茶餐廳事件‏

三個男人到元朗一間茶餐廳嘆下午茶, 叫伙記落單. 要了三個老婆餅, 兩杯奶茶和一杯凍檸水.那個帶有一些內地口音的伙記寫低後, 向他們覆述一次:

"你哋三個老婆病, 兩個拉柴, 一個凍撚死.  喺冇?"

Feng Shui (The Science of) (4)

T-Junction
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Feng Shui is considered bad if a house is located directly at a T-junction. As shown in the diagram, the house is like being placed in front of the sharp end of a spear. In such location, there is always a possibility of accidents for vehicles travelling along the road to run into the house causing disasters to the house and residents inside. Even though accidents may not actually occur, but the fear of such happenings would cause stress and hence affect the health of the residents. Living in such an uncomfortable, unsafe and unhealthy environment, people may find it hard to perform well and achieve success easily. Hence they may feel luck is not on their side and thus Feng Shui of the house is bad.

On the contrary, Feng Shui is considered good if the house is not a residence but a public building (e.g. temple, church or commercial complex like a bank or shopping center). In such location, there is high possibility for people to come from every direction thus raising the popularity and prosperity of the place.

Man and Woman‏

A man will pay $20 for a $10 item he needs.
 A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item that she doesn't need.
 
 A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
 A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
 
 A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
 A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
 
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to
understand her at all.
 
 A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
 A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.
 
 A woman always has the last word in any argument.
 Anything a man says after that last word is always the beginning of a new argument.

Feng Shui (The Science of) (3)

Track - Sickle and Belt

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A track can be a road or a river.

A. Sickle

Feng Shui is considered bad if a house is located on the concave side of a track. The shape of the track is like a sickle cutting the house at all times, causing a bad feeling to the residents of the house. If the track is a road, cars travelling on the road have the possibility to veer off from the road during the turn and run into the house. If the track is a river, water would constantly erode the concave side of the bank and may flood into the house. In either case, disaster may occur to the residents in the house. Even though disaster may not actually occur, but the fear of such happenings would cause stress and hence affect the health of the residents. Living in such uncomfortable, unsafe and unhealthy environment, prople may find it hard to perform well and achieve success easily. Hence they may feel luck is not on their side and thus Feng Shui of the house is considered bad.

In ancient times, there were no cars. But the ancient modes of transportation; running horses and horse-carts would have similar effects.

B. Belt

Feng Shui is considered good if a house is located on the convex side of a track. The shape of the track is like a belt embracing the house at all times, making the residents feel warm, safe and dignified. In such location, there is little chance of accidents and disasters as mentioned above to happen and consequently there is much less fear of those happenings. Living in such comfortable, safe and healthy environment, residents usually would perform well and achieve success with relative ease. Hence, they may find luck is on their side and hence Feng Shui of the house is good.

Feng Shui (the Science of) (2)

Placement of House

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For good Feng Shui, the placement of the house should have the following characteristics:

1. Back North, Front South (坐北向南 )
    The back of the house should face North and have solid walls. If there is a back door to the house, it should be kept shut at all times unless being used. As cold air in winter usually comes from the North, the enclosed back would block off cold air at winter times, thus providing a warmer and more comfortable living environment in winter.
    The front of the house should face South and have the main entrance, balcony and windows. As cool breeze in summer usually comes from the South, the front openings would allow cool air to flow inside the house, thus proving a cooler and more comfortable living environment in summer.

2. Left Green Dragon, Right White Tiger (左青龍, 右白虎 )
    It is said that there are four guardians to the house: left green dragon, right white tiger, front red phoenix and back black turtle.
    The left side of the house should face East. East represents morning. Green dragon is the symbolic creature guarding the left (i.e. East) side of the house. Green implies freshness and life while dragon represents the master. Hence on the East side of the house, we should ideally have something green like a river or a lining of trees externally which would provide fresh air to the house in the morning. Internally, as master, we should have the more essential components of the house like the master bedroom, lounge etc. to represent the master position and to take advantage of the better living environment.
    As the left side faces East, the right side of the house then faces West. West represents evening. White tiger is the symbolic creature guarding the west side of the house. White implies brightness and heat while tiger represents fierceness. The West side of the house usually suffers from the bright sunlight and fierce heat in the evening. As such, we should ideally have externally some protections like another neighboring house or a solid fence. Internally, we should have relatively less essential components of the house like kid's rooms or playing areas etc. to reduce the impacts of the less ideal living environment.
 
3. Front Red Phoenix, Back Black Turtle (前朱雀, 後玄武 )
    Red phoenix is the symbolic creature guarding the front of the house. Red implies beauty and fortune while phoenix represents goodness. As phoenix is a bird and bird likes to fly freely, we should have externally an open space in front of the house like a fountain, a pool or a lawn, thus providing unobstructed pleasant views for residents in the house. Internally, we should have the more essential components of the house like balcony, living room etc. for the residents to enjoy the nice sceneries which provide a more relaxing and more comfortable living environment.
    Black turtle is the symbolic creature guarding the back of the house. Black implies ugliness and evil while turtle represents badness. The back of the house is usually relatively less pleasant and hence ideally have protections externally by some tall structure like a hill or a tall building. Internally, we should have less essential components of the house like kitchen, laundry or bath rooms.
    If the front side of the house also faces South and the back side North, it is considered to have even better Feng Shui for benefits as mentioned in (1) above.

