February 29, 2004(Sunday)

There is always political instability; the opposition party did a petition several weeks ago to recall the president. The election committee will make the decision within this few days about whether or not a recall will occur. The "chavistas" is the group that supports the president; they are usually poor, lowly educated and violent. They gathered at Parque del Este (near my house, the place where I always go for running) this morning and marched. A lot of roads were blocked yesterday and today; therefore, the church service was canceled. I studied GMAT for about 4 hours today; I felt more confident with it and I plan to take the exam within two weeks.
I get bored at home and have nothing to do. The places that I always go (Desca, Baptist Church, and my home) are belonging to the opposition party. They are more educated, richer and more peaceful. I went out for a jogging. Parque del Este closed earlier than usual. Therefore, I ran to Baptist Church, then to Desca along the main road "Francisco Miranda" (similar to Kingsway in Vancouver) and then back to home for 40 mins. The main road has very few cars because it is blocked. There are about 50 people gathered in the Plaza Altamira. There are helicopters flying around too. Almost all the streets near the plaza are blocked; people put a lot of broken glass on the ground and burned car's wheel (about 10 intersections along my route). I felt like a "war zone journalist". I would never be able to see this in Vancouver. I do not like the government, but the behavior of the opposition people is disturbing too. They left a mess on the street and the garbage collectors have to clean that out afterward. I think that some of the people (especially the younger one) are just playing around. They want to left some garbage and burn something. They don't really care about politic.
I wanted to buy grocery but it closed at 6 because today is Sunday. I went to Shirley's family (they lived next building to mine) to eat and Che So was there with her kid too.

February 28, 2004(Saturday)

I went to Che So's house and tutored YanTing math; I had lunch there too. I went for jogging at Parque del Este; I also played violin and piano loud and freely because no one is at home. I am quite in-shape today for the music and running. I also studied GMAT for about 4.5 hours today. I downloaded the "PowerPrep" from GMAT website (which is a free product) and focused on the verbal (Reading and Sentence correction) section. Last time, I got 36% in that section (97% in the math section!). I find that, if I have more time, I am able to get a higher score. At least, when I am doing practice today, I got most of the questions correct! I am aiming for 50% English score (actually this is really hard!) so that I can improve from 630 to 680 and hopefully IU, UBC or UT will accept me. If I am lucky enough to get over 700, I will even try to apply for UCLA!

February 27, 2004(Friday)

I worked on the IPTV again today. There is a march today and people really interested to know what is going on. They complained that why the IPTV is not working. There is nothing much I can do. I hope that it will work soon. I suddenly have the motivation and worked on a song list for the Venezuelan church for about 7 hours today. Ricky Lam mentioned several months ago that the songs should be organized and categorized. Since I have finished my MBA term 2, my term 3 textbooks are not yet here and I do not have the motivation to work on the GMAT yet, I really tried hard today. I am quite gifted in this little organization and categorize stuff. I felt so good at the end. Now the new Christian songs (e.g. "Prince of Peace", "Because Lord's Name"...) (about 55 of them) are merged with the existing Christian songs (about 80 of them). I will post the info to the website later so that every Chinese Church in South America can have access to these Chinese/Spanish songs. I had dinner with Paco at night.

February 26, 2004(Thursday)

I handed in the marketing report today; basically, Hansel and Carmen helped me a lot. I also studied the Accounting and took the final exam at lunch. I got 91 on the final exam and translated to about 92% for the whole course. In UBC, it is A+. In SFU, it is A. However, in IU, it is only an A-. I need 95% to get an A. I am satisfied with this; today concluded the second MBA term.
There are some doubts about the assumption of the accounting exam and I emailed to my prof. He was upset that I cut and paste several questions that I have and emailed to him. He warned me (and warned everyone!) that I can't make a copy of the exam and pass it to other people. Actually, I just emailed that to him. He also said that I am very impatient and that cause him some hardship and make him feel uncomfortable. I have absolutely no idea where are all these coming from. I am just checking some assumptions from him but he probably thought that I am too pushy or asking for too much. I want to gain a good impression from him because he may be in the PhD admission committee. Now I hope that he is not. Probably it is just a mistake and I have apologized to him several times.
I worked on the IPTV problem today too. Afterward, I am pretty free because I don't have the textbook from next term for me to study yet.

