Lavender Cafe: 2005

Friday, December 30, 2005

0090. Weather

The weather here in Taipei is almost like Summer! We get 20 degrees these few days. I wear more like in the summer since I am so used to colder weather. I joke that I came from North pole because many around me wear like cold winter.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

0089. Faith moments in my life, Part I

[I was asked to wrote something about faith, for ShiLin Zion Church monthly newsletter]
When I look back my life, there are some moments I learned trusting God.

One special moment was my undergraduate study. I decided to leave home for university. I made that decision simply because I never left home for study. Quite honestly, I don't think at that point of my life I understood what I did was a faith walk. Anyways before I left, a friend of mine gave me a verse I treasure dearly:

the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
~ Psalm 121: 8

With that blessing, I set out for the new chapter of my life. The first thing I planed to do after arriving dorms was finding a place to worship. I didn't know where I could worship before I arrived except I heard there is one chinese church. Well, I did the church hunting with the telephone directory. I opened up the telephone directory and looked for the churches near by my dorm. I went to four different churches on first four Sundays. I didn't have any feeling at all as I went in and out of three churches. But as soon as I walked into the third church, Bethel church, my tears ran out. It was a deepest feeling - I was home. So I stayed at Bethel during the time I was there. I did go to another church once and thought about changing to that church. But I decided not to do so because I never forget the feeling of being home and believed Bethel was the place for me. During those years, it did prove that Bethel was the church God prepare for me. I had wonderful time there with church pastors and members. I learned quite a lot from them, such as hospitality. One thing that engraved in my heart is how God used Sunday sermons to talk to me. I was in the downside of the hill. Those sermons were like God knocking some sense into my head.

An year and half after I finished my undergraduate degree, I applied for local graduate school at home. About three months prior to school year started, I got the notice from the school and asked me to confirm to go. I was afraid at that time. The reason is that I wasn't sure studying was what I supposed to do. The next morning, I think, I had my devotion on Daniel 10, about Daniel's vision. God provided his encouragement to me, first half of the verse 19:

"Do not be afraid, O man highly esteemed," he said, "Peace! Be strong now; be strong."

I was loved by God. Not only "do not be afraid", I also got "peace" to go. Studying wasn't easy. There were several times I had doubts - why was I doing there? Computing science wasn't my favorite dream of profession. I might even have thinking give-up the study at one point. However, this verse always jumped out to stop any negative thought I had. The last year and half my study was the reward. I enjoyed so much the time that I even thought of staying at school. I am so glad that I trusted God's promise to me.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

0088. Work Swirl (14)

Today is division social event. As usual, we went to a restaurant to eat. This restaurant is so expensive, approximately $35-$40 CDN. Food is cooked in front of us on a big iron plate. It's kind of fun to watch chief cooking. There are about 10 peoples on each table. The food is excellent but not much, just enough for filling my stomach.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

0087. No more fees for internet!

I found this place at the intersection of HsinYi and KungFu. It is eCoffee. This eCoffee store is much bigger than most of their other store I know. They even have hot pots! But most of important is that I can use internet without extra charge. Of course, I got to purchase a drink or something. I can use my computer online for about two hours, which save about a hundred dollars. Hey, it's worth it!

0086. Hair style changed part II

I permed my hair in May. Visit my photo album to check out the difference in May and now. They are not very good pictures because I took the pictures myself. So just bear with me.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

0085. Memorizing Bible verses vs. Life

Recently, I just found out days are different with or without memorizing Bible verses. Days without memorizing Bible verses, emotion and work are not that smooth. Now has a better understanding why we need to treasure God's words in our hearts. God's words is an invisible help in our daily lives. We may not understand at beginning. It's easier to understand after we lose those things.

Friday, October 28, 2005

0084. Work Swirl (13)

These days are so busy to a point that I didn't have time to write blogs. In fact, I am writing this blog while I am off office and in a workshop. How ironic is that! Anyways, let's talkb about my work. I am currently assigned TEN topics. Some topics are big and some are small. As a beginner, this is pretty heavy for me. In fact, I just had an emotional break down last night (there are other causes besides work). It's a mixed feeling here. I know I will learn a lot in a short time with workload like this. But it's hard for my body and mind to handle so much information at one time. This coming weekend, I will have to think this all over. Perharps, some of the topic should leave out. I can't get into the details of my work here for confidentiality issue. But I do wish I have a sister in Christ can talk about at work.

