2009...A Look Back on the Year

Prelude
YES! I made it! Post '20' just to round up the number for the 2009 archive. Probably the last post I'll make for this year as I'll be out to 'party party' for New Years Eve tmr night. : D Being able to write this MUST post to round up the year will definitely make my day! (ooh and finally writing a summary in the 'year' that I was meant to 'summarise' about! haha : P w00t!)

2009...What Should I Say?

Late this afternoon my mood has turned down into a somewhat serious mood. Not too sure why tho (I even had a coffee this afternoon too!), but I think this should let me be in the right mood to sit down properly and reflect on my year in 2009 (Perfect too! As I was determined to write this blog post before the year ends!)

I'm still a bit mystified as to what I'm going to say / feel about 2009. Currently watching the news, it is reflecting on the Top 10 moments in Sports in NZ (definitely got to say a YAY to the All Whites!). hmmm what should I say about my 2009 year? I breathe out deeply...still deep within thoughts. How should I start this? I wondered. I looked back at all my previous "summary of the year" posts....it seems I have build up a style of giving a one/few words summary to describe the year. I shall continue with my tradition and start with it by filling the gaps below:

2009 has been a static year but it's also one where I have "tried, learnt and accepted".

Try, Trying and still Trying

As the global economy went down at the end of 2008, so did my decision to do an OE in UK in 2008 (see last year summary post). Although I took a prudent approach I still didn't give up the dream. I continued to seek for opportunities when I have the time. I just continued seeking but in a more passive but wiser approach.

Persisting with the idea, especially during such 'down' times, was not easy. In between the period I had to go through a lot of thinking, reviewing and rethinking. But I'm glad I didn't give up. Even though at the end I'm still here at home in N.Z, however I believe the struggling I had to go through in my mind should make me a stronger and more patience person I hope.

Acceptance

I consider myself to be quite a stubborn person. One of advantage of this is it made me a determint person in nature, it's not easy for me to give up (i.e the point I made in above section). However thiis time round, it was also through these tough times that I not only learnt but actually took into action to become 'flexible' when necessary (which is a hard concept and action to take for a super stubborn person like me).

For example I would love to be able to achieve what I consider to be the 'perfect OE' in my mind. Although I've always known that 'you can't always get everything the way you want'. But to really take it in and 'accept' this thinking as part of a stubborn person's decision making was not easy. It was through these tough times that I have learnt to be less rigid and to open up my mind to 'accept' different alternatives and possibly different outcomes. It's definitely been a very valuable lesson to learn and accomplish (for myself)...I'm proud. : )

Learning

Apart from the two big lessons above, I have also or should I say glady like to annonce that I have actually done some other 'learning' too this year. Unlike last few years where I have actually completed some Java certifications or picking up a new skills e.g. guitar or Toasmaster...this year it's more at the EQ level.

As I wanted to open myself up to more opportunities in my OE options, I decided to change my career path a bit and got out of the Development department and entered the (Software) Integration team, which will allow me to take a closer look at what is like on site working with and in a customer environment...heading more towards the 'consultant' pathway.

Being out of the comfort zone in the development team, things definitely can get 'a bit hairy' out there. Not only that I had to 'learn and manage working' with new and different people with different ideas and perceptions; in a brand new team working with new ideas; and which is transitioning from the 'not really a team' stage to becoming a team with 'more responsibilities and expectations' with much more room to grow and mature and stablize. Now you might think all you are describing here is just 'new, new and more new' stuffs. But no no, it's much more than that. Learning to work in a new and different environment, with different expectation and way of doing things is just......'different'.

Originally I set myself a goal to stick with this for at least 6 months, no matter how it is going ot turn out. So that I can actually give myself a reasonable timeframe to try this new thing out, to learn from it and to learn to adapt to changes. Now I can gladly say, "I did it" and I did 'take and learn' somthing from it and even made some projects possible and possibly with improvements too! : )

In Summary

Although this might seem the MOST BORING piece of 'summary for the year' post to date so far. Didn't really achieve anything 'physically' or 'visibly' (hence I used the word 'stable' in my original few-words summary). However it has definitely been a year of 'roller-coaster' for both my 'heart and mind and soul'. More like a tough year for me mentally to get by. Lots of decision making, wondering if it was right, wondering what I should do next. But hey......"I did it". I survived it and hopefully become 'slightly stronger' person (mentally) now.

New Years resolution.....haha it can go into another post....in 2010! : ) I shall end this year, as it is...just like this. Been there....learn it......now done!

Here's a "really really" good song to summarize the year for me..."路...一直都在" by Mr Eason Chan (陳奕迅)...here's part of the lyrics:

...

