Disclosure

Last night i picked a book left down by my friend to read. The book is about trading options. My friend was back and said this book is too advance to me, it is not for the beginner. i said nothing at that moment and thought why you looked down me? How do you know i cannot read? Then my friend's wife said to him, "How can you say like this? How can you know if Caesar can't read?" i still didn't say anything. Frankly speaking, by reading the preface and some of the charts, it seems that i am able to read for i had taken some basic course for options a long time ago.

Back home, i was still a bit angry about him. Before go to bed, based on our long time friendship, i started to think that maybe he really doesn't know i knew the basics of options so he just gave me a good advice. Then i wondered why i didn't say anything to clarify at that moment....

Every time when a small dispute/quarrel is not disclosed/resolved, it may glow to explode, irritated by our dark side. Thanks God to bring me back to think in the positive way, i know that it is not me who can think the right way.

Reflecting on this, i understood that man alone is bad so that God bring us companions, friends, and a spouse, so that we share, discuss, and support each other. And we can find that Jesus sent his disciples in pair for missionary.

Destroy & Control the Nature

Because of the super hurricane Katrina, people all over the world again talk about our destruction to our environment which may have caused many natural disasters.

Yesterday i saw an article in the metro HK newspaper, it mentioned that Hong Kong is blessed not to have the recently strong typhoons being visited. But the truth is that fewer typhoons visited HK is extraordinary. The HK Observatory revealed that 6 typhoons in average should visit HK every year. Guang Dong province recorded zero typhoons up to August out of 5.2 in average.
At the end of July, China Science Department announced the density of carbon dioxide (CO2) around Pearl River Delta region is the second highest among the nation, this provides the evidence of typhoon hardly enters the area.

On Tuesday, i saw a RTHK TV programme talking about our Tsing Ma bridge can bear over 3 hundred km/h of wind speed (even the super hurricane was 200 km/h). Then interviewed some science reseachers who are studying how to control the direction of typhoon. One method is to divert its direction by satellite beaming a ray to heat up the target area by one degree Centigrade. i am stunned by human to try to control the nature. History has proven that we human have done harm to the earth a lot, i cannot image if we could try to control the nature, may be doing much more harm than good, ..., or human disasters!

At last of the TV programme, the reporter asked a question, "Who can be authorized to say, which direction?".

Freedom

Yesterday when i read Kung Kao Po, i found an article talking about freedom and mentioned the book, Memory and Identity, written by our passed Pope, John Paul II. i found it good so translated and put it here,

"He pointed out that freedom is a tool for human development, but not the destiny. Freedom is realised through truth. Freedom is for love. Today the many issues of the so-called developed countries are due to the lack of direction for freedom. Freedom became the destiny. Besides, we are in the century of doubt and suspicion, therefore, we got lost. When we are willing to put aside our self-centerness, willing to look at the unity of self, others, communities, and the universe, our freedom got the direction."

Life

Last few week, a news in Hong Kong said that an upper secondary boy fell down to dead because he damaged a camera belonging to the school. He lied that the camera was not broken by him but eventually teachers found the truth and deducted him some marks on conduct.

Last few months ago, another news said that a secondary school graduate fell down to dead because of worrying about jobless after graduation.

For people in the hard time some decades ago, you hardly heard about such news of committing suicide of young people. Now, communities growing richer, but teens get fewer love, ..., fewer time to share with their parents because it is common to have both working mom and dad to sustain a family. The working parents often hire a maid to take care of their children, willing to buy things to them. Teens are rich in material belongings, but poor in mentality, poor to love and be loved. They don't know that life is precious. It is given by God, parents are assigned to love, nourish, teach, protect, support them.

I do think that if the teens of the above news knew that their families would accept whatever they were, they wouldn't choose to end their life. Everything will be over, no adversity cannot be endured when we know that God will help.

