沒有「屋企緣」

剛收到大哥的電郵網上相簿，很有點兒唏歔。看到婷婷和蓓蓓已經長大了，是少女了。Ashley 和 Claire 都大了很多。Bryce 也一歲了。很可惜我這個三叔叔和三舅父都沒有機會看他們一起大。明明大家都在美國，但又偏偏分隔東西兩岸，差不多每兩年才見一次半次。實在沒有「屋企緣」。至於在香港的更加不用說，有時要兩，三年才見一次。很想很想和屋企人住得近一點，或者最低限度都可以見多一點，但是沒有緣便是沒有緣，連這個簡單願望也很小可以實現。沒辨法，生活迫人，為了生活得好一點，做IT的我實在很難回港發展。到西岸的可能性大一點，但也不容易。現在住馬里蘭洲的我，生活是可以，但實在孤獨了一點。雖然Darren 和 Lea 有大家做玩伴，但還是有多一些cousins一起大好一點。
大姊一家
二姊一家

大哥一家

Mixed Feeling

In about 5 hrs, the big truck from the moving company will stop by, yes, we are finally moving to the new place. Of course we are excited about moving in to the new house, the bigger house, the bigger yard, the nicer school zone, upscale neighbourhood etc..

But at the same time I am kind of sad to leave our current house. So many happy memories, the day that walk in to the model home to meet Matt - the salesman. The nervousless on putting in the contract for our first brand new home, the choosing of options down to the color of the tiles.. Then we see the house being built, starting from the foundation to the three levels, from the frame only to everything taking shapes. The final walk through was so excited, we are about that have a place of OUROWN, with only our names attached to it. And then we have snoopy play in the back yard the first day we moved in. The painting, the shopping for furniture on budget :) Starting my side photo biz ...etc. And then came Darren, and 21 months later, Lea, and this house will forever be remembered as the house they were born. I will definitely missed the mural I painted in Darren's room. Sorry Lea, have not get to your room yet before we decided to move :) I will remember how both of them learn how to sit, crawl, stand, walk and then run in this house. I will remember the tantrums Darren threw about 5 timez a day during the terrible 2 periods. These all happened right here.. And I will never forget how Lea walk around with a bottle in her mouth ( yes, no hands :)) and the shaking of the bottles/cups that leave a trail of milk :) And who can forget the bubble time they have in the Trex deck, one of their favorite activites. The fond memories of their first birthday party, Second party, the halloween celebration. And the time with the grand parents in the house.

I am sure we will all enjoy the new place, but we will never forget all the fond memories we have in this house.

隨想

小圈子,煩! 作為小圈子的局外人,更煩!

慷慨,好！慷他人之慨，討厭！

Social Order/Peck Order

人與人之間絕對像狗仔一樣,是有Peck Order的。在一個大或小的圈子裏,都會很自然就有一、兩個領袖。一些在中間附和的,和一些被人忽略的。

你能去到什麼位置是決於多個因素,有先天的,也有後天的。打個譬如,兄弟姊妹中,最年長的很自然就成為領袖。由其在一些傳統的家庭就更加明顯。因為父母很自然就相信兄姊的話是對的，久而久之弟妹的話就沒有份量了。這是先天因素,但也可以改變。譬如弟妹從小成績名烈前茅,或是長大後工作上取得個人成就,都是改變個人位置的因素。 工作上也一樣,一個六呎高,成熟英俊的白人男士,進升幾會自然比不到五尺半,看上去還像一個高中生的亞洲人大得多o同樣地,後天是可以改變,一個名校的博仕學位,又或是以實力不段做得比人家好,都是一個方法,只事路較長吧!

