Checklist Out of the Window

A friend told me this story:

3 years ago, she was looking to adopt a dog from local rescue groups and was meeting many dogs for few months. She had my check list (as she have a check list for a guy:-0). She wanted a grown dog and she wanted a low maintenance dog that doesn't need to go to a groomer. She also wanted a dog that is built for hiking. But she was not connecting with any of dogs that I was meeting. Her cat's vet knew that she was looking for a dog and told her that she will just know when she meet the right dog. She had to be in S. CA for business for a week. A friend suggests that they go see some puppies. AND... She saw HIM...A little fur ball with big brown eyes and a little wet nose. She just melted at the sight of him. She was in LOVE~~, real LOVE~~. She went and visited him everyday for the entire week. and She never felt this much love at first sight before (man or dog). He was a little puppy (not a grown dog). A Toy breed that is meant to sit pretty on a pillow in Chinese emperor's palace (not to be running around in a hiking trails). A dog with long white fur that needs frequent grooming and visits to groomers every 2months (not low maintenance). He was not a rescue dog (the breeder wanted $1500). He did not meet her check list requirements. After sad good bye on her last day in the town, she was driving back to N CA. After driving about 40minutes, she turned her car around and went back to get him. SHE WAS IN LOVE and did NOT care if he did not meet the check list. Now they are living happily together. Yes, they even go hiking together sometimes and he loves hiking. So, when you are in love, you don't always do things that make any sense. And that is OK. It is OK and in fact, it is great to let yourself feel something wonderful like LOVE even when it doesn't alway work out, right?

Citizen of the WORLD

I had this exchange with my pilot a few months ago:

He wrote: At a particular instance, you never realize it though, you cease from being a strange traveler, finally- and quite possibly, ending or arriving at a place-entangled with all experiences, far from what thee I once began: naive and full of willful passion, grasping at an idea about no borders while fully accepting thee I has become a citizen of thy world..........

I replied: On this thought. I actually go beyond it (maybe backwards:-). Yes, citizen of the world is a great feeling. Yet sense of really belonging to "somewhere" makes me more relax and at peace. Not saying that I donot enjoy being the citizen of the world (my mind can still be that way), but sometimes I feel "tired", and HOME is a nice place to escape that. I rarely felt stranger wherever I go. I embraced it rather than impose my own expection. In fact, I donot have much expectation of a new place other than discovering something new.

I love being a citizen of the WORLD as well as calmness of belonging to somewhere and at HOME.

Yellowjackets Attack and Buddy Guy Performance

I had a few interesting days. Last Sunday, I went to hike Mt. Tam. It was a long but very beautiful hike. On the way down, I got attacked by yellowjackets. I got 4 bites and they were painful and my 1st time. On Monday, the reaction was so much that I felt dizzy and had to lay in bed during the day. Yesterday I was itching so much I could not stand it. My right hand became so big that I was wondering if I should go to see a doctor. Luckily, things calm down and it is back to normal now however I still have a few big bumps:-)

So yesterday I went to Buddy Guy's concert at Mountain Winery of Saratoga with a friend. The winery is on hwy 9 on the way to Santa Cruz Mountains. We had picnic with view looking over the whole Silicon Valley. It was an incredible performance by Buddy Guy as well as the opening band The Robert Cray Band. Buddy Guy even asked 2 boys coming on the stage performing with him. What an event! One boy was on the same plane with Buddy -- and the boy's mom decided to take him to the concert. I bet the boy's life has changed by the kindness of Buddy Guy. I thought about my pilot that moment... And at that same moment, 2 airplanes flew by and I wish my pilot was in one of them and waving at me. Well, I knew it was not possible as he was supposed to fly somewhere over the Altantic Ocean...

THE HELICOPTER IS MY OFFICE

I just read this and thought about a few friends of mine who are helicopter pilots (fire fighting and some other "dangerous" professions) . I am not sure if airline pilots have similar feelings about their "office"

THE HELICOPTER IS MY OFFICE. IT IS A PLACE WHERE I EXPERIENCE MANY EMOTIONS AND LEARN MANY LESSONS. IT IS A PLACE OF WORK, BUT ALSO A KEEPER OF DREAMS. IT IS A PLACE OF DEADLY SERIOUS ENCOUNTERS, YET THERE I DISCOVER MUCH ABOUT LIFE. I LEARN ABOUT JOY AND SORROW, PRIDE AND HUMILITY, FEAR AND OVERCOMING FEAR. I SEE MUCH FROM THIS OFFICE THAT MOST PEOPLE WOULD NEVER SEE. AT TIMES IT TERRIFIES ME, YET I CAN ALWAYS FEEL AT HOME THERE. IT IS MY PLACE, AT THIS TIME AND SPACE, AND THE HELICOPTER IS MINE FOR THESE MOMENTS. THOUGH IT IS A PLACE WHERE I CAN QUICKLY DIE, THE HELICOPTER IS A PLACE WHERE I TRULY LIVE.

