Graduation ceremony take place on 2 pm at NTU indoor stadium; we were told to assemble at the FU Bell by 2:00 pm; I am a good student so far, so, punchuality by 2:00, me and Jasper arrvied at the meeting point, I saw Johe trying his outfit -- not the master outfit, but the " Lord of the ring " custom, this remind me that the last graduation invitation run down feathred the Gandolf ( act by the Dean of Managememt School ) will bring 6 worried to lead the graduation troop to the stadium, no wonder John is tring the outfit; John approached me and asked me to pick up one wardrobe as well and the pre-assigned graduation student either trun dow this idea or no show until now, he begged me to replace any character , acturally, in additional to John, I don't see anyone there trying the outfit. I am not embarresed by this last minutes mission, this might be one of my greatest memory in life, so I pick up the ' Habis " custome to put on -- a short, vest, pant and curb wig; this dramatic custome draw a lot of media attention, we -- total 7 were the most popular graduations students among all the students, 3 out of the 6 character were acted by our class, we were all swear up.
we support one vendor in the statium, I visit our vendor before entering the venue, sales team were so sweet, not only welcome my graduation, but also preparing flowers for me, they are really sweet.
we are too old to feel sad about leaving, the ceremony finished by 5:30 and 3 of our family went down to the suberb French restaurant picked to celebrate this great day. the Vinyard is a nice place, we check the place before but didn't try their food before. out response to the crusine is 80, we shall return to this restaurant again.
M. return to Taipei, as usual, I invited him for dinner , tonight, we had Yu-nan crusine at Ren Ho Yuang, my first visited to this restaurant was to attend a business lunch with L. the lady boss is very hospitality, taste of the food is good and most of the dishes are flesh to me; during the dinner, I told him the dinner yesterday, that's the restaurant where me and M. first met, and it was 13 years ago; Time fly and value shifts, we didn't touch too much about the record business as there was an unhappy memory for me -- maybe a little bit guilt for him, until now, my wife didn't forgive the miseralbe days he give us, this can't be easily translated to " it's only business ", M. have a plan returning to Taiwan and open an Yoga studio -- a western flavored studio, he is now seeking office buidling which can accommodate with the studio facility -- shower, etc. we cross our mind with the mutual friend, VP Chen, who we met 13 years ago and rented Sony Music office from his company, he is now promoted to handle the group business, I make contact to him and arranged a gathering lunch on next Tuesday.
tomorrow is the MBA Graduation ceremory, the rented custom is at home now, I didn't wear this kind of uniform before as I never get university degree before, EMBA fundation planning a cannival alike festival for us, tomorrow will be a day to remember.
wife is preparing the " Lion's head " in the kitchen tonight -- it's a Shanghainess crusine made of pork, sort of pork ball stewd with soy souce and other spices, we accepted my advisers' invitation and scheudule a Sunday dinner at their house, I told them we will bring one dish there, my wife is the best chef in town, her cooking outperform a lot of professionals, this is a busy weekend.
Neither Professor nor Executive recruiter called today, this is a quiet morning, just like the storm in my heart is gone, I resume to a simply status of mind; browing PST and review the product they sold on line, doucmentary is a strong arm among the cataloge they carried; I watched the documentary film " The dancing era " part 2 last night, were impressed about the quality of documentary they produced or support.
the story of ' The dancing era " was based on the Japanese occupation period, that's between late Chin dynasty when the Sino-Japan war happend, Chin lost land and money, Taiwan become the coloney of Japanese, during the time, Taiwanese Pop music had it's glory days, between 20 to 40' before Japan started the World War 2 and invanted China, Taiwanese Pop keep the same pace as foreign pop scene, such as Fot trot ( swing music, big band era ), the film trace back the old days and telling the story long before the current Chinese Pop sensation; I know nothing about this disconnected pop music history in Taiwan; old tune and how the singer intepretate the songs are quite different from what we see now; the pop song " Sad under full moon night " -- a Fouchaness song is a great song, it reflect to the 30's love, guess what, there's only 2 location for young lover to meet, and liberty of free love have been promoted via newspaper, the more I discover the ancient Taiwan or faded memory, the more I toward the love of Taiwan, nothing to do with the political approach, a very simply nostagia of land and people.
