This is a rare experience, met up with my wife for picking up the kids , they should arrived at Taipei Railroad Station by 5:00 pm, as we didn't take a good at the station for a very long time -- probabely 5 years, so, we went there earier, my wife prepare books for me, we are planning to find a little cafe on the second floor of the station , where our memories told us, a Dept. store with mall existed; arrvived and take the escalator to second floor, we were shocked, half of the stores were replaces by forgien labor related materials, we see Tai , Phillipine, Indonesia shops everywhere, checking in 2 big grogerory store, the diary supply it carried are so amaning, you may find yourself in Jakada; items from snack to desert to shampoo to cans to current hit maganizes; on each corner opens traditional Indonesia restaurant - a cafeteria display of food which we were familar when tour in South East Asia and tried their local delicacy in food court; this is like a foreign labor market.
I know that on every Sunday, most of the foreing labors who take the day off, they gathering in 2 places, one is the Cathic church near Chung San East road session 3, the other place is the Taipei railroad station, TRS is a good place to hanging around, they will bring instant noodle with him, a few used newspaper, find a corner where air condition spread, they gathering eat / talk for the whole day without spending a dime, and making TRS a refugee alike building, this is weird; I am not againt foreign labors, but a landmark in Taipei -TRS turn a meeting spot is not an appropriate approach , I am not sure if this issue being raised up in the city consocil and how Mayor Ma response to it ? ground floor flood with labors on every Sunday, this is kind of a wonder now, but you look up one floor seeing how a market is devloped, then you will lost for a while; Mayor should take time to check it out someday.
TRS is a transportaion point, only a few locals will pay a decent visit to the station, it doesn't like the JR in Japane, you may enjoy a tour inside the station and find varies of interest happening; in Taipei, people just walk through, or get on the train to the destination away from Taipei, who will spend 2 hours in the station and check every thing ? this huge building connected with the MRT system in Taipei, a ture hub of transportation in Taipei, we should be careful about this symbol, one day if you find all the foreign labor take over the Station, then you lost your identity of the city, no matte how the Neon light shinging at night, TRS will be a history buried by unknow factors.
Kids are alright, get tained, turn brown skin, we go for dinner at a hop pot restuarnat called " Hundred Mushroom ", a pre-celebration for fathers' day in Taiwan, Aug. 8 pronuced " Baba " -- father, so we make it the day for father, this is a specilty restaurant provide different kind of mushroom, my wife love the mushroom, so we follow her decision and have a mushroom dinner.
Lunch with T. and E. at a local beef noodle restaurant, at the lunch, they talked about one of their college, how rich he is and how he spend his money, to me , this abnormal spending type is s corrucption of value in Taiwan, I don't respect how young man spending money this way, but to them , it seems they are jeousous about him , his capable to dispose moeny any way he wants; I don't understand, the value propsition in Taiwan is shiwfting, this is what I know, but how come people who with my age buyting his rediculous behavior too? if this is a way young man see themsleves in the social competion, Taiwan will soon lost it culture / value / dignity and leave with one standard - who's rich or who's not; I worried about it.
I should find myself a goal now, since the passing of thesis and graduation from the EMBA program, I am a little bit lost, fooling around in my diary life, Thanks God there's a charity project " Life " which keep me focused for a period of time, but for the business direction and my where about, I seems to easy on me, too lay back and did't pulling myself up to an aggrestive attitude.
sitting in the office, if there's no scheduled meeting, then I might spending time browsing through the web, doing nothing but interactively initative my dialoge with computer, this is truely a waste of time; no plan on hand, no plan to be planned, remember one of the themes develolped when in the seminar " If you fail to plan, your are planning to fail ", plan is important, but it seems planing is to fill you time, fill your schedule and to fill your life, wondering around, doing nothing won't be a gaol, but to enjoy lesiour time is an luxury moment in the competitive world.
