Citizens of the earth, let's do it!

Ok, i stop complaining. Let's give!!!

World Vision International Relief

Medecins du monde

Unicef

Croix-Rouge Canada

Medecins sans frontieres

catastrophe sans précédent, qu'ils disent!

c'est désolant de voir le nombre de victimes grimper à chaque jour en Asie du Sud-Est. On pourrait atteindre les 100 000 de morts (!) sans parler du million de sans abris ...
Hier, j'ai regardé le journal de france 2. Dans les reportages, on n'entendait que les quelques touristes français dans ce coin du monde parler et se plaindre. Que dalle sur les autres quelques 55 000 victimes! Quelle couverture/ouverture! Honteux. Tout le monde est si égocentrique!

Earthquake and other stuff!

The earthquake that occured in Sumatra today and the tsunamis that followed killed more than 12 000 people in South Asia! That's so terrible!!

Two of my friends are right now in Malasia and one friend in Thailand. Hope they have nothing.

What have we done to the earth????

Food!

For our fellowship Christmas party, last week, we had an 'iron chef' contest! The 3 small groups have to cook something and the best food wins. One group came up with the Turducken, it is actually a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken! It was huge! They started to cook it at 10:30 am and finished by 5:30 p.m. Amazing! I was quite impressed! Too bad i forgot to take a picture of it. We were more than 35 people and we couldn't finish half of it!!! (of course, there was a lot of other kinds of food).
Below is a picture just for the illustration sake!


TURDUCKEN 

Reveillon de Noel chez ma copine!

On a fait la cuisine. C'etait chouette! On s'est gatees!! Bref, croyez-le ou non, j'ai fait a manger et on a concocte un super bon tajine!!!
On a eu un repas de Noel orignal mais on ne pouvait pas passer a cote de la tradionnelle buche!! :-) yummy!!! (pour les yeux!!!)


de l'autre cote, avec la fleur d'orchidee! 

voici notre buche de noel!!!  

Merry Christmas!

wish i were still a small kid!!!

Let's become little children again and marvel at the beauty of this season when Jesus was born!


way too cute!!!!!!!!! 

Ignorance is Bliss

My dad purposely didn't pay the telephone bill for 2 or 3 months. Result? They cut our phone line!!! The Big Boss always wins! Without the phone line, it meant that we had no internet at home! Since I don't watch T.V, I had no idea that it was so cold on Monday! I just wore my normal jacket. My head would tell my body to stop complaining! When i got to my work office, I checked the weather, it was -26C! and with the wind, it was -37C. Aïe! Ouch!

That reminds me of last year when i joined the demonstration against the war in Iraq. We marched all the way to the American ambassy at -26C! And we were all screaming:

"Non à la guerre en Irak et non au froid ici!!"

Nothing worked! The war happened and it is still cold here :-)!

Being a banana is not easy

My mom doesn’t understand how come my brother somehow stayed Chinese and I’ve become a banana. We are only one year apart.
But there is hope. I just had some rice tonight. The last time i ate some rice was in the beginning of July … or maybe I should say ‘I tried some’.

I realize more and more the gap between the 1st and 2nd generation Chinese. There is a clash of mentality. The parents are deeply influenced by Confucius' value system where community is the key concept. With this come the responsibilities and duties of conforming to the group and honoring it.
In Chinese, the family name comes first, showing how belonging to a collectivity outweighs far more the person as an individual. It is funny how we don’t know our grandparents’ name. They are referred as the grandpa or grandma of so and so (well, maybe this has more to do with the importance of the male gender thing).

In the Western culture, the emphasis is on my person, my rights, my life and my desires (the “me, myself and I” thing).

The way of parenting is very different too. Western parents slowly let go of their children and let them fly from their own wings by giving them increasing freedom and independence. With the Chinese parents, we remain children as long as we are not married. And we feel much more pressure for getting a good education (the 4 professions that are allowed: doctor, lawyer, businessman or engineer), or for marrying the right person.

