Frankfurt ... Day 1

I'm so tired now that I couldn't write a long post. But I do have an interesting thing to share 'cos when I tried to logon to GMail just now by typing www.gmail.com, I got the following message:

(QUOTE) We can't provide service under the Gmail name in Germany; we're called Google Mail here instead.

If you're traveling in Germany, you can access your mail at http://mail.google.com.

Oh, and we'd like to link the URL above, but we're not allowed to do that either. Bummer.

For general information about Google, please visit www.google.com or www.google.de.(UNQUOTE)

Why? Below is quoted from Wikipedia:

(QUOTE) The German naming issue is due to a trademark dispute between Google and Daniel Giersch. Daniel Giersch owns a company called "G-mail" which provides the service of printing out emails from senders and sending the print-out via postal mail to the intended recipients.(UNQUOTE)

Fat-Killer

When I moved to my current apartment 15 months ago, I "decided" to do some workout in the club house every week. I therefore marked a weekly appointment (Saturday morning) in my Outlook calendar reminding myself for that. Results: I went there once. And today, I made the 2nd effort. Funny?

So why go again suddenly? 'cos I receive feedback about my bodyshape from my friends (and of course my girlfriend!) from time to time ... and of course when I see myself to grow horizontally, I find it kind of scary. My dream: to turn the fat into muscle ... especailly my arms ... I become a fat-killer from today onwards (hopefully!).

Brad in Office

Just come across this picture taken last month in my new office.

Poor Memory

I really have a poor memory. Just read from Mingpao that typhoon signal #9 was hoisted in Hong Kong back in 2003 (year of the SARS!).

(QUOTE from mpinews.com Aug 22, 2008)
天文台表示，颱風鸚鵡的中心將會橫過本港，若路徑不變，將直接吹襲香港，可能發出十號颶風信號。本港對上一次發出9號信號，是在2003年9月2日，當時颱風杜鵑襲港。
(UNQUOTE)

Long Weekend

I don't have a good memory. But I recall that it's the first time in my life to witness typhoon #9 being hoisted in Hong Kong. I knew that this typhoon is going to be strong this time 'cos even until last night, there was not a single drop of rain but we felt the pressure and the super hot weather. If it rained last night, I would be all wet 'cos I didn't bring my umbrella yesterday.

Everyone is happy that we've a long weekend but this time I'm not 'cos I'm still way behind my schedule in preparing for the meetings in Frankfurt and Paris next week. My colleagues have been kind enough to me and helped me prepare for some groundwork. It's now my turn to review and finalize everything ... there are a lot of things (e.g. the Beijing Olympics, work, meeting ...) happening around me in this long weekend. A good chance to challenge my skill in prioritizing my work again.

Watched the match between Ko Lai Chak (representing Hong Kong) and Wang Hao (representing China) just now over lunch. Chak played quite well actually 'cos the one he was facing was the Olympics champion in Athens 2004 and the seed athelete while Chak is not ranked among the seeds. It's just unfortunate that Hong Kong is not a place to nurture good atheletes. Good work Chak!

Gadgets

It's not hard to see many people holding some sort of gadgets on hand while they're on the go. I don't have portable gaming machines like this guy but I use my phone for music and sometimes if I'm really bored, I'll surf the net for news. I recently even read and reply email very often using my phone 'cos I find that it really helps me save some time ... I now read or reply some non-urgent email while I'm on-the-go or waiting for friends ... but the sacrifice is that I probably won't have any resting time for my mind except I'm resting on bed.

China's Worries ...

I like the analysis of this article especially after knowing that Liu Xiang pulled out of the 110 hurdles match this morning. China has been growing exponentially in both economy and sports. The too drastic growth looks to me as pretty unhealthy. I'm worried about my country.

(QUOTED from Mingpao.com on Aug 18, 2008)

中國金牌居榜首有喜有憂

中新社說，奧運已過半，中美體育大軍的歷史性金牌大戰似乎已勝負初分，但中國居榜首有喜亦有憂。

該社稱，未來一周，中國還至少有五金進賬，金牌數突破四十機會甚高。美國金牌糧倉只剩田徑，要超越中國，尚有難度。但奧運金牌第一，對於中國體育現狀而言何喜何憂？喜者有二，而憂者有三。

一喜是激勵更多的國民參與體育，全民健身必將升溫。

二喜是昭示了中國人未來體育競技稱雄的廣闊前景。

奧運金牌榜首，只能說明中國部分選手體育競技水平之高，而非全國體育實力之強。中國的獎牌總數落後於美國、全民健身運動遠不如歐美先進國家，都是巨大差距。

可以肯定的是，奧運金牌榜首足以昭示：隨著中國經濟、體育水平、國民體質、科技水平和全民健身繼續發展，中國人的體質，完全可以在更廣闊的領域上與世界各國健兒爭雄，包括田徑、游泳、賽艇等黃種人的傳統劣勢領域。

