Lovely Kittens

Kitten 2 - Name to be confirmed....

Now


Before

Kitten 1 - Name to be confirmed....

Now

Before

The guys who I am living with...

Job nightmare

Job refers to the regular activity performed in exchange for payment. According to Aristotle, all paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. Aristotle also said that “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work” and it is one of the attitude I apply to my working life all the time. I always have a belief that if I can choose a job I love, I will never have to work a day in my life. However, thing always doesn’t happen as we expected.

I am doing something I really don’t like at all. I never expected to be involved into the shitty tasks I am working on. Such shitty are not the duties my employer told me when they gave me the job offer. What I am working is completely different from the work I was told when I signed the 1-year employment contract, while such shitty duties were assigned to me just right before I passed probation. I have a very strong feeling that people around me are taking advantage of the limited employment time which does not give me any bargaining power with the boss(s). Short term contract employees are always the first tier to be exploited in a company.

I will not blame too much if I knew what I expected to do when I accepted the job offer, as it is my choice and I am always responsible to what I have chosen, no matter the outcome is good or not. But the case now is not what I chose, and I feel so powerless during the whole process. Of course, I can choose to resign but the resignation would have so much negative impact to my career in long term. I rejected few offers from other organisations of the industry I am working on when I accepted this offer from current organisation. And there is so few organisations and job vacancy within the industry in Hong Kong. So, it is so hard for me to work in the industry again if I resigned before my contract end normally. So, to certain extend, I am forced to stay as I am so devoted to work on the industry that I am working. My devotion is possibly one of the major sources of my powerlessness in this situation.

My everyday life is just a nightmare for me. This moment seems one of the worst moment in my life too as I have to force myself to do something I dislike without enough incentives. This is something really not in my blood…

(Well, i also feel that the "complain culture" among most Hong Kongers also finds in my blood... +_+)

The way i celebrate my birthday......

.....it was what i did on my b-day in 2007.

http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/press/release/1129930

Tin Hau Festival @ Lamma Island

Today's Snap Shot

A Mysterious Email

I received a mysterious email from a guy/girl called “John Smith”. I know somebody called “John” and also some of my friends’ last name is “Smith”. But I don’t remember I know someone called “John Smith”. I think she/he should know me as he knows my name although he missspelt my name "Sophia" as " Sophiya". More importantly, “John Smith” should be a person know me quite well as I really really love the email he wrote to me. Here is the email:

On 11/5/06, john smith wrote:

Hi there,

A joke for a special lady.

The inmate on death row was scheduled to be put to death by firing squad the follow morning. Throughout the day, the prison guards were being very nice to him. But when they asked him if he wanted something specific for his last meal, he said he didn't want anything special. When they asked if there was something special he wanted to do, he said nothing. It went on like this all day.

Finally, when he was put before the firing squad, the guard asked if he wanted a cigarette and a blindfold.

"No," the inmate said, "just get it over with."

"Well, is there anything that I can do for you before you go?" said the guard. "You didn't even want a special last meal!"

The inmate thought. "Actually," he said, "Music is my life. One thing I would really like would be to sing my favourite song, one whole time through, with no interruptions."

The guard nodded and told him to go ahead.

The inmate started, "One billion bottles of beer on the wall..."

A friend.

He is probably be someone in Australia as it is an email from yahoo.com.au. Well, I hope I can find him out and have a drink(s) with him before I leave Oz in early Dec. ^_^

Beer Lovers' Rationalization

“Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest.”
– The Buffalo Theory

It is from one of my friends’ email I received recently. He tried to show me a very valid reason for drinking beer by using Darwin’s Natural Selection Theory. In the email, the Buffalo Theory explains:

"When the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first.This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular culling of the weakest members.

In much the same way the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells.Excessive intake of alcohol, as we all know, kills off brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers!.”

If only this were true, we'd all be genius!

Ginger,Close-Up!

Some close-up pictures of my lovely kitty Ginger.



More Photos: Ginger, Close-up!

More about Ginger

Ginger

It'd been a while I haven't updated my Blog. The main reasons are i'm a bit lazy and a bit busy with the new member in my apartment- Ginger, a four-months old kitten! After her arrival, we have much more funs+work with this little cat and i do really enjoy a lot althought sometimes i doubt that i am the kitten's servant instead of master!!

Apple Core

How big is the core left after eating an apple? This question never came up to my mind until I heard a story from my 82-years-old aunt. It is a story about my father when he was escaped from China to Hong Kong in his teenage.
Unlike my stable, cheerful, peaceful and a bit materialised childhood, my father had a very tough time when he was young. He was born when China suffered from the Japanese invasion, and then passed his childhood in the years of Cultural Civilisation. He was not from a rich family but unfortunately, his family’s assets were enough to list themselves in the “Black Five Category”. So, my father and uncles were the targets to scoff, to torture or to attack. He was not given food most of the time as well.
In order to escape from torturing or starving till dead, he chose to leave his village. Different from most people who need to hire a big truck to put all their stuffs when they are moving, my father had nothing to bring with him as he had nothing, even he did not have clothes for changing. What he could bring for his journey was the most basic thing for survival: food. It was not difficult to find food at that time but it was very difficult for a person who categorised as the “Black Five” to find something to eat. At the end, my father was barely able to find dozens of apple for his trip to Hong Kong. Time was even tougher on his way as the only transport he was able to afford was walking, which is a physically demanding exercise when you need to walk for long time in the sun and on the mountains. The longer time he walked, the hungrier he was and less food he had. To maximise the food he could intake, he ate the whole apple included the core, where we believe that is not very eatable nowadays, to make himself felt a bit fuller…..
It is the story about apple core I heard. It is not an interesting nor inductive story but it absolutely makes me think a lot. It also reminded me how big was the apple core I had last time and how I used it. Last time I had an apple was about two weeks ago, during my tour in Kangaroo Island in South Australia. I had an apple as dessert after having an Aussie BBQ. To be honest,apple is not a fruit can raise my appetite most of the time. So, I just had a few bites and left a big core. Indeed, I had another reason to leave a big core. I discovered there had certain possums appeared around a campsite. Some of them were even entered our camp to search food. However, I missed the chance to take a photo at the first time. Therefore, I threw my big apple core outside the campsite to attract some possums to come again so that I could make a photo of them. That’s what an apple core meant to me.
The feeling of guilty come over me......