Friday, September 09, 2005

0083. Work Swirl (12)

A surpised turn showed up today. All my testers are going to the big testing group. At least some of my colleagues are happy. As for me, just start all the job transferring. There are still few more meetings to come.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

0082. Who is gonna changed?

Recently, I have heard something about change. Someone applied the 80/20 princeple saying that 80% of people try to change others while 20% of people change themselves. I wholeheartly agree this. We, as human, always wish people change to the ways we like/work. However, changing another person is impossible. A person makes changes only because he or she decides to change, not because of others' words. Therefore, the wise people are those 20% of human beings. As for me, I don't think I among those 20% yet.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

0081. Super Wind

I didn't sleep well last night. I heard strong wind blow several times. The wind was so strong that I started to think the house going to be destroyed. Even though the house is not going to destroyed, walking outside must be very tough. Signs, trees, and electricity lines could be brought down by wind. Staying outside not only has to against the windiness also watches out any thing dropped out of nowhere. There is a hospital near by where I live. This is the first time that I hear quite a few ambulance sounds. So there are quite a bit accidents happened this time. I wonder how bad it is after the typhoon leaves this afternoon.
I heard, over the radio, some expert mentioned that the wind gets stronger when the temperature of ocean gets higher during typhoon developing. Will the fact that the temperature of the earth is getting higher and higher cause typhoon bringing in the stronger wind? Who knows? No one dares to make the conclusion. Is there going to be a wind in the future so strong that can blow away cars??

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

0080. What shall we do at the days of Typhoon

Typhoon is here again. Usually, we would know if the day is off in the morning. This time is different, 'cause it is really windy and rainy before Typhoon steps onto the island. The wind is big enough to break my big umbrella. :'( My big umbrella is a good one, its bones not too bad. Actually, all typhoons this year brings in strong wind as well as the huge rain. I often heard people still go around the cities during those typhoon days. I pity them because they have no clue what could do on typhoon days. Today, from my colleague's typhoon-day activity, I realize that some people really ..., never mind, I don't know how to describe these. My colleague got off the work early and guess where she went? KTV!!! (NB. for those you don't know, KTV is a place to sing.) I can't believe this! Sing on those days. I am totally speechless. As for me, house chores, writing, reading, crafting, lots of things to do. I don't need to KTVing to pass time!

0079. Work Swirl (11)

A big surprise waited for us when we arrived at the office, especially for several male colleagues.
The head of this department, vice president, wrote an e-mail inform the entire department changes of human resources. This change was ordered on August 18th by the president. Basically, he re-organized the company into four divison: manufacture, customer relation (CPM), research and development (RD), and quality assurance (QA). RD contains two sets of hardware RD, Wireless RD, and application software RD.
Therefore, there is huge move of people and works between departments. Even though all QA suppose to merge to the large division, but managers in our department wish to keep a few for internal quality controls. However, the job description for staying in the department is not clear. From the time we knew this, we all thought we have the rights to decide whether to go or stay.
Besides my boss, I am the first to know where to go. Originally, I sent an e-mail letter to vice president and wish have a chat about my future development. Praise the Lord, I never thought that this is also happened to the time of change and therefore, I have new direction of work. One of the change is that third party applications and licensing are now combined with application software development. Those third party stuff require several people to handle communication, survey, and verifications. I don't want to be a QA for rest of my life. This new job has similar skills of planners. Therefore I decided to take the new job. The new job title is Feature PM (FPM). During the whole time, I have peace. Believe God will help and lead me at the new work.
As for my rest of colleagues, well, the e-mail we received in the morning decided their futures. For those having hard time to make decisions, they are happy that someone made the decisions for them. But it is a surprise to those three being ordered to stay, especially the one who wished to go to testing division. He didn't expect to stay and was in a crappie mood. I was surprised that top management didn't speak to those three colleagues before they announced the change. I don't agree the way they did. We all thought we have the right to make decisions but never thought the fate is arrived before decisions are made. Then why don't they assign at the beginning? Now I am more curious how top managers are going to comfort them.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

0078. Skype v.s. Google Talk

Skype is really poplular these days. It is so convenient to talk over interent without paying large sum of long distance phone bill. PChome Online, an internet service in Taiwan, also made Skype popular by incorporated Traditional Chinese display. When I first tried Skype, it has the ability to call a fixed line. Now, Skype also provides voice mail services and virtual numbers that others can call in. My division at work even officially requested us to use Skype for internal quiet communications.

Last week, Google announced Google Talk. The UI of Google Talk is a bit like iChat I am using on my iBook. In fact, I can log in with iChat. So far, only people who owe a Gmail account can log in to use. But, if I invite a person who has no Gmail account, Google will send out an invitation to that person. However, if someone's Gamil account has no invitation, then Google only sends out notification without a link to registar a Gmail account. This Talk application does not have many features as Skype - talk and text chat.

