Blog d'Alfred HO

On life expectancy

2011-11-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

My best friend who is of my same age just did this test on life expectancy. He scored 28 years and asked me to do the same.

This was my response:

"I think I'll pass on this one. Truth is I don't want to know.

Two nights ago whilst in bed, this notion that one day it will be my turn to die really bothered me like never before. I was scared and I was upset. If not because (my wife) was already fast asleep, I'd scream out loud. Obviously I have not been, or probably shall never be able to come to term with death. I am afraid whatever the score is, one day it will come back to haunt me. Having said that 28 more years to go is very good by any standard and I hope you will live through and beyond.

Reminds me of this poem :

七十猶栽樹旁人莫笑痴

古來雖有死好在不先知 (袁枚)"

The poem describes of a seventy year old man planting a tree and asked others not to laugh at him; for though we all know one day we'll die it is a wonderful thing we don't know which day in advance.

Unfortunately advance in science and technolgy may means one day we'll be told with great certainty as when we are going to die. Then we have nowhere to hide.

"Do what you love to do with those you love"

On Doomsayers

2011-08-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

There are always lots of doomsayers out there and they'll do whatever they can to grab our attention. They will hype their predicted calamities using big words such as "mathematical certainty". Unfortunately while they are smart enough to highlight these calamities, they are not near as smart when it comes to what can be done to prevent them. To me, a calamity without a possible prevention is not something we should worry about - just like "every single human beings is going to die in the next hundred years" should not be something we should worry about. It is a fact of life!

Don't allow what they have said spoil a minute of our wonderful day.

"Do what you love to do with those you love"

Happy Birthday?

2010-12-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

Having reached the age of 59 a few days ago, I wrote on facebook that there came a stage when birthday was no longer a reason of celebration but rather cause of depression. I said I thought I had reached that stage and thanked everyone who wrote nice words to me on the occasion as I needed them to brighten my day. I thought it was only natural as one went one year older and hence closer to the end of the journey, one really could find little joy to celebrate. Later I related my feelings to my best friend (not a facebook guy) who was 3 days younger than me. He offered a totally different perspective. His mother and two sisters had their lives cut short with cancer and he said birthday was a happy reminder to him of how he had continued to survive a miracle. The fact that he was still around was enough reason for celebration. Well he used to be the more pessimistic of the two and this time he turned the table around. Reminded me of this analogy of whether we saw the cup half full or half empty.

May be there is still a reason to continue celebrating our birthdays and the older we get the more reason to do so!

"Do what you love to do with those you love"

Present from Wife

2010-10-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

A few days a go I received a MacBook Air as a gift from my wife of nearly 33 years. More correctly she agreed to buying it and jokingly said it would be my Anniversary, Birthday (in December) and Christmas present this year. Later when I posted on Facebook that it was her present to me for our Anniversary, my Birthday and Christmas this year, last year and the 32 years before that, she was was clearly not amused. She protested that she had on many previous occasions bought me gifts. Of course the post was meant as a joke but her reaction was strong enough for me to do some reflection. It is true that my wife did not often buy me gifts but instead she has been most tolerant and understanding in allowing me to buy what I really liked. This must be the best kind gift a wife can give to her husband.

Of course it is only befitting that wrote this blog on my new MacBook Air and express my gratitude to her for this gift as well other she bought me directly or indirectly.

"Do what you love to do with those you love"

Suicide -why?

2010-03-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Just read that over one million people commit sucide every year. In China alone, 2.25 millions people attempt suicide every year of which over 10% suceed in their attempts. The highest suicidal rate comes from the age group between 15 to 34. It was said that suicides are more likely to occur during periods of socioeconomic, family and individual crisis. One can't help but think would this age group not be more immune to such crisis? Afterall they have plenty of good years ahead of them - so opportunities are abundant for them to get right, get better and get what they want.

"Do what you love to do with those you love"

The Lost Symbol (2)

2010-02-27T15:45:00.000-08:00

Finally finishing reading the book. The fact that it was some 6 months ago that I started it speaks volumne about its quality. The story was unconvincing and Robert Langton appeared weak and ordinally in the book. Still they are talking of making a movie from it.
"Do what you love to do with those you love"

New Year Wish

2010-01-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

It's has been a while since my last blog. It is now into the fourth week of 2010 but still not too late for new year wishes. A poet called 白居易 wrote someting hundreds years ago which fits my wish bill so I'll just repeat them here: 「一願世清平，二願身強健，三願臨老頭，數與君相見。」The foremost is that our world is to be free from wars, terrorists and natural disasters. The next is for us to enjoy good health so that when when we grow old, we'll still have the energy and opportunities to meet with our family members and close friends. This also happens to be my third and last wish.

Blog from my iPhone 2

2009-10-13T09:02:00.001-07:00

I did upgrade to the BlogPress full version. Actually same functionaries but no ad.

-- Post From My iPhone

The Lost Symbol

2009-10-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Almost one third through reading Dan Brown's The Last Symbol on my Kindle. So far just mediocre and no where as good at his other books like Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons. Some of the characters are less than convincing, especially the Japanes woman Sato. Robert Langton looked like a clueless schoolboy being pushed around. Hope the book will soon catch up and has a wonderful ending.

IPhone jailbreaking

2009-10-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Just became the newest member of the iPhone jailbreaking community. So far so good. Took all of 15 minutes with blackra1n. Easier than what I'd thought.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

More Picasa - name tagging

2009-09-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

Took almost 20 hours for the program to finish scanning the 40,000 faces from over 20,000 pictures. It does a surprisingly good job in spotting faces from a picture but grouping them and relating them to an individual is just mediocre. I'd say averaging 90%, Still not bad considering this is not a multi-million facial recognition program written for CIA. Is this a useful? I'd say yes. It need a bit of input from the user to screen through the suggestions but once you did that, it is so easy to retrieve the pictures of an individual from the thousand of pictures in your collection. I wish Lightroom has similar function soon. Will test the geotag function next.

Picasa 3.5

2009-09-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Just downloaded and installed the latest Picasa. Never used it before and have been happily using Lightroom for organizing and touching up of my pictures. Attracted by its promised name tagging and geotagging functions - neither of which Lightrrom has. The program is still in the process of scanning the faces of all pictures. So far 36% completed after some 5 hours. Will see how the promised functions hold up.

Why Blog?

2009-09-25T14:10:00.003-07:00

Just came across a response from a gentleman called Jeremy Wright to a non-blogger who says blogs are useless. He gave plenty of good reason for blogging. Plenty good for me.I like in particular that " .. blogging will be like a diary; a historical record of their thoughts at a moment in time." Seems there are more reasons for blogging than just being "fashionable".

Jeremy's text is on the side panel under "Blog d'Alfred HO"

Blog from my iPhone

2009-09-23T21:21:00.001-07:00

I'm writing this blog entry on my iPhone using an application called BlogPress Lite. So far so good and it's free. Knowing me, I may upgrade to the full version for $3 with more functionalties in no time. Will see.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Because it is fashionable

2009-08-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Today I am officially a blogger. I already have my face book and twitter accounts, am working to build my own website so why not my own blog just to make things complete. It is fashionable afterall.