sparkling with wisdom just like jade". Claire Hsiao's name is "I-hon". "I" means one in number, also it is the start of any form of life or lifeless objects. It can be the smallest but has the limitless implication. "hon" means broad, usually used to describe a person's mind.

My name is "Kun-Er". "Kun" means "ying", everything opposite to "yang". Suppose the sun is "yang", then the moon is "ying". If the sky is yang, then the earth is ying. "Er" sometimes means nothing at all, this word is used by northerner a lot but rarely by southerners. It is a helper to finish a single noun, to make it sound richer. But sometimes it can mean offsprings. I guess my name can be interpreted as "offspring of the earth".

Just Like What They Do in Discovery Channel

I heard this song when I was in California, it went like "let's do what they do in Discovery Channel". But I guess the song writer might want to think twice if he/she has read the book "How Animals Have Sex".

I was giggling like an idiot in Borders. For example, a sort of rain forest frogs need to mate for 6 months, which might have inspired tantric sex. After the male bee mates with the queen, his genital would be stucked inside her. Yeah, he can be seperated but his gential would be pull out of his body with his guts spilling all over. It is said to stop mating with another bee taking place. The most amusing one is the octopus. The male octopus is too shy to touch his girl friend, he has this detachable sperm-explosive penis. He cuts it off and shovels it to her through her nastral, he would then die soon after.

The book also briefs about female chimps' promiscuity. It claims, by sleeping around, the female chimp could confuse her partner at the time so that he would not knock out her offsprings from other males.

North and South

Happy birthday to Miffy!
__________________________________

It is very tricky for southerns in China to make decent bread. Southerners are so used to rice, to them, noodles and bread are like imported goods from another country. Interestingly, in Taiwan, there are large population need to have the bread fix in the morning.

That is because when KMT moved to Taiwan in the 50s, they have brought with them lots of northerners. They all cramped in a small island and some of them started small business selling breads and soy milk in the morning. I was drawn to it in my early teens.

I love the pure, no nonsense nature of their bread. The making is usually very simple, no fermentation but patience. You can taste the simple, ample nature of the browned wheat and seaseme. There was one of those breakfast store near my house in Taipei. The bread master is obviously the down symdrom sufferer. His name is "Yu-Hu", "yu" means to have, and "hu" is the nickname of ShangHai. From his name, I could almost guss his parents must be from Shang Hai, thinking one day they will be going back to ShangHai one day (however, the plan was delayed indefinitely).

The fluffyness of the bread is not from the gas genreated by fermentation, it is really from the mixture of water-based dough and oil-base dough. It needs lots of patience and endless kneading.

Taiwanese Girls

Very interesting door knots, aren't they?

________________________________________

I always want to write about Taiwanese girls. I think they are the most care-free, adorable and silly spices among all Hong Kong, Mainland and oversea Chinese.

My aunt in Toronto is a typical Taiwanese girl, even though she is in her mid 50s. She enjoys life so much that nothing can stop her from having fun. She went to high school, learn painting and pottery for years, making all her classmates call her auntie. She begged her teacher to flunk her so she could take the same course again.

She loves to travel and never afriad to look a bit silly to make us laugh. I was thinking abou the argument of the prosperous economic environment in the 80s bred the new generation of feminism, but failed to continue when I thought about her. She married to my uncle, Tomas, and moved to Hong Kong in the 80s and then Toronto. Very difficult transition to get into a complete different culture, but she thrives and never minds what people think (yeah, she took me and my cousins to the water world theme park, she made us change to bathing suits under the big towel in a queue so we won't miss our turn to go on the water slide. I was 19 years old, old enough to feel embarrassed).

She always trying very hard to have as much fun as she could afford. Expense is not the concern although not rich. Getting the experience is worth buying the front row tickets to any show is her motto.

Thinking about this, I can quite easily observe these quantities among a lot of my friends. For example, Irene, keeps encouraging her boy friends to quit his demanding job but offers to work as a waitress. Well, in her mind, being with her love is far more crucial to her life than having lots of money. They are usually super optimistic about financial future and believe life could go on one way or another. They are cool in making silly of themselves, none the less, they are very determined about how to get what they want. There is no compromise nor middle ground, exceptions are open for love.

They might be outgoing, fun to be with but never let go the chance to be pretty. There is not need to be boyish to go camping, cannoning. Presentation is still important. I enjoy my girly lessons with my aunt, Irene and other friends. We experimented different types of toner, got my ear pierced and went for night gown hunting.

I also observe quite a few career-oriented women, they tend to exercise their feminine advantage when battle is necessary. Very different comparing to women from Hong Kong or Mainland China.

I think I would love to have a Taiwanese girl friend if I were a guy.

