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September 9, 2009

09-09-09

Filed under: 往事如风 — Fei @ 7:42 pm

Bride Groom今天是09年09月09日,一个好日子。黄历上也说“宜嫁娶”。今天结婚的人挺多的,我也第一次in a wedding,而且是个超小的wedding。

几个月前一位朋友吃饭时随便问我有没有兴趣当结婚证人,我从来没有当过证人,自然满口答应,不过当时也没有放在心上。一个星期前朋友又来问我下个星期三有没有时间,要结婚了。我自然说有了。。。然后自己也有些事很忙,都把这事忘了。

昨晚突然想起这事,赶快给朋友打电话。她也好,不紧不慢的,告诉我时间地点,而且她还没有网,只好让我写下来。我问她应该穿什么衣服,她也不在乎,说随便。我是打定主意要穿suit的,但groom自己不穿suit,那我是不是over dress了。。。过会她又打电话过来,说她们没有相机,要借我的相机。。。好吧,我那老掉牙的300D又有了用场。

今天早上起来,翻出我那西服,蹭蹭蹭地打上我Princeton的领带,跨上相机,出门也。。路上想到,是不是应该送些什么东西。。我这人是最不懂这些事情的了。。之前想都没想过,好吧,那也免了。。。

因为今天是个好日子,city hall早就被人定满了,他们是找了一个notary,在一个旅馆里。我到那一看,第一个到。再一看,连喊糟糕。。。自己穿了一身西装,打了领带。。。但出门时忙中出错,鞋没有换成黑色的皮鞋,穿了平常的休闲皮鞋。。。心里一冷,这怎么办呢?好吧,那就脱了西装,除去领带,休闲的当证人吧。。。

过了一会主角来了,看了觉得自己穿的还好,groom只穿了件短袖T-shirt,自己松了口气。当时就试验我的相机,给他们东拍拍,西拍拍。当然都是在同一个地方拍照。我早上出来的时候也没有跟老板请假,就偷偷跑出来了。。。一问他们,他们也没请假。。。呵呵。。。

然后notary迟到20分钟,我发现只有我一个人在场,问主角还有没有其他人。。。得到否定的答案。。。好吧,那我就是唯一的见证人了。。。。

notary带了个小孩过来,寒暄一阵后就开始讲填表的规矩,他们坐在那儿听,我就在旁边狂拍一气。然后重要时间到了,notary开始讲每个婚礼都要讲的话。。。先问bride,再问groom。。。当时突然觉得要有一个摄像机该多好。。只好拿着我的相机继续狂拍一气。。。还没怎么拍,notary就宣布他们成为夫妻了。。。

之后就是notary填表时间。。。主角突然想起什么,从包里拿出两枚戒指,互相戴上。。。继续拼命拍照。。。

notary突然叫“witness”。。。。把我吓了一大跳。。。发现是我填表时间。。。先是给我讲填表规矩(规矩真多)。。。然后我填表。。之后在结婚证明上签字。。。发现上面有bride’s witness 和 groom’s witness。。。但我只有一个人。。。不管他,签到正中间。。。

notary干这么多活不是白干的。。。下面就是结帐时间,bride从包里拿出150美元,notary就交出结婚证明。。。一手交钱,一手交货。。。

现在仪式也做过了,帐也结了,婚礼到此结束。。。。notary的小儿子突然把我叫过去,给我讲了一大通good bug,bad bug的事(他在看一本关于bug的书),然后在旁边的树丛中找bug。。。

婚礼结束,问主角们要不要继续拍照。。。得到否定的答案。。。不管他们。。。出去的路上继续狂拍。。。再祝贺他们一次,上车。。。直奔公司而去。。。

此婚礼时间不到40分钟,客人就我一个。。。真是个mini wedding。

August 9, 2009

梦里的一部电影

Filed under: 往事如风 — Fei @ 12:14 am

我总觉得自己很奇怪,遇到些很奇特的事情。就拿以前写过的一篇blog“奇事”来说,总觉得冥冥之中自有天意。而我对以前做过的一个也觉得很奇怪。不过那个还是好解释。那年我有一个好朋友Princeton毕业。他挺有个性的,本科读的是物理专业,研究生报考经济专业。当时拿了好多offer,最后在Yale和Stanford中选。我当时在硅谷,自然怂恿他来Stanford了。Stanford经济排名第四,Yale只有20来名。想来也是来Stanford。不过他更有个性,为了Yale经济系下的一个方向,去了Yale,把我给抛弃了。害得我做了那个梦。不过现在他也后悔了。。。这是后话。

昨天又做了一个很长的梦,很奇特。这梦又预示着什么呢?