這些Peck Order在朋友圈子裏也很明顯,一般是有錢的,社會地位高的「教授,律師，醫生」等。一個很特別的方法,但又真的可以成功,就是認「口力」,什麼事都插咀,說得似層層的,慢慢地，人家就會開始相信你是有材學的。這樣做說難不難,說易不易, 最重要是一張厚面皮,比人識穿了還可以若無其事繼續去「吹牛」。

要打破在你的圈子裏的排位並不容易,有時只可以認命,有時可以去找別的圈子。

夢之屋，年三十，McDonald

大纜扯唔埋的三樣「口野」,又竟然大有關系。話說一月中,一間我們一向有興趣的「夢」之屋放盤，我們立刻去它的公開openhouse。 看了更加愛上了她。即時和agent相量，立即去回家打掃除，看看能否賣掉我們的房子去買我們的夢之屋。誰不知1／23真的接到agent的電話，他們有客人有興趣看我們的房子。一翻努力之後打掃後，買家為1／24 來看。1／25 他們通過agent對我們說有興趣買我們的房子。我們的agent立刻告訴我們。 為了小心起見我們便和agent看看其他在市場的屋了。心水清的也知道1/25是年三十。結果我們忙了一天。「康」少奶一心想做的團年飯就變成了McDonald。最氣人的是買家還給了一個LOWBALL offer, 比我們開價低6％。最後我們沒有還價。年三十就吃一頓吏上最除便的一餐團年飯

後記,最後買家有興趣加價，夢之屋的賣家又有興趣減價。價錢不成問題了,但最後,因為種種原因,還是不能下決心把她買下。唯有拍照留念。真的有點可惜!

新年快樂 （月亮和金星）

新年快樂 希望大家都有一個美好的 2009.對很多人來說,2008 不是好的一年，
希望2009會更好吧!!

Below is a couple of photos I took on New Years Eve from my drive way. Last day of 2008 happened to be the day that the Cresent Moon and a very bright Venus can be seen very close together. Earlier in Thankgiving day of 2008, there were actually 3 objects ( Crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter) together. I saw that with my naked eye very clearly, but was too busy to bring my camera out to the front yard. I got this one this time. Hope you enjoy! (On the first photo, the brighter oneis the Moon, and the other one is Venus)


10-22mm set at 17mm f8 8s iso 400 Canon 40d

80-200mm 2.8 set at 127mm f8 iso 125 Canon 40d Cropped

中文輸入法

有很多東西想寫,但手寫板大慢了。決心學習中文輸入法(先試倉頡吧)圖為自製中文鍵盤。

SNOOPY

首先,snoopy 沒有事,只是看過康少奶send來的一篇文章,有感而發吧了!文章是 Jim Willis - How Could You? 有網友把它 translate 成中文。看過文章後,希望曾勸過我們放棄 Snoopy 的親友們會改觀吧!自己看過後也有一點內疚,自從有了Darren後,已經沒有對sn00py那麼好了。現在又有了Lea,就更加沒有時間給Snoopy。以往當我買了新的相機或鏡頭,牠都一定是我試機的不二之選。以經驗老到的Snoopy也會熟練露出牠的招牌可愛笑容。想不到今天要寫這篇文章,要找一張S00NY的相,竟要追朔到2006年的Halloween,真的要自我檢討一下。Snoopy己經八歲了,現在已開始現老態了,想不到這個BL0G開了這麼久才第一次寫有關Snoopy的文章,看來我真的太小理牠了。

Link to an nice Ariticle...

I read this article from yahoo finance today, if you have time, read it, it is funny, sad and true.

American Fairy tale

If you are like me, you will feel so much like that hardworking IT guy who got screwed.

Memorial Weekend - Day Two

Memorial Weekend 的第二天,早上有點累,就待在家裏。其間我到了Lowes做搬運工人,整整搬了十三包三、四十lbs的泥回來,準備把後園patio以外的地方作花園時用。到了下午,一家四口,百無聊賴決定到朋支介紹過,離家大約四里左右的Black Hill Reginonal park 走走。這一去,Darren你就開心了。一個巨形的Playground,又或是一大片草地,都令他興奮莫明。最後還來一個「樂而『不』返,幾經辛苦才把他送回車上。

Memorial Weekend Day One

Memorial Weekend.

