Saturday, January 09, 2010

Google IME Chinese Simplified

今天, 哥哥教給我怎樣用GoogleIME 的中文拼音輸入法, 挺開心喔!

真的要謝謝他。

現在, 我可以用北京拼音字母來寫中文。 很快就可以寫好了。 =)

Sunday, January 03, 2010

有很多的感想 II (in memory of Hannah Faith Chan)

Last night, I was at Jack's house again, having dinner with his family. Thanks to Clare for inviting me.

I had a really good day yesterday: having lunch at Pho Hung with Clare's family, shopping at Vaughan Mills, having a Vietnamese dinner with Jack's family.

After dinner, I was chatting with Clare and Jack, and we got onto the topic of tithing for church. I told her that based on my salary, I should be giving approximately $400 each month, and in reality, I'm offering a lot less than 10%. I told her that 10% is just a suggested amount, and some would tithe more than that, while some less. It was a really interesting conversation. At one point, Jack asked me a question.

How can I believe in a God who allows babies to die before they've had a chance to truly experience life and all its ups and downs?

For sure, Jack knows about Hannah's death, and that's probably why he asked it. I feel like God has truly been watching me during these past two months, making sure that if my faith ever were to waver, that someone or something would present itself to me and help me to understand a little of the way how He works. I told Jack what I learned from Pastor Keith. When God takes a baby away to Heaven with Him, it means that this baby never had to experience any unhappiness, shame, persecution or rejection. Everything that this baby knew during her short existence was her parents love, her grandparents' love, love from her aunties and uncles, cousins and friends. Imagine how much God must have loved Hannah to have chosen for her a life so purely made up of love?

How many of us can say that we've lived a life without fear, shame, guilt, or pain? Hardly any. One day, when we meet Hannah again in Heaven, I'm sure we'll hear her tell us about how much love she received. We'd never hear her talk about anything dirty, corrupted or sinful because she never had any experience with these things.

Even young children will sometimes be jealous of their siblings, or act selfishly, or show anger towards their parents. As a parent, you would have to teach your child why these behaviours are wrong, and then have to watch their children repeat these mistakes over and over again throughout their lifetimes. But for Alvin and Sze-sze, when that day comes, they will see Hannah in all her glory and purity. Untarnished. What an honour God has bestowed on this faithful couple!

I thank the Lord Jesus for showing His grace and mercy and love.

凌雪

在嚴冬飄雪中,
您能否看見她
在凌空
雪粉霏霏
與陽光
照射著
的光芒?

-朱鳳鳴

有很多的感想 that I would like to share

This has been a tremendously joyous holiday for me, partly because I didn't bring any marking home, and I was able to truly and fully spend time with family and friends, celebrating and enjoying a lot of relaxing activities with those I love most on earth.

It all started with the busy but fun Christmas shopping experience with my parents, friends and my aunt Le. Then it was hosting the Christmas Eve dinner where Mummy and I made 8 Cornish hens. She made 4 in the Chinese style, and I made 4 using a French/English recipe (using port wine). After that, we celebrated Christmas at my uncle Frank and aunt Anita's house, like we do every year. It was a rather small gathering this year since my two other cousins were absent.

My bro and his wife weren't able to attend any of these, but luckily, both families had 2 gatherings before they left on holiday to the Caribbean. Otherwise, it would have a been a bummer. I miss them. I hope they're having lots of fun after the hell they went through at the airport/hotel.

New Years has been unexpectedly amazing this year. First, I went to Jack's house with Clare to celebrate the Eve with his friends. These are friends that I haven't seen in a very long time, so I am so glad that I attended. We had so much fun eating really nicely crafted appetizers of asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, ham with a fiery hot mustard, little pastries with minced meat, etc. Jack even placed them on a tiered serving tower, like you would see at a hotel during high tea. It looked very elegant!

For dinner, Jack made us a beef stew, which we had with Yorkshire pudding. My very first time! =D We all had fun commenting on the bitter roasted radicchio and other people's memories of eating brussel sprouts. After dinner, the ladies played Scene It, a film trivia game an guessed our way through almost all of it. Then we watched a movie together with Sandra Bullock in it. It was a very touching story. Too bad one of the ladies had to go and nurse her baby daughter, and so she had to miss most of it. Thanks to Clare, Wendy and Joanne for making the New Year's Eve party feel like a "girl's night in" party.

On New Year's day, Clare came up with an idea t 4:30 in the afternoon to have a get-together. Fortunately, Thai and Cat were available in the evening, so they graciously allowed us to visit them and have dinner at their house. It was a very small gathering as Eddie and Jack weren't able to join us, but it was so much fun to so something spontaneous for once. We watched most of Pong Nan's concert, all of Ivana Wong's concert, a compilation of Faye Wong footage from the 90s, and then some old TVB 武俠 (wuxia) television series opening songs. Unfortunately, a lot of them that I had added to my playlist have been removed due to copyright violations. OH DANG!!! Still, we stayed way past 1:30am!

I feel so incredibly blessed this Christmas and New Year's. Thanks to all my family members, relatives, friends and of course, the precious Lord above.

Friday, January 01, 2010

2009 藍奕邦 得不到唱作歌手獎項?

叱咤商台是否有問題?

商台不愧是商台. 怎麼沒有內含又普通的 K 歌可以為側田奪到銀獎? 他還只能作曲, 連填詞的才華都沒有! 反而藍奕邦為自己作曲和填詞, 寫了「向前走」, 「時候尚早」 和 「靈光」 這些又動聽又有意思的作品, 境然皮叱咤商台 ignore.

香港樂壇怎能叫人家來重視呢?