Mid-year Review

Before you know it, it's already July, and half of the year 2008 has gone. Or should I say, good-bye, 1004? :-) It's time to review the few goals that I set for this year if you recall a blog entry from six months ago. (Gosh, I was serious, wasn't I?)

Olympics: I already shared with you that I missed the Olympic torch when it went through my city. Up to this point, I haven't heard anything or from anyone about my volunteer application. May I safely say that I won't get it? Now the question is, will I want to have anything to do with the Olympics - say, going to Beijing to watch a few competitions? Honestly I don't feel passionate about it. As much as I used to enjoy watching it on TV or reading Olympic stories in the books, I don't feel like to be just a spectator this time around.

Traveling: I indeed have lived up my own expectation, traveling extensively the first half of the year, including a home visit to the U.S. (during which I had a few trips within the U.S. to Chicago, Salt Lake City, and L.A.). But I hit a major stumbling block when I returned to Shenzhen: I planned a trip to Dalian a month earlier but I had to skip it due to work pressure!! That was a first time for me. But looking back, I made the right move because we did need some extra effort to turn things around at work. I have two more trips coming up very soon, including one to the NW. I feel good about them because work pressure is not as acute now.

Province: Well, due to the skipped trip to Dalian, I failed to add to the list of provinces that I've travelled to in China. (Dalian is a beautiful city in Liaoning province, which I have not been to.) I look forward to making it up. Dalian is on my list of destinations for the second half of the year.

Movie: The new Three Kingdoms movie is going to be released very, very soon! (In less than two weeks, in fact.) I cannot wait. So much anticipation. The best part of it? There will be two parts of the movie. The first part in July, and the second part in December. This is the Asian edition of the movie. The non-Asian edition that will be released next year will have just one part. I am glad to be in Asia, being able to see the "extended" version.

Balance: I hate to say that I have failed in this area - balancing work and life - but indeed I haven't succeeded. There are plenty signs of improvement, however, and the best part is that I am bringing a positive impact to the project team that I am managing in this area. We are a bunch of engineers, okay? We are a bunch of hard-working engineers. It is probably refreshing for some of them to hear and see a manager who advocates that sufficient rest is key to the success of work. If only I could do what I preach!

I look forward to a better 1004 coming up. :-)

More Updates, Finally

I am now back in the Bay Area, and I realize - actually, I have been fully aware - that I haven't blogged for nearly two months. Time to share some stories, and I don't even know where to begin!

Olympic Torch (Shenzhen)

Okay, let me start by telling the story of the Olympic Torch going through Shenzhen. It occurred on May 8. Originally, it was to start at 8:00 AM, and the route would go through my apartment! I could directly watch the main boulevard where the torch was supposed to go through from my 10th-floor balcony. In addition, our company figured that with the 8 o'clock start, all traffic to work was going to be bad, thus everyone got half a day off. I was getting ready from early morning on, taking photo shots of the main boulevard, hopefully to capture the changes throughout the day.

But then, the torch never came.

What happened? On the same morning, a team decided to climb to the top of the Mount Everest with another torch. CCTV live broadcast the climb and pushed the Shenzhen start to noon. The shortened schedule resulted in a shorten route, and the torch never came to my apartment.

At least I was waiting in the comfort of my own place. Thousands of people were waiting downstairs, under bright sunshine, for hours in vain.

Hospital Visit (Beijing)

My friend Albert's situation didn't improve, and doctors, after several reviews, had all agreed that amputation was the way to go. Albert was to make a decision soon.

Since I'd be going back to the U.S. in about a week (on May 14), I decided to see Albert one more time. I was able to get half-price on round-trip tickets to Beijing for the weekend at the last minute, and I was on my way.

He was in a much better spirit than I last saw him (Easter Sunday), and people around him, including his wife, all appeared to be calmer. It was a time of mutual encouragement. For most of us, it was hard to move our eyes away from a difficult situation - we tend to focus on suffering or misery - while losing perspectives of the whole picture.

Little did we know, something big was about to happen in China. It would force all of us to look at things differently.

