Girl Friend by Avril (Chinese Version)

The Chinese part is difficult to understand. But it's still worth the shot. Avril, Bravo!

First blossom

First blossom, originally uploaded by risingfan.

Sping has already come. Here is the proof. Taken from inside the community.

The most expensive paper

The most expensive paper, originally uploaded by risingfan.

Overcoming Procrastination

I do have a strong tendency of procrastination and delay many things until the last minute. So when I came across this excellent article by Steve Pavlina, I would like to share with you who have the same problems. Learning is easy but doing is difficult. I hope we all could overcome it one day.

Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute, can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt are just some of the symptoms. This article will explore the root causes of procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome it.

Replace "Have To" With "Want To"

First, thinking that you absolutely have to do something is a major reason for procrastination. When you tell yourself that you have to do something, you're implying that you're being forced to do it, so you'll automatically feel a sense of resentment and rebellion. Procrastination kicks in as a defense mechanism to keep you away from this pain. If the task you are putting off has a real deadline, then when the deadline gets very close, the sense of pain associated with the task becomes overridden by the much greater sense of pain if you don't get started immediately.

The solution to this first mental block is to realize and accept that you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Even though there may be serious consequences, you are always free to choose. No one is forcing you to run your business the way you do. All the decisions you've made along the way have brought you to where you are today. If you don't like where you've ended up, you're free to start making different decisions, and new results will follow. Also be aware that you don't procrastinate in every area of your life. Even the worst procrastinators have areas where they never procrastinate. Perhaps you never miss your favorite TV show, or you always manage to check your favorite online forums each day. In each situation the freedom of choice is yours. So if you're putting off starting that new project you feel you "have to" do this year, realize that you're choosing to do it of your own free will. Procrastination becomes less likely on tasks that you openly and freely choose to undertake.

Replace "Finish It" With "Begin It"

Secondly, thinking of a task as one big whole that you have to complete will virtually ensure that you put it off. When you focus on the idea of finishing a task where you can't even clearly envision all the steps that will lead to completion, you create a feeling of overwhelm. You then associate this painful feeling to the task and delay as long as possible. If you say to yourself, "I've got to do my taxes today," or "I must complete this report," you're very likely to feel overwhelmed and put the task off.

The solution is to think of starting one small piece of the task instead of mentally feeling that you must finish the whole thing. Replace, "How am I going to finish this?" with "What small step can I start on right now?" If you simply start a task enough times, you will eventually finish it. If one of the projects you want to complete is to clean out your garage, thinking that you have to finish this big project in one fell swoop can make you feel overwhelmed, and you'll put it off. Ask yourself how you can get started on just one small part of the project. For example, go to your garage with a notepad, and simply write down a few ideas for quick 10-minute tasks you could do to make a dent in the piles of junk. Maybe move one or two obvious pieces of junk to the trash can while you're there. Don't worry about finishing anything significant. Just focus on what you can do right now. If you do this enough times, you'll eventually be starting on the final piece of the task, and that will lead to finishing.

Replace Perfectionism With Permission To Be Human

A third type of erroneous thinking that leads to procrastination is perfectionism. Thinking that you must do the job perfectly the first try will likely prevent you from ever getting started. Believing that you must do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you'll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it. You then end up putting the task off to the last possible minute, so that you finally have a way out of this trap. Now there isn't enough time to do the job perfectly, so you're off the hook because you can tell yourself that you could have been perfect if you only had more time. But if you have no specific deadline for a task, perfectionism can cause you to delay indefinitely. If you've never even started that project you always wanted to do really well, could perfectionism be holding you back?

The solution to perfectionism is to give yourself permission to be human. Have you ever used a piece of software that you consider to be perfect in every way? I doubt it. Realize that an imperfect job completed today is always superior to the perfect job delayed indefinitely. Perfectionism is also closely connected to thinking of the task as one big whole. Replace that one big perfectly completed task in your mind with one small imperfect first step. Your first draft can be very, very rough. You are always free to revise it again and again. For example, if you want to write a 5000-word article, feel free to let your first draft be only 100 words if it helps you get started. That's less than the length of this paragraph.

Replace Deprivation With Guaranteed Fun

A fourth mental block is associating deprivation with a task. This means you believe that undertaking a project will offset much of the pleasure in your life. In order to complete this project, will you have to put the rest of your life on hold? Do you tell yourself that you will have to go into seclusion, work long hours, never see your family, and have no time for fun? That's not likely to be very motivating, yet this is what many people do when trying to push themselves into action. Picturing an extended period of working long hours in solitude with no time for fun is a great way to guarantee procrastination.

