August 31, 2003(Sunday)

I led the singspiration during the Sunday Worship. I have not done so for about three months and people found the songs that I taught are new. The songs are "The whole world praise" (ACM's "Revive me"), "Because Lord's name" (from author "uncle west"), "worship God" (ACM's "Revive me") and "Should to the Lord". Mimia was the translator to me and she was really upset at me because I kept talking without giving her a chance to translate. I don't used to be translate by people; I thought that most of the people knows Chinese anyway and the mood would be broken if there is a translation. She thought that I don't care about her role and she cried afterward. Ouch oh. I would never imagine that this is such a big deal.
I led Sunday School for both adult and youth because no pastor is here and Ricky Lam, who is supposed to led, went to USA for these two weeks. I led Bible Study "Acts 1:1-26" which I led the FCGC teens in Oct 2001. I did a pretty good job.
I went home after eating lunch at church. I slept for 1.5 hours (I would be very tired if I don't have afternoon nap that day) and studied too.

August 30, 2003(Saturday)

I slept at 2:30 last night so I woke up at 10:40 today.
I tried to breakthrough my cooking skill and cooked pork. Rather than my usual method of throwing everything into water and let it boil, I tried to fry it with oil. I fried sausage too. I do not know how to change the fire magnitude so I made some of those black. I was freak out when I see the thing turn black but the inside is not done yet. It would be easier if I cook them at my Canadian home.
I ran, studied and prepared for September 3's presentation. Afterward I went to church for music practice. The church's first General Assembly followed. After the departure of Pastor Loh and Pastor Chan, we officially entered the no-pastor era; communication is necessary or else some people will be lost.

August 29, 2003(Friday)

There is problem with the CanTV IP Phone network again. People reported that, after the phone is idle for more than 5 seconds, the first few syllables cannot be heard. Mario wanted me to go to the customer site to test and then called Cisco and open a case. I opened the case before going to customer site and it turned out that there is no problem so I can close the case. I hope that it won't damage Desca's creditability. I went to CanTV from 2 to 4; we tested several phone by let it silence for 10 seconds and then say "Hello I am Hubert" to see whether the recipient can hear the entire sentence. It turns out that everything is functioning. The problem appeared yesterday but disappeared today. The customer should check before asking me to go there.
I will be going to Colombia September 2 - 3 for the Security Conference. I will be one of the speakers; I need to deliver a workshop to 200 IT managers that go there from different part of South America. That sounds really exciting and interesting. Thanks to the church experience, I have no problem performing public speaking. This will be a good thing to put in my resume too.
I went to have dinner with church people because Pastor Chan's family will leave tomorrow. And then I went to church for the final reading of the constitution and went home at 11:30. There are many things that I need to do: studying for MBA, preparing the conference, preparing for church Sunday school.

August 28, 2003(Thursday)

If there is no out-of-the-blue job in my work, I have nothing to do. Originally I should go to customer Seniat to complete the task yesterday. However the Desca engineer Roberto is back so I don' have to do anything. I checked the MBA site and did some studying. It is a relax day and I love it.
I went to Mimia's house for dinner. Then we had the church constitution meeting with the Church council. That is a long and dragging meeting. We have not finished the first reading yet and Pastor Chan will go back to Toronto this Saturday. Therefore they will have a meeting tomorrow in the morning for the rest of the first reading and tomorrow afternoon for the second meeting. I am glad that I don't have to go to these two meeting.

August 27, 2003(Wednesday)

I was told that there is problem with the CanTV IP Telephony network again. I thought that we fixed everything but it turned out that some of the phone can't do forwarding. So I have to go again. I am not too happy about that and prepare for a long fight. I have to go by myself because Frank, who went with me yesterday, went to Valencia for another task. My boss Mario basically remote accesses the device from Colombia and I did not have to do anything in that place. I guess that Desca sends me there because we want to fulfill the contract that, when there is a problem, somebody will be there. The customer, my boss and myself all knows that I am not useful in that situation except calling Cisco and talk in English. Luckily the problem is resolved by 2:30 and I went home at 3 for my lunch time.
My co-worker called me and asked where I am. I explained that I am at lunch and she wants me to go back to office because Mario wants to talk to me. I told her that I will be there within an hour. I relaxed a while and she called again and asked me where I am again. So I have to go to office immediately. I have to go to another customer, Seniat, to configure IPSec. Mario is not too happy that I was not at work. Hey, I am taking my lunch! He knows that I worked with CanTV until 3pm. But I did not say anything because we were only chat through MSN and it is not convenient to talk like this. Of course my face shows that I am quite mad; I did not salute to anyone nor smile. I hate this kind of out-of-the-blue job. It would be ok if you tell me in advanced. But working like this is not nice. If the life of manager consists of all these out of the blue job, I will hate it too.
I went to Seniat and talked with customer. It turned out that they are not ready and I have to go back tomorrow. What a waste of time. They have four links that need to configure IPSec. One of the links has Cisco router and the other three has Huewei routers (the Chinese pirated version of Cisco). I am not sure how to configure that I will leave that to the customer to do.
I skipped prayer meeting at night because I don't have the heart and I don't have the energy. I stayed at work to study for MBA. Also, the office washroom is locked and I can't go there. I went home at about 9; studied, read comics and played piano.

August 26, 2003(Tuesday)

I went to CanTV from 11am to 11:30pm because their IP Telephone network is not working. I have no expertise in VoIP; however, my boss wanted me to go because I am a CCIE (which would make the Cisco engineer more responsive to the case) and I know English. I went with another Desca engineer Frank who knows VoIP but knows very little English. It ends up that all I did was calling and MSN Cisco engineer. There is no technical skill involved. During troubleshooting, my boss Mario was virtually presence too. There is a three way communication between the Cisco engineer, Mario and myself. There is another window opened for a direct conversation between Frank and Mario. The Cisco engineer gave some suggestions but my boss override it without letting the Cisco engineer knows by talking thru the other MSN window. He rebooted the devices several times without notifying the Cisco engineer or ignores his warning. I felt bad for him.
Their telephone's call forwarding and Music On Hold features failed and they needed to restart the server. However, they must wait until everyone left office so that we can leave at 5pm and came back at 9pm for the reboot. In the mean time, I went to Baptist Church for the Tuesday night Outreach. I originally thought that I can't make it and I am glad that I finally can make it. It was a music night; Pastor Chan and his wife sang many songs and it went pretty good.