Here is a small summary:

Asian Value: Situation Centered
Western Value: Individual Centered

Asian Value: Collectivity - group identity, achievement of goals set by others, obligation to group
Western Value: Individualism - autonomy, achievement of individual goals, trained to be individuals

Asian Value: Duty & Obligation - relational responsibility, duty to others, motivation based on obligation
Western Value: Rights & Privileges - responsible to self, personal rights, motivation based on feelings

Asian value: Hierarchy - submissive to authority, emphasis on positions in relationships, accepts rules and propriety
Western Value: Equality - dislike for rules and control, play down superiority/inferiority, questions authority

Asian value: Deference - passitivity and yieldedness, adherence to social politeness, emphasis on self effacement
Western Value: Self-Assertion - aggressive and expressive, assertive, open ans accessible to others

By John Ng “Cultural Pluralism & Ministry Models in the Chinese Community”, 1985

I am a Chinese/French/Canadian mix. Sometimes, I wonder what good can come out of me. But God loves me the way I am. That’s what matters. :-) And he asks me to love and honor my parents.
A friend told me once that I was lucky because i could choose between 3 cultures and take the best of each ...

The first snow storm

This Saturday, about 20 cm of snow fell on Montreal (that is 20 cm per m^2!). It usually costs 5 million $ for the city to "vacuum" away the snow on the streets after a snow storm ... Mother Nature, please, be good to us, i don't want to pay more taxes!!!


the beauty of winter  

poor car ... 

the surroundings 

the road 

the balcony of our place 

Being Proactive ...

The other day, I was talking with a friend. My company will announce very soon some cuts, specially in the network department because of the merge, one network team is needed only. So, he told me to be proactive and to start looking for another job and have some plans ...

My plans are already made! See how proactive I am! If I lose my job soon, I plan to go to the Fiji islands in January. Then, I will go to China to visit some friends who just found some jobs there (in Feb or March). During Summer time, i will go back to France and i guess i will also go to some Northern countries ... ).

My friend was pretty impressed by my plans!!! And what about work?? ;-)

Oops, work, I forgot about it. Well, hopefully, during my travels, i will meet a nice-millionaire-man!(hahahha, just kidding, someone who can cook for me would be enough, hahhaha)

Ok, seriously, I will see what God's plan is for me :). As He says in Jeremiah 29:11 -
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. " -

Let's hope T__T!


somewhere in British Columbia, Canada 

YES!

The Canadian Supreme Court has just said YES to gay marriages. So, Canada is OFFICIALLY the 3rd country to innovate in this field after Holland and Belgium (I think).
All our peaceful demontrastions were in vain! (or maybe not!)

Commémorons ...

Aujourd'hui, c'est le 15e anniversaire de la tuerie survenue à l'école Polytechnique de Montréal (là où j'ai fait mes études d'ingénieur) -le 6 décembre 1989-. Marc Lépine, qui s'était fait larguer par sa petite copine a voulu se venger. Il a sorti son arme à feu et a tué 14 filles qui étaient en train d'étudier à l'école!!!

On a observé 14 secondes de silence pour les victimes ...


silence ... 

Who dares???

Who is the person who calls me on my cellphone at 6:04 am on a Sunday morning??? I am sick, I need sleep!!!

Funny how my reflex was to get up and answer the phone call! But in the whole process, i was too late (of course) when i reached the phone. My cellphone rings, vibrates and lights up, so I couldn't miss it. It was crossing the bed that took me so long ... ah *sigh* ...

Hiver te voilà!!

What I saw in the morning when i opened the door ... 

ingénieur, tu dis?

I am a telecom engineer so my mom asked me to fix our telephone at home, it doesn't ring properly.

I studied electrical engineering, so some friends asked me to check the electrical circuits at their house.

It took me about a whole Summer to understand that (during my master's): X=HS ,
where X is a matrix of the received signals, H is the matrix of the channel gains (assuming block-fading) and S is the matrix of transmitted signals during a frame-time. I mean to understand all the concepts related to that equation.

If they can put their problem into that form, maybe I can solve it, but even then, I wonder how useful will the solution be ...

So, please, if you have a (real) problem, call an electrician. That would avoid a disaster ....

