There is his new book Why Mars &Venus Collide: Improving Relationships by Understanding how Men and Women Copy Differently with Stress (2008).  This is very interesting book.  It surely holds a sexist view, so it's supposingly not a cup of tea for sociologists.  However, this guy is always ass-kicking in that he was able to capture/depict some real phenomena from everyday life.  In statistical terms, he is able to describe behaviors that are within 95% of confidence interval (i.e. within ± 2s of the m) of the bell-shape curve!  And he doesn't stop at describing things; he tried to give solutions!  His Mars & Venus series is enjoyable to read.  For more details on this book, click on the the official book description here at http://www.marsvenus.com/collide/collide.php

I found this line stunning--- "Women's brains are wired to be more verbal, and tending and befriending is how women relax.  By talking without solving any problems, a profound change occurs just in a few minutes" (Page 116).  See how sexist it is?  But you the girls and some will agree with it :) haha.  I lost my sociology to this old-school relationship book.

Song of the Week

I embedded this song on the left panel of my front page, www.xanga.com/ngyukkai

I was hypnotized by this old song: Bee Gees' How Deep Is Your Love.  In November 2007 I had a chance to go to the wedding banquet of my colleague.  The restaurant there played those love songs, one of which is this song.  That reminded me about this long-time-no-listened song.  Keep listening and listening it again and again and again.

Dr Stephen Tong's evangelistic conference (yesterday)

It was held at Hung Hom's Hong Kong Coliseum.  It was seated almost 3/5 of all available seats.  Meow and I invited church people to go.  We met CBC Nelson and his friend there!  The world is so small.  CBC Stephen also came!  Very nice of him to come with us even if he has prior activities.

Work? Life?

I echo with Stephen Sze's habit that, in order to truly take rest and relax, I must stay home instead of going to the street.  We felt that to take rest, one needa stay home instead of arranging tons of activities on weekend.  Activities are in total contrast with the workplace, but activities themselves are equally stressful.  There's no way to relax when you have a tight activities schedule on the weekends. 

Activities without detailed planing would be ideal, such as going to the beach; going to buffet; and going to cafe.  These activities tend to be spread over in a whole morning/afternoon.  However, if it is planned to go to the mall and then meet up a friend and then dinner with somebody else in the same am or pm, that's rather making you hectic.

It could be your leisure style, but it can't be mine .

I'm very very said today because my supervisor is leaving to work at another university.  If I have the luxury, I wanna leave as well.  But on the other hand I would like to accumulate more years of experience at the same employer.

Very tough for me.

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A new way to fight with jetlag.  http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/brain_clock_dc.html

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At church we had bible trivia on Acts.  Competitions are fun, and it is time to see if you daliy read bibles .  At the end, I went to talk to a new friend who went to study abroad in the US.  He just finished 1 semester and came back Hong Kong during summer for vacation. 

He asked me bla bla bla on possibility of transferring good schools; he asked the prospects of working in Hong Kong.  Finally, he asked me a tough question:

"Having walked on this pathway (i.e. transferred to the UCLA), do you consider youself as 'successful' ?"

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) is soooo sweet.  <---the language shouldn't be coming out of a guy but i just have say it.  But I don't buy its idea that all of a sudden all the wish came true and just be happy with who ever runs into you and have a crush with you.

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As I work in HK for quite some time, I realize the troubles at workplace..  Sometimes at work people are making a fuss.  That really slows down the business.  Then there are the times of misunderstanding, snowballing into a deep "hatred".  That "hatred" may grow into bureaucracy.  Sigh.

Very tired of it.  But I think I just have to live with it.

You must watch this Rendition (2007) movie TOGETHER WITH its special feature --- a documentary showing 2 real secret abductions cases.  You'll be truly moved by the movie and especially the documentary.

More details on extrodinary rendition from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Michael Clayton (2007) is a bit boring.  George Clooney is not very cool in the film.  Nevertheless, the ending scene is nice.

In this postmodern society (or post-postmodernity), the media creates reality.  Below is a video showing how much Hu Jintao cares and thanks the Hong Kong people.  Here is the essense of the video with reference to the video play-time:

1. At second 00:34, a Hong Kong journalist got closer to President Hu and asked him if he could say a few words to Hong Kong people. 
2. At seconds 00:35 to 00:37, President Hu's security guards pushed away the Hong Kong journalist.
3. At second 00:38, President Hu murmured, "I gotta say a few words to her (i.e. the Hong Kong journalist)", and he ran through his security guards to grab the mic and started his speech.

President Hu got the right timing and such a good opportunity to televise his care to Hong Kong people.  If you needa do a homework on "critical thinking," this is how the media creates reality.  No kidding --- if you elaborate more along this line, you will get an A for a course like Sociology of Mass Communication or Sociology of Media.

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The worship team went well.  I needa start practicing piano for worship team, not solo anymore.  I needa care about the guitarists too----not to shadow the guitar voice..etc.  Long way to go..

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) is a 160 mins film.  It's quite accurate in outlining the brief history of the famous American outlaw Jesse James. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck are cool.

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The whole day I was practicing the songs for tomorrow's worship team.  Hands broken!  But I'm happy to have the opportunity to serve in this new church I joined since Feb 08.  Needa be humble.

Boys and Girls (2000) is an interest one depicting both right and wrong views about relationships. The guy was originally commitment-driven, but eventually he got peer pressure and swtiched to become passion-driven.  Then both the guy and girl realized that a suprb important element in relationship.

Kinda bored but worthy to watch.  You can see how a young couple, who knew each other accidentally on the flight, grew up and went to the same high school and same university.  Yet you see them grow physically and mentally as well.

With regard to the recent disasters, if you're thinking of making donations, may I recommend to you World Vision Hong Kong for the following reasons:

1. Low usage (only 5.6%) of funds for administrative and fund-raising purposes (details);
2. A series of scheduled responses to any disasters - so you know how your money would probably help (details); and
3. It's a Christian organization.

Ways to donate to World Vision Hong Kong