I need a plan, a project. a goal or a dream cause I am an orginized person, I could not stand the status of " Nothing to do " or " Doing nothing ", invovling in the diray business operation is kind of far away, thinking of the business for the furture is not a realistic way since we may think of the exit plan in a few month; finding a new future is no what I can control, PBS is a passive participant, consulting for government is only provide your insight through outside, as a high ranking executive, the position you requried in the future won't be listed in classified ad or internert job market such at 104; you can only wait, and the longer you wait, the furstatorer you are, so , you need a goal, to find a goal or to bulid a goal.
reading take up much of my time these days, this is another insturment to fill the time, I am not saying reading is not a constructive way in life, but spending decent time in reading won't make you a great executive ? again, this is a mentality of " working ", you need to spending decent time and energy in the meeting room, with a lot of peopel, reading tons of paper and letting others know that you are making varies important decisions ..... is this the world of executive ?
reflection to my diary life should be an important part in my diary writing, not to record which movie I went and who I met, a true confession to yourself means somthing, I must confess that I lost the goal setting desire and don't know which way to go, this is the sorrow of a soon to be gone CEO.
I didn't know that if the server's problem with Blog last night will erase what I tried to posted, in this concern, I would like to add this memory for me:
To free yourself from the reality or from the routine in life, the token is to buy yourself 2 hours to a good Europen movie, do it in weekday, do it without take day off, make an excuse for you to go, to free yourself , a 2 hours riding of imagination will give you brand new energy in life.
today is the second day of kids camp. me and my wife tend to lie on bad for longer in the morning, we got up by 9:30, went for the eel rice for lunch, this is one of my favorite Japanese restaurant in Taiwan, the only problem with this restaurant is you have to wait and line up for the eel rice, normally, for lunch, if you don't get there by 11:30, you need to wait outside for at least 30 minutes; originally, I plan to visit the National Palace Musume, but we had dim sum after eel rice and then dicided to skip this cluture event and heading for Shimingting, the Shibuya of Taiwan, the land of young and fashion.
2 movies are on my schedule, we went to Colateral for the first sceen opening, Tom crusie is very persuative, me and my wife agree that this is an interesting film, what making us intereted the most is how Tom died; a killer who slaughter people should not live long -- the is kind of a movie formula, this film follows, but to give Tom a better way to die or to die with diginity, how interesitng.
" 3 Sister of Charlie " - my translation from French to English, an animation film which shown in the art film thearter, great creative and great story, the characters they creates are abnormal, a very cartoon touch, but it won't hurt it's intepretation of people, life, culture and some human nature. the film is so clear that it don't even need lines, I thinks the whole film only generate less than 50 lines; you can tell the story when the anination devleoped, simple and clear. we enjoy this film very much.
Dinner at a sparerib port restaruant, the restarant established in 1946, much older than me, there are 2 restaurans with the same registrated trade mark on the same street, these 2 restaurant all claimed themselves the " Original Old Restaurant ", my wild guess is that the second or thrid generation split the heritage and decided to open the other restaurant with the same logo, if not, the may run the branch or frienchild business.
no kids around you, time flies, we have to pick them up tomorrow afternoon and my scheudle for tomorrow will be the same as any Sat. sports and relax,
I don't feel comfortable about the negociation between dominater telecome player and us, HQ sending negociator from Tokyo, but all the local staff need to complete task in advance and to improve the condition day by day, I feel that one of the manager is come to his limit, if we press more presure on him, he might resign any time.
I don't against negociation in such a tough situation, but I am not happy with the attitude from HQ, this is a new business jointly select by HQ and operation team, why there's no solid support or synergized resources comong from HQ and making our business development a little bit easier ? why can't deploy resources from HQ making our negociation a better and higher ground ? why shorten our breakeven commitment ? why treated this business a trash and ignor the achievement we made so far ? I had too much doubt about the ture beleve from HQ, easy come and easy go is not the way to establish a new business; if this is a political situatiion, there's no way to push people in Taiwan to save your ass every time. even in Taiwan, we are compete with our sister company in both physical and cyber channel? I just don't understand why? this is a very unfair game to play internally. this is the last strike to keeping our people together, if the turn profit gap increased and the support form HQ away, I don't think we can retain good people with us anymore; and I should look for my next venture as well.
