Prose's Babble

因為愛情 - 王菲 & 陳奕迅

2011-11-04T00:26:00.001-04:00

無題

2011-09-24T18:58:00.000-04:00

人生是等死的過程。

Warren Baffett: Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

2011-08-15T21:25:00.005-04:00

出口轉內銷:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html

Flywheel Bike

2011-08-13T16:14:00.004-04:00

If only investors would invest in real inventions instead of inventing financial instruments that are beyond human comprehension.

領悟

2011-03-05T17:35:00.004-05:00

原裝辛曉琪版

李宗盛 @ 李宗盛的理性與感性作品音樂會 (2007)

林憶蓮版

憶蓮也唱得有點力有不逮。普通人行行好，別在K房虐待朋友!

祈望

2011-02-05T15:08:00.001-05:00

祈望

作曲：林子祥
作詞：潘偉源
編曲：陳志康

祈望你會振翅向著遙遠目標高飛往
祈望你擦破海風棲身理想中的對岸
祈望你以串串美夢眠過萬千的晚上
別我以後莫回望

祈望你會恕過帶著仁愛內心多開朗
祈望你以每點真一一細賞身邊快樂
祈望你會獻上漂亮微笑在漆黑照亮
別我以後莫回望

* 願你高飛前路往休擔心晚風與夕陽
你的一生是我夢
前路更闊更漫長
用你的心攜著我一生中我總會在旁
承受你每片感觸一一烙在心上

祈望你以勇氣撥落微雨耐心的攀上
祈望你也會展開星光遍灑溫馨晚上
祈望你以志氣每日承諾內心的盼望
踏上歲月路途上

假如

2011-01-12T20:42:00.004-05:00

假如我有把斧頭，有人應該巳經身首異處。

執房

2010-12-28T17:59:00.003-05:00

執房摷出一堆舊物, 忍不住睹物思人感慨一番。
一狠心, 全部丟掉。
爽。

熱烈恭賀香港公安成功爭取上CNN!

2010-10-12T00:26:00.005-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/11/hong.kong.champagne.arrest/

Celebrating Nobel, woman arrested for splashing champagne
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 11, 2010 5:51 a.m. EDT

Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- A woman celebrating the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident has been charged with assault for accidentally splashing champagne on a security guard outside the Chinese central government's liaison office in Hong Kong.

"The officer walked up as I was opening a bottle of champagne and he was splashed," said Ip Ho-yee, 22. "It was a minor incident. I never guessed that opening a bottle of champagne would lead to this."

Ip, who was arrested Sunday afternoon, made her comments in Cantonese.

The security guard was not injured, but he made a complaint, so Ip was arrested and charged with common assault, said Hong Kong police spokesman Lawrence Li.

"This is an absurd case," said Law Yuk-kai, director of Human Rights Monitor, a group based in Hong Kong. "This just shows who's the boss," Law said, referring to the mainland Chinese government.

The British returned Hong Kong to China in 1997, with China's promise that Hong Kong could continue to govern itself for the next 50 years. But critics of Beijing say the mainland government has encroached on Hong Kong residents' rights and interfered with the special administrative region's government.

Ip was released on her own recognizance and is to appear before police in late November, said the police spokesman.

She and others were celebrating the Nobel victory of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence after repeatedly calling for human rights and democratization.

Liu was sentenced in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power. He is the co-author of Charter 08, a call for political reform and human rights, and was an adviser to the student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to him on Friday.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the awarding of the prize to Liu was "blasphemy against the peace prize" that could harm relations between China and Norway.

The Nobel Committee stood by its choice and said it had expected China to react strongly.

"We have a very strong tradition of awarding the prize to human rights activists of many different kinds," Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute, told CNN.

"This is a tradition we are very proud of, and this is a tradition for which the Norwegian Nobel Committee has received much applause," Lundestad said. "We felt that if we were serious about this tradition, we did have to come to terms with the question of China in this perspective, and this is what we then did this year."

A record 237 names were submitted for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel committee said. Thirty-eight of the nominees are organizations. Nominees are not revealed for 50 years.

每一個明天 - 陳奕迅

2010-09-30T21:44:00.002-04:00

Super duper Chinese input tool

2010-08-27T00:08:00.006-04:00

Just bought a new laptop with Win 7 on it. I have to say I miss Win XP for the most part but the thing that most frustrated me about Win 7 is the Chinese keyboard input (han yu pin yin).

