冇碳用

要印幾百張紙，再印八十個信封，然把印好的紙摺好，放入信封，再貼上郵票，再貼好信封口。完成。
打出來不過一分鐘，但實際做起來，今晚花了我好幾小時。打信是很容易的，雖然要再三核對，也花了不少時間，不過總比不上印信和信封，兼摺信入信貼郵票封口的時間。那些完全非技術不用學識的工序，花了我四個小時（或更多…我已忙到忘了）。我現在倦得要命，但Precept功課還未做….
至於這些跟標題”冇碳用”有什麼關係? 印幾百張紙的途中，就發現冇炭用，即是炭粉不夠，印出來的顏色不均勻。於是要每印十張就停一停，打開機蓋，拿出炭粉盒，搖搖搖，放回炭粉盒，再印。終於印好幾百張紙。不過，部份人士將有幸收到碳粉不均勻的印刷品。已經為此丟了二十張紙，還能用的還是寄了，反正這些”部份人士”早已知道內容，把信寄出也不過是要滿足MnA條件，大家看得到就看，看不到就自己去電郵信箱找個softcopy來看吧！
還要記得去買碳粉盒… 否則下次真的冇碳用!

 

A door is closed, another is opened

Two weeks ago, a student’s mom called me and said her husband wants to stop their daughter’s piano lesson. I said, “ok, give me a call if you want to resume the lessons.”

That’s just a “standard” response. I didn’t even ask her why. 

Two days ago, a lady called me when I was in lesson. I called her back later and turned out this lady is the neighbor of my another student. I met her at lift lobby around a year ago. She asked me something about piano lesson but I don’t remember what I told her. Anyway, she called me two days ago and asked if I have time to teach her daughter. She has been learning piano for some years and is doing quite good. In fact, her girl passed the grade 3 piano exam last year with distinction. But she wants to have teacher go to her place instead of sending her daughter to the studio, so she called me. 

And today I went to her place and had the very first lesson with her daughter – a lovely girl around 11-year-old I think. She’s quite talkative and I like talkative students. It’s hard to tell what the student is thinking if he/she doesn’t talk. She said I talk like her best friend’s sister. I think we can get along pretty well. 

A door is closed but another is opened… right in front of me. 

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

 

iphone app for unexpected use

I have these two little girls who take lessons together back to back in studio. I use the ipod touch to keep teaching notes so I always have it at the corner of the piano. We were having lesson the other day as usual and somehow the older sister saw my ipod and got curious with it. She pressed on the home button and unlocked it. There, she saw the BibleXpress icon (I keep it at the dock for easy access) and exclaimed, “Oh! You have Jesus in your iPod!”

She pressed on that small icon and that lead her to Genesis 7 of The Message version. (Great that it’s got The Message version in the app – easier English and the kids can understand it relatively more easily.) Then she began to ask questions about Noah. Since she could swipe to go to previous and next chapter, it really gave me a chance to tell the two little girls the Noah story, which lead to questions about who God is, why God doesn’t like bad guys, what will happen to the bad guys, hell, how to avoid going to hell, Jesus, and the whole salvation scheme. They’ve heard about Jesus but didn’t quite know who he really is and why he is related to us. Now they know. They’ve even learned how to pray. That lesson went overtime but the two girls were really excited to hear about God.
God does show Himself through all things – may it be big or small.

 

A bee the doesn’t sleep

The bee can finally sleep.

I’ve been working like a bee that doesn’t sleep for a whole week. The Society held an inauguration ceremony this evening and I had a lot of work to do prior to this event. And when I say a lot of work, it’s really A LOT OF WORK. And I find myself, though taking the post of a part-time secretary, working as secretary, webmaster, designer…etc. It’s written in my contract that my workload should be around 18 hours per week – well, it’s been way over that in the last two months. Actually, I probably didn’t really spend over 18 hours per week in average but it’s only because I worked extremely efficiently – using 18 hours like 36 hours. People who know me should know that when I say I worked extremely efficiently, it’s really fast. So…really like a bee. (Well, to say a bee’s life sounds better than a dog’s life – a bee’s life is way shorter, which means the heavy workload and busy schedule is only temporary unlike a dog’s life can be much longer.)

Anyway, finally the inauguration ceremony was held successfully. We had a wonderful Chinese meal at the hotel where we held the ceremony. The room was fine; the servers there were very polite and helpful; dishes were good. The only complain I have is that the ceiling is too low that you can’t really read the bottom part of the powerpoint projected on the screen.