The solution to the deprivation mindset is to do the exact opposite. Guarantee the fun parts of your life first, and then schedule your work around them. This may sound counterproductive, but this reverse psychology works extremely well. Decide in advance what times you will allocate each week to family time, entertainment, exercise, social activities, and personal hobbies. Guarantee an abundance of all your favorite leisure activities. Then limit the amount of working hours each week to whatever is left. The peak performers in any field tend to take more vacation time and work shorter hours than the workaholics. By treating your working time as a scarce resource rather than an uncontrollable monster that can gobble up every other area of your life, you'll begin to feel much more balanced, and you'll be far more focused and effective in using your working time. It's been shown that the optimal work week for most people is 40-45 hours. Working longer hours than this actually has such an adverse effect on productivity and motivation that less real work is done in the long run. What would happen if you only allowed yourself a certain number of hours a week to work? What if I came to you and said, "You are only allowed to work 10 hours this week?" Your feeling of deprivation would be reversed, wouldn't it? Instead of feeling that work was depriving you of leisure time, you'd feel you were being deprived of work. You'd replace, "I want to play" with "I want to work," your motivation for work would skyrocket, and all traces of procrastination would vanish.

I also strongly recommend that you take at least one full day off each week with no work whatsoever. This will really recharge you and make you eager to start the coming week. Having a guaranteed work-free day will increase your motivation for work and make you less likely to procrastinate. If you know that the next day is your day off, you'll be less likely to put off tasks, since you won't allow yourself the luxury of allowing them to spill over into your day off. When you think that every day is a work day, however, work seems never-ending, and you always tell yourself, "I should be working." Thus, your brain will use procrastination as a way to guarantee that you get some form of pleasure in your life.

Use Timeboxing

For tasks you've been putting off for a while, I recommend using the timeboxing method to get started. Here's how it works: First, select a small piece of the task you can work on for just 30 minutes. Then choose a reward you will give yourself immediately afterwards. The reward is guaranteed if you simply put in the time; it doesn't depend on any meaningful accomplishment. Examples include watching your favorite TV show, seeing a movie, enjoying a meal or snack, going out with friends, going for a walk, or doing anything you find pleasurable. Because the amount of time you'll be working on the task is so short, your focus will shift to the impending pleasure of the reward instead of the difficulty of the task. No matter how unpleasant the task, there's virtually nothing you can't endure for just 30 minutes if you have a big enough reward waiting for you.

When you timebox your tasks, you may discover that something very interesting happens. You will probably find that you continue working much longer than 30 minutes. You will often get so involved in a task, even a difficult one, that you actually want to keep working on it. Before you know it, you've put in an hour or even several hours. The certainty of your reward is still there, so you know you can enjoy it whenever you're ready to stop. Once you begin taking action, your focus shifts away from worrying about the difficulty of the task and towards finishing the current piece of the task which now has your full attention.

When you do decide to stop working, claim your reward, and enjoy it. Then schedule another 30-minute period to work on the task with another reward. This will help you associate more and more pleasure to the task, knowing that you will always be immediately rewarded for your efforts. Working towards distant and uncertain long-term rewards is not nearly as motivating as immediate short-term rewards. By rewarding yourself for simply putting in the time, instead of for any specific achievements, you'll be eager to return to work on your task again and again, and you'll ultimately finish it. You may also want to read my blog entry on timeboxing.

The writing of this article serves as a good example of applying the above techniques. I could have said to myself, "I have to finish this 2000-word article, and it has to be perfect." So first I remember that I don't have to write anything; I freely choose to write articles. Then I realize that I have plenty of time to do a good job, and that I don't need to be perfect because if I start early enough, I have plenty of time to make revisions. I also tell myself that if I just keep starting, I will eventually be done. Before I started this article, I didn't have a topic selected, so I used the timeboxing method to get that done. Having dinner was my reward. I knew that at the end of 30 minutes of working on the task, I could eat, and I was hungry at the time, so that was good motivation for me. It took me a few minutes to pick the topic of overcoming procrastination, and I spent the rest of the time writing down some ideas and making a very rough outline. When the time was up, I stopped working and had dinner, and it really felt like I'd earned that meal.

The next morning I used the same 30-minute timeboxing method, making breakfast my reward. However, I got so involved in the task that I'm still writing 90 minutes later. I know I'm free to stop at any time and that my reward is waiting for me, but having overcome the inertia of getting started, the natural tendency is to continue working. In essence I've reversed the problem of procrastination by staying with the task and delaying gratification. The net result is that I finish my article early and have a rewarding breakfast.

