No blog post for the past few days because I was up in Vancouver, BC, Canada (fyi, there is also a Vancouver city in Washington state). Why did I go there? It was for my cousin's wedding (on Friday) and decided to spend a few extra days over there to enjoy the place since I haven't been there for a while now.
Vancouver is pretty close to Seattle - it's only about 2.5hr drive (excluding border wait time). So if anyone of you decide to come to Seattle (and visit me), we can totally visit Vancouver (of course, you need your passport). When people talk about Vancouver, they usually refer to the Greater Vancouver area, which includes Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, and maybe a few other cities that I have never been to. Some of you may have heard that there are a lot of Cantonese-speaking folks in Vancouver. Well, that can't be more true; according to my cousin, 40% of the BC population is Chinese and they are mostly concentrated in a few spots. Seriously, you only need Cantonese to get around, especially in Richmond.
One of my favorite activities in Vancouver is to EAT (what else. haha...) as the food is pretty awesome. You can pretty much get all kind of cuisines (actually, other than Denny's, I don't remember seeing any other American restaurants...) and most of them are of pretty high quality. On this trip, I only had a catering meal, a formal Chinese dinner (for the wedding), dim sum, and Japanese all-you-can-eat. By the way, the Japanese all-you-can-eat place is of pretty good quality. A lot of sashimi & sushi selections and the fish was very fresh. I think my cousin and I had our fair share of food. haha...
Other than food, you can also find hiking spots in Vancouver, much like in Seattle. This site will give you a lot of information about trails around Vancouver. I have actually never hiked in Vancouver until this trip. Where did we go? Since my aunt and uncle want to join us, we picked a rather easy one at Capilano Regional Park in North Vancouver. It was a very good and easy hike and I recommend it for those who can't really hike.
Overall, I like the trip and really wish I could spend a week over there to visit the outdoor more up there. If you are coming here and want to visit Vancouver, let me know. I may join you :). By the way, when you plan your trip, you should allocate time for border crossing as it could take forever! On my way back to Seattle on Sunday morning, I thought I was early and got to border at 9:50am. Well, I was wrong; It took me 80mins to get passed the border! I think the best is to pass the border at night on a non-weekend day. You can check this site for traffic status.
Enjoy.
8/12/2009 or 12/8/2009?
I had a discussion with a colleague today about how numerical dates are written in America (US and Canada) versus Europe (or even the rest of the world). In America, the numerical dates are written as Month / Day / Year, so today's date (August 12th, 2009) is written as 8/12/2009. In Europe, the numerical dates are written as Day / Month / Year, so today's date is written as 12/8/2009. As you can see, there could be a lot of confusion between Americans and Europeans when talking about dates. Does 8/12/2009 mean August 12th, 2009 or December 8th, 2009? Bad for communication...
I tried looking up the origins of these two representations but couldn't find any reliable sources. On the unreliable sources front, some people think that these numerical representations were simply shortened forms of dates written in English and the difference is simply the result of differences between American English and British English. In American English, dates are written as Monthname Day, Year, so today's date is written as August 12th, 2009 and the numerical (shorten) representation is 8/12/2009. In British English, dates are written as Day Monthname Year, so today's date is written as 12th August 2009 and the numerical representation is 12/8/2009. This explanation makes totaly sense but I couldn't find a reliable reference...
In my opinion, it's much better to use "2009-8-12" instead of the above-mentioned representations. Why? It helps your brain narrow down on the dates more logically as you read through it. Let's look at the European format (12/8/2009). As you read through it, your brain will learn that it's the 12th day of a certain month in a certain year (not very specific at all); then your brain will figure out it's the 12th day of August in a certain year (a little better but there are at least 2000 possible dyas). Now, let's look at "2009-8-12". As you read through it, your brain will learn that it must be some time in Year 2009 (only 365/366 days to consider), then your brain will find out it's some time in August of 2009 (31 days), and lastly, your brain will identify it as the 12th day of August in 2009. It's very logical and helps your brain narrow down on the specific day much quicker. Anyway, if you are interested, "2009-8-12" is referred to as the ISO 8601 standard. Come to think of it, Chinese actually uses this standard, 2009年8月12日.
You can check out Wikipedia - Calendar date for more information.
I tried looking up the origins of these two representations but couldn't find any reliable sources. On the unreliable sources front, some people think that these numerical representations were simply shortened forms of dates written in English and the difference is simply the result of differences between American English and British English. In American English, dates are written as Monthname Day, Year, so today's date is written as August 12th, 2009 and the numerical (shorten) representation is 8/12/2009. In British English, dates are written as Day Monthname Year, so today's date is written as 12th August 2009 and the numerical representation is 12/8/2009. This explanation makes totaly sense but I couldn't find a reliable reference...
In my opinion, it's much better to use "2009-8-12" instead of the above-mentioned representations. Why? It helps your brain narrow down on the dates more logically as you read through it. Let's look at the European format (12/8/2009). As you read through it, your brain will learn that it's the 12th day of a certain month in a certain year (not very specific at all); then your brain will figure out it's the 12th day of August in a certain year (a little better but there are at least 2000 possible dyas). Now, let's look at "2009-8-12". As you read through it, your brain will learn that it must be some time in Year 2009 (only 365/366 days to consider), then your brain will find out it's some time in August of 2009 (31 days), and lastly, your brain will identify it as the 12th day of August in 2009. It's very logical and helps your brain narrow down on the specific day much quicker. Anyway, if you are interested, "2009-8-12" is referred to as the ISO 8601 standard. Come to think of it, Chinese actually uses this standard, 2009年8月12日.
