To Change or Not To Change?

In my new job, I am basically doing similar things as my previous job. I want some changes!! Since I have been in this company for less than 1/2 year, I don't know whether I should give it more time or start thinking about changing job....

Please pray for me!!

new Canon Digital Cameras

Canon has announced a couple of new cameras....

PowerShot SD600 and SD630 Digital ELPH :
- 6-megapixel
- 3x optical zoom (same as before)
- 2.5-inch on the SD600 and 3.0-inch on the SD630 (which is also the first IXUS without an optical viewfinder)
- SD600 will be available in March for approx. US $349.99
- SD630 will be available in April for approx. US of $399.99
>> no big differences from my SD400.... not interested...

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022109canonsd600.asp

PowerShot SD700 IS Digital ELPH:
- 6-megapixel
- featuring Canon's optical Image Stabilizer (This is the first ever ultra-compact from Canon with built-in image stabilization!!!)
- 4x optical zoom (1x more optical zoom)
- 2.5-inch LCD
- will be available in April for approx. US $499.99
>> very interesting... I like the optical image stabilizer feature!! I want to see the real thing when it comes out in April.... ;)

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022110canonsd700is.asp

PowerShot S3 IS:
- 6-megapixel
- 12x optical zoom
- 2.0-inch Vari-angle LCD
- optical Image Stabilizer
- will be available in May for approx. US $499.99.
>> If I have to choose between SD700 and S3.... I think I'll go for S3 since I already have a small camera....I like the 12x optical zoom... the vari-angle LCD.... the optical image stabilizer feature.... Is this one is a D-SLR?? I guess I need to do some more research when it comes out... hee hee...

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022111canons3is.asp

Eye Exam

I went to see Dr. Walji (my optometrist) today for my annual eye exam.
My right eye is very healthy... My left eye is a bit stressed...
He told me to wear more glasses instead of contacts... and see him again in 2 weeks...

My eyes are very weird...
Without contacts, my stressed eye actually sees better than the healthy eye... ;)
May be my left eye is more stressed because it sees better???

God vs Coincidence??

Two things have happened in the past week that were truely amazing... The first incident happened on Monday February 20... The second incident happened on Sunday February 26...

Could it be a coincidence?
Two incidents of the same nature happened twice in a role within one week... Really coincidence?

I believe that these are God's doing... God's grace... God's sign...
It's like God knows...

My excuses for not applying for Baptism have always been:
1) no touching feelings (無感動)
2) no sudden urge (無沖動)
3) waiting for new church building

Through the two incidents, He has given me touching feelings and urge...
It's like God is doing things so that I don't have any more excuses....

This is very strange.... ;-?

Canadian International Autoshow

I went to the Autoshow last Saturday. This was my first time going to the Canadian International Autoshow. Overall... It was great!! :)
It would be excellent if we could actually sit inside those Lamborghini and Ferrari cars instead of just looking at them on stage. :(

The concept cars in the show were very ugly. They looked like a sweet chinese bun with 4 wheels.

Anyway, I did found a new car to add to my list of dream cars!! ;) The Volvo C70 was beautiful!! It had a three-piece retractable hardtop..... It looked like a sporty coupe with the top up.... It looked like a convertible with the top stowed below the rear deck.... and.... It's only 58K!!! It's not as expensive as my other dream cars (i.e. Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster).... hee hee....

AndyLau.com

Haven't been to andylau.com for a long while... The banner at that web site has changed...

There are new photos available for sales too...