但金牌榜首也給中國體育帶來憂慮。

一憂金牌戰略高度統治體育領域。出於對金牌的追逐，一些體育管理部門、民間體育產業，急功近利，造成中國體育戰略和人才培養的失衡，例如足球、中長跑、游泳等適合大眾參與的項目委靡不振，而只適合部分人參與的項目，如跳水、射擊等卻門庭若市，這將給體育資源配置帶來不平衡。

二憂日後輸不起。以前只是選手爭金保金，四年後的倫敦奧運會，中國軍團將面臨前所未有的心理壓力，整個軍團都可能將為榜首而戰。當前中國國民很享受榜首的榮耀，但日後卻可能難以承受失敗的衝擊。四年一輪回，中國體育乃至相當部分國民，都陷入金牌焦慮，非中國幸事也。

三憂選手負重傷身。體育競技的根本宗旨是強身健體，而不是傷筋動骨。為了確保金牌，中國選手的訓練或更加艱苦，傷病或有增無減，科學訓練日益重要。

不難看出，對於中國體育現狀而言，奧運金牌榜首無疑揭示了體育強國的未來前景，但由此引發的憂慮，也足以折射中國現在還只是基礎不甚牢靠的體育大國。

The World's Fastest Man

Men's 100 used to be my favourite in Olympics but somehow I didn't even notice when it will be held this time. But I found it really breathtaking when I watched the TV news last night replaying the match. In the last 30 meters, the Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt noticed that he was going to win the match and he slapped his chest to celebrate. This scene is really rare 'cos the whole race happens in less than 10 seconds and thus people could only focus to finish the race as fast as possible and nobody could afford looking left and right and even celebrating before crossing the finishing line. I'm stunned.

Some More Dining Places Near My Home

Not sure if it's 'cos of the Olympics, three new restaurants opened in the Regal Riverside Hotel which is just 2 mins walk from my home I'm Shatin. One of them even opens 24 hours a day. Good news right? Am now doing lunch in one of them called 月光光 - a noodle and dessert place.

Bonus Day

It looks as if I'm almost fully occupied 24x7 throughout the year. There are simply too many things out there waiting for me but time is limited. So very often we've to choose. It's all about balancing but this is the weakest link of mine.

A bonus day comes with the typhoon today. All of a sudden the meetings and appointments marked in my calendar have to be postponed or canceled. All of a sudden I'm a free man! I managed to spend most of my time on my bed and also cleared up some bank statements ... although there are some more stuff pending on my desk, I don't bother finishing them ... today is a bonus and it's meant for rest ... we don't get bonus very often and thus we should enjoy it.

A Non-Book Lover

I like buying books but not reading books. I used to buy a lot of books whenever I come across some interesting topics but I haven't been able to finish, yes I mean finish completely, any one of them in the past years.



A friend told me some time ago that in fact we don't really need to finish every single page of a book even if we like that book. What we need to do is to grab the main ideas and probably we've to move on reading some other books 'cos there are simply too many books to read while life is too short. I agreed. But somehow finishing a book is what I've been dreaming of.



You know life is funny. I suddenly finished COMPLETELY two books these two months. One is and another one is <從AO到Freelancer>. The second one was bought in the Hong Kong Book Fair last month. It was written by a former colleague of my company who switched to work in the government and all of a sudden quit again for studies and then work as a freelancer. I can almost feel what she is talking about ...

邊個抵D呢？

話咗剪髮成個禮拜，今日終於偷咗一個鐘出嚟。趕住今晚睇戲，所以求其係尖沙咀搵咗一間飛髮舖，同阿哥一齊剪。我遲佢5分鐘開始，依家我剪完,仲寫緊呢個post，但佢仲剪緊，究竟係佢抵D定係我慳咗時間抵D呢？其實一字噤淺，佢多我幾倍頭髮！

Another Mobile Operator in Hong Kong Offering iPhone 3G?

Rumours are being spreaded around that Hutchison's THREE has signed an agreement with Apple for an "exclusive" arrangement in Hong Kong for 3 months only from July 11 - Oct 10. I was told that THREE has sold over 50,000 units of iPhone in Hong Kong in the past 2 weeks and I think the 50,000 figure is not impossible 'cos you can see a lot of people using iPhone in the street and I've a number of colleagues in my department and on the same floor using the same thing!

People signing up with THREE is bound to pay at least HKD9,000 'cos it comes with 24 months service contract. If you just dump the SIM card, it means that you're paying HKD9,000 to buy the phone unit and give up the 24 months mobile service. To save money, perhaps one can wait unitl another operator offers the same thing later on (rumours say One2Free, 1010 and PCCW will offer iPhone soon) and then one doesn't need to waste the payment for the service and the total cost of ownership will be much lower.

But to me, 早買早享受. I don't care!

Wilson & I

A nice long chat in MegaBox tonight ... I like this picture though I'm not the point of focus in the picture.

Creating mp3 Ringtone for iPhone