In XP, all I have to do is toggle to Chinese keyboard, start typing, and choose from the drop down list for the character needed. But in Win 7, I couldn't even get the drop down list to appear until I found instructions from Pinyin Joe's website http://www.pinyinjoe.com/windows-7/win7-chinese-intro.htm

With the new operating system, user has to key [space bar] and [down arrow] for almost every character. This would be such a waste of time that I may as well forget about typing Chinese altogether. I need an alternative.

Looking further in Pinyin Joe's website, I found this great tool called CantoInput by John Burket (http://cantoinput.wordpress.com/).

Three things I like about this little app:
1) It is a java application so it will run on any OS
2) Allows both Cantonese and Mandarin (Pinyin) input - including those Cantonese characters like 啲, 嘢 etc.
3) Simple to use
4) It is FREE!

If you do Chinese typing occasionally, you will probably like this app :)

August Update

2010-08-07T17:52:00.004-04:00

CMA board report result is out! Almost officially a CMA unless some horrible things happened - and the chance of such occurrence is so slim that even a pessimist like me would dismiss it as too remote to worry about.

**************************************************************

My beloved netbook was so sluggish that renders it useless. If anyone is old enough to remember how a cassette tape sounded like when the walkman runs out of battery - that's exactly what I heard when I play my tunes on iTunes. Virus scan/Spyware scan turned out nothing, CCleaner and Defrag didn't do the trick either. The only option left is to reformat the netbook, but here's the catch: there's no CD/DVD drive in the netbook, so how can I reinstall Windows? After spending entire day looking for ways to boot the computer using USB key, I gave up and went to buy an external DVD drive instead. After 30+ times of restarting the netbook looks like the baby is back.

Only one mystery remains: Why is the "System" PID 4 took up 100K+ memory when the system is not running any programs even after reformatted?

**************************************************************

The laptop is running well still but it is already 6 years old. The back-to-school deal are tempting, and since I'm done with school, I have all the time in the world to rid of the crapware and tune the new laptop to my likings. Some of my fav applications may not be available in Windows 7, will to see how to get around that.

**************************************************************

Found a FB app called F.B. Purity. It is absolutely fantastic if you are tired of weeding out the real updates from all the game updates from your friends. The app can be downloaded from http://www.fbpurity.com/

**************************************************************

Learning my new job while providing training on my old job. It has been a rough transition but starts to see light at the end of the tunnel. New job is really different from the old stuff I used to do, it is refreshing to see things from different angle.

**************************************************************

This song has been looping in my head for the past week.
個人喜歡張宇那種比較「有力水」的演繹, 陳慧琳版太K歌Feel了。

GET OUT OF THERE!

2010-07-28T20:53:00.003-04:00

From a mysterious video editor "hh" at www.pajiba.com
http://www.pajiba.com/guides/get-out-of-there-the-video.php

My fav dish

2010-07-11T21:00:00.001-04:00

Enough said :P

緣起緣滅

2010-07-02T00:58:00.002-04:00

跟一位友人鬧翻了。不過我深信日後回看, 大家都會得啖笑。

緣起緣滅, 有緣的自會冰釋前嫌。

Bye Bye Italy!

2010-06-24T21:24:00.000-04:00

睇住班意大利影帝輸波出局, 個心涼快非常!

又: 今年賭世界杯做莊嘅簡直賺到笑。

告一段落

2010-06-20T19:20:00.001-04:00

考牌一事暫時告一段落。

情況不妙, 心情有如等待判刑。

唉。

遲來的Post...沒有煙抽的日子

2010-06-05T23:46:00.001-04:00

沒有煙抽的日子

歌手：張惠妹 作曲：張雨生填詞：王丹編曲：Koji Sakurai

沒有煙抽的日子　沒有煙抽的日子
我總不在你身旁
而我的心裡一直　以你為我的唯一的
唯一的一份希望

天黑了　路無法延續到黎明
我的思念一條條鋪在
那個灰色小鎮的街頭
你們似乎不太喜歡沒有藍色的鴿子飛翔　啊～

手裡沒有煙那就劃一根火柴吧
去抽你的無奈
去抽那永遠無法再來的一縷雨絲　喔～

在你想起了我以後
又沒有煙抽的日子　喔~

我只在乎你

2010-05-22T01:09:00.003-04:00

當年看到這段就狂笑, 10年後再看... 再也笑不出來

梁詠琪好嘢! 杜汶澤好嘢!