Academia Research and General Opinion

Only god knows why Sungard Ditcot office did this to its employees.
_________________________________________________

I went to the first Taiwanese Study seminar this year, the topic was the "Taiwanese nationalism and identity developement in post martial law regime and pre matured democracy area under the millitary threat of Mainland China before 2008 Beijing Olympic plus potential bird flu virus spread and ... " Just kidding. The topic wasn't this long.

The visiting professor did a great job to let my attention drift. He is really not a good lecturer, too many "um...", "I think", "you know"... As one of the audience, I can feel the utmost uncertainties in his voice. Just like he is afraid of making any solid statements or he is afriad of those statements would backfire at him later. I almost want to scream "Stop reporting the politcal dynamics between China and Taiwan! Tell me something I don't know! Tell me what you think".

I came to realise why people tend to be opinionate and emotional when discussing politics, it is much more fun than rigid, conservative, logical and mundane academia research. Although it is the right way to go.

Thank You For Those Who Were Nice to My Dad

My father kept sending money to his hometown in mainland China. According to my mother, even when they were just starting their business and life was so tough that my parents could only afford bread for many months, my father kept supporting his friends, relatives in the rural country side near east of Cantone province. My mom and I have been troubled by this act for many years.

My father went through very difficult childhood after communist party took over China in 1950 because the familty possessed lands and my grand-grand father was a judge in KMT's court room. My grand-grand father committed suicide before the police arrest him, my grand mother and her four children were deprived of the right to live like a normal human beings. My grand father was in Indonisia, married to one of his students and didn't want to go home.

In my father's stories, the Liao's family were like carrying some sort of disease that no one in the village would dare to get in touch with, or talk to. There was no income and no help, my father, as the first son of the family, age of 13, went to the forest to chop woods and sold for money. My grand mother could not find any job but to sell her blood to feed her young kids (she could not bear the hardship and drown herself in a pond later).

My father told me, he still remembers all those people who were nice to him during that tough period. Some old lady accidentally dropped a banana leaf wrapped rice ball in front of him. Some person sat down behind my father, back against my father's back, for a while without talking to each other. Some hid my father in the attic when police were searching for him. And many many other stories.

I started to understand how much it means for my father to send money home...

Hot Water Bottle

Had a scissor-biten finger on my left hand and sushi knife on the right, plus a grumpy face.

______________________________________________________

I bought a hot water bottle last weekend and it does ease my backpain very effectively. I grow attachment to it day after day, the first thing I do after I come home is now boil some water to feed my dark blue water bottle. I would then hold it, carry it, laptop it, foot it around the living room, kitchen, dinning table, computer area and then my bed.

The cooliest invention of the world.

Haircut Scissors

Um... I think we do have the jokerness blood in our family.


_______________________________________


I went to Susie's for dinner on Saturday night. And I brought with me a pair of thining hair scissors. Susie has mentioned that she didn't have time to visit a hair dresser and it would be great if I can trim her hair a bit. I am usually more than happy to style other's hair. I think I am pretty deft and I quite enjoy seeing how my friends' appearance differ before and after the cut.

I guess the mistake rooted in too much alcohol in my blood stream. After dinner, Peter volunteered to clean the dishes. I said to Susie if she would care to get the cut now. She agreed and fumbled for old newspapers. I suggested she could take off her top and sit at the bath tub rim with me standing in it. No fuss and efficient.

The small toe nail scissors were just not up for the job (they are great with my eyebrows trimming). So I switched to the mid-size thining scissors. I was holding Susie's hair with my middle and ring fingers like the professional but somehow the scissors cut into my ring finger and I continued squeezing, wanted to finish the cut.

The blood came out like small stream but I decided not to make a sound of it (otherwise she would not let me cut the hair). Oh well, it finially finished and I made the casual remark on my wound. Susie was astonished and wanted to put the antisceptic on the wound. I tried to stay calmed and wanted to clean up the hair and blood in the bath tub first. I switched on the tab only to cause cold water coming out of the shower head while I was bending over to pick up the mess in the tub.

My first reaction was to scream bloody murder, Susie was laughing her head off and Peter came in to the bath room to find one half-naked chick, blood stain over the tub and soaking wet joey. He cried "I only left for 5 minutes!".

The Connection Between Eyelashes and the Nose

I think the most uncanning connection I have discovered recently is that between eyelashes and nose. After applying the thick, black stuff on my short eyelashes, the last thing you want to happen is to sneeze. I guess when sneezing, our facial muscles contract in a way that we do shut our eyes tight. The sticky and hard-to-clean mascara ends up in the area below my eyes.

However, my nose does itch after the putting on the mascara and before it dries out. Life is full of unexpected connection.