Interesting Painting

See how many of them do you know?

I saw this pic on 'www.littleoslo.com'

Personal Mobile History

Comparing with most folks in Hong Kong, I think I’m way below average in terms of switching new mobile phone. Most folks changed there mobile annually, and I used to have some colleagues who change their mobile like every 3-4 months. To recount my old mobiles, I think this new one is my 7th. My very first mobile is a Motorola bulky mobile with a thick battery, it was a flip phone that back in 1996-97. My second one is also a Motorola Startec, it was considered to be very small back in 1999. Then, the next one is an Ericsson, not Sony-Ericsson, flip phone, it was gift from my dad back in 1999-2002. Then, I purchase my first Nokia 8250. I used that for few years as it was durable and actually I’m not a heavy caller and I don’t really do much with my phone anyway. After few years amazingly as phones are upgraded, I hadn’t temped to get a new one until 2006, when I bought a Toshiba T30, it was thin of only 9.9mm thick. Unfortunately, it was broken due to a ‘violent’ incident. So, I sold that to a street vendor for $400 and use my wife’s old Nokia phone until last weekend. I bought a new mobile phone last weekend, a Samsung Anycall L768.

I did some research to find out what is available now and finally select this one. It has most of the functions that I need and I join the 3G plan that come with this phone to access news and videos. I think I will enjoy this one when I start my new job next week.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Lately, I’ve been quite stressful due to couple of events. Firstly, my two-months-old son was emitted to hospital due to a sudden fever around midnight last week. Thank God, he is ok for now and he has to go through one more invasive testing to check if he has the problem of urine backflow which could be serious download if it remains untreated. That makes my wife very stressful and it flows back to me. Secondly, my wife is worrying about going back to work after more than 10 weeks of maternity leave. Similar to first event, her stress flows back to me. Thirdly, I’m about to start in a new company next week. It is always nice to have a new start in some sense. However, it is a stressful thing to start, knowing that the situation there is by no mean easy. That position, I would say is a quite ‘hostile’ position with some many unknowns. Though, I got inside briefing of the situation, knowing that is one thing, being there is another. I do put some pressure on myself to succeed in the new job there. I feel like I’ve something to prove to myself.

The stress above is substantial, and I don’t think I’m fully prepared to handle all of them when the timings of the above are so intertwined. However, while I’ve tried to do some soul-searching on how to handle all that stress, I spent few hours of reading in those few days that I was spending with my son in hospital. In between of feeding, diaper-changing, and cuddling my son, I found time to pick up a book that I bought years ago but never went through more than the first 50 pages. The book is “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. I’ve not gone through the whole book yet, but by ready the first 3 habits, I think that I’ve seen some light out of my current situation. At the age, in these days, I don’t get much advice or heads-up from other folks much. There are certainly some lessons or wisdom that I used to know but forgot as they have not been called into practice. However, this book does help me to refresh certain wisdom that would be useful to me now.

Quoted from Wiki, the seven habits can be summarized as follow:

1. Be Pro-active. Here, Covey emphasizes the original sense of the term "proactive" as coined by Victor Frankl. You can either be proactive or reactive when it comes to how you act about certain things. Being "proactive" means taking responsibility for everything in life. When you're reactive, you blame other people and circumstances for obstacles or problems. Initiative, and taking action will then follow. Covey shows how man is different from other animals in that he has self-consciousness. He has the ability to detach himself and observe his own self, think about his thoughts. He goes on to say how this attribute enables him. It gives him the power not to be affected by his circumstances. Covey talks about 'Stimulus and Response'. Between Stimulus and Response, we have the power to choose the response.

2. Begin with the End In Mind. This chapter is about setting long-term goals based on "true-north principles." Covey recommends to formulate a "personal mission statement" to document one's perception of one's own purpose in life. He sees visualization as an important tool to develop this. He also deals with organizational mission statements, which he claims to be more effective if developed and supported by all members of an organization, rather than being prescribed.

3. Put First Things First. Here, Covey describes a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at long-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear to be urgent, but are in fact less important. Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed in advance, rather than on prescribing detailed work plans.

4. Think Win/Win describes an attitude whereby mutually beneficial solutions are sought, that satisfy the needs of oneself as well as others, or, in the case of a conflict, both parties involved.

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Covey warns that giving out advice before having empathetically understood a person and their situation will likely result in that advice being rejected. Thoroughly listening to another person's concerns instead of reading out your own autobiography is purported to increase the chance of establishing a working communication.

6. Synergize describes a way of working in teams. Apply effective problem solving. Apply collaborative decision making. Value differences. Build on divergent strengths. Leverage creative collaboration. Embrace and leverage innovation. It is put forth that, when this is pursued as a habit, the result of the teamwork will exceed the sum of what each of the members could have achieved on their own. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

7. Sharpen the saw focuses on balanced self-renewal. Regaining what Covey calls "production capability" by engaging in carefully selected recreational activities.