这个梦创造了几个第一。首先这梦特别长,一般来说,虽然有的梦感觉很长,但实际上只有十几分钟(科学检测出来的)。不过这梦是我在半睡半醒中做的,做到一半我还迷迷糊糊睁开眼看看天。刚开始做的时候天还是黑的,等到做完了天完全变亮了。梦长起码有一两个小时。其次这梦完全和我没有关系,我都不在梦里面。这是我第一次做这种类型的梦。梦里面我很清楚的知道自己在看一场电影,还是个悬疑电影,梦里用了很多电影切换场景的技术。我觉得很有可能是某个导演在构思一部大片,结果他的脑电波被我接收到了,就成就了我的梦。那我先给大家一个preview吧。:-)

做的电影梦结束后我还想,是不是立刻醒来把梦写下来,省得忘了。心里正在犹豫中,就发觉梦里好多情节已经记不清了。于是下定决心,起来写梦。那时时间是早上8:30。

下面是我当时回忆的梦。中间很多情节记不清了,只记得开头和结尾。

在梦的刚开始,几个穿黑西装,打黑领带的人(好象是FBI)来到一个很邋遢的俱乐部,里面很脏乱差。他们刚进去就有一群嬉皮士和他们抗争(有些打斗的动作)。但那些嬉皮士完全不是对手,一下子就被制服了。这时有一个长镜头慢慢扫过俱乐部,表现嬉皮士们被制服了。只记得其中一个是在一个慢慢向上的平楼梯,一边是木头墙,上面挂了好些老照片(就像有些俱乐部一样),一边是铁栏杆(有点像残疾人的通道,只是在室内,光线很昏暗),一个很年轻的小伙子被穿西装的人摁在栏杆上。最后镜头扫到一个长得很丑的人坐在地上,脸极度扭曲,很恐怖的样子(当时吓了我一跳)。那群黑衣人是来找东西的,很快制服嬉皮士后他们就在俱乐部后面的办公室翻箱倒柜的找东西(办公室一面是个巨大的玻璃,镜头在外面,但可以很清楚的看见里面)。黑衣人里有一个人是女的,很漂亮,也很酷。很快这女的找到要找的东西(忘了那东西啥样了,只记得大概和一本厚厚的letter大小的书差不多大),就拿在手上。这时镜头转到办公室里,镜头上方是一群黑衣人,下方是一个被打败了的坐在地上的嬉皮士。这时头领一声令下,黑衣人们就撤了。镜头下方的嬉皮士(长得挺帅的,后来发现他是主人翁)从地上爬起来,大叫:“NO!”(这时候完全觉得黑衣人是好人,但很快就发觉想错了。)

镜头立刻切到几个月前。具体发生了什么事完全不记得了。只记得是讲述那东西的来源,怎么重要。黑衣人和嬉皮士为了抢这东西发生的种种事情。梦真的做得很长,我那时是在半睡半醒之间,可以明显感到刚开始时天还很黑,然后慢慢的天就亮了,真像看电影一样。中间那段时间发现开头那个长得很丑的人其实是嬉皮士的头(人不可貌相)。黑衣人是反派,而嬉皮士才是好人。期间一个情节是那主人翁和黑衣女子打对手,那时主人翁和黑衣女子打架时突然发觉很奇怪,不由自主的叫了声:“咦?”。下面就看见主人翁逃走了,而黑衣女也向另一个方向跑去。当时我非常奇怪(这些到梦的最后才有答案)。

黑衣人虽然想抢那东西,但一直都没有抢到。到了梦的最后,出现了和开头一模一样的场景(这也可能是我为什么能记住开头的缘由)。黑衣人到了邋遢的俱乐部,嬉皮士们出来抗争,被制服,黑衣人找东西,女黑衣人找到那东西,撤离撤离俱乐部,主人翁大叫:“NO!”

