Low-Protein Flour

My dad has been searching for flour with low-protein so he could make yummy Chinese bun, just like the one you eat at your local dim-sum restaurant. I didn't know it'd be that difficult, but I think I may have found some alternatives. So here are the ones that I'll order and let him try out and see.

King-Arthur Queen Guinevere Cake Flour does not only has a nice name and it also has the lowest protein % (7%) I can find so far.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/king-arthur-queen-guinevere-cake-flour-3-lb

King-Arthur Unbleached Pastry Flour has only 8% protein.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/king-arthur-unbleached-pastry-flour-3-lb

This Red-Lotus brand one also has 8% to 8.5% and some people from Yahoo! answer claimed that they can be found in Ranch 99 (a oriental supermarket chain here in the California).
http://grocerythai.com/lotus-special-flour-p-912.html

A Miracle ...

Just got this from Francis ... it's really quite amazing how God lead our lives without us realizing it and this man see it all.

Town ditches traffic lights to cut accidents - Yahoo! News

Town ditches traffic lights to cut accidents - Yahoo! News

Wow ...

Bathroom Break :D Will you still go in afterward?

名 人 爛 gag 也 可 變 名 言

人 生 名 句

搞 笑 型 「 減 肥 還 須 係 肥 人 」 「 唔 使 急 ， 最 緊 要 快 。 」 「 若 要 放 上 網 ， 唔 好 咁 鹵 莽 ； 若 要 人 不 知 ， 唔 好 太 低 B 。 」 「 春 去 春 回 來 ， 花 謝 花 再 開 ， 女 死 女 還 在 ！ 」

時 事 型 「 和 平 、 安 逸 ， 只 會 造 成 停 頓 ； 衝 突 、 對 抗 及 戰 爭 才 有 新 生 。 」 「 八 萬 五 已 經 唔 存 在 喇 ！ 」 「 富 貴 於 我 如 浮 雲 ， 浮 雲 於 我 如 命 根 。 」

賭 博 歪 理 型 「 沉 迷 賭 博 ， 富 可 敵 國 ； 日 賭 夜 賭 ， 光 宗 耀 祖 。 」 「 小 賭 可 以 養 妻 活 兒 ， 大 賭 可 以 興 家 創 業 。 」 「 博 一 博 ， 單 車 變 摩 托 。 」

哲 理 型 「 耳 聽 為 虛 ， 眼 見 亦 不 為 實 。 」 「 努 力 過 的 人 ， 未 必 一 定 有 成 果 。 有 成 果 的 人 ， 卻 一 定 曾 經 努 力 。 」 「 弱 者 等 待 時 機 ， 強 者 製 造 時 機 。 」

France opens secret UFO files covering 50 years - Yahoo! News

France opens secret UFO files covering 50 years - Yahoo! News: "www.cnes-geipan.fr"

"The website itself -- which crashed host servers hours after it was unveiled due to heavy traffic -- is extremely well organized and complete, even including scanned copies of police reports."

Can't wait to see it.

Secrets of Great Business Communicators

Quoted from book ...

7 traits that contribute to great business leader's success

1. They were confident and never afraid to ask for what they wanted
2. They appreciated people when they did get them what they wanted
3. They consistently nurtured relationships and maintained open lines of communication -- not only when they wanted something from that person
4. They were tenacious. They never gave up. They just tried another route of strategy to achieve their goals
5. They were excellent listeners. They didn't shut people out, kept an open objective mind, and listened to the negative as well as the positive.
6. They bounced back quicly from reject or depression. This was reflected in the tone of their voice and their attitude. If they were upset about something someone had said to them earlier that day, they didn't carry it with them their entire day.
7. Finally, there were friendly and approachable. They said hello to employees they came into contact with. They weren't stingy with their praise and gave well-deserved pats on the back.

Free land in Alaska

21st century homesteading: Free land in Alaska - CNN.com

"Anderson, a little town in Alaska's interior, has no gas station, no grocery store and no traffic lights, but it does have plenty of woodsy land -- and it's free to anyone willing to put down roots in the often-frozen ground."