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

-ca prend une seconde pour le produire
-il a une duree d'utilisation de 20 minutes
- ca prend 200 a 400 annees pour se decomposer
-nous en consommons 18 milliards par an!


Reponse: un sac de plastique!



AAAAAAAAAAAAH! On est foutu! We are doomed! Je ne sais pas comment le dire en chinois :( ni en arabe, remarque ...

today is another day

woke up late + snow storm + bus late + traffic jam = very late at work ...
and yet, i was the first one at work in the group (beside my boss!!) this morning :-)


Journée mondiale contre le sida ... le sida a fait son entrée dans l'histoire ... il est là pour rester encore longtemps ... il a sa journée maintenant!


Bush est au Canada ... il n'y a pas eu de manifestations monstres contre sa visite ... que voulez-vous! Le Canada est un pays pacifique! On doit préserver notre réputation!

Clash of Values ... for different generations

Values for the different generations in ...

Mother:

Builders: homemaker mother
Boomers: working mother
Xerrs: single mother
N-geners: single mother/single father

Family:

Builders: close family
Boomers: dispersed family
Xerrs: latchkey kids
N-geners: comfortable with looser structure

Marriage patterns

Builders: married once
Boomers: divorced/remarried
Xerrs: single parent
N-geners: undetermined

Hair:
Builders: short hair
Boomers: long hair
Xerrs: any hair style
N-geners: bleached/spiked

Clothes

Builders: formal
Boomers: casual
Xerrs: bizarre
N-geners: anything goes

Music:

Builders: big band/swing
Boomers: rock’n’roll
Xerrs: alternative/rap
N-geners ska/swing (very diverse)


Money:
Builders: save it now
Boomers: buy it now
Xerrs: want it now
N-geners: get it now (online)

Purchasing:
Builders: purchasing with cash
Boomers: purchasing with credit card
Xerrs: struggling to purchase
N-geners: purchasing online


Marketing:

Builders: ford marketing concept
Boomers: GE marketing concept
Xerrs: ignored market
N-geners: interactive global market


High-tech:

Builders: slide rule
Boomers: calculator
Xerrs: computer(games)
N-geners: networking


Work style:

Builders: team work & commitment to work
Boomers: personal fulfillment
Xerrs: tentative/divided loyalty
N-geners: networking


War:

Builders: win a war (ww 2 patriostism)
Boomers: why a war? (vietnam war demonstrations)
Xerrs: watch a war (desert storm live on TV)
N-geners: winless war (iraq)

Morals:
Builders: puritan ethics
Boomers: sensual
Xerrs: cautious
N-geners: tolerant


Generation periods:
Builders: jan 1901-dec 1945
Boomers: jan 1946-dec 1964
Xers: jan 1965-dec 1976
N-geners: jan 1977-dec 1997

That was part of a service given by my pastor while talking about the evolution of values in the society!

old news

My dad forgot the laptop at home today. I was sooooooooo bored in the store! I couldn't see my anime series and dvd's. Snif.

Lately, i've been so busy that i haven't been able to stay in touch with the news. I just know the big titles, like Bush has been re-elected. Maybe there are some good things about that for Canada. For one, Canadians now are proud to be Canadians and dissociate themselves with the Americans. That was much less obvious during the mandates of Clinton. Also, just one day after the income of the votes, there were 6 times more Americans going to the Canadian immigration website than usual! Ah!

Yasser Ararat is no more ... I wonder what kind of person he really was! Was he a hero? Was he a terrorist? He was so rich and yet he chose to remain with his own people. Moreover, he got the peace Nobel Prize and yet he somehow encouraged suicide bombing and bought weapons... He was a controversial and paradoxal person.

Advent

That's it! Today is the beginning of Advent, which ends on Dec 24th 2004. We are waiting for the big day! Advent means the coming of .. Jesus Christ of course.

On Nov 13th, we had the annual Christmas parade on Ste-Catherine. (It is always so early). And right after Halloween, all the stores & shops were decorated with Christmas lights. On the radio, now they play Christmas songs and carols only ... something that i don't particularly enjoy. Why has everything become so commercial and artificial? I can't feel the real spirit of the holiday season, argrrrrrrr!!


