何をぐずぐずしているの...

I have been procrastinating on finishing some work-related writing for a long time and finally the deadline is end of this coming week. I have been just giving an estimation on the progress, but not really knowing how much more to be done. Today is Sunday but I am actually motivated enough to want to finish writing it. But as I write more, I found out I need to read more and research a lot more. Instead of the reported 60% complete, I think I am more like only 30% complete. I am getting worried. But I still have 7 days.... will see. Work life can be really stressful if you are not working hard enough! :-p

Saw the movie "The Banquet" last night. The trailer looks wonderful and I have been looking forward to seeing it but in the end, I found the story a bit disappointing. It's still worth seeing but maybe set the expectations a tad lower.

1月の富士山

While researching on what the weather was like in January this year at where I am planning to go in Japan, I found this picture. The temperature was a nice 10℃! 来年は天気もいいかな...？

虎か? 猫か?

(1)犯人 (2)被害者 (3)目撃者 & 共犯者 (4)負傷の写真

事件概要:
Tobyちゃん(犯人)がいま私の家に泊まっています。
昨晩私たちはテレビを見ている間、Tobyちゃんが夫の膝へ跳ばれました。
あたしは夫にTobyちゃんを撫でるのを勧めました。
夫は撫で始めて後は、電話が鳴ってました。
電話に出ている時には、Tobyちゃんに夫の手のひらの部分を咬まれました。爆痛!

結果:
お大事にね。今日午後病院の救急室に行ってきました。破傷風の予防注射を受けて、3日の抗生物質を服用するべきだ。 そのため、いまちょっと不安に暮らしています。おそらくゆっくり、ゆっくりと良くなるよ。

更新:
夫とTobyちゃんはいま一緒にソファに寝ていますか??? 不思議な...

上海

同僚たちと部長も先週に中国から帰りましたので、上海は今会社の最も人気の話題です。Because I can fully understand Shanghainese and can speak some, I asked them to include me in the project working with Shanghai. One thing they did very wrong while in Shanghai was to speak English when some of them can actually speak Mandarin. They went to have a hair cut and was charged more than what was shown on the price list. I think they tried to ask why but didn't get an answer and so they ended up just paying a lot more. Similarly with taxi charges. So I used those examples to convince them that they need someone like me who could communicate in the local language. My Shanghainese is very rusty so I need to call my mom more and practice over the phone. I will be visiting Shanghai hopefully this time and I plan to pay a visit to our Shanghai office and see how it is. I might even pick up some Shanghainese learning material to brush up quickly. Languages - they are really so useful and fun.

Last night I was thinking what I can say in Shanghainese and here is the list:
Have you eaten (full) yet? (Also, a way to greet people in Shanghainese)
Are you done washing your head and taking a bath? You have been in there for a long time! (Yes, they said wash your head not hair and yah, I love to hog the bathroom, even now)
We have to go out tomorrow morning to do some shopping.
See you tomorrow morning!
Can you hurry up? There isn't much time! (Yah, I am tardy sometimes so my mom need to say that to me)
Little friends (the way my mom refers to my friends)
Friends (this is to refer to her friends)
Don't watch TV day and night.
You talk too much, eat you meal. (I think that would be my sister)
Don't go "vistor crazy". (Yah, there is such thing especially with kids.)
My mouth is dry, let's go have some tea.
Tomorrow night we will go out to have meal (dinner).
My daughter don't talk much. (That's me when I was young)
She is fairly obedient. Her school work is fairly good. (That would also be me, haha!!)
I don't really play mahjong, my kids have to go to school.
Put the money away.
Why do you drip everywhere when you eat? (Even my little 3-yr old nephew knows this one!)
Can you drive your car here?
Etc..etc.. not bad, huh?

箱根露天風呂

Check out this fancy contemporary spa resort in Hakone:
箱根吟遊

Wouldn't you want to be there right now instead of at work?