Lucky Girl

Caption: My 98 Toyota Corolla AE102. I know it is a bit disagreeing with an environmentally friendly lifestyle to shift from public transport to private car, but it saves me lots of time and money. The public transport here is unreliable and it is more expensive than driving. Obviously the Aussie Government needs to pay some attention on this issue.

I always feel that I am a lucky and blessed person. Not fortunate with jet pot but things around me just go smoothly and nicely all the time. Although lots of them happened unexpectedly and unwanted, outcomes are not bad at all. Sometimes even some "dangerous" incidents for many people become adventurous experience for me. Nice! I treasure and appreciate this kind of fortune very much.
Such feeling strengthened a lot after I started my driving life. I brought a used Corolla last week in order to increase my mobility in Oz as well as saving my time+money. When I picked my car last Friday, it was the first time I have to drive a car independently. I won’t say my driving skill is bad but absolutely it is not good at all. Due to the nervousness and stressfulness I had for my debut driving, I almost crossed an intersection when the red light was on and changed lane improperly for couple times. Fortunately, I passed through all of them. The most horrible thing was about my parking. I can’t find any word that can describe how dreadful it is... Forget about to park successfully for once or twice, I don’t think I can park my car in the proper position for less than 3 or 4 times trials. Situation became ten times worse when I noticed that I was blocking the traffic during parallel street parking: always forget to give a signle light before stoping my car for parking and I even got tangled with the R/D (modes of automatic transmission) and left/right during reversing my car. I couldn’t remember how many times I had scratched the tyres as i also parked too close to kerbs. Not hard to imagine how horrible my parking was/is. I was so relief that I came home "entirely" at the end, both the Corolla and me.
But it is not the reason why I said I feel luckier after getting the car. The reason is how jammy I was when I had my driving test!! To be honest, I cannot recall exactly what happened during the test. The only thing I remembered is the examiner was a bit mindfulness during the test as I had to reminded him that I’d done the parking already when he asked me to do it at the second time. By the way, I am confident that I drive pretty well in a straight and big road, of course without any parking required.
One last thing to mention: the day I started of my independent driving life was a Black Friday, hopefully it doesn’t portend anything.

P.S. I read an interesting quote recently and I love it very much. It might become my motto one day, I suppose:
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." –by Henry Youngsman

New Year’s plan

Caption: I went to a zoo with my friend last week. It is a “open zoo” that animals (except birds and dangerous animal) can move freely in the zoo. Tourists are also allowed to touch them. Interesting experience.

Last year I found myself just living like a koala: sleep, eat and doing nothing. What I mean doing nothing is nothing I did last year inspired me a lot or gave me unforgettable memory/experience, except my studies on environment management.
I used to write diary everyday, especially the time when I was in Spain since there were too many memorable and adventurous stories for me to write down like a novel. However, the frequency of writing my journal drops dramatically after I finished my gran journey in Europe My life seems too usual and it is too boring to “record” them. Similar situation after I came to Australia. Sometimes, I strongly feel that I’ve already used up all my quota of “adventurous experience”.
By the way, one of my 2006 resolutions is to re-take my habitat of writing diary more often. Try not to be lazy and write down what I feel and what I see everyday. I always have strange or crazy feelings/thought/ideas about life or whatever which are worth to write them down. I would like to try a use a different dimension to see or to feel my everyday life.
Need some change in 2006.

Merry Christmas

Photo Source: Trisanta.Com

Enjoy this funny christmas song

if u have time!!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas &
a prosperous New Years !!

A thought on laziness

By dictionary definition , laziness is “the lack of desire to act or work in general or to do an act or work that is expected of the person. The general tendency to do nothing”. This “natural instinct” is being dominant in my daily life recently after the starting of my long vacation. Just lost incentives to do any mental works but unfortunately, I have to finish 4 ecology field trip reports before the deadlines in mid January.
Being lazy is always considered as an undesirable quality in the social context. This concept is unpreventable to be part of my value system that makes me feel a bit guilty of not working hard or doing nothing. A typical Hongkonger's thought. Well, I think I should consider laziness in the "health discourse", that it is just a kind of inborn and inherent character of everyone to do nothing that makes me get healthy rest. Just like what the French writer Jules Renard said, “Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." I feel much better now.
By the way, I am still confident that I can finish my assignments before the deadline as I am always a person who works better with time limit and pressure. =P

Wise or Fool?

A quote from Plato just come up to my head: "Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something."
Just wonder I am the wise or the fool to do the Blog….apparently the later, but I’d like to be the former. =P

Late Comer

I always think about to share some of my thought in the virtual space but i am too lazy and busy to do so. Also the dial up internet connection hesitate me a lot to do anything in Internet, except writing email. Just found more and more of my friends have their own Blog and I feel so good to read their diary/news/message or anything else. Time for me to contribute.