August 25, 2003(Monday)

Work is quiet, so I get to spend time to surf the net and wrote my online diary with detail. The only thing that happened is the VPN connection for customer "Bloque de Armas" failed and I troubleshot for 20 mins.
I went to Ricky Lam's house for dinner. I have not been to their house for a long time. We chatted about the church politics and also some reform of the church. I may be responsible for the music department and we will discuss it in the Church Council meeting in September 20.

August 24, 2003(Sunday)

I went to Baptist Church in the morning. I have missed quite a lot of activities in the past several weeks because I was in Canada and USA. Moreover, the order of the worship has been re-arranged slightly and this is the VBS Sunday. Therefore, I have a feeling of unfamiliar. We discussed about the problem of the Chinese Youth ministry during Sunday School. People are getting fewer and fewer. We went down from 10 people to 4-5 people now. Our morale is quite low and I don't know what I am doing either. We lack of vision and we lack of a pastor to lead us. I encouraged them that Hebron fellowship went through the same thing in 1993 and we had a prayer after Sunset meeting (I did not attend because I join the high school graduate dinner that night) and the fellowship revived. At least, we have a feeling of "crisis", which forces us to think and pray. Now I pray more often for this youth ministry. One thing I need to define is my role in two churches. Since Pastor Loh left, I should spend more time in Baptist Church. However, I felt that I don't want commit that much in Baptist Church because I have something to do in MB Church too. It would be good to have a leader leading and I will be assisting; however, there is no pastor so I am not sure what to do. I don't have the feeling to be the leader either.
I went to MB Church at 3:00pm. Instead of participating the Sunday worship, I was running around to prepare for the wedding and also I just want to walk around. Chuen and Elisa's wedding started at 4:30. Obviously this is not as "magnificent" as Hansel and Fiona's wedding. The parents of the groom arrived quite late; the mom of the bride did not come and the dad of the bride did not even have a tie. Anyway, I am the MC of the ceremony and announce step by step of what is going on. I am also the GM before the ceremony and making different decisions! I played guitar too!
Overall, I feel that the wedding went quite smooth. I am amazed at what I am able to plan within two days and how I can carry out the plan. I wrote out all the ceremony MC script so I am a bit tight. But other than that, everything went smooth and as expected. Chuen and some people got emotion and cried a little bit when he read his "thank you parents" speech (which I told them to do!) at the very end. We did not use the MB church but the church next door as the sanctuary because the MB church is too small for 80 people. However that church is too hot and I am sweating on the stage! (I have my suite and tie on!) Afterward, we went back to MB Church for the toast, cut cake and the games. Michelle and I were the MC (I am the real MC because Michelle is just filling in some empty slot). I used the very mild and light game that I learnt in the past few years because their parents are tradition and don't like wild game. People told me that this is a very good wedding and I have "fast response" when I am the MC.
(Probably you will feel that I am "hu" and proud. Me too! I am amazed at reflecting what I am thinking about myself. I should learn to be humble. But another thought came to my mind. "But I say to every one of you, through the grace given to me, not to have an over-high opinion of himself, but to have wise thoughts, as God has given to every one a measure of faith." (Rm 12:3). I really think objectively that I do have the gift. So I am not really being "hu". The only thing that I really need to work on, is that I should not look down at other people)
There are several reasons why I tried hard in helping others for their wedding. First, this is their once in a life time experience. Therefore, I want them to have the best memory ever. This is a way to give them some "human feeling" (it is a Chinese. It means the "human" debt that they will owe me) Moreover, their parents are not Christian so I need to show them that we care for their children's wedding and to glorify God.
As I reflected back, I really wish that Carmen will be here too. She is extremely good at being a MC and also organizing programs. (She must be really happy reading this). We will double the effect if we are going to help someone for their wedding. Probably we can still help others for their wedding or baby shower or something like that. After cooperating in Canaan's president and vice-president in 2000, we have been served separately. I really look forward to serve again with her; I am sure that lots of chemistry will be generated at that time.
I purchased a telephone at home. This is called the "Telcel Fijo" phone. "Telcel" is the company name and "Fijo" is "fixed" in Spanish. This is like a cellular phone but only operate at home. There is no telephone wire that I need to puck, only that electricity cable. I purchased this because it is in the same area code as the land line. (Land line has its own area code. Different cell phone companies also have different area code). For a telephone dial across area code, the price is more expensive. Previously, when I make a long distance phone call, my "416" area code cell phone needs to dial to "212" area code. It cost about Cdn $0.12 a minute. Currently, I need to pay Cdn$12 a month for the first 400 minutes free and $0.03 for each additional minute. Therefore I can call Carmen without worrying my cell phone bill explodes.

August 23, 2003(Saturday)