すべては食事

今日のランチは仕事の同僚十六人と韓国焼肉食べ放題館へ行きました。
個人的には食べ放題が通常に好きじゃありませんけど、今日楽しかったです。
多分やっぱり多くの人と一緒に行くほうがいいですよね !

最近美味しい夕食の写真:
焼羊モモ肉 (夫の料理)
焼き鳥 (レストラン:彩蔵)
大根の煮物(私の料理)
はまち(鰤)丼 (レストラン:豊味すし)
鰻丼 (レストラン:豊味すし)

Tokyo Street Fashion

One thing I like about Japan is that you can dress as creative as you like and it would be appreciated rather than being looked at funny. I am not worried about my closet being too creative but rather too conservative and boring. So to jump start my playful side to fashion, I am relying on some appropriate web sites such as this one: Tokyo Street Style

I purposely pick this page in particular because of the month being relevant to my trip and Omotesando because the girl on the left top corner is really cute! :-)

箱根か草津 か下田?

Originally I was thinking of a short onsen trip to Hakone (箱根) in January, but my dad said Hakone is too commercialized and he would not be very interested if that's the case. He and my mom already went to Kinugawa (鬼怒川) the year before, so now I am looking at the next highly recommended onsen area Kusatsu (草津), even though my friend highly recommended Shimoda (下田). They all look pretty good to me!! Decision, decision... I think I am thinking of Kusatsu even though I don't plan to ski there.

Photo: 草津白根山火山湖

Nekobukuro

I love cats and there is this place called Nekobukuro on the top floor of Tokyu Hands building in Ikebukuro where you can pay 600 yen to pet some 20 cats. Though I really love cats but I still don't think I will visit it if I am going to Ikebukoro. Would you? I wonder how a place like this can survive for the long run? Maybe it's a place for someone who is not sure if they would really enjoy a cat's company or whether they are allergic to cats or not before getting one?

*The picture is a kitty I took care of but did not keep. He is Ichiro-chan.

Wikitravel

Everyone knows about Wikipedia but what about Wikitravel?

I am recently researching and planning for my trip this Dec-Jan and this is one thing I love to do. I can research for hours and days non-stop! :-) But I only enjoy planning my own trip and not really other people's trip. I was asked to plan someone else's trip one time and I was quite excited to help but in the end, I was unable to do it with the same level of energy as when I first started because the person did not really care as much as I did.

Anyways, there are so many places to go and I will sometimes use Flickr to view the pictures of the places to see if they're worth going or not. I have been a Flickr addict for a while now and I am not shy to admit it. I can go through Flickr for hours at a time. There are just so many talented photographer in this world and they are not even professionals! I am a little bit envious.

Anyway, trip planning is just so much fun!!!!! :-)

とても面白い映画

I enjoy movies that are about people (their circumstances and the choices they made) with realistic dialogues and a sense that it's well made (not necessary from a cinematographic point of view). I am quite happy with the list of movies I watched recently:

■ 向かいの窓 (Italian)
Facing Windows
"Don't just live life, live a spectacular life!"

■ Ma Vie En Rose (French)
My life in Pink
It's a story about a boy, his family and the society's reaction towards his wish.

■ Lucky Number Slevin (US)
Don't read about this movie before seeing it. Watch it without knowing what it's about.

■ ロード・オブ・ウォー (US)
Lord of War
Interesting movie, fast paced with a lot of action.

■ ツォツィ (South African)
Tsotsi
Life of a young ganster boy in South Africa, his past and his rediscovery of humanity.

■ ステイ (US)
Stay
Don't read about this movie either. Watch it and follow it with your own intepretation. It's an interesting movie.

■ Ｖフォー・ヴェンデッタ
V for Vendetta - US
It's just a very good movie!

■ ヘルボーイ
Hellboy - US
I rewatched this movie. Didn't like it that much the first time because maybe there were endless monsters to fight against. But love it the second time round.