穿過一塊裡面一片黑暗　沒有想過回頭　
一段又一段走不完的旅程　甚麼時候能習慣
噢　我的　夢代表甚麼　又是甚麼讓我們期盼

That’s just life　尋找夢裡的未來
That’s just life　少點現實的無奈

不論風吹的時候　不在傍徨的時候
永遠向前　路一直都在

...

- For the full lyrics see here



p.s. - lol as usual i actually wasn't great and took a 'weeee while' to finsih this post. After taking a break in between writing this post....I couldn't continue writing it at night at all as I have lost my 'feel' for writing such reflective post! : \ But funny enough....no idea why...I woke up 'naturally' early the next day (i.e. 31st....lol may be too excited that it's the last day at work and a party to look forward to?). With a much more clear head, I was and have now been able to finish this post! YAY! Satisfaction feeling of being able to achieve target set! : D (I shall keep this feeling in mind!)

XML Encoding & Special Characters

Another day at work (right after holiday too) I encountered this problem with XML and encoding. As I have a lack of knowledge on this topic, it took me a while to figure this out (asking around for help) and it turned out to be a very valuable lesson for me.

You see the XML file that created the error contains some special XML characters. Now what I mean by 'special characters' are one of these (see link): Special Characters and Symbols, e.g. ™, • or √.

The 'actual' symbols you see are in UTF-8 format. However XML may be stored as Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoded. Now because Latin-1 is only 8-bit long so it can only represent characters that is not bigger than the 255 range. On the other hand, UTF-8 can represent up to 8 bytes of data. So it is obvious that some characters in UTF-8 will not be able to be directly converted into Latin-1. In these cases, the ampersand encoded version may be used instead to represent the same character in Latin-1, e.g. ™ •  &#8730. This is why it would be important to ensure the 'encoding' you listed in your XML file matches the same encoding the actual file is saved in.

Now the actual problem I was experiencing is I believe someting called HTML purifier. See this very very useful web page which tells you all about this (and gives a good explainations in XML encoding)! You see I was trying to write some Java classes to remove some unwanted node from an XML file's DOM tree. However everytime when I pass in an XML file with 'special characters', it always come back out with a question mark ('?'). The problem was because I got fooled by the encoding that was listed in the xml file and also with the unexpected kindness of Java to try to help me by purifying the XML file.

The problem was resolved by understanding how Java and XML works. Most importantly to understand that the encoding in an XML file is not just purefly for the sake of meta-data, but it is very important in determining which encoding / decoding to use when writing Java classes to process the XML file.

Additional ref: Processing XML with Java

Windows XP Folder Icons Gone BLACK!!!

Prologue: Yes! I was once again on my annual holiday, hence the whole Nov has a result of '0'! So here's me trying to to squeeze in a few more posts before the 2009 year ends! : O

So it was last day before I left work for holiday, not sure what I did that caused it (promised I didn't install any viruses and I never go on dodgy websites!!!). In fact I think it was after remote desktop-ing to my own computer from one of my work mate's computer. When I went back to my computer and logged in, suddenly all the 'folder' icons when I open up Windows Explorer has turned BLACK!!! Seriously!!! The folder icon went BLACK....no cream yellow coloured folder at all..just purely BLACK with the shape of a folder! @.@ I seriously thought I got a virus attack or something. Ran a virus scan nothing showed up and computer is running at the same speed as before and no creepy stuffs popping out!

So it was after I was back from holiday....I got too 'annoyed' by the black looking folders. Not only is it ugly but 'freaky' looking (imagining opening up your system root folder and all you see are a list of BLACK folders!!!)

I did a Google search and SUPER THANKS to this post I was able to fix the problem and all the normal 'creamy yellow' looking folder icons came back alive! : D What happened (I believe) was that Windows actually cache your Windows icons. So somehow after I log back into my machine the cache file must've gone corrupted / munted such that all my folder icons went 'burnt'! The resolution is just to delete the 'IconCache.db' from your "Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data" directory and your icons will be revived! : D

How to get directory size in Unix shell?

It turns out that finding the size of a directory via shell / command line on a Unix based machine is not 'that' straight forward. Thanks to Dr. Google again...I was able to find the solution (by some kind person who posted the solution on their blog!).

 du -sh dir_name

The '-s' tells du to only return entries only from the specified directory
The '-h' makes du return something human readable

Very useful indeed! : D

Ref: http://stevejamesson.com/2008/06/18/unix-get-full-size-of-directory-folder

When Earth is Warm Again!

It's almost the end of THAT SPECIAL month for me. Of course of course I owe my blog a little post before we go past it.

This year I've kept it low profile, while spending it somewhat differently than any previous years i.e. hah! A day off work (even tho it's a weekday), spending it overseas AND hah.....away from parents but spending it with friends I haven't seen for a little-wee-while. No matter whether this is gonna be my most happier / exciting / suprising b'day or not, don't really care, because I know this one will be another one that I treasure forever.