Today is a productive day. I went to grocery shopping. There is no chicken leg so I decided to step outside of my comfort zone: buy pork! (I did not buy beef or steak because the writing on the package is in Spanish and I can't find beef). I saw some kind of chicken that is really cheap (Cdn $0.3) and I found out that it is actually chicken neck! I am glad that I did not buy it. I wiped the floor and also went for a 50 mins run. I need to run more often because I do not have "air". However, Saturday is the only time for me; I missed my day in TELUS when I can run every other day in Central Park.
There are many "Chavistas" (people who supported the Venezuela president Chavez) on the street! I saw several buses loading with Chavistas blowing whistle and yelling! (There are actually about one million, according to the news) This is for contrasting the march in the past Wednesday by the opposition. I talked more about Venezuela politic in my diary now!
I went to MB church for music practice at night. There are people doing decoration for the wedding and this is disturbing. There was also a dinner at Baptist Church for the farewell of Pastor Chan's family. They have been here for three months and I was told yesterday that there will be a dinner tonight. I did not go because I have promised to come to MB Church tonight for the music practice. I felt bad to "rebel" against Baptist Church. I went to Canada for three weeks, missed two additional Sundays due to my MBA trip, missed the past Wednesday night prayer meeting because of sickness and skipped this dinner too. In the same time, I spent more time on MB church. So rather than 90% Baptist Church 10% MB Church, I am getting to 50-50. And because of my MBA study, the size of the pie decrease too! Therefore, the time I spent on Baptist Church really decreased. (I just spent too much time in church for the last several months! It is getting to normal now. However, for next week, I will spend more time in Baptist Church again)
Electric Mosquito killer that my parents bought me in Vancouver is a great invention of all time. There were at least three mosquitoes in my room at night and I used it to kill two. I felt so good when I see the corpse on that device. However, the other mosquito still harasses me and I had a bad sleep. I had to turn on the light and cover myself with blanket except my head and my hand that is holding the device sticking out (it is hot in Venezuela!) waiting for the mosquito. I had to open my eye and look around and when I get tired, I will close my eyes and listen carefully to the noise generated by mosquito. I fell asleep shortly and then mosquito woke me up but it is hard to find it when I open my eyes again. It is a battle! The other great invention of all time is tank. No water is supplied during every Monday and Thursday (except three meal times). We had a tank that accumulates the water so that I can take a shower even when there is no water supplied to the building. Every time when I go home, I will go to check out the water availability. I felt good when I can take a shower after exercise and I appreciate the water tank for lifting the fear that there will be no water during my shower.

August 22, 2003(Friday)

Work was quiet on Friday again. So what should I write for my time report? Idle because of no project for him?
I went to MB Church at night to have a rehearsal for the wedding of Chuen and Elisa. Pastor Semson is the first time facilitating a wedding (he is only a 1.5 years old pastor) so he does not know about the procedure. I used Hansel's wedding as a template and gave a lot of suggestion about how the ceremony should run. For example, when the bride will walk in, they should stand in a semi-circle on the stage, have a mic for them during the "read the vow" section, light the candle and so on. I never expected to contribute that much and they really listen my opinion! The procedure is slightly different from Hansel's wedding and I am not sure exactly how the ceremony should go in the first run. However, I gained the whole picture and have confident that everything would work out fine. It is likely that the next marriage in MB church will use this as the template too. I am actually performing the role of Pastor Choy of VCAC by guiding them what to do in the ceremony! (Of course, I am also the shadow GM because the real GM is naive about this too. And I am the only MC during the ceremony.
I wrote down the MC script at night; I must be very careful because their parents are traditional non-Christian Chinese and they would be angered if I say something wrong during the ceremony. The role of the MC is different from the one we had in my VCAC's friends' wedding. The MC at that time only needs to come up the stage for the photo section. However, I am on the stage all the time and tell people to stand up, sit down, what is the next section and so on! More like the worship chair!

August 21, 2003(Thursday)

After 10 hours of sleep, I felt much better. And I went home for another 2 hours afternoon nap too. My flu is more or less gone but I have headache.
I went to McDonald for my afternoon snack. I saw two kids selling stickers. According to their outlook and their dress, they must be one of the poor kids in Venezuela. This is different from those HK students selling stickers; they volunteer to do this, but these two poor kids sell sticker to make a living. I felt bad for them, but I did not buy a sticker from them. Why don't they go to school? Probably because their parents are "that kind" of people too. Life is not fair. I was thinking, why there are such people in the world. Then I remember the Bible verse, "Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (Jn 9:3). I was wondering how
I went home to cook dinner again. This is the third time this week with the same dishes: corn, chicken leg, macaroni and sausage. In fact, I will have that as tomorrow's lunch too. I really put a low priority on eating and I don't really care what I eat in Venezuela, as long as it has nutrient and is not poison. My requirement would be higher when I go back to Vancouver though.

August 20, 2003(Wednesday)

I guess that I caught flu and was very sick last night. I am not very cold and in fact I frequently sweat a lot. I had big and noisy sneeze and had a lot of "nose water". This is also one of the very weird times that I sneeze and had nose water while I am sleeping. Therefore I had a pretty bad night of sleep. In addition, today mark the middle of the term of the president. The firework was really loud and last until 12:30am. There was some loud firework blast throughout the night.
There is a march today to submit the required signature to government in order to have a referendum. About 1 million people marched today. My boss Rhamer told me that we can come in to work a bit late. This is good for me because I can sleep in and made up the bad night of sleep. Therefore, I arrived to work at 11am and had a long lunch (plus sleep) from 12:30 to 3:10. Work was quiet because half of the people were not here; I guess that they must be marching or slacking off. I wrote the CAF traffic report; they really like my last report which I only spent 1.5 hours on that 10 pages full-of-figure report. I am sure that they will like this one too.
Carmen called in the middle of the day and emails me too and she comforts me about my sickness.
I went home at 7:20 and skipped the Baptist Church prayer meeting. I cooked (again!) and ate chicken leg + macaroni + corn + sausage.

August 19, 2003(Tuesday)