2010-03-31T21:41:00.011-04:00

新浪微博：梁詠琪在趙連海事件上批評官員被要求刪文

「內地有內地的規矩…好，我刪！但不公平的事還是不想再看到…尤其發生在平民百姓身上。」

梁詠琪好嘢!

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/tochapman1999/article?mid=63881

"共建河蟹"

亞澤好嘢!

趙連海辯護陳詞全文

買衫記

2009-12-05T20:17:00.002-05:00

在屋企附近的小Boutique執到好嘢, 一條 Columbia褲只售$20, 抵到爛!

又話說老豆為我看中一件大衣, 著我試身。兩老看後頻呼「好cute好cute」, 不禁有點啼笑皆非, 心諗「我都一把年紀啦,你估我係老萊子咩...囧」

好在件大衣款式 Classic, 我諗我都仲 Carry到, 否則任兩老點讚我都唔會買!

(又: 有人讚都唔高興, 我有時都覺得自己好L煩)

麥太故事2: 從前有個中女開OT, 返返0下工, 死咗。

2009-11-02T22:23:00.001-05:00

好 ● 熱

2009-08-19T00:46:00.002-04:00

已經超過一個禮拜錄得30度以上高溫 , 對肥人如我者簡直係「心痛苦比處死更難受」!

天氣咁熱 , 最開心莫過於「飲番杯冰啤凍酒」。不過每日一啤恐怕會令肚腩漲到可以虛報Mat Leave嘅萬劫不復之地 , 唯有忍口。慘!

淡定有錢剩

2009-08-15T01:27:00.000-04:00

審計部查數時有不明之處, 原已約了有關 FA 查問, 但一時心急找了師兄攞料。湊巧 FA 路過於是把審計部的問題也問了。正要回座時剛好碰上審計頭頭: "I thought we are going to see the FA together." Sh*t, 跟師兄談得興起竟忘了要跟審計頭頭一起見 FA。

原先審計部的問題他們自己搞通了, 不過又有新的問題。當下結結巴巴的解答了幾遍, 雖然審計頭頭不大滿意, 但總算也收貨, 有驚無險。

故事教訓: 淡定有錢剩。

VIIV

2009-06-04T00:06:00.002-04:00

"XX化"

2009-04-21T23:00:00.003-04:00

在一個相當優質的Blog上赫然發現"優化"這怪詞:

http://martinoei.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/%e6%9c%ac%e5%8d%9a%e5%ae%a2%e7%9a%84iphone%e5%84%aa%e5%8c%96%e7%89%88/
"本博客的iPhone優化版"

我認為:

大部份"XX化"的形容詞都是直接翻譯英文"xx-ize"等字,中英雜交("歐化")的產物。

但如有現成的中文形容詞可用就應避免用"XX化"的這種膠中文。

又:

不是逢"X化"皆膠, 偶然也有佳作:
"赤化" - 令人馬上聯想到血流成河的畫面。

Easter long weekend

2009-04-13T02:01:00.001-04:00

盛情難卻, 去了朋友的教會 Open House。

牧師是典型死光社人, 只對性議題有興趣, 社會公義隻字不提。又把進化論扭曲得面目全非來「證明」「人的偉大」。

http://fongyun.xanga.com/707621733/chinese-cheaters-mission/

這種沒水準的牧師非常趕客 :P

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悶了一個上午後決定去 Hero Burger 試試。

評價: Premium 價錢, 不外如是。

看 Hero Burger 開到一街都係, 怕且都會步Krispy Kreme 後塵咯。

呢個 Weekend 真黑仔。

Delay No More

2009-04-07T22:24:00.004-04:00

This morning I need to get in office early to do month end stuff so I took the 6:28 am GO Train, and guess when it arrived at Union? 8:22am

40 min train ride turned into a 2 hr journey on my busiest day of the month. Lovely. (Yes I am psst)

**********************************************************************************

I have subscribed to the Go Alert email so let's see what we get about these delay...