February 25, 2004(Wednesday)

There is nothing much happening at work. I was trying to troubleshoot for the IPTV problem. I also worked on the marketing report. Hansel and Carmen helped me a lot and I hope that I will get a decent grade in this report. A "B+" in this report is good enough for me. In addition, I studied for the accounting final exam.
Hansel told me that he traveled a lot and sick of taking flight. So I want to summarize what happened to me too. I took 38 flights since I started work in Venezuela. There are totally 9 round trips, 1 one-way trip and 1 three-way trip. I am very familiar with the CCS airport.

May 18, 02	YVR - DFW - CCS	Bye Vancouver
Aug. 11, 02	CCS - DFW - San Jose	CCIE Training
Aug. 17, 02	San Jose - LAX - YVR	Vancouver Visit #1
Aug. 25, 02	YVR - DFW - CCS	Vancouver Visit #1
Nov. 01, 02	CCS - Amsterdam - Brussels	CCIE Exam
Nov. 05, 02	Brussels - Amsterdam - CCS	CCIE Exam
Dec. 20, 02	CCS - Houston - YVR	Vancouver Visit #2
Jan. 12, 03	YVR - Houston - CCS	Vancouver Visit #3
Apr. 10, 03	CCS - Curacao	Visa expired #1
Apr. 10, 03	Curacao - CCS	Visa expired #2
Jul. 08, 03	CCS - MIA - DFW - YVR	Vancouver Visit #3
Jul. 29, 03	YVR - DFW - MIA - CCS	Vancouver Visit #3
Aug. 10, 03	CCS - MIA - St. Louis - Indiana	MBA trip #1
Aug. 17, 03	Indiana - St. Louis - MIA - CCS	MBA trip #1
Sep. 02, 03	CCS - Bogotá	Work trip #1
Sep. 05, 03	Bogotá - CCS	Work trip #1
Nov. 28, 03	CCS - Curacao	Visa expired #2
Nov. 28, 03	Curacao - CCS	Visa expired #2
Dec. 28, 03	CCS - Margarita	Trip with Carmen
Dec. 30, 03	Margarita - CCS	Trip with Carmen
Jan. 18, 04	CCS - Bogotá	Work trip #2
Jan. 29, 04	Bogotá - CCS	Work trip #2

February 24, 2004(Tuesday)

We had breakfast with Che So's relative again at the "beef tummy noodle" place. This time, each of us has a congee and an "intestine noodle". We left Barquisimento at 10am and arrived Valencia at noon. We had McDonald for 1.5 hours and arrived Che So's house at 4pm. I checked email at her house and went to church at 5:30. I tutored Yanting briefly and then had dinner with everyone at church. I did not eat a lot; I finally have the feeling of hungry after several days! We had fellowship and discussed about our love life. I gave them a lot of tips about love relationship. The most important tip is that, I always tried my best to pray with Carmen after each argument so that we can ask God to forgive our sins. They all respected my long and focused love life :P
I went home at 10 and updated photo homepage and online diary. There is always lots of thing to do after a trip. I want to get back to my routine as soon as possible.

February 23, 2004(Monday)