I had a dream a few days ago, in my dream, I saw flock of crow, it's green crow instead of black, they have a red mouth and shinging eyes, the flew above my head, like a green cloud covered my sky; I want to get rid of this, so, throw up my hat -- a farmer's hat with hard material, and hit one of the crow, it falling down between my legs, shaking and moving, I have to get up and remove it, after it, the green crow are all gone and the sky return to the blue.
why hitting only one crow and why it falling between my legs? why green and why cover my sky?
How to free yourself from the diary routines? the token is an admission to a movie, choose one filrm you rarely used to, such as an Europen movie, find a week day, don't need to take the day off, make up one excuse, this will make this hideaway more meaningful; see how the black room alter your imagination , how the places and stories you don't familiar move you to the place in your heart where you hardly touched.
The Quote of Picasol about Computer is amazing , what he said " What's the uses of computer ? it can only give me answer ", yes, indeed, the wisdome of human is to think, to create the question, to think hard , think deep; movie does it too; I always think pholasophy is the higest statue of science, because, there lays lots of unknow problems and unsloved questions, scientist can't really answers you " How the earth was born ? how it gonna die ? " " Where did human being come from ? who teach them to speak ? and what man can really think? ", if scientist can't deliver the answere, then pholosophy have it's ground to stay, the begining of all knowledge must be pholosophy, think how people thinks ?
" Monday morning " is the French movie I went today, I knew it before I walked in the theater that it is a very light movie, it will only tell simply life -- no dramatic story, no emotional arrangement, and no surprize as well; just like " Monday morning ", the begin of weekly routine, nothing interest and nothing fancy; one tried to get rid of this borningness , he decided to escape from this routine one day ( without a plan but with a cumulate stress ), a short travelling ( director didn't tell us how long this man travelling in Italy ), he return and follow the routine again; a break for a man is so important, it don't matter if there's a family / working boundry, you must follow your heart sometimes, the behavior developed not only for creative people or artist, it apply for all; man is different from woman ; why woman in Europe is so busy, same as in Taiwan, taking care of all the family, all the trivial and all the loadings. why ?
Sound and Fruit are going to Summer Camp tomorrow, this is a short version of summer camp, I found it via the internet and survery the program, it is a sub-event tie in with I-Lan kids festavial, a festival which win strong recognition ; the camp I put them in have a theme of " Experiencing the country life ", their mother don't feeling good for the past few days, Sound didn't want to follow the summer vacation regulation, to finish his homework every day, this really make his mother angry, Sound will wait until the last minutes to finish his diary home work, it pass midnight always, his mother think of not letting him go to the camp tomorrow as a panalty; until I came home tonight and accompany him finishing the home work, her mother's anger pass away.
I don't know what went wrong, wife have a difficulty teacher our kind, especially when it come to the " home work " or examination subject, she is very demaning in this area and always tried to let the kids complete the school task in perfect manner, no loose, no negociation and no give in; the temper of Sound is just like his mother, confrontation happend all the time, no one will withdraw or give in , they both holding their position tie; I don't have a say to take side cause I never think the school education will bring our kid any further, this is a complustory process, to teach our kids common sense and turn everyone the common perosn with common knowledge; I don't know if we need to buy any parenting guide; I don't have a answer now.
Finally, kids is packing now, they will have a 3 days camp in I-Lan , if they don't wake up too late miss the transportation, we will have 3 days ' noize free holidays " thank God, it's Thursday.
Having lunch with OP team today, OP team is our engineering team handle network operation efficiency and to handls all the trouble shooting issues together with Call Center; they are sort of entry level engineer in Network company, this lunch was cause by J. who fix my wirless len problem at home and from time to time condust on-site operation for my friends / celebrity who sign up our services, I bring Jonathan with me to the lunch.
what we have for lunch is Hakka meal, a near by restaurant providing above the average food in our neighborhood, it cost less than 2000 NT for a gourp of 9. this is the first time I granted my appreciation to the operaion team with a meal. we both feel comfortable.