Memorail Day is an official Day in US to honored any military personal who died in service. For most american though, the weekend is usually the weekend that unofficially started Summer of that year. As a immigrant living in maryland, we do not have a lot of relatives, luckily, we do have a bunch of friends from the college years who see each others regularly. On Day one of the weekend, we went to "Doctors" house for a "potluck BBQ". We brought some porter house steak marinted with a receipe that we found on foodnetwork.com. Everybody like it. We also brought some Water Melon. Everybody prepared something nice. Except the "西門" family, they just bring some hot dot and sausage from the supermarket. Luckily, the kids all love hot dog, so at least they bought the right food.

Memorial Day 是美國對戰爭中殉職軍人紀念的日子。但今天大多數人都會把它作為「非官方」夏日的開始。一般也愛在這個週末和親友一起BBQ。住在馬洲,親人不多,還好一班大學時期認識到現在的朋友還常有見面,才不至於太過孤單。今年到了博士家BBQ,大家各自帶一些食物去燒。我們帶了porterhouse steak,還不錯。還帶了消暑的西瓜,大家都喜歡。其他人都帶了一些些不錯的食物,最「行」的是西門一家,只帶了現成的「熱狗」,還好孩子們都愛熱狗,算是買對了吧!BBQ後才是「細路」們的戲玉,大一點的到後園玩「飛碟」小一點的友露台上玩Bubbles,不翼樂乎!

First Kiss?

No just blowing bubbles!

忙

I have always been busy... but nothing like the past 4 weeks.

First, my wife is 8months pregnant. And we have to get the house clean up ( we never did the traditional "annual clean up" ) In preparation for our new child, and mom-in-law. Having to clean up the former office/storage, use half the garage as storage, use half the basement rec-room as the new office, all while my 22 months old running the house. On top of this, at work is just as busy.. deadline after deadline and overtime after overtime .. I am really exhausted. So no suprise that I did not wrote the last 4 wks.

Tomorrow is finally the day, my wife will go to the schedule appointment for an induction, and we will see Lea Victoria for the first time. Today also marked the first night that neither of us is spending the night with Darren in the same house, he is a big boy now soon to be a big brother, we are very proud that he had handle is first sleep over without daddy nor mommy pretty well.

Anyway, time to get some rest and prepare the many sleepless night ahead of us.

"Shame on you" 「有無攪錯。」

上星期到一間亞洲人開的超市,準備買大量的薑去做薑醋。康少奶很自然地一邊揀一邊取手把壞的部份剝掉,過了一會,忽然發現有一個白人中年男士對著我們光瞪眼,又沒有撰購在他面前的貨品。起初也不為意,過了超過五分鐘,他還盯著我們。這時我也心中有氣了,問他, "Something is wrong?". He replied "Nothing, I am just looking at you guys taking the bad part off the produce ( He does not even know it is ginger" My wife answered "Yes, that is how you shop ginger" He replied sarcasticly "yeah, and everything else". My wife said, "No, just for ginger" He replied "The price in the market is low now but if you keep doing that, they are going to raise the price." At this time, I was quite mad, because that is how people shop in ginger, Asia market or Amercan market , it is a perfectly normal behavior. We started ignoring him, and he finally decided to leave, but before he left, he called out loud "Shame on you!!" I think this is the FIRST TIME we ever had anyone saying that to either of us, let alone publicly. We were quite upset.
Normally, I would not like to judge people just by appearance, but for this guy, he obviously is some one in the middle age but still single with no family. And obviously is someone who hate Asian or any other minority and always look for a way to pick on us. While we are quite upset, we understand that this is just how the world is, and there will always be someone doing something like that.

