退休

Dad just got his approval of retirement due to sickness (he had a stroke earlier this year). Why does someone needs to apply to retire? Because you will get money from the government for the rest of your life. The process is just to verify that you really can't work and not just being lazy.

So he started to plan what he would do after he stops working. Besides traveling, there really isn't much that he can do. During his life, because of work, he really doesn't have a hobby or something that he can develop on. Luckily he gets to spend half a year in HK without losing his benefits. So half of the time is taken care of. As for the other half of the time that he is in Norway. We are still trying to figure it out. So my suggestions is for him to do some traveling with mom. So that mom gets to take a good look at Norway (and the rest of Europe)

The restaurant.... I am going to miss it.



This week I will pretty much be Tchaikovski. The chef at our restaurant is quitting so I have to drive him from a the bus station to the airport. The new chef is arriving so I have to drive him from the airport to the bus station. Last but not least, my sister will be coming to Norway to celebrate my birthday this weekend so I have to pick her up from the airport. I wish she could stay in Oslo longer, but but.....

Found these pictures in my camera, this is where we said "I do":

新婚趣事

Yesterday I decided to clean up my huge pile of clothes that had been lying on my desk and chair. I soon realize that I had too many clothes and so I had to make the decision on whether I would keep it or throw it. So I pick them up one by one and ask my wife if I should throw. She would either say: "yeah, throw it." or "nah, it looks good on you." Then I picked up a green sweater and asked her: "what about this one?" and she looked at me all sad and said: "I bought this one as your birthday present!" (note. my birthday is next month but I got them from her a week ago. I already forgot.) After calming her down I placed the sweater along with other seldom wear clothes she bought for me into the shelf next to bottom, below the jeans/pants).

After arranging the clothes to the shelves inside my closet I realize that I can adjust the height of the shelves. So I told my wife: "wow, I just realize that I can adjust the height of the shelves. I can lower the shelf for the jeans/pants to get more space and take away some space for the garbage." (note. I was pointing at the shelf of the clothes she bought me as I said that.) and then it took me the rest of the night to convince her that she misunderstood what I said.

She has a good sense of humor so everything was fine.

三國志 vs 三國演義

My blog friend Laulong has a post about 三國演義 joke. Makes me all itchy because if it wasn't for this book, I wouldn't be reading Chinese today. My dad gave me this book when I was in Norway and because the story was so interesting I kept reading it and looked up dictionary for words that I do not know. Thus kept my interest in Chinese growing.

People has said, the book 三國演義 is 70% true, and 30% false.
Here I pointed out a few parts in 三國演義 that is not exactly the same as the true history of the three kingdoms.

- Chapter 2: It was 劉備 who beat 督邮, not 張飛.
- Chapter 5: 温酒斬華雄 never happened. 華雄 was killed in battle (not 1 vs 1) with 孫坚.
- Chapter 25: 斬颜良诛文醜, 关羽 never killed 文醜 himself, 文醜 died in army battle with 曹操.
- Chapter 46: 草船借箭 is 孫權, not 诸葛亮.
- Chapter 49: 诸葛亮 didn't "borrow" southeast wind. He knew the wind would come around that time of every year.
- Chapter 75: 華驼 never help 关羽 刮骨疗伤. He was killed by 曹操 before 赤壁之戰. He was 曹操's doctor though, in the storybook he was killed by 曹操 after 关羽 died.

They were from a book I read which the author read the "Romance of the three kingdoms" and try to find the information from the history books and thus drawing those conclusions.

My dreams has always been to visit the remaining sites in China. It should be relatively easy since my wife is from 重庆 and that's where 張飛 was located.

Newspaper

東方日報
曾蔭權民望再創新低
23/07/2008

It's amazing how newspaper can bend the truth in such a way that even a kid can realize they are false:

曾 蔭 權 豪 擲 一 百 一 十 億 元 派 糖 亦 未 能 為 其 插 水 下 跌 的 民 望 止 血 ， 其 評 分 及 支 持 度 雙 雙 再 創 新 低 ！ 香 港 大 學 民 意 研 究 計 劃 的 最 新 調 查 顯 示 ， 曾 蔭 權 的 評 分 跌 至 五 十 四 點 五 分 ， 較 本 月 初 時 的 調 查 再 跌 一 點 四 分 ， 是 該 計 劃 自 九 七 年 開 始 調 查 曾 蔭 權 民 望 以 來 的 最 低 紀 錄 。 民 意 研 究 計 劃 主 任 鍾 庭 耀 及 立 法 會 議 員 劉 慧 卿 都 直 言 ， 曾 蔭 權 用 逾 百 億 元 做 紓 困 措 施 ， 但 民 望 仍 然 繼 續 插 水 ， 反 映 政 府 管 治 好 有 問 題 。