Dominater Carrier's negociation is kind of hitting the rock, the expected subsidise from them is less than 1 / 4 of the total cumulate amonut, Tokyo asked me a favor to contact with Chairman of the carrier before our Chairman coming over for a hand-shaking scheduled on 12of Aug. I should do it but don't know how to pitch the ball, as it mix with the non profit foundational joint work, I won't want to be mistreated as a person taking advantege of the perosnal relationship, this is frigile as the tie development recently and it was cause by the compassion instead of my business specility; I don't want to ruin the rare friendship, but how to accomplish HQ'a request and to put our company in a better groud for the next few years?
the short break will come tomorrow, I need a rest, a no noize break with my wife. I can be anywhere, to clear my mind.
I failed to finish the drama in national thearter, this is the second time my body withdraw from the cluture event; the first show was " Tea house " as wife couldn't stand it, we left on the interval; for this new one, I went along and quit at interval also.
I did not appreciate this covered drama from Italy, the irony didn't cause me laugh, it didn't create any laugh from the samrt desing , either in the story development or in the line it produced; the laughting reaction by the body language wasn't what I expected from this drama company. outside the theater, Eslite book shop and the open space attract me more, buy a few books and enjoy watching kids playing with the water, I wait for a while and went home.
Movie caught me tighter than other performing arts, I used to a dark room , it help you concentrate on where the light is on -- screen basically, TV ? Maybe.
Having 2 welcome talks with new employee, this is a routine I did for every new comers, this time, I didn't spend too much time talking with them, as it developed for a while, I may lost the curioity of asking questions; same as the coffee break, sometimes I need to create the topic for the conversation, kind of tourcing to me.
Bring M. to the Sushi restaurant , this is for my personal interest, he is a gorment, find a good place to eat will save time to discuss the hard topics, as no relevent issue on hand , the routine " lunch reveiw " need to be taken cared, this is how I did, find us a good restaurnt and eat. having the shusi is geat, got time to talk with the owner and learn that he open this restaurant 30 years ago and offer a 2000 NT average shushi for coutomer then, you know what? 2000NT in 30 years ago, it equal to 20,000 NT today at least, we enjoy the shusi -- well, they keep the price at 2000 each and sustain the quality as usual. we are happy and I SAVE a lot of breath.
welcome coffee with J. second intern in summer, third generation of Cologlomate in Taiwan, a nice / polite and well educated boy, I send him 2 tickets to Steve Vai's concert, that's the first experience for him to attend rock concert, a rare experience , well, you have to try it the first time before decided to drop it from you interest list. I encouge people to try new things, I did the same myself; J. also asked me about the motive to joint YPO, I told him the ture reflection of my heart, no distortion and no cover up.
tonight, I bought myself a ticket to a Drama at National Theater, enjoy the stage alone is not offen to see, being used to bring accompany to every cluture / entertainment activity, sharing become a habit, to be there alone with no one echo your reaction immediately is kind of lonely to me, see what happens.
An urgent call for meeting at GIO, they might be getting use to my attendance, but , it's good, another 2000 attendee's fees to feed my stomach with Shusi for lunch.
the topic for the eraly morning meeting is to further discuss the strategy of media industry development under the re-structure of goverment organization, GIO handles 3 major media industry : Publishing, Movie and Tele / Broadcasting, the first topic from the meeting is : How to conduct an comprehensive reserch / study platform to cope with the convergency of media industry ? my commets to this issue is ( as you get paid, you have to speak ), to seperate Past / Present / Future and to segment they with the core mission, which is : Collection / Research and Study, then buliding a platform to follow what IBM's white paper addressed in " Meida and Entertainment 2010 "
Second topic it : how to double ( or triple ) the local movie goer , how to encouge Taiwanese to appreciate local films ? the proposal Movie Sector wrote is so vage, that's an angel from Minister of Education, providing free channel, free movie and feed them with free material, this won't help to revitalize Movie Industy in Taiwan, I am frankly telling them " I won't work, it's an ideal plan but not workable "
The meeting finished in one hour, the long weekend is coming, when checking the exacte date for kids summer camp to I-lan, it is Thursday, so, I decided to take 2 days off and to enjoy my quite life with my wife, no noize, no hassle, no house work............ do nothing.