I talked to Elisa about her wedding during lunch with Semson, "Ball Chai" (best man) and "Coi Ha" (Her best friend. Should be the bridesmaid but she can't attend her wedding) for about 2 hours. I gave her a lot of important and good suggestions.
Work was quiet for most part of the day. My work is this interesting! When I have nothing to do, I am really bored at work. However when I have something to do, it is very tensed and I am stressed. Yesterday's customer CAF called at 5pm that their network was down again and they wanted me to perform a traffic analysis. I was annoyed; my attitude to the messenger (my co-worker Yelitza) was quite rude; I very seldom am that rude, not even to Carmen. I found that I lost patient to this messenger (who's job is to co-ordinates between customers and employees). Partly because her English is not as good. She was one of the handful "lucky" one that I have pissed at for several time. I arrived at CAF and tried to understand the situation. I tried my best to pleas the customer and assured them that Desca will try the best, as a team, to fix their problem. (i.e. I can't and I won't solve it by myself). I will also discuss with other consultants from Desca to propose a plan that best suit their situation. (i.e. I won't solve it today) The customer seems to be more calm and pleased after talking at me.
Another Desca employee Desca was there fixing the problem. I felt bad that I have to leave early. I remembered that there are people helping me when I have problem so during the time I was with him, I gave him the greatest support and assurance and tried to make friend with him. I told the customer that I will collect the data and write the report at night so I left at about 6:50.
I had dinner with Cristina, Paco and Chi Kong because Cristina will go to Calgary to study her M.Eng degree next Tuesday. I almost did not make this dinner because of the customer thing. We went to eat some Spanish food and I promised to treat them. However, it turned out that I did not bring enough money so they have to pay 1/4 of the money too. I felt so embarrass but there is nothing I can do. Just swallow this experience and will avoid it in the future.
It is very noisy tonight. Many people blow whistle and there are lots of firework blast at night. It is because tonight marks the middle of the President Chavez's term. People hate him and want to get rid of him. According to the constitution, a referendum is possible after the middle of the term. Therefore, there will be firework starts after midnight tonight and will march tomorrow. A similar thing happened last Christmas to this January and nothing really happened except Chavez restricted the purchase of foreign currency this February. That's why I have not been paid for a long time. Therefore, I want him to lose too. Since it is so noisy at night, my housemate played Mahjong too.

August 18, 2003(Monday)

I went to work and people told me that one of the customers CAF had problem with their network. Their router's CPU reached 100% several times and reboot. Therefore, they wanted me to perform a traffic analysis. I have done traffic analysis many times and I don't know why they want a senior person to perform this junior task. I was there from 11 to 5:30 (except lunch and hair cut in between) and wrote the report at night. I also talked to a Miami employer this morning. My company is thinking of outsourcing a person and I am one of the four lucky one being chosen. I don't know what the other company's decision is. It would be fun to work in Miami but I have to think about what to do with the other commitments in Venezuelan Church.
I went home late and cooked dinner afterward. Then I prepared for September 6's MB Church Bible Quiz; I brainstormed for Chuen/Eliza August 24 wedding too. We still need to decide whether there is any singspiration, the program, schedule and so on.

August 17, 2003(Sunday)

I checked out and found out that the 1 min telephone call to Carmen yesterday from my room cost USD $2.5! Very expensive. Afterward, I went to airport at 7:30 and took the 9:30 flight to St. Louis. After an hour wait, I took another 3 hours flight to Miami. Another 2 more hours wait and I arrived to Venezuela at 9:00pm after the third 3 hours flight. I slept a bit and studied "Managerial Economic and Business Strategy" MBA book for 4.5 hours in flight. I also prepared for the Bible Quiz for MB Church in September 6.
Mr. Wong came to pick me up from the airport; traffic for some reason was very heavy and I arrived home at 10:35. I called parents because they were celebrating their 30th anniversary with Carmen, Hansel and Fiona. I always reflected that I am very blessed because I have a strong family. I have full confident that my future family will be as strong too. I unpacked luggage for 1.5 hours; I am not sleepy because I slept in the flight.

August 16, 2003(Saturday)

I can sleep in today because the class starts at 10. It lasted for an hour and that's it for the week! I icq Carmen for 80 mins (record time!) about my career plan yesterday. She will be part of me and I must consult with her about any decision that I will make. I am glad that she supports my moves, just that I need to communicate with her more often. Most of the time I formulate the plan in my mind and then I inform her; the thinking process is too complicated and I am not good at explaining my thought. I am grateful that she is understanding and picks up my thought quickly.
People have to clean up the big computer room that I am in. I can't believe that the 80+ computers are not permanently station here! Moreover, I found out that I am not insured. Aug 15 is the start of the school year and I must purchase the university insurance in campus. However, I forgot to purchase and remember in the wrong time. If I remember at least 30 mins earlier, there is some university staff that I can ask. If I recall it on Sunday, I don't even have to worry anything. Therefore, my current situation is that I am not insured in Aug 15 - 17 and there is no way I can buy it. All the staff just left for the weekend. I tried to walk around but no one can help. I asked the hotel front desk and they have no information for me. They called the travel insurance company and they only sell the insurance for the flight. Even AAA is closed for the weekend! I am really worry (if I recall it when I am in the airport, then I won't kill as many brain cell as I am now) but I can't do anything.
I went to Days Inn Airport at 2:30. There is only one flight back to Venezuela a day at 10 am and I missed that by a few hours. I have to spent the extra money (plus the worries that I have no insurance!) for hotel (about $USD 80). It does not worth because the class this morning is pretty useless. However, I must think it in a positive way. I get to icq Carmen and I can also live in another place! I want to go for a run but because I don't have insurance, I don't want to take the risk. (I did not have insurance last night but since I do not know that I enjoy the run anyway). I went to airport to check out about insurance and surprise to find out that they don't have any available!
I hide myself in the hotel for the rest of the day reading, studying and sleeping hoping that nothing will happen to me for the next 24 hours. I told Carmen that if I am in any car accident or any bad thing, just let me die because the US medical is too expensive! (Of course I know that they won't. And when I am able to post this diary onto the diary, that means, every thing is safe and I must thanks God for that) According to statistic, nothing will happen. However, since I am worry, accident would happen. This is a time that I really need to trust in God for His plan. If something must happen, let it be.