Skype is used widely these days. Therefore, Google Talk now has better voice quality (less trafic). It's hard to tell which one will win the battle. Skype functions widely while Google Talk still in beta version. It will be interesting to watch those "talk" battles.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

0077. Work Swirl (10)

Several weeks ago, I changed my attitude while chatting with another colleague about my current status. Not long after our chat, we are reading two books related to work attitudes in our group study. I also read a similar sentence in the book "Investing yourself". The point is the attitude we use to face the situation. The situation may not be the best. However, our attitudes affect our working methods and feelings. Therefore, I decided to talk to my boss, not just work quietly. When I started thinking from a different angle, I felt different.
There are discussions in these days, about the structure changes within the company. We, as QA, are either going to another bigger QA department, or stay at current department with a different title. I may change my job. I will go to the details once everything settled.

Monday, July 25, 2005

0076. Work Swirl (9)

Well, I am not sure wether this is good or bad: This morning, our manager showed us the new organization chart. My title becomes "Project scheduler and MMI Contact". I think this new title just gives me the proper title, because I have been doing those jobs for last half of the years!

Thursday, July 21, 2005

0075. Plan

Others may have life completely plan out. But even though I have a direction I would like to head for, I don't know where or what is next. However, my God knows. That's good enough for me.

Friday, July 01, 2005

0074. baaa~

baaa~ baaa~ I got a new nickname - well-behaved sheep, from the Sheep family (the group of people I am memorizing Bible verses with in ShiLin Zion Church).

0073. Work Swirl (8)

I still remember while I was at home this past March, being asked if I am going to back to North America. My answer was yes but I did promise to stay in this company for at least 2-3 years. I didn't think the time for change is near. However, I started to think about the possibility after getting back and talking to my colleagues.

My department has a new group of people. I am more interested in what they do because it is closer related to what I learned in school. The end of June, I had a chance to talk to some of them. I have a feeling that it is not going to be easy to transfer to their group. I doubt their leader will ask me to join them if there is vacancy. Well, experience is one of the blocking factors and the shortage of testing engineers is another one. The new colleague sitting beside me once told me that I am like someone's secretary. My current job is project releases and its scheduling, not much of actual testing. I asked our manager. He can not put me into the position we planed because the shortage of people. Our projects are multiples of last year, which means the work load is multiple. Our team leader has problem to communicate with others. To let work go smoothly, our manager order me to handle the scheduling, which is supposed to be team leader's job.

I am not happy with the whole situation. Well, next March will be my full two year here, which is the time I promised. I will be leaving if the situation is not changed.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

0072. Work Swirl (7)

I will be going for a business trip in mid June. Up to now, we will stop at German for sure. Orignally, I was told that we may stop at Span. But now we may go England, possible France as well. But my preparation of trip was not quite smooth though. This trip is for the Video telephony. We don't have enough resources due to the still developing environment in Taiwan. I let others use the devices for other applications testing since we didn't have many. Right now, we have enough devices but lack of USIM. I thought I could use this weekend to get more familiar with the device and applications; however, my colleague, who tests Video telephony full time, was told on Friday to work extra hours on Saturday. This implies no testing for me over the weekend. My colleague and I hope I can do the testing while he is busy with other things. Just wish everything goes smoothly!

My company has developed several new devices this past six months. I like one small size PDA phone with keyboard attached. But right now, it is not quite stable for smoother use. New Smartphones are continuation of previous ones. Since it is a bit tedious to type on Smartphone, I prefer PDA phone. The device made for Video Telephony is design for business users. It has been described as electronic dictionary (very common devices in east Asia). Well, it does, plus a rotatable screen. Actually, it is not too bad. The design aims to use on the table. Typing is pretty convenient with keyboard. The size can not be smaller than most PDA phone with that large size of keyboard though. Many of colleagues said this device is too heavy. We even joke this device is a brick, which can hit people ^^ Sorry I can't show you what this device looks like yet, since it is not out in the market yet. Just wait another few months, I will have the pictures for you.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

0071. Keeping Sabbath

I can't remember since when I started to take Sabbath seriously. Maybe because I had an experience of blessing 15th years ago for keeping Sabbath. Maybe because Dad's order. All I know is that I have to keep Sabbath no matter what happened, unless there is a business or class I can not avoid. Therefore, it shocked me when a friend of mine not keeping Sabbath when she is on vacation. Keeping Sabbath is one of the ten commandments that God gave. God was angry with his people when they didn't keep Sabbath. So in my mind, this is not something I should compromise. I never really understand why people does not keep Sabbath.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