Email #1:

Richmond Hill passengers may expect a longer commute than usual this morning due to equipment issues in Richmond Hill. Please visit http://www.gotransit.com/publicroot/en/status/showtrainbus.aspx for updates.

This message was sent on: 4/7/2009 6:54 (am)

Email #2:

Richmond Hill train service is estimated to be delayed over 30 minutes due equipment issues. Update to follow.

This message was sent on: 4/7/2009 7:11 (am)

Email #3:

The equipment issue at Richmond Hill has been resolved. The Richmond Hill 07:28 - Union 08:10 train trip is estimated to be delayed 15 minutes from Richmond Hill and the Richmond Hill 07:58 - Union 08:40 train trip is expected to operate as scheduled. Please visit http://www.gotransit.com/publicroot/en/status/showtrainbus.aspx for updates.

This message was sent on: 4/7/2009 7:37 (am)

***************************************************************

My thoughts:

1. My train was 6:28am and the first email alert wasn't sent until 6:54, almost 30 min after the fact. (They can argue that an alert will only be issued if the delay is 30min or more, but considered that I can reach downtown from RH in 30min if I drive on a traffic free day - the email alert doesn't sound too useful to me.)

2. The 6:28 train departed RH at 7:12 and reached Union at 8:22 am this morning, so can someone tell me how this is possible: "The Richmond Hill 07:28 - Union 08:10 train trip is estimated to be delayed 15 minutes from Richmond Hill" (Email #3).

3. There was nothing in the bulletin board or the Go Alert saying how long it took the 6:28 train to reach Union. I would love to see if they will include this delay in the statistics at all, or if they will just play the number game (how many times of >15 min delay, so this is only one count; and as Email #3 indicated, even their statistics for the duration of delay is questionable).

4. GO has increased their fare every year and I don't see much improvement in their services.

5. Almost Every train trip are 5-10 minutes late and they won't include those "minor" delays in their statistics.

GO Train, stop calling yourself environmentally friendly - You are not. People drive to work because of your incompetence.

痴線事件簿 - 電話

2009-03-27T22:54:00.002-04:00

如常在家使用電話交費 ---
"9" - (以為自己在公司, 用9打街線)
"1" - (1800 電話)
"1" - (手震, 打多左個1)

電話通左, "This is the police station...."

Sh*t....打左911!!!

Sorry一輪後對方說, "Nonetheless, the police needs to come by to make sure you are ok."
於是面懵懵地迎接差人哥哥 >_<

(還好差人哥哥倒是挺友善的)

Forgetful

2008-05-28T00:12:00.004-04:00

在同事的Farewell卡上施展了執筆忘字最高境界 - 串錯自己個名

雷公劈友除世害

2008-05-25T22:50:00.002-04:00

written a bit more than 10 years ago, still relevent
雷公劈友除世害
曲：郭達年詞：郭達年

世界唔好社會離譜雷公劈啲癲佬
經濟唔好政制離譜雷公劈啲傻佬

鄉下細路無書讀學校爛到塌落地
首都高官挖私利億元落袋遠處飛
農村失收無飯食都會夜夜笙歌
城市炒賣玩暴發幹部狂噬刷爆咭

呢頭話落後要人鎮災救濟嫌唔夠
個頭扮造步 Cheap租火箭甩繩馬騮
一面話開放拉人坐監審完無理講
一面話改革翻嚟覆去越搞越猖狂

TTC 顛佬

2008-05-14T21:24:00.002-04:00

在繁忙時間搭TTC遇上一個手拿一大桶天拿水 (重點!), Hi嘢 Hi 到口水鼻涕長流 (Literally 長流果隻)的顛佬。心中暗叫不妙,腦海登時出現天拿水焚人/車的畫面,嚇得急急離開車廂。

TTC閘口班大帝究竟幹舍的??

TTC Strike

2008-04-26T22:56:00.003-04:00

TTC strike again! Making $25+ / hr doing nothing but collecting tokens + all the benefits and perks.

