Cultural Difference between Asian and American

Recently we have an American colleague come over to our office for business assignment. She is a nice girl, friendly and outspoken. We have exchanged short conversation and learned that she is now holding U.S. green card, but her home country is Poland. She also told us that she is going to apply US citizenship and yet retain as a Polish. To my surprise, Poland allow dual nationalities. Before this, I do not aware of there is any country which allow dual nationality.

Anyway, that's not the main point of this posting. I am going to talk about some thing which myself find quite interesting for the American. For some reason, those Malaysian Chinese i knew or Singaporean like to bring their foreign visitor out for meal in the Chinese restaurant. I guess that because the Chinese are quite proud of their cuisine. Every time, when someone from us ask the guest how do they feel about the food. The typical answer is "yeah, i love it" or kind of... Nevertheless I feel this is just a answer out of politeness, I have gut feel they may not really like it that much. This time I am happy to heard our visitor say this, "... not like i'm going to offend anyone, but I prefer Indian food more..." I really like her honesty, and confirm what I suspect all the while could be true. I still remember when i was overseas posting to USA (Washington to be exact), I found many Indian restaurants around, and I think they are quite popular among the local American. Is there someone from USA can confirm that they DO really like Indian food more than Chinese food? If it really is, why they feel so, is it because the flavor more suit to their taste?

Lastly, i just attached a Poland picture to commemorate my recent friend's visit.

Interpid Young (拳怕少壯、槍怕老辣)

Wonder that do you think 30's old is young? or only 20's old is considered young?

When i was still study in high school, i felt all working class people are old. Then when i started working, most the time i'm youngest in the team. Slowly, i become the senior in the company. Without knowing it, i suddenly realize i'm one of the eldest in the working place among my peer.

After i become older (hopefully wiser), can i still behave like a kid? If i rent, say Astro boy comic, will people look at me as one kind. Then i can't simply talk stupid things, else i lose my creditability. People will think i'm immature. And even i am really immature, i should not show it, i must conceal the fact, so people will show respect to me.

This is Asia, this is no America. Society is still very much hierarchical in nature. When you not conform to mainstream, you are the eccentric. However, most man has a boy live inside him... at least i think so for myself.

Self-denial

Human is inclined to find excuse for their mistakes. This is universally applicable to many people. I found this famous case:

According to Wikipedia, Mary Mallon (a.k.a. ‘Typhoid Mary’) managed to infect 47 people during the course of her career as a cook. Three of them died of the disease. Between 1900 and 1907, she infected two dozen people with typhoid fever. She worked in Mamaroneck, New York for less than two weeks when residents began to succumb. She moved to Manhattan in 1901 and members of the family where she was employed started to develop fever and diarrhoea. The laundress died. She then went to work for a lawyer and managed to infect seven out of a household of eight. In 1906 she moved to Long Island. Within two weeks, six out of eleven household members were hospitalized. She changed employment again and managed to infect three more families. Her fame “is in part due to her vehement denial of her own role in causing the disease, together with her refusal to cease working”.

Are you a Mary Mallon?

Smurf goes to big screen

This is nice. I remembered when i was still a kid, i very much enjoyed idling at front of the TV set during afternoon watching "smurf". although i knew no single words utter by these little blue creatures (i came from non english speaking family), i did find they are hilarious.

With Hollywood running short of ideas, Paramount green lit a computer animated movie based on the classic 80's cartoon series The Smurfs (Truth is smurf are actually 50 years old, having first appeared in the comic strip). The first image from this upcoming big screen computer animated adaptation in the Happy Smurfday Euro Tour, plan to coincide with the Smurf's 50th birthday. Some sneak photos can be found in MushroomVillage.

The greater fool theory

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each h and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 ! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

How much it cost when you send a computer to repair?

It depends. For hong kong actor Edison Chen, it creates earthquake in the Chinese community. if you happen to be a member live in this Asia region, chances are you had tried to search for the sex scandal photos before or asking your fren about it.
But it can also cost a whopping $54 millions. this is the excerpt of the news from Slashdot:

"It happens to the best of us: you drop off your laptop at the local branch of some Super Mega Electronics McStore, go to pick it up, and they can't find it. Lost, gone, kaput — probably sucked into a black hole and now breeding with lost airline luggage. It would make any of us mad, but Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C. isn't just mad — she's $54 million mad. That's how much she is asking from Best Buy in a lawsuit that seeks 'fair compensation for replacement of the $1,100 computer and extended warranty, plus expenses related to identity theft protection.' Best Buy claims that Ms. Campbell was offered and collected $1,110.35 as well as a $500 gift card for her inconvenience. (I guess that extra 35 cents wasn't enough to sway her.) Her blog claims that Geek Squad employees spent three months telling her different stories about where her laptop might be before finally acknowledging that it had been lost. For those who follow economic trends, this means that a laptop's worth is roughly equivalent to that of a pair of pants."