To be honest, I'm kindda sad that my emotions were some what put off by the fatigue and tiredness I collected from work before I went on my holiday. But being able to travel and get away (esp with friends to hang around) is just OARSOME! : ) hmm..how would I describe it? WARMTH!!! : D

(I mean come on I even got a celebration dinner before I went on my holiday....one can't be too greedy aye! ahah) Oh and getting an overseas delievered message from my folks...that bring EXTRA WARMTH! : )

Yea I know I'm such a kid....but I don't care!!! I would rather be a kid at heart and still be able to 'appreciate' things, THAN to be blinded or to be a whiner!

Oh and just one more thing about my trip in this 'special' month. This trip was funny because almost everyday my friend and I would experienced something that is unexpected! Now especially on 'd-day', while my friend and I were trying hard to be tourists : P....taking photos of each other....a really really kind lady voluntarily came up to us and offered to take photos for us! : O She even suggested us to walk to a more pretty place for the photo. On top of that, she was even KIND ENOUGH to want to borrow a bunch of fresh flowers for us to use in our photos! When the owner of the flower shop refused, she even considered buying a bunch for us to use in the photos!!! : O (of course at this instance, we immediately told her that there was no need! It was good that the flowers were too expensive, else I would feel SO BAD about it!!! And of course I don't blame the owner of the flower shop, he can't possibly lend out his flowers just for photos!!!) The lady was so kind, haha, it almost feels like she knows it's my b'day that day! haha Let me just greedily say how happy and lucky I am to have this happened to me (the photo she took was good too haha with other pretty flowers in the background). No matter where you are now, just want to say Thank You so much and the photos look great! WARMTH!!!

Although how I complained how emotionless I might have been....thinking back it was a happy, fuzzy and a warmth trip. It will not only leave a smile on my face, but will also remind me that despite how we continuously hear all those harsh or cruel things happening in our world.....but light, warmth and love can and still exists on Earth. Have Faith! : )

p.s. - We were even lucky enough to experience the dust storm in Oz! RAH!!!

(Sept 09')

Eyelid Twitching

A couple of months ago one of my upper eye lid kept twitching constantly (and I do mean constantly non-stop no matter what I did)!!! Now I remember traditionally in the Chinese culture, it is known that if your eyelid twitches (I forgot left / right hand side), it  means something bad will happen. Just for fun, I thought I'll ask Dr Google to find out if it's the left or right hand side. I also thought I should investigate what caused my eye lid to twitch (as it usually twitches only a max. of a few minutes).....but this time it went on for DAYS!!!! : \

Anyway, to my surprise, there were actually A LOT and A LOT of people who wondered the same questions as me! In particular I found this blog about eye twitching which was written 6 years ago, but the blog post just kept growing even up to now, people are still making comments on it!!! Interestingly it doesn't offers any cures or even scientific explanations on the matter, but it just so happened to be one of the first few search results returned by Google! It's truly amazing tho to see how so many people share the same pain of eye twitching!!! lol but it's true, so true!!! This blog posts actually already has over 2000 of blog posts where people just want to share their unberable pain to others!!! : O

URL: Eyelid Twitcing blog post

It's defintely one fascinating topic!!! : P

ps - It was lucky that it only lasted a week or two for me!!!
pps - In Chinese myth, it was said that 'left eye' means 'bad will happen'! : O
ppps - Apparently eyelid twitching is due to fatigue, stress and pressure (bingo! for me!!!)....but not sure how correct this fact is tho!

Image referenced from: http://members.pioneer.net/~mchumor/00images/6963_eye_cartoon.gif

歌曲分享: 給十年後的我

Just wanted to share a song today by 薛凱琪 (Fiona Sit) called 給十年後的我. Interestingly when this song first came out in Fiona's album, I didn't pay much attention to it. However in Fiona's last album called, 'Smile', this song was added as a bonus track and remade as a duet featuring 湯駿業 accompanied with a piano only. This time it caught my attention straight away! Every time when I listen to it, it left me with a deep feeling, in close rapport with its audience. I am not sure why I like this version so much more. May be it's because it was done only in piano version, which once again appealed to my feelings. Or may be it's because it was redone as a duet with the harmony of a male and a female that made it so much better this time!?

