English with an American Corporate Accent - 013

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* COMPA and COMPB are really neck and neck in the server market. [COMPA and COMPB are really close in competition in the server market.]
* Let me switch gears to a different topic. [Let me change to a different topic.]
* You can put back pressure to the device driver to get some resources back. [You can reverse the direction to get the device driver to return some resources.]
* We have to be careful not giving customers too many knobs to turn. [We have to be careful not to create too many ways to make adjustments.]
* At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would like to ask that question again. [At the risk of sounding like a broken record that plays the same thing over and over again, I would like to ask that question again.]
* We'll try to plan better to align better, not to leapfrog you by any chance. [We'll try to plan better to align better, not to get ahead of you.]
* They learned a great deal in the previous go-arounds. [They learned a great deal in the previous failed attempts.]
* Now the logjam of all the attempts I made broke loose and got processed through the system. [Now the logjam of all the attempts I created finally broke loose and got processed through the system.]
* My approach is to line them up and knock them down one by one. [My approach is to list them one by one and work on them one at a time.]
* We need a project plan that has clarity for the roles and for the deliverables. [We need a project plan that has clear definitions of the roles and deliverables.]
* We need to continue to flesh out the details of this project. [We need to continue to expand the details of the the project.]

Grandma Update from Davis, California

I have been back in the Bay Area for almost three weeks now. I have spent all the weekends in Davis with my mom and my sister. I am glad that Jeanet is there as well to feed us all good and different food. Grandma has stabilized so much that we take her out every day for a walk to a nearby pond. She is still weak and has to be in a wheelchair most of the time. Here is a picture of her with my wife Jeanet, my sister Maria and my youngest nephew Yong-En.

With advice from the doctor when discharged from the hospital, my mother signed up a Hospice Program. We were told that average life span was about 6 months in their program. We have learned a lot about this program quickly. We are still not very sure that this is right for her. Normally terminally ill cancer patients will go through hospice because there no treatment is available. Providing care and comfort in the home is dignified and appropriate for those patients, and is often the preferred way for the last few months. My mother is weak, is diabetic (no need to do injection), and has high blood pressure. She is prone to complications, but not literally terminally ill in my definition. I have to admit that the end of a precious life might really happen in the next few years. Although I struggle to understand and accept this, I try to be with her often, holding her hands, pushing the wheelchair around, and hugging her like a baby. My mom is quite happy to have me around. I try to cherish the times together and take care her the best we can. It is a struggle to think of when she might pass away. God gives and God decides when she will be back. I just don't want to be sorry later.
We are planning to hire a live-in or a 9-5 caregiver for 6 days a week. With this, my sister's family and my family can have the time and energy to take care of other business.

Davis is a college town of 60,000 people. It is relatively quiet and is a carefree place to live. The nearby drainage pond has a few different varieties of ducks, Canada geese, and turtles. See this picture of sun-bathing turtles on a piece of floating deadwood.











Spring is a great time to have a new family. The goose family has quite a few new members in the afternoon water cruising with a fleet formation on the left.












Spring in Northern California is really beautiful. I had a chance to drive through Niles Canyon following Route 84 to the Dumbarton Bridge to Menlo Park. Mid April's plush tender green on the hills really soothes your eyes. The tranquility of the windy road and the sweetness of the air is a treat to me.
I am trying hard to capture this awareness and sense of appreciation after almost 4 years of absence from California. After a while, I'll take everything for granted and be spoiled again in America.


It is also time to work on the yard. I helped my sister trim the bushes to provide more sunlight to the rooms and to grow grapes and vegetables in the garden. Yard work is fun and rewarding.





Only during the week, I am in Campbell at "home". I have not completely unpacked yet. But, the azaleas started to bloom and blossom in the backyard. It is a pleasure to be back in Spring time.