I hope this article has helped you gain a greater insight into the causes of procrastination and how you can overcome it. Realize that procrastination is caused by associating some form of pain or unpleasantness to the task you are contemplating. The way to overcome procrastination is simply to reduce the pain and increase the pleasure you associate with beginning a task, thus allowing you to overcome inertia and build positive forward momentum. And if you begin any task again and again, you will ultimately finish it.

Working Women's Festival

I don't know if the translation is right. Anyway, today is kind of big in China. Most women gets half a day off and most of them rush into the shopping malls. You can see women with flowers on their hands everywhere. In retrospect, during this festival, my previous female colleagues got flowers and very big bags from the company. I never knew what were inside and never dared to ask. Also, even in ordinary days, the company usually handed out presents that is only useful to women. Male employees' only choice is to give them out to their girlsfriends or female family members.

As a matter of fact, in modern China, women are treated very well comparing to men, who don't have their own festivals. Women almost have the chance of doing as well as, if not better than men in many aspects of life. However, they have much less pressure with their career development. They could be very successful, and won't be blamed at all if they are not. On the other hand, men have to keep pushing themselves so that the whole family can live a better life. The road to success is endless, cause there are always someone who are better than you. To keep their wives from complaining, the husbands' struggle will never end.

Sometime, I think the freedom of women has gone too far. "Girl power" is everywhere in the society now. Some women seeing being female as their advantages. They see being treated well as granted and are never sincerely thankful for the kind gestures given by men. They can do all kinds of crazy things and believe they will not get punished. There are more and more wives cheating on their husbands now than husbands cheating on their wives. Some are too lazy to find a decent job and do online dirty talking all day long with their friends on line. Some shameless women spend money that their husbands earned on their secret lovers. They don't even feel ashamed when get buzzed and blame their husbands for not earning enough money, or not spending enough time with them, or whatever.

I have nothing against women and always look them as equals. I also hate the thought of treating women as reproducing machines. However, I do feel that the modern liberalization of women has gone too far and also on the wrong path. Most of the traditional virtues of women are missed and forgotten during this process. What a shame! If women want to be treated with respect, they should learn to treat men in the same way. They should know that they still have their share of responsibilities in life. After all, the festival is only for the WORKING women, isn't it?

Gory Fairy Tale

I have seen lots of gory movies recently, such as SAW III. To be honest, Pan's labyrinth is not the goriest movie. However, it is by far the goriest fairy tale I have ever seen. This fairy tale is definately not for children. But adults should be able to handle it and love it for what it really is.

This movie does a great job mixing legand and reality together. Is there really a underworld? Or is it just in the dreams of the little girl? It's up to your decision which part is true and which part is just imagination.

I am not so sure about what the title means. Is Pan supposed to be the goat like figure? Why isnt' he as bad as in the legends? I really have no idea. The pale man with his eyes grown in his hands is fun too, who reminds me of someone from Silent Hill. And I would like to have the chalk very much which can open doors on anything.

The ending is a little bit diferent from what I imagined from the beginning. But I think its more logical and very touching. One of the best movies I have seen recently, which totally deserves the three Oscars given.

Chinese or Japanese?

I watched the edited version of Oscar ceremony on Chinese national TV. "Edited" means a lot of funny jokes are left out, which is due to the harsh cencoring system in China. Thank god they don't dub the show anymore, although there are tons of mistakes in the subtitle. To save the trouble of downloading, I have to live with it.

"The Departed" is the biggest winner of this year, which is adapted from the movie "The Infernal Affairs" of Hong Kong, China. To be honest, I am not a big fan of the new version. Except for changing the location and cast, the director Martin failed in bringing anything new into this movie. Most of the subtle relationships of people from the original movie is lost. I'd feel much happier if Babel wins, although it suffers from a structure resemblance with "Crash", which is the winner last time.

Before the award was given, the nomination footage indicated that "The Departed" is the remake of a Japanese movie, which is a terrible mistake. Although Martin later thanked the Hongkong director on the stage, people from China are strongly evoked. Some people believe that this is not a mistake, but done intentionally.

I myself cannot imagine someone will be crazy enough to do this on purpose. However, this should be a mistake with truth lies behind. Although China is well know for its physical goods export, Japan has done much better in entertainment industry and culture export. For example, Japanese manga is especially well known around the world. When a western people encounter something good from asia, having difficulty from telling one country from another, they will tend to think they are from Japan.