華仔簽名限量版腕錶

由華仔出任代言人的瑞士「司馬錶」(CYMA) 特別推出1,800只錶底刻有華仔簽名的限量版腕錶，每只腕錶均備獨立編號及限量版證書，極具珍藏價值，而售賣所得的部份收益，將撥捐劉徳華慈善基金會作慈善用途！

http://demo.mint-asia.com/project/citychain/200601_cyma/20060126/

情癲大聖

前幾曰，我看了導演劉鎮偉的《情癲大聖》。這片既是無厘頭《西遊記》的終結篇，也是《西遊記》的前傳。 劉鎮偉之前拍攝的兩部無厘頭《西遊記》是《西遊記第壹佰零壹回之月光寶盒》和《西遊記大結局之仙履奇緣》(周星馳飾演的孫悟空)。 《情癲大聖》是關於唐僧成聖前的浪漫人妖戀... 謝霆鋒扮演的唐三藏... 蔡卓妍扮演奇醜無比的女妖。 這片的劇情比之前的更天馬行空，更無厘頭，和更大玩特技。

雖然我不太喜歡這三部無厘頭《西遊記》，但戲入面有一些對白十分經典。

周星馳: "如果上天再給我一次機會，我會對這女孩子說三個字：我愛你。如果一定要為這段感情加上一個期限，我希望是一萬年。"

而《情癲大聖》內的對白...

唐三藏對徒兒們：“你們就讓我出去以德服妖吧。”

孫悟空對唐三藏: “聽住，如果你要金剛棒聽你的話，就說「愛你一萬年!」 如果你要它停止，就說「我唔愛你了!」”

唐三藏對妖們: “用愛去感動他...(之後) 我隨便講吓咋...”

唐三藏對金剛棒：“愛你一萬年。”金剛棒顯示：“不想打架，休息一天。”唐三藏：“不是嘛，這個時候你罷工？”

孫悟空對唐三藏：“曾經有一段至真的感情放在我面前，我沒有好好珍惜。 失去了以後，我後悔莫及。 塵世間最痛苦...” 唐三藏：“行了! 行了! 很多人都會背了。” 孫悟空：“你知不知道為甚麼我每天都要背？因為我後悔，就像你做錯事常唸心經懺悔一樣。”

孫悟空對玉皇大帝：“喜歡一個人有罪嗎？你有王母娘娘當然這樣說啦!”

佛祖對唐三藏: “你有沒有想過，愛一個人不一定要有結果? 不追求結果就不會有盡頭的一天...這種不追求結果的愛才是無限的。”

片尾: “塵世間最遙遠的距離，不是我站在你面前，卻不知道我愛你，而是，明明知道彼此相愛，卻不能在一起。”


結論:
這片都幾攪笑...但故事無厘頭...可以當卡通片看...
結尾都幾 touching...
Overall... not bad....

Body Worlds 2

On Sunday, my friends and I visited Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS 2: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies at Ontario Science Centre. There were a lot of people there. All tickets were sold.

The exhibition features real human specimens including entire bodies, individual organs, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and body slices. All bodies are arranged in different sports positions i.e.kicking soccer, fencing, figure skating, sitting, gymnastics, etc. Embryos, fetuses and a pregnant woman who died with her fetus in her womb are also on display.

The bodies on display are preserved using a method called plastination. By removing water and fats from the tissue and replacing these with polymers, the plastination process deprives bacteria of what they need to survive. Bodily fluids cannot, however, be replaced directly with polymers, because the two are chemically incompatible. Gunther von Hagens found a way around this problem: In the initial fluid-exchange step, water in the tissues (which comprises approximately 70% of the human body) and fatty tissues are replaced with acetone, a solvent that readily evaporates. In the second step, the acetone is replaced with a polymer solution.

The original price of Body Worlds 2 is $25, but we got the tickets at discounts ($17).

Personally, I don't think this exhibition worth $17. I am not a doctor and biology is not one of my favourite subjects, so I guess I cannot fully appreciate the work done to those human specimens. I understand that the whole purpose of this exhibition is to teach people more about the human body. However, I think most people are like me... going to this exhibition for fun... not for a biology lesson. It would be better if special lightings and musics are added to make the exhibits more artistics.

Mark's & Tom's Birthday Dinner

Today, we celebrated Mark's & Tom's Birthday. We went to 北來順京川飯店 (Chung King Garden Restaurant) at Market Village for dinner. There were 11 of us:
Mark, Tom, Adam, Angela, Dai C Hing, Candy, Loretta, Danielle, Linky, Fiona, and me.