Strokes from God

Yesterday when i worked out an approach to solve a problem, i was amazed by what i have done to list down the assumptions on which the approach is based. The approach was tested by another colleague who took nearly a full day to simulate the problem and apply the approach in details. Initially the colleague found the result satisfactory while i insisted one assumption is violated so the result would be ruined. Finally the colleague proved that result was bad. i was amazed why i can write down the assumptions that i didn't intend to do at the beginning.

When i was a secondary student, i remembered at one time i was not able to give answer to a question (may be mathematical one), but the other day when i woke up, my mind was open suddenly on this question, and i solved it. In Chinese, we have a proverb called, "strokes from God", means that sometimes God write strokes to our writing/calligraphy unexpectedly to turn awful things to beauty.

Has Died

In Chinese, we have a proverb, "Close to dead, one would speak of mercy". If you had the experience of being dead, you would find that material things are of no importance. All you sought before about career, fame, wealth, power, sex is wind. Once you knew that they are wind, your mind would not cling to these, your heart would not be biased and your eyes are open. Your burden would disappear and would be rest in peace.

The first time when i stayed in a hospital, i was afraid of being dead and could not passed over my mind for i thought that i was young and had to accomplish many many things before i died. At that time, my life of materialism had not died even i was really dead. Today, thanks God that i know they are wind.

Corporate Conscience

One day open a newspaper and found many companies announced annual earnings. All of them reported earning in scale of billions. Right now we are talking about globalization, international companies have established their existence around the world. Earned 'away' money from foreign countries, including many developing and poor ones.

i believe companies in countries like citizen in country, not only talking about money affair, but also obligation. When corporations earned a lot by exploiting resources from foreign countries, they should also share the development of the country, care its environment, cultvate the atmosphere of employees to support local voluntary groups, building the image of corporate citizen.

Materialism

Materialism is spreading throughout the capitalism countries and cities around the world. People only know about money because it can buy things. Ads are surrounding us to tempt us to buy.

Monday night when i read a PCCW published magazine, I.SHOP, i found that it is a well-organized and designed magazine, using good paper. All of its content is to provide information to reader to purchase. Even at the end of an article depicting about a beautiful fountain area in Sai Kung in Hong Kong, the authur suggested hikers can wear certain watch (of course with photo and feature description) and sun-glasses. Another article was about an interview with a film director, the author recommended a mobile phone with 200 mega pixels camera saying that the director like to take photos. WHAT A MAGAZINE IT IS!!!

Family Dispute

Last week, for the case of a 7-year old boy being cut his lambs, his step mother and a few men were arrested. When the news was first arised, it shocked the whole HK community. It is described as "God and human are fierce". Someone in radio said that the case could be solved in 2 weeks because even the mafia would find that it is not possible to hire guys to cut a child, so the white (in Chinese, we refer to "the police") and the black (in in Chinese, we refer to "the mafia") took their full force to resolve the case.

It is found that he was cut because his step mother was scared of losing his father (may be due to a third person) and the boy treated her 6-month-old son bad. The boy was born when his father was 20 and mother was 16 (just the age allowed to have sex in Hong Kong). May be they are too immature that they cannot bear the fruit of the boy, the mother left and the father got marry with the step mother. It is common nowsday to have one night stand, instant sex, in the world, also in Hong Kong. Most of the pairs would not have thought about the consequence of sexual intercourse, but sexual enjoyment. It is common for both sex to seek excitement of meeting others in bars even they have a fixed next-half or spouse. In fact, everyone must be able to find prettier, better women when compared with the existing spouse/close-friend. No one can settled unless its heart is settled. Such atmosphere shakes down the concept of family, and then communities, and then countries, and the whole world, which caused many many family issues.

The beauty of marriage is that a man and a woman commit to each other to constrain their love between them and among their own family. Both offer themselves to each other till the end of their life. Both of them take great care of their family, protect their family from harm, including the third persons. Both should be cautious about temptation and seduction.