English with an American Corporate Accent - 012

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* Looks like that you want get feature parity with Linux in the power management area. [Looks like that you want get a comparable feature set with Linux in the power management area.]
* That design is to ensure that we stay within the thermal envelope of the system. [That design is to ensure that we stay within the thermal design constraints of the system.]
* It would be helpful to measure what each feature will save and to identify the top hitters. [It would be helpful to measure what each feature will save and to identify the most significant ones in terms of saving.]
* I certainly don't want to put a smiley face on all the numbers. That would be too optimistic. [I certainly don't want to be too optimistic with all the numbers.]
* That feels like a set of hodge-podge numbers, but they are actually informed estimates. [That feels like a set of miscellaneous numbers, but they are actually estimates based on good information.]
* After we plug the measurement data into the spreadsheet and add them up, bingo, that is exactly what we expect. [After we plug the measurement data into the spreadsheet and add them up, hurray, that is exactly what we expect.]
* Those future new components are not on the radar yet for our designers. [Those future new components are not yet a part of the design choices for our designers.]
* I have tried hard to fly under the radar in the past. [I have tried hard to avoid attention in the past.]
* This thing came out of the blue and caught us all off guard. [This thing came from nowhere and surprised us all.]
* The question is how to resource that project. [The question is how to find resources for that project such as personnel, funding and equipment.]
* Please be aware that the ubiquity doesn't necessarily translate to profit per se. [Please be aware that having a product name everywhere doesn't necessarily translate to profit by itself.]
* The centrality of your message could not be made clearer. [The focal point of your message could not be made clearer.]
* If we can line up our ducks on a row, we definitely can deliver that project on time. [If we can line up our required resources appropriately, we definitely can deliver that project on time. ]
* There will be project adjustments: some will be dialed up and some dialed down. [There will be adjustments on various projects: some will be emphasized and some will be de-emphasized.]
* The road show includes combined portfolios of both companies. [The road show includes combined product offerings of both companies.]

Home: where your heart is

I am back to the Bay area for now. I need to be home. My family needed me.
My mother moved to Davis, California, with my sister Maria again in February. My mother stayed in Taiwan with my younger sister for about 4 years.
I have never got a chance to be so close to my mother in the past. Now with my wife's support and with an easy 2-hour drive, I can get to Davis from my Campbell home comfortably. It is a blessing to be with her, as she is frail and weak and in her 80's. The picture on the left was a gathering in Davis last February celebrating her arrival.









Joe had a snowboarding accident in March 2009 that caused an acetabular fracture. He had to take a 3-month leave from his pediatrics residency program at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. Residency without injury is hard enough in the American medical educational system. Residency with a crutch is not a realistic proposition at all. For a full recovery of his injury, Joe took time off, at least six months, to focus on his rehab so that he can be all together again physically and mentally. This is a picture we took in February when we took a day trip to the Getty Center in LA. I need to offer my moral support and I need to be with him often to get him through this. As a parent, this is the least I can do.








I had hard time leaving Beijing, my work, and my friends.
In particular, the SpeakEasy@SunBeijing Toastmasters Club was dear to me. The picture to the left was an outing with the current members to the Beijing Botanic Garden. I had a venue to practice my public speaking and presentation skills. We got to share our lives and experiences with other members through the reviews and dry-runs of the speeches. I gained hope for an emerging society and got to know the aspirations of this new Chinese generation. It is a difficult journey for many in China to create a new social and political order that will all prosper together. The club was also a venue for everyone to come together to build trust, confidence and fellowship. I will miss this community, because I grew along with each one of them in the last 3-1/2 years.


I took on a challenge October 2008 to manage the storage driver team of eighteen people with one junior manager assisting me. I have always been on the technical track at work, so it was quite an opportunity for me to grow professionally. I enjoyed every bit of it. It tapped my other potential, and it gave me a chance to hone my project management skills and interpersonal skills. I learned to communicate and to negotiate better. I learned to be patient when I had to and to be aggressive when it was time to do so. I liked my team a lot. They are energetic, eager, and dedicated to work and their profession. I have no regrets about taking on the opportunity to lead them. Although I worked hard, I enjoyed every bit of it as a team. I miss them.

English with an American Corporate Accent - 011

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* This is one of my gripes, please fix that. [This is one of my complaints, please fix that.]
* You really don't have visibility into that space when we take the jump into that new technology. [You really don't know enough when we take the jump into that new technology.]
* I heard the same thing in my neck of the woods. [I heard the same thing in my organization.]
* Oracle in red should be exactly (255,0,0), not an iota less in shade. [Oracle red should be exactly (255,0,0), not a single shade less.]
* This is just a motherhood and apple pie talk. [This is just a straightforward and common sense talk.]
* They are going to provision for peak demands. [They are going to provide the capacity for peak demands.]
* That was the over-arching concept for that presentation. [That was the main theme and concept for that presentation.]
* That is a good segue, I guess. [That is a good transition to a new topic, I guess.]
* We want to make sure that the idle power number is up to scratch. [We want to make sure that the idle power number is reasonable comparing to others.]
* Under the hood, there are two implementations for that feature. Above the hood, customers should see the same thing. [Beneath the surface, there are two implementations for that feature. Above the surface, customers should see the same thing.]
* How much head room do we need to cover the spikes in demand? [How much buffer do we need to cover the peaks in demand?]

