Blue Sunday

How can Sunday be blue? Because I am currently in Israel, and Israeli people work from Sunday to Thursday. So I am right now sitting in this meeting room, for my blue Sunday to unfold in front of me. First meeting is coming up in an hour. Darn

New ICash Card

Our 7-11 came up with the idea of iCash card, with which people could store cash value in it, and use it as cash, so they could be spared of the need to bring or get a lot of coins. I love the idea and I go to 7-11 quite often, so MM gave me one card with graphics of World of Warcraft. However, the card broke few weeks ago, last week I received a replacement card as shown on the photo here. A girl with long curly hair and long neck. I am really not crazy for it. I think I'll just use up the cash value in the card, and remove it from my wallet. One less card, simpler life. I am such a minimalist.

Good Morning, Tel Aviv.

I finally arrived at the hotel way past midnight yesterday, after a short flight to Hong Kong, 3-hour layover, and then another 11-hour flight to Tel Aviv. The flight was bumpy sometimes, but uneventful. Food on the plane was tasty. I supposed it is Israeli food, and glad that I do not know anything about it, so had nothing to compare. I finished all the food, including the roll of bread.

Few coworkers told us to be careful of the security check, and always remember the visa is issued from Bangkok, not from Taipei. Some people were asked of this question, and were taken to small rooms for interrogation just because they were not careful and gave the wrong answer. In fact when we were at the airport, we did not see those small rooms.

When we checked in at Tao-yuan airport, we did not get boarding pass for the second leg, so had to go to the counter of Israel Airlines at the Hong Airport for the boarding pass. There are 2 procedures to get it. One is to go for a short interview first, and then stand in line before the counter for check-in. The lady who interviewed me went through my passport page by page, and seemed to serious concerns that I had been to Malaysia before. She specifically asked me why I went to Malaysia, what I did, if I still kept contact with anyone in Malaysia. Of course at this point, even the stupid person would shake his head and say no. Any could be adventurous and say yes, but if the purpose of this trip is for business, of course he cannot be denied entry just because he gives a stupid answer to the custom. If the trip is just for personal vacation, of course he would not say yes and risk the chance of being rejected and the vacation ruined. So her questions really do not make any sense of all. Of course sometimes we do things just to make ourselves feel better...

Anyway in the morning I got up, went to the balcony, and realized, wow, the hotel is right by very nice beach. It was 7am, and I always saw people in swimming suit walking on the beach. Too bad, the taxi would pick me up at 9:30 to the office.

Good morning, Tel Aviv!

Hiring

I am not sure how hiring managers look at my resume when I apply for jobs, but when I'm hiring, no matter if I am in well established, globally recognized company, or in this tiny little pathetic local office, I always wonder, how come the economy is so bad, but I still cannot hire anyone good and capable.

Recently the resume I received probably explained some of my questions.

Our job title is Mechanical Engineer. We are looking for someone with mechanical design and manufacturing experience. Our company name and website are also published, so it should not be a problem to find out information about our products and job description. However, the resume I received really contains little relevant information.

The first page only shows his education history, professional capability, project he has worked on (Nokia xxxx really does not tell me anything other than that he probably worked on cell phone projects before), and his thesis, which is mostly on fluid mechanics.

Education and the thesis that one spends 2 years on is important to the individual, however, it is really irrelevant to the position that we open. With 5 years' experience, I really hope this candidate can explain more about what he does on the job, the people he interacts with, and his achievements in the project. Good degree from a good school provides a good baseline of this candidate, at least, he can do research independently, but I really do not want to know his majors and the courses he has taken, unless it's absolutely related to the job.

The second page is his self introduction, or autobiography, a common requirement here for candidates. He starts with "Your job posting came to my attention while exploring opportunities in the area of engineering...". Sounds interesting. Then he, again, explain his academic study, in car dynamics, and his current job. Basically I know he works on finite element simulation. That's all. I can draw such simple conclusions from 2 long paragraphs. All I can say is, if he ever spent few minutes looking at our products or our job description, he would have come up with something else on his resume, really.

I am almost sure this is a generic resume he sends out to every company. If we have the resource to train and wait for him to come up with the speed, we may try. He has not shown any compatibility between him and our position after all. With 5 years' experience, he should be able to present himself in resume better. He may be capable, and has done a lot to analyze model, or even influence designers to change the design before it's too late, but I do not see any result from the resume, and how can I know it if he does not say so in the resume?

It is really not that hard to get my attention. The problem is most of the resumes are too generic. It seems that those candidates want to use the same resume to apply for any job by giving out as little as information as possible.

I told our HR, we can put his resume aside and review if we should get him for an interview maybe few weeks later based on his good record of schools. Reading resume and interviewing really are time-consuming process. How can they just send out resumes just like that? Well, it is really beyond my imagination.