Now that it’s over, I can finally say goodbye to the bee’s life. Back to human life, I’m travelling to Taipei again enjoying life!

 

工廠女工

早上6:45，剛做完工廠女工：印了三款共二百頁紙，近百個信封，然後其中四十張紙要一開四，家裡沒有剪紙機，要用𠝹刀𠝹，每張紙要𠝹上兩條線，每條線要𠝹三次才斷開，其他紙都要對摺再對摺，然後放入信封…

噢，更正：還沒有做完工廠女工，因為信封還未封口，封上亦未貼上郵票…

不行了，先去睡上一覺，然後再貼貼貼……….

 

Google Apps: CNAME and Bluehost

Just registered as a IT manager for a google app (though I’m no IT manager at all but a potato powder secretary) and am trying to combine google app with the domain hosted at Bluehost. It involved creating user accounts (very easy – just a bit time consuming if you do not already have a list that go with the csv format that google wants), creating CNAME records (what the heck is this?), setting MX something (haven’t touched this part yet – no clue at all), and of course uploading the things I wanna “share” with the members.

The first time sucking procedure was to go through application forms and create an email account for each member at Bluehost (my domain server). And then it’s a less time consuming procedure to upload a csv that contains the info of these users to Google App. And then I had to sort of design a site that I want the members to see. Then came the CNAME part.

Google actually did write kinda thorough instructions for this but just doesn’t apply to Bluehost. But after searching on the internet for a while and read through many posts, I’ve tried it in a different way:

At Bluehost cpanel, go to Subdomains and create a new subdomain that you want your google site to be redirected to.

Still at Bluehost cpanel, go to Domain Redirect and set the subdomain to be redirected to the URL of your google site.

Then…it’s done!

Well, CNAME can be created if I go through live chat or file a ticket to Bluehost support. But how would a lazy person like me do that? As long as it kinda works, I’m settled with this.

Now that I’m done with creating users and mapping sites, next, I’ll try to work on the email thing.

 

Jellyfish

So I’ve started teaching the two kids of my friend who lives in the very west of NT…

Every Wednesday, I take this taxi from my place to his place (on his expense – he pays the taxi driver a monthly fee to have this driver drives him to work almost everyday and me on every Wednesday). The taxi ride takes about 30 minutes or so and it’s never boring on the ride. The taxi driver is a pretty funny guy and extremely talkative. On the first ride, I’ve got to know how my friend goes to work, and how much he’s got paid from my friend, and how my friend’s wife goes to work, and how my friend’s kids go to school. Yes, I got to know all these from a taxi driver. On the second week, I learned how this taxi driver got to know his very first girl friend in his life and how they broke up because of family pressure, and how he married his wife, and how many kids he’s got, and what his son’s occupation is, and how he run into his first love again on the street… It’s never quiet in the taxi and it’s never boring. 

The two kids are actually very cute and sweet. The girl is about 6 years old and the boy is about 9. My friend wasn’t sure if the girl would like to learn playing the piano (but he was pretty sure his son wouldn’t like to do that) but it turned out both of them quite like playing the piano. The simplest example is that they’d fight for playing the piano. And even the 9-year-old boy likes playing it. They like playing the keyboard even though the “songs” I’m teaching are just like do-re-mi, mi-re-do, do-re-mi-re-do… Well, they’re the beginners and those “songs” are quite boring to my ears. Anyway, the piano lesson that was supposed to be for the younger sister only, now becomes a lesson for both. 

After spending 30 minutes or so on teaching piano, then it’s time to help the boy on his English. We’ve only got about an hour’s time as i have to rush back to the studio. The boy is actually quite smart but he’s really weak at spelling. The main problem is that he’s never learned any phonics and he can’t relate the spelling with the pronunciation of the words. Another problem is… well… all those who studied in Hong Kong local schools should know that the pronunciation we get to hear in the classroom just isn’t always correct. So… it makes it even harder to learn how to spell. The only thing one can do is just stuff it into one’s head even when it doesn’t make any sense. I hope I can help him to enjoy learning how to spell and thus have more fun in learning the language, especially in writing. And it seems the little girl also wanted to learn some English in her brother’s lesson. Two days ago, I saw this small book, an assigned reader from the kindergarten, and the little girl said she didn’t wanna read it. I asked her why and her brother immediately replied, “she doesn’t like English. She has no idea what the book’s talking about!” But when I read through the book (very slowly), the girl was eager to follow and read. She even insisted on reading aloud the front cover, the index page, the notice stuck on the back…=_=! Crazy little girl.