August 15, 2003(Friday)

I am a bit late again because I phoned Carmen and studied late last night. For the last three nights, I have been working ahead; today it is supposed to be the most intense night but I have 50% of the work done already. I went to bookstore to pick up text book. They are really expensive! For the two courses that I will take this quarter, three books are needed which comes to a total of USD $340! I walked a little bit and then went for a one-hour pre-noon nap.
I have a really hard time concentrating in the afternoon. Probably I have used up all my energy and Friday night is always my holiday. I did not really contribute to the group discussion and there is another person was in the same boat as I am. Our work finally finished at 6:15 and we got the rest of the day free! I thanked the MBA staff for their extra-care about my Venezuela unique situation; I shared with them about the currency control in Venezuela and I am one of the minorities that have to pay the MBA program myself. I chatted with professor earlier about the possibility for me to become a professor. This is something that I always want to do but I put off this dream when I choose to study M.Eng rather than PhD in engineering. I will pray about that now and see what God leads me to.
Our group went to downtown tonight; I am supposed to go with them but because I was a bit late due to talking to the staff, they left. Therefore, I ran for 50 mins. I ran from the campus to downtown, then to IMAX theatre and NCAA headquarter and to the zoo and cross the bridge and back to hotel. The IMAX theatre is huge! The size of the building is only slightly less than Metrotown! I heard that it can sit several hundred people and the screen is huge. NCAA headquarter is next to it. I am sure that Hansel would be extremely excited to come to this place. In fact, the conference center that I am staying this week is somewhat like a sport conference center. I can see the painting of many sport players (e.g. Larry Bird, who is a graduate from this university, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordon, some football players, some tennis players). Hansel should study MBA here for the sake of its sport facility. The environment is also beautiful too. When I ran over the bridge, along the river, inside the zoo, I wish that Carmen is here! It would be a lovely place for any couple to walk after dinner. Since I am running, and my digital camera is running out of battery (I am lazy enough to not bring the charger, which is a mistake!) I did not take any nice photo.
It feels good after running because I was eating a lot and there are numerous free snacks available! I practiced violin afterward. This is the first trip that I brought my violin just for the sake of practice it. (The Vancouver trip was different because I have to play for Hansel's wedding). I went to computer room to go on net and surprised to see several people are still doing the homework!
Here is a summary of my feeling about this MBA in-resident week. I was expecting to be extremely intense; it turns out that only 1 hour lecture per day and the rest of the time are group discussion. It is easier than I thought, just by the fact that I have 8.5 hours of sleep a day and I went to the zoo last night. I will be taking two courses this quarter which requires 10 to 15 hours of work. It is not as bad as I think. The professor said that if I tried hard, I have to be really lucky in order to have a GPA of less than 3.3. Judging from the relax environment this week, I feel a lot more confidence to this MBA program. However, I can't take it lightly because my Uncle 4 took online MBA from Athabasca University (That's why I planned to take online MBA too!) and he told me that it is very time exhausting! I do not have a family and I have no life (i.e. nerd) except church so I would have an advantage. I would prepare for the worst and hope for the best! I enjoy the environment in this place too! I felt that it is even nicer than Vancouver (at least in this season). There is not much Chinese here. I also like the feeling of this town and the feeling of university.

August 14, 2003(Thursday)

I am quite tired so I woke up a little bit late but was on time for class. However, I fell asleep briefly in class. It is hard work from 10 to 3. I wrote summary for one of the section. During lunch, they were proofreading it and corrected my grammar big time!
After afternoon nap, I went to the introduction to the Economic course. The professor was out of town so he spoke through his telephone and broadcast to us.
The high light of the program came at night. We went to zoo! I have no idea why MBA program includes field trip! It was pretty fun to go to the zoo; the last time I visit zoo was probably in 1980s! We had nice dinner in the aquarium center, with the dolphin and shark besides us. I went back to update my photo homepage and diary at 9.
Overall, the hotel, the food, the snack and the zoo is really nice this week. I have talked with various people and it is estimated that it would costs about USD $1200. Each night hotel would cost about $130 at this high class hotel. Lunch would probably cost $25 per day. And there are unlimited snack, which each person may worth $5. The facility (auditorium, computer labs) would cost about $15 per day. The entrance place for the zoo is $8 and the dinner should cost $30. Of course, the hotel would have some deal with the hotel and also the zoo because we are coming in as a big group. Therefore the price would be cheaper. If I have a choice, I would rather stay in really cheap hotel and eat really cheap food and cut all the entertainment. However, all these have been included in the tuition and I have no choice but to spend big money.

August 13, 2003(Wednesday)

I am more relaxed today because I did a lot of preparation work yesterday night. After 45 mins of lecture, we were left alone to do the individual work. I spent lots of time on the assignment because I want my fine work to impress my teammate. I have no idea whether it works or not. I just know that they include minimal amount of my point in the group summary. That is quite depressing but I know that I have tried my best and I do not really care about that.
I checked with the staff about my text book too. I told them many times in the last three months that mailing is a big problem in Venezuela. Therefore they are trying their best to get the text book for me. They are very helpful.
There was an introduction to the class "Quantitative Analysis" that we will take from September to November. It requires some statistic and a lot of Excel. It does not sound too hard to me. I went for a late afternoon nap afterward.
We have free lunch every day. I packed some of that secretly; I skipped the team lunch and ate by myself in front of the computer screen. I worked ahead and hope that I will have an easy time tomorrow. I always like to plan and work ahead so that my "stress" or "busy" level would be spread. I hate to be busy for several weeks and then idle for several weeks. However, it still happens to me a lot of time.

August 12, 2003(Tuesday)