English with an American Corporate Accent - 010

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* We'll consider all things together and determine what falls off the plate. [We'll consider everything together and determine what has to be dropped.]
* Oh, I'm sorry that I lost my train of thought. That should come back to me later in the meeting. [Oh, I'm sorry that I forgot what I wanted to say. I should remember it later in the meeting.]
* We are worker bees, we cannot change the process. [We are supposed to follow the orders, we cannot change the process.]
* Nothing comes to mind off-the-bat. [Nothing comes to mind at this moment.]
* I will need the driver team to help in explaining this. I have never been able to wrap my head around this. [I will need the driver team to help in explaining this. I have never been able to understand this.]
* I have been on my soapbox on this issue for more than two years. [I have been voicing my concerns on this issue for more than two years.]
* We are just looking for a smoke test and your swag on whether or not any code change is necessary. [We are just looking for a simple sanity test and your estimate on whether or not any code change is necessary.]
* At this point we have gone full circle on this item multiple times. [At this point, we have not been able to get to anywhere on this item multiple times.]
* It is just a one-off. They are not going to do that again. [It is just a one-time special case. They are not going to do that again.]
* I was being facetious with that comment. [That comment was a joke.]
* Those are not insurmountable problems. [Those are not problems that cannot be solved.]
* We have to do that better and different. That has to be part of our DNA. [We have to do that better and different. That has to be part of our traits and characters.]

The Pursuit of Happiness - Owning a Home in Beijing

[Home, Sweet Home]
Although China is still a socialist country in name, people already found ways to express their personal desires and aspirations. Having a home is a dream for many Chinese. And having a home tailored to their tastes is reflected in a big way by the plethora of choices in furniture, home decorations and essentials. Owning a home is a very basic element of happiness. This pursuit of happiness is happening in China everywhere. I cannot help but to compare this basic inalienable right of the pursuit of happiness to the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

[A Typical Home - an Apartment]

A typical home is an apartment unit in the city. A suburban house in the U.S., with a nice backyard and two-car garage, is not practical for the typical Chinese. That type of home is referred to as a "villa" or "resort".
Housing prices are one of the hottest and the most discussed topics in people's lives. The dream of owning a house certainly adds to the demand side in the emerging Chinese economy. But the opportunities of making quick and large short-term profits in the housing market attract many speculative investments. Government interventions are frequent, but it is hard to to be sure that the new regulations and polices achieved what they were intended to. It is sad to watch the middle-class in anger and in despair.

[What do you get as a new Home Owner - the Phase I Home Project]
One thing really unique in China is a so-called "bare-bones apartment" delivered to the purchaser of the new home. Let us say that the Phase I home project is completed by the developer and the new owner must hire contractors to do the Phase II work.
To enumerate a few of the must-do items: the ceiling has to be leveled, conduits have to be planted into the walls for desired plumbing and electrical wiring, and then walls need to be painted. The frame of the apartment is concrete. The 2x6 frames and plaster board/sheetrock that are common in many American homes don't exist yet. After that work is completed, work can continue: laying floors with ceramic tiles or wood panels, and installing doors, moldings, switches, electric plugs and light fixtures. The kitchen and bathroomare bare. All cabinets and basic elements of a bathroom have to be added, including a water heater and natural gas plumbings.

The picture to the left is a typical new "kitchen". It is bare-bones and looks quite devastated. It has radiator heating elements, a sewer line and some water pipes.











This picture to the left is what you get for a bathroom: a radiator, two electricity outlets, a water pipe, and a sewer line receptacle for the toilet on the floor.

It is very difficult for a new home owner to start from that point. But the Chinese take this as the norm these days. You might wonder about how much time and energy is spent and wasted along the way, because every new home owner must go through the second phase of home building to create a reasonable place to live. Only then can the homeowner begin to decorate.








