Life 生活

Last week really wasn’t my week. My car got towed; my digital camera was broken; I got a ticket for exceeding speed limit in Yamingshan. That’s how my summer ended.Read More »I need a good luck

Dalai Lama is having a talk with Paul Cardinal Shan Kuo-Shi this morning at a dinning room on the ninth floor of Kaohsiung Arena. I set my alarm at 5:30am today but woke up at 6:30am. When I arrived at Kaohsiung Arena around 7am, the line was very long already. The tickets started to be given away from 7:30am, and it’s immediately out of ticket after 15 minutes, right at the 15th before me.Read More »Dalai Lama’s talk with Paul Cardinal Shan Kuo-Shi

Dalai Lama gave a prayer ceremony from 9:30am at Kaohsiung Arena today. The place was full of people who followed Dalai Lama’s prayer during the… Read More »Dalai Lama’s prayer ceremony

Dalai Lama stays at the Garden Village (蓮潭國際會館) in Kaohsiung during his visit in Taiwan. He will give a public speech at the conference hall in the hotel tomorrow 2pm. I drove around the area this afternoon and saw police lining outside of the door. I guess Dalai Lama is returning from his visit to the disaster area.Read More »The Garden Village, where Dalai Lama stays

His Holiness Dalai Lama pays his third visit to Taiwan today! (His previous visits were in 1996 and 2001.) This religious leader and Nobel Peace Laureate will visit the Typhoon Morakot survivors and give a blessing ceremony to the victims during his five-day visit.Read More »[Update] Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan

The disasters caused by Typhoon Morakto on August 8th in Taiwan shocked the whole world. Many people lost their families and properties. More than 500 people died. It’s the biggest catastrophe in Taiwan’s history. The amount of death could be reduced if the government were alert to the warning in advance.Read More »When will Taiwan move on?

The World Games 2009 finally starts in Kaohsiung today! It’s the largest international sports event in Taiwan in the history. I’m so amazed and proud that Kaohsiung has the ability to hold such large event in short time and with limited support from the central government. Kaohsiung indeed gives Taiwan a chance to stand on the world’s stage.Read More »The World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung

Finally, my soul is back to freedom.

Yesterday was my last day in the company. The period of 13 months is the longest duration I have in my “formal” career. My resignation, or even leaving from the industry, was stirred by various reasons. I will skip all the complaints here. As a consequence of those reasons, I decided to make a big change in my life to do what I can truly enjoy. Teaching is one of my dreams, so I’ll begin as a tutor. Most Taiwanese still need to be educated about what is right and what is wrong. My purpose is to teach kids not only those in textbooks but also everything we should know as Taiwanese.Read More »Pursuit of Dreams and Hopes

Since I came back from Hawaii trip last December, my boss had complained about me taking too many study leaves until I showed him the department website which I created a couple of weeks ago. His management indeed disappoints me a lot. I hardly feel his support on either work or exams. In fact, the first time I showed him the website was six months ago. He has no idea about why I created the website and he can’t see how powerful such tool can be. I was asked to present my work of model improvement at the department meeting last month, so I decided to present my work by web pages, using basic HTML with Notepad. It turned out to be a success. Everyone was surprised at the website. My boss was very delighted. He told me to show my work to the big bosses, so I’m going to present the website and the framework to them next Wednesday in order to obtain one or two more head counts for our team.Read More »Working Life

It seems that most managers don’t know how to ask for more for his team, especially actuaries. They are always asked to produce the required… Read More »Learn how to ask for more

Christmas atmosphere gets stronger after Thanksgiving. That is what I feel in my heart. Most people in Taiwan do not celebrate Christmas. Neither do I. But I have very strong feeling toward that holiday. It’s like a burning candle that warms my heart in the chilly winter. On the Christmas Eve of 2004, I went to the Cologne Cathedral with my classmates while I studied in the Netherlands. It’s an unforgettable trip to me. The night was full of music and joys, but the air was so silent. My heart was not there after all.Read More »Christmas is coming

My three bosses: team manager, chief actuary, and CFO, joined the company after me in October, July, and August, respectively. I joined the company in last April. Yes, we are all new employees in this company. This early month the chief actuary did the appraisal of performance for my team since the team manager just joined. He had to choose one out of eight in our department to be the ‘worst”. That is the policy from HR. Since he is new to the company, he doesn’t know who he should pick up. So, lucky me, I was the one. He explained that it’s not really about my performance. He thinks that my salary is higher than other team members and I took study leave of 20 days which might help me to pass the exam, so it doesn’t matter for me to get the worst performance ranking (better performance ranking results in salary increment next year). I told him I don’t care, but I still think the reason is funny. Do staff with high salary not have the right to be encouraged or promoted? What is the appraisal about? The boss doesn’t dare to make a right judgement which can keep the good ones and weed the bad ones. He doesn’t think I’m the bad one, but now I feel I am the bad one.Read More »Appraisal of salary or performance

For most people, it may be the easiest to choose not to do or say anything against the power. Keeping silence is what exactly the… Read More »The violence of silence

After senior high school, I have not spent more than two years in one place or institute. Two years in the first university, one year in another to prepare for transfer exam, two years in the one from which I graduated, and one year in Canada as an exchange student during my last year in the university. Then I spent one year and eight months in military service, followed by one year for my first full-time job, one year for a part-time job, less than one and half years in the Netherlands, 5 months for my second full-time job, two years in Boston, and nine months in a consulting firm. Now it has been three months since my current job started.Read More »Changes