And this crazy little girl insisted that her name is Jellyfish. When she writes her name, English or Chinese, she writes her name (as printed on her id documents) and “Jellyfish” as if it’s part of her name. She told me seriously that it’s her favorite “animal” and it IS her name. And she holds in her hands a small jellyfish plush toy bought from Ocean Park all the time during the lesson. She’d kiss it suddenly during the lesson (then put the jelly fish onto my face…yikes!). Crazy little girl.

But they’re cute and sweet. The boy is now studying in a Catholic school but he said he’s never heard any Bible story in religion lessons. I hope I may read them some Bible stories later and sow the seed in their hearts. I’m not sure if I am the person who bring them to Christ but I know I’d regret if I’d never brought them closer to God when such possibility is lying right in front of me. For things as small as the angel jellyfish are God’s creation out of love. 

 

Long-time Service

On the last sunday of April, I attended the 20th anniversary dinner of the studio I worked at. It’s actually opened by my old piano teacher and her partners. During the dinner, there’s a souvenir presesntation for ‘honoring’ the long-time service teachers who have taught in the studio for more than 10 years consecutively. 

The first teacher named was a lady in her…40s i think. Then the second one was me. 

Yes, me! Everyone was surprised upon hearing my name. I know i’ve taught in the studio for quite a long time but i didn’t realize that it’s been more than 10 years. 

The souvenir is a Royal Selangor tankard with “Joanna 1996″ engraved on. So, I started to teach in the studio since 1996. Time really flies… 

I’m getting old…

 

Again…but blessed

It happened again…NeoOffice needa be force quited. I was … a bit frustrated. 

But this time, I did something before quiting. I took a screen capture and successfully captured an image of nearly a whole page of words. 

Force Quit. Relaunch. 

So…I hadn’t pressed the save button since right after starting point 5. I have point 7 and 8 in the screen cap image, that means I have two points to fill. Wait…how can two points take up just 3 lines? That doesn’t make sense. Oh…wait! I did type point 5 but…I put the content of point 6 in it. The whole point 5….where is it? No where to be found. Let me read it again…no recollection whatsoever! Hahaha! These things do happen …again and again. I missed one big paragraph again. (hmm…it happened when I as doing my final year project, and when I was translating the first book for this publisher…and am sure it happened in other projects as well. Luckily, I’ve got friends who are willing to proofread my things! Thanks, guys!) 

Thank God it crashed! 

So blessed I am.

 

FYK的5C班

FYK的5C班, 因為代課, 做了他們4天班主任. 他們有時是中五生, 有時只像小孩子, 還會跟你撒驕, 撒驕的還是男生. 嗯…很”可愛”! 

跟這班同學只上了兩天課, 總共2小時20分鐘的英文課, 全花在對功課上, 功課者, past paper是也. 說實在, 已忘了當年的考卷是怎樣的, 所以基本上是看到甚麼教甚麼, 不停問他們是否明白, 對了還是錯了…當年是怎樣上課的呢? 

FYK的課堂安排很”有趣”, 每天早上早會後, 班主任要回到所屬班別的課室, 進行點名和監督收功課, 然後中午飯後又要再到課室點名一名, 最後是下課前的30分鐘, 是R & R, 大概是班主任時間加做功課時間加處理雜務時間吧! 結果, 由於5C班位於6樓, 我每天跑上跑下3次, 到今天我的小腿還有一點點酸軟的感覺! 

到最後一天的R&R, 有同學帶了相機, 於是拍了一些照片, 有點像Last Day. Well, 當然, 那是我的Last Day, 不過他們也滿好笑的, 那些男同學, 扮完猛男, 再扮惹艷美人, 實在… 

另一件難忘事不得不提週會! 悶得要死! 請了一位政府統計處的人來說有關統計的”要點”, 大概是講解甚麼是random sampling之類吧! 悶得我要死, 那班”死野”又轉來轉去, 不時談天說地, 坐在我旁的那位比我高很多的男同學, 還給我睡覺呢! 剛好我手上有一張卡紙, 便用其中一個角在他的大腿上劃了一下, 即時把他嚇醒了, 他還敢跟我埋怨說他很睏呢! 哼! 我這個平日睡到下午一時才醒來的人, 那幾天都是七時不到就起床, 還要聽那些花了4個學期讀的統計學, 我還沒睡著, 他還敢埋怨! 我才真想睡呢!