We ordered the peking duck dinner, which was very good.

We also had a lot of fun during dinner. We role-played "西遊記" again starring:
Adam as 唐僧
Kelvin as 孫悟空
Dai C Hing as 豬八戒
Tom as 沙僧
Mark as 白龍馬 / 駱駝
Loretta as 女妖
It's a big lost if you missed this show..... hahahahaha.... :D

After dinner, we had the cake cutting tradition. Adam baked a delicious chocolate mouse cake for the birthday boys. :-)

Sagano Restaurant at Delta Hotel

I went to Sagano Restaurant for dinner on Saturday night. Sagano is a Japanese restaurant located on the 14th floor and offers a stunning view of the city. The atmosphere of the restaurant is great. You can see the lights of Hwy 401, Kennedy Commons Mall, and other places inside the restaurant.

The food is very good and in big portion too. I was full by the time I finished my appetizers. I had ordered a full course dinner ($44) which included the following things...
For appetizers:
- Japanese corn soup
- Green Salad with madarine & almonds
- Shrimp & Vegetable Tempura (2 Shrimps & 3 vegetables)
- Sashimi (6 big pieces)
For main course:
- chicken teriyaki
- some vegetables
- a bowl of rice
For dessert:
- green tea ice-cream

The green tea ice-cream was very beautiful. On the right side of the plate, two scoops of green tea ice-cream were sitting inside a cookie bowl with a red cherry and an umbrella on top. The left side of the plate was filled with mango sauce. There was also a teddy bear (made with vanilla sauce and raspberry sauce) sitting on top of the mango sauce. My friend also ordered the green tea ice-cream, but the picture on top of the mango sauce is different from mine.

Link to restaurant:
http://www.deltahotels.com/hotels/hotelinfo.html?categoryId=2&hotelId=25

Virtual Desktops for Windows

I really like the idea of virtual desktops, because one desktop will easily be over-crowded if many applications are opened. If I minimize all applications, the icons in task bar will be very small. I usually have to maximize a couple of windows in order to find the one I want.

I used to work in Unix environment. Solaris by default has 4 virtual desktops. I would open up many applications and group those applications into different desktops by projects. It was great.! :-) Unfortunately, windows only has one desktop.

Today, I came across a web site that offers virtual desktops for windows... and the best thing is... It's free!!

http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/

Virtual Dimension is a free, fast, and feature-full virtual desktop manager for Windows platform. The main goal of this open-source project is indeed to enhance the Microsoft "Window Manager" up to the level of usual Unix Window Manager, by providing virtual desktops, as well as some additional features, like always on top, window shading.

I've been using this software for 2 days (installed yesterday). It is excellent! I can:
- set different wallpapers for each desktop
- set short-cut keys for each desktop
- change name for each desktop
- etc...

I just have a few small/minor complains:
- switching between virtual desktops is not as fast as I expected.... It's slower than unix.
- when IE hangs, I have to close this software in order to close/kill the IE.
- task bar will have spaces when switching between desktops.

Overall, this software is highly recommended. Once you use it, you don't want to switch back using one desktop. ;-)

TR-069 CPE Wan Management Protocol

I have a relaxing day at work. I am just doing some research on TR-069 CPE Wan Management Protocol, which is intended for communication between a CPE and Auto-Configuration Server (ACS).

The CPE WAN Management Protocol is intended to support a variety of functionalities to manage a collection of CPE, including the following primary capabilities:

- Auto-configuration and dynamic service provisioning

The provisioning mechanism allows CPE provisioning at the time of initial connection to the broadband access network, and the ability to re-provision at any subsequent time. This includes support for asynchronous ACS-initiated re-provisioning of a CPE.

- Software/firmware image management

The CPE WAN Management Protocol provides tools to manage downloading of CPE software/firmware image files. The protocol provides mechanisms for version identification, file download initiation (ACS initiated downloads and optional CPE initiated downloads), and notification of the ACS of the success or failure of a file download.