The beauty of marriage is that the couple supplements each other, shares all things together, including daily life, family matters, money. One day when i heard that one of my colleagues and his wife have their own bank accounts separately operated. They agreed who pays what by which purse. Learning this i felt a bit surprise.

Together Thousands Centuries

This is the name of a song translated from Chinese that i love much. When reading the lyrics, i was greatly amazed by the love so deep from human heart. Here my translated version (pls forgive my bad translation) of the lyrics is,

<<<
Met you in the world, i became so fabulous
No longer keep my old feelings, but stay with you

At this moment, only you in my eyes, speaks playfully and solitcitously
Your words, gesture and expression, never stay away from me

Let me give my heart to you forever
Every night, i recall the romantic love sparkling moments
Getting older, this love will never cease for the rest of my life

Forget the worries, forget the miserables, together is joyful everyday
Keep my heart, keep your heart, together thousands centuries
>>>

Initially i didn't know this song was sung first by a passed Hong Kong singler, Danny Chan, but i knew that the melody was written by Lo Lo and lyrics by his wife. i have heard the version by Lo Lo, but not by Danny. i think that i would like Lo Lo's version much more than Danny's because from him and his wife i really find that lyrics apply on their life unceasingly. It is so beautiful.

God, How can i Say i Have Done Somethings?

Near the end of the trip to Japan in late 2002, i had the strong feeling of God helped me a lot in my life, so that i composed the following words,

<<<
Without You to grant me patience, i am rush to ruin things.
Without You to grant me wisdom, i am silly to do anything.
Without You to grant me humility, i am proud to look down others.
Without You to grant me gentleness, i am strict to hurt others.

God, teach me to humbly say i am an unworthy servant, i have only done my duty.
>>>

i would like to recall this some times, especially when i am proud, or feel that i am strong, wise, in order to remind me i am weak.

A Good Boss

i am blessed to have a good boss who possesses the following characteristics,

1. Don't play politics.
2. Don't loss temper.
3. No frustrated emotion.
4. Eager to reach out to subordinates for assistance, especially at critical moment.
5. Have ability and capacity to accomplish his/her roles.
6. Humble.

i have heard from my friend that his ex-boss was ridiculous, non-sense, unreasonable. Everyday this ex-boss opens its mouth to fire, to irritate people. i think it is very difficult to deal with such boss even in a few hours. The pressure accumulated under such boss is enormous.

i have also met some boss (not mine) are incapable, then his/her subordinates will learn nothing, or even worse is that the incapable guy may be jealous of subordinates and play politics, or tricks....

My department had encountered seversal periods of layoff (job discontinuation), at those moments, my boss helped seek vacancies voluntarily for the laid offs, and tried to raise the morale of those remained. Thanks God i still remain in the company.

A long time ago when i was green, i often find that my ex-department head did not have too much work to do such that he can leave earlier everyday. At that time sometimes i felt that i was also capable of doing his work by talking to, or meeting with someone. Later on i knew that i was wrong for i didn't know what he had done and understood that boss must have solid 'things', such as knowledge, mentality, talent, wise, experience, over subordinates to become boss.

Something cannot be Bought

It is not the first time i heard from my colleagues that everything has a price. Every time i am involved in such a 'debate', we are going to run into a dead end, because i always believe there are something cannot be bought by dollars. But they would say that as long as the one who pay can increase to an unbeatable price of the recipient, the recipient will accept the price.

Some of them would say that money can buy happiness, but i doubt. Human's desire is never satisfied by the things s/he possessed. Once a material thing is grabbed, immediate plan will go for another better, dearer, prettier material things. Money can buy me a car, a house, but cannot buy a baby's smile. Happiness depends on our heart, but not depend on what we possessed.