If only the TTC management and politicians have the gut of Reagan.

http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id296.htm

"On August 3, 1981 nearly 13,000 of the 17,500 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) walked off the job, hoping to disrupt the nation's transportation system to the extent that the federal government would accede to its demands for higher wages, a shorter work week, and better retirement benefits. At a press conference in the White House Rose Garden that same day, President Reagan responded with a stern ultimatum: The strikers were to return to work within 48 hours or face termination. As federal employees the controllers were violating the no-strike clause of their employment contracts....Over 11,000 strikers received their pink slips, while 1,200 went back to work within a week's time..."

I made it!

2008-04-19T14:36:00.002-04:00

...completed the CN Tower Climb without passing out :)

病貓

2008-04-15T23:22:00.003-04:00

Exam 前兩日病倒了。咳了兩星期咳得變成「0靚坤聲」也還未好轉，苦也！

夏秋冬

2008-04-02T04:13:00.004-04:00

四月流流仲係-3°C ("feels like -10")。

點解天氣好似太監0甘? (四季 - 夏秋冬?)

榮升三姑

2008-03-10T22:57:00.002-04:00

大哥家裡添了個BB女, 我榮升三姑啦！

(未經BB父母同意, 不可 Upload BB相...不過我都係得一張0甘大把。 BB老豆快0的影0的相俾大家睇啦 :)

SN*OW

2008-03-09T13:33:00.009-04:00

Here are some photos taken after the 36 hour-ish snowstorm:

Backyard - the tree was half-buried

I took a picture of dad before we shovel the driveway. We managed to clear half of the driveway but our will to complete the task melted away as soon as we see the guy drove by - in a pickup with big shovel. Who would have thought the sound of truck engine can be that sweet :)

Snow piled up and obscured part of the window on first floor. The window was at least 5 feet from the ground.

Smokin' Office

2008-03-05T20:26:00.002-05:00

公司樓頂鋪臘青防漏, 點知竟然有能本事搞到成間 Building 煙霧瀰漫, 由九樓標煙標到二樓兼傳來陣陣「火農」味。最後仲搞到要疏散兩個鐘, 真係「超低能勁搞笑」。

Power out!

2007-09-12T23:22:00.000-04:00

My dad's computer went kaput - it shutdown itself mysteriously and failed to reboot. I suspected it might have to do with power supply so I decided to take a crack at it.

Something was rattling inside as I take the power supply out...

...Here's the baby!

I think this is from here that it fell off:

The computer works fine after the power supply was replaced but the USB ports are fried. The only workaround is to install a new USB PCI card :(

飲到嘔

2007-07-21T22:50:00.000-04:00

昨晚同事搞Farewell Party, 一班人狂叫酒灌醉離職同事之餘連自己都灌醉埋, 旁觀的我也不幸免。
從未飲到嘔的我終於生平第一次飲到嘔, 好在忍到返屋企至出事。

唔知今次找數有幾溶哩......

Tip For Fixing Lost Connection

2007-07-05T23:21:00.000-04:00

Ever have problem with connecting to internet after your computer wakes up from sleep mode? Sometimes repair connection would work, but more times it doesn't and the eventually I have to reboot the computer.

I've researched the problem on web (e.g. Googling "connection problem sleep mode") and looks like I'm not alone on this issue. Suggestions on the forum ranging from rebooting the computer (thanks but no thanks) to updating the BIOS, but none of these really appeal to me until I found a post where someone suggested that it might have to do with problems resolving DNS names. Going this direction, I think I have found the solution:

1. Right click My Computer > Manage
2. Click Services and Applications
3. Click Services
4. Select DNS Client (click on the picture above for enlarge view)
5. Click Restart

The connection should be back to normal after going thru these steps. This trick works on my laptop everytime, but I haven't try it on another computer yet. If you have the same problem, please try the above solution and let me know if it works.

Sudoku Madness

2007-06-19T21:01:00.000-04:00

Sudoku has been a hit for years but I never really catch on until I move to a new company.

In my current workplace, one of our favourite pastime is playing crossword puzzles on the free Metro paper. However my interest in crossword quickly fades as words like "ERR" appear in the crossword solution - what kind of word is "ERR"? So my attention gradually shifts to Sudoku, and I must say it is pretty addictive. Now a day can't pass without a few games of Sudoku.