When I Am with You

I look at you
You look through me
I can not hold my front
As you cut right through
When our eyes speak
Nothing else exists

I try to hide myself
Yet with you
I can not hide
When our eyes speak
Nothing else exists


"Be what you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

Xanadu, Love and Infatuation

I went to an outdoor movie last night with a bunch of friends. It was Xanadu by Olivia Newton-John. I enjoyed the movie, but I mostly enjoy the view from the park (see picture here). When we left, it was full moon. I thought about my pilot then...

Afterwards, I was thinking about media's projection of love. A lot of times, the love shown in movies is actually infatuation, in my opinion. When I am infatuated, I feel faster heartbeats, sweaty palms, butterfly feelings, missing/wanting to be with the person all the time, obssessing with the person, etc. Those are very intensive feelings and sometimes it disappear as fast as they come. Once a while, infatuation developed and migrated to LOVE. I used to really believe in love at 1st sight, well I still believe it, but I have become "wiser" along the way. To me love involves more than infatuation: it means friendship, deeper understanding of one another, wanting to be there for the person no matter what, accepting the person just the way he/she is, good or bad, support the person as he/she wanted, and extending oneself for the purpose of nurturing one's own and another's spiritual, mental and emotional growth... All these require actually knowing the person, and actually knowing the person takes time. Love takes time. Of course, love at 1st sight is a great start:-)

Pictures

Here are some more pictures from Oshkosh (Bonanzas arrival in OshKosh, formation en route and F-22), and this past weekend at the coast.

Shenzhen Airline hired 40 Brazilian Pilots -- China Needs 6,500 New Pilots by 2010

I read this today:

Shenzhen Airlines recently hired 40 Brazillian pilots in China's largest single hiring of foreign pilots. All are experienced pilots who used to work for Brazil's bankrupt national airline Varig, said a human resource staff member with Shenzhen Airlines.

"Including the pilots we already recruited from Russia and Europe, the number of foreign pilots will reach one-fifth or more than 100 of the total pilots working for our airline," a staff member who would only reveal his surname, Ren, said in a phone interview with China Daily.

Founded in 1992, Shenzhen Airlines has a fleet of 32 Boeing and three Airbus planes. According to its website, it employs 5,100 people and flies 80 domestic and international routes. Like other Chinese airlines, it suffered from a shortage of experienced pilots. After Shenzhen Airlines' officials arrived in Brazil two months ago, they offered the Brazilian pilots a salary of US$8,000, which is "higher than their Chinese counterparts," Ren said. The average annual income of a Chinese airplane captain is 400,000 yuan (US$50,000), or US$4,170 per month (note by me: that is about 5-8 times an experienced professional in engineering/business make)

"But the company does not need to pay for training and other expenses, which airlines must pay for the domestic pilots they recruit," he said, adding that the deal was a win-win situation. The 20 pilots who are already in China have received their licences from CAAC and are currently taking Chinese language courses.

After two decades of dynamic growth, China has become one of the largest aviation markets in the world and is still growing. According to predictions, by 2010, the number of passenger aircraft in China will increase by 80 per cent to 1,250. If these predictions prove accurate, China will need 6,500 new pilots, which is far beyond the capacity of the country's pilot training system. Faced with an acute shortage of pilots, many Chinese airlines are looking overseas.

Source: China Daily

What are the Considerations when Choosing a Career?

I have been thinking about this question: What are the Considerations when Choosing a Career?

All my career choices have been kinda of random. I joined my current company mostly due to the fact I know the CEO from my previous job. But I have been relatively lucky and it turns out to be OK or quite good I may say (at least so far).

So I wanted to be a scientist like my parents when I was a kid. I dreamed often about Nobel Prize:-) So I decided to study Material Science when I went to college. Upon graduation, I enrolled in a Phd program to study "Advanced Physics". Look back, what a mis-match. Despite I was pretty good at math and chemistry, I was not good at physics even in high school! Actually in high school, my most favourite subjects were "chemistry" and "literature". I won a national prize for essay writing when I was 15.