然后出现了开头没有出现的镜头。出了俱乐部后,那女黑衣人突然撒腿就跑,其他黑衣人先是一愣,反应过来后就疯狂的追,还调动警察等等。当时觉得奇怪,追一个自己人还这么劳师动众。那女黑衣人跑到一个像是地铁站的地方。她先是到了一个商店,把那东西藏在一个装饰物内(装饰物是像一个竖着的超大鸡蛋,中空的,上半截和下半截可以打开放东西,我忘了叫什么名字了)。然后她想上一辆像QQ的小车,但被旁边两位工作人员拦下来,要看身份证,黑衣女就给了他们身份证,坐到QQ车里(她是从QQ的右门坐进去的,右面是驾驶座,看来事情的发生地是在英国了)。其中一个工作人员因为某种事情和旁边另外一个等QQ的人吵,另一个工作人员就和他打手势,要他先把黑衣女的身份证验证一下。于是第一个工作人员就在一台机子上刷了一下那身份证。奇怪的事情发生了,屏幕上显示的不是身份信息,而是现有”余额¥0.05″。那身份证看上去像身份证,但其实是多次用的车票。两个工作人员露出奇怪的表情,往QQ里看。黑衣女突然从QQ左门走出来,谁也没想到她突然躺进另一个透明容器,容器是半倾斜的,上半是透明的盖子,下半是不透明的。工作人员突然很紧张,大叫:“不要!”,但已经晚了,黑衣女按了一个按钮,容器内烟雾一起,她消失了。这是才从别人口中知道,那女的其实是个机器人,那容器是为了dispose机器人而设的。如果是人的话是不会被dispose掉的。

镜头又到了那主人翁,他在那家店里的装饰物里找到的那东西,脸上露出一丝微笑。这是镜头有切到那黑衣女和主人翁打对手的场面,主人翁说了声:“咦?”,他发觉那黑衣女是机器人(好像就是从女的身份证是地铁票联想到的)。那主人翁又是个电脑专家,他用对付机器人的手法把那黑衣女制服,打开机器人的脑袋,改装了一下。这下那黑衣女成了嬉皮士在黑衣人的密探。

至此所有疑团都有解决。

August 5, 2009

ecorner.stanford.edu

Filed under: Business,Readings — Fei @ 11:38 pm

Stanford University entrepreneur corner is a great source for entrepreneurs. Every week, an entrepreneur is invited to give a talk on his or her expertise, focusing on business and entrepreneur of course. An MP3 of the  talk can actually be downloaded from the website, which provides a unique learning opportunity for people who cannot attend the lecture, someone like me.

I have been listening to the lectures for a while. The quality of the talk totally depends on the speaker. Some speakers are not good communicators; some speeches are too specific on the product of the company. For them, I just browse through once.

However, some speeches are great. The speakers are very experienced, presenting a whole lot of information. In the future, I will list some good speeches that I consider worthy of listening again and again 🙂 Hope you will also enjoy them.

Today, I just list some podcasts I listened recently.

Innovation as the crux of entrepreneurship, by John Hennessy (4.0)

No wonder Hennessy is the president of Stanford University. He is such a great speaker. He is also a great entrepreneur, founded MIPS (which is unfortunately in my field). In his 30+ years of career, he has seen and tried enough things. He didn’t present a whole lot detailed lessons, but as a person being in both industry and academia, his point of view is quite unique.

Young at heart: how to be an innovator for life by Tom Kelley (4.5)

In the speech, Tom talked about many stories, vividly, which are very enlightening. I especially like his stories:  “every child is an artist”, “thinking like a traveler”, “kid’s toothbrush” . He also mentioned Jim Collin’s great book “Good to great”, emphasized the three circles, which I totally agree.

13 mistakes and 13 brilliant strokes by Hugh Martin (4.5)

Martin has been through many companies and has seen many mistakes in his career. Some of his experiences are quite eye flashing. Some of the key ideas are: the impact of CEO on the company; the importance of human resource; difference between one big player and multiple big players; don’t be afraid of law suite etc. etc.

July 16, 2009

Lean Startup

Filed under: Business — Fei @ 6:45 pm
mixergy

www.mixergy.com is a nice website. The founder interviews a lot of successful entrepreneurs, and the interviews are very enlightening. I will post some interesting interviews in the future.

I listened to the interview with Eric Ries, on the lean startup concept. Eric explained the pros and cons of stealth mode, the separation of customer launch and market launch, and how to test assumptions using customers’ feedback.

Eric learned market testing the hard way from his startup IMVU. How he and his team developed a technology brilliant 3D avatar plugin of IM, but failed to attract any customers. How he learned the lessen that his basic assumption was totally wrong. He then scratched months of hard work and started all over again, turned the company 180 degrees, launched a new IM with 3D avatars and achieved great success.