黃偉文 (Wyman) has once again wrote some beautiful and direct lyrics. The song title, 給十年後的我 (to me in 10 years time), already gave the context of the song. If you read the lyrics below....haha I guess really it does make you think about life and time. These 'would be' the questions that you would ask and wonder in the present....what it'll be like in 10 years time:

這十年來做過的事 能令你無悔 驕傲嗎
...
對象和緣份已出現 成就也還算不賴嗎
...
老練嗎 你情願變得 聰明而不衝動嗎
...
快樂嗎 你忘掉理想 只能忙於生活嗎
別太遲 又十年後至想 快樂嗎

All these questions.... you wonder about the future and yet you can already give answers to for the last 10 years you've lived. This little song is short but it's so true, so true.....the importance of knowing how to reflect on your life. I would like to send this to the me in 10 years time too:

給十年後的我 (piano version featuring 湯駿業) by 薛凱琪

作曲: 陳小霞
填詞: 黃偉文
編曲 監製: 何秉舜@goomusic

湯: 這十年來做過的事 能令你無悔 驕傲嗎
那時候你所相信的事 沒有被動搖吧

湯: 對象和緣份已出現 成就也還算不賴嗎
旅途上你增添了經歷 又有讓稜角 消失嗎

薛: 軟弱嗎 你成熟了 不會失去格調吧
當初堅持還在嗎 刀鋒不會 磨鈍了吧

薛: 老練嗎 你情願變得 聰明而不衝動嗎
但變成　步步停下三思 會累嗎

合: 快樂嗎 你還是記得你跟我約定吧
區區幾場成敗裡 應該不致 麻木了吧

合: 快樂嗎 你忘掉理想 只能忙於生活嗎
別太遲 又十年後至想 快樂嗎

To listen to the song (non-duet, original version by 薛凱琪):
http://www.songtaste.com/song/32085/

To watch the video of the duet version:
(PS - this duet version was actually remade for the stage play in HK called "Last Smile, First Tear". I'm actually quite curious about the play, wonder if it's any good??? May be I can catch it later in DVD!):

Drained......

So back in June I made a post about "I am Spent"! Well it's almost the end of July now and this month has gone worst.....so I decided to use the word "Drained" this time!

Yes I feel my energy is gradually draining out of me each day. It has gone beyond the point of 'torture' because really it's not (as it's somewhat voluntarily). I no longer feel. I am numb physically. Hunger I don't fear. Aches in my hands, yet I continue to type. Although I am drained out physically each day, my mind is still clicking (alive and kicking hard)! I am unable to or shall I say I cannot afford to give in to rest time in exchange for one more thought, one more idea, one more possible solution.

So click click click here I go again.........right now, writing this blog is perhaps the only break time I can give....because I do want to keep up documenting the path that LemonTz walks, if not once a day, once a week, let it at least be once a month. I shall be back (and energized, once I am done with this pile of tasks)! RAH!!!

Daft Punk's Keyboard

This is quite an awesome widget! : P You see one day my boss played this on his laptop...and yes...he kept typing 'work it harder, do it faster' in Daft Punk groove! HAH!

I believe this has been on the web for a while, if you haven't seen it or need the link, here you go:
http://www.najle.com/idaft/

Try it! It's oarsome! : D

64.......I Remember.....

Although I was still a weeee tiny kiddo when the incident happened, but I can still remember the impact it had on the people in HK and I can still remember the march that I participated in....

I seldom do a political blog post, in fact this is probably my first. Nonetheless I think the "八x八"事件 (8 x8 Incident) is truly 'more than' deserving to be remembered by us and to be recorded in the history books! Today being the 20th anniversay of the event, I would like to commemorate the event by writing a blog post about it and sharing some related sites and articles:

• Hong Kong: SC group censored 64 special feature
  A very very very interesting article and discussion about how an article that talks about the "8x8" incident has been left out of publication. A very interesting read (contains both orig Chinese and English translation). It is indeed extremely sad to see such 'limitation of freedom' is still as strong as ever....20 years later...
• The official HK 6420 website @ here
• Unrelated, I just stumbled upon it while researching for the topic...list of words censored by Chinese govt @ here (interesting!)
  

I quote:

6月4日 凌晨2時許，大批戒嚴軍 隊包圍了天安門廣場，學生和民眾被趕到人民英雄紀念碑。當日早上和下午，軍隊繼續在城內向聚集的民 眾開鎗，傷亡人數無法估計。

Appreciation (something I learnt from school)

Prelude:
This is my first 'porting blog post' where I am actually porting a blog post from another blog of mine! (hmm I have a feeling my msn space will one day get lost : I ....as my other personal wiki is already LOST! >.<

[PORTING BLOG POST | 09 October 2006 | MSN Space]:

Appreciation (something I learnt from school)

I remember back when I was in Yr 10 (around then) I learnt something which was quite interesting and helpful in one of those once a week 'SMT' class....errm haha if I remember the name correctly....(SMT == Self Management Training). haha I'm sure everyone had something similar if u had done Yr 10 in NZ, coz it's like compulsory to the curriculum! ahha :P

Anyway, I thought the following should be useful or at least something everyone could probably benefit from :

============ Ways to express your Appreciation/Gratefullness/Love ================

Appearantly, there are 4 DIFFERENT (or 5...but I can only remember 4 ><") ways to show your appreciation to someone. Or in another word to express your "Gratefulness" and "Love" to someone. No matter if it's love with ur 'other half', ur friends, ur parents and ur family!!!

