Uncle Wai's Story

I went to my brother (Uncle Wai)'s funeral in Hong Kong last week. Uncle Wai passed away on 6th October, 2009 at the age of 66 due to heart function failure. His funeral service was held on 23-24th October, 09 (Fri-Sat).
Uncle Wai lived a relatively simple but happy life. He was married to Auntie Lai-fong for over 35 years and had a son and a daughter. In his last 10 to 15 years, he became very much involved in voluntary activities in his local Catholic church. He dedicated most of his private time in caring and helping elderly people in the parish. He always put his concern of other fellow members of the church even before his health. Here were some comments I gathered in the funeral service which provided some glimpses of the work he had done and what he had achieved:
One day the parish priest went to hold a burial ceremony for a member of the church in Cheung Sha Wan cemetery. He suddenly found Uncle Wai standing behind him whom he didn't expect. He asked Uncle Wai why he was there. Uncle Wai replied that he wanted to participate in the ceremony to pray for his friend. Knowing Uncle Wai's poor health, the priest had no way but to forbid him from going further up the hill for the burial ceremony.
Another Sunday morning, Uncle Wai was helping in organising activities for an excursion in the church for elderly people. Uncle Wai saw that there was no camera available. He thought the elderly usually would very much like to take pictures in those occasions. Without any hesitation, he rushed back home to get a camera, and returned with a redden face, continuously panting and said, " I got the camera".
On the very morning before Uncle Wai fell into coma, Sunday 4Oct, he still remembered that there was a function organised for the church community. He called up Auntie Lai-fong several times to remind her details of the activities, and asked her to call some elderly fearing them might not wake up early enough or they might have forgotten about the event.
At the close of the funeral service, another priest from the parish requested for one more minute. He said he has to say a few words about the day Uncle Wai passed away. Uncle Wai died at around 1:30 pm. A requiem mass was organised for him at 8 pm the same evening. Despite a very short notice, there was a massive turnout of attendance. The whole church was fully filled with relatives, friends and fellow members of the church. The priest was particularly moved as there were crowds of elderly people who just came for the hour-long mass to pay Uncle Wai's last respect and prayed for his passing. The priest said in his own words as 'cool' and 'exceptional'.

Uncle Wai was an ordinary person by most standards. It was his enthusiasm in caring and helping other people that made his story a very special one. Uncle Wai had given out much effort in concern of fellow members in the local church community. He also received much reward in personal satisfaction and happiness which we could see from his face whenever we met him.

Dumpling

Next time you take picture for others, say "dumpling".

'Dumpling' is 'Siu Mai'.
'Siu Mai' is 'smile'.

Story of the Starfish

It was a scorching sunny day. A man stood alone on a quiet beach watching the tides flowing and ebbing. One after the other, each wave washed a dozen of starfish onto the shore. As the wave receded, the starfish were left lying, drying and dying on the beach under the heat. Seeing the situation, the man bent down his body, picked up a dying starfish from the beach and threw it back into the water.
Wave after wave, hundreds and hundreds of starfish were washed onto the shore, left lying, drying and dying on the beach. Hour after hour, the man untiredly did exactly the same thing.
An onlooker watched for an hour. He saw heaps and heaps of starfish washed onto the shore, dried and died under the sun, and yet the man was able to save only a handful. He couldn't help but approached the man and asked, "Sir, do you think it's worth your effort?" and pointing to the sea of dead starfish, "Will it make a difference to them all?"

The man didn't stop. He continued to bend down, picked up a dying starfish from the beach, said calmly, " I don't know. I just know it will make a difference ...................... " and threw it far out into the sea with all his strength. " ............................... to this one."

Artificial Intelligence

Search engine is an internet tool built with artificial intelligence which searches the world wide web to find relevant information basing on user's input, sometimes guessing what the user wants.
I was in Hong Kong last November. It was 9 pm on a Tuesday night. I heard from the TV news there was a superjackpot of over $30 millions for Mark VI, the betting of which would close by 9:30. (Mark VI is a lottery in Hong Kong which is similar to Lotto in Australia.)
So I hastened. I scrambled through my phone books to look for the telephone number for the Telebet Centre. Things were usually not there at the time you needed them most.
At 9:15, I began to panic. I was nowhere but to resort to the internet for help. I keyed in 'Mark VI' to a search engine, hoping that it would return some relevant websites which I might find the phone number to place my bets. I forgot whether it was Google or Yahoo. Anyway I did, and guess what came back!
It returned:

'St. Mark's Gospel, Chapter Six'

"Oh no. Not at this time." I sighed. It was 9:25.

The search engine was so smart to try to stop me from plunging all my fortune in that go at the very last moments. Thank you.

Voice Recognition System

I was working on my tax return two months ago. I needed the total payment for my internet connection for claiming the Education Tax Refund. My connection was with Optus broadband cable. As all payments were made via direct debit, I had to ask Optus for hardcopies of the bills for the last 12 months to substantiate my claim. So I called the Optus Customer Services Hotline.
After the general greetings, the Voice System asked, "In a few words, please tell me what you'd like to do today."
I said, : "Account enquiry"
The Voice System said, " Thank you. To assist me to go further, please tell me your mobile number if you have an Optus mobile, otherwise, just say I don't have one."
As I didn't have an Optus mobile, I followed the instruction and said, " I don't have one."
But the Voice System replied, " Sorry, I have difficulty to understand you.", and repeated, "Please tell me your mobile number if you have an Optus mobile, otherwise, just say I don't have one."
I then said gently and slowly, " I ----- don't ----- have ------ one." I thought a kindie kid would be able to understand me this time.
But the Voice System replied again, "Sorry, I have difficulty to understand you.", and repeated, " Please tell me ------------ don't have one."
I began to lose myself. I raised my voice and shouted to the phone, " I DON'T HAVE ONE. DAMN IT."
And the Voice System replied, " Transferring you to an operator.", and there went the music.
15 minutes later, all my queries and requests were fully answered by a human behind. That was Voice Recognition System.

Perhaps this VRS only recognises English with Aussie accents.

My New Blog

My 12-year old Johnson helped me set up this blog. It seemed easy. Next comes the difficult part: finding what to blog.

Well, I guess I can share some stories I heard or something I came across which I think may be interesting.

Let's see how it goes.