Here's a great site for some free Sudoku:

http://www.websudoku.com/

Pain in the Neck

2007-05-04T20:32:00.000-04:00

Woke up on Tuesday morning with a killing pain in the neck...I'm going to throw my freaking pillow out of the window and just use a rolled-up towel as pillow from now on. The foam pillow is only good for one sleeping posture - if it fits you when you are on your back, then it will be too low when you are on your side; if it's perfect for sleeping on the side, then it's too high on the back. And who wouldn't toss around a bit during the night? I might as well strap myself to the bed to keep me sleeping on my back all night long.

Whoever invent the perfect pillow will be a rich man. Before then, Advil and ice pack will be my best friends.

Procrastination

2007-03-18T20:09:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm suppose to be writing my part of the group project write-up this weekend. Yet it's already Sunday 8pm and I have barely started anything.

Thanks to procrastination, my desk is sparkling clean - I have spent the entire weekend cleaning up papers that's been accumulating on my desk for months and perhaps years.

And I am updating my blog, doing anything but working on my paper.

For the next few hours, I'll have to strap myself to the chair and write the god-damned paper.

On a positive note, at least I have a clean desk to work on.

2nd Day

2007-02-15T20:13:00.000-05:00

Today I receive my security badge and computer sign on. Let the training begin!

After being on the giving end of training for the past two weeks, it sure feels weird to be on the receiving end of training.

Feb 14: First Day

2007-02-15T18:48:00.000-05:00

Today is my first day on the new job and I have tons of white fluffy stuff piling on the ground to greet me. I made a big mistake to walk from the train station to the company - it's a 30 min walk and by the time I reach the building, I cannot feel my legs and my glasses are laced with ice!

Apparently there are a lot of new hires, so I don't have a computer sign on yet. I end up spend most of the time with HR and reading the orientation material.

It definitely feels strange to leave the office at 4:30pm since I'm so used to a 10 hr work day at my old place.

Feb 13: Last day

2007-02-15T18:36:00.000-05:00

After a long job hunt, finally I'm out of the door.

Part of the reason why my job hunt lasted so long is because I do enjoy the small company setting: most of my coworkers are decent people whom I know well; communication is mostly informal; dress code is basically lax. However I can't see opportunity for professional growth in this small company, so it's time to move on.

I will definitely miss my coworkers.

Feb 11: Family Reunion

2007-02-15T18:11:00.000-05:00

It was at least two years since the entire family sat around the same table and enjoyed a meal together. Though the time is short but it was really "quality time" spent.

Hopefully my new job will work out well so that I can afford to spend some vacation days to visit my brothers more often.

大功告成

2007-02-04T17:52:00.000-05:00

爛 Hinge 1

身首分離

爛 Hinge 2

靚哂!

只用了三十分鐘就換好 laptop hinge, 忽然之間覺得自己好勁...哈哈哈...

爆機

2007-01-20T20:47:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how the hinge broke. After dealing with some hardware problems with Dell laptops at work, my gut feeling is that this problem should be something I can fix myself provided I have the parts, so it led to my first eBay experience.

Lesson learned:
I should have called Dell first before looking at eBay, it turns out that it costed more to buy on eBay than order the part directly with Dell. It's also more hassle with this particular eBay purchase - the seller is in the states and I have to make some special arrangement to pay him; also I'm losing on the currency conversion.

The part should be arrived at my office next week, hopefully it is in good condition.

萬般帶不走唯有 Pod 隨身

2007-01-20T20:33:00.000-05:00

Christmas gift from 亞 Ra...I'm lovin' it!

Thank you brother!

End of Parole

2007-01-20T20:21:00.000-05:00

I hope to accomplish at least one of these during the Christmas holiday:
1. clean up the room (which looked like a scene from Armageddon or The Day After Tomorrow)
2. read the new books that I just bought
3. clean up old emails

Here's the report card:
1. all previous lecture notes are bundled up nicely. It's a pity to see how many trees I killed indirectly.
2. I'm only half way through, but my course already started :(
3. *not started*

Not bad...

On Parole

2006-12-17T21:58:00.000-05:00

The fall term is finally over.

Two weeks of parole before next term - what should I do:
1. clean up the room (which looked like a scene from Armageddon or The Day After Tomorrow)
2. read the new books that I just bought
3. clean up old emails

All of the above daunting tasks will take days to complete... my goodness, I think I need another beer...