Ready to pull the trigger, I was about to, but not too soon ... you need to pay $500 deposit PLUS you have to build a house measuring at least 1000 square feet within 2 years.

Playing around with Apache Axis

Basic simple Testing script to see if it runs happily
http://localhost:8080/axis/happyaxis.jsp

Testing a SOAP endpoint using this ...
http://localhost:8080/axis/services/Version?method=getVersion

Testing a simple JWS script without any deployment, so far I haven't got this right yet.
http://localhost:8080/axis/EchoHeaders.jws?method=list

List the Applications/Services already installed using AdminClient
C:\Tomcat 6.0\webapps\axis>java -cp WEB-INF\lib\axis.jar;WEB-INF\lib\jaxrpc.jar;WEB-INF\lib\commons-logging-1.0.4.jar;WEB-INF\lib\commons-discovery-0.2.jar;WEB-INF\lib\jaxrpc.jar;WEB-INF\lib\saaj.jar;WEB-INF\lib\axis.jar org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient list

For Deployment
C:\Tomcat6\webapps\axis>java -cp WEB-INF\lib\axis.jar;WEB-INF\lib\jaxrpc.jar;WEB-INF\lib\commons-logging-1.0.4.jar;WEB-INF\lib\commons-discovery-0.2.jar;WEB-INF\lib\jaxrpc.jar;WEB-INF\lib\saaj.jar;WEB-INF\lib\axis.jar org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient deploy-BillingServiceIF.wsdd
(Linux)
java -cp WEB-INF/lib/axis.jar:WEB-INF/lib/jaxrpc.jar:WEB-INF/lib/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar:WEB-INF/lib/commons-discovery-0.2.jar:WEB-INF/lib/jaxrpc.jar:WEB-INF/lib/saaj.jar:WEB-INF/lib/axis.jar org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient deploy-BillingServiceIF.wsdd

Which deploy-calculator.wsdd looks like: (make sure it does not contains any method definition for this one as there is no method in the java class)




















Hitting the service like this would produce a WSDL
http://localhost:8080/axis/services/Calculator?wsdl

Starting a stand-alone SOAP Monitor (login info from WEB-INF/users.lst)
java org.apache.axis.utils.SOAPMonitor [-u admin] [-w password] [-l axisURL]

iPod Docking with Bath Tissue Holder

I kinda like this idea. But I don't think I'd put my precious player near any toilet. However, this is truly amazing that how people come up with anything that related to i-Pod, and how these i-Pod generate so many channels to generate money.

http://www.xpcgear.com/icstdoforipw.html

Mrs. Mug and Lee

This is hilarious .. wonder where I can see anymore. This was a blast at that time, like 90s.

TVB classic drama Two of a Kind -- 1989 Intro Theme Song

A rare tv-series that Paul Wong was acting in it, and it has Hacken Lee too.

I found this while I tried to search to see if I can find the old tv-series that advertized "if you think you can, YOU CAN!" ... hahaha.

You like this star ... let me go and pick it for you !

I always find it funny when I remember how the older generation would say such things to impress girls ... "isn't this a nice star, how about from now on, we name this star to be your name?" ... "it's such a beautiful sky, that star is the brightest ... I'll go up there and pick it for you ... "

Now with this SkyScout, you can no longer name any random stars after any girl's name. You can look thru the viewfinder and the LCD will show you right away the name, radius, mass and even mythology. You could have make up some stories, but now this device will leave you in the dark all by yourself.

Price is set to be around $400 ... a little steep ... but the technology is impressive, built-in GPS so the device knows its location, and with the electric compass it knows the direction it is pointing at, and also an accelerometer detertmines the angle.

http://www.celestron.com/skyscout/new/features.php

信 他 的 人 必 得 永 生

Just got this from AppleDaily ...

