How to Degrade Your Enemy

Asking your colleauge to prepare for snakes and drinks for a meeting seems to be the way to do it.

Facebook is Evil

I got an email from Thang's family via Facebook saying that he was in the intensive care unit, and we have to expect the worse last month.

I got another message today, the sister of my university friend, Michael Thorsley, wrote to me saying that Michael has lost contact with his family 3 years ago, she was wondering if I have heard anything from him since. Damn, I thought he is only playing seek and hide with me, I hope everything is ok.

Credit Crunch Theorya

Was chatting with my friend Cathy in California. She said tha she just figured out one theory after the stock market crash, spend as much as you can while you can enjoy it. You lose money faster in stock market than buying a Gucci bag or Burberry shoes. Besides, as you get old, it is more and more expensive to make yourself happy. Do it while you can afford it.

I guess I am going to buy the most expensive shoes in my life this weekend.

Self Development and Growth

I do not particularly like these types of books. One of our family friends has turned herself into sort of a cult leader, giving talks, publishing books and hosting a blog to answer questions. People truely admire her, follow her advise and sincerely want to elevate their spiritual level such that they can separate themselves from unsatisfactory realities.

My dentist in Taipei was her faithful follower, so keen and eager to discuss her books with everyone who set foot in his clinic. He was so much like to get in touch with her once he realised she is our family friend. My mom turned to me for help. Oh gee, we haven't seen her for almost 15 years (after she divoiced my father's friend). I wrote her an email, hoping she still remember me and introduce my dentist to her.

I have never understood why people spend money on this type of books. Her writings are simple, story-like, without deep philosophy. The deepest is that "oh, you have to look into your innerself to ask what you want" Man, I am doing that everyday, I seriously ask myself what I want to eat. All these are bloody straightforward, everyone-understand concepts, but few people achieve. People just buy them to give themselves a false hope that they will be able to let go desire and temptation?

TV shows

Coming back to London, one of the things I am very happy about is that, finally, I am in touch with English speaking TV programs again. I spent my Saturdday night watching CSI New York, CSI Miami, CSI Vegas, then Law & Order. topped with Agatha Christie's 2-hour long program, OMG, I am in heaven. It is no longer the programs that I can only guess (Japanese TV shows are also quite interesting, I only had to guess 80% of the time). I can understand the plot, how the director want your attention to drift, wow, amazing.

I no longer able to do my manicure, iron my shirt, cook/eat dinner while the TV is on. That's the only shortcoming of it.

Agatha Chrstie's England

I am a big fan of Agatha Christie's detective stories, read most of them in both Chinese and English. But seeing BBC's production of it is another thing. It is not easy to imagine those stiff-upper-lip, Eton graduates's life was like in the pre world war II London or Oxfordshire. Though human natures are pretty much not surprising in every culture (love, hate, desire and fear), the BBC series gave a fair images. No Brits myself, but I quite enjoy the England depicted in it.

Women dressed in puffy skirts and skin tight tops, the waists are so tiny almost like a part of their bodies have stayed in the age of 10. They look confident, flirtatious and humorous, regardless of their age (Miss Marple is the exception, but I think that's her camouflage). Men are dignified and calm, even when the killer was identified at the end, rarely the killer lost his/her cool. Everyone seemed to have a story but no one is telling (English is very private), suspension arises, hard to find any better setting for detective stories.

Scent of Woman

Al Pacino's "Scent of Woman" was one of my all-time favorite movies. Oh, I don't remember most of it, but I am going to talk about scent. I used to think the medieval Europeans must be mad, they would exchange a ounce of peppers for gold. They sailed into the uncertain angry sea in search of fresh exotic spices and fragrance. Who needs those stuff? Growing up in a Chinese family, my parents never used colong, perfume. My father smelled of ciggarrete, toothpaste (in the morning) and tea. My mom smelled a bit of sweat and light body odour. Our clothes smelled of detergent and camphor. The most exciting spiece we used in our foods are ginger and chillies.

After turning 30ish, I start to rediscover my body, It is perhaps we were so distracted to explore the surroundings when we're young that we had no time to see (really seeing) ourselves. Now we were to bored with the world, so we look at ourselves to find some entertainment.

I do not think I have strong body odor, but perfume has become something I must wear before going to work. It is almost a statement and a hint of my existence. It is part of the dress that day. Of course, it has a percentage of attention attracting purpose. I started to realise why those Europeans were obsessive with scent. Before all the chemical engineering makes fabricating smells easy, what they can do about creating a good smell? Right, colonize the tropical lands! Oh well, it is all economics, business men found it is lucrative to sell the spices and parfume, let's lobby the royal family to build a big ship, money can be a pretty strong motivation.

Software Production

Party, party, party, Susie likes to have me in her parties.
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I started to realise that you dont need to be a super smart, rocket scientist to produce software that clients will accept. It is all about expectation management, planning and quality assurance. There is no bullet proof software, it largely relies on how well we educate our users. Everything is possible, if you use the software the right way.