The boys (Wilson, Kinping and Victor) went to some club for swimming. I wanted to go but I did not have my swimming pants. Cindy can't go because she is the only girl. Therefore, Che So, Mrs. Cheng, Cindy and I were together for the whole day. We went to eat "beef tummy noodle" as breakfast. I did not get to eat this usually and I told people that I cherish this food last time when I was in Barquisimento in May and June 2003. Everyone remembered this and they cooked beef tummy for yesterday's potluck especially for me (but I did not eat because I was too full). Che So also brought me to eat this. We went to some local shops to buy grocery for church, e.g. cooking knife, little toys, locks and so on. It took Che So and Mrs. Cheng 2 hours and I was playing with Cindy the whole time and accompanied her picking toys. We had lunch with Che So's relatives. They brought me to another restaurant with a big bowl of "beef tummy noodle". Again, it tasted pretty good, but not as good as the one in Vancouver (probably it does not have enough chemical). The eldest sister of Che So treated us good and ordered a lot of food to make sure that we can't finish it. I did not force myself to eat everything. I only ate until 80% full, as suggested by my grandfather when he was alive.
We went to out-of-town to see some craft shops. The place is in the middle of wilderness. I felt like I was in Texas or dessert. We shopped around for about 3 hours. There is a lot of dust and I kept on sneezing. The whole groups are the "C 9" groups and I was totally bored. It was extremely exhausting to go shopping with "C 9". I am glad that Cindy was here so I played around with her and baby-sit her. I have never waited for people for so long and never went to shopping for the whole day. However, since the purpose of this Barquisimento trip is to relax and I can't do anything else if I am not shopping with them, I hardly swallow it. It was not a terrible experience but it was hard because I kept on sneezing.
We went to missionary Jackie Ngai's house to relax for about 1.5 hours. She was a new missionary from Toronto and serves in the Barquisimento Church since October 2003. She was excited about our arrival and thought that we had a group of over 15 people. Therefore, she prepared her house and bought two new beds plus sheets and blanket. However, it ends up that we had only 7 people and we all stayed at Che So's relatives house so the new thing that she bought is useless. She did not take any photo during her 5 months stay in Venezuela so I took lots of photo of her so that I can email her picture to her mother church in Toronto. I encouraged her to buy digital camera so that she can do it for herself in the future. Her house is quite large and impressing, but only cost double my house's rent. She got a good deal.
We went to high class club to have steak dinner with Che So's relative. They are good people and treated us food. I was very well fed during the trip and probably "over-nutrient". At night, I felt quite bad and still keep on sneezing even though it is not dusty. I am sick. The weather is hot but the car always turned on air conditioning. I took a drug. Also, Mr. Mui (Che So's husband) gave me some tips in "foot massage". This is his interest and he spent a lot of time reading books and practicing about "foot massage". I am interested and I want to read something about it too.

February 22, 2004(Sunday)

We went to Barquisimento Chinese Baptist Church at noon. There is a potluck to welcome us coming here. They had nice food but I did not eat a lot. I mainly eat vegetable because I ate a lot yesterday. The worship took place at 3:30pm. Barquisimento is hotter than Caracas. In addition, the preacher Jackie Ngai spoke in a soft voice. Therefore, I fall asleep during the sermon (and it is "rice air attacking heart"). This church as about 55 people. However, there is a lot of elderly old woman. Their dressing is old Chinese style too. I wonder whether any of them can really serve "formally" in church. Seeing their church makes me want to give thanks to my church. The church in Barquisimento and Caracas is one-level difference, just like currently the Caracas church is one level away from Vancouver's church. Mrs. Cheng told me that if it is not me coming to Caracas, the Caracas church would be the same level as Barquisimento.
We went to mall "Trinitaria" from 5 to 6:40. I guess that it would take me 10 mins to walk in this mall, but they look at different places. The little kids always want to buy toys so we have to go to different places to compare price. I can imagine what it will be like in the future to go to mall with my kids. Part of the purpose of this trip is to train my patient. At least, I did not complain during that 1.7 hours in the mall although I am really bored.
We went home to have dinner so that we can clear some of the food that was untouched last night. Che So, Mrs. Cheng and I also shared some of the vision and politics about church.

February 21, 2004(Saturday)

I woke up early and went to Parque del Este for a run. Afterward, Che So, her husband, Kin Ping, Mrs. Cheng, Wilson, Cindy and I left for a trip. We left at 10:30 and arrived Valencia at about 1:30. We had a good lunch and we also visited the Valencia Chinese Alliance Church. VCAC (The "V" stands for Vancouver!) short term missionaries will come to Valencia during Easter. Probably I can meet them somewhere. It would be weird to see my friends in Venezuela. We took another 2.5 hours and arrived Barquisimento at about 6:00. We visited the several shops of Che So's family. It is dustier than Caracas. The shops are quite old style; I felt like I went back to 70s. We went to Che So's sister's house at about 7:30 and then had dinner with her gigantic family (about 18 people). She has lots of relatives there. We had a really full lunch and the dinner has lots of food too. I did some exercise at night again in order to make sure I will be fit. I played "Big 2" card with Victor and Wilson too.