They are:

• By mouth - Oral (e.g. You express ur feeling and appreciation by actually SAYING IT or telling them)
• By ears - Listen (e.g. You show ur appreciation by being a good listener, you listen in deep focus to what they have to say)
• By hands - Physical (e.g. You express ur appreication by giving them a hug!)
• By giving - Gifts (e.g. You express ur appreciation by buying a gift or something to give to them)
• By writing :O ??? (not sure if this is the 5th way...but the above 4 are DEFINITELY correct)

What this means is that different people express their love in different ways. Some express their love by actually saying it to you. And some by being a good listener, by just sitting there quietly listening to your every word.

Even more interesting is that people may LIKE TO EXPRESS and LIKE TO RECEIVE thier love differently as well. For example, one may express thier love to their friends orally. While he/she may like to receive their love (or should I say can SENSE they r LOVED) if someone give them hugs (i.e. physically).

What this means (the lesson behind this):

Well, you know how sometimes we may feel UNWANTED or NOT LOVED. No matter if this is a relationship between friends/lovers/families. If only we can recognise that people express and receive LOVE in different ways, then may be we could find that missing LOVE which always have been here. Kids may complain that their father do not love them because their father never tell them or say anything about it. But their father may have been showing his love already by GIVING his kids PRESENTS and buying them GOODS. If the kids recognised this, then they would've recognise their father loves them. Vice-versa, if their father had understood that his kids can only feel they r loved by saying phrases to them.....THEN RELATIONSHIPS could be improved and perhaps more UNDERSTANDINGS can be built.

So here I post to you these questions:

How do you 'express you love' to someone and how you like to 'recieve your love'?

And How do ur parents, siblings, friends and 'other 1/2' like to 'receive their love'?

(P.S. - Sorry abt this somewut BORING post and hope it make sense....but I hope this little fact may provide you a little realisation into the complexity of relationships....and perhaps help u in some day! )

#100 愛與夢飛行

Post number 100!!! : O Of course this 100th blog post deserves to be something different, something special to me, something I love....

So let me share something from my past, something from my pre-blog, pre-web 2.0, pre-knowing-much-about-computer age.....

愛與夢飛行
This is an album by Leo Ku (古巨基) released back in May, 1998. What I want to focus on this time is not the music though, but rather some aesthetic appreciation!

I believe I first learn of this album when I was walking pass HMV in a shopping mall in HK. I saw a big stand up poster of Leo's new album and immediately fell in love with the art work (yes a rare thing from me).


What first caught my attention was the title of the album, 愛與夢飛行 (Flying Love and Dreams). This immediately led me into a chain of thoughts. Love & Dream.....definitely something that most people would not only long for, but hope to become successful in both subjects.

And then looking at the poster itself, I just love how he held the model aeroplane, looking as if he is aiming to fly it up high (which totally portrayed the idea I mentioned above). The poster contains powerful symbols put together in a very simple way. The green background just gives you the peace of thoughts (although I am not sure about the green....but probably because green isn't one of my favourite colours!).

Seriously I stood there for at least a few minutes, thinking about the album title and the poster itself. I just love the name, the idea and the image (and probably more importantly because this is something I believe in, so obviously I was able to link to it)! And since that day, the quote '愛與夢飛行' and the image of the poster just got stuck in my head. (Which is a nice thought really! Somehow gives you a sort of positive feeling towards life.....for me anyway! : P )

Special Note:
I only found out about this tonight while searching for information on this album. It turns out that my artistic sense has 'some' taste to it (if not unique)! : P Because apparently Jan Lamb (林海峰) designed the cover and packaging of this album! As the blogger in the following blog post stated so!

我的巨基年代
(Take a look at the picture in this blog, it showed some of the contents inside the CD box)

Now I'm actually interested in looking at the actual content of the CD box to see how it was packed and the pictures that were used in the album!

Music-wise:
I think I would be left with a funny feeling if I don't mention about the songs in this album at all (esp. as this is an album I enjoyed and one that not much people knew/remembered about it). So here I go.

On the plus side, this album is not bad at all. Although it wasn't 'that' popular or 'that' famous (it couldn't live up to the over-whelming hype create from his previous album with the song 歡樂今宵). But in general I feel that the album was trying to do something different (and for that I do give credit for). The album is pleasant to listen to (for anyone who get a chance to 'dig' up this album hehe).