Work by Heart

Final verdict for the murder of a whole family (father killed the mother and 2 daughters and then suicide) was given yesterday in Hong Kong, the jury provided suggestion to social workers and police to deal with family matter in future. 2 sisters of the murdered mother have sent a letter to public (media) expressed their disappointment on her sister's case that social workers and the police involved ignored the case when her sister sought for help. They said that if the social workers and the police treated the case by heart, they must have felt the seriousness of the case, and avoided the tragedy.

i felt sad about the news and agreed with what they raised. It is easy to get used to the often encountered situations without putting our hearts in. It is a common mistake of human being because of our laziness and self-centered personality.

In fact, we need to live our every moment by heart, no matter how difficult it is, how tough it is. Then we would not regret of wasting time on earth.

Bought a Baby Carrier

Many of my friends use the BabyBjörn standard baby carrier to carry baby. Then my wife and i followed this to buy one. Thus, i have the experience to tell which is good and which is bad. A good baby carrier should have the following characteristics,

1. Able to handle the carrying process by one person alone - because in most cases only the mother is available to carry the baby by herself. The BabyBjörn one is specially designed to accomplish the carrying process in 10 steps. It is designed in 2 separable pieces, the carrying belt and the carrier. The first step is to wear the carrying belt, then connect the carrier at 4 corners.

2. Most importantly, must be able to support the neck of the baby - for the neck of babies are very fragile, the carrier must be able to hold the body and the head in upright position. The carrier of the BabyBjörn one is made of foam-like material, when connected the upper 2 corners (with adjustable thread), it holds the head in upright position with clearance for the baby to turn its head.

3. Safe connection knots - The connection should be quick, and safe.

4. Able to adjust the length - as the baby grows longer, the length of the carrier should be able to extend to fully cover the baby.

Bought a Camcorder

i bought a Sony camcorder HC21E recently. i love this little garget because of the following features,

1 Have viewfinder - Increase battery runtime

2 Have threaded lens - Able to mount filter, wide angle, ..., etc, able to extend features.

3 All connection socket are on the body - Having the experience of charing mobile phone, you may find that the frequently action of plugging and unplugging would lead to connection intermittent or fail at all, in around a year.

4 Use mini DV - i don't want DVD because of 3 reasons. First, 8 cm DVD can only store half an hour quality video, compared with mini DV to keep an hour excellent quality video. Second, having seen the review from www.dvspot.com i understood that it is difficult to deliver the stored DVD video for editing. My friend has a Sony DVD camcorder, he was puzzled how to convert IFO format into MPEG or AVI. He may need to buy a conversion program from web some time. Third, the chassis design is a bit larger then that for mini DV.
i also don't want micro drive and harddisk because their life seems shorter than those using mini DV.

5 With slim design

The purchasing process had taken quite a while:-

i had the experience of operating the first generation of Sony camcorder (i don't remember the model number). At that moment, i loved its compact size, and the sound recording capability. Before the generation of mini DV, i had operated some older using V8 with directional sound recording feature - when a loud sound appear at a direction, it supresses the sound of surrounding that direction, it is awful.

i had also seen my friend operating a Fujisu camcorder, but was out of function in a year, so i don't have confidence to use Fujisu camcorder.

During the buying process, i have checked with different salespersons from different shops on different models from Sony, JVC, Panasonic, SamSung. Based on the above reasoning, i rejected JVC's micro drive version. For my subjective quanlity favourite, i rejected SamSung. The 3 CCD version of Panasonic seems a good choice, but the chassis is not slim enough, so i chose Sony mini DV.

The HC series contains many versions, i like 21E because it has all the connection sockets, including IEEE 1394, USB and Video output, on the body; plus the 'feature' of no Memory Stick slot. For the products of digital camera (DC) and digital video recorder at present, i still cannot find a good affordable digital camcorder which can be slim and small enough to work as both DC and video recorder. Therefore the 0.8 Mega pixels is enough for video recording purpose, i won't use it to capture image, so the proprietary Memory Stick Duo slot is not worth to be included in.