February 20, 2004(Friday)

I went to work at 7:20am because there is a meeting with the big boss Jorge at 7:30. This is the earliest time that I have been at work. I was the second person arrived. People started to come at 7:40 but there is still no meeting. Jorge is not here yet. I showed up in front of Omar and Mario to let them know that I am already here. Finally Mario in-charged of the meeting at 8:30. After the end of the meeting at 9:20, Jorge arrived and started to talk again. So the meeting ended at 10:10. The meeting was in Spanish but since I only have to listen, that is ok. He asked me (in Spanish) how much percent I understand and I said that I understand 40%. In fact there is lots of terminology similar to English so I can guess what he is talking about. Common sense helps too.
Hansel helped me proofreading the marketing report. I love Venezuela because people here said that my English pronunciation is the standard and my grammar is perfect. But I don't know Spanish here. (Similarly, when I spoke a few words of Spanish in Vancouver, people said that I am awesome in Spanish)

February 19, 2004(Thursday)

There is still problem with the IPTV server and I was trying to fix it. Also, I was working on the marketing paper and I got the second draft completed. I sent to Hansel and Carmen to help me proofread. They said that my grammar is not that great. In addition, I also talked to Cisco about potential job opportunity. They required me to know about ICM technology, which I know nothing about. I went home to cook dinner at night.

February 18, 2004(Wednesday)

For some reason, the IPTV is not working again. People need to see soccer game in the afternoon and they wanted me to fix it as soon as possible. I tried all method but it still failed. I opened a Cisco case and waited for the Cisco engineer to answer. It is possible that there is some file corruption or change made to the TV Server. It is hard to imagine that people asked me to fix the IPTV because they need to see soccer game in the afternoon (i.e. business hour)
I worked on the marketing report for about 4 hours. I hope to finish it soon so that I can ask Carmen to proofread it in the weekend. Then I went to church 8:30 - 11pm for the meeting about the join-church-revival-conference in the Easter weekend. They wanted me to be there to play violin and flute.

February 17, 2004(Tuesday)

I went to McDonald the whole day today and really worked. I configured the PIX firewall and also VPN concentrator. I did not expect to complete as much today and I felt good. I went to church at night for the outreach. Estella, who was kidnapped for 8 days last months went to present her sharing. I listened to that two Sunday ago already. However, it was much more detail this time and quite interesting. I was the (default) song leader; the songs are "Ask me", "Seeking", "God you are in charge", "Jehovah you are my God", "All because of you" and "There is a God". I did pretty good as usual and need to learn how to give glory to God.

February 16, 2004(Monday)

I finally have a clue why I like violin. Everyone thought that I love music and enjoy playing violin. I love to play song in violin, but it just happen 1% of the time. I hate practicing violin in the morning and it would make me "mum" very easily. I have a lot of temptation to break my violin or twist my finger after practicing violin. It is especially true when the "finger practice" or the practice pieces are too difficult. However, I have practiced violin for the last 3000 mornings and will continue to do so. I have discipline and very determined. The other important reasons to practice violin is because violin symbolize my root and the deepest part of me. It reminds me that grandfather gave me my first violin as a birthday presence when I was 6 years old. My father always pushes me to practice violin but I do not listen. My mom would bring me for nice breakfast before I learnt violin and told me that there is something for her to listen if throwing money to the ocean but silence when using money to pay for my violin listen. It especially reminds me that I lost Hansel in MTR on the way to "Mey Full" to learn violin and how he treated my back as drum (as usual) when I found him; plus how we play monkey bar and "dragon chair" in MTR. Carmen told me that my violin skill has improved a lot lately. Even though I hate practicing violin, I will continue waking up early in order to practice the terrible violin for the rest of my life.
There is VPN problem with one of the customers. My boss wanted me to go there but McDonald told me that there is problem with the PIX firewall; therefore, I don't have to go to this customer. I can stay at office and remote-access the devices. There is problem again with my laptop. It is slow and the "quick launch" disappeared most of the time. I have a feeling that it will crash and die anytime. Therefore, I must back up all my work to the server or else I would feel sorry to myself.