Christmas tree at the train station 

my collection of coins ...

Here is the special new coin (with the poppy flower in the middle) for the month of November for the remembrance day. We make such a big deal out of it but we don't get a day off!  

TGIF

So, today it is our last Employees day. Ouf! Some members came from Toronto and flew all the way from Vancouver to attend the morning presentation given by our director. What a waste of time and money to listen to him boasting about himself! I wonder which words he said were actually true ... My director is either loved or hated by his employees, the 2 extremes.

Then we had lunch at Guido & Angelina, a very nice Italian restaurant. There were so many choices of pasta & pizza that i just couldn't make up my mind. The solution? I ordered a hamburger! It is so pathetic but I love hamburgers :) I can't help it. I think I can be a vegetarian with hamburgers included! I don't like meat except hamburgers! Some of my Indian friends are vegetarian + chicken ^__^. A chacun sa définition du végétarisme!

Finally, we went bowling. I am not good at all, the balls are so heavy :-(! I started to score while talking on my cellphone. that's the proof, ladies can multi-task! And I finished the game with a strike! YE! Everybody was so happy for me, that was a miracle! And I ended up first ... starting from the bottom ... hahaha

get ready :-)

Here are some tests ... they are supposed to make us understand better who we are... Jugde for yourself!


TEST NO. 1
THE THIRD EYE :
If you could have the third eye on your body, where would you put it on?

1) your head
2) your heart
3) your back
4) your hand



HERE IS THE ANALYSIS
1) You have no respect to your lover, instead, you often exploit him/her.
As far as love is concerned, you are too QUICK.
You easily fall in love with someone and leave him/her right away when you get bored.

2) Since you are scared of being cheated by the others or
not wanting to be disappointed again, you, therefore seem to be contented with your unrequited love.

3) It takes you a long time and big effort before falling in love with someone. But, once you are in love, you will love him/her with
all your heart, sincerely and forever.

4) It is hard for you to get deeply involved with someone. Most of
your relationships are just more than friends but less than lovers.


------------------------------------------------------------------
TEST NO. 2
WHAT KIND OF CHAIR DO YOU PREFER? :

Your selection of the chair can tell you the type of person you are.
1) Cloth covered
2) Leather covered
3) Wood
4) Cushioned
5) One with a built-in massager




HERE IS THE ANALYSIS :

1)You want your partner (girlfriend/boyfriend) to be together with
you always, no matter when or where.

2)You want your partner (girlfriend/boyfriend) to be more open with
you about himself/herself.

3)You want your partner (girlfriend/boyfriend) to take more care of
his/her dress and manner.

4)You want your partner(girlfriend/boyfriend) to be a little bit more relaxed, calm and composed.

5) You want your partner (girlfriend/boyfriend) to dO more for
you.

The message behind the question: A chair is for sitting on. If you choose to sit on certain chair, you have no suspicions or distrust towards it.
This is the same psychology present in our relationship with the people we like. In other words, the qualities you look for in a
chair are similar to the qualities you look for in a partner.
Sit down for a minute and give it some thought...

------------------------------------------------------------------
TEST NO. 3
WHY DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE?
1 9 5 0
What is your first thought when you saw the
above number?

1) Year
2) Phone number
3) Money
4) Combination code in a locker room




HERE IS THE ANALYSIS :
1) You think he/she is very smart one....you love his/her brain.
2) You love his/her personality....Everything he/she does is beautiful.
3) Let's face it.....you love his/her money.
4) You lover his/her appearance....you like a good looking
person.


-------------------------------------------------------------------- TEST NO. 4
THE CAVE YOU WANT TO VISIT....
You decided to go for a cave tour. What kind of caves do you want
to visit?

1) Cave with a narrow entrance but a wide exit.
2) Cave with a same space of entrance and exit.
3) Cave with a wide entrance but a narrow exit.




HERE IS THE ANALYSIS :
The philosophy behind this test indicates how you spend your
money....

