Today is one of the rare occassion that all of my usual lunch buddies have plans.? I don’t want to eat in the cafeteria, in fact I can’t, because I have no cash.? So I went to bank and have a quick lunch in the food court.? I am surprised I end up talking to an old man in the line when I am getting food.? We even sat down and have lunch together.? Ok, I am bored and want to pratice my listening skill out of the blue.? Actually I am just listening most of the time, asking some question to direct the flow of conversation.? The old man is retired and he used to own one of the biggest dry wall company in BC.? I learnt alot about dry walls and how the business is run.? I found that if you just ask the right question, you can turn a supposingly boring conversation into quite an interesting one.? How fun can it be listening to an old man talking about his glorious days.? I direct his talks from boosting about himself to extract useful knowledge.? Almost everyone knows something that you don’t know and you may want to know those things just in case you may need it.? If you just ask, you may surprise that people are actually very willing to share their knowledge with you.

I have been studying in Bread Garden this week almost every night for my exam.? The music playing in the cafe doesn’t bother me much, since once I concentrated, I can ignore all the noise around me.? Pat came to study with me tonight.? She complains the hip-hop style music playing there is really noisy, doesn’t suit the atomsphere of a cafe.? Hip-hop music should only use in clubing.? Cafe should play easy listening, jazz or lounge music.? Starbucks has a music policy, which helps build it coperate image and strengthen its brand as a premium cafe.? I suspect Bread Garden does not have any music policy, it let the staffs play whatever music they like.? Those young part-time staffs would like hip-hop, but the customers won’t appreciate the noise.? People go there usually for study or chat with friends.? They would feel more welcome if the music selection is better.? The cafe may want to drive the customer away so they can free up more tables.? But this is quite unlikely since there are many empty seats, no need to rush people out.? I think the music policy of any retail or resturant is very important to its business.

I found having numbers in articles or speech really turn people off.? I observe it from my reaction when I am reading finance blogs and from today’s toastmaster meeting.? The normal flow of human reception of knowledge follows words instead of numbers.? It is ok to use number to emphasis your point or to stress your point.? However, throwing out number as merely unanalyzed data should be avoided.? The listen or reader have to stop his train of thoughts and switch his brain to analyze the data.? Most of the time, he will just lose concentration and the focus never comes back.? Number is helpful if you want to examine the points given by the writer or speaker.? Therefore it is preferable to put it in a seperate table in writing or use slide when giving a speech.? Actually there is only one thing worse than numbers, equations.? It is because equations require a lot more brain power to process if it is on paper and hopeless confusing if you try to say it.

The game room at work finially finish its renovation. So I can resume my normal routine of playing foosball at work. I find the lack of foosball actually affect my productivity last week. I just keep thinking about the foosball table, and subconciously check out the game room from time to time. I am sure the other ping-pong addicts agree with me that it feel meaningless at work without the game room. Actually I don’t play foosball very much, only a session after lunch and after work. I don’t like waiting at the table, so I would go back to work if there are more the one pair of players waiting. The amount of time I play each day depends on my luck or the skill level of my partner. I will simpily go back to work after winning a couple of games or have no hope to win any game. Anyways, my work routine is back to normal now. The good thing is my foosball skill actually improved quite a bit. Although I still lose to the best player most of the time, but at least I can stand a chance if I am lucky that day.

I have been following the politic in Taiwan closely these few days.? The scandel of the president, Chen Shiu Bin, has new developement when the justice department charge his wife corruption.? I have read many commentaries on the politics since the first appearance of the scandel many months ago.? I find this incident fascinating not only because it is a lime test for Chinese democracy development, it also demostrate how power works in reality.? The information is too complicate to analyze if you try to figure out who is right and who is wrong or think along the blue vs green division.? The picture comes clear when you think each player in the game is selfish individual looking to maximize his benefit.? The action sof each player then become much more reasonable, although sometimes it may not be very moral.? In this kind of game theory situation, selfishless players who has higher goal can tip the balance in the system.? The leader of the anti-president red force, Sze Ming Tak is one of those figure.? He presistance push the president into a corner so the scandel cannot easily slip away.? Then come along another selfishless player, the prosecutor of the justice department, delivers the final blow to Chen Shiu Bin.? You don’t want to be the enemy of selfishless player, since you can’t cut any deal or reason with them.? Therefore, the best way to play safe is not standing on the way of the higher goal.