香港娛樂圈「淫照」事件

「喂!又關你事?」不錯,事件的發生地的確和我差十萬八千里,但卻不能說和我完全沒關系。話說那天一早到公司上班,看到相熟朋友的電郵,想也沒想就click進去了,嘩!竟然是香港娛樂圈名人的「淫」照,大膽程度另人作舌。嚇得我第一時間把browser關掉。要知道,在美國公司裏看這些三級照,已經 觸範了公司sexual harassment 守則,什至法例,除時可以被即時解顧。大佬們,下此寄這類相片,這在內文「單」一聲,不要害我呀!

回說香港傳媒,政府,和市民。一般大眾都是抱著有點同情,但卻更加好奇的心態去看這件事,政府和警方也處理得很好,盡力破案,又沒有做多餘的事。最怕的是一些訪問,或一些專欄作家的那些半唐番,或是假洋人,竟然一臉「你們香港人:唉!真是小題大做,在外國……」下刪十個理由在外國只是小事一件。真是亂說一通,不要對我說若有Brad Pete和Jennifer Aniston外加三個明星做愛的三級相片外竊,警方不會加一把勁去破案。更加不要對我說在外國這個很普通。難道你以為外國人個個都是三級片主角,愛把私照「公諸 同好」嗎?真是的。

送禮物-給男士篇

就快又到情人節了,想信有女士們士也為送什麼給男友或「老公」頭痛。
讓我這三十多歲的男士幫幫忙吧!

Gadget 型-他們最愛不段追求最新的電玩,是否真正有需要並不重要,最要緊的是要最新的,最流的,SPEC最好的。他們的目的是要其他人看到他們的新玩時會昨出羨慕的贊歎。例如:你的相機這麼薄,還有12萬像數,真利害，又或是,你的LCD電視有多大?嘩,52吋,還是1080p的,好!

提意:
1. 最新的GPS.(要肯定他沒有「我永不需要問路症」的症狀才可以走)
2. 42”或以上的LCD-TV,基本上越大越好 ,一定要是1080P的。
3. iPhone

住家男人型-不是真的待在家裏的,只是比較顧家的男人。
通常他們都比較實制,最好買一些家裏本來就需要的,例如新的吸塵機(若舊的那個已懷了) 又或是新的無線電話(若舊的那個已懷了) 。

興趣型-這種男人一天到晚都為自己的興趣在忙,他們的興趣可以往多元化,像Hi-fi.木工,電子遊戲,還有很多其他的。送禮物給他們是最容易,因為他們永遠都有新的工具可以upgrade.但記著,他們要的那個型號,那一個工具,一般都是十分挑剔的。最好是直接問他的型號,又或是送他常到的那間專門店的禮卷。

守財奴型-這種男人通常有點錢,但對太部分要用錢的禮物興趣不大。如果你們雙方是經濟獨立,妳就送他一些股票吧!他們基本上只對可以賺錢的東西才有興趣。如果你們是經濟統一的話,妳可以給他最好的禮物就是自已升職加薪,因此,努力工作吧!

如果妳覺得這篇文章幫到妳的話,請回一下,給我一點提意送什麼給康少奶吧!!

Baby Shower

今年三月太太和我的的第二個孩子就要出世了。無巧不成話,「賭神」夫婦的第二個孩的預產也是在三月。8年前,我們在同一天向朋友們宣佈我們訂婚了。一年後 我們相繼在同一個月結婚,兩年前,我們的第一個孩子就只相隔三個月出世。因此「博士」夫婦就決定給我們攪一個 joint baby shower。 BB shower 在兩天前順利舉行了,真的要多謝「博士」一家,不單止借出地方,準備了很多色、香、味俱全的食物,而且還把地方布置得美倫美煥,真的多謝啦! 還要多謝「西門」一家幫 忙準備的食物,「大堂」一家的蛋糕和遊戲。當然更加要多謝所有到賀的親感朋友,你們寫在留言薄的祝福我們都看過了,多謝啦!!


