June 1999

(June 1, 1999) I worked at Haagen-Dazs overnight, haven't got much sleep in the last 40 hours. I am very tired now, but I am happy to see that my efforts turn into great results. I am also glad that I have a great team to help me here.

(June 2, 1999) I didn't go to work today and woke up at 5pm. But I got a call at 10pm to fix the PC at Ruby Tuesday, fortunately it was a simple problem. My job is not very creative, but I get to use my brain a lot, it is like I have to solve a puzzle every day.

(June 3, 1999) There was an earthquake this morning, a rather small one but I could feel it in my office on the 10th floor. I went to my company's "monthly" dinner after work, and got a little drunk, just as everyone else. I felt another earthquake at home after midnight... it is actually kind of fun.

(June 4, 1999) An expert from Australia arrived, and he will stay for a week. I have to take him to different KFC stores and examine their problems. Today we traveled all around Taipei for the head office and 5 stores. We had lunch at a fantastic Japanese restaurant, and it was great!

(June 5, 1999) It is rainy today but I didn't want to stay home. I would not get bored at home, I can watch TV, play SimCity, or clean up my room. But it is not healthy to stay home all day long, so I went out for a movie. The name of the movie is "Ed TV", it is not a good movie, just what I expected. But it brings back my memories in San Francisco.

(June 6, 1999) It is not a sunny day today. I had to stay home all day long. Got some terrible news from a friend in HK... as I said before, relationships are difficult, at least it is difficult for me. I am glad I still have a few friends who I can trust. If I didn't have a good friend to comfort me on the phone, I would be crying on my bed right now. I miss my friends and family very much, I will go back to HK for a few days sometime this month.

(June 7, 1999) I went to Tai Nan (Southern Taiwan) today. Traveling around really helps kicking my boredom away. Just by chance, I got on the coolest taxicab I've ever seen. It is a Honda Accord, with a LCD TV, VCD player, heavy-bass speakers. The driver played disco music, loud! I enjoyed it very much. He said he spent around HK$30,000 for the audio-visual equipments. When I got back to Taipei, I bought the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack... and I am very disappointed, it is worse than FF7's.

(June 8, 1999) I got drunk again today... I was surprised that I got drunk so easily. I guess that was because I didn't have enough sleep. The engineers called me out for dinner, because the guy from Australia is leaving tomorrow. Once I arrived the restaurant, the guys said I was late and I had to drink 3 big glasses of beer. Before I left the restaurant, I think I had more than 6 glasses already. I could still walk on a straight line, but couldn't see things clearly. I made it home myself, and fell into sleep immediately.

(June 9, 1999) Yet another day of flying around in the rain, nothing really special. My boss assigned yet another project to me... I have to learn the product by myself in a short time, just by reading the manuals. My schedule is too tight and I am getting worried.

(June 10, 99 - 10pm) I just erased a name from my ICQ list... I used to think of him as my good friend, but I don't think he treated me as one. This afternoon I took a piece of photo off my wallet, because I don't wanna think about the stuff every time I open my wallet. I won't break or trash the photo, but I will hide it in an envelope so that it can be seen only when I want to. Years later it might be interesting to revisit these memories. I stayed in the office all-day long¡K terrible, terrible. The weather is very hot, but I would rather sweat and breathe some fresh air. I added some new MIDI files in the Music area, enjoy!

(June 12, 99 - 2am) I feel great today, mainly because I bought an air ticket to fly back to HK next week. I went out for a walk after work, and bought Jewel's "Pieces of You." I've finally found the way to sync my PDA, Outlook, and Yahoo Calendar all together. All my old calendar entries (since 1998) and my current to-do list have been uploaded.

(June 13, 99 - 2am) It is my happiest day in Taiwan yet. I went to watch "The Matrix" with 2 other Vtech guys, this movie rocks! I love movies that make me think. I also went bowling today, I got 88 on the first round then 104 on the second round, not too bad for me. Best of all I found BeatMania in the bowling center... It's show time! I attracted a lot of people to watch. I saw So Wing Hong (the singer) in the movie center, and took some pictures too, please check the photo section. I changed my web host from Xoom to HKstar (my ISP in HK)... so now the Xoom logo and advertisements are gone. Too bad it only provides 5 megs of space, so I will have to move it again some time later.

(June 14, 99 - 1am) I woke up by a phone call 10am this morning, hey that's early for me. A restaurant had some problems with the PC, and I was the only one to fix the problem. Luckily I solved the problem by instructing the restaurant manager on the phone. This is the most annoying part of my job... I have to stand-by all the time. I will certainly look for another job before I get married, one that is more stable, one that allows me to spend more time with my family. I couldn't stand staying home all day long, so I walked far to have dinner. I really didn't want to go back home after dinner, I needed some exercise... but it was raining and there was no where to go. I almost went to Hard Rock Cafe for disco, but I thought it would be too strange and no fun to dance alone, so I went back home. I finally fixed my PC's microphone, I can send voice-message and use Internet phone now, it is great. I sent some voice-messages to my mom, my sister also presented my web site and photos to my her. The Internet is really the greatest communication medium since telephones, too bad it is limited by the bandwidth right now.