- Status and performance monitoring
- Diagnostics

The RPC Method Specification defines a generic mechanism by which

- an ACS can read or write Parameters to configure a CPE and monitor CPE status and statistics.

- to facilitate file downloads or (optionally) uploads for a variety of purposes, such as firmware upgrades or vendor-specific configuration files.

For more info:

http://www.dslforum.org/aboutdsl/dslhome_index.html

Mont Blanc cake

After seeing doctor during lunch, I felt like having a piece of cake. So, I went to J-Town. J-Town's Asia Green Tea cake and Chocolate Tiramisu cake are very good, but I tried another one this time: Mont Blanc cake.

Mont Blanc is a chestnut cake. This cake is very good too, even though it is a little bit too sweet for me. It would be good to eat with coffee, because I drink coffee with cream only.... Sweet cake and bitter coffee are a perfect match!! :)

Mont Blanc cake has nine layers:
1st/top layer: chestnut paste
2nd layer: cake
3rd layer: whipped cream
4th layer: chestnut paste
5th layer: cake
6th layer: custard like cream
7th layer: chestnut chunks
8th layer: chestnut paste
9th/bottom layer: coconuts

I have tried chestnut cake at many stores, but this is the one place where the cake actually has chestnut chunks in it!! :)

I think the cake also contains rum too, but I am not 100% sure...

I am looking forward to try another cake from J-Town next time... ;-)

-------
Bakery Nakamura
http://www.japantown.ca/nakamura/menu_e.html















The 3rd one is Asia Green Tea cake. The last one is Chocolate Tiramisu cake.

阿虫 -- 虫畫虫話

I found 阿虫's web site today. I like his drawings. Each drawing always has a meaningful message in it.
http://www.ahchung.com.hk


"Some people complain about rain. Some people complain about the sun. I love both rain and sun, because they remind me of nature."

This is very true. We all have different views and personallities. We all see things differently. No matter how well you do things... there will always be someone complaining. :-( It's impossible to do things that please the whole world.

We should stop complaning and look at things in a positive way. :-)







"Yesterday has passed. Tomorrow is a mystery. Face today and try our best."

In another word... Live at this moment (活在當下)!!

The words "活在當下" reminded me of Anita Mui. This was her popular saying before she died. After she announced that she had cancer, she kept reminding everyone that we should "活在當下". She vowed that she would defeat cancer. Unfortunately, it was the other way around. Cancer defeated her. However, she made a great impact on all HK people. She was HK's daughter, famous diva, excellent singer, wonderful actress, etc. Her death told us that if we want to do something, we should do it today, because we might not live to see tomorrow's sunrise.

Yesterday was Mom's Birthday!!

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. This year, she didn't invite all relatives and host a big party as usual. There are just 5 of us: Mom, Uncle, Grandpa, Grandma, Me :)

I brought Mom a heart-shaped chestnut cake, a birthday card, and a leather coat for birthday present.



After church, I went to pick up the birthday cake and drove Grandpa & Grandma to our house. Then, we played majong and cut cake. The chestnut cake was pretty good. It was covered with a bit too much cream, but this is normal for chinese cakes. Then, I gave Mom the birthday present + card. She was surprised to receive such a big present (the leather coat box was huge!).

After she found out that her present was a leather coat, she was very happy and immediately put it on. The leather coat's size was XS. It was a bit tight around the hip area. Guess what? I was well prepared. I actually brought 2 leather jackets for her: one XS and one S!! I ran upstairs to get the other leather coat. The size S leather coat fitted better. Hahahahaha... Mom wore the same leather jacket coat size as me!! Hahahahahaha...