With better placement of the house, we could have better living conditions which provide more comfortable, enjoyable and healthy living environment. Living in an environment with such good qualities, we usually can perform well and may achieve success with relative ease. As a feeling, we may think we are in good luck with good Feng Shui in the house.

Performance Appraisal‏

There are 2 types of Performance Appraisal Systems: One is process-oriented, focusing on HOW one does in the job. The other is result-oriented, focusing on WHAT one achieves in the job.

A priest dies and is awaiting his turn in line at Heaven's Gates. 

Ahead of him is a guy, fashionably dressed, in dark sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans. St Peter asks him: "Please tell me who are you, so that I may know whether to admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven or not?" The guy replies: "I am Annam, an auto driver from Bangkok." St Peter consults his ledger, smiles and says to Annam: "Please take this silken robe and gold scarf, and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Now it is the priest's turn. He stands erect and speaks out in a gentle voice: "I am the Pope's assistant, a priest for over 40 years." St Peter consults his ledger and says to the priest: "Please take this cotton robe and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

"Just a minute," says the agonized priest. "How is it that a foul mouthed, rash driving auto driver is given a silken robe and a golden scarf and me, a priest, who has spent his entire life preaching God's name and goodness has to make do with a cotton robe?"

"Results, my friend, results," shrugs St Peter. "When you preached, everybody slept; but when he drove his auto, everybody prayed."

The Clock Problem

I recall in my primary school days, we were taught to solve the clock problem in arithmetic, an example of which is as follows:

"Between the hour 8 and 9 o'clock, what time will the hour-hand and the minute-hand overlap with each other?"

We know that at 8 o'clock, the minute-hand is at the 0-minute position while the hour-hand is at the 40-minute position. As the minute-hand moves to catch up with the hour-hand, the hour-hand also moves albeit at a much slower pace. In fact, when the minute-hand moves 60 minutes (1 round), the hour-hand moves 5 minutes (1 hour). So they are moving at different speeds in the ratio of 12 : 1. When the minute-hand reaches the 40-minute position, the hour-hand would have moved a little bit further. We also know that the minute-hand will catch up with the hour-hand somewhere between the 40-minute and 45-minute position (They cannot go beyond the 45-minute position otherwise the hour-hand would have gone beyond 9 o'clock already).

In those school days, we were taught to obtain the answer arithmetically (frankly without a full understanding) as:

"40 x 12/11 or 43.64 minutes after 8 o'clock"

As we advanced into secondary school, we learnt Algebra. With the power of Algebra, the problem could be easily (and logically) understood and solved :

Let m be the position (in minutes) of the minute-hand and h be the position (in minutes) of the hour-hand.
As the minute-hand moves m minutes, the hour-hand moves m/12 minutes.
At 8 o'clock, the hour-hand is at 40 while the minute-hand is at 0 (i.e. the hour-hand has a head start of 40 before the minute-hand tries to catch up).
Hence, the position of the hour-hand (h) at any time is related to the position of the minute-hand (m) as follows:

h = 40 + m/12     ............... (1)

When the position of the hour-hand overlaps with the minute-hand,

h = m

Putting this back into the relation (1),

m = 40 + m/1 2

Solving this equation, we have:

m = 40 x 12/11 or 43.64 minutes

Hence, the time between 8 and 9 o'clock when the hour-hand and minute-hand overlap with each other is 43.64 minutes past 8.

Naturally, the problem can be re-phrased to ask for the same situation in any hour rather than between the hour 8 to 9 o'clock. In that case, we just replace the head start position 40 by the corresponding starting position of the hour-hand accordingly.

In addition, there are other variations of the clock problem: e.g.

A. "Between the hour 8 and 9 o'clock, what time will the hour-hand and the minute-hand form a straight line with each other?"

As from above, when the hour-hand forms a straight line with the minute-hand,

h = m + 30

Putting this back into the relation (1),

m + 30 = 40 + m/12        

Solving this equation, we have:

m = 10 x 12/11 or 10.91 minutes

Hence, the time between 8 and 9 o'clock when the hour-hand and minute-hand form a straight line with each other is 10.91 minutes past 8.

B. "Between the hour 8 and 9 o'clock, what time will the hour-hand and the minute-hand form a right angle  with each other?"

As the hour-hand can be right-angled in front of or behind the minute-hand, so when the hour-hand forms a right angle with the minute-hand,

h = m + 15 or h = m - 15

Putting this back into the relation (1),

m + 15 = 40 + m/12 or m - 15 = 40 + m/12

Solving this equation, we have:

m = 25 x 12/11 or 27.27 minutes

or

m = 55 x 12/11 or 60 minutes

Hence, the time between 8 and 9 o'clock when the hour-hand and minute-hand form a right angle with each other is either 27.27 minutes past 8 or 9 o'clock.

If at any point of the calculation, the number becomes negative, add 60 to the number before going on, reason being the minute-hand runs only between 0 and 60 in the clock face.