I think that the idea of “Between Stimulus and Response, we have the power to choose the response’ is very useful for me to deal with stress. I have to rely more on my logical side to handle this. I think that it can help keep my EQ level to handle all the incoming ‘waves’ from allover.

Also, ‘visualization’ is something I used to practice, so I think I will use it again especially in setting goals in my new job.

‘Put First Things First’ is going to be a big challenge to me as I really ‘buy’ this concept, but it is certainly something easy to understand but hard to practice. I think I will try to do that, if not practicing well, as least I need to keep this concept in mind all the time. Otherwise, I think I will be swarmed in my new job, as well as at home.

For all the rest, I’ve not completed my reading yet and I doubt that I will have much time to do that anytime soon. Nonetheless, I’m glad to read that book which has stimulated my mind which is something that is long overdue.

Crossroad

When I'm approaching the crossroad in my life, I often have a feeling of uneasiness. A crossroad means the current path is ending and the new one is coming up. Sometimes, I've the opportunity to choose which way to go. Once I selected, though I rarely regret the choice that I made, I can't help feeling excited, nervous, and uncertain about what's gonna happen on the new path that I choose. Like who am I gonna encounter, all the goods and bads that come with it....

I think I do have quite a few large changes in my life this year, certainly nothing is bigger than being a dad for the first time. However, moving to a new apartment, hiring a housemaid, and an upcoming career move did have effect on my daily life. There is only so much I can plan, planning can only scetch the outlook of things, a lot of the time, the worst and the best things I have prepared for just don't happen. On the other hand, sometimes I find that the attitude of 'take it easy' to see how things go....are just excuses of being lazy to plan and prepare. Anyhow, nothing is perfect....

6 degrees in Auto-industry

Find this interesting graph illustrating the relationships of major automobile companies in the world.

Imagination

When I was a kid, just like many others, I loved to imagine things. Like if I’ve superpowers, what will I do. If I got stuck on an island (like Tom Hanks in Castaway), what will I do, etc. As I grow older, just like many others, I imagine less and less. Nonetheless, I think I still have ‘kid at heart’, so I still do imagine once in a while. Lately, I wondered the following ‘what if’ situation that I find it quite interesting:

What if….I can go back in time to see certain things…what do I want to see?

Certainly, as I’m older, I would self-impose certain conditions as follow:

1. I’ll not interfere with historical facts from their happenings.
2. I can safely return to nowadays without any injury.
3. I’ll only be observer there and others will not be able to notice my presence.

So, with the conditions set, I will list the following 10 things that I want to see (not in particular order):

1. The resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ
2. The moving of the last stone to build the Pyramid of Gaza
3. A tour of the tomb of the first emperor of China
4. A glimpse of T-Rex in hunting of preys
5. The first hour at the site of the Roswell UFO crash
6. When Moses crossed the Red Sea
7. How the Easter Island statues were raised
8. The last day of the Maya civilization
9. A tour of the Atlantis if it really existed
10. See my granddad, my grandmom, my dad and my mom when they were young.

Wonder what others would choose if they have the choices.

Questions as answer

As a logic person, I like things to be precise and concise. Yes, sometimes ambiguity is fine. However, in order not to mislead other people. I like to give straight and honest answers to questions. Nonetheless, I often like to criticize the ‘quality’ of questions especially those so called ‘general’ questions, which usually deserve ‘general' answers.

For example, you will say ‘fine’ when people ask you ‘how’s going?’ Actually, what is so ‘fine’ about? What exactly you are trying to ask me?

I find that answering general questions are wasting of time. That’s why sometimes I will answer those questions with questions like:

What exactly do you wanna know?
What is your definition of xxx?

Sometimes, it sounds rude to some people. Well, on the contrary, I would quite appreciate if they could answer my questions back. Cos, I find that means they really want to know something about me or care my opinion. It is just they’re kinda lazy to compose a precise question initially but make an effort to correct that.

I also care how other people define certain terms which are ‘commonly’ known, but it could be subjected to different interpretation.

For example, ‘Do you love your country?’ It is a very common question you see in the media nowadays. For me, I will definitely answer the questioner with these questions:

‘What is his/her definition of ‘love’ in the context of the question?’
‘Does ‘love’ refer to a feeling internally within my mind or it refer to some specific actions that I will take to demonstrate the feeling?’
‘For the latter, what kind of actions can be classified as love for your country?
Also, I will ask, ‘what do you mean by ‘country’ in this question?’
Is that means the ‘ruling regime’? the ‘history +/- culture +/- people +/- geographic region’?