You can check out Wikipedia - Calendar date for more information.
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Life
Bad haircut...
Oops, I did it again. Having too short of a haircut. haha... So I'll go to a wedding in a few days and I thought I would get my hair cut before going (it's been like 2 months since my last haircut). Well, I fell asleep while having the haircut and the end result is super short haircut (like almost none). I like short hair but then I think it may not be the best hair styles to see all my relatives. haha... Lesson learned: don't fall asleep when you have you haircut. or even better, make sure you give clear instructions to your hairdresser (but then i dunno what to say exactly... I want my hair to be 8.5" long on 50% of my head and then 5" long on the other 50%. I also want to have a normal distribution. lol... getting kinda geeky now). By the way, I go to the same hair dresser all the time.
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Personal
Practice made perfect?
While I was walking to work today, I am asking myself if I remember what I read a week ago. How about a month ago? I had a hard time remembering it. I blame it on information overload and there are just so much you can read nowadays. In addition to books & magazine, you have all the blogs (like mine :), you can read and after a while, everything is the same...
How can I make whatever I have read stick in my head? Back in the days when I was still in school, I used to read a text book multiple times (I know it's boring but it's part of study) and that process really made the "stuff" stick in my head. Seriously, up till today, I still remember some content of some books I read back in school. It's strange but it's true (at least for me). However, ever since I graduated from college, I have never read an article, let alone a book, twice. Maybe that's the learning process that I have been missing since after school?
If you think about the homework we did in school, I would argue that it has a similar effect. Homework forced us to repeat applying the same knowledge again and again. Eventually, those knowledge will just get stuck in our head without knowing about it and we just get smarter that way. Now, if you look at your life after school, how many times have you done the same thing more than once? It's a rare event for me. Maybe the phrase, "Practice made perfect" is true. I think the book, Outliers: The Story of Success
mentioned one of the reasons someone is an expert is a field is that he just keeps doing the same thing again and again... It's on my to-read list. Will see when I read it...
How can I make whatever I have read stick in my head? Back in the days when I was still in school, I used to read a text book multiple times (I know it's boring but it's part of study) and that process really made the "stuff" stick in my head. Seriously, up till today, I still remember some content of some books I read back in school. It's strange but it's true (at least for me). However, ever since I graduated from college, I have never read an article, let alone a book, twice. Maybe that's the learning process that I have been missing since after school?
If you think about the homework we did in school, I would argue that it has a similar effect. Homework forced us to repeat applying the same knowledge again and again. Eventually, those knowledge will just get stuck in our head without knowing about it and we just get smarter that way. Now, if you look at your life after school, how many times have you done the same thing more than once? It's a rare event for me. Maybe the phrase, "Practice made perfect" is true. I think the book, Outliers: The Story of Success
mentioned one of the reasons someone is an expert is a field is that he just keeps doing the same thing again and again... It's on my to-read list. Will see when I read it...
Labels:
Life
What are you passionate about?
I just had a dinner with a friend and we discussed a very abstract concept called, passion. I am kind of going through a period of time when I question about my passion for something I do day-to-day so I am particularly interested in this topic.
What is passion? What does it mean when you said someone is passionate about something (let's say an activity for the ease of discussion)? Does it mean that he cares about that activity very much? Does it mean that he thinks about that activity all the time? Does it also mean that he would think about ways to be better at that activity? Does it mean that you can see sparks in his eyes when someone talks about that activity?
Let's say that activity is your job. What behaviors would you see from a person who is very passionate about his job? Would you see him finding his job more important than their family, for example? Would you see him having a grand vision about the product that he is working on and he is ready to execute on it? Would you see his leading his team to the direction he is envisioning?
How's about motivation? Is motivation the same as passion? Could a person who's motivated doing as good of a job as a person who's passionate? Could a passionate person give you more than a motivated person (like more ideas)? Do you need to have passion in order to do a phenomenal job? Does passion get someone a step further than the rest of the crowds? Does passion make someone a superstar?
Finally, is passion just a term to be used as an excuse when you did a poor job? What's your thought?
What is passion? What does it mean when you said someone is passionate about something (let's say an activity for the ease of discussion)? Does it mean that he cares about that activity very much? Does it mean that he thinks about that activity all the time? Does it also mean that he would think about ways to be better at that activity? Does it mean that you can see sparks in his eyes when someone talks about that activity?
Let's say that activity is your job. What behaviors would you see from a person who is very passionate about his job? Would you see him finding his job more important than their family, for example? Would you see him having a grand vision about the product that he is working on and he is ready to execute on it? Would you see his leading his team to the direction he is envisioning?
How's about motivation? Is motivation the same as passion? Could a person who's motivated doing as good of a job as a person who's passionate? Could a passionate person give you more than a motivated person (like more ideas)? Do you need to have passion in order to do a phenomenal job? Does passion get someone a step further than the rest of the crowds? Does passion make someone a superstar?
Finally, is passion just a term to be used as an excuse when you did a poor job? What's your thought?
Labels:
Life
Visiting Hong Kong
If you plan to visit HK and if you are not local, you may want to read this blog. I thought it's interesting.
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Links
Food...
I'll be visiting Vancouver, BC, Canada soon and have been coordinating with my relatives over there. Why am I going there? Of course, it's someone else wedding, what else could I be doing. hahaha... In addition, I'll do some hiking and eating. So I am checking out all the all-you-can-eat sushi places over there and man, there are A LOT of them and they seem to be pretty good too. Take a look at these pictures, don't they look delicious?
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Personal
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