Some Chinese New Year Traditions

In this year the day of Chinese New Year Eve is at January 28, and now it's the first hour of the new dog year. In this day Chinese people will go back to their hometown and have a dinner with their family members around a round table to talk about what they did in last year and the wishes in the upcoming new year. Before midnight the elders will gather all the young people in the family and give them some red packet money for wishing them to have lucky in the new year. Before the young man get the red packet money, he or she must say something good to make the elders happy then he or she can get the money. In the tradition it becomes a happy time just like Christmas in the western world.

In the Chinese tradition, if a man or woman is married, then he or she cannot get red packet money anymore. Instead, he or she will become the one who give the red packet money to the young family members and to the elders. So, now I'm the one to give the red packet money in my family because I'm already married. But fortunately, I do not need to give the red packet money to many people because there are not too many family members.

The day after the Chinese New Year is a day that a wife should go back to her parents' family. I'm not sure the reason why all Chinese wifes should go back to their parents' family on that day, but we've been following the tradition for so many years to make it an ancient tradition. So on January 30 I will go to Tai-Chung county of Taiwan with Rebecca to visit her mother. I can predict that the traffic will be a jam, but we still have to go back because it's been some time Rebecca does not see her mother.

I have introduced 2 Chinese traditions in the Chinese new year period here. If you are interested in more, just let me know.

Happy Chinese New Year! Wish you to have a good day.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! :)

In Taiwan the Christmas day is already passed but in some other countries Christmas is still not passed yet, so I think it's still OK to say Merry Christmas now. Wish you all have a great Christmas time today.

Some status updates for the Christmas party of Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan. Well, not too many people came to the party (about 1/4 people of both companies) and the live band did not come as expected, but we still have lots of fun and joy in the party! I and other Ulead/IVI EWC members had prepared 12 extra gifts for the people who joined the party, and the 2 biggest gifts (Play Station 2 gaming boxes) were all been given to Uleaders: Quality Assurance Engineer, Patty Dai, and the Senior Financial Manager, Julia. Let us congratulate them to be the winners!

For the pictures of the Christmas party, you can check the pictures photoed by my colleagues.

Photo by Legis Lu:
http://www.cmlab.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~legis/Photos/Ulead/20051221-Party/

Photo by Taur Su:
http://www.tomsun.org/thumbnails.php?album=19305

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, today is my birthday. I and Rebecca did not go for travelling as planned because she has to deliver 2 Beta cam tapes for her company, GOOD TV, to the broadcasting company. If she cannot deliver the tapes on time, some TV programs in the evening will have problems. So, by Rebecca's request, I decide to go with her and spend some time to visit the food market in downtown after her delivered the tapes. Well, I think the foods are delicious, but they are a little expensive. But why care about the price? It's my birthday!

GOODTV is a Christian satellite TV station in Taiwan, and also is the only Chinese Christian satellite TV station in the world (at the present time). Now it's been located at channel 15 in Taiwan and has an Internet broadcasting site. Rebecca already works for this company for more than 6 years now. If you can understand Chinese, you can go to http://www.goodtv.tv to know more information about this TV station.

Last night I and Rebecca went to Jedidiah's church for the Christmas Eve activity. We had heard 2 stories about how the lives to be changed by Jesus. Rebecca is been moved by the first story. Well, I think God is really good for He always watches us and never sleeps, and we are been protected by Him and his angels. I think maybe it's God telling me that I should be strong and keep faith on Him. I do believe it is.

All right, I think it's time for me to go to bed now. (It's 4:00am here in Taiwan) See you next time.

Christmas Party for Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan

We are going to have a Christmas party for Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan at Dec. 21, 2005. This would be the first big employee event for both Ulead HQ and InterVideo Taiwan. We plan to have a gift exchange activity in the party, so I need to go to the shopping mall tomorrow for the gifts. I would not only buy the gift for myself, but also buy the gifts for both companies with my colleagues because I'm a member of Ulead Employee Welfare Committee. But we still not know what to buy now. Should we buy Sony PS2, or should we buy Apple iPod Shuffle? Or any other gifts? Maybe we can only decide when we get to the shopping mall tomorrow.

BTW, Christmas is coming, and it's also my birthday (I was born at Dec. 25, 1974). My wife Rebecca thinks we should go for travel again in Dec. 24 to Dec. 25 for celebrating, maybe I should think about it.

I just come back from the church group gathering with Rebecca. Tonight we are celebrating Christmas in advance. Everyone is having lots of fun and joy. I think it would be a great blessing from God for me today, especially after I have some sad things happen in the afternoon. I think I should thank God for this.

No matter what happens, we still need to live our lifes with joy, because God is with us and He is always watching us, isn't He?

Thanks, to my lovely God.

Good night, and may God bless you guys, in this Christmas season.

Will be visited by IT Home Weekly reporter

Tomorrow afternoon I will be visited by a reporter of Taiwanese magazine, IT Home Weekly, for a column about the life of a IT person. The reporter wishes to ask me about some questions like: why do you get into the IT industry? How do you feel about the programming life? Any leisure time hobbies? What do you plan to do in the future? And bluh bluh bluh....Have you guys ever been visited by a reporter before? I never have. I only have a experience to meet a editor from a Chinese magazine "Programmer" on MSN messenger to discuss about the differences of the developer life in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. (The editor made the discussion as 2 column articles) Now I'm a little nervous about this. I feel a little uncomfortable because I'm not used to expose myself to the media and the public.

You may want to ask me why I feel uncomfortable about this, since I already have several blogs on the net to tell people what I think and what I do. Well, I think there are some differences. Although I have several blogs available, not many people are reading them so I can feel free to write what I think. And, I can control what to write and what not to write on my blogs. But if someone come to visit you and write something about you on the media, it would be a little different. (Sometimes it would be a big difference) Anyone who read the column article will know you immediately. And you cannot control what the reporter writes about you.

So, why do I still wish to get visited by the reporter? Well, I don 't know. Maybe to get famous is one of my desires. (But it's possible I might still be no-one after the column article is been published).

The reporter said he will contact me again today. Well, let's wait and see what he wants from me. :)

Update: the article on me now is been published in Chinese, read it if you want to know me more.