2003-11-18 我們敬愛的成道學老師，聖名伯爾納德，於主曆2003年11月5日上午在河北省石家莊附近因車禍喪生，蒙主寵召，享年七十六歲。家人已將遺體護送回老家濟南，且於10日下午彌撒後火化，11日上午由家人護送回台。謹定於11月19日(星期三)下午三時，假台北市新生南路二段五○號聖家堂，舉行追思彌撒。
母校追思彌撒：11月24日（星期一）上午8:10，地點聖心修院，歡迎校友參加。
This is the news shock me right now, Mr. Chen is one of the inspiration to me and all the junior high school students. it recalled me of the young days when Mr. Chen standing in front of the school isle welcoming everyone in the early morning, it remind me of 2 important event he introduced to us : the volunteer long walk for charity donation and reminder card for mother's day; latest message was he promote the our of the modern day hermits purify camp in Yang-liao decade ago; the accident took his life and leave me a great sorrow; to be honest, student don't like him very much then, until graduation and mature, we little by little know his missionary spirit and how he try to set role model and influence people... shall I share it with someone? yes, I should.
Dr. Wei called asked for a personal favor -- secure 4 Golden Horse Film Festival Ceremony tickets for them; I called GIO and obtain it in 5 minutes, this year, the event will be held in Tainai, I am not going and have no interested in the celebrity gathering gala; as I will grand my personal assistance to GIO, this make me access to them easy, hope what they promised over the phone will not change, then the little help I did for Dr. Wek won't fail.
Ping pong at night wasn't as pleased as I expected, since I am a little be frustrated, try to release this unhappy feeling by sweating out, unfortunately, can't concentrate on the field, so, Sam took the crown and I am not in the fighting mood; playing ping pong need to be very focus, if you don't pay decent attention and focus on the " wining " spirit, you will never win the game, the tension in mind and muscle mix to a great game, you think how to serve the ball, think how your counter player will hit back the ball and think how you goanna take action on the next round; it mixed with body, brain and spirit, I am thrilled about the little ball since junior high school, recap this year is the unexpected side-effect during SARS, I can be concentrated, can't focus on the game, so , I lose, lose, Sam notice how to capture my next move, Osking advise him my weakness and tell him how to response to my killer Spam, so, Sam win me in the mind, in the body and in the brain. on the coming Sat, I will come out with new strategy and take back the glory again.
this morning, 2 gentlemen come visit and propose a ' corporation ' concept with us, the strangers' visit was arranged by CTO, who I latter understood in under pressure to make such an arrangement, when dealing with them, I try to figure our the background of these people, I have to admit, it's kind of risky to play with the mind, they try to build the business relationship via a in-direct road; I listen carefully and also response carefully; if we are in a fat industry, then the fly will come flock by flock, Foreign investment can something be an protection umbrella, give me great reason to push to the bossed overseen and delay any firm response to unreasonable negotiation. I aware that CTO could not handle it with care, so, I carefully drive to my conclusion, very move is so dangerous, if telecom / internet is on its heydays. Then I can't image if they don't get the business from us ?
I bring all the meeting delegation for this afternoon to a local Stew Pork rice restaurant , order local foot, sitting on the pedestrian, everyone is so happy,
Wife take a nap after sending kid to school this morning, I remember she went for bad by 7:50 am, when calling her in the afternoon, she said she fall to sleep until 1 pm. this is so amazing, when she told me how she enjoy sleeping in the raining day, I don't know this nap can last for so long. she is a lucky woman, tonight, I shall ask for massage service from her.