(June 15, 99 - 1am) I was late to work in the morning, I didn't get enough sleep and couldn't wake up... so I took a taxi instead of walking to the office. I didn't feel good since the afternoon because my boss said he wanted me to stay in Taiwan this weekend. He wants me to stay in Taiwan to handle the stuff while he is away (to Hong Kong!!) He asked me to delay the flight for a week. I told him that I wanted to spend the Father's Day with my dad, and that I asked my dad to get back from China already. I will tell him in decision tomorrow. I was very very upset. My friends has arranged a dinner for me already, and I was supposed to see the Panda in Ocean Park this weekend. Anyway, after work I wanted to walk around to make myself feel better, but I got bored of walking already. I have walked on just about every major street around my apartment already, there is no new place for me to explorer. But still, I wanted to do some exercise before and after dinner, and I didn't want to go home. I wanted to go bowling but I forgot where it was. I will find it out and go tomorrow! I don't know why I was so upset today... it is not really all that bad to delay the flight for just a week or so. I guess I was just too excited about leaving on Thursday. I should feel better tomorrow.

(June 16, 11am) I went to bed at 8:40pm last night! And I got exactly 12 hours of sleep. I remember that I had a short dream... in my dream I was writing something on my PDA but it didn't work properly. I haven't had any dream for quite a long time, that's probably because I haven't had a long sleep for quite some time also. I didn't really want to go to bed that early, but I was too tired, I just wanted to take a short nap before going to dinner. A strange thing happened in the last few days -- many strangers (about 9 of them) added me to their ICQ list. It never happened before I changed my ICQ nickname from SunnyX to Cloudless. Is that because they like my new nick? Best of all, most of them are gals from HK!

(June 17, 1am) I was a bit tired but I still went for a long walk after dinner. I finally found the bowling center, but I didn't bowl because I still need to go to work tomorrow. But I couldn't resist "a few" rounds of BeatMania, again a whole crowd watched my show. But I got lost on my way back home, I went to the opposite direction and found a night market. I was too tired and it was too late, so I finally took a taxi back home. The main reason that I want to walk is that I need more exercise, but I am getting bored of it, and I don't like to breathe the exhaust gas on the streets. I will buy the Playstation dance carpet when I get back to Hong Kong, so I can get to exercise with fun. Also, when I go walking again, I will bring my portable CD player with me, so I won't get bored.

(June 17, 11pm) I really wanted to go bowling, but I guess I walked too much yesterday, I just have to take a rest tonight. I feel some back pain right now, I will ask my chiropractic doctor to see if I should walk less. It is great to have a long weekend, a long rest is exactly what I needed. But I really hope to be with my friends and family for the holidays. I'm still not totally free... I am the "second line" duty engineer for this weekend, which means I have to stand-by all the time. I ate so much Lychee while watching "The Rock" on HBO the second time.

(June 19, 3am) I am way too tired, so I'll make it short today. I went bowling alone this afternoon. It was raining but I still decided to walk under the rain. I got in front of the bowling lane, while I was figuring out how to use the bowling score computer, a cute gal suddenly appeared in front of me and pressed the buttons for me. I was very surprised, and I only said "thanks." She was a player on the next lane, not one of the employees in the bowling center. I started playing and got an "oh" on my first try, quite embarrassing. I have to do a little better in front of gals, right? So I got an "X" on my second try. When I got the "X" she was on her way to leave already, but I heard her saying "not bad!" I only smiled, too bad I had no chance to talk with her. Well, hope to see her again there. I don't know if that was her encouragement or what, I played very well afterwards, and got a score of 162, the best score in my life so far. I think I am beginning to know how to play now. For me, at my current level, skill is not important. All I need is concentration and confidence, and that's not easy. After the games, I walked back home and had dinner... I was very tired already. I only rested a while and got a phone call, I was so scared... I thought it would be a call for me to fix someone's PC. But it wasn't, the call was from one of the engineers, but he only asked me to go out for fun. I was tired, but hey man, it is a holiday... so we went to Hard Rock Cafe for disco, and then we went to the bowling center again, but this time we didn't bowl, we played Pool instead. It was fun, and I am tired to death now. Good night!