The third photo of this primeval series to the left is a picture of the guest bedroom leading to a small balcony for drying clothes. It is easy to see that you need to wire for electricity, and to provide a door, molding, and flooring.

I call this a Phase II home project to distinguish it from Phase III. Phase III is the actual furnishing of the apartment, such as adding a dresser, bed, dining table, sofa, TV stand, refrigerator, stove, sink, washer, and other essentials. This Phase II work is unique in China. Most people have to spend 3+ months haggling with contractors to get things done correctly. And many spend a year or more to really complete the Phase III furnishing projects. Many are short of funds and are completely exhausted after Phase II work is completed.

I observed the following list of priorities in Beijing (from high priority to low priority): living room declarations, sofa, TV, guard rails (for windows), refrigerator, kitchen stove, sink, master bedroom essentials, dining table set, washer, bathroom toilet and shower stall.

[After the Hard Work of Phase II Home Project]

To compare the “before and after” of basic room finishing project, see the photo at the left. Here is a kitchen after flooring, ceiling, countertops and shelving are installed. Remember that the new home owner does this by selecting the materials and then subcontracting the work out. Notice that a range/stove and a sink are also in place in this photo. An 11-liter natural gas water heater is on the left wall with the gas meter at the end of the narrow kitchen. The long, narrow kitchen is typical in city apartment/house units. An open-space kitchen design is considered outrageous and unthinkable for the Chinese. Chinese cooking involves a lot of stir-frying and quick flame and smoke, so the Chinese usually like to keep the kitchen separated from the main open space of the apartment and house as a practical matter.






As a comparison, a remodeled bathroom is shown here to the left. It is quite a nice sight with the ceramic siding and a flushing toilet. The heater is slightly relocated to the front and closer to the door, and thus not quite visible. The glass shower stall and the sink are close to the door and to the right, and therefore are also not visible in this picture.














The guest bedroom is shown with built-in bookshelf and a computer table on the left and a closet on the right. A door opens to a small balcony that is curtained and normally used for hang-drying clothes.

[Furniture Shopping]
IKEA is big in China. It must have been an eye-opening experience for the Chinese when it first opened. Today it still attracts people who just come to look. I think that following are some of the reasons:
1) Comprehensiveness in terms of home furnishing needs. It is one-stop shopping.
2) No price haggling, so there is no negotiation required.
3) The modern and utilitarian designs are from the Scandinavia. These designs especially attract the new middle-class young couples.
4) There are places in the store to sit and rest, and even to eat.

To the left is a photo I took in one of the weekends when the place was packed.



IKEA is a new concept, but there are many other ways to meet home furnishing needs. There are furniture shopping malls in which a homeowner can find a great deal of name-brand furniture.
LanjinLijia is a furniture mall frequented by the middle-class in the northwest corner of Beijing. The variety and selection are good, so that this store could be a one-stop shopping place for people who wish to complete the modeling/remodeling and furnishing of their new apartments in one trip. These types of furniture malls are scattered throughout the city. It is difficult to see how smaller outlets can survive in this competitive environment.



To the left, you can see a nice 90 cm by 90 cm shower stall for 1200 RMB in the furniture mall. But many Chinese apartment owners place bathroom amenities at a low priority. Very often you can expect to see only a simple shower head over the toilet. People in China probably cannot imagine that American bathrooms receive much more attention. The room is even often carpeted outside of the shower stall and/or bathtub area. The same mentality prevails over the treatment of restaurant restrooms in terms of their importance and appearance. It is all too common to find lousy restrooms in nice Chinese restaurants inside and outside of China.











[Furniture City]
There is a giant Furniture Super Mall southeast of Beijing, the XiangHe Furniture City.
The picture to the left shows one of the many gates to the warehouses of furniture stores. As is typical in Chinese government planning and organizations, similar types of furniture are grouped in nearby parcels. That is convenient to the shoppers, but difficult for the merchants in differentiating product offerings and prices.















Free bus transportation to this super mall on weekends and major Holidays is available in 20+ locations of the Beijing city. I once took the bus from the east gate of the University of Geology in northwest Beijing. It took about 90 minutes to travel the distance of close to 80 km.
The picture to the left shows a converging bus depot for all the buses to come together. Some reshuffling can be accomplished to pack shoppers into different buses for the sake of efficiency.