February 15, 2004(Sunday)

I was the song leader this morning. Originally I wanted Che So to lead because I don't know whether Chi Kong will be on-time for the pianist. I am glad that he was here so I can lead song. I played violin too. Afterward, there is Sunday School class. This new class is only for Chinese youth. Ah Men was the teacher. People (and I) thought that it is quite boring. Even though being an interesting Sunday School teacher seems easy, this requires a lot of skill. Now Ah Men knows the stress and also the tough skill required to be a Sunday School teacher. I can sit back and relax. I only speak when they asked me for opinion.
I went to MB Church to lead song. Since Kum Fung was here yesterday for the practice, I don't have to play guitar or piano and lead song simultaneously, which is the first time in MB Church. I led "Shout to the Lord" (ACM's "Prince of Peace"), "Please Send me" (ACM's "Prince of Peace"), "Emmanuel" (ACM), "Thanks to God", "If". I also played flute. I played with YiSon and read book during Sunday School's time. And then we had Bible Study, led by Dr. Chu, for our youth fellowship. We studied about "Being Salt and Light" and we actually went through the whole night with candle light only. This was creative, but for the rest of the night, it was boring.
After two full days of church, I need to go back to my marketing report soon; or else I would fall behind.

February 14, 2004(Saturday)

Ricky Lam got a wireless router for the Baptist Church. However, there is no internet connection at church. As far as I know, only Paco and Che So has ADSL or Cable connection at their house. Therefore, I took the wireless router to Che So's house and tried to use it. Being a Network Engineer, I should be able to get that work easily. However, it does not work. I can't even use internet connection using my laptop. Probably there is a filter in the internet provider that allows only one computer to go to internet. I also tutored YanTing at Che So's house for a while for her math test.
There is a conference call for my marketing course. Originally I planned to use my cell phone for the conference call at my house. However, Che So let me to use the internet connection at her house so I went to her house. However we were late and by the time I got connected to internet, the conference call has ended. There are three group assignments and I did not participated in any of the conference call. They have a toll free number that I can dial but it is limited to US and Canada only. Also, I do not have internet connection during the weekend or at night. Therefore, I did not work a lot. On the other hand, every time when there is some new discussion, I am the first to post to the discussion board. Whenever I am online, I checked that very frequently (more than 15 times a day!) and I had a lot of contribution. There will be a peer evaluation at the end of the course and I hope that I did not get a too low mark.
I went to Baptist Church for music practice then I went to MB Church for music practice again. Afterward, I sleep-over at Che So's house so that I can do some work for the marketing course. I hate group assignment, especially if the deadline is in the weekend because of the inconvenient.
Carmen had really bad toothache. This will be the last separating Valentine's Day (unless one of us dies) in our life and I don't think that there will be any other Valentine's Day that is worse than this year because of her toothaches.

February 13, 2004(Friday)

I interviewed co-workers about the company's marketing plan. This is for my marketing course. I do not want to make up too much in my final report. Other than that, today is a normal day and I went home to cook dinner and enjoyed my quiet Friday night.

February 12, 2004(Thursday)

There is nothing much happening at work today. I worked on the marketing course. Since people are not too responsive to my questions, I made up most of the stuff. Probably marketing people are good at BS.

February 11, 2004(Wednesday)

I went to Desca today. Omar was working on the CanTV stuff and I do not have to because I am doing monitoring about my part. I also printed some color picture from the website. There was a color printer but I never tried it. Today is a slow and easy day for me. However, I did not do much about my MBA marketing stuff. I have asked people from Desca to reply and give suggestion. However, they are either slow or they don't care about my project. I felt discourage about this.

February 10, 2004(Tuesday)

I went to CanTV in the morning. There is nothing much I need to do. In the middle of it, McDonald told me that they need some change to the PIX firewall or else they can't receive email. Therefore, this is a good excuse to leave CanTV. Rather than wasting time, I would rather work on something. I went to McDonald to fix their configuration. This is a simple configuration change and it should work because I have tested that. I don't want to leave too early so I tried to stay as long as I can. But then there is nothing to do so I left early.
I went to Baptist Church early today. We have purchased the LCD projector the beginning of this year. I test-drive it today so we will use it this week. Afterward, we had dinner at church and we had youth fellowship. Two new comers came and we played some game. Afterward, we discussed about the "Estella sharing outreach" (The kidnap person that shared in MB Church Feb 8).