Left is for our baby girl, right is for 「賭神」夫婦 ..
Salmon Roll

Devil Egg by 「西門」一家
Buffalo Wings

Asparagus Roll

Special gift - "Diaper Cake" from 表妹 no.2

談戀愛

為什麼妳要這樣對我? 當我全心全意投入「妳」身上時,「妳」卻對我不理不采,甚至向我一盤冷水倒下來。到我決定放棄「妳」了,妳卻有熱情地向我招手。終於經不起「妳」的誘惑,又向「妳」投懷送抱。「妳」令我忐忑不安, 在辦公室內也不段希望有「妳」的消息。當「妳」稍為對我好一點,我就連工作也好像有拼勁一點,到「妳」冷落了我的時候,我的心情也隨之沉下去了。

你們錯了,那個「妳」不是美女,不是女朋友,也不是我太太。她是那隻「股票」。不錯,有時抄買股票就和一個不愛你的人談戀愛一樣,真的會令人很累,很累。最後有沒有回報就要看你是否選了一個好的「女友」了。

美國-大減價篇

今年元旦,和太太到一個商場shopping, 事前已經準備了大 公司Macy的特惠卷,一到Macy,發覺本身的折扣己有五折了,加上coupon,一件300元的外套已減至百多元了,再加上即時伸請了Macy- Card,再打多了一個八折最後就只是一百大元(Correction, only $85, haha)。誰不知去到另一間店子,看到一件款式相似的,居然68元減至25元,有無攪錯」。(當然是 CK vs Old Navy, ,但還有點兒那個。)

小費

在美國住過的朋友,都知到美國餐廳用飯,是有不明文的規定要給一個很高百份比的小費。我一向都以15%為「最低消費」, 約服務不太差的話，我習慣給18%-20%. 還以為自己是偏向多Tips的, 誰不知近來才聽到 waiters/waitresses 們原已經開始以18%為最低的合理消費。另我不明白的是為何會有這個轉變。若說是因為百物騰貴,他們要加薪。這是說不過去的,因為物價高漲,結賬的 Total自然就會加了,以他們的收入也應隋之而上升,為何顧客還要多付小費? 再者我一向相信Tips的多小,應該和服務的質數掛勾才對。有些餐廳更不顧一切,私自加了15%-18%的小費到賬單l裏,只在不明顯的地方列明小費已算進去了。這樣做是希望不知袖裡的客會再加15%上去,實在是不當的行為,奉勸大加,特別是到美國旅遊的朋友們一定要小心看單呀!

一問: 你們通常給多少呀? 不防留言分享一下!

科技真好! -VOIP

現代科技一日千里,真是現代人的福氣。剛和在香港的二哥通了一個電話,發覺安裝了城市電訊(加拿大)的VOlP後,在外國和在香港的距離真的拉近了不小。基本上,我就等於有了自己的香港電話號馬一樣,在港的親朋戚 友只要像在香港一樣撥八個字就可以了。最好的就是他們可以用手提電話打給我也不是問題。由於費用是每月定額(us10)令我們很自然就會聯絡多了,好像感情也好了。回想當年大姊到美國升學,我們連IDD也沒有,每次掛電話都會全家侍在電話旁邊,排著隊的和大姊說兩三句話,真的有很大的分別。之後有了IDD就方便多啦,接著是電郵,IM,VOIP。科技真好!

後記:有很在美國的朋友或親都對城市電訊有不滿,大多是投數線路時常終斷。我的VOIP電話一向都沒有問,真到近日接了一部新電腦並間中用P2P的軟件下載才開始有問題。後來在網上看到主要的問題也是在Router上,我的情況是firmware outdate 了,到生產商的網頁下載了最新的firmware,問題就解決了。另一個可能性是router 大舊了, handle 不了太多 traffic ,那就試用一個新的router,看看有沒有幫助吧!