Am I too rude or too rush? this morning, when received the message regard to the potential break-up of an important appointment, I rush to block the entrance in TICC, try to secure the last chance to bring back the appointment; he is too big to make any appointment in person or in advance, because you will never got the answer from him, the top and dominate telecom player in town and a government official in his prior tenure; the appointment was make 2 months ago, when our big shot fail to perform it, we make it up and set the date last week, but it turn out to be " put someone in the designed seats ", this design doesn't work, because foreign invitation or foreign pressure won't be a big deal to him, a formal senior government office thinks differently, dignity is surpass everything; when rush to make an alternative, it almost OK, but when sending the second message, complain about the service they provided, I may piss him off; if I blow up this appointment, then this is fine with me. You can only grab one chance to tell the truth, without any staff's ground guard, you can free express your finding and opinion, even it cause him mad, but, to tell the truth is what I need to do, no matter how the consequence is, if this is the reason for breaking up the relationship we slightly built in the past, then, forget, I shall not regret to this.
sponsor for YPO year end party is another unhappy experience, I don't like to leverage my relationship with artist and ruin the good will I've established for a while, I am rethinking of why join YPO, is it the goal for my life, am I serious about this fame ? this is a " need " or " desire ", I am kind of lost , but the picture getting more and more clear, I may not suit for this organization, may not fit the requirement, may need to revitalize myself and to digest the real goal in my life, so, I am thinking of terminate the " participating process ' I hate to be another entertainment provider, this is not me any more, reflect to what I am now, I want to see more clear, more pure and more confident. this is me. the real me.
Until yesterday, I didn't know exactly the growth curve of our business, to do a pragmatic study , in order to response to the board and prepare next year's budget, the management team and financial sector spend like 3 weeks dig all the numbers and come up with the shock curve, it's not a horn, I always dream of service business is a cumulative growth due to escalation of subscriber or services, but, what present in front of me is a bumble curve, it's up and down, when reach break even in certain month, it will dive below the NIBT, then surface again in certain period; the curve destroy our dream to be the key service provider, calculate all the figures, we have deployed 1 billions NT in the business for almost 3 years, to keep the operation running smoothly, 35millions per month for SGA is no way to escape, and return on investment will drag for another 10 years, how the picture will attract further investment or get people exciting ? we pay a lot to learn and only a few of us really learned, if you don't have a deep pocket or the fund you received wasn't from your own pocket, the answer may never arrived, cause you will die half way and no non can really point out where the treasure island is or is there existing a treasure island.
the horn doesn't illustrate because acquisition spending keep flat, it's not a fix cost, it's a varies cost, even you stop acquire new subscriber, retention will force you to spend as well, to guard and wall your harvest -- your existing subscriber, keep them from churn out or terminate service -- internet is a utility alike resource, but it is not as critic as electric or water, and this is not a monopoly business, you always enjoy better price or better premium by scouting other service provider, the cut-throat competition kills all the player exclude the dominate one -- most likely the one who equipped with carrier background. to serve as the reseller or second landlord will never make good business out of it. the finding didn't drive me to blue, as far as I know the fact, I can prepare myself earlier, how to motivate ourselves and people surrounding us is the key. COO mentioned something about why some of the player sound very quite these days - no TV commercial, very conservative premium bundle, use price as the only marketing tool , probably the answer is they saw the end picture earlier than us and refrain from spending -- especially spending on acquisition.
if the capital market is healthy, then we may enjoy the capital gain against the industry growth curve or if we do have a story to tell, then we may solicitation individual investor, but we are a list company overseas, no way to either go public in Taiwan or raising found domestically, so, to earn the money and gain back what's been invested is a very tough challenge.
The good thing is overheard what our Product manager told us yesterday, among all the ISP , we've been evaluate as the No. 1 service provider rank by the government body - Telecommunication bureau, if what he said is truth, then we achieve something and reach the goal we set 2 years ago -- sincere service and excellent quality ; people serve people, in the service sector, the price we pay is manpower, overhead is the key spending, machine or system is the tool to help us perform better, a crucial part for the company development.
I don't know how the HQ look at us when receive the new and true picture, service sector -- should we embrace it or abandon it ?