阿四

2006-11-24T21:12:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago, I received an internal job posting email from my friend 阿四 who knew I'm looking for a job. This is the song playing in my head when I open up the email:

"人生有真正朋友的確好極!"

It is nice to know your friends care about you :)

Campaign for Real Beauty

2006-10-22T15:54:00.000-04:00

Check this out! Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty video:

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

Invitation to the Penguin Club......sent by M$

2006-10-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

I was not happy with the way M$ installed WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) behind my back and have it "phone-home" to M$ every now and then. I was further upset by the way they claimed that the WGA is infallible and turned a blind eye to the contrary fact.

See this - Image Gallery: What really happens when WGA attacks
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=112&page=1

Not only that, M$ deemed their WGA so successful that they decide to push the envelop further in Vista. Here's what would happen if Vista WGA thinks your OS is pirate:

"By choosing "Access your computer with reduced functionality," the default Web browser will be started and the user will be presented with an option to purchase a new product key. There is no start menu, no desktop icons, and the desktop background is changed to black. The Web browser will fully function and Internet connectivity will not be blocked. After one hour, the system will log the user out without warning. It will not shut down the machine, and the user can log back in. Note: This is different from the Windows XP RFM experience, which limits screen resolution, colors, sounds and other features."

Source: For Vista, WGA gets tougher
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=148

Combining the fact that:
1. WGA detection is not perfect, some ZD bloggers even suggest as high as 20% false positive rate (among those detected as pirate)
2. WGA will phone home at least once a month for critical patch updates
3. It is unclear whether the WGA will get "improvements" (more intrusive) on XP
4. The grave consequence (essentially a kill swithch) of failing the WGA test

The Penguin just looks more and more attractive.

Hello M$, I have the right to use my own hardware that I paid hard-earned cash for. Just because I have to re-format my hard drive doesn't mean I have to buy another copy of your OS, or spend endless hours trying to communicate with an uncomprehensible tech support.

I think I'll get a CD from Ubuntu to test the Linux water. It can be ran from a CD so it doesn't need to be actually installed on the computer.

For more info, see http://www.ubuntu.com/

Human Vacuum Cleaner

2006-10-03T20:59:00.000-04:00

Today I finally found a bit of time to check out the computer that went bluescreen on Monday.

As I sprayed the inside with a can of air, a mushroom cloud of dust escaped from the case. At least I won't be feasting on dust - or so I thought. After an hour or so, I felt like the dust had settled on my throat and started to wheeze as if having an asthma attack.

I thought it is silly to wear a dust mask for these itty-bitty tasks, now the idea seems not that silly after all.

Trip to Wineries

2006-10-01T18:42:00.000-04:00

My family just had the annual trip to the Niagara-on-the-Lake wineries this Saturday and it sucked.

First of all the weather was bad, there was no sun, just thick black clouds. Second, we spent most of the time in Scotland looking for the Gingsen Farm we visited last year. I gave one wrong map direction and from this point on, Dad snatched the map from my hands for any slightest doubt in directions. This is suppose to be a relaxing trip for crying out loud, why everything in his life have to become a mission of some kind?

Then came the final straw. Dad was a road warrior and I can tolerate that for short trips in the local, but a 2-hour drive is too much to bear. Why the heck is he driving at 120 km/h at a 60km/h zone? Tailgating any car in front of him? What's the rush? By the time I reach home I had a pounding headache and a sick stomach.

I think this would be the last time I'm going to any out of town trip with my parents.

1st Day of Class

2006-09-15T06:38:00.000-04:00

Last night is the beginning of the Auditing class. The instructor spent about 10 minutes to go through some standard term-opening items and then...

"That's it for tonight. You may go."

Everyone in the class were in shock. No one moved for one full minute and the instructor just smiled and said nothing. We then realized that this was not a joke and started to leave.

I could still catch my last train and had an easy night, but imagine those who fought the traffic, drove all the way to downtown, and paid $10 parking only to hear the instructor calling it a day in 10 minutes - I would not be happy.

Let's see how the next class will go.

Scream!

2006-09-07T04:37:00.000-04:00

My boss was gone for a 2-week vacation in August. Guess what happened? 5 computers went blue-screen within the 2-weeks span!