(June 20, 2am) I really overworked my muscles yesterday, I had to take a rest today. So I basically did nothing today... I woke up at around 3pm, bought the ticket for "The Matrix" again, then went to KFC for "breakfast" (my first meal of the day.) You might think it is crazy to watch the same film twice, but it is really nothing for me. When I like a film, I watch it many times. I watched "Contact" 6 times, "Face/Off" 4 times, "The 5th Element" 3 times... Oh I finally bought the Playstation today, and some games too including Dance Dance Revolution. I tried it with the joy pad, and it is great. I can't wait to try the dance carpet!! I love you Konami. My room is very messy now, I really should clean it up, but I'm too lazy to do it.

(June 21, 1am) That was quick! Three days already? Man! I haven't even got enough sleep yet. This is gonna be an extremely busy week for me... lots of projects. I went bowling again today, but I could barely get a 100 score. The cute gal wasn't there today... but there was another one... a gal on the next lane looked very much like Kelly Chan. She was with her family so I had no chance to talk to her. A good friend told me a secret tonight, I feel great being trusted, and happy that my friend is willing to share stuff with me. The best thing that happened in the last 3 days is that nothing happened. No call from my company, no call from my family, no call from my friends... they are all doing ok.

(June 23, 1am) What a busy day! Still 3 more days ahead. So much work to do I really feel that I don't have enough time. I want to re-design this homepage, write some essays, watch the Discovery Channel, listen to my CDs, play video games... I just don't have time to do so. Exercise is still my top priority so I went walking and bowling again tonight. This afternoon I went to Haagen-Dazs for work and ate some ice-cream for free. I have a lot of work, but I still feel good because my best friend is coming to Taiwan this Saturday, she will stay for about 2 weeks. I hope the weather will get better, and hope I won't have to work over-time in the next 2 weeks. I am quite tired now but I will still play some video games before I go to bed.

(June 24, 1am) It is funny Yahoo registered for the domain www.yahooo.com, just in case you made a typo. I woke up late (9am) today and almost didn't want to wake up. I thought it would be really bad to be late again, I would rather get a sick leave for the day. But I didn't, because I knew I had too much work to do, I would not be able to finish all the work this week if I didn't go to work today. So I was finally 40 minutes late to work. **Oh I love Mango, Watermelon, and Lychee. It is the season for all of them right now!** One of my team members was sick today, she left early so I had to pick up her project which is due tomorrow. Too bad I didn't push her hard enough, there were still a lot to work on, and I didn't have enough time. I worked till 8:30pm and I was too tired to continue so I would rather push the stuff to tomorrow. I hope it will be ok. Taiwan is a great place for food, but since I go out for food everyday, now everything tastes the same to me. Home food is really the best food on Earth. My room is so messy now it is a virtual garbage center. I have to blame on the poor garbage collection in Taiwan... there isn't such thing as garbage center in Taipei, they only have dump trucks to stop at some locations at some specific times. The problem is I always can't match their schedule... the last truck stops at 9:05pm around the corner, but when I got home today it was 9:30pm already. It happens all the time and I am sick of it.

(June 24, 11pm) I just bought the dance carpet!! I played it for about 20 minutes, it was short but it made me very tired already. I think it is the most enjoyable workout you can ever get at home. I really wanted to play longer but I was already too tired working at the office for the whole day. My teammate was still sick and didn't go to work, so I had to finish the database and testing of the equipment in a rush. My boss is the most annoying person when I am busy... he just keeps asking me about other projects when I concentrate working on one. Also, his database design is so terrible, and he wants me to follow his style. When I do follow his style, he asks why I don't try something new and more sophisticated. Whatever! There is another guy in my company who speaks Taiwanese very often. It is his choice to speak the language he wants, but when you are in front of someone who doesn't understand your language, can't you pay some respect and be considerate? He keeps speaking in Taiwanese even when I try to join the conversation... which makes me feel like he totally ignores me. Maybe he just doesn't like me... hey but if you don't like me, please tell me in the language that I understand, ok? Another bad news: a restaurant is opening this Sunday and I'll have to stand by. I plan to go to sleep early tonight, that's why I write my diary early.

(June 26, 0am) My boss's assistant (his wife) gave me a file and told me about the upcoming projects in the next 2 months. She wants me to train and manage my team for the projects... it is really a challenge for me because I can't even manage myself. There are also new stuff for me to learn. My boss is going to blame on me if any of the projects goes wrong, my job is to avoid being blamed. The good news is my boss will buy a laptop computer for each team (there are currently 3 teams), I will manage the computer usage of my team, which means I get to use it most of the time. ;-) I finally caught up with the dump truck today, but I still need to clean up my room tonight. I am very happy now because I get to see my friend very soon. You will see less diary in the next two weeks because I'll need to spend more time with my friend... but you should see a largely expanded photo gallery very soon.

(June 30, 1999, 0am) I am using FrontPage 2000 to write this now, it rocks! My friend and I went to a lot of places in the last few days... I finally learned to take a bus in Taiwan. I am glad I don't have to work over-time . I will go to a major meeting tomorrow with my bosses, so I'll have to wear a tie in the heat!

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