Man and Gadgets

While having lunch with an ex-colleague of mine this week, other than sighing what we have faced at work respectively. One item that my friend raised was interesting. It is about Men and its gadgets. I said, compared with most other men, I do have less gadgets than them. E.g. I don't play with cameras or handheld portable gaming devices. But I do pay a lot of attention on iPhone, iPod, etc. So, for men, though whether they change their gadgets frequently or owning how many of them is one thing, most of them do have interests in those things. I explained to my friend that interested in gadgets is in line with our DNA evolution. When our ancestors were cavemen, the women were staying in the cave to cook and carrying the young, men were out hunting or fishing. They will compete and compare with their tools. They would analyze them, improve them and all that. That's how many came to interest in their gadgets.

Come to think of it, men are more superficial in some ways. We like excitements to our senses. So, we like our PMP to watch videos, listen to mp3, play with games, taking pictures, etc. That's why for most women, they don't use more than 5% of the functions in their smartphone, cos all they do is talk! They may change the case of their mobile or hang some fluffy hello kitty to their phone, put stickers here and there. To be able to change the wallpaper is already a big thing. Sure, there are always some women know a lot more about tech function stuff, even more than men in some cases. But most of them, just do what I just described. Well, there's nothing wrong with that, we just look at things differently. Women are more into art and beauty, men are more into functionalities. That's why when people are changing their gadgets, men and women are usually doing that for different reasons.

Well, I just can't wait till July 17, that's when the new iPhone supposed to come out. I will make my final decision then on whether I will jump on board on the unstoppable train of iPhone. Though I've been saying yes to that for more than a year, in the last two days, I was thinking if I should keep my mobile and get an iPod Touch instead. Well, I'm still thinking.....

My two cents on 'History'

There have been quite few news about history lately. People are debating whether certain history has been taken out in textbooks, whether government officials have been hiding behind facts and said things that to please their bosses or serves their personal interests, etc.

History to me has two important aspects: facts and analysis, they both link to each other and are valueless without each other. The important of history is to record what had happened. Then, people can trace the causes and effects of each event to link them together to provide lessons for future reference. So, people will know if these had happened, that could happen, and the effect would be…

For events that didn’t happen too far back in the history, especially those in recent decades, with the prominence of recording technology and the fact that many people who are involved in the events may still alive. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out what had happened. Certainly, every major event would have people taking sides based on their background, and interests. To record the fact, historians should talk to all sides and present their opinions on what and why they did and said. The worse case is to hide and cover certain facts simply because they want to conclude to the pre-set results of their analysis. So, I think that analysis methods and results could be debatable, but the source materials should be the same, because they are facts!

Tired

I feel tired today. I should say I've been feeling tired lately. Do I sleep well? I think I do. I still dream as usual, have about the same number of hours. Not much different from before. I think it has a lot to do with how I feel in my waking hours.

I like predictable livelihood. Cos, that would give me more comfort. Yes, many folks consider surprises to be fun, make lives more exciting. I understand that but I'm not as keen as most others about surprise. That's why I think that I've a higher tolerance of being boring than many folks. But lately, I think my life is perhaps too 'routine' for too long that I just kind sick and tired of it a bit. I don't think I'm complaining to myself seriously, but I do feel that I need to do something to 'jump start' my zombie daily routine in recent times.

Reading, music, movies are some of stuff that used to able to relax my mind. That's why back in the old days, I would go to bookstore, music store, cinema to enjoy my time there. Now, I just don't have such spare time to do such luxury things. Well, not that I can't do those things completely. For reading, I can surf the web to read articles, I've books at home that I've never read since I bought them. So, what is the point of going to bookstore? For music, I've tons of mp3 at home that I've not yet loaded on my iPod, what's the point to go to HMV? For movies, I've videos at home that I just don't have the time to watch, well, I still will go to cinema to see some movies that I wanna see this summer, but just not yet. So, the conclusion for them is that those relaxing items would not be able to help me now.

Well, there are other things that may help, but that would require 'somebody' to be available. It is just not happening now.

I think what I need is to do some exercises, I've not gone to gym for over a month. Maybe, I should do that, only if my wife and I can work 'things' out. Otherwise, I can only work out at home.

Well, I guess what I said above are just some very personal feelings. For folks who doesn't know me, sorry for wasting your time!

R.I.P. Sarah Connor and Michael Scofield

In the last few years, I didn't have much time to watch TV, but there are still few series that I tried to catch up 'somehow', mostly on the web. Now, except "Heroes" which will still see the light for season 5 - Redemption. My other 2 remaining favorites are all come to ends! Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles will not be renewed for season 3 and PrisonBreak runs its course in season 4 with the DEATH of Michael Scofield! Well, Sarch Connor has cancer and we all know that she is dead too. 