Good songs from the album include:
來年來日, 所謂愛情, 苦浪漫, 不敢說我愛你 and (of course) 愛與夢飛行!


P.S. - haha OOPS! This is actually the #100 posts (including drafts post that I've 1/2 written or never or not yet published)! Nonetheless I guess I can still celebrate on 'initiated' the start of 100 blog posts! hehe

Anatomy of Lego Minifig, Gummy Bear and Balloon Animal

As I only have time to do a mini post tonight, I went back to the look at the list of things I wanted to blog.....and here's something short and fun!

(According to my Delicious bookmark) So one day in mid Oct last year, I strike upon this article on Gizmodo. Yes the anatomy of Lego Minifig, Gummy Bear and Balloon Animal (doggie)! The original image can be found by looking at the comments left at the end of the article. But let me just say this is like a 'wow' (yet somewhat freaky) artwork! (hmm...I'll probably try not to think about this when I eat a gummy bear next time! : \)

The article is located here:
The Anatomy of a Lego Minifig Is as Fascinating as It Is Spooky

Facebook: 九型人格 Test Result

lol with the extra daylight hour saved today, I used it to sleep in (w00t! 10 hours!) and finally caught up to doing some of my online admin (Facebook tonight).

Have been totally relaxing this weekend before getting back to doing some hard work tmr! In particular I was having a go at the 九型人格 (Enneagram of Personality Test) on Facebook (just a partial one) and the result turned out to be Quite True indeed (I think! heeh). My result (The Loyalist : P):

第六型人格 - 忠誠者/謹慎型/尋找安全者

「跟 大家的決定吧！」 (分類 : 思考主導人格) 健康的第六型能引起他人強烈的情感回應，他們吸引人、讓人心動、親切可愛、友善、調皮、愛討好人。信任對他們是很重要的，是與他人相處並詩續永久關係的基 礎。別人對他們很熱情，並且想要幫助、保護他們。他們對認同的對象付出承諾和忠實，家人和朋友是重要的，這讓他們覺得自己「屬於」某個地方。他們藉著合 作、可靠、負責、值得信賴、苦幹來回應他人。最佳狀況：變得自我肯定、相信自己、獨立而又平等地相互依賴。對自我的信心使他們有積極的態度，顯示出勇氣、 領導才能、豐富的創造力、以及自我表現能力。 (注意:假如想增加準確性,請盡量找尋180問或以上的問卷,或是詢問學者意見)

lol I happened to find that the above description actually came from wikipedia! lol! Get to see a whole page about my type! haha

My comment, well.....

Woh! Quite true (I think : P)! Not sure abt the "別人對他們很熱情，並且想要幫助、保護他們。" part! lol aww....really? I ask u! @.@ haha but still THX!

A msn name...

Isn't it funny nowadays that we combine our thoughts or feelings and comments into our chat program's profile name!? I once heard on the radio that people do it because they wish to get attention to themselves.

Well I don't really know why I do it. But I know I certainly don't do it purely to catch people's attention! I guess I know I want to put something in my msn name whenever I feel the urge to EXPRESS my inner feelings! I don't know why, I guess I'm just part of the geek cult! : P Let's blame it on that.

Ok enough of getting 'deep'. Main point of this super short blog is just that I want to show off my creative side! One day at work (at the beginning of the year when I wanted to spice up my msn name), I suddenly thought up this to add to my name:

2009 '突然想起你', '就算世界無童話' its still a 'singalongsong' : P

Pretty proud of myself! : P Becuase the fragmented sentence helped express my inner feelings, but the clever thing was I used only song titles to compose the sentence! And the songs I used are actually all my current favourites at the time!!! Pretty neat I thought (and dumb you probably think)! Nonetheless just wanted to write a small blog here to document this unique name! : D

FYI (for those who can't recognise), the three song titles are the ones between the single quotes (') in the name. : P

An Amazing Tunnel Light Show

Life (more correctly Work) has been super super busy over the last few weeks (and over the next few weeks too : ( )! So just haven't had the energy and time to unwind myself on the www... and hence my previous article on Spent (which was already a while back too)!!!

Anyway back in Feb., I read this Gizmodo article one day. If you haven't read / seen the video yet, I highly recommend it because it's just such an amazement!!! As the article said..."it's the cloest you'll ever get to Light Speed"!!! @.@ (Now I would really love to visit Washington D.C.!)

Tunnel with 40,000 LEDs Is the Closest You'll Ever Get to Light Speed

Enjoy! : )

I am "Spent"...

