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Archive for the 'Family' Category
It is coming to the festive season now. In the old days, people traveled a relatively long way to visit friends and relatives during major holidays bringing gifts for everyone. To this date, the in-laws still go through the whole nine yard every Christmas decorating, exchanging gifts, turkey and all. With cars and airplanes nowadays, traveling is no longer such a big issue; except for 3 things, gifts well thought out, time to shop, and the money to spend. In a big family, this yearly chore has become quite a numbed burden. Add friends to the equation could drive many up the wall.
The Internet has been bringing many conveniences to the web surfers. There have been email, instant messaging, eCard, online purchasing, and many more. It’s been a couple of years now since we have entered the “Web 2.0 Age” which brings us Social Networking.
In a social network, friends not only can send greeting messages but send virtual gifts like a drink, a growing plant, a giraffe, items for the house; draw on friends wall; give them hugs and kisses, lick them, or drop-kick them; put a tattoo on them, or even Vampire bite them!
Virtually speaking, of course. None of these cost a dime. Well, except for the ISP service charges and the time to watch that growing plant grows into something unexpected like a shoelace hanging a rotten Godzilla (no, u can’t really do that yet but perhaps in version 64.13.2b service pack XI you could - that’s if the distribution date isn’t going to be postponed for the 5th time).
With all those widgets available, one saves a lot of money which they don’t have to begin with and perhaps regain some long lost friendships a long way as well. What can be easier than doing the “let’s not and say we did” without actually having to say it out loud to your friends and not needing to actually dress-up, go out the door, spending 8 hours in search of the ultimate gift of all time… repeatedly every single year, attend the gathering for an hour and a half, and then never even call each other for another year minus 2 weeks.
The chilling thoughts make we want to quickly grab that “Festive Gift” widget and start sending the latest trendy festive gift before they became cliches.
Alpha Mike Foxtrot (or AMF - Pick this acronym up from the movie Flight of the Intruder). Gotta lrn mor abbv wuds, RdaYs u cant r8 2 kids & Xpec ‘em 2 undastan u on da Net no mor.
We are getting toward the end of the summer holidays. This could be the last summer holidays that Alec would be with us all the time as he will become a teenager by the next summer holidays, and may start going out on his own with his friends. Since I practically take no holidays, I try to be home with Alec every weeknight and most of the weekends.
Don’t know what I am worrying about as it is unlikely that Alec would become the sort of teenager who hangs out all the time and never home. Until he is 16, the legal age (I think) to be allowed into video game arcades, he should probably be home with his computer still. The dilemma is though while I try to prevent him from playing computer games at home during school days, it could be the single most powerful attraction that keeps him from being a street junkie. Not that we are having that sort of problem to be worried about now but a parent can’t be more careful these days. The Dragonball anime strategy I used on him some 6 or 7 years ago should be able to ensure the righteousness in him.
It has become official now. Ever since I have started writing this blog some 4 years ago I have been trying to get Alec to develop his (or fight his lack of) interest in research and/or dairy type writing. Unfortunately, for some unknown reasons beyond anyone’s comprehension, M has never been with me on this. After the final couple of exams before the summer, M told me that she heard other mothers said composition is the single most important and heavily weighed type of questions in the exams. During the orientation of the secondary school last Saturday, the headmaster said all students are to carry a notebook with them at all times to take notes with, and also a journal is compulsory that everyone is to write up a full book of journal by the end of each and every school year! Thank you very much. That really makes me feel good for having the dead on correct exercise for Alec 4 years ahead of its time that couldn’t be practiced in real life! Her strategy must be “when all else failed, still don’t listen to him.”, and money well spent wasted to tutoring classes like these. (Note the name of the tutor at the end of the third message on that page that has been well featured on the back of some KMB.)
School hasn’t begun yet and already I am noticing the difference between this new school’s headmaster and the all previous ones that I have encountered. This one let his methods and actions upon them speak for himself rather than plain talking of ideals. Hopefully, Alec could keep up with all the extra workload.
Just selected a book at Page One with Alec for himself last Sunday on creative writing. Hopefully Alec will start discovering the joy of writing as I have soon enough. (Perhaps a bottle of Holy Water or some spiritual signs might help keep the evils away!)
Just came back from Alec’s school.
(Photos to follow)
Just a few things to be noted…
I was surprised to see and hear that the boy English MC spoke so well in English and has such a nice annunciation that he could pass for a Radio 4 DJ. In fact, his English was so well spoken he sounded just like the Radio 4 DJ, Stacy Rodda. Come to think of it, several other boy English announcers spoke very well also. Which is much more than I could say for the boy Chinese MC and announcers. Although at least they did’t have stage fright and spoke rather clearly, they either did’t have the nice rhythm the English speakers did, or they suffered from what I call “Choral Speaking syndrome”.
Announcement is not poetry. Unfortunately, most local students were taught Choral Speaking (Intonation/Recitation/朗誦) as their first on stage speaking experience. Whereas their later experiences with Public Speaking as well as Debating are of yet another style that is not quite suitable for Announcers and MC.
During the handover of the Graduation Certificate, they have a line of 10 boys together and then Bro Patrick handed the last boy a bundle of 10 Certs. This is great for speeding things up but it ruins the photo. One boy holding 10 Certs with the other 9 empty handed just isn’t right for an on stage graduation photo.