The Earthquake (Sichuan)

Monday (May 12) afternoon, news broke out that an earthquake had occurred in Sichuan. Having heard such news quite frequently lately, most of us were a bit numb. Other than asking around if anyone had family or friends in Sichuan, we simply moved along with our daily work.

But the death toll continued to climb and reports were getting more and more serious. By end of the day, everyone was stunned.

A week later (May 19), the whole nation started a 3-day mourning period, and on the minute exactly a week from the earthquake, the whole nation observed 3 minutes of silence. (I was already back in the U.S., but I happened to be still up working at that moment. I was in sync with everything my Chinese coworkers were doing.)

By the time of this blog entry (May 23 China Time), the total number of dead and missing has reached over 80,000.

People in China have responded tremedously. I've never seen so many people coming together with such a unified thought: Save the victims and rebuild their homes. The year 2008 will be remembered for many big events in China, but I wonder, between the Olympics and the earthquake, which event truly pulled the great nation together.

Touring the City (1) (San Francisco)

On a lighter note, after returning to the U.S., I promptly became the tour guide for my Chinese coworkers who had been in the U.S. for a business trip. They were on their way back to China - and indeed much of our conversations was about the earthquake - and I hosted them in the Bay Area. Two interesting notes:

1) On Friday afternoon we visited Google. Previously I had took some Chinese coworkers (also on business trips) to this famous company, but each time it was on a Saturday, and almost nobody was around for the weekend.

Friday afternoon was a different scene, but I didn't quite realize this fact. I led them into the campus as if we were working there. We took up a few bicycles and began to ride around. It was nice. Then I asked someone - in uniform - to take a picture for us.

"No, I cannot do that," he replied in a serious tone. Oh my, that was when I realized that something was wrong. "Are you employees here?" "No." "Are you visiting Google employees here?" "No." "Then you are not supposed to be here."

For the rest of our "visit," security guards' eyes were all on us. There was even a security vehicle that followed us all the way to where I parked!

2) There appeared to be some doubts in their minds about the Golden Gate Bridge. "What's so special about it?" They heard a lot about it and had seen photos. "Wait until you actually see it" was my reply.

We got there on a Saturday morning, and while we were still on the freeway, the bridge appeared, with the main body surrounded by a belt of fog. Yet it was a very bright day, and the top of the bridge completely bathed in the sunshine. It was a perfect combination. My coworkers were simply stunned, almost speechless.

The Bridge never disappoints.

Touring the City (2) (Chicago)

Then I was on my way to Chicago! Two of my coworkers returned to China on Sunday, and one stayed for his prolonged vacation. We were invited to visit a couple in Illinois, who once worked in Shenzhen and became good friends of ours. Two interesting notes for this trip:

1) Chicago left quite an impression to my coworker. First of all, it surprised him. He was expecting a totally modern city, but at the end, he appreciated more the parts that showcased the history of the city, including the seemingly old train system.

We took "L" to downtown, went up the Sears Tower, hopped on a bus to go through the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Ave, had Chicago-style pizza for dinner, and got on "L" again back to Midway Airport, before renting a car for the rest of the trip.

The ride from Chicago to Champaign, where our friends live, was also marvelous. The flat and wide farmland was an eye-opener for my coworker.

2) Seeing old friends was the most precious! Seeing them with their new-born babies - twins! - was even more special. The twins were a boy and a girl, and our immediate assignment was to come up with Chinese names for the babies before we would leave.

(Being Caucasians, they learned limited Mandarin while living in China, and one of the pleasant surprises from our visit was that they found that they didn't lose that much.)

We had light meals (including a BBQ at their backyard), and we chatted a lot. The rest of the time we just watched the babies cry and smile. The whole thing wasn't at all some all-out party, but our visit was filled with peace and joy.

At the end we came up with Chinese names for the twins. We inserted the words "love" and "holy" into their names, and they sounded like their English names. Their parents liked the names. I hope that they will too when they grow up.