At night, we went to 百 福 restaurant for dinner. We specially ordered " 鳳 吞 翅" soup. Shark fins were stuffed inside a small chicken. Then, that small chicken was stewed in soup along with chinese smoked ham and fish belly. When the waiter served us the soup, I can see a lot of shark fins. :D

劉德華 news 2006-02-09

劉德華望「雙華」齊獲肯定

劉德華昨日為「新城劉德華唱好情歌音樂會」綵排舞蹈，除得知入圍「金像獎」最佳男主角的喜訊外，另一好消息是該音樂會只在短短1小時間便給觀眾將8,000門票換購一空，破了新城電台的紀錄。

　　對於入選「最佳男主角」，華仔表示充滿信心，不過亦坦言﹕「入圍的郭富城和梁家輝早前經已獲得不同獎項，所以這次希望我能與任達華一起備受肯定。」

　　至於與華仔一起演出《童夢奇緣》的莫文蔚亦入圍「最佳女主角」，她更即時致電給華仔互相祝賀，華仔說﹕「她恭喜我之餘，她說沒想到會入圍，我則說給她知道，她的演出非常精采，但最遺憾是黃日華沒有被提名，我們在戲中好像一家人一樣呢。」

　　此外，早前有報道指華仔為了心急生仔而信奉蛇教，昨日華仔解釋說﹕「生仔不用求神，隨緣得啦，不然的話，搵教過李克勤生仔妙法的阿倫囉，倒掛金嘛，真係要搵阿倫實習一下，不過首先要證實阿倫係有仔，否則便不知道他的技巧係咪行得通。」

(news from http://hk.news.yahoo.com/060208/60/1l2i8.html)

神鵰俠侶 DVD

TVB will be releasing Andy Lau's (劉德華) "The Return Of The Condor Heroes" (神鵰俠侶) in DVD on February 10, 2006!!!

This is one of my favourites TV series. I have the VCD version at home.

In the past, Jin Yong's 神鵰俠侶 has been adapted to numerous movies and tv series. For example:
- In 1995, Louis Koo (古天樂) and Teresa Lee (李若彤) were stared in "The Condor Heroes 95".
- In 2003, Richie Jen (任賢齊) and Jacklyn Wu (吳倩蓮) were stared in "The Legend Of The Condor Heroes".

However, none of them can compare to this one. Andy Lau's "The Return Of The Condor Heroes" is the best!!

1983年，TVB開拍金庸經典《神鵰俠侶》，由蕭笙監製、王天林擔任導演、金牌監製韋家輝擔任編劇，以及由鼎鼎大名的程小東擔任武術指導；如此的幕後製作班底，可說是鑽石級製作陣容。當年蕭笙獨具慧眼，找來五虎中充滿幹勁和朝氣、同時亦帶點叛逆氣質的劉德華飾演楊過；配搭清麗脫俗、充滿古典美的陳玉蓮，扮演不食人間煙火的小龍女，實屬不二之選。這對「過兒」與「姑姑」英雄配美人的組合，再加上記載著不少觀眾回憶的一句「問世間情為何物，直教人生死相許！」，深得觀眾喜愛，更創下歷史性的60%收視紀錄，是當年全台收視之冠；直至22年後的今天，仍令人難以忘懷。

無論幕後班底或演員陣容均是空前絕後之選，梁家仁飾演郭靖、歐陽珮珊的黃蓉、呂有慧的李莫愁、秦煌的周伯通及劉丹的洪七公、曾江的東邪與楊澤霖的西毒等經典人物角色，也一一把原著中各人物的神韻演繹出來。而令人難以忘懷的，還有此劇的主題曲「何日再相見」及插曲「情義兩心堅」，經典程度不遜於劇集本身。

《神鵰俠侶》絕對是劉德華演藝事業的重要里程碑，其入木三分的演出令觀眾刮目相看，可說是其電視生涯的代表作。2006年情人節，TVB首次以DVD發行《神鵰俠侶》，特別配置中英文字幕，復修後的DVD版本比之前發行的VCD更為足本，還有額外輯錄難能可貴的劇集製作特輯，讓天下的情侶再次欣賞金庸筆下最盪氣迴腸的愛情故事——《神鵰俠侶》！