1) You easily spend your money much more than what you earn.
2) You keep balance between the money you can earn and the money you spend.
3) Stingy you! Though you have earned a lot of money but you hardly spend it off.



--------------------------------------------------------------------
TEST NO. 5
WHEN WILL YOU GET MARRIED?
There is a cake with plenty of room to put many more candles on it.
How many more candles do you want to put on the cake?

1) One
2) Two
3) Three or four
4) More than five



HERE IS THE ANALYSIS :

1) Wow! You seem wanting to get married as soon as possible. You
may get married at the age of 20 or right after you have finished your education.

2) You want to be married a little sooner than the other. However,
you want your marriage be agreed and pleased by the others.

3) You want to enjoy your youngster life as long as possible. So you
don't want to be married too soon. You may get married when you are
over 25 even you already have your steady loved one.

4) You are full of curiosity. You are curious about everything. You
want to travel and accumulate your experience more
and more. You want to prove yourself with the challenging work. You may enjoy your unmarried life until you are 30 or over even you have had so many lovers by then.


-------------------------------------------------------------------
TEST NO. 6
A NEW PLANT....
Noticing a new plant pop up from the ground, what is your first thought?

1) Glad and want it to grow quickly.
2) Be careful. Don't step on it.
3) Oh! Will it give flowers?
4) Thank God! Many thanks to you, God, for its growth.
5) All right! No more watering!




HERE IS THE ANALYSIS :
This test indicates your attitude towards your parents....

1) You don't want your parents to interfere whatever you are doing.

2) You feel grateful to your parents for bringing you up and making you a nice person.

3) You rely on your parents so much and want them to be always close
to you.

4) You have your sincere thanks to your parents.

5) You want to be self-survived as soon as possible.

reads of the day ..

"In an underdeveloped country don't drink the water. In a developed country don't breathe the air." by Jonathan Raban.

Main Street Accross The World 2004 gives a ranking of 229 shopping places over 45 countries for the most expensive street to run a business. They are

1. New York, the 5th avenue
2. Paris, les Champs-Elysées
3. Hong Kong, Causeway Bay
4. London, Oxford Street
5. Dublin, Grafton Street
6. Munich, Kaufingerstrasse
7. Moscow, Tverskaya
8. Sydney, Pitt St-Mall
9. Tokyo, Ginza
10. Seoul, Myeongdong

For example, in New Tork city, it costs $12 888 per m^2 per year. wow!

I have been to the 5th Avenue, I haven't bought anything there. I went to some restaurants on Les Champs-Elysées. It is better to forget about the prices for my sanity ^---^. I forgot if in HK, i went shopping on the Causeway Bay St. I am pretty sure that i must have been there because shopping was our daily activity!


Now, back to Canada with the Maclean’s list of the best universities in Canada.

So, overall, University of Toronto gets the first place and McGill comes in second. l'Université de Montréal is 7th, l'Université de Sherbrooke 8th and Concordia is 9th.

McGill’s second place was contested because McGill has the best reputation outside of Canada. I wonder why. And the Time’s Higher Education Supplement puts McGill among the 25 best universities in the world at the very honorable 21st place.
This year, HEC of Montréal ranked among the best 10 universities for their MBA programs.
Really?? I am skeptical ...

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

To be or not to be

To be or not to be ... faithtful ... that's the question!

This week, i went to see my dentist for a teeth cleaning. As a student, i was covered completely by the school insurance, so i never bothered asking the prices. But, now that i am working, i am covered only for 80%. The dentist charged me 171$ for a cleaning! I think it is way too pricy! It is twice more expensive than it should be!

So, I wasn't happy and I went to talk to him. He explained to me that he had charged me more so that i could get more money back from the insurance company. In fact, the cleaning was 136$ between us. I don't like his tricks.

Should I stick to my current dentist or change? Should I trust him? Hum ... Hum ... nah! Once he told me that he wanted to be a politician after he retires from dentistry! That says it all!

