This morning I took my car to service. It turn out the problem I had is software bug in the transmission control system. The service center download a new firmware to my energy and the problem is fixed. I am surprised an auto have bugs causing the system to hang just like computers. I thought those mission critical firmware is througthly tested before shipping to the customer, I guess I am wrong.

Since I have to go to the service center, the plan of playing golf with Chris in the afternoon is cancelled. PMC is on the way home driving back from the service center. Since I have nothing to do I decide go back to work and save up some bank time. The office is really quiet, only a few people come back. I found I am very productive in the afternoon. I only stayed for 4 hours and the amount of work I finish equals to the work I can done in a normal day. In a normal day, I constantly get distracted by other people, going to meetings, answering questions. Today I can really focus in my work and get a lot more done in much less time. The productivity factor of working alone double compares to working with other people, provided that you don’t need support from other team members. Team work is only more efficient if the synergy effect has more advertage over distaction. Productivity is mysteriously lost as you add more and more member to the team. That’s why a very large team, such as departments in the government, can have negative productivity.

My car has an engine problem on my way home after dinner tonight. The ETC and engine warning light is on, I can feel the car is losing power in low RPM and the RPM meter is swinging up and down wildly. I turned off the car, waited a while and re-ignite the car. Luckily the problem goes away temporary after a few trial. I managed to drive the car back home having the same problem only once half way. The first thing to do next morning is call the Volvo service center and get the car fixed. I hope it is not a serious problem that won’t cost me a lot. This incident makes me wonder why can’t car be more like computer. When my computer crash, I can diagnostic the problem and even do some emergency repair myself. When the car dies, giving me the warning light is not very helpful. I don’t need the light to tell me the engine is not working properly. When something liek this happens, I don’t know what goes wrong, let alone trying to fix it. It seems no auto company emphasis on the ease of DIY repair on minor problem. The after market service is a milking cow for the auto companies, they won’t cannbalize their own revernue stream by making repair easier to do. I wonder, is there a market for the car hackers? If cars are like computers, I can assembly the car myself from the best components. When something is not working, I can swap out breaken parts with new ones. This would drive down the cost of car ownership.

I recieved the result for my P.Eng practice exam. I passed. The biggest hurdle to acqure my professional status is behind me. The remaining tasks are only paper work. All I have to do is kindly remind my boss to send out the reference letter then wait for the association review my application. Before I receive the letter from APEG, I was a bit nervous about my exam result. The questions are quite tricky and I have many uncertain answers. After I known the result, suddenly my attitude towards the exam changed 180 degrees. I found that it is actually quite easy. I have only spent two weekends studied for it after all. Probably me and another friend at work becoming a P.Eng inspired a few people. I know 3 friends applied for the up coming exam in fall. They studied much harder than me. They already start preparing the exam and reading the textbook now. I think they would have a higher confidence in the exam after hearing my sucessful stories. I heard that to be a chartered engineer in HK has more requirement than becoming a P.Eng in Canada. I havn’t read the details of the transfer system between engineering societies in different countries. I hope I can transfer my engineer title back to HK if necessary.

This is the first time I went to a civil wedding. I have always went to church weddings in the past. Today it is the big day of Alfred and Jeannet. They have the wedding ceremony held in VanDusen Garden. They had setup a hugh white tent in the middle of the field, surrounded by trees and flower from all over the world. The ceremony is hosted by a lay wedding minster instead of a priest. Apparently the minster is not very professional, he forgot the bride’s name. The ceremony is really short, only the entering, exchange of vows, signing the paper and exiting. There is no boring preaching nor choir singing. The couple hired a trio band to perform some live background music, mostly romantic classics songs. In all the wedding ceremony I went, I like the Catholic ceremony most, followed by the civil ceremony and least like the protestant ceremony. The civil ceremony is very efficient but lacks the charm of a religious atomsphere. It is just too plain. The protestant ceremony usually turns into a personal talk show of the priest. The focus of the ceremony should remain in the wedding couple. The Catholic ceremony just has the right dose of every element to make a perfect wedding. However, I do agree that have the ceremony in a botanical garden or on the beach side wedding is definitely better than having inside a church, unless the church is a romantic ancient cathedral.

Last year when we went to World Youth Day, we had a fund raising auction dinner. One of the auction item is the whole group served as slave labour for the winning family. Today we came to fullfill our promise. Our task is to do yard work. It is the most horrible backyard I had ever seen. At the back of the house, we couldn’t see the sky, vines and trees block all sun light, it’s like a jungle. The grass on the ground is at least 2-3 feet long. There is a small hut with junk hiding behind, but no one can in get there until we cut the plants blocking the way. We have to cut down all but two trees, clean up the yard so the owner can rennovate the backyard he inherited from the previous owner. We worked physically labour the whole day, . We even have to use chain saw and slaght hammer to take the down big tree and the hut.
It takes 4 loads of a Ford pickup truck to deliver all the garbage to the garbage dump. We are all exhausted at the end of the day. The owner is really please since it is the first time he saw the fence since he bought the house. I havn’t had that much excerise in a long time. The owner really got his donation worth the money. Afterall, it is nice to together with the WYD group. The yard work is tough but it is quite fun doing it together as a group.