The last time she had a 2-week vacation, the server room's UPS went dead and down with it, the servers. I swear there's a curse going on.

Wolf Totem

2006-08-19T23:06:00.000-04:00

Finally I got my hands on the Chinese novel, Wolf Totem, the story of a young Beijing student on exile in Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution.

Because of my background in environment science, the first chapter had already lured me into the story: it described the local leaders who insisted on total eradication of wolves in the grassland without considering the effects on the food chain. My head is screaming "this story must be translated into English", "this is great environment course material" as I flipped through the pages. Not surprisingly, an English translation project is already underway. The British Penguin Group bought the English copyright and will publish the book in 2007. I'm really looking forward to it.

What has gotten into Zidane?!

2006-07-09T21:21:00.000-04:00

It is so disappointing to see Zidane ending his legendary career with an ugly headbutt and a red card.

What Materazzi said to provoke the soccer great might forever be a mystery, hope the press won't be too hard on Zidane.

Farewell, my soccer hero!

Bye Bye, King of Divers! (拜拜插水王!)

2006-07-06T23:21:00.000-04:00

葡萄牙影帝 Cristiano Ronaldo

Go home with your Portugal teammates and learn something called "sportsmanship"!

(Now I have one more reason to love Zidane!)

Cheating Portugal Highlights vs France World Cup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QSHB-AQZ1E

買球票送葡萄牙花式插水表演, 抵睇!

T2 Fans Must See!

2006-06-28T22:13:00.000-04:00

I was browsing around YouTube and bumped into this parody of T2 from a Japanese TV Show called Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Desu.

If you are well versed with T2, you will get most of the jokes without knowing any Japanese.

TUNNELS - TERMINATOR ( 1/3 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX0tUoME0F4

TUNNELS - TERMINATOR ( 2/3 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d66mWLKnvyM

TUNNELS - TERMINATOR ( 3/3 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqpypZTPLrU

Enjoy!!

唉!

2006-06-20T21:19:00.000-04:00

最怕乜都唔識又乜都要 Hi-Tech 0既人

聽o的三姑六婆介紹新o野就仆倒去買 , 哂一舊錢兼哂我一大輪時間 setup 後 , 竟然教極都唔識用 o

知道賴o野就去老細度篤背脊賴我唔識教 o

救命~~~~

Father's Day + Mama's B-Day

2006-06-19T22:25:00.000-04:00

We didn't do anything special on Father's Day this year since both Dad and I were busy working on our own weekend projects.

Dad's project: Fixing up a metal rack for his orchids -> 80% done
My project: Repair the CD-ROM drive on the family desktop -> mission accomplished!

All three of us went to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate the Father Day/Mama B-Day. The food was delicious, the Zaru Soba (cold buckwheat noodle) was outstanding. I wish I had more room to try their spider roll, maybe will try it next time.

Dad bought a chocolate mango mousse for Mom. The cake looked pretty good, but I should have take a photo of it last night, so now I don't have a pic to show you :P

Evidences of Global Warming...

2006-06-13T23:01:00.000-04:00

Evidence 1: Retreating Glacier

Evidence 2: Women Fashion

1950

Today

In Memory of Mr. Rabbit

2006-06-13T00:38:00.001-04:00

I have never expected that my blog would start off with a sad note. Mr. Rabbit (aka "Ah Bad"), our family's 12-year old rabbit, passed away on Sunday.

Originally I planned to bring Mr. Rabbit to the vet this weekend, so I called the vet office on Sat morning only to find out that Dr. Alkesh, the rabbit expert, won't be back to the office til Tuesday...too bad Ah Bad didn't made it.

He had long been considered a family member but I didn't fully realize how much he had became part of my daily live until he's gone. For example, I am so used to peeking at his cage whenever I pass the laundry room that I'm even doing it after he's gone. Soon after catching myself doing this, I cleaned up his cage and stored it away in the basement. Hopefully this will help me and my parents to cope with the lost. For sure it hurts to stare at the empty cage...

A big thank you to Czar's mom, Olivia and Randy, who drove me to the vet on Sunday, for sure I was in no condition to drive that day.

A comforting thought is that he did have his favourite sneak a few hours before his "departure".

I also like Schola's idea that "Ah Bad is probably happily munching Shreddies in another world".