While talking with my friend tonight, sharing and moaning over our fatigue and tiredness during the past few days at work. She sent me a piece of reading which totally describes our current status:

Frank Lipman: “Spent” is the word I use to describe people who are overwhelmed, fatigued and feel older than their years. Does this scenario sound familiar? You wake up in the morning groggy and need coffee or something sugary to get going. Then you need more of the same later in the day to keep going. Your brain feels foggy; you’re not sleeping well; your body aches all over; your cold never goes away; and your sex drive is down. You are running on empty, your energy account is tapped out, you are physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted...you are spent. Interestingly, most people think it is normal to feel like this.

The whole article can be found at http://goop.com/newsletter/22

Welcome "Mooo" Year!

Prelude
I missed writing my summary for 2008 and my new year resolution for '09 (life has been relatively occupied these days). So I thought before the first month of the Chinese New Years ends (it is 'Mooooooo...' Ox Year this year), I better write something about it before the month ends! So here goes....

A Quick Summary of 2008
Let's see....2008 has probably been a year of planning and preparation for me and sadly it is also a year of 'friends departure' too. Here goes some long rumblings on some of the stuffs I gained in 2008.....

1. SCWCD
I started off the year with the idea of 'ok I think I really want to go UK' in my head. But I set a goal for myself to complete my Java SCWCD 5.0 certification first before I start looking into UK. So in the first quarter of the month, I was just studying my way through the book learning about all the Java web components and finally achieved my certification with a happy mark in May! : D

2. UK Visa
After my SCWCD, it was all about getting my visa for UK. You see the UK visa system had a big change in June. It changed from the old 'Highly Skilled Migrant' way (which was a very long and tedious process) to the new 'Tier 1' UK visa'. Although I could almost send out my visa application under the old system back in June. I was recommended not to. And due to the unforeseen new visa application requirements, I had to wait 3 months before I could submit my application. Although the process of visa application was long, repetitive and requires heaps of patience; but I would definitely say no matter if I got the visa or not, it was a good educational life experience! You have to do research, read through various documents and all the fine prints on the application. LOL now I know why there are people out there who charges for helping you to submit (although luckily doing it myself wasn't too bad....it was actually quite ok!). In the end round about October I got my visa! : )

3. Reality Check
Although I have got my UK visa, I didn't realise that the 2nd part of my UK plan was actually the hardest part of the equation, i.e. the actually GOING OFF to UK part. Taking it literally, yes I could've just bought a ticket and just *zoom* (fly) off to UK! But of course being a bit more pragmatic and logical in my decision making (which I guess I'm still glad to still keep a hold of), I need to consider my basic needs. One of the most important ones on my mind was "getting a job".

You see my initial plan didn't work out quite as I hoped. My company has no more vacancy in our overseas office and then there was the sudden downfall of global economy. All thanks to the HK trip I took towards the end of last year (which was a somewhat unexpected yet expected event <- yes contradicting mysef). It allowed me to hear a lot more and to gain much more awareness of just how bad the financial condition is around the world! (Extra thankful for the trip because I know that if I was still in NZ, I wouldn't get as much exposure to all the news and media about the global recession!!!). It was because of what I gained during my trip, that I decided "I better be safe then sorry"! And opted for the safer option for the time being...

4. An Extra Extra Extra Worthwhile Trip
Another thing about the HK Trip was that it was extra worthwhile and meaningful to me this time because I get to meet up with my awesome pals who have gone back there to live. It was really really great to see them again. And I really do mean 'great'! You know how there's a saying that goes something like...'you don't realise you miss something until its gone'. Well haha unfortnately the really funny thing that I got out of this trip was actually even further than that.......'you don't realise how much you miss something, until you lost it and then see (found) it again'! : I (My usual saying applies here: "How Stupid!") I actually have a theory I thought up around this. May be I'll post it some days I hope! hehe just really really thankful for my trip (and my parents...if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have the opportunity to go on this trip)! : P

My Ultimate Goal for 2009
This can be described in just a few words: "Learn, upskill and change"! : P Hopefully what I didn't complete in 2008 will be done in 2009. And perhaps like the year we are in, I wish I'll be as hardworking as a 'cow' in '09! Go Mooooooo Year!

(Image adapted from: http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/ccymie/blog%20images/?action=view&current=cny09copy.jpg)

歌曲分享: 最佳損友

Prelude:
This blog was originally dated on 4th Nov 2008....I never got the chance to finish it.....so here it is (as I feel like doing just a small music blog tonight).

Song:
Funny enough there are some things on this Earth where you have to experience it in order to get its real meaning. You see I always have a disbelieve in this theory. I thought that if a person is aware enough, they should be able to learn from the mistake of others; rather than having the need to experience it themselves in order for them to understand. Let's say smoking for example, of course one would hope that you don't really 'have to' try smoking first before you can say 'no' to it and to understand the harm it'll do to your body.

In general I still believe in my theory. Because I mean, who would want bad experiences to occur every time when they learn of something new, right!? If one is observant enough, one should be able to learn from others.