I go to lecture at 8:30. This week will only have short lecture, about an hour or so. Most of the time will be discussion or doing assignment. It is not as tough as I thought. Whew!
For some reason, I feel that my laptop is affected with virus. I can open up Internet Explorer but I can't open Hotmail. I spent sometimes rebooting my laptop and endued up using the school computer. Because of this interruption and I am not warm up yet, I fall behind in the course work. Every teammate is ahead of me and I feel the pressure.
Nevertheless, I took a long lunch with my teammate, went to my room for daily pushup/sit-up, violin and 25 mins afternoon nap. I am confident to myself that, as long as I am on fire, I can do thing fast. It turns out that I am only slightly behind schedule. I am responsible for editing our responses for one of the exercises. The input from the teammate is slightly off topic so I have to redo that. I spent quite an amount of time working on the report, not so much of the mark, but because I don't want to look bad before the teammates. They think that I did a pretty good job, although there are quite a few of grammatical mistakes.
Normally, I would be shy and not talk too much in front of my school or work friend. (After all, this is not the real Hubert. I spend very little amount of time with non-church friends). However, I tried to get as involved as possible because I want to train my communication skill, especially in English.
This week's course is centered on stress and work/life issue in the work place. We shared a lot about our working experience. We are doing some survey about our personal side too. Obviously I am different among the group. I am not pursuing any Western cultural or materialistic thing. I mentioned quite a lot about my religious background. (I have no problem confess to anyone that I am a committed Christian. When I eat in front of Christian, I deliberately pray for a longer time!)
After dinner, they went to IMAX to see the "Matrix Reloaded". I used the excuse of "fixing my laptop because there is virus" and did not go. There are several reasons. First, I am not too into the movie anyway. Second, their company pays for their tuition. That saves them US $45k in two years. The company even pays for their travel and their food. However, I have to pay for every cent from my own pocket. I don't want to waste any money on that. (Consider that in Venezuela I am not willing to spend one extra dollar on other thing, why would I spend $10 on a movie that I don't really want to watch? The only reason may be socializing. However, I think that I have enough socializing with them today. I ate lunch and dinner with them; and watching movie is not the best investment in terms of socializing)
I worked on my MBA work for three hours at night. I have finished the up-to-date assignment. I asked for the material so that I can preview in advanced. I am pretty sure that I am the only students, out of 140 others, that request to read ahead. I am always proud of my time management skill, determination, discipline and hardworking. I belief that these factors will eventually makes me successful (not that I am not success now!) I may not be the best leader but I surely am an excellent manager. (Did I say that I am also smart, quick learner and positive?) Opps, I must learn how not to be hu but humble.

August 11, 2003(Monday)

I woke up at 6:10. Surprisingly, the schedule of today is not as tight as I though. I checked email in the breakfast time. They had a class teaching how to use the course website. I am quite ahead in this class because I am pretty good at computer. We had an earlier lunch and I went back to my room to do pushup/sit-up and slept for 1 hour, which is very refreshing. After a 30 mins lecture, we had the rest of the afternoon for group discussion. It went slow but well. I tried to get as involve as I can; I am not used to say so much English, after staying in Venezuela where I talked Chinese and Spanish (yeah right!) mostly.
Our team went to eat dinner; one of the members suggested to watch "Matrix Reloaded" movie at the IMAX theatre. I felt bad to turn down on him in the last minute. I talked with one of the teammate Jared Crockett from 7:30 to 9:30. He is a dedicated Mormon and had been to Brazil two years for missionary. I am always interested in learning other religions and he does not mind to share his faith with me. Therefore, we talked with each other in my room for two hours about the faith of the two different beliefs. I have no intention to convince him and neither does he. The sharing was peaceful; even though there are differences and conflicts in our beliefs, we handle it quite well and no arguments evolved. I am glad that I know my Bible really well so that my faith would not be shaken. However, there are still a few points that I need to clear up on. For example, in John 3:5 Jesus told Nicodemus that a man needed to be born of water and Spirit. So does it mean that Baptism is necessary for salvation? Moreover, there are different translations for the Bible. How do I know that which is right and which is not? I know that the meaning are the same, but are they exact? In addition, Jared said that God gave everyone a fair chance to believe in Him; hence, they are baptizing the dead by proxy-baptized it to someone (i.e. I baptized on their behalves). In my belief, if you died without hearing Christ, you have no further chance. No one is going to preach to you in the spiritual realm (which Moron said Jesus will). How can I explain it to non-Christian and make sense with that? Finally, I have read books saying that Joseph Smith, the prophet of Moron, is a very sinful person. However, Jared told me that these are not true; Joseph is a very dedicated and good prophet. I am not sure which is correct and which is not.

August 10, 2003(Sunday)

I woke up at 2:30; this is the earliest time I have ever wakened up. After morning routine, I took taxi at 3:30 and arrived airport at 4:00. I talked to Carmen during the taxi ride for 10 mins. I am a day ahead her because of the 3 hours time difference and I woke up very early and she slept relatively late.
I took flight at 6:09am to Miami for 2.8 hours. After 3 hours of wait (the flight delayed for an hour) I took another 3 hours flight to St. Louis. I explored this airport for an hour and then took another one-hour flight to Indianapolis. I took many flights lately. I have been to seven US airports: LA, San Jose, Dallas Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, St. Louis and Indianapolis. I am very familiar with the Dallas, Houston and Miami airports because I have spent at least 10 hours in total for each of these three airports during the flight transit time.
I am glad that someone from the University picked me up from the Indianapolis airport. Before that time, I don't even know whether I get the right airport. I just hoped that there is one Indianapolis in USA and one airport within. This uncertainty feeling is similar to the time when I first went to Venezuela. I don't even know whether the whole thing is a hoax or real until the very last minute. I learnt to have faith and not worry in the last year!
The program started at 3pm but I arrived at 7pm. If I want to be on time, I need to be here a day earlier, which does not worth the extra expense. However, people were eating dinner at the ballroom and sat according to their group. The food was good, as tasty and nice as Hansel/Fiona's wedding banquet. After the dinner, I have to find my group for the get-to-know-each-other activity. I asked the staff and surprisingly that they know me! There are over 150 students to this program and when I go to the MBA program manager, he recognized my name and said that he is looking for me, the person from Venezuela. I guess that it is because I have emailed a lot of times in the last three months and that makes me their top trouble list. (I did say in the last paragraph that I learnt to have faith and not worry. My theory is that I should prepare as thoroughly and as detail as possible, and then I should not worry anything further.) Several of the staffs run around in the hotel to help me find my group. Afterward, I spent 40 mins with my group and went back to my room.

August 9, 2003(Saturday)

After jogging at Parque del Este, Ah Men, Cristina, Pastor Ricky Chan and I played ping pong at church. I went home to pack up for my trip and slept. I invented some cooking method and I ate the same thing yesterday dinner, today lunch and dinner. Here is the food that I ate. First, I put the macaroni into the water and let it boil for 20 mins. I can do some other thing in the mean time. After "passing the Macaroni to cold water", I put them and sausage into another boiled water with some oil and salt. I take them out (without water) and add some vinegar ("kip jup" in Chinese)
After checking email at Paco's house, I went to MB church for the music practice. Basically I am teaching them the same thing that I taught Baptist Church half a year ago.

