My dear son, 

As a young man,  your life is yours,  please do not let what other people think about you define your life and how you live, as they do not care about it at all.   Please do not live your life based on others' judgement.  

Instead, develop yourself with the following:

1. light in eyes
2. love in heart
3. Steady steps
4. Strong arms and legs

Time flies, it has been one year since last time I wrote the blog. It is not only because i have been buried with millions of things in the work and life, but also because I do not really have interesting things to write down except for kids.  Nonetheless, it is time to pick up and get the ball rolling.

Just finish reading the book -- Steve Jobs by Water Isaacson who also wrote a biography of Albert Einstein. I found that the book is well written. it starts from the adoption of Steve Jobs, iterates innovative adventures in all stages of his career, as well as his personal life and his spiritual development. I am enchanted by the book particularly because it is easy to relay on my own life. it reminded me the old good days when I first time used a computer in high school, I still remembered the computer name: Apple.

It brought me back to the computer revolution path, revealed substantial insider's information on how we get where we are today in term of hardware and software and made me to think about the future trends in information technology.

The book helps me to understand today's apple i-serial products better. For long time, I was puzzled on why IPhone and IPad are so popular and successful.  There is only two words:  simplicity and beauty.   As a software engineer, I tend to appreciate more on technology and simply ignore the artistic side of product. just as the books says "Steve Jobs stands at the intersection of humanities and science" with a reality distort field, there you go,  the juice of creativity would come out of the combination of humanities, science and strong determined personality.  Really, the IPhone and IPad are not only technology products but also pieces of art and would last for a while. 

Soccer

Daddy was away Yesterday. I had to take Issac to the park for his soccer game. It is extremely hilarious to see 4 years old to play soccer. They played with their own rules, despite of what Daddies called out: "hi, same team, same team. ", many of them do not understand team work.
All of sudden, I know how good this sport is....

A card for David

Last Thursday, when I picked up Issac after work. He ran to me, unlike before, instead of being so happy, he was so upset and cried so sadly. The teacher told me that Isaac hit David on the face.
On the way home, he was so upset and kept saying: " David is not my friend any more. I do not want him be my friend. " I reponsed:" sure, not David any more, mommy is your best friend, so are Daddy and Caleb. " After he heard that, he seemed to become calmer a little. Upon arriving home, i asked Daddy not to ask him anything. he played with Caleb and became happy again.

After dinner, while Daddy and Caleb was playing chess, I had a conversation with Isaac to find out what happened and why he hit David on the face. Up to that day, Isaac had no record of hitting or pushing any kids. However, I was unable to find the real reason, and he refused to say sorry to David next day. Then I said to Isaac:"do you like someone beat you?".
"no", he answered.
"so, if you do not like it, David must not like it either. "
"so do not bully other kids", as soon as he heard bully, he wanted to cry...
I know that it was not his intention.
"mommy knows from your cry, you felt so bad by hitting David. You are not happy after you hit
people. In fact, no one would be happy. I still remember bright horizon ( previous daycare )'s Isaac, that Isaac was always happy, and helping other kids, when a kid cried, that Isaac brought the toys to him/her, and gave him/her a hug. Everyone loves Isaac at that time. " He started to smile and remembered things. I continued:" mommy wants that Isaac coming back, do you think that Isaac will come back?".
he nodded.
"Is that ok with you to say sorry to David tomorrow?".
he nodded again.

Next morning, Daddy dropped him to daycare. When I picked him up, the teacher told me with proud:" Isaac brought a Sorry letter and card to David this morning !" just then, David was passing by with his daddy, he held the card that Isaac gave to him and showed me delightedly:" I got a card from Isaac." The teacher asked me if I told Isaac to do so. We discussed the reason, teacher told me that " David and Daniel are twins, usually three of them are playing really well, However, David and Daniel are closer to each other, Isaac seems to be frustrated when he tried to break in.

I am so pleased by Isaac. Neither Daddy or I told him to do so. It is so nice to see that he was thinking and finding a way to gain his friend back. In the meantime, i need to work with Isaac to understand and accepted that it is natural that brother-ship is stronger than friendship.

Parent Teacher Interview

Caleb did something I really like this afternoon...