How to Lure New Customers?

The best way for me as a customer is to offer free samples, and this is what Amazon is doing. I just recently noticed there are a lot of free music to download from Amazon. New music, new artist. I'll never want to buy their new CD's if I do not even have a chance to try their music at all, and what is the chance of me picking up their CD in the music store here in Taiwan and asking to try it? The attached photo is just one whole album of free sampler I downloaded last night from Amazon. Only listened to few, and it has been fun, something new to my collection and experience.

Drifting Flowers

A gay/lesbian movie. The environment the characters live in looks so familiar to me, which makes me feel that it is a story that could really happen any time to anyone around me. The way they talk combining Taiwanese and Mandarin may not sound exactly the same to what I know, and so it is hard to tell when the story happens. Not sure if the director even cares to show that, or deliberately blurs the time.

The major complaint I have for the previous movie "Spider Lilies" of the same director is the lack of music. So many clips in Spider Lilies were left without any voice or any kind of sound that made me wonder if the movie was ever finished before it was released. This time, so much better. Some transitions were filled with Nakashi (I cannot explain this kind of music, but guess all Taiwanese know it) style of music, some were left blank intentionally. I enjoyed that.

The whole movie is divided into 3 sections. We learned that one major character of the first section, Jugou, met Shui-lien, one major character of the second section, when they were teenagers. Shui-lien helped Jugou explore her sexuality, in a way. They went out to have fun, and it rained, and they hid in the truck (come on, this has been used a thousand times), that's when they kissed (of course). When we thought something was going to happen, and kept the eyes wide open, without blinking, fearing we could have missed anything major and important, anxiously waiting for their next move, they burst into laughters and just relaxed in the seats. Maybe they were just feeling awkward, a bit embarrassed of what they were doing, or maybe even a mutual understand, and a total acceptance of themselves.

The third sections ends with a conversation between them both. Jugou said she will leave home, find a woman she loves, and start her life. Shui-lien said she cannot leave, because she is the only kid in the family.

Then we understand in the first section, after Jugou left home, she met Jing and they ended up being a couple. They sang in Shui-lian's sham marriage, the way for Shui-lien to hide herself and have a life with her partner. We do not know how her partner died, but when the second story starts, she is an old woman already, with Alzheimer. She could not recognize her lawful husband, and thought he was her partner. She forced to dress him up like a woman, that leads to many laughters and tears. He tried to run, escape, but at the end of the second section, he wrote a note, put it in a wristband, and asked Shui-lien to wear it at all times. The note says, "I am Shui-lien. I have Alzheimer. In case of emergency, please contact Huang Guo-yen (A-hai)". Huang Guo-yen is his real name. A-hai is Shui-lien's partner's name. He knows Shui-lien will always her him A-hai. Their lives are entwined, however.

Everyone deserves a partner, has his way to look for happiness. We may think we have finally found the one and built a life, like Jugou and Jing, Shui-lien and A-hai, but we can never know what will happen next, if life will become so harsh on us.

And then in the evening, when I got home and checked my email, one new mail rested in my inbox titled "69 Reason Why It Is Good To Be A Lesbian". What a lesbian day for me! Below is the mail.

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I couldn't help but thinking about you when I saw that...

here it is....


1. You don't have to worry about gagging from a "deep throat job"

2. You never have to worry about finding the toilet seat up

3. You can fix your own car and get your hair done within the same afternoon

4. Your orgasms are real. Always. And so are hers.

5. You never have to swallow.

6. You never have to worry about facial hair touching you, anywhere.

7. No one cares if you don't wear a bra.

8. You can wear a dick and use it better than most guys

9. Foreplay is an art

10. You are your own form of birth control

11. Women smell amazing

12. You don't feel like a piece of meat, when she checks you out

13. You can cuddle without feeling like you have to "put out"

14. You find a woman's intellect to be sexy

15. You watch porn for entertainment purposes

16. You feel bad for strippers

17. Orgasms are like Cornucopias – they should called the horn of plenty 18. You never have to worry about breaking a nail, because you don't have any

19. You can pretty much have sex anywhere, at anytime, while flying completely under the radar

20. Sex in public bathrooms is so much easier

21. 69ing is so much more fun (and a lot easier too) Hillbilly

22. I love the smell of a woman

23. I get to do the motor boat in my girlfriend's fabulous tits every day!

24. I love the emotional availability of a woman

25. I love the nurturing care a woman offers

26. I love watching my girlfriend get ready for a night on the town – watching her get out of the shower naked, put on her perfume, do her makeup

27. I like the feel of a soft pussy over a hard, intrusive penis

28. I love cuddling and feeling my girlfriend's soft skin

29. I love kissing a woman's soft lips (yes, both of them – cuz I know that's what you're thinking!)

30. I get to have a best friend and a partner all in one

31. I get to wear her clothes and use her make-up!!! Dubbs

32. great nicknames…like carpet muncher

33. sex on a first date…without fear of pregnancy

34. "no man's ever going to tell ME what to do!"