attending the Skype founder's visit speech this morning, it was an exciting event, most of Taiwan telecom / internet elite were gathering at Westin Taipei to witness the genius coming to Taiwan, Niclax who start the fire of P2P, invented KaraA which turn the recoridng industry to hell is now inventing another revolutionary software -- the IP based free phone Skype, this time, he is targeting the hundrend years old telecom industry; PCHome bring him and his pet project to Taiwan, the presentation is short and neat, panel discussion between him and Professor Mao ( formal Chairman of CHT ) is interesting but I don't see any innovation spark between the dialoge; I had 2 question, but did raise my hand or voice out : they are : Why calling your service Skype , expecially the pronancation of pe ( per , istead of Pi or Pei ) is not very smooth, second is : call is free, but time is money, will this free service encourge people spending and consume more thim in talking over the free phone and lost the precious resource ( Time ) or reduce their productiviy in other time-based job? there should be some statistic data or study to analysis my curiosity.
lunch with Ben at the Japanese resturant before going to Webs-TV -- The biggest web based Multi-media broadcasting / on demand service company; this is the first time we spend lunch in a decent restaurant and the first time he knew I am not a gegdet freak for show up. but a new techonlogy adoper to improve my effeciency. we talked about some value in life and family situation.
The Webtv visit is for checking the posibility to invest on this company -- private equality investor is what I need Ben to perform; the opportunity come from one of my army colleage who also invest in this company in 2001, the company is schedule for a capital increase for purchsing new storage equipment in cope with the rapid development of the company; I had a positive impression about the company one and half year ago when we begin to establish our business partnership with this company, the young CEO understand this maket and knows what he is doing, since April , the pricing down for broadband access cause the broad band markeing growth in rapid pace, this is a great time for the No. 1 muiti media provider to increae the laspe between his competitor; I am not agree with institutional fund rasing in Q4 right after the capital increase by it's original shareholder, neither buying the growth strategy in matching the MOD service with CHT or set up branch office physically in HK, China; the CEO is a very good presenter, but againg,if they treat us as strategic investor, then my direction will be perform properly as a valuable figure to the company, the assumption discussed with Ben is for him to be the investor and support me as an independant director , this is the safe net not only to secure the investment but to keep the company growth in the right direction.
Hosting dinner at FuYuang for managers, me and my wife choose this restaurant to send our gratitue to all the mangers support my post-graduation study and earn my EMBA degree this year, a Thank You meal so to speak, they shall be impressed by the doco / ambience / food and service this restauran offered.
Reviewing the CHT status in the morning, COO set a diary update routine meeting from 8:30 am to 9:00 am, it switch my wake up alarm 30 minutes earlier than before, the rountine have been carried out for 2 and half month; dairy review is like a machine running, you need to update and improve and get rusult from the TO DO items, deadline is 24 hours, you have to make contact and get thing done, very effictive and very driving.
TO DO is the business habit for most of the job market worker, you wake up in the morning, waling in the office and list down " Things to do today " and started to kill them one by one, if you are so called " systmatic or more organized " then you may have a weekly, monthly, quarterly to do, and of course, the new year resolution with you every year, or you developed a better habit, to write it down before you go to bad; a few months ago, I saw one article wiriting something about " NO TO DO LIST ", He author educated us to produce a " no to do " item once in a month, this is a way to change and a process to review your machanic diary life; I do keep a " not to do " icon in my PDA -- The Sony Clie, but to be honest, I didn't really added any " not to do " in the icon, maybe I shall spare time thinking about it and follow it for a few times and see how it change me or my life.
keep TO DO habit is good, but it keep you in the 12 or 24 hours of planning cycle, you fill your schedule and calander with meetings, visits, discussion, appointment -- then you think the " Fill of the day " equal to " Productivity of the day " , life shall not be this way, devide your thoughs in a hours / minuter meter wasn't right, everything is in its analoge way -- a flow, not a squred something to be cut piece by piece; Time -- how our ancient people find it and define it, and how it impact to our life, value and thoughts; I remember Mr. Su once said " You still have the life of relax Saturday morning, finding a local breakfest shop, order meat dumplin, drinking soy bean milk and reading the art pages of Sat. news ? your are luxury ", maybe we should one day forget the day / month / year, only judge by the maturaity of mental and behavior, then the love story won't be segment by ages and condition, then the work don't need to be done in a calander, then we don't know when we will or should retired, ages is the comparison weapon between young and aged, this is what most elder dislike -- maybe a few younger generation hates as well.