August 8, 2003(Friday)

I started the day in the wrong way. My tummy felt not good; when I need washroom the most, someone is using it. Urgent! In addition, there are some ants in the peanut butter and meyonates bottles. I have screwed that bottle but somehow there are ants. I woke up 15 mins late because I did not have afternoon nap yesterday so I slept in a bit. When I left home, co-worker told me that the firewall that I installed yesterday was not working and I need to go there immediately. I told her that I am on the way going to church. I said "I am coming now, bye" even though she still has something that needs to talk to me. I am in the edge of exploding; normally I am not easily angered. But during some period in the day, I would get "mum" easily and today somehow everything just added up.
I went to work and was not as pleasant as I used to be. At least, I did not initiate any greeting with anyone. I MSN with the customer so that I can buy some time to check my email, diary, email Carmen and understand the situation. That releases some of my stress.
I went to customer Otepi and investigate about their problem. After two hours of investigation, it turns out that the problem is from their internal network and not from the PIX Firewall that I installed yesterday. However I could not leave but have to wait for my co-worker Frank to solve some of his problem. I checked email, surf the internet since then and went home at 5:30.
I am going to take MBA because I want to be a senior manager. Is there a lot of fire and stress that managers need to handle? If that is the case, I am actually having a class today, which MBA would not teach me.
Pastor Ricky Chan, Ricky Lam and I discussed the church constitution at night. We finished the first draft; we will mail it to Canadian Baptist Ministry (CBM) and discussed among the Church council. I can see that that Baptist church is having a new picture after Pastor Loh's departure. Hopefully the fire will continue and the church will growth. In addition, I can also see that MB church is growing after the "trouble deacon" left the church early this year. I am sure that one year from now two churches will be better than now.

August 7, 2003(Thursday)

I worked at customer Otepi from 11:15 - 6. I was originally told that I need to swap the PIX firewall that I installed several months ago to the new PIX, which is an easy job. However, they came up with new requirement: they wanted to configure their VoIP through VPN. I have no idea how to do it. Moreover, after several hours, they said that there is problem with the Firewall, which turned out to be their problem. These several hours are very tough and exhausting. I cannot finish everything so I have to go back tomorrow. I was told that this is the first time that we did this implementation so I am not sure who I can work with.
I treated a Desca co-worker Frank, who was also working in Otepi but on different project, for lunch today. This is my first time eat with a co-worker. After work, my boss Mario, Frank and I went to have dinner together. This is another breakthrough for me with the co-worker. They talked in Spanish most of the time, but Mario asked me once in a while some questions (e.g. what is the environment in Canada, how is my family and girl friend) to keep me involve. As I felt all the way long, my relationship with co-workers is pretty good, except with those that are in my team, and especially worst with the only other non-Venezuelan CCIE (Roberto). I guess jealous does play a part in their heart.
I went home early and I can enjoy another quiet night.

August 6, 2003(Wednesday)

I have not been paid for about half a year because of the currency control in Venezuela. I have requested for salary in US dollar from company because I need to pay for my MBA tuition. I got the money yesterday and went to the bank to deposit. However, the bank manager told us that, with the currency control, banks are not allowed to deposit the US money even though they did it once for me two months ago. I have to "express delivery" the cheque to the US in order to bank. I am very "mum" because I have to go to customer site too and this little extra piece of work really annoys me.
I went to customer "Bloque de Armas" again. We have to wait for the customer return back to office and for the ISP to check something for us. Therefore, I read for 1.5 hours and finished the "Strategic Management" MBA books. I have been rushing through 6 different MBA books since April 30 (except my three-week-stay in Vancouver); I hope that I am prepared for the next two years. Between today and Sunday (my flight to MBA), I should take a rest and catch up with some spiritual books (those that I brought from Vancouver) and Bible reading (Pastor Loh challenged us to finish Old Testament in one year. I don't think anyone else in the church is doing it. But it is a good goal for me and I want to complete this) instead.
With some luck, the customer network seems to be up. However I need to double check with them tomorrow again to confirm.
I went to prayer meeting at night. I don't really want to go in the last few days because I don't have the "heart". I feel that this is a waste of my time so if I am busy with anything, I would not go. However, I finished my MBA book today and nothing much to do, so I went. I felt that I am so self-righteous and fill with pride. Since I arrived to Venezuela, I felt that I am "several levels" higher than everyone. Compare to most of the Chinese Christian here, I felt very superior because of my Canadian passport, university education, decent salary, church experience, spiritual gifts. I had been using these to serve in Church but I can not “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Php 2:3b). All these prayer meeting and training are not for me but for these people. I won't learn a lot (of course I would learn, but relatively little) from these meeting so I should do something else instead. Probably my previous 10 years in fellowship has something to do with it because I never expect to learn something; I am there to serve. I confessed my sin before God but I still have that feeling deep down in my heart. (On the other hand, I am extremely humble in my job environment because I have been through two laid off and I always feel that I don't know how to do the job properly).
The prayer meeting had discussion about the "Purpose Driven Church" book. One of the discussions is that, if we are going to build a new church building, how large a congregation size would we expect. People came up with number like several hundred to thousands (the current church size is about 60 people). They have faith in God. For myself, I would answer with a number of "80-100 people". I am not a day-dreamer but a realistic person; I am never interested to set a goal that I cannot meet. I don't think that this is deal to my lack of faith in God. Without any spiritual intervention, judging from the growth of this church in the last 10 years, I don't think that this is going to go beyond 100 people in the next three years. I hate to see these people day-dreaming without knowing what they are talking about. (Yes, you can say that I am self-righteous. But I can respond that wait for several years and I bet that my guess will be much accurate.)
I am a bit tired (did not go home for afternoon nap); moreover, I felt that I am sinful of self-righteous and these conversation is not too interesting. So I am quiet most of the night. People thought that I am weird since I returned from Canada.

