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Saturday, 25 April 2009

Lenovo R500 So far

So far so good w/ my R500 except the keyboard flex is too much!!!! I need to press with much larger force compared to the t42 that I am using at work.....
Love the big wide screen -bright and perfect for browsing, reading articles etc

Monday, 20 April 2009

Just got my Thinkpad R500!!!

Just got my thinkpad R500!!! The only thing I am not that satisfied w/ is that there is a huge typing sound with this thinkpad. Other than that ,the screen is just phenomenal~ At the employee discount rate, I bought this laptop for roughly $700 (inc. tax) ...not a bad deal ehuh?

Saturday, 14 March 2009

Had our Valentine's Day celebration late by a month exactly - and today, Parky and I went to NYC after his part-time class in the morning ... We first went to buy the tickets for the Lion King at the Minskow Theatre - phew! The tickets were expensive - we got a great pair of orchestra seats sold at $121 per tix! I remember a year ago we tried getting tickets right before the show started and we failed as the show was so so so popular at that time...... After that, we went to bubba gump (the seafood chain restaurant with a theme of Forrest Gump) - Parky reminded me that it was the third time we went there. Lunch was decent, we shared a hamburger, cajun shrimp and a clam chowder though he was limping along with the cold. I am thankful that he still hanged out with me - in fact, our 'celebration' was delayed by two weeks. This is the view looking out from the restaurant ==>

After lunch we went straight ahead for.... the Lion King !!! It was AWESOME !!! Totally beyond expectation - not any regular broadway show one would expect~!!!! Do check it out everybody when you get a chance. When people said the costumes were great I thought 'yeh, lots of make up perhaps'. But, when I actually saw it, it was nothing like what I thought!

After the show we walked from Broadway to - our favourite town - K town , actually, it's called the Korean Way. I didn't know it had a name to begin with. The K-town, is filled with restaurants, bakery, ice-cream stores, hair salons and stationary/accessories. Tonight, we were going to make a safe bet at Kamkansang but we ran into this restaurant called 'the Tofu House' which had two big posters claiming it had been featured on LA and NY times. Ok! Fine- let's see how true the features were - and it was not bad at all! In fact, the sidedishes were really good. I was impressed that each person got his own little fish - One thing special is that they make the white rice off from a stone bowl, and after they serve you the white rice, they leave the remainining rice on the pot till it got a bit burnt, then mixed it with some hot water --> What came out was a really tasty kind of rice-tea ! Not sure how healthy that was but it sure tasted yummy

Anyhoo.... been almost 4 years we're together - time flies and along the way, we have really , really learned a great deal about each other - and I think most of the learning comes from learning about ourselves. For me, I learned that I could be quite emotional sometimes, and I really thank him for being so tolerant and patient despite all that I did before... Thank you parky!

Friday, 13 March 2009

I think I learned something - took me two years to realize....

Being an engineer-by-training, I think I tend to always use data to persuade people - to influence people. But, what I didn't realize is, beyond data, there are many other ways in persuasion.

I was asked the question, 'well, tell me a time when data is not enough to persuade people'.

I was dumbfounded. Err.... Er.... Err... Finally, I babbled something that I thought totally didn't make sense afterwards.

Was there a time when you are moved by a speech without data - many times! Now, why cant you do the same?

That's when I realized I have been totally accustomed to one-mode of influencing others - and that is using data.

Monday, 09 February 2009

如果沒有希望。。。就不會失望吧。。。
或者，是不要將太多的希望給放在一個地方，一個人，或是一個計劃上。
Ava,加油吧！！！　忘記背后，　永遠向前！！！

Sunday, 08 February 2009

Coming back from HK~

Coming back from a one-week trip from Hong Kong was always the same feeling - emptiness once arriving at the airport, missing my dear family and friends. But after a few days, not only do I get over jet-lag but also gotten rid of the emptiness. The first week of work was tough as I was trying to get over both jet-lag and the holiday mood. But I think it was not as tough as I thought it would be... Afterall, there was some good news. Somehow, I begin to realize how visionary I was , or, perhaps a little bit naive, about work/career when I was in college or younger. I thought I could change the world with my career. But, sometimes, the higher expectation, the more effort you put into it, and the more disappointment you might get. That was exactly what happened to me and my mother said to me, 'it's just work ! you don't need to be all over it ! ' As opposed to my dad, who always pushes me to find the 'higher' point, I find my mom's advice this time very insightful, and if anything, allowed me to take a breather in life.

Yesterday while watching the Death Note 1 - a DVD that a colleague of mine lent to me when I overheard their conversations about how great the movie was, I saw the main character eating pork cutlet. So I was like 'yeah i gotta have that!' then Parky, said 'you know, if we go to H-mart tomorrow they have it!'. There, my hope was raised high. And, somehow, it became the biggest takeaway message from the movie DeathNote 1 - pork cutlet. Ha ha, no kidding. But the reason we were not so excited about the movie was because we already watched DeathNote2 beforehand... so things were not that new to us anymore. Somehow, I like the traditional 'The Ring' more.

Finally, I want to thank my friends who came out to meet me during my stay in HK despite their involved business - whether work, or chinese new year, or family gatherings - Hung Hung, Gi-Gi, Joann, Carol, Albert, Hata (who attempted to meet me) and Lao Kit (sorry !!! )
And, apology to those whom I could not find the opportunity to meet as time was short this time.

Most of all, thanks to mom, dad, and my dear brother who tolerated such a lousy character like mine in the family... ^_^

Thursday, 15 January 2009

finally...everything is done...and it's a waiting mode.... thank you to everyone who has helped me....

work is on fire these past two weeks... lots of things to learn, and lots of mistakes.... if anything, working at IBM has taught me several things so far
i) learning how to THINK AHEAD not only in terms of 'tomorrow', but also in a month or quarters~
ii) RISK mitigation - whatever decisions always come with RISK, and you always have to be aware of it and think about its implications
iii) how to communicate with people - and how not to react impulsively
iv) assuming GOOD intentions from people are always the way to go...NEVER assume bad intentions.
Ava - you have to get better day by day!!!