Here is the interview: http://mixergy.com/ries-lean/

July 12, 2009

我的二毛五分钱在哪儿?

Filed under: 往事如风 — Fei @ 3:28 pm
By Darren Hester

By Darren Hester

今天中午在餐馆吃面条,心想要付现金。面条吃到一半就在心里把要付的总数算了一下。口袋里有一些硬币,拿出来一看,一枚二毛五分,一枚一角,两枚五分,两枚一分,心想碎钱正正好。当时记得很清楚碎钱是这个数目。

面条吃完了,该付帐了。我又从口袋里掏出这些碎钱来。一看,傻眼了。那二毛五分钱不见了。只剩下一枚一角,两枚五分,和两枚一分的硬币了。怎么回事?我手又到口袋里去掏,把口袋里所有的东西都拿出来找,哪里找得着。口袋软软的,啥也没有。再看看地上,啥也没有。手上的硬币也不见二毛五分钱。如此翻来覆去五六次,还是没找着。当时也不是在乎这二毛五分了,只是好奇那硬币跑哪儿去了。不过当时不认为这钱丢了,只是它不想让我找到。

好吧,找不着也没有办法,我就把硬币放回口袋。付钱时就给了一元纸币。出了餐馆,手又不由自主的放在口袋里。咦?我哪来这么多硬币?掏出来一看,那枚二毛五分钱好好的躺在手中。就是我之前怎么也找不到的那枚。

我觉得这时候大多数人都会认为自己没有找仔细,我不这么认为。我口袋里掏了好几次,所有东西都拿出来了,没有找到。手上也明显没有。我不觉得是我的问题,而是那钱的问题。它就是在我要付钱的时候消失了,之后又回来了。

其实这不是第一次发生这种事情了。以前我也有偶尔找不到东西的时候。刚开始的时候我总觉得是自己的问题,找得不仔细。但后来我总是发现那失去的东西在我找了很多遍的地方出现,那我找的时候总是视而不见?我现在觉得是这样东西消失了,之后又出现了。所以找不到的时候着急也没有用。

最奇妙的是现在我每次找不到东西就会想一想这东西是不是丢了。如果直觉告诉我没有丢,我就想是放在哪儿了,如果想到的话就去那儿找,十有八九能找到。如果想不到的话也不担心,心里会默默许愿让那东西出来,过一两天它自然就出来了。如果直觉告诉我东西丢了我也不担心,因为担心也找不回来。而那东西确实就再也没有出来过。

July 11, 2009

Wells Fargo Sues Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo Denies Allegations

Filed under: Economics,Readings — Fei @ 11:00 pm

Court RoomI don’t usually do this, but this is so hilarious…

However, it definitely shows how rigid the American law is. Seems ridiculous on the surface, but the ridiculousness is based on a sound system foundation 🙂 I’d rather have this than making exceptions….

“Due to state foreclosure laws, lenders are obligated to name and notify subordinate lien holders,” said Wells Fargo spokesman Kevin Waetke.

Here is the link: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/al-lewis-wells-fargo-bank-sues/

June 18, 2009

Why People Follow?

Filed under: Personal Development,Readings — Fei @ 5:40 pm

strengths-based-leadership
Read the book “Strengths Based Leadership” recently. I don’t specifically like the book. Most of the contests are not new. Here I just want to mention one interesting observation from the authors fo the book.

It’s about how to be a good leader. To find out the answer, the authors did not interview the successful leaders and find out their common characteristics. Instead, the authors did a survey on the followers. The followers were asked two questions:

  • What leader has the most positive influence in your daily life?
  • Now please list three words that best describe what this person contributes to your life.

Guess what the followers wrote? I would have guessed different people would write dramatically different words. but I was wrong. Followers seem to have a very clear picture of what they want and need from the leaders. Most people write the same or similar words.

The most commonly mentioned words are:

  • Trust
  • Compassion
  • Stability
  • Hope

hmm.. it’s indeed very surprising. What can I learn from this discovery?

April 2, 2009

Tim Ferrisss Blog

Filed under: Business — Fei @ 12:37 am

4-hour-workweek

Like his blog… try it out: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

Better subscribe his newsletter.. 🙂 I really learned a lot from reading the threads…

Try this:


Tim and Kevin from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.

March 18, 2009

www.newspaperthief.com

Filed under: Toast Master — Tags: — Fei @ 2:33 pm

Newspaper Thief
Thanks Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and honored guests. Today, I’m going to tell you a story. As I tell you the story, think about it. Why I tell you the story.