Talk with their mouth full

Our campus has 40+ buildings within a 3 mile stretch. We have recently started recuiting directly from selected college campuses and suddenly there are a bunch of new folks at work. They are generally young and ready to do a good job, and I feel good about our company trying to rejuvenate our workforce making the environment more progressive and Google-like. But one thing I can't stand is they like to 'talk with their mouth full". I can say I've never made that mistake since I was lucky enough to have the training early on when I was at Apple some 12 years back. The training was called "What we know is our business." Apple was very adamant (and still is) about their projects, even the project code name is a hush-hush. But of course there were numerous sites that are always trying to post insider information they gathered by talking to "a close source within Apple". The trainings organized within Apple were always good and entertaining and I guess that's why we really take it to heart. I think I miss that a lot since most other companies either outsourced these trainings or use less creative ways doing it themselves like setting up e-training.
Anyway, I notice people who just started working LOVE to share with other newbies what they are working on and talk in details during lunch at a restaurant when a lot of our direct competitors are just sitting right across at the next table obviously wearing a different badge. I would love to ask them to keep those conversations with only employees, inside our company buildings, and within conference rooms and not in the open public. But I usually just stare and frown. They just don't get it. Reciting the project spec. during lunch with your buddy who is working in another group and trying to show off what cool project you are working on is just NOT COOL!! Use your head and look around!! Scenes like these just bug the hell out of me.

Photo: A mug I got from the training many years ago.

Day dreaming and ranting

This year is going by fast! I did not get a chance to plan any trip and 2007 is almost here. Work is always going to be busy so it's really up to me to make plans for myself before the project's execution phase starts. Since this year will be a significant wedding anniversary for my parents, I have decided to make a trip to Hong Kong and stop by Japan on my way back to US. I am so tempted to plan out my travel that it's making me unable to focus on my work. I love to travel and do research on places to visit and restaurants to try. It has been 6 years since I had been back to Hong Kong and this time I am more ambitious to see more than to shop more. I will plan a short trip to China (which I have never been) and to Macau (which I also have not stepped foot on yet!) I plan to research on all the worth going places and take my dad along. He is quite an explorer himself and can walk for hours from morning to night if you just give him his 3 coffees during the day.
Recently I have been dreaming and thinking back my years growing up in Hong Kong a lot. Hong Kong has definitely changed (for the worse, I think) a lot. I had a wonderful childhood in a much less populated HK with everything more personal, accessible and convenient. My mom used to take us along to pick dad up at his office at Connaught Center. She would wait in the car and my sister and I would play at the ひろば that was part of the building. If my dad comes out from the building, we could easily spot him and run up to him. If he is tied up with work, we will just tell the building security guard that we are here to see our dad at xx floor with XXX Corporation. He will let us take the elevator and we at age 7 & 9 will go to our dad's company and wait at the lobby. The reception girl will help us call our dad and we will talk to him and ask him how much longer? Sometimes we can sneak in to his office to wait for him and talk to some of his colleagues. Then we will help my dad gather his stuff and walk out hand in hand back to the car.
But could this happen to any kids in HKG today? Unlikely. First, you won't be able to see your dad walking out of any building in Central from 5-7:30pm. All you see is a sea of people marching out of buildings. Second, you won't see any kids 7 or 9 playing outside any business building at the fountain or stairs. Third, no kids will be going up to any office building, they will probably be asked to wait outside. Is that something still achieveable in US? Yes, I would think so but that's because we don't work in any high-rise building here. But anyway, life is definitely less friendly and more fast paced. We are expected to get more done in a day than before and everyone is a high achiever. The world has made quantum leaps since then without realizing what small prices were paid along the way. Our quality of life probably has not improved much as we are more stressed with more life demands. So a trip to unwind and to spend more time with family is definitely the thing to do at our long-before-retirement age. If I don't make it happen, it just won't happen!!
I plan to research on a new digital camera for this trip, too, eventhough I was really hoping to buy something that is to be released in 2007. :-/ Anyways... life is really too short to be bothered by these small details. The key is to keep that payroll check coming and we keep living life!