CityFido

Here are some pictures of the party we had to celebrate the cityFido in Montreal.


at the club 

This picture was taken from the upstairs of the bar because i was late and the first floor was fully packed with people. And i was late because my friend who came to pick me up had gotten lost. He insisted that i shouldn't give him the directions to my place... Ah les hommes!!

the boogy band 

That's the group that was entertaining us. After a while, i went down to dance with the crowd. It was too noisy and dangerous. People were dancing with their beers and people who were drunk would run into you. What a wonderful world !!!

My Chinese sucks!

When I open my mouth to speak Chinese, my Chinese friends would beg me to stop talking Chinese. I know how to torture them ^_^.

Once i was joking and said to a friend "ni tai tai bu hao". i meant you are very very bad, but it came out as "your wife is bad" and ... he is a pretty newly married man ... oops.

Another time, i said something in Chinese to my friends and they almost fell on the floor. They asked me to never say it again. When they explained it to me, i was so embarrassed. So, for my dignity, i won't repeat it here. I am so hopeless ...

Who am I?

It is said that only 10 persons understood Einstein. Nobody understands me. Am I a genius? hahaha!
Nope, I am bored!


my mom doesn't want me to dye my hair .. but i am sick of my black hair, so i decided to do it ... very quickly :) 

Finding a Chinese Jew ...

Sid and Al were sitting in a Chinese restaurant. "Sid," asked Al, "are there any Jews in China?"

"I don't know," Sid replied. "Why don't we ask the waiter?"

When the waiter came by, Al asked him, "Are there any Chinese Jews?"

"I don't know sir, let me ask," the waiter replied, and he went into the kitchen. He returned in a few minutes and said, "No, sir. No, Chinese Jews."

"Are you sure?" Al asked.

"I will check again, sir," the waiter replied and went back to the kitchen. While he was still gone, Sid said, "I cannot believe there are no Jews in China. Our people are scattered everywhere."

When the waiter returned he said, "Sir, no Chinese Jews."

"Are you really sure?" Al asked again.

"I cannot believe there are no Chinese Jews."

"Sir, I ask everyone," the waiter replied exasperated. "We have Orange Jews, Prune Jews, Tomato Jews and Grape Jews, but we have no Chinese Jews."

confidentiality at FIDO

People from Marketing come to us (network people) and ask us to analyze the impacts on the network from a secret project. But they can't tell us anything about the project because it is super confidential.
How am I supposed to do the analysis when there is no data and even worse when nothing exists yet? I must be creative.

Our answer is always: Yes, there are impacts ...

Did you know?
At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.

(How come Santa Claus is so fat? :-) )

blabla of the day!

Today, it snowed for the the first time this season. It is so relaxing to see the Brownian motion of the flakes falling down. I love the first and last snow. Between them, there is way too much snow!

For the past 2 weeks, I have seen 3 movies, a French one (LES CHORISTES, with Gérard Jugnot), a Chinese one (POLICE STORY, with Jackie Chan) and an American one (SURVIVING CHRISTMAS, with Ben Affleck). The common point? None of them has normal families ... That's one of the worst diseases of our time ...

And it is ... a DEAL

It is done! FIDO is no more ... as it was. Indeed, Fido with its 2 600 employees has been bought by Rogers (who has 17 000 employees) for $1,5 billion. Now, our president's dream has come true. We are the Number ONE in the wireless market. hahaha

So, we were all invited to a conference this morning. Here is a picture of us, all smiling (at the beginning).

The talk was very aggressive: know who are our enemies (Bell and Telus and Virgin who is coming soon), we are going to get them, we are the best and so on. That reminds of someone in the States ...

But, from that speech, I was sort of made aware of the achievements that Fido has realized and made us proud. It has changed the face of the wireless market by making cellphones accessible to the mass, the students, the young professionals, etc. It was an innovator in many ways. Ok, enough said.

testing ...

picture taken by Olivier of Les Alpes. Hope you don't mind that I post your pictures!! :)

right now

it is 6:46p.m. I am in my brother's room, using his computer (of course). I have a cup of tea, 2 halves of apples (2 different kinds!) and a yogurt with me ... and 3 friends that are logged into MSN! My life is so exciting! :( But it feels good to be home! I have been out almost every day for the past month. I wouldn't come back home before 10:30 p.m or so....