So, that's it! I think I need to start to search for something good to watch when I've time. Not sure if 'Fringe' is any good.....

Latest Personal Happenings - May 09

1. Just recovered from a flu, not swine, thank you very much! I took 2 afternoon off from works to sleep at home. Finally, feeling better. Nothing is more important than being healthy.

2. My son is getting very talkative. He is at the stage of repeating the last few words that he hears. So, he is very cute of doing that now. He is still not good in walking up or down stairs. Also, he is still learning to use toilet. Funny thing is that he loves to eat vegetables and tofu lately.

3. Work is busy, but still manageable. Just not doing the best that I can. My current company is just different from others. People here don't chit chat. They work and work, talk about work, then go home. It is not a fun place to work. But here, it may be too much to ask these days!

4. I saw Pet Shop Boys in my dream last night, after a concert, I saw those two guys going to Australia and New Zealand separately. Also, I saw my coworker in my dream as well, just trying to solve some complex work problem on email, a very tiring dream.

5. Crossing my fingers for June 8, new iPhone will be released. I'm gonna get it, finally....


6. Went to same restaurant for Mother's day lunch with my family and dinner for my wife's family. Kinda sick of those greasy food. That's why I went for sandwiches and veggie these few days for lunch. Learn that my younger sis is going to U.K. in few days, to see her favorite team - the Manchester United in play. Good for her!

Not much else, my life is just boring, but I don't really complain, cos I may not like or be able to handle the otherwise. Sometimes, simple life is the best...

Philips Carousel Commercial - Adam Berg Commercial of the Year Stink Digital

One of the most amazing bullet-time visual effect in recent time!

NBA Playoff 2009 Prediction

While there have already been many similar predictions done by others on the web, I just wanna share mine to see how the end will be.

East Coast:
Cleveland will beat Atlanta 4:1
Boston will beat Orlando 4:3
Cleveland will beat Boston 4:2

West Coast:
L.A. will beat Houston 4:2
Denver will beat Dalla 4:2
L.A. will beat Denver 4:3

Final:
Cleveland will beat L.A. 4:3

An extraordinary story (1)

Just want share a story with all of you...

A man, let’s called him Bob, is about to retired from his career as a police detective. In one sunny afternoon, he was driving on the freeway along the California seacoast. There were not many cars on the road at that time. Suddenly, he saw a car began to slow down and drifting from the fast lane to the slow lanes. Somehow, it stopped on the emergency side road of the highway. He saw the whole thing from far a way. Out of his curiosity, perhaps as a result of his lifelong build-up in his career, he decided to pull over his car and check out that car to find out what’s going on.

When he was about to approach the driver side of that car, he saw a young lady dosing her head on the string ring while the engine of the car was still on. He repeatedly knocked the window but failed to get her attention. As a result, out of a hunch, he smashed the window and opened the door. He found that the lady was not breathing and basically she was dead. Certainly, he called up his colleague to report this incident and do the normal follow up. Did she die of heart attack or stroke? Later on, a doctor found that there was a small bullet hole behind her left ear that was not very visible as there was not much blood coming out and that was kind of hidden by her long hair.

The news of discovery of that bullet got to Bob and he was shocked by it. Since he was about to retire, his boss was not going to assign a ‘shooting’ case to him. The more Bob had thought about the whole incident, the more he got himself into the detective mold to resolve this case. He begged his boss to assign the case to him and his boss finally fulfill his wish. Bob went to the garage where the lady’s car was held. The car was an old white European car, nothing special to it. The most striking thing is that he couldn’t find any bullet hole, as he should see that, being the witness of the incident and first on site person at the scene. The windows were all closed, except the one ‘behind’ the driver seat, it was barely open with three to four inches gap. Bob was thinking…is that it? Someone could aim to take a shot to go through a gap of a backseat window of a moving vehicle and kill that person! If it was really the case, he/she must be the best striker or assassin in the world!

As a normal procedure, he did a thorough background check of the victim. She was just an ordinary person. A 36 years old, single white female, worked as a clerk for a small trading company. She had no boyfriend, no pet, no loan, no drug addiction, just a person living a simple life. Bob couldn’t sense any cause that she would make her a target of murder.

Then, Bob drove back to the site where the incident happened. As it was happened on the road, so it took a while for him gauge where would she get shot. As he parked his car along the sideway of the fast lane, he took a deep breath while take a detail look of the surrounding. On the right side of the highway was hill that way up with trees and bushes, no one was going to hide there. Based on the angle of the shot, the shooter would not be there as well. On the left hand side of the highway, it was off the cliff. You can only see there was a small bayside community miles away, and the rest was just blue, the ocean!