I took day off on Monday, it make my away form office for 5 days including weekends, in the morning, me and my wife pick up one Russian movie " Luna Papa ", an dramatic artistic film which make us quite touched, by noon, we pick up Sound at his school and brought him to Pizza Hut, his favorite restaurant, after the meal, family accompany me to the optical shop where I adjusted my eye glasses; the good part for the evening is bringing Sound to Zoo Mall, a mall next to the zoo developed 2 years ago, in the mall, there's a mini size amusement park provide some attractions, I took Sound there and bought us 2 tickets; Sound is very much enjoy the attraction , especially the roller coaster sort of speed and gravity games, I am not into those attraction since 20 something, but, can't reject Sound's please, I took 2 games with him, we spent 2 hours there; after the zoo mall tour, we went to Sheng-Keng old street, sheng keng located south of the zoo, not very far away, it was famous for it's Taofu, we took some, bought some rice dumpling and go back home by 6 o'clock pm, for the last 3 days, I take kids all over the place.
Yesterday, we went to Tamsui by noon, as routine, we visited the " Black shop " for pork rib rice, again, it was as delicious as before, but this time in Tamsui, I suggested a new route, visit the TamKang High School, when I was a student in Tamsui Oxford College, the high school didn't open for tourist, I remembers the only 2 opportunity we got chance to take a glace of the school was , one our orientation course, second our graduation creamery, but, the campus is so beautiful, so when I brought Martin here last time, I always thinking of coming back again, this time, with the whole family, a great experience, when approaching the school gate, first impression to you is the bird singing, so many birds in the tree singing the welcome tone, tall and old trees, building with history, Dr. MacKay is one of the pioneer who take the church mission to Taiwan and building more than 60 churches in Taiwan, establish the first Female school, the pre-Tamkang high school, sit in the school of one hundred year old , listen to the bird sing and reading books, we had a great time in the early afternoon; Be-Teng is another science spot we went after Tamsui, we stay there for about a hour and decided to go to Keelung for night market food, it was a compulse but not well considered idea, we decided to leave our car at the MRT car part then take the bus to Keelung, the bus came around 6 pm, we arrived at 7:30, done a quick night market tour for an hour, when plan our return trip. we found there's hundred of people line up for the return bus, we were shocked, I make a quick change and bring the family to Taipei first, then transit by an taxi to Beteng, we were lucky to be home by 10 pm. this is an exhausted but fun Sunday,
Saturday was a gathering day with military friend, Mr. Wu and Mr. Liau, we were buddy since 20 more years ago, at that time, we are all singles , went for varies missions and exercises couple of times, this made us the best friend since, we see each other not so often, but keep in a good loop, Saturday, we choose to meet up as another military brothers' restaurant, Mr. Kauo's Brother's restaurant in Chingsheng, we talk and eat, of course, the best Taiwanese cuisine offered is Mr. Kauo's Brother Restaurant. Mr. Wu is retire from the military and now work in one private high school as the administration chief, we are thinking to have Fruit study in his school in 2 years, so, we ask a lot of the questions, Fruit was not sure if she love this idea, but on the way to Keelung, we talked about this idea and exchanged some opinion, it seems she is OK with this suggestion, and this is the first time I found my daughter is a mature individual I can share with, she is not an unreasonable little girl any more, she even share with me how she make friend with the classmate in school and told me on the first day of her fifth grade class, she try to know everybody ( female ) and finally make friend with all of them, then she will choose one among them to be her ' best friend ", I realized that I can't no longer point her finger or punish her as she already turn to be a semi-adult. time fly, time really fly.
when eating in Chenshange, I told Mr. Wu I don't like the eyes ( looks ) from his son and advise him to pay more attention to him, Mr. Wu told me they are quite concert about this young man, the only thing they can do now is spend more time with him, seeing him to Taipei every weekend, I don't like it because I notice some evil from his eyes, I been communicate with young generation for a while, my professional expertise told me he will be a trouble for them.
Thursday and Friday, I was invited to a " Communication Industry Annual Elite party ", this is the 4th gathering hosted by the Industrial Beaurea of MOEA, we were put in one of the best golf resort -- Tashe for 2 days, quite interesting, the best part is the dinner , where they took the chance to conduct a farewell party for President of formal Communication University, Mr. Deng Chin Fu , the produced a short film to introduce this gentleman and how he was respected as the father for Taiwan mordent communication development, I know everyone's touch by this arrangement, a well designed farewell.