April 1st

This morning we had our team daily meeting at 9:15 as usual. I first apologized to everyone for the lack of energy I displayed yesterday due to lack of sleep. I then told them that I was able to get a hold of our U.S. customer last night to follow up on some issues that we needed feedback. "There are major changes to the current release scope," I then announced. "Since the Abu Dhabi features are so crucial, we are going to defer the two biggest features that we are working on to the next release."

The whole team just exploded. "Not again!" "How can they do this?!" "All the effort we've put in!"

I turned around and wrote on the white board: APRIL FOOL'S DAY

They didn't stop shouting, but now it was like, "I cannot believe that we fell for it." "Just this morning I was thinking today is April Fool's Day, but I still thought you were for real."

I was having a good time - I am sure they were too - until someone said, "Jim, we are not going to believe anything that you say from now on."

Just today, please? Just today.

March 16 Updates

It's been almost a week since March 16, but it is such a special date that I am still going to use it to mark this batch of updates.

Special Dates

What's so special about March 16? Twenty-one years ago (1987) on this date, my family moved to the U.S. Then 16 years later, or five years ago (2003) on this date, a Sunday, I returned to my home church after a 9-month absence. That started a series of events that eventually brought me back to China.

One date that can rival March 16 is my birthday, October 13. I was, well, born on that date, and when my parents bought their first house in Berkeley, they moved in on October 13, 1990, shortly before I went to Northwestern University near Chicago. Then, more than three years ago, on October 13, 2004, I left California on my way back to China.

Fun Day at the Beach

Before I move on to this year's March 16, allow me to look back at a week ago when my whole project team (plus family) went to the beach to celebrate our software release. At the time we didn't even know yet if the release was successful without much of customer's feedback - so far still quiet, which belongs to the "no news is good news" category - but the whole team was so looking forward to a break. We were the first team to take such a break, and I was very glad that we did it.

Here are a couple of photos:


I think I looked rather cool. :-) So we had BBQ at the beach, took a boat ride into the sea, more BBQ, and played games (including a popular "Killing Game"). When the sun started to go down, we left the beach and hit a local restaurant to have fresh seafood for dinner. Everyone enjoyed it.

But somehow toward the very end, I felt a bit heavy, since such fun was short-lived. We were going back to office the next day, as another release was coming up. Maybe we just need to hit the beach more often.

Coworker's Son

One of our coworkers couldn't join the fun at the beach, as his son was submitted to a hospital two days before our event. The 3-year-old boy had a heart defect at birth, and finally they felt it was time for the boy to have a surgery to fix it.

A few days later we received the news that the surgery was not successful. Luckily the boy was all right; it was just that his problem wasn't fixed. He probably didn't have an open-heart surgery but went with a newer technology.

I told our HR about it, and the next day they sent someone to visit the father and the son. It was in the middle of the day, and we couldn't go alone. We picked a photo from our beach outing and made a greeting card for everyone on the team to sign. (Note the date seems to say 9/3, but actually it was 3/9: an Asian way of showing date.)


Beneath the card I wrote, "Do you know why we didn't have a group photo at the beach? Because you and your family were not there!" (Well, actually we forgot to take one. :-) Then I added a little note, "This is our team's future office!" A nice little dream. Then everyone signed their name inside the card.

Later that evening he called me and thanked everyone for the card.

Mom's Update

A couple of days after that I learned from my sister of my mother's newest update - especially on whether or not she needs a surgery. She went to see a second doctor, who actually did offer a second opinion. As opposed to the first doctor who strongly suggested my mom to go ahead with a surgery as soon as possible, the second doctor actually thought that my mom could wait and see.

I called mom again on March 16 (and of course reminding her of the special date), and she suddenly wasn't sure what to do next. Previously when the first doctor recommended a surgery, she didn't like the idea, but somehow the second opinion didn't seem to bring her much peace either.

I was planning to book a flight home if - or when - my mom would schedule an operation. Now I am still looking at a May-June home visit.