August 5, 2003(Tuesday)

I went to customer "Bloque de Armas" today for installing VPN connection at the Central and Remote site. The customer knows very little about this and only speaks Spanish. I am glad that I have someone from work, who is a co-op student, to be my translator. Basically I explained the concept and the requirement to him and he did the talking for me. Therefore, I am idle for most of the time, waiting for him to clarify the concept to the customer.
Usually I take taxi to go to the customer site. This time, there is a Desca-hired driver to drive us; he is driving a Honda Accord and I felt that I am in a luxury car. I have a driver and a translator today; I felt so high-class.
When I was in the remote site, the ABA (ADSL in Venezuela) connection is not ready. Therefore I have to sit here waiting for the ISP to do something about it before I can activate my connection; this is another waste of my time. This is a shame that I did not bring the MBA book here to read. I was editing some of the church "Story time" questions during that idle period.
I am quite "mum" because of the stupidity of the customer and I have to go back tomorrow again. I hate stupid customer. Usually I icq Carmen in the morning and I have to skip icq with her again. Since I worked straight today without any lunch break (or afternoon nap), I went to McDonald to eat and read MBA book.
After some grocery shopping, I went home for dinner (I am more often now to eat dinner at home). I studied MBA books for about 2 hours and organizing my room too. I enjoy lonely time at night so that I can do whatever I can. Carmen called to lighten my day too.

August 4, 2003(Monday)

I enjoy my afternoon snack. I would go to McDonald to order a fries or McMenu that cost Cdn $1.5. And then I get to spend the next 15 mins eating and reading the MBA book. I went to Pastor Semson's house at night; we discussed about the MB church singspiration and also Chuen and Elisa's wedding. I am glad that I have the gift to help out others. I gave them lots of suggestion about what wedding should be. I have never attended a Christian wedding in Venezuela. The one that Luisa had in Feb 14, 2003 was more like an engagement party to them (but is a wedding in terms of us because now they are married). I used the template from North America and asked them to "cut and paste". They basically agreed with most part; however I hope that I am not overwhelming them. There are not much "capable" people to help out so some of us have to multi-task. I will be the MC and also the music leader of the ceremony.
We discussed briefly about the music ministry in MB church. After the election of new deacons this January, there are a lot of changes. I will "restructure" their singspiration time twice a month (the two Sundays that have fellowship). I will do what I did in Baptist Church and hope to transform their worship atmosphere (of course I know I need to rely on God about this).
Carmen called when I was in the metro. That is very weird that there is reception. I talked to her for 30 seconds and then the phone call was cut off because the metro moved to another station where there is no reception. She called again, the time that I just left the metro. Pastor Loh's family was in my Vancouver house and I talked to each of their family members and my parents too. It is so good to know that my Venezuelan friends can visit my Vancouver life. Carmen also called during the meeting and I gave her update of what is going on with the meeting.

August 3, 2003(Sunday)

I played guitar for the Baptist church; during Sunday School, we shared about our spiritual life. I went home without eating lunch at church afterward. And then I went to MB Church for worship. I am tired but I think that I have not gone there for three weeks (I was in Canada) and I won't be here for the next two weeks (I will be in USA) so I want to join them. The feeling for myself in MB Church is difference from the Baptist Church. I don't have as many friends here so I sit by myself most of the time. However people here really welcome me (of course, the Baptist church people really welcome me too). I feel a more family feeling in the MB church, probably because there are more little kids running around (e.g. YiSon, Paul [YiSon's brother], Mandy, Freddy, Cindy [all three are Fernando’s children] and several others). The age range of this church is broader too.
Semson announced during the worship that I will help out for their singspiration. Currently they do not have any pianist; they have invited me to play piano for them. I will sit down with Semson to discuss more detail about it. During the Sunday School time, I talked to Chuen and Elisa. They will get marry in August 24. Compare to my friends' wedding, especially to Hansel and Fiona's wedding, they are not prepared at all. They have not found the GM; they have not decided on the time of that date; they don't have a music team nor chosen any songs yet. They asked me to play the "Wedding Procession March" for them during the wedding using PIANO! I just asked Fiona to email me to the music so that I can practice; however, I will be in USA for a week. The last time that I played piano in church was 2000 during my "Canaan era". The piano that MB Church has is an electric piano with very soft key; I don't think that I am comfortable with that! (The wedding that I went this valentine day was even worse. They used two days to prepare and the budget is less than Cdn $100. I was their official photographer using Pastor Loh's digital camera, which went out of battery!)
There is a get-to-know-each-other game in each Chinese Youth fellowship. This is quite creative and I like that idea. After fellowship, I went home to study and read comic book again.
I showed off my engagement ring today to as many people as possible. I am really proud to tell them that I will marry in September 2004. Previously I hold up on my announcement (not quite as much in Venezuela or FCGC. But I did not official announcement in Canaan) because I want to get over Hansel's wedding without distracting them. Now I can broadcast my wedding news to as many people as possible.

August 2, 2003(Saturday)

YanTing will leave and go to another city to live for at least a month tonight; Megan will go to US to study Monday; Cristina will go to Canada to study soon too. Therefore, we went hiking together with two of Cristina's co-workers. Paco treated us for dinner at night. (I do not have money to pay because I only have the equivalent of Cdn$30 Bs in my wallet and my bank account. However, I will exchange US money tomorrow and I will be fine). Between the events, I went home to study and sleep; I went to church afterward for the music practice. Pastor Chan's wife Mrs. Chan (she was a music teacher in Toronto) gave us some suggestions. I am really annoyed (without showing it) by this; of course I know that there is problem, however this is not Canada but Venezuela and you cannot expect too much. The kind of perfectionist like she would survive good in Canada but not here. She gave suggestions to me as if I am naive. (I admit that my proud plays a big part in this)
I was studying at my room and I saw the mosquito that bites me several times. I used the electric mosquito killer to kill it. I am so happy to see the spark and the smoke generated when my enemy (mosquito) was electrified to death. It is equally happy to kill it with my hand and saw my blood (that was inside mosquito's body) on my hand too.

August 1, 2003(Friday)

Work was ok on Friday. Nothing much happening and I forced myself reading MBA book "Strategic Management" for about 2 hours for the whole day. I felt my brain is saturated. The prayer meeting used to be on Friday night but was changed to Wednesday night this week. I also read "Pokamon" comic book that I brought from Canada as my entertainment.