0070. The time is near

Just read a part of "The Call": "The time is up and I will not give more chances to the people who say believe in Me but do not follow Me. Those who are not cold nor hot among my people will be removed." (Translated from Chinese, not originally English text) It's hard to describe my feeleing. The prayer I have is that, Dear God, I don't want to be among those whom you about to remove. Help me live more faithfully before you.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

0069. The Helpless(2)

This is to clarify last post. Not long ago, one of the colleague gave me a book to read - Good Luck. The main message of this book is that we can not change fate but we are the one to create luck. It also includes some principles so that readers can apply to their lives. It takes some time to think through these principles in order to apply them into the current situations and life. We happened to study the helpless on the evening of the day I finished that book. I thought about these principles a little bit prior to the Bible study. During the Bible study I realized I don't need to spend time on these principles. The gentile is trying to make more money by using these principles. Jesus is all in all and it's enough to have him. Also, these principles may not help me to get closer to God. I don't need to spend time on these principles. Trust in the Lord because the Lord our God gets closer to the helpless!

Sunday, May 08, 2005

0068. The Helpless

Lately, we are studying Psalms in the Bible. They are many psalms are about the helpless. And these psalms usually end with prayers to God. How ironic that we forget God till we have difficulties! Also, these psalms mention another type of people - the wicked. Often, only a thin line between the helpless and the wicked. For example, the helpless becomes the wicked when others become miserable because he lets out his downside of emotion of being the helpless. I think I need to be reminded often that I am the helpless; otherwise, I am way too easy to forget God.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

0067. Hair style changed

Last time I had a hair cut was almost an year ago. Half year ago, Mom already nagged at me about getting hair cut. I finally make the move. Well, I did more than just hair cut. I permed my hair too! It supposes to look better when my hair is longer. I will take a picture several months later :D

Thursday, May 05, 2005

0066. Memorize Bible verses

A month ago, Sister Wu started to memorize Bible verses with Brother Tung and Sister Lu. They invited me but I didn't have time to memorize one whole chapter each week. Sister Chao felt that we shouldn't be left behind so invited me to do English verses memorization. We both thought it is too much to memorize a whole chapter at beginning. Therefore, we start one verse at time from the list that Pastor Tsao created. Hehe, see how long we can do this.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

0065. Work Swirl (6)

I have been working crazy as soon as my feet steped on Taiwan. 12 hours in the office are pretty normal these days. Last month, I even have to work on Saturday (tight schedule). Right now, I am doing more management side than testing. Since I came back, I have been doing all project releases, communications with PMs and RDs, and support others on testing. Well, these definitely keep me busy all the time.
Do I enjoy? So far, I am not against what I am doing right now. But I am not happy either. I like travel so it will be cool to go on business trips. I get jealous when my colleagues get chances to go for business trips. Also, I have became others' "trash can" (they dump their emotions to me) lately. I got more depressed and disappointed because of the informations from them (about work and people). I began to wonder why on earth I am doing as QA. At the position and work I am doing, I am not going anywhere near my dream professional as HCI consultant. At same time, I don't dare to move at all. God took me to this work environment and I believe He will take me to next work when the time is up. The feeling is frustrated. Well, the good part is because the frastration, I have no choice but cling to God.
One of my colleagues guessed that I have been put into the position to save others. He also mentioned the boss wouldn't give me the most tedious but yet important works unless he trusts me. Maybe he is right. All I wish is that I have more chance to get my hands on HCI.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

0064. "I Am Here"

I shared this song when I made a testimony this morning at church. I learned this song a few weeks back at company fellowship. It was nothing special when I first heard it. But it moved me after we sang couple of times.

I am here because of your grace
I am here because of your love
Lord Jesus, I am so thankful
for your grace abounds to me
Thank you Jesus, Jesus
Jesus, thank you Jesus
It's only by your grace
That I could live today
Forever I will praise your name.

It's so easy to thank God for whatever materials we have. When God takes us move forward, we obey. But we may not thank God for his leading. At least I never give thanks to God for where I am standing. There is nothing to be complained about at my current company. Instead more praises needed for where I am right now, either at work or at home.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

0063. Human Beings

Some Christians make me afraid. I feel like being in the danger whenever I am with these Christians. Typically, I had not done anything but was blamed. No wonder people want to stay away from this kind of Christians, even if they are families. I pray I won't become that kind of Christian.