While Isaac and I took our afternoon nap, Caleb was playing by himself quietly. After we woke up, he told us that he had prepared a parent-teacher interview with me. I was puzzled, then he handed me a piece of paper. It was Isaac's report card by Mr. Caleb Ng. :-)
He also told me that he has prepared all notice:
1. which room to go for interview,
2. which room to keep my child ( Isaac ) for play and he also prepared the parent card for picking up the kid.
3. A notice on the wall to tell what time will be the parent -teacher interview. On note, it says
parent teacher interview
upstair room 2 at 4:00pm--8:00pm
dinner will be served
haha, it is my first time to hear that parent -teacher interview will serve the dinner.

By the way, I like the report card he made. it is very much like a real report card for school.
will take a photo of it.

I signed up for 7 pm to have the parent -interview.

After dinner at 7 pm, Caleb was waiting at his desk in his room. First Isaac and I arrived at his room and get the parent pick up card from him, then I knew from parent pickup card I have to drop Isaac to room 3 which is Isaac's room. Isaac was keen on using sharper to sharp his pencils, he was not into what we play, he quietly stayed in his room and sharp all his pencils, and I returned to Caleb's room ( room 1 ) for parent-teacher interview.

It was an interesting conversation.

Me: Hi, Mr Ng, how are you?
Caleb: I am fine, thanks. let us talk about Isaac's report card. He is doing well at school. Isaac is doing well at reading and spelling, his math is good too.
Me: ohh, Mr Ng, I am glad to hear that. I think Isaac has a good role model. He has an older brother who is good at reading, maybe when he sees his brother reading a book, he likes to read a book with me too.
Caleb: His music is good, but can improve. I think you can sign up some program or lessons for him.
Me: what music lesson would you recommend? piano or violin?
Caleb: I would recommend Violin.
Me: why?
Caleb: I think viloin is easier.
Me: really? why?
Caleb: Panio is hard to tune. you have to open the back and tune it.
Me: ohh. i see. Thank you for your recommendation, Mr.
Caleb: Isaac did not learn any french before he came in this school. now he is catching up. by the way, I think you can give him some math test at home?
( by the way, isaac does not know any French yet ... )
Me: oh, I thought school has tests. it might be too much for him to handle.
Caleb: well, for JK, the test could be simple, just a few line of contents, not like grade 1.
Me: do you think grade 1 math is hard?
Caleb: it is not, but more work.
Me: ohh, sure, I will give a thought. By the way, Mr Ng, Isaac has an older brother in grade 1 in your school. his name is caleb, you might know him. do you have any recommendation on him on any area of improvement at home?
Caleb: ohh, Caleb, I know him. for caleb, you can start some science at home. he seems to like science. there are some grade 4 kids who like to play me ( he might be too excited, start to forget his teacher role ), they showed me some grade 4 science. it was cool. they use a magnetic
glass under sun to burn a hole on a paper.
Me: ohh, that is cool. I will definitely think of some science related materials. grade 4? what are their names?
Caleb: ***, ***, and ***
..... ( I also ask what they play after school, etc )
.... ( after a while, he realized that he forget his role, and tried to get back to be a teacher )
Me: Thank you, Mr Ng. Thank you for your effort of teaching Isaac. We are very happy with school and his progress. let us keep in touch.
Caleb: ok, we have another Parent Teacher interview next month.
Me: great. then I see you next month, Mr Ng. you have a good evening. bye.
Caleb: bye.

I think It was a really nice and meaningful evening playing.

Swimming lesson

Finally we resume the suspended swimming lessons for boys and today is the second time of this season. To my surprise, Caleb learns the freestyle so fast that he can actually do it without help.
It is always a joyful thing to see their progress... Isaac might be still a little too yonge, but we had to let him learn as he insisted strongly. It is hilarious to see him swimming...

Caleb's first book

Last sunday afternoon, In order to distract kids from being watch TV, I asked Caleb:
" since you have read a lot of Geronimo Stilton books, how about you write a new book about
Geronimo Stilton? a story that you have never read. "
He was so interested in the idea. I taught him how to use staple and a few paper to make a book,
then he started to write while I was cooking.. ( I had to send Isaac to basement to play with Daddy, so that he would not distract Caleb ).