Long story short, I quit Phd program within 1 year and found a job with an American company based in Shanghai by chance the following week. A few years later, I visited US for the 1st time on a business trip. When I was visiting Stanford University on that business trip, I saw palm trees for the 1st time ever in my life and I told myself that I will be here one day. Here I am, living in San Francisco and it has been 15 years since that visit. It was just like yesterday. In between, I lived in different parts of US and travelled a lot (comparing to someone who has 8-5 type of job, not comparing to my pilot who has been to more than 80 countries even before he became a pilot!) for business and pleasure. I went to business school, found my 1st job from an ad at Wall Street Journal after graduation... Did not intend to stay with that company for long, but ended up staying for 7.5 years with 5 different positions incl. travelling to Latin America and Europe often and 3 years gig in Asia as well. I am not complaining at all, but looking back, I could have done something different and better with more careful planning.

I am thinking about airline pilot's career now as I have been reading a bit in the past months. It is quite different from my work and profession. After 9/11, everything is so unpredicable. The only thing certain is things will change. So I am relatively certain that making a choice based soley upon bases, current payscales (to a degree), etc. is not a good recipe without considering growth stategy, business model, company culture, and of course upgrade potential, etc. But I am not an airline pilot, it is just my 2 cents:-)

Men vs. Women Again

I wrote about Men vs. Women before. I read something about difference of men and women dealing stress and intimacy recently. And I want to copy it here so that I can remind myself:-)

When under stress, men go to their caves and women talk. Indeed, this is one of the biggest differences between our two sexes. We cope with stress differently. Men become withdrawn whilst women want to talk. Men may come home after a long day at work and want to relax and unwind by reading something or watching the TV. They just want to forget about their problems for a while. Women, on the other hand, may come home equally stressed or tired and want to find relief by talking about the problems of their day. A guy may think that his girlfriend/wife talks too much, whilst she feels totally ignored. Unless men understand that women feel better by talking about their problems, they will continue to resist listening. By the same token, unless women understand that men are not ignoring them but simply trying to relax or solve their own problems by withdrawing into their cave, they will feel that they are personally being ignored.

Also Men are like rubber bands. This metaphor represents the male intimacy cycle. This cycle involves getting close, pulling away and then getting close again. From a woman's perspective this behaviour seems rather illogical because if you love someone, why would you be pulling away from that same someone? And why should anyone expect that the partner will be waiting patiently for the rubber band to spring back? No woman would ever assume that. But men do. They just pull away, not intentionally nor maliciously; they just do. However, if misunderstood by the woman, this intimacy cycle can lead to frustration and create problems. Women should not take it personally nor try to run after the guy. The guy will just come back naturally if there is something really there between them. But if she keeps running after him, he will just pull away even more or break the rubber band:-).

Pictures from the Weekend

I am tired from 4 hours paddling today. But I had so much fun with friends this weekend hiking along the coast, wine tasting, cooking at the camp and kayaking. Here are some pictures and hopefully they are worth a few thousands of words:-)

Weekend

I am off this weekend for hiking, wine tasting and kayaking at the coast. I am really looking forward to it. I grew up in a big city and really missed out nature when I was growing up. I hiked for the 1st time when I moved to the Bayarea. I backpacked for the 1st time in 1999 (around Kings Cayon) and that was 1st time I camped as well. I went to white water rafting for the 1st time (in fact only time so far) in West Virginia in 1994. I did my 1st kayaking (from Sausalito to Angel Island back and forth) a few years ago. Last year I went to Peru for 2 weeks and did 5 days backpacking/trekking at Inca Trail... I have been really enjoying all outdoor activities and wish to do more.

I will be thinking of my pilot though. I miss him...

The Steppe

Everytime I read the book, my tears come out. This book has a profound impact of me since I 1st read it a few months ago. It made me think, made me smile, made me cry.

I cried again when I read this part:
"The lady you love will give you freedom to follow your fate. She will give you strength to follow your path. In return you give her the freedom to accept herself. You both will find destiny and it is not love."

And this part:
"When a man encounters his fate he can either turn away from it. Or he can get lost for an undetermined amount of time. He chose the later. Along the way, Emperio forgot anything about himself. He got lost. Emperio asked Guzyalle, "Do you know my fear?" "To," Guzyalle said as she looked at him with deep emotions, "be alone." "No, to rely on someone: to need someone more than I need my own heart. I do not want to need someone in order to live."

Above all the emotions, "The Steppe" gave me ONE feeling I have never felt before in life. I thank you for writing it and let me read it, and feel it!