"Eight Immortals"

Our U.S. client sent a big team to visit us the past two weeks. At one point there were eight of them in our office. It was as if the whole U.S. engineering team was in China. In the past I had been the main person to take care of everyone; it would have been impossible with eight of them. Luckily more than half of them had been to Shenzhen (even more than once), and two of them were also originally from China. I didn't have to spend much time with them outside work.

When we first learned that eight of them were coming, I jokingly related it to a Chinese legend in which "eight immortals crossed the sea" (八仙过海). It was quite fitting as they were flying over the Pacific Ocean.

By now the "eight immortals" have just one left in Shenzhen, and most of the rest are probably on an airplane back to the U.S. at this very moment.

Good Friday

Today (March 21) is Good Friday, and I wore this T-shirt to work. I bought it in a NW city during one of my trips there last summer.

I was able to share a little bit about Easter with my project team at our team meeting and, of course, much more extensively later in the evening during the Nicodemus Club activities.

Weekend Traveling

I have not been on an airplane for two months! This weekend that streak is going to end. I will go to Beijing to visit a friend who has been in hospital for almost 4 months! Actually, when the last time I went to Beijing for Thanksgiving, he was still fine. Shortly afterwards, he ran into big trouble.

He has a blood defect that is genetic. The blood would not clot when he is bleeding. In early December his leg began to bleed internally, and he had to submit to a hospital. Since then he has had two operations and changed one hospital, but the problem still hasn't gone away. A few weeks ago I thought about visiting him during the Easter weekend (he is both a coworker in Beijing for the same software company and a brother in Him), but I became so busy afterwards (thanks in no small part to the "eight immortals") that I basically dropped the plan.

But this morning I learned that he was not doing well at all. Since my plan in Shenzhen for weekend changed - there is no urgency for me to be around - I decided to make a trip to Beijing after all. Luckily, as it often happens to me when it comes to traveling :-), I was able to get half-price round-trip tickets at the last minute. I will be going on Saturday and coming back on Sunday.

Please join me to pray for my friend. Before you think that his situation is all bad, please give thanks and praises because during these few months, his parents and two close relatives all came to the Lord.

Women's Day

Today (March 8) is the International Women's Day, which China and several other countries celebrate. Typically it's a half-day holiday for all the working ladies, but this year it happens to be a Saturday. By China's rule, holidays that are not observed by all people will not make up if they happen to fall on weekends. These include the Women's Day, the Youth Day, and the Children's Day.

Our company announced yesterday that we would follow the nationwide rule, which made me somewhat upset. We are a private company, and why can't we observe our own rules and show a little bit more appreciation to the ladies at the office? What's more? Today happened to be a big software release date, and several project teams would need to conduct a "minimum acceptance test," and most testers happened to be ladies. They had to work overtime on their holiday. And they won't get extra time off to make it up?

So I went out my own way and bought them flowers this morning. :-) Guess what? I wasn't the only one who thought of it! Another engineer ordered 2 dozens of red roses and handed them out. I picked white roses from a florist just across street from where I live, but they only had 19 left (I was thinking two dozens too). As it turned out, I was one stem short! Luckily, the 3 ladies on my project team contributed one of their white roses. Talking about team work!

Fast forward to the afternoon. I went out during lunch time for another engagement, and I told the developers and testers that "when I get back, I hope that you are all done and gone." But when I got back at about 4, they were still there. They had finished the testing, and there was one minor bug which was easy to fix, but, as I walked in, they told me, "Jim, we just ran into a big problem a few minutes ago." They had just encountered a "technical difficulties" error.

I am not giving any technical details here, but this issue had bothered us for the past 2 weeks. We thought that we had finally eliminated it, but it seemed to surface again at a bad time! We all wanted to go home early, especially when we were going to have a big day tomorrow (I will probably do a separate entry on that). Now what?

I said, well, we need to do our job; please look into it. But just then, one of the testers exclaimed, "That's strange. How come I don't see the error now?" So all 3 ladies got busy again trying to reproduced the bug, but they couldn't. It just disappeared! With my thick skin, I wouldn't miss such an opportunity. "I am so sorry, ladies," I said, "I should have come back earlier to make the bug gone sooner or even prevent it in the first place."