WOW ... USB Missile Launcher

This is so cool, I am definitely in for one if it's not that expensive.

Seriously, this is just the right distance for me, 5-8 feet away from my desk at work and my target is right within that. Yup .. for those who heard me complaining these days, probably know why I need one of these.

The Bridge - Trailer

An interesting movie ... got it from Emma ... quite dark I think, but I hope i can see it sometimes ...

Very old MTV from group of singers in HK

小虎隊 忍著淚說 goodbye MV

Got it from someone, I can't believe back then people actually liked that kind of style. I just can't help myself from laughing ... And some of the comments from youtube is horrible too, "are they gay?" ....

Changing keyboard ... as it needs to be ...

Think about this, when you hit the "Caps Locks", all your key on the keyboard actually showed you the upper case of the letters. Ops ... I don't look at the keys when I type ... that's the catch, but it'll be so good for any gamers or lazy people who wants one-clicks to start any application.

Each key packs with full-color OLED display that can show icons or characters in any language. And they will change accordingly ... when you play quake, it shows only the equivalent keys and when you're typing chinese, it shows only the "chong kit" .. (it doesn't describe this feature, I'm just guessing it should).

Price not set yet ... available in 2007, I would imagine it costs more than 200 !! Btw, it doesn't has an ergonomic version yet ...


http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

初戀&老婆

Copied frome someone's xanga ... I used to not like doing this, but I think it is good to keep in here to remind myself ... it's a long story, I used to hate reading too, and now maybe getting more mature, I start to like digesting this type of passage.

初戀&老婆

初戀總是寶貴的，令人難忘的，遺憾的是，十有八九的初戀， 都不能成為婚姻，因為不能成為婚姻，初戀又顯得更為寶貴，讓人回味無窮。

阿偉是一位成功的外科醫生，和太太結婚二十年，兒子已入大學。

在一次大學舊生會，重遇初戀情人Alice。Alice 當年是眾男生的夢中情人，公認的美人兒。就是現在，仍比實際年齡漂亮年輕。

當初，為了一個誤會，再加兩人的自尊心特強，就這樣分開了。後來，Alice 去了外國 ，阿偉留在 香港。

初戀的夭折，一度令阿偉痛苦不已，幾乎垮了，幸虧得一位護士同事的關心和鼓勵，令他於走出感情低谷，重拾心情，這位女同事就成了他的太太。

不料二十年後重逢Alice 。

那晚，他們談了很多，解除了誤會，只是，大家都已人到中年！

次日 ，Alice 打電話邀阿偉去淺水灣酒店燭光晚餐，阿偉問：「是不是請我太太一起去？」 Alice 回答：「 我只想請你一個人，我們已失卻太多時光，現在是彌補的時候。」

「對不起，除了因公事，晚上我一般不單獨外出吃晚飯。」

「你不是怕老婆吧？」 Alice 譏諷他 。「我怕老婆！」 他直認不諱。「我好怕不自覺地令她不開心。」

幾日後，Alice 又特地讓速遞公司送來一封信，信封上寫明要他親啟，並且注明：only for you！阿偉將信原封退回。

「本來，我會讓太太看這封信的，既然你不希望她看，我也不看了。我已習慣與她分享生活中的一切喜怒哀樂。」

Alice很不忿氣。她見過阿偉的太太，已中年發福，且不擅修飾，像個屋村師奶，相反，自己比實際年齡要年輕得多，風韻猶存。當年阿偉追她追得這樣熱烈，他不可能對她失去feeling 的，一定是阿偉的太太兇神惡煞。

她一不做二不休，當下親身到他診所去 。「阿偉 ，你只需講 yes or no 。 你仍對我有feeling 嗎？你還愛我嗎？你以前是十分愛我的。」阿偉只笑笑。「愛一個人與恨一個人同樣需要精力和能力。感情過去了，應該無愛無恨，古人說，一笑泯恩愁。讓已過去的、無 法改變的事實影響目前，根本毫無好處。我已將我的全部愛分給我的家人，而且，我已過了這種玩浪漫感情的年紀了。」

