70 and Counting

Just arrived in Hong Kong, entering this entry while waiting for shuttle going to Shenzhen. It was my 70th time flying across the Pacific Ocean. More than half of the flights were business trips to China between 7~10 years ago; I have been going between the two continents at least once a year since. After moving to Shenzhen, two home visits a year add 4 times across the Pacific to the total. By this rate, in 7~8 years I shall reach the number 100.

In addition, I've flown over the Atlantic Ocean twice, the Indian Ocean zero times, and the Arctic Ocean zero times. Now you see that I don't really have much to brag about. :-)

Year 2008 in Preview

(The above is a drawing of Christmas trees and gifts by my niece Kadia. She will be 4 years old in a month.)

Year 2008 is one week old, and we already know everything that is going to happen this year, right? Actually, when I was doing the review list for Year 2007 (previous post), I realized that 3-4 out of the 5 things, I didn't foresee. Nonetheless, here are 5 things that I look forward to this year.

1. Olympics volunteering

It has always been one of my dreams to be part of the Olympics, and of course the opportunities come again this year. I registered to be an international volunteer, but so far I haven't heard anything back yet. (The cutoff date for international registration is March.) I probably will be more proactive once I get back to Shenzhen, giving them a call or two to express my desire.

Perhaps I will have a better chance to volunteer for the Special Olympics, which is right after the Summer Olympics, also in Beijing.

2. More traveling - to the NW

My weekend traveling will likely continue (since I now have mastered the art). In fact, I already booked a trip to Singapore in January, meeting a bunch of friends from the summer orphanage programs. It seems that we won't have a summer camp this year, however.

On the other hand, I most likely will go on my other annual trip, the English teaching trip in October. Oh, in case you haven't heard yet, in China they will take out the May holiday "golden week." Instead, they will have all the traditional holidays including Mid-autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping Day) as public holidays.

I should make at least one other trip to the NW in 2008 since now I have friends living there.

3. One more province

And I look forward to adding another province to my list of "places in China that I have been to." The last three years since I moved to Shenzhen, I added one province each year: Guangxi in 2005, Qinghai in 2006, and Hainan in 2007. In total I have been to 24 provinces (or regions and cities at the same level) in China, with 10 to go.

Which one is the next? Yunnan? Hunan? Hubei? Or one of the northeastern provinces?

4. Three Kingdoms movie

I am a big fan of the Chinese classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Three Kingdoms to Chinese people is like Lord of the Rings to the English-speaking people. That's why I am so look forward to this movie they are going to push out in summer called Red Cliff, which tells the story of one of the major battles of that era. It's directed by John Woo. They have just finished the filming a month ago (you can tell I am following it), and it's in post-production. It is the most expensive Chinese movie that has ever been made.

How big a fan I am of Three Kingdoms? Way back in the early 1990's, when the Internet was new (no World Wide Web yet) and Chinese language first appeared on the Internet, the first electronic version of the novel (partial) was published on the Net by a computer science student in Northwestern University named Jim. I typed in 23 out of the 120 chapters character by character, including 8 chapters on the Battle of Red Cliff.

5. Balanced lifestyle (or...)

Maybe I should put something specific here instead of a general phrase like "balanced lifestyle." Well, you all see that the way that I have been working, including doing His work, is not entirely healthy. I don't regret for any of the effort that I put in, but I've got to remember that this is for the long haul. In fact, you all know that I am a marathon runner, not a sprinter.

So, anything specific? How about going on a date? I didn't do that during the whole 3 years in Shenzhen. Maybe that could be a goal for 2008? One date? Two? Two and half? Sometimes you could have one that's counted as "negative one," in which case you will need a couple more to end up positive. Yeah, dating should definitely put some balance into my life. (Pause) Or is it going to actually throw me further out of balance? :-)

Kidding aside, my dear friends, you know what's on my heart. Thank you for your prayers!

Reviewing Year 2007

We have now entered a new year. Time to look back the past year a little bit.

1. Weekend traveling

I did a lot of weekend traveling during the year 2007, especially in the second half. A typical trip would be leaving SZ on Friday night or early Saturday morning and returning to SZ on Sunday evening. What can one accomplish for such a short trip? Plenty, if you focus on a particular purpose instead of trying to do too much. I think I am mastering the art of weekend traveling, and I am getting really good at finding cheap airfare in China. :-)

Almost all my weekend trips were to visit friends (with occasional sightseeing as a bonus).

2. Journey to the West

I made three trips to the far west in 2007. Summer trip to the orphanage, autumn trip to teach English, and a Thanksgiving trip during which I covered both BJ and LZ in one weekend.

3. Managing projects

My workload continued to increase in 2007, and more than before, I had a deeper sense of the pressure that almost all the software engineers in my company were constantly under, especially when I was directly involved in project management on top of handling the communications with the U.S client. I had hoped that I could show a different way, but before long, I realized that I wasn't doing any better when it came to keep balance in life and work. The best I could do was to show the teams that I treated them as real people instead of mere "resource" and that I valued them more than the projects or products. That was, of course, when I began to have conflicts with upper or other managers. Thankfully there had been no direct confrontation. After all, I have a heart for them (directors and managers) too. I don't really think that I know much more about management, and I am just observing and learning. And pr*ying.

4. Home visits

I couldn't be more thankful about my home visits in 2007. I was able to stay in the Bay Area for three months from April to July, working mostly from home. The catch was that I was on Chinese pay during my U.S. stay, but hey, I knew what was more precious.

My parents moved to San Jose in July (and had their old Berkeley house sold by September), much closer to my sister and brother-in-law. My father is doing better physically, and during the current home visit, I had made a few more friends (both Cantonese and Mandarin speaking) and invited them to visit my parents.

5. Baby boom!

There were about 10 ladies in my company who had babies this year! In addition, 3 ladies in my home group back in the Bay Area also had babies this year.

There were of course also new "babies" in the spiritual sense. More than a dozen Chinese coworkers made the decision in 2007. PTL!