Staff

My Research Assistant (RA) finally completed his contract in my division. After several times of contract extension, he has developed different kinds of systems for us. He is a talented young man and very helpful to all of us.

The story has not come to an end......... he applied for the post of programmer and succeeded! This means that he will continue to work in this department, though in another division. All the best to him!

Meeting

Attended a meeting at the church tonight to discuss about the activities to be held in the forthcoming function on Sunday.
Many opinions were raised by the attendants, making the meeting a bit chaotic. Some of the opinions of Ceci and I were accepted but some were not.
Luckily, thanks God, all the matters were settled finally. Looking forward to this Sunday.

Narnia

Finally watched "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" (魔幻王國：獅子‧女巫‧魔衣櫥) with Ceci yesterday. The tickets were given by my colleague Alan, just baptised months ago. Both Ceci and I found this movie very good.........and it is related to religion too!

Jogging

(photo from hongkong.ddo.jp, a very interesting site with lots of photos of HK roads)

Have jogging with Ceci at Jordan Lane. It has been a very long time since we had exercise (at Physical). The feeling is good.....though there was some light rain, it did not deter us in any way. I even had good appetite after the jog!

Hope it is a good start for us! Exercise is good to health!

生命的容量

有一個年輕人，常常會被人們的三言兩語給激怒，甚至忍不住大發雷霆，有一次，他又被氣得不得了，便跑去找一位長者訴苦。
這位長者很有意思，他沒多說，祇倒給了他一杯水，之後又倒一杓鹽巴下去，並要他嚐一口，他一喝，不禁叫了起來：「哎呀！好鹹啊！」
長者沒有多說話，祇是笑笑的又帶他來到一座湖畔，同樣的倒了一杓鹽巴到湖中，再從中撈起一小杯水，要他再嚐一口，並問他說：「這次會覺嗎？」那人回答：「不會啊。」
長者接著說：「湖的胸襟大，所以雖被倒入同樣的鹽分，但很快就被稀釋了！年輕人吶！胸襟大一點，那些小事情就不會影響到你的生活。人，要做湖泊，不要做杯子。」年輕人頓時恍然大悟。

你常覺得生命中有許多惱人的事嗎？
你常覺得某人講的話令您不禁咬牙切齒嗎？
你常覺得有些人實在不像樣嗎？
如果你的胸襟祇有「杯子」般的容量，那麼這些事、話絕對足以影響你心靈、情緒的品質，但，如果你的胸襟如「湖泊」般一樣大，那麼這些事、話…很快就會被你給稀釋，根本影響不了你。

生活中的一些小事，或別人的一句話，能對你產生多大的殺傷力，取決於你的胸襟、格局、氣度有多大！

拓寬自己生命的容量，學習別為小事抓狂，會讓您的人緣、氣質，乃至做事效率，都有所加分。人有見識就不輕易發怒；寬恕人的過失便是自己的榮耀。

The above is a story widely spread across the Internet. I find it very meaningful. I also want to be a lake!

Heart

Ceci told me that Edwin performed very good on the tube show, not because of his use of words, look, or gesture, but because he gives audience a feeling that he really wants to talk with them and is very eager to share with them what he thinks.

Maybe this is what we called, to do things with "heart". I must learn this.

同寅? 同人?

摘自「公務員易學網」

新春期間，常常收到其他機構寄來的祝頌語句，如︰

恭賀新禧
新力音響公司同寅鞠躬

有朋友問，上述「同寅」一詞是不是應改成「同人」？又或者「同寅」和「同人」的詞義是一樣的？

「同人」本指志同道合的朋友，也可以指同一單位的共事者或同一行業的人，也作「同仁」。「同寅」詞義較狹，舊指同朝或同官署做官的人，現在解作在同一個政府部門工作的人，意思和同僚接近，卻和「同人」、「同仁」不盡相同，不可混淆。

上述「新力音響公司同寅鞠躬」的「同寅」應作「同人」或「同仁」，否則，大家會誤以為政府最近成立了一間新的音響公司了。

此外，在賀年咭上，我們時常碰到的「仝寅」、「仝人」和「仝仁」，詞義其實和「同寅」、「同人」和「同仁」一樣，因為「仝」是「同」的異體字。

Music Paradigm

A Wondeful site with analogy between conducting an orchestra and managing a team: Music Paradigm

Man-month

摘自「EMBA 世界經理文摘雜誌」

許多主管到現在還是很容易掉入「人數乘以工時」的陷阱。如果有一個專案的進度延遲，許多主管直覺地會投入更多員工，希望趕上進度。但是，這個動作增加了專案的負擔，往往反而拖慢了進度。

例如，新加入專案的人手，必須要了解專案的現況，以及具備執行的能力，而能夠向新手說明和訓練他們的人，就是目前正在執行專案的人。結果，剛加入的新手不熟練，同時也容易出錯，而生產力較高的原始成員，則為了訓練新手，暫時放下手上的工作，團隊的整體生產力需要一段適應期才能恢復。

又例如，專案加入了支援者，整個團隊的官僚及複雜度隨之增加。團隊必須重新分配工作、需要溝通的人數變多，都可能讓專案慢上加慢。美國北卡大學計算機科學系的創系人布魯克斯因而歸納出一條守則：增加人手到已經延遲的軟體專案，只會讓它延遲更久。

既然增加人手無用，那麼當專案無法如期完成時，主管應該怎麼做？布魯克斯提出了三個建議：第一，主管正式宣佈專案無法如期完成。比起什麼都不說，大家卻心知肚明，正式宣佈是比較好的做法。宣佈時，同時告知大家專案預計會延遲多久才完成。布魯克斯提醒，這個時間最好抓得充裕些，即使當時覺得只需要再四個月，也要先宣佈六個月，以避免發生二次延遲的窘境。

第二，減少專案的工作量。決定只完成某些部份的工作。第三，將工作分階段。決定先如期完成哪些部份，其餘的部份之後再補足。例如，在推出一個電腦軟體時，可以先推出對大多數重要顧客而言，最需要的核心功能，下一個版本再增加其他的功能。

flu

Ceci got a flu today.
Picked her up after work and drove her to Dr. Tung.
I must take more care of her.

Wedding

Attended a wedding banquet of Wai, my colleague, tonight.......make me think about my wedding party last year.....sweet!

Barrier

Refer to yesterday's blog......why choose 18 Feb to start blog? Well, because it was they day Ceci applied for the new smart ID card.......which means making a new start. I also want to start something new, and I choose blog.

Note something interesting when we were at Immigration Dept yesterday:
The staff responsible for taking photo for Ceci was very cool at first, even a bit rude. However, after a few minutes, Ceci and I started to make some jokes and arouse her interest ......the atmosphere became less tense then....and finally that staff even chatted with us happily.

Maybe she was too bored at her work. Maybe she needed to pretend to be cool and strict, so that things won't go wrong so easily, especially when handling some troublesome public. Anyway, very naturally, people like to set up a barrier at first, it just depends whether one would like to do something to break it. We took the initiative and succeeded yesterday.

Why Blog?

Finally, I started to blog. The reasons of doing this, at this moment, are:

1. More and more people, including friends, blog....yes....influence from peers.
2. My memory is not as good as before, blog can help me to memorize what I saw and what I thought.....and provide a place of introspection.
3. Time flies without being noticed. I want to do something to log things happened to me so that they will be noted, at least by myself. I hope I can have achievement, say learn something new, every day.
4. To serve as an archive of press (or any article from web) cuttings.
5. Practise my writing skills.

Will add more if I find more reasons later.