After winning the APEGBC Young Professional Award last year, my good friend Stella has made it to the cover of the Journal of the Association of Professional Engineers & Geoscientists of BC! Congratulations again!

The part about “cold-calling” engineering firms when she couldn’t find a job after graduation is interesting. I never thought that such a shy, mild-speaking Stella would do that!

For any one seeking for a job or pay rise out there, I believe there are two very important things you could learn from her experience:

“We knew she was very intelligent, but she came across as very positive and we were also looking for someone who would be loyal, and who could listen and adapt to the office culture.” - Jack Lee, VP of Operations & the interviewer.

“It is her enthusiasm which is amazing to me. She is always upbeat, even when doing things that may seem mundane to most engineers.” - Warren, the Mentor.

Being well-educated and intelligent is not enough. A candidate with a positive, committed and enthusiastic attitude is hard to come by. If one could show these traits, it’d be simply irresistible.

Download the story (PDF, 412Kb)

Earlier this evening I was shocked to learn from a blog that Oasis Hong Kong Airlines has gone into liquidation. It’s quite saddening news to me, I had a pretty good experience with them when I flew to Vancouver last summer. Upon my return to Hong Kong, I got an email from Oasis asking for feedback, so I wrote to their CEO Stephen Miller and he replied me personally. Besides, although they position themselves as a budget airline, their branding and website design are top-notched. As a consumer, I’m worried that after the failure of Oasis, would there be any more attempt by others?

Another reason I feel for Oasis because it is like a David vs Goliath battle, I’ve had a lot of respect for them for taking on the “big guns” and hope that they would not just succeed, but also open up the market space to attract other budget airlines to come to Hong Kong.

I hope their founder/chairman Rev Raymond C. Lee would stage a comeback one day. Quoted from his interview on Hong Kong Commercial Daily on May 3, 2006, “Starting a business requires the determination to try and the courage to correct continuously. Get back on your feet where you fall. Don’t blame the market or others for not appreciating what you do.”

Original Chinese version:「創業要有再試的決心及改過的勇氣，在那裡跌到，就要在那裡爬起，不應把責任歸咎於市場或世人不懂欣賞。」

Last week Bill helped me upgrade the 120GB hard drive of my trusty 15“ MacBook Pro. Now I’m happily running a 250GB with plenty of space left even after installing VMWare and Windows XP! We found the most lengthy how-to online, and closely followed one step after another. It appeared to be an easy surgery, but it turned out that we both got some minor heart attack!

First, it’s not that easy to crack the case. Removing all the screws is dead simple, but when it comes to opening the last piece (the top panel with keyboard and touchpad), it’s not something you wanna see as an owner, no wonder I never saw any shop doing that in front of a customer!

Another online guide said the front edge is ”a little tricky“, guess how long that tricky edge took us? Well, two brilliant brains together for almost 30 min! Understandably, Bill didn’t dare to pull the last trigger - so we were just stuck there. Notoriously known as a rude and impatient lady, after 25 min of frustration, I used FORCE and cracked the last piece behind him. ”BAAAK!“, a big cracking sound came and we just freeze. Luckily, ”force“ worked this time. Nothing was broken.

And that’s not the end of it. In fact putting the top panel back was the second challenge! No matter how hard we tried, the case near the SuperDrive was still separating (like this kind of gap). Damn, just one last fxxking plastic latch! This time, not even FORCE can help.

Long story short, I realized that we couldn’t put pressure on the latch because the SuperDrive was right beneath it - it’s an empty space and any pressure added would be fruitless. So I somehow came up with this stupid idea - ”Shall we put something into the SuperDrive?“. Here’s the photo of that glorious moment - a piece of folded paper placed inside the SuperDrive, and BINGO! The last latch was in place.

Now I could confidently say that I’m able to do this again, would any one dare to let me do it for his Mac?

Later this month I will be flying to San Francisco to attend the Web 2.0 Expo. Then I will drop by The Mothership at Infinite Loop, Cupertino to get as many official Apple merchandise as possible (don’t send me wish list if you don’t even know me!). If time permits, I hope to meet up with friends there and visit some companies of interest. In the second week, I shall visit The Big Apple for the first time, so I just got myself a Michelin Guide on New York City. Together with my red Pocket Pimlico Filofax from Swindon, and orange Piquadro wallet, that’s made my full gear to stroll around the City. For now, I’ve to get some work done or I wouldn’t afford to dine out every night!

After more than 6 months of implementing GTD, I’ve only set up the ticker file (the “43 Folders”) today. Since I’m not a quick (and committed) follower of any sort, it takes me quite a while to appreciate its necessity - after all, not everything can be digitalized. Hopefully this would mark the end of my “desktop chaos” era.

What’s next?

• Respecting the Friday weekly review ritual
• Setting up a reference cabinet
• Going back to my beloved Filofax personal organizer

Looking for GTD gear in Central? You’d find all the physical, non-electronic tools you need at my favourite stationery store in Central: Yat Fat Stationers on 2/F, #44-46 Des Voeux Road Central. Shopping for stationery is one of my obsessions (yes I’m a weirdo), and this shop is just superb, they have everything you could imagine (esp. the old style stuffs) and the shop keepers are helpful, friendly but not pushy.

Since I started writing this blog in 2003, I never thought that it would become a subject of plagiarism. After all, I’m not a popular person and my blog has attracted very little traffic.

Unfortunately, this finally happens. Needless to say, I am very upset. Not just because I’m being ripped off, I am also sad because I know this person remotely.

Rip-off of my about page.

Rip-off of my post on August 17, 2007

If you’re reading this, plagiariser: As long as you remove the copied contents from your blog swiftly, I would not disclose your blog link. Don’t make me do it, please.