Al ice 仍不死心。「 你真的愛你太太？還是僅出於一種義務和責任？賽過當年對我那份初戀之情？」

「我是醫生。我相信一種科學說法，真正的愛只能維持十個月，正好是由胚胎到嬰兒哇哇出世所需的時日。這或許要從生物進化的角度來解釋。但愛不同愛情，愛，或許只是一種由荷爾蒙分泌而激發出的感情反應，一如我受傷會流淚，開心會微笑，是一種很生物式的感情反應。用一個不合適的比喻：雄性動物在追求異性時，毛會特別亮麗，叫聲也會特別悅耳。

愛，只是一種行為，動物也懂得用舔觸等動作表示「愛」，然而， 唯有愛情，才是人類獨有的能力。一個情字，令人類愛的行為，變得成熟、深沉，由一種單一的行為上升為一種情懷。我很懷念我們的初戀 ，但我更珍惜我和太太的婚姻，珍惜我們一起走過的這段路。」

阿偉的思路非常清晰，不愧為一位名醫生。他十分明白，當初，在他感情最低谷、最消沉時，是現在的太太給他溫暖，喚起他的信心。後來，太太省吃簡用自己帶著兒子獨守空巢，支持阿偉外出留學深造。這二十來年，是太太伴他走過來的。太太全心於這個家上，無心顧及自己的儀容、衣著，她將每一分一秒，都花在家人身上。而且，太太屬於那種生活低調，安於做男人背後的女人那種類型。阿偉不想太太為了他而刻意改變自己，做她不喜歡做的事。

因為愛她，他也尊重她，由她選擇她自己喜歡的生活方式。「我們互相看著白髮開始萌生，皺紋出現，因為這後面包含著許多只有我們兩人知道的故事， 孩子的出世，我們第一間屋的喬遷，雙方父母病故的哀痛，我們升職，她的一次有驚無險的大手術… … 點點滴滴都寫在她和我的皺紋上，也只有她和我才懂得。

至於你，Alice， 我很懷念那段我們花樣的年華，但我不會用現在幸福充實的家庭生活去交換那段時日的延續，這只有百害而無一利。如果我們都珍惜我們的初戀，珍惜這次難得的二十年後的重逢，我們就這樣互相握手、互道「珍重」吧 ！ 」

Alice 聽了這番話，默默擁抱了阿偉，轉頭就走。人說 ，蒼蠅不叮無縫的蛋。今天婚外情、一夜情泛濫，但這絕成不了你忽略她、冷淡她的理由 。

珍惜你與她一起走過的路，如是你對她的愛，會如醇酒，愈陳舊愈香。

Brussels, Beligum (arriving from UK via EuroStar)

I managed to get out early enough from work and arrived at the Eurostar station on time. So I quickly browsed around the food court and see if I can get anything good to eat. There was no surprise and I can't find anything good to eat. So I only grabbed some pastries and thought there is something to eat on the train.

Next time, I know I'll go to the tuck-shop-like stall on the train to buy food before the train even departs. Most of the normal food was gone and the pesron in front of me bought the last sandwiches ... so I finally only got a chocolate cake and a cup of tea.

So I arrived the Gare Du Central station, with the experience of my last Paris' trip, I was very cautious going to which platform and getting on which train with the confusion of French. Interesting enough, this main station has 2 types of train .. one kind (likes the muni here or LRT in HK) goes thru the middle of the platform and the other kind (likes our Bart or MTR in HK) goes thru the side of the platform. So that takes me a while to figure out and I still went on the wrong one 'cos they don't list all the station somehow ...

At around 12 o'clock, I finally arrived on the West-End of the city, which later I discovered that it's like a more "hip" or wealthier side of city, that's full of nice boutique and restaurant. Picture shown was taken right at the surface of underground the next morning. Quick is the Beligum clone of "McDonald", but more popular and localized than "McDonald".