caseyyu.com

Archives 2004 Jul - Aug

August 26, 2004

GTM -8:00

Web Space

5:30 PM

I'm planning to register for my own webspace.

ehosting.ca has a standard plan for $5.95/month, which provides 100mb web space, unlimited traffic, 25 POP3 & SMTP email accounts (each 30mb), ftp, sub-domain, custom 400-404 & 500 error page, password protected directories, PHP, ASP, Perl, SSI and .NET.

Kissy Fish

5:23 PM

I was just sorting out my pictures and found these two pictures that I took last thursday in a restaurant @ Repulse Bay. I forgot the exact name of this kind of fish, but o well, here they are kissing each other.

Go for it or not?

5:00 PM

I'm just thinking that I'm still 9 credits behind on my academic schedule. Consider that I'm taking 5 courses per term and 1 course per work term, I'm still 3 credits behind.

So here's the problem
1. since my next workterm is going to be from may - dec, I'm going to miss one of my winter term, when most courses are offered.
2. taking 6 courses per term can be quite painful and risky since CS courses are time consuming and sometimes frustrating (when you can't find the bug).
3. if something unexpected happens, I'm gonna be dead.

So now, should I still go for May2006 graduation or should I go for Jan 2007 graduation and take 4 courses per term?

Cell Phone Plans

4:43 PM

So today is the third day after I'm back to Vancouver. How am I? Not bad.

Now I'm choosing my cell-phone service and just find it a bit redicules (after I came back from HK): most pre-paid phone card charges CDN$0.3 (or more) per minute. errr........ that's the same as HK...... but in different currency.

So here I'm sitting in front of my computer and comparing different service provider's web-site. Conclusion:
1. FIDO pre-paid card. $20 credits for 30 days, $0.05 evening and weekend, $0.40 weekdays, voice mail, call display.
2. or $10 credits for 30 days, $0.30 any time, voice mail, call display.

August 24, 2004

GTM +8:00

Custom

11:25 PM

Something kind of redicules happened yesterday @ the custom. Here's what happened:
1. I get off my plane. There's custom people standing at the bridge (connecting the plane and the terminal) asking to see our passport and the custom declaration card. So on average, each passenger got questioned with 3 questions. Well, that's ok, for security reason.
2. Getting through the custom. They asked for the passport and the custom declaration card again. Since I declared that I've bought CDN$17xx of stuff, they questioned me what I bought for $17xx and what was my purpose of my trip. Well, that's ok too, just regular procedures. I ansered accordingly and the officer told me to follow the sign to the cashier to pay the import tax.
3. Waiting to pickup my baggage. Another officer questioning the people waiting for baggage. So he come up to me. Ask for my custom declaration card again. Question me again what I've bought for $17xx. So I answered him by listing 3-4 pieces of stuff that I've bought. So he keeps on asking what else I've bought. I'm a bit out of patience as I watched my long waiting piece of luggage just pass by me. So I told the officer I can't really remember what else I've bought and I opened up one of my hand-carry luggage. Then he said it's ok and he don't want me to open up all my luggage here. So the officer went to the next person.
4. OK, now that I've picked up all my luggage, I go to the cashier to pay the tax. The same question was asked for the 3rd time. What did you buy for $17xx. So I listed a few things. She asked for the price of it. I told cashier then told me the price doesn't add up to $17xx. So I told the cashier that there are a lot of little pieces of stuff that I've bought that only worth HKD$10-20 (CDN$2-3). So she keeps on asking me to list them out. So now I'm getting a bit pissed because I'm paying the money and the cashier still questioning me. I'm shuffing money into your mouth and you are questioning me in a way that I'm paying too much? Since there was a long line up, I decided I just list 2 pieces of stuff that worth only a few bucks and then offer the cashier that I'll list the stuff in categories only since there was a long line-up behind me and there's only 2 cashier counters opened. OK, the cashier agreed, so things got smoother after then.
5. So finally paying my big tax bill, I'm off to go home. But I really feel that for those first time visitor, they'll have a really bad impression on the Canadian custom.

August 21, 2004

GTM +8:00

Day After Tomorrow 2

3:31 PM

I had some problem with my plane-ticket yesterday. The travel agent (where I booked my seat) and the airline company are blaming each other.

Here's what happened yesterday (water-downed version):
- got to the airport express station and buy the airport express 4 train tickets.
- get inside to check-in
- waited 20 minutes for the line-up @ the check-in counter
- my plane ticket got bounced back. The airline claims that the travel agent didn't provide enough information to them, so they released my seat to other customers.
- called up the travel agent... called up the airline HK office... hum........ got the air-line personnel to talk to the travel agent.... nothing got solved and they each have a different version of story.
- the airline personnel ask me to go directly to the airport to stand-by
- carrying all my baggage to the airport.
- called up the airline Canada head office and demand for a reasonable detail explanation of what happened. Still nothing solved.
- 12:30. Plane full.
- airline personnel said the earliest available seat will be sept 10.
- of course, that's not acceptable. 1st round negotiation failed.
- demand the airline to provide other alternatives, since the fault is not from me - the customer.
- 2nd round negotiation starts 5 minutes later. They now claimed that the earliest seat will be aug 29.
- not acceptable - negotiation failed.
- 3rd round negotation starts. They now claimed that the earliest seat will be aug 23 and insisted that's the best they can do.
- accept if compensation will be made.
- they insist that the fault is not from the airline. Compensation will not be made.
- negotiation is getting dry. We accept the deal as we are really out of patience.
- 1:00 take the airport express and head back home.