Bob went to a local library of the bayside community and made a copy of the local map. While standing outside the library, he held the map and tried to match which little white rectangle to which boathouse. He had a hunch to just put his figure on one of them and decided to start his investigation from there.

He knocked the door of boathouse that he chose randomly. A man of about 50 years old answered and opened the door for him with a big smile. Bob introduced who he was but did not say much about the case. He then ask if the guy know anyone has XXX which is the brand and model number of an old rifle. That’s based on the bullet from the victim that he researched on what rifle would use such bullet. The man replied that I got one in the garage, but had not been used for many years. He used to take it to go hunting with friends back twenty years or so ago. But it should be in good condition, because he fired it once weeks ago to see if it still worked and it did. Then, he put that back in the garage again. Bob’s eyes were wide opened and ask: “where did you take the shot?” The man said that he just fire it up in the air toward that side, as he pointed his finger to the cliff where the freeway was metres above. Bob said: “how come you didn’t shoot to the open sea on the other side?”. The man just said there were some boats in that area, so he didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Bob borrowed his rifle and took that to get examined. It matched his prediction that it was the one that fire that single bullet that kill the woman on the highway…

The court later rule that this case is a pure accident. Testimonies from medical and a fire-arm experts suggested that the bullet had flied in the air for so long that it actually didn’t have much power left when it reached the car. If the car window was closed, it would probably not enough to penetrate the window. But,…as we knew how that had ended up.

This is a real life extraordinary incident that I learned almost ten years ago.

Life talk (take 2)

Learning has always been my life-long belief. Yes, there are many hard skills that we can pick up by taking courses, reading books, following a mentor or something. However, as an adult, I found it being difficult to squeeze time to learn such hard skills, cos there are just too many interruptions that invite more urgent attention. On the other hand, I think that learning or I should say improving my soft skills is actually more important and beneficial in my daily life. I’m not trying to put down the importance of hard skills. For a person who can’t speak Spanish, I think I can hire someone that can. However, once you hire that person, to manage the needs of that person, to communicate your requirements to that person, and analyze his/her performance, etc. Those are soft skills you got to have in order to be a successful person while dealing with another person. Such people skills are just important.

I’m not living alone, so I’ve to cater others’needs. Being a mature and responsible adult, means that I can’t be too self-centered all the time. To be honest, I think it is a lifetime job to be a good husband and a good father. Well, as many books as you can read, each one has different situations, we just have to fall and rise, learning by trials and errors some times. I can learn from my dad, but he is not a good model for me. Not that he is not a good husband or father, he just has different personality and different family situation back then. So, everyday is a new learning lesson for me.

To be a good husband, I don’t know how good or bad a job I’m doing. Has my wife ever complained? That’s for sure. Has she praised me for being a good husband? That’s for sure too. So, I think that, just like most other things, I always have the room to improve. I can’t tell other people what is the guideline to be a good husband, cos most couples are unique. Some women wouldn’t mind if their husbands have a mind of their own, but some women want to have total control. Some men would find that appalling, but there are always someone who wouldn’t mind such control. So, it all depends. But one thing that I would mostly certain is that: Don’t try to change your partner. It takes years for that person to become who he/she is today. He/she is not gonna change just because you want him/her to. If you try, you will very likely fail. If you try harder, you will very likely fail harder. I’m talking about the character stuff, not habits or hobbies. When you chose to live with this person, try to understand what he/she is, and accept who he/she is. Otherwise, you are not gonna enjoy the times together when ‘that’ character bursts out.

Certainly, there are some widely acceptable moral ‘lines’ about marriage that neither men nor women should try to step across, I would say that learning to live harmoniously with someone and both can enjoy or ‘accept’ is an art, as well as skill that would take years to learn and master.

To be a good dad, that’s also very challenging. The good thing is that your kid is like a white paper, it is up to you how you wanna bring him/her up. That’s one school of thought, but my experience so far is that he/she is borned with certain personality that you can twit but not change. Like you can make the oranges of your orange tree sweeter, but you can make it to bear mangoes. We always have a thought that if I become a parent someday, we will do this this and this, but not that, that and that to my kid, based on our childhood experience from our parents. Sure, now it is time for me to do that, but..will and can I do it? Hmm…..I don’t know! Cos, time just changes. I do have beliefs on how I would bring up my kid, but would I be able to against all external influences? I’m not sure. Like, I would not want my kid to be addicted to video games. Well, it is still too learn to tell, I still have time to plan what I wanna do. For now, I can only say time would tell……same for whether I’m a good father or not.