February 09, 2004(Monday)

There is nothing much happening in the morning. Then after a short lunch break without afternoon nap, I went to CanTV with my boss Omar. CanTV IP Phone network has problem and we all hate this. There is nothing much I need to do except communicates with the Cisco engineer and pretend I am working on something. Actually I was browsing on the internet. This is a waste of my time. I wanted to go home early (at about 7:45pm) but I need to wait for Omar so we left at 8:30.
Omar had car so instead of taking metro home, I asked him to drive me. This is a bad mistake because during the car drive, he asked me to go to CanTV tomorrow morning with him again. CanTV is an important customer and we need to troubleshoot their network. However, there is nothing much that I can do. I have already upgraded the firmware and I should monitor it for at least a day. However, when Omar asks, I can't say anything. It is bad to have a responsible (i.e. workaholic) boss. I hope that I can leave at the regular hour (6pm) tomorrow because there will be a Chinese youth fellowship for the Baptist Church. I would rather go there than doing nothing at CanTV.
After grocery and on the way home, I saw MB Church's Kit with her friend eating. Kit will go to US to visit her son Friday and then go to HK. She had an uncomfortable gut feeling for the trip so she treats her friend for her "last supper". They happened to saw me on my way home so I ate dinner with them.

February 08, 2004(Sunday)

Today was the first Sunday in 2004 that I don't have to lead music during worship. Therefore, I can sit back and relax. Afterward, we concluded the Sunday School "Purpose Driven Life". Next week, we are going to start the new Sunday School series. I have resigned from the teacher position because I don't want to over-burden myself.
Originally I wanted to go home after worship because I have nothing to do in MB Church. However, there will be a special sharing at MB Church by Estella who was kidnapped two weeks ago. Therefore, after some struggle, I decided to go. I will miss my "extra" weekly running. But I hope that her sharing will be more beneficial to me in the long term.
I went to eat lunch with Baptist Church people and then we went to MB Church for worship. It is good to have two churches Christian to gather and worship God. The last time was 21 Dec 03. That was a baptismal service in MB Church. I did not go because I did not have to lead music in MB church that week. Estella shared about her experience during the eight day kidnapping. She was a Christian leader in Puerto La Cruz Chinese Church and she came out to share today. The kidnapper stopped hitting her when she told them that she is a Christian. She preached the gospel to them and some of them even shared their sad story (was in jail for 20 years, don't have money to feed family) with her. They also prayed with her. I can't believe that some of the kidnappers would be so nice. However, she, and her family, was really stressed during the 8 days interval. There was a lot of Christian prayed for her. On the seventh day, the TV station made a special report that shows all the Christian praying for Estella. The kidnappers saw that she is really a Christian (previously they thought that she lied) and released her, only asking for little amount of money. They really experienced how helpless people are and we should rely on God.
On the other hand, there was another crime that happened during that period. A Chinese killed the whole Chinese family (including a 2 years old and 4 years old child) and cut the head and spilled the intestine on the floor. There is no death penalty in Venezuela, but I was told that this killer will be dead for sure. The Venezuelans concern about the right of woman and child a lot. Since this killer was so cruel and the dead involve little kids, this killer will be tortured (rather than punished by the death penalty) privately by the police or by other criminal in jail.
From these two incidences, I found that the Venezuelans in general have a heart of fearing (God?). They don't want to harm the people of God and concern about little kid. Venezuelan gave me an impression of selfish (e.g. they turned up the music or talk so loud or played firework even after midnight) However, when someone carrying little kid in metro, people will always give them the seat. I am really impressed with that. Dr. Chu will walk with me to metro with YiSon when I left their house late at night. YiSon is the shield because both the thief, robbery and the police would treat us nice when we have YiSon with us.

February 07, 2004(Saturday)

I went to Che So house and then helped YanTing math and physics because she will have university entrance exam tomorrow. Afterward, I had dinner with Che So and her family. And then I also went to Parque del Este for run. I tried to study Accounting at night but I can't really concentrate. I prefer the financial accounting that I learnt in the first part of the course. I hate the cost management (managerial accounting) that I am reading now. This book costs US $125 and was very boring and hard to understand.

February 06, 2004(Friday)

I interviewed Rhamer about the business side of Desca. It is for my Marketing course. Desca is a growing company and has a bright future. We hope to increase our revenue by 50% by the end of this year! If we have more people, we will be able to make more money! Therefore, there should not be any laid off.
I went to have dinner with Paco's family. We talked about the church environment because we plan to have a gospel Sunday on every third Sunday of the month. I found out also that many people in church gave baby by "open knife". There are about 6 or 7 cases! It happens more frequently than any other place I have been to.