港 大 民 意 研 究 計 劃 在 本 月 十 四 至 十 六 日 成 功 以 電 話 訪 問 了 一 千 一 百 八 十 一 名 市 民 ， 訪 問 了 他 們 對 曾 蔭 權 及 特 區 政 府 的 評 價 ， 其 中 本 月 十 六 日 正 是 曾 蔭 權 公 布 大 灑 一 百 一 十 億 元 ， 提 出 十 項 派 糖 措 施 的 日 子 。

The polling was from July 14th to July 16th, but the new financial plan came out on July 16th. So even if EVERYBODY knows about it already at July 16th. It would still only affect the poll result by 1/3. Let's not forget, even if they called 1 person and got an answer on July 16th, they can claim that the phone polling lasted till the 16th. I call this bullshit.

However, doesn't really mean Donald's rating will rise after that, just that there are really no point to purposely bash something in order to get publicity. Donald is stupid and that's a fact. To find things to bash about him doesn't require too much effort. Just unnecessary.

身痕

Summer time is boring here in Norway since 90% of the people goes out for vacation. While I was working on nothing and start thinking about the money that I lost in the stock market lately, I just want to do something to make it back. A thought came up......

Start an online store! Again!

Yes, I have done that before and more than once. There are three ebay stores out there that I have once been part of and 1 big one that I used to work for. However, now that I am alone in Norway it definitely would be a challenge to start over especially when facing a different market and a whole new business model.

My superstitious mom told me that if I make any big move before I turn 34, I will fall very hard and lose everything, but then if I just sit around and wait for the x amount of years till then, how am I suppose to be successful? Dilemma.

Took some wedding pictures, here is a couple to share.




Here is our main destination for our honeymoon: (too bad we can't live there)

Stockholm 4 day trip

There was a few "excuses" of why I decided to go to Stockholm even though I should be saving every single penny for my wedding.

- My friend/roommate/colleague is moving away from Norway to Dubai and during his 9 month stay, he hasn't seen too many places.
- I desperately need a break after working my butt off for the last 2 months.

Why stockholm? It is close by, things are relatively cheaper and I thought (turned out to be false) that I can claim the sales tax back when I leave the country.

I had been to stockholm before but last time was for a conference and I only got half a day to do sightseeing, so this is my official stockholm trip.

We didn't really do much there. Since my friend is too lazy to walk around. So basically we covered the old town, most of the major shopping malls and the technical museum.

The fat picture of me you saw is obviously from the technical museum in front of a concave mirror.

Since it was the end of April, the sun didn't go down until 8:30pm and it was just nice to sit outside at a local restaurant and have a beer and enjoy the sunset.

The wide building with flowers in front is the Nobel museum (we were too lazy to go in) and it used to be the Swedish stock exchange.

Walking down the street in old town really feels like the 14th century with those stone roads plus gutters on the side. This doesn't exist in Norway.

I have also taken pictures of the metro map and the metro. It is old and shaky, not too comfortable if you ask me. Although it is better than Norway in the fact that it comes every 10 minutes instead of every 15.

I was fortunate enough to run into a Chinese demostration in Stockholm during the third day. They were mainly students from all over Sweden coming over to show their support for the Beijing olympics. I will post some pictures in my next post.

I'll be back

Idle for awhile due to work schedule. Things are ok now, a new post coming soon. Stay tuned.

良禽擇木而棲

Talking to my colleague/roommate (I rented out one of my rooms to him) yesterday while we drive to Hemsedal for 3 hours. Our topic was about him going to quit and relocate at the end of the month.

良禽擇木而棲 was spoken of a lot in ancient history how capable people serve for different kings/lords to better use their talents. Nowadays we use that in the context of corporate world. How people with talent work for companies where their talents are put into better use. For this post, we talk about how we are looking for the right place to be, not just the right company to work for, but also the best country to live, not just for ourselves, but for our family as well.

