Wife vs Computer

I heard this from my friend (an IT guy) :

Wife can be mapped to a computer:
1. You face it everyday, and yet you still don't understand its complicated logic and difficult procedures.
2. It runs simple programs, which take you days to debug their errors.
3. It performs fast and accurate computations. It can compute how much salary to the dollar you still get left, and how much money you need in each single day in matter of nanoseconds.
4. It has superb memory and storage. Your every minor mistakes are stored securely and permanently on file, and can be recalled momentarily as and when required.
5. It organizes everything for you systematically: which restaurant to go, what tie to wear and when to see the in-law.
6. It is expensive to purchase. It is even more expensive to purchase the associated software and peripherals.
7. One minor careless mistake will cause it to crash. You need to spend a fortune and weeks to repair and restore for recovery.
8. It hangs up from time to time for no reasons, but will resume its operations automatically without your knowing.
9. It is your most precious toy and tool ever in life that you love and hate.

I Wish .........................

One day, a pair of young lovers went for a sightseeing trip on a bus, the destination of which was a famous tourist attraction. Before the bus entered the hills area, it passed by a small beautiful beach. The scenaries of the beach fully fascinated the pair. The man said to his girl friend, "Before going to the hills, why don't we go to the beach for a walk?" The girl said, " Good idea. I'd love to." So the man pressed the bell to signal to disembark. Afterwards, the bus continued to drive on slowly. The pair walked leisurely in the direction to the beach. But very shortly, they heard a sudden big "BOOM". A hugh boulder rolled down from the hill and struck right on the bus. Very unfortunately, no passengers on the bus survived.
Shocked at the scene, the man said to his girl friend very sadly, "I wish we were still on the bus." The girl was speechless with tears all over her face. She held her boyfriend's hand tight and nodded her head hard in agreement.

Under such situation, people might think about themselves first. They would feel happy and lucky to have gotten off the bus; otherwise they would be killed too. But the pair concerned more about the others and looked at the matter from a broader perspective. They thought that if they were still on the bus, the bus wouldn't have stopped but continued. When the boulder fell down, it wouldn't have hit the bus and the tragedy wouldn't have happened at all! They felt very sorry to have disembarked and not to have stayed with the other passengers!

Endless Love

Joe lived in a small town. He has been looking for job for some time. One afternoon, he went out for the job hunt as usual. On his way driving back home, Joe saw an old lady standing helplessly beside her car which had just broken down. Joe stopped his car and said to the old lady, "Madam, it's cold out here. Take your seat in the car and let me fix it for you." After Joe fixed the car, the old lady wanted to give some money to Joe as appreciation, but Joe declined. He said, "If you really want to show appreciation to me, can I ask you that next time you saw others needing help, you lend your hand too." The old lady nodded and happily drove her car away.
Later, the old lady went to a coffee shop. A waitress came up to serve her, and saw her hair was all wet with sweat. The waitress gave her a towel. The old lady noticed that the waitress was very tired from her look, and further noticed that the waitress was pregnant. Despite having to work the whole day for making a living, the waitress still served the old lady eagerly with warm smiles. After the old lady finished with her meal, she paid the bill and, in addition, she took out a $100 from her pocket, put on the tray and gave to the waitress before leaving the coffee shop. On the tray, there was written a small note, "Today I have been helped by a kind gentleman. I wish I can offer in turn some help to you. Please extend this piece of love by lending your hand to others needing help too." The waitress read the note and was deeply moved.
That evening, the waitress went home after work. Her husband was there. She took out the $100, told him what happened and gave it to him. She then sat beside him and gave him a kiss, "Don't worry. Things will soon be alright, Joe."

Joe was the kind man who helped the old lady to fix her car in the afternoon!

The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg

Konigsberg was a small town in East Prussia (now Russia), divided by a river into several parts which were connected by seven bridges as shown in the diagram. The citizens of Konigsberg crossed these bridges for leisure walks on Sundays. One day, they wondered, "Can we take a walk in Konigsberg in such a way that we cross each of the seven bridges once and only once?"

At first sight, we seem to be faced with a tedious and daunting task of tracing out all the possible routes with the seven bridges, and showing whether there is a particular route that works. To address such problem more systematically may require techniques of topology and the like. But when Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) looked at the problem, he immediately claimed that it was NOT possible to have such a walk. Despite Euler (pronounced as "oi-ler") was a great mathematician, he was able to prove his claim by a simple and clever way which can be understood by almost anyone. Euler's strategy to tackle the problem was by method of proof by contradiction. Now let's see how the genius was at work:

First note that Konigsberg is divided into FOUR regions, A, B, C and D interconnected by the seven bridges as shown in the diagram. Next assume that it IS possible to have a walk in the town by crossing each of the seven bridges once and only once. The walk may start in any one of the 4 regions, A, B, C or D, and end in any one of them (which may or may not be the starting region). In any case, we must have at least TWO regions which are neither the starting region nor the ending region.
Now consider any one of these regions. Since it is not the starting region nor the ending region, if we go into this region to visit, we must go out from it accordingly. To visit this region once, we have to go into the region through one bridge and out through another since we cannot cross the same bridge more than once. So we have to have 2 bridges connected to this region in order to visit it once. If we visit this region a couple of times, we have to have an even number of bridges so that we don't cross the same bridge more than once. But looking at the diagram, NO region in this town has such a property (i.e. connected with an even number of bridges: the island C has 5 bridges while the other regions A, B and D all have 3 bridges each), let alone there are at least 2 such regions. Hence, our original assumption that it IS possible to have such a walk leads to some contradiction to the given facts, and thus it cannot possibly be true. In other words, we cannot have a walk in Konigsberg by crossing each of the seven bridges once and only once.

Q. E. D.

空籠

最近記起一個關於亞嘛的故事.