Friday, February 18, 2005

0062. Thoughts after Winter conference

The topic of winter conference is the preparation of Lord's second coming. Actually, this has been mentioned quite a few times in the last few conferences I had attended. But for some reason, it's not sinking into me deep enough. I find myself always forget about it soon after the conference ends. I think it is because my eyes are not always fixed on Jesus. There are many things that take my focus away. Even now, work is dominated the whole time. I don't think it would help even I post sign because eventually I ignore it. I think the only thing will help me is keeping on my regular devotion time with God and attending church meetings.

0061. Alone & Work Swirl (5)

My brother moved out recently. I have the whole apartment, YA! I don't know if I will get a housemate in the future yet. I am slowly moving my sleeping quarter to where I am sleeping to where my brother slept because there is wardrobe in there. This includes clean up all the junks and reorganizing my stuff. The wardrobe has a big empty space which has no divider. So I use handbags to store some of my clothing. Amazingly, with some clothing folding technique, I fit half of my clothing in there. I still have other personal belongings to move. Hopefully, I will be finished them soon.

As my job, we are supposed to get busier. In fact, there are some re-organization. We only give minimum to the feature phone team, which I was hoping to learn more. So I am moved to IOT team and help testing devices overseas. Yeah, this means some travelling! And it's great being Canadian - so far I don't need to apply for any visa yet (my colleagues are applying visa to Hong Kong, German and possibly UK).

Monday, January 10, 2005

0060. Company products

Many of you must be wondering what kind of products that my company produced. So here are some of them:

Orange UK

T-Mobile German

Dell Axim X50v

Most of them are not available in North America yet. So sorry if you are interested. As for me, my personal favorites up to now are T-Mobile SDA music and T-Mobile MDA compact.

0059. Hot v.s. Cold

The other day, Mom told me that it's so cold in vancouver, snowing, under zero degree etc. I told her that's good. That's winter like. Unlike here (Taiwan), the temperature keeps around 20 except two days (not even under 10 degree). It's not cold at all. I sometimes thought I were too much. But my brother keeps saying it's cold. ^^ Don't hit me! I am so used to the cold weather these days. These two days, I only wear a short sleeves with a thicker sweater cardigan. I took off the cardigan during the yesterday Sunday service because of drowsy and hot air in the 2nd sanctuary. Of course, I scared many. Well, I can't help it. It was hot.

Wonder if Chinese New Year is going to get colder...

Monday, January 03, 2005

0058. Another beginning of the year and updates

Time flies fast. I have been in Taiwan for almost an year. I am now used to here. I sometimes wonder if this is all just a dream. More often, I wonder where God is going to take me.

Mom came for 2 months. It was so nice to have her around for a while. I was being spoiled :P She took care of house chores that Michael and I don't pay much attention for. It seems so easy for her to do it every day. I never get used to doing these chores everyday. LOL Another thing we did while Mom is here was house hunting, but didn't find a house we like. I learned quite a bit from house hunting though. Anyways, with Mom is back to Vancouver, life here is back to where it was - just me.

Mom was joking that I know more people than she does at church now. Church office is like my own office. LOL Thanks to Pastor Tsao, who got me involve in more church activities and services. Otherwise, I could be sitting at back of the pew and no one knows me :)) Here is the list I am involving:

2nd sanctuary organist planner

2nd sanctuary organist and back up organist

Church web site webmaster

Visit Filipine workers of nusing home every two weeks

Part of visitants group (Occasionally)

Plus, two new items:

Sound and visual system technician (which I am alwasy intersted in and done it before)

English translator (Found out yesterday, a surprise)

I guess my life is busier and busier...

As for my work, I know fully back to being a tester. This is because I found a path to achive being a perfessional UI consultant. Also, being a Doc PM is not what I really enjoyed. Even though there are lots of things I can learned from, it is not helping me becoming a UI consultant. Right now we have a great QA manager, which I determine to learn as many as I could from him. He knows a lot of being an RD as well as a QA. Not only that, he determines to make all of us becoming the top of QAs. To start, we had group study of English almost every day. LOL Though I may not need those English practice, it's good to speak English again while learning domain knowledge. By the way, I move my main testing area from Smartphones and PDA phones to feature phones. Right now, I am studying all the backgrounds and environments, which is so boring, I tell you :D

So, it's another beginning of the year. It looks like I will be busy all the time. I like what Pastor Tsao said yesterday - this is an year of HOPE. Hmm, HOPE always.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Friday, October 28, 2005

Friday, September 09, 2005

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Monday, July 25, 2005

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Friday, July 01, 2005

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Friday, February 18, 2005

Monday, January 10, 2005

Monday, January 03, 2005

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