So here's the story and we wasted over HK$500 on traffic cost.

August 14, 2004

GTM +8:00

Hong Kong Heritage Museum

0:23 AM

Went to Hong Kong Heritage Museum (香港文化博物館) after my park tour. It is located just across the road from Sha Tin Central Park.

Walked until the museum closed (6:00pm).

Sha Tin Central Park

0:15 AM

Went to Sha Tin Central Park yesterday afternoon. The park is very beautifully designed and maintained. It's great to have such a nice park in a heavily populated concrete forest.

the small waterfall is the first thing which caught my eyes.

there are a lot of these little flowers inside the park.

The gardeners have put a lot of effort taking care of the plants.

there are LOTS of turtles inside the pond. Some of them climbed onto the rocks above water and enjoyed the sun.

and fish too.

a very good place for people escaping from noise and dust.

the sound of water =) can you hear it?

August 9, 2004

GTM +8:00

optical mouse

10:45 PM

bought an usb optical mouse for HKD$69 today. It includes an usb to PS2 adaptor.

Trip to Guanyao - Photos

0:52 AM

my relative's cat ^-^ really love people to scratch its back. If you stop scratching it, it will MEOW you and tell you to keep scratching. AND WATCH CLOSELY, its eyes are beautiful... one blue one yellow. Especially its blue eye is really lovely... looking deep into it, you'll feel like you are looking through a small crystal. Hum.... haha, I still love cats more than dogs. (sorry, there's a really cute + super playful doggy living downstair, but I didn't have a chance to take its photos)

This is the train we took. It's more comfortable than I expected.

Trip to GuanYao (官瑤)

0:41 AM

Just came back from a 1-day trip to Guanyao which is a relatively small town in the district of Foshan(佛山) which is located in the province of Guangzhou. This town is basically supported by 3 major industrial factories, of which Mattel is the largest of all.

Today's trip schedule:
8:25 - KTT High Speed Express Through Train from HK Hung Hom Station to Guangzhou East Station
10:15 - Arrive Guangzhou East Station and then take a rental van to Guanyao
11:15 - Arrive Guanyao @ my relative's home.
11:30 - Took a small tour around the town and have Tofu Fa (RMB 1.00 / bowl). Very very cheap compare to HK.
12:30 - Lunch
1:30 - Took a tour around the perimeter of the town
3:00 - Back to my relative's home and rest and play with cat & dog and talk and watch TV -__-" haha
5:30 - Dinner
7:00 - Leave Guanyao and head back to the train station
7:45 - Arrived at the station
8:20 - Train leave
10:10 - Back to Hung Hom Station
10:45 - Back home

August 7, 2004

GTM +8:00

... Another Day Passed By ...

10:43 PM

Didn't go out today because of the heat outside...

Stayed home updating my website and also watched the Asian Cup Final - China vs Japan. Although the China team improved a lot, more improvement is still needed.

I'm going for a one-day trip to Mainland China tomorrow. Not exactly for sight-seeing, but instead, just to feel the life of people and the working environment there.

Less than 2 weeks left... after that, I don't know when I will come back to Hong Kong again.

Sunny & Hot

1:10 PM

UV level is above 12 today in Hong Kong... walk under the sun for 10 seconds is enough to make you starting to sweat.

Something I got on my trip to Japan last month. It's happily shaking its head and waving its hand under the sun =)

August 6, 2004

GTM +8:00

My First Co-op Report =)

10:48 PM

2/3 of my co-op report content is done. I estimate my report is going to be about 15 pages long (over 3000 words).

I haven't written anything that long for a couple of years... I can feel my hands rusting and the flow of thoughts retarding already.

OK, after the report is done, the next step to think about is how to bind it 'professionally'.

MongMong

7:03 PM

MongMong (懵懵) is one of my uncle's two dogs

She just love shoes, haha =p
And have you notice, her hands are crossed. Cute, isn't she?

Countdown

6:50 PM

I guess i should start counting how many days I have left until I leave Hong Kong. 7 months already.... just a blink of an eye.... time sure fly by quickly.

Looking back on the past 7 months, I've learned a lot of stuff, seen a lot of stuff, rest a lot and hahaha... hum hum.... bought quite some stuff =p

Diary App Updates

6:40 PM

I've made some changes to the diary app again. This time I have added the timezone adjustment function. Also, I have added a function to recognize and group 2 or more entries that are written on the same day.

In the near future, I'll implement the upload pictures/files function.

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