Richard and Mary are neighbors. Every morning, a newspaper boy delivers newspapers to Mary’s house. Every morning, Mary has to read newspapers. Mary is DYING to read newspapers. She cannot skip reading newspapers.

One day, Mary went out to pick up the newspaper. But the newspaper was not on the ground, the lovely blue bag was NOT on the ground!!! Where is it? Where is it? Mary looked around… huh…. Richard… Richard was sitting on a couch in his yard reading a newspaper. It was exactly the same newspaper Mary was subscribed to. But he NEVER sits on that couch, and he NEVER reads newspapers…. Mary was furious. It must be Richard who took my newspaper. He is a thief!!!! But will Mary go to Richard and ask for the newspaper. No, Richard must deny it. He must say it’s all the newspaper boy’s fault.

But will Mary just stop here. NO. Richard needed to pay the price for being a thief. Because Mary was a real good web designer. She immediately went back to her house, spent 10 bucks to register a domain called www.newspaperthief.com. Spent 10 minutes to set up a website. It has Richard’s name, home address, weight, height…. all kinds of information about him. and he is a NEWSPAPER THIEF!!!! Mary wants everyone in the world to know, Richard is a thief.

But did Richard know that his name was on the internet? Did Richard know he’s a newspaperthief? No, he didn’t do a thing. He just sat in the coach reading newspapers.

Richard’s other neighbor, Scott, was in bad shape, he desperately needed to sell his house. He was a motivated seller. Fortunately, he found a buyer, Alice. They were already in contract stage. Alice had checked the house, it was good. Now just waiting for Alice to sign the contract. On that day, Alice decided to do a check on the neighbors, so she typed in the address on google. Because Mary just put up the website out there, it was one the the top few items returned by google. Alice looked at the address, it was the exactly next door. She clicked the website, and found everything about Richard. And he was a newspaper THIEF! OMG, Alice was going to have a thief neighbor! No way, Alice immediately tore down the contract, and cancelled the purchase. So what happened? Alice lost a great deal, Scott was even more desperate to sell his house, Richard lost a nice neighbor. And he didn’t even know ANY of those!

In the afternoon, Mary went out to the front yard again, and this time she noticed something, She saw a tip of a blue bag in the garden. oops, that’s a newspaper. Richard was not a thief. Mary was wrong. But Mary thought, I just spent 10 bucks on the website, let’s just put it up for a while. It doesn’t hurt… So the website still lives on.

After a couple of days, Richard was doing a multi-million dollar business deal with his first time partner, Bob. Because a lot of money was involved, Bob decided to do a background check. So he put Richard’s name in google. What did he get? It’s newspaperthief.com. Bob was stunned. He never expected Richard to be a thief. But Bob will never do a deal with anyone without integrity. Bob backed out from the deal, and Richard lost millions.

All those things happened behind the scene. Did Richard know any of these? No, he didn’t know. he didn’t do anything. He just sat in his coach reading newspapers.

Do you get anything from this story? Do you get why I tell you this story? Think about it. There are always different kinds people spreading different kinds of information in the internet. You can’t believe them all. Use your due diligence. Remember, whatever you are looking for, you will find it. It is very true both on internet, and in the real world.

Time: 06’07”

February 27, 2009

Housing price forecast

Filed under: Economics — Fei @ 11:36 pm
By Michel Filion

By Michel Filion

President Barack Obama proposed the fiscal year budget for the next few years. One significant point in the proposal is that the mortgage interest deduction will be limited to 28 bracket. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger raised income tax, sales tax, and property tax for fiscal year 2009-2010.  Both will have BIG effect on the housing price of silicon valley. 

I forecast that the price of condominiums and low priced single family homes will continue drop for the next few months, but the price will reach bottom before the end of the year. (Hopefully the economy will rebound as well). 

However, the high priced homes will find it tough to regain ground. Their prices will lag, mostly due to the limitation of mortgage interest deduction (if the proposal passes), and tThe tax increase in both federal and state level. The affluent will suffer financially during the Obama term and the housing market will be down for quite some time. 

As for 4-plex, 8-plex, and apartment complexes, it becomes tough to find renters with decent rent.  One is that the huge lay-offs now make a large population moving out of California. The rising income tax and sales tax does the same. Basically, fewer people will be in California. The relatively cheap housing price will draw a portion of people with steady jobs buying houses instead of renting. 

I will see how correct/wrong I am….

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