My colleague/roommate is married with a 9 month old daughter, having worked in India, Dubai, Singapore before coming to Norway. After 9 months of living here, he has realized the cost of living in Norway is too high to bear. Main reason is because the tax is heavy and the food costs are too high. Thus the high salary disappears quick after the mandatory living costs. It was extra heavy for him because his family is still living in Singapore so he has to support them.

After talking to him I realize for people like us there are just a few elements we consider when we pick the place to live.

- Job market, no job = no money, no money no talk
- Tax, not just income tax, but sales tax as well.
- Housing cost (Cost to rent, and cost to buy)
- Food cost
- Transportation cost
- Entertainment cost, (shopping, travel, etc)
- Welfare (Health care, unemployment, pension)

Noticed how culture and language is not an issue to consider, because English works fine everywhere and we are confident that learning a language is just a matter of time.

From my understanding and experience I have compiled the description of living conditions for the places I have lived in.

Hong Kong (open to correction, afterall I have only been to HK once in the past 18 years)

- Job market: It is only good if you are well educated, have connection and/or work in professional fields (doctor, accountant etc.) In the right job and in the right field there are basically no limit of how much you can make.
- Tax: It is minimal, so most of the money you make ends up in your pocket.
- Housing: It is quite expensive, median house price is 10+ years more than the median income.
- Food: It is very cheap. A wide choice of dinner for under 100 HKD a person.
- Transportation: Cheap and public transportation widely available. Expensive for car owners though
- Entertainment: Cheap if you want to buy something or go out for Karaoke, gets more expensive if you want to travel to anywhere besides China.
- Welfare, as far as I know, it is minimal, "Fruit money" at 700 HKD a month, minimal cost to see the public doctors. (Any addition/corrections here are welcome)

Basically Hong Kong is a true capitalist society where you make as much as you can with your ability and minimum tax is taken away from you to provide minimum welfare. Because of the high gini index, essential living costs are relatively low.

USA
- Job Market: USA is big enough for everyone who strive to be successful, although it is hard for foreigner without a green card to get the job and salary they want. Salary range as low as $5.75 an hour minimum wage to ..... there is no limit.
- Tax is pretty high. 33% income tax is normal for a young worker without a family to support and now house mortgage to pay for. Sales tax range from 4% to 8%, varies from state to state. (California has the highest sales tax rate)
- Housing: Before the housing bubble bursts, median house prices in California is at about 10 years of median salary (Don't forget houses in USA is bigger than apartments in Hong Kong). Low or zero percent downpayment has made it more affordable to people than it should.
- Food, McDonalds dollar menu keeps it cheap. A wide choice of dinner for under 100 HKD a person.
- Transportation: In California, either you drive or you are as good as a crippled. Car prices and petrol prices are among the cheapest in the world. Although the reason oil price hike has made many drivers suffer.
- Entertainment: Cheap, and that include shopping and travelling within the border/Mexico. With the US dollar dropping, it costs more to travel to other continents.
- Welfare: 12 years free education. They have cheap medical plans (Medicare) but has restrictions. We the young people was taught to ignore social security (pensjon) because it won't be there when we retire due to bankrupcy. As of today, i don't know how much they get. Don't think because you pay a lot of tax you get a lot of welfare, the money are used on wars instead of domestic welfare.

Basically USA is very similar to Hong Kong, you work your way up except tax is higher. Expenses are relatively cheap to your income except for housing. If you have a way to get the green card, you can make a decent living there without problem.

Norway
- Job Market: Doesn't matter what you do, you make mostly the same salary at the beginning, 20 years later is what the difference lies. Rarely to see workers making more than 2-3 million HKD a year without being a co-owner of something.
- Tax: High, 36% income tax for single worker without mortgage to pay. Plus 25% sales tax.
- Housing: Even in the middle of the housing bubble, median house price is still just about 6 years of median salary. High downpayment requirement (15 to 20%) is the only thing keeping all people from affording a house.
- Food: Very expensive, main reason is the 25% sales tax, but also because salary is high. Operating cost for restaurants are high.
- Transportation: In Oslo, public transportation is quite ok, although buses and metro comes every 15 to 30 minutes. In other places a car is mandatory and petrol prices is not cheap despite Norway is one of the top 10 oil export country.
- Entertainment: Very expensive for the same reason. However, travelling is cheap as long as it is within Europe. Many cheap tickets options available.
- Welfare: This is where the tax money goes. Every citizen gets minimum 7500 HKD a month for pensjon. Citizens gets money for having child plus money for each of them (about 2000 HKD each child each month) until they become 18. Children under 7 goes to doctor for free. 40 weeks of paid labor leave for father and mother combined. Basically free to go to public universities for Masters degree and above (except for buying books and registration fees of 1000 HKD each semester). Each person needs to pay max 2500 HKD on medical expenses, anything above that is free.