甥っ子 & Toby ちゃん

This is my one and only nephew. He is the sweetest kid I know.
The cat is Toby ちゃん. He is a very strange and unique cat.
Toby ちゃん needs a lot of love constantly. My nephew has a strong love for cats and the two should be a good match. But Toby ちゃん will bite my nephew once a day despite all the love he is getting because he wants things to be done his way. One time the bite was so serious that the bleeding on my nephew's finger would not stop. But guess what? My nephew's love for Toby ちゃん has not changed a bit. Tell me if this is not unconditional love, what is? :-)

*This is a picture taken with my brother's 携帯. Toby ちゃん, by the way, is my brother's cat and sibbling to my cats.

眼鏡

While most people I know are going from glasses to contact lenses to lasik, I am finally going to give glasses a try. I have maybe 5 pair of glasses all my life but I have not wore any of them for more than a combined total of 100 days. You see, I am short-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in another, and on top of that I have astigmatism. But if I wear glasses, I 'feel' there is a gap between my body and my next step, so when I walk it feels like I am going to walk into a manhole. And after some time, I get dizzy from all the intense sight and distance calculations and reality adjustments. That's why I choose not to wear glasses except when I am sitting down and having to look at some Powerpoint from far away or attending some presentation in a dark room.

But it's time for me to visit an optometrist this year and so I did 2 weeks ago. I went to this optometrist for the first time and if I may say ... I think he is a jerk. He was completely mad at me for not being able to see some tiny letters far away in a dark room and he thinks I don't wear my glasses because of looks. I tried to explain 'the gap feeling' I experienced to him but he does not buy it and thinks I am making excuses. All the optometrists before him had always cut down my prescription so each of my eye can adjust to the effect of the lens better. But this optometrist would not do that and told me they have all been wrong to spoil me like that. He gave me a full prescription for my next pair of glasses and ordered me to wear it everyday. He also forbids me from getting any fancy frames or lenses and made me ordered the all plastic, thick lenses. While I kept quiet at his office, I actually later called the lab to change the lenses to the polycarbon (thinner) lenses and also changed the frames to a Calvin Klein frame since the frame should not matter to the prescription and I am planning to give it a try to wear it everyday! The optometrist should not know that since I did not make another appointment with him for picking up the glasses.

I called and checked today. The glasses will be ready for pick-up tomorrow late afternoon. I am hoping I could wear it more often this time rather than again having it sitting on the desk or inside the bag or in the car. Will see.

Although I still really dislike the optometrist and I think he is not totally reasonable, but I do want to take his advice and give glasses another try. You might ask 'what about contact lenses'? I have a pair of soft contacts long time ago but I only wore the one for the short-sighted eye (and a patch on the other ;-P) . But because I can see fine without contacts, I threw those annoying things away and never looked back. Do we really need to see tiny characters from far away? I enjoy my life seeing things within 6 feet and that has been good enough for SO many years... But ok, I can be open-minded. I will give the new glasses a try. (Let's see how long that will last!)

良い知らせ

今日会社の弁護士からEメールを受け取りました。
私のWLAN発明特許権は、いま中国での出願手続を検討しています。
ちょっと嬉しいね!

What's that color in hex?

Suddenly, it's October. :-( Last month, my laptop had a hard drive failure and a replacement was required. Despite the restore from backup procedure being performed on the new drive, I lost a lot of the installed extensions and plugins. It's a pain to not have the same handy tools you are so used to. One of them being the html color picker. I could not remember what it is I installed they would allow me to see the html equivalent of the color I like. I did a search and read up a bunch to see which one I used to install without having to install different ones. It's not until now I finally found it. It's ColorZilla!! I am so happy to finally reunite with it. It's not color picker or eye-dropper. Thank God!!

Isamu Noguchi (野口 勇)

You can see this coffee table in the movie Aeon Flux, at my house, or in many other people's homes on Flickr. Thanks to the information on the Internet, I did not know it was originally designed in 1944, which is cool! We were basically looking for a see-through, pet and kid-friendly coffee table with rounded edges and here we got ourselves a little piece of Mr. Noguchi. What a wonderful surprise!