I summarize a few to do's for the coming days off, eating in some of my favorite restaurant, take a sight-seeing in Tamsui, enjoy a few movies, go to a night cafe, and reading.
Group executives dinner gathering take place today at San Want Hotel, a 4 star hotel bought by one food company owner, who do a good business in China and invest on this hotel in Taiwan, the arrangement was done by the hosting company today, the music entity.
as this is a long awaited gathering, every subsiderary brought their sovurnier to all the attendee and by exchange some business corporateion ideas; Hosting company is major in entertainment, so 3 young talent and the head of managment firm join the dinner with us; this is for collabralation purpose, when the boss associated with the artist, the product endosement deal may come easily. new and young talent have a previleage which is flexiable, as there's no track record or history to guilde, the endosement fees can be negociated , especially between the sister companies. after 3 main courese, I submit the " Life " proposal to all the executives and preach for the sponsorship; I think I am a good story teller, the result is significant, I managed to secured another 900 tickets and win the artists' volunteer participating as well, althrough the presentation I did trun the dinner ambience to a heavier air, but it doesn't hurt the feeling of doing something good for this land and poeple we love; my dinner proposal become the winner among all the business terms and deals; the manager leave with a little bit disappiontment, this is not what she want.
Steve reply to my critiques after concert immediately, he is a man of his words, very similar to my attitude, , lunch in Shung chung restaurant is good, too much information to be updated, this is a routine in life now, can't get rid of it and enjoy the Monday momentum.
Steve send me a mail, a thrill and good surprise, I returned it via my smart phone immediately, in the afternoon, after the lunch with Sound and wife, I headed to Application Show and check our booth, at the parking lot, Sound was punished by me, the reason why I deliver this panality to him is due to his hiding himself in the parting lot somewhere behind the cars, this bad behavior will got him killed, that's why I slam his buds with my bear hand, my finger turn bruise after the punishment, the red clustter turn on my first and it hurts.
Buying on T11 from out booth, this great Digital Camera is a master piece in both function and design, Sony is good at the industrial desing and can feel the quality from the product they create. I love it and beging playing with this new gedget.
Reading Nature vs Nurture before dinner, finished 50 pages, I am totally thrilled by this great book, a social and sceint study to tell us " Who we are ? ", dinner hosted by the former marketing direcotr, he called some old colleages to attend the concert tonight , we had a small gathering before it.
At the concert venue, I am glad to see Professor Kao, I am not sure if he enjoyed the show, but he sit for the entire performacne, Jonathan seems to happy with his first experience in rock concert, I am happy too, always enjoy participating the concert, this is a age problem, but a state of mind, Sue brought his friend to the concert, they stay for 3 songs I guess, although he is an old rocking roller, but I think the rocking roll now is in his heart instead of in his life, he may treat it as a noize perhaps, you can write about rock in the old days, but that's a silent movie, you moved by the memory but not the present, to participate you need a storng heart and to appreciate what you don't really enjoy now.
after concert greeting with Steve is short, I don't want to drag to long and make it looks like a fan's activity, I appreiciate his performance, his music and he as a person, but not necessary to stick to his schedule, Stage manager scream at Space after the show is over, it was couse by the no-replacement of the snare drum, it will broken when performing the last song and no repalcemen were found at the scene, it get the manager angry, then I heard something about " why there's no non-alcohal beer ", this is a probem Space didn't realized, he thought there's no such thing as " nol-alchol beer " in the world, so didn't pay attention to this request on the rider... I saw all this on the stage, then girls came up. is this sex, drung and rocking roll story happen again ? I don't know, but I don't want to think too much.
the greeting short but good, Steve asked my oppinion about the concert, he probabely asked any one this question after the show, there's a autography session waiting for him, I don't want fans to wait for so long, calling home for my wife's pick up, arrviing home and send Steve a mail about my comment to the show.