Tom cut his finger when adjust the ping pong table tonight, Wed. is the regular games, Tom and I arrived earlier and warm up before the competition, as the table didn't match each other, the other side of the table was mis-placed, so, we move one and replace the old one, then the leg of the table clips, Tom's finger get hurt, with a simply cleaness and wrap up we continue the game.
sweat out and play with a competition rule make all of us exciting, as we are over 40, stimulation level should be high otherwise no point to enjoy the game, so, We design the rule and follow with handicaps, the new format of competition turn the game very exciting, the result for tonight is I had a 10 sets advance compare with the runner up; Sat. will be a very challenge one, I shall keep the good shape before graduation ceremony; that was scheduled on Sat. evening.
Kids upset their mother again, they don't bring happiness to the mother, their mother says all the time that to raise these 2 kids are like compensate the debt she owe on her previous life; she was not happy at all, I don't know how to comport her.
tomorrow, co-founder of skype will deliver a speech , I was invited to attend, would like to see the person who are going to change the telecom industry.
A. came for lunch, I invited him cause he is the only person who send flow to my office on the day of my passing oral test, I didn't ask for the flower, but he did, he is currently study in a long distanact EMBA couses, the Universtiy is located in Australia, they rent the facility and facaulty from NTU, Today, we suppose to review his last touch on thesis, the " Gratidude page " showed my nama, I am not so comfortable as I am not contribute big in his writing, a minor job to draw a systematic retionale, that's all.
we had coffee after the lunch, in Starbucks, he begain selling himself, so anxious, the non-stop promotion cause me to say " Hold on ", I am the wrong target for him to sale, we are primary school classmate, break for more than 30 years, the reuninon is a happy thing, but we don't have a histroy in working nor share the same value when grow up; I assertively told him to look at the situaion in practical way, kill one goal -- obtain the MBA degree, he must move on to next one, to identify his future - join the job market or be an entreprenure or own a small shop staying with the family; I told him the rule of nature is ' Trade off ", you priorities what you lack of, and ignor what on your hands; see a better you, see a better future and be practice; when he asked me to give up dreaming by 40's, will not be too long, will not be to negtive ? my answer was, people have too many options, but only one way to go, once you decided which way to go, you should enjoy the small happiness coming form your decison, not cry out loud for what you havn't experienced, you can't compare each other at the same time and place, take you call and be happy with whatever you choose; there's a Chinses saying : " 8 out of 10 things in life is unsatisfied " so, we should enjoy the one or two rare happiness and be stable to the unhappy outcome in life; I told him my cost of risk is envn higher then him, think how many CEO out there waiting for me ? when you grow old, you lost the ambiton to be an independent entrepoure, I may end up open a samll noodle ventor somewhere in middle of Taiwan, but I will be satisfied with the situation, if I need to compromise with the reality, then I shall do it as everybody does.
I am no sure if the conversation bring him any benefit, be assertiveness, be honesy and true to yourself, I will follow it and to let people surrond me understand it.
I don't know if Status Quo and turn down S.'s offer is an " Again Change " state of mind, maybe I am thinking too much, it should not be that way; chemistry is a very important element to work in hing ranking positions, especial when " Trust " is the only prinspal in working together, this will ease my uncertainty to the decision.
I called and leave message to Alex's staff, didn't get the chance to persoanlly devlier the " I Pass it " but will wait until his call tomorrow; this is kind of relief as well, a relief for uncertain future, although the remaining presence is an uncertian status quo.
C. is resigned and will leave by Aug. 15, her reason is to pursue the post-graduation study overseas, I have a coffee with her at our Starbucks and learnt more about her leaving, my wild guest is she will then stay in the States, met other blond guy and be a global person; when conduct the annual apprisail, I told her she it smart but to fast in reaction to project, this is a weakness point which need improvement. I wishing her well and tell her I love to writing the recommendation letter for her.
J. send a short mail with the heading " even better ", she knows how to release the dose of feeling in a very precise way, my respones is " more than word ", friend in life is a long term commitment, as the " shadow land " I just read, the story about C.S. Lewis, the closet of oneself is the treasure won't letting other to touch, how come people want to share their secret with the most trustworth friend, be afraid of the lost memory ? a life time question to me.
Andrew called by 10:00 pm who stopped my watching the DVD KEDMA -- a young graduate from NTU who I met during the case study competiton last year, he get a offer from Sony Music and Kuro ( a extream alternative for music career ), I receive his first mail one week ago and answer to his inquiry by phone, today, he is anxicious to know which way to go ? be a markeing expertise then clime the corporate latter to the executive postion in media company or be a creative producer develop his passion of art / entertainment to the glory of life ? everyone had this delimn, I tried to explain the differece in between and tell him to careflully examine his future goal and dream, he said that the answer come to him already.