有一天，亞嘛, 大哥, 大嫂，威伯伯，姑媽和我們幾人飲早茶. 吃過一輪點心後, 亞嘛想將吃完了空的點心籠, 放到枱邊, 以便侍應容易收拾. 亞嘛看到坐在對面的大嫂, 正在津津有味地吃着蝦餃. 亞嘛指着她說, "亞嫂, 你嗰邊有冇籠空（隆胸)?" 大嫂嚇了一跳. 蝦餃差點兒哽在喉嚨裡. 她連忙向亞嘛灑手, 急促地說, "細聲, 細聲點 ! 我冇, 我冇呀 !" 亞嘛看了她一眼, 更加提高聲響地說, "乜話? 我明明見到你有籠空. 仲話冇?"
全場一時為之嘩然 ! 大嫂差一點要躲到枱底下去了.

甚麼？

有一天, 媽媽,志瀚和我到一間餐館吃飯. 點過菜後, 我發覺枱面只得兩對筷子, 於是便揮手向一位侍應小姐示意, 打算向她再取多一雙. 那小姐慢慢地走過來問我, "先生, 你想要些甚麼?" 我説, "我想要筷子." 那小姐愣了一下, 走到柜面找了一會, 然後拿着一張空白的 A4 紙回來給我.

老天！我明白了那位小姐為何會猶豫. 原來她以為我説, "我想要塊紙."!

Do You Have A Torch at Home?

Joyce was an office lady living by herself. Due to recent financial crisis, she moved from her unit in the City to a small apartment in a lower rank suburb. Her neighbour next door was a single mum with a young daughter. In this apartment, people usually close their doors and seldom talked with each other. So Joyce didn't know her neighbours very well.
One morning when Joyce left home for work, she saw in the lift lobby a notice saying there would be a 2-hour power outage in the evening for maintenance. Joyce remembered that she didn't have any torch at home. So she bought two torches before returning home as preparation for the outage.
After Joyce had supper that evening, the doorbell rang. Joyce opened the door. It was the little girl living next door. The little girl asked, "Miss, do you have a torch at home?" Joyce thought the little girl might have come to borrow a torch from her for the power outage. She further thought in her mind, "Are they really so poor that they couldn't buy their own?" "If I lend them the torch, will they return it to me?" "If I lend them the torch this time, they might borrow other things from me next time. Will they?"
While Joyce was still hesitating, the little girl smiled, "That's okay, miss. We knew you probably don't. That's why I come over." Then, taking a torch out from her pocket, she continued, "Mum said there will be power outage tonight. Take this. You'll need it."
Joyce suddenly became speechless. She was so ashamed of herself. She regretted very much at what she had thought of the little girl and her family. It was just that simple and friendly!

Sometimes we might have thought too much. We might have complicated very simple issues. If we could always look things on the bright side first, the world would look much brighter to us too.

Outside The Windows

When May stepped into her adolescence, she began to have her own point of views on everything, and always had differences with her father. She felt her dad always nagged on things. Everything didn't seem right to him. So her relationship with her dad didn't go very well.
One day, she needed to go to a remote place, and her dad drove her there. They didn't talk much on the way. When they reached to the outskirts, her dad saw a river and said to her that the river was very dirty with lots of garbage. He continued to complain that those people were irresponsible and caused great damages to the environment. May looked outside the window. She couldn't agree with her dad as she saw that the river was quite nice, and it wasn't dirty at all. She felt her dad started again to nag on things as usual. She then withdrew into silence, and they didn't talk any more for the rest of the journey.
Today, May went to the same place again. But this time, she was the driver herself. When she reached to the same spot of the outskirts as she and her father did, she discovered that there were really two rivers; the one on the driver's side was indeed very dirty and full of garbage, the other on the passenger's side was very nice and clean like what she had seen before. She then realized that she had never looked at things from her father's perspective. She wanted very much to tell her dad that indeed he was right, and wanted very much to say sorry to him. But she was not able to do so as her father had already passed away last month.

We all have different views. Sometimes, we may base on our own experience and ability to view subjectively and judge on others. If things turn up differently from our expectations, we tend to disagree and feel frustrated. Try to look more from other people's perspective and understand their rationale and difficulties. We can then have a better understanding of the true picture and can calmly face the situation and handle the matter more appropriately.

The Story of the Barber

In a certain remote village, there is a barber who shaves all and only those villagers who do not shave themselves.
The story is simple, but now comes the question, "Who shaves the barber?"
If the barber shaves himself, then he does not (since the barber shaves only those who do not shave themselves). If the barber does not shave himself, then he indeed does (since the barber shaves all those who do not shave themselves). So, the logic shows the barber shaves himself if and only if he does not shave himself, which is totally absurd.

The only possible answer to the question is that there cannot possibly be such a barber, nor such a village. Put simply, the story is impossible!

Promise. Promise.

Once upon a time, there was a man who worked all of his life and saved all of his money. He was a real miser. He loved money more than anything else. Just before he died, he said to his wife,"Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the coffin with me. I want to take my money to my afterlife." So he got his wife to promise him with all her heart.
One day, he died. His body was stretched out in the coffin. The wife was sitting there in black next to her closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, and just before the undertakers got ready to close the coffin, the wife handed out a shoe box and placed it in the coffin. Then the undertakers locked the coffin down and rolled it away.
Her friend said, "I hope you weren't crazy enough to put all that money in the coffin." The wife said, "Yes. I promised. I'm a good Catholic. I can't lie. I promised him that I was going to put that money in the coffin with him." Her friend raised her voice, "My goodness. You mean to tell me you put every cent of his money in the coffin with him?" The wife said calmly, "Why, yes. I sure did. I put them all into my account, and I wrote him a cheque."