Part of the addressing by Brother Patrick was most enlightening. He reminded the boys to acquire 3 kinds of love, namely, the love of learning, the love of reading, and the love of writing. Brother Patrick later mentioned that he had read every single profile that the families handed to the secondary school, in which about one third of them wrote something about the parents themselves, and that he took the liberty to have them all corrected in case any parent is interested he could hand them back their own copies for learning. He also encouraged those who didn’t write one to do so and that he would be happy read them over and correct them if necessary. The lesson here is to learn, read, and write through our your lives. Not just during school years.
Brother Patrick also mentioned that parents are the first teachers of their kids. I am not sure if Brothers are allowed to marry and have children nowadays but being a parent myself, I would like to adjust that comment somewhat here. Parents are kids’ lifetime teachers. Not just their first teachers.
I am not sure how many parents that are also old boys were actually at the ceremony but I know quite a few parents are old boys. Apart from my own voice during the singing of the School Anthem, the whole thing together with the students sounded rather dull and spiritless even with the lyrics printed right on the handout program. The lay back sound is perhaps OK for Karaoke singing but that’s no way to sing any Anthem.
The whole ceremony went smoothly and swiftly. I have noticed one anomaly though - fashion. Trend following is OK so long as you put some sense in it. Although ripped jeans are in, please don’t wear them to your son’s Graduation Ceremony. The Brothers, the Principles, and the Staff generally don’t fancy seeing exposed bun lines or thighs. Oh, one more thing… wearing a mini black nightgown like top with the ripped jeans doesn’t make the whole outfit any more formal. Might as well go back to a ripped T, a hip side chain, a bandana, and a pair of cowgirl/biker boots.
How did I manage to remember all that’s written here? Easy, I got the notes down in my Ciak Pocket Journal during the event to help me write more.
We went for a drive to Sai Kung after lunch this afternoon and found this place. Alec has never played Go Kart before so we stopped by and let him tried. An annual membership is HKD$30 per person, $120 for family of 5, or $160 per VIP who gets 10% off each ride. There is a $40 per 15 minute ride for regular karts or $80 per 15 minute ride for deluxe karts with helmets and pads rental included. Places like these don’t usually last so naturally we just joined the regular single membership for Alec only.
There were quite a few families there and plenty of free parking. The place consists of two racetracks, a pavement one for kids and another dirt one for more advanced ride with ATVs. While they have many electric vehicles there they were running out of batteries. We later discovered from the little food stand beside it that the main power was out until 3:00pm which was about half an hour before we got to the place. The place was disorganized mainly due to the karts running lack of batteries and the parents’ complaint but they were able to bring out other charged up karts later on in the afternoon. The chaos also allowed Alec to sneak in an extra 15 minutes during his second 15 minute ride giving him a total of about a 40 minutes ride time after the down time for the price of 30 minutes.
It was a good fun sunny afternoon for Alec.
Often times, when there is an on-going quarrel between kids and parents, kids turn to outsiders for comfort. It is precisely during these situations where kids are most venerable to being turned bad.
Parents, especially older generations’ local parents, my own included, are often too arrogant and have too much pride in them to show their affection for their kids. When disagreement breaks out between kids and parents, even after the parents might have realized that they themselves might be the ones at fault, they would not admit it to their kids, let alone apologize to them. The kids with their anger and disbelieve that their parents would turn their backs on them would then seek outsiders’ help where there would be words or acts of understanding, kindness, and affection which all their parents do not have for them.
Crooks do this best and that’s how kids turn bad ’cause they’d listen to people who shows affection to them. Isn’t that the trick then? The question is though, if crooks could do it, why can’t you - the parents?!!
On the other end of the spectrum, a family member once asked, “We are their parents, if we don’t spoil them who will?”
Nobody.
We are their parents, if we don’t show our affection and care, who will? We shouldn’t simply avoid doing so and let others at the same time. Not the maid, not their grandparents, not their friends, and certainly not anyone else. Especially when we, the parents, don’t; yet we simply must. However, we as parents shouldn’t spoil our kids either! Otherwise even if they do not turn bad, they might turn into brats.
I received an email from a friend not long ago. One of the many situations explained within the email was…
小男孩問爸爸︰”是不是做父親的總比做兒子的知道得多？ ”
爸爸回答︰”當然啦！”
“電燈是誰發明的？”
“愛迪生。”
“那愛迪生的爸爸怎麼沒有發明電燈？”
It goes something like this…
Son asked the father, “Is it true that fathers always know more than sons?”
Father replied, “Of course!”
Son asked,”Who invented the light bulb?”
Father replied, “Thomas Edison.”
Son asked, “Then why didn’t Thomas’ father invent it?”
While dads always think their ways are right and their sons’ ways are wrong, the truth is, things are seldom as simple as “1+1=2″. There isn’t always a right or wrong answer or way to deal with everything that happens in life. One just have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.
More photos here.
I have taken another approach to shoot this set of wedding banquet photos. Since Mandy is a member of the family rather than a friend, I have decided to shoot this banquet portrait style for a more personal point of view but handheld in extreme low light to capture the feeling of movements, and mostly in Black and White for the nostalgic look.
Since portraiture takes a greater degree of control than documentary snapshots, this set of photos was post processed individually using Photoshop.
Once again, this was done straightly under my own initiative rather than a requested job, I was able to shoot whichever way I wanted and that gave me a much greater degree of control. Some “photo booth” style stiff shots were taken by requests which I feel they are neither artistic nor particularly relevant so I have left them out of this gallery entirely.
Said Alec, after watching several episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, trying to mimic a Borg Drone. As he continued… “You will be stimulated. Resistance is futile.”
He has no idea what all that means. Nor do I, since he put it that way, I suppose.
WhaUSay?!