February 05, 2004(Thursday)

There is nothing much happening at work. I was just checking the business PhD in UCLA. At night, I studied Accounting.

February 04, 2004(Wednesday)

I went to CanTV for the whole day today. They need to troubleshoot their IP-Phone-reset problem. Since we just need to monitor the test, there is nothing much I Can do. I checked the Accounting notes and also started to write the Marketing final report.
I went home a bit early and enjoyed the "Sushi" comic that Carmen got me the past Christmas. Afterward, I went to have haircut at next building. The person who cut my hair is a Chinese coming from "Tin Chuen" ("sky bottle" if I translate directly). He spoke to me in Mandarin. For some unknown reason, he heard about someone from Canada (me) working with computer living in my building already. He also said that my Cantonese is very standard, just like the HK TV star "Tsang Chi Wai". I felt so funny about that because this is the first time people said that my language is "standard". When I was in Canada, people always said that my English has accent. And of course my Spanish and Mandarin have lots of accent too. I never realize that my Cantonese is very standard! But probably when I go back to HK, I would have accent compare to them. Basically I am a minority situation for almost half of my life (since I went to Canada in 1990). I never belong to the main stream. So what group am I ethnic belong to? The closest one is the HK Canadian. But now, I have a mix of South American. But I never worry about where I belong to because I know that I don't belong to this world. I belong to heaven. As long as I am speaking the purest form of "heaven language", I would be in good shape.

February 03, 2004(Tuesday)

I went to an EMC sales meeting this morning. The last time that I went was June 19, 20, 2003. These are in Spanish and too "sales" oriented. I find it a waste of time. I was reading the MBA accounting notes at that time too. I went to CanTV to troubleshoot their problem. Yesterday Omar told me what happened to their network. However, when I talked to the customer today, it is another story. It is not about network connectivity issue but about the call manager's issue. Therefore, I have to communicate with the TAC engineer and be in a passive role again since I am not knowledgeable in the Call Manager's function. However, the TAC engineer did not get back to me so I did not do anything in the afternoon. I read the Accounting notes and checked some job posting from Cisco website.
I went to church for the youth fellowship. We had more people today because besides Ah Men and I, Kitty and Ah Fai also went too, although Kitty left half way (again). We discussed about the big outreach (actually, it is the normal size) for Mar 9 and also brainstorm about what our fellowship should offer to keep people from coming (i.e. strategic planning).
I called dad for saying happy birthday and Hansel called at the same time. I (in Venezuela) tried to talk to him (in USA) through telephone connection in Canada. It does not work, I can just barely hear him yell once.

February 02, 2004(Monday)

I worked a bit on the Marketing homework today. I also had a meeting with Omar about the CanTV problem. There may be some virus going on that causes problem to their network. I hate hacker and virus.
I went home and cooked dinner and then read comic. I tried to call Carmen but the long distance telephone card is always bad. It screwed my mood each time when I call long distance.

February 01, 2004(Sunday)

I went to IBCC and be pianist because Chi Kong did not show up. Che So led song. I am getting more comfortable to play piano in front of audience. I led the "Purpose Drive Life" Sunday School afterward.
Paco invited me to go to his home to eat lunch. His son "Kin Hey" was always naughty. Paco used the method of how Dr. Chu disciplined his son. Whenever "Kin Hey" was naughty, Paco asked him to stand inside the little square. That was interesting and showed the authorities. Also, it reminds me about how my parents discipline me (and Andy and Hansel) once in Taiwan. However, I was not crying at that time but find that interesting.
I went to MB Church to lead music. Today is the fist time I play piano in MB Church and also is my first time to lead music using piano. The songs are "The Whole World Sing" (ACM's "Come Revive Me"), "Inside Jesus" (ACM), "Who is like Jesus", "Emmanuel" (ACM) and "If". I read a Chinese Christian book "Iron sharpens Iron" that talks about the struggle and temptation of pastors. That was really interesting and "real".
I taught the MB Fellowship about the song that I composed last night. And then we shared about the fruit of the Spirit. I went home at 9pm. I am very tired because I did not go home during the day. I slept for 20 mins after reading the "Iron sharpens Iron" book at 6:00pm but I am still tired.