so is that fear or greed?

sometimes i dunno is the market predictable?
ppl will tell control your emotion, be fear not and greed not. however, i wonder how do you justify fear not or greed not. recently i close a position, maybulk enter 3.84 and exit 3.88, however after come back from CNY it rise above 4.00

my decision making on the exit is to avoid risk during the long holiday in CNY, as i am not sure how the external factor like US recession etc will develop, thus such decision. well, my judgment end up against my profitability, is that call fear? i know not.

A fresh start (一年之計在於春)

at last CNY is "half" over... I just come back from Kelantan two days ago. For those who are not familiar with Malaysia, Kelantan is a rural state in M'sia. That's one way you can travel to the past, 60-70 era without science fi help. To be accurate, i went to my wife's hometown, a place called Tanah Merah. The place is so idle and time appear stand still. You can see cows wandering around at the road sides. But yet, there are also some nice houses. As the local do not have much to spend, some just use their saving to build big bungalow.

I think that's a place for you to condense yourself. well, its a bit boring too because i always like hustle and bustle of CNY, and i suppose CNY should be that way. However if you want to idle around, Tanah Merah can be an ideal place. Also, one thing i do enjoy most is the chilly night. You do not need turn on air con when you sleep. And birds chirping wake you up in the morning, you just hardly find this in the metropolitan.

Chinese New Year 2008 (新年新氣象)

This year is the year of rat. Chinese new year is one of the most celebrate festival for Chinese. I like it since i was a kid, because of the atmosphere, the noise and the reunion. Hope this year will bring a prosperous new year to everyone. And pray the bull can charge again for our beloved market.

btw, i will take a good darn break from blogging for the new year celebration. Gong Xi Fa Chai 恭喜發財 to everyone.

Groundhog day

How interesting! I just learn today is groundhog day in North America, a day where so-called prognosticating rodents (a.k.a. groundhogs) emerge from their burrows. Custom has it that, if they see their shadow, winter will continue for another 6 weeks; and if they do not, there will be an early spring. This year the US and the Canadian groundhogs differ. Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil thinks winter will continue (but that with Bush soon out, there’s hope yet) whereas Wiarton Willie quickly noted that Canada’s winter will soon be over and then high-tailed it to the closest pub.

Don't want to drive the 550 miles to Punxsutawney to see the actual Phil make his forecast? This being 2008, you can do it from the comfort of your laptop, using the live Webcam at the Punxsutawney Groundhog Zoo (groundhog.visitpa.co). Your choices include a crowd shot, a glimpse inside Punxsutawney Phil's lair ("from the stump"), and an expanded view of his palatial compound.

Back to future, the way to do it (回到未來)

that day when i go out lunch with colleagues, we had arrived to this topic. Interestingly, not many really know the physics behind to achive it. Some simply just say, if you can travel faster than speed of light, you will able to travel to the future, but i rebuke ain't that will make you travel to the past instead of the future. Thus, right after back from lunch, i went ahead to wiki it, and found the following to share it here:
Time Travel

It suggests that to travel to future, you need to:
This form of "travel into the future" is theoretically allowed using the following methods:[12]

Using time dilation under the Theory of Special Relativity, for instance:
Traveling at almost the speed of light to a distant star, then slowing down, turning around, and traveling at almost the speed of light back to Earth[30] (see the Twin paradox)
Orbiting Earth for long periods of time (practical, but insignificant);
Using time dilation under the Theory of General Relativity, for instance:
Residing inside of a hollow, high-mass object;
Residing just outside of the event horizon of a black hole

To complement, travel to the past require you:
Time travel to the past is theoretically allowed using the following methods:[12]

Traveling faster than the speed of light
The use of cosmic strings and black holes
Wormholes and Alcubierre 'warp' drive

Sometimes i do proud of my company

Recently, Apple had announces ultra-thin laptop. Guess what, the laptop is powered by the processor manufactured by our company (you know, the Ixxxl Inside...)
See the story here Apple announces ultra-thin laptop

I think Kevin Rudd really speak good mandarin (陆克文总理中央台访问)

While Kevin Rudd can speak such good mandarin, it's pathetic that some English educated Chinese discard their own language and talk with each other in English.