I think all these questions are valid questions to be clarified before a more accurate answer can be given. I wish to know more people think along my way of thinking, cos I think this days many people in our society do not think critically and they happen to be those have access to make ‘noise’ in the media. That’s sad and appalling.

EQ on problem solving

People do get frustrated in life from time to time. They may face real difficulties and don’t know how to handle them, or they get upset due to a series of hiccups from different aspects which could happen separately in sequence in short period of time or together at the same time. Or just they get upset for no particular reason.

Anyway, as every problem is different, so does their solutions. I’m not trying to tell anyone how to solve their problems. But, many people have to go through some emotional ups and downs before they can begin to work out the solution to their problems. I think that there are always some ways to deal with those negative emotions like frustration, anger, and sadness. Some people relies on drugs, religious practices, sports, music, foods, sleep, bathing, spa, reading, chatting with others, even shopping, or a combination of the above to deal with their emotions. I did try some of them before (certainly not drugs), sometimes they work, many times they don’t. But I’ve a method that work for me quite often -

My method is to take a walk on my own and talk to myself. Namely, I will take a walk slowly, anytime of the day is fine, better to be in an open area where I can see the nature, like by the seaside, or in rural area where there are trees. Walking in shopping mall or on busy street is certainly not recommended. I find it better to be alone so I don't need to deal with others. Also, I prefer that place to be as less crowded as possible. So, it won’t be so weird when people see me talking to myself. Certainly, it is better nowadays because others will think that you must be talking to your hand-free. Anyway, I talk to myself as if I have split personalities. On the one hand, the ‘wounded’ me would tell my other self what the problems are, how much they hurts and how upset I am. On the other hand, my other self will play the therapist and comfort my wounded self. Telling him not to worry, everything will be ok, trying to look at the silver-lining of things, there will be light in the tunnel, reminding myself some past experience that the worst that I had thought didn’t materialize, there are always alternatives, people will understand, and just take things one step at a time....Also, the stronger self will telling my wounded self to pick up myself, there are always someone worst than me, remind myself about them who I read in the news or books in the past, telling myself there is a supreme being in the universe that will look after things, there is Karma, and God is fair, but God has not responsibility to tell everybody how fair HE is or sometimes we are just not intelligent enough to understand how fair HE is….etc.

Usually, after an hour, I would feel much better and regain a calmed mind. Then, I will get a cold drink or take a shower, I would be ready to sit down to start to map out the practical solutions to my problems. Don’t know if it will work for anyone, but for me, it works.

Suicide

Recently, there are news about some people couldn’t handle problem and commit suicide. Some of them even took the lives of other innocent people like their kids with them. That’s so tragic and sad!

I think that the act of committing suicide is all triggered in our head. Yes, there are real issues in reality, like you owe heavy debts, you are sick, you lost your love ones, you failed in exams, you are fired from job, you are scolded and humiliated in public, etc. However, there is always someone worse off in the world than you. There are always alternatives to killing yourself, which in most cases, is such a horrendous and selfish act that I personally find it disgusting. Regardless where you will go after you kill yourself, what you left behind for the livings, particularly those that love and care about you will suffer. You may have just transferred your burdens to them or create new one for them. It is so unfair to them, regardless how much you told you love them when you were alive. I think it is the second worst punishment to your love ones behind you killed them yourselves. Besides some special cases in recorded history, in which some folks sacrificed their lives for some noble or higher value or for saving others, suicide is a horrible act. That’s why some countries treat suicide as a crime, also most ‘normal’ religions do not condole suicide. A life is fragile but strong, it is cheap but valuable. This statement sounds contradictory, but they are true. So, if someone you love kills him/herself, in most cases I would suggest you to start ‘unloving’ him/her immediately and ‘forgetting’ about him/her. Usually, that’s exactly against the wish of the dead and I think that’s what they deserve.

Confusion and mix-up

Not telling the whole truth is not equal to intentional lying. For example, the whole story is 1,2,3,4,5. When someone ask you to tell them the story and you only tell them that there are 1,2 and 3 in the story. When they find out that 4 and 5 are in the story, then they say that you lied to them. But, the fact is, you didn’t. 1,2 and 3 are indeed in the story, you just didn’t tell them that 4 and 5 are in the story too. Maybe, it is because you forget to tell them Or you didn’t tell because they didn’t ask if 4 or 5 are in the story Or you just tell them part of it and didn’t tell the whole thing because they didn’t ask for the WHOLE story to be told. On the other hand, if you told them the story is 1,2,6,7. Then, you did LIE to them, cos 6 and 7 are never part of the true story. Whether you intend or not by telling them that 6 and 7 are in the story, you did lie. See the difference? That’s when many people got these two situation mixed up.