I Hate Promise Breaker!

I just realized that among my friends there is a promise breaker. Before that, I thought it was me that the person cancelled our appointment at the last minutes for a few times (Yeah, I thought I am not a nice person to hang out after work). However, this time it was work-related, and a few months of planning gone into waste. So, for sure I am pissed … but silently.

I guess the reason that I am so angry about this is because of my family. My father is a businessman, so every word he makes, he never breaks it. Breaking a promise is a very serious thing in business world. I am brought up in this condition, so I seldom make promises, usually use the word ‘maybe’ or ‘try’; however, when I make a promise, I do intend to keep it.

I remembered when I was in Form 3, I ended my friendship with a friend, after that person repeatedly cancelled the appointment at the last minute, each time promising would make it up to me during the next appointment. I guess I did a childish decision that time. But at that time I was sure that people who never kept their words did not worth it to get to know them.

Now, I am re-experiencing the same situation. So, in order not to make a harsh decision, I went researching on what I should do next and I bumped into a site where you teach you have to deal with such friends. The suggestion was … “You could abandon the friend and the friendship!”

Since I did that 12 years ago, I guess I would just lower my expectation on such friend, maybe try my best to stay a distance from this kind of person. Don’t think I would even talk about this with such friend.

Do you think that I am over-reacting? What’s your comment? But I am feeling much better after vomiting all my disappointment out… Thanks for reading. J

Password - Your Choice and How Do You Remember?

Our digital life revolves a lot on password. I don’t know about others but I have a lot of passwords to remember because some need different criteria:

• ATMs: 6 digits
• Office: Alphanumerical with at least one special character or different casing of alphabet; and the need to change it every 3 months
• Public Emails: Some don’t allow special characters and cannot be too long
• Some Online Forums: At least 8 characters long
• Some Online Gaming Site: Maximum 8 Characters long.

That’s why I usually store all my passwords in a place where I protect it with another set of password. L Anyway, changing password is also a head-aching task.

When you run out of password to choose, you tend to use stupid ones, such as body part; but ends up having personal impact. J

So, how do you guys manage to remember all password? How do you choose a new ones?

Older Parents Got Abandoned

I get extremely upset whenever I read news regarding children abandoning their parents. I know it is no such a big deal in western countries because the children was forced to leave their home when they reached the age of 18 as a sign of reaching adulthood and the government no longer sponsors their living expenses. It might even be funny to know a guy still live with their parents at that stage.

Imagine, a guy bringing a girl home for a ‘coffee’ (you know what I mean because western countries have different ‘culture’) and when things got ‘hot’ the guy told the girl, “Can we keep it low, my parents are sleeping”, or half way through the intimate moment suddenly the voice upstairs (no, the voice not from god) asking “ Son, are you alright? Did you break ous favorite chairs again? We hear you banging on something at this hour!”

Anyway, Asia is a different place. Most government do not pay for children living expenses right from the time they were born. Parents usually fought hard for that so that we could live well and happy. When I started working, I realize that it is a very difficult feat. Working by itself is stressful enough, not to mention trying to fulfill the basic necessities of the children. However, it seems for some, when the parents get old and responsibilities have been switched, the children no longer do the same for their parents, some even abandon them and let institutes or hospitals taking care of them, such an irresponsible act!

I’m sure when everyone gets old, the only thing they want are to enjoy the golden years with their grandchildren. It should be a happy moment. I remembered my father told me this when I was young “I will always work hard to give the best to you”, I shall pass back this message to them in the future and also to my children. As for those that abandon their old parents, I curse that your children do the same to you! Hmmm.. or maybe this was how the chain of reaction started….

My Old Phone (No Mood for Blogging)

Okay, I have to admit it. Lately there is no mood for blogging at all. I mean blogging for the public, because I have made blogging as part of my daily task for my company – using blogging method to entertain everyone in my office. Yeah, how cool is that! But I still have to do my daily task, so ended up 24 hours was not enough for me.

Anyway, the other reason is that my crappy older phone is a turn off for me to snap photos or connect to the internet at home. Still cursing whoever that stole my phone! By the way, I learnt that in China, a new bicycle costs RMB90 (almost RM50) and a second hand motorcycle costs RMB600+ (almost RM350). So, you can imagine how rich was the person who stole my handphone which cost RM2K (almost RMB4000). Maybe for him or her, it was like hitting a jackpot! Imagine how many bicycles or motorcycles that person has now!

So, what phone I am using now? These 2 – Sony Ericson J230i and Motorola A780. The former one is for public use and the later one is for private / personal use. So, whoever have my digi number, yes, you are important to me. J

A780 is the one i’m using as a replacement for my stolen phone, it considered as the first phone I bought from the savings of my first, second and third paychecks 4 years ago. It was an high-end phone during that time with touch screen capability. Imagine how cool during that time when I flipped my phone and answered it and then I could use the touch screen feature for my work stuff! But now it feels like a brick to me.

Anyway, I love to find special reasons to get a new phone – my HTC TyTn II reminded me my first business trip, the cheap SE J230i reminded me of my current job that restricts camera usage in the lab and my A780 reminded me of my first job. So, before I have special reason to get a new one, I would try to make the best out of it. Well think of it, this phone is good in some ways, it’s crime deterrent in the first place. Don’t get what I mean? Watch this commercial.

Yeah, I won’t hesitate to throw it at someone because when I was working in Motorola last time, I got to know that my phone passed 3-storey height of drop test. That means if it’s a need, I could use it as a hammer to drive the nails into the wall or even smashing those hard shell crabs. Not bad of a handphone!

Still, this phone is getting old and partially malfunctioned. I could not answer it by putting on my ear because the internal speaker is dead but it is okay when I put on speaker phone mode. I felt like talking on walkie-talkie when answering the phone, there goes my privacy if I don’t have my headset with me. In addition, I lost my stylus and the external keypad could not be used anymore, only could use my hand on the touchscreen for dialing.

By the way, I was tempted by someone who recently got her hand on a suspected imitation Chinese phone. It was way better than those high-end handphones with those nicely integrated features. If not for the suspected high-radiation and the possibility of exploding in my pocket, killing my ‘reproduction engine’, I might be getting one for myself! Maybe I should rephrase my words, if I am a girl, I will get one! J

Funny China's English Language!

Have you ever heard of a China Chinese speak English? I did and I almost vomited. Some Chinese wanted to sound sophisticated by mixing a few English words in their conversation but ended up sounding stupid in front of those English speaking folks. On my way to Shenzhen International Airport on Monday, I overhead a Chinese trying to say “Oh my god” on the phone, but sounded like “Owl might good”. To make it worse, the way he said those words sounded like singing with every word in higher key than the previous word (try mixing ‘Do Re Mi’ keys into ‘Owl might good’, then you should get what I meant).

A few days ago, I flipped through the hotel information guide and saw this statement under ‘Power’.

If you enlarge the photo, you would see this statement “220 dog days, 110 dog’s days”. I read a few times and really did not understand what it meant until I read the mandarin section - “220 V, 110V’. Wow, who translated this information guide? “Volt” = “Dog Days”? The translator either hated this 4-star hotel in Meizhou or the English standard over there was really low! I bet the later!

Lastly, another proof that the Chinese public has zero knowledge on English words or should I say the most common English cursing.

Sorry for those who do not understand the name on this signboard, but I bet you should be able to match its pronunciation. In Mandarin, it pronounces as “Hua De Fa” but it is acceptable if you make it sound like “What The F*ck”. I do hope that it is not the owner’s name. J