There is a very good example. When a host from China is trying to interview Celion Dion, her first reaction is to ask if he is from Japan. Maybe she met much more Japanese reporters than Chinese ones. There are also circumstances when Chinese tourists are mistakenly taken as Japanese. Although China has a much bigger population, it is still a quite new face on many international stages.

Futhermore, the entertainment in China is regulated too much, which is bad for its culture imports and exports. Even though foreign cartoons cannot be show on prime time TV at all, it doesnot make domestic cartoons any better, most of which are ridiculously simple-minded no-brainers. There are so many things you cannot do. Recently, a very popular Chinese cartoon "rainbow cat and blue rabbit" was banned on national TV due to some so called "violence" and lack of "educational meaning". This is like a camel burying its head into the sand. The regulators think too less of the children nowadays. They treat all of them like babies when they are actually watching porn from the internet. No wonder online downloading is so popular in China.

In a nutshell, to make a bigger impression to the world, Chinese entertainment and Chinse culture still have a long, long way to go. However, I believe China will make it's mark in the future. By then, someone might mistakenly take Japanese stuff as from China.

National Competitive Exam

I have just got back from the National Competitive Exam of the United Nations. The exam takes place from 6pm to 11pm nonstop, which is another record for me. It was so late that even the subway is out of service. I have to use the expensive taxi to get home.

The questions are not very difficult, most of which are basic economic concepts. However, there are still many that I don't remember very well. But I find that I am very good at those kind of exams. I can keep completely focused the whole time and give detailed answers to the questions that I am not familiar with, hoping to recover at least some of the points.

According to the recruiting regulation of the UN, the results of the exam will ridiculously be released from July to December. Passing the exam means a chance of interview in the UN headquarter in New York city. Even though not very satisfied with the experience today, I still hope to get this chance of the free trip to the big apple.

Happy Spring Festival!

Today is the biggest festival of all in China: the Spring Festival, or Chinese new year. Today people are going to get together with their family members, play with fireworks, eat Jiaozi, and watch the traditional evening show on TV. We are going to play a little bit gambling with Majiang too. Hope I can win this time.

Happy Spring Festival!

Going Home

Tomorrow I am going to my parents' place in Huludao city. It is another place that I call home, which makes much more sense than the place I am currently living in. Although I just returned a couple of months ago, I still miss my dad and mum very much. It's not just about nice food and no home-cleaning, although they are certainly pluses. I like walking with my dad after dinner, enjoy teaching my mother English, and everything. And I have a lot of fun playing games with them. I can really feel peaceful in my heart at home.

Recently, I have been studying, working, and studying again away from home. So I can only stay with my parents for less than three weeks each year. Even though they don't talk about it, I know they miss me a lot. I believe that old people's utmost joy comes from being with their family. Since I have the time this year, at least for now, I would like to stay with them as long as possible. They say that there is no place like home and a person with parents should never travel far away from home. How true!

Warm Winter

Recently, the temperature goes up to 10 degrees, which is the highest of the same time in the recent 160 years.

It's really warm outside. But most people including me are not used to it yet and still wear too much clothes. On the street, you cannot help overhearing the complaints of the passersbies, especially in the shopping malls or supermarkets which still keep the warm air blowing.

Forecasts show that there is going to be a snow in a couple of days. I am more than happy with that. It's not that I don't like spring, which I do. Thinking of the steamy and sweaty days of summer, I just want the cool air of the late winter to linger a little longer.

Master of the Game

I hear from the news that Sydney Sheldon died a few days ago. He is one of my favorist novelists. Since a young boy, I have read and loved most of his novels.

My personal favorites are If Tomorrow Comes (Chinese translation: The Female Count of Monte Cristo) and Master of the Game (Chinese translation: The Diamond Dynasty). Both of them have been adapted into tv series and showed on some local Chinese tevivision. However, they have not been very popular in China. Most people have never heard of Sydney Sheldon and his novels, especially for those born after the 1980s.

Sheldon is very good at telling stories with complicated backgrounds. They are often made up of sagas of 4-5 generations, such as Master of the Game. Violence, sex, love, hate and revenge are all necesarry ingredients of the story, weaved together by different story lines together with unexpected twists.

Most of Sheldon's books are often categoried as pop-sellers, so many critics might not really appreciate his novels. But it really doesn't matter to people like me as long as we enjoy reading them. In my mind, he is really the master of his game.

The good shepherd

The good shepherd is one of the longest movies I have ever seen. It lasts for almost 3 hours, twice as long as most of the movies.