35. it's like dating yourself 36. double the wardrobe, double the FUN!

37. WAY less body hair

38. no spooging in your face

39. women taste better

40. especially the vegan ones

41. one word…BOOBIES!!!

42. "we were just switching clothes, officer!"

43. No 2 clits are alike!

44. Women make sexier bedroom noises

45. Lingerie you can BOTH wear!

46. Double headed dildos

47. The ultimate in feminism

48. Chick flicks are just movies in a lesbians house

49. better kisses

50. no scratchy faces

51. you LIKE when she grabs your ass

52. if it really came down to it, you could totally find SOME dude who'd pay to watch you go down on your girlfriend

53. women don't pass out after orgasms

54. you can do her front ways, back ways, and side ways cuz the wrist moves freer than the hips

55. fingers always fit

56. never having to deal with "morning wood"

57. less farting…which I don't actually know is true but women do not take pride in it

58. you could call her your "roommate" and it's ok Paula the Surf Mom

59. premature ejaculation? what IS that?

60. Eating pussy is good for the complexion… it always makes mine pretty rosy any way.

61. The trashman never sees used condoms in your trash when he hauls it away.

62. If you work it right you and your partner never have to buy your own drinks when you go out… all you have to do it make out… the guys in the bar will just keep em coming just so you keep it going.

63. Lesbians know that you can do more with your fingers then send text messages.

64. Somebody will always has a tampon in an emergency

65. And your partner won't get all embarrassed if you send them to the store to get you some.

66. You are very popular… girls like lesbians, they all want to kiss us….guys like lesbians, they all want to watch movies about us… everybody likes lesbians.

67. Two mommies in the house are always better then one daddy on the golf course

68. You are sure somebody can cook

69. It good to have a partner who has a sense of fashion

HSBC

For a very long time, I only have one credit card from local banks in Taiwan. Part of the reason is that one credit card is really good enough for me. I always pay off the amount due, and really treat the charges I put on the credit card as cash I spend. As pretty much a minimalist, one more credit in my wallet is no good. I carry the credit cards I applied in US when I travel, just to make sure I have additional card with me just in case if for any reason, the one does not work. It will be a hassle to pay the bill from Taiwan anyway, and luckily I ended up not using them at all.

But I also like to have the convenience of an additional card from local bank just in case if anything happens when I travel, and I want to be able to pay the bill easily. So I decided on one card when the bank was running promotion. Not so sure of what the promotion is now. It had something to do with movies. It was like a large percentage off when I watched the movies at certain theaters during the week.

There were many rumors of credit card frauds flying around, so I did not fill out the form right at the theater. I asked for a business card from the bank employee, took it home, did my assessment, and decided to go ahead with the application. I filled out the form, and called the bank to make sure the person I talked to at the movie theater was actually their employee, then I sent out the application.

I waited and waited, and then waited, but received no response whatsoever. I called the customer service. The lady who answered my call was polite, but wanted me to do all I could to make sure I had filled out everything, included all the required documents, and sent it out. Of course I was annoyed, and was so sure I had done everything. I even kept the date when I sent it. I was complaining so much over the phone until the lady promised to search for my application and give me a call back once she has more information.

She called few days later and told me because the form I had filled out was out of date, so they decided not to approve my application, and my application form was shredded.

Right, they did not even bother to send me a notice for their disapproval. I was wondering if she did not find anything at all, anyway, I was so angry that I decided not to do anything with this bank anymore.

Oops, never say never. The new company I work for now uses this bank to deposit employee’s paychecks, so every employee must have their account. Their account provides very minimum services, only savings account and mutual fund. That’s all, not even CD. The good thing about this account is that I don’t have to pay transaction fee when I use ATM of other banks to withdraw cash. I can also set up 5 special accounts, so when I transfer fund to any of those 5 accounts, no transaction fee will be incurred either.

So I’m going to just keep enough for my monthly expense, so I can withdraw without paying fee, enough to pay credit bill, so I can pay online without transaction fee. Other than that, fund will be transferred out of the bank as soon as I get it, to one of the 5 accounts I set up of course, without paying transaction fee.

I still hate this bank.

PS: Attached is the freebie when I signed up for the account. It's a set of chopsticks, spoon and fork. I have 3 sets of similiar thing... They don't even give good gifts.