To my great suprise, Caleb's story on his first book was very great, and better than what i expected. But he needs to work on his handwriting and Biao(1) Dian(3) Fu(2) Hao(4).

There are totally 11 pages. I recorded it here, also add some " " for conversation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
( a picture of book cover with a rocket ship, a mouse and the book name.)


Blast off to space


Hi My name is Geronimo Stilton. It all started when my cousin's friend was going to space, ( his friend's name is Trap -- added by me ) Trap's friend was an astranant. Thea, my sister, was so excited, she dragged me to where the rocket ship takes of. She said come on big brother, it will be fun. I said ok. when all of us were aboard we took of.

( a picture of rockets and mouses , as well as a sentence from each characters ).

I was so scared, but my cousion and my sister wasn't scared.
"Hey Gerry Berry, are you all right?"
"Do not call me
Gerry Berry,
my name is
Geronimo!"
Then my sister came.
"Hey Geronimo, what are you doing?"
"nothing."
"look behind you".
AHA!
that space monster scared me.
"Tricked you, Tricked you."
"Stop trap."
"fine, Geronimoid, look behind you".
AHA!
"what are you doing with spider? STOP!" I shouted, "first of all, my name is not
Geronminoid!
my name is Geronimo!
why do I have to repeat it ?"

oh, I almost forget, we were going to mars.

( a picture of rocket ship flying to Mars ).

It took 150 years to get there, finally we got there. I got off first, then my cousin.
we had space suit on.

( a picture of three mices in space suit landed on mars )

we saw vocano. finally we got on the rocket ship, it took us 100 years to get back to Earth. we were publishing a new book about space.

( a picture of sun, in the middle of sun, there seems to have a small book icon ).

Next time, we will publish a book about desert. The next monrinng, I went to the Rozzent Gazzete. The printers were done with the book.

( a picture of book with the name on it )

The next night, we had dinner at my house, after dinner, we watched TV show.

( looks like a picture of TV or something , I think he added this part because Isaac was asking me if he could watch TV, i told him after dinner. Caleb might hear our conversation.. )

The End.

Pary for Japanese

What a heartbroken news! My pray with Japanese...

Changing jobs

Yes - I am about to leave IBM. After nearly 10 years in system design and development area in IBM toronto Lab, it is time to move on and, as in all good resignation speeches, spend some more time with my family. I've really enjoyed working in the business integration area and doing system design and development. It is a tough decision to make, specially when I really like what I am doing and I am doing pretty well from both my own view and management's perspective. However, considering the focus point of different stage of life is quite different, at this point, I feel that helping my kids to grow to be a better person and reach their maximum is much more important than my own career and it is probably a much more meaningful thing to do.

So where am I heading next? within two weeks, I will start a new job in provincial government. It is quite interesting that I will be working on WPS project, which I have worked for quite a few years in IBM, but this time, as a customer. I assume that the transition would be relatively easy. With the job security and stability as a plus for this position, I have to have much longer commute. Hopefully, the workload is not as crazy as IBM so that I would have more time to read books and think about how to deal with two boys at home.

Hope I made a right decision. Time will tell.

A story of hope

Isaac is so interested in the book named "Terry Fox: a story of Hope". He kept "reading" (pictures only ) and asked all questions: why did he have only one leg? was he sick? why?Did he take medicine?

On the other hand, Caleb knew the story of Terry fox, he told Isaac and me that Terry Fox is about "never give up". I am so pleased that the school has taught him this value through annual Terry Fox Run.

This morning, For the first time, I introduced him a chinese game of sticks while I was preparing his lunch. He had to move two sticks to make the shape upside down. After one minute, he came to me and said he could not figure out. I said to him :" Terry fox never gave up running even he had only one leg. " To my surprise, he went back to table and continue thinking.. and he found the solution!

Tonight, I "borrowed" the book from Isaac ( he hid in a secret place) and read to them again, Isaac is so into superman these days, I told him " Terry Fox is a real superman". After they slept, I read it one more time. It really got me. I admire him. His Marathon of Hope is not only for raising money for cancer research, but also a inspiration for Canadians and people all over the world.

" Anything is possible if you try. Dreams are made if people try." He is a real superman!