This movie is about the life of a legendary spy. But it's nothing like the glamorous 007 movie. The story is realistic and slow paced, sometimes even boring. There are so many characters that I have difficulties in recognizing who is whom. The plot is so complicated and there are so many metaphors so that I have to replay certain parts to find out what is really going on. It's the kind of mind-challenging movies that you'll have to keep focused all the time. However, you might not understand all of it even then.

Matt gives a mediocre performance, but there are no much room for him to shine. I guess he is better playing these bad guys such as "the talented Riply".Angelina Julie looks absolutely fantastic even for the character in her twenties. And she looks credible for a sad wife and worried mother too.

Not bad for the first movie directed by Robert Deniro. But I still think he is better at acting than directing. I believe this movie is worth seeing but don't keep your hopes too high. I'll give it 6.5/10.

Wi-Fi Router

Recently, I bought a wireless router. Kind of regret that I didn't try it before.

The speed is much faster than I expected. The downloading of my ADSL is still reachable at 70K bytes. I can hardly feel any difference between now and before. Not too expensive too. It set me back with only about 200 RMB.

With this router, I am finally able to go online wirelessly with my laptop in all the rooms of my apartment. Also, if I go back to my parents house during the spring festival, we'll be able to surf on line with the desktop and my laptop at the same time. Maybe we can do a little cheating with the card online game too. Isn't that wonderful?

Big love

Recently, I have finished another TV serie: Big love, season 1. It's a story about polygamy. In other words, it's about a family with one husband and three wives. It's really fun to watch and I strongly recommend it.

I don't know much about mormons people. I am under the impression that they often wear dark clothes and have very long hair and beard. Polygamy is also what they are famous for.

Many people like me might consider mormon men lucky. But after I finished the first season, sympathy is what I really feel. Polygamy comes with great responsibility. Here are some necessities for a qualified mormon man.

1. You have to work very hard to earn a lot of money. It's certainly not easy to raise a family, expecially when you have 2-digit wives and 3-digit children. And it seems traditional mormon women don't work at all.

2. You have to be super strong and super healthy. Not just physically, which is pretty obvious, but also mentally. You have to be able to pull yourself together when the wives are fighting and the children are crying. It requires no less energy of running a family than running a company.

3. You have to be a good liar. Since polygamy is not allowed by the law, it is usually frowned uopn by others. All the wives but the first have to publicly live as neighbors. All you family members have to careful not to reveal themselves. Or you career or reputation will be severely damaged. And many, many more...

Knowing these, I guess most men won't be jealous of them anymore. But of course, they have their own fun and live as a big happy family. Still, there are many hostile opnions upon them, expecially from those Christians. In my opnion, as long as they don't hurt people or break the law, I guess it's nobody's business but their own.

Painted Veil

Painted Veil is a nice movie I recently saw. Tyler Durden and KingKong girl both gave excellent performance. Most importantly, the movie was shot in southern China and most scenes were incredibly beautiful with mountains and rivers. I did some background checking and found that the title was from a poem by Shelly. Don't we all have painted veils?

Here goes the poem:

Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread:--behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin destinies; who ever weave
The shadows, which the world call substance, there.

I knew one who lifted it--he sought,
For his lost heart was tender, things to love
But found them not, alas! nor was there aught
The world contains, the which he could approve.
through the unheeding many did move,
A splendour among shadows, a bright blot
Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove
For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.

By Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sonnet IV in Posthumous Poems

CFA Level II

A couple of days ago, I got the result for my CFA level I exam: pass. I am so excited with this outcome because I really worked my ass off then. Here goes my detailed result (marked with *):

Q#	Topic	Max Pts	<=50%	51%-70%	>70%
-	Alternative Assets	12	-	*	-
-	Derivatives	12	-	-	*
-	Economics	24	-	-	*
-	Equity Analysis	24	-	-	*
-	Ethical & Professional Stnds.	36	-	*	-
-	Financial Statement Analysis	68	-	*	-
-	Fixed Income Analysis	24	-	-	*
-	General Portfolio Management	12	-	-	*
-	Quantitative Analysis	28	-	-	*

As you can see, I am troubled by those financial statements, which I have never liked or been good at. Unfortunately, I might also have some ethical problems : (. Both of them are heavily weighted and almost add up to half of the credits.

Now that I have got the new curriculum and started preparing for level II of this June. Although I have no plan of being an accountant in the future, the problems will still be haunting me, since these two topics will carry even more weights. Isn't it ironic?