So how does all these relate to the song 最佳損友 here? Well this is related to the realisation I had one day. The fact is although you can learn from others. However, if you did went through the experience yourself, you 'usually' found yourself understanding the whole situation in a whole lot more sense clearer. Probably because the reality hits you a whole whole lot harder this way!

You see I thought I understood the lyrics in the song 最佳損友 when it first came out. Yea, great meaningful lyrics there. But as I experienced some life lectures over the years, one day I came to listen to the song again and the lyrics just 'click'. Suddenly the lyrics means a whole lot more sense to me. And I was going 'ahh' and 'ooh' to the lyrics, relating to it, and found myself peeling understanding the true meaning of each sentence in the song.

So I realised that although we should try to learn from others, but if it happened to you, it's ok! Although it might have hit you hard, but it's ok because you know that you'll remember it for a long long time. And that'll make reminding you not to make the same mistake easier, because it hit you harder! : )

Anyway this song has great great lyrics written by Wyman. The lyrics are just so so true! Almost every sentence in the song I can just say YES to it! Luv it! (Sorry to those who can't read Chinese) And Eason...haha do i need to phrase him more? He just performed the song so so well, really controlling and expressing the feelings and emotions at the right place and the right time within the song. Making the song more emotional as the music became more intense towards the end! Another great Eason song! (Well done Eason, Wyman and Eric Kwok! Great song by this combination again!) For those who haven't listen to this song for a while, go on listen to it now, see if the lyrics make more sense to you too! ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY!

最佳損友
主唱: 陳奕迅
作曲：Eric Kwok 填詞：黃偉文 編曲：Eric Kwok / Jerald

朋友　我當你一秒朋友
朋友　我當你一世朋友
奇怪　過去再不堪回首
懷緬　時時其實還有
朋友　你試過將我營救
朋友　你試過把我批鬥
無法　再與你交心聯手
畢竟　難得　有過最佳損友
從前共你　促膝把酒　傾通宵都不夠
我有痛快過　你有沒有
很多東西今生只可給你　保守至到永久
別人如何明白透

實實在在　踏入過我宇宙
即使相處到　有個裂口
命運決定了　以後再沒法聚頭
但說過去　卻那樣厚
＊問我有沒有　確實也沒有
一直躲避的藉口　非甚麼大仇
為何舊知己　在最後　變不到老友
不知你是我敵友　已沒法望透

被推著走　跟著生活流
來年陌生的　是昨日最親的某某＊
生死之交當天不知罕有
到你變節了　至覺未夠
多想一天　彼此都不追究　相邀再次喝酒
待　葡萄成熟透

但是命運入面　每個邂逅
一起走到了　某個路口
是敵與是友　各自也沒有自由
位置變了　各有隊友
REPEAT＊    
早知解散後　各自有　際遇作導遊
奇就奇在　接受了　各自有路走
卻沒人像你　讓我　眼淚背著流
嚴重似情侶　講分手
有沒有　確實也沒有
一直躲避的藉口　非甚麼大仇
為何舊知己　在最後　變不到老友
不知你又有沒有　掛念這舊友

或者自己　早就想通透
來年陌生的　是昨日　最親的某某
總好於　那日我　沒有　沒有　遇過　某某Lyrics reference:
http://www.easonchan.net/music/cd35_lifecontinues.htm#3503

To listen to the song only:
http://www.imeem.com/gofin/music/MyjtoyOo/

To see Eason performing this song live in one of this concert:

For Friendship

(Unrelated) Prelude:
This is probably the longest period I have stopped writing on my blog since its establishment! : I (my excuse....due to being both physically and later mentally away from the world of bloging!) hehe as always I have so many things I want to say coming back from an overseas trip (and never got the time to write everything down....!) Any how I'm back TODAY.....so here goes....and a good first post in 2009 too! hehe More 2008 summary and 2009 goal to come later.

For Friendship:
Back in the last month I went to all those X'mas days shopping. While looking for a b'day gift for my friend, I happened to see a very very meaningful 'Winnie the Pooh' B'day card. It was the perfect card to get for my friend!!!

But, for some unknown reasons I didn't get the card and I couldn't find it elsewhere. Unfortunately I couldn't find the card on the web too.>.< But at least I was able to find the quote and relevant picture on the web. The card is very very simple with the main focus on a conversation which happened between Pooh and Piglet.

To you my dear dear friends, I will give you the same answer as Pooh : P :

"We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?" asked Piglet.
"Even longer", Pooh answered.

A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

Awww.....@.@###!

Reference:
- Find the quote from this site
- A link to a web book that refernce the quote with a bit more context....(it happened during Pooh and Piglet walk on a snowy track...)