L. knock my office in late afternoon and confess about his " organizational restucture " is to replace a non performing staff, a newly create positon and function may not fit the role and capability of this person, the result is easy to see, a perosn leave the company with frustration or hatry. I like him, not because the confession but his passion to bring light and heat to his dept. and thinks as an executive -- as the little booklet " Assertiveness " inspired me, I told L. to honesty deal with this complicaty and handle it with respect, hope he understand.
Sharing 2 Music company team-building story with our head of HR during our coffee break, one was the outing before operation and our fisr company trip to Korean for Sking, she seems inspired by these 2 ture story, " Think begin with the end in mind " is the only way to designe a unforgetable memory. this is how we did in the music days.
I will pass the final round of negociation because, because my wife went to Sing Tien Kung ( the KWANG KUNG temple )asking the enlighten from the GOD, the anwser to her is " Don't go " and " Wait and see ", in the 21 centry, I have to made an important decision in a superstitous / traditional / old fashion way ? Yes, because no one can tell if I am going the right direction, opeiton and option, alternative and alternative, we are in the road of making decison, this time, I will pass it and follow my wife's heart -- if God told her not to move, I will obey, to obey her instead the GOD behind her.
Calling Alex and leave him the message, he didn't answer until now, I shall not call again, tomorrow is a better day to call again.
This is beyond my imagination; Professor Shu called this morning, he was one of my degree oral test committe member, the encounter is when sending my thesis to his house, her daughter answer the door and bring the draft herself, she is so pretty; second time was at the oral test, he said to me twice or three times that " we shall meet again " the iceberg paraphasing keep me wondering for a while, I really don't know what's going on and don't know how to response to it, until this morning, he called and invite me to PULI for a lecture -- this is a honor to me, the subject come up to me mind, " Career Planning ", as the target audience are gradulate students, so, it wolud be a perfect topic to explore, then he suddenly asked me " Are you in the cross road right now ? " Guss, how come a professor become a fortune telling and can read my mind so pricisly ? I am relly surprised, then he told me when seeing me waling in the oral test venue, the way I walk and move and " the sence under my eyes " make him feel that I am in a big life delimn -- well, I really don't know if this is THE CROSSROAD for me, but I do encouter a few tough decision to make, so we make an appointment to have a decnet talk, he will then call me agian on Thursday, we may find a place to digest what's going on... this is so amazing, what an intersting experience to me.
overheat of the modem cause the trouble of my internet connection at home, I could not solve the problem for 2 days, until now, calling the CIC of our company, the 139 agent Miss Ho handle it with care and fix the overheat problem for me , the process is : turn off the power for 5 seconds, re-plug it and check the 3 greet light, then active by your brower; it works.
I was plan to write down the part 2 of " The Return " this is the abstract from it :Internet connection encounter with some problem, I can’t access to any site, didn’t know it caused by the WLAN or the ISP, I will check it out tomorrow, in the mean time, the routine shall be break up for a day.
when the father falling down from the tower, brothers tried to pull the body back to the ship, but it's too heavy and the elder told the youger to get the axe, audience were scared, they though this will be a brutal dismember scene coming, but it wasn't, the 2 brother use the axe to wax tree and making a slip base to pull the body, they learn it from the stranger father when the car trapped in the deep mud, this is how the father did to get rid of this problem; when return to the sea shore close to the highway, the brother loaded luggest before taking father's body out of the ship, without anchor the ship, the ship flot to the sea and sunk, 2 brothers shouted and cring at the beach, this is another scene to explained the intimacy between father and son no matter how long they've been apart.
lunch today at Fish Heart for eel rice -- one of my favious meals, she didn't quite use to it, but " Happy Monday " is the mood in her mind, this is an unusual gesture, we talked a lot of politician and policy making and this is the first time I know she is very into public issues, we are both happy to create such an private session to share, learn and grow, this is a very very unique moment.
late afternoon, Alex called, I didn't return his call last Friday due to there's no point to listen to his explanation about the recruiting process, I think they are unprofessional to handle my case and this is not a " I am sorry " solution for me. surprising, his message is " I am the one ", after the complicate and length serching process, I become the winner -- although I didn't reply with a yes, but I am -- according to him, the person who only obtain 15% knowledge of this business ourperform other candidate by leave strong impression of management skill, communication skill and leadership; I told him I need another 24 hours to digest this situation, as it took too much resource and require too many people in bringing me back to the negociation table, I don't want to rush to the decision.
If I take it, I will miss the chance of PTS , if I don't take it, I may end up sitting at home ( quote from my wife ), it should be a " conditional yes " to next level of negociation.