Basically Norway has a socialist economy with the low salary range, high tax and very good welfare (money are mainly from tax money, but also because of oil sale). It's a very good place for people who just want enough to live and not asking for a lot more.

The above is not meant to be a research paper so all the data is based on my experience and observation. Pretty much just to want to initiate a discussion for those who has something to see and for people who lives in other places to share their situation.

Final Four

I am writing this blog as I am watching UCLA playing Memphis in the Semifinal of the National College Basketball tournament. (NCAA Tournament).

NCAA stands for National Collegiate Athletic Association and they organize all college sports. In USA, American Football and Basketball are the two biggest sport and they also generate the most money in terms of TV Broadcast rights, ticket sales and sale of jerseys.

What I am talking about here is basketball. Each school is placed in a division of 8 to 15 schools and they play each team in the conference twice a year plus about 10 games before conference games with teams from other conference. Based on the strength of teams you play, your win/loss record of the year and your performance in the conference tournament, a selection committee selects 65 teams to enter the final tournament at the end of the season, which is the NCAA tournament. Winner of their conference tournament gets an automatic entry. The rest is purely based on the committee.

The 2 lowest ranked team will play each other on Tuesday before the NCAA Tournament starts and winner will enter the main draw of 64 teams.

The 64 teams are arranged into 4 groups of 16 teams to play in 4 different regions in USA, South, West, East and Midwest. Each 16 teams in each region is given a seed number. The number 1 seed will play the number 16 seed in first round, the 2 seed will play the 15 seed in first round and so on.

The first and second round will be played in the first week and after the first 2 rounds, 16 teams (4 in each region) will remain and these 16 teams are refered to as the Sweet 16.

The winner in the Sweet 16 game will become the Elite 8 and the winner of the Elite 8 game will also mean they have won in their respective region, they get a mini celebration by cutting down the basketball net for souvenier. The last 4 team standing after the regional tournaments are referred to as the Final Four.

In 2008, the final four teams are University of North Carolina (UNC), Kansas University, Memphis and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Of course, I am cheering for my alma mater and this is also the third year in a row they are among the final four. (they lost in the championship game in 2006 and lost in the final four game in 2007, both to University of Florida)

A few fun facts,
- Because this tournament is always in March, it is also referred to as March Madness
- Another name is the big dance, and the weaker teams that beats the stronger teams are considered as "Cinderella"
- number 16 seed has never beaten a number 1 seed in the first round, ever, in 96 tries).
- this year is the first time ever, that all four number 1 seeds make it to the final four.
- in 2006, number 11 seed George Mason, made it to the final four. One of the most improbable achievement

Some of the highlights in this years big dance,
- Stanford (Seeded 3 in South) scored with 1.3 seconds left to beat Marquette 82-81 in the second round.
- Davidson (Seeded 10 in Midwest) made it to Elite 8, beating a 7 seed, 2 seed and a 3 seed in the process.
- UCLA beat Mississipi Valley State (Seeded 16 in West) 70 to 29 in the first round. 29 points scored was the lowest in a game since 1946.


Let's hope UCLA wins this one and the whole tournament.


below is a video of how UCLA beats Gonzaga and it's top scorer of the nation (Adam Morrison) after being behind the whole game. (Good to see UCLA win and sad to see Adam cried like a baby)





Sad news: UCLA lost to Memphis 78 to 63 in the Final Four game. (Kansas beat UNC 84 to 66 in the other game). Oh well, always next year.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

This quote is from the legendary basketball coach from my school UCLA. His name is John Wooden, 97 years old and still alive.

This quote is running around inside my mind today because of a bad day at work. All the deadlines coming to me almost at the same time and none of the work is done. Just wish I am not a procrastinator. So the last resort is to call my evening part-time job that I am sick and cannot go to work today to squeeze out more time and go help my parents on Sunday instead of Saturday. That's the price to pay when you are working 3 jobs, you get the money and you are messing with all 3 of the jobs plus your health.

Speaking of John Wooden, he brought 10 national championships to our school (including 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973) He still goes to as many home games as his health permits.